For You Michael Jackson Fans..

So this is totally unrelated to my stay in Japan, but I was thoroughly impressed and had to share. So if you love Michael's music, you have to watch this:



Thanks be to Kevin who showed me this.

Things to Do

When talking with co-workers Marisa and I said that we wanted to join some groups or classes around town and found out that they have some people that get together to play basketball every Monday night for a couple hours. So I was invited to go watch and play with them. I didn’t have inside gym shoes (required to play in there) so I just went and watched the other week. I finally found out a place where there are young single people. The team was made up of single guys in their 20s or early 30s. There used to be girls, but I guess they all got married and pregnant, so they don’t play anymore. That’s too bad. So I watched, and it looked like it would be playing with a group of guys like I used to up in Seattle or Portland, but this time around I wouldn’t know anyone, and I wouldn’t even be able to really get to know them, because I can’t really talk to them. Plus, I think I make them nervous being a foreigner with blonde hair and such. So it might be awkward if I go play. And I haven’t played in a really long time, so I wouldn’t even be very good. Right now I’m still debating on whether to actually play with them. They said I could just show up when I wanted so I don’t have to like join their team, so we will see.

On another note, my request to start a folk dance class was approved. It'll be starting on November 20th. I wouldn’t be nervous except for the fact that again, I can’t really speak freely about things because I don’t know the language that well, but I will just have to see how it goes. I’m really excited for it. I have no idea how many people will show, if any, but whatever. I hope it will be fun for the people that do come. There is going to be an ad going out in the next town newsletter, so we’ll see how many people respond. Here are some links to watch the dances I will be teaching that I found online for anyone wondering:

D’Hammerschmiedsg’selln - Germany
http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=D%E2%80%99Hammerschmiedsg%E2%80%99selln&hl=en&emb=0&aq=f#

Doudlebska Polka - Czech Republic
http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=D%E2%80%99Hammerschmiedsg%E2%80%99selln&hl=en&emb=0&aq=f#q=Doudlebska+Polka&hl=en&emb=0

Cumberland Square - England
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5061717781478339729&ei=G6HBSsakMYzOwgOOi8DaCQ&q=Cumberland+Square+&hl=en

Canadian Barn Dance - Scotland
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cReYv8NfNpw

Road to the Isles - Scotland
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8atNdDA3oQ0

La Bastringue - Canada
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7kXysxLtpA

Rustemul - Romania
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkcWd4uJFQ8

Korobushka - Russia
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luv6fbUr1qw

Bucimis - Bulgaria
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzScEd5wy4A

Mona’s Festvals - Sweden
no vids found.

Armenian Miserlou - Armenia
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFKHxZfU32o

Salty Dog Rag - USA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6zSOC9FZTs

My Little Lizard Window Friend and the Flies

So almost every night I get a little scare when I walk into my kitchen. I walk past the window and out of the corner of my eye I see what looks like a hand pressed against the window and of course I jump and sometimes even let out a little scream/shout only to discover that it is a lizard’s underside. I don’t know why he chooses my kitchen window as his post every night, but no matter how often I see him, he continually makes me jump in small moments of fright more often than I would like.

And speaking of my kitchen, I have had a problem with little mini beasts flying around because of fruit peels and such. Trash is collected every Monday and Thursday morning, so Fruit peels just sit in a little bag in my sink and no matter how tight I tie the bag, the little devils are there. They are too small to be killed by the fly swatter because they just go through the little holes, and bug spray seems to have little or no effect. The first time I encountered them, after trying everything I could think of, I resorted to using my vacuum to suck them out of the air, and probably looked ridiculous to anyone who might have seen me thorugh my window, waving around the vacuum in the air, but that’s what I did. It wasn’t the most efficient way to go about it because it seems the vacuum only sucks like right where the hole is, so I had to sneak up on the little things and slowly draw them in, but I had to be rid of them. The whole operation was too troublesome. Yesterday though, I didn’t have my kitchen light on so the only light was from the sliding doors in my front room, and I discovered that they had migrated over to the sliding doors, and I simply had to open the doors and they all flew out. It was amazing. And Marisa told me her trick is to put her fruit peels and such in a bag in the freezer until trash day, and the little flies stay away. What a relief.

Typhoon and Freddy Dream

So there was a typhoon that came through the other day. It was raining for a couple days before it actually hit, and the day before it was getting pretty windy. Apparently it wasn’t very big, but it was the strongest Kochi has seen in 21 years. The winds were at 60km/second. People around town were calling the office about it and meetings were being held in schools about it and all that, but everything turned out alright. I closed my storm shutters and went to sleep around 11pm, with the typhoon having been predicted to hit around midnight. However, I didn’t wake up for anything, so how bad it really was I don’t know, but when I went outside to head to work that morning it was sunny with a few white clouds in the blue skies. The only evidence that the typhoon had even been through was the wet ground and remaining winds. Well, that and the fact that 2 of the umbrellas that I’ve already broken were strewn about in front of my house, lol.

