Hisabisa Da Na (My Japan Blog)

[CCC]

Sorry for not replying sooner guys- I need every bump I can get to this thread but I don't want to resort to double posting...

New Post:
"Miscellaneous Photos"
http://hizabizadana.wordpress.com/2011/11/28/miscellaneous-photos/

Nothing really exciting lately, but I don't want to go too long between posts, so here's a boring photo compilation.

Funny--actually made me laugh out loud in several spots--and I forgot to say this before, but I cannot believe you put a bed on top of those tatami. You rebel! LOL I am surprised the delivery guys agreed to place it there. Things sure have changed a lot since I lived there.

And I admit to being slightly wrong--MIL lives sorta near the coast, but not on it. LOL. She lives in Shimane-ken, right near a ski mountain called Mizuho Highlands, in a little village called Ichigi. Its charming but rather rustic there. Her place is surrounded by rice paddies, and there is a Buddhist temple where we used to go ring the bell to help rid the world of sins on New Year's Eve every year right behind the house, then go home to sit under the kotatsu and eat the requisite extra long soba noodles for good luck and long life. In summer the windows and everything are covered in these incredibly loud but very tiny green tree frogs which pooped all over everything as they ate the multitude of insects everywhere (Seriously, I've never seen so many insects!) On Obon we would trudge up the hill to the family grave site to clean the grave and place offerings of incense and beer (my FIL, who passed long before I met my husband, had been a big beer lover), then place the special lantern in the Bustudan room, don our summer kimono (my MIL had one made specially for me, for which she called us in Tokyo to ask my husband to measure me--she didn't believe the measurements, though, and had to ask him to take them twice before she believed him), and go to the village center to dance in the festival (I just got some pics back from my parents of me wearing that Yukata when I was about... oh, maybe 27 or 28--anyway, not too long ago--brought back some good memories). Good times, good times. I just discovered we have an abundance of frequent flyer miles on American, and they fly into Osaka, so we may be visiting there soon. We may even visit friends in Tokyo.

Keep doing what you are doing, CCC. Those experiences are the best! (But wah, I wanna see the vids of your troupe dancing. lol)

-I didn't even think anything of it at the time (putting bed on tatami). Probably because my half-Japanese neighbor/buddy did the same thing ;D
-Shimane sounds lovely... and I think I know the frogs you're talking about. The windowsill of my bedroom is consistently covered in frog poop (I assume it's frog poop because I've never seen any squirrels or mice around here). Hopefully they'll take a break now that it's super cold.
-As for the dancing vids... I finally reviewed them myself and ugh- it's terrible. I'm like half a second behind on every move because at that point I was still compensating for not really knowing the dances by simply copying the people in front of me. I didn't know it was that obvious though :P Maybe there will be better videos in the future!

The stories that this thread contains are way too good to be on the second page.

Well thanks! It's tough coming up with them consistently though; it's not like I go somewhere like Tokyo every month. But I suppose if I could make a post out of a bed then anything is really doable.

[I survived the buster call]

LOL Your Mom's comments always crack me up--mainly because its exactly what I'd say to my kid, LOL!

There is a river near my MIL's house in Ichigi that has Ayu fish in it (that was the type those fish were, right?)--supposedly that proves how fresh and clean the water is. My husband Masa grew up catching them in that river. Anyway, he tells me they aren't always cooked live (though he admired how fresh that would make them taste), since when you catch them yourself they are usually dead by the time you get them home, lol (Captain obvious he is, I swear. Here I thought I'd hear some deep cultural secret, and this is what he shares, lol) My MIL runs a little ryokan sort of place in her house, and she has to be the most knowledgeable Japanese cook I have ever heard of. She is able to make a really special Ayu sashimi delicacy that I am told by others (since she is far too humble to brag) is not only delish but very rare and special. She uses the entire fish, partially for the looks of it. Its really pretty the way she arranges it, but personally I find the fish both too full of bones and a tad bitter, myself. Still--that pic makes me crave them now.

[CCC]

LOL Your Mom's comments always crack me up--mainly because its exactly what I'd say to my kid, LOL!

Yeah... ha ha ha ha.... ...I've gotta find a way to block her.
<_<
>_>

And I didn't know those were ayu! Interesting. That was at Naruko, but one of my town's meibutsu of sorts is actually ayu, to the extent that the apartments in my particular building are "Ayu 1," "Ayu 2," "Ayu 3," and "Ayu 4" (the others are Tiger, Hut, and something else that I forget). I've also got a student named Ayu, with the same kanji as the fish. Poor kid.

