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Published: August 26th 2010
Sooooo I have been living in Miyazaki for a little more than a week now, getting acquainted with the area and buying things for the apartment. Had to buy a pillow and some hanger things for the blind which are now up, before that it would get really hot in my room -.- I met like a lot of ALT people i forget what it stands for maybe Alternative Language Teacher? The people who are like Xander and are in the JET program, teaching English to various levels of students in Japan. They were all really cool, from different parts of the world, a bunch from Ireland with cool accents, one from Britain (that i can remember) and some from the U.S. We all went out to a festival nearby which I was told was smaller than they usually are, but they had some good Japanese food and dancing in the street (which I took part in, some Japanese cultural dance)! A Japanese famous Japanese singer (can't remember the name) was there, he had sung a song from Princess Mononoke, if you know that movie. The food was good I got yakisoba and some pastry thing with custard. I tried some of Xander's girlfriend Nazomi's squid i think it was but it didn't really have a flavor from what i could tell. It tasted like tasteless chicken.
After that everyone went to some bar which is one of the only ways to socialize with Japanese people in japan. They all work really hard all day and then go to bars, get drunk and sing Karaoke. Xander told me of this one time where he tried to approach a girl he thought was cute in a clothing store. He went over to her and started making small talk, which caused her to freak out and run into a back room like her life was in danger. They all putt on a very serious work face and have a high Genki (energy) attitude. Not being able to speak Japanese at all yet makes it hard to talk to Japanese people! Who tests show have the poorest English speaking skills of the Asian countries.
Two days ago I went and played Indoor Soccer with this group of Japanese people who get together and play. They were all amazing food work and accuracy, they seemed professional to me. In japan when your going to school they have clubs that you basically have to join or you'll be a social outcast. Usually they are sports clubs so I'm guessing they all belonged to a soccer club. Anyway the first game I did pretty bad, I hadn't played soccer in 5 years of so >.<. But the next two games I played I started playing really well, doing better passes leading to goals and scoring a goal, even got some compliments! umai which means good! They play every Tuesday I think, so we'll probably be going back there every week. I got super tired though really fast, I am really out of shape, but recently started running with Xander, which should help. I wish i had an ipod or something to listen to, it makes running easier if you have the music to distract you!
This weekend I'm going to camp out at the beach and go to the fire festival there where they try and swing flaming bricks on top of a narrow pole that has a bunch of fireworks on top. So that should be fun. I'll try and find some cool T-shirts for everyone. The engrish i've seen on some shirts is reary funny.
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Travis
non-member comment
getting greener
It sounds like your adventure is getting better and better. I'm glad to hear you're finding activities to do and being social. Maybe you should find some sort of electronic translator to help you with the language barrier, really study those key phrases, or just wear a shirt that says "Sorry I only speak English" in japanese. Just some ideas. It sounds like you're having lots of fun. Keep us updated and figure out how to post photos soon. My envy deepens with each post, and I'm turning a split pea soup shade of green now.