Archive for category Friends and coworkers

November 8, 2004 – Earthquakes and Zombies

DOD

Today I got to spend some time with The Penpal. It looks like Monday might be our regular hangout day. I have the day off, and she stops by after work. We did some Japanese language practice and I learned some words to describe the taste of food.

After The Penpal left, I watched the new Dawn of the Dead with Palmer. I had some concerns about “fast” zombies and the fact that remakes are usually not as good as the original, but I was pleasantly surprised. It was also obviously filmed in Canada. In the background of one of the mall scenes was a KFC restaurant sporting the sign “PFK” which is the French name.

During the movie we felt two earthquakes. Palmer said that our building is modern and well designed. If we can feel a mild earthquake inside, it must be stronger outside. Not sure if that was reassuring at all.

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November 7, 2004 – BBQ in the park

After work I went to an impromptu BBQ in the park near my apartment. Palmer organized the BBQ, and invited some of his Japanese friends and NOVA teachers. When an Australian plans a BBQ, you know it’s going to be good.

Ooka park is conveniently located on the other side of the 7-11 across the street from Ooka City Plaza. Usually in Japan, any space with a tree and a bench can be called a park. Ooka Park actually has some grass, tennis courts, baseball diamonds, and picnic tables. It would count as a park in Canada as well.

Palmer plays on a local recreational basketball team. One of his basketball teammates is named Yao, a half Ghanian, half Japanese man. Yao’s features are not Asian at all, except for the shape of his eyes. Since he was born and raised in Japan, he carries a Japanese passport and speaks the language fluently with a perfect local accent. People who don’t know him take a look at the tall, dark skinned man and assume he is a foreigner. He enjoys surprising people who can’t believe that he is a Japanese citizen.

Japan is a very homogenous society, but as international marriages continue to increase (slowly), there will be more Japanese people who don’t look “Japanese”. It should present some interesting challenges for Japanese society.

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November 3, 2004 – First day at Mishima NOVA

Beware of purse snatchers - seen near Mishima station

Beware of purse snatchers – seen near Mishima station

Today was my first day at my new branch, Mishima NOVA. My new school only has a total of 8 teachers, which is a nice change from the 24 or so in Kawasaki NOVA. The atmosphere is a lot more relaxed and organized, and there is already a much greater variety of students. I don’t expect to have Sundays full of four engineer lessons anymore!

The school is in a building directly across the street from the south exit of Mishima station. The classroom area is less claustrophobic than Kawasaki NOVA, and there are good sized Voice and NOVA Kids classrooms. The only complaints so far are that the teacher’s room is small and extremely narrow, the surrounding area doesn’t have a huge choice for food, and the washrooms only have squat toilets. I am very concerned about the squat toilets!

After work I went out for drinks and karaoke (again) with Azeroth and one of the branch managers. This was my second night in a row at Uta Club. Both Azeroth and the manager were very good singers, so I had to compensate by being very loud.

Karaoke rule number 1: If you can’t sing well, you should at least sing loudly while flailing your arms around 🙂

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November 2, 2004 – This karaoke looks familiar

I slept a lot during the daytime to catch up on my recently lack of sleep. I was planning on having a quiet evening at home, but Palmer invited me to go out with a few of his friends that were visiting. Realizing this would be a good way to get to know my new roommate better (and have beer), I agreed and we were on our way.

Our first stop was a small izakaya on the main street that runs by Seiyu. It was a small izakaya where Palmer and friends have been several times, so the service was really friendly. Notable on the menu was whale sashimi. Yes, raw whale meat was available for purchase. I was curious, but one order cost nearly 2000 yen.

Raw whale meat – controversial and possibly delicious

After beer and non-whale pub food, we went to a karaoke place called Uta Club which is conveniently located across from Numazu station’s south exit. Uta Club is popular because it is one of the cheapest karaoke places in Numazu. One hour of all you can drink karaoke costs 780 yen, and there is a special cheap price after midnight. After a short time, I realized that I was in the same place that The Penpal took me for my first karaoke experience in Japan.

From Numazu station to my new apartment is about a 15 minute walk. It seems much, much longer when you are full of cheap beer. I don’t know the way perfectly yet, so I am very happy that Palmer knew where he was going.

So far I have been in Numazu for two days and had two fun nights out. Hopefully this continues!

