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Yesterday it rained. The bus smelled of wet children.
Today it was sunny. The bus still smelled of wet children.

Every morning, I have to dodge hordes of uniform-clad elementary school students as I make my way to work. They fight and bite at one another like snapping turtles. Each one of them is just tall enough so that the brims of their hats hit the funny bones in my elbows when they push and shove their way through the crowd of passengers.

The cramped aisles are filled with their screeches and laughter in slurry Japanese for about six stops until we reach their school. They race one another to get to the exit even though there is barely room to breathe in there, let alone sprint. They look like a school of little fish -- all the same color, all the same height. The doors open and they tumble out en masse; a few of the brave ones wave at me and yell, "HARRO!"

Once they've gone, the bus continues on its route.

I'm never sure if the silence they leave in their wake is relieving or unsettling.







The temperature climbs and the humidity only intensifies it.

The blistering uphill walk to my high school has me looking like a sweaty mess by the time I finally step through the front doors. The other teachers -- even the ones who've driven to work -- don't look like they've fared much better than I have if the sweaty-oily gleam to their faces is any indication.

It's hot.

It's really hot.

But it is not yet July 1st, so the air-conditioners have to stay off.

The Japanese government has mandated that air-conditioners in public buildings have to stay off until July 1st. It's like this every year in Japan: they don't turn them on when it's hot; they turn them on based on the calendar. As if this weren't ridiculous enough, once that shining date arrives, air-conditioners must stay at a depressing 28-degrees whenever they're in use. That's 82-degrees Fahrenheit for those of you not up on your Celsius.

After cleaning myself up in the bathroom, I get to my desk and grab a little paper fan. The other teachers are wiping themselves down with the sweat rags they carry in their back pockets. My vice principal sees me furiously fanning at myself. He has the power to turn on the air-con. He has the power to end this suffering.

"Aww, it's hot, isn't it..." he says, then thrusts something into my hand. "Here. Here's a bigger fan."

He walks away.

The air-conditioner stays off.



...six more days 'til the end of June...







"How was your test?"

"YES."

"No, no.  How was your test?"

"What did she say?"

"I don't know.  Gah!  English is impossible!"

(laughing)  "I said, HOW was your test?  Was it easy?  Difficult?"

"Ah!  I understand.  'NO!'"

"...wait, which one is a No?"

"What?"

"Which one was a 'No'?  'No' it wasn't easy?  Or 'No' it wasn't difficult?"

"....YES!"







I kick off my shoes at the entrance, and throw my bags against the wall.  The sliding paper doors within my apartment like to get stuck in their tracks at the most inopportune moments -- especially when I really need to use the bathroom.

Though it's hot outside, the floors of my apartment are tatami mats which keep things a bit cooler inside.  

But not by much.

I flop on the bed and stare out the window.  The head of my bed almost faces North, which is taboo in Japan because that's the direction they lay dead bodies.  It works well with the layout of my apartment though so I don't intend to change it. I sigh and close my eyes, listening to the crows taunt a little old woman and her puff-ball of a dog.

I wake up, not realizing I'd fallen asleep.  The sky is dark now; the air is cooler.  In the early summer months, the frogs come out and sing at night -- but they'll soon be replaced by the rattling and endless buzz of the cicadas.  

I will myself to get up and change out of my work clothes before I start on dinner.  My fingers gravitate toward the air-conditioner remote, but stop just before I hit the kanji character for "On."  

I smile to myself before I set the remote back down.

The frogs sound better than the hum of the air-conditioner anyway.

It's almost scary that I've grown accustomed to this 'lack of internet' thing...  I miss this community and feel bad that I only manage to check in every blue moon or so.  However, I guess I've traded my dA hours for layovers?  It's no substitute for this community, but I suppose it consoles my deviantHEART ever so slightly.  





One of the best lessons I've learned by living overseas is how to travel -- and how easy it is to do!  

Over the past year, my dA Stamps have been trumped by my Passport ones.  I can't stress enough how much I hope the rest of you travel as well.  It's not a difficult thing to do and it's so much fun.    Traveling is a lot CHEAPER than I imagined too -- but that might be because I'm already based in such a convenient place, and traveling to cheap places.  Getting here is expensive, but once you get past that part, the rest is a breeze!  Japan is like the gateway to Asia.  If you are ever planning a trip to the Asian region, lemme know!  I may just hop on a plane and meet you there!  

Below I've included ticket prices so you can get a feel for how much it costs to travel in this region.  All prices below are depicted in U.S. Dollars (USD) because Yen (JPY) doesn't make sense to anyone outside of Japan.  xD  All of the ticket prices are roundtrip, too.

Hotel costs listed are per person per night.  Oh!  And for the record, almost all of the places I stay are booked through HostelWorld.com because they're awesome.  They have places other than hostels listed -- cheap hotels, bed & breakfasts, inns, guesthouses, etc. -- and that site gives me a good idea as to where to stay, what I should be paying, travel tips, and places to avoid.  I love it!





