Let's see... this week was pretty boring. I didn't do much.
All I did was go to a modeling gig with J, get my picture taken, walk down the runway, get a t-shirt for payment along with Subway and free drinks, and see a band that I really because after I'm done modeling at this "rock-fashion" show it turns out that the awesome band playing is they, and who incidently I went up to afterward and said "Nirgilis no ongaku ga daisuki desu!"; meet some new people: 1 a 3rd generation Korean born and raised in Japan who has a gaijin/foreigners card like we Westeners do, 2 a Miami raised Japanese girl who half-runs that modeling thing, go out to dinner with her and J, go to the hipster-den Shimokitazawa with J and her, buy some good drinks, talk to some Frenchies, listen to this man DJ (real small lounge about 10 people in there including us) leave with Frenchies and J to Shibuya to go to a club the man is DJing at, have some fun, buy some expensive drinks, dance to techno; find out I didn't get the job I was hoping to get which was actually a sweet job prob, but at the same time find out they were impressed with my interview to consider me for this other job in the suburbs of Tokyo; show up to work 40 minutes late my first day of my part time job which only translated to 5 minutes late to class because until I rechecked my email at 8:00 AM I thought I was supposed to be at the train station at 9:15 AM but was really supposed to be there at 8:15 AM, taught 2 classes of 20-21 year olds, who were amazed at my young age and also my shoe size (it was a fun class, and I deftly stayed in Control as their Master/ Teacher >:) ); went out to lunch and bought what I hoped were dumplings but what turned out to be fist sized joints or at least lumps of slick thick white cartilidge; slept late too much in general, and made up for it today by studying a lot of Japanese, including going to the cafe with J as an excuse to study there and away from the laptop; started a transition from button to Maitake mushrooms, and today bought some already cheap beef at half price and cooked some.
So it was a pretty uneventful week, sorry I don't have more to write about.
Until next time, faithful reader
Excelsior!
Monday, November 26, 2007
Monday, November 19, 2007
The Return
Kobe. Awesome. "It's a special town. A port town," a lady told me today during my travels. That it is. That it is. So my last full day there was, in some ways, the best one. I only walked between probably 1 square mile all day, but it was raining, and I walked a very circuitous route, so forgive me! But, although I didnt get down to the harbor again, or get around to climbing that rock wall in that gym I saw, I still had a blast.
Basically, all I did was wander around the 2 central areas all day, stopping in various cafes, reading, and drinking coffee. When in Kobe, as the expression goes. In addition, for lunch, I found a place that was reccomended in my guide book for "Japanese food like it was before Japan got rich." The process was simple, the food carefully prepared, and the atmospehere very Japanese. I sat at a picnic type table near some Japanese, picked my order out by pointing at dishes on display, and the whole room was filled with smoking regulars it appeared, busy place.
Eventually, night fell, and it started raining -- not drizzling, raining. It was nice, although I eventually succumbed and bought an umbrella. During the storm which lasted hours, I continued my meandering. I saw a cafe at the top of a central building and made it my mission to go there, but I had to drop some things off first. After that, I found my way back, went up, and had tiramasu and coffee ovelooking Sanomiya area in Kobe.
There really is just too much to describe about Kobe to do it justice. All the little things. The old people dressed like hippies, the clean air, the graffiti at the edge of town, the modern architecture, the American buildings, the cafes, the mountains, the ocean -- all of it add up to a city that I liked alot.
I took a noon train down to Kobe center, and got an 11.30 last train or so back. On the way back down I saw a young guy in his twenties with a shaved head and sunken in eyes. I figured he was sick, perhaps on chemo. And then I realized how easy I have it. I have never struggled for anything in my life. There is alot of suffering and unhappiness in the world. Part of that is intrinsic to who we are. Part of that is based on our circumstances. I am very glad and grateful I have the family and friends I do, (thank you), and the privelege of a certain amount of money and health. Its shocking to think that people my age get sick and die. It makes me feel guilty that if and when I fall on hard times I can count on my family (or hopefully my friends) to back me up. Why do I have it so easy, on all counts? I don't think I really deserve it; I feel that I can only "deserve" it after experiencing hardship, but I must knock on wood now, because no one should ever wish for that sort of hardship.
