Ahhhh...

The weather is cooling down! I've now worn a pair of jeans three times! THREE! I have not put on any type of pants, let alone thick, hot jeans since June...only skirts, shorts and dresses for almost three months but it's actually cooled down enough in the past two weeks or so to wear jeans. The bad part about the cooler weather (and when I mean cooler, I mean it's hovering around 75) is that I'm getting paler. Nobody looks good in the winter and tanning beds don't exist here. I'm hoping that the sun is still strong enough for me to be able to lie outside a few more times and get some mini sunburns or something to hold me over another month or so. Bah.

We went to a baseball game yesterday! Baseball is HUGE in Japan. I think baseball is one of the most boring sports ever but it was fun nonetheless. One of the office workers in Ota (one of my schools) and her husband had tickets so they took Al and I and Katie and Lisa. In America, the 7th inning stretch everyone stands up and sings "Take Me Out to the Ballgame". In Japan, everyone blows up and lets go of these giant balloons that strongly resemble sperm after a traditional song that is played in the stadium.

Now, the game we went to was very empty (they had just won the league championship the night before so nobody came to our game) so letting the balloons go was cool but somewhat underwhelming. Now, if you go to Osaka to a Hanshin Tigers game (they are huge like the Yankees or something) there are something like over 50,000 releasing these balloons at the same time so it's like one giant balloon ejaculation.


We plan on trying to make it to one of those games next year...hopefully. Tickets are near impossible to get.

That's all for tonight...Al is whining for me to go to sleep :)

Atarashi Louis!

Just thought I'd post that I added a new addition to my LV family. I got this gem at a used shop (aka Heaven) for $900 LESS than what it retails for. They still sell the same bag in stores, albeit a slightly updated version, but it's still the same bag nonetheless. It's such a good, big size but the condition isn't even close to being new. The leather has already oxidized into the caramely brown it is now but other than that it shows very little signs of wear. I'm very, VERY happy with it and one of the main reasons I bought it was that Al and I both can use it. As we speak he is spending the weekend in Ehime (next prefecture over) and took it as his overnight bag because it "completes his outfit" as he says. (Do you doubt why we are together?) It usually sits in the closet in its dustbag but we do travel a lot and it's the perfect carry-on size for planes. I also just figured out how to put pictures on this thing so this will be my first one! <3 <3

Things I Love

Excuse me for my writing absence. It's been well over a month since I wrote last and I apologize. It's not because I don't want to write but because there really isn't much new to write about. It's a lot of the same day-to-day things that never change going on over here. Still working for the weekends and that's about it. I also like being alone when I write and (darling, you know I love you) Al is always around so I don't get much time to just sit down with my thoughts and bust out an entry.

I thought I'd put together some things I love and some things I hate (next post) about Japan. And I actually can't even say that I hate anything about this place...there are simply certain things that are terribly inconvenient that make my life more difficult. First, things I love:

1. The train. I absolutely love the idea of a train system. America needs one nationwide, though I don't think it would work out so well. I love being able to walk down the street to the station and hop a train nearly anywhere. It's also really relaxing, though in an odd way because it's loud and bumpy but there is something calming about turning on my iPod and letting someone else take me where I need to be.

2. My bike. The last time I rode a bicycle before coming to Japan was sometime circa 1999. I had always felt a little silly on one, even when it was just my family and I on camping trips. But now that I have a cute purple cruiser I've wondered why I never enjoyed it before. I can get to the market and put my groceries in my basket, go for a ride to the park or simply just escape the smallness of my apartment for a while. Though, if I really think about it, that's (unfortunately) not really an American lifestyle. One can't fit the vast amount of groceries bought from a Super Wal-Mart in a bike basket.

3. Celebrity status. Okay, not really celebrity, but closer than I'll ever get to Hollywood. Being in the smallest prefecture in Japan, the locals don't see many foreigners. I live in a very rural area. (Think rice paddies and shrines, not Tokyo) Al and I get stared at...a lot. I really love it though, makes me feel like we're Angelina and Brad or something. Sometimes it does make me want to roll my eyes because people are NOT bashful about the staring. I mean I'm standing on the train platform and someone sitting on the train very blatently leans to the window and strains their neck to just gape at me. I've also gotten a lot of free stuff too. A lady in the park selling handpainted postcards called me Britney Spears, played with my hair and gave me one of the postcards. (Many compliments on the hair. They think it's my natural color. I let them think that.) I also seem to get free dessert of some kind every time I go to my favorite Indian restaurant in Marugame. I've also been told that I'm a hot commodity when it comes to companies wanting teachers because I have the "ideal blonde hair and blue eyes". Sweet. Ah, the life of a blonde in a black haired country.

