The Day of the Insects

Before coming to Japan, I was warned. The country, especially in the south, had a problem with bugs. That is to say, bugs of the worst sort claim the country as their own. The fact that there are also humans nearly everywhere has apparently been no deterrent. One might even say that it encouraged them.

Where I live, the south, is prime territory for an encounter. For instance, in the entrance to my apartment (the outside entrance, not the inside) are three large spider webs. And I seriously mean large. Each web is the size of a grade school child. In fact, I'm not entirely sure that such a child hasn't previously been caught in one of these webs. I allow them to live, however, because they are preferable to the hordes of flies and mosquitoes that the webs' residents consume every day.

There are two bugs in particular that I was warned about: the mukade and the suzumebachi. Each one is devilish in its own way. The first, the mukade, literally looks like a demon. It's a giant, red centipede with pincer-like horns (in addition to its actual pincers) and a black exoskeleton that looks like demonic armor plating. I have not yet met with one of these creatures and I hope that I never will.

Here in Japan, summers are hot. Really hot. Mostly, it's the humidity that gets you, but things are made even worse by the fact that use of air conditioning is frowned upon. At home, I don't care. I use it anyway, or else I would be constantly sitting in a pool of sweat. I love the heat, truly I do. But I don't love sitting in a pool of my own sweat, soaking through my shirt, chair, and rug. I've been in hot places before, even hotter places than Japan, but I've never sweat so much in my life. It's like being in a sauna everywhere you go.

Anyway, all of this is to say that classrooms, with around 30 hot bodies in them, get very hot in the summer without air conditioning. So people tend to keep the windows open and make liberal use of fans. The idea is to get a cross-breeze going.

Bugs often will fly in and out of the room. Butterflies seem to be the most common of these. A couple days ago, though, something else entirely flew in. And worse yet, it couldn't seem to find its way out again.

At first, I thought it was a bee. Every bug that you know of back home is larger in Japan, so it was probably just a large bee. So went my thought process. And, I figured, it was probably just passing through. Wait a minute and it would be gone. Well, three minutes later, it wasn't gone. Worse still, the entire class had ground to a halt. The teacher seemed paralyzed and the students, well, the students had essentially become a screaming mob.

I realized that, just like the teacher and the students, I was doing nothing about the situation. Was I going to be scared of a creature that I am 1000x the size of? Was I no different from a third grader? Well, put like that, I decided it was time for action, time for a gaijin smash. There didn't seem to be a fly swatter of any sort, so I grabbed the text book. I would have used my hand, but I wanted to avoid getting stung. This turned out to be a smart idea.

The bug flew near me and I swung my textbook, but missed. The students screamed as one as they realized what I was doing. "Stupid gaijin, aggravating the giant insect!" they seemed to say. Well, I thought, if I don't do it, then it ain't gonna leave. So I chased it to a window on the other side of the class room. As I continued to swat at what I thought was a giant bee, I finally understood the babbling of the students. They had been saying "suzumebachi."

Now, let's pause here for a moment and head over to wikipedia. What does it have to say about the suzumebachi? First of all, it clearly points out that this insect is not a bee, it is a hornet. An Asian Giant Hornet, to be exact. More importantly, however, it says that "Each year in Japan, the human death toll caused by Asian giant hornet stings exceeds that of all other venomous and non-venomous wild animals combined, including wild bears and venomous snakes." Yeah, that's right, the suzumebachi is deadlier than wild bears and venomous snakes.

A few more points from the wikipedia page for your perusal:

1) Its venom is potent enough to kill you even if you're not allergic to it.

2) Its venom is potent enough to dissolve human tissue.

3) Due to the fact that its mandibles are so incredibly large, it can bite and sting you at the same time.

4) It is a hornet, so it can sting you as many times at it wants, just in case it wasn't satisfied the first time around.

5) When it stings you, the chemicals in its venom attract other suzumebachi, so now you get to deal with a whole horde of them instead of just one.

So I think you'll understand why, when I heard the word "suzumebachi," I dropped the textbook and went for a weapon with a slightly larger reach. A fellow teacher passed me a broom and I wondered why no one had given me one earlier. I guess fear is to blame for that, too. Anyway, I eventually managed to trap the killer hornet behind a glass pane and slowly push it outside.

