Pictures of School 2

Hi, the photography isn't the greatest, nor are the captions but, here are a few dozen photos I took yesterday in route and at the second school I work at. Suisan Highschool!

Scenes From Around Town

Nothing too exciting but, yesterday on my way home from work I took a few snaps of the town... that is until the battery died. Well, here is what I have and more will come soon.



This beautiful (cough cough) Spanish looking building is the town train station. As I've mentioned earlier, this town used to be home to the famous Spain Town amusement park. The park is in the same place but, the home is now a larger city down the road. By home I mean, people used to come here and then take the bus to the park but, now the bigger city has taken all the cliental... apparently. The building to the left is the train station and the one on the right is the towns tallest building and most vibrant hotel. Although it dosen't seem to get much use the parking lot always has a dozen or so cars in the lot. We'll see how that changes once school starts again and the amusement park going season dies down.


Not much to see here but, my school is at the top of a small hill and this is the view that greets me every day coming home from work. I am told that at the base of that large crane you can see is the future home of the Shima City Assisted Living Center (aka Zombie Halfway House). Although there is not a lot to see based on the skyline, it really is a cute little town.


This is a failed attempt of mine to take a panorama photo of my school front. I neglected to realize at the time of taking it that as I change my body, vanishing points change and so does size perspective. Hopefully those of you reading can fill in the gaps with thier heads and appreciate my little collage as a modern piece of art.


This is a standard school hall at a Japanese school. Not much to see here but, I imagine halls like this were the inspiration of many a Japanese horror movie. Can't you just imagine Sadako, the creepy girl from the Ring, standing at the end of the hall slowly walking towards you. You turn around and she is like right in your face! Boo! Yea, so can I!


This is where your friend, my rear, rests all day long. I know its anything but glamorous but, this is my desk at Shima Highschool. Its quite comfortable really. To think, so far I'm getting paid to keep that piece of tin company. It may be hard to tell but, this is the standard setup for a Japanese teachers office. The room is full of probally about twenty desks like this all lined up to each other. Every morning the teachers all meet here before class and (apparently) have a meeting with the Principal/Vice Principal who will go over the things of the day.


This is the main school field. Here they do rugby (you can see the post in the background) as well as baseball (you can see a diamond too). This school also has tenis courts, soccer field, a weight house, a gymnasium and a goat path running track which goes around this field in the picture. 3 times around is 1k so about 5 times around is a mile..? Give or take. Japanese students go to school Monday-Friday (however until not too long ago Saturday was included in there too... and may still be in other places). School is until around four and then the students all clean the school for a little while and then go to thier club activies. These activites range from sports (Basketball, baseball, martial arts, swimming, badminton, etc) to language clubs (like an English or Korean club) to misc. (Flower arranging, tea ceremony, chorus, band, etc.) Anyways, I'd guess a large majority of these students are involved in these clubs. In the summer thier club scheduel is roughly nine in the morning until noon for some clubs and then noon to three for the others. When school starts they'll do thier clubs from around four-thirty to around seven..?　　I am told, with Saturday as thier only day off from the club. Yikes!


This is a picture of my sweet ride. I call it "Lucy", after my favorite mutt. Just kidding, I don't call it anything... anything but sweet. Up until yesterday (we bought Ayumi a bike) she would ride sidesaddle sitting on the rack on the back. It was fun (and a little romantic I suppose). This is your standard issue Japanese bike. One gear, basket and a tire powered light on the front. Sweet indeed, sweet indeed.


This is where I park my sweet ride every night when I go to bed. The ratio of bikes to tennants in this apartment is probally about three to one, three bikes to one person. There are bikes in there that are probally older than the complex itself. Security you ask? Five dollar lock at the home center... that and an old busted camera that I am sure used to work for about a week until somebody pointed it straight up and nobody bothered to fix.

Now the next picture is of our front door. I know you may be asking; "Now AJ, why don't you show us a picture of the front of your apartment". The answer is simple. I don't want people just showing up on our front porch with a copy of the picture in thier hands saying they knocked on every door at this complex know that we were one of them. Well, without further a due, here is our front door.


