i have been going to the board of education every work day since i got here. theres a spot that i can usually use as a desk (unless some random more-important person shows up) and sometimes i even have access to a computer which i can use to practice my kanji. since no one i work with understands much english - including my supervisor - and my level of japanese understanding is somewhere between a newborn and a retarded child, communication is very limited for me at work. this leads to the problem of not knowing what is planned for me that day until it is already happening.

every time i go to work, i have no idea what i am supposed to do that day. some days, i have nothing to do for 6 hours straight and then all of a sudden i have to travel to a bunch of schools to stumble through my japanese self introduction and learn a bunch of teachers' names which i quickly forget by the time i leave. other days, i am driven to various bus stops to practice taking certain buses to my schools. and sometimes i have to go to the town hall or the tax office to fill out forms i dont even knew existed and of which i still dont know what they're for.

one day, i showed up to work in my usual khakis and polo shirt to find that my supervisor signed me up to be in a volleyball club at one of my middle schools. at least thats what i think he said. so i went to school and found myself playing on a team of teachers vs. the middle school girls' volleyball team in a non-air-conditioned gymnasium for three long, grueling, embarrassing games. luckily, one teacher let me borrow some of his workout clothes so i wouldnt absolutely ruin my work clothes with my profuse sweating. this was also the day that i found out that i suck at volleyball. and i was fortunate enough to find this out in front of a bunch of my soon-to-be students and coworkers.

all of these random tasks have driven me to be prepared for anything at anytime. now i show up to work with a spare change of sports clothes, enough japanese study materials to keep myself occupied for hours at a time, and all of my official documentation, including passport, alien card, pension booklet, and various receipts,  to work every single freaking day.

since spending so much time in a small town had started to take its toll on my state of mind, i decided to go to osaka (大阪) and kyoto (京都) for the weekend. friday night, after work, i hoped on a 4 hour train to meet up with my friend brent. though he lives in the wakayama prefecture (和歌山県) now, we met and became friends back in boston 2 years ago. small world, eh?

we spent friday night playing a game he called "lawson hoping," which consisted of buying a drink every time we walked by a lawson convenience store (japan is like vegas with their drinking laws - it's legal to walk around with open containers). we walked around the city looking for a tasty place to eat and a cheap place to crash while lawson hoping.

check out the bib on that guy

after eating some japanese and italian seafood pasta, we went to a bar with pool tables, board games, ping pong, and darts. we played a few games of jenga (i totally won) while sipping on some guiness. beer is not one of japan's finer points, so it was oh-so nice to finally taste good beer again.

drunk jenga

saturday we went to kyoto (京都) to see some shrines. brent suggested we go to fushimi inari-taisha (伏見稲荷大社) for a good mix of hiking, beautiful scenery, and shrines. it is said to have 10 thousand torii (鳥居), or sacred japanese gates leading up to the inari shrine. all the orange things in these photo are torii (鳥居):
after our hike we met up with more friends i met in boston, taishi and yakuri. unfortunately, taishi had to leave for nagoya and yukari had a work party to go to, so around 11pm brent and i were on our own again. we took the last train back to osaka with the goals of finding another cheap hotel and some more drinking. but after finding out that all the hotels in our price range were full, we had no other choice but to pull an all-nighter and hop from bar to bar until the morning trains could take us back home. we made friends along the way who took us to yet another bar that stayed open until at least 6am. i dont know when it closes, however, because we finally cut ourselves off around 6 and headed back to the train station.

drinking in kyoto with boston friends

unfortunately, a night of drinking and not sleeping at all took its toll on me. on the way back, i slept through my stop to change trains was and ended up spending 8 instead of 4 hours to get back home. ugh. but oh well. i still feel that it was hella worth it. now that my fun-o-meter has been maxed out, i can (try to) enjoy my small town again. until next weekend, that is..

kumano fireworks (熊野の花火)

japan really knows how to put on a good fireworks show. new years in las vegas and independence day in boston dont have anything on kumano and its fireworks festival. my friends and i sat on the beach and ooh'ed and ahh'ed  for 2+ solid hours of beautiful fireworks set off from several boats out on the water. i heard that there were more than 20,000 fireworks and close to 1,00,000 people this year all crowded on a little beach in kumano this year.