I returned to the front of the class, unharmed and a hero to thirty-odd third graders. Later that day, I noticed that my preying mantis friend had returned to my bike basket. It made me glad to know that he was safe. After all, suzumebachi like to eat those guys too.

~Jeffles

When One Week is Two and Typhoons Ruin ALL Your Fun, Blog About It!

I've been teaching now for about a week, but somehow, it already feels longer. I have to wonder why this is? Perhaps it's been so boring that I feel like I've been thrust into some sort of rut from which I can't get out? After all, they say that time flies when you're having fun, and obviously time is not flying.

I don't think that's it, though. After all, I'm not bored. Seriously, not even in the least. In fact, I feel almost as if I've been run off my feet. Every class I've been to is completely different from the others and requires a different approach. Add that on to the fact that I have eight different schools and hundreds of kids' faces and names to memorize. Whoever said that Japanese kids are all the same obviously had no idea what he or she was talking about. And then there's the travel time (by bike, of course) between schools and Judo classes on top of that. It's exhausting.

Furthermore, contrary to my earlier statement, time actually does fly. In class, I can't help but feel as if I don't have anywhere near enough time to present everything. As well, I constantly feel as if I need more time to prepare myself for class, both mentally and physically. And I'm always wondering if I'm going to actually make it to class in time. It's as if I actually don't have enough time in the day.

Yet, when I'm lying on the floor at home, I look back on everything that happened and I think to myself, "Wow, that was a long day." I think about how much I accomplished and wonder if it all really happened in only a few hours. I think it is this that my sense of an elongated work week is derived from. I am doing so many things that it seems as if each day was actually two days. Apply this to a week full of wide-eyed first-encounters and we end up with an exhausted Jeffles who feels as if two weeks have been packed into one. Frankly, I'm surprised I didn't see this coming.

In other news, a typhoon passed through the country over last weekend. As it's Thursday, this is old news. But it hasn't been mentioned on this blog, so it ain't old news here! Also, it was my first typhoon, so it deserves mention.

The storm landed on Friday morning. Friday was also my first day of school. Because of the typhoon, though, they crammed all my classes into the morning and told me to head on home after lunch. First day and things are already interesting! (I'm also fairly certain that I fended off two kancho attempts, speaking of interesting.)

The bike ride home, normally a 20 minute affair, took nearly twice as long due to the wind and rain. I had to stop two times, just to catch my breath, and am fairly certain that I would have actually made it home faster if I were walking. Thanks to that ride, I decided that there was no way I was leaving my home until the storm had passed. As it turns out, I had actually been biking home at what was essentially the worst time of day to be out.

I wasn't so lucky as to actually be able to stay inside all weekend, though. I couldn't even stay inside all day. That night was the welcome party for the new ALTs in my town (of which I am obviously one). So out I went again, though luckily the wind and rain had temporarily died down. Thinking luck was on my side, I decided to bike to the meeting spot. Bad decision.

The party itself was great. We each gave short speeches in broken Japanese to much applause, then proceeded to consume vast quantities of both food and booze. I personally spent much of the night attempting to communicate with my fellow Japanese workers to varying degrees of success. When the first party finished, we then moved on to the second location, a karaoke lounge that apparently the party had rented out. The fooding and boozing continued, of course, until I was well past tipsy.

This is when my bad decision became obvious. During the course of 5 or so hours, the typhoon's fury had returned. I had a choice to make; either bike back through the wind and rain and drunken haze, or leave my bike out in the elements and have to go pick it up the next day, when the typhoon was expected to be ever stronger and I would be in the full grip of a terrible hang over. It was a lose-lose situation.

"Let's get this over with," I thought, and proceeded to bike home. As I don't actually remember the bike ride home, I would like to believe that I made the right decision. After all, what you can't remember can't hurt you, right? Ahem...

Anyway, I stayed inside for the rest of the weekend. We ALTs had been planning to take part in a tea ceremony on Saturday, but seriously? Yeah, that wasn't going to happen.

