Waiting for you ('you' being the typhoon)

Sadly I have yet to see any cows or tractors fly by yet. I guess I'll have to be satisfied with seeing a few plastic bags scuttle down the street. Typhoon 16 has begun, but as of now it's still warming up. Rain is pouring and the wind is pounding but overall I feel pretty safe inside my old rickety home. From talking with the other teachers it seems like flooding isn't too much a worry here, although "you're house may get a little wet" was told to me by one teacher. Hopefully that doesn't become the understatement of the year :P

Anyhow besides waiting at home hoping to see my first real typhoon, I don't have much to do so I guess I'll dedicate today as JLPT 2kyuu study day 1! Or in the Japanese style of making overly large banners for simple statements: 日本語能力試験二級一日勉強及び精神訓練第一日 (nihongo nouryoku shiken ni kyuu ichinichi benkyou oyobi seishin kunren daichi hi). Which would directly translate to something like: Day one of studying and spiritual discipline for the JLPT lvl.2 test.

Oh and here's the pictures from day 2 of the festival:

I love being a government worker

So with the news that big typhoon 16 is going to be crashing through Aomori tomorrow, the school I'm at today has cancelled classes tomorrow and is telling their students not to go outside.

Meanwhile I call up my supervisor to see what's going on at tomorrow's school and he says they are following suit for cancelling all classes. So I tell my supervisor I'll call him when I wake up tomorrow (since he's helping me mail out the JLPT form) and he's like "Won't I just see you at the office?" and I'm like ".........." and he's like "Are you taking a holiday?". So I guess in the middle of the typhoon tomorrow I will be riding my bike to the Board of Education.

*Tuesday Edit*Though here at the BoE I've been told I can go home and sleep. So I'm doing real work for now but I'll leave after lunch. Being a public employee has never been so good.

Soko ni tateita

Ah, relaxtion. No festivals, no work, no parties, just a day to relax and catch up on house chores and of course sleep :)

So friday went well and the flaming torches were not as bad as I imagined. As long as you kept them swinging fast you'd be ok. The only thing a little off-putting was how windy it is here and how much power wind has on the movement of flames.

So saturday was nice, long, and memorable. But instead of writing about it I'll do a pictorial.

The day started with me riding my bike to this Temple/house owned by the head of the board of education.


We then proceeded to make torches for the stage area:



Next we moved lots of wood, wires, and steel to the Jr. High school grounds and started building things. Kinda like shop class but on a bigger scale ^^;;



After that we returned back to the temple for some lunch and charm-making. We also got to make our own bamboo sake cups which would be for the post-festival party:




Returning to the high school we setup the flags:


Now with most of the place set up we went and watched the parade. The post-office hourse was a nice touch (keep in mind this was the horse fair festival which should explain the following pictures):






Not sure what this had to do with Horses, but Mr. Beer and Mr. Sake here seemed like they were having a good time:


After the parade we headed back to the school where all the parade horses were lined up:





Then the show started and we all shuffled to the school to change. See I hadn't realized beforehand that we were all going to be running around in the male equivalent of the g-string (think Sumo). Not too mention the wind was blowing strong freezing wind at us. But at least were able to wear pants + jackets to fend off the cold until the last minute. Here's a somewhat blurry shot of us all:



For the next part I don't have any pictures since I really couldn't take a camera while I was running around near-naked swinging two torches in front of the whole town. The town's photographer took a bunch of pictures and will be giving me some. But I'm not sure I want to expose myself to the internet like I did to the town, so I'll probably still leave them off ^^;;

Anyways it was a blast being out there. Before the event I felt a bit nervous but I think the utter freezing-ness that we all experienced after we took our clothes off really did a good job taking our mind off anything else. First me and 3 other guys lifted one of those platform things which normally hold statues, but this time had a miko (Japanese female priestess) sitting on top of it. We walked out slowly, did a full circle of the area and then set it down and let the priestess off. Following that we ran off with the wooden platform quickly and grabbed our torches and lit them on fire. The heat really felt good after freezing for so long and with all the town screaming and cheering it really got us excited. We ran and screamed and jumped around with our fire and then in the middle dropped the torches and ran to the front and threw our charms to the audience. Then we did some more dancing and ran back.

