Take One

The battery finished right after I submitted the last post, so I put in my memory card and began shooting. There's not much to shoot around the house so I opted for a self portrait:


Fear not -- the smudges are on the mirror in the washroom, not the lens.

Stay tuned for more.

Nee-kone!

Earlier today I bought a Nikon D40 digital SLR camera. This is my first high quality digital camera (as in, not a small point and shoot, although these days those are pretty good quality too). The SLR, which stands for "single lens reflex," basically means you can interchange the lens. The kit I bought comes with a basic lens and I can save up to purchase bigger lenses if I so please. The kit -- the body and the basic lens -- cost less than $500 at the electronics store.

I have not been able to play with the machine yet , as the battery is currently charging. I'm hoping it finishes soon so I can try it out.

It appears that I'll be able to load pictures to the computer, and therefore the Internet, with a USB connection.

This is my biggest purchase so far and perhaps my last big purchase for a few months as I save up and let funds regulate.

But this has been on my wishlist for a few years, so it's nice to have the new toy. Gift ideas? Any sort of accessories. Memory cards, camera bags, or lenses (however lenses are often more expensive than the bodies themselves so that might not work as a gift).

Anyway, I'm excited.

Meanwhile, one of the English teachers in town, who has been here for three years, is celebrating his birthday tonight down at Nanaimo, so the place will packed and festive. I'll make my way down there in about half an hour. I'm thinking about bringing the new camera but as I type that I'm realizing how bad an idea it would be. First, it will be dark in the bar and photos won't likely turn out. Second, it's a party, there will be drinking, movement, loudness, and too much potential for a $500 accident. So there. Seeing it writing sealed the deal. The camera stays home and I play with it another time.

Oh, and while we say "Ni-kon" in the states, this Japanese brand is called "Nee-kone" over here. That will require an adjustment period, but I can change.

Sports Day

Quick update on Sam -- it was a fracture indeed so they have updated her to a full cast which she gets to sport for two weeks.

Today was "sports day" or the "sports festival" at Yamasho. All the students dress down and spend the day outside competing in both fun and semi-serious events. Teachers too get involved -- I did a relay with other teachers in which I had to kick a rugby ball a quarter of the way around the track. Later I ran a more serious relay on a teacher team.

My high school certainly had nothing like this sports day, which is so serious that it required a half-day "rehearsal" the day before for some reason. Sports days are found in most Japanese schools, but since Yamasho is a sports-oriented places, it's more about actual events than a festive atmosphere. Fun things are mixed in with the serious races, though.

But I have to go to Japanese class at the moment. I've got Friday off and then I'm working straight though the weekend for Yamasho's school festival, which is also much bigger than any U.S. counterpart I've ever heard of. When they do things here, the REALLY do them.

Gotta run!

Crash Crash Bang Bang

In a flash of speed, propelled by gravity, she zoomed by me down the hill from Yamasho. I knew she was going down. It was a matter of how bad. Would it be my first time calling for a Japanese ambulance, or would she simply need some Band-Aids?

After smashing into the wall at full speed, I was truly surprised to see Sam get up and shake it off. She appeared to have no serious injuries, so we rode home. Later, we went to a festival which reminded me of Portland's Saturday Market. After getting back home, her left wrist (she is also left handed) began to swell and her pain began to grow.

We tried calling friends with cars to get a ride to a hospital, fearing that there may be a fracture. Turns out, both friends with cars were fast asleep after a day out. Our next plan was getting a taxi somehow. Taxis don't just drive around residential neighborhoods looking for customers. They hang out at stations and hotspots. So we went to a nearby cafe where we know the owner. We asked him to call a cab for us. Instead, he called around to hospitals to find one that would take an accident victim even though most hospitals are closed Sunday for a day off (weird, yeah?). Fortunately some emergency rooms do operate around the clock even this strange society (ATMs actually close here ... why?). After finding an ER, the cafe owner went so far as to insist that he drive us there.

So Sam had an x-ray. Turns out it is not likely a fracture. They demobilized her left arm and told her to come back in a few days to have it checked again.

So now she's getting used to operating with only one fully functioning hand, and it's not help that it happens to be hear weak one. She will take the day off tomorrow as I travel with the English Club to a speech contest. More on that later.

Whew!

Apartment Tour

My apartment has some shelving. The box in the upper left corner is what allows me to continue living. Central heating/cooling is pretty uncommon here, so instead people use these awesome air conditioners, which are effective for a closed off room. I can't wait for fall so I can let the thing rest.

Nearby, rice is grown. They harvested (is that the right word?) it recently so the green has given way to barren emptiness.

The view out the front window of my apartment.

Upside-down pants. Rarely does anyone have a dryer in this country, so things hang.

You can see my low table and my "recliner" (the square the green thing ... I need a new chair).

This is my fridge. Shown here at actual size. But really, that's a regular standard water bottle, so you can see what we're dealing with. My friends had bigger beer coolers in college.


The kitchen. Now much to it. Looks like I need to do the dishes. Toward the back you can see the two burners that make up my "oven." There is no stove. I have a rice-cooker (at right) and a sweet toaster oven, so all is well. Also, you can drink tap water.

Not pictured is the "bedroom" which I use only for storage (I sleep in the main room with the air conditioner). Also not pictured: The toilet room, the shower/laundry/washroom area, and the steps leading up from my outside door to the second floor. Also not pictured: The spider who lives on my veranda the little tiny frog who was sitting on my bicycle one morning.

So that completes the apartment tour. In a couple hours I'll head for Nagoya ... for a couple hours before heading back. I'm beginning to curse the unfortunate planning of this Nagoya jaunt. If I had it my way it would have been an overnight but for some reason it had to be a Monday. Still, it will be good to see these people.

Some photos

This is the aforementioned Cafe Brian. Note the neat world map in the background which puts the southern hemisphere on top. Weird! Most of the others here are other JET people. The one dead center is my colleague Sam.


Can you tell which set of legs belong to me? Should be hard. This is where we had our welcome beach party for the Mie JETs on the first weekend.


Did I post this already? This is the day we arrived. I was exhausted after traveling from Tokyo and walking around for a while. You can see my apartment building back and to the left. Three Yamasho students greeted us when we arrived in Tsu before being driven down to Ise.


More people this time in a karaoke box, a private karaoke room. They are not at all expensive especially when you jam a lot of people in there. There are usually some English songs so even I can participate if I feel so willing. The girl second from the left is one of my predecessors. She has returned to Canada I believe. The guy on the right is Shun, friend of one of the other Ise JETs. They are a very friendly and nice pair as Shun often acts as the transportation for rowdy drunken JETs after nights out.


Here we are at a Nepalese restaurant in Ise. Good curry, fantastic cheese nan.

Update!

SUNDAY AFTERNOON -- I'm in the middle of a three-day weekend, so my current activity of sitting around the house at 3 p.m. seems about right. I have been out of the house for most of the weekend so far and I'm leaving again tomorrow afternoon, so I'm on a little break from my break.

On Friday, I went to a place called Cafe Brian, a restaurant that serves international food and caters to an international crowd -- and a lot of regular local customers -- near the Ise Grand Shrine. Two Fridays a month the place hosts an "international conversation dinner" or something like that. Up to seven foreigners can have a free meal and a few free drinks in exchange for speaking English to Japanese customers who pay a cover charge to get in. Obviously it's quite nice for the foreigners who get free stuff and have a chance to make local friends. And for Japanese people looking for a chance to practice their English or make new friends, it's also not a bad deal.

