Memoirs of a Sensei

UFO MADNESS!!!

2011-05-08T05:35:00.000-07:00

Well Spring has officially sprung, and I just want to let you guys know that I am indeed still alive. Although I have been really really really lazy when it comes to this blog. I guess part of it is that I have been in Japan for a couple of years now and there are not so many mind blowing things to talk about. The other part of it is, well, I have been really taking it easy for a long time now.

Let's see, something quick to talk about. I had a new obsession the past couple months that I am trying to quit cold turkey. It is UFO catchers. So you know how in America you pay a quarter, or 50 cents to try and win a prize? You never do. Well, in Japan there is a strategy (and sometimes the people will even move things for you and TELL you how to win, how awesome is that?!) And I won so much stuff. SO much stuff, a big box full of stuff. But, alas, where am I going to put all of these things? How am I going to get them back to America? What exactly are they doing in my apartment other than sitting there? I had to stop. So, faithful readers (who may not be so faithful because I have not put anything new up here since last year), I am trying to stop. And I will show you some pictures and that shall be the end of my post.

It has been a wonderful, relaxing two years, and for all of you that are wondering, I will be out here for at least another 10 months (for those that can't do math, thats March 2012). Teaching adults is great, and I still teach the kids. Enjoy the pictures, and if you think "wow, this boy is crazy!" think this instead "at least he wasnt addicted to drugs"

-Jeremy

What Japan has helped confirm

2010-11-15T05:27:00.000-08:00

I get to teach this child next month, its a baby girl and I'm in my costume. Great week. (No I wasn't hitting her, I was trying to get her to touch the key)

So, I figured I would write on this blog since, I know, I know, I havent written in ages.

Quick update, I just got finished with some follow up training for my kids classes. And man that was actually a pretty wild day now that I think about it. I had to do a demo lesson right on the LAST hour (of 4 slots). But it was ok because all the teachers loved my energy and two of the Japanese women who pretended to be my students were totally caught off guard by how crazy fun crazy fun crazy my lesson was. Good times.

Let's see, what else, I recently went to see a concert where a guy was playing a violin in a band. One of my friends has a friend who is part of a band and the guy was in the band and he played the violin beautifully. Its always moments like these where I wish I would have kept going with my trumpet, or had developed myself in another instrument. Hope is not lost, I'm still young...even though I'm getting older...good gracious it was my half birthday last Friday...less than six months and I'll be a quarter of a century old. *runs away screaming*

*comes back*

There are times, readers, where I'm in class and I think, "How perfect is this? I get to be paid to do what I've done for free, much to my dads dismay sometimes, talk." And to follow up with that, people, remember when I said things are just going to keep getting better even though they are better than anything I've ever experienced ever? Yeah, let the good times roll.

I gotta say, if you are running around all day, worried about every little thing, why not do the opposite. Slow down a bit and instead of worrying about the little things, appreciate the little things. One person I met out here put it the best. She told me when she prays, she didnt just thank God for the good things in her life, she also thanked Him for the bad things also while recognizing that what will be will be. Good things happen to people and more good things result from good things. But people, bad things happen to people also, and good things result from that as well. What seemed terrible for me a couple of years ago has now turned into one of the best things that could have ever happened. And no, I'm not saying that bad things are all based on perception, there are some REALLY EVIL BAD things out there, but think about it, what has made you angry today? Could it have been avoided simply by you choosing to either (A) Not make it such a big deal, (B) Ignore it or (C) smile and try to move on to something that will make you smile? Did you try any of those things? The next time something happens really, literally if you have to, take a step back and say "Will this even matter in a few days/weeks/months/years?" And if the resounding answer is no, then you know what, find a reason to smile. Dont try to find a reason to say "Today is terrible", take someone else's version of "terrible" and make it to your version of, "eh, its ok, I'm alive, I'm loved, and I appreciate everything, even if it makes me uncomfortable, I'm going to try to focus on the positive."

Yeah I know that had nothing to do with Japan, but actually it had everything to do with it. My positivity started with my mom and dad when I was younger, but it is carrying on because I'm not only changing my mindset, but my actions as well. You'll find that things aren't so hard to be happy about when you consistently wake up and say, "Today is going to be a good day."

Love you guys.

-Jeremy

A Japan Wedding

2010-08-02T05:19:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I experienced something remarkable. Two people, in front of witnesses, professing their love for one another and letting their families know that they can now fully let go because they have found their souls counterpoint in another (thank you Wedding Crashers).

My co-worker from Amity (who finished before I did) finally got married to her boyfriend after 5 years of being together. She is such a wonderful person and I was so happy for her yesterday. As she was reading a letter she wrote to her parents, about 50% of it that I understood, I felt myself almost starting to weep because she was basically saying "I will always remember everything you both have done for me, but today Yousuke (her husband) is going to take care of me and you should not worry".

The ceremony itself was quite different from American ceremonies. No lie, the bride and groom together probably changed into over 8 different outfits throughout the course of the wedding. There was now "you may now kiss the bride" it was actually more befitting of 2 wedding receptions. The first, more serious one with speeches, congratulations, dinner, and thank you's and the next at a restaurant where people were mingling. I found it fantastic, but that wasn't nearly the most surprising part. The most surprising part of the wedding was that the bride, whom I love, asked me to sing at her wedding.

Apparently everyone was expecting me to be silly, and instead I surprised everyone with Brian Mcknight's "Still in love". I tried to post a video on this blog but it would NOT load up for some reason. Sorry everyone, but enjoy the post and the above picture :-D

All in all, my first Japanese wedding couldn't have gone any better unless I met my own future wife there...whiicchhhh mayyybee...nah..prolly not, but I did get a number ;)

-Jeremy

Miyajima!

2010-07-19T05:09:00.000-07:00

So, I bought a new bag (yup..I guess it's a man bag..satchel..gay "anyone who has that is gay bag", whatever you want to call it, but I like it and it's handy so get off it!), and I put all my stuff in and headed to Miyajima, "One of the three most scenic spots in all of Japan (really)". It was gorgeous. Not only was the boat ride over there, which lasted all of about 10 minutes, awesome, but walking around the place was awesome too!!

And, I had an added surprise. There were deer just roaming about. Yup, not a care in the world. I actually ran into a deer who was chasing a little girl, it was hilarious (video below). I took pictures of the deer (and some with them too) and I gotta say, it was pretty mind boggling that these animals, who were not in a zoo whatsoever, were so chill around human beings. I imagine that's how it used to be at one point and time, animals and humanity living side by side in peace. Peace..what a concept.

Oh, speaking of peace, off the subject really quickly: I went to the Peace Museum last weekend. And I must say, I do not have any desire to go back unless absolutely necessary. I've been to the Holocaust museum (in Israel) and I do not wish to go back there either. Seeing the Holocaust victims captured in photo was insightful and yet overwhelming, and yet, seeing the burn victims, the victims of a catastrophic man made disaster up close and personal in photos of the city where I now reside was unlike anything I had ever experienced in my whole life (please believe I am not comparing these two events, I am simply saying that being in the actual spot where it happened while looking at history is quite the feeling). How was the museum? Halfway through I thought it was over and I was about to cry from the images I had seen, and that was just of the city and reading about the people, I hadn't gotten to the actual overwhelming photos and intimate stories of survivors or witnesses yet. I saw burn victims, I learned about the lasting effects of radiation, I heard a story of a young boy on his tricycle who died during the blast. I heard stories of children who were evacuated way before their parents because Japan was in constant terror of air raids (let alone an atomic bomb) and something around the number of 20,000 children were orphaned because of the A-bomb. I felt shame, misery, guilt, sadness, and a resounding question of "Why?" Why did this even happen? "Pearl Harbor!! The Holocaust!! We were protecting ourselves!! They hit us so we hit them! We had to show our power!!" These were some of the answers dancing around in my head. What those ideas didnt know is that it was 2AM and time to go home from the disco. I didn't care for them. Not that I didnt care about ANY answers, but at this time, standing in THIS city seeing THESE photos understanding, or at least trying to understand, THESE people's pain especially since it was the first and only nuclear weapon used in the history of the world..yeah..those answers could get the **** out as far as I was concerned. These were people, innocent people. Chinese, Korean and Japanese people, all innocent. And while they were begging for water, looking for their children, searching for their parents, trying to survive, wondering if the blur between life and death would just clear up and choose, they were asking the same question...Why?

After going there and watching Avatar I was pretty anti-war that day. Every one of you, if you ever get a chance, should check out some of the history and photos of the people of Japan when they got hit with the blast. Whether it's through google or you get a chance to go to a memorial museum yourself, get informed, it will overwhelm you.

So back to Miyajima. GORGEOUS!!! I had a great day and throughly enjoyed my second real weekend in Hiroshima. Wow, it's only week 4.

-Jeremy

SUPER MARIO GALAXY 2 AND A WHOLE LOTTA WORLD CUP ACTION!!

2010-06-30T07:19:00.000-07:00

These guys thought I was so cool, read on to find out why?

So I know it has been a very very very long time since I have written in this blog. But I figured that since something so memorable happened last night I had to write about it.

As you all know, I am in Hiroshima. I have officially been here for a week and I have to say what most of you already knew before it even happened (you dog on psychics you), I LOVE THIS PLACE!! I live a bit on the outskirts of the city. Only about a 15 minute cab ride, or about a 25 minute train/tram ride. It is fricking fantastic!!!

Anyway. I am not a big fan of soccer. It's not that I don't have respect for the sport, it's just not my cup of green tea. But last night will forever be etched in my memory. My new co-worker, Tim, is a huge soccer fan. He is from South Carolina. Very funny dude. He asked me if I wanted to go downtown to watch Japan vs. Paraguay. I wasn't up for it three days before he asked me, but the day of I decided what the heck. On the way to the bar that was showing the game it hit me, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. I am in Japan, during the World Cup and Japan is in the final 16. I may not be in Japan in four years, and even if I am, there is no guarantee that they will be back. So I am getting extremely excited.

As I get to the bar, there are already a fair amount of people present. More and more people begin to squeeze into a bar that can safely hold about 75, maybe less, and yet there had to be well over 100 people crammed into that place. Before the game I just decide to start yelling, because hey, it's World Cup and I'm the only black foreigner there, so I'm standing out easily. I just stand up on my bar stool a bit and yell "YEAHHHH!!!" and people look at me, and slowly everything just starts yelling, "YEAHHHH!!!" By the end of the game, every time ANYONE would yell something, EVERYONE in the bar was looking toward me. Fantastic times.

After everything was said and done, Japan lost after overtime due to place kicks. I have never been a part of something that massive before. The entire COUNTRY, not just fans in a bar rooting for a football team, or a basketball, or baseball team; but fans from the entire COUNTRY are pulling for their team, their pride, their place of origin like nothing I've ever experienced or witnessed before in my life. I have to say it was probably the single greatest moments in sports that I have ever been a part of, and yes, I love that the Packers won Super Bowl 31 and that my dad got to be a part of that and that I was there, but to be in a NATION that is pulling for the same team that hardcore...you could feel it in the air when something great happened and the loss itself was devastating, even to me, a non-soccer fan.

I have my Wii and my PS3 and my TV back that I bought here in Japan, and Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Super Street Fighter IV are wonderful. New Super Mario Brothers is fantastic and Tim likes to come play with me. And I still have 2 more games I haven't opened that I bought from the States for these two systems.

Life is grand, no complaints, work is WONDERFUL my co-workers are awesome, and the feeling I am getting is amazing. All of you thought I was joyful and content last year? Pssstt..here's a secret...it's gonna be better than that!!

Have a good one!!

Two twins Three triplets Infinite realization

2010-03-17T06:06:00.000-07:00

Because this post is so serious, I figured I'd give you a funny photo

This is me pretending I found out I have a 2 year old daughter in Japan

Not one of my students, girl's daughter of whom I met a couple of weeks ago

The weeks have been going by faster than they have seemed to in the past. My articulation, ability to understand Japanese, ability to understand broken English, and just feeling like I actually belong (more-so than I have) in Japan amongst such a great group of people is setting in with my thoughts shifting from my current home to my new home. But, even though I was so excited to receive my new job in Hiroshima, excited to meet new people, excited for new experiences and even more ecstatic about more learning, I had a realization yesterday that was even more confirmed today, I'm going to miss my kids.

The greatest aspect about starting a new adventure is that it is simply new. The worst thing about starting a new adventure is, at some point and time it is going to change. New relationships become stronger ties, meeting new people becomes easier, but at some point and time people must say goodbye.

Yesterday I had two amazing little children. Not because they are smart, not because they are the cutest, but for some reason, I love them and I understand them. I taught them last year during one of my baby classes for a couple of months, but because it was one mom with two children (twins) she was getting a bit tired every week because she was also bringing her four year old daughter to Amity as well. Did I mention she is about 27 and smaller than my mom? I swear, the woman looks like she could be my age or younger and she is toting around twins and a four year old, and you know what, she loves it. So ever since I met these two children I've always loved them, because I see how much their mom loves them. Quick side note, to all of you people who don't ever want to be parents, I pity you. Trust me, I get where you are coming from now, there's no way I want to be a dad, but that's at this MOMENT...when I get married and have kids, man, that's going to be something. Cause if I feel this way about kids that arent biologically mine, how much more am I going to love my own children. I seem to recall saying this about a year ago for a certain group of youngsters in the states to. Understanding goes a long way toward building relationships, no matter the age.

Yesterday was my second class teaching the twins. They had me last week and the girl cried the entire 40 minutes, the boy on the other hand only cried for about five and then chilled out. This week I had higher expectations, or I expected them to flip with the boy crying the whole time and the girl being calm, hey, they are twins, yin and yang I thought.

What happened yesterday has never happened to me before. I felt a bond with these children. I was there teacher but I felt like their parent. After they calmed down, especially the girl, bless her heart, they were very attentive and they did something that none of my students ever did: they asked questions the entire class. Granted, it was in Japanese, but I was answering them in English. We were learning colors so they kept asking what this Disney characters name was, if this "emotion" face went with this character (I have baby Mario and Luigi faces to demonstrate "I'm happy" ect... and I put them on my actual Mario and Luigi characters, it works like a charm). I sat them down next to me and the entire class we just went through,

"Yes Fuka (FOO-KAH) this is honey (Pooh), and his shirt is red. ""

"Red?"

"Yes red."

"Zoo desu (ZOH-OH DEH-SU)?"

" Yes Fuka, but it's "elephant" in English"

"Eferant"

"Yes good job."

To go from wanting mommy and screaming in my ear to being genuinely interested in everything I was saying, guys, it was an epiphany, I love kids and I love hard. I know I have another couple of months, but they are taking my class next school year (which starts in April) and just thinking of handing them over to another teacher when we connected so much yesterday, part of me doesn't want to.

That realization got confirmed today when I had my triplets. Yes, triplets. Although, instead of the mom darting out immediately to try to get them comfortable with the class on their own (which I totally prefer this and crying to the mother staying and them being ok, sometimes trial by fire is what these children need, at least for 40 minutes, especially since they'll be starting with me soon), she stayed, along with their older sister (whom I also taught last year a couple of times, she's 7, and she's a sweetheart).

There were two girls and one boy and they are also 3. One girl, in Japanese kept saying, "I don't want to be here he's scary!" and the other two were holding their family close. I backed as far away as I could, put on my smile, sat Japanese style (look it up on the internet, I dont feel like explaining it) and slowly brought out Mario and Luigi, along with their "happy, sad, angry etc..." faces. One girl was still hiding and the other two were just as wary even though they weren't crying. I knew not to get close, not to touch them, let them come to me. Suddenly they heard a sound strangely familiar "HEY! HELLLOOO!" and I looked around and said,

"What? Who said that?"

"HEYYYY GUYS! HELLO!"

"Huh, who is that? Who's that?"

"HELLO!"

All of a sudden the voice of Mario and Luigi brought them from out of their shells, just a little bit. They were intrigued, yet, full of pause. They were curious and yet cautious, there was no way they were going to drop their guard for a second, not with this big 6'2 man in the room who probably wanted to take them away from their mother forever. Slowly, I go through and say:

"How are you?" in my Mario voice (for those of you who haven't realized it yet, it was me doing my baby Mario and Luigi voices).

"I'm happy!" said Mario.

Out of the corner of my eye I see the girl who said I was scary smile through her tears and quickly hide behind her mother. Got her...

I went through all of the feelings then I took a chance; I pushed the faces closer to the triplets and said, "touch happy" The boy stepped forward and then thought, "to heck with it" and hit happy, the middle sister followed suit, and finally, the younger sister came out from behind her mothers legs while peeking her nose around her outer thy and inched forward. I said,

"Come on, you can do it, I promise you'll be ok."

*BAM*

SUCCESS!!!

From that point on it got better and better to the point where the mom was able to leave out of the room and I taught the kids the "OK" sign while asking them in English, "Are you ok? It's ok." They nodded their heads in approval. We blew bubbles, played with a squeeky hammer, and learned our colors. We played hide and seek with the color cards and just laughed and laughed and laughed. It got to the point where I said, "Ok it's time to say goodbye" and the boy in Japanese asked me, "Why?!" And I was like "Because it's been 40 minutes we have to go." The girl who was most scared of me spoke the most, they were all smiles and the boy even called me Sensei (teacher).

I am looking forward to starting my new class with all 5 of these children next month, but I am terribly saddened that one day I am going to have to say goodbye.

-Jeremy

GREAT NEWS!!!

2010-02-17T06:17:00.000-08:00

Hello all, first of all, I would like to officially welcome John Budge to Amity in Tottori *round of applause*. He is my new co-teacher. John is from Minnesota, to which one of my students asked him, "How is the soda in MinnesoDA" hahahahaha!!!! John is a year younger than me and just as silly. He went to the University of Minnesota and got a degree in Japanese and International Relations. He knows Japanese, which is great because we are each others' wing men when we go out to meet all the ladies, hahahha. But really, John is a fun guy and we laugh at work a little more than we should (considering it's work and all).

Secondly, and if you are not sitting down (which I don't know why you wouldn't be, you are reading this on a computer right? I guess if you have an iPad or something..ohh...iPad..do want...) you may want to sit down for this next bit of news (especially if you are close family or friends).

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I have been accepted to teach primarily adults at my sister company AEON. I will be teaching in Hiroshima Japan!!!!!!!!! Now, I know some of you are smiling, and some of you are frowning, and some of you are smowning (smile and frowning). Here are the details:

I will be ending my current contract with AMITY May 29th. I will be coming home to Charlotte, NC on May 30th. But before some of you get too excited you must know that I will be coming back to Japan June 10th...of 2010...so I will only have about 10 days at home before I jet right back out here.

To my kids from Oakhurst: I love you, but I have to stay out here and I'm sure you all are going to be wonderful first graders come fall, I am sorry I won't be able to see you guys for your birthdays or your first days of school (well around there), I want to see every single one of you when I get back somehow.

To my friends: Guys, girls, you know I love you all too, and it is kind of surreal that I have been out here for a year already and I'm already talking about the new friends I have made and the new experiences that I have had and that I will be out here for ANOTHER year, but know this, the bonds of friendship are strong, and most of you I do not see everyday anyway so just think of it as a prolonged "It's been too long". I hope to be able to see most of you (within traveling reality) when I come back too, we are gonna party it up and say "Welcome Ba...GOODBYE!!" hahahaha

To my family: I am so happy to have you as my family and am even happier that you guys supported my decision to come to Japan 100% even if you didn't always like it. I am saddened that I will only be home for such a short time, but I am going to be 24 years old and I have a prime opportunity to have ANOTHER experience of a lifetime, so I know that you know, that I know, that you know that you are happy that I am happy and that you know this is the best thing for me.

