Staying Another Year

I know that I have been slacking as far as updating you of our whereabouts. We have been hibernating since the days have been getting colder and colder. I will have you know that I ran 10.35K (~6 miles) in 67 minutes and Cristina ran 5.6K (~3 miles) on Friday. We were both very excited. On Saturday, Osa came from Miyazaki and we went to a yakiniku restaurant in Kanoya we had coupons for. Yaki niku restaurants are those where you grill the meat and vegetables at your table. On Sunday, we pretty much just ate and watched movies. Osa gave Cristina a haircut which looks really good. It is just like her old haircut only shorter. She has almost gotten rid of all the bad color jobs she had put in her hair.

Today, I officially gave my form stating that I will recontract and stay until July 2006. I know it is a long time, but I have lots of plans. My office was elated, however, not elated enough to give me a new place to live. On Thursday, I told them that I would recontract but that I would really appreciate it of I could move (since I know that there will be several open spaces in designated teacher housing). They responded that this would be impossible because the crap house I live in is the designated ALT house. I don’t necessarily buy that excuse because they offered a few ALTs ago the opportunity to move to a new apartment. So, on Friday they reacted by getting a handy man to look at my house and see what he can do. They keep on suggesting for me to get a cat for the mice, but I keep telling them that I am allergic. They still insist on the cat on occasion. Apparently on Tuesday, they will begin by giving the house a proper pipe and gutter that can get the feces and run off water away from the house and onto the town’s drainage pipe. Then, they will supposedly replace the rotten wood in my bathroom, then the bit in my kitchen. I have also asked them to seal all the wholes. Let’s see what actually gets accomplished.

ShIT -- Shakespeare In Training

So my knee is beginning to hurt. Not the knee that I have screwed up twice either. This time it’s the left one. I am afraid that this is going to tamper with my training. Either way, I am not going to let it get to me until it is probably too late. As of yesterday, I can run about 8.5 K in 55 minutes. It is good, but I have yet to hit the mark. Hopefully by the end of the week I will be able to run 10 K effortlessly (or if not effortlessly, at least making it through the final 1.5 K). After I master the 10K this week, I think I will begin doing some “stadiums” on the steps leading to the top of the main mountain in Uchinoura, or running up hills or lifting weights.

Besides this bit of news, Monday was pretty much the same. I spent most of the day in the office. I had lunch with the Katos. It was amazing. Oh, my car situation. Mr. Kato thought that he would be able to “update” my car at a better cost than buying a new one. He still has not found any cars that are really worth buying. They are all either very expensive or very cheap and not worth buying. However, upon taking a second look at my car, he thinks that it would still cost too much money for my current car that I will have to pay to get rid of when I leave Japan. Therefore, they lent me a loaner car (so I don’t drive illegally without insurance) until they find me a good car worth buying. I feel so grateful, but at the same time really bad because they really do go beyond the call of duty.

If you are wondering how my play script is coming along, well . . . it’s coming. It is difficult to write something semi-interesting in very basic English for an audience that will most definitely not understand. But, hey, that’s what a challenge is all about. If you're curious, you can read the first bit. Although I warn you that it may put you to sleep like a canary in a covered bird cage. Continue at your own risk . . .

"LET’S GO TO FLORIDA!"

Hmmm… I really want to go to America. You do? Where do you want to go? I don’t know. America is so big. It is difficult to choose. Well, let’s look at a map. Wow! It’s so big. Maybe we should go to California. California is very popular because there are many famous people. I have an idea. Let’s go to Las Vegas because they have big beautiful Casinos. I hear it’s better than Pachinko. Let’s go to New York! No, I don’t want to go to New York. It’s too cold in New York. I want to go to a hot place. Hmmm . . . . a hot place. Do you want to go to a nice beach? Yes, I love going to the beach. What else do you want to see or do? I want to meet nice people. I want to go to Disney World. I want to eat oranges. I KNOW! Let’s go to Florida.

