Bus Hotels

So I am going to make two entries about my Silver Week Holiday (September 19 - 23). This one will mostly be about my experience taking an overnight bus.

First of all, for those who don't know, Silver Week is an extended weekend that strings together 3 holidays (Respect for the Aged Day, National Holiday and Autumnal Equinox Day). This combined with the weekend allowed me 5 days off of work. I was lucky this year since usually these holidays are not consecutive, but happen only every 10 years which it is then called "Silver Week" as compared to "Golden Week" which usually happens in early May every year and is a little longer. Silver week seemed like a good time to do some domestic travel to Kumamoto to see my friends there. Golden Week will probably be when I go to Thailand, a journey I have been waiting 2 years to do.

Anyway I decided to take an overnight bus from Kyoto to Fukuoka (9.5 hours) the night after working on Friday. Kyoto is about 1.5 hours from my house by train, and Fukuoka is about 2 hours from Kumamoto by bus. All together the journey took me about 13 hours, longer than my flight from Seattle to Tokyo.

By 10PM I was waiting at the bus station in Kyoto and ready to board the bus. Luckily, my Japanese is best when it comes to traveling and food, two of my most favorite things. So getting on the bus was pretty painless. I am not too sure of everything that was announced though, but it wasn't a big deal.


The bus arrives!

In the States I had quite a few experiences riding Greyhound buses for extended periods of time, and I can confidently say this was WAY better than that. My ride from Kyoto to Fukuoka went pretty well. I actually slept about 6 or 7 of the 9.5 hours, so it was great! Sure when I woke up I felt like I was run over by the bus though. I was actually surprised on how far the seat reclined back, and that I actually had legroom, which is impressive because I am 6'4" in JAPAN! So it wasn't as uncomfortable as I was expecting. Considering for about $100 you can get from point A to B and also have your hotel/hostel expenses included for one night isn't a bad deal. Granted for this trip, I wasn't really planning on paying for a place to stay since I know quite a few people in Kumamoto.

For now I will skip what I did in Fukuoka and Kumamoto, and describe my return journey.

From Kumamoto I took what was normally a 2 hour bus ride to Fukuoka. This time it took a little over 3 hours though, since we were traveling about 15MPH since there was an incredible amount of traffic on the roads because of Silver Week. I wish I had a picture, because honestly this would put LA and NYC traffic to shame. Just imagine, a country of about 130 million people in about the square mileage of Montana all trying to travel by car within the next 4-5 days. INSANE! Anyway, thankfully I anticipated this and left a bit early imagining my bus might be a little slow.

So about an hour waiting and picking up drinks and snacks at the bus station in Fukuoka and I boarded my return overnight bus. Definitely not as nice as the first one, but much better than a Greyhound bus. The seats didn't recline near as far and there definitely wasn't much leg room. Thank the gods though, that I probably got one of the best seats on the bus. There was no one in front of me, just a short wall, so I didn't have to endure the reclining wrath of the person in front of me. This time I heard the driver say they will be making a couple stops at some rest areas along the way. How long they were, I wasn't sure. At first I thought them say 110 minutes or something like that, which was definitely wrong.

Anyway, I didn't sleep well. I maybe slept about 3 hours on my 10 hour bus ride. Thankfully it wasn't any longer, most traffic must of died down around 1AM. I also did get off the bus when we stopped for about 10 minutes two times to stretch my cramped legs. I think it was basically the return trip that made me decide not to ever take a night bus again. I honestly think I got lucky this time, if I had to ride two of these "older" buses, I say older because they weren't as comfortable, both times and was stuck in a normal seat behind someone else, I would have probably died. Considering taking a night bus didn't save me money on lodging I think the 3 hour bullet train ride for $100 more would have been well worth it, but I am happy I had this experience!.

So after 10 hours of practicing my contortionist arts and 3 hours of sleep, I arrived in Kyoto and wandered the city for 9 hours...these events still have to be written.

