Funny Stuff

I have two funny stories that I would like to share from teaching recently. They will kind of give you a feel for what I get to do every day. We were teaching things like, where to, what to which to, when to, and how to. So I thought that it would be fun to do it about travel so I asked them about Morioka. Questions like, do you know how to get to Morioka or tell me where to eat in Morioka. Then I split the kids into groups and had them pick a place in the world to make question about it to ask me. So, I'm walking around the class and one kid walks up to me and goes, "Kentucky." "Does America have a Kentucky state?" When I say yes it does he runs to the map on the wall points at South America and asks me to show him where Kentucky is. When I correct him he then sees where the map says Phoenix and goes, "the state of Phoenix is where we should ask about."

In my next class they where trying to form sentences. A girl was filling out the paper and instead of writing My brother has a bike she wrote has my brother a dike. I tried to correct her and so she changed it to My brother has a dike.

My Commute

These are some pictures of the commute trough the mountains to Chokai where I teach every other week. Its a great ride that I even do some times on the weekends for fun. Also, since the area it goes through is so rural there are a couple of great fruit and vegetable stands. They leave bags of whatever has come into harvest and everything is 100 yen or about 1 dollar. Its a great way to get some cheap healthy food. Last time I went to one I got 4 big pears, a bag of shitake mushrooms, and a bag of home grown tomatos all for way cheaper then the grocery store. I will not be posting pictures of the ride to Kozuya as its on the intersate and there for not pretty or interesting.

Hot Springs, Onsen

Today Stephanie, Samantha, and I went up a couple stops on the train line to a place with a bunch of hot springs. We went to one that was really cheep and pretty nice. I cant speak to the woman's portion but the man's was good it had seen better days but good. They had a hot bath that was really big, round and had a fountain. There was a small luck warm bath and a cold one. It was really nice and relaxing. It was only 5 dollars to take a bath and since the train was only 3.60 its something I think we will do again.

Mr. Donuts

Today Samantha and I went to Ninohe the town above us to get donuts. We walk for about 2 and a half hours to get them. They were the best donuts in the world.

Kindergarten Sports Day

Kindergarten sports day started off with a mini festival. The kids played taiko drums and some pulled a small float which you can see. The whole day was really fun. We set with the dignitaries who were and watched the kids do all kind of adorable events.

They separated the kids in to red and white teams and competed with a bunch of crazy races and relies. They even got the parents and grand parents into the act. They had them help with some of the races. One event they had the dignitaries and us do an interesting race. You take a string from a box and tie it to something then the next person ties their string to yours and the team with the longest string at the end wins. It was fun to see the uptight looking town officials lesson up and do the race with the rest of us.
In the race above the kids had to run put on costumes and then race to the end. All the girls were Sailor Moon and all the boys were Ultraman. The race below was with the parents and they ran through the course wearing hats connected to the hats the kids wore.
The final game is one in which the kids through bean bags into the net. The team with the most wins. However, the white team played through the bean bags as high as they could and lost the round. The final winners of sports day where the kids on the white team but everyone got a medal.

Misadventures of a Reluctant Housewife (part one)

Okay, let me start off by saying that I am a reluctant housewife. I mean this as no disrespect to non-reluctant housewives out there. Housewifing is a full-time job. It's just not a job I have any talent for. So I salute you, those of you who can excel at this role.

I'm not sure if it's the fact that I've never done without a job or school before. I'm not sure if it's the fact that I'm completely sure housewife experience will not impress the universities I apply to for masters school. I'm not sure if it's the fact that the first time I ever put my atrophied domestic skills to use, I choose to do it in Japan. I'm not sure what it is, but I'm finding this job to be a lot more difficult than I foresaw.


Now I know some of you are nodding sagely as they read, just as I know that some of you are thinking "Pftt. How bout' some cheese with that whine?" I'd like to dedicate this blog post to all of the latter people.

Ahem. You may be all smug and cocky now, but you wouldn't last ten minutes as a Japanese housewife! I know your type. You'd shatter under the pressure like a balsa wood airplane in the hands of an energetic grade schooler.

Oh you want an example?

Fine. Let's start with something easy. Grocery store run. We all gotta eat. As a Japanese housewife you absolutely must be able to buy groceries.

