Christmas in America

Well my last day in Japan (for now) started with lots of commuting. First I had to take a train with the Otsukas to the bus station, and then I had to take a bus to Narita Airport. I started out at 9, because I wanted to make sure that I wasn't late. I made it to Narita, with plenty of time to spare, and ended sitting in the terminal for quite a while, but of it's always nice to be early. Well the flight was good, I got a lot accomplished (aka I watched a lot of movies). We made it to JFK in good time, and I had a nice long wait before my flight to Pittsburgh. My biggest concern about my travels was the tranfer in Pittsburgh because I was switching carriers and I didn't have a lot of time. It turns out that I needn't have worried becase my flight was delayed, and if I had taken i I would have missed my connection to Boston. There were no other flights that night so I had to stay in Pittsburgh overnight until my new flight left at 6:00. So here I am sitting on the plane feeling not so great. I got a little bit of sleep, but not nearly enough, and my diet recently has been sparing. On the plus side, I have a ridiculous amount of leg room, and I'm finally on my way, first to D.C. and then to Boston. And it's snowing! The first snow I have seen this winter!

Christmas in America

Well, another day , another adventure. Today was Sunday and I got to go to church in Saitama. It was quite a big church and we had a very special Christmas service along with five baptisms. After lunch Isayah and I went shopping so that I could finsh my Christmas. Next we went to visit Shimon at the bakery which was lots of fun. We came back home and ate Shabu-shabu, a quite delicious meal which involves mixing vegetables and thin pieces of meat in a big pot of boiling water. After supper we had time to watch a Rudolf the red-red nosed reindeer, for the first time for most of the Otsukas. Well, time for bed, going to America tomorrow.

Christmas in America

Well the journey to Tokyo was successful! I got to see Mt. Fuji for the first time, and even got a little bit of sleep. I was supposed to meet the Otsukas in Tokyo, and I had sent them an email informing them of my changed plans. Unfortunately they didn't get my email, so they ended up waiting for me for a while, but it worked out in the end. We met at about 10, and then got some breakfast. Since we were already in Tokyo we were planning on spending the day before returning to the Otsukas apartment in Saitama, about an hour away. Well we had a grand old time! We visited the Imperial Residence (just the outside). We visited a very tall building with a great view of Tokyo. We had lunch in a yummy ramen joint. We visited a Buddhist temple and a number of shops. Also, I managed to complete most of my Christmas shopping; I can't elaborate here for security reasons. We ended by visiting some of the most popular places in Tokyo and seeing the beautiful night scenery. As of this writing I am up to about forty straight hours with maybe only one hour of sleep. Needless to say by the end of the day I was a little bit fatigued, but I managed to make it back to tje Otsukas house where I finally have a chance to make up on this lost sleep. So Good Night!

Christmas in America

Well I made it out of karaoke with my sanity and most of my dignity intact. I was killing the Les Mis songs (in a good way) Yoshimi seemed to really enjoy them. Things hit a low point when I broke out Paper Planes and Always Look on the Bright Side, but I finished strong with Sweet Caroline. Interesting note, did you know that Japanese karaoke plays the actual music video for Call Me Maybe? I think that the Japanese just haven't figured out yet that it's about a gay guy. Anyways, now I'm waiting at Shinkobe Station after a thoroughly enjoyable night.

Karaoke

Well the stop to Kobe quickly turned into a disaster. Yoshimi was going to meet me in Kobe, and we were going to have dinner before I left on the overnight bus to Tokyo. I had asked Yoshimi to show me where the bus left from because I didn't think that it was the normal bus terminal. Yoshimi was confident that she knew where I should leave from. I was already running late, so we didn't have time for supper, but I still had plenty of time to make my bus. Unfortunately Yoshimi did not know from whence my bus was leaving, and we spent about an hour looking before we finally found the place. The bus was obviously gone by then, and after examining all my options, I realized that there was no way for me to leave for Tokyo that night. It was pretty late at this point, my bus was supposed to leave at ten, so it would have been very difficult to stay with a friend. After getting some supper Yoshimi and I decided that we would go do Karaoke all night and then I would catch the first Shinkansen in the morning. So here we are singing our voices hoarse. Yoshimi claims that she is not  a great singer, and shes not, but then neither am I, and we have had great success with a few songs. Our White Christmas was great, and California Dreaming was pretty great.

