Dust in the Wind, the Karaoke Story

Weather Crummy; Disappointed Females Trek to City

This weekend, due to crummy Tango weather and family duties, Natanya, Kate and I decided to take a literal rain check on our hike. Instead, Natanya and I drove down to Kameoka so we could head into Kyoto and play!

The morning started as crummy as the weather. I thought the elementary school next door told me that I could bring my recyclable cardboard (or cardboard boxes I've had since July 2007...) to the school between 7:30 and 10:30. So I showed up around 10 and one of the teachers/caretakers was there and he said, "Haha, they've gone home already." THANKS. So, stuck with cardboard, I said farewell to Kirby and drove South to Kaya. Natanya had plenty of cardboard waste too, so we placed it surreptitiously in the parking lot of a convenience store. Apologies to the 7-11 employees on Rt. 176.

Once in Kameoka, we snagged a free spot at the station and walked over to Laurel's apartment to meet her new friend, Kuma. I never knew rabbits had so much personality! This little boy or girl (we just don't know how to find out) thumped his feet when vexed, nibbled at our socks, and let us cuddle him as only a kind and thoughtful rabbit might. Meanwhile Margaret was wandering around muttering something about boys and dates... but... bunny... d'awwwwwwww.

Continuing on our day of planned fun-things, we took the train into Nijo to do some quickie purikura at the arcade and to see Star Trek with Greg, Ian, and Masahiro. Hooray for student prices and employees who believe that we are foreign exchange students! I don't think I'll be able to get away with that for too much longer... they might start to wonder once I'm 30.

Star Trek was vastly entertaining and the beers we all got helped our viewing pleasure go to where no man has gone before. Or something witty.

After that, people wanted food so we ate some kaiten sushi nearby, but this sadly cut the night short as people had last trains to worry about. So, all but me, Ian and Natanya went on in search of karaoke and more beer. We met up with Lauren, who changed her mind and went home.

Ian, Natanya and I ended up doing karaoke at two locations due to the waiting list at the first place. We are superstars, no lie. Natanya and Ian sang a 35 minute ballad by Bob Dylan while I weighed the options of eating my pastries now, or later. I chose later, and then tried to sing Kate Bush. Oof.

Somehow we ended up at Radio Clash around 2am and chatted, made paper cranes, and I texted everyone I knew that, simply, "I LOVE YOU." This was well received, and it's all true!

Around 3am, we poured ourselves into Ian's apartment and slept until the voices of children woke us up at 8am.

I have no explanation for this, other than it exists and I saw it.

So! Karaoke, sushi, movie, friends, and bunny all add up to one final note: MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.

Driving home was relaxed this afternoon... Natanya and I listened to podcasts and sipped water and watched the scenery turn from sunny to cloudy to drizzly. We were home! When I got back to my apartment complex, I had to wait a bit longer to get inside because three monkeys were playing in front of my doorstep! Blagh! Deftly (and after 15 minutes) I trundled my car slowly up the path, chasing them back into the jungle. As I carried my groceries inside, they glared at me from trees. Eep.

New School Atmosphere & Hanami

Monkeys Take Over Neighbourhood, Spring Arrives

Monkeys clambered out of the jungle into the fields to eat everything that was starting to turn green.

I reckon I should write a little bit about what I’ve been up to this month (besides losing all the teachers and school comforts I hold so very dear).

