The fruit and vegetable post!!

Fruit and Vegetables!

A topic near and dear to me.  Near because the fridge is just a few feet away.  Dear because of the amazing Japanese peaches.  It might be all in my head, but they're WAY better than all that crappy fruit back home.  There's really an entire industry based on giving fruit as gifts here, and it's not uncommon to see pristine apples, peaches, watermelons, and grapes wrapped up in plastic just ready to be given away to those who've generated "owing."  As a new ALT living in Japan, I am currently owing several people somewhere between 200 to 300 gift points each, based on all that they've done for me.  I'm not sure what a gift point corresponds to, because I just made it up now.

Watch this video of me talking about fruit!

PS, I keep mentioning cost in this video because 1) I'm still conserving money for the time being, so fruit is really a splurge, and 2) I'm cheap anyway.

I find it pretty interesting that the shift from fruits themselves to fruit-flavored things is really a driving force in Japanese candy and drinks.  You frequently come across interesting drinks like melon milk, all kinds of fruit-flavored teas and drinks, and things that taste nearly identical to fruits.  However, the fruits themselves are the hot commodity -- fruit-derived drinks and foods are a better choice and are 99% as good.  That being said, the kinds of fruit drinks you can get in a convenience store--melon, mango, peach, apple, pear, the list really goes on for quite a while--more than compensate for the steep price of fresh produce.  And really, on average it's not that much more expensive than it is in America, and if you couldn't tell from my above enthusiasm, totally worth it.

And, on a side note, here's how to grow some square watermelons. And no, I haven't seen these yet, but regular-shaped watermelons are huge (figuratively and literally) this time of year.

How to grow a square watermelon:

1. Insert your on-the-vine-growing watermelon into a square made of tempered glass.
2. Wait.
3. Enjoy!

On another side note, I took a peach out of the fridge just now to photograph it, but it just looked so ripe and delicious, that when I look down my hand was empty, but I was chewing something very peach-like... weird.

That's all for now!

A Choshi Primer. Or,"How I spent the last week sitting at my computer in post-production."

After pouring a ridiculous amount of man hours into this project, I am very, very proud to present to you "A Choshi Primer:"

Lyrics:

Japan… Hm. How do I describe it?

I got this!

Coming to you live from the island, little place we call Choshi City.

Call the presses, it’s about to get messy ‘cause this gaijin* 'bout to get witty!

Gonna lay it on the line, tell you about the time I been having, now the Japanese nitty-gritty.

Spitting out my rhymes, and all in good time to be teaching all the little grade-school kiddies.

Now I admit I’m not exactly proud to be a stranger in a strange new land,

But there’s more than enough to do and see here so I thought I’d show you first-hand.

So I’ll take you up to speed, baby I’ma take the lead, take my hand, let’s take a ride.

What’s this?  A building emanating manliness!  That’d be my place, meet you inside.

And in the genkan* we have shoehorns and flip-flops for you,

But it’s not all different, look, I got a man-cave too!

And you can crash here on my sweet comfy Japanese couch if you’d like,

Or I’ll show you around, we can tour the town on my little red bike.

First stop, just upstairs, they’re getting kind of steep so leave the bike there.

That’s Matt.  I’m telling you he’s one cool cat. “Insanely gorgeous boy, love the hair!”

My main man Jesse, Canadian-born, three long years taking Choshi by storm.

That face?  We practically own this place, staying out all night making that ching-ching MONEY!

And every day I wake up praising the real J-E-T

“A collaborational, multi-national, educational entity!”

And I implore you now to live life vicariously through my eyes.

Or hey, just visit me, I’m starting to miss you American guys.

Sliding doors, tatami floors, cute sushi bars, and tiny cars!

My little fridge, weird-looking lightswitch, this walk-in shower has cleaning power!

What’s a dryer? We hang our clothes.  Bright pink undies?  Now everyone knows!

U.S. dollars? Forget you then.  Here, we rolling in Y-E-N!

And all you see here can be yours for the low, low price of a plane ticket.  Fly in,

Meet you at the airport, take you downtown, show you round the city with your eyes wide, sighing.

Singing karaoke with your best friends, screaming all the lyrics in a drunken glory.

Here in the conbini*, I’m a celebrity.  When I walk in, they all scream “irrashaimase!!”*

This place a gaijin* town, I’m teaching English now.

Ganbare Nihon, kanpai.*

*Translations:

Gaijin = foreigner, outsider; non-Japanese person in Japan.

Genkan = entryway, typically where you’d take your shoes off and leave them until you go out.

Conbini = Japanese word for convenience store, abbreviated from English into a single word.

Irrashaimase = “Welcome!”  Can be heard resonating through any store you enter, or even at the gas station as you drive in.

Ganbare Nihon = Basically, "Hang in there, Japan!" or "Go for it, Japan!"

Kanpai = “Cheers!”  Said when drinking/toasting at parties and other social events.

All things Choshi and Choshi-ful! Or, "An Explosion of Content"

FIRST POST FROM JAPAN, YEAH!

