Okie JET

うんどかい and some catch up

I haven't posted in a while, so this one is pretty big.

Yesterday, I went to my elementary school's sports day. It's kind
of weird. They take all of those little fun games that we've played at camp or as icebreakers and made it into an entire day. Each school does it. The event is for the whole family and everyone. I was even recruited to compete. With the junior high brothers and sister of my elementary kids, we did a relay race involving jumping rope, tossing bean bags at a 14ft high basket, and chugging green tea. I had a great time and was cheered on by all of my students.

Afterwards, I saw Miki, the best friend of all of the Tadotsu ALTs. He works at the junior high. He and the vice principal were loading up some of the stuff after the elementary school's sports day. So Miki asked me to go bar hopping. I haven't been out in a while and wanted to get some Japanese practice in, so I humbly accept (with a twist of the arm, of course). Miki told me to invite Nick, the Zentsuji ALT. And so went the Three Amigos. First we went to a yakiniku restaurant (lit. cooked meat). Yakiniku is like grilling food at your table, great taste and great fun. After some great lessons on the local dialect, sanuki-bin, we headed out to the Grasshopper, a local bar run by an Australian woman for foreigners. It does quite well and has tons of imports and even tacos!

So I'll let you guess who's who. There's me, Miki, and Nick. Have fun guessing.

I don't know why I look like such a goober in this picture; I really didn't have hardly anything to drink. Not enough to justify the picture.


So I wanted to include this picture for two reasons. First, it shows my predecessor, Mark Hall. We went to a kareoke bar the first night I was here. It was pretty interesting. The second reason is that I've lost a bunch of weight. I don't know if my pictures are doing me much justice, but I've been shedding. By Christmas, there might not be anything left of me.
(The reason this picture and some of the following ones are "late" is because they were given to me by Miki, I'm very thankful.)


These two pics are of a yakitori, grilled chicken, party at my apartment. I had bought a ton of chicken on sale and needed to use it up. So, a party was in order. I told Miki to invite some people, and the party was set. My superivsor, Koiki, is the one standing up in the pic on the right. The party lasted about 5 or 6 hours that night depending on when you count the party over. It was a blast. I'm sure that I'll be having one at least once a month. Truth be told, it's a little lonely here in the apartment all by myself. But I'm okay.

This is one of the pictures that Miki took of me dancing at the Tadotsu festival. I need to scan in a couple of the hard pictures given to me. But this one is great. I think it shows everything that is just weird about this dance. I had a hell of good time though, even if I looked like a goober.

Well, that brings me to the end of this blog entry. Check back in often to see if I really am getting better about posting more often.

Labels: Elementary, Grasshopper, Odori, Sports Day

posted by Christopher Brashears at 9/18/2006 11:04:00 AM