MY COMPUTER IS DEAD. I WILL UPDATE AS SOON AS IT IS FIXED

YES! IT WORKED

So now, I can send text messages from my ketai (cell phone) to my blog. DoCoMo (which is my Japanese mobile provider) is not yet supported for a photos, so I will have to keep it text only..this could be fun, I can always add pics later...

キャリーです。TEST POST FROM MY KETAI

A Surprise on my Desk

After returning to my desk from giving a couple speaking tests during sixth period today, I found this on my desk. It was from a group of my second year students who had just made it in home-ec class, isn't that adorable?

I Feel The Earth Move Under My Feet

Had two earthquakes today. Both of them were quite small, they registered a 4 here in Joetsu. I didn't feel the first one, although most everybody else did. I was walking around and the wind has been strong so I really didn't notice it. The second one, I was in the teachers room, everything rattled. It is weird because the thing with earthquakes is that they ease into the big tremors, so you never know if the little ones are going to end up being big ones. So you always kind of have to brace yourself for whatever will happen next.

There was also a quake last night in Tokyo, and I have heard there was another one later in the day in Osaka... THE PLATES ARE A'MOVIN~...if you are more interested on this and want to see the latest earthquake happenings you can check out this site: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/recenteqsww/

I Hate Computers

So I wrote a great post about my experiences from this weekend, and then my computer froze, losing it. I am sad, but will write it again so you can hear what it is like to experience a visit to the doctor (and not just any doctor)

Going to the Doctor in Japan...My Annual....

Part of the adventure of living in Japan is partaking in the daily activities that we take for granted all the time. I still get a thrill getting behind the wheel of my car and going to work in the morning (I must say the ease of my little town sure beats morning traffic on 40). Just today, I went to a grand opening weekend of a grocery store. It was really exciting to see all the new foods that are available and to see all the patrons stirring about excited for the sales and the new selections (there was a gigantic fish- the length of an endcap refrigerator section that they were carving samples off...could you imagine getting a food sample of sashimi while hitting Kroger or Schnuks?). I would say daily I do something, which as normal as it may seem to me now, is no where near to the lifestyle I was living just a year ago, and I barely bat an eye at the differences anymore. I have gotten so accustomed to my lifestyle and the obscurities of Japan, that I, a person who loves to saturate herself in the beauty of the quirkiness of the world, find myself driving along passing roadside shrines and ricefields barely even thinking much of them. I do constantly have "Hell, Yea! I'm in Japan" moments, striking me; making me dance and sing praise of gratitude of my good fortune. I am completely appreciating the opportnity and path that my life has given me. I still love noting the asthetic beauty of everything, and I am constantly in awe of the grandeour of my experience, but I think that initial feeling that was at once so overwhelming , that nostalgic feeling of good god, where am i? has started to wear away....This thought had me feeling that I was good and settled, wondering if without the aid of visiting guests, would I ever have that fuzzy, wierd, first time experience again?.....That was , Until I made my annual trip to the gynecologist....

Caution: The following contains details of a FEMALE'S ANNUAL doctor visit...it is not intended for those who are easily disturbed by the discussion of the female cycle...so if you have no fear and don't mind knowing too much about my personal life....read on....it is detailed....

After weeks of telling eachother we should go together, my friend and I decided we would do it, we would go for our annual gyno visit. We decided on the local clinic in Joetsu due to the convience of hours on Saturday and walk-ins welcome policy.

We got out of my car, our nerves stirring, because to be honest even in the States a visit to the gyno is not the most comfortable situation, no matter how much you like the doctor, you are fully aware that they are going to be scraping, poking, and prodding at your most delicate areas. Dictionaries in tow (both electronic and print) we entered through the sliding doors into the empty waiting room. We called for a nurse, answered a few questions about the condition of our mankos*, and sat in the waiting room. We waited for seriously eons. We paid the takai 200 yen for a water, and watched pregnant women come and go, all while getting curious looks from the women, as if they were just discovering, yes Westerners also have vaginas. *manko is a horribly crude Japanese word for well, you know, a woman's vaginal area

Finally a nurse came out and called..."Kyari SaburettoSama!" (which is my name by the way)

I walked over to the door a little confused because my friend and I had made a request to go together, both for language skills and mental support, and the nurse had only called my name. So I asked, "Sumimasen, Gomennasai, Watashi no tomodachi wa TiffanySan. ishoni ikitai, onegaishimasu. Nihongo sukoshi wakarimasu. Daijoubu desuka?" Which in horrible japanese says " Excuse me, I'm sorry, Tiffany is my friend. We would like to go together please. I only understand a little Japanese, Is that ok?" The nurse said "Daijobu." So we got to go together.

