Okie JET

Halloween is the most fun time of the year

2007-11-10T09:19:00.000+09:00

These are the 6th graders on Halloween. We made masks the week before and had our halloween party. It was great. And they learned some English.

These are the 5th graders. There are not as many of them. But that also allows us to do some more things. The teacher, who chose the English name of Patrick, actually really got into the Halloween spirit.

These are the 4th graders. They have the largest class. And they are extremely good at English. I like the girl on the far right of the picture. I think she didn't get the idea of masks.

This was the 6th grade teacher, who chose his name to be Walter, and I after the class mummified us as part of the lesson.

This is Patrick, the 5th grade teacher, and I. The students rolled dice. The number correlated to a body part. They would then wrap the body part with toilet paper. Of course there was plenty of speaking practice and reading.

This is the 4th grade teacher and I after the great mummification. She was a great sport in the game.

SEE THIS MOVIE, IF YOU DO NOTHING ELSE

2007-11-06T06:38:00.000+09:00

This is a quick blog. But please read.

Make plans now. Go to the movie store today. Rent this movie: Hotel Rwanda.

This movie is, above all, the most important movie that everyone needs to see. We all heard of the atrocity of Rwanda...or should have. But what did we hear? Internal conflict? Can't get involved? We need time to determine if we are looking at a possible genocide?

How many of us know where Rwanda is in Africa? How many of us heard the report and did nothing? In America we suffer so little, and we have so much. As the hegemon of the world, how can we stand by? They weren't just numbers on a report. Each of the 800,000 or more was a person, a life.

But if you can watch this movie, and your soul doesn't bleed, question if you are really human anymore.

Bike Trip of the Inland Sea

2007-09-09T20:29:00.000+09:00

Well, it's been a while. So get ready for an update.

Every year, almost every Japanese employee gets some time off during August. They have this holiday time called Obon. It's a time to go to with family to the graves to honor their dead relatives. Therefore, I also get those days. However, those days must be taken during August. Long story short...I took a two-day bike trip around the inland sea. It was nice, but I was a bit tired afterwards.

Let me set the scene. I left at 6 am on a cool morning. The sky was overcast with just a bit of sprinkles. The road was flat for 90% of the trip. Traffic was really low. There was a cool breeze. Couldn't have been better.

I rode all the way over to Imabari in Ehime-ken. Then I took a train to Matsuyama for the night. In the evening I went to the most famous onsen, hot bath, in Japan, Dogo Onsen.

That evening I stayed at a capsule hotel. That was an experience in itself. I did it because it was cheap and because it's kind of a novelty in Japan. They just have a huge room with all of these oversized plastic boxes that seem a bit like dog cages. They are stacked two up and each comes with a locker. And strangely enough it comes completely setup.

There's a TV, light, alarm clock, pillows, etc and a nice locking curtain. But the one thing they don't have is the one thing that I really needed, a fan. It was a bit stuffy. As a rule, this capsule hotel was smoke-free. But I found out that once again, Japan loves to make rules that they have no intention of holding.

I left Imabari at 6:30 am. Once again, it was beautiful weather. I circled up the on ramp for bicycles and headed out across the bridge to the other side of the inland sea. The first run was gorgeous. I couldn't have asked for a better stretch. If I could choose the pathway to heaven, that would have been it. I can't explain how amazing it was. But then I got to the other side. That's when I found out that the bike path wasn't such a great deal. The highway across the inland sea was less than 20 kilometers. However the bike path was 62 kilometers. That's because after each bridge, where you can bike alongside the highway, bikers must get off the highway and go around each of the six islands. Needless to say, it got very tedious going down off the bridge, circling all the way around each island, and then riding back up to cross to the next island.

But I was really happy and felt a great sense of accomplishment after it. After that, I headed up to Fukayama. There I stopped for lunch at McDonald's. I had a Mega-Mac (twice the meat of a Big Mac) Bacon and Tomato Cheese Burger. Its name is shorter in Japanese. Delicious. Then I hopped on the ferry that went straight to Tadotsu. It was a great trip. But nothing was better than being in my own bed that night.

Hiatus Over

2007-05-01T07:17:00.000+09:00

Back and running again.

