Brenda in Japan

Hailing from Minneapolis, Minnesota, Brenda McKinney is an American living and working in the Kansai region of Japan. This is an account of her life and adventures among the fine people of Nihon.

Friday, August 29, 2008

Got the Phone Fixed

My phone is working again. I'm happy, but I honestly don't get what the problem was.

I rushed into Sannomiya (Kobe) after work last night to talk to the English-speaking staff at Softbank before they closed. Luckily, the same guy who helped set up Ben's phone on Sunday was working (so he remembered me) and he merely pressed a few buttons and had my phone sending messages again in about a minute. Eh?

My email has been blocked essentially every afternoon since I started using the new phone, but as long as it's fixed, I suppose I'm happy. Maybe it was a security thing (kids phone...), but if it happens again, I am definitely just going straight to the shop to have them fix it.
Also sort of surprising, but I think the new kiddy phone is growing on me. Even the pink color, which I was not wild about at first. I originally wanted to get something a little more hightech (like, for people over 13) and I am a little annoyed that the model doesn't have a function that tells you if you have messages/calls on the outside (ok, it has a blinking light but no text), there is no info-red technology (to transfer information between two phones) and that there is no clock on the outside, but I'm starting to get used to it. The 3.2 mega-pix camera is pretty good, too. Granted, the phone doesn't have English so I can't read all the messages or functions - yet - but I think it's like anything else... takes time :-P It's probably good for learning Japanese, too... I've already learned one new kanji from figuring out the menu!
For those of you in Japan, my old phone is shut-off, so email me if you need the new info.

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Warning about the Amazing 子供モビル (Kids Phone)

I didn’t teach any classes today, but I am so exhausted right now. I think it's because I just spent over two hours going through my mobile phonebook and copying down all the information. Whew.

So it appears that the RIDICULOUSLY cheap new phone plan I switched to might be limiting the number of messages I can send per day. Unfortunately for me, I didn’t realize that fact until I had already cancelled my old phone plan and BEFORE I had emailed everyone to tell them I have a new number/phone-email account. Yeah, don't even say it. Silly, I know. Anyways, to make up for the error (and not being able to send anything), I've now spent the afternoon copying down everyone's information so I have a backup stored and also so I can send them a regular PC email with my new info. Sending out a group email is easy enough, but the copying part is killing me.


On a more serious note, though, I am crossing my fingers that it is not the case that my outgoing messages & calls are limited. It would cause an issue, but it is possible. The plan and phone that I just signed up for are technically for children, so I can see the phone company setting limitations and restrictions on how much a kid can use their phone.


I am going to talk to the provider today to see if I can get things sorted out, but I’ve only sent three emails (text messages) so far this morning (one to about 5 people) and I’ve already hit the quota!

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

A New Year, the New School & the Rest of the Week

As I mentioned in the last post, typhoon season is upon is. The good news is that the painfully hot and humid weather has (for the most part) subsided, but the season also brings with it almost nonstop rain (I should take a picture of the weather forecast and post it here to show you the little row of thunderbolt clouds lined up next to pretty much every day for the next week). If it's not rain, it's strong wind around this time of year, too. It's times like this that make me wish I had a car again :-P Still better than some of the snowstorms I grew up with, I suppose, but griping about the weather seems to be an international phenomenon.

Despite the nasty weather, this week has been an unusually fun one. It's the last week of summer and I know I am not going to be this free for a while once things ramp up next week, so I'm taking advantage of the time while I can!

Budget Woes and the First Day at Harima Minami High School
On Monday I went to my new high school, Harima Minami, for the first time. I am basically still doing the same job that I've been doing for the past two years, but there have been some government budget restrictions in the last year due to Hyogo Prefecture's financial issues and going to another school one of the ripple effects of those changes.
As I am sure you are aware, Kobe was hit by a massive earthquake (7.2 on the Richter scale!) about 14 years ago. The prefecture received a lot of support and financial assistance at the time, but the majority of the burden of rebuilding a major city (infrastructure is not cheap!), as well as providing memorials and information through museums after the actual recontruction, fell onto the local goverment.

