Jeff, With a Side of Beans

Departamentos!

2008-04-21T09:44:00.003+09:00

So Eduardo and I have kinda been looking at apartments to buy lately, though more half-assed than we would wish. Today we went to an apartment-buying convention thingy at the WTC and god some good ideas and contacts. On the way back we decided to walk around the area, since it is an area we like. We found a few buildings we liked, and then randomly this lady that saw we were looking around told us there was a good building a few blocks over. We decided we might as well look, so we walked over...and found the most amazing apartment building EVER! We love it! The apartments are beautiful! Well-designed, with amazing closets, bathrooms, fixtures, etc. WE WANT IT!!!!!!!!!!!! Unfortunately it is more than we want to spend.....but we may just have to look into our options because me wantyyyyyyyyyy! There are only two left, so we have to figure this shit out quickly if we actually do want to get it. Hrm. I WANT!!!!!!!! Unfortunately there aren't pics of it online, so I can't show you, but just trust me that it's beautiful. If you have any money lying around, you could always paypal it to the Jeff and Eduardo House Fund! :)

Don't mess with drag queens!!!

2008-04-20T02:38:00.001+09:00

So I'm too lazy to blog lately, but in the meantime check out this hilarious video. I wouldn't fuck with that shit!

Gay drama!

2008-04-06T02:55:00.000+09:00

So a couple weeks ago Eduardo and I booked our tickets to Oregon for Kris’ wedding, and we MAY have tacked an extra week onto the trip to spend in NYC! WOOT! Very exciting, especially since Eduardo hasn’t been there since 2003!

Anyway, right before we booked our tix, we found out that George Michael would be doing his big farewell tour in NYC right around the time we were there! We were going to leave on Monday, the 21st, but we extended it so we could see him on the 21st (and so I could see my boyfriend Jonathan Groff in Hair on the 22nd, woot!).

Anyway, I was very worried about tickets because arena concerts are HORRIBLE and EVIL and you can never get tickets, but spend a million dollars for the seats anyway. And you have to deal with Ticketmaster, which is like the worst company ever, fucking bitches! AND tickets in NYC were literally twice as much as other cities! GRRR! But I didn’t care, because it is his first U.S. tour in 17 years and probably the only chance I’ll have of seeing him!

So I found out about the AMEX presale that started on Monday morning at 8 AM. I usually leave for school at about 8, but figured it would be okay if I was a few minutes late, since George Michael > school, thank you! Um, little did I know the drama that was to ensue!

So the tickets sold REALLY fucking fast and the seats in the 2nd section were crappy and way too far back. I opened another window to check what the seats were like in the 3rd section, and they were closer, so I decided to get those instead, even tho I wanted better ones. So I went through with the purchase and when I got to the confirmation page it didn’t say the section or seat numbers, which I thought was strange. I clicked purchase anyway and was happy until I checked my receipt, and they gave me the shitty 2nd-level far away seats!!! WTF! Apparently you can’t have two windows open because the cookies or whatever mess with the site. FUCKERS!

So at first I emailed them and hoped they would reply quickly. Well, they didn’t. Even though I should have left for school then, I was on a mission and got out my calling card and started calling Ticketmaster. I tried every single NYC state line and they were all busy. I couldn’t call the Oregon number because they weren’t open, so I decided to call a random-ass state with no people….i.e. Kansas! They transferred me to customer service, and I had to wait like another 20 minutes. I finally got a bitchy lady, but fortunately she was helpful and said she would cancel my order so I could buy them again. Well that took another 15 minutes, then I could go back and buy the ones I wanted in the first place.

In the end I was an hour late to class and spent WAY too much money on this damn concert, but at least we have tickets now! It better be a good concert! Hello, they should have given me first-row seats after being on hold with Ticketmaster for an hour from Mexico! Hrmph.

Um, oops!

2008-03-31T13:54:00.000+09:00

So today Eduardo and I were bored and went to one of the many sex shops in Zona Rosa (you know, like you do) and were looking at their selection of dildos (we weren’t going to buy one, thank you!). Anyway, they had all of these big funky ones and stuff and then there was this one sad little one that looked so boring! I turned to Eduardo and asked, “Why the hell would you buy one this small? Well, I guess if you have an Asian boyfriend or something.” RIGHT as I am saying this I notice that there are two Korean guys RIGHT BEHIND Eduardo! Um, oops! Hahaha. I hope they couldn’t speak English! Anyway, I am totally gonna get my ass kicked some day for my big bitchy mouth.

The Mystery of My iTunes Shuffle

2008-03-27T08:14:00.001+09:00

K, I am sooooo intrigued by how my iTunes shuffles songs because it totally is some sort of weird gay religious Japanese lesbian! Let me explain. So I have been addicted to shuffling my music lately, but certain bands and musicals keep coming up OVER AND OVER. The shuffle’s most common choices are Ben Folds, Pet Shop Boys, Erasure, Melissa Etheridge, Dreamgirls, Japanese music, and a musical called Godspell that I have never listened to, but mentions Jesus every other lyric. Yesterday it played THREE Japanese songs in a row, and I have heard a Godspell song at least every day, despite the CD only having like 16 tracks. I don’t get it! I know it’s “random” and there is no point in analyzing it, but I don’t think it is random! It has a mind of its own and it’s driving me clazy!

Just what I need, another TV addiction…

2008-03-27T08:11:00.000+09:00

While most people spent their semana santa (holy week) traveling to fun places and enjoying the weather, Eduardo and I stayed at home and watched an entire season of Project Runway in like four days. Some might think this is sad, but it was fun, dammit ;)

I had seen the first three seasons of PR and knew Eduardo would love the show as much as I do, but he had NO interest in watching it. When I tried to force it on him, he was like, “I’m not THAT gay!” Well, apparently he is because he is more addicted than I am at the moment! Yayyyyy, Project Runway is the shit!

Anyway, we watched the entire fourth season and loved it, but I’m sad because I had deleted the first three seasons off my external HD since I didn’t think I’d watch ‘em again, and now he wants to see them! So we are either gonna search for bootlegs of it at the tianguis or get them at Blockbuster….hopefully they have them at the tianguis because I don’t like paying for something and not being able to keep it! That is definitely not fierce…some may call it a hot tranny mess!

Oh my god!

2008-03-22T16:04:00.002+09:00

Dude, trashy blogs are now using "sad?!" WTF! I must know how this is happening....I think people are spying on my "sad"-filled E-Mails!

Funny and scary

2008-03-20T12:01:00.002+09:00

Two links....first, the funny one (sadly it is totally me and Eduardo!) from Stuff White People Like.

And now the INCREDIBLY SCARY one! How the hell old is Donatella Versace?! Ack!!!! If she has to be in my nightmares now, at least I won't be alone, muahahahaha.

One more

2008-03-18T10:22:00.001+09:00

Who knew that Alec Baldwin could be so funny? He may be a jackass, but this is freaking hilarious.

YouTube Addiction

2008-03-17T15:01:00.002+09:00

K, I am currently addicted to certain YouTube videos and I figured I should share my guilty pleasures. Enjoy?

In case you somehow missed it, Sarah Silverman's "I'm Fucking Matt Damon."

Amanda's acting reel from Ugly Betty.

Amanda busting out "Milkshake" in church on Ugly Betty.

Okay, last Ugly Betty clip! Amanda and Mark getting drunk and singing Dreamgirls. Yes, I love me some Amanda on UB!

I just got into 30 Rock and am totally addicted to it at the moment...here is Tina Fey being "crazy" while studying abroad in Germany.

K, this is the gayest song ever, but Thalia's Seduccion is the shit!

And always a classic, Robin Sparkles' awesome '80's music video from How I Met Your Mother!

Photo Update!

2008-03-14T07:58:00.000+09:00

So I FINALLY uploaded Mexico pics....check 'em out here!

More Rent news, woot!

2008-03-02T03:12:00.002+09:00

So originally Eduardo and I were going to meet up with my family in a resort in Los Cabos in May, but that isn't working out as planned. So I think we are going to meet up in Scottsdale, AZ, instead (yes, random). Anyway, I randomly looked up the theatre schedule there for when we would be there....and fake Rent is going to be there EXACTLY when we are there! Coincidence?! Methinks no!

Also, rumor is that the REAL Rent tour with Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp will be in Portland June, 2009. Let's hope so, woot!

Movies in Mexico rooooooooooooock

2008-03-02T01:59:00.001+09:00

So movies in Mexico are amazing for two reasons! One is that their nachos are the shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit! I usually don’t buy food at the movies ‘cause it is a rip-off and blah, but I have to make a fatty exception here, because they have nachos that are the same as trashy American nachos, BUT they have bowls of jalapenos, onions and tomatoes to put on top of them! It is self-serve, so you had better believe I put like ten pounds of condiments on top. It is fucking goooooooooood and I am gonna have to bring like chopped up veggies in a bag when I go back to the States, haha.

The other reason is because they have “VIP” screens, which means that you pay twice as much for a normal ticket (but only ten bucks), and it is all exclusive and stuff! There aren’t nearly as many chairs, which means less annoying people, AND the chairs are huge comfy leather recliners! They come in pairs, separated by tables between, meaning you and your boy/girlfriend can sit together and not be next too close to other people. Also you get a waitress that will take your order and bring you your food! It is the shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit and the US should totally have it, although it would be like 20 bucks.

So yes, movies here rock! What doesn’t rock, however, is the shitty movie Vantage Point, which we saw last night and didn’t enjoy at all. Boooo!

Rent lives on!

2008-03-02T01:56:00.002+09:00

So, Rent is closing on Broadway June 1st (unless they extend through the summer). Either way, Eduardo and I probably won't be able to see it again before it closes, which is not acceptable! However, there is this good news, which means we can at least see it somewhere in the States one last time, woot! I need to see it again knowing it is my last time seeing it for real (before a bunch of high school and shit put it on, ewww!).

Take that, Obama bitches!

2008-02-21T05:51:00.000+09:00

Hahahaha.

Scary!!!

2008-02-20T09:17:00.001+09:00

So I decided to apply to Berlitz, the language school that Eduardo, Jorge and others work at, because Jeff be po and need some money up in hea! Anyway, I sent my resume in, and now I have a “language test” on Wednesday. Um, are they going to test my English?! ‘Cause I do not have much confidence in that at all! It is bad enough that Eduardo offered better English advice on my resume than I could muster. I am currently speaking some hybrid of Jenglish/Spanglish/crappy English that doesn’t make any sense to anyone but me. Not a good sign! This will be really depressing if I fail a damn English test. Pray for me!

Wow

2008-02-19T07:42:00.000+09:00

This article is depressing.

I want a Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!

2008-02-19T04:34:00.000+09:00

I want a Wii, god dammit! K, I admit I am the most ADD person with a video game system and want it for a long time, then forget about it like two months later, but it looks so fun!!!! Plus hello, I can avoid joining a gym since I will obviously get a HUGE workout by moving the controller all over the place! Hehe. But yeah, I want one. They are relatively easy to find here because Nintendo are bastards and marked it up 200 fucking bucks, so that is $450! Fuck that! I would get it if it was 250 because even tho I am broke, that is “cheap,” but 450 is too much. So instead I just harass Eduardo every time we walk by Mix Up, since you can see them from the door. I was sad because the one Wii there was missing for a few days, but now they have two! Me wanty!!!! I need a sugar daddy!

I’m seeing Gael!

2008-02-15T11:39:00.002+09:00

K, so I refused to leave China before seeing a panda, and I got what I wanted. Well, actually it was more of a joke, but it was cool to see one! Aww, it was eating a carrot and I wanted to kidnap it.

Anyway, likewise, I refused to leave Mexico before seeing Gael Garcia Bernal (Y Tu Mama, Motorcycle Diaries, etc.) and I am getting what I want, dammit! The other day they announced that he would be in three performances of a play called Together for the spring theatre festival in the city. Best believe Eduardo and I got tickets right away! WOOT! I am so stalking him afterwards, yo! I don’t care if he is only like two feet tall, he is my Mexican lovah (sorry, Eduardo)! So cute! YAY!

So yeah, my homework now is to download (I mean, “buy”) the movie that the play is based on, since I want to know what the hell is going on in between naked scenes. He’d better be naked up in hea, yo, what else am I paying for?!

Back to blogging

2008-02-08T14:06:00.000+09:00

So I FINALLY have internet here in Mexico and Eduardo is going back to work next week, which means I will be bored and be forced to blog to entertain myself (as well as entertain the masses, which are just DEMANDING more Jeff blogs, hehe). So yes, I promise to blog soon, but in the meantime I am messing around with things....changing to purty bright colors, as well as a new politically incorrect blog title, yay!

Dude, wtf?

2007-08-25T16:46:00.000+09:00

Um, yeah.

Back in the States.....photos!

2007-08-17T17:09:00.000+09:00

Long time no blog! Well, I am back in the States, and have been for about two weeks, clazy. I had a great last couple weeks in Japan and I miss it, mehhhhhh!

Anyway, I finally updated my photos page. I added eight albums (from "Disneyland and Tokyo" on). Check it out here.

Probably won't really be blogging until October, when I head to Mexico. Hmm, Jeff's Mexicanication just doesn't have the same ring to it!

Taking a break from the busiest week EVER...

2007-07-18T22:18:00.001+09:00

...to post the CUTEST picture EVER! Seriously, how can a kid be that cute?!!!

Scary last class today!

2007-07-13T15:33:00.000+09:00

So this week I have had a lot of last classes, which have ranged to sad with the good classes, to a “see ya later!” with the bad classes. Hehe. Actually I was sad for all of them, but it hasn’t really hit me for the most part, which is for the best at the moment!

Anyway, today I had my last class with 3-4, which is my best class, so I expected to be sad. However, instead it was a bit violent and weird in the end! So after the typhoon game I asked them which game they wanted to play, and they said a version of hot potato we do where we pass balls and if they have tennis balls I ask them a question and if they have these two other types of balls, they ask me a question. Well, it was ghetto and I hadn’t prepared for that request, so we passed textbooks while we played the English dialogue CD in the background, hahahaha. Nice.

Anyway, the kids were mean and kept purposely putting all of the books on Seki-kun’s desk. I am not sure if he is special needs, but he at least has some sort of learning disorder, as he can’t speak, read or write English at all. He is a nice kid, but he understandably is really uncomfortable during English classes because he cant do anything and is afraid of being called on. Anyway, the kids were being bastards and kept giving him the books, trying to get him to have to answer. I tried to stop them, but it didn’t work out so well.

Anyway, him and Yuto, who is like the nicest, genki-est kid in the world, kept exchanging the books, trying not to get stuck with it, and it led to DRAMARAMA! Seki got mad that the book ended up on his desk, so he like threw it at Yuto. Even nice Yuto can apparently get angry, as he got a scary look on his face and started almost punching him! THEN Seki busted out his SCISSORS and started stabbing at Yuto!!!!!! Um, SCARY! Fortunately he was too far away but it was still pretty close, it was fucked up! Then Seki cried for the last ten minutes of the class, the ten minutes of break, and into the next class! AND started crying when I tried to comfort him during lunch! ACK! That is not how I expected that class to end! Also, it was awkward, as I am taking pics with the whole class at the end of every last class, so while Seki was crying and shit, it was like, “Come on, guys, CHEESE!” Hahaha. Sad, only at Yabuchu!

I am a bastard!

2007-07-13T15:32:00.000+09:00

K, I am forced to correct 200 2nensei kids’ papers about their summer vacations, and I just have to post some of their interesting English! Hehe.

“Tokyo is also famous for delicious food. For example, I like ramen very much. A lot of tall buildings and young human.”

“This summer, at curry rice and hiyaci cyuna (cold Chinese noodle salad) is very very delicious a dish. But my a family is very poor people. So this year we can’t fravel only two or three times.” SAD!

“Changing the subject, there is the thing that I have already taken nothing pleasure. It is a festival. I think that even a festival is past a lot of stands.” Hmm???

Kylie Minogue, biatch!

2007-07-09T14:17:00.001+09:00

Dude, I realize I am a huge stereotype for saying this, but I am currently addicted to Kylie Minogue’s “Showgirl” concert DVD. Oh my god, it is so fucking good! It is like nearly as entertaining as the Rain DVD, and I thought that was impossible to reach, especially for a white person! It is fucking awesome. I had no idea she was that entertaining, and that her songs were that catchy! It’s good shit, yo!!!

Oh my god, I can NOT speak English anymore!

2007-07-03T14:41:00.001+09:00

Okay, so I haven’t been able to speak real English in like two years, BUT it is getting even worse, as it is happening in my lessons now! Like, I cant explain games in English anymore! I was trying to explain battleship to 1nensei today. For some reason Japanese kids have no sense of strategy, and when they hit a ship once, it doesn’t occur to them that they should hit the other two spots on the ship somewhere around the first hit. So I was trying to tell them this in English and was like, “So, Ms. Tagawa hit my ship here. That means that (in my head I am currently thinking, “Oh, fuck, I don’t know where I am going with this in English!”)...there...are...places around here...that...are...hit-able?” Ahahahahahaha. I am SURE my 1nensei understood that perfect English! To make matters worse, my JTE started laughing at my horrible English! SAD! I also said it with the most unsure voice and look on my face, so I am sure my kids think I am retarded, even if they have no idea what I am saying. SAD!

Japanese housewives have too much free time!!!

2007-06-29T10:39:00.001+09:00

Okay, Japanese housewives actually don’t have much free time because they are like slaves, BUT they are at least clazy. So it started sprinkling today, which no one was really expecting. Anyway, this mom of a student just drove to school, ran to the staffroom and gave a teacher an umbrella to give to her son or daughter so that they wouldn’t get wet on the way home from school. Um, that is hardcore! Dude, they wear helmets, it’s not like they get that wet, and it isn’t pouring or anything! Crazy clazy crazy.

Ahahahahaha

2007-06-26T15:18:00.001+09:00

Dude, only in Japan could students feel my “muscles” and say I am strong and macho and not be joking!!!! I need to stay here!!!

Boring week!

2007-06-26T08:17:00.000+09:00

Mehhhhh, so this Thursday and Friday are finals, which means I only have one class in two days, AND today is BOE observation day, which means I only have one class. So between Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, I only have TWO classes! Um, BORING. Also, it sucks, since I only have a few weeks left with my kids, and I don’t want to spend it bored in the shokuinshitsu! Mehhhhhhhhh!

Shuugaku Ryokou! Day Three (Last)

2007-06-22T14:35:00.001+09:00

On Thursday, the last day of the school trip, everyone was EXHAUSTED! But it was fun anyway. We had to wake up and head out early, as we were checking out of the ryokan in Kyoto, then training to Nara, which is an old city with lots of temples, etc., about an hour away from Kyoto. First the teachers got a bunch of omiyage (food souvenir things) from the ryokan people, the photography company, and the travel company! It pays to be a teacher! Hehe.

We had to walk to the train station which was far away, and unfortunately it was pouring! Thankfully I bought an umbrella at the 99 (memories!) the day before in preparation, so it was okay, although it was too small and my shoulders got all wet, sad! For the Nara day I joined another group to mix things up, plus because I couldn’t decide between two good groups for Kyoto, so I hung out with the runner-ups in Nara, hehe.

On the train ride there we all ASSED OUT and slept hardcore. Um, it was very lucky everyone was asleep, as I was the most disgusting human being ever while sleeping! I had a dream that I was like spitting or something, and when I woke up there was like ten gallons of drool coming out of my mouth! It was SO NASTY! I am sure you wanted to hear that.

When we got to Nara we all headed to Todaiji, which is a HUGE wooden temple, and is the largest wooden structure in the world. However, it was rebuilt about 400-500 years ago, and before it was 1/3 larger than it is now! Damn, I cant even imagine, it was BIG!

On the way to Todaiji we went through Nara Park, where there are tons of deer that Nara is famous for. I dunno how they aren’t 7,000 pounds, as people feed them senbei (rice crackers, but made for deer in this case) all day long. They are selfish deer! They also devoured a poor students’ bag of stuff, poor girl!

We eventually went into Todaiji, where there are big Buddhas and stuff inside. It is pretty cool, plus is like one of the few places I hadn’t been in Nara (I went there when I studied abroad), so that was nice. My kids and I all got omikuji, which are fortunes, I guess you would say. You pay like 100 yen, then pick a stick that has a number on it. You tell the monk your number, and he gives you the corresponding piece of paper with your fortune. I got kichi, the second-highest amount of luck, so that was pretty good, yay.