Anyway, so that morning, because I had shut my metal storm shutters on the outside of my windows, it was pitch black when I woke up. I actually woke up from a scary dream and that whole morning while showering and getting ready I was all jumpy and scared. For those of you that have heard some of my dreams, you know that they can get kind of crazy and intense. It was a dream about Freddy Krueger. I don’t even know how his horror films go normally since I don’t think I’ve even seen one, but it was kind of like The Ring in a way. This particular dream was kind of disturbing and scary so you don't have to read it, but it went like this:

The idea in the dream was that if you watched one of his movies then he would come after you. After having watched his movie you would get a warning and start bleeding because of something, like cutting yourself or being hit with something. And then online you would get a riddle about how you were going to die and if you figured it out you could escape being killed by him. So it was night and my friend had a guy over and they were going to watch a movie. I told them that they absolutely couldn’t watch a Freddy Krueger movie and then I went to sleep. I woke up in the middle of the night and walked into the front room to find the only light being the snowy screen of the TV and my friend and the guy asleep on the couch. I walked up to the DVD player and found the Freddy Kruger DVD in there and knew they had watched the movie. Then they woke up and I was frantic about them having watched the movie. Because I was in the house, even though I didn’t actually watch the movie, I was now implicated. Then something flew across the room and hit my friend in the head and she started bleeding. That was the first sign. She was the first target. So we got online and sure enough, there was a riddle waiting for her. It had the numbers 20,000 and 8,000 repeated twice in it (that’s all I remember of the riddle). We were sitting on the couch trying to solve it and thinking of how much time we actually had until he struck, and then I had a flashback to something. It was like I had been involved in the same situation before but was the only one to survive the last time. I saw flashes of blood, people dead, and how they died, and I thought, it’s happening again. And then I woke up.

So anyway, I was thoroughly freaked at home that morning, but once I left the house I was fine.

School

First of all. There are a few things that I have discovered about students in Japan. First, every elementary student knows how to ride a unicycle. Second, . And third, . Anyway, school so far as been good. Well a few weeks ago I did have this class with a bunch of wapaku boys (misbehaving). They called it the ichiban mondai class (number one problem class) for all of Shimanto. They were a little crazy to say the least. Paper airplanes and balls flying all over the place, shouted conversations across the room, jumping out of seats, etc. The poor teacher, she would go to one area to try and settle them down and the rest of the class would be going crazy. Then this teacher came in and just smacked a kid on the head and told him to be quiet. In another class this one teacher grabbed a kids arm and started yanking him out of his desk really hard and then tried to fornce him to sit on the floor in the same fashion. In other words, discipline in schools here is way different than in America. I'm still working out exactly what the rules are because it seems to be the opposite for most of the time, where the teachers just ignore the problem children and continue with class. Perhaps it was just becuase I was a guest that they were cracking down. I don't know. Anyway, in Japan, kids all have the right to be in the classroom, so if they are really bad, they don't get sent out or to the principal's office but are just ignored for the most part. I hear carious stories from different ALTs of bizarre situations like this. For example, this one ALT was in class when all of a sudden a student just took out scissors and started repeatedly stabbing the wall, but the teacher just kept teaching. Discipline is done outside of class time I guess. And it's not the parent's responsibility, but the teachers's. Even if the student gets in trouble outside the calssroom and school, like with the police, they go to the school first, not the parents. The school and teachers are responsible for a large part of raising children. Therefore, teachers are a lot more respected here and it's harder to become a teacher. Pretty different huh? Anyway, I guess I will end that there. Till next post.

TV Interview

So. I was interviewed for TV the other day with Marisa. In retrospect it was fun to do, but while actually doing it I felt like a big idiot. And I dread tomorrow. That's when it first airs. Then it will continue to air for a week...14 times a day. And it doesn't stop there, they'll continue to show it periodically for some time to come. They still show interviews of people who have already left Japan. Oh gosh. Everyone is going to watch it. My students, the parents, the other teachers, my coworkers, neighbors, etc. How can they not see it when it's on 14 times a day and there are only like 4 channels to watch?! Oh gosh. I don't think I'll be able to show my face anywhere. It was all in Japanese so just for that reason I'll sound weird, and then my answers were kind of ridiculous as well. I said I was from Palmdale and it was hot there but Shimanto was more humid, and that I started getting interested in Japan when I was younger becuase my brother watched Dragonball Z and played video games and I watched and played with him. Yes, Kevin, I mentioned you (but not by name), and now they will all know what a nerd I am. Sigh. And I was talking all stilted because I was nervous. Luckily I was barely saved from 1 major embarassment. After asking what I thought of Shimanto (I said it was a lively town) the lady had skipped a question and asked the one after, which was to ask the people of Shimanto if we had a request for them, and since I was so nervous, I wasn't listening to the lady's questions, but Marisa answered first and I realized she was looking at the camera making her request. So I didn't give an answer to a different question. Ugh. That would have been the worst. Anyway, I just said that I wasn't good at Japanese yet, so please take care of me. The guy who drove us to the interview said Marisa sounded fine but he could tell I was nervous. Lol. What does that mean??!! Lol. I almost don't want to watch it. But I will. I have to. I have to find out what all the other people in this town will be seeing. Plus, we had to smile like the whole time and the muscles on my face were protesting in the form of spasms. Maybe they will edit it so I don't look so unfortunate, but I don't know if they can work such miracles. They have only had cable since April afterall. Well, I guess that is all. Pray for me people. Lol. I have to face these people who will have watched it tomorrow.