One Month Anniversary<3

Music: IOA- OOiOO 

Happy Anniversary!!!  It’s mine and Japans one month… isn’t that romantic?  In case you were wondering, the love is still alive, and our relationship grows fonder everyday. 

To celebrate, Lacey took me to the Beach.  Toyama just happens to be on the coast and surrounded by water.. which makes this fish, a happy swimmer .  First of all, it’s still crazy to me that it is almost October, and I can still swim.  It is so damn hot here.  Everyday i wake up, expecting that cool autumn chill… instead find myself in a pool of sweat and the sun beating down on me…. (at seven in the morning.. that’s right, i’m now waking up at seven, rather than five.. an improvement I think).  As I was saying, its effing hot here and it doesn’t seem like that is gonna change any time soon. 

So the beach was amazing.  It is known as the Jade beach because it is covered in jade, and many other, stones.  While rocky, the rocks are incredibly smooth because of the constant impact of water.  It was actually really beautiful and i took some stones home   There was a man selling the jade he had found, but i passed.  Ouuu… that would have been a nice “one month” gift for myself now that i think back….

Lacey, Natalie and I didn’t waste any time and jumped right into the water… which was …WARM!!!  I was extremely surprised, considering.. duh, it’s the end of September and the ocean.  The waves were huge though and my body hurt the next day from the one hit i took from a wave that flipped me backwards on my head .  The stone beach did not help the impact. 

Those who went to florida with me, will be proud to know, that even with warnings of deadly jelly fish, i fought my fear and still went in the water.  God im an effing trooper.  (BTW, an apology goes out to my mother, who commented to me that I swear too much in my blog, and that i ought to stop.  Sorry mom… i’ll try harder).  Anyways the swim was awesome.  the only reason we left was the callings of a cute lil fisherman who wanted us to come to his friends restaurant with him.  This dude was Laceys friend, and such a sweetheart. 

So we get to this (what in Canada we’d call) a dive of a restaurant.  Obviously, the best food is always at these places.  Fish head soup anyone?  Yeah, thats right, a fish head… in my soup… guess it made it taste as good as it did !!:D.  For real the best fish ever (Lacey says i say that about everything i eat… her cooking, Koji’s cooking, sushi restaurants, taste tests in the stations….)  But this food was seriously amazing.  The fish meeeelted in your mouth it was so fresh. 

Anyways, not too long later do four other fishermen show up.  With a smack on the back (literally… the shirt was backless, but i dont think that warranted a smack on my lower back) and a “sexy sexy!” these fishermen dropped like four drinks in front of me.  “Drink! Drink!”  Pffft, ook.  It was like four in the afternoon, and i already had a buzz on.  The guys had just gotten back from fighting a fire.  No they weren’t firefighters… just Heros!  Sigh.  So adorable. 

So the one thing i have learnt if you don’t want to get too drunk (which is really useless for me anyway ) is sip sloooooowllyyy … the minute your drink is half empty, there someone is refilling your drink.  Needless to say, I got wasted.  (sorry mom).

Alright.  That was my beach adventure.  It was awesome.

Now it’s time for “Weird Things About Japan” Minute… with your host… um.  me.

I needed some exfoliant, so i go to my local drugmart to the face cleaner aisle. I was shocked (and slightly sickened) to find that they have face cleaner with some kind of BLEACH in it to whiten your skin!  Can you believe that!?!?  I mean i know in North America, we do our own crazy things to increase our “beauty”, but shit, whitening your face?!  It kind of saddened me. But then again, so do our models in adds back home.

Another shocker, one of my fave students got moved to my friday nights, cause she needs to take another course on wednesdays.  She is taking this extra course to prepare for university.  She is in grade five.  (sorry mom) what the fuck?!  GRADE FIVE?!?!  This is the pressure they put on these kids.  It is unreal.  Now i see why they let the seven and unders run wild like crazy savages…they know that once they get to about grade two, fun is OVER.  This also saddens me.  I couldn’t believe when Nagi said she was preparing for university to be a doctor.  A) i felt like the biggest slacker in the world, and b) i thought back to my high school days, when i started worrying about getting into uni.. well in OAC.  Furthermore, everysingle time i ask my junior high kids how they are, i always ALWAYS get the answer “tired”. 

Me: Why are you tired? 

Student: Because i studied hard all day. 

Me: What are you doing after Amity?

Student: I will go home and study.

Me: What did you do on the weekend? 

Student: I studied for a test. 

: What is your faveorite subject? 

Student: Math. 

 uuuuuggghh.  Except for my darling Ayumi.  She is in a group lesson with two others and only she was in my class today.  The others… were studying for tests… that were more than a week away !  (umm, no all nighters spent cramming i guess?)  these kids are in grade seven.  I asked Ayumi if she would be in my class next week even though she has a huge test, and she said yes, so then i told her not to study too hard, and she said, don’t worry i wont.  i dont like studying, id rather play.  I like this girl.  But i bet she’s just some freak genius.

