O "Chaaa" !

A month or so ago, I was taken to a local Acupuncturist in Kurashiki and had my first taste of Eastern Medicine. Mostly, I was intrigued by the prospects of a new experience; a Chinese acupuncturist practicing  his craft in Japan. I would never trust an acupuncturist outside of Asia for some reason as it seems to be a craft the requires instinct, experience, and precision. A Chinese guy in Asia...my thinking was that it probably fits the bill.

I felt that I was a little by fatigued from work but overall, I felt fine. I was taken to the clinic, filled out some paperwork, and was promptly examined by Ken-Sensei who happens to be quite an amicable man. After feeling the pulse on my wrist for a few seconds, I was told that my liver was chopped, my stomach had no mac, my kidneys had grown tired of processing intoxicating liquids, and worst of all, that my body was cold! GULP...what in the world did that mean? My temperature hadn't even been taken. I could have a cold. I could have cancer. I could have a lack of vitamin C. I could have the Bubonic plague...endless possibilities. It's such a vague, feng shui-sun-Tzu-Jackie Chan-Master Splinter sort of diagnosis.

Before long, I was asked to lay on a medical bed and told to say "Ittai!" if I felt any amount of pain. Needles were placed along my stomach, my arms, my hands, and my feet. Once or twice, the previously mentioned word was used but otherwise there wasn't a slither of pain. Oh, and then he burned some strange smelling candles on my stomach...you know, to warm up my body temperature. Shortly thereafter, I was told to go home and avoid cold liquids as much as I could. Why I followed the Chinese man's advice I'll never know...but here I am drinking a nice cup of Green Tea.

Something I've never really liked is now something I'm totally addicted to. Refreshing, tasty, and wonderfully healthy are all things I'd use to describe green tea, or better known as Ocha in this part of the world. It also has a nice color, which is always a plus in my book. It's going to be a staple of my diet for the rest of my life.

More important than green tea, money, health, travel, shelter, air conditioning and anything else I can think of is Natalie. She is the greatest ever and I love her more than anything...Happy 4 year anniversary my love!

Things That Japanese Children Like

Throughout my past year in Japan, I have found that the following things seem to be quite amusing for children in this country.

• Sound Effects: "CHAAAA" - in a high pitched voice is number 1. Works on ages 0 through 80. Battle Tested. Any sound that one can possibly think of and in combination with a well timed high five. Any high pitched voice.
• High Five routines: especially High Five, Down Low, In the middle...TOO SLOW. Courtesy of Natalie.
• Kancho - the ritualistic application of one's index fingers into another's butt hole. Should be done fully clothed. Similar to Korea's Dong Chim. Do not attempt on anyone of non-Japanese descendants. Maybe get punched. Will definitely get shot if done in many neighborhood's in America, like Oakland. Will probably not get shot if done across the river in Oakland's happier neighbor, San Francisco.
• Front Kancho - no explanation needed. Sometimes cleverly disguised as a crotch grab. Uncomfortable, to say the least. 
• Ninjas - Ninja punch, Ninja Shuriken, Ninja Kancho, Ninja Front Kancho
• The word "Pants". Sounds suspiciously like the Japanese word for underwear; Pan-tsu!
• Beards: always a fun prop to bring into the classroom. Touch and fondle friendly. They feel foreign and proper beards are virtually non-existent in Japan.

Feel free to add your own. List will be updated as updates come.

One Down, Fifty-Two to Go (And Possibly More)

After a fun weekend in Okayama where I finally saw Natalie after 10,080 dreadfully long days apart (whoops...I mean minutes), I'm sitting here trying to reflect upon how my first week teaching at my new school went. It was kind of a blur in all honesty. I taught 34 classes, which is quite a high number. 34 classes requires quite a bit of energy and to top it all off, 34 classes with all new students and in a new school requires an unusually high amount of energy. So, would you like the good news or the bad news first?

The good news is that out of the 34 classes that I taught, I feel that 32 of them went better than average to excellent. A 94% success rate is nothing to sneeze at considering that children are unpredictable time bombs ready to explode at any moment. One of my my classes that went badly was as expected. My school is located right in the middle of downtown Hiroshima and as a result, it's jam packed with filthy rich families lead by young mothers who have no idea how to raise a child and can probably only spell one word in English; S-P-O-I-L. Spoiled children are the bane of any teacher's life and my schedule is bursting at the seams with children who have mastered the art of getting spoiled. And I guess that's the bad news; I teach a lot of rich, spoiled brats. And spoiled brats always seem to have a high proportion of BUS cases. That is to say Bad Ugly Stupid children. I know it sounds mean but there actually are children with no redeeming qualities. I'm hoping that my classes continue to go as well as they have gone so far.

