Monday, May 31, 2004

This weekend, I went to a archery competition at a park on the sea. I took a ton of pictures, but this is the only digital one. I'll post some others when I can afford to have them developed.

Friday, May 28, 2004

Pictures 


Because it's what everyone wants. These pictures were all taken with my Cell Phone.

First, is a picture of the harbor, about a 3 minute walk from my apartment. Above is the Seaside line that goes past Seaside park and Hakkeijima Amusement park. Off in the distance, is Nojima, the park that I was heading to that day, where I met the Doctor/professor/olympic nut.

Next is the maid tunnel of the factory that was inside this mountain during WWII. It's all blocked off, most of the smaller caves are cemented shut, but this one just has a fence. I really want to go inside. Spelunking anyone?

On top of the hill, there is a lookout tower.

There's a really good view from up there. My apartment is this way.

Since people like my parents still only have 56k modems, I'll stop there for now. I think I'll have some pictures of Yokohama later.

Thursday, May 27, 2004

The Doctor


On Wednesday night I went for a walk to this island that is out by the bay. The entire hill is carved out and it used to be an airplane factory during WWII. That was going to be my interesting blog post for Wednesday, but I met a more interesting guy while I was up there. He started talking to me by asking where I was from. He said he was a professor at Yokohama Municipal University Medical School, but changed the topic to sports pretty quickly and pulled a stack of pictures out of his wallet. He has pictures of himself with all of the major Japanese athletes that will be participating in the Athens Olympics. He also said that he had participated in the Olympics, and that he had won a medal (gold I think), but a search on the Olympic website for his name turned up only a member of the 1934 hockey team, and he's not that old.

Next he told me that he was on the Yokohama Board of Education, and showed me his ID card. I found this page with a Google search for the Yokohama Board of education. The only one that looks close to him is the second guy from the left, and I think that is the same name that was on his ID card, but he doesn't wear glasses... When we went our separate ways yesterday, we exchanged phone numbers, and he said his name was Sakai.

Those of you who can read kanji will notice that the name under the second guy on the left on that Yokohama BOE page does not say Sakai. I'm not sure if this guys completely for real, but he really has met the Japanese Olympic team, and he really likes to brag. He's an interesting mystery.

Sunday, May 23, 2004

Sirens

It sounds like there are about 50 fire trucks or ambulances going through town right now. I sure wouldn't want to be in ambulance in Japan. Every time I see an ambulance, it is going so slow, that I hope the injuries of the person inside are not too life threatening. Japan is a much older country, and most of the roads were made before cars, so there isn't enough room for the cars to get out of the way. Usually, the ambulance has to wait for the cars that are blocking its way to wait for the people that are blocking their way to move so they can get out of the way of the ambulance.

The typhoon came early Friday morning with so much raid that it was gushing from holes in the retaining walls around my little valley. I'm really glad those walls are there, because it probably would have been mud instead. The rain was probably heaviest at around 6 when I woke up, but by 7:30 it was just a drizzle, and by noon, the sky was blue and it was pretty hot outside. The calm after the storm.

Thursday, May 20, 2004

Wednesday, May 19, 2004

You know how when you align two mirrors up face to face just right, you can see the future? Well today I was on the train on the way home, and through a tunnel, I saw another tunnel. Through that tunnel, I saw a third, and through that, I could see the future. Unfortunately, I can't see that far away very well, so all I could see was me picking up my suit from the cleaners.

Then again, it could have been the rain. The weather had been very shifty for the last week. This morning it was pretty good, but at around noon, it started pouring. It's really coming down now, and all I can hear is running water. Apparently, there is a typhoon on the way!!! I though it was a little early for that, but typhoons are fun!

Tuesday, May 18, 2004

Ahh... The smell of a new Teiki...


I bought my first Teiki ever today. It was ¥10400 (about $100) but I won't have to pay for a ticket at all between the two stations I bought it for, so I will end up saving at least ¥3000 with it, and probably more since I can use it as much as I want during a day. And the best part is, my company will end up paying for the whole thing!

Can you smell it?

The School from Hell?

