Pilots, techno, and Hello Kitty Twister

Suzie and I met up with some people randomly who are all pilots-in-training. That means that in a few months, they will responsible for the lives of thousands of people. Now that I think about it, I understand why they didn't want to talk about it!

It was a bit awkward at first, but then turned into a fantastic night: we played drinking games (many shots of tequila were had, but thankfully not by me!), we played the most competitive game of foosball ever, and then the bartender let us christen his Hello Kitty Twister mat. I forgot the rules and ended up cheating, but everyone was too drunk to care.

We then headed to Isahaya and found the strangest club in the world. The minute we arrived I knew it was going to be interesting because the bartender introduced himself and proclaimed, "I'm gay!" That night they were having a Euro Trance Techno night, but it wasn't like any music I've ever heard. Even though you can't really see anything, this video captures what the music sounded like:




It was like being embedded in Dance Dance Revolution: the people had moves for every song, and they were all doing them in unison. It was by far the strangest clubbing experience I've ever had. Our pilots weren't enjoying themselves very much because I think the crowd was a little too queer for them. For example:



So we called it a night. Suzie and I came to the conclusion that we need to do this kind of thing more often.

Just some funny pictures of me drawn by elementary students:



And my favorite:

I seem to have lost my head...but come to think of it, how smart of them!

Slacker.

Ever since I got back to Japan, I've been a complete slackass. But I had a great visit with everyone back home, even though I didn't get to see everyone I wanted to see. One week in Raleigh just wasn't gonna cut it...

So life is good here in Japan. Our band has started practicing every Friday night, I've started training for a marathon, snowboarding season has begun, and I'm starting to wonder what the hell I'm going to do after my contract runs out. But instead of thinking about that, I'll bore you with some pics!

Suzie and I on the slopes:


Winter gimp extraordinare:


At Elizabeth's book exchange party:


My friends know what to do when I bring a leek:

(Are they singing karaoke with it? I don't know!!)

What's that smell?

Home for the Holidays

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!

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. ;)

Student work

If I live in America, I'll use a gun.
If I use a gun, I'll be tired.
If I am tired, I'll play basketball.
If I play basketball, I'll run.
If I run, I'll go to Japan.

If I have a lot of money, I'll buy America.
If I buy America, I'll leave America soon.
If I leave America soon, I'll cry soon.
If I cry soon, I'll use a gun.
If I use a gun, I'll sleep in White House.

If I have a lot of money, I will go to Jupitar
If I go to Jupitar, I will build the mansion.
If I build my mansion, I will make alien friends.
If I make alien friends, I will come back Earth with alien.
If I come back Earth with alien, I will comquer the Earth.

If I live in America, I will visit my relative.
If I visit my relative, I will play with my relative.
If I play with my relative, I will be hungry.
If I am hungry, I will eat good humburger.
If I eat good humberger, I will want to cola.


I think the boy who wrote the first and second essays has some homicidal tendencies...but I must say I'm most disturbed by the gun and hamburger imagery prevalent in the "America" poems. I have failed as a teacher of American culture!

This is ridiculous. Let's look at last year compared to this year:

Number of students
Last year: 200
This year: over 1000

Novels read per month
Last year: about 4
This year: < 1

Amount of money spent on office supplies
Last year: 0
This year: approx. 5000 yen

Visits to Jusco (local mall) per week
Last year: 2-3
This year: 1

Pints of alcohol consumed per week:
Last year: 3-4
This year: 5-10

Number of blog entries in September:
Last year: 17
This year: 1

Amount of money earned
Last year: 300,000 yen per month
This year: 300,000 yen per month

So if you look at the data, you'll see that the number of students has an adverse affect on my reading, shopping, and blogging, but somehow I still managed to spend more on alcohol and office supplies while making the same amount of money.

I think I need to put this book down now...