Elementary, My Dear Watson

Well so much for my after-work routine. The arcade I went to after work took out my drum game. Sucks. It’s probably closing down. Just when I was getting good. Highlight of yesterday was at the end of the day after my very last class. The trainer was still watching me for all my lessons, which all went really well. But at the end of the last class with a very cute girl in attendance, he came up to me when I was going through paperwork. As the students were walking away he looks at me and says….

                                               

                                        That.. my good man. Is your hottest student.

Even though Sherlock actually said Elementary! My dear Watson!, he said it totally in that same cadence. I was cracking up. But he’s probably right. He even gave me the (seemingly) canned, “if you ask her out she’ll tell the head office” talk. Apparently this girl has caused problems for many teachers before me. Sort of like a siren, waiting for men to come to her shores to feast on. But I will resist!!

Drink of the day was…..#3… Torokeru Remon (probably Lemon translated)

                                

Looks appealing enough.. grabbed the can from the machine and… OW! It was hot as hell. So that was interesting fact number one. The machine dispenses hot and cold stuff. But anyone opened it up and kicked it back. The heat made it taste like tea with a hint of orange. Drinking half was tough.. but on the bottle it says HOT OR COLD, so I put it in the fridge to try it cold later. Later on I finished the now cold drink. It was much better this time around. Like a thick orange smoothie. Much better. Still not worth buying though. Final Assesment 5/10 – Doesn’t make sense to make this drink hot. Cold is still just ok.

Solid Anime. Solid Song. Mega-playboy dominates.

Beat rolls on..

Taught an actual class today by myself. It went pretty well. I often talk to fast so talking slowly and clearly was my main goal. The students were pretty chill which was cool. Tommorrow I have about four classes so it will be a much more exciting/nerveracking. I’m ready to get in the groove of things though. Having the trainer always around makes me feel like I’m babysitting with the parents staring at you. But I’m sure once hes gone I’ll miss his ideas as well. The worst part is when your in the lobby and two japanese speakers are talking and all of a sudden they burst out in insane laughter. You just know they are laughing about you some of those times… I’ll figure it out one day!

On the way home from work my routine has turned into playing the drum game Taiko no Tatsujin: Taiko Drum Master, and getting a drink from the vending machine outside my apartment.

                                    

                                                     Solid Game.

So for the last two nights I have tried two different drinks in my new quest to try everything in the machine. #1…

                                            

This is Torokeru Budozeri. It looks pretty appealing with its grape color and appeasing grape photos. I opened it up and kicked it back. Nothing. I thought it had gone bad or something. But in actuallity I see on the outside of the can it says 30% grapes. The don’t mean grape juice, they mean GRAPES. It’s thick as hell. Good tasting, but its like drinking barely blended grapes. So final verdict – 5-10. It won’t quench your thirst, but it doesn’t taste bad.

#2. Next up. 100% Black.

                                                            

The can reads, over 100 years black. Kicked this one back and was hit with the slam of old, cold, black coffee. They weren’t joking with that title. It is purely chilled black coffee. I forced myself to finish this one since I’m not really into black coffee. But I have heard once you go black you never go back, so maybe my feelings might change. Final Verdict – 0-10 I don’t like black coffee so this wasn’t for me.

J-pop of the day: Namie Amura

Highlight of the video………her hair

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MF-v8gKASI&feature=related

First Day In the Books

First day done. It was definitly a learning experience. The trainer dude is like a master and makes teaching look so easy, which it isn’t for a Rookie like me. The walk to the school is nice, I have to go through this big shopping plaza with a big covered path with stores on each side for like a half a mile. Its pretty cool.

                                       

Students seem pretty cool. Everyone is very excited to meet me. Paying a lot of money to learn English from me might have something to do with it. My favorite moment so far was this junior high student that wrote me name in Japanese then surrounded it by hearts. I asked her hey do you want to keep that or can I have it? I was praying she did not want it but of course she took it. Damn I wanted that picture! But it’s cool. They’ll be more cool moments in the future I’m sure. I’ll take some pictures later on this week of my room and stuff. This weekened I have to get a bike though. Everything in the city is not that far away, as long as you have some Wheels. In actuality, it will be more like this, basket and all. But they must not make bikes without baskets here because EVERYONE has one. So it won’t be to gay. Maybe. Day 2 on the way!