Beautiful isn't it. Yesterday coming home from work I saw a preying mantis standing on the ledge a few feet away. I wanted to flick it with my shoe and watch if fall the four stories to its death but, a)didn't want to get nearer to it than I had to and b)knowing the little devils can fly figured it would just fall a few seconds then fly up here and bite my head off.


Picture looking off from the front of the balcony.


And a picture from the back. You can see the amusement park in the picture and this is roughly the same spot I took the pictures of the fireworks with the other night. I don't have any pictures of inside the apartment but figure maybe Ayumi would like to post those on her website... She always does a much better job at presenting things than I. Either on my site or hers, one day you'll see the inside of this place once we have it looking presentable.

I am going to go to my other Highschool tomorrow so if I remember I'll take the camera and snap a few shots so I have pictures to go along with all my boastings.

I think I'm giving too much time to this blog.

Night.

Babies

Well... I had a dream the other night; a really weird dream. It was about having babies. Now I'm in no rush to have babies nor do I think this dream was some type of sign or omen that we should start but, a strange dream none-the-less and with nothing better to do at work right now and my fingers itching to do something I'll write down what I remember.

Ayumi was pregnant with twins; a boy and a girl. I don't remember too many details but, am quite confident the entire dream took place in a hospital. I was in the waiting room and the nurse/doctor brought in this baby boy who had the most beautiful face ever. I remember looking at it and thinking it looks just like me and Ayumi and looking at the face and picking out which part belonged to who. (I'm sure I sound quite narcaccist right now). The baby's face glowed with a bright light and now that I think of it looked already a few months old. It was also wearing a white beanie cap. It's weird because although I was sleeping I in my dream felt such joy. Next thing I remember was them taking the baby away and then the nurse telling me that the baby girl had died at birth and later being told that the baby boy had died only a few minutes after I had seen him.

The entire dream I can't recall ever seeing Ayumi even once but, when I found out that both babies had died I felt really sad but, more sad for Ayumi than for the fact that we had just lost both of our babies.

Weird huh.

Maybe it's a sign to not have babies..?

I'm open to any interpretations.

Back on Scheduel

Well, after being in this city for nearly four-weeks now, yesterday we finally got the internet in the house. It’s not that we didn’t want it or anything but, in Japan waiting for things to happen after ordering services isn’t too uncommon… especially when you live in a laid-back country area. Last week was a national holiday and as a result was told by the cable company that we would need to wait until that was over until they could come. Beggars can’t be choosers (couldn’t tell you where I heard that one) and when it really comes down to it, we don’t really need the internet. To be honest, I quite prefer being disconnected from the rest of the world.

Anyways, things here are going great. This place may be small but, amazingly enough every time I leave the house I always come back feeling more appreciation for where I live. I need to be at work every morning by eight thirty and leaving the apartment at quarter after and walking still leaves me five minutes with by the time I get there. My commute is short but hot. I think typically the humidity here is like between 80% to 90% and only cools down slightly once night hits. Right now, its 7:30 PM, the sun has set and the current temperature is 84 with 79% humidity (weather.com tells me it Feels Like 94 out there). Anyways, I think I mentioned it before but, from the time I leave my house to the time I get to school I’m usually already sweaty and stinky. I’m fortunate enough to be able to show up to work in shorts, t-shirt and sandals but, on the few occasions I’ve worn a dress shirt/suit it has been a (very stinky) nightmare.

School still doesn’t start for a little under two weeks but already there is pretty constant flow of students all with various things to do. Every day from about nine to about noon clubs are there working either out on the field or in the (non- air-conditioned) building. I’ve already been indicted into a few of the clubs… I’m the only boy in a five member woman’s softball team; I’ve got quite a fan following with the woman’s volleyball team and today attended a few hours of the men’s rugby team (my prerequisite to use the school weight room). I’ve got to learn the rules tonight because I think tomorrow they’re going to make me play. Anyway, a result, not only does it seems like I am losing weight but, I think I’m starting to get some color in my skin. I think the faculty (and maybe even some of the students) are excited to have somebody there who can speak a little Japanese and as a result have been very good to me. I feel very welcome and actually enjoy heading off to work every day. Pretty much we’ve been told to get to know the teachers and I can’t think of a better way that just being there, chilling with them and having a good time.

