Tokyo Adventure

Actually, nothing noteworthy happened. I basically wandered around Tokyo for 4 days. The pictures do a much better job at telling the story. But here is the rough outline in writing.

At 10:30PM on Tuesday, Dec. 23rd I set off on a night bus towards Tokyo. We arrived at Ikebukuro station at 4:30AM, so I headed over the the Tsukiji fish market. It was a total mad house with lots of dead sea creatures for sale. Then I explored Ginza, went to the Imperial Palace, Hibiya park, Tokyo Tower, walked to Ropponggi district and then Shibuya. I spent the afternoon in Shibuya exploring and looking for a specific capsule hotel and I ate all-you-can-eat pizza to Shakeys (yummm). I finally found the hotel, checked in and then went out for a few drinks. That was Christmas eve.

Christmas morning I walked over to Harajuku and checked out the Meiji temple and Yoyogi park. Then, once again, I spent all afternoon looking for a specific place. Once I found it, I met up with a bunch of other English teachers (mostly from England) for an extremely expensive and miniscule turkey dinner. Then we went off to the sticks for extremely affordable all-you-can drink karaoke. Back at their apartments we continued to sing and party until very late. I got an unclaimed bunk which was nice and private but totally bare, so no pillows, blankets or pads for me.

On Dec. 26th I got to sleep in (on the empty bunk) and then one of the hosts made amazing breakfast sandwiches. I took off back to the main city and stopped by the SONY building and then Akihabara, the electronics/computer geek capital of Tokyo. I spent the night there in an internet cafe. 

The next day was probably my favorite day, which I spent at Ueno park. It is a great park with statues and museums and a zoo. I spent all day there and I could probably spend another day there. There were also some really good street street performers. That evening I headed to another part of the city to catch a band, but I could not find the venue... even with the assistance of a bilingual college student. It turns out I had the address wrong. Even though I initially wanted to go to Harajuku on Sunday morning to see the people who dress up, I decided to save some money and the struggle to find a cheap hotel and just head home. So I caught the shinkansen home and met a really nice old guy that bought me a beer in exchange for English conversation practice. 

It was a good trip. Very challenging and lonely at times, but I'm really glad I had the experience. And I learned many new things. For example, even if you have a map and an address, it can still take hours to find an establishment in Tokyo.

Japanese hospitality

Last night was the gathering at Tamura-san's house and I finally got a real Japanese home experience. There were two other football players, Franchesca, Kelsey, Me, and the Tamura family, which consisted of grandma, grandpa, Tamura's wife, and two children. The guests were treated like royalty. The made us eat home-cooked Japanese food and drink large amounts of beer and good sake... it was horrible! (sarcasm)

The whole evening was spent sitting on the tatami mats around the low heated tables (kotatsu). Early in the evening I got to chat with grandma which supported my generalization that little old Japanese obaasan are super easy to talk to. The always seem to talk very simply and slowly for me. Grandpa was the opposite. He sat right next to me and mumbled everything, but I think it was because he was perpetually smiling. He looked at me and we laughed together every time something was said, even if it was in English and not even particularly funny. 

The kids are unbelievably cute and very good at English for their age. I could tell Tamura-san was ecstatic to have 3 native English speaker in the house. Much of the evening was a language lesson (both English and Japanese). 

The picture is of Kelsey, Franchesca, the Tamura kids and me. I'm sure Grandma was just being polite, but she told me that she is waiting for me to come back and eat with them again because I live fairly close. Tempting. 

PS- It took me like 5 minutes to figure out how to flush the toilet... which was operated by remote (why is a remote necessary for a toilet ?!?!?!?!?!). I couldn't read any of the buttons and only a few of them had illustrations. But I survived without making a mess. 

The joys of miscommunication

Backstory - My second day in Joetsu I was walking along the beach and I met a group of Japanese guys. One of them knew a little English so I talked with him for a few minutes. He then invited me to play beach football* with them on the weekends. I have been meeting up with them almost every weekend and they have been good acquaintances. 

