Teaching in Japan

Lauren in Japan

2009-03-09T00:25:00.000-07:00

random pictures of what ive been up to lately...

オメデトウ　( ^ _ ^)∠☆PAN！

2009-03-01T18:01:00.000-08:00

Its finally March and spring, yea!!! so i bought my thailand tickets and we booked our hotel, 7 nights at a brand new hotel opening in March, and im ready for a vacation in the sun! i have been up to too much trouble in the last two weeks, just lots of parties and fun, cleary no working hard of any kind :) two weekends ago, on friday the 21st two of the JETs were dj-ing at a club in Nagoya called RBase, so i headed there for an evening of drinking and music. of course i had too much fun and ended up staying out all night, but on the plus side i got to eat a kebab from the delicious turkish restaurant that only opens at 1am. on that saturday i watched some shark attacks with some male friends, cuz who doesnt love a good shark attack, and ate some more kebabs while shopping in Osu, which is the hip, trendy area of Nagoya, cleary where i belong. and then i went out for dinner for my friend Joe's bday party. joe was in my japanese class at madison and lives in japan as well, not on JET, so it was really nice to get to see him and catch up with all the other wisconsinners in japan. on sunday was our practice hanami party at Nagoya castle. the plum trees are in bloom and it was a perfect time to sit under them and drink some alcohol during the middle of the day. there were about 10 or so of us, some gaijin and some nihonjin in attendance, and we had lots of food and plum wine for everyone to enjoy. after the festivites we headed to an okonomiyaki restaurant, which is kind of like japanese style pancakes which are delicious and in no way related to anythin resembling american pancakes or any other food that we eat for that matter...it is a must eat if you ever come to japan, especially in Osaka. it was quite the busy weekend, but i had tons of fun and cant wait for cherry blossom season to come, which i already know will be my favorite one in japan. last week was exams at all the senior high schools, so i had a week of no classes, but i got to read some books, correct some english, and answer loads of questions the teachers had about english grammer! on monday night i went out to dinner with steve, matt,and dave aka the chita gang. since they all live near me we go out to dinner once in a while at this chinese restaurant in asakusa. on wednesday night i went with one of my english teachers, todo-sensei, who is about my age, to a dinner in kanayama. we met up with about 20 other first year japanese english teachers who i knew from a seminar i participated in at handa a couple months ago. it was a traditional restaurant and we at sashimi, Nabe, which is japanese winter stew, and a whole fish-it was literally just put on a grill and cooked, hilarious-which i think it was some kind of sucker fish but it tasted quite yummy, and load of other foods. they were all so friendly and had amazing english so i had a great time, one of the teachers had even studied abroad in wisconsin when she was in high school, so i got to reminisce with her about cows, miller beer, and the brew crew. that may be the first time anyone ive met in japan has known where wisconsin is...woot woot! it was really nice to go out with the teachers and get to know them better! i had asked katsumata-sensei if i could go to Utsumi for their graduation, so on friday i got to go and watch the third years graduate! there were a group of third boys who i always sat on the bus and train with, always asked me how to say inappropriate words in english, and nicknamed me hermione from harry potter-oh how they will be missed! next school year will not be as fun without them! but i got to leave school at noon after graduation and proceeded to go home and sleep for the rest of the day, it was glorious. then i met a group of us in sakae for some indian curry at a restaurant called akbar and then we went to st.james gate for a pint before catching the last train home. we always go to st.james gate and they have come to know us there and i also have a rather large crush on the bartender...no worries i have it under control. on saturday i had to go to school for graduation at Handa. i wore a suit...in japan everyone wears black and white, no color, to the graduation but some teacher wear kimonos. first is the procession of all the third year graduates-who wear just their school uniforms, no gowns-then everyone sings the national anthem, which i do not know so i stood there awkwardly whilst bowing to the japanese flag. then a student comes up and gets all the diplomas for the graduates from the principal and sets them on a table. the students are not called up individually during the ceremony, but receive their diplomas back in the classroom after...japan is a very group-oriented society and they all graduate as a group without individual recognition or honors. then the principal makes a speech to congratulate the graduates, and he wears a tux with tails, which made my already adorable principal even more so. then one of the special guests makes a speech as well...handa is one of the most prestigous high schools in Aichi so there are lots of important guests who come. then one of the third year girls goes on stage and gives a thank you speech to the principal and the poor girl couldnt even speak cuz she was crying so hard.then everyone sings two really old japanese songs...handas ceremony is very traditional because it is so high-level...one that sounded like aud lang syne but with different words, so i just sang the words to that song instead. then they sing the school song, which i almost have down, and by this point all the girls and parents are crying again. after that a second year boy gave a farewell speech to the third years. then everyone walked out while the teachers gathered around and clapped and high-fived the graduates. some students came and took pictures with me and many of the other teachers before they left the school. all in all the ceremony was very nice, a little too sad for me, not to mention the excessive bowing at all times...literally stand up, bow, sit down, repeat...but i will miss the third years at handa and hope i helped some get into the universitys they wanted! i dont teach the second years at handa, so come april i will get a whole new batch of first years and third years to teach! after graduation i went to hanako's brothers house for a Hina-Matsuri party. Hina-Matsuri is the Dolls festival that celebrates girls in japan. everyone with daughters sets up these huge displays of hina-dolls in there house, its absolutely stunning to see the dolls all set up on tiered display stands. her brother has two daughters and one son-hayate-, who is 2, and who are all adorablely cute! her mother made tons of food and we ate mango cake. even her grandpa was having fun talking to us...her family is what we call gaijin friendly and they neither dislike us nor are afraid of us, which is rare, haha. after the party we went to a club in nagoya called JBs to hear this DJ called Tiny. it was apparently 70s-chic night cuz everyone was dressed too cool for words to describe. all the jboys were in full swing, with glitter gloves to platinum jackets, and can only be summed up in one word...fabulous. japan is at the peak of the fashion world and the way everyone dresses here never ceases to amaze me. on sunday i met a big group of peeps for a Nagoya Diamond Dolphins (no that is literally their name) basketball game, oh yea the japanese play basketball...not like NBA style, more like high school style bball. needless to say, the game was hilarious. everytime the home team got the ball some stang techno-hyper beat music would start to play, EVERYTIME, and sometimes they threw in a little offspring, pretty fly for a white guy, which was a nice touch. there was a guy from mexico, a few black guys, and the token white guy on the team, but all in all it was not the best bball ive ever seen...the other team was much better and had this dude who should have been a linebacker as there center. after they lost they all stood in a line and bowed in apology to the audience, awesome, and of course we boo-ed, it was necessary trust me. japanese sports are wonderful and i cant wait for baseball season to start here! this week is more laid back and this weekend maria and i are heading to tokyo to celebrate nozomi's birthday...which will be fun and crazy, since the world baseball classic is going to be going on at tokyo dome and the city will be jammed packed even more so. I predict spring is going to be my favorite time in japan and march is going to fly by, but im going to keep doing everything and anything i can to make use of all my time here soaking in all japan has to offer! im missing everyone at home and hope you are all doing well...i hope to update some pictures documenting my escapades soon! much love xx　ﾎﾟｯ(*ﾟ.ﾟ)(ﾟ.ﾟ*)ﾎﾟｯ

One more year...

