City Bound
Hello again. The follow recounts the events between Wednesday 7A.M. and Monday 1 P.M. Sorry, but you would understand why inserted that beforehand if you’ve watched an episode of 24. In any case, Wednesday was pretty uneventful. If I recall correctly, I spent the entire day doing nothing in the office. After, I went to Cristina’s where we ate 100 yen sushi and watched the Nightmare Before Christmas, which I had never seen before. The Nightmare Before Christmas is very popular here. It has been re-released and there is merchandise for it all over the place. I enjoyed the film very much and found the plot rather unique, but I am a bit surprised at its popularity among younger children.
Thursday, we woke up rather early and met at Jill’s house to leave to Kagoshima City. We wanted to arrive at 9 AM to get our re-entry permits (so that we may leave and come back into the country) right when the office opened so that we could still get to the beginning of the conference by 10 AM. Everything went according to plan except I lost by coin purse with my inkan (signature stamp) in the shuffle of getting out of the cab. So, I had to pay another $8 today and had to listen to my supervisors tell me how important the inkan is in Japanese society before they would give me my paycheck, but I jump ahead of myself. The conference was to inform ALTs and JTEs the correct way to team teach. I found the conference kind of lame other than it allowed for us ALTs to all get together. After the meetings and demonstration class for that day, we went to a banquet. After the banquet, we went to Doggy Bar to do some more drinking and hanging out.
Friday, we had some more meetings. They were still boring and not that informative. Later that night, we went to Alex’s flat (Kaz’s boyfriend) to leave our bags. Cristina and I stayed with him the night. Kaz actually returned to England to attend a funeral of a close family friend. After leaving our bags, we walked to Amu Plaza to get some Starbucks, where we ran into many more ALTs from the conference. The Japanese probably thought it was Gaijin (Japanese word for foreigner) Fest 2004. We also walked into the movie theater just to soak in the feel of it. I miss it but did not go to see a movie because nothing really caught my attention. However, The Incredibles is opening next week and seems worth watching. After returning to Alex’s for a respite, we caught a cab to Ten Mon Kan (the shopping district) to spend some time in this posh Western style bar/restaurant. In reality, I guess it was not very posh, but was definitely nicer than some of the places I have been to recently. We enjoyed a few bottles of wine with some other ALTs celebrating someone’s birthday who I really did not know. It was all good fun. Jill, Laura and a friend, then caught a cab and told the driver to take them to the most popular love hotel in Kagoshima. We walked to Alex’s and slept there for the night.
Saturday, we woke up and went to a small bakery near Alex’s that looks a but like some French or German café. It was really nice and had some neat bread items like baguettes and pesto bread. We continued out jaunt about the city just wandering about. We later met with Jill and Laura and Jolene, an ALT from Satsuma Peninsula who we invited to stay on our side. So, we took the ferry back. For dinner, we went to an Indian restaurant where I had a curry dish that I could not finish because of how spicy it was. After, we attempted to watch a bit of Zoolander at Jill’s, but fell asleep because of how tired we all were. Jolene came back with Cristina and I to Cristina’s where we slept for the night.
Sunday, I was up at the crack of dawn to my town culture festival in the new arena. I arrived and was surprised once again to see my officemates all dressed in suits. Apparently the affair was a bit fancier than I thought, but I assume I still blended in somewhat with a collared shirt and a sweater. I was surprised at the talent of some of the acts we had, although I could only hear some of them because I spent till lunch working at the welcome desk greeting people and handing out booklets. At 2:30 Cristina arrived with Jolene after a day of shopping to see the professional Korean dancers that had been staying in homestays in my town for the past few days. They were simply stunning. I think my town was extremely fortunate to be able to host them. After, we went our separate ways again because I had to go to a drinking party with the hosts of the homestays, my officemates and the Korean visitors. At the banquet I had tins of fun. I felt a little more popular than usual because almost everybody was communicating in English with each other. There was only one person that came with the Koreans that spoke Korean, Japanese and English and he was very keen on practicing his English most of the night.
