No Ninja No...

BEE Japan 2010

2010-07-22T01:12:00.002-05:00

Hey, anyone that still checks here... I'll be posting over at www.beejapan.org while I'm riding from the North to the South of Japan promoting, teaching, and learning about earth friendly living and travel.

The ride starts August 3rd in Wakkanai, Hokkaido and wraps up way down in Naha, Okinawa.

Take a look!

Sechibaru English Camp

2009-08-26T20:07:00.011-05:00

I just returned from the 10 best work days I have had in Japan. I was a teacher at Sechibaru English Summer Camp, which is a Nagasaki prefecture program that brings upper level English students together for an intensive 10 day English-only experience. The students came from various high schools all across the prefecture. We had 30 students, 7 ALTs (like me), and 6 JTEs (Japanese Teachers of English).

Sechibaru is up in the mountains near Sasebo, and is a nice spot to have a camp like this. It is a nature camp, and has some trails and forest surrounding the camp grounds. Most importantly though, it is away from the familiar landscape that the students and teachers are accustomed to. This allows everyone to focus on what is happening at the camp, without being distracted by the hustle and bustle of modern Japanese life. It becomes possible to create an atmosphere wholly separate from the outside world. I found myself on many occasions reflecting on the fact that I had no concept of being in Japan, or that the students I was teaching were Japanese. It was so interesting for me to feel this way, especially in a place where it is usually so glaringly obvious.

The first day of the camp, the students were so nervous! Everyone was speaking in Japanese, and were very quiet and reserved. We played some ice breaker games which loosened them up some, but there was still a lot of Japanese being used and at our nightly teachers' meeting we were a bit concerned about that.

Day 2 was the first full day, and we started with morning exercises, cleaning, and breakfast. We then had our interview assessments of the students in our group. Students came one at a time and we asked them about themselves, had them tell a story, pronounce words, etc. Everything went fine, and we were able to get an idea of the English level of the students.
Later in the day, the students gave a self introduction to the group. After that, the ALTs had the chance to introduce themselves and their culture to the students. It was interesting to hear about our different backgrounds, especially Rachel from England and Allan from Trinidad and Tobago. The remaining ALTs were from the US, although drastically different parts.

Here is a picture of us demonstrating Rachel's birthday tradition of hitting the lucky person's head on the floor one time for each year of age...

From day 3 on, there began a drastic change in the students... after an encouraging speech by Yumi, a wonderful Japanese teacher, the students really took on the challenge of this camp. The students began speaking English all the time, even when they thought no teachers were around. They broke free from their restraints and shared their unique selves with the rest of the camp.

Over the next few days we wrote and performed dramas, held a debate, walked in the woods, had a BBQ, as well as many other activities. The students continued to improve and many friendships and strong bonds were created during these days. One of the popular activities was writing letters to one another and dropping them in the special post box. Students and teachers could write messages and encouraging notes to each other in English and they would be delivered each night before students went to bed. Everyone was excited to get mail, and I think this idea is something I will try to use at my school on Ojika.

This is a picture of some of the students writing letters to send via the "Sechibaru Post"!

During the final three days we spent much of the time at the University of Nagasaki. The campers had some interesting classes with college professors. The most interesting were Professor Yamasaki's lectures on pronunciation and non-verbal communication.
Allan and I sat in on his lectures and helped him out with pronunciation from different areas. Allan speaks English with a Caribbean accent, being from Trinidad and Tobago, and I speak with a fairly standard American English accent. We compared different ways of speaking common words and phrases. It was quite interesting, even for us native speakers, and the campers were busy trying out all of these new words and pronunciations.

I have to say, spending those three days at the university really rekindled my desire to return for a masters. It was nice to be in that university atmosphere of learning again, even for a short time. I am quite certain that I will be back at university after JET. The questions now are where and for what degree!

Photo of Professor Yamasaki's lecture:

After many days of waking up at 6:30 and finishing work and going to bed at midnight... all of the teachers (and students) were quite tired...
here I am falling asleep on the bus taking us back to Sechibaru from the university.

The final full day wrapped up with a campfire back at Sechibaru, and the strength of the bonds created between everyone was evident. The students walked to the campfire location through the woods, and even before they arrived, the tears were flowing. We played some games, made some smores, passed the talking stick, and finished the night with a symbolic burning away of our fears and worries in the fire. Everyone wrote their worst fear, worry, or trouble on a piece of paper, and then tossed it into the fire to let it burn away and be forgotten. It was a very emotional ceremony, and nearly everyone was openly crying and hugging each other. Many students did not want to leave the camp, and wept as they said so. It was a really special feeling, and it brings tears to my eyes now just to think of it. I'll never forget it.

It is amazing how much improvement these kids made! From the shy and reserved students speaking only Japanese on arrival, to the confident, energetic students that departed, there was a night and day transformation. I am proud to have been a part of this! This is definitely the highlight of my time in Japan so far!

Goto Block Rep

2009-08-03T01:13:00.003-05:00

I have been made the new Goto Block Representative. Seems like nearly the entirety of the Goto ALTs changed this year, including the old block rep, Joe. Therefore it's now my job to welcome the newcomers, and just be a source of info for all the JETs out here.

So... I'm planning to do some travelling around to the other islands over the coming weeks and months, meeting all the new folks and seing some new places. It should be pretty exciting, and I plan to do as much of it as possible on bike. My plan is to get outfitted with some panniers and hopefully pick up a tent and sleeping bag, that way I can tour around and crash for the night in a park somewhere.