2009-02-15T19:28:00.000-08:00

I finally finished the Twilight series, my new amazing obsession, so now i am able to function again on my semi-normal level! seriously those books were so addicting, i could do nothing but read them! so clearly i survived snowboarding, but barely. it was not a pleasant experience for me and i doubt i will give it a go ever again, so done and done. i enjoyed the Gero trip tho, it was so nice to actually see snow and i had a lot of fun meeting people from Gifu. it was an enjoyable weekend getaway. next year i think ill hit up an onsen way up in the mountains and stay away from the winter sports! the weekend after the ski trip, the last weekend in january, maria and i went to toyohashi to visit Nozomi and her family. i met her parents and her mom taught us how to make the special, declicious kind of green tea used for tea ceremonies and cooked us the most amazing sukiyaki, its like a sweet stew that uses lots of soy sauce and brown sugar. i only stayed the day and then i had to go back to Handa for Sunday because i went to a shrine with kawai-sensei and her twin daughters for the mochi throwing. this is an event where people stand on a platform and chuck rock hard mochi at you, a lil dangerous and the people literally get crazy, i dont understand its just a rice cake, chill people. anyways, that was fun to take part in despite the bruises i received from the tall man jumping on me to steal the mochi. then that night my friend hanako took me to a sushi restaurant, not the fancy kind but the kind where it comes around and around and you can pick the ones you want. not really a big fan of sushi but i tried some and found i like most salmon sushi, esp yaki cheese salmon, and yellowtail. hanako has fallen in love with sushi boy so i forsee many trips there in the near future, we went back already on v-day to give him chocolate! the first week of february was busy, and i think february is going to be a busy month for me. on the 5th i made the big decision to stay another year in Japan! yea so ill be here until july 2010 at least which give ya`ll more time to visit me and me lots more time to figure what i will do after jet, scary. then on that friday the 6th i went to my first concert in jpan, Fall Out Boy! it was amazinggggg, i have never been to a crazier concert before. we figured it would all be gaijin there but we were like the only 4 there and when the music started the japanese just jumped and pushed and were all up in our grill, it was madness. they love to jump and pump their hands in the air, unfortunately most do not have any rhythm and could not understand the songs but it was still amusing nonetheless. i loved it and being so close to pete was wonderful, the venue was pretty small so i got to see him up close and scream inappropriate things at him cuz i was the only one who could speak english ha! then on saturday was the Hadaka Matsuri, better known as the Naked Man Festival and what a treat it was. we went with a big ole group of foreigners and watched as the men wearing white loin cloths paraded through the streets. all of them were so drunk off sake and chanting, and i saw way too many butts for my liking, and not nice ones either. all in all it was a pleasant way to spend an afternoon and something truly unique to this country. it is actually quite a religious festival...what happens is there is one naked man and he is in the temple so we dont see him and all the other men chase him and touch him to give him their bad luck and all the men pass out ribbons, etc to people for good luck. i got nothing else from it than butt so the religious effect was lost on me. on sunday it was our friend yuka`s birthday so we went out for lunch in nagoya to an eel restaurant and i gotta say i love grilled eel, its delicious. after lunch we shopped around and went to an aussie bar, red rock, for drinks and dinner. all in all a festive weekend, one of the best thus far in nagoya. the next week we had wednesday off but on tuesday i came down with a mean cold and didnt go into work! i had a fever of 103, highest ive ever had...good thing i went to the doc and got some meds and got a sick day, in japan they like to make you use your paid vacation if you are sick, lame. so on tuesday night i was feeling better and went with maria, briana, and annie to osaka and stayed in a little hotel with a bed, tv, and kleenex...you put it together...and then on wed we went to spa world all day and enjoyed the asian baths and got swedish massages, i love japanese onsens! it was nice to have a day off, although for the next couple weeks i will have nothing to do at school, no teaching cuz the year is ending and there are tests, graduations, etc. this last weekend everyone finally came down to handa to visit hanako and me. we went to a yakitori, chicken restaurant, and ate and drank, then karaoke, and then everyone stayed at my tiny apartment but we all fit! then on valentines we hit up the sushi-ya for lunch and then went out to dinner at a fondue restaurant in nagoya called switch. we had scallops, soup, shrimp, rice balls, cheese and chocolate fondue, oh it was soooo sooo good, no melting pot, but still oishiiiii! after dinner we went to the hub and ended up staying out all night, go figure and took the train home in the morning. then i slept for 5 hrs got up and went back into nagoya for some sunday ice skating...the rink was small and i can skate suprisingly better than i thought (andy can attest to how much i usually suck at skating) but there was no music on the rink and no nachos, pretzels with cheese and all the deliciousness of the pettit, sad. then we shopped around osu, ate turkish kebabs, and called it a day. another crazy busy weekend! today i am buying my plane tickets for thailand for the end of march, 8 days, 7 nights! im really looking forward to it! the rest of this week is quite calm, few classes, and next weekend is busy again with dinners and drinking and on sunday we are doing a practice hanami party (the cherry blossom sake parties in april) under the plum trees that are starting to bloom! part of my fun has been overshadowed by the departure of one mr.favre, the love of my life, but i think i will survive, but it may be touch and go for a while. i love japan, but i still miss my sportscenter and chipotle. hopefully no one is too devastated by my decision to stay another year and let me know if you wanna come over a visit, my cousin meghan is coming at the end of june so im looking forward to showing her my other country for a while and you are all welcome! oh next month in nagoya is the penis festival so be ready for some more interesting stories coming your way, japan never ceases to surprise me! also if you are bored there is a website called something like japanese people will sleep anywhere, its hilarious and so, so true. much love xxxxxx

Jpanese Winter

2009-01-18T21:11:00.000-08:00

hi hi. well, being back in japan is nice except for the cold. clearly its not as cold as good ole wisco, but the lack of central heating or any heating for that matter makes it quite unpleasant. i sometimes sleep with my coat on, but soon winter will be gone and it will go back to being nice and warm! winter in japan is very peaceful, although more and more people are out taking advantage of the sale season, which i must say is absolutely wonderful. After shogatsu everything goes on sale and i have been shopping like a mad woman and buying nice dress pants for 15 bucks, insane. besides the massive amount of shopping ive been doing, ive just been catching up with everyone after their winter breaks. finally back into the swing o things. lots of casual dinners and getting accustomed to japan again. last week was a really difficult week for my base school, Handa koko. my supervisor's mother passed away and a third year student got hit and killed by a train at my train station on wednesday. that was really hard for everyone to handle and such a shock to everyone. i didnt know the student, but anything like that can have a pretty strong affect on a person. his funeral was this weekend along with all the third years college entrance exams, so i cant imagine what a stressful time its been for them. on to a more upbeat topic, last week we had a kencho meeting and got the low down on re-contracting, which i have decided to stay another year in japan because there just isn't enough time to accomplish everything in one year. most everyone else is staying as well, which will be good for me. on friday i went to a friend's birthday party and we all had quite a good time, and stayed out all night again haha. on saturday i went to a theatre audition with maria, for this musical the Nagoya Arts center is putting on, in english of course. then we found ourselves a new, actually traditional, irish pub in nagoya and then went to see Body of Lies at the theatre. On sunday i got up super early, well at least for a sunday, to go to this private kimono exhibition and got to see amazingly intricatly designed kimonos, which were around 30 to 60,000 dollars, totally expensive but definately worth the price. clearly i did not buy any, but looking was a special experience. then we had some mochi, a tea ceremony, and got to see the traditional tye-dying techniques and products of Arimatsu, a town outside of nagoya and very famous for shibori, or tye-dye. we also got to go to a sake brewery and see how sake is made and taste 4 different kinds, which were all quite delicious. now i understand a little bit more about sake, but we were all in agreement that the brewery was more like a torture chamber and just glad to leave with our lives. As for this week, its a pretty easy one. We have a mid-year seminar on wednesday and thursday with the ALts and JTE (japanese teachers of english) which will be pretty boring, but something to do i guess. this weekend im off to Gero for the annual ski trip with the Gifu jets, and i will be attempting to snowboard so just hope i make it back with no broken bones! also there are a lot of natural springs around the area, so im really excited for that. thats all for now. much love from the east. xx

Happy New Year

2009-01-07T17:47:00.000-08:00

Re-starting the blog in the new year, mainly for susan, but clearly you all are dying to know whats new with me, cuz im kinda a big deal and all. Just got back to Japan after two weeks of vacation. On December 19th I left out of Tokyo headed for Frankfurt to meet up with my mom, dad, aunt rita, and grandpa in Frankfurt where my uncle Mark currently resides in a town called Rodenback. I arrived that night after my 12 hour flight, stuffed myself full of cheese that mom had brought me and went to bed. The next couple days we relaxed and wandered around the area, went to kaiserslautern, trier, and luxembourg and enjoyed the christmas markets, drank gluhwein, beer, and ate loads of delicious brats. unfortunately rita had to head back to south africa early but in her place we got my cousin kayla, a fair trade if i say so myself. we picked kayla up in frankfurt in our rented mercedes van, classy, and walked around, shopped, ate more brats, and rita and i hit up a murukami museum, which is no less than bizarre that my favorite japanese artist is nowhere to be found in japan, but has a museum in frankfurt, go figure. Then we left for Paris and those four days were nothing short of fabulous. I have never been to Paris and can say that everything you hear about Paris doesnt even come close to the real thing. As predicted, I feel in love. We got in on christmas eve and went to mass at Notre Dame with the other 10,000 people who had the same idea. It was beautiful, one of the only times i can remember staying awake the whole mass, although my other companions cant say the same. On christmas we took a morning tour around the city in a mini van, stopping at le Tour Eiffel, Notre Dame, and Monmartre. Apres, we went shopping on the Champs Elysees and went to the Christmas markets on the street. All in all a wonderful christmas in Paris. The next day while kayla, grandpa, and mark went to Normandy and mom and dad off to the Invalides, I went to the Louvre and spent a short four hours running around trying to see everything, but getting my fix of Davids before I left the creme de la creme of museums. then i headed to the Orangerie that houses a pretty good collection of impressionist and post impressionist art along with two oval rooms with 8 huge paintings of Monets water lillies, absolutely stunning. Then met up with the rents and wandered around the latin quarter and stopping at a cafe for some french beer. the next day, saturday, i headed to the D`Orsay musee for some impressionist art viewing and probably could have stayed there all day, without a doubt the best museum i have and most likely ever will go to. then met up with the others for some shopping at Galaries Lafayette and other stores to search for non-existant bargains, it is Paris after all. at night mom, kayla, and i went up to the top of le Tour Eiffel, which was beatiful with all the lights but the beauty was over shadowed but the extreme coldness of the evening but totally worth it. on sunday we packed up to go back to germany, hit up a few last stops like the Hard Rock, some souvenir shops, and the latin quarter for one last panini and gyro, and headed out. back in germany we took a couple more adventures to see a castle in hiedelberg and shop in speyer. then in was back to relaxing, watching movies, eating, and playing numerous amounts of mexican dominoes. on new years eve we participated in the german tradition of lighting off fireworks at midnight, which was something new and exciting. but i did get to go on base for a day and eat some delicious delicious taco bell, oh how i had missed it. then it was time for me to leave, so on jan 2 we did a little last minute shopping and sight seeing in frankfurt and also ate a last brat and slice of pizza hut and said goodbye and flew back to japan. as of now i have still not gotten over my jet lag and have gotten a mean cold and am now more homesick than i have been yet :( but i shall live i think. its a new year and i plan to make the most of my time in japan and soon enough i have to decided whether of not to stay another year! hope all is well and much love from me!xx

