A Quiet Quiet Sunday...

I don't know if anyone reads this blog anymore or not... either way, I'm writing on it so... lets begin shall we?

My host family was taking the day off to go to Aomori to see a concert. I wasn't invited so I stayed home. They left at 9:00am and let's see, it's currently about 8:30pm. I've had this house to myself for a while! I haven't slept past 6:30 am so I'm getting a little run down but let me recap what I did today.

I played piano for 29012908532 hours by myself and sang as loud as I wanted. Take that.

I played on my computer. ( I learned that "Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo" is a grammatically correct sentence. Don't believe me? Highlight that and google it, it's a grammatically correct sentence.)

I played more piano.

I went for a long ass walk only to find that the farther I walk from my house the less cool it looks. That's ok though, I went to the ocean and checked that out, it was cool. The stores in my area aren't very cool though. That's ok, it'll help me focus when I have work to do.

I made dinner for myself. My host mom left me lunch (two giant Onigiri... if you don't know what onigiri is google it. Then find some for yourself because it's GOOD.) For dinner she left me microwavable curry. It might not be any class curry, but it did the job, that's for sure.

I don't have any interesting news to report other than I stopped to take a picture of some boxes this afternoon and an old lady yelled at me. I'm not sure what she said because old people are hard to understand. American old people talk slow and are easy to understand, usually. Japanese ones talk fast and don't make any sense. I was just down on one knee snapping an picture and she wanted to ride her bike by. I didn't see her waiting then she was like "BLAH BLAH BLAH!" and I was scared so I pushed her, I felt she was attacking me. She picked her bike up over her head and waved it in the air to threaten me some more. This didn't sit well with me, as we all know, I don't like to be threatened with bikes so I used... what the hell am I writing?

Here are some of my favorite quotes from my host family thus far...

We just picked up the two twins from school...
Host Mom: I'd love to live by myself now. Getting married isn't worth it.
Host Sister: Mom! But wouldn't you be lonely without dad?
Host Mom: Nah. I could do whatever I wanted to do. I wouldn't be bored. Maybe in my next life I won't get married and I'll do whatever I want...
Host Sister: You'll get lonely!
Host Mom: ... or maybe your dad and I will just get divorced when I turn 60, that's still young enough to have fun.

The twins didn't think that was funny. I did.

I was woken by one of my 8 year old host sisters yelling "お母さん！スゴイうんちだよ！” which translates to about "MOM! Oh my god! look at my huge poop!"

The two twins are such a pleasure to be around. They couldn't be more different too. One is a really girly girl and loves school and learning. The other is an artsy tomboy who likes to make mean faces at me. When my host mom said "Zip up your fly!" she said "NO! Besides, it's easier to go to the bathroom when it's down, I'd have to unzip it to take my pants off anyway." It'll be interesting to see the differences in 10 years.

Tomorrow I start school. Thank god. Anything that keeps me busy will be great.

By the way, here's the picture of the boxes the old lady got mad about...



-Mike

The Host Fam...

I'm bored this afternoon so I figure I'll update everyone on my awesome host family...

The members are the mom, dad, brother (12 years) and twin girls (8 years.) The son has some developmental disabilities and lives at a special school during the week but comes home to play on the weekends. He's a really cool kid and certainly a pleasure to around.

The mom is a really funny woman, she's very young at heart and isn't very "Japanese" in a traditional sense. She's very out going, sarcastic, and jokes a lot. When we were driving around the other day doing errands the twins were in the back seat screaming away ands he kept going "quite please, i'm driving." They'd get louder so she finally slapped on the breaks and goes "Okay! Out of the car please!!! OUT!!! OF!! THE CAR!!!" They certainly shaped up. I had a flashback to my childhood and playing "I'm not touching you." in the back seat. It's great seeing her interact with the son, I'd never experienced a person with disabilities in Japan and assumed it was a rather sensitive subject. My host mom just runs around and plays along with the song, Yumeto. (His name means Dream Person, which I think is so perfect.)

The twins, are quite a handful. I met them at the orientation party the first day. There were lots of tables full of food for all the students and host families to eat. It was a big buffet. The girls, Hikari and Nozomi ate a ton of pizza, donuts, fried chicken, watermelon, oranges, and so on. WHen they finished they both pulled out giant plastic cups from their purses and a roll of saran wrap that they stole from the kitchen. They stole 9 more donuts, oranges, tomatoes, fried chicken, and 7 pudding cups. They filled their purses with food. We got home and they poured the food out of the cups that they had filled with food. There was a lot of donuts covered in chicken grease and watermelon and orange juices. They ate all of it.

