Sunday I woke up as early as I have since arriving here to meet some of my new friends at the Nagoya station for a day trip to the seaside town of Toba. After meeting the organizer, Adam at the station the group of 8 of us boarded the train at the Kintetsu station next door for the 2-hour train ride to Toba. Although our plans were to go to an island off the coast we were unable as some people arrived too late for first train and thus the first ferry at Toba. Either way we arrived in Toba and decided to pay about 10 dollars each for a cruise in the harbor with a drop off by the popular Toba Aquarium. Toba was beautiful if a little windy and cold and the boat ride was great. We spent a large portion of it feeding scores of seagulls shrimp chips that trailed us off the back of the boat. After arriving at the Aquarium we balked at the expensive entry fee and instead walked around before heading to a local restaurant on the water for a popular set dish in Japan called EbiFry (fried shrimp). The food was great although my friend Joel did find the aforementioned mosquito at the bottom of his rice bowl as we finished our meal (bummer Joel). From Toba we traveled aboard a local train and then a bus to Ise Shima Shrine, which I am told, is one of the more popular and famous in Japan. Even more cool was the recreated ancient Japanese village that surrounds the Shrine with food stalls, shops and the like. This being my second visit to a Japanese shrine the grounds are so beautiful words do not do it justice. Ise Shima is situated next to a river bursting with wild koi as trees hundreds of years old mingle amongst the manicured grounds. It was not surprising when my Japanese friend Hiro explained that much of the Shinto religion is based on the natural beauty of the world around us so it is clear why these places are seemingly so gorgeous. As at the other shrine there was little to see other than the beauty of nature around you but it would seem while Westerners expect the religious beauty of Notre Dame in Paris or Westminster Abbey in London the Japanese experience “religion” in the beauty of the outside world. After leaving the shrine we stopped in the makeshift village outside its gate for a traditional meal of a sweet red bean and mochi (chewy rice derivative) as well as some hot tea. Although mochi and red bean are an acquired taste the setting was great as we sat on tatimi mats and warmed our hands over the open fires inside the pavilion. Once we returned to Nagoya we headed to Sakae where Adam took us to a local Chinese restaurant where our large group enjoyed a delicious dinner of gyoza, cha han (fried rice), spring rolls and Yaki Soba noodles as well as some cold beers. Even though from there the group was heading to a bar called Red Rock the early start and the long day had me saying my goodbyes and heading home at around 9PM. In even more exciting news I hooked up my new cable TV box which had arrived earlier in the weekend and fell asleep watching the 40 Year Old Virgin in English on one of my new movie channels.
Stop Mocking Me
It seems my new students have quickly gotten used to me and many have taken to mimicking my speech patterns at various times at school. On a recent Saturday I turned my back to grab a game when one of my wild younger boys decided this was a great time to stand up on his chair. Upon seeing him I immediately motioned with my hand for him to get down while repeating “yo, yo, yo “. Not at first understanding me he hopped down and then began repeating the phrase, “Yo, yo, yo, New York City”. A second student as I was preparing a lesson grabbed a ball from a classroom and began throwing it at his sister as I approached I quietly held out my hand and said, “Ball please”. Since saying that he enjoys mimicking my deep voice by saying, “Ball please” whenever I see him. And as I may have said before we are forbidden from speaking Japanese at any time in or out of the classroom as they fear if the children know we understand this will lessen their need to speak English to us. Unfortunately one of my rowdier groups of pre teens was being loud and raucous as I sat and checked their homework in class. As all four of them were shouting and laughing one kept badgering me as to whether I liked a local gyudon chain called Matsuya. Wanting to finish up I without thinking shouted “Hai (yes)” as I finished marking their books. Once they heard me respond to their questions in Japanese they began laughing and repeating me saying “Hai” over and over again. From there one of the girls in the class told her mother at the funny development so I was forced to apologize for my oversight as I read out to her the lesson we had just completed.
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