Snow Falling on Cedars: Mid-book thoughts, reflections

Being in Japan has given me a lot of time to think about a lot of things. I finally have the clarity of mind without college, classes, projects, due dates, essays, thesis projects, rugby, etc, etc. Although I miss my college experiences, the new experiences have come and filled my new life in Japan. I do find myself busy as usual. I am a very active person and like to play sports as I play soccer twice a week with the local guys in Oma and sometimes in Mutsu with Sunday's team.

Back to the point though, it has been great to meet a good friend, Mike, in Mutsu. Not only is it cool that we share a lot of the same interests, but his passion in life has rubbed onto me a little bit. He was an English major at Dartmouth College and is constantly reading new books. His Openbook Blog is one I follow closely and I get to hear the reviews usually before he writes them. He has recommended two books to me, The Stranger by Albert Camus and Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson. Both of them have been good. It is hard for me to appreciate the true writing as I am not trained in the specific area of literature and I have neglected it whilst my crazy undergraduate studies took over my life. The one thing I can connect with especially with the latter is that I am of Asian descent and my experiences, whilst not as extreme or intense as the recounts of the book, butI am aware of the racial tension and cultural differences between the majority of the US and western population and being a minority.

While you can read Mike's blog here for a review of the book, I want to take this chance to focus on specific issues and themes in the book that I can relate to.

One of the main issues for me is the torn reality of interracial dating and relationships. Or more simply love. Two of the main characters in the book, Hatsue Miyamoto and Ishmael Chambers share a forbidden love. One described by Hatsue's mother, Fujiko as:


It was clear to her from the in it that her daughter had been deeply entangled with this boy for a long time, for many years. It was evident that he had touched her body, that the two of them had been sexually intimate inside a hollow tree they'd used as a trysting place in the forest. Hatsue's walks had been a ruse, just as Fujiko suspected. Her daughter returned with tendrils in her hands and a wetness between her thighs. Deceitful girl, though Fujiko (Guterson 168).


I always think it is very difficult to understand quotations people use in their reviews and/or academic papers, but I think this quotation can give you enough of the context of the story. If you want to understand it more, I suggest reading the book.

I know my parents are not opposed to interracial dating and relationships as much as Fujiko is in the book, but I have to wonder what they really think. A very clear characteristic of Fujiko and the old Japan is being able to keep their true emotions and thoughts inside. One has to be composed to function properly in society. While my parents have lived in the western society, mainly the U.S.A for the last 31 years, they still hold strong roots and traditions from their Chinese-Indonesian upbringing. A part of this upbringing is to keep the family line and name a pure one, or an Asian one. Even in Asia, there is a racial hierarchy as to which country is "higher," in social ranking. I don't think I could ever dismantle it as it has been built on centuries of tradition and patriarchal structures.

I can't remember if my parents ever said to me, "You must NOT marry a non-Asian." But as you may or may not know, many Asian families has the same policy as the U.S. military, "Don't ask, don't tell." I have never brought a girl I have been dating home and I don't really intend to in fear of what she will have to go through. I am fearful that if the girl is not Asian, it could be a problem... I remember once mentioned that I liked a girl from South Africa and I showed a picture to my mum and she just said, "hmph," and went about her business. Body language is very important in intrepretation and in this case, her body said more than words ever could.

Thank the Lord I am not in any serious relationships as of right now because I don't know what I would do. I think the fact that I am in Japan, my parents don't think it is even conceivable that I will find something serious here.

Another thing that my parents have stressed in life is not to get into, "serious," relationships because as they have said, "You are too young and you don't know/understand what it is to be in a real relationship." Imagine this being pounded into your head for the first eighteen years of life. I thoroughly believe it has become a subconscious characteristic of how I approach relationships with women in my life. I didn't really consider dating a real thing until my last year in high school. But since then, I have failed to hold down a serious relationship lasting more than just a mere couple months. Whilst I don't blame my parents in the failure of my relationships, I do think they have a certain influence in the way I approach them.

More to follow...

Seoul Day 6: Saturday

I woke up late and was excited for the day because I was going to see a friend from college! We were going to meet at 16:00 and just do whatever she wanted to do. Her name is Courtney D. and she is awesome. I met her my junior year in college through our mutual friend, Anna M.

Whilst waiting to meet up, I decided to head to Itaewon and get a massage. I got off and had not eaten anything that day yet, so I went to get some mocha coffee and a piece of cheesecake. It is convenient that the massage parlour was just one level above it. I don't know about everyone else, but my preconceived notion of massage parlours were not a good one. I always thought they were sketchy places and it was because of this general stereotype that I was always hesistant to go into one. The people there were very friendly and I was immediately welcomed. I chose the deep tissue massage. It was 1.5 hours of pure heaven! The deep tissue massage revealed knots I did not know I even had in my shoulders and back region.

I got back and then rested some more, the massage made me sleepy. I met up with Courtney and then we headed to a new area, one of the university areas and we got some food. It was like yakiniku, but Korean styled! It was there where we caught up with each other. I had always felt that our mutual friend, Anna M. made it a little more interesting and I wondered how it would end up that crazy rendezvous in Seoul, but all went smooth. We were both grown ups about it. After an early dinner, we met up with some of her friends and we just chilled. The first place we went was a German bar with some absurd sexual name. I can't remember it, so it must have not been that bad. haha After that we went to another bar and was there for quite some time. We had yoghurt beer, which was kind of nasty, but grew on everyone. It was a good night for sure!

Seoul: Day 5 Friday

I got up later than the other days and had a late start out of the guesthouse. I took the subway to Hyewha stop and looked for the Lock Museum. I got out to another shopping area. It was a nice area with a lot of hip shops. My stomach grumbled and I found a place called Kraze Burger, which serves up hamburger concoctions. It was very good and I had some fries with them as well. I stopped at the local convenience, Mini Stop very close by and got some water and Pepsi.

After that, I went across the street to reorient myself. I found a Puma store and got some sweet kicks. A couple stores down there is a place called Basic House and I got a nice hooded sweatshirt.

I finally decided to find the museum and after getting lost for a bit, I found the place. It is called the Lock Museum, I know original right. It was supposed to cost me ₩5,000 , but there was no one at the place and there were not very friendly, so I just followed some women into the exhibit. The exhibit is not very big and it constituted of one main room and a couple little ones. The place had a lot of locks on display and it was really cool! I have always been interested in locks and how they work. I wish there were more explanations on how they worked and the differences between them. After browsing through the exhibit, I had a green tea latte downstairs in the café attached to the museum. It was nice as I read my book and just enjoyed myself. After that, I got a newspaper and headed back to the hotel. I didn’t feel like going out during the night because I was lazy and kind of tired. I ended up talking to the person at the front desk. She is very nice and probably one more generation older than me. I ordered some pizza from Dominos and shared it with her. It was nice to talk. I then met a retired couple from Finland and it was very interesting to hear their stories about traveling. Whilst chatting to them I overheard some young people checking in. I immediately picked out Spanish as their native language and introduced myself. There were five in the group and four of them were studying in Osaka (I can’t remember). The fifth worked in Taiwan and had met through their travels in Thailand during the summer. After they checked in and were settled, I helped out the Finnish couple find the right video camera for their son-in-law. After that, the group of students came back down and they asked me out. I obliged and joined them in finding a place to eat and drink some beer. We took a taxi and they insisted on going to the place where the hotel worker suggested. When we finally got to the area, they were enthralled at a crane machine where you could win stuffed animals. Finally, we got to the place, it was similar to an izakaya. We could only get beer and salads. When we were done, we went back to the guesthouse and splitted for the night.

Seoul: Day 4 Thursday

Waking up late is just a common theme of my trip. It suits me well because I can do things and go into the later hours of the night. When I finally got off to my day, I headed to the subway and took Line 3 to Anguk stop. I got out and asked a local policeman where Yogyesa Buddhist temple was. He told me to walk down the road and I was happy looking for it. As I could not find it and I came to a big intersection, I decided to ask for the help of the local information booth. I found the help of a very pretty Korean girl who’s English was impeccable. She gave me a local map of the area and showed me where it was on the map. I was very grateful and thanked her before getting on my way. I went down the way and ended up passing on my right and walked all the way down into what I think was the financial and business district. I did not mind walking and enjoyed the beautiful weather! I bought a local newspaper, the Korean Times and read it whilst walking. I ended up making a huge circle in my endeavours and eventually was on the other side.

