Summer winding down

School in Japan will start again September 3rd. I took the rest of my summer holiday and managed to get a 6 day weekend. Right now, I'm sitting in a Nagasaki Hotel (Hotel Belleview) currently involved in a JET conference for all first years. Unfortunately, no pictures are available yet, as I forgot to bring the adapter for my Sony stick, but I can still describe what's been happening this last week.

Me with the group conversation class

Joe with the group conversation class.

Wednesday night was my first adult conversation class at the community center. The class itself is led by Joe, but Nathanial and I came to help out. This group was very eager to learn and wanted to talk to us as much as possible. We had 9 people attend the class.Our first activity was filling out a questionnaire describing who they were, what did they like, etc, etc. Most of them were housewives, but there were a couple of people from the BOE and some retired folk. To break the ice, I went first going through the questionnaire, writing my name on the board, drawing a map of the states, and pointing out where I live. Nathanial went after, followed by Joe. After seeing the 3 teachers go, we started going around the table. It was very interesting to hear what they were saying, and surprised with what they knew. After that, we tested to see if they understood the lesson. We went around and had them ask us the questions and in turn, we asked them something. All in all, it was very productive, and most importantly, fun.

Grill master Joe
Celebrating pay day

In all honesty, Thursday and Friday were pretty boring. Yuasa sensei did pick Nathanial and I from our apartments to the BOE for our Alien Registration card. It's sort of the equivalent of a green card in the states. After getting our cards, we drove Nathanial to Arikawa port to see him off to Sasebo. I needed to get my bank card from the post office (they've been trying to deliver it to my house during school hours for about a week) so Yuasa sensei took the time to drive me there. That night (Thursday), Joe, Andrea and myself celebrated our first paycheck and ate out at a Korean Yakitori place. It was a little pricey, but celebrations don't come cheap.

My Lego Keitai

On Friday, I took my new gaijin card and asked Urahama sensei to help me get a keitai (cell phone). He agreed to, and drove me to the nearest DoCoMo store. I couldn't tell you what happened, all I know is that I wanted something cheap, but unlimited text messaging. So now I own a cool cell phone that looks like a lego block. That night, I went over Joe's place to crash because the upcoming weekend was my trip to Nagasaki.

The weekend was another great one. Saturday morning, I go to watch a festival where Joe had to sumo wrestle his elementary/jr high kids. They asked me if I wanted to have a go, but I turned it down. One gaijin monkey to amuse them is enough for a morning. The event lasted about 3 hours and was about noon when we finished. After a good morning of laughing at Joe, we headed to where Yolanda (my new filipino friend) works.

On a previous blog, I mentioned that she works at a ramen shop. The ramen shop is run by an old lady who Joe refers to as "Mama". They served us the specialty ramen sereved only at that shop. It was perfect! They also fed us some tofu over scrambled eggs thing, which was good, but tofu doesn't work well for me. They also fed us some crazy japanese pizza and sweet corn. Not bad for $5.

View of Arikawa as we headed out
Enjoying a coke
Enjoying a beer
Random view from the top deck

After lunch, we packed our things and headed to Arikawa ferry port. Getting to the Goto Islands from Nagasaki using the speed boats cost me $61. However, the slow car ferry from here to Sasebo was only $18. I really enjoyed the ferry, even though it takes 3 hours to cross. There are no seats on this ferry, just 4 sections of carpet area. The idea is that you lay down during your voyage and go to sleep. They had pillows and blankets if you needed it. You also were allowed to go to the top deck to enjoy the view. I spent about an hour on the top deck taking in the sites, and watching the flying fish zoom across the water. I spent the remaining time down below to take a nap.

Joe and Jeff standing in front of the longest commercial strip in the world

Mario Pachinko

We landed in Sasebo where I met one of Joe's acquaintances, Jeff. He's a 2nd year ALT who met Joe through the re-contract orientation. Jeff showed us around town, including one of his favorite ramen places. We were greeted by a cute hostess as she led us to the counter. I was surprised that they had an English menu for us. I learned that Sasebo has a US naval base, so I saw plenty of Americans walking around. Sasebo has a 1km long strip of nothing but shops. It's one of its many tourist spots, and thus was bustling with Americans. I saw everything from shoes to cars for sale on that strip. After a good walk through it, we took a taxi to his apartment and got ready for the next day's activity, Sky Jamboree 07.

