Neighbourhood Animals, Spa World and Bowling

Last night I was biking home and saw, for the second day in a row, a strange animal that was digging through the garbage crossed in front of me. For lack of ever having seen one of these creatures before, my guess is that it was a "possum". Ok, I Just looked up a picture of a possum on google images, and no, it wasn't a possum. I looked up a bunch of other animals that I've heard of but didn't know what they were, and can assure oyu that it also wasn't a meerkat, a weasel or a marmot (I really doubted it was that one anyway). But it was long, with a point nose, about as long as a cat but maybe... flatter? I don't know. Anyway, to my surprise, there seem to be more animals in urban Osaka than I would have imagined.

There are stray cats, for example, near a playground near my apartment. The local elderly seem to have taken quite an interest in them, as I have seen numerous old people attempting to feed and/or catch them. I saw an old man making strange noises in the general direction of one of the cats and the cat was ignoring him.

Moving along, this weekend was pretty fun. Yesterday (Sunday) I was invited by one of my Japanese friends to go to "Spa World", a gigantic spa complex in southern Osaka that is on sale for the next two months. Onsens (baths) are very popular, traditional and all over the place in Japan and I hadn't experienced one yet. Spa World was an eight-floor mega-centre in the middle of the city. We first went to the top floor where they had swimming facilities with giant waterslides and all kinds of advanced pool features. For example, there was a gigantic wooden bucket with water constantly pouring into it. When it got full enough, alarms would go off and it would dump all over the people on one side of the pool. It was a lot of fun. Next, we went to the European bath floor. There's an Asian-style and a European-style floor and each month they rotate genders (onsens are split up into genders). And it's a good thing that they were, because Japanese people are shameless when it comes to walking around naked, apparently. The European floor was split into the style of a half-dozen different areas: Finland was really cold water with hot saunas (oh, and fake birch trees and rocks). Greece, Rome, "Blue Cave", "Outdoor European spa" were all frustratingly hot. There was a Greek "red wine" bath that was kind of interesting, though unbearably hot. We went to a "salt room" where you're supposed to just rub salt over your body and to a couple of other unbearably hot baths. What I did enjoy, though, was relaxing in the cold Finnish bath. Most of the Japanese people stood clear of it, but it was really refreshing. Then afterwards in the Atlantic bath, where you're in a kind of section-off aquarium with fish and small sharks swimming behind glass under and next to you. Anyway, it was pretty relaxing and quite cheap.

Afterwards I went bowling as an event with people from work. I'm really bad at bowling, I was even surprised. I don't think I've ever used those gigantic balls with finger holes in them. No one understood what I was talking about when I tried to explain what bowling balls are back home. Anyway, I think I came in second last, followed only by a girl from Halifax that I met that night. It must be a local thing. Anyway, I think we're both getting prizes for coming in last place.

Time for work, talk to you soon.

Ryan

Hello Kitty Special

***Japan Topics***
TOPIC #3: Hello Kitty (& friends)


Who is the character to the left of this text? Hello Kitty, you think? Wrong. This is Charmmy Kitty, Hello Kitty's pet cat.
"Charmmy bears a striking resemblance to her owner, except that she has more 'cat-like features'."
-Emma Boyes, "Hello Kitty Trivia", Japanzine, February 2006.

Anyway, I thought that would interest you. Back in early December I went Christmas shopping for one of my young cousins and was instructed to buy a "Hello Kitty-style" doll, when I came across Charmmy Kitty. I didn't end up buying it, I bought a much more appropriate small bear-like creature that was attached to a squid.

Moving along, as you probably know as one of your only "Asian Facts", they love Hello Kitty. I was really confused about the obsession for a long time, but I'm slowly starting to understand... She has no mouth and that is very, very funny.

So this month in Japanzine, a free national magazine for English-speakers, there was a feature on Hello Kitty, and I thought I'd plagiarize some interesting facts about Asia's favorite young cat.

Hello Kitty and her competing characters (there are a number of them) all have elaborate background stories that the general public is supposed to know. Hello Kitty, for instance, is not actually Japanese, but British. "She was born in London on November 1st, 1974. Her surname is White and her parents are called George and Mary. She lives with them and her sister somewhere in 'suburban London'".

"At any one point in the year, there are 22,000 Hello Kitty products on the market. The only licenses that (its company) forbids... are sharp objects, drugs, guns, hard alcohol and cigarettes. "Soft" alcohol... is okay... Hello Kitty red wine has been sold in years past."