After that we headed back to the train station, after having been in Nara for a whopping two hours. There are actually tons of places to go there, but we didn’t have time, which I don’t mind, since it is all the same! Hehe. Before getting on the train, however, like ALL of my boys bought McDonald’s. It was a McDonald’s party! I think they learned not to trust the quality of the bentos on the shinkansen! However, they weren’t allowed to eat on the train back to Kyoto, so they had to wait an hour and a half to eat their McDonald’s on the shinkansen. Gross, I will never understand how Japanese people are okay with lukewarm/cold food (the effect of kyushoku!). Nasty!

While we were transferring at Kyoto station, we passed two other 3rd grade school trip groups. Um, it was HILARIOUS to see the difference between my school and those two! They were ALL quiet and sitting in one place and peaceful, while my kids were running around with their McDonald’s, being loud, and giving the teachers a hard time. Aww, I love my ghetto school! Hehehehe. The other schools looked pretty boring, so maybe it is good that I am at least at the interesting one!

On the shinkansen back I quickly switched seats away from my Kouchou Sensei (principal), as there is only so much to talk with him about, and definitely NOT enough to talk about for 2 1/2 hours! Hehe. I gave it to a kid who wanted to sleep, and I joined my Uno group again. We played Uno for another two hours. Hardcore, yo! I would say I probably played Uno for at least six hours in the three days! It was fun, though, it definitely made the time pass faster. I also scored cool points with my kids by buying them soda from the vending machines (they aren’t allowed to, but my Kouchou did on the way there for them, so I figured it was okay. Well, sorta, hehe).

Oh, between Uno games, my kids entertained themselves by plucking Shugo’s armhairs! Sad! I had noticed his arms were hairy (well, for a Japanese guy), and apparently they were fascinated by them, as it was a very fun game for the boys. One of them was like, “Jeff always says it hurts when I pull his, but you aren’t complaining!” Hahahaha.

We took the shinkansen to Tokyo, and from there we took a bus all the way to Yabuzuka. It was for like 2 hours or so, but fortunately they turned on a movie on the bus, so we got to watch Spider-Man 2. I was excited, as I had been wanting to watch it lately, but then I fell asleep like 20 minutes into it, whoops. Fortunately no drooling issues ensued!

That night we finally got back to school at 7, but I had to be a real teacher and have a debrief/party until 8:30 at night! Eek! The two good things that came out of it was that we were served cake, and I got lots of gossip of what went down that I didn’t know about! Man, there was some DRAMA! Some of it was really sad, my kids are too young to be doing some of these things, eek!!!!

Anyway, yeah, I then went home and ASSED THE FUCK OUT, as I was beyond exhausted. It was soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo fun, though, I totally want to go again! But the bad thing is that it is making it harder to think about leaving my kids after getting to bond with them more! Bah!

Stop this madness!

2007-06-21T13:47:00.001+09:00

It is currently 28.7 degrees in the staffroom. It is currently 27 degrees outside. THERE IS SOMETHING WRONG WITH THIS! There is like NO fresh air in here, AND the motherfucking server is like 15 feet away from me, THIS IS HORRIBLE! It is so fucking hot! Turn on the motherfucking A/C NOW, bitches!

Shuugaku Ryokou! Day Two

2007-06-19T11:23:00.001+09:00

Day two was our full day in Kyoto, where (thanks to the help of technology), we all broke into small groups. There were 30 groups of six students each, and each group had a different route of places to visit during the day. Each group got a cell phone-like thing that could reach the teachers (only), and a GPS thing that would tell the teachers where we were. Hardcore! Anyway, it was a LONG day, as we left at 8 am and couldn’t come back until 5 (not to mention that I went to bed at 1something and got up at 5:30), but it was fun!

I chose my own group, which was a good group. Well, I had two bad girls in it, but it was okay, especially since the boys have NOTHING to do with the girls, it is really quite amusing. I had Yuto, a good kid who speaks good English and is fun, Seki, a kid who REALLY doesn’t speak English, but is a good kid, and Takuya and Takuya, both “cool” kids, but good cool kids, not evil ones. So yeah, a good group! Throughout the day we went to a bazillion temples, as you do in Kyoto. I didn’t know which ones I had been to a few years ago, as I went with gaijin then and didn’t know the names of them. But it turns out I had been to most of the famous ones, as I only went to one new one with my group. First we went to Kiyomizudera, which is beautiful, but at the top of a hill, and it was TOO FREAKING HOT to walk up a damn hill! Ugh, we were disgusting! After that we secretly broke off into smaller groups for an hour, which was breaking the rules, but it all turned out okay in the end. I am SUCH a good teacher ;) I did score cool points with my kids on that one, tho, hehe.

We were supposed to go to Kyoto Tower next, but THANKFULLY we skipped it, as even students were saying it was boring. Um, I could have told them that the night before, it is not tall and not impressive! Silly Japanese people and their crappy towers. Instead we went to 33 Gendo, a place with 1001 statues of Kannon, the goddess of mercy, inside. It was VERY cool, I am glad I went. Each statue has a different face, so it is said that everyone can find their face in 33 Gendo. I do question this, however, as all of them are Asian and didn’t look like me ;) Racist Buddhists!!!

After that we had some bus drama and lost a bit of time, but oh well. Oh, we went all around Kyoto by bus. They have an AMAZING bus system, and you can get anywhere really easily! It is nice! However, I must mention that despite my kids having studied the schedule, bus schedule, and everything for a million years before the trip, they really knew NOTHING! I swear I knew more than them! But it was good, as it forced them to ask directions and stuff. Anyway, we totally went the wrong way for a bit, but then ended up at Kinkakuji, the golden temple that is the most famous temple in Kyoto. I have never been very impressed with it, as it just looks tacky and small, but it is famous for whatever reason. My kids seemed to agree with me, as we went through it at Jeff and Cindy speed! We were like, okay take a picture, BYE! Hahaha.

Next up was lunch, and we all wanted ramen, but couldn’t find it anywhere! I realized I was with the right group, however, as a teacher earlier had given me a ramen recommendation, but I didn’t know exactly where he was talking about. My kids were like, “Call him and ask him!” I told them that that was a lot of work and lunch wasn’t that important, and they all stopped walking and said seriously, “It IS that important! Lunch is that important, Jeff!” Hahahahahaha! Man, that is my kinda group!

Anyway, we ended up having udon instead, but it was good. Once again the boys had nothing to do with the girls and we got separate tables, haha. Silly chuugakusei.

Our last place to go was some sort of Kyoto castle, which took a while to get to. When we got there I immediately recognized it as the place that my friends and I went to a few years ago, but then didn’t go into, as it was too freaking expensive and we didn’t care enough. Well, my students thought the same thing, as they were like, “This is expensive! Let’s leave!” Hahaha. So we took a picture in front of the entrance, hehe.

Oh, yeah, it was freaking awesome, btw, as my kouchou sensei made me a laminated letter thing that said I was a teacher on a school trip, and I got free into all of the temples and stuff! That was nice, as I hate paying for that crap!

Oh, one more thing. Um, so I got SO MANY freaking stares for being with my kids throughout the day, I am sure I looked like a total molester pervert or something! No one could figure out our relationship to each other, which is understandable, as ALTs never go on school trips! Anyway, yeah, everyone was like, um, wtf are you doing with these kids. Hahahaha, it was funny. Hopefully the Kyoto police aren’t looking for me ;)

After the castle we were done for the day, but had an hour before we could go back, so we broke up and wandered around a shopping area, completely EXHAUSTED. It was SO hot plus no sleep was not a good thing. Some of the students got NO sleep the night before, and most only got a couple hours. Anyway, me, Yuto and Seki wanted to sit somewhere, so I was like, well, lets go to Starbucks. I got an AMAZING azuki (red bean) frappuccino, which are the best things EVER. They are new. Anyway, I quickly realized that Starbucks is not exactly a typical junior high school student hangout, BUT I was very impressed when Yuto got in line to order something! He came back and I was like, what did you get? He got COCOA! Awwwwww! SO CUTE!

We were finally allowed back in the ryokan at 5, and we were all DEAD! We had dinner, then everyone went shopping at a local shopping area. So in Japan when you go somewhere, you get omiyage (souvenirs) for your friends and family. It is just a big excuse to help the economy, but Japanese people love doing it. It is almost always in the form of individually-wrapped cookies, crackers, or something like that. Anyway, my kids went freaking balls to the wall crazy with omiyage purchases! It was ridiculous! A lot of them had to ship them back, they bought so many! However, I think it was probably exciting for them to do it, as they felt like adults! So yeah, I was the cheap gaijin barely buying any omiyage, while my kids had like 30 boxes, haha.

That night I played MORE Uno and other card games (and had the night before, too) with my kids, then drank with my kouchou and teachers again, then got another LONG four hours of sleep!

Shuugaku Ryokou! Day One

2007-06-19T08:23:00.000+09:00

So on Tuesday I was lucky enough to go on the shuugaku ryokou, woot! Every grade in junior high schools go on trips once a year to learn, bond, etc. The first year they go to an outdoor school-type thing in the mountains, second year they go to Tokyo, and third year they go to Osaka, Kyoto and Nara, which is far away (in Japanese terms). It is a way to learn Japanese history and have fun and everything before they graduate. Anyway, yeah, I was lucky, as my kouchou sensei (principal) invited me to go this year! I later learned that he had to pull strings and keep it a secret from some BOE people (ooo, sneaky!), so I was very lucky to be allowed to go! Yay!

We left on Tuesday, and good LORD, I had to get up early! We had to be at school at 5:30 in the morning, eek! Not amusing. I couldn’t sleep the night before, so that was not a good start, but I was excited, so it was okay, I wasn’t grumpy, surprisingly! I was amazed at how all of the students were at school way early and way before me! They were all ready by 5:30, clazy! The poor kids had to wear their nice uniforms the whole time, even tho Osaka, Kyoto and Nara are freaking HOT, and teachers had to wear work outfits, so that wasn’t very amusing, but oh well. Anyway, they were all genki and in their uniforms at a ridiculous hour in the morning, I was impressed!

Anyway, from Yabuchu we took buses to an eki (train station) about 45 minutes away, then took the train to Tokyo to take the shinkansen (bullet train). I was very amused, as one student asked me at the eki, “Jeff, why did you ride your bike here?” I was like, um, no, I came on the bus, and he replied, “Oh, I thought I saw you riding your bike over there!” Um, hello, I would NOT ride my freaking bike to an eki that takes 45 minutes by bus to get to?! Clazy kids.

Oh, the trains on the way to Tokyo were typical Tokyo-type trains (i.e. packed), and my inaka kids were NOT okay with them whatsoever! They were complaining like the whole time! Hehe. In Gunma trains are like never standing room-only, so that was a bit of a shock for them. Also, Yuto, the boy sitting next to me, had like a heart attack every time a train passed loudly by us on the track next to us. Once again, Gunma is ghetto and only has one train track, so that isn’t possible here! Haha, sad, poor inaka kids!

Anyway, we eventually got on the shinkansen, where the kids were allowed to bust out their snacks they brought. Um, the snacks are seriously the highlights of the trip for the kids, it is scary! They brought SO MANY! They aren’t allowed to bring food with them to school ever, so this was like their free time, and they took advantage of it! It was like a conbini in there, damn! I cant believe the kind of crap kids can eat, btw, it is scary! Anyway, the boys sitting near me played Uno with me for like 2 hours, which was the official start of the most Uno I have ever played in my life in a three-day span! I am now an Uno Master! It was fun to hang out with the boys, though, yay. Oh, I should mention that they aren’t allowed to bring video games, music players, etc., they can pretty much only bring books and cards. This was a good idea, I think, as it forced the kids to be social and talk to each other and stuff. So yes, hence, lots of Uno!!!

Once we got to Osaka, we took another train to Universal Studios Japan. Might I add that Yabuchu rocks, as most schools don’t get to go to USJ! Woot for us! It was the only place I hadn’t been on the trip, so I was looking forward to that. While it was TEENY, it was a lot of fun! I rode on Spider-Man 3-D twice, and that is the freaking best ride ever! I thought it was gonna be like Star Tours and Back to the Future, in that you think you are moving, but you aren’t. However, you are actually on a track moving, but there are screens and motions that make you feel like you are moving more. It is hard to explain, but it is REALLY well-made, and is freaking awesome! The 3-D part was really cool, too. They need to make a Batman ride like it, it would kick ass! I also went to Terminator 2 3-D, which was pretty good, but dated. I also got to see a 30-minute version of Wicked for free! They do about three shows a day, and it is good for being a free USJ show! It is like 2/3 Japanese and 1/3 English (the Elphaba is a gaijin), and it was enjoyable. I couldn’t get tickets to Wicked in Tokyo, so I will count this as my Japanese Wicked experience! After that I walked around with some boys and stuff. Might I add that it was FREAKING HOT there, holy crap! It is SO much more humid in that area, and USJ has no shade! Also, I should be hot and sleep-deprived more often, as I didn’t eat between 10:30 and 5 and was completely fine? It was very scary!

Oh, during USJ, I was harassed about two things! First, they kept asking why I didn’t bring Cindy, who they think is my girlfriend. Um, even if she was, WHY would I bring her on the school trip?! It isn’t like the teachers brought their wives and husbands! Anyway, they were all like, “Why didn’t you bring her? You should have brought her? What omiyage are you buying for her???” Hahaha. Then all of the guys were trying to convince me to shower with them at the ryokan (Japanese-style inn, meaning they have public showers/bath). I would actually do it if they weren’t OBSESSED WITH MY PENIS! Like, it would be fun, as guys talk about amusing things when showering in Japan (hehe), but er, yeah, not gonna happen since I am a gaijin and they talk about my bits enough as it is! The most amusing quote was from Kenta, who said, “Don’t worry, Jeff, we all have them! No touch!” Hahahahaha.

After USJ we took the bus to Kyoto. In Japan tour buses always have guides who talk for a million hours about random shit, and I felt VERY sorry for our guides, as the kids totally didn’t pay attention to them! Poor girls (they are ALWAYS girls). Anyway, we took the bus to Kyoto, got to our ryoukan (Japanese-style inn), had some dinner (um, the teacher’s dinner was SO MUCH better than the students’!!!), and that was about it. That night we had a teacher’s meeting and then I was forced into drinking with my kouchou sensei (principal) and a couple other teachers, hehe. It was fun, tho! And a good way to get gossip ;) Anyway, this is hella long, end of day one!

School Trip Photos

2007-06-17T19:53:00.000+09:00

I added photos from the school trip to my site. Check 'em out! I will blog about it later in the week....it was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo fun!!!!!!

Finally adding photos

2007-06-09T21:53:00.000+09:00

I added six new pages of pictures to my photos page, with hanami, my parents' visit, and Singapore. Check 'em out, yo.

DRAMA, part two!

2007-06-08T12:34:00.001+09:00

Okay, this is getting ridiculous! This morning we had no water again! The only good thing that came out of it was that we didn’t have to do school cleaning, woot. It was also hilarious, as during break we all had to walk to the elementary school, fire station, or town hall to use their bathrooms! Ahahahaha. WTF, how ghetto is this shit?! Only Japan would NOT cancel school when there is NO fucking water in the building!

Anyway, the water came back like two hours ago, BUT it totally affected kyushoku (school lunch) and because of that, our lunch is fucking rice and a small piece of hamburg with NO sauce on it. Um, this is disgusting, wtf. And like Japanese kids aren’t allowed to bring snacks to school AND stay until 7 for bukatsu, meaning that the only thing they will eat for two hours is a little bit of rice and a shitty piece of hamburg. Um, that is fucking ridiculous, yo!

Anyway, this was very amusing before, but now that it has fucked with my kyushoku, I am officially pissed!!!

DRAMA at Yabuchu

2007-06-07T15:58:00.001+09:00

Dude, there is major water drama going on at Yabuchu, yo! So I wasn’t here yesterday, but apparently the water just randomly TURNED OFF in the middle of the school day for no reason?! That caused big drama and bukatsu (club practice) cancellation, since they couldn’t drink water during practice. Also the toilets couldn’t flush, no one could wash their hands, etc. Um, gross. Good thing I wasn’t here!

Anyway, this morning there was MORE drama! I arrived and there was NO ONE in the staffroom, which never happens. I was like, wtf is going on? Eventually I found out that yesterday someone left a tap turned on but didn’t realize it, since the water wasn’t running. Well, when the water started running again last night, the tap flowed ALL night long and flooded the third floor and the music room!!!! So this morning all of the teachers had to take an hour to dry up the third floor with towels!!! ACK! Fortunately I didn’t know it at first, and when I DID find out, I pretended I had no idea what was going on so that I wouldn’t have to help and get wet. Hahahaha, I love being a gaijin, I can get away with anything!

Anyway, the water was fine today until lunchtime when it stopped flowing again! So no one could wash their hands again, eww! And they had to cancel bukatsu again today because of it. I was in the 3nensei hall when they announced it, and the kids were SO freaking happy, they were screaming and jumping around! It is hilarious how they hate bukatsu practice, poor kids, it like consumes their lives! Hmm, maybe they are the ones turning off the water supply so that they actually have free time for once ;)

I am both poor and retarded

2007-06-05T14:36:00.000+09:00

Um, I just got back from Singapore yesterday, today Cindy and I booked our Kyushu and San Francisco trips, and on Thursday I have to pay for my 3nensei trip to Kyoto, etc. Um, yeah, I have problems and NO FUCKING MONEY! SAD.

Oh my god

2007-05-31T12:08:00.002+09:00

ACK, I just realized my contract ends exactly two months from today. That is SCARY!!!!

Shou Stories

2007-05-31T12:08:00.001+09:00

Yesterday I had shougakkou (elem. school), which I both love and hate at the same time, hehe. It is really fun and the kids are great, but it is SO freaking tiring, and by the end of the day I want to tell them to get their dirty hands off me! Hee hee, I am such a great teacher! I do like it, though. It is a love/hate relationship!

Anyway, yesterday I had the 4th graders and we were reviewing colors. For colors I always play a game where I say a color, then the kids have to run around the room and touch something that is the color I say. It is the simplest game ever, but they always have fun with it. I am always amused that when I say “black,” they all touch their own hair and are like, “BLACK!” However, there is one Brazilian kid, Tainan (spelling in Japanese, I dunno the Portuguese spelling), who has brown hair, so I was like, “Ooo, I will touch his hair when I say brown!” Apparently EVERYONE thought of this, as when I said brown there was seriously a GANG of shougakkou kids chasing after him! Poor Tainan was a bit scared of this, and they literally ran circles around the classroom trying to touch his brown hair! Hahaha, the price of being a gaijin in Japan.

So 6th period (last period) I had the other 4th grade class, and I was not exactly in the mood to teach. By 6th period it is too hot and I am too tired to try to be genki about it. I felt bad about this, though, as when I got there, the kids were SO excited. I don’t know what I did to deserve such attention from the 4th graders, but they seriously are OBSESSED with me, and I think secretly have shrines to me in their bedrooms. Like, it is crazy. Anyway, I got there and they were all excited and climbing all over me, and then the teacher was like, “Oh, sorry, I didn’t know, but we have to clean the school pool this class!” The kids were SOOOOOO sad, it was SAD! They were like, “NOOO, we want to do English instead!!!” When she said there wasn’t a choice, they were like, “Okay, well, let’s do English SEVENTH period (there isn’t a seventh period), or tomorrow!!!!” Then four of the kids grabbed onto my legs so I couldn’t leave the room! AWWWW! So cute! Now I feel bad that I didn’t want to teach them in the first place. Hehe. But yeah, shougakkou kids are so cute!

Ahahahaha

2007-05-31T12:07:00.000+09:00

So today is midterms, and on testing days, the kids wear their nice school uniforms that they only use for testing, ceremonies, and...hmmm....that is about it. Anyway, because they barely use them in junior high school, and because they are expensive, parents usually buy them too big for them and hope that they grow into them. This always produces amusing results, but this little 1nensei boy just walked by the shokuinshitsu with the MOST RIDICULOUSLY HUGE seifuku ever! The jacket’s sleeves were almost two times too long for him! His hands were completely buried in the sleeves, and it looked like he had Jeff-sized monkey arms! And the shoulders were way too big, too, so it pretty much looks like he is wearing his dad’s school uniform. Ahahaha, so cute.

Rain is coming down from the rooftops...

2007-05-28T10:15:00.000+09:00

Yeeeeeeeeeeea, beeotch, Cindy and I saw Rain on Friday, yo! It was good times, but, er, interesting! Hehe. We headed down to Tokyo after school, and arrived at Tokyo Dome to find…40,000 old ladies!!!! ACK! I hadn’t thought about it, but Rain’s main audience in Japan is the old ladies who watch Korean dramas! SAD!

