Part II

Monday was another adventure, but this time to Ito. It's another beach town down the penninsula. It was one of the most beautiful days I've seen in Japan. We started out with ambitious plans to go sightseeing. Ended up on the beach with a sushi lunch (no edamame), kids and dogs to watch and our books. Truly it seemed like we were on vacation. I have to mention the train we took. I have never been on one like it. The seats were facing the windows, so you didn't have to turn your neck if you wanted to be mesmorized by the passing trees. At first, I thought it was a waste of space just to have the 2 rows down the middle. Then I realized what a waste of space it is to have seats at all. It's amazing how many people you can pack into a train if there aren't any seats.

After a few hours, we headed home. We went to Kayla's and had some Mexican food-a real treat. Watched a little of Amelie before I was starting to nod off a bit, so we left. I was up at 5 am the next morning to take the bullet train home in time for class. It's about a 4 hour trip when all is said n' done, so I'm generally a little stressed on those Tuesday mornings I leave from Frank's. I have a class that begins right at noon. I usually miss a train or two, so I get there in the nick of time. I love standing on the platform, waiting for the Shinkansen. The train is really impressive. It looks like a plane without wings. The platform is generally sheltered, but outside. And there is always a glass room full of people smoking. I do a double take everytime I see it. I should really take a picture. I suppose it makes sense. It forces all of the smokers to then breathe their own and other people's second hand smoke. I'm perfectly happy to breath the relatively clean air. Still, it's a strange sight to see coming from a home where people are forced to smoke, not only outside, but far away from the entrance to any building. I guess we all have our own way.

The lovers...the dreamers...and meee

I spent a fantastic weekend down south. It started with a night bus that leaves Koriyama at about 1 am and arrives in Tokyo around 5 am. (The next time I do that,I'm going to the fish market.) From Tokyo I took a train out to Yokohama where I was to meet up with Frank and later, some people we went to Geos training with. I love that there are always lockers at the stations. I stuffed all of my crap in one and went looking for breakfast. I found a little cafe at the station, took my tray and tongs and promply picked me a raison rock candy roll, hoping there wouldn't be huge squeeze of mayonnaise inside trying to pass for custard. You just never know what's inside *anything* and I've had some rude awakenings. Happily, it was just bread, raisons and sugar the size of boulders. yummmmy. The counter person looked at me and asked "What would you like?" Not expecting to hear English, I just looked at him. Looked at the menu. "What do you want?" as if he had a line behind me. I felt right at home!! I quickly ordered some coffee (which I've been drinking black these days for some reason) and got out of his way. Did BART extend it's services?

Frank met me about an hour later and he was feeling a little more hungry than me, so off we went. Yes, to McDonalds. Sometimes you're just not in the mood to guess what's in the food you just spent $7.00 on. I went to freshen up and met a woman at the door, as we often do. I said "Sumimasen". She said "Excuse me." Where the hell am I??? I came out looking for Frank and I swear, I thought a shooting has occured. It was, apparently, naptime at McDonalds. I passed at least 10 tables where people had their foreheads on their desks and the silence was eerie. Frank said it was even worse upstairs. I guess it's a popular place after a night on the town. After Frank had finished his predictable breakfast, we went exploring.

I think it's natural to compare new places with places we've been to in the past. Eventhough, of course, they can't be *that* similar. In this case, I would compare to Yokohama to Portland. There were a lot of green bridges, that looked to me like draw bridges, lots of water running through the city, it's a port city, and that day the sky was grey and rainy. The difference was that many of the bridges were for pedestrians. You went up and over if you wanted to cross a street...or many streets. It was very cool. We happened upon a bookstore with sale on foreign books. Little did we know we would spend 2 hours there! They had a really great selection!! And a whole wall of books and materials for English teachers. I came away with a Michael Moore book and 4 decks of vocabulary cards for my kids. Frank bought a history of Japan book and some business english for accounting. It was so much fun just to be able to browse!! They had pop-culture picture books and I promptly stuck my nose in Sex and the City. Frank went for 24. We were stuffing our minds with gummy bears, suckers, chocolates and sour sweets. Willy Wonka was about to sing any minute!!

