Golden Week! - Day Two: Osaka

Lamika and I met up in Osaka to go shopping. First of all, we couldn't find each other in the cluster-fudge of a huge station that is Umeda. Second, one of the random ways we walked had three or four huge aquariums? And what the hell kind of giant fish is that?!?! Random...
(Picture is Lamika beside one of the huge aquariums in the station. Taken with my cell phone, hence the bad quality)

Bought a shirt-dress and a new blue button up blouse for work from UniClo. It's similar to Old Navy. Went to Yodobashi Camera, a huge 8 floor electronics store*. Found a light bulb, for under $20, that will be a PERFECT ring light. I just have no idea how to put it on a stand, nor how to plug it into an outlet. Also, my Japanese is so sucky I can't ask a sales associate. Next time...

Tommorow, Kyoto!!! Weeeeee!

* When we were wandering around, we found an izakaya (bar/restaurant) and went in. It was pretty dead, but we asked the guy for directions to Yodobashi ("Yodobashi Camera wa doko deska?") and he not only told us, he printed out a map from Google! In color! How nice. He tried to explain the path he drew, but I just looked at him and said "Nihon go wa karimasen" (I don't speak Japanese). He smiled :)

"Please look here"

Check out the main page:
http://www.aeonet.co.jp/school/school.php?sno=2840

and I have no idea where the rest of my little written blip went, but I assure you there's more, and it makes sense as well:
http://www.aeonet.co.jp/school/staff.php?sno=2840

Golden Week! - Day One: Minatogawakoen

Sorry for the lack of posts recently. Nothing incredibly interesting happening...

Today is the first day of 8 days off work! Weeee! Golden Week. I'm at home doing laundry and cleaning right now. Lots of possible plans for the week. Jazz festival, Universal Studios Japan, a Kobe Vissel soccer game, etc.

Last night after work, Jen and I went to Sannomiya to hang out with a guy we met on Saturday. We saw his band play on Saturday, and he was playing with another band last night. One of Gordan's friends came over to introduce himself to us. This is the conversation:

Me: Hi, I'm Meredith. What's your name?
Him: My name is Ash. I'm from New Zealand.
Me: Awesome! Ash? Is that a nickname, or short for something?
Him: Yea, it's short for Ashley. (Which is common for Australia and NZ)
Me: Oh! Ash, like Bruce Campbell's character in "Evil Dead"?
Him: Um yea.

hahaha I thought it was funny that the first thing I associate him with is the best B Movie ever.

On the way home, the train was crowded, and I took the last seat. Beside me, and older businessman was falling asleep, and kept almost putting his head on my shoulder. Jen and Gordon thought it was really funny, since this isn't uncommon for Japanese. They wouldn't move the person who fell asleep, but just gently nudge them when they had to get off the train. However, me being a foreigner, this was totally unheard of. This guy sleeping would have made bricks of shit if he'd known he was so close to a gaijin! Everyone in the car was watching us hahaha. A nice young lady across the car was laughing at us, and I smiled at her. She had a young boy doing the same to her, almost resting his head on her shoulder. It was funny.

Pic is Gordan and Jen on the train, taken with my cell phone, hence the less than stellar quality.

Just called Oakles, and KPB, and got a Skype from Chipperface and his roommate in NYC. Awesome.

"Who is James Brown?"

Today in my group lessons, I taught a unit on "taste in music". One of the examples was James Brown. I asked one of my favorite students (the only one in the class), if he liked James Brown. He replied,

"Who is James Brown?"

WTF?!?!?! "Uh.... the Godfather of Soul? I Feel Good? Papa's Got a Brand New Bag?"

Nothing. When I asked him, a grown businessman, about his taste in music, he said, "My favorite band is quite famous, maybe you've heard of them - the Backstreet Boys."

Go figure...

Adventures in Nara-land

Jen and I went on adventure to Nara on Monday. We met up in Sannomiya, and got a sweet one-day pass for the train to Nara as well as the buses once we got there. It also came with a DVD. We hop on the train, and about 1 hour 35 minutes later we're in Nara. We start wandering around, looking for some food.
We decide we want Yoshinoya, but can't find one. I think we ended up walking 3 miles to find one. It was worth it though (always is!).

Then we found a bus stop and waited about 13 minutes to ride back to the park. Here is Jen consulting a map.

We made it back to the park, and the weather threatened to rain. It didn't though (phew).
Nara is know for it's deer park. There are over 1200 deer roaming around the parks in Nara, and people sell crackers on every corner. Sometimes, these deer get a little aggressive, but they were pretty nice while we were feeding them. About this time, my batteries died in my camera :( So Jen and I decided we will have to come back again when I have fresh batteries.


























