Another Happy Note

Sub-Topics: All-nighters, Culture Day, and Moments of Bliss

All-nighters: Apparently, the life I have chosen to live doesn't involve sleeping on the weekends. Is this common for Japanese youth? I blame the existence of the last train (why do they have one anyway?) and the misconception that you can stay overnight at certain places… Despite my weekends being extremely tiring, they are always interesting and/or fun. I have basically stayed up all night the past three weekends in a row with each weekend being more extreme than the last. I believe I have already written about the night a few friends and I stayed out and eventually slept a couple hours on my friend’s floor. The next all-nighter I want to write about happened two weekends ago. It was very fun! I met a group of friends at L&L bar and we had a couple drinks and some snacks. I invited my Ken who I have already told you about. It was nice to see him again. After that, the group split up and a few of us went to a dance club called Club Joule. That night Takkyu Ishinno was DJ-ing and the music was really good! There were a total of six of us and we danced and drank for a couple hours. One girl didn't want to miss her last train so we walked her to the station. I was planning on leaving too when the others asked me if I wanted to pull an all-nighter. I wasn't planning on it since the weekend before, I missed my last train, but I decided to do it since everyone else was. I forced everyone to do purikura (Japanese photo booths) first before deciding to go to an all night karaoke bar haha. We sang karaoke for like 5 hours! Also, some of the people we had split up with before the dance club came to do karaoke all night with us. It was all you can drink alcohol and soft drinks so it was pretty interesting haha! I ended up getting back to my apartment at about 7:30 in the morning. I had intentions of sleeping the whole day even though I had made plans to go to Oktober Fest. However, after sleeping like 4 hours, my friends coaxed me to join them at Oktober Fest. I ate some German food, but didn't drink any of the large selection of German beer because I was sick of alcohol after the night before and I don’t like beer. We hung out, talked, and listed to traditional German music. It was fun! I even made a new Japanese friend! So I am glad I went.

German festival.

The next all-nighter happened last weekend. Right now, my friend from Ohio (C.J.) is visiting me. He flew in to Tokyo on Saturday. I took the Shinkansen to Tokyo in the morning. For the first time, I actually could see Mt. Fuji from the window! It only took me 4 tries haha! I met my him in Ueno, and from there I took him to Asakusa to see Sensoji Temple. I finally found a damn chasen (tea wisk) at a store I remembered! I’m so happy!!! When we came back from Tokyo, I made six bowls of maccha (Japanese green tea)! After Sensoji, we went for kaiten sushi  (sushi on a conveyor belt). I sat next to a Taiwanese man who told me not to speak to him in Japanese because he is from Taiwan lol. He kept watching me while I ate to see if I could use chopsticks and to see what fish I was eating. >_< After dinner we went to Shinjuku and literally just messed around. We ate at like 3 more freaking restaurants!!! We played in an arcade, did purikura, and looked in shops. I showed my friend the red light district of Shinjuku called Kabukichou. I would never go there unless I had someone with me… So, it got pretty late and my plan all along was to stay in a mangakissa (comic book cafe). They are popular because they are very cheap and you can shower and sleep in a private cubicle that has internet and TV. You can also read manga to your heart’s content as well as drink all you can drink fountain drinks. I have never stayed in one before, but I have always wanted to. Here is the problem… It’s about 3:30 am on a Saturday night in Shinjuku, Tokyo which is like the New York of Japan, and everyone who is out, has missed their last train which was probably at about 12:30 am. We try going to two or three different mangakissa, and they are all full. Also, we didn't have a hotel reservation since we planned on staying in one of these places. In Japan, front desks aren't usually staffed during the night (unless it’s a fancy place). So you can’t just go to a hotel and get a room at 3:30 am. My last thought was that we could go to a love hotel. They are hotels specifically designed for doing you know what. You usually just pay a fee for about 3 hours, but you can stay the night if you pay a bigger fee. At that point, we didn't really care if we could only stay 3 hours or more. We just wanted to shower and nap. Alas, all of the hotels would not allow you to enter between like midnight and 5 or 6 am. This makes absolutely no sense. They don’t want the love hotels to be used as actual hotels, but you would think that between the times of midnight and 6 am, doing the dirty would be common. Anyway, we waited until 5 am when just a few hotels opened, and none of them had availability. At that point we just decided to say screw it and stay up all night since it was already past 5 am. We got to see the sun rise which was fun. You began to realize that at 6 am on a Sunday morning, the people who are walking around aren't up really early; they just never went home. You’d be surprised at how many people were out. We saw some interesting things by staying up all night. For example, we saw rats fighting, a man laying in the street in his own puke while sobbing, people falling over and screaming at each other, transvestites, an extreme amount of litter (I thought Japan was clean until that moment), and who knows what else I’m forgetting. If I knew that all the magakissa and love hotels were going to be full, I would  have suggested going to an all night karaoke room like I did the previous weekend at like 3:30 am, but by the time we realized we couldn't get in anywhere, it was like 6 am. We were debating on whether or not we should just keep waiting until stores started opening, and we could go see the strangely dressed people in Harajuku, but after much debating, we decided to just take a 7 am shinkansen back to Osaka. We slept a little on the train, but it wasn’t the most comfortable. It was so nice to get back to my apartment. Even though it was only like 11 am, we felt like it was super late at night. We took showers and I napped for like 2 hours (my friend slept a lot longer lol) because I didn't want to not be able to go to bed at like 11 pm because I worked the next day. I cooked us dinner and showed my friend the supermarket nearby before calling it a night. What an adventure! I will probably write another post after my friend leaves to tell you about the other stuff we do while he’s here.

