Zoe and Ashley's Visit: Part I

I had been looking forward to Zoe and Ashley's visit since before I ever set foot in Japan. They bought their tickets last spring a few months before I left, and unknowable to them, ended some of the panic I was feeling about moving to Asia sight-unseen. Knowing that they would be here for my Birthday, Christmas and New Years made the whole idea bearable and assured me that the holidays wouldn't be so tough away from my family. Now, understanding all this, you can imagine the freak out that I had when Zoe said this to me a mere 12 hours before I they were scheduled to land at Narita: "Japan Air is not honoring our flight from Chicago to Tokyo and they won't release it to Delta to help us, so I'm not sure we are coming at all." Luckily, I had a house filled with people so I couldn't burst into tears as I would have otherwise. It was a long 24 hours before I got the call I wanted, "We're on the plane!"

They got in at 3:00 on Monday afternoon, which happened to be my last day of work. My sweet friend Matt offered to go pick them up at the airport while I was at work and bring them back to my apartment. I finished work at 5 and raced home, only to run smack into them at the train station as they were coming up the escalator. They arrived on the nastiest day I have witnessed in Japan so far. It was cold, windy as hell and raining sideways. By the time we finished the ten minute walk from the station to my house, two of my three umbrellas suffered the inside-out death and we were all soaked and chattering when we came through the front door. Welcome to Japan.

I had been planning their eleven days in Japan for months, and since they were a day late, they were not allowed the all important jet-lag time. As soon as they walked in the door, it was a quick cup of sake and then into the showers. We had dinner reservations in Tokyo with 8 of my friends and an all-night party train planned for the last leg of my 30th Birthday celebration.

Their first glimpse of Tokyo: Shibuya Station, Hachiko Crossing.

I think they liked it.

We went to dinner at a great izakaya in Shibuya. It looked like a Japanese garden inside. To get to your table, or to the bathrooms for that matter, you walked on stepping stones through a fish pond. You could never build awesome things like hallway Koi ponds in the US because of the super litigious society and the resulting excessive code that chokes every designer before they begin to sketch. The food was equally adventurous. They had an English menu, but some things are lost in translation and I wasn't surprised when no one ordered the 'grilled fish guts tube style'. Zoe picked a winner with the spicy beef and rice, but Ashley was not so lucky with her assorted chicken organs on sticks happy meal. Luckily, there was enough food on the table to go around, and we were mostly on a liquid diet that night anyway.

Then it was off in Taxis to Shinjuku where we had a glass karaoke room reserved for us overlooking the chaos below. I think Zoe's reaction to the view summed up a feeling shared by most of us.

In the absence of a pole, improvise with a window mullion.

I know Karaoke has major stigmas attached in the US, and before I lived here, I shared in the 'would rather go home and watch c-span' mentality, but it's just different here. For starters, you get your own private room with just your friends, so the humiliation is limited to people who have already come to love you for other reasons. Second, it's really not about whether or not you can sing (thank God) but how much heart you put into your performance, and most importantly, your ability to pick a crowd pleasing song so that you don't sing alone. Lastly, if you can't sing, you should at least be funny. This is why my most popular selection is always Macy Gray's, I try. A few cigarettes and a white Russian and I am a dead ringer, or so my friends who already love me have said. Matt won the MVP this night, even over Zoe who actually sang Whitney Houston beautifully, with his ear splitting rendition of the most infamous of Bee Gee's songs. The combination of his high pitched AH-HA-HA-HA staying alive's combined with his deadly serious expression has us all on the floor. Well done Matt, it will be tough to beat.
My recollection gets a bit blurry right around 4:00, but I do remember being impressed with Zoe and Ash. They were troopers. Not only did they not yawn once, but they were the last two standing not long after our last drinks when watched the sun rise on Glen and Steff's Balcony thirty-three stories up over the city we had just finished painting red.

Ohaiyo Tokyo at dawn

And around 3:00 that afternoon when we woke up. Not so genki.

Catch the subway home and... crash.

