JLPT 1

It's been a long time since writing! I'll fast forward the past few months since my last post. I went back to the States for about a month a week after the earthquake. I returned to Japan and volunteered at the disaster site for a day. It was pretty intense and a little depressing, but a worthwhile experience. I spent much of my summer trying to get my driver's license...I passed the test on my 5th try but I finally made it through. I spent a week in Taiwan, where I traveled around to some major cities and an amazing national park called Taroko Gorge. I flew back into Kansai Airport and met up with a local friend in Kyoto where we visited different shrines for 3 days and then I saw Kyoto, Nara, Osaka and Kobe by myself. I met up with my college Japanese teacher, Mr. Yaginuma.

This summer I also sold my old Ford Explorer and bought a more economical Suzuki Alto. I got a stereo system installed about a 2 weeks ago as well as my navigation system I had in my old car. It's such a strange feeling driving this tiny car after the monster I had before.

Another development is the new apartment I moved into. My room number changed from 203 to 302 in some bizarre twist of fate designed by the 'Blue Sky Preschool' on the first floor of my building. They wanted to use my room since they have an increase in student body. My old room is now host to a bunch of little Japanese toddlers. Go figure.



I also spent a lot of time reading since the summer and managed to finish four Japanese books. The first book is called Chichi to Ran, a book I borrowed from another ALT. To sum it up, it's about breast enhancement surgery and menstruation. The book is written from the perspective of the sister of a prospective breast enhancement surgery recipient. The main character tries to basically convince her sister not to get the surgery and an interesting argument ensues about the difference between breast enhancement surgery and cosmetics. Intermittently scattered throughout the books are journal entries of the sister's daughter, Midori, who only communicates through notebook messages as opposed to speaking. Midori finds menstruation revolting but yet is curious about it in a strange way. Most of her parts are about how she's not looking forward to puberty and the other half are how she thinks her mother is stupid for wanting the surgery. The last part of the book is also a short piece about a strange happening between a man handing out flyers in the street and a woman walking by who ultimately decides to ask him out on a date only to be knocked out by him. The story ends with her laying on the pavement and blood running down from her lip. No joke.



Another book I read was the first book in the Kino no Tabi (Kino's Travels) series. The series also became an anime of the same name. The premise of the book is about a girl (who originally seems to be a boy) named Kino who rides around on a talking motorcycle. The world Kino lives in is a somewhat alternate reality to ours, where 'countries' are basically cities surrounded by walls with immigration personnel at the gates. Each chapter is about Kino and his bike's journey into these different 'countries'. The book was originally published as short stories in a magazine so the book can be read in a non-linear order and still make some sense. The different countries are based on intriguing concepts. For example, in one, people have discovered a drug to make human beings telepathic. This seems like a good idea to the people there as it was believed it would end war and crime because everyone would be empathic to each other's feelings. However, it destroys relationships because people can hear all the little bad things they think about each other. In fact it ends up that no one lives within a certain distance of each other because it is so unbearable to hear each other's thoughts. I'm really interested in reading the rest of the series, but I decided to take a break to read something that's at a little more difficult of a level. The Kino no Tabi series, I can read essentially cover to cover without consulting any dictionary and glean almost all the ideas/story from the text. This makes it a nice portable read when I'm traveling or on public transport somewhere.





Finally, I read both volumes of Shonen H or "The Boy Called H". This is a supposed true account of the life of author Kappa Senno, a Kobe native who grew up during World War II. The book is a moving story of H (the author's name originally was Hajime) and his Christian family and their struggles through the war. The subject matter is on the surface, very heavy, but the author mixes in a lot of comedy to lighten up the story. It was interesting seeing wartime Japan through the eyes of a Christian family, especially because I have never met a Japanese Christian family. I do have to say that there is some speculation as to whether the book is actually true or not so it looks as though that it is at least partially fiction. As I was reading the story I did think that the author's perspective was incredibly liberal for someone growing up in a country seized by nationalistic fervor. At any rate, it is a great read and if kanji is any obstacle for a second language reader of Japanese, there is enough furigana to dispell the notion that an intermediate Japanese speaker couldn't try and give this a read. One warning is that much of the book is written in the Kansai Dialect spoken in Kobe, so it may take a little time to adjust to that.

