I'm not sure if it's wise or lazy of me to exploit my friends for their storytelling skills... possibly wise in that i recognize they're more talented than i am, and their perspective is different and interesting. probably lazy in that i'll use them for their stories instead of working to make my writing more interesting. i feel like i used to be able to carry a good story. why have i gotten so lazy about it here? especially when i have so many stories, and all this internet space (and i'm sure a large mass of devoted readers) to tell them.
So here's the latest rip-off: Becca's account of the Tochigi soccer tournament.
Becca's cockroach addition was great, but why just steal one story when she tells them all better than I do...? So I hacked my way onto her blog site and decided to rip off the following description of the Tochigi tourney... Thanks Becca!
"Oishii mizu...clap...clap....clap clap clap...oishii mizu...clap clap...clap clap clap..." [sarah's editorial: oishi means delicous and mizu means water -- our team name and slogan, you know toyama's water is the best in japan... if you lived in toyama you'd understand]
If you told me 6 months ago that I was going to be on a championship winning JET soccer team, I wouldn't have believed you. But last weekend, there I was in Tochigi, playing soccer with some of the best playuers in the ken.
To be honest, getting on the field that day, I really had no idea what to expect, and nothing could have prepared me for what I saw. There were cheerleading girls and jig- dancing boys. There were bagpipes and beaver suits, wet t-shirts and fierce contests, muscle flexing and video taping and all this before the games had even started.
On the field was a hodge podge of players. Experienced atheletes played along side soccer fans and first time players. Regardless of our strengths and weaknesses, we were the team to beat. Dressed in green, the Toyama girls were quite a force to be tackled. We had runners, water polo drivers, chain smokers, beer drinkers, snowboarders, script writers, habitual shoppers, and jazz dancers. We were a great team, 15 strong, and we were giving them the "blue steel," which until that day I would've thought was some kind of metal. At one point, I overheard one of the other girls teams watching us finish up a game. "Are they getting tired?" she said. "It looks like they're wearing them out." This of course was not the case. We went on to beat Nagano, 4 to 1.
By the end of the first day we were 3 games played and 3 games won with our most challenging game behind us. Despite our victories, the tide had changed. After game three we had twisted ankles, swollen thumbs, grass burns, bruised shins, scraped knees [sarah's editorial: this was me!], and black and blue bleeding toes [sarah's editorial: this was me too!]. Yet with three wins and only one game to play, it was in the bag. The girls had won and it was time to party.
Thursday, April 24, 2003
I'm not sure if it's wise or lazy of me to exploit my friends for their storytelling skills... possibly wise in that i recognize they're more talented than i am, and their perspective is different and interesting. probably lazy in that i'll use them for their stories instead of working to make my writing more interesting. i feel like i used to be able to carry a good story. why have i gotten so lazy about it here? especially when i have so many stories, and all this internet space (and i'm sure a large mass of devoted readers) to tell them.
So here's the latest rip-off: Becca's account of the Tochigi soccer tournament.
Becca's cockroach addition was great, but why just steal one story when she tells them all better than I do...? So I hacked my way onto her blog site and decided to rip off the following description of the Tochigi tourney... Thanks Becca!
"Oishii mizu...clap...clap....clap clap clap...oishii mizu...clap clap...clap clap clap..." [sarah's editorial: oishi means delicous and mizu means water -- our team name and slogan, you know toyama's water is the best in japan... if you lived in toyama you'd understand]
If you told me 6 months ago that I was going to be on a championship winning JET soccer team, I wouldn't have believed you. But last weekend, there I was in Tochigi, playing soccer with some of the best playuers in the ken.
To be honest, getting on the field that day, I really had no idea what to expect, and nothing could have prepared me for what I saw. There were cheerleading girls and jig- dancing boys. There were bagpipes and beaver suits, wet t-shirts and fierce contests, muscle flexing and video taping and all this before the games had even started.
On the field was a hodge podge of players. Experienced atheletes played along side soccer fans and first time players. Regardless of our strengths and weaknesses, we were the team to beat. Dressed in green, the Toyama girls were quite a force to be tackled. We had runners, water polo drivers, chain smokers, beer drinkers, snowboarders, script writers, habitual shoppers, and jazz dancers. We were a great team, 15 strong, and we were giving them the "blue steel," which until that day I would've thought was some kind of metal. At one point, I overheard one of the other girls teams watching us finish up a game. "Are they getting tired?" she said. "It looks like they're wearing them out." This of course was not the case. We went on to beat Nagano, 4 to 1.