We didn't have long to recover as we were due on the Shinkansen (bullet train) the following morning (Christmas Eve) to go to Hakone, a hot springs resort area at the base of Mt. Fuji. As I've mentioned before, the Shinkansen is the way to travel and the awesomeness was not lost on my friends. We caught a quick glimpse of Fuji from the window of the train, but by the time we had our cameras ready it was hiding behind a closer mountain chain again. We figured we had all weekend to gaze lovingly at the iconic giant of Japan. How wrong we were.

On the Shinkansen

There was some confusion as to which hotel we had reserved, as two different places were listed on our itinerary. We went with the first one and guessed wrong. The travel agency paid our way via cab to the second hotel, Nampu-so, in the Hakone-Yumoto region. The only real problem is that I had researched the route to see Fuji from the first hotel, so when we arrived a half hour later at our new digs, I had to rely solely on asking questions in Japanese to make a new plan. The first order of business was lunch, just across the river from our hotel. It was a standard Japanese noodle house, with no English on the menu, so I read what I could and ordered for all three of us. I got lucky.

Lunch was good.

We decided to wander a bit aimlessly for the afternoon and see what we could see off the beaten path. In this regard we were wildly successful. We got to see some serious backwoods Japan that at times so closely resembled North Georgia, I kept warping back about 6 years in my mind. Six years ago Zoe and I were living together in Atlanta, and on weekends we would frequently go back to her home town in Rabun County, Georgia. Rabun County is where they filmed Deliverance, no joke, look it up. So, it's mountainous and has lots of beautiful gorges and waterfalls, but some strange things to behold as well, like people partying with a keg in an overturned rusted out school bus, etc...

This section Japan in latitudinally aligned with North Georgia so the landscape is familiar, and with all the waterfalls and hiking trails it felt almost identical. Throw in the fact that it was Zoe walking in front of me (wearing the same damn light blue coat) and you could see where I'd have trouble keeping my chronology straight.

I like this photo of me because it reminds me of my favorite DuChamp painting, only I am clothed and ascending the staircase, but still, it's cool.

Waterfall, Shinto Shrine, Koi pond, Hakone


Underwater camera awesomeness

Pathway to the temple in Hakone

Not long after we veered off the touristy path, we came across a seriously creepy little town, as first evidenced by this terrifying statue of a tanuki. As we wandered further in, some of the locals told us about a temple that was worth seeing. On our way we witness two roadside fires burning unattended and a very large man walking briskly with an axe or a hoe or something over his shoulder. There were sounds of construction coming from all directions, but no one in sight. This town was seriously eerie. When Ashley went to the bathroom and failed to return, Zoe and I were convinced we were staring in a horror flick so naturally we headed for the cemetery and started videotaping.

After exploring for the afternoon, we headed back to the hotel for a hot springs (onsen) soak before dinner. I had been to an onsen once before in Shikoku with Liz and Joe, so I wasn't as nervous this time around. Onsens are separated by sex, and swim suits are forbidden, so if you don't like being naked in front of friends and strangers, it's probably not for you. First, we scrubbed up at the shower stations making sure to get all the soap off, and then took a look at the lay of the land.

The hotel had a series of baths, four inside and three outside. They were all beautiful, but we all liked the look of the baths outside overlooking the mountain best. It had three pools all pouring into each other, a bamboo round basin at the top with benches under the water, then a square tiled pool, and at the bottom a free form rock pool at the edge of the plateau. We all agreed on our destination and tippy toed our happy naked asses right past the first five pools, out into the December air and splashed down into the last one. What we did not know is that the pools are designed to be done in sequence, with each pool being hotter than the last to gradually acclimate your body to the insane temperature of the last pool. We managed to stay in for about a minute and then climbed out and stood on the edge watching the steam pour off of our skin. Ashley made a quick crack about us having smoking hot bodies, but we were at 3,000 feet in December so it didn't last long. We figured out the right way of doing things soon after and headed back to our room when we were all soaked out.

