pretty pretty pictures

This isn't from any trip, but it is one of the stained glass designs in the entranceway to my school. I wonder what ALT let that English slip by... or maybe they just thought it was cute (it is).

This is the school courtyard, behind that stained glass window above.
This is Minami Junior High School in all its glory. There's a rice paddy in front of it in case you were wondering if it's really in Japan or not.
Nagasaki chinatown (I think maybe more like an ode to the chinatown that used to be in Nagasaki, but pretty nonetheless).
Amber's friend humbly paying her respects to the gods at this temple in Nagasaki.
As you can see I've taken advantage of Japanese cybernetic medical technology and had my left arm replaced with a fearsome blade. It's also magical.
This picture more or less captures what we did in Nagasaki for 2 days.
I liked this Samurai statue. He's from the 19th century, so you may notice that he is wearing western-style boots under his traditional attire.
A picture can't quite capture this moment. This was a group of special needs individuals performing a fishermans dance outside of Nagasaki station. You'll notice a man with no leg, someone wearing a helmet in the corner, and perhaps some dazed looks. But they looked like they were having an amazing happy time for the most part, and the crowd merrily cheered them on and lots of old ladies said "kawaii!" (cute!) lots of times. When we first saw it Amber pointed and asked if they were "special," to which her Japanese friend responded by scolding her and saying "you can't say that!" At first I thought maybe it was a bit much to have these special needs individuals paraded like this, but they were having so much fun, and had so much support from everyone around them that by the end I thought it was great. Not a common scene along American urban streets...
Amber riding a panda-car-machine at "Space-World" near Kokura. It's an amusement park that would be more appropriately named "Kokura land" according to some of her friends. It's seen better days (cracked ground, broken machines, rust) according to Amber, which dashed some of my preconceptions about Japanese cleanliness and cautiousness. Amber noted that while they do build frequently, quickly, and relatively efficiently, they don't necessarily maintain existing projects very well. School cleaning time is maybe an example, which at least at my school is about 20 minutes of communal pushing dirt around time. But this is the only real cleaning time the school receives and as a result looks pretty dirty.
Space World again. Kind of creepy and not really "space" related at all. It was still a fun day though.
Amber's friend Yuki has a baby. Most babies and little kids anywhere are pretty cute, but there's something really really cute about Japanese kids. The winnie the pooh (pooh-san) scooter helps.