Christmas in America

Well I'm on my way to the good old US of A. It's going to be a whirlwind trip, but that's what makes it fun. I get to have Christmas with my family, go to one of my best friends weddings, and see lots of people. Actually one of the things I am most excited about is going to an English speaking church. It took me a lot longer to get ready than I thought it would, and  I have to bring a lot less than I wanted to, but at least I am on my way. I will have a short stop in Kobe before I jump on an overnight bus to Tokyo. We'll see how that goes. Well that's all for now.

The Adventures of Howard and Peter Part I

Quiz results:

I forgot to include the answer to the quiz question last time, so I will give you two answers here. Genki is a word that that technically means healthy, but when applied to students it means a little bit more. Basically, if students are Genki, they are outgoing and energetic in class, which is usually a good thing, because Japanese students have a tendency to be very quiet and reserved.

It looks like no one was able to correctly guess the answer for the last quiz, so I will give you another chance to guess the two types of candy in the local supermarket. I will tell you that so far, Hershey’s Kisses, Hershey’s Bar and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups have been guessed.

            When I was picked up at Yashiro I had been approached by a teacher from Kaibarra Senior high school and asked if I would participate in an English camp they were putting on at their school. I had agreed, and so I was scheduled to be at Kaibarra the 12^th and 13^th of Aug. Now as many of you have probably heard, there was a problem with my International Driver’s Permit that I discovered about this time. I’ll give you the whole story in case you missed it.

            Since I knew that I was going to have to drive in Japan I had gone to AAA to get my International Driver’s Permit (IDP). Now as the name suggests, an IDP is not a license. If you drive in another country you need both your regular license, and your IDP. Japan is particularly strict about driving regulations, and driving without a license or IDP will probably result in a fine and imprisonment, and possibly deportation. So anyways, I told the people at AAA to set the active date of the permit as August 7^th or 8^th so that I could drive when I got to Japan. Unfortunately they decided to put August 31^st on the Permit, a mistake that I did not notice, until I was already in Japan. So in the end I had to wait until August 31^st to get a car and drive, and when I tried to contact AAA to have them send a replacement they simply told me that I should be able to drive with the one I had, which as I have already told you is a very bad idea, and when I tried to tell them that, they just ignored me. (Hold on a second, I need to get my paper bag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . okay, I’m calm now). The lack of a car was very inconvenient as I was supposed to be driving places, but fortunately my school was very kind and helped me out, although I felt bad putting an extra burden on them. Okay, back to the English Camp.

            On Monday morning the Kyoto-sensei (vice principal) drove me to Kaibarra. English camp was a lot of fun. We had about 25 students, a mix of Senior high school and junior high school students. For the most part they were very responsive and ready to participate. The first day we played quite a few games. I think that my favorite was the game where the ALTs were given a picture, for example a camel, and we had to describe it in English, and the students had to guess what it was. Besides myself there were Dana Warren, and Howard Tobochinik. I had met Dana on Facebook before I went to Japan, and I had met Howard on the train ride from Tokyo. The second day we helped different groups of students plan out and memorize lines for an English skit, but that wasn’t very exciting, so I’ll skip to the end of the day. After the conclusion of the English camp Dana drove Howard and me to several stores and then we went out to a sushi bar with a bunch of other ALTs from the area. If you have never been to a sushi bar you should try it sometime; it’s quite exciting! You sit at your table and a conveyor belt brings little plates of food past you. You can take whichever ones you want and eat them! After a fun time at the sushi bar we went to a festival in Kaibarra. We saw many people dancing while a Japanese band played traditional instruments. I got to try a yummy Japanese treat called shredded ice. After an exciting night I headed home to prepare for a trip to Yashiro the following day.

Tune in soon for the next episode of the Adventures of Howard and Peter. Join our heroes as they journey to the far off land of Yashiro, there to become English teaching masters. But will they be able to survive against the evil forces arrayed against them? Find out soon in The Adventures of Howard and Peter!

Quiz: The Japanese like their mascots, and it seems like most things have a mascot. The mascot of Hyogo prefecture is called Habatan. Can you guess what he creature he is? I will give you two guesses since I think that it is pretty tough.

Respond to this question and the candy question via email or Facebook. If you have any other questions to ask me, feel free to post them in the comments section.