Next 2 of these guys got a turn:



Then finally they lit the manji on fire and started lighting the horses on fire:




We were pretty damn up close to the fire because we were behind the stage. Needless to say we had to avoid flying flaming projictiles (which was both funny as we'd all be running around and yelling "abunai, abunai" (dangerous, dangerous though if this was an american situation it'd be more like "oh shit, oh shit" :P). Here's a picture of us in the heat:


Lastly the fireworks started to go off:



During the commotion we ran back to the school and changed once again. We wiped off the face paint except mine wouldn't come off :( So let me go home and take a shower, yet it still didn't come off 100% and even now my eyes look kinda creepy :P After that I jogged back to the temple so we could have our post festival celebration filled with moderate drinking, much laughter, and an overall satisfaction that today was a very good day.

Then came the 10 hours of sleep which were wondeful ^__^
-----
Life:
Today I had my first experience with buying concert tickets in Japan. It's actually pretty nice since you just go to your local convinience store and use an automated machine. In my situation it was a little more confusing because through buying a cd single I got first dibs at tickets which were normally not on sale so I had to call a phone number and guess my way around an automated system to get a reservation # and then head for the Lawsons. But in the end I got my tickets and everything was good! Though concert prices are a bit more than I am used to paying the states (here they are around $35-40 US for even smaller shows [though I think they include a drink or two]).

Games:

Also to my unbelievable surprise my local we-don't-know-what-a-video-game-is videogame store, actually was partaking in the MGS3 pre-order campaign and had still had some premium box pre-orders left (take that playstation.com/amazon.com!). So in Dec I will finally be able to get my hands on a Japanese LE box (MGS2 LE and Xenosaga ep1 LE came out while I was in Japan last time. But even though I lined up in the snow the day they came out, no LE's were available >_< ). The MGS3 Premium box will have "...2 kinds of Deluxe Booklets, 1 Special Footage DVD, 1/144 scale Display Colored Model and the MGS3 game itself, all for 13,440 Yen" (www.game-science.com). Also for pre-ordering you get a free soundtrack cd now containing 6 tracks + 1 music video + 1 camoflauge for when the game comes out. The music is actually surprisingly awesome ('escape' is :D~~~~~) (I thought the MGS2 music worked great in game, but was a tad boring when listening to the soundtrack), though the Japanese version of "Snake Eater" is really really horrible :( Also Japan is too trusting of people in their society. In the US if free promo stuff is being given out for pre-orders, you have to put money down to prevent people from just going to 100 stores and getting a bunch of promo stuff and selling it on ebay. Here you pay nothing and you get free stuff. I guess Japan is a scam-free society @_@

Been too busy to play much this week. Tried getting some more time into Suikoden IV but I ran into a card-playing character, and I'll be damned if that wasn't one of the most addictive mini-games I've played. Leading me to 2 hours of doing nothing but playing cards ^^;

Also been messing around with King of the Fighters 3D which I still can't judge yet as it's just too bizarre to make heads or tails of the fighting system. But I can at least say it made a better transition to 3d than any of the other fighting series. Though wtf is up with Terry speaking in english. I want my "Barn knakuru" and "Are you ok? Basta woulfff!" :(

FMA fighting game was released but from what I've read it seems like the roster is really small. Guess I'll wait for Dream Carnival 2 like I did with Naruto 2 GC.

Oh and I don't play FFXI (still haven't gotten into the whole pay-per-month games) but their version of Bahamut is fucking gorgeous IMO. Having Yoshitaka Amano doing the art was such a good choice. I hope they get him again for a single player FF in the future:



Music:
I've been giving the GO!GO!7188 new single "Aoi Kiretsu" a few listens and well it's not bad. It's not one of their most distinct tunes, and it actually reminds me a bit of their 1st album stuff when they felt a little mainstream. Then again I think their more pop-punk stuff from their first 2 albums eclipses the grunge-punk off their third album so it might not be a bad thing. While the single isn't going to leave a big impression it doesn't perk my interest for their new album in October.



TV:
Haven't had a chance to watch anything :( I do have the new FMA though so gonna try to watch that tonight. Still need to catch up on the other Bones shows' Mars Daybreak and Kurau. I noticed at HMV that Ghost in the Shell:Innonce comes out on dvd in 2 weeks on September 14th. Personally I think Oshii is a fantastic writer (Avalon, Jin-roh, GiTS: SAC 2nd gig has shown me that) but an average director (GiTS, Avalon) but since he wrote Innocence unlike the first GiTS which he only directed I'm definitely looking forward to seeing it.