I got pretty bummed out after seeing the bald boy on the train, but I was in a pretty introspective and excited state to begin with, after the whole Kobe trip. It was also sad to leave a place that I really loved so much. The feeling I am conveying now, two weeks later, does not do justice to the feelings I had while down there. I tried writing them up while in my hostel the last night. But the annoying lady running it said "we are closing the living room now" so I had to leave that and everyone was asleep in my hostel room so I couldn't type in there. Especially because I think I had toast crumbs under important keys that kept crunching...
I woke up with my cell phone alarm at 10.00 and went back to sleep. Half an hour later I woke up with a mild, but slightly persisting earthquake. Remembering the thousands who died 10 or so years ago in a gigantic Kobe earthquake, I got out of bed, and left the hostel.
I didnt mess around. I got a ticket to go home, and left. That's that. Kobe was a good trip. I will be sure to visit again, and I figure if I can get a year long contract anywhere any time soon, I would be sure to consider moving to Kobe after the contract is up for my remaining time in Japan.
**********************************
What else have I been up to? Well, while in Kobe, eating lunch at that very Japanese place, I got a call for an interview at a company that basically distributes native English speakers to schools. The lady sounded enthusiastic and awkward, and before when I called she seemed very friendly and happy that I tried to speak Japanese to her. It was good news. I had an interview for 2 days time (partly why I didnt stick around in Kobe longer.)
I got to the interview an hour early (its about 90 minutes from my house.) And good thing I got early, cuz it took me 30 minutes to find the place, and in Japan u want to show up early (prob everywhere, idk.) So I fill out, or start to fill out, a massively 7 paged questionaire of teaching and job app questions, u can imagine. Then this lady come and interviews me for 20 minutes. Then she sends in another, older lady who interviews me for a while. Then the original lady interviews me for a little bit. Then she goes away. Mind you, during all these breaks, I am struggling to write my autobiography on these 7 sheets. Then she comes back and tells me I have to do a videotaped intro of myself 3-5 minutes long. So i take 2 minutes to look her talking points over, and then go. Of course, I make sure to knock my chair over on the way out. ;) . And we videotape 2 takes, cuz the first one wasnt all that. Then we come back, i finish up writing, and basically a couple more questions, and we're done. Followed by much bowing on all sides.
I thought the interview went pretty well. The job was for an all girls private highschool 90 minutes from Tokyo. Awesome area. Historical, tucked in the mountains, prefectural capital. The highschool is presitigous, and English is important since they have some ties to Canada somehow, (think missionaries founded it.) Out of however many applicants my company had, they gave 4 people's profile to the school. ouly 3 of us, (us), were chosen. (!) .
So today, I make the 3 hour commute to this place, and its far, but its in a very nice, pretty, rural Japanese enclave and is a pretty looking, nicely bustling city. V. nice. I wasnt that enthusiastic about the job before I saw the area, because judging from the interview it seemed like it would be a lot of work and responsibility. Well, luckily, one dood was sick, so it was only me and this Australian dood interviewing for the position. btw, the position is assistant language teacher. I would be teaching alongside a japanese homeroom teacher. dont think id ever be alone with the kids, maybe, but def have more resonsibility than at a public school, where I think I'd essentially be a dictaphone (aka my dream job.)
I think the interview went well. What it consisted of was them calling him in first. me 20 minutes later. about 30 minutes b4 i was given a sheet of paper saying "you are to give a lesson to 15 people, its your first day as their assistant language teacher. introduce yourself and do activites... 10 minutes." So i walk into this room of 12 people, 2 of which are my PEEPS from THE COMPANY! (holler.) I talk about The GOC and Boston for a little bit, and then do an introduction game where we say what we like and dont and all that jazz.
I think the interview went pretty well. We shall see. One negative thing is as we were leaving the school, some school lady went up to the other dood and said, "can I ask you a personal question..." bla bla bla, so that they were askin him about his gf (who lives in this city,) is prob a negative to me. But at the very least, I hope I impressed/ represented for MY PEEPS from THE COMPANY so that they will strongly consider me for the next teaching gig they got. Who knows.