I have also begun toying around with the idea of a North to South bike traverse of Japan to wrap up my experience here next year. There is an organized ride that stops in different cities and meets with different groups to make presentations on environmental issues and such, and sounds like a really interesting opportunity. I'll be looking into that as the year goes by.

ALT Invasion

2009-08-03T01:01:00.003-05:00

Tomorrow 3 ALTs from the Sasebo area are coming out for a trip to my island. We are going to fire up some brats on my new chrome polished (it wouldnt be japan if it wasnt over-the-top shiny!) grill. They are bringing me out more Ebisu Black too, just about the only mass-made beer over here that I consider decent (at least from the stuff I have tried).

Wednesday, a 4th will join us and we'll catch the boat to Nozaki and spend the night.

Thursday we'll have a sunset oceanside dinner with several of my Eikaiwa students. That night I am envisioning wall-to-wall futons as there will be five people staying in my place.

Then they all hop the boat back to Sasebo on Friday.

Solar Eclipse

2009-07-21T22:50:00.003-05:00

Today there was a solar eclipse in Asia. Here in Ojika, the sun was about 95% covered. It was cloudy, but we were able to catch glimpses of it as it broke through the clouds. This was the first solar eclipse I had ever seen, it was pretty amazing!

Family Visit

2009-07-12T02:24:00.004-05:00

Here is a slideshow of the pictures I took in Kyoto. My mom, dad, and brother were visiting me in Japan. I met them at the airport in Tokyo and we took the train all the way down to Kyushu and then ferried to my island. On the way down, we stopped in Yokohama, Kyoto, and Nagasaki City.

Kyoto was amazing, the ryokan(Japanese Inn) we stayed at was in the Gion/Higashiyama area. We had a room that was much larger than I expected and was very comfortable for the four of us. The meals there were fantastic as well. We had all sorts of interestic dishes during our multi-course meals which were served to us in our rooms. I hope to get some of the photos of the meals from Eric, because he took some good shots of the different foods we had. It was definitely a unique experience, and I think it was a good way to start off my families introduction to Japan.

After 2 nights in Kyoto, we went to the Atomic Bomb/Peace Museum in Nagasaki City and were given a private tour by the Deputy Director of the Nagasaki Foundation for the Promotion of Peace. I had met him several weeks earlier while he was visiting Ojika, and he offered to meet us when we arrived. After the tour, we were taken to the offices and introduced to the director and former mayor of Nagasaki, as well as an American intern doing some work with the foundation.

From there we continued on to Ojika and spent the rest of the time here. We made a trip to Nozaki, had dinner with several families, toured around the island, ate good food, relaxed, taught a lesson at Ooshima elementary, and overall just had a really good time!

Take a look at the photos of Kyoto... Sagano bamboo forest and Fushimi Inari shrine, and I'll try to add more pictures as I get them!

Rice planting

2009-05-28T23:53:00.003-05:00

I'm posting the link to the Japanese blog that talks about our rice planting day from a few weeks ago.

You can check out a couple of pictures there.

Follow this link and click the pictures to make them bigger....

http://ameblo.jp/shigeshigemaron/entry-10260398072.html

What've I been doing?

2009-05-10T23:39:00.003-05:00

Wow, I have really been letting this blog slide, huh? Let's see... what have I been up to???

Saw a Flogging Molly concert in Fukuoka.
Missed the last train home from Fukuoka and had to stay in a hotel because I was eating ice cream.
Planted tomatoes, a storm came the next day and blew down 4 of them.
Planted peppers, eggplants, Japanese pumpkin, watermelon, one unknown vegetable, and a couple of flowers.
Started replacing the paper on my shoji doors... 2 down, 8 to go!
Hung noren up in the house and some at the entrance to my future flower garden.
Got calf deep in mud for a day helping the Takasago family plant their rice paddy by hand.
More or less finished trimming the trees at my house.
Aquired several large pieces of pottery to use for plants and my "deer-chaser" water garden, and started clearing the yard to plant flowers.
Ate dinner with several families around the island during Golden Week.
Started running with the track club, and then decided that my tolerance for running in circles has become nearly nonexistant.
Ate black rice for the first time.
Listened to some great live shakuhachi and koto music, and played some maracca type instrument in front of the audience.
Enjoyed the beautiful weather and the recent full moon.

Tonight, I'm having a barbecue at my house with the high school teachers. I hope to get more pictures up, but my broken camera is a hindrance at the moment.

My first graduation in Japan

2009-03-15T22:06:00.002-05:00

Follow this link for photos from after the graduation ceremony for Hokusho Nishi High School!

http://ojikaenglish.blogspot.com/2009/03/hokusho-nishi-graduation-photos.html

Birthday Photos

2009-03-15T21:54:00.003-05:00

I spent my birthday with a few friends from the island at the bar/restaurant down the street from my old apartment. It was a great time with lots of good food! After eating, we all walked over to the "Melody Box" and sang karaoke!

On the Wednesday after, there was another small gathering at my place... supposedly for an english class that had to be rescheduled... but it was actually a surprise party. Unfortunately for them the surprise was leaked and I found out about it!

Finally, a few pictures!

2009-03-15T20:15:00.005-05:00

Here is a slideshow from the photo album showing some of the pictures I took of the new house. You can see that they start out with the floor removed and the old tatami pulled out. The house sat like this for about three days while things dried out. Then the new tatami went in and you should be able to see a little bit of how things looked after that process was done. Unfortunately I only have three "after" photos of the place so far. I guess I need to take a few more. The next step for the house is to replace the paper on the sliding shoji doors and get some Japanese style curtains to separate the rooms and add some color. I'm also working on the garden outside.

