Matt's Kagoshima Corner

Irish Choir visitors

2006-07-04T06:04:00.000-07:00

I love summer here, so chilled out. Been going to a lot of elementary schools for the last time lately, pretty sad saying goodbye to all the kids. Today I met a huge group of 80 Irish folks, mostly kids 12-16, at the airport. Acted as a translator which was hella fun. At one point we stopped off at a community building in Matsuyama town, and were greeted by a parade of motorcyclists dressed up as samurai- got to translate samurai stuff. After that we went to Ariake town hall where they had a reception with the host families and an indoor gun and cannon salute (which scared the pants off of the little kids). Was a really fun day, and was good to be able to help out- some of the families and Irish kids looked pretty nervous and extremely jet lagged. Highlight: greeting 2 kids outside of baggage claim, who said konnichiwa to us. My friend keith and I replied back "konnichiwa" and then spoke some english which surprised the kids, evidently convinced we were Japanese. Ahh, diversity. I remember you well. Tomorrow I get to join the fray again for some zen meditation, beach going, and tree planting.

kaggy weekend

2006-06-04T05:37:00.000-07:00

Had a marathon night out at kagoshima city last night. Went with a bunch of jet friends. some of the highlights: met some cool girls who live near our towns randomly on the street, and a whole lot more random folks who were up for some conversation janglish style. went and chilled out at a sweet and really cheap restaurant in the university district, saw lots of people our age, a rarity in our small towns in the sticks. Moved on over to the Tenmonkan district for some dancing at doggybar. all the japanese folks seemed to dig it, but there was a truly awful regae DJ- got so fed up with his shrieking into the mic, and constantly changing songs every 20 seconds without a transition that we left for our usual hangout, club X, where you can count on snack girl eye candy, good music, and dancing it up with the local break dancing troup. tonight i went out to koigaura for a late surf sesh, had to meander around back roads of tiny rice villages in miyazaki and the windy coast in the fog, very trippy. like heart of darkness but without the violence or bad feelings.

Fireflies and genki younguns

2006-05-28T07:26:00.000-07:00

Couple memories i want to jot down. I'm loving elementary school kids here, they're super into learning English, and these days are actually using it with each other and me after class. "Do you like red? So-So!" Found out that a shocking number of students dont like the color green. Had some excellent rides down at Koigaura today, the road was closed due to more unnecessary consctruction, so I legged it, and thus got to appreciate tons of views, flower smells, and such that I otherwise would never know. waves were perfect. Got my first ride where i dropped onto a wave with this other awesome surfer dropping next to me at the same time, following me. Had to pull some nice moves to shoot down the face or get a board to the ass. The other day I had round two with the Osaki rotary club, they invited me to a firefly viewing that I was initially skeptical about... (they gave me traditional japanese garb and i knew i'd be the only one wearing it, a little strange). The night was surprisingly good though, and we ended up at an izakaya, had pigs feet and other oddities.

Golden Week

2006-05-15T05:06:00.001-07:00

Long time since the last post, been doing a lot of surfing these days- getting better slowly by slowly, definitely an art to the thing and a little difficult due to dumpy waves. Got heckled the other day by a crazy surfer dude with one arm, first incident of surf localism- nobody got hurt, I'm happy to say. My vacation to california was chill, did some standard San Francisco tourism and hung out with my family. Had "Golden Week,'' last week, which is one of the rare times when most people get out of work for a few days (its not actually a week long) and get to see their neglected families (crazy workaholics these folks). So I got out to kyoto again. Mostly did chilling since every temple and what-not was crazy packed. Went out to an izakaya and an incredibly nice italian restaurant for Mr. and Mrs. Fox's anniversary party. Tried gorgonzola ice cream of all things! Believe it baby. Word of warning for people taking 14 hour ferry rides to always check the predicted wave height, cuz damn. This weekend I went out for some food and karaoke with friends and their visiting relatives, best time at karaoke ever, singing old 80's songs. Been fun at school these days since I've been either kept busy with classes and engaging new teachers, or I'll show up and there'll be "Sketch day" (we drew sketches of views around school all day), or "camp day," when we all went down the road to a camp site, made barbq pits and ate yakiniku, and then played sports for the rest of the day. pretty cruisy really. elementary school visits are always great, I'm finding out that the better alternative for a clever game is just to give them interview sheets and have them ask each other simple things like "do you like red?" or "can you juggle?" Holy crap do they completely get into it. It puts the way they have to teach in middle school to shame, where one or two people benefit from overly-advanced but rushed reading practice and they can't even say something like "He watches T.V." So if I come back to japan in the future, I'm considering trying to get a job as an elementary school english teacher. Over and out.

