*rumble* hehe

J76 Sunday, June 3rd 2007

Wee earthquakes! Yesterday and the day before Hitachi was subject to three little earthquakes, though the last one was by far the strongest I've felt since I've come to Japan. I've experienced about 7 earthquakes, that I remember, though my students have claimed to feel some that I haven't.

Earthquakes are different in Japan than in California. Japanese earthquakes are slightly more gentle, with a side-to-side motion rather than an up-down motion. Of course, this is being 'gentle' on a geolithic scale, so they can still feel pretty violent. No worries, though; all the ones I've been through have been quite calm.

So, yesterday was Saturday, the day of Doom. I'll tell you about them, now.

Saturdays are the busy day. The final push. They're for all the people that don't have time during the working week to come in to class. People who miss classes during the week can usually make them up on Saturdays, too. What results is an early, super-busy day. I had 7 classes yesterday, starting at 10 AM. Remember how I normally get into work between 11:30 and 12:30? Yeah, not on Saturday.

My day starts off with 4 classes in a row. Then I get an hour break. Then another two classes back-to-back, and finally my last class. Everything ends at 7, at which point we do our cleaning and prep-for-tomorrow stuff again, and then dash off to enjoy Saturday night. My weekends are Sunday/Monday, but my weekend truly begins after work on Saturday. Imagine the excitement of both Friday and Saturday night, crammed into one.

What do I do on my weekends? I'm glad you asked! Saturday night is usually spent at the local gyoza bar, G-Bros. Gyoza are Japanese dumplings; filled with any number of delicious meats and/or veggies, they can be steamed, boiled, grilled, or fried. G-Bros. is run by two brothers, Hiro and Tomo, who are both bikers. Hiro speaks pretty good English, and Tomo is learning thanks in part to the number of foreigners that hang out there. It's our go-to spot, our fall back. It's the place all we foreigners know and love and can meet at, come rain or shine. The hosts are friendly and welcoming.

It took me a few weeks to haul my butt down to G-Bros., mostly due to exhaustion. But once I had recuperated from my lessons, I took a trip with M-sensei there, and was blown away. It was just so awesome. They have a great big plasma TV, usually tuned to an international MTV-like channel with no VJs, just music videos. You can order all sorts of American, European, and Japanese beverages. I've embraced Japanese beer (a variety of alcohol I thought I would never like) and I've even come to like Guinness. They serve a mean caesar salad (my usual dish) but the gyoza is what I really love.

I have many favorites. Chicken and onion is tasty. Super garlic is amazing. Pork and kim-chee is rapidly becoming my favorite. But the king that sits upon the throne has to be their Apple Pie Gyoza. I swear to God. They stuff little gyoza skins with home-made apple pie filling, fry them so the skins become like pie crust, then serve with a dollop of vanilla ice cream, a spoonful of whipped cream, a side of apple goo, and the whole thing is sprinkled with cinnamon. Indescribable in its deliciousness.

The gang I hang with is a diverse group. K is sort of the leader, having been here nearly the longest. He's from Manchester, UK, and works for an English school called Geos. Dan, an ex-restaurant owner-now-surfer is from Australia, also in Geos. Clive, who got to Hitachi my third week here, is from South London, and works at Nova. There's Pura and Gina, Nova teacher roomies from the States (Florida and somewhere else, I think). Ginie and Claire, also Nova teacher roomies (from somewhere and Glasgow, Scottland). Claire is almost the newest teacher, just barely being beaten by Clive's new roomie Matt, from Canada (also a Nova teacher). And, of course, M-sensei, my co worker, from Detroit, then Arizona, and finally Seattle.

After we have a grand old time drinking and talking and relaxing, I usually head home around 1 or 2 AM. Some nights we've done things as a group. We played Capture the Flag when E.J. was here one Saturday night. Last night the gang went to Mito to go clubbing, but I had other plans, plus a burning need to actually get 8 hours of sleep. I relaxed at home by myself for the first time in nearly a month last night, and I feel about 10 times better for it.

It's 11:30 AM now, and I want to get out of the apartment. There's a martial arts gym to the north of town that I want to check out, and I'm feeling up and at-em for a good bike ride. I am a bit hungry, though, so I'll probably grab a small breakfast at a convenience store (shortened to conbini in Japanese slang).

