Part 1, Hawaii

Thank you to everyone for the birthday wishes! I even got a comment from an anonymous! I'd pretty much assumed no one except for J & C & T were reading anything here. As promised here are some pictures of my trip with a little of how it went...

The morning of my flight I woke up early to finish packing and took a taxi to the Highway Bus stop. In the rush of getting everything together I completely forgot to make a reservation for the bus, but figured there'd be a few extra seats available. I was right, there were a few extra seats, but not enough for me. I was slowest getting onto the bus because of my two heavy suitcases, and everyone else got on before me. I was left on the curb all by myself.

The next bus came an hour later which meant that I'd get to the airport an hour before my flight. It seemed like enough time. It would have been enough time, except the bus stopped at the international terminal and my first connection was heading for Osaka from the domestic terminal. I bet it was funny seeing me rush with my two suitcases to the domestic terminal shuttle bus. But it wasn't funny for me. I was sweating like a pig and about to pass out from the heat.

I made it to the counter 20 minutes before the flight took off, and the nice woman rushed to get me processed in time. I made it! I got on the plane and let my muscles relax. Little did I know, in all the rush the nice woman took my return tickets instead of my departure ones, causing another worrisome episode two weeks later.

I'd forgotten how beautiful Hawaii is. The skies are so blue, the mountains so green. The constant breeze keeps it from getting too hot. As soon as I got off the plane I could feel Hawaii relaxing me. Even the drive on the freeway was wonderful.

As soon as I got home my sister wanted to go to the Taste of Honolulu event downtown. Top class restaurants set up stands where you could buy samples of their food, and it gave us a chance to try food from restaurants we'd never be able to afford. The small dishes were presented really well and looked so good you almost didn't mind spending $4 for a few spoonfuls of curry or a couple bites of pizza. Almost. Our 30 bucks didn't last very long.

I spent some time talking with this photographer who specialized in taking photos of Hawaiian beaches and waves. The colors were so vibrant and clear and I bought a small one for $12. When I got back to Japan I couldn't find it in my suitcase. Did I leave it behind? Did it fall out of my suitcase when I had to repack at the airport? Darn weight restrictions.
I love Hawaiian trees. They're so big and branchy and easy to climb. This one was next to the parking lot where we parked downtown near city hall.
The next day we drove out to the countryside somewhere past Haleiwa for a family picnic. I think it's the first family picnic I'd ever been to with my dad's family. They started having reunions a couple years ago because my grandfather was lonely and wanted to see his kids. I hadn't seen any of them since I was little and couldn't remember who was an aunt or uncle or cousin, let alone their names, but that's okay because they didn't remember me, either. The last time I saw my sister's kids, the youngest was a super fat sumo baby.

One thing I noticed was that EVERYONE has tatoos. You rarely see them in Japan because of the bad image associated with them, and it was weird being the only one who didn't have one.

I'd heard that my grandfather remarried a few years ago and his wife is much younger than he is. I was in for a shock when I actually met her, and found that she's even younger than me. Yup, I'm older than my grandmother. She's really nice and always smiling, and if I lived in Hawaii I could imagine us being friends. But there's no way I'd call her "grandma".

The next day my brother arrived and we visited the grave where my mother and grandparents are entombed. We did our usual ritual of giving beer to grandpa, coffee with cream and sugar to grandma, and gin to mom.
And the next day I was off to Las Vegas! More pictures to come...

All work and no play

I finally have time to breathe! After getting back from Hawaii and Las Vegas I suddenly realized I had to prepare for a 2-week English seminar for Middle School Students. I thought the seminar was in late August, but I got a call saying it started in late July (I went into panic-mode for a little bit). I didn't have time to rearrange my normal lessons to make room for the seminar, so I did the seminar in the day, my normal lessons at night, and did makeup lessons whenever I could fit them. For 16 days I worked from 10am-10pm and thank goodness we have Obon holidays this week (3 days off to worship your dead ancestors) or I would be dead myself.