*It's actually two-hand-touch rugby, played with an American football, on the beach. However, we moved to a gym once the weather started to turn. 

Last week the English-speaker, Tamura-san, invited me to a BBQ on Dec. 20th. Cool! 

Yesterday on our way to the gym, he asked if I had free time after practice. Then he said something about "helping for a Christmas party". I ASSUMED we were going to be preparing for the BBQ.

Actually, we went to a reasonably fancy Christmas dance recital that Tamura-san was helping run. There were about 500 people in a huge theater, all wearing nice clothes, while I was wearing smelly gym clothes. I mostly did easy stuff like open doors, except for at the end they thought it would be cute for me to lead the "goodbye" line. I had to stand in front of a big line employees and yell "arigato gozaimasu!" super fast while bowing repeatedly as people exited. During the exit rush I thought I was going to pass-out. 

Afterwards we went for a few drinks with the crew and I made some new friends. It was a really good day that I didn't see coming at all.  

Notes on Japan II

A friend made me realize that I've posted a lot of complaints and criticisms about Japan. So I decided to write an entry on the things I love about Japan. 

Japan is a cash society. As a result I've not seen any checks since I got here. You get paid by direct deposit and you pay your bills at the nearest grocery store or 7-11. It's really nice. And the ATMs update your bank book. You just insert your book and it will print out your transaction history. NEAT. 

I still love Japanese food. And I really wish I could keep getting the school lunch after I go back home. 

I can keep myself entertained by using my own translation for some words. For example, "machigata" means "I made a mistake". But I laugh internally every time I hear a teacher or a student say it and I pretend they said "aaaaahh, I fucked up".

I can't believe I'm thinking in another language a little. It is not very often, but I've caught myself thinking "dekinai" (I can't do it) and "nanji?" (what time is it?). Some words are just easier to think in Japanese. 

It's not a car society. Public transportation here is cheaper and more efficient than cars. And since there is higher demand for trains/busses (when compared to the U.S.), they run more often and can get you anywhere. I think they promoted public transit by making gas, parking, and toll roads expensive. 

What I do with my spare time

Photo tour

Last weekend I took a trip down to Takasaki, Gunma, to visit another English teacher from California (Ian) whom I met before I left on my big adventure. I took all local trains to save money and to make things challenging for myself. I definitely succeeded in the latter by missing my first connection (actually, it didn't exist, I swear), so the train schedule I had written down from the internet was useless. The whole trip took about 6 hours.

Here are some photos from along the way at Muikamachi station.

Ian (yellow shirt) and I went bowling with a bunch of JET's that he didn't know either.

After that we found a small Izakaya and chatted with a few drunk old guys over some beer. It was at that establishment I discovered the world's smallest bathroom.

 

The next day I just hung out with Ian and then took the long train ride home. This trip also took 6 hours because I missed my first connection again (my fault this time). But in my defense, I only had 4 minutes to change trains and it was the biggest station of my journey (10 platforms). 

Monday was a holiday so I got to explore Joetsu a little more. I found a neat statue on my way to the aquarium, and from the aquarium roof I was able to take more pictures of Joetsu.

Notes on Japan

I was under the impression that the girls would go crazy for me over here. But I'm learning that 95% of the girls my age seem to be deathly afraid of me. When a girl sees me she acts like I'm going to steal her purse and then grind her bones ot make my bread. I met one girl that seemed excited to meet me, but it turned out that she just wanted free English lessons. My Jr. high students are a differnt story though. I get weekly marrage proposals from them.

In a similar vein, most old men look disgusted when i smile to them on the street. Old women smile back or just pretend I'm not there.

I expected the hospitality to be unbelievable. And it is about 50% of the time. Then 45% of the time the person I'm dealing with seems totally indifferent. The last 5% is outwardly rude. But every time somebody is rude I just assume they have to poop really badly.

I heard that some foreigners over here don't like to see other foreigners. I guess they want to pretend that they're the only westerners in Japan. But every foreigner I've met or seen has been really friendly or at least given me a very genuine smile/head nod. It's probably because we both know what it's like to feel like an extra-terrestrial. I've also heard that some foreigners band together in groups and only hang out with each other in an English speaking bubble. I think I have observed that, but I don't blame them because it can be hard as shit to make Japanese friends over here for some of the above-mentioned reasons.