Goofing around after the onsen

The Japanese style hotel, or Ryokan, was old and huge and filled with things we didn't understand, so naturally we loved it. When you stay in a Ryokan, generally you get one big room covered in tatami mat flooring (soft bamboo mats) on which you sit, sleep and eat depending on what time of day it is. For dinner, the staff set up a low table and served about 10 mini dishes each of varying unidentifiable fish products. Zoe hates fish, so her dinner consisted of rice, miso soup, and beer. She didn't seem all that displeased.

Staying in a Ryokan is a great experience for those of us used to American customer service. First your dinner is served in your room and it's presentation is not to be believed. This was our 'waitress' for lack of a better word and she chatted with us in half English half Japanese for a while before leaving us to eat. She told us to dial 7 on the phone when we were ready for our dished to be cleared and asked us what time we wanted to go to bed. We understood this a bit better later, when she came to set up our beds and tucked us in before bowing her way out of the room promising to wake us up early so we could go to Fuji.

In our yukatta (robes) checking out the spread

Miss Muffett on her tuffett

We awoke early Christmas morning and set out to finally get a good look at Fuji. After much language butchering at the train station, I bought us each a ticket up the switchback railroad, a ticket for the cable car transfer and a ticket for the gondola that would take us to the highest point next to Fuji for some good photo opportunities. About an hour later we were on the gondola cruising up a mountain ridge wondering aloud when we were going to see Fuji. We saw the top of a very steep ridge approaching but couldn't see anything beyond it so we waited as the rope car made it's way over the top. What we encountered on the other side was a little less like the serene snow capped Fuji framed between pink blossoming cherry trees I envisioned, and a lot closer to Mordor. The wind increased ten fold the moment we rose above the ridge that was blocking our view. The gondola was swaying back and forth violently revealing pitching views of the sulfur fields that lay at the base of Fuji and some nasty looking clouds that would occasionally engulf us and reduce visibility to zero.

Sulfur mines

For a few fleeting seconds the clouds cleared and we could see Fuji, but with all the holding on and screaming, no one had the presence of mind to take any good pictures. At the end of the rope line was a restaurant perched on a cliff. We sat down, ordered a beer to calm our nerves and were contemplating lunch when the manager came over and asked if we spoke Japanese. When I said yes, he explained that we may not want to stay long as the winds has been increasing all afternoon and they were close to the point at which they shut down the rope car, leaving us stuck in the restaurant for the night with the windows rattling. No thanks. We chugged our beers, bought a bottle of sake for the ride down, took a deep breath and got back in the gondola. Ten minutes later we were back over the ridge and the world was normal again: birds chirping, sun shining, bamboo swaying in the breeze. It was all a bit unreal. When my students asked me what I thought of Fuji, I found it was the perfect opportunity to teach them the word 'intense'.

The only pic we took, from the restaurant in a moment of decent visibility.

To be continued....

30!

Proper attention was paid to the departure of my 20's. It was a four day event that left me feeling closer to 50 by the time all the candles were blown out. Lucky girl that I am, I landed on my feet in a great area of Japan and have made some very close friends in a short amount of time. They took shifts (some of them pulling doubles) keeping the party going strong for the long weekend until Zoe and Ashley arrived on the 21st.

On the 3rd day of celebration we descended upon this strange little local bar called Hasta Manana. It looks like it belongs in Tucson very close to the U of A, and there is never anyone in there. I've always thought it looked inviting because it has a glass facade and you can see what the bar looks like and who is there before entering. This is not the case with most Japanese establishments. I guess privacy trumps curb appeal in this society as most front windows are frosted and the ubiquitous hospitality curtain hangs right at eye level. These places fascinate me but also make me a little nervous. I like to spy for a while before walking in the front door, but with the zero visibility policy in effect throughout most of Japan, you just don't know what you're gonna get. An entire bar filled with drunk salary men is bad, but not the worst you can do.

Hasta Manana

My favorite dive, featuring the typical clandestine entry.