Incidentally the Japanese have a word specifically to describe death from working too hard (karoshi), which nicely demonstrates the Japanese ideal that work should always come first. It seems to be a given that work even comes before your own health and the school that held the seminar is a perfect example... the entire seminar was planned beforehand and each teacher had their own classes, and there was no room for getting sick because no one could replace you.

By the way the school offered me a full-time job starting in September and I decided to take it because my VISA expires in October, and they'll sponsor me for a new one. I debated on whether or not it was the best way to get a VISA but decided to take it in the end. Mainly I was worried that we don't get any national holidays or sick days or paid vacation, but they make up for that in the four weeks per year that the school is closed and there aren't any classes.

It's an English cram school and my work hours would be 4pm-10pm on weekdays. I'll have to keep working my part-time day job at the high school until the contract finishes, and I may renew that one in April if my health isn't suffering. I like those classes. I've also been letting my night classes know that I won't be able to teach them on weeknights anymore and have been looking for teachers to replace me. Unfortunately several of them don't want to switch teachers and I've foolishly begun to offer Saturday classes to students that seem most bothered by the change. Truthfully I love my students and don't want to let any of them go, but there just won't be enough time in the week to continue them all.

So starting September I'll be working roughly 55 hours a week. Holy smokes just seeing that number is making me worry. It's been easy filling up my schedule because I'm not working it yet, but we'll see how I feel when it actually starts. Working so much is pretty normal for most Japanese people, and now I'm truly becoming Japanese.

P.S. - photos from my trip in the next entry, I promise.

P.P.S. - Oh, I just remembered it's my birthday today! Happy Birthday to me!

Pitstop in Hawaii

Sorry for not posting in a while... things got busy and I was stressing out trying to get everything together before I left for Las Vegas. On top of it all my car started having problems and in the end it totally broke down. I had to borrow a friend's car to get to all my lessons.

The wedding was great and Las Vegas was super fun. Just popping in so you don't worry that I was swallowed up by earthquakes! When I get back to Japan I'll fill in the details and post some photos.

A Whole Lotta Shakin' Going On

I kind of like earthquakes. You suddenly hear a loud thump and feel a jolt like a car hit the house, then everything starts rattling and swaying like you're on a boat. I like how alive my body feels in that instant when you realize it's an earthquake and you sharpen your senses, trying to judge if it's a big one worth worrying about or just a mild tremor.

But the past 24 hours have just been nerve-racking. In the last day we've had 28 earthquakes all originating right here in Oita. Five were lvl 3, and five were lvl 4 on the Japanese Earthquake scale. I've given up picking up stuff that's fallen over because they'll just get knocked over again. (While typing the previous sentence we just had another one #29... I'm guessing lvl 2. I'm getting pretty good at judging how strong they are).

The biggest one I felt so far was this afternoon while I was at the high school helping a student prepare for a national exam. At about 5:30 a huge jolt rocked the school (I heard some girls screaming from somewhere). An image of being crushed by blocks of concrete flashed through my mind, but the student seemed pretty calm and wanted to continue studying. She figured that the school is a lot stronger than most homes and we were safer there than anywhere else. Unfortunately an announcement was made telling everyone to evacuate the school and go home - I guess it might cause problems if the school did fall apart and someone got hurt.

I'm telling myself that there really is nothing to worry about. Having so many earthquakes means that the pressure is escaping little by little, preventing a single massive shake that'll destroy us all. Here's to hoping. If this is my last entry, you'll know what happened.

Severed heads are really gross

The big story in the news today is about a high school kid who killed his mother while she slept, cut off her head with a knife, put it in his backpack and carried it around with him as he walked around town, then took a taxi to the police station where he gave them her severed head. Now there's a boy with psychological problems. What would cause someone to do such a horrible thing?

The taxi driver said the boy didn't talk much on the way to the police station and the backpack left a brown stain on the seat - he said he spilled cocoa and tried to wipe away the stain with a wet rag. His teachers in school said he wasn't in any afterschool activities and was on the quiet side. There's so much speculation as to what motivated this kid to butcher his mother and the reporters even interviewed his classmates, who had no idea what had happened until they were surrounded by reporters. Actually it bothers me that the kids had to hear what happened from reporters. Reporters in general just bug me.