After consulting my map, I found that the palace was a lot closer than I had originally thought and the scale of the map was a little out of proportion. I walked to the temple and it was gorgeous. There were tons of women there for some odd reason, but maybe it was the time of day for the women to get to the Buddhist temple and pray. I payed my respects to the temple and did not actually enter it because people were praying and there was not enough space. I looked for the foreigner’s information booth, but it was close and it was a shame because I would have loved to hear someone explain the significance of the temple and shrine. I stopped in the store for the temple and got a nice Buddhist prayer necklace and also some LED keychains and a Pepsi. I had seen the museum on my way in and decided to check it out.

The place was a small museum and I think it was more of a community center with an exhibit to show off some of the Buddhist artifacts. I went through the exhibit once and took some pictures. It was hard because there were not that many explanations on what I was looking at and they did not elaborate on it either! When I finished, I felt a little bit ripped off, but my luck turned for the better! I was looking at this room, and this lady noticed I was looking in her direction. She asked me something in Korean and I responded, “Sorry, I don’t speak Korean.” And she told me to wait. She brought me a nice looking old man who spoke English. He assumed I wanted a tour and I obliged. He spent the next hour telling me the stories that went along with all the pieces in the exhibit. I found out he volunteers there and gave free tours in English to anyone who happened to come through. He was very thorough in his answers and explanations and I was very grateful for this. After the tour, I went outside to find a place to eat and quickly found the shopping district of Insadong.

It was a hybrid street with shops surrounding it and people walking, but cars were still allowed to drive through it. I walked around and bought a Korean towel that I will hang in my house. I finally found a place to eat and they served the Korean equivalent of dumplings. I also had a clam noodle soup. I enjoyed my late lunch whilst reading the newspaper I had acquired earlier. The dumplings were very good and they were the best part of the meal. I walked around some more and decided to head back to the guesthouse.

I saw a place that sold guitars and decided to check it out. The place I originally saw did not have the kind of guitar I was looking for, so I looked for the subway. On the way, I found another smaller shop and stopped in. They did have a very nice acoustic electric bass, which was exactly what I have been looking for the past couple years. It is always more useful to have an acoustic guitar plus it is also ready to be plugged into an amp. I laid my eyes upon a beautiful orange guitar. I was allowed to strum it a little bit and I could tell the place was in desperate need to sell something. The starting price was a little more than I would want to pay for and I was able to bargain for a good price plus a nice traveling soft case, tuner and three picks! After buying the guitar, one of the ladies had to go get the case from a bigger store, so she left and I waited for her. I ended up talking to the two people left. The guy was the cousin of the girl who had left and the other one was just another worker. We shared our musical tastes and I found out that he liked R&B a lot and our tastes’ overlapped a little bit. We talked and when she finally came back, I was reluctant to leave.

I headed back to the guesthouse a very happy customer! After a nap and some rest, I headed out again to see if I could find a good hamburger. That failed, as I could not find the restaurant I was looking for. I ended up eating a cheap meal at KFC. That concludes my day!

Seoul: Day 3 Wednesday

My body is obviously still not ready to be over this sickness I have. I got up and got ready. Then I headed off to see Gyeongbokgung palace or the Palace of Shining Happiness. I took the subway from Eujiro-4-ga to Eujiro 3-ga and changed onto Line 3. I then go onto a new subway to Gyeongbokgung. You can tell you are a huge tourist stop when the corridors leading to the actual place is geared with pictures and columns of historical artifacts of Korean heritage. Once you walk out of the subway station, you come out next to the National Palace Museum of Korea. You walk up some stairs and you see the Palace of Shining Happiness on your right. It is huge. It is based on many other palaces in China with a basic square construction and conforming to the feng shui of Chinese belief. I had got there about 20 minutes too late for the free English guided tour, so I bought a ticket and watch a changing of the guard. I headed to the National Palace Museum of Korea, where they held exhibits of all the stuff that was found in the palace. It was very interesting to see and there were field trips of little kids everywhere. They were very cute and I was very intrigued by the way they approached the historical and significant artifacts. I took about half an hour to get through and it was not that much things to see. It was a lot of the same stuff over and over again and the misuse of space was misleading to the actual content.

When I finished, I asked one of the information ladies where I could find some lunch. She said you can go left outside of the main gate and then you will see alleys with many different noodle shops. I followed her direction, but was quickly distracted by all of the art galleries and exhibits around the palace. You could tell it was not that much of a tourist district, but maybe I was in the wrong place. I crossed the road and found myself looking at African art and Caribbean art exhibits from the outside. I then wandered into a Buddhist center and found nothing there. I came full circle and was very hungry.

I saw a cool sign with the destinations of other famous cities and how far they were from that one point, which lead me to a cool bookstore called Seoul Selection. It is a small, hidden place that requires you to go downstairs just to get to then entrance, but once inside it feels like a small, cozy bookstore where you can enjoy coffee and possibly just sit there and read for hours on end. I met a worker by the name of Lee Min-Kyeong. She is originally from Busan and we chatted a little bit about my life story and how I had come back to the motherland. Such as in China and Japan, the family name always comes first and hers was a very common Korean family name. We chatted about the music playing and she let me listen to some of the CDs that were on display. I read the articles on the wall and there were about Korean American author who had come and visited the store. Also, there were a lot of pictures of foreigners and postcards. I could tell that this place was a normal place for foreigners to hang out. This is what a bookstore should be. Someone who owns it and focuses on a certain way they are going to sell books. The bookstore has their own publication and even has their own travel guides. It was very cool to see that native Koreans can share their passions and thoughts with others to help better experience their home country. I had a coke and she told me about how they would be going to lunch soon. It was all in good luck because they would have usually gone to lunch, but this day was different. I was very fortunate to meet her and have a little chat. I saw a book, “Native Speaker,” by Chang-Rae Lee. It looked interesting and reminded me of my Asian American Community and Identities class. I read the back description and a little bit of it and decided it would be good for me. I have found that whilst in Japan, I have had more time to read books for pleasure; something that I had forgot existed whilst in college. I asked if I was intruding on their time and she said they would be leaving soon, so I picked up the book and two other CDs I had listened to. I was happy with my purchases and did not mind helping out the place. I would like to come back to this bookstore in my future trips to Seoul. She gave me a business card and wrote down her e-mail at the place. She said if I needed any books or guides, please contact them. I was very thankful and left. I decided to head back to the palace and explore more on my own before the tour.

I had a lot of time to kill and it was OK as I was able to see more of the palace grounds by myself. I got a lot of good pictures and wished I had a better camera, but was grateful I even had a camera. In the past, I would not have a camera to remember all the memories. I then joined the tour and stayed with them for a bit, I could not hear the guide and quickly became bored with it. I would recommend going to the earlier or the last one because I hope the group will be smaller. I left and headed back to the subway. I was very impressed with myself because I had not sat down a lot during this whole time. I am usually very impatient, but this is only true when I am with my parents. My parents do a little more than this and it is overkill sometimes. I got back onto the subway and read in my Lonely Planet guide about a place where they sell studs and stuff for piercings at a place called Crow.

