Nagano-way Jose

I will get this out of the way immediately. I did not meet someone named Jose in Nagano last weekend. I just needed a catchy title (achieved). Last weekend, I went to Nagano with a bunch of other foreigners (105 to be exact). It was a gaijin-explosion! We rented out an entire hotel and went skiing at the Hakuba47 Resort. 

 The morning of the trip, it snowed in Kiyosato. I didn't have to work because it was the anniversary of my Junior High. So I spent the day lazing about and watching the Jazz game. They lost, and I was super mad. 

 This is the view outside our hotel, the Lady Diana and St. George. 

 The Lady Diana, or as I called it, the Dirty Diana (like the song, clever right?).

 The St. George. Not as nice, in actuality it was the dirtier of the two. Our accommodations were super Japanese. I slept on a futon on the floor with 7 other guys. It made for a terrible night of sleep.

 Up on the mountain. You can see me rocking the super sweet SUU sweater. What is crazy about this picture is that it was taken in a place with no daylight. We figure the pure power of my spirit is what is shining behind me. Also in the picture is Matt, Matt, and James (in the hat). 

The resort was really neat. There was a storm hitting the mountain when we got there, but we took a chairlift and actually got far above it and could look down at the roof. It was pretty neat. 

 Getting ready to go down. I ended up skiing most of the day with no hat or goggles. I am sure that it was quite a sight for all the Japanese people to see a white bald guy tearing it up out there. I didn't feel dressed right for skiing, but it worked. 

 Another picture, but we swapped out James for Lana. We took this picture here because there was a recycled steel statue of Alien and Predator strung with lights. Makes total sense right? It does if you live in Japan... 

 My attractive face. You see at the buckle on my shoulder a pocket for a cell phone. I had used this to put my ski pass in. The ski pass is a little electronic chip that you scan at every lift entrance. This was the most sensible place to put mine. The only problem is that the scanners were about 4.5 feel high. Every time I got on a lift, I had to stoop down and rub my chest on it until it let me through. It looked a lot like I was trying to chest-bump a little person every time I got on the lift. 

 This was chilling back at the hotel. We visited the onsen after a long day of skiing. My feet had become numb and bruised by the boots which were too small. Most unfortunate. An onsen is like a Roman bath (I think). It is like a hot tub, but only dudes...and you are naked. You also wash and shower totally before getting in. It was an experience to say the least, but after a day of skiing, any hot water is welcome. 

 This is a picture of me on Sunday watching the Jazz game on my phone. I am fairly to extraordinarily intense during games...

A tour around the Lady Diana.

 The night after skiing, we had a big dinner arranged by the hotel. Hamburger steak, Some kind of fish, some kind of roast, salad stuff and some potato wedges. Food of kings I say. 

 Ah yes...then the drinking. Apparently the allure of this weekend is not actually the skiing, but the crazy party that goes on afterwards. Here you can see they are starting with a drinking game. 

 Chatting and having a good time.

 The guy in the green shirt is Fred. Fred is in charge of the trip and has been the resident expert on all things in Yamanashi for many years. 

Also, people wore cute pajamas. This is Nick. He is Canadian, so we will let it slide.  

 The annual ski trip boat race. A boat race is a drinking contest where you race to finish your beers one at a time moving down the line before the other team. Every year it is a contest between America and the rest of the world. Every year (nearly) America loses. 

 Getting ready, the Americans are on the far side. Not being a drinker, but being a proud citizen of the USA, I was looking forward to a good American showing. 

 Conor is the captain of the American team, and he is wearing a super awesome shirt. It features Lex Luger, a famous professional wrestler from the late 90's. 

 It ended up being a very close race, with 3 lead changes, but the Americans won by a half a beer. It is the first time in 5 years that the Americans have even come close (yay for us?).

After the win, there was much rejoicing and rage. You would have thought we just won the SuperBowl. 

Oh beautiful for spacious skies,
for amber waves of grain

we beat another ther countries best

at intoxicating our brains!

America, America thy patriots we'll be,

No drinking game, can we not tame.

Go go gadget land of the free...

Overall, I didn't fall down once, and I have nearly regained full motion in my legs. Fun times to be had, and despite 6 years away from skiing, the kid has still got it!

