Daisen

Living in Yonago is really nice because the scenery here is gorgeous. I am about a 5-10 minute drive from the ocean and about 25 minutes from the tallest Mountain in western Japan.

I don't know when I will get sick of looking at it, but everyday I catch myself staring at it. You can see it from any point in Yonago. The views from my school are especially amazing because they are located out in the countryside. I am itching to go climb it, but I broke a rib last weekend messing around while playing rugby. I am having trouble sleeping, laughing, coughing, sneezing and pretty much anything else that involves my core.

Last weekend I spent most of my time driving around and finding good places to chill. Kaike beach is really nice because you can swim, surf and fish. Of course I won't be fishing (boring...) I am so excited for summer! I have the next couple of days off, usually I would have planned something fun, but I just got here so I haven't had the time to plan a trip with friends. I'll keep you all posted, until next time, MataNe. (see ya) JB

Japanese Public Schools

I have started to teach in the public schools. The atmosphere here is wayyyy different from my former conversation school. People seemed to be more relaxed, well not by American standards, but by Japanese standards they are laxed. Yesterday a typhoon came through and we had a little meeting, within 5 seconds, everyone was in agreement that the rest of the day should be cancelled. Speaking of typhoons, I was driving back from Tottori city on Saturday night, and the typhoon winds were so intense that I thought I was going to get blown off of the road. When I got home, I turned on the news and saw a bunch of overturned trucks. The wind is so strong coming off of the sea and of course the best way to get back and forth from Tottori is along the coast. I only have to teach like 2-5 classes a day, usually I will teach 3. I am at 3 different schools. On Mondays I go to Aimi Elementary School, this school is really nice and they have 200 students total. I teach 3 classes in the morning and one in the afternoon. I like the elementary schools because I basically teach the whole class. I am the head teacher and I get to use Japanese and English. Plus the kids are really fun and excited to learn. The next day, I go to Aimidaini Elementary school, it is way up in the Mountains. The school looks like something you would see in a movie. There are only 12 students in the whole school! It is awesome because that makes teaching so much easier, they can't goof off. I walked into my first period and was shocked, there were 2 students! They were these 2 cute first graders, they looked terrified, I think I may be the first white person they have ever seen...haha. After a while they warmed up to me and we had a great time. Each grade only has 2-4 students. Coming to this school is the best. I know all of the kids names already and they line up to greet me when I come. The rest of the week I spend my time at Nanbu Junior High. This school is only 10-15 minutes from my apartment. I really enjoy driving through the mountains to get to school. At this school I am more of an assistant teacher. The head teacher leads the class and I interject from time to time. I am here more to interact with the students and provide them with native pronunciation. The funny thing about Japanese teachers is that they have certain Japanese ways of doing things and if I say oh, we don't do that in America they get offended. I think to myself, umm, I am here to provide proper insight into the Engrish language haha. I enjoy my time at this school too so far. All of the teachers are nice and it is a great opportunity to practice my Japanese. They seemed relieved that I can speak Japanese. The principal is a really cool dude, he taught at an international school in Saudi Arabia for 4 years, it is pretty rare to come across someone with that background here in the countryside. I had an interesting conversation with the staff here about Prom yesterday, they don't have school dances in Japan, so the concept is completely foreign to them. I showed them my prom picture and the women were going crazy. They thought it was the coolest thing..haha and they thought my date was beautiful, which was true of course. Last weekend I went back to Tottori to see some of my friends. I spent Friday night with Mike, Eric and Josh. We always have a good time when we are together, I enjoy spending time with Eric and Mike because we have the same kind of personalities. We basically just sit around and tell jokes for hours. On Saturday we went to the beach and just hung out. It was nice to see my old beach, the beach that I use to run to and surf at. At about 3pm, my friend Terusan came and picked me up, we had talked on the phone and I said I wanted to buy a wet suit for surfing. We went to this sweet little surf shop. Terusan seemed to good friends with the owner. The owner offered me free lessons, apparently he is a surf legend around here. So we made plans to go surfing in two weeks and he offered me his long board, which is nice because it is much easier to surf using that. I am a bit rusty....I didn't buy a wet suit because it was expensive......$400.... After that I went to Mike's place and crashed until about 6pm. We then went to dinner and then followed that up with a trip to the local club to meet some people and listen to Mike do a Funk DJ set. I don't really know how to dance to Funk, but wed had a good time. Other than that I haven't been doing much, I am just looking forward to 2 weeks from now. A nice long surf weekend is definitely needed. I am still in that honeymoon stage, I don't think reality will hit me until it gets cold again, the summertime here is amazing. Sleeping in tents on the beach, spear fishing, surfing, snorkeling, bbqing...I can't wait! I will keep you all posted, until next time. Buh Bye JB

Arrived

So after 22 long hours I have finally arrived. I think I might actually like traveling sick because after taking some meds I was able to sleep for 7 of the 11 hours on my way to Tokyo.