Oh! By the way, I forgot. There was a typhoon on Sunday. It was pretty bad when it hit Okinawa, but by the time it got to Osaka, it was pretty tame. It just rained a lot and was a little windy. No big deal! I just cooked during it :P That was my first time experiencing a typhoon/hurricane.

Mt. Fuji from the shinkansen window.

Sensoji.

Culture Day: Culture Day takes place at every junior high school. Culture Day along with Sports Day are the most important days of the school year, and maybe graduation lol. Students and teachers spend many weeks preparing. I really had no idea what to expect. I assumed it had to do with learning about different cultures around the world, but I eventually realized that it’s about the students’ culture. The first year students sang songs on stage, the second year students made videos and mosaics, and the third year students did a play with dancing. Also, there was a performance from the guitar club which was really good, and the students' and parents’ artwork was displayed around the school. Some parents came to watch the performances. Among the parents’ artwork, there were legit scrapbooks. I really enjoyed looking at them since scrap-booking is my hobby. Anyway, that is what Culture Day is at a Japanese junior high school.

Moments of Bliss: I will once again point out that it is not fall here yet, and I am envious and sad when people back at home tell me it is fall in the US. However, here are some other things that have helped besides decorating my apartment:

1) I have decided that in the second half of November when the leaves are changing, I am going to go to Kyoto to do fall foliage viewing which is common. Some temples even have illumination hours where they are open extra hours at night so they can illuminate the fall trees with bright lights. It looks so cool.

I Googled this picture so you could get an idea. This is Kiyomizu-dera in Kyoto.

2) I have started buying persimmons. Maybe I already mentioned this, but they are a fall fruit in Asia, and they are good.

A persimmon.

3) Despite hot days here and there, the overall temperature has been dropping.

As the subtitle suggests, I have had moments of bliss because it's becoming fall, I've been staying out all night with my friends, and so There have been times when I am in some situation, whether it’s standing in my classroom of students, dancing in a club in downtown Osaka, or just sitting in my apartment drinking tea, where I have come to a strong and happy realization that I am in Japan. It has taken two months to accept that I am in Japan. Originally I thought I would never realize it, but I have, and I am happy. I know that when I leave here, whenever that is, I will miss things about being here, and I will always want to return. 

Happiness

The JET culture shock timeline.

