Fun Weekend in Japan (松江に行って、きゅうしょうざんに上りて、日本語を勉強した。

So I had a great weekend, first I went to Matsue with Jeremy for a friend's birthday. We caught a train and got to Matsue in about 2 hours. Matsue is a really cool town, or so I hear. We went out to a some bars and stayed out all night and caught a train back home at 5 am...It was quite the experience. If you want to hear some more details, ask me later..

The next day I decided to climb the local famous mountain. This mountain is awesome because in the old days there was a castle at the top of it. I was excited to see the ruins. The castle was at the top of Mt. Kyusho and in the early 18th century it was burned to the ground by a rival clan of samurai. I got that information from this board, I couldn't believe I understood the Japanese!

The climb was a lot of fun, it is a path that twists and turns all the way to the top. I decided to get a work out in and ran up the whole path. I ran past some old woman and scared them, one actually screamed...guess that is what happens when you are the only white guy around. I ran into them again later and talked to them in Japanese for about ten minutes! It felt good to have a long conversation in Japanese. When I got to the top I was taken back by the beauty of Tottori. There is the city, but right on the other side of the mountain is pure nature. I love being in such a peaceful place. I ended up hanging out at the top for some time before heading back down. The pictures didn't capture the pure beauty of the sand dunes. The sand is a bright gold and it is really BREATH TAKING(Seinfeld "The Hamptons").　I miss watching Seinfeld...

After I finished climbing the mountain I hopped a train back to Tottori University and met my Japanese tutor Mitsue. She is the sweetest old lady, she picked me up and was bumping ENYA in her car! I told her that I secretly love Enya and she turned up the volume and we sang together. Quite the experience, you can knock me for liking Enya, but that woman has the voice of an Angel. Joe Tierney will respect this Enya story. Anyways, we went to her house and had a two hour lesson. After which she said that I would be able to pass the 3rd of 4 Japanese Competency tests for foreigners. That was refreshing to hear, by the end of the year I will pass the highest level test. I am taking the 3rd level test in the spring, it will be a piece of cake!

So that was my weekend, Japan is getting better and better. I cannot wait for spring to come so I can go to Mt. Daisen! Till next week. またね！

Becoming an Alien

I finally got my Alien Registration Card this week. So it is official I am an Alien Resident. Sounds weird to call yourself an Alien, I prefer foreign resident. Now that I have this card I was able to open a bank account and get an awesome cell phone (ケイタイ). Japanese cell phones are awesome, my phone is basically a camera with a cell phone attached to it. Just check out the picture below. Notice the Pikachu key chain, it was a gift from Jeremy. Everyone in Japan has some weird Key Chain attached to their phone, I've seen some girls with like 20 key chains on their phones. I think I'll stick with Pikachu.

This weekend was fun, Jeremy and I went out on Saturday night and had a good time at the bars with some random people. The club was playing Japanese Hip Hop which is awesome because they rap so fast. I still need to get used to Japanese bars and restaurants, they stay open all night. I didn't get back to my apartment until like 5 am again. Today I took a train to Tottori University, I was supposed to meet my Japanese tutor at 2pm, but she never showed. I guess now that I have a cell phone I can call her from now on so that doesn't happen. It was nice to get over to that side of town and take a look around though. There is this giant lake, but they call it a pond for some reason. Here is a pic of Koyama lake/pond.

Success!

Hey Bro, I needed to show you the new Classical, pretty sweet, only 50 bucks.... It will have to do. Notice the hearts around the sound hole..

The Scream Baby did not scream today in class!!!! He was actually funny and loved to play around with mini-drums. It made my day, until.....a kid named Takayuki decided to run around the classroom naked. What do I do with that, I didn't want to touch the kid, so I opened the door said in Japanese to the mother, "please help me" and she took him out. This kid was out of control, he even bit my arm. I mean wow, I thought the screaming baby was bad. This was another level.

The rest of my day was great. I had yoshi today, he is the funniest kid around. He keeps asking me if I have a girlfriend and if so what is her bra size....I have a hard time telling him to stop because I can't help but laugh. I started teaching him some idioms today and he uses them perfectly. After class he went up to Jeremy, my co-teacher and said, "Hey Jeremy, WORD ON THE STREET is that you are like a DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH." This kid is great and I can see him doing great things. He is sooo smart. One more thing that I love about Japan is the gift giving. I had a mom give me this huge box of chocolates today. She said, "here is a Valentines gift, in Japan only women give gifts on this day." They love chocolate over here, everyday I eat about 10 pieces of chocolate. The other thing about the chocolate they give is that the chocolates look like little pieces of art.