There are also "hostess bars" where you pay dearly for your beer and edamame and coincidentally, one of the 7 or 8 female bartenders gives you her undivided attention, laughs at your jokes, listens to your woes and keeps your drink full. It's basically paying to be liked, so think Delta Delta Gamma for old tired dudes after work. Most of these places are legit and the girls are just there to be excellent company while you sing Neil Diamond songs and throw back some sake, but some hostess bars are thinly veiled prostitution operations in which the hostesses have business cards and a room reserved at the love hotel across the street. Now, given my illiterate status, you can understand my hesitance about ducking the curtain and sauntering into a bar that may not be designed with me in mind, and then embarrassing myself further with busted Japanese trying to make a graceful exit.

I'm getting to the point, I promise. During the hour we were in Hasta Manana, a group of Japanese people had a parallel experience as they approached the bar, half opened the door and froze upon seeing eleven foreigners occupying the entire front room. They stood on the threshold, mouths open, unable to advance into the bar or tell their friends behind them what they had stumbled upon. Had the occupation been reinstated? Had they crossed through some international vortex when they passed the pachinko parlor? Sometimes I think the Japanese must feel about foreigners the way I feel about monkeys. One or two are cute, but I don't trust them in numbers.

Monkeys in Numbers

After a few awkward moments of our groups sizing each other up in front of the lingerie vending machine (you read that right), one of my party came to their senses and said "Daijoubu desu, Ohairi kudasai." (It's alright, come in.) They bowed their way past us and retreated to the back corner where they could observe us covertly behind a cloud of cigarette smoke.

And then at our usual restaurant, Subohachi, across the street

opening presents

At the restaurant, Megumi kept me engrossed in conversation while the rest of my friends discreetly passed around party poppers and synchronized their watches to scare the hell out of me. I noticed the silence, looked up and said "what?" as they pulled the strings and 10 loud bangs were followed by confetti covering the table. I jumped out of my skin, but was pleased to note my progress in not diving beneath the table and checking for entry wounds as I would have in Philly. In some countries, a loud bang simply means confetti. Innocence is also bliss.

and more waiting for me at home

If you saw some of these presents you'd be laughing too.

After the restaurant it was back to my place to finish off the evening right with some 7-11 brand vodka and Mario Cart Wii. A few of my friends from Tokyo were staying overnight but I had warned them that we could not fall into our usual habit of crawling into bed at dawn, as I was picking up Zoe and Ashley from the Airport the following day and wanted to have the physical ability to show my enthusiasm. When we got to my house, there was a voice mail from Zoe saying that they had missed their flight to Chicago after waiting in a three hour check-in line in Atlanta, and Japan Airlines was claiming their tickets from Ohare to Tokyo couldn't be transferred to a later time. I was beyond deflated at hearing the news, but luckily, my friends were quick to point out some possible solutions, keep me drinking and keep my mind off things until I got the call the next morning that they were on the plane. But that's a post for another night....

Gratitude '08

Last year I was grateful to be alive. This year I am grateful for my life. There is a huge difference. Some things on the list are trivial and some as important to me as the air that I breathe. Again, in no particular order, 100 things for which I am grateful. This year's list was exceptionally easy to fill up, the mark of a truly excellent year.

