Category: Japan (Page 9 of 11)

So, I titled this post as appropriately as I possibly could.

Things have been happening, and I haven’t been updating, so I’m going to briefly talk about as much as I can remember at 5:30 in the morning =)

First, I had my second CouchSurfing hosting experience. This time, it was with a married couple from New Zealand. They were nice, and once again, helped cook a big dinner. They were in Koriyama after some religious conference, and off to Seto Garo (a nice park with 7 or 8 beautiful waterfalls) the following day. We just kind of hung out and talked all night.

Secondly, I found a home away from home. There’s a little Korean Bar within about 10 minutes on foot. I have spent many late nights there. They have a pool table, and the owner keeps letting me play for free. I also mentioned that I like Crown Royal, and he decided that he was going to start stocking it for me. Since then, he’s told me that it has become one of his most popular drinks. I love going there for a few reasons. First, I feel like a star there. I sing karaoke, play pool and darts, and talk to pretty much everyone that walks in the door. I get a lot of free drinks, and they make some amazing Korean food. I also love the environment. Unlike most of the Japanese bars, this one is completely open. There are no walls separating tables. Everyone can see and talk to each other freely. I think that this is one of the things I missed the most about the social life in the US. On top of all that, the owner, or his brother, has driven me home pretty much every time that I have stayed until closing time. It’s nice to not have to walk back after a night of festivities.

Moving on, I have been working Monday through Friday this month as opposed to my normal Tuesday through Saturday schedule. I don’t think I like it. While I get Saturdays off, Mondays just feel like… well, Mondays. I really enjoy having Mondays off. My schedule is going back to normal next month when one of the teachers comes back from his long vacation.

I think I’ve also been doing a good job. I was told today that it has been expressed to the staff to never trade teachers from some of my students. I guess that means that I am doing alright.

Well, it looks like the sun’s starting to come up and the crows are starting in with their morning music. I think that means it’s time to go to sleep.

Hope everyone is having a good time.

Talk to you later,

Bryan

I had my first CouchSurfing hosting experience in Japan this week. It was wonderful.

There were two girls visiting the Fukushima Prefecture from Tokyo. I must say, it is strange to have complete strangers come into your home, given complete access to your most personal place, but it’s fun.

They came in on Wednesday. I had Thursday off for the Equinox (yes, Japan celebrates the Equinox). On Thursday, we went to Aizu (Aizu Wiki). It’s the home of a huge castle. It is a very historical and beautiful place.

Last weekend, I finally went to Iwaki. We had a morning of picking up trash on the beach, and then a bbq afterwards. I think I slept through most of the bbq (I’m not used to waking up at 4:00am after getting to sleep at 1:00am). It was fun. Someone left some kittens in a tiny cooler on the beach, and with a note that asked someone to take them to a good home. It was sad. Well, one of my coworkers saw this, and decided to take them home to find homes for them. They are so cute. It’s sad that someone could just leave them out there to die like that. Good thing there are people like Erin to make sure they are alright.

I have so much more I could talk about, but I have to get ready for work.

I’m uploading some new pics as well!!! Hope you like them.

~O~

1: If you are a lover of facial hair, you should do the John Oates mustache-growing-look-a-like-competition at McNellie’s!!!

The Competition –

– Come to the Pub on Thursday, September 16th, between 6:00 – 9:00 PM, to have your “before” picture taken
– Come back to the Pub on Thursday, October 14th, between 6:00 – 9:00 PM, to have your “after” picture taken

Just shave it all off and go in on the 16th for your before pic. It would be awesome if someone that I know wins it.

2: As much as I didn’t want one, I am getting an iPhone 4. There are two reasons. First, it’s basically free. It costs $400, but they take off $20 from each bill for having it. Second, I would have had to wait another 3 weeks for an HTC Desire, and I just don’t want to wait, and since I’m an American, and expect instant gratification, I won’t wait for it =p

3: Busy weekend: Friday was soccer night. I’m still a bit sore. Saturday was drinking night #1. Sunday was drinking night #2. Monday was OMFG hangover day, and sign up for iPhone service.

4: Things are going well. Still freaking lonely, but apparently that is supposed to change when I get my cell phone since everyone here uses text instead of voice.

5: This Friday is another drinking night. It’s a not-surprise, surprise birthday for a friend here. He’s the one that helped myself and another friend out when we went in to sign up for our cell phone service. Gotta think of something to get him…

As I fall into a routine, there isn’t going to be a lot of news to write about. I will still try to post every couple weeks, but if I go a few weeks without posting, don’t get worried, I’m just leading a boring life here in Japan instead of in Tulsa (as if I ever led a boring life) =p

So I’ve been pretty busy lately.