At Cafe Brian on Friday, myself and another area ALT sat down with a couple of women. Both were near 30, both were married, and both had kids. One spoke near perfect English because she's married to a New Zealander, the other hardly spoke a word. But we got along well enough that they invited us to join them the next night for some volleyball. Yes, volleyball. The one who doesn't speak English organizes via the Web what is called a "friends circle" over here. The meet for different events for time to time and we happened to cross paths with the circle in time for volleyball.

So maybe we felt a certain pressure to say yes, or maybe because we are living in Japan and have that sort-of "always say yes" attitude, we said yes.

The volleyball, on Saturday evening, took place in some kind of public gym much like you would see back home. There were several courts going at once in the big open space. The friends circle we had infiltrated was made up mostly of married people near 30 years old with children. The children -- maybe 10 of them in all -- were running around while the parents volleyed. Sure, it was fun to do something active, and obviously the people who invited us and the others were nice. At times the thought that it was strange to be hanging out with older people crossed my mind -- then I reminded myself that at 24 I'm not THAT far away from their age-group. It's just that they were all so far along in their life-making. Babies. Spouses. Mini-vans.

In the end it was quite nice to do something other than our normal routine of heading down to the same bar seeing the same friends. I love that same old bar, and my friends here are great. But it's good to mix it up a little.

So now that I've been well mixed, we arrive at Sunday. Monday is a national holiday ... respect for the aged day or something of that sort. In honor of that I'm going to Nagoya to hang out with some college students.

If you're reading this blog you probably already know that I worked with Japanese students for three summers at OSU. Each summer I stayed in the dorms with about 40 students from Meijo university in Nagoya. They were at OSU for a three-week language and culture program, and I did everything with them except go to their classes. So during the three-week program you become quite close with at least some of the students. So tomorrow evening I'll take the two hour trip to Nagoya to meet with about 15 of the students. I have no idea whether they're all from last year or if it's a mix. One of last year's students organized the whole thing, so it may be tilted toward the 2006 group. The 2004 group people have likely all graduated and some have probably moved on. I've lost touch for many of them. I'm happy to have a chance to see them again, but the downside is that it's going to have to be a quick trip as I have to work bright and early on Tuesday.

That about brings us up to speed. All is well at school, but more on that another time.

Some more things even

I have finished my class work for the day so it is back to killing time until the final bell. I am also hoping to talk with a couple of teachers about lesson plans for tomorrow ... some of the teachers seem to prepare at the last minute, which I must say is more my style, but when I am put on the spot in an unfamiliar situation I like to have some idea of what will be happening.

No English Club today (they actually call it the English Speaking Society, or ESS), so Sam and I are visiting the akido and kendo clubs. I forgot to bring athletic wear so I think I will just be watching today, but I think Sam may actually be aiming to participate. There are a lot of clubs at Yamasho, and not clubs as you imagine them back home. Baseball is a club; so is word processing. Baseball competes (nationally this year) and I assume word processing competes as well. I have not yet made contact yet but I am interested in visiting the photography club and the broadcast club -- perhaps visiting once in a while in those cases. We really can only visit non-ESS clubs on Tuesday and Thursday, so our options are kind of limited.

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SOME DIFFERENCES IN SCHOOL

-Did you know that in Japan the students clean the school? In the U.S. we are used to a janitorial staff keeping the school up to par. But in Japan, every day after 3 p.m., the relative quiet is broken by the thunderous roar of shifting desks in classrooms above the teachers room. Students fan out across the school grounds, under the supervision of teachers, and sweep or mop or pick up trash. You could hardly imagine kids in the U.S. going for a plan like this, but it is just a part of life here.

-In the states teachers generally work out of their own classroom, where they keep a desk and allowed out decorate as they see fit and store various materials. In Japan teachers keep desks in a teachers room. At Yamasho there are a few different teachers rooms. I work in the main one across from the administrative offices. In the states, the teachers room is considered a no-students area, a hiding place for secret soda machines and much more, at least in the imagination of creative students. In Japan, students pour into the teachers room between classes to check in with teachers, deliver messages and turn in work. After school students stay late to study for special exams or prepare for university entrance. Every morning at 8:30, the day begins in the teachers room with a staff meeting. The vice principal, who holds court over the room with a desk in the corner, moves through agenda items. It is all in Japanese of course, and I only pick up little bits of it. We have to operate under the assumption that if there is anything important for us to know, somebody will tell us. So far, no problems.

More later, perhaps.

A really long post about some things

My mother pointed out in an e-mail this morning that since my post about the approaching typhoon the blog has fallen silent. However, the typhoon merely brushed across the Ise-Shima peninsula on its way to Tokyo. On its course it left at least one dead, another missing and several others injured.

All is well in Ise, then, although it has been raining off an on in the last few days making bicycle travel an uncomfortable affair.

As of Monday of this week my marathon run of self-introduction lessons is over. I teach with eight classes this term, so that means I introduce myself eight times. Most teachers wanted me to use the full period for this task, so some creativity is required.

After some trial and error, I have settled on what I plan to use in the future. First, I hand out a sheet with questions about me and make a quick introduction speech covering only the basics. The students mark the answers they hear and/or slip into a boredom coma. Then I announce that the students will have a chance to ask me any question they would like.

The students then work in pairs to generate ideas for questions. After a few minutes of this, the press conference begins. They ask about hobbies (photography), whether or not I have a girlfriend (nope), what kind of Japanese food I like (just about all of it), whether I know about famous American track and field stars (nope), or what kind of music a like (Jazz?).

If there is more time, I usually try to engage some of the students in conversation about themselves, perhaps based on their own self-introduction sheet that they are asked to fill out.

This works much better than me talking for a long time and expecting them to follow along. Getting the students involved somehow -- forcing them to think of a question -- makes for a dynamic atmosphere and keeps everyone but the super-slacker crowd interested until the bell rings.

Although it can be good for the ego to be the center of attention for 50 minutes, I am glad to be done with self intros for now. In the spring when the new first-year students come in, I will get to try it again a few times, perhaps with a new spin. I would like to somehow incorporate more photos, but only one classroom I work in has the ability to display photos in a way that students will all be able to see them.

The commercial track and computer track classes each have 40 students, while the the international track classes are split into 20-student groups. Naturally the smaller classes are easier to work with, and it helps that the international track students are generally more enthusiastic about learning in general and learning English specifically.

The commercial and computer classes are more difficult both because of the class size and because many students do not seem to be interested at all in English. Whether or not these classes feel like a success depends heavily on the classroom atmosphere, which depends heavily on the Japanese teacher of English, because the classes have already been meeting together for a term before I arrived (this is the middle of the school year). But once I get more of a feel for what I am doing here I am sure I can play a larger role in the classroom atmosphere, hopefully figuring out ways to engage more of the students (some students I am sure are never going to change their attitude, but others probably could if prompted somehow).

Outside of work things are also fine. It is still humid and hot, but not as hot as when we first arrived. As September fades we should see a shift into more comfortable temperatures and therefore a shift into a more comfortable everything.

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And now, partially to organize my own thoughts and partially in response to feedback from my parents, I will attempt to outline the pros and cons of car-buying.

THE MAIN CON IS ...

