Aaaaaaand scene.

Aaron + Michael Go To Japan: Sayonara Nihon, Hello America from Joe Smith on Vimeo.

Happy one year anniversary or so! It’s true, friends. One year ago, Aaron and I were in Japan, freshly graduated, and poised for adventure! We were soaking in the rays and enjoying our days. Then it all came crashing down. Crashing, crashing, crashing into the bosoms of reality.

Back in America, we found little time to edit video, blog, or even eat. Life eked on. I started a new blog here in Japan for my JET experience, which I have barely kept up with despite people really liking what I write. What a fool, I am!

What can I say? Life catches up to you quick. Plus, once you get a lady in the life, it takes up a lot of time. In a good way, of course. So good, in fact, that I’m marrying the fair maiden. Aaron got on with his life too, winning the ASC award for best cinematographer to set foot on earth. After that, he realized he hates movies and loves to be a man! So he joined the army.

As of four days ago (or so) Aaron graduated from boot camp with crazy honors and is now somewhere near the rank of General. As a present for his efforts, I decided to take two days off of work to put together the last “Aaron + Michael Go to Japan” video. However, it took me four days to complete. Aaron finished his last video sometime in April this year, and asked me to get on task!

I, of course, was too busy figuring out how to propose to Katie. And being a nervous wreck, I’ve found, takes up a lot of time. So no go there. After proposing, life was filled with the usual teaching of punks and the new planning of a wedding. THAT alone is a full-time job.

But now, the circle is complete! With this last video, our adventures in Japan have been fully compiled (all the interesting bits anyway), and set on the Internet for all eternity, or until vimeo goes bankrupt.

So, I do apologize for the extreme lateness, but if there was ever a good late date to post this video, it would be now. Because on this very day (July 20) of last year would be when the events of this video took place.

And it was good for me, I think. Not very many people get to take two days off of work and pore over footage of their lives one year ago. It’s made me pretty introspective over the past few days, causing me to lie on my back and ask the big questions, like, “Why does a developed nation like Japan still cover its floors with straw?” and “If the tatami (straw mats) itch me so much, why am I still on my back?”

Watching the footage has made me reflect on my attitude toward Japan as it was one year ago. I’ve lived here ten days shy of a year now, and my perspectives have almost completely changed. But watching videos of young, innocent, beardless Michael made me feel the warmth I used to feel about Japan.

Not that I don’t love living here, but it’s not some magical land anymore. It’s not all that different or special, I suppose. I go to the store and they sell squid jerky. Of course! I would never wear shoes in the house if you paid me. The billboard at the train station says, “Get refresh!” Why thank you, I’ll take two refreshes please.

My Japanese is utter crap, but at certain times, I’ve surprised myself with an automatic response or two. So it’s not a surprising or mysterious land. It’s just home. It’s loved and disliked in much the same way I love and dislike my own country.

But watching that footage has reminded me of the real special place Japan holds in my heart. It’s easy to get bogged down with commonplacery of a familiar thing and forget why it was so special (like that dog you used to love). Seeing last year’s Michael love Japan in such a different way helped me to remember the little things I do love and the reasons I fell in love with Japan in the first place.

And it also made me miss my friend, Aaron. We had such a spectacular time on that trip and I wouldn’t trade it for the world. It was my second time in Japan, and though people in our group (falsely) looked to me for Japan answers, I really didn’t know hardly anything. Aaron and I experienced Japan on much the same level, yet at the same time I was able to show him things I had loved and discovered, which was a very unique experience.

Now that I’m engaged to Katie and Aaron is engaged to America, it’s so clear how different our chosen paths are. He’s a valued friend and I hope our paths continue to cross despite my suckiness at emailing people. Last year, I was certain I would be packing to go home right now and joining with Aaron to venture forth in filmtown, but now that path is all but decimated.

In years past, a fear would have gripped me at this point. The fear of drifting far apart from Aaron, and indeed all my other friends, and wondering where the years went. But this is the twenty-first century! Screw that mess. We gots facebook.

To sum it all up, cheers to Japan and cheers to Aaron. And cheers to me for getting married! “Aaron is a solid dude!” as my fiancée would say, and I second that. Everybody toast Aaron wherever you may be. Because how else can you expect him to protect you when the enemy invades? Trust me. If zombie Nazis have me cornered in my kitchen, I’m fully confident that the door will be kicked in by Sgt. Aaron Dunson, M.D. And we’ll kill those zombies together.