DOB

2008-10-07T21:47:00.000-07:00

still alive and kicking in japan! so i left off with tokyo, well afterwards i was beat as we stayed out all night and partyed way too much. On monday it rained all day and I went to Utsumi to teach a couple classes. The bus ride there and back is a bit nuts, I ride it with all the students and they both attempt to talk to me and talk about me in japanese....if only they knew that i can understand most of the things they say! On tuesday I was back at Handa and finished up my lesson on visiting the doctor, which was actually helpful since the temperature dropped suddenly here and most kids are sick with colds. After class I made my way on over to Akaike to visit Maria for dinner-we made some delicious chicken, noodle, pepper thing and watched 27 dresses, a typical girl date night. On wednesday I went to Taketoyo and taught 2 classes-one class was really bright and we played a couple games and I brought candy to bribe them into playing and it worked! I have a tiny crush on this old little senseis there that I teach with haha. After class I had ego conversation to teach to the little ones. For the first class, which is 6 girls around 10, we played candy land...which they loved...as I knew they would. I also enjoyed playing, didnt land on mister plumpy so everything was a-ok! Then for the second class we played one round of candy land and then I taught them some food vocab, they need to get ready for junior high school next year where they will actually begin taking english classes. One of the girls brought me a present--a pencil with stitch on it and a dangling stitch for my keitai, she is so adorable...I bought her a couple stitch things to thank her! After class, Tomei-sensei, the lady who I teach the convo classes with, took me to an Italian restaurant where we had pizza and pasta and raw octopus! which is actually really delicious, i hate to say it but i actually liked it! She also took me to meet her family, I have really found some amazing people here who treat me like their daughter and am so happy I have them. On thursday night I had my enkai, drinking party, that my thurs night english convo class threw for me! We went to this japanese restaurant called surprise and they had a whole menu planned out for me! we started with salad and then came the sashimi, slabs of raw fish...I managed to choke down a few, the salmon i find tasty but the rest is a bit difficult to keep down. Then came the GIANT bowl of fish heads, yes heads of fish with the eyes, the teeth...everything on it. I eventually got past the face and decided to try and it was delicious, no joke! I just kept eating them despite the amazingly disgusting factor of eating around the eyes and such. Then we cooked our own chicken stew-like thing in a pot on the table and ate some odd egg pudding thing, there was way too much food and of course way too much consumption of beer! And i had the worst experience ever in the bathroom...I walked in and the BIGGEST spider I have ever seen was crawling around on the wall and I screamed so loud, ohhhh it was so not cool. That scarred me for life. On friday, as I tried to recover, I went to school and listened to Kawai-sensei's third year class speeches about japanese culture and did some japanese studying. At the end of the day we all went into the gym to listen to the student council presidential candidates speech, he was really nervous and a bit sick...all of a suddent midway through the speech he just fainted and hit the floor and no one went to help him, so he just got back up on his own and continued on with his speech...as I sat in the back of the gym laughing hysterically cuz i just couldnt hold it in. then I went to nihongo class and had some fun, i tried to spice things up a bit by making up weird answers to their question...they were laughing, either at me or with me, either works for me! Then I went to marias for our friday night mcdonalds and sleepover party. We slept in on saturday and decided to hit up Aeon Mall in Kanayama for some lite shopping...bought a couple flannel shirts and a plaid scarf, nothing too exciting. Afterwards we met up with the boys under the tv tower in Sakae for some classy outdoor drinking, and then went to a deliciously authentic indian restaurant for curry and proceeded to drink more on the streets, yet again so classy. and then I finally got to see Joe, a dude from my japanese classes at madison who lives in Nagoya, which was really fun! Then I headed home with Maria for the night since Handa is too far away and I was far too lazy to race to catch my last train home. Sunday Maria and I met up with some of the others for a soccer game in Nagoya--we got to see Nagoya Grampus v Tokyo Verdy...it wasnt a great game, as their level of play was nothing near that of world cup soccer, but at the last second nagoya finally scored a goal to tie the game and to remain in second in the league! It was nice to get a little dose of sports after being deprived of football for this season! I bought a jersey of the foreigner on the team, Johnsen, i thought I owed it to my swedish ancestors! anyways...after that I just went home to clean and get ready for the next week. This week is exam week and it has been just a pure bore! Monday I did absolutely nothing at Handa but I got to leave early, so I decided to go into Sakae and meet maria for some shopping...spending money is my therapy :) I also had to take my computer in to get looked at since Im pretty sure its dying and time to get a new one...ugh. Yesterday I also did nothing but talked to Kawai-sensei and she was teaching me japanese which was fun and katsumata-sensei, my supervisor, for a while to pass the time since I had no classes. For dinner I went to Agui to eat at Eeko Oda-san's house, a cute lady in my thurs english class. She had been inviting me for a while to come over so I thought I would take her up on her offer! She cooked me a delicious dinner...more fish with the eyes, etc, but I dug into that sucker and ate it...and it was good! I think my fear of fish is finally over! I got to met her husband, her daughter, and her one year old granddaughter, who is adorable and would make the perfect girlfriend for Louie. She also has 4 cats, which of course I loved and one of them kept jumping on the table and stealing my fish! Now I am just finishing up my day at Taketoyo after having a crazy class with these boys who kept asking me for my phone number and to send them an american girl, of course I offered Ashley and told them she will be coming in the mail soon! haha! Hope all is well in the states, its a bummer about the crew brew but they made a good run! send my some email updates with the crazy happenings in wisco, miss you all and as always lots of love from jpan! Oh and i found this story on BBC today...some crazy dude swimming nude in the moat of the imperial palace... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/7656537.stm check it out!

Jpan Madness

2008-10-01T22:18:00.001-07:00

ah so sorry with my slacking on the blog updating...eh. so the monday after i got back from tokyo i went to Utsumi and got to teach a class...I really like Utsumi because its a lower level school and the students are way more energetic and actually get involved in the class, which really helps me out with my teaching. The rest of the week I pretty much just went to school and either taught a couple classes or just sat around and did the usual reading of books or reading anything and everything i can possibly find online! some days I have two classes, some I have five so who knows. At Handa high I have finally moved on from the self-intros and got to teach a lesson on going to see the doctor, which was pretty fun and the students were semi-interested which is a plus. They didnt stare at me blankly the entire class, which is progress let me tell you. Maria and I were wrecked from tokyo tho and I still havent caught up on sleep from it. We met up for a little dinner date as usual...we do that once a week to keep the other from pure lonliness! That weekend, Sept 19-21, i went to nihongo class on friday as usual and learned some colors, shapes, body parts, etc...i really enjoy the class, the teachers are so sweet and helpful and its really helping my ability to survive in this country.After class friday I went to marias to hang out and watch movies...just a casual night in. On satuday we slept in late, which was wonderful, and then hit up Osu Kannon where there is a large temple and a bunch of shops and resturants and then we met up with some others for dinner at an izakaya. Then Sunday we finally went to Nagoya Castle, which was beautiful, although it rained the whole time we were there. I had to leave early to come back to Handa to teach english class to the wee ones and then Kaz and Maria met me in Handa for dinner at Mos Burger, which has cheap and delicious burgers, japanese style. On Monday I had no school at Utsumi because they had exams so I went to Handa Koko and they were so happy to see me, it was really cute! The principal came to talk to me and tell how happy he was to see me there because Handa koko is my home...too cute. I taught an all boys class with 40 boys and they were just hilarious, asking me all sorts of odd questions. ON tuesday we had no school because it was a holiday so I did some shopping, met up with Chris in town, and Maria for dinner at a little italian restaurant where we have become the token foreigners who eat there. Wed and Thurs were teaching classes as usual and then on friday on my way to japanese class i had to buy shinkansen tickets for tokyo and I did it all in japanese...i was sooo proud of myself haha! Then I went to class and got taken aside and taught extra verbs cuz im clearly one of the best students, but no the class is so much fun and the ladies who teach are just wonderful. So after class some of us went to the Vertex for drinks, which was nice until we got the bill and they charged us a night fee and a drinking fee and a large group fee...it was more a hassle than anything. Then i came home and got up at 6am on saturday to meet Maria at Nagoya to leave for Tokyo! We ended up getting on the train around 7:30 and we were on the train, in our seats, and all of a sudden the ladies voice came on and alerted us we were headed to Kyoto, which is the opposite direction from Tokyo and we couldnt get off! Just when you think you are doing ok in jpan it knocks you down again, but we eventually made it back to tokyo! When we got there I went off to the museums and Maria met up with Nozomi and the gunma jets for sumo. I went to three museums...oh yui you would love them! I went to see the John Everett Millais exhibit at the Bunkamura Museum, which was without a doubt the best exhibition ive ever seen and they had one of my favorite paintings, so i was just thrilled to be there. Then I went to the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum in Ueno and saw the Vermeer and other Delft Dutch painters around the same time...also excellent, they had some vermeers i have never seen so its always good to learn a thing or two! Then I headed to the Tokyo National Art Museum and just had enough time to see the Japanese art--some jomon vessels, kimonos, old buddha statues, ukiyo-e prints, and modern paintings. It was all in all a great afternoon well spent looking at art in japan! Definately the best day so far. I met up with Maria and the rest after to go to dinner at TGI Fridays, which was delicious and filling! Then we went to a club called WOMB...yea dont know...and then gas panic...not the one we went to in roppongi but there is another smaller one in shibuya which was fun, since we stayed out all night until 5am or so. Then we went back to Nozomis to get some sleep until around noon on sunday. After that we attempted to go to H&M again and failed as the line was still down the street, seriously these people are crazy. Then we wandered around ginza, did some shopping and i bought some of that amazing chocolate that they have in the department stores in Ginza...ohhh it is sooooo good! Then Maria and I got back on the shink around 6pm and made it home by 9 ish. Its always a great time in Tokyo, im sure ill be going back as soon as I can! xxxoo much love from japan and I will update this bad boy asap since I have some more stories for ya'll!