This past week I spent some time in Seattle with Timmy. I was sick, so we didn't get to do everything we wanted to do, but we had a good time. I got to see my uncle Will for the first time in like 5 years. We also went and played some golf at this nice local course. I actually didn't do half bad, but it was wet and rainy, which didn't help my cold.

I'm sitting in a house right now that belongs to someone else because my apartment won't be ready until next week. It is a nice little house and I've just been sleeping off my jet lag. It has been delightful to sit here and do absolutely nothing! It has been a while since I've been able to simply relax.

The next week will be a bit hectic. I have to go obtain my alien registration card and jump through a couple more hoops before I am officially a Gaijin (outsider) again. I feel a little strange being back here, but I think once I get settled and get back into the swing of things it will be nice.

Not much else going on as of right now, but I'll keep you posted.

JB

I'm going going back back to JAPAN

So I decided to return to Japan. When I left last July I wasn't quite ready to leave, I was homesick, but I was really getting into a groove over there. I was spending whole weekends without speaking English. I really miss that feeling, so I had thoughts about returning about in late August. I contacted my friend Cian, who runs the English School and told him that I would be interested in returning to Japan if he had anything available. He said, great I'll contact you in January. He didn't contact me right away in January and I was content with the fact of being in MN, I just got a new car, I was loving coaching hockey, I was hanging out with my best friends everyday. But on January 26th he emailed me and said that he would love to have me work for him and teach at a Junior High School near Mt. Daisen. This was exactly what I was looking for because I wanted to be close to Tottori, so I could reconnect with my friends and my Japanese tutor/mother Mitsue. Cian and I skyped a few times and he offered me the position. I was on the fence for a while because no matter what, family and friends can't be replaced. However, I kept hearing, this is the time when you can do stuff like this. I kept thinking that in 10 years I would look back and be happy that I took one more run in Japan. I also miss being close the ocean, jogging along the beach, surfing and climbing mountains. I also love speaking Japanese, it's such a great feeling when you go out and have conversations in a foreign language. One of the best moments I had in Japan the last time is when my buddy Hiroki heard me speaking English and said to me, "waaaaa, I forgot you speak English." Another thing I miss is the traveling, venturing into the unknown. Those are experiences that I can't have here, so I figured I might as well go out and discover some more crazy places this planet has to offer. When I was wandering the ghettos of Bangkok by myself I felt so alive, I miss that feeling.

I've been getting a lot of shit for leaving again, people saying, "you already did that" well to them I say, yes, I did it and it was amazing, so why not go again and ride out this economic downturn. I also want to go back and perfect my Japanese, I didn't do much studying previously, so I'm going to force myself to study like a Japanese student. I'm also going to have a car there, which will open up a plethora of opportunities, to surf more, travel and be independent.

I'm leaving for Seattle on the 18th to hang with my bro for a couple days before I go to Japan. I bought my tickets and now it is real.....

I'm thinking a lot about where I want to go, if anyone has any ideas please leave a comment. I really like the idea of Beijing and Indonesia or the Phillipines. Let me know what you think.

I'll miss you all, but know that I am doing what I love to do and that is, traveling and becoming a wannabe surfer.


Wish me luck.

JB

Hokkaido

I went to Hokkaido last weekend with my co-workers for an Amity convention. This is a gathering of the best Amity schools in Japan and because we were rated number 1 of course we got to go. The vice president even asked that I give a speech and use Japanese....I was a bit shocked when I heard this, but I thought it would be fun to speak Japanese in front of 300 people...!

So we arrived and right away we went to the reception. There were a bunch of people who gave speeches before me and none of them used Japanese. So when my turn came I was kinda nervous, but I went up there and gave my 1 minute Japanese speech and I think it went well. In fact I heard the president's table oooing and ahhhing. That gave me an extra boost of confidence and I delivered the English portion of my speech without looking down at my notes. It was a nice experience and I'll never forget that. I took a video, so you can all see it when I get back because I won't be putting it on fbook.

