Feeling a bit like a celebrity

Apparently Tom Cruise, aka Tyler Andrews, has strolled into the small town of Bandai and everyone is itching to hear him speak! Haha, I kid you not! This week shall now be known as speech week... On Tuesday, I was herded like a lost sheep to give THREE introductory speeches... I'll briefly talk about them

1 - The first one was at 810 AM to the teachers/principal of Bandai Machi Junior High School (BMJHS)... I was basically asked to sit in on the teacher's meeting and go up to the front when they mentioned "Tydah-sensei"... I go up, talk for about 2 minutes in English when my Kyoto sensei (vice principal) asks one of my English teachers to translate my speech into Japanese.... clearly NO ONE was listening to the words coming out of my mouth because he could hardly stumble through my name! Ahhh well, i get bored at speeches too, so I dont blame him

2 - THE BIG ONE! This one had me brought in front of the 111 students of BMJHS! I figured I would be super keen and do the speech bilingually, in English and Japanese! Hahaha, so I stumbled through my probably incoherent Japanese followed by the EXACT same text in English... After the english text, however, my other Japanese English Teacher (Nozomi) literally stands there and translates it again!!! Like, cmon, was it THAT bad!?

3 - The cool one! For this one I was brought to city hall to meet the "city staff"... Although I had already met them, they insisted I give an introductory speech... no doubt my picture will appear in the community newspaper... hell, it'll probably be the headline! haha... i love this place!

Oh, I actually forgot one! I had to give a brief question and answer period to the board of trustees.... unfortunately, only 2 of the 7 members showed up, so it was slightly awkward.

And dont think my week of speeches is over yet! I am honorable in this town you know... like the big deal... in fact, so big... THAT IM OPENING THE TRACK AND FIELD DAY! Yes! That's correct. I am the celebrity guest speaker at the opening ceremonies. As part of my gracing the event (totally hung over after a night of nomihodai) I am to run in the 200m relay race... anyone that has seen me run will know this is not going to be a pretty sight... i'll probably make the front page as "white man runs funny"

Japan is one hella random place... It grows on you and you start to embrace its RANDOMNESS!

First 2 days at school

So it seems what everyone was saying is true - this is possibly the easiest job in the world (so far). I went to school for the first time yesterday for about 1 hour to get a tour (where we ran into the school choir and they sang me a song) and meet my kocko-sensei (vice principal), and one english teacher, Nozomi (who is pretty coool). They then said that I could go clean my desk, which I did, then go home, which I did.

Day 2 has been equally easy. I went in at 830 (left my house at 825) and helped with the speech contest for about an hour. Basically, I sat there and listened to their speeches, helping them with pronunciation. They are actually pretty good, with one girl even writing her own speech about her dad being a doctor and her wanting to help people when she is older! Well done!

I then had a "meeting" with my english teacher where we talked about what they expect of my self introduction and what not. I think I will make a powerpoint presentation to help pass the time. They then said that I was allowed to leave if I wanted. I told them I wanted to go to Koriyama to get my reentry permit and they said cool! ahha

So the first 2 days have been pretty easy... Not to mention, the first week of classes I HAVE NO CLASSES! They are doing tests or something, so I just get to sit in the teachers lounge and do nothign... I can feel boredom setting in already! But all in all, so far so good! cant wait to meet the other little minions.

Contactable 24/7! The beauty of the keitai

W000t! Today I got my fancy Japanese cell phone (here they call them keitai because, well theyre way more than a cell phone!). It's a pretty sick phone... im not really sure who it's made by but its a slider and has an ENORMOUS HD screen on it! Some phones play TV, this one, sadly, does not... i figured i wouldnt be watching too much japanese tv since i cannot understand a WORD of it!!! ahha

So the convinient thing about these phones is that they are not texting devices, but emailing devices!!! So you can use your hotmail, gmail, mcmaster email, any kind of email you want to contact me and i'll be able to respond right back to your inbox!!!! Super convinient for long rides on the train if you ask me!

anyways, to contact me on this super sweet keitai all you have to do is send an email to:

tylerandrews@docomo.ne.jp

its that easy! hope to see some msgs from you soon!

