Recycling

This post is going to be shorter than my other blog posts, but I know that my mom (and maybe others of my readers) is extremely interested in the recycling process here, so enjoy this short post. Recycling in Japan is actually not as impressive as it seemed from the stories that I heard and the DVD that I watched from the JET Program. Really there are only 3 days that I take things out to the designated area near my house, and those are for: aluminum cans, plastic (PET) bottles, and burnables (trash). Each of these things needs its own special bag, though luckily not as expensive as Worcester trash bags. Anyway, they don't recycle paper or plastic bags in Odate which was very surprising because those are two big recyclable items in my house in Maryland. One would think that in a country where separating items is so important, paper and plastic bags, two very common items, would also be recycled. I really don't understand it. However there are strange things that we have to do (recycling wise), like cut apart milk cartons and take them to designated places supermarkets to recycle, and also wash bento trays (Styrofoam trays) and take them to their own place in the supermarkets. This is actually a huge pain in the butt and I currently have a lot of milk cartons and trays in my apartment because I would rather make huge trips than one small one every couple of days. One last thing: there are no trashcans ANYWHERE! Well, at least there are very few trashcans. This makes things very difficult when I ate a piece of gum and need to find a trashcan, or any other burnable product. Even because of this, Japan is extremely clean, but I bet it would be better if we actually had places to put our trash. The recycling process is very strange here, and maybe if I understood it better, this blog post would be better, but for now I'll just be a confused gaijin and pretend like I know what's going on.

Fun in Japan!

This is the best blog post ever. Read it all of the time!!!

Karaoke!!!

Yes, karaoke does get its own section of this post because it is that amazing!!! I have done karaoke many times since coming here, and I don't think I could ever get sick of it (however, if I do it too often I will definitely not have a voice). The English song selection is great (although no Laffy Taffy unfortunately) and when I learn how to read hirogana and katakana faster than 1 word every half an hour (slightly exaggerating) I will definitely sing Japanese songs as well! I am glad that I was placed with other people who aren't afraid to make fools of themselves so we can just dance and sing and have a good time. Karaoke is best when the songs are acted out dramatically, especially when the songs are “Unbreak my Heart” and “I Want it That Way”. Others of my favorite songs to sing include: various rap songs, anything by Queen or the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and really obnoxious songs (Hooked on a Feeling especially!!!!!!!). Apparently I choose the worst songs to sing, but I think that means that I have the best taste in music. Heck yes! Karaoke in the United States is also fun, but in Japan it is just you and your friends making fools of yourselves without judgment from strangers (but lots of judgment from your friends if you're me). Lots more karaoke will definitely be happening in the near future and I can't wait. Like I said earlier, the only bad side is that I could potentially lose my voice, but I don't need that for anything right? Definitely not for teaching! I will attempt to pace myself and not lose my voice, but come the winter months I will need lots of karaoke time to keep from going insane.

Onsens!!!

Another of my favorite parts of Japan are the onsens that are plentiful and cheap. Now what are onsens, you might be asking yourself. Well you see, an onsen is a magical place where all of the worries that plague you magically disappear, life doesn't seem so crappy anymore, and your body feels instantly 100% better than it did before. In other words, it's a hot spring! I have been to an onsen four or five times since being here and it's still ridiculously humid and hot outside, so just imagine how amazing it's going to be in the winter!! My goal is to find a mountain onsen where monkeys come and bathe (but I think that's all the way in Hokkaido). The first time that I went to an onsen I admit, I was weirded out because you have to be completely naked. However, the ones that I've been to are single gender so it's not horribly awkward. But when there are small children in an onsen who stare at the blatantly white foreigners, it gets awkward very quickly. So let me describe the onsen experience: first, you take off everything that you are wearing in a locker room of sorts and then head to the showers. You have to shower before you get in the springs in order to keep everything clean. Then you can choose a range of pools, from freezing to burning hot, and also saunas if that is your preference (way too hot for me) where you can soak your worries away. It's amazing! Then you rinse yourself off, put on your clothes, and go about your day, wishing that you could be back in the onsen. The one problem that could potentially arise with onsens is that some do not allow people with tattoos to come in because of problems with the Yakuza (the mob). Luckily I do not look like a big scary Japanese gang member so I have not had that problem yet, but we will see what happens. Definitely worth a visit. The best part is that it's not awkward at all now! Yay!