By the end of the first day we were 3 games played and 3 games won with our most challenging game behind us. Despite our victories, the tide had changed. After game three we had twisted ankles, swollen thumbs, grass burns, bruised shins, scraped knees [sarah's editorial: this was me!], and black and blue bleeding toes [sarah's editorial: this was me too!]. Yet with three wins and only one game to play, it was in the bag. The girls had won and it was time to party.
So here's the latest rip-off: Becca's account of the Tochigi soccer tournament.
Becca's cockroach addition was great, but why just steal one story when she tells them all better than I do...? So I hacked my way onto her blog site and decided to rip off the following description of the Tochigi tourney... Thanks Becca!
"Oishii mizu...clap...clap....clap clap clap...oishii mizu...clap clap...clap clap clap..." [sarah's editorial: oishi means delicous and mizu means water -- our team name and slogan, you know toyama's water is the best in japan... if you lived in toyama you'd understand]
If you told me 6 months ago that I was going to be on a championship winning JET soccer team, I wouldn't have believed you. But last weekend, there I was in Tochigi, playing soccer with some of the best playuers in the ken.
To be honest, getting on the field that day, I really had no idea what to expect, and nothing could have prepared me for what I saw. There were cheerleading girls and jig- dancing boys. There were bagpipes and beaver suits, wet t-shirts and fierce contests, muscle flexing and video taping and all this before the games had even started.
On the field was a hodge podge of players. Experienced atheletes played along side soccer fans and first time players. Regardless of our strengths and weaknesses, we were the team to beat. Dressed in green, the Toyama girls were quite a force to be tackled. We had runners, water polo drivers, chain smokers, beer drinkers, snowboarders, script writers, habitual shoppers, and jazz dancers. We were a great team, 15 strong, and we were giving them the "blue steel," which until that day I would've thought was some kind of metal. At one point, I overheard one of the other girls teams watching us finish up a game. "Are they getting tired?" she said. "It looks like they're wearing them out." This of course was not the case. We went on to beat Nagano, 4 to 1.
By the end of the first day we were 3 games played and 3 games won with our most challenging game behind us. Despite our victories, the tide had changed. After game three we had twisted ankles, swollen thumbs, grass burns, bruised shins, scraped knees [sarah's editorial: this was me!], and black and blue bleeding toes [sarah's editorial: this was me too!]. Yet with three wins and only one game to play, it was in the bag. The girls had won and it was time to party.
Tuesday, April 22, 2003
I got into AFI!
Things are good, really good. I'm quite tired, but at least now the chronic stomach pain isn't due to AFI anxiety (now it's lack of sleep and cockroach anxiety). I was getting really stressed about it. My address isn't printed correctly on the envelope, so it may have delayed delivery a bit.
I had a great weekend playing soccer. You can see a few pictures of the tournament at http://members14.clubphoto.com/simon619630/1262445/guest.phtml
This weekend was a retreat from reality - in a bus with 30 native English speakers, then at a soccer tourney with several hundred native English speakers. Add in McDonalds and the Irish pub Saturday night (with pizza, fish and chips, black and tans, and Bass), we could have been in any semi-urban part of the world. We just happened to be in Tochigi, Japan, about an hour from Tokyo.
We spent Friday night on bus for the 7-hour drive to Tochigi - barely got any sleep due to lots of other people to talk with, frequent stops, and of course the incredibly cramped bus. We got to Tochigi at 6 am Saturday, so we had breakfast at a rest stop (rice and miso soup for me), and showed up at the pitch around 7:30... our first game was at 1:30. Saturday was a gorgeous day, and it was really fun to sit around in the grass talking, playing soccer, watching games. We played 3 games on Saturday and won all of them. Things were a little rough at first (I hadn't played since high school, and many girls had never played), but eventually we all got into a pretty good groove.
This groove was broken Sunday morning, in the cold rain, after a late night out. But anyways.
We were exhausted and starving after our 3 games - I hadn't eaten since my 6am breakfast. We checked into our hotel, which was great - everyone had a single room with private shower/bath. A long hot shower, and a few hours at the Irish pub. Luckily we went there for dinner and got seats - beat out the rest of the Jets from other teams who came for drinking later.
Sunday after hours of rain and cold (without proper clothing), we took the trophy home (girls won first place). Stopped at a sento for a too-quick but necessary bath, then another 7 or so hours home - got to Sunshine around 1am, to bed around 3... Still sleeping at Becca's, but the cockroaches are another story. Becca, care to jump in?