The Beach Bomb

First off - WOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOO! I am finally connected to the internet at home!!! I dont think you realise how dependent you are on it until you are unconnected for so long. The worst part about it was that I couldnt talk to the people I love and wanted to talk to! It was literally driving me insane (see previous post). I was restless, losing sleep, mildly depressed, and just all around not a great person to be around! Luckily, that has all changed now that this little baby is here! W00t! Oh... and internet here is almost double as fast as in Canada! I'm downloading a movie right now at 200+kb/s! w000000t! a gamers paradise i tell you ... wink wink, alex haha

So the Iwaki Beach Bomb was yesterday (Saturday, August 18) and it was pretty fun! I spent most of the day in the pacific ocean which was INCREDIBLE!!! It really chaffed my legs which kinda sucked (fuck you salt water!) but was completely worth it! The day was super overcast so I was like "oh yea, i dont need sunscreen there is no sun!" WRONG!!!! LoL, around 5PM people started looking at me funny and im like, what? haha theyre like you have a SUNBURN!!! and are super super red! yikes! im like i didnt know sun could get you through CLOUDS! damn i was wrong! Oh well! definently worth the sun burn!

The Beach Bomb was a bit of a let down though. I had a GREAT time, but I was expecting 10,000 people to be there.. I think the weather deterred a lot of people from coming out, but I'd say at most there were 1,000 people there... We got a little drunk during the day, but then at night we had pretty much been partied out and decided that instead of camping on the beach, we'd take rides back to Aizu. The train would've taken like 3-4 hours and a drive was 2 or so. Thanks to Paul for driving me home... AGAIN! I really owe this guy since he drives me around all the time! And thanks to Kessler for picking me up! Made for a really hassle free drive!

I'm getting a cell phone tomorrow! woooo people will finally be able to call m with plans!! I think my car should also be ready at some point next week!!! Some people are gonna come over and use my oven (since i apparently have the only one in japan haha) and bake cookies for our classes or teachers or something!

C'yall!

Bored, Frustrated, and Isolated – August 14, 2007

The last couple of days have been really taxing on me. I STILL have no fucking means of communicating with anyone, ie: no phone, no cell phone, no internet, NOTHING, and it’s really starting to get aggravating. I literally wake up, make some food, do nothing, make some food, do nothing for a bit longer, make dinner, watch a movie and go to bed. I have contact with Arthur and his family, but that’s about it. Now don’t get me wrong, Arthur is a great guy, but it would be nice to be able to communicate with SOMEONE other than them. It’s really been a tough time so far and I cant even begin to count the number of times I’ve thought to myself, I’ve had enough of this, it’s time to go back to Canada. Obviously I’m going to tough this out and ride the wave, but being alone is really killing me inside. I’ve never been an introvert and this experience has taught me how much of an extrovert I am. I have no way of making friends here because A) No one in my town speaks English (which I’ll talk about in a bit), and B) Anyone I DO meet, I have no way of keeping in contact with them or suggesting to hang out since I have no fucking way of talking to them! ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHHHH I think I’ve pushed the refresh button on my “Wireless Network Connection” about 10,000 times hoping that SOMETHING would come through to allow me to connect, but nothing ever does… I’m supposed to get internet on the 16^th, which is in 2 days, but now apparently it may take longer. I DON’T KNOW WHAT THEY EXPECT FROM ME! Am I supposed to be content sitting around all day doing nothing? Beats the fuck out of me! I’m getting emails from Amy and stuff saying they’re having so much fun and there is so much to do… I wish I could say the same. My mountain village has nice vistas, and is close to a big city, but there is not a fucking thing to do… oh well. I suppose this is the whole “every situation is different.” I cant help but think about Suzanne, who is up in Hokkaido in a remote village, and how she is doing.