2006-05-15T05:06:00.000-07:00

day at Nogami

2006-02-27T06:47:00.000-08:00

Caught three wintery days of nice surfing at my boy, nagahama beach. Yesterday quite huge waves, mostly just respected them from a safe distance. Today at Nogami elementary school I played some 7-up, english style, some "on-or-off-the-table," and finished her off with some yellow submarine for teaching colors. Consequently it I got lured in to playing the sukiyaki song on friday at the 6th grade graduation party. Should be good times, a weird meeting of east and west. Also was invited to play soccer with my lunch class, which was fun, and then the funny moment at the end when you realize that it was kindof a slightly formal and planned event to play with me. All of a sudden the kids self-organize into neat rows arm length away from each other, and someone barks the command to face me, and they all bow and formally thank me for joining them in sport. Solid, these kids are the best ever. Planning a trip to Redding, California, if you're in the area give a shout out and lets go hunting or something. More later..

Rotary part deux

2006-02-07T06:44:00.000-08:00

Had to give a 15 minute speech in japanese in front of the rotary club of Shibushu town tonight, that stuff was funny. Started out with a terrible joke: in which state in the US do people have the best teeth? (most people say Ohio for some reason), the answer is hawaii which means "teeth are good" in japanese. oh dear. followed it up with some sentimental annecdotes about international understanding and my impressions of japan, which they requested but (as is usually the case) they didnt really care about what I was talking about. Indeed they were more about asking what kind of food and japanese women we like (as well as the odd question like how do i feel about the emperor (a joke?) and will I eat american beef when I go home?...) such a speech loving place, for real. and im so souped up on caffeine right now, its crazy.

2006-01-22T04:45:00.000-08:00

Back from a sweet vacation to visit the Foxes in kyoto, did the full temple circuit and lots of chilling and ridiculous ammounts of going out. Highlights: Going to a club in Osaka called Pure, litening to good hip hop, a frat designed library room with a pool table, felt like i was back at williams for real. Helping that feeling alongthere was like one japanese dude there. Will always remember the albatross lady. Also going to the temple of the many gates, damn there were many. Christmas dinner great as always, got down and funky with some sweet acapella. gotta keep that shit up next year in NY. writing of which, i think ill come back to NYC and live a while, maybe try my hand at editing and trying to survive. had some really great surfing this weekend and last, in the middle of winter- when your head freezes from the wind you just dive under the water to warm up. its amazing. going to be hard to leave that and a lot of things here. hopefully ill become jedi at japanese in 6 months and be invited back as a diplomat. here are some photos from kyoto: the monkey of monkey mountain, and a photo of toodaiji because it's just necessary.

Chillin Chillin

2005-12-13T07:04:00.000-08:00

Took the futuristically admistered japanese proficiency test, booming stereo sound, slow and deliberate administration by people who should have had a lightnight bolt stripes on their V-neck uniforms. Quite nice, mainly an excuse to get to fukuoka again, which didn't fail to deliver fun times. Went to Kagoshima city to a see a bunch of JETs and sing bad christmas carols in a dirty hip hop club with the local foreigner DJ- classic. Today at middle school I had the kids play Mafia in choice English class as a cultural exchange. Sometimes hard to get them to go at each other, but some funny moments when quite shy girls would be forced to accuse each other and just be like, "me?" "soo ja nai wa"- and I'm like yeah.. you have a dark side. nice infusion of US culture of violence. good times, downloaded some Perry Como christmas tunes- feels like home. Here are 2 pics from the Ariake international event...

