Mickey and the Carps: The Best Teams Ever

Today is one of those days.One of those days where I slam my fist upon my alarm clock set for 7:00 and roll over and go back to sleep thinking to myself thank god it is the weekend. Only to shoot up out of bed at 7:45 and realize, `OH SHIT! Today is not Saturday, today is Friday and I have work at 8:30. And then I rush rush rush to make and eat my breakfast, rush rush rush to gather all of my `burnables` that are to be collected today, (there are about a billion categories of trash here and they are collected on very specific days of the week. Tuesday and Friday are burnables)rush rush rush to pack my obento, rush rush rush to brush my teeth, get dressed, and get out the door, and finally, rush rush rush to drop off my burnables and drive to work. And naturally, once at work all I want to do is konk-off and go to sleep, but of course that is not allowed. While tiredness is pretty standard, I am feeling particularly worn down because the past 7 days have been crazy busy, and all of the energy I exerted has at last taken its toll on my mind and body. I guess it is true when they say that party cannot go on forever.

So to briefly summarize, some of the hectics that have taken over my generally domestic life are as follows:
Partying pre-Kencho in Yamaguchi (8/18)
7 Long Hours of Intense Japanese Learning (Kencho 8/19)
Post-Kencho partying and Karaoke in Yamaguchi(8/19)
Hikari Beach Party, and all you can eat/drink beer garden in the evening (8/20)
Karaoke in Tokuyama until 3am (8/20)
Shopping and eating in Tokuyama and Yanai (8/21)
Finally an evening at home (8/21)
Super genki everyday for English Camp (8/22~8/24)
Hiroshima Baseball game (8/24)
To sum it up I have been away from home and pretty busy for the past week or so. While all of these events were extremely fun and worthy of elaborating on (excluding Kencho) I will dedicate this blog exclusively to English Camp and a little bit about Hiroshima.

English Camp
The English Camp I volunteered at was on Oshima island, I was one out of 9 JET ALT's to volunteer to spend 3 days assisting 33 students, from 5 different schools (JH and HS) on the island, speak and learn English. Before activities really began we had lunch with the kids and so I kind of got to establish a general idea of how well these kids could speak/understand English. During Lunch I was seated with Matthew and three JH Japanese girls Yuina, Kana and Chisato. All of theme were pretty shy and wouldn't really initiate conversation, but once I started asking them questions I quickly realized that Chisato and Kana could not quite understand what I was saying, or if they could understand they either did not know how to respond, or were nervous to make English mistakes and tried responding to me in Japanese. Yuina on the other hand, although a little reluctant to converse could understand every single word that I was saying and was able to easily formulate proper responses without much effort. After chatting with Yuina, I learned that there were two primary reasons why her English was so good 1) She had lived in Osaka up until a year ago and attended an international school, and, 2) She had spent 3 weeks in Australia learning English and living with a host family. I was completely blown away by her English capabilities, especially once I found out the average capabilities of the other students at camp. Anyway, needless to say, if you cant already tell I in a way had fallen in love with Yuina, she was so adorable and shy but friendly, I began to think of her as a little sister. But anyway, back to talking about camp.

At camp, we were randomly broken up into Family's or groups and we chose family names, for example, my family was Team Mickey! And, to my surprise and delight, Yuina was placed in my group, along with Kana T., Kana F., Naoki, Seiya, And Mizuki. At the start, I was a little weary with my group because both Kana's, Naoki, and Seiya were extremely reluctant to use English, let alone speak in general!!! And although Yuina had amazing English, she too was pretty reluctant to speak. Mizuki on the other hand was such a relief, she was very eager to speak in both Japanese and the English that she did know,which was great. Anyway, throughout camp we played various different games where teams could win points and prizes. And during break times kids would run up to us and ask us about a gazillion questions, usually in Japanese, and we would have to remind them that we were at English camp so they had to ask it in English.



