Firworks in Yokohama

Fireworks. In the states, it is pretty common to go to fireworks once a year, July 4th. Everybody and their mother comes out on one day to see them, then they go home and wait another year for it to happen again. Not in Japan my friends, oh no, if you miss them one week, you can always see them the next, or the next or.... you get the point. Summer in Japan does not just consist of humidity, rain and the occasionally inappropriately dressed old man. No, there is another world in Japan that I have only had a small dose of, the world of fireworks. About 2 weeks ago I went to Yokohama, the second largest city in Japan, to see fireworks with about 200,000 other people. A few words on Yokohama, I know it is a little hard to see, but the picture that vaguely resembles a ship is actually the first ship ever to come into the port at Yokohama from the west. England actually. I thought it was funny that they actually moved the ship inland an made a monument out of it, I guess what it symbolizes to some is not what it means to everyone. Also, the photo of the decently sized building is actually the tallest building in Japan. I was warned before I saw it, so I wasn't too disappointed, given the earthquakes and all I guess it's not that bad, but I think they could have at least added a few more stories. The harbor in Yokohama is beautiful. The fireworks lasted for and hour and a half and it wasn't until I came here that I decided to buy a yukata. (A yukata is the summer kimono that the girls in the pictures are wearing.) I did buy one, but more on that when I finally wear it! As it goes and is typically the case. We didn't make it back before the trains stopped running (or rather chose not to make it back) and ended up at kareoke until 4:30 when the trains started running again. Needless to say I fell asleep at kareoke, and on the train... when I woke up there was a full train of curious on lookers, what can I say, everyone is interested in gajin who sleep on trains during rush hour! Oh, those crazy Americans!

The Welcome Party

First, I would like to say that just because most of my pictures are taken while I'm out at night, it really hasn't been that common since I've gotten here. Sure, I have been to kareoke enough to average out to one a week for every week that I have been here but what can I say, this is a land that loves to sing, whether they know the words or not. Last Saturday (about a week and a half ago) We had our work party. This was a big party with a lot of the students and almost all of the teachers. I had a ton of fun and got to know some of my students better. I think this post is mainly just going to be photos because they pretty much speak for themselves. Oh, I would like to mention that the hat I am wearing (and others throughout the night) was a gift from two of my students, well actually, only one, the other is Tyler's student. The hat is a soccerball and the bill is the German flag, since it wouldn't surprise me if the symbolism in this was lost, it was from the World Cup that was held in Germany this year! The Japanese are huge soccer fans and the World Cup was a pretty big deal here. So I wore the hat pretty much all night, and when I wasn't wearing it, someone else was. Good times, Good Times!

What exactly is a "quasi-national park?"

It is my goal while I am in Japan to see and do as much as possible. I feel that while I had a lot of fun in college, it is time to really step back, look past the partying and really appreciate my surroundings. It is my goal to make every weekend I have contain some new adventure, something that I can look back on and think, I am so glad I did that! During this particular weekend I had accidentally left the door to my balcony open about an inch and by the time 5 AM rolled around I was covered in mosquito bites and hadn't been able to sleep most of the night. So at 5 AM I got out of bed and got ready to head out to Mount Takou. I arrived at the foot of the mountain at about 7 after getting of a train where I shouldn't have and taken a bus I should't have, I finally arrived at my destination, unscathed by a morning of mishaps I prepared myself for my first hike since leaving Colorado. At the bottom, right next to the gondolier of sorts that will take you to the top of the mountain for only 3000 yen (about $33) is a sign showing the route to get to the top of the mountain, it was official, I was entering my first quasi-national park. To someone who lives in Japan this is a pretty normal occurrence. Japan is a bit different from the US in that if there is buildable land, they build on it, protected or not, if they can make a profit they will, I guess they figure that because there is so little usable land, any that they can use, should be used. So I begin my journey. I will admit that I haven't always been the most enthusiastic hiker but I went into this one with guns blasting, I was going enjoy this in every way possible. As I started up, the trees were unlike I had ever encountered before on a hike, so tall that I felt that they were at times going to engulf me and as green as emeralds sparkling under the fresh morning dew. The path was all paved in stone and began to get progressively steeper until I thought I was just going to give up. I was standing by a creek catching my breath for a moment when I saw an old man, no less that 70 walking down the mountain, he looked at me and I looked at him and I knew nothing was going to keep me from the top after that. I finally reached the top, passing temples and statues I understood why they had built a shrine at the top of this mountain, the whole walk up I felt like I was in a dream world, when I finally reached the top I sat for an hour and wrote anything and everything that came to my mind. What a magical experience!

My first trip to an Izakaya

What could be a better way to experience my first traditional Japanese izakaya (bar/restaurant where you set a menu and drink limitlessly for a set price)? The week after I arrived in Tachikawa some of my co-workers took us out to celebrate. Myself and Risa's arrival and Rie's departure (she is getting married and is moving on, and even though I have only know her for a couple of weeks, I will miss her!). We had a great time getting to know one another. The two non-Japanese looking gentlemen in the photos are Mark and Tyler, my fellow foreign teachers. Many of you may not know, but recently I became a vegetarian and have had a much harder time than I thought I would finding food that didn't have meat in it. I'm sure it would help some if I was able to read the menus, but I am not entirely certain that even that would help. So at dinner, a salad was placed in front of me, it was a big bowl that we all shared, I looked at Mark and said, "is this chicken or tuna?" He said it was chicken of the sea. First of all, I know that Tuna IS chicken of the sea. It doesn't help my case much though because he then proceeded to try and convince me (successfully for a time) that this was different, it was actually chicken grown in the sea. (I would like to say now that I was thinking they lived near the sea and that they got the name because they were fed fish... or something like that. In all honesty, I was just being naive and have learned my lesson, and well, at least I got a fairly entertaining story out of it!