Round 1!!!

And now to take you on a magical journey to a fun place called Round 1 in Akita City (about 2 hours from where I am). This magical land of fun and adventure and magic (pardon the redundancy...the situation requires it) has everything you could possibly need in life, including karaoke, slot machines, mini golf, massage chairs, fishing, and most importantly: the flip the table game. It was here that I found out how good I am at mini golf (2^nd place!), candlepin bowling (well...let's just say I'm better than I am at regular bowling), and archery (not good at all). Everything else is pretty self-explanatory, but let me take a minute, just sit right there, and I'll tell you all about...the flip the table game. 

Or how I became the Prince of Bel Air, either one. So anyway, this game is a video game with a screen and a giant half table that sits on a stand in front of you. Basically what you do is choose a character and then thump the table, trying to break as many things as you can. Whenever you want, you can actually flip the physical table in front of you and in the game everything starts to break and you get to watch the destruction that you caused. The best part is that your character looks ecstatic as slow, dramatic music plays behind them and chaos reigns. It's the best way to relieve tension (maybe right before or after an onsen). Anyway, we spent three hours at this magical place while we were in Akita City, and we could have stayed much longer. There's an option to stay until 6am so maybe one day we will go, not get a hotel room, and just play all night and maybe sleep in the massage chairs. Can you think of a better plan? Didn't think so.

Parties!

As the most popular person you know , of course I have been invited to millions of parties since being in Japan. And by that I legitimately mean at least one party every weekend (one weekend we had 3 in a row!), thanks to our sempai JETs who are the ones actually invited and the rest of us just tag along. The Japanese and ALTs know how to party and they do it oh so well. None of these parties were ragers, most of them just involved hanging out, talking, and drinking and they were fantastic. I can't wait until I'm settled enough to have my own parties in my tiny apartment. Woo? We have gone to parties at hotels, people's apartments, a cabin overlooking the sea, and bars, and they've all been excellent.

Misc. Fun!

-Festivals! 

-Bike Ride-hahahahhahahahhahahahhahahhahahahhahahah

-Watch bad movies!!! Yes everyone, bad movie night is officially a thing (2 down, so many more to go!)

-Watch good movies? Eh...overrated

-Eat!!

-Karaoke (it's so nice I mentioned it twice)

-Sleep? Definitely haven't had time for that!

-Explore!

Basically Japan is the best. That is all.

Music in Japan

So I promised that I would explain the title of my blog in a later post, and lucky you! This is that post! One of the first days that I lived in Odate, one of my sempai (older) JETs told me that all of my students were going to call me “Kyari Pamyu Pamyu” because our names sound similar (the Japanese pronunciation of my name is Kyari). Now at the time, I had no idea who that was so I looked her up later and found a very interesting video online. 

