As I mentioned in the last blog, last Thursday and Friday were part of the SDC conference in Kumamoto. I didn’t get to go to that conference last year because I was sick, so I didn’t exactly know what to expect. However, I was pleasantly surprised by it. I quite enjoyed seeing friends who I don’t get to see on a regular basis and attending workshops about classroom management, teaching ideas for the JHS, ALT/JTE relationships, and others. I know that it was technically considered to be two work days, but it didn’t necessarily feel like it. It was more like a paid vacation. 
I met several really great JTEs and was completely jealous of the ALTs who have them. One of the nice JTEs that I met was Devin’s from Taragi (one town over from Yunomae). She and I were talking, and she was an absolute delight! I told Devin how lucky she was to have such a wonderful JTE who was nice and actually wanted to talk to her! The JTE was asking me where I taught, and after I told her Yunomae, she asked if Mr. Fujiwara was my JTE. I said yes. She said, “Oh, yes. He is very……..unique.” 
Japanese society is too polite to directly say something negative about a person, but when describing him/her as “unique,” you kind of understand what that really means. Unique indeed, lady. Unique indeed.
Thursday night a bunch of us from Kuma-gun went out to eat together at a Mexican restaurant. It was DELICIOUS. Mexican food is something that is pretty rare in Japan and can only be found in larger cities. Therefore, since we were in Kumamoto City, we decided to take full advantage and eat as much Mexican as we could! I had the enchiladas—it looked like a plate of diarrhea, but it was perfect! After dinner, we strolled around the open air mall area, enjoying the Christmas lights and making fun of the rather questionable decorations. Christmas decorations in Japan go one of two ways—they are either really nice or…..special. A nice example would be the Christmas tree at the entrance to the mall—a tall tree decorated with colored ball ornaments and ribbon—something you could find in any shopping mall in the States (below, left). On the other hand, we have special, which often looks like Father Christmas opened his jolly mouth and vomited all over the place. My favorite example of this is the blinged out tram that we saw. Although I think it’s as tacky as a tram could be, I couldn’t help but want to ride in one that’s blinking with blue and yellow lights! (below, right) I was like a small child whenever I saw that tram shouting “LOOK! LOOK AT THAT ONE!! HAHAHA!!” while desperately reaching for my camera. Once we got back to the hotel that night, I waited up for Ian to arrive. After his class that night, he drove up from Kagoshima to stay the night with me. 
Friday it was back to the conference. However, Friday night it was celebration/happy fun time! We headed back to the open air mall for a night out on the town. Our first stop was Starbucks so that Margo could enjoy her beloved Washingtonian coffee. All of us decided that our bellies needed food, so we strolled down the main drag in the mall looking for good eats. We walked by a Korean restaurant that sounded great, but sadly there was no room for our seven person crowd, so we continued our food journey until we found a hole-in-the-wall Sri Lankan restaurant. While I’m not too big on spicy food, I really enjoyed the restaurant. My mouth was on fire afterwards, but spicy food isn’t a common thing in Japan. Even the “spiciest” food would probably only be considered mild in the States. My mouth was sooooooooooooo not familiar with eating such hot foods, and I’m guessing that I drank darn near my daily intake of water with just that one meal. 
After dinner, we found a karaoke club and sang our hearts out for two hours.
On Saturday, Ian, Melissa, Devin, Krista, and I piled into one car and made our way up to Fukuoka to go to Costco. (I’ve never been to a Costco and actually never heard of it until I came over here. For those Paducahans like myself who have no idea what this is, it’s basically a Sam’s Club.) Oh, the glorious, joyous, amazingness of hard core consumerism that Costco provides to people!! As soon as we walked into that building, it was basically like being at home. There were big carts, (Japanese grocery stores generally don’t have carts. They are more likely to have baskets for you to carry around.) water fountains by the bathroom, (Japan is not so big on water fountains.) giant packs of stuff for sale that I don’t really need but want, a food court with real American food, (more on that in a bit) and so, so, SO much more! It was just like being at Sam’s, too. They had free samples of food to try. YEEESSSSSSSS!! However, I’m not quite sure that Japanese Costco quite grasped the concept of samples. We saw samples of wine, paper towels, Tide, and diapers among the food products. The wine wasn’t that big of a deal, the paper towels and Tide we laughed and said were for when someone spilled the wine on their clothes, but the diapers were definitely….different. How does one sample a diaper…..? Think on that for a moment. Regardless, we loaded down our cart with things that we never get to eat: cheddar, colby jack, and string cheeses, shortbread cookies and other delicious bakery goods, frozen burritos, chocolate peppermint brittle, bacon, another other random things that satisfied our cravings.
For an easier shopping experience, we broke down into two groups: Krista and Devin in one and Ian, Melissa, and I in the other. I was hungry, so we ate lunch first while Krista and Devin shopped. It was just like an American superstore food court! There were only a few options: pizza, hot dog, etc, but I knew exactly what I wanted whenever I saw it: a huge, fat, greasy slice of cheese pizza. Ian and I both got a slice of pizza and a Coke (with free refills—something unheard of in Japan!!) for the low, low price of only 600 yen. It’s darn near impossible for us to get a meal that fills us up completely for only 600 yen. (I understand that this meal had no nutritional value, but we weren’t exactly thinking about veggies at that time….) I’m not lying when I say that the slice of pizza was about the size of my face. IT. WAS. GREAT. It also tasted like American pizza—greasy, unhealthy, and most importantly CHEESY! There was no bland flavored cheese, weird topping like shrimp, corn, or mayo, or tiny little slices. We ate and enjoyed our fill!! What made it even better: once I finished my Coke, I walked up to the machine to fill it up again. I may or may have not drank 40 ounces of Coke that day….. I may or may not have been bouncing off the walls by the time we left……..
To continue our American food day, we met up with David and Margo later that night to get dinner at Subway. I haven’t had Subway in over two years. I ate turkey…..actual deli sliced turkey, and it was just as delicious as I remember. (It’s weird how something as common and normal as a deli slice turkey sandwich in the States can become a treat over here!) After our Subway dinner, we met up with other ALTs and went to the movie theater to see the new James Bond movie, which was an excellent movie on all accounts!! This was our first movie theater experience in Japan. While we enjoyed the movie, I think the general consensus was that Japanese theaters are a little….. less than American theaters. While I did notice that there wasn’t a dropped buttery popcorn greasy or spilled soda sticky floor, the chairs barely reclined and were a bit less comfortable and smaller than American theaters.
We felt like the entire weekend was one big American adventure, and by the time we got home around 2AM on Sunday morning, we crashed. I didn’t wake up until 11 AM the next morning. Me sleeping in that late is darn near unheard of!! Anyway, that’s all for this blog. More later!
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