Jen also got nuzzled in the butt by the deer. They thought she had more crackers. They wanted them. It scared Jen hahaha.


As we walked towards the Golden Buddha (one of only 7 left in the country, they're HUGE!), a group of high school boys came up and said, in English, "Excuse me? Can we take a photo?". They wanted to take a photo with us because we were foreign hahaha. It was funny. As they walked away, I swear they said to Jen, who is tall, "Thank you foreign giant!". I might have misheard that though....
Here are some photos that Jen too (the ones with me in them) and two more I squeezed out of my camera batteries.

Me under the canopy of wisteria (?) and behind me is the Five-Story Pagoda.

Me in front of the Golden Buddha. You really can't grasp how huge this statue is, even with me in front of it. Super difficult to grab a decent photo because there was so much sunshine coming in from the open doors and the Buddha sits in almost total darkness. If my damn batteries weren't dead, maybe I could've shot something in RAW to PS later...

A view of the Five-Story Pagoda and the Kofukuji-Temple.
And finally, me feeding some deer. Awesome.

"I think I'm turning Japanese"

Today I went spearfishing with my old Head Teacher and my coworker. My head teacher's wife and son came, as well as my coworker's girlfriend, and a student. We drove three hours from Kobe to Shikuko. It was unreal. We were driving in the mountains, but in between switch backs you could see the ocean. It was beautiful. The beach was unlike anything I've ever seen. It wasn't sand, but a beach of really small pebbles, and a bunch of larger ones thrown in for variety.
One the drive down, I rode with my head teacher and his family. He played a mix CD, and it had the song "Turning Japanese" by The Vapers. It really made me laugh at the irony, of listening to that song with Japanese people. One the same CD, we listened to "Ice, ice, baby". Classic.
It dawned on me as I stared out into the Pacific Ocean... the view I was looking at was the EXACT SAME as the final scene in The Goonies when the pirate ship sails out of the cave.
(Ok I lied. I just googled it, and apparently they filmed The Goonies in Oregon, and the beach is called Cannon Beach.)

Some of my new favorite things:
* Riding in cars in Japan
* The Japanese "countryside" (it's a city, with rice patties backed up to it)
* Onigiri - a palm sized triangle of sticky rice, wrapped in seaweed (delicious!), and filled with a variety of things (salmon, tuna, etc.). I picked one up on the way home tonight, and it was a mystery package (not sold as a mystery, it's just I didn't know what it said haha. I know it didn't say salmon or tuna). It was sweet and sour pork (maybe). It was delicious! I've realized that I could be eating pork penis, and as long as it was damn good, I wouldn't mind.

"How about coffee at 11:30?"

Yesterday, I had to go to Osaka for a 3 hour meeting. Before the meeting, I made plans to get coffee with one of the teachers I had training with. I gave myself 2 hours to get there, more than enough time, because I was sure I'd get a little lost.

I went to Sannomiya, no problem. Got on the Hanku line to Umeda, easy. Transferred from railway to subway, like a breeze (even though the fare map wasn't in English). Got to Yodoyabashi station, and since I was running late (I took the local to Umeda, instead of the Limited Express), I just followed the crowd out of the station.

I looked up and realized I didn't remember which number was the exit I was supposed to take. 11? 3? 1? I took 11. It sounded right....

Wrong. Nothing looked familiar, I had abandoned hope of coffee, and now just wanted to make it to the meeting on time. I called my coworker, who was on his way, and he tried to help me. Turns out Yodoyabashi Station is a helluva lot bigger than I thought. Like, 5 blocks underground. I came out on the West side. I needed to be on the East side.

Needless to say, I asked a station attendant for directions. She gave me a map. I need to learn to ask for directions in Japanese.... I got lucky and just started walking in one direction. I find my building, and hurry up to the meeting. As I step off the elevator, I almost trip because the sole of my shoe has come detached. What the hell.... So I run in, late, with a floppy high heel. Embarassing. But they weren't angry, my coworker had explained the situation.

On the way home, I walked with two of my fellow training teachers and we kinda made plans for Golden Week.

When I got to work, my bad mood lifted considereably.....



I GOT A PACKAGE! From Aunt Vickie and Nanny!!! A very heavy package! With mac n' cheese, Gatorade, sunglasses, and a whole lot more! IT'S AWESOME! Thank you so much!!!!