So, that's the great news. On Monday when I asked everyone for a prayer request it was because I was headed to Okayama to do a 2.5 hour interview. Obviously, it went well and they offered me the position the next day.

The Specifics: I will be in Japan for another year at LEAST (I know it's not what you all want to hear, but it is possible that I will extend again). I start June 12th this year (training) and then my contract ends near the end of June next year (2011). I will be staying in Hiroshima Prefecture (think of it as a state) and I will be in the city of Midorii (which translates into English as Green...hahaha...I've lived in Green place before..Green Bay...hahhaa) which is 20 minutes by train outside of Hiroshima city (where I visited in October when I saw the Dome).

Whether you believe in God or not, this has to be said from me. God is amazing. I said (and you can go check this on my Hiroshima post), "I can totally see myself living here." When I had doubts about my next step as far as Japan or home, the decision to stay with AMITY and be almost guaranteed a bigger city with a better train station, but still possibly be worn out by the kids and the crazy schedule at times, or do I go home where I'm not sure what to start applying for because of this economy and because I was afraid I'd miss Japan so much...and then God offers me this. I mentioned to my head boss that if I were to switch to AEON one of my cities I would want to work in would be Hiroshima and he had the best contacts with the head office that runs the Hiroshima prefecture and by his own doing he got them interested in me and gave me a solid verbal recommendation. And it just so happened that they had a position opening in Hiroshima RIGHT after I finish my contract with AMITY. No bridges burned, no hurdles jumped, just God working everything out for the good of those who love and obey him.

So, what does this all mean? Well, this means that I am going to be in one of the most famous cities in Japan (or at least near it). This means that my Japanese is going to continue to get better and this MIGHT mean a Japanese girlfriend which by the looks of it, some of you are DESPERATE for me to find one so you can meet her, it's hilarious, you guys crack me up!!!

But this also means that I get to do what deep down in my heart I knew I still needed to do which was, stay in Japan, I just wasn't sure about the form or fashion, but obedience to God and constantly wanting His Will on your life does some amazing things for you, trust me, I know.

Fam, friends, kids, I love you, thank you for your prayers and your support this past year and I look forward to seeing many of you in June when I am home for a bit. Have a good one!

Jeremy aka omg-batman-he's-actually-going-to-be-teaching-adults-he's-flipping-out!!!!

Bye Bye Becs

2010-01-19T04:24:00.001-08:00

I know I haven't posted in the while and I'm not about to go into a long drawn out explanation of why, just know that I haven't forgotten about you all.

It has almost been a year since I said goodbye to America (not for good, don't worry) to come to Japan. And now that it has been a year and I will be with Amity until May I am happy that I extended. But, one thing is about to majorly change. Becs is going to be leaving :( I cannot go into detail (because of privacy AND space, hahaha) of the amount of fun me and Becs have had.

She has helped me a lot this year. She has literally felt like a sister while she has been out here with me. I do not think I've spent this much time with any one person in my entire life save my immediate family. When you work together 40 hours a week for a year you tend to get on each others nerves, learn a lot from each other, and yes, love each other. I have to admit, my time out here would not have been the same and I would not have grown as an individual the way I have if it hadn't been for Becs.

She is headed back to California on February 3rd and she is setting her sights on volunteering and then in the fall going to graduate school. I wish her all the best.

In other news my kids are crazy. They are crawling between my legs, running and jumping into me, constantly asking me questions in Japanese (which is helping my Japanese) and overall just being the warmest most kindest people I've ever met. Some of these kids get on my nerves from time to time, but I must say that even my worst kids a year ago I have grown to love. With Becs leaving it's making me realize how short my time is here (as far as Amity because I plan on coming back out here in some other form or fashion, most likely a teacher, but more on that as it develops) and I know one thing, I'm going to miss these kids. Even Becs came close to shedding a tear when one of her students, who she hasn't even had for a year, told her, "I'll miss you.."

In other news, I haven't been studying my Japanese the way I should be, but I am retaining the little bit that I am continually picking up. It feels great, even in a limited capacity, to be able to communicate with people in another language. One reason, or excuse whichever you prefer, that I haven't been studying Japanese is because of The Wire. Yup, The Wire. If you are not familiar with what I am speaking of let me explain: The Wire is a TV show on HBO that only ran for 5 seasons. The creator of it is an ex-Baltimore Police Officer who decided to make a show about inner-city Baltimore and the drug dealing, corner boys, police officers, government officials and newspaper reporters. The show is almost an hour long for each episode and my goodness it has got to be one of the biggest spider-webbed kind of shows I have ever watched. The reason I love it so much is because it's not over the top unbelievable (editors note: watch Prison Break), but yet it entraps you with it's pure genius.

I also got a new game a little while back, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Wonderful game, but I won't get into it because this is not a video game blog.

Well, everything is GREAT, I love my kids, I'm loving the position I'm in right now, the sky is the limit and I really hope that after I am able to come back for about a month that I can have something lined up soon there after to be back in this great country again. All in God's time and His Will, I know...but for those of you who have spoken to me since I have been out here, you know how at peace I am and how much joy I have...I just want it to continue.

Farewell Becs, and thanks for being my sister in Japan.

-Jeremy aka The big Little Brother in Japan

P.S.- Video is of me and my student singing Bibbidy Bobbity Boo (Cinderella). I teach her on Fridays at 8 oclock P.M. and we ALWAYS sing that song, she's 7 years old (or 8..I forget), but she's so tiny. She's great. Her name is Shiori (SHE-OH-REE). Enjoy

over a month i know!!!

2009-11-17T06:37:00.000-08:00

Yup, I saw this in REAL life...and I almost cried...

So my faithful readers...or unfaithful now that I haven't written for over a month, I am back. Even if for a little bit.

No pictures this time around, but I should have some near the end of the year, cause I'm (get ready) GOIN BACK TO TOKYO!!! AND GUESS WHO IS GOIN TO DISNEYLAND *POINTS* THIS GUUUYY!!!

Since I have last written, I have been to Hiroshima. It was a fantastic time. So, quick story, because I know you are all waiting on baited breath for another story from *cue music* JEREMY IN JAPAN!!

So I decided to go to Hiroshima for a Sake Festival. This is an all day festival where cities from all over Japan showcase their Sake. And all I have to do is pay a measly 16 bucks and I can try as much Sake, from as many cities, as I want (supplies withstanding).

Before I even get a chance to go to the actual Sake Festival I am approached (as are five other friends that I am with) by a Japanese lady who asks us point blank, "Would you like to try some PREMIUM Sake for free?" And we are all kind of just dumbfounded, when finally one of us says, "Yeah sure, that'd be great." We follow her to a wonderful penthouse overlooking the city. Inside are about 8 businessmen all bowing to us and welcoming us. We look at the table before us, and there are not 1, not 2, not 12, but 16 bottles of PREMIUM Sake. We start tasting. And tasting..and tasting some more. We start using words like, "tastes like springtime" and "crisp with a hint of winter air" to make ourselves sound more professional like we actually knew what the heck it was we were talking about. I found out something during that hour we spend sampling Sake; I really enjoy the taste of Sake, sweet Sake to be exact. After about 9 tastes, I stopped. My friends told me, "You suck!" and i told them, "We havent even STARTED the actual SAKE festival yet." In the end, I turned out to be the smart one. I offered my opinion on the 9 Premium Sakes that I tasted. We all sat at a business table and offered up our opinions. I felt like a person on the Board of a large company talking about how we can better improve our product for the consumer. I felt important in my, "YOU'RE GOING THE WRONG WAY!" T-shirt. I felt like an intellectual. Later on, I would definitely feel a lot more...haha

As the Sake Festival proceeded I decided to drink Sake based on the number that was on the menu. Me and an English friend of mine started doing famous football players numbers; 92 tasted pretty darn good.

That night, I was so hungry that I bought a spicy chicken sandwhich, french fries, and a quarter pounder. I am eating this on the way to another nightclub/bar when an English girl, who looked asian, asked me "Is that Mcdonalds? Can I have some?" and I said, "Seriously?" and she says, "Yes" and I gave her some, she enjoyed it.

I ended up at a bar where I ran into my friend that I saw at the beach party. Which was very odd considering he didn't live there and earlier that day I ran into my favorite Nihongexican (japanese mexican) who I hadn't seen since the awesomely massive and massively awesome beach party. Needless to say, it was a GREAT day!

I also got to see the Dome, but I did not go to the peace museum. I'm not comparing the two events, but I've been to the Holocaust Museum in Israel and I must say, I did not want to start my Saturday before the Sake Festival with a visit to a museum that might be as emotionally heart tearing as the HM was in Israel. I settled for the Dome and even that brought me to tears. I understand it was War and I know what the Japanese did at Pearl Harbor (we went almost every year my dad went to the Pro Bowl in Hawaii), but I still wanted to go up to all the Japanese people in Hiroshima and say "I'm sorry."

After being in Hiroshima for only 2 days I realized it's been one of my favorite places in Japan, and I would NOT mind living there. Here's one last story on why I love this country so much.

I was trying to find my friends at a bar the night before Sake fest. I didnt know exactly where they were but I knew around where they were. I stopped three Japanese women and asked them in Japanese where I certain building was. In English one of the women said, "Go to the next traffic light and make a left." I was baffled. Not because she spoke English entirely and with good grammar, but because of the English word she used. Who says TRAFFIC LIGHT anymore? After she said it her friends started whooping and hollering and saying "YAY!" and clapping and laughing. I said back to her, in English, "You're English is AWESOME!" Those three girls literally were celebrating for about a minute. And it just gave me another reason to smile.

I less than sign three Japan. (for those of you that dont get it, type the "less than" sign and a "3" and see what you get).

-Jeremy

Hey ya'll!!!

2009-09-29T07:52:00.000-07:00

I clean up rather nicely. What you all think?

Kid I'm holding is one of my new babies! HA! Me becs and these three Japanese kids look like we could be an interracial family. All three of these boys are brothers. But I get the cute one! SCORE (sorry about picture quality, got it from our website and the picture is small, website is here) (Pictures here)

HOW BOUT THEM COWBOYS!!! Ok, they aren't dominating, but we are 2-1, and if you are from Charlotte...well, I'm sorry. ごめなさい! (I'm sorry).

Anyway, it's been a minute since I've written on the blog so here is a quick update of what is going on in my life.

September has been a pretty busy month. We had to get somewhere in the ballpark of 116 points (if we get one extra lesson with a current student we get a point) and we had to get 9 new students. Basically, we had to get lessons from students that we did not currently have. Whether they be parents of students we have, or brothers and sisters, or someone entirely not related to any of our students, we needed to get 9 new students to sign up in about a month and a half. It sounded pretty far fetched considering I have been here for almost 8 months (WOW) and we haven't reached our new student goal in one month ever. But today folks, we did it.

I personally will have four new classes come October. One of my three year old kids is switching the time of their class, I got a new parent, and I have two new baby classes (yup..BABY classes). It's actually not so bad. It's great teaching the parents, especially when they are hot moms (in fact, I one of them tomorrow, SCORE!).

September has quietly been one of the busiest months I've had. In the past four work days I have taught 30 classes. Seven, seven, eight and eight. Tomorrow I only teach six, but good gracious, if I thought my check was good last month, I can't wait to see what my check will be this month. It's probably not going to be more, but it's going to be at least half as good as far as over-time is concerned.

I am almost done with the 7th Harry Potter. I'm about half-way through it, and I'm excited. The reason I am so excited is because when I get finished with it, I will have my life back. Harry has pretty much commanded my lunches, nights, and weekends. Sure, I've devoted ample time to Pokemon and Marvel vs. Capcom 2, and also dancing, but still, Harry constantly looms over me, and he will be gone in a couple of weeks. Which is kind of actually really in a horrible way....sad. *tear*

I am going to Hiroshima in a couple of weeks (PUNCH THE AIR!). I am going for *drumroll* a Sake FEST!!! I've never been to a Sake Fest before, but I hear it's QUITE the fun time. I also get four days off next week, so that's even better. And, I'm going to be in a famous city as well. So I plan on visiting the dome, and most likely the peace park too, but by and large, I'm going to be hanging with my friends at the Sake Fest.

I've got a new invigoration for learning Japanese. If any of you are wondering why, just remember I have Yellow Fever, so, that alone will give any man a reason to learn another language (and for those of you who didn't catch that, you deserve not to, so I'm going to let it go...woops..there it goes).

I went back to Osaka a couple of weeks ago, had another four day weekend, so I decided to go back out to a city I didn't really get to have a lot of experience with. I am so glad I did because I got to party with three of the Black Eyed Peas, Will I AM was DJing, and I met this awesome chick who speaks really good English (and she's cute..yay, new friend!). There had to be at least around 500 people there. There were two warehouses and four DJ's. It was a blast and it only cost me 20 bucks to get in! Dude...LOVIN IT!

So I have some pictures, not all of them are from the same time, but you should enjoy them none the less. I hope everyone is doing well, cause I'm doing amazing. My kids are really starting to feel like my KIDS. It's crazy how tight you get with the little ones after seeing them every week (give or take absences) for about 8 months. Wow...8 months...and think..I'm just getting started. にほんだいすきです！！！！ (I LOVE JAPAN!!!)

-ジェレミせんせい (Literally: Jeremy Teacher)

My name looks so cool in Japanese!!!

Random quick story. Had a kid, who is smart as a whip (whatever that means) and we were going over countries and what you call people from those countries. I asked him what you call people from Iceland and, jokingly, he said "Ice Cream!" Thought that was hilarious! Ok, back to your regularly scheduled lives.

It's been a (Japanese) Minute (dunno what that means really..)

2009-09-03T05:51:00.000-07:00

Why am I posing next to this strange object? Read on to find out (Pictures HERE)

Hey all!!! I am still alive and kicking. Well...I don't really kick, but I'm peddling. So I'm alive and peddling. Woo hoo!!!

Ok, first of all, Summer vacation was way to short. It was the longest set of vacation that I would have for the year, but it was still way to short. I went to Osaka, Kobe, and Kyoto. While in Osaka, I went to Universal Studios Japan. THAT was fun! I won my first awesome stuffed animal because I knocked down the three bottles with the bean bag ball. Yes, I knocked all of them off of the platform and I won *drumroll* COOKIE MONSTER!!! yeah!!! I had a good time. I road Spider-Man (in Japanese), I watched Shrek 4D (In Japanese) I saw Peter Pan (IN JAPANESE!!!) and I ate food (in English, because...well...wait...nevermind). I had a good time. Osaka and Kobe were not as fun as Tokyo, and this is possibly due to the fact that I went alone and didn't really have a plan. I kind of winged it. Good thing was, I did make a new friend in Osaka who offered to show me around more next time I was in Osaka. She (badabing!) was nice.

Well, summer seminars are over, and now begins the month of September. And even though we have to get more new students, even though work is still kind of a stressful environment (ok, not really), and even though I still have a devil child I want to chuck through a solid immovable wall...guess what?! IT'S FOOTBALL SEASON!! YES! In one week it is going to be football season and yours truly has a pass that he bought on the internet (only for international users, sorry guys) that let's him watch all the games, even after they've aired, in pure unadulterated unfiltered HD and he even can have multiple games on the screen at once. Dude...can you say stoked? Cause I can. STOKED!!!

So, quick story. Funny story. I'm teaching two four-year-old's and when we teach new vocabulary, we teach it twice, and then we do a small activity where I get the children to say the new vocabulary 3 times fast. For example, if the vocabulary is "apple" I say "apple" once and they say "apple, apple, apple" as fast as they can (good for the memory). Well after that, we are supposed to do something fun. Do a little dance, roll our tongue, make a boom boom clap beat on the floor (yes, I actually do it, and they like it). Well, one of my kids wanted to act like Parukia (he is a Pokemon, and he's really strong). Sometimes I do Superman or Batman with them, but he wanted to do Parukia. So I said (because I didnt really want to think of an idea) "Sure Nao, go ahead and be Parukia." So we went ahead and did our three times fast and then I looked at him and said, "OK BE PARUKIA!!"

Picture this.

A kid get's a big burst of energy.

You don't know what he is going to do.

He shakes his head from side to side as the energy is building up.

He utters some inexplicable language that neither makes sense in Japanese or English.

He runs as fast as he can (or so it seems).

He slams into the wall, falls down, and is OUT.

That was Nao's impersonation of one of the most powerful Pokemon in the Pokemon Universe.

I did not understand. But what I did do, was..

Laugh...LOUDLY!

It was hilarious. The boy didn't hurt himself, but he acted as if he hit the wall too hard, fell down and then was out. He acted like Parukia. I didn't get it. The next time we did three times fast he falls down and acts like he is getting choked to death. I just looked at him, smiled, and laughed.

It's incidents like that that (1) get me through my day when it is sometimes dragging for whatever reason and (2) it reminds me why I took this job in the first place (besides all the yellow fever I seem to be catching ;)

I'm still as happy as ever here, but I am definitely looking toward my life AFTER Amity (notice I didn't say after Japan, I'll let you chew on that). But that is such a far way away (not until May) so I am enjoying the moments I have here at Amity.

Ok world. I hope all is well with everyone. And remember, perspective is not EVERYTHING, but it's at least 110%...at least. Be cool.

-Jeremy aka the winner of having the most fun at Todd and Machiko's wedding (my ex-coworker and her husband who works at AEON, the adult sister school of AMITY in Tottori).

It's been so long!!!

2009-08-09T01:03:00.000-07:00

No one told me that I had this on my head, I was trying to look sophisticated...hahaha pictures here

Hello world!! I know it has been a VEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRYYY long time since I have last posted. I apologize, but yet I'm not to sorry. Life has been crazy busy the month of July.

The first weekend I went to an enormous beach party with 100's of people. I was able to get Saturday off (and so was Becs) and we danced the night away Friday and Saturday and during the day Saturday I just enjoyed being on the beach with friends. It was some of the most fun I've had in my entire life. I met a bunch of new people (included two mixed babies, one of which was Mexican and Japanese and the other which was Caucasian and chinese...oh gosh I love this country, they were girls obviously ;) I made new friends from Okayama, Tokyo and other parts of Japan. It was quite the experience, but since it was indeed a party, I will stop at the fact that it was "fun" and not go into too many more details (and it's not because I don't remember, haha).

The second weekend in July was possibly better than the first; I did something that I've never done before. Check that; two things that I've never done before. I went Canyoning, which is basically going into the bowels of a mountain where there are rivers and waterfalls and ziplining, splashing, and exploring in nature. It was probably one of the most amazing things I've ever done in my life. That was until the next day when I, Jeremy White, went White Water Rafting. Yes people, White Water Rafting. I never knew that such an activity could be so fulfillingly fun in a way I had never imagined. I went with other foregin friends and we had a blast. We were going through the rapids with our Australian guide (Mezza, who was cool as heck) yelling "FORWARD TEAM! BACK! GET DOWN TEAM! ALRIGHT TEAM GREAT JOB PUNCH THE AIR! YAAAAHHHH!!!|" It was genki (energetic, fun) a time as I think I've had in Japan. And that was the other great thing, I was doing this IN Japan!!! There were about 5 other boats all with Japanese people (we were the only foreign group that day), and they were awesome. At certain times Mezza would let us know that it was ok to jump out of the boat and just let the current take our bodies downstream. This had to be the one of the most fun parts of rafting for me. I would just do a backflip off of the boat, land in the water, float down the river and yell "I'M FLOATING DOWN A RIVER! IN JAPAN! WOO HOO!!!" and then I'd start singing some Frank Sinatra "Fly me to the MOON!!" It was so peaceful (and yet not, because it was WHITE WATER RAFTING!!!).

