Okay, okay, okay, okay…okay. Sorry that nothing has been updated in a while. Things got really busy really fast. We’ve finished teaching at both Kasukabe and Ohanajaya now. The kids were awesome and they liked us a lot. I miss them very much now that all the teaching is done. All the teachers and even the chairman of the entire Kyoei corporation loved us! I’m really regretting not writing each day after class. Sadly there was not enough time. We had a lot of work after each day and it really was impossible to update. I promise I will retrospect on the teaching experience. It would be a crime not to. It was most definitely the best part of the trip.
Today was the day we moved out of the Ohanajaya Apartments. It was a little rougher than I’d hoped, but after much discussion the Fellowship of Nine was broken. Well, there are eight of us, but Dutak was eaten by a Morktor at the battle of Na. Also, Alex left this morning for the airport and I assume at this point he is at hour sixteen of his sixty-eight hour flight. So really, the Fellowship of Seven was broken. The girls are all leaving tomorrow morning, so they are sleeping in the school together. The boys, however, have officially begun their traveling. The four of us (Will, Sid, Ryan, and myself. Alex was supposed to come with us but he went home to see Miranda. Kissy-kiss!) are currently staying in Jesse’s one room dorm-sized apartment above a Soapland in Segendai. The place is set up like a bunch of dorms and the landlady lives right across the hall. We’re supposed to not be seen while we’re here, which makes taking showers and bathroom time very interesting. I believe Jesse’s exact words were “You are Jews living in Hamburg during World War II. Don’t get caught or…or you’ll get the gas chamber.” So there’s that.
It was an interesting journey here. After our departure, we began a trip I’ve been dreading since we arrived in Ohanajaya. Merely taking my bags from one train station to the other and then to another location a block away is torture. I have my duffel bag of crap I bought, my very full backpack, my laptop case, and my sister’s GIANT duffel bag, which I now regret taking with me. Everyone else has little rolly bags, and I must say, they are much easier for transporting down city blocks. At least I would assume so, as I was usually huffing fifteen feet behind Will, Ryan, and Sid the whole way here. After a while, I took the lesson I learned from the Mikoshi and just started breathing rhythmically and staring angrily forward. Also, I thought of a big-eyed duck doing boingy squats in a daisy field covered in rainbows. This kept my mind off the pain. My mind jumped back on the pain whenever I put my bags down to rest. This was unfortunate because I don’t like pain, and my fingers didn’t work either. I had to force them to clamp down on my duffle bag handles again. I’ve never sweat so much in my life.
After we met Jesse and plopped our stuff down in his room, we talked for a while and got ready to relax. Then we got a call from the girls. Chelsey, Cynthia, and Lauren wanted us to meet them in Ueno for one last night as a group…sans Alex. But a group nonetheless! We all wanted to go, but were way too tired. Being girls, however, they used their mind powers to sway us over and we were soon on the traino to Ueno. Sitting down on the train, I remember thinking, “Wait. How did I get here? I don’t remember agreeing to this. Stupid girls! How do they do it?” As soon as we saw the girls though, we were glad to be there. Cynthia had found an all you can eat restaurant where you pick raw meat and fish off of trays and cook it in front of yourself. Don’t worry, mom! I used a different plate to eat off of so I didn’t get salmonella…I hope. Anyway, it was really good food and we all talked about our favorite parts of the experience. Mine was teaching and clubbing. Most everyone else said Karaoke and the party we had with the Kasukabe teachers. I promise I’ll write about both of those. At the end of the night, we all hugged goodbye and it was sad. I guess it really hasn’t sunk in that the girls are gone. I guess it’s because I know they are safely slumbering in Ohanajaya at the moment, but once I think about them on their respective planes, it’ll really hit me that they’re gone. Then I’ll be really sad! I guess the trip is coming to a close, but at least I have a week of travel left with my good buds! After the first, it’ll just be Ryan, Sid, and me. Will will leave. That will also be sad. I hope we all make the most of this week. It’ll just be nice once we have a plan. Maybe we should have talked about this earlier… Nah!
Sup Everyone! Just thought I’d update since I haven’t done so in a while. I’ve been really busy with KSEP and have not had much time to update. My kids are freaking amazing! They’re the greatest, and I’m really sad that I have to leave them in a few days. We’ve done a lot. Their final projects will be done very soon. There’s a lot of work on my part that must be done, so we’ll see how much more I can update. New pictures are constantly being uploaded on Facebook, as always. So let’s briefly recap a few things that have happened recently.
We began teaching and that was fun. All the kids in my class are awesome. The boys are a lot less motivated than the girls, and sometimes difficult to talk to than the girls because of their lack of English skill. Nonetheless, all the kids in my class are exceptional artists and their work has really impressed me. They’re all very shy. I mean, I have the nerd class in a society of very shy people. They’re fun, but sometimes difficult to get excited. They find very strange things funny. Most things that make most children laugh don’t make these kids laugh. However, if I put cat ears on my head, it is hilarious to them. Also, the phrase “don dake?” is really hilarious. It means “how much?” or “how many?” Why is this funny? I don’t know. Apparently, some Japanese comedian is using it as his catchphrase and comedy trends are big here. It won’t be funny in a month, but it makes them laugh now, for reasons I will never understand.
Most of the KSEPers are sick. I’m taking a lot of vitamin C to avoid their disease. It’s working so far.
The JDC kids have moved into Sprouting House, so there’s a good eight extra people living with us. They only moved in two days ago, and we’ve been so busy and our conflicting schedules have ensured that our paths don’t cross often. There have been short informal introductions, but nothing substantial. As in, I forgot most of their names already. I kind of equate our situation right now to the awkward junior high dance with the boys and girls on opposite sides of the room. I’m sure they’re nice, I just haven’t had a chance to talk to any of them yet. Unless, they’re vampires, in which case I will stake them. I will stake them all!
I went to the Kasukabe Matsuri tonight. It was pretty cool. I got nice ninja shoes and wore a blue robe. Then I smooshed together with thirty so other people and picked up a huge portable shrine called a Mikoshi. It has bells on it, so you walk down the street, yell, and shake the Mikoshi back and forth to make the bells ding. The judges then decide who shook their Mikoshi the best. I didn’t carry it the whole time. When you get tired, you tag out and have someone in the party jump in for you. Then you clap and yell and wait for someone to tag you in. I must say, having a huge slab of wood smash down on your shoulder repeatedly as you rock a huge shrine back and forth really takes its toll. My shoulders are really red. I think I went in at least four or five times for five to ten minutes at a time. Alex was a crazy man though. I had to break away from the party several times to keep from getting tagged back in. I needed rest. But Alex didn’t stop. He went for huge amounts of time and then stood by the shrine and shouted the whole time. We all have sore throats from shouting so much.
I bought a sweet Astro Boy shirt and I’m wearing it right now.
Our bosses at Kyoei Kasukabe took us all out drinking last night. It was kind of fun. The Japanese drink A LOT, so needless to say, drinks were had by all. I had a few, but I stopped once I got dizzy. I didn’t like being dizzy and I can’t imagine liking anything past that. It was crazy though. I talked to a lot of the Japanese teachers and most of them got nearly as crazy as us Americans. Nearly… Alex still trumped them all by taking his shirt off and doing chin up on the wooden rafters. One of the other Japanese teachers, Naoki, joined him. Then the two had a punching contest and some people fell on the floor.
There is currently a typhoon making its way up Japan. It hit southern Japan today and tomorrow it should hit us. Everyone here says it’ll just rain really hard and then be over. Luckily, we have a pull down storm door and metal plated window covers for zombie attacks. I guess they’re good for this occasion too. It’s raining pretty hard right now, so it will be interesting to see how bad it gets. I hope it magically disappears, because I want to go to Shinjuku or Akihabara again.