The cost, obviously. First, you must buy said car. You must may insurance every year. You must pay a vehicle inspection fee. You must buy gas. While I do not have a good estimate for how much this would be, it definitely falls within an average JET budget. Of course not spending any money on a car would mean available funds for other things, like traveling (by train!) or going out on the town (karaoke nights build up).

A SORT-OF CON IS ...

The rules, and things. First, in Japan, they drive on the left side of the road and the steering wheel is also flopped. Also, phantom one-way streets that Japanese drivers seem to know about tend to surprise some foreign motorists. Also, while in the states you can go out for a beer and be OK to drive, the legal blood alcohol limit in Japan is zero, meaning that if you are driving you not drinking at all -- not even a sip would be wise. But these are small concerns, in that after I while I would get used to driving here, and not driving to bar excursions is a good habit anyway. At other times I could be the responsible designated driver and save money by having an iced coffee instead of a beer.

ANOTHER SORT-OF CON IS ...

The laziness factor. The fact is without a car I do a lot of walking and cycling. This is surely good for my health. If I had a car, would I use it for a lot of the small to medium trips even though a bike would be fine? Would I completely stop using the bike or walking? Hard to say exactly how I would use the car or how I would balance the car-bike situation, but it is certainly a concern.

SOME PROS ARE ...

Commuting! I live pretty close to school ... about a 10-minute bike ride. But sometimes it is either really really really hot and humid or pouring down rain. Rain is more survivable because I can wear a rain jacket or walk with an umbrella, but the summer heat is brutal. On the worst days you pretty much have to expect to be drenched in sweat by the time you get to school and then you hopefully brought some extra clothes or you will be dreadfully uncomfortable all day.

The staff room may be air-conditioned, but most classrooms are not. So the bottom line is I could drive to school when the conditions make driving to school the best option.

Getting around. This is obvious. With a car you can drive places. My mom asked if the public transport is insufficient. Well, sort-of. I am about a 15-minute bike ride from the two train stations in town (I do not know why they are so close to each other ... literally a four minute walk from each other). The train grid in Mie is great for getting around Mie or getting out of Mie, but it does not get you all around Ise. The key here -- and perhaps broadly this is the overall pro -- is freedom and flexibility to go where I want when I want, a luxury I enjoyed in the US. The question is do I really want to pay for it?

I can survive without a car, no question about it. But it would make things easier.

At this point I am not pushing for buying a car, I am simply outlining some factors. Most of the advice I have received on the subject suggests waiting it out for a bit, which I think is a good idea. But I would want to figure it out before the year is up because by then I would have to get a Japanese licence, which allegedly can be difficult.

Longest post ever. It is over. Carry on.

Inverted Orientation

All I wanted to do was make it home without the umbrella inverting. But on the final stretch, with Apollo USB only a few steps away, a vicious gust of sea-brewed wind whipped by, turning the rain-blocker inside-out -- I'm lucky my convenience store yakisoba was safely secured in its plastic container. Just after the first gust, another came from who knows where, restoring the device to its proper orientation.

So it's a little stormy here. A few days ago, the forecast was that a typhoon (tropical cyclone) was coming directly for Mie prefecture. Since then it's made a turn toward Tokyo as a category 1 storm (I believe the same 5-point scale they use for hurricanes back home). But the storm has not completely forgotten Mie, it seems. The wind and rain make walking, cycling or anything outside pretty uncomfortable.

It's not enough to cause worry over damage here; if it were still coming right for us that would be a different story. It is making question whether or not I'll go to our weekly Japanese class tonight. I probably will seek out whatever's left of my rugged Oregonian spirit and tough it out. Also we go to the bar after and see friends, so there's even more motivation.

This of course is Thursday night, so one more day and the first week is over. I'll try to post an assessment of the first week at school sometime over the weekend. For now I've got to figure out how to get across town without ending up drenched. I left all of my rain-gear back home planning for it to be shipped, but I really didn't anticipate this sort of rain this time of year. But I should of ... in the weeks before I came another typhoon buffeted Mie. A Columbia Sportswear coat would be solid right now. That's your cue, parental units. Bottom drawer of the dresser in Corvallis.

THIS JUST IN: We may have a ride to Japanese class. Alllll riiight.

It's the end of the beginning

It appears I am slacking on the blogging.

I have a very early morning so this won't be a big post, but here's a quick update:

Our three-week period of sorta-work-sorta-vacation-partying-all-the-time is over.

Tomorrow begins the second of three terms in the Yamasho school year. There will be an opening ceremony in which I'll give a speech to the entire school using English and Japanese. It's a half day, so after the ceremony I believe we'll be meeting with our supervisor and perhaps the members of the English club.

And then it will have begun. My real routine will be established. While I will miss the fun times, the non-stop doing stuff has been exhausting, and the kind of exhaustion from real work is much cheaper than the going-out-all-the-time plan. So I'm ready for regular.

Plus, September features two three-day weekends. In a couple weeks I'll go to Nagoya to meet with a bunch of the Meijo University students who I worked with at OSU.

Also, my bicycle is doing well, but I'm secretly thinking about casually shopping around for a cheap used car, perhaps one another ALT in the area is selling. None of the new area ALTs seem to have cars, and of the people we hang out with, only an ALT's boyfriend and a non-JET teacher in the area do the driving.

Yes, I would survive with no car, but it would make like much simpler when it comes to buying things that do not fit in my bike basket, traveling to various area places that are just too far to ride comfortably, etc.

I have not yet made up my mind, but I'm looking into it. There are a lot of benefits to riding around. For one, it's physical activity that counts toward exercise some of the time. Second, it's cheaper to get around on a bike, of course. Third, I wouldn't have to worry about trying not to drive the wrong way down one-ways or other such mistakes. And finally I wouldn't have to worry about passing the Japanese driver's test after my international drivers' permit expires in a year.

So ... no decision. Feel free to vote in the comment section. What say you?

meeerp

In a comment on the previous post, my friend Ellyn had this to say: "nope."

Thanks for reading, and I anticipate more thoughtful commentary.

Obviously I still have not figured out which way I should tilt the phone to get the photos to transmit correctly.

TONIGHT Sam and I are meeting with our kocho-sensei (principal) for a dinner. Then there's a welcome party at you know where for a late-arriving new JET in the area.

More later.

I have no idea if this photo will be tilted correctly. It shows Ise from a limited express train boumd for Kyoto. There I will meet a friend who studied English at OSU. I will stay at his place in Osaka and return home tomorrow.

Back to School

After more than two years of no formal Japanese language study, I had my first local Nihon-go class this morning at some kind of community center just down the road from our regular bar in central Ise.

Normally the sessions for me will be on Thursday evenings, but since I'm off this week I decided to sample the Tuesday morning session as well. It's not a class in the traditional sense -- as in, it's not one teacher lecturing to a group of students. They break people off into roughly the same skill levels and one teacher handles their tailored lessons.

Myself and Elizabeth, another new local ALT, ended up with the same teacher for our introductory lesson, some of which was review and some of which was new to me. It seems that most of the new area JETs, along with a couple of the folks who have been here for a while, will be taking the Thursday class, which is regularly followed by a stop at Nanaimo for dinner and or drinks.

In addition to the Thursday class, which costs less than $1 per lesson, I'll be taking a free correspondence course offered by one of the governing bodies which administers the JET Program. Material for that course arrives later on this year.

