JET Charity Musical

Last night was the opening performance of the JET musical, "A Jungle Tale". So, pretty much all of us within reasonable commuting distance got ourselves down to the Niigata Kenmin Kaikan to support the cause. I guess that Niigata ALTs have been doing a volunteer musical every year since 1998 to raise money for good causes. Over the last two years, the proceeds have gone towards the Papua New Guinea Association, and a bunch of JETs will actually be traveling out there to build schools and housing for teachers. A pretty amazing project overall. The actual musical itself was pretty entertaining - an adaptation of "The Jungle Book", it was performed in a mixture of English and Japanese (for the benefit of the mixed audience) and incorporated musical selections ranging from "Thriller" and "We Will Rock You" to "Kung Fu Fighting" and "Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better". I only had my point-and-shoot tonight, so I didn't manage to get many good pics - here's one of the monkey crew though (look for Rosalind on the far right):


Monkey Antics, JET Charity Musical
Originally uploaded by kristi-san.

Afterwards, we headed back to the station for a quick round of yakiniku (yay!) before heading to the after-party at the Immigrant's Cafe. A small group of us (myself, Melissa, Aaron, Nuria, Phil, and his Japanese friend) migrated over to Hot Spot and ran into one of the more bizarre crowds I've yet encountered here. The place was *packed* for some kind of hip-hop dance competition and the fashion was like a serious flashback to the early/mid 1990s (think gangsta Asian). There were also a number of [extremely large] players from the Niigata Albirex basketball team there - btw, when you're that tall, you just look weird. Seriously. Anyway, we made the best of it:


At Hot Spot (Again)
Originally uploaded by kristi-san.

Up Late in Niigata City
Originally uploaded by kristi-san.

Nuria & Aaron
Originally uploaded by kristi-san.

Back to work tomorrow!

Let the good times roll...

So, the last few days have been the happiest I've had here in Japan. Work is going *amazingly* well. I'm busy, I'm teaching a lot, planning tons of lessons, interacting with students verbally and via written diaries - it's amazing. A total 180 from where I was before the holidays. The week just flew by - and I actually felt a pang of regret when I formalized my decision to end my contract on Wednesday. I'm really astounded at how much happier it's made me, just the simple act of giving me stuff to do.

On Wednesday, Rosalind and I went to the last installment of our Japanese cooking class. It was fun - I even wore the ridiculous Hello Kitty apron she gave me for my birthday. We made mazezushi (sushi rice), shredded vegetables with meat and miso, greens and egg soup, brown sugar and sesami seed cookies, and "milk"-dipped strawberries. It was pretty tasty overall. I made the cookies, which were quite nice. And quite cute as well. They took class photos, so maybe I'll be able to get my hands on one sometime. They even had a little closing ceremony - very Japanese.

The halfway point

As of today, I have officially been in Japan for six months - meaning that my contract is up in just another six months. In honor of the occasion, all Niigata ALTs spent the past two days at a mid-year conference in Niigata City. Rosalind and I drove up from Kamo together yesterday morning and managed to find the Prefectural Education Center, despite a slight detour. The conference itself mainly consisted of some speeches and a bunch of workshops - I felt like I got a lot more out of the workshops this time, now that I've actually been teaching classes for a while. When you first come to Japan with the JET Program, they really bombard you with training and preparation - which is great, except for the fact that you don't really know what you'll be doing, so you really have no context for all of the information. Anyway, I came home with a bunch of ideas for new activities and games - can't wait to try them out.

Last night a bunch of us went to dinner at a random but surprisingly pleasant Thai restaurant in Niigata City before hitting up the charity party for this year's Niigata JET musical at Shame. It was great fun, especially seeing people that I hadn't seen since the summertime. And of course, I have to do the obligatory photo blitz (making up for my recent pictoral shortcomings, you see):


Kristi, Grace, and Josie - Thai Restaurant, Niigata City
Originally uploaded by kristi-san.

Cooperative Eating - Thai Restaurant, Niigata City
Originally uploaded by kristi-san.

Aaron & Kristi - Charity Party, Niigata City
Originally uploaded by kristi-san.

Kristi & Melissa - Charity Party, Niigata City
Originally uploaded by kristi-san.

Reunited at Shame - Charity Party, Niigata City
Originally uploaded by kristi-san.

