Long Time No Post

Its been quite a while since I last posted an update on my activities around here and there have been a few things going on. Well, going back to when I last let everyone know what I'd been up to, the biggest events were probably going to Universal Studios Japan and then spending the last weekend back in Hiroshima with Eddie. In between there have been a few things that I've done like going to a sweets festival near Naho's home. I was supposed to be meeting her there after work, but she ended up getting off late so I just walked around and ate some food. I was pretty careful about what I would get to eat because I wasn't particularly in eating anything too exotic. I stuck with some chicken and beef on a stick. A while later, everyone in the household had a day off so we took a little trip to a nearby city and watched a movie. Naho and I watched The Expendables, a pretty over the top action film that was kind of fun nonetheless. It was a few days after that that we went to USJ.

The trip to USJ started with everyone getting up and out of the house by 5:00 AM. We piled into Naho's family's car and drove over to pick up some of her cousins and aunt. The seven of us -Naho, Naho's father, mother, aunt and cousins, Hina and Haru (I think ages 9 and 5)- set off on the three hour drive to Osaka and Universal Studios.

We got there at about 8:30 and immediately after entering the park got in line for the Space Fantasy ride. This was when it first really hit me- I was going to have very little idea what was being said during the little shows before the ride that are supposed to set the mood and entertain you while you wait your turn. It wasn't really that big of a deal because often times its fairly easy to guess what is going on. After the first ride we went on Spider Man, Back to the Future, Back Draft (a film I had never actually heard of), as well as watched the Water World show. Following these rides we quickly went over to the Peanuts section of the park where Haru, who has taken a liking to me in the few times we've seen each other, and I rode down the water slide raft ride. After that, Naho, Hina, Haru and I rode on the Charlie Brown Roller Coaster before the group reformed and rode on the Jaws boat. I thought this was one of the fun ones and one that I had been looking forward to.

After the ride, we went and grabbed a bite to eat from the Jurassic Park restaurant. It was good, but fairly expensive. Finally, we got to the Jurassic Park ride. This is the one I was anticipating riding because Jurassic Park is one of my favorite books, as well as a good movie. After this ride I thought maybe the day was starting to wind down for us. We had gone on all of the actual rides and had been in the park for around 6 or 7 hours. I was mistaken to think so and really because of how far we had driven and the cost to get in, it only made sense to get our money's worth.

This is the point that the day started to get a bit longer for me. We now went to the Rock and Roll Monster Concert that was the show being put on because it was near Halloween. It was only about a 30 minute show, but I had only managed to squeeze in about 4 hours of sleep the night before so I nearly nodded off several times during it. After this, Naho's Aunt and I went on the American Dream Roller Coaster. No one else wanted to go on it because it is supposed to be scary, so we were able to get on it more quickly by going individually. It was fun, but I had been expecting it to be super intense based on what Naho had been saying so it didn't quite live up to the hype. After that we went on to watch Terminator 2: 3-D. It was a long line, a very long pre-show show (during which I spent the whole time holding Haru like he was in a chair so he could see) and then the actual show. I was getting pretty tired by this point, but we still went and watched Sesame Street 4-D and then went on the Space Fantasy ride one more time. In between those last two, we actually stopped and grabbed an ice cream from the Baskin Robbins and it was good, but I was getting pretty tired by this point.

Well, when we finally got back to the car it was 8:30 PM and we had spent about 12 hours walking through the park and riding rides and watching shows. I was very tired and after we grabbed a bite to eat at a rest stop I slept the majority of the way back. It was a pretty good trip, but I was very worn out by the end of it.

Not a whole lot went on in-between that event and today. I went and applied for a gaijin card which I would need if I were to stay longer, but it is not certain I will get it. I should know within the next week or so and depending on that I will either be home in January or else Mid-December. I just have to wait and see what the government says. In addition to that, I haven't been very successful so far in securing a job, but I am still trying and applying to a lot of them.

This past weekend I traveled back to Hiroshima to spend Halloween with Eddie. I had to take the train from Onomichi to Hiroshima and then the bus to Eddie's place, but it went smoothly again. After I got there, we had a quick bite to eat and decided to go to one of the bars in the area that exchange students and teachers are known to frequent. Unfortunately, it appeared that we were the only obviously native English patrons that night, so we didn't stay for too long.