It Rains in Old Capital

This Saturday I made another journey to Kyoto, Japan's old capital. The more I think about it, the more I realize I am lucky to only be 2 hours away from Kyoto. Granted, I really do wish my small town had SOMETHING that could hold my interest, but I could be far from all civilization. Well, actually in Japan (because it is a few small islands) I guess you can never be too far away from civilization. But still I could be more than a 15 minute bike ride to the nearest train station, even if that train station boasts that it is super expensive to take a train anywhere, slow, and filled with spiders. Kyoto is by far one of Japan's most majestic cities. It has some of the oldest temples, and the most. It also has an amazing dynamism of modern and ancient. Honestly, McDonald's or a 40 story building next to a 400 year old shrine?! It's actually quite amazing really! Although I would have to say I enjoy the shrines more than the McDonalds'. So what I am trying to say is the 2 hour, 1 way trip costing $10 is worth it.


Modern: More than 3 minutes in this store...and you will become sad?

Anyway, this trip was made to finally pick up my overnight bus tickets to Kumamoto. This Friday I leave Kyoto at 10PM and head to Kumamoto. It is a 9.5 hour bus ride to...Fukuoka, which is then 2 more hours to Kumamoto by bus. Yes, I will be riding buses for 11.5 hours! Thats longer than my flight from Seattle to Tokyo! So why I am doing this instead of spending 2 hours to go by bullet train? Well, it is simple. It is $90 cheaper. $90? That isn't that much right? Well, it is, but I guess saving more than 9 hours makes it almost seem worth it. But I am doing this for the experience. I have flown domestically in Japan, taken normal local trains from Kumamoto to Tokyo, taken the Shinkansen (bullet train) and a boat from Fukuoka to S. Korea! One of the last few modes of transportation for me to tackle in Japan is the overnight bus! Because I am so tall though, I feel I might regret this afterwards. But, I have a motto in life, "Regret not what you have tried in life, regret what you haven't, as long as you cause no harm to others." Our time on this earth is so finite, and there is so much to experience. Who knows what crazy person I might have the opportunity to sit next to on the bus. Most likely it will be an extreamly drunk 50 year old salary man, but hey, how many people can say they experienced the company of a lunitic for 10 hours!!! Right!!! Think positive!

Anyway, I wanted to go to my favorite temple in Kyoto, Kiyomizudera (pure water temple). Honestly I don't know why I like this place so much, but there is just something about it. Unfortunately I had enough pure water during my day while accomplishing the business I had in Kyoto. It rained and rained. But I still managed to stop by a local temple and seek a little shelter from the downpour. Something is amazing when sitting on the steps of a zen temple listening to the rain hitting the earth.


Ancient: The glow of a temple lamp in the rain.

I also picked up a wireless router! YAY, I don't need to have a cord drawn across my apartment. If no one has heard of "La Fonera" before, I would highly recommend getting this. http://www.fon.com/en/ First of all, it is a relatively cheap wireless router, AND if you like sharing and recieving it is even better! The smart people at La Fonera thought of a way to make a safe and secure wireless network. Basically you have your normal secure internet connection, and your "public connection." If you chose to broadcast a public connection, which is actually only available to other La Fonera account (the account is free) users, you then in turn can log onto any La Fonera hotspot that someone else is broadcasting for free, IN THE WORLD! They also have a map that shows where these hotspots are, and I was really suprised at how many there really are. I think if I go to any major city I can basically find a handful of them around. So yay, free wireless anywhere in the world, by sharing a bit of mine, sounds like a good deal to me.

Other than my Kyoto adventure, teaching classes today was...well interesting. I taught the 8th graders, and one in particular tried to steal my wallet, and then grabbed another student and kept pushing his hand into my "package." I didn't know who to feel more sorry for, the student or me...haha. Of course there were some other slight antics, but I guess those are the memorable ones for today.