Perhaps I should explain a bit more! So Korean dramas have been huge in Japan in the last few years, as the men are hotter to Japanese women than Japanese men are (because they are “more manly,” haha), and because Korean culture reminds them of “old Japan.” Anyway, yeah, so even tho Korean guys are hot, it is pretty much only housewives and grandmas that like them! However, I hadn’t thought that they would be the most hardcore Japanese fans of Rain? It was disturbing! Hello, 70 year-olds cant listen to Korean R&B, that is disturbing!

Anyway, we got to Tokyo Dome and there was a line like the size of Japan for the women’s restrooms…thankfully for me there were NO guys at the concert, so it wasn’t a problem for me! Hehe. Cindy has an amusing story regarding bathroom drama, so check out her blog when she posts it!

So I am a huge loser and joined a Rain keitai club so that I could get pre-sale tickets and they were fucking GOOD SEATS!!!!! Tokyo Dome is really big, but we got fucking FIRST row on the side. They were the best seats we could have without being on the arena/floor seating! WOOT! So that was exciting.

I must admit we were VERY concerned when before the concert there were announcements that screaming was not allowed, and could not only get you kicked out of the concert, but could temporarily STOP the concert?!!!! UM!!!!!!!!! Thankfully that wasn’t enforced, what the fuck!

Anyway, the concert was hot! ROWR! RAIN RAIN RAIN RAIN RAIN! It was a really good concert, despite a few parts that would only work in Asian, as they were random and weird. But still, hot! The only bad thing about the concert was that Japanese audiences suck ass. Like, they suck ass at movies, at musicals, at concerts, at everything! They were sort of genki, but hello, it is Rain, you are supposed to be loud and dancing and shit!!! Cindy and I were good and sat for most of it, but the last third we were dancing, beeotch! I also screamed for him to take his shirt off half the time, hee hee. But yeah, it was a good concert, but something was missing. It would have been fun in Vegas with all of the FOB-y screaming peeps, yo! Stupid Japanese boring people!

Oh, and Rain spoke in a lot of Japanese between songs! I was so impressed! Granted, I couldn’t always understand wtf he was trying to say, BUT he memorized a LOT of Japanese, damn! It was rather sugoi.

So yeah, the concert was fun and it ended and then IT WAS THE MOST JAPANESE THING EVER. So RIGHT when it ended the lights came up and this announcer was like, “Thank you for coming to the concert. Please stay seated until we call your row number to exit Tokyo Dome. Thank you very much.” Um, wtf! It was ridiculous! Talk about killing a concert buzz! So like we were forced to sit down until they called us! Cindy and I were gonna say fuck it and pretend we didn’t understand Japanese, but there was a guy with like a gate thing blocking all rows not called! SAD, welcome to Nazi Germany! Also, as Cindy said, it isn’t like people are gonna like trample each other in Japan while trying to exit an arena, seriously. Ugh, that was dumb.

Anyway, I enjoyed the concert, but for some reason it feels like we didn’t see him really? I don’t know why! I guess I will just have to see him again :) :) :)

Also, we were total losers and went around Tokyo on Saturday to nice shopping areas trying to secretly stalk Rain, but we never found him! SAD!!!!!

YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!

2007-05-24T10:45:00.001+09:00

I booked two very exciting trips today...NYC and Mexico City!!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!!!!!!! I am gonna be in NYC from 8/28 until 9/10, catching all of the shows I have missed in the last two years, bitching about the heat, and annoying Myra! Hee hee, WOOT!

I also booked my flight to Mexico, which is VERY EXCITING! I will be heading there on 10/19 and seeing my boyooooooo, wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooot! I am gonna fly back on 12/19 in order to be in Oregon for Holly’s birthday, then Christmas! WOOT! I am excited! I was able to use my miles for the flight, so it only cost sixty bucks, AND I am flying first-class on the way home! Hello, I have never ridden first class before, I cant wait! Yeeeeeeea, motherfuckers!

Yabuchu is SO ghetto fabulous!

2007-05-24T10:44:00.000+09:00

In Japan, it is only compulsory (WHOA, big word!!!!) to go to school until the end of junior high school. After that you can skip high school and get a job at the Subaru factory or construction or something, which is what the bad kids do. Because of this, bad kids who graduated come back once in a while to visit their junior high school since they have way too much free time. They are always BEYOND ghetto, as they have blonde hair, 300 piercings, and look like they are members of the yakuza (then again, in Yabuzuka, you never know!). They come to the staffroom and talk to their old teachers, then usually are told to go away. Haha.

Anyway, today two bad girls who graduated a year ago came back and were apparently so bored that they wanted to pretend they were students! They fucking came in their old school uniforms hoping that people wouldn’t realize that they weren’t real students!!!! The only way you could tell they weren’t was because they had lots of piercings and big long colored hair (against the rules in junior high). All of a sudden in the middle of first period one of the teachers had to escort them out of the building!!!! Ahahahaha, that is SO sad. Like, how bored must you be to want to go back to junior high school and pretend to be a student? Just freaking go to high school!!!

Bonding with my kids, yay!

2007-05-24T10:43:00.000+09:00

Okay, so over a month ago at the enkai (drinking party with teachers), my kouchou sensei (principal) was like, “Jeff, do you want to go on the shuugaku ryokou (school trip with 3nensei to Kyoto, Osaka, etc.)? It would be a fun last memory for you and the kids!” I was like, “Hell, yeah!” So he was like, okay, cool.

Then the next week, he asked me if I remembered Friday night and what he said (okay, I am drunk off my ass at ONE enkai and now everyone thinks I cant remember anything, SAD), and I said yes, then he mumbled something and I pretended to understand. Might I add that chuugakkou principals and vice principals have their own language that consists of manly mumbling that I don’t understand half the time! I hang out with too many girls!

Anyway, for the last month, I have wondered if I am going or not, as NOTHING has been said about the trip. I was hoping I could go, but it is a week after Singapore, so if I didn’t go I wouldn’t be like crying in the corner or anything. So I finally asked kouchou sensei about it today and he was like, yeah, duh. Hahahaha. YAY! Japanese people are SO weird. Like, if you mention one thing for 30 seconds, it is like decided and never brought up again. I don’t get it! But anyway, I am excited, it will be fun! I am gonna be such a loser hanging out with my kids, they are totally gonna be sick of me by the end!

Um, yeah

2007-05-19T00:14:00.000+09:00

K, a sign that I am NEVER home anymore....want to know what food is currently in my fridge? Jalapenos and butter! Mmmmm, what a nutritious meal! Sad, I am NEVER at home to eat anymore.....that is fine, but looking at my fridge is just depressing! I might as well unplug the damn thing!

Last big trip!

2007-05-17T09:34:00.001+09:00

So the other day Cindy and I booked our last international trip before leaving Japan...we are going to Singapore on June 1st, woot! I literally have NO idea what there is to do in Singapore, but it is the only chance I will probably ever have to go there, as I would have NO desire to fly there from the States (um, it takes seven hours from here, let alone from the States!). So yeah, I am excited!

Unfortunately because it is FAR away and because flight times are really weird to go there, we literally only have two days there, but it is really small, so that should be enough time, I think. We shall see. Ugh, it is going to be SO RIDICULOUSLY HOT THERE, I dont think I can take any pictures because I am going to be the sweatiest, nastiest person on the planet! Hahahaha. I am excited for it anyway, tho. :)

Movie Madness!

2007-05-17T09:10:00.000+09:00

Dude, it is like attack of the movies lately and I am loving it! So a few weeks ago Spider-Man came out, so I went to AEON and saw that. Then the next week I saw Tokyo Tower before it went out of theaters (I had to go by myself to both movies and felt like the biggest loser ever! Especially since I was crying by myself at the end of Tokyo Tower, SAD! At least everyone in the theater was crying, tho!). This week Stranger Than Fiction comes out, then June 9th is The Prestige, then June 16th is Zodiac! June 30th is Shrek 3, but Cindy and I might see it in Singapore in a couple weeks if we are bored. Then July is Harry Potter, then I am going home and catching up on Hairspray, Simpsons Movie, etc etc! Clazy!

BTW, if you comment on how these movies are like ten years old I will kick your ass!

Anyway, yay movies, but it is a big pain in the ass that I have to bike, train and bus to get to AEON to see the damn movies like every week. Meh! Oh, well.

Yay!

2007-05-10T13:29:00.001+09:00

So almost all of my bad 3nensei boys who graduated in March ended up not getting into high school, which I wasn’t very surprised by (tho it is still depressing). Oh, btw, high school isn’t mandatory in Japan. Anyway, there was one bad boy, Ryohei, who is technically a “bad boy,” but is actually sweet and not bad at all, he is just kinda cool and hangs out with the bad kids and doesn’t exactly love studying.

Anyway, I heard last March that Ryohei only got into one high school, a private school in Ashikaga. However, I wasn’t sure if he could actually go, due to money/lack of interest, etc. One of my teachers was like, “It’s okay, he will be able to play volleyball with his friends!” Um, I was like, NO, that is not okay! Haha.

So yeah, I was hoping that he was going to high school, but I wasn’t sure until last night when I saw him on the train and he was wearing a high school uniform! Yay! I was so excited to see that…I am proud of him! Ganbatte, Ryohei!

Ugh, it’s starting....

2007-05-10T08:32:00.000+09:00

This is the first official hot week of the year and I am not amused! It isn’t truly “hot” yet, but it reached 30 degrees yesterday! It is slowly getting more and more humid, and it is totally fucking up my body! I remember last year for like two weeks I just couldn’t move, as the heat was draining my body of all of its energy…and that is happening now! I am like tired from the moment I wake up until I go to bed! It needs to stop, I am lazy enough as it is!

To further prove my point, a few things that officially make it summer:

-on Tuesday I made the big move from sleeping on the futon in my warm living room to sleeping on my bed in my spacious/cool bedroom. It is weird (and also dark as hell, I thought I had lost my eyesight at one point in the night!)!

-It is the start of the never-open-your-mouth-while-riding-your-bike season, as I am in the inaka and flies go in my fucking mouth! It is really nasty!!! I literally have to ride with my mouth closed, and I can feel them crashing into my mouth area! Damn you, Yabuzuka!

-To add to the nastiness of flies in mouths, it is OFFICIALLY summer, as I got my first fly in my eye while riding my bike this week! Yes, apparently Japanese flies are attracted to my big round gaijin eyes, as I ALWAYS get them in my fucking eye! Then I have to ride my bike while getting it out of my eye, and it is just bad news bears in every sense of the word! Fucking Yabuzuka!

And it is officially summer, as I am complaining about the heat on my blog. Expect many more entries of this nature to come!

Hisashiburi

2007-05-08T14:30:00.000+09:00

Yes, I hadn’t blogged for a long time until today, but that was because my parents came here for Golden Week! I wasn’t sure how it would go (I was fully prepared to want to kill them within like three hours of them landing), but it was actually a lot of fun! They were only here for seven days, but we did SO much in one week that it seriously felt like at least two weeks, it was crazy! Anyway, I don’t feel like writing about it, so I will just post pics from it eventually instead!

Depressing Story Time!

2007-05-08T14:24:00.000+09:00

Dude, it is really depressing to hear all of the drama involved with Brazilians and other minorities in Japan! Anyway, I have a depressing story to share! Sad. So Chiago is the only Brazilian 1nensei (and only Brazilian in chuu, I think? There are a couple random gaijin-y types but they may have been born here, I am not sure). Anyway, he was at Minami Shou (elementary school) so I knew him fairly well (well, as much as you can know shou kids). He was able to speak Japanese with his friends and stuff, but studying was really hard for him in Japanese.

Anyway, he came to chuu and he didnt seem very happy, but I didnt really know much until yesterday when Kameyasu (my hot shou sensei who teaches Japanese to Brazilian kids) was all worried about him and talking to me. It turns out that Chiago hated chuu and wanted to quit because he didnt understand anything, it was too hard, etc. He wanted to quit and go to Braziljin gakkou (a stupid-ass school in Ota for Brazilians that only uses Portuguese and is not in anyway helpful for real life in Japan) instead. His Mom, Kameyasu and I all agreed that that was stupid and not useful at all, and that if he could survive through a Japanese school he would have a much better chance at a future. However, he went there for a day to try it out. I think Kameyasu said he went there in shou 1-4 nen, then went to Minami Shou for two years.

Anyway Kameyasu and I were talking about it, and we both agreed (and Kameyasu had tried to tell him) that not only gaijin are hating chuugakkou/scared of chuugakkou right now, but also nihonjin. Like, it gets MUCH harder all of a sudden for the kids, and everyone is nervous and stuff, not only him! But I dont think he really listened to that.

Anyway, there was tons of drama today and now it turns out that Chiago quit school today, is transferring to Braziljin gakkou, and then is going back to Brazil next year. SAD. Like, he is going to leave his family here and go live with his grandma because he wants to go back all of a sudden? SAD SAD SAD.

Anyway, yeah, that is depressing!!!! I understand that he doesnt have any friends here to really talk about his troubles to, but I wish he could have ganbaru-ed. Like, making decisions for yourself as an 1nensei is not the best thing in the world. Haha. I know I felt I could make big decisions in 7th grade, but I am sure they probably werent good ones! Hehe. So yeah, that is really depressing. Hrm. But at least he is happy, I guess....hrm. It just sucks the situation gaijin students are put in here, they are kinda fucked either way.

It is interesting to see how much drama is put on the school by this, too, my kyoto sensei (vice principal) has had to call like 700 people about him quitting! Usually if people "quit" chuugakkou they dont ever make it official because you can graduate even if you NEVER go to school for some reason.

Anyway, had to share my sad story with someone!

Oh my god, to be selfish for a second, my hot sensei wont be coming to chuu anymore! DAMN YOU CHIAGO! ;)

Dekitazo!!!!

2007-04-27T21:30:00.000+09:00

So I hadn’t said before, but Rain is coming to Tokyo on May 25th. Tickets go on sale on the 13th (um, Asians like last-minute travel and concert plans, I don’t understand), but I didn’t want to go through the drama of trying to buy tickets while they sell out in like 30 seconds like last time. So I put my name in for a drawing to get tickets in advance....and I won, motherfucker! Cindy and I are going to Rain, yo!!!!!!!!!!!! We will probably be 7 million miles away, since it is in the evil HUGE Tokyo Dome, but we are going, yo! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT! Hot-ass Rain is MUCH more important than most-likely-shitty Japanese Wicked! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You HAVE to be kidding me....

2007-04-27T12:02:00.001+09:00

Dude, this is fucking hilarious.

Giving into Peer Pressure

2007-04-23T10:40:00.001+09:00

SAD, the day has finally come that I gave in and joined Facebook! I stayed away from it for three years, but I figured what the hell (plus stupid Eduardo told me to join and I cant say no to him! Hehe). However, I still REFUSE to join stupid MySpace, so I still have standards! Yes :)

Anyway, if you are on Facebook and aren’t my “friend” yet, add me, bitches!

Weather Changes

2007-04-22T00:09:00.001+09:00

Okay, I realize I am never happy with the weather in Japan, but this week was really quite ridiculous. Wednesday was pouring rain and FREEZING. It was 10 degrees and I had to wear my big puffy jacket and carry a huge umbrella when going out. Today, THREE DAYS LATER, it was 26 degrees and humid as shit! Somehow in the span of three days I went from being poured on while biking to the station to sweating my ass off on the way to the train station. Um, yeah. What the fuck?

Fasting!

2007-04-19T10:08:00.000+09:00

So on Sunday, Cindy and I did the unthinkable, and DIDN’T EAT FOOD! We decided that we had poisoned our bodies enough, so it was time to give it a break from constantly digesting. So, we went on a fast! Starting at 7:30 PM on Saturday night, we wouldn’t eat food until breakfast on Monday morning. While I didn’t last QUITE that long for various reasons (I wasn’t feeling that well before it started), it was still hopefully somewhat good for me, and I was amazed I actually (sorta) pulled it off! Hehe. Here are the details:

9:00 am: I wake up from a dream that I accidentally made tea withoutthinking about it and ruined my fast! I wake up, realize it was a dream, and go back to bed…only to dream about eating food for two hours! Oy, this is not off to a good start.

12:00: Just got back from grocery shopping. Hmm, I should fast more often, it saves me money on groceries!

12:09: Dammit, I’m hungry, this sucks! Time to drink water and pretend it’s food!

12:20: While putting dried cranberries in a bag for tomorrow’s worksnack, some fall out and I must make VERY conscious decision not toeat them. Sad, it is depressing how much I eat without even thinkingabout it!

12:57: Hrm, my stomach is getting a little rumbly! Must watch moreTV and distract myself!

1:24: Dude, not eating makes me SLEEPY! I want to clean my dirty-ass house but have no energy. This sucks!

3:18: Oh my god, I am so hungry! I am like light-headed! This sucks. I had better be toxin-free after this bullshit!

3:25: Totally unrelated, but I just found 1man ($100) in my drawer! THIS ROCKS, especially since I am broke as fuck at the moment! WOOT!

3:27: Holy crap, I just found 2700 yen more! This drawer is amazing!

3:29: 1000 yen more! It’s like I’m getting paid not to eat!

4:15: So hungry! I should clean to distract myself, but don’t have much energy. Will ignore that and do so anyway! Sigh.

4:34: I have just realized how much more free time I have when Idon’t have to eat…like, I don’t need to spend any time cooking or eating, so I have WAY too much time on my hands! As a result, I have already watched like 300 hours of TV today.

5:40: Ooo, I’m not as hungy or light-headed anymore! Yay. K, timefor more TV!

6:30: Hrm, I don’t feel well, and not in a “yay, I am getting rid of toxins way!” Sad, I might have to break this fast. Must pretend I am toxin-free already!

7:30: Sad, I had to have a glass of juice and a carrot! Oh, well, better than a huge meal, I suppose!

So yeah, I didn’t last as long as I had hoped, but 24 hours is a good start ;) Congrats to Cindy, who made it the whole way! Next time I am doing 36 hours, god dammit!

Photos, yo!

2007-04-09T21:12:00.000+09:00

I updated my photos site with graduation pics and LOTS of photos from Eduardo's visit. Check it out, yo.

Senioritis!

2007-04-09T10:50:00.001+09:00

So the new school year just officially started, and I am officially TOTALLY OVER school! Ugh! I have such a case of senioritis, and I still have 3 1/2 months of teaching left! Shit. I so don’t care about pretending to be interested in the new teachers or anything else. Bad news bears fo sho.

I also will NOT miss Japanese “ceremonies.” We just had our opening ceremony and it was SO FUCKING BORING. I don’t know why they call it a ceremony, as they don’t celebrate (er, ceremone? Hehe) anything. They just sit there, stand up, bow, and listen to BORING speeches. If I am 24 and bored to death, I don’t know how 12 year-olds survive it (let’s ignore the fact that they might be more mature than me!).

At one point our Kyoto Sensei (vice principal) was introducing all of the guests that came from the PTA and other schools and stuff, when a new 1nensei girl puked ALL over. She was sitting like right in front of where the visitors were being introduced, but everyone totally ignored it and continued the introductions and bowing while a few teachers helped her clean up! Um, sad! How can Japanese people pretend to ignore things so easily? It’s like, dude, a girl just vomited all over the place, RIGHT in front of the people you are talking about, I think we ALL noticed it!

Anyway, yeah, senioritis is bad news bears. I had it horrible in middle school, high school and college, and now I have it again in middle school part two! Sigh.

Eduardo came to Japan, FINALLY!

2007-04-06T11:54:00.000+09:00

K, so Eduardo finally came here and we had suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuch a fun two weeks. Meh, I want him to come baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack! Sad. Anyway, it was a very BUSY two weeks (despite my purposely planning to have time to relax, since we didn’t get to in Mexico, all of the relaxing time got booked by other things! Sad). So yeah, we did a lot of stuff, and I don’t feel like writing a novel, and you don’t feel like reading one, so I will do a short-ish (Jeff cant do short!) highlights version.

Saturday, the 17th

Eduardo came in EARLY in the morning, we trained into Tokyo and jetlagged Eduardo got to see a lot of the city. We went to Asakusa to see the temple, then went to Shibuya for some shopping and big-city-feel. We then went back to our teeny hotel room (clazy Tokyo!) so he could nap (poor boyo!) before going to Ikebukuro to meet up with Natsumi and Adam. We had a drink with them, then they had to leave, so we went to 2chome (the gay area in Tokyo) to get a drink. It was interesting, hehe. Then went back to the hotel and ASSED OUT.

