Kyle's World

I had a rare day off on Friday. So naturally, I assembled some friends, and went to Mitsui Greenland, Kumamoto's amusement park.

I wasn't expecting much, I thought it would be somewhat small with some not-too-exciting rides, not unlike Playland back home. But after paying 5100 Yen entrance fee, I knew I'd be in for a pretty good day.

First, since it was a Friday in the middle of April, there was hardly anyone there. There was a few high school groups (shouldn't they be taking school trips to museums or something?) but there were hardly any lines. I tried a few kinds of coaster that I had never tried before; one where you are strapped in standing up, and another where you are suspended. There were definitely some good coasters there. As for other ides, there was a giant ferris wheel that promises a view of Nagasaki, a couple haunted houses that weren't scary at all (unless you're a high school student) and a few water rides. They also had a bunch of rides with engines, such as the bumper boats, two different go-kart courses, and a slalom cart course.

A couple of highlights: I stepped up to the plate of the game where you have to swing a hammer and hit a target, then a scale will tell you how strong you are. When I went in, there was no one around, just my friends, but before I took my first swing, a whole bunch of Japanese high school boys came out of nowhere to watch me. Since I look big and strong, I didn't want to disappoint, but it made me a bit nervous and the potential to be embarrassed was there. It reminded me of when tons of Taiwanese people watched me play a punching/boxing game when I was there. With the pressure on, I swung, and luckily got a perfect 100 points much to the delight of the onlookers. I won an inflatable hook that I planned on giving away to a student at school, but I think it was poorly made cuz it kept on deflating. Oh well, several people witnessed my 100-point swing, so that can't be taken away. I also played this cork shooting game where I knocked two boxes of candy off the shelf. Meanwhile my friends didn't win anything combined all day. It's all about the bragging rights sometimes.

sign of information from the Greenland of Mitsui. very incorrect, very poor. I receive pat on back because of find it.

Okl, let's try to write a drunken update. This'll be a first...

I went to the PTA enkai tonight. This was the second time I went; it's a bit more boring than regular staff enkais, but for some reason tonight's worked out ok. I drank lots, started spewing Japanese, and talked with lots of people. It's always fun to have the parents of your students come up to you, offering you a drink, and asking how their son/daughter is doing in English. Well, first you gotta get past your amazement that the person in front of you is the father/mother of so and so student. Often the resemblances are uncanny. I remain pretty quiet if I'm not drunk, but luckily tonight I consumed my fair share of bevvies so I could talk with everyone with ease. It's funny to how little these parents know about me. I guess it's one thing to impact the lives of the students, but another to impact the lives of the parents. As such, people were asking me what my last name was, how long I've been in Japan, and what country I'm from. But as a second year JET, those questions seem no longer relevant. Oh well, I threw them a bone and answered them....PTA enkai, until next year.

Found a picture of Kazuhiro Kiyohara. Unfortunately, no huge diamond earrings. Well he's a primadonna anyway...

Last Thursday we had our annual school ensoku. Last year we hiked to a place relatively close to my school. Not the case this year. For some reason, someone had the bright idea to do a 16km round trip hike to a park in the next town over.

Now some of the lazier teachers were assigned car driving duties, since loads of stuff needed to be brought, and just in case any kids had any accidents or what not. Perhaps as a compliment, thinking that I'm not lazy, I was assigned walking duty with the kids.

It was largely fun walking and talking and hanging out. And traditionally, the ensoku day is the only day of the school year that the kids can bring snacks and what not to school. So doing snack exchanges was also fun. As was not getting to use my own sunglasses and walking stick that I brought, since the kids always took them from me to use themselves. Oh well.

But the fun and enjoyment soon gave way to legs hurting and sunburns. Summer-like heat has definitely come to Kumamoto, but I haven't gotten prepared yet, ie I don't have any sunscreen yet. So after going sunscreen-less for the duration of the 16km hike, with the strong sun beating down on me, I burned my face, arms and the back of my neck. If I could have taken a picture and posted it, I would have. But it's not pretty. And this morning I got an earfull from my mom for getting burned. I learned my lesson, it won't happen again.