Currently I'm studying for the JLPT 1 again, which I failed last summer. I will take it on December 4th, so I'm clearing my schedule as much as possible to make room for plenty of study this time. I at least hope to get my score up this time. Anyways, hope to post some more stuff soon on my study progress. I have so many other books that I want to read but not enough time to read them right now. At least now I have officially read over 1000 pages in Japanese books!

Also, I'm planning a trip to Hong Kong (and possibly somewhere in Japan) this New Year's! P.S. I have been starting to study basic Chinese classes, and I take them about 3 times a month. Too bad mandarin won't help much in Hong Kong as they speak Cantonese and amazing English there.

Anyways, it's 1:50 AM and I'm hitting the sack in my new apartment. Zai Jian!

Earthquake in Northern Japan

Hi everyone,

Everything is fine where I live in Yamagata Prefecture, Japan. Though the earthquake was something like an 8.9 around the Pacific but it was only a 4 or so here. I live fairly far from the coast and am shielded by a lot of mountains as well so the tsunami had no effect on life here, either. I was at my board of education at the time and the shaking lasted for quite a while. When I got home, I found glass from cups on my drying rack which had fallen into my sink and my toaster had fallen off the a shelf. Other than that no major damage to my home or office. Aftershocks have continued for the past day and a half and from what I heard are expected to continue through the week. We also had a blackout from Friday to Saturday afternoon, but power is back now.

Aside from the events this weekend, yesterday as a pretty normal day. I went to a hot spring with my friends and got some udon at a local noodle shop and bought a hot new pair of Nikes to wear at work. A night of pizza and Japanese horror movies with friends are the best ways to tide over periodic aftershocks of the worst recoded Japanese earthquake in history.

Of course I am also following the situation at the Daiichi nuclear plant in Fukushima, approx. 148km (90 miles from my city). Last night the Japanese government announced that although the concrete structure housing the nuclear core (which I believe is also surrounded by some sort of metal structure) exploded, no radiation had been released into the environment. But checking western media this morning it looks like some radiation ultimately did vent into the environment in gaseous form and the area around the plant in a 20km radius is being evacuated. Luckily the winds are blowing out to the Pacific so there is no immediate threat to anyone further inland from that disaster. Unfortunately another nuclear core in the facility has gone critical as the cooling system has failed and meltdown has become a possibility. They are trying to cool it with seawater now I believe.

Anyways, I'll try and keep everyone posted from what I see in the Japanese media and from what's going on in my town. I'm going to spend the morning preparing for another blackout and stocking up on what food I can find at the supermarkets. I may be out of touch for a while again if the blackouts this time are more longlasting and/or NTT's telecom traffic becomes to bogged down for me to use the internet.

Please direct your concern to anyone that lives on the Pacific coast, as far as I know all my friends in that area are okay but I'm still worried for them since phone calls and mobile emails won't go through. Also, thank you for all your concern, I'm really touched that you all reached out to me. Talk to you again soon.

日本から初めての旅行 ： First Trip From Japan

新しい投稿しよう！と思った。１月１９日に１７日間のヨーロッパ旅行へ出発した！っていうか、トルク経由でモスクワに行った！イスタンブルに一泊泊まって、観光地なんか見る機会なくて残念だったけど、それでも楽しかった。モスクワで友達のレーチェルを訪ねた！時間を大分ロシア語できる彼女だけと過ごして、本当にいい案内をもらいました。ロシアでは英語がさっぱり通じないから、ツアーで行くのかロシア語知識のある者に案内をしてもらうのか、２つの安心できる旅行のしかたしかないみたい。滞在中、私は少しロシア語のアルファベットを読めるようになった。発音が難しくても、少しでも読めれば、助かるかもしれない。ぜひ行かれると思われる方、ご出発の前に、アルファベット、基本の挨拶、日常的な単語を勉強しておいて行ってください。