Now this is only one of two schools I will be teaching at. This one I am at three days a week (Monday, Wednesday and Thursday). On Friday, I head to another school about thirty minutes south on the peninsula named Suisan. This school is a specialty school which teaches students maritime related skills. Here the student body is divided into three different area of expertise which spread through their sophomore, junior and senior years. One of these areas teaches the students how to sail and navigate the seas. The school has a few small sail boats and one thirty yard yaut, a bunch of canoes which they use to take these students out and learn the ropes. The next area teaches the students engineering specifically how to fix broken ships and the things on/in them. The third area is aquamarine cuisine preparation. I assume they go out and catch all their own foods. Walking around the grounds outside were large vats full of all sorts of different sea animals and tools used to measure the scientific things you can measure.

Now what aquatic school would be complete without swimming, surfing and scuba? This school has all three. They’ve got this indoor pool that is twelve meters deep and more scuba equipment than you can shake a stick at. Their pool area (its own separate building) has its walls lined with surf boards and wetsuits, scuba tanks, fins, masks, etc. The best part is the swimming teacher told me that the school has its own air compressor so I am free to use whatever/whenever I want. No cost for air or anything. As soon as school starts I am sure I can meet some people who could take me out and teach me the basics… of surfing. For scuba he apparently is a certified instructor who can refresh me and teach Ayumi if she wants to do it. I think I’m going to like it here. This school has a few unusual clubs you won’t find at too many other schools, like surfing, swimming, scuba diving, boxing and, sailing. They even had a few kayaks. I’ll be sure to take my camera with me next time I go.

Our apartment is a little dirty now because we’re still moving in but, once it is clean I’ll take a few snaps and throw them on the website. I’ll also go out tomorrow and try and take some pictures of the town so you can see what it is I’m talking about. We’ve got about two or three miles away on an opposite beach an amusement park which every night of summer vacation displays five minute fireworks show. We have a great unobstructed view from our balcony. I’ve included a few pictures. Enjoy!

The List Continues

So here I am, back at school... back at work. I had a wonderful weekend during which we were able to get some furniture to fill our house. We climbed a mountain, which was the tallest in the area, visited an old battlefield and visited a historic village created with old relocated Meiji era buildings; very cool. In Japan there was a famous battle called the Battle of Sekigahara it was here that one of the most influential battles in all of Japan was fought. I think this happened around the year 1600 but, pretty much up until that point Japan was broken into a bunch of little different feuding states. This Sekigahara battle was where this one dude Tokugawa Ieyasu fought these other clan leaders ending a civil war and pretty much unifying Japan under one Shogun. I don't have any pictures, which we took at the time due to not having the camera with me but I will tell you I enjoyed myself a nice tuna rice ball as I sat alone overlooking this valley. I've included some cool Japanese pictures depicting this battle.

We also took a trip to visit a place called the Meiji Mura (the Meiji Village). Japanese history around the 1860's: Japan had been in a self-inflicted national isolation, which restricted foreigners from entering the country and Japanese from leaving. This actually started as a result of the above-mentioned unification of Japan. Well, for 250 years Japan sat isolated while the rest of the world experienced the renaissance, and other scientific/artistic breakthroughs. In 1862-ish an American Navy Commodore Matthew Perry sailed his boats into the Tokyo Bay and pretty much told Japan they would destroy the city with cannonballs if they didn't open up for trade with America (not a lot has changed in the past 150 years since then). As a result, Japan opened up and figured they had a lot of catching up to do. The Meiji period was the time period from this event to about the time of WW2. So, what happened during this time is Japan goes through a metamorphosis. Adopting the western style way of life. Their architecture changes, literature and fashion changes. Science and medicine changes too... anyways, this town is made up of all these old buildings that were build during this time period and brought and rebuild to make this historic city... like the Pioneer Village at Lagoon. They've got the Grand Imperial Hotel from Tokyo designed by F.L. Wright, old time Japanese theatres, etc.

