Rainy Sunday Ramblings

Pretty normal stuff lately here. Golden week was a few weeks ago. We didn't do much. Karaoke one night, the Hamamatsu Kite Festival one day and a lot of resting. Then school got started back up and it's been pretty routine the past few weeks. Mid-terms are next week, so it should be an easy week with a lot of grading. We're leading up to our school culture festival which is at the beginning of June. That is supposedly one of the busiest times of the year, but I'm looking forward to it. I have a feeling it'll remind a bit of preparing for a show although English club is not really doing anything all that big. But it'll be fun to be a part of a big event like that at school.

Other things going on: I recently got a membership at a gym. It's on my way home from work, so it's not hard to make myself go. My deal has always been that if it's convenient for me to get to the gym, then I'll go. But if I go home first or have to go past my home to get to the gym, I won't go very much. But I've been going there after work very consistently and it's making me feel a lot healthier. I run everyday and lift weights. Everything is pretty much the same as a gym in the states other than the fact that all the weights are in kilograms instead of pounds. But I know that 1kg = 2.2 lbs, so I can get a pretty good idea of how much to lift.

Here's an interesting development I've been noticing at work. A few weeks ago I noticed 51 yen sitting in the corner of the teacher's kitchen on the ground. I didn't pick it up because I didn't really have a reason to, so I just left it there and went on my way. Then, last week I noticed this same 51 yen had been picked up and put on a table by the door to the kitchen. So someone took the trouble to bend down and pick up this 50 yen coin and 1 yen coin and rather than keeping it, they put it on that table. What's funny to me is that in America, if 50 cents was laying on the ground, it probably would not last a day. And I don't really think there's anything wrong with that. If I was in America, I probably would have picked it up the first time I saw it and kept it. Maybe not the 1 yen (or penny - in America's case.) But here it was just a natural thing to leave it there. What else is funny is that because people use so many coins here, it's likely that whoever it belonged to in the first place probably never even noticed it was missing. Yet, someone put it on that table as if the person would see it and say, "There's my 51 yen! I wondered what had happened to it." I'm interested to see how long it sits there. At what point do I take it? Will I take it? Will anybody take it or will it still be sitting there a year from now? I'll keep you posted on the happenings of that 51 yen.

Finally, I have recently discovered that after all of these years of saying I hate tuna fish sandwiches, it turns out they're not so bad. I actually bought cans of tuna at the grocery store a few weeks ago and have made a few sandwiches. I'm not sure why I thought they were so bad before. Maybe it was just the smell. Or maybe I really didn't like them and my taste buds have just matured. Makes me wonder what else I might like now that I didn't used to like. Meatloaf? Surely not. But I guess I owe it to myself to try it again someday. We'll see.

I'll be getting up at 4:30 Monday morning to watch the Rockets game. Hopefully if they lose it won't ruin my Monday. But I'll still be proud of what they've accomplished. I have a good feeling about it, though. Hopefully. Go Rockets!

Baseball, Broadway, and Blood

Sorry for not writing much lately. Busy times.

The highlights: New school year started this month. This just in: I love new students! They are so happy and energetic and eager to please. They have been the highlight of the last month by far. I can't wait to get to know them better.

We went to a baseball game in Tokyo last weekend. We saw the Yomiuri Giants (the Yankees of Japan) against the Chunichi Dragons (Tom Selleck's team from "Mr. Baseball".) It was quite an experience. When it all boiled down to it the game itself was the same. I admit I had a much harder time paying attention to the game than usual. I think this was for several reasons:

a) There were many new things going on around us. The surroundings were just so different from what I'm used to. For example, you won't find many cheerleaders at American baseball games, but the Giants definitely had cheerleaders. Very interesting.

b) Each team had an official cheering section. The Giants section was bigger because they were the home team, but the Dragons also had a section in the left field bleachers and they meant business. As in all Japanese baseball games, each player had their own cheer so the cheering, drums, and chanting went on constantly. Very entertaining.

c) I didn't know many of the players at all other than the few who had recently played in the MLB. (Edgardo Alfonso being one for those of you who follow baseball.)

d) All of the loud speaker announcements were in Japanese. I never realized how important the PA guy was to keeping the crowd in the game until I couldn't understand him. I can't even honestly remember if there was one actually.

