Doin' That Thing I Do

It occurs to me that I do too much. Well, wait, lemme back up. I do lots of stuff. But I do so much of it that I forget to talk about it. Wait, lemme back up again. I do a lot of little random things that I keep meaning to write about but keep forgetting to. Wait, lemme back up. I do a lot of little random things that I keep meaning to write about but keep forgetting. Can't end that last sentence with a preposition. That's just bad. Wait, one more time, I gotta back up. In that sense, "to" is a particle... the original sentence stands. Are we clear? No? Good. Moving on.

The point is that I get all wrapped up in trying to be poetic and artsy that I end up forgetting to write about some of the weekly or monthly routine that I have going on. Or else I remember near the end of the post and think I should save it for another time because the post is already insanely long and I should spare you. Well, ladies and gentlemen, now is that "another time."

Every other month, I write an article for the town magazine. The two ALTs employed by the town office (Tim and I) switch off every month writing a "Cultural perspectives" type article Actually, that's the name of Tim's column... mine is "Nebraskan News." Gotta play up the sister cities relationship, yo. I wanted to name it "High Times" because I'm tall, but I hear that one is already taken... *rimshot* ANYway, we're asked to write a short piece on whatever we feel like that kind of gives our perspective on life in Japan. So far, I've written about how hard working the teachers are, how I love all the little things about Japan, and the differences between Hastings and Ozu ("Golly! We're not so different after all! ^_^ " *cue music, close curtain, applause applause applause*). Since neither Tim or I have good enough Japanese for print, we write it up in English and send it two months in advance to be translated by our tantousha. This makes for interesting conversation when the article finally comes to print.

It's great because in the first week or so of my month, I get people asking me about it. Even people I don't know. Members of OIEO, the checkout girl at the grocery store, my students even asked me about it today. I said "interesting conversation" because... two months later, I've forgotten what I've written. And since I can't read the kanji, it makes it difficult to reference it. So when English speakers say, "Oh, hey, Colin! We read your article! That must have been fun!" I either have to pretend I remember, or look confused and say, "Wait, what did I say?" (Yeah, real sincere writing, obviously.) And the people I don't know (The convenience store clerk I see once a week when I buy a candy bar while waiting for the train) all of a sudden know who I am. "Etooouu... Colin desu ka?" "Hmm? Oh... umm, yes! Er... hai... *puzzled look*" "OH! Ano... anooo... Ozu *japanesejapanese* zasshi *japanesejapanese* gatsu!" (I'm still working on listening comprehension... gimme a break. :( (Oh, and that means "Ozu," "magazine," and "month," btw))

Actually, the scary part about it is that a picture goes with it... I have a standard picture that goes with it every month (Think of those Dear Helen, or Ask Judy articles and imagine my beaming face at the top), and also a bigger picture that I submit to help illustrate the article. The first month I had one out, some of my sannensei boys cut out my face and pasted them inside their pencil cases, proudly showing me and yelling, "O-KAAAAAAAAAAYYY!!" Today, I had a girl re-enacting my enthusiastic thumbs-up, leaning pose from the February article. I try not to get a big head about it, but it's hard when you're so awesome. ;) ;) ;)

Another routine I keep wanting to mention is singing... every single sannensei class starts off with singing an English song. The teacher picks them out every month and we belt away everything from Don't Wanna Miss a Thing, to Bad Day by Daniel Powter, to All I Want For Christmas Is You. Needless to say, I know most of these songs by heart now, like it or not. The best part about this is that the first day a song is introduced, we take the whole lesson teaching it. First, they listen and fill in the missing lyrics on a whited-out copy. Then there's the part where they repeat after me. If you thought bad 80's rock tunes had dumb sounding lyrics before (Mr. Big's "Be With You" comes to mind as a particular favorite), imagine having to stand in front of a class of 9th graders and recite each line sans music (this even includes all the "oh yeah"s and "baby"s, too...). Then for the last bit, all the students stand up and take a stab at singing it while we wander around like prison guards listening to them. Hey, I'll admit it. Usually the songs are kinda fun. :D (But if you tell anyone I said that, I'll deny everything.)