The girls also stole a bunch of paper cups and gave them to me in the car because they said they weren't sure if they had enough "normal" cups for me. Then they asked if they had to speak Japanese to me with an American accent so that I could understand it. They also told me about how they recently saw on TV that there are a lot of problems in America regarding Zombies. They were dead serious. (No pun intended) Their favorite game to play with me is "Fart on Mike." I'm gonna see if they can change that though... if not they are in for some serious revenge.

It's a very different family from my previous, which I'm glad. I wouldn't want something the same because the other one was so perfect for that. This is the polar opposite, a fast paced suburban, young household. We live totally in the burbs. It's just farm land, no stores, just houses. I'm about an hour outside of the city by train, it's interesting. The geography of the area is very interesting. If you face one direction it looks like an east coast beach town with the ocean. If you look the other way it looks like Colorado. Here are some pictures...



and the twins at the dinner table... (Yumeto, the brother let one rip...it was hilarious)

Arrival...

Let me briefly explain the trip over to Japan before I explain anything else...

I woke up on the morning of the 10th at 7:45, we left for the airport around 9:00 so I could be at the airport at 10:00 for my twelve o'clock flight. I'm terrified of airplanes, more than anyone should be. I waited around for a while, met my friends who are also on the trip (but they were taking a plane one hour after me) and we hung out until I left.

I got some anti-anxiety meds so I wouldn't freak on the airplane. These don't work for me, they never do. I'd tried them one time before. The problem is, I take it and then I get curious if it's working so I imagine the scariest things ever (airplane crashes) and see if I stay scared. I got scared, oh well, I survived.

I arrived in Tokyo at 3:00 in the afternoon I was out of customs by 3:45. On the way out of the plane I met two people. A Taiwanese high school student who had been studying in America and was now meeting his family in Japan for a vacation. His name was Chein, but he told me his name was Jim. I'm pretty sure he was a criminal. Then I met a girl who was going on the Hokkaido Program. She seemed nice, a little weird. She stopped and told all of the flight attendants how much she loved the food, then told them all of the problems she had on the airplane and how they should improve flights for the future... I guess the world does need folks like these to keep things interesting.

Being a Type-B personality, I had no idea where I was meeting the HIF (Hokkaido Internation Foundation) group. The had emailed it to me, but I'm pretty sure I deleted it before I even read it. The flight-attendent-bugging-girl knew where to go though, so I was following/chatting with her. Jim/Chein had disappeared at this point, I'm guessing they busted him at customs. The girl told me she was going to exchange some money then we'll go meet the group together, so I waited for her and then she had suddenly disappeared. I had no idea where she went. So... I looked at the arrival times and saw my friends would be arriving in one hour. I wandered for an hour, I bought some food. I found Jim/Chein who had apparently made it through customs without getting busted, probably had a fake passport, hence the "Jim" pseudonym... Then HIF freaked out and made an announcement over the loud speaker and had like 8 people looking for me. They found me and said "WE WERE LOOKING FOR YOU! WE ARE HAPPY TO FIND YOU! The next bus leaves in 3 hours so you can walk around." So I went back and met my two buddies from Chicago. We made it to the hotel at about 8. We ate dinner an then passed out around 11:00.

Breakfast started at 4:30 so I woke up at 4:00 to shower. Well, I should say I was woken at 4:00. Everyone got a free wake up call at 4:00... except it wasn't really a wake up call, the TV just turned out and started beeping really really loud and a screen flashed saying (in Japanese) "GOOD MORNING! IT'S TIME TO WAKE UP!!!!!!" We took an hour bus ride to the airport, and flew to Hokkaido in a horrible horrible horrible horrible storm. I didn't get scared. I'm so proud. We landed at 8:00 and went straight to HIF and took 6 hours of placement tests then we met our host families at 5:00. I'll update you on my host family situation a little later but lets just say that the two eight-year-old twin girls are some of the most energetic people in this world. They are also hilarious.

-Mike

Here We Go. Again.

Just over a year ago I got back from Japan and now I'm heading back to the airport for another 13 hour flight. I'm going to be living with a host family consisting of...