(Pretend I wrote an interesting yet corny title here)

More running, more 24, more fun… Cristina and I have been very good about our running. On Friday, I did a bit over 6K in 42 minutes. Hopefully I can keep it up and improve my endurance and time in the next few jogs. Cristina has also improved considerably. I think that she is regretting doing the 5K rather than the 10K because she is now seeing how doable it really is. I also feel a bit better because I realize how attainable a goal it really is. Cristina and I are already talking about possibly running a half-marathon next year because here a town seems to be having one every other week. I guess they are really big fundraisers over here.

Today I am driving a rental car as my car cannot be driven anymore because my insurance inspired. Therefore, I will be getting a new car in the upcoming week. The car that I am driving now is automatic and it is really difficult to get use to doing nothing with your left foot and hand again. It is also difficult to be driving such a nice car.

As for our weekend, it was great. On Friday, after the 6K run, Cristina went to Kaz’s for Girl’s night and I took the boys from the City for a Boy’s night. Jiro made some of his great burgers. We also drank a lot and then basically passed out when we started to see a movie. The next day, we met up with the girls and had some breakfast. The day was spent relaxing and watching TV. Later that night, we went to this great izakaya (this is the Japanese version of a pub) where we ate and drank some more. It was a big group of about 18 of us. After we went for some karaoke which I actually had missed not doing for some time. Then we stood in the rain looking for daikos to drive us back to Kaz’s house where we all just camped out. The next day, we woke up and had breakfast. Cristina and I returned home, took naps and watched 24.

We have also been doing some educating about Cuban culture while we have been here. We have been speaking a lot about Cuban politics and the situation in Cuba in general to all who are interested in hearing about it. Also, many are curious about the food and culture which we have also been informing everyone about. As for the planned espresso party on Friday, the Japanese people invited stood us up. It is really unlikely that they all had the same emergency, so we thought it was really rude that they did not even call. It is very un-Japanese. However, we did get to share our Cuban coffee with pretty much all the ALTs we encountered this week.

Now in school, I am organizing an English play in one of my Elementary schools and one of my Junior highs that they will perform on February 6. I am excited about the new challenge and am curious of how it will be performed, received, etc. For those of you from Miami, I think my script will be somewhat like a Que Pasa USA? in Japan where I have people speaking in both Japanese and English so that way the audience can still follow it along. I think the play will be at least a bit enjoyable. Picture this… A group of Japanese tourists visiting Florida! It’s going to be great. I know it!

Taiko Workout (Not to be confused with Taebo)

Yesterday we went to Kanoya to watch a Taiko performance. Let me tell you that it was some performance. I never knew that taiko drummers can be so fit. There was actually one number in particular that this guy took off his shirt and started to play a big drum on a tall stand with his back facing the audience and I could swear that this guy had ripped abs even on his back! I was a bit inclined to buy a DVD to send home so that I can show you all what taiko is all about because a CD will not do it justice. Taiko is as much about the visual as it is the audio. Unfortunately, they do not have any region 1 DVDs.

Today I received my package with gifts from my mother and grandmother. I am really excited to open it. I am halfway inclined to open it in the office but don’t want people snooping about. Whatever my mom put in there, it certainly got the Japanese Customs officials’ attention who opened up the box. Hopefully there is nothing too dodgy in there.

Well, that is it for now. I am excited to have the time again today to run. Hopefully I get to do at least 5 kilometers today without running.

Surprise! You're getting a new car!

As usual, Mondays are my office days. I use them to fulfill assignments I give myself and to study Japanese. On this Monday, like I do with many other Mondays, I ate a delicious lunch in the company of the Katos at their home. Yesterday, lunch happened to be curry. We were exchanging stories of what we did over winter break and New Year’s. Then, Yu mentioned that my shaken, a sort of rigorous inspection that every car has to get every two years, was coming up. Whatever the car does not pass, it must be fixed. The cost of everything that must be fixed in addition to the cost of the shaken is as much as buying a new car, which I could then sell to my successor. So, my best bet is to buy a new car, which I should do by the end of the week. Papa Kato said that he would call around the used car places to see what my best deal would be. I am so very grateful to them for doing so much of this for me. I am really lucky to have such nice people watching out for me. I really trust them. Therefore, I am buying a car by the end of the week that I really will not “meet” until the time of purchase. So jokingly, I mentioned yesterday to Cristina, that I wonder what kind of car I will be driving this time next week – something I would have never wondered about in the United States.