Tokyo Tokyo Tokyo

2008-09-17T18:26:00.000-07:00

Well...Saturday morning Maria and I woke up way too early to catch the shinkansen to tokyo at around 7:30am. We both slept on the train, but its so comfortable and roomie...I love the shink. We aarrived around 9:30, it takes a little less than two hours to get to Tokyo from Nagoya. We hopped on the train to Ueno zoo. We were so excited to see the panda and all the animals, but once we got to the zoo there was a giant sign that said the panda had died in april. sad. we were not happy. but luckily i think there is one other zoo somewhere in japan with a giant panda...i hope! We wandered around the zoo for a couple hours, that zoo is huge. It has two parks connected by a monorail...remember when we lost chad there haha nice. We did get to see the cute little red pandas tho, which were definately my favorite. It was post-mating season so there were lots of little monkeys everywhere, too cute. We bought lots of souvenirs and finally got some soft-serve ice cream. yes. After the zoo we went to Ikebukuro to meet up with matt who decided to join us for the weekend. Ikebukuro has lots of large department stores and shops....me, shop? never. anyways, we went to wendys for lunch....delicious....then hit up tokkyu hands, a large department store but they have literally everything you can buy. On the top floor they have an area called Nekobukuro which is an area where you can play with cats...so we did that, but the cats were not cute...mainly just fat and lazy, i was quite disappointed but all in all it was a hilarious experience. After wandering and relaxing at a cafe we met up with maria's friend Nozomi from college, but who lives in Tokyo and who we stayed with, for dinner in Shibuya. We went to a little izakaya that randomly had graffiti all over the wall, which was an interesting twist. The food was good and cheap and then we wandered around the city. As we were walking we ran into a street festival, i dont know i guess the japanese in tokyo decide to have random street parades and such whenever they want. We couldnt find a pub to go to since they were all packed, so we ended up at a cafe-like place for drinks. After that we shipped matt off to a capsule hotel and we took to train back to Nozomi's apartment, which is about a half hour outside tokyo. In the morning we got up showered, etc. and met matt in harajuku around 10:30. Supposedly on sunday mornings the crazies are out and prancing around harajuku, but we only saw a few that morning. We walked to a shinto shrine in harajuku that was massive and quite beautiful and we got to see a couple wedding parades through the shrine grounds. Then we went shopping and bought lots of interesting things along the main streets in harajuku. We ate lunch at an italian restaurant and got crepes on the street, which is the trendy thing to do now-a-days in harajuku. Then we got the train to take us to Sanrio Puroland, better known as Hello Kitty World, which is outside the heart of tokyo city. We had the best time here, I cant even explain how much fun it was. We got to actually meet hello kitty, a life-long goal finally fulfilled, and some of her friends. We took a boat ride, kind of like Its a Small World ride at Disney World, but with sanrio characters. We saw a show and a parade with princess kitty and her beau daniel and many other characters. We got to tour hello kittys house and sit in her car. And then there was shopping. I bought way too many hello kitty things, but maria bought more so I dont feel so childish :)Hello Kitty rocks, lets be honest here. After hello kitty world we ate dinner at a ramen restaurant and headed back into shinjuku for some ice cream and street wandering. Then home for bed. On monday morning we left the apartment early to go to the newly opened H&M in Ginza....it opened on sat, the first one in japan....when we got there we saw a line about 1 mile long down the street to get into the store. So we scratched that idea and decided to go to some other stores before meeting up with Dave, an Irish jet from Guma who is friends with Maria. We ate lunch and headed to a buddhist temple in another part of tokyo. There were so many shops full of traditional japanese-esque things, finally, and I bought a kokeshi doll, japanese wooden dolls, and kimono kitty accessories...hello kitty dressed in a kimono, she is the best one! The temple was huge and we got to see the giant lanterns, cleanse our souls in incense, and get our fortunes, which were not too promising unfortunately. After the temple we went to see this golden statue along the river or as its more affectinately called the golden poo because it looks like poop. Ill post a picture because you must see it, its quite entertaining. After that we headed back to shibuya for last minute wandering and shopping and then Maria and I went back to Tokyo station to catch our 8pm shinkansen bound for Nagoya. We accidentally sat in the smoking car on the way home, which was unpleasant but not too bad I guess. When I got home I was wrecked and am still tired from being on the go. But Tokyo is the coolest place in Japan and I cant wait to go back in two weeks for some museum hunting and more shopping! I need a halloween costume :) If anyone comes to visit we must go to Tokyo, there is really no place like it. I hope all is well in the states! Let me know whats new or shoot me an email anytime! Lots of Love from the far east! xo