By Sunday morning, the typhoon had gone and taken all its bad juju with it. Since then, the skies have been clear and the winds have been delightfully light. The mornings and evenings are starting to get cool, though. It looks like Fall is on its way.

~Jeffles

Farewell, Dear August

I have been in Japan for a month. I know this because August has ended and when I arrived, August had only just begun. This also means that summer is over.

For the last week or so, I've had a regular companion on my way to work. I was half-way to work one morning when I realized that there, on my bike's front basket, sat a preying mantis. At first I thought it was just a withered, curled up leaf. In fact, that leaf was two preying mantises (mantisi?), gettin' it on in the summer heat. That's right, my bike was defiled with insectoid love juices.

The next time I saw the "withered, curled up leaf," it was without its special friend. I've heard that a preying mantis will eat its lover after sex. So when I saw my lonely companion, I was a little concerned. What happened to the other one? I never found out.

The remaining preying mantis joined me on my morning bike rides to work a total of six times. By the sixth time, it was almost a friendly sight. Twice it had climbed up towards the handlebars, as if seeking comfort in my proximity. Now, I wouldn't call myself particularly squeamish, but I'm also not that fond of bugs. So even though I felt I was getting on somewhat friendly terms with this preying mantis, I was also well aware of its warrior reputation. Sadly, I must report that I rebuffed both of its advances and did not allow it to climb upon my hand.

This morning I noticed a brown, curled up leaf lying at the bottom of the staircase, twiggy legs sticking up into the air, motionless.

I have read that a preying mantis only lives for 8 or 9 months, so I won't mourn the little fella's passing. It was probably his/her time. It did, however, make me feel even stronger that something was coming to an end. I usually get this feeling at the end of the summer, but this time it seems a little bit different. This time it seems as if I'll never have a real summer again. My guess: that's because I won't.

Today I am the only person in the office. The other ALTs in my town have all started teaching at their schools, but I start tomorrow. As we have spent the last month, all of us, sitting here in this office, our sudden separation is undoubtedly fueling my sense of the "end times."

On the positive side, I expect that tomorrow I will have a renewed sense of adventure. Tomorrow I begin to teach. It will be a new experience for me and I fully expect to be both freaked out and completely immersed in my surroundings.

But for now, things are ending and that's a little sad.

~Jeffles

How To Get Killer Abs in 365 Days... or More!

So I guess this is a once a week thing now? Something like that, I suppose. Though it's only been 5 days since the last post... Whatever. Schedules were never my thing anyway.

I've decided that I'm going to become super fit by the end of my year (or two?) in Japan. This isn't because I set out to become fit or anything like that. This is simply a side effect of my life here. There are two reasons for this: 1) Biking 2) Judo.

1) Biking. I don't particularly have a choice in the matter here. I have to bike everywhere. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. I'm quite happy to bike. It sure as hell beats walking, and I don't have a driver's license so even if I was allowed to drive, I wouldn't be able to. However, the majority of my schools are a 20 to 30 minute bike ride away. That means that on a near daily basis, I'll be biking for an hour in semi-hilly terrain. Wind, rain, snow, whatever, I'll be biking through it. I expect that is going to burn off quite a few calories.

2) Judo. About two years ago I decided I was finally going to start a martial art. This was, coincidentally, when I began a study-abroad year in Scotland. I checked out the various clubs and Judo seemed like the coolest. After talking with my sensei over the course of the year, I heard tales from her about what it was like to train in Japan. It made me really, really want to do it myself.

Flash forward to now. Since knowing that I was going to go to Japan, it has been my goal to join a Judo club. Again, this is not because I want to get fit. This is because I love Judo. I'm actually pretty bad at the sport, but that doesn't really matter to me. I do my best and I want to experience the way the Japanese teach it. After all, they invented the sport and they are still the best in the world at it. That's gotta say something. So twice a week I bike to the dojo (another 20 minute bike ride up a hill), train for an hour and a half, and bike back home. And yes, it is exhausting. That DEFINITELY burns a few calories.

