child devil of tuna: 10/01/2003

Friday, October 31, 2003

A little reminder from the past wrenched me into a world where everything doesn't revolve around me and suddenly, the feelings and thoughts of other people matter a lot more.

I know I've been less than a good sister. I'm sorry for having been so pushy and judgemental. I'm sorry for taking sides when you needed an ally. I'm sorry for ever questioning you, for not believing, for holding you up to standards that were never your own.

I regret not having supported you the way I should have, as your sister. You didn't need a critic. You needed a friend. I regret not truly listening, for giving "advice" that I know now was not good for you then. I regret that I sometimes meddled too much and sometimes not enough.

Being older and possibly wiser--the latter still remains to be seen--I'll say this: Live your life as you see fit. Have no regrets. If you feel yourself regretting something, make the change. Act on it to better yourself and accomplish something. Don't dwell; move on because life is too short to think about what could have been. Don't fall back on laziness or convenience or facility. Do what you really truly want to do and only then can you look back and see that you have nothing to regret.

And hopefully, I'll be able to take my own advice someday...

Thursday, October 30, 2003

Just because I can... A photo taken in Nara prefecture using my CELL PHONE, which I then emailed to my hotmail account. Cool, eh?

From left to right: me, Alice, Fiona. And yes, Fiona is wearing deer antlers.

Wednesday, October 29, 2003

Apparently, all of Southern California is ablaze and 1000's of homes have been evacuated. A friend of mine from back home emailed me saying that he can see the fires at night. And my teachers here keep asking me if my family and my house is OK. Well, my parents should be alright seeing as how they are on the East Coast right now, thousands of miles from the raging fires, but I have no idea how my brother and grandmother are doing right now. Hopefully, my house hasn't burned down or anything. That would kind of suck.

On a happier note, I finally booked my flight for Thailand. Wahoo!!

And on a weird note, I was asked a strange question during class today. One of my students asked me what my three measurements were. I don't know what my Japanese sizes are and even if I did know, that's not something I'd share, especially seeing as how I am enormous by Japanese standards. My students already tell me that my feet are HUGE (for reference, I wear a 7.5 US, which I believe is a 6 or 6.5 UK which last time I checked, was not HUGE) so yeah. Don't go there.

And for those of you who are AIM-inclined, my internet hours will be weird when converted to Pacific Standard time. Especially when daylight savings time ends in a week or so? Right now, the only times that I can be online that would be reasonable for all of you is about 10am - 2pm which in CA time is 6pm - 10pm. Since I have to work and all (yes, JET is not all fun and games!), I can only be online at that time on the weekends. This weekend, I'm heading over to Kyoto so I won't be able to go online. However, next weekend, no plans as of yet, so until then!

Tuesday, October 28, 2003

I got my first real dose of culture in Japan last weekend with my trip to Japan's first official capital city: Nara. It became the capital in the year 710 and remained so for about the next 70 years or so. After the capital was moved to Kyoto, Nara kind of slipped into obscurity and thus survived many wars and invasions and remained pretty much unharmed to this day. It is a really beautiful little city and I thoroughly enjoyed my weekend there. My only regret was that I didn't have enough time to see all of the shrines and temples. There's always next time...

Nara at sunset:

Todaiji Temple. The largest wooden building in the world. Contains one of the largest Buddha statues in the world. I don't remember the exact specs, but it was HUGE. An adult can squeeze through one nostril of this Buddha.

Kofukuji Temple. The second tallest pagoda in Japan. It is only a few centimeters shorter than the tallest pagoda which is in Kyoto. It's still pretty impressive if you ask me.

Next weekend's trip: KYOTO!!

Friday, October 24, 2003

I needed some jeans so I went shopping after work today. Long story short: at the "fat" person store, I was the largest pants size. Woowee...

Thursday, October 23, 2003

I am finishing off my first week at my third jr. high school: Seitoku. I was warned by the teachers of Ryosei and Yowa that students from Seitoku are delinquents and they don't like to study. But after four days, I can say that so far, I like Seitoku the best. It's true that the students' writing skills are not as good as those of the smarties at Ryosei and yes, the students are a little rowdier than the ones from both Ryosei and Yowa, but they more than make up for that in their friendliness and by being very outgoing. They are not afraid to come speak to me or to try and make conversation. Thus, in attempting to communicate with each other, I hope that they can learn more conversational English and that I can learn some Japanese. Now, I just hope that I haven't jinxed myself and that tomorrow, I'll have the students from hell. I've already gone through that at Yowa (there was one EVIL EVIL class that just put me in a really bad mood every day that I had to teach them), and I don't need that again!