During camp, i think I got some glimpses of what it will feel like to be a proud mama. Everytime my students won sticker points for speaking in English I felt really happy and impressed. I was certainly most impressed with one of my students, Naoki. He was extremely extremely reluctant to speak English to me at first, instead he would just nod or smile. But after spending sometime with him practicing how to pronounce words and properly formulate simple sentences I was so happy whenever I would hear him speaking English to me or any of the other ALT's! What made me the happiest was when my group was totaling up their sticker points (they got these when they won games or spoke to ALT's in English) and naturally I knew that Mizuki would have lots of stickers, and Yuina too (because the other ALT's were equally as impressed as I was), but I was so elated to see that shy quite little Naoki had almost as many stickers as them!!! I think it was in that moment that I realized that all of the overly perkiness (more tiring than you think) and long hours were completely worth it. Oh, BTW, my team won a prize for earning the most sticker points, so so proud of them!


Yuina and I (seriously she is so adorable can she please be my little sister forever?!)

Hiroshima
Okay, so directly after English camp finished on Wed. Jessica (ALT from Yamaguchi city) and I hopped into my car drove to the train station and caught the train up to Hiroshima to wander around and watch the Carps game (baseball). So, baseball games are such a crazy experience for me here in Japan because, although it is a traditionally American sport the Japanese definitely have fun making the experience uniquely their own. Throughout the game fans sing these cute little cheers and bang together weird noise makers, which I know can tend to be common in America, but here they are so enthusiastic about it that it seems completely different! And the funniest of all is that during the 7th inning everyone blows up these things (that oddly enough resemble condoms) and shoot them up into the air, why..., I'm not too sure but it is pretty fun and funny to see. Although I am usually not a baseball fan it was sooo much fun to watch all the crazy cheering and attempt to join in. Jessica, Emily, Anneli, and I all attempted to teach the Japanese fans near us some English cheers, as well as the wave, which was pretty fun. And, the Hiroshima Carps beat the Yokohama Bay Stars 8-1! YAY! I really enjoyed Hiroshima, I'm planning on going up again next weekend with some friends to do a little bit of shopping!


Interesting balloons that are released during the 7th inning.


Super Exhausted,
Keri

P.S. All of my posts have still contained something about fish. Sheesh Hiroshima Carps.

Friendly Fish

Hello Readers!
This past weekend was Yanai City`s annual 金魚ちょちん(goldfish lantern) festival. And of course, this goldfish addicted girl just had to go! So I was a little ambitious in my goldfish festivity planning because I had decided to wake up and drive over to the train station at 9:00 so that I could be in Yanai enjoying all the goldfishy fest by 10am. At this point I had not been aware that the festivities wouldnt really begin until around 4:30, leaving me with about 6 hours to fill until goldfishing began.
So anyway, in an attempt to alleviate our 6 hour wait, Matthew and I (my fellow islander ALT) decided to wander around Yanai and take some more of the goldfish lanterns since it was such a beautiful day. While wandering around the main goldfish decorated street we found a little...I guess craft place...where we could pay 900 yen to build our own little goldfish lanters. And obviously I couldn`t refuse!!!! The elderly Japanese woman who was teaching us how to make the goldfish lanterns had a pretty decent handle over the English language, well compared to most of the people that I have met so far. She was really excited to learn that Matthew and I were both living in Oshima (a pretty close distance) and even more excited to learn that I would be teaching an えいかいわ (adult conversation class) twice a month starting in September, so we ended up exchanging information and she told me to please let her know once my classes started because she would like to attend.

After our arts and crafting Matthew and I ended up wandering for about an hour in the sweltering hot sun trying to find this delicious pizza/pasta restaurant that my predeccesor had recommend I visit. Everytime we asked someone if they knew where the restaurant was they said (in Japanese), `ahhh, I know (have heard) of that restaurant, but I dont know where it is`....and so we continued to wander in a mostly aimless direction in hopes that a) we would randomly run into it b) that we would run into someone who knew what and where the restaurant was.
Luckily, we did finally find someone who could give us some directions, and as it turned out, by that point we were only about a block and a half away.
The food ended up being super delicious, I got a basil pesto pasta with some garlicy garlic bread (yum). But the really awesome part of this was that while we were eating this young Japanese guy and some of his friends came over and started chatting with us in English. Turns out he had been living in Canada for awhile, so his english was pretty darn good, and he was hoping that we wouldn`t mind exchanging contact info so that we could hangout sometimes and he could practice his English. The reason why this qualifies as being `really awesome` is because as you may recall, my island is filled mostly with the 50+ crowd, so meeting a group of Japanese people in their mid-20`s who would want to hangout is kind of a big deal. I really really want to make friends outside of the JET group, not that the JET`s aren`t nice, but I think it will make my time here much more fun and interesting if I can befriend some Japanese people (preferably close to my age, but really any age is fine as well).