A little bit about the Judo club. As I've said, I live in the inaka. Not the super inaka where towns only have a population of like 1000, but still pretty inaka. That means that there's not a lot of people here, so it's hard to have a serious Judo club. The one that is run in my town (and seems to be the only one for quite a wide area) is therefore aimed not at serious Judo practitioners, but at kids. Serious Judo practitioners would move to the serious Judo dojos, which are in the larger cities. The purpose of this club, as far as I can tell, is to instill a love of the sport in the community. As well, it is a way for the community to get together.

The structure of the lesson goes something like this. First, the kids warm up. This begins with a jog around the room. I, being the big ol' gaijin, naturally chase them around the mats while they yell their heads off out of fear at what I'll do when I catch them. Pyohoho. Then they do stretches, push ups, and sit ups. I join them in this. Then they do some floor crawling - pulling yourself across the mats using only your forearms. It sounds easy, but it's actually quite hard after the first 40 feet or so.

Next, thoroughly warmed up, we practice the forms for throwing (this is called uchikomi). At this point I separate from the kids. Makes sense, right? Why would I be practicing how to throw a 10 year old? So I get paired up with one of the sensei and they instruct me while I desperately try to understand what they're saying. It takes a little while, but it works. The good thing is that they can usually show me what they're talking about. Body language, hooray!

Finally, we go into randori. This is where my real weakness shows. Booooo. See, I don't have the stamina built up yet to do constant randori like they do. Yes, even the kids are able to do more randori than I am. I know, shameful. What is randori, you ask? Basically, it's where we go full strength at each other for three minutes straight, then switch partners and do it again. This happens about 5 or 6 times. You want tiring? Try doing ANYTHING at absolutely full strength for 15 to 18 minutes straight. Keep in mind that you also have an opponent who is matching you in strength. In my case, they're matching my strength and WAY surpassing my technique. So yeah, kind of an uphill battle.

And then it's over. Today they brought out a box full of Aquarius after practice. Aquarius is like a sport's drink. Think gatorade, but a little less sweet and with only one flavor, which I have no idea how to describe. It's kind of like... yeah, I have no idea. Sugary water with a dash of lemon, minus the bitterness? Maybe. Anyway, it's good.

So yeah, if this training routine doesn't get me fit within a year, I don't think anything will.

~Jeffles

The Land of Sunshine

I've been in Japan for three weeks now and every single day has had the following routine: wake up, look outside, see the sun, feel the heat, drown in the humidity, turn on the AC. Of course, since I actually can't get enough of the heat and humidity, I should probably be using verbs that indicate the pleasure I have been lucky enough to experience over the last three weeks. In my ideal world, I would be living in a tropical paradise for thirteen months out of the year. Yes, you read that right. Thirteen months out of the year.

Speaking of tropical paradise, you may recall me mentioning Shiraishi island. There's also a little bit about Shiraishi on my youtube channel. Please excuse the shameless self-promotion. Anyway, when I was on Shiraishi with the Okayama Orientation group, I made plans with another JET (whom I shall call Snowman) to go back to the island. We were only there for a few hours, you see, and because we were technically still on the clock, we weren't allowed to drink alcohol. So it made sense to return at a later date.

The date we picked was the weekend of the 20th and 21st of August. It was the first free weekend we had, fell right after payday, and was still summertime. It was, we agreed, ideal. So a few days later, I sent off an email and made reservations with a minshoku hotel near the beach (and the bar).

And then, about four days ago, I checked the weather forecast. Would you guess it? It was forecasted to be raining all weekend long. Of course, it would start Saturday morning and finish Sunday evening. Three weeks of no rain and suddenly, right when I want to actually use the sunshine, this happens.

As it so happens, the weatherman was right on. It came down on us like a game of whack-a-mole. And then, half an hour after arriving back in the apartment that I call home, the rain stopped. Sigh.

Snowman did not particularly enjoy the rain. In fact, I would say that it put something of a damper on his entire weekend. I didn't particularly enjoy the rain either, but I wouldn't say that it completely ruined the weekend. Sure, I didn't get to sit in the sun, go kayaking, or play frisbee in the water. But I did get to sit at the bar and crack jokes with fellow foreigners until the sun went down. I did get to see the islands of the Seto Inland Sea wreathed in a fog. And I did get to watch fireflies glow like tiny, blue LEDs as the nighttime waves rolled in.

