Astronauts and Photobooths

So...some random pics taken with a crappy disposable camera and in a 'Miss Doll' Photobooth.
Ethan is our new friend and fellow teacher, yeay!

The Earthquke

For those of you who asked, thank you for your concern, but our area was not in anyway touched. The only suffering caused was mental and can be demonstrated by this example conversation.

Setup: Philip has turned on the TV after getting back to the hotel room and is watching the news even though he doesn't understand a word of it

Sarah: what's that? what happened to that building
Philip: I don't know it looks in bad shape though
Sarah: was it a storm it was pretty nasty out today...
Philip: an earthquake maybe?
Sarah: yeah look at the street, oh no, did you feel anything today
Philip: no...?
Sarah: turn it off before I start thinking that we will be in an earthquake every ten seconds

but no blood no foul.

other things worth noting

a list of words I did not know the meaning of

polite
friendly
customer service
fresh seafood
fashonable
short skirt
clean
mass transit (I mean MASSIVE)
low ceiling
discrimination (people with tattoo's are not allowed in most bath houses)
Sarah ( means "plate" in Japanese)

on thursday we will move into our apartment in nishishizu a few mins from the shizu train station, er, if you know where you are going that is....




some phrases that might have been usefull. ( I will work on a translation and edit this post if enough people are really interested. )

is this the subway to...?

it is? I didn't recognize it.

because i can't smell the urine.

is something the matter?

that man is homeless?

but he is better dressed than I am.

no keep your change, thank you.

The search for our new home...

Today Phil and I went to Nishishizu, one stop away on the train from our hotel, to try and locate our new apartment. Mimi, who works for MIL, had given us the address the day we arrived in Japan. Since today was our last free day before training, we figured we would try to locate it and gather our bearings. Simple, right?

Riiiiight.

So, Phil is pointing to where we THOUGHT we had to go.



It's a good few inches away from where we actually had to be. We wandered around confidently (in the completely wrong direction) and found a grocery store and a cool second hand shop where I found an awesome old roland piano...didn't get it but I'm hoping I can once we are in the apartment...anyhow.

Along the way, we accosted unsuspecting passersby and used our poor language skills upon them. In the last of a few desperate attempts, we met a very kind older gentleman who not only offered to help us find the apartment but also walked us to it - a good fifteen minute march (and I mean, MARCH - that guy walked fast!) We had a somewhat meager but good conversation along the way there. We found out that he has been an amateur photographer for over ten years and that he went to the states a few years back to photograph at some military bases. After we were delivered to our apartment, we met one of MIL's teachers (Matt) who is staying in our future apartment. He was kind enough to show us around, despite the fact that we were completely unexpected or invited. After having stayed in a hotel for the last week, Phil and I are very ready to move in to a more permanent place.

We'll send pictures, I guess...once we're settled in.

Oh, did I mention it was raining?

Google knows where we are...

WOW. WOW...

We're here, we're really, really here. I guess that seems obvious to everyone else but since our touchdown in Japan I've been poking Phil in the ribs, grinning and saying: "Phil...we're totally in Japan, how weird is THAT?"

As I'm sure Phil will mention, our flight on Japan Air to Narita blew all other flights I have ever taken out of the water. It would prove to be only a miniscule forshadowing of the kind of treatment and service that is typical in Japan.

There's so much to say, I'm not sure I can relay it in any logical order. I fancy I will throw a few thoughts around.

Our first meal in Japan was pizza. Yes, pizza - and it was amazing. After arriving in Yukarigaoka, two train stops up from MIL's main location in Katsutadai, we settled into our hotel ( Hotel Wishton Yukari) and were starving. We dumped our bags and then wandered around (mostly bewildered) to try to find a place to eat. Ordering involved a lot of pointing and the waitress seemed pretty weirded out that we each wanted to eat a whole pizza...either that or we were impressing her with our barbaric table manners, not sure which; maybe both?

After inhaling dinner, we returned to our teeny weeny hotel room, laid our heads down on our teeny pillows and slept.
Okay, focus..focus...hmmm, there are just so many thoughts and pictures flashing in my mind's eye right now.

