Just Another JET Blog

I guess I update less often now… but that’s okay because now it’s time to tell you about my Toyama City Adventure!

Thursday night we found an awesome little rock bar with an Open Mic. The owner and his wife loved music from the 80s… he popped in a RUSH live DVD to blast whenever someone wasn’t up at the open mic. I picked up two awesome CDs from little independent bands while I was there… one of which the guy gave me for free when I tried to buy it. The other was 5 bucks. Awesome. Greg scored a map of places in Toyama where little independent bands play. Really awesome. Afterwards we went to an Irish bar and shot pool with some local guys and girls. They were on a group date that seemed to have died… a little gaigoku-jin power revived the conversation all around.

Friday we tried to figure out where the university students in Toyama hang out. During the day we checked out Toyama, especially its malls and universities. Pictures of interesting sights around Toyama were taken. Also, we got to take a ride on the tram! This became less exciting with each time we took it somewhere, but, it was cool the first time. There’s also a fantastic fast food chain in Japan called “Lotteria” which makes an incredible teriyaki burger and egg hamburger. Two teriyaki soaked patties with an egg in the middle.. plus all that other burger stuff. In the evening we found a dedicated American bar… which no one was at unfortunately. Or fortunately, because after that we went to an izakaiya with a nomihodai special. This was followed by more pool. After which we ran into some university students who brought us to this tiny club called the “Black Penny”, which was run by a Nigerian (also the owner of the Black Street store chain!). We danced the night away with the students.

Saturday was less and more interesting. We were pretty exhausted, so the day featured many trips to coffee shops to keep us up and about. Also, I picked up a comic (in Japanese!) at a bookstore and Greg got a haircut… a very Japanese haircut. Oh and we found an awesome Italian restaurant that served some really good pizza. In the evening we tried to walk down another part of Toyama… and found a street packed with Taxis. We thought we had stumbled upon the busiest place we had seen since Tokyo… and that was true… but, it was the Red Light District!! Filled with snack bars and hookers shouting out the little English they knew. Don’t worry Mom, we got out quickly. Oh, also Toyama has yankiis (pronounced “yankee”).

But Warren, what’s a yankii? Glad you asked. It’s a children’s street gang! They all had blonde hair and walked around like they owned the place. It was hilarious! Apparently if you laugh in their face they bring about worlds of annoyance upon you… but they were just so small and “tough” looking!

Next weekend I go to Tokyo… what adventure awaits me there?!

Thing I miss most about Canada today: Central heating.

Thing I love most about Japan today: My kotatsu (heated table). I never want to leave it.

November 13

Last night something resembling a very wet blizzard swept through my town. What this meant was that I have my tires changed. Koukan is the word for it, in case you ever end up in Japan and need to have your tires changed. I managed to get it done during the lunch break at my school… and the lady who did it at the shop warned me that my tires were a little “slippery”. I drove away happy with myself for how well I had handled a situation entirely in Japanese. I’m used to the idea that I’m not driving a top of the line vehicle, so I wasn’t really worried about it until I got to school. There, one of the English teachers looked at my tires and said, “if you drive with those tires you will probably die.” Probably an overstatement, but it seemed worth my while to head back up to the tire shop after work and get my tires changed again. The strange thing was that they not only didn’t charge me for the new tires (which I thought would be about 550 bucks!) they gave me back my money from the first time they changed the tires. How odd. Turns out they have to work out what the bill is, and it will get sent to an English teacher at my school. Meanwhile, brand new awesome tires (I decided to go with the absolute best, given what the roads I drive look like), are currently on my car for free. Go go gaigokujin (foreigner) powers!

I spent the last weekend down in Takayama. I stayed over at Fiona’s place, who I would’ve probably called an acquaintance until the weekend, but after an awesome weekend with her, George, and Nancy has definitely been moved to the friend box. The most awesome part is that she’s got an actual extra futon and tonnes of bedding because she put up her family before… so I actually didn’t even have to sleep on a tatami mat like when I stay at Greg’s! The JET programme is really all about internationalization, even if it’s sometimes just between other JETs. Fiona’s Irish, George is English, and Nancy is American. I also hung out with an awesome guy named Garrath (English) all day Saturday when we were judges together at an English debate competition. (It’s shocking how good some of these kids are at English!!). The winner were this awesome group from Mashita (or something like that). I got an invitation to judge in Nagoya too, at the national finals, but I think I’m going to have to pass since they won’t be paying for the travel, the food, or the hotel. Making it a not cheap adventure… although I think it would be fun. Oh well. That and…

…It looks like it might be time to start traveling a little more. Winter break is going to come at the end of December and I’ll have 2 and a half weeks to run around Japan. If you’re thinking that’s a long time away, then you’re right. But I haven’t really traveled by myself much yet… and so I’m preparing a few small practice trips before winter break happens. Greg and I are probably going to go to Toyama for next weekend, it’s a long one, as we celebrate Labor Thanksgiving Day. Which sounds just as made up as our Canadian Thanksgiving. Greg’s Japanese is awesome, so I should learn how to do get a hotel from him during the experience. I’m also planning a trip to Kanagawa to see a friend of mine. This one will require me probably making a couple transfers using public transportation. I think I’ve got the vocabulary to do it, but we’ll see. There also should be a trip to Tokyo on the near horizon, though it’s starting to look iffy… especially the Daft Punk show part of it. Of course, if I come across anything interesting during the experience I’ll write it down here for the world to see.

Oh, also talked to Jun today, and he’ll be coming into Japan on Feb. 5th! Very cool! Any of you others who are interested in coming should start setting dates for when you come so I can plan out how to use my holiday time!!

Thing I miss most about Canada today: Roads that have lanes wider than my car… and people don’t park EVERYWHERE! Honestly, I’m lucky if there’s even ONE lane when I’m driving around downtown!!

Thing I love most about Japan today: English debates! Fun to watch! Fun to judge! Really!

November 3

Been awhile again. Unfortunately there’s nothing particularly interesting to tell you about. Last weekend I went to the boys basketball game. They won. After that I went to a Halloween party, my first in Japan. All the Japanese people there went all out on their costumes, and I spent the night surrounded by anime characters. I wore a hockey jersey, to go as a hockey player (I had no time to prepare anything!). One person thought it was a basketball jersey in Canada (because it’s cold… maybe?), but most just thought it was a regular shirt. Oh well.

This weekend I was forced to go to a meeting out in Gifu city…. a place that is hated by all of us Hida JETs. The reason for the hatred is simple, we have to get up at 5 in the morning to get there. I would’ve had to of gotten up at 4, but I spent the night before at Greg’s place. The meeting was almost a complete waste of time, except I went to one good presentation on how to learn Japanese, and am now ready to pursue it with renewed enthusiasm (I’ve kinda been slacking lately). The other reason that Hida JETs hate Gifu city is because it’s just so ugly compared to our beautiful mountain towns. After the meeting, we all immediately took off to go back up to Hida. Which meant standing on a full train for 3 hours. Another reason to hate these meetings… …but at least next weekend might be more interesting. Tomorrow, I plan on taking my car on its first real trip…. down to Furukawa again to buy a nice big blanket at the department store there. And maybe an electric heater. It’s starting to get cold in the apartment….

Thing I miss most about Canada today: Buses that I can stand straight up on.

Thing I love most about Japan today: There’s still so much to do!