Ariake weekend

2005-11-30T02:13:00.000-08:00

Had two great weekends in a row. 1st- Fukuoka to see sumo, which turned out to much cooler than expected. numbingly simple rules, but once in a while they get into cool locks or work the crowd wwf style. good for betting, but always bet against the guys with knee braces. annoying group of JETs making Haado Gee "whoo" noises and generally promoting gaijin stereotypes. found a nice Irish style bar, ate some terrible and overpriced mexican food, went to a great Sam and Dave's club and chilled with some famous musicians who i dont know, and slept in a parking garage. Next weekend, had the Ariake international event, chilled and had a slumber party with 30 elementary school kids and ALT friends from the area. Miraculously managed to play a relatively successful game of touch rugby with these super young kids, enjoyed some really nice traditional style facilities (the kids chopped wood to heat traditional baths), and made my own soba noodles as a charenji. great fun, a nice way to spend the weekend.

hisashiburi no?

2005-11-15T05:02:00.000-08:00

Hello loyal readers. Been a while. Winter has come. Apparently I'm susceptible to Japanese colds, either that or its just leaving the air conditioning unit on overnight (the number one cause of problems in Kyushu apparently). Been too long to recount things in too much detail. Some highlights moving back through time: this past week I went to Uto middle school cultural festival and played guitar to back up the optional english class singing Mr. Big's hit song. I never fully understand the workings of the schools, but it seemed like the bunkasai was basically a hodgepodge of performances, instrumental (they had the only brass band of the area spicing up all the songs I heared over and over at the sports festivals), choral, class plays (one of which got huge points for being written by the kids, had a cool club scene with hip hop, and the most frequent set changes in a 30 minute space I think has ever been done), dance, and speeches from the students on social issues, the war, and such. At another ALT's culture day, apparently they did a dance that had nothing to do with the background projections on the screen of Japan japanese suffering from the bomb, battle, lots of explosions- apparently this freaked out the ALT quite a bit. at another bunkasai my friend Andrew went to, they jumped rope to 50 cent tunes for 40 minutes. anyway, it was a good time, took the whole day, and the kids put on a mad show. A reoccurring theme in my struggle to understand japanese school culture is the eerie but impressive combination of millitary discipline and ceremony in these young kids, amazing performances and team work, and at times an utter lack of enthusiasm or discipline. yeah, i went to an elementary school the other day, and the kids were singing a song in unison with this scary chanting ubervoice. beautiful but scary and ringing of fascism, if thats possible and not my paranoia. moving on.. ahh a really cool thing was going to the yabusame festival at the nearby town of koyama. been going on every year for hundereds and hundereds of years- kid gets chosen by the town to dress up like Link in zelda, ride a horse, and shoot targets at super high speed- the more he gets, the better luck for the town. really cool, awesome ceremony with old school music, dudes dressed up in samurai attire, felt like i was in the past for real. ill put in a pic or two from that. before that, went to a halloween party, wont go into too much detail but that was a really crappy night kindof. was supposed to be an international event, and was entirely for our benefit, but our hosts (the local rotary club) didnt seem to want us there. they fed us lots of drink, but there were kids there for the party, so it was very strange. yeah... This week im going to fukuoka to see some crazy sumo competition. getting psyched to see some more of the island.

