It's here: the insomnia inducing, breath-taking, soul shaking, culture shocking adventure has returned from a longer than anticipated hiatus! Ok, on a more serious note, I apologize for the wait because I would have loved to update as much as possible, but due to an unexpected increase in work at the school, and time preparing to come home, and a bunch of other useless reasons, I never got around to posting. But enough of that, let's move on shall we?
Ok, so since the last post, 6 months ago I believe, I hope everyone has been doing well and enjoying life. As for me, due to the lack of posts for the past few months, I decided it might be best to separate this post into two separate entries. The main reason being I don't want to bore you with a 30 paragraph thesis about my "unique" experience. Part 1 and Part 2 shall be purely constructed for the entertainment of anyone who reads it and to hopefully intrigue any of those to explore unchartered territories of their choice. Part 1 will consist of a story telling aspect, whereas I would like to express my opinion in Part 2. I'll also separate the story into parts so you can pick up or scan through any part at your leisure.
1. November/December work, Oita, Tokyo Wedding/Reunion, Kansai Trip
Winter came, with a sudden drop (more than expected) in temperature and lots of wind. November and December are the busiest months of the year because it's prime time to start resigning kids students for next April's semester. Along with that, we launched a Self-Study Campaign in order to promote more self study outside of class, allow students to see the material from a different perspective, and also to avoid any sort of plateau in their learning experience. Without a head teacher, assistant manager, kid's head teacher, it proved to be a difficult task for not only myself, but more importantly my manager. Between classes, during free time, or during counseling weeks (no classes during counseling week) I counseled the adult students and ask/recommended what kind of extra material they would like to try or may be interested in. It was a really good experience for myself as I was able to test my business skills and also see how much the students trusted me until this point. I had about 50 adult students total, and a successful campaign would be at least a 40% sign up rate. Fortunately, myself and my coworkers did really well with this and the kids sign up and we were able to overachieve our goal as well as make our bonus for the month. My buddy, who also works for the same company and from the States (Cali) got number one in Kyushu, so congratulations to him. However, I was really fortunate to receive Teacher of the Month for November.
What was the bonus you say?
Money? Nope.
An extra day off? Not quite.
Free meal? Getting warmer.
A pen with your name written on it? You betcha.
In November, soon after I started dating this girl, we went on a day trip to Yufuin in Oita prefecture. Oita is well known for its two hot spring-thriving towns, Yufuin and Beppu. Yufuin is a rather small, Nordic-like village, about 3 hours away from Sasebo, in the Northeast region of Kyushu. It's a great place for a day, or weekend trip with the family or as a couple. There are numerous stalls with different kinds of foods, such as giant takoyaki, cakes, cookies, yakiniku, yakitori, and so on. I recommend stopping by there to enjoy the hot springs and food, although it may be a bit pricey. There is even a nice footbath at the train station. I also made a return to Oita on Christmas day to visit some friends and play golf. From there my journey continued to Kansai area. For your leisure, check out this map for a more convenient view. (Nagasaki is #27, Oita is #30, which are pretty far away from Tokyo and Osaka).
http://www.google.com/imgres?q=map+prefectures+japan&um=1&hl=en&sa=N&tbm=isch&tbnid=lIVBmP9sR1VsJM:&imgrefurl=http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php%3Faz%3Dview_all%26address%3D439x611924&docid=VHPvRG2X3S4KjM&imgurl=http://jenninjapan.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/prefectures.gif&w=497&h=533&ei=igR8T-TvKuqimQWl3OXVCw&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=404&vpy=4&dur=546&hovh=233&hovw=217&tx=120&ty=87&sig=105720401156394662349&page=1&tbnh=119&tbnw=111&start=0&ndsp=23&ved=1t:429,r:2,s:0,i:73&biw=1280&bih=604
In December I was invited to attend one of my ex-coworker's wedding in Tokyo. It was a really great experience to see a wedding in Japan. The wedding was a bit of a mix between Japanese and Western styles, in which the ceremony was performed in a chapel, with the bride in a white dress and the priest reading the same verses that are heard from the bible back home. After the ceremony, the bride changed into a different dress for the party, and numerous speeches were done in honor of the bride and groom. Later, the bride changed into a kimono and they and their parents made speeches to everyone. It appeared to be a lot of work for the bride and groom, I suppose compared to my brother's wedding, where the bride and groom stayed in one outfit and were less mobile during the celebrations. Also, there was no wild dance party for 2 hours with a hip hop DJ like back home.