Ok I am going to skip how we spent the rest of our 4 hour wait, because it really isnt interesting (mostly hiding out in any place that had air conditioning) and skip straight to the festival.


By 4:30 there were huge crowds of people, and vendors lining the main festival streets. There were a couple of game booths that ranged from traditional Japanese Kyudo (archery) to fishing games. And the vendors sold everything from food, pokemon cards, to live goldfish. And by this time the actual streets were filled with a number of goldfish floats (see above). Matthew and I joined the groups of people thronging the streets so that we would have a decent view once the parade commenced, but then Matthew ovserved, `where the heck are these fish going? They are completely blockaded in up ahead`. And sure enough, there was no way there fish were moving more than maybe 1 meter because there was a huge crowd of people barracading them in. As it turned out, these fish got marched to right in front of the huge blockade and the taiko drums would begin playing and the crowd would begin chanting ( i couldnt make out the words) and all of a sudden the float bearers (for lack of a better word) would begin swirling the little fish around in circles for about 30 seconds and then stop and change direction. Every single fish did this once, then the blockade was broken up and they slowly proceded further down the street with continued chanting and drumming. It seems like it was a competition, but I have no idea how a winner would be determined.


(This was my favorite goldfish)



(A goldfish getting spun around)

I am beginning to feel more confident with driving. However there is one street that I HATE HATE HATE driving on. And the unfortunate thing is that this is the street that leads to the other ALT`s apartment and to two of the schools I will be teaching at. Here are the reasons why this road sucks: It is a super narrow road, it is the main road running through Agenosho (and thus is heavily trafficked), there are not many parking lots so people park on the side of the street, making it an even tighter squeeze, aside from the car traffic there are all these little obachans that are walking along the side of the road and also kids on bikes or scooters. Also, the crazy Japanese drivers come careening around corners without the slightest concern for anyone being on the other side. Huuumpph. Ughhh I hate driving here.
Luckily while driving there is this button that will pull in my car`s `ears` (side mirrors) which gives me a slight bit more space.


The worst road ever, it is much much worse in person.

Why are all my posts about fish?

This and that

Okay, so I finally have internet at home, so this post shall be dedicated exclusively to posting pictures that I have taken since I have been here (which are not many but enough to fill this post up, so...yeah)Oh, and as usual, click on the picture to see a larger image if you want.
Here we go!


This was the view from my hotel in Shinjuku, If you look closely you can see Mt Fuji! This was the first time I had seen Mt. Fuji, it was always too cloudy in Tokyo when I was here last time. And even when I went to Shizuoka prefecture, where Fuji is located I hadn't seen him because it was also too cloudy then. So yay, finally. And yes, I hope to climb to the top of this kooky mountain around this time next year! (I recommend you look at the larger image of this photo if you want to see Fuji, dang dSLR does not have much of a zoom)


New Yamaguchi JET's from Group A, such a lovely bunch
As follows: Back row L-R; Jessica, Matthew (lives on my island), Ciaran (next closest neighbor), Anneli (Relatively close neighbor), and Amariah.
Front Row L-R: Our wonderful Saeki San, Emily (our wonderful 2nd year who greeted us in Tokyo), Keri (the greatest person you will ever meet), Juliann, and Sarah!


Yanai City with Ciaran and the awesome Yanai goldfish!


Here is the view from my balcony. You see that mountain, that mountain is the stinking reason why I cant have an Iphone here, no reception with the only Iphone provider. Urggghh, blasted.


This. is my bedroom.


This is my car. Name, yet to be determined.
In Japan this sucker is a huge beast. Maybe her name will be gargantuous, or something like that. Anyway, when I told my co-workers that at home I drive a ford, it pretty much blew their minds.
Japanese Co-workers: Woooooow. Ford. So Big!
(BTW, check it out, steering is on the right side brakes are on the left [kidding about that last part])
(Additional BTW, the monthly lease on this car costs more than my rent, utilities, and cellphone per month, SAY WHAT!?!?...sad reality)
More shall be discussed about my awesome car/driving at a later date.