I noticed, too, that the locals seemed not to care much that the world had suddenly turned grey. Snowman and I went to a place for lunch that served cheese curry. By the way, cheese curry is delicious. Especially for all you Poutine lovers out there, I highly recommend it. At any rate, the place is run by a family that goes to Shiraishi for the summer, but lives in Tokyo during the rest of the year.

The family had a cat and their cat was hilarious. Not that it actually did anything to warrant that descriptor; I'm calling it hilarious because of its face. It was completely flat and disproportionately tiny, especially in comparison to its eyes. After seeing those eyes, I understand anime so much better. Even more hilariously, though, it had what looked like a bushy white mustache. Most of its fur was grey and shaggy, except for its muzzle, which was bright white. The whole package reminded me of a perennially startled, disheveled professor. Probably a professor of Confucian philosophy, but don't quote me on that.

Discounting the cat, which surely belongs to a group of its own, the family consisted of a mother, a daughter, and a son (though the son may have been a boyfriend, I'm not too sure). Not one of them showed a single sign of displeasure at the weather. In fact, I can't think of a moment when there wasn't at least one person smiling at something. Most of the time, they chatted jovially, smoked on their porch, and played with the cat. Even Snowman and I were drawn in as we consumed their cheesy curry-goodness. For the time we were in that ramshackle little building, negativity had no place.

If there's one thing I can take from my weekend, it's this: don't waste time being negative. If something unexpected happens, oh well. There's fun things to be found, too. Look to those things and enjoy them. I haven't been in Japan very long, so I can't say for certain, but that attitude seems very prevalent and I'd like to imagine I can attain it too.

Thus: the rain was unexpected, yes, but I did enjoy my time on Shiraishi. In fact, the owners of the Moo Bar mentioned an end-of-the-season party in which attendees would have the task of drinking the bar dry. It's supposed to take place on the last weekend of September. So I expect I'll be back again, rain or shine... though a little bit of shine would nice.

~Jeffles

A Glimpse Into the Future?

Konnichiwa! Hisashiburi da ne?

(Google it if you don't understand.)

I would apologize for not having been around, but I have been around. Just, I've been on youtube. That's right, I have two new videos up! Watch 'em, love 'em, spread 'em around like hot butter on a slab of toast.

You can find them here and here respectively. The intro is new. Is it too long? Not enough sparkly transitions? Need more nearly-naked cat-girls? Let me know what you think.

So, I've covered a lot in the videos, but there's just no way to cover it all. That's what this here blog is for.

As I mentioned in the previous blog post, my days have been so completely filled up that I honestly have no free time. That hasn't changed much. I think it will start to calm down a bit starting tomorrow, but only be for a short while. Once school starts up in September, I'm going to be crazy busy. I have eight different schools to go to, the majority of which require at least a half-hour bike ride...

Anyway, last weekend was yet another festival. It was really quite cool. I did take video of it and will be uploading another youtube jvlog soon, but there are some things that weren't captured on camera.

One of the previous ALTs, a successor of ours, came back to town for the evening. You see, he still had some things left here and needed to pick them up. He also was going to go to the Milky Way festival with us. So as a result, we all got to meet him.

I mention this because it is interesting to me. The majority of foreigners that I have met here in Japan have been people who are themselves new to Japan. We commiserate over our lack of Japanese language ability. We try to muddle through designing our first lesson. We come face-to-face, time and time again, with strange and weird Japanese customs. I won't even go into trying to navigate the train system. Then here comes this guy.

It's hard to explain what it was like to meet him for the first time. His hair, the color of granite, had been buzzed close to his head. Half his fingers were adorned with huge, intricate rings. Each one was different from the next, yet all were the size of small boulders. Around his neck hung a steampunk stopwatch that he said he picked up in Tokyo (or was it Osaka?) for about ￥2500. That it didn't work hardly seemed to matter.

