Merry Christmas! I am not dead!

Merry Christmas everyone! Sorry I haven't written anything. I'm in Chiang Mai, Thailand right now. I just saw some elephants paint pictures and play soccer (thanks to Summer's suggestion). I'll be gone to Bangkok, Cambodia, and Vietnam until January 8th. Just wanted to let everybody know I'm not dead... yet. These Thai people sneak nuts into everything. I've got to be extra cautious.

So, this is my one and only post of December. I'm lame, I know.


MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR.

Happy Thanksgiving

I'm about a week late, but Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everybody ate a little extra for me. This year I decided not to pay the $25 for not very good Thanksgiving dinner. I did miss out on pumpkin pie, but couldn't justify the money for it. Instead, I had my own dinner. They say everything tastes like chicken, right? So I had chicken for dinner and pretended it was my turkey, mashed potatoes, and cranberries. mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Thur Lunch

Sometimes teachers are absent or have to go to meetings. In that case, we are lucky because they will split their food among the rest of the teachers. If the students have extra food, they all run to the front of the class and janken (paper, rock, scissors) for the extra.





Today's lunch:

3.5% Milk

WHEAT Bread!

Spring rolls

A soup thingy with veggies, shrimp, and squid.

Mango pudding, which was more like a mango pudding/jelly mix.

Rating: 3 / 10
Comments: Couldn't eat the main dish. The spring roll was cold and greasy. The wheat bread... ugh. And the mango dessert wasn't to tasty. Ironic it was Thanksgiving today.

Wednesday Lunch

Luckily, the school lunch is subsidized by the government. That means it costs 265 yen, or about $2.50, a meal.


Today's Lunch:

3.5% Milk (boo)

Rice (yay!)

Little sweet fish for our rice

Cucumbers and Octopus salad (boo)

Oden meat thing (beef, potato, tofu, some other stuff)



These little guys are ok to eat as long as you don't look them in the eyes or else it's too creepy.

Rating: 5 / 10
Comment: Couldn't eat the veggies because of the octopus. The rice saved the rating from dropping to a 3.5.

Tuesday's Lunch

In Japan, schools don't have cafeterias. The students eat in their homerooms with their homeroom teacher. The lunch center delivers food to the school and the students serve it to their classmates. The kids then eat their lunch usually in "lunch groups" of about 6 students. Nobody starts eating until everybody first has their lunch.


Today's lunch:

Beef Udon

Bread

Chocolate spread/paste for your bread

3.5% milk

Salad with eggs, cucumbers, and almonds (BOO!). Had to pass on this one

Rating: 5 / 10
Comments: The udon was alright and the chocolate bread was better than non-chocolate bread. But the almond salad brought it down a rating point.

Kyushoku

This week is dedicated to mankind's great invention: Kyushoku, or School Lunch. Just as the U.S.'s school lunch tastes 'special', my city's school lunch doesn't disappoint. Each city has their own system for making school lunch. My city decided that the smartest way to do it would be to take all the junior high schools and elementary schools in the city and make all the food at one place (high schools don't get school lunch). That means this lunch center makes food for over 3000 people a day. Can you imagine trying to make food for that many people? Either can they. That is why our lunch is notoriously known as the worst lunch west of the big city. And I can safely say, it lives up to the hype.

Right off the bat, you can tell if it is a happy or sad lunch because it will either come with rice (happy!) or bread (sad). Also included with every meal is a box of 3.5% milk.


Today's lunch:

Rice with bits of seaweed mixed in

Fish covered in a light batter and fried

Soup made from barley, carrots, green onions, tofu, chikua (fish molded together into this round solid form. used in a lot of food here)

A piece of apple

A teacher made green tea for everybody

Rating: 8 / 10
Comment: Suprisingly good. It was even enjoyable.

Convenience + Food

"Conbini's" are all over in Japan. Here's a hint what a Conbini is. Conbinience Store. Their stores a similar to American convenience stores but they also have their differences. You can find a lot of prepared and "quick" food to buy. Here's an example of something I had for lunch.




First you have your plastic bowl with precooked, cold noodles. Inside it comes with a package of broth, green onions, tempura chips, and fish flakes. You dump everything into the magic little bowl, give it a stir, and you get what you see below.



