Abunai

A quick news brief of my weekend. Relaxing, Relaxing, Relaxing. It was such a wonderful weekend, thanks to my two friends Bren and Chris. Friday Bren had us all over for her wonderful eggplant parmesean dinner. Thanks to Jimmy we were all able to watch some girly DVDs (via Rei). Dirty Dancing Havana Nights, here we come baby. That just got us all the more pumped for the big party in Tokuyama. I wanna dance, or should I say "shut the F$&# up and dance" (right, Dan? haha). Ok, so Chris and I spent the night there and then we went skiing the next day in Shimane with Bren and her teachers. It was great because Bren, Chris and I are all at the same skill level. We had some relaxing runs down the mountain. Despite the fact that we were burning hot it was wonderful. After that we went to Tsuwano onsen and then to an Italian restaurant. We came home and watched some Sex and the City and went to bed. Then woke up and watched more Sex and the City for 3 hours! Relaxation at its finest. Then off to Hagi for facials and lunch. Man, we know how to treat ourselves to a girly weekend.

The reason the is titled Abunai (or dangerous) is because we had the most unusual drill at school today. It was a 'dangerous intruder' drill. Basically a man dressed in dark clothes, sunglasses and a hat a gloves came into the school armed with a broom stick (minus the broom). He started yelling things while walking through the school and looking for the students. He entered a classroom and all the students ran to the gym. The male teachers fought him off with chairs which the intruder continued to hit with the stick. Finally, they got the bad guy outside and the police came and handcuffed him and took him away. Of course, this is after the kyoto sensei through a ball of water at him (much in the style of a water balloon). I got the be the photographer so this was quite an amuzing scene, I couldn't stop laughing. I wonder what precautions Lakewood High would take against such a person.

BK discusses the necessity of "game"

And what sucks is you can't just "have game". You either start with it or you never have it. it's like being able to dance. You can either do it or you can't. If you can, you get better at it with practice. If you can't, not even Gregory Hines is gonna save you're ass, cracker.

Hilarities

What an excellent weekend to pick up my spirits. Friday, Rosie hosted a fondue party at her house. Cheese and chocolate are a girl's dream when she is fairly upset. That sure brought up my spirits. She had all the trinkets to make it a proper fondue party. The food was good, but the company was the best. I love my northside family. Can't beat it.

Saturday brought Kat and Lauren's birthday. What a celebration! First we went bowling and I PRed with a 108! I usually score about 50, so this was a great improvement (thanks to Dan's coaching and cheering from Paul, Tori and the rest of their team). After that we headed to the Red Lantern for yakitori. This is where the beer started to flow. I was at a lovely table of all girls having some intellectual conversation. A few tables down girls were getting a little "girls gone wild" LOCO! I managed to pick up two J-guys. Shinya and Yusuke. They were pretty funny and really interested in going out with a bunch of westerners for the first time. We really motivated them to study some Eigo. We went to El's Ditch then were kicked out after one beer. We headed to Bar Nine which was a lot more accomodating for 20-30 loud, fun-loving westerners. This was one of my favorite bar experiences in Japan. All it needed was a little music and dancing and we would have been golden. Had some great conversation with Paul, Tori and Selene rating celebrities and JETs on a 3 point scale (snog, shag or throw off a cliff). After that we headed to Punky Brucester's for sleepover central. We were all snuggled in our futons and sleeping bags when I just couldn't shut my mouth. I don't quite remember what we were chatting about. Then Tom and Lee came bounding through the door deciding whether to go home or stay. We convinced them to stay, that invited probably another 2 hours of inappropriate conversation. I think I remember daring Tom to sleep naked next to Chris, but he wouldn't. He made sure to button up his pants in order to not pop out. I wish I would have had a tape recorder, I haven't laughed that hard in a long, long time.