We were Giants fans that night because why not. So anyway, here is how the game went. An early solo homerun by the Giants (Alex Ramirez, obviously not Japanese.) The Giants added a run later to make it 2-0. It stayed 2-0 for quite a while until the Dragons got on the board with a solo homer around the 5th or 6th. Then they tied it up in the 8th. In the top of the 9th the Dragons took the lead on a 2-run blast. It was not looking good for the Giants. But I have seen too many comebacks in my day (being an Astros fan) to lose hope. Bottom of the 9th: First batter singles. Second batter draws a walk. Third batter: 3 run walk-off homerun, game over, Giants win 5-4. In typical Kory form, I gave high fives to the couple sitting behind me.

We went and saw West Side Story in Gotemba the next day. It was a pretty good performance. It was all in Japanese but I know the songs well enough that I could keep up. It was interesting to hear Bernstein and Sondheim done in Japanese. Jerome Robbins' language is universal though, so the dancing was quite good.

And for a completely anticlimactic ending to this blog, we had medical checks at school today. I did good in my vision test where you have to say what direction the thingy is pointing. Right, left, up, or down. Of course the people giving the test speak only Japanese so I had to say migi, hidari, ue, and shita. No problem. I then had some things attached to my ankles, wrists, and chest to measure something. Not really sure but I did as I was told. Blood pressure followed that and then the final step, the dreaded blood sample. They took three tubes of blood. The good part is that they only inserted the needle once which is the worst part. I have no problem with shots, but I hate having blood samples taken. I guess it's just bad memories from when I was on Acutaine and I had the most painful blood samples every six weeks. If only ProActive had been invented already. So hopefully it looks good and I don't have to do it again.

We are now at the beginning of Golden Week. We had a holiday on Wednesday for Showa Day but then had to work the last two days. But now we get the weekend and the next 3 days after that off. So it's a 5 day weekend. No big plans other than possibly going to a kite festival in Hamamatsu. It's going to be nice to rest though.

Here are some pictures from the baseball game. No zoom because I took them with my phone so...yeah.

The game in progress


The outfield


The 7th inning stretch cheerleaders


The Giants cheering section

Mount Fuji Climb

Check out the video Kelly made of our Mt. Fuji climb at http://www.vimeo.com/4129654 !

Back to Normalcy

Lots of things going on lately. We are nearing the end of Sakura season. For those that don't know, Sakura (Cherry Blossoms) bloom every year in Japan around the end of March/beginning of April. They are very beautiful and bloom almost all at once, causing quite a stir in Japan. They are only in bloom for about a week or two and then very quickly and suddenly the petals all start to fall off until they are all gone. It's a time that a lot of people here wait for all year. People go to parks with friends, sit under the Sakura and have picnics, etc. This is called hanami (looking at flowers) and is extremely popular. We did our own hanami last weekend with some friends at Iwamoto Yama Koen. There were cherry blossoms everywhere and a lot of people and it was a very nice day. We've been lucky because after the weeks and weeks of rain we had, it has been very nice since the cherry blossoms started blooming. We took some pictures at the park which will be on Flickr soon, but until then here are some I took with my phone to tide you over.







Here some petals fell on my leg while I was sitting. I thought it was kind of a peaceful moment.


The group getting ready to leave. It started raining a bit while we waited for the bus.


Now the petals are falling and that's very pretty also. It makes the ground under the trees look pink. And when they are falling sometimes it looks like snow. It's very nice. On my way home today I saw a little girl, maybe 5 or 6 years old sweeping up the petals under a tree. At first I wondered why she was doing it, and then I noticed that she had a little bag that she was putting them in. She wanted to take some home which I thought was very sweet.

Things were extremely slow at work the past few weeks until this week. In Japan, many teachers get transferred to different schools at the end of the school year, so my school had about 8 teachers leave (which from what I hear is not that many.) We had a farewell ceremony at school last Monday to see them off, so all of the students had to come up to school even though it was the middle of their official spring vacation. Then that night we had a farewell party complete with the leaving teachers being picked up and thrown in the air by all of the male teachers. It was pretty funny.

