A Very 3rd World Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving’s that time of year where, if there isn’t at least one hitch, it just isn’t Thanksgiving.  Fortunately, (or unfortunately), this year met that requirement.  In a fit of diplomatic insanity– I decided to host the North Akita ALT’s Regional Thanksgiving Brou-ha-ha in my nice home away from home.  It’s the 3rd year (or more) that this has been done, so most of the kinks have been worked out so that all the cooking can be done in a way to feed 15-20 people a real Thanksgiving meal.

That this is achieved using only “Japanese” ovens, which happen to be the size of a microwave, is miraculous.  Total cooking time was somewhere around 22 hours, with a couple ALT’s at my house the night beforehand, cooking the first turkey and preparing deviled eggs and chip dip.  The second day was spent on sweet potatos, turkey #2, green bean casserole, mashed potatos, gravy, and stuffing.

But, early on Thanksgiving morn, the hitch presented itself in its ugly glory– I ran out of clean water.  With a butt-load of things left to boil, every spout around the house was spouting drips or not so clear- rust-tinted nastiness that was unfit for cooking and definitely unfit for consumption.  I called my boss, who promptly told me to put up with it until the next day, since no one was at work.  Bah.  15 some foreigners were going to be arriving shortly, and I was missing the elixir of life- not good.

With my house designated a developing nation,we sent one guy off to buy bottled water, and I started flipping through my phonebook looking for help.  Then the answer came– Mrs. Kodama, a near-70 former English teacher who lived down the street from me.  I gave her a ring out of desperation.  She opened up her house, gave us jugs of water and let us use her sink for dish washing.  She also gave us a huge bag of mandarin oranges for ‘omiyage.’  Her husband, moreover, was the superintendent of schools last year, and was rightly pissed that my CO had given me the cold shoulder when I was clearly in a state of need.

So, that was the annual Thanksgiving crisis.  Thanks to Mrs. Kodama we got all our cooking done by five, and brought her a plate loaded with goodies.  We even squeezed in a game of football outside before the sun went down at 4:30.  A good time was had by all, and everyone helped clean up, leaving me with very little mess.

It would later turn out that there was a pipe burst somewhere outside of my house, explaining the dirty water, and the BOE finall fixed it over the weekend.

Gobble Gobble

It’s official– I’m in my first Table Tennis Tournament on December 10th.  I was given the option of entering the beginner’s tournament, but I honestly don’t want to make elementary schoolers cry and stuff, so I joined the intermediate bracket, which means I’m gonna get trounced by adults.  I’m gonna be on a three-man team, at least one of my teammates is the father of a student.  Chances are the other will be two.  The only bad news is our club’s coach is pushing all the Jr. High and Elementary kids to switch to long pips, but I guess that’s not important to any of you.  Let’s just say it will mess with their swing and make them feel better than they really are.  I think only one student is resisting the change.

Tomorrow is Turkey Day!  I emptied out my fridge last night and did some quick cleaning– totaling three garbage bags total of crap I don’t need.  The ALT from the town next door will be coming by tonight to cook the first (of two) turkeys and tomorrow forecasts coldness and snow.  Here’s hoping that’s wrong.

I like to joke about the fact that my town seems to be a small cult of alcoholics.  Up until now I’ve felt it was a bit of an exaggeration– sure when there’s a festival that booze flows like wine (hm…) but all the hyperbole in the world couldn’t have prepared me for what I heard Saturday.  Apparently some of the young’uns in town had a shindig where they were actually able to drink alcohol.  I find this mind-blowing since even during the month-long summer festival blitz the most they can ever touch is ‘Kid Beer,’ which allegedly tastes of apple juice as has the same alcohol content as such.

Long story short– a bunch of them drank Japanese whiskey with fruit juice (Chu-hai), including one intrepid 6th grader who toppled 6 cans worth in two hours.  That’s alot even for, well, anyone.  It’s worth adding that I know this kid– he ain’t that big.  Still not quite sure how to react to stuff like that.

Sunday was a nice day, though– perfect weather and I got to go eat traditional Akita food in the city next door with some folks.  A good time on the whole.