OK, so the next day came around a little too quickly (8:30am)!!! We went to the onsen in Kudamatsu and then for sushi. We were lucky enough to see some yakuza (japanese gansters) which was a very exciting first for me!!! I wish I could have spoken with them. After that we went ice skating, which was the highlight of my JET career. Now, you all think Tom can't skip, you should see the boy on ice skates. It was hilarious. There were about 4 or 5 jouzu skaters so we got together a game of tag. I nearly plowed over 3 little girls. Had I plowed them over they probably would have died. So luckily I have the agility of a fish in water so I dodged them. After that we had a nice ride home. We stopped at a log cabin in the mountains for delicious hot cocoa and pie then for some ramen... Excellent weekend, indeed.

Cut me a break!

It finally happened. I snapped. Do you recall the ugliest woman in the world, my JTE? She finally got to me. She made me cry (this coming from a person who can count on one hand the number of times they have cried in the past 5 years). I was conducting my lesson (very short lesson, I only get 10 minutes a day) and I was speaking only English. The children were confused but after a while I was going to help them understand a little more. She butts in and takes over my game in the most rude way. I was really frustrated. Then later on in the day I was doing work on the computer and she interupts me to nit-pick a worksheet I made. This may not sound too bad but it happens EVERYDAY with EVERY lesson I come up with. Always criticms, no praise. The lessons I learned in Human Resources in university are true. Praise goes a long way and is a MUST in the work place.

Later on that afternoon I constructed a letter of my feelings in Japanese. It was blunt and probably impolite but it was the best I could do. I took it to my supervisor (who is the 3rd person below the kyoikucho or head of the Board of Ed). He read it and showed it to the kyoikucho and we had a little chat, most of which I didn't understand. The following day when I arrived at school the principal called me into his office. We had a talk and he basically defended her. Saying that she was very busy, do I understand my roles as ASSISTANT language teacher, do I know the difference between my eikaiwa (adult conversation class) and chugakko (JR. High)? Of course I know and understand all of this, but does the woman have to be so rude? So then Ito-sensei (JTE) came in and we had a talk. I told her my feelings and how upset I was. We are trying to resolve it by having meetings on Thursdays to make lesson plans for the next week. I hope she tries harder not to be so rude.

By the way, since I have posted my Thailand pics on my webshots page, I have gone from 30 views a week to 2500 views a week. Can you believe it?

The Japanese classroom 

The sacred library 

The libraries have become my candy store.

There is something new and exciting in Tamagawa. Not only do we have a new Jr. High school but we have a library! Fully equip with books, library cards and computers. The library is accessible to students and other residents in Tamagawa. Now, this is practically unheard of! Back home every town and city has their own library as well as decent libraries in the school. It is weird, students hang out in the library. They all convene there and read books, even during their free periods. What a novelty for the people of Tamagawa. I even had a few 3 nen-sei boys ask me to get them some 'adult books' that are sitting on the librarian's counter. I didn't though, what a boring teacher I am. We even have a librarian, and guess who she is, Yurie, my supervisor. So now I have a new supervisor, but I can see Yurie everyday and still tell her my problems. So come visit the Tamagawa library. We have no English books and it is probably half the size of any school library, but it is so rare around, here it is worth a visit.

Thailand: The Bad Stuff

Many of you have already read the details of my tsunami experience, so I will keep this entry brief. The basic facts.

We went on a day trip to the Phi Phi Islands. We left our hotel at 8 am and were on the bus when the earthquake happened. Didn't feel a thing. At 11 we arrived to our first lagoon and hopped in for a swim. Not 5 minutes later our captain was waving at us to get back on the boat. We were then told to put life jackets on. I looked behind me and saw the tsunami, which merely looked like a white water rapid. Our boat got stuck in it but we were able to get out. We weren't too worried. We sat in the middle of the ocean between the 2 Phi Phi Islands for about an hour. We were then taken back to Phuket Island.

