I really do marvel at this place i live in. I can honestly say that, save some morning bike rides to work when i haven't had enough coffee, i have yet to leave my apartment without thinking about the beauty of my town. Yesterday morning a thick fog was setting in, hovering around the mountains and sending a cool breeze through the air. The sun was no where to be seen, not even rays beaming out through a veil of clouds. Moisture hung around me on the spokes of my bicycle, the stalks of the rice fields, the leaves of the trees. The day didn't just look wildly beautiful, but felt it too. It was mystical.

By the afternoon the sun had dried up the fog and the mist and left the day bright and luminous. A farmer decided to take advantage of the dry heat and begin harvesting his field of rice. This morning surely i will pass a new flat golden yellow plot amidst the fields of green. It will be beautiful.

heavy rice

So today after work i waited for the rain to stop then headed out for one of my fun long bike rides where i chose a direction, get lost for an hour, then ask where i am and start heading home. My goal today was to capture some pictures of my new favorite thing: heavy rice. Someone told me (perhaps erroneously) that the translation for the japanese word for rice just before the harvest is "heavy rice." Literally, the rice matures and ripens from a brilliant lime green to an almost mustardy yellow, and becomes too heavy for the stalk to hold it up. Soon stalks yield to the weight, shifting in either direction, collapsing onto eachother like exhausted children, and pushing the other stalks down like a row of dominoes. Depending on the strength of the surrounding plants, some fields wind up looking completely side-swept, while others have crop circles whiddled out in the middle. For some reason the whole thing enthralls me - why some rice stalks are stronger than others, greener than others, taller and thicker; why some stand up to the pressure and continue to grow and others give in and lay limp on their sides. Today so many more fields seemed flattened and ready for pulling and drying. I'd like to imagine that after today's rain showers some stalks just soaked up on ounce too much rain, swayed a tad bit too far in one direction. Like leaning with your toes just too far over the last step.

Then again, i know next to nothing about the harvesting of rice (save what i learned two years ago in a village in Thailand, posing for pictures with my wide-brimmed hat and sickle) and could have the whole thing wrong. Maybe its just time to move on. Maybe this is the beginning of the new season (harvest season should, i suppose, arrive before typhoon season sets in). Either way, it's fabulous. So i spent the evening taking about 30 bad pictures that in no way capture the magic of the heavy rice, but i suppose that is to be expected.

Hatasho Chugako

So for lack of a better topic or activity to do on a rainy afternoon, i'll discuss my school. I spend my days in this lovely building, Hatasho Junior High School (Hatasho Chugako). It is lovely and only about 3 years old (the half i work in anyway) so everything is nice and new and airconditioned. I've even heard rumors about central heating in the winter (which is virtually non-existant in Japan)!


The following picture is my classroom. i really like it and how nice and colorful it already is with the pink and blue chairs. We can't wear shoes in the classroom so i guess i'll be teaching barefoot :) It gets lots of light through the windows so when i'm sitting in there doing nothing (as opposed to sitting at my desk doing nothing with people watching) i dont have to turn on the icky fluorescent lights. Soon it will be decorated with pictures of Harry Potter characters to help enlighten the students about answering "How are you?" with a response other than "fine." And whatever else i dream up.


And finally my lovely desk. You can't see it here but there are three more rows of desks behind my in the office, yet on an average day (given that its summer) only about 6 of the 28ish desks will be filled. Today it was just me, the kyoto sensei (vice principal) and the office lady/secretary. Generally i sit here for 6 hours a day practicing my kana, texting people, eating lunch and waiting till no one is looking and i can illegally go use the office computer to email (somehow i can't connect my computer!!!). Thus is my life. The most exciting thing that happened today was standing in the hallway for 10 minutes watching the rain and wondering if myself and my computer would make it home okay. I report nothing but success.

Enkai

So last night Shannon and I enjoyed our first Japanese enkai, or work party. Well everyone told us it meant work party, but really, if you're envisioning some awkward christmas party with everyone dressed up or a sing-a-long party ala Arrested Development you are so far off i can't even tell you. And thats where i was before last night. Basically we got on a bus by the school board office last night at about 6pm with about 10 other people we had worked with at the board of education. They drove us about an hour to the nearby city of Hikone (picking up people along the way that we had never seen, but who i think are loosely connected with the BOE and who they hoped would speak english with me). Finally we arrived at the restaurant where we were ushured up to the rooftop restaurant. The view (with the castle on top of the hill) was beautiful.

