Hokkaido Hillary

Sayonara Blog World

2008-05-27T20:53:00.006+09:00

I just finished reading the cover story of this week's New York Times Sunday Magazine. If you are too lazy to click on the link provided then I will sum up the article as this: An established New York City blogger suffers an internal meltdown due to overexposure and scrutiny in the public eye and stops blogging.

I am by no means as established or as bloggery as Emily Gould, the article's writer and protagonist. But I, too, have suffered an internal meltdown due to overexposure and scrutiny in the public eye of a smallish town-city in Hokkaido, Japan. I know, I know this is hardly a similarity, but I somehow connected with Emily's story. She talks about a time when she did not want to leave her apartment except to go to the grocery store. The only in-person human interaction that she has is with those grocery store clerks. The cause: a disasterous interview on Larry King Live.

For the last few months, I did not leave my apartment much either. But the grocery store clerks in Iwamizawa might think otherwise. However, since I am not a professional blogger, I was forced to leave to go to work. But beyond that, I was content to stay at home and watch lots and lots of television. And just when I thought I was ready to face the world -- er, the neighborhood -- again, I would have another traumatic public eye experience.

A few weekends ago I was eating ice cream in a local playground with two other JET Program friends of mine. The only people in the playground were us three and then a group of children playing together. When we decided to play on the swings and other playground equipment, the children wanted to join in. As most Japanese elementary school kids are, they were super enthusiastic to talk to us and play with us. A 5-year-old girl jumped up onto my lap as I perched on a swing and begged me to swing the two of us together. Just as I was about to say "No, sorry", one of the kid's fathers paraded through the park collecting every child in sight, and staring coldly in the direction of the three foreigners. Yes, this situation could have occurred regardless of race. We were adults playing in a playground. But Japan is country that leaves its kids unsupervised -- and they are for the most part fine. It also could have been a coincidence that this dad was stopping by the park. Maybe it was dinnertime -- for all eight non-related children? But somehow I was left feeling like the character who is scrutinized by an entire suburban community in Little Children.

I know that that sounds ridiculously extreme. But this is how I am forced to feel after 10 months of never being given a chance to feel normal, accepted, or acclaimated. When I returned to Hokkaido from a trip to Kyoto last week, the man at the airport said, in English, "Enjoy your visit."

It has taken me two months to update this blog. The list of excuses could rattle on and on, but boil down to this:

1. I think the idea of blogs and bloggers is kind of stupid. (Thank you to the New York Times for further solidfying my opinion with your latest story.)

2. As the saying goes: If you don't have anything nice to say, then don't say anything at all.

The title of my blog is Hokkaido Hillary so I wanted to stay away from discussing my various vacations to other parts of Japan. Beyond that, the only other bit of news that I had to share was an incident of a plain clothes policeman showing up at my apartment to question me about the upcoming G8 Summit and to grill me in Japanese about potential terrorists and could I possibly be one of them? For the record (since this blog is probably being monitored by the Ministry of Justice in Japan), I am not a terrorist. I came to live in Japan because I like cartoon characters, sushi, and limited edition sneakers.

I can joke about all of this stuff now, but at the time, all I did was cry, panic, and stay inside of my apartment and watch reruns of Gilmore Girls and the OC. So I sympathize with Emily Gould's blogger's block.

But then, last Wednesday, I liked Hokkaido again. I was scheduled to visit the high school in Moseushi that is now in its final year as a school. They are down to one class of 3rd year students, the majority of them comprising the award-winning volleyball team. The teachers invited me to participate in their field trip to a local farm to learn how to plant rice. Sure! This sounded terrific! I had only recently learned that all of the farm plots that I passed each morning on my various train rides around Sorachi were not flooded crops of asparagus. No, they were actual rice paddies! I came across this bit of information from studying Kanji. The Japanese word for "rice paddy" is comprised of two Kanji characters. The first character is "water" and the second character is "field".

So I set out on a school bus with the entire 29 members of the Moseushi student body to plant rice. "Let's plant delicious rice!" as one of the teachers exclaimed in English. This same teacher also likes to shout out random English words to impress me. He once yelled "UNICORN!" in the middle of the teacher's room.

The weather was drizzly as we wrapped ourselves in trash bags and duct tape. After a long opening ceremony of various speeches, bowing in trash bags, a photo presentation on the history of rice (laminated in case of inclimate weather), and some more bowing in trash bags, we went down into the mud to plant some rice seedlings. Knee deep in mud and clenching my stomach muscles to maintain my balance, I partnered up with one of the students to plant the seedlings that were sailing down the field in tiny "rice boats".

Our planting time was cut short because of the rain, and whew was I exhausted after 30 minutes of wading through the mud! But I left feeling happy. If I hadn't decided to live this year abroad, I never would have accumulated so many Hello Kitty cell phone charms, I certainly wouldn't have consumed an aquarium's worth of sushi, and I wouldn't be bringing home the coolest pair of New Balance sneakers ever manufactured. I also never ever ever in my life ever would have stepped in mud, let alone glide through it in trash bags pants, to plant rice. That is pretty darn cool.

This postive note thus concludes my time spent writing Hokkaido Hillary . I really am saying sayonara to blogging. Even before reading the New York Times article, the internet was already freaking me out. I stopped wanting to know what celebrities were doing minute by minute. Leave them alone, I shouted!

I discovered the feature of Flickr that tracks what photos of mine are viewed each day and noticed odd patterns of viewing that had me wondering who exactly was looking at these photos and why. I gave up scouring for clues when I realized there was no true way to find out, and I am no Veronica Mars.

The icing on the cake was a MySpace friend request from a user named "Kill Devil Hill". I immediately thought that someone was out to get me. All the more reason to quit the internet and never leave my apartment. Little did I know it was just my friend Mark who had set up a page for his new antique store in Brooklyn called Kill Devil Hill.

In just two months I am moving back to Philadelphia. I am excited to return home, but I really think my stint writing on the interweb is very much finito. Don't anticipate reading Hilly in Philly any time soon.

A Friendship Lunch

2008-03-28T20:16:00.003+09:00

Today was one of the last days before the big school year CHANGEOVER. Due to a reason I do not quite comprehend, teachers and school adminstrators are forced to change jobs and relocate every couple of years. I've already had to say good-bye to some English teachers that I spent the last 7 months working with. Now I have to anxiously await new ones, unprepared for how things will go in their classes. Just when I was getting used to my job and living in a foreign country. On the days that I have to sit at my desk, doodling and pondering life's true meaning, I will now have to deal with a new supervisor.

I think that a large part of the oh-so-popular quarter-life crisis is the anxiety of starting a new job, or dealing with any other bit of drastic change. I can't imagine being a teacher in Japan, finally settling into a routine, building close relationships with staff and students, and then be told you have less than a month to move. I could never deal with being constantly uprooted and having to start a life and a job all over again. Groundhog Day.

From what I could gather, most people seem to respond to the news with pure nonchalance. Some seem ecstatic for the change. My supervisor is moving 4 hours away from his wife and children and referred to going back to "single life". He said this with a smile on his face.

This week has been devoted to honoring those who are changing jobs. Last night was the ultra-fancy soubetsu-kai (farewell) banquet which was held at the super swanky Iwamizawa Hotel Sun Plaza. This was my first time inside the hotel, and boy oh boy was it ready for some WEDDINGS. Every picture on the wall and every decor in the hall, all had to do with the ultimate "My Super Sweet 16" of weddings! The chairs at our dinner tables were even upholstered in white lace.

The dinner was much less "YMCA" with the bridal party, and more the really annoying, long-winded speeches that the drunk uncle makes before the newlyweds cut the cake. From these speeches I learned that 1) Some people really do not know how to use a microphone, 2) The general consensus is that is very cold and snows a lot in Iwamizawa, and 3) I do not understand very much Japanese.

An hour of the party was spent sitting at the dinner tables, waiting for a fellow Sorachi Board of Education employee to come around with a giant bottle of Sapporo beer to refill your glass and bow repeatedly. Now, even if you have not taken a sip, you still have to have your glass refilled. It is considered rude to decline. One must awkwardly sip some beer, to get another awkward drip put back into the glass. I even attempted to refill some glasses, nearly over-flowing one glass and failing to pour a drop into another. The cap was still on the bottle.

All in all the evening was pleasant. For the farewell finale, all of the employees staying formed a human bridge leading up to the exit. All of the staff who were leaving had to walk under the bridge like it was their ultimate Soul Train moment. imagine this after hundreds of beer sips (and their refills).

This afternoon, at lunchtime, everyone recovered from the previous night's extravaganza (there were definitely some after parties in the mix) at the "Friendship Lunch". Last week my fellow foreign co-worker and I were approached about the "Friendship Lunch" and "please, let's all have lunch together for communication and friendship." The office was providing bento boxes for everyone and I imagined us all gathering around and singing "Lean on Me" or "That's What Friends Are For".

Instead, at 12:13pm the bento boxes were distributed. From 12:15pm to 12:30pm, forty people ate in absolute silence at their desks. These 15 minutes were followed by another 15 minutes where a speech was made about the amount of money that was spent on all of the year's various enkais (these extravagant parties and lunches). Pages of numbers were read aloud for all to hear.

I was hoping that by writing about this experience on paper (or on the internet), I would be able to come to a coherent conclusion as to the exact meaning of a "Friendship Lunch". But alas, I cannot.

Lastly, I dedicate this blog entry to one of my officemates who is leaving the Sorachi District Board of Education for good: Mr. Robert DeNiro.

I do not know this man's real name, but on my first day of work he came up to me and said, in English, "Hello. I am Robert DeNiro."

And he is only sort of lying.

He really looks like Robert DeNiro. Well, a Japanese Robert DeNiro... mixed with a little bit of Danny Devito. Hmm... maybe another mis-translation. Regardless, he will be missed.

West Meets East

2008-03-23T16:00:00.001+09:00

It seems that spring has arrived early in Hokkaido. We may have to wait longer than the rest of Japan for cherry blossom season to arrive, but the snow is melting quickly and the weather is in the 50s. It’s quite a relief to know that the worst weather is over and done with.

In celebration of the shifting seasons, Japan has a Spring Equinox Day as an actual National Holiday. I spent Spring Equinox Day at the movies for a double feature: Enchanted and the Golden Compass. And, the holiday was even more rewarding since it took place on a Thursday and every Thursday is Ladies’ Day at the movies -- discounted tickets and concessions for women only!

Soon Hokkaido will be the big man on the campus that is Japan. In July, the G8 Summit will take place in the Southeast, resort area of the island called Lake Toyo. In preparation for this momentous event there are now G8 Summit themed kewpie doll souvenirs and the train stations all don cute and clever “welcome” signs featuring each country’s animal representative!

In other parts of Japan there is a different buzz about Hokkaido. In place of G8 Summit welcome signs and posters, there is this advertisement:

On a recent trip to Tokyo and Kyoto with my parents, we noticed this poster in the train station and it made me embarrassed to bring them back to the place I have had to call home for the last 8 months!

