The stories of my adventures (and no doubt disasters) as I take on the mantle of a English teacher with a large, undisclosed company somewhere in the savage wilderness that is Japan
Thursday, November 30, 2006
F***k**g 3rd World Country
Greetings folks;
I have returned to my prior state of health (Not at Death's door. Perhaps on Death's garden). But the other day I recieved some dire news. In fact, it should be capitalised
DIRE news!
I can't get Internet at my apartment. In this day and age when even a Swahali Bushman can get a decent ping rate from his hut in the African savannah, I am unable to get a connection in the most technologically advanced country in the world. Aparently there are too many ASDL connections in my 6-apartment block complex, so theres no more room (according to Yahoo BB Japan. May the eyes of its stockholders be infested with maggots)
My options are as such
1.) Get a new apartment 2.) Kill one of my neighbours and get his connection 3.) Go for a year or more with net access only at net cafes 4.) Suicide
Of these options, I can only rule out number three immediatly
Today was the second public holiday for this month. I don't know what it was for, but I think its similar to Thanksgiving in the States. I spent the day with friends (both new and old) and didn't have to work, so overall it was a sucess.
We traveled all the way out to Toyakawa in the countryside, a town I had never heard off or read about previously. It turns out that Toyakawa is home to the new Japanese teacher at school, as well as one of the largest temples in Japan (it rivals those found in Kyoto and Nara). Today they were having a festival to celebrate the temple's establishment.
Toyakawa Inari was founded in 1441 as a shrine for merchants. The patron spirit is the mischievous Kitsune (ie the common fox). Over the years it has grown in size and stature as merchants come to pray for success and make donations. The whole place had a carnival atmosphere, with stalls throughout the temple grounds selling foods and souvenirs. There was also a show with a trained monkey, who is without a doubt the most awesome monkey in all of the Universe
(The video to prove it. Also, Ben rang me halfway through the performance. Good to hear from you again mate!)
Afterwards we went to the back of the temple and walked down a path to Ghost Fox Hill, which was covered with old and new statues of foxes. People place them on the hill to appease the fox spirits, who are known to play tricks on people and bring misfortune. In other words the ghost foxes are running a protection racket. In my opinion, more power to them!
After that we walked down to a park to have lunch and drink beer. We discovered that we had missed the town cosplay competition by one hour, which was a real bugger. Along the way we ran into the festival jesters, who played the local prank on us. Each of us was given a pastry by a girl wearing a fox mask as well as being dressed up as Santa Claus. Four contained delicious cream while the poisoned fifth contained chili and wasabi. For a change, karma was on my side and I got a cream pastry. For your information, it was tasty.
And those were the highlights of my wonderful day. From here on in, it goes downhill pretty fast (ie laundry and ironing). I hope you are all having fun out there, whereever you are in this crazy old world.
Today's Shogun Seph rant has been brought to you by Kirin Limited Edition Akiji Beer!
Hypothetical situation brought up in class: If you could rule for the world for a day, what would you do?
Student 1: Declare World Peace! Student 2: Outlaw nulear weapons! Student 3: Bring happiness to everyone! Blake-sensei: Burn New Zealand to the ground!
This Shogun Seph rant has been brought to you by Kirin's Akikji Beer- feel the taste of autumn.... to the max!
(In which our protagonist joins the Shinsengumi in order to see some red leaves)
Hello folks. Sorry about the delay since my last post, but for the past few days I have been awfully sick. Not sick enough to stop working, but too sick to keep food down successfully or string more than two thoughts together without great effort
So anyway....
I went to Kyoto on the weekend. Straight after work I caught the Kodama Shinkansen to Nagoya and then caught the Nozumi to Kyoto (there were no fatalities). Its nearly Christmas, so JR Kyoto station was decked out with decorations, the centrepiece being a Christmas tree taller than the building I work at. Outside it was absolutely freezing- there must have been a 10 degree difference between Nagoya and Kyoto. I'm glad that i found Marissa quickly, because if I had stayed out there for more than 10 minutes I would have been cryogenically preserved for future generations of Japanese scientists
After a quick trip to Starbucks, I made it to my Ryokan just before curfew and managed to have a midnight bath that got some warmth back in to my pallid flesh. The next day was even colder than the night before, punctuated with bursts of rain. After meeting up with Marissa and Tsuna (She caught the morning train), we caught a bus to Jingu-ji temple, far out in the mountains. The leaves were amazing, even if the weather was horrid. The highlight were eating maple leaf tempura and then throwing clay pigeons off the mountain in order to get rid of evil spirits
Throwing Clay Pigeons: A tale 50 seconds in the making!