After Aimi sensei left Ine JHS, everything felt like it was falling apart. The new teachers were SUPER nice (especially the Japanese teacher, Ms. Tomonaga and the new Principal, Mr. … Principal). I felt excited about working with my new JTE, Mr. Yamagami (fun to say!) However the week started out with us moving desks. And instead of me moving my desk somewhere, I had to give it up altogether. I moved all of my personal belongings that used to sit upon my desk (the little stone that says “stone”, my elephant from a Thai restaurant in Shiga, and a kangaroo keychain from Scott) into a box in the trunk of my car. They told me I could share a desk with the art teacher, whose desk is full of art teacher things. I felt inconsolably sulky about the whole affair. WHO AM I TO BE DENIED A DESK? I AM RACHEL K. ENGLISH TEACHER! But in the end, I don’t really need that much room and the art teacher gave me some drawers to put my things into. So, it’s not the worst fate in the world after all.
Flowers! Life could be much worse.
 The new teachers at Honjo JHS are spectacular. My favourite is the new science teacher, Ms. Oe. She has the most sincere laugh I’ve ever heard out of a Japanese woman – guttural and low. A boisterous, “hur hur hur”. I love her to pieces already. We speak a mixture of English and Japanese because she wants to practice. She told me, “I have lost my vocabulary and I can’t remember my idioms!” Then we talked about intransitive verbs. <3 Friends forever. We also have a young teacher named Yamashita-sensei who is a big computer dork and likes to talk to me about Mac computers. But now I know about some fancy new Beta Windows program that runs simultaneously with the Mac OSX. Technology! It helps that all the words about computers are katakana English. Pu-ro-gu-ra-mu, so-fu-to-we-a, and haa-do-do-rai-bu. Fantastic!

I haven’t had any classes yet, but I am starting to go to them again with Yamagami-sensei starting today. I hope they go well and that I can help! I miss being useful! It was really a treat getting back to kyushoku (the school lunches) as well. I really missed the miso soups and even the white rice that my stomach lining loathes on a day-to-day basis. The weather getting warmer and more pleasant every day is also helping everyone’s mood! It’s so nice not having to use the heater anymore. I like to think of this as my last horrible winter just because America has all the ‘central heating’. Faaaancy.

On Friday I had a meeting with the elementary school homeroom teachers who will be helping me team teach this new elementary textbook to the 5th and 6th graders starting this school year. I was really excited about it, but after 30 minutes of stumbling through Japanese lesson plans, it became quite clear that none of us knows what we are doing. Who knows how this lesson will go, but at least I finally have a textbook to work off of. SUPPLEMENTS!!!! Huzzah!



School aside, I went to Kyoto and Kameoka this weekend to finally spend some quality time with Laurel and the other Kameoka girls who have replaced the friends I still miss deeply and dearly (you know who you are, you southern women). It was really fun hanging out with Laurel and spending time with a different group of people. I think that when you spread yourself among groups of different people you can learn to appreciate the people who aren’t there, as well as getting comfortable in different situations. I’ve always been most comfortable as a social butterfly, fluttering amongst groups of people and never getting that close to any of them. I feel like this year has been an exception, which would explain a lot of the social anxiety I’ve been having.

Sakura and ear lobe massages in Kameoka...

On Saturday I met up with “the usual suspects” (Ian, Natanya, Rachel2, Lauren, Greg etc) and we had a picnic under the sakura by the Kamogawa River to celebrate R2’s birthday. It was a lot of fun, but I ate and drank too much and had the worst headache later.
R2, Natanya & Ian eating delicious gyoza by the Kamo River
We had grand plans to do karaoke, but those dissolved after we ate bananas foster (rum soaked bananas on FIRE over ice cream) and were stricken with extreme sleepiness. We all just ended up falling asleep in a pile at Rachel’s apartment and had one of the least exciting, but most comfortable, nights in Kyoto ever.

Sakura in the Imperial Palace Grounds & the Rare Blossom Rachel2

The next day we did mini-hanami and walked through the Imperial Palace grounds on the way to the pet store, where we played with a pug. I picked out some Kirby food, R2 got her brown curls grabbed by a spider monkey, and Ian and Natanya fell in love with the pug. After a quick stint at Starbucks, Natanya and I drove back to Tango.

Natanya snores louder than you could possibly imagine! 

Kirby was really happy to see me and I was really happy to get some sleep, since the night before had been interrupted by Natanya’s GORILLA SNORING. That’s right! You know who you are!

My Parents Come to the Japans

In late April and early May, my very international mum & dad came for a very Japanese visit! We went to a LOT of places, which was great for me because I haven't really seen that much of Honshu until now!

We first went to Yokohama to see all of the very modern, very beautiful buildings and piers around the city. We also went to Chinatown to eat dumplings. Here are pictures.

Jet-lag got the better of my folks. But they're just so cute!