I must go now. It’s a long walk from the computer lab. Well, it seems long because it’s raining and there are no streetlights, so the very short walk looks like something straight out of Resident Evil 4. Thus it becomes a long walk. I’m not proofreading this because I am WAY too tired. So I apologize for the typos in advance. I just hope this will hold you over until I have time to post something else. Goodnight to all and I love you!
Okay everyone. I’m gettin’ acrackin’ like the kraken on this one. I know many people want to hear the yakuza story (which now that it’s built up won’t be as awesome), but I must blog about today while it’s fresh in my mind. On a down day, I’ll flashback and recap the club scene later. But today was such a great day, I have to bloggity shnog it right now.
Today was the first day of classes at Kyoei and fun was had, as well as nervousness. I woke up at 6:00am, as the taxi was to arrive at 7:30, and when it comes to getting ready in the morning, I am effectively a girl. However, having nine other people in the house made me get ready quicker than normal. Everyone else got up at staggering increments until all were awake, eating wacky taxes cereal and waiting for transport.
At 7:00am, I went up to the computer lab to check on Jesse and see if he had taken my laundry to the laundromat like he promised. As I opened the door, I saw him asleep on the couch and promptly returned the door to its shut position. I had forgotten that Will, Alex, and Jesse were working on our intro video until 3:00am. Apparently, Jesse had dismissed Alex and Will at 3:00 and stayed up all night to finish it himself.
At 7:20am, Jesse joined us right before the taxis arrived and gave us the intro DVD. He promptly faceplanted in his bed and did not wake up until he so desired. We got in the taxis and headed off to Kyoei Kasukabe.
We arrived around 8:00am and Jamie was there to greet us. She ushered us and our umbrellas toward the school office. As we walked the junior high band, scattered across the parking lot and various balconies, practiced in scales in tones that were actually very haunting and whimsical. We would get a better taste of their musical ability later.
We entered the office where Sakai-Sensei urged us to sit down and gave us instructions for the day, as well as our own personalized boxes and markers. Oh boy! We then were sent upstairs to the room where we were detained during our first visit. Thankfully we were only there an hour, where we made our nametags, which we would use as examples to show the kids when telling them to make their nametags. After that, we were swept up once again to the auditorium for way more than we deserved.
As we entered, we saw the many members of the junior high band we had seen before. Though we had been prepared verbally for their sweetness, I don’t think we ever believed the praise of mouth. I mean, everyone knows that school bands, especially junior high bands, always suck. But these guys were anything but suck. They were totally awesome. I mean, they could really play! They wove us bandy-type medley of “Pink Elephants on Parade,” “Moon River,” “The Pink Panther Theme,” and “The Peter Gunn Theme.” Let me tell you, those kids could rock it out on some clarinets. So web kudos to them. This was followed by a dance choreographed for us by the drill team, and a drum and piano duet by two of the band kids. It was all so much for little old us, and I’m not sure any of were prepared for such a warm welcome. After that, we presented our intro video, which went over pretty well, I think. The kids laughed and that’s a good sign. I’m not sure it’s exactly what Alex wanted, but he, Jesse, and Will still did a dang fine job for having only two days. The kids loved it, so that’s all that mattered.
We then stood in front of everyone and introduced ourselves once again. And once again, my sardonic humor went unappreciated by the Japanese people in the room. Nonetheless, I think the kids got the point and were ready for some fun times.
At the end of the welcome party, we rushed off to our classes. Will and I have the advantage of teaching the same subject, so our kids are combined and we get to teach together. It’s kind of more fun that way, I think. We called roll and began telling the kids to start their nametags. This was met with mixed results. All the kids have had three years of English, but as anyone who has been forced to take three years of a foreign language can tell you, not everyone who takes the class knows how to speak. I mean, I took three years of Spanish and don’t remember a lick of it. These kids have already completed three years of English before they even go into High School, so I’d say they’re doing pretty good.
It was interesting to see how we had to speak to get them to understand what we were saying. They can read and write English fine, but the conversation and listening makes them nervous and there’s a lot of hesitation. So far, it seems like half the boys are into drawing and all the girls are way into it. We actually have a lot more girls than I expected and they’re all really good at drawing and speaking. I was nervous at first because the kids were hesitant, but after getting them started on their projects, Will and I sat down at different tables and began drawing with the kids. As they drew, I would get excited and point and what they drew. “Solid Snake! Metal Gear Solid! Awesome! I like Metal Gear Solid.” Getting excited gets the kids really excited too. I drew a few pictures that made the kids laugh. Will is a much more experienced artist, so his drawings can range from anything to anything. I have a very John K. influenced style, so it was funny to see the kids’ different reactions. They all called Will’s drawings “Kawaii” (cute) and called all my drawings “Kawai” (scary). I found that rather amusing.
At lunch, I ate with some boys who were not very talkative. Most of my jokes don’t work on them because of the language barrier and because the Japanese sense of humor is so strange. So, I found that sticking chopsticks in my mouth like a walrus works pretty well.
After lunch, we all headed downstairs for the kite factory. I had to stand up on the bus which sucked. When I got out of the bus, I saw Neil again. He, Will, and I talked about how the word awesome means different things in America and Britain. Then we headed in.
After this point, I pretty much lost track of my kids. They went all over the kite factory and looked all over the place. It was pretty cool and kind of like a museum. There were a couple of three story kites in the corner that were mighty impressive. Sadly, I was kind of mean to some of my kids by accident. I’m used to being very strict after working at COS, so when some of them ran upstairs I called them back down. As soon as they came down, three other kids ran up past them and I realized they were allowed to run around the museum as much as they wanted. I tried to tell them, “Nevermind” but they obviously didn’t understand that. The conflicting instructions just confused them more. Luckily we were all called into the main kite room to make our kites, so crisis kind of averted.
As I gathered my group, the boys and girls naturally separated into two separate circles. I tried to gather them together, but it didn’t work so I just sat in between the two circles. The boys turned their backs on me, so I turned to the girls group, which was much more accepting. I tried nudging Yusuke, the boy behind me a couple times, but he didn’t answer my questions. Luckily, a very nice girl in my group, Shiho, helped me make my kite and even attempted conversation with me several times. I was very proud of her and her friends for doing such a good job. They’re all really good artists, and I’m excited to see what they do this week.
We rode back and talked with the kids briefly before the end of the day. We told them to bring in their favorite art, drawings, and their English diaries (which they will write to us and we will write back) tomorrow. We had a short meeting with Sakai-Sensei at the end of the day and told here about the time we had. Most of us had a good day. The kids were quiet with all of us and we had some mixed results in getting them to communicate, but overall, I’d say everything went pretty well. My goal for tomorrow is to really get to know all the kids and get them all talking. Tomorrow we have English lessons and drawing, so it should be a fun day.
We got back to the house completely exhausted. I had only five hours of sleep, so I was dead walking. I took a shower (due to the massive amounts of heat in this country), and came out ready to nap. Sadly, Will informed me of a battle of the bands in the college amphitheater. I couldn’t resist.
I went with Will and Jesse to the amphitheater and heard the first band play. They were pretty good. Mike, Julie, and Aaron joined us later, but all of them soon ditched as soon as the quasi-metal band began to play. I was left alone, but I began getting kind of pumped. The band was good, but not that good. They kept playing at a certain level of awesome that was just below the level I needed to go down and mosh. The Japanese guys who must have been friends with people in the band, were kind of semi jumping and waving their hands. I figured if a song good enough to headbang to got played in the set, I would go down. I was on the verge of running down during every song. Finally, a kind of speed metal song was played as their last song. I couldn’t resist. I ran down as fast as I could and began headbanging and moshing with the other Japanese guys. They really got into it, and we kept it going for the whole song. It was near the middle of a vicious headbang/slash rock on hand pump cycle that I realized I was very very tired. But I didn’t stop. I couldn’t. I had to do it for America. The song ended, I high-fived all the moshers and ran back to my seat, pretty much unnoticed. The MC spoke for a while before the next band. He said gaijin (foreigner) in there somewhere and everyone laughed. I can only assume he meant me. Whether he said something good or bad about me, I guess I’ll never know. Halfway through the third band, I left to go eat.