Another funny thing, is the japanese version of “um” or “uh” it is, “eto”.  Do you know how confused i was when i first started hearing the word “etoetoeto.”?  I was like… what english word are you guys trying to say?  Untill Lacey informed me that means um.  Moreover, the japanese have all kinds of different sounds.  People make fun of Canadians ‘eh’, but the sounds that come out of japanese are crazy.  And constant.  Especially the one sound that goes something like “mmm”, that sounds like how we’d say “ohhh”… like, “ohh yah i see what you are talking about”.  its just this mmm grunt… doesn’t sound like much… but every foreigner here finds the new sentence fillers difficult to get used to.  I have one kid that i actually want to hit ( i didn’t say that) he makes so many noises with his mouth…. reminds me a bit of yoda (jess you’ll know what i mean… think.. the aud… and hmmmmm?)

Lastly, this country is a country of contradictions.  You’ll go to one bathroom and find the most hightech piece of machinery, with a fake water sound to cover up ones own sounds of… defacating… heated seats, a bedai (not sure how to spell that… but a ‘but cleaner’), the works… and then you go to another bathroom, to find a hole in the floor that you have to squat over. 

They are also the cleanest people ever, with their street sweeping and cleaning every public place constantly, yet, they don’t provide soaps or dryers in the bathrooms.

They are extremely advanced in technology, yet, their draining system sucks (ie. nothing NOTHING can go down the drains).  Which = gross drain cleaning by me … yuuuck.

They look extremely good all the time with their high fashion, yet dont give a shit about their posture or teeth.  ie, the crap beds and the fact that their teeth are extremely terrible by the age of like… four.

They are known to be this healthy fit society, but im telling you, its all in the genes.  All this bleached white rice, and high sodium diet and huge smoking culture  = uuuunnnhealthy.  But they do bike everywhere…

Last, all their advertisements for clothing and malls and phones, and really anything are always white models.  Yet, their pants usually don’t go over a size 26 (although i did find one pair!!!  500 yen too!!!…which is five dollars), and the phone i got that was indorsed by Cameron Diaz does not offer any instructions in english, or an english main menu to change your outgoing message.  You can change the display to english though.. but thats about it. High tech my ass. White models my ass.  What clothes are they wearing in those ads?!

Well, those are my exciting tales for the week.  I hope you enjoyed!  And laugh a bit!(Some of you kind of put the pressure on me to write good posts cause apparently i have replaced the high quality literature of Perez Hilton, People magazine, and probably some of the journal articles you should be reading… tsk tsk.)

oh yah, a shout to Ma!  Thanks for the package… pantyhose and toothpaste and dental floss, woot woot!

I Miss: (warning, cheese ahead)

Music : Soil, Soil and Back in Your Head and Call it off -Tegan and Sara

I miss Scott: Scotty, i miss our talks. I miss your random info on music, bugs and other species. I miss your “too cool for anything”(in a good way) ‘tude. I miss seeing and hanging out with you. I miss walks to school and the death (slash love) grip. I miss your face and being in your space and doing homework on your bed. I miss your radio show and your worries and your stress and your overexageratted stories. I miss your big steps and your long phone messages and your cooky shirts. I miss being best friends.

I miss Ashleigh: Ash, I miss driving in Lulu with you. I miss random road trips to Florida, Toronto, and the beach. I miss talking in your bed. I miss seeing you everyday and living with you. I miss libraries and crushes and cookies. I miss pictures and the albion and tequila. I miss thursday nights and dancing and hammocks. I miss books and macondo and salsateria. I miss teasing boys and hugging and love and squealing and our little fights that are done in a day. I miss reading and listening to music and being inseperable and you. I love you.

I miss Jess: J-Dawg, I miss pizza and Bon Jovi and my best friend. I miss not having you always around. I miss your advice and your need for my advice. I miss joints and the aud and the attic and the camper and the graveyard. I miss the kitchen table and the Still and Kiwi juice and cheese bagels. I miss how we are completly different and the same all at once. I miss our past mistakes and how we warn each other of them and don’t listen to each other of them and then demand for advice on them. I miss how we don’t hug and our hugging day that we never hug on. I miss drinking in grade ten and puking in grade ten. I miss tim hortons and christmas parties and owners sons. I miss talking about boys that we love/hate/wish we never met/wish we had met. I miss sleeping at your house whenever i need/want too.

I miss Lyndsay: Nicholson, I miss your laugh and your jokes and how you can make me laugh more than anyone in the world, and make me cry more than anyone in the world (and how you cry more than anyone in the world). I miss walking and talking and sleepovers and pretzels and gin and soda and drinking on King St. and Vancouver (and crazyness in Vancouver, and “Pheebs” and Lynn Peak). I miss nintendo and tequila and sillyness. I miss (slash don’t miss) the worst thing that ever happened to us (starts with boys). I miss your crazyness and your surprises around every corner. I miss secrets that happened on King St. I miss being “The Lyndzies”. I miss how you’ll do anything with me and how you never break your promises.

