Today the 3nensei and 3nensei teachers (which includes me, woot!) had the “indoor Olympics” during 3rd and 4th period. It was a fluke that I was actually here for it, as I am always at shougakkou Wednesdays (and, it turns out, I think I was supposed to be there today, oops! Hee hee), and I am very glad that I got to see the indoor Olympics in action! The event consisted of 5-6 relays, with the five classes competing against each other. It is basically like field day, but, er, in the gym. Man, it was hella fun!
I have to say, for being a rather quiet and reserved people, the Japanese have some fun and quirky relay games hidden up their sleeves! The first relay consisted of blowing a Kleenex in the air and not letting it drop. The person to keep it up the longest got a point for their class. This is harder than it sounds! I beat everyone, bitches, ‘cause I specialize in blowing, mmkay!
The second relay had everyone put their forehead on a cone, spin around ten times, then race each other to the finish line. The teachers did it last and had to spin TWENTY times! It was hardcore. It was fun to see everyone fall over tho, hehe.
The third relay was fucking CRAZY! Everyone got into groups of five, and they each had a page of newspaper to stand on. Then they played a mass game of janken (rock, paper, scissors) with me (the “janken champion,” according to the rules!). If they lost janken, they had to fold the paper in half, then all stand on it. This continued on until everyone had teeny pieces of newspaper. Man, Japanese kids are good engineers! They had kids on their backs, on their shoulders…anywhere to make it so five people would fit on the teeny piece of paper. No wonder half the population of America can fit on an island the size of California!
The next relay was the wheelbarrow…that’s what we call it in English, right? I think so. They call it “supercar.” Then after that was the crappiest game EVER! The kids had a towel, and had to run to the next person while keeping the towel on the ground with their hands (so they were running hunched over). Hello, that is totally a sneaky “let’s clean the gym!” game, and is clearly NOT a real game! We’ll forgive them for that one.
For the last game, everyone was given a straw, which they kept in their mouth. Every team would line up, and have to pass a rubberband from person to person (i.e. straw to straw) not using their hands. It is a little makeout-ish, if I do say so myself! I had played this before once with Pocky. It’s fun!
Anyway, yeah, that was the indoor Olympics….hmm, maybe it doesn’t sound as fun in writing. It was a lot of fun, though, and it was nice to see everyone being so genki and bonding! Awww, my once-little-shits-of-2nenseis are growing into nice 3nensei so fast!
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
Train train, don’t fuck me over! Train train, you can burn in hell.
When we last left Jeff, he was drinking Friday night away with his teachers and biking back drunk.
So, what did I do on Saturday morning? Why, get up at 4:30 in the morning to hike, of course! Daniel organizes a hike every month or so for Gunma JETs, and Cindy, Sean and I decided to join the others in order to do something different and do something ACTIVE, for once. Little did we know just how active we would be!
I got up ridiculously early to shower the second-hand smoke off of me, then catch the 5:47 train from Yabu to meet up with everyone in Maebashi. I was somehow surprisingly awake and not hungover, which I think is because I had been mentally preparing myself all week long for the awful morning. Oy, that is such a ridiculous hour to wake up!
Anyway, from Maebashi, we broke up into cars and drove to somewhere in Kanagawa (where I studied abroad), then took a couple of buses to the mountain. It took like five hours or something to get there?! Eek! After all of that sitting, I was very ready to start hiking.
The hike was hard in a good way….more work than Sean, Cindy and I expected (just a bit more steep than the usual hiking we do around AEON!), but a good amount of burning-the-winter-fat-off exercise. It took two hours to get to the top, where there was a beautiful view of the surrounding area, including the OCEAN (I miss the ocean! Stupid land-locked Gunma). It was pretty, but hella windy up there, so we hid in a covered area and ate our lunches. I fear that I may have actually gained weight from the hike, as I ate like four cups of rice that day, as well as who knows what else. I also ate all day long Sunday out of pure starvation. Hrm.
Anyway, the way down was just as much work as the way up, as it was steep, and really muddy. I surprisingly didn’t eat shit, though there were many close calls! Eventually we got down to the bottom and found a BEAUTIFUL area full of cherry blossoms and plum trees. They were soooo purty.
From there we had to go to the eki to take the train back to cars….us lazy peeps were not amused to find that the eki was 25 minutes away and uphill! Oy!
Once we got to the eki, the train drama started. We realized the best way for us Ota/Tatebayashi people to get home on time would be to take trains the whole way home. So we looked up the train changes on our keitais (how did anyone ever get around Tokyo before keitais?) and relaxed in the meantime. About 45 minutes into our train ride, we were in the middle of an intense game of let’s-entertain-ourselves-on-the-train charades (it also entertained some old people around us, who seemed to be trying to figure out our gestures, as well). All of a sudden, the train stops and EVERYONE gets off. It takes us a minute to realize this is probably not a good sign. The eki guy comes in to clear the train, and we are like “Wait….does this train go to Kuki?” It was most definitely a bad sign that the eki guy didn’t even KNOW where Kuki is!!! After panicking greatly, we realized we somehow took the wrong train for about 25 minutes (I still don’t know how it happened). It being hours away from the last train, one would assume it would be all right. Or NOT. There was one route we could take that would get us on the last train to Ota (not even our own stops, but Ota), and many routes we could take that would get us there at 7 in the fucking morning the next day!!!!! So Cindy, Sean and I decided to ganbaru to the max and take the route, despite its impossibly short amount of time to switch between trains, subways, and other train lines. What followed is impossible to even give justice in words, but I will try.
