Weekend Madness

My weekend was crazy busy. Caught the Friday night bus down to Nagoya to get in on some of the fun action. Will, known by some as Mr. Greene or Cooky Puss, took me around his hood all weekend. Friday night I met some of his students at their enkai. They're all engineers and really funny.
Saturday was filled with children. Three really cute children learning English. And then Brazilian chicken with a cute family. Then we watched Braindead which was not cute at all. Later we did a seven hour refreshments tour of Nagoya that ended at four in the morning. It was kinda like a wine tasting, except at a bunch of different places with no wine and instead of gourmet cheese we ate gyoza and fried intestines.
Sunday Will's band played a gig with a few other bands in a club about the size of my apartment. (Seriously, I accidentally got to second base with like seven strangers.) There was a really good turn out overall and they played a great show. Came home feeling pretty tired. Got my car fixed and while looking for snow tires in my storage shed I found a broken trampoline and a mattress. Makeshift sleds anyone?

I watched this poor guy chug two glasses of absinthe in about four minutes. This was the result.

One of the best parts of the weekend was this present from Will. My favorite track is "Hump Lites."

I think my hat looks better on Will, ne?

Shine on you crazy diamonds.

Today was a holiday, Japanese Labor Day in fact, and what better way to celebrate than by working? To be fair, I wouldn't really call what I did today work. I attended the Kurobe Yochien concert where all the yochiens in the area got together and did a big show. The whole thing was on the evening news and was the cutest thing ever, at least since the last yochien event. One of the coolest parts about today was finally living out my lifelong dream-to be in a band. That's right folks, I was on maracas and tore up the stage old school with a little help from Lee on guitar, as well as several teachers on drums, vocals and some strange mouth keyboard. The performance included original interpretations of such classics as "Bingo" and "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star." View the photo below to see what they made me wear.
Later on I caught the tail end of a big Thanksgiving meal held by some of the local JETs. Ate some turkey and like three pieces of pumpkin pie. Now I feel sick, celebrating in true Thanksgiving fashion.

Here's one of my favorite little guys.

These are the craziest kids I've met so far in Japan. They love the kancho, and today I convinced them my name was really Jack.

Two hours of nothing but cuteness.

"Here are four of the fittest blokes in Japan." Did I say that right, Dan? (For those of you who don't speak British, it means "These guys rule.")

I get paid to do this people.

Shorts

My weekend can be best summed up with this series of shorts.

# 1:
My car broke down on Friday night. Luckily, Gillian and two nice foreign men helped me push it into a parking lot. The damage to my wallet isn't all too severe, but certainly inconvenient. Reason 37,450 why I love my job and this country is that my supervisor, within hours of finding out, came out on the weekend with the mechanic he takes his car to, had my car towed and immediately provided a loan car for me to drive. Sweetness.

#2:
Feeling a bit down about my car, I decided to cheer myself up and for five dollars I made this.

#3:
(Kate enters local Gym, a teenage boy runs by.)

Local teenager: HELLO!!!!!!
Kate: Oh, Hello. Genki desu (or, you sure are excited)!
Local Teenager: Of course!!!!!
Kate: Wow, good English.
Local Teenager: BYE!!!!! (Sprints into the distance)
Kate: Bye!!!

(This particular scenario happens at least three times a week and always makes my day.)

# 4:
The master of our local hangout has a samba music group and he invited me and my friends to come see them in Uozu. Not knowing what to expect, I paid 1500 yen to see over four hours of music complete with free snacks and tea. It was quite an event.

Samba group. They asked me to come and dance for them, but if any of you have ever seen a samba costume, it consists of a bunch of feathers and a thong. Maybe they can just get me something to beat on instead.

Fan dancing.

This guy played a mouth harp thingy that they call a koukin over here. It was nuts, I have videos.

samui desu

Oh man, it's cold here. Like seriously freezing. For those of you who don't know, Japan doesn't believe in central heating. And the worst part is when I say how cold it is, everyone's like "Oh just wait, it's not even bad yet." Right.
They busted out the big kerosene heaters in the teacher's room today. The whole ordeal was a lot like putting up the family Christmas tree: tons of adjustments, too many people's opinions and the threat of a potential fire. I think it'll make things a little warmer at work, but I've already been wearing long underwear for weeks and it's only gettin worse.
On a side note President Bush is presently in Kyoto for the week, and the Social Studies teacher asked me if I voted for him. After trying to hold down my kyushoku, I gave him my opinion and he whole heartedly agreed. Subsequently I learned the Japanese word for "puppet".

