So I guess I'm not that great at updating blogs frequently. Scratch that, I'm not great at updating THIS blog. Sorry. Anywho, I'm up in Iwate-ken, Miyako-shi (岩手県宮古市) and have been for the past 2.5 weeks. I started teaching on the 16th, so I'm almost done with my second "full" week of school (Japan has SO many national holidays, and this week was no different so that I had Monday off). Its been real good so far, though of course minor mistakes have been made, but who didn't see that coming?
I'm working at 3 different highschools: Miyako Koukou (koukou means highschool), Miyako Kita Koukou, and Miyako Kawai Koukou. I teach at Miyako Monday-Wednesday, Kita on Thursday, and Kawai on Friday, and these schools couldn't be any more different: Miyako is, for the area, a very academically-minded kind of school, with most if not all of the kids trying to get into decent universities. As a result, their English ability is, while obviously not great, pretty damn good for their age. The past 2 weeks have been the semester-end testing period, so this week I was grading tests. That proved to be an interesting task, considering I'm pretty sure that a few, though not many, questions were grammatically incorrect, and also considering that a number of questions had multiple, grammatically distinct, possible answers but only one was right. In the end, I was a bit confused about the whole process only because I felt like I had been shorthanding some of the students due to the strict nature of Japanese grading syllabi.
Then there's Kita. I'm not sure if they take tests. Kita's basically the punk's school, and I don't mean that in the Ramones/Sex Pistols sense, but rather they don't give a shit about what they learn, and I wonder if even one of them has post-high school plans in the realm of education. Its also a bit smaller than Miyako (which is, as far as I can guess, probably around 800-1000 students), at around 500-800 students. Pardon the french, but its a fuck ton of fun - while actually adhering to a proper lesson plan there is next to impossible, if you can ride the wave its actually possible to get information across to these kids where a more rigid teacher would be stuck. What does that mean? I can talk about the Steelers and Pens a lot more than I normally wold be able to, as well as music; basically pop culture is the key to success there. Plus they like my beard.
Finally comes Kawai, which is closing at the end of this year. As such, despite its already being a small school, the only students left there are seniors. This means I have a grand total of 40 students to interact with at that school. The kids are interested in learning, though, unlike Kita, and so while the classes are small they are also much more focused. I don't have much of an impression yet, however, because the only time I've been there was last Friday which happened to be a testing day, so I literally went there, having already prepared my introductory lesson plan, and sat around all day doing nothing. It wasn't much fun. And kind of hot. Plus its 800 yen and 45 minutes away, so I more or less felt like I wasted my time.
But what about my life outside of school? Its not bad, though weekdays are mostly devoted to prepping for the next day. Its a nice, small town, full of restaurants with that-day-fresh seafood (I'm about a 20 minute walk from the ocean), and surrounded with ski resorts, beaches, onsen (those Japanese hot springs that I'm sure yr all familiar with), and apparently a real cool cave about 2 hours north of here... so basically its the exact opposite of Tokyo. Its different, yeah, but that' not to say I don't enjoy it - hell, I love Hikone, where I studied abroad, and while that's closer to a big city (Kyoto/Osaka) by a long shot, its way more rural than here. Or at least as rural. If there's one reason I'm bummed about being all the way up here (I'm about 5 hours north of Tokyo), aside from the fact that most of my friends live in Tokyo, its that while I was down in the big city I was doing a pretty decent job of getting myself connected with promoters and bands. Hell, I had an opportunity to try out for my absolute favorite band, Church of Misery, but then I got placed and couldn't go to the audition. Lame. Ultra lame. Ultra fucking lame. But you know what? I'm young, 23 to be exact. I took this job as a way of getting myself over here, and I figure that I can spend some of that time out here in the sticks. I'll be back in Tokyo at some point kind of soon (sorry to all you folks who thought I'd be over here for only a little/thought I'd be coming back to visit the states regularly), and I'm gonna enjoy the ride before, during, and after that time. Here's to me finally getting what I wanted, living in Japan. Cheers.
