Fukuoka

Last week, I realized it was Thanksgiving when Vaughn asked me, "Are you doing a Thanksgiving lesson tomorrow?". The answer was "no" because it had completely slipped my mind. I was leaving Thursday night for Fukuoka, cause it was a three day weekend. Friday was 'Work Gratitude Day' in Japan, or Labor Thanksgiving.

Got into Fukuoka City around 10:00 p.m. and met some of Yuka's work friends. Afterwards, we stayed at one of her friend's apartment and played Wii Tennis and Monopoly. The evil American capitalist (me) played until he owned every piece of property, which took until 5 am. Found out later they thought it was funny how into it I was. We'll see who's laughing when I increase your interest 5%...

Friday we shopped around a little bit for...my new hard drive! All 160 GB of it. Then we took the hour and half train ride to see Yuka's family. I feel more and more nervous every time I meet them because I feel they are expecting more out of me language wise. Her mom is fine and I can kind of talk to her, but her dad is a brick wall. He likes taking me out to dinner and randomly giving me his old clothes, but most of the time we just sit in awkward silences.

In a bit of irony, found out that he knows the superintendent in Kurume, the town I wanted to be placed in for JET. Had I asked him to say something, I apparently would have gotten my request. I think the Theory of JET Placement proves this wrong, however. I asked if he could mention my transfer request to Kurume, but since he doesn't work there anymore, he can't ask for a favor.

Saturday I had a 'job interview' for a kindergarten in Kurume. The owner is the brother of one of Yuka's friends (I love connections). The kindergarten is a rich-kid's kindergarten, where doctors and the like send their kids to learn English. Job pays $600 less a month than JET, but the work week is 23 hours. It also has a end-of-contract bonus of $1200. I'll take it. Problem is, Japanese schools start in April, to coincide with the coming of spring. So I would begin April 2009. My JET contract will end August 2008. If I get my JET transfer approved, then I won't worry about it, but if I don't...I'll think about that later.

Saturday night, I met up with Josh, the JET from UF who requested Osaka but got the place I wanted. It was nice to FINALLY talk NCAAF to someone. For those who don't keep track, UF demolished FSU last Saturday in what looked like a Div I vs Div III match up. And Tenn winning the SEC East? They are ranked lower than UGA and UF!

This Sunday is the Japanese Language Proficiency Test. The once a year test that foreigners have to take so they can get a job where Japanese is required. There are 4 levels, with 4-kyu being the easiest and 1-kyu being the hardest. Most jobs require a 1-kyu certificate, but the other levels are there to help pace people working their way up (or down depending on how you look at the numbers). I will be taking 3-kyu, with plans to take 2-kyu next year and 1-kyu the year after. Am I ready? Ehh...

China`s Next Recall...

...my Macbook harddrive. I was working on lesson plans and my program froze. This has happened about twice since I got my computer, so I forced-restarted it and I get a blank grey screen with clicking noises coming from the Macbook. Clicking noises = death of harddrive. I immediately jump on Apple`s support page and see TONS of complainsts from people who have had this happen to them in the past week. It`s all from people who bought the first generation of Macbooks. After a little more searching, I found the problem is the Seagate harddrive manufactured in China.

I had my harddrive crash (not fail) three times in college, and I always say a good data loss is good for the mind. Get to clear things out and start anew, like drawing on a fresh piece of white paper. It`s the existential crisis of the modern age, and you either move on or you don`t. Since I have no money for another 2 weeks, I am computer-less for that time also. I will now sit in my room with an Orion, stare at the ceiling, and contemplate the meaning of life.

That said, I am NOT happy with Apple. I don`t care if it is a Seagate problem. Apple only allows its operating system to run on Apple hardware. The argument for this to allow greater quality in it`s products. But some people are saying it is not just the Seagate drives with the 7.01 firmware. What if it`s some flaw with the Macbooks? Am I suppose to expect a crashing one a year?

Luckily a new drive is cheap. I will be getting a $100 160GB drive and go ahead and get Leopard. So if this does happen again, I`ll have Time Machine running.

Anyone interested in buying a Macbook?

Shioya Sunday

Today was わくわく塩や子のタイム, or Shioya Kid's Fun Time...on a Sunday. I would personally find more fun on a Sunday away from school, but that's just me. I was told there would be food cooked by the kids. Free lunch will get me anywhere. With the help of family, the 3rd, 5th, and 6th graders prepared a feast, while the 1st, 2nd, and 4th graders did arts and crafts.

The most impressive thing was the food the 6th graders caught in the bay that the school sits next to: fish, crab, shark, and ray. Again, kids handled knifes and blow torches. It all feels normal to me now, and I know I'll be having a reverse culture shock when it comes to school kids. A JET's mother visited last week, and she was saying how a teacher is not allowed to touch a kid at all. I can't imagine not giving hugs to my kindergartners or 1st graders.

Updated my Flickr account. Enjoy the slaughter.

