Thursday, July 31, 2008

Why Did I Wake Up at 6:10am?

Why did I wake up at 6:10 this morning? Guess. I bet you'll get it wrong unless you're Japanese then maybe you'll know. The answer is ラジオ体操 = Rajio Taisou = Radio Exerise.

I walked down the street with my host sisters and host mom and went to a big park. It was there that about 60 people gathered, mostly children ages 6-10 and adults ages 40-60. Then me, of course.

This is a pretty awesome little thing they do in Japan. They play a little exercise song on the radio each morning for a few weeks at a time and everyone gets together in their community and does the little exercise. Sometimes they do them in corporations before work and such. It's a fun way to start the day. And it's also really embarrassing when you have no idea what you're doing and are messing up constantly, but it's not that bad. no one laughed at me except for my host mom.

This is a video of what it looks like. I dare you to gather the family around and do it.



and on a side note, tonight my host mom and the twins were wired. Probably because we had a guest at dinner, one of Nozomi and Hikari's friends was there, you'll see her in the video. Anyway, they decided to sing me the Alphabet a few times. They didn't know the whole thing. But it's freakin adorable. Take note at how Nozomi mentions "double-u" then "triple-u" then Hikari scolds her by saying "THERE IS NO TRIPLE U!"


My Host Family Recites the Alphabet from Mike Malarkey on Vimeo.


-Mike

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Ugh...

I decided to try and shave today. Usually I don't have to try to shave, but today was different. I had my shaving cream and razor in the shower with me (Japanese showers are huge compared to American and they tend to sit down while they shower on little stools. I don't often sit, but I enjoy the vast open spaces of Japanese showers... they also often include a large mirror so you can get a full body glimpse of yourself wet and nude...fantastic) and when I pressed the dispense-button to get shaving cream out of the can it slipped and the plastic top popped off. No problem, it's easy to fix these things right? Wrong. This is where my adventures lie...

I first tried pressing the top down hard, no dice. Not only did the top not get back on but I dropped the can again and I could hear my host mom yell "Are you ok???" and then she giggled a little. Probably at the thought of my nude banging around in the shower. I decided I needed to be seated to get this sucker on. I sat down in the shower and started pushing really hard. No dice.

I propped the can in the corner and put the top on and POP it went on. It looked like it might have gone on a little bit too much or something, something just wasn't looking right. But I figured "it looks safe." a little bit of shaving cream squirted out when I got the top on. Just to get the image straight, this shaving cream is the kind that starts off as a gel then foams up later. So I push the button again and it's kinda jammed. I push really hard. Nothing. I was standing at this point so I braced it between my knees and pushed really hard and then "POP!"
the top completely broke and the entire can of shaving cream began unloading all over me and the shower. It was a big awkward green blob that just kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger. I started to panic and tried to get it towards the drain of the shower but at this point the floor was starting to get covered in this green gel that was slowly starting to foam. I was amazed at how slippery this stuff is when I stepped on it. Sadly I came to this realization at the least convenient moment because I slipped and went completely airborne for about thirty seconds to one minute. I'm pretty sure I did a flip, like a full 360 degree flip. My memory is a little hazy since it went so fast, but I can imagine myself doing some kind of awesome olympic figure-skating barrel roll back flip dive spin looking thing and it looking really really cool until...errrrrr I make the whole house shake with the thud of my wet birthday-suited body. I bet they thought it was another earthquake. I bet if I turn the news on they'll be like "This afternoon, in one house in Kunebetsu, there was a 6.7 earthquake. Scientists are baffled by the fact that the earthquake only shook such a small area of land and are currently doing research on the earths plates to solve this mystery. No one was injured, although a white-wet-slightly-furry-slighty-bruised creature with very large eyebrows that spoke broken Japanese was found in the shower room semiconscious. It may have sustained injury but no one is really sure as the creature does not speak proficient Japanese. More news on the hour..."

Anyway. I'm ok. Luckily I didn't break anything (as in, the shower.)

-Michael

Friday, July 25, 2008

A Word on The Children of Japan

If you've been reading this you may know that my host sisters aren't the most well behaved children on this planet. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, it gets really tiring after a while but all kids wear your out. One thing that I've noticed is that there is no punishing that happens in Japan. It's not just my house its a country wide thing, I believe. I remember thinking this in Nagoya, though I didn't have little kids in my house, I taught English at a school with 12-13 year olds at it and they really mouthed off. Other host students often express their surprise that kids get away with anything they do here.

At times they'll be at the table and Hikari will be picking food with her hands off of other peoples plates or she'll be hitting Nozomi and the biggest punishment she gets is a verbal "STOP IT!" from my mom. But Hikari knows that is the worst it's going to get so she never stops. I don't blame her either, if I was a child and I knew the worst punishment I was going to get was a verbal warning, I'd go all out all day.