My manager has also been quite nice to me. That was unexpected considering the horror stories that I've heard about her. I guess my students have enjoyed my classes and none of them seem ready to quit. For someone who only cares about the numbers, retaining students is outright amazing to her. Cool Biz starts next week so that's going to be cool. Cool Biz is kind of a national program where companies are allowed to dress down in order to conserve energy. I really enjoy being able to wear a T-shirt instead of a ridiculous suit in middle of summer. I don't understand why we wear suits. I'm assuming that it's to retain an aura of professionalism but I don't think that it's particularly inviting for Children.

BAH. ENOUGH ABOUT WORK. MY LOVE IS MOVING TO HIROSHIMA AND IT'S GOING TO BE GLORIOUS. CAN'T WAIT TO SEE HER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!exclamation point attack!!!!!

The Nearly 30th Move of my Life

As you all already don't know, this past weekend I moved to a new city and started a new job yet again. Needless to say it's been an absolutely chaotic mess of a week for me. Beginning 2 weekends ago, I had to move out of my apartment and into a hotel, say goodbye to all of my students, have my replacement shadow me, say goodbye to my coworkers, take a train to a new city with an extremely painful hangover, move into a new place, meet new coworkers, settle into a new school and new way of doing things, and meet a whole new set of Japanese children. WHEW. I feel exhausted having just typed that chaotic mess of a sentence!

But truly, I feel like it's just a part of my life. Moving and adapting is something I'm just so familiar with. As the title of this post suggests, I'm quite sure that I've moved nearly 30 times. Between all of the times that my father has moved and my mother has moved, those alone probably add up to nearly 15 to 20. That doesn't include the 8 times that I've moved on my own. 4 countries. Long trips abroad. It's dizzying...I guess you   could call me a bit of a nomad.

But in other news, I am now a new resident of Hiroshima city. I've written about this city a couple of times from previous trips but becoming a resident of a new place is an entirely different animal. You truly get to know the city. You have the chance to discover it's secrets; good and bad. You take on the personality of the city. It's an exciting prospect to me.

Okayama has been pretty good to me though. I've had a good year. I can't say I love the city itself. It just feels like a small town and sadly, that has never Natalie nor mine's cup of tea. But I've met some wonderful people there. Between my coworkers, friends, and students, I've really been touched by the kindness that they've showed me these past couple of weeks. I've never felt so appreciated by anyone (well besides my girlfriend and family of course) in my entire life. I've never been one to shed tears but during my goodbye dinner, it couldn't have been helped. I really want to thank them. Everyone was so kind. Thankfully, I'll just be a couple of hours away in Hiroshima.

And then Hiroshima, I'm so excited to be in a city again. Besides the scary stories I've heard about my manager (who has been exceedingly nice to me so far) and the much higher course load, I'm excited about everything. Even when I look out of my window, I can see LIFE...instead of rice patties and sewer frogs (the dirtier... the louder). My school is literally a minute walk from my apartment. That's a 40 second run! A 25 second bike ride! A 10 second car ride! A .1 second flight! The close proximity is mind boggling to me. I'm literally a 5 to 10 minute walk from amazing shopping, eateries, and nightlife. It's going to be a fun year! I'm really looking forward to it and to telling nobody in particular about it.

(I also really want to make some retroactive blog posts about some of the things I've done before this hectic move)

A Golden Week Part 1

So, it's been two weeks since the start of Golden week and I thought I'd give everyone (nobody) an update on what I did over my 9 day vacation. So what exactly is Golden Week? Golden Week is essentially Japan's 3rd longest holiday period of the year. Unlike Obon and New Year's which both seem to have more of a traditional feel and real meaning behind them, Golden week is a conglomeration of three different holidays; Emperor Showa Day, Constitution Day, and Children's Day. None of these holidays seem to mean all that much to the average Japanese (that I've talked to of course) and in fact, most of the students that I asked didn't even know what Golden week actually was. It was interesting to ask my students what their plans were because most answers consisted of the word study and nothing. So essentially, Golden Week is to Japanese as Spring Break is to Americans. But in all honesty, Golden Week is great. It's the beginning of Spring and it is also a full week off from work.

After much contemplation and derailed plans, Natalie and I finally solidified a good plan of attack for our vacation; we would explore the Kansai area; the area that consists of Kyoto, Nara, and Osaka . It's one of the biggest cultural mecca's of Japan.