I have a part time job. Easiest interview ever. I showed up. They didnt ask me why I want to work, what I can do, anything like that. It took 30 minutes. Basically instead of asking me if I was qualified they said, "you worked at Nova for a month, you are qualified to teach these tax-college kids English." The only tough question they asked me was if I was reliable as in not looking for full time work, to which I repsonded I was only looking for part time work. :( . I feel bad, they are good people, and the job would be cool, because Id be hanging out with 21-23 year olds and I would prob be able to hang out with them if the situation arose.
*******************
Dang so much to type, so little strength in my fingers. One last thing. On Sat I went to this design festival, which consisted of thousands of art (painting, postcard, mostly,) music, clothes, booths that were just the size I imagine booths are at science conferences, -- 3-5 feet long. It was huge. We spent all day walking around its 2 floors and could have spent much longer. I bought some nice things. I went with my roomate J and C, who, if you remember, and if I mentioned his initial in my previous post, was my comrade in Kobe. He told me about it, we met up, J came, and it was much better than I expected. ALOT of art. Most of it was pop, which in large doses of the banal variety is bad for the soul. But as J told me, pop art is not meant to last, its about now, it looks cool now, and who cares if its crap in 10 years. So that made me appreciate the pop art more. But what I really appreciated was anime-like art. Not neccesarily big glossy eyed caricatures, but ephemeral, colorful, fantastic creations. I noticed how alot of the art seemed anime-inspired to C, and he smartly responded "its not so much inspired, as they are drawing from a common pool of influences. Its all part of one thing, and anime is one part, and so is illustration." I want to know more about this thing that they arise from. That will have to wait till the next art expo prob (cuz this stuff is so obscure it can only be found when 3000 artists get together.) That will be in March I think.
OK, enough type, more talk
holleratchaboi!
Eoin
Basically, all I did was wander around the 2 central areas all day, stopping in various cafes, reading, and drinking coffee. When in Kobe, as the expression goes. In addition, for lunch, I found a place that was reccomended in my guide book for "Japanese food like it was before Japan got rich." The process was simple, the food carefully prepared, and the atmospehere very Japanese. I sat at a picnic type table near some Japanese, picked my order out by pointing at dishes on display, and the whole room was filled with smoking regulars it appeared, busy place.
Eventually, night fell, and it started raining -- not drizzling, raining. It was nice, although I eventually succumbed and bought an umbrella. During the storm which lasted hours, I continued my meandering. I saw a cafe at the top of a central building and made it my mission to go there, but I had to drop some things off first. After that, I found my way back, went up, and had tiramasu and coffee ovelooking Sanomiya area in Kobe.
There really is just too much to describe about Kobe to do it justice. All the little things. The old people dressed like hippies, the clean air, the graffiti at the edge of town, the modern architecture, the American buildings, the cafes, the mountains, the ocean -- all of it add up to a city that I liked alot.
I took a noon train down to Kobe center, and got an 11.30 last train or so back. On the way back down I saw a young guy in his twenties with a shaved head and sunken in eyes. I figured he was sick, perhaps on chemo. And then I realized how easy I have it. I have never struggled for anything in my life. There is alot of suffering and unhappiness in the world. Part of that is intrinsic to who we are. Part of that is based on our circumstances. I am very glad and grateful I have the family and friends I do, (thank you), and the privelege of a certain amount of money and health. Its shocking to think that people my age get sick and die. It makes me feel guilty that if and when I fall on hard times I can count on my family (or hopefully my friends) to back me up. Why do I have it so easy, on all counts? I don't think I really deserve it; I feel that I can only "deserve" it after experiencing hardship, but I must knock on wood now, because no one should ever wish for that sort of hardship.
I got pretty bummed out after seeing the bald boy on the train, but I was in a pretty introspective and excited state to begin with, after the whole Kobe trip. It was also sad to leave a place that I really loved so much. The feeling I am conveying now, two weeks later, does not do justice to the feelings I had while down there. I tried writing them up while in my hostel the last night. But the annoying lady running it said "we are closing the living room now" so I had to leave that and everyone was asleep in my hostel room so I couldn't type in there. Especially because I think I had toast crumbs under important keys that kept crunching...