This is where we get to my opinion of the matter. My opinion is. NOT. FAIR. That was supposed to be MY childhood, where I could do whatever I wanted...

Actually, this is where I find it interesting, once kids get older I don't really see them being as crazy as I'd expect them to be. Japan does have a major problem with bullying in schools but I don't think that's completely related to this problem, I think it has more to do with the schools not punishing kids and the lack of communication between teachers and students. I think the kids not being punished has some other thing that I haven't figured out yet. I'm not sure if it's the pressure of school or something else that forces them to stop messing around, maybe they just get mature on their own.

It's really difficult to watch, though. Especially when Hikari is bugging me. For instance, she came in my room, farted on me, then threw a lollipop that she'd half eaten at me and ran out. Yes, it's hilarious especially since the lollipop stuck to my shirt...and I give her props for picking on the "weird exchange student." (Am I the American "Long Duk Dong" of this family? I think I might be...) but the mom asked me what Hikari did when she saw her bolting out of my room laughing. I told her. And she just said "Hikari don't do that!" I remember thinking "
Are you serious? That's it? I mean, yes the shirt was only from Old Navy but STILL the emotional distress this has caused me requires at least a 'time out' or a 'no dessert' warning. The stench of the fart alone deserves a 'go to your room' punishment..."

So the real question is which is the "right" way to go? This no punishment rule? or the punishment rule? Obviously you know which I favor. It's hard to say, they some how seem to straighten themselves out here somehow... but how??


Now: to answer the questions that people asked me (by leaving a comment... anyone? anyone?)...

1) what food do I want when I come home?
Answer: Something with BBQ sauce. Fruit (even though the fruit here is significantly better than at home in America). and maybe corn on the cob (which they have here too but I still want some.)

2) Who's on first?
Answer: Who's on first, What's on second, I Don't Know is on third, Why is in the left field, Because is center field, Tomorrow is the pitcher, Today is the catcher, I Don't Give a Darn is the shortstop.

3) If there was a man-eating octopus and you HAD to either throw me (Kate) or Susanna to it for food, who would you pick and why?

Answer: Luckily we've found yourself face to face a man-eating octopus. Luckily Both you (Kate) and Susanna are both women and you've found yourself in the waters of a man-etarian octopus. Luckily I, for some reason, get to be the decision maker of who goes in, so I'd throw you (Kate) in because Susanna isn't a very good swimmer. If Susanna had her floaties or her floating-pool-noodle thing then maybe she could hop in. (Just in case you don't sense the humor, Susanna is a fine swimmer.)

-Mike

Thursday, July 24, 2008

A Case of the Shakes...

So I was having this dream last night, I don't remember what it was about it...but I new I was enjoying it. Then I suddenly woke up at the sound of birds SCREAMING. Then I realized I was being shaken a lot by a decently strong earthquake and my host mom was screaming "Earthquake! Earthquake!" from her bedroom. It lasted pretty long, 40 seconds. It was just over a 4 on the Richter scale, the epicenter was a 6.8 or a 6.9 which is pretty darn strong, it was pretty far from here luckily. But it's still pretty crazy. here's a link to a news article about it...
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/07/23/japan.quake/index.html

It's not my first earthquake, but it was just at that level where it got strong enough to just barely scare me. Earthquakes are REALLY bizarre. It's not like a heavy thunderstorm where right before it happens you know. You also know what's going on right when a thunderstorm happens. You'll see rain or you'll hear a big BOOM. Everytime I've been in an earthquake, my initial reaction is "who is shaking me/my chair/my bed." It literally feels like someone is just shaking your chair from behind. Until you realize that everything is shaking. Then you're like "whoa weird! HAH!" Then it turns into "fuck! What am I supposed to do? Get under the desk? Is this the one where you go in the doorway? Should I go to the basement? Am I supposed to use my seat cushion as a flotation device?" All of my emergency procedures get mixed up... then it's over. and then for the next day you are constantly checking to see if an earthquake is happening by sitting as still as you can. Surely you will convince yourself that there is kind of an earthquake happening...it isn't.

Anyway since I only have a few more weeks left here and to encourage people to leave some type of comment... I'd be more than happy to answer any questions people might have about me being here in Japan. Especially since I enjoy writing this as a break from burning my brain with Japanese and I recently haven't had much to write about...

-Mike

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Karaoke 101

So, this weekend I had a horrible Karaoke experience. The people I went with made it awkward by picking songs no one knew and so we were forced to listen to them sing. Lets get one thing straight. No one's really GOOD at Karaoke. People are good singers, but there's no such thing as being "good at Karaoke." In fact, I think the better singer you are, the worse you are at Karaoke. I haven't done enough research to prove that... but I'm almost positive it's true... I'm going to explain to you how Karaoke goes here in Japan.

