"It's called a wicket..."

I don't know what's up with the blog, but I still can't upload any photos. I can't make promises, cause I'm busy and that's also not how I roll, but I'll try to post about China soon. At least words.

Ok, that's done, so, TAKATSUKI! I moved to Osaka, and have been teaching at Takatsuki school for two weeks. It's good, the staff and students are super nice. I don't have to take a train to work, just walk, and the weather's been beautiful. The new teacher's here, he's a cool guy, Alex.
Yesterday, me, Abrahm, Lamika and Alex met up to go to Matt's for some playground fun. Matt moved into a nice, new apartment, and he lives very close to a pretty big park. Matt, being Australian, taught all us Americans how to play cricket. IT. IS. AWESOME. But probably because
1. We're really bad at it
2. We were running around on sand in flip flops, therefore sliding quite a bit
3. A 8 year old student was kicking everyone's ass

After we thoroughly mangled that game, we taught Matt how to play baseball, which is crazy, because he's from Australia, not Mars, they know how to play baseball, right?
Matt: "I've seen it on TV once."

Get outta here.... It was all in good fun. We ran around for about 4 hours, then went back to Matt's for snacks and watched some British comedy shows. "Little Britain" is truly a test to my English listening skills, and apparently, I suck.

So today I'm cleaning, packing, buying shinkansen tickets to Tokyo to visit Miho next weekend! And generally PREPARING TO COME HOME.

I'm excited. You should be too.

Technical Difficulties

I'm having issues uploading photos to the blog right now, so once I get that sorted out, I'll have all the photos and stories from China up for your viewing pleasure.

Elephant Cafe

Wednesday evening, I met up with a student, Tomoko, in Osaka to grab dinner. Tomoko is going to graduate school for art therapy, and her undergrad degree is in photography! We have a lot in common. She's coming to visit America next summer, and we're going to road trip from Seattle to New York.

She took me to Elephant Cafe, which has a lot of Indian, Asian, and Spanish influences. The food was fantastic! I think Mom would love this place.

Mark your calenders...

... because I'm coming home.

Oct. 26. I expect to be greeted at the arrival gate with a PBR, Taco Bell, and your smiling faces.

Moving to Takatsuki...

I finished work on Friday, and spent Saturday cleaning and packing. Shipped my things to Takatsuki, then went out for dinner with a few teachers from Myodani school.

I'm all moved into Takatsuki, and I'm going shopping for a few things today. I'm also watching a fascinating Japanese show that follows a young guy around as he eats local specialties, and interviews the people who supply the ingredients. I wish I could understand what they were saying though.

Sayonara, Mere Chan!

Saturday was my birthday, my farwell party, and the new teacher Chellsea's welcome party! We were very busy. For Saturday students, it was my last class. Some students brought me presents! They are all super nice.

Asuka, me, and Daisuke. They're about 7 years old.

Yuka and Daisuke. Yuka made me a very pretty bracelet.

Me and Saori sensei in the teacher's "room" (it's more like an alcove). You can see the bracelet Yuka made me. It matched my shirt perfectly, I might add.

Me and Kaede, easily my favorite kid student. She's only 6, but she's super smart! She speaks great English.

Noriko

Rie

Miyuki

Masayuki and his daughter, Momoko, who is terrified of me.

Saki, me, Chiaki, and Shoko. They are super giggly high school students. Wonderful young ladies.

I have no idea why Ryosuke has this look on his face. I swear I didn't do anything.

Me, Chitose, and Shizuko. Super friendly, nice women!

Masaki, being ninja, me, Hideaki, and Satoshi. Hideaki showed up a photo he took on the subway of a ninja. Seriously, a ninja on the subway. It was amazing.

Hidekazu, Hiroyuki, and me. The Three Jokers. I will seriously miss these guys. It took me a moment, but I realized they're both bending down quite a bit. They're pretty tall guys.

Megumi, Jun, and me.

Arisa, Yoshimi manager, me, and Erika. Arisa and Erika are cheerleaders at their university.

I'm much more excited thank Ayako.

Naoko and Miki

My Japanese mothers. Makiko, Sumiko, Chiyoko, Kyosuke, and a newer student (sorry, I don't know your name!)

Me and the Odyssey girls. Miki, Naoko, Tomoko, and Aya (who was eating something haha)

Koki

The staff performed a beautiful rendition of Lady Gaga's "Poker Face", with alternate lyrics.

"Mere chan, Mere chan,

I can't hide my crying face.

Mere chan, Mere chan,
We're going to miss your smiling face."

Chika

Oha chan and Yuchika

Even Kaede danced.

Saori, Chika, Yoshimi, me, Risako, Kaede, Yuchika.

I have no idea what's up with the makeup. It's a Japanese pop culture thing.

The one, the only.... Hiroyuki Suzuki.

Then we went to karaoke!!!! Tomoko and I were feeling pretty great!

Miki Chan

Me and Miki, a high school student, in the lobby at school. Saturday was her last class, as she's taking time off to focus on the ridiculously difficult university entrance exams.

A Winner Is You!

Guess who's photo was selected as a Finalist in Lonely Planet's 100 Million Guidebooks Competition? (I'm under Japan)

Mere's Asian Adventure - Chapter 4: China

So, I'm staying in Japan until October 22nd now. The company needed a foreign teacher at a school outside Osaka, and they offered me a two week vacation before teaching for three weeks if I did it.

I need to pay for this trip somehow, right?....

Anyways, the new plan is this: Finish working in Kobe Sept. 17. Fly to China, Couch Surf with Kylie in Shanghai for three days, take the train to Suzhou and stay with John David for a week (hopefully taking an overnight train up to Beijing, and seeing the Expo in Shanghai), then flying back to Osaka. Teach at Takatsuki School for three weeks, then come home.

