March 7 - 13

Hello Everyone! Every week is an adventure! Thankfully my city is on the opposite coast of the earthquake and Tsunami. Thank you everyone for the good wishes thank you I love you all.

This week is going to be in 2 day blocks with the last a 3 day block.

March 7 & 8: My day started with an interesting twist on Monday afternoon. As I was walking back from the internet cafe, an older gentleman on his bicycle was furiously crossing the intersection before the light changed. Apparently he did not take notice of the curb and as he approached the walk way he sideswiped the curb and flipped off his bike onto the pavement. I ran over and when I asked if he was okay, the only response was a drunken groan. The smell of alcohol and the intoxicated slur that came out was enough for me to not bother trying to help. 

Having an atypical work schedule can be a damper on social life in Japan, or in any place for that matter. Whereas most young adults to middle aged have work or school from about 8AM to 5PM, I work from 12PM to 9PM. Furthermore, most people have the normal Saturday and Sunday weekend, mine is Sunday and Monday. For example, I have yet to meet any of my neighbors in my apartment because most of them leave for work while I'm still asleep.

Tuesday morning was the first weekday experience of the gym. Generally speaking, gyms in Japan are quite different from gyms in America. American gyms consist of about 70% weights and machines, with 30% being treadmills and classes. There are some Golds Gym's established in Tokyo and Kansai area, but for the most part, gyms in Japan are almost like sports clubs. My gym has 3 floors: the bottom floor has a pool, racquetball court, and a mini indoor driving range. The second floor consists of one large room with classes running all day, and the work out floor with about 75% spin bikes and treadmills. There are only a handful of machines, almost all of them being for legs, one smith machine, one flat bench, two free benches, and dumbbells that go up to about 80lbs. The third floor has a tennis court. Within the locker room there is also a really big tub, sort of like a mini hot spring. This would all be great for me to use but unfortunately if I want to keep my membership at this gym I cannot swim or use the tub because members are not allowed to have tattoos. Tattoos are considered gang related in Japan. Although people respect foreigners with tattoos because they know its a different culture, the rules are rules, and no tattoos means no tattoos; typical Japanese. So, if you enjoy running, yoga, biking, and other aerobics with clean skin, then you've come to the right place! If you came for body building and gang battles, then maybe a job on the American naval base might be better. Oh yea, and indoor shoes are a necessity, no outside dirt allowed. And wipe down the machine or dumbbell after every use.

As for class on Tuesday, that one crazy kids class is becoming more of a lost cause each week. Some students in that class are not destined to excel in English, and I'm slowly coming to terms with that.

March 9 & 10:There are pros and cons to this morning workout thing. The good side is that the morning members are the average age of perhaps 68 years old, which means the free weights and smith machine are left for me. Also, it's pretty easy to stand out in the crowd so it draws some attention from the employees and it's a good opportunity to talk with some of the girl workers. The bad side is the locker room. Apparently there is less shame or self consciousness or whatever you'd like to call it for the other man in the locker room here in Japan. I was sitting in front of my locker and the guy next to me decided to drop his drawers clearly within my sight. To be honest, it's pretty offensive because of the lack of consideration of the damage that is done to my eyes. 

Wednesday classes were great and I think I won over the 3 year old girl who was notorious for giving the last teacher problems. 

Thursday's food for thought: Doing activities while walking. For example, smoking, eating, or drinking while walking is frowned upon in Japan. For us back in New York, we are possibly the best multi-tasking humans in the world. Walking, drinking and talking with the cellphone on speaker because we need to look up directions on our IPhone is but a normal task for New Yorkers. Both sides of the argument hold their strength. One side comes with fast paced living and performing many activities in the shortest amount of planned time. The other, taking a minute to have a seat and enjoy a smoke and think about life is a beautiful thing. Savoring life by doing isolated activities is great. But who is to say those multi-taskers aren't trained to savor their activities just as much? What do you think about this?

The two devils in the Thursday kids class were threatened by all the Japanese teachers before class. They were still pretty horrible; one of them was saying some really irritating things to me in Japanese. The good thing is that the kids class in the next class are amazing and they help me forget about devil boy quickly.

I went for a quick walk around town today to scope out a sports complex I saw on my hike last week. There is an American park within the Japanese park. The American park has a turf soccer field, turf baseball field, skatepark, beach volleyball court, and bbq area! The Japanese park surrounds the American park with cherry blossom trees that are going to bloom in about 3 weeks.

March 11, 12, 13: The Friday/Saturday shift is such a blur. Friday is teaching from 1PM to 9PM straight with a 1 hour break. Then it's lesson prep for Saturday, return home at about 10PM, then come back the next morning at 9:30. Saturday is classes straight from 10AM to 6PM. The good thing is that it is over before you know it, the bad thing is that two days just went by before you even knew it! 

For English teachers, the party night is usually Saturday night. So how did I spend my fine Saturday night you ask? At the gym. No drinking, just good hard sweating and exercising. 

Sunday was probably the best day I have had in Japan. I went to the American park , "Nimitz Park", to see who was playing soccer. The park was made to help establish a relationship between the 6000 Americans who live on the naval base and the local Japanese citizens. It's a great idea because the park is flooded with Japanese families, American families, Japanese/American mix families, and tons of people around my age. 

There were some Japanese kids playing on one side and an American guy training on the other. I couldn't resist. I ran to the local soccer shop, bought new boots, socks, a ball and a pump. I hurried home, got changed and returned to the pitch. The pitch is beautiful; there is an amazing view of both mini mountains of Sasebo and the turf is incredible. After training for about an hour, an American guy came over and I started talking with him. Apparently they had a game against a local Japanese team starting soon. He was a really cool guy from San Diego who works as a High School teacher for the American kids on base. He invited me to play with them and I joined their team for the match. We destroyed them 7-2, but that was only a small part of the fun.

Afterwards, we had a huge barbecue with REAL AMERICAN FOOD! The naval base imports its chicken, hamburgers, hot dogs, pretty much anything you could think of from back home. So at one grill we had chicken and burgers cooking up, while at the other the Japanese guys were cooking yakisoba, or grilled noodles. It was a dream come true: eating my favorite Bubba Burgers while speaking Japanese with the my new friends. The American guys from the base, and the Japanese guys and girls were really great people. The first guy I met from San Diego said he'll help show me the ropes with the bars and good places to meet cool people. And of course it was great to make Japanese friends, especially cute girls who like soccer. We exchanged numbers and emails at the end of the day. 

I made it this far away to the other side of the world following the things that interest me most, and once again I followed my strongest passion in sports and working out, and I found the right people. So far so good, if I have a dream, I'll follow it and it will guide me to the right place. Don't be afraid to step out of the comfort box every once in a while, you never know what you might find! 

 Thank you for reading. Spring is soon! No more cold weather : )