Antics by Jon & Kristi - Charity Party, Niigata City
Originally uploaded by kristi-san.

Johanna, Ros, & Kristi - Charity Party, Niigata City
Originally uploaded by kristi-san.

There are a few more here. Anyway, now I'm at home and glad to be here. Planning on getting a whole lot of sleep tonight - back to work tomorrow. Yarr....

Niigata as No.1–No.5 in Japan

So, the Japanese are really into ranking things, whether they be the three most beautiful gardens in the country or the best parks for viewing cherry blossoms in spring. Everybody here has got something to be proud of, it seems. I recently ran across this list of some things in which Niigata makes the grade, relative to the other prefectures in Japan:

No.1
Number of Nationally Designated Important Tangible Folk Cultural Properties (14)
Gross Rice Output (200 billion yen)
Cut Tulip Flower Shipment Value (26.3 million flowers)
Metal Kitchenware Shipment Value (16 billion yen)
Nitted Ware Shipment Value (38.9 billion yen)
Oil Production (460,846 kl)
Natural Gas Production (1,654,205,000 m3)
Kerosene Heater Shipment Value (31.0 billion)

No.2
Natural Park Area (316,955 ha)
Total Real Length of National and Prefectual Roads (6,632 km)
Length of National Express ways (383 km)
Number of Bathing Beaches (77 beaches)
Number of Sake Breweries (105)
Number of Designated Traditional Crafts (14)

No.3
Number of Skiing Grounds (74)
Number of Migratory Swans (7120)
Sake Shipments (60.3 billion yen)

No.4
Number of Hot Springs with Lodging Facilities (145)

No.5
Land Area (12,582 km2)

Rice, sake, hot springs, skiing and a lot of land - that's pretty much the world of scenic Niigata.

As if waking from a deep sleep...

It's strange, I feel so much more lucid than I have in months. I feel like I'm really *in* Japan for the first time, now that I don't have to worry about grad school apps and things back at home. In the last two weeks, I've probably had more social activity than I did in the month previous. And I feel like I can put a lot more effort into my teaching than I have been. It feels really nice.

I spent yesterday evening at Rosalind's, eating Thai green curry, drinking wine, and watching Serendipity, the latter of which was kinda ridiculous but fun. What a nice relaxing evening in Kamo, nothing better for a cold winter night. I think I'm going to spend this weekend catching up on my home life, now that I am feeling so much better. May have to do a little shopping as well. Just a little though - gotta save money for all of these trips. :)

I forgot to mention that I saw Memoirs of a Geisha last week with Sarah and Phil. I thought it was all right, though not as good as it could have been. Still, it kept me entertained for three hours, which is about all I was really looking for. ;) I thought this review of it in the Japan Times was pretty interesting: Welcome to Kyoto, California

Japan is *the* place to be...

Didn't you know? Seriously. I don't think I've mentioned it here, but it's kinda ridiculous how many people from Seattle are in Japan right now. Granted, I did major in Japanese in college, but some of these are totally and utterly random coincidences. Tokyo, of course, is the center of all things - Chan, Tina, Shelley, and Drew are doing the study abroad thing at Waseda and Aoyama, and Star just arrived to start a two-year research gig at Keio. Moving a little outward, I hear the other Tina is teaching somewhere in Saitama and just discovered that Andrew Enomoto is studying abroad in Chiba. Further south on Honshu, we find old friend Eric and former classmate Alexis down in Hiroshima-ken, both doing the JET Program. Honors-type and former apartment neighbor Raka is out in Hyogo-ken (also JET), along with a huge group of Seattle people that I don't really know (it's a sister-city thing). Shikoku is playing host to Yarun (JET), one of my residents from back in my RA days, and Andrew Kim (JET), a former Japanese major who is *hilarious*. And Kiley, another former resident of mine, is living it up on Kyushu, down in Fukuoka (yet another JET).

I'm sure there are more I'm forgetting and a bunch who I didn't really know well enough to keep track of - but it sure makes Japan feel more like home when you know there are so many familiar faces floating around. And of course, that doesn't even count any of the wonderful people I've met since coming to Japan - like Grace, Aaron, Melissa, Johanna, Steph, Heather, and the numerous others who haven't yet jumped on the blogging bandwagon.