New Address

2009-02-28T17:52:00.002-06:00

My new address... basically the same as the old one with the numbers changed:

Ojika-cho Fuefuki-go 811-1
Kitamatsuura-gun
Nagasaki-ken 857-4701
JAPAN

Movin on in

2009-02-24T19:55:00.002-06:00

Today I am meeting with the owners of the house I am moving into. The school approved the move, so I'll be able to bring over the things that the school owns too. It is actually very good timing I think, because the new teachers will be coming in and looking for apartments to move into on April 1st.

So now begins the task of moving everything from the apartment to the house and changing over the utilities. I'm going to have to rely on Naoko and others to help me, because I have no way of getting the big stuff over there by myself. It would be a long bike ride with a refrigerator strapped to my back...and then a washing machine...then a TV...you get the idea.

The owners are going to share the cost of putting new tatami mats in the house. They will be swapped out when we get a nice day or two in a row. They are made from rush and rice stalks, and when new they are still slightly green. That means that they need to be installed on a dry day, and I'll have to keep wiping them down as the moisture escapes from them. Eventually they will turn from green to a tan color.

Other than the tatami mats there are a few other things I want to fix up around the place, but nothing too major as far as I can tell. The main task will be the garden outside. There is a very nice space for it, and it obviously has been used in the past, but it will need some work to get it into shape.
These little projects will be nice to have, it will help to make me feel more at home I think.

So, I look forward to getting comfortable in my new place over the next few weeks. I'll post pictures and video when I get a chance. I took some pictures of it a week or two back, but I havent uploaded them yet. I'll get on it!

春一番　(First Winds of Spring)

2009-02-12T17:33:00.003-06:00

Today Haru-Ichiban, the first winds of spring, seem to have arrived. The temperature is in the mid 60's and the wind is blowing fiercly. We have had some days with strong winds like this throughout the "winter", but up until now they had arrived accompanying a cold front, usually marking the coldest days. This is the first warm wind that has swept through.

It's quite a different feeling from Minnesota in February. While Northlanders are still in prime blizzard season, Ojika's plum trees are breaking in to bloom. The daffodils have been up for a month now, filling the open areas with a wonderful fragrance. Even a few of the early blooming cherry trees are showing flowers, although I'm told the majority wait until April.

As far as I am concerned, Ojika had one day of winter this year. Snow fell and stayed on the ground for that one day, and to me, that marks the sole appearance of old man Frost.

I am looking forward now to planting a garden and hopefully moving into a small, more traditional style house instead of my concrete and plastic apartment. I'm just waiting on the OK from the school. More on that soon. And hopefully pictures of the place as well.

Re-contracting

2009-01-21T18:21:00.004-06:00

So I have decided to re-contract here on Ojika. That means I`ll now be here until July 27th, 2010. It has taken a lot of thought to come to that decision, and honestly, it's not something I imagined myself doing. Unfortunately, the program makes us decide at the halfway point in the year. That makes it tough to picture how you will feel about your choice 6 months from now.

I guess there are several reasons why I chose to stay. The first is that I dont feel like I will have accomplished everything that I wanted when I came here. One year is just not enough time for me. I feel like I am just getting settled in to things here, and probably have more settling yet to do. I am also working on the language, and the more I understand, the more opportunities can come my way. Being on the island here, my ability to visit some of the places I want to see is also hindered. It takes some time, effort, and money to get places from here, and pretty much requires taking a vacation day or two. That means I have to spread those things out a bit. The positive aspect of that is making strong connections with the people on the island, which leads me to the next reason for staying....

Ojika has been getting a fair amount of attention lately for it's eco/cultural tourism efforts. The island is in the midst of making this type of tourism an important part of the economy. Recently, visiting American high school students voted Ojika the number 1 destination in Japan for the second year in a row. The Asahi beer corporation is also recognizing it as a leading eco-destination, and donated money to the island from beer sold in Kyushu during January. There is also the restoration of an old, traditional style home to be used for long-stay tourists. This project is being supported by Ojika's Island Tourism and author Alex Kerr and his Iori Co. which currently restores and operates traditional style homes for stays in Kyoto.
I feel as though there is a possibility for me to get involved in some of these changes on Ojika, and I want to stick around and see if it is something I am interested in.

There are also any number of volunteer opportunities I'd like to do in nearby countries. Building homes with dalit in India, raising money and helping with community projects while cycling across Cambodia, reading books with children in Nepal... I'd like to do some of these before I leave, and it can be relatively easy to do while in the JET program.

And a final reason, although least important in my eyes, is that I am making pretty good money over here with a very low cost of living. I could return and go to grad school without worrying about loans or trying to scrape by while working myself ragged.

It has been a difficult time weighing these things and considering back and forth, but I think I am making the right decision for myself.

Japanese Techno-Craziness even on Ojika

2008-12-04T18:12:00.005-06:00

So Ojika has avoided most of the wierd gadgetry and flashing neon lights that has overwhelmed the more populated areas of Japan. That is why I was so astonished when an office worker from the school here handed me a can of warm soup that he had just bought for me from the entryway vending machine! I mean, I have bought a drink or two from that machine, but its usually an orange juice or some tea. I had no idea it would spit out hot cans of soup or coffee. Maybe this isn't so crazy as it seems to me, but I have never seen such a thing.