Unfortunately, this little guy didn't taste nearly as good as it looked. Maybe next time...

Everything's Cute Here

While we're on the subject, we clean the river by the school every month. While I was cleaning the river I came across this little open package. If you don't know what it is, then read this in a few years when you're older. By the way, it says "Sleepy Sleepy" in the bottom left.

Hentai Zoo?

I had another advertisement on my desk when I arrived at school on Monday. On first glance, I was shocked, then I couldn't stop laughing. I was wondering just what kind of animal park this exactly was being advertised, as indicated by the 'happy' squirrels.

Happy Halloweenie

I hope everybody had a good Halloween. On Halloween, things aren't quite as scary over here...unless you count their driving.

My costume this year wasn't quite as original as last year, but it was something all the locals could relate to. I was a Japanese grandma.

Outside my adult conversation class with a few students

I'll explain the details of a proper old woman in Japan.

From the top to bottom.

Something must be worn on the head. This season, the in thing is bucket hats.

Very unattractive flowery shirt that is very baggy

Apron on in the rice paddies so your flowery shirt doesn't get dirty

Forearm fabric so to protect your skin from the sun when outside

Cane (optional)

Short pants

Slippers, but there are some ugly ones I found for indoor use.

The hunch. Many old Japanese women are hunched over because they always spend time crouched over working in the rice paddies.

Would you like Anchovies?

Just like back home, Japan has pizza. This is how I think it originated:

Japan and Italy had a business meeting way back when. There was a lot of beer and sake at the table.

Italians said, "Hey! We have this fabulous food called pizza. Let us tell you how to make it."

Of course, the Italians were drunk off their ass and slurring their speech.

"First,<snicker> you get dough and put cheese on it."

(The Japanese are diligently taking notes)

"Next, you put on <drunk giggle> CORN and seaweed! <drunk snicker>"
"Then you put salmon on it. No wait, SQUID! <drunk snort laugh>"

(Japanese still taking notes)

"Oh Mario, you almost forgot, the Mayonnaise and eggs!" <holding stomach because it hurts from laughing so hard>

<Italians pass out face first on the floor>

Japanese: "Well, lets try this. Oh, our flight leaves in 3 hours. Let's go"

Some years later, the Italian joke is a Japanese reality. The largest Japanese Pizza chain is "Pizza Royal Hat".

Japanese Pizza Delivery Boy

How do you relieve your cravings?

This was on the plane home from Hong Kong. If you can't read the words, click on the picture to make it larger.

FINALLY a reputable pharmacy

This is what I'm talkin' about...

You are happy, I am sad

Great Hong Kong Signs

This week I will make a tribute to the quality signs I saw in Hong Kong. 1 post per day.

I'd like to call today's:

Old people always get the shaft

Another Day, Another Dollar

Today the teacher I work with asked for some pictures from summertime at home to help teach our grammar point. Here is some of the lesson we did.

Today's grammar point "Who is the <person> <verb> + ing <direct object>"

The first picture:



Class together: Who is the girl eating chicken?
Me: The girl eating is my sister.
Teacher: What is her name?
Class: Niki
Class: Who is the man next to Niki?
Me: The man next to Niki is Butch, my father.
Class: Ehhhhhhhhhhh... mubble, mubble.
A Student: What is his name?
Me: Butch
Many students: Bootchi, Bootchi (Japanese/English)


Next picture:


Class: Who is the boy sleeping .....
Teacher: What is he in?
Me: A bathtub.
<confused look>
Class: Who is the boy sleeping in the bathtub?
Me: The boy sleeping in the bathtub is my friend. His name is Brandon.

Good Day

Every once in awhile, you have a good day because things just seem to go right. Today at school, I looked on the internet and it put a smile on my face for the rest of the day. Here are the pictures I saw. (If you're not a baseball fan, you can skip this post)

Hong Kong - Day 6

Day 6

The last day. The flight left at 3:00 p.m. so we had time to find lunch. I had been wanting dim sum for 5 days and we finally found a place. I was finally able to eat a chashu bau!!! My trip was complete. I was in a happy place, chashu bau heaven. We also ate spring rolls (which came in a glass) and some other things.