Handa Koko School Festival

2008-09-16T21:33:00.001-07:00

Konnichiwa all! Sorry i havent blogged in a while, Ive been busy and blah blah, anyways...Well teaching is going really really well so far! Ive mainly been doing a self-intro lecture where I tell them about me and wisconsin and show them lots of pictures and then give them a quiz that they can work on in groups with easy questions and what not. Most students are quite shy but I get the occasionally odd questions about my personal life...like if I have a boyfriend or a husband...in one class they asked if I had a husband and I said no but no one heard me and then I wrote 22 on the board to tell them my age but they all thought I had 22 husbands, haha woops...and when i plan on getting married. They are quite comical. At Handa, Kawai-sensei's class has been giving speeches about young japanese culture, which are quite interesting but ridden with grammer mistakes, etc. I have been doing a lot in her class...every class i give the kids a vocab quiz where i read the words in japanese and they write the english ones and listening to their speeches and correcting their pronunciation and grammer. With the third years I am able to do a lot because they can communicate in english, where the first years cannot express their opinions and ideas in english yet, which is rather difficult for me. I like teaching tho and I hope Im good at it, we'll see I guess. I left off on wed when I went to Taketoyo for the first time...on thursday of that week after classes I had english conversation class. There are two sweet older ladies in that class that bring me things...one brought me jam and tickets to hello kitty world...and they other oda-san alway invites me to come to her house and touch her cats, haha i think i may go this weekend. They are throwing me an enkai, drinking/welcome party, at the beginning of october which I am really looking forward too! One of the younger women in the class asked me to teach another english conversation class on wednesdays to younger children, which I was pleased about and am going to do! on friday, sept 5, at Handa was the school festival! In the morning I went to Kariyado Hall to watch the band perform, and the dance team, and the martial arts clubs. It was really enjoyable to watch all the students in a more fun environment where they were talking and more relaxed than at school. At lunch time I went out with the english teachers and had miso kattsu, an aichi specialty, which is basically breaded pork with miso sauce on top. Its qutie delicious. Lunch with the ladies is always interesting, they talk about other teachers and tell me all the gossip. After lunch we went back to the hall to listen to a lecture by a famous mathmetician...which was all in japanese...and i fell asleep for most of it...woops. I wasnt the only one sleeping, most of the students were as well. But to be fair I heard it was actually really interesting and many of the students enjoyed his lecture. After school on friday I went to my first japanese class in Higashi-Betsuin, which is in Nagoya, with Maria and Annie. It was earthquake day, since september is earthquake season in Japan, so we learned emergency vocab, how to call the police, parts of the body, etc. It is a really helpful class run by some japanese teachers who are extremely helpful, although they wont speak english to us, which sucks but i guess it will help me learn in the long run. After class we met up with some older jets and Kaz our japanese friend for some karaoke until the last trains. We decided to take it easy for the weekend since most of us are still tired all the time for no apparent reason! Saturday I went into school for the festival...yes school on a saturday. It was quite fun tho. All the classes decorated their classrooms and created different activities for us to participate in...like one class turned the room into a gameboard for a napoleon inspired history game and another class had giant pools full of bubble solution and had me get into the pool and made a giant bubble around me, it was pretty sweet. The cooking club also made "restaurants" with different foods for us to try for lunch...I had the hamburger which wasnt all that bad. Then I went to a traditional tea ceremony and the students served me green tea in yukatas and i ate the bean paste thing they fed me...yum. After that I watched the koto players, the koto is the japanese harp, and i learned how to play the cherry blossom song on it! After that Kawai-sensei and I visited more classrooms and talked with the students who were so excited to see me there and attempted to talk to me in english, which usually failed...but smiling and a thumbs up works for me. After the festival I met Maria and Annie in Sakae for dinner. We ate some pasta and garlic bread, no mama mias but it wasnt all that bad. After that we met up with some other jets and went to a promotional bar for some japanese vodka. The bar was open on both sides so it was fun to watch all the people walking by and staring at the large group of foreigners in the tiny bar. We went to another bar, the hub, which is a foreigner bar as well and ran into some interesting mexican men who tried to pimp us out to japanese men...odd. We called it an early night again and Maria came home to casa Lauren for the night. It was nice to have someone else there, it gets quite lonely living alone. In the morning I took her to the school festival again just for fun. All the teachers and students enjoyed meeting Maria and seeing that I actually do have a friend in Japan haha they were concerned about me. We wandered around the school, got some mountain dew (so delicious), and watched the dance team perform their hip hop. Funny side note...the music the dance club dances to is not censored at all and all the rap songs are full of swear words and bad slang, but apparently they cant understand american music so no one knows what they are saying but me. ha. After the festival Maria and I went into Sakae again for some shopping and wandering the large malls Sakae has to offer. We met Matt for dinner at Shooters, the American Bar, and ate lots of food...quesadillas yum...and other various delicious foods in big portions! Its nice to eat somewhat western food every once in a while instead of rice. Monday I went to Utsumi and had my first class there. It went really well. The students are lower level but much more talkative and interested in what I was saying. I think that might be my favorite school so far, all the students and teachers really make an effort and I cant wait to go back there to teach. I taught more classes on tuesday at Handa and went out to dinner with Maria and Kaz at night. Maria and I have decided to have weekly dinner dates to lessen our lonliness haha. We went to some amazing Italian restaurant with correct spaghetti and pizza, it was the best food ive had yet. Kaz helped us buy Shinkansen tickets for Tokyo for the weekend, thank god. Its good to have someone who speaks japanese with ya, it makes the process much smoother instead of me pointing and shouting random japanese words at the poor woman. Not that that has happened often...eh. Wednesday I went to Taketoyo for Sports Day. I watched the students race and compete in other events all day in the heat. I wasnt feeling to well after that, the heat really can take its toll on you here. But I got to meet some students and the principal introduced me to the school. There is an American exchange student there named Willy from Washington St, I havent met him yet but hopefully we can be buddies! Wednesday night I met up with the other english conversation class Im teaching with the woman from my thurs class. I taught four 13 year old girls for an hour and LOVED it, omg they were so cute. We talked about disney and stitch for like the whole hour..I can relate better to the 13 year olds lets be honest. And after that I taught three 10yr old girls and one boy for an hour and they were equally as cute. I cant wait to do more with them, mom is sending some games so I think those will be fun to play with the kids! Japanese children are adorable, there is no other way to explain it. Thursday I only went to school for two hours and left at 11 for our Kencho meeting at the prefectural board of education in Nagoya. I met Maria for lunch beforehand, by lunch i mean mister donuts, and then we went to the meeting. At the meeting we got to meet all the older alts in aichi and learn some more information about upcoming events and important crap in september and october. I learned about a soccer game at the beginning of october between nagoya's team and tokyos which I decided I wanted to go to! It was a short meeting and then after everyone went to the Hard Rock for half-price food and drinks. I stayed for a couple hours then had to head back into Agui for english class. During class we talked about the supposed earthquake that was supposed to hit Aichi last weekend but never did thank god. Instead it hit hokkaido pretty badly, but I havent heard much news about it. I always learn a lot about Japan from them, they tell me where I have to visit, what I should do, etc its nice to have them for support too. Friday I did some teaching and listening to students speeches for the competition coming up in two weeks...then I went to Japanese class and learned how to say some basic phrases, etc and more and more is coming back to me so hopefully by december ill be able to carry on a conversation. I went back to Akaike with Maria, we had dinner, and then hung out until we went to bed early because we had to catch our early Shinkansen for tokyo!! Tokyo deserves another post simply because it is the greatest city ever. hands down.

Domannaka

2008-09-01T23:05:00.001-07:00

OH I have so much to tell you all! Well last I left off I was going to my opening ceremony speech in the gym...it went really well! I didnt trip, or fall, or forget my speech! I jsut gave the same speech I gave to the teachers about me, so it was short and sweet! Kawai-sensei says I have really good japanese pronunciation, but we'll see, my first japanese classes start on friday so im hoping i can learn more vocab and verbs so i can communicate with people better! Anyways, after my speech on wednesday i sat around and did nothing of course..but then after school I went to Akaike to have dinner with Matt and Maria. Maria cooked us spagetti and it was amazing! She is a wonderous cook and i love going to her house for dinner! Then we watched a movie and called it an early night since we were all tired and had to get up early for work...so responsible i tell ya. On thursday night I had my english converstaion class in Agui! I met them around 8 and our class consisted of reading parts of a book about Japan. I learned a lot about the origin of the name Japan and the flag and also the difference between Nippon and Nihon, which im still a little unclear on..i think Nippon is more official and governmentally used. But yea, so we had class for about an hour and a half...everyone in the class is just so sweet and the old guy, Roy, loves to interupt and tell us odd facts or question me about state flowers haha who knows, but i really enjoy them! On of the older women eeko oda brought me a bag full of hello kitty stuff cuz i told her i loved cats! And then she invited me to her house, so I think I will go to visit her next weekend! After class we went out for tea again and just sat and talked about japan and wisconsin, it was quite enjoyable. But then the rain started and didnt stop all night, it was pouring and pouring and thundering all night! On friday morning the trains were all delayed due to the rain and there was major problems in Okazaki, which is near me but not too close, with flooding and houses collapsing etc...not good. So friday morning it was hectic around the school, but as I am paid to do I just sat at my desk and did nothing! Friday after school I met up with the other jets at Oasis 21 in Sakae for dinner. We went to another izakaya, but I didnt eat (I ate ahead of time to avoid the greasy, fried food) so we just drank kirin and sake...then the ladies--maria, me, annie, and deanna--headed to a club called i.d. for the night. We decided to miss our trains and stay at the club all night, not too bright. The club is sweet tho, it has 5 floors, each with a different genre of music playing...we hung out on the hip hop floor of course! There were lots of other foreigners there, so we didnt feel so out of place. But after 3 hours of dancing we were tired, so we walked to matt's apartment and crashed there. On saturday we slept in and had doughnuts for breakfast at mister donut...i love that place! After lunch it was still pouring and I decided to still go to Sakae to watch the domannaka in the rain. The domannaka is a dance festival in the streets of sakae and a tons of dance teams participate in a competition...it is too much fun to watch. They wore very traditional clothes and make-up and dances despite the cold rain! After the festival I took the train home to change and pack clothes to stay at maria's and then hopped on the train all the way back to sakae to meet everyone again. We went to another izakaya (a much much better one that has amazing wings and fried cheese...yum) for a going away party for an older yet. I got to meet some new older alts that I haven't met yet which was fun! After dinner and all you can drink (nomihodai) we went to the hub, which is a foreigner bar in sakae. We keep seeing the same foreigners everywhere so we finally go a chance to meet some other people on different programs and here in japan for other various reasons. After the hub we decided to miss our last train and go to an all night dance club instead. We headed to club Mago, which is a well-known club that many famous djs have come to. But that particular saturday night it was techno music night, and oh my lord it was awful. It was a small club, too smokie, and continously flashing strobe lights...it was not good. But we met some interesting people there and this one sweet girl named Miyu who we hope to keep in contact with! So at about 5am we left the club and walked to the station, since the subways dont start running until about 5:45am, ugh. Tom, an alt from Wales, and I went back to Maria's and slept until about 2pm on Sunday. After our nap we went back into sakae to watch the dance festival again. It was beautiful out and there were crowds and crowds of people there watching! We ate lunch at a Hawaiian Korean BBQ restaurant called Yummy...I think the restaurant was a little confused with what kind of food they were serving...but we had delicious cheeseburgers so it was alright with us. After the dancing was over we wandered around the rest of the festival, there were stages with people singing and tons of little tables with different foods. We ate some yaki-soba and listened to music and then called it a night. I came home and went to bed. Monday morning I got up early since I had to find my way to Utsumi high school for the first time. I got off the train at Kowa station and followed the students to the bus and then rode with them to the high school. I gave a speech to the teachers and to the students and then they let me leave early at 12:30, which was fantastic. I rode the bus back with the students, who were asking me a billion questions and so excited to see me, but our mutual language skills are crap so it was hard to have a conversation. Since Utsumi is the lowest school in Aichi prefecture I will most likely be having trouble communicating with the students and teachers, who speak little english, if any. After school, I came home ate some lunch, called mom and dad :) and then finished planning my classes from tuesday. Tuesday I finally got to teach at Handa, I had four classes--two first year and two third year classes! The third year classes went very very well, Kawai-sensei is easy to teach with and has amazing english skills. All the students were excited to see my pictures and asked many questions...like if I had a husband or a boyfriend...and broke out of their shy shells for a while! I really enjoyed teaching my first day and I think it will be a good year! The students at Handa are really bright and eager to learn. After school I had english club and listened to the students speeches for the speech competition at the end of Septemeber. Their speeches are all so funny, one girl is reading the very hungry caterpillar! After school I caught the train back to Sakae again to meet Maria for dinner at Los Tacos, I really really miss Mexican food. It was a fun little hole in the wall restaurant, but they had delicious and cheap tacos, burritos, and nachos...just what I needed! After dinner we went to a coffee shop for some iced tea and just relaxed until we had to catch the trains back home. This morning, wednesday, I had to go to Taketoyo high school, my third school, to talk with the teachers and arrange the class plans. The train ride was easy but then I had to walk a half hour to school in the extreme humidity through the rice fields! I got to school all sweaty and gross, but thats to be expected in japan. Im probably going to sit around and do nothing for the rest of the day, but everyone here is really friendly and the lady in charge of me, Kume-sensei, is so sweet and helpful! Tonight I am going to relax and clean my apartment, maybe do laundry, although my washer smells funny eh. Tomorrow I have two more classes at Handa and I'll probably be giving my self-intro for the first two months of classes and by then I'll be sick of talking about myself! I hope everything is going well back in the states! Miss you all so very much! Much Love!