one of the coolest things i saw was a boat that dropped fireworks into the water behind it as it went from one side of the beach to the other. as you can hear someone say in the video, it did actually seem a bit mario-kart-esque the way it was dropping them and racing away:

at one point near the end of the show a boat set off this gigantic bomb / firework that was so close to where we were sitting that i felt the earth shake and felt the exploding sound waves in my chest. unfortunately, i was about 2 seconds too late with this video. its still pretty spectacular though:
with such a long show, i guess it sort of made sense that they had multiple finales. here was one of the better ones. skip to about a minute into it for the super exciting stuff:
and here's a slideshow just in case the movies are too long/boring:

choushi river (銚子川), kihoku (紀北町)

last weekend i decided to explore my surrounding area a bit to get a better idea of what is in store for me over the next 11+ months. i spent saturday biking around my town. though my employer, the kihoku board of education, gave me a bicycle to use, it's really not in any shape to be ridden at all (two flat tires, broken treads, and a rusty chain would make riding quite difficult). luckily, this really nice lady that works at the liquor store offered to lend me one of her extra bikes while i live here. score!

trains only leave my town every 2 hours :(

my town is so small that i can literally bike around the whole thing (im talking perimeter, baby) in less than a half an hour. saturday's bike ride took longer than that, though, because i wanted to scope out the place too. i discovered that this place has multiple rivers, multiple shrines, and exactly one shoe store. yay?

owase city (尾鷲市)

posing in owase city (尾鷲市)

sunday i decided to check out owase (尾鷲市), which is just one train station away from me. i walked around a lot of the city in the blazing heat and found a 100-yen store (much like dollar stores in america), a couple karaoke places, and even a mcdonalds. ive been told owase has the only mcdonalds in mie this far south. though i usually dont eat fast food cause its rarely pescatarian-friendly, i had to stop in to see what their japanese menu looks like. i found out that japanese mcdonalds serve shrimp sandwiches and cups of corn. weird.

mcdonalds in japan sell shrimp (海老) sandwiches

memorizing my new address is taking longer than it should. personally, i find the most interesting part about my address is my new japanese name. with just a little engrish hackingu, i can make "nick whalen" mean "whale meat." yes, i am still laughing about this. anyways, in case anyone wants to send me knuckle sandwiches, anthrax, or used panties, dont. but if you want to send me anything else, here's my 'dress..

for the english speakers:
Nick Whalen
***-* Aiga
Miyama-ku, Kihoku-cho, Kitamuro-gun, Mie-ken ***-****
Japan

and for those fluent in japanese:
〒***-****
北牟婁郡紀北町海山区相賀***-*
鯨肉様


NOTE: this post has been edited to censor parts of my address

tonight i decided to christen my kitchen by trying to make octopus okonomiyaki (たこお好み焼き). okonomiyaki is like a cross between a pancake, an omelet, and a pizza. it originated from the kansai region (関西地方), which is where i live now.

my octopus okonomiyaki (たこお好み焼き) is now ready for nommage

i started making the batter first. there are close to infinite number of possible ingredients that one could put in the batter. i chose to throw in some cabbage, bean sprouts, and mushrooms. next, i fried up some slices of octopus tentacle. i then poured the batter on top of the octopus in the shape of a pancake. when it was done cooking, i drizzled mayonnaise (japanese people LOVE mayonnais!!), okonomiyaki sauce, and bonito flakes (dried fish flakes) on top.

i dont mean to toot my own horn or anything, but my okonomiyaki came out perfect! it was so freaking good i had to go back to the kitchen and make another. if anyone wants the recipe, id be happy to share. 

chop up your favorite cephalopod mollusc. i chose a tasty octopus (たこ)

fry that mother up

pour the "batter" on top. my "batter" had egg, flour, cabbage, bean sprouts, and mushrooms in it

flip it when it turns golden

the chef

almost ready to nom

decorate with mayonnaise (マヨネーズ), okonomiyaki sauce (お好み焼きソース), and bonito flakes (dried fish flakes)

nomming

for about the first week of living in my new home, i got ready for work each morning without a mirror. though i do cherish every second i dont have to look at my ugly mug, it did complicate a couple of things. shaving, for example, becomes exponentially difficult the less you can actually see where youre sticking that razor.

i didnt have a chance to buy a mirror for a few days because: (1) my schedule was ridiculously chaotic, (2) stores close early in small towns, and (3) i didnt even know where to go to buy one.

long story short, i did what i feel any technologically savvy boy would do in this situation: i opened up my laptop, turned on my webcam, and shaved while looking at a digital image of myself. the only downside of this procedure, of course, is the small neck-beard hairs i found in my keyboard later that day. but oh well. mission accomplished.

an age-old problem solved in a 21st century style; i think this deserves at least a merit badge in techie nerdery. ill assume one is on the mail.

