Welcome from the USA

To all my fans: Hello from the USA! I made it safe and sound to Tampa, Florida. Unfortunately, my parents' computer is all but dead, so this will be the only post I put up while in the USA. Don't worry; when I'm back in Japan, I'll write all about my adventures. Take care, guys.

"Konnichiwa... oh, my bad, I meant, whazzzup???"

Tomorrow afternoon, I'll be flying to the U.S. for the first time since I moved to Japan. I'm gonna visit my parents' new home in Tampa, Florida for a week before meeting up with the GF up the road in Orlando and spending another week at Walt Disney World. I'm kind of nervous; after all, it has been two and a half years. The last time I was in the States, George W. Bush was saying "Mission Accomplished" in Iraq. Colin Powell was still the Secretary of State. SARS was the big fear instead of the bird flu. Destiny's Child and N.E.R.D. were still together. Anyway, if I have access to a computer, I'll try to keep you all updated on my adventures. The Nihon Chronicles will become The Florida Chronicles for a couple of weeks.

That depends on what you mean by "Where"...

Every now and then in Japan, this kind of conversation takes place:

Somebody: Where are you from?
Herman: America.
Somebody: Where in America are you from?
Herman: Well... you see... uh... that is...

Okay, you're wondering, "How hard of a question can it be?" Man, you just don't know. Let me break it down simply for you.

• I was born in Birmingham, Alabama, and lived there until the end of my elementary school years.
• My family moved to Atlanta before I started middle school.
• Before my sophomore year of high school, we moved to Honolulu, Hawaii.
• After I graduated high school, we moved back to Birmingham, and not long after that, I went to college at the University of Alabama (Tuscaloosa).
• While I was still in college, my family moved up to Vancouver, Washington. After graduating, I lived there a total of 9 months before I moved to Japan.

Confusing, huh? I tell people in Japan that I'm from Washington state, to make things simpler. After all, that was where I moved to Japan from. But is that true? Am I lying to people? I don't have a good answer for that. Should I say I'm from Alabama? I spent about half of my life so far in that state. Plus, I was born there, and my grandparents and many family members live there. But my most recent memories of the U.S. are of Washington state, a place where I felt at home and had good times. What do you think? I wanna hear your comments on this one.

The Golden Temple

This is Kinkaku-ji in Kyoto, one of the most beautiful temples I've seen in this country. Yep, the walls really are lined with gold. This is a must-see for anybody in Kyoto. Beware the crowds, though. I went on a Tuesday and even then the walkways were packed. 

Memoirs of a Maiko

Here's a picture of me with some maiko in Kyoto. They look happy, don't you think?

That's The Way Of The World

I swear to you I'm not making this up. I get on the train this morning to go to the office. I stand in a space right in front of this salaryman jamming to his headphones. He looks up, takes one glance at me, then looks at his iPod, presses a few buttons, and starts listening to his music at a very high volume. It was so easy to hear the music, and when I did, I noticed he was listening to some Earth Wind and Fire! I guess seeing me in all my blackness put him in the mood for some 70s funk. You never know, man, you never know.

Don't Panic... They're Just Arrows

Another kikuningyo from Hirakata Park (see the previous post). You know what... U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald "You-go-to-war-with-the-armor-you-have" Rumsfeld needs to look into using chrysantheums to protect the troops in Iraq. They worked wonders for this guy. 

Sure Beats Aloha Shirts

This past weekend, I went with my GF's family and her mother's cousin's family to a place just outside Osaka called Hirakata Park, scene of something called kikuningyo (lifesize dolls with clothes made from chrysantheums). The creator of these beautiful dolls passed away recently, so the Park is planning to discontinue the display after 90 or so years. Apparently, the dude didn't train someone to become the master after he passed. Anyway, this year is the last to see something of a tradition here in the Osaka area, so we took advantage.

It turns out we weren't the only ones taking advantage, as the place was packed to see these kikuningyo. We had to wait 40 minutes just to get in the building, and once inside, the corridors were full of people trying to squeeze their way through, pushing and struggling to get that perfect view of each scene. Not exactly a fun time. To give you an idea, the above picture, from the time I said "Hey, this is a good spot for a picture" to pressing the shutter button, took about 5 seconds. That's all we had before the masses would push us to the next set of dolls. A great day out, huh? At least the amusement park rides made up for it. 

Needin' A Fresh Cut

Perhaps all foreign men in Japan have it a bit tough every now and then. But only black men stress about where they can find a barber shop to cut their hair. You see, most foreigners have hair not too much unlike Japanese - in other words, straight. A person used to cutting straight hair just doesn't know how to cut a black man's hair. Yes, they can learn fairly easy. But how many barbers in Japan have had the opportunity to learn how to cut a black man's hair? Right.

Lately, my hair has been a mess. I've been searching on the internet, trying to find a barber shop around Osaka that can cut a black man's hair. The best I could do was find a place in Tokyo and another in Yokohama. But I'm not about to travel 3 hours and pay 40,000 yen ($400) return just to get a haircut.

I do have my own hair clippers, and I can cut my hair well enough so that it looks okay. But lately, I haven't had much time to. Besides, there's nothing quite like the feeling of hopping in that chair and letting a barber do his thing. Ah well... I'll just wait until I'm in Florida in December.