As close to Abe no Seimei as I'll ever be

So yesterday after doing a few more introductions at work, I got picked up by my supervisor to get involved in day#1 of the actual 馬市祭り(umaichi matsuri). First we went to a park where a stage had already been set up with carnival like food boths forming a line on both sides down to it. Then we started setting up a few torches and ceremonial items for which people could put offers onto. Then we got suhffled to the house/kinda temple of one of the older residents of the area.

At this point my supervisor tells me to get undressed as I will be re-outfitted in proper clothing for the night. This proper clothing was basically an onmyouji looking outfit complete with the hat :) From there myself and 4 others dressed as shinkan went to a row of 5 seats and then sat down and made ourselves stoic looking. I had asked what we should be doing and was told that we just need to sit and stare forward. So that's what we did (well as well as we could, the bugs crawling on us were kinda distracting). Anyhow next an official comes out and reads an opening (there was a full crowd of people watching at this point), then they give speeches/light torches, then 2 guys in full cavemen-like straw outfits come out with wooden masks and spears and do a pretty cool dance. Finally people put offerings on the table and the opening ceremony for the next 3 days of this festival concluded.

Today is the 2nd day of the festival and while I'm just going to be practicing (with fire) in about an hour, fireworks were going off in the morning and I think will be continuing all day. Although because it's the middle of the day you can't really see them that well, but everyone is pretty lively here because of it.

Anyway, my supervisor snapped some photos of me in cermonial gear so once he burns me the pics I'll throw them up here. Until then you'll have to look at the above pic and then photoshop me in, in your mind.

Oh and I got my JLPT application in the mail so woohoo! I guess I'll be traveling to Sendai in Dec. to test if I've actually kept my studies up in these first few months.

Can the child within my heart rise above...

Yesterday was the first day I got to interact with my students and all I have to say is...it was awesome!

I did my self-intro in three 9th grade classes and while the first one went less than stellar. The 2nd and 3rd ones were a blast. I've always been more of a fun over learning person, so the main part of my lesson was just to keep the kids laughing and keep them interested. I think it worked as it seemed like they were having a lot of fun and so was I. Did they actually learn any English? Probably not and they most likely think my brother lives in a recording studio built underground in a garden, but hey at least they know I have a brother :)

I gotta say though, knowing Japanese has helped me in the classrooms so much so far. I'll be doing one thing and then a kid shouts something in the back of the class in Japanese and I'll immeadiately reply back in English. This brings shouts of "びっくり通じたんだ！”(Wow, he understands!), which then led to certain kids in the front row having conversations with me while was giving my lesson. One guy asked me about coming to Aomori and music, and after talking with him for a bit (him Japanese, me English) he shouts out to the JTE "Look Sensei! We're communicating!". I dunno, stuff like that just made me smile.

So I ended the day covered in pink/yellow/white chalk from head to toe (I had chalk on my tie even ^^; ). But it was great fun. I also did some speech contest practice with this one student who is reading a story called "The little prince" which surprisingly shared very similar themes to Katamari Damashii [ http://katamaridamacy.jp/contents.html ] which makes me wonder if they were partially inspired by this story.

After school I went and did day of a three day practice for Kizukuri's Umaichi Matsuri. It's one of those festivals where an old chanting song plays and men and woman dressed as old shinto priests (神官) do a specific walk/run/dance with giant flaming torches. The women get to use one long bamboo stick so they won't burn themselves while the guys get to hold two short bamboo sticks you have to watch out not to catch yourself on fire. It was great when my supervisor started telling me about a Kizukuri local who burned his whole arm up good a few years back in this festival. The dance thing isn't that hard itself, except for the sections of "free tricks" where you're supposed to make up your own tricks with the fire. Also you have to hold the sticks outwards and slanted up or else the fire will creep up and get your hands/arm. Luckily we did not use actual fire this day, but friday practice and the actual event on saturday will. My supervisor turns to me and say "If you start to catch on fire, shout 'atsueeee'"

I tell him that if I catch on fire, speaking correct Japanese will not be the most pressing thing on my mind...