The summit is still a few months away so it is my duty to further shed Hokkaido of it’s lackadaisical image. And thus the promotion of the area’s newest (and quite fabulous) additions begins:

While halfway around the world from where I lived my entire life, I spent most of my Saturday as if I was already back “West” on the East Coast. I began the morning at Sapporo’s squeaky clean, sparkly new COSTCO. The shopping carts were the size of tractor’s and the Hokkaido-ian customers were gathered in clusters, trying to figure out how they could squeeze the gigantic frozen pizzas that they stacked in their gigantic carts in their not-so-conventional Japanese ovens. Think clown cars. With every turn down the aisle, I had outbursts of “WOWs” and “Ooohs” and “Eeeeeks”. I stuffed the cart with 12 boxes of Macaroni and Cheese, 5 pounds of gummi bears, and enough salsa and soy milk to last me until August. In what most people feel is an American nightmare, I was experiencing the dream of corporate gluttony! But I have an excuse: I miss “normal” food! I need my slice of Americana!

If my COSTCO supply ever runs lows, I can seek normal food elsewhere thanks to the appearance of a handful of Subway Sandwich chains in the Sapporo area. Shoved into the corner of a Softbank cell phone store plastered with posters of Hilary Duff and Cameron Diaz chit-chatting on futuristic phones, is a teeny tiny Subway shop. The line was so long that you were forced to test out new cell phones while waiting. Some people might have been forced to sign up for phone plans. To avoid signing any contracts, you also have the option of studying the Subway menu to pass the time. The menu was more like a play by play of what you were supposed to do upon reaching the counter. The 45 minute wait for a sandwich was in part due to the confusion of the Japanese guests forced to choose (in the correct order, at that) from five types of bread, handfuls of toppings, toasting or sans-toasting, sandwich dressings, and final accouterments that did not fall into one of the previous sandwich-stacking categories -- like jalapenos and mayonnaise. The rest of the hold-up was the fault of Japan’s consistently excellent customer service. The sandwich maker’s deserved to be poster children for a “Slow Stay Subway Sandwiches” campaign, as they carefully arranged two slices of pickle per half of the sandwich, and then garnished the pickles with 3 slices of an olive half. The dressing was drizzled, the wrapper was labeled, and the baked French fries took 6 minutes to actually be baked. It was truly frightening experience that resulted in a delicious meal!

Just beyond the Subway was a carpeted mall where the afternoon was finished off inside with a latte at Starbucks. It wasn’t until a man appeared in the middle of the mall, clad in silver sequins for a demonstration of Honda’s Asimo robot, that I was snapped back into Japanese reality.

Here is a photo of the robot:

It’s pretty spectacular in person and seeing it made me smile. Hokkaido is not so much a "slow stay" kind of place. Instead it is like a totally way cooler, super futuristic version of South Jersey. What could be better than that?!?

How I Lost My Indoor Shoes in the Middle of a Snowy Rice Field

2008-01-29T17:49:00.001+09:00

I cannot believe it is the end of January and I am still visiting new schools for the first time. Friday marked my first visit to Nanporo Yogo -- a school for children with disabilities and special needs. My visit to this school was wonderful. I sang Japanese children's songs with the kids in music class and made "Kami-Sumo" (paper sumo wrestlers) and competed against the whole first grade Jr High class in a "Kami-Sumo" tournament! But my time at Nanporo Yogo is a whole other tale to tell. Today's story boasts the harsh truth that living in Japan for 6 months does not make you invincible. Sometimes you get lost and you lose things.

Nanporo is a spacious, country town -- far less populated than it is wide -- located somewhere between Sapporo and Iwamizawa. I frequently visit the high school in town. The students there are slightly badass. They are super into rapping in English and sometimes refer to themselves as "crazy hoes". Again, a whole other tale to tell...

My trips to this school are fairly routine. I take the same train each time and switch to the same bus. When I received my schedule for the new school, Nanporo Yogo, I realized I would have to be there an hour earlier. This meant a different train and a different bus to Nanporo Town.

Having convinced myself that 6 months in I had memorized every train and bus schedule for the 12 cities and towns that I visit, I set out Friday morning for my last school of the week. And 'twas on this journey that I encountered a series of obstacles.

Obstacle #1: In these harsh winter months, my route to the Iwamizawa train station is completely paved in sheets of ice.

Obstacle #2: The trains in Japan never fail to zap me into a sudden state of narcolepsy. The train seats are cushioned AND heated. I fall asleep as soon as the warmth dethaws my body.

Obstacle #3: Public transportation in Japan is stellar. Rarely are trains or buses a nano-second behind schedule. Even in snowy Hokkaido! I managed to wake up in time for my station stop, Ebetsu. I simply needed to cross the street in 4 minutes to transfer to the bus destined for Nanporo. No problem! Except that I really only had 2 minutes. I had memorized the bus schedule incorrectly and had already missed my connection. It is at this time that I slightly panicked. The buses to inaka towns are hardly frequent. I spin in circles trying to decide where to go. But I stopped the spinning as a saw a blurred bus in the distance. A rainbow colored bus! My bus! A bus in Japan was actually late! It's a miracle!

Obstacle #4: This bus was far from a miracle. It was the wrong bus and about ten minutes later I was halfway across the world on the other side of a rice field. I was also the only person left on the bus, besides the driver. I run up to him and spew some Japanese words out of my mouth. Somewhere in these desperate mumbles I formed the correct questions and concerns. No problem, he says. The bus driver came to the rescue as he radios for another bus -- the correct bus. It seems that the bus I needed was also running late. PERFECT.

Obstacle #5: In order to get to the new bus I had to sprint through a snow-filled rice paddy, in frozen tundra, Hokkaidoian weather, and make it to the highway where the already off-schedule bus was impatiently waiting for me in a patient manner. So I did. I completed this obstacle course by running through the snow, through the field. In about 7 minutes time, I, the huffing and puffing blonde, foreign girl said some "Gomenasai's" to the driver and passengers and sunk down into the heated, cushioned seat. This time I didn't fall asleep. I was still wheezing from the morning jog.

20 minutes and a big sigh of relief later, I settled into the genkan of the school and reached into my bag for my indoor shoes. Everyone has to wear different shoes inside and outside and mine were a comfortable alternative to the plastiquey slippers that they provide for guests. For a brief and inherently awkward moment, I flapped my hand around in my bag in search and only grabbing hold of air. The shoes were not in my bag. They were in my bag when I left my house, and on the train to Ebetsu. But now they were gone.

Obstacle #6: Somewhere in the middle of a snowy, Hokkaido rice field, there lie my indoor school shoes. Frozen over and forever hibernating.

Merry Kurisumasu (クリスマス）

2007-12-26T12:30:00.000+09:00

Today it is Christmas in America but it is already the day after Christmas in Japan. And, furthermore, it is really the day after the day after this country's customary Christmas festivities.

While I spent the days leading up to Xmas at the Apple Store in Sapporo, anxiously waiting for the results of my external harddrive's MP3 rescue surgery, most folks were preparing for their Japanese-style Christmas dinner. The main event seems to take place December 24th, as it is (coincidentally) a National holiday in celebration of the Emperor's Birthday. On the morning of the 24th, in Sapporo, I noticed that just before 10am there was a huge line spiraling around the basement entrance to Diamaru Department Store. Last minute shoppers -- I presumed. Yet there was also a similar line outside of a nearby Kentucky Fried Chicken, and ditto with Mos Burger.

As my friend Emma later informed me, all of these people were in line to buy FRIED CHICKEN. And several food establishments that do not normally sell fried chicken, were putting it on display for eager buyers that day! It is only now that I discover, a mere 8 hours before dinner time, that the typical Christmas-dinner fare is not unlike the meal you would find at a Britney Spears family Christmas in a Louisianan double-wide trailer: Fried Chicken and Christmas Cake!!

Here is a photo of a Japanese KFC during Christmas:

And here is a photo of a Japanese Christmas Cake:

For my Christmas I opted to be non-traditional in both my home country and my new country's sense (or non-sense). I was supposed to spend my Christmas day at my desk at the Board of Education but ended up recovering from my end-of-semester cold at home instead! With my low-key day at home, I thought about how it was somewhat refreshing to spend the month of December much less saturated in commercial holiday cheer.

But contradictory to the above statement, I am about to embark on a totally non-traditional New Years Eve trip. New Years Eve and Day are a HUGE deal here in Japan. There is an arduous house cleaning project that must occur prior to January 1st, followed by a day and night at a local illuminated shrine. However, I am heading down South to my own personal shrine: Tokyo Disneyland!

Happy New Year everyone!

Culture Shock

2007-12-01T09:45:00.003+09:00

I woke up this morning and the little cartoon ghost that bounces around my cell phone screen was wearing a Santa Claus hat and sleeping under a Christmas tree. I cannot believe that it is already December 1st and I have been in Japan for 3 months and 3 days! Although time is going remarkably fast, the amount of time that remains of my stay in Japan seems forever and a year away. I have yet to decide if I will re-contract for a 2nd year, but even the end of my first year seems 10 years in the future.

According to the JET Programme General Handbook's chapter on Culture Shock, my sense of time flying and standing still at the same time, as well as frustration, impatience, homesickness, general annoyance with every day life, and fatigue -- which have been hitting me in crashing waves for the past 2 plus months -- are all symptons of Culture Shock. And according to the chapter's Month-by-Month Emotional Distress Graph, I am presently at the peak of it all. I guess, in a way, this is a good sign because it can only get better from here. But this past month, my general feeling of cultural overwhelmingness is the cause for my lack of commitment to blogging.

But amidst the bad, there is a whole lot of good. I had a fabulous time in Tokyo during Thanksgiving weekend. I ate grasshopper at my friend Yosuke's family restaurant, I saw diva dogs in kimonos, and I experienced the Tsukiji fish market at 4:30am as all of the fish was coming off the trucks from (presumably) Hokkaido. The site-seeing theme of the trip was "Deep Tokyo". Yosuke and Arisa wanted my friend Brett and I to experience a non-touristy side of Tokyo which included a long morning/afternoon/evening spend in Odaiba -- the neighborhood near Tokyo Bay. This is a newly developed area of Tokyo with a very flashy shopping complex. One of the malls, Venus Fort, features an indoor and outdoor dog park with dog boutiques and dog glamour shots. You can even rent a dog by the hour to parade around in clothes! Dog attire is mandatory for a day out at Venus Fort.

Here is a short video I took of one of the dogs in Venus Fort.

The mall is also very "Gyaru" which is a sub-culture in Japan where (from an outsider perspective) all of the girls want to be like Paris Hilton. Here is a chart about the various off-shoots of Gyaru style.

My favorite part of Venus Fort was the kid bungee jump! Words cannot describe so here is a short video of the kid bungee jumping course with some bungee in progess!

I also went to a Japanese hair salon for the first time which was a fantastic treat! Along with a 3-hour haircut and dye job, you get a 20 minute head, neck, and back massage! Thanks to a friend of a friend's blog, I went to a super-hip-yet-completely-unpretentious hair place in my Tokyo mecca, Harajuku. I didn't spend much time in the neighborhood beyond my haircut because I knew I'd be back during my forthcoming Tokyo trips.