Yet that doesn't really describe him either. He was a bundle of energy, but carried himself as if consciously subduing an inner beast that really, at the end of the day, just wanted to play. The first time I heard him speak, there were three young kids literally hanging off him to try and get the basketball in his hands. Without skipping a beat, he introduced himself to us, dislodged the children, and swished the ball.

As night fell and a dinner of somen noodles and incredible local fruit ended, we arrived at the festival. It was a bit of a drive as it was taking place up in the hills and we all lived in the town, but none of us really minded. It was something different, after all. Who doesn't like a little change of pace?

The minute we stepped onto the festival grounds, the scene transformed from one where we were simply strangers to one where gaggles of school children were swarming on our ring-clad sempai. What did he do? He reveled. Group after group after group came clambering over to him. He, cool as a a breeze on a hot summer day, dealt with them one by one, the smile never leaving his face. He took their energy and threw it right back at them. He challenged them to speak to us and they accepted the challenge, because it was he that posed it to them. They asked for pictures. They talked about their summers. They couldn't get enough.

And then he stepped away and left us. There were photos to take and he had to take them. Alone, we explored the festival grounds.

No one approached us. No one ran at us, shouting our names with glee. I bought some fried pork on a stick and chewed it thoughtfully, getting little more than a curious glance as the seller realized I was a gaijin. This man, our sempai, had only been here a year and had already garnered such a following. I supposed it was only natural. Kids are kids and they love strange things. He certainly was strange. And now he had moved on to bigger and better things. There was some sort of quasi-Christian, Buddhist sect in Kyoto that he said he was staying with. Soon they'd be sending him to Korea to further their mission of world peace. It sounded almost fictional.

Fireworks and a bonfire of paper lanterns plus tree brought the festival to an end. We returned to town. Our sempai took two of us out for drinks where, in spite of running on three hours of sleep, he displayed yet more of his genki self. At one point, he was so caught up in the story he was telling that he found it necessary to stand on his chair while he waved his hands and filled the one-room bar with his voice. No doubt drawn in by his energy, some guys at the bar top treated us to okonomiyaki and some dried squid thing (it was actually quite delicious). Finally, fatigue overtook us and we went our separate ways. He displayed one last act of generosity and paid for the entire night.

As I biked home down my narrow little street, I couldn't help but wonder what kind of man I would become in a year.

~Jeffles

Jeffles In Inaka

It's been a while. Honestly, I've been too busy to post much. Besides that, I don't actually have internet at home yet and there's no place with public internet access nearby. I have work, but well, it's work. Anyway, I figure it's okay for now. I get internet at home tomorrow apparently, so it's not like I'll be making a habit of this.

Right, I should explain. I'm living in Japan now. My blog title is finally accurate!

My town is a tiny place on the western border of Okayama prefecture. Well, I say tiny, but there are definitely smaller places. Out of all the inaka (middle-of-nowhere/rural places), we're probably one of the largest locations. Even so, it's pretty rural. I live in town, but the majority of the region is little more than hills upon rice fields upon yet more hills. It is absolutely gorgeous. I've already said that a thousand times to nearly everyone, but it bears repeating.

The street I live on is very much in the old Japanese style. It is a single lane (though traffic goes both ways, of course) that winds in something that may have been trying to approximate a straight line. The buildings on either side are largely wooden buildings with sliding door entrances. Nothing is larger than two stories and hidden alleyways lurk everywhere. Biking down the street is... well, feels a bit dangerous, but I haven't been hit yet. This is promising. I just have to ignore all the times I've almost been hit. :D

Next door to my apartment building is a Buddhist temple. If you're on my facebook, there's a picture of it there in my mobile uploads. I'm not sure what sect of Buddhism it is, though... to be honest, I'm a little intimidated by the place. I have yet to actually see anyone on the temple grounds. I could just pull out the gaijin card and wander in, but I'm trying to be a good neighbor!

Directly behind my apartment is what I've been told is a bar. I have to say that it looks pretty cool. It's kind of like a shed, the sort of thing that boys build in their backyard and claim as their fort. There are a couple shrines that surround it, too, and a small but well-tended yard in front. Some of the other ALTs and I have made plans to invade it at some later point... hopefully soon. It's another place I feel intimidated by...