Today was also the first time I attempted some real exercise. Every day include some cycling or walking, but today I actually went for a jog. There is a path along the river that's just few steps from my place -- a river that I didn't know was there for the first week living here or so. As the weather begins to cool a bit in the coming weeks, I hope to get out and exercise with a greater frequency. It's hard enough in the brutal heat to bike to school without dripping sweat.

So day one of our vacation period has gone well so far. Not sure what I will do this evening, but I may shower and check out a cafe that is just around the corner and see if it's the kind of place that doesn't mind me ordering a tea and opening up a book for a while. I'm currently seeking some leisure activities that do not cost as much as going our for a beer. The party season, fueled by leaving JETs' going away parties and new JETs' welcome parties, is winding down, with almost everyone settled in or back in their home countries.

That is all for now.

Various family members have requested more photos showing me and friends and what I have been doing. The problem of course is that I am never in any photos that I take, so I need my friends to send me photos before I can share them on the blog. So stay tuned and hopefully I'll have some photos soon.

Taiko drumming near the grand ise shrine.

EDIT: So the above was done with my cell phone. On the phone, the picture was tilted correctly. Somewhere between the Softbank network and Blogger, it moved 90 degrees. Why?

I am pretty much at a train station right now

Spending the yen

Turns out it was really easy to change the blog publishing thing back into English, but I just found it today. And that meant I could finally change the settings so that the time on each post is Japan time. So from this post on, you will be reading the future. Think about it.

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As you can see in the previous couple of posts, I set it up so I can update the blog from my cellphone. I can do basic text posts or I can send photos I've taken with the camera on the phone. For some reason it took me several tries to get the photo to turn up right-side up (I left one of the messed up posts below but deleted three others). Anyway, my phone has a pretty decent camera -- and I'm out and about alot -- so the phone=posting will be a good feature.

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This has been another active/expensive week and weekend. Most of the new Mie JETs were led to Nagoya on Thursday to get our re-entry permit in our passport, allowing us to leave the county and enter again on our 3-year visa. After that I blew a couple hundred dollars on a few things I needed (we just got paid). I bought a nice small bag for my Macbook, some pants, a hat and various other small items. We also went to both Starbucks and Outback Steakhouse, indulging in the benefits of a big city.

On Friday we went to Nabari, about an hour away by express train, for an English seminar for high school students consisting of games, songs, skits and demonstrations by the dozen ALTs and Japanese teachers of English (JTEs) running the show. Friday night, back in Ise, we went out to a going away party for one of the leaving JETs. As is often the case, this was followed by karaoke.

Today was much more laid back. I slept in, watched a movie, and just now I got back from Nanaimo (that bar I wrote about before) where I had nachos and a cafe aulait with a few other area JETs and Mami, our first "close" or "main" Japanese friend, if that makes sense.

Tomorrow I'll probably fork over a little more yen on some new sheets for my futon and a "welcome back" party for yet another area JET. Oh, my. I assume this never-ending party schedule calms down by the fall. If not I'll be forced to moonlight on the weekends.

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We have a mandatory medical checkup on Monday that probably includes a blood test and who knows what else. I wish I could avoid it ... and I did just have a physical to get IN to the program ... it seems a little unnecessary at the moment but hey, I'm not paying for it. Then Tuesday through Sunday is vacation! Woo! I may stay firmly planted in Ise with the aim of saving money, but I might dart over to Osaka for a couple of days to see a friend or two. That's the story, then. I'm behind on the blog obviously so I'll try to add more "observation" posts so it's not all just a log of what I've been doing. And finally, I cleaned the main room of my apartment today (the main room being the dining room, living room and sleeping area, as I've noted), so soon I'll take some photos of the place and get them posted on here. Good night.

Testing cell phone posting

Busy Week Ahead

We've got a fairly busy week in progress here, despite the fact that the term doesn't start until the beginning of September. On Tuesday and Wednesday, Yamasho is hosting an "open school" for prospective students. Sam and I will each give a five minute presentation four times over the course of the two-day event, talking about our background and our country. I'll use some photos of family and home as well as a couple of cool colorful maps showing the states and the Northwest.

Then on Thursday we have a day off to travel to Nagoya with several other Mie JETs to get re-entry permits stamped onto our passport in case we ever decide to travel abroad while our 3-year visa is valid. After the Nagoya trip we'll head to Nabari where we'll stay until Saturday -- we're helping with an English camp there on Friday but staying overnight because it's a bit out of the way from Ise. At the English camp we'll lead small groups of high school students in games and other activities aimed at English conversation.

Meanwhile, backtracking to Wednesday evening, we have our first official "enkai," or office party. From what I gather, this will include most English teachers and several other teachers from the school. Not sure if the principal or vice principal will be there, as we have a separate dinner meeting set up for them, I think.

So this week is really going to fly by. The following week, except for a couple appointments, is vacation time. I don't plan to go anyway big but I might try to dash off to Nagoya, Osaka or Kyoto (all within reach by a couple of hours on the train).

Then after my summer holiday, our truly busy schedule will begin. I am definitely looking forward to starting up classes. Today we attended a session of a special summer class of the first year (10th grade) international track students. We gave a quick introduction in English and then assisted with a few activities. It was a nice intro to some aspects of "team teaching" and the students were quite good an English and pretty high energy for being in school during what is technically summer break (here, summer school isn't for slackers trying to catch up, but over-achievers trying to jump ahead ... I think ... I may be wrong but that's what I gather.)

Now, we're heading out to meet a Japanese friend we've made, and I'm hoping the outing includes dinner because I had only a tiny sandwich for lunch. Gotta run ... I'm due outside in 120 seconds.

A couple more photos

On the way to work. I wasn't actually lost, just letting the map sink in.

Me at work.

Ya-Ma-Sho!

I had already been chatting with the pair of 50-somethings in the izakaya in Tsu, already enjoying a glass full of the booze they offered. But it wasn't until they heard I worked for Yamasho that they really lit up. One man reached over to shake my hand when he heard this development.

That's because Yamasho had been playing at Koshien, the national high school baseball tournament. After their 15-inning tie no decision opener, which I attended, Yamasho lost, ended their run. Nevertheless, Mie still appears to be proud of their representatives to the Big Show. And why not. Making it that far is certainly an accomplishment.

My trip to Koshien began early Tuesday morning, when I filed on to bus 11 -- one of dozens making the trip -- and headed west for Osaka/Kobe. Six hundred of Yamasho's 800 students, and nearly all of the 60-some teachers were making the trek, along with members of the PTA and family members of the players.

In the cheering section, a brass band, cheerleaders and rank and file students sit quietly while the opposing team is up to bat, unless they want to politely cheer on the pitcher toward the end of an inning. But when Yamasho came up to bat, the entire section stands up and begins a cycle of cheers, each player earning his own theme.

Right in the middle of all of this, I tried to keep up, learning at least the clapping rhythms of the cheers and when to sit and stand. I applied and re-applied sun screen often, hoping to avoid a repeat of the beach party burn.

The whole experience was like a flash of excitement, bookended by marching to or from the bus and driving to or from Ise.

Back at the bar, it turns out the pair of 50-somethings were teammates at the Koshien tourney back in their high school days, also representing Mie.

AND now it's late Saturday afternoon and I'm heading to some kind of festival in a nearby town. Fireworks are involved. More later.

quickly!