Back in Hokkaido it is snow snowing snowy! I am already saying things like "I had to walk 30 minutes in the snow to get to school." Which is so true. And now I sympathize with all of the nostalgic grandparents of the world who have made that same comment. The roads are like ice skating rinks but the snow does not stop anyone from getting where they need to go and doing their job. The trains and buses run perfectly on schedule, people are still riding bicycles, and the yogurt delivery folks are still speeding down the street on their mopeds, adorning some sort of face shield. I am not fully adjusted to this winter wonderland. It sure is pretty, but it makes me want to stay inside and just look at it from my window. It's too bad that the windows in my apartment were recently replaced and now fully frosted -- both from the cold and by their manufacturer.

I am still visiting some schools for the first time. This past week I went to a school where the moment I stepped into a class the students started yelling "Bekki Chan! Bekki Chan!" Their teacher told me that Bekki Chan is a Japanese TV star who is half-Japanese and half-British. (The common expression here -- which I don't approve of whatsoever -- is that she is Halvsie.) After some extensive Google research I discovered that I bare no resemblance to Bekki. Here is her official website and her Wikipedia Japan profile, translated by Google. Bekki also has a monthly column in one of my favorite teen fashion magazines called Cutie.

Since I already have the fan base of about 12 Hokkaido high schools worh of teenagers, I figure my next pursuit will be to star in my own Japanese TV show!

Hillary-CHAN!!!!

(This was a photo from an arcade with photo booths from my visit to Tokyo with Brett, Yosuke, and Arisa)

With all of my ups and downs living half-way around the world from home, I am still very happy to be having this experience. However bizarre it may be!

雪

2007-11-15T21:00:00.000+09:00

Note: Today was the first big snow (雪） in Iwamizawa. I imagine there is lots more to come!

From my window:

Community Service

2007-11-11T12:51:00.000+09:00

On Monday I went into work as usual. Because every Monday I spend the day sitting at my computerless desk at the Sorachi Board of Education, reading books, writing letters, and attemping to study Japanese.

But this Monday was special.

For 30 minutes of my precious 7 hour and 45 minute day, I would be standing at the intersection of Route 12 and Eki Mae Dori, in front of the Mos Burger, promoting safe driving and speed control. I am not sure specifically as to what triggered this office-wide stint of community service, but rumor has it there have been quite a few accidents at this intersection as of late.

Now when I first learned that I was going to be doing this, I envisioned a vest with a built-in light show, a magic waving wand, and perhaps a special cap! This is the typical costume of Japanese traffic safety personnel. As the entire population of my 3rd floor office marched out to the streets, to my slight dissapointment, we were handed large neon green flags. I looked around just to double check that our uniforms weren't being rolled out on a dress rack. There were none in sight.

I glanced down at my kanji-filled flag, not knowing exactly what words I'd be waving, but decided it was better than nothing! We lined up about 40 across on each side of the road and began waving our flags at incoming traffic. Some people waved with an angry look on their face the entire time. Others scaled poles to get their flag at a more truck-friendly angle. I half-heartedly waved mine and took five minute breaks every two minutes to document this event by taking photos.

I chuckled to myself as I saw reactions from within the various vehicles. My favorite were the Japanese truck drivers who looked just as sleazy and trucker-hatty as their American counterparts. There was also a long train of military vehicles and I didn't even know that Japan had a military! Let alone one that rolled through Iwamizawa! When a Thomas the Tank Engine school bus stopped at a red light, I waved to all of little elementary school kids inside as they waved back in total confusion.

When the 30 minutes came to an end, we rolled up our flags and retreated to the flourescent, linoleum boringness that is our office. My fellow ALT, James, and I contemplated hiding in some shrubs and then heading into the Mos Burger for the rest of the afternoon, but our plan was foiled as our co-workers were prone to following our every move.

All of a sudden a giant roaring sound rang louder and louder. In the near distance was a motorcyle tearing down Eki Mae Dori. It was going by us so fast that the driver and his bike were almost completely tilted at a 90 degree angle when it passed! And it did not stop until it was well beyond the busy intersection we all just left behind.

I heard lots of Japanese mumbling and a good amount of laughter at the sight of this speed demon. I think it was universally agreed that our community service message did not reach the city's inhabitants in 30 minutes time.

Oh well. I still had fun.

Aki

2007-10-28T10:14:00.001+09:00

The autumn leaves are absolutely glorious right now. I have never seen such a variety of rich colors mingling together in these vast spreads of wonderfulness! Iwamizawa is a city in the valley so we are surrounded by these fantastic hills that in a few weeks will be snow covered. But I am soaking in all of the fall scenery while I can take advantage of it. And, because I travel so far to so many different schools I have been experiencing the foliage everywhere I go. And it just gets better and better! En route to judging the Sorachi district High School English Speech Contest in Fukagawa, the hills were endless - and some of the trees were neon versions of typical autumn colors, if that makes any sense. Magentas, and limes, and fire orange. I love it! By far the best collection of colors and trees was in Yubari which is basically a town up through the mountains and wedged on top of one. I had some time before my bus ride home and I just explored and took lots of photos. I wish fall would last a little bit longer. I am not ready to be snowed in!

I am pretty sure my Japanese is improving. At least the reading and the understanding of what people are saying to me. Last weekend I was in Tomakomai for the Hokkaido JET association's fall meeting/party and I went out to dinner with my friend Michael. We just wandered around trying to find an interesting place to eat and saw a nice looking restaurant with a picture menu out front. Now, a lot of restaurants have picture menus to help you identify what you want to eat. It's a nice way to find what you like without having to struggle to read the Japanese. Although as a vegetarian, the photos often conceal the secret meat that tends to be in every food!

We went inside and they put us in this room in the back away from the crowds. And in this room was a menu that was not only pictureless, but also primarily written in Kanji -- the Chinese pictogram characters in the Japanese language. Usually restaurant menus are written in Katakana - which is a syllabic character set most commonly used for writing "foreign borrowed" words. For example, my TV Guide is mostly written in Katakana and I just discovered that Curb Your Enthusiam airs late at night under the monicker "Ra-rii no Mii-do Rai-fu Kurai-shisu." This is the romanji way of spelling out the Katakana syllables and it translates to "Larry's Mid-life Crisis".

Back to the restaurant in Tomakomai... I had a boost of confidence because I could understand a few of the items on the menu and also asked the waitress questions in Japanese about the reading of the Kanji. I even found out that there was a Tofu Steak! The menu item that sounded most appealing was "Kani Miso". Kani is the Japanese word for crab. Michael and I assumed that this was of course Miso Soup with crab in it. We ordered two.

At first they brought us an appetizer sampler that we did not order and assumed was complimentary. Most of the items looked veggie friendly, and the middle item looked to be noodles with some sort of seafood on top. That was the first mistake of the night. Those noodles turned out to be squid intestines! And the seafood on top was other raw squid parts! Oops! Our crab miso soup arrived and it looked surprisingly nothing like soup. There was no broth and just a dollop of crab sitting in the middle of an upside down crab shell. Maybe it was crab mixed with miso paste, we assumed. It tasted a bit funny but I kept on eating it. I even made a joke about the contents of our meal.

"I bet we're eating crab brains, like on that episode of Beverly Hills 90210 when Brenda and Donna go to Paris and accidentally order cow brains! Wouldn't that be funny!"

The notion was funny. Sort of. And when we later found out from our Japanese expert friend Matt that yes, we indeed ate crab brains, I laughed a bit. They really were not terrible. But as the image of brains continued to soak into my own head, I continued to dwell on the fact that there was a lump of crab brains sitting in my stomach, I started to panic. I ran to the convenience store and tried to find as many different types of snacks that would make the crab brains feeling go away!

To further improve my Japanese language skills, and to help prevent further cultural misunderstandings, I have been trying to watch more and more Japanese television programs as well as view Yoga instructional DVDs in Japanese. I am crossing my fingers this will help to some degree.

It's Halloween season in Japan right now. Nothing as full blown as the American commercial holiday takes place, but most cities and towns sponsor Halloween events and trick-or-treating for the kids. I spent the last couple of weeks visiting schools to talk about Halloween and we even carved and painted pumpkins in some! In any public school in America, if you had a group of kids handling a bunch of box-cutters, at least half would be stabbed by their classmates and rushed to the hospital. Here in Japan, the kids actually carve the pumpkins with the box-cutters and carefully put them back into their plastic covers as soon as they finished using them. It really is shocking how well behaved and safe the schools are here!

"Let's Enjoy TV"

2007-10-09T18:44:00.001+09:00

My BBtv cable finally arrived yesterday and I am now officially glued to my beautiful, beige, leather couch that was given to me by one of my Japanese co-workers. With this glorious cable box I feel much more connected to the current goings on of the Western world, thanks to CNN and the UK and US Top 10 Music Videos on MTV Japan. My absolute favorite thing about Japanese cable is its commitment to airing ALL of my favorite teen dramas of past and present, like Beverly Hills 90210, the OC, Gilmore Girls and the Hills!

Last week I also learned how to *cough* download *cough* TV shows on the internet. I know have a daily download of Regis and Kelly and a twice weekly dose of Dancing with the Stars (I am rooting for Jennie Garth!) And have you seen Gossip Girl?!? Alas I digress...

In the midst of being a couch/cyber potato I did manage to go on a couple of official Iwamizawian outings this past weekend. The first was an English camp for High School and Junior High School kids who, allegedly, are crazy about the English language. Activities included, but were not limited to, four vegetarians, one vegan, (and two meat-eaters) leading this group of kids in a Hamburger cooking lesson! Despite the flesh-eating obstacle the vegetarian/vegans managed to escape the meat-touching portion of the activity. However, this became quite a challenge when some of the older Japanese ladies involved were trying to chuck pieces of spam and squirts of mayonaise, into our delicious vegetable-only salad.

The best part of the day was playing "Wink Murder" with a group of teenagers who lacked enthusiasm when it came to faking their own deaths in a grassy field. I tried to make up for their small efforts by making my murderous deaths four times as dramatic.

On Sunday, The Iwamizawa International Exchange group hosted a mushroom excursion and cookout in the middle of Tonebetsu forest. The forest is about a 40 minute walk from my apartment through a part of Iwamizawa I had yet to walk through. The forest is a virgin one and to me looked more like a forest theme park. And in this forest theme park were two mushroom experts as well as a few mushroom enthusiasts scouring the woods for a variety of wild mushrooms. They found some pretty insane varieties that probably were not okay to eat. I know that the mushroom masters gave everything an official OK, but the only other time I saw a flaming red mushroom was during Charlie and the Chocolate Factory when they dig into the fantastic candy forest in Willy Wonka's factory.

After picking which mushrooms to transform into tempura there was lots of awkward mingling. I stuffed my face with the tamest variety of deep-friend mushroom and then ate one too many onigiri in fear of insulting the women who made them. At the end of the event many a speech was given. In addition to the Japanese club members and a handful of JETs, there was a group of educators from Nepal, a professor from North Carolina, and a high school student from California who currently goes to school in Sapporo. And with International variety comes introduction speeches. It was hard to keep a straight face during a lot of the speeches, and I may have laughed slightly too loud in front of people I shouldn't have. I blame all inappropriate behavior on any poorly picked, then consumed, wild mushrooms.

