The Mormons on my door step

A pair of Mormon missionaries seem to be stalking me tonight.

They first came by three nights ago. They rang the bell and appeared to be trying to cover their face by putting their hands up in front of the camera the feeds the monitor up in my living room. Good strategy. If Japanese people see a couple of foreigners at their door they'll probably play dead instead of open the door.

English, after all, is scary.

I couldn't tell who/what they were. I thought maybe they were figures of authority or something, so I pressed the button and said hello. Once I realized what I was dealing with I switched to English and said good evening. The main guy said it was strange to be speaking to somebody in English.

I told them I was busy. They asked if they could come back. I said sure. Really, I don't mind if they come back, as they have tonight, but I'm only going to answer the door if I'm really truly free and have a few minutes to chat.

It might be interesting to chat with them, to hear where they're from, how long they've been here, their impressions of Japan. But let's be honest. I'm not interested in any religion. Not Mormonism, not Buddhism.

I am agnostic. A hard sell. Not gonna work. I'll take a free copy of the Book of Mormon, though. For reference (and, ahem, for future Halloween costumes ... I'm a bad person).

Tonight has not been a night on which I've felt up to chatting with missionaries, so I've ignored their ringings after identifying their classic hand-in-front-of-the-camera routine. Three times, they've rung. And three times, like my Japanese counterparts, I've played dead.

Religion, after all, is scary.

Side note: If by chance the missionaries read my name on the door, Googled me, and found this blog, I apologize for ignoring you on Thursday night. The first time I was napping. The second two times I was up, but kinda busy doing stuff. You know, like making a sandwich (avocado, tomato, lettuce and ham) and getting ready to go out (to a bar ... to have a beer maybe). I'm sorry. Feel free to keep trying. Perhaps we can chat some time. But remember: devout agnostic. I'm covered.

Meet ...

... Reggie Love, Obama's body man.

Status Report

Hair: Uncut
Weather: Warm, approaching hot. Muggy.
Summer travel plans: Pending. Hawaii, maybe.
Rainy season: Looming (June)
Umbrellas: No, thanks.
Lunch time: In 30 minutes.

This has been your Status Report.

Hair Care

Yes, that's my hair. And yes, I'm driving a golf cart. One of the teachers and his wife took Sam and I on a nature tour in the height of the cherry blossom season. One of the stops included some big place hosting various activities spread across an area large enough that people rent golf carts to cruise around. It was nice to drive something, even if it was just a golf cart. Sadly, we didn't actually do golf, and the cart's top speed was disappointing.

But back to that hair. This photo is from about a month ago. So now, naturally, my hair is a month longer. I've had it cut once since before I left for Japan last August. It has become a conversation piece. A point of debate. Sam occasionally surveys groups of students, asking if I should get it cut. I favor doing nothing, because this is the easiest path, but it is getting to that point where it may be too much a distraction.

Some people like the natural curls. I'm often asked if it's natural or if I had a perm. One trend in the voting has emerged: Among the older students who have seen it both ways, a majority votes to have it cut. But nearly all of the newer students voted to leave it alone. I remain undecided. It's not really that big a deal to me. But other people seem to think it's worth talking about. I wonder what it would be like to care that much about other people's hair. Sadly, I'll never know.

But for the sake of democracy, if you come upon this page, enter your vote. If I went to school with you or are a member of your family, you too have seen both ways. Let your voice be heard.

Called out

I didn't know this was even a thing, but I have been "called out" on Andrew's non-travel blog to do a chain letter survey thing usually reserved for the likes of MySpace. But since he was called out and followed through, I thought I would just do it.