Sunday morning began with Jeff making us pancakes and French toast. It’s nice to eat something from home from time to time, instead of rushing out to catch my bus. After a fulfilling breakfast, we headed to the Sasebo station to catch a bus to Nagasaki City. The bus ride itself is about an hour and a half. We arrived in Nagasaki and my eyes opened to a bustling city. The buildings weren’t as high as Tokyo, but busy nonetheless. We worked up a good appetite after the long drive and found an Indian restaurant close to the station. This restaurant had a view of the kitchen where we can observe the chefs making any and everything. I had myself some pilaf, chicken curry, and some other stuff. Even though I asked for mild, I found myself drinking glass after glass of water. Basically once the waitress went back to the kitchen after filling up my glass, I was ready for another. After lunch we finally headed towards the concert.

Mountain in the background is where the concert took place

Sky Jamboree in full swing

People everywhere

We followed signs and crew members to buses who would take us up the mountain where the concert was taking place. We arrived around noon and the concert was in full swing. From what I learned from Jeff, these are very popular Japanese bands, with a couple known internationally. We met up with Jeff’s friend Alex, who’s another ALT. At first, we hung out in the back checking the merchandise and complaining about the heat. As the day wore on, we started headed towards the front near the stage. There was a band called The Big Crusaders who started playing, and all of us started to go wild. We started moshing and dancing with the crowd. I think they were surprised to see Americans at the concert, and were happy to involve us in the craziness. Everyone was so nice and happy! At first I thought I wouldn’t have any fun, but this was one of the most fun things I’ve ever been involved in. I was soaked in sweat by the time we left.

The station after the ride home from the concert

From the 2nd floor of Nagasaki station

Picture with fellow concert people

The bus ride back down the mountain gave us time to point out parts of the concert, as well as talking with the fellow passengers about where we were from. It was around 7:30pm when we got back down the mountain and started to part ways. Alex had to go somewhere so we said our goodbyes at the station. Jeff had to catch a bus home so we left him at the bus station. Joe and I wandered around for a bookstore that had a map of the United States. Unfortunately, the store worker at the particular bookstore told us that all the foreigners bought all of them. When we walked out of the bookstore, Jeff came back telling us he missed his bus by 2 minutes. The next one would be at 9pm. We decided since we had some time that we’d get something to eat. We walked into Nagasaki station and ate a Chinese restaurant. Around 8:45 we started headed back to the bus station to see Jeff off. While we were waiting, a few girls approached us and we talked about the concert. After some conversation we managed to get a picture taken with them.

Naruto Movie

Evangelion Movie

When Jeff took off, Joe and I decided to catch a movie, since there isn’t a cinema on the islands. The movie we watched was Rush Hour 3. It was pretty funny, but I don’t think it was as good as the other two. In the movie theatre I saw American movie posters in Japanese. I guess I should’ve anticipated it, but it just captivated me to see their titles in katakana. A couple movies did catch my interest, the new Naruto and Evangelion movies. Those will never be released in the states. During the previews for Rush Hour, I saw a clip from evangelion. I’ll never understand that series. One thing I thought was funny was that when you bought a ticket, you had to pick a seat at the register. Even though there were maybe 15 people in the theatre, you still had assigned seating.

Elevator to exit the movie theatre

After the movie, we headed back to the hotel to drop off stuff and check out where my orientation would be held. He also showed me nearby places to see when I have time after orientation on Tuesday. About an hour later we headed back to the hotel where he decided to crash on my floor. All in all, it was a great weekend.

Buffet for orientation

Monday rolls around and it’s my first day of Nagasaki orientation. Joe leaves at 9am for a train to Hiroshima where he’ll “meander” around the city. My orientation place is a 5 minute walk from the hotel. It had some good information, but nothing really new. The information given was all in “in this situation” situation. So to me, it wasn’t really useful because it wasn’t my situation. I did come out with a few ideas on how to go about with lessons and what is expected of me. After a long day of workshops, we all headed to a buffet and ate dinner. All of this leads to tonight where I’m sitting in my hotel room after a full night of eating and drinking. Right now, there’s an after party get together. I decided not to go, I’m tired and I wanted to get some rest for the long trip back home tomorrow.

A little preview of what’s to come. Tomorrow I start my day at 9 pm. However, I’m probably going to wake up around 7 to catch the breakfast. The orientation ends at noon, but my boat doesn’t arrive until 5pm. I think I’m going to use the time to get my re-entry permit and probably check out the Nagasaki Museum.