After our binge, we just started walking and talking. It's a beautiful city and I was so happy to be there with Frank. We walked a pretty long way, I had my eye out for a bicycle museum I had read about, but we never found it. Truth be told, we weren't looking that hard, but I think it would have been cool. The sun came out and we found an outdoor plaza with many shops and strollers. I had a mandorin orange fruit popcicle and we walked. A rather old gent rode by on his bicycle. He had a squirl on his shoulder. Later we walked by him and he had him on a leash. I'll upload a picture of him so you can see. After our stroll, we decided to go to the oh-so-famous Yokohama China Town. It was crowded. It was a pretty impressive Chinatown though. It covered at least 4 major intersections and each corner you turned on was just as busy as the one you turned from. Some of it was just chinsy, but there were some kitchen and tea shops I would have spent more time in. There was a museum I had my doubts about. We had an overpriced chinese lunch and decided to head back to the train station. The people we were going to meet were going to be a little late. The last train out was at about 7:00, so we decided to go home instead. On our way back, we walked through the baseball stadium where there were huge pictures of some known player swinging a light-saber. If that's not testimate that Star Wars will live forever, I don't know what is.

The first time I went to visit Frank, he didn't know I was coming. It was a suprise for his birthday in March. It was my first venture on the trains and I made many many mistakes. The first being, I took the train. I had 5-6 transfers in about 4 hours, which is no big deal if you can READ. Trying to find the next train before it leaves is always a little stressful, even now. Anyway, I remember getting to Kozu. It was the last stop before Gotemba and it was the first time I had seen the ocean since I was in Japan. Just a hint of blue through the window. It was a moment of peace in that hellacious morning.

From Yokohama we had to transfer in Kozu to get to Gotemba. The train was sitting at the platform and instinct has us both running for it. The woman we ran past started running too. The three of us made it! ...with about 15 minutes to spare. So we sat, and I told Frank about that awful morning before I suprised him. He looked out the window and asked, "do you want to go down there?" It was just beginning to look like dusk. So, we got off the train (I'm sure the woman was puzzled by our desire to leave a train we had worked so hard to catch. She was still panting a little.) We put our load in a locker, grabbed another popcicle and headed to the beach. The popcicles here are really great. Most are the standard rectangular shape and seem like they would be everything they are in America. But, always be prepared. Japanese people like to make the inside of food a little special. When you bite into a popcicle (if you're into that sort of thing) you'll see that the outside is just a shell, about a 1/4 of an inch thick. Inside is this perfect, soft shaved ice (thankfully with the same flavor as the shell). Imagine the best snow cone you've ever had surrounded by a popcicle shell. It's pretty neat.

Kozu is a pretty sleepy beach town. The beach itself is rather polluted. I'm glad most things come in plastic and not glass, but I was truly sad that there was so much litter. What are people thinking? I don't get it. Still, there was a bit of sun just down the way a bit and we decided to go sit in it. We walked on the loose rocks, past the fishermen, past children cooking sand pancakes and to a sunny spot to sit. It was really very nice. Just to sit. I don't remember what I was thinking about. Mostly it was just a sweet moment for the two of us.

We headed back to the station, all the way looking for a trashcan for our wrappers and sticks. We didn't find one. I guess that explains...something, but I wouldn't call it an excuse. We got home and I checked my email. Frank drew me a bath and a cold drink. I felt so loved and cared for. I did the same for him, accompanied by a few great songs playing on the mac. We curled up and ended a great day.

Let the eeeeeaaaaggles soooaar...

Apparently to many people, Americans are all the same. We all own guns, we're paranoid, rude, obnoxious and we have a bad accent. At least that's my impression from most of the other foreign teachers here. I find myself trying to explain the diversity we have in cultures, opinions and even accents. Just because it's not in the media doesn't mean it doesn't exist. (Just ask Michael Moore.) Anyway, I miss conversations with people who know we're the big bad wolf of the world, and want to work to change that. I'm having quite a few conversations explaining that I do know it and I do want to change it. Many have commented that I am a "strange" American or that I am "more like a Canadian" than an American. I appreciate the sentiment, but it makes me sad that I'm not just seen as an American with these points of views and that there are MANY more like me. They seem to think Michael Moore movies are made for the world's benefit, not necessarily our own. But maybe other countries don't comment on their own in quite the same way. In any case, the perception is real. I just met the manager at a school who hires anyone from Britian, Australia, New Zealand or Canada - but not America. I thought it was the accent, but is "eh" enough of a difference between the yanks and the mooseheads?

Poopla

Well, the gang was in the mood for kareoke this weekend, that's for sure. Last night, Kyle, Linda, Laura and myself stayed out until 5 AM shakin' our groove thang. It's nice that the bars close at 6 AM. I never thought I would get anywhere close to closing them though. I guess we all adapt. Just another contradiction for you though: The bars close at 6:00 AM, but the "late show" at the movies is 7:30 PM. That's the very last showing of the night. Go figure. Anyhoo...yesterday was a bit packed. Wendy, Jay and I hopped on a train to the local Asahi Brewery for some large event. There were a lot of 'acts', mostly children and/or older women dancing routines to pop songs. My favorite moments were when very drunk older men tried to join in, then promptly sat down with their head between their knees.