Sunday, the 18th

Went to Harajuku, walked around, then went to my favorite Indian place for lunch. We then trained back to Gunma, and I gave him a small tour of Yabuzuka, where he learned that he hates biking and hates Gunma wind! That night we relaxed and had dinner at my house.

Monday, the 19th

I had to work, so Eduardo got to sleep off his jetlag. I got off early, and we did a few errands, then made Mexican rice (MMM!) for Atsuko’s party that night. The Gunma wind was especially bad that night, and Eduardo nearly got blown into a rice paddy! Sad! We FINALLY got to Atsuko’s and ate a TON of food with Atsuko, some of her and my former students, and Nacchan. It was fun! That night we went to karaoke with Atsuko, her daughter Aki and Aki’s husband, and Atsuko’s son Kosuke. Got back late and Jeff barely slept before work the next day!

Tuesday, the 20th

I survived work, and Eduardo came to visit after lunch, woot. That night we went to Nacchan’s restaurant for a HUGE meal (including Nacchan’s AMAZING yakisoba) with Megu, two students and their mom. It was fun!

Wednesday, the 21st

My first day of vacation, yay! We flew to Hiroshima in the late morning, ferried to Miyajima (my favorite place in Japan!), checked into our place, and wandered a bit around Miyajima before our HUGE ryokan dinner. That night we assed out at like 9:30, we are such senior citizens!

Thursday, the 22nd

We ferried into Hiroshima to depress ourselves with the A-Bomb Dome and museum. After that we cheered ourselves up by the wonders of the 100 yen store (Eduardo fell in love) and other shopping. We then went to Okomiyaki Mura (Okonomiyaki Village), which is four floors of okonomiyaki vendors. SO GOOD. MMMMMMMM. Then we went back to Miyajima, had dinner, and assed out early again!

Friday, the 23rd

Woke up early so that we could hike around Miyajima and see the temples and nature. I LOVE MIYAJIMA. I was so happy to have my boyo there with me! After that we flew back to Tokyo and trained our way home to Gunma.

Saturday, the 24th

We had a relaxing morning, then went to the 100 yen store in Korona so that Eduardo could get all of his presents for friends, hehe. The 100 yen store really does rock. We then met up with 11 of our friends (yay, we have friends!) for a dinner at Cha Cha, followed by drinks and karaoke at Verinha, the Brazilian bar. Um, there were too many Brazilians singing DEPRESSING SONGS. WTF! It was fucking sad! Eduardo got to bike drunk for the first time in his life on the way home, hehe.

Sunday, the 25th

Nacchan took us to Megu’s house for a yummy Japanese lunch with her and her husband, then the five of us drove all around Yabuzuka to various pretty nature places. It was fun, but a bit tiring, since we just wanted to sleep! Hehe. That night we went to sushi with Mami, Emily, Glenn and Cindy at Hiyoshi Maru, my favorite sushi place, mmmmm.

Monday, the 26th

After a relaxing morning, Eduardo got to visit the wonder known as AEON! Yay! Good shopping was had by all, and I MAY have bought five shirts, despite not planning to buy anything, eek! We had a tempura dinner, then saw Dreamgirls, woot! Followed by brick toast for dessert, it was an amazing day ;)

Tuesday, the 27th

We trained to Takasaki to catch the shuttle bus to Lake Haruna, where we stayed the night. The bus there was FULL of people, and we were literally the ONLY people under 70 years old. I wanted a picture!!! The afternoon we walked around the WHOLE lake, which I still cant believe, then had a huge dinner with nomihoudai (all you can drink). We are such losers! To be even bigger losers, Drunk Jeff and Drunk Eduardo rented the karaoke room and sang two hours of karaoke by themselves! We sang the GAYEST SONGS EVER, it was sooooooooooooooo fun! We then promptly assed out.

Wednesday, the 28th

Woke up hungover, bused back to Takasaki and shopped a bit, but we were too tired and hungover to feel like shopping, so we went back to Yabuzuka and watched movies! Eduardo lost his Mean Girls virginity, which was a very special moment in our relationship!!!

Thursday, the 29th

A VERY BUSY DAY, as we went on a huge Gunma tour with Nacchan, Megu, Cindy, Atsuko and Kosuke. We seriously went ALL over. We went to a cool museum/weird ranch place, went to Ikaho and hiked around, went to a park in Maebashi, went to the kenchou (prefectural building), and went to a COOL COOL COOL park in Isesaki with the funnest slide IN THE WORLD! We got home EXHAUSTED and poor Eduardo still had to pack all of his shit! Sad!

Friday, the 30th

We trained to Tokyo for our last full day. :( Went to Shibuya, then Shimokitazawa, which was one of my favorite shopping places when I studied abroad. I bought MORE shirts that I didn’t plan to buy, and Eduardo finally found a cheap gay man bag, yay! Hehe. After that we went to Harajuku for Indian again, then walked around the sakura (cherry blossoms) in Asakusa along the river, which were MUY pretty! It was a good last night, tho sad!

Saturday, the 31st

I don’t want to talk about it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sniff!

Anyway, it was soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo fun, I am so glad he finally got to come! I realized while he was here that we only spent TEN days together in 2006. Um, that is fucking ridiculous! So at least we have already had two weeks together this year and it isn’t even close to over :)

Eduardoooooooooooooooooooooooooo

2007-04-03T20:25:00.000+09:00

Eduardo FINALLY came and it was an amaaaaaaaaaaaaaaazing two weeks! More pics and stuff later, but here are some in the meantime...

Um, SCARY!

2007-03-15T14:20:00.001+09:00

Dude, wtf!

Graduation

2007-03-13T14:41:00.000+09:00

So, today was graduation. I was excited for it, as I wanted to say goodbye to my good 3nensei class, but I forgot how INCREDIBLY BORING Japanese graduations are! Good lord! Here is how a Japanese graduation goes: bow, bow, bow, long boring speech with no emotion, bow, bow, bow, bow, bow, bow, call 200 names while each kid bows literally at least 7 times each, bow, bow, long boring speech, long boring speech, long boring speech, bow bow bow, long boring speech, bow, bow, bow, sing a song, clap, bow. Man, was it EXCITING! Jesus Christ! I like being in a big school until it comes to things like this where they have to call EVERY kid’s name!

It is really sad for the kids, because graduations should obviously be somewhat formal, but it should be enjoyable for them and not put them to freaking sleep! The kids came in to the gym crying, but didn’t cry for the ceremony just because it had no EMOTION to cause them to cry! They cried plenty before and after, though.

Speaking of sleeping, one kid was so bored HE LITERALLY FELL ASLEEP STANDING UP. Now usually Japanese people are really good at sleeping while standing, but apparently the boredom was too much for him, and he fell asleep standing while listening to a speech, FELL OVER BACKWARDS, crashed on a chair and landed flat on his back on the ground!!!! It was hilarious in a scary way. It was also very amusing, as everyone pretended it didn’t happen (except for a few teachers who checked on him). It caused a huge crash and no one “noticed.” I don’t know how Japanese people can ignore things so well (flashbacks of Cindy breaking a chair in a café!).

Anyway, despite the ceremony being horribly tedious, it was still a fun day because of the send-off at the end. The parents and teachers line up on the street or walkway or whatever in front of the school and clap while the kids make one last walk in front of the school. Then the kids get to take pictures with everyone and I got a bunch of pics, yay! It was fun. Awwww, I am gonna miss my kids!

Phoooooooootoooooooooooooos

2007-03-11T20:18:00.000+09:00

I've uploaded a buncha pics...Shanghai, Sapporo, Hong Kong, etc. Check it out here, yo.

SEVEN DAYS!

2007-03-10T16:11:00.000+09:00

Eduardo will be here in ONE WEEK. SEVEN DAYS SEVEN DAYS SEVEN DAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hong Kong, Part Three

2007-03-09T17:39:00.000+09:00

The last part of my babbling!

Sunday was our last full day in Hong Kong, and we pretty much did the same stuff as we did on Saturday! We got up and went to dim sum at The Garden Restaurant, a place that Sean and Jenny highly recommended. It was good!!! The egg rolls were the best egg rolls I have ever had! Thankfully Winsome made a cheat sheet for us to order things with, so we had some kanji hints. Mmm, it was yummy. Thanks, Sean and Jenny!

After that we did some shopping. Because of CNY, a lot of places were closed or opened really late. However, Hong Kong people are totally night people, and most places open really late anyway! They close and open really late, it is way different than Japan! We hadn’t had much luck shopping until we found Tough Jeans, the most Japanese store we could find in Hong Kong, haha. Calvin, Cindy and I all bought things there! Yay new clothes!

We then wandered around some more until we wanted to die and were all very grumpy and tired! Thankfully we found a Starbucks where we had a small afternoon nap. After that Cindy had to go visit her family, so Ann, Calvin and I hit the town on our own. We wanted to make sure we went to this dessert place that Winsome recommended before it closed, so we had dessert before dinner that night! Haha. It was also REALLY embarrassing, as we ordered SEVEN DESSERTS for the three of us! Um, families of six only ordered like two! Hee hee, oh well. Some of the desserts were really good and some were only okay. I FINALLY tried durian, a fruit I have heard a lot about from Cindy. It is popular in Southeast Asia, but is a you-love-it-or-really-hate it fruit. I had heard that it smells like cat poop and was very intrigued for some reason. Anyway, we tried the durian pancakes, which were actually pretty good. Then we got this one dessert with ice cream on top of jelly. Inside the jelly we found some mysterious food and were like, “Oooo, there is something in here!” We instantly devoured it, but instantly regretted it, as it was durian and was NASTY!!!!! IT DOES smell like crap and tastes like it, too! It was freaking gross!!!! It took us a second to realize how nasty it was, but it was BAD. I don’t know how people can eat it?! For the next half hour the table smelled like crap! Um, EWW!

After that we headed to the Chinese New Years Parade. Despite purposely going there for CNY, there really wasn’t that much CNY-related stuff to do. They made a huge deal of the parade, though, so we wanted to make sure we saw it. Um, we SORT OF saw it, hehe. First of all, there were like seven bazillion people there. Also, they had two barricades? Like, the early people got to stand by the first barrier, right on the parade route. Then there was a big empty space behind them, with another barricade, where the late-comers (i.e. us) got to cram into with no room to breathe! Fortunately I am freakishly tall and could BARELY see things, but poor Calvin and Ann couldn’t see anything! I was also happy to be tall, as I had fresh air at my height, while everyone who is not-so-tall was sweaty and couldn’t breathe! Sad! We didn’t stay at the parade for too long, then went to a vegetarian restaurant for dinner before sleeping again. Once again we walked about 700 miles in one day!

The next day we didn’t have that much time before our flight, but we DID have time for dim sum! Mmmmm! We ordered a lot, but not as much as the EIGHTEEN dishes we ordered the day before! HAHAHA. The sad thing is we barely left ANYTHING on the table after we finished, either. We devoured it all! Anyway, it was good. However, I would not be very amused to live in HK, as the service is SO bad! The complete opposite of Japan. Waitresses are NOT afraid to show you how much they hate you and their job! The only time they ever smiled was when they got CNY red envelopes from their regular customers. Dude, I want to be a waiter just during CNY, as they were getting red envelopes like every five minutes!

Anyway, after that we headed to the airport, flew home and missed our stupid last train back to Ota. I figured we would, but it still pissed me off. Fortunately Calvin was nice and housed me and Cindy for the night. We got a WHOPPING 3 hours of sleep before we had to get up at 5 in the morning to head back home and get ready for work. In a NORMAL country, one could call a cab at that hour. However, only ONE cab company runs at that hour and they were too busy to pick us up (I think they only have one car running so early). Um, WTF!!!!!! So Cindy and I had to walk 45 minutes to the train station with all of our bags in the cold at 5 in the morning. AWESOME! Hmm, perhaps our lives are strange in this country. Hehe. It wasn’t that bad, though.

Fortunately I didn’t have any classes, as I may have killed kids that day, with 3 hours of sleep and getting up at 5 in the morning!

Anyway, that was our Hong Kong trip! It was fun! But now I must diet and not spend any money until Eduardo comes!!!

Hong Kong, Part Two

2007-03-08T11:49:00.000+09:00

On our first full day in Hong Kong, we woke up a bit early to have DIM SUM, mmmmmmm! Fortunately Cindy’s cousin, Winsome, volunteered to be our dim sum guide, as we don’t know the kanji for dim sum words! It was my first time having REAL Hong Kong dim sum, as I had only had it in Taiwan before. Oh my god, it was so good! Um, Winsome MAY have been scared by how much we could eat! Hong Kong people just go there for the tea and to relax while they eat a bit. Us hungry gaijin, on the other hand, came for the food and ate EVERYTHING! She kept suggesting things and we were like, “Sure!” She soon learned to just order anything she could think of, as she knew we would eat it! One time she called the waiter by saying, “Come here, the table with the biggest eaters…” Haha, sad. MMMM, it was good! I finally had fresh chicken feet, as the ones I had in Taiwan were like a day old. They sound nasty but they are yummy! We also had this YUMMY dessert that looked like some sort of pineapple thing, but was made of horse feet. Holy crap, it was good. EVERYTHING was good. We ate so much!

After that we walked off our calories by shopping. Well, more like walking around and window shopping. Hong Kong was a waste on us in that way, as we didn’t really have anything we needed to buy, and pretty much all you can do there is shop! Hehe. I did get some DVDs, though (um, Aaron Kwok up in here!!!!!). We walked around enough until we could get desserts from the street vendors, mmm!

After that we walked ALL OVER Hong Kong. We went to the Avenue of the Stars, which is kind of like a boardwalk on the bay dedicated to Hong Kong stars. Aaron didn’t have a star there and it was sad! Sniff. Fortunately it was a lot clearer than the day before, so we could finally take pictures of the Hong Kong skyline!

Oh, I forgot to mention three things! One, it was damn warm in Hong Kong! It got up to about 25 degrees or so during the day! That is much different from Gunma, which is about 10 degrees during the day, and MUCH different than Hokkaido the week before, which was 0 degrees!
Second, Hong Kong totally feels like NYC at times! I think it is a mix of humidity, heat, the big city feel, and the sorta-dirty-ness without being really dirty. I dunno, it is hard to describe, but it felt like I was in NYC a lot of the time!

Three, I am secretly fluent in Cantonese! Well, I cant speak it, but I can somehow understand it! Like, I totally knew what people were saying most of the time before Cindy would translate it! It was weird! But like, people are pretty much the same in any language, so I just imagined what the person would say in whatever situation, I guess. Still, it was weird, I am so secretly Chinese! Hehe.

Oh, also, HK is TOTALLY like in movies. I always thought they exaggerated the streets with tons of bright signs advertising everything, but it really is that way! I felt like I was in the second season finale of Alias! Yes, I am a nerd.

Anyway, yeah. After walking we were EXHAUSTED and needed a place to sit, so we MAY have gone to McDonald’s! Hehehe. Oh my god, their McD’s rocks! First of all, they have breakfast ALL DAY LONG! It is like heaven! They also have jo-jos! Might I add that apparently jo-jos (I don’t know how to spell it) are only an Oregonian word, as no one had any idea what I was talking about. They are like the big potato fry-like things with seasoning on them. And they have chocolate-dipped cones, etc. Mmmm!

After that we wandered some more, then went to see the Hong Kong light show. Every night at 8 PM they have a light show using the buildings on Hong Kong Island. You can see it from the Kowloon side, and it is a big deal and is one of the top 10 something something. In other words, they make a big deal of it, so we expected a lot. Um, it was FREAKING BORING! It was the crappiest show ever! The lights barely matched with the music and it was just random and BORING! It was only ten minutes but we were waiting for it to finish! Haha. Sad.

After that we met up with Winsome for dinner at a Macau restaurant. Because of our HUGE breakfast we barely ate there (for us) and it was a little worrisome!

We then made our way to Victoria Peak. Victoria Peak is THE place to go to if you go to Hong Kong. Like, it is the only thing on list of things to do there, hehe. It is a 552-meter tall mountain on Hong Kong Island, and it has an amazing view! You are like RIGHT above the skyscrapers, and can see the water and Kowloon from it. It is really beautiful. We went up there at night so we could see the skyscrapers all lit up, and I am really glad we went. Unfortunately we didn’t go again during the daytime, as you can hike around there and get really close to the buildings, but that will be next time, if I ever go back!

After taking about 7 million pictures, none of which turned out because digital cameras suck at night time, we went back to the hotel and slept!

One more part coming tomorrow and then I am caught up on travel-related blogs! Oh, except for Shanghai, but I dont want to finish that, haha.

Hong Kong

2007-03-08T11:47:00.000+09:00

(this is literally only for my own Alzheimer's-y memory so that I can remember my Hong Kong trip in the future....but I figured since I wrote it, I should at least post it for the like half a person that would be at all interested! Hehe. So sorry, it is long! But you can skip it :)

A few Fridays ago, Cindy, Ann, Calvin and I took a long weekend and went to Hong Kong! However, the trip sort-of started on Thursday night, as Narita is the WORST airport in the world and is TOO far away. Our flight was at ten, meaning we had to check in at 8. However, the first train from the Ota area wouldn’t get us to Narita in time, so we had to stay at Calvin’s in Tatebayashi and take the freaking 5 AM train (not amusing) to get there in time. Ugh. However, it was fun, as Calvin made us a YUMMY Filipino dinner, and then Mami and Tatebayashi JETs came over, so it was nice to see everyone.

For some reason I couldn’t sleep, so what already should have been a crappy night’s sleep turned into a REALLY crappy night’s sleep of about 2-3 hours. FUN! Anyway, all went fine getting to Narita and everything, and fortunately we got to skip the HUUUUUUUGE check-in line for JAL, since we didn’t have check-in baggage.

The plane ride to Hong Kong is way longer than it should be, yo! Almost five hours?! Hello, it is Hong Kong, it is not exciting enough to have a five-hour flight! Hehe. I watched a Korean movie, but it wasn’t any good, sadly. Plus they are all the same…one of two lovers gets sick, and everyone cries. Usually it is good in a formulaic (whoa, big word!) way, but this one wasn’t, hrm.

Anyway, we got to Hong Kong and our tour company picked us up to drive us to our hotel (it was a “free” tour, so it isn’t what Americans think of as an actual tour). Our “guide” on the bus has the easiest job ever, as he didn’t tell us anything about Hong Kong! Haha. Unfortunately Friday was HELLA cloudy or smoggy or both, as you could barely see anything in the city! So our view of the city (country? Hehe) was limited on the drive. We got to the hotel, which was nice, then decided to wander around the city. The good thing about having to get up hella early to fly out is that it felt like we had a whole day in Hong Kong! That was awesome, as I hate travel days where you cant do anything.

Our hotel was right next to Nathan Road, which is a major road in Hong Kong with lots of eating and shopping (which is good, since that is all there is to do in Hong Kong! Hehe). So we wandered around Nathan Road for a while. This was kind of the story of our entire trip, as I swear we walked around the same area about 300 times! Hehe. Anyway, we kinda wandered around the shops and food vendors and of course had to snack on Chinese beef jerky, waffles with butter, peanut butter and condensed milk (mmm!), fresh fruit juice, etc. This was also the story of our trip, as we spent ALL of our time either eating, or waiting to be hungry so we could eat again! I am not joking!

Oh, for those who don’t know, Hong Kong is split into a few different areas/islands. The two main ones are Kowloon and Hong Kong. Kowloon is where our hotel was, and is where most of the shopping and stuff is. Hong Kong is mostly financial, but also has Victoria Peak and stuff. Hong Kong has the Manhattan-ish skyline, which you can see from Kowloon. Anyway, we went to the bay to look at the Hong Kong skyline, but it was SO cloudy that we could barely see ANYTHING! It was sad! Since that was a bust, we decided to take the ferry to Hong Kong to visit a flower market.

