Things That Are Near Our Home Part 2

The first thing to know about Japan is it's quite a lot like America, but in less space. Gifu reminds me of Colorado because of the mountains, Florida because of the humidity, and Ohio because of the fields. The majesty of those three giant states can be found within one city in Japan, and that's just the way it goes. My school is located in what could be called a suburb, and just 10 minutes south of that Matt's school is located in miles of rice fields that gorgeous cranes and herons occupy, such as the one to the left.

The second thing to know is Japan makes better soda than America, at least that which I've tried so far. The can to the right is a great Lemon soda that is full of lemons and vitamin C, and not much else. What it says on the can is also a special treat.

Oh, and the desserts are fantastic. This is a maccha (green tea) ice cream, red bean, dango (rice dumpling), and vanilla ice cream dessert from DENNY'S. Yes, that's right, in Japan, Denny's is AWESOME. And not entirely bad for you, either.

This is possibly the funniest vending machine I've seen in Japan to date. It's a condom vending machine. It was right next to a cigarette vending machine. This could only have been better if there had also been a beer vending machine in the same row.

Last but not least, this is for my second sister. I found a building that reminded me of her, and how I love having her in my life, in downtown Gifu!

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Some Funnies

As our first year (6 months, really) draws to a close, I think it's important to display the winners of this year's worst (as in best) English sentences. Coming in third place is a very silly dialoge written by some third-years at my school. Another ALT discovered this and thankfully showed me. It's obvious what they're trying for but they really miss the mark: A: Hello. B: Hello. This is H. May I speak to T please? A: This is T. B: Great! I'm going to prikura (sic). Can you come to porice (sic) office at midnight? A: Yes! Of course! That sounds fun! Do you want me to bring anything? B: Sure. Could you bring some monneys (sic)? A: Yes. Thank you for inviting me. I'm so bad! See you! B: You're welcome. Fuck you! Second place is two sentences that can be taken as a pair or as stand-alone awesomeness. These were written by one of my third year students when we had a unit on debates: A: ...

A Return to Japan, 2015

Several years ago we had the opportunity to take some good friends of ours, Bo and Liz, to Japan. I'm going to focus on the new things we did and then link to previous blog posts for reference to the things we repeated from our time living in Japan. The trip started out awesome and then kind of fell into a bad place for me and Matt, unfortunately. I chalk it up to our inability to tell Bo and Liz when we wanted to do something different from what they wanted to do, and Matt's desire to be a good guide in the country as he was the only fluent Japanese speaker. He felt a lot of responsibility and then got really tired and very stressed out, which in turn made me very stressed out. I say this not as a rebuke of our friends, who had no way to know how we were feeling since we didn't communicate, but as a gentle suggestion to anyone who travels with friends. Say how you feel and don't be passive aggressive about it. Own up to your limitations and ask for what you need. Your ...

Hikone

On April first we began our week-long vacation with previously mentioned good friends Alan and Krista. The journey starts in Hikone, a smaller city with one of those original castles. More of the castle is original than Inuyama's, where only the main keep (castle building) is original. In Hikone, much of the defense structures are also original stone. It's magnificent to behold; here I will try to give you a glimpse of the majesty. First, let me introduce Hikonyan. He is the mascot of Hikone (each city has one) and my favorite so far. To the left, he is doing his signature jump. Hmm, a cat who does ballet in a samurai helmet? Hard to see why I love him. It amuses me to think of Hikonyan as the cat samurai version of this samurai to the right. The statue is placed near the train station, continuing the trend I've observed so far of placing each city's great warlord statue in the vicinity of the train station...

Voyage Junkie

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