We feasted on yakinuki, meaning each table was equipped with a grill and a huge tray of raw meats, seafood, and veggies, and a large pitcher of beer. The group resounded appreciatively when the wonderful phrase "nomihodai" was announced shortly after the first "kampai" or cheers. Nomihodai, for all you non-japanese speakers, means all you can drink, and drink those men did. I discovered late in the game that none of the other women at the party were drinking any alcohol, and that the object of the evening was basically to get Shannon and i as drunk as possible. You can see her attempting to power through in the photo.

All in all, the enkai was fairly successful. I can proudly boast of being the most sober drinker in the party, and enjoyed seeing my official bosses get giggly like school girls when they asked me about my "many boyfriends." The picture of the three men features the most important people i work with at the BOE - from left to right the Super Intendant of the schools, Yamamoto-san who basically takes complete care of us, and Tsuji-san who's actual role i dont know but who is very important (and completely adorable). All of them were pretty drunk and red-faced and insisted, against all my arguments, that i must already have a japanese boyfriend. Oh jeez.

After my first enkai i can see what all the fuss is about. Take 15 serious workers from a fairly boring work place, throw them together with free food and drink, and everyone loosens up and finally has fun. I'm already looking forward to my next enkai, which i am told will be in about two weeks. This one will be even more interesting as its with the teachers at my school, more of whom speak english (and more of whom are women) so we'll see.

For now i'm enjoying a saturday morning at home with a big cup of coffee and am thinking about finishing up Pride and Prejudice before heading off to Kyoto to meet up with friends and later to celebrate another JETs birthday. My life is so tough :)

Orientation...

... JET speak for "you shall not work more than 3 days in a row until october."


I have finally returned home to Aisho after a long couple of days of Job orientation (our 4th kind of orientation for Japan) in Otsu. I feel like preparing for tomorrow is like getting ready for a whole new week of work - but i luck out in that its actually already Thursday!!! Hooray for another weekend. Between orientation, Obon Holidays, light work days, and actual weekends i feel like i've been having one long weekend since i got to Shiga.

It turns out that in Otsu (as in Kyoto) the joys of happy hour extend beyond the Rueb in Northfield with its cheap beer and taco dip (although i still miss the taco dip). As working men and women we (l to r: Brian, me, Andrea, Kristin, and Zach) decided we deserved a celebratory happy hour after the long hours of job orientation in Otsu. The 500 Yen (5 dollar) 1,000 mL beers made the evening. We also enjoyed the deliciousness of meat on a stick, which can never really be underestimated, and celebrated the end of a long day with some Arrested Development (season 2, beginning with Motherboy XXX). Soo good. Man how i miss American TV. Tonight my happy hour consisted of a stop at the 100 Yen store, then a quick drink and home on the train to actually get some sleep and prepare to go back to work tomorrow. Life in Aisho (with no one to hang out with, no TV shows on DVD, and no bars to speak of) seems to pale in comparison. Oh how i miss Otsu already.


And now its time to turn in, to prepare for a day or two of work, followed by another long weekend of fun. What a life!

payday!!!

so i just got my first paycheck. i may have no clue what it means, where the money was distributed to, or how much i still owe, but there it is. its proof that i really do have a job!!! Now if only i really had anything to do here at work, then i might actually be living like real adult.

Coffee

So a few days ago i finally decided my coffee intake was really not sufficient and i scouted out the 100 Yen store for a mug big enough to satiate my need for caffiene. I finally biked home with a large mug (at least three times the size of the dinky little green tea cup i'd been drinking from) that sports some fabulous words of encouragement inthe morning. Plus its polka dotted, my new thing it seems. Here is what it says (word for word, letter for letter, in perfect engrish):

Hou are you?
Have a nice day! Gentle time is on my side.
Under that sky...
Hello!
Today's feeling is what color.
very good!

So yeah, hooray for morning coffee and english phrases on japanese things. It never fails to make me laugh seeing something like this on a cup or a t-shirt or whatnot. So good.

