Go go Team Gaijin!

G'day mates,

Alex came to Aki on Friday (Tano is so small that he comes to Aki to get a taste of "city life"). We hung out and chatted, had dinner and watched part of a women's volleyball game on TV. Ironically, Japan was playing the Netherlands.

Anyway, when we were wandering around Aki looking for somewhere to eat, we passed a veterinary hospital with a sign I thought was funny.


(I'm easily amused.)

As for the weekend, I skipped out on the stone-skipping festival in Ino, but the whitewater rafting trip finally came together! I got a few people interested, so we booked a trip with HappyRaft for Monday (weekdays are cheaper than weekends, I could use my second day of summer leave, and another group of JETs planned a rafting trip for that day too, so it worked out nicely) and a stay in the guesthouse for Sunday night. Sunday afternoon, Alex, Michelle, Matt and I headed up to the mountain town of Otoyo (near the Kochi/Tokushima border) in Michelle's car.


(The Yoshino River.)


(Michelle and Matt.)



We were met by a HappyRaft employee (and his adorable dog), who showed us to the nearest grocery store and then to the Happy Guesthouse.











(Alex and Matt choosing some tunes.)





An unexpected visitor:



It rained Sunday night, but on Monday, the weather could not have been more perfect! It was sunny but cool — apparently the mountains have the advantage of being beyond humidity's grasp.



We hopped back in Michelle's car and headed to the HappyRaft office.


There, we met up with the other rafters, signed our lives away, got outfitted in wetsuits, life jackets and helmets, grabbed our paddles, hopped into a van and were driven over the border into Tokushima to the starting point.

HappyRaft has photographers follow you down the river, and you can buy a CD of the pictures at the end of the trip. Our raft consisted of Michelle, Matt, Alex, me, and the three other Kochi JETs Emma, Stephen and Rob, as well as our Irish instructor Sean. Behold, Team Gaijin!

































(Smacked with one too many paddles. Thank goodness for helmets.)














(Oh, Alex.)




Getting ready for some cliff jumping:


Stephen:


Michelle:


Emma:


Matt:


Sean:


(The biggest cliff was about 33 feet and the smallest one was about 16 and a half feet. I was a wimp and jumped from the small one.)



They provided an excellent lunch of homemade bagel sandwiches for us on the rafting trip, and the people who brought lunch also brought a bag with whatever stuff of ours that we put in before we started (anything we wanted to have with us during lunch that we wanted to stay dry — phones, cameras, sunscreen, etc.) so I whipped out my camera!



(Stephen and Alex.)





(Me and Rob.)


(+Stephen.)


(Matt and me. Aki represent!)

The ladies — Michelle, me and Emma:



Team Gaijin!


I'm exhausted, slightly bruised, extremely sore, and I think I inhaled and/or swallowed half the Yoshino River, but rafting was a blast. After rafting, we retired our paddles, hopped in the van and were taken back to the HappyRaft office, where we could dry off, change and watch a slideshow of pictures. Then Michelle, Matt, Alex and I collected our belongings and headed back to Michelle's car.






On the drive back, we stopped in Motoyama to have dinner at a place called the Missy Sippy Cafe, a laid-back, blues-themed restaurant with awesome decor, food and music (Dad, get this — they even played a Tracy Chapman song).










(We were there for a while.)

My supervisor apparently forgot that I took Monday off (even though he stamped my leave sheet and gave it back to me), so Matt and I both had missed calls from Kataoka-sensei wondering where I was. When I straightened that out with her, she told me that the meeting I was supposed to have Tuesday had been moved to next week, so I was free to take Tuesday off as well. Since I figured I'd need to recuperate from rafting, and I had a third and final day of summer leave that had to be used by the end of August anyway, I took her up on it.

But now, it's back to work... a few meetings here and there but nothing exciting until next week, when I actually start teaching!

Peace,
B

Arisa and Prefectural Orientation

Hola amigos,

Last Wednesday night, I had dinner with Arisa, my first non-JET friend here in Japan. We met on the train the first time I was coming back to Aki from Kochi City. I was sitting on the train, scrolling through my iPod, when I noticed out of the corner of my eye that the girl sitting next to me was just staring at my head. Feeling kind of awkward, I finally turned to look at her. She was completely fascinated with my hair and started asking me a bunch of questions about it. Somehow that developed into an actual conversation, which led to us exchanging phone numbers and promising to hang out.