I woke up with my cell phone alarm at 10.00 and went back to sleep. Half an hour later I woke up with a mild, but slightly persisting earthquake. Remembering the thousands who died 10 or so years ago in a gigantic Kobe earthquake, I got out of bed, and left the hostel.
I didnt mess around. I got a ticket to go home, and left. That's that. Kobe was a good trip. I will be sure to visit again, and I figure if I can get a year long contract anywhere any time soon, I would be sure to consider moving to Kobe after the contract is up for my remaining time in Japan.
**********************************
What else have I been up to? Well, while in Kobe, eating lunch at that very Japanese place, I got a call for an interview at a company that basically distributes native English speakers to schools. The lady sounded enthusiastic and awkward, and before when I called she seemed very friendly and happy that I tried to speak Japanese to her. It was good news. I had an interview for 2 days time (partly why I didnt stick around in Kobe longer.)
I got to the interview an hour early (its about 90 minutes from my house.) And good thing I got early, cuz it took me 30 minutes to find the place, and in Japan u want to show up early (prob everywhere, idk.) So I fill out, or start to fill out, a massively 7 paged questionaire of teaching and job app questions, u can imagine. Then this lady come and interviews me for 20 minutes. Then she sends in another, older lady who interviews me for a while. Then the original lady interviews me for a little bit. Then she goes away. Mind you, during all these breaks, I am struggling to write my autobiography on these 7 sheets. Then she comes back and tells me I have to do a videotaped intro of myself 3-5 minutes long. So i take 2 minutes to look her talking points over, and then go. Of course, I make sure to knock my chair over on the way out. ;) . And we videotape 2 takes, cuz the first one wasnt all that. Then we come back, i finish up writing, and basically a couple more questions, and we're done. Followed by much bowing on all sides.
I thought the interview went pretty well. The job was for an all girls private highschool 90 minutes from Tokyo. Awesome area. Historical, tucked in the mountains, prefectural capital. The highschool is presitigous, and English is important since they have some ties to Canada somehow, (think missionaries founded it.) Out of however many applicants my company had, they gave 4 people's profile to the school. ouly 3 of us, (us), were chosen. (!) .
So today, I make the 3 hour commute to this place, and its far, but its in a very nice, pretty, rural Japanese enclave and is a pretty looking, nicely bustling city. V. nice. I wasnt that enthusiastic about the job before I saw the area, because judging from the interview it seemed like it would be a lot of work and responsibility. Well, luckily, one dood was sick, so it was only me and this Australian dood interviewing for the position. btw, the position is assistant language teacher. I would be teaching alongside a japanese homeroom teacher. dont think id ever be alone with the kids, maybe, but def have more resonsibility than at a public school, where I think I'd essentially be a dictaphone (aka my dream job.)
I think the interview went well. What it consisted of was them calling him in first. me 20 minutes later. about 30 minutes b4 i was given a sheet of paper saying "you are to give a lesson to 15 people, its your first day as their assistant language teacher. introduce yourself and do activites... 10 minutes." So i walk into this room of 12 people, 2 of which are my PEEPS from THE COMPANY! (holler.) I talk about The GOC and Boston for a little bit, and then do an introduction game where we say what we like and dont and all that jazz.
I think the interview went pretty well. We shall see. One negative thing is as we were leaving the school, some school lady went up to the other dood and said, "can I ask you a personal question..." bla bla bla, so that they were askin him about his gf (who lives in this city,) is prob a negative to me. But at the very least, I hope I impressed/ represented for MY PEEPS from THE COMPANY so that they will strongly consider me for the next teaching gig they got. Who knows.
I have a part time job. Easiest interview ever. I showed up. They didnt ask me why I want to work, what I can do, anything like that. It took 30 minutes. Basically instead of asking me if I was qualified they said, "you worked at Nova for a month, you are qualified to teach these tax-college kids English." The only tough question they asked me was if I was reliable as in not looking for full time work, to which I repsonded I was only looking for part time work. :( . I feel bad, they are good people, and the job would be cool, because Id be hanging out with 21-23 year olds and I would prob be able to hang out with them if the situation arose.