My second day at the school from hell was not so bad. In fact, if I hadn't been there yesterday, I wouldn't have known it was the school from hell. The students were attentive and enthusiastic, and the teacher were for the most part helpful, and when they weren't, I was able to work around it. So things are better and I have a teiki!

Monday, May 17, 2004

Finally, some pictures

I went out yesterday and started walking and took a few pictures. I walked a few stations down the tracks until I got tired, and then hoped on the train until I got to the end of the line. I didn't even leave the station though because I didn't want to have to pay for it. So I just got back on the train going the other direction, and went home.

The area that I live is quite mountianous. As I was riding the train to work today, I counted tunnels. There were 12 between my station and the station that I worked at today.




The school that I taught at today was the worst. They started out by having an assembly where they introduced me to the whole school, and they made various other announcements including a chastising by the principle to all the students because some kids threw rocks at a car. After the assembly, I went to my first class. The teacher wasn't getting involved in the class like the teachers at other schools were, and the students were having a hard time paying attention. The only class I had that was okay was one of the 5th grade classes taught by a pretty young teacher.

The first grade classes are usually the best, but at this school, they didn't concentrate at all, and I had a hard time keeping them focused on something. The may not seem like something that any first grader is good at, but this class was defiantly bad at it. If I thought the first grade was bad, the sixth grade was worse. They talked the whole time, and were completely disinterested. The teacher gave them no help or motivation at all. I will try to have some ideas for tomorrow so that I can get the brats moving. :-)

Saturday, May 15, 2004


As I'm sitting here on the train whith some lady falling asleep on my shoulder. I wonder if it's possible to make some one fall out of their seat by making them accostomed to having your shoulder for stability, then slowly easing them forward untill they topple out of the seat? Well, I get off at the next stop, so I guess I wont get to try it out...

Tuesday, May 11, 2004

Kanazawa Hakkei


I just figured out that the name of my station, Kanazawa Hakkei, is actually from the name of the Hiroshige woodblock prints that I talked about a couple of posts ago. It means, "Eight views of Kanazawa". I should have realized it from the kanji, but I actually found out from this webpage. The name of my district, Seto, comes from the name of Seto-jinjya, a temple built on the side of a hill down the street.

I'm going to Ai's to get the rest of my stuff on Thursday, so I will be able to post pictures and stuff finally. (If I find a new host...)

There are three high school kids sitting in the road in from of my apartment. Two girls, and one guy. I have no idea what they are doing, the don't look like they are drinking or anything. Just talking and laughing. My apartment is in a really low traffic area, so I was probably the only one to pass them in the two hours they have been out there. I guess there's nothing better to do around here...

Sunday, May 09, 2004

Moving in


I moved into my new apartment Saturday. I didn't know until Sunday that a famous serise of wood block prints were carved of this area.


This is a view of the bay I live near by Ando Hiroshige. Unfortunately, its not as beautiful now as it was then. It's still a pretty neat place though. There are hills all around, and they are all tree covered, and the bay has a bunch of fishing boats pleasure boats and sailboats. There are other prints of the area that I live here.

The place that I was using to host my pictures died on me 'cause I didn't do enough to trick them into thinking that I wasn't just using it to host pictures, so I have to find a new service before I can put up any more pics. Once I have money, I will get a real pay service, but if anyone knows a better place than Angelfire, let me know.

Thursday, May 06, 2004

I know that some now people have been coming to my blog. Please leave a comment after a post sometimes so I know who you are.


I am on the train home from my first day of work. I had to get up at 4:30 this morning to get to the school, and it took two hours and 15 minutes. I have to do that again tomorrow, but Saturday I will move into my new apartment so I wont have to do that anymore.

Sunday, May 02, 2004



I'm not sure what this means... I would have thought that it means "don't park your bike here", but every time I have seen a sign like it, it has been surrounded by bikes.



I've been kicked out of Ai's apartment (some friend of her mom is staying there) so im staying at Dansen's apartment.



This might be my new apartment.

Saturday, May 01, 2004



Anti war grafiti at Yokohama University

04-05-01_17-36.jpg

Who says Japan is expensive?