FIRST, lets explain the difference between Japanese Karaoke and American Karaoke... they're very different... Instead of going to a bar, getting drunk, and singing in front of everyone at the bar, you go to a special Karaoke place that has tons of rooms; you get drunk THERE and then sing in front of your friends. Smaller crowd... It's basically like renting a small party room that has a giant Karaoke Machine in it with a TV and mics and stuff. Then you flip through a computer of songs and program them yourself. You pick whatever song, you pick the key and the speed. Everyone is always embarrassed to go at first then after a couple of people have gone you start to realize "I'm SOOOO much better than that person, they pick bad songs..." so you try and pick a song and perform then someone else thinks "I'm better than THAT person" and they try and pick a song. Then you get into duets and what not and everyone tries to one up the other person by picking bad 80s and 90s songs that were number one hits... the songs get worse, the people get more drunk, and the singing gets worse... it's a vicious circle or as the Japanese call it 悪循環 (Akujunkan). Maybe it's my American competitiveness that turns Karaoke into a contest/battle, but it's all friendly because I'm a really bad singer. BUT, I don't tend to drink much at karaoke so I end up winning (in my head) because everyone gets too drunk to sing by the end.

There's a real art to picking Karaoke songs. First, throw all your morals about music out the window. When you go to Karaoke anything is fair game. Spice Girls, Hanson, Hall and Oates, Neil Diamond, Boyz II Men, you get the idea... This is especially hard for people who are serious about music. We tend to think that we know all of the "good songs" but we tend to be troubled when we get into a Karaoke booth... think of it like when you write a speech. You have to write for your audience. If you pick songs that you like but other people probably don't like, you'll kill the party. If you know what everyone picks, you'll be a Karaoke star. You're basically allowed one obscure songs per Karaoke session. If you pick two, no one will want to invite you to Karaoke ever again...EVER. There are some staples when it comes to Karaoke, ones you do almost every time. Other choices depend heavily on what that person can pull off. You don't want to do songs that are too hard for you but you don't want to do easy boring songs. Let me go through a small run-through of a typical well-paced Karaoke session for you...there are highs and lows, you rarely get through one without some type of passive-aggressive argument


1) Everyone is embarrassed to go first so someone picks something to go first. It's usually a Beatles song. Everyone half-ass sings it. We all laugh nervously.

2) Someone else picks another oldie like Neil Diamond "Sweet Caroline." No one, except the person who picked it, knows the words to the verse but everyone knows the chorus.

3) Someone decides to get "funny" and picks a Britney Spears tune, most likely "Toxic". One other person in the group will be like "WHAT?? WHO PICKED THIS?? NO NO NO! HAH! NO WAY! WHO PICKED THIS?? MIKE!! WHY DID YOU PICK THIS?" <--That person will be singing the loudest by the end. It turns out to actually work and everyone starts to get into it.

4) People are barely feeling their alcohol but start to get warmed up. Someone picks "ABC" by Jackson 5. Everyone knows this but realize it's a lot harder to sing than one thought. It's too late though because someone else cued a bunch of Michael Jackson songs.

5) Someone picks a song from the Lion King, Little Mermaid, or Aladin. Half of the people get mad, half of the people claps their hands and go "ohmygod!ohmygod!" These people were probably drama nerds in high school. Everyone ends up singing the songs by the end.

6) One person who hasn't been singing yet usually steps up to the plate at this point because they're drunk. They usually end up being bad technically but really funny so everyone loves it. Someone gets jealous and decides to one up them...

7) The jealous person picks that REM song that goes "It's the end of the world as we know it." I hate this person. This song is annoying. Stop picking it at Karaoke, no one cares that you can say the words first. You spent too much time learning it.

8) Depending on how drunk everyone is, it might be time for "Born To Run" and if it is, it's glorious. Not everyone will know the words, probably two out of the 10 people even know this song. But it's always a crowd pleaser.

9) Stop. Hammer Time.


*(If you didn't get this you're about 18 years late... watch this http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=b9nptjUs9FM)


10) Living On A Prayer - Bon Jovi. There's always some guy who has a wicked falsetto and can really nail the choruses. This song rocks and sucks so much.

11) Don't Stop Believin' - Journey. This is pretty much the slowest you're allowed to go, there are few exceptions.

12) A person takes an attempt at a Japanese song. It's a 50% chance they'll fail. Science has proven this statistic. Either way they look like they're trying to be better than everyone else and people are like "ugh..." but everyone also drunk and we all laugh and shoot each other looks like "who does this guy/girl think they ARE???"