The next day we went into downtown to look for costume supplies. Eddie decided he wanted to be Edward Cullen from the Twilight series so we were looking for vampire teeth and body glitter for him to use. After wandering through the stores for a while and not finding anything we really needed- we did find a lot of other strange, cool and ridiculous junk- he decided to go as Totoro, a Japanese anime character. I was going as Cookie Monster with the help of a t-shirt and hat from Naho. I forgot a camera so I will put pictures up of the costumes once I get them from Eddie.

We had been invited to a party with some students and fellow English teachers that Eddie knew just up the hill from his apartment that began at 6. We got back to the apartment and just about 6 and still had to put together our outfits, so we managed to be a fashionable hour late. It wasn't a big deal however and soon we were munching on pizza and other American goodies. We ended up just spending the evening playing rounds of Mario Kart 64 and playing card games or just talking.

The next day I had to try to figure out how to get back to Onomichi from Hiroshima which is a little more difficult. There are a lot more trains coming and going and a lot more platforms in Hiroshima, but in the end I was able to figure it out and got back safe and sound. Since then I have mainly been watching Blazer games (I am very happy the season finally started) and hanging out with Naho. We are going to go to another little festival thing tonight so I will try to get some pictures and get another post up before too long

Corn Dogs and the Karate Bear

So this past week has been a bit busier for me. I hadn't really done a whole lot since my last blog until this past Saturday. I headed back into Hiroshima and spent nearly a week staying with my roommate from college, Eddie. He's just got a little place near the university he works at, but it was big enough for the two of us. To get there I had to traverse the Japanese railway and the Hiroshima bus system alone for the first time. I had been given instructions on what to do, but it was still a little nerve racking trying to switch trains and trying to tell which bus was the one I wanted. In the end though, I arrived safe and sound at Eddie's apartment.

From there we traveled to a town about 30 minutes away by train. An annual sake festival was being held in Saijyo and so Eddie, along with a couple of people he knew through his work and I all went together. It was a bit of a dreary day weather-wise, but it didn't rain much after the first half hour or so that we were there. When we arrived, we first had to try to figure out where to go. After a bit of wandering and asking, we finally figured out that we had to go to a designated area set up kind of like the food booths at the Oktoberfest, only instead of having different types of delicatessens, the booth gave out a couple of different types of sake from the various regions of Japan.

In order to be able to get anything to drink, you had to pay for a ticket to get in. Along with the ticket came a little, traditional sake cup. It looks a lot like a little tiny bowl that probably only hold about an ounce of liquid. From there you could get as much sake as you pleased. We tried one from the majority of the regions and I have to say that I don't think I have a very fine appreciation for it. Its not the worst tasting stuff out there, but there are plenty of better tasting things as well. I wouldn't be trading one of my beer for a sake anytime soon, I'll just put it that way. There were however, plenty of other people who apparently did really enjoy the sake and quite a few who seemed to have enjoyed just a little too much. It was fun though and they had some pretty good food to go along with everything else, so it was pretty enjoyable.

After our troop arrived back in Hiroshima, everyone wanted to go to karaoke. I'm sure you've all heard how much Japanese people love singing karaoke, so even though its not my favorite thing to do, it was still fun to go with some fun people. We were able to rent a small room so we could sing and whatnot all to ourselves, so that was nice. They even have deals set up that you can rent out the room for 12 hours, a little too much for me.

Well, the next day it turned out that the weather was back to what I've grown accustomed to while being here- 80 and sunny. It was a really nice day out, so Eddie and I headed over to the Peace Park to walk around a bit before trying to find some lunch. Here are some of the pictures I took while we walked through.

 The first atomic bomb was detonated over this site

Eddie and I spent about half our time in the park wandering around looking for a statue of a mother and her daughter. Why you ask? Well, we had found a Mexican restaurant online that claimed it was possibly the only one in Hiroshima and their directions were- "approximately two blocks south of the statue in the Peace Park of a mother and her daughter." Now, these direction didn't seem like they'd be much of a problem until we began walking through the park and noticed that at least one in every three statues seemed to be depicting a mother with child in some form or another. Eventually we decided to just head south and hoped we'd find it. After a little bit of guesswork, we actually ended up just across the street from it, but to out disappointment, it was not yet open. We grabbed a quick bite somewhere else and headed back to the apartment where we waited for Naho to arrive after she was done working.

