Listening to Songs/Chillin in the Office, Dread/ When Is It Lunch Time- (Haiku Time)

"On the list of things that are not ok, that is REALLY not ok!" - Wilt (Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends)


Monica and I were kind of bored last week, so we started e-mailing haikus to each other(5-7-5), although we were sitting across from each other.
First we did haikus with no themes at all. It was just us writing to each other.

Steph:

Whoah Nelly, it's hot
I like it burning it up
Mmmmm coffee is good


Nelly of course refers to Nelly's song "Hot in Here". Yes, my epertise are soooo great that I even have great references in my haiku.

As you can probably tell, I spelled expertise wrong, so this is how she responded.

Monica:

Epertise is great...
But you can't really beat this,
Womanizer uh!

Yes that was a burn on your last comment and a reference to the recent pop hit by Britney Spears.

I, of course, had to respond back, so I did 3 in a row.

Steph:

Where have you been, huh
Under a rock in the sea
New release is Circus


Burnnnnnnnnnnnn!!!!


Pop music is great
Especially when they fall
On their big butocks

Yes, I spelled buttocks wrong. lol.


Sorry writing ability is not so great right now

Did you know this bit
Keanu Reeves is mad hot
But looks a bit dull


After this, we decided to make rules. We would pick a noun, verb and adjective and compete against each other to see what we would come up with. These limitations made our haikus a bit more interesting. lol.

First: noun- dog Verb- spell Adjective: Sparkly

Steph:

Your dog face is sparkly
It makes me want to pinch it
At least you can spell

Monica:

Glittery butt dog,
Casts sparkly little poo spells,
That don't smell pretty.

Poo reference! Yeah!

Next- Noun: diarrhea Verb: run Adj: long

Steph:

diahrea blues
As it runs its course through me
Oh how long its been

Monica:

Strange mental hiccups,
I have brain diarrhea!
Long running giggles.

Last one: Noun: sex toy Verb: Vibrate (although I kind of used it wrong) Adj: sweaty

Steph:

Sex Toy Wonderland
The store had good vibrations
His sweaty palm, gross

Monica:

Sex toy shopping spree,
Awkward, sweaty transaction
Free to vibrate, Wee!

Now the important question: Who do you think should be considered the winner?

Japanese Commercials, Gotta Love Them :)

I have a funny commercial with Matsuda Shota (松田翔太 ) . He is in Hana Yori Dango and Love Shuffle. He is adorable even in something like this. lol.

This is like the skinny guys vs. the bigger, muscly guys (something like that).

Eric really liked it and showed it to me and I thought it was cute too.

Cross Cultural Influences From The Past

I'm a Portuguese-American living in Japan. This is actually the first time I have been in Asia. Since I have been here (8 months), I have learned about a lot of cross cultural things between Portugal and Asia (specifically Japan) that are so integrated into the cultures that we don't even notice them anymore.

Food:

Tempura- Tempura is a traditional Japanese dish of deep fried vegetables and/or seafood/ fish. It is deliciousness to the extreme. Sweet potato and pumpkin tempura are amazing.
Anyway, I have learned that tempura was brought here from Portuguese missionaries and traders.
Here is the information I found on Wikipedia. You know how I like wikipedia.

According to Wikipedia : Tempura was introduced to Japan in the mid-sixteenth century by early Portuguese[1] missionaries and traders.[2] The word tempura, or the technique of dipping fish and vegetables into a batter and frying them, comes from the word "tempora," a Latin word meaning "times", "time period" used by both Spanish and Portuguese missionaries to refer to the Lenten period or Ember Days (ad tempora quadragesimae), Fridays, and other Christian holy days. Ember Days or quattuor tempora refer to holy days when Catholics avoid meat and instead eat fish or vegetables. Tokugawa Ieyasu, founder and first shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, loved tempura so much that he apparently died after eating too much of it according to lore. The idea that the word "tempura" may have been derived from the Portuguese noun tempero, meaning a spicy condiment or peppery seasoning, or from the verb temperar, meaning "to season" has not been substantiated.[2] There is still today a dish in Portugal very similar to tempura called peixinhos da horta, "garden fishies." However, the Japanese language could easily have assumed the word "tempero" as is, without changing any vowels as both languages are phonetically similar.



カステラ　(kasutera) - It's a popular Japanese sponge cake, which is considered a specialty in Nagasaki. Apparently it comes from the Portuguese Pão de Castela, which is similar to pão-de-ló.

According to Wikipedia: 　In the 16th century, the Portuguese reached Japan, and soon started trade and missionary work. Nagasaki was then the only Japanese port open for foreign commerce. The Portuguese introduced many then-unusual things, such as guns, tobacco, and pumpkins - and castella. It was able to be preserved for a long period of time, and so was useful for the sailors who were out on the sea for months. In the Edo Period, in part due to the cost of sugar, it was an expensive dessert. When the Emperor of Japan's envoy was invited, the Tokugawa Shogunate presented the Castella.[1] Over the years, the taste changed to suit Japanese palates.　