It is located at the Ewha Women’s University stop. I got out and it was like a shopping paradise. Marketing serves well when catering to women. Most of the stores that were there were selling women’s clothing and accessories. I walked around trying to find this place, but as the common theme on my trip is being distracted, I quickly was dissipated from my original intent. I walked around and enjoyed the sunshine. I didn’t want to be drawn into the huge shopping mall I saw, so I continued to walk around. After a little bit, my stomach craved food and I was waiting for the right restaurant. I found it in the form of a Quiznos and was happy to have some western fast food. I sat down, my first real sit down in a while and enjoyed the food. After, I walked around and into some shops, but I ended up buying nothing. I found a place called, “Paris Croissant,” and was enticed enough to buy myself some pastries for breakfast the next day and also some other baked goods! Up and across the street, I found Starbucks and bought some coffee and a mug for myself. Coffee is so freaking expensive. I guess that is why I don’t drink coffee! Anyway, I walked around some more and found some cool stores, but nothing good enough to buy. The big hit was a Zippo store where I found a lighter I have been searching for the last two years. The design is one of an old dogfighter plane nose. It is the shark design and it is awesome! I collect Zippos and it was a good one to start the collection on! I came back to the hotel and was really tired, so I took a nap and got fresh for my time out on the night. I took a shower and then headed out to Itaewon for some dinner. I found it very quickly and decided on a Mexican restaurant called, “Panchos.” I met the host, Gabriel and I knew he was a Latino. It was nice to speak Spanish with the guy. He is a dancer who has moved around a lot in his life. He has spent the last 8 years in Seoul and is originally from Sweden! He had a very intriguing life story. I had the shrimp and chicken fajitas with Corona and was thoroughly impressed at how good it was! It was more tex-mex than anything else, but still to have a taste that reminded me of Texas was a good one. After dinner, I went back home and as before enjoyed the subway ride. This day was a really good one and my experiences of Korea are ones to cherish!

Seoul: Day 2 Tuesday

I woke up later than expected and I attributed this to my body needing to get over my sickness. It was about 10:30 AM and I took my time to get ready and finally left around 12:00 PM. It was really nice outside and I able to enjoy the day whilst I was walking around and to the subway. I took the subway from Euljiro 4-ga to Euljiro 3-ga and then transferred to Line 3, or the orange line. My plan was to find a place called Thai Spirit, a Thai massage place. I had to get off at the Sinsa stop, but I read about a restaurant called, Mad For Garlic. I got off at the Apgujeong stop and looked forward to this so described, “Italian fusion,” restaurant. Unfortunately I did not find it and was not that bummed about it. I was more interested by the environment I was surrounded by. The part of Seoul is called Gangham. I felt it was a more upscale part of town and it was littered by plastic surgeon and beauty salons. (See the subsequent post about beauty) I walked around for a bit and was just intoxicated by the similarities to a western city; it was a very bittersweet experience. The combination of the amenities of the west and the cultural awareness of the east was a lot to take in. I gave into my American craving and had some Pizza Hut. I know I know, I will take all the flak for this, but I have had Korean food before and I know what it tastes like plus it was lunch; I didn’t want something that was too heavy. I got a mini-pizza that was perfect for me and I really enjoyed the food. I admit there are a lot of things I have taken for granted when in the US. I took it for granted because I had never really realized how, “good,” it was. By good, I don’t mean that Japan or the east as I so call it is bad, but just different. There are different aspects to both societies and some of the things I miss from the US. It is only fair because I have spent most of my life there. Anyway, after lunch, I sought out for this massage place. I had to take the subway again from Apgujeong to Sinsa stop. I guessed the right way to go and found that the place does not exist anymore. It is near the Dongyoung hotel and it was nowhere to be seen. I was a little disappointed, but ultimately it was for the best. On my way looking around I found a cool Brazilian churrascaria. I stopped in and looked at their menu. I think I will head there later and eat there! I came back to the guesthouse and decided to rest up for the rest of the afternoon to be fresh for my adventures tonight! I went out at about 8:30 PM and made my way back to the Brazilian restaurant. It was absolutely delicious and I was very glad I made the choice. I had a caipirinha and it was very strong. I can see why people get very happy from drinking them! It is funny because of all places to have Brazilian churrascaria, I had it in the heart of Seoul in Asia! Afterward, I stopped at a local 7-11 in the area to get something to drink and a dessert. I got the subway back and this time I remembered all the small nuances of how to take the subway and got home very easily.

Seoul: Day 1 Monday

I felt a sickness setting in from the weekend; the combination of being tired and going out a lot this weekend did not equal a good thing. I noticed my throat getting scratchy. I spent most of the day resting up and just waiting for Angella, so we could go out later. The combination of her not being able to get keitai e-mails and me not be able to use a phone. I was in the room for most of the day and was in and out of sleep. I felt my body needed it and I didn’t want to push it just to spend some time today in Seoul and end up messing up my trip. So I sacrificed one day and I feel much better.

I went to meet Angella at Namdaemun market and we looked around there for a bit. We decided to try a Turkish restaurant in Itaewon area, also known as the foreigner’s area because of the proximity to the United States of America army base. It definitely felt like the place for foreigners and there was a lot of western influence such as Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts. We went to place called Salam. It was very good and Angella enjoyed it a lot. Afterward, she had to go home to work on her resume and we parted ways at the subway station! What a good day!

Pre-gaming for Korea!

Friday:
I just don’t like to pack. It is not of my favourite things in life. It makes me paranoid and nervous about the trip I am about to take. I got home early because we had JHS senseis come and evaluate our classes, so the rest of the staff had a meeting and I was allowed to go home early.

I got home and just started to pack and see what I would need for my trip to Korea and also for the rest of the weekend because I would not be coming back home for the whole weekend. I left around 5:45 PM from my apartment in Oma and needed to be in Mustu by 6:30 because of the Tanabu kids eikeiwa class. I got there a little late, about 10 minutes late and it was OK. The class went on for one hour and it was good. The only one who did the actual assignment was Kaho and it was OK for the level of her English. They were supposed to buy me dinner, but they did not have enough money and it was OK. I payed and went to McDonalds because I was still hungry.

I got some and then headed over to Mike’s where he was making dinner of rice and gyoza. Dave came over and got some food and we decided to go out and Dave was going to be our driver! It was nice of him to volunteer and I don’t know if he had enough money for drinking anyway. The first place we hit up was Gin’s and I had never been there before. It was a cool, American antique bar with a lot of reference to rock and roll. He played some cool music and had some interesting choices of video on his flatscreen. He definitely did not make me a whiskey sour, but more of a whiskey soda. Nobuko, Alex and Satoko were at One Love and they called me to see if I would join them. We eventually got there and it was a lot of fun! I saw one of my senseis there and his friend from Kawauchi high school who is married to another sensei at my school. He ended up buying drinks for the people at the table and it was a good time!

We stayed there for a little bit after they left and then went to a place I have never been, Sanctuary. It was cool to hang out there for the rest of the night, but it was kind of expensive with the table charge and all the three Cokes I drank. We met a lot of new people that night. I met Hitomi, one of Dave’s new friends and she was a sweetheart. Went back around 4:00 AM and Mike and I just crashed.

Saturday:
Mike and I woke up pretty late and he made some nice grilled and sausage sandwiches. It was really good. Mike took me to the barbershop and with his Japanese we got me a haircut! It was very interesting because my hair was kind of long and I cut it pretty short.

After that, it was time for some poker and Toby was at Mike’s when we got back. We had about 4 people and Yukko came up from Noheji to hang out with us! I had to go to the Lawson across from the Eneos on the 279. I came back and we started poker shortly afterward. There were about 10-11 people the whole night. We broke for dinner around 6:15 and were due back at 7:30 PM. Yukko and I went to Sukiya where we were eyed by some guys. I think Yukko was a little uncomfortable!

It was a good night for poker and it was a lot of fun to see so many people at the table! I felt bad for Yukko, so I left the table early and then went to Sukiya to meet up with Alex. Nobuko was nice enough to drive us to Sukiya and then we went to One Love in Alex’s car. We got there and we had a good time! We took Yukko to Ori. And Alex took me back to Mike’s and everyone was finishing up.

Sunday:
Waking up early after going to bed late was very difficult. I got up early because I was paranoid about traveling. I took a nice shower and got ready, when I was done, Mike was already up and getting ready too. We left before 9:30 and we saw Alex and Yukko coming back. It was nice to see them and they wished me a good trip. Mike and I headed off and went to McDonald’s for some quick breakfast. The drive was a good one to Aomori airport. We made it in pretty good time and it really helped me relax about how smoothly things went. I got there and the security is not as strict as in the U.S. It was very easy to check my stuff in and get it screened. I had about one hour to wait and it was nice to just sit and observe people. When we did go in to the actual gate, we waited a little more and then were allowed into the plane. The flight was a nice one, about 2 hours and 52 minutes from Aomori to Incheon airport.