I was going to write how nobody sits by me on the train... kinda like the smelly homeless guys on the busses back home. But during one particularly long travel day, two different women sat next to me to practice English. The first one spent the whole trip looking away from me, but then said "Have a good trip". The other was much more chatty and tried to convert me to Christianity.

Everybody told me there would be a ton of vending machines here, so I expected the streets to be lined with them... which is not the case. I thought to myself, "There aren't THAT many vending machines". Now I'm starting to realize that whenever I get the urge to waste 150 yen on a sugary, caffeinated drink, I only need to look around and there will be a vending machine in sight. It happens way too often. There are a ton of vending machines in Japan.

The "sake principal" has me totally confused. After the lesson in Japanese mind reading, most people over here told me he just wanted to relate to me and didn't know how to use the proper tone, since he's a student of the English language. But I didn't buy it because during our talk he was not smiling, he didn't need to take me into his office to have a friendly conversation about sake, and his body language was authoritative in general. Furthermore, he was not chummy after the talk like he had been for my first two weeks at the school. He totally ignored me. For some reason, today he came up to me and started talking about my car in the friendliest way imaginable. He has not acted like that since before the sake talk. I can only guess that I was well behaved during the unspoken 1-month probation period and I was let back into the club. Or maybe he just had to poop really bad that month.

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. I really missed Thanksgiving dinner and the family gathering, but I had a pretty good time over here. I met up with Franchesca and Kelsey for Thanksgiving dinner at a restaurant. I'm glad they agreed to meet me because they didn't even know it was Thanksgiving (she's English and he's Canadian). They don't sell turkey over here, but I had a hamburger steak, corn, potatoes and cesar salad :-)

It begins

We got our first snow last night. There was a tiny layer on my car when I left for school and as I drove inland the snow got thicker. Supposedly this area only receives light snowfall from late November to late December, but near the end of the year we can expect 10 feet or more. Here is a shot from my drive this morning.

I found this picture while uploading photos from my phone. Anyone care for a $60 cantaloupe? I've heard that value in Japan is determined by how much something costs... not by how much something is worth. So designer fruit makes for a very thoughtful and valuable gift.   

Recently I switched from playing basketball to volleyball during lunch recess. I became aware of an interesting trend when I saw cute little 13-year-old girls repeatedly performing face plants into the gym floor in order to keep a volley going. Then each time they would sit up and laugh hysterically. Subsequently looking around the gym I saw many interesting things. Like a group of boys that were playing volleyball with modified rules; the new object being to spike the ball into another player's face or groin. At one point, a 9th grade boy walked up behind a 7th grade boy and slapped him in the middle of the back... instantly bringing him into his knees. And another boy attempted a front flip in the gym but only managed 3/4 of a flip. That stunt even made one of the Japanese teachers shake his head. 

I know that America has it's fare share of sadistic/masochistic sports, and I've observed that many Koreans can play rough, but now it comes as little surprise to me that Japanese culture was responsible for the creation of Most Extreme Elimination Challenge (please see exhibits A and B). 

Care for a movie?

During my initial exploration of this area I stumbled into a video rental place, just to check it out. It was cool.

About a week later, I was on my way to meet my local host (Mrs. W) at McDonald's, which is right next to the video store (Side note: Mrs. W has been an enormous help to me and made me feel very welcome... almost like a Japanese aunt). I was a few minutes late, so she also explored the video store.

When I arrived she asked smiling "Did you go into that video rental store?".  I said "yes", and then she asked "Did you go to the adult section?". I said "no" and figured I must have missed it. I pictured a little roped off section in the back. She started laughing and said "They have SO much porno! You have to go see it!".

So of course, I went to see the amazing porno collection. It was unbelievable. A huge room full of shelves that were stocked from floor to ceiling with porno. I estimated almost 50,000 DVD's (trust me, I wouldn't believe it myself if I hadn't triple checked my calculations). I don't know how anyone can go in that room and not laugh.