I miss Erik: Buddy, I miss you in my bed in the morning and spooning. I miss talking to you in Alice st. I miss jogging and watching goofy movies. I miss talking to you about boys and girls and all that doesn’t matter. I miss quoting silly lines and “you smell like liquor”. I miss everything about you.

I miss Lili: Lil, I miss living on the other side of the wall and listening to your advice and wisdom and worries. I miss your knowledge on good movies, music and shopping with you in Toronto and eating sushi after shopping has made us hungry. I miss bambino and singing and dancing and monkeys and cartoons and spooning.

I miss Clinton: Clint, I miss ranting and raving with you, I miss cruising in your car. I miss trips to the grocery store for cereal, pizza buns and boathouse juices. I miss smokes outside the library and math lessons on the hallway wall. I miss “roomates hug” and broccoli and other dirty jokes.

I miss Dariusz: D, I miss the random hang outs and the random talks and how you help me and talk to me about anything.

I miss Bruce: Brucie-B, I miss cartoons and breakfast and coffee and making you espresso and steamed milk and walking to school and drinking coffee in coffee shops and your crazyness in the mornings and your band practice on thursdays and chilling on the front porch and trips to the hospital.

I miss Greere: Greerie, I miss the LIB, muffins and tea. I miss finding funny pics for our msn pictures and your nicknames for everyone. I miss crushes and squealing and talking about certain John Cussack look a likes. I miss sleeping in the yellow room and sleepovers at the comp sci grad lounge. I miss curry on tuesdays and the gym and philosophy class and squealing over philosophy profs and your positive spirit.

I miss my Family: I miss my mom who is aaaaaalwaaaay there for me. I miss my brothers and their never ending jokes about me being a vegetarian. I miss my sister Wendy and her telling my brothers to shut up. I miss my beautiful niece Casey and her intelligence, I miss my beautiful niece Lexie and her super duper crazyness, and I miss seeing my adorable niece Remy grow up to be as awesome as her big sisters. I miss my dad … who is the craziest faja/mac daddy ever.

I miss Paula: P, I miss you number one guelph buddy and how we went through sooo much together and how we are always there for one another.

I miss a boy and what never happened and all that did. I miss coffee drinking and sneaky tequila shots and lounging on the front porch. I miss terrible (slash wonderful) times in Toronto  and searching for apartments. I miss talking and learning new things about him and whining and giggling and  his smile.

A special shout out to every one who i love and loves me in Guelph and Kitchener and Vancouver. If you are reading this, it means you. I loved partying/growing/learning/laughing with you.

Alright. It hit me. I’m gone from home for a year. This isn’t meant to be too depressing… but just to let you all know how much i miss you all and that even though i am having fun, i still think about you every day . I am reeeeeeally looking forward to seeing those that i am gonna see soon. And i am reeeeeeally happy that i have such awesome friends and memories with those friends to write about in a lame blog post. I also need to stop listening to Tegan and Sara. Who is this emotional girl? Is this what happens when you get old? I’ll be back to normal in a day or two… and probably regret being all girly in a blog. I’m already regretting it. I can already imagine some of your reactions “Lindzy’s not a robot?!?!”

Stay tuned for the next post… which promises stories of beaches, fishermen and running to trains.

3003m Above the Earth

Best weekend, thus far. I think…it’s hard to compare weekends when they are all so different yet all so awesome. This one in particular holds a special place in my heart though, I went up to the mountains. As you all know, I love the mountains. They are a completly different planet to me (as is Japan, but lets not get into that…).

Lacey, Nathalie (this girl i met who is from australia and working for a different company) and I, set out sunday morning bright and early (a little too early, considering we’d gone to a dance party the night before… let me just say that dance parties are not the same as back home). We got on the train and headed north towards Mount Tateyama. This mountain is one of three mountains in Japan that is sacred, mostly because of the temple and monk chillin on the top of the 3003 m peak. Apparently you can get a cup of sake and chill with the dude. Sweet!

So after our train ride, (which i didn’t get sick for!!! then again, it wasn’t going 300 km/hr), we took a gondala up some of the gorgeous mountain. Already the views are breathtaking. The mountains here are sooooo GREEN! While the rockies are breathtaking, the mountains here are so luscious, furthermore, the air was damn crisp and refreshing and it smelt sooo good. It reminded me a bit of Canada with the pine sent. After the gondala ride, we hop on a bus that takes us up to the paths to hike the alpine route. This was not my faveorite ride as it wound the whoooole way… all fifty minutes of left then right then left then right, plus the incline caused lots of ear popping.

The first sight was the natural cold spring with deeeliiiiicious water! Sooo good and tasty and reminded me even more of northern Ontario. We rented a hut right away so that we could get rid of some of our excess that was unnecessary for the hike. And we were off. The hike was nice but quite steep, and I could definitely feel the lower half of my body at work. While the other two took a break to catch their breath, i chose not too, cause as other hikes have taught me… restarting is harder then just trucking through! So we get to the hardest part of the climb, the last 300 m, when these fierce winds start up. When you’re up on a mountain, with absolutely nothing sheltering you, those winds get effing strrooong. Moreover, it starts spitting, and its already cold, so the ice cold pellets shooting at us arn’t joyful to say the least.