Christmas Cake and Christmas Burgers

2007-09-27T17:48:00.001+09:00

A few weeks ago, my neighbor and co-worker James hosted a "Taco Tuesday" at his house for our Japanese co-workers. We have four middle-aged Japanese men supervising us at the Board of Education and all of them were baffled at the idea of a taco. I drew a picture for them ahead of time and they chuckled at my sketch saying it looked like a Gyoza dumpling. The meal was a great success thanks to James' excellent Taco making skills. Plus our bosses loosened up a bit after pounding back a few beers. But during this co-worker bonding session, I was informed by these men, that since I am 25 and not married, in Japan I am considered "Christmas Cake". And yes, they said this phrase in English. I guess I am too old to get married and will now "sit on the shelf" for years to come collecting dust in a bundle of saran wrap.

This notion returned a week later when I headed to my dry cleaners to get a pair of pants mended. I had prepped myself with vocabulary words related to "holes in pants" and "Are you also a tailor?", etc. I successfully communicated my clothing woes to the lady behind and counter and it turns out a dry cleaner in Japan does not double as a tailor. However, the woman who runs the place saved the day by pulling a sewing kit out of her purse. She proceeded to hand-sew the giant rip in my brand new pair of pants without charging me a yen! As I waited she asked me tons of questions in Japanese, including "How old are you?". I told her I was 25 and she said "Are you in Japan alone?" When I told her yes she tried to conceal a slight gasp. But she couldn't hide her reaction very well. I recognized that look:

Christmas Cake.

So having officially been sworn in as the office/town Christmas Cake, I escaped down South to Hakodate for the latest 3-day weekend in recognition of Autumnal Equinox Day. Now Hakodate is the most Christmas friendly town in all of Japan! However, I think better than describing my adventures in Hakodate, it is best to just visit my Flickr page for a visual tour. Also, my friend Michael took a ton of excellent photos.

Hakodate has a huge Christmas celebration with 2 weeks worth of fireworks leading up to the 25th of December. And to extend the Christmas spirit to a year-round celebration there is a Hamburger chain called Lucky Pierrot that has one location decorated completely in Christmas ornaments and giant Santa Clauses.

Here is a photo:

My friends and I didn't have a chance to visit that specific location, but we did hit up another one close to Fort Goryokaku and the watchtower.

This is only one of the many Western attributes that this city has to offer. Here is some information about Hakodate's history from Wikipedia. Enjoy!

Natto, Mochi, and Hansei

2007-09-17T14:09:00.000+09:00

Today I am off from work because it is a national holiday called "Respect for the Aged Day". Here is some information about it: Wikipedia.

I am very glad to have this day off because last week I had four travelling school visits in a row! On Wednesday I headed back to Yubari but to a different Junior High School -- this one with only 9 students in the entire school! And two of them managed to be absent on the day of my visit. Wednesday was also the day that a Japanese television channel started to film my reality show. Or so it seemed that a show was in development when a camera crew of five showed up at the school of seven! They said something to me in Japanese about "taking my photo" and then in English said, "how about next time?" So I just nodded assuming that I was going to have a photo taken the next time I came to this school. But as I turned the corner to walk down the hallway to my first class of the day, a giant light glowed about 2 inches from my face and the lens of a video camera followed just behind. They panned their way into the classroom and began filming my lesson. When I turned to write my name on the board and then turned back around, the camera was zoomed in for a close up! At lunch time I ate at a large dining table in the library with the entire school (ha!) and a few teachers, and again, the camera crew was documenting it all. And to top it off, later in the day I was emailing from my cell phone in the teacher's room, I peered up and they were filming me from outside, through the window! The teacher who was hosting my visit said that they were there filming because the school was closing for good in April. So maybe it was a news story about the tragic loss of the school? But why just focus on me? Who knows, but for now I am pretending I am famous.

On Friday I decided I'm definitely famous here in Hokkaido. When I arrived at Moseushi High School -- student body of fifty -- all of the students screamed like I was Justin Timberlake walking through their halls. I let it get my head all morning until I went to class and realized that I should be asking each and every one of those students for their autograph. Before class began, their teacher warned me that I might be a little shocked by the hairstyle of the students. Now I am thinking, oh they must all have those stupid hair clips shoved in their bangs. Or the side ponytails, like all the kids on Full House. Those hairstyles shocked me last week so I was ready for anything. But then the 13 girls who made up this elective English class, walked into the room in their sailor-like school uniforms and they all had short, school-boy style haircuts. If they weren't wearing skirts, it really might have been difficult figuring out if they were girls or boys (and had already made that mistake at a "tough" school the day before in Nanporo!) I was assuming one of then had head lice or something so they all had to shave their heads. Their teacher explained to me that their haircuts were so short because of "hansei". I looked up the word on my keitai and it translated to "introspection, self-reflection." But having now just googled and wikipediaed it, I cannot find a decent explanation to share. But based on what this teacher said, they did it to become closer as a group, and also to evaluate themselves from the inside out. As I rode home, during my 90 minute train ride, I seriously contemplated cutting my hair short too!

In addition to their mastering of "hensei", this group of girls were incredible kids. They started the class singing in chorus "Oh Bla Di Oh Bla Da" by the Beatles, which admittedly got me a bit choked up. After the serenade they were so excited to ask me questions and they were so well behaved. Especially compared to the girls the day before in Nanporo who wore Playboy logo knee socks and said things about themselves in English like, "I am a ho". However, those bad kids were pretty great too. They were assigned to draw me a picture of themselves, and included a description in English. I got fifty one hysterical, shockingly detailed, goofy, and well-executed versions of these students. And I saved them all!

In other news: This weekend was Iwamizawa's famous Mochi Festival. A group of dedicated young people spend hours and hours smashing rice into dough using the world's largest pestle, that is tugged in the air by rows of fellow townspeople in the streets. I first went to the fesitval on Saturday and it was pouring rain! But that didn't stop the mochi! Last night, the weather was clear and they continued to make the mochi. There was also a J-Pop Boy Band hired for the event to perform where the finished product was being served. I didn't catch the band's name, but they sang and danced along to a tape, and they were far more entertaining than Britney Spear's MTV Video Music Award performance!

I also spent most of yesterday journeying to a place called Tomakomai where I went to fetch my new kitten, Natto! Tomakomai, was a halfway point between the kitten's old home and mine, so a group of JETs met me and my group of JETs in the Starbucks in what looked like a New Jersey style mall. The Starbucks was exceptionally nice and they bring your drinks to the table! And with my celebrity ego cap on tight, I felt like we made the baristas' day by patronizing their specific Starbucks. All was grand until the arrival of the kitten caused a scene of loud meows and panic and we were asked to leave by the now-not-too-thrilled baristas.

With all drama aside, the kitten and I are already getting along splendidly and she looks like a mini version of my cat back home, Neko. "Neko" is the Japanese word for "cat" and "natto" is fermented soybeans. It's a big shock to the Japanese when a non-Japanese person can eat natto. I think it's delicious and I have been eating natto maki at least once a week. And now I think naming my cat Natto will be of greater shock than my ability to eat her namesake!

School Days

2007-09-09T13:15:00.001+09:00

After staying up almost all night finishing up posters and quizzes for my classroom self-introduction and then taking a fairly short nap, I managed to get up at 6am and chugged a pot of coffee. At 8am I walked down the road with my teacherly tote bag that I packed full, with attempts of fun and interesting visual show-and-tell materials. Poking out at the top of the bag were my “indoor shoes” – a required accessory at all educational institutions. Once entering the school, kids and teachers both must change into fresh, unsoiled footgear.

I stood outside of my Board of Education office waiting for Mr. Otomo who was picking me up to take me to Yubari. [Note: Yubari is a section of Central Hokkaido that recently went bankrupt and can’t afford to have their own JET participant, so they lease out others from surrounding areas.] I waited for what felt like a long while, until the tiny man who was sitting the only parked car in the lot, got out and slowing approached, squinting to see if the only other person outside, who had blonde hair and was not Japanese, was indeed the blonde-haired non-Japanese person who was named Hillary. After identity confirmation with a minute of awkward bowing and business card exchanging, we were on our way.

The car ride was fairly silent except for a Japanese talk radio station that seemed to be playing more commercials than actual programming. Or perhaps the style of the content was designed to sound jingle-esque? We drove for about an hour through total farm country. We went up winding roads, past deep green mountains, rice patties, and melon farms. Yubari is famous for Yubari melons, which I will probably never get to sample because melons sell for about $25 -$40 in supermarkets here.

We literally drove up an entire mountaintop and there was a brief moment of confusion when Mr. Otomo asked me (in Japanese) if my ears were okay from the change in altitude. I thought he was asking me if I was listening to the talk radio program and answered back by saying, yes, I enjoyed the radio and could understand the program a little bit. He just nodded politely.

We arrived at Ryokuyo Junior High School and the English teacher Minori came to meet me at the teacher’s entrance. We had tea with the principal and Mr. Otomo and I could tell they were clacking their teeth a bit at my Board of Education for asking me to come these far from Iwamizawa and suggesting I take 3 buses to get there. You see, Mr. Otomo went out of his way to pick me up and drop me off because his office knew that a 2 hour journey up a mountain by means of 3 buses (one of which I would have had 2 minutes to run 200 meters to transfer to) would not leave me in much of a condition to teach – or whatever it is I am supposed to be doing.

I really stress the “whatever it is I do” because after two school visits, I still don’t have a clue. When I got my school tour, it was an hour or more into the school day and it didn’t even feel like there were any students in the school. The hallways were dark and there were no child-like noises coming from anywhere!

I finally showed up in a classroom to introduce myself and I panicked on sight of seeing a room full of 13 and 14 year olds! I broke out into a sweat just from the amount of awkward pre-teen-ness surrounding me! In my mind I wished these kids good luck in getting through the next two years of their life, wished myself some luck and then proceeded with my self-introduction lesson. Despite whether or not anything I said or did made sense to them, they seemed to like the idea of this strange foreign “celebrity” spending the day at their school. After visiting one class, a good chunk of the afternoon was waving to group by group, as they peeped into the teacher’s room asking permission to talk to me. At each request, I walked into the hall to talk to a bunch of nervous, and fearful students. A bunch of the first year students held hands while they rolled their eyes into the back of their head, searching for their best English phrases. And then the 3rd graders (the last year of Jr. High) invited me to their music and dance rehearsals for an upcoming school festival.

In fact, watching these rehearsals was the best part of my entire day! In the music room, a chorus of kids sang two traditional Japanese songs while one student conducted and another accompanied on the piano. It was really exciting to see how well everyone worked together as a group and how much freedom they gave the students in assigning leadership roles. It appeared that the teachers all sort of just sat back and watched the rehearsal and only after the kids made comments, did they throw in their two cents.