1. International shipping
2. White Rabbit Press kana flashcards
3. Brita water filters
4. Pasmo
5. Electric blankets
6. Good memorization skills
7. Charades
8. My neighborhood recycle shop
9. Ikea
10. FAST internet
11. Skype
12. The shoe store in Usui that sells womens' size 3L shoes
13. http://www.jorudan.co.jp/english
14. Liz and Joe and their awesome idea
15. My last two weeks in the States
16. My brother, for being one of my favorite people to be around, and for managing the mutt.
17. Bravery
18. Stupidity
19. The 100 yen shop
20. Millie Mamachari
21. Isolation and time to think
22. A global market for English education
23. Maruetsu
24. NO CRIME
25. The perfect running park three blocks away
26. Izakayas
27. Great great great great luck
28. Narita-san
29. My adorable Japanese style apartment
30. 25 hour workweeks
31. First dates
32. Zoe and Ashley and our whirlwind trip to see everything
33. Pointing
34. The Shinkansen
35. Jon Stewart
36. 160 Gigs of stuff to watch when it rains (thanks Chris!)
37. Neighborhood cats
38. Wonderful students
39. Matt and Beth and the incredible luck in meeting them
40. Glen and Steff and our Sunday morning muffin ritual
41. Facebook
42. The Shinkawa river path
43. My waterproof camera (Thanks Dad!)
44. Bit torrents
45. Hot tea
46. People giving out packs of tissues at every train station
47. Yaki-Niku, Yaki-Imo, Yaki-Tori and many other Yaki things
48. Small earthquakes
49. Visitors! (Chris, Alex, Zoe, Ashley, Eric, Hiromi, Michelle, Dad, Cheryl...and counting!)
50. Knowing I am missed
51. Clementines
52. The Gaijin Smash!
53. My rice cooker
54. The departure of the possessed howler monkey bird from my balcony
55. Beth having a good year
56. My Macbook
57. Feeling proud of myself
58. Vending machines
59. 7-11
60. Teachers' editions
61. My compass
62. Pimsleur language CDs
63. My volunteer private tutor, Rika
64. JapanIcan.com
65. Jenny and our bicycle trips
66. Christmas trees
67. High valued Yen
68. Ambien
69. Japanese customer service
70. Landing on my feet
71. Lonely Planet guidebooks
72. Dissolving regrets
73. Thirty
74. Mom and Dad and their unwavering encouragement no matter how wacky the idea
75. Tatami and futon sleeping
76. Having such a great family to miss
77. My summer with Cat and Jude
78. Only waking up to an alarm once a week
79. The word 'Domo' and the particle 'wa'
80. Care packages
81. NO CRIME (bears repeating)
82. Not knowing what country I will live in next year
83. Barack Obama
84. My friends who really work to stay in touch with me
85. Wii fit
86. Tempura
87. My 30th Birthday weekend and all those involved. It was the best I ever had.
88. Shrinking
89. MIL
90. The nightly English newscast at 9:00
91. A whole new world to explore
92. Streaming video and proxy blockers
93. Simplification
94. Trains that are always on time
95. Long aimless walks
96. hugs
97. Those tissues with the lotion in them that don't make your nose all red
98. Irony
99. Carpe Diem
100. Japan

Oh not much, what did you do this weekend?

Until now, Tokyo and I had been doing a lot of flirting and occasionally making out, but this weekend, we spent quite a bit of time together and took our relationship to the next level. I spent the weekend with my new city, and I can say with confidence "Upgrade!"

Here's a taste of what I got into, just wandering around seeing the sights with a soundtrack comprised mostly of Amy Winehouse, Badly Draw Boy, The Killers, Talking Heads, and Dustin Fisher's awesome new album :-)

I took a brief snooze on a round red couch with some new friends at 4:00am.

I spent some time with a frog fountain watching the city go by.


I had a beer under the tracks with some colorful characters


I saw the sun rise and the start of the commuter work day.

Then onto the colorful leaves in Ueno Park.

I had green tea at this gorgeous cafe overlooking the lily pond.

I tried my first roasted yam-potato type thing. Delicious!

I saw a swan feeding some ducks.

I was admiring the light in this section of the park when I heard....

Jewpanese music. And the ubiquitous crazy old Japanese dude.

Ah Tokyo, You are a freak. See you next weekend!

I seek the geek.

I've been meaning to get to a section of Tokyo known for being geek mecca for sometime. I've always considered myself to be part geek due to my unabashed fondness for Nintendo, Tolkien and consumer electronics, but I was straight out of my league in the famous Akihabara. I was on a mission to find some Christmas gifts for a teenage friend of the family back in the states who is into Japan's biggest export, Anime. I had a list of characters that she liked and thought it would be easy to wander into Anime central and pick up some goodies without too much confusion.