Before I go on, I should make a point of a little bit of kharma that struck us. (not that i believe in kharma, but if i did, this is what it would look like). On our way up we kept seeing Japanese women in their heels and their dressy clothes, and couldn’t help laughing at their impracticality.

So back to the top of the mountain, as we head up, we catch the japanese hard core hikers on their way down kind of giggling at us and saying in japanese “Foreigners hiking!” As we climbed higher the rain got harder… and harder… suddenly it occured to me why these japanese hikers were wearing brightly colored rain suits. Our hoodies and soccer shorts were not practical at all. Within minutes we were soaking wet, freezing cold, and trying to climb this rocky path that was pretty much a 80 degree angle… or at least that’s what it felt like.

I know why the mountain is considered sacred… cause those that climb it and survive are effing heroes! Finally we get to the top, and there awaits the shrine… closed… due to weather. (The typhoon coming you stupid foreigners). Luckily there is a nice little shop with soup and warm drinks and other shrine like souvenirs. We warm up and dry off and head back out once the rain stops.

This is where Lindzy’s fear of hights kicks in. When you are at the top, above the tree line, there is no where to look but down…. and what a view it was. Scariest time of my life ever. Some of my pics might show how steep and rocky and frightening it was…

Anyways, once we finishe the hike and get back to the hut, some good news awaits. We get into our warm clothing and head down for supper where a feast awaits us! So much delicious food, and all the miso and tea you can drink. Which was amazing considering i thought i’d never feel warm again.

But even warmer did i get, when we headed down to the onsen (which is a natural spring hot bath), it felt so damn good on our aching muscles. A hot bath has never felt so amazing, especially when you know its naturally produced. It also made our skin soooo soft. We definitely made a few trips to it throughout the night….especially after our well deserved bottle of sake .

Just another post by Lindzy, showing why she looooves her life here in Japan!

One more reason I love Japan: at all their souvenir shops they have all these wicked treats, and most of them you can taste for free … definitely took advantage of the free delicious (sometimes strange) treats!

Alright, I miss and love you all!!! Hope everything is good and happenin on the other side!! Keep your emails a commin cause i loooooove reading them and they make me ooooh soo happy. One day i just happened to get an influx of them and it pretty much brought me to tears! I miss everyone!

A Little Teaching Talk

Music: World Outside-Dizzee Rascal

I have to say, I am actually kind of enjoying being a teacher. There are times when I want to give some of the children drugs to just make them STOP, but that’s only about 1 out of ten kids. There is …. lets call her Sue. She is in “Baby C” but should be in a higher class, and should be in a mommy and me, but her mom, well just doesn’t want to. Do you know how hard it is to get a kid to say a word when they have aaaaaaabsolutely no interest to say it? Its hard. So whatever. I just sing my heart out and hope that some of it sinks in. There is also… lets call him Benny (PS, these are the bears in Tiny Talk books), who can’t focus at all. Maybe for like a minute… and it sucks, cause he can actually speak English quite well and catches on quickly, but as far as I know, he isn’t diagnosed with ADHD, and he totally should be. Now I don’t agree with medicating children at all, but maybe his mom could just give him like a cup of coffee or something before class? ANYTHING would help… especially since he rambles on in Japanese, and makes the other kiddies upset, and I’m certain he is being mean, but what am I to do? Hey! stop saying maybe mean things? OK, let’s take the whooole class to explain what that sentence means… It also sucks cause the other three in that class are the sweetest seven year olds and super eager and i love there excitement and how they yell out English words. Then there is the class i like to call the criers. Cause they cry. Well the one girl is good, but the other two… just cry. This week they were good, so I’m hoping that maybe it was just the last teacher… maybe? Also there is the seven year old Breakfast Club as i like to call them, the misfits. There’s the guy version of Allison (the one that doesnt say a thing above a whisper), the indian version of Claire (rich, all in pink, and flips through her magazine during lessons) and the girl version of John (the badass…. shes not so bad now, but i can totally see her turning into a loud mouth, badass, defiant teen). Its a strraaaaange class to teach.

Then there are the fun classes. Most of those are the private kids. Lots of bilinguals who have funny things to say and just want to talk to you. My favourite is this grade six girl who just loves to talk about everything and anything … except that she told me there would be an earthquake in Toyama soon…. which scared the shit out of me. And then there is this little boy who when i ask, “How are you?” he always comes up with some awesome response, like FANTASTIC! And the too cool for school junior high dude, who is really good at English and gets phone calls on his cell phone in the middle of class. Also these two young boys, who are super hyper, but reeeeeeeally eager to learn, and i love teaching them cause i love seeing them understand something… right now we are working on having them not repeat absolutely everything i say, (like : “say do a magic trick ” and they respond “say do a magic trick” “nonono, do a magic trick” ” nonono, do a magic trick”… ) i finally stopped everything and we worked on that.