And Becca's contribution:
Cockroach Nightmare Came True
After the staring contest from hell, S had laid out several roach motels and after a weekend of soccer playing in Tochigi it was time to see if the mouse had taken the bait or in this case, the roach. S had been hearing sounds all last week and those sounds were confirmed to be the pesky little monsters when upon her arrival home last night, she saw a roach still moving and desperately trying to escape. This was when the craziness began.
Monday evening I received a phone call followed by an email to my cell phone - "I need serious help, when will you be home?" There was no mention of the roaches but I knew from the tone of her email that they were back! Trouble was, I was in the middle of an evening English lesson with the cutest English speaking 22 year old Japanese man I've ever seen (more on that later) and wouldn't be home until 9:00pm. And so, S made a smart move - "I'm going to leave and eat out..."
Later that night we made our way up to S's apartment to face our greatest fears - cockroaches, cockroaches and more cockroaches! There were three motels total, each of which had to be checked for roaches. Our first task, the motel behind the stove, which S had drenched with insecticide a few hours earlier.
"There's a roach in that one. I saw it moving earlier," S said.
"Where is it? I can't see it?"
"Its there,...look...."
A plastic bag shuffled at my feet.... "AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!"
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
S grabbed my arm and both of us ran screaming into the other room. Shivers ran up my spine as both of us tried to catch our breath.
"Wait, wait, wait... I've got to get this on video!"
I chuckled, happy for the bit of comic relief, but the place still reaked of fumes and personally, the chemicals along with the idea of squirmy little roaches made me sick to my stomach. "I don't know if I can do this again," I said to S. I took a deep breath and tried to regain a bit of courage. "Do you have any rubber gloves?"
A few minutes later, rubber gloves on, hanger and shoe in hand, and a plastic bag ready to disgard the traps, I made my way to the motel.
"OH MY GOD!!!"
"WHAT WHAT WHAT!!!?!?"
"There are two of them in there!?!?!"
"No..no.. don't tell me, I don't want to know..........Wait maybe keep a silent count in your head and tell me later!"
More screaming, video taping and silent counting later I managed to get the first motel into a plastic bag. One down, two to go I thought to myself. Whew! I made my way to the second trap and saw an antenae peeking out through the motel window. Ugh! Even recalling the scene now is sending shivers down my spine. By this time, S was at the other end of the apartment with her back to me and the music blasting. But like the true film-maker, the camera was strategically positioned and zoomed in on the cardboard trap.
"This music may forever be remembered as roach killing music," I told her.
Perhaps it was the music and the video taping or maybe it was all the screaming and running around that had released my apprehensions because by the time I had reached motel 2, I was totally relaxed, and what had initially felt like my worst nightmare began to feel like a science experiment and a mission to recover the findings!
Here are the results:
Motel 1 - 2 cockroaches
Motel 2 - 2 cockroaches
Motel 3 - none
Then, with a tie of the plastic baggy, the roaches were secured and ready to be taken out with the trash. YATA! Another mission completed!
Things are good, really good. I'm quite tired, but at least now the chronic stomach pain isn't due to AFI anxiety (now it's lack of sleep and cockroach anxiety). I was getting really stressed about it. My address isn't printed correctly on the envelope, so it may have delayed delivery a bit.
I had a great weekend playing soccer. You can see a few pictures of the tournament at http://members14.clubphoto.com/simon619630/1262445/guest.phtml
This weekend was a retreat from reality - in a bus with 30 native English speakers, then at a soccer tourney with several hundred native English speakers. Add in McDonalds and the Irish pub Saturday night (with pizza, fish and chips, black and tans, and Bass), we could have been in any semi-urban part of the world. We just happened to be in Tochigi, Japan, about an hour from Tokyo.
We spent Friday night on bus for the 7-hour drive to Tochigi - barely got any sleep due to lots of other people to talk with, frequent stops, and of course the incredibly cramped bus. We got to Tochigi at 6 am Saturday, so we had breakfast at a rest stop (rice and miso soup for me), and showed up at the pitch around 7:30... our first game was at 1:30. Saturday was a gorgeous day, and it was really fun to sit around in the grass talking, playing soccer, watching games. We played 3 games on Saturday and won all of them. Things were a little rough at first (I hadn't played since high school, and many girls had never played), but eventually we all got into a pretty good groove.
This groove was broken Sunday morning, in the cold rain, after a late night out. But anyways.
We were exhausted and starving after our 3 games - I hadn't eaten since my 6am breakfast. We checked into our hotel, which was great - everyone had a single room with private shower/bath. A long hot shower, and a few hours at the Irish pub. Luckily we went there for dinner and got seats - beat out the rest of the Jets from other teams who came for drinking later.
