Aizu-Wakamatsu Samurai Parade

Aizu-Wakamatsu Samurai Parade

Aizu-Wakamatsu Samurai Parade

Aizu-Wakamatsu Samurai Parade

Aizu-Wakamatsu Samurai Parade

Aizu-Wakamatsu Samurai Parade

Aizu-Wakamatsu Samurai Parade

Sendai Jazz Festival

This weekend started off badly but wound up being pretty nice. I was supposed to catch a train in Ishikawa to Koriyama, but I wound up missing it. Out here in the inaka, trains come but every three hours, so I had to drive all the way to Koriyama, making the people who had gone earlier wait for me. To make it worse, I had forgotten to grab my mp3 player so my drive was silent (no radio for some reason, it has never worked). That drive is about an hour and a half.

Then, in Koriyama I `lost` my phone. I was really concerned because I couldn`t remember where I`d put it and I wouldn`t be able to e-mail or call anyone the whole weekend. Fortunately I`d just left it in my car by accident, but I didn`t know that until last night when I got back to the car left in Koriyama.

In Koriyama I met up with Gia, her boyfriend Gene (both Canadian), and Charles (Australian. He judged the speech contest my student Yumi won . By the way, the prefecture-wide contest is this week!). I went to McDonald`s (there isn`t one nearer to my location) and got the `moon-viewing` burger (it had bacon and fried egg on it, and was pretty decent, but I like the plain one better still). Then the four of us hopped a bus to Sendai, in Miyagi prefecture. That bus ride was 2 hours.

In the Jozengi area of Sendai, there is an annual Jazz festival that is fairly popular. Sendai is the largest city in this northern Tohoku region of Japan. There are lots of trendy and brand stores, and of course a lot to do. The four of us met up with Emi (New Zealander) and Tanya, who had come by bus a day earlier, and later met up with Hein (South African) and various other Sendai English teachers. After listening to a ska band in the rain, our large group headed to a small restaurant called Osamu`s Place and ate some chicken and had rum and cokes and beer. After dinner, we found an American-style karaoke bar and filled it up. I was pretty drunk so I sang three songs by myself all Japanese. I thought I was going to have a horrible hangover but fortunately I headed that off by drinking lots of water.

On the way back to Hein`s place, Hein and Gene were acting pretty crazy and roughhousing, and they decided to go skinnydip in the river. Tanya, Emi, Charles and I passed because we thought that a river in a large city must be filthy. Gene, Hein, and Gia all went in in the dark, and I had the brilliant idea of stealing their clothes. We didn`t run very far with their backpacks before Hein caught up with us and we surrendered their things back to them. I`d much rather steal the clothes than have to try to retrieve them! Heh, I am evil.

After watching some videos Gene downloaded onto Hein`s computer (they featured Parkour, a sport of jumping all over the place in urban settings, down staircases and across rooftops and the like), we crashed. The next day we wandered around listening to some good music (including lots of Beatles covers), got spicy ramen, and hopped a bus back to Koriyama. I got home around midnight last night after the three-hour return trip.

In Sendai as in Tokyo, some people wear really crazy fashions. We saw little girls dressed as Sailor Moon, men dressed as goth bishonen (pretty boys), and women wearing odd half mandarin satin dress, half marching band uniform ensembles. Most people dressed a little wilder than in the US, but tamer than that.

So with missing the train, losing my phone, and forgetting my mp3 player, I was really glad that in the end I had a fun weekend of travel, music, and partying.

NEWS: I tend to write more in my other blog, http://www.xanga.com/unfizzy because this one is a pain to publish in.

It`s raining men!

Of course, by men I mean menrui, or noodles. I had udon when I first arrived at my contracting organization, ramen the next day for lunch, cup noodles for dinner, and now I`m having zaru soba noodles for lunch. Heehee! I really love cold Japanese noodles in the summer.

I`m here!

Tokyo orientation was a party, but there was no time to call anyone! I couldn`t figure out my phone card, either, to be honest. I`m supposed to get a cell phone (keitai denwa) today, but for now I`m just using the internet in the Board of Education office.
Oddly, I haven`t signed my contract yet. Weird, eh? It`s because Tanya, my predecessor, has my official stamp, I guess. She`s in Australia until the 24th or 27th.
I can`t put up pictures yet, but I didn`t take many, anyway. I was too busy drinking and dancing :P I feel handicapped without a phone, though. Mom, if you read this, I`m sorry I haven`t called.　

Thank you!