And then there are these three grade fours who think everything i do is “sagoiii” (awesome) makes me feel all cool and shit. my parent classes also rock, cause the parents loooove me and love talking to me and bringing me stuff. Next are the the golden girls… OMG. They are these three little ladies (about 3 years old) but suuuuuuuper tiny and suuuuper cute and more stylish then you and I will ever be. They come into class and catch up like they havn’t seen each other in forever, showing each other there new clothing and how their hair is done. It’s honestly hard to teach them cause i just wanna hug them and laugh at there CUTENESS!!!! (plus one of them, her dad brought me baked goods on the first day.. and hes a hot doctor….). Then there are the rich kids… i have one private boy, who comes to class every day driiiiiippiiing in Burberry… not even kidding. Plaid pants and all. He’s eight. Lacey teaches his sister … she has burberry hair clips… i bet their underwear is burberry. Then i have a just as stylish baby class. Again cute as puppies and sportin guess, dolce and gabanna and all the latest trends…. THEY’RE TWO!!! I guess thats what i get for working at a private english school in japan. i practically accosted a girl today cause of her t-shirt… i think she was kind of scared to tell me where she got it.

Even some of the shy kids are just so sweet. I know they have it in them to speak up… especially when i catch them laughing at my goofyness. I’m excited to see them grow. Anyways, you really gain an appreciation for immigrants in our country. The english language is a difficult one for sure, especially when your native language is japanese, which is the complete opposite of english. Even the way you say things… ive been practicing japanese, and its hard to get used to changing…. here, every syllable has equal stress, while english you go up and down. So even when words are the same, and you say them with a different accent, you have no idea what they are saying… like when i say, i’m from Ca-na-da (different stress on the diff syllables) they have no idea what im saying… but if i switch to ka-na-da, and end every syllable equally, suddenly i’m in business.

anyyyyywaaays. now that you know how hard it is to learn a language, don’t make fun of immigrants lack of english ability! but of course, none of my friends or family would do that

PS. both the native speakers names at my school start with L’s …. a sound that doesn’t exist… poor kids… its like torture. i just see this fear in their eyes when i say, “My name is Lindzy!”

Jehova’s, Russians and Koji’s! Oh my!

Call me up- Chromeo 

(get skype dudes, free and easy, pretty much like msnger. plus arnt you missin’ a lil’ Lindzy love?)

First of all, I just want to say that i am emotionally distraught.  At the moment I have no one else to share this with, cause the two people I am interacting with the most have not yet finished the book.  I’m almost done the LAST Harry Potter… its worse than I thought.  So bad that i have about 60 pages left to read and i don’t want to finish it cause a) i have cried too many times for one book and b) the ending is going to upset me and I won’t be able to change it… kind of like how you feel when watching Romeo and Juliet and you just want Juliet to wake up one second earlier.. but she never does… sigh… anyways….now that you all know i’m a loser… But seriously, the way Rowling brings eeeevveerrrything together in the end blows your mind….I feel bad for those that just watch the movies.

K.k.k.k.k.  Now on too my exciting life in Japan.  A few funny things have happened:

1.  I got my first visit from some of the local Jehova’s Witnesses.  Foolish me for opening the door.  You think its hard to get rid of them?  Try when they don’t speak english.  At  first when I looked through the peephole, I was like: “Oh wow!  My new neighbors are coming to welcome me to the hood!  How sweet.”  swung open the door with open arms, to find them asking me where i was from… good start!  Yeah, that was just so they could flip to the right language and show me some lame passage that i got about two seconds through.  How the hell (pun not intended) am I gonna get myself out of this one??  Well, I just said no thanks, arigato, byyyyyye!

2.  So the asians here bike around holding an umbrella like masters… what happened to Lindzy when she tried to be asian on her bike with her umbrella?  Umbrella in the spokes, and there goes my cute parasol.  It was really pretty….

This weekend was amazing.  First of all, it was more than well deserved.  Teaching is a lot of work… maybe i’ve just been on vacation too long.  I still have a few things to get used to, like playing with children and singing; my throat hurts by the end of the day, and dealing with painfully shy junior high students.

Saturday was full of free awesomeness: I went out with the co-workers for a welcome Lindzy, goodbye Stacey party.  Free dinner and drinks number one.  Afterwards, Lacey took me out to meet some of her friends.  They’re these fishermen/surfers she met one day on the beach.  When i walked into their little “room” they were all like “Kawaii!” which means cute.  So weird for people to think like that.  I was like, dudes, where i’m from, i am nothing special, and you guys are hotties.  Nevertheless free drinks numero deux.  After that, Lacey, the negative Brit Simon and I went to Koji’s.  What is Koji’s you ask?  First of all, he is my new best friend, and it is the best bar i have ever been too.  It sits about eight people, has cheap drinks, and when you order more they get cheaper, Bombay gin is the well shot for gin, free cigarettes, a playstation, good cheap food, a movie channel, Beatles and Aerosmith (and i’m sure other lame american music), no last call, and those that frequent Koji’s bar are cute japanese surfer boys (too bad they can’t speak english…).  And of course how can i forget Koji, probably the coolest dude in japan.   So friendly and amazing.  And guess what?!  On your first visit you drink for free!!!  So that you return… dude, i was gonna return if youd charged me double.