I will probably not be making another blog entry until I return from Kumamoto on September 23rd. Until then, I hope all is going well for everyone reading this...and even for those who are not!

999 and Jumping Rope While Running

Unfortunately this will be another post with no pictures. Due to circumstances, it is frowned upon to post pictures that have my students in them on the internet, which makes some sense I guess.

The last week or so has been interesting here in the land of the rising sun. My crappy bike that I mentioned earlier is sending me a message that it wants to retire. I woke up one day to a flat tire. How this happened, I am not sure. I could get it fixed but considering the brakes are worn out, the chain keeps falling off and it is a pretty small bike, I might as well spend about $150 getting a new bike instead of spending $100 to get this one fixed. So needless to say, I have been walking to work the past few days which isn't that bad since I only live about a 10 - 15 minute walk from my school where I work.

Speaking of work, I have continued giving my self introduction to my students. I have now finished all the 7th and 9th graders and just have the 8th graders left next week. The students seem about as unenthusiastic in class as ever. But outside of class they always seem to have plenty of energy. I was even lucky enough to get what is called a "kancho" which can be roughly translated as a "poop needle." It seems like the cool thing to do in Japan (and I guess Korea too), to try to sneak up behind someone (I guess a teacher is double points) and jab your fingers into their butt. Pretty weird if you ask me, and honestly I hope it doesn't happen much more after this...

I also taught a special education class to about 12 students. This was definitely a challenge since, they really don't know any English and either have a short attention span or are just super energetic (hyper). But since I kept the English really simple, I could fill in some gaps with some simple Japanese. Also the Japanese homeroom teachers were really great in trying to help me out. Although I was nervous about this class, honestly it may have been one of the more fun classes that I taught. I felt less confined by curriculum and some of the students seemed more enthusiastic than most other classes. I got asked all kinds of questions such as "Do you like pear? I like pear" and the infamous "Do you have a girlfriend?" "How tall are you?" "What size shoe do you wear?" and even some pretty challenging ones like "Who is your favorite historical character?" Granted most of these questions were fired at me in Japanese, not English. Oh yes, and of course all the kids wanted to feel my arm muscle before I left class. Like I said, it was fun...I think because it was a little crazy!

Anyway this week has been filled with preparations for sports day. So most of the time, I am doing nothing because I am not told to prepare anything. But a couple days I just decided to watch the kids prepare their "dances" for a completion that happens on sports day. It is interesting, I think Japan is the only country where I will see a 14 or 15 year old strong wrestling kid waving around pink pom-poms...and these kids are usually the trouble makers that try to act like bad-asses in school...part of me laughs inside, and part of me finds this awesome at the same time! I will go into further details about the sports day which was held today (09/11/09) but first I want to talk about what happened on 09/09/09.

999, not to be confused with 666, is the day I turned 24 years old. It is actually pretty weird to have a birthday in early September. It seems that around this time I am always in a new place with few (if any) familiar faces. Last time I was in Japan when I turned 22, I had a relatively lonely birthday since I only arrived 2 days prior, and when I turned 23 I returned to the U.S. only about 2 weeks before. Anyway, this birthday wasn't bad though. Another JET who also lives out in the middle of nowhere Japan decided to drive up here (she just got a car, she lives farther away from a train station than I do) and have dinner. At first we were going to cook something at my place, but after not having any good ideas on what to make, we just went to a local restaurant. After a little chit-chat and finishing our meal, I got a call from one of my English teachers from my school. She is pretty cool and I also consider her my friend. She is also about my age so is a good resource on things to do in the area, although she actually doesn't live in my speck on the map but in a city about an hour or so away. Anyway, it was a relatively quiet birthday, but I was in good company so it was satisfying in that respect.

Anyway, back to sports day (today). I would have to say, Japan LOVES its sports. Sometimes I think it is more important in Japan for students to learn and play a sport than it is for them to study English. Actually, I am almost positive about this. The amount of effort and time put into practicing and preparing for a sports festival in Japan is almost ridiculous. But, I did have a fun time watching, minus the crazy sunburn that Japan always seems to give me.