100 Days Old

In America, we have baby showers, a small gathering which men try to avoid to celebrate the baby who is about to be born.

In Japan, they celebrate the baby's first 100 days. So last night, Elina and I went to my supervisor Tacchi's parent's house for such a celebration. We didn't know what to expect, but both of us had not eaten dinner in the hope of getting free snacks. We arrive to see a giant over hang erected with people sitting at tables. The event was one large feast. There was no time frame for how long it lasted. People would arrive, eat, and leave to give their seat to others. I think at least a 100 people came in and out. We delivered our gifts (mine was the Japanese translation of Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar) and were given a huge plate of food plus a bowl of goat soup. After finishing, it was decided that the soup wasn't a good enough introduction to eating goat, so they served us goat sashimi. Yep, raw goat. Yum. Apparently goat is the food to eat at these 100 day parties. How was this paid for? We found out that the gift to bring is money. Before I left I saw a garbage bag full of envelopes.

Beer and the ubiquitous awamori were the drinks of the evening. One thing that still surprises me is how a lot of my kids were there, and when I would run into them, they would shout, "Haha, Cliff-sensei is drunk!". I wasn't (that much) for the record. But Japan has a huge drinking culture where if you don't drink, you are weird. One teacher was telling me a few weeks ago how there is a problem with junior high and high school kids drinking. I wonder why.

I enjoy these events because I get some good speaking practice. All the old men come up to you and want to say a "Hello" in English. Then you say something in Japanese, usually "Hello" back, and they flip out. This is considered fluency, so they'll run their mouth telling you some story. I just pretended that I understood by nodding my head.

One old guy there was a magician! He was walking around the tables doing hand tricks for people. This guy was awesome. One trick he did for me was poke a hole into a ¥1000 note with a pen, pulled it out and there was no hole. Mind you, this is at close range, too. No clue how he did it. Then he had a ¥10 coin and a ¥100 coin. One is copper, the other is silver. He had the silver coin in his closed fist and the copper coin sitting on top of his fist. He tapped the copper coin with a pen, and, I swear, it turned into the silver coin. It literally flickered into the silver coin! I think this further confirms my theory that Ogimi is run by vampires that meddle in the dark arts.

When I left, I was given gifts for showing up. Got a set of pink hand towels and a large cake with chocolate frosting. A nice weekend snack.

Weekly Activities

The first thing I noticed after graduating from college was that I had no homework! However, my body has been in grind mode for so long, that when I get home at 4:30, I'm completely bored. The summer leading up to Japan I watched lots and lots of movies. Now, I am without Netflix and it takes about a week to download a movie. What am I to do?

Tues - Karate with four other JETs: Elina, Vaughn, Justin and Emily. The teacher is about 55 and completely hardcore. He speaks little English, but enough to get points across. Plus, with our JET powers combined, we can usually figure out what he means. Practice is an hour and a half, and I sweat about a gallon. Workout = intense.

Thurs - Calligraphy and Chinese lessons. There is a Chinese lady who takes karate with us, and she mentioned that she gives Chinese lessons once a week. So me and another JET show up and we do an informal Chinese/ Japanese/ English lesson. Since English is her third language, I use it for more of a Japanese class. I'm not putting that much effort into the Chinese, but the other guy is.

Half way through Chinese, I go to calligraphy lessons, which is in the same building. Justin, the other JET, then spends the time I'm away learning kanji from the Chinese lady, since he's a noob. Calligraphy is awesome and very difficult. Calligraphy has always been in that 'I don't get it' category. Other activities have been art and golf. I've found that I 'get' something as soon as I attempt it myself. That's when you learn to respect pros.

Fri - Karate again. Another 1.5 hours of sweat

There's a youth sports group here in Ogimi, and when I first moved here, I met a few of the members. They all asked, "Do you play basketball? Do you play baseball? Do you play soccer?" I said I did and thought I felt an encouragement to join. A few weeks ago, I asked a girl at the village office to find out when practices were. I asked her cause she knows everyone and speaks really good English. She said basketball hasn't started yet, but that there were baseball and soccer practices. Since baseball is lame, I asked to join the soccer practices.

She came back with a flat 'no'. I have been shamed.

The reason for not being allowed to play soccer is that the 'leader' is really serious. So serious that they play games every now and then against other villages. So serious that they practice once a week. So serious that the leader, apparently, tried to go Pro. That's why he now lives in the Middle-Of-Nowhere, Okinawa.

I don't get it. If they were worried that I sucked, ask me to come try out. I'd be okay with not making the cut. What is the real reason? I think they don't want to attempt to communicate with me. They probably know I won't understand everything being said. When I think of the communication barrier, assuming I'm right, I can almost understand their position. But then I think, 'What if this happened in Florida?'. What if I had a group of friends that played soccer, then one of them mentions a friend Pedro that wants to join, but he doesn't speak English?

He would be more than welcome to play.