The next day i went to a barbq with Lacey, where i finally met up with Tannis!!!  Yay!!!  (Tan and I went to uni together) .  It was a wicked day for a bbq by the river, with Koji, other japanese guys and gals, more english teachers and some uni students (aka cocky brazilians).  We drank and partied all day and all night long… and of course ended up at karaoke…

Sunday was also an adventure.  Lacey took Tannis and I to this shanty town she calls the russian market.  It was basically a flea market full of cheap random stuff.  Lots of fun goodies to be found.  I swear just going to stores is exciting here, so much to look at!!!  Then she took us to the best nepalese curry i have ever had!!  Thats where i met, mama-san.  I am also in love with mama-san, her curry is amazing, and cheap and her naan is the best food ever.  Plus if you eat there 10 times you get free naan, and the first six stamps are free… oh god, loooooove.  Totally reminded me of the grad lounge.. but a little better tasting.

Last i finished off the amazing weekend with a relaxing evening (you guys are gonna love this) in the neighborhood public bath house.  What an experience.  At first i was a little weary, but once you get into it its pretty cool.  The women are just into their own bodies, and scrubbing and bathing themselves and just giving themselves a little TLC.  Once in a while one woman would scrup down the others back.  It was so sweet.  The water is damn hot though, and going into the cool (aka, ice cold) tub to cool down gives you a head rush.  Its all very relaxing though, and totally something i’m probably gonna do once a week.

This is my first week on my own teaching, which is stressing me out a bit, and giving me terrible sleeps (i keep dreaming i’m at work, so it feels like im there 24/7…i’m trying to sleep as little as possible, hence the huge post). Everything is going well, but i’m uncertain on how to get three year olds who are jabbering in japanese to repeat after me: apple!  banana! cake? anything? fack.  Ok!  Kicking ball time!

miss all of you! looooooooove xoxoxox

Rinzi-Sensai

Music: Paper Planes- M.I.A

Hey hey!  Here I am!  Almost done my first week of shadowing teaching!  Soon, I will be on my own, with about eighty different, bizarre, sweet, can’t speak english children, teens and adults.  oh god.  So, I really didn’t take the time to think about the fact that I was going to be a real teacher.  This shit is for real.  These kids have homework that i have to correct, they have lessons that i have to plan and teach in a fun yet educational way and they are all strong individuals.  All this shit about asian children being well behaved and/or shyand/or compliant is a lie!  You should see some of the three year old girls i teach… some of the strongest personalites i have ever seen!  And the cutest!!!  How am i supposed to teach some of these babies when all i wanna do is gobble them up and smother them with hugs?!

  I can’t complain, cause I actually have a pretty amazing schedule.  Just when i’m getting tired and worn out from acting like a clown on speed in comes some wicked smart kid for a private lesson, or a darling little girl who’s excited to learn, and when i get tired of singing the hello song, its the “table classes”.  Most of my table classes are actually awesome… there is one boy who is A.D.D or something, so i’m figuring out how to control him…. i’ll figure it out once i get in a groove i think.. i hope.  But yah, the kids are pretty advanced and willing to learn.  Then when i get tired of explaining the difference between go and went, here come the too cool for school teens.  There is one class of super shy kids, but the rest are hilarious and just rad kids.  Especially this one private lesson kid.  Her question for me?  Tell me a ghost story.  So we spent twenty minutes talking about ghost stories.  I think shes gonna be my faveorite.  Along with these two boys who are about eight… they are just so much fun and well behaved, but wild too.  And when im dying for some adult conversation, in come my parent classes!  They are sooo cute and i love talking to them!  They are totally interested in telling me everything and anything about japan.  Like where to go and how to get there.  So awesome. 

So yah, my schedule rooocks.  The only shitty thing is the teacher im replacing is amaaaaazing.  She’s older and taught kids before.  She’s cried a few times this week, so i feel like im the evil one.  The kids are super bummed to see her go.  I feel like its the divorced kids syndrome… where you hate the parent that stays cause you think its their fault that the other left… guys! its not me!  It’s Stacey!  Haha.  Kidding kidding.  The kids will get used to it… except one… i see some serious seperation anxiety with her.  The good thing is, she loves her students sooo much that she has prepared me more than adequately enough.  It’s amazing, i’ve got a book explaining all her classes and info on every individual furthermore everything in the class room is super organized and easy to find, making it sooo simple to plan my lessons!  I hope my fellow trainees have it half as good as me. 

My apartment is another story.  What i would give for a massage.  (one of the parents is into aromatherapy…hmmm).  First of all, my bed is a futon mattress on the floor.  I don’t believe that japanese people live like this.  It’s ridiculous.  And its making me have weird sleeps, like crazy dreams and a bit of sleepwalking.   Also, my back is killing me from having to bend over all the friggin time.  When i cook at my stove, my knees get hot… i wish i was joking…. ok im gonna stop cause i can already hear soooomeone making godzilla comments.  But one last comment.  I often eat using my fridge as a table. 

