Archive for category Life in Japan
July 16, 2005 – Atami Summer Festival
Posted by Barniferous in Life in Japan on July 16, 2015
Today I got to work a rare early Saturday shift. Through my entire time teaching, I have always worked the late shift on Saturday. Most teachers work early Saturdays, and then get started on their evening activities while I am still at the office.
Conveniently, there was a summer festival in Atami. Koalako invited me and some of the other teachers to come to the festival. We all met up and took the train to Atami. I had never been to a summer festival before, so I didn’t really know what to expect. We walked through the hilly streets of Atami to Koalako’s house. I had met her parents earlier in the ear at a really fun karaoke night. They greeted us all with beer and sushi, which is a pretty great way to greet people.
After eating, we were provided with Hapi Coats (a short robe) to go to the festival. As we approached the main street of Atami, we saw throngs of people on either side of the road cheering on the giant floats that were being pulled down the street. All of the floats had lights and decorations, and were full of people drumming, playing instruments, and singing loudly. It was a crazy atmosphere.
We followed Koalako down the street through the crowds. I expected that we were going to find a spot and watch the parade. However, I was surprised when she lifted up the barrier rope and called us into the street. Not wanting to be left behind, we followed her as she walked up to one of the giant floats. At the front of the float was a team of people in summer festival gear holding on to a large rope used to pull the float through the streets. Koalako introduced us, and her friends made room on the rope.
Yes, we were now part of the team pulling the float through Atami!
We pulled the brightly lit float while everyone inside made lots of noise, entertaining the crowd and competing with the other floats. Occasionally we would stop to jump around and dance, and generally try to make even more noise. Thankfully my years in the fraternity had provided great training for jumping around and being noisy, so I fit right in with the crowd.
By the time we finished and parked the float, we were drenched in sweat. High fives were exchanged, beer flowed freely, and giant bottles of water were poured over heads. As we walked back towards the train station, we all agreed that it was one of the most fun nights we had ever experienced in Japan, and we hoped to do it again next year!
(2015 Update) Check my post about a visit to Atami Summer festival in summer 2013 here
July 14, 2005 – Back to work, schedule changes
Posted by Barniferous in Life in Japan, Teaching English on July 14, 2015
My vacation is now officially over, and I was back to work today. I agreed to work a shift swap to help out another teacher, which means that I will be working the next 11 days in a row. It’s going to suck.
However, I also got some good news about work. I learned that as of August 1st, I will be transferred to NOVA’s Numazu branch. This will save me some time getting to and from work. Getting to Mishima NOVA doesn’t take me very long now, but I will be able to get to work in less than 10 minutes by bicycle with no train ride required.
More importantly, my days off are changing to the rare but extremely popular Sunday / Monday. This means that I will be able to spend time with The Penpal on the weekends without begging for a shift swap! The bad news is that 4 of my 5 shifts are late shifts, including continuing my streak of late Saturdays. It’s still a small price to pay for Sunday / Monday off.
July 9, 2005 – The best food show ever
Posted by Barniferous in Life in Japan on July 9, 2015
Today I watched the greatest Japanese TV show ever since Iron Chef, and possibly the best food show ever: Debuya.
Every since TV was invented, there have been shows about food. Most of the shows involve cooking, but not many involve people eating. Debuya features two large Japanese men traveling around the country eating local delicacies. The best part is that they absolutely love EVERYTHING. The show reminds me of when Homer Simpson became a food critic on the Simpsons (before he intentionally started writing bad reviews). Debuya needs to be translated and sent overseas immediately; it will become a huge hit.
Other than watching people eat, I went out and bought the new Queens of the Stone Age Album: Lullabies to Paralyze. Like other QOTSA, this one is also amazing!
Buying CDs in Japan is usually more expensive than buying them back home, but there are often extras for the Japan release. For example, my CD had three bonus tracks for Japan, a book of Japanese translations of the lyrics, and a bonus DVD. How cool is that?
(2015 Update) I don’t think Debuya ever made it to North America, but there have been a lot more shows about people eating since I wrote this post in 2005. What does a person need to do in order to get a job traveling and eating? That sounds fantastic!
