FRESH on Georgia Street

Yes, that was on some 4th grader’s hoodie. Hilarious! The Japanese like the word “Georgia,” I think – there’s also a coffee called Georgia. There’s also Boss Coffee, which is advertised by none other than Tommy Lee Jones. There are just pictures of him looking grizzled and deep in thought, accompanied by the company logo. Actually, a lot of stars seem to do ads here that they wouldn’t do in the U.S…. for example, SoftBank, one of the main cell phone companies here, has Brad Pitt and Cameron Diaz in their ads, and Meg Ryan sells another kind of coffee. That’s one thing that Lost in Translation was right about. (Hell, it’s probably right about a lot of things – I bet when I watch it when I come home I’ll be like “yes. Yes, that’s exactly what it’s like.”)

Now that my time here is well over half-over, I’ve kind of started thinking of the time remaining in smaller bits and pieces – only so long until I do this, so long until I do that, until finally I’ll head home. Right now, it’s a little less than a month until I see Arcade Fire in Tokyo (so pumped about that, you have no idea) and about sixty days until Thomas and Lauren arrive. (Even more pumped about that.) And then, in approximately 11 weeks… my time here in Japan will be over. It’s kind of hard to believe.

We had a good 2-week winter break, during which I did… well… nothing. Really. I was thinking about going to Kyoto, but that ended up being too expensive. I ended up mostly going to Tokyo and Omiya with my friends. In Tokyo, I went to Harajuku, Shibuya, Asakusa, and the old haunt Akihabara. Asakusa was probably the most interesting; it had a big temple and a bunch of shops around that sold lots of cool old-Japanese stuff. I’ll definitely have to go back there again. (Also, there was a performing monkey on stilts. Too awesome. Mario has pictures, but I don’t think he’s put them up on facebook yet.) In Omiya… well, we found a British pub called The King George that serves good beer and great fish and chips (something I did not think existed) and has a great atmosphere and a cool owner. My British friend Tom is basically in love with the place, mostly because they have his favorite beer. We spent Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve there. And yes, I know how odd going to a British pub while in Japan sounds, but there’s definitely something nice about a place that’s owned and operated by someone who speaks your language. (Yes, the Japanese is still awful. However, I think I’ll be saying “sumimasen” instead of “excuse me” for the rest of my life. At one point at a concert I actually said it to a white girl.)

No real news from the school front. Between the last entry and this one, it has mostly just been winter break. There have been a few amusing incidents, though…

-One of the students took a Stitch doll, opened up the head, pulled out the stuffing, splashed red paint all over it, and hung it up on the wall. It looked like Stitch had grown a gigantic gory tumor the size of his head. When he pointed it out to me, I was caught so off guard that I immediately started cracking up. (Face it, it’s funny.) They LOVED that.

-There’s an elementary student who is basically the poster child for ADD. He’s always screaming, yelling, and running around, and you can tell it exhausts the poor teacher to keep that kid in check, much less the rest of the class. So, as I’m teaching animals to the class, I move back towards the kid’s seat and pull out the flash card with the picture of a monkey on it. “What’s this?” I ask the class, pointing at the kid’s head and showing the picture to everyone. “It’s a MONKEY!” the rest of the class said, cracking up. The kid himself loved it (hey, more attention!!), and the teacher loved it even more.

-As you folks might have noticed from my facebook picture, I’ve grown a beard. This has had immensely amusing results with most of my classes. A normal Japanese expression of surprise is a loud “Ehhhh?!” Believe me, I’ve incited plenty of “EHHH??????”s when I walk into a classroom with a full beard. The special ed student who’s decided that I am the most interesting person in the world is really freaked out about it, and keeps telling me I need to shave. No way, buddy. If it keeps you from sticking your fingers in my ears and trying to turn my computer off while I’m working, I’ll be a mountain man until March. (I do like the kid a great deal but he can get annoying pretty quickly.)

So, well into January with just two and a half months to go. Japan is fun, but I’m looking forward to getting home and seeing all of my friends and also my baby nephew! And my car… and my Wii…