Yet another routine that I'm sure I've talked about, but not in depth is my Wednesday Japanese lesson. Now that I'm writing this, I remember it being featured in my "Wednesday" video. Anyway, they offer free lessons at the international center downtown, so I head over to hang out and converse in Japanese. This past week, I was able to get through about 70% of my lesson entirely in Japanese!! Of course, I was talking about basic stuff with a teacher who knows exactly what I've learned and thus fed my questions that would illicit responses I understood, BUT HEY PROGRESS IS PROGRESS!! Anyway, the real fun of the class is afterward. Class ends about 8:00 and then a group of us head out to dinner. It's cool because way back in September when I started, it was just Tim and I going out to dinner, but slowly, after inviting other people, there's now a pretty large group that heads out every week. Like it's a nice routine now. It's helped to be able to meet other students and teachers in the club. In fact, one Saturday last month, a lot of the members of the group were invited to a teacher's house for a sukiyaki party. Since it was good timing, Anna got to come to that, too. :D (Though she didn't have the guts to try the raw egg portion of it... something about egg allergies... whatever, wimp.)

A new routine that I've picked up kind of came about because of the dinner group. I figured now is a good time to admit this publically. Let me first apologize to those I'm going to offend by saying this. I'm sorry. It was peer pressure and I couldn't say no. Mom, Dad, I hope you still love me. Friends, please don't think less of me. But I have to tell you this. I... Colin Sandall...

...have taken up Ballroom Dancing.

I'll give you a moment to let that sink in.

...

I don't know. I've been interested for a while (Maybe after watching Adam Carolla and Shannon Elizabeth... curse my family for making me watch...) and one of the teachers said they were looking for more guys about the time I was looking for more activities to get involved in, so it clicked. Of course, the average age of the class is around 42, but it jumps to about 50 when you take me out of the equation. I'm the youngest person in the class by about 10 years. BUT STILL! It's a great way to meet some people! GIMME A BREAK!! :(

Right, well, I should excuse myself now before this post turns into an intervention. Hey, I can quit anytime I want! I don't NEED ballroom dancing!! :(

Later, folks.

Over the Hill

It occurred to me last week that I have been here now for a few days over 6 months. I’m at the halfway point. I remember back when a year seemed so long. And now, it feels like my remaining 6 months won’t be long enough. A couple of weeks ago, the recontracting deadline came around. I opted not to recontract, solidifying that I would, in fact, be leaving in August, as per the original plan. It’s not that I don’t love what I’m doing and where I’m at. I just have too many other things to do back in the states. Had I known it would be like this, though, I might have planned way back at the start of this process to stay for longer.

Of course, there was a lot about my time in Japan I didn’t know back then. I didn’t know I’d have a bigger apartment than the pictures showed. I didn’t know I’d have an awesome convenient store right across the street with fantastic service and even better bentos. I didn’t know I’d be placed in a lovely spot just kind-of-in the inaka, but still with a touch of big city life.

I didn’t know I’d meet so many people from so many different countries; Ireland, England, Australia, New Zealand, Norway… Texas... ... Alaska. I didn’t know I’d meet so many people from different parts of Japan. I’ve got great friends in Ozu, Arao, Mifune, Nankan, Tamana, Yamaga and many, many other places including Kyoto and Osaka. I didn’t know we’d be going out and having some of the most incredible nights I’ve had in a long time. ...I didn't know I would actually ENJOY karaoke...

I didn’t know Anna would be able to come visit and let me show her around for a few weeks. Nor did I know we’d be going to see Nagasaki together, standing at the epicenter of the A-bomb, or going to Beppu and ooo-ing and aah-ing over Hell, or going to Kumamoto and standing at the top of one of the top 3 most beautiful castles in all of Japan. I had no idea I’d be experienced enough in Japanese language and custom to get us around to those places without help (or get us lost so spectacularly… *cough*).

And speaking of that, I didn’t think it would be possible to learn as much Japanese as I have, and be as comfortable with custom as I’ve gotten. Of course there are miles and miles to go with it, but starting from absolutely nothing, I’m shocked. I didn’t think my anxiety and fear as I stepped off the plane would ever melt into sighs of relief and solid self-reassurances of “You can do this.”