And cheers to you for reading and watching. The ordeal is finally over. If you’re still with us, I commend you. Your reward is our hard work (Sorry, I’m poor). Always remember to love those familiar things, because there’s something that made you like them in first place. And love Aaron, no matter what.

Congratulations, Aaron! We kind of like you. (But I love you).

Sincerely,
-Michael























Look at that man! Stud of the week!

Working Ourselves to Desu

Aaron + Michael Go to Japan: Days 3-5 from Joe Smith on Vimeo.

Dear all,

Okay,okay, okay, okay, okay, okay…okay. I suck. We start a blog. I write every day for two days and then disappear. Where did he go? What happened? I’m sure at this point you’ve gone on with your lives and stopped asking these questions. But despite this, I am marching onward and blogging away whether anyone reads or not. It’s healthy for me. A writing exercise, if you will. Just because I’ve run off to teach in Japan for a year or seven doesn’t mean I’ve forgotten my true calling. I am a writer, and write I shall! Not for you, or the people, or even for myself. But merely because I’m bored.

So what has happened since I stopped blogging? Well, the other two Americans arrived, Peter and Michelle. Peter is the brother of Lauren, who did K-SEP last year. Lauren was supposed to come this year, but she decided she hates Japan. It’s fine, because Peter is super cool and we all get along really well. Michelle is Lauren’s childhood friend from childhood, and she really likes to laugh. Well, I don’t know if she likes it or not because it seems spontaneous, but she certainly does it a lot. All in all, the American troupe of four is pretty dang cool.

The first night they were here, we all went back to Ueno just because we had nowhere else to go. The next day the seven or eight Canadians arrived. There’s a lot of them and they don’t talk to us that much, but I’m pretty sure their names are Zach, Michael, Seobahn, Alissa, Krista, Masha, Stephanie, and Bippo. I like all of them except Bippo. He’s always pulling down my pants and honking my nose and making me smell flowers that actually shoot cologne in my eyes. What a jerk.

The next day, the four Americans met up with Will, Jesse, Naoko for a day of Tokyo driftin’ unlike they have anything they’ve seen before (Except for me. I saw it last year. Snotty-snot-snot.) The Canadians went on a guided tour and ended up as slave labor for a few hours. The rest of us went through Harajuku and Yoyogi Park, where we saw middle-aged men dressed as fifties greasers doing the twist. It was pretty awesome. We got all of it on video, so it will be on our next vlog once we get five consecutive hours to edit. After that, we returned to Akiba, where I found the coolest Mario encyclopedia, and bought it of course.

But that was the end of the carefree fun, because the next day we began teaching. Seriously though, the teaching has been great this year. My class is full of great kids, all who are wonderful artists. I gave them their assignment and they’re all almost finished. Last year, we were down to the wire, so I got them all started early. Now it seems I may have gotten them started too early, so I’ve been doing a few subtle things to slow them down. Setting their assignments on fire seems to be working pretty well. Also, I’ve hired a professional burglar to steal their supplies while they’re not looking. They never know what hit ‘em!

I was walking to the Kasukabe station one night to meet Jesse, Naoko, and Wendy for dinner, and I was late (as usual), so I was booking it quick. The weird thing about the Kasukabe Station area is that the evening time brings a million jillion birds who fly and screech overhead as you walk toward the station. They fight in swarms and make a loud, loud ruckus the whole time. And of course, just as I’m late and power walking like a geriatric at the mall, a big old birdie plop lands straight on my hand. “No way. This is not happening. No way!” I ran toward a lady handing out cards for a restaurant, hoping for a bathroom I could use. “Toire, sumimasen.” I said. She just looked at me. I didn’t want shove my poop-covered hand in her face, so I politely tried to pull her attention down to my hand. “Etto…tori…” (tori means bird by the way). Silence followed. “Hai! Tori!” She said pointing to the sky. “Iie, iie. Sumimasen. Tori…tori…uuuuhh…” I looked down at my hand. Her eyes followed. “Ah!” She said finally noticing my trouble. She ushered me downstairs where I was sure I would get to use a sink. “Chotto matte,” she said and went into her place of employ. She returned with a tissue. And a small one at that. I wiped off the splatter as best I could, and asked for more with primitive grunts and asking, “more, more?” as if she knew what I meant. She gave me another tissue, which did the trick, but left my hand unwashed. She smiled all the while. “Bad luck,” I said as she nodded in firm agreement.

For days and days we taught with no break, but finally last Friday we got to go to an Izakaya with the teaching staff. It was wonderful fun. We had food and drinks and really got to know our superiors. Naoki (another teacher) and I pretended like we were gorillas and Aaron ate some octopus. It was great. Afterwards we went to Karaoke, where we sang such favorites as Ghostbusters, Don’t Stop Me Now, and Pop Star. I must say I had a ton of fun.