The very next day, we took a train ride to Hakone. Hakone is also in Kanagawa Prefecture (along with Yokohama). It's a town full of hot springs, craft museums, and fancy hotels! We made use of Ryokan living, craft museums, trains, buses and yukata! I also introduced my parents to the onsen, but... we I haven't any pictures of that.

Hard to imagine that I come from their combined loins.

My parents also managed to visit my elementary schools! My dad had a BLAST at one of them on his very first full day in Japan. The second elementary school involved a much shorter visit and meatloaf shaped like a koi with a corn kernel eyeball! Mmmmm ketchup scales! We were also treated by my BOE to dinner at the onsen (with a beautiful view) and a ferry ride on Ine-bay around the boathouses! And what trip to Tango would be incomplete without a steak dinner at the Ikari Farm and a visit to the Whirling Giants of Death™?






Finally we ended our vacation in Kyoto. I have almost no pictures of the fabulous sight-seeing that my parents went on due to the fact that I was deathly ill. I mostly watched the BBC. I did, however, get out for one day with my dad and we saw the Golden Pavilion; overrated, but shiny.

Party in Honjo/Ine/Inaka/Your Mom

Party in Inaka; 6,000 Found Dead.

This weekend was a celebration of nothing in particular. A month ago I had decided to throw another party (the last party being Rachelmas™ back in December). Most of my good friends could come, which was good. A few couldn’t, which was too bad. The most interesting part was the RSVPing, which was usually acquaintances telling me that they ‘probably wouldn’t make my party unless nothing better came up’, which is always a delight to hear. Well, the turn out was a good number of people to the food and liquor that we had prepared. I have more liquor left over in my house than I could ever drink in a year.

Let’s go back in time to Friday, where I drove to Nishi-Maizuru to pick Ian and Megan up at the train station. What a great place to pick people up! It’s only an hour and 15 minutes away from my home and there are no tolls! I believe it’s also quite thrifty for the train passengers, which makes it an ideal Inaka-pickup place for future weekends. We immediately went to Karachi for curry and followed it up with a donut or two. After a lovely drive home (accompanied by Easy-E, as per usual), we watched cartoons and slept in the downstairs tatami room. We didn’t even need the heater! Kirby was pleased to see his favourite guests back in the house. The guests were equally pleased to see Kirby, who is now as big as a wild boar and twice as chubby.


Saturday I left around 1030 in the morning for Yagi (Greg’s town) which is about 30 km from Kyoto as I understand it. I got there in about two hours time and met Greg at the train station. We trained it to Nijo to meet Zara (who was visiting from Kyushyu after dropping her mother off at the airport). We all went hanami-watching [a term used to describe looking at blossoms] in the city while I did errands. Pet food, coffee, etc. The blossoms were indeed lovely! I shall have to plan a proper hanami picnic for next year, but I got my fill of pink flowers, which was my goal anyway. Two hours, one ice coffee, and a subway ride later, we met John ‘Nowun kan oonderstand me’ Blakeney at Nijo. He looked as though he’d been hit by the party truck. He immediately asked if he could have a shower at m house, and we jumped on the slowest train in the world back to Yagi. The ride back was quick and painless with a quick stop off at Miyazu’s most famous beauty spot: MIPPLE. An unbelievable load of snacks and booze and we were back in the car and driving to Ine.


The party was lovely, as I have mentioned. A great group of people came over, plenty of liquor was imbibed, and nobody got so drunk that they threw up in my house or yard, which is always a plus. I am always touched that people will drive all the way up to my town for a few hours of standing around in my kitchen eating pizza and chatting. It’s no small trek.

Around 3am, we called it a night and went to bed. No hangovers the next day, which was fantastic (and VERY different from Rachelmas™). The first problem in the morning was the realization that there was NO MILK. How did we drink a gallon of milk in one night? The answer: we COULDN’T HAVE. Someone had most certainly pilfered my milk. I drove some of the kids out to the Nishigaki about 20 minutes away to get milk and veggies for omelets. Zara made omelets and smoothies for us and we enjoyed them while forcing John to watch “The Little Mermaid” (my work here is done). Eventually it was time to go down to the train stations and get Zara and Greg home.