My opinion of Hong Kong:

Go if you're around the area and need something to do for a few days. I think there are much more interesting places to visit in Asia. If you go, only go for a few days at most, unless you love shopping and getting deals on things you don't need. The best part about the trip was the food. Now I really miss greasy Chinese food and I'm back to bland Japanese food.

Finally, an invaluable tip for all Hong Kong bound travelers: In Hong Kong everybody picks their nose, so be sure not to forget the hand sanitizer.

Hong Kong - Day 5

Day 5.

Fortunately I didn't have to go to work this day. Unfortunately, we were still in Hong Kong. If you ever go to Hong Kong, don't go for this long. Well, maybe if you have kids, you could go to Disney Land or Ocean Park (like sea world), but we decided to go south to the beach and another famous shopping place (Stanley Park booths). The beach was pretty cool because they had a big thing of Buddhist statues there. It was also interesting to note that they had shark nets placed out in the ocean so people wouldn't become dinner. The sand there didn't feel too good on the feet.

Crazy Chinese Statues gettin' some rays

Buddha doing his best Elvis Impersonation

After this, we went up to Kowloon and visited a neat old park they had from a long time ago before England opened up a can of whoop-ass.

Old Chinese Park

After that, we visited the goldfish market during peak hours. Everywhere you looked were bagged fish and plants ready for your aquarium (I guess it's true all Chinese people own aquariums). Bags 'o fish everywhere!

Then we hit up one last famous market, the night market. This was the junkiest market of all. It had crap that even the $1 would be ashamed to carry. They also had many booths of things you would find at umm, well, they had things that vibrated, 'movies' you won't find on the big screen, and many other "alternative" items.

Are those underoos?

Hong Kong - Day 4

I really need to pick up the pace. At this rate, I'll be back home before finishing blogging about this damn trip.

Macau Island. This is an island that takes an hour to get to by ferry from Hong Kong. The Portuguese had control of it for quite awhile, so there was a lot of European flavor to the island. It is also a big tourist spot for gamblers so there are many casinos there. (Casino + Asian = big money) In fact, they just opened The Venetian the day we arrived. There is also The Wynn casino. This island took the entire day to visit as it had many world heritage sites. Pictures below of what we saw:

Hong Kong - Day 3

It was off to Hong Kong island. We went to some parts of town that didn't have many tourists. In fact, we saw 0. There were many old stores and small markets. At the markets, there were many animal parts we normally don't think of eating....even if you're starving and haven't eaten for 5 days.

After that, we went to "The Peak" which is a big tourist spot on top of a mountain where you can see all of Hong Kong and Kowloon (it is the first picture on day 1). Then we took a bus to the central point of Hong Kong where the longest walkway/escalator in the world is. It's about 1/2 mile long. The worse thing about it is that it is only one way. We rode that for awhile and got off and on at different points, wandering around and seeing old shops and booths set up for people. Around one part of the escalator were many foreign restaurants (Indian, Nepalese, etc) We decide to eat at a Thai restaurant. It was excellent food! And that was it.

Hong Kong - Day 2

Day 2 was a Kowloon island adventure day. We started the day at the flower market. The flower market is a couple of long streets with wall to wall flower shops. They have tons of different flowers, from orchids to roses to everything. All for really cheap. After that, we went to the goldfish market which is a street with tons of fish stores on both sides. However, it doesn't get busy until 5 p.m. Next was lunch. China + Lunch = dim sum. Unless you can't speak Chinese and can't find any. So it ended up being a 2 person set lunch for about $10.

Next was the ladies market. This is a few streets full of booths with people selling "the Chinese version" of clothes, handbags, ipod cases, etc. You definitely don't pay what they ask. Maybe you'll pay around 1/2 or less of their asking price after 'negotionations'. That means awesome $3 t-shirts. After the market, we went to a temple on the street around the area. The interesting thing about their temples is that they burn many long spiral incense that are supposed to last for 10 days. The temple smelt like a teenager's bedroom.