旅行で見たものは何が特に目立ったかというと、最初的にやっぱりクレムリンの兵器庫、レニンの遺体が思い浮かぶ。モスクワに旅行すると、必ず、この２カ所を訪ねてください。その他にいい経験のなかで、レーチャルのホストファミリのお婆さんのネリーとネリーのご家族とある夜を過ごしたことと、クリスマスの日にレーチャルの友達たちと一緒にロシアの伝統的なパンケーキのようなブリーニを作っていたことだった。私にとっては、海外旅行の時、現地の家族か現地に住んでる人と時間を過ごすのが最高。また行くとしたら、夏の方が快適じゃないかと思う。でも時々の厳しい天気にかかわらず、ずいぶんいい休みを過ごせて本当にありがたい！

雪がたくさん積もった山形に戻って来ちゃった。雪が好きな俺は、奇麗な山形の景色をエンジョイしてるけど、よくある灰色の空に最近いらいらしてる。今日の夕方、ちょっと晴れた時気分が上がったけど、そのあと、また元に戻って、「あ、終わりか」って気づいちゃった。

でも、御陰様で、最近仕事は以外に忙しくなって、そういったところに努力を入れたら、精神的になんとかなる気がする。毎週、柔道、体育館での運動、そして水金の６時まで開かれる弁論大会練習のせいで、以前の余った時間がなくなってる。こういう活動を本当に楽しんでるから、少しも気にしない。同時に時間外がも積もってるから、そろそろ代休として１日ほどお休みできるようになりそう。春になったら、お金を１万円ぐらい賭けて代休を使って日本の運転免許試験を受験する。頑張ります！


I decided it's about time for a new post. On December 19th I left for a 17 day trip to Europe! Rather, I went to Russia via Turkey! I spent a night in Istanbul and although I unfortunately didn't have much time to see any sights, it was still fun! In Moscow, I visited my friend, Rachel. I spent almost all of my time with her and really got a great tour of the city. English isn't of any use in Moscow, so the way I see it there are two ways to have a worry-free trip there: Have a Russian-speaking friend show you around, or go on a tour. While I was there, I did learn to read a bit of the Russian alphabet. Though the pronunciation is difficult if you can read even a little bit, it will certainly come in handy. I definitely recommend those going to study the alphabet, basic greetings and every day words before their departure.

Out of all the things I saw, I believe that the two highlights were the Kremlin Armory and Lenin's body. If you visit Moscow, definitely visit these two places. Other than that, I also enjoyed spending a night with Rachel's host grandmother Nellie and Nellie's family as well as making blini (a traditional Russian pancake) on Christmas day with Rachel and her friends. For me, the most enjoyable part of traveling abroad is being able to spend time with local families or local residents of the said country. If I were to go again, I think the summer might be a bit more pleasant for a trip. But despite the occasionally very cold weather, I had a wonderful vacation and am very grateful!

So I've returned to Yamagata which has been dumped on by so much snow! Though I like snow and am enjoying the beautiful landscapes, I am a bit annoyed with the often gray skies. Earlier in the afternoon when the weather cleared up a bit, my spirits rose but afterwards it went right back to being grey and I realized "Oh, that's it."

But thankfully, my work has been unusually busy and I have been putting my energy into this opportunity which has made me feel I'll make it through the gloom psychologically somehow. Every week, because I have Judo, exercise at the gym, and Wednesday-Friday speech contest practice held until 6 o'clock, I have lost a lot of my previous free time. But I am enjoying these activities so I am not bothered by the recent developments in the least. At the same time I am collecting "jikangai" or overtime hours and soon I'll have enough to take a whole day off. In the spring I'll use this and risk 10,000 yen of my own money to take the Japanese driver's license exam. Fingers crossed!