13) Someone picked the Aerosmith song from Armageddon, someone cancels it half way through.

14) Someone cancels the Celine Dion Titanic song when the title comes up and before the music even starts. That was a close one.

15) People are getting annoyed because we keep canceling songs. But it's their fault for picking bad songs. So someone picks another Beatles to reconcile and everyone is happy.

16) This is usually when I rip through a real meaty version of "It's Raining Men." Feel free to criticize but I have yet to sing this song with a good group of people and NOT get a great reaction. It's so great when on the giant TV screen in front of a group of people it says "It's raining men, Hallelujah, It's raining men, Amen! I'm gonna go out, and let myself get ABSOLUTELY SOAKING WET!" I'm telling you people LOVE this song. Remember, throw your morals out the window.

17) The night is winding down so we pick "September" by Earth, Wind, and Fire. Everyone kinda sings it but they're all really drunk and really tired and covered in sweat.

18) Everyone is half asleep and we listen to an instrumental version of "Torn" by Natalie Imbruglia. Good choice, too bad it's an hour late... Someone says "lets go."

We would then spend twenty minutes figuring out how to pay for it at the counter. One person pays for everyone and everyone tries to figure out how much they owe them. Then they realize that someone actually had put extra money in and wants money back... ugh... I wish this was easier. But we all laughed and cried our way through a few hours of Karaoke. There are some other ones that tend to show up, but those are pretty standard choices.

I hope you now have a better idea of what to pick for Karaoke. Don't pick obscure songs. If you want to pick a Stevie Wonder song pick "Superstition" or "I Wish" or something that everyone knows. Don't pick a "Village Ghetto Land" or something else that no one else knows. Don't be afraid of picking Ace of Base, but DO be afraid of the video that someone will take of you singing it and realize you never even looked at the lyrics on the screen because you still know all the words.

Note:
Things tend to change if a Japanese person is present (even more so if many are present.) It actually tends to get more fun because the "good singers are less fun" rule doesn't apply to them. A lot of them tend to be pretty rockin singers, especially at Karaoke so they bring the group energy up.

On my cue for the next session:
Kiss from a rose - Seal
You Make My Dreams Come True - Hall and Oates
Virtual Insanity - Jamiroquai
Total Eclipse of the Heart - Bonnie Tyler
Sweet Child Of Mine - Guns n' Roses
Born To Run (of course) - The BOSS (Bruce Springsteen)



In action...

Take care everyone.

Lately...

So lately I haven't been up to anything "exciting" I've been enjoying myself a lot though. Today, I got to partake in a pretty fun activity that I think Susanna will enjoy. (Susanna is my little sister in America. She's 7. Just kidding she's like 19 or something, we always forget her age... Just kidding Susanna.)

Today was my Japanese Traditional Sweets Making class. I woke up early to go check it out. So many people signed up for this one that they had a lottery to get the actual spots... I won.

There's a real beauty to Japanese sweets. Most of them aren't that sweet which I enjoy, but then some of them are SUPER sweet which are meant to be enjoyed with macha, which is really bitter green tea. They tend to be whacky colors or shapes and have really weird ingredients including my personal favorite Anko (red bean paste.) It's so nasty sounding but so tasty. I swear if you eat it like 3 or 4 times you'll never stop wanting it. Except once my Nagoya host mom fed me a lot of Anko and butter on bread when I had the flu. I pretty much didn't want Anko for a year after that. But now I'm back in the game.

Anko is basically just sugar, it's called red bean paste but it's basically like beans that were boiled and cooked in sugar so there's no real bean in it anymore. Sometimes they leave the bean skin so it still looks like a bean, but it's just sugar. And it's delicious.

Here are the ones I made, one is supposed to look like a morning glory. Here are some pics...

This is my morning glory...



Here is my group and our Manju (it's basically just dough with bean paste in the middle)




Here's the middle of my Manju (the brownish/purple is the anko)


Here's the one the teacher made, he was a total badass (obviously. look at that thing I'd never be able to eat it, it's art.)

I brought home the flowers for my host sisters and I ate one of my two manju and brought the other home for family. My host sisters tore them out of my hands before I even said they were for them and ate them and fought over them. I guess it's nice to know they liked them. My host mom got one of the flowers in the end and enjoyed it. They gave us really good anko, so that helped...

I'll update you soon with some Karaoke info...

