61 days in this strange strange land!

As of today, the group B Jet's (the one's that arrived on Aug 5) have been in Japan for 61 days. Its strange to think that I have been in a country where I have pretty much no idea what's going on most of the time and have not run into any troubles. Hell, last night I dreamed of going through a red light in KINGSTON! Not Aizu Wakamatsu, not Bandai Machi, but freaking KINGSTON! Sure there are the inherent language differences, IE: i have absolutely no idea what you're saying and you have no idea what I am saying, but I think that people with the right personality are able to get by. You laugh, you smile, you gesture and you TRY to use all the words you know. It works, surprisingly.

On Tuesday night a lost in translation moment happened for the Three Musketeers (me, beth and katie). We went out to our favorite restaurant (i have no idea what its called) where they make katsu. Katsu is the most oiishi thing in Japan... I love it. I could eat it EVERY day (we usually go there once a week).... not to mention the unlimited rice and cabbage you get with it! mmmm mmmm good! So beth decided that she could not finish her meal and wanted it to go... so i pushed the button on the table to call the waitress over and beth says in some weird low-accented voice "tuu go"... the waitress looks at her like she has 3 heads. Then our Japanese master, Katie tries to think of how its said in Japanese and is sitting there "uh, um, uhhh, mmmm" and the waitress STILL has no idea what we're trying to get at. Then I pop in. Tyler, the person who still BARELY knows how to say it's a nice day today says "take out...o". No accent, no change in tone, no change in voice. Simply take out...o. The waitress goes crazy "OHHHHHH HI HI HI HI HI HI!!!" (Hi=yes) so luckily, we got that sorted out, beth got her stuff to go, and we left.

So what have i learned in 61 days in Japan?
- it's true, Jets really don't do a hell of a lot... i have between 4-10 classes a week, which i have to do all of 30 minutes of planning for...from time to time its boring, but i think we do play a useful role in internationalizing the Japanese. coming from Canada, i sometimes find it SO strange to look around and only see one race. anyone not Japanese stands out like a sore thumb, so even if we aren't in the class room as much as we'd like, we are still playing an important role in showing students, teachers and community members that other people exist outside of the television.
- First graders (grade 7) ROCK. Second graders (grade 8) SUCK (i nearly lost it on one class the other day... that would've been funny). Third graders (grade 9) are smart... it is very competitive to get into high school, so third graders are required to get very good marks so they can get into the schools
- driving on the left hand side is a novelty... for the first week. it's so normal now. i think when i get back to Canada its gonna be like WHOAAAA you drive on the right hand side here?!!
- the japanese know how to do ice cream! THE.BEST.ICE.CREAM(softu creamu).I.HAVE.EVER.HAD.PERIOD. and the flavours! you could have a different softu creamu every day and never get bored! personal addictions --> coolish (ice cream in a bag) and papriko (iced cappuccino flavoured stuff in a tube). if you're in japan and haven't tried it, what the hell are you waiting for!?
- environmentalism is a myth. i think people in Canada and elsewhere think japan is this oh so environmentally friendly country. sure they have smaller cars, but they drive EVERYWHERE! they wrap everything in at least TWO bags! they BURN everything (no room for landfills)... and they are the worlds largest importer of wood because they throw out 130,000,000 pairs of chop sticks A DAY! sure they do a lot in regards to recycling, but i think its out of necessity, rather than want.
- Japanese politics is wack.
- smiling helps a lot
- I "am similar to" Tom Cruise
- some things change back home over night
- I do not see Amy Baker enough
- the internet is your best friend. thank GOD for MSN/SKYPE/Facebook/Bittorrents/webcams ;)/online news
- getting things in the mail is the HIGHLIGHT of my day/week/month! so far only two people have sent me things. one of them was my mother so that doesn't really count... thanks to Phil for keeping my mailbox full from time to time...PLEASE mail me if you really love me :(
- alcohol in japan is CHEAP. a 60 of Canadian club... about 18$
- they really do pronounce r's as l's and vice versa
- Japan is not as beautiful as i thought it would be... earthquakes, wars and economic bubbles have paid a price on some of cities, especially in the north (but the landscape is awesome)
- Japan is big! It's not as small as it looks on the map..
- kindergarten is probably the best moment of my week! every Friday i mosey on over to the kindergartens and just throw them around for 3 hours then get the rest of the day off. its amazing how rough you can be with them, and how much they love it!

You probably stopped reading this entry about half way up this page, so I will stop for now. Thanks to Nikki and others who read my blog and consider it boring compared to amys. WELL IM SORRY! my life is just not as interesting as hers! ;) And thanks to those, who read it with interest! Domo arigato gozaimasu. In the end, I think this is a good experience so far.