*******************
Dang so much to type, so little strength in my fingers. One last thing. On Sat I went to this design festival, which consisted of thousands of art (painting, postcard, mostly,) music, clothes, booths that were just the size I imagine booths are at science conferences, -- 3-5 feet long. It was huge. We spent all day walking around its 2 floors and could have spent much longer. I bought some nice things. I went with my roomate J and C, who, if you remember, and if I mentioned his initial in my previous post, was my comrade in Kobe. He told me about it, we met up, J came, and it was much better than I expected. ALOT of art. Most of it was pop, which in large doses of the banal variety is bad for the soul. But as J told me, pop art is not meant to last, its about now, it looks cool now, and who cares if its crap in 10 years. So that made me appreciate the pop art more. But what I really appreciated was anime-like art. Not neccesarily big glossy eyed caricatures, but ephemeral, colorful, fantastic creations. I noticed how alot of the art seemed anime-inspired to C, and he smartly responded "its not so much inspired, as they are drawing from a common pool of influences. Its all part of one thing, and anime is one part, and so is illustration." I want to know more about this thing that they arise from. That will have to wait till the next art expo prob (cuz this stuff is so obscure it can only be found when 3000 artists get together.) That will be in March I think.
OK, enough type, more talk
holleratchaboi!
Eoin
Monday, November 5, 2007
Highly Refined Pirates
Wow! My trip to Kobe was incredible. I tend to leap before I look, but I might have to say that Kobe is one of my favorite world cities. Last time I felt like this was when I walked out of the movie theater from Lost In Translation. I thought "wow, that movie was different... I think it might be the best movie I've ever seen." Now, I won't go so far as to say Kobe is the greatest city ever, but I will go so far to say as I have that same feeling. Maybe its just a culmination of moments, but it was good, good and bittersweet, too.
Let me start describing my journey. I got a fairly easy shinkansen (bullet train) ride down to Kobe. It took 3 hours and was uncomfortable. That was easy, finding my hotel was hecka hard. I got off at the correct stop, but walked to Tokyo and back looking for the place. This was annoying, and sweaty, because I had a bag full of clothes and a laptop briefcase full of a computer and books.
Immediately I noticed Kobe was different from Tokyo. For starters, its not as rich -- as evidenced by the graffiti on the steel walls. It has a lot more old people dressed like hippies. And also, I got more stares and glares than average.
I eventually found my hotel. It was a nice little spot called Kobe Tower Hotel or something. A real hotel, not a hostel. From when I got in that Thursday evening until when I checked out Saturday morning, I think I only left once to get a meal. Well, I also went to 7-11 to get a meal and supplies and what not. Oh and I checked out the location of the test on Friday.
On Friday night I went to bed at 10:30 and by my estimate got 5 hours of sleep. I checked out at 7:00 am Saturday and went to my test. It was the most beautiful ride to a test ever. Now I forget when I rode in which cart, but the line to the test location is called the Rokko Liner. It is a small rail that only goes about 5 stops, the last of which was mine. It crosses the peninsula high in the sky on golden rusty tracks to get to this man made island-development I forget the name of. My test was at Canadian Academy high school, and it was the last stop. (Let me just stop saying everything was beautiful, because it pretty much was, including the area around the highschool. I'll only outline specific points.)
I went to the test, which started at 9:30. I had Miss Manners for my "tester." She followed all the rules to a t, and even made up some of her own, "can you put your bag on the other side of the aisle?" You are not supposed to open the test booklet, u do ur done, and she actually came around to each person to make sure they didnt break the seal. And yet she let people keep going to the bathroom and delay our test! (At my first GREs, the "tester" didnt know anything, and just let us do our own thing.)
I took the test. It was fairly difficult, Im not gonna lie. One of the problems said an electron has a reletavistic momentum of mc/2, and asked us what the energy was. I tried E= γmc, and E^2 = (pc)^2 +(mc^2)^2 but nothing worked! So I'm not sure... In any case, thats an example of the problems.