J-Pop song of the day: Nami Tamaki: Prayer

Under a Japanese Moon

I’m writing from my balcony, in my new apartment, in my new city, in this new adventure. So far, everything is awesome. I was worried my city may be some small little dive, but that is not the case. While it won’t get confused for DC anytime soon, it still has enough of a city feel for me to be satisfied.

I’ve spent the last day attempting to give my apartment a more of a “me” feel. It’s tough since the last guy left just soooo much shit. I’m working on fixing that now. It does get cold but the heater works, I’m just not sure how much it costs to have constantly running… so I keep an on and off again heating schedule. We’ll see what the bill is at the end of the month.

Before I get ahead of myself here’s some pics of the last night in Vancouver. Click for full set.
                                      

So after the night in the hotel me and the other trainee explored the shopping center across the street. It was pretty sweet. Got to play in the the arcade which was awesome. Also ate at Mcdonalds and got a ebi(shrimp) filet-o. It was pretty good. Also in Japan they give you a number and bring you your food, unlike home where you just get it at the time of your ordering. It took like four seconds from the time of ordering for the girl to bring it so it seems to be an uneeded system.

After that, a trainer put me on the appropriate train and I was off to my city. While I was nervous, I was confident in my hiragana skills to read the map. Driving through the countryside was really cool. No one else on the train even looked outside but I was very wideeyed during the whole trip. A lot of cool views. My camera is packed so again I will just have to remember it.

I was picked up by my cute coworker and she took me to my hotel. First thoughts walking in my apartment was wow, this is sweet. Way bigger than I was expecting. And it had a bed and balcony. Nice. The next test was internet which also was succesful. Nicer. The dude before me left a lot of stuff which is good and bad. Good becuase I have a huge supply of cleaning materials and a big tv and DVD player. Bad becuase I have to sort through a lot of his crap that I don’t need. And in Japan you can’t just throw out shit. Pick-up is once a week and it needs to be sorted. Burnable, breakable, and big items are all on different days. This system must work becuase so far, trash is no where to be found in the city. Apartment Pics.
                          

Tommorrow I start work, which is the last variable I am waiting on. I’m excited and nervous. Perfect mix for an exciting day! haha I’m off to sleep for my big day. 365 left at least. I’m ready.

Hotel Room Ramblings

Here I am. Sitting in a strange hotel room. Waiting for another day. Somehow my hotel doesn’t have wireless internet.(EDIT: my dumbass didn’t see the LAN cord hidden behind the TV) Which sucks, but that means a lot of writing for the old blog. Also I’m trying to minimize jet lag so I will probably be up all night as well. I have a lot more information at this point. Some bad some good. But still feeling overwhelmed as hell.

Got picked up by our trainer, but the lugguge courier service was already closed. Meaning I had to carry my bags to the hotel. Looking around, I guess its exactly as I imagined. Now I am in Fukuoka, but tommorrow I’ll be in my city which is my final destination. From the things the trainer told me, it’s small as hell. My hotel is old as hell, but also cheap as hell. My manager will probably not speak any English which he said will mean I have to learn some Japanese very quickly. Just means I have to work harder to find things to do. I will also be a celebrity in my city which is good I guess for my large insatiable need to be needed. But anyways enough about the future.

This hotel room is crazy! The sink water drains into the toilet which has a water squirt up the ass thingie, seat warmer, and much much more. Can’t figure out how to use it but I’ll work on it. The worst thing was walking in the room and not knowing how to turn the light on. I felt like a idiot, but eventually I figures out there is a little holder for your room key in the wall that you have to use. This room is nice, but small as hell and cost 300$ a night. Somehow they include a rice cooker but NO OTHER eating utensils. Sort of a weird things to have if there is no plates, chopsticks, cups or anything. And it’s two inches from the tv. There’s also an onsen in the basement, but I don’t think I’m ready for public nudity on day one. At least with only other guys. Lights, Air Conditioner, and Bed Height are all controlled by remote. It’s cool.

So my hotel had the stereotypical rack of vending machines. No used panties, but cigarettes, beer, liquor, cigars, and chewing tabacco were all included.I helped myself to some Chu-hi in a can which is sort of like Smirnoff Ice. I got three different flavors; Lemon, Grapefruit and Ume( green plum) I got three because I thought I read on the side of the bottle that the alcohol content was 3.3%. Upon closer look it is actually 7%. So I might be getting drunker than I was planning on Night 1.

