closing time

I have much to share and precious little time to do it in. Moving my small space is bad enough, but add in closing shop at the school and the social whirlwind of closing parties and goodbye lunches, and time flies right out the window.

There's no telling when I will be able to post again - I'm hoping that it will not take me six weeks to get internet at my new place, but I know better than to believe that things are going to be as simple as I want them to be. May the gods of convenience and interwebs smile upon me and offer me their blessings. I get the feeling I might need them.

I did receive some information about my new school. I'll have a much busier schedule this time around: 29 classes, ~75 students. As if I needed a reminder about how good I had it here in Isesaki. The upside of this is that only 8 of them are kids classes, and 11 of them are Sprint classes, which are fast and easy to prepare, especially now that I've been through all of Sprint 7 and half of Sprint 6 and Sprint 8. Also awesome is that I have two Headway classes, which offers the prospect of teaching high-level subjects. The real unknown factor here is that quite a few of my students are going to be businessmen, which is a change-up from the large number of teachers and bored housewives I had in Isesaki.

Perhaps saddest of all: this marks the end of my freedom to wear sneakers and jeans most of the day. I get the feeling that I will once again be considering buying stock in blister treatments. My feet already hurt.

Thus closes the first chapter of my life in Japan. I can only hope that the next one is as fulfilling and entertaining.

T-minus 5 days

The Tokyo travelogue will have to wait. It's mostly just about the St. Patrick's Day parade anyway.

More importantly, moving is hard. I've spent the past four or five days trying to get myself packed. It's not that it's been especially difficult, it's just that it's tedious. And boring. And I'm mostly doing it after work when all I want to do is relax and chill.

Plus, I'm packing at work too. Previous NETs have left all kinds of crap behind that either needs to be packed to send to Ito Yokado or just thrown away. Hitomi-san was told to bring all of whatever props/toys/books I don't take, but I don't see how they're going to fit it all into the Ito Yokado school. It's tiny. The office is miniscule. And it doesn't have any light. But, it's what she was told to do, so she'll do it. I've gone through everything and decided what I want to keep, which amounts to a big box of prop stuff and a small box of books.

On the apartment relocation side, I've received negligent information from my trainer(s): how do I get to my apartment from the train station? will someone be meeting me to give the key? if not, how do I get in? most importantly, how long will it take me to get internet? Actually, the only thing I'm worried about is getting into the apartment. Everything else will follow that. The utilities are already being arranged (Hitomi-san is a saint), and I'll have Thursday to get settled in.

As for my trainer(s), the only communication I've gotten is that they want pictures of my clean and empty apartment yesterday. At which I laughed quite a bit - after I sulked angrily for a while. Cuz, see, I thought I had until Tuesday to clean and empty my apartment. So, it's a major mess right now. Because I'm in the middle of packing and all. I've been doing most of the work at night (read: midnight-3am) because I've been staying at the school all day to help clean and pack there too. Yeesh, I am so sick of this cleaning and packing thing.

So, I spent two hours last night cleaning the toilet room and the kitchen and moving my crap from one side of my living room to the other to take pictures. The bathroom is still a mess because I just happened to do a load of laundry, and it was still hanging up to dry. It was too windy yesterday to hang it outside. As is typical of Gunma's spring weather.

(On a side note, it got cold again this week. Stupid weather.)

The bright side of this is that, if I continue this level of diligence, I'll be 95% ready to move by Tuesday - the other 5% being packing up my futon and finishing up my last load of laundry. So, at least I'll be able to enjoy my last couple of days in Isesaki to hang out at the school and chill with the students. They've all been very sweet and kind and sad about everything. Only two criers so far, but I imagine that our farewell parties are going to bring out the waterworks. We'll see.

Japanese Travel Journal: Gotemba

The main reason I went to Gotemba was because the hostel in Hakone was full on Saturday night and I didn't want to end my vacation that early. I couldn't find another hotel in Hakone that I liked (and that wasn't full), so I turned my attention to Gotemba, which is about a half hour away from Hakone by bus. It's also closer to Fuji-san.

Having stayed in a hostel for two nights, I figured I deserved to splurge a little, so I settled on a beautiful, luxurious hotel called Auberge Blanche. The French influence is obvious even if you didn't know the name:

It definitely is a little reminiscent of a French chateau. Unsurprisingly, they take really good care of you at this hotel, and at no time did I feel unwelcome here. I felt a little out of place, considering that I arrived in jeans and a flannel shirt because it was pretty freaking cold, but the staff made me feel like I belonged there. I even got a nice, warm cup of chamomile tea as a welcome drink. My room was small but comfortable, and I had nothing to complain about.