Maybe the most amazing thing I saw was a race that combined all kinds of crazy things. Running while tied to about 6 other people, 3-legged race, etc. But the most impressive I thought was watching a kid run super fast around the track while jumping rope. I mean, he was running FULL speed and swinging this rope around him. I would say it was a sight to behold. Then I also helped judge the dances I talked about earlier, and helped cheer some students on in some tug of war. Overall I felt pretty useless, but eh...it was a good experience even if my students were saying I looked like a gangster when I wore sunglasses.

After sports day we had an "enkai" which is like a party, but formal and done with all your co-workers. I was both looking forward to this and dreading it at the same time. Super formal things don't allow for me to relax, so it is kind of tiring. I was hoping to get to know more of the teachers though. Anyway the place was nice, and very traditional Japanese style. It reminded me a little something out of a yakuza movie or something like that, where there is a large room, one end there is a scroll hanging on the wall, sliding doors, tatami mat floors...very Japanese! Unfortunately I didn't really get to know many of the teachers though. It seemed that either they just didn't want to talk to me, or they were too afraid to (language barrier thing, which I guess I can understand the intimidation).

My problem with Japanese is it is hard for me to start a conversation, basically because my vocabulary is limited. I am much better off answering questions and miming a topic that someone already has brought up. With this being said, I could carry on short conversations with a few people that approached me, which was great. But for me to try to talk to teachers that haven't talked to be before and get to know them better, it was a little impossible. I think I am going to try to memorize a few simple sentences that would be good for approaching co-workers at these types of meetings.

One thing that bothers me in Japanese society is all the social rules in the workplace that are never spoken about, but somehow known. This makes it hard for me to just approach some random co-worker and be like "Sup, hows it goin'?" like I did with most of my Japanese University friends. I mean, my co-worker might be my superior and then, oh shit! Now I am thought of as that rude foreign guy with no respect for Japanese culture.* Anyway, I will try to figure something out before the next one of these "enkai" things. It was my first time to a party like this, so I will take it as a learning experience.

*I would like to note that I am not calling Japanese people snobbish or uptight. Part of this opinion probably comes from my own phobia of disrupting harmony or something like that. I would point out though, that the Japanese people of the island of Kyushu (where I lived before) generally seem way more laid back than the people of Honshu, the mainland (where I live now). Granted I am lucky to live in Kansai which probably has some of the most easy going mainlanders in Japan.

Well, that's about it for now. Tomorrow I am heading to the beautiful city of Kyoto to purchase an overnight bus ticket for my upcoming trip to Kumamoto to see some old friends! Hopefully my next entry will have some awesome pictures.

The New Kid at School

So the last few weeks have been relatively good I guess. I am poorer than dirt right now and really hope that I can make it to payday on September 10th. If not I might have to withdraw some money from my American bank account which is both expensive and currently the yen is worth more than the dollar causing more losses.

Anyway, I started teaching this week. On Tuesday I gave a speech to about 600 students, which was quite frightening so that took a lot of courage, but everything went relatively well. I then began teaching, and well all I can say is that it was a new experience. I am basically just giving my self introductions but it seems harder than it should be. I am not sure if the kids enjoy it or if they are bored to death! The unfortunate thing is that this is the only time I really have a chance to dazzle the kids since the rest of the things I teach will be based off of the pre-existing curriculum. Surprisingly too, I still feel uncertain about my duties. I am not even fully sure of what will happen in each class. One thing I am getting used to is the lack of knowing what lies ahead of me though.

School has become a lot busier, but for some reason the weeks seem to have gotten longer. I taught 4 classes today which was actually quite tiring. I also have been grading tons and tons of tests and homework assignments which is interesting since the English is sometimes so incomprehensible that I almost would rather be reading Japanese.

