Today all of the teachers were at school, because we had a mandatory meeting at 10 a.m. Some of the teachers I hadn’t seen in a long time, and so it was nice to catch up with everyone. Mr. Kimura came in, and he looked pretty bad. His mother passed away just before the holidays, and now his household is just him, his brother, and his father. Mr. Kimura was lamenting the fact that there are no women in the house, and I think that is a big problem for their family. Women are seen as the natural caretakers of the home, and the Kimura family males are now having to do that for themselves. I suppose that if you have never had to do it your whole life, it must come as a bit of a shock. Regardless, you could definitely tell that Mr. Kimura’s head was somewhere else.

During our meeting, we were told that we will have two new students starting here in the middle of the school year – they are identical twins from Tokyo. All the teachers got a big laugh – I guess they are a bit of a handful, and it will be interesting to see how everyone deals with them.

After the meeting, several teachers geared up to go out to lunch. As we were getting ready one of my ESS students came in and was getting yelled at by her homeroom teacher. It was weird, but I felt like I wanted to help her out. I know that she probably deserved it, and I’m sure she was expecting it, but I just felt like I should do something to show her that it was going to be OK, even if it was only a smile from across the room. In the end I didn’t do anything – when you can’t understand the situation at all, it’s probably best not to get involved.

After a big lunch I spent the next hour or so kicking around the teacher’s room. Miss Kageyama came in at Mr. Hayashi’s request to go over some homework, and she looked terrible. She said that she wasn’t feeling well, and she looked it. I chatted with her a little while, but her heart wasn’t in it. We were supposed to go out for a movie tomorrow, but I’m not sure that will happen – she may need some time to get over whatever is ailing her.

After work, I met Yasu at the yakitori, and boy can he eat. He ordered eight different dishes, and we washed them down with beers. The yakitori was dead, so the master appreciated the business. We talked about all kinds of things – Yasu is planning on taking the English STEP test this month, so he’s been practicing his English very hard. I gave him some good practice tonight, and I hope it helped him out.

Tomorrow is the big assembly for the students to welcome them to their next term, and after that they will go home. I’m stuck at school doing nothing in particular until three or four p.m. I’m planning on creating some lessons and then decorating my classroom a bit. Woo hoo!

This morning I bundled up and headed off to school, showing up a few minutes before nine a.m. There were lots of cars in the parking lot, but hardly any teachers were there. I did a few more “Happy New Years” for some teachers, much to their amusement.

I spent my two hour work day taking down Christmas decorations in my classroom and getting some other decorations ready. I have a pretty good stack of postcards from people that have sent them along, and also some pictures of mine that I printed out. The other night I drained my ink cartridges printing so much.

Around eleven o’clock the office lady came in and told Mr. Hayashi that a package had come in for me. I went in there to pick it up, and I found that it had been waylaid by the customs office in Japan. They had levied a duty on it, but it was only 2100 yen (around $17). No big deal – I was just happy to get a package!

Mr. Hayashi gave me a ride to the station, and I lugged my package home. I set up in the living room, and opened presents for a while.

I scored a lot of great gifts – everyone was very generous. I’ve got some warm clothes to wear, a new alarm clock, some great food, new DVDs to watch (the Alien Quadrilogy), lots of great stuff.

Afterwards, I went right back out to the train station and rode to Befu. I had tried to get a haircut over the holidays, but everyone was closed. This time I had to wait about 20 minutes, but then I was in the hotseat. I explained as best as I could in Japanese what I wanted, and the whole barbersop, including the customers, listened carefully to me. The barber had a few questions for me, and then some of the customers had some other questions, but the barber told them to just wait and see.

This is my second haircut in Japan, and it was just as scary as the first. There are a lot of razors and blades flying around, and it takes a long time. I was in the chair for an hour, which is a pretty long haircut. A couple of times I looked in the mirror and thought, “Whoops – that looks terrible”, but then it would improve again, so no worries.

They laid me back and gave me a shave with a straight razor, and then a girl came up and washed my hair for me, and then styled it afterwards. Finally, the barber comes back to give the final touches, and then the girl rang me up and sent me on my way.

I picked up some printer cartridges next door, walked through the supermarket to eat free samples and take some pictures in the dried fish section, and then I went home.

On the way home I picked up some beer at a local liquor shop. I usually buy beer and wine at one of the big supermarkets, but this place was on my way and I occasionally buy wine there. I got 4 big bottles of Kirin, and the guy helping me suddenly burst into English. It turns out that he lived in San Francisco for five years a long time ago. His English was excellent – just like a native speaker. All the other employees came up to listen to him speaking to me, and one of the girls kept giggling – I don’t know exactly why, but she was very entertained.