I went to see Constantine with my friend kara yesterday in Kumamoto City. Since it was opening day, it was probably going to be busy, so they had the seating chart and we were asked where we wanted to sit. There was three rows in the middle, prime seating, that only had 3 seats in each. Interested, I asked the staffer about those seats. We were laughing at this point because we sort of knew what they were, and also the language factor. So anyway the staffer explains that they are indeed date seats.

We thought about grabbing a date seat, but then we were told that they cost extra. Besides, we weren't on a date and Constantine isn't a date movie. So even though we thought long and hard at the novelty of sitting in date seats, we turned them down.

But when we got into the theatre, the seats looked way to inviting to pass up. They were these two-seater "love" seats, with tons of leg room and table space for drinks and food and stuff. After not even 5 minutes in the seats we payed for, we moved down and stole the date seats. We reasoned that no one would stop us because we are gaijins. Ah yes, the all important and oft-used gaijin card. It goes anywhere you want to be, don't leave home without it.

As I sit in my living room watching the ball game between the Giants and Tigers, I thought of a good update.

Well there's this player for the Giants, Kiyohara Kazuhiro. He's their first baseman and cleanup hitter. I think he was injured for the most part of last season. Anyway, he's 37 and he's come back healthy this season. The team he plays for, the Giants, are widely beloved across Japan. And they strike me as a rather conservative team from the top down, starting with the owner and ending with the manager.

Well Kiyohara has huge diamond stud earings in each ear. I must say he looks ridiculous. First, he's a 37 year old Japanese man. And he plays for the Giants, so his image doesn't really fit unless the team has suddenly become way more liberal since last year. Who does he think he is, the Japanese Barry Bonds?

I just saw him hit a homerun, and when he crossed the plate, he pointed skywards with both hands. Please Kiyohara, give me a break. This new image doesn't suit you. It's time for yet another image change.

PS: If I can find a picture of him, I'll post it as well.

Me in front of a big ass Cherry (Sakura) Tree up in Aso. They come from all corners of Japan to see this famous tree, which, believe it or not, was only 30% full bloom at the time of the photo.

One thing I've noticed from living here in Japan for two years is that the Japanese love their coffee black. Just black is fine, as is black with sugar, but very rarely do any Japanese seem to put milk or creamer in their milk. I thought it could just be my co-workers, who are obviously all teachers; you know how it gets with the teachers lifestyle, long hours of marking, endless meetings with the occasional late-hour drinking party mixed in- it's no wonder the Japanese teachers would need strong, black coffee. But my theory might be lost. If you walk into any ordinary konbini, the rows and rows of canned coffee they sell are usually black, and other variants of dark. If you are lucky enough to find a can of coffee with milk (assuming you were able to read the label) then you'd also find an insane amount of sugar inside. It would be appropriate for me to ask the konbini staff if they sold sugar with coffee in it. Since I absolutely need milk in my coffee, I often struggle to get a good cup here. There's usually freshly made coffee at my school, but there's never any milk. Sometimes if there's extra milk cartons left over from school lunch, they will appear in the fridge ready to be consumed in my coffee. But that's asuming I remember to hide it. If I don't hide the milk, it'll get taken and drunken by another teacher. Or I can remember to bring my own milk from home, but that also doesn't happen so often. What a man has to endure to get the perfect tasting cup of coffee...

Probably the finest wildlife picture I have ever taken. At Matsushima, Miyagi-ken, March 5 2005.

Sand bath at Ibusuki, Kagoshima. Really interesting and fun, though I wonder if it's what hell feels like?

In the absence of a traditional blog (not because I have nothing to write, but because I'm feeling lazy tonight), here are the lyrics to one of my current favourite songs, one that I can't seem to get out of my head. Perhaps more lyrics to come in the future, but for now, I give you:

