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April 30, 2005

Makuyama

Wow, what a beautiful day it was hiking up Makuyama (Mt. Maku) today with MN and SO. The hike was close to perfect... four hours of moderate hiking without crowds in warm but slightly breezy weather. There were some steep inclines at the beginning of the hike so we felt a little warm. But when we got to the top of Makuyama and sat down, we cooled down real quick with the breeze. We enjoyed snacks and a rest while watching the view of Izu peninsula and the vivd green hills.

There were also many flowers in bloom that we stopped to snap pictures of.

My only complaint was that the sky was kind of hazy and overcast, even though it was warm and sunny. The view was bleached out with a hazy white light and you couldn't make out the ocean so well. It was beautiful, but I think it would have been stunning if only the sky was clear.

The walk down was fraught with danger because it was somewhat steep and was slippery with gravel and lose dry dirt. MN actually fell a couple times and almost twisted her ankle on the stuff, and I had a couple of pretty close calls there myself. SO, on the otherhand, ran and hopped down the mountain with her hands out at her side like a penguin with a tutu. It was very cute and athletic at the same time.

At the bottom of Mt. Maku there is Makuyama Park, which is a really clean and beautiful with a river running through it and some grassy flat areas. We sat on some rocks and stuck our feet in the icy river water. We saw a golden retreiver, a pomeranian and some guy whipping around a fishing line with no bait on it, or so it seemed from where we were watching.

As we headed away from Makuyama Park, we ran into a bungalow soba/udon restaurant that had nice interior and cute owner couple. Big balls of dried branches hanging from the ceiling and all the tatami tables looked out on the river in Makuyama Park. The food was excellent and very well priced; we each paid 650 yen for grated mountain potato zaru soba or grated daikon zaru soba. What a treat!

Near the bottom we ran into some tea leaf harvesters who suggested going early in the morning (8 or 9 am) to get the clearest skies and views. Maybe next time I'll leave the house at 6 a.m. so I can get the better views... By the way, the smell of fresh tea leaves is so fragrant and sweet! I really wanted to scoop up a handful of the freshly picked leaves and try eating it straight, but I don't think the harvester couple would have appreciated it.

I definitely want to go back to Makuyama and catch a clear morning view Izu peninsula. It's a repeat offender, for sure!

Posted by Emarrific at 10:13 PM | Comments (0)

April 29, 2005

Hide and Seek

Today I went and watched Hide and Seek on the big screen with a free movie certificate I got from signing up for a movie theater credit card. (Yeah, laugh all you want, I got in for free, man. That's like 17 bucks worth.) I enjoyed the movie, mostly, because it was a bit suspenseful and had a little lemon twist in it. I like to be surprised by a movie, especially if it is in the horror, suspense, fantasy/sci-fi or mystery genres. Ok, let's face it, I like the surprise element in all genres. Does this mean I'm a devolutionized human who only likes the instant gratification a surprise gives rather than watching a dull movie building up to something predictable?

The basic story is as follows: A girl (Dakota Fanning) and her father (Robert DeNiro) move out from New York City to upstate New York after the mother of the family commits suicide in the family's bathtub. The girl starts playing with an imaginary friend named Charlie and things start getting very weird in this isolated house. The girl and Charlie starts doing some really disturbing things around the house, much to the consternation of the dad.

And so the story goes.

I sucked in air a few times, leaned back and yelped a few times, so "Hide and Seek" did what a horror movie should do. I personally think there should be an alternate ending that is more scary... the one they made seemed too tame and open for positive mental therapy. As in, it's very possible that things could improve in the future. What kind of horror ending is that?! I ask you, I ask you.

Posted by Emarrific at 10:14 AM | Comments (0)

April 28, 2005

Planning Lesson Brain Implosion

For the last week I've been trying to come up with a good way to do a lesson about basic sentence structure for an audience of forty first year high school kids of varying ability and motivation that includes some communication element and is interesting and useful and I wouldn't mind doing four times and has all of the USDA daily recommended vitamins. AaaaaaaAAAAaaaH! Today was the deadline for me to send in my lesson plan to the teacher. This morning I was really excited because I came up with what I thought would be an awesome lesson plan and I was happy as a little girl hepped up on sugar. But by the time I finished making the handouts in the afternoon, I HATED IT.