Sunday after hours of rain and cold (without proper clothing), we took the trophy home (girls won first place). Stopped at a sento for a too-quick but necessary bath, then another 7 or so hours home - got to Sunshine around 1am, to bed around 3... Still sleeping at Becca's, but the cockroaches are another story. Becca, care to jump in?
And Becca's contribution:
Cockroach Nightmare Came True
After the staring contest from hell, S had laid out several roach motels and after a weekend of soccer playing in Tochigi it was time to see if the mouse had taken the bait or in this case, the roach. S had been hearing sounds all last week and those sounds were confirmed to be the pesky little monsters when upon her arrival home last night, she saw a roach still moving and desperately trying to escape. This was when the craziness began.
Monday evening I received a phone call followed by an email to my cell phone - "I need serious help, when will you be home?" There was no mention of the roaches but I knew from the tone of her email that they were back! Trouble was, I was in the middle of an evening English lesson with the cutest English speaking 22 year old Japanese man I've ever seen (more on that later) and wouldn't be home until 9:00pm. And so, S made a smart move - "I'm going to leave and eat out..."
Later that night we made our way up to S's apartment to face our greatest fears - cockroaches, cockroaches and more cockroaches! There were three motels total, each of which had to be checked for roaches. Our first task, the motel behind the stove, which S had drenched with insecticide a few hours earlier.
"There's a roach in that one. I saw it moving earlier," S said.
"Where is it? I can't see it?"
"Its there,...look...."
A plastic bag shuffled at my feet.... "AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!"
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
S grabbed my arm and both of us ran screaming into the other room. Shivers ran up my spine as both of us tried to catch our breath.
"Wait, wait, wait... I've got to get this on video!"
I chuckled, happy for the bit of comic relief, but the place still reaked of fumes and personally, the chemicals along with the idea of squirmy little roaches made me sick to my stomach. "I don't know if I can do this again," I said to S. I took a deep breath and tried to regain a bit of courage. "Do you have any rubber gloves?"
A few minutes later, rubber gloves on, hanger and shoe in hand, and a plastic bag ready to disgard the traps, I made my way to the motel.
"OH MY GOD!!!"
"WHAT WHAT WHAT!!!?!?"
"There are two of them in there!?!?!"
"No..no.. don't tell me, I don't want to know..........Wait maybe keep a silent count in your head and tell me later!"
More screaming, video taping and silent counting later I managed to get the first motel into a plastic bag. One down, two to go I thought to myself. Whew! I made my way to the second trap and saw an antenae peeking out through the motel window. Ugh! Even recalling the scene now is sending shivers down my spine. By this time, S was at the other end of the apartment with her back to me and the music blasting. But like the true film-maker, the camera was strategically positioned and zoomed in on the cardboard trap.
"This music may forever be remembered as roach killing music," I told her.
Perhaps it was the music and the video taping or maybe it was all the screaming and running around that had released my apprehensions because by the time I had reached motel 2, I was totally relaxed, and what had initially felt like my worst nightmare began to feel like a science experiment and a mission to recover the findings!
Here are the results:
Motel 1 - 2 cockroaches
Motel 2 - 2 cockroaches
Motel 3 - none
Then, with a tie of the plastic baggy, the roaches were secured and ready to be taken out with the trash. YATA! Another mission completed!
Wednesday, April 16, 2003
It's been a while. I've been reluctant to post until I finish the soon-to-be Taiwan masterpiece. But since it hasn't been finished, I'll write a few notes about the past few weeks.
Getting back from Taiwan was rough. I loved it. I loved the energy, the dirtiness (sp?), the food, and how the people were so down to earth. It was really easy to feel like another human being in that culture, I felt much more at ease than I often do in Japan. So coming back from 85, sunny weather to 40 degrees, ever-raining Toyama was hard. Especially since I've spent the past 2 weeks sitting in the office or through ceremonies rather than teaching.
But this past week's been much better. I'm sure the weather has something to do with it - it's been sunny and beautiful. I'm also back in the classroom at Oizumi, which is good. I'm playing in a soccer tournament this weekend, and have been getting up and running, and playing soccer a little in the afternoons. Despite an upsetting cockroach incident, I'm loving my apartment, and it is getting bigger (changed the bed to a couch) and is now very clean.
So a few updates taken from e-mails, etc.