This morning, I was getting ready to do my web surfing like I usually do every Monday when one of my officemates came up to me and asked me if I was busy. I replied quickly, “no”. He then volunteered me for lots of lifting till lunch time which I wish I would have known about this morning when I put on a sweater and pair of slip on clogs (not ideal moving clothes). Anyway, I will end my entry for today with another random sighting here in Japan: while eating lunch today on top of the mountain how I usually do when I can, I suddenly saw a wild hog walk right by me and two older Japanese men chasing it.
Thursday, we woke up rather early and met at Jill’s house to leave to Kagoshima City. We wanted to arrive at 9 AM to get our re-entry permits (so that we may leave and come back into the country) right when the office opened so that we could still get to the beginning of the conference by 10 AM. Everything went according to plan except I lost by coin purse with my inkan (signature stamp) in the shuffle of getting out of the cab. So, I had to pay another $8 today and had to listen to my supervisors tell me how important the inkan is in Japanese society before they would give me my paycheck, but I jump ahead of myself. The conference was to inform ALTs and JTEs the correct way to team teach. I found the conference kind of lame other than it allowed for us ALTs to all get together. After the meetings and demonstration class for that day, we went to a banquet. After the banquet, we went to Doggy Bar to do some more drinking and hanging out.
Friday, we had some more meetings. They were still boring and not that informative. Later that night, we went to Alex’s flat (Kaz’s boyfriend) to leave our bags. Cristina and I stayed with him the night. Kaz actually returned to England to attend a funeral of a close family friend. After leaving our bags, we walked to Amu Plaza to get some Starbucks, where we ran into many more ALTs from the conference. The Japanese probably thought it was Gaijin (Japanese word for foreigner) Fest 2004. We also walked into the movie theater just to soak in the feel of it. I miss it but did not go to see a movie because nothing really caught my attention. However, The Incredibles is opening next week and seems worth watching. After returning to Alex’s for a respite, we caught a cab to Ten Mon Kan (the shopping district) to spend some time in this posh Western style bar/restaurant. In reality, I guess it was not very posh, but was definitely nicer than some of the places I have been to recently. We enjoyed a few bottles of wine with some other ALTs celebrating someone’s birthday who I really did not know. It was all good fun. Jill, Laura and a friend, then caught a cab and told the driver to take them to the most popular love hotel in Kagoshima. We walked to Alex’s and slept there for the night.
Saturday, we woke up and went to a small bakery near Alex’s that looks a but like some French or German café. It was really nice and had some neat bread items like baguettes and pesto bread. We continued out jaunt about the city just wandering about. We later met with Jill and Laura and Jolene, an ALT from Satsuma Peninsula who we invited to stay on our side. So, we took the ferry back. For dinner, we went to an Indian restaurant where I had a curry dish that I could not finish because of how spicy it was. After, we attempted to watch a bit of Zoolander at Jill’s, but fell asleep because of how tired we all were. Jolene came back with Cristina and I to Cristina’s where we slept for the night.
Sunday, I was up at the crack of dawn to my town culture festival in the new arena. I arrived and was surprised once again to see my officemates all dressed in suits. Apparently the affair was a bit fancier than I thought, but I assume I still blended in somewhat with a collared shirt and a sweater. I was surprised at the talent of some of the acts we had, although I could only hear some of them because I spent till lunch working at the welcome desk greeting people and handing out booklets. At 2:30 Cristina arrived with Jolene after a day of shopping to see the professional Korean dancers that had been staying in homestays in my town for the past few days. They were simply stunning. I think my town was extremely fortunate to be able to host them. After, we went our separate ways again because I had to go to a drinking party with the hosts of the homestays, my officemates and the Korean visitors. At the banquet I had tins of fun. I felt a little more popular than usual because almost everybody was communicating in English with each other. There was only one person that came with the Koreans that spoke Korean, Japanese and English and he was very keen on practicing his English most of the night.
This morning, I was getting ready to do my web surfing like I usually do every Monday when one of my officemates came up to me and asked me if I was busy. I replied quickly, “no”. He then volunteered me for lots of lifting till lunch time which I wish I would have known about this morning when I put on a sweater and pair of slip on clogs (not ideal moving clothes). Anyway, I will end my entry for today with another random sighting here in Japan: while eating lunch today on top of the mountain how I usually do when I can, I suddenly saw a wild hog walk right by me and two older Japanese men chasing it.
posted by Jesse Montano at
1:57 PM
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