gomenne

So I'm slacking even more with the posts since my last one over two weeks ago. Gomen ne (sorry)! Sometimes it's hard to know what of my life is worth relaying onto the internet and what isn't. But I'll do my best. I'll try to roughly work from when I last posted.
So the next weekend after I last rambled was slow but mostly relaxing as usual. On Saturday I test drove some cars from a guy who rents to many foreigners in this prefecture. One car was a glorified scooter engine placed inside a do-it-yourself instruction booklet style car frame and I believe had well over 500,000km on it. The other was a little Nissan March (same kind of car that my predecessor rented from this same man, but different actual vehicle) which while very tiny did feel more like an actual car to me. I really want a car to drive around here, but I still haven't decided exactly what to do about that. I know of a car for sale, but its not really worth buying unless I know I'll be sticking around for another year. But I also wonder if this rental guy is such a good deal. I'll keep thinking about it, but if no revelations appear to me in the near future, i'll probably go back to this guy.
Anyway after that I went to a wine festival about 45 minutes East of me in Gunma prefecture. It was nice enough, but me and Amber foolishly did little research on the actual even and arrived about 30 minutes before they closed the gates and between 3 and 6 hours after everyone else had arrived. We still enjoyed a bit of wine on a steep hill though. On the way out I managed to smash both my and Amber's commemorative wine glasses with the help of a drunken Japanese guy and my own clumsiness. The first time was when Ryosuke knocked my hand holding the glass, and it smashed everywhere with a bit of wine still in it. At least I could blame that one on someone else. But later Amber asked me to hold hers for just a minute as she put stuff in her bag, and in a few seconds I managed to drop it and smash that everywhere too. I don't even have the excuse of drunkenness, just naturally poor coordination I guess.
Anyway, far more exciting than that was this past weekend (which, with the help of a public holiday and a day of paid leave, was 4 days long) when I went to Kyushu (southern island of the 4 main ones in Japan). This was actually Amber's trip, as she lived there on and off for years and was there to visit friends and host families. I happily tagged along though and got to spend time and see the cities of Fukuoka/Hakata, Kokura, Kurosaki, and Nagasaki. Kurosaki was not much to look at, but the other cities all were definitely more bustling and interesting than the cities of Takasaki and Maebashi where I currently live. A few other teachers confirmed this observation when I talked to them about it today at school.
Probably more interesting in the long run were the host families and friends of hers that I saw, as opposed to the cities themselves. Though it was a bit incredible to think that Nagasaki was basically wiped from the Earth only 61 years ago and now exists as a relatively thriving city of half a million. But the same is basically true of most or all of Japan, whether through nuclear explosions or not.
Anyway, the first host family of Amber's was what she described as really "bogan" (redneck being the closest American equiv word) despite being quite wealthy. This was pretty accurate. They lived in a beautiful traditional Japanese mansion with an exquisite garden outside, but inside the house was a massive collection of tasteless piles of Disney crap and arbitrarily placed plasma screen TV's. They (and we) ate at 7-11 and the members were either overweight, missing teeth, or both, and everyone smoked. I even got to wake up to a physical altercation between one of the daughters and her husband who didn't come home the night before because he was out drinkin with his buddies.
That said, they were incredibly nice people, and actually had a very happy and together seeming family (sort of...). In the brief moments that I was in the same room as them and Amber wasn't they instantly went to teasing and making fun of her (ironically for being dirty and not cooking) which I happily joined in with what little tiny shreds of Japanese I could muster.
The other host family was also quite well off, though their house was much more tastefully put together, and fit more easily into a normal image of a upper middle class Japanese family (at least I think). The only real memorable part of that stay was when I went to take a shower, and the host mom asked Amber to show me how to use their bathroom. After walking me through the complicated process of finding the obviously located towels and pointing to where the shower room is located I went in, not realizing that the step of turning on the hot water was necessary, though not included in the instructions. After a few minutes of running cold water like an idiot the mother shouted something in Japanese at me, and then at amber, and then amber told me that the hot water wasn't on. She found this all hilarious, but I still say I had the last laugh because the mother got a bit short with her and forced her to apologize to me a few times as warm tea was made for me to warm up. Plus most people reading this could probably vouch that I don't really mind smelling bad, I just try not to for the sake of other people.
Other highlights include making fun of Australia for about two straight hours with a Japanese friend of Amber's and going to a silly bar in Fukuoka where we watched the bartender do some crazy flippy stuff with the drinks and then watched an impromptu and impressive magic card trick show at about 2am.
I'm back at school, and going through the motions of the day while furiously planning/trying to plan my winter break, when four girls of varying relation to me will arrive from America and I have to pretend to have at least some slight idea of how to get around this country.
The only thing of note that happened at school was yet another evaluation of some kind, when again I donned my suit and taught class while a guy stood in the back and took notes. I guess it went ok, though the main teacher told another coworker that it actually did not go well. I could honestly care less as I am so distant from the bureaucracy of the school system, and my teacher seems keenly aware that she's the one under pressure with these things, and not me. On the plus side, I used the incredible amount of free time I had to make some rather detailed and delicate picture cards, which all the other teachers seemed blown away by, and I was told they were a hit with the note-taking bureaucrats as well. It's good to know that like humans everywhere, the Japanese too can be distracted by pointless pretty things. I'll do my best to keep that up. Perhaps I've found my true purpose at Minami Junior High School.
I'll put up pictures ASAP. Promise.