Monday, July 14, 2008

A Bus Trip

While I had originally planned on going to Sapporo for my "mid-term break" I decided that 1) it was too expensive and 2) I've been to a couple of big cities in Japan and big cities are all kind of the same throughout the world. SO, I signed up for the $100 2-night and 3-day trip that is set up by the school. It ended up being a much better idea since 23 other students from the program went on it as well as 10 or so Japanese students from Hakodate University. The list of things we'd do included 1) Going to Noboribetsu (a city sitting on a bubbling river of hot water/sulfer... they have a lot of Onsen) 2) going hiking/river trekking 3) Seeing a Volcano 4) visiting an Ainu village (more on this later)

Here's my review of the trip...

1) Noboribetsu was a four hour bus ride away. It was more fun with friends... but any four hour bus ride wipes you out. We got there and checked out a cute little town and hit up a really beautiful Onsen. There's no real crazy story to along with this Onsen visit, thankfully. I checked out a giant sulfer mountain bubbling with hot water, it smelled horrible. But it was cool. Here's a quick shot of it...


(Sulfur valley also called "Hell Valley") It smelled like eggs.

2) After our Onsen visit we got back on the bus and got lost for about 2 hours looking for a super market to buy our breakfast for the next morning. This resulted in everyone buy loads and loads of alcohol to drink when we got to our hotel that we were going to. We again got lost in the vast forests of Hokkaido trying to find the hotel. Turns out it wasn't a hotel at all. It was a hostel/ecology center. No one really know what it looked like except we saw a giant pile of helmets and life vests outside of it. We knew this couldn't be a good thing. We "checked in" and they told us "if you want to walk around don't go away from the lights outside of the building or else we might get eaten by a bear. Great. A bear.

The next morning after everyone was mildly hungover we had been given a choice to go for a hike or go "river trekking" I signed up for river trekking because that sounded fun and it sounded like a good photo opportunity. No one had been given any instructions on what to bring for this, so I assumed it to be a simple little walk through the creek. We put on sun screen, jeans (so not to get bitten by bugs) and then stuff. The guide laughed at us and asked where our swimsuits were. We laughed because we knew were in for deep shit. I switched into the shorts I brought along (everyone wasn't so lucky.) We were given a lunch box but were told to empty out backpacks to put it in because it's extremely dangerous to not have both hands available in case we fall. Great. Bears and now dangerous rocks.

Remember the helmets and life vests? Yep. Got some of those. And special "water shoes" that didn't fit. So we hiked in a river up to our waist for two and a half hours against the current. It was a blast. Except I was scared for my life sometimes. Other times it was really pretty. I brought a little camera and snapped a couple shots. Here I am in my awesome garb... (Check out the shoes)



We stopped and ate lunch, I forgot my chopsticks back at base camp. So our guide (His name was Mister Mister... how awesome is that?) he made me chopsticks out of these stalks. They were awesome until they cut my lips and I bled a lot, but I DID get to eat lunch like I was on a desert island... so AWESOME.

After this we left and went to our next place to stay. Hakodate University owns a litlte 'field research dorm' out in the middle of nowhere so we went there. Of course they stopped at a convenient store on the way so everyone could buy tons of alcohol. We arrived and it turned into the strangest night.

Every now and then I kind of step out of my body and look at the situations I'm in. This was one of them. I was standing in cafeteria of a giant empty dorm in the middle of nowhere on a mountain in Japan. The lights in the middle of room were off and each side were on, so the room looked kind of divided. One side had a bunch of Japanese students dancing to random pop songs and the other corner had teachers teaching students how to play Japanese tops (you wrap a string around a top and throw it to unwind the string... it's really hard.) anyway, I was looking at it. I was stnading in the middle of this thinking. "Where the hell am I?" Just one month ago I didn't know ANY of these people. We were all speaking in Japanese. We were dancing, drinking, and playing tops...in JAPAN? ON top of a mountain away from everything... where am I???

3) Next, the Ainu village. The Ainu are the "native americans" of Japan. So I guess they're the "Native Japanese." They live in Hokkaido. They pretty much have the same story where they got screwed over and have to obey the rules of everyone else and finally recently they got their own rights. The trip plan said we'd be going to an "ainu village" but we really want to "Ainu Land!" An ex-Ainu village that was rebuilt for tourists. It had a depressing bear cage that made me want to dry and then a bunch of people dressed up like Ainu people making jokes and "teaching" us the Ainu language. I was kind of offended by this part of the trip because it was just this kind of exploited amusement park where people could go and think they got a cultural experience of the Ainu people when in fact, there were no Ainu people. Just bears in small cages and people in costumes. Tourism can be a great thing and it can be such a destructive thing. I just

4) The volcano was a short trip but a pretty cool one. There was a small town that was on the side of a volcano and in 2008 it got completely destroyed by an eruption. Instead of doing a massive clean-up-and-rebuild, they were smart and they all got the fuck out of there so it wouldn't happen again. They left the destroyed city there and now you can walk by it and see it. It's very eerie and very cool at the same time. Nature was growing and taking over the city, trees grew around mangled buildings, broken cars just sat on jagged twisted streets. It was really something to see. I couldn't help but think that one day after humans no longer exist some other alien or new species will develop and find all of our city ruins covered in trees and grass, and how beautiful and creepy that will be. Hopefully we don't have to worry about that soon, but seeing this looked like what I imagined it to look like, it was a very interesting feeling... here's a little photo of it...