The open road

I finally got a car! It has raised my happiness level tremendously because I'm no longer a prisoner in my apartment. Yesterday I went on a mini shopping spree and upgraded from 4cm of futon padding to 8cm. Life is good.

Driving on the left side of the road has not been a problem at all (i.e. I've not gone cruising down the wrong side yet). My only problem is that the controls on the steering column are reversed, so the windshield wipers start every time I try to use my blinkers, and I turn on my blinkers every time I try to shift into drive.

I also went on a really cool waterfall hike 2 weeks ago (on Mt. Myoko). I have to throw in some pics of that. I'll update these pics when I receive more from a fellow teacher's camera.

My coworkers

Following the lead of my favorite blog author (Az of gaijinsmash.net), I decided to assign pet names to some of my coworkers. 

Ursula - This teacher is possibly the most attractive person I've seen in Japan. However, she is a total biatch. She is every bit as grumpy and mean as she is beautiful. I first thought she was just mean to me (maybe she had a rude westerner boyfriend once... her English IS very good). For example, the first time I taught with her I came to class and peeked into the door. She whipped around to me and said "NOT YET!" in a deep, authoritative voice like Migi Sugimoto from the Japanese exploitation films of the 70's. But upon further observation I realized that she's nasty to everybody at work. I hope she calms down when she gets home everyday, otherwise I feel sorry for her husband.

Bruce Lee - First of all, this guy looks exactly like Bruce Lee. Second, I saw him play ping-pong today and he's like kung-fu lightning with a paddle. I swear he could've done a back flip between shots. I really want to see him stride up to the table with a straight face and say "A good ping-pong artist does not become tense but ready".

Bashful - I walked into the teacher's room one day and there was only one other person there... a young teacher hard at work. Since I'd never spoken to her before, I walked by her desk and said (in Japanese) "Wow, you're busy, huh?".  She blushed, gave me an open-mouthed smile and said "huuuuh, huh, huh". 

Barbie - There is a really pretty, older teacher that looks kinda dumb and ditzy. I don't know what she's saying 99% of the time, but from that 1% I can tell that she's a total airhead.

The Robot - One teacher wears the same skirt and blouse every time I see her. She walks very upright, never makes eye contact, speaks in shorts bursts, and her ponytail is pulled back very tight. I think she's a robot. 

My first lesson in Japanese mind reading

I think I got in trouble today. I was at the school where the students are mute and the principal called me into his office.

P-pal: "Please come to my office. We have to talk."

Me: "Oh, okay."

P-pal: "You know last weekend there was a sake festival."

Me: "Oh, yeah! It was f..." (interrupts me)

P-pal: "You know there is one every year. You can go and pay 1000 yen (10 bucks) and you get a glass, and you get to taste sake and drink it in the street."

Me: "Yes, I was th..." (interrupts me)

P-pal: "You know sake has 15%, like wine?'

Me: "Yes."

P-pal: "Do you like sake?"

Me: "Yes."

P-pal: (he changes the subject) "So how do you like life in Joetsu?"

Then we just chatted for a while and I left. I'm certain I was in trouble because he had a cold tone and he obviously (somehow*) knew I was there. But I have no idea what I did wrong. I understand that as a sensei, I'm more than just a teacher. I'm a role model in and out of the classroom and I am a representative of the groups I belong to (i.e. my company and all the schools). 

But I was not drunk, loud, embarrassing, or shameful in any way. I was tasting sake with 100's of Japanese people at a cultural event. I spent most of my time watching the music and dance! I definitely don't understand.

*I was warned that this is a small city and word gets around. I guess the principal or a student's parent was there (they released newsletter with my picture to all the parents, and I'm pretty easy to pick out of a crowd of Japanese people).  

Anyway, HAPPY HALLOWEEN! I hope everybody back home has fun for me. I think I'll be stuck at home watching movies tonight :-/

Routine

This job is starting to feel like work. Certain things are difficult, i.e. students in some classes would not say shit if they had a mouthful of it. My favorite part of the day is rapidly becoming lunch recess.

