Ube, Hofu Tenmangu Shrine, Shrimp Catching

Not too much has happened since I last updated.  Let's see... went to Ube Shogyo to help the 4 girls in the English club with the speeches they're going to give at a competition in October.  Oh!  and I got paid on the 21st!... in cash!... weird, but sweet!  Summer orientation for the new JETs wasn't all that fun.  It was informative, but it was a really long day.  The morning was spent in a Japanese lesson - a class for beginners and a class for intermediate.  It was long.  We mostly went over the different forms of how to use polite speech... yeah... not exactly exciting.  The afternoon was full of seminars giving us ideas for games and activities to do with our students - which was helpful, but long.  

It's been raining a lot here lately.  I don't mind the rain TOO much... it's more the riding my bike in the rain that bothers me.  I went to Daiso - which is basically a dollar store - and got some cheap rain pants.  They ripped.   I should've expected that.  I also bought a little frying pan... which pretty much melted when I put it on the stove.  Awesome.  I am never buying anything that may be of use from there again because it will either A) rip, or B) melt.  It is good for buying dishes, cups, chopsticks, and stationary though.

Random Update on the Cockroach:  I finally went to the store and purchased a can of cockroach killer spray, got home, lifted a corner of the bowl that was suctioned to the floor by this point, stuck the straw under the bowl and sprayed about half the can in there.  Now, in all reality, I’m sure the cockroach was already dead before I sprayed it – but it just made me feel better to be 100% sure that the cockroach was dead.  A few minutes later I looked under the bowl and what do you know - the cockroach was dead.  So I now have a dead cockroach under the bowl because I can’t get myself to touch it.  Maybe by the next time I update it will no longer be in my apartment.  At least I know it’s dead.

Ever since the Olympics ended I have had NOTHING to occupy my free time with.  I think I was addicted to watching the Olympics… perhaps because it was the only thing on t.v.  But now there is nothing on t.v. worth watching – unless you’re into Korean dramas or terrible game shows.  So.  Anybody who is reading this and decides they feel the need to send me something in the mail, but they don’t know what to send… send seasons of t.v. shows on DVD! : )  Just saying… in case you were thinking to yourself, “hmm, I want to send Barb something in Japan, but I just don’t know what to send.” – SEASON DVD’s!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I have no idea why this paragraph is underlined... it's really bothering me... but I can't figure out how to change it, so it's just going to stay this way @#$%^

Anyway…

There was a little festival at Tokiwa Park - which is a really nice park here in Ube.  That was last Saturday.  I went with Patricia, Emma, and Meng.  We didn't get there until around 7pm though and then it was over by 8pm.  We headed back over towards Ube-Shinkawa (the center of Ube where everything is - also where Meng lives) and checked out this 2nd hand store.  It wasn't just any 2nd hand store though - it had some really cool stuff!  A lot of games, music, movies, cool clothes, random cool stuff.  We're not talking your local Good Will store - more of a 2nd hand shop that only accepts cool, funky things.  The picture of me next to a horse man manikin was taken at the 2nd hand store.  And check out this shirt we found there... ha, yep.  That's Japan for you. 

            

After the 2nd hand shop, Meng and I decided we'd check out Ube nightlife - after all, it was a Saturday.  We stopped at a Lawson, bought some alcohol, and got ready for our night out in Ube.  We discovered that unless you are a 40 year old business man... or just a man in general... there's not much to do.  There are plenty of hostess bars for the men.  We found 2 places that seemed decent for hanging out and meeting younger people... however, they weren't open that night for some reason.  So we continue to wander around and Meng makes me ask these 2 young looking Japanese girls where they were headed.  After a lot of talking, we ended up following them to a restaurant called Hot Spice.  They were meeting their family there.  So we went and had some drinks and some food.  So yeah, not too much to do in Ube.  Although there are a few smaller bars we didn't check out that I think would be decent.  That's for another night out in Ube though. 

Last Sunday I made Meng go to Hofu with me - which is a city in Yamaguchi about an hour away by local train.  There's a lot of shopping there along with a movie theater.  However, the reason I wanted to go was to check out Hofu Tenmangu Shrine.  It's one of the three most famous Tenjin (God of Learning) shrines in Japan.  The shrine is dedicated to Sugawara-no-Michizane, deified as a god of learning.  There are many picture tablets called "ema" on which students preparing for entrance examinations have written their wishes.  (I totally just copied that description of Hofu Tenmangu Shrine from a brochure... but, hey, it works).  Here are some pictures from the Shrine:

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR. 

Last week at work was boring.  Beyond boring actually.  In fact, it was painfully boring.  I even brought my GMAT study book to work with me - I was THAT bored.  Luckily that was the last week of no classes.  The first day of school is Monday and I have to give a little speech in Japanese at the opening ceremony.  

Today was A LOT of fun.  There was an AJET event - National Shrimp Catching Championship in Aio - and it was TONS and TONS of fun!  Days like today just remind me why I like Japan so much.  Where else do you get to hang out with good food, good people, the cutest nicest little old Japanese woman, catch shrimp in your hands and then cook them on the grill and eat them!!!  Ok, so I didn't actually manage to catch any shrimp - but I tried!  This nice old man caught one right in front of me and gave it to me : ) it was really nice and really cute.  Other people managed to catch so many - I just had issues... because I don't like touching live creatures, ha.  Basically, they dumped about 2 thousand (maybe?) shrimp into the sea and all these people ran in and caught them.  We were interviewed by so many different camera people and had our picture taken by so many random people - it was kind of funny... perks of being an international I guess.  Anyway, the shrimp were so good!  mmmmmmmm : )  I don't have any pictures to post right now because I didn't take any with my camera.  BUT, I will get some pictures from someone else and post them here later - so look for them!  It really was an incredibly great day.

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Tomorrow I think I'll work on my speech for Monday and finish a handout I was working on for one of my schools (for when I give my self introduction).  I just need to add some pictures and I'll be done with it.  You're probably wondering why I didn't finish it AT WORK - but it's because I just need to add some pictures to it and those pictures are on my computer here at home.  I also need to figure out some trip details because I'm planning on going to Osaka for a festival in 2 weeks and I haven't done much for planning it.  I could go to Kokura tomorrow with Meng and Teresa... but I don't really feel like spending the money to get there and all they're doing is shopping - and getting a hair cut.  So I'll probably just sleep in and take it easy.  

That's all for now!