I’m sure many of you are wondering if I feel homesick/culture shock. The JET Programme always emphasizes that everyone in one way or another will experience culture shock which goes in phases. I haven’t really followed their chart, but I think I have felt some homesickness since I’ve been here. For example, I feel really homesick when people back at home talk about the weather cooling down or it becoming fall because it is still a hot, sweaty, humid, hell-hole here. Of course I miss my friends, pets, boyfriend, and family too. For some reason, it’s the weather thing that really gets to me though. Also, I miss food from home. Other than that, I’ve been ok. It’s not like I’ve sunken into a stage two depression or anything like the chart suggests. In fact, I’ve been overall pretty happy and enjoying my time here so far. I still haven’t traveled much because money has been tight, but I plan to at least visit Hiroshima, Tokyo, Hokkaido, Kyoto, Nara and possibly Okinawa before the year is up. If I’m really lucky, maybe China or Korea. If I stay two years (which I’m planning on), I will most likely visit a neighboring country. Anyway, the point of this post is to write about the things I’m enjoying so far.

First, I have some good news. My friend from Ohio is coming to visit in less than two weeks! He’ll be the first person from America to come visit me! I couldn’t take work off, but we will still be able to enjoy the weekends and the evenings. I hoping he’ll be brave enough to explore downtown while I’m at work. Next, I got plane tickets to go home for two weeks during Christmas/New Year’s! I’m so excited to know that I am for sure going home!

Next, as I have mentioned, I’m anxiously waiting for it to become fall (my favorite season), and when people back home talk about it becoming fall, I get sad. So, this is how I have recently coped with it, and it helps: I have decorated my apartment for fall. I also have fall scented candles and fall foods like pumpkin soup, maple candies, and chai tea. Even though it’s disgusting outside, when I’m in my home, it feels so nice. Soon the weather will match my home, I hope. One thing that excites me is that Japan is supposed to have some of the most beautiful fall foliage. I want to look into some of the most famous places for fall foliage and then go there when the leaves change. On a somewhat related note, I wasn’t feeling that comfortable in my apartment so I made some adjustments. It’s amazing what a simple bit of rearranging can do (and by simple, I mean it took me hours lol). Highlighting the most important parts; I changed my desk into a kitchen table seeing as I never used the desk. I still need to buy one more chair, but it’s amazing how much more home-y it feels to have a kitchen table. Next I made the sitting/entertainment area cozier by dividing the living room in half and turning a bookshelf into an entertainment center. I don’t have a TV, but I set my laptop on the entertainment center, and it works out nicely. I rearranged the bedroom and made the bed more secluded in the corner. Last, I hung like 30 pictures on my wall above my bed. It looks great! Now my apartment feels like a haven…except for the unfixable tiny bathroom.

Rearranged.

Rearranged

 I thought I already wrote about this, but apparently I didn't. I got to see my Japanese friend who currently lives in Singapore. She was back visiting her family, and she decided to visit me too. We went to Spa World. It’s a multistory building with a pool/water park on one floor, an Asian themed hot springs on another floor, and European themed hot springs on another. This month, the women got the European floor and the men got the Asian. It alternates each month. First we swam in the pools and did a big water slide thing, and then we went to the hot springs. It’s becoming a tradition to go to onsen (hot springs) when we visit each other. At the onsen, I ran into two other JETs. It’s not exactly the place you would want to run into acquaintances seeing as you’re butt naked, but it was fine. I thought it was funny because my Japanese friend was like, “Hey! This is my country! How come you are running into people you know and not me?!” Haha! Even though it was a work night, my friend slept over and it was super fun!

My friend! After Spa World.

Another fun time was somewhat unexpected. It was a Saturday, and I had no plans. I really wanted to hang out with some friends, and I figured it wouldn't be a problem because it was Saturday, but it turned out that everyone had already made plans. I was faced with the choice of doing nothing or going out alone. Going out alone didn't seem that fun, but I remembered how I came to Japan last year by myself, and it was one of the most exciting and fun experiences of my life. With that initiative, I decided to go to the zoo. It was near Spa World so I knew the area pretty well after going there with my friend. The area is called Tennoji. It is famous for Tsutenkaku (an observation tower), kushi-katsu (fried things on skewers=delicious), and Billiken (a golden mascot thing that is supposed to give you good luck). Anyway, the zoo was really fun even though I was alone. I felt really content and it reminded me of when I traveled alone. I got so see some neat animals that are uncommon in American zoos such as lesser pandas (red pandas) and all sorts of Southeast Asian cats. Afterwords, I went to the famous kushi-katsu place and had delicious fried vegetables. I’ll admit that it would've been nice to have a friend with during dinner time, but since it had a bar for single eaters, I didn't feel weird. I even felt some satisfaction by going to a restaurant by myself and enjoying it.