The school lunches are really good. Always tasty, filling, and cheap. But the problem is that we only get 15 minutes to eat and not a second more (seriously). In addition, I'm usually served a slightly bigger portion, kids/teachers try to talk to me, and I'm a slow eater. So it's always a mad dash to cram the rest of my rice, tiny salted fish bodies, tofu, and milk box into my mouth in the last 2 minutes as I watch the second hand on the clock.

Next is play time. So far I've only played basketball, but it seems that there are a few variations to the rules. It turns out that every student in the entire school (there are ~60 of them) plays in the gym at the same time. So you have a full court game in which you have to weave between the girls playing volleyball (at least they don't use a net). The end result is something like a mix between basketball and dodgeball where you may be called upon to perform a bump or a set at any given time. Last week I accidently tackled a girl, but she spiked the volleyball into the back of my head today so I guess she got her revenge.

The only other entertainment I had was last Saturday at a rice festival. I learned that when they celebrate rice, they also celebrate sake! I got to see this really cool demon dance (see UPDATE below and the video) where the guy came out and started chewing on the heads of various audience members (mine included). And I think he made one little kid wet himself.

Afterwards I did a bit of the bar scene with Ian and Matt (another new teacher from N. Carolina). We spent most of our time at a hip-hop club where all the guys were dressed like members of the Surenos. For some reason most of my drinks were paid for by chubby Japanese guys. And I'm pretty certain it wasn't gay; I think they just thought I was cool. The drinks were nice because my Japanese conversational skills go through the roof after a few beers. And not only do I become fluent, I become charming and witty as well. I wonder what it is.

UPDATE - Today I learned from my local guide that this dance is called Shishimai (lion dance). It is supposed to bring luck and a good harvest. The head-biting is a regular feature that brings luck and wisdom in old-age. Sweet... thanks lion guy.

Tom Cruise

Last night was my impromptu welcoming party. I met up with another Interac teacher (Franchesca), her fiance (Kelsey, he's a JET), and the infamous Ian. Ian is the teacher that I replaced (see Into the fire). It turns out that he is an extremely thoughtful and generous person and his beef was actually with Interac and not the schools... but I won't go into it here.

Anyway, we met up for dinner, went around to a few places for drinks, had lots of laughs, I learned a LOT of Japanese that I don't remember, and I started to fade around 4:30AM. I'm really thankful that they covered taxi rides in my Japanese learning tapes because I had no problem (I think) telling the driver my destination. The only problem was that I've not learned my address yet (It's written in kanji), so I had to take the cab to the train station and stumble home from there. I'm extremely surprised I made it all night without being sick, but I am a victim of the dreaded day-long hangover.

In other news, work has improved a lot. I had dinner with two other teachers here in Joetsu last Wednesday and they gave me some great advice. The reminded me that that I'm not a teacher, but basically a clown. My job is to entertain the kids so they have a good time and enjoy using English. I guess I was putting too much pressure on myself to TEACH. 

So lately I've been having a great time at work... just acting stupid and making the kids/teachers laugh as I drill the target vocab and grammar. I've even made a few fans in the Jr. high, because I'm single (they made sure to ask that during the question-answer session) and because I supposedly look like Tom Cruise (WTF?). Apparently most Westerners get told they look like a celebrity, because we all look the same to them (which is fair, because sometimes they all look the same to us), but why did I get Tom Cruise? I was kinda hoping to get Brad Pitt.

Into the fire

Training in Tokyo was fun. The best part was that I met a bunch of other teachers and had a great week with them. This is us (not all pictured) for drinks after training.

The next morning I went off to my new home, Joetsu city in the Niigata prefecture. It's really pretty, the beach and the mountains are both in sight and not many people speak English, so my Japanese should improve quickly.
 

Here is the apartment. It's not as small as I expected it to be.

 

And my first attempt at miso soup. Miso hungry!