The frustration part of the title comes from what I have been calling The Process. EVERYTHING in this country has a process. Apply here, pay here, wait a month, ect ect ect. Yesterday I tried to get a cell phone with my passport, my visa, and my application form for my gaijin card (foreigner card). They wouldn’t let me apply because I didn’t have the fucking card itself even though I had proof that I had applied for the card and been approved. In Japan the process is STRONG, and if there is ever anything outside the box, they cannot comprehend what to do, or it takes double the amount of time it normally would. What baffles me, however, is that some of the other new JETs have been able to get cell phones. Its really pissing me off how things aren’t uniformed even though Japan seems to pride itself, and run itself around uniformity. SO what this basically means is that I wont be able to get a cell until mid September for some WEIRD reason. Who the fuck knows. Today has not been a good day…

Sunday, August 12, 2007

Today has been another VERY boring day. Not having any way of communicating with people (no phone, cell phone, or internet) really limits the amount of stuff that you can do! A bunch of people were heading down to Lake Inawashiro today and I said I would go thinking there was only one beach on the lake. Little did I know until looking at the map that there are tons of them! Needless to say, I didn’t make it down to the lake. L I did, however, take my little car for a spin and drove on the LEFT HAND SIDE! Although I was committing a crime (no insurance, car isn’t in my name, ect.) it was nice to be able to finally see what driving in Japan would be like – and it’s not that hard, apart from everything in the car being backwards! But ya, that’s my day so far. Arthur mentioned something about going to get food later and then hitting up an onsen, so we’ll see if that happens. BTW – IF ANYONE WANTS TO COME VISIT PLEASE FEEL FREE!!! THERE IS A ROOM ALREADY WAITING FOR YOU! ;)

Candle Lighting Festival – Saturday, August 11, 2007

Saturday night was the big night out for the Aizu kids. We hit up a candle festival that was taking place around an old shogun castle called Tsuraga or something like that. It was a good experience because we got to meet all the JETs from this area and get to know each other a bit better. After the fireworks we headed down to an izikaya (Japanese type pub) for a namehodai, the all you can drink in a certain time period thing. It was a good time.

After the namehodai we decided to go to some random dance club in Wakamatsu and club it up for a bit. Apparently there was cover, but before anyone mentioned it I had already made my way to the bar and got a drink! Lol, saved 1000 yen there! w00t. People stayed there for a bit but I was getting tired so flagged a taxi and said “Bandai” lol… Not speaking Japanese here is a bit limiting. The cab was ok, but he took the LONG way home and ended up costing me 4200 yen… Oh well, it was a good night and well worth it!

A Comment on Japanese Money

Japanese money is kinda funny. First off, their bills are in the thousands, so 1000, 2000, 5000, 10,000 and they have a bunch of coins below 1000. But what makes it a bit strange is that 1000 actually equals about 10.00, 2000 equals 20.00 and so on. What baffles me is why they don’t just make them into 10.00 and make everyone’s lives easier! Well maybe not everyone’s, but AT LEAST MINE! The other funny thing is that they have a 2000YEN note but NEVER use it! A couple days ago I paid for something that was about 1500YEN with a 10,000YEN note and I got back all my change in 1000 YENs! I asked Arthur why I hadn’t gotten any 2000YEN notes back and he said they have trouble counting them! Hahah, what the hell? 2000, 4000, 6000, 8000, 10,000. A bit random but a real observant observation if you ask meJ!

