Trip home details!

Please take note.
July 24th Greg arrives in Portland
July 26th Greg goes to Eugene before dinner time (Read: Dad, Greg will cook for you)
July 28th Greg goes back to Portland
July 29th Greg goes to McMinnville
July 30th Samantha arrives in Portland
July 31st We go to Eugene
August 1st or 2nd Greg maybe in McMinnville; Samantha in Eugene
August 4th Greg and Jonathan go to a concert.
August 5th We go to Portland
August 6th Everybody meets in Portland (Mom, Dad, this includes you!) for Dim Sum and playing around town?
August 7th We stay at Robin + Este's
August 10th We pick Jonathan up for camping
August 13th We drop Jonathan off from camping. We stay in Portland.
August 14th Greg goes home
August 15th Samantha free!
August 16th Samantha free!
August 17th Samantha free!
August 18th Samantha goes home


I have 4 days of free, unplanned time. Please reserve them now.
Also, haircut when I get home? Mommy?

T-8 Working Days

8 school days left before summer break. Statistics like that make Mondays a little easier. So do pictures like this:



I lived in Germany when the World Cup was in Japan, and I've lived in Japan while the cup has been going on in Germany. It's just not fair. I've been here working the whole time while my friends back in Europe have been drunk for a month. But as the above photo suggests, it starts all over again in 4 years time (und natürlich wird Deutschland Weltmeister). Who knows, by then I could have my teaching license, and more importantly, real summer vacations again (teachers have almost the same holidays as the students in Oregon, don't know about the rest of the country). Friends have told me that good drinking is to be had in South Africa (the location of the 2010 finals). A country and a continent I haven't been to yet. We'll see.

Yet another field trip!

Today I spent the morning out in the rice paddies with the 2nd grade, hunting for zarigani lurking in the drainage ditches. This is actually something I did last year as well, and it's quite fun. The kids try to find and fish out the miniature lobster-like creatures with their nets, and cry loudly when they succeed. Today, one boy also cried loudly when he fell into the stream, which is where big gaijin Greg-sensei came into play. I had to pull the poor kid out. Luckily, he was one of the rather crazy lads who seemed mostly unfazed by having been completely submerged. It was a soggy walk back to the school for him, though. Anyway, pictures!


The boys having at is with their nets. Shunki, the smallest boy in the school (even smaller than the first graders) is the one standing.


Shuuka (in front) and Yui (reaching into her net). Shuuka didn't have any luck with the creatures today, and went home empty-handed.


Front to back: Taketo, Shunki, and Hisamitsu. Hisamitsu is the poor boy who took a dive, and then couldn't stop giggling about it. 

Dead Red

We were invited along to the birthday celebrations for a Japanese aquaintance last night. Masami-san decided the special evening would be best spent at the nearest Outback Steakhouse. This agreed with me, as steak was one of the things I didn't have a chance to sample when back in the states recently. I actually like the grass-fed beef you can get out here (it's all they feed their cows here in Japan and in Australia - the last country Japan will still import beef from). The vice principal at my school swears by the American corn-fed stuff that's no longer available out here (thanks to a mid-Atlantic distributor who didn't check for loose spinal columns in a shipment back in January), but I really don't think either one tastes better. And the grass-fed stuff is supposedly leaner and higher in Omega-3 fatty acids, so what the hell. I'll eat it.

Spekaing of dead cow, our friend and fellow English teacher Ben was along last night as well, giving us a chance to conspire about our 4th of July barbecue. The 4th isn't a holiday here of course, so we'll be throwing the party on the 1st this year. Close enough. Last year the festivities were at our place, but Ben has offered his more substantial parking area for the grill and fireworks this time around. Should be fun. We'll let you all know, of course.

Only in Japan

Every school in this country has a concrete-lined outdoor pool. I don't know why, they just do. And since they don't cover them in the winter months, they're always foul when it comes time to use them in the summer. Ergo, I just spent all afternoon (Wednesday afternoon!) cleaning the pool with the PTA. It's now a sparkling blue. Can you picture this happening back home?

That time of the year

Greg and I went to Yokohama for our anniversary. I would love to post pictures, but Greg didn't bother with any. We stayed at the Royal Park Hotel in the Landmark tower. It was a nice hotel, and getting upgraded to executive level even though we reserved for a discounted price on Expedia was certainly icing on the cake. We ate duck at a pretty good Chinese buffet, drank coffee from Hawaii, and relaxed in our room and watched Clear and Present Danger.

Sunday we stopped in Makuhari to have cakie-hodai with Eddie and Mami. It turns out that the hotel we like to eat cake at is closing at the end of the month. Bummer.

Field Trip!

A nice side effect of my spending entire days with a given class is that when they get to leave the school, so do I. As a kid, I never realized that field trips are every bit as nice a break for the teachers as they are for the students. Now I really wonder why we didn't go on more.

I went along with the 1st and 2nd grades to Narita Yume Bokujo (best translated as Narita Dream Farm). It was basically a petting zoo on steroids. The 3rd and 4th graders went to a nearby milk processing plant in the morning, but then joined us for lunch and playtime in the afternoon. It was fun.