Work has been pretty fun. I’m getting it down. I have had to submit lesson plans to my boss since I started. He told me today that after next week, I won’t have to do that anymore. My orientation is scheduled for September 11. It’s strange that they don’t have it before we start, but I guess they want us to get into our groove before they start critiquing us.

The last couple weekends have been just as busy. Two weekends ago was the fireworks festival in Sukakawa. It was beautiful. It wasn’t much like the fireworks display in Tulsa on Independence Day. This lasted much longer. It was actually a fireworks competition. It was beautiful, and it was very crowded. They made a whole festival out of it.

That Sunday, we went to Lake Inawashiro. It was just beautiful. We went at around 10:00am. I didn’t think the sun was too bad, so I didn’t wear any sunscreen for the first half hour. BIG MISTAKE!!! I got burned pretty bad. We ended up staying until around 5:00pm. I should have known better.

Then, this last weekend, we had a going away party for the person that I am replacing. There was eating, drinking, and karaoke. It was hilarious. She got trashed, so my boss and I had to carry her back home. I’m sure she felt great when she woke up the next morning and realized that she had to get to Tokyo.

We went to Lake Inawashiro again on Sunday. This time I was much smarter. First of all, we went a little later. The morning sun can be deceiving, so we left at around 11:30. We stayed until 5:00, but I didn’t forget to wear sunscreen before getting into the water. I still got a little burned, but it wasn’t nearly as bad this time.

I have been studying Japanese every chance I get. I am currently learning the Katakana alphabet. It is identical to hiragana as far as sounds are concerned, but it is only used for foreign words. In Japan, the way the differentiate foreign words is through the use of the katakana alphabet. They don’t try to translate the words either, so a Big Mac in the US, is still a Big Mac in Japan. It’s just written in katakana. Of course, there are some sounds that aren’t used in the Japanese alphabets (for instance, R is used in place of L because they don’t use either sound the same way we do), so some words sound a bit different, but once you know what to look for, it starts to get easy.

I think I’m getting the hang of the train system. It was extremely confusing at first, but after using it for a month, I think I can safely navigate it without many problems.

Hope everyone in Tulsa is enjoying themselves.

Not a lot of new news here, so here’s a short post.

I have just been exploring Koriyama when I can find someone to show me something new. I have seen a couple of the new parks, and a new shopping center. They also apparently have a mall within about a 15 minute bike ride. I will have to find that when I have the time.

My holiday was fun, but slow. My new friends’ girlfriend left town to go back to her home town for the rest of the year. He seems a bit bummed (because by train and plane, it’s about a 4 hour trip), but is optimistic. He always finds the bright side. So, we have been keeping each other company. We have played Halo with a few of his other friends, and League of Legends.

One of the things I am finding out about Koriyama is that it like Tulsa in a lot of ways, both good and bad. It’s pretty small. While being the biggest city in Fukushima, it only has about 350k people. There are a lot of young people that get married young, and teenage pregnancy seems to be pretty high (I’m not too sure how the statistics hold up against Tulsa though).

One nice thing about Koriyama is that everything is pretty much packed together. I live very close to the entertainment district. That includes entertainment of every kind. There are quite a few restaurants, karaoke bars, bars, etc, but also prostitutes (yes, I got propositioned when I was exploring the other night) and hostess clubs. No, a hostess club is not where you go to get a prostitute. A hostess club is a place where you pay a pretty hefty cover charge, and buy girls drinks all night so that they will talk to you. My guess is that the girls get a percentage of the cover and drink costs. It was a shock to me, as I would never pay for a woman’s company like that…

Koriyama also has some beautiful parks. I was lucky enough to get a guide in someone that I met at one of the festivals. She is a Japanese girl that used to be a student of a couple of my co-workers, but since she has been speaking English now for 5 or so years, she teaches small children the English basics. She took me to a couple parks in exchange for a lesson on the guitar. It was fun, but it started raining, so it cut the lesson short.

I’m still getting used to the food. Very few things in the super-market have English writing, so I have to guess from the pictures. Sometimes I’m right, sometimes… well sometimes I’m surprised. Nothing too bad though =)

I’m also meeting my neighbors. It seems that the majority of my apartment complex is occupied by foreign English teachers. There is also a small English school on the second level. I think I have only seen one or two Japanese families living in the building. It’s nice to meet people who know a little more about Koriyama than I do who can speak English.

Wow, my short post has become a long post.

So, I think that’s it for the night. I’m off to bed now. I have to go back to work tomorrow, so I need to be well rested!!!

~O~