I look just like her, right? Anyway, Kyari Pamyu Pamyu is a singer/model/whatever who has a few big songs in Japan, but one song that I know fairly well: Ponponpon. Click this link for the video (I don't own this video...just a disclaimer!) This might be the catchiest song in the world (it's stuck in my head as I type), so if you watch the video, watch out because you will start singing it over and over again. Also just watch out for the video in general...it's interesting. All I know is the chorus “ponpon we ponpon we pon we pon we ponpon”-or something like that. Anyway, the first day of school I was disappointed that no one said that to me, but the second day I might have been called Pamyu Pamyu at least 20 times. It was magnificent. I am totally fine with being called Pamyu-sensai. The other song that has been stuck in my head since the dawn of time (or less than 4 weeks ago) is called Heavy Rotation. Once again, watch this video at your own risk...it is...interesting (I don't own this video either)? For those of you whom I have now scared, the music video is a bunch of 18-25 year old girls wearing lingerie and cat outfits and feeding each other food. Yeah, that's basically it. The group itself is made up of 60ish 13-25 year old girls (I'm not too old to audition-next step, international fame!) who are extremely popular in Japan, are overly sexualized, and who produce extremely catchy music. Oh Japan. Anyway, five of the Odate JETs performed a dance to this song (that I choreographed with help from the dancey parts of the music video) at an enkai (drinking party) with our Board of Education. I thought that it was fabulous, but I'm not allowed to put it online or show it to anyone (my life has been threatened), so just imagine 5 adults (aged 23-33) wearing bunny ears and acting like fools. Finest choreography in all of my years as a professional choreographer. Also my fellow dancers (and Shane who was the lead singer) were all amazing! And of course the Board of Education loved it (who wouldn't?). So those are my two favorite J (Japanese)-Pop songs, but that's mostly because those are the songs that I have listened to over and over again. There are other groups that I need to listen to, including Bump of Chicken, Funky Monkey Babies, and Arashii. Arashii is a Japanese boy band (whenever I talk about Backstreet Boys I call them the American Arashii) that all of my female students love. I don't actually know any of their music, but soon I will learn and be a better person because of it. Another song that is big here (but is not Japanese) is Gangam Style, a K (Korean) Pop song that has also become popular in the States recently. I wish I was the man in that video. Justin Timberlake will never be good enough now. So to sum up, you all are welcome for introducing you to these wonderful songs that will never leave your head. Enjoy!

Food in Japan!

And now for my favorite part of Japanese culture (that's not true, but it is amazing!)-the food! I love Japanese food, but I foresee myself gaining a lot of weight in the future because it is all carb based and there is always so much of it. I rarely get fruit when I go to restaurants (but I have a stock pile at home), and when there are vegetables many times they are fried. However, as we start going to restaurants less and less because we start settling in, I hope that I will be able to eat healthier! This blog post will have a couple of different categories and pictures, so enjoy (and be jealous).

My Cooking:

HAHAHAHAHAH! I'm sorry, that was uncalled for, but let's just say that I haven't been cooking very much at all. I have been relying on bentos (more on that later), peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and spaghetti and sauce. Or just going out to restaurants. However, as I get more settled in I will eventually start cooking more (Gerald and I are interested in taking a class) and I can write an entire blog dedicated to my amazing time cooking in Japan, but now let's get to the interesting things.

Supermarkets:

I live very close to a supermarket (about a 5 minute walk) which is great. It means that any time (before 10) that I need a snack, I can get one! In the supermarket (Itoku), I can get almost anything I need (except gallons of milk)-including lots of beer, wine, and sake. I can even get bread, although they only have white bread here which is interesting. My favorite part of the supermarket is definitely the bento (prepared meal) section where I can get a substantial piece of salmon for about 2 dollars. Mmm salmon. They also have a lot of sushi in this section and anything that any lazy college student (or Assistant Language Teacher) could ever need. While the supermarket is awesome, there are also things that I am too scared to try, like dried squid and a weird diseased cucumber type thing that is apparently really bitter.

 The sad thing about Japanese supermarkets is that they have very expensive fruit. Grapes are 800 yen (about 9 dollars) for a tiny bag. However, it's worth it, so I will keep buying fruit until I run out of money (which will be never!!!). I am excited to learn how to cook Japanese food so I can actually use ingredients and things, but until then I will continue to eat at...

Restaurants:

As I have mentioned in many other blog posts, I have been eating out a lot since coming to Japan, and I have learned about the wonder that is authentic Japanese food. To be fair I have also eaten at McDonald’s a couple of time and I went out for Italian food once, but Japanese food is where it's at. I thought I knew ramen before, I didn't know ramen. I also thought I knew fried chicken. Well...nothing can actually compete with southern fried chicken, but Japanese fried chicken is also very good. And I discovered one of my new favorite vegetables: the daikon (radish). I can't even describe how amazing the food is (it's very good), so I think that you all should come visit me instead! It's the only possible solution. I do really miss American food some times, especially the burgers. There is a place close to me called “Dixie Burgers” (complete with Confederate flag)

 where the burgers are huge and delicious, but it's not the same. Also pizza-I miss good pizza. Anyway, back to Japanese food...the dish that I have ordered the most over the past 4 weeks is definitely shoyu (soy sauce) ramen. 