xtreme dodgeball

2005-10-02T06:50:00.000-07:00

About to embark on a weeklong break, going to the middle of nowhere with other ALT's to learn japanese culture and language. Today I had some of the best rides ive ever had at the local beach. Went to Kagoshima yesterday with two ALT friends and found that oddly enough, a great place to people watch while not being stared at is sitting in front of the Family Mart in downtown area on a busy night with a brew. It was amazing, like we were invisible or uninteresting, i dont know. It was good. Found a cheap, good movie theater, suggesting again that nothing anybody tells you about this country is ever completely accurate. Oh, and Japanese dodgeball is the bombdiggity. Basic rules: One ball. Out if you get pegged, and you then run behind a line behind the opposing team. When out, if you gather or recive the ball, you get to try to peg the opposing team (which is now inbetween your line and your team- leading to a monkey in the middle dynamic that is thrilling) and then you are in again. A lot more forced moving around than American style, so no loitering in the back or youll be pegged by an out person. Man this is good stuff, I highly reccommend it.

Annecdotes

2005-09-29T06:33:00.000-07:00

This week is going by pretty much business as usual, little work little play. some highlights im remembering- I made a little girl cry at my english conversation class (eikaiwa) for littleuns. We played a number game, she lost, and turns out to cry a lot. god i love that. and while on the subject, i was once in an elementary school class and the kids were all saying little self introductions, my name is, i like blue (i always have to restrain myself from laughing), nice to meet you. I get to one kid who freezes for a while, starts to tear up, and then my fellow teacher stands at order military style and shouts some crazy stuff at him at the top of his voice. of course the kid cried harder and will never say another word in english. anyway, i couldnt help being amused, it was so unreal. but thats def an exception to the rule. (i think?) Going to play the guitar for a performance of Mr. Big's hit "to be with you" with some middle schoolers, man im sick of that melody, but good times. About to finish Murakami's Wind up bird chronical, pretty good, but where the hell is it going... ciao for the moment..

2005-09-25T05:40:00.000-07:00

2005-09-25T05:33:00.000-07:00

2005-09-25T05:24:00.000-07:00

sports fest- elementary school

2005-09-25T05:11:00.000-07:00

Just saw some cute elementary schoolers do their sports festival, i did tug-of-war and a sawing of logs event this time instead of gate-ball (their croquet). Had 3 great days of surfing in a row and boy do I have some chafe. (sp? that cant be right) Im getting shoulders of steel, but I lost my watch at the beach, getting up at dawn to make sure it got swept out to see like i suspect. Here are some pics from the undokai...

sports festival

2005-09-22T06:16:00.000-07:00

this week was pretty chill, starting to get to know the middle school kids. They had sports festivals which are bad-ass versions of field day. They practice for a weekand ahalf and then do relays, games etc, but they also do crazy traditional dances, martial arts stuff, and cool dances they put together themselves. These kids are hella good at speech-giving too, though the class speaker broke down in emotion in giving the closer, it was an intense moment. Elementary school is cool, i kinda feel like a magician coming in and showing them magic pictures. They think the house at the cape looks hella cool. At the end of one class, all the kids ran up to the front to shake my hand, it was like a rock show. Then one kid asked me to sign his baseball and the rest followed suit with their kawaii paper and pencil boxes. Eerie but cute. Had the worst hangover of my life at the end of last week because of strong shochu, dont know what happend there, but man i hate that stuff. somethings in those potatos...

snack time

2005-09-21T22:34:00.000-07:00

Ahh the welcome party, good food, met the folks at my office, who are the cool head hancho types around town. Took me to a snack bar and I chatted with a cute phillipino girl about fishing, after she asked me for a drink and I offered her a sip of my beer. Innocent times..

Day 1 (kinda)

2005-09-21T22:19:00.000-07:00

Hey Everybody, welcome to my blog, it's not much, but it's comfortable and the rent's cheap. As this is my first non-face book cyber posting of any sort, im going to get down to business and figure this stuff out. Japan is cool, I just had some kickass food at Tomo-chan's- the local ALT and old man hangout bar and grill. More soon...

2005-09-21T07:23:00.000-07:00

... alls i can say is. 25 minute drive.

2005-09-21T06:39:00.000-07:00

Me and leah, the old ALT before me. Shes from canada and was cool. I think her name tag says ria. Ahh those crazy Japanese.