After work, Cristina and I began training for our respective races; I am doing a 10K and she is doing a 5K. Yesterday we ran 3.6K in about 25 minutes. I realize that I have some way to go, but I feel so good to get back to running and I see my goal as very achievable.

After running, Cristina and I met up with Laura, Jill and Eric at Tomo-chan’s, where I had some not so healthy yakisoba. It was well worth it though. It was sooo good. Like usual, it was nice to go to Osaki and visit Tomo and Yoko.

Upon returning home, Cristina and I were inclined to begin watching Season 3 of 24. I have to say that as of now, I do not like it very much. I hope that it gets better. Perhaps because it seems so scary to me and also there is just some underlying thing about it that I do not like as much.

The next morning, I woke up and freaked out. There was frost all over outside. The fields glistened with ice, as did all the windows. Once I arrived to my car, I saw that it was covered with a substantially thick frost. It was not like the other days where it could easily be wiped off the window. So, I left my car running (something I would never do in the States, and heated some water to throw on the windows. After I did, my front window was fine, but then as I began driving, I noticed I had forgotten about my back window. Needless to say, now I know for next time.

Later today, I am going to see a Taiko (Japanese drums) show/concert of what is said to be one of if not the best Taiko group in Japan – Tao. Several people have told me about it and I hestitated at first at it costing $35, but then I realized that I may never get a chance to see them again. And if I find local groups to be really good, I am curious to see what makes this group so amazing. I’ll let you know tomorrow.

Hibernation

I have spent the past three days hibernating in the mouse-free house of Cristina in Higashi-Kushira. I have probably only been outdoors for a collective 30 minutes, let’s make that 20 if you count all the times I walked to or from my car. Friday night, we saw countless episodes of Season 2 of 24. I would say if I had to count, maybe 6. Saturday, we woke up and watched some more 24. Later in the evening, Cristina and I invited Jill and Laura over to watch a movie. We ended up viewing Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. It was OK but I have to admit that I was a bigger fan of the Royal Tenebaums by the same director and actors. In the hours after Jill and Laura left, we stayed up to the wee hours of the morning to watch the about 6 episodes of Season 2 of 24.

The next day, I woke up and Cristina was getting ready for her big race. She was to run and 800 meter-leg of a Marathon relay race. She was representing one of the nine sections of her town. I was standing at the corner of the last 100 meters of Cristina’s leg as she ran. She looked tired and cold, but determined. It was funny because there were so many locals by me (since she was running the leg that was actually in her section of town) that were cheering her on, most of them calling her Christian, but they were cheering her on nonetheless. When I began to yell at the top of my lungs, “Go, go, go, faster, faster, faster, you’re almost there!” Everyone began to try to yell what I was saying although it didn’t quite so much sound like that. Her team ended up in 3rd Place and she has the cool bronze medal to prove it. She said that her part was also very difficult because a chunk of it was uphill. I have to say that the runners that passed a minute before her seemed just as tired as she did. I will try to post a picture shortly where you can see her running in her hooded sweatshirt showing nothing but her nose. Apparently the wind was killing her (don’t worry, not literally). Later that night we were invited to a party for her section of the town where we enjoyed beer and lots of beef. It was much fun and very entertaining. However, Cristina somehow got herself entangled into hosting an espresso party in her house Friday after work. Don’t ask me how, but she seems to be regretting it. Afterward, you should guess what we did. Rather than going to the second party (singing karaoke), we opted to go home to see the last 6 episodes of 24. Let me tell you, I can’t wait to start on Season 3. I think I might though just so that I stay somewhat active and healthy. Sunlight and movement are always good things for your body. Well, maybe not always, but you get the drift. Besides, I think it’s best to ration the dosage evenly throughout the weeks.