Unfortunately the vending machine is coca-cola, so everything in there is coke products. They seem to have just as tight a grip on asia as they do on North America (if not more so). So yes, this was indeed a can of coca-cola corn soup(refer to my last post on the quality of bread and apply it to seemingly just about any other food you dont make or grow yourself). I am astounded by the amounts of preserved and refined foods people eat over here. I would not be surprised to see life expectancies decrease in Japan over the coming years, It just doesnt seem that people are getting good nutrition from this stuff.

Bad Bread

2008-12-03T18:28:00.002-06:00

So I have had an ongoing cold for close to two weeks now, and it is really starting to get old. Every time I think it is getting better, it comes right back. Im quite tired of it.

On another note, I made sugar cookies the other day. I wanted some sort of christmas cookie, and sugar cookies are about the only thing that I can easily find the ingredients for. Gingerbread cookies seems to be well know around here, but the food shop didnt have molasses or cinnamon. I guess people just eat the factory baked ones, especially since most folks dont have an oven to bake things.

I cant believe what passes for "bread" over here. It is disgusting stuff. Everything comes individually wrapped, is loaded with processed sugars, fats, creams, artificial flavors...basically the least healthy and nutritious baked goods you could imagine.
It seems like people would buy real bread if it was available, in fact, a woman from my conversation class used to sell it. Unfortunately, she was baking it in her kitchen and the health department shut her down when some shop owners complained about it. They complained because she was selling so much bread, she was taking the sales of their crappy "bread" away from them. I think she said she was baking something like a hundred loaves a week, which I think is pretty incredible for a small island like this. Especially when you are operating out of your household kitchen and have a small child to raise!
What I am getting at is this island needs a bakery in a serious way. Especially if they are wanting tourists to come to town... there needs to be a good place to get tasty baked goods for breakfast. A shrink wrapped weiner roll(a hotdog buried inside something that is supposed to be a roll) just wont cut it.

Long time, no see.

2008-11-19T18:57:00.003-06:00

Long time since my last post. The time has been flying by in the last month. I'm not even sure exactly what I have done.
I made a trip to Nagasaki about a week ago, and although being in the city can be fun for a while, It always feels good to come back out to the island. It is much quieter and peaceful here. The people are so much more friendly and personal too.

The latest project I have started on is developing an English website for the students on Ojika. I've got some test posts up at ojikaenglish.blogspot.com
I havent let any of the students know the address yet, I'm hoping to get it a little bit more polished up first. I would really like to get a real domain and webhosting for it, because it would let me do so much more with it, including expanding it as a tourism resource for english speakers visiting the island. I dont really want to spend the money for that myself though, so I am hoping that the school will chip in for it.

It has actually been very cold on the island. Definately not as cold as back in Minnesota, but unfortunately the buildings here are not insulated. That makes for a very cold day when it is 48 degrees outside and there is no heat and no insulation inside. Most teachers sit in the staff room with insulated coats on and maybe 4 layers of clothes. As I type the vice principal is continuously blowing on his hands to keep them warm! It has been very windy too, and raining now and then. Im sure its really not so bad, I'm just losing my Minnesota thick skin too quickly.

Another video of Nozaki

2008-10-17T08:51:00.003-05:00

Nozaki Island

2008-10-17T08:28:00.009-05:00

Im just going to quickly mention that I went to Nozaki island last weekend with a few people. Its a 10 minute boat ride from my island, and it is abandoned except for an old school that has been converted to a campground area. There are a couple workers there and that is it. I went bouldering on the white sand beach that is on the east side of the island. We also hiked to a shrine high up on the side of an old volcano, and behind the shrine is an incredible rock formation that doesnt seem to belong in that place at all. Anyways, check out the pictures in the slideshow on the right side of the page, the place is amazing. Anyone who comes out to visit me will absolutely have to go here!

Busy thinking of winter

2008-09-28T22:31:00.004-05:00

The last few weeks have been really busy for me. We have had one sports day after another... First high school and junior high, then preschool, and then Ojika town sports day. Our staff softball team has begun playing in the softball league, but for some reason they decide to cram the season in to a span of 2 1/2 weeks. That means we have 3 games a week. I don't understand it at all.

Ojika also had some visitors from other pacific island nations who were here to exchange ideas on building economies and maintaining populations on the islands. There was one visitor from Fiji, one from Samoa, and one from Tonga. I had tea with the Fijian and a Japanese woman from my English conversation class. It was interesting to hear his ideas for helping bring tourism to these Japanese islands. The next night I went to hear the three of them give their final presentation to the Ojika community. They presented both on ideas that they had for Ojika, as well as things that they had learned from being here that they wanted to bring back to their islands.

Two common threads were community involvement in government and initiatives, and ecological sustainability. They also were very impressed with the incredible kindness of the residents on these islands.

It is true that the people of Ojika seem to be the key to their own prosperity in the future. Their initiative and ability to work together will determine whether they will be able to adapt to the changes they have recently seen. The fishing and agriculture based economy here is no longer able to sustain its population level, hence the decline from 10,000 to just 3,000 in 10 short years.

Tourism seems to be the direction the island needs to go if it wants to create more jobs and retain its population. They have begun to transition that way, but they still have a long way to go.

I hope to be able to help with some projects to encourage tourism while I am here. I have offered to make them a basic english language website, and update their visitor brochure. I'd also like to help them add English to places where tourists might like to visit... restaurants, shops, parks, beaches, etc.
The important thing, I think, is for the local community to spearhead the revitalization of their town. They should start with focusing on the rich history that exists here, as well as the natural beauty. Encouraging tourism in a place like this is not about creating artificial attrations for mass-amounts of your stereotypical tourists, it is about allowing people to experience traditional Japanese life, building on the history and beauty that is already here. There is a great deal of opportunity for that, it will just take some restoration work on the part of the island's residents.

