Sayonara Party

This post is coming to you a week after the fact, but it could never be too late to share pictures like this...



These guys cracked us up all night long. We talked about Tupac and Biggie Smalls, and whether you could truly love them both. The guy in the red Brooklyn hat was claiming ties to both east and west coast, and that his dad is an African-American from New York. Then I asked his friend in the crazy big glasses who he likes. When he said Michael Jackson, I expressed my shock and disappointment, letting him know we couldn't be friends anymore. He almost made up for this when he told me he also likes the Red Hot Chili Peppers. From then on, if there was a lull in conversation or a psuedo-arguement, he would just yell out "MICHAEL JACKSON!"
What?! He stole my technique! When I'm teaching, if I notice kids are starting to lose interest or blank out, I just stop and yell out "Michael Jackson!". Those heads come right up off the desks! Works every time. To see that this also happened randomly at a party should give you a hint as to how popular and/or infamous MJ is here.
I'm still crackin up from this all... was this party really in Japan? I asked these guys who their favorite Japanese bands are, and I sadly, had never heard of them. If only eastern culture could infiltrate the west as thoroughly as west does east. I gotta start doing my homework!

The night included plenty of eating drinking and carrying on. Fireworks were launched from the ledge in the background of this picture. Not sparklers either. Roman candles and up. Totally legal.




What would be a party without Hard Gay? This guy is freakin everywhere! He could be Japan's equivalent of Michael Jackson. But when I saw this guy's pubes, it was time to say goodnight, grab Mike, and jump on a bike.

-Colleen

Punchi's Puppies

Tetsuya's dog Punchi had puppies! If we could have pets, we might have left Pippa's going away party with one of these 2 adorable creatures. Tetsuya said he wanted to throw them in the river, but just couldn't do it. He likes to pretend he's hard, but he was cradling these cuties just like the rest of us. Anyone out there need a furry friend?

-Colleen

Summer Sound Festival

Yesterday was an odd one in Ichinomiya as the town hosted the Summer Sound Festival and all of these young people appeared out of nowhere. I'd been looking forward to the festival for quite a few weeks as it meant we would finally get to see our friend Bora perform live. Bora is the town's #1 rapper. He and is boys (The One North Crew) actually put on quite a show and in my book we're only upped by one other act, the live band hip-hop band Improve from Osaka from whose stage show and energy were high up there. The other acts weren't really worth mentioning except for the pop band Fakespear - and they are only worth it for their hilarious front man (almost as ridiculous as their name, and that's saying a lot).


BORA


IMPROVE


FAKESPEAR

Aside from the music, all the regular festival activities were on hand as well. Lots of fried food, games, beer, BINGO. We even tried some miso candy (as in miso soup) that was great. And of course whenever there are more than five children together, that means I'm bound to turn into the human jungle gym at some point. These girls were awesome, despite their rather unusual way of introducing themselves with slaps and punches.




We also bounced across the street at Tetsuya's bar a few times - and spent about five hours afterwards there - for fellow ALT Pippa's going-away party, which was interwoven (unofficially) with the fest. Colleen's gonna write more about the antics over there soon. Great night all around.

Mike

Bigfoot

Crazy, eh?
Thought you could use a little gore in your life :) This was taken the day after my injury, right before I went to see the doctor (June 4th) It's all better now, don't worry! I just didn't feel like bothering with an "after" shot.

Instead, here I am with the underdog team. Aren't we cute?



-C

1000 paper cranes

Today I was scheduled to teach and explain interview test results with one of my classes. Instead, I spent a couple hours with the students folding origami cranes. We didn't stop until we had 1000. If you know of this tradition (or visited the former site of the world trade center) then you know we weren't celebrating this chance to skip class.

One of our students has been in the hospital since Saturday, and we are not sure when he'll wake up, or what state he'll be in if he does. He had a really serious accident while practicaing Judo. We are all waiting, hoping for the best. The Judo teacher has been at the hospital this whole time since it happened. I can't imagine how he must be feeling. The teachers and administrators are being really sensitive with the issue; carefully choosing what they say about it to the students, if they say anything. At first the principal told us not to talk about it at all, but a couple teachers were upset, especially the one planning the paper cranes.
In addition to making cranes, his classmates all took turns recording a message on tape, so that it could be played to him in the hospital. How cool it will be if they help him wake up.

Please send your love.

-Colleen

Rainy Season

Rainy season is winding down here & it has been horrible - and I even managed to miss out on the worst of it while I was back in the states. Imagine everything bad about summer (ridiculous humidity, constantly sweating, bugs) with none of the good stuff, mainly the sun. There hasn't been a wholly sunny day since I got back. Maybe some mornings or half-days with sun, but the skies surely get nasty and grey before too long. The real downside of the 'rainy season' is the actual lack of rain. It's all tension, no release. Most days it only to rains a couple drops for a few minutes in the evening.

I've come to realize what a fool I've been telling people on both sides of the Ocean that Ohio is just "a little" less humid than here. HA. It's like comparing the Sahara and the Amazon. IT IS GROSS HERE. This weekend marks what is usually the end of the rainy days - and last night the sky finally broke out in a fierce storm - so I expect I'll be sunbathing again soon in no time.

Mike


PS: Update from Colleen
In Japanese, "rainy season" = "tsuyu" つゆ

Yeah, he's right. It's humid!
That's another fun word; humid = mushi atsuii
mushi = bug, and atsuii = hot.
I'm on a roll here, so 1 more; mizu mushi = athlete's foot (mizu = water)

Lately, as soon as I get home and get a cool shower, I don't mind "tsuyu" so much. The mountains & rice fields are a spectacular green after the rain. Also, I have an excuse to indulge in things like ice cream.
The *most* important reason I could care less about the weather; I CAN WALK AGAIN!! It feels so great to be able to ride a bike to work, that I don't care about the sweat dripping all over my body when I get there.
-Colleen

Job Fodder

Less than a week back and already people are throwing j*b offers at me like Mardi Gras beads. At least I didn't have to show off the goods to get them. I really don't understand. My only guess is that all the hard-working people we know have grown tired of me boasting about my idyllic lifestyle and are out to even the score for Year Two. While I'm not thrilled about having a j*b again, I could use the money. This week I start two teaching-related part-time endeavors. I'm pretty sure one of them is more volunteering/community service as no mention of payment has been made, but the other pays more than enough that I'm not worried about it. Not nearly as much as I'm worried about the eight-hour day I have to start in two hours. SCARY.

Mike

B.A.C.K.

Another 26 consecutive hours of travel and I'm right back in Japan. And the flight back this time was the best yet. I got to spend the 13-hour trip from Chicago sitting next to a three-(and-a-half)-year-old and she was far more entertaining than any of the airline-provided entertainment. It's been a while since I had prolonged exposure to an english-speaking child, so I forgot that questions like "why are you taking your shoes off?" can be the most difficult to answer. She even drew a portrait of me:



And even though I haven't done anything except unpack, it's good to be back home. The fact that I'm still adjusting to the time difference might even help me get up in the middle of the night to watch the World Cup with its 3:45am game time over here.

Mike