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November 1, 2004 – Moving Day

Today was moving day! I am writing this from my new home in Numazu, Japan.

The mover arrived around 9:00am. He was a huge, muscular guy with terrible skin that couldn’t speak any English. We managed to decide where to park the truck, and then started loading all of my stuff. He was easily carrying my heavy boxes of books while I struggled and tried not to fall down the stairs. I got my room inspected, said my final goodbyes, and we set off for Numazu.

This was my first time to travel to Shizuoka by road. It was a very different experience than Japan Rail. The mover and I were able to have a very basic conversation on the road, thanks to my limited Japanese ability and my Japanese / English dictionary. The highlight for me was the GPS Navigation system. I am a fan of all fun technology, so I was thoroughly entertained by the map updates and the recommendations of places to stop, gas up, or eat along the way. I also had a good laugh when the GPS started up and said “Let’s Practice Safety Driving”. The term “safety driving” is one of every English teacher’s biggest pet peeves, right up there with “go to shopping”.

Japanese addresses are not terribly useful because of the lack of street names. We entered my new address in the GPS, but it got lost and directed us to a loading dock next to a factory of some sort. Thankfully, The Penpal and I had scouted my new apartment a few weeks ago, so I was able to give some basic directions and we eventually found it. The mover was impressed that I had a Japanese girlfriend. Go me!

We eventually found the apartment and unloaded all of my junk. My new home is a three bedroom apartment in a building called Ooka City Plaza. I have two roommates – Azeroth and Palmer. Azeroth is an American who works at Fuji branch, and Palmer is a tall, bald Australian who works at Numazu branch. So far they seem pretty cool.

In the evening The Penpal came over to check out my new place, and we went out for food together. So far I really like my new place! More details to follow.

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October 31, 2004 – Packing all night on Halloween

Zoe, me, and Okonomi at Halloween. My costume was "English teacher"

Zoe, me, and Okonomi at Halloween. My costume was “English teacher”

Today is Halloween! It was also my last day living and working in Kawasaki. After work I went out for a final beer at Kiosk with Anzac. I thanked him for all the good advice he gave me as a teacher and wished him the best. It was good to have one last Kiosk beer, but it only served to start my packing later.

Every time I move I realize just how much crap a person can accumulate. I spent a few hours packing by myself, then Okonomi joined me. We packed and worked on a bottle of shuchu. In retrospect, the shochu probably didn’t help productivity very much. The end result of packing was:

  • 2 large suitcases
  • 8 moving boxes
  • a computer
  • one futon mattress
  • a TV
  • my awesome floor couch

I also made some donations to the dozo table of things I just had no room or reason to bring with me. By the end I got two and a half hours of sleep. I hate packing!

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October 28, 2004 – Farewell karaoke

Tonight was my final Thursday night karaoke before I move to Shizuoka. Since my work farewell party didn’t really happen due to poor planning (on my part) and the horrible cold that was going around, tonight was my official NOVA farewell party.

We met at Big Echo in Yokohama at 9:30 like usual and got a room for 9 people. More people started coming in, and at our peak we had 15 people jammed into a room built for 9. It was a lot of fun and a great final night to hang out with my Kawasaki NOVA coworkers.

I love karaoke!

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October 25, 2004 – My farewell party

Tonight was my Hello House farewell party. It was a lot more subdued than the previous evening’s activities, but was still a lot of fun. Yes, more beer and karaoke 🙂

(2014 Update) One of the residents of Hello House at the time was Dan Bailey, who was an English teacher at the time. Dan has now gone on to fame and success as one half of Tokyo Dandy, a pair of influential fashion party blogger guys. Dan was good friends with Lux, but I always got the impression that he didn’t like me. It turns out that I was wrong, and Dan did a lot make sure I had a well organized and fun farewell party. Thanks Dan!

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October 24, 2004 – Singing Tupac for free drinks

Somehow I had another special topic voice at Keikyu Kawasaki school. After work I was supposed to have my official office farewell party. Unfortunately due to lack of communication and the evil cold that is going around, only three people (including me) showed up. To make up for it, there will be an extra large crowd at karaoke on Thursday.

I went home, still in a party mood, so I Okonomi and I set out for food, drinks, and karaoke. Karaoke is better in larger groups, and can be awkward with just two people. However, after making liberal use of the all you can drink service, we didn’t seem to mind.