I arrived and going through the airport was very easy. I got through immigration and got my bag really quickly. It was probably one of the fastest things I have ever seen. I exchanged some money and saw Angella waiting to greet me. It was nice to see a familiar face and we went to buy bus tickets to get me to my hotel. It took about one hour to get from the airport to my hotel and it was a nice way to catch up with Angella whilst on the bus. Once we got to the stop, we had to find the hotel and it was a little bit trickier than most. Since it is more like a guesthouse than an actual hotel, the place was hidden in a back alley. The area was not bad, but it looked like the equivalent of China town anywhere in a big city in the US. It reminded me of China town in San Franscisco for some strange reason. The place I stayed at is called Travelers A and it is very nice. The place is very welcoming and well lit with bright colours and it is a nice place to call home for the next week. The young woman at the desk was very nice.

I got into my room and got ready to go with Angella to dinner. We took the subway to get to the area where we would have dinner. We walked around for a bit and then got to the restaurant. It was very good and it was traditional Korean food, a rice bowl with various ingredients such as chili paste and a raw egg served in a very hot stone bowl. The dish was served with kimchi, traditional Korean appetizers and it was very delicious.

Afterward, we went to the bookstore to find me a Lonely Planet book guide for Seoul. The bookstore was very interesting. It was almost like a basement and there were a lot of people in there even late at night. We finished that and then Angella showed me how to get back to my stop and I ventured onto the subway by myself. It was a lot of fun and it was very easy because everything was in English. I was reading my travel guide so intensely that I almost missed my stop, Euljiro-4-sa-ga. I got turned around and exited on the wrong side and spent the next 20 minutes trying to re-orient myself to find my hotel. I ended up finding my hotel and it was a relief to be back! I checked my e-mail quickly and then headed to bed. I was tired from the combination of traveling, the long weekend and being in a new place! Seoul is amazing!

Weekend of October 25th!

Sorry friends for not blogging more. I know my blogs recently have only been recaps of what I have been doing. I want to blog, but I am always swamped with work or other distractions from many different sources.

Let's start with Friday, shall we? As we always do!

Friday:
The start of maguro matsuri was not a good one. Well from the looks of an inside office to the outside, it looked windy and cold for the true spirit of the festival of tuna. Mike came up on Friday evening at about 7:30 PM and we kind of dilly dallied for a bit before really settling down to getting some food. When we did, we went to Maeda first and we saw the JTE from the middle school whom Mike already knew. It was nice chatting to him and finally getting to meet him. His English was very good! He told us that we should try Satou because the food there was better for freshness. We heeded his advice and went to Satou. When we were all done shopping, Mike did not have enough money and I had forgotten my wallet back at home. We had to rush to the ATM and get some money as Satou was about to close. It was nice though, because they kind of kept it open for us, the gaijin. haha Anyway, we got the food and then headed back to my place for some shabu shabu pot and sake! Mike drank beer and I drank chu-hai. It was really nice. We ate a feast fit for kings!! It was so good. Totemo oishii! Once we were finished, Mike and I watched a rented movie called, "Mongol." It was very good and I enjoyed a lot. We then hit the sack.

Saturday:
We decided to go the 11:00 AM cutting of the maguro. I didn't what to expect of the festival. The Blue Marine festival was rained out and I didn't end up going. It was a little disappointing, but I will have more opportunities in the future. Anyway, Mike and I went and were expecting to see people there, but no one contacted me, so I didn't know if we would see any other JETs there! We go there and walked around for a bit, when we saw the cutting area, we were immediately attracted to its magical power. We wanted to get our picture taken with the massive maguro and we did! It was a big surprise for a lot of the people in my town to see an Japanese looking mofo with a white gaijin. It was funny! We did see Bec, Karen, Will and Michelle. Yay for reunions in my small and quaint town of Oma. We witnessed the carving and then walked around outside and got some food from the vendors. I talked and said hi to some of my students who were surprised to see me. It was funny. Karen was not funny and trying to be all lovey dovey with me so as to start gossip about me! haha Mike was going to Hachinohe that day for the Halloween festivities and wanted to get on the road at a certain time and I wanted him to meet my eikeiwa students, so we stopped by at the local sushi place, Manae dad's joint. He wanted some hot asake, but the wait time was like 30 minutes. Too long for us, so we just said hi and then went back to find everyone! They were standing in line to buy some maguro and we waited with them! When everyone got their maguro, I invited everyone back to my place. It was the first time people came back to my place!! I was determined to impress, so I did the only natural thing I knew how to: host and cook! I ended up cooking mabodofu and some gyoza. It was a nice little lunch, light and delicious. They stayed for like an hour and then everyone decided to go on home. I did some shopping after and then decided to head up to Mutsu. Alex and I went out to some good ole McDonald's, cheap and easy. Then we went to One Love. There Ichiro tried to introduce me to Akiko-san's daughter, Yurie. She was very cute, but I knew she was not interested in me, but still we took her to go to karaoke. After that, Alex and I headed back. I went back to Mike's and Alex went home. Good day and good night!

Sunday:
I ended up going back at my own pace to Oma. It was nice, I enjoyed the drive back and it was a nice-ish day. I headed up to the festival to see if any more people came up, from what I saw, no one came out, so I just walked around, said hi to more of my students and then headed to the ramen shop for some delicious lunch. I only had gyozas, but it hit the spot really well. The place was really busy, so I didn't mind waiting a little bit. Japan has done that to me, it has taught me to be patient and really savour the moment and the experience. I am glad for this! I ended up being lazy at home and watching, "Zodiac." It was good. Good weekend!

Weekend of 10.18-10.19

Friday:
So I went to rugby practice for the first time in a very long time. I need to reconnect with the team and show that I want to be a part of it. It is interesting how the practice is structured, Nakamura sensei does not actually come out until a certain time, maybe like one hour into the practice. Practice is held from 16:00-18:30 PM. I helped the new players figure out how to deal with kicking and field strategy. I had to leave a little earlier because I had to be in Mutsu to teach the Tanabu SHS kids about essay composition. I was a little late to Skylark Gusto, but it was still a good time with those kids. They are super smart and motivated to want to learn English. I wish I could teach at an academic school, but I am sure that the teaching would be very different. I don't foresee these sessions to be very long because it is essay composition and I would read their essays the day before and just give them the comments.

Afterward, I met up with Mike at his apartment. He was supposed to have a dinner party, but people ended up canceling. It was me, Mike and Keiko. Mike made us all heaping plates of spaghetti and his version of garlic bread! It was very delicious. I was very grateful for that. I didn't even expect that!! ^^ My plan was to just drop stuff off at Mike's apartment and meet Alex for drinks at One Love. I called Alex and he said he would meet us there. All of us ended up going to One Love and just enjoying drinks with each other. Satoko came a little bit later and then Keiko's friend came as well for as little bit. Keiko ended up driving me back to Mike's and he stayed out more to drink. I was really tired and I needed to get some sleep!

Saturday:
I actually went back to Oma on Saturday morning because I had promised to meet Norie's husband and meet their dog, Dai. He was very excited and had a lot of genki! He was going to be nudered that day and I felt kind of bad for him. I assured Norie and her husband that they had nothing to worry about. It was kind of late though, he is about 3 years old. We had poker that night at Mike's! It was also the night of the Hachinohe Halloween party.

Sunday:
I went home and just watched movies! Nothing too exciting!

Dinner Party B neighbours!

So last night, I had a dinner party with the neighbors of the B apartment. They are 5 of us, but only 3 made it to the dinner last night. I invited everyone, but I don't know if the one who is not a teacher ducked out because he was uncomfortable because he is not a sensei... It was sad because the whole point was to get to know the people who live around me! Anyway, I am not going to let that small incident spoil the rest of my post!

I had set the time for 19:30 and it was perfect timing. I was a little paranoid as I always am because I didn't go to get the actual ingredients until 18:10! haha ^^ I found everything except the two types of cream, but decided milk would be a good substitute. It ended up working out well! People were on time and I was all ready making the first dish. I chose two American dishes, baked potato soup and chicken cordon bleu. It turned out well and I improvised to create the dishes and left out some stuff and they still turned out very well! It was Maruyama-sensei, Suzuki-sensei and jumachuo (sp?). They brought over some sushi, edimame and of course, sake! I think they brought some souchu and beer. This added onto the beer I had gotten from Sato! It was really nice.