I've been just lazy. After my last post, my old laptop crashed. I got my new one in late January. Then I've been lazy. I went home for Easter, which was great. However, I took my cellphone to the States because I wanted pictures of everything. Well...I did something with it that I forgot. So it remains in the States, completely unusable to anyone anywhere now. Since then I've been working on a new cellphone. Now I have it, and vicariously a new camera to put more pictures up. So be looking for pictures within the week, because I'm now in the middle of Golden Week. Golden Week is the biggest time of the year for travel in Japan. It consists of four days of holiday with a week. So there will be a new sting of posts coming soon. Check back in.

Thanks for the patience and tolerance of my extreme laziness.

Undokai Festival at Tadotsu Jr. High - Dance

2006-11-19T20:20:00.001+09:00


This dance is probably one of the most famous in Japan.

2006-11-19T12:55:00.000+09:00

The Newest and Bestest Slideshow

For more photos check My Picasa Web Albums

2006-11-19T10:58:00.000+09:00

BIG UPDATE

So I'm really only getting updates out once a month. Not exactly what I wanted to do, but it seems the only way I get it done. So here goes, get ready for a big update.

November 15th - Gaijin Hunted
Funny story. So I'm walking the a local supermarket perusing the fruits and produce for any good buys, when an old man catches looks up and becomes fixed on me. I'm used to people by now getting quite obnoxious with their staring. I can't help that I'm beautiful...or truthfully, that I'm white and big. So I basically flash a smile and walk by him. Then a tug at my arm unnerves me. I turn around to him holding onto my shirt sleeve. He then asks me in English if he can talk to me. Again, this is something that I've grown quite accustomed to. It happens about once a month. So I indulged him. He explained that he's 84 and self taught. After some general questions about where I'm from and what I'm doing here, he starts on a story about when he met a French woman on the train. I mustered as much interest as I could to tolerate this quite uneventful encounter. But then it took a hugely unexpected turn. He related to me about how he told this woman that he was a "check for dementia." I didn't think I heard him right, but he asked for conformation. As the conversation rolled on, it was apparent that he suffered from dementia and not any other derivation of that phrase. Gratefully, he ended the conversation after a short while. I was wandering around the store for the next ten minutes not sure of what had really just happened. Could a person with dementia realize it? And then why would he offer that information so readily? So maybe he was. I just tacked it up to another day in Japan.

October 31st - Of all days for strange happenings
While they short of celebrate Halloween here, Halloween is not the strangest order of the day here. On this particular day, I was downstairs waving the kids goodbye (a daily activity of the teachers). But this day was different. I was talking to another one of the teachers, who knows an incredible amount of English words but doesn't speak English. While chatting it up and occasionally saying saionara to the kids, one girl came up behind this teacher like a flash and reached up and grabbed his chest. She's a student. He's a teacher. I was shocked too say the least. It seemed inappropriate by everyone's reactions, but it also didn't seem like this was uncommon either. I've been a bit more observant of kids since then.
This incident also triggered a story from weeks ago. We went to a teachers meeting in Zentsuji. After the presentation while we were walking out --
***I have to insert this point into the story. Men here in Japan often have purses. While I would admit that they look a little more masculine than women's purses and are distinguishable from them, they are definitely purses. It's commonly accepted. (tear). ***
-- while we were walking out, two male teachers were comparing purses. They were asking where they bought them and how it's fulfilling their purse needs. As it had already been one of "those" days, this was was just the completion. I was finished. I even said, though under my breath, "I'm finished."

October 29th - Halloween Party
One of the teachers that I work with at the elementary school also teaches English one-on-one to many students. Every year she organizes a Halloween Party for them. So I was invited to help. It was a blast. The kids were all dressed up and not really sure of what to do. But we trick-or-treated, sort of. They bobbed for apples. They told ghost stories and stuck their hands in bowls of noodles, etc. It was really fun.

October 27th - JETs laid siege to Takamatsu to enjoy Halloween

My prefecture's, Kagawa, JETs all got together to throw a good old costume party. Amazingly, all of the JETs dressed up to the nines. Some Japanese people came too but only a few of them actually dressed up. What a shame.
The night was a lot of fun though. There was every kind of costume imaginable. One guy even wore a fish costume that covered his head with just the mouth as the opening for his face. A wild night to say the least.