The only problem was that my car seats four people and we had six. Simple solution, three HUGE boys in the back (all being tall and or bootylicious), Megan in the front seat, and Zara curled up while sitting on Megan’s lap. [PEOPLE IN THE CAR] Zara is also about 16 feet tall, so that worked out as well as it sounds. A dangerous car ride to Amanohashidate saw Zara off! We then drove down to Ayabe to drop Greg off at the station which would save him money. He of course ended up on the SAME TRAIN as Zara. The earth is so small.

• The remainder of the lot found ourselves eating yakiniku and being ripped off on kimchee. Those bastards. Then an ice creamy goodbye and everyone hopped a train or two home. It was a very lonely trip back up to my inaka home, but all in all, a very satisfying and bank-draining weekend. Let’s do it again!

Yuppie Weekend/Sweeny Todd

On Friday, Leigh and I drove in her car down to the city. The roads are icier these days, so the Japanese people have put in hot water sprays that get rid of the ice on the asphalt. Only thing is, some of them reach your windshield and it's fairly terrifying.

I spent Friday night hanging with Megan and Greg watching The Prestige (which was kindly given to me by Desirae and Andy for my birthday) and eating PIZZA (honest to God pizza).

This is Greg. He always has a good time!

Saturday was going out for burgers at an Americana style burger 'joint' with Greg, John and Megan. It was a LOT of fun hanging out with those guys. And adding a burger joint and a dr. pepper to the mix, it felt like I wasn't in Japan.

Not long after, Megan and I put on some dresses and make up so we could look/feel fancy for the opera that Ian had gotten us tickets to! High heels make me walk... poorly. The opera, as it turned out, was a mix of professional singers and community theatre types. It was interesting, and ridiculous. The Japanese people in the crowd took any excuse to clap to the beat of a song, even if there wasn't really a beat at all. And despite the fact that they generally have no rhythm.

As we were all dressed up, we decided to grab some posh food at a restaurant I have forgotten the name of! We ordered lots of delicious dishes and alcohol (for me: espresso drinks as I was battling jet-lag). Twice it was mentioned that we were having a yuppie's night out. Posh food, posh clothes and the fact that we're all way too young to be taking ourselves seriously doing either.

Sunday Megan and I got together with Amy at her apartment downstairs (we were soon joined by Ian and Lauren). Amy fixed us up a 'southern breakfast' with walnut/banana/chocolate chip pancakes, sausages, (Megan made eggs), and tea! It was immensely delicious. We then wandered out to the city of Kyoto to see Sweeny Todd in an actual movie theatre. Japanese movies theatres are very fancy and I was pleased with the over all experience! Movie was good, too!

Then it was a long series of train rides back to Tango. However, fortunately for me, there was no snow to come home to. And there hasn't really been any snow all week!

Christmas Day - a day for walking around a shopping mall and inpromptu クリスマスデート's

Christmas day was spent giving a quick goodbye to Zara, who ran off to work. Then I wandered over to the little train station and was harassed by some crazy lady who kept saying she didn'T speak english and that she could read dreams. I played dumb, "Oh I don't speak Japanese sorryyyyyyy OKBYE" but she kept following me around the platform... and then as I was eating my morning nikuman (bun with meats), she asked if she could have some. I just gave her the whole thing. Finally two train stops later, she left me alone and I switched trains to a much nicer one headed for Hakata.

In Hakata, I hopped on the bullet train that would take me back to Kyoto Station. The rest is a memory only of napping.

In Kyoto, I wandered around the stupid shopping malls in the station, got some coffee, and played my video games until Lauren and Ian met me in the afternoon. Lauren was off to Kobe to catch an overnight bus to Tokyo so it was a quick hello/goodbye/Merry Christmas. Ian and I then grabbed some sub-par soba and oyakodon at a little restaurant in the shopping center for our CHRISTMAS DATE (クリスマスデート), since that is all that people really do on X-mas. Then we geeked out about Zelda video games and I went to catch my trains back to Miyazu so I could go home.