Oh, I forgot to mention that it was Chinese New Year! We scheduled it that way on purpose, as we figured it would be cool to be there for CNY. Anyway, flower markets are a big part of CNY, as EVERYONE goes there to buy flowers and stuff for the new year. However, they not only buy flowers, they also buy the MOST POINTLESS things in the ENTIRE world. Like, I have no idea why they would ever need any of it! There were obviously necessary items such as blow-up “slippery when wet” signs, blow-up hammers, blow-up pig hats (and ANYTHING pig-related, as it is the year of the pig), blow-up “no smoking” signs, toys of all varieties, etc. Pretty much anything that is inflatable was there! It was seriously weird, but not THAT surprising, considering the crap people would buy in China for Christmas Eve and New Year’s. So really the flower market was about 30% flowers and 70% pointless crap! People apparently love it, though, as it was soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo packed. Holy crap, there were so many people! And it isn’t like it is the only flower market in Hong Kong, either! It was crazy. It was interesting to experience it, but very overwhelming! The flower part was pretty, though, and smelled really good!

After walking through it and being exhausted by people all over, we left (well, not before eating a snack!) and went out for dinner. We ended up at a place on the street that was YUMMY! It was an izakaya-type place (drinking and eating place), and was kinda like places we ate in both Korea and China. All Asian countries have cool street places except for stupid Japan that thinks they are better than everyone! Sad. Anyway, it was really good, and I got to try pigeon for the first time. I don’t even remember what all we ate, but fortunately Ann greatly enjoyed her new digital camera and took pictures of EVERYTHING! So I am excited to see the pics :)

After that we wandered around a market, where I got some illegal DVDs (woot!) and Ann got her palm read. Then we decided we had burned off enough calories to go for dessert! Hong Kong has awesome desserts, as they are all fruity and yummy! Most of them include mango, which is VERY good in my book! I got a mango dessert with black glutinous rice and it was goooood. Mmm.

After that we walked back to the hotel and slept like mofos, as we were TIRED!!!!!!!!!!!!!

To be continued!

I LOVE YABUCHU!

2007-03-06T15:04:00.001+09:00

So I realize that I am the most bi-polar blogger ever, but I LOVE MY SCHOOL! So I had been thinking since last year that I should buy a yearbook this year, since a) I am technically a 3nensei teacher, so it is my class, b) the 3nensei this year rock, and c) it is a good souvenir to bring back home. Anyway, I had been thinking it a year ago, but then totally forgot until it was too late to order it. They came in today and I was all jealous and looking at another teacher’s copy, when the teachers GAVE me a copy as a present!!!!!! Dude, I was totally willing to pay for it, but didn’t think I could get one this late. I fucking love them! It is awesome. It is not that many pages (especially for how much they charge the kids for them, damn!) but they are good pics and a very cool thing to have when I go back home. Plus it has every 3nensei student’s photos, so it is a good way to remember all of them. I can’t believe they even thought to offer me one, let alone as a present! I love my 3nensei teachers! I am gonna be the biggest bitch to my co-workers in April because there is no way they will be as cool!

Influenza is the Word

2007-03-05T15:15:00.000+09:00

Dude, Japanese people are OUT OF CONTROL with talking about the flu. Like, seriously. They talk about “infuruenza” every other word! I am barely even exaggerating! Like EVERYONE is wearing masks (in Japan you wear masks that cover your mouth when you are sick, but some people also wear them to prevent getting sick) and talking about it ALL DAY LONG.

It is a usual practice that when you walk by the nurse’s room during winter, they will have a daily count of how many people are sick with the flu, but now it is getting even more hardcore! On the board in the shokuinshitsu (staff room), every day each class writes who is absent. Lately the nurse has been circling the student’s names who are sick with the flu in bright pink. Um, why? What does it matter?! They aren’t at school!

And TODAY the nurse busted out a GRAPH (Japanese people loooooooooooooooooooooove graphs! I think it is math porn for them) showing the last week and a half of influenza cases in school so one can see the ebb and flow of influenza! Jesus!

However, I guess since Japanese co-workers never talk about personal stuff, and can’t bitch about the cold this year (their favorite topic EVER) due to global warming, it just leaves them extra time to talk about the flu. Sad.

Having said all of this, my kids better not give me the flu! Bitches!

Abe is a fucking retard

2007-03-05T13:33:00.000+09:00

Dude, Abe is so fucking stupid. CNN article about Abe and a more interesting Japan Times article about the truth.

Dude, Abe fucking blows. Even though Koizumi was Bush's bitch, at least he was somewhat cool. Abe is taking Japan 50 years into the past, making it even more sexist, nationalist and xenophobic. It is just going to fuck them over in the end. Grrrrrrrrr!

Music Recommendation

2007-03-01T15:53:00.000+09:00

K, I am officially addicted to Mika’s first album, Life in Cartoon Motion. It is soooooooooooo freaking good! It is fun genki music and great for waking up to, but it is also more than just mindless pop. It is kind of Scissor Sisters-y, but more accessible to straight people, I think! :) You should check it out. I love it!!!

Random Thoughts

2007-02-22T13:57:00.001+09:00

As the title says, random thoughts.

-Today was class 3-4’s request day for kyushoku (school lunch). Every 3nensei class gets a request for their favorite meal before they graduate, and they are always HELLA good! It is the only time of the year that kyushoku actually is as fatty as nasty American lunches. Today’s was curry udon (like it sounds, udon in curry, YUMMY), salad, kinako agepan (everyone gets a small loaf of bread fried and covered in kinako (soy flour, it is WAY better than it sounds)), AND chocolate cake! And not even crappy school lunch-type chocolate cake, but GOOD fresh and FATTY chocolate cake! Dude, talk about carb overload! It was hella good, though! Students should be in charge of kyushoku every day!

-Today I ate lunch with class 3-1 and while it was mostly eating in silence as usual, one kid worked on translating a question into English for about five minutes with this result: “Why do black woman no hair?” Um!!!! Hahahahaha. He was trying to ask why black women look like they have no hair. Um. I think he was trying to ask why their hair is different, but in his opinion it looks like they don’t have real hair or something. Anyway, that was an interesting conversation ;)

-For being a pretty organized society, Japanese people are laidback about the WEIRDEST things. Even procrastinating Americans book their flights in advance, but Japanese airline tickets don’t even go on sale until two months before departure. When you book through a travel agent (which everyone does), you don’t even know your flight times or hotel name until a week before you leave!

On this subject, I don’t know if it is just my school, but our student council and teachers are TOTALLY unorganized when it comes to assemblies (I am not calling them “pep assemblies,” as there is NO “pep” to be found in the assemblies here!). Like, you would think they would run over the logistics of who does what before big events like the 3nensei okurukai (send-off) and other things, but they are always running around fixing things DURING the assembly while everyone sits and waits. It is weird!

Even moreso, some of my 3nensei still don’t know where they are going for high school! Most of my kids JUST found out if they got into the schools they wanted. However, one of my kids I talked to finds out on March 15th if he can go to the high school that he wants to go to. Um, school starts on April 9th!!!! Hello, doesn’t one need to know such things a little more in advance?! I don’t get how that works. I would be freaking out with anticipation if I were him! Likewise, the teachers who get switched to other schools (tons get moved every year for reasons I cant comprehend) don’t even know until like the end of March. It is so weird!!!!

Okay yeah, end of random-ness.

Rowr

2007-02-21T22:16:00.000+09:00

I just stumbled upon this picture of Rain in concert and had to share it with the world. I am a giving person like that. (I recommend clicking on it so you can see him in more drool-worthy detail!)

While we are talking about my Asian boyfriends, how fucking gay is Aaron Kwok?! Still my boyfriend, but seriously, he is the gayest straight man EVER! I was all excited to watch the concert and music video DVDs of his I bought in Hong Kong, but they made me LESS attracted to him because he is TOO gay for me! That is a bad sign. But I guess I won't break up with him YET ;)

Hmm, I am a sad person. My REAL boyfriend needs to come RIGHT NOW! 24 days!!!!!!!!

The Power of “Sad”

2007-02-20T10:56:00.001+09:00

Once upon a time in a land far, far away, there was a Jeff who didn’t use the word “sad” EVER. Then along came Gretchen, who used it every ten seconds, and everything changed! Hehe. So in college, my friend Gretchen would ALWAYS say “sad.” After a while, Danny and myself and a few others would mock her and use sad in a Gretchen-is-retarded way. However, I was not aware of the addictive-ness of “sad” and have now been using it in every single sentence for the last four years.

It appears that the power of “sad” is unstoppable, as EVERYONE in my college group of friends now uses it, and now people all over Gunma use it! I have noticed that people I barely even talk to have started using it! It is seriously the best word EVER!

Anyway, this post is boring and pointless, but that is what results of 3 1/2 hours of sleep and no classes all day long. SAD! ;)

25 days!!!!!!!!

2007-02-20T10:49:00.001+09:00

25 dayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyys until Eduardo cooooooooooooooooooooooooooomes! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!

A Big Decision

2007-02-15T12:52:00.000+09:00

So I have been meaning to blog about this for a month but kept forgetting. But later is better than never! Anyway, last month I made a somewhat-big (but natural) decision…I am not re-contracting! I had originally thought I could possibly do three years, but I am definitely NOT up for it! Haha. A mix of missing my boyo and the need for a change in job lead me to this:

Yes, sorry for the blurry pics but you get the idea!

I could easily stay in Japan, but ALT-ing for three years is not for Jefu! Two years will be a good amount of time, though, I am not completely sick of it, and it has been fun. Man, I can’t believe I am leaving in less than six months! Eek!

Sapporo! Part Two

2007-02-15T11:42:00.001+09:00

After getting the best sleep of our lives, we got up on Sunday and headed to see the snow sculptures in Odori Park. There were way more than I expected! It went on for blocks! It featured both the BIG main sculptures, and then lots of small ones (usually in the shape of cartoon characters or other famous people/characters/things). My favorite big sculpture was for JAL. It was a Disneyland-themed one with a big Stitch! It was so cute!!! It had a plane in the background with lights that lit up at night, too! It was cool! Fortunately it was facing east, as the ones facing west must have gotten dirty from the wind or something, as there were dirty specks all over them. Sad! Anyway, we wandered around and looked at all of the sculptures, which took forever! It is cool, as there were TONS of families there. It is good family entertainment, as it is free and kids love the cartoon-themed sculptures!

Speaking of families, I think the only thing people in Sapporo have to do in the winter is have sex (and eat), as they ALL had like 300 kids! There were kids ALL over the place!!! It was crazy. While I am speaking of demographics, I also loved Sapporo because it is like a college town! There were young-ish people everywhere, which was nice to see, since all of the young people run away from Gunma both for and post-college.

After the sculptures, we went to Spark, a soup curry restaurant. Soup curry is (I think) only in Hokkaido, and Spark was recommended by one of Cindy’s teacher’s sons who goes to college in Sapporo. Um, it was the best recommendation EVER! Soup curry is a mix between Japanese curry and southeast Asian curry. It is spicier (although you can choose your spice level) than Japanese curry, and more soup-y/water-y, so it isn’t a lot like Japanese curry, but it is way different than like Thai curry. I dunno, it is GOOD! We fell in love with it! We both got the chicken and vegetable curry, and it had an un-Japanese amount of veggies in it (i.e. any at all!). The restaurant itself was REALLY cool. It was like a college hangout (literally, as everyone was young) and full with a line out the door! I felt cool just being there! It totally didn’t feel like we were in Japan, as it had like reggae music in the background and it was just NOT Japan. MMMM it was good!

After that we wandered around a bit and did our oh-so-important omiyage shopping. Whenever you go on trips in Japan, you have to get your co-workers omiyage. And theoretically your friends and EVERYONE IN THE WORLD YOU KNOW. I was sneaky and never told my school I was going to Sapporo, so I got to skip wasting money on the bastards, woot! However, I refused to NOT get omiyage, so I ended up spending over thirty bucks on candy and treats for myself. Haha, I am the saddest person alive. Poor Cindy, on the other hand, had to get it for her teachers, her private students, and everyone that live in Hong Kong, apparently, as she had the HUGEST bag of omiyage EVER!!!! Crazy! Haha. Even the Japanese girl at the register was like, damn girl! Hehehe. After omiyage shopping we ended up back at the hotel for another nap. Yes, walking around and eating is incredibly exhausting, apparently!

We then woke up and did the most Jeff and Cindy thing ever. We woke up in the morning thinking we would go to this place that had a big maze made out of snow, as well as slides and other cool stuff that was very yuki matsuri-y. However, it was an hour and a half each way and we were too lazy for that. So what did we do? We of course went to Sapporo AEON!!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHA. We had seen it on the train the night before and it called to us! I am totally not kidding. So we trained there and checked out the Sapporo AEON. It is newer and nicer than ours, being 3 floors and all. However, I like ours better! It has better stores!

It was worth going to AEON just for the kaiten sushi (conveyor belt sushi) restaurant we went to! We waited in a LONG line for it, and it was worth it! You order on computer screens and they have pics of everything, which is very helpful for gaijin! THEN the stuff that you order comes on this rolling track thing above your head! Like, your area will start beeping, and you look up and your sushi is whooshing towards you on a tray on tracks! It is hard to describe but it was freaking cool! And the sushi was SOOOOO GOOD! Oh my god! SO GOOD!

We then headed back to Sapporo eki (btw, Sapporo eki is the COOLEST eki in the world! It is huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge and has TONS of shops and is freaking NICE) and wandered around the streets of Sapporo. We didn’t wander just to wander…we wandered so we could eat more! Haha. We wanted man (Chinese dumplings) from the kick-ass man street vendor, yo! I looooooooooooooooove man more than anything in the world, and Sapporo loves their man, too, apparently! This place was YUMMY! So we ended up getting some, then walked some more and then had cantaloupe soft cream. They are famous for cantaloupe, too! MMMM it was good. Then we headed back to our hotel and slept off all of our food.

On Monday we checked out of our hotel and found that it was TRULY snowing outside! Like, lots of snow! It was so cool! I love snow! Maybe not super fun to walk in it with luggage, but I don’t care! We walked around and waited for Spark to open, as we needed soup curry one more time before we left, hehe. We had it and it was YUMMY, then we headed to the airport. Good lord, the Sapporo airport is CRAZY, as they must have literally over a hundred omiyage shops there. It is crazy, I don’t know how they all stay open, but they were all busy!!! We wandered around there, then flew back to Tokyo, trained back to Gunma (which was SO warm in comparison!), and our vacation was over, sad!

Anyway, I am really glad I went to Sapporo! It was my first time off Honshuu and it was nice to see the difference in culture and stuff! The city had a really good energy/feel. It was a city, but didn’t have a big city feel at all! The people were really nice and I dunno, it was just a cool place. They must not have that many gaijin as I got sooooooooo many gaijin stares!!! But I could totally see myself living there, even with the crazy snow and stuff! I recommend going there if you can!

Yay, the end. Next up, Hong Kong on Friday!

Sapporo! Part One

2007-02-14T10:22:00.000+09:00

I am working on my Shanghai post, but it is annoying and Sapporo is more fresh in my memory, so I am gonna post about it before I leave for Hong Kong on Friday! So, here goes. BTW, I am no longer physically able to make summarized blog posts so this is long. Sorry!

Cindy and I started our crazy traveling February-ness on Saturday by heading to Sapporo for the yuki matsuri (snow festival). I was excited, as I had been wanting to go to the yuki matsuri since high school. I was too lazy to go last year, so I am glad we found a sort-of affordable package for it this year, woot!

For those who don’t know anything about Sapporo or the yuki matsuri, here is some info. Sapporo is the biggest city in Hokkaido, which is the northern-most island of Japan. It was my first time being off Honshuu (the main island)! Sapporo is Portland’s sister city, as it is the same something-itude as Portland. Because it is higher north, Hokkaido is COLD! It is always snowing and stuff, and the summers are much cooler than in Honshuu. It is also unlike Japan, in that there is tons of space! It is famous for its nature and its food! There is room for cows and stuff like that, so they are famous for cheese, milk, butter, ice cream, etc. On top of that, they are also famous for ramen and other foods! In other words, they love food! They are my kind of people!

The yuki matsuri is held over seven days every February. The festival began in 1950, and about two million people come from all over the world to see the festival. The main part of the festival is in Odori Park, where artists make huge sculptures out of snow and compete to see which sculpture wins. There are also smaller events throughout Hokkaido during the yuki matsuri.

Anyway, Cindy and I woke up wayyyyyyyyyyyyyy too early (4 AM!) on Saturday morning to take the first train to Haneda Airport. Haneda is a LITTLE easier to get to than Narita, but it is still evil. I hate airports in Japan! We were worried about getting there on time, as there are two ekis (train stations) in Asakusa that are FAR apart (400 meters, two traffic lights and lots of stairs in between!) and we had to theoretically get from one to the other in nine minutes. SOMEHOW we were amazing and made it in FOUR minutes and got an even earlier and better train than we had planned on! We rock!

Anyway, we got to the airport and checked in. Um, domestic flights in Japan are SKETCHY, as you literally don’t need your ID. They never check! Scary! Anyway, all went well and we landed in Sapporo, woot!

After a VERY packed and uncomfortable train ride from the airport (2 million people visiting in 7 days=a busy airport!), we got to the downtown area of Sapporo. It was so nice to see SNOW! Woot! It is apparently warmer this year than usual, since the world is ending and all, but it was still pretty cold. Hokkairo (heat pack thingies) and long johns were definitely needed! We were stupid and took a cab to our hotel, as it looked far away on the map. However, we realized that EVERYTHING in Sapporo is close! It is a SMALL big city! The cab driver totally knew we were retarded, but he was nice and drove us the extra long way to make us feel like we got our money’s worth (he didn’t rip us off, as the meter never went up). Needless to say, we walked from then on!

So, it being a Jeff and Cindy trip, we came with tons of recommendations on food to eat while in Sapporo! Well, more like Cindy did and I just followed her! Thanks, Cindy! Anyway, our first meal while there was ramen, mmm! They have a “ramen alley” in Sapporo which is just a bunch of ramen restaurants crammed in one alley. Mmm! We chose a place and each got corn butter ramen, which is one of the many famous foods from Sapporo. Their corn, butter, and ramen are famous, so of course it made for a good mix! Mmmhmm! After that we wandered around a little, then took our usual afternoon nap before heading out again. We trained to Otaru, a town which is about 45 minutes from Sapporo. It is famous for both its sushi and the canal that runs through the town, and it was a cute area. They were having a lantern festival for the yuki matsuri, and it went on FOREVER! It was really cute and peaceful, as the local people made little sculptures and various shapes out of snow, then stuck candles all over them. It is kind of hard to describe, but I will post pics of it later. It was done along a street and it seriously went ON and ON and ON. Cindy and I like finishing things in five minutes, and it wasn’t possible in this case, sad! We did our best, tho ;) We then made our way down to the canal, where they had more lanterns, as well as candles floating on the water. It was cute. There were tons of dates there, as it is a romantic kinda thing to do!

We tried to meet up with Teresa and her brother there, but it didn’t work out, sad. Anyway, after searching for a cheap sushi place for FOREVER there and failing miserably, we decided to go to a nice place. Man, it was yummy! We got kani soup (crab soup. Yes, Sapporo is famous for crab!), and a rice bowl with tons of sashimi in it. It was GOOD! I don’t dig ikura (fish eggs) that much, but they were so fresh that they were SO good! MMMMM! It was worth it for sure!

After that (well, after dessert, hehe) we made our way back to Sapporo, watched some TV and ASSED OUT, as we had been awake for 300 hours at that point!

(hmm, nothing happened in this post, but I want to break it in two so you are not too overwhelmed, hehe. Part two to come tomorrow, and stuff actually happens in it! Sorta!)

Valentine’s Day at Chuugakkou

2007-02-13T15:14:00.000+09:00

So tomorrow is Valentine’s Day and the halls are abuzz with Valentine’s drama! Hehe. Well, not really drama, but I am sure there is drama out there somewhere! Valentine’s is a big day in Japan, as girls get boys chocolates. Then on March 14th is White Day, when the boys give the girls stuff (it is supposed to be something white, but it doesn’t have to be). Wikipedia has this to say about White Day:

“There are many theories about the origins of White Day, but according to one, the holiday began in 1965, when a marshmallow maker started marketing to men that they should pay back the women who gave them chocolate and other gifts with marshmallows. Originally it was called Marshmallow Day, and later it was changed to White Day.

Soon, the chocolate companies started realizing that they could capitalise as well on this day, and began marketing white chocolate. Now, Japanese men give both white and non-white chocolate, as well as other edible and non-edible gifts, such as jewellery or objects of sentimental value, to the women who gave them chocolate on Valentine's Day a month prior.”

Anyway, so Valentine’s is big and there have been TONS of chocolates in stores for weeks now. Like, it is crazy how into Valentine’s they are, Asians fall for anything! At least it is better than Korea which not only has Valentine’s Day and White Day, but also like 500 other naninani Days on the 14th of other months!