Around 7:00pm, I met Ryan, Sid, Lauren, Julie, Will, Jesse, Aaron, and Mike for noodles at a traditional noodle house called Udon Ichi. The family that owns the restaurant rolled out the red carpet for us once again and gave us the huge table on the floor. We all ate a lot of food, and the hostess of the noodle house even brought out melon slices and tea at the end of meal for no extra charge. You might think she did it for a huge tip, but that’s the amazing part. Tipping is not allowed in Japan. I mean, it’s not against the law, but it just doesn’t happen. If you leave money on the table, the waiter will chase you down and give it back. And if you try and give it in person, they will flat out reject it. And the worst part is, I really wanted to leave a tip. Like a five dollar tip. These people were so hospitable, I wanted to hug them all and buy them each a goat…or something of equal value.
Will and Jesse talk in Gibbity Goobity
Yes, the guy on the right is my boss. When was the last time your boss did this in front of you? That’s right. My boss rules!
After our very fun and wacky time (see above video) at Udon Ichi, we came back to Sprouting House. Will and I lesson planned a bit as my clothes were in the wash. They’re still drying as our dryer suck-suck-sucks. I must be off to bed now. I have my first day of real teaching and not a lot of time to sleep. Goodnight to all and to all a goodnight!
There’s not much to say for today. We basically all just stayed up in the computer lab and worked on our intro video and curriculum. Nothing major. A bunch of people wanted to go clubbing, but due to the racist tennis coach wouldn’t have been able to crash at Sprouting House. Thus we decided to work…and goof off. In fact we goofed off a lot. At one point, we turned one of the Macs toward the wall so we could mess with mirror effect of Photo Booth. Here were some of the results.
This:
Became this:
And this:
Became this:
Afterward we all went for dinner at a family Japanese restaurant down the street. We ordered a LOT of food and generally Americaned the place up a bit. It’s interesting to see the different effects we have on people. Some avoid eye contact, some girls yell out “You handsome!” or “Nice guy!”, some people stare at us, and some just stay away all together. We got a few dirty looks at the restaurant, but people give dirty looks to the loud table in America, so that wasn’t unexpected. One particular instance I find interesting occurred at the register to pay for our food. A group of five of us were paying at the register and a group of three or so were backed to the wall so people could walk through. I was in the back group when a Japanese couple entered, turned the corner, and saw us. They stopped and waited for a host to seat them. The host came, stepped between us and beckoned them forward. They began to move and I instinctively looked at them, as eyes tend to do when immobile objects begin to move. They caught my look and in an instant backed away behind the corner. I couldn’t tell if they thought I was waiting to move forward or if they were just scared out of their minds to move in between a pack of ten Americans for fear that we would pull all pull switchblades on them and demand their valuables. One way or the other, I find it interesting. This is kind of the goal of KSEP in a way. We’re not just teaching the kids conversational English. We’re trying to teach them that foreigners aren’t scary, just taller.
The resturant where we ate.
That said, I think I should introduce you to the members of KSEP 2007. I’ve been talking about them for a good five days and I’m sure most of you have no idea who the heck I’m talking about. So let’s get it done on the surface of the sun.
KSEP 2007
Jesse
Jesse is the big head boss man chief master sensei commander. If you were playing the hardest sidescroller in history, he would be the final boss and would literally fill the screen with lasers and kill you. He participated in KSEP last year as an intern, and in his infinite wisdom, he learned Japanese and never left. Good plan. Now he knows Japanese and works as the head of the KSEP program, as well as several other departments of the chool. He hired us and does a good job of taking care of us and making sure we don’t get stuck on a train to Yakuza land. His catchphrase for us this year is “Americans Assemble,” which he yells out in train stations to make sure we’re all following him. He’s also a super geek and I haven’t been able to outgeek him yet. So far, I haven’t mentioned anything esoteric enough to escape his floating eyeball mind. That’s a good thing. He’s also very lenient with our shenanigans, which is good for us. I give him five stars…out of ten…then I add seven.
Ryan
I’m sure most of you know him. I go to school with Ryan. He’s a pretty mellow guy whose quirkiness never outweighs his kindness. He’s teaching photography and enjoys Batman. I rode next to him on the plane and he hated every second of it. Also, he hates it when people interrupt him or pull practical jokes on anyone ever. He’s shy when he wants to be, but never holds back the magic tricks for the ladies. And by magic tricks, I mean charm. And by ladies I mean women. And by charm I mean chest hair, And by women I mean…women. Also, he once iced a bear with meat hooks. I haven’t checked, but that might be a lie.
William
Will is a barrel of funballs. He grew up with Jesse so he and Jesse are very similar in a lot of ways. That said, I’m able to relate to him on a lot of levels. A lot of dorky, zany levels, but many levels nonetheless. He and I are teaching cartooning together and I’m really excited. He also majored in animation and makes funny short films. We biked into Kasukabe recently and it was fun times. The best thing I think is that we easily latch onto each other’s random catchphrases throughout the day. Like “What’s your favorite color? BLOOD!” (Then we stab each other) But I must say “Chimmy-chammy-jomp-chomp Gimme some nuts!” is my favorite so far.
Stephan “Sid”
Sid is teaching photography with Ryan. I’ve known him for a good while. I met him my first year of college when he showed me and a few other first years how to use a power saw. He’s graduated now, but that doesn’t make him any less awesome. He’s kind of the fun life experience guy, I think. I mean, everyone here is constantly party capable, but Sid has 5000 psi back-kicking pistons that pop and lock him into rock mode. I’m just saying, if you want to have fun, call Sid. And also, he has the coolest nickname of all of us. It doesn’t get much better than Sid. I mean, Hamster Boy is okay, but I don’t like being called that.
Chelsey
Chelsey also goes to school with me. She’s really fun and totally chill. Like if chilling was form of battle, she would knock you out before you got in the ring. Not to say she’s boring, because she danced like a maniac in Shibuya. Chelsey is teaching film in affiliation with Alex. My favorite thing that Chelsey has done so far is get lost in Shibuya. She was just trying to be helpful and throw away our trash and we left her. Suddenly we turn around and say, “Where’s Chelsey?” Ha ha ha! Oh Chelsey! Always getting lost in major cities!
Alex
Crazy. That’s all I can say. Alex is crazy. I’ve known Alex for two years now and have only regretted it twice. Ha ha! I’m just kidding! (Secretly, I’m not kidding. Don’t read this.) Alex has the most energy of all us, I think. He’s always talking to people and being friendly to everyone. I mean, in general, we stand out and make a splash wherever we go, but Alex makes sure we never go unnoticed. Also, he’s directing and editing our intro video, which is awesome by the way. He’s also a great resource because he came twelve days early to travel. Because of this he knows more Japanese than most of us, and can help us not get lost or stabbed by the yakuza. One time he saved a lizard from another lizard.
Lauren
Lauren is one of the interns not from my school. She’s from the Midwest so her accent is bangin’! She says she has a speech impediment. I call it an awesome impediment, but whatever. She’s teaching drama to the kids and totally deserves to. She’s stands out as animated among a very animated crowd. It’s also hilarious to see Lauren’s reactions to our nerdiness. Most of the group could be called nerds, dorks, geeks, dweebs, or nerds. But Lauren doesn’t call herself that. In fact, she frequently goes on overload when she’s heard the fifth conversation in a day about Sega Genesis’ blast processing. Of course, this makes us talk about it more.