Anyways, as you can see, I haven't had a great deal of free time lately. It has been enjoyable and tiring at the same time.

The weather is finally starting to change, fall seems to be making its way to the island. The temperature has been lower, and it is getting less humid as well. I am so glad to feel the cool breezes blowing out of the north, they make the days and nights so much more comfortable.
The main downside to this is that I find myself wanting to go for a walk through the woods, see the leaves changing color, and smell winter approaching on the air.

It is becoming clear to me that it will not be easy for me to not have winter. I love winter. I love the snow. There may be nothing better in the world than standing outside in the woods as huge white flakes fall silently all around. It ignites a spark in my soul, and always makes me happy.
It will be hard for me, but I will make it through. I'll need to visit northern Japan at least once, of course. Nagano, or Hokkaido when the snow is nice and deep.
This is one reason I've come to Japan, to discover and learn about myself. And one thing that I am realizing already is how important the seasons are to me, and how lucky I am to have lived in the places I have.

My voice sounds weird on video

2008-09-15T04:31:00.004-05:00

Here's a quick video tour of my apartment...

Video of the Ferry

2008-09-15T03:28:00.003-05:00

Sinlaku

2008-09-12T07:10:00.005-05:00

Ok, I'm back to it. The internet was hooked up in my apartment on Monday night, but I have been very busy the last week or two. My community English conversation classes started last week and today was the first advanced class. I am really enjoying teaching these, it gives me a chance to talk with people from the island about many different things. It helps me to feel more like a part of the community.

The big news as far as I am concerned is Typhoon Sinlaku... it seems as though it might head over this way sometime early next week. I have never been in a typhoon before so it should be quite the experience. When I was on Ooshima this week to teach at the elementary school, the farmers on the island were lashing down the coverings on the greenhouses in preparation of the storm.

The people here seem to be relatively used to this sort of thing happening. They are not panicking or worried about it as far as I can tell. In fact, people only talk about it if I ask them questions. It definitely explains the elaborate drainage systems and reinforcements that are constructed all over the island. I'm preparing for it, but not overly concerned. I'll be updating and documenting what I can if this thing does head this way.

Thats all for now... more again soon.

Today's excitement is...

2008-08-21T01:51:00.003-05:00

I am now officially an Alien!

(I blocked out some info that I didnt think was a great idea to have posted on the web...)

Finally some pics

2008-08-19T01:25:00.002-05:00

Here, at long last are a few pictures from Ojika. These are just a couple that I took this past weekend on a bike ride around the island. You might be able to click on the images to make them bigger. Give it a try and see what happens!

Most of the farmers are doing a rice harvest right now, so the roads are lined with the drying stems. Many people just use the roadside barriers for drying racks, while others have thier own wooden racks set up in the fields.

Not sure if this picture will show up very clear, but it is a beautiful farmhouse right on a little bay. They get to watch the sunset over the ocean every night. This is a really great spot for a house!
Standing in a small park looking out over one of the neighboring islands. I'm not sure what the name of this one is, there are many small islands all around the one I am on.

Same park looking at the beach below and the island in the background. Unfortunately this park is not used very much at all (most of the parks on the island seems to not be used). The beach has a lot of trash collected on it. The students at the school do beach cleaning days, but I dont think this one is on the circuit anymore. Because of the decline in population on the island, many of these nice little spots have fallen out of care. There are not enough people using them, and not enough money to keep them maintained, I guess. It is a shame, because there are some areas that look like they used to be really nice.

Hopefully I'll be able to post more pictures soon, these few dont do the island justice at all. Even despite the lack of upkeep in some areas, it is a very beautiful island.

Japanese OS

2008-08-09T00:43:00.003-05:00

For all the computer nerds out there (Richard) ... here is a screenshot of my computer in Japanese. It can be difficult at times!

Brett Bucks

2008-08-07T01:43:00.005-05:00

I decided to make up some fake money at work today. I think I am going to use it to give to my students when they use spontanious english with me outside of the classroom. The more difficult the english, the more bucks they get. They can then use the "Brett Bucks" to get something... I haven't decided what yet, maybe candy or small items I have from the US. I'll figure that part out later.

I figure that this scheme might encourage them to use their english skills outside of the classroom a bit more. We'll see.

Here are pictures of my $1 and $5 amounts so far:

Incidently, it can be a bit laborious to do difficult tasks on my japanese laptop. Most of the menus are written in Kanji (difficult to read much of the time) so either i am choosing options based on memory from using the english version, or it is trial and error until i click the right one.

Ahh, sodesu. I am getting the hang of it anyways!
むずかしですね!

Skype number

2008-08-05T18:46:00.002-05:00

Right, so they overcharged my for my skype number and now that it is sorted out any voicemails that were left for me in the last week or so might have been lost... just a heads up. I still have the same number and it is working just fine now, so leave all the messages you want from here on out. I still will not be able to listen to them until I get internet access in my apartment though...

Might as well update as long as I am on here, I suppose!

I had a great dinner last night with the women from the community English conversation class that I will be teaching, and also the JET who I am replacing. We had dinner on a wide open grassy field on the North side of the island. It was a stunning view, as the land drops down to a rocky ocean shoreline below. There was a nice breeze blowing, and it was early evening so the temperature was perfect. We had a great dinner of Korean rice (sort of a rice with thick stew over the top) and salad, with almost all of the ingredients coming from one of the members' organic garden. We then had some dessert followed by fresh home-grown watermelon! By that time it was pretty dark so we sat around and talked and lit sparklers with one woman's three little kids.