And this cutie patootie is my little car decoration. Caught goldfish fever while in Yanai. could. not. resist.


Some lovely Oshima scenery.



So those jumbo jacks made out of concrete are supposedly to offset any potential tsunami damage...hmm seems questionable if they actually work. But(!), never fear dear readers, a tsunami striking me on Oshima is less likely than...a..well something also very unlikely. This would be because I am protected from all directions with other large islands (namely Shikoku and Kyushu) which will take the damage for me, how kind right?

Anyway, so those are some lovely images of life here on Oshima.
I'm thinking of posting an image and short caption daily either here on my blog or on a facebook album. too be determined. I suppose you will find out as it goes. So, I guess what I am trying to say is keep an eye out!!! :D

Things to look forward to in future posts:
The amazing oil disposal thing (im serious, this thing is really awesome!)
More info about my car/driving skills and some photos of the narrow roads I have to deal with.
Yanai Goldfish debauchery
And any unforeseen awesome events that are yet to occur (this blog only posts awesomness [or something like that])!


Also, check out my wonderful friend Pineapple's blog. The little sucker is hoping that his blog will be more awesome and popular than mine (doubtful [me expressing hater-tude]) Stinker even snuck his way into this blog post twice(with me and the Yanai goldfish and in the picture of my room) .But, yes he hopes that by the end of the year he will be an Oshima, maybe even Yamaguchi-ken, celebrity...we'll see how that goes. Enough rambling. (Just click the link)
http://pineappledesu.blogspot.com/


(I can already tell this is shaping up to be one crazzzy year)
Keri
^_^

Goldfish>Pests

Okay, so I`ve decided two things 1) it was time to change my blog background (this is really cute so it seems fitting for Japan. and 2)I have realized that there is no point trying to have an well organized blog that flows organically, because, that is just not my blogging style and I have way too many random things to share. (maybe some day order will reach this blog) Additionally before I officially begin today`s post I would like to make a small complaint as follows: urgh fbvsuiofhnvsl! I want to be able to post some of my pictures on here, but this darn computer wont recognize my usb flashdrive, so yet again, my pictures will have to wait until I have internet at home. (go stalk my tagged photos on facebook, i think some of my friends who have internet may have uploaded some)

Anyway so things being discussed in todays blog include:
-Yamaguchi Prefecture Orientation (lectures are fun)
-Goldfishing and Neighbors
-Cockroaches (well really only one)
-Driving (E-gad)

So here we go! As mentioned above, this week has been filled with even more time consuming, in one-ear-out-the other presentations thanks to the wonderful thing that is Yamaguchi prefecture orientation, one major upside, getting off `the island`. The orientation was held in Yamaguchi City,(about a 2 hour drive from Oshima and I guess by train maybe 1.5 hour ride) the drive (thankfully my supervisor drove me so I didnt have to worry about the train) to orientation was really beautiful. If you have seen spirited away, the drive kind of reminded me of the opening sequence where Chihiro is driving through the country side with her parents and is surrounded by tons of trees, and mountains, really really beautiful.

Anyway, the actual orientation was about as informative as Tokyo orientation (meaning, not very) and in fact was pretty much the same stuff just less people and new people saying it. Yes, I have heard that it is important to be involved at my school and in my town (VILLAGE), and I have heard 10000 times that Japan has a zero tolerance for drinking and driving, etc, etc. The only presentations that were of any relative use were the ones that were given by Japanese teachers demonstrating what type of work we could expect to be doing once school starts up. Now, the nice thing is that although orientation was 2 long days of boring information was that I got to meet all the other JETs (old and new) who are also in my prefecture. And let me tell you, we seem like a pretty awesome bunch! There are about 50 JETs in total working throughout Yamaguchi (which is on the small side in terms of number of JETs) but still yet we seem to be a pretty diverse group. Aside from myself there are 2 other JETs from Hawaii, a bunch from around the US and Canada, a suprisingly large number from England, and then we have a couple JETs from South Africa, Ireland and Antigua. Age wise the group seems to range from 22-38 (give or take). Its pretty cool. So anyway, after the offical orientation program, the entire group of us had dinner at this place where it is all you can drink for 2 hours. It was pretty fun and I was able to meet a lot of the other JET`s. Afterwards some of us went out to karaoke and sang all of the besssst songs and of course had some more drinks.