When making our plans, we had researched an electronic music festival and decided to head out there on the first day of our vacation. After a long day of teaching on Saturday and a long night of packing, we headed out to Osaka for the Nagisa Music Festival. Although we were both exhausted and fried from work, we managed to make it there by 11 am on Sunday (with the help of a smooth ride on the bullet train) and when we arrived we were not disappointed. The weather was absolutely gorgeous; Sunny skies, a few clouds, Spring greenery, and warm weather. Even upon arrival to the nearest train station (and still a bus ride away from the festival grounds), we could tell that we would be in for a fun and vibrant day. After purchasing some beers (too few in hindsight), we made our approach to the festival grounds. We could hear the loud bass from a mile away and we could see the colorful tents and stages of Nagisa. Nearby was a trash processing plant disguised as a colorful work of modern architecture. It was kind of a foreshadowing of what the festival be about; exploring the counter cultures and creative recesses of Japanese culture.

Before entering the grounds, we were greeted by a familiar face; Arthur from Skyline High School (Natalie's high school). We had met him in Kyoto when he was a bouncer for a local club. He seemed to be a really nice guy and that's not something you say about most bouncers. I think he was just surprised we had remembered his name. Either way, after downing our beers, Arthur pointed us in the right direction and off we were to the festival grounds. I won't go into too much detail onto what we did but I can say that we had an amazing day; We danced, we played, we drank, we ate, and we danced some more. The area was bursting with life and creativity and color. It's not something that you are able to see everyday in Japan,  especially in the work environment where everyone tries their hardest to be as gray as possible and as form fitting as possible. It's sometimes hard to be in such an environment but at Nagisa, things were different. These people were the Japanese at play, The Japanese who didn't fit in, The Japanese who wore black suits in the week but spend their weekends in color and every other type of Japanese. This is the Japan we came to see. It showed us a different side, a fun side, and a lighter side.

The festival grounds were filled with people dressed in their funkiest garments. We saw dreadlocks and crazy hair styles. We saw Japanese rastafari and Japanese beat boys. We saw girls transplanted straight from Harajuku. We saw people who forgot that it wasn't Halloween. We saw children and older people. We saw beards, piercings, and tattoos. We saw transvestites. We saw French people and Thai people. Seeing them was part of the fun. And then there was the music; There was dubstep and some more dubstep. There was some reggae inspired electronic and some house. All of it was fun but we tended to let loose near the hippie stage; the slower going electro dub step reggae inspired sort of mess that is right up our alley. Besides dancing, there was a big jump rope at one point and it was fun hopping in and out and watching the random passersby failing miserably at such a simple endeavor. We talked with baby Ryota and swapped music taste near the port of potties. We met Boi from Thailand. We met some French people out to have a good time. And eventually too tired to continue, we went to our hostel. It was an eclectic and vibrant day filled with surprises.

When we got to the hostel, Natalie quickly went to bed but it being so early, I went out in search of some dinner. After wandering around, I filled my stomach with some Ramen and Gyoza (I can never get away from those two dishes as a combo). When I got back to the hostel, I met one of the coolest and most interesting Japanese guys (Hiroaki) that I've talked to in Japan. Although we couldn't quite understand each other all that well considering our limited ability in one another's native tongue, we talked for a couple of hours about everything from music to traveling. It was the kind of conversation that makes traveling fun and it concluded a great first day of vacation

Sakura Season

It's April here in Japan and another Sakura season has come and gone by. Sakura season is a really wonderful time of the year where most of Japan is covered in it's signature Cherry Blossom trees for a period of about 2 or 3 weeks. It signals the true beginning of Spring and the end of that season that we all can't stand by the time April rolls around. I got to experience Cherry Blossoms first hand last year in Korea but I think Japan has really showed me why this particularly tree is associated with Japan itself. In Korea, there were one or two places where the Cherry Blossoms were prominent but here in Japan, they seem to be around every corner and in every neighborhood park and even in many yards. The city and the town truly bleed pink. I'd have to say that it's quite a beautiful thing to behold, even if it is short lived. The Japanese celebrate Sakura with something called Hanami. I'm not sure what it means exactly but Hanami is when people go to famous Cherry Blossom viewing spots, have a picnic, and pretty much get wasted under the shade of the Sakuras. Having just experienced my first Hanami, I'd have to say that I'm now most certainly a fan. It's just so much fun and at the same time very tranquil and majestic. Eating your lunch under a Cherry Blossom on a Sunny day is one of the most pleasant things you can do. It's raining petals!