I then dazzled them with my limitless (sure) knowledge of constellations and we called it a night.

I seem to have aquired a nickname already too. When I was introducing myself I was asked what my least favorite food was.... so I told them the first thing that came to mind. Beets.
They knew what they were but lucky for me they don't have them in Japan. Anyways a short time later when we were all dishing up food one of the women tried to call my name.... Hey Beets! This plate is for you. (This was in Japanese) Everyone broke out laughing and for the rest of the night it kept popping back up here and there.

I am also very often mistaken for Brad when I say my name(oh, like Brad Pitt?) or bread, which leads people to call me Pan san, or Pan sensei, since that is the Japanese word for bread.

I am sure I am doing the same thing to some of their names though... so its only fair.

First post from Ojika-Cho

2008-08-04T23:37:00.002-05:00

Hey all, quick post here!

I am in Ojika now, I have been here since the night of July 30th. The only access I have to the internet at the moment is from this computer at work, so no skype or chat access really. It seems like it might be at least another two weeks before I am able to have all of that set up.

I have to tell you, this island is beautiful! It is so incredibly green, with amazing plants growing everywhere, including very large bamboo which I am amazed by.

The insects here are supersized as well. I haven't seen any yet, but I am told there are huge spiders (harmless ones) several inches across, and poisonous centipedes that grow up to 6 inches long. I have already seen HUGE cicadas, the size of small birds, and they are freaky when running through the woods and they scream out and buzz right by my head. They obviously are harmless, but it is surprising when it happens... especially since I am not used to it yet.

I have been going for long runs to orient myself to the island, and it is great to run down the winding, narrow roads past all of the rice paddies, looking out over the ocean and the surrounding islands. It is incredible.

Many of the houses on the island are built in traditional Japanese style, and most have very well landscaped areas in front or back of their houses. I love to see the care and thought that they put in to each individual plant or tree. Literally each tree is hand shaped and cared for.

Well, that is it for today, posts may be spread apart a bit until I have access to internet from my apartment.

Take care,

Brett

The night before

2008-07-25T21:19:00.002-05:00

Well here I sit at the hotel in Chicago, pre-departure orientation is over. All that is left is to do is get some sleep, wake up in the morning, get on the plane and fly to Tokyo!

The orientation today was nice and all, but basically just covered all of the information we had all read and re-read in our email updates and handbooks. Nothing new other than getting back our passports, visas, and tickets for tomorrow.

We had dinner up in the penthouse at the end of the shindig. Pretty standard boring american food... chicken, beans, sausage and potatoes, that sort of thing. We had a speech from the Consulate General of Japan in Chicago, a few others and the rest of the time was Q&A and meeting your fellow JETs from your prefecture.

Everything is arranged for us tomorrow... 6:30 am breakfast, load bags in the cargo truck, hop on the chartered bus and leave for the airport at 9:15 am sharp. That should leave us with three hours to check in and get through security before our plane departs. Somehow I am thinking it will take us most of that time to get through things...there are a lot of us flying out tomorrow, and everyone has multiple large bags to check. There is guaranteed to be lots of standing around in line.

After talking with the other JETs who are going to Nagasaki prefecture, I think I got a pretty sweet placement. First of all, many of them had only been contacted by their predecessors very recently... a day ago for one guy! I have been in contact with both my predecessor as well as my main supervisor for over a month. I also know my address, most of the others do not.

As far as the Nagasaki folks leaving from Chicago go, I am the only one heading off to an island. In fact, I am the only one at the hotel I've found so far who is placed on an island. I am sure there are more, but it seems to be a fairly rare placement. I am pretty excited about that, I really think I am going to get some authentic Japanese experience out there. I know there will be drawbacks to it of course, but it is very much what I had hoped for when applying to this position. I didn't want go to Japan to live in the city and just hit up the bars after work every night... I could do that at home. That's not what this trip is about for me.

Thats not to say I won't sample my share of sake when I have the chance...

Or make a winter visit to Sapporo for some beer... I'm looking your way on this one Dawkins if you are reading this!

Next post from Tokyo, take care everyone!

Ninja

Skyp'in it

2008-07-20T23:36:00.003-05:00

Hey all,

I set up a skype account for calling to and from Japan. I set up a US phone number that you can dial to get ahold of me in Japan. It is: (763) 219-1980.

Basically you dial this number and it rings through on my laptop as long as I am connected to the internet. If I am not connected or just don't answer the phone, you will get my voicemail and can leave me a message.

This will be a really nice thing to have because anyone calling me from the US does not have to pay international rates, and I can call any land line or cell phone in the US with it also. Pretty sweet.

Later, Brett

Back in the midwest

2008-07-15T19:44:00.002-05:00

I made it back to my parent's house today. It has been a great trip, with awesome experiences along the way. I have driven just over 4,000 miles in the last two weeks. I'll be updating with more pictures and stories as soon as I get them sorted out on my computer.

Also... just looked at the calendar. 11 days and I am flying to Japan!

Here is my address over there for those of you who'd like it:

Brett Rasmussen
1977-1-102 Fuefuki-go
Ojika-cho
Kitamatsuura-gun
Nagasaki-ken 857-4701
JAPAN

I'll probably be at that address starting around Aug. 1st

My trip out west

2008-07-02T14:12:00.005-05:00

I am making this post from Missoula Montana! Ill start with Photos of my bike before the drive down to the cities:

I was also wearing a stuffed-to-the-brim backpack

Here are some photos of the drive across Dakota and Montana:

Entering ND in Fargo

Yellow Flowers

Blue/Purple Flowers

Enchanted Highway

T. Roosevelt Nat. Park

This guy was bluff charging some idiot tourists that were trying to take pictures right up close to him.

