I'm coming home in 3 weeks and feeling a bit nervous. There are so many things about this experience that has changed me, and the only way I'll be able to understand who I am now is to go home. To give an idea of what I've been dealing with, I am part of the miniscule 0.01% that makes up the population of western people in Japan. That's right, for every 10,000 Japanese, there's only one westerner. If that doesn't make a person kooky, I don't know what will!
But my original intention of this post is to tell everyone when I'm coming home. I want to see all of you! I will be in Raleigh from December 28th until January 3rd. I have tons of goodies from Japan that I've been stockpiling to give to everyone. My suitcase will be absolutely packed, but I can only bring so much so please let me know if you'll be around and if you want to meet up!
And now for the -
~~~~~Weekend Update~~~~~~
It was an interesting weekend: after my volleyball tournament in Obama on Satuday, I decided to find a public bath to freshen up before meeting up with a friend in Omura. I was wandering around Obama searching for an onsen when I wandered into what I thought was a hotel. It was here that I met Yoko Ono.
Well, not THE Yoko Ono, but a very nice lady with the same name! She spoke wonderful English, let me use her private bath, then invited me up to her condo to chat. Her home was so festively decorated for the holidays that it felt like I was back home. Her husband is a neurosugeon who seemed so amused by the whole thing. It was incredible to meet such friendly people in the middle of Obama!
After that serendipitous experience, I went to an African drumming night in Omura. It was really, really crowded, but I didn't freak out because there were tons of great people there. After the party, we wandered over to an ALT's house. It was an eclectic group of people, and somehow we failed to realize that a crazy J-boy we didn't know followed us there. Antics ensued:
Crazy J-boy asks us "Where you from?" about 50 times each
Crazy J-boy takes off ALL his clothing to prove that he has no tatoos and is therefore not yakusa
Crazy J-boy sees gay boys kissing, joins in
Crazy J-boy realizes boys are gay, and is disgusted (AFTER making out with them!)
Crazy J-boy passes out
Crazy J-boy pees all over the living room (I wasn't there, but heard he was conscious and doing it deliberately!)
Christ, where do we meet these people?
Last night was our hanto "Better late than never" Thanksgiving dinner at Katie's house. There was lots of potatoes, chicken, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, broccoli, and salad. Good food, good company.
And on that note, it's off to bed for me. I'm doing much better with this blogging thing now that I don't care!
Monday, December 4, 2006
Saturday, December 2, 2006
Rough Draft
Well I haven't had a real update in a while...I think I've figured out that I am a perfectionist with my writing, but I just realized that I won't have anything to look back on if I don't stop that NOW. (hence the runon sentence...imperfction has begun!)
These past few months have been a whirlwind...if you look at my Flickr page here it gives a general idea of what I've been up to. In summary:
September:
Got stuck in a typhoon in the car ride back from Kumamoto, pieces of the car were flying away and Suzie was a crazy driver, but we amazingly made it back to the hanto just in time. I made her stop at a hotel because I was afraid the sea would swallow us or a telephone pole would land on the car. We ended up at a swanky love hotel called "Chapel Coconuts" which was littered with fallen tropical statues of flamingoes and dolphins; I thought I would die by getting knocked over by one on the way to the door. It turns out the hotel was full, so we tried another one in which I accidently bought a $10 thong. Stupid vending machines!
October:
Rode in a van up to Yamaguchi with a bunch of JETs, camped in the woods, played on the most amazing jungle gym known to man, watched debauchery unfold before my very eyes, made a friend (Becky), went to the BEST FESTIVAL IN JAPAN (Sake festival), had my ears assaulted with way too much Guns n'Roses for a human to stand, saw some fellow ALTs disrobe at a rest stop to the amazement of onlookers
Helped harvest rice, received a 5 kg bag of genmai (brown rice) for my labor
Purchased my first Macintosh!!! I love it!