I'm using a lot of ellipses today... I should cut down on that. Anyway, I hope that gives you a decent picture of where I'm living. My apartment itself is actually quite spacious. There's the genkan (entrance-way where you take off your shoes), a short hallway (about 15 feet long) with bathroom, washroom, and toilet room off to the side (each a separate room). Then there's a fairly large kitchen, a living room of equal size, and a Japanese-style tatami room of equal size. In Japanese measurements, it's a 6-mat room. For Americans/Canadians, I think that's about 9' x 9' for each room. It is, as I said, quite spacious.

As of tomorrow, I'll have been here for one week. It feels like twice as long, though, as every day has just been so full. Literally, every single day I've been busy. The first day we arrived, we had only enough time to get into our apartments and check out our bikes before we had to find our way to a nearby izakaya for our welcome party. Then the next day we had to set up our bank stuff and our phones (which took two days) and had another dinner out. The next day we went on a shopping trip for house items, finished getting our phones, and were granted an office-time trip to the art museum next door. That night was our first free night. I just went to sleep.

After that was the weekend and the summer festival (natsu matsuri). We had the days off to explore the town, but night time was reserved for the festival itself. The first night was the odori, or festival dance. As employees of city hall, we were expected to participate. That meant dancing in the streets for two or more hours. I lost track of time after a while. Because the dancers can't explore the festival stalls, though, we were all given booze and food for an hour before the dance began. The idea was: get drunk and dance. And yes, many people took full advantage. My alcohol tolerance didn't allow me to get super drunk, but I definitely appreciated the gesture. By the time the odori finished, I was completely exhausted. I checked out the remaining stalls and bought some yakiniku on a stick (which was so stringy - but delicious - that I nearly choked on it), hopped on my bike, and went home to sleep.

The next day was the hanabi (fireworks). It was also our sempai ALT's birthday (the ALT remaining from last year). So the town's local, unofficial, representative took us all out for some korean BBQ, which apparently is called yakiniku here (which confuses me immensely). Yakiniku means fried meat, which I thought was reserved entirely for fried beef, but I guess also refers to Korean BBQ. Anyway, that was super delicious and we headed out for the fireworks after. The fireworks were pretty spectacular themselves and I tried to take some video of it. Most of it turned out pretty blurry, but I think some of it might be usable. Apparently my camera is terrible at night-stuff. Sadness.

That marked the end of the natsu matsuri and the weekend. Yesterday I thought we would get some time just sitting around the office, but it turned out that we were off on a trip to the mountainous part of the area. One of us new ALTs has a house up there and will be teaching at schools in that area, so the bossman took us on a field trip. The mountainous area is, as is to be expected, even more rural and more beautiful. We drove around for a few hours and then got some ice cream, which was amazing. The day ended, I returned home, and I went to sleep again. Somehow, even that relatively easy day wore me out.

That was yesterday. Today has been much quieter. Our sempai ALT has gone back to the US for a few weeks. Apparently it's a big time for marriages. Go figure. I discovered that my washing machine doesn't work, so I got some help from one of the people around the office here and we went to my place to fix my washing machine. Hooray! Now I can have clean clothes! Super exciting, da ne? It was pretty funny watching him work. My Japanese isn't very good, so it ended up with him basically mumbling to himself and fiddling with things for an hour while I stood around like a scratching post. In the end everything worked out, though, and I am now eternally grateful. I was not looking forward to wearing curry-stained shirts to work.

That should more or less bring the internet world up to date. I could expand on any of the above points and illustrate the entire story, but this blog post is already long enough and there is just too much to cover!

Tomorrow the Okayama prefectural orientation begins. From what I've heard, it is not entirely useful, but I don't mind. I want to see Okayama City. And the final day we're going to Shiraishi, which is an island that has been described to me on several occasions as "a tropical paradise." I am quite looking forward to that. And it'll be cool to see how the other new JETs are doing. As I said, it's only been a week, but it feels like I've already been here for much longer.

~Jeffles