Crossing into Montana

Cloudy skies over the Beartooth Mountains

More clouds over the Crazy Mountains

I drove through some intense thunderstorms in both mountain passes. There was some amazingly intense and beautiful lightning, especially a cool double strike over the Paradise Valley with the bolts crisscrossing in mid air!

Now I am off to bike around Missoula a bit and then it sounds like we are going to an Osprey baseball game tonight. They are the local minor league team. I'll update again soon!

-Brett

Enjoying Duluth

2008-07-02T13:57:00.003-05:00

Here are a couple of shots I took on one beautiful afternoon on one of my last days of work. I biked down to the beach across the lift bridge after work and went for a swim. These photos are from near the lakewalk on my way home.

Grandma's Weekend

2008-07-02T13:00:00.008-05:00

OK, I am going to start this off with last weekend. It was Grandma's Marathon weekend, so was busy as usual. My friends Katie and Heidi and two of Katie's friends stayed at my house for the weekend. Katie ran the full marathon, and the rest were up to cheer her on.

I got up early on Saturday morning to see the half, and it was a beautiful day right from the start. I met up with Kate, April and Chris down near the Dunn Bros, and we watched most of the race from there. After the half wrapped up, we went down to catch Ben at the finish. From there we walked up to Nodin's shop and watched the full from there. In Both the mens and womens the winner was clearly separated from the rest of the group. Here are some shots from the morning:

Looking towards Lake Ave on Superior Street

Too much energy, should have run the full!

Kate and Me

Chris and Ben (Chris is flexing)

Kate is way more in to this than Ben...

Leader of the Men's Race going by

2nd and 3rd place Men

1st Place Woman

I think this might be the 2nd Place Woman

It ended up being a nice day for running... at least I thought so as I was standing on the sidewalk!

In the afternoon the crew of folks staying at my house and I went up to Gooseberry Falls. I dont have any photos of this because I forgot my camera. We got some quality rock skipping in though, trust me. Also had some birch bark boat races.

I can hear bats

2008-06-29T23:03:00.002-05:00

Wow, apparently I fell off the wagon again... I have been so busy lately I havent been able to set aside time to update this blog. That will change tomorrow. I am going to do a big update of recent happenings tomorrow am, and will then continue to post regularly during the course of my trip out west. Stay tuned!

Starting the Process

2008-05-17T22:23:00.002-05:00

Well,

I have decided to take Molly's advice and start clearing things out for my move ASAP. I did some cleaning up in the kitchen today, and threw a few things away.

I think job number one is to get together all of the clothes I don't wear anymore and bring them to goodwill. Then there is the basement... lots of unnecessary stuff down there, old electronics, papers from coaching, tools. Getting that done would go a long way towards clearing things out.

There is painting to be done, lots of gardening, more cleaning, not to mention finding someone to housesit.

It is definitely time to get on top of all of this.

My Goal: be totally done and free by July 1.

Then I go wherever I want.

Television Ad

2008-05-17T22:12:00.003-05:00

Here is the copy of the TV ad that has been showing. It turned out pretty well I think.

Saturday. Night.

2008-05-04T14:05:00.015-05:00

Ok, here's the big one. Saturday Night. It all starts with a chilly bike ride down to RT Quinlans at about 9:30. The streets are strangely empty of cars as I have free reign along Superior, cruising along with the both lanes to myself.

I walk down into the crowded basement bar to be greeted by a very jovial (read: drunk) Bryn. He is in fine form tonight and can be seen making cracks to the mayor and giggling to himself about just about everything. He is hanging out with Dusty who has a thin, dirty mustache inked on his upper lip. Fitting.

On stage Jake Willis is doing the drumming for Taconite, Don Lisdahl on the bass.

I headed down to the stage only to immediately be hit in the face by a mumbling drunk man's sweatshirt. He of course is totally unaware, although several other people see it. The man continues to be a source of amusement throughout the first two bands. I meet up with Michelle, Richard, and some others that I don't know so well, including a girl who is REALLY excited about a bike she bought at the swap. Kind of fun to hear that.

So after Taconite's fairly long set, which was good, Circa AM was up. Don plays the bass in this one too. Kind of hardcore/death stuff. Check out the crazy headgear on these guys. Don wears a full-on metallic elk rack, and the other guy has a big shiny unicorn horn (which continually slips down over his eyes while he plays)! It was pretty hilarious to see!

Drunk man from earlier spends the first part of the set putting his ear directly up to the speaker, then joins a girl up front who has acquired the unicorn horn and the two of them have a great time stroking the metallic fallice for the rest of the set.

I get a call from April, who is at Twins bar with Hasty, E-Morris, Mo, and Gator. I head out, leaving my bike at relative safety of the brewhouse before walking up to 4th.

The Very People are playing when I get there, but finish up shortly after.

Mo and I play a quick game of foos before Canine Heart Sounds comes on.

Nothing too eventful here, just some good music!

After Canine Heart Sounds, we decide to head to Luce. On the way out the door we see someone talking to the police... her rear bike wheel was stolen! Shitty situation to be in, and I feel bad for her. That's exactly why I left my bike down at the Brewhouse.