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
When Shit Hits The Fan, Nothing is Safe
Ugh, so I've had my first bout of... everything-bad-that-could-happen-happeneditis. From last Friday until today (Wednesday), I have had 0 contact with anyone via technology. Last Wednesday I took my computer in to the Apple Store in Ginza to try and get it to stop crashing, and while my computer is now fixed (or at least so it seems thus far) it took them exactly 1 week to accomplish that. Something about my logicboard being totally fucked. So that by itself isn't so bad, but paired with my phone falling out of my pocket at a concert, it gets much much worse. Then, pair that with trying to get a new phone but having softbank (phone company) finally realize that I have ~$750 of debt owed them from my last stint in Japan, and that unless I pay that I can't GET a new phone, it gets even worse.
But hey, I'm still alive and getting by, so lets talk about good things, right?
The concert I lost my phone at was for a band called Corrupted. You probably don't know them. If you do know them, though, I can't imagine how jealous you are of me having seen them live. And they played for 90 freaking minutes, starting off with El Mundo-fucking-Frio. The show was at a pretty hip joint out in Kumagaya, and that was a bit of a problem in itself. See, on the train maps, a lot of stops are written only in Kanji (chinese characters), and that's no problem by me - I can read most of the stops. Buuuuut, there is a place that is called Kumagawa (熊川), as opposed to Kumagaya (熊谷). Kumagawa is kind of south-westerly of Tokyo and to get there from where I live in Chiba you have to transfer.... 4? 5? times. Kumagaya, on the other hand, is north-north-westerly of Tokyo, and from where I live in Chiba I can take 2 trains to get there. So when I was looking for the map, obviously I was looking for the character 熊 (kuma), but unfortunately I went with the first place that started with 熊 that I saw, which was Kumagawa and not Kumagaya. I realized this only when I was about to arrive at Kumagawa, which is about an hour and then some outside of Tokyo. So, long story short, instead of spending maybe an hour in transit, I ended up arriving at the concert at about 730 PM where I had left at ~3 PM. Ridiculous.
But back to the show. There were a few alright opening acts, none particularly memorable but sufficiently down-tuned and bass-heavy, but this night was more or less given to Corrupted, as it should be wherever they play. A lot of people have misconceptions about metal, mostly centered around the fact that without any knowledge of the various different subgenres contained within, you can't really begin analyzing the numerous aspects of that most unholy of monikers (METALLLLLL). There's thrash, death, sludge, fantasy, prog, heavy, and many more, but the most affecting of them all, in my opinion, is the one known as doom metal, and this is due partially to its black-sheepish-ness. A lot of metal IS played fast, this is no lie. Doom metal, for the most part, lies outside of that realm. Where Napalm Death said "we can be mind-boggilingly technical and STILL be all kinds of bad ass", Doom opted to pursue the almighty riff that bands like Sabbath and Zeppelin put to use (mostly leaning towards the former), so instead of executing you with a flurry of searing solos and yelped/grunted vocals, Doom seeks to crush yr will to live by dragging you down to the deepest, darkest depths of an ocean of tar. What that all means is, Doom tends to be much slower than all other kinds of metal, and delivers its brutality through detuned guitars, sunn amps cranked to 11, and the patience to meditate on a riff or even single note instead of working the fretboard; it is the definition of "heavy".
And Corrupted is the king of Doom. Though they are Japanese, they choose to sing mostly in Spanish (don't ask me why), and have looooooong segments of quiet accented with the pluck of a string here and there. Time ceases to exist with these guys, and they'll lull you into a false calm for great lengths of time, and then kaBAM, they stomp on their pedals, and with pick in hand stroke, one, two or maybe even three of the most dissonant, soul-crushingly heavy progressions, and all the while they have become loud enough to skin a goat. Their vocalist has an impressively deep voice for this kind of music, and while the long passages of him uttering incomprehensible bubbling-oil-speak are interesting by themselves, they serve merely to accent they sheer monolith of sonic doom that this band creates. Theirs is a music that goes beyond words, that describes something of the human condition so deep and dark that language ceases to suffice and all we are left with through their music is an impression that evil exists, and that something is very, very wrong. Its quite moving, and totally metal.
