Snow Days are Happy Days

In case you hadn't guessed by our long, snow-filled drive a week ago, winter has truly come to Tajima. Japan is getting record snowfall all over the country, with a few deaths [mainly from auto accidents or elderly folks falling off the roofs. If you don't shovel off your roof, the roof might collapse under the weight]. While nothing too dire has happened in Wadayama, two of the three school days last week were cancelled. Of course, only students had the days off, as we teachers had to demonstrate our loyalty by braving the weather. It took me half an hour to bike to school, but at least I didn't have to drive.

No new snow on Christmas, but today has more than made up for it. I got pretty tired of hearing "Abunaiyo" [dangerous] from everyone who saw me on my bike. Just for the record- no, riding a bike in snow is not dangerous. I can't go very fast, and if I did fall, there is tons of snow to cushion me. What's dangerous would be the scary drivers. The drivers hate to share the road with bikes- so most cyclists weave in and out of pedestrians on the sidewalks. Hate to support any stereotypes, but "DWA" is really true out here in Inaka, Japan. I think it's the anonymity- it empowers drivers to run lights, cut you off, crowd you, etc. I am very glad I don't drive here.

Christmas in Japan

Yesterday was Christmas. We started off the day very Japanese-like by hitting the onsen. Feeling clean and warm, we went over to Nick and Jenny's and whipped up a Christmas meal to be proud of: turkey, mashed 'tatoes, green bean casserole, devilled eggs, apple pie and mulled wine. Tania brought her two kids, a pal, and potatoes au gratin, so we had a nice gathering. Watched Charlie Brown's Christmas and Rudolph, played some cards, and ate a lot. A good time was had by all.

Christmas actually has been adopted by the Japanese. They skip over the whole religious aspect [one of my 1st years was totally shocked that Christmas had anything to do with Christ], and get down to presents and decorations. And yes, they even put the Christmas decorations out in late October. Life is surreal when you're in Japan and think "Man, it's waaay too early for Christmas decorations." Other glorious Japanese Christmas traditions:

* KFC. At some point some KFC rep came over, lied through his teeth, and told the Japanese that Americans all eat fried chicken on Christmas. Come Christmas time, fried chicken is everywhere!

* For afters, the Japanese like to indulge in a little Christmas cake. Usually a white sponge cake, topped with loads of white frosting, and studded with strawberries. Sadly, a "Christmas Cake" also refers to women 26+, as no one wants them after the 25th. :(

*Christmas is a holiday for lovers- the hotel rates soar and vacancies are hard to come by.

*Presents are pretty minor at Christmas. Usually just between lovers, or from parents to children.

A Few of My Favorite Things

Seeing as how the curse is so strong that most of my posts are "interesting stories," I decided I should compile a list of things I love here in Japan.

*Haagen-Daz Crispy Ice Cream Sandwiches. Recently discovered that the Caffe Latte is even better than the Macha-Red Bean

*Cheap heat packs. I'm currently using the foot ones, and they made my walk to school toasty.

*Onsens.

*Massage Chairs. Those at Onsens are the best - nothing is better than a hot soak followed by a massage chair.

*Takoyaki

*Amazing delivery turnarounds. Our air conditioner was delivered the same day [a Sunday!] and for about $5.00

*Muji- this store rocks! There are now branches in the States, so I sincerely hope Seattle gets one.

*Mushi-Kingu. I don't actually play this, but I love seeing anything related to it. It's a video game, but you buy cards to play. You pay about $5/card. You insert the card and discover how strong your bug is. You can fight other kids' bugs. Oh yeah, Mushi means bug/insect, so Mushi-Kingu means King Bug.

*Sushi and green tea are of much better quality here.

*Engrish. The total nonsense ones are funny, but I love the ones that are grammatically correct with really odd word choice.

The Curse

So, many of you have probably noticed that we seem to encounter a lot of ... bad luck. Well, I do. Aaron seems to survive easily in the big towns. But add me, and suddenly keitais get lost, bikes get stolen, visas aren't obtained.

So the whole Kobe thing was kinda a relief for us, as absolutely NONE of it was my fault! I had nothing to do with any of the mistakes! Now, the pessimistic way to view this is that my curse now effects any interactions I participate in. I, however, prefer to see it as my curse is lessening. This is important, as Aaron and I are heading to Tokyo with Nick and Jenny for New Year's, and I'm really hoping to avoid anything that inspires people to say, "Well, at least it makes a good story."