I just want to thank everyone who came to my party for wishing me farewell and showing that you care! I'm going to miss my family and friends so much, but as you've all told me I ought to, I'm going to have a good time, too!

More Info!

Hey guys! My awesome predecessor wrote me a nice, detailed e-mail answering my questions about what my life will be like in Japan :D
The apartment block is for teachers, so my neighbors will be other teachers at the elementary and junior high schools.
I will have running hot water (I'd heard some JETs had wound up without it in the past).
My supervisor will arrange for me to get a (probably rental) car, and I can do karaoke in nearby Ishikawa town (20 minutes away). She also suggested I go to Koriyama (1.5 hours away by car) for shopping, etc., on weekends.
There will be at least basic appliances in my apartment (it's looking like they'll be new, too).
My base school is Furudono Chuugakko (junior high).
The other stuff, in her words:
The job at the junior high is to help assist the JTEs (Japanese teachers of English) with their lessons, mainly pronounciation. Sometimes they will ask you for game ideas, or to make questions from the textbook. Sometimes you mark papers.
Everyday you have 2 or 3 50 minute lessons, the rest of the time you sit in the staffroom and can study Japanese, or prepare classes. You eat the school lunch in the staffroom with the other teachers.
You will be working with 2 male Japanese English teachers: Komaba sensei and Kikuchi sensei.
Komaba sensei teaches years 1 and 2, and Kikuchi sensei teaches year 3. They both have quite different teaching styles, but it wont take long to get used to it.
There is also a trainee English teacher, Sakuma sensei, he is only 22 and came in April. Generally he just watches the lesson (although he may start teaching soon, I'm not sure).
I found the teachers at the Junior High to be very friendly and warm, throughout the year you will be invited to various end-of-term dinners and the Bonnenkai (end of year party) These are a lot of fun.
You can drive to the Junior high or walk because its really close to your apartment. A 2-minute drive or maybe 10-minute walk. I always drove, though.
The first day, as I remember there will be a ceremony where they will ask you to do a short introduction to the school on the stage in Japanese. Doesn't have to be long, just your name and where you are from etc. (I'm sure the JET program prepares you for this).
The dress code at the junior high is fairly office-style clothing for women. The men and some women change into sports wear, but I generally stuck to pants, skirt, shirt, top. All pretty conservative.

Me again:
Sounds pretty good! I hope I have enough conservative clothing...
It kind of sucks that I'll have to drive, but maybe I'll get to like it... we'll see.
Otherwise, I'm really excited and I think it will be an amazing job :D

About Furudono

I've taken the time to study up on my town a little further (via it's part-Japanese, part-unreadable-by-my-English-OS website). It seems the town symbol is a little waterfall (kamakura-taki), and it is beautiful in the Autumn with a full range of color-changing leaves (kouyou). The area seems big on horseback riding in the Mikabu Highlands, and the local ancient sport is yabusame, which means archery on horseback. Unfortunately for me, it seems a local featured dish is pickled persimmon... I am not a fan of Japanese pickles, but I'll try the best I can to develop a taste for them because they are a big part of Japanese cuisine. There's a little history museum, as well, but I doubt that will take more than an afternoon to explore...
I'll have to take up hiking, eating bento box lunches under changing leaves, archery, horseback riding, archery on horseback... haha.
As long as I get to do my karaoke once a week, I think it'll all work out!

On the town website there are 10 restaurants listed: Snack Riverside, Yakitori Hyoutan, Pub Focus, Izakaya Horoyoi Fuyu (Izakaya Tipsy Winter, as in slightly drunk-tipsy) Ongaku (music - maybe this means I can do karaoke here!!!), Wafuu Restaurant (Wafuu=Japanese-style) Ongaku(unreadable kanji), Pub Academie, Okonomiyaki Konomi, Sushi(unreadable kanji-the size on the flash site is too small... I must be aging!), (Unreadable), and Yabusameno(archery on horseback)(unreadable) ofukuro(home-cooking)no(eki?=station?) . It seems there are also 11 ramen stands listed.
There appear to be a few onsen (hot spring) places, but I can't be sure.
The only thing listed under shopping is Ofukuro no (eki?), which is either the train station or a place to buy local souvenirs.
There is a place called "Cosmos Highway" that is a complete mystery to me.
There are a lot of places to go look at flowers ("natural beauty" seems to be the main feature of the area), many of which I've already mentioned.
There are many local festival events that seem to draw Japanese tourists, if not foreign tourists, and of course they have summer fireworks (hanabi).
More to come?