Beaucoup de Izakaya

2008-08-26T17:24:00.000-07:00

hello from jpan! All is well here, althought the homesickness is starting to settle in and its really affecting my work haha. Last weekend Maria and I took the train to Okazaki and met up with Briana at the station. She took us to an izakaya for dinner--its a restaurant where you order a bunch of different foods to share and its fairly cheap, but lots of fried food :). There was a couple sitting next to us and our waiter never wanted to come and take our order or theirs so the man started shouting sumimasen and hiding behind his menu...it was hilarious. so then we felt it appropriate to shout sumimasen loudly as well. One thing about japan is that everyone in restaurants and stores shouts at you...they constantly shout welcome and thank you over and over again. After dinner we went to karaoke for about an hour and a half and then went back to Briana's house to sleep. On saturday we decided to go shopping, of course, and we went to Aeon mall near her house. I bought some jeans at Gap...seriously they were the only ones that fit my hips and were long enough. And they were WAY too expensive. bah. We found a massage place in the mall and decided to get 30 min back massages which was grand...im pretty sure i was drooling but whatever. Then we went grocery shopping for Briana and went back to her house. Then we met up with Matt and Annie at Yamachan--its a famous restaurant in Nagoya or "world famous" as they claim to be and the mascot is a man who is 3/4 chicken...its sweet! They have the best chicken wings tho...yum! The environment is really fun tho and the waiters attempted to speak english to us and made the dinner highly enjoyable. After dinner we went to a bar called izakaiya jaa nai (not an izakaiya) where all the foreigners hang out for chris's (a third year) bday party. There we drank a lot...they had miller lite...and then went for all night karaoke after. We karaoked until 5am...yikes! it was fun tho, i thought it best to constantly sing backstreet boys and 'nsync songs, im sure everyone else appreciated it! Sunday we slept in until about noon and then went to breakfast then back on the train home--its only like an hour train ride away, not too bad. Sunday I just went grocery shopping, made some fried rice for dinner, and went to bed. Monday I sat around as usual at school, reading everything and anything I could find online. I actually did finish my first lesson tho, its just my self-introduction in which i made a power point with pictures of the fam, the friends, etc and a quiz about me that I will make into a competitive game. After school I wanted to go to the foreign food store and see what they had so I found the bike Dan left for me and attempted to ride it....oh god, its so small and old and falling apart I almost didnt make it...trust me everyone I passed was laughing cuz i looked hilarious on it. I got some junk food tho and peanut butter...score! On Tuesday my supervisor helped me sort out some bills for gas, water, electric which are all overpriced but i guess thats the way it is here. Around 12:30 he took me to my other two schools that I teach at once a week...Taketoyo HS and Utsumi HS, both senior high schools in the chita peninsula. I met with the vice principals and english teachers, who were all quite nice and spoke english well enough. Utsumi is a low level academic high school, so that should be fun I'm sure no one will listen slash care what I have to say, but the school is located close to the ocean and Utsumi is like a beach town, its very pleasant! My supervisor got lost on the way and we drove around in circles, so I cant wait until I have to go there by myself next week....After work I met Maria in Sakae to get my cell phone, which now i have one!!! We went to Soft Bank in Sakae, there are a couple english speaking employees so it was easy enough to get a phone! Then we found a subway and omg it was so amazing to have a real sandwich again...we both ate footlong subs and were in heaven...i think we are going to make it a monthly trip! After that we went to HMV to get blank cds, wandered around by all the hostess clubs and men holding up signs with girls, and call girls in the streets...its a very wholesome city haha. Im at work now and about to go into the gym and give a speech in front of oh 1000 people, no worries I'll be fine...not. Oh and its in japanese...ouch. Wish me luck!! Today is Opening ceremony day so all the students are here and almost ready to start school, although i dont start teaching until next week! Ahh i have to go now and make a fool of myself, just a typical day for me! Lots of LOVE! Miss you all! Oh and its been raining here all week which brought some cool breezy weather which is a nice change from the humidity! :)

Ego Converstaion

2008-08-21T22:04:00.000-07:00

Its finally Friday...this week was long! I have nothing to do at work since the teachers arent here, so i sit around for hours reading things online or listening to music....but no worries some teachers sleep at their desks so im guessing they got nothing to do either! On Wednesday night after work I went into Sakae to go shopping again and bought more things, i cant help it! I found out the sales only last until this Sunday so i need to get all the cheap shopping in while i can! After that I met Matt and Maria at Nagoya Station, which is like one of the largest train stations in the world, and we went to a movie theatre to watch Batman. The movies here are so expensive, 1800 yen for a movie, but if you go to the last showing its only 1200 yen and on wed its lady nite so it was only 1000 yen...not bad! Most movies are in english with japanese subtitles so thats good, some are dubbed in english but luckily it was subtitled because if batman was dubbed it would have been ruined! After that I barely caught my last train home...the trains stop running around midnight and if you miss it you're screwed! On thursday i did my normal routine at work...nothing...and then after work i went to the post office to pick up my atm card, finally...they accidentally sent it to osaka which is like 2 hours away...but now i have it! Then at 7:30 i met Tetsuya, a man that Dan, my predecessor, got me in touch with so that I could teach an english converstaion class to him and some other people. He drove me to Agui Hall and I met about 6 other people that I would be teaching as well. They were all older men and women, but soooo kawaii (cute) and so eager to meet me! I just introduced myself and we had an informal converstaion session for about an hour and a half and then we went for tea afterwards. I got paid like 80 bucks for just sitting and talking with them and Im going to do that every week! Also they offered to take me places, let me come to stay at their houses, and were so kind to me, I am really glad I got to meet them and look forward to getting to know them better! they loved the pictures I showed of everybody, especially you mom and dad...they thought you were so young and handsome! haha it was a great time! After work today I am going to go back into Sakae and try to buy a cell phone at Soft Bank....arg i hope i can get one so the other alts can get a hold of me since I have about 3 three-day weekends in September all of which i will be traveling during!! After that Maria and I are going to Okazaki for the weekend to visit Briana and just hang out and relax! So im looking forward to the weekend...as always! oh and someone needs to send me some cheese...its awful here and i dont know if i can live without it! ALSO i found dr pepper today in a vending machine...score! no mountain dew tho, its only in tokyo! Much love xoxo!

My Closet :(

2008-08-19T20:58:00.000-07:00

Orientation yesterday went well. All 18 new JETs of Aichi were there and some older CIRs were there as well. We listened to speeches, watched a video about Aichi, and had panels on life and teaching in Japan...there was some useful information at this one as opposed to the Tokyo orientation which wasn't quite as relevant. I found out some interesting facts that I feel inclined to tell you....like how laws in japan are ultra-serious. Apparently possession of marajuana or heroine gets you the same punishment according to japanese law, they dont really understand the difference between the two and if you are caught with either you are royally screwed. Also here the police have the right to question you at any time if they feel like it, so basically no one has any rights here....very odd. And there is no right to an expedient trial here, they can hold you for as long as they like and they basically mentally torture you until they get a confession, since they really cant cant any evidence to convict besides a confession. We heard lots of stories about previous Jets who got arrested slash got into big trouble with the law here. After orientation we had a reception and we did it japanese-style if you will....we all stand around these little tables and listen to the host speak and then after she was done we kanpai-ed (cheered) our beers and then we could start on the buffet. I went simple, beef and rice...only to realize whilst i was eating the rice that something in it had eyes....yes yes there were tiny little fish in my rice. It was still delicious, but i've discovered that the japanese find a way to sneak fish into everything so i might as well just be prepared for it. After that a few of us went out for a nijikai (second party) and sat under the tv tower just hanging out. We decided to call it an early night and left around 8:30, but i was still hungry so i went to the train station and got a crepe....good stuff. Now im at work again just sitting, but at 2 I have an appointment with Hiroki, a young boy working on a speech for a speech competition. I am helping him with his pronunciation and delivery, his speech is so sad about how he was picked on and such, but i cant help but laugh at times because his tone is way too happy for the content of the speech and he cant pronounce the th sound to save his life haha. Im putting up pictures of my apartment! Much Love.

