Archive for December, 2014
December 21, 2004 – Breakfast – Canadian style
Posted by Barniferous in Return to Canada on December 21, 2014
After a long, long day of travel yesterday, I didn’t feel like doing much today. The only thing I really left the house for was breakfast with my dad at his favourite breakfast place – The Wright Spot.
My dad is the oldest of 5 brothers who all live in different cities in Canada. They all have their own favourite breakfast spot that they eat at religiously. The Wright Spot features a $5 breakfast special:
- Two eggs any style
- Bacon, ham or sausage
- Toast
- Your choice of potato
- Endless coffee
The restaurant also has a large selection of newspapers for diners. It is a popular hangout and breakfast spot for locals, especially members of the local farming community.
It’s possible to get eggs and bacon for breakfast in Japan, but it usually comes with a salad instead of a potato. It was nice to have a nice Canadian style breakfast for a change.
(2014 Update) Unfortunately the Wright Spot closed a few years ago. My dad has moved on to a new favourite breakfast spot.
December 20, 2004 pt2 – Back in North America
Posted by Barniferous in Return to Canada on December 20, 2014
After a 12+ hour flight from Tokyo, my plane landed in Minneapolis / St. Paul International airport. I got off the plane and then went through another round immigration and security checks, and moving my suitcase from one conveyor belt to another. I still don’t understand the purpose of moving my suitcase from one side of a room to the other.
After escaping the security zone, Rob (the Winnipegger who sat next to me on the flight), and I decided to grab some lunch at Pizza Hut. In all of my travel plans I hadn’t considered the need for US currency. At the cash register I asked the Pizza Hut cashier if I could pay with Canadian dollars or Japanese Yen. She thought I was just being a jerk and was not amused. Thankfully my Canadian credit card worked, and I was able to “enjoy” a lunch of extremely greasy pizza. Seriously, after eating Japanese food for over a year I couldn’t believe how greasy the pizza was.
Rob and I explored the huge airport together. Just as we were getting ready to go to our gate, I noticed that I no longer had my sister’s extremely heavy ancient laptop. We returned to Pizza Hut and couldn’t find it. Fortunately someone had turned it into security. Unattended bags in an airport are no joke, and I am happy that I wasn’t detained and that the laptop wasn’t exploded or anything.
Our departure ended up being delayed by freezing rain, so we got to Winnipeg an hour late. We left Japan at 5:00pm on December 20, and landed in Winnipeg at 4:00pm on December 20, an hour before we left. Yes friends, time travel is possible. After landing in the past, we got sniffed by a police dog, and again went through immigration and customs. Thanks to a 2 litre bottle of shochu, I was over my limit for alcohol. The customs officer had the Christmas spirit, and let me bring my Christmas spirits through without having to pay extra.
It was great to see my family again! It had been six months since they left Japan, and I really missed them. On the way out of Winnipeg we stopped at Olive Garden for dinner. I did my best to avoid falling asleep at the table as I stuffed myself with breadsticks, salad and pasta. Since I was no longer used to heavy North American food, the oversauced pasta sat like a brick in my stomach.
The ride to Portage la Prairie was a typical, terrible winter drive. The road is flat with no wind breaks, so any amount of wind and snow provides for dangerous conditions with low visibility. I was happy that my dad was driving, and I slept in the back seat.
Despite the cold weather, it really is great to be home!
December 20, 2004 pt1 – Leaving Japan
Posted by Barniferous in Return to Canada on December 20, 2014
This is the first part of my returning home for Christmas story. All together, my Monday lasted 39 hours due to traveling across time zones.
I started my journey by walking 20 minutes to Numazu station while dragging my giant suitcase, wearing an overstuffed backpack, and carrying my sister’s incredibly heavy antique laptop. From Numazu I took the Tokaido line to Mishima where I switched to the Shinkansen bound for Tokyo. I managed to get all of my stuff through busy Tokyo station towards the Narita express platform, stopping to buy a few last minute souvenirs and Christmas presents. Yes, I bought even more stuff to carry.
I arrived at the airport at 1:00pm Japan time. and went to the baggage check. I bought most of my Christmas presents in Asakusa, so they were all very nicely wrapped. Airport security does not like wrapped Christmas presents, so all of my presents had to go through the x-ray scanner. I was also asked to turn the laptop. Since the battery is dead, it only lasts about 5 seconds before shutting off. This meant that the laptop got scanned and swabbed for bomb residue. The whole experience was time consuming and a bit annoying, but the airport staff was polite the entire time and managed to repack my suitcase EXACTLY the same way that it was before.
After getting rid of my bags, I got to wait in line to get my boarding pass. I then went though security and got to wait in line at immigration. Who knew what a major airport would be so busy before Christmas…
Eventually I got through all of the lines, and got on my plane. The first two hours of the flight were incredibly turbulent. I don’t think I have ever been on a flight so rough before. The captain kept apologizing and told us that the skies were busy, so we were not cleared to switch altitudes. At least the movies weren’t bad – they showed “I, Robot”, “Shark Tale”, and “Elf”. I think I managed to sleep for a few hours but can’t be sure.