Now for the opposite: Tea : In Portuguese, we say chá for tea. I was surprised when I heard people using the same word here　ちゃ　（　or in kanji 茶　） cha for tea. I later learned the tea is cha in Bengali, Chinese, Korean, Portuguese and Japanese. According to Wiki, " In 1557, Portugal established a trading port in Macau and word of the Chinese drink "chá" spread quickly" to Portugal. I thought that was interesting that all of these countries were using the same word because it spread from China.


Weapons

Since I live in Kyushu, I thought this was interesting. The island of Tanegashima, a southern island of Kyushu belonging to Kagoshima prefecture, is where guns were first introduced into Japan. Apparently a Portuguese ship got blown off course, landed in Tanegashima, and the rest is history.

Religion (Roman Catholic)
Portuguese and Spanish missionaries were the first to bring Christian beliefs to Japan. When I went to Roman Catholic Mass here, the people called it ミサ　(misa), which is the same word we use for mass in Portugal. Since it's written in katakana, I just figured that it probably came from the first missionaries who entered Japan and then stuck. If anyone knows if this is true or not or has any more info, please tell me.

More info in Wikipedia of course. lol. You can find it here and here.

________________________________________


I think that it's interesting that encounters that took place hundreds of years ago, can effect the countries, their cultures and/or languages so much. I think that now we take it for granted because with the new global age, we can be connected quickly to a person and learn about another culture so quickly through the internet and other forms of media, so we are constantly being influenced by other countries and vice and versa. However, this was even true hundreds of years ago, but in a smaller scale. It's interesting how these cultural things were spread and how they have lasted over the ages by being integrated to other cultures.


I wish I had moew information on how Portugal was influenced by Japan.
If anyone has any info about that, please share it with me.
Actually if you have any info about cross cultural connections that have lasted after hundreds of years, please share that too. I always find that interesting.

On a funny note, sometimes I find words that sound similar, but are completely different.
For example, in Japanese Sakana ( 魚　) means fish. In Portugal, we have a similar sounding word called Sacana, except it means devious or a**hole. lol. 　

Teacher Transfer Drama

How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard. ~Carol Sobieski and Thomas Meehan, Annie

Let me take the time to rewind a bit. I'm rewinding it to the 19th of March. The 19th of March was a very important day here at school because that's when the teacher transfer calls took place.

Ok, so here in Japan, they move around teachers. The teachers don't ask to be transferred, but when they are told to do it, they must pack up and leave. Sometimes, the transfer is for a school close by and sometimes it can be like 3 hours away. If you are being transferred, then it can be anywhere in the prefecture.

Anyway, all week 2 English teachers thought they were being transferred. One of them was a young teacher who got married not too long ago and another is a teacher whose wife had a baby a few months ago. Both of them really didn't want to move. The teacher who got married was really sad the whole week. It was a bit painful to see her because you knew she was worried. The good thing was that neither one was transferred. Woohoo!!!

I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me go back to March 19, lunch time. During lunch, all the teacher's were in the office, eating their lunch silently and waiting for the phone calls. It's eerily quite and the tension is high. My bento was curry, which I love, and the food didn't even fall right because I was nervous that a couple of the English teachers that I really like were leaving.

This is how it works. The principal gets the calls and then he calls the Vice principal, who is in the teacher's office. Every　time the phone rings, everyone turns to the VP, waiting for a name to come out of his mouth. When it does, that teacher goes to find out where they are placed. Then, they come back (many teary eyed) telling us where they are being transferred to.

It's a really nerve-wrecking situation, especially for those teachers who didn't want to be transferred, but are being forced to.

Right after all of this, classes continue so we must put on our happy faces and keep our spirits (genkiness) up.

That was a pretty crazy situation to go through. At the end of it all, we found out that two English teachers are leaving. One cool young teacher is going, but she already knew she was leaving because she just became a full time teacher recently, so there was a good chance that they were going to place her somewhere else. She was happy with her placement because it was a school that she had worked at in the past.
The other English teacher wasn't actually transferred. She decided to quit after this school year.
This meant Farewell Drinking Party for the English Department. Woohoo!!! But Goodbye to 2 great teachers, nooooo!!!

Last Day of School, Woohoo!!!

Hey Everyone!

Today is the last day of school for the school year. Woohoo!!! All the kids are already gone because they only had half a day.

This morning, there was a first period class, which I didn't have anyway. Yay!!! Then, there was a full period of cleaning time. I didn't really do much. The third period was closing ceremony. I didn't even notice that the closing ceremony was going on in the gym because so many teachers were still in the office cleaning out their desks. I passed by the gym, it looked boring, so I went to my desk and cleaned it out as well.