It's bed time, but quickly here is a shot taken by Sam the other ALT:


This is our building, which mysteriously holds six dwellings. Not sure if they're all the same size, but Sam's and mine do match. I live toward the left.

I'll post about the baseball trip later. Turns out, it was hot.

Some photos

The beach at Shima. Lots of people were surfing but the waves weren't so big. I got sunburned
(surprise!) but thankfully Japan has the aloe vera.

This is my desk at school in the teacher's room, which is perhaps one of the only places on the whole campus which is air conditioned. This makes up for not having much to do this week at work, because, as I've mentioned 304 thousand times, it's hot and humid here. Really. You would have to experience it to know what I'm talking about. You have a version of hot and humid, but this version is worse (I'm speaking here to my friends and family in Oregon ... surely there are places much hotter out there, such as the inside of a volcano).

I'm not sure what this river-stream-creek is called, but I cross over it every time I head to the post office, the train station or the busier more happening parts of Ise-shi.

I've been bad about taking photos; it's probably because I feel no sense of urgency since I'm not leaving after a couple weeks. I'll get more photos of other things up later. For now, good day. How is America?

Exploring Ise

As my previous post suggests, I drank a bit too much at the Ise JETs welcome party on Friday night. The evening started at an izakaya, a Japanese style pub which serves a variety of snack items and drinks. Rather than ordering a "meal" all at once, you press a button on the table that calls over the staff and tell them what you want. This goes on over and over until it's time to move the party on. On Friday, round two was karaoke. This explains the excess drinking. Or perhaps the excess drinking explains the signing. At any rate, I had too many beers from the conbini (convenience store) downstairs, and I was not feeling so grand in the morning. (In Japan, karaoke is usually among friends in private room rather than the open mic style more common in the U.S.).

Despite a nasty hangover, I woke up Saturday with a couple hours to spare before heading about 90 minutes away to a beach in Shima for the Mie prefectural welcome event for new JETs. I wanted to find a cooler to transport food and drink to the beach, as well as an ATM to replenish my Yen-on-hand supply. I failed on both counts after walking a few laps around my neighborhood. I've since found the postal ATM which works or foreign withdrawals ... it's a quick bike ride away.

And it seems that most everything is a "quick bike ride away" if you allow "quick" to stretch once in a while. In my time off on Sunday, I cycled around the area a bit. My neighborhood is a patchwork of rice fields and two-story structures. To walk or bike to school, most of the trip is through one-lane roads separating homes and rice fields. To get to the post office, the train stations, or several bars and restaurants, you head the other way down a some busier roads.

I've still only seen a small slice of this little town (about 100,000 people live here I'm told). But having been here for only a few days, that is not a problem.

On Monday after work I'm heading to a birthday party for one of the other Ise JETs who has been here for a couple of years (she is the one tasked with organizing the social events for Mie JETs ... and her boyfriend drove us all to the beach ... many thanks to her and her people). The party location is "Nanaimo," a fantastic bar that we visited after the beach party last night. Just a short bike ride away from home, the bar's night menu offers a lineup of Mexican food, a rarity in Japan. I had the nachos, which were great, and I can't wait to sample the whole menu as the days pass (the prices are not bad). They also offer a small lineup of international beers, including Corona via Mexico. Sadly, the offering from the United States ... is Zima. So we've established that the menu is great, but the real fun of the place is the atmosphere. I was only there for an hour at most, but the owner was very kind, funny and welcoming. Another English teacher from the area says he often eats there twice a day (there's also a lunch menu which I haven't seen yet). He's so close with the owner and staff that he helps buss tables, refill water glasses, and even suggest new menu items. I have a feeling I'll be visiting fairly often.

It's another day at the office tomorrow morning. I hope to spend the day reading through some "team teaching" guidebooks or other material I may be using. Unless something else comes up, which would be great, because we really truly don't have much to do right now.

BUT -- no worries, because on Tuesday we're going to the Koshien tournament to watch our baseball team vie for the national title. Then this Thursday and Friday we have to head up to Tsu for the Mie orientation for new JETs. Then, all of a sudden, the next term will start at school, and I'll have to figure out how, exactly, to be a teacher.

Nonde Nonde Nonde

The term of hangover in Japanese translates to "second-day drunk."

The second day has arrived.

Now, to the beach.

Networking

My free wireless service provider, whomever he or she may be, is great, but it isn't always on. The sporadic connection at home along with no Internet at work so far (working on that ...) means I'm not online so often, so blogging will be sparse until I get this stuff sorted out.

Yesterday was our first full day of "work," but really we have very little to do until the students come back to school at the end of the month. We can use the time reading of textbooks or teaching material, preparing our self introduction speeches, arranging photo slideshows, etc. But that can only take us so far.

We also registered yesterday for our "gaijin card," simply a card working as an ID for a foreign resident of Japan. Today we're going to open our official bank account (the future home of my salary deposits, I assume) and begin a cell phone plan.

Meanwhile, not even a week from the three-night party that is the Tokyo Orientation, we've got two party events going on beginning tonight with a welcome party for new JETs in the Ise area, capping tomorrow with a beach party followed by obligatory after parties.

It's 10 to 8 and blazing hot/humid out there, and it's about time to begin the trek to Yamasho. Oh, and Sam (the other ALT at my school; she is from Singapore) and I have been invited to go watch the school's baseball team vie for the national championship next week ... exciting, yes?

Gotta run ... err ... walk into the death blaze of the rising Ise sun.

Home Again

Thank God for the aircon (Japanese for air conditioner). The "main room" in my apartment features this unit. When entering this main room, there is a small kitchen inlet to the left, featuring a medium sized fridge, a sink, a couple of burners (no stove) and a few other appliances. Staight ahead is the open area, which is a combination living room, dining room, party room, and bed room ... err futon room. It has a couple tables and bookshelves among a few other things, plus a TV. Oh, and this is important -- the computer is picking up wireless Internet from a mysterious source. If the signal keeps up then I'll be enjoying free onlinery at home (and at school).

At the other end of the aparto (Japanese for apartment) there is another room, more traditionally a bed room ... but I will sleep in the main room where the AC lives for now. There's also a toilet and a bathroom, of course, and a couple of closets here and there. Finally, outside the main room there's a veranda where you hang your clothes to dry (I've got a killer washing machine, but not so much with the dryers over here). I think that covers the nuts and bolts.

The building itself is two stories and about five or six apartments wide. You enter the door at ground level and climb stairs to get to the living area. Of course you remove your shoes before you step up into the house.

So what does all this mean to you? Not much, but hear this. I do have plenty of room to host visitors. It would be a tight perhaps, but if I'm sleeping in the main room I could fit several people on extra futons in the bed room, and there's room in the main room for another futon spread. So basically, get on over here, yes? Let me know first, you know, so I can go meet you at the train station, assuming I can find said station. Give me a few weeks.

Jumping backward, we left Tokyo in the mid-morning on the shinkansen (bullet train) and ended up in Mie mid afternoon. We toured the school, met various people including our supervisor and the school principle and a few students, who greeted us when we got off the train in Tsu-shi to drive down to Mie (trains do go all the way to Ise but we all got off at the prefectural captiol).

Anyway, there's much more to say but I'll leave it for another time. It's after 1 a.m. and I've got an early morning. Once I get to know my apartment and the vicinity I'm sure I'll have some more interesting things to write on the subject. Gotta sign off then, adios.