So 3 jr. high schools + 3 elementary schools (so far. The grand total will be 7 elementary schools) = 51 self introductions and still counting. And I am so tired of talking about the U.S. and how it's different from Japan. And I've noticed that students don't really care. I've found that there are certain aspects of American culture that really get their noodle cooking. In short, the Japanese, they love their baseball. My geography lesson, which started out as a brief overview of important cities with historical landmarks and defining characteristics that I thought my students would find interesting, has devolved into a list of cities with famous baseball teams (ie these teams have or have had Japanese players).

BEFORE:
Los Angeles - where I was born and where I live now. Disneyland.
San Francisco - where I went to school. Golden Gate Bridge. One of my favorite cities (with lots of photos).
New York City - biggest city in the U.S. 9-11. Statue of Liberty.
Washington D.C. - the nation's capital. Our chimpanzee president lives there.
Florida - my predecessor JET lives in Florida. Disneyworld.

NOW:
Los Angeles - LA Dodgers. Hideo Nomo used to be the pitcher. Disneyland!! (oh, and by the way, I was born there)
San Francisco - SF Giants. Tokyo's baseball team, the Giants, were named after the SF Giants.
Seattle - Suzuki Ichiro plays baseball for the Seattle Mariners.
New York City - NY Yankees. Hideki Matsui plays for the New York Yankees. (9-11 what?)
Washington D.C. - "Do they have a baseball team?"
Florida - Disneyworld!!!! "Wow! It's BIGGER than Tokyo Disneyland??!?"

Tuesday, October 21, 2003

And here is what you've all been waiting for:

GRACE'S WHACKED OUT CRAZY ADVENTURES IN JAPAN CAUGHT ON FILM!!

Forgive me if Snapfish doesn't allow me enough bandwidth and the pictures aren't loadind properly. Check back again, I promise that they're not going anywhere any time soon.

Here is Tokyo's Shinjuku region:

Kumano of southern Mie holds Japan's largest fireworks festival. Here is the best picture I took that night:

Here is me in Ueno, home of the ninja, with none other than NHK's DOMO-KUN!

Still in Ueno. This is one of Japan's many festivals. They hold festivals for EVERYTHING. This one was to honor a local poet.

The Obon-Odori dance:

Ueno Castle, the largest castle in Mie:

Osaka with Fiona and Ruth:

This is Nabari in Mie. Most of Mie looks more like this. Mmmmmm, rice paddies...

And these are photos taken at one my school's Sports Day. Every school in Japan does a school festival which includes a Culture Day and a Sports Day. In the first picture, the students are participating in a jump rope contest where the entire class jumps together. The second picture is of the victorious 3rd year class, who jumped 80-something times without messing up. The third picture is of some of my female 2nd year students.

Wednesday, October 15, 2003

They're finally up! The photos from the MCB Honors Poster Session 2003!! You can see the overachievers of my graduating class in all of our research nerdiness!! My photo is the 7th one (although the file name labels it as photo #8). God, I had totally forgotten about my stupid thesis. E. coli supercoiling sensitive genes anyone? Bleh, that's going to leave a bad taste in your mouth...

And I am so way hooked on Sex and the City. If anyone would like to send me the first two seasons on DVD, please, feel free to do so. And if you happen to have an S-video cable so that I can hook my computer up to my TV, that is also acceptable. Otherwise, I can't play those region-1 DVDs on my region-2 DVD player. What genius came up with different regions, anyway? He should be dragged out into the street and shot.

Monday, October 13, 2003

Good News: I HAVE SIGNED UP FOR DSL!!! So for all of you cool peeps back in the good ol' States who have missed heliozoanchan's presence on the ubiquitous AIM servers, suffer no longer! I should (barring incompetent mail delivery services or bureaucratic tie-ups on YahooBB's part) receive my modem in the mail sometime this weekend. Hopefully, the time difference won't be too much of an inconvenience, but from what I remember, most of you don't sleep 'normal' hours anyway, so it's all good. Fo' sheezy.