I am excited about starting my training tonight. Cristina and I are going to go running to start training for the Sakurajima Marathon. After that, we will visit Tomo-chan who I have not seen since last year.

Mickey Resurrected

It seems to me that I have more mice than a Disney store. Last night as I was taking out the hot carpet from the box in the closet where my predecessor left it, a whole mess of mouse droppings fell out. I would say that it could amount to an entire cupful. Then to matters even worse, I began to see mice scurrying about. In total, Cristina and I counted 4, all of which we were able to successfully chase outside. However, don’t think it was that easy. It took a bowl, a broom and few good screams before we could chase them out. They had gnawed the hot carpet and made this giant nest (by the giant heap of droppings). I took the hot carpet outside, but I think that they may end up coming back inside. This will lead me to simply talk to my office and see if I can get relocated to a new place. There is a “town apartment building” that all the single teachers live in that I am going to ask to be switched to. I am almost sure that there will be room as of March or April because two of the teachers that live there now are leaving to other schools because we have too many teachers. Perhaps with a little persuasion (or an ultimatum at the time of re-contracting) I can move in there. I will bring it up to my office on Monday.

P.S. My office wants to measure my body fat on a cool machine they got for the gym. Welcome to my world.
P.S.S. I saw Dodgeball last night and almost died laughing. Consider it highly recommended (as Finding Neverland, if I had not mentioned already).
P.S.S.S. I signed up for the Sakurajima “Marathon” today – 10K. Wish me luck.

Please Help Me Pee

As I began to ponder on what I should write about today, I realized that I have not informed you of some of the differences between the States and Japan. Granted that some of them seem to be implicit with the recounting of my days, but there is still so much more to truly inform you about. For this reason, I will share with you today one puzzling difference I had noticed as an oddity only 1 month ago. For a bit of a prologue, I will like to inform you that Japan is really not that wheelchair friendly. I hope that this is only the case because it is a bit more old than the rest of Japan. However, every public building in Japan (this includes transportation hubs) has bright yellow grooves or bumps on the floor to lead the blind from certain entrances to the places they need to go in the building. There is no Braille signage indicating where it is that they are going to or supposed to be going to, but the grooves are still there. Perhaps, the blind are genetically encoded or something to know these things inherently. I obviously do not know or understand. However, I found this puzzling considering I have yet to see one single blind person in Japan, but I have seen so many wheelchair-bound people struggling to get somewhere (particularly when they are passing over the bright yellow grooves on the floor). I hope that you do not find this distressing or rude. You will be happy to know that although the Japanese do not have a handicap stall in the restroom, they do provide a handicapped equipped urinal. Now, thankfully, I have never had to help a disabled person to the handrails that protrude about 2 feet from the wall about 4 feet from the ground to assist them in urinating in what would probably be the most difficult place to do it considering their condition, but I guess the Japanese just enjoy a challenge.

Since coming home, nothing too exciting has happened. I am simply watching movies that I bought while traveling and complaining at how cold it is. Cristina and I did see The Incredibles which I will have to say is a great film. I think it is definitely one step above the other Pixar films in originality. Last night, we went over to Kaz’s where we enjoyed a very hearty meal accompanied by Laura, Jill and Dan (ALT from Kihoku) and Mike (from Aira, where Cristina and I went to the tea ceremony). It turned out to be a very interesting and funny evening. Later that night, Cristina and I watched Super Size Me, the documentary about a man who chose to go on a 30-day McDonald’s-only diet. It was also very good and is recommended by me. Speaking of being super-sized, in case you were wondering, I have yet to begin my “marathon training”. Something tells me I may have to bump down to a 5K. By the way, I have come to realize I am a Nutella junkie.

