Evan's Birthday

Celebrated Evan's birthday a couple of weeks ago at the Torikan. It apparently has the best chicken in Japan. Not sure but it was pretty good. Then went for the obligatory karaoke session.

As you can see Evan enjoys hamming it up for the camera!

As does Iwan! I think I look slightly demonic in this picture with my red eyes.

Japanese people eat the strangest thing together. Here is Tamami with an icecream cones and chicken. She is holding the chicken with chopstick no less.

The guys were all excited about these HUGE beer at the torikan but they were somewhat disapointing when I finally viewed them. I think they are slightly smaller than a schooner at BP's.

How beautiful we are!

musical!

Since the musical has taken up alot of my time I figured I should include some pics.

These are courtesy of Justine who is an amazing photographer I must say.
The fabulous lighting you see was designed by moi!

Ensemble picture.

Crazy Willy Wonka. You thought the movie version was strange.

Mr. Bush and Buddy Bush wonderful representations of Americans.

And check out that lighting! Spoiled English brat and frazzled mother.

at least it's snowy somewhere!

We had a musical performance in Nagaoka on Saturday and since it was close to some of the best mountains in Niigata we decided to stay over and go snowboarding the next day! We went to this nice little izakaya in Tokamachi that looked like a log cabin. It was very cozy and the proprietors were the most outgoing Japanese people I have ever met. The woman was patting my head and what not shortly after meeting. Japanese people tend to avoid physical contact like the plague so I was a bit surprised! The "Masta" was completely unable to say my name, even the Japanasized version, so I had to write it down for him. It translates to Jeneru because they don't have l s in their language. Anyhow, it was a really nice place and served good food as well.

This is the best picture I could get of the building because the delay on my night function is atrocious. I decided to add it as a work of art!!

We were up fairly early the next day to head off to snowboarding. We saw one of Russell's friends the night before at the cabin and he assured us we would leave at 7:00am. We should have know better because he had a bit of a load on so we didn't leave until 9:00. It had been snowing all night so there was wonderful powder on the ground. Unfortunately, when we got to the mountain, Kagura I think, it was closer to blizzard like conditions and the day was pretty crappy. It didn't hurt as much to fall but your face frozen while going down the mountain.

On the drive there we passed this guy who had fallen in what we like to call a gajin trap. Along most Japanese roads there is a foot and half concrete ditch for water drainage. The roads are quite small here and I have heard of many gajin who have fallen pray to these beast. Anyhow, we pulled over and asked if he wanted help but he declined our generous offer so I decided to take a picture of him and immortalize him in his embarrassment.

v day in japan

Well Valentine's day has rolled around once again and the stores are full of chocolate and ....playboy underwear? In Japan women are the ones typically giving gifts on Valentine's day. The department stores were packed with women scrambling for boxes of chocolate. It seems it is most often chocolate but there were other strange gifts seen around the department stores such as playboy underwear in a package with whisky. Women will give to co-workers, bosses, friends and significant others but if a woman gives something to a man it can also be seen as and indication of attraction. Apparently in March there is a day men are suppose to reciprocate and this can be the clincher for the beginning of a relationship. I am not surprised women must be the first to indicate; Japanese men are as bad as girls and will sit in the corner and giggle rather than growing a pair and approaching a female. I was contemplating buying for the male teachers but I don't like very many of them so I decided not. Although women are suppose to give gifts on this day I have received a box of chocolates and some bubble bath already today. Yay Japan!

results

It is official....I am staying in Agamachi!

changes in Agamachi

The board of education in Aga-machi has decided to combine three out of the four current junior high school in our town. Because there will be fewer JHSs, they have decided to cut down the number of ALTs they employ. Next year there will only be three (from 4) and the year after there will only be two. We had thought that one person was not going to re-contract and thus no problem but all of us have rec-ontracted and are now in competition for the three spots. We had an interview on Friday that I had thought went well until I talked the others and it seems I was asked a few more questions than the rest. All the others have been here longer and thus can speak more Japanese than I and know more people. As I see it I have two factors on my side, I am in my first year thus the possibility that I would stay longer and I am the only female. We will find out this week who will have to move. There is another ALT in our town who works for the prefecture and who will be leaving this year. We are hoping that the person who is not picked to re-contract with the town can be moved to this position but who really knows with Japanese thinking. I like my school and my apartment and do not want to move so I am sitting here with my fingers crossed.

business trip

Monday and Tuesday we had a conference in Niigata for all the JETs in our prefecture. There were a couple boring speeches and useless workshops but on the whole I was impressed. There was some valuable info and some new ideas that I am excited to try. Went to a session on teaching phonics and I was surprised to learn that most of the world learned to read without phonics. I suppose I lived in my bubble that was JHS and have know nothing different. Anyhow, I think Japanese students should learn phonics rather than rote memorization because their pronunciation is atrocious and they tend to rely on a system of symbols they have called katakana which does not allow a consonant to exist without a vowel so they are always adding vowels onto everything ex "and" is "ando". Anyhow, it was a nice opportunity to see everyone and meet some new people.

