catchier than folgers

Here's the newest coffee I saw in the vending machines. Fire African. Can't begin to explain that one to ya.

whats in my bread?

Everyday at lunch someone drives a van to the school from one of the local bakeries and has trays of individually wrapped bakery products to sell to the kids. Some are obviously fake pizzas, or have sugar on top, but most look like some shape or lump of bread.

So the first few days I tried to buy normal bread, and found surprises inside. I've gotten pretty good at guessing, and sometimes dare to ask, but here were my first few trials...

what I tried to buy ----->what it actually was
normal bread ---------------> cream cheese and jam inside
normal bread ---------------> bean paste inside (anko - delicious)
bread with bean paste -----> tuna fish inside
bread with curry -----------> normal bread (was it possible!?)

mall

The mall is all the insanity of Japanese pop culture in one building. It terrifies me. I can't even begin to explain Japanese fashion, because anything goes. As long as you put time into it and make yourself look ridiculous, everything is in from plaid to purple tights. And English. Here is a collage of shirts I saw, and no I didn't go around and select the terrible ones...This one takes the cake on ridiculous (the red bubble says "There is no MAN" ). By the way, most girls wear booty shorts all winter with boots and sometimes tights. Sensible.

















And this one is just my favorite, because the punctuation led me to pick it up and look for writing on the back. Silly me! Why did I bother?

poprocks

The other day I bought some candy I have never seen, and since it's frowned upon to eat while walking, I just shoved a handful in my mouth. Wow, Poprocks! At a store I pass, a lady is handing out a mini cup with a sample drink. Of course I take it. "Wait, I need the cup," she says in Japanese. It's burning hot, and I have to stand there drinking it and curtly answering her questions in Japanese, and every time I open my mouth it sounds like a damn machine gun. Judging by the slight terror on her face, she never had poprocks.

8 octaves? no biggie

Every company has an end of the year party (bonenkai), so the teachers all get drunk at a formal dinner. Yet there are always the token men who know, after the party its the afterparty. So I tagged along with the 6 (principal included!) to continue boozing at a snack bar. Which means we just snack on things and sing karaoke as the youngest (myself excluded) employee constantly fills our glasses.

I couldn't work the electronics, so they just picked the English songs. Though everyone tells me otherwise, I am a good singer. Especially when drunk. But even I know I failed miserably. What songs did they pick? The Star Spangled Banner. Mariah Carey's All I Want for Christmas is You. And they all took pictures on their camera phones.

Merry Christmas from Japan!

I'm actually enjoying myself at work just singing along to Christmas songs in my Santa hat. I went around with sweets (toffee is only butter and sugar, and it transforms like crazy!) which was fun. Missing the family, but it happens.

This was cute, but I couldnt stop laughing and he was embarrassed in class
Me: What do elves make?
High Schooler: Happy.

Many Japanese celebrate it on the eve. What do they eat? Fried chicken and Christmas Cake. KFC convinced them its the dinner with their advertising.

guess who!

For my 9 classes of forty freshman, the latest lesson is describing people. For the game, students wrote a descriptions of others, I read them aloud, and we had to guess who. How fun! A few were great, “His head looks like a sea urchin with plump cheeks” , "Looks like Obama" (he's really an amazing asian rendition!) or “She walks like a pigeon” (though I didn’t use that one ha).

But most everyone else? Made the game impossible because they didn't describe clothes like I told them to. So what?
“Hair is black. He is small/medium. He is kind and quiet.”
In Japan, that narrows it down to, let’s see, twenty students. Since the other twenty are described the same way, with "she".