Lesser Panda (Red Panda)!

Tennoji. I actually took this picture before when I went
with my friend.

Last weekend was really great, but before I go into that I want to mention something I forgot. My Fridays are actually not like the weekend for me because after I get home from work, I cook dinner, eat, and then go to a Japanese class for foreigners in the Shijonawate area. It’s at the Municipal Center, it’s run by volunteers so it’s free, and it’s an hour and a half. It’s actually the thing I mentioned in my last post where I met the lady at the Shinobugaoka Matsuri, and she was all hyper and wanted me to come to her class. This is the class lol. I just started going two weeks ago so I've only been there twice. Both times I literally sat there and spoke with a Japanese person for an hour and a half. Most people bring textbooks and study, but no one has really told me what to do. I prefer to just speak the whole time because that is what I want to improve the most with. I like going. Anyway, back to last weekend. On Saturday, I went to Round 1 (which is a multistory gaming/entertainment building). They have tons of arcade games, batting cages, roller skating rink, ping pong, darts, bowling, pool, and more! I went with a group of older JETs. I hadn't swung a baseball bat in so long, and I loved it! I got the high score on one of the arcade games too! After, we ate dinner at a really good Mexican restaurant (they actually have Mexican in Japan…I was misinformed. Apparently Osaka is one of the few places in Japan that you can actually get good Mexican) called Uncle Steve’s or Steven’s…can’t remember. They had super legit frozen margaritas. My only complaint about Mexican food here is that it’s not spicy enough, and there’s not enough cheese. However, the ingredients always taste really fresh. I've eaten at one other Mexican place that serves cheap burritos (I think it’s called El Zocalo’s). I liked it there too. After dinner, I met up with a different group of JETs (mostly new JETs) and we went bar hopping. We went to a place called Cinquencento first that serves drinks for 500 yen. Then we went to L&L (what does L&L stand for anyway?) which is a bar in America Town. I had actually gone there early one time to see a comedy show which was fun. It’s full of foreigners and Japanese people, and you can do hookah! So, of course I did some hookah and had the best sangria of my life there. The sangria was cinnamon-y! A few Japanese girls were at the table next to us celebrating one of their birthdays so we asked them to join us and we all drank and smoked hookah together. We plan to meet them again next weekend. I missed my last train along with a few others so we all crashed at Aimee's place (of the new JETs). Out of all the new JETs, I really seem to connect with Aimee. I was going to go to a big festival in Kishiwada the next day, but after not sleeping much, I chilled at home. It was a three day weekend though, so I went out on Monday which I will briefly describe next.

L & L.

On Monday, I went to a Mexican festival that had been going on all weekend at the Umeda Sky Building. I went with Aimee, and we ran into a few people we knew. Before that, we had sat down with two random Japanese men (seating was sparse) and began to have a conversation with them about booze and Japanese while watching the live Mexican performances. I was drinking a strong margarita at the time and one of the men came back after getting up with two shots of tequila. One for him and one for me…oh dear god. I had Aimee help me drink it. Needless to say, I felt pretty good. Not to mention that I got another margarita later, and Aimee got a free shot of tequila that we also shared lol. It was fun! We got to eat Mexican food again too haha!

Happily eating a quesadilla.

The point of this post is to let you all know that I am having a good time. Even though I miss home, I know that once I am done with JET, I will miss it too.

Let's Play Catch Up

Since so much has happened between my last post and now, I am going to highlight some random things that have stood out in lieu of describing everything that has happened in detail…and to be honest, I can’t remember everything anyway.