3. Vending machines. They are everywhere. It's a way of life in Japan and if you don't believe me google something along the lines of "Japan vending machines" and you will get article upon article about them and how Japan and vending machines go together like PB&J. But you can't get food in them ooooh no. (Besides the few rice machines scattered here and there and the one that sells vibrators down the street from my house) It's all drinks and they are on every corner. At least a few every single block, down cramped alleyways, in people's yards, and rows and rows of them in front of large places like department stores and train stations. The best thing to get out of one is...

4. Milk Tea. One of my favorite things I've discovered about Japan is this delicious, sweet tea drink that comes hot in the winter and cold in the summer. I'm from the south dude we don't put milk in our tea but I've discovered the amazingness of it and I'm already thinking about how I'm going to make some once I get back to the States. I guess it's pretty simple...brew a cup of a tea and put milk and sugar in it. WHAM BAM the best thing ever. I'm completely addicted and I can't seem to be able to pass a vending machine without getting one.

5. All the Louis Vuitton. See previous post.

6. Shopping. The Japanese people thrive on shopping whether they can afford to or not, so even here on my little island the shopping is abundant. Anywhere I go I can buy clothes...or anything really. There are little shops all over the place and malls and department stores and machis the list goes on and on.

Now onto the things I really dislike...

Things That Inconvenience My Life

Now onto the things I really dislike. Mostly a list of complaints. There are a lot of things in Japan that are so completely ridiculous that the foreigners have an acronym for the question we ask so often: "Why?" B.I.J. or Because It's Japan. That is the only reason we have for the nonsensical things we run across.

1. ATMs. Japan is mainly a cash-driven country. I guess a few places will take a credit card if they absolutely have to, but I dont' think I've ever seen anyone use such a thing since I've been here. But now we get to the fun part...the ATMs close at night. That's right, you heard me. There is no such thing as one staying open past 7pm, let alone 24 hours. If you need money at 9:30 at night you can forget it. You won't get any until the next morning. It's something I've had to learn to do...make sure I have enough cash on me at all times.

2. No trash cans. With the superfluous vending machines come the scarce trash cans. They seem to all have a specific dwelling such as bathrooms, train stations and McDonalds and rarely will you find them anywhere else. On the street? N-O. In Japan you are expected to take your trash home with you and throw it away in your own house. Um, okay. Even at the beach...campgrounds...forget it.

3. Laundry. I have a miniscule washing mashine outside on my porch and no dryer. But no one in Japan has a dryer. Everyone hangs their clothes outside and I really hate it. It takes forever to do laundry because I don't have much real estate space outside so I can have maybe two loads hanging out there at a time. I have to wait hours for it to dry then do more. I'm not even sure how it works in the winter...do the clothes just freeze?

4. Shoes on/off. On. Off. On. Off. On. Off. I don't see the point of having cute shoes in Japan because I have to take them off wherever I go. When I go to work I have to take them off and so I'm barefoot the rest of the day. Everyone is. Or everyone has special indoor slippers that go on the second the shoes come off. Going to a house party? Forget wearing those cute pumps you just got that perfectly complete your outfit because you have to take them off at the door and no one will ever see them. I found it quite comforting when I first arrived here running around work in my slippers but now it's become one of those things that is way more of a nuisance than a comfort.

5. Drivers. I've already posted how much I hate Japanese drivers and it hasn't changed unless it's just gotten worse. They are always in my way, going too slow, or taking up both lanes...or all three at the same time, which happens often.

6. Food going bad quickly. I guess this a good and bad thing. My fruits and vegetables start going bad incredibly fast and I've been told it's because they aren't full of preservatives like in the US. Fair enough. But when I bring bananas home I have to eat them the next day basically or else they will be too ripe by the second. Occassionally I can get maybe 2 1/2 days out of my fruit but that's pushing it. Bread is the same way...5 or 6 days out of it maybe? Not much more than that. A lot of the food actually has these little fresh packet things inside the packaging so as to keep the food from going bad even quicker. I guess a little packet of something is better than preservatives loaded into whatever I'm eating.


I'm sure I'll be adding more of these love/hate things as I live here longer...stay tuned...