After that it was to the jade market. This was a covered street block with a bunch of vendors all selling the same thing. You couldn't walk by a booth without having a vendor say something to get your attentions and point to some jade that looked exactly the same as what the last vendor pointed to.

Soon, you catch on to every Hong Kong vendor. The conversation goes something like this:



Vendor: (Points to something randomly) "Oh, you like?"
Me: "Not really."
Vendor: "$70"
Me: "No thanks."
Vendor: "OK. $65"
Me: "No, I'm not interested"
Vendor: "OK, for you. $60"
Me: "Really, I'm ok"
Vendor: "Ok, what's your price"
Me: (Just to see what they say) "$20"
Vendor: (pretend surprised look) "Ai ya!" (shake head no and turns away)
Me: "Ok, bye"
Vendor: "$45"
Me: "No thank you. Bye"
(Depending on the vendor, might mubble some rude Chinese)

Shortly after the jade market, we headed to the port area of the island. They have their own Hong Kong Hollywood there with stars of famous people from Hong Kong. We saw the stars for Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee, and many other people I had never heard of. Then around 8:00 every night is a "can't miss" music and light show from the big buildings. Every Saturday night, they also do a firework show after the light show to celebrate the 10th anniversary that they went from English black tea to Chinese oolong tea. So we got good seats, set up the tripod, and waiting for the show. At about 8:10 I was looking around wondering when it was supposed to start. I had just missed the "can't miss" show. It was basically some random beams of light off of buildings shining into the sky. Then some fireworks from a boat started to shoot about 30 feet high into the air.

Oh, the most important part of the day. We went to an internet cafe and booked a room in a real hotel.

Hong Kong - Day 1

We left our town at 5:30 a.m. to catch the 6:30 bus North of the big city (Tokushima City). We caught an 11:00 a.m. flight and by 2:00 p.m. we were in Hong Kong. By the way, if you ever have the choice between American and Asian airlines, take the Asian one. Here's the meal we got for the 4 hour flight (plus all the free booze you can drink). It sure beats Delta's meal (your choice of sun chips, cheese & crackers, or a granola bar).


We arrived in Hong Kong and headed to Mr. Big Buddha, located on Lantau Island, the same island as the airport. By adding enough conditions, they were able to claim some fame to this Statue. It is the "biggest outdoor, copper, sitting" Buddha in the world. We took a rugged 50 minute bus ride through the mountains to get there. I heard last year they opened a cable car to get to the Buddha from the bottom of the mountain, but shortly after it opened, a car fell off while in operation (Made in China).

After Mr. Buddha, we took a 1/2 mile walk on the wisdom path to a place with big long stones setup in the shape of an infinity symbol.

Then we took a 1/2 hour subway ride to our hostel in Kowloon. The hostel owner was a JACKASS. He was damn hustler. Those Chinese... To put a long story short, we ended up getting a crap room with the promise of an upgrade the next day. (We only paid $16/person/night)

We went to dinner after that and ate at a shack, but it was really busy so we thought it had to be decent. I ordered shark fin soup with pressed fish in it for about US $1.50. For that price, the shark fin was either fake or its owner died of old age. Either way, it was tasty. Then it was off to 7-11 for bottled water to brush our teeth with and off to bed.

Back for a minute

Hey everyone,

I'm back safe. It was nice seeing you all!!! I'm off to Hong Kong tomorrow morn so check back in a week for pictures and updates from that trip.

Sayonara

Tomorrow morning is my last day in Japan for 3 weeks! No more humidity! 32 hours later (looooooong layover in Hong Kong) I will be landing in LA. See most of you in a week or 2!

As a parting thought, it's a good time to leave Japan because it is election time again. During election time, trucks and cars with speakers on them drive up and down the streets yelling for people to vote for them. It is VERY annoying since it sounds like they're right in your living room. Finally, election day comes and you're SO thankful it's over. Then the next thing you know, the winner is driving up and down the streets with their speaker saying "ARRIGATO GOZAIMASU!" Oh, election time in Japan.

(I caught the tail end of this guy as he passed my apartment)

Dangerous yo!

Kids, this is why you don't play with samurai swords. You'll chop your arm right off!