My computer at work is broken, again and so I am writing this letter on a borrowed computer. See you all later.

An Inconvenient Truth

Ok, ok... since my last blog my mailbox and phone lines have been crowded with comments from a few of my readers regarding the comment I attributed to my mom the other day. For those who don't remember, I quoted my mom to often saying something along the lines of "Beggars can't be choosers, and you son are a loser". I must apologize and say the rude quote I attributed to my mother was a pernicious lie. I'll take this opportunity to let you all know that I am an alcoholic and have decided to enroll myself into a substance abuse clinic with ongoing psychological treatment for the next twenty four months. I apologize to my friends, my family, my fans and most importantly... my mother for the pain this pretentious lie may have caused. I pray for your ongoing support.

Ok, that was a joke. I'm no alcoholic nor do I need ongoing psychological evaluations however, the bit about my mother was a lie. Is it just me or in Hollywood does it seem that every time a celebrity is caught doing something bad he attributes it to being an alcoholic and that he plans on enrolling himself into some sort of program. Ha ha ha... Probally not as funny as I think it is anyways, sorry mum.

So, we are in Gifu tonight to spend the weekend with her parents. This weekend is a Japanese holiday called obon where it is believed that Japanese spirits return to their families for one reason or another; then something along the lines of the Japanese praying to and then dancing with their ancestors. I don't know but, I remember having fun doing the dance years ago. Looking forward to that... and buying furniture which I regret to say, is probably the main purpose of the visit. There is just something nice about having a chair you can sit in in one's home. We've been prone to sit on the floor for the past week. Anyways, first time in four years I've seen the folks-in-law so, this is fun.

I've got a few pictures of the shrine we went to the other day. It's getting late and so I think I am going to turn in. Night all.

Blogging in the Name of Love

Well, here I am again. I can't believe has been a week since I first got here... and since I last wrote. I still don't have the internet at the apartment so getting online must be done at school and because of that I don't have as much time as I'd like to check/write e-mail and update my blog. However, as time permits will continue to do so.

Its been so long since I last wrote in this blog that I can't remember so far what I've written. My coworker from New Zealand (Shelley) and I both got here at the beginning of the school's summer break. As a result, every day we come to an empty school and sit in the teachers’ lounge (which thankfully is one of the few air-conditioned rooms). We each have our own desks and have been given computers. My computer is pretty old and as a result keeps having problems. So far it has been reformatted twice in the one weeks since I've been here. It has the internet and all the essential things I need to make my lessons so, I'm happy. Besides, momma always said "Beggars can't be choosers". But, then she would go on to say "and you son are a loser." The funny thing was I never heard the second part from anyone but her. I think I know now where I get my low self esteem. Yesterday I tried to plug my thumb drive into one of the old, dusty ports on the back and the computer reset and rebooted itself in safe mode. I figure because this isn't my computer I probably shouldn't try to fix it up; especially when all the directions are in technical Japanese.

Ayumi and I are doing our best to make our apartment cute and comfortable. Because we moved into a new apartment, we needed to get new appliances. Originally the school provided us an apartment which we decided to not move into because a) we’ve got a cat and b) sanitary reasons. The place is full of furniture which we are free to take but, when we went and looked at it everything was hammered, stinky, moldy and old. I guess it would be like saying, how about furnishing your new house with old missionary hand-me-downs. I've been back a time or two to see the place they provided and am so glad we are not there. It is on a river and I can only imagine how bad the bugs must be there. Shelley was almost attacked by a bat in her home the other night.