When orientation was over, instead of heading back to `the island` (dun dun dun)a bunch of us who live on the Eastern side of Yamaguchi decided to spend an evening in Yanai (see map from previous post) and stayed over at Ciaran`s apartment. Most of the evening was spent playing interesting mind savvy statistical games like liars dice (as seen in Pirates of the Carribean), poker, and other less mind savvy games such as BS and me dozing off while everyone else continued to chatter away. The following morning we made some delicious french toast and wandered around Yanai admiring the massive amounts of Koi (goldfish) decorations that were everywhere around the city. As it were, Yanai is having a koi festival next weekend on the 13th and I really love those silly goldfish, so I have every intention on going back to Yanai and engaging in all sorts of goldfishing debauchary!

Saturday evening when I returned to an empty apartment after having spent 2 whole days of fun with friends was pretty hard to deal with. It was the first time since my arrival that I really began to feel lonely and isolated on the island. I went through an evil rant about how this island is the worst ever and I hated it here. And how was I rewarded??? With the companionship of a cockroach scampering around my bedroom, not exactly my preferred company. While at orientation some of the 2nd year JETs had mentioned that there was this awesome spray that was so cold (-85 celsius) that it would freeze bugs (including cockroaches) in place so you could squish them/get rid of them easily. And Lo and behold, a stroke of luck, my apartment happened to be equipped with said awesome spray. So, armed with the power of Mr.Freeze (or awesome spray, whatever it shall be called) and a running shoe I felt confident enough to take on the challenge of exterminating said pesky companion. However, as it turns out Mr.Freeze/awesome spray does not seem to work. After thoroughly dousing Mr. Cockroach with the supposed miracle spray the only thing that happened was his frenzied scurries, a failed attempt at flying, freezing for 1 second, (probably out of dumbfoundedness than the actual spray) and then scurrying into another corner of my room. Miracle Spray = Fail. And so in the end I resorted to using the flyswatter to rid myself of my unwanted companion. Moral of the story: lonliness is better than having pests, and sometimes traditional methods are the best.

Other than pest control, the rest of my weekend was devoted to practicing my driving (im determined that by next weekend I will be able to get myself off this island!)My main goals of these practice drives are to familiarize myself with the uber narrow roads and getting used to driving on the left. My driving mantra is as follows: keep left, keep left, indicators not wipers, keep left, look right then left, then right again! (ayyyyy yai yai)

In other news: I have registered to run the Tokyo marathon in Feb. participants will be determined by lottery and I will find out if I am one of the lucky ones in Oct.
And
Cleaning is much more difficult in a foreign country when you cannot read the purpose or instructions. Note to self just because it looks like a cleaning agent does not mean it is not really laundry detergent.

Things to look forward to in future posts: Pictures (im sure home internet will arrive sometime soon), awesome oil disposal thing (this actually is really awesome!), and uhhhh any other debauchary or unseen blunders I happen to get myself into.

Oh and 1 month until I begin teaching!!!! Yippeeee!

Back in Japan

Hi friends! So I have been in Japan for...maybe a full week now. 3 days in Tokyo and 4 days in my new home Oshima. This post is basically going to consist of a bunch of random facts/thoughts/observations from my initial arrival, and maybe some pictures(assuming google images will help me out).

Okay, so summer in Japan is hot, like ridiculously hot. Maybe I shouldnt complain too much because I know that the U.S. is currently going through a heatwave where temperatures are getting into the triple digits. I guess if I take that into consideration then Japan is really not so bad. But anyway, the temperature is around 90 degrees everyday with....wait for it... 90 percent humidity!!!!! Ugggghhhh. The humidity is the worst!