So, when the loans came due last year, the prefecture found itself in sort of a tough situation. I was surprised that there wasn't more planning for when the loans would be due, but as a result of this situation, all government offices were forced to make pretty deep budget cuts accross-the-board. I think this is pretty public information how much the cuts were, but just in case it is not, I won't tell you the actual figure that was set for the reductions. I will tell you, though, that all goverment employees (poeple working in offices, schools, hospitals; everywhere) were forced to take a 3-9% pay cut beginning last spring. Losing almost a month's salary a year can have some pretty big consiquences if you have a family. A lot of people were not happy about it... but there is nothing we can do.

I technically work for Hyogo Prefecture, but since I was hired on a different type of contract from most employees (negotiated at a higher level), the salary cuts did not affect my pay. The changes did, however, affect the number of people like me they were paying. So when a few people left Japan this past year, they were not replaced, but rather those of us still here (or the few that have arrived since) are filling in the gaps.

Whew, long story short... I have two high schools this year.

I have really enjoyed working at my "base school" (another public high school) over the last year, and I hoenstly wasn't very happy when I first heard I would be "out-sourced" to a second location. I've warmed up to the idea since then, however, and I think it will be good to see a different working environment outside of the one I have become accustomed to. The new school's culture is really different from what I am used to, but the campus is also really close to my house, I'll have a foreign coworker at the new school and it's only once a week.

So far I have only been to Harima Minami one day and was only there for about an hour to meet my coworkers before they let me head out for an English Camp at another school in the area. It seemed pretty alright, though. The principal (a woman!) used to work with a close friend of mine at another school so I felt really comfortable with her off-the-bat, too, which helps. Since this friend was one of the only things we have in common, she basically just brought up my friend being sick sometimes (safe topics?), but the entirity of our first conversation was conducted in Japanese... also a bit different from my regular school, where I basically only use English. I didn't remember that the principal used to be an English teacher until later on, so I should have probably have used English, but I think everything went alright and she is now telling everyone that it is "OK to use Japanese with me." Um, just going to say that is sort of not true because I still can't speak it that well (and because I should be using English)... but I'll just go with the flow for now.

Monday was a pretty good day and not exactly difficult as far as "getting back into the groove" is concerned. After spending most of the day at the English Camp, I spent the evening with the 9 other foreigners also present, having dinner at a local restaraunt I had never been do (pretty good sukiyaki).

BBQ at Maiko Park
On Tuesday, I was back to school at my regular school. I had plans to go to a BBQ with a group of other young, female teachers in the afternoon (thankfully no rain!), but two of the girls approached me to go grocery shopping with them about an hour after I had arrived. So we left!
After going to about three different grocery stores and one of the girl's houses, we ended up at a BBQ area on the beach, next to the Akashi Pearl Bridge. It was actually really beautiful and for about $8, the staff at this place would provide a clean dining area, light your giant grill and keep it going if you needed help for about 5 hours. There were a couple other big parties near us (one with water guns... pretty sure they were wasted!) but the 5 of us basically just sat around talking and cooking all the food we made until they kicked us out at 7. None of the girls really spoke English (two days in a row!) so I was a little confused by some of the stories, but it was a blast and afterwards two of the girls and my neighbor came over to hang out for a nijiikai (afterparty).

Wednesday
I spent Wednesday evening in Sannomiya. I met Dave and Chris in Oppaiyama Koen (the name of a popular meeting spot by the JR station) and saw my friend Leighanne, who had just come back from the Olympics with a friend, for a few minutes before dinner. We did cheeseburgers at Polo Dog, a cheap and sure choice, and hung out at the Amagasaki local, Ranman, for a while afterwards. Long, but fun night.