I enjoyed my trip and I feel very fortunate to have such great people on the trip and I feel very fortunate to have the opportunity to do stuff like this. I've also come to appreciate the beauty of Hokkaido even more. I wouldn't have gotten to experience the nature here had I gone to Sapporo. It's a very strange place compared to America it's got nice cool summer weather, big beautiful mountains, tons of farms and cows, a lot of ocean, and then also miles of wide flat plains. It's so strange. It's kind of like a sampler of all types of geography. It's like the "dessert tray" of the world. How fun.

I'd briefly like to thank my Japanese teacher Matsugu Sensei for reading and showing some people my blog website. Thanks very much! And thank you to everyone else who reads it! I'm never sure who reads this, other than my mom.

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

The Fan Is Spinning FAST...

So Japan, as we all know, is prone to lots of extreme natural disasters. They've got a full hand with typhoons, tornadoes, major earthquakes, fires, and volcanos.

Just to give you a brief glimpse into the bright future of this country I want to explain what I translated from a newspaper article today...

Mt. Fuji is actually a volcano that is, the Japanese so politely describe as, resting/sleeping. It's not dead, it's just resting. It erupts ever 30 years, on average. Except... for the past 300 years it's forgotten to erupt. This is starting to make people nervous since, ya know, when it DOES erupt it's going to be bad. Real bad probably.

If that wasn't the end of it, Japan has been preparing for the Tokai Earthquake. This is a massive earthquake that has a 90% chance of occurring in the next 20 years. They don't know when or where it'll hit, but it's going to hit and it's estimated to be around 8.5 - 9 on the richter scale. They're estimating lots of people dying and things like that but here's the REAL kicker...

When the Tokai Earthquake hits, if Mt. Fuji hasn't already erupted, the earthquake will surely make it erupt. Talk about a terrifying realization. The entire middle section of Japan is going to be destroyed, essentially. Tokyo, Nagoya, Kobe, Osaka... they're all at extreme risk of extreme destruction. I'm not trying to make light of a subject that is clearly extremely scary, but at the same time... everyone still goes to work. Everyone still cooks dinner. Everyone goes to movies. Everyone just does... stuff. If I was living here knowing that I'm sitting on a ticking time bomb, I'd freak out. Granted, I could be in my 40s when the thing actually occurs or we'll all be wiped out by global warming, nuclear warfare, or some disease... it's still scary.

Also on a side note. It's been all over the news how bitchy Laura Bush has been here in Japan. She's part of the G8 Entourage of Wives or something. This group of women go around and do various cultural things like Tea Ceremony and Kimono etiquette. First Lady Bush has insisted that whenever they travel anywhere she will NOT travel with the rest of the group in their fancy bus. She requires her own separate car with a personal driver so she can go on her own. Talk about making a fuss. She's the presidents wife which does not make her a fuckin Diva.

Yesterday I talked with my older sister about the G8 Summit that is happening in Hokkaido right now, pretty close to where I am now... she asked if there were protests and I said "no, Japan is too polite for things like that." Guess I'm wrong! This morning when I go to the train station the entire train station was covered in anti-Bush and anti-G8 graffiti. Mostly anti-Bush stuff. Of COURSE I show up when there are like 10 cops running around the building and they stare at me for 10 minutes until I get on the train and go to school. The cops are stopping TONS of foreigners as it is, if you don't have your passport you are immediately put into custody. They are FREAKIN out here.

Anyway... TAKE CARE everyone. Does anyone still read this? ANYONE?

I can say ANYTHING since no one reads this anymore. Today I listened to "I Will Always Love You" as performed by Whitney Houston on my IPOD. Her version is better than the Dolly Parton version (Dolly P. actually wrote the song...crazy, right?). When my friend asked me what I was listening to I lied and said "Gimme Shelter by the fuckin STONES." But deep down inside I wanted to say "I Will Always Love You by Whitney. There's so much truth in her voice in her performance, she really brought life to a song that can easily be performed as melodramatic and cheesy." But alas... I had to hide my true feelings.



-Mike

Monday, July 7, 2008

Tanabata

Today is Tanabata (it means Evening of the Seventh) is a Japanese holiday that's kiiiiiinda like Halloween. Kids go door to door and sing a short song then they get some candy. They don't dress up like goblins or anything like that, though some wear some little cute Japanese style clothes. On this day they also write little wishes/hopes/dreams on a slip of paper and tie it to a bamboo tree.