Tomorrow night I’m meeting Yasu for beers at the yakitori. He was pretty excited about my trip to Australia, and so I want to catch him up and how it was. Thursday night I may go see a movie with Miss Kageyama, and then Friday night may be pretty quiet – I have to get up early on Saturday to do the monthly apartment grounds cleaning. Saturday night I may go out to Takarazuka with Antoine – we’ll see how it goes.

I’m back from work already – just a few hours in the office saying “Happy New Year” to everyone. I had to memorize a new phrase in Japanese to pull this off, it’s a tricky one: “Akemashite omedetou gozaimasu”, which is a bit tricky to say when you are walking by someone in a hallway.

I passed out some of my omiyage from Australia – I brought some “Australian” candies. A lot of teachers had taken today off, so I just left them on their desks – a nice sweet surprise when they come back.

It was interesting to watch all the teachers come in and bow deeply to each other, wishing each other a Happy New Year. Mr. Hayashi casually said “omedetou…” to teachers from his seat – he didn’t really get up or anything.

I spent most of today just catching up with Mr. Hayashi – he was talking quite a bit. He gossiped about former JETs that had been working with him, and it was interesting to find out that I am the only unmarried JET that he’s worked with. He thinks that it’s much easier managing a single JET – there is a lot more flexibility.

After work I did a quick shopping trip at the local grocery, and then came on back. I’m going to use my extra time this afternoon to do some studying. It’s pretty cold out right now, so it’s nice just to relax on the couch and hit the books.

I got up early this morning to go to Universal Studios Japan with Miss Kageyama. I got out to Akashi at 8 a.m., and then we had prearranged to meet on one of the cars on the Special Rapid Service (shinkaisoku). It worked out pretty well – it’s a great way to meet people. That way they don’t have to get off on the platform and wait around for the next one.

It took about 50 minutes to get to USJ – a lot quicker than I expected. We bought tickets from the JR railroad company before we got there and saved lots of time. We walked towards the park and passed through the “city walk” that is just like the one in Los Angeles. There was a Bubba Gump restaurant, McDonald’s, Wolfgang Puck’s, and other American staples.

Once we got into the park, we walked along amongst thousands of thousands of people, and headed for the rides. The first one we did was Jurassic Park – a water ride that looked pretty tame. It wasn’t too bad, but we did invest in some ponchos from a vending machine in line. Even after wearing the poncho, I got a face full of water – apparently the only person on our boat that even got wet.

After getting doused we went to see the Backdraft attraction – I thought it would be a good idea to warm up a bit. We had lunch at Mel’s Drive In, and then walked aimlessly around the park for a while. After walking for a bit we went to the Back to the Future ride, and had our picture taken there. The guy taking the picture got us to smile by saying “Back… To… The… PICTURE!” Imagine that in a Japanese accent – it was really funny.

Walking around the park I saw that they had hired lots of foreigners like me to work there. I expected more foreigners to be among the guests, but I’d say that I saw maybe only one or two others that looked like patrons. Walking around with Miss Kageyama earned me a lot more stares, but I just take it as an opportunity to smile and nod at people. I think some were wondering if I was an employee – during a parade there were foreign guys walking around in sunglasses and a suit – and they were supposed to be “movie stars”. They just walked around and waved, and the crowds ate it up. Maybe I can get a job here if when my teaching gig ends.

The Back to the Future ride was a lot of fun – and all the rides I would guess have an American equivalent somewhere. The actors in the ride’s videos spoke in dubbed Japanese. I missed a little bit during the rides because I wasn’t catching the narration, but it was still fun.

We finally finished up at USJ and went back into Osaka. Miss Kageyama knows a lot more about Osaka and so she pointed us in the right direction to find a good bookstore (found a couple of good kanji and Japanese grammar books). She took me to a big shopping center, and at the top was a Ferris wheel. The mall was packed with people, but the Ferris wheel was relatively quiet, so we took a trip around that. It was a full sized Ferris wheel, so if you can imagine how high you go on a regular one, try one on top of a seven story building. Wow! I got some great pictures from up there.

Afterwards we went over to a Korean restaurant that looked appealing. It was a “take your shoes off” kind of place, and we sat down and had some really excellent spicy Korean dishes. Almost everything was much spicier than traditional Japanese fare, and I had a great meal.