Today was my first day of school. The trainers in Tokyo were very skilled and helpful, BUT they made it look way too easy. They said that you can explain games/exercises to children by acting them out... WRONG! They said that you can pull activities from thin air if you have 10 minutes to kill... WRONG! They said that you would be teaching the same lesson 30 times a week... WRONG! 

I arrived at school not knowing was I was going to do. I quickly found out that each class had a specific lesson to do and that I should've known the lesson and been prepared. NOBODY TOLD ME THAT! If they did it must've been in Japanese, because I didn't get the memo. Luckily, they had the Japanese version of the lesson books and I was able to plan 4 different lessons with activities in the hour before my 1st class. To make things worse, the teacher before me made the schools a bit unhappy (I don't know what he did), so now it's in my job description to be extra charming.

The first class was a nightmare. Teacher didn't say a single word to me and I was trying to "explain" activities (with using simple gestures, as I was taught in training) to 20 third graders that were bouncing off the walls. Impossible. 

The rest of the classes were much better because the teachers seemed to have much more control. But I was still underprepared. This is definitely a challenging job.

I have arrived in Lilliput

I finally made it! After all of the delays and paperwork I had this summer I felt like I got away with something when I made it past customs and immigration.

I felt a little guilty as I made my way through the Tokyo subway system with 100 lbs. of luggage because I didn't use any Japanese when I asked for help. At one point a tiny old lady saw me struggling with my heavy bags and said "Heavy, isn't it?".  I later saw her on the street and she said "Good luck!", and my first use of Japanese was when I thanked her. But then I got to the hotel and went through my tiny doorway, used the tiny toilet and shower, went to a restaurant and sat in a tiny chair, had a big beer and ordered/paid entirely in Japanese. The server even gave me too much credit and started saying a bunch of stuff I didn't understand... I think my blank response tipped him off that I don't know very much Japanese.

My future home in Japan

I apologize for the picture-less nature of entry, but I'll try to compensate by adding a few hyperlinks. 

I got a call from Japan today. I'm moving to a city named Joetsu, which is in the Niigata prefecture. Joetsu is kinda small (200,000 people), it's one the snowiest areas of Japan, I'm teaching in 6 schools (2 Jr. high and 4 elementary), and I have to lease a car. Fortunately, it's close to Tokyo.

I don't think that I got the best placement, but I'm still really happy to be going. And I look forward to the challenges of driving on the left side of the road in the snow and dealing with middle school kids in Japan (see the first entry of gaijinsmash.net). I guess when you're going to replace a teacher that quit for some reason, you can't expect too much.

PS- I just realized that I am not prepared to live in the snow at all. I packed for southern Japan and there is no way I'm going to find snow gear in Hawaii. Crap!

Long drives and hard drives

Today Brendan drove me around the island. I've been wanting to get up to north shore and check out Pipeline and Waimea bay, so we took the kids in Brendan's awesome new van. Overall it was a very beautiful and (relatively) long drive. To top it all off, I got lots of smiles from attractive young women while carrying my 2 y/o housemate (Gabby) across the hot sand at pipeline. I wonder why...

Yesterday my friend Glory took me to Koko head, which is a crater that has a few hundred steps leading to the top. It was a really fun hike with some great views. I think next time we'll be able to beat 25 minutes to the top.

The last interesting thing is that 2 days ago my hard drive crashed. I woke up and my computer wouldn't boot. I spent all morning resetting things and trying to open menus, but it was dead. So I took it into the Apple store and they gave me a new hard drive and a new keyboard (the plastic near mine was starting to crack). Good thing I still had 3 weeks left on my warranty! I lost all of my files but it's not that big of a deal because they're all backed up at home. I think I'm going to make due without them for the next 6 months. Basically this has been a big inconvenience, but it is just like having a new computer because the keyboard/trackpad is all clean, I've got a new hard drive, and they upgraded me to the new operating system!

Just checking in

Here is the latest.

- My flight to Japan is booked! I'm leaving on Oct. 5th. I don't know where my assignment will be yet, but I'm really excited to be going.