                                    

On the plasma tv is the usual crazy game shows, a few dramas, and talk shows. I’m mostly flipping to find the hottest girl. I am very scared though. Really I’m a scared little bitch but I’m trying to be the tough guy infront of everyone else. I am scared that maybe I made a bad choice in coming. No turning back now. I’m here to get everything out of this I can. I refuse to not have fun in this next year. I don’t want to look back and say I should have been more outgoing or I should have tried harder to find friends. I’m not going to let that happen. Do it now or which I had. Fuck that.

Be back to write more in an hour of more Chu-hi. 

Back. After a few mishaps with the shower, I have successfully cleaned myself. Whats weird is the shower water drains into the toilet. The sound of this happening at first scared the shit out of me. But good system actually to save water. Since I can’t read anything, everything seems hard but most things have a good system once I figure them out. This bed is hard as shit. It’s as if they made the mattress out of rock, and then coated it with ashpalt. It is seriously just a board. But I think I’m going to try to sleep on it right about now. Waking up to explore Fukuoaka untill 1pm when I am taken to my apartment… Oyasuminasai! (goodnight)

Touchdown…

Im writing this in the Narita airport, waiting for my 8pm flight. I have two and a half hours to kill. I’m with one other person from my group, but its the boring one so I’m writing so I don’t have to talk. But anyways after a ten hours flight I kissed the place that was sort of becoming familair for a whole new country that is not familiar at all.

Currently to my left is a older man watching sumo on tv like it is the Superbowl. Everytime someone wins he claps and talks so fast its insane. He has talked to me but since I don’t know what he is saying I just say Hai hai! (yes yes).

During the flight, my feelings stayed pretty stable. Not really thinking about anything just waiting for whatever is going to happen. After the flight between the plane and customs, the first shuttle with all the other teachers in my group was filled so I had to wait for the second. When the second one comes, I get in and was along for a while untill a whole school of kids came in their uniforms that looked exactly the same around me. It was quickly apparent that I was a big point of attention for the kids. Most are staring untill I look back and then they quickly look away. Eventually one girl says Hi to me and I say Hi back and smile. THE WHOLE SHUTTLE ERUPTS IN LAUGHTER. It is like I have said the funniest joke in the world. So I, now sort of embarrased, say “How are you?” MORE INSANE LAUGHTER.  I then start laughing too and say “well I’m not saying anything anymore.” MORE INSANE LAUGHTER. It was defenitly a WOW I’m in Japan moment. It’s sort of made me feel alone as well. I was a sideshow freak to this whole school to gawk at lol. Well maybe not but that’s how it felt. Hopefully they were just infatutated with my good looks or something. But I doubt it.

That’s it for now here’s a picture of last night’s craziness! Tommorrow I’ll be in my apartment. Hopefully that is a good thing…

                                                  

Last North American Post

Well this is it. After a long night of drinking with some future coworkers, tommorrow I will wake up and be on my way. To  a begininng, an end, an absolution. To a whole life I have never known but will soon be (hopefully) comfortable with. To being totally on my own for the first time in my entire life. To be reduced to infancy in a language. To the future.

Who knows what will happen, but its these moments of uncertainty that can bring people together. Like the other people in my training group. We all have became very good friends more from tonite than any other night. It’s sort of like we have no other choice but to use eachother as support, but they are all very cool. Two of the people I totally look forward to seeing in the future. The others not so much, but it will still be good to see a familiar face as a stranger in a strange land.

I have so many thoughts in my head at this point I don’t think my brain can process it all, so it chooses to feel nothing. I feel very blah. It could sort of be my own little defense mechanism of being scared but who knows. Soon there won’t be any time to be scared. It will be time to be a human being living on the other side of the planet that has to take care of themself. So the sooner I get ready for that the better.

Tonite was awesome. Four people trying to have a fun night before embarking on a crazy, scary, unfamiliar adventure. Tommorrow there will be no group support. It will be time to accept the choices we have made. It is time to have fun! It is time to be alone. It is a time to learn about yourself! I can’t wait to see exactly what happens to me as a person on this year long trip. We will soon see.