Hot Water Throwing Festival

Friday night me, Arthur and Paul went to the water throwing festival in Aizu Wakamatsu which is basically a trek up the mountain with a huge shrine on your shoulders and 2 girls on the shrine throwing money at people. The catch of this event is, that while we’re throwing money, the other people are throwing HOT WATER!!! Not boiling hot water but onsen water, or basically naturally heated spring water. The route goes through a number of onsen hotels where each one has gathered their guests outside to throw water at us. The trade off is… THEY PROVIDE FREE BEER AND SAKE! Haha, so while we’re marching up this mountain with girls dancing on this shrine (on our shoulders) we get drunk for free! So yea, it was a pretty fun 2.5 hours, but by the end I had to pee so badly I thought my bladder was gonna burst and my toes and fingers had shriveled into the pruniest things I had ever seen! After we got back we headed to our own onsen, which was awesome. The thing about onsens is, that you go in them naked! Haha… By the time we got there I was already dead tired, and after sitting in this HOT bath I was pretty much knocked out for the night! All in all, this made for a pretty good Friday night!

A recap on the first 5 days - August 10, 2007

So it has been 1 week since I left Canada and so far this experience has lived up to all my expectations. To begin, I think it is important to recap the last 7 days of this “work” (I think I’d call it vacation) experience.

The flight to Tokyo was probably one of the worst parts so far. A full 13 hours later we landed in Tokyo, only to be met with another 1.5 hour bus ride from Narita airport to downtown Tokyo. Who builds an airport that far outside a city!? C’mon now! The plane ride was made bearable with a fancy new plane that had its very own seat back entertainment! We had choices like Rome (the tv show), Desperate Housewives, and everyone’s favorite “Le Job” (the French version of the office!). Besides that we had a number of movies and full cds at our disposal. The flight crew was also really good, to the point of giving us 2 free bottles of sake (which me and Emerald downed one afternoon before heading to a conference) and a bunch of gin and whiskey shots. I guess we were the wildest things on the plane… or the flight crew had crushes on us… My guess is the second ;).

Arriving in Tokyo was something I had never imagined could happen. Tokyo is one HUGE sprawling metropolis that goes for as far as the eye can see. Literally, you cannot see anything beyond the city from downtown. It baffles my mind how anyone would want to live in something like that…. The conference was the same old shit that we had already gone over a number of times through the Toronto orientation and farewell reception which was really awesome since we were able to skip the sessions and instead explore Tokyo. Me and Emerald (who is possibly the greatest and most hilarious world traveler I have ever met) jumped on the “JR Line” and headed from Shinjuku (a business district) to Shibuya (a crazy place near Harajuku with the wildest fashions you may ever see!). This was a cool experience since I got to see the famous intersection that is the classic view of Tokyo… people going every which direction they can! It was intense. But ya, Tokyo is definitely one crazy place… So many people, huge buildings and population as far as the eye can see.

Partying in Tokyo is equally as intense as the city itself. The first night we didn’t really know what to do, and were so jet lagged that we went to a restaurant, ate chicken’s ass and then went to bed. The following night was nowhere near as tame as the first, however. It was “prefecture night” (prefecture = province) and we went out with the people who live in the same area as us. We went to something called an izikaya, which is basically a flat fee rate for 1-2-3 hours of unlimited drinking and eating. This is probably the greatest thing about Japan LOL! They literally just keep bringing whatever you want – whiskey, gin, sake, beer… it was nonstop! So we got sloppy here first and then decided to head over to a karaoke bar, which in Japan are, again, unlimited drinking for a certain time. In all I spent about 4500 yen (45$) that night and was downright shit faced. After the karaoke a bunch of the Fukushima people went to a hostess bar which is essentially a place where you pay to have a girl serve you drinks and talk to you for the night. I made the good decision of not going and instead went back to the Keio Plaza Hotel and decided to go online. BAD DECISION! Lol, the internet room is a public space and I ended up passing out on a keyboard! Hhahaha, I still have no idea how I made it up to my room, but all in all it was a good night. As a side note, one of the other guys ended up going to the hostess bar, and on the way home jumped out of the taxi, wandered off, got lost AND PASSED OUT ON THE STREET! Haha he woke up to the sound of people walking over him on their way to work in the morning! We all nursed some pretty major hangovers the next day, so I missed going to Harajuku with a bunch of peeps. Oh well, the night was good! The third night Amy, Christian, Suzanne, Daryl and myself went to a small bar called Tokyo Loose where we ran into the most ridiculous old Japanese guy who was tearing up the dance floor (a la old woman from Studio 54 movie). It was a good place and I had fun, but I really wanted to be on my top game for Weds since we were going to be meeting our supervisors after a 5 hour journey from Tokyo-Fukushima.