And aside from the communication factor, I get to re-visit all of my bad internet habits again. I have missed every single Strongbad email since I arrived in Japan, most of your blogs and xangas, and I haven't downloaded a single illegally ripped movie or mp3. You'd think I slipped back into the dark ages where the internet was used solely for emails and porn.

And yes, I heard that our new governor is none other than the Terminator. I guess it can't always be good news all around.

And speaking of California, I was weeding through my old emails and I found this. Sent to me over four years ago. To all of my UC and Cali buddies. I miss you!!

How many UC San Diego students does it take to change a lightbulb? Two: one to mix the margaritas and one to call the electrician
How many UC Santa Cruz students does it take to change a lightbulb?
Eleven: one to change the lightbulb, and ten to share the experience
How many UC Davis students does it take to change a lightbulb?
None: UC Davis doesn't have electricity.
How many UC San Francisco students does it take to change a lightbulb?
Two: one to change the lightbulb and one to crack under the pressure
How many UC Santa Barbara students does it take to change a lightbulb?
Only one, but he gets six credits for it
How many UC Berkeley students does it take to change a lightbulb?
Seventy-six: one to change the lightbulb, fifty to protest the lightbulb's
right not to change, and twenty-five to hold a counter-protest
How many UC Irvine students does it take to change a lightbulb?
None: Irvine looks better in the dark (ditto Riverside)
How many UCLA students does it take to change a lightbulb?
One: he just holds the bulb and lets the world revolve around him

Thursday, October 09, 2003

I nearly died on my way to work today. I was riding my bike to school and this car comes pealing out of a blind alley at like 50 mph on a red light. The car screeched to a halt like 8 feet over the limit line and about 6 inches from my bike's front tire. I would have surely been hit had I not put on my own brakes as hard as I could. I think I strained the muscle in my left forearm because it hurts a little now. That and my handlebars are now loose so I'm going to have to get my bike to a bike repair place because I don't have the right screwdriver or wrench to tighten the weird Japanese bolt.

But on a more positive note, this weekend promises to be very cool. After spending two weekends in the Kuwana and Yokkaichi area, I'm ready for some fun!! Tonight, Ruth and I are heading into Nagoya to see a punk/ska show with one of Ruth's coworkers. He's a really cool guy named Richard from New Zealand who's NOT a JET, but a privately hired English teacher. He essentially has the same job as the rest of us JETs, but it's still strange to find an assistant language teacher who's not actually a JET. But I digress...

This weekend is also the Formula 1 Grand Prix, which is kind of like the Indianapolis 500, I think. It will be held at the Suzuka Circuit for those of you who are interested. It should just be stupid fun (or it might be just plain stupid for me, since I don't know anything about cars) watching small rally cars driving in circles around a track at dangerously fast speeds. But in any case, it will be something I have never seen before and that's part of the fun. And the weather promises to be good. So hopefully, we won't all freeze as we sit and watch race car drivers risk their lives for fame a glory. A small price to pay, if you ask me!

And for those of you who were eagerly awaiting my onsen adventures, here is my account. Needless to say, it was very awkward and strange at first. We (Me, Ruth, and Fiona, a JET from Scotland) had to strip down in the locker room because--duh--shoes and clothes are not allowed in the bath area. So we were standing there, making valient efforts to cover ouselves with these miniature towel-washcloth things while all of the other Japanese women were walking around as if nothing were different. I guess it's nothing really out of the ordinary for them, but for us, we were all standing there without a stitch on, so yeah. It was DIFFERENT to say the least. But we got over it, scurried over the the bath area, and spent as much time as we could hiding in the bubbly water. And in addition to the bath, there were showers, different pools of water heated to different temperatures, and a sauna. All in all, the awkwardness faded, we acted all nonchalantly Japanese, and we had a good time. We plan on going back, especially when the weather gets cold. I hear here are also co-ed onsens. I don't know if I could ever participate in that, though....

Wednesday, October 01, 2003

Bad News: My new school has very very limited internet access, so updates will be few and far between.

Good News: When I do get around to a real update, I have oodles of pictures to show you! And a fun story about my first onsen experience (public bath house). Who would have thought getting nekkid with a bunch of total strangers could be so fun! Oh the anticipation...

child devil of tuna