So the past 2 weekends were spent celebrating Hanami. Two weekends ago, we went to Okayama's famous Korakuen Garden, where a large river lined with hundreds of Cherry Blossoms runs just behind it. A large group of people organized a picnic there and we essentially spent the day drinking and playing in the sun. It was a lot of fun. At one point, I even spent time playing Rock Paper Scissors with random picnickers. The old lady I played with got me pretty bad but I successfully defeated everyone I played who happened to have a really bad mullet (which is a lot in Okayama). We ate some street food, saw another awesome low rider crew (they're so damned friendly too), threw some imaginary ninja stars at some trashy guy who claimed he was a Japanese gangster (you're not a gangster if you wear crocs and you have a blonde mullet. More on that later), and had a sumo wrestling contest (in which I lost to someone who is 6 feet 17 inches). We topped it off by going to a Hawaiian bar with really overpriced Hawaiian beer and decent Jap food. It was fun.

Last weekend, we did it all over again but this time with our close friends, Gene and Yui. It was just as fun but on a more relaxed vibe. We went to Kurashiki's Sakazu park, a much more picturesque place than the one we had previously went to. It's just too bad the Cherry Blossoms were already starting to die out. Either way, we had ourselves a pretty great day. We brought some booze, some music, and some take-out McDonald's. What better way to bask in nature than by supporting our favorite planet destroying hamburger joint! We also taught Yui how to play the most awesome card game known to mankind Vietnamese people; VC. For those of you who don't know it, it's a game where singles, doubles, triples, quadruples, and series of cards are dropped into a flat surface in a game of mind blowing Napoleonic strategy. Yeah, it's not THAT cool, but I've been trying to spread it's greatness throughout this planet, one Asian country at a time. So far, I've converted 3 people. We also ate some frozen bananas (there's always money in the banana stand) and chilled our way into a great day. Good times.

So yeah, besides Hanami season, the past few weeks have been less than enjoyable at work. Besides losing every co worker that I started with in Japan, the new classes that I told all of the interwebs about in my last entry finally started. And boy, I am definitely less than thrilled about them. I miss my old schedule and a lot of my new students. I've got a lot of new students that just seem to be more annoying than anything else. And man, that one class with the three 2 year olds...it's disastrous. It's 45 minutes of hell. The babies can't do anything. They just run around and cause havoc, cry, and shit their pants. One of them emptied the trash can onto his head...twice. Well, in hindsight, that's actually pretty hilarious! But yeah, I'm complaining about nothing really. Sometimes change can just be so annoying. You get comfortable in what you do week to week and then you eventually hit cruise control and things become easy. Starting new classes when you're a teacher is like turning off cruise control while also suddenly entering an icy winding path off of the side of a mountain. In other words it's not fun.

Work has just been a bit of a downer lately as well. The big boss has been at our school lately and she has a tendency of creating a very very negative atmosphere, especially where it concerns Japanese people. I've mentioned it before but this time, I've been experiencing it everyday. She is just the most evil, nit-pickiest person ever. The atmosphere has been extraordinarily bad. On top of that, our company offered all teachers an optional field trip on Sunday that turned out to be not so optional. After politely refusing to go, I quickly realized I never really had a choice in the matter when I noticed the chaos that my refusing to go had caused. Everyone was freaking out. My manager got in trouble because I said no. Blah Blah Blah. In other words, they were going to figure out a way for me to go no matter what I said. They just assumed that no one would ever say no to such an incredibly enticing offer. But yeah, glitch in the Matrix (Natalie quote). That's Japan for you. Passively aggressively forcing people to do things they don't want to do.

So then our field trip was yesterday. Overall, it was okay. It was really early in the morning and when your work schedule starts really late, waking up early is no fun. We went to the Kirin Brewery where we walked around some buildings, listened to a Japanese tour guide in Japanese, and watched some Japanese videos (which had English as an option but was for some reason neglected). The best part was the 3 beer glasses that we were able to drink...I mean chug because they only gave us 15 minutes to do so. After the brewery, we headed off to a place called the German forest, which is a weird recreation of a german....umm Village? In the German forest, one can pet goats, milk a cow, ride a baby train, notch some arrows on a bow, slide down a slide, look at German flowers, and drink German beer. Overall, I would have enjoyed it a lot more if they hadn't treated us like kids and given us assigned seats and assigned partners and all sorts of restrictions. Just set us loose! We are grown adults capable of meeting back at a designated spot and time of our own accord! The best part however was making ice cream and my team (the self proclaimed Man's team) consisted of our wonderful president of the company. He is actually a really funny and nice person so it was quite enjoyable. It was just a strange day and it felt like being a cattle in a herd.