At one stop we were about to get on a train that was leaving within 30 seconds, when I asked an old man if it was going to where we wanted. When he said no and pointed to a train on another track (with many stairs in between), the three of us SCREAMED and ran faster than humanly possible to get on the train before it left. Then at the next stop we had five minutes to run off the train, go down many stairs to the subway track, pay our leftover fare from the train, buy tickets for the subway, then go down more stairs to get ON the subway. This involved throwing our tickets and a random amount of money at the eki guy (while yelling “Sorry, sorry, last train, no time, sorry!” in Japanese to him). Then when the subway arrived in Asakusa, we had 9 minutes to walk 550 meters (3/4 of which is going up stairs, and includes two crosswalks that never agree with pedestrians) to the Tobu eki where we had to buy tickets before going up stairs to get on a train. Not only did we somehow do this, but we made it in FOUR MINUTES. Is that even humanly possible?! It was like the eki Olympics! I have literally never ran so fast in my life! I refused to stay in Tokyo for the night, and Sean and Cindy felt the same.
So, in the end, we made it, and none of us even peed our pants on the 2-hour train ride home (a feat in itself, considering how much water we had). We got into Ota at 11:50, then got rides home (thanks, Nacchan!). I then slept so well that I am guessing the entire apartment complex heard me snore.
Lesson from the hike: stay in Gunma when hiking! Not as many trains involved!
Second lesson of the day: Cindy and I are NEVER climbing Fuji in September, as we had planned. 2 hours has me sore enough, let alone 7+ hours. Um, yeah.
So, what did I do on Saturday morning? Why, get up at 4:30 in the morning to hike, of course! Daniel organizes a hike every month or so for Gunma JETs, and Cindy, Sean and I decided to join the others in order to do something different and do something ACTIVE, for once. Little did we know just how active we would be!
I got up ridiculously early to shower the second-hand smoke off of me, then catch the 5:47 train from Yabu to meet up with everyone in Maebashi. I was somehow surprisingly awake and not hungover, which I think is because I had been mentally preparing myself all week long for the awful morning. Oy, that is such a ridiculous hour to wake up!
Anyway, from Maebashi, we broke up into cars and drove to somewhere in Kanagawa (where I studied abroad), then took a couple of buses to the mountain. It took like five hours or something to get there?! Eek! After all of that sitting, I was very ready to start hiking.
The hike was hard in a good way….more work than Sean, Cindy and I expected (just a bit more steep than the usual hiking we do around AEON!), but a good amount of burning-the-winter-fat-off exercise. It took two hours to get to the top, where there was a beautiful view of the surrounding area, including the OCEAN (I miss the ocean! Stupid land-locked Gunma). It was pretty, but hella windy up there, so we hid in a covered area and ate our lunches. I fear that I may have actually gained weight from the hike, as I ate like four cups of rice that day, as well as who knows what else. I also ate all day long Sunday out of pure starvation. Hrm.
Anyway, the way down was just as much work as the way up, as it was steep, and really muddy. I surprisingly didn’t eat shit, though there were many close calls! Eventually we got down to the bottom and found a BEAUTIFUL area full of cherry blossoms and plum trees. They were soooo purty.
From there we had to go to the eki to take the train back to cars….us lazy peeps were not amused to find that the eki was 25 minutes away and uphill! Oy!
Once we got to the eki, the train drama started. We realized the best way for us Ota/Tatebayashi people to get home on time would be to take trains the whole way home. So we looked up the train changes on our keitais (how did anyone ever get around Tokyo before keitais?) and relaxed in the meantime. About 45 minutes into our train ride, we were in the middle of an intense game of let’s-entertain-ourselves-on-the-train charades (it also entertained some old people around us, who seemed to be trying to figure out our gestures, as well). All of a sudden, the train stops and EVERYONE gets off. It takes us a minute to realize this is probably not a good sign. The eki guy comes in to clear the train, and we are like “Wait….does this train go to Kuki?” It was most definitely a bad sign that the eki guy didn’t even KNOW where Kuki is!!! After panicking greatly, we realized we somehow took the wrong train for about 25 minutes (I still don’t know how it happened). It being hours away from the last train, one would assume it would be all right. Or NOT. There was one route we could take that would get us on the last train to Ota (not even our own stops, but Ota), and many routes we could take that would get us there at 7 in the fucking morning the next day!!!!! So Cindy, Sean and I decided to ganbaru to the max and take the route, despite its impossibly short amount of time to switch between trains, subways, and other train lines. What followed is impossible to even give justice in words, but I will try.