There are not nearly as many 'gaijin' (foreigners) here as I initially imagined. When we were walking around on the street, I feel like I was playing 'slug-a-gaijin' or something. Not nearly enough volkswagons here for the original version of that game.




Funny thing is, when we come across one, Phil and I tend to cringe a little and look away. Phil says there are two kinds of tourists: The ones who are relieved to see other Americans and the ones who are just plain old embarrassed. (No offense, YA'LLLLLLLLL.....)


OKAY, OKAY, I HAVE A CONFESSION...THIS BLOG ENTRY IS A COMPILATION OF RANDOM THOUGHTS OVER THE LAST FEW DAYS...also, I am insane.



Phil and I are loving it here. There is amazement and wonder around every corner. We have already experienced so much + we're loving the language barrier. We've already learned a decent amount in the little time we've been here. The funny thing is though that all the other languages I've had experience with are popping into my head while I'm trying to speak Japanese. Spanish is driving me INSANE. It somehow sounds a lot like Japanese to me and it's got my brain in a rubix cube.
I mean...here's a tiny example:

Engrrrrish: Where is Tokyo station?

Japanese: Tokyo eki, doko des ka?

Spanish: Estacion de Tokyo, donde esta? ( Okay, you probably wouldn't arrange that sentence like that in spanish but i'm trying to make a point, Hai?)

So I've been thinking about the spanish equivalent for pretty much everything I've been trying to learn in japanese. Wouldn't it be ironic if somehow I learned more spanish here than I ever did in Central America?

Hmm, what else to say. Oh yes. Message to all my guy friends who are currently NOT in Japan: you're missing out. There are so many unbelievably hot chicks here. That said: I feel at least a little like a big boned amazonian burrowing toad, well...mostly when I'm shopping for clothes. I think I'm an XL here. GODZILLLLLA, rarrrr.

Speaking of shopping, Phil and I spontaneously ventured to Tokyo yesterday. It took us about twice the time it should have to get there since we were trying to figure out the train and subway routes. It's not really so bad at all. Well, definately confusing at first but I think by the end of the day we were getting the hang of it. Once in Central Tokyo, we wandered around in a massive shopping center. There was a massive book store that took up a few floors of the building where we managed to find an english-japanese and a japanese-english dictionary: very exciting for us.

Oh, that reminds me... we were checking out at the cashiers when phil reached into his bag and ripped open a scab he had on his knuckle and then started to pour blood all over the counter and floor. The poor girl at the counter couldn't figure out why Phil wasn't just putting his money in the little money tray on the counter. She finally looked over the counter (by this time I'm JUST catching on to what is happening since i was at another register) and saw blood running down his fingers. She quickly snatched up some first aid stuff and had phil disinfected and bandaged in minutes. We felt really bad because there was a lot of blood and well...the Japanese seem pretty keen on hygiene. I could only imagine that after we left they called in the biological hazard cleanup crew. (Picture that scene in ET with all the people in the slinky tubes and suits...)

Afterwards we had lunch in a great little place under the train tracks. The food was so good. In fact, everything we've eaten so far has been amazing. I have never eaten such good food in my entire life. I've never seen Phil eat so slowly! Hill, you know what I'm talking about...

After eating, we decided to go to Shibuya (on a Saturday afternoon, no less). For those of you who may not know, Shibuya is one of THE hippest youth oriented shopping districts in all Japan, possibly the world too. Remember that scene in 'lost in translation' where she's crossing the street with the umbrella in front of the building that is basically a giant tv? That's in Shibuya. I've never experienced anything like that place in my entire life - so amazing. We found a used clothing store in an alley and I bought an absolutely beautiful kimono for $25, it was such a great find. I'll have to post a pic of it soon. One thing is for sure, there is no way anyone could possibly be bored here, even if they tried.

Oh, by the way, I'm leaving out lots and lots and lots. There's no way to encompass it all: Disclaimer.

I'm going to stop for now and hope that my thoughts become at least a little more coherent. There has been so little time to reflect at all, I feel less like a poet and more like a drooling word muncher. So that's it for now, until next time...sayonara.