The bowls are always so good, and it is steadily delicious. It is not the most delicious thing that I have had, but it's very dependable. Other things that I have enjoyed are tonkatsu (fried pork),

 yakitori (chicken on a stick),

 and fried chicken of every shape and size. Japanese food is very delicious and satisfying, but I do wish that they would use less mayonnaise (it's everywhere). I could tell you more about the food, but why would I do that? I want you all to come visit me!!! Japanese food is amazing...visit!

Interesting Food:

Since I have been here I haven't eaten anything completely different (like live octopus or poisonous puffer fish), but I have forced myself to try things that I have never eaten before, so I'll go through them briefly. One of the things that was the most surprising to me was fish roe (fish eggs) which comes on a decent amount of sushi here. They just look like small orange bubbles and I was scared to try them at first because...well...they just don't look very good to eat. However, they just taste salty and pop in your mouth so now I love fish roe! Another interesting food that I have grown to love is octopus balls, which are balls of octopus that are fried and delicious. I have had octopus in a couple of forms, but this is my favorite because, well, anything fried is alright by me. Now to talk about the food that I'm not such a big fan of, starting with dried squid. The taste of dried squid isn't actually that bad (very fishy, but I can deal with that), the thing that freaks me out is that the dried squid looks like a squid that has been dried. You can find them hanging up in any grocery store and it's just not very appetizing.

 Another thing that I hate is the amount of mayonnaise that you find on anything. I hate American mayonnaise too, so this wasn't a surprise, but at least you can avoid mayonnaise fairly easily in America. It comes on everything, so I have learned how to say “sauce nuki de onegaishimasu” (no sauce please!) which has worked well so far. The last interesting food that I have tried but not in its most complete form is natto. Natto is fermented soy beans that most foreigners hate. I have only tried fried natto so far which wasn't bad because I could only taste the batter (and we all know how I feel about fried things). I am scared to try natto for real but I know that it will happen, after all, I have at least 11 more months in Japan. I honestly do like most Japanese food, and I'm even trying to force myself to eat onions which aren't that bad here (at least how I have had them). I do miss American food (especially milk), but I think I'm going to do just fine here in Japan.

Drink:

I never realized before coming to Japan that drinking is such a huge part of Japanese culture. People go out drinking with their Board of Education (like we did last weekend at our big enkai-drinking party) and with colleagues (and even with the mayor in my case) and it's very strange. Never in America would you go out and get drunk with your superintendent-never (well...maybe in some strange, very liberal places)! Yet here, it's the norm. There is a thing called “nomi hodai” where you can have all you can drink for 2 hours, and that's exactly what we did with our Board of Education. We drank a lot of beer and then went to do karaoke and then went to a bar. It was insanity!! Great fun...but insanity!!! No me hodai is very popular here in Japan, and I have a feeling that it will happen many more times (3 so far). I have to say, Japanese beer isn't bad and it's pretty cheap. Also the sake here is delicious (Akita has the best sake in Japan, and therefore the world). During the most recent festival that I went to in Odate, there were men by the side of the road handing out shots of sake with salt on the rim (salt + sake= delicious) which was very nice. However, my favorite Japanese drink would have to be anything with lychee in it-it's my favorite Japanese fruit and makes a delicious cocktail. Well...actually my favorite drink was the drink that Aftan got on the last night that we were in Tokyo that had a glowing blue ice cube and a sparkler in it, and it tasted delicious...but how many times am I going to have that (or have a sip of that)?

 I mean that's basically it when it comes to alcohol; it's plentiful, fairly cheap, and good.  

Festivals!!!