The dishes turned out well as I mentioned before and I was very happy about the success of the night. It was good to learn more outside of the working environment and every was happy! Yay for the power of food to bring people together!

Normal weekend + National Health and Sports Day = Another fabulous three-day weekend! (10.11-10.13)

Sorry for the late post on my weekend activities! I have been falling behind on my blog and have been struggling to keep up! *I love the national holidays strategically placed within the year. Oh, how I love Japan! More countries should take note! ^^

Thursday:
My weekend really began on Thursday evening. We had cooking class for the month of October and it was a lot of fun! I was the leader for the class, so I had to be there a little earlier than usual. I was there around 6:30 PM and people were already starting to prepare the ingredients for the recipes. The recipes for the night were buttered balsamic vinagrette asparagus, buttered rice and tatertot hotdish (or the equivalent form of it) and nashi! It was a lot of fun and we did a lot of improvisation to make the potatoes work, but in the end it worked out! Toby's mum was there with us too! Mrs. Verna Walstod was amongst us and I had a good time chatting to her about my impressions about Japan and the group dynamic of Shimokita! Afterward, I went to McDonald's to chat with Alex Q. and it was a good time as always. It is nice time just to catch up and see how each other is doing in life.

Friday:
Culture day was finally upon us! I remember signing up for this almost three weeks in advance and then forgetting about it! It was nice because it was considered a business trip, but the ALTs all knew it was just a day off from the drone work of teaching. We all got to be relaxed and I learned a lot about Japanese culture. The seminar I chose was about Sumo wrestling and the three workshops were Japanese cooking, kingyo Nebuta and karate. It was all good and fun. I learned to make some delicious dishes, got to make my own goldfish and learned the deeper meaning of karate. After the day was done, I helped clean up for a bit, then headed to Mila's place for some tea with Yuan, Shuang, Mike and Angella. I ended up leaving a little earlier because I had to get back for the field day and it was also my first night of, "working," at ONE LOVE. I volunteer there and get paid NO MONEY, but I learn valuable lessons about people and how to bartend! I love to work with Shino and Ichiro. They are great and I feel as though I am making invaluable friends for life! I finished work and then went back to Mike's and decided to stay there for the night instead of going back to Oma.

Saturday:
I got up early and had to drive back to Oma to make it back in time for the preparation day! It was a long drive, but it was pleasant! I got back and changed into relaxed sports clothes and went to school. The day of preparations was really just the students having time to practice their dance routine and also practice some more technical things such as marching and the traditional dance! The day was rainy and very windy and it cut the preparations short and we were allowed to leave at 14:00 PM that day! I took a nap and then decided to head back to Mutsu. I ended up working again that night at ONE LOVE and there were more people there! It was a good night for ONE LOVE and we went out afterward to a local restaurant for a late night snack! It was good and I headed back to Mike's for another nice sleep!

Sunday:
Sunday was my typical lazy day. I went out to eat and just chilled around Mike's apartment. Mike came back and said he had a festival, so he went to that and I went somewhere, I can't really remember. Alex B. had told me he was coming back from Noheji and we would be able to hang out later and possibly play some Wii! I was excited because I have not really spent much time with Alex and knowing he is now engaged, he will have less and less time to spend with people. We went to Alex's place in Ori and played Wii! Nobuko's friend, Yuko was there and it was nice to meet a new person! ^^ Nobuko had a cake to celebrate Yuko's birthday and I told her that Mike's was the day before hers! So it ended up being a double celebration! We had some dinner that Nobuko cooked, which was very delicious and then went to bowl and play pool. Yuko went back to Noheji which was unfortunate, but still we had a lot of fun. Of course, I suggested we have a wager of pushups. 3 and 6 for strikes and spares respectively. After that, we played some pool and it was fun.

Monday:
I came back on Monday in the early afternoon and got a nice email from Julie and Taylor. They came up from Noheji and wanted to see Oma. Unfortunately, I did not know of the places yet and I just entertained! They bought some stuff from Maeda and I cooked for them. I made some mabodofu and miso soup. It was nice to just talk for a bit. What a full weekend!

大間 SHS Field Day? Or was it sports day...

So I had the amazing opportunity to participate in Oma SHS's Field day. It was a pretty big event and it even required us to come in on Saturday, Oct. 11th for preparations. The whole week was used to prepare for the event! Every day after school, each team, divided by a random selection of classes from the 1st, 2nd and 3rd years would practice their dance routines. The 3rd years led the dances and got to chose the music and choreograph the routine.The colours representing the teams were red, white and blue. I don't know why they chose that and as usual, there was no explanation on why it was like this. I was assigned to the 青組 (ao kumi, or blue team) and it was led by 32 HR. I didn't know the work put into the actual event as I didn't participate in any of the building of the billboards or the painting and design of the posters. I was very impressed at how much the students put into it!

All the students and teachers came in on Saturday and we quickly went to practice in the two gyms and outside. It was mostly the dance routines and a little bit of marching and the Oma traditional dance. The whole day was spent on that and also preparing the field outside for the appropriate use. Unfortunately, that day it was very rainy and windy. At about 12:00 PM, the students were allowed to go home, well the girl students were allowed to, whilst the boys had to work and prepare more. But due to the weather, it was cancelled and they were allowed to go home early. The teachers stuck around until 2:00 PM and then were allowed to go home for the rest of the day. The weather postponed field day until Tuesday!

On Tuesday, I got to school at my usual time. When I got in, my supervisor advised me to help the boys' set up. I went out to where the field was and there was all of the boys from every year setting up something or another. Even the girls were helping out! Something that I noticed is that if there ever was an event like this in the US, the student's would help out to set up, but most of it would be done by teachers or parents or staff. The students here in Japan did everything. There is no fear of suing anyone from doing heavy lifting or using carpentry skills to build the poster boards. It was nice to see that the students put in full effort into their own day as they will benefit the most from it! After setting up for a while, the longest thing was securing the poster boards to metal stands and making sure the strong winds of Oma did not blow it down! There were events such as 100 M, 100 M obstacle, tire pull, tug-of-war, 100 M relay, dance contest and etc.!

At the end, the winners were the white team and the closing ceremony was very interesting to watch. Everyone, and I mean everyone helped take down all the things used for the day!

The [almost] impossible task of 漢字 (kanji)!!!

Hello friends!

I am super stoked and motivated to learn 漢字 (kanji = Chinese characters used in Japanese writing) lately and have been taking advantage of my new found energy to learn the beautiful and complex language of Japanese. I will go over my new experiences with kanji and some of the basic, general ideas behind it provided by Wikipedia! ^^

My energy for learning kanji came to me on Thursday evening and continued onto Friday, so I had to take advantage of it! I had only one class that day, so I taught that and then tried to figure out how to tackle the almost impossible task of kanji. I thought I had it down, but trying to teach yourself was going to be a little bit harder than I had thought. I have a natural affinity and attraction to languages, so I am very motivated to learn!

常用漢字 (joyo kanji) is a list of 1,945 kanji set by the government that includes the 教育漢字 (Kyōiku kanji or the educational kanji, it is a list of 1,006 kanji taught in elementary school) plus 939 kanji taught in JHS and SHS. It is considered the general list for everyday use! There are more and more lists out there and if you want to read about it, please visit the link to Kanji provided by Wikipedia.

After conferring with the Japanese teacher and other friends who have studied kanji, I thought I would be able to tackle it and used the list of 部首 (Bushu or radicals) for my starting point. I was quickly shot down by my Japanese teacher saying that even Japanese people did not know all 214 部首 and it would be pointless to learn them. Also, my friend Dave F. who is probably the most expert person I know in learning Chinese and Japanese said that to learn 部首 is only if you want to become a kanji professor. I agree and disagree at the same time. I think 部首 are important because if you can recognize the radicals in the kanji you might not understand, you might be able to deduce the meaning through the context of the radicals. But what do I know right? I remember when I took my brief forray into learning Chinese that Jin laoshi told us that most Chinese people know all the radicals and it made it easier to learn new characters. Granted that Chinese has over 20,000 characters (a small estimation, probably off by a lot) and most people learn Chinese all their lives, I was still kind of iffy. I decided that learning the radicals would be kind of pointless in my stage of development and if I wanted to later, I could learn them as well! They are included in the 1,945 kanji required to pass the JPLT 1 anyway, so I thought I will get to them eventually! >_<

JPLT Level 3

1. ~300 kanji which is the equivalent to approximately 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade in elementary school.
   