At one stop we were about to get on a train that was leaving within 30 seconds, when I asked an old man if it was going to where we wanted. When he said no and pointed to a train on another track (with many stairs in between), the three of us SCREAMED and ran faster than humanly possible to get on the train before it left. Then at the next stop we had five minutes to run off the train, go down many stairs to the subway track, pay our leftover fare from the train, buy tickets for the subway, then go down more stairs to get ON the subway. This involved throwing our tickets and a random amount of money at the eki guy (while yelling “Sorry, sorry, last train, no time, sorry!” in Japanese to him). Then when the subway arrived in Asakusa, we had 9 minutes to walk 550 meters (3/4 of which is going up stairs, and includes two crosswalks that never agree with pedestrians) to the Tobu eki where we had to buy tickets before going up stairs to get on a train. Not only did we somehow do this, but we made it in FOUR MINUTES. Is that even humanly possible?! It was like the eki Olympics! I have literally never ran so fast in my life! I refused to stay in Tokyo for the night, and Sean and Cindy felt the same.
So, in the end, we made it, and none of us even peed our pants on the 2-hour train ride home (a feat in itself, considering how much water we had). We got into Ota at 11:50, then got rides home (thanks, Nacchan!). I then slept so well that I am guessing the entire apartment complex heard me snore.
Lesson from the hike: stay in Gunma when hiking! Not as many trains involved!
Second lesson of the day: Cindy and I are NEVER climbing Fuji in September, as we had planned. 2 hours has me sore enough, let alone 7+ hours. Um, yeah.
Monday, April 10, 2006
Nonde, nonde, nonde!
On Friday night I went to my first nomikai (drinking party) with teachers. They always have them when I am out of town and stuff, so this was the first one I could go to. They are usually with all of the staff, but this was only with the new 3nensei teachers so we could all bond (I sit with them, so I am an unofficial member of the 3nensei staff). I have heard very mixed reports from other ALTs about how fun nomikais are, so I was a bit nervous, as I didn’t want to spend $50+ on a boring night out! However, it turned out to be WAY more fun than I expected!!!
We started the night at a teeny izakaya in Kiryu, where they served us the most ridiculous amount of food EVER. And that is coming from me! I literally couldn’t eat it all, but I was the only one? I was told I had a “small stomach” because I couldn’t finish it. It was like four meals in one, seriously. I wasn’t sure how fun it would be, as most of the teachers are rather reserved in the staffroom…however, get some alcohol in them and they are surprisingly cool and funny!
They were amazed at my gaijin drinking abilities…I drank them under the table and still could have had more. However, one of the quietest women in the staff is a freaking LUSH and is hilarious when she is drunk. I think she should be drunk at work so that she’ll actually talk!
We continued the night at another bar, where I got more second-hand smoke than I have had in my entire life. AND I am worried that they are trying to set me up with the cute 25 year-old single girl in the staff. Oy. Shindy, it’s time for you to be my “beard!” Hee hee.
I took the last train to Iwajuku, had a 20-minute drunk bike ride, then woke up at 4:30 in the morning for a HIKE. Yes, that is insane. I will blog about Train Disaster 2006 tomorrow, so you will have to wait in anticipation until then!
Anyway, yeah, it was a very fun night, and they are way nicer to me than the last batch of teachers I sat with (not that they weren’t nice, I just didn’t talk to them, hehe). They try to involve me in stuff at school, and seem really cool. Yay, I think this will be a good year!
We started the night at a teeny izakaya in Kiryu, where they served us the most ridiculous amount of food EVER. And that is coming from me! I literally couldn’t eat it all, but I was the only one? I was told I had a “small stomach” because I couldn’t finish it. It was like four meals in one, seriously. I wasn’t sure how fun it would be, as most of the teachers are rather reserved in the staffroom…however, get some alcohol in them and they are surprisingly cool and funny!
They were amazed at my gaijin drinking abilities…I drank them under the table and still could have had more. However, one of the quietest women in the staff is a freaking LUSH and is hilarious when she is drunk. I think she should be drunk at work so that she’ll actually talk!
We continued the night at another bar, where I got more second-hand smoke than I have had in my entire life. AND I am worried that they are trying to set me up with the cute 25 year-old single girl in the staff. Oy. Shindy, it’s time for you to be my “beard!” Hee hee.
I took the last train to Iwajuku, had a 20-minute drunk bike ride, then woke up at 4:30 in the morning for a HIKE. Yes, that is insane. I will blog about Train Disaster 2006 tomorrow, so you will have to wait in anticipation until then!
Anyway, yeah, it was a very fun night, and they are way nicer to me than the last batch of teachers I sat with (not that they weren’t nice, I just didn’t talk to them, hehe). They try to involve me in stuff at school, and seem really cool. Yay, I think this will be a good year!
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