I met another teacher, Patricia, who I would like to get to know better. It's too bad she lives rather far away. She has a car though, so I'm hoping she will visit often. We all had a great time, drinking free beer and blowing bubbles with the kids there. I'll post some new pictures soon.

It's starting to get a bit humid here, so I returned home for a quick shower. I had a dinner planned with Kentaro Mita, my 72 yr. old student, and many of his friends. They were a great bunch! We met at an isakaiya, had some sushi and (more) beer. It turns out that many of them are retired English teachers themselves. They all taught in Jr. High schools and went on to be principal or the like. Now, they've created this English club to keep up their skills. They invite foreigners to join them and practice. It was great. There was only 1 moment I can remember in which I felt a little awkward. The eldest of the bunch was very quick to tell me that he travelled to Hiroshima 2 days after the "accident" as he put it. He explained that after seeing the horrors there, he decided that learning English was the most important thing he could do. I think he felt it was important to communicate with other nations so that we can keep the peace in the world. It's a nice idea, but clearly there are many multi-linguists working today, and the world is still a mess. I didn't point that out at dinner though. I simply apologized on behalf of my country and we moved on. I find myself doing that a lot these days. Part of me finds it important to explain that not all Americans are gun-slinging bullies that throw violent tantrums when we want something our way. Another part of me simply apologizes and agrees that it isnt' a good time to be an American right now. But despite those feelings, I'm learning just how fortunate I am to be a San Franciscan. The Bay Area is a pocket of America that I will always be proud of. We look at the big picture, we actively work for progressive change, and we care to see the issues from different points of view. We can always be better, but it's clear to me that San Francisco is miles ahead of the rest.

Anyhoo...after dinner, I met up with the gang for an honest dessert, which turned into a drink at God's Party...which turned into kareoke for 3 hours, more drinking and a lovely walk home after dawn. It was great.

Today I had lunch with Tracey. She and her boyfriend, Mike, are off to Guam for a few days. She sounded mostly excited about visiting the KMart there to pick up a few western items. I'm hoping she'll bring back some toothpaste, as the brands here don't have flouride in them. (Yet, there is a button on the toilet that plays "musical sounds" if you're feeling a little shy). After lunch, I fixed the tire on my bike and went shopping. Shopping is still a bit of an adventure, though I've started to just buy brands that make me laugh. Pocari Sweat is one of my favorite drinks here in Japan and I often by Poopla toilet paper. I kid you not.

Kyle called, Ian joined and before you know it...we were singing "I shot the sheriff" over another round. Ahhhh Japan.

New Outfit

Hey! It looks like lil' blogger got a new outfit! There are some new really neato cool templates...of course I have my gripes about the big blue button at the top of my parchment, but one shouldn't complain about free stuff. I don't know how to create designs, though I think I should learn during my downtime at work. I bet there's a way to customize this thing. Anyway, I probably chose this one because it tastes a little like Faire, with a hint of Master and Commander and a splash of Moulin Rouge. Ahhh movies people love to hate and I love to love.

I've had a great weekend. This has been a great year. There are so many things I thought I knew, that really, I only knew in concept. I don't think its a unique experience to have cliches hit you in the head and become a part of your own reality, but it feels that way when it happens to you. I think I needed the distance to allow myself a chance to hear my own voice. Before I left, I was lashing out at people in ways I didn't want to. I was holding friendships in such a way, that if I lost them I wouldn't know who I was. It was draining and upsetting for me, for them and anyone who listened. The worst kind of jealousy grips those who insist they aren't jealous.

I was lying with Frank as he was taking a nap and thinking of the two beautiful, amazing women friends he has in Gotemba. I really like them. Yet, sometimes I'm jealous. They all live in the same city together and have become quite close. I hate feeling jealous of their bond. Sometimes it's a romantic jealousy, sometimes it's just a level of group friendship that I haven't found yet. As I was lying there, I started thinking about it more. Why am I jealous? What am I afraid of? What's the worst that could happen? In my mind, the worst was that Frank could leave me for one of them. As soon as I let myself realize that was my fear, it truly went away. It was the stranges thing. But I realized that if Frank left, ultimately I would be okay. Yes, I would be sad and upset, but I would still be me. If I've learned anything so far, I've learned that I'm truly alone in the world. People will come into my life and they will leave at some point. If I'm always worried about them leaving, I will have missed my opportunity to enjoy their company. I shared some of these things with Frank when he woke up and it made me feel closer to him than I ever have. He just looked down at me with groggy eyes and smiled.