Saturday, October 22, 2005
Reason to apply for JET #783
You know you are spoiled when you put $250 in your wallet and tell yourself "K, you can only spend THIS much this weekend, Jeff." God, the real world will suck, whenever that happens!
Thursday, October 20, 2005
Damn you, John Lennon!
So, I was excited for today’s 3nensei lesson, as it was an easy one and pretty easy for students, as well. The first half of the lesson was going to consist of the students listening to John Lennon’s “Imagine” and filling in the missing words I took out of the lyric handouts. I also had Kelly Clarkson’s “Breakaway” and Alicia Keys’ “Fallin’” ready in case we had extra time. Anyway, so all is going well with Imagine, although the kids are having some troubles understanding good ol’ Johnny Boy.
Then Ms. Ito, my JTE, is like “Okay, now you (Jeff) will sing a line a cappella, and the students will sing it back to you! They are very excited to sing!” K, two things are wrong with this! 1) Um, have you ever heard the song Imagine? It is like, a real song. Not a rock song or an ‘80’s song that you can yell along with. And it has high notes and crazy shit like that. And it is NOT a song that you want to sing a cappella in front of a bunch of 15 year-olds! 2) By looking at the students’ faces, it was very obvious that they were NOT waiting on the edge of their seats for the opportunity to start belting out the oldies. First of all, they have all been practicing for like three weeks straight for next week’s chorus competition thing. Secondly, I don’t think they would be too thrilled even if they weren’t being forced to sing every day!
So, I had the pleasure of “singing” Imagine while being judged by 3nensei. Might I add that they did not sing back very enthusiastically for being incredibly excited to break out the jams. Oy. I will have my revenge on Ms. Ito!
Other “events” of the day:
- I am proud of myself because I turned down the leftover kyushoku meal that wasn’t eaten today. It was offered to me like 30 times and I said no each time! Yay, I’m kicking my problem!
- The 6th period 1nensei class that I was dreading (6th period is the most pointless class of the entire day, as everyone (including the teachers) is just thinking about being at home) was cancelled because of the choir contest next week! Woot!
- For some reason there have been about seven million flies in the staff room lately, so I have become one of those teachers I usually make fun of who look busy by swatting flies all day long. It is kinda fun, tho! Die, bitches!
- I am going to book my Thailand tickets today, even though I have yet to ask either school for permission to leave before the term ends (both the chuu and shou vice principals were on a trip today so no dice. I wanna book it before it gets more expensive/is sold out, so they will just have to deal with my absence!).
Yes, I lead a very exciting life….hehehe.
Then Ms. Ito, my JTE, is like “Okay, now you (Jeff) will sing a line a cappella, and the students will sing it back to you! They are very excited to sing!” K, two things are wrong with this! 1) Um, have you ever heard the song Imagine? It is like, a real song. Not a rock song or an ‘80’s song that you can yell along with. And it has high notes and crazy shit like that. And it is NOT a song that you want to sing a cappella in front of a bunch of 15 year-olds! 2) By looking at the students’ faces, it was very obvious that they were NOT waiting on the edge of their seats for the opportunity to start belting out the oldies. First of all, they have all been practicing for like three weeks straight for next week’s chorus competition thing. Secondly, I don’t think they would be too thrilled even if they weren’t being forced to sing every day!
So, I had the pleasure of “singing” Imagine while being judged by 3nensei. Might I add that they did not sing back very enthusiastically for being incredibly excited to break out the jams. Oy. I will have my revenge on Ms. Ito!
Other “events” of the day:
- I am proud of myself because I turned down the leftover kyushoku meal that wasn’t eaten today. It was offered to me like 30 times and I said no each time! Yay, I’m kicking my problem!
- The 6th period 1nensei class that I was dreading (6th period is the most pointless class of the entire day, as everyone (including the teachers) is just thinking about being at home) was cancelled because of the choir contest next week! Woot!
- For some reason there have been about seven million flies in the staff room lately, so I have become one of those teachers I usually make fun of who look busy by swatting flies all day long. It is kinda fun, tho! Die, bitches!
- I am going to book my Thailand tickets today, even though I have yet to ask either school for permission to leave before the term ends (both the chuu and shou vice principals were on a trip today so no dice. I wanna book it before it gets more expensive/is sold out, so they will just have to deal with my absence!).
Yes, I lead a very exciting life….hehehe.