I'm glad the weekend is approaching. Today was a pretty minimal day at work, although it wasn't really boring. The kids have been amazingly friendly lately. I "taught" two classes, which consisted of watching a video of Japanese horror stories (in Japanese) and listening to my English teacher recite a horror story called Yuki-Onna (Snow Woman) from memory (in English). I'm not really sure what that did for the kids. I mean, the story memorization was really impressive, but there's no way the students (1st years) understood it - it was kinda like it was for my entertainment. He actually asked me to go back to the teacher's room after he was done with his recitation. Hrm. On a side note, I'm pretty sure the [non-English-speaking] Japanese teachers were laughing at me when I left today - something about me giving too many "hai" answers and not enough elaboration. But you know, I don't really want to start a conversation when I'm trying to flee the office. :) Ah well, laughter is good... right?

One of my goals for this year in Japan was to learn to worry less. It's a tough thing to work on, but maybe I'll get it down one of these days.

Off to a running start...

So, I had my mid-year teaching evaluation today. I was pretty nervous about it, considering that I hadn't been to my base school for almost a month and had no idea what classes I'd be teaching, let alone what kind of lessons. My supervisor from the prefectural board of education in Nagaoka came by, talked to my JTEs for a half hour, watched me teach a 50-minute lesson, and then critiqued the lesson afterward. All in all, it went well - and most importantly, it's over. Thank goodness. *phew*

It's felt really good to start working again and get back into the swing of things. The days have been passing quickly, which is a good sign - it means I'm enjoying myself. The things I'm most excited about right now are some unexpected travel opportunities! If all goes well, I'll be hitting up the Sapporo Snow Festival in February, South Korea and Seattle in March, and China in May! I can hardly wait. :) It's nice to have little landmarks in time to look forward to. It's so crazy that I can do some of these trips over a weekend...

Anyway, I think that's all for now. More adventures to come, I'm sure...

New Year's and nengajyou...

So, I'm back in Japan, and in lieu of a more chronological update, I thought I'd take the time to tell you a little about the Japanese custom of nengajyou, or New Year's Day cards. Instead of sending Christmas cards, Japanese people send these postcards so that they arrive on the 1st of January. The post office guarantees delivery on the first if they are marked "nengajyou" and are posted within a time limit, from mid-December to near the end of the month. Most of the postcards have the Chinese zodiac sign of the new year as their design - 2006 is the year of the dog.

Anyway, I came home to find several of these nengajyou in my mailbox, a couple made by my students:


New Year's Day Postcard
Originally uploaded by kristi-san.

This one reads something like: "How are you? It was fun to meet you during the third semester. **This is romaji!" (Romaji is Japanese written in roman characters.)


New Year's Day Postcard
Originally uploaded by kristi-san.

This one says something like: "I'm sorry this New Year's card is late. Your English class is very fun! Let's enjoy this year, too."

This one is from a Japanese friend:


New Year's Day Postcard
Originally uploaded by kristi-san.

And this one is from Rosalind's supervisor:


New Year's Day Postcard
Originally uploaded by kristi-san.

Anyway, nengajyou are kinda fun - it was nice to have some friendly mail to welcome me back. Hope all of you are doing well!

Signs of life from the Emerald City...

So, I'm alive! I've been in wonderful rainy Seattle for the last week and a half, gorging myself on all of my favorite foods and seeing all of my favorite people. Shopping with Camden, watching movies with my brother, lunching with Ran and Maria and John and lots of folk, chatting it up at the Honors Office... It's strange to think that I haven't been in the U.S. for almost six months - it doesn't feel like I've been away for a single day. Anyway, now things are dying down and people are beginning to head off to their respective corners of the globe. I've been horrible about taking pictures, but here are a couple from a get-together at Cafe Ladro out in Fremont.


Old Friends
Originally uploaded by kristi-san.

What are you doing with that camera, Camden?
Originally uploaded by kristi-san.

But wait wait, the truly exciting news: As of about 30 minutes ago, I'm totally finished with my graduate school applications! Granted, that doesn't mean that the schools have actually received all of the appropriate materials and it sure doesn't mean that they'll actually accept me, but ... it's a step. ;)

Anyway, that's all I want to say for now. There's too much to do to spend too much time dinking around on the computer! Hope all of you are well!