So then Halloween was the next day, and I spent most of the night at a bar in Shinjuku called Current. When bands tour in Tokyo, they tend to end up at Current, so a lot people there are in the know and are relatively connected. I went there with a Norwegian friend, Chris, who's in a band called Zombie Blasphemy. Not too much to tell, met some new people, danced with some ladies, drank beer, put lots of fake blood on my face and arms, you know the routine. All in all a real fun night.
But hey, I'm still alive and getting by, so lets talk about good things, right?
The concert I lost my phone at was for a band called Corrupted. You probably don't know them. If you do know them, though, I can't imagine how jealous you are of me having seen them live. And they played for 90 freaking minutes, starting off with El Mundo-fucking-Frio. The show was at a pretty hip joint out in Kumagaya, and that was a bit of a problem in itself. See, on the train maps, a lot of stops are written only in Kanji (chinese characters), and that's no problem by me - I can read most of the stops. Buuuuut, there is a place that is called Kumagawa (熊川), as opposed to Kumagaya (熊谷). Kumagawa is kind of south-westerly of Tokyo and to get there from where I live in Chiba you have to transfer.... 4? 5? times. Kumagaya, on the other hand, is north-north-westerly of Tokyo, and from where I live in Chiba I can take 2 trains to get there. So when I was looking for the map, obviously I was looking for the character 熊 (kuma), but unfortunately I went with the first place that started with 熊 that I saw, which was Kumagawa and not Kumagaya. I realized this only when I was about to arrive at Kumagawa, which is about an hour and then some outside of Tokyo. So, long story short, instead of spending maybe an hour in transit, I ended up arriving at the concert at about 730 PM where I had left at ~3 PM. Ridiculous.
But back to the show. There were a few alright opening acts, none particularly memorable but sufficiently down-tuned and bass-heavy, but this night was more or less given to Corrupted, as it should be wherever they play. A lot of people have misconceptions about metal, mostly centered around the fact that without any knowledge of the various different subgenres contained within, you can't really begin analyzing the numerous aspects of that most unholy of monikers (METALLLLLL). There's thrash, death, sludge, fantasy, prog, heavy, and many more, but the most affecting of them all, in my opinion, is the one known as doom metal, and this is due partially to its black-sheepish-ness. A lot of metal IS played fast, this is no lie. Doom metal, for the most part, lies outside of that realm. Where Napalm Death said "we can be mind-boggilingly technical and STILL be all kinds of bad ass", Doom opted to pursue the almighty riff that bands like Sabbath and Zeppelin put to use (mostly leaning towards the former), so instead of executing you with a flurry of searing solos and yelped/grunted vocals, Doom seeks to crush yr will to live by dragging you down to the deepest, darkest depths of an ocean of tar. What that all means is, Doom tends to be much slower than all other kinds of metal, and delivers its brutality through detuned guitars, sunn amps cranked to 11, and the patience to meditate on a riff or even single note instead of working the fretboard; it is the definition of "heavy".
And Corrupted is the king of Doom. Though they are Japanese, they choose to sing mostly in Spanish (don't ask me why), and have looooooong segments of quiet accented with the pluck of a string here and there. Time ceases to exist with these guys, and they'll lull you into a false calm for great lengths of time, and then kaBAM, they stomp on their pedals, and with pick in hand stroke, one, two or maybe even three of the most dissonant, soul-crushingly heavy progressions, and all the while they have become loud enough to skin a goat. Their vocalist has an impressively deep voice for this kind of music, and while the long passages of him uttering incomprehensible bubbling-oil-speak are interesting by themselves, they serve merely to accent they sheer monolith of sonic doom that this band creates. Theirs is a music that goes beyond words, that describes something of the human condition so deep and dark that language ceases to suffice and all we are left with through their music is an impression that evil exists, and that something is very, very wrong. Its quite moving, and totally metal.
So then Halloween was the next day, and I spent most of the night at a bar in Shinjuku called Current. When bands tour in Tokyo, they tend to end up at Current, so a lot people there are in the know and are relatively connected. I went there with a Norwegian friend, Chris, who's in a band called Zombie Blasphemy. Not too much to tell, met some new people, danced with some ladies, drank beer, put lots of fake blood on my face and arms, you know the routine. All in all a real fun night.
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