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
BORED BORED BORED
At Minami Shougakkou with NOTHING to do...lalala. I sense this will be a very exciting entry ;) I don't understand why they give me 6th period off, as I literally have nothing to do for over an hour, so I just sit here. Well, usually I have classes to plan for two weeks from now, but the lady in charge of me hasn't made next month's schedule, so I don't know what to plan. I was trying to think of excuses to leave early ("er, I have to go to chuugakkou for some reason!"), but sometimes people call for me here and I don't wanna be caught in my ALT web of lies. Boo for being a semi-honest person!
My classes were fun today, though, so that's good. For some reason the Sensei for my 5th period class had to go somewhere, so I had the whole class to myself. It was nice, as that is the one teacher here who is like, "Be quiet, you're not allowed to be having fun RARRR!" so I made it into a big American loud-ass classroom, which was a nice change. We moved all of the desks to the front and ran around the back of the room and stuff. I even got to sit on top of the desks! Ah, how I miss such Western things.
Speaking of Western things, I haven't bitched about something yet. SO, some fucking mother complained to Mr. Onda (the Ota BOE ALT supervisor) that "four ALTs and one JTE" were fucking chewing gum at the speech contest. Um. What the fuck kind of dumbass would take the time to call up Mr. Onda and be like "Oh my god, I can't believe these people were CHEWING GUM at my son or daughter's English speech contest! They only fucking wrote the entire speech for them and spent a million hours with them for two months! How dare they have refreshing breath! CRAZY GAIJIN GAHHHH!" What the fuck? Might I add that that was the only sustenance we had for like the whole eight hour-long speech contest. Grrr. Im not bitter! Hehe.
Hmm, 45 minutes 'til I am outta here! I def. felt the keitai love today, as I got messages from eight people in one hour! Anyhoo, I'm going to Darin's tonight for dinner in Isesaki. Hello, I would travel to like Tochigi for FLAUTAS and possibly pumpkin pie?! Yes, orgasm. I am so overwhelmed by the thought of such delicacies that I can't possibly write any more. Time to go find a quiet corner and fantasize about the food that will be in my tummy tonight. Fuck porn, I need to start downloading videos of people eating Mexican food, it is so much hotter!
My classes were fun today, though, so that's good. For some reason the Sensei for my 5th period class had to go somewhere, so I had the whole class to myself. It was nice, as that is the one teacher here who is like, "Be quiet, you're not allowed to be having fun RARRR!" so I made it into a big American loud-ass classroom, which was a nice change. We moved all of the desks to the front and ran around the back of the room and stuff. I even got to sit on top of the desks! Ah, how I miss such Western things.
Speaking of Western things, I haven't bitched about something yet. SO, some fucking mother complained to Mr. Onda (the Ota BOE ALT supervisor) that "four ALTs and one JTE" were fucking chewing gum at the speech contest. Um. What the fuck kind of dumbass would take the time to call up Mr. Onda and be like "Oh my god, I can't believe these people were CHEWING GUM at my son or daughter's English speech contest! They only fucking wrote the entire speech for them and spent a million hours with them for two months! How dare they have refreshing breath! CRAZY GAIJIN GAHHHH!" What the fuck? Might I add that that was the only sustenance we had for like the whole eight hour-long speech contest. Grrr. Im not bitter! Hehe.
Hmm, 45 minutes 'til I am outta here! I def. felt the keitai love today, as I got messages from eight people in one hour! Anyhoo, I'm going to Darin's tonight for dinner in Isesaki. Hello, I would travel to like Tochigi for FLAUTAS and possibly pumpkin pie?! Yes, orgasm. I am so overwhelmed by the thought of such delicacies that I can't possibly write any more. Time to go find a quiet corner and fantasize about the food that will be in my tummy tonight. Fuck porn, I need to start downloading videos of people eating Mexican food, it is so much hotter!
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
Those crazy dehydrated Japanese folk
This is a conversation I had with a student in half English/half Japanese yesterday. I should point out that every Japanese person has a heart attack when they see my Nalgene bottle full of water, as they have no idea why anyone would need that much liquid (let alone much water).
Student: What is in that huge bottle?!
Me: Water.
Student: Why?!
Me: Because I like to drink a lot of water.
Student: Why?!
Me: Because I’m a human being?
Student: That’s so strange!
Me: Why do Japanese people never drink water?
Student: .........
Me: Why do Japanese people only drink tea?
Student: We don’t only drink tea. We also drink coffee!
