Let's just say I had a busy weekend.....

It started off with visiting one of my old elementary schools. I no longer teach at the school, but all the students bar the 1st graders have had me as a teacher and I currently teach their older brothers and sisters. I went to watch their sports festival. The festival was not so exciting. They get a bit old hat after watching two or three, but I really enjoyed seeing all the kids. As the saw me, groups of them would yell out my name and wave like crazy people. It was really cute.

After spending some time at the festival and talking with some of the kids, it was soon time to head to Otsuki for a pub quiz. While I suck at answering the trivia questions, its nice to get to see people I don't ofter get a chance to see and to meet some of the new people who I haven't had a chance to meet. Was a bit disappointed by the table I was assigned though. It was mostly people I already knew. I was also quite peeved at the fact that I was in the bathroom during one of the few questions I knew the answer too and my group ended up getting it wrong. Nooooooo! The pub quiz had a few interesting new rules/categories this time. There was even a physical challenge. All in all a good time. Never did end up figuring out who won as the quiz ran late and I had to catch a train to Tokyo.

Spend the night in Tokyo at one of my favorite hostels. The Sakura Inn in Jimbocho. Always a nice place and me and Janet ended up having a 4 person room all to ourselves. It was a quick stay though. We got up early the next morning to head to MakuhariMesse in Chiba for the annual Tokyo Game Show. It's been tradition over the past 2 years that me and Janet attend the show together. It's normally held during a 3 day weekend in October, but was held a bit earlier this year. Luckily I checked the website a few weeks in advance or we would have probably missed out! This year we wanted to attend 2 days instead of just 1, but due to the sports festival and pub quiz, it didn't quite work out.

Anyway, the game show was a good time as always. We got there about an hour and a half before the venue opened. Most of the game show is spent collecting 'swag' aka. various free things passed out by different companies either for doing nothing or playing certain demo games. Last year Janet manged to walk away with a decent sized stuff Sonic. Other goods from past years include key chains, mouse pads, cups, bouncy balls, and a ton of game demo CDs. This year it was clear that the swag was a bit lacking. Not as many giveaways and most of the giveaway stuff was fairly average. We did manage to pick up some jewelry, headphones, and a really cool multicolored pen/highlighter. No free game giveaways though, and the demo disks were also really scarce. There also seemed to more people and fewer vendors this year, which meant that most of the good stuff was gone exceptionally fast.

Didn't have much time to spend grabing swag though as I cosplayed this year. I went as Beatrice from 07th Expansion's Umineko no Naku Koro Ni series. I got a ton of compliments on it and had a ton of people ask to take my picture. One person even asked me if I was working for 07th Expansion as their 'booth babe' aka person who passes out fliers for a company while in costume. This got me all excited because I didn't think they'd have a booth, but in the end it turns out they didn't. I even got interviewed by 2 different TV stations. One of which was from Spain. I also managed to meet up with an online friend from Singapore who recently moved to Japan to attend school and was cosplaying from the same series as me.

I also ate at the show for the first time and was impressed by the food selection and quality. Everything but the drinks, which were going for 200yen a bottle, was really cheap too. I got 2 large chicken legs and french fries for 500yen. Couldn't even get that kind of deal at a fast food place and the food quality was significantly better than anything you'd find at a KFC. I'd even go as far to say it was sit-down restaurant worthy. Yum!

After considering stopping in Tokyo for dinner for a brief moment, we decided to head straight home. It was a very long weekend and neither of us were looking forward to work the next day.

Labels: cosplay, TGS, Tokyo, weekend, Yeti

I kept my promise to myself and did not go to Tokyo this past weekend! It must be some kind of miracle!

The plan for last weekend was to watch the newly released Gokusen movie and then head up to Kiyosato to attend the YETI Sayonara party. I was supposed to meet up with Katrina in Kofu at 11 for some lunch and a movie, but she was running late and we bumped the meeting time to 12:30. I ended up in Kofu by that time, but she was still not quite ready, so I headed to the theater on my own. Once at the theater I realized that we would miss the train that would get us up to Kiyosato before the party started. I still wanted to see the movie, but Katrina decided to pass.

I grabbed a ticket and then had a quick sandwich and banana juice at a little cafe near the theater before the show started. The movie itself was only so-so. I was really looking forward to it and I loved seeing Odagiri Ryu as a student teacher but the story line wasn't really that exciting and 2 of my favorite characters, Sawada Shin and Yabuki Hayato, didn't show up in the film at all. I knew that they probably would be in it due to the cast list, but I was still holding out hope of a special appearance of some kind. It was a bit of a let down. There were a bunch of other previous cast members who made appearances though, but after a while the just kept getting all jumbled up in my head and it was hard to tell who was who.