We went to my school's brass band concert a couple of weeks ago. It was really good! I had only ever heard them play the school song and the Japanese National Anthem, so when they played things ranging from Mozart to Disney to Gershwin to J-Pop, I was very impressed. These kids work hard and work long hours and it shows. I'll definitely go again whenever they have another concert. It's good to see the students in a different light.

The new school year started this week and the new ichi-nensei (first-year students) came on Tuesday for the first time. We had a welcome ceremony for them and then today we had a ceremony where the new ichi-nensei were paraded in front of the ni-nensei and san-nensei and then all of the students had to take an oath of friendship and respect. Ceremonies are funny here. Today was also club introduction day where the new students got to see all of the different sports teams and clubs and then walk around and see the clubs in action. We had a good number of students come to English club. We were doing an Easter day, so they got to decorate and eat Easter cookies and dye Easter eggs. Hopefully we'll get some new students. Right now we have like 12 and two of them are leaving in July to go to America and Canada to study abroad for a year. So we could use some more.

Other than that, I have my first class of the new school year tomorrow. It's going to be nice to get classes going again and get back to normalcy. This last month with no classes was pretty boring which made the days go by slowly. But now I've got new students, new classes, new teachers, and I'm ready to get going.

Two more pictures:

The Sakura outside my school. A bunch got cut down to build a handball court (which coincidentally got its first use the week that the cherry blossoms started blooming) but these were left.



I thought this was so funny I had to take a picture of it while riding my bike. Don't worry this guy was riding so slow I didn't have to ride fast to keep up, so I was being safe. I just think it's funny how small his bike is. He's a grown man and this is like a little kid's bike. Maybe he hijacked some little kid for their bike.


That's all for now. Happy Easter!

Japan Meets the Parents - Final Day

We woke up yesterday morning and headed off to church in Numazu. We had a nice service and everyone was very excited to meet mom and dad. I think they enjoyed the service although they didn't understand anything. Fortunately we had our English version of the sermon sheet to follow during the sermon. At the end of the service it is usually customary there for the guests to say a few words, so dad got to talk with somebody translating for him. He did good! After church we had the family lunch where we got to eat some good curry and talk with everybody. The people asked mom and dad a lot of questions and dad, of course, went on to tell everyone that Kelly and I are singers which led to us singing part of "As the Deer" for everyone. I forgave him. :) But now I might have to lead some songs in English next week.

After that we went back to Fuji. It poured down rain all day so we didn't do much. We walked to the sweets shop aorund the corner and had Don Don for dinner again. Most of the evening was spent talking and packing.

This morning I had to go to work, so I got up a little earlier than normal to make sure everything was in order. We said our goodbyes and they filmed me as I rode my bike off to work. Kelly got them in a taxi a little later and sent them on their way to Shin-Fuji station. They are currently (I hope) on a bus that will take them all the way back to the airport (a 4-5 hour ride.) Their plane leaves at around 6 and gets back to the states a few hours earlier (it's like LOST - Time Travel!)

Mom and Dad - it was really great having you here. I'm so glad you got to come and see our life here and meet some of the people we spend our time with. I hope you gained something from the very different experience and that you will remember your time here for a long time. There is so much to see in Japan that you didn't get to see, but I hope you enjoyed what you did see. We love you!

Well, I'm at work now and there is certainly not much going on. I actually just walked away from the computer for a few minutes because a TV was turned on to watch Japan finish off the USA in the World Baseball Classic. I watched despite the fact that I was going for the US. Oh well. I'll go for Japan in the final. I wouldn't be surprised if the whole game is on in here tomorrow. That would be a nice way to get paid.

Day 7 and 8 - Traveling Around

I worked on Thursday and we didn't do much that night so there's not much to tell for that day.

Friday was a national holiday here (Vernal Equinox Day) so Kelly and I didn't have to work. So we all waited out the rain in the morning and then headed in the afternoon to Shiraito Falls in Fujinomiya. It turned out to be a pretty nice day although a bit cool and we walked around and took a bunch of pictures and looked in the shops. This is the same waterfalls that we went to back in August and put pictures of on Flickr. We had fun and once the wind blew away the clouds we got an amazing view of Mt. Fuji. I'm sure there are pictures of that and the other sights but we haven't gotten around to them so I've got nothing for you right now.