We start to walk towards Luce, with April complaining about not being able to walk well because her legs were hitting each other?? I don't know.

Anyways, April's walking difficulties leads her to flag down a random van driving down the street. He agrees to give us a ride and we all pile into his van.

April finds a weird deer head in the back seat that she thinks looks like her dog, it does!

So we find out that the guy giving us a ride is in a band that played earlier in the night, he gives us some CDs, then drops us off at Luce after making a stop at the Orpheum to pick up some money. I don't know what was up with that. I think Erin was very happy to get out of the van, she was definitely getting creeped out in there!

After a short wait in the line outside we are in! Somehow we get good position right up front and wait for Crew Jones to start. This is when more craziness starts. First of all, there is some dude in dark glasses smoking a cig right up front. Who is it? Matt Livingston, bass player for Crew Jones. Somebody tells him to put it out, and he does, but it is clear to those of us around him that he is messed up! He staggers his way up on stage while the rest of the group is setting up, and obviously cannot function. He fumbles around with the plugs and dials, screwing with everyone else's settings. Eventually he totally falls over backwards:

Hasty is all worked up at this point, asking me: Did you see him? He's fucking up the whole thing! Nobody wants him up there! Nobody is saying anything to him! They need to step up and take care of this shit! Did you get a picture of that?

They eventually get Matt upright and start the show, but he just stands there doing basically nothing with his bass, he is to wasted to even follow the music! After maybe two songs, Burly steps behind Matt and tells the sound guys in the back to turn off his bass. They make it through one more before Burly tells Matt to get of the stage. Someone else steps in for him and the show can finally get under way properly!

Here are Hasty and April gettin' crazy:

Some pics of Crew Jones action:

The rest of the show is fun and things wrap up sometime around 3 am.

I bike home, passing by a group of probably 5-6 police cars, with more sirens on the way, just past Walgreens on Superior Street. I didn't stick around to see what was up. It can't have been good. My chain falls off halfway up the hill, but after a quick fix I am back on and no more problems the rest of the way home.

It has been a long, fun night.

In bed at 4 am. Good night.

Saturday's Trail Run

2008-05-04T12:03:00.003-05:00

This is exactly what I needed. I was WAY to caught up in my head the last couple days. The sun was shining, the weather was sweet, made me want to move my runnin' feet! (thanks Bob Marley).

I headed in to Hartley and ran the guardrail loop. The trails were muddy, deep standing water everywhere. Awesome. I passed up a group of runners gingerly picking their way through the woods, trying their best to bypass the mud and water. As I streaked past them, mud caked on my legs, water from the last puddle dripping from my face, huge grin on my face, they probably thought I was slightly insane.

8, maybe 9 miles in the woods, and I feel like myself again.

Friday Night Homegrown

2008-05-04T11:12:00.005-05:00

I've got a lot to update today, I'm going to break it into a couple of posts though so it is less overwhelming. I'll start with Friday night out for Homegrown. I started out at the brewhouse and met up with Underwood. We stayed there for a little while, but I headed out to see Chad Salmela's band Nell E-A-3-0. Whoever was playing before them was not very good. Luckily I only caught the tail end of them! Salmela wasn't too bad.

Underwood joined me after a while, and we headed down to Luce to catch some Giljunko and hear the Turtles after them.

We got in the door just fine, I think a line started outside just after we made it in.

The place was packed as usual for Trampled. I really wasn't expecting that much from them tonight, I'm not in to their shows like I used to be. I was still surprised at how jam-bandish they sounded tonight. Everything was played at superspeed, its was all about getting hyper and jumping up and down. I mean, shit, I love to dance to good fast bluegrass...but this is not dancing, and no longer very bluegrass. The crowd eats it up as usual...not because they like the music, but because it's cool to like the Turtles, apparently. Oh well.

Rain and cold...

2008-05-02T20:39:00.002-05:00

Have soaked me to my bones. It was a really wet ride home from work tonight. I'm having trouble getting rid of the chill that set in. Today was a rough day at work, I was dragging the whole time. I am really feeling the motivation to get things done leaving me. The lack of motivation grows every day. The weather doesnt help things either. The one thing I am looking forward to at work is the commercial shoot on Tuesday. It will be kind of fun to be on TV again. Hopefully I can get a copy of it from the station and post it on here.

Other than work getting in the way, I've been feeling great. Still havent been practicing my Japanese like I should... hopefully this weekend, I have both days off. I can get that ivy finally painted over too, god that has been a long time coming.

Well, heading out for some homegrown tonight and catch some music!

Speaking of that, Molly gave me some music last night, Camera Obscura and Broken Social Scene. Both I had heard of but not really listened to, I'm listening to Obscura right now...I'm in to it, kind of Haley Bonar/Fiest-ish but not quite?

Right, thats it for now.

Wow

2008-04-23T09:42:00.002-05:00

That obviously didn't work out as planned. One post and I was off the wagon!
Well, time to get this thing started for real.
Last night I had some drinks with Molly after work, amazing girl... too bad she's moving to Portland in 3 weeks.
I think I am going to go buy a camera today so that I can actually start taking pictures and videos for this thing. Then I need to organize some of the paperwork that needs to be sent in tomorrow after my physical.
Maybe a haircut too...getting pretty long. Then Kissner is back in town for like a day, so back to the brewhouse to see her tonight!

First Post

2007-11-01T22:08:00.001-05:00

I am going to try this and see how it works. Maybe it will be a good way to keep tabs on things that are going on in my life, sort of an on-line journal. A way to keep track of what is going on, be it mundane or profound. Who knows.