Grits In The Land Of Rice: October 2004

The Fureakan was the only building that had any damage in Oshima from the Earthquake.

The day the sky fell.

Black cat 2.

The costume day 1.

Black cat

lunch

yasazuka

Earthquake rocks Niigata

So many of you may have caught some little newsblip across the bottom of your tv screen about some earthquake in some part of some far off place called Japan. The place is Niigata prefecture, and this is where I live. Just two towns over, maybe a 30min drive Tokamachi got hit pretty bad. And Ojia city near my friend Mary got hit by it as well. But the worst had to be Nagaoka, with a bullet train derailing. I`m still getting in contact with friends around the ken to make sure all are alright, and so far so good. Joetsu was about the same as here, with some scary shaking and a few things falling off the wall, but no real disasters. Victoria called yesterday and said she`s ready for these aftershocks to be over. Me too.

The only damage in my town was a bunch of ceiling tiles falling out at the sports hall, and a traffic light being out (well my town only has 2 to begin with). Also couldn`t access my bank account through the ATM yesterday, but a lovely friend bought me lunch! Otherwise, no one here is without power or gas or anything. Victoria said the shelves at the 7-11 by her house are bare with food being sent off to places that were harder hit. It`s hard to cook up some rice and veggies and such without gas or electricity.

There have still been a few aftershocks all day yesterday, and a good one this morning as well. Me and Chieko-san were just comparing stories of getting shook up in bed this morning and then rolling over and going back to sleep.

Meanwhile, I`ve got a busy week ahead of me doing Halloween lessons for my schools. Are there really any Halloween games? I mean besides toilet-papering your neighbors house (never did do that). If you`ve got any be sure to let me know. I`ll post some pictures soon of the sports hall and Halloween.

Get around get around, I get around

Been busy lately, getting over a nasty cold, then I went to Niigata City this past weekend. It was awesome and trying at the same time. I went for the first Peter Pan Musical practice and I`m a pirate. I can`t wait to wear the garb. I only have about 6 lines but it`s pretty good for a pirate. All the people in the play are awesome. I stayed with a fellow South Carolinian, James Couch, a big hearted boyscout. My two bestest girls were there too, Mary and Victoria, as well as Carl and Nat who I met when I went to the Nagaoka fireworks. His picture is on the site way back in the archives somewhere September. Carl`s pic is below with Victoria at the game, and Victoria and Mary have several selections of photos in the archives here. We even got to dance that night at a cool little bar in Nagaoka lots of play people showed up at, and it was fun despite the fact that I drank a bit too much. Did teach me I don`t wanna feel like that again.

So after the learning experience me and Victoria hit the anime store but we only bought little things, cause the anime was too new for us! Then we went to the awesome Albirex soccer game and it was the most energetic soccer crowd you have ever met with coordinated chants and songs and drums and clapping and everyone wears their teams color! We did too! Some old drunk fellow tried to start a fight with Carl on the Antlers side, so Carl and the group went to the other fans side (me and Victoria were exploring when it all went down), and he was still talking junk, so an Albirex fan b*tch smacked him so I was told. Kind of funny.

Then me and Victoria were driven to Nagaoka by the kind Nat, and we enjoyed some good tunes and some food from Lawson`s, and then caught the next train. Unfortunately the train got in so late that the trains to Oshima had stopped running so I had to stay over at Victoria`s apartment. Thank you thank you thank you! And get up in the morning to call a taxi and catch a train and take a shower and go to work. Luckily, I didn`t have any classes that day, so they said I could take home study, wink, wink.

Tuesday night after working at the Jr. High I went to Joetsu for Japanese class which I`ve been missing too much, and afterwards checked out the 100yen sushi place with some friends. It`s awesome little plates of about 2 sushi come around on a conveyor belt by the tables and each plate is 100yen. So they just count up your plates when you`re finished and that`s how much you pay! And the sushi is great! So is the chocolate cake.

Me and Okada-sensei and Kyo-chan have been practicing for the fall concert coming up on Halloween. I`m playing my electric guitar on one song, and singing Fly Me to the Moon for another. Okada sensei plays bass, and then piano, and Kyo-chan plays bongo drums and then the sax. We`re still a little rough at this point, but hopefully we`ll get it cleaned up some before that night. I might be playing a fiddle solo as well, but we`ll see what happens. We practice again tomorow after school at 5pm.

So Saturday I`m gonna go explore Takeda (which is in Joetsu, its kinda like the downtown area), with some friends and I heard there`s a great coffee shop there so I`m looking forward to having lunch there. But I will probably go to the Elementary school culture festival first on Sat. morning. Sunday I may explore Tokamachi next door to Oshima on the East side and try to find a video store to rent some movies from. Hope all who read this are doing well and are warmer wherever you are than I am in this typhoon fall weather!

The red side, they have catchy cheers and drums!

Soccor watchin` tomodachi.

Scoreboard...the same for most of the game! Finally 1 to 0. Yay Albirex!

On his heels..

International kinda team.

Action shot.

Whose lookin` at the ball?

`t the goal.

Orange side, Niigata fans.

The field.

Cheerleaders.

Side view.

A stadium of orange.

Albirex vs. Antlers

Back to the cave

It was such a nice day when I woke up I immediately knew what I had to do. It was on with the clothes and grab the film and video cameras and out the door and in the car and up the mountain and down the pathway and into the cave with the buddhas. Being Sunday lots of other families had the same idea as me and were visiting the shrine. You can find the pics from todays journey under those of the kindergartners.

I did a big post today cause I had all these pics saved up from earlier this week. Wednesday I videoed at the Elemetary school because I got all excited about the taiko drumming club after school that Ishizuka-san was teaching so I wanted to get it on film, and my genki 4th grade students got in on the video too. Then Thursday, though rather under the weather trying to be in denial about having a rough cold, I went with the kindergarten class to Shobu-kogen for a picnic in the mountains, and we played hide and seek and picked up donguri (acorns) and went exploring and climbed trees and everything. Then I pulled out my video camera and took a chance and let the kids pass it around. They were surprisingly careful with it and were not surprisingly very interested in looking through it at everything.

Friday after missing most of a nights sleep from my cold, I decided I`d go to the doctor and get some medicine so I could sleep again. This worked out fine cause I didn`t have any classes to teach with the Jr. High English teacher out of town. Then I went home early and took it easy and went to bed super early. Yesterday I felt a bit better after sleeping in and went shopping a bit in Joetsu and got proper cool fall coats. Got some cds too, and a proper little fishtank for my fish so i don`t have to saran wrap the top of the fish bowl to keep water from spraying on everything.

Tomorow is a holiday of some sort, so I don`t have work. I don`t know if I`ll venture out somewhere or just stick around and play with the musical instruments. Probably could use the practice before the upcoming concert.