This is a small place but, by train there are a handful of places nearby that we can go to get a little taste of civilization. I've yet to go to the beach but, am only about thirty minutes from one of the most popular in the country for surfing. We went to a city called Ise the other day where we went and visited one of the most famous and oldest Shinto shrines in the country/world. It is said that at this place, the Sun God is suppose to come and occasionally reside. I think. I know it sounds geeky but, this culture fascinates me. It is so fun to be here and be able to actually have a (non-religion) conversation with people.

I've got to go but, will write more soon.

Welcome to... Mayberry

Ladies and Gentlemen, I have arrived. It was a long and tedious trip but, I have finally reached the place that I can call home. At least for the next little while. Things here are awesome! Ayumi found us a great little apartment, Hershey is alive and kicking and our air conditioner works. Comparing our apartment with the rest of the city, it looks like we are in one of the best (and newest) structures in the whole place. So far I have yet to see the sea. I know we are on the coast but, not like I imagined it. From what I understand, Shima today was five years ago, a series of little towns. For one reason or another they decided to take all these little individual settlements, throw them into one and call the place Shima. I am living in the city called Isobe. I guess you could consider it like Shima is to Salt Lake what Isobe is to Sandy, but on a much, much smaller scale. This town is honestly even smaller than I imagined it.

From what I have been told (and seen) years ago this place used to be quite the hip spot. This place was famous for its beaches and surfing (which still exist). An amusement park was built here and people would come from miles around to spend the weekend and this was a thriving resort town. For one reason or another people stopped coming. The amusement park is still here (and we can see the nightly display of fireworks) and attracts a bit of a crowd but, not to the extent that it used to. The town is now full of closed hotels. Its a small place, and a bit off the beaten path but, I like it none-the-less. The Mayberry analogy comes from this town being so old and small... no comical police regeim though.

From Tokyo, we took a train to Nagoya with is the biggest city around here (about two hours by train) and from there a train to Tsu, the capitol of Mie. In Tsu, we were greeted by our supervisors who then drove us the rest of the way. One thing I can say about this place is that it is super green. On the drive, I noticed the towns getting smaller and smaller and the forests bigger and bigger. For those who have seen the Japanese cartoon "My Neighbor Totoro", the forest roads look a lot like the ones from that show. We arrived here (with my co-worker, a New Zealander named Shelley) and were taken right away to go meet the Principal and Vice Principal of one of the High Schools that I am going to be working at. From there to my apartment to see Ayumi. One thing I can state with confidence, no matter where I am or what I`ve been through, it is always nice to be with her. Well, I got home, showered and we went out. That night I thought I was going to die by drowning on my own sweat. The apartment was so hot, I literally was dripping buckets of sweat off my forehead. After a while Ayumi went and turned on the air conditioner and now the apartment is really quite comfortable.

The apartment is nice and new. We are on the fourth floor of six and about a five minute walk from the train station and about fifteen from the school. I`ve yet to see my second school (the one I need to take a ferry to) but, have an appointment to see the teachers on the tenth. Next to us is the community center where the other night we spied upon a hip-hop dance class being conducted there. The town has two small supermarkets, a bookstore, post office, bank and train station. Last night, we took a train with Shelley to the next town over to buy some supplies we were lacking, and to visit the dollar shop... the coolest shop in Japan. There in the other city we ran into some other Jets from the nearby towns and had a bit of a chat for a while. There were about seven of us and all from different countries standing in the heat all excited to see each other. We had a New Zealander, Australlian, America, Scottsish, Irish and English person in that conversation. I was cool to talk and hear all the different accents.

So far, no phone or internet in the apartment. With that being the case, I suggest to those who read this blog not to look for an update until at least Monday. I`m doing well, things are great. Honestly, I couldn`t be better. The people I work with are all amazing and, all around the same age as us. Yesterday, they took Shelley and I out to lunch and we just kind of shot the breeze while we ate. Half of them live in town and the other half commute every day. We were invited to go and have a barbeque with some of them tomorrw afternoon so, definatley looking forward to that.

Once I get the internet at home I`ll be able to take more time and make this blog a little more interesting but, in the meantime because I am at school kind of hesitant to do too much. More later to come!