We were looking at the menu, and Miss Kageyama pointed out a drink called Jima, and said that she was going to get that. I had never heard of it, so I ordered one, and when they arrived, I was surprised the see that we had ordered Zima. I was hoping to try some traditional Korean beverage, and I got a Zima. Oh well, it was actually better than I was expecting.

After dinner we walked back to the train station and headed back. We were both pretty tired from running around, but it turned out to be a lot of fun.

Antoine pointed out that we were well documented at the Osaka “meat-market” when we went. You can see some pictures from the official website here. There’s a nice shot of my arm in the bottom left pic.

Today I slept in a bit, and then jumped on the train to Kobe. I wasn’t really shopping for anything, I had just heard that it was a big shopping day, and one of the biggest days of the year for shopping in Japan. Since I was taking the train, there were no parking hassles, so I thought it would be fun to look around.

There weren’t as many people as I expected, but it was very busy. Some streets were impossible to walk through, and a couple of times I had to turn down an alley to cut across another way. Since I wasn’t really going anywhere, it was no problem.

The big temple in Kobe was hosting a New Year’s celebration, so I went in there and took some pictures. It’s a pretty nice temple, and it was packed. I’m glad I got my New Year’s prayers over with the other night.

I had lunch in a food court in an underground shopping center that I had gotten lost in just a few months ago. There was a juice bar there, and I had a banana and milk drink that was OK, but didn’t rock my world. I do miss Jamba Juice.

Finally I decided to head home. On the way back I did my good deed for the day by helping a lady carry her suitcase down the stairs at Akashi station. At first she was worried, but then she thanked me in English when we got to the bottom of the steps. I hope that makes up for knocking down the old lady in the elevator the other day.

Well, New Year’s Eve in Japan is a little different. Everything here is new to me, and the New Year’s celebration (called shougatsu) was especially unusual.

I lounged around the house most of the day, and then watched a movie (Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade) until about 10 o’clock. I walked down to the yakitori and met up with everyone there. The master and the part time help were cleaning the place up, and watching K1 boxing/judo on the television. There was a big tray of food on the table, and once people started arriving, we all snacked from the plate while we waited for midnight. I met the master’s parents, who came by and spent some time with us. I spoke enough Japanese to raise their hopes, but not enough to carry a conversation – they spoke fast and with little patience.

There was an intriguing countdown show on about half an hour before midnight. So this guy stands on this platform outside in the cold with nothing on but a loincloth, in front of a gigantic drum. He beats on the drum occasionally, and then takes a break to say some dramatic things in Japanese. During these breaks his assistants come up and give him things – once they gave him a banana to eat, some sake to drink. Several buckets of cold water were brought up and the poor guy dumped the water over himself.

Also during his breaks there are people pulling a gigantic pole on a rope, aimed so that when they let go of the rope it will come swinging right at the guy and the drum. This pole is huge, and the guy had to be hoping that everyone had a tight grip on the rope.

Finally, midnight hits, and everyone in the yakitori says “Happy New Year”. They said it in English! I don’t know if this is the custom or if everyone had studied in advance, but it was pretty cool.

Back on television, the guy pretty much ignored the stroke of midnight, and was reading a big piece of paper with shaking hands – he was freezing up there. They gave him a bow and arrow, and he fired the arrow somewhere – I didn’t see where it went, and I think neither did anyone else. Finally, he stepped down, and they let go of the rope. The pole swung down onto the drum, and everything exploded spectacularly. We’re talking a big, unsafe explosion. Fire everywhere – it was great!

Afterwards, the guy runs down to another platform and tries to walk across a tightrope stretched over a lake with fire burning on it somehow. He falls twice, and each time swims back to the shore and jumps into a kiddy pool full of warm water. The assistants bring him foods to eat each time, and he seems to be a pretty good sport about it.

Finally, we suited up and went over to the temple. There was a big lineup of people waiting to pray at the temple, and the bell was ringing in the background – 108 times for 108 sins from last year. Our group met some friends there and we stood around a fire pit keeping warm. I bought a fortune for next year, but I couldn’t read it. Most people tied their fortune to trees on the temple grounds, but I stuck mine in my pocket to translate later. The master assured me that it wouldn’t invalidate my fortune by doing that.

People kept coming up and wanting to drink sake with me – all you could drink sake was provided by the temple. Again we drank out of little square cups, and sake was getting spilled everywhere. After too much sake, I slipped into the prayer line with some of the yakitori gang, and we went up and prayed. I watched carefully the people in front of me, and I think I pulled it off OK.

