UNDERCOVER in NIPPON

Friday, July 28, 2006

Thursday, July 27, 2006

Time is winding down. Just a couple more days and I am out of Tatsuno. In a mad dash I was looking for a job somewhere! Almost anywhere in Japan! So went out to Osaka for some interviews. I have been to Osaka alot of times, but I guess I start to notice more things when I have lived here awhile.

1. First of all its crazy! Compared to the laid back life of the "inaka" or country side, everyone in Osaka is running around. Running for the train, running in the halls, running through the streets. Why everyone gotta be all stressed and rushed? Makes me feel stressed, I don't remember anyone in Seattle running around all crazy.
2. Running errands takes alot of time! Bigger city, more places, but then everything is far away. Gotta take the train here for the interview, then gotta go back here for the hotel, then gotta go here for immigration. I spent like half the day on the train. Sucks! Back in the "inaka", tax office next door, city hall down the street, gym a 5 minute bike ride, school and food a stone throw away. More time to relax and play video games, thats how life should be. You don't want to spend your life on a stupid train.
3. Green. The reason why I like Seattle is because it's green. It's a city but it's nice, green, got mountains, lakes, ocean, you name it its got it. Then there was the day in Osaka. Osaka got lots of people, running people. Its got alot of concrete and it's flat with no mountains, and most of all there is not a shred of green. It's the classic concrete jungle they all talk about. There is no green and thats not cool. Take note, not to live there.

Anyways life is a bit crazy, Monday figure out the final decision of the VISA thing. Visa kinda expired today, but luckily got it worked out, so I got an extension.... to be continued ...

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

SOME APT PICS

Some last scenes from my apartment. It's in the cleaning stages, but it will be ready when you move in Laurence.

hallway

tatami room

washing machine and bathroom

kitchen

bedroom

Sunday, July 23, 2006

BUSY BUSY BUSY

Been super busy lately with everything, moving, end of school, speeches, meeting people, cleaning, organizing, this is the same feeling I had when I was leaving Seattle, but now it's Japan ... updates coming soon ... in the meanwhile it's "raining cats and dogs", "どしゃぶり, doshaburi", rainiest month I have ever seen, looks like a Seattle winter!

Saturday, July 15, 2006

SAUNA ANYTIME

Just wanted to bitch about the weather again today, well it was sunny, but damn when the air is hot and thick thats not cool. Well is my cool pacific northwest breeze. Here was the weather report from today. I also kindly commented on some key points.

Mostly Cloudy
Feels Like:
106° <-- anything over 3 digits is bad news!!
Barometer:
29.83 in and steady <-- I still don't know what barometer is
Humidity:
59% <-- I think their meter is broken, because after 1 minute you gotta take a shower
Wind:
WSW 8 mph <-- It should read HOT wind blowing at 8 mph
Sunrise:
4:59 am <-- That's right 5am baby, wake up yo early ass
Sunset:
7:15 pm <-- Due to lack of daylight savings, um none ... you can't hang out til 9:30pm, bummer

Thursday, July 13, 2006

IT'S OFFICIALLY HOT!!!

Came home, my thermometer read 32 celsius, which is like 92 degrees F inside my apartment!!! Then at school I made the mistake of wearing one grey shirt. Before I knew it, it was a sweaty mess front and back. Damn why don't they have fans in the classroom! Lucky I had a spare shirt for the next class. Yes, it's officially hot and sweaty weather time. Think I burned off another 2 pounds today at basketball.

BAILAR

The other day two of the Peruvian/Japanese students asked me to come to their dance on Saturday. Come and watch "bailar" they said. Oh, how cute! Thought it was nice of them to ask me of all people, who doesn't understand much Japanese nor Spanish. Hahaha.

3 VIEWS

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

HOW HUMID?