Yeah, had I known all of this, sure. I would have planned for longer. Who wouldn’t? However, I do know that all good things must come to an end. I don’t want to make myself sick of Japan… Personally, I know if I stay any longer and try to recreate all of the magic from my first year, it would cheapen the whole experience for me. I planned 1 year, I have the mindset for 1 year, I’m going home after 1 year. Well... 6 months now. ;)

As a disclaimer to all you people interested in a program like this, don’t think this means I’m saying YOU should only stay for 1 year. By all means, you should stick around and enjoy Japan for as long as you like. You make the decision that’s best for you, just as I have. I’m only trying to give you a heads up: You’re gonna want more. ;)

The Beppu Experience

In an effort to crack into the pile of things to talk about, here's a post about Beppu!

Anna and I took a short trip out to Beppu last month. If Kyushu is the Onsen capital of Japan, then Beppu is the Imperial City, or something. Aside from Onsens (hot springs), the big tourist-y thing to do is to go check out the Jigoku tour. We spent the afternoon wandering around the town finding these things and snapping pictures as we went. It was a pretty neat little trip! Of course, by about the 7th and 8th ones, we were worn out, so we ran to the nearest onsen to relax. A sand bath and a hot spring later, we started walking again to the nearest train station to head 3 hours back to Ozu. I say started because...

...we got lost. (Here's the part Anna made me wait until she was safely back in the states before I could tell anybody... ;) )

The map we had didn't include all the little neighborhood roads and offshoots, so somewhere along the way, we ended up veering North instead of East. We quickly found the way back, but because of the delay, we missed the last express train back to Ozu (The express train would have shaved off maybe an hour from the trip). I was leery about being able to make it back. The trains in the more rural parts of the trip don't run as frequently... but we trudged on, hopeful.

We made it to a smallish town called Taketa at about 8:30. The next train continued on a little farther at 9:15 to a station called Bungo-ogi. That station was about 3 stops from Miyaji, which routinely runs a direct line to Ozu. I thought, "If we can get to Miyaji, we'll be all set..." so we tried our luck. If all else failed, maybe we'd have to find a hotel, or drop some money on an expensive taxi.

The train stopped at Bungo-ogi at 9:30. We got off (along with the 2 other passengers there...) and searched for the schedule.

No luck. That was the last train, and the closest to Ozu we were going to get. Ok, no problem, I thought. We went to the front of the train station to find a taxi, which usually camp out near train stations. Unfortunately, this wasn't exactly the biggest town, and there wasn't a taxi in sight. There wasn't MUCH in sight, because just outside of a few small street lamps, we could see nothing. The town was largely unlit.

Oh crap, and maybe a few other descriptive interjections entered my head. There was a map posted up of the city, so we looked for the most likely place to find a taxi or a hotel and wandered that way. But the farther we got from the station, the less and less light there was. We gave up and turned around to ask the train conductor to help us, but on the way back, we watched as the train pulled out of the station to park for the night.

Double crap.

After apologizing many times to Anna and sorting out what to do, we happened to stumble across a man walking his dog. I grabbed his attention... he didn't speak any english, and I speak broken Japanese, but I tried my darndest. I asked him if he knew the number for the taxi stand, but he didn't. I explained our situation and asked about the nearest hotel... turns out THAT was back in Taketa, the town we'd just left. (Worried or not, I was still impressed withi my own Japanese abilities *gloat gloat gloat*)

The man took us to a friend's shop that happened to still be open. The lady inside also tried to help us, but didn't speak any English, either. In turn, SHE called HER friend from across the street who came over. Finally, this third lady spoke a little bit of english, and I again explained the story, using English to fill in the holes I missed. After a few minutes of deliberating what to do, the third lady smiled and said, "Ok, you come stay at my house."

"What?" She repeated it. "Are you sure? I mean... is it really okay? Honto ni ii desu ka?" "Hai," she enthusiastically replied. A few more umms and stammerings and we found ourselves following this lady back to her house. Well, here we go, I thought, feeling incredibly bad for putting this woman out like this.