After that it was a day of teaching, which involved watching High School Musical with the kids. As most of you know, I love gut-wrenchingly horrible movies. But this one was really really painful to watch, which made it all the more enjoyable for me. If you haven’t seen it, you are missing out on some top-notch unintentional hilarity on par with Robocop 3.

The day after that, the four Americans met Jesse, Will, and Swinky (Jesse and Will’s roommate from Kenya [she’s super cool]) at the Kasukabe Matsuri. A matsuri is a festival, by the by. We saw some cool Taiko drumming, Mikoshi-shaking, and game swindling. Yes, the Japanese swindle children out of money with carnival games just as well as we do. It was an amazing sight.

Aaron and I bid farewell to the group from there and headed out on our capsule hotel adventure in Shibuya. We didn’t have a plan, or really any idea where to find a capsule hotel but it couldn’t be that hard, right?

On the train to Shibuya, a middle school girl fell asleep on my shoulder, which was really awkward. I didn’t want to wake her up and make her feel weird, but I also didn’t want her sleeping on my shoulder. Aaron took a picture of it with his film camera, so I hope it comes out okay. When the train came to a stop, I used the momentum to nudge her over to her friend’s shoulder and crisis averted.

In Shibuya, Aaron and I walked the streets like a couple of bummy gaijin, and it was pretty fun.

After walking around for a while, we decided it was time to find a capsule hotel. It was about 1:55am when we began asking people. When we asked where we could find a “capuseru hoteru,” Japanese people just gave us funny looks. Of course, foreigners knew what we meant and gave us directions that always led back to prostitute alley, and there was no way we were staying anywhere near that place. So Aaron and I began the long process of finding an internet café, looking up a capsule hotel address, finding a police box, asking the policeman for directions, walking, getting lost, and finally finding the capsule hotel.

We have footage of the capsule hotel, so I want go into detail. Mostly I’ll just say I was really underwhelmed. I guess I just read so much about capsule hotels and knew what to expect so I got into the capsule and just sort of thought, “Well, here I am. It’s like being in a tent made of hard plastic. Goodnight.” Plus we got in the capsules at around 4:00am. I was way too tired to care.

The next day brought an unshowered Shinjuku trip. I didn’t mind, because I didn’t come to Japan to waste time in a shower. I’ve got places to be and kids to teach. So we walked all up and down Shinjuku shopping our little hearts out. By the time we got home it was 5:00pm. Needless to say, Aaron and I spent the rest of the night just chillin’ with Peter and watching movies.

We are now in the dorms at the Olympic center with the kids. I’ll cover everything that led up to that in the next blog. The video for Days 3-5 covers stuff I didn’t talk about, and future videos will also cover stuff I didn’t mention. So look forward to that, because I definitely like editing when I have the time.

I love you all and hope to see you in my dreams (unless you’re some sort of monster. In that case, stay out of my dreams.)

-Michael

Akihabara Video Blogs part one and two

*EDIT* The videos are now fixed. So long YouTube!


Aaron + Michael: Akihabara pt. 1 from Joe Smith on Vimeo.


Aaron + Michael: Akihabara pt. 2 from Joe Smith on Vimeo.

As for writing, I've got nothing. I'm tired and nobody reads them anyway. The other K-SEP kids arrived. The end.
-Michael

*EDIT* Okay, okay. I'll write. It turns out people were watching. Sorry for being a poor sport. I'll hopefully get some time soon.

Akiba and not sleeping

So here we are. I had a post about our day in Akihabara and was all ready to upload it here to the blog, but Aaron needed help editing the two days worth of footage we had accrued. So he edited day one and I edited day two. We edited and edited and edited and edited until suddenly Aaron said, "Hey Mike, look out the window." Sure enough the sun was rising. Aaron finished his video and I got halfway through mine. Aaron's is finished, so without further ado, here is the day one video followed by yesterday's post. So it looks like the way it will be is, a video of yesterday and a blog about what happened that day. But don't be surprised if the blogs get incredibly short when we start teaching. If you've ever been a teacher, you know why. The rest of you...bah! Bah, I say!

Day One



Day 2: Akihabara

SLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!

That’s what my brain was saying as I sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh-pt for nearly 11 hours last night. It was a nice restful sleep, as the futons were wicked comfortable. It was like sleeping on clouds that were just taken out of the package.