I asked two of my 2nensei girls what they did yesterday and they MADE chocolates! Damn, that is hardcore! I wonder who they are giving them to?! I want to be here to witness the drama and see who is in love with who, but I have a shucchou (business trip)! This sucks! I want to seeeee!

I did ask one boy if he is going to get chocolates and he said “No, it is just a normal week day to me!” rather bitterly. Hell yeah, he is young but smart enough to realize how stupid the day is :) There is hope! Or maybe he is just bitter and secretly wanting chocolate ;)

39 days!!!

2007-02-06T15:29:00.000+09:00

39 days, 39 days, 39 days, 39 days, 39 days, 39 days, 39 days, 39 days!!!!!!! THIRTY-NINE DAYS UNTIL EDUARDO COMES! 39 dayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyys!

2nensei Interviews

2007-02-02T15:55:00.000+09:00

In order to promote speaking English, I am doing one-on-one interview quizzes with all 200 of my 2nensei this month. It has actually gone better than I expected, so that was a pleasant surprise. Here are some of the amusing questions/answers I have gotten so far:

“Which do you like better, Japanese women or American women?”

“What do you think of Ms. Yamada?” (my 24 year-old cute female co-teacher)

“Do you like Cindy?” I was asked this TWICE! Damn kids!

“Do you play sex?” (inevitable)

“How long have you been dating your girlfriend?” (I obviously am up-ing her English level in this quote)

“How many girlfriends do you have?”

Me: Do you have a girlfriend?
Popular boy: No comment!

While I am writing about my students, in 3nensei classes we were writing about “Naninani is one of the naninani which I like.” For example, “Harry Potter is one of the books which I like.” They had to use that grammar point for anything they liked, then write two more sentences for each one. Here was one of them:

Banana is one of the fruits which I like. I have eaten it many times. I want to eat it again some day.

China, Part Three: Guilin

2007-02-01T10:30:00.000+09:00

Okay, I am finally going to continue my China trip journal before I forget everything! So, as I said before, we FINALLY landed in Guilin and met Ping, our tour guide there. However, she was WAY too ADD and excited to ever go through such formalities as introducing herself, so we were never completely sure of her name! More on that later.

On the way to the hotel from the airport, Ping told us ALL kinds of stuff about Guilin, and we FINALLY knew the answers to a Chinese person’s pop quizzes! Yay! Our tours were paying off! Ping is a minority in China, which is pretty rare, considering only 8% of Chinese people are not of Han ethnicity. In this 8%, there are 56 different minorities! On the way to the hotel we learned the customs of a few of the “major” minorities, and they were really interesting. They also helped us with our minority show we went to later on!

We got to the hotel very late and were EXHAUSTED. It was a nice hotel, as it was on a lake with lots of nature around it. Then again, that shouldn’t be too surprising, since Guilin is like the land of nature! Oh, for those who don’t know anything about Guilin, I will tell you random facts! Guilin is in the south of China. It has a population of about 670,000 people. “Guilin” means “forest of Sweet Osmanthus,” which is a type of tree that is ALL OVER Guilin, apparently, but we weren’t there at the right time to see them in bloom. Guilin is incredibly famous for their nature. It has been seen in countless paintings and films. The people there are soooooooooo much different from people in the big cities, as Cindy and I are convinced they are all high the whole time! It totally reminded me of Eugene! Everyone is SO laidback and doesn’t care about anything! It is great! It was really relaxing to be around people like that! Like, people just chill in the park all day long and stuff!

Anyway, we were SUPPOSED to get there in the early afternoon that day, so we were worried that we weren’t going to have enough time to do everything on our itinerary. Fortunately, however, Guilin is teeny and EVERYTHING is like five minutes away! It was crazy! There is also not that much to do, so we were able to cram everything into a day and a not-even-half!

Day 7

We got up early on our first real day in Guilin, had breakfast, then met with Ping and our cool driver (I don’t know why I think our drivers are cool, we never talk to them! But they are!) to drive to the port (is that what you call it?) to go on our river cruise! The Li River is famous, as it is a big river in China and blah blah. Anyway, we were lucky with our timing, as there is barely any water in the river in the winter, let alone this scary global warming winter! So we were there like right before they cut the cruise short for the winter (from five hours to like one or so). Five hours sounds like the LONGEST river cruise in the world, but it was just relaxing and whatever, so the time kinda flew by! Cindy and I were in the rich gaijin area of the boat, as we had our own reserved room at the top that was all nice and warm and had a great view! All of the other cheap bastards were down below and they had to stand on the top in the cold to see everything! Sad! Anyway, in the rich gaijin area was me and Cindy, this random white guy by himself, and the MOST INTRIGUING FAMILY EVER. Oh, and our tour guides, who have the easiest job in the world (they just sat there and talked and enjoyed the heat!).

Anyway, most intriguing family ever! So they were Asian-Europeans, which is always interesting to me because that is way more interesting than Asian-Americans! Haha. Well, the parents were from China, I believe? They lived in Amsterdam, though, and they were there with their daughter and her boyfriend, who is also Asian. Um, they all spoke literally like at LEAST five languages! Like, they would just switch between languages the whole time, it was so crazy! And they were also rich as shit, you could just tell by looking at them! Anyway, I guess you kinda had to be there, but Cindy and I would just sit there and listen in and be amazed by them. I want to spend a day with them and just watch them! Hahaha.

Anyway, Cindy and I were sneaky and had to find a way to find Ping’s name out without asking her, as that would be embarrassing. So Cindy asked her for an emergency contact card in case we needed to call her if we got lost or something, hehe. So, we THINK her name is Ping! :)

The boat cruise was really nice! The area was beautiful, as it was just hills (or “mountains,” depending on your definition of mountains, I guess) for like hours! They were so pretty. And it was really green and relaxing! We would walk outside for pictures, then go back in our great heated room and sit down and relax :) There may have been some river napping involved! Hehe.

During our cruise, we realized that the people of Guilin’s favorite hobby is to stare at rocks and figure out what they look like. In our stay in Guilin we saw a camel rock, a Buddha rock, a thumbs up rock, horses on the rocks, EVERYTHING! Like, they seriously just decided, “Hey, this rock looks like a naninani!” It was amusing.

We also realized that Ping’s favorite saying in the world was “It’s just like dreamland!” Ping had GREAT English, but this was the only incorrect phrase she used, and she used it all the time! EVERYTHING was “just like dreamland” in her mind, it was hilarious! So her nickname is Like Dreamland!

After eating lunch and napping on the boat, we arrived at Yangshuo, which totally looked like Thailand. They were selling ALL kinds of crap and had lots of yummy-looking food! We literally just walked through it on the way to get to our van, but Cindy and I totally would have spent a lot of time eating and shopping there if we were on our own! Perhaps it is best that we didn’t!

We drove back to Guilin from there, which took an hour. Apparently the five-hour long river cruise was exhausting, as Cindy, Ping and I all took naps the entire way! Cindy and I woke up before Ping. Suddenly she opened her eyes a bit and said sleepily, “Time to wake up....for meeeeee!” with a big smile on her face. It was hilarious! I love Guilin people!

Once we got to Guilin, we went to Elephant Trunk Hill, which of course was a big rock/mountain that looked like an elephant! Haha. This is why we were able to do Guilin in like a day, as all you can do there is be like, “Hey, it looks like an elephant!” and then turn around and go somewhere else. And that is what we did! :)

After that we went to Fubo Hill, which is about 700 feet tall. According to Cindy’s blog, half of it stands in the river, and half of it stands on land. Thanks, Cindy! Anyway, Ping left us on our own to climb it. She said it would take about 10-15 minutes each way, but we somehow climbed it, took pictures, and climbed back down in five minutes or less! Ping couldn’t believe it! She asked if we ran to the top and we were like, “Um, NO!” She obviously doesn’t know us! Hehe. Anyway, she then realized that we are the fastest people in the world when it comes to tourist things! Hehe.

We then went to Seven Star Park, which is a big park that also has a zoo. It was a really pretty park. Very relaxing! Oh, I should mention that I swear Ping secretly sells real estate in Guilin, as she constantly was advertising how it is such a great place to live, is beautiful, relaxing, and that we should retire there! I could totally do that, as it is the most chill place ever, but it was funny that she mentioned it every ten seconds! Chinese people are so proud!

Anyway, at the park we wandered around and ended up at the zoo, where my Chinese dream came true! I said I wouldn’t leave China until we saw a panda, and we DID! He was soooooooooooooooooooo cute! He was devouring some carrots when we were there, and apparently it is pretty rare to see him awake, so I was very happy! WOOT! Yay pandas!

It had been like an hour since we saw a rock in the shape of an animal, so we were able to fill our rock-animal craving by seeing a big “camel” there!

We had some free time before our dinner, so Cheap Jeff and Cindy decided to finally take up a tour guide on one of their offers! Guilin is famous for foot massages, as one of the minorities traditionally only showered (I think) three times in their life, but would bathe and massage their feet every day. They live hella long, so I guess it is good for you! Anyway, we went to a BIG five-star foot massage place that was nice! Definitely expensive for China, but totally worth it, as it was nice and clean!

Oh my god, the hour-long foot massage was sooooooooo nice, especially with all of the walking we had been doing for the last week! I wanted a hot boy masseuse, but Ping ordered me a girl, hrmph! Hehe. My masseuse didn’t talk, but Cindy’s asked her like her whole life story in Mandarin, and asked about our relationship! Apparently I can understand some Mandarin, as I totally knew what she was asking about me! Hehe, sneaky Chinese peeps!

Next we went to dinner, which was weird, as it was a Chinese wedding! Like, it was a restaurant, but there was a big wedding party there having dinner. Um, why wouldn’t they reserve the whole place??? There were like five non-wedding tables, and we were one of them! It was strange but amusing. I got WAY more gaijin stares there, as I think people wondered what the hell I was doing at a Chinese wedding!

After dinner we had free time (since we are the fastest tourists in the world), so we walked around the streets of Guilin and just chilled Guilin-style before our minority performance show. That is where we ran into the guy who was on our boat ride for the THIRD time that day. Guilin is teeny!

The minority performance show was fun! Minority performance shows are always fairly sexy, and this one didn’t disappoint! Yay shirtless boys! :) It was nice to understand the significance of costumes and dances and stuff, since Ping had told us about a lot of minorities’ customs, so we knew what it all meant! It would have been entertaining either way, but this way it was a lot more interesting.

After that we went back to our hotel, and walked around the lake there. It was pretty, despite them lighting it totally Asian-style, i.e. you can see it from space! Asians need to learn that more lights aren’t necessarily better! Haha. It was still pretty, though. Then we returned to our hotel room. OH, I forgot to say that our hotel apparently had some love hotel influence, as in the bathroom they had this basket of stuff you could buy? Like, apparently sexy guys briefs, tho they were NOT sexy. They also had male and female “genital wash?” Um, ewww! And other weird sex-related stuff! It was strange!

Another AMUSING fact about Guilin is that they have tons of bridges, all of which are mini replicas of famous bridges around the world! They have a mini Golden Gate Bridge, a mini some-French famous bridge, etc! It was hilarious.

The next day we only had the morning in Guilin, and we spent it at the Reed Flute Cave, which is five kilometers northwest of Guilin (i.e. not far, since nothing is!). There are literally thousands of caves around Guilin, but Reed Flute is famous, as it is VERY large. It also has historical significance, as it has been used as a hideout for local people in times of war. During World War II, it was used as an air raid shelter.

The cave was beautiful, though it had a bit too much artificial lighting for my taste. However, it was still amazing to see. It is pretty sad, but I am too spoiled by like Disneyland and artificial things like that, so it was really difficult for me to realize that it was REAL nature, rather than man-made! Like, the texture of the rocks makes it look really fake, even though it isn’t! Hehe, how depressing. Anyway, it was really pretty.

After that we went to the airport and said our goodbyes to Like Dreamland and our driver. And with that, we were off to Shanghai!

To be continued...man, I am tired of writing this!!!!

Craving

2007-01-30T22:11:00.000+09:00

Oh my god, I have been craving Burrito Boy SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO badly the last few days, I need it RIGHT NOW. Seriously. If anyone is in Eugene, you NEED to go there immediately and eat a chicken wet burrito (with no sour cream) for me. NOW. Sigh......

Only 48 days...

2007-01-28T17:32:00.000+09:00

Only 48 days until my boyo comes! WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE, Eduardo needs to be here RIGHT NOW! 48 days, 48 days, 48 days......

(a picture for no reason!)

Xi'an and Guilin pics are up

2007-01-23T21:10:00.000+09:00

I added Xi'an and Guilin pics to my photo site a few days ago, but have been too lazy to mention it. But yeah, if you wanna check 'em out, they are here!

China, Part Two: Xi'an

2007-01-22T15:10:00.000+09:00

China, Part Two: Xi’an

Okay, continuing the longest series in the world. I may just crash Blogger’s servers with these!

Day 4- On day 4 we got up at freaking 4:30 in the bloody morning to check out and head to the airport, UGH! Lynn was sweet and gave us boxes of Beijing dried fruit, aww! Plus good for old man Jeff, who is currently way into dried fruit for some reason. We flew into Xi’an Airport and met our new tour guide, Tracy. She was younger than us! She is a college student who is a guide as part-time job. We landed and discovered that Xi’an is like Chinese London, as it is the foggiest place in the ENTIRE WORLD! We had to take a different way to the hotel, as they closed down the freeway due to the fog.

Xi’an was one of the first capitals of China, and was for 13 different dynasties. It is one of the 10 largest cities in China, and was the start of the Silk Road. It is now a college town (it is only behind Beijing and Shanghai in the number of colleges in a single city in China). It had a very different feel compared to Beijing! It felt like a college town, in that it seemed small, and there were a lot of young people. It is weird that it had such a small feel, considering it has a population of 8 million people, but it somehow did. Wherever Tracy went, Chinese people would talk to her and be like, “So you’re speaking English, huh?” Haha. I liked the small-town feel, tho, it was more relaxing than Beijing (and later Shanghai). Plus they have good food, always a plus in my book!

We checked into our hotel, rested for like 30 minutes, then went to lunch, which was probably my favorite tour-provided meal of the whole trip! IT WAS SO GOOD! It was a really nice restaurant (which, it turns out, Tracy’s parents own) and it was SUCH good food. I wanted to have sex with the pepper steak. After lunch, we went to the Bell Tower, which is in the center of the city. I am pretty sure that English people need to stop claiming they invented the round-about, as China has them and they are older! Anyway, it is kind of inconvenient that the Bell Tower is right in the center of downtown, as it slows down the traffic and stuff. But yeah, it was a big bell tower! Haha. We then went to the City Wall, which used to protect the city. It was Christmas Eve, and the guards there were setting up for a HUGE Christmas party that was happening there that night.

We quickly learned a few things about Tracy. First of all, it was obvious that she was still studying English. While we didn’t have too many problems understanding her, hers was the worst of our four tour guides (but not bad by any means). Plus this provided the best entertainment, as there were some WEIRD WORDS THAT SHE USED! First of all, for some reason she doesn’t know the word “clothes” in English (um, shouldn’t she have learned that her first year?) and she calls them “wears!” HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. She also pronounces “hair” as “high-r,” which confused me a lot until she gestured towards her hair while saying it. Thankfully there were lots of places for people to “iron their HIGHR” back in the day, so I got to hear this often and laugh on the inside! Best and most confusing of all, however, is the word “anime,” which she used OFTEN. It is pronounced as animay, and I have NO IDEA what it is supposed to mean. She said it a LOT of times, and each time I would nod my head and be like, “oh, interesting,” while secretly thinking, “WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!” I was hoping that Cindy would know, so I asked her at the end of the day, and she was hoping I knew! SAD! It is till eludes, us, tho we just realized two nights ago that it MAY have been animal. At first we thought it was enemy, but she used it in a lot of contexts which didn’t make sense. I still am not sure what it means, but because of this, Tracy’s nickname became Anime!

After the City Wall, we went to the Shanxi Museum, which is a famous museum, apparently. It was big, and I was really happy to have Tracy there, as we learned soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much more than we would have otherwise. It was actually really fascinating, as it started in the first dynasty, then finished in the fourth. It had a lot of the same items (weapons, art, etc.), so you could see how they developed as time passed. It was really interesting to see, and Tracy’s narration helped! It was also amusing to see her in “I am an important tour guide!” mode, as she would like shove her way in front of other people and not care if they were trying to read something or take a picture, as she wouldn’t move! Haha.

We then went back to the hotel for our OH so important afternoon nap, a staple of any Jeff trip. We were very excited to find that our hotel had BBC World, as it is soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much better than the SHITTY SHITTY CNN International that every other hotel has! I swear CNN International is just made by bored ALTs or something, it is awful. We quickly learned, however, that BBC World is great, but only if you watch it for like 15 minutes, as they repeat the same things over and over. We watched it for like 3 hours at a time and saw the same segments like 10 times! Haha. Oh, well, at least this induced naps, which is always a good thing.

After our naps, we ventured out for Christmas Eve, which we learned is an excuse for a BIG party in China. Our mission was to find a Christmas cake, as that is the thing to eat on Christmas Eve in Asia. We soon found two and had to carry them around for like four hours, hehe. We are devoted to our Christmas cakes!

So, yeah, Christmas Eve was CRAZY CRAZY CRAZY in Xi’an. There were people EVERYWHERE. Christmas Eve appears to be a strange mix of Christmas, Mardi Gras, and New Year’s. People just wandered around aimlessly (as they did on New Years) and wore ridiculous things! People were selling light-up devil horns, strange glowing things, Santa hats, masks, and all kinds of ugly things that people were wearing! There were LOUD fireworks EVERYWHERE. There were lots of couples and young people because of the nearby colleges. There were also hot guys everywhere, HELLO! You could barely even move in some parts, as there were so many people. Thankfully they shut down the streets so that you could wander a little bit, but it was still sooooo crowded. It was fun, tho!

We ended up at another izakaya-type place for dinner, which was yummy, tho they totally ripped us off for being dumb gaijin. It didn’t matter, tho, as it was still cheap. We then wandered the streets and tried all kinds of yummy desserts from street vendors, mmm! We had a fried red thing with kurogoma (black sesame paste) inside, CUTE cupcake-like things on sticks that the lady decorated to whatever you wanted (pictures will be online later), and a mochi thing. Mmm! We then continued walking so that we could have MORE dessert when we got back to our hotel, haha.

When we got back to our hotel we were the biggest losers EVERRRRRRRRR and put on our pajamas, turned up Cindy’s iPod to full volume while playing Christmas music and ate our Christmas cakes! Yes, we are cool. It was fun, tho, and the cakes were only 350 yen each, instead of 3000 yen each like in Japan!

Day 5

Day 5 was Christmas, but didn’t feel like it AT ALL. It was a really good day, tho. Xi’an continued being the foggiest city in the world as we went to the Wild Goose Pagoda. The Pagoda was beautiful! I expected a typical Asian pagoda, but it almost looked Mexican, in that it was all one piece and brown-ish. Anyway, you will see pics of it to see what I mean. It was built in 652 and was made for the storage of the translations of Buddhist sutras that made their way from India on the Silk Road. We learned at the Pagoda that Tracy is the WORST photographer in the ENTIRE WORLD. Not only does she not get the famous things in the background, she barely gets YOU in the damn picture! It was amusing but irritating! Haha.

After the Pagoda, we had planned to go see the terracotta warriors. However, the fog totally messed with our plans! The freeway was closed again due to the fog, so we took back roads there. At first Cindy and I didn’t realize anything was wrong, as we were napping like crazy in the back of the car. However, it became clear that we had been sleeping for a while and we were not moving at all on a nasty old dirt road in the middle of nowhere. The taxi driver got out to see if we would ever move, and he came back and told Tracy, “You guys should walk and get a taxi and I will meet you later!” Tracy’s reaction was PRICELESS! She was like, “HUH?!” She is rich, so I don’t think she fancied the idea too much! However, we didn’t have a choice, as we weren’t going to be moving any time soon. So we got out on the dirt road and walked through ditches and whatnot. It was amusing and I finally felt like I was in China! Hahaha. Looking back, Tracy is really lucky that we aren’t the typical old rich people that go on tours, because I don’t think they would be very amused by walking through mud and stuff. A few times I had to tell myself that I was only walking in mud, but I suspect is may have been something ELSE, if you know what I mean! It was fun, tho, and made a good story! So we walked for 15-20 minutes, tho Tracy, who has lived in Xi’an all her life, got lost on the way and asked a FIVE YEAR OLD BOY for directions! Hmm, perhaps he should be our guide! He wasn’t very talkative (she wasn’t very pleased with that), but his 7 year-old sister was full of information. Haha. We eventually got in front of the traffic jam and took a cab to the winter palace instead.