Thursday, Friday & the Rest of the Weekend
This post is getting too long so I'm just going to combine the rest of the weekend into one little bit. On Thursday, I met up with a friend, discovering a new favorite sushi restaraunt in Kobe (huge California rolls... for cheap!) and then went out to all-you-can-drink karaoke with Leighanne, her friend & a small group of people from my area on Friday. I think all the drinking events are starting to get to me, and Friday was pretty rough. I hadn't really eaten much all day, and the spring rolls at the karaoke place didn't do much to divert the beer from hitting me hard... BUT I was up early on Saturday to meet the old ladies, go for a run and then to hit up the outlet malls with some other girls. I didn't buy much, but it was fun. In the evening, I went to a Beer Garden (outdoor all-you-can-eat/drink events held outdoors in the summer) on the roof of the SOGO Department store in Sannomiya. The event was sort of a welcome party and there were a lot of people I knew there, but I ended up going to Hobgoblin and then back to Amagasaki with a group of people afterwards, where we proceeded to talk until about 7 or 8am! It was sort of funny going to a nearby convenience store for food on the way home at 12:30 and then seeing the look on the clerks' faces when we went back for more food around 6am, and it was a lot of fun... but Sunday was pretty much shot (either sleeping during the day, watching movies with the same friends or just too tired to do anything else).


Otsukaresama!
So, yeah, three chapters of my future book later (kidding, but this was a lot...), there you have it: proof that I wasn't kidding when I said I was trying to "take advantage of the last days of summer." The running around is fun and I'm not tired yet, but I am looking forward to spending the week in the area and working out a bit more. We have a couple long weekends this month, too, but I think I am going to stick around Kansai to see some festivals.. I'll keep you updated :)

Catching Up on the Last Few Weeks (of Summer!!)

You may have noticed I am slightly behind on blogging ;-) Not having internet for a while (partially due to not having a home computer, and partially due to just not being home or having the time) set me back, but I have also been a little slack. Before I tell you about what I've been up to this week (in a separate post), I'll catch you guys up on the last few weeks.

More on Summer Sonic
So the last time I wrote I had just attended the Summer Sonic music festival in Osaka. The concerts were amazing and I think I walked away from that experience with much higher regard for both Death Cab for Cutie and Coldplay. I hadn't previously realized the singer from Death Cab was the same lead in the Postal Service (another fave band I discovered off the Garden State soundtrack), but what really got to me was both the quality of their performance (already like the music that I knew). Just to give one example, at one point during the Death Cab set, the band started playing "When Soul Meets Body" (a pretty big hit) but it sounded a little off.  Live music can be different, right?  Wrong.  The lead singer actually stopped the show and had the band start the song over because the chords weren't completely right, telling the crowd that he knew that we had paid a lot of money for these tickets and deserved to see a good show (and that they were also consumers and liked good music, and would expect the same of the bands they saw). How rad. Also puts into perspective how awful the Sex Pistols were.  They showed up 30 minutes late for an hour-long set, sounded horrible, and then the lead singer told everyone he didn't have a voice.  We promptly left after that (think my patience was gone after 20 minutes of waiting) and just went down to the Prodigy show.  
I have probably gushed enough about Coldplay and I know they are becoming massive in the mainstream music industry (which - to some people - makes them less cool), but their show was probably the highlight of the weekend for me.  I still really associate their music with my first year in Norway and like the new CD, too, so it was personally gratifying to hear the music live.
Summer Sonic also introduced me to some great music, including bands like The Kills, Band of Horses, Blood Red Shoes, the Fratellies and the Kooks. I had maybe heard a song or two from these guys beforehand, but after the event, I now have their CDs in my iPod and am enjoying the new tunes.

Yashiro 2008
After the weekend of Summer Sonic ended, I had to go back for work for two days and then was out of town again for another few, this time at the Hyogo Prefecture Government training center in Yashiro, Japan.  The center at Yashiro is commonly and fondly referred to as "Yashiro Prison" but the place isn't really that bad.  It just doesn't help that the walls are plain and white, there's literally nothing around the center (even the convenience store is gone now), there is a curfew for adults and there are really strict, general rules - including ones about how to correctly fold your sheets.  My three days volunteering at orientation were interesting, but the place was a lot better than I remembered it being when I had to attend an orientation there two years ago.  I think people just dislike going to the country for training... can you blame them? 
In order to save money ("for the taxpayers") and keep the noise levels down, there was no reception/ceremony/party this time around (strange for Japan), which was unfortunate because the Japanese kitchen staff doubles as an Elvis coverband (the head chef has a white jumpsuit and about 150 guitars at home!) and I was really looking forward to hearing them play.  The time went by fast, though, the food was good (one thing I was not looking forward to) and everything went smoothly. The second of the three days was probably the most exhausting for me personally as I lead a few workshops, which required talking all afternoon, but hopefully the participants got something out of it. 
Oh, and just for the random trivia lovers out there, Yashiro (or a town next to it) is essentially the "belly button of Japan", where latitude and longitude cross and literally the center of this country.  But moving on...