Soon there is a sports festival and it seems like a lot of the students are preparing as well as the teachers, but I usually just sit in the teachers' office like usual because I have no direction when it comes to these things or even if I am suppose to be doing anything. I know I was told by JET before to be proactive about things at school, but honestly I don't know when to ask because teachers are always buzzing about and if it isn't an English teacher I really don't feel I can get my point across. So I guess I will just play it out and see what happens. Hopefully they just don't expect me what is going on in a new school, job, country and language.

So as it turns out my town is pretty small, about 23,000 people. It is fine for everyday living such as going grocery shopping etc., but to do anything with my spare time is another thing. As I said before I am running low on money, but for a while I tried to do some exploring in my town for a hang out spot. In japan cities of about 100,000 people are considered to be small and "rural." Even Kumamoto which had 600,000 people was considered a more rural city. So I guess 23,000 people is really out in the sticks! I was hoping to do Iaido (a sword martial art) or Kyudo (Japanese long bow archery) but alas, my junior high school doesn't offer it. They offer Kendo (another form of sword fighting) which is the only thing I have heard of so far that I would be remotely interested in. Honestly Kendo doesn't interest me much, but it will probably beat going home after work and watching TV, taking a 2 hour nap and then eating dinner and watching some more TV. It seems like TV is a good way for me to passivly learn Japanese, since my brain is usually pretty tired by the end of the day so I can vegge out and also try to pick up what is being said.

But most of all, I think it is just pretty lonely being out in the middle of nowhere, isolated due to a different culture and language. I really don't know how to meet people and make friends here. Although I have been in Japan before, the university setting was much easier because you were constantly around people your own age. I actually deeply regret that I didn't take better advantage of that situation last time I was in Japan. So I really hope that I can find a few people in my town to do stuff with. It would even be better if I found people my own age. Honestly, I think it would be impossible for me to stay here longer than a year (I planned on 2 years) if I can't have a social life with people my own age. But, only time can tell.

Obon

Since my last entry not much has happened although I have experienced a lot. I experienced my second earthquake ever and my first ever in Japan. It was the largest earthquake I ever felt and woke me up at about 5AM. I felt and saw my room sway and shake a bit. Although this was a somewhat large event for me, it happens so often in Japan that it barely is even noticed by most Japanese. As far as natural disasters go, I also experienced a typhoon although I was lucky enough not to receive the worst part of it. It was around the same time as the typhoon in Taiwan, Morakot, which killed dozens and destroyed many cities and towns. The typhoon in Japan was less intense, but unfortunately a little farther south from me some people did die and many buildings were destroyed. I am still not sure if it was the same storm that swept over Taiwan or just another one at about the same time.

As far as work goes, I am still pretty lost when it comes to most things. In Japan, when you start a job not much is explained. Instead you are supposed to learn through observation. So I am observing, but it is difficult because besides trying to learn a new job I am trying to understand the culture. I still haven’t started teaching yet, but I did find out that school starts on September 1st. Apparently there won’t be classes on this day though, but instead an “opening ceremony” where I think I will be expected to give a short speech on the stage of my school in Japanese. Let’s just say I am not super excited for that.

Besides that I enjoyed 3 days off of work for Obon. Obon is a Japanese holiday where Japanese travel around the country making offerings to the graves or shrines of their ancestors. So these 3 days added to my weekend allowed me 5 days of vacation. Considering I am very broke now until I get paid in September, I couldn’t do much traveling since I need to eat once and a while. So instead I decided to explore around my town a little bit.

Since my town is small and there isn’t much to do I decided to go to a dam and walk around. My area isn’t lacking countryside scenery so I decided to make the most of it before the snow falls and riding my bike around will become more difficult. After exploring and taking in my surroundings I ran across a friendly guy named Miki and some of his buddies. He saw me and called me over in Japanese. It turned out he was having a BBQ and decided to offer me a few beers and a bit of his food. I ate some crazy things though, like some kind of fish eggs and a whole fish. I was pretty fine with the fish until I ate the head. They said that’s how it is done, so I didn’t want to disappoint. All in all a bunch of nice guys and a few of them even went to the school I teach at, granted that was some 15 years or more ago since they were all about 30-35 years old.

