Tadaima!

Greetings all!

As some of you may know, I had the wonderful life-changing opportunity to visit Japan last year for the 2007 K-SEP program in Saitama. It was a fantastically fun (though many times trying) experience that I loved though and through. So much so, that I decided I wanted to live here in Japan. Of course, I’m not living here yet. I am in fact back in Japan for K-SEP 2008, only this time with my good friend Aaron Dunson. I also got accepted in the 2008 JET Program, but that starts August 1. For now, I am getting more Japanese classroom experience in Kasukabe teaching cartooning. Aaron is teaching film, and the rest of the people I have not met will be teaching other things.

But of course, it is late and I am tired. So without further ado, a quick recap of the past day(s).

June 30

This was a frantic one. I had a lot of packing to do before Aaron arrived at my house. We would be traveling together to CLT for our flight to Japan. I began packing and did my best to finish before he arrived, but I was only halfway through when he showed up at 2:00pm. We went out to get a few extra things for the trip, the most important being Aaron’s new Mini DV Camera. (We planned on doing Video Blogs and shot a lot of footage, but the man at Best Buy forgot to pack the firewire cable, so we have to buy one tomorrow. Bear with the regular blog. Video Blogs are a-comin’!)

We got home and continued packing. I finished just shy of midnight which leads us into…

July 1

Having to be on a new timezone is tough, especially one thirteen hours ahead of you. So I had the idea of just staying up all night and sleeping on the plane to adjust myself to the new time. So far, it’s worked out all right. I’m still fatigued, but I’m not decked to the floor. Aaron is though. He is out like a light someone threw a rock at.

But I digress. We stayed up until 4:15am, when my dad got up to take us to the airport. We hugged, said goodbyes, and promptly took off our shoes for the security checkpoint. Basically after that, nothing interesting happened. I mean, what is there to say? I sat down for eighteen hours. The end.

Though I must say, American Airlines was infinitely better than the Northwest flight I took last year. Every seat had a screen in the head rest in front of you, so there was no forcible viewings of Wild Hogs this year, thank the Lord! Also, my not sleeping paid off in some nice pass-outs on the plane. It was like being in cryo-sleep. You close you eyes and BOOM! Five hours just gone.

Oh, and our captain was named Captain Champagne. I’m not kidding. And he talked way too much and was way too happy. I guess that’s better than Captain Whiskey or Captain Appletini. You can think of those personalities yourselves. Class project.

At some point in time we crossed the international dateline and landed some time on…

July 2

We shuffled off the plane and toward customs. It was pretty easy to get through and thankfully my bag wasn’t lost this year. Though something interesting of note was the T-Shirt I wore. It was a sort of neon green and black checkerboard with punk rock symbols and words spattered everywhere. This got a lot of attention from the Japanese people in the airport, but not necessarily the good kind. The guy with the drug-sniffing dog brought his dog by my bag on five separate occasions. And someone else at the currency exchange stared at my shirt in total shock for a good five seconds before answering my question. Happily, after scaring one too many old ladies with my angry subversive clothing, a girl walked by me in the train station and said, “Pankku Rokku!” Though she said it kind of quietly as if she didn’t really believe what she was saying. But the important thing is, she said it.

Sakai-Sensei, our boss, met us outside Kasukabe station. It was good to see her again, and a sure sign that I had actually made it to Japan. My sleepy brain and fatigued body had pretty much kept me from processing this fact. She took us to our apartment, which is really nice, by the way. Once we get the firewire cable, we’ll upload a video tour of the place. She took us to the grocery store and we bought some food for dinner and breakfast. We ate, went out to the surrounding areas, and finally settled in for the night.

As I close, I must say Japanese TV is boring. I knew this from last year, but I just thought I would reiterate. Before I came here, I was worried I would spend all my time watching TV. However, this is not the case. It’s all talk shows, game shows, game shows where people talk, and dramas. Of course, the dramas are funny, but not intentionally so they get no points. And don’t get me wrong, the commercials are all awesome. I think their commercials and sense of advertising is on a level far above ours. It’s really just epic. But the shows…I don’t know. I just don’t get them. Maybe I need a million channels so I can see everything there is. Or maybe I’ll wake up early and watch Japanese children’s television. I bet that’s good.

That’s all for now. Tomorrow there should be video of today and tomorrow. That means no typings from me. Or maybe just less typings. I have to type a little. But really, just video. That’s what the people want and that’s what they’ll get. See you later!

-Michael



















This is my evil, evil shirt. Sadly, I am not punk. I'm just a wannabe poser. If they new that, then the shirt would hold no threat.