The real reason I chose this hotel, though, was because of its restaurant, called Blanche. As you might guess, it's a French restaurant and without a doubt qualifies as gourmet. Half of the menu is available online, and it was the deciding factor. Three set meals are offered, but I ended up going with the a la carte menu because I wanted to pick and choose. Also, I did not want fish, and that was part of the set courses. It was an expensive dinner, but it was worth every penny.

• appetizer: pan-fried croquettes of black rice flavored with chestnut and stuffed with foie gras. I am a sucker for anything featuring foie gras, and this did not disappoint. It just melted in my mouth. This was also served with a red pepper mousse, which I thought would be strange and turned out to be fantastic.
• main course: thin strips of excellent beef in a Bordeaux sauce and a bit of bleu cheese, served with vegetables. Perfection. The beef was so tender that I could cut it with my fork. And no over-cooked vegetables here - they were still crisp and full of their natural flavor.
• dessert: raspberry sorbet served with fresh fruit and coffee. Heaven.
  

Breakfast was also a delight. First, Blanche has a wonderful view of Fuji-san, and the morning came clear and crisp. Fuji-san dominated the sky with all his glory. The food only heightened the experience. It was simple enough, starting with yogurt and fresh fruit. The main course was eggs cooked to preference (scrambled for me), bacon, and a green salad with herb vinagairette. Also, there was strong coffee, and a variety of breads. There were two highlights to this meal: the apple-carrot juice (I want to live in this juice, it is so bright and cheerful and full of win), and the homemade raspberry jam (so delicious that it almost brought me to tears - I have never tasted anything so perfect as this jam, a delicate balance of sweet and tart that cannot be matched).

I only tore myself away from the restaurant under much duress; also, I had to go and catch my bus. While waiting at the bus stop, I had another brilliant view of Fuji-san, so I snapped several parting shots. I present them to you now.

Next stop: Tokyo!

Japanese Travel Journal: Hakone

I read somewhere that traveling in Japan will remind you of why you wanted to travel in the first place. This is 100% true. I could not have asked for a better vacation.

As always, I enjoy train rides. It's a pleasant way to travel. Also, it's better than riding a bus - I had to take a bus from Odawara station to the hostel in Sengokuhara, and that was a longish trip up a windy mountain road. I'm impressed that I was able to make the trip with only the slightest hint of queasiness.

I arrived in Sengokuhara around dinner time, so after checking in at the hostel, I went in search of food. Found a nice Chinese restaurant that served decent ramen and excellent gyoza. Upon returning to the hostel, I met my roommates for the evening, Tomoko-san and Kim. This is one of the reasons I like staying in hostels - you have the chance to meet really awesome people! We stayed up talking until about 1am, and then we finally went to bed. Kim was leaving for Hiroshima in the morning, and Tomoko-san and I agreed to go to Lake Ashi together the next day. Which is exactly what we did!

On Lake Ashi, you can ride these really colorful and mildly hilarious boats to Hakone from the ropeway station. Here, Tomoko-san and I pretend to be pirates. Well, Tomoko-san is; I just look really, really cold. Because it was really cold and really windy.

Before getting to Lake Ashi, we went to Owakudani first. Owakudani is famous for its sulfur onsen, and the steam rises from vents in the valley. It's kinda creepy-looking (one of the Australians sharing our ropeway car commented that it looked like "a vision of hell"). The other thing that Owakudani is famous for are black eggs:

When eggs are boiled in the sulfurous water of the onsen, the shell turns black. On the inside, however, they remain otherwise normal. They taste just like regular eggs, they just need a little bit of salt. Supposedly, eating one of these eggs will add seven years to your life. Tomoko-san and I shared a bag of five of them (you could only buy them in multiples of five); she won janken for the fifth egg, so I only got fourteen years to her twenty-one. Still, they were a tasty treat, and it was nice to share them with a friend.

We went on to Lake Ashi, mainly to see the Hakone shrine. One of the most notable things about the shrine is the torii in the water. It's clearly visible while sailing on the lake, and once at the shrine, you can walk down to the torii. Also, the shrine is surrounded by a beautiful and amazing cedar forest; the grand trees grow up within and around the shrine like an army of silent sentinels. Many of the trees are sacred themselves, including a safe travel tree and an easy childbirth tree.

