Happy Halloween!

I never thought I would say I'm sick of Charlie Brown's Halloween special. But sadly the day has come. After teaching 10 halloween lessons and showing half of the cartoon in the class, I'm ready for Thanksgiving specials.

However, Halloween was a great weekend. I found it quite difficult to make a costume in a country that doesn't celebrate Halloween. After searching forever, I finally found a store that had all kinds of Halloween goodies. I threw a few things together from there, bought a few things from the 100 Yen store, bought a $4 brown shirt and I was ready to go!

First was Saturday in the city at the popular foreigner's karaoke bar (foreigner = english teachers). The place was PACKED with things from animals to mobsters to (my favorite) the boy riding the 'Neverending Story' dragon. (See the pic for my costume of the lost 70's horse).

Then today for Halloween I wore my costume to school. It was great and the kids LOVED it. My supervisor told me a funny story after school though. (A little background first, my normal daily outfit consists of khakis / slacks and a polo shirt) Today for my costume, I was wearing my ugly brown v-neck cut shirt and some plastic necklaces I made from junk at the 100 Yen shop. The English teacher I work with overheard some teachers talking. The conversation went something like this: "I thought Eric was a modest guy. I had him all wrong. He's really flamboyant and flashy." Apparently nobody knew it was Halloween. They thought this was my normal dress and that I couldn't stand it any longer having gone back to my roots, dressing flashy. To tell you the truth, I've been wanting to wear my plastic necklaces since I got here but I just couldn't hold back the urge!!! Haha..it was pretty hilarious. She set them straight. Then before I was about to leave the vice principal came over and said the same thing! Apparently my bling bling and cardboard/foil horseshoe medallion is a little too showy for junior high. I guess I've got to pursue my next option... Rapping.

Dumbo

Did you ever wonder what happened to Dumbo after all his fame and fortune with Disney? Well, many years later he couldn't handle turning the limelight over to Bambi and he turned to drugs to cope. Now, he is working for minimum wage in Japan just to support his drug habit. In fact, here is one of his latest gigs for a Japanese cereal.

Biggest scam in Japan

A few Sundays ago we visited the critically acclaimed whirl pools of Naruto. Naruto is a city on the cost of our island. The city has a huge bridge that spans across the ocean to land closer to Honshu (the main big Japanese island). You can pay 500 Yen (about $4.50) to go in the walkway under the bridge and look down at the 'whirlpools'. Apparently the whirpools are caused because this is the point where the southern and northern tides meet and make the swirls. Well, we went to look and there were many people there. The big tourist area under the bridge is actually pretty spacious. So we walked across the bridge and looked down through the glass they have on the walkways. Ummm, it looked like some boat wakes. Maybe it was just the time we went, but it wasn't very impressive. However, I had to include the picture with the little kid. His mom was making him stand on the glass and he was FREAKING out! I would never do it to my kid, but it sure was funny watching her do it to her kid.

Are we there yet?

(above: courtesy of Jill's camera)

A few weekends ago, 9 English teachers and myself took a bike trip on a popular Japanese bike route. The route Started on our island of Shikoku and ended on the main island Honshu. Along the way we rode over 6 islands and 6 bridges. How long was the ride? Longer than my knees wanted. 70 km or 43 miles. We rented some bikes and started the trip around 10:30 am. The ride (when not going up hills) and scenery was very nice and beautiful. Half way through we stopped at a small restaurant and ate some tempura and cold udon. The weather was super nice until the last 5 minutes of the trip when it started to pour rain. We ended up getting to our destination around 6:00 p.m. The next morning 7 of the ALT's decided to bike back. The old farts (myself being the oldest on the trip) decided to take it easy and take a ferry back. If I would've ridden back, right now my knees would be lost somewhere in a bush next to the bike trail, I would be about 16" shorter, and my nickname would be stumpy. The 3 of us decided to make the most of our time and took turns in a massage chair, ate katsudon (breaded pork over rice with an egg), then went to a bakery and shoved our face full of dessert. That was so much better than biking another 43 miles

What is this I found?

I had to travel all the way to Japan to find poprocks!

B-Day!

It was a damn fine day to have a birthday today. I went to school and the kids sang happy birthday to me. The 8th graders gave me a package with a bunch of postcards tied together to make a book. Each student picked a b-day line to write (i.e. Wishing you a happy b-day) then they each wrote one or two lines of their own which was great! Here are a few:

Don't come back to Utah. Stay in Japan.

Happy b'day to the coolest teacher in the whole wide world.

You are Picaso! Joke Joke

I like Mr. Eric and Stussy.

Marry me!

Shall we dance with me.

Please don't chase girls.

I can't live without you!

You are a very matured guy.

Your class gives me the energy to study.

I love your hair style.

I want to see your sister.

So that was a great b-day present. There are over 100 more. My teacher gave me a baseball mug and sticker and my Adult Conversation students gave me a big warm blanket for winter time. Also, I went to one of the old lady's house for a b-day dinner with 3 other English teachers and 7 older Japanese people that I knew. We had tons of food that the host made: Sushi, some beef dish, a japanese stew, onion and pork soup, fruit, cake, and lots of other stuff. It was great fun and we ate and talked for about 3-1/2 hours. So all in all, it was a pretty good last b-day in my 20's (that part sucks!). Saturday the English teachers around here are taking me to dinner and then drinks to follow.