A mother who likes to sing, bake, and do arts and crafts
Two 8 year old twin girls named after the two different bullet trains whose hobbies include "wind instruments"
A twelve year old son
A dad

All are musicians, I can't wait to meet all of them.

In the mean time I have to worry about my plane not crashing... my greatest irrational fear.

-MIKE

So Long...

I say, "So Long" to Japan. It's been the most fun I have had in my life. Being able to have this kind of freedom, I feel very lucky. Living in another country with a great family, eating great food every night, and stepping out of my comfort zone on a regular basis. I wish everyone could experience something like this, whether just for a week or for years...

Everyday I start to add things to a list of things I will miss in Japan and here are the current contenders...

1) The Class I teach English To
2) Being able to go out late any day of the week and eat at delicious restaurants with friends
3) Speaking/hearing Japanese on a regular basis
4) The lady I see every morning on my way to school. I see her walking a different dog every day, and each one slightly resembles her...
5) Coco Ichiban Curry House (A cheap and delicious unhealthy Japanese Curry meal)
6) My host moms cooking and my host sisters insane cooking...oh man their Kimuchi Nabe is insane.
7) Japanese Toilets (Self heating seats MAKES the difference)
8) The new friends I've made at school. Being able to make friends who don't understand you in your native language is a very interesting feeling. I've made friends from China, Japan, Thailand, Korea, Netherlands, Poland, and Vietnam...I never ever thought I'd have friends all over.
9) The new friends I've made on my trip. It's strange that I came here knowing absolutely no one and now have friends that I consider some of my best friends.
10) My host family. The funniest and nicest host family of them all...

Things I won't Miss/Things I am happy to get back too...

1) Fruit. The fruit here, although much tastier, is disgustingly expensive so it's a rare eat. I'm looking forward to eating fruit on a more regular basis.
2) Better Showers...
3) Japanes Toilets (though the one in my house has a self-heating seat...public toilets are a dread)
4) My Bed
5) My real family (and yes, Step-family is included)
6) My other moms cooking and the food she buys (i.e. bagels...dear god, I want bagels)
7) I won't miss being stared at so hard you can feel it in the back of your skull...
8) Masks...I hope they don't catch on in the USA
9) I miss my guitars...
10) My friends and teachers back home...



The bad toilets...


The good toilets...



Working at the Cram-School teaching english...

Searching for My Mind (As I Am Unsure Where I Lost It)

While the clock is slowly (was to fastly) clicking down to the time I lave. I have a lot to do. I have to get some good gifts for my host family, I have to get hotels ready for my family when they come, I have to hang out with my friends before I leave, I have to register for classes for next quarter at school, I have to finish writing songs that I started, I have to... well I just have a lot to do. This is a position I should never ever be put in. When it comes to taking responsibility to get things like this done, I am not the person to put in charge. There are somethings, that I have extreme interest in, that I will work myself to death trying to finish. For instance, I worked hard on helping produce and get permits for a submission to the Chicago Comedy Television Pilot Competition this year and I worked my butt off. When it came to filling out papers for my study abroad to Japan, I just couldn't get myself to do it. When I want to finish recording a song or finish writing a song, I will lock myself in my room until it's done. When I have to wash my clothes because all of them are dirty, I will avoid it like the plague. Ask my mother, I wouldn't be in Japan if she hadn't helped me out.


I have had to book a lot of hotels lately and it took all the energy out of me. I booked a hotel in the town I live in but they didn't have enough rooms on the days I wanted. They had two rooms open on the 18th, but not the 19th. The other hotel in the city luckily had rooms on the 19th, but not the 18th. This worked out conveniently, though having to switch hotels will be hectic. Yesterday I was contacted by the first hotel saying they have space the second day. So I called the first and cancelled. Starting to get annoying? Yeah, that's just the beginning of it. The same thing happened with my sisters hotel in Nagoya. The hotel in Miyajima, and Tokyo. I haven't reserved a hotel for my second return to Nagoya yet, though I should probably get on that.