Whenever I do manage to visit the west I'll probably ask you for the name of that ryokan. :D

[captain usopp]

omg. i just found this now. say hello to your newest fan CCC. I will read it all soon. and thanks for the heads up BC about the comments. :3 heh heh heh. (sorry, I'm such a "mom" personality myself, I'll probably get a kick out of them)

[captain usopp]

hey dude. you need to update your blog. <3 I guess if you haven't that just means your out there having fun. hey, so if you went to teach in japan for a year, what happened to your life back home? are you still renting a place for when you go back home, or did you gather your things and put them into storage. what about work? do you have a job to go back to or do you have to start fresh, looking for a new job when you come back home. I was sort of thinking of these things, if I joined the JET program.

[CCC]

hey dude. you need to update your blog. <3 I guess if you haven't that just means your out there having fun. hey, so if you went to teach in japan for a year, what happened to your life back home? are you still renting a place for when you go back home, or did you gather your things and put them into storage. what about work? do you have a job to go back to or do you have to start fresh, looking for a new job when you come back home. I was sort of thinking of these things, if I joined the JET program.

Sorry... no update in a while, I know. I'd just rather wait for something interesting to happen instead of writing about nothing/something boring.
I still have my room in my mother's house back in NY, and all my junk that isn't here is in the attic there. When she moves to California two years from now... I'll probably rent a storage locker thing. As far as what I'm doing afterwards, I honestly have no clue at this point. I'm planning on doing this for 2-3 years, so I've still got some time before I decide, but I'll be sure to have everything arranged before my contract here ends (not going home without a job/school set up and ready to go). It'll either be graduate school (which was originally my backup plan instead of JET), a job in finance back in the states, or, if a miracle occurs, a non-teaching job here in Japan. Ideally something that takes advantage of being [kind of] bi-lingual.





RELEVANT EDIT: because the people demanded it, new post. Interesting or uninteresting? You decide.

About Translation:
http://hizabizadana.wordpress.com/2012/01/10/about-translation/

[I survived the buster call]

wow. fascinating. loved it!

[Enzeru]

wow. fascinating. loved it!

+1

Even if it was a rather short story (compared to your usual posts), it was a great read nonetheless. Made my day.

[Don Quichotte De Flamingo]

Loved to read more from you CCC.
"love juice"...is that so.

[captain usopp]

wow. it really is leaving everything behind to go teach over there, isn't it. I don't know if I'm in a place in my life right now where it is easy to just up and leave. then again, I guess that's just perspective.

and you worry too much about your blogs. I have a Vblog I follow on youtube and I watched her draw on a whiteboard tonight. It was interesting enough for me. didn't even have anything to do with japan. It's the little things. What are your experiences and feelings. How is it teaching over there. who are the people you have to deal with. are they good or bad. what do you do. any favorite students.

And I thought this post was interesting. I'd never thought of anything like that before. I would have never guessed that your post was translated. it sounds pretty good to me. I don't think I could do this yet, because in order to come up with a japanese sentence, I have to think of the english equivilent first anyways. gotta practice practice till I can just pop out japanese sentences without thinking english.

[CCC]

Glad you guys liked it!

Loved to read more from you CCC.
"love juice"...is that so.

Mhm. It's not just as dirty as it sounds. It's a lot dirtier. That title isn't a metaphor for anything.

wow. it really is leaving everything behind to go teach over there, isn't it. I don't know if I'm in a place in my life right now where it is easy to just up and leave. then again, I guess that's just perspective.

A perfectly reasonable perspective, yes! Me and the other kids here are always joking around self-deprecatingly about how everyone who does this is a little bit... off, or weird in some way, because you can't really be completely normal and decide to leave everything behind and move to the other side of the world to a place with an alien culture.

As for blog subject matter... I just hold myself to unreasonably high standards. For better or worse, I'd rather have fewer, higher quality posts than a large number of average quality ones. Just my style...
And as much as I'd love to write all about the people here, I feel that I have to be a bit prudent (certainly about the English speakers who might actually read the blog; two of the girls actually asked me not to use their real names). And I've been told that writing about students is definitely off-limits :O

And yeah- that moment when you can start "thinking" in another language- amazing. I remember it well. Being tri/quad/quintilingual must be an incredible thing...

[DarthAsthma]

Just read your blog entry about translation. Thanks it was very interesting/entertaining and also as a bonus educating. Keep it up please :)

[captain usopp]

ah, i didn't realize you had such restrictions. still, it's the little details to me that are interesting. things you don't get to hear every day. I always remember greg's nose rape story on his trip to the Dr, or his story about japanese mentality when he raced against those female teachers in games day. Or things like omg, I just found a vending machine that sells such and such.