A More Thorough Description of Our Winter Holiday

OK, I don’t mean to sound a bit repetitive or dwell in the past, but for my first official blog of the year (meaning from my desk at Uchinoura’s infamous Ginga Arena facilities) I will recount some of the highlights of Cristina and my winter holiday. But before I begin, I would like to force myself to share with you what I have done to welcome the new year here in Southern rural Japan. As a must, I have forced myself to vow to eat healthier and begin running again with the ultimate goal of completing a 10K around the Sakurajima volcano this March 6th. In addition to that, I will continue to be giving and kind as many have informed me I already am (not that I needed their opinions to begin with), and I will try to improve my self-esteem since I don’t seem to be as confident as I once was. Maybe I should cancel everything up top and just promise not to be a liar. In all reality, I do want to train for the 10K and continue my independent-study of the Japanese language. I also decided to live on the edge (with permission of my office superiors) and take the plastic cover off the keyboard to the laptop I have been typing on since moving to Ginga Arena. Groovy, eh? Perhaps for next year, I will take the plastic off the screen. Anyway, back to our adventure. . .

After our 1 hour drive, 40-minute ferry ride, overnight bus, airbus to Hong Kong, 8 hour layover involving a trek through the Asian oxymoron, and a 12 hour plane ride to Europe, and a 30 minute train ride… we had reached the Eternal City – Rome. We checked into our hotel, showered for the first time in days, and headed to the train station to meet up with our friend Ashley. As it turns out, she missed her train and was delayed a few hours, which Cristina and I were to tired to do anything during, so we ended up riding the up and down escalators about 50 times (at the time it sounded like something interesting that 2 extremely jet-lagged people could do). After our reunion with our dear friend, our Roman Holiday had begun. During our trek, I had read Angels & Demons by Dan Brown as my travel companions had done some time before. So, I was eager to retrace the steps of the characters in the book which I will now recommend to all of you, especially if you had been to Rome before or are familiar with several of its Renaissance and Baroque sites. I am sad to say that the Romans were not as kind to us as they had been in the past and I found it unfortunate to think that was to be our reintroduction to Italy. Luckily, our encounters became much friendlier rather quickly. Following Rome, we spent a day in Siena where we had an excellent pesto picnic and slept in a convent with a rank smelling bathroom. Although the place was clean, my guess in that someone peed in the bidet which was later (or is always) overlooked by the cleaning people.

After Siena, we spent 3 marvelous days and nights (including Christmas) in Florence where Cristina and I had lived a couple years ago. I was happy to see that the city had truly decked the halls with the holiday spirit complete with Christmas trimmings on each and every street. Here we enjoyed the Uffizi gallery, which houses the famous Botticellis (among other works), and the Accademia, home to Michelangelo’s David. Somewhere in between we managed to nestle a “few” bottles of wine and one truly remarkable Christmas Eve dinner.

After Florence, we met up with Ashley’s brother who is stationed in Northern Italy on an air force base. We stayed with him for 4 days and did some laundry, bought some stuff that we really needed, watched tons of DVDs (he has like 400 to choose from) and visited Padua, Piancavallo and Slovenia. Padua was great. My absolute favorite part about it was going to its Cathedral with the tomb of St. Anthony and seeing such devotion from Catholics from what seemed every corner of the world (if you count Cristina and me as Asia). Piancavallo is a small mountain town filled with small ski chalets and cheap rental places and lifts on the mountain peak overlooking the town where Andrew lives. Slovenia which Andrew drove us to for one day was a truly surprising highlight of the trip. I was not familiar with Slovenian culture at all and was only briefly introduced to it, but I can see myself returning some day. The country seems very interesting and rich in culture despite its small size (smaller than Switzerland). The people were very friendly and really like dancing to some great polka tunes. The Slovenian language sounded surprisingly Scandinavian (I expected something a bit more Germanic). While there, we visited some cool looking caves which we had to take a train ride to really get into them.

