Where do I even start...
I've barely written anything in the last two months, and for that, I apologize to those of you who follow this blog. Let's see, where do I even start...
In the last few months I've performed twice as a guest vocalist with T.T.B. In the first show, I sang "Sleep Now in the Fire," by Rage Against the Machine, and the second time, I sang "Pretty Fly (for a white guy)" by The Offspring.
It's a lot of fun to sing with T.T.B. and just to hang out with them, but the more time passes, the more I want to have my own band again. Though it looks like that might be happening soon! Yesterday and today, I've been talking with a bass player who says she wants to join my band. Unfortunately though, Rachael won't be my singer, as I hoped she would.
Speaking of singing with ensembles, I have also joined Mix Voices, the same gospel choir that Ueda-sensei belongs to. So far we've performed at two different gospel festivals. For several years now, I've been wanting to sing with a choir. I was a little hesitant at first to join this one, because of the time commitment, and also because they were kind of pressuring me to join, which made me a little uncomfortable, but I decided that it would be good for me. I'm glad I joined, because it's been a lot of fun so far.
In addition to gospel songs (our signiture number is a gospel arrangement of "Joy to the World"), we also do pop and rock songs. At the latest rehearsal, I gave the choir director, Kitano-sensei, a CD of my two original choir pieces, so I'm hoping he will have us rehearse one of them.
Back in September, I went with Ueda-sensei and her younger daughter Erica to some sort of international camp. There were children and adults from many different countries (mostly Asian countries) there, and there were also some Japanese people. There was socialization, and some group discussions. It was fun, but it was also a little uncomfortable, because most of the other foreigners there spoke Japanese at an advanced level, and I couldn't follow their conversations. But I did enjoy it, and I met some nice people.
Since September, I've been going to a weekly free Japanese language class run by volunteers at the Tondabayashi public hall. It's the same kind of thing as what I did at the Aquinas Literacy Center in Chicago, but this time, I'm experiencing it as a student instead of a teacher.
The last time I went there, the main teacher, Maikawa-sensei, asked me if I am available to teach an English class for some of his friends for 2 hours every week. He said I will get paid 5,000 yen for each time, and I said I'll do it. I don't want to do too much more stuff like that though, because I feel like I don't have enough free time as it is.
Speaking of me teaching English on the side, I also meet with a group of middle-aged to elderly women every two months (Sasha and I alternate with them every month) and they pay me to basically have dinner with them and converse with them in English.
Shoji, the owner/bartender from MoreCore invited me to his annual barbeque in September. It was a lot of fun. Since I don't eat meat or fish, I brought some tofu to grill and I made tofu sandwiches. The only thing missing was BBQ sauce! Apparently, the stuff is not very common in Japan.
The Board of Education had a wecome party for me and Sasha, and the Junior had one for me. They were both a lot of fun. After the Junior High's party, some of us went to sign karaoke at Ueda-sensei's suggestion. That math teacher really knows how to party!
One time, after a T.T.B practice, I went with the two guitarists to a Pachinko parlor, where I watched the lead guitarist Nobu feed over 100 USD worth of money into these machines. At one point, he started to win, but then he quickly lost what he won. The other guitarist won a lot though.
For those who haven't experience pachinko in person, you put money in the machine, and metal balls start falling inside of it, and by turning a knob on the front of the machine, so try to get the balls to go into certain holes. The machines that Nobu played also incorporated a video slot game. When you score high enough, you are rewarded with more metal balls that you can feed back into the machine.
Gambling is illegal in Japan, but in the back of most (all?) pachinko parlors, there is a window where you can exchange the prizes you win for cash. Why doesn't the police crack down on this? My guess is that it has something to do with the connections that many Panchinko Parlor owners have with organized crime.
It was interesting to watch Nobu play the game, but I didn't try it myself. I have no moral problem with gambling, but the potential mobster connection made me feel uncomfortable about spending money on the games.
On October 1st, my school had an athlectic meeting, a big event which was attended by parents and relatives of the kids. The students participated in many events, including a relay race, high jump, shot put, and a cheerleading competition which I helped to judge (I never found out who won, though). Some of the onlookers (including me) got to participate in a game where the teams tried to see who could toss the most little balls into baskets that were held up in the air.
In mid-October, some members of Mix Voices went to a gospel workshop lead by a professional gospel singer named Hanna. She sang some songs solo and she lead the rest of us in some others. There was also time for eating snacks, socializing, and decorating the place with a Halloween theme. Also, almost the participants brought Halloween costumes, which they put on near the end of the event. I didn't have a costume though, because when they asked me to bring one, I interpreted it as more of a 'hey, wouldn't it be cool if we brought costumes' than an 'everyone will be in costume, so make sure to bring one!' thing. Oh well...
In the last several weeks, a neighborhood cat has attached itself to me, probably because I give it food. I actually bought a bag of Friskies, and at first I left a small dish of food for the cat outside my apartment door, which my landlady gave me a light scolding about. So from then on, whenever I feed the cat, I do it away from the apartment building. Because I've fed it, the cat hangs around the building a lot and often follows me meowing when I leave or come home. It's become a little annoying, but I have too much sympathy for that cat to stop feeding it.
In late October, I went sightseeing and hiking in Nara with some Osaka prefecture JETs. I saw some people I hadn't seen in a while, and met some new people.
I have recently decided to lose the goatee. The first day I came to school sans beard, several people noticed that there was something different about me, but they couldn't put their fingers on what it was. Here's what I look like now:
And here are some other random photos from the last few months:
Oh, and as an ending note, I feel I must amend something I wrote in an earlier entry. I wrote that I wondered if a certain teacher was beating a pair of male students in the "conference room." Looking back, I am fairly sure he was not. The noises I was hearing (other than the teacher's screaming) were probably coming from elsewhere. Ever since I had witnessed an actual beating a few weeks prior, I got worried whenever students were sent to that room, and I focused too closely on whatever sounds I heard, and my imagination ran wild. Also, looking back, I'm not completely sure which teacher it was.
Corporal punishment is actually pretty rare at my school, and I have learned that it is actually illegal in Japan. I am glad to know this, and I won't feel quite as helpless if I witness it again, because I know that if I do, I can report it to Nishioka-sensei, whose responsibility it is to make sure it doesn't happen.