Sakura and Family

As I sit at my desk after the welcome ceremony for new students, I decide it is time for another entry. The weather is getting warmer and in a little over two weeks I will be entering an Indian inferno. A strong contrast to the current weather of light pink blossoms making their final decent carried by a chilly wind.

This past week has been pretty eventful. I met my brother Damien and his girlfriend Michelle in front of the famous Hachiko statue in Shibuya on the evening of March 30th. After finding a business hotel to throw our bags we headed out for some Italian food and a few drinks. It was my last night in Tokyo and part of me was happy to be leaving the crazyness and part of me longed for the life that a modern metropolis could offer me.

After a two and a half hour shinkansen ride, Damien and Michelle were in my home prefecture of Shiga. Another hour later on one of the slowest privite lines in Japan and we were in my small town of Hino, where we would spend the next two nights. I had to come back for an official farewell party for some teachers on the night of March 31st and was told to come to work on April 1st for an opening ceremony. The party was pretty good although formal, and I felt that I could actually talk with a few of the teachers. The opening ceremony could have definitely went on without me. However, it was good to meet the new teachers on their first day.

I was given the opportunity to meet a local woman who worked at the Junior High School a few years back and her husband. They both speak great English and are also well traveled. Two very good combinations and quite rare in rural Japan. That evening Damien, Michelle, my co-worker Anna and I enjoyed some chanko nabe and some great company. I am relieved and excited about meeting my new friends in Hino, since they are the first local people I have truly felt welcomed by since moving here almost nine months ago.

Anyway, on April 2nd my visitors and I were back on the trains headed to Nara to see the daibutsu and the famous 'tame' deer. Luckily we arrived at the Todaiji a half hour before the gates closed. After this it was off to the city of Osaka for a night in a capsule hotel and 'Japanese' nightlife. Of all the cities in Japan to party, Osaka is one of the best.

The largest wooden structure in the world. Todaiji, Nara.

The next morning, after feeling a little rough from the night before, we headed to Kyoto. Unfortunately because of the cherry blossoms blooming, there were no available hostels, business hotels, hotels, or guest houses. We were lucky enough to find a share house that one of the the hostels that I stayed at a few weeks earlier knew about. Also for tourists to see the cherry blossoms is also very lucky, since a few cold days could change their blooming date by weeks. After resting up, we headed out for some Indian curry and cherry blossom viewing at a local temple and park. I was happy to finally see the famous weeping cherry tree in Maruyama Park in full bloom, which I missed two springs ago on my visit to Kyoto from Kumamoto.

Sakura in Maruyama park

The next morning we decided to head to Arashiyama and take a look at a bunch of Japanese monkeys and of course more cherry blossoms. Dinner was at a pretty fancy restaurant which served Shabu-shabu. I know Damien has wanted to try a chinese style hot pot for a while, but unfortunately it wasn't the same style he was hoping for. I think he was looking for the spicy Sichuan style hot-pot made with a hot sauce called ma-la. Nonetheless it was very delicious!

The evening was spent back in Maruyama Park where we decided to join in the hanami festivities before our departure from Kyoto back to Hino the next day.

Honestly, we did so much that it is impossible to write about any of it in the detail it deserves. But I am certain that we covered as much as we could have with the amount of time we had.

Now it is back to everyday life. Tomorrow is pay day, and it couldn't come any sooner! I have a lot of preparations before I head off to India on the 28th.

Tokyo II

The sequel to my Tokyo adventures.

Monday was a morning of free eggs and toast at the hostel. Still no luck getting money from the ATM. After some research, it seems that my bank has a branch in Tokyo! Lucky me! After Google Maps, printer and paper I was off on my mission. Only to be left with disappointment. The building that my bank was in was invisible. Non existent. Broke! $20 in my wallet.

Another $5 beef bowl later I realized there is a customer service number on the back of my card. The simplest thing. So I went to the station and made an international phone call, thankfully I kept my calling card for such emergency purposes.

After 10 minutes on the phone, I felt like an idiot. The reason my card was being rejected was because I was attempting to withdraw more than my daily limit. My mind immediately went back to Nikko and the thought of me being able to try famous yuba only if I would have tried to withdraw about $10 less.

After this triumph I headed to a man made island called Odaiba. Honestly I have never really heard about it before, except from other people that have been to Tokyo. So I decided to check it out, and I did for about 6 hours. Basically it is a commercial consumer paradise. A huge mall and another mall that is built like the Roman Empire. It was kind of cool in a strange and surreal way. I guess that's what you get when you want to buy some Louis Vuitton. But, I don't love Louis.