Take me out Optimus.

(Next Day edit) Drunk posts come out pretty good. I won’t change any misspellings to keep the spontaniety of this post lol

The storm is approaching…

2 nights left. Feels sort of weird but dont cry, I’m pretty excited to get going. It feels like I’ve accomplished something here, but then it two days I have to start a much larger task. Whatever. It will probably more difficult there, but also more rewarding. Working with the real students is really cool. They get so excited you can’t help but be in a good mood.

Today I had another girl student but unlike yesterday’s student she was really good in English. Also not as hot, but it was fine. I probably got the best feedback of my whole group so that was good. I’m pretty badass if you didn’t know. But seriously I did think I did better than everyone else so it was nice for a little validation. Not that I needed it…..haha

Vancouver thoughts: 1.You know your in a hockey town when people will freeze their ass off outside the bar, watching the tvs that are inside the bar, just because they are to young to get in(19 years old here). It was a cool scene. Unfortuneatly of course I did not have my camera so I could not capture the moment. But I’ll try to remember it.  2. Everyone under 30 is in like emo/gotchic/grunge mode. Which I think is hot so it works but its just a little strange. Lots of dyed hair, piercings, and dark eye makeup. Sweet.

Third Wall Blog Update: Once I am actually in Japan, I will have actual pictures describing the things I am explaining. Using google for blog pictures is sort of lame.

I’m going to sleep. Tommorrow I will be getting hammered for my last night. In lieu of attempting a joke, I will leave you with some more cool music from the Land of the Rising Sun. This time it will be The Brilliant Green, with the song “Rainy Days Never Stays” Enjoy.

Father Time is on my side

Got my schedule today…. not crazy about the 1-10 tues through friday… but at least I don’t have to wake up until like 11. Lots of time for sleeping.  And lying around which is nice.

                                                     

                                                                Me at 10:59.

Third day thoughts of Vancouver; 1. Alcohol is expensive 2. Cool views especially Victoria Island 3. A lot of XXX stores on the main road. 4. Wierd taxes ex. recycling tax (.01) liquor tax. 5. Seems like a very younger aged city than most I’m used to.

So today we had to teach an actual lesson with an actual Japanese person. I was pretty nervous about getting everything correct and then she walked in.

                                         

So that was a pleasent surprise. I just had to make sure I stayed proffessional, which I did. How come when someone foriegn says something a little wrong its SO damn cute?? But I did pretty good. It was difficult when she was not sure of an English word, for me not to try to explain that word by using many many more English words. So while her little cute, smiling, genki(happy), mind was thinking of what I wanted her to say, I would bombard her with other words she wasn’t sure of. So I have to try not to do that tommorrow. But it won’t be with her so maybe tommorrow I won’t be so stunned.

The beat rolls on tommorrow. More training. Another lesson.  2 more full days in North America. It’s been a long road to get to Japan that is about to be over. Which will then lead to the beginning of another road. So basically there will be a lot of roads. But I’m ready. In fact, I’m ready to rock.   

                                             

                                                        Yes pope, I am.

The haze is lifting….

Training done for the day. Just finished eating my 22 pieces of sushi for 5$. I’m buying Japanese food when I’m about to be in Japan for the next year. hehehe I’m smart . But it was good. Time to get to work though after this post.

Second day thoughts on Vancouver: 1. Definitly bigger than I first thought 2. Lots of cool fountains 3. Lots of Asians. 4. No refills in Canada suck! That should come with the customs packet they give you in the airport. Never get 4 cokes in at a restaurant in Canada or you’ll be like this. 

So I now know my school name and that I’ll be picked up at the airport by Tom. I also know my address. Which obivously means nothing before I see the place and the area. That’s basically all I know. Tommorrow will reveal my actual schedule. Hope its easy. I did learn today though that if you work on Saturday you don’t start untill 1pm, which leaves PLENTY of party time for Friday night! haha. Sweet.

Alright I have to finish my lesson plan props. Here’s a boring sample.

A1 : Which do you prefer, ____ or _____?

Yep that’s it. You don’t realize how hard that is to teach untill you have to fill up 30 minutes with it.
I’ll leave you with the excellent singing of Mika Nakashima in the awesome movie NANA. Watch it and Enjoy.