Oriented, Intoxicated, Saturated

ORIENTED

Day One of Tokyo Orientation is finished. It all happens at the Keio Plaza Hotel, a 47-story, double-tower dwelling in the heart of Shinjuku. My room is on the 39th floor, from where we have an amazing view of a skyline that goes on until the horizon, where we can only imagine it goes on until another.

INTOXICATED

The morning began for me at 5 a.m., when I suddenly awoke assuming it was several hours later. So I took an early shower and found myself ready for the day before I needed to be. We were all a bit hungover after our night out, which wasn't too over the top when you consider that another guy named Daniel who came from Portland informed me just now that he was out until 6 a.m. For those counting at home, this means he was still drinking when I was in the shower trying to recover ... from drinking. Tonight at the welcome reception dinner, he was drinking ginger ale, cursing his heavy evening on the sauce. But then he caught a glimpse a whiskey and coke and started anew.

SATURATED

You do a lot of sitting and listening at this orientation, and most of the information has been given to us several times all ready. They are very careful to make sure we get certain points, like that even if you only have one beer, you can be arrested for driving drunk. I've probably been warned about this 353 times, roughly. But it's hard to complain when we're being put up in a very nice hotel and get a few nights to explore Tokyo. Which is wear I'm headed now -- more drinking, probably, this time with some Japanese students brother Phil worked with all seven years ago ... the very first Japanese people I ever met. I blame them for my current state of affairs.

The blogging Web site has decided that since I am now in Japan, I want to operate in Japanese. It's intuitive, is it not? But really I'd prefer to blog in English. I assume I'll figure that out eventually. This assumption is how I expect to get through most new things here. I've visited three times, sure, but I don't know how to become a temporary resident.

I'm now in the Keio Plaza Hotel in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo, roomed with two other guys who flew in from Portland. We decided to trek out into the lively neighborhood with no plan, which turned out to be a success, be it an expensive one. First, we grabbed a drink from a corner shop that is somewhat like wine but higher in alcohol content -- and distributed in a box that reminds me of fruit punch or some other kind of kid-like beverage which requires a straw-through-foil piercing to begin enjoyment.

Eventually we found a billiards hall with a full bar, and this is where the three of us ended up with a $100 tab (not each but all together). In Tokyo, we suppose that's not too shabby, really. We played pool for more than an hour and each refreshed our drinks a couple or few times.

We face a 9 a.m. wakeup call at latest, with a 10 a.m. start to Monday's orientation events.

We decided a few moments ago that we should go ahead and drink the beer in the hotel room fridge, because either we'll end up getting it for free because the JET people booked the room, or they'll bill us for a couple drinks. No worries. Maybe we'll win out.

More tomorrow.

City of Books

It's 8:30 in Portland, and from Phil's uptown condo, I'm enjoying my final glances at Portland's growing skyline. At 10 we'll make way for the airport, at 11 I'll check in among 60 other PDX-departing JETs, and some time after 2 we'll be in the air, for 11 hours, until we touch down in Tokyo to begin the beginning.

In my final, pre-airport moments in the United States, I'll take a walk down Burnside, stopping in at Powell's City of Books to make some last minute purchases. A perfect Portland finale, I feel.

Meanwhile, I do have my Japanese physical address. I may post it here some time after getting settled in, but it's also on Facebook and I can give it to you on request.

I'll check in on the blog once I'm in my room at the hotel in Tokyo, before hopefully doing some exploring if it's not too late.

For now, Powell's opens in 15 minutes, so I better get on the road.

Mountain Trade of Triple Prefecture Won This Day

Sound like gibberish? Thank Google. But at least it's something. The school where I'll work is called "Ujiyamada," which translates to something like "Mountain Trade" (yama means mountain, I know that much). So when Google's Web site translation has its way with the school's home page, this phrase emerges. Meanwhile, "Mie" prefecture often comes back as "triple prefecture" because of translation issues.

But this is beside the point. The point, in short, is victory. Ujiyamada (aka Yamasho) won the prefectural baseball championship to represent Mie in Koshien, the annual national high school tournament. Unlike in the states, the high school tournament is treated as a big deal in Japan, with games being televised non-stop and plenty of attention focused on the ballpark in between Osaka and Kobe.

Says Yamasho's Web site, after a Google translation:

It won this day, the Yokkaichi haze at the inlet ball park in the 89th nationwide high school baseball championship triple conference, decided the Koshien participation. The koshien participation, after 4 years ever since 2003 becomes 3rd participation.

From this I gather that the championship game was played in Yokkaichi, Mie's largest city and an industrial center which has earned the nickname "the big smog." The latter part of the translation I take to mean that Yamasho is going to the tournament for the third time in four years.

In the summer of 2001 I was staying at a friend's house near Kyoto, and despite the ridiculous Kansai heat and humidity, I accepted the family's invitation to go to Koshien stadium for a day to watch a few games of the national tournament. Now, perhaps, I'll get to return and watch some of my students fight for the national title.

This, of course, fresh off watching the OSU Beavers win the NCAA title two years in a row (only once in person). At any rate, this is pretty exciting. The first game of the tournament for Yamasho appears to be Aug. 5, the day I arrive in Tokyo. So if they lose that day I won't be heading for the stadium. If the last beyond Aug. 8, when I arrive in Mie, I'll do what I can to get over there. Go Mountain Trade! Errr ... Yamasho!

Maximum Living

I picked up a few more details (and photos) about my living situation today thanks to quick chat online with my probably-predecessor (it's either her or the other JET at my school-to-be, but in either case I know I'll be in her apartment complex).

By bike, my most likely means of transportation (along with trains when necessary), my school is about 10 minutes away. A new "Max Value" (I think a large food and drug store) is under construction seven minutes away, and if it isn't ready, another (perhaps smaller) store is even closer. Also, a major train station is 10 minutes away (still on the bike).

My predecessor has survived for a year in Ise with no car, just a bike. I plan to try to make that work.

Also, my predecessor offered a few photos of her apartment, which will possibly be mine along with the furnishings and a few other things (like the TV, etc.). I do know that I'm in the same complex, so my place will probably look like the one in the photos.

My predecessor started out in an older apartment which was infested with cockroaches. She fortunately got out of that situation part-way through the year, and the new place was so new that she actually had to peel the plastic cover form the toilet seat.

That's pretttty new.

So it sounds like the apartment situation, based on its newnesss and its central location, is pretty solid.

11 Days in America

The Aug. 4 departure from Portland is fast approaching, and this week in Corvallis is all about the Great Separation. I'm going through the vast expanses of Stuff I have come to own over 24 years, deciding what will come to Japan and what shall be left behind.

While I imagined that this would be difficult, I'm finding it fairly easy. Basically, all I'm bringing is clothes, music, DVDs, books (most to be shipped), my computer, an iPod, toiletries, and a few other small items. I can find most everything else, like sheets or lamps or TVs, in Japan.

Meanwhile, I'm throwing away a lot of stuff. Lots of old school materials, magazines that were kept for unknown reasons, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

I know this is most likely too exciting to handle (please note the level of dry humor included in this sentence and apply to nearly all other comments you might not be sure reflect my true meaning).

For me, the trip taker, about to embark on a journey and a job, it is exiting. I dislike the chore of going through everything I own, but at the same time, I'm finding lots of old funny items, writings, pictures, or other such archival material. And it is quite refreshing to lighten my holdings. Do I really need two wicker baskets?