First weekend post-Taiwan. miserable, cold, rainy:
***Friday- feeling sick, basically just hung out, went to bed. Saturday, went to Nagano with a few teachers. Really fun, but terrible weather (rain/snow/cold) and I wasn't dressed appropriately. I would have been, because I brought a bag of extra clothes including gloves and a hat, but the teacher who picked me up was dressed very cutely, and insisted I didn't need it. She froze the entire day too... why would I trust Japanese for sensible clothing advice??? But I was in for a treat, and the first stop was one of my favorite museums (small scale). It's the Chihiro museum, she was a famous children's illustrator. The museum is dedicated to children's picture books from around the world, and it was amazing. So great. They also had some statues, installations, I won't really go into it because I'm feeling particularly inexpressive. But it was a beautiful museum, wooden, wonderful smell, nice cafe, etc. I was happy and at peace with the world. art museum: http://www.chihiro.jp/english/azumino/main.htm
Then off to lunch - a soba restaurant, really nice. Then a wasabi farm - interesting but too cold. wasabi can only be grown in very clean water. did you know that? then a glass museum (which was really a store - the glass products were all for sale) and an herb store where i drank herbal coffee (made from dandelion and chicory, not a good idea), and other teachers got aromatherapy hand massages. from there we drove home, and i slept in the back of the car. a really interesting, relaxing day.
sunday i did brian's tax seminar, and i now understand how to claim my tax exemptions as a foreign resident (woo hoo!). from that I ran into shay and taeko at a festival at the castle, and i partook in some hanami, or flower viewing. (http://nytimes.com/2003/04/06/international/asia/06JAPA.html) basically, it means picninic - when the cherry blossoms bloom the japanese go for eating and drinking by the banks of a river. my first impressions of hanami were good, and i'm doing it again next weekend. but the japanese obsession with sakura (cherry blossoms) are a bit obsessive: the cherry blossom front is alwyas on the news, and any speech begins with comments on the blossoms (even in feburary.. the cherry blossoms are coming... and in june i'm sure we'll still be hearing about it: the cherry blossoms have fallen or something). but they're nice.
futzed around my apartment, went to gusto's for dinner with justin. gusto's is great i've decided. When I first came to Japan, I didn't really care for japanese family restaurants (equivalent of big boy, denny's, etc. in the us). but it might have been the chicken elbow thing that turned me off. lately i've been having some decent food, cheaply. i've always loved the drink bar, of course (hot chocolate, teas, sodas, juices, coffees, what more could you want???). Last night I had bibinbop - not as good as jim's grill in chicago, but not bad! I think the difference is that since i'm accustomed to eating japanese food, i can eat the bad versions of japanese dishes and find them satifying. strange.***
So coming back from Taiwan, my schools have changed a bit. New teachers, new systems. Here's a bit about the new Nanbu (which after all the enkais, is still a stifling place to spend 8 hours of near silence...
***My enkai last night was insane. Nanbu has been transformed! The new people here are so fun and great, and I'm getting along really well with everyone. They are outgoing, go out of their way to talk to me in Japanese and English, and like to smile and laugh and drink a lot. And the 2 new young female teachers (23ish) are total party animals - they were smashed last night and pretty funny - one was flamenco dancing on stage for everyone. One is an English teacher, and the other loves movies and really wants to speak English a lot. We've already made a pact to go drinking in the near future - near being the opperative word.
I think a big differenence is the new principal - he's younger, attractive (not like that) always has a broad smile, and walks around and talks to the teachers in the staff room. He's nice!***
I also had my interview for AFI last week. Wednesday morning, 7:15 am. I'm not sure how it went. I was a little out of it, woke up with a cold, but hopefully that wouldn't affect my chances. I just found out today that Anna (my roommate from NU) got into the directing program at AFI - congratulations Anna! I should hear anytime - they were supposed to mail the descisions on April 15th.
Last weekend was good, but busy. I hung out with Justin Friday night - we were going to have a movie theme night of Brian de Palma, since I'd never seen any of his films (apart from Mission Impossible), and just read some interviews with his two main editors. But that night, I knew I wasn't up for Carrie (had been having bad dreams, especially after seeing Vanilla Sky (yuck) Wednesday). So we got The Wild One, with Marlon Brando, and The Wild Bunch, with a lot of people. Unfortunately, didn't make it through the Wild Bunch yet.
Saturday was supposed to be Hanami (picinic under cherry blossoms) with Justin's Tateyama crowd, but it was pouring. Instead, we ate Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki, which is hard to explain. Basically, two pancake type things of pork, egg, flour(?) sandwiching yakisoba - fried soba noodles with special sauce. I had mine with kimchee (korean red pepper spice that's used in Japan with cabbage). It was wonderful, but threw my digestion off track for the rest of the weekend (or maybe it was the alcohol).