There's a story that goes along with it, I read it at school today but I kind of forgot what happened. It was basically like, the daughter of a god fell in love with this guy and they loved each other so much that they never worked or did anything. Since they were probably really annoying and obnoxiously in love together, the God separated them. When he saw how depressed they were he like "aaaaaalright, you can get together for ONE NIGHT per year." That night is the 7th of the 7th month... so for that day their wishes are realized. So... now all these kids run around singing a song getting candy and writing wishes and sticking them on trees. Sounds just as crazy as any other western holiday...

At school I wrote my little wish and tied it to a tree. Mine was lame it was just "I hope I get better at writing in Japanese." Because I really suck at that. If you've been reading this blog (which, if you just read that sentence you've been reading this blog) you know my english is pretty bad anyway...I should have wished for better english too. Oh well.

Just to show you how different the two twins, Hikari and Nozomi are, lets indulge in what they wished for... Nozomi wrote「白い家を建てて、白いドレスを着て、お姫様になりますように。」Hikari wrote...「魔女になりますように。」

Nozomi's means "I wish that A big white house will be built, I'll wear a white dress and I'll turn into a princess." Hikari's says "I want to turn into a witch." Polar opposites. Hikari cracks me up, that girl is just pure creative evil. We went to this store that had a little table with paper and crayons so kids could draw. Nozomi drew a very kid-made picture of me that said "American! Mike." on it. It was cute. Hikari drew a picture of a Japanese superhero named "Anpan Man" jumping out of the corner of the paper, it was really colorful and looked EXACTLY like Anpan Man. He was shouting something like "it's me ANPAN MAN!" then if you turned the paper upside down out of the opposite corner some evil alien creature was jumping up screaming something back at Anpan Man along the likes of "You'll never be able to beat ME!!!" It was epic for an 8 year old. She may be evil and disgusting, but she's damn creative, that's for sure.

On a random side note, I was told that Japanese people don't like sharing their towels at home with non-family members. So I brought my towel from home. No big deal right? No, It is. I get shit for it everyday. My host mom is super sarcastic and loves to make fun of me. Japanese towels are tiny, they are aobut the same size as the towels we use as hand towels. No joke. They're tiny. So mine looks MASSIVE to them. Everyone morning I walk down with my towel to take a shower and she says something along the lines of "Why did you bring a sheet with you?" or "Are you going to sleep down here? Why do you have a giant quilt?" or "I bet your suitcase is a lot lighter without that in it!" She thinks its hilarious. What a crazy lady...

Hikari and Nozomi just came home with a mountain of candy lemme go take a picture...

Hikari and the earnings...


My host mom was so proud of them...

Sunday, July 6, 2008

Life in Kunebetsu II...

So things have been pretty boring this weekend. Really boring actually. I've done my best to keep it interesting. Yesterday all my friends were doing stuff with their host families so I went into town alone and just walked around a lot. This could have been risky since the G8 Summit is in Hokkaido right near where I am, Police are stopping any foreigners they see and if you don't have your passport with you, no questions asked, you go to a holding cell. Of course they'd call my host mom and she'd come and get me but it'd be inconvenient. Whatever, it won't happen to me because I bring my passport with me everywhere. Anyway, on my walk I found a camera store and a music store. Neither of them were particularly interesting, but they made good rest stops.

Today I had the option of either going bowling with friends or going to see Hikari and Nozomi perform with their wind ensemble. I decided I'd be the good exchange student and go with the family. The lesson I learned was this... sometimes there's a right thing to do and a less-right-but-still-ok thing to do and sometimes the second choice is the better choice. The concert was 15 minutes short 5 hours long. It had 16 wind ensembles from around the area performing songs. There was an intermission after the 9th group. I thought I was home free when there were only two groups left, but then they ended up performing two songs each.

For some reason, having 16 bands didn't really make things feel long enough I guess because three of the bands performed the same song. So I heard some piece, I'm not sure what it was, three times.

It was nice to see Hikari and Nozomi perform for 10 minutes of the 4.75 hours, but I gotta say. I coulda used a nice afternoon of bowling with some peers. When I'm in public with the twins they get really embarrassed by me being there and try and avoid making any type of relations to me. Today after the concert Nozomi was so embarrassed by me that she crawled on all 4s to avoid seeing me, then her friend picked her up and put her on her shoulders and they ran out the doors of the venue. One of the doors closed and the girl, with Nozomi on her back. Ran into the closed door, Nozomi started sobbing and the girl ran out, still with nozomi on her back. I'm not going to lie, I laughed. Hard. So did my host mom. That'll teach em to avoid me.