Had a wild night in Fukuoka for my birthday...learned that I don't like for people I don't know to dance with me...discovered that having a prop to go out with is fun...my prop was a giant daikon (radish) with pictures of Hard Gay that Erich made me
Halloween: Me, Suzie, and Katie dressed up in matching jumpsuits; I was a plumber and they were carpenters. We went to a house party in Sasebo that was busted by the cops, so we wandered the streets aimlessly for the rest of the night. Katie and I did the limbo with measuring tape.
Witnessed the Yosakoi, amazing dance that takes place every year in Sasebo. The most notable thing about it is that the dancers seemed to really be having fun. That's something you don't see often in Japan!
November:
A fairly laid-back month...went to sumo in Fukuoka, got yelled at for throwing cushions, drank lots of hot sake, absorbed the amazing atmosphere, realized that I'm very socially awkward, met some very nice Kumamoto JETs, danced my arse off in darkroom and Keith Flack
Shimabara Sideshow Spectacular! Finally all those weeks of band practice paid off because we had our first gig! It wasn't perfect at all, but I'm proud since we only just started playing our instruments. Many people in the audience told me that they have been playing bass much longer, but never had the nerve to perform.
My final thought is this: it's too easy to become too perfectionistic. If anyone reads this, remember to just do whatever it is you do and don't worry, you can perfect it later.
Or, you can just tell yourself that. ;)
These past few months have been a whirlwind...if you look at my Flickr page here it gives a general idea of what I've been up to. In summary:
September:
Got stuck in a typhoon in the car ride back from Kumamoto, pieces of the car were flying away and Suzie was a crazy driver, but we amazingly made it back to the hanto just in time. I made her stop at a hotel because I was afraid the sea would swallow us or a telephone pole would land on the car. We ended up at a swanky love hotel called "Chapel Coconuts" which was littered with fallen tropical statues of flamingoes and dolphins; I thought I would die by getting knocked over by one on the way to the door. It turns out the hotel was full, so we tried another one in which I accidently bought a $10 thong. Stupid vending machines!
October:
Rode in a van up to Yamaguchi with a bunch of JETs, camped in the woods, played on the most amazing jungle gym known to man, watched debauchery unfold before my very eyes, made a friend (Becky), went to the BEST FESTIVAL IN JAPAN (Sake festival), had my ears assaulted with way too much Guns n'Roses for a human to stand, saw some fellow ALTs disrobe at a rest stop to the amazement of onlookers
Helped harvest rice, received a 5 kg bag of genmai (brown rice) for my labor
Purchased my first Macintosh!!! I love it!
Had a wild night in Fukuoka for my birthday...learned that I don't like for people I don't know to dance with me...discovered that having a prop to go out with is fun...my prop was a giant daikon (radish) with pictures of Hard Gay that Erich made me
Halloween: Me, Suzie, and Katie dressed up in matching jumpsuits; I was a plumber and they were carpenters. We went to a house party in Sasebo that was busted by the cops, so we wandered the streets aimlessly for the rest of the night. Katie and I did the limbo with measuring tape.
Witnessed the Yosakoi, amazing dance that takes place every year in Sasebo. The most notable thing about it is that the dancers seemed to really be having fun. That's something you don't see often in Japan!
November:
A fairly laid-back month...went to sumo in Fukuoka, got yelled at for throwing cushions, drank lots of hot sake, absorbed the amazing atmosphere, realized that I'm very socially awkward, met some very nice Kumamoto JETs, danced my arse off in darkroom and Keith Flack
Shimabara Sideshow Spectacular! Finally all those weeks of band practice paid off because we had our first gig! It wasn't perfect at all, but I'm proud since we only just started playing our instruments. Many people in the audience told me that they have been playing bass much longer, but never had the nerve to perform.
My final thought is this: it's too easy to become too perfectionistic. If anyone reads this, remember to just do whatever it is you do and don't worry, you can perfect it later.
Or, you can just tell yourself that. ;)
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