Rumbly Tummy

I love Japanese food. There's hardly a better cuisine in the world. That doesn't mean that there's not any food that I miss from back home. For example:

-non-Korean, big slab-of-meat-style barbeque. You know, ribs, chicken, fat hamburgers, corn-on-the-cob and some baked beans. Speaking of beans...
-pork and beans and wieners
-Taco Bell
-Burger King fries
-jambalaya
-Krispy Kreme
-real apple pie
-Arby's roast-beef sandwiches
-cornbread
-oatmeal
-Chick-Fil-A
-fettucine alfredo
-Honey Smacks

"Practice?!? We talkin' about practice!!!"

Not long after I wrote about how things were about to go bad at my high school, a good thing happened yesterday. After classes, I didn't have anything in particular to do, so I decided to lace up my sneaks and shoot some hoops in the gym. To my surprise, when I walked in, I saw a group of my favorite ichinensei already playing a pickup game of basketball (most of them were girls). Out of all of my ichinensei that actually complete each worksheet and pay attention to me in each class, probably 80% of them were present on the basketball court yesterday. Amazing.

There were 9 of them, so they were eager for a 10th player and they called me over. We played 1 1/2 hours of good, fun ball. They oooohed and aaaaahed my amazing dribbling, passing and defensive skills while laughing at my terrible shooting. The best part was that during the breaks, many of them were actually begging for some English conversation. That's the kind of stuff I've been dreaming about.

Of course, the question is, Why don't they do this in the classroom? These same students are also among the most quiet in my classes, but you wouldn't have known it from their on-court trash talking. Ah well... I'll just wait for more opportunities like this.

Student Strike

It's November, and you know what that means... time for things to start going downhill at the high school. Consider what happened this past Monday. In one of my classes, about 90% of the students (including all the girls) quit on me with 10 minutes to go. There I was, finishing a fun game and starting to explain the last writing exercise, when these students just came up and handed in their unfinished worksheet, went back to their desks and started talking to each other. The main teacher and I tried in vain to get them to get their worksheets and do the last part, but to no avail. They just ignored us. So the last 10 minutes of the class were taught to only 3 students. I've never heard of anything like that happening before.

I mean, these were not just the usual troublemakers I'm talking about here. As a matter of fact, this was usually a well-behaved class. So it's shocking that 90% just quit on me like that. It couldn't have been the lesson, either; I've used that lesson for 2 weeks in other classes, with relative success. I guess it's just time for things to go wrong. I knew the relatively great year I was having here couldn't last that long.

Update

Sorry I haven't written here for a while, but I've been major busy recently. Here's an abbreviated version of what's been happening lately:

• Last weekend, I got my first driving ticket ever, for illegal parking. The GF and I go by car every now and then to visit her family, and we've always parked in that same spot for about 2 years now. I guess the police weren't busy watching crime dramas at that time. Anyway, since I was driving, I had to pay a fine of 15,000 yen (about $140 US) and got 2 demerits on my license that come off in 3 months.
• On Tuesday, I taught at a kindergarten for the first time. I had four lessons, and man, did it wear me out! I could barely stay focused the rest of the day. But it was a lot of fun. Those 4- and 5-year-old kids were awesome, and smart, too. Once the buzz got around the kindergarten that there was a big foreign guy named Herman there, kids started visiting the office during my breaks, saying, "Herman-sensei!" How amazing is that? At my high school, there are students I've known for over a year and a half that still can't get my name right. (Well... either that or they choose not to.)
• For the first time ever, a foreign manager (Bobby Valentine?!?) won the Japan Series, the equivalent of the World Series here, when Chiba Lotte beat the (Osaka) Hanshin Tigers in a 4-game sweep. To realize how amazing that is, check out Robert Whiting's cool books You Gotta Have Wa and The Meaning of Ichiro.

"I love what you do for me..."

Apparently I had a little too much coffee in Biei, Hokkaido. 

That's Cold, Man!

Chillin' with a pal at the Asahiyama Zoo, Asahikawa, Hokkaido. 

Singin' The Blues

Me and a friend jammin' in Niseko, Hokkaido. 

"I have to praise you like I should..."

It's well over halfway through my second year at my high school, and I must say that this year's ichinensei (freshmen) are much, much better than the ichinensei last year, in terms of both behavior and English ability (relatively speaking). It's actually been a pleasure to teach them this year (well, most of them).

Take, for example, my daily morning routine of walking from the train station to the school among with masses of students. Often, there are a few students who will greet me. Last year, it was always in Japanese: "ohayou gozaimasu, ohayou gozaimasu." This year, some students, usually ichinensei, actually greet me in English: "Good morning!" Some students go farther than that: "Good morning, how are you?"

Another example: Every ichinensei class, I start off by saying "Good morning" to the class. Last year, I could count on one hand the number of times a student actually said "Good morning" back to me. This year, in the great majority of my classes, there are a group of students that say "Good morning" back to me every time. In addition, some students make the effort to say "Goodbye" to me after class! That gives me goosebumps.

I know some of you are throwing your hands up, wondering what the big deal is. But unless you've been in that situation, you probably can't understand the joy that it brings. When your job is to try to get your students to be interested in English, and then some actually make the effort to use English with you, even if it's just "good morning"... man, that's cause for celebration. So, kudos to my ichinensei students for making this year a pretty good one.

See, we were just wondering around the woods in Hokkaido, enjoying the wildlife and all... and this big 'ol bear just waltzed his way by and scared the crap out of us, messing up a pretty good picture in my opinion. 

Finally, after a crazy week, I have a chance to get back to the computer and send some more Hokkaido pictures. As you can see, despite a busy itinerary, I had a chance to help a local farmer with his plowing. 

ER meets... The Insane Asylum?