From Northern Italy, we took an overnight train to Vienna, where we picked up Lukasz and spent New Year’s Eve. For New Years, the Viennese and people from all over thr world crowd the historic streets and drink beer and champagne. In the main plaza outside the old church, they throw their glasses, champagne bottles and fireworks for good luck. If it sounds scary, it is in some parts. However, in most places it is safer and lots of fun. However, because of an unfortunate series of events in Vienna, I was not able to ring in the New Year with my fiancée and friends. When we were returning to the hotel to get someone’s gloves at 10:30 after having been out for a couple of hours and having drunk a few beers, I guess I lost my balancing while sitting down in the Metro and seemed to have torn or strained my meniscus in my knee pretty badly. So, I just passed out in the hotel to rest my leg with some ice, and sent my fiancée out to celebrate it with her best friend. After spending a few days roaming in Vienna, catching operas, eating sausages and kebabs, and quite a bit of walking, we went to Salzburg.

The first day in Salzburg we just toured the old city and had what I would say was my favorite meal on our trip comprising of Wiener schnitzel, goulash, and apfel strudel. After a bit more of drifting in the old town, we went to a bier garten run by Augustinian monks. The second day, we took a trip out to a small town to take a tour of the salt mines on the Austrian-German border from which Slazburg gets its name. They were really cool and a lot more informative than the tour in the cave in Slovenia. You also got to ride a small train, a boat across and underground lake, walk through some small mines, cross the national border and ride an escalator all in an informative and entertaining hour and a half long tour. Later that night, we parted ways with Ashley and Lukasz and took an overnight train to Frankfurt, where our plane to Hong Kong was departing from.

Our train arrived to Frankfurt at 6 a.m. when the city (think New York) was completely deserted, dark and extremely windy and cold. Although the old market square was great, we were cold and frankly I was a bit tired of Cristina’s groaning about the weather. After a few hours I realized that she was cold because she did not even where long johns, only wore a light sweater and a rain coat, knowing how cold it was . . . frankly a person that dumb deserves to be cold. Just kidding. It eventually got better as the sun began to come out, the streets became busier and shops began to open.

Our 2.5 days in Hong Kong were great. Besides the food, everything else looked really cool to me. We went through the business district, Victoria Peak, Nathan Road and all the market districts. It was truly an experience. I was most amazed by their capacity to withstand some of the smells and the degree of crowdedness and their incredible public transportation system. Everything ran incredibly smoothly and very easy to understand as an English-speaking foreigner. While their Cristina and I made some amazing purchases, ate a few times at McDonald’s, ate at the poshest of posh hotels – The Peninsula – and managed to sleep from 10 PM one night to 2:15 PM the next day because we were so jet lagged.

After arriving back to Fukuoka, we took the overnight bus to Kagoshima which I could not sleep on because I was so jet lagged. Once in Kagoshima, we relaxed in the City for a bit and slept at Alex’s flat to hear about other people’s outrageous holidays. As a side note, I am relieved to announce that I heard from one of the JET Coordinators in Kagoshima Ken that all the Kagoshima ALTs have been accounted for after the tsunami devastation. However, we still do not know about other JETs in other Kens.

Well, I guess that this is definitely more than enough for today. I look forward to hearing from all of you and knowing how you spent your holiday.

Our Eurochina holiday in pictures

View Album Part One

View Album Part Two

We're back!

So, we are back in Japan in our towns. I have not yet gone to work, and it's about 1 a.m. so I am not going to sit here and tell you much about our trip. I am trying to upload all the pictures tonight so they will be up shortly. I'll write some more tomorrow in work.

Hong Kong Mayhem!

Well, our trip is quickly coming to a close. We just made it it to Hong Kong today and we are extremely jet-lagged. I fell asleep for about 30 minutes while we checked into this hotel that rented us a room the size of a walk-in closet (no joke). Cristina on the other hand is not fairing so well and has crashed into her pillow in the middle of the day which leads me to believe that her sleep pattern will not be catching up with her.

Well, I have tons of stories to share but I will probably post them later when I have time to type many of them out. Hope to hear from you all soon. Cheers.