For my second day of teaching I had to get on a bus at 7:24 am and only sort of knew where to get off. After hearing that there was a very specific procedure for boarding and de-boarding the buses in Japan, I made sure to go over the instructions several times in my head as to not make any embarrassing errors: Get on the bus from the back door, grab a ticket from the machine as you get on, and the number on the ticket will correspond with a price according to the zone you get off in.

When I got on the bus, I saw a little machine, but no ticket popped out. I started to panic but just kept walking into the bus. The guy behind me didn’t take a ticket either but I thought perhaps he was a hooligan of some sort. So I stood back up and started pushing and prying open pieces of this small machine, sticking my finger in holes and even hitting it. Nothing happened except a chorus of whispers from all of the other people on the bus. But why didn’t one of them just come and help me? Then at the next stop, someone got on and a little ticket popped out for them. This had to be some sort of conspiracy so I popped up out of my seat again and quickly grabbed the next ticket that shot out. I spent 10 minutes clutching this skimpy little paper ticket, staring at the price board above the driver’s seat. My ticket had the number 2 on it and I noticed that on the board, prior to “2” there was some Kanji that probably translated to: “The people who get on the bus at the first stop don’t need tickets. Just pay this amount above. If you took a ticket at another stop you are an idiot.”

In the 20 minutes that followed I played a game with myself to look for the Kanji that corresponded with my bus stop on the screen that announced upcoming stops. I won this game with myself and successfully discharged at Mikasa High School. My favorite part about Mikasa is that the kids do not have to wear the standard Japanese school uniforms! However, the students are not allowed to wear accessories or carry cell phones. The first 5 or 10 minutes of each class, the students piled all of their jewelry and various other adornments on the desks behind him. One guy had blinged out chains around his neck and a rhinestone studded skull and crossbones belt buckle, and was only wearing a white wife-beater tank top as his shirt. He then made a bit of a scene removing all of his glitz, and followed it up by putting on a regular t-shirt. The boy next to him consciously wore his hooded sweatshirt with one sleeve on and one sleeve off, and also had a hair clip the size of a pencil clamped to the front of his long, flowing bangs. He was not asked to remove this clip. If it had been up to me, the Assistant Language Teacher, I would say yes to the bling bling and tell the other dude to lose the hair clip. “Don’t other kids beat you up in the hallway?”

My favorite class of the day had only two students in it. It was an elective Reading in English class. The girl was very enthusiastic about the English language and broadcasted this joy by wearing a t-shirt that said, “I Love Belleville, Illinois”. Student number two, a very nerdy teenage boy, sang me a Japanese kids song, and made me recite back to him a couple of Japanese proverbs. The class topic strayed a bit from my self-introduction when they asked me about my political views and thoughts on social justice. Instead of opening up a can of American negativity, I somehow steered the topic of conversation smoothly into musical theatre, and they were fine with that.

I visit Mikasa about once a week and looking forward to spending more time with the teachers and students at this school. I am slightly nervous for the 10 or 12 other schools I visit in the upcoming weeks! Hopefully I’ll survive!

Feels Like Home

2007-09-02T20:27:00.001+09:00

I found myself just living life this weekend. I guess what I mean is that, I am now in my new home, not just a stranger on some Japanese vacation. My apartment is finally shaping up thanks to my 1976 Yamaha electric piano that I purchased at the Doki Doki recycle shop, as well as a fabulous beige leather sofa that my co-worker Matsuhara-san handed-me-down. And with full man power (err… a 30-minute struggle of strength) his 13-year-old son carried it into my TV room where it now sits, gloriously. With all this new stuff, I’ve decided to name the rooms in my apartment to give them each a proper identity: the TV room, the lounge about room, the piano parlor, and my bedroom.

My first day of “just living life” was yesterday, a Saturday, where I decided to live it up slightly in New York style, by venturing to Mister Donut for a sit-down coffee and donut breakfast. (Note: Please click on the photo link to the right for this blog entry’s visual component). Now I have mentioned Mister Donut in this blog a couple of times now, but I must give it more un-sponsored praise for it’s free coffee refills. I did not know about this coffee perk (and what a perk it was after three caffeinated cups!) until I decided to sit and have my breakfast in-house. I sat at a table, reading and taking leisurely bites of my donuts, but quickly, and with out realizing, downing my coffee. And every so often, a Mister Donut employee came over and refilled my cup. I was so excited, and the coffee was so tasty, I just let it happen… over and over.

So I stood up, practically shaking and all sugared-out and went for a Saturday stroll. Towards the JR station, I noticed a bunch of tents set up, so I walked on over and hit the jackpot. A FLEA MARKET.

!!!.

Having spent two hours at this flea market, I can now say that Iwamizawans are my new favorite group of people and I encourage them to get rid of even more of their belongings, because what fabulous belongings they are. It felt like I was raiding the closets of every cool kid in town, pillaging through the toy collections of 1st graders, and telling every grandmother in sight that I wanted her household items for my own! I think everyone was so taken aback by my caffeinated enthusiasm, that they bargained down the price of their own goods! I walked out of there with bags of stuff and all for a handful of change! I really do love this place.

I spent most of the rest of that day bike riding around on the bike path roads that go alongside route 12 -- a smallish highway. There wasn’t much in terms of landscape, but I went to the outskirts of the city, just to see what was there. On the way back I went to my favorite park, next to the public gym, and sat on the grass and read my book. For dinner, I headed to the sushi place, Toppi, for what now seems like my weekend ritual dinner place!

On day two of “just living life” I took my third weekend trip to Sapporo. The plan was to take the subway (for the first time) to Maruyama koen (park) which was rumored to be discreetly hip, and full of boutiques. The subway was GREAT! It was comforting to be underground, and the very little grime that was present in the station was enough to make me feel at ease. I exited at Maruyama koen and I guess it was a little more covert about its hipness, than I could even figure out. After attempting to find the right streets to walk down, and the cool places to go, I surrendered my own meager “cool” existence and went back on the subway to Odori Park. And this change-of-plan was actually to my advantage for there was a Performance Carnival and Sapporo Street Walk Festival taking place! The first main stretch that I hit was a concert stage and the band Alice Park was performing. They were a mostly instrumental indie rock band, sort of along the lines of a Cap’n Jazz off-shoot band. They were fun to watch and pretty impressive, though slightly derivative. After each song the crowd lightly clapped and there was no hooting and hollering. (I wonder if they want that kind of stuff as much as they do in the States.)

I strolled around a little bit more, saw some traditional Japanese dance troops, and then searched for the nearest “conbini” (convenience store) for some lunch. Now I believe that fate took me to the SeicoMart on that specific corner (wherever it was) to purchase the most delicious tuna sushi, and a Pocari Sweat drink and then carried me over to a smaller stage that had a seating area. I ate my lunch outdoors, listening to a middle age lounge rock band who were really dorky, (though I enjoyed their dorkiness). I was in a terrific mood, so happy that it was nice out, that I was eating such delicious sushi from a corner store, and that this band had really geeky dance moves. Often times when I am this happy, I glance up at the sky. So I did. and BAM! I saw a sign that read, “Dance Studio”.

Now, I should mention a main factor that was missing from my days of just living life in Hokkaido, Japan. Up until this moment I had not been able to find a place to take dance classes. I asked around and no one really new of anything besides a rumored hip-hop class in Iwamizawa. Thus seeing a sign for a dance studio was my current dream come true. I took the elevator to the 7th floor of the Parade building and headed straight to the dance school. I had a funny conversation with the girl at the desk mostly because my Japanese was so broken and she wanted so desperately to answer my unintentionally non-sensical questions! But it worked out okay and she gave me a schedule of all of the classes. I am very excited to start classes there next week! I think it will also be a great way to make Japanese friends.

After striking more everyday life gold, I wandered around the Performance Carnival a bit more and found a gelato shop that was set-up in a sleek an air-streamer truck. The gelato was delicious and the girl in the truck complimented me on my Japanese skills, even though the flavors that I ordered were “chocorato” and “banana”.

On my way back towards the train station I walked passed the first concert stage from earlier that afternoon. I ended up standing there for an hour listening to Wedge Soul who I will now call the Rilo Kiley of Japan. They were incredible! The lead singer also played the melodica! They had a diverse style of songs yet the overall sound of the band was enjoyably cohesive! I waited till the end of their set, and decided I should try to compliment them the way the Gelato stand girl complimented my Japanese. So I mustered up the only complimentary vocabulary word I could think of on the spot, and, when I actually opened my mouth, it came out all weird sounding and possibly stalkerish. The band seemed pleased though and they gave me their website address and information about an upcoming concert. (Wedge Soul on the World Wide Web)

As I tried to pry myself away from Sapporo’s wonderfulness, I made one last stop at Jupiter foods, which is a foreign foods supermarket. I was able to purchase REAL CHEESE (the stuff in the regular supermarkets is slightly questionable), sour gummy candy, ingredients to make nachos, and some other miscellaneous items that I’ve greatly missed this past month away from Western civilzation

All in all I am really having fun in my everyday Hokkaidoian life. I feel very fortunate to have the chance for all of these new experiences and I am really looking forward to the ones that are about to come -- like my first day at a school…. Stay tuned!

Understanding Similarities

2007-08-23T21:02:00.001+09:00

The majority of the Sapporo orientation focused on presentations revolving around the understanding and the acceptance of differences between Japanese and Western cultures and how to integrate internationalization into the local communities. Within these lectures, were a handful of caveats about how we, as foreigners, are indoubtedly going to be perceived, and how to go about not stepping on any toes, while still remaining true to ourselves in this foreign place.

My good friend and fellow JET who lives a few towns away, shared an experience with me through email today, that I thought was worth publishing here. It's a bit on the serious side, but found his story to be perfectly on point, and much more interesting than some of the more serious obstacles I have been dealing with thus far.

Here it is:

"I've been teaching the [location name removed] 'Jr. Ambassadors' English in
preparation for a trip to that they're taking in a few months. The
last time I taught them (my 2nd time), I was pressed for ideas, so I
taught them how to say stuff like 'My stomach hurts,' 'My head hurts,'
'I have a toothache,' etc. I also taught them the names of some
regular OTC medicines that they might come across if they 'run out of
the Japanese medicine that they bring.'

So today I get told that it wasn't wise to tell them about American
medicines, because 'American medicines are made for Americans, and are
too strong for the Japanese.' I laughed out loud. Sooooooo bad of me,
but I couldn't stop laughing. The reasoning was that Americans are
bigger people, so the medicine needs to be stronger - another bout of
laughing. I told my supervisor that he and I were the same size...

'But what about someone like...[another JETs name]? He's bigger, so he needs more
medicine, right?'

I had to explain that dosages were made by age and not necessarily by
size...but they didn't want to accept that. I then got told the kicker
- 'our intestines might be different sizes since we (Americans vs.
Japanese) have different sized legs.'

Bwahahahahahaha.

Apparently the parents of these students were worried about stuff like this.

I mean, I'm not a doctor. I definitely recommend that they bring their
own meds (heck, I brought stuff from America, why shouldn't they bring
stuff from Japan?), but needless insistence that the Japanese are
'different' goes against the point of 'internationalization,' doesn't
it?
I was like, 'Instead of pointing out the differences (that may not
really even exist), why don't you point out similarities?'