Yamagata City

I just came back from Yamagata City and bought a pair of new silver striped white Nikes. It's nice to have a new pair of shoes after wearing my ratty old K-Swisses for several years. I even got ￥300 for recycling the old ones. That almost paid for the hourly parking in the Nanokamachi Shopping District. I also went to the main store of Hachimonjiya, a popular book store in Yamagata Pref. There I got a copy of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test application. I'm planning on taking Level 2 this year. The levels rank from 1 thru 5, 1 being the hardest. Last year I failed 2 by about 20 pts, (you need like a 66% to pass) so I'm hoping my studying will pay off this year. I have been studying from my pink 1・2 level grammar and vocab book every day I am at the office. I've also been studying kanji (Chinese characters) from James Heisig's Remembering the Kanji and I'm hoping to finish the book (which covers the writings and readings of a little over 2000 kanji) by the end of the Fall. Though the book doesn't tell you how to pronounce the Chinese and Japanese readings of the characters, once you have the shapes down it's easy to add the sounds to it. Then the next step is to learn the vocab and remember which kanji goes in which word (and which part of the word if it's a compound). Needless to say, Japanese is not an easy language to read and write in. In some ways it might be harder to read in Japanese than Chinese as well because even though Chinese uses more characters for mundane writings, the readings are more standardized from what I've heard. The worst thing about kanji is trying to read names, I am so terrible at it. Because Japanese names were assigned characters somewhat arbitrarily there is almost no method to the madness. Because of this the character for one (一) has over two pages of readings. It can be read ichi, kazu, hito, i, etc. Place names are also a bitch too. There's been more than one time that I knew the characters for a place I wanted to go to but couldn
t remember the exact pronunciation so I couldn't look it up on my car GPS. The book store hachimonjiya for example, I thought was hachimojiya since it has the characters 八(eight)文(sentence)字(character)屋(vedor/store). But 文字 together is commonly read as "moji" and means character or symbol. So the whole "n" thrown in there through me off and it took a couple tries before I could find a route to it. There's been times I miss pronounced teacher's names because of arbitrary kanji readings. I read one teacher's name (白石）as Shiroishi when it was Shiraishi. Then thinking, "Oh well maybe as that compound it's always read that way" I stumbled across a sign driving on the highway for a place called 白石 (Shiroishi). Give me a break.

Anyways, as much as I complain about the characters, I feel they really make Japanese a beautiful language. Sometimes writing can feel like drawing a piece of art and I love that feeling. I don't think I ever enjoy writing as much as handwriting something in Japanese.

So though I'm taking level 2 this fall, I am going to start studying for level 1 as soon as I finish my pink book (which I am finishing quickly). Hopefully it will help me get a better score on level 2 and prepare me for taking level 1 next fall (if I pass 2 this year). To prepare for level 1 I bought out the whole series of textbooks for level 1 published by Unicom. I hope I can finish them all before next fall, but I don't see why that would be a problem. In the meantime, I'm trying to watch as much Japanese TV and everyday and read as many Japanese newspaper articles as possible. I am also reading a Japanese novel called 少年H or Shonen H ("The Boy Named H") written by a famous illustrator/writer about his childhood in Kobe that takes place before the end of WWII. The book is written for young adults and has plenty of furigana (phonetic script written alongside kanji) so it is really easy to read and understand even without a dictionary. I have been training myself to read 3 or 4 pages at a time without looking at a dictionary to see how much I can understand. Then after I go back and look up all the words I don't know and confirm the meaning of what I just read, making a long vocab list as I go. So far I'm at about page 35 and the book is going pretty well. The author's friend has just been arrested for being a "red" (communist) and the pace has started to pick up.




Anyways, I'd like to try and read more stuff in Japanese and do little reviews of them to spice up the blog.

My main goal for passing lvl 1 is to use it as a stepping stone to get a good job in Tokyo or some other major city in Japan. Ultimately I want a job using Japanese back in the States and I need to get some experience in a company before I apply to grad school. Lately I've been looking at the Career Forum website, a major poster of Japanese/English bilingual jobs and I've been seeing postings for some financial-related jobs that require less than native-level Japanese and only business level English that pay a few thousand more $ than my yearly salary. Of course I might be using that extra 4 grand on rent if I'm living in or near Tokyo but, I think it would still be worth it.

Discovery in Omachi!