Tickets to Japan from North America:
About $700~$800 (USD) Roundtrip
Exchange Rate:  1 usd to 83 yen
Hotel Costs:  $65 a night (USD)

Living in Japan has taught me many things --- how to eat first and ask later, how to convey any message through charades, how to nod and smile and laugh whenever everyone else is laughing to create the illusion that you're following the conversation.  

Strangely enough, traveling within Japan is often more expensive than traveling overseas.  In the year and some odd months that I've been here, I've done more and seen more than some Japanese people have done in their entire lives -- not only in this region, but throughout this country.  I guess they stay home because they figure they could go out and do all of the stuff I've done at any time, any year.  The problem is that if you accept that way of thinking, you'll still be saying the same thing 80 years down the road and nothing to show for it.

I look back on the time I spent back in my hometown --- and all of the time I spent lallygagging around the house --- and can't believe I wasn't exploring my own country more!   I have been to more places in Japan than I've been to places back home and it amazes me.   

It took living in another country to make me want to visit my own.





Tickets to South Korea from Japan:
About $250 (USD) Roundtrip
Exchange Rate:  1 usd to 1120 won
Hotel Costs:  $16 a night (USD)

Busan, South Korea is only a 20-minute plane ride from Fukuoka, Japan (or a 3-hour boat ride).  The city is so full of sights and sounds -- some of which caught me off-guard when I first laid eyes on them (i.e. Little Granny in the Fish Market with an octopus a third her size climbing up her arm as she tried to shove it, still alive and wriggling, into a plastic bag for a customer.).  

The food in Korea a spicy kind of wonderful.  I've yet to explore Seoul on anything other than a middle-of-the-night layover, but I hear it's a great place, too.





Tickets to Beijing, China from Japan:
About $330 (USD) Roundtrip
Exchange Rate:  1 usd to 7 renmenbi/yuan
Hotel Costs:  $14 a night (USD)

Beijing was everything I expected China to be -- and NOTHING like I expected China to be.  It's hard to explain.  The pollution in the air is much thicker than I imagined and the streets are dirtier than I thought they'd be --- but I had no idea the Forbidden City was so big!  And I didn't know the climb UP to the Great Wall was so incredibly STEEP!  And I didn't even know the gorgeous Summer Palace on the mountain even existed!

Plus, once you're in the country, EVERYTHING is cheap!  Our hotel was maybe $15 a night?  Meals were about $2 each?





Tickets to Vietnam from Japan:
About $350 (USD) Roundtrip
Exchange Rate: 1 usd to 20,000 dong
Hotel Costs:  $11 a night (USD)

Vietnam was a last-minute destination change after that little fizzle between North and South Korean on the island off of Seoul.  We figured Vietnam wasn't really tied to either of those countries (or the big powers that back them) so it was a safe enough place to book tickets to without worrying about having to cancel the trip.

The country is beautiful.  When you get a chance, run a Google Image search for "Ha Long Bay."  The food here is also divine -- from super sweet rice cakes in a coconut cinnamon and peanut soup; to insanely spicy noodles topped with cilantro lemongrass and strange chewing things resembling ...meat?; to odd flavors and textures that aren't comparable to anything else I've ever tried (...a white, sugarless, flavorless pear thing that makes you thirsty, dipped in a spice resembling a tame salty chili powder...?).  ...No idea what that was.  xD

The exchange rate is definitely in your favor here.  Everything was cheap -- even when people were ripping you off.  I preferred the northern part of the country, but both areas were cool.  Crossing the streets was like taking your life into your hands.  Imagine a Real Life Frogger game, up against hordes of motorbikes.





Tickets to Cambodia from Japan:
About $350 (USD) Roundtrip
Exchange Rate:  1 usd to 4000 riel
Hotel Costs:  $12 a night (USD)

The Angkor Wat ruins in Siem Reap are even cooler in real life than they are in video games.  Safer, too!    I really liked riding around in "Tuk-Tuks" -- which are basically buggies hooked to the back of motorbikes.  We met some wonderful people in this country and despite the tourist trap areas, I thought it was a beautiful country.  Parts of it really reminded me of Hawaii.  Not the flower-lei-and-tiki-torch Hawaii, but the local and laid back Hawaii.  The greenery was similar, and the Khmer people resemble people in Hawaii quite a bit, too.

The food is a bit spicy and they're fond of a strange tangy flavor that they pour on everything.  They eat a lot of beef here, too.  One thing that surprised me was that they use US Dollars alongside their own local currency.  (I wonder why that is...?)  This means everything in Cambodia is a bit more expensive compared to its neighbors (like Vietnam).





Tickets to Hong Kong from Japan:
About $250 (USD) Roundtrip
Exchange Rate: 1 usd to 8 hong kong dollars
Hotel Costs:  None, lol.