How's the weather out there? is it weather your used to?

[CCC]

How's the weather out there? is it weather your used to?

Only took 2.5 weeks, but I have an answer, in extremely long blog post form.


Summary of my battle with the cold, so far. Less humor, less levity; more pain, more despair.

The Ninth Circle
http://hizabizadana.wordpress.com/20...-ninth-circle/

[Gliblord]

My first month in Japan (in Tokyo) the weather was miserable, unseasonably cold and rainy. Ironically, that was when the fifth opening of FMA Brotherhood, Rain by SID, was airing, with the following gem of a line

"Ame wa, itsuka yamu no deshou ka? Zuibun, nagai aida tsumetai" ("Will the rain ever stop someday? It's been cold for a really fucking long while")

That line got bandied about a fair bit among me and my friends.

[Steven D. Teach]

Only took 2.5 weeks, but I have an answer, in extremely long blog post form.


Summary of my battle with the cold, so far. Less humor, less levity; more pain, more despair.

The Ninth Circle
http://hizabizadana.wordpress.com/20...-ninth-circle/

My advice is to get a Snuggie. They sell them at Don Quixhote for fairly cheap. Dignity with clothing isn't really anything to worry about with clothing so just go for it.

Also, I kinda wept at the image of someone pouring vodka in a toilet.

[CCC]

My first month in Japan (in Tokyo) the weather was miserable, unseasonably cold and rainy.

What month was that? I've only been in Chiba during the summer, so I've never experienced a cool/cold Tokyo.

My advice is to get a Snuggie. They sell them at Don Quixhote for fairly cheap. Dignity with clothing isn't really anything to worry about with clothing so just go for it.

Also, I kinda wept at the image of someone pouring vodka in a toilet.

They have Don Quixote in Shizuoka, too? Love that place. I already just sit around wearing my work clothes, sweater, and winter coat all the time (so the only clothing change need be to and from pajamas), but I suppose a snuggie or four would probably be a lot more comfortable. And I threw any and all clothing dignity out the window upon coming here. There are just too many crazy clothing items that are a ton of fun to wear and that no one bats an eye at here, anyway (and I blame any eye-batting I do receive on my white boy status, of course).

And yeah. The advice was to use "farmer booze," whatever that is, but I only remembered at the last second so it was either the Smirnoff or the Suntory Whiskey. Not like anyone here drinks with me anyway, and I'm too scared of my alcoholic genetics to start *seriously* drinking alone ;P


This is neither here nor there, but incidentally I actually just finished The Wire for the first time. Considering changing my avatar to Pryzbylewski, in keeping with the whole teacher theme...

[Gliblord]

It was in March.

[Steven D. Teach]

They have Don Quixote in Shizuoka, too? Love that place. I already just sit around wearing my work clothes, sweater, and winter coat all the time (so the only clothing change need be to and from pajamas), but I suppose a snuggie or four would probably be a lot more comfortable. And I threw any and all clothing dignity out the window upon coming here. There are just too many crazy clothing items that are a ton of fun to wear and that no one bats an eye at here, anyway (and I blame any eye-batting I do receive on my white boy status, of course).

And yeah. The advice was to use "farmer booze," whatever that is, but I only remembered at the last second so it was either the Smirnoff or the Suntory Whiskey. Not like anyone here drinks with me anyway, and I'm too scared of my alcoholic genetics to start *seriously* drinking alone ;P


This is neither here nor there, but incidentally I actually just finished The Wire for the first time. Considering changing my avatar to Pryzbylewski, in keeping with the whole teacher theme...

PREZBO!! There are classes that sometimes make me feel like him or Colvin, unfortunately. I have one of the gangster d-bag schools.

In all honesty it will probably remain pretty cold until early/mid March, I think that's how it played out last year. Totally wasn't used to that coming from L.A., so had to load up on stuff like neckwarmers, longjohns (lol), and that heat-tech stuff from 7-11 and Uniqlo. Just waiting for Spring at this point, Cherry Blossoms and whatnot.

[CCC]

It was in March.

Hmm. I've gotta make a run to the Jump Shop sometime soon. Perhaps I'll go in March, when the weather is so "nice." ;D

PREZBO!! There are classes that sometimes make me feel like him or Colvin, unfortunately. I have one of the gangster d-bag schools.

That bad, huh? I guess I've got it easy in the inaka. Never used a neckwarmer, but I've been wearing long underwear- tops and bottoms- all day e'rryday since December. Until spring, just gotta gaman it out I guess.