Plus, the act of packing makes real the idea that I'm finally approaching departure. My jobless summer, in addition to being a bad fiscal choice, proved to allow long days lounging around, which while nice, are also boring at times. Now that Aug. 4 is 11 days away I'm finding myself busy.

My current task is importing various songs from CDs onto the MacBook to get a new playlist going on the iPod. Tomorrow I'll import more songs from the family CD collection. I've thrown out my DVD cases and placed the discs directly in a case along with the CDs. I've picked up my new black suit and I now have almost all of the clothing I think I'll need in Japan.

Now it's just more sorting. I regret at this time that this post was not made to be humorous, or really engaging at all. Just a quick dumping of where I am now. A historical record, if nothing more. I'll return to the blog in the next few days, and hopefully I'll have some new solid material. Any ideas? Comment.

A Roofer Listens to His Heart

Look out from on high,
Shingles seared by summer heat,
A roof incomplete

The above haiku captures the story of last week, when my brother Phil and my father and I attempted to re-roof the house without the aid of professional roofers or trained medical experts. We did manage to remove the existing roof, which as you know, is made of roof parts, which when removed, tend to break into sections roughly the size of toenail clippings.

Once the roof parts are piled up in mountains of dust, 3o percent of which are made up of live wasps, you have to move handfulls at a time to the edge of the roof and heave them into the back of a truck, into which you secretly want to jump to avoid having to continue laboring in the heat.

After working periodically on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, the old roof was successfully removed, and the optimists among us saw a complete roof within a coupe of days. I, however, expected that we would be working on the new roof for several months or perhaps years, forcing me to give up my placement in Japan and switch careers.

We hit our stride on the re-shingling on Tuesday morning, with Phil operating a nail gun which was designed so that it would break down every 40 seconds, requiring a complicated surgery involving several screwdrivers and possibly a spare kidney. My job was to line up the row of shingles to be nailed into place.

By late Tuesday, with Phil's roof vacation winding down and Dad's trip to Florida on the horizon, a real, professional roofer was called in to finish the job. As we approached the last two rows of shingles on the first section, his shiny white truck turned into the driveway and I knew we were free. He effortlessly climbed the ladder to survey the damage. It turns out we had been nailing the shingles in a less-than-perfect position. Small mistake, easy enough to repair.

Phil and I climbed down the ladder, having been laid off from a job for the first time. We took one more look at our work, a full section almost done, but two rows shy. Our goal not reached, victory not achieved. But it was approaching 100 degrees. On Friday, a crew of professional roofers came and casually finished the job by 6 p.m. Even the wasps were impressed.

I leave you with a long quote from "Clerks," offered by Jahozafat.com:

Blue Collar Man: "Excuse me, I don't mean to interrupt, but, uh, what are you talking about?"
Randal: "The ending of Return of the Jedi."
Dante: "My friend here is trying to convince me that any independent contractors who were working on the Death Star were innocent victims when they were destroyed by the rebels."
Blue Collar Man: "Well, I'm a contractor myself. I'm a roofer. 'Done and Ready Home Improvements'. And speaking as a roofer, I can tell you a roofer's personal politics comes into play heavily when choosing jobs."
Randal: "Like when?"
Blue Collar Man: "Three weeks ago, I was offered a job up in the hills, beautiful house, ton's of property, a simple re-shingling job. They told me if I could finish it in one day, I would double my price. Then I realized whose house it was."
Dante: "Whose house was it?"
Blue Collar Man: "Dominic Bambino's."
Randal: "Baby Face Bambino, teh gangster?"
Blue Collar Man: "The same! The money was right, but the risk was too high. I know who he was, and based on that, I turned the job over to a friend of mine."
Dante: "Bosed on personal politics."
Blue Collar Man: "Right! And the next week, the Foresie family put a hit on Baby Face's house. My friend was shot and killed. Didn't even finish re-shingling."
Randal: "No way."
Blue Collar Man: "I'm alive because I knew the risk involved in that particular client. My friend wasn't so lucky. Any contractor working on that Death Star knew the risk involved. If they got killed, it's their own fault. A roofer listen's to this [pointing to heart], not his wallet."

Ise Ise Ise

I went to bed Sunday night expecting to wake up to an e-mail informing me of my placement within Mie-ken. Sure enough, I had an e-mail from Shintani-sensei, the English teacher who is in charge of the ALTs at Ujiyamada Commercial High School, or more simply, Yamasho.

Yamasho, says Shintani-sensei, is in Ise City (Ise-shi), "which is in the middle of Japan and is famous for Ise Grand Shrines." He refers to Ise-shi as "a small local" and quiet town. The Ise-shi guide on the Mie JET Web site says the city is home to 100,000 people. A map showing major train routes makes me rest easy -- two major lines make it to Ise-shi, but not further south (see map below).

(EDITED to add: I now think maybe a commercial high school is somewhere between industrial and high academic. Or maybe commercial is a low level but with a focus on commercial areas rather than industrial ones. But I'll leave my original speculation below in place. Either way I'm not concerned, just curious.)

I don't yet know much about my school, nor do I know exactly what the "commercial" designation means. At first I thought it meant it was a low level school, but then I recalled that there is also a kind of high school known as "industrial." Yamasho's 800 students can choose one of three courses: commercial, IT or English. Sixty-five teachers (I'm not sure how many ALTs) guide the students through their three years (Japanese senior high schools are U.S. grades 10, 11 and 12).

Adding to my new theory that Yamasho is perhaps a high level school, Google uncovered a 2005 brief from a Web site called "ELT News" which described an "English Boom in Ise."
(The brief was summarizing another article from Asahi.com). The ELT News item said Ise "has been caught up in the internationalization that has followed the opening of the Chubu International Airport and the Aichi World Expo, and residents are feeling a growing need to acquire English language skills." Specifically, "Ujiyamada Commercial High School became one of the latest additions to the government's SELHi (Super English Language High School) scheme...."

I have no idea what this means, but it sure does sound rigorous. I don't know how I would fare in a super English language program.

Ise itself sounds like a nice enough city. Bigger than where I am now and within two hours by train of Osaka and Nagoya, Japan's second and third largest cities, respectively. Here's a nice map of the region.

Above is a map showing two major train lines, which fortunately both have a bold line reaching as far as Ise. Looks like I barely made the frequent train grid. The Mie-JET Ise guide says there are frequent trips to Nagoya from Ise, but farther south trains are infrequent or not available. While I don't know my living situation yet, I'm hopeful that I'll be able to use public transportation instead of buying a car.

I've now scratched the surface of Ise-shi, capping an unusually early morning. The house cleaning lady comes Monday morning, and I usually sleep through the vacuuming. But today, with my placement info to research, I headed out in search of coffee shops with Wi-Fi. At Starbucks I bought an iced tea and a yogurt parfait but then found that their Internet access is not free. Starbucks = evil. I then headed to another place on third but their Wi-Fi wasn't working. I chugged my coffee and bounced to the Beanery on second, where I'm happily in the back corner, online and set for the afternoon.

I'm waiting for Japan to wake up so the people on the Mie-JETS forums can fill me in on Ise, and perhaps my predecessor (if I have one, fingers crossed) will find some time to e-mail me and give me some details.

About time:

It's 11:30 a.m. for me in Oregon so in Japan it's 3:30 a.m. ... my system is this: from Oregon time, count ahead four hours and switch from morning to night or night to morning ... daylight savings time standard time or whichever is not currently happening means it's five hours instead of four.