So after the test I went to my hostel. When I got in the hostel, look who was there! It was a guy from the GREs. We agreed to go out that night. He went out that day, and I stayed in and took a nap/ checked the internet. We went out that night and wandered all over Kobe. We didnt really do anything, just walked all over the place and talked and got one of the last trains back to the hostel.
The next day he left and I decided to go, on his urging, to Osaka. Its a major city in Japan, so I might as well see it. It was Sunday. I read in the guidebooks that Osaka teethes with bars, so I figured I didnt need to write down any's locations. Well, I got to Osaka, and couldnt find any. Osaka was alright, not the greatest city on a Sunday night. When I finally found the cool area of town with clubs and such, they were closing or playing bad raga music. I spent the night in an internet cafe.
I got back to the hostel the next day with blistery feet. I took a shower, applied for some jobs online, and went into Kobe with my laptop and some books. It was my last day in this lovely city.
End of Part I
Let me start describing my journey. I got a fairly easy shinkansen (bullet train) ride down to Kobe. It took 3 hours and was uncomfortable. That was easy, finding my hotel was hecka hard. I got off at the correct stop, but walked to Tokyo and back looking for the place. This was annoying, and sweaty, because I had a bag full of clothes and a laptop briefcase full of a computer and books.
Immediately I noticed Kobe was different from Tokyo. For starters, its not as rich -- as evidenced by the graffiti on the steel walls. It has a lot more old people dressed like hippies. And also, I got more stares and glares than average.
I eventually found my hotel. It was a nice little spot called Kobe Tower Hotel or something. A real hotel, not a hostel. From when I got in that Thursday evening until when I checked out Saturday morning, I think I only left once to get a meal. Well, I also went to 7-11 to get a meal and supplies and what not. Oh and I checked out the location of the test on Friday.
On Friday night I went to bed at 10:30 and by my estimate got 5 hours of sleep. I checked out at 7:00 am Saturday and went to my test. It was the most beautiful ride to a test ever. Now I forget when I rode in which cart, but the line to the test location is called the Rokko Liner. It is a small rail that only goes about 5 stops, the last of which was mine. It crosses the peninsula high in the sky on golden rusty tracks to get to this man made island-development I forget the name of. My test was at Canadian Academy high school, and it was the last stop. (Let me just stop saying everything was beautiful, because it pretty much was, including the area around the highschool. I'll only outline specific points.)
I went to the test, which started at 9:30. I had Miss Manners for my "tester." She followed all the rules to a t, and even made up some of her own, "can you put your bag on the other side of the aisle?" You are not supposed to open the test booklet, u do ur done, and she actually came around to each person to make sure they didnt break the seal. And yet she let people keep going to the bathroom and delay our test! (At my first GREs, the "tester" didnt know anything, and just let us do our own thing.)
I took the test. It was fairly difficult, Im not gonna lie. One of the problems said an electron has a reletavistic momentum of mc/2, and asked us what the energy was. I tried E= γmc, and E^2 = (pc)^2 +(mc^2)^2 but nothing worked! So I'm not sure... In any case, thats an example of the problems.
So after the test I went to my hostel. When I got in the hostel, look who was there! It was a guy from the GREs. We agreed to go out that night. He went out that day, and I stayed in and took a nap/ checked the internet. We went out that night and wandered all over Kobe. We didnt really do anything, just walked all over the place and talked and got one of the last trains back to the hostel.
The next day he left and I decided to go, on his urging, to Osaka. Its a major city in Japan, so I might as well see it. It was Sunday. I read in the guidebooks that Osaka teethes with bars, so I figured I didnt need to write down any's locations. Well, I got to Osaka, and couldnt find any. Osaka was alright, not the greatest city on a Sunday night. When I finally found the cool area of town with clubs and such, they were closing or playing bad raga music. I spent the night in an internet cafe.
I got back to the hostel the next day with blistery feet. I took a shower, applied for some jobs online, and went into Kobe with my laptop and some books. It was my last day in this lovely city.
End of Part I
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