After the movie, I had some time to kill before the next train to Kiyosato so I grabbed a bit more to eat in preparation for all the drinking I would be doing later in the evening. During this time, I realized I wouldn't be alone and that Janet and Miki, both also ALTs in Yamanashi would be on the same train. Once on the train, I had a nice little chat with a woman who works for a flower shop in Kobuchizawa. She was in Kofu to celebrate working 10 years for her company. After our chat concluded, I went to go find my friends.

Once we arrived in Kiyosato, we tried to figure out how to walk to the KEEP, where the party was being held. It wasn't too hard to figure out on the map, unless your name is Miki. The boy couldn't figure out that map to save his life. He kept thinking we should be going the exact opposite direction from our destination. In the end, Morgan came in Karen's car (soon to by my car in about a week) to pick us up.

And yes, you read that right, I'm getting a car! Even though I've lived here for 2 years without one, I really feel it’s about time I got one. I've had to miss out on quite a few things because I couldn't manage to secure a ride, and now I won't have to. I've already got a road trip to Niigata and Kanazawa planed for the summer, with more to follow.

Back to the party......The theme was ganstars/villans. I just worn a white top, black skirt, and fedora but some people really went all out. I also went to the Sayonara party last year, but this year it was held in a different area of the KEEP. The actual party room was more like a barn, but the sleeping areas were really nice and a huge step up from the ones last year. Guess you gotta take the good with the bad. YETI provided some tasty sandwiches and I brought a bottle of white wine to get me through the evening. I had a good time chatting with everyone and enjoyed my evening, but ended up getting really sick and I don't think from just the alcohol either. I was still sick throughout Sunday and let’s just say riding the train back home was hellish. I still feeling a bit under the weather today even and it's already Tuesday. Hopefully I'll start feeling 100% soon.

Labels: friends, Kiyosato, weekend, yamanashi, Yeti

A little birdie told me that most of the new JETs will be getting their placements in the next few days or so. If you happen to be a new JET placed in Yamanashi and find my blog while frantically searching for information on the prefecture, I would just like to say hi and would recommend that you check out the YETI website. It will help you get in touch with pretty much all the JETs in the Yamanashi area. You can find a link to it in the links column. If you happen to be place in Yamanashishi specifically, contact me because I will know who your pred is. You might even be my neighbor!

Labels: JET application, yamanashi, yamanashishi, Yeti

Immediately following the Yuki Matsuri was the YETI sake brewery tour. The brewery we went to was actually in Yamanashishi, so I didn't have to go far at all! The tour itself wasn't exactly what I was expecting. It lasted for maybe 10min tops and was all in one big room. Was still pretty interesting though. We all got to taste sake at different stages in its creation and look into the big vat where is does......whatever its supposed to do. After the 10min tour, the rest of our time was spent sampling various sake at the brewery's cute little restaurant/bar thing. The restaurant had a very log cabin, Colorado coffee house, kind of feel to it, which I quite enjoyed.
Anyway, this event just helped me confirm my love of any and all things sake. I should really go visit that brewery again some time. Also noticed an interesting looking shrine on my way there that I might want to check out one day.

Labels: friends, sake, Yeti

Yeti, the AJET organization in my prefecture, put together a lovely 2 day 2 night discount ski trip package for us. Seeing as how I haven't been skiing in a very long time, I decided I should definitely attend. I also decided I would try my hand at snowboarding for the first time too!


Maybe 47 was the ski resort we hit up and is in Nagano, which is the prefecture directly to the north of Yamanashi. Before even heading up, I scheduled a snowboarding lesson so that I would at least have some semblance of a clue as to what I was doing. Only problem was that I had to schedule it as a private lessen. Very expensive, but I really wanted so time of lesson, so I sucked it up and agreed to the fees.


Our group stayed at this crazy looking ryokan called the Saint Mary and William, or something like that. Went up Friday night in a van and pretty much went straight to bed so I could get an early start the next morning at meet up with my snowboard instructor and about 8:30am.

I picked up my complimentary breakfast and ski pass the next morning and then went to check out my gear. One of the greatest things about snowboarding is the boots. Ski boots hurt like none other after a while, but the snowboard boots were incredibly comfortable all day long. I walked about 5 minutes and reached the base of the mountain and had to call to figure out where I should be meeting my instructor. This actually turned out to be more of a pain than I originally thought. I was told the day I reserved my lesson that I could meet the instructor near the base of the slope, but when I called, they kept saying I had to go to their main office to pay and would need to take a cab. Needless to say, I was a bit pissed. But after much complaining, I realized that I was already at the place they wanted me to take a cab to get to! Not sure why they didn't understand where I was when I said at the ski lift of Hakuba 47, which is directly across from the building that houses their office, but whatever. Anyway, I make it to their little booth in the building and, guess what, no one was there. My instructor finally shows up few minutes past when the lesson itself should be starting, at 9:00, and then we take care of all the paperwork and payment stuff. During this time, I run across Clint, another ALT, who seems to be looking for boarding lessons as well. Someone told him he about a place you could take lessons for about $30. The place ended up being the little booth next to mine, but he was disappointed when he found out the lessons were all in Japanese. I spoke with him and offered him a change to join in on my lesson and thus my private lesson became semi-private, but also a bit cheaper too.