And Some Days You Feed on a Tree Frog...

One thing that's cool about living up here is the irregularity of the weather. Cloud tend to always be passing by and usually at pretty fast speeds. Due to this you get 5 min weather spasms at times. It'll be a gorgeous clear day and then suddenly it'll start raining hard. But no need to grab that umbrella, because most likely within 5-10 mins it'll be nice and clear again and the puddles will evaporate. I mean I left my bike out in the yard for a weekend while a 'Typhoon' passed by yet when I came back the bike was totally dry already. It's actually pretty nice weather since I don't have to worry about being rained in all day, and it makes for good pictures too! :P







So today was first day of school for me. Being the 'I need to start off on a good note' person that I am, I woke up at 5:45am and got to the teachers room by about 7:10. I really had no clue when anything started except that I should be there by 7:40. Well nothing really started until about 8:15ish, but luckily there was another teacher there so we made small chat. One thing that caught me off guard was just how many teachers there are in this school. I mean I swear I said "Ohayou Gozaimasu" at least 20+ times. So trying to memorize everyone's names will be a fair challenge in these next few weeks, not too mention that I should probably get some omiyage stuff since I only have like 3 things left from America and that won't work for 20 people :(

Opening ceremonies was actually really cool I thought. At least it was quite a different experience than ceremonies in CA. I got called up and did a speech in shaky English and shakier Japanese which I think turned out ok...hopefully. One thing that didn't help was the principle introducing me as "This guy did 4 years of Japanese, and lived in Japan for 6 months. So he's great at Japanese!" Yea, and then I went on the stage and gave my speech in less than stellar Japanese ^^;;

Afterwards I didn't have any classes so they told me to just sit in the teachers room all day. Determined to not waste the entire day, I asked my main JTE if I could sit in on her 1st class to get a feel for how Japanese classes are. She agreed and I went to the back of the class and sat through it. Personally I had a blast :) I mean I guess it's because I'm still fresh out of college so I identify more with the student side than teaching side, but the class was a mess with people shouting out jokes all the time (which were often pretty funny :P ), falling asleep, and giving each other signals across the class. I mean maybe it will bother me when I'm actually teaching it, but personally I just felt the class was full of energy, lively, and most of all fun. I'd rather have a class where I can laugh a few times a period than a dry reading text one. Anyway's I'll find out tomorrow as I'm doing self-intro in three 3rd year classes.

I also practiced with a few students for the speech contest and while they were both good. I wondered why some of the 3rd years still choose to just recite a story rather than write their own. The two students I've met who wrote their own speeches just have a lot more charisma than reading out of a language book which doesn't even have the best writing in the first place. Still I'm really enjoying working with all the students on their speeches, and hopefully I'll be able to go to the speech contest and cheer them on.

Only thing that put a slight damper on the day was that I was getting up to leave at 4pm (school ended at 3:10) since I needed to go to the Board of Eduction, but the vice-principle stopped me and gave me this "We all stay until 4:45pm" speech. Eventually I convinced him that the BoE would be closed by post 4:45pm and he let me go, but I have a feeling he's not going to be very friendly about 'bending' the rules at times to help out.

As a side note. Metal Gear Solid 3 finally got it's Japanese date set through a slip on HMV's part. It looks like it'll be Dec. 2nd. And the regular edition will have this cover:

(I'm assuming the platinum edition will just be a big black box with the title like MGS/MGS2)

It's a decent cover I guess, but Shinkawa's already done a ton of cool art for the game like this:


and for the maybe 1 person reading this who hasn't seen it and even cares, there's a pretty new & good trailer from one of the German game cons. English dub of the trailer is here while the Japanese version can be found here

Cheers,
--David

Fool on the planet

Well, today was the search for the ever elusive car. This is mainly due to the fact that despite the awesome speed skillz of my cheap basket-included Japanese bike, I will probably not be able to do long distance rides when the heavy poundings of snow comes in.

So going off a tip on a good deal, I got all prepared at the office to make the trip to Aomori by bus to check out some cars. The first step of this should've been the easiest one, I just needed to take a bus to Goshogawara the next town over. The people at my work told me where the stop was and what time to be there.