They herded us all to the center of Phuket in order to be safe. We were taken to the mall and told to wait 2 hours then we would be able to go back to the hotel. 2 hours turned into about 4 hours and then were taken to the town hall. This is where we learned what happened and saw the severity of things. Injured, scared, lost and confused people were everywhere. We were really confused what would happen next. After that we were taken to a Chinese temple and told we were going to spend the night there. When we arrived it was a white room with a dirty tile floor. They gave us food and water which was wonderfully generous. We met people who lost family members and many injured people. It was extremely sad and depressing. Then we were taken to a Christian home where we ended up spending the night. They had twin size beds that 2-3 people were supposed to share. Didn't get much sleep that night. The following day was full of waiting and wondering. We watched CNN and got the details of what happened. It was there that I was able to email my family and tell them I was OK. At about 2:00 the next day we were able to return to our hotel. Everything was fine. We had our money and passports.

The following 3 days were a blur of depression. We went and saw the damage. We spent the days at the pool at our hotel or laying in our beds. I know we should have left. We should have continued on with our trip. But it is really difficult. We couldn't bring ourselves to go anywhere or do anything. The airport was a mess. It just wasn't happening.

Now about 2 weeks after the tragedy things are starting to settle down. I have heard all the shocking stories from home (how my parents reacted is the most disturbing aspect) and gotten emails from tons of people, some whom I have never met. I am truly grateful for my life and all the thoughts and prayers people have devoted to me and other victims of the tsunami.

Thailand: The Good Stuff

Although just having survived one of the worst natural disasters in 40 years we did manage to enjoy some of our trip. Though, not much. We arrived in Bangkok and spent the evening hanging out with John and Bruce. We walked the vendor lined streets listening to bands playing at beer gardens in the background. We spent the following day on a tour of Bangkok. We saw all the famous wats (temples) of Bangkok containing theh world's largest Golden Buddha and the famous Reclining Buddha. Followed by a visit to a silk shop and jewel shop, purely for advertisement purposes. Bruce and John then left to go to Ko Samui and we had one more night in Bangkok. We spent it at the night bizarre. It is an amazing market full of Thai chochkes (or crap). Then we treated ourselves to a Thai massage. I say treated lightly because I have never been in such pain in all my life. They grind at every nerve in your body with this razor sharp callous on their thumb knuckle. It was awful! Bren was sweating, panting, holding my hand and cringing the entire time. ROUGH!

The following day we went to Phuket. Our hotel was on Patong Beach. We were less than impressed with the area. It was dirty, busy and full of fat tourists getting a tan. We wanted something more secluded and remote. Unfortunately due to the season this was impossible. We were going to settle for taking day trips to surrounding islands. Let me just comment on the amount of old, fat, white men walking around with young Thai girls on their arms. I thought they would try to be discreet about something so shameful but they weren't. They would walk down the street hand in hand with a look of disgust on the Thai girl's face. As a woman, I notice this a lot more than a man might. Apalling. So the following day we planned on a day trip to the Phi Phi Islands.

The following day was December 26.

We returned to Bangkok on December 30 excited to be one step closer to home. We did some shopping, got facials and went to the movies (first time since being in Asia). Unfortunately Bridget Jones was set in Thailand which really made Christine and I depressed. For New Years we hung out at a beer garden. Chris and Zach drank their sorrows away and Bren and I got ready for our long journey home. I also got sick the last few days of the trip, to make matters worse.

It took us about 10 hours to drive from Fukuoka to Tamagawa. We left the airport at about 9pm and got home at 7:30 the next morning. We got stuck in the snow in the mountains. Can anything just go right for us?

Practice...

I just attempted to write a blog about the high points of the Thailand trip. I tried to publish the post, it said "Page can not be displayed" (or whatever in Japanese) and came back blank. Can things just work out for me? Apparently not...

Preview

Happy New Year to all of you bloggers. Christine, Bren and I are all safe in Yamaguchi now. Pictures of the tragedy have been posted to my webshots page and I will soon write about what happened. Hope you are all safe and well.