Over the past few months, I've either visited lots of my friends or they've come see me. It's such an event that I really should be updating about these 遊び会 with my friends. Sorry to Russ, and Hiro, Yuuki and Rika, and Takeshi because I never updated after I met them. But another friend, Mish, and Mish's friend came to Kyushu this past week. I shall start my summit updates with them.
They landed in Fukuoka sometime on Thursday morning. I couldn't get them because I had to work, but I put them in touch with Kanako, a native Fukuokan. That was good for them because Kanako could show them the sights and sounds that otherwise they would have had to do by themselves. Thanks Kanako. I guess they hopped on the train, and arrived in Kumamoto that evening. So after work I jetted into the city to pick them up. Mish and her friend had heard how good Kyushu (and in particular, Kumamoto) ramen is, so that was their request for dinner. I took them to Kokutei, one of the famous shops in the city, but unfortunately it was closed. So instead we went to Aji-sen ramen, not famous but still delicious all the same. And with our stomachs full, day one winded down.
On the Friday, I still had to work so I lent the girls my car. Mish had never driven on the Japanese side of the road before, so she was out, but luckily Mish's friend could, so by default she became the driver. I went to work, and the girls went to Aso. That was funny because I barely explained to them how to get there, but they went on their excursion just the same. I fully expected to get phonecalls from them during the day asking me to help them out because they were lost, but power to them, they never called. I gather they had a nice day in Aso; they later said that the weather was perfect. They tried horse meat, so their journey to Kumamoto was complete. It was weird too, they never got home till like 10:45PM. It was on their way home that they finally got lost. I asked them to bring me some milk so I could have Kraft dinner, and they said fine, but like 30 minutes later, I get a call saying they're on their way to Minamata, and if that was correct. Hmmm, they way overshot Toyono, but small detail because they are native to Ishikawa. They came back to my town, only they never found my house. They called again from the police box, so I directed them again to my apartment. But I didn't get my milk till like an hour later. Hahahaha. Bold move on their part to explore a prefecture on their own.
Day 3 had us drive to Kagoshima. The girls wanted a sand bath, so that became the purpose of our visit to Kagoshima. They have this really good sand bath at Ibusuki, so that's where we headed. After loads of driving, we finally arrived. Of course we stopped at Lake Ikeda for some lunch before hand. We were worried that the rain would innterupt out sand bath, but it was covered so that was good. We got in the sand bath and couldn't stop laughing. Mish and her friend were really excited. My nose was itchy, but the staff was kind enough to itch it for me. Only she missed soothing the exact spot, so it made the itching worse. We ended up staying in the sand bath for like 20 minutes; any more and I'm sure I would have collapsed from dizziness. After the sand bath we took a regular onsen to wash all the sand off. Then we went back to the beach area to take pictures with the staff. Fun fun. I'll post some pics of our experiences a bit later on. After the sand bath we returned to Kagoshima city and just drove and hung around. Fun, but yet another long day.
On Sunday, a friend of Mish's and Karen's, Kathy, who incidentally also lives in Kumamoto, came out with us and Kanako on the Nagasaki day trip. Again, lots of driving, but I can't help thinking that Mish and her friend had loads of fun and saw lots of Kyushu. Since Nagasaki is a bit difficult to drive in, it was a bit stressful, but in the end we figured everything out. We walked around China town for a bit, and had lunch. Then we hit up the Atomic Bomb museum and Peace Park. That was really interesting, I think I read every single English sign in the building. Afterwards, time was almost lost, so all we could afford to do time wise was go up to this peak and look around and take pics. Then it was drive back to Fukuoka, say goodbye to Mish and her friend, eat dins with Kanako and Kathy, say goodbye to Kanako, then drive back to Kumamoto.
What a whirlwind, tiring, yet fun weekend. The weekend went by so fast, it's hard to believe that it's already Monday and I'm back at work. I hope the girls enjoyed Kyushu. Mish is welcome back to Kumamoto any time she wants. It was good seeing her again (always nice to see an ex-CA in Japan).

Not that there was any posts anyway, but everyone should disregard the previous post. Instead, I hope everyone had a very happy April Fool's day.

What an incredible string of luck recently. I played pachinko the other day and won 80,000Yen. I'm losing tons of weight since catching the intestinal virus from last week. And I've been offered a job to teach at the University of Kurume after my tenure on JET is over. Of course that's a long ways away, but still, teaching at a University? Offers like that don't come along that often. I'm gonna have to think long and hard, but at least it's on the table for the taking. It's all about Strings of luck. Yay.