Once we were both ready to go, we ran into another snag. The bindings on our snowboards were way off. So our instructor switched them up for us. Then, after learning a few basics, we headed to the lift where I ran into anther snag. Apparently, the paper lift ticket I had gotten earlier that morning, was not the actual lift ticket, so I had to go exchange it for the actually ticket. During this time, Clint and the instructor when up and did a run and when they got back down, we all went up.


By the end of my time with the instructor, I discovered a few things. Thing number one is that snowboarding is just not my thing. I did get the hang of getting down the mountain toe side, but could not for the life of me even stand heel side without falling over. Mid day I broke for lunch and had some subway and then headed out with a few people to take a gondola and then another lift to the very top of the mountain. The view was really nice at the top. Most of the group was planning on going all the way down the mountain, but by the time we made it to the top, I was starting to feel the ache and decided to just board back down to the gondola and take that back to the base instead. Glad I did to, because I never would have made it to the bottom! It apparently took them like 2 or 3 hours to do.




That night and the ryokan, Yeti threw a part in this bunker/basement like part of the building. I was planning on going, but ended up just staying in my room and reading. Mostly cause I was really into the book, but also cause I was feeling pretty sore and wasn't up for a night of drinking. Especially with another day of boarding ahead of me.

I got a much later start the next day. Everyone kept swearing that I'd do much better the second day, so I gave it my best shot, but it just wasn't happening. I think I might have even gotten worse the second day! Anyway, after a bit of boarding, I decided to call it quits and grabbed a bowl of spicy ramen to warn me up. I also picked up a few souvenirs to bring back home with me.


The, it was time to head back home. We took the rental vans back to the Toyota place in Kofu and then everyone headed over to this Thai place for some dinner. Was pretty good except for the fact that they forgot to bring me the rice that I ordered and was really, really sore at that point. Anyway, while we were eating, it started snowing! The first snow in Yamanashi.

Labels: friends, Nagano, snowboarding, vacation, Yeti

Immediately following the International Center Christmas party, I went to the Yeti Winter party that was also being held in Kofu at the Italian restaurant I ate at for the Group A welcome party when I first arrive in Yamanashi. Well, not immediately after, as I would have been an hour or two early. I just wondered around Kofu and looked around some stores during that time. I ran across a band playing in this outdoor shopping district area and sat around listening to them for a bit as well. Still got to the party a bit early, but I had a nice chart with some of the older JETs who were in charge of the event.

The party was nomihodai (aka. all you can drink) and we had several courses of food including salad, rice balls, spaghetti, pizza, and ice cream. The older Yeti members also did a little gag degree awards ceremony which was pretty amusing. After the Italian place, we went over to the Vault to for some after party drinks, but they had a band playing, which meant a hefty cover charge, so we all went over to the Rink. Didn't really have much fun there and I probably should have headed home on the last train, but I didn't. It was just really crowded with all of us there and I started to feel a little claustrophobic. As for getting home, my ride into Kofu was drinking that night, so we ended up using this service where someone drives your car to wherever you want to go for you and another guy follows to bring the guy driving guy back. This is a service that's offered by a few companies in Denver, but it's really expensive. Makes sense as its like taking a taxi, but with two drivers helping you instead of just one. Here, though, it was actually cheaper than taking a taxi. And the taxi guys were wearing these great, super shinny, coats that amused me to no end!

Labels: party, Yeti

Yeti, the official JET group in Yamanashi, arranged a pub quiz night for all the local ALTs. A pub quiz is pretty much what it sounds like. Getting drunk and answering really difficult trivia questions! It was held at a nice little Italian restaurant across the street from Otsuki station.

The trivia was quite difficult and I ended up being no help at all to my team. Questions consisted of world history, science, leisure, and music trivia. There were skits and pictures and everything! I've never participated in such a hard core trivia game before in my life!


So, almost solely due to the awesome efforts of my teammates, we ended up in 3rd place and won some fireworks. Said fireworks were promptly set off in front of Otsuki station before taking the train home.

Labels: friends, Otsuki, Yeti