Front to back: Atsuki, Taketo, Shunki, Asami, and Marina (all 2nd graders) run in some sort of weird relay race with ducks. 


First-grade student Naoki - certainly inspired by our Presidents silver-tongued oratory - pets a goat.  


That poor cow. 


Grades one through four, in their entirety.

Mao's Pork

We enjoyed this dish very much in Shanghai, but I've had trouble finding a recipe.

I have found the actual Chinese name of the dish, 毛氏红烧肉 (mao shi hong shao rou), but since the English translation is lengthy (roughly "braised pork with brown sauce favoured by Mao Zedong"), a recipe I can read has been elusive. Anyone know a Chinese speaker who can help out?

5 Days 'til Boston

I was happily entertaining the notion of my impending flight to the East Coast last week when I realized I'd neglected to procure a re-entry permit from the immigration authorities here in Japan. So after a worried conversation with our local "helper" (the nice bilingual local woman who helps us communicate with our schools) and a sheepish apology to my principal, I got tomorrow morning off. Sam's not jealous though, because I get to spend it standing in line at the Chiba office of the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau. Picture the worst DMV office you've ever been in (I mean it - even for you PA people), multiply it by a factor of ten, then throw in monolingual staff and Filipino, Russian, Brazilian, Chinese, Korean, Indian, and European visa-seekers. I have to visit this place every time I leave the country. It's horrible.

But worth it, for the brief trip to the side of America I haven't seen in over two years. Which reminds me, people I'll see next weekend: add your replies to this post to sign up for sake.

Oh, and lest I forget, happy 母の日　『ははのひ - haha-no-hi』 - also known as Mother's Day.

Wow, my employer is evil.

Finally finishing up that degree thing means I qualify for a different working visa in Japan, and a salaried contract (I'm paid per working day at the moment). Today I got this email:

It has been the decision of the company not to change the status of your contract and to continue on as part-time with Interac.

"Part-time" is something of a euphamism here, as I work 45-50 hours a week, and have over a years worth of time sheets to prove it. I wrote a reply already, but it was somewhat intemperate, so I decided to hold off on sending it for now. I think I need to talk to the union's lawyer. I'm tired of not having sick days.

Flights

I was going to stab my stupid travel agent for failing to put my ticket on hold when she WENT ON VACATION FOR A WEEK, but I got a better travel agent. His name is Este, and apparently he doesn't have anything better to do at work (while making twice what Greg and I do together) than search for cheap tickets.

Unless Orbitz emails me tomorrow with very bad news, here's the official plan:
Sam:
Sunday July 30th 2006
US Airways 6842
Tokyo Narita Depart 6pm
SFO Arrive 11:22am

UAL 6394 (hopefully I can get on an earlier flight when I get to SFO)
SFO Depart 3:40 pm
PDX Arrive 5:20 pm

Friday August 18th 2006
UAL378
PDX Depart 8:09 am
SFO Arrive 9:55am

USAirways 6841
SFO Depart 11:38 am
Tokyo Narita Arrive 2:15 pm

Greg:
Monday July 24th 2006
US Airways 6842
Tokyo Narita Depart 6pm
SFO Arrive 11:22am

US Airways 7062
SFO Depart 1:03 pm
PDX Arrive 2:42 pm

Monday August 14th 2006
UAL 199
PDX Depart 10:17 am
SFO Arrive 12:09 pm

USAirways 6843
SFO Depart 1:43 pm
Tokyo Narita Arrive 4:30 pm

Thanks to Maureen's credit card. I'll send home a wire as soon as... probably tomorrow as I have other errands to run after work anyway.

My flights

Possibly. I promise nothing. Nothing at all.

DL6646 30 JUL 06 TOKYO/NARITA PORTLAND ORE 1525 0835
DL6551 18 AUG 06 PORTLAND ORE TOKYO/NARITA 1435 1700

Ouch.

Sucks to be you guys. At least out here I have a 660cc engine that makes the $4.50/gallon gas go a long way.

Sunday Night Depression

Well, it's Sunday night at 11:50 pm and we're not in bed. I TOLD YOU SO, GREG. We totally should have watched The Chronicals of Narnia, but you were all "Let's try to get to bed early". Well, where are we now? Where are we now.

Anyway, we had a pretty restful weekend, which means I didn't do any of the things I mean to do. Mostly this involved figuring out what I'm going to do for the new weekly 90 minute English lesson Mrs. Suzuki talked me in to giving her daughter. I have got to learn how to say "No" to people. I'm trying to teach her real, useful English like the varitions of calling someone an ass (such as asshole, ass clown, ass hat, etc). But I don't have a text book or really any sort of plan, and I certainly didn't fix any of those problems this weekend.

So from tomorrow we have work. A full 5 day week at the end of which we will spend Saturday drinking and meating (yes, as in the stuff that comes from animals) and singing for a 3-way birthday party extravaganza... or whatever. Then if we can live through Monday and Tuesday of next week without becoming violent towards our coworkers we are rewarded with the much coveted GOLDEN WEEK 5 DAY WEEKEND. Then of course we don't have another holiday off until the end of June.