Now, it’s crappy and rainy weather, and I think I’m coming down with a cold.  Boo.  Turkey Day celebrations are coming though– only a few more days away.

Let the winter wind blow:

Here you go– a few bowling/yakiniku pictures from the weekend.  The week’s been normal, if not boring so far, but I did manage to finally buy my house some heating oil and compartmentalize myself, at least until our T-Giving shindig later this month.

Here they come…

Frank teaching ‘Goliath’ what’s what at the arm wrestling arcade game:

Norie happens to be one of the most successul slow bowlers I have ever seen– topping about 30 seconds to get the ball from her hand to the pins.

Our yakiniku table full of young people:

The lanterns were cool too:

Lastly, Naoki found my camera and demonstrated his ability to look 100% genki:

The Siberian Purple Nurple

It hit coming home from a bowling party last night.  Snow.  Hail.  And a whole month earlier than last year.  Glad it didn’t stick, but it was freaking cold.  Yesterday was a good day though– yakiniku, bowling, a nice dinner, and onsen.  And, with the snow, it makes me real happy I went out and snapped some autumn color pics last week, along with some hanging daikon and the like.  Bowling pics may come tomorrow.

From last year, but still my fave:

This year, that is one RED tree:

I went to the far reaches of my town for the next two– this one is in the tiny village of Tashiro, famous for the big tree:

These radishes were hung out to die in Taneume, another small congregation of hicks in the middle of nowhere:

And some more hanging daikon in town– just replace the picturesque autumlike background with rusted sheet metal:

This one is at the leaf changing hot-spot in Futastui:

And lastly one along the road to the “Love-Letter” Shrine:

Now, all those leaves are gone– time for the long winter to settle itself in…

My House was Broken Into…

.. by Naoki of all people.  Fortunately I was at home at the time.  Looks like I have to lock my “Oops, I needed to come home for something and forgot my keys emergency window,” from here on out.

The weekend went well– what with three days off and all.  I can now add “walking around my town at four in the morning with 3 foreigners, cup of tea in hand, in search of fried chicken” to my list of JET accomplishments.  I also managed to add “playing Russian Roulette with a cap gun in a friend’s garage,” but that was another time, and another place.  We managed to find said fried chicken at the convenience store, sold to us by none other than the guy who pretended to be Mexican when my dad and sister were staying in Futatsui.

I spent the other days getting rest and taking in two beautiful sunny days of autumn leaves before the thunderstorms rolled in yesterday to bring the autumn party to a screeching halt.  I’m at the dirty school this week– 40 student classes, all full of lemmings and the occasional comedian.  It is a relief not to have to think about Halloween for a change, though.  It means I can get back to studying, which I really, really need to do.

Say it Again and I’ll Hit you.

Another week over– three day weekend on the way .  I had my favorite school all week this week– and even though I was stuck teaching 9 classes about Halloween (making a total of 19 Halloween classes this year– try explaining that 19 times without losing “genki”)– they all went good.  And, unlike the other 10 classes before it, I was put almost entirely in charge, and not in the “Oh, Andy, it’s 5 minutes before class and I don’t wanna work today, here do this” kind of in charge…  I mean more like getting the lesson plan over a week in advance asking me to prepare appropriate lessons for all three levels with the expectation that I would be in charge.

It’s nice to have a school that understands the importance of communication.

After my lessons yesterday, my co-teacher told me I was a good “JTE.”  I’m suppose since he’s a JTE that was a compliment.  But seeing as I’m not “J” and barely even recognizable as a “T,”  I guess I’ll have to conclude that I must have really good “E,” which is something I already knew.  (for my family, this paragraph probably looks a little insane.  Feel free to ignore it.)

As a final note, I went to tennis practice last night, and the head coach (who speaks English) was trying to get me to keep my wrist snapped back.  Unfortunately, the only word he knew to describe this was “cock.”  Not “cock your wrist” or “keep your hand cocked….” just “cock.”  So I had a tennis coach shouting said word at me, sometimes in rapid repitition, at random points in practice.

Sometimes it’s just hard to keep a straight face in this country.