October 21st - Festivals with Miki and Friends
A while back, Miki and some of his friends at dinner had told me about a festival in the mountains. They told me that I could participate in it. There were even comments about me banging a drum. So I was excited about the prospect. I agreed and nothing more was said until a day before. On Saturday morning we head out for the hills. While most of the day was just traveling around and seeing some of the sights, we finally ended up at the festival. These huge carts they carry and even toss in the air. While I didn't do much more than pose for pictures, I'm told that basically the people can't walk the next day from all of the pain. So it's only a once a year festival. I was just glad that I got to see it. I was set pretty far back into the mountains. We were the only people who weren't actual residents at the festival. So that made me doubly out of place. I did get plenty of people asking about me and talking to me. It was fun, and these mountain people were quite generous feeding us and giving us beer from the worker's stock. I tried to refuse, but it didn't work so well.

October 15th - Udon Man
The plan was for a bunch of Kagawa JETS and Kochi (a prefecture to the south) JETs to meet in Kotohira City, very arguably the capital of Udon, to make some of these famous Japanese noodles. About 6 of them showed up greeted by 2 of us. It was fun none the less. We went to one of the most famous udon places in Kotohira. There we took a class from some really cool people on how to make the noodles. We had to end up leaving the dough for an hour to set. So we headed up and saw the really famous mountain temple, Konpira. The temple is pretty cool, but it's quite a hike to get all the way up there. When we came back, we fixed the noodles up and posed for a few pictures. It was a ton of fun. But then we cooked the noodles, not so bad but we cooked all of the noodles. We were far to full to finish all of them. But full- bellied, we left thanking our teachers now armed with a Japanese secret.

That's all for this mega-update. But if you all want to see plenty more pictures, just follow this link to my online picture folders. I should at least be posting new pictures there faster than I blog. So enjoy. http://picasaweb.google.com/christopher.brashears/

Life since then

2006-10-10T21:05:00.000+09:00

JUST ME EXPERTISE
On Sunday, August 24th, I was invited to give a speech at the Prefectural Capital's English Salon. The entire experience was quite strange. First, I was approached back in mid-August by a random old guy who just sat down next to me and started talking. Later, I found out that he is one of the most important people that I've met yet. Aside from a list of many tons of honors and positions that he holds, he is most notably the president of the prefecture's UNESCO. I was simply asked to speak about Oklahoma. Not bad, huh? Oh, and they paid me $35 for it. The presentation was great. They loved the speech and now they all want to go visit Oklahoma...they're not just saying that to be polite, they were asking about travel arrangments. What have I done!?! Will I never learn to control this power?!! Long, dramatic story short. I tricked a bunch of Japanese into coming to chase tornadoes in Oklahoma. They're also, for some unknown reason, looking for the mystic white buffalo. Don't ask.

But after finishing that presentation, I had to prepare for another one on Friday. This one was for Hanzan High School PTA (yep, Parent Teacher's Association...I didn't translate that, it's just what they call it; even better, one of the first questions was to ask the panel if we knew what PTA was and if we had it in our countries). The panel consisted of myself, Clarissa (from California), and Adam (from the UK). I put in a little effort and soon realized that it was all for naught. All we did was field questions on our school systems in our repestive places. Come to find out, the UK and Oklahoma have more in common that do Oklahoma and California. Crazy world. They were most intrigued that our schools don't stand for cellphones in class and that we send kids out in the hallway or to the principal's office.
Afterwards, we went to the best sushi place on the planet earth. Not one ounce of exaggeration. It was incredible. And there I ate the dreaded fugub. I know what your saying, "he mispelled fugu." But no.
So you're waiting with baited breath for what the fugu is. It's blowfish. The statistic, though I think are entirely made up, say that 1 in 10 people who eat fugu die. Well, it wasn't me. But the blowfish does have an incredibly power neurotoxin if not prepared correct. But we were in quite capable hands. This guy was amazing. Needless to say, I'll be back there again.

SATURDAY NIGHT ATOP A CASTLE
It's not enough for these crazy foreigners to party, or party big, or party big in Japan. Nope, we have to party atop the only, I think, all night castle in Japan. It's quite a view. The castle is rather small, but we had a blast with about 50 people atop this thing. The party didn't stop until sunrise, though most everyone went to finish up the night at kareoke. Yes, I know, I know. Kareoke is the 11th commandment send to Moses, though he ran out room. But it's just what you do here.