If you've been reading this blog, then you know that the twins aren't the best behaved kids on the block. The problem is that they aren't really disciplined. I'm not one to comment on parenting since I'm 22. But it's kind of a cultural thing because I've seen it with lots and lots of kids here. They do something bad and the parents say "stop" and thats where the disciplining ends. For instance, Hikari spit on me one day and the mom just goes "DON'T!" and that was the end of it. Hikari didn't care at all because she knew that was the extent of getting in trouble. Next time she bugs me I so badly want to stand up yell at her in English because I know that'll scare her. The Chucky doll also scares them, but it doesn't really prevent them from misbehaving it only stops them from misbehaving once they already started...

Well, looks like we're going to go out for hamburgers for dinner tonight. I hope we get some ice cream afterwards, I could really use something kick me into gear after that long ass concert.


-Mike

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

The Wonderous World of Elementary Schools...

So first to cover a few points of the past...

I performed for those kids and it was fun. No one really listened except the parents, the kids ran around and drew on the chalk boards in the room, but whatever. No biggie, I just jammed out. Then with the other teacher I played a version of "Ue O Muite Arukou" or "Sukiyaki Song" the name changes depending on whether you know Japanese or not...

The camping trip was so-so. We stayed at a hotel that was pretty nice, there wasn't much to do in the area we were in and there wasn't even that much beautiful landscape to see. We were surrounded by mountains which was nice, but they were the same mountains I always see from my window at home. At the talent show I played "Wave" by Antonio Carlos Jobim again. I enjoy that song a lot, it's kinda cheesy, but it's pretty. After that everyone got totally shit-faced drunk, the teachers didn't stay at the hotel, just the students. So everyone was blasted screaming in Karaoke and then everyone went to bed. A large number of people vomited on themselves or other people at some point. I can't say I didn't drink, but I can safely I had good control over the situations I was in, especially compared to others. It was a fun and strange trip though....

AAAAAANYWAY, earlier this summer I signed up to go on a field trip to Asahi Elementary School. Then they asked us to pick a game to a group of kids we'd be selected to play with. There were a handful of folks in my group. Then one of the HIF workers asked me to lead a song for the trip there, something easy and something in English. I picked "If You're Happy And You Know It..." it easy and there's a Japanese version so they'd be able to pick it up fast.

We got to the school and recieved handmade (by the students) name tag necklaces. There were huge, in the vein of Flava Flav's giant clock around the neck. I think the teacher made mine though because the hand writing was far too neat for a 4th grader. (I was assigned to the 4th grade class)

They led us into the gym and it immediately because the most wonderful thing I've ever done. Children were seated all around the gym and we walked through these giant hoops covered in flowers being held up by small children while an orchestral versions of music from "The Sound of Music" played. Everyone clapped and cheered, it was the happiest thing I've ever seen. in. my. life. Here is a picture of what we walked through. My friend has a video of us going through it and when he puts it up I'll put a link to it...



Then they sang us a bunch of songs, including "It's a Small World" in Japanese. Then they taught us how to do the "Hakodate Squid Dance." Squid is Hakodate's meibutsu (Famous product) it's so insanely good here. SO GOOOOOOD. Anyway then we played some games. They had my level (Intermediate IIB) battle Intermediate IIA in tug o' war. We won once, they won once. We left it at that. Then, I was told I'd be teaching the whole school "If you're happy and you know it..." and I had to explain it in Japanese to them. It's not a very difficult song to explain in Japanese. I just had to tell them the order of the commands. So... I picked "Clap Your Hands" "Stomp Your Feet" "Snap Your Fingers" and then "Smack Your Behind." They dug the smack the behind part. Anyway, it was SUPER fun and I got some pretty nice pictures of some kids having fun. The game we taught them was "Zip Zap Boing" which is a pain to explain in english, and even a bigger pain to explain in Japanese, but my 4th grade class had fun.

Last night my host dad came home early and we got to have a nice little chat about music. Turns out he has perfect pitch and can jam pretty well on the piano. They have two right next to each other so we had a nice Jam session and we kind of played off of each other. It was nice. Then at like 9:30 at night he was like "Everyone, in the car! We're going to get some snacks and then drive up to the top of Hakodate mountain and look at the beautiful night view." So... we did. And it was gorgeous. Apparently it's the 3rd or 4th more beautiful in the world... it looks like this.



That's right, I snapped that shot. Pretty darn pretty if you ask me! Anyway, stay tuned, I got a video of my host mom pretending to call Chucky at dinner tonight because my sisters wouldn't finish their dinner and wouldn't help clean up. It was hilarious and contains a lot of english...

-Mike