So yesterday I was about to get in my car with all the stuff from my apartment I wanted to sell to Hard Off, a chain pawn shop in Japan and I spotted something unusual. It was a weird little cafe right near the parking lot I park in. It stood out because I thought there was nothing in the block that I live in. There's supposed to be a sushi place on the corner as there's a glass display with wax food and a sign saying 寿司 (sushi) but I have not once seen it open. Anyways, there's this place called Dungaree's and its an Asian cuisine tea/coffee shop that doubles as a jazz bar. I don't think live bands ever play there, but the guy that runs it seems to have tons of records in his collection. The food wasn't too bad (not amazing though) I ordered some "bean curry" which was apparently a recipe from India. I think he just heated it up in the microwave, but still it didn't taste too bad, so maybe someone had made it earlier in the day. The corner of the place after you enter has several shelves of jazz records and the wall opposite the entrance has all sorts of Buddhist icons, many of which look to be from central Asian countries, not Japan. After I started eating, the guy lit up a cigarette, turned off the sumo match in the background and put on a jazz record. The smoking everywhere is what is the hardest to get used to. Chain restaurants still have smoking and non-smoking sections, something that is a bit harder to find in the US now. But thee are also those places, usually which serve alcohol that are just completely smoking. The smell bothers me quite a bit, but I'm gradually learning to put up with it.

So anyways, the silence is a little awkward because I'm sitting at the bar and he's sort of staring out the window in a direction almost facing me. Then he asks me where I'm from, a frequent conversation starter used by Japanese here. When I say America, he tells me "oh, I've been to America twice. Down to Atlanta and then up to Memphis and around that area." "The other time I went to Detroit and then Colorado." Those seemed like such weird places to go to, not exactly major foreign tourist destinations, I thought. Then he talked about hearing all the country music on his trips. "Do you like that stuff?" I asked. "Well, I don't dislike it, but it's not my favorite." Then I told him how Johnny Cash was just about all the country I could stand.

"Do you travel a lot?" I asked. "Yeah, in fact last week I got back from Nepal." I asked him if he'd been to India and to the countries that the cuisines on the menu were from. "Yeah, I have been to all those places." Apparently he's been to China 9 times. "I road the train all over, one time I took it from Harbin up in the far Northeast down to Shanghai. During one part of the journey you come to this station which is the train station with the highest altitude in the world. The cars are old American ones with diesel engines since the climb is so intense. You get this terrible altitude sickness. Meanwhile the bathrooms are just holes in the floor filled to the brim with toilet paper, so it's really disgusting. I was told to use the bathroom in the other cars because mine was so stopped up. The food is awful, too just some peanuts passed out by an old lady every once in a while. China is really just an awful country." Then he told me about all the diplomatic trouble China causes internationally and how it had border disputes with Russia over some small islands in the middle of a bordering river and Russia was finally like "just take it." He said how dirty India was. "In Japan the street and store signs don't look particularly interesting but if you take a look at the road, it's really super clean, right? India and China are just so dirty though." At the same time I thought it was funny how even though he felt that way about China, he'd gone back several times. The best part was when he pulled out a map of China and Russia and showed me all the places he'd been.

He told me how he traveled to Berlin 4 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall and some of the other places he'd visited in Europe. "French people and Chinese, I think are some of the most nationalistic and arrogant. More so the Chinese, though."

I think the most shocking thing about this experience was how there are really super international people here. Often times I tend to think of the people in Yamagata as "hicks" since they have never been abroad and some have never even been to Tokyo. Many people don't seem to know anything substantial about the rest of the world and stereotypes of people from other countries are the only thing many Nagai natives have to go by, it seems. In someways it is similar to rural America. But I still think the people here are nicer.

Back From Sendai!

I'm back from Sendai! I got my multiple re-entry permit (sai nyuukoku kyoka) so I can come and go from Japan as many times as I wish. I made a reservation at a ryokan (traditional Japanese inn) on Saturday and left around 1:45 PM from Nagai station and headed to nearby Akaya where I got the bullet train to Fukushima. I got on another bullet train in Fukushima and arrived in Sendai at about 4ish. I spent about 4500 yen on the trip there. It was expensive but worth it just to ride the bullet train (shinkansen) for the first time. For the first leg of the trip I didn't have a place to sit, so I just sat on the floor in between two cabins since I just got a "non-reserve ticket" and it was a full train. But on the second leg there was plenty of space and I got awesome views of the area. The mountains covered in gorgeous forests pelted by the summer rain is really a sight to see in Japan. Awesome cloud formations would hover over the mountains creating a really cool looking ancient effect. Everytime I get in my car and drive around Nagai or through the mountains to Yamagata City, I think how ridiculous it is I get to live in such a beautiful place, but this really was something special.

