Thursday, March 15, 2007
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Graduation
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!
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!
Sunday, March 11, 2007
Phoooooooootoooooooooooooos
I've uploaded a buncha pics...Shanghai, Sapporo, Hong Kong, etc. Check it out here, yo.
Saturday, March 10, 2007
SEVEN DAYS!
Eduardo will be here in ONE WEEK. SEVEN DAYS SEVEN DAYS SEVEN DAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Friday, March 09, 2007
Hong Kong, Part Three
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!!!
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!!!
Thursday, March 08, 2007
Hong Kong, Part Two
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.
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
(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!
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!
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
I LOVE YABUCHU!
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!
Monday, March 05, 2007
Influenza is the Word
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!
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
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!
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!
Thursday, March 01, 2007
Music Recommendation
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!!!
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Random Thoughts
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.
-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.
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Rowr
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!!!!!!!!
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!!!!!!!!
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
The Power of “Sad”
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! ;)
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!!!!!!!!
25 dayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyys until Eduardo cooooooooooooooooooooooooooomes! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!
Thursday, February 15, 2007
A Big Decision
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!
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
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!
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!
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Sapporo! Part One
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!)
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!)
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Valentine’s Day at Chuugakkou
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 ;)
“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 ;)
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
39 days!!!
39 days, 39 days, 39 days, 39 days, 39 days, 39 days, 39 days, 39 days!!!!!!! THIRTY-NINE DAYS UNTIL EDUARDO COMES! 39 dayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyys!
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