Episode 8: Green with Envy: Japan's Irish live on.

Two months go by, and I'm still at it. I'm actually impressed with myself on this one. I'm normally the 'ideas' person who comes up with the idea and then starts it, but never gets around to finish it, as I'm sure my friends can contest with. Yet, thusfar, I haven't missed a single blog, and during a week that was as busy as this last one, I've also managed to survive while eating enough food. Bonus.

So, that's Tokyo tower in case you didn't know. Erin Go Bragh! Yes, the Japanese illuminated Tokyo tower with green lights on the 17th, just for all the Irish Japanese in Japan... of which there are probably a little less than human's have digits. Still, for such a big phenomenon, one would expect his English students to at least have heard of St. Patty's day. Well, I was sorely disappointed during this week, since not a single student of mine had any idea what green beer was all about. Taking it as a personal crusade, I went about informing many Japanese about the glories of this wonderful 'should be holiday.' On the 17th, I armed myself with an assortment of green clothing, including Green Lantern shirt (go me), Green sweater (thanks Grams), Green pants (thanks Mom), Green Shamrock sporting boxers (thanks Laura), Green Irish pins (thanks Barb) and of course, my first Guiness since I've arrived (thanks God). I took my green-self to a local Gaijin bar called "The Melting Pot" and I began what would quickly become a party until 4am. I made a lot of new friends, Japanese and Gaijin alike, and also got people to begin doing some terrible Irish dancing. With my highland dancing facade safely in place, I was free to slip away into the night so that I could manage to sleep for a couple hours before work in the morning.



The next night however was also a very late night, and it was a going away party for Leigh, one of the Gaijin teachers here who has been a resident for almost two years. She's also Irish, and so we had to have ANOTHER green party for her. Out came the pins, out came the green, and out came the madness. Karaoke style.

Without making it too big a deal, we said our goodbyes at about 6am, while catching the morning train back our stations. Yes, a couple very late nights, but yes, a lot of fun. I ended off the night with a little Boyz II Men rendition of "The end of the road," which I felt was appropriate for the time. I've got about fourty pics from that night, including the good, the bad, and the ugly shots as things became strange once a few English blokes got really sloppy, but I've only included a couple pics in this post. I'd rather leave it as a great night, clean and fun.


Let's see... On top of all that jazz, and my probation observation, which went quite well, things were great this week. I found a lot of excellent signs, some cool pictures, and even made a day trip up to Nagoya yesterday with Karen. We hit up an Anime shop and that's where I got this picture of me posing in a Wanted poster. Thing was, there was room for two people, and so I figured that I'd put my photoshop skills to work, and make Laura my partner in crime. Deal with it Laura, you're a pirate. After the Anime store, we went to Starbucks, and also the (yes, there is about 1) English book store in Nagoya. I bought another little Japanese-English phrase book, as well as Shogun for the second time. I've just had a recent hankering to re-read that 1200 page monstrosity. If you haven't read it, and you like historical fiction, giver'a'go.



I know that there's really not too much to look forward to, weather wise in April, but I have to say that here in Japan, it'll be cherry blossom season in about one to two weeks. With our warm winter this year, it'll probably start a little bit earlier, so I'm thinking that probably around March 27th, Tsu-park will be blooming. I'll be posing tonnes of pictures in the near future so stay tuned and get excited with me! I'd like to add that since the famous Japanese poet Basho was born in Mie prefecture, the haiku is celebrated here as a national event, and this celebrating culminates in Cherry Blossom time with many people breaking out their poetic inspirations to join in the celebration. I got one of my Voice classes in Yokkaichi to write a haiku for an activity, and this is what the five of us over fourty minutes came up with:

Pretty Pink Petals
Resemble my glowing face
Under Tsu's blossoms


On that note,

ja matta ne,

-benjamin


P.S. I've got some other good news! My landline is up and running... so if anyone wants to chat it up, drop me a line on e-mail and we can chat it up for discount rates. Calling with my celly is just too expensive.


ENRISH!!!! (& cool things)


Check out that price!!! Can you believe that a single Cantaloupe comes in a box and costs... $40 Canadian Dollars?!!! What the heck! I really should have filled up on Cantaloupe before I left...





Mmmm... Georgia has a brand of drink that's entitled... "DEEPRESSO!!" Mmmmm... depressing. I think it's supposed to be a de-caffeinated espresso... where's the joy in that? Perhaps it is properly labeled afterall.




Perhaps this is just me, but that whale's drink looks particularly phalic...






"Neither returned goods nor the exchanged are done in our shop. Please acknowledge it." I just loved the phrasing.