Roller Coaster

The next weekend (Nov. 7-11) I headed into Tokyo because I had the JET program's CIR Mid-year training seminar to attend. That lasted Mon-Wed, so I popped in early on Saturday to spend the weekend in Tokyo and Chiba. I took the bullet train to Tokyo, and quickly realized again why I'm not the biggest fan. People! And far too many of them. I couldn't even find an open coin locker to dump my stuff off. I scoured the station and then just ended up waiting like a hawk near a bunch of them until someone came to get their crap. I was supposed to be meeting my friend Elfo/Maggie/Margie (all one person), who I trained capoeira with back in Madison. She's currently studying abroad in Tokyo, so we met up Saturday afternoon. I met her in Shinjuku station, after sniping a coin locker, we met up with another random friend she had met the week beforehand while giving out "free hugs." Typical Maggie. We met Shousuke and headed off to Yoyogi Park, where there happened to be a festival of sorts going on. Yoyogi park is one of the few patches of green in Tokyo proper, and thus one of my favorite places. We wandered the park and then found the "festival," which was really more of a hippie flea market with concert performances. They also had a bunch of ethnic food stands/carts (reminded me of Madison...)where I had some awesome ginger chicken.

They also had a big banner where people could freely paint random doodles, so Maggie and Shousuke took the opportunity to showcase their art skillz. After this we walked a bit away from the main area only to find people doing capoeira under the walkway! And they happened to be the group Maggie has trained with a couple times, so we joined in the roda. It was a ton of fun getting to play with some random people and definitely made my day, if not the entire trip. Night fell, and we returned to the stage area where there were now a ton of little votive candles all over. We took it upon ourselves to create a smiley face with them...good fun.

Then some street musicians came and did some impromptu music, only to have some random trashed foreign lady join in with her harmonica. And then some random dude stood in front of them and did some combination of tai chi and Michael Jackson imitation dancing. This same dude did the same thing before at the capoeira roda. I think he might he been a bit touched in the head. Overall, it was an amazing day, and I was psyched to get to hang out with Maggie again!

I then left to meet up with my friend Erica in Chiba prefecture since I was crashing at her place until the seminar on Monday. We decided to take it easy that night and just grabbed some Italian for dinner. Feeling particularly hungry/glutinous, we each ordered two pasta dishes. The carbonara was pretty tasteless, but the spicier tomato and cheese spaghetti was tasty. The next day found me posing as a Canadian. Erica and her co-worker Adam signed up to be interpreters for a Chiba prefecture tour aimed at foreigners. Sunday was Erica's turn to do the proper interpreting, but Adam was supposed to go along as well. Seeing as I was in town, and Adam didn't really want to go, I went incognito and pretended to be Adam from Toronto. We started out heading to an aeronautical science museum, which was pretty cool, but considering I grew with EAA in my backyard (woo hoo Oshkosh's one claim to fame! *I refuse to acknowledge the existence of Country USA, besides the fact that it would be a claim to infamy if anything at all*) I had seen a lot of similar stuff before. We then stopped at a local market, where I bought a squash paste filled pastry, which was quite tasty. Unfortunately, the person doing the stone roasted sweet potatoes was all out, or I would have been all over that.

We then headed to a smaller city in the prefecture for their Naniwa festival. Naniwa are little statues that are put around the tomb of important folks. There are to protect the tomb, but they are also often used to recreate the scene of funeral. It was a charming little festival and then had some unique local foods for sale.

I tried some sort of purple speckled noodle, which I suspect was partly made of a purple colored potato. The texture was a bit odd, but it tasted fine, and was certainly the most visually interesting noodle I've ever eaten. We also found some "carrot jelly" dessert that a local family was selling. I picked up a bunch of this stuff as a souvenir treat for my co-workers. It tasted pretty similar to pumpkin pie filling, just with a different consistency.

They had a little parade and then Erica grabbed some oknonomiyaki and ate that on some steps away from the hub-bub. Erica couldn't finish it all, so I was eating the remainder when some old ladies came up the steps, one of whom, looking at me eat, said "My, you are skilled with chopsticks, aren't you?" I HATE being told this. And Erica hates this even more. Of course I can use chopsticks. Just because I'm a foreigner doesn't mean I have some predetermined tendency towards chopstick ineptitude. I'm human, I have the same five fingers on my hand that you do. Beyond that, I don't sit there and complement every Japanese person I see using western utensils, "Oh wow! You're really good at eating with a fork, that's amazing!" No, I don't even think twice about it. I understand she's a sweet old lady just trying to be nice, but it reflects an underlying ignorance about the rest of the world that pervades far too much of Japanese culture. It also is part of a Japanese concept called "tatemae," which is basically disingenuous politeness, but that's a rant for another post.