Then to kareoke, which would have been fun if we had stopped after 2 hours. After 3 and a half, I was outside on the rainy sidewalk alone, in severe stomach pain (think kareoke, florescent lights, and a chain smoker in a cramped, unventilated room for that long), waiting for everyone to finish. They did, and we went back to Sunshine.
At this point, Becca and I weren't feeling like calling it a night (8pm) so we got sushi and a salad for dinner and went to Takaoka (Ann Arbor-sized city a half hour away) to join a small house party and visit a bar.
Next morning, we had proper hanami. It was a beautiful day, and the park in Takaoka is amazing. The sakura were in full bloom, and the park was full of families and friends having picinics (there was literally nowhere to sit, and the line for the bathroom took 30 minutes). But it was great. We hung out for a while and made it back to Toyama for girls soccer practice. Playing soccer again is fun!
Next is the cockroach incident that happened earlier this week. I'll let Rebecca explain this one (from her website)
***First off....HOLY COW was that cockroach big! Okay...here's what happened.
THE CALL FOR HELP:
After hitting the snooze button a few times my phone rang. "Are you awake?" she said. "Yeah...I'm awake," in my groggy morning voice. "There's a huge cockroach in my room. Can you come up?" Realizing the extent to which the cockroach had paralyzed poor S, I agreed to go upstairs, but not before brushing my teeth, or so I thought. As I got myself out of bed and into the bathroom, the phone rang again. "I think you should bring a book or something to hit it with....and hurry!" I could see things were getting intense upstairs. Oh well, I thought...morning breath can wait.
AN END TO THE STARING CONTEST
I came into a very very tense room. At that point, it was pretty much a stand off between S and the roach. The starring contest had left S petrified and standing by the door when I arrived. "It's under the tin," she said." Apparently the roach had made its way under an oven tray to take cover. I peeked into the kitchen to survey the scene. WHOA!!! I almost couldn't do it myself. *UGH* I thought, if I didn't hurry up and get it over with, I'll be exactly where that roach wants me...huddled in the corner calling for backup. I took a deep breath and signaled to S... "OKAY I'll just do it!" *SMACK*.....wiggle wiggle wiggle........ *SMACK* "Okay, its done." WHEW! That wasn't so bad, I thought to myself.
"Do you have something to sweep it up with?" I asked.
"Uhh...how bout some toilet paper??"
"No..no no..too thin!!!" I said, grossed out at even the idea of touching a juicy dead roach with a thin piece of toilet paper.
Sarah handed me a flyer. I had to do this without thinking and so, with one swift scoop, I swept the monster onto the flyer and into the trash it went.
Wow...can you imagine?? All this excitement and I hadn't even brushed my teeth! I don't think I was even fully awake. What a morning!***
And then yesterday (from my other site):
***This cockroach thing has scarred me. First, I should say that yesterday afternoon I gave my apartment a very thorough cleaning, disinfecting, vaccuming, etc. I also permanantly made my bed into a couch and am now sleeping on a futon on the floor. So last night, on my floor in my clean apartment, I woke up around 2,2:30 am, sat straight up in bed, and I think in my mind or dream I saw a cockroach. So. Lying wide awake on my floor, I heard these little noises. clicks, little thumps. I was convinced there was another cockroach in my kitchen, and it was flying around or something. I was terrified, had no idea what to do. I would have called Becca to call her up to search and destroy, but it was now near 3am, so I called my mother who told me to just go turn the light on, see if there was one, and kill it. Instead, I moved my futon into the tatami room, shut the sliding doors, turned on the music, and lay awake for another 30 minutes, dying to go the the bathroom and get a drink of water, but too scared of going near the kitchen.***
Cockroach update: in addition to the poison that's been out all year, I bought cockroach hotels and garbage fresheners yesterday (even though I mean to take out the trash daily, doesn't hurt if it smells lemony!)
Since I didn't want to listen to the cockroaches checking in last night, and couldn't close my sliding doors due to laundry day, I slept at Becca's place.
That's it for now. Taiwan stories are soon to come. Take care, Happy Easter,
Sarah
Getting back from Taiwan was rough. I loved it. I loved the energy, the dirtiness (sp?), the food, and how the people were so down to earth. It was really easy to feel like another human being in that culture, I felt much more at ease than I often do in Japan. So coming back from 85, sunny weather to 40 degrees, ever-raining Toyama was hard. Especially since I've spent the past 2 weeks sitting in the office or through ceremonies rather than teaching.