Me: ........
Student: And Japanese people drink alcohol, too!
Me: .....you’re strange.
Student: What is in that huge bottle?!
Me: Water.
Student: Why?!
Me: Because I like to drink a lot of water.
Student: Why?!
Me: Because I’m a human being?
Student: That’s so strange!
Me: Why do Japanese people never drink water?
Student: .........
Me: Why do Japanese people only drink tea?
Student: We don’t only drink tea. We also drink coffee!
Me: ........
Student: And Japanese people drink alcohol, too!
Me: .....you’re strange.
Long long long long Tuesday
Even though I only had three classes today, it has been the longest day EVER! However, there have at least been some amusing observations for me to make, as it is a “special” day. Today a buncha people from the BOE came to observe classes, so every teacher was pretty much crapping their pants all day long while I didn’t have to worry about anything. Everyone is wearing suits as if they do so every day, but they look so uncomfortable in them! It is freezing and raining outside and this one teacher was like “It’s so humid today!” I think he may be suffering from non-track suit shock.
The students were supposed to be on their best behavior today because of the visitors, but I think it got them more anxious, as I was very near killing a few of my bitchy-ass 1nenseis today (and usually 1nenseis are really cool). Somehow I (and they) survived the day, at least!
I think the Japanese gods may have been listening to me and Cindy bitching about the tasteless loaves of bread they give at kyushoku ‘cause today I had the most American-ized bread EVER. It was a loaf of bread fried and covered in cocoa powder. Um, yummy! Can I please have that for breakfast, lunch and dinner? Actually, I hear that’s what they eat for every meal in England…. ;) Oh, I merely jest, ya crazy wankers!
I was fortunately saved from having to attend the meetings on teaching with BOE peeps, and was chilling with the other pointless “teachers” in the staffroom. I decided that I forgot a very important item in my apartment, so I was able to leave for a bit. God forbid I not have my colored pencils! Hee hee hee. I actually did need them, as I had to color in a buncha flags (K, the Australian, New Zealand, and American flags are not fun to color in on a big scale) for shougakkou tomorrow, but I assume there are colored pencils somewhere in this school. Ah, I am such a rebel ALT.
K, so do you want to read the most depressing thing ever?! 3nensei were assigned to write about the housework done at their house and whether or not it is shared equally by their family. I had nothing to do with the assignment, but based on the writings I read, they were allowed to either use their present situation, or pretend they were in the future and talking about their own family (in which they are the mother or father). So, here is one student’s essay:
“Hello, everyone. I’m going to talk about sharing the housework in my house. I have many maids. First, my exclusive maid is Ms. Mariko. She is very kind and good cook. Next, my husband exclusive maid is Ms. Naoko. She is very beautiful. But she is bad character. HA HA HA. One day, my husband and maid (Ms. Naoko) were daiting is secret. The news made me sad. But, now, I’m happy!! Because I’ll bear twins baby. Them name is Kazuo and Kazuko. It is good name, isn’t it? Oh, housework is leave maids. It is wonderful, isn’t it? Good bay.”
The depressing thing is not the bad English, but the fact that a girl would fantasize about her future husband cheating on her with a maid?! What the hell? Note to self: if you are upset about your husband cheating on you, just get pregnant and everything will be better.
Yes, I am an evil person and the worst teacher in the world for posting that online, but this is what happens when a JTE you don’t even work with has you correct 200 essays just because she is too lazy to correct the homework she assigns! No, I’m not bitter at all. ;)
On that horrible note, this post is done.
The students were supposed to be on their best behavior today because of the visitors, but I think it got them more anxious, as I was very near killing a few of my bitchy-ass 1nenseis today (and usually 1nenseis are really cool). Somehow I (and they) survived the day, at least!
I think the Japanese gods may have been listening to me and Cindy bitching about the tasteless loaves of bread they give at kyushoku ‘cause today I had the most American-ized bread EVER. It was a loaf of bread fried and covered in cocoa powder. Um, yummy! Can I please have that for breakfast, lunch and dinner? Actually, I hear that’s what they eat for every meal in England…. ;) Oh, I merely jest, ya crazy wankers!
I was fortunately saved from having to attend the meetings on teaching with BOE peeps, and was chilling with the other pointless “teachers” in the staffroom. I decided that I forgot a very important item in my apartment, so I was able to leave for a bit. God forbid I not have my colored pencils! Hee hee hee. I actually did need them, as I had to color in a buncha flags (K, the Australian, New Zealand, and American flags are not fun to color in on a big scale) for shougakkou tomorrow, but I assume there are colored pencils somewhere in this school. Ah, I am such a rebel ALT.