In order to relieve myself from the pain of reserving things (I think I just hate to use the phone, especially here because it's harder to understand Japanese on the phone since you can't see any gestures...gestures speak louder than words.) I have been writing a lot of music. I started writing two lullabyes and a small collection of piano solos, kind of jazzy-bluesy-boogie-woogie piano solos. All of them are about the different trains I ride/have ridden here in Japan. One is called the Tsurumaisen Boogie Woogie. Tsurumai is the name of the line sen is "line". The others that are coming are the Meijo-sen, Higashiyama-Sen, Meitetsu, Shinkansen (bullet train), and possibly a small Aonomi-Sen. I haven't really written anything in months and they are just pouring out and it's a great feeling. There's no forcing, writing has never felt easier. It's also nice because since I haven't had a guitar here I've been able to work on my piano skills a lot at home. I can't wait to get a guitar in my hands though, as much as I play piano, it will always be my mistress. Guitar is my true love.

For those interested, I have loaded the Tsurumai-Sen Boogie Woogie (in its current Synthesized Piano, slightly unfinished status) to my music website http://www.purevolume.com/michaelmalarkey feel free to visit and listen.

My older sister arrives in two days, I can't wait. It's a lot like having this weird dream you get excited about so you keep telling people about and everyone just goes "...oooh cool...yeah..." but then you get to finally get to bring someone else into the dream with you. Maybe that's a strange analogy, but that's what it feels like...

Happy Mothers Day Mom and any other Moms or Grandmas who read this.

The Tanjyoubi!

Here is exactly how I celebrated my bithday in Japan...

First, let me say that I wasn't really looking to celebrate my birthday, I didn't really care at all. On the 29th, I actually had forgotten that my birthday was the next day... anyway...

Once a year my host family's extended family from Tokyo comes and visits. This year it was on April 30th. We went out to an incredibly expensive, incredibly delicious Japanese style restaurant called "Hari Hari." We were put in our own small room with a very low table. Under the table the floor is dug out and you put your feet below. My hostaunt, two host uncles, and two host cousins were there. My host mom, host sister, host dad, and host grandma... I guess I could have left off the word "Host" for all of those and you would have gotten the idea, but...it's too late to go back.

All your food comes on separate plates. One small plate with sushi, one with some vegetables, a small bowl of soup, etc. You get ten or eleven different plates of food. It's a lot like eating at my grandma's house where each thing requires it's own plate. (The land where a sandwich, an apple, blueberrys, chips and cheese can never share one plate. Clearly each one necessitates it's own resting area.) I was wished happy birthday by everyone and my host grandma got her mothers day wishes because everyone was around. Following lunch we went downstairs in the building to a fancy cafe/cake restaurant. We drank coffee and orange juice and they brought me out a big cake covered in delicious fruits (not a fruit cake) and then my host-extended-family gave me expensive chocolates and some nice little tea treats. We took some pictures, chatted and then we went to my host familys house. Here we talked, drank tea, I played piano for them, we watched TV and it was nice.

At about 4pm, I met up with my friends and we went to a kaitenzushi (the place where the sushi travels around the little moving sidewalk thingy on little plates.) I ate 12 plates (about 20 pieces of sushi), and a piece of cake. I felt so sick. All of my friends were mostly out traveling so I was only with my friend Lisa and my friend matt but it was really nice keeping it low key. Sometimes it's really difficult to go out here because everyone always wants to come and it ends up being a big a group and everything gets harder when there's too many people. It's not that it's BAD with a lot of people, it's just a little much at times. We walked around and drank some soda. That was it. It was a relatively low-key birthday which is just how I like it. I couldn't have been happier.

Today, however, my friend Jessica wanted to celebrate (she's a very motherly friend) and so she invited a bunch of people out to lunch (The same Kaitenzushi..I could barely eat there after eaching all those sushi last time.) It ended up being me, Jessica, and 4 Japanese girls from school. Lunch was good because we all just talked. They gave me some Japanese Mochi-Ice Cream. After we went downtown to Sakae and they went shopping. How I end up getting stuck with girls who want to shop is beyond me. I've had years of practice though, growing up with two sisters and my mom. I wandered around and watched them all touch various articles of clothing while they considered buying it... it was entertaining. I had fun... but...I don't really think any males idea of a fun birthday celebration is watching girls shop. No offense. I still had fun though.

Thanks for any birthday wishes I recieved from anyone! I will surely see everyone soon (The unfortunate countdown has begun...About 28 days left.) Part of my wants to stay forever but part of me is a little tired of being an extreme outsider, it's a very interesting feeling. It's strange coming from America. I realize now how blind people often are to other people's race because we are so used to seeing all different kinds of people. Again, thanks everyone.

-Mike