The festival done with, we popped over to Narita-san, which ended up being a pretty cool temple, and we even got a guided tour. There was a cool turtle shaped rock formation that fittingly had a bunch of turtles hanging out on it. I was a big fan of that, not sure why, but it struck me as awesome. After the tour Erica wanted to find this place that sold soft serve ice cream with a hint of local honey mixed in. We found the place, and the ice cream was worth the walk. The store sold all sorts of fruit infused honey, and had diluted some samples with water to make a really refreshing beverage. I was tempted to buy either the blueberry or citron honey, but I didn't bring a ton of money with me for the trip and the bottles were $14, so maybe next time.

After we got back from the bus tour, we headed to Chiba city and had some amazing ramen for dinner. We then caught the cheaper, late night showing (at 8:15pm, mind you)of the movie Pirate Rock, which tells the story of a particular pirate radio station's battle with the British government during the 1950-60s-ish...I think. Either way, the characters are over the top and the antics that ensue are quite hilarious-definitely suggested viewing.

The next day marked the start of the CIR training conference. We registered after lunch and were then treated to a wonderfully mildly boring presentation/group activity session about how to internationalize at a deeper level, and while having more fun. Unfortunately, I got seated next to some jackass from the Philippines who insisted on speaking in English and wasn't even trying to contribute something constructive to the conversations we were supposed to be having. So any value the session may have potentially had was squelched by my nimrod partner. I also ran into an old friend of mine from study abroad who is apparently also doing JET, but way up north in Akita prefecture. It was great to catch up a bit with him, plus he is moving down to Shizuoka prefecture to do some graduate study on a scholarship he got, so that would make a trip to hang out with him more viable.

That night I met up with Alaina (a fellow JET CIR), Sarah and Phillip (who teach English in Chiba on a different program), who are all grads of the Japanese department at UW-Madison. We grabbed dinner at a Thai restaurant in the local train station and basically shot the shit for a good while. I hadn't seen Sarah in a couple years, so it was great to see her again. Alaina and I had both learned that the hotel we were staying in had an artificial onsen (hot spring bath) on the 4th floor, so after dinner we both headed straight back to the hotel. It was amazing. In addition to a couple bigger baths with water jets, there were little personal round baths made of stone or wood. One longer bath even had log armrests and headrests, so it was like sitting in a recliner while soaking in this bath. If that's not the definition of relaxation, I don't know what is. Needless to say, it helped wash away the stress from the conference. The next day was full of workshops, five in total. I went to one on translation and then one on interpretation. Then we had the workshops that were mandatory for first year CIRs. These were a joke. The one on "business manners" covered basic material that anyone who knows enough Japanese to be a CIR has learned four or five times over in the past. Yes, I know the different degrees of bowing, how to exchange a business card, and the basics of how to use polite speech. It was like reverting to second-year language class, and a complete waste of time.

That night again involved dinner with Sarah and Alaina, but after dinner I received a call from Jon saying an e-mail was sent out with a rumor that all but one CIR job would be cut for next year. Great. And consider the ALT jobs are being slashed by over 70%, I had reason to believe there was a decent bit of credence to this rumor. This obviously put me in a horribly stressful mood, and after viewing the e-mail myself using Alaina's computer, we decided some Mario Kart on the DS would help. And indeed it did. Alaina and I played a good 30-something races, and what do you know, afterwards my headache was pretty much gone and I felt much more at peace about everything. Note to self: Mario Kart makes everything all better. Another dip in the onsen further calmed my nerves. Also, random nerdy note: The hotel room ceiling lights looked like the Triforce from the Legend of Zelda series. If I ever have a house, this is what my lighting will look like. Too awesome.