As it turns out, though... this woman and her family routinely host the local ALTs at their house, so they're used to it. Like a well-oiled machine, her husband and daughter immediatly prepared the spare room while she showed Anna and I pictures of other ALTs. The woman's daughter not only spoke a little bit more english than her mom, but also takes piano lessons from the mother of two of my middle schoolers! Small world, right? :) All of the connections, combined with the demeanor and hospitality of this family made Anna and I relax quite a bit and enjoy a bit of conversation.

Now, had this been any other country, I would have said "No thank you," to the woman and found something else. But in Japan, especially in Rural Japan, these are the kinds of things that just happen sometimes. The people are so generous and honest, it was amazing to experience it first hand. Every ALT friend I told about it afterwards was jealous of it. Every Japanese friend I told shrugged and said, "Yeah, that's just Japan." It was the sort of experience you always hear about happening and wonder, "Oh come on... really?" Well, yes. Really.

We left bright and early the next morning and made it back to Ozu with no more delays. :)

(However... Anna was probably a bit more angry than she let on... heh)

Anyway, ENJOY THE VIDEO!

Still alive...

Rest assured, good readers... I am still here... just that a lot has happened since I last made a decent post, and the task of sorting through the interesting bits and jotting it down seems to be a daunting one. I suppose when I have a sufficient amount of time, I'll camp out in front of the ol' laptop and smash it all out, but until then, just take a minor update and be grateful! ("Mooooore???")

For the moment, I can tell you that things are going splendidly! I was recently spurred to do a little more for that whole pesky "Exchange" part of my job, but really the spurring was what I needed to finally kick into gear ideas that have been floating around for the almost 6 months I've been here. Anyway, since I'm surviving the winter with no trouble, I'm feeling more able to shake off the frost and get it in gear. As a fellow ALT told me (as he was told by another fellow ALT), it takes about 6 months to get used to being in Japan. I think I'm there, so I'm looking at everything with an, "Okay, now that that's over, what can I do now?"

Things have returned to "normal" now that Anna's gone home (*tear*), soooo that means I get to look forward to more observation classes, special ALT meetings, and Gun activities. But that also means I get to look forward to mundane teacher's meetings I don't understand, students that drive me crazy, and classes that could go better (Though today... I made my sannensei into tanks... mwahahaha... good lesson). It might balance out, so whatev. :D

Anyway, I must be off. Soon, I'll get some substance in here!! And I've got some videos on the back burner... and a few more pictures.. A SMORGASBORD OF GOODIES!!!! :D

Happy New Year and so on and so on...

So, a quick update because... drumroll... ANNA'S HERE!! Woo! She came a few days after Christmas and will be here for a few more weeks. This, of course, explains the long absence from blogging. "Hey, Anna... umm... occupy yourself for an hour or so while I think of random things to ramble about on the internet." Yeah... no.

Anyway, the main point of this post is to alert you all to a MASSIVE photo dump in my photobucket account (398 photos, to be exact... don't you LOVE slideshows?? ^_^). Nothing is labelled or titled since it's incredibly annoying to use Photobucket's labelling system... but soon, I'll label a few key photos to help explain what's going on in the photos around them.

A lot of the pictures are older stuff I might have talked about, but never put photos up for... and a lot of the recent ones are of trips Anna and I have taken. :D

We went out to Beppu and went on a tour of the Hells out there (more explanation and video pending...). Anna got to try out an Onsen for the first time (Hyoten Onsen (hot spring) in the pictures). We had a traditional Japanese New year; ringing a bell at a buddhist temple, then going to the "first shrine visit of the year" (or... ever) at a Shinto Shrine downtown. Anna and I also just got back from Nagasaki. That was a pretty cool trip... there are pictures there from Glover Garden, Oura Church (the oldest Catholic church in Japan), the Peace Park, and Hypocenter Park (you know... where the, uh... bomb went off...). I would have gotten some pictures from inside the A-Bomb museum, but they don't allow them, soooooo... sorry. (Though I did ninja a few videos... shh, don't tell anyone)

Well, good luck plowing through the mass of pictures. Hopefully this appeases those of you who I've kept promising them to... heh heh... (oh crap don't lynch me).