At random times when we weren't in a rapid, I would sneak over to some of the Japanese boats and pull someone off of their boat and into the water. Mezza encouraged this because he said most of the Japanese people keep their feelings bottled up during the work week and for a lot of them this is a time to let loose. That was definitely the case as they had no problem with me pulling them out of their boats and into the water. Everyone got a good laugh. That is something I must do again before I die. And if you havent (and you arent nursing, pregnant, or may become pregnant, don't have chronic back pain and are in possession of all your limbs) I suggest you do it, it's a memory that will stay with me forever.

The following weekend my family came into town. We went to Matsue and visited a 400 year old castle, we saw the birds, that I saw the month before, and we took a boat ride. I love my family, but goodness it was very mentally draining getting around Japan when I am the only one who can read and the only one who spoke a decent bit of Japanese. Every time I turned around I heard "Hey Jeremy what's this? Hey, what do you think this is for? Hey why do they have these? Hey jeremy..Hey Jeremy..Hey jeRemy, hey..." AHHH!!! Ok I'm exagerrating a little bit, but it was mentally draining. We went Karaoke, we went out dancing, and we even went out to eat the last night they were here to a place where WE get to cook in front of ourselves (yeah, those Japanese restaurants where they cook in front of you in America don't exist...but you can cook in front of yourself with raw meat here).

Overall, the family visit was great. I got to show off my Japanese skills, I constantly corrected my mother who was butchering the Japanese language (Love you mom) and I got to be a tour guide. It honestly doesn't feel as if I'm 6800 miles away from home. The only downside is that I heard it took my family 5 days to recover after they got back to the States, ehck.

Then, the last week of July began hell weeks. At my company we have a season called Summer Seminar Season. This is where my company makes most of their profits throughout the year because children that go to the shcool can take four or five extra lessons during their Summer Vacation to get more practice. In addition this sets up Amity fincancially for the rest of the year. Read between the lines because I'm not about to talk bad about my company. Anyway, scheduling more classes means more classes that I have to teach. Usually in a regular work week I teach around 27 classes a week, give or take a couple. During the last two weeks I have taughtover 65 classes. I had a lot of days where I had 8 classes scheduled (do the math, that's a class every hour except my lunch break where I get an hour, so yes, all day I'm teaching). But, even though the season isn't over yet, the brunt of it is finished, AND today is the first day of my 9 day vacation. I will be going to Kobe Japan and traveling aorund that area to Osaka and Kyoto, so plenty of pictures will be taken and plenty of relaxing and having fun will also be done.

One funny story before I close this out. My kids are hilarious at school. One example of this is yesterday I had a boy named Kodai. He is 9 years old and extremely smart with his English. He can't have a conversation with you, but his listening skills and his understanding of grammar, past, and future tense and his vocabulary is wonderful, even better than some of my high school kids (actually, most of my high school kids). Yesterday we did a warm-up where I asked him to make an adjective and noun combination starting with "A". And I gave an example, "amazing apple." He didn't totally understand at first, but most of the word combinations he gave after we started were adjective and noun combinations (some were verb and noun, but still starting with the same letter, so he was doing good). We got to "S" and he said "Super Sunflower" and I proceeded to talk in a super hero narrartor voice and say "SUUUUUPER SUNFLOWER!!!" and he started laughing and I started laughing and he said, "Teacher Teacher!" and he acted like he was the Super Sunflower and he did his super power and then proceeded to sneeze uncontrollably. He was trying to tell me that the Super Sunflower's power was making people sneeze. So everytime I would say, "SUUUUPPEER SUNFLOWER!!" he would start sneezing. Hahahahaha!!! Gotta love these kids.

OH! Announcement!!! Football seasons starts soon! That is all (GO COWBOYS!!!).

-Jeremy aka the drained person who is now happy and resting on his glorious 9 day vacation.
Enjoy the Videos! Karaoke!! (not with the fam though)

Oh! And I have decided to extend for four extra months. Will I be here past the end of May? I am not sure, all I know now is that I am definitely staying here an extra four months (past February 2010). So if I decide not to extend again and come back to the states I'll be in the States at the end of May 2010, that's an "if". But, let's take one thing at a time.

SURPRISE!!!

2009-06-29T01:45:00.000-07:00

Well hello everyone. I told you I had a surprise for you, and hopefully you all enjoy it. It's not terribly long, but each video is about 9 minutes and 8 minutes long respectably. Watch the one on top first, then the one on bottom. I am showing you around my apartment, talking about how awesome Japan is, and basically just kind of talking randomly about things I've been doing. I don't go into a lot of detail, it's mostly a tour and me just being me, but I hope you enjoy it none-the-less.

I got that BOOM BOOM BOOM!!!

2009-06-18T07:17:00.000-07:00

Dozo Dozo (please), Enjoy!!! I got that BOOM BOOM POW! I'm so 3008, you so 2000 LATE!

So, this post might not be too long, but it's just to let you all know that I'm still doing well. I have been pretty busy these past couple of weeks like I always am what with learning Japanese, playing video games, going to work, sleeping and eating, life can get pretty hectic. Not to mention all the time I spend on the internet as well (oh yeah, and throw watching TV into there too, American AND Japanese). So forgive me for not posting as much, but I'm sure you all understand why.

In the next few days I WANT to have a big surprise for you all on this blog, but I'm not 100% sure it will happen, so keep your fingers crossed and don't get TOO excited (but get excited non the less).

Well first of all I would like to announce that I am officially (because it's been for about a month now that I've been like this) down to around 208 pounds. For those of you who were around me before I left you know that I was at a good 220, and that was AFTER I had lost 10 pounds being around 232 when I graduated from college where just 8 months before that I was about 245, so yes, I have dropped a ton of weight (and oh boy you can tell...well..maybe not with my shirt on ;)

I've tightened up a lot since I've been to Japan. I will accredit that to riding a bike everyday. And when I say everyday I literally mean every day. It's interesting how much more fit you are when virtually everywhere you go you have to ride your bike and it's amazing how much money you save when you don't have to have any type of car maintenance.

Speaking of bikes, I got a new bike. Her name is Molly and she's the best thing that's happened to me in Japan (as far as transportation and bikes go). She's a Mustang. No, I'm not talking about her speed. She's literally a Ford Mustang. "But Jeremy, Ford only makes cars! What are you talking about?" In Japan, Ford also makes bicycles. And Chevy also makes bicycles, I even saw a Lamborghini bicycle and a Cadillac bicycle. Yup, that's just how we do it in Japan.

So, you might be asking why I got a Mustang. Well, it's definitely not because it's a Mustang (because all of you that know me know that I can't wait to get up inside my Camaro named Isabelle whenever I come back to the states). It was because it was the best bike for me. Long story short, I've put too much time and effort into the bike(s) that I've had already (I was able to borrow a friend's bike when my spokes broke on the bike that was given to me) and I needed to buy a bike for myself with bigger tires (Editors note: Please reference the blogpost about my bike and a curb). So I got one that fit with me and it just so happened to be a Mustang. Molly is black and silver and she's awesome and she treats me well. I love her. Anyways.

Quick funny story. My kids have been amazing (well...90% of them have..about 10% of them have been well...let's just say I want to toss them off of some sort of high ledge...with water beneath, don't worry, I don't want to kill them). I had a private one time lesson with one of my former students (because the school year ends in march) and he is about three years old. The lesson went awesome, but the funniest part was when I said "Atsuke, how are you?!" And he kind of stayed quiet for a second...thinking...and then he boldly and confidently stated with his hands in front of him folded very respectfully, "My name is Atsuke!" I couldn't help but laugh. After then end of the lesson I asked him again and he said it again in front of his mother, his mother was all smiles. He's a good kid.

I have found out that my favorite class that I have all week (which I have tomorrow in fact, Fridays) is a class that can be the toughest to control. I have three three year olds. Two of them you are all familiar with; Tomonori and Ayumi (both boys) and one new child, her name is Sora (beautiful name really, because it means Sky). They are all getting SO much better at having fun when we are supposed to have fun and then sitting down and listening when I ask them to sit down and listen. And they get SUPER excited when they speak English. Tomonori is the best one at speaking English, even though he doesn't always want to. Ayumi is kind of in the middle but has a great memory, and Sora just repeats EVERYthing I say, which is really good for her English skills because she's constantly speaking English.

Anyway, that's just a quick update. Some of my family is coming to visit at the end of July, so I'm really excited to show off my Japanese to them and introduce them to all my new friends and co-workers. Until next time! じゃね！！ (See you later!)

-Jeremy aka "I gotta feelin...."

The Yes Man

2009-06-02T05:16:00.000-07:00

Hello WORLD!!! Pictures Here

I am finding out, day by day, the benefits of saying "Yes" to things. I'm not talking about an extreme "yes yes yes yes yes" to everything like Jim Carrey so carelessly did (but I do love ReDAH BUULLSSZZZAA!!). I am speaking of when life hands asks you if you want lemonade, and you've never had lemonade before, and lemonade has the chance to be one of the most positive and best experiences you've ever had in your entire life; you know what you say? You say, "Yes Life, I would like some lemonade."

When you make yourself more open you are that much more likely to have unique adventures, experiences, and an overall good time. Ever since I have come to Japan I have been under the montra of saying "yes." Obviously I don't do everything, but as I am getting older (yeah, it's olDER not necessarily OLD, so don't start with me about "Oh Jeremy you arent OLD", but I am getting OLDER, so hush) I realize that life is short and the time I will be in Japan is shorter than my entire life span, so you know...what the heck, let's do it. "It" can mean a number of things. "Hey Jeremy you want to go explore Tottori?"

"Yes, Let's do it!'

"Hey Jeremy, you want to go Karaoke with us?" (and I never went Karaokeeing in America)

"Yes, Let's do it!"

"Hey Jeremy, you want to come meet a bunch of people you don't know at a Street Fighter Four tournament?"

"Yes, Let's do it!"

"Hey, Jeremy, you want to go out of town for only a day and a half to a place you've never been?"

"Yes! Let's do it!"

I'm trying to get as much experience as I can. Granted, I haven't said yes to EVERYTHING, but God knows, I've said yes to a lot more than I might have if I was back in the states. Call it having my joy at a level it's never been, call it maturity, wisdom, or a realization of ones location, whatever it is, I'm definitely taking this montra with me for the rest of my life.

So I say all that to say that I said "yes" to a trip this past weekend. I, Rebecca, Todd, and Machiko all went to a place called Matsue. It's about 2.5 hours from Tottori by train and it's another small town, but with a bit more sightseeing and it's more tourist friendly.

From the first hour we were there we had an idea of what we were going to do, but what we planned to do that actual day was spur of the moment. We decided to *drumroll* go to a bird sanctuary. Now, for those of you who have no clue what I'm talking about, a bird sanctuary is basically a zoo, but with only animals who are birds.

People...I saw (cue the Sound of Music) Penguins and peacocks and white flocking geese, Emus and Toucans and Falcons that feast, owls and flowers and bright colored trees, these are a few of my favorite things!

And I saw orange birds, Flamingos, ducks of all kinds, Pelicans, and SO MANY OWLS!!! It was amazing. If you've ever been to a bird sanctuary, you get to buy food for the birds and they come right up on your arm and eat the food. Usually you might think of bright colorful little birds doing this, but no, I had a Toucan. That's right, Toucan Sam was on my arm eating fruit that I had bought for him. It was one of the greatest things ever. Especially when the other Toucan decided he wanted to try to scare Toucan Sam away and he landed on my shoulder. Well neither Sam nor his intimidator left my arm/shoulder and I had two CANS (Two Toucans) on me at once (just a small play on words...laugh people, it's a joke).

Later on, I got to hold an Owl. I got to pet said owl, and the owl was AWESOME! It wasn't anymore than about 8 inches tall, it was one of the coolest things I've ever done, especially since I really really like owls (and a small part due to the fact that I'm on the fourth book of Harry Potter, which I did see the "Hedgwig" owl as well).

After the totally awesome Bird Sanctuary, we went out to eat, went to a movie and went back to our hotel. The next day we went to the Matsue Castle that had been built over 400 years ago and we got to see a mid-level Samurai house that had also been built almost 400 years ago (I think the official year was 398). I bought a Samuri sword (that is only about 7 inches because it is a keychain, because real Samurai swords are illegal in Japan) and was acting like I was a Samurai part of that day. After the Samurai house and the Matsue Castle, we went on a boat ride.

I cannot explain to you all the serenity I felt on that boat ride. You know how everyone wants to go to Venice to experience the boat rides there because that is what Venice is so famous for? Well, I can gaurantee you that in Venice they don't have a Japanese tour guide who sings three songs of Enka for you on a 45 minute boat ride that spans 3.7 kilometers. The weather could NOT have been any better. There was a slight breeze, it was in the 70's and there wasn't a single cloud in the sky. The other great part about the boat ride was that at times we went under VERY low bridges. During these times the roof of our boat had to be dropped so low that me, Todd, Machiko, and Rebecca had to either get on our stomachs or backs with the roof of the boat maybe 9 inches in front of our faces, if that much. Now, you might thing this was uncomfortable, but it was only us on what was a decent lenghted boat. In fact, I looked forward to the times we went under the bridge, I really wished that the boat ride had been a couple of hours because I could have fallen asleep, going around the river in Matsue, easily.

We were only in Matsue for 1.5 days, but it felt like at least twice that because we did so much. For those of you that know me, I love to sleep, but as of late, if there is something unique to do in Japan that requires me to get up early, I have found myself not so tired throughout the day and being very glad that I got up rather than stayed in bed. Obviously I wasn't going to stay in bed out of town, but even in town I decided to get up one day when I didn't have to. And boy, was that something else seeing some of my former students (from last calendar year) do ballet.

So the next time someone says, "Hey, you aren't doing anything, and neither am I, let's go check out this thing neither one of us has been too" say "yes" and see what happens.

Disclaimer (read in the voice of Morgan Freeman): Jeremy White is by no means encouraging the use of unprotected sex, alcohol abuse or drug use, the above article is stating decision making as far as outdoor adventures, places to visit, and other things to do that do not include "experimenting" with things that most people know are just stupid to say yes too. Thank you.

-Jeremy aka the yes man

Oh, and I would like to give a shout out to my cousin Morgan who was recently in a play and from what I understand she did an awesome job. Oh, and my sister had an EXCELLENT semester GPA wise this past semester so she deserves a round of applause too. Congrats girls.

It's been a while

2009-05-25T07:33:00.000-07:00

This picture has nothing to do with the post. Only about four people I know will appreciate this picture, three of them are related to me. Do you know who you are? (Well actually one of them might loathe me for it, but I know she secretly loves this character ;-)

I know everyone, I know. It has been quite a while since I have written on my blog. You know, this thing called life sometimes gets in the way of blogging and the fact that I just haven't had any major stories after Tokyo. So this next post is just my thoughts of Japan so far and a little small story as well.

First of all, besides my high school classes and my parent classes, my favorite classes have to be my Baby classes. I teach two classes where the students are barely even two years old. I know, you are probably wondering, "Jeremy, how in the world can you teach a child another language when they haven't even come close to mastering there own and barely know two words in their own language?" And my answer would be simply, immersion. That's how you learned English correct? You didn't know the difference between Greek, Hebrew, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, French, Italian or some strange language native to somewhere else you've never been or heard of. You didn't know anything. But what you did know was that when someone pointed at a piece of fruit and said "Apple" you started to understand that that weird looking thing that you have never seen before is indeed called an "apple" and so you start to call it "apple". Although, many of you probably said "mama", "dada" first.

Which leads me to my next story. Usually you have as many moms in the baby class as their are babies, seeing as most moms only have one "baby" at a time. Well, in one of my baby classes I actually have two to one. I have a mom, and her two twins. One of them is a boy, Masayuki (MAH-SAH-YOU-KEE) and one of them is a girl, Fuka (FOO-KAH). They are both wonderful babies, even though sometimes they can throw their little fits and decided they want to be angry or sad, or cry, for seemingly no reason. They might not be re-uping to come back to Amity after the end of the month and my manager was hoping that the last few classes they had with me would be good so that the mother will consider staying on and continue. Well folks, I might have struck gold. A week ago I am having a BLAST with these babies. I'm teaching them "Orange" and "an orange Orange" and I'm teaching them "strong" and "happy" and "angry" and all sorts of stuff. When all of a sudden, after we are having LOADS of fun, Masayuki stands up and screams at me! He screams: あかさん!！！！ Since most of you can't even begin to read what I just wrote, let me tell you in English. He screamed, "MOMMY!!!" (Okasan). At first, I thought I heard him say this, but I wasn't sure if maybe he was just speaking in baby language. So after the third time that he said it, I looked at his mom and said, "What did he say?" and she said, "He said Okasan, mom." And I was just amazed that he SPOKE! Granted, it wasn't in English, but that's ok. We had a tremendous class that class (cause there were very little tears and a lot of smiles from both of the babies). What seemed to me to just be a "good class" actually turned into something I couldnt even have thought would have ever happened.

The mother told my Manager that her son was calling ME mommy. Something I thought was funny, but just silly, nothing meaningful. But, from what I understand, in Japan at least (because I've never come across this, in this situation, in America), if a child that young starts to call another person that they KNOW is not their mother, MOM, then they REALLY like that person. And aparrently he doesn't do that for many other people. Let me repeat, because he called me mom does not mean he THINKS that I'm his mom, but in the Japanese way of undersanding their children, it means they are really comfortable and they really like the person that they are calling "okasan." And let me tell you guys, that touched me. I was pretty happy, I didn't know how to react when I heard that. Here I am, have been here for 3.5 months, from a different culture, country, and upbringing, and I'm connecting with children like I would be connecting with them back in America.

One thing I've learned since being here in Japan is that, kids are kids. And I'm not sure exactly what I'm about to say here, but go with me on this (whether you understand/agree or not). It's very interesting that what makes kids laugh in one culture makes kids laugh in another culture. It's very interesting that the mundane things children do in one culture to keep themselves occupied (such as spinning around, running, jumping, pretending to be their favorite Super hero and so on) is the same thing kids in another culture do. I have felt the same Joy from working with kids in America that I do with working with kids in Japan. For all of you who figure that Japanese children are these robots who say, "Yes, No thank you" and "Sorry" all the time, you need to wake up and realize that kids are kids. I cannot speak these childrens language (yet :-P) but I can understand them. I cannot comprehend everything they are telling me, but yet I an relate to them. I cannot ever and will never be Japanese, and yet emotionally they couldnt tell me apart from any other one of their energetic Japanese teachers. Who I am on the inside, who they are as children, I can relate. I can relate whether it's my wonderful kids at Oakhurst (who I have now let Jenny adopt :-D) or whether it's my kids here at Amity. Kids are kids and no language, cultural, upbringing barrier changes that matter. That's why, from a teaching children perspective, it doesn't feel much different than if I were in America, it's WONDERFUL.

One of the reasons I adore this country so much, is because it seems like everything, from the advertisements, to the dramas on TV, to the video games, cartoons, and movies, they just seem so lively all the time. So full of energy. I know some of you don't understand (and some of you will never understand) my obsession with certain video games and cartoons that originated in Japan. But to put it simply, it's because it always seems so full of energy. I have not felt hardly ANY negativity from these people in Japan. Seriously, NONE. There's been "I wish this would be better" or possibly "I don't understand why this is this way" but as far as the negative feeling of something, I've never gotten that. Whether it's because people are so good at locking it up in public, or maybe it's because I don't speak the langauge; but I have to admit, I am good at reading peoples vibes, I've always had to be since I always had to be aware of who was talking to me for what reason back in the states, and I'm telling you all, the people in Japan that I have met, the ones that I now call my friends, the people that I pass on the street, the people that work at the local convenience store or the mega store down the street, I have not felt a negative "I hate my life" vibe from anyone. I just havent. And I don't mean to say that EVERYONE back in America has a negative vibe, but some of the places I've lived, the people I've met, the people I see just in their everyday life, some of them (obviously not ALL) seem to give off this strange negative pessimistic vibe. I just don't feel it here and that's one of the reasons it's so peaceful.