Today is Monica's last day here because in April she is going to Paul's school. BOOOOO!!! Yeah, it's a little sad. We decided to celebrate by going to a good restaurant, Creighton House. Yummmmm!!! I wish I had taken pictures. I had a chicken pasta with a roll on the side. Yup, that's my carb intake for the day. Then, we went to a convenience store and got some coffee. Extra, duper yum!!! I am running on a caffeine high right about now.

Anyway, a lot of teachers seemed to have mysteriously disappeared. I bet they are watching the Korea vs. Japan baseball game. At lunch, the table next to us had two ladies watching the game from their cell phones. It's a big deal here. Hmmm...I wonder who will win? It's a tie right now.

I am just chillin now. I know I should be practicing my kanji, but it's so much more fun to read celebrity gossip online. lol.

By the way, it's such a beautiful spring day. It's sunny, hot and breezy. It's great weather.

Whoah Monica was talking to me and suddenly we heard the baseball game. Someone put the baseball game on a little tv or cell phone or something. It reminds me of back home when a big soccer game was on or when everyone was watching the World Cup.

Update: Japan just won!!!

Okonomiyaki Time

I think that every time I post, it opens the flood gates to another post. I think that I post in clumps, leave for a month, and then do another clump. I should be more consistent.

Anyway, let me talk about one type of Japanese food that I never had until I got here. Well to be truthful, I never really ate Japanese food until I came to Japan.

Anyway, today I will be talking about Okonomiyaki (お好み焼き ). It's a Japanese pancake with basically anything. More specifically, it's a mixture of vegetables, beef, pork, or seafood.
According to Wikipedia, and we all know that they are never wrong "The name is derived from the word okonomi, meaning "what you like" or "what you want", and yaki meaning "grilled" or "cooked' ".

Usually, but not always, you ask for what you want. Then, they will bring you a bowl with the raw ingredients. There is a grill in front of you, so you mix the ingredients and make the pancake yourself. Then you savor its deliciousness.

This is a video of Monica, Eric and I eating at an Okonomiyaki place close to our house. We are being silly while cooking the food.

Catching Up!

Hey Everyone!

Sorry I have left you hanging. This is what has been happening to me.

A month ago, my bike got stolen. Yup, the bike I bought when I first arrived in Japan. I was eating at the burger place, Mos Burger, and someone took it. That was a bit sad. I had to report it to the police and everything, but of course it was never found. It even had a toy squishy frog thing that my predecessor gave me. He loved that toy. I really haven't had the heart to e-mail him and tell him that it's gone. lol.

Anyway, today I bought a new bike. It's shiny, pink and adorable. You can see it here

Well, in other news. In the first weekend of March, the seniors (third years) graduated. The graduation ceremony was really quiet and there was a lot of bowing. Let me rewind a bit. The graduation took place on a Sunday. However, all of the teachers and students were in school for both Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday, we had 1st period class and then everyone had a 3 hour cleaning time. Oh dear! I cleaned out my desk and papers. Then, I went to the gym to see some of the kids getting the gym ready for the special day. After that, we all had to attend the graduation rehearsal.
On the actual graduation day, I came to school and the student's were already cleaning again. Geez! Then, the ceremony took place. The third year female teachers and some of the moms were dressed in traditional clothing, which was cool to see.
For lunch, the teachers got a special bento (lunch box). This is what it looked like. That's mushrooms on the left on top of the rice. It was pretty darn good.
Although the seniors graduated early March, the last day of school for the rest of the students is only tomorrow. That means that my last classes for the school year were today. Woohoo!!! The new school year starts in April. Yup, that soon. The teachers also have to come to school everyday anyway. Lame!!!

Another thing I have done was attend mass at a catholic church. Everything was pretty much the same, except it was all in Japanese. The one main difference was that when we offer peace, instead of hugging, kissing on the cheek, or shaking hands, everyone bows at each other. Yup, there is no touching, just bowing.
One older lady came to my side, so that I could share her book and sing along. In the end, she started talking to me in English. I was pretty surprised. Then, she told me that she practices English for an hour every morning because she listens to an English lesson on the radio everyday. Wow! That's pretty cool.

Oh, what else have I been up to? Well I joined a gym. I feel as if ever since I started going to the gym, I have also started eating more. lol. I go about 2 times a week. I should really go more times. I need to lose some pounds for the summer, but I can't really see that happening too soon. Anyway, I had to buy indoor sneakers for the gym. lol. Yup! I was also asked if I had a tattoo, which I don't. Apparently it's prohibited. Anyway I hope that I will get more into the routine of the gym, but I can't see that happening any time soon. I need more will power for the gym. lol.

Last but not least, I joined Twitter today. Here is my Twitter account.