But this past week's been much better. I'm sure the weather has something to do with it - it's been sunny and beautiful. I'm also back in the classroom at Oizumi, which is good. I'm playing in a soccer tournament this weekend, and have been getting up and running, and playing soccer a little in the afternoons. Despite an upsetting cockroach incident, I'm loving my apartment, and it is getting bigger (changed the bed to a couch) and is now very clean.
So a few updates taken from e-mails, etc.
First weekend post-Taiwan. miserable, cold, rainy:
***Friday- feeling sick, basically just hung out, went to bed. Saturday, went to Nagano with a few teachers. Really fun, but terrible weather (rain/snow/cold) and I wasn't dressed appropriately. I would have been, because I brought a bag of extra clothes including gloves and a hat, but the teacher who picked me up was dressed very cutely, and insisted I didn't need it. She froze the entire day too... why would I trust Japanese for sensible clothing advice??? But I was in for a treat, and the first stop was one of my favorite museums (small scale). It's the Chihiro museum, she was a famous children's illustrator. The museum is dedicated to children's picture books from around the world, and it was amazing. So great. They also had some statues, installations, I won't really go into it because I'm feeling particularly inexpressive. But it was a beautiful museum, wooden, wonderful smell, nice cafe, etc. I was happy and at peace with the world. art museum: http://www.chihiro.jp/english/azumino/main.htm
Then off to lunch - a soba restaurant, really nice. Then a wasabi farm - interesting but too cold. wasabi can only be grown in very clean water. did you know that? then a glass museum (which was really a store - the glass products were all for sale) and an herb store where i drank herbal coffee (made from dandelion and chicory, not a good idea), and other teachers got aromatherapy hand massages. from there we drove home, and i slept in the back of the car. a really interesting, relaxing day.
sunday i did brian's tax seminar, and i now understand how to claim my tax exemptions as a foreign resident (woo hoo!). from that I ran into shay and taeko at a festival at the castle, and i partook in some hanami, or flower viewing. (http://nytimes.com/2003/04/06/international/asia/06JAPA.html) basically, it means picninic - when the cherry blossoms bloom the japanese go for eating and drinking by the banks of a river. my first impressions of hanami were good, and i'm doing it again next weekend. but the japanese obsession with sakura (cherry blossoms) are a bit obsessive: the cherry blossom front is alwyas on the news, and any speech begins with comments on the blossoms (even in feburary.. the cherry blossoms are coming... and in june i'm sure we'll still be hearing about it: the cherry blossoms have fallen or something). but they're nice.
futzed around my apartment, went to gusto's for dinner with justin. gusto's is great i've decided. When I first came to Japan, I didn't really care for japanese family restaurants (equivalent of big boy, denny's, etc. in the us). but it might have been the chicken elbow thing that turned me off. lately i've been having some decent food, cheaply. i've always loved the drink bar, of course (hot chocolate, teas, sodas, juices, coffees, what more could you want???). Last night I had bibinbop - not as good as jim's grill in chicago, but not bad! I think the difference is that since i'm accustomed to eating japanese food, i can eat the bad versions of japanese dishes and find them satifying. strange.***
So coming back from Taiwan, my schools have changed a bit. New teachers, new systems. Here's a bit about the new Nanbu (which after all the enkais, is still a stifling place to spend 8 hours of near silence...
***My enkai last night was insane. Nanbu has been transformed! The new people here are so fun and great, and I'm getting along really well with everyone. They are outgoing, go out of their way to talk to me in Japanese and English, and like to smile and laugh and drink a lot. And the 2 new young female teachers (23ish) are total party animals - they were smashed last night and pretty funny - one was flamenco dancing on stage for everyone. One is an English teacher, and the other loves movies and really wants to speak English a lot. We've already made a pact to go drinking in the near future - near being the opperative word.
I think a big differenence is the new principal - he's younger, attractive (not like that) always has a broad smile, and walks around and talks to the teachers in the staff room. He's nice!***
I also had my interview for AFI last week. Wednesday morning, 7:15 am. I'm not sure how it went. I was a little out of it, woke up with a cold, but hopefully that wouldn't affect my chances. I just found out today that Anna (my roommate from NU) got into the directing program at AFI - congratulations Anna! I should hear anytime - they were supposed to mail the descisions on April 15th.
Last weekend was good, but busy. I hung out with Justin Friday night - we were going to have a movie theme night of Brian de Palma, since I'd never seen any of his films (apart from Mission Impossible), and just read some interviews with his two main editors. But that night, I knew I wasn't up for Carrie (had been having bad dreams, especially after seeing Vanilla Sky (yuck) Wednesday). So we got The Wild One, with Marlon Brando, and The Wild Bunch, with a lot of people. Unfortunately, didn't make it through the Wild Bunch yet.