Fun in Fujiyoshida

Disclaimer: Not all of the aforementioned fun was had in Fujiyoshida, some fun was had in Otsuki. Now that we have addressed the elephant in the room. I am going to share my quick trip to Fujiyoshida this last weekend. We had a big get-together in Otsuki with a bunch of the ALTs in the prefecture. 

 Quite a sight...this is the town of Tsuru as seen at 60mph. I told my sister that I would take pictures if I could of the city she was in when she lived in Japan...I tried. 

 Look familiar?

 How about this? I will take a better trip to Tsuru sometime and take real pictures. 

 Approaching Mt. Fuji

 We had the party in a big room at some restaurant in Otsuki (which is a place you should have no reference for other than that is where the Pub Quiz took place).

 Clearly, people are enjoying themselves.

 The party was 'nomihodai' which basically means all-you-can-drink. Paired with Karaoke, it set the foundation for an exciting night. 

 Only the classiest of foods for the partying foreigners...cheese doodles and potato logs. I did make frysauce, which no one else really understood. Heathens. 

 Also, pasta! You can see the bottle of beer in the picture, I myself drank nearly 2 full liters of Coke...I know...crazy. 

 People just meandered around chatting and getting progressively less understandable. 

They served okonomiyaki, which you may remember is like a Japanese waffle pancake with fish flakes on top. It was not delicious.  

 I am wearing a hat that makes it look like I have traditional Kimono-style fancy geisha hair. Standing next to me is Erik who lives about 200 yards from where I teach. He is featured heavily in the following videos. 

For some reason, this strikes me as so stereotypical of an all-you-can-drink party. I think they were trying to be the Rockettes.

Once the Karaoke had begun.

A good time is being had by all, but a REALLY good time is being had by some. The girl at the end is my Irish friend Karen.

Erik again. Japanese people consider it rude to eat, drink, talk on a cell phone or be otherwise disruptive on a train. Naturally, a bunch of inebriated Gaijin breaks all of those rules. Erik is wearing the fancy hair hat, and has a toy gun he was pointing around. You may ask yourself, what was the topic of conversation? Oddly, it was a tirade by the only British member of our group directed at Egyptology. Evidently they fail to recognize the conquering of the Romans and the impact it had civilization-ally...blah blah blah. 

Japan had a full lunar eclipse right as we were coming out of the first party. It was really cool to see...as I point the camera skyward, you can see a little bit of light that represents the lunar eclipse. Naturally, I had more than a few people singing the popular tune by Bonnie Tyler, "Total Eclipse of the Heart." I must say this about the eclipse, it was far better to watch than any stereotypical, pseudo-abusive movie saga about vampires.

 After we regrouped in Fujiyoshida (where we were staying the night) and getting some McDonalds for fuel, we went to the Big Box Karaoke to lay down some sweet tunes. We got there at about 1:15 and signed up for 2 hours of Karaoke. In retrospect, that might have been a mistake. You can see that we booked the party room. They understate the party. 

 I took this picture because I think it helps to describe how this place smelled. It smelled like a motel that you find on the side of the interstate. The kind where you ask for a no-smoking room, but it still smells like stale smoke. It also has a touch of sadness and neglect that made me immediately think of the motel chains in the U.S.

This video skips and lingers in the wrong places, but it was dark in there. Everyone started out very energetically, but more than half of them ended up passing out/sleeping through the best ballads. I sang some Queen, Billy Joel and Spice Girls. 

 After going to bed at 3:45 and waking up at 7:30, I snapped this picture from my friends apartment. You can see Fuji-Q Highlands in the distance up against the mountains. We drove by it on the way in and on the way out. It looks like the most fun place in the world. Hands down. They have a bunch of world record breaking rides, but the wait during the summer can be up to 4 hours for each one. I am putting my ear to the ground to find out when the best time is to visit. 

 This is not a picture of a post, look past it to the mountains and such, that is the point. 

 I just think this is the coolest thing ever. If you stand in the living room, this is your view. Such a cool mountain.

 I took two pictures, this one has 70% more angelic presence. 

 For lunch, we went to a burger place. I was skeptical, but evidently it is run by some Japanese people who spent a lot of time in Canada (this made me more skeptical). 

 Evidently there was a Japanese biker gang in the restaurant while we were there. It is hard to tell though because they look just like regular folk, 

 The thing that really struck me is how much the area around Fujiyoshida reminded me of Flagstaff, Arizona. It was all pine trees and fresh air. 