After teaching, Jeremy and I headed out to a Yakiniku restaurant for dinner. Yakiniku restaurants are the best because you pay like 30 bucks for all the meat you can eat. They literally put like 10 plates of raw meat in front of you and all you have to do is put it on the hot stove in front of you. I ate every type of meat I could think of. It was great for me because I have been craving a giant American style meal since I've been here. I was actually FULL after a meal. Usually in Japan you leave a meal unsatisfied, or at least by American standards. If my stomach doesn't hurt after a meal, I'm not full. I finally achieved that after about 3 weeks.

So that was my Wednesday, I am getting into a nice groove, which is nice. Here are some more pics from the weekend. I will post again this weekend.

Pics

Bike Ride to the Ocean

I rode my bike to the ocean today for the first time. I hopped on a bike trail that runs parallel with the Sendai River. It leads right to the ocean. When I arrived at the Ocean I was amazed by the huge waves. I walked out onto the pier and sat down and watched a giant hawk fish for about twenty minutes. It was truly amazing watching the skillful bird attack the wavy ocean.
I walked on the beach toward the Sand Dune, but stopped and turned back because I needed to get back before it got dark. I love being in a place that is surrounded by nature. Growing up in the city you don't get to see such beautiful things every day. I am looking forward to spring when the weather will be perfect and I can start climbing more mountains.

Teaching Experiences this week.

Today I had a baby class, the kid's name is Toshi. I saw him last week and didn't teach him, I just watched and he cried the whole time because I was in the room. So this morning I was like, ummm great I have to teach this kid who cries by just looking at me. As soon as he comes in the room, he starts crying. Now I don't mean a light cry, I mean he was scream crying. I sang some songs and did a little dance, nothing. Finally after scream crying for 20 minutes, the manager told me, "Toshi does not like men, so I think we should stop the lesson." Worst 20 minutes in Japan so far, I mean this kid would not stop. I hope I don't ever have to deal with him again.

On a positive note though, a student named Haruka, who cried when she saw me last week, was absolutely awesome in my class today. She is about 4 years old and was pronouncing words perfectly, she said, "it is a helicopter" with ease. After class her mom told me that Haruka told her, "he is really nice!" That certainly brightened my day.

Later in the day, I had probably my favorite student. His name is Yoshi and he is about 15 years old or so. He is the funniest kid I have come across. I asked him to introduce himself and tell me what his interests were. And I quote, "My name is Yoshi and I am interested in watching Adult Movies" followed by a wink... I couldn't help myself, I had to laugh. He is actually really smart and his grammar is awesome. I taught him the idiom "piece of cake" last week and today he says, "John, English is a piece of cake for me." I wish I could teach this kid everyday.

I was biking home today and was nearly hit by a car, I still am not used to the cars being on the opposite side. I look the wrong way every time I cross the street. It snowed today for the first time and everyone kept saying, oh it is sooo cold. I joked that it felt like spring to me and all the Japanese teachers were shocked. I said 30 degrees isn't cold, try -30. They all said, EEEEEEHHHHH(which means huh or wow). It was pretty funny. I went to McDonald's today for the first time in Tottori. It was surprisingly good, but the large drink was equal to a medium back in the states.

So I had a good start to the week and will be posting again this weekend, and I will get a picture up of me on my bike with the guitar on my back soon Steve.

ONE

Some necessary purchases (自転車とギータ）

So today Jeremy, Becca, Shiho and myself went and did some shopping. We went to this store called GENKI which means happy. This place was crazy, imagine Hot Topic, Spencer Gifts and Target combined. They had absolutely everything. I wanted to get a guitar so I could start practicing again, I wanted to get a classical style guitar though. I didn't think there was a chance in hell that they would have one. But they had three, and they were all under 100$. It was great, I got a classical guitar and can't wait to start playing.

We also went to a Revolving Sushi Restaurant. Basically you sit down and Sushi revolves around you on trays. You can just pick and choose whatever you want. If what you want isn't on they tray, you type it in and they send it to you on a toy train. It is quite the experience. My mouth is slowly adapting to the taste of raw fish....I still find it gross.....


Later in the day I walked about two miles to the local department store. I bought a bike for about 100$. It is quite the sweet ride. It even has a basket. I felt like such a foreigner though, they were trying to register my bike, and I had no idea what they were saying.....I eventually pulled out my dictionary and figured it out. Japanese people are so helpful, the guy showed me how to lock the bike and turn the light on. Japanese bikes are a little different from American bikes, they have built in locks and they all have lights that work in a rather odd manner. So that was my excitement for the day.


Saturday night was a little crazy, we went out with all the Japanese teachers and some other English teachers from around Tottori. We did Karaoke, then went to some dance club. We were out drinking until about 4am. I was so tired, I am not used to going out so late....I slept until 2pm the next day, haha. It was a fun night, I got to speak Japanese all night and had a really good time learning some new words.

So I had a great weekend, and this week I will be teaching all of my students for the first time alone.It should be fun and challenging.