The final day we had a two more workshops, one of which was about how to give a good presentation. Ironically, it was the worst, most sleep-inducing presentation of the entire conference. After the workshops, I consulted with other folks from Gifu regarding the rumor, and the two who actually work at the prefectural government office hadn't heard anything about it, and checked with their Japanese co-workers, who also hadn't heard of such cuts, so hopefully my job is safe for next year. Yes, for those who don't know, I'm planning on staying a second year if my job is available. A couple of us from Gifu headed back together, but first stopped in the Shibuya district of Tokyo for a pizza buffet lunch at none other than Shakey's Pizza! I have fond memories of bringing my report card in for free tokens during elementary school. This place didn't have all the games, but the pizza was pretty tasty-that is, when the toppings weren't Japanified. I made my way through squid and onion pizza, as well as bacon and pickled ginger pizza, but was finally rewarded with good ol' pepperoni and onion, and then sausage and tomato. Finally, a few long and crowded trains later, I was home. I don't think I've ever been more happy to be back in Ogaki.

Current Update: I just got back from a long weekend in Korea visiting my friend Wallin. It was an excellent time and I hope to cover that trip in the next post. Unfortunately, that may not be for a while as I will be hunkering down for the final studying/cramming before the JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) on Dec. 6th. I failed the thing by 3% last year, so hopefully this time it'll be revenge.

An addendum

So I realized that I forgot the events of November 1st in the previous post. A number of us had been invited to a drum circle...yes, you read that correctly, a drum circle, by our friend Eri. Apparently her mom heads up the thing. Being the morning after Halloween, most folks were nursing a hangover, but a few of us made it out to the drum circle. I certainly wasn't expecting to find this in Ogaki, and was pleasantly surprised since it reminded a lot of Madison (although this was far too organized of an event for your standard madtown hippie circle) and I had a chance to practice some of the capoeira drum rhythms. In addition to drums, there were all manner of bells, shakers, etc. This may have also been an event partially for mentally handicapped people, as there were a number of special needs kids, one of whom was rocking out some sweets riffs on a electric guitar, which actually made for a nice complement. There were folks from age 5 to 90 (and in typical Japanese old lady fashion, I wouldn't have guessed her to be a day over 75). After the drum circle, we stopped for lunch at an Italian place and then went searching for a green tea parfait that one of Rock's students had suggested to him. We found the place, only to find out they were sold out. Epic fail. Later that evening, Rock realized he didn't have his camera and must have forgotten it at one of those restaurants. Dominique wasn't feeling well, so she gave me the keys to her car to run Rock around and find his camera. So I finally got a chance to drive in Japan! The weather was absymal, and rainy, night driving is annoying no matter where you are, but I also got to try and adjust to driving on the other side. What felt even more odd, though, was having the gear box on my left side. It was a manual car, and shifting with my left hand, although doable, felt less than natural. Thankfully, though, we managed to find Rock's camera without incident, and I got a satisfy my curiosity in regards to driving in Japan.

Current Update: It was Ellie's birthday, so we all went out to Gifu for dinner and drinks. I played a few games of pool, albeit on a frustratingly small table, and talked a bit with this random Japanese business guy named Junji. He was buying people drinks and chatting everyone up in Engrish. On the train back, I commented to Sarah that Junji probably has a wife and kids but comes to the bar most nights after work instead of going home. I later found out from Rock, who knows Junji a bit better, that that is pretty much the case. Ugh...how depressing. This certainly reaffirms my decision/desire to not settle down for awhile, but sometimes I hate when my jaded prognostications prove true.

Odds and Ends

The next weekend I had to work on Saturday because the entrance exam and interviews for the graduate school were happening. Apparently, part of the interview (i.e. the last 30 seconds-2 minutes) consists of an English proficiency check, by way of a few random questions. They suggested I start off with an easy question and progressively ramp up the difficulty. So I started off asking "What city are you from and what is it famous for?" A surprising number of them couldn't understand the word "city" and even more couldn't understand "for" at the end of the sentence and what function it served. An unforeseen potentially awkward situation came up when one of the applicants was from Hiroshima. For the sake of consistency, I had to ask the same questions. Thankfully, the dude ignored the elephant in the room and said Hiroshima is famous for okonomiyaki (japanese savory "pancake" mess). After that interview, though, one of the professor on the panel asked me it sounded weird to say Hiroshima is famous for the atomic bomb. "No, no it's not. You definitely wouldn't say that." He seemed to already have an idea that something was fishy about the statement, and was asking for corroboration, but still...awkward.