Odaiba, Tokyo. Not New York.


When in artificial Rome, buy designer name brand clothes.

However, I do love $10 all you can eat taco buffets!

Today, I leave my hostel. Will most likely wander around Harajuku and see if I can find a sweet deal on a DSLR in Akihabara that I can purchase with a credit card. That way I can stop taking photos with my mobile phone. My plan to go to a vaccination clinic has been postponed until after payday. If my doctor in Kyoto offers tetanus and hepatitis A vaccines for India, I can probably get a good deal, since many times he even sees me for free. Or maybe I will just have to go to India the old fashioned way and pray to the gods that nothing happens.


Crowded streets of Harajuku

7PM I will meet some crazy Americans in front of a stone dog.

Tokyo

I left Saturday morning only to miss my train by 2 minutes. Causing me to wait at my station for 45 minutes. This event did bring about the chance to meet a couple friendly Indonesian guys my age who live in my town and work for the car factory Daihatsu. It was nice to talk with some locals, although they were just as foreign as me.

As 10AM rolled around I was off to Tokyo, using the Seishun 18 Kippu. At about 7PM, nine hours of train travel, I walked through the gates at Tokyo Station.

People say when a trip starts out bad, you should postpone the journey for a luckier day. Maybe I should have taken this advice. After checking into my hostel and paying for it, I had about $60 in my pocket. This $60 is all the money I have left in Japan. But no worries, I had a plan! I had $300 left in my U.S. bank account. All I had to do was withdraw that! WRONG!

Went to the ATM. Declined. Another ATM. Declined. Now I was worried. Stuck in Tokyo, one of the most expensive cities in the world with $60 in my wallet. I was going to hook up with some people from the hostel to go have a fun Saturday night out in Tokyo, but alas it was a night of a $5 Yoshinoya Beef Bowl and a bottle of water.

The next day I headed off to Nikko. The transportation was "free" because I already paid for the Seishun 18 Kippu. After a 3 hour train journey I was greeted by snow! Nikko, unknown to me previously, is very cold! It apparently has weather similar to Hokkaido. But finally I could go see the 3 wise monkeys (hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil). A 1000 yen combination admission ticket got me into most of the temples, the lady even gave me a 300 yen discount!


Hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil.


Nikko's sacred bridge

Unfortunately because I still had no luck with my U.S. ATM card I couldn't afford to try some of the famous yuba cuisine of Nikko.

After getting back late to Tokyo, I ate another beef bowl. Then I saw a Burger King, a rarity in Japan, so decided to indulge myself in a thick juicy Whopper. Then back to the Hostel for another night. I have an itchy throat, I hope I am not getting sick. I am drinking 1000mg of vitamin C every night at the local seven-eleven.

I meet Damien and Michelle on Tuesday.

Samurai, Leprechauns and Sagicho

This last weekend was pretty eventful. Saturday was graduation for the 9th graders at my school. So I suited up and sat through a boring ceremony, but enjoyed saying goodbye to the students and wishing them luck in the future. After that I went to Kyoto where we celebrated St. Patrick's day in Kyoto at a bar called Around (same bar for Halloween) and a $10 ticket gave you one free drink and a donation to "Doctors without Boarders." Unfortunately it also looked like we got "DJs without talent."

Anyway, that night instead of staying awake in Kyoto I headed to Osaka. My friend won a free room at the ANA Crown Prince Hotel so we decided to use it before expiration. Definitely the nicest hotel I ever spent the night in. Must have been 5 stars.

After about 5 hours of sleep I headed to the Osaka port to go see the last day of an art exhibit. I arrived at the museum at about 10:45 and almost all the tickets were sold out. Luckily I got a ticket for admission at 3:30. It was worth it though, this artist, Takehiko Inoue, is definitely my favorite modern Japanese artist. This exhibit is from his current manga (comic) called Vagabond. Vagabond is also about my favorite Japanese historical figure. Miyamoto Musashi. He created the double sword technique and also is legendarily known for never loosing a battle.

After arriving back in Shiga in the evening I went to a festival called Sagicho where basically people make huge parade floats and then light them on fire! I only watched for about an hour though before I had to catch my last train home.