"Hello Kitty caused fisticuffs and riots in normally sensible Singapore in 2000, when McDonald's restaurants launched a special New Year promotion, giving away Hello Kitty dolls in wedding suits as Happy Meal toys... Two weeks later, a riot occurred when Kitty-crazed fans shattered a glass storefront window in a frenzy to get to the toys. Seven people were injured and the police subsequently had to use crowd control measures at the most popular stores. Bad Kitty!"

"There is a Hello Kitty shrine at the National History Museum in Singapore. Perhaps they're not so sensible there, after all."

"Kitty has an admirer called Tippy, a brown bear who rides a bicycle, and is described as 'strong but gentle'."

"Kitty's official weight is described as being 'three apples' and her height is 'five apples'.

"Despite being a cat, Kitty's blood type is A negative."

"Despite being 31, she is still in third grade."

Valentine's Day in Japan

Ok, first of all I want to apologize about my last post. There's nothing wrong about being a 30-something year old English conversational English teacher in Japan. I would much rather be teaching English here at 35 than doing just about any other job I've ever had - yes, even telemarketing - but I would maybe still do that paper route on the side, if I had the option.

Probably the only better job I had than the one I have now was the two months or so that I worked at Famous Players Silver City cinema while studying in Ontario. I lived directly across the street, ate popcorn all day, chatted with pleasant movie-goers, and the perks were incredible: Unlimited free movies in a 12-theatre cineplex. Furthermore, most of my co-workers were high school kids, so closer to my maturity-level, willing to sneak me free combos when I came in, and desperate to overtake all those shifts I didn't want (actually, I didn't want to work much at all, I was mostly in it for the free movies).

My worst job ever was a certain temp job that I did a few years back. It's hard to describe exactly what was so horrible about it, but it took place at small insurance office in Burnside (an industrial wasteland-suburb of Halifax) and involved filing files that were unfileable and being scolded by an angry, overweight secretary named Debbie. And the fact that it was my worst really says a lot since I've really been around as far as employment goes.

Anyway, this past week was fun. I went for an interview with an English tutoring company called ABCKARA. They said that I passed the interview and claim that they will find me some students to tutor for $25/hr "sometime soon", but still I haven't heard from them. I really wanted that money before today (payday is tomorrow) but I guess it will be nice in the future. I'm here using the internet on my last pocket change, I can't wait to get off these limited paycheques and actually get the opportunity to earn AND save some money.

I worked all day Saturday for a co-worker who was away snowboarding in Hokkaido. Now I have three of the five days of the last day of the month free. It seems all too exhausting to get a full week off here... I've just worked five straight 6-day weeks, I think.

Sunday I saw the movie "Jarhead", which just opened here this weekend. I already saw it back in the fall in Canada and loved it, though apparently I'm the only person who "got" it. It's a war movie but there are no actual battles. Ha ha. The Gulf War is funny. The music is great, too. The person I dragged to go see it with me hated it and a later discussion at an izakaya proved that all the people I had advised to go see it hated it too. I'm sorry, but I still want to both see it again and go to Iraq.

Sunday evening I went to an izakaya (Japanese-style bar, I'm not going to explain this again) with the Japanese/foreign group that I hung out with last week. My friend who introduced me to these Japanese people has since informed me that they're of a local breed known as "gaijin hunters" (foreigner hunters - they try to surround themselves only with foreigners). Although this is seen as a negative (maybe even verging on racist) ideal, I don't think there's anything wrong with it. Not that I'm trying to vouch for these specific gaijin hunters, but I think it's ok to want to spend time with people from other countries (like my distaste for Canadians back home).

Today was Valentine's Day. I was a little disappointed. Valentine's Day in Japan is a bit different from back home... Only girls give gifts. They're supposed to give chocolate to the special men in their lives. This is later paid back in March on "White Day", when these men who received gifts are supposed to give mcuh better presents back. So all-in-all, it's a pretty good investment for girls. Anyway, I heard last week that some girls in voice had been discussing which teacher they thought would get the most chocolate and apparently one of them voted for me, so I was kind of expecting a pile of chocolate by the end of today, but it didn't happen. I even pushed the issue pretty hard for the past couple of days, letting all my female students know my chocolate preferences (mint chocolate, peanut butter chocolate, chocolate milk, etc.) in all of my classes, but nothing came of it. I got some of those alcoholic chocolates that I hated as a kid but taste alright now Sunday night from one of the gaijin hunters. I also got a rum-raisin chocolate bar from an older student of mine and the male teachers collectively got a big jar of chocolate from a student and some apple pie from a Japanese staff-member. Some of it was very delicious. Japan isn't too bad chocolate-wise, but it still sure could use some more mint and peanut butter. Take note, Japanese investors.