Since Tuesday, I've had this huge stressful feeling in my body. You know, it's the kind of stress you get when you're about to do a big event like a college exam, a public speech or asking that girl that you have a crush on out for a movie and some Red Lobster. Or when something's bothering you a lot, like your job or somebody you know. You know the feeling: a lot of pressure in your chest, mild shaking, nausea, loss of appetite, muscle soreness, throat tighness, heart palpitations. I've had all of that since Tuesday. It was so bad yesterday that I just bought a salad for lunch, and I couldn't even finish that.

It certainly feels like stress, but for the life of me, I can't figure out why. My life is good. The high school is... well, like it's always been. I've learned to deal with students' shenanigans (did I just say that?) , so it doesn't bother me anymore. At the Osaka office, even though things have been busy since last Thursday, I feel pretty relaxed working there nowadays. My relationship with my GF is at its best point in the 4 years we've been dating. I can't think of anything that has happened recently that would stress me out like that. I even thought back to what happened to me at my high school's sports day, but that was last Friday. This started on Tuesday.

Thinking that something was terribly wrong with me, I went to see a doctor after work last night. However, after checking me out, he said that nothing was wrong with me physically. My blood pressure was good, and my pulse was normal. Only thing he saw wrong was that my shoulders were very hard and tense (usually a result of stress). His conclusion was that I was very stressed about something. He asked me if anything had been bothering me lately, or if I'm dreading anything that's coming up in the future. I told him I couldn't think of anything at all. The doctor said either I'm lying or I'm too shy to tell him what's really going on, because from what he could tell, I was stressed out. He gave me something to increase my appetite, told me to exercise and eat healthy, and sent me on my way.

After leaving the clinic, I thought, OK, I'll trust the doctor on this one. So from last night, I've been trying my best to relax. I've been taking things slowly, breathing deeply and listening to bossa nova. And guess what? I've felt a lot better. I'm probably at 85% now. Maybe the old doctor was right after all. But that still doesn't solve the mystery: Why am I stressed? I still can't figure it out.

Roll Tide Roll!

Okay, I don't talk about sports that much here, but I had to on this occasion.

Alabama 31, Florida 3.

That's all I need to say. Looks like my alma mater's gonna have a pretty good college football season. Of course, now that I said that, they're going to lose the rest of their games.

Chariots of Fire meets ER

Today was my high school's Sports Festival, when the students (hopefully) show their best school spirit and participate in many different athletic activities. I missed it last year because of a typhoon, so I was looking forward to seeing it this time around. Unfortunately, because of my stupidity, I ended up missing half the festivities.

The very first thing on the schedule was a 4 x 200-meter relay. There were 3 of them, divided by grade, and every time, there were 6 teams of students and a teachers' team. Originally, I wasn't scheduled to participate, but by the third round, some of the teachers were too tired to continue. One of them called me over to fill in. Excited, and without stretching, warming up or anything like that, I immediately went over to the baton exchange area, about 30 seconds before the baton was handed to me. At that point, we were in 2nd place. My goal was to not let us slip into last.

But then, as I started running, I kicked it into a gear that I didn't know I had. I couldn't believe how fast I was going! It was like running on air. I hadn't run that fast since my own high school days. Not only did I maintain our 2nd place position, I almost took over 1st from the kid in front of me. Unfortunately, the anchor, who was after me, couldn't capitalize, and we wound up finishing 2nd. As I made my way back to my chair on the sidelines, teachers and students alike were coming up to me, saying Hayai! (You're fast!) I was enjoying the attention and basking in the limelight.

About 10 minutes later, I was feeling kind of dizzy, so I took a walk away from the festivities to try to calm myself down. But I ended up having to lay on the ground, too weak to stand up. The vice-principal, who happened to be nearby, panicked and went for help. Next thing I know, I was in the nurses room and being told to take a nap until lunchtime. The consensus among the nurses and the P.E. teachers was that running that fast without doing the proper warmups put sudden stress on my heart, which caused me to almost faint. Oh well... I had my 200 meters of glory. Anyway, the moral of the story: do your stretches and warmups, kids.

It's So Hard To Say Goodbye...

I was walking back from the restroom at my company's office, heading back to my desk when all of a sudden, I meet with our receptionist, who tells me that this week would be her last week working for us. Since I'm working at the high school tomorrow, that meant that today was the last time to ever see her, which made me sad. You see, this woman is very kind and friendly, and in a frustrating environment, many times she cheered me up with her smile and great attitude. It's going to be hard to replace someone like her.

Later on, while I'm clocking out, I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to say goodbye to her. I'm terrible at goodbyes in English; I didn't know how I was going to pull off a good one in Japanese. The best I could think of was iroiro arigatou gozaimashita (Thank you for everything). Apparently that did the trick, because as I waved goodbye for the last time, tears started rolling down her face. Oh great, I thought. I made the woman cry in front of her co-workers. Way to go. The moral of the story: Even a few kind words can make someone's day.

Hokkaido: The North Country

Last weekend, my GF and I spent time in Japan's northernmost island, Hokkaido. Now I've been to 3 of Japan's four main islands. I've been to Okinawa, too, so that means I have only Kyushu left to conquer. Of course, if you want to know about that island, my dude Adam has that covered well on his blog.

Day 1

After landing at New Chitose Airport, we got in the rental car and headed straight for Lake Shikotsu, just west of Chitose. It was alright, but it was just a lake - nothing special. The best thing we did there was eat some buttered potatoes on a stick (jaga-bataa).