Saturday was supposed to be Hanami (picinic under cherry blossoms) with Justin's Tateyama crowd, but it was pouring. Instead, we ate Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki, which is hard to explain. Basically, two pancake type things of pork, egg, flour(?) sandwiching yakisoba - fried soba noodles with special sauce. I had mine with kimchee (korean red pepper spice that's used in Japan with cabbage). It was wonderful, but threw my digestion off track for the rest of the weekend (or maybe it was the alcohol).
Then to kareoke, which would have been fun if we had stopped after 2 hours. After 3 and a half, I was outside on the rainy sidewalk alone, in severe stomach pain (think kareoke, florescent lights, and a chain smoker in a cramped, unventilated room for that long), waiting for everyone to finish. They did, and we went back to Sunshine.
At this point, Becca and I weren't feeling like calling it a night (8pm) so we got sushi and a salad for dinner and went to Takaoka (Ann Arbor-sized city a half hour away) to join a small house party and visit a bar.
Next morning, we had proper hanami. It was a beautiful day, and the park in Takaoka is amazing. The sakura were in full bloom, and the park was full of families and friends having picinics (there was literally nowhere to sit, and the line for the bathroom took 30 minutes). But it was great. We hung out for a while and made it back to Toyama for girls soccer practice. Playing soccer again is fun!
Next is the cockroach incident that happened earlier this week. I'll let Rebecca explain this one (from her website)
***First off....HOLY COW was that cockroach big! Okay...here's what happened.
THE CALL FOR HELP:
After hitting the snooze button a few times my phone rang. "Are you awake?" she said. "Yeah...I'm awake," in my groggy morning voice. "There's a huge cockroach in my room. Can you come up?" Realizing the extent to which the cockroach had paralyzed poor S, I agreed to go upstairs, but not before brushing my teeth, or so I thought. As I got myself out of bed and into the bathroom, the phone rang again. "I think you should bring a book or something to hit it with....and hurry!" I could see things were getting intense upstairs. Oh well, I thought...morning breath can wait.
AN END TO THE STARING CONTEST
I came into a very very tense room. At that point, it was pretty much a stand off between S and the roach. The starring contest had left S petrified and standing by the door when I arrived. "It's under the tin," she said." Apparently the roach had made its way under an oven tray to take cover. I peeked into the kitchen to survey the scene. WHOA!!! I almost couldn't do it myself. *UGH* I thought, if I didn't hurry up and get it over with, I'll be exactly where that roach wants me...huddled in the corner calling for backup. I took a deep breath and signaled to S... "OKAY I'll just do it!" *SMACK*.....wiggle wiggle wiggle........ *SMACK* "Okay, its done." WHEW! That wasn't so bad, I thought to myself.
"Do you have something to sweep it up with?" I asked.
"Uhh...how bout some toilet paper??"
"No..no no..too thin!!!" I said, grossed out at even the idea of touching a juicy dead roach with a thin piece of toilet paper.
Sarah handed me a flyer. I had to do this without thinking and so, with one swift scoop, I swept the monster onto the flyer and into the trash it went.
Wow...can you imagine?? All this excitement and I hadn't even brushed my teeth! I don't think I was even fully awake. What a morning!***
And then yesterday (from my other site):
***This cockroach thing has scarred me. First, I should say that yesterday afternoon I gave my apartment a very thorough cleaning, disinfecting, vaccuming, etc. I also permanantly made my bed into a couch and am now sleeping on a futon on the floor. So last night, on my floor in my clean apartment, I woke up around 2,2:30 am, sat straight up in bed, and I think in my mind or dream I saw a cockroach. So. Lying wide awake on my floor, I heard these little noises. clicks, little thumps. I was convinced there was another cockroach in my kitchen, and it was flying around or something. I was terrified, had no idea what to do. I would have called Becca to call her up to search and destroy, but it was now near 3am, so I called my mother who told me to just go turn the light on, see if there was one, and kill it. Instead, I moved my futon into the tatami room, shut the sliding doors, turned on the music, and lay awake for another 30 minutes, dying to go the the bathroom and get a drink of water, but too scared of going near the kitchen.***
Cockroach update: in addition to the poison that's been out all year, I bought cockroach hotels and garbage fresheners yesterday (even though I mean to take out the trash daily, doesn't hurt if it smells lemony!)
Since I didn't want to listen to the cockroaches checking in last night, and couldn't close my sliding doors due to laundry day, I slept at Becca's place.
That's it for now. Taiwan stories are soon to come. Take care, Happy Easter,
Sarah
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