About Me

Ikawa-cho Miyoshi-shi, Tokushima-ken, Japan
I was recently accepted by the JET program as an assistant English teacher in Japan for one year.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

reaffirmation of original blog topic

hello blog,
did i forget that this is a blog about my life in japan? i might have. to be honest, i am still very engaged with politics and happenings back in american. but i am in japan, so i should tell you about it.
i just got back from the sports day (field day) festival at tsuji elementary school, the one near my house. it's just like american field day, except there is an opening ceremony with lots of bowing, there is a big formal stretching introduction that everyone participates in, the winners of each event raise their hands and shout "BANZAI!" twice after they win, and they have this one event where everyone gathers around a basket on a very tall stake and tries to throw colored balls in all at once. i think the red team won today. i got to participate in two events, the adult football kicking relay, and the teamwork race.
in 2 hours there is a party for all the teachers and the parents of the students who participated. everyone only pours drinks for other people, it is just totally wrong to ever pour for yourself. if you get into a serius drinking conversation, you even pass the same little sake cup back and forth.
last night i rewatched inglorious basterds with other american JETs. it was just as fun the second time. we talked about having a pizza party on either monday or tuesday, because monday through wednesday we all have off for national holidays. the only problem is, all of the main pizzas on the menu of the delivery place feature corn as a main topping. maybe you want a pizza with little piles of potato salad on it? i am kind of curious about the shrimp, squid, scallop, green pepper, onion, mushroom pizza. there are a few other pizzas with drizzled mayo instead of sauce. if you want a large (12 slice) "royal pizza" (salami, premeire cheese, [gruyere, ementhal] cured bacon, sundried tomato, fresh tomato, onion, parmesan cheese) it's going to cost you 4,305 yen, or about $45.
speaking of young money, cash money, i only have a 10,000 yen note in my wallet right now. tonight's party will probably cost 3,000, but i might get treated. im afraid that the bank is going to be closed for these next three national holidays. this is kind of ok because i just went food shopping and have a lot of good snacks, but its kind of not ok because i am getting low on gas and i want to ask about my tire pressure.
been watching some sumo wrestling when its on tv, as it is one of the few programs that is not directly about food. the guys really are fat, like extremely round and gigantic. for example, this next guy is 186 cm and 164 kg, do the math. it would be exciting if a match lasted longer than 15 seconds. one guy is so fat and gigantic that there is probably no point in ever trying to fight against him. at the end they all walk around in a line with the fancy patterned skirts, and i swear one guy had a skirt with a golden, embroidered hello kitty next to a dragon. there are a few guys that i think are russian. you have to throw a handfull of salt into the ring before you start for good luck, but i dont know how they avoid tripping and slipping on the piles of salt that are there by the end. this is the only sport i can think of where open handed face slaps, straight up thumb jabs to the tracha, and grabbing the opponent's diaper are not only allowed, but encouraged.
that's about it for japan. i'm trying to imagine the scene in paterson's office these days, his hilarious voice being all like "obama thinks that just because he's the first black president, he can tell me, the first black governer of new york, what to do!?" and all of his advisors being like "actually, yes, because he can, and you're through, and maybe if you do what he says he will ake you the deputy secretary of the special olympics or basketball czar or ambassador to suriname or SOMETHING"
ok i have to take a shower before this party. have a good one.

2 comments:

  1. You attended undokai! Did you see the massive ball rolling over the students? It's called Oodama okuri.

    And yes, delivery pizza is quite expensive in Japan, compared to the States. I hope you enjoyed your Japanese pizza.

    A cheap way to do a home party would be to make okonomiyaki. Have you made some?

    Kyoko

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  2. kyoko its so good to hear from you! come to japan and i'll take some of my 20 days off
    no our sports day did not have massive ball rolling over students! i would have wrote about that for sure.
    okonomiyaki is an idea is am thinking about...i think i have a hot plate in my house... i watched the tutorial recpie video on youtube "cooking with dog" and that was helpful. thanks for the tip!

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