Something else that bothers me is the irrelevance of certain interviews that they've decided to air. They've been playing the same scenes all day so I guess they're getting desperate to show something new, but we don't need to hear a doctor explaining how easy it is for someone to cut off a head with a steak knife. FYI it only takes 10 to 15 minutes and if the person is still alive lots of blood will come out, so the good doctor says. Now why would they air something like that and make it sound so easy to cut off a person's head?

You don't hear much in terms of violence or crime here. There are far more murders in America than there are in Japan, but the ones here are just disturbing. When I first came to Japan people were talking about the middle school kid who killed his classmate and stuck the severed head on the entrance gate of the school. A couple months ago they were tracking a man who rode a bicycle and slashed random women with a long blade as they walked home from work at night. At least guns are illegal in this country. No need to worry about crazies with assault weapons.

Yuka's Wedding

I've known Yuka the entire time I've been here. It's weird thinking that she's married now.

I went to a wedding when I first came to Japan and was awed by the formality and attention to detail. I liked the mix of Western and Japanese influence and how everyone has a role to fulfill as the wedding progresses. But now that I've been here for a while and have a better idea of Japanese culture in general, I couldn't help thinking of all the social pressures that affect how weddings are run. Yuka's wedding was beautiful and dream-like, which you can tell from the pictures. So let me tell you about the annoying parts.

In Japan there's a strong tendency to compare yourself to those around you and weddings are no different. No one wants to be known as a cheapskate, so weddings are always planned by wedding companies that offer meticulously planned "ready-made weddings". This makes it easy because a company does it all for you, but makes weddings all look the same when they follow the pre-determined wedding schedule. This is especially true when everyone from your workplace has to get married through the particular wedding company that your workplace does business with. Everyone in Moritaka's company (Yuka's husband) gets married in the same chapel and has a banquet in the same banquet hall. They all know how much everything costs and can compare it to their own wedding, so Moritaka insisted on having the lobster side-dish because there was lobster at everyone else's wedding, and they had to have name cards and wedding announcements printed on paper that cost $2 per sheet, otherwise people at work would think he's being cheap.

In my opinion weddings are about the joining of two families and those families should be the most important part of the wedding. It's just the opposite in Japan where families show humility by sitting in the very back of the banquet hall and put company executives up front. The company executives give the wedding speeches and talk about the wedding couple, which is unfortunate in Yuka's case because the executives of her company come from a branch in another city, and they didn't know her. The president of her company talked about how their company has been prospering over the last few years and gave details about future business plans. He was glad that Yuka will continue to work even after getting married, and hopes that she continues to support their business. Whatever. I was super irritated that one of the executives at the table directly in front of the wedding couple was taking a cat nap.

Moritaka works in a big company and because so many workplace-related guests had to be invited, fewer spaces were left available for friends and family. The fortunate 8 of us that Yuka considers her closest friends sat at a table in the corner of the room by the door where the food trays came out of. I didn't mind. We had a good view of Yuka when she walked by to take her place at the honorary table. It was better than the table reserved for family.

After the banquet we headed out to Shelter bar where friends who couldn't be invited to the wedding could come and congratulate the newlyweds. Moritaka has cool friends. They were super loud and it felt more like a bachelor party than an after-wedding party.

Now I'm done complaining. The parts I like about Japanese weddings that are different from American ones:
1) The bride and groom change outfits several times throughout the banquet so they look different in all the pictures. I'm sure it's expensive but they look so nice :)
2) The parents of the wedding couple go around and individually thank each guest for coming. It's so polite.
3) There's so much delicious food and they give you a box to take home leftovers with you!
4) Each guest receives a present. Yuka must have read my mind because in my package there were two cakes and a nice piece of pottery from the village of Onta. I've always wanted something from there!
5) Friends of the wedding couple are given time to perform something during the banquet. We used the time to individually wish them the best on their new life, and Chino sang a song. The groom's friends got on stage and did a crazy song and dance then dragged him on stage and threw him in the air a few times before letting him escape back to his table.