Please don't mistake what I'm saying. I'm not saying it is easy for everyone to be optimistic ALL the time and I'm not saying that I've never been mad or angry with the world and I definitely don't know everyone's personal life and what they are going through. So I'm not preaching that all people should try to be more optimistic, understanding, or positive, don't get me wrong. I'm just saying I have not felt it out here and that's a huge reason why I feel so comfortable and am cherishing the time I have here.

But yeah, I hope you all are doing well. No pictures this time, but I am going out of town this weekend and I might have some for you then. In the meantime, be cool.

Jeremy aka Am I sure I'm not Japanese? Not even a half a percentage?

TOKYO!!! トキオ！！！

2009-05-05T03:00:00.000-07:00

There was much more to Tokyo than this...but by Golly Gee Wizz Bonkers this was a fun part, but not the best, keep reading and see what I mean. Pictures here!!

LADIES AND GENTLEMAN, IT IS JEREMY WHITE'S LAST NIGHT IN TOKYO!! AND WHAT IS HE GOING TO DO?! Well, I'm not quite sure, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to be resting it up....but that could always change;) (read about Day 6 to see what I decided to do).

Time to rewind. I got to Tokyo last Wednesday April 29th. I go back tomorrow to Tottori and let me tell you, a week in Tokyo is enough. Obviously you can't see everything, but as far as my geekyness and curiosity of Tokyo is concerned, I am well satiated.

On Wednesday I arrived and didn't really do too much. A friend of mine from high school who has been living here for three years met me at the train station and took me to look around a bit of Tokyo. At this point I wasn't sure of the difference between the blue line to Ueno and the Yamamoto line to Harajuku, I was just following her while at the same time wanting to just lay down and go to sleep, traveling takes a lot out of you (especially when you were up at six in the morning because your bus left at 7:15).

She took me to TGI Fridays (yes, TGI Fridays!) and we ate and then she took me to my Hostel (which is named the NINJA, how cool is that?!) and I got some much needed sleep.

Day 1:

The next day I decided to do my first big of exploring. FYI, this is probably the first time I've every done something like this, which is to say, I never just rome around somewhere alone just to explore. But I gotta tell you, that is a heck of a way to learn a new city and to experience a new culture. Anyways, for all of you geeks out there (and nerds and otaku too) I spent the day in Akihabra (yes, be jealous). For those of you who don't know the difference between Akihabra and Shinjuku or Shibuya, let me fill you in, Akihabra is THE place for electronics, Anime, video games, arcades, and collectible figurines. Akihabra isn't a building, it's a district in Tokyo. I walked around Akihabra all day. I played Tekken 6, Street Fighter IV, I bought an authentic Goku outfit, some Final Fantasy VII figurines and some Dragon Ball Z figurines. I beat a guy (who was Japanese) in both Street Figher and Tekken 6, I felt very good about myself after that.

Interesting story. Remember how before I told you that the DVD shops in Tottori were really just "adult entertainment shops", well folks, I did it again, and seriously it was a true accident. I saw a BIG building that was six floors that looked like it was an anime type of building. I took pictures of it (it's the big Green Building in the pictures). So I decided to go inside and have a look around, after all, it was in Akihabra. As I walked in I realized I was not in Jeremyland anymore, I had officially stepped into "toys for adults" "instructional videos for adults" and "posters and dolls devices to use for adults only" shop. Six floors.... I decided "Hey maybe it's just this floor" and so I went up...nope...the entire six floors was dedicated to this *ahem* "theme". So after the second floor (or was it the third) I made my way down and out. I didn't feel too dirty as I did see quite a few couples looking around.

I bought a pair of glasses (that make me look pretty smart) that have bit of UV protection in them. They are pretty cool glasses. The reason I bring this up is because of the fact that I went to ANOTHER Arcade and played Dance Dance Revolution X, the problem was I was stuck on beginner mode, I couldn't figure out how to get it to Standard mode. Anyways, I put my glasses inside my backpack where I figured it would be safe. After my semi-boring time on DDR (because of the difficulty mode) I picked up my backpack and headed to the next floor. When I went to go look for my glasses I realized they were not there. I had JUST bought them that day and I was just talking to myself asking, "Jeremy..come on..really? You JUST bought these? What the heck?" So I began to retrace my steps, floor by floor to see if I had left them. You should have seen the way people were looking at me when I went back over to the DDR machine and tried to poke around looking for where exactly my glasses could have fallen. I would have said, "I'm sorry I'm looking for my glasses." But the only two words I know in Japanese from that phrase are "Gomenei Sai (which is sorry)" and "Watashi no" (which is my). So I'm missing some pretty crucial words for the understanding of what it was exactly that I was trying to do.

I head downstairs to the first floor and play charades with the attendance to tell him I had lost my glasses. He understood a bit of English (like a lot of people in Tokyo do surprisingly), and I was able to tell him I had lost my glasses and ask him if anyone had turned them in. After a bit of waiting I found out no one had found them. I almost gave up when I decided to retrace my steps ONE more time. I headed up each floor and tried to remember exactly where I had gone after the DDR machine to see if my glasses could have fallen here...there..anywhere!! All of a sudden, on the fourth floor sitting on the counter, where an attendant should be, are my glasses! WHAT?! NANI! SUGEI!!! Yay! I put them on and just smiled the whole way down the elevator. I found the attendant who was nice enough help me earlier and he looked at me and said, "Congratulations!!" All I could do was smile at that point because I thought I had lost my glasses forever and then this guy, who barely knows any English just told me congrats. It was a good first day in Tokyo after all!!

Still staying on the first day (Thursday), I went inside of a hobby collectors shop and found *drumroll* a TON of Final Fantasy VII; Kingdom Hearts; and Dragon Ball Z stuff!!!! I asked one of the workers there if they shipped things and unfortunately he said no. This is probably a great thing because if I would have bought half of the things I wanted to buy that were too big with me to take home I would have spent a LOT of money (one figure I was looking at that was SWEEEEEET was over $400...but mom it was AWESOME...I didn't buy it don't worry). He told me that if I was REALLY interested in figurines and statues and busts that I should go on the second floor. He shouldn't have told me that...I went to the second floor and people...literally..my heart pace sped up and it seemed as if I was slightly hyperventalating, yeah, it was that serious. They had the most AMAZING things (the $400 figurine..yeah..it was there..and I took a picture of it). Seriously, whenever I have my own house, I'm getting a "trophy" case JUST for stuff like this. I am going to be serious about collecting some of this stuff when I actually have a place to put it all!! Geez! It was AWESOME!

So yes, that was my FIRST day in Tokyo, and by golly it was good one.

Day 2:

So the next day I know for sure that I am going out. Going out to a gay club no less too. And if you are shocked and you have all these questions as to why (and no it’s not because I’m gay you jerk ) then, dozo dozo, please keep reading.
I woke up and had no plan in particular other than to go to *da da da da * POKEMON CENTER!!!! So I asked the lady at the front desk of my hostel and she gave me direction on how to get to the land flowing with Pikachu’s and Naetles (Turtwig for all you English speaking folk, which frankly is EVERYBODY reading this). Well, I hope on the train and get to where I am supposed to be. I ask around when I get off of the train where the Pokemon Center is (I swear the “where is” phrase has come in handy so many times since I’ve been here, it’s wonderful). They directed me toward Pokemon Paradise (not the name of the place, just a name I came up with for it) and I was off. As soon as I saw the big letters P-O-K-E-M-O-N I immediately lit up with a smile only known to those of you who have seen me graduate and or those of you who have seen me with a realization that “Hey, I am actually in Japan.” It was one of those smiles that was literally ear to ear and had I kept smiling like that I would have been sore. So I walk into the store, mostly filled with kids and younger teenage girls, and I go nuts, I grab a basket and just start grabbing little Pokemon things here, little stuffed Pichu’s there, some Pokemon badges and postcards here, a keychain for my phone there. All the while just taking in what is actually a small store by most standards. It was amazing though because I had made it to the one place in Tokyo that I really really wanted to go. Was it as amazing as I had hoped? No, but was it amazing, absolutely :-P.

From that point on I had a PDF of “things to do” in Tokyo on my iPod touch and for the rest of the day all I did was look at that PDF and then say, “Ok, I’m heading here, then I’m going here, and I might as well check out here.” So first I went to one of the most popular temples named Sensoji Temple. It…was…AMAZING. The problem is I didn’t actually get to experience the Temple on the outside because it was still under construction, but the good thing is that it was still gorgeous walking around leading up to it. There were SO many people (as you will see in my photos). I was there by myself, but it was not hard finding someone to take a picture of me underneath the entry-way, on the road leading up to it, or even inside if I had wanted. Being the ridiculously “I’d love to be in THAT moment” guy, I turned on some eastern flute tunes (you know the kind you hear at the spa) and I just walked and looked at this wonderful bit of artistic goodness known as the Sensoji Temple and all it was made up of. I gotta say, it made me really feel like I was in Japan (which I was…duh). After I bought my Pikachu shaped lollipop thingie at a kiosk (which ended up breaking by the way…sadness) I was headed back to the station to go to the Edo Museum, which is a museum all about Tokyo’s history (see mom, I actually take in all the cultural things too, it’s not all Pokemon, video games, and partying for me ;).
But anyway, on my way out a guy said hello to me. I took out my earbuds and said hello back to him. He started talking to me and asked me if I understood Japanese (in Japanese) and in Japanese I told him I only understood and spoke a little. As he is still holding my hand from the first shake, he then proceeds to say “Are you from LA? NY?” I told him, “No, I’m from North Carolina.” (this convo is taking place in English by the way). After I told him my name and where I was from he then proceeds to turn around and lift up his shirt so I could see his back. Immediately I knew what was going on. For those of you who don’t know, tattoos in Japan are considered highly highly highly inappropriate for one huge reason. If you have Tattoos it signifies that you are part of the Yakuza. And if you don’t know who the Yakuza are, go watch a movie, they are the Japanese Mafia. So I saw his Tattoo (which practically covered his entire back, but looked rather old in my opinion) and he turned back around and pointed at himself and said, “I’m Yakuza, Japanese Mafia”. At that point I patted myself down,…wallet…check…keys…check…change..check…all my stuff in my backpack..ok..check..phone..phone…ok check.. So at that point I was trying to get away from him as fast as I could, but I didn’t want to be obvious about it, I didn’t know how many Yakuza were around watching us and I definitely didn’t want this dude coming after me.

So I engage it a bit more small talk and he keeps saying, “Nice guy? Nice guy?” and I wasn’t sure whether he was asking me whether I was a nice guy or whether he was a nice guy , so if I remember correctly I think I said , “Yes you are a nice guy” and then he said to me “You are a nice guy.” And he is smiling the entire time. After we said our goodbyes, I walked with a little more pep in my pace back to the station. I had just tried to be recruited by Japanese mafia….oh man..that makes me so cool!!! :-D The only reason I know is because I asked my friend who has been living here for three years and she said, “You don’t have to know Japanese to say ‘Give me your money’ plus you are tall black and scary and they try to recruit foreigners. “ So yes, Ladies and Gentleman, I Jeremy had the possibility of being Yakuza. What have you done with your life? Ok anyway, moving on.

So I head to the Edo museum, and I only have an hour before it closes. So I’m walking rather quickly, while still understanding that an hour is a long time. I see replicas of modern Japanese houses, theaters, old Samurai Warrior family emblems on a vest of some sort and all sorts of other things. It was actually really cool and I’m glad that I went (don’t worry mom, I saved the ticket for your scrapbook). After I left the museum I decided to go to Harajuku to go to the Meiji-Jingu shrine. As I got off of the train however it was getting dark and not to mention I ran into an army of emo’s, punk rockers, and hip hop Japanese people who all seemed to be coming from one central location. Apparently, this little backstreet that I just ended up following people down, had a lot of shops, a lot of narley Japanese people, and it was a lot of fun. I bought a Marvel Comics backpack while I was there and I just walked around and enjoyed the atmosphere. The Shrine would be there another day and I decided people watching and some more potential shopping isn’t all a bad thing. It was a lot of fun.

Ok people, I know you are probably still wondering, “Why did Jeremy go to a gay club?” If you said cause I’m gay, you suck because that’s not true. If you said because I want to be gay, you must not know how much I love women. And if you say because I have this weird fetish for seeing a guy on a guy, then you are just sick. Think logically about this, why would I go to a gay club? First of all, I didn’t go out of sheer randomness, my friend (who is a straight girl) invited me. Are you even more confused? Ok, here’s the answer. When I was told that we were going to a gay club, I immediately said “Cool, but you know I’m not gay right?” and my friend said, “LOL, yeah! I am taking you there because their partying there is so awesome that all the straight people go as well.” Well I have to admit, it was a fun time. Sure I saw some things there that I would have rather not seen in person, but I did get to dance with this really cute Japanese girl who was straight. It was funny, I kept getting asked, by GIRLS, no less, if I was gay. This one girl in particular I asked her if she was lesbian and she said no, then she asked me if I was gay and I said no. Then I asked her if she had a boyfriend and she said no, then she asked me if I had a girlfriend and I said no. Then we proceeded to dance for the next hour. It was a blast!!! Oh, by the way, the clubs stay open really really late because the train and subway lines don’t start up again until 5 AM, so yeah, I didn’t get back to my hostel until 7 AM because we had some Wendy’s afterwards. Talk about being tired…

And that my friends…was day 2…
Day 3:

Day three started late because I got back so late. I didn’t wake up until about three and then I met up with Amy and Becca (because they had got in that day) and Tom (who teaches at an Amity very close to Tokyo). We just walked around a bit and then decided to meet up later to go to dinner and then we were going to go to a club that attracts a lot of foreigners that night. The club was crazy. This club had a rule that I had never heard of before. The cover was free (that sounds great right?) but you have to keep a drink in your hand the entire time or you will be asked to leave, or buy another drink. Needless to say, I had to get pretty creative, because one, their drinks were expensive, and two, I wanted to stay in the club but didn’t always want to be drinking. The last two hours I switched between holding up a drink that was on the table that I was sitting at with these girls I met (more on them later) and me finding an empty bottle and filling it up with water so that it looked like an alcoholic drink.

Anyway, back to the girls. OH! But before I talk about them, I have NEVER been in a club where (A) it was so packed that the entire crowd moved if like a mouse on the floor on the other side of the club shifted it’s weight just a tiny bit. It was insanely wall to wall and (B) there was actually a guy who came in a wheelchair twirling on the dance floor. I don’t want ot come across and prejudice because I was proud of him for doing his thang, but DUDE, there’s hardly enough room for ME let alone a wide wheelchair!!! But I mean, obviously I didn’t get mad or anything, that’s just mean.

Ok so back to the girls. All night I’m using what little bit of Japanese I know to impress the ladies (heh..alllriiight). When suddenly I said SOMEthing to this one chick (she doesn’t remember exactly what I said and neither do I, it has less to do with the alcohol and more to do with the crazyness of how we met than anything). So I walked up to her and said something in Japanese, I don’t even remember, it was probably like, “Are you ok?” because she had tripped or something, I don’t know. But anyways, all I remember is her saying back to me in perfect English and answer to whatever question I was asking. To which point I busted out with a Japanese version of “Woah” and said, “ETO NEI!!!!” even though that really means something like “hmmm (like you are thinking).” Her and her friend started laughing. Not a “Wow he’s stupid” laugh, but a “Aww that’s cute” laugh, trust me on this. So I attempted to speak more and more Japanese to her at which point she said, “I’m not Japanese.” And I was like , “Gomenei..I’m sorry.” I come to find out, her friend is Japanese, but understands English and she is a Vietnamese Singaporean who actually speaks three languages, Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, and English. You don’t understand how happy I was to find someone at that club that wasn’t a foreigner (westerner or European) who could speak English, it was amazing. We went to a room with a lot of tables in the back of the club and we just talked and talked and talked for about an hour. At which point I gave her my info and we planned on meeting for dinner on that Monday :-D. I left the club with her and her friend and they showed me how to get back to the rail lines (and yes, it was 5AM again). I went back to my hostel and had an awesome sleep and relished in the fact that I had just made a new friend…

Day 4:

Sunday was Sunday. I slept in (thanks to the no guilt I felt because I was on vacation and because the girl I had met the night before from Singapore..hey that rhymes…told me she looooves to sleep too…so it just confirmed that it’s alright for me to sleep too). I didn’t sleep in as late as I did Saturday, but I slept in. When I woke up I decided to go see the famous Emo Harajuku girls (I know Paige, I know…it’s on). They were cool and all, funky even….but what really made my day was something that someone else on that bridge gave me. About eight people gave it to me and I also gave it back, it was probably one of the best gifts in Tokyo that I didn’t even think to ask for or look for. Ladies and Gentleman…I got a FREE HUG!!!! There were people standing on the bridge where the Harajuku Emo girls were and they were holding up signs that said “FREE HUGS!!!” At first I was a bit skeptical. I thought maybe they’d reach for my wallet or something (hey, I love this country, but I was in Tokyo and a lot of foreigners roll through there, it’s not like Tottori, I was a bit more wary of my stuff, give me a break). So I’m looking at them and saying out loud, “Really though? A free hug? Really?” So I walk up to them and received a free hug. It was so very pleasant and wonderful. And you know what else I got…a smile. It was turning out to be an awesome day.

From that point I went to the Meiji Jingu shrine. It was a cool site to see and I had fun just walking around in their park leading up to the actual Shrine. Yet again, I put in my ear-buds and turned on the Eastern Flutes and Strings to really give what I was seeing even more feeling. I also bought a poem that an Emperor had written. It basically said don’t sway when life throws you in certain situations. Remain rooted like an oak tree in the middle of a storm. Really it was saying hold true to my convictions even when times get tough. I had to say that was pretty appropriate because God knows I’ve had to do that many times.

And yes, I went out later that night, I meant to only do Karaoke, but my friends caneled on me so I went with another friend and her friends back to the same packed club as the night before. Two things were different, one it wasn’t so packed, and two, to have a drink in my hand so they wouldn’t hassle me, I just bought a big bottle of this fruit drink that was only like 3.5% by volume. It hardly had anything in it and it tasted like Welches. You woulda thought it was don-Perrion the way the Japanese people were looking at me. It wasn’t NEARLY as expensive and they didn’t hound me the whole night and the alcohol content was low, so it was great. Anyway.

Day 5:

I woke up the next morning and my only plans were to go Karaoke and meet up with those two girls I met on Saturday (the one who is Japanese and the one who isn’t, she is from Singapore and she speaks English awesomely). I went to Ueno park before I met up with the girls and while at Ueno park I saw some Mexican singers, a Juggler (who is Japanese) and something else that caught my eye, a lake where you could go on a boat. But this wasn’t just any kind of boat, you could ride a SWAN boat!!! So I knew that Amy and Becs were there in Ueno park as well, I called them and asked if they wanted to ride the Swan with me. At first Amy didn’t want to do it at all, and me and Becs kept saying, “But it’s a SWAN boat in TOKYO on a wonderful lake!? Who wouldn’t want to ride in a Swan!!?” Amy wasn’t having it, but she reluctantly came with us anyway. We all took turns peddling and driving and ripping on each other for how bad we drove the Swan boat and how bad we peddled while all at the same time waving to all the couples, kids, and parents who were enjoying themselves on what I am going to affectionately call Swan Lake.

That night I went to Outback Steakhouse with the two girls from Saturday. We had a great time. It’s funny because the Japanese girl acted like she needed the Singaporean girl to translate everything I was saying too her. But when I noticed her laughing about an episode of Family Guy I was talking about I knew that she spoke and understood English, but that she would rather just speak Japanese. She used to live in America and she has traveled all over the world (the Japanese girl), so she had me fooled at first, but now she doesn’t ;).

That night I went to Karaoke with Brady, Becs and Aimster. It was fun, we burned calories and sang our hearts out to the point where I actually got tired.

Day 6:

Last day in Tokyo. I decided to head to Akihabra one last time. And I am so glad I did. First of all, I beat a couple of Japanese guys in Street Fighter IV and almost was able to have my name forever engraved in digital form if I had beaten Street Fighter IV the game, but unfortunately I lost in the last round to the Boss character Seth. Oh well, at least I beat some Japanese guys I played against. However, I am not so good at Tekken 6. I thought I was good, but if I’m good then these Japanese guys I played are God. You know the feeling you get when a situation is completely and utterly out of your control no matter how many buttons you press or how many times you move your joystick? Yeah…that was me. I got in a win on one round, and then I managed a few hits here and there…but, if I remember correctly this guy got at least two perfects on me. If not two then definitely one and then his life was only down a little bit for the one that I thought was a perfect. It was humiliating, but at the same time don’t talk junk to me because when’s the last time you even had the guts (or the ability) to take on a Japanese guy in Japan in a fighting game (Adam this totally excludes you)?

The other reason I am glad I went back to Akihabra is that I found the video game love of my life on sale and she was not a toy but a statue. I found Aeirs people…I found her!! And she was 20% off. If you don’t know what Aeirs is, look up “Final Fantasy VII” in a google search. She is the one with a long rod that is wearing a long pink dress kinda thing. She is wonderful, but alas, she died in the video game, and that was a sad day (wasn’t it Shari?).

That day I also ran into a band sorta festival thingie in Akihabra. It was mostly the scream at you bands where you bob your head really hard to the rock music. Paige, you would have loved it. I only stayed for about 15 minutes, but I got to be around Emo’s and shake my head really hard too. It was definitely an experience.

That night I had planned on taking it easy seeing as it was my last night in Tokyo. But, yet again, the two girls got in touch with me and told me they were going out and invited me to go with them and their two German friends and two Brazilian/Japanese friends. The Germans were guys and the Brazilian/Japanese were girls. I decided, what the heck, I’ll go out and just catch a cab back earlier than five (because cabs run all night) and my Shinkansen doesn’t leave until 11:30, I’ll be ok. I went out, had a great time and the two girls said they would be coming to Tottori. So yay, I have new friends!!!

I am on the Shinkansen right now writing this on my computer to paste into a post. I will get the pictures up as soon as I can, but tonight I am just going to relax because it’s back to work tomorrow. I actually miss these kids a little bit, but I already miss my Love, goodbye my Love, I shall see you once more….Tokyo.

-Jeremy aka The Pineapple…Brown on the outside and Yellow on the inside. I realize I am not an Oreo…I’m a pineapple people…a pineapple. If you don’t understand, take a second…

A baby and some break dancers

2009-04-21T06:19:00.000-07:00

This is me at a restaurant where the bartenders let me have these glasses. There were only three pair and they got them in NY and they let ME have them! This has nothing to do with the post, but I'm sure it will make some of you all's day! :-D

So, unfortunately, I did not have my camera with me, so I didn't take any pictures. And the camera on my phone is not the best when there is no sunlight, even though it's a whopping 8.0 megapixels (for those of you that don't know, the higher the megapixels the better the image quality, my big nice awesome Sony camera is 10 megapixels. That's just a megapixel comparison, obviously my camera phone is nowhere near as capable as my awesome Sony camera, but anyway).

First, I'll start with some amazing news. My boss is pregnant!!! She has been trying to get pregnant for a while (with her HUSBAND all you judgementeralists!!!). From what I understand, she was always planning to leave Amity soon because she was trying to get pregnant. And just yesterday she found out she was pregnant. When one of my students wasn't showing up on time she was talking to me in the lobby and she said, "OH! Jeremy I have news!" I asked, "Good or bad?" and she said "Good! I'm pregnant!" I was floored by this, because I was expecting her to say something good about the company or something. One, it was refreshing to see her with a crazy happy genuine smile on her face (not a business "I have to be nice to you because you are my customer smile) because she is truly happy. I'm sure working around kids for two years and WANTING some of your own when you are married while you are trying can be tough on a person, but she's finally getting her wish and I wish her well. She told me she was nervous. I told her that my mom had me when she was 22 and I turned out GREAT so imagine how your kid will turn out (because she is older having her first child in comparison with my mom who had me very young, woah..realization..she had me at the age I am now...woah! anyway).

Yes, I just gave my mom a HUGE pat on the back, if you don't agree that she raised a great son (with the help of my dad of course) then why the heck are you even reading this blog to begin with, obviously I have something good to offer if you are reading about my life when you could be doing a BILLION other things! So thank you, from the bottom of my heart :-D.

So yes, my manager is pregnant. Secondly, I finally watched some break dancers today outside of the train station. I had been seeing them a lot, usually every weekend as I biked past the train station on the way somewhere or on the weeknights when I was biking home. Today I decided, what the heck, I'm going to stop. They were doing tricks on top of tricks on top of more tricks. If they were a car, they would have been tricked out *da da DING*. There were about six or seven of them and after about 15 minutes I asked them (in my LITTLE Japanese that I knew) if I could put my iPod in and let them jam to some of MY tunes. They let me (because Japanese people are AWESOME like that!) and they danced to one of my DJ Sega mixes (I'm not DJ Sega, but I had one of his mixes on my iPod) for about 20 minutes or so. And the best part is, I got in there are started dancing myself (not break dancing obviously) and they clapped for me. So yeah, imagine this tall black guy in his suit after work dancing with a bunch of b-boy Japanese break dancers out in front of a train station at 9:30 PM. It was awesome! One of the guys asked me where I was from, I told him I was Americajin and that I worked for Amity. I asked him how often they come out to practice and he told me every night at 9. So maybe one day I'll take my b-boy clothes to work with me, change afterwards and try to learn some of their break dancing moves. Here's hoping me and the pavement don't have another nasty encounter. :)

-Jeremy aka the future break dancer?

aaaaand I hit a curb...

2009-04-19T02:57:00.000-07:00

This is what happens to your bike when you try to battle a curb
(And no this is not my bike I know some of you are wondering)

No, I didn't fall off of my bike again, but I definitely hit a curb...too fast. One teeny tiny small fact about Japan that I did not know before arriving. Japanese curbs are pretty high. They aren't so high as to make you fall forward on your bike (unless you are really just GUNNING it), but they are high enough that if you do not have a mountain bike and you try to have a one-on-one duel with the curb VS. your bike tire at high speeds, the curb will win my friend, the curb will win.

Last night on the way home from dancing I was going pretty fast. I had my bike in third gear and I was blazing down the deep dark sidewalks of Tottori Japan. Suddenly I realized I was going a bit too fast as I approached *DUN DUN DUUUUNN* The Curb!!! I couldn't slow down fast enough and I went over the curb pretty hard. I managed to stay on my bike, but something was different. Something that wasn't happening before I hit the curb was now happening. At first I tried to ignore it, then it started to make itself known more and more and more to the point where I actually had to stop my bike to check and make sure it wasn't what I thought and knew that it was. Yup, my tire is flat. Specifically my front tire had gone flat.

I thought to myself, "Maybe this had just been happening over time and the curb took the last bit of air out of the tire". Yeah, that was a stupid idea because that is obviously not what happens. To put it simply, I got in a battle with a curb and the curb won. Flawless. Victory. (For those of you that don't know that's a Mortal Kombat reference, I was watching it last night). This afternoon when I woke up I decided to go to the store and buy a pump in the hopes that it was just a flat tire that needed to be pumped back up. As I was trying to pump up the tire nothing was happening. It just seemed to stay flat. I thought I might have been doing something wrong when I finally decided to believe that, yes, my inner tube had a hole in it because of the battle with the curb the night before.

As I am obviously getting nowhere in pumping up my tire, a Japanese man, whom I believe lives in my building, came up to me and started speaking Japanese while pointing at my bike. From what I gathered, and from what little Japanese I spoke and understand and what little English he spoke and understands, there was a bike shop RIGHT across the street from where I live. This I did not know. Only one problem, he told me it was closed today, but he told me there is another bike store very close that could fix my inner tube. The guy was so awesome, he drew me a map and I knew exactly where it was. As I thanked him, he literally ran off because it seemed as if he was late for something, even though while he was helping me he did not seem anxious at all.

I took my bike over to the shop and got it fixed. I wasn't sure if I was in the right spot so in my broken Japanese I tried to ask "Where is the bike shop?", but stupidly, I was standing in it, haha. After I failed to communicate anything to the man working at the store, he decided to just come out and look at the bike. He saw that the front tire was flat and I did some gestures that let him know I tried to pump it up, but it wouldn't pump up. I kept telling him "Wakari masen, goemnai sai" which means, "I don't understand, I'm sorry". And from what TEENY bit of Japanese I know, he kind of smiled and said "Ah, he doesn't know Japanese." And kind of chuckled about it. But either way, he patched up my inner tube and I was able to get riding within fifteen minutes. It was amazing because I thought I would have to leave my bike overnight somewhere and he just dropped what he was doing to fix my inner tube. That was great!

So, to date, I have had to have my bike fixed three times.

1) Back tire was flat and innertube seemed to be messed up, I got a new tire.
2) My seat was out of WHACK and wouldn't go back down into the bike because the rod was bent on the end and it slowly started to lean back so far it looked as if I was low-riding everywhere on my bike. Got a new seat and a new rod.
3) My front inner tube got a hole in it because it lost a bout with a curb, got my inner tube patched.

I've only been with Andre a couple of months and already I've had to fix her up a bit. Andrea is the name of my bike for those of you who are a bit confused.

Things are still going swimmingly in Japan. I got a gym membership and I am getting back on my workout grind. Gotta look good for the summer. Oh, and I bought Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete on Blu-Ray disc the other day along with a ton of other Final Fantasy VII stuff. I love that this country has everything that makes me ecstatic!! I gotta give props to Armella that statement because she IMed me saying, "I love how Japan has everything that makes you ecstatic!" It's so true! JERPAN yay!!

-Jeremy aka If I have to get my bike fixed one more time...

NANI?! (WHAT!?!)

2009-04-09T05:59:00.000-07:00

This has nothing to do with the post (the picture I mean), but it is a teaser to the pictures I'll be posting later. Enjoy this one picture and happy reading.
Oh! By the way. This is Sakura (Cherry Blossom)

Pictures

So today started off beautifully. The sun was shining, I didn't have to go into work until 12:00 (really 11:45 because 15 minutes early is on time), the Sakura were out (Cherry Blossoms) and Becca was having the best morning ever, so I was feeding off of her energy as well. Additionally, we knew that we were going posting.

For those of you who don't know what posting is, it's basically handing out fliers mailbox to mailbox so that we can try to get more children to come to Amity. "Why don't you just take out an ad on TV Jeremy?" That's the same thing that I asked, but I'm sure it's a lot cheaper for them to ask us to do it for them, and frankly, I don't mind. It's nice to be able to get out of the school for a couple hours, pop on the iPod and just drop fliers off in mailboxes while all at the same time realizing "Wow, I'm in Japan...dropping off fliers in mailboxes...wow! Yay!"

So when we got to work it was going to be me, Becs, and another Japanese English teacher who teaches computer classes named Kei (KAY). She is really quiet, but she is extremely nice. So Kei drove me and Becs in her car and we went to the area where we were going posting. We got to the posting area at about 12:20. We decided to each take a side of the street, Becca would take the middle, I would go to the right and Kei would go to the houses on the left. We were to meet back at 12:45. I'm walking around, doing my posting, listening to some Angel Taylor (and if you don't know who she is, look her up, she opened for Adele when I went to her concert in Philly, she's AWESOME!), and having a good time. I dropped off about 33 fliers in mailboxes (yes I was counting, because we are supposed to). It's close to 12:45, so I begin to head back to meet with Kei and Becca and go to another posting area. As I met them back at the car we realized something. Kei does not have her keys. They are not in any of the bags that we had for holding our fliers, they were not in Kei's pockets and obviously they were not in me or Becca's pockets.

We started searching everywhere Kei could have stepped looking for her car keys. She kept saying, "I'm sorry, Gomenai (it's an informal term for sorry in Japanese)." And we kept telling her, "No, it's ok Kei (yeah I did not mean for that to rhyme)". We searched for about half an hour when our manager came to pick us up (because Kei did have her phone with her). Before my manager got there however, I realized something. I left my backpack in Kei's car. Yup, that's my Wallet, DS, PSP, my Pikachu hat, my Nintendo hat, my gloves, my Harry Potter book (the second one, yeah I know, I'm behind), my phone, my "Everyday Japanese" book, an "Easy Hiragana (one of the writing systems in Japan)" book, and a notebook. Yeah, it kinda sucked, but at the same time, I knew it was safe, it was all just a manner of WHEN am I going to get it back, especially since I had NO money for lunch that day.

As we got back to the school me and Becs had to ask for some money from our manager so that we could eat (because Becca's money AND her lunch were also in the bag). Once Kei found that out she was SOOO sorry. And we didn't even want her to feel worse than she was because really folks, it happens to the best of us. Alls well that ends well right? She had a spare key at her house, so after work today she went to her house, got taken to her car, and got our stuff out and brought it to me and Becs. On top of that (and THIS is one of the many reasons I adore the Japanese...simply ADORE them), she got us some snacks. A milk tea, a really sweet bread bun, some potatoe sticks and something that looks like Jell-O pudding. She really did NOT have to do that, but she did, she's so sweet. So yes, I have my bag back, I have my money back, I have my PSP and DS back (thank GOD!) and my Pikachu hat (yay!) and all the other stuff that I mentioned.

Second story.

I teach babies. Yes, you heard me, babies. I teach little tykes who don't even talk in Japanese yet, I teach them English. I teach a particular group of babies who are two years old. They are sweet little children. There's only one problem, make that two. There are a pair of twins in the class. Now, honestly, this isn't too bad, but I really feel bad for the mom. Because the baby classes are a class where the moms come in and they basically learn WITH their babies so that there is a deeper connection with them and their children with the English language. I know some of you may think it's pointless, but it's really not. The hard part is there is usually one mom to one child, well, since one mom has twins she has two children. So we have three babies and two moms and a teacher. If one of the twins starts to cry or get out of control and the other is listening and interacting, what is the mom to do? Well that happened today.

One of my children (Masayuki...MAH-SAH-YOU-KEE) started crying, and his mom just let him keep crying, which I understand because she tried to help him and he didn't want it and his twin sister Fuka (FOO-KAH) was listening. So he's whining and crying a bit, but nothing too extreme. All of a sudden, and I'm not quite sure when, we are doing "Yellow Banana" and BOTH of the twins start crying. So the mom, who isn't but so big, is holding both of her children who are SCREAMING and the other mom who has a daughter named Honokoa (HOH-NO-KOH-AH) is trying to ignore it and follow the lesson. At one point Masayuki (the boy) is crying and he sees his sister Fuka crying and all of a sudden he just SLAPS her across the face, pretty hard. The mom, bless her heart, you could tell she wanted to do something, but she was torn between the lesson and trying to get her children to stop crying. Now I know some of you are thinking, "If that had been my child I would have this that and the third." Guys, you gotta understand something about Japanese culture, at least the little that I know about it. When you are in a professional setting where you have to show someone respect, you put your problems aside to try to accomadate them as best you can. Now I'm not saying she shouldn't have tried to reprimand her child, but I also believe that she understood that she still wanted to COMPLETE the lesson and if she had scolded him and been harsher too her son right then and there then there is no TELLING how loudly or how much longer he would have cried. But anyway, back to the story.

They kept crying for what felt like 10 minutes but it was probably half of that. Finally, the mom of the twins says something to the other mom in Japanese. I think she was telling her, "Ok, I'm going to take them out, I'm sorry to interrupt the lesson, but I'm going to take them out." I don't know if she said I'm sorry, but for her to say something to the other mom at all instead of just taking the children out, I'm sure she was asking if it was ok, maybe not, but maybe, all I know is that when the twins mom got done talking to the other mom, both of the kids stopped crying, looked at me and waved GOODBYE. And me and the other mom looked at each other and LAUGHED. Because it's almost like they were intentionally doing all this JUST so they could get out, and once they got it, they were basically like, "Peace Jeremy Sensei, I'm out this B!" So I look at the clock and the lesson is only halfway over (20 minutes). The next few minutes went by peacefully and then the twins come back in the room. But good news, one of the other moms came in to help the mom of the twins so we now have three moms and three babies. The lesson went smoothly after that.

That was my FIRST class today. My manager came to me afterwards and with concern asked, "Are you ok?" And I said, "Yeah, it was just crazy, I can't believe Masayuki hit Fuka, but yes, I'm ok." She did the same thing last Saturday when I had to hold two kids who were CRYING in my ear, one from missing his mom and the other because he saw I was holding the one that was missing his mom.

Whew! At any rate, it was an eventful day. I will update this post later with some pictures of the cherry blossoms. I don't want to do it yet because I am going out to sit under them again this weekend and I will take some more pictures, so I'll put them all up at once. I hope everyone is well. Ja mate ne!

-Jeremy aka the guy who realized it was a possibility that he MIGHT not eat lunch....

Even Picnics

2009-03-30T01:51:00.000-07:00

WEE!!!

Sorry to keep you all waiting for the wonderful awesome news that Japan is still wonderously awesome. The reason that I haven't posted in a little while is because there hasn't been a HUGE story that has happened (like me falling off of the bike) and I've been pretty busy in this thing we call real life, too.

Last week we had to fill out progress reports and make certificates (i.e. "graduation" cards for the kids when they finished the course for the year). I had about 40 something to write up. So I had to rank them in their pronunciation, itonation, interest level and so on. I also had to write up a little paragraph saying how they have done this year.

You might say, "Jeremy, but you've only been there two months, how on earth can you know how they've done the whole year?" Then I would say, "Young grasshopper, always remember to think before you open your mouth and remember that there are other progress records that were already done in the past by the person that I replaced. Therefore young one, I was able to look at the scores from past progress and relate into my own for the present. One who is wise will understand all these things. Take them, and go, my child."

So I was busy with that, busy with familiarizing myself with my new schedule, busy with extra lessons to try to get children to come to Amity, by interesting them with a trial lesson or having a "Hello" lesson with them to introduce them to me since I'm new. And hopefully, new students will come to take my courses. Well, all is well in Jeremy land as far as new students signing up. I had a trial lesson with one little girl who is about 8 years old and she decided to take my class. Another three year old girl liked me so much that she told her father that she wants to take my class. I've only been here two months folks, and in that manner of time, I had a hand in bringing new students to the school, excuse me while I pat myself on the back *pat pat pat*.

Forewarning, this will probably be a long post as I have a few things to talk about. First, let's talk about my first baby lesson. That's right all, I teach babies. Not the "goo goo ga ga" babies, but 1 and 2 year olds. Now before you go making the same mistake and asking another quesiton, how about I explain to you that this is a class with the mothers as well. Any Psychology majors, or anyone with any knowledge of how the human brain functions will know that from 0-4 years old your brain is a sponge. So although the 1 and 2 year olds may not be speaking much English, they are taking in everything that is being said to them. And when the moms also repeat what is being said in English, they take it in even more.

Last week I had three (count it) three baby lessons. I have not had a baby lesson since my second day of training, and I was nervous. The night before I had a dream that I showed up to Amity with just a t-shirt and underwear on. I also was doing everything wrong that day, including, when I actually changed into clothes, wearing street clothes instead of my suit. Yes, I was nervous. You might be wondering why. Well, unlike the other lessons, the baby lessons are EXTREMELY structured. There is room for improvisation, but it is a pretty structured lesson for 40 minutes with almost no downtime . So I was hoping I didn't skip a part, or mess up, or anything, and those of you that know me know that I have a history of worrying a little bit too much when I don't need to.

Well, this case was no different. All three of my baby lessons went extremely well. Of course there were things I could have done better, but there were a LOT of things I could have done worse. The best part about the baby lessons, were of course, the babies. Every time I pulled out a book for a baby to look at, she would immediately go to her moms bag and grab her copy of the book. She's only 1. Her name is Honoka (like Hannukuh), and she's a sweetheart. At first she was scared of me and would only stay by her mother, then, I started acting like only I do and she probably figured "Oh wow, this guy is sillier than I am, he's not scary." So, my baby lessons went well.

Remember the little boy who always decides he's done listening to me and he acts like the Shinkansen (the bullet train)? Yeah, this next story involves him, his name is Atsuke (AHT-SOO-KEE). Last week and this week we are learning our colors. I would go through my flash cards and have all three boys repeat after me (these boys are three, by the way). However, when I got to Green (two weeks in a row mind you) Atsuke and Tomonori (TOH-MOH-NOH-REE) would start yelling at each other. Obviously I only know a tiny tiny eensy weensy teensy bit of Japanese, so I have no clue what they are saying. I know they are arguing about what is on the card though. The card says "Green" and it has a picture of a green parrot. I don't know what it is they were arguing about, but it SOUNDED something like this.

A: Green! Look, the bird is sitting on a branch!
T: NO! He's not, he's in a cage!
A: A BRANCH!
T: A CAGE!
A:A BRANCH!
T: A CAGE!
.
.
.
.

And so on and so on. At one point Tomonori actualy hit atsuke when I had my back turned. It was CRAZY! It got so bad that Atsuke kept trying to open the door, leave the classroom and go to his mom. All three of the little boys moms wait in the lobby while their sons are in class. And it doesn't stop there, Tomonori's mom actually SAW him hit Atsuke. I literally turned my back for 3 seconds to grab what I was using next for the lesson, I look up, Tomonori is hitting, and I look at the window that is in the classroom (that doesn't look to outside, but let's the people in the hallway see the classroom) and I see Tomonori's mom. Her face was so mad. She didn't LOOK angry, but you could tell she was shocked angry kind of thing. And she wasn't mad at me, I know that for a fact. She was embarassed that her son was doing that. So I went over and separated them immediately and tried to talk some sense into them...yes...in English...so it didn't work, but later, the lesson KIND of got back on track. Oh well, all ended up being OK, cause kids are kids are kids no matter what country they are in. After class they were running around like nothing had happened at all. So goes life and the young ones.

NEXT! We have Ryo. Yes, the boy who fell asleep on me the first time I taught him. Or, rather, almost fell asleep. At Amity there is an opening we do for the lesson EVERY time to get the kids speaking English. We have a fake window with fake cards that have different types of weather on them. So we pull out the window and say "What's this?" and they say, "It's a window!" then we ask, "How do we open the window?" And they have to knock on the window and then I say, "Open the window 1..2..3" And then I ask "How's the weather?" and they say, "It's...." whatever is on the card. So I go through all of the weather with Ryo, who is a very smart three year old, and then we take a walk outside the classroom to the window that looks outside. I ask him, "How's the weather?" and he says "Rainy". And then we walk back into the classroom and I proceed to sing my "Weather" song. "How's the weather? It's RAY NEE (rainy)" and instead of saying rainy, cause he KNOWS it's rainy, he keeps yelling "SUNNY!!!" and I keep saying, "Ryo, no, it's rainy, you know it's rainy because you just told me it was rainy." So I start up again, "How's the weather..it's.." and he says "SUNNY!" and every time I say rainy, he overlaps it while screaming "SUNNY!" I couldn't help but laugh, and neither could he, but still, I was thinking to myself "COME ON RYO! It's rainy!!"

Another funny thing he did was when I was trying to teach him "cow". I kept saying, "Ok Ryo, say cow." and he would say "chow" and I said, no no, look at me, "cow". And he would say "chow" and I said, "No, no no, Ryo, say cow" and he would say "chow." So I thought for a second and said, "Say kick Ryo" and he said "kick" and I said, "Ok now say cow"..."chow.." DUDE!!! Oh well...

Oh, funny tidbit. All of me and Rebecca's older students, well not all of mine, but some of mine, think that me and becs are b/f and g/f. We've been here two months and they still don't believe us. One of my older students, who is a boy, was laughing after Rebecca walked out of the class I was teaching (she had to grab some stuff to work on for another class out of that room). And then the other two girls in the class who are 17 start laughing. And I said, "Nani (what?)" and Yuta (who is a boy, yes, it's a boys name) said, "Girlfriend" and I said, "NOOO!! Guys I told you last week, I DON'T have a girlfriend!" Cause a couple of my students had asked me a week ago if I had one and I told them I didn't. And yet again, they did not believe me. Man, these teenagers are funny. Anyway.

Lastly. I went on a picnic yesterday. We went to a place where there are a lot of sports fields, Gazeebo's and a massive slide. We actually had a barbecue. I had cow tongue for the first time, really good stuff if I do so say myself. And get this. This is another reason I just LOVE Japan. When is the last time you grilled noodles? I mean, BBQ style. Outside, seasonsed it, and grilled it on a grill? Really? You never have? OH! That's right! That's because no one ever thinks that you would even DO such a thing. But we DID here in Japan. And let me tell you without any bias (well maybe a little) they were probably the best noodles I've ever had in my entire life. SO good. I don't know WHAT seasoning they used, but good GRACIOUS it was wonderful! *sigh* I love this place.

Oh...lastly lastly. Japan is also cool because there are people from many different countries here. On Saturday night I met a guy from Napal, a girl from Greece, a girl from Spain, a guy from..I don't know exactly where but I think the middle east..and I think he was gay because of HOW he was trying to get me to dance with him, and another guy from Africa. I also saw a few Japanese people I recognized that I had met since I've been here, they were really cool, especially Narito (THE NINJA!). That's what he told me when I met him, I asked him his name and I said "NARUTO, like the character?!" and he said "NO...NARITO (Nah-REE-TOH) the NINJA!" There is no Narito the ninja ladies and gents, he was just being silly. So that's how I remember him now. Arigato gozaimashta for reading and enjoy the pictures. Ja mate ne!

Oh, the pictures are right under the top picture, click "WEE!"

-Jeremy aka The grilled noodle lover

It's like I waited my whole life...

2009-03-22T07:13:00.001-07:00

This last one is for my kids at the daycare :-D

I came across some pretty nifty songs which are sung by some pretty nifty artists. I went out to the club last night and busted a lot of moves, so in honor of just how much of a kid I am and yet how I can still do "grown up" stuff like going out to dance at clubs I have decided to make all of you smile with these songs by artists you probably know. Oh, and to all the parents, it is kid friendly (so mothers approve...KIX!)

-Jeremy aka the "Bust a move"er

A few things

2009-03-20T00:44:00.000-07:00

Pretty Artistic ay? Yeah..I took this :-D
More artisticness and photos HERE.

So this is just a quick post with some new pictures. A couple of observations and realizations.

1) It is really good that I have a light on my bike at night because there have been many times where I could have been riding too fast and re-created my biking accident if I could not see a curb.

2) Japanese internet is ridiculously fast.

3) "DVD" shops are not really for DVD's....regular DVD's that is...they are more for...Adult Entertainment. I had to learn that the hard way.

Story time, quickie version. In the pictures you will notice a building called Sega World. Yes, Sega, like Sonic the Hedgehog. It's an arcade. It was a fairly decent place, it wasn't the best, but they did have Tekken 6 so I had a good time with that. And it was only (roughly) 50 cents a play. But anyway, on my way to Sega World (because it took about 25 minutes by bike to get there...give or take a few), I passed a "DVD" shop. I was excited because I am looking for a Blu Ray version of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children and it is supposed to be released in Japan before it comes out in America. The reason I want it so badly is because it has a demo of the new Final Fantasy XIII video game (which is going to be AWESOME!). I thought that this movie was supposed to be released sometime in March so I figured I would go check out this store since I passed it and look around. When I peered in the window I noticed something strange, "It all looks like adult entertainment," but then I thought "This can't be true, because it says DVD shop, like wouldnt there be some circle with a line through it that is over the number "18" if this was an adult entertainment shop. So I ventured in, hoping that it wasnt ALL adult entertainment. Well..it was...and after staying in there for an hour just wondering WHY it was all adult entertainment, I bought a few things and left. JUST KIDDING! So after I realized it was all just..that...I left, astounded that a "DVD" shop was basically a porno place. Crap, finding this Blu-Ray disc was going to be harder than I thought if EVERY "DVD" shop is an adult entertainment shop.

But anyways, you might say "Well maybe it was just that one." Well..you'd be wrong. I went to another more BIGGER "DVD" shop that I pass all the time going to different places in the city. So finally I decided to check it out. They had some American movies in there so I figured "This has to be legit"...well...it wasn't. There were a few "regular" movies, but all in all, yup, more of the same. And the funny thing is, the guy that worked there kept asking me to put my bag in a locker. It was a fairly spacious store, I guess he didnt want me "sneaking some home". Once I understood what he was saying and I understood that they did NOT have Blu-Ray, I left, oh well, there is always online ordering.

But secondly. I went to a Shrine today, watched some people pray and learned about some religious things. We had off today because today (March 20th) is supposed to be the Spring Solstice and the day when you honor your ancestors by visiting them at their graves. Pretty respectful stuff I'd say. I took pictures of that as well. Everything is still going fantabulous and I'm loving Japan, I just hope I can find a REGULAR dvd shop that sells Blu-Ray...oh wait..that one in the mall...but that is a 30 minute bike ride, hmm I'll have to check that out again next month. I found out Blu-Ray FF7:Advent Children got pushed back to April. Wish me luck! :-D

-Jeremy aka The Realizationer

Japan really does have nice people; funny kids; and creative high school students

2009-03-12T06:57:00.000-07:00

It wasn't this particular Family Mart that I was at, but this is the convenience store that I went to when....oh..you'll see..keep reading :-D

So I teach all age ranges at my wonderful school of Tottori Amity, but there is one class that is pretty unique. It's not necessarily my favorite, but it does make me laugh. I teach three 3-year-olds for 45 minutes every Thursday (mokuyobi). All three of them are unique in their own way. We have one boy, named Atsuki (AHH-T-SOO-KEE) who loves loves loves the Bullet Train, or the Shinkansen (same thing). And he is by far the smartest one in the class. However, at times, if he decides he's just done learning for the day he starts rotating his arms like a train wheel and starts making *chckk chckk chckk* sounds while walking around the room.

Then we have Tomonori (TOH-MOH-NOH-REE) who likes to jump on me and bite my shirt. Yesterday he was actually running really fast and jumping into me as I was trying to sit on the floor and teach the children "Big dog! Little dog! Big fish! Little fish! Yellow duck!" He was more interested in smiling really wide, laughing loudly and running around.

Then we have Ayumi (AH-YOU-ME he's a boy). This kid literally has pulled out a menu from some sort of restaurant and has gotten both of the other boys to be more interested in that, than my lesson. So yesterday I was trying to teach "That". So I grabbed his menu and threw it across the room and yelled "That!" and they said "THAT!". So it's all fun.

But the funniest part of the lesson is asking them, "How are you?" Because they have learned, from my Mario Emotion Faces that Amy made for me my first week of training, "Surprised, Happy, and Angry." And it's so funny, if one of them says they are "Angry" the other one picks "Surprised" and the other one picks "Happy" And they do the motions with the emotions as well.

For example, I asked Ayumi "How are you?" and he says "AAAHHHNNGGREEE!!" and I aksed Atsuke "How are you?" and he put up his hands and made his mouth into an "O" and said "SURPRISED!" and I asked Tomonori, "How are you?" and he smiled and said "HAHPEEE!!" I love those kids, it's too bad they aren't signing up for the new school year. I'm going to miss Atsuki's fo-hawk.

Ok so I figured something out. Japanese people are as nice as I heard they were. A few days ago I went to the convenience store on my lunch break and got some food and some coffee to keep me awake and energized for the rest of the day with my kids. As I walk in, a 60 something year old man (rokujuu) stops me and says "Why are you in Tottori?" I could tell that's NOT what he wanted to ask me, but I answered his question anyway. I showed him my Amity nametag and said "I work at Amity, I teach English." His face looked as if that's not what he wanted to know, but it was still an interesting fact. So I then told him, "I'm from America" and he said "OHHHH AMERICA!" And then I told him I don't live far from where we were at and that I'm staying in Tottori (just to re-iterate one more time). And he looked at me and nodded his head. Well I got my stuff and walked out. As I was headed to my bike he stopped me and said, "Do you like wine?" and I was so shocked by the question that I had no idea how to answer. Not because I didn't know if I liked wine or not but I didn't want this guy to think we were about to go drink wine RIGHT then...I was on my lunch break!!! And then he saw me stammer so he tried to rephrase; he said "Whiskey?" and I decided I'd just answer truthfully, even though I had never had whiskey I understood what he was asking and I said, "Yes, yes I do." And I really wanted to ask "Why?" But before I could even decide if I was going to ask that he handed me a plastic bag with two canned wine coolers in them and said, "Gift! GIFT!" and I was just blown away. I quickly said, "Oh! ARIGATO GOZAIMASU!!" Which is "Thank you very much (not the Oh, that was just me saying "Oh"). And then he walked back into the store. He didn't work there, he didn't know me from before, he just gave me a gift and went on about his business.

I laughed all the way back to Amity and was amazed at what had just happened. I told my co-workers when I got back and even they were a little puzzled. One of them said, "Yes, we do give gifts in Japan...but we give gifts to people we KNOW." I said to her, "Yeah, that's what I figured, I couldn't believe a stranger gave me a gift let alone ALCOHOL!" Hilarity.

And finally, one more funny story from the ever so growing list. I have a class with High school students who are 15 and 16. One of our activities was to look at four different pictures. One had a lady who had a paint bucket on her head, one had a man who was scared, another had a little girl crying next to a bus stop, and another one had a man hanging from a window sill. The point of the activity was to get them to make up reasons for what was going on in the picture. Well...when we got to the man hanging from a window sill, I was not expecting to hear what they had to say. The entire class is girls save one boy. So there are 5 students total. I had given the other three pictures to three individual students and as to not leave anyone out I let these two girls Akiha and Kei (AH-KEE-HA and KAY) talk to each other and try to figure out why this man was hanging from this window sill. They spoke mostly in Japanese when explaining to each other and then tried to tell me in English. Well it was difficult for them so one girl, at the coaxing of her peers, drew a picture on the board of a man and woman in love, and then another girl OUTSIDE of the heart. If you are confused I will explain.

Basically they were trying to tell me that the husband was hanging out with his girlfriend (or doing other things with her...) and his wife walked in on them and so his wife pushed him out of the window and that's why he was hanging there. That made my day, I thought it was hilarious. Aren't my kids creative?

Ok, well that is all for now. I hope you all enjoyed these stories, post comments if you want!!

Like I told a friend of mine yesterday (JESSICA!!!), I feel like someone took all the essence of me, consideration, love, respect, joy, happiness, smiling, kindness, politeness...and made it into a country. Then Jessica told me, "Have fun in JERpan!" I love it!!

I'm loving JERpan!! hahaha!! yay! SAGOY (great).

-Jeremy aka Jerpan

WONDERFUL!!

2009-03-09T01:59:00.000-07:00

Isn't my city awesome!!?

Pictures here.

Let's give it up for the fact that I have internet! YAY!! I have internet! Repeat! I have internet!! I don't have to bike to an internet cafe and pay for internet, I don't have to go to a restaurant on my lunch break that has internet and use theirs, I don't have to sit in back alleys in the bar/club district and pick up internet from a bar. I dont have to do that because, me, Jeremy White, do now have internet at my own, very own, personalized apartment!!! SAGOY!! (great)

Story time!!! So as you all may or may not know, I bike everywhere that I go, except for the occassions where I may take a bus to a mall that would be about 30 minutes by bike. But anyways, my bike has a basket in the front. I know, it's pimpin, and I know, you are jealous. But seriously, everyone has a basket and if you don't have a basket it's pretty stupid because how else are you going to be able to take things that you've bought, or have with you back to where you reside? Think about it...

So anyways. No one wears helmets here. Seriously, no one. Unless they are on a moped or motorcycle actually riding on the street, no one wears a helmet, period. Sidenote....so I get pulled over for going across a street where there weren't any cars...but my personal safety if I fall off my bike doesnt concern the police...hmmmm....anyways.

So I'm having a good day, probably last Wednesday or so and I'm biking to the convenience store to get some food for lunch. It's kind of raining, but mostly sprinkling and maybe not even that much, but the point is, the ground was wet. So as you know, I don't have a mountain bike, I basically have a Mary Poppins bike (but it's pimpin Pimpin...). As I'm going through a small intersection I see that there is a better way to get back up on the sidewalk rather than going over a tiny curb. I was biking rather quickly and the part that connected the street intersection to the curb was almost a 90 degree turn, but not quite. I had to avoid the curb that is about 5 feet in front of me, while going fast, and turning quickly. Yes, this is a recipe for disaster. Keep in mind, I just left work for my lunch break, so that means I am still in my suit.

As I turn and miss the curb in front of me and go on the smoother surface I realized that I was going to fast and I wasn't able to turn back to the right to go straight down the sidewalk, I hit a small cement block, you know, the ones used for parking spaces. And flew forward while trying to brace myself with my hands. I wiped out and couldnt believe that I had just had my first big accident, and it was on a bike....a bike with a basket... There was a Japanese man walking behind me and now, since I wiped out, he was walking past me. He didn't even stop to look at me or show any level of concern. I'm actually kind of surprised that he didn't smile and laugh..actually, I'd have rathered him laugh at me because he just COMPLETELY ignored me. Picture this, a man, a tall man, a tall man in Japan, a tall black man in Japan wearing a black trench coat in a suit with a Pikachu beanie on...yes...I wear my Pokemon beanie, it's awesome. Now picture that same man totally, by no fault of ANYone else, hitting the pavement because he wiped out on his Mary Poppins bike. Yes....my pride was hurt. But luckily, no one I knew saw it. And what I mean by that is that I was glad that none of my students, co-workers, or the people that I see virtually every day that work at the convenience store, saw it. So I have officially had my first fender bender with my bike, I crashed into the ground, and I was the victim. I know you are all probably so concerned about one thing though. Yes, my suit is ok, no scuffs, no stains, and no rips, it came out of that accident like a pro.

I am loving Tottori more and more. You will see in the pictures that I went to the sand dunes yesterday. I listened to some very relaxing flutes and strings music while I sat on top of these massive sand dunes. I can say that at this point and time that that place has to be my favorite beach of all time.

Alright all, that's all for now. Yay I have internet, yay I'm loving Japan, and yay I had my first (and hopefully last and only) bike accident. Be cool.

Jeremy aka- The Mary Poppins Wipeout

The Hair Cuttery

2009-02-25T18:10:00.001-08:00

At least I saved some money eh?

UPDATE: PICTURES HERE! (still no internet)

Yesterday I got paid......WOOP WOOP!! YEAH! Ya-da-dey!!! I also set up my bank account and got my cash card ordered, yay. Yesterday I bought a Honko, which is a Japanese stamp with Kanji (a type of Japanese character writing that is very sophisticated). You could choose from all sorts of Kanji, ones for Peace, Love, Joy, courageous, child-like, all sorts of stuff. Well I wanted something with Love, because those of you who know me know just how much of a loving person, and how obsessed I am with adoring love itself that I would definitely want a love Kanji. I ended up choosing "know love". And for those of you who might be wondering why, its because I strive to "know love" in its purest sense everyday I wake up. How can I be more loving, considerate, patient, kind, respectful, humble, and loving? And it also represents that one day I will truly "know love" in its purest form, and thats the love Ill have with my wife *cue in..awwwwww* Hahaha, all jokes aside, its the truth, but lets move on to why all of you read this blog, for the *drumroll* FUNNY STORIES!!

*Cue gameshow music* And now, the moment youve all been waiting for, here is your host for "funny stories from Japan" JEEERREEEEMMYYYY WHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITE!

Hello! Hello all!! Well do I have a funny story for you today. Two days ago I decided to cut my hair. It wasn`t getting unpleasantly long, but it was mentally time to cut it. So I got out my clippers, put it on 2 and starting buzzing. I was doing a good job, I managed to have two mirrors and was able to see the back of my head so that I didnt just have a big patch of hair sitting in one spot that I didnt notice. After about, oh, maybe 20 minutes or so, maybe a little less, I was starting to shape up my hair and all was well. The haircut looked good. So I turned off my clippers and went to bed....yeah right. I told myself that I wanted it shorter. So I decided to put the clippers on 1 and started buzzing....*buzz...buzz* OH CRAP!!!!! THATS TOO LOW!!! Ah...CRAP! CRAP! I cant stop now! CRAP! OMG! WHAT THE HECK! AWWW HECKZ TO THE NAW! Shoot! Jeremy you just HAD to go lower didnt you!! GEEZZ!! Little did I know that on my razor, 1 was a HUGE difference from two. Back at my barber at home, 1 and 2 werent too much different, and one DEFINITELY didnt cut my hair as low as I just cut it.

So I start the arduous task of again cutting my entire head on 1 and trying not to miss any spots. All of a sudden *buzz..buzz..bu..b......* My razor runs out of battery. "Hey jeremy, why didnt you just plug it up in the first place and cut your hair with it plugged in?" Good question mr./ms. smart alec who isnt letting me finish the story and who should just be quiet now while I finish telling you. If I plugged in my razor while I had it on, it wasnt able to charge AND function at the same time. So now Im sitting there with BASICALLY a maze in my head. Mostly, for any of you who are familiar with black hair, since I started cutting it in the front it looked like a reverse fade. I had a little on the top and most of my growth in the back. So if you were to look at me from the back it would look like my fade is going TOWARD my forehead. So instead of th least amount of hair being in the back of my head and the most being toward the front, the most was on the back and the least was on the front or the top. Yeah, it was like that.

I let my razor charge up for 20 minutes and it lasted for about 20 seconds. Then I let it charge up more, and it lasted a little longer. By the end of the night, probably 3 hours later becasue I had to keep letting it charge, I was able to get it mostly even all around. I let it charge overnight, woke up the next morning and finished off what little bit there was. The good news is I did NOT go to school looking crazy. The good/bad news is I told some of my students/co-workers about what happend and they thought it was funny. I guess thats funny news because I thought it was hilarious myself. Unfortunately I have no pictures for you all, but lets just say when I walk I can feel the wind. Hahahaha!

I still dont have regular internet so I cant post pictures yet, but when I get it, Ill post some pictures of my time in Tottori. Well, I have to get going. I gotta be at work in 15 minutes. Ja ne.

-Jeremy aka theguywhoactuallycuthishairbutgotgreedyandalmostmadeamessofthings

The sorry police

2009-02-22T01:53:00.000-08:00

Their car definitely didnt have a spoiler.

Ok so I dont plan on this being a long post because my space bar button is just big enough for me to put both thumbs in between and on either side of the space bar there is a button that changes my roman characters to hiragana, katakana, or kanji, japanese symbols. So (1) Im not able to type as fast as I would like, and two, I still dont have interenet (Im at a net cafe) and I prefer to write my blog entries on my own computer, especially when I have such a huge space bar, haha.

Ok, second week in Tottori is awesome. I finally got my bike fixed so people dont hear me riding rim and squeaking all the way from the other side of the street. Its much easier to peddle the bike now. All that stuff I may have mentioned about my legs getting more defined and stronger because Im on a bike, yeah...that was due more to the fact that I was riding on a flat tire and it was THAT much harder to get the bike moving. So now I am very appreciative that I can go over bumpy surfaces and not feel as if my bike is going to fall out from underneath me. Oh..the small things in life.

Secondly, I went to Toys R Us today!!! YAY!! And I bought a medium sized pokemon stuffed animal (Turtwig for those of you who are wondering) and....(drumroll), I bought Relakkuma!!! YAY!!!!!! Click on the word to see what Im talking about. Lets just say hes my new favorite bear of all time!!! Oh, and last but not least, I bought Street Fighter IV. I wanted to buy another game as well, buuut...it doesnt have English subtitles and since its an RPG (role playing game) I KIND of need to know what the characters are saying so that I can progress in the game. Shoot, it was hard enough just scrolling through the SFIV menu today to figure out where the options were, the survival mode, and pretty much just how to start up a fight. If for no other reason, I need to learn Japanese so that I can understand my games!!!

Story time!!! So on Friday night me and Becca went out and hung with some other foreginers who teach English here in Tottori as well, but not for Amity, I believe all of them are in the JET program. We didnt intend to stay out late because we work from Tues-Sat with Sunday and Monday off. So Saturday is our real going out night. But anyways, as we are biking back home we dart across a street that doesnt have a cross walk because our building was RIGHT there. One small, eensy weensy problem with this. Unbeknownst to me and bex, we did it RIGHT in front of a police car. yay...no... They blarred something in Japanese out of their speakers, turned their lights on, got out of their cars and stopped us from going to park our bikes. We were AT our building and we are looking at each other like `Ok, I know we just jay walked with our bikes, but seriously...`. So the police officers first ask us if we are married. And we tell them no, they ask us if we are dating and we said no, we are just friends, we work together. And then they RAN OUR TAGS!!! Apparently, our bikes have little license plates on them, more like stickers. But they still count as license plates. So, if you dont know at this point, me and bex did not buy these bikes, they were given to us by the people we replaced. If you dont see where this is going yet, let me fill you in. THEY THOUGHT WE STOLE THE BIKES!! But then we told them that Brady and Andrea GAVE them to us. Please keep in mind, one officer didnt know any English and the other one wasnt too far behind him. So once I told him that it was Bradys and did the motion for GAVE, he understood, but they still wanted to see me and Bex passports. We were relecutant, but hey, what were we going to say, no. Ah, but let me back up. So I asked the officers as best I could, did we do something wrong? And I pointed to the street, the odd thing is, they werent concerned with any wrong doing as far the street was concerned. So bex is looking in her dictionary and we are trying to find the word for `trouble` and `wrong` to get them to tell us what we did. Ok, so fas forward. They know we are from America, we go get our passports, they are talking on their walkie talkies and telling SOMEone our names. So what I think happened is that they let dispatch, or WHOEVER know that even though those license plates came up as Andre and Brady, now Jeremy and Rebecca had them. So ultimately I think we got our bikes registered in our names.

The odd part about this whole story is that no ticket was written and one of the police officers kept saying sorry, like HE was doing something to US. They were both really polite and really cool. To this day, haha, like it happened so long ago, it was 2 nights ago...but anyway, to this day I still really dont know what happend. Im thinking they pulled us because we crossed the street right there but then they asked us if it was our bikes before they ran our plates, so I believe maybe they THOUGHT we may have stolen the bikes because they asked Becca if that was even her purse. Once we showed them that we had the keys for the bikes and told them Andre and Bradys names and told them that we teach at Amity, I think everything was cool, and thats when they had us get our passports so they could let dispatch know our names for the specific license plates.

Apparently foreigners are targetted a bit more for stupid stuff that Japanese people would get away with. This is coming from friends of ours we`ve met here that have been here for a year or so. So all in all, I still dont know WHAT the heck was going on, but its a great story....now anyways. Strange...but those were the nicest cops ever, haha, who says `sorry` when they are the police!!!?? Good times. So no, Im not in jail in Tottori writing you this and telling you how Im stuck here for Jay Biking, so dont worry, all is well and good in Jeremyland and hes not an international criminial.

Oh and if you see some of these posts that have some spelling errors, give me a break, there seems to be no spell check on these computers as I write. Thanks peoples.

-Jeremy aka The Jay Biking Criminal

P.S.- Just in case you need a reminder, I wont be posting pictures until I get internet for my OWN computer at my OWN place again. Just an FYI. Be cool peoples.

First week

2009-02-15T19:59:00.000-08:00

Lets use this baby sonic as a metaphor for my teaching now. In the future maybe Ill be a legend in my own right.

Ok, yes, I know I havent posted for a little while, but people, Im not going to have regular internet for a good two weeks. The place I am at right now is pretty awesome, they give you your own little private cubby so you can have some privacy. The place also lets you play video games and rent dvds and watch them in a mini-theater type deal, its pretty nifty. Yes, I just said nifty.

Ok, so lets back up to last week. As you may or may not know my school week goes from Tuesday-Saturday, so for those of you who still dont understand, that means my weekend days are Sunday and Monday. I know, very strange, but hey thats the way the cookie crumbles.

Last Tuesday I spent all day getting information overload while shadowing the guy Im replacing, his name is Brady. I learned how to clock in, clock out, do student evalutions, do attendance, learned about changes to my schedule, learned where all the lesson plans, materials, and props were. I learned about how to organize, how not to organize, and pretty much everything else they couldnt have taught me at initial training because I wasnt at my branch school yet.

Well on Wednesday I taught my first lesson. BOOOOO!! I did horrible. I went through my lesson and I look up at the clock and I still had 20 minutes left. Granted I had two cute kids who were adorable (I believe they were 7 and 8) but still, I was nervous, I wasnt going through the lesson the way I was supposed to and I almost totally didnt teach part of the lesson, needless to say I was unprepared (even though I thought I was). Bring in the next two classes, a parent class and a 14 year old student (two separate classes with the parent class coming first). That one I did well in, and the 14 year old student class I did well in. Heres the thing, I barely planned for those lessons (because of the type of lessons they were, not just because I was lazy) and they went the best. Go figure.

Everyday after that got lots better. By the end of the week I was really liking my students and really excited to be on my own teaching (because even though I was teaching last week, Brady was sitting in on every lesson).

STORY TIME!!! Ok so I have a few good stories about my first week and teaching and/or observing classes. If you dont laugh at these, please go to the fun doctor and ask him to prescribe you some awesomeness with a dash of humor. Thank you.

Lets start with the ever infamous Ryo (pronounced Rio, not Ryu like the street fighter character).

OH SPEAKING OF STREET FIGHTER!! I got to play Tekken 6 yesterday at an ARCADE!! OMG BATMAN! Its not out in the states yet!! It was SO AWESOME!! AHHH, so awesome!!! Ok now back to our regularly scheduled story.

So Rio is a cute little kid. Hes kind of shy, but hes got a good vibe for a three year old. As I am going through my lesson plan, doing the hello song, asking him how he feels with my Mario emotion cards and what not, hes sitting there not responding. Just looking at me with this look of `dude..I seriously dont care what you are doing right now so Im just going to look at you and try to figure out how the heck your skin turned brown`. I seriously was coaxing him to talk for a good 10 minutes. Finally, I got him interested in the review lesson with a little squeaky hammer and the review cards of animals he had went over last week. So I asked him `Rio, whats this? Hit frog` and he started to respond. YAY! I would try to give him a high five and instead he just hit my hand with the hammer. Then we moved into our colors and I had him tell me what the colors were. He wasnt to interested in this either, and at one point I got to brown and he didnt care to point to or tap the card so I tried to make it interesting and I pointed at my skin. Still no dice. Then I had him crumple up the colors so we could play trashketball. This game involves you finding a color on the ground, crumpling it up and throwing it in the trash. Well he LOVED this and he was telling me the colors and at one point I asked him what a certain color was and Brady told me he said `fruit`...yeah thats not a color, crazy kid. I gotta learn Japanese so I can hear what these kids say cause sometimes they are OFF THE WALL. Hilarity in a child. But anyway, we move on to a song called 10 Green Bottles, and I knock them off the wall when one `accidentally falls` and then we have 9. Well we go through this song twice and he is literally just chillin on the palms of his hands leaning back NOT interested. After that song I try to get him to do some other stuff and this boy literally had his head rocking backwards and his eyes popped open when he jerked himself back awake. At one point during the lesson I asked him something and the room was quiet, then from the adjacent room on the comptuers you could hear the sound of crickets. I kid you not people, truth is always funnier than fiction. Oh irony.

Then I had another class, and poor boy, bless his heart, he started crying during the lesson. Not because I was scary or he didnt like me, but he didnt want Brady to leave. It made me think about my own kids back in NC how they didnt want me to leave either so I totally understood. He cried for a good 15 minutes and Brady had to take over and teach him the lesson. I hope he does ok with me this week.

Another group of kids we had, I think they were all three. They were all over the place. One kid was climbing on my back, another was dive bombing into the carpet and another was just standing their quietly not really doing much. This class is going to be fun. I also had a class that I taught where I tought the emotion for surprised and this one kid made an `O` with his mouth but then like made his eyes go into the back of his head. Talk about dramatics. He was also dive bombing, and rolling on the floor during the lesson.

One girl I had would not stop jumping up and down. Check that, I was shadowing this lesson, but she was jumping everywhere. She actually resembled a girl that I had back at the daycare. But the girl back at the daycare was not NEARLY as hyper at ALL!

There was one class I sat in on Saturday which was the last class of the day. It was with four high school students. Their English level is pretty low, but after the class I managed to talk with three of them (who were all girls, the boy had left right after class) and we started talking about Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball Z, Ryokushen (relax bear) Hello Kitty, Naruto, Yu-Gi-Oh, Japanese Baseball, I told them a little about football and anything else we could talk about so that when they see me next we`ll both be comfortable. They are cool kids.

And lastly, the cutest kid of all time, well at least at my school. Her name is Saki, and its pronounced the same way we pronounce the drink, but apparently we pronounce the drink wrong so NO, she is not named after the famous eastern alcohol. She is really cool because shes so stinkin cute. There is another boy in class with her and they go to school together, so they are a joy to teach. When I did my high fives with her, instead of her high fiving me back with her hand she just took one finger and touched the middle of my palm. I dont really have a crazy story with her, but Im sure in time there will be at least one more.

Oh I almost forgot, I teach this one kid who is really smart, but he is very...oh whats the word...particular. When I had the CD player plugged in for use later in the lesson, he said (in japanese) `Stop wasting electricity` and he gets up in the middle of the lesson and goes to unplug the CD player. Hahaha, that was great!

But yes, I am excited about teaching all my students. Keeping up with everything that I got in the information overload the past two weeks, thats another story. But in time I know Ill be able to do very well with everything if not master it.

One last funny story. When I went to this dance club I met these girls, who came up to me and started talking. I really need to learn Japanese because just TALKING to them was a chore, it was fun, but it was not easy. Me and this one girl both slowed our speach down as if that was going to make a difference. If we dont know the words it doesnt matter if you say it fast or slow, haha, we still wont understand each other. But I did manage to get a few things across, charades and pictionary work when you arent playing the game as well, haha. But whats funny is at a couple points in the night I would ask her something and then she would say, `YES WE CAN` or if she said `America?` I would say `yes` and then she would say `YES WE CAN`. Great times.

Ok, I know that was a lot, but I dont have regular internet yet. Be cool everyone.

-Jeremy aka The guy who really needs to learn Japanese...or at least a couple of pick up lines.

Tottori-Shi, Tottori

2009-02-08T23:18:00.001-08:00

Who is this character and why a I next to him?
Find out HERE

Hello from Tottori-Shi, Tottori (you can just say Tottori for short). I have been here for a day now and I must say, it is very quaint, pretty quiet (compared to Okayama) and even the random kids I pass in the streets say hello to me.

Me and Becs went around and explored. We went and applied for our Alien Registration Cards all by ourselves without the help of our wonderful manager Yummi. So I'm sure she will appreciate that. We also went and shopped a bit. I some stuff from a stationery store such as a briefcase, some pokemon stamps (stamps that you actually dip in ink and stamp onto something, not postage stamps) and some other misc stuff that I may need for my school.

Funny story; while we were in the store there were these two little kids who were going up and down the stairs. I believe their moms were upstairs in the store and they kept coming back and forth. Well I decided to say hello to them, just a quick "Hello" and they said "Hello!" and then for the entire time me and Becs were in the store they were running around and would say "Hello!" and then dart away and hide behind something, or go running back upstairs. I guess there is a sign on me in some universal language for kids that says, "I'll play with you as if I was your age too." I guess God wrote it on my forehead or something for ALL children to understand. It was very interesting trying to communicate to people today, but in the end me and Becs found what we were looking for...pretty much.

I also went to the 100 yen shop and among other things I got a blank CD. Why is this important you may be asking yourself. Well, I'm so glad you asked, allow me to answer; while Yummi was driving us around Tottori yesterday to get our luggage and what not she had Ne-Yo playing in her car. So we got to talking and she told me she liked Rihanna and Eminem as well (dude, I have such a cool boss). So me, being the ever so nice gentleman that I am, informed her that Ne-Yo had a new cd and I'd make her a copy. Well she really liked that. But then I remembered, I have no blank cds....so I told her once I got a blank CD I would make her a copy, she was very excited. Now I have one and I'm going to make her a CD..yay me!

My apartment is pretty cool. As you can see in the pictures it's pretty spacious. But if you'll notice, my living room is my bedroom because I have to put a little thin mattress down everynight to go to sleep on. Thank God I brought my own pillow, the little pillow they gave me wouldn't have cut it for too much longer. Feel free to comment, comment, comment on the Picasa web albums. You have to have an account with google, but it's free. And if you don't want to comment there or don't know how or SOMEthing, just comment on the blog, I'm enjoying the fact that a lot of you are enjoying reading my blog. Alrighty well I'm about to go eat some Sushi...seriously, I'm not just saying that.

-Jeremy aka The Brown Bear

Big man in a little country

2009-02-08T05:03:00.000-08:00

That guy up there..yeah that's me...oh wait you didn't know?

So last night was the end of my training and what do you think I did? I stayed in like a good little boy and studied and studied and did lesson plan after lesson plan after practice after practice and....yeah right. I PARTIED!

Our trainers took us all out to dinner and we did a family style dinner where they had food set on the table and we just took our share. It was so much fun. For the parents who may be reading their children this blog post, please substitute some of the following words with more vivacious childreny words ;).