Near the end of the flight I started talking to the guy sitting next to me who was named Rob. It turns out that he was in my intermediate Japanese class in University and was also returning to Winnipeg for Christmas. Unlike me, he managed to get into the JET program. We exchanged some stories about our experiences in Japan. Out of all of the flights home and all of the seats in the plane, I happened to sit next to I guy I knew from school. Sometimes it really is a small world.
December 19, 2004 – Last work day of 2004
Posted by Barniferous in Life in Japan, Shizuoka, Teaching English on December 19, 2014
Today was my last work day of 2004! In every lesson I told my students about my holiday plans, whether they wanted to hear it or not. I also had my first ever kids demo lesson. I have done demo lessons before, but never for kids classes. I was worried because teaching kids is still the hardest part of the job for me. My demo student was a 3 year old girl with no knowledge of English at all. Somehow everything worked out, and the parents signed up for lessons.
After work I made a brief appearance at the Mishima NOVA teacher and staff Christmas party before heading home in the icy cold rain. I know I should be packing now, but instead I am updating my blog instead. Not smart. At least I already bought my train tickets to get to the airport tomorrow. I made the purchase all in Japanese, which I am pretty happy about.
Must start packing!
December 17, 2004 – Harry Potter 3 (again)
Posted by Barniferous in Movies, Teaching English, The Penpal on December 17, 2014
Today at work I had a class full of 4 year olds. Getting a full sentence in English out of one 4 year old is hard, never mind 6 kids. Oh well, there are only 16 lessons left before I return to Canada for Christmas!
After work I went to see Harry Potter 3 with The Penpal. I had already watched the movie during the summer when my parents were in Japan. We saw the movie at Joyland, a combination bowling alley / game center / movie theater located in the Nakamise shopping area of Numazu near the south side of the station. The theater was nice, but couldn’t compare to some of the giant, modern movie theaters in Tokyo and Yokohama.
The movie was still good the second time, and it was nice to get some time with The Penpal before I went home.
December 16, 2004 – Refusing to catch a cold
Posted by Barniferous in Life in Japan on December 16, 2014
I actually started packing! Also, I can feel myself starting to get a cold that is going around. However, I simply refuse to catch a cold before I get on the plane in a few days.
December 15, 2004 – Immigration office master
Posted by Barniferous in Friends and coworkers, Karaoke, Life in Japan, Tokyo on December 15, 2014
My Weezer shirt that I bought in Harajuku
Today I went to the immigration office in Shinyurigaoka to get my re-entry permit for my passport. I now feel pretty confident in my skills at navigating the immigration office, and can usually be in and out in about 10 minutes.
Like most people, my work visa expires after a certain period of time (one year for me), and will also expire if I leave the country. To prevent the visa from expiring when I go home, I needed to buy a re-entry permit. The permits are available as one time permits or unlimited times for the period of one year. Since I am only planning to leave Japan and return once in the next year, I bought the cheaper one time permit.
Immigration officers are not allowed to handle cash directly, which is a nice way to prevent anything shady from happening. I had to go to a small convenience store in the same building to buy a voucher for a re-entry stamp. I then returned to the immigration office, where they exchanged the voucher for a sticker in my passport.
After finishing up at the immigration office, I spent most of my day exploring some cool stores in Shinjuku, Shibuya, and Harajuku. I bought some books for my flight home at Kinokuniya, and a cool Weezer shirt in Harajuku.
In the evening, I met up with Okonomi in Noborito. We went out for Okonomiyaki for dinner and then went to karaoke. Since I was traveling back to Numazu, it was a much more reserved karaoke experience that the last time. After karaoke I gathered up all of the Christmas presents that I couldn’t bring home on my shopping trip to Asakusa, and then returned to Numazu. It was a fun day, but the highlight was explaining to a taxi driver at Numazu station where I lived in Japanese, and having him drive me to the right place!
If you have only ever spoken one language, this doesn’t sound like much of an accomplishment, but trust me, it felt great.
December 14, 2004 – Sleep Debt
Posted by Barniferous in Life in Japan on December 14, 2014
The term “sleep debt” refers to the accumulation of lack of sleep that builds up in your body. Today my sleep debt was called in by the sleep bank; I slept through my alarm and woke up at 3:00pm. Oops!
December 13, 2004 – (Not so) wonderful kids
Posted by Barniferous in Shizuoka, Teaching English on December 13, 2014
The injured teacher who was rushed to the hospital a few days ago was back to work today. He was okay to teach in the classroom, but I was asked to teach his kids class to help protect his injured back.
The kids class was full of 8 wonderful children who were very attentive and eager to learn English. They were a pleasure to teach and I think the lesson went very well.
Author’s note: The only thing true about the last two sentences was the number of children.
December 11, 2004 – Medical emergency
Posted by Barniferous in Teaching English on December 11, 2014
Today was an exciting day at work for all the wrong reasons. One of the teachers injured his back the day before while riding a bicycle. After about 3 lessons, he started having trouble breathing and was rushed to the hospital. The other teachers were worried and upset, and the staff did their best to rearrange the schedule on short notice.
Removing a teacher from the schedule in the middle of a shift is not an easy thing to do, and ends up negatively affecting students, teachers, and the staff who have to make it all work out.
I could do without this kind of excitement on the job.
Drinking in Japan 
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