School Trip Photos

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

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!

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

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

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

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

Shou Stories

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

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...

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!

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!

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!

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

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!

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!

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!

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....

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

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!

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!!!!

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!