Pretty sure my dorm room was bigger than this!

First, I would like to start out by saying that in NO way am I complaining, actually, I really like my apartment. I do feel it necessary, however, to give at least one or two pictures so that anyone who knows what my last apartment looked like can see just how flexible I am with living arrangements. To be honest, I have never been such a clean freak as I have been since moving here, partly because any mess is a big mess when you have so little space and second, well, really there is only the first, but that is enough for me. This weekend I bought a plant and I have a nice little water fountain for ambiance. I am finally starting to settle in. I sleep on the floor and I can't remember the last time I have slept so well. I may never sleep on another bed again! Sometimes I get ambitious and I turn on my TV, hopefully, if I time it right I can catch one of the Japanese soap operas (they are always on) at the beginning and hopefully by the end I have some clue as to what is going on. I tell myself that it is helping me learn Japanese, though I know I am kidding no one. I have a washing machine but no dryer. I hang all of my clothes on my balcony, I learned that you shouldn't keep your clothes outside hanging for too long during raining season or else you are just going to have to put them back into the washing machine because they will smell like mildew, gross! And say goodbye to homemade cookies, no baking because I have no oven, and one burner, it's either be creative or go out to eat a lot. I won't lie, the latter happens more than I would probably care to admit. I live right next to a Bud-dhist temple, it is truly amazing how peaceful I feel here, all I have to do is go outside and I am in a beautiful courtyard with a laughing Buddha. Whenever I am feeling anxious all I have to do is take a walk through the temple and my mind softens. There is truly something magical about this place. I feel so fortunate to be able to walk to work every morning and feel blest to be here. Just look at him, how can you not be happy when he is laughing?

A little place called Bar Underground

Now I have been to theme restaurants before, Casa Bonita always comes to mind as a good time, even the guys on South Park have been there. Nothing, however, compares to Bar Underground, as a foreigner with absolutely no Japanese under my belt I found it particularly entertaining. To start with, in order to get to the restaurant, you have to go through this crazy underground tunnel in almost complete darkness, there is the usual prison cell with a skeleton in it, the mushy ground patch that feels like you are going to sink and the door at the end that leads you to the restaurant that opens at the precise moment you stop thinking it is going to open. When inside, we were lead up a skinny staircase to a room where we had to duck in order to walk to our seats. Upon opening our menu's and to our surprised it appeared as though we were no longer going to be able to order drinks, science experiments were a better description of what we were looking at. At this point I knew we were in trouble, how can you not try every drink on the menu, they came in beakers and test tubes! I'm convinced Cash's drink was pure Skol Vodka, fortunately mine tasted good and had bright colors, a requirement of any drink that fits into test tubes. Oh, and the music, how could I forget, all night long they played this really mellow, quasi lame English music, I think I am remembering a little Boyz II Men. Then, towards the end of the meal (the cheese fondu is awesome) the lights started to flicker and the music turned to the hate music of such personalities as Rob Zombie and Marilyn Manson. A hand came out of the window behind Mia's head and freaked me out pretty badly! Did I mention that there was a prison door that kept us from the outside world, anyways, at one point three different monsters (men in masks) came in and tried to scare us. I will admit I jumped and yelled when the first one came in. The best was when one of them came in after the show and wanted his picture taken with Cash, fantastic. All in all a very good night. I really wish the rest of our training mates could have been there to experience it with us. It was the Saterday after we had finished training and I am pretty sure sleep was on the agenda for most people. Next time my friends, next time!

In the beginning, there was Omiya

Ah yes, let's go back to the beginning. After a very long plane ride which spanned two days I finally arrived in Omiya, Japan. A very nice town about 1/2 an hour north of Tokyo. Little did I know that the next week was going to be one of the busiest and most intense I have experienced hmm, maybe ever. There were 17 of us at training and we lived in pretty tight quarters, needless to say we all got to know each other pretty well. It was Saturday night and we had just finished our first full day of training, a little tired, we headed out on the town, first to a beer garden and then to kareoke. I think it was fitting that the first night I actually go out in Japan was spent at kareoke, could it have been any other way, I think not. At training we learned a lot of techniques for teaching English, anyone that thought that just being able to speak the language qualifies you to teach is sadly mistaken. *side note: I noticed about a week after arriving at my school that some of my higher level students understood English grammar better than I did. My immediate reaction was to run home and brush up on prepositions, and the like. I soon learned that was pretty standard and that all questions grammar related should be directed to the Japanese teachers at the school. After all, they actually had to study the language, they didn't grow up just 'speaking' English. As intense as it had been, I was happily surprise by how much fun I had when I started teaching and I had made some incredible friends in the process. One last thing about my training experience. Lawsons. The convenient store that is truly convenient. Countless breakfasts were purchased there and the occasional beer was consumed right outside the entrance doors. And the food, well, much better than the standard US 7/11.

Has it really been a month?

Hard to believe, but I have already been in Japan for over a month. I have been having a great time and have been working hard. I am teaching English at a private school that has about 5oo students. Each class is 50 minutes and there are somewhere between 1 and 8 people in each class. I am having fun but I continue to struggle trying to remember everyone's name. The people I work with are all really nice. I work with two other foreigners, thank God they speak Japanese, because I am well below beginner level and am using my common sense to get me through most conversations I have with locals. For the most part everything so far has been smooth sailing, I am still waiting on my alien registration card but after I get that I will be able to get a cellphone and be able to talk to all of friends that I made in training.