In Sendai I stayed at a youth hostel/ryokan which was super cool. It was only about 50 bucks for one night (without food) but it was fun to relax in a traditional Japanese environment. I put on a yukata and took a bath around 6:00. The water was brutally hot at first but after I soaked in it for a bit I really felt the hot water relax my whole body. Then I went out to a local jazz concert. Even though the weather was absolute shit (raining cats and dogs) it was still worth it to see everything. They also had a sweet breakdancing/funk dance competition. So I stood in the rain with hundreds of other Japanese people and ate fried octopus balls on a stick and heard amazing live funk/jazz bands for free. I got dinner at a local restaurant and made sure to eat my fill. Best Sunday night in a while! I took Monday off too since I had enough overtime hours to use as a day off in addition to my yearly 20 days of paid leave.

I realized how hard it is to find breakfast places in Japan, so I found this fast-food Japanese cuisine place where you literally just buy cold food and microwave it in the corner. Very unsatisfying and made me want to open a pancake house in Tohoku to show Japanese people how great Western breakfasts are. Afterwards I headed to the Regional Immigration Bureau using my car GPS (I just took it with me so I wouldn't need to figure out maps). As I was walking into the office, I ran into Alex, Jema, and Mel (a CIR and two ALTs from nearby Yonezawa). Apparently they had taken the day off to do the same thing I did. Alex is going to Korea next week to visit his ex-girlfriend and the three of them are taking a trip to India this winter (I so want to do that). They helped me fill out the application which was pretty easy and took about 5 minutes once I had everything. Afterwards we went for Indian food which was amazing and just talked for a long time in the restaurant. After that the three were in the mood for some shopping and even though I wanted to visit Matsushima, I was more comfortable hanging out with my friends and just thought I'd hang out with them. Maybe I should have gone...I watched them try on clothes for the longest time at Uniqlo and some high class designer places. Japanese clothes don't fit me in general, I'm way too tall and lean at the same time. I did manage to find some clothes that fit me, but it was like $300 for a pair of jeans with holes in them (Abercrombie-style). I didn't want to be rude to the store attendants, so I just told them I couldn't afford anything today and that I would come back to Sendai when I had more money. Yeah right.

I looked at some furniture at a store similar to Ikea (I need a new couch for my living room since I currently have what appears to be wooden torture chairs with fabric stretched over them.) Apparently I can order the stuff to Yamagata for only about $26. But since we have some furniture stores in the area, I thought I'd check them out first.

On the way back, I just took the bus with the two girls as Alex decided to stay in Sendai longer. It was way cheaper to take the bus (only about $19 each way) so I'll make it a point to do that from now on. Unfortunately when I got back to Yonezawa I realized that the last train for Nagai had already departed so I had to take a Taxi home. It cost about $80 and that was because the driver felt bad charging me more for a single ride so he stopped counting the meter. But he was a super nice guy and told me that he often has foreigners stay at his house (sometimes missionaries studying Japanese and sometimes students doing foreign exchanges in Japan). I can't get over how nice the people are here, even if they can be a little prone to staring at me sometimes. My students also like to rummage through my grocery basket at the supermarket as well and sometimes I wish I could just tell them to get their hands off my shit. Oh well.

Tomorrow I am at Nagai Elementary and the kids are learning about different country's flags and learning to say/ask "what country are you going to?" hopefully it will be pretty straightforward as I'm teaching all 5th graders. Anyways, I am going to make a late dinner and hit the sack!

Japan ： 日本

I am in Japan now. I can't believe my first month has already gone by here. Nagai is a beautiful town nestled in a valley of mountains in Yamagata Prefecture. Unfortunately, I live across from a creepy looking hospital and don't see the mountains when I look out the window, but if I stand on my balcony I can see them looming over to the right and left.