apparently, its not possible for JET's to have too many orientations. i spent monday (月曜日) and tuesday (火曜日) in more all-day orientations in the capital city of my prefecture, tsu (津市).

the view of tsu city (津市) from my hotel window

i must say that these workshops were much more relevant than the ones in tokyo because they actually pertained to my specific prefecture. we learned about how seismologists are actually expecting a major earthquake in mie anytime now. i actually have an emergency bag already packed with emergency supplies next to where i sleep just in case. pretty crazy.

we also learned about all the cool adventures that some fellow JET's are planning, like going to all the big summer festivals, tokyo disney, and even going up to nagano for a weekend of snowboarding.

the post-orientation party at a popular foreigner (外人) bar, the melting pot

the best past of orientation, however, was the after party. we went to this foreigner bar owned by some crazy texan who also poured our drinks for us. the highlight was when i tried my first flaming sambuca shot:

• 1. pour a shot of sambuca
• 2. light it on fire
• 3. put out the fire by covering it up with another glass
• 4. remove the glass
• 5. drink the shot
• 6. huff the fumes still trapped in the outer glass with a straw
• 7. feel unsober

my flaming sambuca was different than everyone else's because of the simple fact that when the bartender lit mine on fire he did not clean the excess alcohol around it first. so before i could drink my shot, i had to wait for him to put out the small bar fire he had just started first. mental note: flaming sambucas are not the smartest or safest drink to order.

on our way back from the post-orientation party

it was 2am and i was getting ready for bed. i made my bed (took out the futon from the closet and laid it on the floor), set my alarm, and was about to turn off the lights when i suddenly noticed something that honestly made me scream like a little girl. about 3 feet from where i was about to lay my head, i saw a huntsman spider THE SIZE OF MY FUCKING HAND just chilling on the wall. just chilling. waiting for me to turn out the lights so it could bite, sting, and claw me to death while i sleep. im positively sure of this. anyways, after promptly urinating myself several times in rapid succession, i finally worked up the courage to fight this beast one on one. mano a mano. may the best man/beast win.

because ive been warned how fast these things are and how they love to jump around, i took no precaution and quickly emptied half a can of spider killer on it. but mr huntsman spider decided not to give in without a fight. i swear i even saw him flip me off with every single stupid leg of his. he ran from room to room and up and down walls all the while contemplating how he was going to kill me slowly and eat my brains while i watch.

i finally grew enough cajones to start swatting at him with the dustpan. boy, he did not go down without a fight. after about 13 crushing blows, he finally curled up his legs and died. this mother was still a few inches across even after he curled in his legs.

the irony is that hunstman spiders are not really harmful to humans, and in fact, ive been told by many people to not kill them because they prey on the even more heinous creatures that are probably lurking in my house as i type this.

ugh.

::sigh::

some of my fellow mie JET's decided to plan a beach day for all to enjoy. unfortunately for me, my commute was quite a bit longer than most of the others due to my distance from the rest of the world and the fact that trains only leave every 2 hours or so from my station. but whatevs. after 2 hours of sleep, 5 hours later i finally met up with some familiar faces and a bunch of other soon-to-be-familiar JET's.

a bunch of JET's on the train from matsusaka (松阪市) to shima (志摩市)

kou beach (国府白浜) was exactly what i needed. not only did i need to get away from my small town and spider infested house, but i cant begin to explain how awesome it was to actually converse with people again. language barriers are such a bummer. anyways, the beach was quite beautiful and long. the water was a shade colder than room temperature. i couldnt get over how much clearer the water was compared to california's. this picture doesnt even do it justice:

kou beach (国府白浜海水浴場)

after a perfect day of swimming, floating, eating ice cream, and hanging out with new friends, i sadly got back on the trains and buses for my 5 hour commute back home. it was dark when i left and dark when i came back. but im so freaking glad i did it.

group photo at kou beach (国府白浜海水浴場). hint: im near the back, stage right

my new home could not be any more different than my last. so long, cushy 21st-century boston studio apartment. hello backwoods built-long-before-i-was-born japanese house. thats not to say this place is awful; its just going to take an awful lot of adjustment for me to feel at home here.

my neighborhood looks pretty awesome. i am ridiculously close to the greenest mountains i've ever seen in my whole life. the streets and houses next to me look as quaint as can be. it seriously feels like nothing in this town has changed in the last few hundred years. here's a video of what my neighborhood looks like:


my new house has definitely not been easy to get used to. my toilet, for example, is a non-flush toilet. this means that when you open the lid, instead of seeing a little pool of water just waiting to wash everything you might put in it down the drain, you see a hole. just a stupid hole. ugh. my shower is another source of conflict for me. i have to go outside my house to get to the shower. though the only things i have to worry about right now is getting my feet dirty and avoiding the spiders, this will be a big pain when winter comes. i am not looking forward to walking outside in the frigid cold just to soap myself down.