It's impossible to explain what's happened so far, so let's try to keep it simple, huh?  Plus, I really hate it when I end up bogging down posts or emails with long boring sentences and an overabundance of words, so let's do this one with some pictures and videos, huh?

 This picture was taken just as we were flying in, coincidentally, over Choshi!  You could even see the huuuuge green patches of land where they're growing produce.

...Where I was greeted by a new apartment!  This photo is very strategically taken; not pictured are the huge bags of trash and the crap in the tatami mat room.

And after not having internet or TV for so long, another Choshi ALT brought over this little gem, a legit Super Famicom (Super Nintendo in America) with Street Fighter 2 and Zelda!  Loving it...




Fast forward a week to the awesome Fireworks Festival.  The following pictures taken throughout the night, which is said to be the busiest of the entire year in Choshi.  

When all was said and done, the fireworks lasted over an hour and a half!  Many people camped out early and remained sitting on the streets for hours enjoying the scenery.

Vendors selling yakisoba ("fried noodles," a savory treat) and Okonomiya (sort of like Japanese pizza, ham and bacon on top of an omelette stuffed with vegetables, super Japanese and delicious)

BONUS!  This one's actually from Seattle, before I left for Japan, but I love it so much I wanted to share it...

Next, a compilation of the various (various means two) videos I made between landing and getting internet... the first one chronicles departure and orientation before arrival in Choshi:

While the second video, below, is 2 weeks worth of on-and-off blog posts made in anticipation for future uploading.  In other words, is a schizophrenic isolation-induced romp in what it feels like to be cut off from the world off for two weeks.  Here you'll find all my gritty observations, and as it turns out all I wanted was just a little internet, but NO! Softbank said NO!  And indeed, 2 weeks of my life have been condensed into just 7 minutes:

Next, a few short essays written specifically for this monumental occasion:

Things to Know About Choshi:

Things to know about Choshi:

-          at 7 AM and 6 PM every day, a loud, loud, mega-loud song plays throughout the whole city, so you will never be asleep past 7 AM.

-          Also around 7, the sweet, salty, pungent smell of soy sauce manufacture wafts in through the screen doors and permeates my soul.  It covers the entire city.

-          It is so humid. Unbelievably humid.  Like, bought-a-bike-last-month-and-now-it’s-rusty humid.

-          There are spiders the size of business cards, and they are thrice as deadly.

Now for some positive things:

-          The other ALTs not only live close by but are absolutely a blast.  The members of the Board of Education and even the landlord are great as well.

-          There’s a sweet new mall about 15 minutes away by car with conveyer belt sushi and a movie theater.

-          The city is huge and every little building, nook, and cranny is worth exploring.  Not a Wal-Mart in sight, but a million mom-and-pop type restaurants!

-          The next town over has enough video game, music, and bookstores to satisfy any need.

That last one wasn’t actually about Choshi.

A Little Bit on Culture Shock:

There are four distinct stages to the phenomenon know as “culture shock:”

Stage 1. Euphoria.  Everything is new.  Different.  Beautiful, even PERFECT.  For these fleeting hours, days, or weeks, the world is your oyster.

Stage 2. The Plunge.  Homesickness begins to kick in.  You become frustrated and disconnected, like trying to force a square peg into a round hole.  You have Stage 2 parties with your friends and complain about how much everything sucks in your new home.

Stage 3. Equilibrium. You begin, almost grievingly, to accept your new societal role and surroundings.  You become acquainted with culture-specific customs and behaviors.  Slowly but surely, you begin to blend in.

Stage 4. Up, Up, and Away.  You finally return to your normal self, but with new knowledge and perspective of the world around you.  You are able to successfully navigate social situations and can expertly live in your new world.  You appreciate the cultural differences that are so prevalent, and come to terms with previous iniquities, and surpass all previous quality of existence.

Please enjoy watching me squirm through the stages :-)

Setsuden, or Energy Conservation:

In light of the March 11th disaster that struck Japan, we must look inward to rise to the needs of such a small, harmony-dependent nation.  Since that even, Japan has been in a constant state of energy conservation, called sestsuden, the sort of buzzword describing the post-disaster state of mind.  I don't believe it's mandatory, but you will see many stores and workers try their best to save energy that power plants can no longer produce to meet their needs.  Such an exercise involves avoiding using elevators (it's rough since the board of education is on the 4th floor, but we'll get to the humidity aspect in a second), turning off street signs for stores ("Are they open?  Are they closed?  ARE THEY OPEN?!"), and generally just trying to be less wasteful.  While that last one is really an anytime thing, it's pretty admirable to see the great lengths some people go through for setsuden.  Setsuden's scope has been far-reaching all over Japan, and even department and clothing stores either dim the lights.  The government offices, not needing to run a profit to stay open, are free to shorten their already short hours, to the general head-scratching of those trying to send mail.  It can really become a change of personal lifestyle if you really get into it, as you struggle to conserve water, electricity, and still manage to get your work done while maintaining sanity.  

If you'd like to read a little bit by a professional, check out this great article from The Japan Times about the phenomenon know as setsuden: http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/ek20110421wh.html