The stove is another scary thing.. its gas… im totally gonna blow something or myself up… i can just see my mom laughing at me with a gas stove… just pray i never forget to turn the gas off. …

The good thing is that my apartment is a two minute walk to work.  So lunches at home, and i dont have to wake up too early.  

I have two more days with Stacey, which i’m bummed about… she’s so damn helpful!  Whenever i forget how to sing that stupid weather song i just give her this look and she jumps in.  Ef karaoke, im singing enough thanks… i catch myself in the middle of, oh i dont know… brushing my hair, and singing about it to the tune of the walking song.  uuugh.    Saturday we have a welcome goodbye party, and then Lacey is gonna take me to a party… sweeeet.  I’m hoping to plan a day trip for the weekend! 

Oh and last, I do get homesick, so no worries i do miss all of you.  Just when i think i’m getting too homesick though, or that i’ve made some mistakes in my decisions, something amazing and awesome happens and i realize that this is one of the best decisions i have ever made

still: miss all of you tonnes!  i love when little things happen to remind me of you guys   i actually saw a asian version of Clinton and Melanie Lawton and well, everyone reminds me of McClure.  And when i saw my first VW i was like, Lulu!!!  you’re all in my heart !!! looooooooooove!!!!!!

xoxoxoxoxox

lindz

In Toyama

Music: The Con-Teagan and Sara 

Here I am!!!  In my new apartment!!  In my new city!!!  (first day of work is tomorow, or else I would have added With a new job!!!)

So, the train ride blew.  Let me tell you why.  First of all, i may have been sliiightly hung over from the insane karaoke night we the trainees at amity had the night before.  Now, I wasn’t that drunk, but their beer seems to hit me differently, and no one seems to understand what a Gin and Soda is!!!  I was never very good at digesting a lot of beer anyway.  Second, the shinkansen goes 300 km/hr.  Can we say motion sickness?  Gravol me.  Third, waking up from drug induced sleep to meet your manager for the first time, not fun, especially when you have to run for your next train.  Next train: three hours, that brings us to number four.  Sorry manager, your new employee has to take drugs to pass out cause her five year old stomach can’t handle trains apparently.   Yet another drug induced sleep, which are always rough.  Once i reached Toyama, Stacey and Lacey were waiting at the train station to come with me to my new apartment.  Still effed up on gravol, so everything was kind of blury.

My new apartment is pretty effing sweet though.  No one would know this though cause my luggage has thrown up everywhere, and we all know me!  I hate cleaning!  And unpacking!!  Sooo bad at it.  Worse than i am at packing.  So yah, one day my life will be organized…one day.

The first night here I was really tired from my lack of good sleep.  Lace showed me around a bit, and we met up with one of her friends Simon, a negative, bummed about life yet funny and sarcastic Brit.  He was having a bad week apparently (he works for Nova), but he kind of started getting me down from all his bummerness.

September third has been my first full day in Toyama, and so far I LOVE IT.  For a city with half a million people it has a small town feel to it.  Boy do i feel like a gaijin or what?  (aka a whitey)  Definitely getting stared at and a few random pics taken of me… lemme know if any naked photoshoped pics show up of me on the internet guys.

Today Lace took me to this festival thats just outside of the city, in a smaller more traditional japanese town.  It was a three day dance festival, which was absolutely amazing.  We spent the day walking around the city, looking at nice little shops, taking tonnes of pics, eating delicious food (actually thats a lie, looking at it…saving my money for the beer )  I did enjoy some grilled squid with Lace though… much better than the squid back home.  Also checked out some traditionals song and dance.  Absolutely beautiful.  They move with such grace and precision but at the same time, its like they arn’t trying at all.  The traditional music in the background was beautiful too, and the dancers moved well with it.  Their dances almost seemed to tell a story as well.  And of course, their traditional dresses are beautiful and amazing.  My camera died after the first performance though, so i was pretty pissed.  The town was gorgeous too, full of rolling hills and meadows and rice fields and old japanese wooden buildings, a shrine and temple, and lanterns that lit up the city at night.  Soo gorgeous.  It did start to rain, but that was a-ok.  It was  a long day, but totally worth it.  Made me love japan even more…if thats even possible! Furthermore, the day took away any of Simons negativity that may have rubbed off on me.

Lace is the other NET (native english teacher) at my school.  Shes awesome so far, and insists on living the life of a uni student forever, no matter what she is doing, so we’ll get along juuuust fine… big sigh of relief, since ive been pretty bummed about not going back to school and getting an actual job.  She took me out all day, so im eternally greatful to her.  We had a blast today.  It was a wonderful wonderful day.  and have i mentioned i love japan?

Dear Lindzy: Welcome! Love, The Real World

Music: Don’t stop believin’-Journey

Yes this post is about the fact that I now have an actual job, and will not be returning to the fun, easygoing, little (if any!) responsibility life of a student.  big fat SIGH.  returning to school is looking more and more likely next year.