- I've spent the last 10 days working for my roommate and surfing mostly. Last week I had both the best day of surfing in my life, and then the worst day of surfing. On Monday I had 3 really long rides where I was carving up waist-high waves. YES!!! Then on Wednesday I surfed for 2 hours and didn't even catch a single wave, much less surf a wave. The fact that the waves died off in the middle of the week (knee-high) made it hard to catch waves, but it was really my fault for never being in the right place. 

- I've been getting some handy-man experience out here with my roommate. In the last two weeks we've managed to build a carport and an additional room off of the back of the house (under the pre-existing porch roof). Who would have thought that I would finish my masters and then become a nail-driver/concrete-mixer/painter? Brendan teases me for using terms like "hypothesis" and "activation energy" while cutting plywood.

- We went to a BBQ at a friend's house on the East side of Oahu. Took some pictures and drank some Kava (it is extracted from a root found in the Pacific islands, it gets you kinda drunk and afterwards you sleep for like 12 hours). I had a great time.

Thailand will have to wait

I just reviewed my books again and decided that I won't be able to swing a trip to Thailand. Even if I sold my car, worked really hard in Hawaii, saved every penny, and got a startup loan in Japan,  I would still be cutting it really close. 

I'm a bit disappointed but at least I get to move to Japan in 4 weeks!

A new plan

I got another call from Japan today. I learned that I can choose from three training sessions, which start on Oct. 10th, Oct 20th or Nov. 20th. Initially,  I thought that Oct. 10th was the obvious choice because I can't wait to go to Japan. But then I remembered that my good friend Dave is going to Thailand from Oct. 31st to Nov. 20th. Hmmmmmm...

 It would require some complex planning and more money than I have right now (maybe I could sell my car back home), but staying in Hawaii through October and then going to Thailand would be AWESOME. 

So that's what I'm dealing with now. I guess this week I'll work on getting a job and checking to see if this plan will work. Wish me luck!

PS- Because I know that everybody love pictures, here are a few from my exploring today. I went to Diamond Head crater.

Here is Diamond Head viewed from my street.

And the view of Honolulu from the top of Diamond Head.

Big news from Japan

Yesterday morning at 6:15AM my phone started ringing. Half awake, I looked at the incoming number for a few seconds and finally recognized it as the consulate of Japan in San Francisco. It was Mrs. Mainard calling, the lady in charge of my VISA application. She has been very frustrating to work with because she has asked me to do everything but back flips for her. But I know she was just doing her job and I can tell she worked hard for me. Anyway, she was very excited to tell me that my work VISA has been approved and that she's mailing it to Hawaii right away. I was happy, but too asleep to act excited with her.

I informed Interac (the company I'm working for, which has been awesome), and they told me that they'll get back to me next week with a departure date and maybe some placement options. They said that I'll be an alternate, which means I'll go to Tokyo and do my training while we wait for another teacher somewhere in the country to quit.

I also told Brendan that instead of staying all winter, I'll probably be moving out this month. He said something along the lines of "Of course you're moving soon, the good roommates can never stay long". But he's excited for me. I'm excited too, but a little disappointed that I'll be leaving after I just got used to the long, uphill ride into Palolo valley. 

What I did today

It's starting to look like my new roommate/landlord, Brendan, has adopted me as a buddy. He seems smart, hard-working, and fun to be around so I can't complain. Today he took me surfing, which was my first time in warm water (no wet suit needed!). 

We went to Queens in Waikiki and he had a friend hook us up with a some 10' rental long-boards. We paddled out to the main lineup, which was about 90% first-time surfing tourists and 10% locals. The whole place was like a parking lot of surfboards... by far the most crowded spot I've ever surfed. So naturally, we went furthest out with all of the locals to try and catch the "outside" breaking waves before anybody else could. After getting a few questionable glances I became self-concise of my milky white complexion and how much of a fresh-off-the-plane haole I was. I need to get a tan.

We soon got tired of fighting that crowd, so we paddled to another peak that was breaking bigger and had less people. But even though there were less surfers, they were all locals so getting in the best position was hard. That's when Brendan spotted another peak that was uninhabited, so we raced out to it. This is when we started to have fun. We got to ride any wave wanted. We also got a chance to work on our hang-5 and headstands. We took advantage of that sweet spot for as long as we could stand to surf.