We ate lunch a nice little soba restaurant, and then Tomoko-san went off to find an onsen (not a problem, they're all over the place in Hakone). Much to the disappointment of my students, I have found that I am not overly fond of onsen. After the head-bashing incident in my own bath, I'm wary of them. They're so hot, they don't just make me drowsy and dizzy, they also make me a little nauseous. Even the prospect of private onsen isn't enticing to me. I could probably get over the body issue thing and go to a public onsen, but I really would prefer not to feel ill.

Instead, I went to the Hakone Open Air Museum. There are museums all over Hakone, and unfortunately, I didn't have time to go to all of them. The Open Air Museum looked particularly interesting because of its extensive Picasso exhibit and many outdoor sculptures. Things would have been quite lovely if it hadn't started to rain when I got there. Even so, it was nice, especially around the Green Lawn, which had some beautiful flowering trees interspersed with the sculptures.

I stopped at a Lawson's for a combini dinner (mmm, ham-n-cheese sandwich and Pringles). As it happened, Tomoko-san had the same idea: she came in about 30 minutes after I did with a rice dish from the same Lawon's! We ate dinner in the common dining room, listening to the wind and rain slam against the windows. What had been a sedate but steady rain became a fervent rainstorm, complete with gusty winds. This continued through the night and even into the morning.

I had planned on going to the Little Prince Museum, but because most of it was outside, I was reluctant to go. Tomoko-san planned on going to the Pola Art Museum, and she invited me to go with her, so I did. The Pola is a beautiful and expansive museum, with both Western and Japanese art. I was especially interested in the Japanese artists, as I hadn't heard of some of the contemporary names, and what I saw was impressive. We spent a total of three hours in the museum, definitely worth the trip. The museum itself is very beautiful and modern, with lots of glass and metal, windows looking out into the surrounding mountain woods. Most of the galleries are underground, so that you wouldn't even know it lay tucked into the mountain by looking. The idea was to blend the structure into the landscape, and it works beautifully.

Upon leaving the Pola, Tomoko-san and I parted ways. We exchanged contact info and wished each other well. Because it had stopped raining, she went on her way to the Open Air Museum, and I decided to go to the Little Prince Museum.

The Little Prince was written by a Frenchman, and the only way I can explain the existence of this museum in Hakone is that the Japanese seem to like the story. I am not overly fond of it myself (I had to buy and read the book to discover this, because it's been over ten years since I last read it). But the museum is an amazing piece of work itself, including a remarkable replica of the childhood home of Saint-Exupery and the winding streets of an old French village. The amount of detail that goes into the setting blows the mind. The museum itself (detailing Saint-Exupery's life and the Little Prince's travels) didn't hold much interest for me partially because it lauded Saint-Exupery without looking at the more negative aspects of his life - but mainly because it was all in Japanese.

The restaurant made up for it. The Japanese menu had decent pictures, so I ended up with a delicious seafood pasta in a creamy sauce. Yummy.

And then I boarded the highway bus headed for Gotemba.

boom-de-yada

I wrote a semi-long post about how awesome my Hakone vacation is, but then I pressed one of the STUPID side buttons on this STUPID mouse, and it took me back to a previous page and demolished all of my writing.

I'll just have to post all of the details about my trip when I get home. Suffice to say, I'm having a fantastic vacation, and I'm falling in love with Japan all over again.

To sum up:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BxNJRxGbgE&feature=related

"I love the whole world, and all its sights and sounds."

"on the road again"

Leaving for my vacation tomorrow! Will spend two nights at a hostel near Mt. Hakone, followed by one night at a very nice and expensive hotel near Mt. Fuji. Then, on Sunday, I'm heading into Tokyo for the St. Patrick's Day Parade. So totally looking forward to this. Should have plenty of pictures when I get back.

Also, I will be moving. It hasn't been made fully official yet, but I am being transferred to the school in Moriya, in Ibaraki prefecture. I'm told that it's one of GEOS newer schools and that it's one of the company's fastest growing schools. My boss informed me that they need a teacher who is "strong and independent." This sounds like praise and recognition, doesn't it? I think it means that this may be a challenging position. And that may just mean that I'm a terrible cynic. Either way, challenges are okay with me. The majority of my students will be adults, and that's all I ask for.

Though I will be working in Moriya, I will be living in Matsudo, which is in Chiba prefecture and very close to Tokyo. One of my students also informed me that it's close to Disneyland, which she should know well enough because she is a frequent visitor to said theme park. That's fantastic (and that's sarcastic), but it's not like I'll be living IN Disneyland, so there. I will have to commute to work by train, so there's that to consider.

