Tori's Birthday

Saturday after my free oil change (thanks to Watanabe-san and his wonderful Susa/Tamagawa connections) I headed to Yamaguchi for Tori's birthday BBQ. (By the way, if you are reading this today, Tori, Happy Birthday for real). It was on the river and the weather was lovely. There was drinking, eating grilled meats and some soccer with Jenny's students. Never fear, I did get hit in the head with a soccer ball, only after being hit smack in the nose with a frisbee the week before. Perhaps my head is growing too big. Humiliation, Sarah, humiliation. After the BBQ we headed to karaoke. That was fun, I am beginning to really love karaoke. I used to sort of like it but now I am not so shy to sing any more, so it is quite fun. I got compared to Ariel from the Little Mermaid and dirty danced with Paul. All was good. Stayed the night at Alex's, had a picnic of Hokka Hokka Tei the next day and then headed home.

Friday, I'm off to Hong Kong and Taipei to visit friends from university (FCOB to be precise). I apologize for no pictures, can't quite figure it out on the school computer.

23 and proud of it

While walking through the hall today I came to the realization that I really like my age. The reason I was thinking this was that a while back my pottery teacher told me I looked 28. I wasn't sure if I should be mad or glad.

You go through your whole childhood wanting to look older. When someone gives you a compliment saying you look old, you eat it up. Looking old comes in handy when wanting to buy illegal things such as cigarettes, beer and yes, lighters (in the States). It was also nice when you just wanted to be one of the big kids.

Then you reach a point in your life when all you want to be told is that you look young. Adults obsess over this. So much that they lie about their age. Why lie or hide something that is so irrelevant? Or worse, why drastically change your physical appearence? I vow that when I am old I will never lie about my age.

So where is this age limbo? I think it is NOW. I don't want to be told that I look younger than 23 and I don't want to be told that I look older either. 23, what a perfect age.

ii tenki = genki!

The weekend report. Friday went down to Yanai to visit the folks from down there. We met up with Kat, Lauren and later on Kirk to have a hanami in Tabuse. The minute we got to the spot (at about 9:30) the lights went out. We were in pitch dark. Someone around there definately had something against us. But no worries, just down the river a little there was a nice patch with lights on to enjoy the hanami. Great conversation, a few drinking games and some sips of nasty wine later found us back at Kat's watching Swing Girls. (a Japanese movie, it's worth checking out because JETs can relate to the school life and friends from home can see what I have to deal with day to day) The following day we had a wonderful lunch at Sanzoku. The weather couldn't have been better.

Saturday brought Gerard's birthday BBQ. It was a really good time with excellent people there. We ate, talked and laughed. Osamu gave a detailed explanation of his 'game' to Jo and I then ended up with his pants off. We watched Tom attempt to spit some 'game' to a J-girl, but it wasn't a pretty sight. The real low point was when he started singing to her whilst holding an giant Pikachu. Had a good time chatting with Selene and Paul. Brought me back to my first AJET event when we had a good time karaoke-ing together. Those two are always a treat. And got to play with an adorable 3 year old called Ma-kun who lives in Tamagawa. I think we will become the best of friends. Excited to see that bunch again next Saturday!!

Sunday, we met our pottery teacher at 10:30am to start our marathon of fun. Watanabe-san performed a traditional Japanese tea ceremony for us. It was really interesting. There are particular ways to pick things up, mix things, pass them out. A lot of rules but actually quite fun. He also had Bren, Chris and I perform the ritual. After that we made okonomiyaki. It was quite delicious and really nice to be in a real home. After cooking we went to Hagi to go bowling with the guys. (Watanabe-san, E-kun, Yassa, Ryu-chan all guys from pottery) I sucked, to say the least. Of the three games my high score was 47. Luckily Chris and Bren didn't put us western girls to shame like I did. After that we sang some karaoke (which is fun in the afternoon, Loz and Kat!!). By then it was about 6:00 and we headed home. Great weekend...so happy it is spring.

Bad Times

I was doing the greeting in my 2 nensei chugakko class (7th grade) when I looked over at one of my favorites students, Takuma (not to be confused with Takuma, the badass). He is a sweet boy who talks to me, doesn't cause a lot of trouble, and even plays with the special ed students during lunch breaks. He might be considered a little bit of a dork because he mainly hangs out with the girls but other than that he seems like an OK kid. When I looked at him I saw that his whole face was swollen, he had bruises all over his face and he had an ice pack on his cheek. This really made my physically ill. I was just thinking the student that did that to him is written off in my book. After class I asked what happened to him. This is where the Japanese culture bit comes into play. Ito-sensei told me that Takuma said his mom did this to him. First difference being, if he said that in America the mom would get in terrible trouble. Second difference, they will probably take this as the reason and not look into it further. Of course all the staff know it was a lie. It probably happened during club activities with the badasses. I think the really bad Takuma did it, but who knows. I over heard them saying a bunch of students names in the staff room but I couldn't make a conclusion from that. All I know is it put me in a terrible mood for the rest of the day.

Other bad news. I am not coming home this summer. Airline tickets are ridiculous, not to mention the salary I won't get for a month and all the various things I will spend my money on while I am home. This most upsets me because I was supposed to be in my best friend's wedding and I was really looking forward to meeting my brother's fiance. I guess I am off to Japanese camp this summer.