LAME, LAME, BINGO!
This past weekend was a three day holiday. But I basically didn't do too much. I rode around a little bit, cleaned, and organized. But on Sunday when I went to church, I found that we had gotten beautiful new pews...but again without kneelers. I must research this adversion to kneeling, especially by a people who do it all the time. On the way back, I stopped in to get my haircut. Fun adventure. Try explaining, "just a little off the top," it just doesn't translate. So I told him whatever, and watched. It turned out good...but I've never had anyone shave the peach fuzz from my ears before. Quite a strange experience. By Monday I was quite tired of just poking around. So I decided to walk out the front door and ride. So I did. 3 and half hours later, I had been quite all over the northwestern part of the prefecture. I saw some amazing beaches, but quite difficult to get to, especially by bike. But the views were great, the weather couldn't have been better, and no wrecks. On the way back, I stopped in at a mall-like thing. It's more like a super Walmart with many little stores inside with no real seperation between them. In one of the "stores" or areas, I was looking at some clothes...now I have to pause here and say that I have felt a little homesick, especially when I think about Mexican food and Pizza Hut. So I'm looking, right? And what song comes over, on what had until them been a Japanese pop station? MMMBop, Bop, bop, bop, mmmbop, libaloau...yeah, Oklahoma's own Hansen came across. Not even kidding I sang every word to myself. I tried to hold in the laughter at the register. It was the perfect ending to that day.

If you all have any questions or want to know more about today's program or any of our fine programming, send a self addressed email to me right away. We'll answer all of your questions in the order that best suites my needs. Thank you and have a nice day...click.

Filmstrip: Sports Day

2006-09-25T18:47:00.000+09:00

Flash Slideshow

You can click on the photos to get captions and information about what is going on. Hope you all enjoy these pictures from Sports Day (undokai) at my Junior High.

Undokai or Sports Day

2006-09-25T18:43:00.000+09:00

Well, it was great. Sports Day went off without a hitch. These kids have put so much of themselves into the show that it was just pure magic. In the slideshow there are tons of pictures.

TUG of WAR
So I don't know about you all...but it's been a while since I've been out to go tugging on a rope. And I don't think I've ever seen something like this. Each side had about 30-40 kids on it. When the gun went off, they heaved and hoed so much that I thought the rope (which was about 4 inches in diameter) was going to snap. Oh, how I prayed for that...it would have been hilarious. Some of the matches were so unfair, but most of them were almost too close to tell. In fact, two of them had to be done over, which sent the kids into a tizzy since their hands were being chewed up by the rope.

DANCES
I was flat out amazed at this. It's one thing to choreography a song to music that lasts about 4 minutes with a small group of people. These kids did it by entire grades.
First Year (equiv to US 7th Grade): They had about 180 students or so. Theirs is the dance with all of the pompoms, coincidentially that's the same word in English as it is in Japanese. I think it's the only place in the world that it might be okay for 7th grade boys to be holding pompoms, let alone twirling them. But the show was pretty impressive. It culminated at the end with all of the boys (about 100 or more) creating a human pyramid. In the US, I've only seen a human triangle, though we like to be more dramatic. Here in Japan I saw a huge two story human pyramid complete with width, height, and depth. Of course, watching them get down was probably the best part.
Second Year (US equiv 8th Grade): Again with about the same amount of students, these kids pulled off an amazing show. They created towers of humans, three tiers tall. Just about the coolest stuff I think I've seen...until they did the Titantic scene with only boys. It was strange. One boy would stand on the other boy's knees. With knees straighten, the boy on bottome would hold the knee caps of the other boy and lean back. It was sort of cool, but still too much like the Titantic. Their human wall was less impressive than the First Year's pyramid, but it was more entertaining. When they were done showing off, the entire wall of people collapsed with a huge groan.
Third Year (equiv 9th): With what seemed to be at least 200 students, the Third Year put on a rather interesting show. They started off with the boys dancing to a Japanese psuedo-rap song. The dance was just side-splitting. Then the girls kind of did a traditional dance. Then the really great part came. There is a really famous dance, but I haven't a clue as to the name. I will call it Soran, because in the song the singer yells Soran and Yakushou. But Soran sounds cooler. It's amazing to watch because the dance mimics a turbulent sea (the meaning, not the translation, of the two words). It was amazingly well done. I've seen that dance at least half a dozen times and none were so large.