Sunday is for Bike Rides

After a long nap to recover from this morning's weed wacking extravaganza, i decided to hop on my bike and go off in search of my new favorite fruit, pear/apples. I wound up heading back to wear i picked them up last week at a stand on the side of the road about 12 kilometers from my place. I bought a gigantic bag (and they through in three for free) popped them in my granny-style bike basket and (after some window shopping for furniture that i want but cant afford) headed home. It occured to me on the way home to get some kind of device to track the distance i travel on the lovely bike. 4km to and from work everyday. At least 6 km more roundtrip to the grocery store. Plus treks to the train stations and leisurely rides like today. I wonder how quickly i'd rack 'em up.

Sucker

Immediately after taking this photo I had to leave the lovely German Bar in Otsu for home to prepare for my early morning 'cleaning' at school. Jessey (on the left with Brian and me) said she was going to have "Sucker" tatooed on my forehead next time she saw me, as i was perfectly able to decline the invitation to come to the grounds cleaning but, at the time, didn't realize it.

Basically, i had to get up at 6:30 on a Sunday to bike to school in sweats with a bandana on my head to save me from the sun and introduce myself for the first time to teachers, students, and their parents. To make matters worse i hadn't rolled into my lovely abode till around 12 and had spent the day outside enjoying a few beverlies in the sun, so i was already burnt. I discovered too late that introducing myself meant climbing a 4 rung lader (like to a swimming dock or something) and standing alone on a podium with a microphone, introducing myself first in broken Japanese then in English. While looking into the sun and sweating like crazy. And in sweat pants. I was so not excited about this. But just in case i wasn't already looking pretty bad, i somehow managed (to no one's surprise at home i'm sure) to miss one of the rungs of the ladder on the way down from the podium and fall right on my ass in the dirt. Of course everyone in the crowd laughed, as i'd hope they would, and i did too.

So yes, what a first impression i made. Then we spent 3 hours working with weed wackers and, this is for real, SICKLES cutting weeds and grass and generally landscaping. Bent over in the hot sun with a borrowed sun hat, sweat trickling down my face, scratches on my ankles and wrists and clutching my endlessly useful tool, i felt like a true proletariat. Haha, okay not quite, but the thought of it did cross my mind. The place does look much better now and not so overgrown, although i loved the long grass too. Oh well. By the end of the morning everyone was coming up to me to see if i was okay after my fall. I didn't know how to tell them that i was used to the embarassment, expected to embarass myself in front of my students thousands more times, and hoped they'd all be able to keep laughing with me.

Saturday in the Park

I absolutely love that i have yet to see the end of 'park parties.' Seriously, in so many ways JET (at least the hanging out with other JETs part) is alot like college. So this weekend when the JET social organizers suggested a trip to the castle in Hikone and a BBQ in a park how could i resist! The castle was a little disappointing, largely because it was hot and stuffy and empty and i couldn't read any of the signs (turns out my katakana and hiragana skills are no help to me in museums), but it was really pretty and old, as you can see. Someone, who may or may not actually know what they're talking about said its significant for being the oldest wooden castle. Or something like that.

Finally 11:30 rolled around and it was time to get the party started. We hopped a train, filled up on food stuffs and liquid products and hit the park in Nagahama, right on Lake Biwa. I was sad i hadn't even thought to bring my suit. The afternoon was pretty chill, eating hotdogs and sitting and having some beers or Chu-hi under the pavilion. It was chance to get to know people, especially the Group B arrivals who came to Tokyo a really great to have yet anotherweek after we did (including Kristin Levanovich). I had lots of fun with them, and wound up heading down to Otsu (about 40 minutes past my town) for dinner and a bit of bar time. Then it was back home for me, enjoying my first late night bike ride (which was fabulous even if i couldn't figure out how to turn on my bike light) and heading to bed to prepare for Sunday's school cleaning.

Pic 1: Brian, Andrea and Kristin in the park
Pic 2: Rachel and Paul enjoying their conbeni snacks
Pic 3: Zack, Brian, Mike and Justin on the train to Otsu. They really hated us gai-jin on that train ride.

Obon Week

So, because i'm bored i've decided tonight is the night that i fill you in on all sorts of stuff. Woohoo for all my lovely readers.