Soon after that, we headed straight for Sapporo, Hokkaido's capital and largest city. Sapporo looks like somebody took a city from the U.S., put some Japanese people in it and some Japanese signs, and placed it in Japan. It was great - the wide roads, the huge houses. There was even grass every now and then - rare for a Japanese city. The park in the center of the city, Odori-koen, is pretty nice. We ate some delicious grilled and buttered corn-on-the cob (yakikibi) there. In the end, though, Sapporo was just another big city. There wasn't much there to do that we couldn't do in Osaka.

Day 2

Much of Day 2 was spent around the scenic area west of Sapporo called Niseko. This area is more famous in Japan for skiing, but it's pretty difficult to find some kickin' ski slopes in September, so we just settled for sightseeing and omiyage-buying. We saw beautiful mountains, vast hills and farms, and a marsh. We ate some fresh ice cream, too. Great day, huh. Yeah, it was beautiful, but not that spectacular. For me, the best part was the driving. Hokkaido's about the only place in Japan where you can just go driving, driving, driving and see nature at its finest (and you don't have to worry about traffic while you do it).

In the evening, we made our way to the gorgeous port city of Otaru. It was pretty cool, but, like Sapporo, it was just another city. The best part was the canal that cuts through the port area. With the antique streetlamps and the old European-style buildings, it's a good romantic spot at night.

Day 3

This was by far the best day of our trip. We made the two-hour trip up to central Hokkaido. Our first stop was the city of Asahikawa. While the city itself was your usual Japanese city, they had some pretty good Hokkaido ramen. The highlight was our visit to the Asahiyama Zoo, one of the best ones I've seen (even though its small). We were so close to the penguins that we could easily touch them without sticking our arms out all the way... but, of course, we weren't allowed to, so we didn't. The proximity to the animals was the best thing about the zoo. The worst... the crowds! I mean, it was like Disneyland, and I'm not kidding. We had to wait in lines just to see animal exhibits! It was like an hour's wait to see the polar bears having lunch, and not everybody was able to see it! I can wait an hour to ride a cool roller coaster, but I'm not too keen on waiting an hour to see some bears munch on some fish. It's better to just watch Animal Planet in that situation.

The afternoon was spent in an area called Biei. That place is wonderful. Nothing but rolling hills of grass and greenery and some spectacular views. It's hard to explain it to you; you just have to go there and see it. Apparently in the summer, it is more beautiful because the hills are covered with lavender flowers. This is what Biei is famous for. We spent a lot of time around the area, just taking pictures and looking out over the wonderful landscape. Biei is what I expected from Hokkaido. The town itself is also picturesque. It looks like some of the ski towns I saw in Colorado.

Day 4

Well... we got on the plane at Chitose and headed back to Osaka. Not much of a day, huh?

The trip was great, I have to say. It was too short, though; there's too much to do and see in Hokkaido. You need at least a week to really enjoy everything we saw. I hope we can go back someday. Heck, I would love to move there. Not only is it beautiful, but the people are more laid-back and down-to-earth than in other areas of Japan. Of course, I can't move there. After all, the jobs, and my social life, is here in Osaka. Ah well... I'll just look forward to the next visit.

Heck Yeah, I Can Use Chopsticks!

Last night, I was having dinner at an izakaya with my GF’s family and relatives. After we had finished the main dishes, my GF’s talkative second cousin made her way over to me and asked me a question, one that I’m surprised that she hadn’t asked before: “Can you use chopsticks?”

“Yeah, that’s easy,” I said.

“Show me. Pick up that shrimp.”

At that moment, all conversations in the room went silent and all eyes were on me as the family wanted to see if I, the foreigner, could actually use chopsticks. That, of course, made me nervous. But I just took the chopsticks and picked up the shrimp like I usually would.

As my GF’s cousin watched, she became amazed. “Wow,” she said. “You’re so good at using chopsticks! You’re better than us! How did you learn?”

”Oh, just from my friends when I was living in Hawaii,” I said, kind of embarrassed about the situation, because I assumed they were just being nice, saying that I was good even though they knew I was terrible at using chopsticks. But then, they started showing me their chopstick-handling skills, and it was obvious that I was as good or better at using chopsticks than they were. I was shocked. Now I can say that I’m better at using chopsticks than some Japanese I know.

I can’t take all the credit, of course. Thanks goes to all my friends in Hawaii that showed me the art of using chopsticks.

At least they didn't yell, "Bobby Orogon!"

Okay... I'm sitting in the English teachers' office at school during lunch last Friday. I'm having a conversation with one of the English teachers when all of a sudden, these two boys stick their heads in the door, search me out, yell "KATRINA!" and run away as fast as they can.

As these two knuckleheads make a run for it, I just had to sit back in my chair and laugh out loud. I mean, exactly what were these punks trying to accomplish? Were they trying to make me jump up in rage? Did they think I would break down and cry in front of them? Even now, trying to think of the reasoning behind such an idiotic thing like that makes me laugh even more. Needless to say, those two boys will be pumping gas at the local Eneos for the rest of their lives.

Enemy of the Week

Okay, right now, travel agencies (in Japan, at least) are Public Enemy No. 1. Here's the deal: I haven't been back to the States since I came here 2 1/2 years ago. Back in April or so I decided, "Okay, I'm going to go home in December. No more postponements." Anyway, some time passed, and the GF and I went to a local travel agency to inquire about some tickets to Florida so that I can see my parents. They told us that tickets usually aren't available until 3 months before the scheduled flight. That made sense to us, so we said thanks and left.

Now, here it is, still early September, a good 3 1/2 months before my scheduled departure of December 22. We decide to check online for some tickets. We were thinking that even if the tickets were not available yet, we might be able to find out when they would be available. Come to find out, the tickets are sold out already! What?!? 3 1/2 months beforehand? Makes me not want to trust a travel agency again.