K, so do you want to read the most depressing thing ever?! 3nensei were assigned to write about the housework done at their house and whether or not it is shared equally by their family. I had nothing to do with the assignment, but based on the writings I read, they were allowed to either use their present situation, or pretend they were in the future and talking about their own family (in which they are the mother or father). So, here is one student’s essay:
“Hello, everyone. I’m going to talk about sharing the housework in my house. I have many maids. First, my exclusive maid is Ms. Mariko. She is very kind and good cook. Next, my husband exclusive maid is Ms. Naoko. She is very beautiful. But she is bad character. HA HA HA. One day, my husband and maid (Ms. Naoko) were daiting is secret. The news made me sad. But, now, I’m happy!! Because I’ll bear twins baby. Them name is Kazuo and Kazuko. It is good name, isn’t it? Oh, housework is leave maids. It is wonderful, isn’t it? Good bay.”
The depressing thing is not the bad English, but the fact that a girl would fantasize about her future husband cheating on her with a maid?! What the hell? Note to self: if you are upset about your husband cheating on you, just get pregnant and everything will be better.
Yes, I am an evil person and the worst teacher in the world for posting that online, but this is what happens when a JTE you don’t even work with has you correct 200 essays just because she is too lazy to correct the homework she assigns! No, I’m not bitter at all. ;)
On that horrible note, this post is done.
Monday, October 17, 2005
Crazy-as Weekend, Part Dos
On Sunday I got up semi-early-ish and met up with Veronica to train it to Maebashi for the International Festival they were holding at the kenchou (prefectural government building. Or. Um. I dunno what it is in English). I pretty much went there to eat food and see friends, and succeeded in both! Hehehe. ‘Twas good times! They had a ton of booths, most of which sold food, but there were others with wine, hand-made stuff, etc. I had a pita/kebab thing that was cho oishii, as well as fries (for only 100 yen WITH real ketchup! You have no idea how rare that is in Japan), and yummyyyyyy green tea ice cream. Oh, and s’mores from the GAJET booth.
A buncha ALTs were buying Japanese dolls from this booth for ridiculously cheap prices. I swear they all must have fallen off a truck because I have no idea why they were so cheap. They had these swords there that I barely noticed and thought were dumb until I heard they were only 100 yen, in which case I couldn’t live without buying one! Perhaps I should bring it with me to school for self-defense from my students! Screw rape whistles, bring on the swords!
Anyway, after having a fun at the festival, a group of us went out to a shabu shabu restaurant to eat even more. It was yummy and fun, tho we truly were old people, as we had finished dinner by 6 PM. It’s all right, that way we could get home in time to catch Murder, She Wrote. That crazy Jessica Fletcher always knows what’s up!
Minako is the greatest person in the world and offered to drive me home, woot! Much more entertaining than listening to my iPod on myself on the train, plus good Japanese practice. Plus I love me some Minako (and, yes, Veronica, I do love me some basket, too). Fortunately after she dropped me off I realized that both of my bikes were still at the eki, so I was forced to walk and burn off some dinner before sitting on my ass all night long.
I stayed up late ‘cause I had to write a paper and prepare for my 3nensei class. I was all stressed out, and then of course I come to school today and am informed that 3nensei has tests today so the class is cut. Grrrr!
Technically not the weekend, but I feel very productive, as I went to all three of my schools by 9:30 this morning. I had to bike to Minamishou for the yearbook picture, then went to Yabushou for the same thing, then came here to work. Crazy busy Jeff (well, not really, as I have had time to write the past two posts and it isn’t even 2 PM).
A buncha ALTs were buying Japanese dolls from this booth for ridiculously cheap prices. I swear they all must have fallen off a truck because I have no idea why they were so cheap. They had these swords there that I barely noticed and thought were dumb until I heard they were only 100 yen, in which case I couldn’t live without buying one! Perhaps I should bring it with me to school for self-defense from my students! Screw rape whistles, bring on the swords!
Anyway, after having a fun at the festival, a group of us went out to a shabu shabu restaurant to eat even more. It was yummy and fun, tho we truly were old people, as we had finished dinner by 6 PM. It’s all right, that way we could get home in time to catch Murder, She Wrote. That crazy Jessica Fletcher always knows what’s up!
Minako is the greatest person in the world and offered to drive me home, woot! Much more entertaining than listening to my iPod on myself on the train, plus good Japanese practice. Plus I love me some Minako (and, yes, Veronica, I do love me some basket, too). Fortunately after she dropped me off I realized that both of my bikes were still at the eki, so I was forced to walk and burn off some dinner before sitting on my ass all night long.
I stayed up late ‘cause I had to write a paper and prepare for my 3nensei class. I was all stressed out, and then of course I come to school today and am informed that 3nensei has tests today so the class is cut. Grrrr!
Technically not the weekend, but I feel very productive, as I went to all three of my schools by 9:30 this morning. I had to bike to Minamishou for the yearbook picture, then went to Yabushou for the same thing, then came here to work. Crazy busy Jeff (well, not really, as I have had time to write the past two posts and it isn’t even 2 PM).
Crazy-as Weekend, Part Uno
Seeing as how I actually did stuff this weekend, this will be part one of two, methinks. Anyhoo, so Friday was the craziest day at work EVER. Fridays are always crazy because I have to prepare the whole week’s worth of lessons, as well as teach four classes. However, last Friday was even busiers ‘cause I hadn’t had 3nensei all week, and hadn’t had a chance to talk to my JTE all week either, so I had to plan Friday’s 3nensei class that morning, as well as plan that morning’s class for special needs. Then I had to plan for all three grades’ classes for the next week, so I planned six classes and taught four classes and killed about 300 trees by making so many photocopies (sniff!). I even worked through my lunch break! What the hell? Anyway, it went fine, but it was like I was a real teacher or something….scary, indeed ;)
Cindy came over on Friday night and we had dinner at Kadoya (Nacchan’s restaurant that is like two minutes from my house, and is CHO OISHII!). It’s funny ‘cause I never really order at Nacchan’s, I just eat whatever she puts in front of me (which is always a ridiculous amount of food…not that I’m complaining). Cindy and I each got a big bowl of yummy tomato-y soup (it made me natsukashii, as it was Western-style soup), a salad, a huge plate of yakisoba, tea and dango. God, the dango was good! Nacchan always tries to charge me only 300 yen ($3) for the meals, so I always secretly leave her extra money, ‘cause that is ridiculous!
After that meal, it only made sense that Cindy and I went to Fujimart and bought a bunch of desserts for the rest of the night! The huge news of the week (perhaps month?) is that there is a new kind of Country Ma’ams (best cookies EVER)!!! They are chocolate chip and almonds. Cindy and I may have gotten so excited about this that we started screaming in the aisles of Fujimart….I kid you not. I also introduced her to MOW ice cream, which is SO good, and everyone that reads this must try it. Never knew vanilla ice cream could be so good!
Anyway, we later realized that we got so over-excited about desserts that we totally forgot that the reason we went to Fujimart was to get food for lunch during Saturday’s hike (more on that later). We brought our desserts back to my place and watched three episodes of the second season of Veronica Mars. Holie, it’s so good! We also watched Everybody Hates Chris, which is pretty amusing.
I got up at 6:30 in the bloody morning on Saturday so we could both have time to get ready and get to the eki in time to meet Sean and Jeff. Jeff had some problems finding Yabuzuka, but he eventually met up with his and we started driving towards Mt. Miyogi for our hiking adventure! Little did we know what was in store for us ;)
So, the plan was to drive to a certain place by Mt. Miyogi and meet four other cars of ALTs that signed up for the hike (every month or so Daniel organizes a hike for any interested ALTs to go on in or around Gunma). Even though we were running late, an emergency conbini run was in necessito for morning snacks, as well as lunch for the hike. Seven bazillion yen later, we finally got going and were happy-go-lucky. So, as we were zooming along the highway and enjoying actually 1) driving and 2) driving fast in Japan, I started seeing signs that worried me. All of the town names were not only completely inaka, but inaka towns that are in central/Northern Gunma. Now, this wouldn’t be a problem except for the fact that we were supposed to be going to southwest Gunma. On top of that, we were paying to be on the expressway going the wrong way!
We called Daniel and explained that we’re all retarded and told him we might meet up with them later. However, we were so far from Miyogi that we just decided to have our own exploration of Gunma day. After about 5 years of debating what to do, we decided to go to Minakami, a famous town in the mountains of northern-ish Gunma that has a bunch of onsen (natural hot springs), nature, etc. After getting lost about 300 times, we made it there and went on a “hike.” By hike, I mean walking on the flattest ground possible with a bunch of 70 and 80 year-old men and women. It was really pretty, though, as we got to follow the river and were surrounded by the mountains and trees. We ate lunch right on the river, which was really cool (though I’m sure the Nihonjin were shocked that we veered off the trail, hehe).
We ended the day by going to the Tanimura onsen, which is apparently pretty famous. It was sooooooooooooo relaxing. I can’t believe I hadn’t been in one since coming this time! We spent about an hour in the onsen. Tanimura has a small inside part where you wash up, as well as a few baths in there, but the best part is outside, where there is a fairly large bath (I don’t know what else to call it?) surrounded by trees and other purty-ness. God, it felt so nice! Poor Shindy was by herself on the other side, but she had a good time, too, yay!
After getting out of the onsen one feels relaxed but also completely dehydrated and about to faint, so I bought Pocari Sweat from the vending machine and got the deal of the week, as bottles just kept falling out! Hell yeah! You know Jeff is the cheapest bastard in the world, so it made my day! Hehehe.
Feeling completely relaxed and ready to go to bed, we left Minakami and headed towards Omama so Jeff could drop us off at the station. The first half of the ride went fine, as we knew where we were (for once) and what we were doing. However, the whole relaxed feeling we gained from the onsen was completely lost in the last half of the drive, as we all nearly died on the ghetto-ass roads of Gunma! We seriously found the most foggy, abandoned and scary road I have ever seen in my life on the base of Mt. Akagi and got completely lost on it. It looked like we were on the set of a fucking horror movie. Gunma Chainsaw Massacre, anyone? It was so sketchy! I really can’t give the adventure any justice, ‘cause you had to be there to understand, but we were totally lost in the most inaka of inaka you will ever see. By the time we reached the inaka town of Omama, it looked like fucking Tokyo, we were so excited to see PEOPLE and ELECTRICITY. Hehehehe.
Anyway, by the end of the day, we had been in the car for God knows how many hours, and poor Jeff was in it even longer. He drove over 200 km by 4:30 PM! I went home and promptly became anti-social by eating dinner alone and watching half of The Two Towers before completely assing out. I was also thoroughly amused when I opened Firefox, only to see that the Kanji of the day to study was mayou, “to be lost.”
Anyway, this is the longest post EVER. Thanks, Jeff, for driving us! I don’t blame you if you never want to see us again ;) A fun was most definitely had, though, as I don’t think you can NOT bond when being lost in a car for however long we were! Maybe we will actually see Mt. Miyogi at some point in the future!
Cindy came over on Friday night and we had dinner at Kadoya (Nacchan’s restaurant that is like two minutes from my house, and is CHO OISHII!). It’s funny ‘cause I never really order at Nacchan’s, I just eat whatever she puts in front of me (which is always a ridiculous amount of food…not that I’m complaining). Cindy and I each got a big bowl of yummy tomato-y soup (it made me natsukashii, as it was Western-style soup), a salad, a huge plate of yakisoba, tea and dango. God, the dango was good! Nacchan always tries to charge me only 300 yen ($3) for the meals, so I always secretly leave her extra money, ‘cause that is ridiculous!
After that meal, it only made sense that Cindy and I went to Fujimart and bought a bunch of desserts for the rest of the night! The huge news of the week (perhaps month?) is that there is a new kind of Country Ma’ams (best cookies EVER)!!! They are chocolate chip and almonds. Cindy and I may have gotten so excited about this that we started screaming in the aisles of Fujimart….I kid you not. I also introduced her to MOW ice cream, which is SO good, and everyone that reads this must try it. Never knew vanilla ice cream could be so good!
Anyway, we later realized that we got so over-excited about desserts that we totally forgot that the reason we went to Fujimart was to get food for lunch during Saturday’s hike (more on that later). We brought our desserts back to my place and watched three episodes of the second season of Veronica Mars. Holie, it’s so good! We also watched Everybody Hates Chris, which is pretty amusing.