Just Hangin out (with my students)

Saturday was a gorgeous day so I took lunch and a book down the the beach. On my walk home I spotted a bunch of my students hanging out with Ito-sensei (the lady I teach with who lives 2 doors down). Now these aren't just any students. They are the bad asses. The 1 ban bad asses. Smoking, swearing and stealing bikes (apparently). That just proves to you how little there is to do in Tamagawa, they hang out with their teachers. So they saw me coming and bombarded me. "Sara, Sara, can we come in your house". I thought I would give them the cultural experience of their life and let them come in. Welcome to my American world. They went through and looked at EVERYTHING. (there were about 5 of them) They opened my fridge, touched my clothes and asked me if they could have everything they saw. They ended up with octopus sauce, a book mark and a quarter. Jackpot! Then they sat down and decided to chit chat with eachother and Ito-sensei. I could get the subject of the conversation but didn't know exactly what they were saying. I can tell you they were talking about their girlfriends. Apparently they say A,B,C,D instead of bases (first base is kissing etc). Then they were talking about smoking and playing with their keitais and mine. It was actually hilarious. Ito apologized for intruding but it was alright.

That evening I went to a dinner at Chris's house that included our pottery comrads. Watanabe-san who is our teacher is the coolest guy ever. He is my dad's age and has kids our age, so it is funny hanging out with them. Chris made delicious burritos that I am not sure what the men thought. They like their food separate rather than all jumbled together in a tortilla shell. The conversation was hilarious revolving around Ya-san and his short legs. All the things Chris does he is going to do to get longer legs. Sleep 13 hours a night, eat avocados everyday etc. They are champs. Next weekend we have plans to have a traditional japanese tea then go bowling and do karaoke.

Kyoto: the rest

So now that Tamagawa has become Hagi and they have screwed up on the internet I am behind on things. Kind of like Dan:)

So the following day Chris, Bren and I biked to Ginkakuji (the silver temple that isn't actually silver). Then I met up with Lauren and her friends and we went to Gion so they could dress up like Maiko. It was quite a cool thing to watch. They had their make-up properly done and got to chose one of about 30 kimono to wear. Then they were photographed by a pretty hot dude, so I was a bit jealous of that. We did spot a real Maiko which was pretty cool. The next day we met at Zara and did a little bit of shopping. We went to the market and saw the wonderful fish and veggies that Japanese people love to eat but aren't very appetizing to westerners. We visited the Heian shrine and then to the Kyoto handicraft center. Kyoto is full of tourists as you may expect but I was still shocked to see so many westerners. I got the biggest dose of culture shock while I was in the handicraft center. I was waiting in the lobby for Lauren and her friends and there was a group of Japanese Americans sitting there. I could NOT stop staring. They were Japanese people but they were so different from what I am used to seeing. So American. They were dressed in the typical American costume. Jeans, sneakers and sweatshirts. They were very loudly discussing exchange rates, very obnoxiously. Finally they were very over-weight, not for American standards but for Japanese standards. It was remarkable.

After that we did the philosphers walk, a very beautiful walk along a creek lined with sakura trees. We visited 3 shrines on that walk and ended up in pouring rain. It was very eerie and added to the experience. That night we did karaoke. The next day I met Lauren's friends in front of Kinkakuji (the golden temple which IS gold). It was very touristy but beautiful. I enjoyed watching the old Japanese women sweap the grass. Yes folks, they even clean nature here. We also visited Ryoanji which is a zen rock garden created in the 16th century. Then to Ninnaji another temple. Then we headed to Arashiyama to enjoy the river and little shops there. We also took a nice walk through a bamboo forest.

That night we went to a person with ADD's dream world. It was hyaku-en (100 yen or 1 dollar) store for the mind. You pay 100 per 15 minutes and you can do ANYTHING you could ever dream of. You can go to the arcade and play the taiko game as many times as you want. You can sing karaoke, go bowling, play in a ball pool, get a foot massage, play soccer, relax, use the internet, play the piano...literally anything. I think this 100 yen world has made me a lifer here in Japan. (only kidding) So that was the big bad trip to kyoto. hope you all had a great spring break

Kyoto: day one

After my parents left I headed to Kyoto for a few days. I took the shinkansen and it was shockingly fast (only about 2.5 hours). I met Bren and Chris at the train station and we headed to our hostel to drop a few things off. We stayed at Kyoto's Cheapest Inn which was fairly nice and pretty cheap. Although I basically slept in a hallway for 4 nights. Really makes you appreciate privacy. After that we headed to Gion for the night. We checked out things around there, saw a Maiko (geisha in training) and had a bite to eat. After that we were walking home and looking in shops when we came across a place that said 'Live Music' on the door. Chris peaked her head in the door and saw a bunch of Japanese men wearing cowboy hats and holding banjos and fiddles. They called us in and told us it was country western/ bluegrass night. It was quite possibly one of the most bizarre experiences I have had in Japan. They played really well! There was a man there called 'Tom' who just fell in love with Bren. He was saying something along the lines of that he manufactures lingere and he was going to send us some. His friend told us that Bren has 'made his life'. They had us up on stage singing with them (even though we didn't know any of the songs). I had to sing 'Down by the Ohio'. Really great night.

I am going to quit now because I can hear them talking about me and the computer so I will write more next time.