Also, thanks everybody for sending me b-day emails!!! You're all great family and pals!

Only in Japan

I never have to go to a grocery store again.

A night of JPop and shrimp

Been busy lately and I'm falling behind. Lets continue from 2 weekends ago... 3 English teachers near my town and myself headed about 40 minutes by car to a festival. This festival had many kinds of food, live JPop (Japanese pop music), games and prizes for kids, and maids...yes maids. We weren't quite sure why there were some ladies dressed up as maids, but we had to get our picture with one. So......... anyway, back to the story. We listened to a lady with a guitar and her backup keyboardist play a 45 minute set. She was really good and I enjoyed the show. It was nice to hear live music again although I couldn't understand any of it.

After the show we went to $18 all you can eat Japanese food that was really good. They also had yakiniku. yaki = bake, niku = meat. So it is basically like a little fire/bbq at your table where you get different raw meat (about 12 different kinds) and cook it at your table. I made sure to stay away from the shrimp. But the guy next to me didn't. As I was leaning over to turn my beef, he was opening his shrimp... and apparently shrimp juice flies far. It flew far right into my eye! I found out the hard way that shrimp juice in the eye isn't as bad as down the throat. It just turns the eye red and itches a bit. That's great to know because you really don't know when the next time shrimp juice will squirt in your eye.

Kobe Bryant studying English

During the basketball offseason, Kobe Bryant returned to Japan (specifically my school) to study up on English with 9th graders.

I'm short

Last Friday it was the last day of work for a special ed temp teacher. She sat next to me in class and was awesome. She couldn't speak English very well but tried pretty hard and we had good laughs. That night the 7th grade teachers had a farewell dinner paid by the school. It was a typical Japanese restaurant with lots of good food. For the first time I saw a wasabi root which the teachers had to grind for wasabi. I realized while posting this picture that I'm quite short (I must have been slow or in denial). I'm just not AS short in Japan as in the US. I'm probably avg height here.

Dinner with Granny and Co

So Tuesday my Japanese grandma and her friend (whose house we went to for tea and fruit) took me to dinner. We originally went to a Japanese restaurant where you sit on the mats, but when we got there the owner ran out mad. Apparently the woman (I'm assuming his wife) went to get something and never came back so they had to close because they didn't have her to work. Almost all restaurants here are pretty small establishments with only a couple of workers....usually the person working in the front also works in the kitchen. So we went to a 'French' restaurant. I ended up getting a steak which came with 6 pieces of tender pork, bread, OJ and dessert. It was actully super nice to have food that wasn't Japanese! The steak could've been sitting out for 2 days and as hard as charcoal but it still would've been the best steak I've ever eaten. So we ate ate ate, talked talked and then left and went to the grocery store. There they showed me what was what and where all the deals were. Then I went to pay and my granny wouldn't let me pay. She physically pushed me away from the cashier so i wouldn't pay. I know I'm not the incredible hulk, but damn I don't know where she got those muscles from.

P.S. The photo was taken in the dark by somebody that didn't know how to use the camera...hence my head is not there.

Universal Studios

So my blog is officially a week and a half behind due to being very busy! So last Monday the 9th graders headed to Universal Studios in Osaka. I joined them and our bus headed out at 6:30 a.m. and arrived in Osaka at 8:30 a.m. The buses in Japan are quite different than buses in America. They all have 70's chandeliers in them, karaoke, and and tvs. They also have soft cloth seats that recline (similar to airplane seats). They also have curtains. Anyway, we get to Osaka and immediately a group of about 12 boys adopted me and took me around. The park was SO busy that the ride lines were 60-80 minutes long! We eneded up only going on 3 rides and eating lunch in 5 hours. But I had a great time with the kids while waiting in line. They told me great Japanese jokes and taught me new words.

Universal studios in Japan rides are almost the same as in the U.S. However, here they have a huge Wizard of Oz land and a big Snoopy land for kids. So after the rides and photo shoot (every single kid had a disposable camera) we headed back to school and made it back by 4:30.

Great Day!

Today the Dodgers clinched a playoff spot!!!

Japanese Grandparents

Last Sunday an Eikaiwa lady friend picked me up to go to dinner at her house. She lives about 15 minutes away and when we arrived, her husband was waiting at the door. I have talked with him a couple of times before and he's a super nice guy. We went upstairs to the room where the grill and food was ready to be cooked. She was going to teach me how to make yakisoba and okonomiaki because she knows the extent of my japanese cooking is cereal and frozen food. Unfortunately Japan does not have kraft, so my mac n cheese mad skillz are no good here. She is always worried about my health and tells me to eat good. I get more lectures in Japan about eating healthy than I do in America. First we cooked yakisoba with many kinds of meat, noodles, cabbage, bean sprouts, sauce and powder. As we are cooking, I am also getting a simple japanese lesson from her husband (who previously taught English before retiring). Amongst the conversation, they brought to my attention that they were my Japanese grandparents. We were too full to cook okonomiaki so she said next time she would show me. Then she loaded me up with tons of meat, yakisoba noodles, the two bottles of sauce, a new bundle of bananas, some bread, an apple, a japanese pear, cabbage, and a new bag of bean sprouts. This was all put into a cooler with blue ice that she gave me. Then we went to her friends house for about 2 hours which we filled with tea, coffee, fruit, and english / japanese lessons for everyone.