Yuumi was fabulous enough to keep Kirby an extra day, so I didnt have to worry about going by her house until Wednesday. Unfortunately, I spent most of my evening getting on the wrong trains and having to haul ass back to Fukuchiyama to catch the last train back to Miyazu for the night. Phew. If I had missed that train, I would have most definitely spent the night in the train station. Everyone, after all, is on holiday.

Anyway, I did make it home around 11:30 and called my family in the UK. I ranted about my trip and then fell asleep watching Lord of the Rings. It was a good Christmas.

Kyushyu Mini-Holiday: Part 1 - The Road to Kyushyu

I left the Board of Education an hour early to get down to Miyazu and grab a train (with Leigh and Simon) to Fukuchiyama, and then to Kyoto station. The trian was 13 minutes late, and we nearly missed out connecting train but managed to hop on it alright! Simon and I ate chocolate shou creams and Leigh felt sick and yucky. Then I grabbed a coffee from the station's starbucks and Leigh and I grabbed some yarn from the yarn/sweater store. After that, she went off to Steve's, Simon went to his hotel, and I got on my bus to Kyushyu.

Kyushyu is a very long way from Kyoto, so I opted to take the less expensive overnight bus there. The trip began at 7:40pm and would arrive in Nagasaki Prefecture at 0615am. It was a long trip! The bus was really comfortable! The seats stretched out and each passenger got a complimentary blanket and slippers. I sipped my hot chocolate, snapped some photos of Osaka as we passed by, and slept pretty soundly for most of the ride.

I believe I will take another overnight bus when I go to the airport near Tokyo. It saves a lot of money!

(Here we have a man utilizing all of his space. This man was much bigger than I was, and his feet were really grosss).

Osaka and the Bicycle of Hate

This past weekend was a three-day, and despite my efforts to be well traveled/worldly, etc., I hadn’t made a single plan.

So on Thursday, I decided this would be my weekend for visiting Osaka, where Danielle lives. Who is Danielle? She is a lovely lady I worked with in Seattle during those long, arduous iD tech Camp months (or just the two of them). We got along wonderfully and it was only by chance that we both ended up in the same country and quite close to each other (about… 4.5 hours away in total, I think). So we were definitely overdue for a weekend together!

I grabbed a train from Mineyama (where Desirae and Andy were kind and took Kirby in for the weekend) and hustled to Kyoto Station. Originally, the loose plan was to meet up at Kyoto Station for some walking around and then later hop the train back to Osaka for a Thanksgiving Dinner at Outback Steakhouse. This was a grand idea in theory. I arrived at Kyoto station after receiving a text that Danielle was meeting a potential private student and probably wouldn’t make it to Kyoto, which was fine. The train station was the most crowded I had ever seen it! It seemed that Tokyo had come over for a visit and brought the twins. That’s a terrible metaphor. Anyway there was like, a butt-load of people there for some reason. Oh the reason? Gee, maybe that every Kyoto festival ever was happening on this weekend (which is probably why we had the three day weekend to begin with). There were lots of people in kimono and I was seeing geisha and maiko left and right!!! I decided to get the hell out of Dodge.

I hopped a hopelessly crowded train to Osaka. The ride was fast, but it didn’t seem as such when I was half stooped, half leaned between a door, a vapid couple, and a baby carriage. Most of me was standing, some of me was scrunched against the wall, and all of me was trying its hardest not to fall on the baby. The infant lived to see another day, and I arrived at my destination.

Osaka station is big and confusing. It connects to probably a million subway stations, underground malls, and hotels. I wandered while waiting for Danielle to text me back and tell me where to go next. About 75 minutes later, I got a single text from her. ‘Go to umeda station and the outback is around there.’ I then realized that Danielle wasn’t getting any of my text messages, and it was only by luck that she had sent me this one. I found my way to the subway station she had mentioned, after awhile… I didn’t realize it was a subway station so I sort of wandered around the JR trains… like an idiot. However after my relative success at locating the station, I then realized that there were 10 exits to the streets above. Not knowing much about Osaka, I then wandered around for an even longer time trying to locate the Aussie-American steak place. After asking two security guards, I found my way to the restaurant. I looked inside but did not see Danielle, so I proceeded to wait for 40 minutes outside, watching all the gaijin pass by.