That night the three of us went out to an "American Style" restaurant named Blue Moon. The place was decked out with street signs, model cars, neon signs for various types of beer and other memorabilia that reminded me mostly of a combo of a truck-stop dinner in an old movie and what I imagine a Vegas convenient store would look like. The servings were massive however, which is nice considering often times they are only about 75% the size, but 125% the cost of a similar American restaurant meal.

Eddie and his strange volcano/egg meal

The next day, the three of us went to the museum in Hiroshima that has articles of clothing and bits of building and pictures from the atomic bombing of the city. There were a lot of pretty gruesome things and I didn't really take any pictures, it didn't really feel like things you should try to take pictures of. It was pretty disturbing seeing the stuff that some people had kept from their family members that had died- things like teeth, finger nails and bits of hair really creeped me out. One of the saddest things was a rusted tricycle and army helmet that had been a toddlers. He had been quite a distance away when the bomb when off, but still close enough that he was killed while out riding on his trike. His father buried him in the backyard along with the tricycle and helmet before he was later moved to the family burial spot years later. His bike was donated to the museum.

After the museum we went to an import shop in downtown Hiroshima and got some cheese and noodles to attempt making macaroni and cheese. Eddie does not have an oven in his apartment so we were going to have to try to find a recipe that was entirely stove top. The harder thing was finding good cheese to use. Most of the cheese in Japan is the same style and fairly expensive. We tried with some cheddar and spiced Gouda, but it didn't turn out too well. I don't know if it was the recipe, the cheese or the setting, but something had a negative effect and we turned out a not too wonderful dish.

Before heading back and making dinner, Naho and I went to a book store near the station. She was heading back home because she had to work the next day and I was hoping to find something to do that didn't require sitting in front of a computer or television. The book store was on the tenth floor of a building overlooking the city. This was the view from one more floor up

I spent the majority of the next day catching up on sleep before meeting Eddie in his office on campus. He had a three hour break where students are supposed to come in and talk in English and what not, but after the first hour or so, not many showed up. Eventually Eddie had to go to class and I spent the rest of my day just relaxing and waiting for he and Naho to get back.

That night we ordered a pizza from Pizza Hut. I thought I had a picture of it, but it must be on Eddie's camera. I'll try to get it from him to show you, but a $30 plus dollar pizza in Japan has slices that are almost as long as my hand. Its about 2/3 the size of a 12 dollar pizza back home. It was probably pretty close in size to the $5 Little Caesar's pizza, but it was still pretty tasty. We spent the night playing good old Nintendo 64 games like Mario Kart and Mario Tennis.

The following day, Naho and I went to the Asa Zoo. Its about an hour away by bus and isn't quite as large as the Oregon Zoo, but it costs only about 5 bucks to get in and has several animals that the Oregon Zoo does not. A few of the many pictures we took are here

The best thing we saw at the zoo was the bear a few pictures up. You can see that he has a stick that he is apparently balancing in the picture. That's not all he did. Not only did he balance it, he swung it around like a full on karate master. I have a video that I'll try to post at the end of the blog.

Anyway, after the zoo we decided to grab a quick bite and since the cheapest and easiest thing anywhere in the world does indeed turn out to be McDonald's, that is exactly where we headed. The crazy thing about the Japanese McDonald's is that rather than a McChicken on the dollar menu, they have the McPork. It wasn't too bad, kind of like a teriyaki flavor, but again I wouldn't be trading my McChicken for the McPork anytime soon.

The next day Naho and I grabbed a little lunch from the 7-11 down the street and brought it to Eddie's office to eat with him before we headed back to Naho's home. The thing that I wanted to get was the "Big American Dog", also known as a corn dog. I was a little disappointed because the breading was far sweeter than ours are, but it was good nonetheless.

After our meal we headed back to Naho's. It was nice to think that I would be sleeping in a bed again after spending the past 5 nights on the floor of Eddie's apartment. It wasn't really all that bad though, the floor was covered with what I think are called sashimi mats. They're woven mats made out of some sort of material, but its softer than uncovered ground. In addition to the bed, I was kind of excited to let Naho's dad try the root beer we had gotten from the import shop. He had never had any but wanted to try so we got a can of Dad's Root Beer for him. He drank it and enjoyed it immensely, but Naho's mother did not like it at all.