Partying in Sakae

2008-08-17T19:51:00.000-07:00

soooo michael phelps rules all and brett still kicks butt....i found a sports bar in nagoya to watch jets games!! well this weekend was crazy fun with the alts. On friday i cleaned my apartment and went to yamada-denki, the electronic store near me, and bought lots of things for the apartment....a shower bar, curtain, pots, pans...etc and now i have everything i need, i hope! On saturday i went shopping in sakae and found too many sales! I bought some dresses that were half off...apparently august is sale month but in september everything gets really expensive again so i have to do my shopping now! Then i met up with matt and we went to the hard rock, we just got paid a lot of money on friday for doing nothing so we decided to celebrate! I had a 17 dollar burger....it was well worth it! Hard Rock in Japan is like the Nitty Gritty, everyone goes there for their birthday and its crazy...people running around clapping and singing and banging on drums idk....and after we were planning on going up nagoya tv tower to see the view at night, but ran into roy and nick, who are older alts in nagoya, and then chris and tom, new alts, so we sat around outside drinking budweiser (ew)...there is like a fake central park in sakae and they have a cart of brooklyn hot dogs...which are not good... and american beer. After that we wandered and drank beer in the street, which is way more fun than stupid open container laws in the states! It was quite an entertaining evening! Sunday morning I went into sakae again at 11 to meet everyone for a scavenger hunt! We got into four teams...my team was just three...me, chris, and matt (all from the midwest so we names our team the mid-western muts)...an we had costumes, which were dog noses, and a dog puppet mascot! We had a list of things to find and we had to take pictures of us wearing our costume and with the mascot in every picture....everyone thought we were crazy, as they should have. We found some interesting places tho....like sex shops...and saw some interesting people....like grandmas wth purple hair, apparently its a fad in japan...and did illegal things, taking a picture of someone sleeping on a train is illegal, but we did it anyways...it was 5 points! We got second place and our prize was a pitcher of beer at the sports bar shooters were we meet after the hunt. we made it just in time to watch phelps live win his 8th, it was sweet. After that we played games and I ate a quesadilla...i really miss mexican food (chipotle)...and then we left around 7 to go to an australian bar called red rock to watch one of the alts perform. That was a lot of fun as well....drinking beer, watching gymnastics, and listening to good live music..all in all a successful weekend! I am at work now, obviously working so hard because i have SO much to do but after work im going to go to Utsumi beach for the fireworks tonight...the japanese take their fireworks very seriously! And then tomorrow is orientation in nagoya all day! Ill try to put up pictures of my apartment and school on wednesday for you! I hope everyone is doing well and have a safe trip Rita!!! Lots of love and go USA!!

Karaoke-からおけ

2008-08-15T00:07:00.000-07:00

Sakae

2008-08-14T23:55:00.001-07:00

Tokyo Orientation Photos

2008-08-14T23:08:00.000-07:00

Nagoya Weekend

2008-08-13T00:39:00.000-07:00

bonjour all! im still alive, no worries. Ive had a crazy last couple of days up in japan. On friday I went into Shiyakusho to go to a jet meeting with all the other alts employeed by aichi prefectural board of education. We signed some contracts and got to hear some information about team teaching and classroom discipline..blah blah. After that we all went out for drinks and dinner and then karaoke of course, it was quite grand. Then I stayed at my friend Maria's with Ernesta, a boy from Jamaica. The next morning we got up and met everyone for the AJET bbq where i met all the second, third, fourth, and fifth year jets in aich. We ate yakisoba and lots of beef and drank plenty of beer. After that we went out for a second party, as the japanese call it, at an american bar in okazaki, near nagoya, and i had PIZZA...it was delicious!haha at dinner i was sitting with matt, maria, and briana, and our boss hashimoto-san and apparently he had too much beer at the bbq and passed out at our table...omg it was hilarious. the japanese cannot hold their alcohol, we took so many pictures of us with him passed out but couldnt really mess with him cuz hes our boss!! On sunday I met Matt and Maria at the the Nagoya/Boston museum of art to see the Claude Monet exhibit, which had tons and tons of sweet paintings i had never seen before and after that we wandered around kanayama and then rented a movie and just watched it together at his flat. After that I went home to bed and slept until like noon on monday because i have this week OFF!! I am on kensho, which is like study week, because everyone in japan has obon festival this week and no one goes to work, so i decided to spend the week at maria's who lives in Akaike, about an hour away from me. I met her at 5 on monday night and we cooked a big stir fry dinner and watched movies all night. Then tuesday we got up and went exploring around Sakae, which is a hopping area of Nagoya. We went shopping, wandered around, went to starbucks of course!! Then we ran into Briana, another jet, at the foreign food store buying doritos, what else, and we went to the foreign book store so I could get some books to read while i have no internet or phone. Then we met Matt at Maria's for dinner and made steak sandwiches and fries, which was also yummy...its nice to have my lovely irish mate Maria to cook for me, i love it! oh and Maria has cable so i can watch michael phelps DOMINATE the olympics, i love that man! But they only focus on the japanese athletes here and its really annoying since they only show judo and badmitton, arg. After dinner on tuesday the three of us went to an arcade and played video games all night haha and they have this thing in japan where you can take photos of yourself and then add all these cute little ditigal accessories to them, its fab! and then today maria and i got up and came back to sakae to shop again and we have been trying for hours to get phones and its failing miserably blah. So now i am sitting in a tiny booth watching michael phelps on tv because we are waiting on the phone company to try to get us phones without our gaijin cards boo. anywho, tonight we are either going to see a movie or go to the irish pub we found in town, which could be quite a riot with the group we have here. tomorrow i am going hom to get my apartment in order and then who knows, i have nothing to do on friday or monday and then on tuesday i have to come back to the city for prefectural orientation again...it shall be grand. hope all is well in the states, life in japan is getting a tad easier, it helps to have friends around or else it gets quite lonely...and its hotter than heck here. This time of august is the hottest and i hear its gonna get a little hotter, who knew nagoya was the hottest place in japan...i am just a giant sweat ball all the time! much love! shitsure-shimasu!

すてきな！

2008-08-06T16:59:00.000-07:00

ohayoo gozaimasu! so apparently im a tampa bay bucs fan now, sweet! i would like to take this time to wish aaron rodgers all the worst luck in the world...moving along... I have internet on my computer at school now! Yesterday we hooked my computer up to the school internet, it look a couple hours but we finally got it to work! I still have absolutely nothing to do. Yesterday i read a book at school, then looked off into nothing for multiple hours than read every article i could find online. Than after work i met up with my friend matt in nagoya for dinner. We went to a beer garden haha and had huge mugs of kirin beer and a korean bbq...which is really good meat and veggies that we cook at the table...and we had to wear aprons cuz the grease sprays everywhere. I found the nagoya museum of art and they have a huge claude monet exhibit...so i cant wait to check it out tomorrow. And i got all the way to nagoya and back on the right trains!! I didnt even get lost, im gaining skillz! And i saw this sweet sign on the train that said カーSEX in big letters! (not sure if it was an ad for car sex, but i found it highly amauzing)..remember all the strip clubs in tokyo..ah good times. This morning I had to be at work early, 8:15, because the students are here. I gave my short speech...this is it: おはようございます。はじめまして。わたしわローレンモンテインです。アメリカのウィスコンシンからきました。わたしわウィスコンシンだいがくをそつぎょうしたばかりです。びじゅつーしをせんこうしました。どぞよろしくおねがいーします。Nice. Apparently i did a good job, everyone clapped and the principal came up to thank me afterwards, so i think they like me! The students and teachers are cleaning the school right now...that is something way different than us. The students clean the inside and outside of the school, bizarre. Then they have a test and afterwards at 2 I am holding english club in the library and helping all the kids with their speeches for the competition in september. Tomorrow I am leaving early to go to the board of education in nagoya with the other alts and have a conference thing all day so ill have more to report after the weekend! A couple of my japanese TAs from madison are in town next week and there a bunch of kids from my japanese class are all meeting in nagoya to climb fuji this weekend so i will probably get to meet up with some of them...its so bizarre there are three other jets in my prefecture that graduated from madison and I know tons more from japanese class here...so there are lots of places i get to visit! Lots of love from japan! OH and i asked and I get to come to germany for christmas yea!! And i have this picture of Andy and me on my computer background and all the ladies think hes sooo handsome and think he is my boyfriend...its hilarious! He is a big hit with the japanese ladies! scratch that now i guess im a JETS fan....

Life Without TV...