A lot of people got drunk. Haha. I had some drinks myself, but I wasn't bad. I tried Sake for the first time, and it reminded me of some wine I had back in the states. It's pretty good, although I believe you were supposed to sip it and here I am taking shots of it, haha. But anyway. After the dinner with our trainers and ALL 14 other people I trained with, we decided to go to Karaoke. Now, for those of you who don't know, in Japan, or at least at this place (called Big Echo), instead of singing on a stage at a bar in front of everyone, you reserve rooms and you all go in a room and pick out your songs and of course, you sing.

Ok, now that we have that out of the way, let's back up. So we are ALL outside of Big Echo and there are a lot of Japanese people out front (well..duh..becasue we are in Japan, but trust me, this is going somewhere). As we are all standing out in front, acting a fool (i.e. such as me jumping on Chris' back and him running through the street and us getting honked at and almost hit by a car, well..maybe not ALMOST...it was far enough a way to dodge...obviously) we start saying HEYYYYY and talking loud and stuff to all the Japanese people. All of a sudden they start chanting

OBAMA!

OBAMA!

OBAMA!

And I screamed out YES WE CAN!

And they screamed YES WE CAN!

YES WE CAN!

YES WE CAN!

And they thought I was the coolest thing since the invention of the cell phone and I was SO happy that I look like my president, haha. I felt so famous. I want to call Obama and just thank him for making me so famous in Japan. So we are yelling with the other Japanese people and taking pictures and taking video (which I hope to have for you all soon, it was on someone elses camera on both counts) and just having a good time. All of a sudden this Japanese guy comes out with an Obama MASK on and people start chanting "OBAMA!" again. So when the guy took the mask off I grabbed it from him and put it on and started posing and people were taking pictures and I felt so...Presidential...or at least famous like a President.

One of my friends, Tom kept saying, "Man! How does that make you feel?! Isn't that awesome! This is so awesome!" And he was absolutely right, I'm getting so much attention because I'm tall and black, but I'm also getting more because Obama is in office. Just today in Tottori (which I will have pictures of my apartment up later this week, no specifics as to when yet), at the grocery store I met one of the students that goes to Amity (yes it's a small town) and I was with one of the women who work at Amity who speaks Japanese and the little girl said something to her mother in Japanese and my co-worker translated for me and said, "She said you are on TV." And yes, yet again, this little girl thought I was Obama. I guess it really was a good decision to cut my hair. I didn't know if I could...but YES I CAN! ;)

And then later that night we all went out dancing, and their clubs here dont close until around six. I went home about four and it was still poppin. I danced with a couple Japanese girls and they were really diggin my style (yes, I just said that). I did the worm, I went back into a bridge, I was doing all sorts of stuff. I had people jumping up and down with me when they played "Arab Money," it was so much fun.

Well, that's all for now, my apartment is awesome but that posting is to come later. Until then.

ja ne (see you later)

-Jeremy

aka

OBAMA! OBAMA! OBAMA!

THE KIDS!!

2009-02-07T02:06:00.003-08:00

I feel like I'm SUPER BABY MARIO! I can fly! I can fly! YAY KIDS! YAY!! YESSSS!!!

Editors Note:

To all my kids at the daycare, just because I'm excited about my new students doesnt mean I havent forgotten about you guys. I love you all too :-D

Hello everyone!! I am in my last and final day of being in Okayama, Japan and then tomorrow (or Saturday, for those of you in the U.S....which is practically all of you) I will be leaving to Tottori Amity (Tottori is the name of the city and Amity is the name of the school I will be teaching).

But, before that, I must tell you about today. Today we all (all 15 of us) did lessons for either 1 or 2 4-5 year old students. Yes, we actually taught the children today!!! It was a little frightening because up until this time we had been teaching each other with the trainers sitting and evaluating us letting us know what we needed to work on. My downfall this week has been explaining/talking too much!!! Imagine that!! I was transitioning too much (I'm a writer, what can I say) and I wasn't allowing the lesson to flow.

BUT today! In front of the kids I nailed it. I had two boys, I think who were around the ages of four and five (just like my kids back home! Hey you guys!! And girls!!). However, their names were a BIT different. I had one boy named Akihiro (AH-KEE-HERO) and one boy named Daigo (DIE-GO). They were fantastic.

My lesson involved teaching them foods (Chicken, Noodles, and Soup). However, that wasn't ALL of the lesson. In the beginning of the lesson I had an ice breaker if you will and asked them how they were doing today (Did I mention they were awesome?). And as I was teaching them different emotions I used non other than the infamous MARIO! Baby Mario to be exact (if you don't know what he looks like, look at the picture at the beginning of the post). I pulled him out and asked, "Who's this!?" and Daigo energetically yelled "MARIO!!" At that point I had them. We were spinning around like airplanes, racing to touch the vocab cards and singing throughout my whole lesson. It was wonderful and it really built my confidence heading into next week where I will be shadowing and teaching my own lessons to the children at my branch school.

During my evaluation; the trouble spots that I have had the past couple of days I fixed (SCORE!) and as always I was extremely energetic and positive and just having as good of a time as the kids were. Apparently at my branch school I may here them refer to me as Kisabi or Kiwashi or SOMEthing..I'm not sure what the actual word is, but either way it means "Bear." Not because they are scared of me, but literally because I am tall and brown. Haha! And it's even funnier because a girl here nicknamed me Jer Bear (before I was told that I might be called a bear). But I did have to break the news to her that she wasn't the first to call me that, but she still calls me that as if she was the first to call me that.

Oh, one quick thing, I'm sure all of you will want to see pictures of my children on my blog. Since I have a high respect for the company and the students families I am teaching I will NOT, I repeat will NOT be posting pictures of them on my blog out of respect and the fact that the recruiters told us that we shouldn't.

I can't express to you all how comfortable and at peace I feel here. It is a feeling like no other. I am extremely ready (well maybe not PREPARED but at least ready) for what this next year has to offer. It is going to be very busy and it is going to be very fun. And who knows, I may be here longer than a year, but now is not the time to be thinking either way, I'll cross that bridge when it comes. Right now I am just enjoying every second I have in this wonderful place full of excitement, positivity, optimism, energy, respect, consideration, and politeness. I hope EVERYone gets to feel like this at least once in their life, preferably all the time. All I know is that I feel like this and I never want to have it slip away, ever (and no I'm not saying I have to stay in Japan the rest of my life, I'm just saying I love this feeling and want to keep it forever. K? Ok. lol).

Tonight I am going out to dinner with my trainers and all of my fellow teachers. It's kind of bittersweet because although this has only been a week, we have literally been around each other for at least 18 hours a day. I definitely have a strong network if I ever need to go to Britain or Canada or even come back to Japan (one of my friends has a girlfriend who is from here, but she is currently in another country at the moment).

Well, I can't think of anything else to add. No pictures as of right now (I mean guys, I took over 100 and posted them the last time, enjoy those, haha). For now, it's time to just enjoy tonight and not think about anything other than that training is over and now it's time to celebrate one more time with my friends before we all part ways. I think we are going to karaoke.

"Fly me to the moon...!!!"

-Jeremy- The Japanese Punk Rock Star

I'm in Japan everyone!!

2009-02-02T02:46:00.001-08:00

A friend of mine took this...I promise it's not photoshopped or anything...we are outside the Okayama Castle
I'm so Happy!!!! Yay Japan!!

The Pictures are HERE (click here)

I don't have internet readily available to me since I am not in Tottori yet. So I won't be able to post consistently for a little while, but I'll still try.

In one word my time in Japan thus far has been...comfortable. It's like a friend of mine said, "It's almost as if they just took Japan and put it in the United States." I know it's too early to tell, but so far I feel at home in a strange way.

The plane ride, although it was fourteen hours did not feel like it whatsoever. There was this one baby that kept getting on my nerves because he was crying a lot. ESPECIALLY when I was trying to sleep, it felt like every time I was drifting off he would cry at the highest pitch imaginable, which was extremely unpleasant. The ride was fine, my computer held up for a solid four hours, so I was very impressed with that. There was this guy a couple rows ahead of me who was playing his PSP for a good four hours. And then when his PSP died he had a SPARE battery. I mean, I thought i was really into video games, I don't know if I've ever played a game for four hours straight (that I wasn't writing a review for that had a deadline). It was beginning to hit me that indeed, I was heade for Japan.

As I stepped off the plane, customs was a breeze. I didn't listen to a song because I was too concerned about going in the right direction and getting to where I needed to. The customs guy didnt even ask me ANY questions, it was great. I got my bags (all three of them) and headed to where I met my Amity representatives. And then I met up with Becca and the rest of the crew. Me and Becca gave each other a hug like we hadnt seen each other in years, when in fact this is the first time we've ever officially met.

We took a train to Osaka and then one to Okayama. We took a regular train and a bullet train. On both trains it barely felt as if I was moving. It was actually an extremely calming experience. I started to get to know the people who I would be trainging with and soon realized that a lot of them were similar to me and then it started to make sense. We are all in Japan for at least a year teaching kids...we've gotta be off the wall in SOME kind of way. It really hit me as I was sitting on the bullet train and the two guys next to me (both of whom are going to be teaching English at another school) were playing there handheld games. One a PSP and the other a DS. And the guy sitting directly to my right LOVES Final Fantasy VII...yeah I'll fit right in.

As I was on the regular train I noticed that two Japanese young women had these Universal Studios bags that also said "Fantastic Land." And I got REALLY excited, started smiling, and started to point (which I shouldnt do, but apparently it wasnt a big deal because of what happened next); and the girls started to smile and laugh and wave at me. And I was thinking, "All right! Japanese girls waved at me!" So I started waving back and smiling and we had a good time for that 30 seconds just laughing and waving, haha.

As we got to our dorm rooms a few interesting things were pointed out to me. One, if I use the shower I have to turn on the heat for the shower to get the water warmed up. Two, the electricity to my dorm is not ALWAYS on, I have to use the key that was used to get in my room to power on my room. Three, the room was more spacious than I thought (I have a roommate, but only for this week) and four the comforters are AWESOME. It's like they imported a cloud right to Japan for me, wonderous.

I actually managed to stay up all the way until it was time to go to bed and instead of going out or anything I decided to just go to bed at a decent hour and plan to sleep in. The next morning my roomate was up way before me and I got to thinking, "Maybe I should get up because it's probably close to eleven, I don't want to miss the whole day." So I got up and asked him, "What time is it?", and to my surprise he said, "8:30"...yeah..wow.

So I got up and originally me and him (his name is Andrew) were going to just go explore the city. We were going to go to the Korakuen Garden and the Okayama Castle. Then I decided to go see if Becca and Jessica wanted to come with us, and they were on board, before we knew it everyone in our group (save 2) were walking with us to the garden and the Castle.

We had an AMAZING time exploring the city and of course, I was the class clown, wait until you see the pictures. We went to a lot of side shops, we went to a pet store, we went to the 100 yen shop (dollar store) we went to an arcade (only a small one), we took pictures of EVERYthing, and I mean EVERYTHING, even the stray cats and the seagulls, wonderful stuff. Brandon and Becca dressed up in Kimono's and we got pictures of them as well, that was a fun time.

When we sat down to eat on the way to the Castle I got something that I forget how to say in Japanese. It was Eggs and Chicken with rice. it was SO good. The meaning of the food in Japanese means "Mother and Child" so mom, I've been thinking of you :-D. AND! As I was using my chopsticks the woman who was serving us came up to me and told me that I was using my chopsticks well. That made me feel GREAT like Frosted Flakes!

Later that night I went get something to eat and I passed this group of Japanese girls (who were Middle or High School students I think) and they said, "HELLO!!" and I said, "Hello!!" And they started laughing.

Right now it is pretty cold although it was a great temperature yesterday. Today is the first day of training and I'm writing this at about 8:20 AM, it's 6:20PM eastern time for you guys the day BEFORE. Just to let you all know.

I am really excited about everything. I don't know why, but I feel very very very comfortable in this foregin country. Everything is so bright, so positive, so optimistic, so happy, every advertisement is smiling and colorful and so far the peolple are extremely nice. It is a much different feelign than when I went to Paris. I don't feel as if I'm a foreginer, part of me feels at home in a strange way.

Hopefully all of the pictures keep you all satiated for a while. I don't have regular internet access yet so I won't be able to post much. But I am posting over 100 pictures so I'm sure they will keep you entertained until I go to Tottori.

Until next time.

-The Japanese Punk Rock Star

Departure

2009-01-30T18:50:00.001-08:00

If you look really close..you can see me...wait...

Tomorrow is the day people. I am leaving on an epic journey filled with outlandish expectations and I am doing it all with only a swiss army knife and a pair of chopsticks! It's the story of *cue big voice* JEREMY IN JAPAN (*echo* pan..pan..pan).

Seriously though, I am excited that it is here, but I don't know what to make of my excitement so actually I'm just looking forward to breakfast in the morning because I'm pretty hungry right now. Yay, BK Mocha Joe!

But yes, this isn't a long entry, just one to let everyone know that I am leaving and I will try to get some pictures posted as soon as I can as well as some video (hopefully). Until then, I will catch you all on the flip side...literally...because Japan is on the flip side of the world..if the world were flat..which it SO is..duh! So until then! Ja-ne!

T-9 days

2009-01-22T09:56:00.000-08:00

Hopefully these aren't my pilots...

Hello all! I am still in disbelief that in less than two weeks I will be in Japan. That's africkinmazing!

I wanted to give you all an update as to what is going on with my pre-departure life. I recently spoke with a girl who is also in the Amity program named Jessica. She will not be teaching with me but she is part of the Amity program and will be teaching elsewhere in Japan. So why should I even mention the girl? I am so glad you asked. Me, her, and another young woman named Molly are all going to be on the same flight from Detroit all the way to Kansai, Japan. And for those of you who are wondering how far of a flight that is; it will be 14 hours and 5 minutes (give or take 20 for runway problems, geese in the air, engine trouble, or the pilot is stuck in the bathroom...AGAIN!) and will be a grand total of 6,592 miles (geez, that number 92 keeps popping up everywhere in my life, haha real funny dad!). Needless to say (so maybe I just shouldn't say it...) I'm going to be very far away.

But there is hope my friends! It is called IMing and emailing and skyping and even for a lucky few of you I will send you my address while I'm over in Japan so you can send me stuff! Yay! Stuff!

But yes, I will be leaving next Saturday at 9:20AM (there's that 92 again..) from Charlotte going to Detroit and then Detroit to Kansai. Oh, so bittersweet *cue the "Aww's" from the citcom shows*.

Ok, so I have a story for you all. So 14 hours is a long time to be in one spot (although I'm really looking forward to it). And what would any other 6'2 man do in my position? He would definitely try to upgrade to have more legroom. Wait...I'm not paying $2,000 for a ticket, sorry. So the next logical step is to get an exit row. Readers, it seems that the airlines have caught on to the tall mans plight and instead of allowing him to sit in an exit row unabashed the outrageous prices of first, business, or executive class, they have now tacked on a certain status that you must have to get these seats! This comes straight from the website.

Exit row seat (Available to qualified customers with WorldPerks Elite or partner Elite status and business fare purchase)

WHAT!? You have got to be kidding me! What an atrocity! What happend to the days when all coach seats were created equal and sometimes the luck of the draw gave you an exit row seat?! What happened to the days where I used to get exit row seats and then the stewardess would come around and ask my father, "Is he at least 15?" which I would begrudgingly answer, "No I'm not.." What happened to the days when I actually didn't need the exit row seat and I got it anyway! Where have those days gone?! *cue Stevie Wonder*

I wish those days, could, come back once more! Why did those days, EH-VER have to go! Do do do do do do do do do do do do do!

Ok back to our regularly scheduled rambling. There is a silver lining in all of this, but since my favorite color is purple, I'm going to call it a purple lining. I do have an isle seat *cheers!*. And I am only a couple rows back from Molly and Jessica. So all is good and fine and God is the supreme ruler of the Universe that knows that Northwest airlines if full of crap for charging extra for what should be a regularly priced seat because they know that their "regular" seats are too darned cramped and they still won't do a dag on thing about it!

Well, now all that's left is packing. I finally got my suite pants and a couple of suite jackets hemmed the way I need them to be and now I can start packing. I don't want to start packing too early however because, well then I'll have nothing to wear throughout the week. But I might start the planning phases soon with the actually packing coming Monday or Tuesday.

And remember I will have my same phone number when I get back to the states. I won't be using it while I am overseas, I'll let you all know how you can get in touch with me if you choose to do so over the phone, but I won't know specifically until I get there. Just don't delete my number out of your phones because I will have that same number when I get back to the states. If you want to leave me an awesome message or text me something so I get it when I get back that would be cool. Just don't delete my number because I AM coming back! That's all for now.

-Jeremy The Japanese Punk Rock Star

Youkoso (Welcome!)

2009-01-03T15:25:00.000-08:00

Me showing off my ninja skills at the daycare! Ok..not really...

Welcome everyone to my new blog, Memoirs of a Sensei!!! I figured I would make an early post before I leave to get you all up to speed about my pre-departure preparations. I have a hefty checklist of things I need to do before I leave, but the only one I'm extremely anxious about is my visa. I was told on the phone that I would be able to get it stamped in one business day, but I won't feel comfortable until I actually have my passport in hand with a visa stamp inside of it. I'll be going to Atlanta for that next week.

Most of you probably know what it is specifically I'm going to be doing in Japan, but for a refresher-and for those of you who don't know- I'll reiterate.

I'm going to be in Japan for at least a year.
I'm going to be teaching conversational English to students aged 0-12 years old.
I do not have to know Japanese because I will not be speaking any Japanese with the children.
The children will have a separate class where they will be learning vocabulary and grammar distincitions with a teacher who knows both Japanese and English.
If I do a good job the first six months I will be approached by a representative of the company about extending my contract for either an extra 6 months (attached onto the year contract I've already signed) or an extra year. As of right now, I'm jus taking this one contrat at a time.
The company that I am employed with is AEON Amity corporation.
I will be teaching out of Totorri, Japan which is on the Southwest coast of Japan along the Sea of Japan.
I have to wear a suite and tie everyday. No cartoon ties :-(
It is known for it's wonderful Sand Dunes.
I will be living in an apartment abou the size of a dorm room and will only be responsible for part of the payment along with the bills.
I have a washer, no dryer, hanging clothes will be my best friend (any tips Ms. Beth)?
I will not be driving, public transportation is awesome.
I will only have one hot plate and will be getting a rice cooker, mmm, rice.
There will be another Native English Speaker (NET) that is also working with me and her name is Becca. I tell you that because she is an outdoors person and I anticipate many explorations with her since I won't know anyone else.

There are also some things I need to accomplish before I leave.

Get all my kids a going away present
Buy suites, recreational shoes and dress shoes.
Get another coat
Get a years worth of toothpaste, deordorant and contact solution; apparently the kind they have over there for all three is not up to snuff and Amity told me I should do this.
Figure out what kind of luggage I'll be packing in.
Get my Visa
Buy converters
Buy another input plug for my PS3 because my TV in Japan most likely won't have HDMI.
I have two phone conferences to attend before I leave, one on the 6th and one on the 14th.
Get a Slingbox so I can watch my TV overseas through the internet.
Make sure I pack enough books and handheld video games to make it through my 14 hour flight from Detroit to Kansai International Airport..

What this blog will consist of.

Journal entries to all of my faithful readers so you can know what's going on with me.
Will try to post new entries at least two times a week, maybe more, but then again, nothing is gauranteed.
I will be posting videos and pictures.

Please feel free to comment often and tell your friends about the website too. I can only imagine the types of stories and number of pictures and videos I'll be posting. I hope you look forward to it as much as I do. Thank you all.

-Jeremy aka The Black Ninja or the Black Japanese Punk Rock Star