In all fairness, the tickets that are sold out are the lowest priced ones. I can pay some more to buy some tickets... if I could. The thing is, I'm broke. I've bought too many expensive things this year: new fridge, new air conditioner, new computer... that's not even considering my saving up for an engagement ring. I was counting on getting some low-priced tickets home. But to have them sold out before we thought they would be on sale... that's low. Thanks a lot, Mr. Travel Agent. See you by the oak trees at 3:30, and call your momma to get you afterwards.

Between Some Crap and a Hard Place

When I'm not teaching at high school, I'm working at my outsourcing company's office 2 days a week as the human resources/recruiting head. Although it is sooooo tempting to talk about my experiences here on my blog, I won't, because my job is considered a "management" role (even though I certainly don't get paid like it). There's a lot of trust involved, and I've worked hard to establish that, so I'm not going to undermine that.

That said, I've been frustrated lately at the office. Don't get me wrong - I love my job (not as much as teaching, but nevertheless). My frustrations have nothing to do with my duties. I'm frustrated about other happenings in the office. Without going into detail, there's been some friction, some schisms, and just plain not seeing eye-to-eye. You might think, "Herman, if this has nothing to do with you, then why are you letting those things get to you?" Well, you know... I'm in an HR role. I wonder if the problems I'm talking about are not as serious as I think or if they are. I wonder if I'm supposed to step in and try to smooth things out as much as I can, or just sit back, do my specified duties and hope it all goes away. That's the frustrating thing. If I can do something about it, I want to, but I don't know if I can or can't.

You know, I'm probably just overreacting. After all, no office can be a utopia. Yeah, you're right... I probably shouldn't let it get to me. Actually, I feel better already. Someone once told me that we have to vent every once in a while to clear our heads. Writing's my way of venting. So if you were completely put off by this post, I'm sorry. But take pride in knowing that you helped me feel a lot better.

Sweat Team

In case you can't see it clearly, "Perspiration Army Corps Kametani" is written on the outside of this building. Now, I, for one, sweat a lot, especially in these hot and humid Japanese summers. But, you know... I don't think I need an Army Corps to bail me out.

Game, Set, Match

Today after school I decided to take up a teacher's invitation to play tennis with the Tennis Club at my high school. I haven't played tennis since my college days, but I was keen on the idea. Tennis is fun. So I went. Man, did I ever embarrass myself. While I have good foot movement, my racket handling and control is terrible, to put it lightly. I had balls flying everywhere except the opposite side of the court. Against me, those girls looked like Sharapova or the Williams sisters.

The highlight of the day was a doubles match involving me and the three coaches. Guess whose team lost? Right. Now, guess how many games we actually won? One? That's one too many, my friend. I think something like 80% of my serves were double faults. I've crossed out U.S. Open champ as one of my goals later in life. Now I can go back to other things, like wowing the students with my post-up skills in basketball.

Goodbye August

Wow... August went by fairly quickly! That's cool with me... the quicker I can get to fall, the better. But I still have another month of humid and hot weather to deal with. Hopefully September will pass by quickly as well.

Look Ma... No Sense!!!

Going through my photo library, I came across this forgotten gem from a trip to the Kansai Cycle Center in November of last year. That contraption actually worked, believe it or not.

They're letting you teach my son?

This picture is from an article in my high school's newsletter that describes my adventures with PTA members on July 1. In case you can't tell, that's me standing, and I'm not doing shadow puppets... I'm holding up a flash card. The text at the top reads eigo sawakai (English tea party). Using my limited Japanese translation skills (and a good dictionary), this is what the short article says:

This year, for the second straight year, we got together with Mr. Herman and had a tea party. We played an easy English word game, among other things. We had a great time!

Pfhhhhh.... You better had had a good time, with all the work I put in for you, you ungrateful people! Nah, just kidding - it was fun.

I gotta tell you though... teaching 15- and 17- year olds, that's one thing. That doesn't bother me at all. But conducting a fun English game for their parents - almost all of whom are twice my age, don't give a hoot about English, and are surely looking to see if their kids are getting their money's worth from me - that makes me very nervous. I'm surprised nobody noticed how much I was shaking. But hey... if they thought I had a good time, then I must have done a good job, huh?

Representin' My Homey

My dude Jason just started up a new blog detailing what's happening in his fantasy football league. Now, if you like fantasy sports like I do, you'll love this blog. Check it out. While you're at it, check out his other blog, too.

Now, back to our program.

Summer Vacation - The Movie

My summer vacation is over! Sad, sad, sad. Ah well, it was a good 2 weeks, if I say so myself. What did I do? Absolutely NOTHING. And it felt good, too. Well... I'll tell you what I did, then I'll let you judge how good it was.

- My GF (girlfriend) and I watched the first 2 seasons of 24 and now we're halfway through Season 3. WARNING: If you watch even one episode of 24, you will get hooked. Don't say I didn't warn you. Now I'm busy looking for the CTU ringtone for my keitai.

- Remember earlier when I was telling you about the laptop that died? The GF and I started using her old laptop. Well that didn't last long, as just 2 weeks later, it died as well (some HD problem that can't be fixed). So we caved in and split the cost on a new PC. With that, plus the cost of several big appliances purchased this summer, I'm set back for a while. Sorry, guys... can't go drinking for some time.