2. ~1,500 vocabulary based on the kanji, hiragana and katakana.
   
3. ~300 hours of studying.
   
4. Passing grade is 60%. The test is out of 400 points. So I need 240 to pass with a 60%.
   
5. The test is comprised of three sections: Kanji and vocab, listening comprehension and reading.
   

I want to learn the first 80 kanji or the 1st grade elementary kanji by the end of this year and then trek on from there! Wish me luck!

All ALTs Soccer Tournament 菅平長野県 (10.03-10.06)

Sorry for the late post, I have been super busy these past couples day of the beginning of the week.

So a recap of last weekend amazing adventures begins... now!

Friday:
I had to take one hour nenkyu. It was weird doing that as I only left at 2:45 PM. I left and rushed to Mutsu only to find that Mike was not at his home yet. I knew Amy was there, so we ended up just talking for a bit whilst waiting for Mike. It was not long and we got all our stuff together to go! Mike ended up driving and it was a tiring drive to Aomori Minami SHS. We stopped at Sunkus to grab some food before the long trek up on the bus. We left from the bus stop at Aomori Minami at 6:30 PM, making stops in Hachinohe and another place I forgot. We then made a final stop at Morioka and their huge shopping center! It was really cool, it reminded me of the US and their huge shopping malls. After that, it was the long drive down to Nagano-ken to Sugadaira! I think it was around 11 hours or so from Aomori-shi. Soooo looonnnng!

Saturday:
We arrived at the 7-11 in Sugadaira or outside of it around 5:30 AM. It was a long drive and I was ready for more sleep. I got some fruit, a vitamin water and some vitamin C pills. I was starting to have cold sores from the lack of vit. C in my diet. Ahh, the wonders of scurvy! We got to the hotel and they allowed us to check in early. So we got in and our room just ended up sleeping until about the time we had to go for our first game of the tournament. We got up and I was ready to go and play! I was really excited for the tournament and at that point had high expectations for the team! We got there and immediately three of us had to ref a game prior to our first game. I didn't like how it was set up, but we had to take it. I reffed for a game of Nagoya against Nagano and it was a bit edgy throughout the whole time. The Nagoya team was from Brasil and they are always a little complaint heavy on the referee at times. We finally finished the game and the three of us had to rush to our game. I was unprepared and it definitely took me longer to get accustomed to the game speed. I can't remember the score now, but I think it was like 2-0. I thought for a team mixed of people whose skill range was from college play to never having touched a soccer ball in their life, it was OK! I looked forward to the next game! We played again a couple hours later and unfortunately got spanked by the next team, I think it was 4-1. I scored our only goal of the game and tournament by getting the ball at about 40 yards out. At the same time, my calf cramped and I decided to play it out. I took on three players and then had the keeper to get past. My last touch let me down and the keeper smothered it. I thought it would end there, but he lost control and only had one hand on it and I took my opportunity and kicked it out of his hand. It went out a little bit and I chased, turned around and shot, scored! It was a very hard worked goal and it was very sloppy, not the goal for the highlights, but it was something that the guys enjoyed and I did too until the pain in my left calve forced me to the ground! I limped off and then collapsed on the sidelines and Hideo helped me stretch it out. I know my left calf was due for a cramp as it had been bothering me at home too. Oh well! One more game to go and I didn't think I was going to make it. On game days, I don't usually eat a lot, so an apple juice and Snickers bar held me up through the day accompanied with Calorie Mate before the games for extra kick of energy. The last game was kind of frustrating for me as the team really showed its lacked of communication and how we had never practiced before. The second half went better, but we still got flakked 6-0. The team was a good team and basic organization. It also seemed like their players all played before. We got back to the hotel and we were all just exhausted. Playing three games of soccer plus the fact of 11 hours of traveling made it very difficult. I made my way to the onsen as many of the players did the same. It was nice and relaxing, also to get a shower in was amazing. After that, I headed down to dinner and didn't know who was down there. I saw a bunch of people and ended up sitting next to Amy and Mike. They had already started eating dinner, but I had no trouble catching up!! I was starved and the food and portions were perfect for the occasion! Afterward, Amy and I went up to their room and we wanted to nap for a bit, but everyone came back and it was just a good time hanging out with people from the ken! I felt like a lot of people did that before the party anyway, it is hard to break away from what you are comfortable with to be with new people! There were drinking games and massages going on! It was nice! Amy and I ended up going to the captain's meeting and found out who we would play for the next day. The girl's team did very well and were in the championship round and the men's team.... did not do so well and we were in the plate round or the consolation bracket. We got back and then I headed to bed early. I was the third person in my room and others were already fast asleep! It was a good, but exhausting day!

Sunday:
I got up early on Sunday and took advantage of people being hungover to hit the onsen. It was so relaxing and it really gave me genki for the rest of the day! I made my way to breakfast and was the first one there from our ken and just sat and enjoyed the meal they had given us! Soon, some of the people from the ken slowly trickled into breakfast, some of the girls had the same idea and hit up the onsen before hand! The guys left first and played our first game. That day we ended up winning one game and losing the next two! It was a little disappointing, but it was OK! The girls took third and we took the bus back to the hotel to get a quick shower and onsen! We ended up leaving at around 4:30 PM and got back to Aomori at about 2:30. Then the long drive up to Mutsu, which Amy was good enough to do and then I got back to Oma around 6:00 AM! I saw my friend at the Circle K and one of my eikeiwa students! Weird!

佐井村 Welcome Party and weekend!

Hello! So these last couple of weekends have been full of fun and new adventures for me! I basically work in Oma during the week and then go to むつ on the weekends. It is the base for all my weekend adventures! I am very grateful to Mike L. for letting me stay and use his apartment all the time! It is very nice of him! It has been extremely useful too!

Friday:
Anway, my weekend began on Friday with me being very tired. It is a pattern I am trying to get over. Carly had told me well in advance about the welcome party and it was going to be at 7:00 PM near the community center in Sai. I left at 6:25 and didn't know how long it would take me, so I left early just to be safe. I got there and Carly was not home. The lights were on, but no one was there. So I tried calling her and when she got signal, she told me she was at the ATM in Oma. haha That was funny! She had forgotten that she needed money for the trip. It was typical Carly! So I just waited in the car whilst it poured down rain! When she got back, we took my car to the place and I met her eikeiwa class. There were 7 in her class. They were all very nice people and they paid for my meal and even had a cake! It was amazing to have that kind of reception from people I had never even met before! We were there for a good 2.5 hours and then I took Carly back home!

When I got back, I thought I was going to rest and have an easy night, but I was soon convinced to come out to Mutsu and hang out with Alex Q. I drove up to Mutsu pretty quick and met Alex at One Love reggae bar. I saw Mike and Alex's cars there and knew it was going to be a good time! I walked in and there were people there as usual, but Mike and Alex were smoking at the bar. Ichiro and Shino were the bartenders for the night. Well it was more like Shino and Ichiro just worked what he wanted! He can do whatever he wants to though, he is the owner! We stayed until they closed up and it was a lot of fun. After we went to the same restaurant as last weekend sans Ichiro and Miyoko. Alex swore he knew where it was and Mike just followed us in his drunken stupor. I eventually led us to the place through my vague memory. I am sure I could get us there now though! Yes for photographic memory! We got there and of course being with gaijin gaijin meant staring at them and staring at me for being with them. It was OK though, we had our own conversations and enjoyed ourselves really. Mike had to be controlled from time to time, but did well overall. Alex and I split some gyozas! It was so delicious! I had sobered up a lot, so I drove myself back to Mike's place. Alex drove Mike back and we left his car there. I stopped at the Lawson on the way back and got three "hangover cures" and an Aquarius to help restore my electrolytes! I was exhausted and went to bed shortly after!