Ironically, if I could channel this bad luck, I could be like Domino or Black Cat, finally fulfilling my desire to be a superhero. Geek points awarded to those of you who know both of those characters.

Kobe Part Two

AKA "The exhausting and horrible part"

After leaving Kobe, we reached Akashi, where Piotr had parked. We find the car, but... no power. Piotr had left the lights on. This led to me butchering Japanese in an effort to find help. Of course, I didn't know any of the useful words, so it went kinda like this: [Uh, excuse me? My friend's car is ...broken. Ba-ta-ri is broken/dead. Do you have ja-m-paa kay-ba-ru-su?] Not surprisingly, this did not find us any help. One person actually understood this, but didn't have cables. He directed us to the koban [police box]. But, of course, there were no cops to be found. We returned to the car and to flagging down people. By this point, it's around 11 pm.

Then Piotr decides to call his pal Yukiko, who we'd just been hanging out w' in Kobe. She rounds up her dad and they come to help us. Weeeelllll, Yukiko's dad was groovin', doin' his own thing, being helpful... Once the connection was secured, Piotr got a bit of power. Great, right? Just chill a bit, let the battery get charged. Weeellll, Y's dad was fiddling around w' stuff, and all of a sudden, the car just dies. No lights, no power, no nothing. A bit of exploring reveals that Y's dad decided "Hmmm, some power with this connection. Maybe if I CROSS THE CABLES I'll get more power faster." GAH!! It is now quite late. And Y's dad either is embarrassed or oblivious to "Don't cross the streams" rule, so he's talking about how Piotr's shaken [shah-ken: a manditory car inspection that every car must have every 2 years] must be old or his battery is faulty. We finally call up JAF [Japanese version of AAA]. The repairman arrives, asks if we crossed the cables, and roots about for awhile. Decides he needs to look at the fusebox [which is in the engine in Japanese cars, BTW].

This is all taking awhile, so Aaron and I dash to a konbini for snacks and a bathroom. We entertain ourselves with "Never cross the streams" "What happens if you cross the streams" "Imagine the end of the universe" "You said crossing the streams was bad" Feeling relieved and vented, we return to the car. It is now almost 1 am. The fusebox is finally opened [seems the box had been ... fused shut], the fuse replaced, so we are ready to be on our way. Much thanking of Y's dad [he did have the best intentions], Yukiko, and the JAF man.

On our way home, we manage to get lost in Himeji. Roads in Japan are horrible; if you miss your exit off the highway, you are screwed. Which is, of course, what we did, and what we were for a good 45 minutes. We finally figure out how to reach the expressway, where we are greeted with a neon sign reading "Snow" "Fukusaki" "Wadayama". We optimistically reduce this to a snow advisory. Well, two towns later, the expressway is closed, and we're on packed-snow, driving up the back roads.

Thanks to Piotr's amazing snow-driving, a bit of pushing [courtesy of me and Aaron at Ikuno Pass], and general perseverence, we arrive in Wadayama at 5 am. Thankful to be alive and home, we slept til noon.

Kobe Part 1

AKA "The Good Part."

Last weekend we headed down to Kobe to see the Luminarie. The Luminarie was started about ten years ago, in an effort to cheer citizens after the Hanshin Earthquake [1995- about 6,000 people died]. It's very popular, and pretty packed. Took us about an hour to wind our way there, walk through the frames, and reach the park. Very enjoyable, but the Luminarie does look best from afar.

Before enjoying the lights, Aaron and I wandered around Kobe. Had some tasty Belgian beer, found a great liquor shop, where we bought Absinthe. Love that illegal-over-there-but-legal-here stuff! All in all, had an absolutely fantastic time.

Long Johns

I have discovered the amazing garments known as Long Johns. I avoided them as long as I could, but the nasty weather, lack of insulation, and wimpy kerosene heaters have joined forces. I now have three pairs. My fave are the gray ones from Muji- super soft and very warm. They are so great I almost feel sexy. But not quite. Sadly, it is an inherent trait of long underwear to make you feel frumpy. Better to be warm, though!