Gabriel Garcia Bernal

Some years ago I went to see "Y tu mama tambien" when it came out in theaters and liked Gabriel Garcia Bernal's acting. He was really good at portraying friendship laced with jealousy. His Spanish is clear and easy to understand, or it could be that I just have a preference for Mexican pronunciation. I wanted to see more of his movies and went to a small video shop to see if I could find some, and here's what they had.

Dot the i was a disappointment. First of all it was in English which made Bernal's acting seem like crap. I had no idea he even spoke English, but he should stick with indie Spanish-speaking films. The movie relied too much on pulling everything together during the last 30 minutes, so for the first half I was wondering where they were headed with this and what was the point of the movie. I did like how it ended, but I felt bored too much of the time in the beginning.

Vidas Privadas ("Private Lives")had a terrible title in Japanese that made it sound like a porno - "Buenos Aires Nights"ブエノスアイレスの夜. I was so glad to see both Bernal and Cecilia Roth, who I fell in love with after her amazing performance in Todo Sobre Mi Madre, which happens to be one of my all-time favorite movies. I'd never heard of this movie before and was thrilled to find complex characters so emotionally distraught by their past experiences. Cecilia Roth is great for the strong female character role, who obviously has major psychological trauma. You find out about her past little by little, which creates a good pace.

Bendito Infierno was pretty good, and has a totally different title in every country which seems only natural for a movie filmed in 3 languages (French, English, Spanish). "No News from God" in Spain, "Don't Tempt Me" in English, and the awful title "Welcome! Heaven" in Japanese. I like the premise and found it humorous that English is the language used in hell. I showed this one in school and there wasn't enough class time to finish it - the kids hate me for turning off the video during a climactic scene 15 minutes before the end. I have the same gripe that Bernal speaks too much English, and the movie reminded me that Penelope Cruz was a much better actress when she stuck with indie Spanish films. I like the world this movie creates and how heaven and hell are earth-like places.

There were a few others that were already rented out so I'll have to go back some other time.

A little comment about phones . . . last week I wrote that cell phones dropping into toilets happens pretty often. Just yesterday someone told me that hers dropped into the toilet at work, and getting it fixed cost the same as getting a new one. Beware of toilets!

cough cough

I was sick all weekend and had to get someone to do my classes Saturday so I could stay home and rest. I felt fine until the drive home Friday night when I started coughing till my lungs hurt and my head got so stuffy I couldn't sleep the whole night. I figured the splitting headache all day Saturday was just from not sleeping, but since it lasted until Sunday night I think it was because I had a fever (no thermometer in the house so I had to use the wrist-on-the-forehead maneuver which doesn't work when it's your own forehead).

So what'd I do all weekend? I stayed in bed watching Charmed episodes. When the show started 9 years ago I watched a couple episodes and wasn't really impressed, but a few weeks ago I found out it had run for 8 seasons. It must have gotten better for it to have lasted that long, so decided to give it another chance. Supposedly it's the longest running series featuring an all-female main cast, beating out Laverne and Shirley.

I'm hooked, but only because it gets better as time goes on. The first couple seasons are pretty shaky and the characters don't feel very realistic, as realistic as a story about 3 witches in San Francisco fighting demons can be. I mean, Shannon Doherty has a job in an auction house and is an expert on every painting, gem, statue, vase, weapon, and whatever other antique that comes her way and she's only in her mid-20s? Those guys on the Antique Road Show program are like 80 years old and experts in only one very specific field. And plus I don't like her anyway. Heard she's a bitch in real life and you can kind of tell by those permanent frown lines on her face. I was so glad when they killed her off.

It gets lots better when they add Paige - the social worker who quits her job and gets stuck at a temp agency. Now that's more realistic. Plus she's sexy. There's something about her mannerisms and way of talking that I like. Kind of a nonchalant easy-going attitude with underlying intelligence and sass.

But what I really love is that in every episode there's a guest band, usually someone I've heard of but don't know their music or know their music but don't know what they look like. And guest actors that I know from other shows, sometimes people I've completely forgotten about but recognize instantly, like the guy who played Jack Deveraux from Days of Our Lives (one summer I was home everyday and looked forward to that dumb soap). Seeing him reminded me of another character I liked - Austin Reed, who showed up in an episode a couple seasons later. How dorky can I get.