This week i enjoyed a lovely 5-day weekend due to the fabulous Japanese holiday of Obon. Obon is the time of year that all good Japanese Buddhists honor their ancestors by reuniting as a a familyl and traveling to the gravesites of departed family members. The closest thing i could get to a family reunion in Japan was a partial reunion of the Tit Pit (my college girl friends) by visiting Rachel (more affectionately known as The Pants. See her blog at rachelring.blogspot.com) in her town in Mie Prefecture. While she has already covered the basics, let me just say we enjoyed one anothers' company, cable TV with english channels, Mexican food, fabulous naps, a whole lot of walking, and discovering new flavors of Chu-hi, a flavored japanese beverage. Here we are, kampei-ing with our margs and me, reveling in the beauty of a bowl of guac. What a lovely Obon holiday.

daily life in Japan

Just to let you know how boring i really am, here is a breakdown of my life. It is worth noting that, as i've probably never had more than 3 "normal" days in a row here, normal is a relative term. But nonetheless: my life.

I get up around 8 (yeah for summer vacation), make breakfast and coffee, get ready and wait for my ride to work. At work Shannon (the other Aisho JET) and i sit around, drink green tea, practice Japanese (mostly she drills me on katakana and hiragana or she practices kanji since she actually knows japanese), fill out paper work, check our email, etc. After only about 2 hours at the office its lunch time. Then repeat above activities in any order. After work i generally bike around, go to the grocery store (when my bike is in working order - lately i have had many adventures with flat tires) and get things for dinner, visit Shannon at her place, go for a walk, or clean up my apartment. Then i cook, usually enough to have leftovers for lunch, and put in one of my 10 DVDs, of which i'm quickly growing tired. Pretty much every day i regret another movie sitting at home in the box. Today's was Pride and Prejudice (the long one). Yesterday it was The Lord of the Rings. There was also the day i nearly cried because i couldn't enjoy the splendor of Fantastic Four. Okay, well not quite. Now that i have the internet at home i feel a change coming on in my life, but probably it will just enable me to order more movies and continue my habit. Dishes and general cleaning/picking up bring me to about 9. Now in the pre-internet days (P.C.) this was when i'd start having to work at keeping myself awake - journaling, reading, painting my nails, and whatnot till about 10, when i'd feel less ashamed about crawling into bed. Last night, my first night A.C. (after connection) found me wasting many hours online and finally reminding myself that i did have to work around 12:30. Woohoo! It turns out i am in fact under the age of 60 and able to stay awake past dusk. Yippee. So thats my life. Any Questions?

yup. bored. and at the office. last day at the office. and i`m bored. So even though i have nothing to say, no pictures to put up, and nothing of any consequence to relate, i`m updating my blog.

If you`re bored too you should visit Shannon`s blog (www.xanga.com/shaniqua621). She is another JET who lives in my town and teaches at the other middle school. She is bored too. Thus her post on my blog.

Welcome to Aisho

So I'm here. In Japan. I have in fact been in Japan for almost 3 weeks now and living in this here fine apartment for 2 weeks. The thrill of today that led me to start a blog was the introduction of an internet connection into my apartment. HOORAY! Here you see my living room on the left, with really nothing interesting to speak of except a TV with 6 channels in Japanese and a VCR that doesn't work. Then my bedroom. Note the twin size bed - so much for being done with that after college. Below you have my lovely kitchen. It came complete with 100% white walls, cupboards, counter and beige floors. So classy. Or something. Luckily I inherited a coffee pot, the only appliance worth listing here, from the previous JET. Improvements are currently being made to the completely neutral and fairly empty abode. Updates later.

While inside may be drab beauty abounds outside. All around my apartment building are amazing bright green fields of rice. It turns out there is some benefit to living, quite literally, in the middle of nowhere. The entire area, really almost my whole prefecture, lies in the mountain valley, so silhouettes of mountains surround my town. I am situated about halfway between the two towns that recently merged to form Aisho, my town. This means i am also pretty much equally far away from civilization in both directions, including grocery stores, conbenis (the japanese word for convenience stores), post offices and banks. If my bike ever stops getting flat tires i can make an easy 15ish minute bike ride to the store. The longer 30-40 minute walk is less enticing. Here is about the best thing in the area, the Heiwado Mall where i can find groceries, shoes & clothes (okay, where Japanese people can find shoes and clothes), McDonalds, other fast food and the best thing ever - the 100 Yen Store. Let me tell you, you're missing out. My apartmen is bound to be furnished with goods from the 100 Yen Store, and I'm already on my way.