Four jobs I've had:

1. Dairy Queen entry level worker

2. Dairy Queen supervisor

3. Dairy Queen crew leader

4. Editor-in-chief, university newspaper

Four movies I've watched more than once:

1. Billy Madison

2. A Few Good Men

3. Lost in Translation

4. Little Miss Sunshine

Four places I've lived:

1. Pendleton, Oregon

2. Milton-Freewater, Oregon

3. Corvallis, Oregon

4. Japan

Four places I've been:

1. Warsaw

2. Jerusalem

3. Kyoto

4. Michigan

Four TV shows I watch:

1. The Office

2. 30 Rock

3. West Wing

4. Weeds

Four people who email me regularly (doesn’t include blogging comments):

1. Mom

2. Nealon

3. Kappa

4. Kyle

Four of my favorite foods:

1. Pizza

2. Yakiniku

3. Burritos

4. Goldfish crackers

Four places I would like to visit:

1. Russia

2. Hawaii

3. Australia

4. Hokkaido, Japan

Four things I'm looking forward to in the coming year:

1. Traveling

2. Visits from friends or family

3. Andrew and Ellyn's wedding (is that really this year? Wow)

4. Voting for a new president

Four people I've tagged (to do this too):

The chain stops here.

English Lunch and the Talking Sandwich

One of the reasons that we're busier than some ALTs at Yamasho is "English Lunch." Every day at lunch time, we go to room and eat lunch with students, who try to speak to us in English, thus earning signatures on "passports" used to collect points in English class.

Our contracts say our lunch period is our free time, but we don't mind doing this because really it's pretty fun to talk to the students outside of class, where they're not always interested in the course material (I wouldn't be either, in many cases).

Today, one student, after trying to figure out what to ask me, inquired about what I'd eaten for breakfast. I told her about my sandwich, which featured ham, lettuce and cucumber. After a couple of quick exchanges in Japanese, two students were overwhelmed with laughter. Apparently, cucumber in English just like the Japanese word for parrot.

"It was delicious," I said after learning that I had eaten a parrot sandwich.

Parrot, I'd guess, probably isn't too bad a snack. Frankly, I'd bet it tastes just a bit like chicken.

We can all rest easy ...

... knowing that the video rental store's in Japan are providing "Joey," the "Friends" spin-off which lasted two seasons but has survived to thrill audiences in the Far East.

I was having a hard time choosing a movie yesterday, and I almost settled on starting to watch FOX's "Prison Break," which like "24" and "Lost," is madly popular here. But instead I went with two movies, "The Kingdom" starring Chris Cooper and Jaimie Foxx and "Ocean's 13," which I'm pretty sure I never watched.

Unless they start releasing movies faster over here, I may one day get down to "Joey." I'm just glad Japan is willing to offer such world class entertainment.

In other news ...

You may have seen a headline about an earthquake in Japan, but it was in the East and therefore we had no shaking.

Meanwhile, the season's second typhoon has formed and at least for now appears headed for Japan. Hard to say where it will actually end up.

But overall it's getting pretty warm (near 80 today) and the humidity is creeping up. Soon, it shall be unbearable. I plan to complain a lot.

oh, a post

I stayed local for my Golden Weekend. The farthest I could get was a midnight dash to the prefectural capitol for a barbecue that had already finished. I also made it out for a quick hike, but besides that it was a lot of sitting around with the other ALT types who didn't manage to get out of town. We watched movies. We drank beer. We went to the same old bar. Saw the same old folks.

Part of it is just simply a lack of planning, part of it is wanting to save money, but mainly I didn't want to lave town because we have a good friend who is leaving Japan on Friday for a working holiday in Australia. Nearly every person under 25 whom I've met in this town is preparing to leave this town. Mami already left for Canada (to be fair she's over 25). Mayumi is leaving for Australia. Misa is leaving for the UK. Maki may be leaving Australia later this year. For young people, especially the female types, the thing to do in Ise is leave Ise.

So anyway, I wanted to stay around to hang out with Mayumi. We're trying to put together her farewell dinner tonight.

At work now -- this week I only work today and tomorrow. Taking Friday off since my once-a-week school doesn't need me this week.

Bells are ringing -- time for class.


For some truly more interesting reading, check out friend Andrew's new travel blog:

http://sevenseparation.typepad.com/

He bought and fixed up a VW bus and he's driving it across the country; some zigging, a bit of zagging, and complete with a future-wife at the end of the road. Good stuff. Be sure to go back and read from the beginning. You'll be hooked.