kusatsu fawkes

oops, letting myself slip a little with the updating. I feel like I'm doing pretty good for Aaron though, someone who doesn't usually love broadcasting personal information on a very public forum. But my Dad usually takes that into his own hands regardless :)
My weeks are going pretty well, and I'm slowly getting the hang of what being an ALT (Assistant Language Teacher) at my school means. Sometimes this means being totally out of the loop of even the most basic functionings of the school, having trouble explaining simple concepts to kids in my class (or anyone for that matter), and being told "you're cool!" about 1000 times everyday by 13 - 14 year old japanese boys. The last part is maybe a bit annoying after the millionth time, but I figure what other job will let me hear that everyday.
I had my first batch of what i would call solidly unsuccessful classes this week, but maybe I had it coming after last week's super awesome Halloween classes. It started when me and another assistant teacher went to class, and about 5 seconds before we began she let me know the real teacher can't come today so it'll just be us. And then she asked if I knew the plan. I had never been told or asked about today's plan, so I didn't. She then told me, same as yesterday, and with that, class began. I guess it wasn't really that hard running through the same motions as yesterday again, but I was fumbling and the kids were really bored.
Then came time for the class I teach by myself, which actually usually goes pretty well. It went pretty well for the first half this time, but then i started to handout and explain the game that was given to me by the teacher instructing the same class down the hall (its advanced English, split into two sections, one of which I teach). I usually play simple games and the kids catch on fairly quickly, but they seemed totally stumped on this one. Apparently they never learned any of the concepts or vocab involved with this game (where is... under/over/near/by/between/etc). So I had to stop the game and try to explain new vocab and grammar to them. Even though i can say all that stuff in Japanese, I can't really EXPLAIN it and the kids were sort of riled up from starting and stopping a game and maybe a bit because i was their only teacher at the time. So again more of me fumbling and students just doing their own thing. Sigh... But anyway this was all monday and tuesday. Wed through Fri went fine.
BUT before this week, I had a really nice weekend. First was a trip to Kusatsu with six other foreigners (in all, 3 American, 2 Australian, 1 English, 1 Italian), an onsen (hot spring) town further North in the mountains of my home prefecture (Gunma). We stayed at a ryokan (Japanese inn) with cute futons and tatami mats and homemade dinner and breakfast. Very Japanesey. Of course it wasn't the ryokans you see in travel magazines and brochures (this one had more tape-lined pipes, cheezy posters, and average looking food than those ones). But we're on assistant teacher budgets, not international business ones. The town and surrounding hot springs and parks were beautiful. They also felt amazing, and I am starting to love the Japanese onsen, even if the mens section of one of the ones we went to was entirely visible to the many walkers around a main touristy path.
The next day, me and a few of the same (and other) people went to a friends house out in the middle of nowhere (it accordingly took more than twice as long to get there as it should have after getting lost) to celebrate Guy Fawkes day. I was vaguely aware that this holiday existed beforehand, but only vaguely. The English remember the day that a man tried to blow up their king the same way countries have been remembering things for hundreds or thousands of years (in asia's case): by launching colorful explosive chemicals into the sky.
I don't have pictures of the party, but can mooch some from other people. Here are a few from Kusatsu though:

Us wandering around town

Dipping toes in weird green pond
Us in yukkatas wandering town at night. Notice the crazy (and bad smelling) onsen in the center of town. It was brightly lit and pretty impressive. The whole night made me feel like the samurai I've always wanted to be (about 1 foot shorter than the Europeans).
I didn't take these last two pictures (thank you Amber) but here we are, in our foreign glory.