Afterwards, we headed to a Sloshball after party (the event that we were supposed to go to if it hadn't been for our wonderful company field trip). That ended up being a lot of fun; just talking, eating, and laughing. Either way, that's basically what's been going on the past few weeks. I've got one more week of work and then it's off to Golden Week vacation! And I still love Japan, especially when I come out of the station and I find a group of 15 teenage boys with horribly trashy bleached blonde mullets, identical track suits, pink crocs, loop earrings, and very effeminate and large Louis Vuitton wallets sticking out of their back pockets. And there is the idea behind me and Nat's next blog; People of Okayama.

Spelunking in Japan

Although I wouldn't quite call it spelunking, me and Nat just got back from Ikura Ravine, apparently one of the three largest (or longest) caves in Japan (on another note, I don't understand Japan's obsession with making lists of three; 3 best caves, 2 best scenic spots, 3 sneakiest ninjas, 3 different types of commemorative McDonald's Cherry Blossom burgers etc etc.). We decided to go cave exploring because we hadn't really been on any trips for the past few weekends and it was relatively close and inexpensive. We had to go to Niimi station and then we took a bus to the cave. It was really pretty nice. The weather was perfect as well. Blue skies and warm weather. It's just ironic that we spent it in a cave. But yeah, the cave was really cool. I wouldn't call it large as opposed to being really long, steep, and claustrophobically narrow! There were some damn cool stalactites with all sorts of cool patterns and textures. It was pretty fun taking pictures and having no idea where the tunnel was leading us. Our camera crapped out about 1/3 of the way through so that was a bit of a bummer. But otherwise, it was a great. The entrance to the cave was also situated in a ravine and you had to cross a bridge to get the entrance. There was also a pretty awesome waterfall as well.

Last night was pretty fun as well. We went to John Holjo's place in Kitanagase and met up with John, Bryan, Sean, and Mako and did a bit of drinking. We played King's cup in a whisper (so as not to disturb the neighbors), made hilarious music videos, and had an arm wrestling contest. I even arm wrestled a Buddhist Monk...and Won. That was something I can cross off the list!

But yeah, otherwise, work has been really hectic. Practically everyone at my job is new, everyone except the manager. So yeah, I am now the longest tenured teacher at my school which is all a bit strange. Everyone seems to be quite nice but yeah, I don't really know them all that well and strangely, I'm not feeling as social as I usually am. I'm also getting a new schedule with new classes this week and I am really fucking worried. Mostly, I am worried about a certain class that I have. Right now, I am teaching 3 baby classes ( 2 year olds)  and the babies in my class are graduating to a new class. Right now, they attend class with their moms but starting next week they are going to come alone. That means that they are going to cry their tiny little baby sized intestines out and in the meantime make me lose all of my hair. Yes, I have to be the one responsible for getting them acclimated to life without Mommy. That's a hard fucking task. I mean they're still wearing Diapers. They're still hopping and a skipping in their own Feces. To make matters worse, I am a male, a foreigner, and I don't speak any Japanese either. To make matters even worse, I have one student that is absolutely horrible in that he doesn't listen to everyone. To make matters even more worse, I have a student that can't even speak Japanese, let alone English. Ouch. It's gonna be a rough week for me. Hate to complain about work but I think it's a bad idea to put anyone in that situation. But yeah, I'll just have to suck it up I suppose! Wish me luck.

Okayama Dreamin in Winter Blue Jeans

So here we are at the end of March and at the tail end of Winter. I'm pretty excited for the start of Spring. Winter always seems to drag on for ages. There are times when I truly enjoy the cold weather, especially during the holidays, but it seems that by the time February hits us, I'm absolutely sick of it's ugly dreary face! But yeah, It's been a while since I've written anything in here but it's about due time that I had an update.

After our snowboarding adventure at the end of February, Nat and I headed off to Osaka to visit our very good friend Lou whom we met while living in Seoul last year. I don't have much to say about that weekend but that it was really nice to catch up with an old friend and reminisce on some of the wild adventures that we had while living in Korea. I'll always look back fondly on that first year living abroad. It was definitely an exciting time in our lives and we were all lucky to be able to spend it with a great group of friends. So besides catching up on old and current times, we essentially spent the weekend letting our feet to the talking. We walked and explored most of Dotombori in Osaka, which is Osaka's most famous entertainment/shopping district. We explored Don Quijot for the umpteenth time, ate Takoyako, got lost, shopped, ate Okonomiyaki, sang some Karaoke, bar hopped, and walked through the rain for what seemed like hours. We even saw MJ!! (Not, not Jackson, Johnson, or Jordan...but MJ from Korea). Overall, it was a great weekend but it was kind of bittersweet having to say goodbye to a good friend for the second time without knowing if you'll ever see them again. Besides living away from family and friends, living abroad has been difficult in that we've met dozens of really amazing individuals who are as open minded and curious about the world as we are but at the end of the day, you have to say good bye. Of course we'll always be friends, but we all come from different parts of the world and we all have lives to go back to. But hey, it's part of the adventure of living abroad!

