Wow...it feels liks such a long time since I last updated my blog. First off, I'm so excited because I'm hopefully gonna have my internet delivered tonight or tomorrow at the latest. The next fun step is to attempt to set up an internet package that is all in Japanese. (An aside: that's been one of the most interesting parts of living in Japan, trying things on a gamble. More often than not, I feel as though I'm blindly choosing something to eat of picking a direction to walk. It's an interesting mixture of excitement and fear. However, I must say that I'm starting to become more fearless as I start exploring places on my own. Yesterday, I rode the subway by myself. At first, I was a bit nervous, because it's hard not to stand out. Then, I finally stopped thinking about it and gave myself a mental pat-on-the-back for actually knowing where I was going.)
I'm feeling a little more tired today because I had to get up earlier than usual to go across town to deliver a snow board. At first, I was a little confused about who to give it to, but thankfully, I managed to find the hotel where I had to drop it off AND I got into work early. I even managed to squeeze in some time to stop by Starbucks for breakfast.
Okay, now that that's out of the way, let's get onto more interesting topics out of the way, let's get onto more interesting topics...
So this past weekend I went to Ezo ( about 40 minutes North of Sapporo) to attend the Rising Sun Rock Festival. All I can say is that it was simply amazing. I came back exhausted, dirty, and my entire body was killing me, but do I regret it? Not at all. There were about 6 stages around this huge patch of land and each area had a different style of music to enjoy. And in each section, there were many stands offering different types of food from around Japan and other parts of the world. There were also camp sites that we could venture off to for a rest. Of course, I didn't bother going there very often because it was really far from everything else. I was really excited because there were only Japanese bands playing, so it was really cool to experience some of the Japanese music culture. And also I got to see one of my all-time favorites bands, Asian Kung-Fu Generation (otherwise known as, Ajikan), and they were amazing live! Another just little interesting observation is that Japanese fans ''rock out'' differently from westerners. They are a lot more orderly. That may sound odd, but I have trouble explaining it any other way. They go crazy when a band hits the stage, but between songs there is a dead silence. It's kinda funny. Anyway, there were so many different styles of music from mainstream rock to techno to jazz to ainu music. For those interested in trying out new music, I highly recommend the Dub Ainu Band. The band was dressed in traditional Ainu clothing and played beautiful music that everyone really enjoyed. On a slightly sad not, I missed out on the Maruyama Zoo trip because I got back too late. I'll just have to make the trip on my own some day.
(For those who are interested in seeing some pictures, feel free to check out my facebook because my friend Alice took numerous pictures. And for those without facebook, I promise to post them as soon as I get my internet set up and steal the pics from Alice, hehe.)
I have reached a few conclusions concerning myself since I entered this wonderful country. Let me explain in further detail. First off, Japan is the country where I stain everything! I can't count how many shirts and skirts I have already ruined by spilling soup or other foods onto myself. It's pretty incredible when I can go an entire day with spotless clothing. I already stick out as it is, so clothing. I already stick out as it is, so it's nice to have another reason for people to stare. Secondly, I am incapable of not stumbling into something or alarming fellow patrons at a restaurant by clanging into the dishware. Last night, I attended my first language exchange with a Japanese person. We went to a restaurant in this really nice hotel. It was kind of quiet so I already nervous about having some of the people there listen to my horrible Japanese pronunciation. I ordered some food, and then CLANG!!! I hit my plate with my college ring. The sound echoed all throughout the restaurant and people stopped eating to look at me. Way to go, foreigner! Thankfully my language exchange partner, Tsukasa, helped me laugh it off.
Last Friday, I made my first ''covert'' visit to my base junior high school. It's called Hassamu and it looks kind of big from the outside. I waws excited about walking up to it, but in true Celeste-fashion I decided to make a grand entrance. As I was on the sidewalk I didn't pay attention to where I was walking and slipped and fell on some mud. Now keep in mind, I didn't just get a small spot of mud on me. No, no. I got mud on me from the top of my skirt to the very bottom it. Luckily, my friend Sarah was with me and she helped me get up. And of course who would come running around the corner, but my future students. They were jogging back to the school and so I quickly ran to hide behind a house nearby. Sarah and I proceeded to pour water on my skirt and scrape off all the mud. And to make matters more interesting we had to hurry because we still had to visit Sarah's school and then head back into town to attend a big language exchange meeting. So as we rushing to clean myself off, I suddenly noticed a little kid standing there with his bike just in awe of one person pouring bottles of water on another person. After I was somewhat decent looking, we hurried to catch the train to Sarah's school. Yet again, we got lost and then quickly got back onto the train to head to the language exchange meeting. We were making good time and might have even arrived early...if we hadn't gotten lost again! Hehe. At this point we just had to laugh. We jumped in an elevator, rushed upstairs and managed to catch ort breath just in time to jump into conversations with some very friendly Japanese people. After an hour that quickly flew by, we all realized that we didn't wanna stop talking with our new friends and decided to get a drink together. Me and one of the other Japanese attendees, Tsukasa, discovered that we would both be attending the same rock festival and exchanged numbers so that we could meet up there.
About my schools:
As I said previously, my base school is a junior high school called Hassamu. I will go to Hassmu for one week and once September begins, I will start going to a couple of different elementary schools a week. I'm looking forward to it because all we really do is play games while using English with the kids. The only downside is that it's a bit tiring. The nice thing is that I only have to go 4 times a week. And I believe that I get out of work a little earlier. My supervisor, Ito-san, is really great because he understands that it can very hard on the ALTs to go to new schools each week and spend all day running around with the kids. So, to help out, he gives us a 'rest day' where all we have to do is go into the main office with the Board of Education and prepare future lesson materials. I anticipate getting lost a few times while searching for my elementary schools, but at least going from place to place every week will help me become more familiar with Sapporo and make me feel more confident about using the different forms of transportation here. Gotta find the positive spin to things. So far, that's one of the most important things I' ve learned.
Once again, please excuse my horrible grammar, misspellings and awkwards sentences. I don't really have time to edit this blog because I need to go study some Japanese. (^-^)
Ja, matta ne!
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