Saturday:
I woke up late-ish and it was amazing. Alex had left early because of a stupid promise to be back in Kawauchi. Mike woke up and I gave him a hangover cure and he said he felt good to be hungover. He is a liar! A DAMN LIAR! haha I made some breakfast and it was good. We went out because I needed help getting my back windshield wiper changed. AUTOBACS! My new favourite store in Mutsu! The people are nice and very helpful. Mike spent time with the guy figuring what windshield wiper I needed and then installed it! It was amazing. I stayed in the warmth of the store, looked at the pretty girls who worked there and oogled the amazing things I could have bought for my car, but did not. I was so proud of myself!!! It shows that I can control myself and rationalize what I want and need. Although I did get some pretty good ideas for the next projects on the tank! Afterward, Mike wanted to go hiking, so we picked up his car and went back to his apartment. Mike went to Shiriya and I just stayed in. We saw Dave and he was studying for his JPLT test. We agreed to go out to McDonalds at 2:00 PM. It gave me time to shower and take a little nap. Dave drove and it was so good because I was really hungry and it was my first western food in a while. If I was in America, eating McDonalds once a week would be disgusting, but the weekends in Japan, for me at least are full of good food and comfort food. I still don't gain weight! I love Japan so much! Dave and I got into interesting talks about politics, the economy and various other topics. I made a stop at Takeda Sports and got some sport sandals, ones I could wear in the rain and don't mind getting dirty. Dave needed to stop at the stationary store to get more flashcards and I got some too along with a pen! There were some cute girls who worked there too! ^^We got back and I just lazed around Mike's place until Toby arrived with the fake poker chips. It was us two and then we made some calls and bam! by the end of the night, there were 9 people! It was a good night and we played to about midnight. Then Alex, Mike and I went out for jumbo gyozas at Masuya! OMG, so good! They were とてもおいしい(very delicious - totemo oishii)!!!! After that Mike convinced us to go to Dio where DJs were playing. It was a horrible decision as I was out 2,000 sen-en and the music was horribly loud and the treble was crap. They didn't really DJ versus playing song and transitioning them poorly. All the Japanese guys thought the NY Yankees hat was the shit and I was like oh boy... I wish I had Chris G. with me to show these fools up. Alex and I had a drink (I had Coca-Cola) and left whilst Mike danced his night away. We went to Mickie's bar and just chilled there, it was nice to hear what each other was saying! We met up with Alex's friend, Yui and chilled. All of her friends had gone home! We then went to another bar where we met Yoshei. That woman is one cold, hard bitch. She was ice. She didn't introduce herself or anything. We stayed there for a bit, played some darts and then went to meet Mike at his car for the drive back. We got back where Queeny and Mike decided to take shots of rum. It was intense. I did not take part of it though! We chatted about stuff then hit the sack, it was actually light when we went to bed around 4:00 AM.

Sunday:
I had to wake up early because I needed to get out to Aomori-shi by 11:00 AM, so I ended up leaving at like 10:00 AM and didn't get there until 11:45 AM. It was OK because there was only like two others when I got there, Chris and Helen, the captains of the men's and women's teams, respectively. Stephen came out and we all gave him some pointers. It was funny because all three of us had some GKing experience, so he was overloaded with strategy! We did for a bit, then Helen left and it started to rain. Chris, Stephen and I then chatted to the girl's handball team. We were trying to convince them to play in the rain, it was only raining a little bit and it would have been good cross-training for us! After, I took Chris and Stephen back to their houses and began the long drive back to Mutsu. I got back to Mutsu and I was really tired. Keiko and I had plans for dinner though and so I went to Mike's place and showered to get ready. Keiko came over and we just chatted for a while. It was nice to get to know someone in an one on one setting. It is where I thrive the most! Plus I get to have a friend in Mutsu who is Japanese! We decided to go to あかさたな and it was nice. The Italian is the closest you get to it in Japan in Mutsu. We had some cream based spaghetti and Hawaiian pizza. We headed back after dinner and talked for a little bit, then I headed back to Oma. What a weekend! I am sure more is to come! Nagano next weekend! I will keep y'all posted!

Weekend+nenkyu+Autumn Equinox = four day weekend!

A recount of my weekend, this is more a journal entry and writing my memories!:

Friday:
I was really tired from the week, I had some rough experiences that really took a toll on my body and left me to wonder whether or not I was going to go to Mutsu. We had the SIFA cooking class on Thursday evening and I got home late from that, which was a ton of fun as always. I got to see the whole Mutsu gang and Alex B. led the cooking with some amazing Australian recipes. So anyway, I was really tired when I got back from school on Friday and after messing around on the internet, it was around 6:00 PM when I wanted to nap. I got a call from Alex Q. and decided to go to Mutsu. I got to Mike's place and Alex was talking to Dave. We chatted for awhile and then went to Discovery Cafe where we had some western food, pizza and gratin and shared a dessert with each other! After, we decided to go to karaoke with some of the SIFA women and Keiko was amongst them! After belting out song after song with Alex and friends (Alex Q. is really good by the way), we avoided going out with Satoko and then went to a bar called, "One Love," which by the title, one would assume it is a reggae-themed bar, which it was. I got to meet Ichiro, the owner and the workers there. They were awesome and it was exactly the kind of place I want to hang out at frequently. Alex and I chilled there for a couple hours, maybe more. Like 11:30-3:00... OK, that is more than a couple hours, but it was fun. I made some new friends and Alex bought me drinks. I also got a drink paid by a woman I met there. So nice to be friendly and a little flirt! ;) Afterwards, Ichiro, Alex, Miyoko (sp?) went out for ramen to a nice, quaint place in Tanabu. It was amazing to have some food after some drinking. We headed back to Mike's place to crash. It was so good to sleep!

Saturday:
Waking up to the doorbell ringing and then Alex B. jumping on me was not so good. After making a quick and groggy decision, I decided to go on the hike that Amy had organized! The hike was amazing! The people that went were Amy, Alex B., Toby, Mike and Carly R. It was a hard trek to the top, but well worth it. I think it took us about 1 hour to reach the summit, but the view was breathless. It was ridiculous! We did some cliff jumping! And Amy led us on her more, "manly" adventures which was scaling and bouldering... We came back down and then went to Bon Cafe for their famous beef curry ball with melty, gooey cheese on the inside. Afterward, Mike and I headed back to his place to shower and take naps. We were both really exhausted. I took a nice, long one and then settled for poker around 6:00, but more like 6:30 PM. It was good. It was Mike, Alex, Toby, Kazuyo and I. I felt bad because Kazuyo, Keiko and another girl I can't remember the name of started to make food for us to eat. Gabriel and Keiko later joined us. It was not a good night for Alex B. or Gabriel as they bought in a couple times each. It was good for me until Dave started playing late and I got hammered by him. Also, Keiko killed me on a couple head to head rounds. My decision making abilities were a little questionable as I consumed three large cans of 酎ハイ (chu-hai, or flavoured souchu with a fruit taste, usually) in very short periods of time. Everyone left around 12:00 AM and then we went to bed!

Sunday:
Sunday was Mike and I's lazy day! We woke up late and kind of stumbled around. We decided to do a lot of shopping that day. First, we found Autobacs where they could changed my way overdue oil and we walked to the Aeon on the four corners of Mutsu. After that, we went back to Autobacs, got the car and went to other shopping venues in Mutsu. The big Maeda was one of the places we went to and I had to get more money from the ATM. One social faux pas, wait until the people in the ATM are finished before barging in and scaring the shite out of them. Nice surprise though, I got more money from my CO for something. It was like two paychecks! So I splurged a little! ;) I had soccer that night in Ohata, so I asked Mike if he wanted to go and he said yes, so we were going to leave to go back to Oma, then back to Ohata for practice and then back to my place to spend the night. Dave decided to come and I was happy for people to just come to my place. We got to Oma, I started to cook some brown rice! Mike and I went to the practice and saw Akiko there whilst Dave walked around Oma. It was a fun practice except I didn't have socks and got blisters from wearing my shoes on my barefeet! I also hurt my lower back and was barely to walk afterward. We made our way back to Oma and I cooked mabodofu and reheated some miso soup for my guests. I also made some soba with fish sauce to dip in. Afterward, I set up the beds upstairs and we went to bed.