Otherwise, it's been a pretty chill month for us. Besides trying to survive the daily battering of low strength Japanese cold weather, we're kept ourselves busy by keeping it local. Blessed with a 3 day weekend in March and no money, we took the opportunity to explore more of Kurashiki and it's surrounding areas. For one, we rediscovered Kurashiki's Bikan all over again. That place never ceases to amaze. It really is a great place to explore and it seems to have an endless amount of surprises. We also went down south to Kojima station and did some beginner level hiking. We saw some great views of the Seto Inland sea and the nearby Seto Ohashi Bridge (which is not the longest suspension bridge in the world like we've been claiming) and we were able to check out a really epic sunset. And it never ceases to amaze me how nice people are in Japan. During the sunset, we realized that we were stuck on the mountain so we asked a bus driver if he was going back to the station. When he told us that he wouldn't, we were disappointed but he gave us a wink wink and let us hitch a ride on his bus for free anyways. That was really cool of him! I think it was a pretty good chill weekend. We also did a major Spring cleaning, and I mean major! I cleaned the door frame! THE. DOOR. FRAME. Who does that? Never ceases to amaze me that when you zone in on cleaning, you will clean the fuck out of the things that don't need to be cleaned for hours.

This past weekend was also a good one. The theme of the weekend was definitely coincidentally meeting people randomly in random places. Yesterday, we were working on a side project of ours and purchasing materials for the said project in a used kimono slash anime card slash toy model slash strange candy slash dusty store when we saw an absurdly tall foreigner with a Japanese women. After closer inspection we realized that it was Sean and his wife Mako whom we had met a handful of times but had never really hung out with. After a short chat, we hit it off and ended up chatting the day away together over coffee, dinner, and drinks. It ended up being a really random good time and we really loved talking with them. Sean, being an artist, also gave us an amazing perspective on his life philosophy and gave us some really good ideas on the project we were working on. So yeah, I'm really glad we were able to spend some time with them.

And finally, the underlying theme this month has been the future. Ah, what to do with you? There comes a point in every who lives abroad's life when they are faced with the decision of what to do in the after life. It's amazing how fast time goes the older you get and especially when you're staying busy, but it already seems like the end of our next contract is coming faster than we can blink. And so me and Nat have been heavily talking about our future and what we want to do. Fortunately, I think that we're both talented individuals and that opportunity awaits us at every turn. It's just takes finding the right thing. What makes us happy? What makes us tick? Life is fulfilling now while we are traveling, but how do we keep it fulfilling when we get back or even if we ever get back? My biggest fear is of falling into a rut that I feel almost everyone I know has fallen into. Same old job, same old bars, same old routine, same old shows, same old striving for a bigger and near everything. I don't want that for me and Natalie. But I think we have options and honestly, if that fails...we're starting a band. After all, we've been getting compliments that I look like a famous celebrity right out of Hollywood and that Natalie looks like a famous musician. Plus I think we sound pretty good when we're intoxicated and screaming into a mic in a small room where we can hardly hear ourselves. And then there's the matter of us being Kurashiki's 6th best 2 person non-Japanese novelty band. So what do ya say ya Internetters? We'll take you in our band...we'll need guitarists, bassists, keytardists, drummers, triangle players, and songwriters. We'll take care of the fame and singing and awesomeing. How bout it?

Body aches, Japanese Awkwardness, and of Course, Naked Men.