Two Weekends Ago - More Goodbyes and Friends fromOut of Town
(Friday/Saturday)
After Yashiro, I was back in town for another night (Friday), this time going to a goodbye dinner for yet another person leaving Japan. We met at a park near Amagasaki and ended up going to a swanky conveyer belt sushi joint (where I decided to re-try sake...again...and actually liked it for the first time!) with a small group and the departing guy's host family from when he studied in Japan.
The next morning, I set off in the opposite direction, Himeji-yuki (towards Himeji) to meet up with some of my volunteer friends who were visiting from out of town. I had actually just seen two of the girls, Caroline and Alaina (both on the Corporate committee with me) in Tokyo a few weeks back, but it was sort of fun to have them on home turf and Caroline brought a friend from Shimane Prefecture (mountainous area on the other side of the country where she lives) who was pretty cool, too. 
After playing around and showing the girls the hippy store in central Himeji for a bit (an area which has limited options), Alaina went home to Nara Prefecture and the two other girls came back to stay at my house for the next two nights. The region I live in is fairly international compared to most places in Japan, so we opted for Nepalese food for dinner - get it while you can! - and spent their first night in town going on a 3-hour bike tour of my community. I don't actually live in Kobe, more like in an outer-ring suburb slash industrial-area-in-the-rice fields, but we ended up seeing the reflexology stones near Befu, the Onaki Iseki ancient village in Harimacho, the musical bridge and - of course - a view of the famous Akashi Pearl bridge from the man-made island near my house. I think I wore the girls out, but it was good and seeing the bridge and just watching the calm waters from the island was a peaceful way to end the adventure.

(Sunday)
The next day, I had to run some errands and prepare for the week (work stuff), so Caroline checked out the earthquake museum while I did my thing and then I met her to go to the sake breweries in Kobe. Unfortunately, the breweries were closed for the Obon holiday (foiled again!), so we just walked around Kobe (or accross it, rather - from Meriken Park and Harbourland to Sannomiya), met a big group of friends for dinner at La Pause, ended up actually eating at Sweets Paradise (all-you-can-eat desert!) and then walked around the old foreign settlement overlooking Kobe along with our friend Goran (who Caroline also knows) until last train.
We had rented movies during our little cycling sojourn the previous evening, but Caroline and I finally walked in the door around 1am, too tired to watch them... and ended up talking for a few hours.  We really only got a few hours for sleep before Caroline had to get up to catch her train and I had to meet my ride for English Camp, but it was fun having her here.  It's been a long time since I've had a girls slumber party :)

Akashi Nishi Sch0ol Retreat
On Monday morning, I was off to the Akashi Nishi High School English Camp retreat.  I have been on several school fieldtrips in Japan (most notably, to USJ and Himeji Castle), but this was my first English camp... and I loved it! I won't go into a million details, but it was basically a 3-day intensive English-learning summer session for the advanced-level students at a local Super English high school. I only had to plan 2 lessons for the event, and taught both a few times, but we also had a speech competition, a drama competition (with plays the students wrote) and an "English race"/Scavanger hunt (that I totally want to replicate with my students). It was also a lot of fun just to hang out with the students (while setting off fireworks one evening or during breaks, etc), who were a really great and outgoing group of high schoolers, not to mention the other staff members. My neighbor from New Zealand and another woman I haven't gotten to know that well since we've both lived here were also on staff, and just having them around definitely made the three days a more fun.  I laughed a lot.

On Thursday and Friday, I hung out in the area but still found myself busy enough with catching up. My new computer arrived, so I spent some time playing around with that and biked to school in the mornings.  I got sort of mad at a coworker on Friday who saw me pumping up my bike tires and told me they were low because I "have been starting to get on the plump side".  Oh Japan.  I told the coworker it was not nice or OK to say that, and the reply was just that he was honest.  The local IFA ladies told my tall, thin friend she was getting  too fat last week, too, and she's probably still a size 2.  I guess I had forgotten how fast people are to remind you abut stuff like this.  Maybe it is time to get back into running more regularly, though... erm, just to get in shape and not because of the comment... of course.