Hino river dam.

After this I tried to find a way to ride my bike to a nearby city of about 45,000 people so that I could try to do some shopping and more exploring for things to keep me interested. The city is only about 17Km away which is less than 10 miles so I figured it would be simple to ride to. So I went as far as I could on my death trap machine of a bike, with barely any breaks and a bike chain that likes to fall off every ten minutes (not the best of my ideas), until I came into a highway without a pedestrian/bicycle sidewalk. I first tried to find an alternate route but it turned into some kind of 3^rd world road through rice fields and the jungle so basically I couldn’t ride my bike on it. So I turned back to the highway and started riding on the shoulder for about 5 minutes until I got too freaked out. If you already didn’t know, roads in Japan are extremely narrow. Two lane roads are about the size of single lane roads in the U.S. So with cars passing me at about 45MpH only about 4 inches from me (that’s with them going into the oncoming traffic lane) I decided it might not be the best idea. So back to my town, mission failed. I ended up paying the $4 to take the 10 minute train ride to the town instead.

A detour through a field.

Friday was another day of local exploring and trying to find ways to save $4 by making it to more populated areas by bicycle in vain.

The weekend was spent relatively relaxed. Saturday I stayed in my town and rode my bike about 20 minutes from my house to a “German Farm Theme Park.” It seems like an odd thing to have in Japan, especially in the middle of nowhere. One of my co-workers told me it was popular about 10 years ago, but recently hasn’t received much attention. But I heard they had German beer and sausage so I paid the $8 admission fee. Overall the place was a bit eerie and not every interesting. It definitely looked like people stopped caring about it 10 years ago, which is pretty crazy for Japan since things always seem to be well kept. It gave me the feeling of a half abandoned carnival or something. Not to mention the strange looks by Japanese tourists thinking I was probably a real German who worked their or something. Nonetheless I got a small bottle of great blueberry wine and some semi-delicious German sausage (made at the German theme park) for about $12.

German Japan

Sunday was a BBQ at another JET’s house in a city about an hour away by train. I went, with my German sausages which worked out good, and met a bunch of people and heard a lot of names, very few of which I will remember. I was trying to get some people to go to Kyoto with me for the Daimonji festival where they light huge fires on mountains in Kanji and other images in order to guide the spirits of the ancestors back home to “visit” their family members. I really wanted to see it this year because last time I was in Japan I missed the fires by about a half hour. When I got to the BBQ some people decided they wanted to go, but towards the time to go they all bailed out and just wanted to stay at the BBQ. Can’t blame ‘em if they were having fun but it kinda sucked that I had to go to a festival alone. But eh, I am always up for adventure even if it is by myself. So it was a bit relaxing to walk around after I found where I could see the fires.

This festival wasn’t very lively but more solemn then most Japanese festivals which can get crazy sometimes. I was going to stay the night in Kyoto at a internet café which usually costs about $15 a night instead of paying the $10 to go home and then $20 the next day to make another trip. But I figured since I could make my last train I should go home instead of trying to save $15 because I would probably spend it or more in the city.

Daimonji Festival in Kyoto

So the next day (Monday) I made the 2 hour train ride back to Kyoto to make a bus reservation to Kumamoto and buy some incense and speakers while stopping in Otsu on my way back to get a re-entry permit for my visa so I can leave the country and come back. Without one, if you leave you aren’t allowed back in the country. Tuesday and Wednesday were also train travel days back to Otsu for a job orientation type thing.

A view of Kyoto.

So overall the last week has been pretty good, relaxing but busy. At the same time it was very expensive. I probably spend around $80 on transportation, $60 for a re-entry permit, $30 for speakers, and of course food and whatnot. Right now I hope I don’t have to pay rent until after I get paid in mid September, otherwise I might have to withdraw money from my American bank account which I need the few hundred dollars in there to pay bills back in the States until I can transfer money home.