Cyn
Cyn is short for Cynthia, but I say it’s short for Cyntax, because she may be a robot from the future. Cyn is Asian. Just thought I’d put that out there. She’s another intern not from our school. She’s been to Japan before and speaks fluent Japanese, as well as English and Chinese, and read them Japanesey letters. She knows her away around the city and can tell you which Lemon Butter Biscuit Spaceships taste the best. She is teaching music because she plays two instruments and none of the rest of us know how to do anything music related. Also, Cyn threatened to punch me if I pushed her off her chair.
JDC 2007
There are three other people living in Sprouting House that are not part of our KSEP program. They’re gearing up for JDC, another English/Japanese program involving film somehow. No one cares about that, but these are the other three people I live with.
Mike “Sobo”
Mike is the man. He’s got Nu Rave fashion sense to kick your fashion sense in the jaw. He’s always wearing crazy bright colors and walking around like, “Hey, you there. I’m talkin’ to you. Come over here… You know what? You’re all right, kid.” He’s head of one the documentary/reality teams at JDC. He knows some Japanese, but most importantly, he knows all the hot spots and cool places to hit up while in Japan. He once partied with the Emperor and taught him how to do the worm. No one knows what Sobo means, but some say it’s the password that opens up the secret compartment in his back that hides his weapons.
Aaron
Aaron is like friendly-city. It’s like his body is covered with sprawling buildings, roads, and neighborhoods. And little blue dot people called “Friendlies” would live there. Thus, friendly city. Anyway, he gets along with just about everyone, and he’s always eager to help you learn some Japanese. Whenever I need to know how to say something, I ask him…if Jesse’s not around. He taught me how to say, “My Japanese isn’t very good,” which is a phrase I use a lot. I think I should also learn how to say, “My loud friends and I would like to extend to you an invitation to the loud party. Come and be loud.” Yeah, that’s a good one.
Julie
She’s a girl. Julie is Japanese and lived in America for a while, so she knows that America-talk. She’s also good for making sure we take the right train and don’t end up in Korea. Because, seriously, who wants to be there? No one! Not even Koreans. Anyway, Julie is also cool because she knows all about Japanese music and made me order a Starbucks frappuccino made of azuki beans. I mean, it tasted good, but it was filled with chewy bits of bean. So weird!
Anyway, that’s all. I mean, it’s been two days since my last post and a lot has happened. We went clubbing till 4:00am, met some Yakuza, and biked into Kasukabe. But no one wants to hear about that. I leave you with a video tour of the house we’re staying in. It’s goofy, but it’s a lot easier than posting a ton of pictures.
What a great great day. I awoke way earlier than usual, at 3:00am. None of us could put our fingers on it, but something was keeping us from sleeping in our room. When I woke up, Aaron was already awake and playing on his computer. Will woke up twenty minutes later and none of slept after that. Oh we tried, but it didn’t work. I laid there until 6:00am when my alarm went off. Will’s alarm went off at the same time. Aaron’s didn’t go off because he’s not part of KSEP. He’s a spayshul li’l robot who’s part of another program called JDC. So he stayed in bed.
Will went around and woke everyone up for the taxis, which the guys appreciated, but the girls did not. That’s because they’re girls. Us manly types all got showers. Ryan, whose bags had arrived, let me borrow some fresh underpants and socks, which you can’t imagine how great that was. I got dressed in the same tight Jesse pants and Jesse shirt and Jesse tie. We talked with Jesse a little bit before we left. The taxis arrived and carted us off toward Kyoei in the country, where we would be teaching for the next week and a half.
On the way, I noticed something I knew before, but never processed. I saw a bunch of elementary school students crossing the street with their matching yellow hats and matching red steel backpacks. I was pissed. I would have totally flipped to go into kindergarten if I had gotten to wear a hat and backpack like those. Jesse later told me that those hats are more banging than you can imagine, because they’re reversible so you can have yellow and red for dividing the kids into team sports for P.E. How cool is that? Japan has thought of everything.
When we got to the school, we knew we were finally going to meet Sakai-Sensei, and integral part of the program. We looked around but could not find her. We started heading toward some of the shoe changing lockers when a voice called out to us from behind. “Oohayo Gozaimasu!” We all turned and greeted the voice. A Japanese woman came up to us and introduced herself in Japanese very quickly. We were all somewhat confused, but because Cyn spoke Japanese, she translated for us. We headed for the middle school. As we did, Sakai-Sensei continued to talk very quickly in Japanese and Cyn continued to translate. Finally, she looked at Sid and said something. Sid just stared and looked at Cyn. Cyn only smiled. “I’m just kidding. I speak English,” said Sakai-Sensei in perfect English. It was hilarious.
The Hallways in Kyoei Kasukabe.
Sakai-Sensei took us into the teacher’s office where we met the lead teacher Uno-Sensei and we introduced ourselves in our rehearsed Japanese. Uno-Sensei gave us each his business card, which I accepted with two hands and red vigorously while nodding. Score for reading that etiquette book! We went over the KSEP schedule and what we would be doing for the day. We met Jamie, an American woman who teaches English at the school and then made our way to the high school building to meet the head honchos.
We were led into a very fancy room, where a lot of old Japanese men stood up. We expected a lot of stern solemn faces like at the city school, but these men all smiled and motioned us in warmly. We did our Japanese introductions and bowed. The Super Intendent, Principal, and all his staff bowed and introduced themselves to us. We were then led back to an empty activity room where we waited to have lunch with the kids at noon. It was nine o’clock.
Sakai-Sensei stayed and talked with us for a while, but soon left. This gave us a good three hours to do nothing. We talked a little while, drew on the chalkboard, and got maybe a little too loud for the school and kept having to hush ourselves.
We got bored.
Just sitting around…waiting…
Eventually Jamie and Neil, a British man who teaches English, came in and talked with us for a while. They were both really cool. Neil and Jamie told us how they got their jobs and what it’s like to live in Japan. Neil eventually took us on a tour of the rest of school and showed us all the facilities. The gym is really really nice. You can’t even believe it. On the way down from the high school building we ran into a Japanese man who taught English. He, of course, knew who we were from our photos and information we sent in. He went down the row, pointed at each of us, and said our names. When he got to me he stopped, raised his eyebrows high and said, “Michael! You like Back to the Future!” which I said I did. I had put that on the favorite movies list that I sent in. He smiled and got really excited. “Yes! I love that movie. Eight-eight miles per hour!” He laughed and smiled so much. “Marty! Doc! Yes, I have seen it one hundred times. I had to memorize.” He nodded and was very excited. Everyone else pitched in and talked about the movie as well. I think that might have been the highlight of my day.
Hopping around the Kyoei outdoor garden.
Neil then took us to the auditorium where all the third year middle school students were seated. We went down the line and introduced ourselves in English and waved. Everyone clapped after what we said. When the microphone got to me, I said, “Hello, my name is Michael and I am very excited.” No one clapped or said anything. I looked around. “To be here…” The Americans laughed. The Japanese didn’t. I looked around some more and then started clapping. Everyone nodded and started clapping as well. On the walk back to the office, Neil said that was hilarious, but the Japanese don’t have a sense of sarcasm or the comic pause. I actually wasn’t even trying to be funny, but I guess it came out that way, at least to the Americans. Talk of the comic pause brought up “The Office” which Neil is a big fan of. We talked about that and Ricky Gervais for a while before we made it to the office.