- On the first day of summer vacation, I experienced my first Japanese funeral. It was my GFM (girlfriend's mother)'s cousin. She was a wonderful woman - always very nice to me. The funeral was not too much unlike one in the States... that is, until the part where we put the bones into the urn. The Japanese tradition is, after burning the body, the family uses these chopsticks to pick the best leftover bones and bone fragments from the ashes to save in the urn. Since I'm kind of in the family, they asked me to participate as well. I tell you... my stomach was turning a lot.

Vacation Time

TGISV! (Thank God It's Summer Vacation!) I'm looking forward to these next 2 weeks. What do I have planned? Nothing... and that is AOK with me. I need the rest.

OK, I do have a few things planned:
- Watch the first season of 24
- Do Chapters 14-16 of my Japanese textbook
- Clean the crib

Hold up...I better stop there. That's already too much. I'm getting tired just thinking about it.

Laptop (2001-2005) - R.I.P.

Last week Tuesday, my computer died. It happened quite suddenly and unexpectedly.

For the past few months or so, the computer would shut off, or fail to cut on, if the power cord was not in a certain position. My girlfriend and I thought that there was something wrong with the power cord. Weeks before the death, we noticed a strange, electrical-type smell coming from the cord around the place where the cord connects to the computer. This was usually the case after the computer cut off all of a sudden. My girlfriend was extremely worried about this, so she started asking me to take the power cord with me to work, in case the cord ignited and set the apartment on fire or something.

Last Tuesday, we were at home, watching TV and using the internet at the same time. As I was checking the day's news, all of a sudden, the computer shuts down. As I had been doing the past few months, I fiddled with the power cord, trying to get it in a good position to allow the computer to turn on again. However, this time the computer didn't turn on at all. My girl and I decided that we needed to order a power cord pretty soon.

Before that, however, the resident computer guru in the office at my job heard about my predicament and volunteered to look at the laptop, so I brought it in. Turns out that it wasn't the power cord - that worked perfectly the whole time. The new news was much worse: the motherboard was completely fried. I guess that electrical smell I had noticed for the past month was the motherboard slowly marinating right in front of me. (Marinating... I LOVE that word. Ever since I heard OutKast's SpottieOttieDopalicious, I've tried to use it as much as I could.) Definitely bad news... a problem like that costs $600 or $700 to get fixed. I'm better off just buying a new machine. Of course, with saving up for both a trip home in December and an engagement ring and subsequent wedding, I don't exactly have $700 lying around here.

Luckily, my girl had an old laptop she wasn't using, and she let me use it. It's old, it has Windows 98, low RAM and a small hard drive. But hey, it's a computer that works, so I shouldn't be complaining. I can do email, Internet - all the things I need to do everyday. I can't play a lot of my games, though (although that's probably a good thing).

Rastaman

Ever since my dude Adam gave me a Bob Marley lesson to teach to the reggae-crazed kids at my high school, I've been diving head first into the experience that is Bob Marley. I've acquired the Legend CD and others, I've rented some Bob Marley DVDs from TSUTAYA (the Japanese equivalent of Blockbuster or Hollywood Video), and I even bought the biography, Catch a Fire.

What in the world is wrong with me? Actually, for me this is quite normal when I hear somebody for the first time and I fall in love with the music. I end up trying to get my hands on as many songs as I can. Hey, can't blame a guy for being a music fan, can ya? But you know, I have tons of CDs that I hardly listen to. Makes me wonder why I even make the effort.

Listening to Rasta Bob makes me miss my good ol' Uncle Rod. It was in his apartment 15 years ago that I first heard the Tuff Gong. I haven't seen or heard from the guy or my Aunt Val since I graduated from college. I don't even know if he's still in Birmingham or not. To my fam (Steven?), fill me in.

(By the way, check out Adam's cool blog.)

My First Racial Incident

I've lived most of my life in the Southern U.S., and most of my life in the South was spent in Alabama. As every American knows (or should know), Alabama is famous for its history of discrimination against minorities. However, in all my years there, I've never experienced any direct racism of any kind. Maybe I was lucky enough to be surrounded by people who didn't judge me by the color of my skin. My experiences in Alabama (hey, everywhere I've lived) were pretty good on that front.

So, when a female student called me the closest Japanese equivalent of the n-word in one of my classes during a recent short stint at a high school in northern Osaka, I have to admit that I was very shocked. I never actually heard her say the word; the class in question was pretty noisy. I would have never known that anything had happened if the regular teacher of that class hadn't called me later and told me. According to the teacher, the girl was trying to get my attention in class. She used the term because she thought it was a friendly gesture. After the class, the teacher and the principal of the high school confronted the girl and told her that such language was unappropriate. I was surprised and disappointed to hear all that.

What happened after that was very awkward for me. I had a meeting outside of school with the principal and teacher, who both apologized to me in person. Then, when I returned to the school, I had another meeting with the teacher (who apologized again) and the girl who said the word. She was a pretty young woman with a great smile - someone you don't expect to utter racial slurs. She looked embarassed and ashamed to have said what she did, and she gave an authentic apology. She went as far as to promise to study more about African-Americans and minority groups in general. I don't know if the teacher put her up to that or not, but the student certainly made a sincere effort to show that she was sorry. I told her that I forgave her, but what she said had hurt me very much, and I hoped that she would show more consideration in the future.

In the end, I suppose the whole incident did some good. The teacher and principal decided to use the incident to develop what they called a "civil rights education" program to teach not only the students, but the teachers on how to show the right respect towards other races. As for the girl, I've heard that not only is she really trying to learn more about other cultures, but her grades at school have risen dramatically (especially in English class). Me? Well, I don't hold any grudges about that. It wasn't something that was said out of hate; it was just ignorance. I'm sure she's not going to say that word again. Yeah, I was disappointed, but I've moved on. If anything, the incident helped make me stronger as well, because it caused me to reaffirm who I am and what I represent.