 The name of the burger place. 

 Coke in glass bottles, Diet Dr. Pepper in cans and A&W Root Beer. Unfortunately, they cost 350 yen, which is about $4.50. I had water...and an Oreo shake.  

 I figured that I would go big, or go home. I ordered the biggest burger that they had available. The deluxe had bacon, avocado, cheese and the rest of the burger fixings. This burger now holds the title for the messiest burger I have eaten. 

 SO good! Unfortunately, it cost the same as a nice steak in the U.S.

 A case of Americana. They had a CSI shot glass, I love NY mints, a few other shotglasses and a few baseballs with Yankee logos. 

 ...don't forget the presidential peppermints. Did anyone else know that they made these? Was his election that historic that we needed to remember it in mint form? Although, it is sitting 3 inches away from a pottery hamburger, so I guess that shows how important it is to these folks right?

As we were leaving, we saw a Bentley parked under a tree. Nothing like parking your $200,000 car in the pine needles. 

Sweet Saturday

Although I missed out on the Thanksgiving holidays, I totally made up for it with possibly the best Saturday I have had in Japan. Although it entailed waking up painfully early, it ended up being well worth it. I will start with the conclusion first in saying that I now feel a great desire to go to Brazil. 

 First, this is a picture of Fuji from a class I taught on Friday. Winter is a great time to see Fuji, I am told. During winter in Japan, there is less haze, smoke and rain, so you can see Fuji more often. I have looked at it almost every day for 4 months and I have to say that I am still not tired of it. It is a beautiful mountain.  Thanksgiving day also marked the 4 month mark for me arriving in Japan. I seems crazy that it has gone so fast, and so slow at the same time. I am now 1/3 of the way through my time here. 

 We started the day by playing soft volleyball in Minami Alps. I arrived 10 minutes early (which means that I was 20 minutes early because Japanese people seem to be chronically late) to find these older folks playing croquet out in front of the gym. They seemed to be enjoying themselves. 

 Getting ready for the game. It isn't traditional volleyball because we play with kickballs basically. It takes some getting used to. 

 This guy is ready to go! He was stretching and all sorts of stuff. Don't let this fool you by the way, it was absurdly cold in that gym. 

 Mid game. That little kid has skills. 

 The other cool thing about soft volleyball in Japan is that the net is like 6.5 feet high, thus making me a semi-professional. 

 We won all of our sets, until they switched teams and I lost. It was bitterly disappointing to lose, but it got better once we had a good team name. I named us the Subarashii Samurai (it means lovely/wonderful samurai). 

 I wore my track suit, and I. Look. Good. I felt like Tony Soprano all day long. I was missing some gold chains and murder charges, but I was close enough. 

 Afterwards we went to Brother Agren's house. He lives by this crazy overpass thing that connects a road straight down a cliff. I can't figure who thought this was the best solution...it looks like an amusement park ride. 

 We were having a legitimate Brazilian BBQ. I didn't want to get my hopes up, but I was looking forward to BBQ all week long. 

 We had about 25 people in a really tiny area, but that is how you do it in Japan. 

 Cooking the steak. I initially thought that we would run out of steak, but they just kept on cooking until every single person was full. We also had some deer steak as well. Let me say this...those Brazilians know how to BBQ. They dipped the steak in beer and salt before we grilled it. I love Japanese Mormons. 

 Brother Reme slicing up one of the top 5 sausages I have ever eaten. Evidently there is a Brazilian market nearby where they get all of this stuff. Incredible. 

 And what party in Japan would be complete without Karaoke? 

 Brother Agren (with the gray hair and glasses) has not one, but TWO karaoke machines! I sang a Somebody To Love by Queen. It wen't well. 

 The projector screen for the karaoke machine. 

I have no idea what these songs are about, I imagine love or something. 

 I have been to a few ward parties, but this definitely takes the cake. 

Folks sitting around chatting after dinner. It felt very comfortable hanging out for the afternoon. Despite the fact that there were lots of people crammed into a very tiny space, it felt like home. I guess I am getting used to the small space thing. I was full on steak and Coke Zero and sitting around telling jokes and laughing just like I would at home. 

Let me add this to my list of things I am thankful for: I am extremely thankful for people. I am very thankful for the church and the people in it. I am grateful to get to know these fine people, even though I can't speak to them. I'm thankful that you can get to know and love people without having to talk.