When I first arrived in Odate, I was shocked at how many festivals take place in and around this smallish city. August and February happen to be the busiest festival months (they are 6 months apart) and we came to Japan just as the festivals were getting good. There were many, many festivals that I was not able to go to because they either happened earlier in the summer or while we were at Tokyo Orientation which was a bummer. However, I have only been in Japan for 5 weeks and I have already gone to multiple festivals with more still to come, and if I stay for another year then I can go to the festivals that I missed this year! If possible, I am even more excited for the February festivals than the August festivals because there is a candy festival in Odate (how can you go wrong?), in south Akita there is a festival where people beat each other with massive bamboo poles) and in Oga (on the west coast of Akita) there is a Namahage festival where men dress up as the Namahage (see the friendly guy in the picture below) and terrorize children. Yay Japan!

Kazuno Festival:

This was my very first festival in Japan and it was a great preview of what was to come. For the first time I got to see the giant floats that are at every festival and I got to see the fan dancing that I so desperately want to learn. We ate festival food: yakitori (chicken on a stick) and chocolate covered bananas along with other things), walked around, and watched the performances. However, we copped out and left early (somewhere between 10 and 11) instead of sticking it out and staying all the way through the night as this festival never ended! This festival was a ton of fun and was a great introduction to Japanese festivals.

Omagari no Hanabi:

The next festival that we went to (a week or two later) was the Omagari no Hanabi or the Omagari fireworks festival. This festival might be the biggest fireworks competition in Japan, but even if it is not, it's definitely one of the biggest. The festival was about three hours away (we drove for two hours and took a train for one) but it was worth it. It took place in a small town, but for that weekend the town was filled with about 500,000 people. We sat with other ALTs, relaxed on a blanket, ate and drank, and enjoyed the fourish hour long show. It was, hands down, the longest and best fireworks show that I have ever seen (although it made me miss the fireworks in Fayetteville a lot). They started with daytime fireworks with a lot of smoke so that they were visible and then when it got dark, the real show began. It was a fireworks competition so each firework group got about 10 minutes to show their stuff. By the end of the night, I had no idea who won, but I had fun regardless. The fireworks were amazing; whoever won will get to do the fireworks in Tokyo for New Years, so you know that they had to be good. Even though it was a long trek and I was exhausted (to be honest, I'm always exhausted here), it was worth it.

Shin Meisha:

This was Odate's very own festival-the majority of the action took place about a 25-30 minute walk from my apartment which was splendid. The major downfall of this festival was that it took place on a Monday and Tuesday which meant that I was exhausted for the next two days of school. During the festival I got to: pull a float, run up a hill with said float, drink sake with old Japanese men, shout “washoi” until I went hoarse, throw water on scantily dressed men (and I had water thrown on me as well), almost develop pneumonia again because of the rain, and so much more. It was a great two nights and it was better than the other festivals because, not only was it in Odate, but I got to participate. As they kept telling us at orientation, the JET Program is not just about teaching, but it also about a culture exchange. While we (the 10ish foreigners who were there) did not come even close to fitting in with the multitudes of Japanese people at the festival, we still had fun together and I at least felt the most connected with Japan than I have since I have been here. So enough of that sappy nonsense, let me tell you about the festival itself.

On Monday, we were able to leave the office early to get changed and ready to meet the float. We met back at the office, walked over together and got some sake and had a chance to pray at a shrine along the way. Then we met up with the float, got to change into our happis (festival outfits), ate some food, and got ready to go. On the front of the float there were two long ropes that we grabbed onto and pulled (there were around 20-30ish of us) with an assist from people pushing the float itself. We then dragged the float for about an hour to the train station while being serenaded by the musicians and dancers on the float itself (which made it heavier, but also more entertaining).

 For almost that entire hour it rained, so I was busy worrying about my cell phone and complaining about how wet I was to actually notice how heavy the float itself was. Of course I became more and more tired as the night went on, but for the most part I just had fun dancing and shouting and dancing and waving to my excited students, and shouting some more and then (big surprise) more shouting! The night was very repetitive, but it was still fun (and completely exhausting). The most tiring part of the night was toward the end when we were taking the floats back to the starting point and came to a massive hill. One at a time, the people pulling the floats run up the hill (with the float obviously) which was horrible. We started off strong, but the float was so heavy that after a minute or two we slowed down significantly. It probably wasn't even a minute or two, but it felt so long. But we persevered and made it to the top and now I don't have to do that for at least a year! Then we took the float back the rest of the way and I headed back to my place for some much needed sleep.