Louis Vuitton

If you know me well enough you know how much I ADORE Louis Vuitton. I have had two small clutches to call my own and I'm very proud of it. I don't like LV because it's "popular" (if you can even call it that) or because everyone in the world once a piece of it. I like it because I like it and that's all there is to it. I can appreciate the immaculate quality (which is why I refuse to buy fake...which is tacky anyway) and I'm always anxious to see the new collections they come out with.

The reason for this post is to say that Japan has been making me one happy girl because there is LV Everywhere. I mean EVERYWHERE. The Japanese have a very high standard for quality and they love designer everything here. Just about everyone seems to have something or other LV and it's great. The area where I live is also swamped with consignment (secondhand) shops. Can you see where I'm going with this? Okay...while in Japan I can significantly increase my Louis Vuitton collection at a FRACTION of the price of paying retail because of all the secondhand stores around here. There are these big chain stores called Hard Off that are always guaranteed to be chock-full of designer anything all behind glass cases. There are also the smaller consignment boutiques just about everywhere you look and all these places have LV coming out their ears. I can get $1,800 bags for $300 and $400...sometimes cheaper but the better the deal the more used the bags are. I saw a giant Keepall 60 (a big duffle bag) that probably goes for about $1,300 for $250. Granted, it was very, very, very used...the leather was incredibly dark but it was still in good working condition. If it's still there in a few paychecks I was thinking about getting it. My goal before leaving Japan is to aquire maybe three or four used bags and maybe, just maybe, for a going away present for myself I'll walk into the store in Takamatsu and buy something brand new.

Just a side note...I guess when you resell your used LV (or any other designer items) to places like Hard Off they give you crap for it. An office worker at one of my schools told me she used to have tons of LV but had to sell it to consignment. She said she had about $10,000 worth of it and they gave her under $2,000. Now I'm not sure how consignment works from the selling end but that sounds terrible to me...maybe it's normal...I really don't know.

Sorry Y'all

Sooooo I haven't written in a while! I really do apologize but it's not from being too busy to write...quite the opposite...I just feel I haven't had enough interesting things going on to write about. But I'm going to try to blog about even the little things to keep everyone informed on the life here.

Lately, it's been a lot of the same. Working for the weekends, basically. Classes are going well...I can see improvement in some of my students which just warms my little heart. A lot of them are still pretty dumb and I see no hope in sight.

Weekends are AWESOME. It's been a long time since I've had endless things to do and people to see and meet. Any weekend there is something going on in one city or another. Someone is always having a huge party or a lazy castle day where we just go lay on the grounds of the Marugame castle and do nothing all day but eat and chill. Always a get together of some sort and I'm making some friends this way which is nice. I've met two new girls, Vivian and Isabel (from Quebec and England, respectively) and I adore them. Vivien is so nice and sweet and Al loves her because they can speak French to one another and Isabel has that wicked awesome British accent so she can make even the most boring topics sound absoultely riveting. They both are extrememly fun to be around but it sucks because they won't be around for as long as Al and I plan on staying. Boo.

Al has met some other guys that he's getting closer with so things are always improving. Every person we meet is from somewhere awesome or has an interesting story. At one of the castle days we had maybe 20 people there representing like 5 or 6 countries or something. This may sound lame to some people that I'm getting excited over something like that but being from WV it basically comes down to...I don't get out much. Sure I lived in Canada but that's not too cultural.

Boring topic #1: I have discovered my favorite type of Ramen: Tonkatsu. It's ama-za-zing. If you want to wikipedia it and find out what it really is, go ahead, but it sounds disgusting. It is so delish I could eat it daily.

Not-so-boring topic #2: Japan is noted for the cockroach infestation of their country, I guess. Since the day we arrived everyone has told us about how cockroaches are in every single household regardless of the luxury or cleanliness of the place. I've been crossing my fingers for a month but I kept hearing, "Oooooh you wait, they're coming". It happened two nights ago. I closed the lid of the trash can and that monster thing came running out from under it and I screamed bloody murder and had Al get the can of spray and kill it. I had a full on panic attack. I guess he is the start of many but I've found out how to ask for the proper cockroach killer whatever stuff at the store so I will be getting some of that ASAP.

Interesting (to me) topic #3: WE GET PAID TUESDAY!!!!!!! Our first paycheck has finally arrived and I could cry from happiness. We've been barely scraping by since we got here but we're finally getting paid. My first purchase will be an awesome YSL lipstick that I've been dying to get and a bicycle. Al is going to be getting a driver so he can go to the driving range and hit golf balls. I'm getting 290,000 yen and Al is getting 286,000 yen. *happy scream*

My mom sent me some packages and in one of them was two giant bottles of Hidden Valley. I am now going to make some chicken just so I can dip it in it and die from the deliciousness that is ranch dressing. Good night.