Savannah to Nyack part 2

The storm, if you were anywhere in its path you know what I am talking about and if you weren't, um, there was some rain. Anyhow, our course led us to two cities and should have led us around them, but compounding our discomfort with driving our ungainly "gentle-ride van" with the wonderful super weather conditions, and what you get is the Sarah driving through downtown Baltimore and downtown D.C. in the pouring rain with very limited visablity (although the height of our truck seemed to remedy her inabilty to see stoplights) while i desperately try to read signs and maps and get us back to the main road.

After that the rest of the trip was a breeze, and we arrived in Nyack safely and with much more stuff than my parents had bargined for. for those of you who don't know Nyack is a small village in the suburbs of NYC about an hour away by car, it used to be the trading post from the city to the wild unknown but those days are long gone.

So while we were in the New York area we figured that we would investigate the New York Aikikai, and so we hopped on a bus and a subway until we were there. Low and behold it was Aikido, not all that different from what you see on tapes or what we did in Savannah, but different enough, just personal differences mainly but decidedly less martial of an art than the ACoS and I think we will be hard pressed to find any that compare. But we did get to take two classes under Donovan Waite Sensei and had a short talk with him before they started. The mats were nice and hard but maybe a little slippery, although different training surfaces should be helpful, I suppose.

Anyhow I just wanted to finish this up since WE ARE IN JAPAN NOW, and it seems silly to have this much backlog of posts.

-philip

From Savannah to Nyack

As you should know Sarah and I are moving to Japan to teach, but that is what happens next. First we had to leave Savannah.

We did not get out of town smoothly when we moved, in our great big truck, instead we had a few fits to our start; one of which involved cutting of a SCAD bus and being pulled over by the police right before the enterence to 16. The next minor calimity was due to the time of our leaving which was rush hour and I know that might not seem like a big deal but we were only just getting out of the city making our big break and moving on and being then stuck nearby in traffic while never having taken the monster of a vehicle we were in onto a highway, 45mins later we were on 95 smoothest sailing so far we make it into South Carolina with little incident but by then night was stedily falling and Sarah was begining to feel ill, from the bouncing and mind racking stress of hauling this unwieldy beheemoth through rush our traffic and the pains of leaving our home and friends behind (or so we thought) and we made it just barely outside of Georgia at all, more of a Symbol of our leaving than a practical start to the journey. Our place of rest for the night was a truck stop and infact was inside the cargo portion of our truck, which was set up nice and cozy for this very purpose with a made bed and everything. It turned out that our first night as ex-Savannians was not to pass peacefully into the next day, instead we wake up in the pitchblack of our closed up truck to find that Sarah's stomach was upset by more than our bumpy and uneven trip, she was sick, and we were not able to exticate ourselves from our moblie quarters as quickly as her stomach with the help of her esophagus was able to rid its self of contents which up untill that moment I would have found inoffensive. Luck is a wonderfull thing it comes in many forms; good, bad, blind, dumb and many others I am sure but what kind prompted us to have some plasitc bags well within the quick reach of Sarah's nimble fingers I am at a loss to say, but with its help and quick thinking on her part that incident did not go nearly as poorly as it could have. The next morning she was feeling a bit better and we were determined to start, as we climbed out of the back we noticed to our chagrin that the words which we noticed with humor on the side of our vehicle now made sense, "Gentle-Ride Van" it said, and from the moment we picked it up, through our pulling over ready for sleep at 7pm the night before we had thought of its size and unwieldy nature as contrary to those words, but there we were next to a long line of MASSIVE TRUCKS feeling a bit silly for having parked there and well aware from that point that we were in a van, and a gentle one at that.

Our second day passed mostly without incident untill we caught up with the storm. A lot could be said about that storm, that it had killed several children in the atlanta area already, or how it had decided like most travelers of the east coast to follow interstate 95, and like many tourits would take its time and see the sights. It was in Baltimore that we caught up to it.

stay tuned for the next installment, also hopefully sarah will add pictures to this -phil