     Last weekend, after a long Saturday of work, Gene, Nat and I had the unique opportunity to visit one of Japan's oldest, rarest, and weirdest festivals: The Naked Man festival. And just in case you ask, it's not a festival a showcasing pictures of Naked Men or even some Japanese sexual fetish. Located in a small town near Okayama and on the coldest day of the year, the festival features thousands of everyday Japanese men wearing nothing but a raggedy piece of loin cloth fighting over sticks being thrown in the air. And when I say thousands, I mean that literally and I mean that they are all cramped into a temple room about the size of half of a basketball court. Yes, it's sweaty, steamy, awkward, and strangely quite amusing. The crowds, which are nothing to scoff at in terms of size, are all shouting along and heckling (which is very UN-Japanesey in that they are usually the most polite of audiences). The festival is just a huge mess in all honesty. We were scrambling through a raucous crowd just to catch a glimpse the men, who were all pushing and shoving each other in the most amicable of ways. After finally reaching a decent vantage point at a nearby fence, the men were by then leaving the temple and running through a small court yard and threatening to break down the fence, at which point dozens of police officers ran between us and the fence and (politely, which is strange) asked us to step back. And then they proceeded to throw cold water at the freezing naked men. Weird? Yes. Okay, Okay. So that was about 20 minutes of the festival. I sit here writing this not fully understanding what it is I witnessed with my eyes. Why do they fight over sticks thrown in the air? Is it for honor? Is it for the emperor? Is it to show who is most awesome in a loin cloth? I forgot to ask along the way. Either way, it was an experience I'm not like to forget and hey, who can turn down the sight of Naked Japanese men? Not I.
     Otherwise, the rest of the weekend was filled with us doing some socializing. We went to a really cool local bar with Gene after the festival. Me and Nat taught him to play the greatest card game ever, VC, while we sipped on some Cuba Riba's (Cuba Rivers AKA a Rum and Coke) made with real Ice and bottled cokes. Good times. The next night, I went out with Natalie, Rachel, and some of the other coworkers for a nice dinner, drinking, and some Karaoke. We met some cool new people as well. The week was pretty uneventful otherwise. There was one moment in my week that was just super interesting however.
     The past Friday, my school had about 4 trainees (for Japanese Teaching positions) roaming around the office. Along with 6 other permanent staff in a small school, you can imagine how crowded my school was. Usually at lunch, we usually eat lunch in the teachers room which is just about large enough to fit 5 people comfortably. So instead of eating in that room, we all gathered into a classroom where there were more chairs and just a little more space. I sat at the head of the table and the other 8 Japanese people sat 4 to either side of me and we all proceeded to eat our lunches in the most awkward of silences. The trainees were nervous around my manager, not wanting to look the fool in front of a potential superior. The manager was nervous in that she didn't want to look a fool in front of a potential employee. The Japanese teachers were nervous because perfection is demanded of them when they are in front of potential colleages. And me, unable to keep myself from breaking into laughter at being in a room full of silent nervous Japanese people, at the head of the table, with all eyes gravitating towards me, and with a sandwich (that last part being notable in that Japanese people don't eat those). It was just too funny in a situation because I'm in Japan. I could've felt awkward at being the only foreigner but why? Only in Japan and while working for a Japanese company will I ever be able to experience such a situation. All of that combined to make it memorable in my eyes. When asked why I couldn't stop smiling, I told them that it was funny that I was the only foreigner there. They all laughed and proceeded to loosen up a little bit. A little bit. Just a little bit. It proved to be a fun lunch, but once is enough for me.
     This past weekend was also another good weekend and definitely one for the books. We went snowboarding for the first time. It was a really fun experience and once again we went with some really awesome people in Gene and Yui (who organized the trip. BIG THANKS). We went to nearby Mt. Daisen in Tottori prefecture. It is Japan's second tallest mountain. It was a very nice picturesque area with lots and lots of snow. I won't go into too many details of the trip but it was great fun. Snowboarding is one really difficult sport to learn in a 4 hour time frame. After a lot and a lot of falling and mistrials and embarrassing moments, I was finally able to go in a straight line and not fall. But of course, 4 hours isn't really even enough time to learn how to board in the most basic of ways. I'm usually pretty okay at picking up sports but this was my first sport ever that involved a board of any kind. It was just something I wasn't used to doing. Learning to Ski was a whole lot easier considering that I have a bit of a background in skating, but balancing on a board is something I've never been very good at. Either way, I learned and I can do it now, but I paid the price. My body is sore in dozens of places that I never knew existed. It was all in good fun though. We laughed, we took pictures, drank beer, and even had an epic snowball fight to commemorate the end of our run. Afterwards, we headed back to town and ate Dinner at Yui's awesome restaurant; Kushu Kushu (9494). Great times. I'll be headed to Osaka next week to hang out with Lou from Korea. Can't wait!

