update

so my computer has been out of commission due to a bunk ac adaptor, but now i am back in business. thanks ben. so much has been going on…where to start.
this weekend was a blast. liz and i went to an earthquake charity concert at the community center, which was hosted by one of my students and his band. they sang a bunch of old tunes in impeccably well pronounced English…the beatles, country road, which is really popular here, who knows why. there was also a two-day concert/Christmas party at the university. they have a recreation building with a room lined with couches and a stage made from beer crates and plywood. liz and i showed up on saturday night and were, of course, the only foreigners. it is so interesting though…we knew quite a few people there and had to spend a lot of time when we arrived making the rounds, saying hello. a while ago, many of these people were reluctant to talk with us, save for one outgoing fella we met at the culture festival who has kinda been our source of info. now they all wave and make some effort at conversation. also interesting, the girls don’t seem quite so catty here and many are curious enough about us to introduce themselves and chat. it helps that many of them are studying English in college. they had a dj, bands, and some variety type acts. saturday night i won a door prize and was proud that i understood enough of what they were saying to realize i had garnered a 10$ gift certificate to the department store. sunday night was much more crowded. a friend told us they were having a Christmas party after the show and drew us a map. carrie, liz and i drove around trying to match the kanji writing on the paper to that on the front of restaurants. it was a hoot when we finally found the place. ended up retiring back to the dorms for an after-party. all of the students live in dorms until graduation. at home it’s deemed a bit dorky but here, i guess the other option, living with your parents, is even less attractive. nothing like hanging out in a dormitory rec room to make you feel a lil’ old.
finally discovered the secret to the local market. it only sets up on days ending in a 4 and 9. how bizarre. they block off the street behind my apartment and sell all sorts of stuff.



these are daikons, big radishes, that are in season now. you see them hanging from porches everywhere. it's the grated white stuff that's served with some sushi.


last weekend we had practice for the play here in joetsu so the whole crew descended upon the city. friday was the last open mic show of the year at one of the only live music venues in town. a huge crowd turned out and there are always lots of foreigners at these events. saturday was also carrie’s birthday so mel and i deserted the play cohorts to attend her dinner party. it was about 10 foreigners but mostly middle-aged japanese teachers and their friends. it was nice to have a chance to chat with them because i don't often get to pick the brains of people in that demographic.
carrie and i

whenever you have a group eating out, it's common to get your own room. this one seated 25 of us. we all paid 2,800 yen for all-you-can drink in 2 hours and a set course of food which they bring in over the 2 hours. there is also a karaoke machine in every room. all these lemons are from making lemon chu-hais, a mix of shochu liquor, soda water and fresh squeezed fruit. they are not too sweet, smooth and dangerous.

the talk of the town lately has been the unusually warm weather. everyone is surprised it hasn’t snowed yet. i think what good luck.
i have been teaching about Christmas traditions in America, when and how we decorate trees [including how ben always picked me up to put the angel atop the tree], what we eat, all the info about santa claus and what kind of presents we buy. we’ve been making snowflakes too which i hung on the window in the teacher’s room. they aren’t much for decorating the school so everyone got a kick outta that.


leaving tuesday night for Tokyo. we’ll fly outta there wednesday. it’s about a 4 hour flight to Bangkok. waku waku suru…means exciting. click here if you want to check out where i am heading. this site was designed by my friend who is organizing the whole escapade.

this is a shot of one of the thousands of pachinko parlors.

random karaoke shot of michelle and megan. they are going to thailand with us.

mel and i out causing trouble.


merry christmas. i'll be thinking about you all as i swing in my hammock overlooking a deserted beach and sip a cocktail in 90 degree weather. xoxo