Local Weekend and Now We're up to Date!
Yeah, so that's about it!  This past weekend I just hung out with people in the area.  Friday was a little party in Harimacho, the town over, where we basically just finished off the stuff we had left over from the 4th of July, I went to another amazingly delicious Taco Night at my friend Shag's house (who is also leaving in a few months!?) in Kobe on Saturday and I got together with my friend Ben, who lived here my first year and just moved back to Japan, on Sunday.  We met for lunch, but I ended up staying way past dinner, spending the whole day in Sannomiya just setting up Ben's cell phone, going shopping and getting together with another old friend of Ben and myself that I hadn't seen in almost a year.

This week has been pretty amazing as well.  Typhoon season is here so it's raining a lot, but it's the last week of summer and I'm trying to take advantage of all of it.  I'll post a separate blog about the week (including about my new school... working at 2 now) but thanks for catching up and more soon.  

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Shopping for Digital Cameras

Now that my computer is fixed and I have the new MacBook, it's really time to get the new camera. I have been planning on getting a new digital for a long time and was planning on either buying one in America this summer (yes, I know I live in Japan... but they can be the same price at home and the manuals, camera and warranty are always in English!) or just leaving my current digi-camera (as we say here) at home and getting one immediately upon my return.

Well, I left my camera at home and 3 disposable cameras (and about $30 in developing fees later), I am ready to get one NOW.
I have been shopping around a bit and comparing prices and have been surprised by what I've found. Comparing American websites to what I see in the stores here, I really think Japan might have a more advanced selection at a better price, but again, English is not always an option (OK when I am living here and can get help, not OK in a year when I move).
I was considering getting a DSLR for a while, too. They're expensive, but the shots are amazing, I am doing a bit of traveling right now so I would use it, and you can get a decent one for about $500 (far less than I expected). Then I thought about it and realized my needs were most likely not sufficient to warrant buying such a model just yet, so I'm back to the point-and-shoot digitals, now looking for one with a good optical zoom and color highlighting/effect option that I like.


Any recommendations out there for simple digital cameras that you have liked?


Lumix makes a 10x Optical Zoom that's OK, but the body is a bit clunky. Olympus has a smaller, stylish model with 10.1 megapix & 7x Optical zoom (maybe 5x digital zoom?) that I also really like, but I need to do more research. Hmm.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Summer Sonic '08

I had such a great weekend, but I'm a little out of it from running around so much :-P Just a little preface... ;) :-P

Friday
So the highlight of my meetings in Kobe on Friday was definitely when we were reviewing the schedule at our orientation-planning meeting and went over who would be doing what during the first shift next week.

I look at the sheet. Nate's at the desk. Fine. Chris is helping guide people to rooms. Awesome. Daniel is also a guide. Cool. And Brenda... is...working the corner?

That gave me a laugh (ok, everyone a laugh) for a while but I don't think the Board of Education guys knew why we were laughing so hard about the fact that they assigned to one girl to work the corner (association is idiomatic, I guess).

Anyways, after the meeting, I headed back to the Amagasaki-area with my friend Chris and we went to an izakaya to meet up with Dave and Emi (and they had hangaku - halfprice- drinks...score) for some food before hitting up the local watering hole. It was fun to just hang out and watch the olympics opening ceremony, but I don't know who decided it would be a good idea to use chinese characters instead of English to decide what order countries walked out in. Confusing!

Friday ended pretty late and I definiately drank too much (maybe those hangaku drinks weren't the best, afterall?), but it was good.