My supervisor sucked air through his teeth."

Sapporo: a Food Tour

2007-08-23T20:40:00.000+09:00

I was excited to have a 4-day JET sponsored trip to Sapporo mostly to reacquaint myself with the concept of “To Go” coffee! Iwamizawa lacks Western style coffee shops and I was starting to miss the frantic coffee sipping while running to work days of yore. The closest To Go style coffee in the ‘Zawa is from Mister Donut – a sinful chain of pick-your-own donuts and -- ta-da! -- coffee on the go! However, when I ordered my small ice coffee from the Mr. D – I was given some sort of crazy point card (to encourage my donut consumption with rewards!). And, instead of the ice coffee in hand, it was placed into a paper bag with all of its coffee accoutrements and then the paper bag was placed into a cute plastic Mister Donut shopping bag. I was too embarrassed to remove my coffee from bag right away, so I walked home with it, and then drank it at home. So much for “To Go”!

The first morning of Sapporo orientation, I ran through the streets with three other JETs who came from New York scouring for a nice coffee place where we could get some caffeine in a cup to bring with us to a day of pointless, arduous meetings. Enter Doutor Coffee! Their slogan: “Where a comfortable coffee relationship begins.” And what a delicious ice soy latte they make!

Sapporo is only one train stop and 25-min of train riding away from my dwelling place. The smooth commute has me planning frequent trips (like again this weekend) for my city fix. And what a beautiful urban landscape it is! First off, it’s a planned city, so there is a fabulous grid system that makes navigating pretty much a breeze (as long as you know your “Minami’s” from your “Kita’s” and your “ Higashi’s” from your “Nishi’s”!) Secondly, it’s cleaner than Tokyo, and there are parks everywhere!

To make the most of this business trip, I shelled out some extra money to stay in a businessmen hotel chain called Toyoko Inn. The rooms were small but the perfect amount of storage space for quick-trip luggage. They even provide you with pajamas! The complimentary breakfast took some getting used to, but now I am considering making an adjustment to my at-home breakfast routine. I started each morning in the hotel lobby slurping a bowl of miso soup, eating rice balls, and noshing on pickled vegetables. I mention the slurping only because it is not rude to slurp your soupy foods in this country. Most Japanese people make super loud anteater type noises when eating soup, soba noodles, and other liquidy substances.

The last night in Sapporo the New Yorkers and I headed to a place in the basement of the Paseo department store called “Mexican Sombrero”. I had a Japanese style Mexican shrimp quesadilla and pretty much fulfilled my cheese and guacamole craving. The decore resembled what I’d imagine to be the look of a Mexican restaurant themed amusement park.

This was also the case with the sausage and beer garden that I accidentally chose to dine in the previous night. Not realizing it was a German beer garden, sausage themed restaurant with zero vegetarian options, I was left using Japanese apologies every other word to all of the waitstaff and skadaddling out of there and straight into the comfort zone that is the Moss Burger.

Atsui Desune!

2007-08-15T23:14:00.000+09:00

I am keeping this entry very short because it is too hot to type. If Hokkaido has the most pleasant summers then I feel bad for the rest of Japan. It's about 90 degrees right now in the night time and I have spent the last of these horribly humid days in an air conditionless office. It got so bad on Monday that the entire office got an official ice cream break. At least in this heat, everyone agrees it is unbearable and repeatedly mutter phrases like "atsui desune!" And yesterday the man who sits next to me, Matsuhara-san, pulled a Hello Kitty fan out from his desk drawer and gave it to me as a gift.

Work has also been extremely slow because school is not in session right now. I have spent the majority of my days, studying kanji (the chinese characters that can replace hiragana and katakana for reading and writing) and reading Harry Potter.

Now that I have learned about 175 kanji and have finished the final installment of Mr. Potter, I look forward to the moment in the day when my neighbor and I leave the office to "go to the bank" which is code for going to Moss Burger. Moss Burger is an incredible burger joint/coffee house with the best air conditioning and ice coffee in walking distance from the office. They also have giant wall-hangings that are photos of coffee cups and they say "Hamburger is my Life."

Today there was a group of us who must have looked particularly sweatier than usual, because without requesting it, the counter-person hand delivered our table a tray of ice cold water -- something that usually has to be ordered!

Dancing In The Streets

2007-08-11T23:56:00.000+09:00

Today I headed off to another small city called Takikawa for their International Summer Fun Day as well as the bon odori matsuri in the evening. Summer Fun Day turned into Indoor Fun Day at a conference room in the onsen resort as the weather called for (more) rain.

I spent the afternoon as one of 9 foreigners in a group of teeny tiny Japanese kids and their parents playing games in English like "Simon Says" and "Red Light Green Light". I was amazed at the amount of English they all knew! They also had so much energy and it made me feel old and sluggish! I got pummeled by an 8 year-old during a game of "Duck Duck Goose."

For a snack they gave us all blue-flavored popsicles that miraculously did not change the color of our tongues to a florescent shade. The US needs to take note and perhaps steal this recipe for Japanese popsicles.

For lunch we went to a small cafe in Takikawa called Marin. The other JETs said it was notorious for their massive portion sizes and indeed it was. I ate a giant heap of Tempura on top of a mountain of rice. I am pretty sure they deep fried everything in some sort of animal residue but I tried to forget about it. And besides, it was delicious.

So after a heavy, grease-filled meal a group of us decided to walk for 45 minutes or so and arrived in town for an evening of even more exercise -- the bon odori festival! Now I suggest Wikipedia-ing "bon odori matsuri" to get the full history, but from what I know, it is a festival revolved around raising the dead through a very slow moving, and spooky looking dance. And by slow moving I mean 2 and a half hours. (Note: Here is the Wikipedia entry: Bon Odori

Most groups of dancers dress in elaborate costumes (envision Geisha Mummers) and those not in a specific themed costume wear kimonos and yukatas. The dance is accompanied by taiko drums and traditional Japanese singing. Along side the dance are food vendors and lots of beer and most of the locals spend the entire night in the center of town, partying.

Now us attendees of Summer Fun Day were thrown into the dance with only a moment's notice. We through on yukatas, were handed fans, and proceeded into the circular march, flailing our arms and ball-changing our feet to the slooooow rhythm of the taiko. And this we did for over 2-hours. I have to admit I snuck out of the line for a couple of breaks, but all of the locals were tireless and danced on like warriors of the bon odori! I had a terrific time participating and once I got the hang of the dance, it was fun to do! It really does evoke a spirit of rising dead ancestors!

At the end there were prizes handed out for the groups with the best costumes and the best dance moves. The pity prize went to us silly, sweaty foreigners and it was 3 cases of bottled green tea. Unfortunately I couldn't carry any back with me on the train, but I have a feeling any time I go to Takikawa I can have as much green tea as I so desire.

It's hard to recap the rest of my week but it was quite nice and I feel all the slight more adjusted. I got a cell phone, ordered some furniture, and went bowling one night and late night bike riding another. Even my day-to-day getting on is filled up with new experiences. Yet it is hard to blog about every last thing.

On an ending note: I was interviewed for a Hokkaido education newspaper. I answered lots of questions in broken Japanese and had my photo taken. I'm looking forward to seeing how that article translates!

So Many Parks.

2007-08-06T21:15:00.001+09:00

I set out today with my Iwamizawa city guide book in search of the Japanese garden. Instead I ended up in three different parks, and the city shrine. I am not very good at reading maps and with every turn, I was turning the wrong way and walking down some new twisting path and made me lose all sense of direction, But it turned out to be a terrific walk! I found a beautiful park with a couple of walking paths that took me over rivers, and into some really nice wooded areas. I also found the monument outside of city hall that was erected in honor of Iwamizawa’s sister city – Pocadello, Idaho. Yup. That’s right.

On my way home I went back to the Seiyu and headed to the 4th floor which houses the most amazing Japanese creation to ever come out of this marvelous country – the 100yen store!! Yeah, we have dollar stores back home, but they suck for the most part. The 100yen stores, however, sell most of everything you think is cool and Japanese that they sell in stores on Bedford Ave in Williamsburg for 20 times the price!!! I went a little nuts buying three bath sponges, because they all had equally as adorable facial expressions. I also bought slippers with mops on the bottom of them. I’m considering spilling liquids all over my floor just so I can mop them up with SLIPPERS!

Today was also the Iwamizawa Folk Jamboree. However, I was much too exhausted from my “yenny” pinching, to go on another hunt for it. Instead I am going to rip down one of the posters for it and keep it as a souveneir. Hopefully this won’t make me the town thief.

The Space 1026 of Japan?

2007-08-06T21:14:00.001+09:00

I woke up pretty early on Saturday to attend of the International Youth Exchange Arts Festival. My town-mate, and JET CIR, Jason picked me up on his way to help out at the Akarenga Event Center for the day’s festivities. Though the distance was short, it was the furthest I had walked since moving here. We walked all the way down to where the train station is and to the right stands this massive event space. One side of the building was opened up completely and within were about a hundred people working on an art installation that filled up the majority of the space inside.

The first thing that it reminded me of was the Space 1026 portion of the ICA show. Everyone was constructing a village of forests and huts, and a patchwork star hung in the middle. I soon learned that this event centered around groups of high schoolers from 10 different countries who came here to create art with an environmental theme with Japanese kids from the area. They were also there to perform a song or dance that best represented their country. I was blown away by their creative use of the materials and how calmly everyone was working together to make it all happen. I sat down and helped the New Zealand kids construct mushroom caps out of corrugated cardboard and walked around taking photos of everything. The final presentation of the art installation included a glow-in-the-dark "moment" when everyone’s pieces were illuminated with these weird glowing discs. They played this really cheesy synthesizer music to accompany this rave-like display.

The song and dance performances were my favorite part of the day. The kids from Germany sang a German folk song with a flute and recording, and also did the last bit of Beethoven’s 9th symphony. The Canadians sang “We’re All in This Together” from High School Musical(!) and went around demonstrating how to pick up trash and how to recycle. The Singapore kids did a really great traditional dance in full costume, as did the Thailand folks. The US kids (who were from Portland) did a tribute to James Brown and the main guy was so awesome. He had pink and black curly hair and bounced around like a string bean on pogo sticks! The New Zealand kids did a Maori chant and then a traditional dance. Everyone was so confident with their performances, it just made it all the more enjoyable to watch.

And then the finale! The Iwamizawa taiko drum troop took the stage to perform two drum pieces. How many drums you ask? About 70. How old were the kids? The youngest was 3 years-old and the oldest 24. How freaking amazing were they? Beyond words! All I can say is that I am finding a way to join this group! If a 3-year old can bang a drum twice his size, then why can’t I?

That evening I returned to the Seiyu department store to do some serious grocery shopping. Department stores are plentiful in Japan and they usually include a basement floor that is a supermarket. The Seiyu is a chain that was recently bought by Wal-mart though they don’t sell guns and the basement and 1st floors stay open 24-hours. I probably spent about 2 hours in there trying to read all of the packaging and making sure I wasn’t buying anything with meat in it. I also got carried away in all four of the snack aisles and the Japanese magazine section. I also couldn’t resist the “American Style” soft cookies. I bet I looked pretty obvious at the check out desk. but I stick out no matter what I buy and no matter what I do.

