Adventures in Japan

Some News

Our internet connection's been down, but today it seems to be working again. Just in time to assuage your fears that we died in a horrible train wreck. We didn't. But we were in Amagasaki today. We were looking at an apartment. The landlord mentioned that there had been an accident this morning, but we didn't realize how bad it was until I got to work later in the day. Those of you who have seen the pictures may not realize this, but if you were to peel off the car wrapped around the corner of the building, you could see another train car inside. Unbelievable.

If you haven't seen the story, you can read more about it here: Link

Notes

So Carla has been training at her new job, so she hasn't had a lot of time for updating this here site. And I've been busy myself. I don't know if any of you out there can relate with or comprehend what I'm about to say: kids are exhausting. I'm sure I'm talking to myself here, for there is no one reading this who could know but: teaching kids is hard work. Just trust me on this one.

I come home from work everyday and want to just go to bed. Usually, that's just what I do. But I guess we shouldn't neglect this here blog.

So here are some random observations.

Japanese kids are cute. I mean really, really, really cute. Except for when they've got the snot problems. But man, they is cute.

Japanese kids that act like zombies are scary.

Zombies are scary.

We usually have a crafts portion of each class. The kids get to make eggs or calendars or whatever. Mainly, they make a mess! (Ba dum ching! Try the veal, I'll be here all week) Whilst the wee ones do their thang, kids songs are quietly played in the background. Sometimes the students sing along as they concentrate on staying inside the lines. When this happens, it is the cutest thing EVAR!!!

I don't know if I've mentioned this yet, but a lot of my students aren't even five yet. A good chunk of them are only two. They start 'em young over here. The sad thing is, their English is better than my Japanese. Jerks. Not only do they start them young, but they drive them hard. Some of the kids who are in grade school fall asleep during our classes because they just simply can't stay awake. They've got school for a good chunk of their day, plus all kinds of clubs, plus learning English.

Kids here are pushed to learn and excel. Then they reach college and just kick back. That's kinda the way it works here. Which makes my college teaching job pretty easy. In a way. I'm a pretty laid back, friendly guy. Which is what the students want. So yay me. But a lot of the students are not so good with the English. Which means I have to do most of the talking. These are ninety minute classes. Couple that with the fact that I have to be super happy all the time and do a million and one voices at my kid teaching job and my voice is showing signs of both wear and tear.

In our own special way, we miss Regina. Regina is special, in it's own special kind of way. But man, am I going to miss the luxuries of living in a big city. Strike that. Living in a metropolis. There's always something going on. For example, this weekend we took in the Escher exhibit. I like seeing the original artwork. I had no idea so much of his stuff was done with wood block. Gave me a new appreciation for the man. As did a lot of his earlier, less trippy stuff. Escher was quite the dab hand at portraiture. His landscapes were interesting. The first few were realistic, but then you could see him start to focus on the geometry of the landscapes. I think my favourite pieces of his were his self portraits. Himself reflected in spheres. His famous works were neat to see up close and personal, but I've never really liked his human figures in those paintings.

We walked from the Escher exhibit to the Working Holiday party. We barely had a chance to mingle when we were grabbed and thrown into a room full of Japanese wanting to go to Canada. As we talked about where to go and where not to go, I could feel my voice start to go. This is getting to be annoying.

Also annoying is the fact that I forget tonnes of other stuff that I wanted to mention. Umm... happy birthday Trev... Happy nuptuals Gayle and Cory.

Oh! I remembered something! I was sitting on a park bench. Playing my DS. A little Japanese boy rode by on his bike, saw my DS and swung back around. He parked his bike and came and sat next to me. He watched me play for a while and then just kinda started playing. I teach about 130 kids. I don't wear my glasses during lessons because if I did they would have been broken about 80 times by now. So I don't know if this kid is one of my students or not. It turns out not. Just some random kid. Name of Akira.

HanaYou

Carla wants me to write up our Hanami experience. But Carla spent so much more time at it than I did. I think I mentioned how I was worked into the ground on hanami day. My goodness, I did a lot of talking that day. By the time I got to the hanami it was so very very dark and a fair amount of people had already left. And, what with it being dark and all, the flower viewing wasn't so hot.

Still, I took some pictures.


This is like the only non-flash picture I took that night that looks not blurry. As a bonus, it also looks not crap.


But just because a picture is blurry, that doesn't mean I ain't gonna post it!


Not all these pictures need captions y'know!


It was about this time that I realized that I had had enough to drink.


But I hadn't had as much as these folks.


A typical evening.

I wanted to take some pictures the next day, but we stayed up a bit late so we slept in a bit late and then we had to go to David's birthday party. So no daytime flower pics yet. And it was super windy yesterday, which made for fantastic laundry doing (most stuff dried in about half an hour, the mid-twenties weather might have helped a bit too) but stripped some buds from the trees. Then there was a fair bit of rain last night, which took away even more flowers. I'm just trying to explain that there might not a lot of pretty pink pictures.

David's birthday was very enjoyable. Any night that starts out with Strongbulls can't be bad. It's science. And you know what really helps out on a night out in Japan? A Japanese person. They know where to go, how to get there, and what to order when you get there. It really makes the whole out-going process much easier. Carla and I, and Tina (a former Orange House-ian) couldn't spend all that money which was unfortunate. But these things happen. Plus Carla had to go to training for her new job early the next morning.

When I say the next morning, I mean this morning. David and I stayed up fairly late in the lounge at Orange House and then woke up fairly early. Yes, we fell asleep in the lounge. But we didn't get covered in bites this time. David stumbled off home and I helped Carla get ready for her big day. Right now, as I type theses very words, it is 11:00 am. I am so very tired. And I reckon I should at least try to find some pretty trees to take pictures of at some point during the sunny part of today. So tired. I think I might go have a nap. Later.


This is a picture of David drinking an alcoholic concoction so vile, it caused his spirit to leave his body.

Update: I did have a nap, and I did take some pictures. I just haven't picked which ones to post yet. Hopefully, this post will be posted soon.




Just in case you missed it the first time.


The same tree as last night, but with less night.








Kinda gross. Yet still kinda pretty. Wait - no. Just gross.






I was lucky enough to find this old guy feeding birds. I took all kinds of arty pictures of this scene and then took this regular one. All the arty pictures sucked.


However, I sure do like this somewhat arty picture of a duck. I like ducks. Even this one. He is a dirty, dirty duck.

Sprung

Just thought I'd dash off a quick blog while I wait for me phone to charge.

So, spring is here. You can tell because of all the cherry blossoms. It's crazy. They all bloomed over night. And this might make me less of a man, but pink trees sure are pretty. The trees are all fluffy and pink, the air is warm, tonnes of people are wearing masks (to block the pollen): yup, spring is here.

Speaking of pollen, I've kind of gotten used to feeling not 100 per cent. With the weather this nice, it's a compromise I'm willing to make. Plus, did I mention the pretty trees? That's where I'm off to soon, and that is where Carla is right now: at a hanami (cherry blossom viewing party). That might sound kind of lame, but like all of the best Japanese traditions, it's really just an excuse to drink.

I'm getting there pretty late because work went way long. In addition to teaching kids, I also have to make audio materials. Well, I don't make them really, I just have to read what is put in front of me. Over and over and over and over again. Yeah, I spent ten hours at work today. My throat hurts a little. Oh well. Nothing a little hanami can't fix.

Later. Hopefully we'll post some pictures.