Time's up, I'll continue later.

Thursday Afternoon Post

I'm not the "new guy" at work anymore. Over the past week, my branch has hired two new teachers. One is a transfer teacher from near Tokyo and is an estimated 31 years of age and from somewhere in British Columbia. The other is a fresh-off-the-boat guy from western Louisiana of an estimated 27 years of age. He speaks with a very thick accent and makes frequent references to things like "cajun shrimp" and "Mexicans". They both seem fairly boring, but I can be a little quick to judge people.

I thought, before I came, that the majority of teachers here would be in the same boat as me: fresh out of university and looking to make some money in an exciting place for a year or so before either continuing with more education or choosing what to do with the rest of their lives. I was wrong. Although my Orientation group had a number of people around my age, most of the teachers here seem to be dangerously old. At my branch (branch=school), out of all nine or so teachers, I'm the only one under 25 and I think there's only one other "80s kid". A few of them are well into their thirties and I have to wonder... what did these people do with their lives? Not that there's anything wrong with teaching English, but these people,in their thirties and with university degrees, seem to be in the same place in life as I am. I just find it a little confusing that they haven't mustered up enough initiative to move onto something else with more of a future.

Back to new people, as I said in my last post, "February in Osaka", my roommate Chris left and we were awaiting word for the arrival of our new roommate. Well, word has come: we've been told to get the apartment clean and ready for "British Adam", scheduled to arrive in a few weeks. I did a background check on him and I'm so far not impressed. I had done a background check on my roommate Will before I moved in and I think I got it wrong because I came up with some guy in Kansas who participates in hunting competitions and I'm pretty sure that that's wrong... Will told me last night that he was heading to the mountainous wilderness today to indulge in some legal Japanese hallucinogens - doesn't sound like the same character to me.

Sometimes I complain to my students about the foods I miss from home. On Monday I was complaining in voice about how I can't find any whole wheat bread in Osaka. Tuesday, a very pleasant student named Hisako showed up with a gift for me: a loaf of whole wheat bread that she had purchased from an international grocery store in Umeda. The students here are really generous. We (the teachers and staff collectively) often get gifts like chocolates or candies - often enough that we have an area of the table where we just put the gifts to share and everyone eats them without question. One time a student brought in nachos and salsa... very delicious. I find that students are especially generous when I complain. Once when I was complaining about the cold, a student brought me a "magic heating pouch" to keep me warm. After talking endlessly about the variety of foods that I like, one of my students went through the trouble of getting me a map to a "delicious Thai restaurant" (unforunately I lost the map). Anyway, I'm going to try to keep up with the complaining. It's a little upsetting, though, that they seem to remember a lot about me and what I have told them in the past, while I struggle to even remember most of their names. Maybe I should start keeping files on everyone I meet again...

February in Osaka

Feeling restless, last night I decided to go jogging. I jogged down to the riverside for the first time, it was pretty nice and I'd like to check it out during the day. I remember seeing people living in little shacks on the other side of the river the night I got lost there on my bike, so I kind of kept my distance, but I think it will be a fun place to go in the summertime.

I stopped off at the grocery store on my way home to buy some breakfast pizza toast, and when I got home, I realized I'd forgotten to bring my key again. It's strange... you'd think that in such a big building as mine, you'd have people coming in and out every five or ten minutes any time during the day or night, but try getting yourself locked out at 1am on a weekday night and you can easily expect an hour's wait.

So today I hid a secret key outside. I taped it to the bottom of something. I'm not going to tell you where because I have the sneaking suspicion that this is unfortunately being read by a number of people in the Osaka area.

Last week I met up with Megumi, my first language exchange partner, and she's now gone back to Australia for her last semester of university. She showed me around Ibaraki (the "town" where I work) which was nice because it turns out there's a gigantic shopping centre called Mycal with a huge cineplex, which should come in handy. We also happened upon a pet store that was selling goats. Young goats with horns. One was tied outside and was selling for about $800 and I took a small photo-shoot of it.