First, I get on my maa maa cheri other wise known as a one speed, upright bicycle with a basket. You didn't realize you'd need a basket? See? This is why you need me, you're green.
Anyway I get on my bike and ride to the store. When I ride I ride on the left side of the street. I know your Western brain wants to turn those handle bars over to the right side of the street, but that way leads to swift and messy downfall. The left side is where its at.

On my commute to the store I pass this thing :


What is that smiling thing? I have no clue. I wonder every time I pass it.

Eventually I do get to the store and it looks like this:
That's right Jois. The store's name is Jois. Care to try pronouncing that? Yeah I thought not.I start off with something easy: sugar. I want to make sweet tea and that means I need sugar.

Sugar comes in kilos here, and is sold in bricks. Let me tell you from experience, buying bricks of white powder that come by the kilo makes you feel like a little bit like a drug dealer. Oh and before I forget, on the same isle are kilo sized bricks of salt. They are NEARLY IDENTICAL if you can't read Japanese.
After sugar, the temptation to continue shopping habits that were established in America comes on strong. This temptation is soon squelched by the fact that western food is outrageously expensive here. I submit three food items that are relatively cheap in America: pasta sauce, Budweiser beer and spam.
Pasta is the refuge of every broke college student. It's cheap, filling and somewhat nutritious. Above yous see the price of 348 yen for a tiny jar. ( Yen to Dollar 101: move that decimal two spaces over and you have a rough approximation of your price in dollars. 348 yen= $3.48) Also, take into consideration that every meal has to feed people who walk or bike everywhere and you suddenly realize that it's going to take at least three of these little jars to do the trick.
Your eyes do not deceive you. It is about $2.05 for a single Budweiser beer when it is on sale. Guinness is a heart-breaking three dollars a pop.

Look at that! A tin of spam for $5.48. You can buy real meat for that kind of money. (Yes that is spam sushi. I don't know either.)

Okay, so it's too expensive to shop like an American. Time to start shopping like a Japanese housewife. I head to the fish isle, and I am completely overwhelmed. Guys, you have no idea how many different kinds of fish there are. You also don't know how lucky you have it, when most of your fish comes in precious little pre-cut fillets. Fish that stare back at you are part of life here. Occasionally swallowing a bone (because there are roughly eleven billiondy in every fish and they are impossible to see) is also a part of life.
Here's a few little snap shots of the fish sections:
Consequentially, if anyone knows what these hermit-crab looking things are, do let me know.


This is squid.
And this is octopus. Now here's a question for the ages. Red tags mean that items are on sale. Red tags usually go on items that are nearing their expiration dates. Should I risk buying red-tag octopus or squid?


Are you starting to grasp it? How difficult it can be to be a Japanese housewife? Very well. A small break for now. More later.
(To be continued in part two)

Got the Internet and Here are Fetival Pictures

The top picture is Samantha in front of the house with our festival decorations. The ropes and paper were hung all over town. The next pictures are of the festival floats that the different parts of town build. The next to last one is the one from our area. We helped pull it one day and that was a lot of fun. The last picture is us with our neighbor Stephanie and we are all in the cloths from the festival dance.

What else would you do?

Lets say hypothetically that you bike yourself a mile and half to the library to check you email. Lets also say that you had very few emails and were left to the rest of your alloted internet hour. So of course you start reading your webcomics right? Of course. Now while you started reading, a group of Japanese middleschoolers surround you, giggling and whispering incessantly. Hypothectically you decide to visit only the very safest sites. You don`t usually go to smutty sites anyway but the internet is an unpredicitible place. So you go to a stickfigure-based webcomic that has NEVER had an inappropriate image in the long time you`ve been reading it. You would think you were safe right? Well instead your screen lights up with drawings of a breast and vagina. ( To be fair both looked like they were copied out of a biology textbook and there was probably an excellent explanation and a funny punchline.) You close the window as fast as possible but the middleschoolers are giggling. You can`t tell if this is just one more volly of the never ending giggle-fest ( Seriously what is that funny?) or if they actually saw your face when you realized what was on your screen.

What do you do in that situation?

Answer: Blog about it.

Ichinohe Festival Pictures Not

Well I tried and tried to put up festival pictures but they didn't take so. Here is a boring wordy post instead. This weekend We went and got our cell phones and my bike. I would post pictures but for some reason the Internet here at work wont let me. However, this week we should get the Internet at home for real. Then expect the pictures and some more posts.