1.       Noon (and possibly 6pm) Song: One thing that I didn’t understand when I first came here was the loud music playing every day throughout the town from an unknown source. I noticed that every day around noon (and supposedly at 6pm…but I haven’t noticed yet), there was some weird orchestra music playing on loudspeakers wherever I went in my town. I asked Kris about it and apparently every town has its own song that they blast through speakers that are strategically placed throughout the town. I haven’t really noticed the speakers yet. It makes me laugh because when I hear it at home, there is this dog that starts barking like crazy at the music every day. The song is about one or two minutes long. This first impression I had was that I was in North Korea or some socialist country where they force feed you nationalistic songs that you are meant to enjoy. So now I think about that every time I hear it :/

2.       Rinku Town-Japanese Language Seminar: All the new JETs in Osaka had to go to a three day Japanese language seminar in Rinku Town (about an hour and a half away from where I live). It’s on the ocean and actually right next to Kansai International Airport. Although you go there to study Japanese, I think the main benefit from this experience is to meet and mingle with other JETs in your area. I really enjoyed the Japanese classes and Osaka orientation part, but I loved hanging out with everyone…and having a nice, spacious hotel room to myself with an ocean view. While I was there, I got to do many fun things with my new friends like going out to eat, walking to the beach, lighting fireworks, karaoke, bike riding, shopping, riding a Ferris wheel etc. There was an outlet mall that felt just like I was in America! Overall, a fantastic time! I wish I could have stayed longer!

View from my window in Rinku Town!

Singing the YMCA with my fellow Osaka JETs.

3.       Balabushka: I met a couple friends at a bar in America Town in downtown Osaka called Balabushka. Since it is in America Town, there were many foreigners there. It’s nice to know I’m not the only circus attraction in the area haha! We drank and played darts (the girls lost and had to buy drinks for the boys). It was a lot of fun!

4.       Shinobugaoka Matsuri: There was a two day festival in my town before school started. I stumbled upon it on my way to the grocery store. I had never been to a matsuri (festival) in Japan before! They are somewhat of a big thing here. I was very excited because I finally got to try “festival food.” Comparable to carnival food except Japanese. It was awesome! I tried candied fruit, yakisoba (stir fried noodles), and kara-age (fried chicken). There were tons of carnival-type games and live music. The live music was fun because I got to see a taiko (drum) performance in Japan for the first time, and there was a band that played music that you hear when you are in the local grocery store haha! Eventually, Mary and her friend came too. Together we played a game where you try to scoop as many goldfish as you can into a bucket using a thin, papery net. Also, while I was there, I ran into this very energetic woman in a yukata (traditional Japanese summer clothing). She told me she ran a Japanese conversation club for foreigners in the area, and she wanted me to come! It’s every Friday. I plan on going. She was very nice but overly affectionate. She kept holding my hand and dragging me around everywhere to meet a bunch of people in the club! It was fine, just weird.

The fish game.

Taiko.