American stuff!!

I've found a few stores around that sell imported goods from North America. It's heavenly. One store in the mall here (Aeon) is called Kaldi Coffee Farm and it has a lot of imported wine and food. It's all usually pretty expensive but totally worth it, generally. I bought three boxes of Kraft box Mac n Cheese at $3 a pop, two cans of root beer for only $1 each, Skippy peanut butter for $4, a bottle of Bertolli alfredo sauce for $7 and Al a pack of Big Red gum for $2. A few other things but I don't really remember...they sell Old El Paso taco kits which is really nice because Mexican food is literally non-existant here. I've also found a few places that sell cleaners like Scrubbing Bubbles, Downy, Chlorox and Shout. Obviously they sell these things in Japan but I can't read the labels so I never know what to buy. Finding these things was a Godsend and it's amazing the little things that make me ridiculously happy =)

Ugh.

Stop lights here are the longest on the face of the planet.

Japanese drivers are the worst in the history of life.

It takes, on average, at least 30 minutes to drive 10 kilometers (about 6 miles).

End of story.

Karaoke, Driving and Pastry Shops

Well, I've survived driving in Japan. It's not as hard driving on the opposite side of everything as one might imagine. I'm quite okay if I'm on a highway or a road with a dividing line. I don't really feel the need to have to think too much about which lane I should be in. But once I get on the back residential roads where there are no dividing lines forget it, I will always be on the right-hand side, guaranteed. A lot of people have tried to pull into that road and nearly ran into me because I'm not on the correct side...oops :) If you (person reading this blog) has seen my facebook pictures you have seen the little white midget car that was going to be ours. But it's not bahahahaha!!!! Thank God. We actually are now the proud "owners" of a Daihatsu Cuore...a 2000 I believe. It's the cutest little car and it half reminds me of a Mini Cooper. Everyone says we have the nicest car at GEM School which is nice thought because it IS pretty nice I find. The cars around here are sooooo small. The other day I was driving alone and actually laughed out loud at the thought of my dad's giant truck trying to get around here. The roads are narrow and the parking spaces are miniscule. I had a nice chuckle. Actually, the cars themselves are a strange breed. There are definitely a lot of names and makes that I've never seen before like the Toyota Noah minivan, for example. Also, a lot of the Lexus cars I've seen don't have the "Lexus" symbol on them. It's the exact Lexus vehicle but with a Toyota symbol on it because Toyota owns Lexus.

So it's become clear that the only fast food that is around Japan (Or at least just around Kagawa) is McDonald's. No BK, no Taco Bell, no Wendy's...McDonald's only. So normally I'd think "Wow! Amazing! I'm going to lose so much weight from not having fast food around to eat!" WRONG. In place of the BKs and Taco Bells are the most delicious pastry shops in the entire world. Just bakery after bakery with scrumptious, evil smells wafting through the air to lure in the passerbys. My favorite one is in the Shotengai in Takamatsu. I make a point to stop every time I'm in there to buy a loaf of bread and some sort of sweet. My favorite thing is a round shaped sweet bread with a dip/hole thing in the middle. In that middle dip is cream cheese, custard and strawberries and blueberries. Delish. I also just discovered that there is one of these destructive pastry shops ON MY BLOCK. Bad, bad, bad.

We went Karaokeing!!! Karaoke isn't that big of a deal in the USA but considering this is the land where it was founded it's amazing and sooo much fun. This isn't like Karaoke back home where you pick a song from a book, tell the karaoke guy, get two mikes that are hooked up to an amp and read off of a tv screen. When you get to the Karaoke bar/club wherever you go they give you a little portable screen that you take to your table to pick songs from. You pick whatever, whenever and then it will come up on the screens in the order they were picked by you or the other people around who have the little screens. The place I went to was one big room but I guess most of them are a bunch of separate cubicles that you and a group of people go into and sing. Al and I had a very nice duet of "Total Eclipse of the Heart" and Al did a stellar redition of Kanye's "Run This Town"...rapping and all. I have a video. He won't let me put it on Youtube.

Our phone number here at the house is 1-304-581-4573. Anyone can call, it's a WV phone number just watch the hours that you call since we're 13 hours ahead.

Xoxo

Hooooot

Scratch what I said about the air condtioner. It's on and on full blast. It got hot quickly.