I am winding down here, I'm kind of in that weird state that feels like the end of college or high school. It's kind of exciting, but kind of sad to think that this part of my life is over. I am ready to come home because I am sooo home sick and miss everyone dearly, but I've made a little family over here and it is going to be hard to say goodbye. Sorry to get all dramatic, but I'm listening to the new Bon Iver album as I type and it kind of makes me all emotional. The thing I am going to miss the most is my students, I have some truly amazing students. I'll miss the way the young ones tell me stories about their day in Japanese and I just go WOW or SUGOI! and they get so proud because they impressed me. I have these five 3 yr old students who I have taught since the day I got here every Saturday morning. They are like little angels, they all sit in a perfect semi-circle around me and say all the weather and feeling words perfectly as their parents and other interested parents watch from the window. It is moments like this I am going to miss.
BUT, none of that can compare to the excitement I am feeling from the thought of being able to talk face to face with my family and friends again. It is a lonely life out here. I have friends, but only on the weekends usually. I can't wait to see you all.
I have a couple more adventures planned, so stay tuned and I'll be home very soon.
JB

BANGKOK AND KOH CHANG

The Thailand trip was a success. I did exactly what I had planned to do which was relax. My previous trips involved a lot of traveling and changing hotels, which is cool, but not very relaxing. In Thailand we stayed in Bangkok for two nights in the same hotel and then we moved on to Koh Chang and stayed in the same Bungalow for four nights. It was the perfect way to spend a vacation.

That is the Giant Gold Buddha in Bangkok. Quite a site. I arrived a day later than my friends because I had to work on Thursday. So I arrived in Bangkok and had about 4 hours to kill before meeting them. I hopped in this Tuk Tuk or motorcycle taxi and he took me to all the major sightseeing spots for like $5!!! Everything was soooo cheap there. It was a good way to kill time and he was a funny guy who kept saying I was a bad boy because I told him I had multiple girlfriends....haha I wish. I then hopped on a boat and it took me all around Bangkok and I got some really nice pics of the river. This picture is of a lady hard at work in the floating market. She was weaving and sellinng fruits at the same time while being blanketed by the extreme heat. I don't know how people do it!

After finally meeting up with the guys. We couldn't find each other at the first meeting spot, so we got lucky and met at the second more American spot... McDonalds! It was so exciting to see them because for a little bit I thought I might be spending my vacation alone.....We checked into a hotel and headed out for a bite and some beers, which again was ridiculously inexpensive. $10 for a full meal and 4 beers. We then headed to the Muay Thai arena. We were waiting outside for the matches to start when I heard some Japanese being spoken, I got all excited and marched right up to these four cute Japanese girls and began putting on the charm. But they had just finished watching the first round of matches and were leaving which was a shame. So the matches started and I was so excited because we got to sit ringside, which was awesome. You could hear every punch, knee and kick hitting the skin or the bones of the opponents. It was quite the show. Again we had some Japanese guys behind us and we spoke to them the whole time. It is quite a feeling to be speaking a language other than English in a different Asian country. Below is us before the match showcasing our muscles and bad ass faces.

The next day we headed east towards Cambodia to an island called Koh Chang which means Elephant Island. I was so excited to see and ride some elephants. It is on my bucket list to do that and I can safely cross that one off. The bus ride down there and ferry were definitely rough on all of us. It is difficult to go out and party all night and then sit in an uncomfortable bus seat with a disgusting bathroom for 6 hours. But, we made it and it was ecstasy arriving at our Bungalow on the beach. This place was exactly what I wanted. We were on a hill in the jungle and only 30 seconds from the beach. We had an amazing view and there weren't any other tourists around our bungalow. We proceeded to sit and chill on the beach for two days while we rebooted our bodies. Below is a picture from our first night there. SUBLIME!

The third day we decided to rent some scooters and drive around the island. It was my friend's first time riding on scooters and they were a bit shaky and slow at first, but they gained confidence and we were zooming around that island at like 55mph. In Thailand there doesn't appear to be many traffic rules because we kept getting passed on one lane streets and what not, so we said screw it, so we started going fast and passing all the slow drivers too. It was a nice little rush to be driving something that has an engine. It was my first time doing that in over 18 months!! We visited a waterfall and some other picturesque places along the way. It was one of the best days of the trip.

The first night in Koh Chang there was this amazing fire spinner. I didn't have my camera with me at the time, so I couldn't get any pictures. But on the last night this man and his child showed up at our hotel and starting fire spinning with these cool sticks. It was an amazing show especially because this kid was like 6 or 7 years old. Below is a picture of him by himself doing his thing.

I left the next day by myself again, because I had to work the next day...so lame. The way back was that bad, I picked up the Red Hot Chili Peppers autobiography by Anthony Kiedis and I couldn't put it down. I must have read 350 pages by the time I got back to Japan. So that was my trip, a lot of relaxing, scootering and swimming.
Until next time.
JB

THAILAND

I officially bought my tickets to Bangkok tonight! I am flying out of Tottori and going to Tokyo and then it is off to Bangkok!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yes.