Then Balthazar Getty shows up in a recurring role. I remember having just read Lord of the Flies (have a boulder, Piggy) and then the movie came out, and I thought how amazing it was that we're the same age but he's this famous actor and I'm just an insecure middle school kid. I sort of admired him. I forgot all about that name but recognized it instantly during the guest credits. He looks so different I wasn't sure which character he was.

So anyhow that's what I've been doing with all my spare time these past few weeks - watching Charmed episodes. I like playing "spot the tattoo". The number of tattoos on their bodies increases with each season and I'm sure they wear those skimpy outfits just to show them off.

True love

After having the same old phone for 3 years, I figured it was time to get something new. I went to the phone shop and had a look at the dozens of models display. The mini-TV phones were too bulky to fit comfortably in my front pocket. The new super-slim phones were pretty cool, but were so slim they seemed fragile. There were a few that looked nice, but the buttons felt weird or they make that clicking sound when flipped open (some people like that but I wanted something quiet). I found myself drawn to the Docomo F703i. So sleek, so shiny. But *gasp*.... they were sold out!!!!! I ended up spending the next 4 hours driving around to different Docomo branches until I finally found the model and color I was after. And it was definitely worth it. I absolutely love love love love my new phone!!!!!!!!

The F703i is the first waterproof phone on the market. Now I can play games while sitting in the bath (currently raising fish for the aquarium screensaver I downloaded). And no worries about walking in the rain or dropping it into the toilet! (never actually happened to me, but so many people have told me their phones died because of toilet incidents).
It also doubles as an ipod. I don't particularly need an ipod, but just to try it out I downloaded a few songs from Napster (2-weeks free service with purchase of phone - yay!) to use as ring tones. The great thing is you can set each person to a different ring tone, so I know who's calling or sending mail just by what song's playing. I love that part.

Mostly I love it because the outer shell is made of reflective glass. You can set the lights behind the mirrors to do different things, like tell you when there's a message or do funky patterns when you get a call. I've got mine set to display the time and do a funky light show in colored lights when I open or close it :)

And here it is! My new phone (color Lamp Black). Here's a before/after shot of the time showing up when I close it.

The unfortunate part is it cost a lot for functions I won't use. The camera quality is only 1.3 megapixels so I'll rely on my regular camera (7.0 megapixels), and I probably won't be doing much netsurfing on such a small screen. It'll mainly be used for mail and the occasional phone call. But I love the sleek black face and the hidden lights behind the mirrors. I'm such a sucker for design.

The screensaver aquarium looks so real (tried taking a photo but they kept coming out blurry). I downloaded a saltwater tank with some of those Nemo clownfish and a few blue ones for color. If they stay healthy for a couple weeks the site'll let me download something new :)

Chino & Yoko's B-day

Last weekend Chino complained about me not having updated the blog in over a month. I suspect she was looking for pictures :) The Japanese have a nice custom of giving copies of photos to the people that are in them, and I used to be pretty good about putting together envelopes of photos. But I haven't done it for almost two years and have been getting flack about it. Hopefully uploading some photos will appease the angry Chino. (I do intend to burn photo disks . . . someday)

Chino (left) and Yoko (right) have their birthdays in the same month, so we did a two-for-one birthday special at my house.

Chino took this lovely picture with the carrots that sparked a "vegetable playtime" photo shoot where we abused broccoli and cabbages, proving that age is just a number and that some of us will eternally be young at heart (and mind). There are photos of myself somewhere out there, but you'll not find them here (^^)v

Yoko had brought a board game called "Blokus" that was pretty easy to learn and totally addictive. There are 4 players, each with their own tetris-like blocks. The goal is to place your own blocks on the board in patterns that prevent the other players from placing their blocks, until everyone is stalemated. The winner is the person who used up the most spaces on the board. I don't know where the game is originally from but it's worth picking up if you like board games. But moderation is definitely key . . . playing 4 hours straight is a great way to give yourself a headache.