We were each handed a tray lunch. We were led up to rooms filled with the kids we had talked to in the auditorium. Cyn, Alex, and myself were in a room together. Cyn sat with the girls, and Alex and I each sat with a table of boys. All the kids got out their lunches and began talking with each other and kind of avoided eye contact with the big scary foreigner. I started eating and asked some of them their names. I said my name and shook their hands. I began eating and asked “What is this food?” They answered Skune. “How do eat it? With Ohashi? With chopsticks?” They said no, just pick it up and eat it. They all looked very surprised that I was eating, which I didn’t understand. I just smiled and ate. I wondered why no one else was eating. After a while, the teacher came in and yelled something very loud in Japanese. The kids slid back in their chairs bowed and said “Itadakimasu!” and began to eat. Man, I was so mad at myself. I knew that one. “You guys could have told me,” I said jokingly. Then I remembered that they don’t understand sarcasm, so if they did understand what I said, it was probably taken as a reprimand. Cultural blunder number two.
So I began asking them what they like to do. A few were interested at first, but that number dwindled to just the boy in front of me after a while. I asked what manga they read, and what anime they watch, and what games they play. I asked, “Do you like Zelda?” They looked at me confused. “The Legend of Zelda. Twilight Princess?” No response. I had to cheat. “Zerda no Densetsu.” Ah! They few that would talk to me nodded in agreement. At that point, Cyn turned around to me from the girl’s table and told me not to geek them out. I looked back at the kids and said, “She just called me a geek.” They didn’t know what I meant. “Uh, Otaku.” They all nodded. This was not good. I had probably made friends with the two kids that were talking to me, but I ensured that the kids that weren’t talking to me would never talk again. In Japan, Otaku means obsessed and is generally used to describe anyone with something they love so much that they can’t focus on anything else. You can be Otaku about anything, but normally it’s about comics and video games. In Japan, everyone plays games and reads comics, even the jocks. So Otaku is used for those special people who do nothing else with their lives besides read comics, play video games, and watch anime. Granted, I do these things a lot, but I have other interests. Of course, for the kids, there was no way to explain this.
I tried asking the other kids what sports they played to redeem myself from the nerd area. That went over okay. I tried to tell them I play basketball and soccer, but it didn’t really salvage anything. Things were mostly quiet at my table except for the three kids that felt obligated to talk to me because they were in my nearest vicinity. The meal ended and I said goodbye.
When I got outside, I felt pretty bad about how my lunch went. I talked with everyone else and I felt better. Apparently, there’s had gone just like mine. Alex only did well because Leo, Schuester-Sensei’s son from America, helped him translate, and Cynthia did well because she used her Asian powers on the kids. Most everyone else had mixed results and said they had only half to a few kids talk to them as well. So I felt better. And even if the otaku thing affected me adversely at the table, I am teaching cartooning. I’m sure I won’t be getting many jocks in my class.
Our time was up. We met with Jesse and Sakai-Sensei who ushered us onto the bus. Schuester-Sensei met us randomly as she was leaving and accompanied us back to Kasukabe. On the way back, Will showed me “House of Cosby’s” on his iPod and I laughed so hard, I think I made a fool of myself again in front of all the students. I couldn’t help it. Bill Cosby impersonations make me laugh.
Only the first episode is funny. The rest are dumb. But MAN is the first one funny. Holy crap!
We stopped at Kasukabe, where we were going to take the train to the shuttle, but Schuester-Sensei convinced us otherwise. We had not seen Kasukabe in daylight yet, and it was the town we were living in. So we headed to a department store for the afternoon. We almost went in, but before we could make it, Jesse caught up with us on his bike and said something that broke the group in half. “Do you want me to show you the game store?”
Walking is Kasukabe.
Jesse and Will before we departed for the game store.
So Will, Jesse, Ryan, Alex, and myself walked down the street with Jesse to Club Chameleon. There we saw some of the kids from Kyoei playing Yu-Gi-Oh! cards in the back. We looked around for a while and Jesse bought Yoshi’s Island for the DS. As I looked around, I noticed how expensive everything was. All the games were ten or fifteen dollars more here then they are in the states. Same goes for clothes and DVD’s.
We walked back, but didn’t get far. Alex stopped us when he saw a small workout square. “Let’s do it.” And did it, we did. We set down our bags, loosened our ties and began climbing all over the wooden structure. The best part of all this was how weird we looked. No one in Japan would do this, especially at our age and especially in business attire. Everyone looked at us as we passed, or at least more than usual. It was funny and fun. Jesse claimed that in Japan, the word for milk is “Gyunyuu” (which is true), but if you need an extra boost of energy in this country you just say “Gyuuuuuuuuunyuuuuuuu-eh-uuuuuuuuuu” like a racecar. That may be a lie.
Making Americans odf ourselves.
As we walked back toward the department store, Will stopped and said he wanted to check out the bookstore. We entered and it wasn’t a bookstore at all, it was a comic shop. I mean it felt like a bookstore because it had all kinds of books and CD’s, but most all the books were comic and video game related. I must say, I love this country. I also found that what Japan jacks up in price, it makes up for with books. Books are insanely priced. Manga that would cost ten bucks in the states was 300 yen, or three dollars. I bought three massive books for only 1620 yen. That is dirt cheap.
Afterward, we met up with Schuester-Sensei and the rest of the group. Jesse and Schuester-Sensei left to do work, but little children like us decided to stop in Game Fantasia, a local arcade. While arcades are nonexistent in the U.S. they live and thrive like nobody;s business. Kasukabe is a small town, but this arcade was big. I played some freakin’ sweet gun game with Sid where we got to play as special ops guys with huge assault rifles. This machine was too big and too expensive to maintain in the U.S. and thus would never be found over there. We spent at least thirty minutes in there. And the place was packed on a Thursday afternoon.
Ryan rockin’ out at the Japanese version of Guitar Hero.
That game RULED!
We got back to Sprouuting House and crashed. I went to the computer lab where Jesse found me. My bag came in. I was so happy that I left my computer and rushed to get it. I showed and changed into my own clothes. It was so nice. We bummed around a while and relaxed. Jesse took us to an Udon (noodle) Shop that night to eat, and it was delicious. Sitting in the floor hurt my ankles, but the lady in the shop was very nice. We got back late and everyone was very tired. Nonetheless, I tortured my body by staying awake to set off more fireworks and play Famicom (the old 8-bit Nintendo).
That’s the end of the best day yet, and I know it’ll just get better. More pictures will be uploaded on facebook soon. The ones up now were just day one. Also, I apologize to all who have commented and facebooked and emailed without a response. It’s hard enough to find time to update this dang blog. But thank you so much, and I will do my best to respond to all of you. Trust me, your comments and emails are not unappreciated. I love you all. And Glenn, that Udon Shop was gooooooooooood! Bye for now.
I laid in bed for a good while this morning. It was only 9:00am, but I did not want to get up. Getting up meant taking a shower and changing into the clothes I had just changed out of. GROSS! Yes, gross indeed. This was not a desirable course of action for me. I continued to lay in bed for awhile until one of my roommates, Will, got up and went for the shower. “Great!” I thought, “The guy with the hangover is out of bed before me. No more being lame.” And lame no more was I not not not. I hopped out of bed and walked down the hall.
There I saw Jesse laying out dress clothes on the table. I asked what fancytype clothes I should wear for meeting the principal today. He said I could wear any of the dress clothes he laid out, and picked out a black dress shirt. It was too big for me, but what are you going to do? My bag was lost so I had no gift to give the principal and no pants. “Sorry Principal-san. I have brought you no gift and am not wearing pants. Please don’t look down.” This would not go over well. And after all the freaking time I spent fretting over gifts and what to buy, I have absolutely nothing to show for it. Typical.