i suppose my house is fairly typical, if not maybe a bit bigger, than a normal rural japanese home. i'll be sleeping on the floor, on top of a futon (布団). to be clear, a japanese futon is a glorified comforter; it should not be confused with an american-style futon where a chair or couch folds out into a bed. lets see here.. every room is separated by traditional-looking sliding doors. ive got a room decked out in tatami (たたみ) mats. theres a lowered section in front of the front door where guests and i take off our shoes before entering the rest of the house. theres no central AC or central heating. its pretty rough in the summer so far, but im sure itll get much worse when the weather drops this winter.

im still living out of my suitcases. i have yet to make this place feel like its actually MY home.

after a 4 hour train ride and a 1 hour car ride, i arrived in my new town, kihoku-cho (紀北町). i met my supervisor, kawaguchi-san (川口さん), who is so freaking nice. over the last few days, he has gone waaaaay out of his way to help me get situated. basic things like getting gas and internet hooked up or opening a bank account are overwhelmingly difficult for me. though the language barrier is the main culprit, it also has a lot to do with the fact that the bureaucratic red tape is intense and the procedures here are quite complicated.

one side of kihoku-cho (紀北町)

since 99.9% of the people in my town dont speak english, the board of education actually brought in a JET from the next town over (30 minutes away by train) everyday for the last 3 days. his name is rob (ロバと) and he has been a tremendous help to both me and all of the people and companies i've had to interact with so far. i would not have gotten anywhere without rob's help. thanks dude.

when i arrived i was told that the mayor wanted to meet me the next day. the freaking mayor. so the next day, i put back on the same suit i have worn since i arrived in japan and went to the town hall. meeting the mayor was really awkward for both of us. after we did our introductions (in japanese, of course), we tried to talk about our hobbies and our past. he seemed pretty stoked to hear about my love for guitar and how i used to be in punk rock bands. all of the towns journalists (all 3 of them) kept taking pictures of the two of us, and later asked me a lot of questions about my education.

an article about me meeting the mayor in the town paper

could i look any more awkward?!

i got to see a proof for the article about me in the town paper that should be coming out next week. i can only assume the journalist choose this particular picture either out of humor or callousness.

even though the article makes me look like the most awkward person on the planet, i must say that i have been treated with an astonishingly amount of respect, patience, and kindness from every single person and kid that i have been fortunate enough to meet so far.

flying from boston to tokyo (東京) was an adventure in itself. it was a 16 hour exercise in self entertainment and a constant struggle to remain semi-comfortable, multiplied 30 times over by the other JET's around me who were just as nervous, fidgety, and uncomfortable.

a view of shinjuku (新宿区) from my hotel

when the flight that seemed to never end actually touched down and docked at narita airport (成田国際空港), we were all herded through customs and put into buses headed for keio plaza hotel. the hotel was ginormous and beautiful. the rooms started out clean but deteriorated quickly with three JET's sharing a room.

dressed up to meet my new bosses

we had two looooong days of orientation in tokyo. i didnt know at the time, but i was to spend the next 4 days dressed up in my finest (also my ONLY) suit and tie. i went to workshops that taught me how to not hate life while living in a rural town, the basics to proper japanese etiquette, and other things which i already forgot. i also had the chance to finally meet all the new jets in my prefecture, mie (三重). people ran the gambit from shy and quiet to talkative and personable. one common trait we all seemed to share, besides being hopelessly lost and nervous, was an instant sense of camaraderie and friendship. im betting that these new friends will become extremely important to my sanity during this major transition.

the first morning of orientation

after the long days of orientations, i spent the evenings fighting overwhelming jet-lag by walking around shinjuku (新宿区) with fellow JET's doing things like singing karaoke (カラオケ), drinking japanese beer (ビール), and eating conveyor-belt sushi (回転寿司) and cold soba (そば) noodles.

my first dinner in japan: cold soba (そば) noodles

i also spent about 10 minutes in an arcade near the hotel. after inspecting all of the crazy games everyone was playing, i decided to put a 100円 coin into a claw game. with an unfamiliar sense of luck, i actually won what i aimed for: a family size pack of cookies called koala no machi (コアラのマーチ). im sure i made even more friends when i decided to share the box with fellow JET's.

i totally won this family size pack of koala no machi (コアラのマーチ) from a claw game on my first try