One wonderful thing about that weekend was the reunion with my buddy and his girlfriend from Stony Brook. The night before the wedding we met up, had some T.G.I. Fridays (I never thought I would crave it as much as I did) with half off drinks, then went to a real club with a real DJ. Unfortunately, people in Sasebo call the dimly lit Mexican Restaurant that stayed open 2 hours later than normal (until 12am) with a DJ spinning under Christmas lights a club, but most people have never been outside of Sasebo. It was so great to see them again and catch up and it really made me appreciate all the good friends that have stayed close, regardless of the physical distance between us.
During the Christmas holiday I had 2 weeks off to celebrate anywhere I desired. Although Australia was high on the places to go list, my friend and I decided to take a trip to Kansai area. Ok, so real quick, there are 47 prefectures in Japan, which are pretty much similar to the states in the US. These prefectures, depending on their location, are collectively labeled as regions (just the like US's Northeast, Midwest, South, West). Tokyo lies within the Kanto region. Nagasaki, and all the other prefectures in Kyushu lie within the Kyushu region. WIthin Kansai there are a few large cities: Osaka (3rd largest), Kyoto (6th), Kobe(5th), Nara (55th) are all within a 5-10$ train ride from one another. Kansai, specifically Osaka, is notorious for having an interesting, or some call entertaining, dialect. Along with that, people in Osaka tend to be recognized as more outspoken, laid-back (which sometimes gets negatively associated with lazy), and easy-going. Compared to other cities in Japan, it has a pretty high pollution rate, I believe more than Tokyo. Kind of like how LA is so well known like NY, but is smaller and has more pollution. But nonetheless, these so-called faults, put a nice spin on the city, and adds to the uniqueness and makes the traveling more enjoyable. We decided to make Osaka our home base and go on various side trips to the other cities during the day.
Osaka is also well-known for its food. Even a program on the Food Network was recorded in Osaka and the host traveled around trying various dishes such as takoyaki, okonomiyaki, whale sushi, horse sashimi, chicken neck, and various other delicious, but appalling sounding, dishes within the city. My buddy was under the assumption that Osaka would be covered with okonomiyakis on the streets, hanging from the signs, flying out of buildings, and so on. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a bit different, with less delicious okonomiyaki that tasted like they were cooked on the street.
In regards to the hotel, we decided to prioritize price, not location or presentation. Perhaps a SLIGHT bit of research would have helped. The hotel was just off the freeway, located in a rather odd part of the city. As the woman of the "hotel" handed us the key she casually said, "The front doors are locked after 8PM." "Excuse me, did you say 8PM?" In a more casual tone, "Because it's dangerous outside." DUH
You know, besides the whole don't go outside after dark, blood stained carpets, custom made shampoo bottles with "ShAmPU" written on them, screaming from the next room over, outdoor hallways, elevator with a mysterious unattended bag of what appeared to be clothes, heater that screeched for 20min until warming up, smoke stained walls, people knocking on my wall in the middle of the night, it did come fully equipped with a mini kitchen and came at a fantastic price.