So inevitably I followed their wonderful advice and waited at the Uramachi bus stop and caught the 14:22 bus for the today. I didn't really think to look at the sign of where it was going because hey it was exactly at the place and time my co-workers said it would be.

At about 14:36 when according to my time table the bus should've been stopping at Goshogawara I noticed that we were somewhere that seemed unfamilar to me. Lots of trees and mountains, and soon I even began to see the ocean. Reality struck that maybe, just maybe, I fucked up ^^; So I got off at the next big landmark-life building (to make it easy to explain on a cell phone where I was) and it turns out I had gone to Ajigasawa which is the opposite direction. How did this happen I wondered?

Well later I found out that the bus stop near me is actually TWO bus stops. One on one side of the street and one on the other. They both share the same name and buses arrive within a minute of each other. The difference is that the buses on one side go in one direction, and the other side go in the other direction. Fantastic! Well it's actually not that bad of an idea, but it would've been nice if someone had pointed this out to me before I went on my small journey.

So I just went back to work instead and finished up the day. Luckily I did get free fresh squid dipped in mayonaise at Ajigasawa...

Though afterwork the night was pretty good as my supervisor stopped by telling me he had found a car at the local shop where a friend of his worked. It had holes in it, and was missing most of it's lights. But I got their word that they'll fix it up to brand new and evacuate all the gigantic spiders that were inhabiting it. So I think that deal will go through and in a few weeks I will be mobile at a speed more than 5mph.

Also did speech practice at Tateoka chuu-gakkou today. The kids there were even better than at Nishi chuu-gakkou. This one 1st year kid seriously fooled me into thinking he was American or at least had an English speaking parent. Turns out both were wrong and that instead his awesomeness is a result of going to private school to learn english for the last 3 years. Jeez, I really hope this kid wins the prize because not only was he good, but he really got into and was full of energy like someone on a TV commercial.

Tomorrow is the opening ceremonies for my base school of Kizukuri chuu-gakkou. Gotta be there in a suit at 7:30ish so I currently am trying to scrounge up some kind of a speech. Though I have no clue what happens after the opening cermonies so I'll just look forward to being very surprised and very confused throughout tomorrow.

Signing off,
--David

Didn't take any pictures today so I'll leave you with an image of the crazy Japanese dancing robot "Robosapien"

Pictures of my house

Due to popular demand I am including pictures of my house. But since I don't want them crowding up the top, scroll to the bottom of the page to find them.

Because this blog thing can't hold all the posts I've made it kinda knocks the older posts away. So here's a direct link to the pictures:

http://bebpo.blogspot.com/2004/08/where-i-live.html

Smiling when your friends are watching

*Trying a new format for a bit. Lets see how it flows.

Life:
So this past week has been pretty calm. On monday I practiced speeches with the Nishi-chuugakko kids and they really were pretty darn good. Tomorrow I'll be doing the same at Tateoka-chuugakko and it'll be interesting to see how the english level compares between the two schools.

After that there was the Aomori Orientation which was fun. Not much to say about it other than there was lots of meetings and a bit of drinking in the evenings. Only notable I did outside those two is going to an Onsen for the first time. The whole nakedness thing was kinda bizzarre at first, but more annoying was just hot fucking hot and steamy the indoor room gets. Being in there for just 5 mins made my head start to spin so I went outside to the outdoor onsen and that was pretty nice...until it started raining ^^;;

Movies & TV:

On saturday I rode my bike down to the movie theaters to see the new Naruto theatrical film. It was alright, but followed the usually TV series -> Movie adaptation were the story is pretty dumb and fillerish. Luckily the animation was nice and the characters are likeable so it was enjoyable. And it was here that I really started to notice the Tsugaru-ben stick out as kids were yelling throughout the movie in Tsugaru-ben and I really had no clue wtf they were saying 90% of the time. I guess it's time to buy that Tsugaru-ben dictionary.


I had seen Steamboy last week so I got 500yen off my Naruto ticket :) Steamboy was a good popcorn movie that could've been a great film, but the characters were all flat and un-interesting. Despite that the visual tone of the film had a unique and gorgeous style, and the music (done by westerners) was excellent. So if you just take it as a enjoyable saturday movie, it works quite well.



This weeks Fullmetal Alchemist 鋼の錬金術師　was pretty sad and cruel as usual. Yet at the same time it was fantastic and moving as the final plot points were revealed setting up what looks to be an amazing finale. It'll be sad to see the show end soon, but as one thing passes another arrives:


Games:

This week marked the finishing of the 1st game since I'd arrived in Japan, and considering how busy I've been it was quite an accomplishment in my mind :) Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner is a spin-off of the Shin Megami Tensei series which is original based on the Japanese Digital Devil Story/Megami Tensei novels. Good rpg about tribes in a mad max post-apocalyptic world trying to climb the tower to Nirvana. If you want a my full review it can be found here.


Picked up Suikoden IV while in Aomori (although the LE was nowhere to be found, so I just settled with the 1st print version with the clear case). About 5 hours in so far and besides the not so hot loading, the game is really great. The writing is smart and witty and it's even gotten me to laugh a few times already. I look forward to further time with it.

Manga:

Finished reading the first 3 available volumes of Shin Takahashi's new manga Kimi no Kakera. I still don't know what to think of it as it's trying really hard to be dark and depressing like his previous work Saishuu Heiki Kanoujo, yet at the same time the violence all seems to be the happy disney violence where no one actually gets killed. Also the main character is basically a Chise wannabe, but the problem is that a Chise wannabe doesn't make a good main character. They need someone who is actually pro-active to lead the story yet the only person who can do that in this manga is really neglected to sub-character level of involvement so far. Who knows though, the manga still seems early on, so it may pick up.

Quick! Before he forgets!

*Note from now on I'm gonna start using larger pictures so it may look a bit awkward but you'll actually be able to see what's going on.

Ok, so a bunch has happened since Hakodate so I better finish up the Hakodate story. Basically day 2 consisted of checking out the Motomachi area which is one of the 3 sea ports that were first opened to foreigners in the 1850ish. It was pretty nice to see the roads made of stone and the various old buildings. Then I made the trip over to Goryokaku which is the site of the last samurai war in Japan and the final battle of Shinsengumi still alive after the revolution of 1868. It's now been turned into a park and has a great Shinsengumi museum.

The rest was mainly walking around getting lost for hours, and eventually finding my hotel which was along beach. Getting there at night it was interesting to see the Japanese kids lighting full blown fireworks into the sky one after another from the beach. Unlike the US I guess it's legal here ^^;


Yes, Trolleys! Pretty nice way to travel.


Cafe Shalom, I guess even the Jewish people were here!


Nice Requiem for a Dream-ish view.



Proof of western civilization


Proof that they didn't stay long enough


Morning Market: The place to be for fresh seafood





The gorgeous scenery of Hokkaido


Depite the long lines, Lucky Pierrot burgers still have nothing on american burgers :(


I felt sorry for the dog :(



If you're not a beer fan, even Hakodate Beer won't change you.


The empty beach of the Yu no Kawa area of Hakodate where the famous onsen is.

The tail of the great outdoors

Over the weekend I took a trip up to Hakodate, located at the southern tip of Hokkaido.

At first I was really excited about the train ride from Aomori city - Hakodate city which goes through the larget underground tunnel in the world. I figured you would see the train submerging into the ocean like a submarine on one of those disneyland rides, and that inside you would see the ocean through clear walls and watch the sea life as you made your trip. But alas, that was not the end result. The train basically headed into a mountain tunnel and then pitch black for an hour straight and then you leave out of a mountain tunnel. What I had expected to be the coolest train ride ever, instead because the most boring one ^^;; Though the scenery coming out of Hokkaido was really nice.

One thing that stuck out as I passed the rural areas of Hokkaido on the train is that Hokkaido had actual roads! Like big roads made just like the ones in California. Even in the smaller rural areas with just farms and forests (of which there were many and they were awesome), big change of style from the roads in Aomori. But then again Hokkaido is not the poorest prefecture in Japan, so I guess they could probably spend some money on roads.

The station main area of Hakodate itself was pretty normal. It's a medium sized city with a population of about 300,000. From the station you can see the bay and smell the water which is pleasant. The bus ride up to Hakodate mountain takes about 20 mins and is really cool. Basically the city is built going up the base of the mountain with vertically angled streets like San Fransisco. Then about 50% up the mountain all the buildings stop and you enter the tree covered mountain. You can either take a sky tram up to the top from this point or take the bus. I was on the bus ride as I had arrived to late and the last tram had gone already. The bus winds in circles around the mountain with trees covering both sides of the view, then every wind around when the city comes into view the bus stops for a min and lets you check out the view. Arriving at the top you see the entire city glowing with lights. It really is an incredibly impressive view. Especially since it was a cloudy night and we were just above the clouds so you'd see them move really fast covering the view with a foggy haze on and off.