Akihabara in the rain

Two of my most patient and easily entertained friends, Glen and Steff, agreed to meet me there, as they were on a hunt for some high end speakers. They tried to convince me the speakers were to compliment the 60" Plasma they have been eyeing, but the truth is they are aiming to throw some wicked Kareoke parties in 2009. I have the pictures to prove it. Anyway we made a day (and night) of it, looking for some allusive Japanese cartoon characters in a sea of animated madness. I met them at Akihabara station and on our way to a Singaporian feast, we had some fun with oversized advertising. For the record, yes I am wearing boots, a coat, a scarf and shorts. It's a Tokyo thing.

This one had something to do with racing, but beyond that, I just don't know.

Steff and I show them how it's done.

Then Glen and I set out with with great determination to explore the depths of the geek kingdom. We were a little alarmed to encounter eight story department stores selling nothing but action figures and still nothing that matched the names on our list. I hadn't bothered to do any research before beginning the expedition and we found that we were helplessly lost, armed only with a list that read: Naruto, Fruits Basket, Daisuke, and D N Angel. Floor by floor and beer by beer we traveresed the mayhem and witnessed some of the more disturbing things I have seen in 29 and 11/12ths years. Each floor was crazier than the last, some were cute, some were scary, some were naked. In the end, our mission was a success after some embarrassing exchanges in broken Japanese with the sales clerks. I'd like to show you the loot, but sorry Ashley, you'll have to be surprised when Fed-ex arrives sometime before Christmas.

The stores in Akihabara are in stark contrast to the rest of mild-mannered Japan. There are flashing lights, 9 story escalators, people in french maid costumes handing out packets of tissues, men with bull horns, and people dressed up as their favorite characters from comics, games and movies.
In one department store we found both a $60,000 TV (worth every penny) and some floor models of Japan's newest and most embarrasingly suggestive workout machine. I don't know what it's called, but it has stirrups and it needed to be filmed. If I ever run for congress, this will be the video that the Republicans dig up. I post it here in good faith.

Sorry Mom.

Japan Reacts

I would have loved to been home yesterday. I felt the need to stand on the lawn on the Constitution Center and yell "It's all not lost!" I would have liked to celebrate with my friends and the other 83% of Philadelphians who saved Pennsylvania from the dreaded red tide of stupidity. And personally, I think that now would be a very good time to ring the Liberty Bell again, just for history's sake. If one crack made it famous, imagine what two could do.

Although my mind was consumed by all things American yesterday, I had a very busy day to contend with here in Japan. My Japanese lesson starts at 10am and I need to catch a 9:30 train to get there, so I had to leave the house just as the polls on the east coast were closing. I went straight from the lesson to a staff meeting at noon. I ran from the station, busted into the teachers' lounge ten minutes early and still catching my breath, yelled "Someone give me the count!" I noticed everyone was smiling so I relaxed a little even before they gave me the state by state percentages. At that point they had just called Pennsylvania for Obama, but Virgina, Ohio and Florida were still purple. After the meeting I caught another train home and decided to race home for 20 minutes before going to classes to check the internet. I pulled up CNN and the headline read: Barack Obama is Elected President.

America is back.

I had little time to call a few people and twirl in the living room before I had to head to work. I felt like celebrating loudly in the streets and causing a real scene, but the Japanese aren't big fans of the outburst, so I ran back to the train station quietly, but with a huge smile on my face. I contained my excitement until 10 minutes later on the platform when three other teachers came up the escalator. We disregarded the social norms and immediately formed a four-person, jumping, Obama-chanting, group hug. We broke it up when the train arrived and as I looked around the crowded station, I was not surprised to see that everyone was looking at us. I was, however, surprised to see a lot of big smiles, some high school boys pumping their fists in the air, and quite a few thumbs up from the crowd. When I boarded the train, two old women across the aisle smiled warmly at me. One of them leaned forward and said "Obama. Happy."

Yes, that sums it up nicely.

My first class of the day was an adult intermediate class. The class has three students: two retired men in their 70's, Mitsuru and Toshio, and a housewife in her 40's, Tomie. Mitsuru arrived wearing a Chicago White Sox jacket and was eager to point it out to me. Before we had even entered the classroom, he said "Obama is White Sox fan, I am Obama fan, so I wear." I was interested to hear about their impressions of the candidates before I gave them mine, and my job is to get them talking, so I started the class by first explaining the word impression, and then asking them about each candidate.