Japanese Alps and India

This past weekend I took a night bus to Nagano to go snowboarding in the Japanese Alps. The night bus was 6 hours of sleepless leg cramps, but was followed by the largest ski resort I have been in my life. The mountain was so huge, that even 2 full days couldn't even cover half of the runs. There were 4 peaks, and I could only make it to the top of two of them. Unfortunately visibility was terrible and the first day was drizzling rain. However the second day brought fresh powder.

Snow monkey checking in

Fellow JET snowboarders

It also looks like I have made my decision to go to India from April 28 to May 9th. This time I will be hauling bricks to build houses in a small village of Chevaru in Andhra Pradesh, India.

Unfortunately dragging cement is an expensive endeavor in India. The flight costing around $900, volunteer fee of $610, $130 visa fee, $200 domestic airfare tickets and miscellaneous costs bring this trip to a little over $2000 USD. My plan to purchase a Digital SLR camera just flew out the window and more credit card debt is on the horizon. Financially this may have not been the best decision, however if I don't take the opportunity now, there is no guarantee I will take it later. To stop me from looking back when I am 80 years old and regretting that I never went to India, I figured I might as well get it out of the way.

Part of me doesn't actually know why I chose to do this. It isn't necessarily the type of volunteer work I want to really do, nor is it really a good deal. $61o volunteer fees for a 3rd world country just seem ridiculous when I know housing and food for a week wouldn't even break $200. Plus tickets to India aren't much cheaper from Japan than they would be from the U.S. Not to mention I am pretty worried about health risks since I am not sure if I can actually receive vaccinations for many of the things that I think might actually be a problem in India. In the end I just hope for karma immunity, that my good deeds will keep me safe...

I guess because this is something I wouldn't normally consider doing, that is why I chose to do it. It is possibly one of the largest leaps into the unknown with undoubtedly great tests. It is because of this though that I rise to the challenge so I will walk away much stronger a person than I am now.

Philisophical Picnic #2

As I sit here at my desk, I remember someone I knew that had a fear of heights, something hits me like smacking into concrete. It isn't the fear of being high that scares people, it is the fear of falling from that height. But wait! It isn't the fear of falling, but the fear of hitting the ground and dying.

The fear of death overrides almost all other fears because it is the underlying nature of all others. When people fear water, they don't fear the water itself but fear death by drowning. People are not afraid of flying in airplanes, they are afraid of crashing and dying.

This is what I think, although I can't speak for everyone. I had and still have many fears. I realize though, once I push out the fear of dying or similar end or pain, I can face almost any challenge. Maybe sometimes pushing this natural response away isn't wise. But one thing is for certain.

When you can stand in front of death and smile, everything else is insignificant.

Then again, if this statement was true, suicide would never exist. Maybe people fear many things more than death. "A fate worse than death." I guess this is true. But in LIFE, the end of life, DEATH, is the worst thing that can really happen. But maybe to the individual, humiliation, paralyzation, etc. is a fate worse than death. I guess this is true when a beautiful woman walks into a room and you suddenly are afraid to speak. It isn't death that grips you, but something else that you value greater than your own life. This in reflection is strange!

1 out of 120

Today was a pretty good day. It seems once out of every one hundred and twenty days at work is a pretty good day. Today was the last day that I will teach the san-nensei (9th graders) English since they will be graduating on the 13th of March.

I taught 5 classes, and it was my last class. So I designed a Jeopardy game using power point which went over pretty well. But this satisfaction from completing and being able to use a slight amount of creative thought in my classes wasn't even what made the day worth the months of monotonous "repeat after me" sessions. No, it was that many of my students came and talked to me today. Actually tried to have a conversation with me! I felt a part of my school and as if I was actually making a difference. I left work without feeling completely drained because I didn't have to commit brain cell genocide by staring at a computer screen surfing facebook or worrying about trying to look somewhat busy. Crazy how a busy/fun day can make you feel less drained then a normal day.

It makes me wonder if my co-workers and more specifically my boss (principle and vice principle) want me to be more involved at my school. Honestly I really have no idea how I can be, where I (and my co-workers) would feel like I am actually being useful instead of just getting in the way. I haven't been told things I can do, or invited along to things (extra-curricular activities) for the most part, so I don't know where to begin. I am not even aware of the full facilities my school offers. Which could be many since it is a brand new school building. But I am usually only told things on a need-to-know basis, and sometimes I am even lucky if I get that.

There will be a lot of changes in April. We are getting a different principle and many of the teachers will be transferring to other schools with new teachers coming in. This can be both positive or negative. But hopefully, it will be a chance to be involved. Maybe some teachers know how to use me better and maybe I will start having one in ten instead of one in one-twenty.