Right now, my only mystery is what I'm going to do between when I finish work in Kobe, and when I fly to China (a gap of 5 days). I think I might be house sitting for a friend while she's in Okinawa!

Tickets and destinations aside, I do have to do a bit of paperwork and running around to even be allowed into China. As an American, I have to obtain a visa from the Chinese Embassy in Osaka, before I ever depart for China. If you were from any country, except the US, it will cost $30. How much if you're an American, you ask?

$130.

Daaaaaaaaamn. That's quite the increase. For only one country. And since the embassy's in Osaka, I have to go there this Monday, and drop off my passport, then go back next Monday to pick it up. Geez, what a hassle.

Chadwick!

Finally got to hang out with my nephew...

Obon in Taiwan

I headed over to KIX via airport limo (which, come on, it's a bus. Can't we just call it a bus?) at 10:00am to meet Janet, my travel companion! Janet is an absolutely lovely British girl, who's also a teacher. Prior to this trip, we'd hung out maybe 5 times. Leap of faith that we wouldn't hate each other (spoiler: we got along really well).

We arrived in Taipei around 3:00, and successfully navigated to the hostel. While still in the airport, I started half joking/half moaning about how people just stand on the moving sidewalks. IT'S NOT A RIDE. I apologized to Janet for already complaining, and she gave me the nicest/strangest compliment:

"You're voice is too soothing to be mean."

I think her British ears pick up something no one else does, because while I've been told things about my voice (it's not a good singing one/I sound like Kathy Griffith), soothing isn't one of them.

After successfully checking into the hostel, which was awesome, we walked to a convenience store for a snack and a beer. Here is a treasure I bought, because it looked vaguely familiar....

What the....?

Oh, it's just Busch.
(Montana Jeff in the background assures me he was making that face on purpose.)


The Meeting Place, the hostel we stayed at. It's the first floor of an office building. The owner, Dave, is incredibly nice and helpful. If you ever go to Taipei, I highly recommend staying here.


Me, Janet, and another traveler stayed here. Pretty comfy.


Monday morning, we met up with Janet's friend from Uni, Jess, and her boyfriend, Paolo, to go to the beach in Keelung. Here's the ticket counter at Taipei Main Station.

Keelung Beach.

Group shot on the train back to Taipei. Janet, me, Jess.

Strange statue in the middle of Taipei Main Station.

We ate dinner at Granny Nitti's, which is a lot of "foreign" food (Mexican, American, Indian, etc.). I just love the Engrish.

After dinner, we went to the night market and walked around.

We stopped at a fruit stand that Jess and Paolo always go to, so the owner knows them very well, and gives them free drinks all the time. Her daughter, a 10 year old named Ivy, tries to teach them Chinese. It's hilarious. Her English is amazing!

Figs, dragonfruit, and mango.


Ivy


The Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall. You can't see it though, because we're standing on the steps of it looking toward the gate. On the left and right are the National Theater Hall and National Concert Hall, respectively.

Tuesday, we took a bus to Jiufen. This town is famous among Japanese tourist as the inspiration for a few of Hayao Miyazaki's animated films.

A cemetery on the hill.

Beautiful Chinese temple.

Shopping streets.

These were some kind of very soft candy.

Knick-nack

Good luck cabbage.

In an attempt to walk to a shrine tucked away in the mountainside, we decided to hike to the top of this mountain. Here we are at the beginning. Mecha genki.

I thought those specs were on my camera lens, but they're birds.

"*gasp* We *gasp* made it *gasp*" collapse

After a much needed shower at the hostel, we went out with two other travelers to get mango shaved ice, which Dave highly recommended. I imagined a Slush Puppy. This was nothing like that. It was shaved ice, smothered with mango pudding, and fresh mango pieces on the top.

Then we walked to Taipei 101, the second tallest building in the world!

Silly photos

Taipei City from the 101st floor of Taipei 101.

World's Fastest Elevator. I'm forever spoiled.

Wednesday we took the High Speed Railway down to Koahsiung, on the southern coast. We Couch Surfed with Jamie, an English teacher from Maryland. He was super nice and really funny, and we enjoyed picking on Janet's British accent when she said "Mary-land". For dinner, we had a local specialty: noodles, hamburger, and egg, all still bubbling hot. It was really good, and super filling.

Me, Jamie, and Janet.

Jamie's apartment is huge! And cheap! Unlike tiny, expensive Japan.

The room Janet and I stayed in.

Thursday, Jamie had to work, so Janet and I walked to the beach. It had black sand. It was overcast, but the water was incredibly warm.

We got bored, so Janet buried me. Everyone else on the beach (three lifeguards and two couples) all stared. She made me a mermaid!

After a nice day at the beach, we found a really posh rooftop bar, and had a beer and enjoyed the view.

Note the side matching braids. She's such a copycat.

Friday, Jamie took us surfing. I discovered I'm not too bad at surfing, but the ways were shit.

Temple near the beach.

View from Jamie's balcony.

Back in Taipei, Jeff let me see his Canon 10-22mm lens. *drool*

Nightmarket behind the hostel.

Stinky tofu. Absolutely disgusting.

Our flight left at 8:30 am Monday, so we had to get up at 5:00 and all that jazz. When we got to the airport, they asked us to take another flight, that took off 10 minutes later. No problem, and they gave us meal vouchers so we could have breakfast. Sweet. When we checked back in, they told us they had bumped us to First Class. For free. YES!

I am so spoiled now.

Great end to a great trip!