I'm not sure if I can count this one...  For one, it's kind of part of China.  For another, I only  spent 11 hours here in the middle of the night during a long layover.    I left the airport and wandered around the city, meeting cool people, wandering to old temples, and having a great time -- but I've never seen this place in the daylight.  f(^~^;)

I can attest to one thing,  though:  This city was built on a HILL.  A big hill.  A STEEP hill.  Think... steeper than the trudge up to Kiyomizu-dera in Kyoto, Japan.  Or picture Seattle, Washington or San Francisco, California in the United States.  Lugging a suitcase up and down those streets for eleven hours was quite a workout!  From what I saw of it at 3am, the city looks really fun.  Full of art galleries, restaurants, shops, street food stalls, and then some.  I'll have to take a proper trip there one of these days.





Tickets to France from Japan:
About $500 (USD) Roundtrip
Exchange Rate: 1 usd to 0.7 euros
(Do they still use Francs there?)
Hotel Costs:  $60 a night (USD)

The next place on my list is Paris, France!  I've decided to wander beyond the Asian region and head to Europe.  I've never been to Europe before!   

I'm heading there in about... 2 weeks actually!  Tickets have been bought, hotel has been booked.  Should be fantastic!  Paris is like the Great Wall --- it doesn't really exist in my head.  I can't wait to see it in person!  And I'm definitely going to try to go to Mont Saint Michel.    It's just too pretty in the pictures to pass up!





Traveling is so easy.  And the booking process is so ...painless!  I realize now that the only thing that ever held me back from traveling was myself.  Money, okay yes, I suppose -- but mostly myself.  Have you ever stopped to consider how much you spend on coffees every morning?  Avoid Starbucks/Fast Food/Cigarettes for two months and you'll have saved up enough for a ticket to a nearby country!  

Before I'd caught the travel bug, the idea of traveling to different places throughout the world seemed too... surreal.  Even though I'm living overseas, the idea of just hopping on a plane and traveling somewhere on vacation didn't really seem plausible to me.  But once I'd done it -- once I bought a ticket and booked a room -- I realized how simple it was!  And how inexpensive it can be!  Now that I know what I'm doing, the process is even quicker.  Booking tickets to Paris literally took me six minutes over the phone.  I even took a picture of my phone's call log for memory's sake.

My next goal is to travel somewhere on my own to a country that doesn't speak English as its primary language (or at all).  I'm not sure if I'm brave enough to do this yet, and that's exactly why I want to do it.

The Moral of the Story:  Go out there in the world!  It's not as hard as you'd think.

I got to play The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on the Nintendo 3DS!!    It was fantastic!!  

I went to the World Video Game & Hobby Expo 2011 in Fukuoka, Japan yesterday.  The Nintendo 3DS was definitely the coolest exhibit.  The 3D-ness has been built backwards, so you don't need glasses. Instead of popping forward, the pictures drop back. It's really cool!  However, if you don't look at it straight on, the screen shifts and it messes with your eyes.  If that annoys you (or if the 3D pictures make you dizzy), there's a switch on the right side of the screen that actually lets you ADJUST the 3D-ness by turning it down or turning it off completely!   It's a great little feature!

They've also built in a joystick in addition to the D-Pad, so moving around is really easy.  It's got a camera on it, too, with two lenses -- so you can actually take 3D pictures of things with your Gameboy!  How cool is that!!

The Nintendo 3DS hits stores in Japan on February 26th (25,000 yen), and releases in North America on March 27th ($250).  Expensive little bugger, but definitely fun.

Other notable exhibits included PS3's new Marvel vs. Capcom (gorgeous!), and Monster Hunter 3 (really pretty gameplay!).  PS3's response to the Wii's controller is sort of weird...  It's like a Wii-remote, but with a big glowing orb on it...  

Eh.  I prefered ogling the GIGANTIC Pikachu balloon floating in the Expo Stadium.

The other day, there was a wild baby boar wandering around the school campus.  Adorable little thing, about the size of a cat or beagle.  Some of us whipped out our cameras, but most of the teachers and students kept indoors. "The mother must be nearby..." they murmured.  The word "Mononoke" kept breezing past my ears, and I laughed.

The kids fixed me with a worried look. "You've never seen a full-grown wild boar, have you..."

Summers in Japan are known for three things:  Matsuri Festivals, Loud Cicada Bugs, and Ridiculously Hot and Humid Weather.  I'm looking forward to one of those, not so much another, and DEFINITELY not one of them.  Can you guess which is which?  8D



August 1st will be my 1 Year Anniversary of coming to Japan.  It's amazing to think I've already been here for a year.   My, how the time flies!

In July, I'm going to Tokyo to meet all of the new incoming teachers from my Program, and bringing them back with me to Fukuoka.  If you were moving to a different country without a clue as to (A) where you were going, (B) who you would be working with, and (C) what your job would entail, what would your expression look like?

Mine was a big cheesy grin.    

Now I get to see what normal people's expressions are supposed to be.