July 7, 2005 – Eastside Hockey Manager
Posted by Barniferous in Life in Japan on July 7, 2015
After a few days of traveling and lots of walking, I spent the entire day at home playing an incredibly addictive game called Eastside Hockey Manager 2005.
EHM is a hockey business simulation, where you take the role of general manager of a hockey team. It has thousands of real players from over 20 different hockey leagues around the world. I spent my day drafting, trading, and scouting players while trying to win the Stanley Cup. This is simply a fantastic business simulation game.
Since my computer is a bit underpowered, it took some time for the days to advance in my game. While the computer was thinking, I read The Stand by Stephen King.
Video games and a good book = great use of a vacation day!
(2015 Update) Eastside Hockey Manager got an update in 2007, but due to rampant piracy the series was discontinued. While looking for a screenshot of the game, I was shocked to learn that Eastside Hockey Manager came back suddenly, with a new version hitting the net late March 2015!! There goes the rest of my free time! Check it out here at http://eastsidehockey.com/
July 5, 2005 pt3 – How to eat an egg
Posted by Barniferous in Life in Japan, Western Japan on July 4, 2015
After a long day of sightseeing in Himeji and Osaka, I decided that I should get some food before crashing for the night. By this time it was about 10:00pm, and I was hungry. My hotel is in an area filled with office buildings, so there wasn’t a large variety of restaurants available. I was about to settle for convenience store food, but decided instead to try out Sukiya, a gyudon chain restaurant.
I had never been to Sukiya before. Going into a new restaurant solo when you aren’t confident in your language ability can be a bit intimidating. I walked in and noticed counter seats around the cooking area, as well as a few tables. There was no ticket machine in the entrance. Usually this indicates that you should sit at the counter and order from there.
I took a seat at the far end of the counter, and started browsing the menu in front of me. There were various different styles of gyudon, which is delicious grilled beef and onions served on rice. I decided to order the kimchi gyudon set, which included a drink and miso soup.
A few minutes later I was presented with a big bowl of gyudon, a small bowl of miso soup, a glass of water, and a small bowl with an egg still in its shell, and a small empty bowl. I knew what to do with the gyudon, soup, and water, but had never been served an egg like this before. I had no idea what to do with the egg.
When confronted with new restaurant experiences, I like to try to figure things out myself. My main technique is to casually look around the restaurant to see what other people are doing and copy that. I started eating my gyudon while looking around at the few other diners in the restaurant. Since it was after 10 pm, there weren’t a lot of people eating, and many of them were already in the middle of their meals. Looking around provided no help at all.
I continued eating my delicious gyudon, stopping to gently spin the egg in the bowl. I remembered a science book from when I was younger telling me that I could tell the difference between a raw egg and a hard boiled egg by spinning them. A hard boiled egg spins longer and more smoothly than a raw egg. This comparison works a lot better when you have one of each so you can see the difference. Spinning my one egg in it’s small bowl provided some small amount of entertainment, but no insight into what I was supposed to do.
At this point, I was about half way through my gyudon. I decided that I would have to test my Japanese language abilities and actually ask someone for help. My mind went back to my Japanese courses in university to assemble a “how do I” sentence. Normally this wouldn’t be terribly difficult, but after a full day of travel and sightseeing, it took some time. I practiced the sentence in my head a few times to make sure I knew what I wanted to say, and that it would make sense to the server.
There weren’t a lot of staff working, so by the time I caught the server’s attention, I had eaten almost all of my gyudon. I called the server over with a polite “sumimasen” (excuse me). I followed that with “kono tamago, doo yatte tabemasu ka?” which means “this egg, how eat?”. In Japanese the verb usually goes at the end of the sentence, making direct word for word translations sound like Yoda speak.
The server gave me a bit of a confused look. I was worried that he didn’t understand my question, but then he started explaining that I should crack the egg into the empty bowl, mix it up, and then pour it over the gyudon. I thanked him for his help, and he walked away.