Anyway, onto discussing my new home which for me is the most exciting part of this journey thus far (Tokyo orientation-yaaawn- lectures are boring and Tokyo city, been there seen that, still cool mind you). So I live in Suo-oshima which is a small town (more like village) on Oshima Island in Yamaguchi Prefecture on the island of Japan. Wooster people, this entire island is much more rural then wooster ohion. much. And I guess for Hawaii people, I guess imagine it to be the equivalent of maybe Molokai or Lanai. Country Country. Simply put Yamaguchi prefecture (similar to a state) is considered to be the backwoods/sticks/uber-rural of Japan. And of that massive ruralness I live in the most isolated and probably most rural of all. A.K.A I am in the backwoods of the backwoods. But its actually really nice. I cant wait until I have internet at my apartment and post some pictures of this beautiful (rural) island.


The darker shaded region is where Yamaguchi prefecture is located within the general scheme of Japan.



And now here is a close up of Yamaguchi prefecture. The little island (pictured much larger on this map) that is off the cost of Yanai, yup that is my new home for the next year. (I tried resizing this map but it doesnt seem to want to work, so to see my island click on the image and it will take you to a full-size view)

Anyway Oshima is the country (Inaka in Japanese) and to give you an idea this island has roughly 20,000 people on it and is maybe around half the size of Oahu. A fairly decent sized island with very few people on it. And to make things more interesting, the average age of people living on Oshima is about 75. In fact, Oshima was in the world record book for the most people over 80 living in a (i dont remember the exact size ratio)particular area. So yes, I am in the country surrounded by a bunch of obasan and ojisan (grandma and grandpa).


As for work, I started on the 28th, but since school is out I am mostly sitting around the Board (Bored [cheesy wordplay]) of Education (from now on to be referred to as BOE) trying to learn as much as I can about teaching English to kids and also trying to learn a bit more about my new home. As it turns out I will be teaching at 17 different schools (12 elementary and 5 J.H.S)!!!! I will only visit each elementary schools about 5 times during my year here and the highschools about 15 times. This shall be a fun\interesting experience.

And now onto my apartment. Its pretty darn small for American standards. Really small. Tiny itty bitty shower room, itty bitty toilet room, barely there kitchen, a decent sized bedroom, and a small living room. Overall though it really isnt bad at all. It is about the perfect size for me, I just wish there was a little more kitchen space, but it is okay Ive managed to cook meals in it just the same. And there is enough room for a friend or two to sleep on the floor (aka open invitation for you to come visit, assuming I havent scared you off with all this talk about rural~ness and old people, oshima is actually a really nice island so please come!) My car just arrived today, but I think I have to wait until my foreign registration card comes before I can actually drive it, so for now it just sits pretty in the parking lot. This isnt too much of a bother to me because I am not overly eager to begin driving here (for multiple reasons). Im not sure if you all know, but Japan drives on the wrong side of the road (the left, and the steering wheel and everything is on the right side of the car [eww] and likewise the blinker and window wiper knob/things are switched) also the roads here are ridiculously narrow (I will upload a picture soon!) some of them look like a oneway, but they are two way roads....ughhh.

Ok, this hasnt been the most interesting or organized post, but it is a start!
While I have no school visits I will try to post fairly regularly, once school starts...well we shall see.
Keri

p.s. the toilets at my work place are squat toilets!!!! (eeeek)
But thankfully I have a super modern high tech toilet at home. (yay)

Oh Hai

Hi Everyone! I guess this blog is going to be getting some life back into it soon because, I WILL BE TEACHING IN JAPAN for the next year!!!

Anyway just to give you the heads up on where I am now since my last post: I've just recently graduated from The College of Wooster did a mini roadtrip from Ohio to Minnesota stopping in Indianna, Chicago, and Minneapolis and then flying to Seattle. Check out some pics below. (None from Minnesota, sad)




At "maybe the 8th wonder of the world: Indianna Dunes". Maybe not


Mom, The Bean, and Chicago (said in an awful accent)



An early walk down to Lake Washington, Seattle

Homeward Bound

My flight leaves Japan tonight at 10pm on Sunday July 11th. I'll be landing at Honolulu Airport on Sunday June 11th at 11am. Turns out I'll get to re-live my day. Inneresting.

I don't really know what to say.

I've made some very good friends while here and I have grown extremely fond of my host family. It is really tough for me to leave.

:(

Keri