I ate breakfast, showered and waited to leave for 11:00am when our crash course in Japanese would begin. In the meantime, Jesse hooked me up with some clothes. At first he gave me a big black button down shirt, but it was too big for me and made me look like a California beach bum. Eventually, he gave me his super skinny tight pants and I exchanged the baggy shirt for a tighty tight white shirt, and for the first time in three days, I finally looked good. This is nice in a country like Japan where everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, dresses nice.
You may think I’m joking, but at least 85% of the people I see here look like they stepped out of some sort of catalogue. I have no fashion sense myself, so I generally look like a bum in America, where I’d say at least 50% of the people you see dress well. But being here in such a large volume of nicely dressed individuals, and wearing the same bummy clothes for three bummy days makes me feel like a super bum! So needless to say, I was happy to wear nice clothes for once. Sadly, when my luggage arrives, I’ll look like a bum again.
We met upstairs in the computer lab for a crash course in Japanese from Emi Schuester, a Japanese woman who teaches Japanese in America. Schuester-Sensei taught us a lot of basic greetings and phrases, but there were three key phrases we needed to say when we met the principal and faculty of the school. “Hajime mashite,” How do you do? “Watashi wa Mikaeru desu,” I am Michael. “Doozo Yoroshiku, Onegaishimasu,” Nice to meet you. Actually, the word “Yoroshiku” is interesting. There is no English equivalent, but Jesse told me it basically expresses, “I am nice and I plan not to harm you.” Adding “Onegaishimasu” at the end expresses, “please also plan not to harm me either.”
The eight of us studied these phrases on the train to Tokyo with mixed results. It seemed the more we practiced these seemingly simple phrases, the more we mixed around the words and messed them up. We nervously arrived at the school around 1:00pm and awaited our fate.
We stood in the lobby for a while until Chiaki Tanaka came to meet us. Tanaka-san took us up to the third floor where we waited in a room. Then we inexplicably left and met some nice Canadians who told us that this was their twenty-first trip to Japan since coming to teach thirty years ago. Nice.
We were led back to the room we had left to find it had filled with solemn and patient Japanese faces. This took us by surprise, because no one told us the room would be filled with this, and if they did tell us it was in Japanese. Jesse motioned for us to line up in front of the desks and present ourselves. We spoke our lines pretty well, I think, and then bowed at the end and the teachers all clapped for our efforts. The teachers presented themselves in English, which I must say, was better than our Japanese. After that, we huddled around a table with the pictures we had sent in when applying to the program. As they went around and pointed at the pictures, they came to mine and looked up. “Where is…where is Mikaeru?” I raised my hand. “What is…what are you holding?” I answered that it was an owl, and they all nodded saying, “Ah, owl. Owl.” I was glad that a picture of me holding an owl next to face was acceptable to them once they knew what it was. I mean, it is an owl. They’re awesome!
We left and Jesse told us we did a great job. We had a free afternoon and going back right away was out of the question. We decided to go off on our own and go into Tokyo again. This time we went to Asakusa. We never would have made it without Cyn, who has been to Japan at least seven times and speaks fluent Japanese. We got on the train and traveled a while. In Asakusa, we stopped at a Japanese burger place calle “Mos Burger.” It’s actually getting pretty fun ordering food for myself. You just have to know a few key phrases and when they repeat what you say to confirm, you just nod vigorously and say, “Hai, hai, hai, hai.” “Hai” means “yes” or “right.” I think when I get back to the U.S. I’ll start saying, “Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes,” instead of just “yeah.” It’s more fun.
We traveled to a marketplace near a temple and took some photos. It was raining pretty steadily, so a lot of the shops in the marketplace seemed to close early. One of the shops had a giant Gundam statue and Alex, Ryan, and I got our picture taken with it holding up our Gundam Pilot cards from the arcade. After visiting the temple for a while, we got back on the train and headed for the dorms.
That night, we had a meeting about meeting the principals of another school in the country the next day. We’d wear our nice clothes again and eat lunch with the students. We set off some fireworks that Cyn, Chelsey, and Lauren bought to celebrate the Fourth of July. Then Alex and I stayed a while to discuss an intro movie we could shoot to show the kids who we are on the first day. Right now, the plan is to model it after the intro from the Venture Brothers. I think it will be fun, but I’m afraid it may be more work than we can do in four days, especially if we have curriculum to plan. I guess we’ll see what happens. Tomorrow is another day, and I must prepare with sleep. I have pictures uploaded on my facebook for all to see. There will be more to come. Goodnight to all, except to you, it’s the morning. Bye!
This is going to be a very long month. I awoke at 9:00am and immediately thought it was 4:00am. This was due to the fact that we have large metal garage door type barricades over our windows. Why? I have no idea. Maybe for zombies. Nonetheless, Will walked in and told me it was 9:00. In a normal situation, I would have said, “That’s nice,” and rolled back over to sleep. But I was in Japan, so I decided to jump on out of bed.
I took a shower, still lacking a towel, and went to the kitchen to find that my new favorite cereal was gone. So I ate another cereal that tasted like trail mix and asked what was going on. Because we were mostly out of food already, Mike, the number two Chief Boss under Jesse, decided we needed to go to the grocery store. This sounded like a great idea to me.
Our entire party met outside and began the fifteen-minute walk into town. We’re sort of in the sort of country, so getting to town took a nice walk down a serene country road past some of the coolest houses around. I’ll get some pictures later so I can avoid describing their greatness at this point.
Now, usually going to the grocery store is boring and not something I look forward to…ever. But shopping for groceries here makes me so giddy, I think I actually uttered “tee-hee” while deciding whether to buy the stick cookies that with the pandas or the chocolate robot. We went through the store and sort of filled our baskets with what would mutually benefit us all. I got Koala’s March cookies, that cereal I like, and milk. After a time, we began the walk back. At this point, it was like 10:30am or something, but the walk back was one of the hottest walks I’ve ever experienced. Maybe I just stay inside too much in America, but I don’t ever remember being in such muggy weather in my life.
Back at the homestead, I aired out my muggy shirt and set out the groceries just as Jesse called for us to mobilize. We had a short meeting about another meeting we would have at two and how to take care of the house. This particular house was built for the tennis coach by the school after his team did well one year. He only uses it on the weekends, so we use it during the week. The catch is, we have to be invisible and disappear all day on the weekends, because the guy is racist and hates Americans. We have to make sure we take extra good care of the house, because if anything happens, we’re done on a bun. If everything goes according to schedule, we won’t run into him, but I’ll let you know if anything interesting happens.
After our meeting, we headed to the cafeteria for lunch. It’s set up really weird, but kind of great. There are vending machines all over Japan, and the cafeteria was no exception. We looked at the food on display, memorized the Kanji symbols, and then bought a ticket for it from a vending machine. Then we went to the counter, placed the ticket on it and waited for the food. After going through three years of crappy caf experiences, I wasn’t expecting much. This was a college campus and a caf, just like mine. How good could it be? Let me tell you that for 420 yen, I got a lot of food that was really really good. I wonder if that could have anything to do with the unselfish sense of Japanese service? You know, that people working even in a cafeteria do their best work. The answer is yes. And my cafeteria can die by fire.
After lunch, we met with Jesse again on the third floor of the college building and talked about the program. He gave us the lowdown, which was that our English lessons will be teaching the kids how to get around Canada when they go to visit next month. The latter half of each day will consist of our project. I myself am teaching cartooning. The only thing that came as a surprise was that we’ll only be teaching for a week before the presentation and we go to teach at a city school for a few days. That means less time to work with the kids, which made me sad. But they’re running the show, so I didn’t complain. We brainstormed and asked questions a little bit before Jesse told us our night was free. He asked what we wanted to do and it was pretty much unanimous. We were going into Tokyo.