PTA MIXED RACE
So the local PTA, and interestingly enough they do call it that, put on an adult's race to kind of join in the festivities. I was excited because I was asked to be on the teachers' team. However, I was soon very shocked to find that my part was to do hoop and stick. Now, I have never played this. Please everyone go out and try this; get lots of practice. You never know when you'll be at a Japanese junior high's sports day and commanded to perform a task such as this. I did have a strategy though. I figured I'd do it like I saw on old timey movies, stick on top pushing it alone. But when I tried that I got yelled at, probably because it would have worked great. But I guess here they push it along from the bottom back. I honestly did not see the logic in that...other than to make the foreigner look entirely ridiculous. It was fun though. But I think I lost the entire race for my team. They didn't seem to care though. And one of the other teachers had to do it as well and said that it was super hard for him too. It was nice to hear, even it was a lie. The other pictures are of our team coming in last at the end of the mixed race doing the centipede. Here they tied all of our feet together. We have to use a lot of team work and get through about 250 meters of this hell. It was mostly hell because I was behind the principal and vice princpal, going incredibly slow, with everyone else pushing me faster. Let's just say, I was glad to be finished with it. Now to find a hoop to practice for next year.

CLUBS
A little background first. Most all of the clubs that kids are a part of are through the schools. There really aren't many after school activities, as we know them, outside or seperate from the schools. The one exception is probably martial arts. Since most all of the clubs are through the school, it was definitely an addition to the day. There are many clubs that are sports that we have: baseball, soccer, tack and field, basketball, volleyball, and tennis. There are some clubs that we share in our school system: band, computer club, and maybe art club. Then there is an assortment of many others: (martial arts) kendo, shorinji kempo(it was formed here and its international headquarters is like two blocks from the school...cool), judo, karate, (sports) ping pong, soft tennis (I have no idea), badmitton, and finally (misc catagory) flower arranging and tea ceremony club, only girls allowed...and yet they say nothing about boys and pompoms.
All of the clubs walked around in their really cool uniforms. They performed a little bit and then went on. The band is absolutely incredible. They sound and perform to the best ability. But just a side note, since all of the clubs are thru the school and practice immediately after school everyday, there is no such thing as multiple club-participation. Kind of simplifies life down. And consequently, they are highly skilled at their particular club.

RELAY RACES
This goes out to Amanda and all of the track people. Japanese relay races are not quite so formal as the US's, but they are amazingly competitive and interesting. The guys's races were absolutely insane. Those guys were so fast. Not just quick, but lightning fast. Some of them nearly lapped the other guys. It was just a bit embarrasing though when they dropped the baton on the hand off or just while running, it happened twice.

3-LEGGED RACE and EVERYTHING ELSE
I had forgotten how funny 3-legged races are. We just don't do them enough in the US. Some of the kids practiced alot and it showed because they were at almost full paced runs. But the vast majority of the students just put the straps on that day. End result, as they went to hand off the baton (relay race), they won't be able to slow down enough in time...kaboom! A huge wreck of adolescents would try to scramble out from the pile with the prized baton and bloody knee caps. I was honored with a seat on one side next to the nurse's station so I got to see all of the battle wounds (to the other side though, I sat next to the principal and vice principals).
They had two events there that I had never seen nor will likely see again. The first was the Centipede race. But unlike the PTA one where we were all tied to the same rope by our legs, these kids alternately had each leg tied to one person in front and one in back. It made for the most amazing race for the winning team. Then the ensuing next 10 minutes of waiting for the other teams to finish grew tetious. But good sportmanship. The second event was a "carpet pull," or so I have named it. The entire class, save four, stands on a tarp. Then the four give the order to jump and pull the tarp toward the finish line. Trick is, that all of the team, except the four, must stay on the tarp at all times. Another one of these great unless it takes 10 mor minutes to finish for good sportmanship.
I'm only going to preface it because it's in the filmstrip. Miki and some other people came over for a BBQ. But I realized after they got here that I didn't have any lighter fluid. (Me)On the verge of busting open one of the 45 lighters my predecessor left, Miki gets the idea to light it on my gas stove. It worked alright, but the charcoal kept popping and shooting off bits into the air. Nothing caught fire, but it did appease the pyro nature in all of us.

うんどかい and some catch up

2006-09-18T11:04:00.001+09:00

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.