Calligraphy Teacher

The lady flashing the peace sign is the Calligraphy teacher at my school. Her name is Kojima, and she is super helpful. She was gracious enough to give us a washing machine, even though she had to chase me down on a Saturday morning to do it- I was racing all over town looking for a pay phone that could call international. Here she is the Ikuno Kanaya matsuri [festival], deep frying tasty fish paste. She lives in Ikuno and helped organize parts of the festival. This pic is from quite awhile ago, but it's cute, so there you are.

Testing, testing, 1 2 3

On December 9th I headed down to Kobe to take the dreaded Japanese Language Proficiency Test, aka [and hereafter] the JLPT. There are 4 levels, 4 being the easiest and 1 being the hardest. I had signed up for level 3 thinking it would encourage me to study. I had done most of the grammar forms and even more kanji while in college, so I thought a bit of studying up would be no trouble. Woof! I was so wrong! Namely, I didn't study nearly enough. Too much time spent settling in, figuring things out. Then we were being social, or relaxing. So, about 2 weeks before the test I reconciled myself to the fact that I would fail the test. This is ok, as I still did some studying, and that my ridiculous contrary nature might find studying easier after the test.

I caught a ride down w' Sarah, a pal from my Japanese class who lives nearby. We parked in Himeji, then trained over to Kobe. I had a fantastic time on Saturday; found my face cream, met up w' Malik and Rachel from Osaka, went to Chinatown. Oh yeah, and I studied a bit. I stayed in a hostel that night. The hostel had an onsen, but you had to walk down 2 flights of stairs [while naked!!] to reach the baths. Since this was only my second time, walking up and down naked, having to ask for directions from naked people, made me a tad uncomfortable. Especially my 5 minute conversation in mixed English/Japanese from a newly widowed woman who told me all about her daughter who's a flight attendant. Yes, while naked.

The next day I got up very early [I didn't sleep well- I always forget how much I hate sleeping outside my own bed], and tried to find a cafe for some cramming. sigh. Even the Starbucks wasn't open til 7:30. Met up with Sarah, went over to the test.

The test was horrible. It wasn't too hard; if I had really studied from the moment I arrived, or been responsible and actually continued studying after I graduated, I could have passed. There is even a slight possibility that I did pass. I actually hope that I did not, because I plan to retake the test next year. I intend to truly study, and to practice, my Japanese. I won't find out how badly I failed until March-> why so long? I have no idea, as the damn test is a scantron and could be graded in a day. But this is Japan, so I'm sure there are some subtleties I don't understand about the grading process. ;P

The big, bad news about the test is that I managed to lose my keitai [cell phone]. I dropped it somewhere between the konbini [convenience store] and the university. I talked to the people in charge of the test, and after some craziness, it was determined that no one had turned it in. I went to the konbini, but no luck. Then I went to the koban [police box]. I actually love the idea of kobans- they are posted throughout cities, always have a cop or two [this one had 10! 4 inside and 6 outside sitting in a parked cop car], so they can respond more quickly to calls in the neighborhoods. I had to fill out a report about my phone. Luckily Jon was there to help- I thought I understood the questions, but my responses weren't getting me anywhere. Turns out I did understand pretty well [hurrah!], but the cops needed more info. Hurrah for Jon and his superior Japanese! Oh yeah, and I learned that "Lawsons" in Japanese is not "Rah-sonsu" as I thought, but "Roh-sonsu." You would think this would be close enough to not matter, but I assure you, it does matter! Almost as much as "San-do-wichi" [understandable to Japanese] and "San-do-wich" [not understandable to Japanese].

You'd think that losing my keitai would've ruined my day, but I actually didn't care too much. I mainly felt bad for everyone who had to search w' me; Sarah, Alicen, Jon, and Krystal. We'd planned to hit Kobe together and I screwed things up. Everyone was really nice and understanding about it, which I really appreciate! Besides taking up everyone's time, I actually don't feel too bad. It's inconvienant; I had to suspend my service, and it looks like I'll have to get a new phone soon, but hey- it could have been my wallet. And since it appears that my life in Japan is a series of ups and downs, I figure this down balanced out my fabulous Saturday. Maybe I'm learning some patience, or maybe the fact that I hate cell phones is seeping through [although they are super handy here in Japan, and I will have to get another one].

The rest of the day was spent eating- Okanomiyaki and gingerbread lattes- and travelling. Then I got home, finally saw Aaron [he was in Osaka doing more movie stuff from Dec 1 thru Dec 4], then went to bed. Huzzah!