Basically I was going to have the students get in groups and come up with verbs and subjects out of the blue. Then we would do stick them into little silly sentences I made Mad Lib style. But then there is this problem of how to put a little diagram on the page that would refresh their memory about what a subject/verb/noun/adjective is... which is really friggin difficult because I think a lot of Japanese high school kids haven't grasped the concept of what these things are. Thus, even by the third year of high school, they can't put together a simple complete sentence off the top of their head without prompting. (I'm talking the average student, not the high level ones. We don't care about those because we don't see them.) What's more, this activity doesn't involve much talking (unless I try to enforce some kind of NO JAPANESE rule during the activity, which, quite frankly is like trying to enforce a small claims court ruling.) And the whole point of my being there is to increase their speaking abilities and exposure to native speaking. This activity does not do that.

I basically could rip apart the rest of the activities in the same way. Another activity is called "Make a Silly Sentence (You Fool)" and basically it had a subject, to be verb and compliment column which examples. They are supposed to come up with two subjects and compliments and write two original and unique sentences. Then I go around calling random people to say their sentences. Once a sentence has been said, then there is no repeating it. So, this essentially forces the kids to be a little more creative and to start breaking out of the mold of the few set phrases they may or may not know.

Same objectives to this one as the above one.

I had a running dictation activity which is more communicative but has nothing to do with basic sentence structure or enabling students to make a basic sentences unprompted.

Anyways, I just thought too much about things and by the end of the day my head was spinning out of control and I was really frustrated because the simple goal of planning one lesson turned into this complicated puzzle of how to make a whole year plan that would be more focused and accomplish the goals I and the people who hired me think are important. More communcation. More cultural knowledge. More interest in English. More confidence.

My brain is about to implode so I'm going to have a beer now.

Posted by Emarrific at 07:18 PM | Comments (2)

Garbage Confrontation Styles

Last night I was talking to a friend outside my building, when some lady came with a bunch of cardboard boxes and put them in the building's garbage area, which is clearly a violation of code 15.3.7 of the garbage law. Basically, the front of my building is full of illegally dumped garbage that sits around unpicked up by the garbageman FOREVER because either the dumpers are IGONORANT FOOLS who cannot figure out the right place and right time to put out their garbage, or they just a bunch of LAZY BUMS!

Needless to say, I confronted the Lady.

"This isn't the reclying dumping area," I say severly.

"Yes," she deadpans as she keeps on putting her cardboard boxes down.

"This isn't the recycling dumping area," I repeat.

"Yes. This is burnable, isn't it?" she intones and then huffs off into the building, probably to bitch to her boyfriend about this annoying foreigner who accosted her about the garbage.

Doh! Not only do I feel stupid, I feel mean and want to apologize, but I have no idea which apartment she lives in. Oh hindsight I could've been more diplomatic like "I'm not sure, but aren't cardboard boxes recyclable?" Then I would snivel and lick her high heeled shoes.

Well, it's always good to have a few neighborly enemies.

Still, cardboard boxes are recylable, and I think I would've had a good case if I had had the will to take her to the neighborhood garbage courts. I'm anxious to see whether the garbagemen will take the carboard boxes as "burnable" or if they will leave them there to rot forever and ever, like the rest of the shite in front of my building. If they leave them there, I will feel vindicated and the next time I see her, I will point to her cardboard boxes and say, "HA! I WAS RIGHT!"

Because I'm just that mature.

(For those of you unfamiliar with irony, please realize that I employed it heavily in the above phrases.)

Posted by Emarrific at 07:47 AM | Comments (1)

April 27, 2005

A cylcin' commutin' we'll go!

I biked to and from one of my schools today. I kind of took a long detour this morning so it took me 1.5 hours to get to school instead of 1 hour. I also had to go really fast to make it to school (almost) on time... about 30 km/hr on the coastal freeway near my house. The most bikable roads in my area tend to be the highways, unfortunately. But it was a beautiful day if a little windy, and I tired myself real good. I did 40 km or roughly 25 miles round trip. I used to laugh at such pitily little distances, but I'm really out of shape now so it kicked my a$s.

