Signing off for a bit

Hey guys,

Well, school ended last Friday, with a nice little goodbye ceremony in the gym. I gave a little speech and got letters from all the students and some flowers. I also got a lot of little and not-so-little presents from the teachers, it was all a bit too much, and I will be living with guilt until my folks get here in a couple of weeks with some souvenirs from America to distribute among the teachers. But the last couple of days, I have been moving from my place in Shibukawa to a new apartment in Takasaki, where I will be living for about a month. Because my contract was over, I couldn't stay in my old place. And in my new place, I will not have internet, nor will I be able to access the net from school as I did before my internet was up in the place in Shibukawa, last year. So, this may be the last post until I get back to America. Just wanted to thank you all for reading my stupid little posts, and for your comments and everything. It was great keeping in touch with everyone, this has kind of been a lifeline for me. I intend to have some adventures in the next month as well, including (hopefully) Tokyo Disneyland, camping, Fuji-kyu Highlands rollercoaster park, and a few other things. I'll post about those when I get back to the States. But for now, Sayonara! Thanks for reading my blog!

(Pic of me and some deer under sakura in Nara during spring vacation. I never really got to posting about my trip to Osaka and Nara with Brigg, maybe I'll do that when I get back home, too.)

Murphy's Law in Action

Is is a bad idea to climb a tall mountain right in the path of a Category 4 typhoon?

So I guess Fuji's out for this weekend.

Even when I leave Florida, I can't get away from Hurricane troubles. I'm working on a theory that I am the reason that hurricanes hit Florida, and also the reason that the Gators don't win championships. Counterexamples are welcome.

Kanashima JHS Sports, Various

Hey again y'all! This episode of "Inspector Gaijin," we'll take a look at the sports teams of Kanashima Junior High School. Most kids at school are a member of some after-school activity or other, more often than not some kind of sport. Well, I guess a fair number of them are on the table tennis team, if you want to call that a "sport." On a usual day, they play sports from 4:20 to about 6:20, and on Saturdays they have games with other local junior high schools. Yes, the kids play for more than 2 hours a day, 5 days a week, and on Saturdays the practices last from morning until about 4:00. About 7 hours. They get pretty good with all this practice. This is ON TOP OF the really rough quantity of homework that they get. Man, Japanese people work their kids hard.

So, recently I had a chance to see the girl's volleyball team and the boy's baseball team play. Both teams did pretty well, the baseball team won both games I saw them play. Here's some photos, and nicknames I thought of for some of the kids. They're corny, but the pursuit entertained me for 15 minutes or so, so it was well worth it.

"Tank" Tanaka - Definitely Kanashima's BMOC

"Iggie" Igarashi

"Outta Here" Outa

"Slugger" Sugumoto

"Go-To Guy" Gotou

"Murderer" Miura

Like I say, these kids were very professional, since they'd been playing for so long every day. They were playing against Showa JHS, and they creamed those guys. Our fielders showed some real skill out there, and Tanaka and Gotou were both very cool on the mound, they got out of some tight situations. It was a fun couple of games to watch.

The lineup before and after the games - the teams bow to each other and the ref.

Final score of the second game: Kanashima 7, Showa 1. It's hard to argue with 4 runs in an inning.

So, that was fun. Also, I recently had a chance to see a game of the girl's volleyball team. Here's a pic.

Again, both teams were amazingly proficient. Kanashima was about evenly matched that time.

Other things going on lately: There was a big 'sayonara' get-together of all the JETs in Gunma, at a beer garden in Takasaki. For those of you unfamiliar with the concept, this is just a place on the roof of a building where you pay about $25 at the start of the evening, and it's all you can eat and all the beer and soda you can drink from 5:00 to 9:00. This is another concept I think would do well in America. Or at least, if it didn't go bankrupt. Here's some pics.

There was live music as well. Good times were had by all.

There was another, more local BBQ as well, at a friend of mine's house. Japanese-style BBQ is a different mentality than America-style, but still filling, and still tasty. Pics:

Matt's the grill-master there. The girls are shy.

Later on, we had fireworks, to celebrate American independence day. Or just to celebrate the fact that they had fireworks at the store. All the fireworks you can actually shoot yourselves in Japan are pretty tiny. We essentially just had sparklers. Leah and Matt posed for 'dragon' shots.

Matt actually burned a hole in his shirt for this one. ^_^

So, it's Summertime in Gunma, which means rain and overcast skies (I haven't seen the sun in over a week, I swear), but it also means lots of flowers. There are some nice ones called 'ajisai' that are very common, and characteristic of the season. Some pics:

There are also these odd-shaped flowers I call UFO's because I don't know their real name, but they look nice. These are some in my neighbor's yard.

They have quite a few.

Some blue ones, too.

These are views in a little park right next to Kanashima JHS.

Another cool thing that happened recently was Tanabata. It's a traditional holiday in Japan. Here's the wiki:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanabata

As usual, it's a pretty thorough run-down. Long story short, Tanabata is a festival that celebrates the two stars Vega and Altair, and their embodiments as the Weaver, Orihime, and the Sheperd, Hikoboshi. It's a legend that the two lovers are seperated in heaven by the Milky Way (River of Heaven), and can only meet once a year on July 7. On that day, people decorate bamboo stalks with paper streamers and wishes for the two lovers and for themselves. There was a little celebration at Toyoaki Elementary.

The crowd. The students shared their wishes, and sang the traditional song.

The decorated bamboo.

We also got this little flavored ice treat at lunchtime.

Well, that was about 4 posts in one, so you can forgive me my almost 3 week absence, right? Also, I will be making a trip to Mt. Fuji this weekend with a friend of mine, which is why this blog was kinda hastily done. I didn't have time this week, and next blog will hopefully be my experiences there. So, while this was unpolished, next time I might be able to show pics of a Fuji sunrise.

(It's like a tequila sunrise, except instead of a shot of tequila, there's 2 billion tons of rock.)

P.S. I was saddened to hear of the passing of TV's "Mister Wizard." That was an important figure from my childhood, and undoubtedly helped me find my interest in Science, such as it is. May he rest in peace, and may the many "Little Timmies" he inadvertently blew up never track him down in the afterlife.