work stress

Wednesday was one of my most trying days yet professionally. I wasn:t nervous during the week leading up to the big meeting. It wasn:t until the day of, when all the teachers and vice principals and principal began patting me on the back and wishing me good luck, telling me not to be nervous, i:d do fine. Huh? I wasn:t completely aware of the importance of the gathering or its size. About 20 first term teachers from around the area were gathering at minamishiro koko to have a workshop and observe team-teaching in action. That was my cue…the lesson plans we had labored over for weeks were being honed at the last minute, everyone was a buzz, I was in my best suit and even changed into a conservative nose ring [is that an oxymoron?]. the first class we had mock Paralympics. We gave each student a country and played 5 games to simulate handicapped competition [although I conceived of and prepared 4 of the games, the teacher went on about how she:d thought of these ideas to mimic disabilities. I just stuck to the script like a good jet]. We blindfolded them and threw balls for them to catch. We made them hop on one foot to find and pick up pieces of paper on the floor which answered grammar questions. We even had a medal awards ceremony. It was fun and educational, a success. The second class is one I don:t normally teach and it:s full of shy, unmotivated kids. Of course, we had even more observers this time around; they outnumbered the kids. I played much more of an assistant role and toured the classroom urging the students to do their work, put cell phones away and quit eating during the lesson. I do usually enjoy myself in the classroom, although it:s trying at times. I find I relate well to the students on a number of levels which allows me to be true to my goofy ways and not-so-serious antics. The school, being lower level academically, also provides an environment where creative teaching methods are encouraged since the kids won:t pay attention otherwise. After the demos were over, I was so pleased by all the compliments I received [the ones I could understand anyway. My name came up frequently surrounded by quickly spoken Japanese that left me clueless.] One of the visiting teachers complimented my effective discipline, getting the students to stash cell phones and do their worksheets. They don:t know all I was saying to them in Japanese was :this is an important day. we have to be serious since we have visitors. Please put your phone away. You can:t eat while all these people are watching: which is kind of cheating I figure. Some of the other teachers commented on the rapport between the Japanese teachers and I, interesting considering it was the night school senseis, who I spend the least time with and don:t consider myself very close too. They were envious of the roles we played in class and how we shared instructional time seamlessly. My principal commented on my self-confidence [we discovered after pawing through my dictionary], saying it made me effective in classes like minamishiro:s where the students can be tough [uchiyama sensei translated that part for me]. I told him I was hoping to talk with him about an honest critique and next year:s contract. He asked if I wanted to stay and said he:d really like for me to sign up for another year. Yeah, professional fulfillment. After all that stress, the teachers headed out to an enkai [these crazy drunken parties] at 10 pm, on a school night. We hit a restaurant close to my apartment for nabe, a dish popular in the winter, and yakitori. Nabe is a huge pot on a burner at the table. When the thin broth begins to boil, you dump in tons of cabbage, chunks of onions, carrots, pieces of salmon, scallops, mussels, mushrooms, fish cake balls and other random treats. Absolutely delicious. There was also an array of yakitori, grilled meat, usually some part of a chicken, on a stick basted with a sweet, sticky teriyaki-like sauce. The white meat and green onion was great…I tried to brave the tori kawa [chicken skin] but couldn:t finish it…I smelled a kanzo [liver] but quickly put it back when no one was looking [well, inamata sensei saw but he:s cool]. We stayed there until about one thirty drinking beers, momo and limon chu hais [shochu liquor, a bit of soda water and hand squeezed peach and lemon juice]. Quite a day.

workin' for the weekend

i’m whiling away another friday afternoon at nest, the swanky internet café down the street from my apartment. just finished their lunch special, which was a bizarre sampling of omelet smothered in ketchup [all their omelets are only egg patties, no filling], two small sausage links resting in a bed of sauerkraut, two small ham sandwiches on crusty baguette, tabaraco pasta [tiny fish eggs], salad and onion soup. pretty tasty. i’m working on my second pot of hot tea which may explain the rambling.
it’s getting really nippy here; they’re expecting snow in the mountains surrounding joetsu this weekend. i’ve taken to wearing leg warmers under my work clothes…for function, not simply because i grew up in the flash dance era. my car is currently at the shop getting its snow tires. scary, eh?
i’m glad to have a weekend in town. we’ve been traveling so much to practice for the musical. last weekend we went to murakami, one of the northernmost cities in the prefecture. we drove a back road along the coast [we didn’t know you could get there via expressway due to faulty directions. it took us about 3.5 hours on the scenic route] which passed through a huge forest with hundreds of uniform trees planted close together that formed intersecting lines no matter which direction you viewed them from. we expected ninjas to peek around a trunk any second. there was also a humongous, maybe 50 ft tall, stone Buddha statue standing sentinel over an aging temple. after practice we headed out to a bar called pakistan, which happened to have djs that night, where ellen and i met a few Japanese guys.

after the bar closed at 1 they whisked us away to a karaoke box. so interesting. they had pictures on the wall of each room and you could choose the theme you liked best. one was like a diner, one was all purple, one was black and white. we went for iridescent disco.

then we hit up a 24 hour greasy spoon before heading back to ellen’s apartment. the guys wouldn’t let us pay for anything and even gave us cab fare home [which turned out to be an overestimate so we made money on the deal]. due to the frequency of practices for this musical endeavor i’ve been forced to miss a lot of interesting stuff which is a drag. our school’s christmas party is a weekend when i’ll be outta town dammit. i keep telling myself that the musical is another new experience which to file away. i’ve always been interested in theater and dancing, but now that i see what a commitment it is, i’ve decided that i’ll stick to just dancing in clubs.
on wednesday i finished my vaccinations for thailand. what a relief. although the hospital visits got increasingly easier to deal with, it remains a frustrating task. i went ahead and sprung for a tetanus shot too, something i should have been keeping up to date. i’ll need it anyway if the papua new guinea trip i have in the works pans out.
so you all don't feel like i'm getting left out...they are already aggrivating the bejesus out of me by piping christmas music and displaying plastic decorative crap in every store. even the street speakers, which line the sidewalks of the main roads in town, are playing english carols already. happy freakin' holidays.