Keip/Sherb Visit Day 2 and 3!

"Buh'Whaaaaa? Why are you combining Days Two and Three?" you ask...

Well, if you look closely at the end of the pictures from Day One, it should become clear that Day Two was spent in the midst of a large hangover...

There are all of 13 pictures from Day Two, and 23% of them were taken in massage chairs...

Day Two consisted of us sleeping in until 1 or so, recovering from Day One, walking around Omihachiman, having dinner, and going to a large electronics store... Good times!

Day Three saw us off to Kyoto. We went to Fushimi Inari (Big Place With a Lot of Orange Gates (tm) ), Kiyomizu-Dera (Big Shrine That is Built on a Cliff and Surrounded by Beautiful Foliage (tm) ), and "Japanese Covered Shopping Area #218409.23"... The autumn leaves were a'changin', even in December, which was nice... The guys even had Shakey's Pizza for dinner... Which apparently is a more common Asian dinner than American dinner...

All in all Days Two and Three were good... But oh, the best is yet to come!

Check out the photographic evidence here!

Keip/Sherb Visit Day 1!

As you may or may not be aware of, The Keipers (Mark and Kate) and The Sherburnes (Erik and Kirk (They're brothers (Not Life Partners))) came to visit Japan last week.

They flew from Minneapolis to Tokyo on Nov. 28th (Wednesday) and stayed in Tokyo for a couple days before catching a Shinkansen down to Maibara to meet Emma, Joe, Tiff, and I. From there we stayed in Omihachiman at Joe and Tiff's apartment.

Since we have a ton of pictures that include duplicates from multiple cameras that need to be gone through and organized, I'm going to post one day at a time... So.... Without further ado, Day One:

The highlights of the first day of the Keipers' and Sherburnes' stay in Japan, or Day One as it will henceforth be known, included many highlights. Among the highlights was seeing our friends from Minnesota for the first time in a while... But more specifically, Day One included us getting settled in Omihachiman, having sushi at a conveyor belt sushi restaurant, buying a ridiculous amount and variety of beers, drinking some of them, proceeding to an izakaya for more beer and food, going back to the apartment for more beer, and topping the night off with a spirited round of karaoke until about 3 a.m...

Good times!

I can sit here and try and tell you about all the events of the day, but they are best conveyed by an image created by light falling on a light-sensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic imager such as a CCD or a CMOS chip. In another, possibly more simple word, pictures!

Check out the pics from Day One here!

New Song!

I got bored last night and decided to put my new guitar to use...

Yes, I got a new guitar... "What? You have no job... Why are you buying a guitar? You are so selfish! Emma should kick your butt!"

Save it Critical McGee... The guitar was free and is of questionable quality...

Anyways, I took a couple minutes and recorded this song...

Beard!

For the past 3 or 4 weeks I have (had) been growing a beard... As an unemployed male, it is a very common thing to do... Exhibit A.

But all good things must come to an end, especially if your wife is hesitant to kiss you because of them.

So, I shaved my beard... But not with out taking a lot of pictures along the way...

Enjoy them here!

Thanksgiving!

On Wednesday Emma and I went up north to Omihachiman and visited Joe and Tiff for Thanksgiving... The Eckbergs generously shared their Thanksgiving meal with us. Good stuff!

We had all the favorite fixins as we would back home... Mashed potatoes and gravy! Stove Top stuffing! Corn with ten pounds of butter and cheese added! Dinner rolls!

We substituted chicken for turkey, but it was barely noticeable, especially when there's Stove Top stuffing to eat! Yum!

After Thanksgiving dinner we drank some beers and played Catch Phrase... Good times had by all!!

We have a few pics from Thanksgiving here *AND* here. Check 'em out!

My Nerdiness...

When looking at this picture, the layman would assume that I am referencing the movie The Karate Kid... You might take a glance at the picture and think that I'm doing my best Daniel-san impression...

But! Oh ho ho how wrong you would be... Although I am wearing a Japanese style headband, and although I am punching in a very karate-y type-y way, you couldn't be more wrong...

The thought that was going through my head at the time was very far from Japan... The Karate Kid, while a great movie, is clearly not nerdy or esoteric enough for me... I was obviously doing a much more indecipherable impression (or homage if you will... and I will...)...

Clearly, I was referencing episode #404 of Mystery Science Theater 3000, "Teenagers from Outer Space"... A classic episode if I do say so myself (and I will...)...

During the episode, the host, Joel Robinson (aptly played by Joel Hodgson) models a jumpsuit lined with Gaffer tape... During the slideshow of poses, narrated by Tom Servo, Joel strikes the pose below, and inspired me to emulate him some 12 years later while I was in Japan...



I hope you now all fully understand the extent of my nerdiness... Thank you and goodnight...

Our Situation...

So as of October 26th, the company that Emma and I worked for, NOVA, has filed for bankruptcy. As of now (Nov. 3rd) they are trying to find a sponsor to buy up all their debt and take over the company, but nothing has surfaced yet. Emma and I got paid in September for our work in August, but that is the last time we got a paycheck.

We had heard rumors that NOVA was in trouble, but unfortunately did not get any concrete information from upper management. The CEO continued to send faxes to our school saying he was sorry for the delay in pay, but that things would be OK. We found out that Nova filed for bankruptcy on one of our days off so we had our last day of work without knowing it.

This is sad because it leaves things feeling unfinished. We didn’t get to say goodbye to our students, and feel especially bad we did not get to say goodbye to our kids classes that we adored.

What is ironic is that the reason we chose to work for NOVA out of all the other English Language schools is because we thought it was the most reliable. It was the largest in Japan with over 300,000 students, and (at the time) had a great reputation. We learned a lot in our time there and met amazing people. We will miss seeing our students and staff every day!

DON’T FREAK OUT! We’re doing okay. We are staying in our apartment (which is a NOVA apartment) for as long as possible, as we haven’t had to pay rent on it. We’ve been job hunting in our area and in Kyoto, but it’s a bit difficult as there are about 4000 other ex-NOVA teachers looking for jobs at the same time. We’ve got a few part time jobs here and there to make some cash, but nothing full time so far. Cross your fingers for us that we will be able to find other jobs so we will be able to stay in Japan for the year that we planned!

We are healthy, in good spirits, and relaxing. If nothing else, our biggest problem is boredom. So don’t go crazy with worry about us, just keep us in your thoughts!

Here are links to some articles about our situation. It’s too complex to write and explain here, and it gets tiring to keep typing it in emails.

Wall Street Journal

Japan Times Q and A

Bowling!

Last night Emma and I went bowling with fellow Nova people... It was the first time we've been bowling in Japan... And, like most things that are boring in America, it was more fun in Japan... Why? Here are a few reasons (besides the obvious Hello Kitty bowling balls):

1. BYOB - That's right, buy beers at the convenience store for cheap, bring them in, drink them, and the staff watches you and smiles... You can bring outside booze to everything in Japan... Awesome and cost effective!

2. Bingo! - Each team got a tic/tac/toe sheet with different pin combinations on it (just the numbers, not the names (i.e. Alabama Haystack and Eckberg Special). If you connected 3 in a row, you won snacks! And the combinations were not difficult ones. Knock down 3 pins on your first ball, and 2 on your second? YOU WIN! What kind of snacks, you ask? Takoyaki flavored corn tubes... Horrible? No... Everything tastes good when you win it.

3. Automatic Shoe dispensers - We should have gotten a video of this... A big vending machine that gives you your shoes...

4. No 50 yr. old guys with huge cigars bowling while playing poker with Hustler playing cards...

All in all a fun night! Check out the pics here!