After paddling in we found out that most people don't surf that peak because the reef is relatively shallow, but we didn't have any problems at all. With the exception of a sunburn, surf wax in my chest hair, and sore nipples, I walked away totally unscathed.

For the rest of the day I rode my bike around town on errands. Came home exhausted, ate dinner, and caught an uninvited guest on my bed...

Room and board

I moved into my sweet room today. 

Here is the view from the window.

And note the killer surfboard.

All summer I've been trying to update my wardrobe (at Ross) to try and dress-up a little more. I was going to Japan, after all. So while unpacking today I found it funny that I brought a bunch of collared shirts that I'll probably never wear, because I ride my (awesome) bike everywhere and sweat like a roofer. So far I've only worn shorts and wife-beaters, which I didn't bring enough of. 

Week 1 in Honolulu

It's been a great week. So much has happened that I'll present everything in list form.

- Shannon's friends have been great (Shannon is my cousin, who just moved back home after a 3 year stint in Honolulu). I keep calling Shannon and telling her how much fun I'm having with her friends and I think she's going crazy. 

I've been staying with Bryce and he's been a wonderful host. I've been sleeping on the floor with a 4 foot papasan pad and a guitar case as a pillow. It's much more comfortable than it sounds ;)

- My second day I got a bike. It's totally awesome. It's a 10 speed trek from the 80's and it rides great. I also got really lucky (so I hear) to find a bike with an oversized frame. I've done a little work on it and now it's ready to rock.

- Finding an apartment was hard! This one hippy lady had a cool room in a GREAT location, but she couldn't make up her mind and strung me along for a few days. She even called up some of my friends to learn more about me. She didn't choose me, but at the same time I had an offer to live with a really cool young family originally from SF in a really nice house. So I'm moving to Palolo tomorrow!

- On my way home from my last apartment viewing today, I saw a hole-in-the-wall surf shop. I ducked in and asked if they had any used 7'2" boards. There was this cute little yellow and green board for $125. Sold. I'm picking it up tomorrow!

I guess that's about it. I was going to wait for a few weeks to post "tutee wanted" flyers, but I'll probably get bored this week and do it then. 

Oh, and I've developed a bad addiction. I LOVE these iced coffee drinks.

Episode IV

Everything up until now has been fairly nice. I grew up in Livermore, CA (Episode I), moved to San Francisco for 8 years of school (Episodes II and III), and now I get to take a little break before going back to school next year (Episode V... coming soon). 

I had some really nice plans for Episode IV. I was going to move to Japan to immerse myself in a different culture, eat lots of great food and support myself as an English teacher for 6 months. Then I was going to travel around Asia... or maybe even the world... starting in Korea, then to China, SE Asia and then wherever else I could afford.

So for 6 months I'd been saving, learning Japanese and filling out paperwork (oh, and writing my Master's thesis). Things were going great. Then, the day after I finished writing my thesis, 4 days before my thesis defense, 6 days before I had to move out of my room, and 8 days before my flight to Japan, I got some BAAAAAD news. Due to some accidental inconsistencies in my paperwork, my case needed to be reviewed and reprocessed. A week later, I had to cancel my flight and I didn't know when or if I'd get my VISA. My bags were packed and there was nowhere to go. 

I was full of anxiety and a little bit bitter. I didn't take long to decide that I was going to move to Hawaii, find a room, get a part time job, and surf while Japan figured out what it wanted to do with me. Besides, I couldn't waste all of the awesome going-away dinners/parties that were thrown for me (Everyone had a lot of fun at those parties. They must've been really happy to see me go, haha).

Anyway, while not surfing poor+ conditions and Ocean Beach and drinking PBR, I spent last week preparing for Hawaii. Today I (re)packed my bags and tomorrow I'm flying out of Oakland. My priorities this week (in order of importance) are to find a room, a bike, a surfboard, and a job.