Only other thing on my mind worth noting is the recent election in the States. The Democrats now hold Congress for the first time since 1994, and the kicker that seems to have gotten them in there is the Iraq War. I'm not sure I wholeheartedly trust the current Dems to smoothly tackle that incredibly difficult situation, but I'll tell you what, I don't think it can get any worse than Donald Rumsfeld and a blindly loyal Congress and President. I don't know what's next, just that I feel happier knowing that Bush will have a MUCH harder time launching his fusion Orwellian/Reagan/Ghengis Khan type initiatives. This is good for everyone.
Japan is the only foreign country I've been to where being an American isn't considered negative (except maybe Israel). I'm afraid America needs more friends than Japan and Israel to make it through the 21st century (and those countries need more friends than just America). Bush and his Iraqi war aren't the sole reasons for those feelings obviously, but I feel like they pushed a lot of people who otherwise wouldn't care too much into distinctively hating the U.S.. The news and casualty figures are always staggering, and I can't say I blame anyone for such negative leanings these days. But it wasn't always this way, right?

I don't hate my country, but it does to need to change. I just hope it can.

22 mookie

Yesterday was my birthday, and I've entered my 22nd year of life. I suppose the numbers don't make a huge difference, but I think 22 does have a more adultish ring to it than 21 yah? Scary... But despite being away from the people and world that I really know, I had a fun birthday and halloween. First, this past Saturday the group that arranges social events for the people in my program and similarly situated foreigners hosted a halloween party. This is the manyth Halloween party I've been to, but it was funny to hear non-Americans tell that they've never been to one before...
It was a party, not so different from any other party, but fun nonetheless. I don't know what I dressed as, some kind of cross between Bruce Springsteen and Axel Rose maybe...

God Bless America...

English boy named Simon went as famous Japanese cartoon character Anpan-Man. He donned it well.
In case you ever wanted to see a panda and Anpan-man hug...

So my actual birthday and the actual day of Halloween was yesterday, Tuesday Oct 31. Mostly just work as usual, but the school nurse, who is incredibly kind and speaks a touch of english, left a bag with a few presents on my desk. This included a small hanging scroll with picture of cat that is supposed to indicate good fortune, a nice pen, and a handwritten and pretty note that in simple Japanese said happy birthday and that I should watch her son do karate (shes REALLY proud that hes some kind of local champion). She emphasized the brown color of the pen, saying it reflected my personality (as well as my clothing). Something about thoughtfullness and patience, and a number of other nice compliments that the language barrier prevented me from really understanding. I'm not exactly sure what motivated the nurse to do all this for me, and to go into detail about my personal color, but it was much appreciated first thing in the morning on my first birthday in Japan.
Today I received another present, and this one nearly did me in. I teach a "special" class once a week, with four girls in it. Two of them are in fact quite special, though the other two seem to be there only because they're Filipino (but I could be mistaken...). Anyway, the two Filipino girls are incredibly cute and always happy. One of them today came up to me in the hallway and presented me the following sewn and embroidered square:

As she gave it to me she said "otanjoubiomedetou" or Happy Birthday, and squeaked out the words "twenty two," my new age, and "mookie," the name of my pet rabbit whose pictures were a hit when I did my self introduction almost two months ago. Her teacher then said something about having a mookie in Japan as well. It was all I could do to not tear up, and I had to hold myself back a bit... The overwhelming kindness and cuteness from the kids and their teacher mixed with the reminder of home really hit me. I think they were surprised how happy it made me, and I profusely thanked them in English, though I know they didn't understand a word.
If that's still not enough to warm your heart... wait, there's more. My host family, whom I stayed with for about a week in early to mid-August stopped by my house while I wasn't home and dropped of a small little package with a cute note and a bunch of pictures that they had taken while I was staying with them. I had only talked to them once or maybe twice briefly since leaving their house, but they still remembered my birthday! And came all the way to my house to deliver a present! I've since called them and we've already exchanged a bunch of emails and i look forward to seeing them again sometime. Taking a digital photo of a hard copy photo is a little ridiculous, but i felt compelled so here's the best i could do:

Me and Katsutoshi doin some grillin

The other highlight of the week has been teaching the kids "trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat, if you don't, i don't care, i'll pull down your underwear." Hearing a roomfull of Japanese early teens sing this is about as satisfying an experience as I've had in my short tenure as a teacher. I hope its not the last of its kind.