Monday:
We had to leave early in the morning the next day because Dave was going to Hakodate with his girlfriend, Miki. We got back and realized we need more things for the trip to the beach. We went to Sunday and picked up more bungee cords, a cooler a lighter and a towel. After that we got some ice and drinks and was ready for the trip to the beach in Rokkasho. We decided to take the 279, then the 179, but not before stopping at the Yokohama visitors center! I really had to go to the bathroom and when I came out, we were both hungry. We sat down in the restaurant and ordered. I had some カツカレー (katsu kare) and Mike had some type of gyodon. I can't really remember. After a delicious meal where army guys stared at us for speaking English and maybe because Mike was white, we headed off to the treacherous 179 where the tank tackled it! We stopped to take a picture of the scary bear sign and were off! I would rank the 179 in being the third best route to take to get to Rokkasho for time, but for the fun factor, definitely the best! We got to Rokkasho and the surf was great. We went to the beach we surfed at last (can't remember the name) and the waves were pretty poor. (I think it has to do with the tide breakers off the beach), so we went to the other beach after some disc throwing. When we got to the other beach, the surf was much better! Shinniya beach is more suited for surfing and you could tell it was the "haven" in Rokkasho as many of the locals were there. Mike hit up the waves and I sat on the beach and read a little bit of, "A Scanner Darkly." After a while, I got sleepy and decided to try out the flatbed in my tank. It was nice, but I drifted in and out sleep. When Mike was done, we went to Roca Poca. After a good 1.5 hours there (where I didn't lose my keys!!!!) we headed out to dinner. We re-enacted the date between Mike and Ayuko, where I was the women and it was a lot of fun. Then we headed back to the beach where we started a bonfire. The wood we collected earlier really helped us out, but we had to make a couple trips back to the beach to keep the fire going. It lasted a long time until we decided to sleep. The flatbed was kind of uncomfortable for me plus I got bitten by mosquitoes all night long. A lot of mods coming to that bed and tank soon...

Tuesday:
I was woken up by the call of Angella-nuna and she told me she was not coming to the beach that day. It was OK, I was too sleepy to even care at that point. I got back into the truck and fell back asleep. When I finally woke up later, Mike was up and ready to hit the waves. The waves were very good and there were a lot of locals in the water all vying for a spot to catch a wave. Unfortunately for Mike, this meant he would not be able to get as many as he would have liked. It started to rain and when Mike came in, I told him Ayuko and Kiyomi were not going to meet us because of it. We headed out and went to Eunjin-nuna's place to say hi. It was good. We headed back to Mutsu and to Alex B's house in Ori to drop off his stuff. A boy was playing Wii and we just went on our business. After, we went to this restaurant, which had skillet meat and all you can eat salad bar. It was good since our breakfast was very small and minute, so we kind of pigged out. After that we headed to a carwash and power-washed all the salt, sand and grime built on my car from the beach and whenever Brian Y. washed it last. We got back to Mike's place and it was like coming home, or my second home. We got to relax, shower and take a short nap. I decided to stick around because Keiko was coming over, so we decided to make some pork curry with onions, carrots and potatoes. It was delicious. Hayako came over with some rokkayozuke... hmmmm soooooo goooooddddd! Dave and Alex joined us a bit later and I finally went back to Oma around 9:30 PM. Whew. A lot to write about!

The west vs. the east or is it the east vs. the west?

You may wonder how I chose this title... and even think to yourself, what is this about? Are you intrigued? Let me first reflect on the title, I started with the "west vs. the east." I believe this is because I was raised in a predominantly western society/culture. I definitely identify as Asian-American and maybe sometimes as Korean-American or Chinese-American. So that is a little background, but the more important things come next...

The topic of discussion is the difference between girls in both societies/cultures. First of all, I am generalizing when describing western and eastern society. I make them entities and I know and acknowledge that they are comprised of separate countries, cultures, ethnic groups, etc. but I am noticing differences between the general populations. This topic came from an idea my friend gave me from Rokkasho. We were talking about the differences between Korean and Japanese girls and she said she would write an article about it. She is also a Korean CIR and she has her own article... dangerous...

Being raised in all of western societies, i.e. Mexico, Canada, England and the US, I have been exposed to the norms of dating, romance and sexuality in the context of the west. I would say up until college, I was only interested in caucasian girls because a number of things. I was always around caucasian people as they make the majority of the population and there was not that much diversity around me. Also, I didn't connect with other Chinese or Asians because I didn't know who I was yet. My parents also were a little protective of me in high school, so it pushed me to resent Asian/Asian-American girls and focused on caucasian girls.

When I got to college, it seemed all the girls I was able to get were all Asians or Asian-Americans. I don't know why, but I think karma came around for me. It was then where I was exposed to Japanese, Korean and Hmong girls. I liked other girls too, but all I ever dated were all of Asian descent. In terms of assimilation, the Hmong people are a very young ethnic group in the US and I think they are still very much traditional in their ways. For people like me, being Asian-American, I have found a balance to my parent's traditions and the American way of life. My parents say they want me to marry whoever makes me happy and loves me, but deep deep down, I think they want to marry another Asian girl. The saying, "Birds of a feather flock together," comes to mind. I don't mind marrying an Asian girl as long as I find what I am looking for. And I would assume everyone is in it for the same thing. Love, marriage and kids. Well, at one point in everyone's lives... some are quicker to find it than others.

I will talk about some differences I have noticed. One of the things that I notice most is the shyness of guys when it comes to talking to girls. I know this is not specifically about girls, but it is interesting nonetheless. I teach high school in 大間町 and have noticed that the boys are a lot more shy than the girls. I have been told this before I came, but it was very prevalent when I was on my trip to Rokunohe with the rugby team (see previous post). The girls were also ready for a photo opportunity where the boys would shy away from it and hide behind each other. Another example is when I asked the two 3rd years if they had boyfriends and suggested it was on the rugby team or in the high school, they laughed and waived it off as though the boys were not even worth their time. (Both of them are dating older guys who are closer to my age, which made me very uncomfortable.) I think with time, the guys opened up and relaxed around me a little more. But the willingness for girls to do that immediately shows the differences in cultures. In the United States of America, girls and boys are not as shy as they are in Japan. If a girl or boy is shy, it is because they usually lack self-confidence. But most of my high school friends were loud, seeking attention and wanting to be cool in the popular crowd. This brings me to the next point, if guys are so shy in Japan, then how do they ever get to ask a girl out. In the USA, it is almost always assumed that the guy will ask a girl out. The girl does not want to look desperate, slutty, fill in the adjective of your choice and plus many girls like the guy to show the initiative. It is very rare to find a girl who is good, "normal" and not sexually overactive to ask a guy out on a date. I am not saying it does not happen, but most of the time, the guy does most of the work. I don't know how it is like in Japan, but I assume the guy asks the girl out only after they have known each other for a while.

A blatant contrast between girls and relationships between the east and the west is how many boyfriends they have had. Now the girls who are hanging out with foreign men are a bit different in that they know what it takes to be with a gaijin guy. But the ones who are just a normal, Japanese or Asian girl really takes the relationship very seriously. I get the feeling that everytime an Asian woman has a boyfriend, depending on their age and situation, their mindset is marriage or long term relationship. I know in the US, girls have a very independent mindset. They have their own goals and want to have their own careers. If they have a relationship, great, but it is not the end of the world if they do not.
Maybe it is different because I am a boy, but in the USA, everyone has some fun and has their fair share of boyfriends and girlfriends. I am only 22 years old and I already feel that if I get into a relationship here in Japan, I will be expected to be in it for a long time. I am not opposed to a long term relationship, but I don't want to commit too early, too soon. It is also that I have not met the right girl yet... maybe I will in Japan or Asia... maybe I won't. I can't tell you my future because I honestly don't know. When people ask me, "How many girlfriends have you had?" I have to ask, "In what period of my life?" I am not at all a playa and definitely don't sleep around just to screw over girls. (Sorry, no pun intended) I am just a normal guy. I will admit I do flirt a lot and this has gotten me into trouble more often than I can remember, but that is who I am. I am not going to change for someone. I hope that someone would not change themselves for me.

This is all I can think of right now... I will be adding more to it as I experience more and more! Addendum: Please don't take this to be fact or truth or at all objective. These are my experiences and observations from what I have experienced. The things I talk about have been happening in patterns and I thought they would be interesting to share. Please do not be offended. Thanks!