Anyway, until next time and new adventures!

Japan as a JET

I officially landed in Japan on July 26th for a 3 day orientation in Tokyo with the JET program. On the 26th I was greeted by the hot and humid Japanese summer and a bunch of JET representatives then piled onto an wonderfully air conditioned bus to head to Shinjuku. Looking out the bus window I was overcome by a feeling of nostalgia more than the "new world" feel that most people experience when landing in a new country. I was in Japan only 11 months ago, so things seemed strangely familiar but yet foreign.

We arrived at the Keio Plaza, maybe the nicest hotel I ever stayed at in my life, and were ushered in and given our schedules for the next few days, etc. Then off to my room which I shared with two other fine young lads who departed from Seattle with me but heading to other areas of Japan. After heading to a near restaurant I returned home and crashed on my hotel bed to recover from jet lag and prepare for my 2 days of orientation.


View of Shinjuku, Tokyo from Keio Plaza.

The next two days were full of activities, speeches and lectures in attempt to prepare us, some 1000 JETs, for our new lives in Japan. My days started at around 7AM and ended somewhere around 8 or 9PM. Overall I found some of the lectures useless but at this point I didn't want to do too much since I was pretty wiped out from traveling from Bozeman to Seattle to Tokyo. If I had to do it again I would have skipped a couple lectures and explored Tokyo or took a nap. It was great talking to some of the other people who were JETs though, learning where they were from and where they were going.

On the 29th it was time to leave and head to Shiga prefecture, my new home as a JET. After another bus ride, bullet train, city train, and long walk we made it to the prefectural building where we would meet our supervisors at our Boards of Education for each of our towns/cities. After some awkward introductions I hopped in a van and headed to Hino, a small town of about 23,000 in Southeastern Shiga. Thankfully a Japanese Teacher of English came along because my Board of Education supervisors didn't speak English and my Japanese isn't the greatest.

Once in Hino I was brought to the Junior High School where I would mainly be teaching at to meet some of the teachers and principle. Then rushed to the Town Hall to meet some more people and give another awkward self introduction in Japanese. After a few more things that I can't clearly recall I was brought to my apartment where I could "rest" for an hour before I had to go to a "party" with some local officials including the mayor. By this point I just wanted to go to bed and try to organize my life that I packed into my two suitcases. Thankfully I had a chance to meet my predecessor and ask some questions though.


My non-Japanese looking Apartment Building.

After that I returned to my apartment, unpacked some clothes for the next day and went to sleep. The next day I had to take care of a bunch of other things such as bank accounts, a cell phone and foreign registration. I was lucky enough to have the assistance of another Japanese teacher of English, which was great!

Friday mainly consisted of my going back to the capital of my prefecture, Otsu, and figuring out the train systems for another orientation. Afterwards it was off to Kyoto for some drinks and karaoke with a few other JETs and then the weekend.

The following week was rather confusing. Went to school my first day having no clue what I was suppose to do, so I mainly sat at my desk and used the internet. The next day I was told to go to a museum where I listened to some lectures that I didn't understand (stuff about plankton in Japanese and whatnot). Wednesday was my first taste of "psudo-teaching" helping some of my students prepare for a speech contest, helping them with pronunciation and whatnot and then a 2 hour train ride to watch an amazing firework show in Nagahama city. Thursday and Friday were more like Monday except that a few more teachers were there and so felt like I had a bit more direction; I was able to figure out a few things how the school worked.

Friday night I went to watch another firework show in Otsu (the capital of Shiga) which may have actually been the best fireworks I have seen in my life. One word to describe it, Epic, even more epic than the 2 hours and $20 it took to get there by train.


Crowds and Fireworks in Otsu.