The winter palace was beautiful! It is outside of Xi’an, and it is where the Emperor (and his concubines) would spend his winters during the Tang Dynasty. It had a lot of hot springs to bathe in and was really natural and relaxing. I kinda wanted to jump in! Unfortunately it was too foggy to see the mountain that was right behind it, but it was still impressive. We were told by Tracy that there was a Romeo and Juliet-type story between the Emperor and one of his concubines, but it was not nearly as romantic, as he had her killed in order to save himself! That is not Romeo and Juliet!

After that the driver met up with us and we went to lunch, which was the typical huge meal. As a bonus we got YUMMY sweet potato things. They have them in Japan, too. They are like long potato sticks that are sticky and hard, as they are covered in a ridiculous amount of sugar. They were SO good! However, they were the hardest things in the world, and were stuck in a huge pile. Jeff MAY have broken his chopsticks while trying to pull them apart! Whoops! The waitresses probably thought I really didn’t know how to use chopsticks ;)

After lunch we went to the terracotta warrior museum! It was amaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaazing! First of all, the place is HUGE! As Cindy said, it is like a college campus! They are currently building TONS of spaces for restaurants and shops (I have no idea why they would need as many shops as they are making, but whatever), and there is lots of space, trees, grass, etc. It totally looks like a college!

The terracotta warriors were built to protect the first Emperor of Qin in the afterlife, so they are buried with him. 8100 warriors have been found, and there are MANY left undiscovered (they are still digging for them now). They were built in 246 BC, and it took about 700,000 workers 38 years to complete them!!! They weren’t discovered until 1974, when a farmer was drilling a water well. It is amazing to think that THOUSANDS of them could be underground and that no one knew…and to think of what a difference a farmer made! Anyway, the warriors on display are split into three pits. The first pit is the largest one, with over 6,000 soldiers, chariots and horses that represented the Emperor’s main army. The other two pits are much smaller. The second pit contains cavalry and infantry, and the third pit has high ranking officers.

We went to the first pit first, and it was overwhelming! There are soooooooooooo many warriors, and they were just incredible to see. Along with the Great Wall, it was unbelievable to think what people can make when they put their mind to it (or when they are forced to, hehe). The warriors obviously didn’t survive in pristine condition by any means, so they have been put back together piece by piece. I don’t even want to think how much work that has been! There were some areas where the soldiers were left “as is,” and they were all just teeny pieces! I have no idea how they put them back together!

The warriors were originally painted, but almost all of the paint has been rubbed off by now. There were one or two warriors where you could see like a spot of paint, but that was it. However, I like the way they are now, as they look really natural. The museum was rare for me and Cindy, as we were actually visibly excited in front of our tour guides for once! We were like taking pictures like crazy, and were just excited about the warriors in general. They were awesome! They totally made me want to go to Egypt to continue my “seeing old things” tour of the world, hehe.

One FUNNY story we heard was that last fall a German guy dressed up as a terracotta soldier and JUMPED IN THE PIT and stood as one of them! When people told the guards that someone had jumped in the pit, the guard couldn’t find him! Dude, I would not do that in China, I don’t wanna end up in Commie prison! Apparently he wasn’t arrested, tho, strangely.

After the museum we went to the hotel to nap, then had a traditional dumpling dinner that was sooooooooooooooooo good! Xi’an is famous for their dumplings, as the Emperor LOVED them, so they invented them specially for him. There are 800 types of dumplings in Xi’an! Sadly we didn’t have all 800, but we did have about 15 kinds, including cabbage, azuki (red bean), mushroom, walnut, duck (in the shape of a duck!), pork, chicken, seafood, almond, etc. They were yummy!!!! After the dinner we saw a Tang Dynasty show at the restaurant (it was dinner theatre, but you don’t actually eat while you watch it, so it is like after-dinner theatre, I guess!). Unlike the awful Beijing Opera show, I actually enjoyed the Tang Dynasty show a lot. It was beautiful! The Tang Dynasty was a very peaceful time in Chinese history, and the arts really developed then, so the show was very artsy and pretty. It was also good for ADD people like me and Cindy, as it was fairly long, but comprised of lots of short songs and dances, so if you didn’t like one thing, it would soon be over! Once again Japanese people pissed me off at a show as these two WEIRD WEIRD WEIRD Japanese people (I think a mother and her son) like stole the two extra seats at our table?! Their tour guide “asked” if they could sit there, but there wasn’t much of a choice in our answer! They were freaking WEIRD and did not look very amused to be there. They totally seemed “off” and not like the people who would travel anywhere. I don’t know what was wrong with them! I may have purposely totally sat in the grumpy lady’s way, as I refused to be uncomfortable for some party crashers! Hehe. The people watching at the show was also good, so that is always fun!

After that we went to bed and had a boring Christmas night, as we were tired from the day and had to get up early-ish for the airport the next day!

Day 6

Day 6 was PURE FREAKING DRAMA! Because it had been so foggy the entire time we were in Xi’an, I was a bit worried about the plane being able to take off. We were assured it would be fine, but Tracy thought it would be a good idea to get to the airport early, just in case the freeway was closed again. We got there at like 9 or something like that for our 12:00 flight. Right when we got there we saw that TONS of flights were delayed and canceled from the fog! Um, NOT a good sign. We stood there for a while while Tracy figured out what was going on. We were lucky, as our flight was NOT canceled. We finally checked in and got our tickets, only to see that instead of the 12:00 departure time that SHOULD have been printed on the ticket, it was freaking 18:55!!!!! None of us saw this coming and it was not very cool! So we spent our entire morning and afternoon just sitting around the airport.

First we spent like four hours in a hotel restaurant, then we sat on a gross thing that wasn’t even meant for sitting. We finally went into the departure lobby (after Tracy ignoring us all day long, hahaha) and were getting ready to board our flight, when we went to our gate and our flight wasn’t even listed! We asked and they were like, “I don’t know!” Um! It turned out our flight was even MORE delayed, and it was rumored it might take off at 2 in the morning or so. NOT COOL! After being muy grumpy and hating the world, we FINALLY got to take off at about 8 PM. All in all, we had been at the airport for 11 damn hours at that point! We ran onto the airplane, giddy as school children, and I chose to ignore the fact that you couldn’t even see the lights on the wing due to the fog while we were flying. SCARY!

It was also annoying, as we missed a half a day that should have been spent in Guilin. However, I must admit that I was pleasantly surprised that they were actually delaying and canceling flights, rather than being Asian and like, “Oh, I am sure it’s fine, we’re Asian and everything is safe!” So that was good, in an annoying way.

Anyway, we FINALLY landed in Guilin at about 11 PM, where we met our tour guide Ping. However, we didn’t know her name was Ping until the next day (and we are still not sure!), as she NEVER introduced herself! Hahaha. She was the most ADD girl ever! But she was cool. On the ride to the hotel she never stopped talking! We learned all kinds of things about Guilin, AND for the first time all trip we KNEW THE ANSWERS TO CHINESE POP QUIZZES! Yay! Anyway, we got to the hotel and passed out after a day of frustration! To be continued!

China, Part One: Beijing

2007-01-18T14:22:00.000+09:00

Okay, so I am finally starting on the chore known as blogging about China! I am gonna do it a city at a time, for my own good as well as yours! As a warning, I am doing this for my own memory later down the line (which, btw, is not TOO far down the line, since I am forgetting way too much already!), so this is gonna be long and detailed. Feel free to not read :) Also, it will probably be the exact same blog as Cindy’s, tho I am not reading hers until after I write it to avoid copying! Hehe. But yeah, our blogs are always the same anyway, so what else is new ;) Anyway, on to Beijing!

So, on the 21st Cindy and I left Narita for Beijing, woot! The flight there was uneventful. Sadly the movie choices, while there were a LOT of them, all sucked, so I decided to get in the Chinese mood and watch Mulan, yeeeea! I love that movie! Anyway, we landed at the Beijing Airport, which was nice! Better than the nastay Taipei Airport for sure! At the airport, we met our first tour guide, Lynn and our driver Du. They rock! They were my favorite tour guide and driver of the whole trip, so it was a nice way to start it off.

On the way to the hotel (we arrived at night, so that is all we did that day), Lynn showed her secretive Chinese side by trying to be subtle with questions and failing miserably! Within like two seconds of meeting us, she was like, “Are you a couple???” Hahaha. Then she like didn’t believe us when we said no! She was also confused why Cindy “looked Asian” and then told her that Cantonese was useless. Haha, I wish she would tell us how she really felt! Anyway, we got to our hotel (which was nice, woot!) and when she was checking us in, she was “sneaky” again and asked us, “Two rooms, RIGHT?” When we said no, she was like, “Hmmmm.” Cheeky Chinese monkey! Because of this downright cheeky behavior, Lynn’s nickname (we gave all of our tour guides nicknames behind their backs) became Cheeky Panda, as she is a cheeky monkey, but hello, she is Chinese so she is obviously a panda!

That night we wandered around our hotel area, which was not too exciting, but we DID find a conbini and a couple mini conbinis! AND I was amazed to find out that Beijing guys are hooooooooooooooot! Holie! Dude, seriously! HOT! I couldn’t believe it. Far far far far far hotter than Japanese guys, tho that isn’t very difficult! We went back to the hotel after walking around and checked out Chinese TV. Dude, like the first thing we saw was Rain in concert! A good omen if I have ever seen one! Rowr.

Day Two

Day two was our first official day in China/Beijing, and it was busy and fun! We started it off with our hotel’s AMAZING continental breakfast, which I totally want in my house here, because it was soooooooooooo good. After eating about 7,00 calories, we went to Tiananmen Square for like all of 30 seconds! Haha. We literally just walked through it (it is HUGE!) and that was it, but that is all there is to do there, unless you want to wait in a long line to go see Mao’s pickled corpse (I am not kidding!) on display. I actually wouldn’t mind seeing that in the future, it would be weird! Despite temptation, I did not try to protest for democracy while in the square, btw. Oh, also, a depressingly low amount of people actually know what happened in the Square, and those who do know don’t talk about it, so Lynn was like, “This is Tiananmen Square, it is the biggest square in the world! The end.” Haha. Oh, we did learn that it fits 500,000 people! Damn. BTW, I have now been to the largest and third largest (Mexico City) public squares in the world, so I guess I have to go to Russia now, despite no interest in the country!

So the main event of day two was the Forbidden City, which is where the Emperor used to live. It is HUGE and full of tons of old buildings and other things, as you can see from my pics. It was built in the early 1400s, which sounds really old, but when Lynn said, “That is naninani years before Columbus discovered America,” it really put it into context! It is crazy to think how old China is. Anyway, we didn’t go to every room in the Forbidden City, as it is enormous. Apparently if the Emperor were to stay in a different room every day of his life, it would take over 20 years! That is impossible for me to comprehend, but amazing! The Emperor literally got ANYTHING he asked for. His meals literally contained I believe 107 dishes EVERY time he ate! UM, that is ridiculous. Anyway, yeah, the City was too big, so we went on a highlight route to see what was important. Sadly we didn’t stop at the Starbucks that is in the Forbidden City (so evil, but I wanted a picture!), but I will survive, I suppose. It was really interesting to go through the City with Lynn, as she would tell us all kinds of things that we would have NO idea about if we were just walking by ourselves. We learned a lot about the customs back then (damn, they were strict!) and stuff like that, and it was really interesting. This is where we realized how much Lynn (and Chinese people in general!) love giving us pop quizzes! I swear they just do it to laugh about how little you know! Starting the night before, Lynn would ask us all kinds of RANDOM questions about China, populations, history, Beijing, etc. Our answers were ALWAYS, “Ummm…..” Hahaha. It’s like, dude, we know nothing about your country, why do you think we are paying you a bazillion dollars to teach us about it! Haha.

Oh, we didn’t even realize it, but the second day was the Winter Solstice, which was cool, as it had a lot of meaning back in the day! Lynn would tell us things that they would do on Winter Solstice, and it was cool to think that it was the actual day.

Parts of the Forbidden City (and pretty much all of Beijing and lots of other tourist places throughout China) were under construction for the bazillion tourists that will come with the 2008 Olympics. Fortunately they only do parts of the Forbidden City at a time so that tourists don’t get too pissed. Overall, the construction wasn’t bad at all. I was worried that it would ruin a lot of things we wanted to see, but I didn’t notice it that much. However, it is amazing to see how INCREDIBLY excited everyone is for the Olympics. Like, they are a year and a half away, but they already have Olympic merchandise stores all over the country, and people talk about them all the time! They have electronic countdowns to them all over Beijing, etc. I cant believe how excited they are! K, end tangent.

We were in the Forbidden City for a couple hours, then we had free time before lunch, so we were dumb and followed Lynn’s “suggestion” of going through the Hutong, which is the oldest part of Beijing. It is an area with alleys and “quadrants,” which is where the common people used to live wayyyyy back in the day. Quadrants are a fenced area with a few “houses” (more like rooms, I guess), and a courtyard in the middle. People used to live in the quadrants with their extended families, and many still do. It is extremely old and traditional, and they are worth a LOT of money now for what they are!!! Anyway, so we paid for a tour of the area, and a rickshaw rode us around. We got to go in a Hutong and talk to a man whose family has owned the Hutong for generations. They are worth about a half a million dollars (a LOT of money in China!!!), but I doubt many people actually sell them, as you know your family would hate you for it! Anyway, it was interesting, tho in retrospect we paid a lot of money for what it was! I am glad we did it, though, as we were able to see how people used to live back in the day (and still do, in some cases). Plus it is the only “extra” thing (of which there are MAAAAAAAAAAANY on Chinese tours!) that we ever said yes to to Lynn, and she totally thought we were the cheapest people ever! Hahaha.

After that we had our first tour meal. The tour provides most meals, and they are the hugest meals EVER! It is the Chinese custom to give you more food than you can eat (um, wasteful!) and despite our best efforts, we could NEVER finish an entire meal. Each meal had at least six dishes, it was insane.

Surprisingly Lynn gave us food and the morning’s tour before us ever paying for the tour, so after that we gave our credit card companies a big smile by charging the damn tour. Ugh. BTW, I totally wanna work for a Chinese online travel agency, as everyone there was like 23 years old and looked way cooler than us! It was like going to Chinese MTV headquarters or something!

After that we went to the Temple of Heaven, which is where the emperors of the Ming and Qing Dynasties (ahahaha, just typing those makes me think of the MILLION times our tour guides told us about “the Ming and the Qing”) went to pray for a good harvest. The walk to the temple was cool, as we saw our first park in China, which is like where senior citizens LIVE, practically, as they are always there singing Chinese opera, playing card games, etc. I saw my first Chinese hackey sack, which was amusing. It is depressing, tho, too, as Chinese old people are more active and flexible than I am!

Anyway, the Temple of Heaven was pretty. There was this weird area where you could stand on opposide sides of the courtyard, but could talk to each other through sound being carried by the walls? It is hard to explain but it was cool!

That night we went to Wangfujing, a shopping area in Beijing. This is where I realized how HUGE Beijing is. Like, everything is big! The roads are soooooooooo wide (especially compared to Japan, but also compared to the States!), everything is spread apart, the people are TALL (tall people scare me now, it was freaky!)…everything is big!

Anyway, in Wangfujing I only ended up buying DVDs, as was the theme for the WHOLE trip, as we learned that clothes in China are either really cheap and low quality, or REALLY expensive name brand (like, REAL name brand) stuff that I don’t want and cant afford. BAH. Anyway, so yeah, I bought DVDs. Let me say that China is my heaven, as DVDs are sooooooooooooooooooo cheap! The legal ones are ridiculously cheap in order to try to compete with the illegal ones (tho it seems to be a losing battle). Legal ones are less than five bucks usually! Hell, yeah! So yeah, I got any movie I was semi-interested in, which was also the theme for the trip!

While wandering around the area we found a VERY kimoi “couple” that was this old white man and like a 19 year-old male Chinese prostitute! Ewwww! It was gross, and we stalked them for a little while just because we are losers with nothing better to do than watch hookers and old men! However, I totally wanted to hooker’s jacket…to bad he was like 5 pounds.

After call boy-stalking, we intended to go to a hot pot place but it was under construction, meh, so we ended up at this izakaya-type place that was MUY Chinese and MUY loud! It was definitely an interesting experience! We got there and had to fight for a table, then we got a menu with no pictures in all kanji. I could read some things, but it was still confusing, and there were like 300 options! Thankfully the couple at the same table (you share tables with other people) were helpful and the girl’s English was really good! She offered to help us and we were more than happy to take her up on her offer! She turned out to be the most hilarious lady EVER, as she was WAY high-class and awesome! We had been sitting there for like 10 minutes and the staff still hadn’t cleaned up the dirty dishes from the previous people, or wiped down the table. The lady started ordering for us and got this WAY mightier-than-thou look on her face while saying nicely, “And you still haven’t cleaned up this table, look how dirty it is! Take these dishes and clean the table, please!” I don’t speak Chinese, but it was SOOO clear what she was saying. The waitress was not amused and was like, “If they want a clean table, they should move over there!” and pointed to another table, and the lady totally ignored her and kept ordering! HAHAHAHA. She was the most awesome lady EVER, but you kinda had to be there to see her faces and tone of voice!

Anyway, the lady ordered us a lot of yummy dumplings and other things (she asked if we wanted a beer, and we hadn’t realized it was a drinking place and were like, “We’ll have water or tea,” and she gave us a weird look and was like, “Hmm, I will ask if they have water or tea!” Hahaha, whoops) and left, she was awesome! Like an English-speaking helpful ghost that disappears when she is done helping you! It turns out that the restaurant was a good choice, too, as we later learned that Chinese people traditionally eat dumplings on Winter Solstice, so we were good Chinese people. We ALSO witnessed some major Chinese drama, as this homeless guy kept coming in and being kicked out for annoying people. He finally got yelled at by a waitress and was apparently sick of it and PUNCHED HER IN THE CHEST?! The whole restaurant FROZE, then the lady got VERY mad and ran him out of the restaurant and threw stuff at him! Hahaha, welcome to China!

Day Three

Day three was a big day, as we went to the Great Wall! This of course gave me an excuse to eat an EXTRA big breakfast at the hotel before the inevitable climbing! On the way there we stopped at a jade factory. Every tour in China is full of many factory stops, where they tell you about what they make there (jade, silk rugs, pearls, blah blah) and then try to sell you stuff. A lot of stupid tourists buy the stuff, but Cindy and I were like, “I will take your free tea but I am not buying anything, suckah!” Haha. Anyway, we got to the Great Wall and were given 90 minutes to 2 hours to climb as much as we wanted. There are five spots open to tourists on the wall, and this is one of the more popular ones. I am glad we didn’t go to the one with a ropeway that carries people to the top! That is only for lazy Americans! Hehe.

Anyway, the Wall was AMAZING, of course. I seriously cant comprehend how they made it. It is over 6,700 km long! It stretches as far as the eye can see, and then some. Like any major structure (just ask Eduardo about the Brooklyn Bridge!), many people died making it, and many of the dead people were buried inside the wall itself. However, I think they have been dead long enough for me to say that it was worth it! It really is amazing to see what people are capable of when they put their mind to it. It made me want to go to Egypt to see the pyramids! It also really made me realize that we are making complete shit now. Like, what do we have to be proud of? Ooo, Taipei 101 sure is AMAZING, I am sure people in 2,000 years will be traveling to see that! Hahaha. But yeah.

Anyway, I cant really describe how incredible (K, I need more than three adjectives in my vocabulary) the Wall is; you just have to see it. Instead, I will complain about it! Haha.

Cindy and I got to the wall in our usual million layers that we wore in Beijing, along with Hokkairo (heating pack things that you can stick to your feet, back, etc., they are AWESOME). However, by the time we got to the top (well, the top of our section, not of the entire Wall), we were pretty much naked because we were SWEATY and NASTY! I have no idea how people in armor and whatever “wears” (haha, that will make sense later) they wore back then could have climbed that damn Wall, because it was freaking ridiculous! I would say it did it’s job, if I wanted to break into China I would take one look and turn right around! There were a lot of people at the bottom, but as you continued climbing more and more of the fat lazy people gave up and Cindy and I kept on fighting, yo! We got to the top and there was barely anyone up there, it was great! Well, if by great you mean completely sweaty, out of breath and too ugly to be seen in pictures! But it had a beautiful view! The Wall stretched all over the mountains. I am so glad I got to see it in my life, I think everyone needs to!