My Trip to Shikoku

During the past Golden Week holidays, my girlfriend and I decided to go on a 4-day driving trip to Shikoku, one of Japan's 4 main islands. It was a lot of fun!

Day 1
First, we drove three hours from Osaka to the Seto Bridge, one of 3 bridges that go to Shikoku from Honshu, Japan's main island. The view from the bridge was beautiful! There was a place for us to stop and admire the landscape. Wonderful.

After driving over the bridge, we arrived in Kagawa, one of Shikoku's four prefectures, or states. Kagawa is famous for udon, which is thick Japanese noodles. The first thing we did when we got there was to find one of the famous udon restaurants and slurp away. It was delicious, I tell you! That was good eatin'.

Full off of udon, we went to a famous temple called Konpirasan. It is located near the top of a mountain, and to get there, you have to climb up about 900 stairs! We made it successfully, but we were dead tired, sweaty and we had drunk all of our tea. After we made our way down, even though it was 5 pm or so, we went straight to the hotel. We were too tired to do anything else.

Day 2
We began the day with a nice, delicious breakfast of... udon. Yep, udon for breakfast, too. Hey, we were in udon heaven. Might as well make the best of it. This was the best udon I had by far. We went to the place about 9 pm, when it opens. However, because there was such a long line, we didn't get in until a quarter to 10. That's how famous this restaurant was. It wasn't even really a restaurant. It was like a hole in the wall in the back of someone's house.

After that, we left Kagawa and headed to Iya Valley. Iya is a very very beautiful canyon, kind of like the Columbia River Gorge in Oregon and Washington state back in the U.S. We did two things there. First, we went on a short boat cruise along the river that carved the canyon. Second, we went across a suspension bridge made of vine and tree branches. That was interesting! Although we were not that high, it still looked scary to look down onto the river below. Women were screaming out of their minds! I had fun.

Next, we drove an hour and a half east to a small city called Tokushima. By that time, it was nighttime, so we just went to a famous chicken restaurant for dinner, then headed to bed. I was tired from all the driving.

Day 3
For day 3, we had planned to go see the nearby Naruto whirlpools, some of the largest whirlpools in the world. However, Mother Nature did not cooperate with us, as there was a windy rainstorm. It was too dangerous to ride the boat to see the whirlpools close up, or go to the overlook point under the Naruto bridge. So we headed back to Tokushima. We weren't sure what to do, so we went to this place called the Awa Odori Theatre. The Awa Odori is some kind of local dance, and Tokushima people do it during the festival of the same name. However, at the Awa Odori Theatre, there is a dance troupe that does it every day. We saw the dance, then they asked for volunteers to dance with them. My girlfriend volunteered me, so I went down there and experienced the Awa Odori up close and personal.

With nothing else to do in Tokushima, we spent the afternoon driving back up to Kagawa to eat more... yep, you guessed it... udon. That restaurant, however, was not that delicious in my opinion - not like the two other restaurants. After that, we went back to Tokushima and called it a day.

Day 4
The weather was more cooperative today, so we headed up to Naruto to see the whirlpools. We went on a boat cruise out to the whirlpools. However, the tide was not good enough for the whirlpools to form at that time, so we didn't see anything - a waste of money. Despite that, the views from the straits were gorgeous.

Afterwards, we went over the Naruto bridge to Awaji Island, near Kobe. There, we went to a public ranch called England Hill. We petted rabbits, saw a sheep show, bought freshly-picked vegetables, and other fun things. Not bad. Once we finished that, we drove along the west coast of the island and stopped to watch the sunset. Then we headed over the famous Akashi Kaikyo Bridge, the longest suspension bridge in the world - longer than Golden Gate Bridge. We drove through Kobe and headed home. Overall... a good vacation.

Konban wa, Norah Jones!

My girlfriend and I have been busy recently with work and all. But last night, we had a chance to go to a Norah Jones concert here in Osaka. It was my girlfriend's first concert, and it was my first in a few years.

The venue was a good one. The capacity was 3,000 seats. We were far away in the balcony, but even up there we felt an intimacy with the performer. The place was packed with people. I was surprised that so many Japanese like Norah Jones, but hey... I can't blame them.

The concert was great. Norah Jones is a great live performer, a great singer, and a great pianist. Her Handsome Band was pretty cool, too. What most impressed me was her sense of humor. On the CDs, she sounds very serious and low key when she's performing, so it was shocking to see her joking around with the audience between songs. Once, she noticed the two screens on either side of the stage and said, "These screens aren't good for me." Then she playfully and jokingly pretended to move her expensive-looking dress around on her body as if she were making it look better on her. Also, while talking between songs, she said, "This spotlight... you can't escape from it!" Then she ran around the stage like a little girl trying to escape the spotlight, but to no avail. I was in stitches. A great concert.

Todai-ji Temple

One of the gems of Nara Park - Todai-ji Temple. Inside is one of the biggest Buddhas in Japan.

Dances With Deer

This past weekend, on Sunday, I had a good time. I went with my girlfriend's family to a place not too far from Osaka called Nara Koen. If you don't know about Nara Koen, it is a beautiful place. It's a very large public park between the city of Nara and the small mountains east of there. For me, living in a large city with hardly any greenery, it's a sight for sore eyes. Lots of grass, lots of trees... places where you can actually sit and have a picnic. It's great. Plus, at Nara Koen there are a few temples, shrines, and historical spots.

