Hey ya'll!!!

I clean up rather nicely. What you all think?

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..)

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!!!

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!!!

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!!!

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

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

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?