That night we took mom and dad to one of our favorite restaurants (because all we do is eat apparently,) Namaskar. This is the Indian curry restaurant. We all got curry and naan and ate until we were pretty miserable. That's one thing I've noticed about this past week. I guess it's just that we have been wanting to take them to all of our favorite places, but we have been eating like crazy all week. I'm going to have to hit the running trails this next week.

Saturday we took a day trip to Kamakura which is a town in Kanagawa prefecture that is famous for having a ton of temples as well as an extremely large Buddha statue. We walked all around the town there and saw several temples, ate ramen, and saw the big Buddha. Many pictures were snapped, same story as above. But here are a few I took with my iPhone.







We were all pretty tired and our feet hurt when we got back from Kamakura, so we didn't do much for dinner. We had Mos Burger again and another crepe from Orange Pot and then went home.

I really enjoyed some of the things in Kamakura because it was really cool to see things that were built so long ago. I think sometimes I don't focus on that factor enough, and I was glad I took a moment to imagine what it might have been like long ago. Sometimes I get into history. Maybe I'll read up on Japanese history a bit more.

Only a few more days. I hope they've enjoyed their visit. They seem like they have. I know we're all tired enough. Last post of the visit to come tomorrow.

Day 5 - Visit to Yoshiwara High School

Wednesday was an exciting day because I took mom and dad up to my school to see where I work and to tour the school and meet some students and teachers. We took a cab there because that's the easiest way. Didn't think they'd want to ride bikes all the way like I always do.

When we got there we were greeted immediately by both vice principals and the principal. The vice principal told me they had made an announcement that morning to tell everyone we were coming. We put on our indoor shoes. I, of course got to wear my regular indoor shoes but they got to put on some of the school's slippers. They were too big for my mom and too small for my dad, but they survived. We went up to the teachers room and met some teachers up there. I showed them my desk and we looked around a bit. We went up to the LL (Language Lab) room which is where I teach several classes, and I showed them some of the not-so-high-tech things we have in there. While we were in there, some students came in and got to meet mom and dad. They introduced themselves in English and did very well I thought. We had a pretty simple conversation and I'm sure they could not wait to get out of there. Our students often enjoy trying to speak English with me and Andrea but they get a little freaked out whenever someone else shows up. But I was proud of them nonetheless.

After the LL, we went to the library and looked around in there. My mom also presented the librarians with a book about Texas with lots of pictures. They were very happy and looked through the book as soon as they opened it. I told them in Japanese that my mom is a librarian too which they found very interesting. They even took the book and put it on display at the front of the library so everybody can see it when they come in which I thought was very nice. It was a nice cultural exchange moment. :)

Finally, we walked over to another building on campus where we attended a Koto concert by our Koto club. It was a small room and a small concert, but the girls were absolutely amazing. I had never heard a Koto played in person before and the things they were able to do with it was quite impressive. I'd like to go again sometime. They had a quiz during the intermission/tea time of the concert where they asked various questions. They even asked some questions about the U.S. (who is the president?, where is the Statue of Liberty?) Both mom and dad answered a question right and won a prize. All in all it was very enjoyable. The lady in charge of the Koto club was very funny and friendly and did a good job of making the foreign guests (mom, dad, myself, Andrea, and her friend Tammy) feel welcome.

After the concert and a final look at the school we walked to the public library where I checked out some books and then went home. We had dinner at an izakaya called Watami and had some crepes for dessert at the Orange Pot. Finally we went back home and did the usual, sat around full until we all got too tired and went to bed.

Kelly and I both had to work today so nothing exciting happened with us. Mom and Dad did some exploring apparently but didn't venture too far from home. Tomorrow (Friday) is a national holiday and the plan is to go to Kamakura. Details to come after the trip.

Here are a few pictures of the Koto concert on Flickr. There are students in the pictures so they're only available to Flickr friends and family so if you're not one yet, get a Flickr account and add us.