So I texted her Tuesday (in Japanese) to see if she wanted to come to the usual Tuesday night dinner thing at Yourou with Matt, Kym and me. She said she was working but asked if I wanted to hang out the next night. I was surprised that she texted me back in English, since she didn't seem to speak much English on the train.

On Wednesday, she drove to Aki (she lives about 20 minutes away) and we went to the okonomiyaki place for dinner — I'm starting to frequent that place as much as Yourou and the bakery — and got to know each other a little better. She's a self-employed piano teacher and quite a cool lady! (And it turns out she has a translator on her phone, which solves the mystery of the English texting. We mostly spoke in Japanese, with her phone acting as the occasional interpreter.)

After dinner and ice cream, we went to an arcade because she wanted to do プリクラ (purikura, a.k.a. those goofy photo booth pictures). After you're done taking the pictures, you can doodle on the screen before printing them out.





When we were done with pictures, we decided to stay and hang out in the arcade.



(Of course the arcade has a pachinko section. Pachinko parlors are everywhere!)


My new favorite game, Taiko no Tatsujin (basically, a taiko drum game in the style of Guitar Hero and Dance Dance Revolution):



Arisa conspires with the arcade employee for the best approach to grasp the bunny:


She goes in for the kill:


Success!


It was a fun night. I really hope we get to hang out more and become better friends!

The next day, I headed to Kochi City for Prefectural Orientation. Since it didn't start until 1 p.m., I met up with Alex on the train earlier that morning so we could go to the immigration office to get our re-entry permits (which you need if you want to leave the country and be able to get back in).

Aside from getting to meet more Kochi JETs and catch up with the ones I'd met in Tokyo, the first day of the orientation itself was nothing new. I mean, really, how many speeches on culture shock do we need?

After orientation, there was an after party at a nearby beer garden, which was basically a buffet where we could chill, eat and chat with fellow JETs.




Later that night, there were a bunch of fireworks as a close to the Yosakoi Festival.






And then there was the after-after party at One Love, a reggae club that's pretty popular among the Kochi JETs. $7 drinks, but hey, no cover charge on weeknights!





(A disco ball AND a blacklight!)


(my Aussie buddy Ben in Muroto)


(Michelle, one of the PAs)


(Matt, whom I sit across from at work)


(Emma, a Scottish girl in Kochi City)



(Sean, a hilarious Irishman)


(Lisa, a fellow Californian in Kochi City)

After leaving the club, Ben and I accompanied Michelle to a コンビニ (conbini, a.k.a. convenience store) to buy Japanese condoms for her speech on safe sex for the next day of orientation (I mean really, what is this, middle school?) Before heading back to the hotel for the night, we stopped for purikura.


The next day of orientation was better (and included an amusing moment when one of the PAs made a joke about Mormons during his presentation without realizing that there was one among us).

There were some presentations about things to do and sights to see in the different parts of the prefecture, as well as a sign-up sheet for the Genki Musical that the Kochi JETs put on every year (heck yes!). But the most relevant bit of information during the entire two days of orientation was Michelle's presentation on earthquakes and tsunamis. The Nankai Earthquake is a big one expected to hit Kochi within the next 50 years. I'm from California, so earthquakes don't scare me, but it's good to be prepared. Next time I go to the grocery store I'll pick up some extra water and non-perishable food so I can get an earthquake kit together.

After day two of orientation, a bunch of us grabbed an early dinner at Hirome, an always-crowded food court, and I caught the train back with Ben and Peter, a PA who lives in Nahari. Since Nahari is as far east as the train goes, poor Ben had to take a 45-minute bus ride from there to Muroto, after already being on the train for an hour and a half.

I spent the weekend relaxing in my still Internetless apartment. I rearranged the furniture in my bedroom so that the hanging lamp is not directly over my bed and won't crush me in an earthquake. Work has been pretty low-key as usual this week, though Matt and I went over some lesson plans with Kataoka-sensei.

Tonight, it's the usual Tuesday night dinner at Yourou with Matt and Kym. This weekend there's a stone-skipping festival in Ino that I might check out, and I'm working on getting a rafting trip together for Monday!

Peace,
B