Afterwards I arrived at my business hotel which was actually quite liveable and quite cheap. The only problem I have with Japanese business hotels is the shower width is really really tiny so I kept bumping my elbows. Anyways, that was it for day1.


Hakodate Station's night rainy view.


A glimpse into the night view from Hakodate mountain

And the rest...

Well...since things are moving forward at a rapid pace here I think I'll just sum up the rest of the past event highlights so I can move on.

Tokyo was well, Tokyo. Shopping in Akihabara was great (1000yen off every new game! [here in Aomori the best you'll see if 400yen off :(] and a wide selection of old LEs for reasonable prices). Also meeting up with some GAF folk was a lot of fun and everyone was pretty cool.

Aomori arrival was kinda a preview of things to come. The airport was basically 2 rooms. The arrival/bag pickup room,　and then the exit/entrance hallway. They didn't really have anywhere to perform functions, so we all just lined up in the entrance hallway and they read our names while we shook hands with our supervisors.

The first week was mainly adapting to the location. Finding food was especially difficult at first as if one were to make a walk around my entire town, they would normally think that no food places exist. Well it turns out that unlike most places where resturants would have a sign or maybe a picture of food in their window, here the resturants are basically just inside people's houses so you just need to know where they are. Luckily there is a Jusco/Aeon mall with a bunch of great Japanese/Italion resturants and a Mcdonalds + A movie theater + HMV for music + 3 bookstores + a WonderGoo store for games. This is all located between my town and the neighboring town of Goshogawara, and is about 20 mins by bike. Though once it starts snowing and the temperature gets below zero I'm not sure how that's gonna work.

The 2nd week was the Nebuta festivals and I got to dance around in the one in Aomori. Interesting, but the fact that me and some friends got lost trying to find where we left our backpacks for an hour; returned and everyone was gone including our stayover ride; so we walked the streets until 6am when the train station opened...yea that whole process kinda took some of the fun out of the night (or maybe added a bit in some ways).

Then there was a b-day party of one of the Goshogawara JETs. It was fun and I think everyone had a good time. It was good meeting the people who are the most local from here.

Kinda backwards in more ways than one

Well because I didn't actually get my internet until 3 weeks into my journey of Japan I guess I'll start writing in reverse about the past 3 weeks and then eventually the future.

Not if that makes much sense, but hey it's what all programs do when you hit back from item 1.

So anyhow, one of the major events in Aomori Japan during the last week of July/first week of August is the Nebuta festival. The Nebuta festival is one where giant floats of famous Chinese legendary figures are made and then people hall them around all night while dancing the night away and playing a single tune repeatedly on their flute. Everyone goes all out on the float creation as many government sections or schools make their own. Aomori city puts on a big one while Goshogawara puts on a 立ちNebuta or a 'standing' Nebuta with tall vertical floats (see Hugh's pics of these at http://www.tamenobu.com )

When I was told that float after float was of Chinese heroes, I enquired with a Japanese couple about where the Japanese legendary heroes were. Their response? Long silence and then finally "We have...a couple" they replied. Though I'm not sure if they were counting Mario,Inuyasha, and Goku ^^;(not pictured but was in the Goshagawara Nebuta).

These pictures are from the Nebuta festival in my town of Kizukuri. A town where normally at 9pm on a friday you would be lucky to see 1 person on the street. But on the 3 nights people suddenly appear...though they all vanish by the morning after :

Thus Zarathustra spoke....

Really don't have much to say here. Just testing to see if this thing works so I can get it underway before I take off for the weekend.

But in case it works I will strive to include a picture of a frog on my door handle
Why?..because everyone likes frogs

Where I live

The outside of the house




The yard with my awesome slow-motion bike!






Approaching the rooms



Tatami room, AKA. STORAGE ROOM




The main living room



The Kitchen/Washing machine/drying line/trash room


Shower Room



Bed Room



The streets I live on

Finally a floor plan: