Protests in Argentina

While almost all of the media are taking great joy in showing pictures of fires and tear gas, it's refreshing to see a peaceful (and beautiful) image like this.

Fridayyyyyy

So, I have no motivation whatsoever today, it is really bad. I am the bitter gaijin in the corner of the staffroom! That’s what they get for making us coming back for one day before the weekend. Hehe. For once I got eight hours of sleep, yet I am bitchier than usual, I dunno what’s up with that!

Anyway, I have no reason to be bitter, as 2-5, the WORST class EVER, was cut today! That is two weeks in a row that I haven’t had to teach it! Only Jenny understands how bad they are. Like, seriously Dangerous Minds-type shit, and I don’t even bother being Michelle Pfeiffer in that room, honey!

This week I am having 3nensei practice their writing skills, so I assigned them to write about their weekends. Some have been REALLY impressive and a few have been extremely depressing, but at least most of them are trying really hard, so I am happy with them. One of my students called me over today and told me in Japanese that he went shopping last week to buy insoles for his basketball shoes, and asked how to say that in English. I told him everything but insoles, as I could seriously NOT remember the word. I stood there for seriously like 3 minutes thinking “Dr. Scholl’s sells….fuck….what are they….soles…no…padding…no…jelly thingies…..SHIT SHIT SHIT!” Finally the student behind him is like, “insoles?” WHAT THE HELL! How does he know that word?! He must be going to crazy-as juku to know that type of shit, yo! Anyway, I think he should take over class, as I obviously don’t know anything anymore.

I fear this next story may be amusing only to me, but oh, well. So, I was in my special needs class, doing the “I don’t want to think of a new subject this week so let’s review things!” class, and I took out flags of countries from two weeks ago. The special needs class kids are REALLY cool and very good at English, but they were struggling a bit with the country names in English (well, and in Japanese, hehe, but fuck if I knew some of those flags before the lesson!). I can totally understand struggling with the difference between the flags of Australia and New Zealand (after all, I do know a certain “Australian” who has made that mistake at least once!). They were also having problems with the English names for China and Korea. Some of the amusing guesses for China (chuugoku in Japanese) were: Chan Chin (this was my favorite), Chinkoku, and Chuna. When I help up the Korean flag, one of the boys said, “Kankoku!” (Japanese for Korea). I responded, “It’s Ko……..” and waited for him to fill in the blank, only to be told that it was Konkoku. Aww, I love my 7kumi!

Yay, school is almost over, and another weekend is here. Woot!

Yasumi!

I have been a bad blogger the last couple of days, but my life really hasn’t been exciting enough to write about. Wednesday was shougakkou, which was fun, as usual. That night we had the Ota dinner at Gen, an izakaya in Ota. It was good and fun, but there is a crazy old woman who works there who will get my foot up her ass next time she hints that we need to order more drinks. Those who have seen her know what I’m talking about! But yes, it was fun, plus we had some adopted Otanians for the night, which is always nice.

Thursday was yet another holiday! It is weird to have a random day off on a Thursday. I slept in, but half expected my JTE to ring me in the morning, wondering why the hell I wasn’t at work. Fortunately, that didn’t happen! I literally didn’t even know the reason for the holiday until I looked at my calendar on Wednesday. It was Culture Day. Um, I don’t even know what that means? To celebrate Culture Day, I stayed in my house all day and watched American television while downloading like 15 albums (completely legally, of course). It was the best day off EVER! For those who don’t watch Grey’s Anatomy, you need to watch that shit. SO GOOD.

It was also nice to be at home because it meant I could FINALLY talk to Eduardo for 2 hours without worrying about stupid time difference shit! It was soooooooooooooo nice. I miss me some Eduardo :( :( :( Right now is Day of the Dead, and it’s weird to not celebrate it at all. I need some Mexican culture in my life! Expect more bitching about this come Three Wisemen Day. Mmmm, bread. Anyway. So, I celebrated Day of the Dead by listening to some Kabah, only the best Mexican band EVER. I have no idea what their songs are about, but they are the shit, yo.

Actually, I lied, I did leave my house in the morning to go on a pastry tour of Yabuzuka. Sadly, two of the bakeries were closed for the holiday, but the one in Fujimart didn’t let me down. I couldn’t decide which one I wanted, so I may have bough three. Mmmm, pastries! Hmm, I lead a sad life.

Last night the doorbell rang at 8:30, which was strange because it never rings, let alone at 8:30 PM on a Thursday? I answered it, since I can’t see shit out of my peephole (yes, I will open it on the yakuza some day and die, but oh well), to find a nervous guy from the Yomiuri Shinbun (newspaper) trying to get me to subscribe to his shit. Eww! I made the mistake of speaking Japanese to him…damn me for blowing my cover! I made the excuse that kanji suck and I couldn’t read the paper, but then he tried to get me to subscribe to foreign papers. Then he brought out coupons for beer and said I would get them if I subscribed? Only in Japan. “Do you read the newspaper? Do you drink beer? If you subscribe to the newspaper, you’ll also get beer!” That is seriously what he said. Anyway, I finally shooed him away, but I have learned my lesson…next time I’m gonna do a big ol’ “wa..ka..ri…ma…sen?” in the biggest honky accent I can do! Gotta get ready for whenever I am pulled over by the cops ;)

Halloween Photos

We so sexy


Punishing my student (so bad)


Me and Nacchan


Gangrene


Once again, so sexy


So cute!


Too dirrty to clean my act up



More pics can be seen at my photos page.

Disneyland Pictures

Stitch!


Those crazy Japanese people waiting for popcorn....




Cindy turns Japanese



This part of Splash Mountain reminded me of good ol' Gunma (note the cabbage on the left)


Someone in Japan is taller than me! Maybe this could be my post-JET job....


I don't know why I am posting this picture


These guys amused me for no reason in the parade







Welcome to Japan


Hee hee.



The Yank in me comes out

More pics can be found at my photos page.

Halloween in the ‘Bash

After getting 12 hours of amazing sleep on Friday night, I was ready to get my dancing groove thang on at Draw, a club in Maebashi on Saturday night. They had a Halloween party and a bunch of JETs turned up for it. Nacchan drove me, Sean, Jenny (and Grant for a bit) there, which was nice, as it is a bitch to train to. Actually, it’s a bitch to drive to, as well, crazy Japanese stoplights! Anyway, it was very tanoshikatta, as I hadn’t danced since Paradise Ball. Hello, a month and a half without dancing is not acceptable in the life of a Santilli!

Highlights of the night include:

-Tequila! Tequila is rare in Japan, so of course I had to get a shot of it. However, Draw’s version of a shot is much different than anyone else’s apparently, as it was like a third of a freaking plastic cup, with no lime or salt! However, I was a good Mexican and was the only one who could down it all in one gulp.

-Jenny was one hot-as maid! Poor girl didn’t fare so well by the end of the night, however. Hope you’re feeling better, dahling!

-Cindy made the funniest student EVER! Oh, yeah, I was a JTE by wearing the heinous tracksuit I was given, and she borrowed a student’s uniform. She was my student and we were secretly having an affair. Anyway, she TOTALLY looked like a student, and even had her hair in pigtails with Mickey Mouse rubberband thingies!

-Dancing, dancing, dancing! Of course, the gay guys were the only ones to dance the entire night (or much at all, really), but since half of Gunma seems to be gay, it was a fair amount of us out there ;)

-Sean was out there ganbatteru-ing on the dance floor, so I gave him a few lessons. I expect you to be practicing at home, you little white boy, you ;)

-Being recognized for my blog?! Um, that was weird. Who the hell is reading this thing?

I ended up crashing in Maebashi for the night (yay for not having to leave early). On Sunday I had like the most relaxed Sunday EVER, it was great. Had a lazy morning, then went for coffee and pizza with Granto-san. G introduced me to the best and cheapest pizza place I have yet to find in this country! A drink, salad, medium-sized pizza (a REAL medium-sized pizza, might I add) and dessert for 750 yen?! I am most definitely going back. To make the Sunday even better, we went to Muji, which I had been craving all week. I gave in and got one of those memory pillow things they have, which I recommend to everyone. I never want to leave my bed again. Is it sad that I want it to get colder so I can have an excuse to buy some comfy, warm Muji sheets?

Oh, might I add that I feel sorry for Grant for hanging out with me the entire day, as I have NEVER looked so unattractive in my entire life. My hair was ALL over the place, I was wearing the black PJ shirt from the night before and Grant’s oversized track pants (thankfully he lent me his, as I didn’t exactly want to be seen in my SEXY red ones) and I hadn’t showered since dancing. Um, yeah.

After that I trained to Ota, got some orgasmic melon maple pan from Uni, then hung out with 3nensei students on the train ride home (I’m sure they were impressed with my appearance).

Chilled with some dinner and Alias for the rest of the night. How could a Sunday be any better?

Photos of the weekend to come today or tomorrow....

Ojiichan ni natteru kana?

Today marks the 3-month mark of me being in Japan. The longest I have ever been here was exactly three months, so tomorrow will be a very special day in the life of Jeff, sniff sniff ;) Hehe. But yeah, I am a little worried about myself as Japan continues to make me weirder and weirder. For example, I am totally becoming a crazy Japanese old man! I used to always say little Japanese things to myself like “are?!” or “nani kore?” etc etc, while judging other Japanese people who have entire conversations to themselves for no reason. However, lately I have been having entire Japanese conversations with myself, sometimes in public. For example, lately at the store I have been saying various things aloud such as “Oh, they don't have _____,” “Wow, that’s really cheap, I should buy it!” “Hmm, I wonder where ____ is,” “Ooo, I really want that,” etc. etc. all in Japanese. I have also been doing the same thing in my house. This cannot be a good sign!

I have also refuse to eat anything with my hands or a fork. I have been addicted to nashi (Asian pears) lately, and I chop them up into small pieces so I can eat them with chopsticks. Um, even Japanese people eat them with forks most of the time!

Shindy and I also found ourselves buying stupid shit at Disneyland just ‘cause it was “kawaiiiiii!” (cuuuuuuuuuute!), whereas we normally wouldn’t waste our money on Disneyland souvenirs. Hmm. Clazy, indeed!

Disneyrando!

Friday was Kenmin no Hi (Prefectural Day) in Gunma, so there were no classes. I refused to sit at my desk with nothing to do, so I nenkyu-ed that shit up in here and headed to Disneyrando with Shindy! It was also Tochigi and Tokyo’s (I think?) Kenmin no Hi, and tickets were a bit cheaper for our three prefectures, so Shindy and I headed out early to make the most of the crowded day there. When I say early, I mean motherfucking EARLY. Cindy and I both got up at 4 in the bloody morning, froze our asses off riding to the station, took the first trains into Ota, and met up on the comfy Ryomo train. It being Cindy and I, we of course used the day as an excuse to eat horrible amounts of complete SHIT! We started off the day with coffee, tea, onigiri, melon pan, more coffee, and a vitamin drink (um, muy necessito when waking up at 4 in the morning).

Despite train drama (hashitteyuke!), we got there earlier than most people and went right onto Splash Mountain, followed by The Haunted Mansion (it is the Nighmare Before Christmas Haunted Mansion, and Japanese people want to have mad mad sex with Nightmare Before Christmas, so we went early to make sure we didn’t wait for like four hours for it).

Even though we were really tired and weird all day long, it was sooooo fun! The Halloween decorations were really cute. It was my first Disneyland Halloween, so it was cool to see. Whenever we needed some non-caffeine-related waking up, we’d just go on Tokyo’s KICK-ASS Space Mountain which is so ridiculously fast. It’s fucking great! I wanted to stay on it all day long.

And of course Cindy and I devoured all of Disneyland’s snacks. Um, churros, much? Not to mention all kinds of other crap. Good times!

Sadly one of the funnest things to do at Tokyo Disneyland is to laugh at how ridiculous Japanese people are when they are there. I swear they don’t even go for the rides, as they spend all day either in line for popcorn (there are multiple kinds of special popcorn, and they have to try all of them), in line for turkey legs (there was the MOST RIDICULOUS line for these….if turkey is this popular, why do they not sell it here?), or shopping for omiyage (gifts) for their friends and family back home. Not only do they spend more money than any sane person should, but they don’t have any time to do anything else! So after a while Cindy and I stopped taking pictures of decorations and started taking pictures of Japanese people being crazy. We are good JETs! Hahahaha.

We met up with Helen, Hayley, Chau and Abby (JETs) for dinner, then we headed home (with a new bucket of coconut popcorn for the ride home, of course).

Oh! I forgot…so like I was one of five gaijin there the entire day? What the hell? I would expect more to be there. I seriously got more gaijin stares at Disneyland than I do in Gunma. One reason may be because I am so much taller than Cindy that it looks like I am just talking to myself whenever I am walking and talking to her. They also gave her a million “You’re Asian, why would you be speaking English?” looks, which got on my nerves. Meh! Hehehehe.

Anyway, we trained it back home and took the last train home. We are hardcore Disney bitches for taking the first AND last train, I say. Finally, after being awake for 21 hours with three hours of sleep, I slept for 12 hours in the best coma I have ever been in.

Now I just gots to wait for Christmas decoration time and we’re going to Disney Sea! Woot! (Cindy, that “woot” was dedicated to you)

Fa Ra Ra Ra Ra Ra Ra Ra

In my attempt to catch up on blogging, I will blog about Thursday for now....

So on Thursday there weren't any classes, as it was the schoolwide singing competition. The students had been practicing forever, so they were all really genki in the morning to finally sing and (theoretically) win. The staff was excited, too, and were also really surprised to see me, as there was a rumor that I was on a shucchou (business trip) that day. Um, hello, I could have totally not gone to school and been okay! Sad! So they were all surprised and excited to see me? Yes, I was confused, too ;) So, yes, it was a very good way to start the day!

The 3nensei teachers got to judge the 1nensei classes singing, and since I am unofficially a 3nensei teacher, I judged. It was hard! I didn't want to give classes bad marks, so I wasn't harsh or anything, but it was still difficult.

Hmm, perhaps there are people reading this who have (gasp!) not been to a Japanese singing competition, so I will explain how it works. At my school there are 5 classes of each grade (about 200 students in each grade). At first the entire grade gets up and sings a song (this is in the gym, on the stage). Then each class gets their turn to sing the song they sang. Might I add that EVERY SONG IS THE SAME. Seriously. But not in a bad way. Before the song, a student gives a speech, and all of these are the same, too, hehe. "We practiced every day and it was very difficult. At first the boys wouldn't sing, but over time we all bonded and became a closer class because of it. There were difficult times, but it was worth it! We persevered and we hope you enjoy the song!" Anyway, then they sing. Also, every class has a student who conducts, and a student that plays the piano part. It's pretty amazing that there are enough musically-talented people in the school to not make that difficult to do! (I'm not sure if that sentence makes sense. Dammit, I can't speak English anymore)

Anyway, the whole competition was a ton of fun. By the end of the morning part (which went over), I was a bit tired of so much singing, but the lunch break helped. My lunch break was interesting, as I was informed I would be singing the staff song with all of the other teachers. Um, OKAY?! So I had to sightread the Japanese during lunch and also learn the tune. After a whopping five minutes of practice, it was time to go back to the competition and sing! It was a bit overwhelming, but was REALLY fun! All of the students started laughing when they saw I was going to participate, but a bunch of them were yelling "ganbatte," so that was cool. It went fairly well, surprisingly! Ah, the crazy things that happen in this country.

After the competition all of the teachers were really genki, and since school ended early, we were all in the staffroom at the same time, which is rare. Might I add that lately the staff has been a lot nicer and friendlier? It's very exciting! While I don't have any in-depth conversations with them or anything, it's nice to just be able to talk to random senseis for a bit. I dunno why they're being nicer all of a suddent, but I'm not complaining!

So yeah, while a 6-hour singing competition was a bit scary-sounding beforehand, it turned out to be one of the best school days I've had so far. Yay Yabuchuu!

True Love

I'd like you to meet my boyfriend, Takeshi. He keeps me warm at night and is always ready to serve my needs. He may have burned my hand a few times the other night when I was drunk, but love hurts at times. Takeshi, I rabu rabu you!