I wrote down what they said because I had a feeling it was going to be good.

Tomie: I like Obama because he is young and energy and very different from Bush. I think he will repair America and will be good and kind for Japan. I think today is a good day and I am happy. (notice the word repair. She looked it up in her electronic dictionary. I think it was a good choice in this case)

Toshio: I think Obama has a good mood. I mean, I think he is always calm and thinking and not angry. He will think about things more before he decide. President of United States have to think about many things and be intelligent, not be angry.

Mitsuru: I watch McCain and I think he is saying "America is number 1" but Obama is saying "America is country in world, and world is big." He is good for world too, not only America. And world will be change thinking about America and we can be friends again and be kind to each other. Also, he says war in Iraq should be stopping now. Me too. I think so.

Last week, in this same class, we were practicing "Have you ever....?" "Yes, I have/No I haven't" and now they were giving political commentary far superior to the pundits I've seen on CNN. That either speaks very highly of my intermediate class, or reflects very poorly on CNN. I was impressed with their answers, both succinct and profound.

They struggled to transform their thoughts into English and asked amazing questions. In the hour that followed, we never got to the text book. They put me to the test asking questions about the American political system and I managed to explain (with many drawings and dictionary references) the following concepts:
Red states and blue states, the religious right, proposition 8, media bias, the electoral college, popular vote, nationalized health care, Roe vs Wade, welfare, trickle down economics, tax cuts, fear-mongering, polarization, and irony (in that our country's name begins with the word 'United' and yet on the board I have drawn a map divided into territories by blue and red marker shading).
They were more than interested in the election and what it represents, they were passionate about it, which I have seen much more of in the 24 hours since.

One area of Japan is particularly thrilled today, but for a silly reason. There is a town in Western Japan called Obama, and they have become the unlikely celebrities of news broadcasts on every channel as they celebrate their namesake's victory.

Some pictures of the revelry from the Japan Times:

Click to look closely. Must have these.

Yum, an Obama 'Fisheries Burg'. This is one way I will not be celebrating.

This is how I spend my time.

This week marked a major milestone in my Japanese speaking ability. I have been studying my ass off for months now, and just in the last few days, some amazing things have happened. The most surprising has been that suddenly, I have become the designated speaker when out with my friends. Whenever we encounter a hurdle that requires a dialogue in Japanese, I find myself being pushed to the front of the group while being cued "Gail, ask this guy about......" or "Find out how...." This is a new development that makes me proud, but also a little scared. It's a lot of pressure.

Then, last Wednesday I went out with four of my students to an izakaya (bar) after class. Yuri, Miku, Misa and Asami are all friends in their twenties who decided to chip in on a weekly private English lesson together. The are beginner level students, but not afraid to make mistakes, which makes them very easy to teach. They will just throw every word they know at you until they have made their point. The opposite is true with many adult students who refuse to utter a word until they have double checked the correctness in their electronic dictionary. I like these girls because they are enthusiastic, up for anything, and damn good note takers. They are more interested in being able to communicate that being right, and I share their philosophy.

I've gone out with students before, but I usually have either Justine (fellow teacher who is near fluent) or Mio (Bi-lingual receptionist) to translate when times get rough. This night, I was on my own and had to really stretch my brain. I spoke in BUSTED Japanese for about two hours. I mixed my tenses, screwed up my word order and acted out several words, but in the end we were communicating and having fun. I confused them a few times with sentences like:
"Last weekend, I will go on a date."
"It was having fun."
"We maybe go again soon or later."

They seemed to get the gist despite my tense butchering and asked questions in broken English to find out more:
"How many years does he have?"
"How good is his face?"
"He is tall or short next to you?"

By far the highlight of the evening was when I realized the last train was leaving soon and asked the waiter for our check (Okanjo kudasai). He looked at me blankly, but then when Miku said exactly the same thing he hurried off to grab the bill. I said in Japanese "I said that! He didn't understand me!" Then Yuri said in English without hesitating "I know, he's crazy." I just taught them the word crazy earlier that evening; it nearly brought a tear to my eye.