To end the night, the four of us played a soccer game on the Wii. It was about 2 weeks ago that Naho's father first asked us to play- Naho and I vs he and his wife. After that first time when we won 3 games, they have spent time practicing when we are not around in order to be able to beat us. I guess it paid off last night when they won two and tied a third match.

Today I haven't done much, just trying to get some things in order around here and get back in the flow of things. Next weekend we are going to be going to Universal Studios Japan with some of Naho's extended family so that should be a pretty fun experience. If anything noteworthy happens between now and then, I'll try to put a post about it.

Sam

PS- It turns out I did actually have the pizza picture as well as a few others

The Misadventure of My New Bike

Over the course of the past week, the majority of my time has been spent sleeping in, reading, working on homework or watching tv. Its been kind of nice being able to relax and take some time off. Naho works a couple of days a week, but when she doesn't work we have spent a lot of time riding around town. The first couple of times that we went anywhere I used Naho's bike. Eventually however, Naho's parents got this bike back from some other relatives. Its a tad on the small side, I'd compare it to about the size of Isaac's back at home.

 So Naho and I were going to head into the downtown area the night after we got the bike. However, my first downward thrust resulted in the pedal popping off. Not having any tools on me at the time, I tried my best to screw it back in. After about five more pedals, it popped off again. Fortunately we were able to find a tool box and got the pedal on again. We headed into town and got some stuff to make tacos for dinner. We had to make the tortillas.

The recipe called for some supplies that we hadn't picked up at the store earlier that day, so we ran really quick to the store about a mile or so away. About half way back, the pedal started acting up and wobbling. I kept pedaling, hoping it would be alright, but unfortunately the darn thing popped off again. This time however, I was riding at a quicker pace and the pedal went bouncing off to the side of the rode and into the drainage ditch. Considering there was about 6 inches of dirty water between me and my pedal, I wasn't about to hop in and grab it out. Luckily, there was a chunk of bamboo on the other side of the road that I was able to use to reach down and grab it. So there I was, precariously holding myself up about halfway between the road and the water at the bottom of the ditch trying to fish out a pedal for my mini bike while Naho just laughed at me. Eventually I was able to get it out and we walked the rest of the way home.

When we got back we started making out tortillas. The original recipe claimed to make 5 dozen, so we scaled it down to only 2 dozen. In the end, we were able to make 8. The first one or two might have been a bit thick, but they worked out alright. The following night however, I made my burgers. At the end of that meal, I guess Naho's dad said he liked them so much that I'm supposed to make them once a week. That was a bit of a relief, because I'm not sure how well the tacos went over. (preparing tacos below)

 Before making burgers on Wednesday night, Naho and I headed into a near-by city to get out and kind of see a little bit. The first thing we did was grab a bite to eat at a restaurant where I had the fried chicken and pancakes shown below. Following lunch, we took off for the mall area that we were going to walk through. On the way, we saw it was crepe day at Baskin Robins (during crepe day I guess the crepe's are 70 yen off). I wasn't sure how an ice cream crepe would quite work, but it was actually pretty tasty. Finally, I was also able to get some Christmas/souvenir/birthday gifts for all the siblings so I think I might be sending those back to you guys around December.

The final picture I have down there are some snacks that I got the other day in addition to my peanut butter and jelly, bread and noodle lunches that I can eat while everyone else is out at work. Next weekend I am going to spend back in Hiroshima with Eddie doing who knows what. I'll write about it once it happens.

First Few Days

I have some real down time for the first time since I got to Japan, so i figured now would be a good time to fill you all in on what I've been up to. After getting to the airport, I discovered that one of my bags was now missing a tire. Not that big of a deal at the time because there were carts with which to bring it out to the Hiroshima version of the Hut, but later on it would be more of a hassle. After arriving at the transit station in Hiroshima with Naho who was waiting for me at the airport, we grabbed some food from Mcdonald's (it was late and not much else was open) before heading to my friend Eddie's place to stay for the next couple of nights. I'll try to possibly get a picture up later, but Eddie's appartment is roughly the size of a modest bedroom with a tiny kitchen/laundry room attached.

After a night of somewhat fitful sleep and what felt like an altogether too early morning, we headed to a mall for a quick bite to eat and to try to set Eddie up with a phone. Once that was taken care of, we decided to look into using a phone Eddie already had as a prepaid one for me. Naho went about getting it all in order, but there is apparently some problem with it right now because its not working correctly. Once it does work, people will be able to send me e-mails to the phone that I receive and can respond to as if it were a text. As soon as we get it figured out, I'll post that on here so you can all get a hold of me at almost any time.

To cap off my first full day in Japan, we met up with a couple of Naho's friends from college and a professor that works at the university they all attended and that Eddie currently works at. The place was an Irish pub called Molly Malone's and I had a plate of Classical Bangers with Mash and Gravy for dinner. After we had finished eating and talking, we headed back to Eddie's and turned in early.

The Following morning, Eddie had work early so Naho and I went about repacking all of my stuff before grabbing something called okonomayaki (I think that's how it was spelled) and brought it back to Eddie's office. While we were in there eating, a student came in and asked if I were the new English teacher. I think she just assumed I was because I looked the most American to her. It was even more funny because I was simply wearing a t-shirt and jeans while Eddie had on a dress shirt and nice slacks.

Naho and I spent the rest of the day taking care of a few errands she had while also getting some food for me to eat while I was at her family's home. After finishing all of that, we headed from Eddie's to the train station. It is only about a half mile probably, but we had avoided the trek by taking a taxi the first night I arrived. This time we decided to walk. Naho took my bag that still had two functioning wheels while I balanced the other on its one good wheel and pushed it in front of me the whole way to the station. Once there we boarded a train for the almost 1 hour trip to Naho's town a little outside of Hiroshima.

When we did finally get to Naho's home, her mom was there to greet us. She was thankful for the gifts but left soon after we arrived to take food to Naho's grandparents. When she got back, Naho and I rode over to the store and grabbed a few more things for me to use to make my own meals while Naho and her parents were at work. Some bread, jelly and a few Cup o' Noodles are to be my meals for the rest of the week.

That night we had a kind of tomato based stew with chicken and mushrooms in addition to some rice and salad. Carrying on a conversation at the dinner table was a little bit difficult because only Naho speaks both languages. Whenever a question was asked or and answer was given, we would all turn to look at Naho and wait for her to translate the statement and response. Her family was very nice and welcoming though, despite this difficulty and they did their best to make me feel at home.

Now it is about one local time (9 pm Oregon time) and I am sitting in the window of a bright, clear, 80ish degree day while I write this. I think that tonight we are going to be having a BBQ with some of Naho's extended family so it should be interesting to meet them and try some of the Japanese style BBQ food.

Thanks for reading

Sam

Hiroshima Cab Ride

Arrival in San Fransisco

I just landed in San Fransisco and have about 2 hours to kill, so I figured now would be a good time to set up this blog. I decided on the name because I felt it will aptly describe the way I will stand out once I arrive in Japan. I'm not sure if the terminal that I am currently seated in is the correct one or not, but all the qualms I had about weather booking my ticket online have mostly vanished now that I have already completed the first leg of my journey.
My next flight is scheduled to depart at 1:10 and arrive in Seoul, Korea about 13 hours later (5:30 local time). From there I have an hour before my final flight into HIJ, which should be the quickest of all three flights. Once I land and am able to get situated, I will look into updating my current situation.
As I was walking through the airport down here in San Fransisco, it was really starting to dawn on me that I am traveling on my own for almost the first time in my life. Besides one quick trip to Reno with a couple of friends a few years ago, any trip I have ever taken has been with family. The lone exception to that is when I traveled home from Arizona on my own way back when I was 7 years old, but in that circumstance family both walked me to the plane and was waiting for me when I landed. For the first time I am truly out on my own.
This realization has resulted in mixed feelings of excitement and a little bit of anxiousness. Fortunately, the excitement evoked from the looming experiences greatly outweighs any solicitous emotion. I'm looking forward to both the flight and to finally arriving in Japan.

Thanks for reading, I'll post again before too long.

Sam