Gorges, Caucasians and Good Vibes for everyone

First I'd like to extend a hearty welcome to my old buddy Bitter Chris who is currently taking the country by storm from the insanity which is its capital city-I hope Tokyo can handle his antics.
In attempts to enrich myself within my local surroundings, i.e. save money, I stayed in Toyama-ken for the weekend. I dunno what was in the water, but everyone was in a terrific mood everywhere I went. Will decided to come up and Friday night we met up with some folks at a mountain lodge place for some dinner. The place was way cool, complete with shamisen action by the owner's son. The owner showed me her ceramics studio, which was incredibly cool with lots of kilns and tons of space. I'm going to try to go back up there so she can show me some stuff. She even gave Will a pretty bowl. (Insert several homemade White Russians here.)
Saturday we headed to the Kurobe Gorge for excitement. Not really knowing what to expect, we hopped on the open air train armed with nothing but the meager clothing we had on, caramel corn and that sake that heats itself up in the can. The leaves are all changing, and it was really beautiful. Let me also add that it was the coldest I've been in a long time. On the way back we scored spots in the closed train, complete with heated seats. Went to a local place to eat and were given a bunch of persimmons from a sweet old man who hates planes, boats, and the monkeys who steal his persimmons. (Cue more White Russians.)
Sunday I saw Will off in Toyama after walking around a bit. The weather was great. A good weekend for sure.

Unazuki.

I wish, I wish I had another delicious fish.

Damn, what a dam!

You know it's cold when I'll drink sake to stay warm.

I think they should use this picture to sell more cocoa.

This isn't one, but there were lots of monkey bridges.

Really friggin' cold.

Mine.

Toyama Castle.

This is what I call holiday spirit

While browsing Laura's blog, I noticed Jeffrey's blog. And while noticing it, I noticed this. So who's sending it to me since I can't eat a real holiday meal for Thanksgiving?

It's a meal of sodas. A flippin' five course meal of sodas. This particular pack contains green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, turkey and gravy, cranberry sauce and fruit cake. Seriously.

Weekend

Saturday morning I woke up bright and early to attend School Festival which was actually less like a festival and more like a variety show in a freezing cold gymnasium. Luckily I was only in the gym for the morning and at the International Center in the afternoon. I caught the chorus competitions at both of my schools. I also got to see some traditional Japanese dancing and the brass band. It was nice to see the kids get so excited for something they've worked really hard at. Went out in Uozu that night and ate Mexican food!!!! Had a few people over afterwards, good times.

Man was this band good. And the music teacher, who has the desk across from me and is an absolute sweetie, picked some really jazzy songs. It was a much needed break from the oodles of chorus songs about friendship and mountains.

Yep, saw a lot of this. Their chorus did really well, and when they announced the winners the girls freaked out big time.


Sunday was ROBOT FEST. I'm not all that into robots, but who could say no to an auditorium full of them? Not me. We piled in the car and took off to Toyama. It was just as insane as I assumed it would be. There were tons of booths with robots, robot related inventions, and robot demonstrations. I'm gonna let these pictures do the talking. Let's just suffice to say it was way fun.

Thundercleese, how did you get in here?

This guy was awesome.

I totally showed up this dancing robot.

Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto.

Initially we thought this guy was gonna cage fight the robot but instead......

......the robot made a lot of noise and took off like a rocket. Then it fell over and sprayed a bunch of liquid everywhere. Everyone screamed.

What Japanese event would be complete without a song and dance show in flashy costumes?

Oooooh, make one that looks like a poodle!

Lovin' that culture

Today was Culture Day (Japanese Holiday), and I decided to celebrate by taking in the local Science and Art Museums. For under $10 I saw a planetarium show about Mars (led by two genki animated bacterium), a 3-D dinosaur movie, a live electricity demonstration, and an art exhibition. Whoever said that Kurobe didn't have a lot to offer?
Speaking of culture, I had my first lesson with my new Japanese tutor yesterday. (I was going to classes in Toyama, but that was getting to be too far.) It was good, she's a really sweet person, and she gave me chocolates. This weekend is the School Festival. More on that later.

This picture has nothing to do with my post, but wtf? They just built this ramp outside the local Sushi joint. Is it a ramp into the whale? Does the whale go down the ramp? Or maybe an installation piece about globalism? Is it a parking spot? Seriously??

Halloween

After a cold, rainy Monday at work I went to a local Halloween Carnival. Halloween isn't the biggest holiday here, so this was kind of new to the kids. I hadn't done a real Halloween thing since four years ago when I saw Karl Denson's Tiny Universe (a rad show). Or was it three years ago when I watched Matthew Nylund drink nearly an entire bottle of Jagermeister dressed as Crybaby before registering for class? Good times.
Anywho, a little Trick or Treat path was made for the kids around local stores and we each led a group around and coached them on proper technique. Their costumes were adorable and creative, they really enjoyed it and it sure was nice to be in the spirit of the season.

Man that bunny girl has attitude.

Way to go Uncle Sam. I think his sash says old man.

This was part of my Trick or Treat crew. That kid was so excited about candy he couldn't contain himself. Why does he look so displeased with me?