The next day (Tuesday) started very similarly; we ate dinner, drank, and pulled the float for a bit. However, Tuesday had much more dancing and shouting and much less float pulling which I was fine with. Tuesday was full of other things, like throwing water on groups of men, some more scantily dressed than others. I can't say that I really understood what was going on, but it was a lot of fun picking up buckets full of water and throwing them, then running back to get more. It might not have rained nearly as much that day, but I still got very wet. The other important thing to note was that I was exhausted and wanted to go home after a couple of hours, but I stuck it out til 11:20ish (then went home and passed out). I am glad that Odate has festivals that I can go to, and I'm looking forward to participating more through dancing or playing taiko (big drums).

Daimonji:

And now for the last of the big festivals for a while: Daimonji. To be honest, the festival itself wasn't that big, but we played a major role in it which is why I'm adding it to this blog (and it's really cool!). We actually almost missed this entire festival because it was supposed to take place while we were somewhere else (Akita Orientation maybe?), but it was canceled because of the rain and moved to September 16^th, a day when all of us were in town! Now this festival involved lighting the giant Dai (a kanji symbol) which is on a mountain that overlooks the town of Odate on fire! Yes...we got to light a mountain on fire...how cool is that? We needed to have a long sleeved shirt, boots, some sort of flashlight, and a hale body in order to climb the mountain, so the morning of I bought everything that I didn't have (unfortunately I couldn't buy a body that was really in shape so I had to make due with the one that I have) and mentally prepared myself for the challenge. 

With my newly purchased “Taxas”(Texas) shirt on (see above), I was ready to face the giant mountain, and so we proceeded to climb. And climb. And climb. I tell you this, if I ever climb Mt. Fuji I will make sure to get in shape beforehand because I was exhausted and it was only an hour hike to the top. I was sweaty and disgusting, and it was totally worth it because the view at the top was to die for. Actually, I kind of thought that I was going to die at the top because then once we got to the top, we had to climb down the steep face of the mountain with no guiderails to break our falls. I discovered that while I'm not normally afraid of heights, I am when I'm on the face of a mountain...yay! I used the “scoot on my butt” method to make it down the mountain, so I looked ridiculous but hey, I'm alive. Finally we got to the individual stacks of wood that we were in charge of lighting (we each had one) and then just got to sit and eat and wait. We got to the mountain with 3ish hours to spare because we wanted to make it up before it got dark which was definitely a good idea seeing how treacherous it was in the day time, and actually it was really nice to watch the view, sing some songs, and just take a while to breathe. 

Before we knew it, it was 7:45, time to douse our stacks of wood with kerosene and get ready to light the dai! At 8 there was a countdown and then we lit the stacks on fire! Or we were supposed to...my lighter chose not to work, so Aftan lit mine, but then I lit my stack of wood and everything was peachy! 

And by peachy I mean ridiculously hot! We took about ten minutes to just stare at the fire and at the fireworks that were going on below us in town and it was really cool knowing that I was a part of something so big-well, relatively big in our small city. The below picture is what the dai looked like on the mountain after we lit it.

Then my stack fell over, so we decided that it was time to go before something bad happened. We made our way back down the mountain, which was much easier than going up, and then crawled back to our apartment to shower and change out of our disgusting clothes. It was totally worth it, no matter how many times I might have died (falling down the mountains, getting mauled by bears, getting stung by a poisonous snake or hornet, etc.). I mean how many times do you get to light a mountain on fire legally? Not very many that's for sure! However, the one thing that I am not happy about as an aftermath of that night are the 100+ mosquito bites that are covering my back and my knee (and the rest of me, but mostly those two places). 

None of us thought to bring bug spray (I will never make that mistake ever again), and apparently my sweaty body made a savory treat for those little (insert expletive here). Other than that, like I said, totally worth it! However, I am glad that I didn't tell mom about the excursion beforehand...don't worry mom, I'm alive!!!