Ok, so the first night we decided to get invincibly drunk with a bottle of Crown Royal (as depicted in one of the pictures on the street on FB) and let our superpowers lead us to some fun places. Apparently the place to go for a good time of drinking, socializing, dancing, in Osaka is Dotonbori. It was especially intriguing because whenever we asked a police officer for directions, he gave us this sly smirk, like a (^-^) kind of face. So anyway, we teleported to Dotonbori and found ourselves in the streets asking every guy with a menu for a delicious takoyaki/okonomiyaki place. Before entering one place I made him promise to me that it would be delicious, and he didn't let us down. After eating, we asked him if he knew any good places for drinking, and he personally walked us all the way to the place. We went to the 3rd floor of the building, with the 1st and 2nd being part of the club, and somehow managed to sit in like a VIP area. We ordered some of the cheapest drinks and nibbled on some cheese and crackers whilst the group next to us was pouring champagne on one another and eating sushi rolls. My buddy pulled one of the girls aside and started talking to her and little before we knew it 4 girls were at our table giving my friend a chest rub while he laughed like a millionaire with his arms around them (this was after we finished our complimentary juice boxes). After we left the club, I was ready to head back but my buddy was on a mission and invited these 2 random girls on the street to get drinks with us and surprisingly they accepted. As mentioned previously, most places to go at night and drink/eat are izakayas. They usually have a pretty good deal, pay 30$ and you get unlimited drinks and sometimes food included for at least a 3 hour limit. As predicted, the night ended with laughs and enjoyment, and the next day begin with a headache.
The next day was a trip to some of the main attractions in Osaka, such as Osaka Castle, the Skygarden observatory, and some shopping malls. While shopping, we had a rather unexpected experience when I was looking for new boxers. I honestly just needed a new pair of boxers, and I was unaware of my size in centimeters. So I figured I would ask the store clerk if he could measure my waist. As I approached him with a "foreigner friendly" smile with my traveling "partner" I asked the guy which underwear would better suit my body. First of all, he looked at me like he didn't speak Japanese. Then after I repeated myself and asked how many centimeters my waist is, he slowly looked me in the eyes, turned his head sideways, and made a sound like when you burn your finger on the stove or touch really hot water, "ssssss", then unwillingly took my measurements. I was wondering what his problem was, but after reanalyzing the situation with my buddy, it probably didn't seem like the most masculine thing to do. But what was even more astounding was when we went to the next floor to buy deodorant. You know when you see a really attractive person, in my case a girl, and you're subconsciously in a bit of a lull because of some sort of attractive feature on their face? Maybe even go to the extent of getting a bit shy with them when they start talking to you, like "teehee" shy. Well, I got a full blown taste of it from the cashier, as HE rung me up.
Eventually our bromance had reached its limits and we called our girlfriends and asked them if they wanted to join us. Luckily they both hopped on the next plane and met us in Osaka the next morning. Before my girlfriend arrived, we took a day trip to Nara. Nara is one of the older cities in Japan, and is quite rural. It is particularly known for its park flourishing with deer, giant Buddha statue, and a few other not so interesting things. It's a nice place to visit if you have it on your checklist, but if you have seen a deer before, and heard of the word Buddhism before, then it's probably not worth coming all the way to Japan for. But it was kind of weird being trolled by the deer everywhere. I swear I heard one of them say, "Deeerrr coookieee."
The following 2 days were spent in Osaka with the ladies, going to the really great aquarium they have, out for Indian food (which is really good in Japan), Chinese dumplings, and going to the parks. On New Years Eve, we went to Gion in Kyoto, which is a notorious gathering place for people on NYE to ring the shrine bell, throw coins and pray for good luck, and eat different foods from various food stalls. NYE and Christmas in Japan are celebrated almost in opposite fashion to America. Christmas in the US tends to be a day with the family, exchanging presents, eating food, and you know, family stuff. NYE in Japan runs along the same path. All of my students told me they spent NYE with their families eating traditional food like osechi. Many people say that NYE and Obon (summertime) are two times in the year where they can meet other family members they don't see too often. For us, NYE is of course celebrated by many people with their families, but it is more of a party day with friends, drinking, counting down, and wearing ridiculous sunglasses. Christmas in Japan felt a little different. There are of course the lights and some decorations, but by no means the extent of some wild American blow up Santa Claus on a motorcycle riding along side the Eli Manning blow up. I don't intend to speak for the opinion of anyone besides my own, but perhaps because Christmas is a foreign brought tradition, it lacked the sentiment and feel of a real holiday that I felt during Obon, Children's day, and Golden Week. In a way, it prided me of our over spending for others, above and beyond light shows, giant snowman decorations staged on our lawns... After this experience, I'm willing to bet that most countries don't invest as much enthusiasm and money in the way we do on our Christmas holiday.
THANKS FOR READING…. MORE TO COME SOON