Like earlier that day when I walked back to my house carrying a giant tree and flower sculpture from the art show. As I walked out of the event center I said to Jason, “won’t everyone stare at me if I take this stuff home?” and he said, “They’ll stare at you anyhow so you might as well do something worth staring at.” Point taken.

Yokoso Iwamizawa

2007-08-06T21:13:00.001+09:00

At 8:50 am I walked down the road with my neighbor to my new job at the Sorachi Board of Education. I was definitely nervous as we approached the building but I felt pretty confident about the short speech I was asked to prepare in Japanese. Self-introductions are really big here and I had a lot of practice with them from my various Japanese classes at the Japan Society.

I walked quietly to my desk but made sure to say “Hajimemashite yoroshiku onegaishimasu” to everyone that I passed. But it came out more like a series of mumbles once I saw everyone’s intimidating stares.

I sat down for all of 5 minutes before I had to stand back up again for the official presentation of my contract. And then the short speech:

Hajimemashite.
Watashi wa Hirarii desu.
Nuu Yooku to Fuiradefuria de sunde imashita.
Watashi no kazoku wa Fuiradefuria de sunde imasu.
Nuu Yooku no daigaku de benkyo o shimashita.
San nen mae ni Timuzu Sukeru de Buradowaii no shigoto o shimashita.
Shumi wa uta o utau to dansu desu.
Dozoo yoroshiku onegaishimasu.

Hello. Nice to meet you.
My name is Hillary.
I am from New York and Philadelphia.
My parents live in Philadelphia
I went to school at NYU.
For the past three years I worked in Times Square for Broadway.
My hobbies are singing and dancing.
(Fancy ending which I am not sure translates directly.)

It seemed the speech went over splendidly.

The rest of the day involved much sitting at my desk doing much of nothing. I started to read a book about Japanese history but nodded off by chapter 3. Needless to say I was happy to get out of there and could instantly see why people refer to it as the “Bored of Education.” Oh well. Only a couple weeks of it and then school is back in session.

That night I was able to meet tons more JETs who live in town. About 10 or 11 of us went to dinner at a conveyor sushi place called To-pi. It’s pretty neat cause you can either sit all around a sushi bar where the food passes by you and you just grab what you want. Or you sit at booths and a little slot is left open for the conveyer to pass through. This place had delicious sushi and it was so incredibly cheap. For three plate loads of sushi my bill amounted to 483yen! I will be going here often!!

After dinner we raided the 24-hour Seiyu (the Wal-Mart of Japan… sort of.) for beer and snacks and took over abandoned outdoor beer garden across the street. I feel very fortunate to live near so many English speaking folk. It’s a good group and everyone looks out for each other.

Take-offs and Landings

2007-08-06T21:10:00.000+09:00

I dreamed that all of my yen were counterfeit and that when I arrived in Hokkaido they sent me to jail. I woke up in a cold sweat at 6 in the morning freaking out about my move up North. In just a few short hours I was going to have to snap out of this fantasy Tokyo vacation and go live my life in Japan.

I soon learned that I was not the only one who suffered the night with anxiety dreams. It seemed to be the general overtone of the breakfast room. I sat at a table of New Zealanders to have my one last dose of global culture.

The 40-some Hokkaido folk hopped on a bus to a smaller airport called Haneda and then boarded another humongous airplane to Sapporo. They put as all in the back of the plane with some Japanese summer camp for 8 year-olds. We were quite a dynamic group!

The plane ride was short but very bumpy. So for those of you planning to visit me, be prepared for a quick arrival with tons of turbulence! And then the plane landed in Chitose airport. The moment of doom. Us new Hokkaidoians bonded one last time at the baggage claim and then we were whisked away in groups of five to meet our supervisors and journey onward.

I was lucky because my neighbor, and fellow JET, James, arrived with my supervisor, Sasaski-san, and there wasn’t much journeying onward because Iwamizawa is so close to Sapporo! Sasaki-san asked me if I wanted to have lunch, and I explained to him in some fairly decent Japanese that “Yes, lunch would be nice. However I am a vegetarian who eats fish.” Luckily soba and udon shops are a safe bet to go to with my dietary restrictions so we stopped at a nice sit down soba shop in the airport food court.

After lunch we hopped in Sasaski-san's car and headed north towards my new home. The drive is about an hour and it passes through some lovely countryside. The small bits of Hokkaido I have seen are already beautiful. There is so much vegetation! The trees are all clipped in these funny little ways and the forests are meticulous grids of greenery. I saw lots of farms that had these sleekly designed farmhouses attached to them. Seriously the houses looked right of the fancier parts of Los Angeles.

As we approached Iwamizawa I could see the Amusement Park with its massive ferris wheel and several roller coasters. The park is called Mitsui Greenland and it sits at the bottom of a mountain that serves as a ski-lift and jump in the winter time. I have no choice but to learn to enjoy winter sports, and at this point I’m actually pretty excited to give them a whirl!

After a boring looking highway road with car dealerships and chain stores, we arrived home. And my new home is an old old OLD building that is only occupied by James, and now myself. The entire second floor is empty, haunted, apartments. It’s pretty spooky, But once you walk through the concrete hallway and open the door to my new abode, it’s quite a change.

I have a three bedroom apartment with a living room, a kitchen, a foyer, a toilet room and the way-more-frightening-than-the-bathroom-at-my-first-Brooklyn-apartment “ofuro” – or shower room. We definitely have some backwoods plumbing here in Iwamizawa. Luckily I have a western toilet, but the shower rooom is a concrete floor, with a practically square bathtub, a shower hose not attached to any sort of wall, and a wooden platform to shower on! The sink also only has cold water the pipe is open ended and just drains out onto the concrete – which I guess has a drain somewhere secretly in it. What is going to happen in winter?? Should I just not bathe?

I still have lots to organize for my apartment, but my predecessor left me with some very nice furniture and kitchen stuff. It’s nice to have arrived to my new home with a futon to sleep on and lots of things already around me. I think some of the incoming JETs have to buy everything new!

That evening, I went across the hall to James’ place and had an excellent dinner. James has a vegetable garden right next to our apartment and he picked corn, tomatoes, basil, and cucumbers as part of our dinner. It was all very delicious. Soon after, three other JETs stopped by to say hello. They were all incredibly nice and it felt good to be around other foreigners. It’s certainly making it easier to adjust to this strange world I am living in.

It turns our there are about 12 JETs living in Iwamizawa and 4 of them are vegetarians. This news put me at ease even more! The 5 of us who had dinner took a walk down the road to surprise another JET who was new to the town, but not to Japan. I think we startled him from showing up en masse, but I was already starting to get a good feeling about my new little community.

Harajuku girl you’ve got that wicked style...

2007-08-05T21:12:00.000+09:00

My last night in Tokyo was like a Cliff Notes version of what I wanted to see before I headed up North. Luckily my new friend Lisa knew the ropes of getting around on the JR line and had been to both Shibuya and Harajuku before. Now Harajuku was like Mecca to me and I was determined to journey there even if it was late in the evening.

We took a train from Shinjuku Station and it was the most crowded train station I have ever seen. Worse than the Times Square subway station! Except that the people who are commuting are extremely orderly about it! Everyone keeps to the left but it is hard to switch what direction you are walking. You have to diagonally cut through a fortress of diligent Japanese travelers! But we did it and we took our 150yen train ticket three stops to Shibuya.

I liked Shibuya much better than the area around our hotel. It was much more bustling with young people – who are now consumed with looking like a California, beach chick – complete with fake orange tans, long fingernails, short shorts, and Nicole Richie-sized sunglasses. It’s quite bizarre and I think I prefer the teens who dress up in baby doll outfits and Hello Kitty gear.

The three of us (Lisa and my hotel-mate Kathy) walked around for about an hour trying to find a place to eat. Everything is vertical in Tokyo so some restaurants are on the 5th, 6th, 7th floors of buildings and you never know what is what. It was so confusing and my Lonely Planet Tokyo book did not help at all!! Amidst our search we found a corner that had a building completely lit up hot pink and a mini street connected to it with a giant Pac-Man gate as its entrance. Obviously I was intrigued so we headed down the road. Only to soon find out that it was a maze of peep show stores, and sex toy shops. We then noticed we were the only girls in the area, and like Pac-Man , we ran away!

We found one restaurant called “Ghetto Happy Dining” and decided it would be fun to go there. We walked inside, took one look at the menu and turned around. It seems that ghetto happy dining in Japan comes at quite a price. Try 50,000yen (which is a little less than $50 ) for an entree!

Like total "gaijins" we finally settled for a chain called Miami Garden which is a Japanese Italian-style restaurant. I just have to say that it was the best damn pasta I have had in any country. (Sorry Italy circa 1992!)

Following dinner we ran into a huge department store called 109 – which appeared to be the Forever 21 of Japan. Unfortunately it was closing for the night so we headed onward to Harajuku. The walk was actually quite pleasant. The typical summer-in-Tokyo humidity had gone to bed for the night so we strolled under the JR train tracks back towards Harajuku. Following the tracks overhead, turned out to be a brilliant plan because we stumbled upon a TV show being taped. Lisa looked closer and realized they were taping the most famous Japanese TV drama of the moment “Hotaru no Hikari” and three of the most popular actors were standing right before us! There was a gaggle of fans silently filming the spectacle with their keitai (cellphones, and yes they have high resolution video cameras). The funniest bit of the taping was the fact that they were filming under the train because everytime they said, “ichi, ni san, HAI!” and started the scene, a train would rush by and they would have to cut the taping.

Our walk continued and we approached the beginnings of Harajuku. I noticed the huge Gap where the magazine Fruits always takes photos of the teenagers. And as we walked further down the street the stores became incredibly fancy – like Burberry and Hysteric Glamour, and an Audi dealership with incredible architecture. Unfortunately, it was after 9 so everything was closed. We peered into the windows and scuffled down the pavement which was more like indoor marble floors!

Then the stores got a little more extreme and trendy and the tiny winding streets began again. The main strip of Harajuku was a downhill alleyway with about 60 stores that I would have cried over their brilliance and blew all my yen in. If they were open that is. Thankfully they were closed for the night. However, the crepe stands were still open and I had the most "oishii" crepe that was filled with kiwi fruit and strawberry ice cream and wrapped up like an ice cream cone. They were also extremely cheap for their size.

The only shop on the street that was still open was a basement store filled with all different types of photobooth machines. The store clerks let us stay there even though we were closing and we had the most elaborate photo session in one of those tiny cubes! It even had a green screen and superimposed us into a refrigerator, trash bins, and a jail cell! Apparently, you can have the machines send the photos directly to your keitai, which I can’t wait to do!

The night in Harajuku was complete when I saw a girl carrying a tiny little Yorkie that was wearing doggie blue jeans.

We hopped back on the train to Shinkjuku and it was time to get some sleep before waking up to a reality check. I was about to move even further away!!!