Now, I know how much you guys all hate to nag Greg, but he has to get his visa changed and he just refuses to email Saki about it. Basically, he can go to Boston without doing it but it's a huge waste of money for us. So everybody please but the crap out of him. He has learned to ignore me.

Dead tired

Although neither of us are as ill as we were in the days immediately surrounding the beginning of the new school year, both Sam and I have continued to suffer mild colds over the last week or so. That, combined with the fact that last weekend was completely taken up by events (read: drinking parties) with the PTA and union activity, left me utterly exhausted. But now it's noon Saturday, I've just woken up, and all is well. Anyway, this is the time of year when the rice paddies are flooded for planting. Somehow, thousands of years ago, the Chinese figured out that rice is a water-resistant crop. So by planting rice seedlings and then flooding the fields, the rice grows and the weeds drown. Pretty neat, really.

 
  

Iran

I usually try to keep my political ranting segregated to places like bars, but the stories I've been reading over the last week from back home have me scared, quite frankly. Living overseas during the buildup to the Iraq war wasn't fun. If the rumors about US plans to attack Iran have any basis in fact, the protests resulting from such action will be even worse. People overseas are much more predisposed to anti-Americanism now than they were in 2002. And if, god forbid, we were stupid enough to use nukes, well, I shouldn't need to point out that the Japanese have particularly strong feelings about the use of nuclear weapons (so much so that there are ongoing protests about plans to replace the Kitty Hawk with a Nimitz-class nuclear carrier at Yokosuka). It wouldn't be pretty here.

The Union of Concerned Scientists has more about the limited effectiveness of bunker-busters (Flash animation).

And if people can't understand why Iran could possibly be so deadset on aquiring the bomb, maybe this graphic will help. US flags denote countries where we have military basing and/or flyover rights.



There. I apologize for my ranting. We now return you to your regularly scheduled Japan-blogging.

Springtime! (for Hitler)

Springtime in Japanese elementary schools brings two things, reliably: sakura (cherry blossoms) and six year-olds. April 1st brings the beginning of the new fiscal year (and school year) here in J-land, which came this year without fail, as usual. The cherry blossoms, however (at least compared to our experience last year), have all been blown down by high winds, nearly as fast as they've been able to blossom. This time last year, we were treated to trees fully consumed by the pink and white blossoms, this year the trees are nearly bare, with the blossoms decorating our sports fields. Here's the evidence.


Like I said, the blossoms are all on the ground instead of in the trees.


Weather be damned, the new first grade students are still the cutest things on the planet.

Oops!

I thought this might interest recent visitors who have been to Tateyama.

Philippines-registered container ship Eastern Challenger is seen half submerged after collision with Japanese freighter Tsugaru Maru, off Tateyama, east of Tokyo, April 13, 2006. All crew members were rescued and none injured. REUTERS

OK, my update

Blogger hasn't been letting me log in. SERIOUSLY!

So Greg and I have been in an out of the doctors office all week. He's looking and sounding better, and I'm getting there. Somehow in all of the mess (hmm... I wonder how) we didn't sign new contracts. This is great for our position in the union. Health insurance, pension, and unemployment insurance here we come! Of course Greg won't bother Saki about his new visa status, which is making life difficult. C'mon Greg! Just email her.

I saw Mrs. Suzuki on Friday. She just about jumped on me. I'm not sure of the exact details (because she was so excited she could hardly speak any language and she was trying for English), but I believe we are going to be some sort of Goodwill representatives at the re-opening of Narita Airport Terminal 1 this June. So, yeah, that's like exciting. Yay for us? Also she suckered me into tutoring her daughter in English. I'm not happy about that at all because... because. I think Greg and I are the only foreigners in Japan who are perfectly comfortable with our income and work hours and don't want to take extra jobs. I really don't. But it's Mrs. Suzuki and she wants her daughter to be able to go to study abroad in high school or college so obviously the kid needs to level up or whatever.

Whatever. We have a lot of laundry to do so I now have to convince Greg to do it.

back to normal

After a final stop at my favorite ramen shop in the world (a tin shack off route 62), our visitors departed safely this afternoon. They should still be en route to San Francisco, although not for much longer. Now they'll both experience the joy of having two Tuesdays. Flying home from Japan is weird like that.

After seeing my parents off at the airport I took a train to Ichikawa, just this side of Tokyo, where Sam had driven a truck to earlier. Two friends of ours are leaving Japan, and we arranged to take a bunch of their stuff. Navigating Japanese streets in a 2000kg truck seemed daunting to me, but Sam jumped right into the cab and did all the driving. It was impressive. And now we have another dresser, a real bed (as opposed to the Japanese-style futon mattress we've been sleeping on for two years) and a soft bean-bag-like chair that Subaru hasn't left in hours.

And finally, tomorrow is the first day of the new school year, so Sam and I have to bring our suits for the ceremonies. Should be fun.