5.       Starting Work!: There is just so much to say about work so I will abbreviate. First, I teach at Tawara Junior High School (and Elementary School sometimes) in Shijonawate. It is far away, but supposedly has the highest level students out of the 4 different junior high schools in my town. There are 4 English teachers that I work with. They are all very nice and very different from each other. As of now, I've only taught in a few classes, but I like it. I got to do an introduction lesson where I give a speech about myself using pictures and then quiz them after. The kids are really excited by me and always say I’m cute haha! It makes me feel happy. In my intro lesson, I tell them I have a boyfriend, and they all freak out! Some of them asked me to see pictures of him after school. I asked a group of girl students if they had boyfriends and they all pointed at one girl in the group who proceeded to become really shy and get mad at all her friends for betraying her lol! She ran away and then came back swinging lol! It was so funny! There are many differences between schools in the U.S. and Japan. For example, the teachers’ office, the classrooms, the lunches, the club activities, and the students. One thing I’d like to point out is how crazy hyper the students are! They get a 10 minute break between each class where they proceed to bounce off the walls screaming at the top of their lungs while tackling each other and injuring themselves! I couldn't believe it when I saw it! I thought Japanese students were supposed to be studious, calm, and mature. At least they still wear their cute little uniforms haha! During the swimming competition in the first week, a kid wrestled with a teacher and threw the teacher into the pool and it was perfectly funny and acceptable! I was like wtf?! Although, I thought it was funny too. One thing that is particularly hard about school though is not being on top of it. I’m the kind of person who is super organized and always has to know what’s going on. Since I can barely understand anything or read the kanji (Chinese characters) on the board, I never know what’s going on. Also, I might have mentioned that people seem to have this false impression that I am better at Japanese than I actually am, so everyone neglects to tell me anything. I will find myself sitting in an empty office only to have the vice-principle come in and tell me that there is a meeting in the auditorium that I should be at now…it sucks. I’m just always confused. I want to get better at Japanese sooo bad so I can at least do my job better. The JET before me was fluent in Japanese so they aren't used to having to explain things. I somehow need to make it clear that they should be telling me everything I need to know until I get better. On the other hand, while some people aren't that patient with me, many are…especially one teacher that I work with and ride the bus with every day. She doesn't speak English, only a few words, but she always tries to have conversations with me in Japanese. She knows I’m not that great, but I think she really wants to help, and I really appreciate it. When I don’t understand what she is saying, she is very patient and always tries to rephrase things. If I really don’t understand, I apologize, and she assures me that it is ok. She can tell I’m trying. She lives near me, and wants me to come visit her sometime.

My bus stop.

My elementary school.

My juniour high school.

6.       Chanting Guy: This isn’t that important or anything, but I’d like to mention that every morning on my way to work, I ride my bike to a close by elementary school where I park it. Then from there, I ride a bus to work. There is a house by the elementary school, and every time I get off my bike to park it, I am close to the windows of this house. At the same time every morning, there an old man inside with the window open who is chanting these weird noises. I assume he’s is praying. It’s just interesting to me because I have never heard anything like it. It intrigues me.

7.       My New Friend: Now I can’t say for sure that we will be close friends or anything, but I hung out with a new Japanese friend, Ken. The weird part is that I met him when I was in downtown Osaka with Mary. Ken and his friend came up to us and started questioning us like how it usually goes when foreign men come up to you. “Where are you from? Do you speak Japanese? What are you doing now? Do you want to go…?” Naturally I was weirded out because in America, when guys come up to you like that, it only means one thing. I am beginning to give Japanese men the benefit of the doubt however because the two times I have given in to spending time with “some guy I’ve met on the streets” in Japan, it has turned out to be fun and not creepy. I still will not be completely naïve though! Anyway, after meeting Ken, he gave me his contact info, and told me to tell him when I got a phone. Once I got a phone, I friended him on facebook, and from there, we started talking. I found out that he is a college student, the same age as me, and wanted to hang out with me some time. We decided to meet on a Saturday and go to a bar. He told me that we were going to a British pub called the HUB, and he thought I would like it because there are many foreigners there. I was so nervous when I met him because I didn’t think he spoke much English (we had been texting in Japanese). It turns out he is fantastic at English which is good and bad (because I want to practice Japanese)! He turned out to be very funny, and he taught me a lot about Japanese arranged marriages and whatnot…it was so strange and interesting! I also made him teach me a lot of Japanese bad words ;) The bar was very crowded, but it was fun! He was right, there were many foreigners there. I had a great time! I caught the last train home which was exciting because now I can say I caught the last train lol! Now I just need to be able to say I missed the last train and pulled an all nighter :P

The last thing I want to say is that on my way home from the bar, I had an anticipated Japanese experience. In Japan, it is common for people to fall asleep on the trains. Also, it is common for people to fall asleep with their head resting on their unknown neighbor's shoulder. I’ve always wanted to be the person who has someone fall asleep on their shoulder, and that night, it happened!! I felt like I was part of Japanese society lol…I always thought that people would be too afraid or repulsed to fall asleep on a foreigners shoulder! :D