Happy April everyone! Sorry for the delay..work has been crazy lately. I've been staying past 11pm writing progress records and planning for seminars and supplemental lessons, which don't mean much to those of you reading this, but to me and my colleagues it means a lot of useless work. Instead of giving the teachers a break between semesters to review their new schedule and new books and plan well thought out lessons, the company finds it necessary to pack our schedules with supplemental lessons that use a ridiculously stupid book. The parents buy into this scheme because their child is going to English school and talking to (or in most cases, staring at) a native English speaker. It all sounds great, but I'm not falling for it. The company uses it as an excuse to gain more revenue. Fine, whatever helps you sleep at night. At least one of us got some sleep.
Instead of spending my weekend catching up on sleep and planning lessons, I went to a Dick Festival. It's technically a fertility festival or an awareness against STDs, but that's not as jarring. Did I mention that this was at a shrine? This country confuses me. I went with my coworker, Shawna, and met my friends Heather and Mary at Kanamara Shrine in Kawasaki (
川崎), near Yokohama. The whole surrounding area was infested with young men from the nearby Army base. In theory, that sounds amazing, considering I work with all girls and one Japanese-Canadian guy, who is really more like a butchy girl that dresses very metro (genders are complicated here..), but it was like being at a frat party or a bar where they let all the underage kids come and drink. My daily testosterone intake is being compromised in this country, but the abundance of it at this event made up for all that was lacking. While I wanted to be excited to be surrounded by raging, drunk, American men, my body's response was "let's fit in and make your mustache a little more visible". Between the giant penis statues and the sea of white people, we had all forgotten we were in Japan. We also had forgotten that everyone around us could understand what we were saying. I'm going to need help censoring myself when I get back to America. And a lip wax.
After we ditched the dicks and douche bags, we walked down some side streets and stumbled upon a temple with monks chanting. It was all very peaceful until some idiot came over near me to feed the birds.
We headed in towards Heather's house to meet another teacher at a Mexican restaurant. I had my doubts, but it was good! Again, my standards for good food are significantly lower, but I enjoyed myself very much.
We headed back on the bullet train to Shizuoka. I love the bullet train. It took us 45 minutes to get home rather than the 3 hours it took to get there via local train. I'm definitely going to miss the trains...
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| Yes. That is a penis statue. Yes, they parade this around. Wait, there's a bigger one. |
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| I'm not sure...Shit's weird here.. |
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| Heather going through the many mini shrine gates |
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| I think this is where they pray for a bigger one...just a hunch. |
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| Maybe it's this one... |
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| Thank you fellow American. Way to rep the USA. |
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| Let's drink and try to fit in! |
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| clever. |
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| Love his hair. Love this sign. |
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| I don't know which is worse. The child in the picture or he awkward masked man with a silver penis and pigtails. I really hate adult pigtails. |
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| I was really hoping they would start busting out, Sister Act style. |
Anyway, I will try to catch up with my life more frequently. I am excited for my upcoming week off in which Aly, Megan, and Kelly are coming to visit..and the best news: Aly isn't actually allergic to shellfish. Which means we can be less careful of cross-contamination! I am thrilled
. Until next time! またね！
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New Vocabulary:
~ちんちん cheen-cheen dick
~祭り mah-tsu-ree festival
~口ひげ koo-chee-hee-geh mustache
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