Tokyo!

Just got back from a long weekend in Tokyo. It was a good change of pace--everything was insanely crowded, loud, and busy. Now it's back to quiet little Shibukawa.

School starts tomorrow! I have to make a speech in front of everyone in Japanese! Yikes...

One Month Anniversary

I arrived in Japan exactly one month ago today. Craaaazy, ne? ("ne" is Japanese for "eh") Time is passing by quickly, and yet it feels like ages since I left Vancouver. One down, 11 more to go...

So I finally got my TV to work. It turns out the cable was just unplugged...hehe. It took me a whole month to figure that out--I'm officially an idiot!! :)

"Naughty Power Give Me Many Courage"

...Japanese t-shirts are hilarious. They make no sense. I went to English summer camp this weekend, and me and the other JETs would just kill time reading all the nonsense printed on the kids' shirts.

Camp was fun but really exhausting. Japanese students are SOOOOOOO shy. It took so much effort just to get them to say anything in English. It was mentally draining at some points. On the whole though, they were really good kids. They made the JETs feel like celebrities. At the end of the camp everyone wanted to take pictures with us and get our autographs :)

I got my haircut today! I found this one salon where the owner speaks a little English. I just showed her a picture and hoped for the best. It turned out pretty well I think. Except now I look even MORE Japanese...

Choo Choo...

I love riding the trains here, especially when I'm on my own. I get to listen to my music and just stare at the Japanese countryside passing me by. It always feels a little bit surreal...

Oh My God...

...Japanese salad dressing is SOOOOO GOOOOOD!!! I spent like 30 minutes at the grocery store trying to pick one, but I guess I lucked out because the one I chose was amazing.

COUNTDOWN UPDATE: 33 more days!!!

"Gunbatte!"

...literally it means "to do your best" or "persevere". I think that's officially my new motto. Things here can be so up and down. I can have a totally amazing night, then wake up feeling completely lonely and homesick the next morning. But I think I'm slowly learning that in order to be happy here, you really just have to learn to live in the moment and accept things as they are.

I just got back from my prefectural orientation tonight. The government of Japan really has a lot of money to burn on the JET programme. We spent three days in the prefectural capital, where all of us got our own rooms in a hotel. Overall, it was pretty fun. I got to meet a lot more people who live in my area. It was interesting to see everyone again and compare how our first couple of weeks have gone.

Man, the Japanese really like to drink. A senior government official was supposed to address us with a speech, and he began by saying "I am drunk" and laughing into the microphone. We went out for karaoke one night and managed to get the Japanese prefectural advisor to sing "Dancing Queen" in front of everyone. He got pretty into it.

So far there are two things I really miss about home: 1) English movies 2) Shopping Malls. The closest theatre to my town is 30 minutes away by train and it costs over $20 per movie. And in terms of shopping, all they really have here are department stores. I just really feel like eating in a food court and being a mallrat right now...

The countdown begins...

...the ticket has been booked!!! Adam is officially coming on Sept. 16!!! That's only 38 days away!!! We'll get 10 whole days together!! I CAN'T WAIT!!! :)

Takasaki Matsuri!

Matsuri!

I went to my first Japanese festival this weekend. It was a lot of fun. I went back to Tasaki, which is the biggest city in Gunma. The place was packed. It kind of felt a little bit like Night Market on a REALLY crowded night.

I got to meet a lot of really cool and interesting people from all over the world. It's funny because all of the foreigners in the city seem to hang out at this one bar, which is about the size of someone's living room. Everyone just drank and danced--apparently this is what they do every weekend. I wish I could come more often, but I know the commute is gonna get pretty expensive in the long run.

Japan can be so random sometimes. After leaving the bar, we were walking down this sketchy street that's kind of like the red-light district. In the middle of the street, there were suddenly these two blow-up kiddie pools. Inside the pool were these blow-up dolphins and watermelons--REAL watermelons! I have no idea what purpose they were supposed to serve. My friends were a little tipsy and decided to jump into the pool. One guy even stripped down to his underwear. The Japanese just stared at them in shock.

I think I'm starting to settle in more now but homesickness still strikes once in a while. The sucky part is now I have two homes to miss: Vancouver and Ottawa. But time is starting to fly by, and I'm sure that the year will be over before I know it...

Beer Garden!

I went to my first beer garden party tonight. This basically consisted of sitting on a rooftop and drinking and eating as much as you could for three hours. This was the first large JET gathering I've been to since Tokyo, so it was cool to see how people have settled in.

It was interesting to observe the different types of people who are out here. Of course, there's the stereotypical crowd of fresh-out-of-university people who are basically out here to drink and hook up as much as possible. But then there's this other group of people who have been here for years and have pretty much built themselves a permanent life here. I met two guys tonight who have married Japanese women and even have kids! This just seems crazy to me. Japan right now is so unfamiliar and foreign in so many ways--I can't imagine ever getting to the point where I feel comfortable enough to call this place my home.

It was nice to get out of Shibukawa for a while tonight. Takasaki isn't huge, but at least it feels like a real city with tall buildings and bright lights. It even has a Gap, J Crew, and a Starbucks. It's only about 30 minutes away by train so I think I'm gonna go back more often. Tomorrow night they're having fireworks there so I might meet up with this girl I met at the beer garden party. Hopefully we'll manage to find each other.

So I guess I've survived my second week here. Time is passing by pretty quickly, but home still feels so far away...

Where are all the California Rolls??

Today has been pretty interesting, probably one of the most eventful days here so far. One of the English teachers showed me around Maebashi, which is the capital of Gunma Prefecture. For lunch, he took me to a revolving sushi bar. I've never eaten so many different types of raw fish in my life. He made my try one type of sushi that had some sort of fermented bean inside. It tasted like rotten cheese! I seriously wanted to gag and throw up, but I just had to swallow and wash it down with a lot of green tea. Mental note: stay away from "natto".

When we got back to school, three of the students said they wanted to meet me. They were hilarious. I would ask them a question and they would look at me blankly and say "Excuse me--thinking time please". Then they would all gather in a group and come back to me with a joint response. Then they'd ask me questions like "Do you like Pokemon?" They even drew me a picture of a Japanese Sanrio character because I said I didn't know who he was. They were really cute.

On a completely different note, I went to visit my principal at the technical high school that I have to teach at. The first thing he said to me was: "I'm afraid you will find it very difficult here. The students do not like English." Yikes.

I'm going for a bike ride shortly with my friend (yay, I have a friend!). She's Canadian too and she lives in the building next to mine. I warned her about my minimal biking abilities. Hopefully all will go well...

My clown bike!