The boys in our hotel lobby somewhat inappropriately named Hotel Rich.

We ate at a Japanese restaurant before going out on the Monday. This sign was near the door. The horrible English is quite common place in Japan.

There was a party at Shame that night to raise money for the musical. The theme was schoolboy/ school girl ...I guess our turn to be Japanese students. I am such a sucker for dressing up and not many did so I won a prize.

Australia Day

Apparently last Friday was Australia day and Evan insisted we celebrate it, so we headed to the local Ya. It was packed with loud, drunken, smoking Japanese people so we went to Masta's instead. Evan brought an assortment of Aussie delicacies including kangaroo jerky, Vegemite and Bundaberg Rum. The jerky was alright the Vegemite was disgusting and the rum was good until the next morning.

Evan with jerky and what Jimmy described as manure(vegemite).

A bit un-Aussie like but we ended up eating Udon nabe which was super delicious.

Evan ended up getting to most inebriated and poor Yuka had the unfortunate luck to be sitting next to him.

Along with the food Evan sang some Australian songs, much to our regret, and we learned a bit about the colonization of Australia. The rum encouraged multifarious subjects of discussion from the war in Iraq to how the Japanese school system deals with mentally handicapped students. It was a good time and I'll celebrate Aussie day any year... let's not go snowboarding the next day though!

He has the big 23 coming up this Saturday! Happy Birthday Evan!

crazy cooking!

Okay so I have been to two restaurants in the past week where you have to cook your own food! It must be a common thing in Japan because even at run of the mill restaurants you will have a bowl of soup cooking on the table or perhaps your rice over a small burner. Anyhow the first restaurant was in Sanjo and I can't remember the name of the type of food/ cooking but Melissa described it as puke tossed on a grill and cooked. Now perhaps it did look somewhat like the aforementioned description but it was actually really good.

Mmmmm vomitty goodness!

Look ma I'm cooking!

Apparently Paul is doing something wrong!

After, cooking our supper (yes we say supper in Canada) we went to karaoke yet again. Although I don't sing I still tend to enjoy it but I was wiped so I slept through most of it. Kristen graced us with her first and supposedly only time singing. Paul and Phil were a riot and sang quite a few songs I had forgotten existed.

This past weekend the last musical rehearsal was in Niigata and we went to a yakiniku restaurant. I had been anticipating this style of food because it is basically meat (even beef!) cooked on a grill and was mucho oishi. Our grill, however, was spewing out flames and a few extremities were a but toasty. Shanna felt she had to make to whole restaurant aware of this by shrieking each time it occurred but we did get an extra twenty minutes added onto our cooking time because of it.

Nabe Pot

I attended my first Nabe party a couple weeks ago at my principals house. It was an interesting mix because the attendees consisted of the oldest staff members the principal and vice-principal (not to mention bosses) and the youngest teachers. Anyhow, it was an interesting event and I actually helped cook, although they insisted on handing me vegetable that I had never seen and had no idea how to prepare. Nabe is essentially a bunch of things cooked in a pot. I believe it is normally a special pot cooked in the middle of the table. I guess we went low key, because it was a normal if slightly rusty pot cooked on top of the kerosene heater. Decent food and good fun but too much sake. I was surprised when I heard before hand that we would be drinking ( it was a Tuesday night and we all had to work the next day) but I brought a bottle of Crown Royal to share. Not only was drinking allowed it was forced down your throat. My Kyoto-sensei insisted on making me try various kinds of sake and I can now say sake causes the worst hang-over I have ever had. It was a semi- New Years party as well and in Japan they have this new years decoration made out of bamboo. Kyoto-sensei cut down the decoration and they were using it to pour sake.

One of the teachers cutting a block of tofu on her hand! The pot on the heater.

We also had another karaoke session at Masta's or I think it is really called Agawanosho or something like that. This picture would leave you to believe that it is called Bell Soeur and is a nice and clean place. Actually it is pretty gross and dirty but Masta was allowing us to grab full bottles of alcohol and keep them on our table. The man with the frizzy hair is Masta.

Tamami and I

Misael and James busting out the tunes.

Evan with two lucky ladies.