2008-08-04T18:54:00.001-07:00

konnichiwa! sorry its taken me so long to post, i dont have internet and this computer at school is tricky! Well, lunch with the ladies on friday was quite fun. They took me to the local Italien, yes the japanese spell it like this, restaurant down the street. I had something spaghetti-esque, the sauce was bright orange, but it was delicious. For only 1200 yen we got an appetizer (cold veggies), salad, bread, the entree, iced tea, and yogurt, pretty cheap for all the food. I find eating out here isn't too expensive, but it will add up eventually. During lunch the ladies were gossiping about a teacher at school who recently got married to a woman who DOESNT cook, that is like a huge deal here. And they were worried about the man because he's getting so thin and never has anything to eat for lunch haha. Also they were complaining about gas prices, i guess gas is just high everywhere. After lunch I came back to school and sat around...since i have absolutely nothing to do. The weekend was pretty interesting. On saturday i decided to go to the department store that is only three train stops away in Uedai. I thought it would be a piece of cake, but no i got lost. I got on the wrong train and it took me far out of the way. Instead of 10 minutes it took me like an hour to get there, but i got there! When i arrived i immediately got mcdonalds cuz i needed something that would fill me up...nothing here ever gets me full, i can feel myself already losing weight. It was delicious, i got a chicken sandwich, so not totally unhealthy. Then i shopped around and decided not to buy anything and save my money for the really crazy shopping in tokyo and for the trip i plan to take to disney world in two weeks, oh im excited! But i did buy some essentials like laundry stuff, kleenex, etc. And i discovered my quest for tampons is going to be a little more difficult than i thought...not so sure if they use them here...ill keep you posted on that, im sure thats exactly what you'd like to hear about! On sunday i just unpacked and cleaned my apartment and that was about it. Monday morning my supervisor Katsumata-sensei was back from his business trip so he took me to the bank to open an account and then took me out to lunch, i had curry and rice which was yummy. Then we tried to hook my mac up to the school internet and failed since everything they use is pc...oh well. At school i pretty much sit around and read slash do nothing-apparently im giving a speech on thursday but i haven't a clue what that is about since kawai-sensei, the teacher i work with, is gone for a couple days...that should be interesting since it will be in japanese haha. Friday i get to go into nagoya and hang out with the other JETS for orientation and then saturday there is a bbq for us, so that will be lots of fun. And i've found a few hot men for Rita, i'll give them your number, you won't be disappointed. The first weeks here will be the hardest just because i am alone in the apartment without TV (seriously i cannot survive), internet, or a phone...so its a bit difficult, but im still pretty genki and hanging in there. And I still have money, surprisingly, but i have a feeling the landlady will come back and take it all, she's a bit evil, i just know it. I'll put up some pictures as soon as i have internet, every buisness in this town is very distrusting of foreigners so it takes a lot of persuading to let me open different accounts at different places, so hopefully it all works out soon! brianna, can you please go up to green bay and eliminate aaron rodgers for me, haha! Love you all!

Exploring Handa

2008-07-31T18:22:00.001-07:00

So yesterday after school I went exploring around town. There is a Mos burger, they have delicious burgers, and a karaoke place right across from my apartment. There are 7-11s everywhere! Down the main street about 15\20 minutes away there is a mcdonalds, kfc, baskin robins, and a dennys...so i have too much american food near by. There are a couple of department stores close, but i havent tried to see if the clothes fit me yet, but august is sale season so im going to go shopping this weekend and check it out. Handa is the largest city in the Chita peninsula with a population of about 117,000 and it is located near the coast, i have to go beach hunting next week. Yesterday kawai-sensei took me to get my alien registration card and then to the bank to open an account, so i have all the basics covered...and dont worry mom i think i still have some money, but next week friday i am going into nagoya for alt orientation and im sure ill be partying with the other jets...haha. Today all the lady english teachers are taking me out to lunch and right now i am working on my self-introduction, which i will be presenting to the students during the first week of classes and also studying my japanese so i can have some kind of a conversation with my neighbors, who i havent met yet. I will have to post pictures of my apartment because its so hilarious i cant even describe it. I can barely fit in it so it will be interesting if anyone comes to visit haha, but i encourage anyone who wants to to come, japan is pretty amazing thus far (but apparently i am still in phase 1 of culture shock-euphoria-so i may be singing a different tune when phase 2-frustration-hits. haha i got that from a speech at jet orientation. i will post pictures as soon as i have internet in my apartment and who knows when that will be, my surpervisor katsumata-sensei is gone on a buisness trip and will be back monday to sort out all that and take me to the other two schools i am teaching at! thats all for now, hope all is well in the states. LOVE YOU! shitsureshimasu.

Handa Here I Come

2008-07-30T19:54:00.000-07:00

Hello again!! Tuesday morning we all got up and listened to a bunch of speeches from the Ministry of Education in Japan which were entertaining but altogether useless. Then I made an executive decision to skip some of the workshops to take a nap, but then went to listen to workshops about team teaching and senior high schools (which is where i am teaching) in Japan. We got done with all the conferences around 5 and then had to take our luggage down to be shipped to our contracting organization. Then me and some guys from my prefecture decided to go out and exlore tokyo a little. We took the train to harajuku to see the lolita girls and mountain hags (a term for japanese women who are hyper tan with their hair dyed blonde and crazy frosty make-up on. I love Harajuku, way too much crazy fashion. After that we went to shibuya which has the worlds largest intersection, seriously millions of people and bright lights everywhere. Then it started to rain so we went back to the hotel and called it an early night. Wednesday morning we had to be down in the lobby at 9:30 to catch the shinkansen, bullet train, to Nagoya. It took us about 2 and half hours to get there and I was greeted by huge signs with LAUREN on them, it was great. They really go treat us like celebrities here. The vice principal of Handa High and an english teacher, Kawai-sensei, were there to greet me. They tok me out for a sweet, as they called it, in order to welcome me. Then they drove me into Handa, which is only 30 minutes by train outside of Nagoya, the capital of Aichi prefecture. When we got to Handa we went staight to the school and they took me on a tour. The school is Huge...it has a swimming pool, soccer field, handball field, tennis courts, a baseball field, a track...it is three buildings connected by corridors...i couldnt believe how huge it was! After that Kawai-sensei took me to get pictures for my alien registration card and to the supermarket. It is surprising easy to tell what is what and my Japanese is getting better already. Right next to the school is a 7 Eleven, which is not only convient but awesome. I have already drank my fair share of Fanta, which tastes way better here than in the states. Then We went to my apartment and sorted everything out with the landlady, who took ALL my money...its way too expensive here! But my apartment is cozy and they put in new wallpaper, so it looks very nice and clean...and there is air conditioning thank god! its fricken hot here! anyways, after that i decided to wander the city and go back to the grocery store. I got lost. It took me about an hour to get to grocery store that is literally 5 minutes away. sad... but then i went back to the apartment took a shower and went to bed, yesterday was a long and hard day. This morning, thursday, i got to school at 9 and met the students in the english club, who showed me around the school. They are so shy, but so cute all in there uniforms and they giggle at everything...but they are really looking forward to me helping them with their speeches for the english competition in september. All the students are on summer break right now, but they come to school a lot to study and do activites, very different from us haha! But anyways i have to get back to my desk to eat lunch...a rice ball and yogurt, man i miss pizza! ps. this computer at the school is all in japanese so i have no idea what im typing and if its right, so good luck reading it!! love you all!

Tokyo Arrival

2008-07-28T15:18:00.000-07:00

Ohayo gozaimasu!!

Im here in Shinjuku, Tokyo staying at the Keio Plaza Hotel (5 star hotel). 184 JETs from Chicago arrived at Narita International Airport around 3pm Sunday afternoon and then we all hoped on buses and sat the 2 hour drive to the hotel. When we got to the hotel we were greeted by tons of former JETs and given massive amounts of papers and books and sent up to our rooms. I have two roommates--Danielle, who went to Madison and is in the same prefecture as me (there are 4 people who graduated from Madison in the same prefecture!!) and Ashley--and the room is so nice, a lot different from where I will be living tomorrow! Then a couple of people and I went exploring around Shinjuku--lots of lights, karaoke bars, pachinko parlors, etc etc etc...Monday we had conferences all day and workshops on how to adjust to life in Japan and cultural shock...unfortunately I slept through most of those (I blame it on jet lag not the fact that they were SO boring) and then we had some pretty cool seminars on japanese popular culture--telling us all about the popular J-pop bands and manga/anime to watch and discuss with the kids. Then we had a huge dinner with all the big wigs of CLAIR (the gov agency that not only sponsers but basically runs the JET programme). We were not allowed to drink or eat until they said kanpai (cheers) and then proceeded to drink lots of japanese beer. During dinner I met all the Irish Jets and have decided they are the ones to hang out with, since Irish are the best after all. After that everyone from our prefecture (Aichi) went out for karaoke, which let me tell you is AWESOME in japan! They take you to a small room with lots of black lights and disco balls and its all you can drink for 2000 yen! We sang for hours--mostly backstreet boys and awful american music and even tried some japanese songs...those didn't work too well! Then came home went to bed and am now getting ready for breakfast and another day of conferences, cant wait!!