The day went by relatively quickly, as the rest of the interview period was the applicant giving a presentation on what they hope to do research about, or what type of art they hope to create. There were folks from many fields and it was semi-entertaining to try and grasp what they were going for. Everything from flash animators, to photographers, a programmer who created real time feeds of twitter posts and display them in interesting manners, to musicians...with one lady in particular wanting to create music from a female's perspective that captures their sense of eroticism. Good luck with that. Sadly, once she mentioned eroticism in music, all I could think of was music by "Peaches," but maybe she's going for something a little more subtle, and a little less raw. Far too many of the presentations, though, seemed to lack a point or true direction. I though this may just be the scientist in me, but even the professors on the panel were quite skeptical of some of the applicants. Still, though, an interesting enough day at the office, and I get to take a vacation day off later for coming in on Saturday. So I'll be using this to help create a four and a half day weekend and go visit Wallin in Korea. Woot!

The next weekend was Halloween, which ended up being pretty low key. A number of folks were going to a bar in West Gifu that I didn't particularly enjoy the first time I went there, and as is the case every year, I didn't really have a costume prepared, so it would have been odd in that sense. I later found out a few folks went into Nagoya for some all you can eat/drink party at some bar. It turns out I could have had some really drunk J-girls hitting on me (as was the case for Rock and Ozzy)...dang, guess I missed out. Grandpa Collin was out in full force and so I just went out to eat with Jon, Sarah, and Anna at...drumroll please...Stamina-taro. So we again stuffed ourselves silly. I threw on the mask Wallin gave me from Korea for some makeshift Halloween attire, and that thing is NOT comfortable to wear. After the meal we took some Halloween puri-kura (picture booths) and got some spooky pictures. My green shirt, however, was the approximately the same shade as the green screen background, which made for some especially odd photos.

That next Tuesday, we had the day off for culture day, and it turned out that Nanzan University (where I studied abroad in Nagoya three years ago) was having an event for past study abroad students along with their homecoming festival. I wouldn't have gone, but my friend Pao, who I studied abroad with, is back in Japan for grad school in Osaka and was coming into Nagoya, so we decided to go together. She also had got in contact with our Japanese language teacher from that year, and so we met up with her as well. We chilled a bit at the event and then our teacher treated us to lunch at an Italian place near the campus. It was a bit odd to talk with her outside of a class context, and it was much less stressful now that we weren't her students. I actually rather enjoyed the conversation overall. She was oddly adamant, though, about me not abandoning my chemistry major to do work strictly related to Japanese. She insisted if I did so, I would "become just like everybody else." This seems like a bit of an overstatement, but I think I have an idea about what she was trying to say. I really do enjoy chemistry as well, but I can't see myself abandoning Japanese and working in a lab all day long. She suggested a interesting idea to me...going to grad school for chemistry-in Japan. Now this thought had occurred to me before, but she said I could apply for the Ministry of Education scholarship to pay for my Masters Degree studies, and it is more of an opportunity to meet a professor, who will have a network of folks he can introduce me to, which could turn into a job. I have been trying to figure out how to properly marry my two major into some job I enjoy doing, and this seems like a more promising path to that end than I have been able to come up with on my own thus far. I'm just not entirely sure I wouldn't be miserable doing grad school without some folks to properly vent to. I think the natural depression that coincides with grad school coupled with the fact that one never quite feels like they belong in the society and that it's hard (at least for me) to make friends with Japanese people (I will go into this in a later post...).
At the very least, that is one possible pathway I am considering at the moment. The rest of the day, Pao and I hung out around Nagoya and did some shopping in Osu. All in all, it was great to catch up with an old friend and a solid trip to Nagoya. Yes, I realize there are no pictures in this update. As Captain Murphy would say "Too bad."

Next Post: Mid-year CIR training conference (a.k.a. A giant waste of my time)

Current Update: I've had some distressing news today. One of my good friends here is going to have to leave the program early and is in fact heading back to the U.S. next Monday. This is coupled with the recent news that ALT positions in the prefecture will be cut from 30-something to 7 next year due to a lack of budget. This means that should I stay here another year on JET, all of my current friends will be gone, or at least relatively far away. This has been weighing somewhat heavily on my mind this past week. More on these unfortunately developments later. In lighter news, I went to Nagoya today and got to eat at my favorite Italian place from when I studied abroad. Nothing like food to make you feel better!