Tadotsu-matsuri

2006-08-26T17:16:00.000+09:00

The first weekend I was here (8/5), my city, Tadotsu, had their big summer festival. It is called matsuri. Many people dress up in traditional summer clothing, called a yukata. They are similar to kimonos, but they are lighter and cooler. I didn't have one, but they found me one. It is the largest size that they make, and it was still a little bit small on me. They walked me into this office where many people had already dressed up, and they told me to strip down to my boxer briefs. A little bit of a weird thing to hear as soon as you show up. Plus there were many people around, not that I'm not normally shy...but in this case, everyone, literally, had their eyes on the tall gaijin (foreigner). After sort of putting it on, they led me to two old ladies, who were helping fit the yukatas and the belts. Without any warning, hands like lightning were flying and senching with amazing skill. However, the experience left me feeling like I'd just been put in a corsette.

I was then hurried out into the streets where I had some traditional udon noodles, a specialty of the region. I was seating with the honored guests. I felt a bit out of place. But I did get the best seat in the house. We saw some performances from the local schools. These little kids played the most amazing songs. I know I would have never gotten anywhere close at that age. Everyone seemed to have gotten dressed up. After the performances, we started the city's traditional dance. It was something quite interesting. They didn't prepare me at all. But I picked up pretty quick. They dressed me and placed me with the highest and most powerful people in the city. But then again I was told that I would be pretty much the biggest celebrity of the city. The dance lasted for about 2 hours. I was about dead after that. They did take a break half way through to rehydrate...on free beers for the dancers. Of the city's 23,000 people, probably about 500 or 600 were completely decked out and dancing. They also had a Ms. Tadotsu contest. They crowned the winner at the festival. The outgoing one is on the right and the incoming one is on the left. The whole night was awesome. The only problem that I had was worrying about my yukata flying open. This was especially hard during the first dance because we had a move where we picked up our leg to the right. I just wasn't small enough not to worry. I think next year I'll just get one custom ordered.

The next night, Sunday night, we had the big fireworks. They were nothing short of amazing. But I ran around a bit with my camera first because there were so many booths. It kind of felt like a carnival. There were tons of foods: fried squid on a stick, fish biscuits, yakitori, octopus pancakes. They sold water yo-yo's, beetles, and masks. I thought it was amazing the number of people dressed up for the event. I luckily got a reserved seating with the mayor and some other dignitaries. It was nice. The event
only lasted about an hour, but they shot off 4000 fireworks. It is the one of the most distinctive displays in the region. People ome from miles around to see my city's festival. Now if anyone doesn't feel like the quick math, here's some perspective on the magnitude. In one hour there are 60 minutes. Every minute there are 60 seconds. In one hour, there are 3600 seconds. The event lasted only one hour. Needless to say, I was impressed. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture in time of my favorite firework. They had smiley face ones. They were perfect. They also had a palm tree set. If you want to be included on my full picture list, just email me.

The Apartment

2006-08-14T20:21:00.000+09:00

I must be one of the luckiest JET in all of Japan. Not even kidding. I have an amazing set up. I have so much room...in fact, too much room. It's more than I even needed in the States. It's beautiful though.

This picture was when I first got here. It's a bit messy, but I'm still just moving in and Mark, my predecessor, is just moving out.

This picture is a look out of the back of my apartment. I actually have quite the balcony. Right now I've started a garden. But this is where I have to dry my clothes. There are not very many dryers, which leads to alot of speckles on shirts. But it's okay. The mountains are really close. There is a beautiful breeze that comes through this little valley area. But that pretty much looks over the city of Tadotsu, not very big, but really nice.

This is the view from my front door. You can't really see the mountainous islands in this picture, but they are gorgeous. I do have that scrap yard down there, but I can't complain in the least. That sandy bit down there is a soccer field. To the right is a nice park; further down is an indoor swimming pool. All very nice. However, right over the rail there is a cementary...just a little creepy, but I'm okay until I start hearing Thriller. And yes, that's my bike with the basket. I know what you're thinking, and I've already beat myself up. But it's amazingly useful when I go to get groceries or anything else. Plus, everyone, and I mean everyone, has these fun little baskets on their bikes.

New to Blogging

2006-08-09T22:41:00.000+09:00

Hey all,

I'm writing this as an online account of what's happening here in Japan. I'll try to get on at least once a week to keep it updated.

Enjoy, and shoot me any questions you might have.