Saturday & Sunday
On Saturday, we got up a bit later than planned, but still made it to Maijima Island in Osaka - near Universal Studios - for the Summer Sonic music festival just as Vampire Weekend was finishing their set. I went over with Dave, Zak, Sagar and Tu, but a few other people were at the festival so we spent the two days just walking around to the shows we wanted to see. The heat was intense and the dusty grounds in front of the main stage left your feet black, but two of the six stages were inside with air-conditioning and there were water-spraying stations and free towels all over so it wasn't too bad. And the music was brilliant.
I would have to say Coldplay was my favorite band of the weekend. I know there is a lot of hype around them and they're really popular right now, but the performance was excellent and Chris Martin seemed really happy to be there (which was nice to see compared to other bands - although I agree with my friend that he does seem to want to be Bono so badly he can taste it...haha). I was a little worried that of the big most bands wouldn't play their big hits since Japan is off the main western-market tour zones (and gives them a chance to try new stuff that might not work in America), but pretty much everyone I saw - including Coldplay - included everything I wanted to hear in their set.
The concerts went from about noon to 9pm every day and it really cooled off in the evenings because we were so close to the water, which was nice. There was a lot of lightening on the first night, but luckily, we didn't get rained on (which is good because we stood outside in the taxi line forever...). Also, in the middle of the Coldplay show (which was at the main stage, outside, on Sat night), the band surprised the audience by setting up an impromptu stage really close to where we were standing in the middle of the crowd so we were actually really close to Chris Martin for a while (like, close enough to see his sweat), it was sort of cool to hear "Lovers in Japan" (off the new album) live in Japan, and I really loved how the show ended with a fireworks finale. It was also kind of cool to see Devo live, although we missed Whip It! and it felt a little bit like watching your dad change when the band tore off their paper suits (looked like Ghostbusters uniforms) to reveal little black shorts, knee-high socks, knee pads & t-shirts. Oh, well, this had to have been a big show for them, so at least they made it fun.

The second day was a lot more crowded than the first, with lines for some of the shows. Death Cab for Cutie (which was inside and ended with Transatlanticism - one of my fave songs - amazing!) and the Verve (who knew they were still around... and so good?) were my top choices for the second day, but the lineup on the first day was a bit juicier. The big acts at the end of the night on Sunday were Sex Pistols (who showed up 30 minutes late and then sounded like crap...jerks) and Prodigy, but I can see how they saved the better lineup for Tokyo on Sunday. Dave pointed out that most people have to work on Saturday, so if they go to one day, it's going to be Sunday... and Tokyo is the bigger city. Makes sense and Sunday was definitely busier in Osaka, too... but it would have been nice to see Coldplay last.

Monday
I ended up staying in Amagasaki until Monday, along with a big group of other concert-goers who joined the slumber party, and just left early for work but I'm really glad I made it to the concerts this year. Also saw a bit more of the Olympics on Saturday night (Japan won a bronze and gold in judo), but realized pretty early on that I was the only American present so kept the American cheers to a minimum (sort of). Definitely dejavu to watching the summer Olympics at school in Norway when I was the only one cheering for the States (which some people love to hate or are annoyed by because our team is always so massive... and stupid Joe refused to cheer for), but it's kind of fun watching then outside of the country because the coverage is so different. It seemed funny that they focus only on showing the Japanese team here, but they did showcase the swimming events when we got the first gold (and world record!).

Anyways, off to prefectural orientation tomorrow (gotta be on the corner bright and early ;) ) but my computer is being picked up today (totally dead now) so I'll probably be out of the loop for a bit. I'll be more connected as of a week from Wednesday.... so more then!

The Weekend Review - Summer Sonic (Osaka)

So I just saw 311, the kooks, radwimps, alicia keys (pretty in person, too), coldplay (wow, WOW, wow), devo, mutemath, super furry animals, funky monkey babies, band of horses, panic at the disco, prodigy, the verve, sex pistols (not so wow), death cab for cutie, zebrahead, and maximum hormone and the kills. LIVE.

(not even to mention the bands we didn't have time for or just missed... boo to an early vampire weekend show!)

not bad for a weekend in town, ne? my arms are a little burnt and i'm tired, but i basically had an amazing time at the summer sonic music festival on saturday and sunday. i'll post details soon :)

Friday, August 08, 2008

Back in Kansai and Back Out the Door

I am finally back in town for a day, although I’m off to Kobe for training this afternoon and then have tickets to Summer Sonic, a huge music festival in Kobe/Osaka all weekend. The biggest or most familiar act at Summer Sonic this year is probably Coldplay or maybe Prodigy (or “THE Prodigy”, as the poster says...oops), but there are about 40 bands from all over the world coming. They play one day in either Tokyo or Osaka and then switch cities for the second day. It’s going to be hot (in the 90s) and tickets are a bit pricey, but I was really kicking myself when they sold out last year and I didn’t get to go. And it’s been way too long since I went to a music festival... can’t wait.