But I enjoyed it so much more because my feet weren't stuck to the pedals and so I wasn't afraid of dying. The roads are too narrow and scary for that.

Posted by Emarrific at 10:48 PM | Comments (0)

April 24, 2005

Some Restaurant in Enoshima

Well, I fixed up my bike so it was more Japan friendly (ie. can handle FREAKIN' SCARY BIKING CONDITIONS) and rode out to Enoshima today. By the time I got there I was really friggin' hungry but when I got to Tobbicho とびっちょ there was a huge wating list. Just to give you an idea... I wrote my name on the bottom half of waiting list page number 12, and they were still reading off of page 10. After waiting for 20 minutes, they were still on page 10, even though half the people on the list had given up and gone somewhere else. That restaurant was being slammed!

I like little white fishies as much as the next person, but I was just TOO tengo hambre to wait. So, I biked further away from the crowded area of the island (read: almost all of the island) and found some restaurant tucked away between a marina and a parking lot. As I approached, a saliva enducing clam miso soup smell wafted up and I decided all at once that I had to go in.

How could it smell so good and be so mediocre? Wonders never cease. I ordered a clam rice bowl and some clam miso. Neither tasted very much like the delicious clam smells that had enticed me to duck into the restaurant. The rice bowl was basically a teeny bowl of rice with three rubbery clams made into a runny omlette thing and sauce. Mediocre! Then I thought, "Well, maybe that was just an off dish... I think the miso might be good." Talk about bland. It was just like regular miso soup with three clams in it. Not so great. Oh well, I didn't end up spending more than I would have spent at Tobbicho, so at least I don't have to be steamed about that. I really get mad when I feel like I'm getting overcharged for mediocre or bad food. Beware the wrath of the Emarrificster who has been given bad food for too much money!

So, yeah, that's why I didn't even bother to pick up a card because I don't need to recommend it to y'all.

Posted by Emarrific at 10:12 PM | Comments (0)

Update of the tired old blog feel of yester-year!

I'm experimenting with new, calmer colors on this website. I am no color coordinating expert, so put your smart-A comments at the bottom of this here entry for any brrrilliant suggestions you might have about said topic.

I have also decided to leave the complicated photoalbum stuff to experts. I am now starting to upload pictures to Flickr, which you can link to from the front page of my blog. (See random picture thumbnail at upper right.) May do more with funky photoablum stuff later.

More facial reconstruction and bow-toxic injections to ensue. Weeeeeeeeeeeee!

More of that spendazzilififur prose and radazzle emarrific wit, too.

Posted by Emarrific at 02:09 PM | Comments (2)

April 22, 2005

Kansougeikai Madness!

This week I have been to three (count them), yes three!, kansougeikais. Kansougeikai are the welcome/sayonara parties held annually for all the incoming/outgoing teachers/workers. They happen every April/May, at the beginning of the new Japanese school year. It is yet another excuse for Japanese people to get plastered to the ceiling.

Alcohol positively leaks from every corner of Japanese social life. まずはアルコールから始まる付き合いが多いです。If you are going to socialize in Japan, unless you are old, a party pooper, allergic to alcohol, a Mormon or positively strange, you are going to drink some alcohol. I actually don't mind except that I'm starting to get a little beer belly or beeruppara ビールッパラ in Japanese.

Kansougeikai basically is just a dinner party with lots of speeches from incoming and outgoing teachers who are at varying levels of inebriation. Generally the higher the level of inebriation, the longer the speech. At the first party, there was a young teacher (about my age) who kept on rambling on and on about how she was going to study this year and pass the teacher's exam and how this year she was given a lot of rrresponsibility but she learned a lot and blah blah blah. "XXはね、今年絶対勉強するがらね" At one point (ten minutes into the speech) this (also drunk) teacher starting yelling from the back "SOMEONE STOP HER! たれか止まれ〜！" There was also a drunk male PE dude who kept on running around hugging this other male teacher saying "I love you!" or "You're great!" After one party, there was a nijikai (second party) in a karaoke joint and teachers were dancing, clapping, cheering, singing along, drinking alcohol and putting on some hard core karaoke performances. I whipped out my kick a$$ Bon Jovi "You give love a bad name" and they crowd went nuts. Some dude kept on yelling "She's the Exorcist! エクサーシストだよね"

In this way I am gaining the REspect of my coworkers. Damn straight.