Ok ok, it’s not that bad.  Training is just taking a toll on me.

How I imagined training week :  Training during the day-fun, easy, yaddayaddayadda, and finish up!  After Training: get dressed up and go party the night away.

yeah effing right.  Training is long, hard, and intense.  I get up at seven am (not by choice, apparently my jet lag behaves this way), starving (because i had little to eat the day before), eat my miso soup and rice for breaky ( i miss you oatmeal!!!  and alice st family breakfasts!!!), get to training for 9:45 (remember, in Japan, you start 15 min early…uuugh) and get shoved in an airless, airconditioned, bright sterile room with 19 other people (most of whom were likely on student council).  We get one, one hour break (just enough time to make your lunch, get a LARGE, EXPENSIVE coffee and run back so that you are on time to avoid the evil stares), and one fifteen minute break.  As most of you know, my nalgene is usually attached to my hand.  Yeah, here in training room, NO WATER ALLOWED.  How parched and dehydrated am i?   A LOT.  We are in training untill 7 pm.  K, after three, my brain stops working.  Not even kidding.  You miss your normal supper time, and being a veggie, i usually eat small frequent meals since fruits and veggies dont fill one up for very long.  So by five oclock i am STARVING.  But i still have two hours to go.  With no water,gum or anything.

So done at seven right?  WRONG.  Homework time!!!  yay!!!  Alyssa, Kanika and I stay up in my hotel room planning our mock lessons for the next day untill about 10:30.  Then we are up at eight am practicing them again.  and repeat.

So pretty bad eh?  Well, I guess its not so bad, i DO have to be a teacher in a week after all.  All i’m saying is a few more breaks and some water please.  Maybe some complementary coffee (see ya “I quit drinking coffee Lindzy”).

But Training isn’t all that bad.  We are after all learning how to teach kids english… that includes learning songs!!!  So about two-three hours of the day are speant learning nerdy songs (to the tune of Frere Jacques: Walking, walking, waaalking walking, hoping hoping hoping, hoping hoping hoping, skipping skipping skipping skipping skipping, now lets walk, now lets walk… ) and activities (not! games! but, educational activities!).

Alyssa: Imagine if our friends could see us right now, all hot in our business clothes, holding hands and singing nerdy songs? The visual is quite funny

And then there is Kurt.  Sigh.  Our super nerdy trainer (nerds are in though).  At first, meeting him at the airport, we were like, man, he’s awkward!  But next to our intense, no nonsense, no bullshit, no smile, no fun jewelery girl trainer, Kurt is heaven sent.  He’s funny and makes his part of traning fun.  After the first day Alyssa and I had super crushes on him.  (which reminds me of being in the library with Ashleigh and Greer and having one million crushes–note:he’s kind of like the stats prof you have a crush on). Today i volunteered to be in his presentation of a tiny tots class.  Alyssa and Kanika said i was blushing the whole time.  Well i was laughing my ass off, since i was trying to catch words out of the air, and holding his hand as we sang, “make a circle, hand in hand, hand in hand, hand in hand….” and he giving me high fives for correctly saying, “I want candy!”…yeah i want candy.

And that brings us too food.  My food for the day:

Breakfast: miso soup, rice cakes, green tea, three espressos (all free from the hotel!)

Lunch: Salad (no tomatoes, they are too expensive, same goes for cucumber, cheese and peppers), just lettuce, broccoli and carrots and sprouts–all from the discount, about to go bad in a day bin.  Large coffee.  Small yogurt.

Snack: soy plus! bar, which i have grown to love.

Dinner: sashimi, and a $2 apple. (i remember when i could get bags of apples for $2 .

I miss being in grocery stores where i know what the labels say, where fruit and veggies are affordable, and when i walk, my head doesnt hit the signs that are hanging from the ceiling.  I started having crazy cravings today… probably from the lack of any sugar or salt in my diet.  I was totally willing to spend $2 on an apple, just to have something sweet.  *Please send wine gums*.  But, every negative has a positive: my diet is super super healthy (my pants no longer fit and i got an excuse to buy a new nice belt!…except that my pants look MC Hammer-ish…yikes..hopefully there is an affordable tailor in my city), and I feel great because of it!  (most of the time…sometimes im just reeeeeally hungry).

Sorry for the negative venting, i tried to include positives.  Last awesome news!  Tomorow is the last day of training, and we get to teach REAL, ADORABLE LITTLE JAPANESE 4-6 YEAR OLDS!!!  Yay!  (or nerve racking….but i figure they’re like bugs, more afraid of you than you are of them).  Also, Amity (our trainers…eee!) take us out for dinner, on them (totally ordering something with cheese in it…cheeeeeeeese, i miss you!!!), and then us trainees are all going out for some beers and karaoke (see music above, thanks to Dani and Marlow for the idea)!!! woohoo!  Sunday morning its off on the train to Kyoto, and then Toyama!

Wish me luck with the lil monkeys tomorow!