- When you pour a raw egg over a full steaming hot bowl of gyudon and mix it up, the egg cooks while coating the rice. This is very delicious.
- When you pour a raw egg over a room temperature, mostly empty bowl of gyudon, the raw egg simply sits there, making the remaining rice slippery and nearly impossible to pick up with chopsticks. This is not delicious.
After making a few unsuccessful attempts to finish my slippery gyudon with chopsticks, I decided to use the spoon from my miso soup to help me out. I was rewarded with a mouthful of raw egg and slimy rice. At that point I decided to give up.
The lesson to my story is when presented with an unfamiliar food, it’s better to ask a silly question than to end up with a bowl full of raw egg.
July 4, 2005 – VACATION BEGINS!
Posted by Barniferous in Life in Japan on July 1, 2015
VACATION YAY!
Today was the first day of my week off. Unlike last year where I used my vacation time to host visitors from back home, I will actually get some time to myself. I am planning on going west to see Himeji Castle and Osaka tomorrow, but I spent my first day off being VERY lazy.
How lazy was I? Well, the only way I could have been more lazy would have involved some planning, which would have required effort, which would have disqualified it from being lazy.
July 1, 2005 – Feeling old on Canada Day
Posted by Barniferous in Life in Japan on June 30, 2015
Happy Canada Day!
I celebrated by going to a farewell party for a student at Mishima NOVA who is moving to Canada to seek her fortune. The party went all night, but I only stayed out until 2:00am. I must be getting old.
(2015 Update) Due to NOVA’s policy prohibiting interaction with students outside of the classroom, my original post 10 years ago mentioned a farewell party for a friend instead of a student. Calling Yuki a friend is not incorrect – I had been out for beer, sushi, and karaoke several times with her, Azeroth, and the regular group of people a few times. I am also still Facebook friends with her to this day.
June 26, 2005 – Birthday karaoke (not mine)
Posted by Barniferous in Azeroth, Karaoke on June 26, 2015
Tonight I went out for birthday karaoke (not mine) with Azeroth and some of his friends, most of whom are students. I didn’t think there was such a think as too much karaoke, but by the end my voice gave out and all I could do was squeak into the microphone.
June 22, 2005 – Dangerous new deals at the izakaya
Posted by Barniferous in Drinking, Life in Japan on June 22, 2015
Holy crap – my favourite izakaya now has 1000 yen all you can drink for 90 minutes. 100 yen beer nights have the potential to be dangerous, but all you can drink on a timer is just asking for trouble. Unlike some of my friends, I took it VERY easy on the all you can drink both because I have to work tomorrow and because I ate a huge dinner and was still full.
If you can’t get drunk for cheap in Japan, you are drinking in the wrong places.
Only 64 lessons left until my vacation!
June 17, 2005 – Making out in the park
Posted by Barniferous in Life in Japan, The Penpal on June 17, 2015
I work an early shift on Friday, so usually after work I meet up with The Penpal and we hang out at one of the parks near Mishima station. Her office is conveniently about half way between my workplace and her house, and only takes a few minutes by bicycle.
Our usual hangout spot was taken, so we went to a nearby park for the first time. Unlike a typical “park” in Tokyo, which usually consists of a tree and a bench, this one was a reasonable size. The park was laid out around a large pond filled with fish, with a tree lined path around the outside and several benches to sit and enjoy the view.
On one side of the path, just off to our left, we saw two high school kids sitting on another bench. They were far enough away that we couldn’t see exactly what they were doing, but they were close enough to get the general idea. I understand that there aren’t a lot of private places in Japan, especially ones accessible to high school kids, but a public park during is not the best place to get “friendly” when it’s still bright outside.
The fun stopped temporarily when an old lady walking her dog came across the students. She glared at them with what I assume was an evil look (her back was to us) until they stopped what they were doing and sat up. This brief pause lasted about as long as it took for the lady to angrily walk by, at which time they enthusiastically started up again.
Spending time with The Penpal after work is always fun. Today however, the students were enjoying the park much more than The Penpal and I were.
Drinking in Japan 
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