How humid is it in Japan? Some of my friends didn't think it was that hot and humid. But let me give you some examples of how hot it is.
- Some teachers when they teach, they bring a sweat towel to class, no AC or fans in class.
- When I am using the computer at school, my arms are so damp they stick to the desk.
- My papers at school feel soft and wet from the humidity.
- When I play basketball I am able to sweat through my legs, never had that until I got to Japan. Plus I think I lost 3lbs today after playing 2.5 hours of basketball with my kids today, it was like I jumped in a pool, totally drenched, fingers even felt wrinkly as if I was in that pool too long.
Well those are some examples, please enjoy your Seattle summer folks, I will see you soon to escape this sauna country.

3 YEARS LATER : 3 WEEKS TO GO

It's that old saying "time flies", and sure has, it was like yesterday at the Seattle airport saying goodbye to my friends and family in Seattle. But in just 3 weeks I will be saying goodbye to my friends and students in Tatsuno, Japan. Just trying to take it easy. 3 of 4 elementary schools done, 3 junior high classes done, kamae center done, elementary school teacher party done, ticket home done, cleaning and moving and getting a new job coming up... camera has been working overtime lately

THICKET

Its been awhile since seeing some good "engrish" (English spelled with a new flavor). So how about this find of a thank you ticket or maybe its a "thank you thicket". But heck the food was good and we got 10% off, I will take a thank you "thicket" any day.

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

TAKE NOTE

Take note to clean the air conditioner. I noticed at school that the principal was cleaning the A/C units. So when I got home I decided to do the same. Nasty! Maybe because I never had a A/C unit back home, but now I know what to do regularly. You don't want that nasty stuff going up in your lungs.

nasty dust after how long???

Sunday, June 25, 2006

NBA FINALS and WORLD CUP

A busy month in sports seeing the Miami Heat!!! Win the NBA Finals over the Dallas Mavericks storming back from two games down to win four in a row! Wow, Dwayne Wade is the man bringing his team back from near nothing. Then in World Cup the Japan team aka "Samurai Blue" bowed out were they couldn't even muster a victory in their group. Too bad also for the neighbors across the sea, Korea with Mr. Ahn. Darn. A suprise though is team Ghana! Gotta root for the underdog, they are quite an exciting team.

ONLY 3 YEARS AGO ...

Sorting through my stuff to move found some old pics of when I first came to Tatsuno, Japan 3 years ago ... oh how 懐かしい, なつかしい, natsukashii ... nostalgic, memories ... 私は時々懐かしい日本生活 ... 思い出す...

TATSUNO HIGH SCHOOL

Friday Tatsuno High School's culture fesitval. Kim was nice enough to invite me and Daniel to take part, or just walk around and cause some havoc. Luckily the nice teachers at my school let me take the day off to hang out at HS. I always heard that the HS culture festivals were alot different than the JHS ones, so I wanted to check it out for myself. The JHS culture festival is pretty tame with it being only a half day or so, where as the HS one is two days long. JHS contains alot of chorus singing which isn't so exciting after you see 3 to 5 classes, none of that at HS. At HS there were plenty of rock bands, dances, skits, and other various things all around school such as games and tea ceremony. My favorite part was the food court though, nothing like kids cooking up a good meal. Different classes had different food booths ranging from hot cake, ice cream, french fries, tacoyaki, soba, and more. Daniel was working the rounds by using his old students to hook up the food, good work! Then met some of Kim's cheeky students who carefully coded colored drinks with personality descriptions. There were tame ones such as if you choose "pink" you were girly. If you choose "yellow" you were dark skin. Then there was the "purple" which they recommended that we try. A little fishy, especially afterwards when they said that personality meant that you were a bit angry because you were sex deprived, naughty little kids. Walking around met tons of old students, maybe about 10% or more were from my JHS, it was so great to see them all! Especially the kids from 3 years ago when I first came to Japan. It felt like it was a great closure to my stay in Tatsuno. I was so happy, and even got to name an "action" boy in my short time there. With two empty cups in his hand flying over his pants, I knew his nickname had to be "superman".