Work for the first few weeks has been boring, I have just been reviewing teaching materials and trying to come up with ideas for games to play with the kids in class. Since Robin, my fellow ALT in the office got back from Thailand, she has been helping me with ideas and giving me teaching tips. But Friday was my first day in the class and it was a great experience even with some of the failed games. I tried to play "fruit basket" to help the kids learn numbers. Basically, they sit around in a circle with one less chair than the number of students in the class so one can stand in the middle of the room and call out a number. Then all the students with that number run to other empty chairs in the circle. I didn't demonstrate the game properly with the students and they were confused at times as to what to do. They also would get their own numbers wrong even though we reviewed 1 through 10 several times. But I did have fun introducing myself to the kids and showed them pictures of my town, Silver Spring, pictures of Snowmageddon from the winter and me sledding. They enjoyed that picture quite a bit. Overall it was a decent first day and felt way better than sitting in the office all the time.

Some of the teachers are really young (a few are even my age) so hopefully I will make friends and we can hang out outside of work. The young ones are also more likely to use English in general it seems, though some older teachers are also really excited to teach their kids in English and avoid using Japanese in the class. Outside class, at my office at the Nagai City Board of Education, I have started to study Japanese at work. Basically as long as I look busy no one will bother me at work. When I think about it, it's amazing that I get paid so well to live in such an amazing place rent free, with a free car and just get to play with kids and study Japanese all the time.

After work I have been trying to get as much exposure to Japanese as possible and study as much as possible. I have several foreign friends in the area and as much as I like hanging out with them, I am terrified of speaking English even a few times of week and constantly worry that my Japanese will not improve significantly because of the need to use English in the classroom and with friends. Lately though, I have started to make some Japanese friends. The other day I went with Will and Jennifer, the new ALTs to the TAS hotel for dinner since I had a ￥1,000 coupon. The next day I was at the library getting a card and the waiter from the previous night introduced himself to me. It was weird because he introduced himself as the pizza I had ordered "mixed pizza!" But we have started to hang out a little bit and he seems like a decent guy, though slightly socially awkward. Turns out he is studying to be a tax official. He's also a stock trader and I asked him for some financial advice in investing in Japanese/American stock. We are hanging out again on Tuesday and are probably going to get some food at a soba place and then play some pool at a local bar.

Weekends have been so much fun, generally I drive to a nearby town and hang out with friends at concerts and do karaoke and so on. Last weekend we went to the Zao Dragon Rock Festival at Mt Zao Ski Resort. It was an all weekend rave and though my English friend Will and I only went for the last day, it was still a blast. Last night we went to neighboring Oguni with a bunch of other foreigners to see some Japanese bands at a small bar. It was an amazing night to say the least. Amazing classical guitar, soulful Japanese love songs and blues! Though the blues band guitarist sung in English he rambled so much we barely made out anything he was singing. But his guitar skills were freaking amazing and the harmonica player had been playing for 18 years even though he was only 20 and was also incredible. At the after party we just hung out with the bands and talked. I was hit on several times by 60 year old Japanese ladies and a bit molested too as they liked to run their hands up my long legs and squeeze my cheeks. One lady was like, "Oh my god you're so cuuuuute!! I can't stand it! Nooooooooooo!" Literally "iya daaa!" as she would put her hands and her cheeks and grin at me. When she asked me why I wasn't a movie star I told her I was bad at acting. We ended up exchanging numbers and will probably go on some karaoke dates. The best part is her job is sewing women's panties. We watched drunken men try and wrestle the huge judo-playing harmonica player as he defeated each one super easily. You could literally hear the table cracking as he slammed their fists down.

Speaking of judo, I got the number of a local chiropractor who is also a Judo teacher. I will call him on Monday about taking lessons. Apparently he teaches all levels from beginner to advanced. I really want to put on muscle and get in great shape and I have never met a judo player who didn't have an amazing body. Can't wait!

Tomorrow I am teaching at Nagai Southern middle school, so I am looking forward to that. Anyways, I will try and get some pictures up soon.