Adjusting Back
I know I’ve written then before, but the trip home really was exactly what I needed and I’ve been doing well since I got back (especially now that jetlag is finally gone… no more 4am mornings!). I guess culture shock never goes away, it just changes, and there are always ups and downs when living in another culture, but I am definitely doin’ just fine, as Mary J. Blige would put it.

I went out to dinner in Harimacho with a new Aussie that just moved into the neighborhood and Chris last night and we ended up just standing by the river and talking for a few hours afterwards. On the bike ride home, Chris made a comment about how I seemed different. Like I must have missed everyone because I seemed so content and happy right now, more talkative in a way. The thing is, I am happy. I miss everyone at home but the response that automatically came out was that I feel like I live here now vs. just visiting for a while and I am more comfortable. It’s a test for me in some ways considering this is the first time in my life I have been in the same environment for 3 consecutive years (literally, have never – not even in college – been in one place, doing the same/similar thing for that long). I have also passed the point when I thought I would go and have undergone some major transitions here more than once now, which maybe changes your mindset. We’ll see how things go, but for now, thumbs up.

I think the volunteer work I'm now doing actually has a lot to do with these sentiments. I’m getting a lot of satisfaction out of it and it’s providing a lot of the changes I am looking for while allowing me to still sort of stay doing the same thing. The people I work with are the same way, too, so it’s good to be involved with a crowd like that.

Tokyo
Tokyo Orientation was a blast. It was busy with 6:30 am shifts (another first with catching the first train to get to work) and late nights (usually ending with me dropping into bed), but I had an excellent time. I met a few new people, particularly a lot of business folks I have been communicating with via email and finally got to meet face-to-face and even reconnected with a childhood friend, Carol, living in Tokyo.
I was really glad I got to go to Disney Sea before the conference started and I definitely feel like I know Shinjuku better at this point, too, but most of the time in Tokyo was spent inside the hotel. A friend and I also went to Harujuku on Sunday morning to see the “cozplay”, but the girls don’t actually come out until around noon, so we ended up just strolling around Meiji Shrine for a while. I really would have liked to have gone to the Ghible Museum, Contemporary Museum of Art and the Yasukuni Shrine as well, but I was just too tired when it was all over and decided to take a train home after we finished packing up (and shipping about 40 boxes worth of publications!). We probably ruined some peoples’ 5-star hotel experience when they walked into the Keio lobby and it looked like a shipping container, but at least we got it all out (and sort of without breaking the bank... good day for the Black Cat!).
I decided to take the Nozomi, the fastest bullet train, back to Kansai from Tokyo but there were a lot of delays due to the bad weather (in Osaka) so I didn’t actually make it home until after 10pm. I guess Osaka just got hit with a bad storm (I guess the power went out in Amagasaki, which is close), but my coworkers said we didn’t even get a drop in my area so it’s funny that they stopped the trains just for the rain. I think the train companies are trying to change the safety regulations so it’s more strict (one train actually derailed in the area I live in and killed a lot of people when it went into an apartment building the year I came), but I hope that doesn’t mean that they delays on these trains is becoming more commonplace. It’s already been bad this summer and sitting standstill for an hour used to be unheard of... especially for the shinkansen.

Work
School is slow. A lot of people are gone and there are no classes, but I still have to come when I'm in the area. Some of my students just came back from Australia so I’ve been talking to the chaperones and looking at pictures. There were actually a lot of problems during this trip, but ironically, all of them were rooted in the students from the other school that accompanied my school this time. The homestays seem to have gone really well, though, and even my principal said he practiced his English a lot. I feel bad for one of my students who had to go to the hospital with a teacher during the layover in Singapore because she was sick on the plane...only to discover she was sick because she had cramps and was menstruating (how embarrassing!), but I’m not planning on bringing it up when I see her.
I’ve got meetings in Kobe later today, another business trip to Yashiro next week and another retreat the next week at I am working at, so it’s a busy couple of weeks ahead, but I’m excited.