On Wednesday we were up bright and early to get onto the bus. It was an awesome bus ride. I sat with a Scot, an Aussie, a Kiwi, 4 Brits, and 2 Americans. It was a good chance to get to know people better and talk about our countries, expectations and significant cultural differences (I.e. MEDICARE!!! Poor poor poor Americans…). It was also a good chance to see Japanese landscape. It was amazing to me that as we drove from Tokyo north; there was virtually no where without development. When they say this country is populated, they are NOT lying! Houses, factories, farms, they’re everywhere! We made a couple stops along the way and I felt bad for this one girl, Casey, who was SERIOUSLY hung over… like hands shaking, green in the face hungover! Lol, it was probably the worst one I have ever seen! The drive ended in Fukushima Prefecture’s largest city, Koriyama. We got off the buses and were herded into a room where our supervisors were sitting. My supe, Mr. Igarwashi noticed me as soon as I entered the room and was waving frantically! Haha, it was a great introduction to Bandai Machi and my board of education.

The ceremony was completely ridiculous. They went through everyone, said their prefecture, and then instructed us to go sit with our new bosses. They then announced it was “chatting time” and we were supposed to talk with our supes. This would’ve been one of the most awkward experiences if you spoke no Japanese, or your supe didn’t speak English! This was my case, but thank god Arthur, my neighbor came along to help translate and tell me a couple more things about BM that I didn’t already know. We then jumped into a van and drove about 45 minutes back to BM. It was a great ride through mountains and past Japan’s third largest lake, Iniwashiro. This area is absolutely phenomenal. The mountains are some of the biggest I have ever seen (being from Ontario, there isn’t a hell of a lot of variety) and I can’t wait to be skiing down them!

Driving into BM was SCAREY. I was thinking the whole time, “uhhhh where is the rest of the town?” Luckily I found the rest and this place actually isn’t that small. It’s about a 10 minute drive from Wakamatsu, which is a city of 250,000. So I’m basically right next to a significant city and all the amenities it offers! BM is awesome. The people are so friendly and the staff at the Board of Education (BOE) is really really nice, even though they probably have no idea what I’m saying! That day I met with the superintendant of the board, and also the MAYOR! That was weird, since he just kinda stared at me like I had two heads… Oh well, at least I got to meet him, and he has been a driving force in bringing people and English to this area.

This morning I was up at 6 AM (AGAIN!!!) so figured I would get my day started early. I unpacked some more, tidied up a bit and made some eggs for breakfast. Then I walked over to the post office to mail some postcards, only to hear it doesn’t open until 9 AM. Looking confused outside, I just stood there looking through my handy dictionary when a woman came running over to make sure I was ok. She was from the kindergarten and then invited me in for “morning tea”. I said sure and went into the kindergarten to be greeted by 3 more woman who prepared tea for me! It was great to sit down with some people and try to communicate through broken English/Japanese, and language convertors! Haha, it was pretty funny but we got our points across. They even ended up giving me their lunches to take home and eat today!!! Japanese hospitality is INCREDIBLE!

My house is phenomenal. I have an entrance way, 2 huge storage rooms, a living room, dining room, kitchen, toilet room, laundry room, shower room and bedroom! It’s HUGE! I’m gonna attach a video of it, so check it out! PS – If you wanna visit, I have a ton of room!! Haha.

I guess that’s enough for now. I’ll keep you posted of the ups and downs of Japan on here, so check back often. Tyler