I got up at 6:30 in the bloody morning on Saturday so we could both have time to get ready and get to the eki in time to meet Sean and Jeff. Jeff had some problems finding Yabuzuka, but he eventually met up with his and we started driving towards Mt. Miyogi for our hiking adventure! Little did we know what was in store for us ;)
So, the plan was to drive to a certain place by Mt. Miyogi and meet four other cars of ALTs that signed up for the hike (every month or so Daniel organizes a hike for any interested ALTs to go on in or around Gunma). Even though we were running late, an emergency conbini run was in necessito for morning snacks, as well as lunch for the hike. Seven bazillion yen later, we finally got going and were happy-go-lucky. So, as we were zooming along the highway and enjoying actually 1) driving and 2) driving fast in Japan, I started seeing signs that worried me. All of the town names were not only completely inaka, but inaka towns that are in central/Northern Gunma. Now, this wouldn’t be a problem except for the fact that we were supposed to be going to southwest Gunma. On top of that, we were paying to be on the expressway going the wrong way!
We called Daniel and explained that we’re all retarded and told him we might meet up with them later. However, we were so far from Miyogi that we just decided to have our own exploration of Gunma day. After about 5 years of debating what to do, we decided to go to Minakami, a famous town in the mountains of northern-ish Gunma that has a bunch of onsen (natural hot springs), nature, etc. After getting lost about 300 times, we made it there and went on a “hike.” By hike, I mean walking on the flattest ground possible with a bunch of 70 and 80 year-old men and women. It was really pretty, though, as we got to follow the river and were surrounded by the mountains and trees. We ate lunch right on the river, which was really cool (though I’m sure the Nihonjin were shocked that we veered off the trail, hehe).
We ended the day by going to the Tanimura onsen, which is apparently pretty famous. It was sooooooooooooo relaxing. I can’t believe I hadn’t been in one since coming this time! We spent about an hour in the onsen. Tanimura has a small inside part where you wash up, as well as a few baths in there, but the best part is outside, where there is a fairly large bath (I don’t know what else to call it?) surrounded by trees and other purty-ness. God, it felt so nice! Poor Shindy was by herself on the other side, but she had a good time, too, yay!
After getting out of the onsen one feels relaxed but also completely dehydrated and about to faint, so I bought Pocari Sweat from the vending machine and got the deal of the week, as bottles just kept falling out! Hell yeah! You know Jeff is the cheapest bastard in the world, so it made my day! Hehehe.
Feeling completely relaxed and ready to go to bed, we left Minakami and headed towards Omama so Jeff could drop us off at the station. The first half of the ride went fine, as we knew where we were (for once) and what we were doing. However, the whole relaxed feeling we gained from the onsen was completely lost in the last half of the drive, as we all nearly died on the ghetto-ass roads of Gunma! We seriously found the most foggy, abandoned and scary road I have ever seen in my life on the base of Mt. Akagi and got completely lost on it. It looked like we were on the set of a fucking horror movie. Gunma Chainsaw Massacre, anyone? It was so sketchy! I really can’t give the adventure any justice, ‘cause you had to be there to understand, but we were totally lost in the most inaka of inaka you will ever see. By the time we reached the inaka town of Omama, it looked like fucking Tokyo, we were so excited to see PEOPLE and ELECTRICITY. Hehehehe.
Anyway, by the end of the day, we had been in the car for God knows how many hours, and poor Jeff was in it even longer. He drove over 200 km by 4:30 PM! I went home and promptly became anti-social by eating dinner alone and watching half of The Two Towers before completely assing out. I was also thoroughly amused when I opened Firefox, only to see that the Kanji of the day to study was mayou, “to be lost.”
Anyway, this is the longest post EVER. Thanks, Jeff, for driving us! I don’t blame you if you never want to see us again ;) A fun was most definitely had, though, as I don’t think you can NOT bond when being lost in a car for however long we were! Maybe we will actually see Mt. Miyogi at some point in the future!
Sunday, October 16, 2005
My Weekend in Pictures
Since I had a crazy weekend and I am too tired to type it all out right now, I'm just gonna post pics for now.....words will fill in the blanks tomorrow.
Cindy, Sean and Jeff
Chiiizu
100 yen sword fight!
Veronica and Grant being sexy
Grant, Minako, me and Darin
I don't know why (and neither does Grant, based on his facial expression)
A giant onigiri?!
Darin (taking a bite), the boy onigiri (again, I ask why) and me
Gunma peeps
Cindy, Sean and Jeff
Chiiizu
100 yen sword fight!
Veronica and Grant being sexy
Grant, Minako, me and Darin
I don't know why (and neither does Grant, based on his facial expression)
A giant onigiri?!
Darin (taking a bite), the boy onigiri (again, I ask why) and me
Gunma peeps
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