We gathered up our things and left around 2 a.m., and I was home in bed by 2:15. It’s 2004.

Miss Kageyama picked me up this evening and we headed out to the bowling alley. When I got home from Australia, there was a long message on my machine in Japanese, and from what I could tell it was from the bowling alley where we had bowled a couple of weeks ago.

We had both dropped our scorecards into a jar for a raffle, and apparently, I had won. When we got to the bowling alley today, there was a big sign with the winners, and among a list of about 15 names written in Japanese characters was my name. Woo-hoo!

It wasn’t hard proving who I was, and they gave me my prizes – a baby blue jacket that is four sizes too small and a small white mug that says “Merry Christmas” in English. Oh yes. Miss Kageyama couldn’t stop laughing at my reaction, and I tried to give her the stuff, but she was smart enough to say no.

Afterwards we went across the street and had some spicy nabe that was quite good. It was so spicy that we had to order several rounds of beverages, and I disturbed the traditions by serving Miss Kageyama instead of the other way around.

On the way back to the car we got in the elevator, and as soon as we entered the doors started to close, just about knocking some old lady to the ground. She yelled in alarm, and the only thing I could think of was that she was going to get cut in half by the doors or something. Apparently as soon as you enter an elevator, you have to hold down the “open door” button to keep the doors open. I was the first one in and everyone just kind of expected me to do it, and I was standing there oblivious, watching the old woman go down in amazement. Little differences in how an elevator works can make you look like a real jerk, and all the “I’m sorry”s in the world weren’t going to change the old lady’s perspective – she was pissed off.

We stopped for ice cream on the way back, and then Miss Kageyama went back home. She is going to just hang out this week – her family is not allowed to celebrate the New Year. She has been doing a lot more around the house since her parents are pretty distraught about the death of her grandfather. I did my best to cheer her up tonight and give her a break from the gloom of her household, and I hope it worked. Cutting an old lady in half might not be the best approach, but it was the best I could do.

Tomorrow I’m heading over to the yakitori at 10 p.m., and I understand that I probably won’t get home until 3 or 4 a.m. The New Year is one the biggest events on the Japanese calendar, and it should be fun!

I’m continuing my post-holiday shopping today – looking for a messenger bag to carry with me. Lately the stuff I carry around every day is getting bigger and bigger. I carry a digital camera, an electronic dictionary, gloves, a small notebook and pencil, and my buff. It’s time to find a good carrying bag to lug this stuff around – my pockets and getting way too full.

Tonight I might meet Miss Kageyama for dinner – I’d like to check in with her and see how her family is doing after her grandfather passed away. The rest of this week is like family week – I won’t see many people on the streets and the stores will be closed. With the exception of New Year’s Eve, I’ll be on my own through the end of the week. I think I’ll spend the time studying and depending on the train schedules I might travel just a bit while I have the chance.

Yesterday Mr. Hayashi helped me pick up my packages – one of them was a carton of egg nog concentrate from the Cellini family (excellent!). Afterwards we stopped in for a coffee and then he dropped me off.

A couple of hours later I met Antoine in the monstrous Osaka rail station, and then we walked across the street to the Yodabashi store. This store is a lot like Fry’s in California – a gigantic all things electronic superstore. The store has five floors that are each about the size of a U.S. supermarket.

Antoine was looking for a digital camera, but the one he wanted wasn’t imported to Japan – they had a newer one there, but it was out of his price range. I was able to find lots of cool things – but I only bought a couple. I bought a new shaver, an indoor/outdoor thermometer, and a case for my electronic Japanese dictionary.

I looked at MP3 music players, but they didn’t have the one I fell in love with a while back. The prices seemed high on the players, too – I’ll have to keep looking.

After shopping we went over to a noodle shop and had some noodles and beer. The employees glared at us as we ate, and so we got out of there pretty quick. We walked around exploring that part of Osaka for an hour or so, and finally stopped in to have some fried rice and more beer at a little sushi/ramen bar.

There we met a salaryman who spoke a fair amount of English. He lives in Kobe, and invited us to visit him there. He wants to practice his English with us, and he said help us with our Japanese. We exchanged phone numbers, and so maybe we’ll get together in a couple of weeks.

Finally we went back to the station, and made our way back. By the time I got to Akashi the last train was just pulling in, and I almost missed it. They are running an abbreviated schedule just before the New Year’s festivities. I was tired when I got home – I plugged in my new shaver and thermometer, and went right to bed.

