woot! I LOVE JAPAN!

haha...sometimes i just want to get a reversable t-shirt with one side that says I "heart" japan and then the other side (you flip it inside out) would say I hate japan..haha so it is living in this wonderful and yet horribly confusing country.

so, I FINALLY got hooked up to the internet in my apartment (i had to get a provider other than Yahoo and pay an arm and a leg, but its done!). So I will be able to post reg now (that is when I have something remotely interesting happening in my life...its the holidays now and almost all the other JETS have fled Kofu).

To begin things off...I thought I would post the long overdue companion to my I hate Japan post...

I LOVE JAPAN!

1. There are tons of funny engrish and just amusing signs all over. For example in Kofu there is a hair salon known as the "hair mode gorilla" salon (as you see above it has a lovely pic of, what looks to be a cross between an alien and a creature from planet of the apes). And there is another hair salon that is called "Papa Doo" (oh dear!) They always use cute pictures of animals when they have signs asking you to do or not do something. For example, on the side of the road they have a sign that says "do not litter' (in japanese) and a pic of a poor little cat getting hit on the head by a flying tin can...oh dear! They also have a pic of a penguin on the steps when you leave the train station with the kanji for walk to the left. Im not sure what the penguin signfies other than its damn cute! haha.

2. THE ONSENS!!! Woot for non-sexualized nudity! You walk into an onsen and proceed to strip off all your clothes and put them in a locker (you keep a face-cloth sized "modesty towel" which you can, if you wish, drape pathetically over your "naughty bits"...later you will wear this cloth folded up on your head while you bathe). Then you get to a room where they have these detachable shower heads and you get all lathered up and shampoo and what not and get squeeky clean. Then you get to go into the onsen!! Most places have various outdoor pools and saunas, in addition to indoor pools. You just kick back and relax and let all your stresses disapear. Other than some old japanese ladies sizing you up (they have no shame to blatanly stare at us gaijin) you can just totally forget the rest of the world. It is total bliss.

3. You can drink in public...walking down the road or on the trains!!
I had the coolest encounter with a bunch of japanese businessmen who jumped on the train when a bunch of us alt were out together. These four guys proceeded to pull out a bottle of wine and sake and a bunch of plastic cups and all of us kompiied eacother (cheered). You also can buy alcohol at conbinis (short for convinence stores) and then just walk out and drink them down the street. I just remember how in Vancouver there is such a big fuss durring the fireworks in the summer when all these people are drinking down the street. I think Vancouver should take a cue from Japan and just chill out.

4. Teaching my kids!!
I love coming up with lessons for my kids. I get really genki (hyper/full of engergy) when I teach and yell random things like "I LOVE ENGLISH!!" and give a big thumbs up. To which all the guys in the back cheer! haha. Here is an example of a lesson I tought...

Describing People

First i got the students to do a word search with tons of words that describe a person's appearance (eg blonde, beard, mustache, short etc). Then I drew a big pic of this guy on the board and labeled him to make sure that they got the vocabulary (he had a large mustache and huge beard :). Then I devided the students into groups and each group got this funny photograph of a weird looking person (eg one was of a guy dressed like mario and one was of a midget dressed like a punk :). In groups they came up with sentences to describe the person and a name for them. Then one person from each group came to the front of the class and introduced their person to the rest of the class. This got great laughs, as the pics were really funny. After this I asked the students to grab a blank piece of paper. I told them that, "when I was in the bank on the weekend a man came in with a big gun and stole all the money!" I hamed it up and asked them to help me draw a wanted poster of the guy (this helps to test their listening skills). So, I described the guy I saw ("he had short hair and a mustache and beard...") and they each drew a pic of him. After about 1 minute everyone was laughing so hard because they were looking at their pic and their neighbour's pics and they were so funny! After they were done drawing, a I made a big show of saying "thankyou for helping to catch the thief. Do you want to see what the guy really looked like?". They all yell "YES!!" so I presented them with a photo of the guy I was describing and they crack up again because their pics were so bizzre compared to the photo of the guy. It was a really fun lesson :)

5. My japanese apartment!
My place is newely floored with fresh tatami matting and fusuma sliding doors. I love that i don't have to just get into a room by one door, but i can slide the walls and get in from any angle. I love the smell of my tatami (now It no longer reminds me of hamster bedding!) and it is really easy to clean...i can just sweep it and it doesnt collect dust like a carpet does. I have even got used to sleeping with my futon on the floor (i use 2 futons layed ontop of eachother for extra comfort). I dont even mind hanging my bedding outside to air so much (it always smells nice and fresh when I crawl into bed). I have a lovely toasty warm kotatsu to sit under (like a coffee table but with a heater beneath to warm your feet) and nice low light couches (it almost seems weird now to me to have a couch that would have legs to raise it above the floor). My place is finally starting to feel like home :)

6. How nice people are here. People really do try to avoid conflict here. So you here alot of sumimasen (excuse me/sorry) here alot. When you are in need of assistance, people really go out of their way to help you. The people in my office at the Kencho have been amazing. In particular my supervisor Tanabe San has helped me with everything - getting my alien card, helping me get a new washing machine, picking out a cellphone, helping me patch my bike tire. Another guy in my office - who I call Tanaka Sensei because he has offered to help me with learning japanese. He just came over to my desk one day and offered to teach me. So we went on a little walk around the Kencho and he pointed out the "nijhongo dewa" (japanese word) for something and I would tell him the "eigo dewa" (english word). It was a sweet little exchange between two people who almost new nothing of eachothers languages.

7. House socks, leg warms, and arm warmers!!! At this big clothing store called "Paseo" (its a hip place where alot of my students shop in Kofu) you can find the cutest sellection of things called "house socks". Basicly they are really thick socks with the cutest things on them like knitted flowers and bees or they are made up to look like a dog with ears and eyes and what not. So cute! They also have tons of leg warmers and arm warmers which are essential for the winter here. Not only do they keep you warm but they are pretty sexy too! hehe!

8. The JETS here are crazy and wonderful! They all welcomed me in right away like I was part of a big disfunctional family. We are all sort of in this together...alone in a foreign country so we immediately reach out and help eachother. SO many people have gone out of their way to help me out since I got here. This chick Kat drove on a school night from Minobu (which is like an hour from Kofu) to help me find furniture for my place. She ended up piling the back of her car with a futon for me and a couch and what not and didnt get home to her place until after midnight. Other people like Lynn and Olivia have made delicious food for me when I was sick of raw fish. There is a great group here....yes many of them do have the reputation for being excessive with their alcohol on many occasion, but when you get down to it they are really amazing people.

9. Karaoke!!! What can I say, I love to sing and this is the place for me! You can rent a room with a bunch of friends have a few drinks and sing your heart out. The best is when we got a group of about 12 of us together and all the guys took one mike and the girls took the other and we sang the song "a whole new world" like a duet between us all....hehe! goodtimes!

10. Mt FUJI! I never get tired of seeing mt fuji on clear days from my balcony. It is so perfectly beautiful. I also still pull out my camera when I am out and get to see a new angle of it. I will scale it next summer (despite the stories of other jets who claim they nearly died climbing it...).

Oh dear I better run now. You all take care and peace, love, lollypops, and rainbows to all of you back home in vancouver.