When you enter the doctors office, it is quite different than that of the states. First they made my friend and I switch seats (who knows why) The area I was in was two small cubicle-like spaces connected together. A hallway runs through the back of the office, of which the nurses run around through. We sat and had our consultation with the doctor. Then we were pointed and told to go through the door.

As I passed through the door I realized I was not in the States.

There was no table to lay on. No stirrups for your feet. There was just a big pink chair!

The doctor told me to take off my pants and sit on the chair. I did as I was told.

It is never more than obvious that Japan is the land of electronics than the first time you experience an electronic gyno chair. The best part of the experience was the name...Space Natul...

So I sat upon the SPACE NATUL, resting my thighs on the I assume, thigh rests. There was an announcement telling me about the lift off, then it moves, spreading my legs apart as it lifts and tilts to the proper position. There is a click of a light when you finally are in position. There is a curtain that seperates you and your lower half, so you never see the doctor during the examination, I personally found this horrible. As you decent there is another announcement and then you go in for your landing. All in all, the experience was pleasant, but totemo omoshiroiyo!

Toru, Liz and I after the Joetsu performance of Peter ja-Pan

A Typical Night

One of my favorite things to do is go and sit at the sushi bar at Funaie. Many times my friends and I will go with a good size group and sit at a table, but I prefer to go with a one or two people and squeeze in at the bar. (we always tend to get set corner of the bar, but that is ok, in the end people always end up coming over near us, and it gives us a good place to view all those coming and leaving the bar)



Tiffany and I So even though japanese is pure shite, I find that everytime I sit hereI get to chat with the Tsuchi, the sushi chef that always works down where we sit and randomly feeds us odd and end items the and waiters as they scream Moscow Mule, futatsu acroos the bar. Now if you have never been to an izakaya, realize that they don't just yell it one time.... it goes in a series, so for example we will tell Akira, "Nomihodai, onegaishimasu, Moscow Mule futatsu." (Two hours of drinking, two moscow mules please) and then Akira will yell it to Tsuchi (who maybe three feet away), and Tsuchi will yell it to Ma-chan (who may also be 3-6 feet away), and Ma-chan will yell it to Hiroko (who is running around in between tables in some other corner of the restaraunt) , and then Hiroko will yell it to whoever, and then everyone in the restaraunt is running around screaming "Moscow Mule Futatsu!" This happens anytime you order, it is even greater when other people are ordering things somewhere else in the restaraunt, it turns into an orchestrated symphony of orders (sort of like they do it at a grease-spoon cafe in the states, like a waffle house, but instead of screaming scattered and smothered, they are screaming random things in japanese)

Akira...he is my favorite waiter at Funaie- I abuse him by asking him if my ecchi japanese is decent...it always brings on a great time..he likes to practice his funny English, and he gets a kick out of our presence...other than always seeing the regular Funaie employees, we also tend to run into the owners of Nova, the one club in town. Due to our constant bumping into each other, we have now been granted life-time passes to the club.

uchujin

my students/cleaning crew are so cute, they teach me new words everyday by acting them out, today they taught me the word uchujin, it means alien....it was fun to guess what it was. lots of movies being named and hands over the head making faces kind of thing...

A Nice Quiet Weekend: Cheesesteaks and Mountains

This weekend was a great weekend. It was a quiet weekend compared to last week. No hitting the town, no city lights, just another adventure in Japan filled with great friends. I would say that having great friends is what makes my Japanese experience all the more exciting. We are there for each other, and provide laughter for each other. We also share our knowledge of what we have learned (which is a true bonus for me since I am the slowest learner of the Japanese language by far)

So you may wonder, what makes a quiet weekend in Japan? Well I will tell you….

Friday night me and my girlfriends stuffed our faces and talked like men. We were crude, rude, and had lots of stories to tell Mel from our weekend in Tokyo. We also shared with her the pleasures of a Philly Cheesesteak. Now you would think a sandwich as good as that would have made it to the meat and cheese loving country of the UK. We also reflected on how strange it was that things we don’t crave at all in the States we get this insatiable cravings for here in Japan. A lot of it is completely unobtainable such as a turkey sandwich- or anything from a deli really- that is why we can easily justify paying 11$ for a Subway club.... buthingsss like ~ Mexican and cheesesteaks, those two items when craved can easily be made- granted they are makeshift and unlike the ones you would get at home, but they satisfy the urge.Definitelyly not El Magueys.

So the Liz, Mel, Tif, and I sat around Mel's table eating gooey gorgeous cheesesteaks and homemade potatoes and told crazy stories of backstreet alleys and meeting random strangers in Tokyo. We have a great knack at meeting lots of random people. Since Mel is not recontracting, she was not at the conference, so we took Friday evening to fill her in on all the dirt.