This entire week is a holiday for me – I go back to school on Monday, January 5th. Yesterday I spent catching up with things around the house, and today in the afternoon Mr. Hayashi is going to pick me up and take me to the central post office to pick up some packages that arrived while I was gone.

Tonight I’m going into Osaka with Antoine – he is shopping for a digital camera and I’m going to help him out. I’m also looking for a few things – an MP3 player to listen to, since I spend so much time on the trains staring out the window. I’m also looking for a new electric razor – mine holds a charge for about one minute and then starts dying.

Tomorrow I was supposed to go with Miss Kageyama to Universal Studios Japan, but she found out when she got home from Australia that her grandfather had passed away. She missed the funeral while she was away, and she was pretty depressed about it. Hopefully time spent with her family over the next week will help.

I’ve got a stocked fridge – meals should be very good this week. Last night I cooked up some chicken breasts that were jerked with some of the sauce that Nancy and Lynn sent. They were really spicy, and quite good. I also made some homemade onigiri (rice balls). They turned out really well – I was impressed with myself. I filled the rice balls with a bit of dried salty salmon, and sprinkled them with black sesame seeds. I wrapped the whole thing in dried seaweed, and it was great.

I’ve also got some pretty good thin sliced mad-cow beef from America, some nice pork, lots of carrots and tomatoes, chinese noodles, onions and some tonkatsu. Yum.

What a great trip! I’ve posted all the updates below, so enjoy!

What a contrast to Japan. I could understand everyone I talked to – I was able to do more things because I could read signs, bus routes, and schedules. I was the one who helped my Japanese students and teachers get through English conversations, instead of me relying on them.

There was great food – I ate so many hamburgers, steaks, and prawns! The seafood was excellent, with a little more of a western style to the cooking. The wine was excellent – my cousin Steve took good care of me and let me try some great Australian wines. I was able to try lots of different Australian beers – I never saw Foster’s anywhere.

Australia reminded me a bit of England, without the clouds and more relaxed. I bumped into a surprising amount of English expatriates. After living in Japan for four months or so, it felt like I was back in the United States for a little while.

I got to sleep in this morning, and it felt great. The first thing I did in the morning was go on a hike to visit the local coal mine. There were some pretty big hills, so I got a fairly good workout. After my hike, Steve cooked up a big breakfast for everyone – homemade hashbrowns, thick bacon, eggs, and toast. It was excellent – the bacon was especially good. Afterwards, my folks called from San Diego, and we got to catch up and recap Christmas. They had finished their Christmas and it sounded like everyone was pretty jolly.

We took quite a long time to talk, and while I was yakking away Brenda made a bunch of sandwiches for a picnic. When I finished talking we jumped in the car for a shopping trip and a walk through a local rainforest.

The shopping mall was really crowded, and some stores were closed for Boxing Day. I went to Target first, but the layout and inventory was quite a bit different from Target stores in America.

I really scored in a grocery store in the mall – I picked up six cans of refried beans, three bottles of shampoo, post-it notes, a bottle of ketchup, some Turkish Delights, and some spices in little jars.

Combined with the bottles of wine that I already bought, the toothpastes and deodorant that I got for Christmas, my suitcase is really heavy and full of imported goods. I’m hoping it’s not contraband, but I’ll have to wait and find out. Last time I entered Japan I had no problem, but I was with a big group and nobody even checked. I’m pretty sure they’ll check this time – so I hope I don’t have anything illegal.

After shopping for a while, Steve bought us all a coffee, and we sat around while the mall buzzed around us. After the coffees we went back to the car, and then headed out to the rainforest.

The rainforest was beautiful – it was full of old trees and green, lush vegetation. The forest had a creek running through it, and we followed a wooden footpath through the forest in a big loop. Near the halfway point we stopped and had out picnic. The turkey sandwiches were quite good – they always taste great after Christmas.

We finished up our walkabout, and then drove through the small town of Jangaroo. The pub was open, but that was about it. We stopped and saw the building where Steve and Brenda were married, and then got back on the road and headed home.

After we got back we kicked around the house for a little while, and then went over to another neighbor’s house to have some drinks. It started out by opening a couple of wines to compare vintages, and it soon turned into a wine drink-a-thon. Other neighbors came by with wine, and we sat out on the porch in the warm night enjoying some great vino. After a final “cleansing ale” to clear my palate, I staggered back home, and the crashed into bed.

Tomorrow I’m off to the airport where I’ll join the rest of the gang and fly home to Japan. I’ve heard that snow has fallen while I’ve been gone, so I’m packing some cold weather clothes in my backpack to take with me on the plane.