The second kansougeikai two nights later was much calmer and it would have been a fairly ho hum evening had there not been another kansougeikai next door with teachers I know in it. See, in my job, I not only go to two high schools and the center, I also visit a bunch of special needs schools. It just so happened that one of those schools was next door, so I dashed in and out between the two parties. Yeah, I'm a terrible party pooper, but the other kansougeikai had a guy dressed up in a homemade yellow pompom monster outfit, a ukulele band, hula dancers and more drunkenness. You can see my case is uncrackable.

The nijikai (second party) for this kansougekai was going out to eat cake. This gives you an idea about the average age of the teachers in this school. Actually I'm glad it was calm, because I had already blacked out for 15 hours after the first party and found myself mysteriously hanging upside down on a laundry pole in a Shinto temple in Tokyo with my hair permed.

Posted by Emarrific at 10:45 PM | Comments (0)

April 21, 2005

Sin City

My regular movie night seems to be developing a camp and comedy habit. This week was no different with the showing of "Sin City". We also did cosplay! OK, we just dressed up as residents of "Sin City". One ganster (me), one leather clad a$$ kicker with stuffed weapon, two guns, two hoes, and a bunch of losers who didn't dress up. YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE!

The movie was great... bloody, full of tragic comic book characters who can almost beat all odds, with a great film noir/gritty feel. My only criticism is about character development. I didn't really care about the life or death of any one character (they all seem to be doomed anyways) because I hadn't really seen much humanity in them. They seemed like violent aliens on some other planet that just happened to look a lot like ours. But that can be cool too.

Posted by Emarrific at 10:52 PM | Comments (0)

April 02, 2005

Kanamara Festival

Kanamara Festival (fondly known as the "penis festival" by foreigners) was kind of dumpy little festival with a kind of gay/alternative sexuality kind of spunk. It had a "we're doing this to be weird" feel to it.

Don't get me wrong. I enjoyed seeing a whole shrine, festival and parade dedicated to big penis... eh hem... fertility. But it didn't have a very mystical hushed feel... solemn Shinto priests in white robes with big black daimyo hats carrying huge but abstract wooden phalluses while chanting "namu abu dabutsu" (Shut up, I know that's Buddhist, but WHADEVAH) Instead it was more like a bunch of drunken tourists (like myself) laughing about all the giant penis replicas, cross dressers and penis/pussy goods being sold at the puny flea market. It felt kind of... forced.

On a more positive note, I got a chance to exercise my right to drink in public open spaces. No "Closed Container" laws here! So, I had a great time hanging with friends, drinking and snapping lots of pictures and movies of friends and penises.

Posted by Emarrific at 11:04 PM | Comments (0)

April 01, 2005

とびっちょ！

Little white fish that are about one centimeter long are swimming in front of my eyes, like a cloud of white manna. No, I didn't do any drugs, unless eating lots of fish counts. (Some people swear sushi gives them a high.) No, I went to Tobbicho restaurant on Enoshima island where the little white fish (called shirasu in Japanese) are featured in almost everything, including salads, rice dishes, noodles, sashimi, tofu, and even ICE CREAM and SAKE! I kid you not.

I actually tried the shirasu ice cream and it wasn't bad. It was basically a nice vanilla bean ice cream with some chewy stuff in it (which happened to be little dried fishies.) Yeah, gag all you want, you heathens who don't like natto (fermented soy beans either. You're dammed anyways.

I also had 釜あげしらす丼 (steamed shirasu rice bowl) that came with lots of healhty and yummy (yes the two can go together you snivelling heathens) vegetables. I also tried fresh-fresh straight off the tidepools seaweed, which was really quite a different experience from your general joe-shmoe seaweed. It was really crunchy and chewy at the same time, yet robust in a way most seaweeds aren't. Mmm... I'm getting hungy.

The only big problem is the line. Unless you go on a non-busy day (maybe a week day?) you will have to wait a long time to get in! I don't know if it was featured in TV lately, or they just have good word of mouth. But definetely worth a go if you don't have issues with little tiny white fish!

Posted by Emarrific at 09:51 PM | Comments (2)