The Stream Melody

2007-08-01T07:00:00.000+09:00

I managed to avoid jet lag and went to breakfast yesterday morning. We ate mushy scrambled eggs, FRENCH FRIES, steamed vegetables, toast, and fruit. Not too tasty but okay for the time being.

They then jammed us into a large ballroom and had us seated by Prefecture. This is when I was reunited with my fellow New York Hokkaido people (one of whom I met at my very first orientation in NY). It was refreshing to be with "New Yorkers". I was starting to feel a bit out of place with the LA people. They didn't exactly appreciate my overt enthusiasm for Lindsay Lohan's mugshot.

Ooh I must return to breakfast for a moment. Can I just say how exciting it is to be with 1000 or so people who are from all over the world!?!? There is quite a large group here from South Africa (who I sat with at breakfast and told them their accent sounded New Zealand-ish. They weren't thrilled to hear such things) as well as groups from Jamaica (YES!), New Zealand, Australia, UK, and some French people as well! Anyways, I have met tons of neat people so far, and even though we all of this "Japan" thing in common, everyone is so different and wonderful to talk to! (Today I had lunch with a couple who live in Las Vegas and got the lowdown on life as a local!)

Okay - back to a HUGE room of people sorted by Prefecture. And, for those who are not familiar with Japan - the country is made up of four main islands and is divided up into regions called Prefectures and within those regions are cities, towns, villages, etc. With the exception of Hokkaido which is the Northernmost island AND all one giant Prefecture. We had a fancy schmancy opening ceremony with representatives from the various ministries (which really reminded me of Harry Potter! Though there is no Ministry of Magic... yet.) The one thing that stood out for me is that they had designated hotel employees on stage to move the chairs and help the Ministry members be seated. It looked a lot like that trick where you think someone is tucking in your chair for you and then you fall to the ground, only this time they actually tuck your chair in for you.

I can't really remember anything too poignant about these speeches so I will just talk about lunch. They made the lunch completely vegetarian which was really nice of them. We had a fake soy meat product and squash soup and I sat with my New York/Hokkaido people as well as some Brits. To note: I asked the Brits about their thoughts on the whole Chantelle and Preston divorce and they found my insight to be quite humorous.

In the afternoon I attended a panel discussion about my position as an ALT (Assistant Language Teacher). The first man to speak was from a Ministry called MEXT -- stands for something or other and such -- and his name was Mr. Ota. As soon as he opened his speech by quoting Mary Poppins and I knew this guy was going to be great! Such was the case and he ended his speech by quoting Yoda and Judy Garland.

"Do or do not. There is no try."

"Always be a first-rate version of yourself instead of a second-rate version of someone else."

You pick who said what.

The other panelists were also extremely informative and one man told us that "schools are a lot like curry donuts." I am going to wait to figure that one out.

I am also going to take a break from the days events to discuss the various bathroom encounters I have had thus far:

My favorite western style toilet feature is the "stream melody". For those who are uncomfortable with "bathroom sounds" the toilets help things move right along by accompanying your visit with a whoooshing water sound. It's quite pleasant and also makes going to the bathroom quite fun! Some of the restrooms in the hotel have both western style and Japanese style toilets with the doors labeled as such. I have managed to avoid the Japanese toilets for now, which are basically a hole in the ground where you squat. I am sure I will have an entire blog entry devoted to "squatting" those when the time comes for me to give in and give it a try.

My afternoon was a combination of workshops and my own exploring (the Krispy Kreme event from my first blog entry.) The workshop was about being a vegetarian in Japan, and they have two books available, published by JETs with recipes and translations of food labels, and how to explain to people that you don't eat "niku".

The walk was the best part of my day. I set out not really knowing where I was heading and ended up at the massive Shinjuku train station. I felt like a dork stopping and taking pictures every two seconds. I was the only one around who was doing that and seemed to be the only foreigner. The architecture here is really sleek, and I had fun walking over footbridges and looping in and out of buildings. My favorite people walking about were the goth teenagers. I think American goths need to take some fashion advice from the Japanese goths -- I know I will!

The evening was a semi-formal ceremonial dinner with all of the 1000 or so new JETs squashed into the ballroom with giant buffets of food and a huge unlimited bar. We listened to a few speeches and then said "kanpai!" which is the Japanese word for cheers. You are not allowed to eat or drink without saying this word.

I mingled a bit but mostly wandered around with my roommate and the NY/Hokkaido people. Though I did happen to meet my next door neighbor in Iwamizawa (the town where I will be living). He flew in to Tokyo to give a presentation and just happened to be one of one thousand people standing right next to me during this dinner.

I snuck out of the reception and headed to the 47th floor of the hotel with a few other people. The view was extraordinary. They have floor to ceiling windows and it was evening and all of the city lights were on. It was one of the most spectacular views I have ever seen. (Sorry Philadelphia City Hall!). That floor also had a beach themed bar which I peaked into. Lots of surfboards and fake trees. I would totally try it if our hotel wasn't so expensive!

Later that night, we had a Hokkaido JETs' night on the town. I have been very anxious to explore other parts of Tokyo, but also figured it was a nice way to go out and meet the people I will be closest to geographically. We had our "enkai" at a place in Shinjuku called Watami. It was on the 5th floor of a non-descript building. There were two tables of 20 where we had to remove our shoes before sitting. It was all-you -can-eat-and-drink and it was a nice way to use Japanese with the waitstaff. I had a great time but also needed to sleep so I opted out of the karaoke after-party. I have a feeling that will be commonplace and I won't miss out in the future!

This day has been very jam-packed and I haven't even been outside yet! I am actually going to skip out and get some fresh air because I have other workshops to attend shortly. But this evening I am free and I am going to explore Harajuku and Shibuya!

Tomorrow we leave for Hokkaido, but I don't really know the plan beyond that. I do know that the rest of my time here will not be with 1000 foreigners in a fancy hotel, so I need to start preparing for that!

Until next time...

Donutsu Ga Suki Desu Ne!

2007-07-30T17:45:00.000+09:00

I just returned from my very first solo walking excursion through the Shinjuku district of Tokyo. It was rush hour - about 5pm and everyone was exiting their various workplaces towards two things: the hub of Tokyo transport - Shinjuku Station, and the newest arrival to Japan -- Krispy Kreme. The line was longer than the couple hundred of us JETs who arrived at LAX yesterday (or the day before really). The expected wait time for the Krispy Kreme said 1 hour and 20 minutes. The line twisted like a theme park queue and then stopped for foot traffic and continued around the corner from the store, over a bridge. I left New York City - the land of lines - for the Eastern version. Oh well.

But let me back track a bit. I left New York on July 23rd and spent 5 days in Los Angeles searching for Perez Hilton in every Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf I could get my hands on! However, I could not find the gourd of a gossip anywhere! I did manage to see Haylie Duff walking down Robertson, and Sharon Stone hop into a Mercedes with no make-up on, wearing a trench coat in 90 degree weather. Hmm...

So now flash forward to July 28th. I arrive at LAX only to find a massive crowd outside of the Thomas Bradley International Terminal, Japan Airlines section. Hundred of 20-somethings with their parents and their 4 suitcases (and in one case a rabbit in a cage), waiting to check in for the 11-hour flight to Toyko's Narita airport. The line took an hour or so (see, shorter than Krispy Kreme!) and I cried my whole way through it. Who knows why I sobbed - fear, anticipation for the unknown, bad airplane food? But I managed to get my ticket and had a bottle of water (why is LA so DRY??) before going through security. After a slightly tearful farewell to my mother, I went through security and found the proper JAL terminal, and found a handful of JETs clutching and or consuming the newest Harry Potter book. I figure these were the people to plop down next to, and so I did. I skipped most of the Hogwarts talk and tried to call as many people as I could before getting on the plane.

Ah, the plane. JAL is pretty sweet! A double-decker 747 where they squash in the economy class like we are in the elevators at the Keio Plaza where I am staying now (to be referenced later). However, the flight attendents have amazing Hermes-esque neckerchiefs and there are Sheshiedo facial products in the airplane bathroom!

10 hours and 40 minutes later we landed in Narita. The air was extremely thick when we entered the airport. No air conditioning! It also seemed that more than one "JET" plane arrived at the same time which made the customs lines long, but the customs agents more eager to get us out of there (yay to smuggling all of my contact lenses in to the country!)

I fully realized I was in Japan, when I saw all of the smiling current JETs in bright turquoise shirts yelling "you made it! you're almost there! welcome to Japan!". They sorted our luggage and we hopped on these pretty spacious tour buses for 2-hour drive into the center of Tokyo. I had two seats to myself, so I stretched out and stared out the window. There wasn't too much scenery, but I stared into cars and noticed that a lot of them have TVs right in the front between the passenger and the driver!
We also drove by Tokyo Disneyland which made me very excited for my friend Maria who is there right now performing in one of the shows. I can't wait to see her and see the park!

The next bit was sort of a delirious blur, but I ended up here at the Keio Plaza on the 23rd floor of a 40-something floored luxury hotel in Shinjuku (which is the Lost in Translation neighborhood, for those who have seen the movie). Instead of laying in my underwear like Scarlett Johannson, I went with my roommate (her name is Kathy and she is from LA) to get some food a couple of blocks from our hotel. Her friend Lisa (another SoCal-er) came with us and we managed to duck into a soba noodle shop just before it started to pour. My meal was 350yen which is approximately $3.50 (a little less) and I had a delicious bowl of soba mixed with seaweed and the tempura breading.

The ordering process: 1) Choose which meal you want by looking at the plastic food displays in the window of the shop. 2) Stick some money into a vending machine, push the button that corresponds with the number that is next to the plastic food and then a little paper ticket comes out. 3) Hand the paper ticket to the lady behind the counter. 4) Your cheap, communication-free, delicious food arrives in two seconds!

It started to pour and we ran to a shop to find umbrellas. Everyone was walking around with those cute clear plastic ones, and I was determined to make that my first purchase. I felt very confidant popping into the first shop saying, "kasa ga arimasu ka" (do you have umbrellas?) and the salesman said "kasa ga nai!" (we don't have umbrellas) - I swear I heard a sense of chuckle in his tone of voice. Oh well. We found the umbrellas and they were only 200yen! Hurray!

It was raining hard but we ran through the tiny streets taking fun photos of all of the bright lights and cool signs. I also learned that every store has a nifty machine at its entrance that sucks your wet umbrella into a plastic bag! But I learned the hard way. I saw the plastic bags, and grabbed one and began shoving my dripping wet umbrella into it, when a salesman came up to me shaking his head no, but smiling. He then took my umbrella and pointed me in the direction of the amazing machine. He then secured my "kasa" into a nifty plastic bag which just a brisk swoop of his arm!

And the store we were in, by the way, had the cooooooolest cell phones I have ever seen! I cannot wait to get mine! Also tons of denshi jishos (electronic japanese-english dictionaries).

My evening ended with a shower and the only reason I mention this is because the mirrors in the bathroom of my hotel room have the BEST little invention built in. There is a rectangular section over the sink that remains UNFOGGED when you take a steaming hot shower. AMAZING!

I will write more tomorrow. I am off to our evening Welcome Reception.