There has been so many things I have done within these past few weeks that it seems surreal. So many things I don't understand! Mixed with the confusion, tiredness, nervousness and excitement is a feeling of contentment. It has taken me 5 years of University to get to this point, a year long application process, $1000 interview and a little courage. I have so much more to learn and much wisdom to gain, and through my experiences in life and learning I may find my place or continue to wander in wonder of what comes next!

Innovation's GBA Halo Light

So I am going to post something on the geekier side of things, which really has very little to do with Japan. I am going to review the Halo Light designed by Innovation.

So you may be asking, why am I reviewing a light kit in 2009 for for a game system (Gameboy Advance) that was released all the way back in 2001, especially with the release of the Gameboy Advance SP or even more noteworthy the Nintendo DS? The reason is because I pre-ordered my my regular GBA so that I would finally have a new system when it was just released so that I could get years of updated enjoyable play. Little did I know that the SP version with a built in front-light would come out less than 2 years later. In a sense it is my stubbornness that got the best of me and wanted me to keep my original GBA instead of trading it in for the GBA SP.

So anyway, lets get started...

I searched the internet for what was considered the best light for the GBA since I wanted to take it with me to Japan considering I can also play Japanese cartridges in my American GBA since there is no region coding. I found that the Afterburner Kit made by Triton Labs was the best choice, unfortunately I could not find one nor a Gameboy advance that is modded with one. So I decided to search around for the next alternative. From reviews from notable places such as gamezone.com were saying the Halo Light designed by Innovation was the next best thing, plus it is a snap to install. So I tried to find a place to buy it, and of course there is no other than eBay. I found one, even in my systems color, for $23 and with shipping coming to $29 (I know I could have just purchased a used Gameboy Advance SP **punches self in face**). Figured, not bad for something that should make the GBA the equivalent as the SP by adding a 3rd party front-light and also allow me to stay faithful to my 8 year old system which has been hardly used.

Shipping was fast, 3 days later it is at my doorstep. So I take it out of the box, and in about 5 minutes with no real problems except trying to remove some of the extra gunk from the screen protector, it is mounted and tada ready to try it out!

Turns on...

WTF?!

Damn, this sucks! First of all, all the colors are washed out and although the screen may be brighter it is just as hard to see as playing in the dark because details and color basically fade away! Besides this something is messed up with the screen, it has some weird angle that you can see lines or a pixelated something...hard to explain, but frankly the image just isn't clear. Obviously it wasn't an install issue, since there is really no way to mess up. Plus I even redid it hoping something would change, but no. Even when the light is off the viewing isn't so great, pixels are slightly cut off from the edges which can be annoying when trying to see a stat bar at the top of the screen.


Halo Light Installed (Tekken Advance Game)



Closeup in the Dark

As you can see from these images, it is horrible! To be fair the pictures add about 15% more white light glare, but honestly this is almost what it looks like to play the game. As I mentioned earlier it is about as clear as when playing the GBA normally in poor light except that it glows white, visibility still sucks either way.

So in the end, it seems like a waste of $30. For anyone that reads this, I would NOT recommend the Halo Light by Innovation. If you want a light on your GBA get the models that already have them such as the SP or Micro or just pick up one of the older models of the Nintendo DS for approx $75. Or you can just get a PSP so you can play Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops.

There is no doubt that the original Gameboy Advance was and in many ways is still a great system. One of my favorite systems by Nintendo was the Super Nintendo which offered incredible games such as Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World, which in my opinion are the two best Super Mario games ever made! The GBA is basically a Super Nintendo that you hold in your hand, and for that reason I like it. I may be old school but many of the new "interactive" type games that the Nintendo DS offer really aren't my style, although I would have to admit there is a handful that I really want to play.

Maybe one day I will turn in my GBA for a Nintendo DS, as long as I can still plug in my GBA cartridges and play like it is 2001.

But as a closing note, the GBA is great but the Innovation Halo Light is practically worthless and is only good at turning your money into disappointment.