This news has been disappointing to my students, though. Even some of them who are cancelling were a little upset - as Naofumi-san pointed out, I could still hang out with my old students if I stayed in Gunma-ken. Rio-chan's mother even said I should come and visit them, and in all seriousness offered to have me as a guest. (Have I mentioned that I love my students? I love my students. They are awesome incarnate.) I'm not sure how many of my classes will transfer to Ito Yokado now, because some of them are already asking about transfering to other GEOS schools.

Which raises other concerns for me. I had an interview today, and despite the move and the changing of teachers, the prospective student decided to sign a contract. This gives my adult interviews a 100% success rate. I do not understand this. It always strikes me as odd when people seem to like me. I've never thought of myself as particularly personable. My greatest concern, however, is how these newer students (there are 3 of them whose contracts start this month) will fare at Ito Yokado. Renewals have not been encouraged, a sub teacher will be put in charge of the adult classes, and Hitomi-san has been told not to open any new classes. I find all this a little distressing, but there's nothing I can do about it, which just irritates me.

Finally, I would like to take this time to affirm my distaste for adverbs. The Sprint 8X lesson this week was all about adverbs, and it was painful. Even Naofumi-san thought it was a little disconcerting. The conversation caused me great emotional trauma from the overuse of its adverbs. I also took offense to the book's suggestion that writers use adverbs to help "describe their characters and their motivations." As a writer myself, I believe that using adverbs is akin to cheating and should not be encouraged. Adverbs should be used only when necessary and not whenever the writer doesn't know how to express herself in detail.

Take, for example, the adverb "clumsily." You can write, "The ballerina danced clumsily." Okay, fine. That'll get the job done. But, suppose you write, "The ballerina tripped over her feet and staggered forward, bumping into male lead and knocking them both off balance." No, it's not perfect, but you get more detail and a better visual idea of what's happening. Creative writing is about forging a mental image of a scene, and that requires details. Adverbs only offer outlines, vague shadows of what is happening.

Yes, I've edited a few things over the years. I've written some crap over the years too. I also read fan-fiction for a while before I decided to give it up for the sake of my sanity. If not used with great care, adverbs can ruin your prose.

In closing, Tom Swifties should be outlawed. That is all.

for more information on the abomination that is a Tom Swifty: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Swifties
(adverbs and puns combined! the horror . . .)

"little yellow devils" and weekly luncheons

No, that's not a slur. It's Naofumi-san's term for the pollen that has been assaulting most of my students for past few weeks. This week has seen a proliferation of face masks as people try to protect themselves from the onslaught. Success has been limited. It's been a miserable March for some of them.

As for myself, I'm relatively okay. Last week, I had a couple of sneezing days and even that wasn't so bad. I've never had a problem with allergies, but I was worried that strange Japanese pollen may trigger a sudden bout of hay fever. So far, so good. Hitomi-san has also been faring well, but apparently, her daughter is doing terribly. Given that she's the sickliest little kid I've known, that's not a surprise, unfortunately.

What else has been happening lately?

Benni-sensei, Hitomi-san, and I totally had steak for lunch today. Not just steak but filet mignon. To give a rough idea of how good this beef was, consider how exquisite a $40 filet must be. I'm 99.9% certain that it was the best beef I've ever had. I am unfond of this habit of dousing steak/non-bunned hamburg with unidentifiable house sauces, though. It's criminal to drown perfect meat like that. Especially when it's a sauce fraught with something as despicable as onions. Ew.

Next week, we're planning on going to a Korean barbecue place. It's become a weekly ritual with us. Last week, they finally took me to a kaiten-zushi restaurant, which features sushi on a conveyor belt holy crap how awesome is that? I admit, the merry-go-round sushi left a little to be desired - there's no way of telling exactly how long the sushi has been on the conveyor belt - but you can order fresh sushi too, so that makes up for it. I also had a bowl of chirashizushi (sushi scattered over rice). You can choose what you want, so I had raw tuna and avacado, and that was just plain delicious.

We've also been to a shabu shabu restaurant. This was interesting and entertaining, but it required a lot of time and a little energy. It's almost like fondue - you take the meat and "swish" it around a few times in a pot of boiling water to cook it. It cooks very quickly, but you can only do a little at a time, and with four people sharing one pot, it can get crowded. But it was fun and definitely yummy.

For more information on kaiten-zushi: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conveyor_belt_sushi
For more information on shabu shabu: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shabu_shabu