I've gotten to missing a lot of my old life. Nothing too weepy or soul-crushing, but I'll remember something I used to do and miss it a little, from time to time. I wish I could find some good crafting materials, just to keep my skills up. What I wouldn't give for my craft boxes; my yards of leather and nylon line, my beads and trinkets and clasps.

And now, an Old Journal post! Amazing!

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[Original day written: Tuesday, February 27th 2007 at 11:50AM]


J5.0
Miyagi-taicho (taicho = captain/boss) is here. The president of my company, the founder. On the rare occasion that I would see a Japanese business man in Atlanta, I would always get an odd vibe from them. One almost of serenity, of inscrutability. I guess that's a cultural aspect the Japanese have cultivated through the ages, because I certainly feel that now. Miyagi-taicho is very...present. When he's in the room all eyes fall to him. He gave a speech about our duties as teachers and what was important in our jobs. Mostly a lot of boring corp-speak, but some of it was interesting. Especially the time when he demonstrated his chi flow.

Chi (pronounced "ki" or "key") is an Asian metaphysical concept, namely that within us flows energy that can be manipulated. It can influence our mood, and vice versa. Crazy martial artists claim they can leap tall buildings and punch through walls using chi, but mostly the theories and practices are about mental and physical balance and health. Miyagi-taicho demonstrated how his chi flow changed his body, and he claimed, both his attitude and the attitude of anyone he was teaching. It was...different. He would say a phrase that was either negative or positive, and then have one of the trainees push him. If he said something negative ("I hate you.") his body became easy to push. If he said something positive ("I love you.") his body became resilient and immobile. The trainee who pushed him swore he didn't feel Miyagi-taicho's body change in any way during the demonstration.

Spoooooooooooky.

I teach tonight...

J5.1
My first teaching assignment is a success! I instructed 5 Japanese women through a basic lesson. I was amazed that they were actually learning what I taught them, even though I only had them for less than an hour. Amazing!

[EDITOR: I'm putting a few days in this post 'cause these entries were a little small. Training was kind of boring....until the last weekend ;) MORE FORESHADOWING!]

[Original day written: Wednesday, February 28th 2007 at 12:00AM]

J6.0
Went to McDonald's for the first time in Japan. Had a Whopper. Same as an American Whopper. Tried to get online, but the wireless...didn't work. Or something; the staff wasn't able to help me. Jeff tried the MegaMac, a burger that is literally two Whoppers stacked on top of one another:



Later, we went to a Japanese Starbucks and had coffee (I had hot chocolate) while we did our homework. We all got back at different times. I had some free time, so I finished reading Perdido Street Station. [EDITOR: I'll have a book review on this sometime in the future.]

[Original day written: Thursday, March 1st 2007]

J7.0
[EDITOR: This entry was just lots of training notes. I hadn't settled on a format that I liked for my entries, yet. Included for temporal consistency.]


[Original day written: Friday, March 2nd 2007]

J8.0
Today is my final day in training. It's the ultimate test: I will teach a full lesson to actual students. I've studied, I've memorized, I've tried to do my best to remember everything I've been taught this past week. I think I'm ready. I just need to remember to go with the flow and just teach. It's not hard.

J8.1
Success! My lesson is taught! I totally kicked butt! It was an intermediate level lesson about food. I followed the steps and tried to remember to smile. The students had a great time, and they learned something, too. I feel great!

The other trainees want to go out to Roppongi. Roppongi is the night club area of Tokyo. I'm not one for clubbing, and both Brain and Tara gagged when I mentioned the name; neither of them like it very much. I've been thinking of getting in touch with Tom Culpepper and hanging out with him for a while.

J8.2
They're gone to parts unknown. Time to make calls!

J8.3
This is taking a while...

J8.4
Plans are made! I grab a taxi to the train station! I barely make my train! I take it to the middle of no where and wait for a bus! The bus takes me further out into nowhere, perhaps on the other side of it! I get off at the place I was instructed, and wait in the cold for Tom. He says he's walking to me. 45 minutes later I see him, decked out in his aloha shirt and leather jacket and khakis and hat, like I'd seen him the day he left (minus the jacket).

[EDITOR: This is from the next day, but I like the shot and it's essentially what he was wearing. Plus is was cold.]

We hiked back to his place, grabbing some dinner for me at the nearby (and I use the term loosely) conbini. I chowed down and we hit the hay. Tomorrow we will take a tour of Ota, the town where Tom has lived for the past year, and then go into Tokyo to see Harajuku.