Saturday was beautiful. Not really as far as weather was concerned, but as far as life is concerned. A small group of us had plans to celebrate our pal Simon's birthday. He had asked us to go paragliding and mountain climbing to celebrate his aging. So he organized a crew of us to go...

If you are unaware, in Japan there is a whole season dedicated to the element, rain. And with our luck, that season up and started on Saturday. Luckily we knew in advance, so we cancelled the paragliding bit the day before... but hiking was still on. We all met at Narus in Kakizaki, a town about an hour away from me. Surprise, surprise, and a fact well worth noting...Liz and I were the first to show. Funny how when I show up first or early somewhere, everyone else is late. Shouganai. We sat there as the sky was pissing down rain, looking at each other saying are we really going to do this? All of us knew it would be a good time, but all of us were kind of like, ~hiking up a mountain, in the rain, can't we just go do karaoke somewhere and save this adventure for another day?~ because that was the if it rains backup plan. But...No, this was to be done! We wersummittingng the mountain, rain or not, and surprisingly we were all up for it. (Granted I did my usually are you serious huff, but everyone knew I would do whatever, seems to be a character trait I am just starting to notice)
So we all braved the elements and started up Mount Yoneyama.

The hike was easy, no scaling rocks or anything of that sort. There was a well trodened path, lots of stairs, and even natural stairs or worn divets made on rock near the summit. We would come to clearings that would offemagnificentnt views of the inaka Dave sang me the tune he wrote for the last openmic that I missed whilI i was in Tokyo, he has a knack of writing corny song lyrics and interesting tunes.
We guided our ways along sheer dropoffs, it was a bit slick from all the rain, but we all made it up safely.
When we got to the top of the mountain, the sun had already began to set. Due to the rain that had been falling all day a mist shrouded the valleys below. It was a beautiful site.

mel after summiting the mountain
Atop the mountain, on the summit, is an A-frame cabin. The cabin is open to public use. When we got to the cabin, there was a group of five older Japanese people. I am not sure they knew what to think when a group of foreigners showed up at the setting of the sun, and began to kompei and begin a boxed wine challenge.

We partied away bay candlelight, devouring our dinner we had lugged up in our packs, which consisted of various delicacies such as sushi, onigiri, soba, and edemame. To my biggest surprise two of our friends from Kashiwazaki showed up nearly an hour after the sun had set. They had tried to come up on the Kashiwazaki side of the mountain, met a road block, drove around the mountain, started the climb, and towards the end, they were using their ketai (cellphone) as thier only means of light.


Behind the cabin is a shrine, with a tatami room in the back, a few of us took refuge in there trying to save the people whom we are sharing the cabin with a little sanity. We left Dave and Satako in the cabin attempting to sing strange Japanese songs with them.
I should probably also mention that the clouds were low and the mist ovetheeh mountains was intense. When you stepped outside, not only was it pitch black, but even equipped with our handy headlights, the mist left the visibility about nil- ok, maybe you could see about 6 inches in front of you, but for real that was it. This made our evening stroll between the cabin and the shrine, which was seriously no longer than 10 meters, an amazing feat and adventure in the still of the night.
After our great night of sleeping in the wilderness, I had to be up early and down the mountain before everyone else because I had a birthday party to go to. Chieko's grandson turned 2 on Sunday. So I booked it down the very slick mountain in the morning, got lost driving around the mountain, and got back to Arai just in time to shower and meet Karmen, Chieko, her daughter, son-in-law, and two grandkids for our lunch outing. It was great, for some reason the crazy antics of Shunpei, get me cracking up all the time, he has the bubbliest of smiles.

mel and rob dancing at PTa

as part of the fertility ritual, the women ride a large phallus in front of the shrine

soy latte

You Are a Soy Latte

At your best, you are: free spirited, down to earth, and relaxed At your worst, you are: dogmatic and picky You drink coffee when: you need a pick me up, and green tea isn't cutting it Your caffeine addiction level: medium

What Kind of Coffee Are You?

Karaoke at PTAs

This is PTA, one of our local watering holes, it is one of the few bars that is open and allows a crowd to mingle. In Japan most people go to izakayas, which are bars in which you sit with your friends and enjoy to the group you are with. Most bars here do not set up a scene in which it is easy to socialize and meet new people. The bars that are set up in that type of open atmosphere tend to become frequented by foreigners- because we like to mix it up.....

Tacos at Tiffany's

liz and tiffany are teaching the boys how to make tacos, it was thier first time..
~then we all had fun trying on each others glasses and playing silly games ~