In the middle of one of Okonomi’s songs, a drunk Japanese guy walked into our room by accident. He looked around and realized that he was in the wrong place. He instantly started apologizing. We told him that it was no problem, and that he was our new tomodachi (friend). This made him happy, so he started dancing while we were singing. Suddenly, without any warning, he reached over, grabbed Okonomi’s chest with both hands and said “opai!” (boobs!). Normally getting groped by a drunk stranger would start a fight. Okonomi was surprised, but then started laughing at the absurdity of the situation. Our new friend and I started laughing too. He then apologized once more and left to find his original karaoke room.

Okonomi and I kept singing and drinking until our time expired, and then went to settle the bill. Before we left, one of us got the idea that we should see if our breast grabbing friends was still around. We peeked in the windows of the other rooms until we found him and his friends. We opened the door to say hi, and he quickly welcomed us in and gave us drinks.

Somehow we were part of their group now. The group picked songs for each of us. I can’t remember what Okonomi sang, but she did a great job at it. For my turn I had to sing “Changes” by Tupac Shakur. I had never heard the song before, but managed to follow along and got a standing ovation at the end.

On the way home we stopped at Family Mart for some food to absorb some of the excess alcohol in our systems. There is nothing quite like convenience store pastries after way too much fun at karaoke. Okonomi was in worse shape than I was, so I had to walk back with her arm around my neck to keep her stable. When we returned to Hello House I tried to take her to her room, but she declined and said that her room was too lonely. Uh-oh. We returned to my room, where I graciously offered her my futon while I crashed out on my foldy floor couch.

At some point during the night I woke up sweating with a large weight on me. No, it’s not what you think! Okonomi had woken up and decided to return to her room to sleep. In her intoxicated state, she mistook my futon for a blanket and put it on top of me before she left. Judging by how hot I was, I must have been sleeping under my heavy, warm futon for a while.

It was another fun and crazy night drinking in Japan, and one that I was going to pay for the next day.

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The English teaching community is a small world

I am writing this post in 2014. It didn’t get an entry at the time, but was a worthwhile story. I believe the events actually took place sometime between August and October 2004.

At the time, the Lexington Queen bar in Roppongi was the popular place for Hello House residents to go. The Lex was famous both as a place where visiting celebrities might stop from time to time, and also as a “meat factory” pick up bar.

One day while hanging out at Hello House, I was talking to (name redacted), one of my Aussie female friends. She was nursing a particularly rough looking hangover. To be clear, she looked like death. Usually a massive hangover has a story to go with it, so I asked about what she did the night before. She explained that she went with a group from Hello House to The Lex and really overdid it. She drank far too much, and ended up going home with another female English teacher.

(Name redacted) had told me before that while she generally prefers guys, she does also like women and had dated one in University for 6 months. Therefore leaving with another woman was not a complete shock. Being the classy guy that I am, I tried to pry for details, but had no success.

The fun part of the story turned out to be the “who”, not the “what”. (Name redacted) asked me if I knew a Kiwi teacher named Ruby. I told her that yes, Ruby was a part of my regular Thursday night karaoke crew. It took me a minute, then I realized that Ruby was the woman that (name redacted) had gone home with. Who says Aussies and Kiwis can’t get along? Out of all of the English teachers in the Greater Tokyo area, my friend from Hello House managed to hook up with my Karaoke friend who was roommates with one of my coworkers at Kawasaki NOVA. The teaching community can seem very small at times!

(Name redacted) had some regrets about the experience, and didn’t really want to see Ruby again. Ruby had other plans, and was already texting (name redacted) to meet up again. For the next month or so after this happened, every time I went to Thursday night karaoke Ruby was asking about (name redacted); how she was doing, why wasn’t she returning messages, could I invite her to karaoke, etc. I relayed the messages to (name redacted) who asked for some good advice on how to tell Ruby that she really wasn’t interested.

When people think about moving to another country for teaching or travel, they often just consider the cultural experiences they will have. One of the most important things I learned about living in Japan is that the experience is so much more than just trains, temples, and technology. The interactions I had with other people were often some of my most interesting memories.

I moved to Japan to teach English, and for a brief period I got to end up being the reluctant message boy for a drunken all female one night stand. And that’s not something you will find in any of the travel brochures.

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