Osaka has a lot of gaijin. It was scary, and I felt out of place since I seemed to fit in so well. Osaka also has a lot of bicycles…

I went back inside after the 40 minutes to find Danielle and her friend Pete in a corner. I suppose I just hadn’t seen them earlier. Regardless, I had a delicious steak dinner and got drunk on red wine. Danielle then had a bad asthma attack and spent a bit of time in the bathroom trying not to pass out… in our drunken states, Pete and I probably weren’t a great help to her. Eventually, however, we got Danielle back on her feet and grabbed a cab back to her house in Momodani.

Her house is about three stories and WONDERFUL. She has a crazy kiwi roommate who laughs to herself while watching movies and likes to talk AT people. This explained the behavior she had towards Danielle when we stumbled in, pale and drunk, and she started talking about knitting patterns or something. Maybe all Kiwis are just like that. I have yet to meet a sane one (cough BRYN cough).

We slept.

The next day we got up around noon (well I did, but mostly because I thought Danielle was still sleeping!) We decided food needed to come next, and then got lost on the subways trying to find any. Danielle usually bikes everywhere, but as her bike was stolen a few weeks back, and her borrowed bike was still at the Outback Steakhouse, we had no other choice but to take the trains. We did a lot of walking. Osaka has bridges, buildings, and subways. Not much when it comes to cultural things, but it was actually nice to be in a city that resembled a city and not a cultural heritage site for a change. Not that I’m complaining (I’m complaining a little).
We eventually found ourselves in Namba, an area Danielle lived in while she was with NOVA (as to say before NOVA died a slow horrible death). She took me to an excellent okonomiyake place where we dined on fine cabbage pancakes and colas. After that it was Starbucks city, which delighted me in oh-so-many ways. Ways which I am not comfortable discussing… Also I bought yarn and stamps. Yarn and stamps also make me happy for inappropriate reasons.

It was nearly 5pm by this time, and we made our way back to Outback Steakhouse to retrieve Pete’s bike (the borrowed bike, that is to say). At about this time, I realized that Danielle planned on biking back to Momodani. But what about Rachel, I asked? She pointed to the back metal grill of her bicycle. I obliged.

Riding on the back of that bike was a thrilling experience. Whizzing past traffic, people, lights, stores, and other bikes… and not being able to see a thing in front of me except for Danielle. It was terrifying. And amazing. At one point we hit a big bump and my leg flailed, causing us to lose balance. But we recovered! We in fact managed to not die the entire way home. We then watched TV shows and grabbed some dinner nearby (again on the bike). This time I used a sweater to pad my behind, as it was quite sore from the previous half hour ride from Osaka Station. Anyway, I’m no daredevil, so this was exciting to me. I’m such a rebel.

We also got donuts and coffee, which was easily as rebellious as the rest of it. Mine had chocolate on it.

The next day Danielle and I went to Kyoto city. We grabbed some coffees and took pictures with some maiko that were in town. A maiko is an apprentice geisha. The maiko in Kyoto are well known for their colourful kimonos and fabulous hairdos. They were adorable to boot! Couldn’t have been over 18 years old and definitely not over five feet tall. Kawaii to the max.

We then met up with Megan B and her friend Zara and walked around a crowded flea market in the area of Kitanosomething… anyway we took a bus there and then cabbed it over to teramachi where we had sandwiches and lemonade. THEN we did purikura. Purikura being a weird Japanese thing where you take funny pictures and then decorate them with backgrounds, sparkles, funny stamps or writing tools… and you make them look… EVEN MORE JAPANESE. We came out with some pretty decent ones if I do say so myself. They are stickers too, did I mention?

After that Danielle decided to wander the streets of Kyoto armed only with her amazing 10 megapixel camera. The rest of us did some half-assed karaoke (well Zara was whole assed, but Megan and I were definitely half assed). Japanese songs are strange. Japan is strange.

I then left and met Scott, Simon and Leigh for a ride home to Tango. It was uneventful, and as Tango-ey as ever. Everyone quiet and tired, and there being unnecessary tension all the time forever. I LOVE WHERE I LIVE.

Then it was home at midnight, and sleep for not long enough (this is how my weekends seem to be ending this month).