A Very Japanese Valentine's Day

      Although I've never been too keen on Valentine's day, that was before I was with Natalie. "Valentine's day is just another stupid hoax of a holiday that is for evil companies like Hall Mark to steal our hard earned pennies and to make us single people feel worse about ourselves" are words that have come out of my mind. And people that are in a relationship take advantage of this holiday as a way to celebrate their love for one another and by stressing over what to get their significant other. Overall, it just seems to be a stressful holiday for everyone. People either end up loving this day, hating this day, or just dreading it's inevitable arrival. So this year, Natalie and I decided to skip all of that and treat ourselves to one amazing weekend together. Spending Valentine's day with her is all I could ever ask for as she is the most wonderful, caring, and beautiful person I could ever ask to have by my side on a day to celebrate love. After much consideration on what to do, we decided to splurge big time, spoil ourselves and book a room in a fancy hot spring luxury Japanese hotel.

     On Sunday morning, we headed out to Shikoku Island again and finally arrived where we headed. The whole train ride there was long but ultimately enjoyable as it wound it's way through some amazing mountainous terrain. When we got to the station, we were treated to some splendid views of the surrounding mountain valley. Tall mountain peaks on either side. A river with crystal clear blue water below us. A quaint mountain village. This area had it all as far as peaceful retreats go. After some difficulty figuring out which bus to take and trying to avoid the lying (by Japanese standards) taxi driver, we were finally on our way to the hotel. Along the way, we stopped by a really nice Japanese restaurant that offered fresh Soba noodles and more incredible views of the valley. After a very winding bus ride, we finally arrived at our hotel and man, we were not disappointed. When we were shown our rooms, our jaws simply dropped. It was a large modern room with traditional Japanese style. It had large windows with an absolutely breathtaking view of the mountains and the river below. The room also had a private outdoor hot tub and a massage chair. It's hard to describe just how awesome it was but it was literally more than I had ever dreamed of. But hey, we were paying for it. The hotel was also famous for having a really awesome Onsen, or natural hot spring baths. To get there, we had to take a cable car down into the river valley and then we were treated to a really nice outdoor bath with more brilliant views of the surrounding area. The water in the hot spring was naturally heated and was also silky smooth. It was complete relaxing experience. So yeah, we spend the rest of our day in this manner; Bathing and relaxing.

We were also treated to our first Kaiseki in Japan. A Kaiseki is a traditional luxury Japanese course meal. Although Natalie was feeling sick, It was simply a ton of fun to what each course would bring us. The food was delicious, fresh, and impeccably presented. It was the epitome of Japanese aesthetics and perfection. Although the food was more geared towards a Japanese person's taste buds, it was still a wonderful experience. A similar breakfast awaited us the next day. So yeah, we spent the day relaxing and being pampered in an incredible environment. Overall, it was a very memorable night's stay. RYOKAN!!

So that was the romantic part of my weekend. Before ever going to the hotel, we spent Saturday cooking some really awesome Mexican food, which is something we've been craving hard. Natalie whipped up some amazing Spanish rice and guacamole while I whipped up some fresh salsa and pico de gallo. We cooked the ground beef together, heated the tortillas, and had ourselves a really nice company with Gene and Yui that night. We had a great time laughing and sipping on some Corona's. It felt like Summer more than Winter; always a good thing. 


And then there was the weird...So last week, on a particular train ride, an older woman struck up a conversation with me. She said that she had seen me around and had wanted to practice her English with me. Overall, she was quite nice and polite so I didn't think much of it after a brief 10 minute conversation. So this morning, she came up to me again struck up another conversation. Nothing to see here, except that she busted out some pictures of her vacation in Switzerland and was showing them to me. That was the first sign that she was being weird. I mean, who carries hard copies of their travel pictures around with them? She was obviously trying to show me these pictures specifically. I went along with it anyways. So when it was almost time for me to get off, she reminded me that it was Valentine's day and proceeded to reach into her bag. While she was reaching into her bag, I was thinking, "uh oh...I know where this is going. How am I going to get myself out of this one?" So yeah, she had wanted to give me a Valentine's day present which she had bought at a foreign goods store. Yeah, so I declined the gift as politely as I could, said my good byes, and left the train. I felt bad, but what else should I have done? In my culture, receiving a Valentine's day means that you're good friends with someone, someone's mom, someone's lover, or that someone likes you. I had only spoken to this woman for what probably amounted to a total of 15 to 20 minutes. In Japan, women often give V day gifts to everyone in their lives but I mean come on, I had just met her. I thought that it was really creepy and that accepting the gift would be very insincere and would have misled her into thinking that our short conversation was more than it was. It was just a weird encounter and I definitely count on bumping into her. Just creepy, and very Japanese.

Happy Valentine's day!