We went back down and I am glad we got up early to climb it, because there were SO many more tourists than when we went up! They were annoying! Including these three STUPID GIRLS who were wearing HEELS and had like high-fashion purses! I was stuck behind them and wanted to kick them down the damn wall! There was also a Chinese guy in a FULL SUIT climbing it?! WTF! Anyway, I was proud, as we made it to the top and back down in exactly 90 minutes!

For lunch we went to the Friendship store, which was apparently the only place tourists could shop when they first opened China to tourists (which is not that long ago, strange). That would suck, considering it was boring stuff to buy there! Anyway, I tried my first sip of Chinese rice wine there and it is SOOO STRONG, holy crap! I seriously took a teeny sip and I couldn’t handle any more. Damn!

After lunch we were sleepy from lots of food and actually exercising in the morning, so we were totally ADD when Lynn took us to the Ming Tombs. Fortunately that was okay, as the Ming Tombs are pretty damn boring. The Ming Tombs are the burial site of 13 emperors from the Ming Dynasty. Most of them aren’t open, but we went to one (of the two, kana?) open tombs. Anyway, it wasn’t very interesting, as it was completely re-done inside the tomb and stuff was moved around and it was modern and boring. Oh, might I add that Cindy and I are the worst tourists for tours EVER. We must seem SOOOOO not interested in what people are saying, because we just kinda nod and are like, “Mmhmm!” when the guides tell us stuff. I think they are used to tourists who are like, “Oh my GOOOOOOOOOOOD, tell me MORRRRRRRRRRE about the MING AND THE QING OH MY GOD OH MY GOD!” because they always looked disappointed in our headnods! Hahahaha. It is like, are we supposed to orgasm over the old emperors or something? Anyway, yeah, so we were completely out of it at the Ming Tombs UNTIL Lynn randomly mentioned that ALL of the artists who could make the Ming period famous white-and-blue porcelain were poisoned on the same day! She just mentioned it in passing, but we continued to ask her about it for like 20 minutes, as if we were Chinese Sherlock Holmes or something! Haha, we are such freaks.

After the Ming Tombs we volunteered to visit a couple factories, as we had time before dinner. At first I thought I would hate factories, because I don’t like being pressured to buy things, but it was actually really interesting, as you get to learn about how much work goes into making various things. We first went to a famous silk factory, where we found out how RIDICULOUSLY DIFFICULT it is to make a silk rug! First of all, high-class silk rugs (these are oriental rugs, in case you don’t know) cost a ton of money. Second of all, they take more than six months to make!!!! What the hell?! Lynn was like, “Do you know why only women can make rugs?” We imagined it had to do with small hands or something anatomical or something, but her answer was “Because only women are patient enough to make them!” Hahahaha! She was completely serious when saying that, too. Amusing. Anyway, I will never look at an oriental rug the same way again, because I had no idea how much work went into them. It is also sad that the cheap fake ones have ruined them in my mind, as I would NEVER pay that much for a rug that Americans would think I got for like 20 bucks out of the bed of someone’s truck! The one COOOOOOOOOOOOOOL thing about silk rugs, tho, is that when you move them, they FREAKING CHANGE COLOR! Seriously! You have to see it, it is the coolest thing ever! Anyway, it was worth the visit to the factory to learn that, plus to use their bathroom :)

After that we went to a furniture factory that was also good to visit, as just as much labor goes into carved furniture. There were some really cool pieces there, but I don’t understand what tourists do when they buy this stuff?! Like, do you move to China?! How can you ship that stuff back home???

Oh, I am gonna copy and paste a paragraph from Cindy’s blog. I broke my promise of not reading her blog, as she is sneaky and pretends to be smart, when she really looked up history on Wikipedia to put in her blog! I am too lazy for Wikipedia, so I am just copying her historical facts, haha. Anyway, here is an interesting cultural bit that I am too lazy to type into my own words:

“We found out from Lynn that it costs $10 to watch a movie in China. That is just ridiculous, considering the average annual salary in Beijing is just over $2000. Lynn said that she just downloads movies, which I would too considering the ridiculous prices they charge at movie theaters! Jeff and I never seemed too too giddy outwardly when Lynn guided us on the tour (not b/c we weren't interested, but b/c we weren't sure how to react other than by nodding and saying, "Wow" and "Interesting" every so often. How else should one respond while on a tour?) Anyway, we tried our best so hopefully our tour guides didn't think we were too ADD. Anyhoo, when it came to the topic of movies, we lit up. While in the car, we even made a list of movies we recommended for Lynn to download! Haha.”

After that, Mr. Du, our awesome driver, took us by the Olympic Stadium and the Aquatic Park that were being built for the games. I am glad we got to see them, as we can claim we were there when we see it on TV in 2008! They are both really cool-looking. The Aquatic Park is all bubbly and high-tech looking, and the Stadium is supposed to look like a bird’s nest?! It looks cool, but that is random. I asked Lynn why, and she apparently thought that was a silly question to ask and pretty much answered something like, “Why wouldn’t we make it a bird’s nest?” Haha. She may need to think of a new answer by 2008!

Oh, our bad student behavior came out at this point of the tour, as Cindy and I were distracted by an AWESOME ethnic park (which I want to go to when I go back for sure! It has an area for every minority in China!) and Lynn actually had to yell “Attention, please!” to us! Hahahaha.

That night I tried Peking Duck for the first time ever. It was good enough, but too greasy! I would rather just have normal duck. However, Cindy said it wasn’t that good of Peking Duck in the first place, so maybe I need to try it one more time. Anyway, whatever, I can claim I had Peking Duck in Beijing, hehe. After that we were forced to go to Beijing Opera, as it was included in the tour. Oh my god it was awful awful awful! So ugly and boring! No wonder young Chinese people don’t like it! It was only tourists there, and some of them were completely RETARDED Japanese people. They were the only ones that bought the translations on headphones and were apparently deaf as they had the volume WAY up and it was practically all I could hear! The second act was “catered for tourists” and was really really crappy martial arts. For some reason that was translated, too, despite the fact that not more than two words were said in it? The Japanese people CONTINUED listening to their headphones during that and I was about to shoot them because it was SO loud and unnecessary! Anyway, the opera sucked, but at least I can claim I am cultured.

That was our last night in Beijing. The next morning we had to get up early (ANOTHER theme for the tour, which was not fun!) to fly to Xi’an! And with another city comes another blog entry in the future. Good lord, this was sooooooooooooooooo long, I cant even believe it. I am sick of writing the damn thing, so I highly doubt anyone actually read it! Oh, well, I will have this when I forget all of my China trip due to Alzheimer’s! To be continued!

Beijing Pics

2007-01-17T16:29:00.000+09:00

I finally got my pics of Beijing up. I am doing it city by city, as it is too overwhelming otherwise. You can check them out here. Hoping to get my first China blog done by tomorrow...let's praying for not much lesson planning tomorrow so I actually have time!

Please Please Me, 12 year-olds!

2007-01-16T15:28:00.000+09:00

So for 1nensei classes this week we are warming up with a Beatles song. Let the record state that it is never my choice to sing in front of the kids, but oh well. Anyway, we were gonna do Eight Days a Week or Love Me Do, but couldn’t because of technical difficulties. My teacher ended up choosing Please Please Me, which I am beginning to think was NOT the best choice! Here is part of the chorus:

Come on, come on, come on, come on
Please please me oh yeah like I please you

There is also this line:

I do all the pleasing with you

Now I may be a big hentai with a dirty mind, but I do NOT like saying this to a bunch of 12 year-olds and them repeating it back to me! The Japanese translation has it translated as “Please cheer me up.” Now that very well could have been The Beatles’ intention with the lyrics, but I have a feeling the cheeky monkeys behind Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds had other things in mind when writing these lyrics. Either way it is very disturbing to be saying this to 1nensei!

My kids are f-ing crazy

2007-01-16T15:23:00.000+09:00

Okay, my kids are officially fucked up, as I keep coming into classrooms to find they have the fucking sliding doors and windows open to let in fresh air?!!!!!! Dude, wtf! Just because it is sunny does NOT mean that it is WARM outside! Apparently they are putting far too much faith into the theory of global warming, ‘cause I dunno what the fuck they are thinking. Then they are like, “It’s cold!” Yeah, no shit it is cold, it’s fucking January and you have all the windows open! I don’t get it! I don’t think they have miraculously learned that they smell like gross teenagers, either, because winter is like the one time of year that they don’t stink up the whole school, haha. Does anyone else’s kids do this? Anyway, I hope they aren’t too into the windows being open, because I get in there and passive-aggressively slam them all shut right away, haha. Crazy-ass mofos.

A Tokyo/Saitama Weekend

2007-01-15T08:50:00.000+09:00

So my goal for the week is to at least start blogging and posting pics of China, but I dunno if that will happen today. Anyway, I will blog about my weekend in the meantime, as it is much shorter and easier to talk about than two weeks of touring a huge country!

So on Friday I “secretly” left work 20 minutes early (tho it is difficult to do this secretly, as my bike is parked right in front of the staffroom windows, so I am sure I was seen) to catch the train to Tokyo to see Sweeney Todd with Ann. HOLIE, it was sooooooooooooooooo good! I would usually refuse to see a Sondheim musical in Japanese (or any foreign language), just because Sondheim plays with language and it is impossible to translate it accordingly. However, I loved it! The reason I went to it in the first place was because it was by a really famous director with a famous cast, so I figured it should be good. It went beyond my expectations fo sho! It had great directing, great acting, great sets, great costumes, great lighting....it was fucking awesome! Of course the show is muy fucked up (about a barber who kills his customers, then turns them into meat pies), but it was damn good. Plus the lady who played Mrs. Lovett ROCKED! It worked really well with a Japanese woman, as Japanese women are good at playing crazy-ass obaachans! Haha. She was cool! Anyway, the show was great, I am very glad we saw it, even if it was from the last row (stupid Japan is evil and never gives Jeff The Spoiled Theatre Queen good seats!).

After the show I had the worst train ride of my life (long story, but Jeff was sweaty and crammed against the door and NOT amused with Tokyo!) on my way to Saitama to meet up with Natsumi and Adam! Natsumi was my RA when I studied abroad at Senshu and I am horrible and haven’t seen her in like 300 years! Anyway, I met up with them for the weekend and it was fun! Friday night we did a bit of karaoke, which I hadn’t done in forever. Saturday morning Natsumi and I had McDonald’s breakfast, which is SO FUCKING GOOD. I hadn’t had it since March! You had better believe I got two value meals up in hea, yo! Mmmmmmm.

In the afternoon we went to Ochanomizu, which is by far like the most random area in Tokyo EVER! It is nothing but guitar and snowboarding shops? Weird! Anyway, we ended up at Natural Lawson in the end, which is always good. I love Natural Lawson, I want to live there!

We then met up with Andrew, another friend from study abroad who is in Japan for a couple weeks with his friend Mark. We went to happy hour for a while, where I tried absinthe for the first time (ooo, I sound like Ewan McGregor!). However, sadly it did nothing for me, sigh. Then we met up with Neil, yet another person from study abroad (talk about a reunion!) and went to another place to drink. Then we drank some more and trained it back to Saitama for THREE HOURS of karaoke! Dude, that is hardcore! That definitely made up for my lack of karaoke as of late! But I understand the need for karaoke, as Andrew hadn’t done it in like two years, kawaisou!

On Sunday I had to head back to Gunma, and fortunately I had to norikae in Omiya, i.e. the best eki in the world! I got a shitload of REAL baked bread and bagels and shit. Mmmmm.

Anyway, the weekend was muy fun! It was nice to see people again, and to get the hell outta Gunma for a while! Thanks, Nacchan and Adam!

Only 67 days.....

2007-01-09T15:22:00.000+09:00

Only 67 days until Eduardo comes! YAY!!!!!!!!!!! He booked his flight over the weekend, so it is official now! 67 days, 67 dayyyyyyyyyyys!

Photo Update

2007-01-08T22:10:00.000+09:00

China photos (and blogging) are FAR too overwhelming for me at the moment, but I did update my photos page with Tokyo Disneyland, Lake Haruna, and me as Santa for the kouminkan. Check it out.

Signs that I live in the inaka...

2007-01-07T21:45:00.000+09:00

Lately I have had a couple reminders that I truly live in the inaka (middle of nowhere):

-I love me some Coop! It is the teeny store by my apartment that has good stuff and is cheap! However, I never buy beer there. Anyway, the other day I was shopping there and I bought two beers. When the lady at the register scanned the beers, she looked at me and said, “Oooo, this is rare for you!” and gave me a mischievous look to show she was very happy that I was being naughty for once. SAD! I know they know me there, but that is sad that they know what I buy and how often! Hrm.

-I was VERY happy to find a cab waiting at the eki (train station) when I got back from China with my million pounds of luggage (they were on New Year’s holiday when I got back from Thailand last year). I got in the taxi and was giving the driver directions to my house when he interrupted me and told me he remembered from last time. UM, the last time I rode a cab was September at the LATEST! It may have been the spring?! How the hell does he remember where I live?! That is scary! I may have a 70 year-old stalker!!!

Maybe Wal-Mart isn't TOTALLY evil....

2007-01-04T00:11:00.000+09:00

I'm back from China and it was great! I will blog about it later, but in the meantime, random news....

So yeah, Wal-Mart isn't totally evil, apparently, but it still isn't good. This article is really interesting for both the environmental info, plus it is amazing how one decision can make such a difference. Particularly this bit:

If it succeeds in selling 100 million compact fluorescent bulbs a year by 2008, total sales of the bulbs in the United States would increase by 50 percent, saving Americans $3 billion in electricity costs and avoiding the need to build additional power plants for the equivalent of 450,000 new homes.

That's freaking crazy how much power they have. Anyway, everyone should use these bulbs. They last for freaking ever and they are good for the environment! Eduardo and I were good Oregonians and used them and you should, too :P

China!

2006-12-19T11:51:00.000+09:00

I dont think I will have a chance to blog anymore before I go on vacation (YAY vacation), but in case you want to stalk me and know where I am for the next two weeks, here is my itinerary for Chizina! I am too lazy to edit out the random squigglies that appear in it, so you can just deal with it!

Dec 21st Beijing Arrival stay at Tiantan Hotel ¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï
Arrival in Beijing, met and transferred to Tiantan Hotel or same class. The rest of the day is free.
Dec 22nd Beijing ( B L ) stay at Tiantan Hotel ¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï
Beginning the day with a visit to Tiananmen Square, the world largest. Then move on to the imperial palace, also known as the ¡°Forbidden City ¡° that symbolizes the imperial and traditional China. After lunch go on with the visit to Temple of Heaven, the place where the emperors of Ming and Qing Dynasties worshipped heaven and prayed for peace and harvest. Back to hotel
Dec 23rd Beijing ( B L D ) stay at Tiantan Hotel ¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï
Today's highlight is to visit the Great wall , symbol of Chinese civilization. After lunch, continue a visit to Dingling , one of the Ming Tombs, where 13 emperors were buried in Ming Dynasty. Peking Duck dinner and Peking Opera Show in the evening.
Dec 24th Beijing -- Xi'an by air stay at Xian Hotel Or Tangcheng Hotel¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï ( B L )
Take a morning flight to Xi'an. After lunch, city tour begins with a visit to the Shanxi Museum, the Bell Tower and City Wall. Stay at Xian Hotel or Tangcheng Hotel
Dec 25th Xian Stay at Xian Hotel Or Tangcheng Hotel¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï ( B L D )
Beginning the day with a once-in-a lifetime viewing of the extraordinary 2200-year-old terra-cotta Army of China's First Emperor-Qin Shihuang. Three exhibition halls house the continuing excavation of am army of 7,000 terracotta soldiers and horses that guard the tomb of the the First Emperor. After lunch visit Huaqing Hot Spring and Big Goode Pagoda .Local flavor dinner--dumpling . Tang Dynasty Show in the evening.
Dec 26th Xian ¡ªGuilin by air stay at Park Hotel ¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï ( B L)
Take morning flight from Xian to Guilin. Arrival in Guilin, met and transferred to Guilin Park Hotel. After lunch, visit to Fubo Hill ,Seven Star Park.Back to your hotel.
Dec 27th Guilin stay at Park Hotel ¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï ( B L D )
Enjoy a morning cruise down the winding Li River to Yangshou. Return to Guilin. Dinner and Minority Performance in the evening.
Dec 28th Guilin ¡ªShanghai by air and stay at Golden River-view Hotel Shanghai ¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï or Shanghai Ocean Hotel ¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï ( B L D )
Half day City tour of Reed Flute Cave, Elephant Trunk Hill. Afternoon flight to Shanghai. Stay at Golden River-view Hotel Shanghai or Shanghai Ocean Hotel In the evening dinner will be served. After dinner, you will be arrange d to watch the fantastic acrobatic show
Dec 29th Shanghai ( B L )
Today's highlight is your visit to Yuyuan Garden and Bazar. After lunch, move on to the¡± Pedestrians only ¡° Nanjing Road and the Bund. Take one hour cruising on Huang Pu River.
Dec 30th Shanghai Exit ( B )
Transfer to airport for departure

That last part isnt right, tho, as Cindy and I have extended our stay in Shanghai until January 2nd. I am excited for that, as it is the city I am most looking forward to seeing, plus it is the best city of all of them to have New Years in! Yay! So, ittekimasu....I hope I survive the cold hell known as Beijing! ;)

Have a great Christmas and New Years...hope everyone is eating TONS of holiday food and drinking eggnog and whatnot for me!!!

The Time Traveler's Wife

2006-12-19T11:38:00.000+09:00

I just finished reading The Time Traveler's Wife and it was SUCH a good book, I LOVED it. I haven't loved a book like this in a long time! I was purposely reading it slowly so that it wouldn't end! I highly recommend checking it out, I loved it loved it loved it! Thanks to Holly for forcing it down my throat, btw :) Hee hee.

A random quote from the author in an interview, which I found interesting:

"I do not quite understand why people are so suspicious of fiction. Nonfiction is every bit as managed and shaped as fiction is and has the disadvantage of being too much like real life."

Keitai Pictures

2006-12-18T18:13:00.000+09:00

So I have been far too lazy to blog about what I have been up to lately, so instead I will just post random keitai pics, and they sorta say things about where I have been, so there ya go!

Plate #1 of the 3,765 servings I had at the Thanksgiving dinner in Maebashi. Oh my god, it was SO good and I literally ate at least 6,000 calories and loved every minute of it! Of course, it wasn't as good as my Grandma's, but what is?

My parents and grandma ROCK because they sent me my favorite thing in the world....my grandma's Thanksgiving rolls! ONLY my family would spend the time and money to express me rolls, but they are fucking AMAZING! Pure butter! They are my favorite part of the meal! MMMM!

So, I have heard nothing but incredible things about Beer Lao from everyone that goes to Laos (yes, people actually go to Laos!). I have heard it is the best beer in the world, but that they don't export it for unknown reasons (hello, you'd think they would want to make MONEY in that country?!). Anyway, I seriously was pondering going to Laos just to try the beer, but fortunately I found it at a sketchy Thai restaurant in Tokyo! Of course I don't think any beer could meet up to such expectations, but it was good!

The Christmas tree at Disneyland! It was huge! I LOVE DISNEYLAND CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS!!!!

A moving Christmas tree in the Christmas parade (I was Japanese and actually watched the parade...usually I take advantage of the no-lines for rides during that time!).

This is currently my keitai wallpaper to get me in the Christmas spirit! So cute!

Is this not the cutest picture EVER?! Kawaii! Thanks to Ann for sending this!

I finally got to ride the Buzz Lightyear game for the first time ever! There is usually a huuuuuuuuuuuuge line. You ride around and shoot shit with your laser. Dude, apparently I should be in the military because I kicked fucking ASS at that game! I don't know if that is a good thing or not!

Mami is a genius and had us leave the park for lunch, and we went to a Hawaiian burger place. HOLY SHIT, I had the biggest and best avocado burger ever! I had been craving one for a month and it more than made up for it! I didn't know how to eat it, it was dekaiyo.

What can I say, I can fit big things in my mouth ;)

This is my AWESOME present I gave to a very lucky ALT for the gift exchange for the ALT Christmas enkai in Haruna. Is it not BEAUTIFUL?! ;)

Yes, only the best presents come from the conbini!