I got up around 9:00am and ready for the day. Aaron wasn’t however, so I decided I wasn’t either and went back to sleep until 9:30. About that time we got up, ate breakfast, and prepared for our first travelventure!

Because we needed a firewire cable to upload the video, we decided Akihabara would be the best place to go first. We’d see all the fun nerd places and pick up our many, many electronics. Before we left, however, I compiled a full page of useful Japanese words and phrases and gave them to Aaron to learn and try throughout the day. He remembered “Hai” and since there was no precedent I suppose that’s a step forward. But tomorrow, he’ll have to learn two words.

Before we left, Aaron asked how to say computer in Japanese. “Konpyuta,” I said. He needed to know so he could ask a local camera shop about the computer connector cable he needed for his camera. We went into the camera store and Aaron asked one of the guys working there about cables. He sort of looked confused, so Aaron pulled out his camera. He opened the side and pointed to the firewire port. “I need a cable,” he said. “Connects to computadore.” This was my first indication that he wasn’t going to try and learn too much Japanese.

We got lost on our way to the post office (we had to go there to exchange currency) and stopped at a gas station to ask for directions. I knew enough to ask the girl working there where the post office was. She gave us directions in quick and complicated Japanese. “Sumimasen. Wakarimasen,” I said with a troubled look. This basically conveys that I’m very sorry for being foreign. She proceeded to take out a piece of paper and draw a complicated map of the whole city, complete with points of interest and color-coded districts. She was almost done (I could see her writing the symbol for post office), when she said “Iie” (no) and crumpled up the paper. She made two or three more perfectly good maps before she pulled out a real map and just pointed to the post office. By this point, I had seen the directions drawn out for me four times, so I had it down. It amazed me how exact she needed to be before it was acceptable. When I’m asked directions, I quickly mutter “yeah it’s right then left and two rights you can’t miss it bye,” before shuffling away. Guess I’m a jerk. I need to make maps from now on.

We got hungry on our misguided trip to the post office and decided to stop off at convenience store for some hardy food. Unlike American convenience stores, which stock, out of date candies and moldy hot dogs, Japanese convenience stores sell food. I advised Aaron on what to buy and got the same for myself. As we were leaving, a kid from K-SEP last year passed right by me and we met eyes. I knew who he was, but because of my no-beard and short hair he wasn’t really sure who I was. As he was staring at me thinking, “Do I know this guy?” I blurted out my hasty American “Hi!” not realizing that to him I really just yelled “YES!” Think about it. By freak accident, I answered the question he was thinking in his mind. For the rest of his life, he may very well wonder if all foreigners have mind-reading powers (we do).

In Akihabara we did all the fun things. We found the computer cable right away, so tonight there shall be video for all! I took Aaron to all my favorite fun places. We saw lots of robots and video games I couldn’t win at. Pretty much all the fun is covered in the video portion, so I’ll let the pictures do the talking, once it's uploaded tomorrow. Either way, we did a lot of stuff, like went to a maid café. I keep hearing all these things like, “Maid cafes are a cultural anomaly specific to Japan! Wow! Oh boy! So cool! Yay!” But my two experiences have been mostly that maid cafes are a cultural anomaly that should stay specific to Japan. I mean, it’s really boring. One thing I don’t understand is that in the two times I’ve been to maid cafes, they’re always playing Disney movies on their big screen televisions. I guess it’s supposed to be cutsie, but I’ve never really thought of Disney movies that way. Anyway, my verdict is, maid cafes are probably good if you want to pay for girls who are paid to flirt with you. Of course, we didn’t get that with our meal because we can’t speak Japanese. The ice cream was good though.

On the way back home, we were really tired. We were crammed into the front car of the train and I just tried to sleep my head on my arm as I stood up. It didn’t work so well. The walk from the station was about twenty minutes and was really nice. Kasukabe was dark and closed up for the night. The weather was mild and slightly windy and it was peacefully quiet. That’s what I love about Japan most. The night.

That’s all for now, I suppose. As for the video of me with my shirt off, shaBAM! Check that out! Seriously though, don’t. It’s embarrassing. And as for an update on TV, Children’s programming was awesome, just as I expected. I saw a fat guy dressed as a lollipop doing jump rope and a family of transforming superheroes. So, I expect I’ll be watching morning TV more than anything during my year here. I did also find one late night anime that’s on TV right now. It’s really cutsie and pink, but the art style is actually interesting and the humor is really random. I wish I knew what it was called.

Hello to all back home! I’m off to bed. Good night!

-Michael

P.S. Pictures will be on facebook soon. Really, we are in over heads so bear with us.

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.