But those things are nothing compared to the real attraction at Nara Koen: deer. Lots of them. Just walking out in the open. That's the amazing thing to me. You can go there and just pet deer. Imagine trying to do that in the U.S.

Anyway, I went there with many members of my girlfriend's family: her, her mother, her sister, her mother's two cousins, one of their husbands and their children. One of her mother's cousins brought a big cart with several grocery bags of food for the deer: lettuce, bananas, bread, cucumbers, carrots, among other things. It was amazing. See, usually people buy the special deer cookies available at the park and feed that to the deer. Not many people actually buy fresh vegetables to give to the deer, and if they do, it's usually just one head of lettuce, a few carrots... something like that. Not a whole cart of the stuff. When we were walking in the park, many people did a double take at our group and our big cart of vegetables. It was a little embarrassing. At the same time, it was very cool. I'm lucky to have a girlfriend with that kind of family, one that has their own way of doing things and aren't embarrassed about it. That's unusual in Japan.

Another picture from the ski trip. Lovely view of Lake Biwa. 

Here's a picture of me on the slopes, ready for action.

Ski Trip

This past weekend I went on my first ski trip. I have to admit: it wasn't that bad. It was actually a lot of fun. But you couldn't tell me that on the first day. Man oh man, where do I begin...

The place: Omi-Imazu in Shiga prefecture. My girlfriend and I went there by train from Osaka, about a 2 hour trip. As we rolled into north Shiga, I started to get excited as I saw all the snow around. This is gonna be great, I thought. I remained excited all the way up until I put on my skis and tried to make my way from the rental ski shack to the lifts. If you don't know, walking with skis on is not the easiest thing in the world to do, especially if you don't know what you're doing.

After I used all my energy to get to the lift, I was dead tired, and probably not fit for skiing. But we went up anyway. We went to the beginner's course. But once I was on top and I saw how high it was, I was thinking, No way is this a beginner's course! But I gathered enough courage to start going down. I didn't go that far, about 5 meters, before I fell. OK, I thought. I fell. That's a part of the process. Now get up. Easier said than done. I couldn't get myself up. It was the hardest thing I had to do all day. It's tough to explain to those who haven't experienced it. Imagine you're at the skating rink, and you fell down in the middle of the rink, where there's no wall to help you up, then try to get up by yourself. It's like that.

Anyway, to continue, it took about 5 minutes before I got myself up. Once I got up, I was up only a few seconds before I fell down again. Then the whole process began again. My girlfriend went down the slope like 8 times before I made it all the way down the first time. That's what my first day was like.

The second day was much better. I was able to go down the course without falling, and I was even learning to turn and zig-zag a little. I was proud of myself. Yep, I thought, a black man can indeed ski. Now, I'm waiting for the next trip. I'm not looking forward to a sore behind again, however.

What's in my digital music player now

In case you want to know (and I'm sure you really do), here's some of the albums I have in my mp3 player:

-N.E.R.D., Fly or Die
-Ciara, Goodies
-Alicia Keys, Diary of Alicia Keys
-Jay-Z/Linkin Park, Collision Course
-Utada, Exodus
-Craig David, Slicker Than Your Average
-Linkin Park, Hybrid Theory (after listening to Collision Course, had to pull it out again)
-stuff from my Japanese textbook CDs

OK, so elementary school wasn't that bad...

Yesterday I finished my short assignment at that elementary school near Kobe that I told all of you about. Despite all my problems while I was there, it ended on a pretty good note, I must say.

All of the students (even the bad ones) were a little sad that I wouldn't be back. To my astonishment, they had come to enjoy the English games that I used in the lesson. Many students took time after the last lesson to tell me thank you very much. That meant a lot to me. One class even gave me a binder with thank-you letters in English from every student in the class. Here are some excerpts, and forgive me - I didn't correct their English:

-"I was very grateful to you for teaching English, although a short time."

-"I couldn't speak English, but I could understand it little by little, studying with you. I want to study English very hard in junior high school."

-"I have been learning English but I could not study home work at all. But I can do it, thanks to Mr. Herman."

-"I like sports, especially basketball. You are very tall, I want to play basketball with you if I have a chance." (Herman's comments: I think to any 12-year-old, I'm pretty tall, don't you think? Still, very cool letter.)

Amazing, huh? I guess my time there was kind of effective, even though I didn't think so most of the time. In hindsight, things weren't so bad, I suppose. I'd probably do it again.... maybe.

Happy New Year everyone!

Welcome to my first post of the year 2005. So far it's been a good one. Of course, it's only January 11, so there's a lot of year to go.

Christmas and New Year's was good. In Japan Christmas is more of a romantic holiday, so my girlfriend and I went out to dinner and exchanged gifts. It was good. New Year's was great, also. I was able to do what Japanese usually do at the beginning of the year. I went with my girlfriend's family to a local shrine, and we said our first prayers of the year. It seemed very spiritual at that time. But that quickly went away when I saw all of the food stands and goods tents that were set up on the shrine grounds. However, the food was very very good!

The big news over the holidays around the world was, of course, the tragic earthquake and tsunamis in South Asia. (By the way, if you didn't know, tsunami is a Japanese word. It means "harbor wave". My Japanese buddies were surprised that we use that word in English.) There were no tsunamis here in Japan. But we felt the impact here at my company. Some teachers were vacationing in the area and my bosses were not able to contact them immediately. But it turns out that they were okay. They weren't in the affected areas, so that was good news.

Well, I look forward to a good 2005, and you all should, too. Take care.