At the end of the evening I had a splitting headache and was mentally exhausted. I don't think I have ever been mentally exhausted before. Physically and emotionally, yes, but this was probably the hardest I have ever thought for an extended period of time. When I got home I could barely get the key in the door. I took two tylenol and laid on the couch with a pillow over my head. The girls are coming over for dinner on Friday so the brain's going to have to run another marathon.

My study schedule isn't so slack on any other day for that matter. I am taking the Japanese Level Proficiency Test (level 4) in 5 weeks and still have a lot of ground to cover. I took a practice test with my tutor two weeks ago and BOMBED it, but at least I know where the gaps are now. I think I may have registered for the test prematurely before understanding the extent of the curriculum, but my goal is to at least fail it respectably.

A few days ago I bought My Japanese Coach for the Nintendo DS and I think it just may be the tool to get me there. My weekly study regimen is this:
50 Kanji (able to recognize, know the meaning and write in the correct stroke order)
2 chapters in my text book Japanese for Busy People (about 10 pages)
3 audio lessons in Pimsleur Japanese II (30 minutes each, I listen to them twice)
At least 5 hours of drilling and practice using the DS program

This week I noticed I can write at almost normal speed using the kana (hiragana and katakana). A page in my text book now takes about 20 minutes. It used to take over an hour. I've been told my handwriting is great, but I've also been told that I speak Japanese very well and that I look just like Dorothy from the Wizard of OZ so I take it with a grain of salt.

An exercise from my text book Japanese for Busy People,
I'm only moderately busy so it's only moderately effective.

I feel pretty good about the Hiragana and the Katakana at this point. I arrived already knowing Romanji (roman letters) so that makes three out of four alphabets done. Unfortunately, it's the fourth one that has more than 8,000 characters and prevents me from reading most things. I have been paying attention to the kanji around me, looking for the ones that I already know and to try to notice a pattern in ones I don't and gather their meaning that way. The best way I've found to recognize them is to associate them with a familiar picture. Then, the kanji will pop out at you wherever you go and you can start to guess what it might mean depending on where you see it.

Joe and Liz and I played this game in Shikoku when we had maps noted only in Kanji. The following nonsense was uttered pretty much verbatim in the car "OK, we're looking for a sign with three characters. The first one looks like a chest of drawers with a crooked vase on top. The second one looks like a diving board over a whirlpool and the third one looks like a tall man speaking into a short microphone."

It's kind of like looking for animal shapes in the clouds, but instead of lying on your back in a field relaxing, you are lost in a city of 27 million and are surrounded my a few thousand different clouds at any given moment. The sign below is a train station name. The four large characters at the top are kanji. The six smaller characters below are hiragana (these I can read!). They both say "Kita Narashino" which is the name of a town close by where some of my friends live.
Take a look at the Kanji and let's see if your imagination is as twisted as mine.
Don't forget: Click to zoom.

Can you see what I see?

Character 1: Nazi soldier marching away from an overgrown coat hanger
Character 2: A close up of a female robot wearing fake eyelashes
Character 3: Viking war ship
Character 4: A man selling a large waffle iron

First the Kanji in red at the top:
1. Small ikea bookshelf
2. 2 toothbrushes making a quick exit out a window (notice the movement lines)
3. A barbershop pole sliding down a mountain
4. Tiki monster pinata

Now for the first three characters in green (the rest in green are kana)
1. The Pringles man screaming
2. An old TV with rabbit ears broadcasting an image of the Union Jack
3. A woman adjusting the cushions on a folding chair

And if you think that's funny, check out what I found in my basic English adult text book the other day. I think Dr. Dre might be co-authoring to make ends meet. First, in chapter one, this is the illustration used to demonstrate first and last names. Look at the depiction of the fans in line. Awesome, and fairly accurate.


Then check out the topic for unit 4! Keep in mind, the first three units started with a question too. They were: How are you today? What's the weather like? How much is it?
And now, behold Unit 4:

WTF?!?!?