While we waited for the bus to take us to the train, we talked to a group of college girls who tried out their English on us, as Jesse translated between the groups and told each side what to say. I was no good, and still can’t pronounce Japanese very well. I think the most important cultural thing we passed onto them was pounding your fists together and saying “Gimme some juice!” in a gangsta voice. They liked that a lot.
The train was fun in itself. Maybe it’s because their trains are way cooler than our trains or because the scenery you pass is new and fun. But I think the most likely reason is the effect we have on the train as foreigners. People in Japan don’t talk on trains very much, and if they do it’s usually quiet. It’s usually dead silent, or at least it would be if we weren’t in there. We were all talking and acting up, which always get interesting looks from the Japanese. As I understand it, foreigners are kind of expected to be big sloppy loud casks of insanity that roll by in Japan every once and a while. As long you don’t break anything, you’re okay.
We arrived in Akihabara around 6:00pm and met Julie and Mike who are the other leaders besides Jesse. As soon as we entered Akihabara, I noticed why it’s called “Electric Town.” Every light in the electronics district is on. It’s also pretty much nerd central. Anything a self-respecting nerd could want is here. Action figure and anime shops, five level arcades, DVD and CD stores, and of course, Super Potato. We went to an arcade first called “Club Sega.” It was five levels and pretty amazing, I first played a game in which I continually changed clothing and chucked bananas and guns at men in dresses. After that, I accidentally played a game of “Melty Blood” against someone on the opposite side of my console. I had no idea that the arcades here were double-sided for versus battles. Needless to say, I never played before and got my hiney cut off, folded, and neatly handed to me. I went to the highest level, which was completely dedicated to games based around the giant robot anime, “Mobile Suit Gundam.” There I met Ryan and Alex who rushed me over to a console. “Here! Do you have 300 yen? You have to try this.” It was three hundred yen to create a profile and burn it to a card, and then five hundred yen to sit in a giant enclosed seat modeled after the mobile suit pilot stations from “MSG.” This was too awesome to pass up. I created a profile and sat in line as a very nice Japanese man tried his best to explain to us the complicated controls. The enclosed cockpit had a complicated assortment of knobs and levers, but he did a good job and we got the gist.
Once in the cockpit, I must say, I was blown away. The screen stretched far over my head and the headset, which I used to communicate with Ryan and Alex. All the machines of this type are linked all over Japan, so the three of us competed on a team against other mobile suit players, and let me say we whooped them up nice! I’m afraid that if I go back, I may have to play again. It was that great.
After meeting up with the group, we headed to one of the greatest places ever…SUPER POTATO! It was three levels. Two levels of old school games, and one level of retro arcade machines. Sadly, I have few pictures of Super Potato because I was so wrapped up in visiting. Sadly, most everything in their was made for Japanese consoles and unavailable to me. A lot more happened and a lot more wandering around took place before we decided to head back. We were going to go home when someone mentioned that should never be mentioned when the night is still young: Karaoke. It was settled. We were going.
We took the train to another section of Tokyo where we rented a karaoke room for our party. 2200 yen bought an hour and a half karaoke and drinks. Things got loud and obnoxious, kind of like an average day in America. But it was fun as all! I myself sang “Thriller” and “Take On Me.” You never really know how out of your range “Take On Me” is until you sing it nervously in front of a room full of people who don’t know you well enough to not pass judgment. By the end of the night, everyone was dancing around the room and singing at the top of their lungs. I even tried two drinks, which all in all, had the combined alcohol content of half a Zima. So I was nice and sober, but everyone else was…not so much. It was interesting trip back home.
We were more American than usual on the train and it didn’t stop when we got back. Right now, everyone is still running around, yelling, and “booping” each other on the nose. They’re a really fun bunch. Tomorrow we have to meet the principal of the school and present ourselves to the faculty. However, my luggage has yet to arrive and I will have been wearing the same clothes two days in a row. I’m afraid the principal might think I’m homeless, but I’m praying for a surprise miracle tomorrow morning in the form of my luggage on our doorstep. I guess we’ll see. Back to sleep to do more work. Night!
So here I am. After over twenty-eight hours of travel, I’m finally here in Japan. Getting here wasn’t fun, but I just ate the best cereal of my life, and something tells me the cereal is only the beginning.
I woke up at six and then went back to sleep. My dad kicked me in my bed and then I got up. Ryan woke up as well and we were at the airport by 7:20pm. We checked our bags, prayed with my parents, and headed off toward the plane. The first flight to Detroit was pretty smooth. Ryan and I sat next to a girl named Sarah who was a belly dancer from Boise. In Detroit, Ryan and I had a few hours before our connecting flight to Japan, so we took the liberty of riding the indoor train that takes you to different sections of the airport. That was fun. Right before we got on the plane, we saw Sid, who was traveling with us.
Almost on the plane.
Detroit’s indoor train. It was fun.
All three of us got on the plane. It was pretty huge. A nice and big and huge plane. We were going to be on it for twelve hours, so it had to be big. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 2:30, but because airlines are obligated by the government to ruin your life, we didn’t take off until 4:30pm, Detroit time. “This won’t be so bad,” I thought.
“This is the worst experience of my life! Get me off this plane!” I screamed in my mind fifteen minutes later. I was cramped and tired and sweaty, but mostly, they started playing “Are We Done Yet?” Actually the airline chose to show plenty of cinema gems like “Wild Hogs” and “The NWA logo in front of animated clouds for thirty solid minutes.” This is the point that I tried to fall asleep…and didn’t. Sid and Ryan fell asleep easy because they cheated and took drugs. I hated them for those thirty minutes. The truth is, it’s impossible to sleep on planes. God did not design human beings to sleep sitting up. Especially in chairs that tease you by having a recline button that reclines you only a half centimeter.
Sid on the plane.
Artsy on the plane. You can’t tell, but I am soooooo bored!
I won’t bore you with the details, but let it be known that by the very fact that the details are boring, the flight was ten times more boring than any detail I could describe. I did manage to kill two hours or so by curling forward unnaturally until I was comfortable enough to sleep. We finally arrived in Japan around 4:00am in real time and 5:00pm in Japan time. As soon as I stepped off the plane, I realized something. I definitely should have learned some Japanese, because everyone here speaks it. Luckily, at the airport, they had many bilingual officers and employees to help us find our way around and make sure we weren’t smuggling weapons or trafficking slave labor. Ryan, Sid, and I united with Cynthia and Lauren, two girls from MSU who were on our flight and will be teaching with us this month.
Cynthia and Lauren at the airport. They rule!
They went downstairs and immediately found their luggage. This of course, gave us boy-types hope that any minute our precious checked luggage would slide on down the conveyor belt and into our loving arms. As you well know by my sarcasm, this did not happen. We talked with an English-speaking baggage claim lady who helped us fill out our luggage forms and go through customs without being deported.
No luggage for Michael.
As we came through the gate, we met Jesse, the head of the program; Julie, another head of the program; Mike, another-nother head of another program; William, a fellow intern; Chelsey, another fellow intern and NCSA student; and Aaron who I thought was named David. We changed our money into yen and waited for the bus. It was muggy outside, which was not good. I was already sweaty from not showering for nigh twenty and one hours, and the heat of evening made it worse. At that point, I would say if you sculpted a life-size version of me out of mayonnaise, you wouldn’t be able to tell the mayo statue and me apart. I was way gross. Luckily, we were in Japan and ready to get on the bus to be whisked away to a shower. “Okay,” said Chief Jesse, “Here’s your ticket for bus number four. It’s a three hour ride.” Oh boy, I was thrilled and a half, by which I mean I wasn’t thrilled at all. That all changed when we got on the highway.
Getting on the bus!