I think I’m going to head out since I biked to work again, but more later. My computer has now actually died, but Apple is going to give me a new one since it's under warrenty. Worked out in my favor because I'll get the new operating system... but that also means no home computer until the new one arrives (and my office blocked a bunch of websites this week, so I'm no longer able to surf the net as freely as I used to be... even YouTube is blocked!?!). At least I bought that external harddrive a year ago and have good about using it.

Anyways... adios and enjoy the weekend :)

Tuesday, August 05, 2008

Tokyo Disney Sea

The few days I had back in Kansai before heading to Tokyo were nice. Not too busy.

On Friday I went to school in the morning and then caught a bullet train to Tokyo. Nozaki Sensei (who was in Tokyo for a conference) met me on the platform at Tokyo Station and we caught another train to the Disney theme parks area, about 20 minutes away.

Disney Sea - Tokyo
I’ve been to Disneyland in Tokyo twice, but I’ve actually been trying to get back up here for a while to check out Disney Sea. Disney Sea is an adult-oriented magic-and-discovery-themed amusement park that is designed to look like various major ports of the world. While there are Disneylands in a few other countries now, the Tokyo Disney Sea is the only one in the world, and I have to admit, I was a bit surprised by how much I LOVED it.

Nozaki and I bought evening passes (tickets are cheaper after 3 & 6 and fast passes are free) and were able to go on pretty much every ride even though we didn’t start until 5pm. We also ran into a huge group of my colleagues from the conference I am heading to, so we ended up spending the latter half of the day with them, which also turned out to be pretty fun (the gondolas are way better with groups you know!). Here's us on the second round through Tower of Terror (I think everyone on the ride had been on it at least once before, but I love how terrified my friend Caroline looks):
The Disney Sea park is located adjacent to an actual ocean port (fitting for the park theme, no?) and the Disney recreations of global port cities (Port Discovery, a science/underwater area, The Lost River Delta, an Arabian Coast - with a square that REALLY did look like the inside of a middle-eastern mosque!, the Mermaid Lagoon, Mysterious Island - a lake inside the volcano, Mediterranean Harbour - based on several Italian cities and an American Waterfront, complete with a Titanic-sque steamship and old New York sidestreets) were surprisingly accurate-looking. We stopped in a gallery showing a small-scale model of the park and photos of the places the buildings were based on and I found it really impressive how much research Disney put into their work (not a huge shocker).

Anyways, I recommend going to the park if you can. The highlights of the DS park for me were:
1. The “Legend of Mythica” fountain, fire & light show at the end of the evening (in addition to the performance in the Mediterranian, the volcano erupts with real fire – a lot of the rides actually used real fire – and you could feel the heat!),
2. The Indiana Jones tour... I got to sit at the steering wheel :-) ,
3 The Tower of Terror (went on it twice ),
4. The Gondola rides (we surprised one of the girls in our larger group with cake, a light-up ring and a HAPPY BIRTHDAY serenade under one of the bridges... was really funny when we finished and this Japanese guy told us it was his girlfriend's birthday and had us sing again for her),
5. and definitely the rides inside the volcano, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and the more interesting Journey to the Center of the Earth (traveling to the earth’s core with Capt. Nemo).
6. The food and souvineers were, of course, of the standard Disney prototype and price, but I did like the gyoza dog (Chinese dumpling shaped like a hotdog) and the pepper-flavored popcorn wasn’t bad (they have different flavors of popcorn in the different ports).

The place turns you into such a kid! I don’t think I’ll be back again while I’m still in Japan, but I had a ton of fun and was really glad I got to go with Nozaki.

At the Hotel and Ready for the Conference
Now I’m at a hotel in Ryogoku, an area in central Tokyo by the Edo Museum. The jetlag has been making me get up early (4am regardless of bedtime), but I'm feeling OK.
But I’m in Tokyo! I shouldn’t be spending all my time online so I better go. From what I hear, the next few days could
be a little crazy busy, so not sure if I’ll be able to check in again. If not, happy weekend to all and more next week!