That's all for now. Since I have no job or class or anything to do but prepare (for four weeks) I'll have plenty more updates as I learn more.

Hurdles cleared

Well then. College sure was fun. Fortunately, I did, in fact, graduate. I've never been one to worry too much about school stuff, especially when most of my time in college was dominated by the newspaper -- and, ahem .... socializing.

But today I finally got proof from the university that I am a graduate. This is important, because the JET Program requires this proof. So now it's down to 4.5 weeks before departure, Aug. 5, from Portland to Tokyo for orientation, then it's off to somewhere in Mie-ken (they still have not told me which city I'll live in ... this must mean they're fighting over me, right?).

I was pretty sure I had actually graduated, because I passed all my classes (whew!) and had figured things out with an adviser, but until today I was consumed by a fear that something had gone wrong, forcing me take a summer class or something horrible like that.

But no, I have a bachelor's degree in political science.

As for the Japan preparations, I have some nice luggage, but I'm not even close to sure what I'm going to put in there. I still need to go shopping for some business attire (won't need to wear it too often thankfully) and other things.

For now I'm celebrating OSU baseball winning the national title ... again. I was there last year and both years I edited the 8-page special section for the Barometer.

Now that school is over I may be writing here more often, but I may not have much interesting to say until I get there.

Mie

Well, it may be time for me to admit that I am bad at being a "blogger." I have a blog, yes. I've had many. But I have never been a "blogger" in that I rarely keep up with blogs or post on them. I've found them mostly useful when traveling abroad and trying to relay my experiences to friends and family back home.

Which brings us to the present. In my last post, which I believe was written sometime in the first Bush administration, I said that I had been accepted into the JET program but that I didn't know where in Japan I'd be living.

This week, the Portland Consulate sent out placements. All I know now is that I'm going to Mie-ken, ken pretty much meaning state. I knew next to nothing about Mie before Monday's e-mail, but now I've learned a bit more. (click on the map to see a larger version.) It's a fairly rural state, the largest city hosting no more than a few hundred thousand people or so. Depending on where one is placed in the prefecture, you could be quite close to Nagoya in neighboring Aichi. In all, Mie is kind of in the middle of Osaka/Nara, Kyoto, and Nagoya, but it's shape means that you could be farther from one of these well-known places.

Word on the JET web forums is that because I was only told a state, I'm likely headed for a senior high school in a yet-to-be-named town (could be another month before said town/city/rice field is announced to me). I'm really hoping for something kind of close to Nagoya, both because I have friends in that area and because I prefer an urban setting. But my attitude the whole time is that I'd just make the most of any placement. Even if I'm isolated a bit within Mie, I believe that it will not be too difficult to reach the city now and then. After all, when you consider that some people are on far-flung islands closer to Pusan, South Korea than a major Japanese island, my central location on the main island of Honshu is pretty solid.

To each his own, though.

I've begun collecting information about Mie and the JET program there. Here are a few key links:

A guide to Mie

A homepage for Mie JETs

Wikipedia's Mie entry

So with all of that info I've learned much more about the state, but without knowing which city will be my home, or which (and how many) schools will be my workplace, I cannot start the obligatory expectation-development stage. Pity.

On the other front -- that is, the academic one -- things are going pretty well. Which is important, not just in the traditional sense. If I fail to graduate in June, I am kicked out of JET program and cannot even reapply until a year has passed. Yikes!

But right now, after some time with a helpful GPA calculator on the OSU Web site, things are looking solid.

And to bookend the post, regarding my lack of blogging, I hearby pledge to blog with a greater frequency once I get to Japan. Early on posts may be light, but once I settle in and have high-speed net access at home, it'l be smooth-sailing. I like to keep my blog readers happy. All four of them.

Japan here I come?

It all began in the late fall when I threw together my application for the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program (JET), a program sponsored by the Japanese government which places college graduates in middle schools and high schools (and sometimes elementary schools) across Japan. Then came winter, and along with it, the first phase of waiting.

JETs come from all over the world, mostly English speaking and mostly the United States, but over its now more than 20 year history, it has grown and expanded to other languages. Most JETs apply to become Assistant Language Teachers, working with a Japanese teacher of English and, at least according to the program's goals, promoting internationalization among the local population.

After I applied, I waited nearly a month to find out that I made it to the interview round. I interviewed in Portland in February. Nearly two months later -- today -- I got word that I made the final cut. That means I'm basically on the way to Japan in August, but some hangups could cause problems.

Such as not actually graduating in June. As of now, it appears that I will be able to graduate. I wouldn't be taking 19 credits if there wasn't a good reason. Also, they require successful applicants to get a FBI criminal background check. Not that I'm worried about anything. I'm clean, as far as I know. (Do they check Facebook?)

Getting word via e-mail today brought a big sigh of relief, but also another round of waiting. Now I wait for the 10-week term to finish, but it won't be over before hundreds of pages of reading, dozens of pages of writing and four days a week of 9 a.m. poli sci classes.

And assuming all does go well and I'm off to Japan, we don't yet know where in Japan I would go. Could be anywhere, really. A lot of JETs end up in very, very rural areas. Some find themselves in mid-sized cities, some are certainly near the major cities.

I'll continue posting about my JET experience, but so far, I have little to tell. I may post later about the interview and application processes, as they can be complicated. If you happen to have stumbled across this blog and want to know more about the JET or are thinking about applying, let me know via comment or e-mail and I'll offer any advice I can or better yet point you to some great resources on the Web already.

So right. Japan. For at least a year, maybe three, maybe more. But what was I doing? Oh right. School. Damn.

Uncle Rob

Check out my uncle Rob's music on his new MySpace page. He's a jazz violinist who started at UO, played in Portland for a while and then moved on to New York City. He's found success and he's pretty damn good at what he does.

The New Yorker

Remember when you were kid? And you were sitting at the kids table? And all the Big People were at the Big Table? Well, here's what was happening.

Pendleton

Our first full day in Pendleton has been spent sleeping, watching season 7 of The West Wing and ... well ... that's it. Later it's off to Great Pacific for a dinner of sandwiches and microbrews.

This beats a wild and crazy spring break. Plus, the hot Pendleton college girls will probably be dancing in bikinis out at the reservoir any day now.

And we're back ... this time for real

Well then.

Oh how the weeks pass and the blog remains unchecked, would-be posts lost to the day-to-day housekeeping duties like making a newspaper.

But all that's over now. My year as editor in chief, plagued by an unfortunately low level of scandal, has come and gone. For my final term as an undergraduate, I have been reduced to a copy editor, two nights a week, instead of the usual, oh, say, 40-plus hours a week, plus class, but not really class, because honestly, how often did I really go?

Not that I'm complaining. I was fortunate to get the job and it was a pleasure. I love newspapering from all angles, and now I'll finally be able to report again along with my duties on the copy desk.

And, just maybe I'll be able to blog again. But as any of my long-time blog readers know, and I'm talking directly to my brother Phil, my mom and my friend Andrew, I don't have the purest of blog track records.

So today I officially announce the end of my un-planned blogging hiatus. For now, it's back to seasons six and seven of The West Wing, which I didn't get to watch the first time around because of my love for journalism.

By the by, Mr. Nealon himself is blogging again, and so too, at least occasionally, is Kirsten.