Once we got driving, I noticed that we were on the left side of the road…just like in Japan! Then I noticed a lot of flashy signs and buildings with strange architecture…just like in Japan. And I saw a lot of houses really close together…just like in New Jersey! But also like Japan. It suddenly hit me that I was finally in the one country I wanted to be in since the tenth grade. And it was great! Granted we were just riding in a bus, and I only saw parts of the city when we passed a major off-ramp, but it was still Japan.
After the bus, we got on a train, and then went to a taxi stop. Now, I had seen even more of Japan and it was getting awesomer by the minute. At the taxi stop, I met Chiaki, who is Jesse’s boss and one of the masterminds behind KSEP. I didn’t see her for long, because I then got in a taxi and headed for the place we would be staying. As we drove I saw more of the town I’m staying in, the name of which escapes me at the moment because I’ve only heard it once and it’s Japanese. Nevertheless, the town is really cool and I can’t wait to see more of it.
We got to the dorms, took off our shoes, and got settled. I took a shower sans a towel and emailed my parents to tell them I wasn’t dead. I drank my first Japanese beverage, which was a mix between mango juice and jelly in a can. It was really good. Jesse and Alex Taylor (yet another intern who has been here two weeks already) told me about all the great places I have to visit, like Akiharaba and Super Potato, which is a humongous video game superstore. So here I am, all alone at 1:30am. Everyone is asleep and I’m typing this and watching a game show where people have to eat thirty-seven pounds of fried chicken. There will be photos when I upload them. I’m off to bed only to see what crazy stuff happens tomorrow. Goodnight!
Okay, every other day then. I’m sort of in the groove. I’m getting ready for Japan and it’s been pretty hectic. No matter how much planning and packing I do, there’s always more. But let’s not dwell on that. Let’s dwell on commercials
Yes, commercials are on a high swing if you ask me. A lot of commercials are really really hilarious and creative. Like the Skittles commercials, for example. Those in particular are prime examples of great advertising. I don’t even like Skittles yet I find myself buying them just because the commercials are so amazing. The sheep boys commercial was the first one to catch my eye. It was so off the wall and unexpected, it really made me sit up and notice that Skittles still existed. The most recent commercial, which I consider to the most genius of all, is the singing rabbit. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, I’ve embedded links so you can see these brilliant pieces of advertising. Just watch and see what I mean.
Sheep Boys
“Jibber-Jabbin” is the icing on the cake.
Long Beard
This one is BRILLIANT!
Singing Rabbit
A wonderful example of great storytelling with no dialogue. Greatest ad yet.
Now what about crappy commercials? Commercials that overstay their welcome and really just aren’t that great. We saw it with “Whaaassuup?” and those ridiculous frogs, but more recently, I’d like to rag a little on Geico. Geico used to have great advertisements. They were short, funny and to the point. They were just brief clips like a really big coffee cup to show they stayed up later than other insurance companies, then the squirrels that ran in front of the car and did a handshake. Nothing hilarious, but they showed creativity and genuine effort. Then they had that stupid gecko. The first gecko commercial was okay. “I’m not Geico. I’m a Gecko. Stop calling me. Ha ha. Get it?” But then they just kept using him over and over and he was never funny after that. EVER! They started redeeming themselves with the “But I have good news” series, in which something is set up and you are tricked into an advertisement. Those were very clever at first, but after two or three you were done. Every time you heard “But I’ve got good news” you knew what was coming. Comedy is based on the unexpected, and continuing on that line really screwed everything up. It was at this point that they brought back the gecko with a thicker cockney accent and updated CG. This time however, he simply jabbers on semi-conversationally about nothing. More bearable because of the cockney accent but still a bother. Then came the worst offense of all. The Caveman commercials. Dear…Lordy…Sammiches. I hate those commercials. Again, the first was okay and a nice deviation, but it has just gone TOO FAR now. Caveman in therapy. Caveman playing tennis. Caveman at dinner. They might as well give the stupid Caveman his own show! Oh wait? They did. As if ABC needed another doo doo nugget to drop its ratings even further, they are looking at a pilot of a sitcom version of the Caveman commercials. Let us pray that network executives, in their limited wisdom, will be able to stop this before it starts. Here’s some examples of Geico’s offenses.
Old Commercial
See! Not bad. And it had the old gecko. The man dancing made it funny.
Geico Gecko
This is the new one. As you can tell…meh.
Caveman Montage
This is compilation of all the Caveman commercials. Watch at least the first one. It was funny on its own. Then just watch them get worse…and worse…and more…and more…boring.
I’m still on the fence about Starburst. Their commercials have gotten a lot funnier, but they still seem to lack the creativity of the Skittles commercials. I know this makes them guilty by comparison, but what are you gonna do? They’ve all been pretty funny so far and I hope they keep getting funnier. A true danger stands right in front of Starburst with the Berries and Cream Dancing Lad. Some may find him annoying, but I thought the ad was quite funny and effective in making me remember the product. However, Starburst released a two minute video of the Berries and Cream Lad teaching Internet viewers how to do the Berries and Cream dance. I must admit, it made me laugh, but I fear any other use of the lad beyond this will send Starburst to the crap pits of advertising to meet Geico and myriad of other trite and repetitive commercial ads. Let’s hope this is not the case.
Ernie
Good job Starburst. Keep it up.
Cheryl
So weird! I love it!
Berries and Cream
Very funny, but dangerous if they keep using this guy.
I realize this entry is not particularly funny or entertaining, basically what I accuse the Geico commercials of being. But I just felt strongly about this issue and wanted to comment on it. I’m off to pack some more and in a few days I’ll be blogging about Japan! Weee-hoo! I leave you with a cartoon.
I went to a wedding today. That was fun. I hadn’t been to a wedding in a good three years, so I was interested to see how this one was gonna go compared to the last one. As it turns out, it went exactly like the last wedding. They got married. I mean, I really like the people that got married so I’m glad it ended well, but for once I want to go to a wedding where someone runs in and yells, “Stop the wedding! I love the minister!” Or the bride runs away from the altar and then everyone in the bridal party and all the guests have to rush to their vehicles to engage in a high-speed chase to stop her. Or at least the best man dozes off during the ceremony and falls down the stairs. I mean, something! I wouldn’t have wanted it to happen at this wedding, but some wedding I go to.
So I went and everything was fine. The ceremony was beautiful. The bride was beautiful. The vows were beautiful. The candles and carpets and banisters were beautiful. I went to the reception, ate the beautiful shrimp, ate the beautiful cake, and danced a beautiful dance. Then I went home.
Having worn a tie and collared shirt all day, I was eager to get rid of my veritable noosey fate. So I did. I took off my dress shirt, threw it on the stairs, and ate a popsicle. About fifteen minutes later, I decided to not be a slob and pick up my shirt. I walked upstairs and threw the shirt on my bed. It was here that I discovered what looked like a smoosh-ed spider on the inside back of my shirt. Upon closer examination, I realized it was not a spider, but the eight crumpled disembodied legs of a spider that were stuck on the inside of my shirt.
I don’t know what happened, but apparently at some point during the day, a spider decided to rest inside my dress shirt, take off its legs, and roll away. Needless to say, I put the spider legs in a napkin and flushed them down the toilet-box. Afterward, all I could think of was that spider coming back to my dress shirt in his little spider wheelchair and saying, “All right. A few more feet and– What the? Wha? Where are my legs?! I left them right here! No, seriously! I just left for a minute and– Aw man! This always happens! I can’t believe this. I am so moving out of this city.” And then of course, the legless spider puts his house up on the market and has nearly forty showings in six months and doesn’t get any offers, except for one, but it falls through before negotiations are finalized. To make a long story short, the wedding was nice.
That’s all I got folks. I leave you with a brand new cartoon. I plan to post new cartoons every day until I run out of new ones. Then I’ll post old ones. So until next time, see you next time.