(staring Marissa thumb)
Afterwards we went to Ryoji temple (I think), with its rock garden full of zen-ness. It was really more of a sideshow on the way to the main attraction, Kinkikuji temple- The Gold Pavilion (See previous photo). I bought some expensive sake there that contains some actual golden flakes (and is thus too valuable to actually drink, but nevertheless...)
The next day the weather improved a lot. It was still cold, but at least it was sunny. We hired some mountain bikes and went to Kiyomizu temple on the mountain. On the way back down, we stopped at a tea house for some green tea. The weather was really pleasant at that point, which is half the reason why I enjoyed going there again so much (last time I went, it was a cold miserable day. Also, Rion tried to throw me off the temple balcony to my death)
That day we also went to the Silver Pavilion (which turned out to be false advertising. It was mostly wood and copper) as well as saw a blimp. Overall I enjoyed watching the blimp the most.
Come night time, and it was back to warm Nagoya by the Hikari Shinkansen (one could say I did all three of them. But mostly Rion) . I enjoyed Kyoto, freezing and expensive as it may be. I'll definitely be going back during festival time
Peace out all!
-Blake
Random Historical Fact: Kinkikuju Temple was burned to the ground in 1950 by a mad monk who had grown obsessed with it. He later claimed a mysterious American wearing a tricorn hat had told him to do it, but few believed him.
From the company that invented cash cow milking comes....
The city is not safe. School-children and government employees are being butchered in broad day-light. Not even the Shinkansens are safe. In this time of peril, the powers that be have brought in one man with the skills, drive and pure balls needed to solve the case.
Then he got hit by a truck. So they replaced him with Shinji Ikari.
I present to you "Detective Evangelion" - part dating sim and part murder mystery, sprinkled here and there with a little mecha combat. Aparently the Japanese think this is a good idea for a game, as it was actually released this week.
I've been looking through town the past few days looking at buying a second hand PS2 to tie me over until the launch of the Wii next month, and I've come across quite a few Eva games- Iron Madien 2, Raising Asuka and Rei-chan Simulator, even a frigging pinball game, but Detective Evangelion takes the cake
Not to spoil the mystery, but I think the killer is the school-girl with the tentacle arms. Just a thought :P
Ryan's good friend the Colonel, getting in to the Christmas Spirit several months early. I bet he wouldn't have had to go through this degrading display if the South had won the war of Northern Agression!
The Tokaido line Shinkansens are a strange bunch. After the horrible things that Rion did inside Hikari, we could almost say that the Shinkansen train actually enjoyed the pain . But her little sister, the new Nozumi express, is different.
Early last week the Nozumi Shinkansen from Hiroshima bound for Tokyo hit a JR track worker at top speed.
JR Track work top speed - 5 km/h Nozumi - 300 km/h
You don't have to be a student of physics to figure out what happened next. The picture I saw in the Japan Times summed it up best- a Shinkansen with a huge dent in its nose, covered with a fine red spray. In the article it said a JR lapel pin was found 400 metres from the site.
She has tasted blood, and soon she will strike again. Be warned!
Happy 13th Birthday Mouse-chan. I hope you enjoyed the chocolate mudcake, because if there is any left I want you to send me some. And by 'want', I mean 'demand.'
I have been in Anjo for nearly a month now, and I feel like I'm starting to get used to this whole 'Living in Japan' thing. I'm still spending most of my time at work, but I now have started to take two Japanese classes a week. I try to explore a little more of Anjo every morning before work in order to get a better idea about the sort of town I live in. Next week I should be getting internet access at home, so it'll be easier to blog as well as stay in touch with everyone.
The job is getting a little easier (Anjo is a smaller school compared to many, so I don't have as many students as some of my other training group compatriots.) Thus, I have more time to work on my lesson preparation and grammar definitions.
I've started to go out around town. I have found two places of interest- a cowboy bar near the Shinkansen station and a cocktail lounge called 'Bar Salty Chap' (It gets even better. On the English menu, the name of the bar is 'Bra Salty Chap'). On the way home, I managed to ride my bike into a telephone pole, so from now on I'm going to catch the train.
WEIRD JAPANESE STUFF:
I've learned that every second Japanese TV show on TV stars an unconvincing Japanese transvestite. I don't bother to turn the TV on much now
The Japanese post office sells stamps, life insurance, banking services, slaves but no envelopes.
I have yet to be given my very own Toyota Mecha. As such, it has been hard to battle the monsters and foreign robots that ravage Aichi-prefecture on a weekly basis. But I'm coping :P
Blake Wilson is famous for a number of things that you will never hear of. Ever. Spawned in Perth, Australia, he is currently living the nightmare somewhere in the Greater Nagoya area, Japan. When not teaching English he reads, writes, lives MMORPG’s and finds himself debating the eternal question of +20 strength or damage.