I also met up with Masa, my second language exchange partner. He called me and asked if I want to meet up Saturday night at 10:30pm, and emphasized the Saturday a few times to drill it into my head. I messaged him back and asked if I could bring a friend Saturday night. Then I got a call Thursday night at 10:30pm asking me where I was. I think he was a little embarassed to tell me that he doesn't know his days of the week in English very well. This could become very difficult for future meetings. Anyway, we met up and went to an izakaya where he ordered beer and a big bowl of raw podded beans.

Although Groundhog Day went completely unnoticed here (except for when I tried to explain what it was - though I'm not sure of the technicalities myself), the Japanese have their own special day on February 3rd, Setsuban. I've had about ten students try to explain to me what, exactly, Setsuban consists of, and here's what I've managed to piece together: Old Japanese men (possibly grandfathers) dress up like little ogres. They hop around while young people throw beans at them. Some have told me that the young people will shout "Demons be gone!" and by throwing beans out your door you can yell "Good luck come in!". I've also heard accounts of having to eat a number of beans equal to - and only equal to - your age. This was all I was told beforehand. But then on Friday, when Setsuban was taking place, one of my students came in with MASSIVE sushi rolls (bigger than my arm) and says they're another key part of the tradition. Needless to say, I was too confused to partake in any of it. I asked my students where I could find a retirement home that had old people to throw beans at but they advised me against it.

Friday night I went to the going-away party for my Italian friend (who has now moved back to Italy). Since I had to work that night I was only able to come for about an hour before having to go home on the last train, but it was at an Italian restaurant with an open bar and one pizza per person, so I consumed what I could in that window of time. The party was a lot of fun, it was mostly Japanese people so I had a chance to practice the little bits of Japanese I've been studying over the past couple of weeks. While talking to them, I heard murmurs of "Harry Potter!" among them, and when confronted they admitted that I look like Harry Potter to them. Sweet... I think I've made some more Japanese friends since a bunch of them asked me to "become friends with them" and one invited me to his birthday party Sunday night.

Early Saturday morning I left again to go up north to Shiga, where I had another "Shiga Friendship Meeting" (the English conversation group). I was tired, but not quite as tired as last time and it went over fairly well. Unforunately they said they will not be having another meeting until at least the end of March, so I'm in the market to pick up some new on-the-side work.

After the Shiga Friendship Meeting, some of the participants took Tim, Steve and I out for lunch to a really nice Japanese place. It was one of those ones where each table has their own room with sliding doors, the walls are made of paper, the table's really low and there are no chairs, just cushions on the floor. A lot of the food was pretty scary, but it was still a nice experience with some really great people. I love when the bill comes and someone else jumps to take it. I argue for a minute that I want to pay for myself, but secretly, I really, really don't.

Saturday afternoon I had a business meeting with American Steve. Yes, we're planning on starting a small business together here. We want to find a Japanese business partner, so we're currently in a search. Maybe we can have an Apprentice-style elimination contest...

Sunday night I went to this Japanese guy's birthday party. It's funny, I had prepped myself up for a big Japanese night with lots of "lost in translation" jokes and cross-cultural misunderstandings, then I arrived and it was all foreigners. The three Japanese people I had met on Friday were the only ones there and the rest were all from places like Australia, UK, Spain, Italy, Russia... We went to an izakaya and a lot of the conversation was in Japanese, but it was another great time. The three Japanese invited me to go see the movie "Munich" with them, has anyone seen it?

Remember my roommate Chris. Well I don't know if I mentioned this to you, but despite being on the same work schedule, I rarely saw him. Anyway, I was under the impression that he was moving back to Canada this week. So worried that it was Monday morning, I went to his room Sunday night to say goodbye. I looked in and it was completely empty. Actually, Will was there, moving in his stuff. I asked him where Chris was, he said he already left last week. Hahaha. Anyway, losing a roommate is a great opportunity to try to clean up a little bit. I've decided to push finding a new apartment off to when I have a little bit more money since I'll have to put a month's rent down right away, so it might be a while. Will and I went through the bathroom and threw out whatever wasn't either of our's from the sink area, and there were some dusty objects that have likely been there through the past 5-6 roommates. Also, it turned out that Chris's closet was jam-packed with old futons and blankets from about a dozen past roommates, so until we get word of a new roommate moving in we're going to try to convert Will's old room into a guest room.

This picture is of a Japanese-style hillside graveyard with Kyoto city in the backdrop: