Shine: River Rave

I spent last night at Shine: River Rave. I managed to get a ride from John, who’s also known as somewhat of a Godfather to all foreigners in Iwaki. The man has been in Iwaki for almost 9 years now and has spent much time getting people together at his many dj-ing events over the years. It was pretty cool to see him up and spinning at the event along with several other people from Fukushima.
It was a pretty good night, but I didn’t get in until 5am this morning, so I don’t have much of a mind for writing today. Luckily, I brought my camera, so this will be mostly a photo post.

Some like it Hot

US: “Can you recommend a vegetable dish?”

Server: “The vegetable curry is good.”

US: “Okay, we’ll get that… and a chicken tandoori.”

Server: “okay.”

US: “And we’ll try the mutton massalla.”

Server: “Oh, no.”

US: “Sorry?”

Server: “Oh no, it is too hot.”

US: “Ummm… That’s okay, we’ll try it anyway.”

Server: “It is too hot.”

US: “Well… I think we could use something spicy.”

“Yeah, I wouldn’t mind trying something that’s really spicy.”

Server: “No, no.”

US: “I think she’s turning us down from ordering it.”

“She says it’s too spicy”

“I don’t know about you guys, but I’m usually pretty good with spicy food.”

“Yeah, I’m from Singapore, so I love spicy food.”

“Yeah man, I’ll try anything once”

“Should we go for it?”

“Yeah man, I guess so.”

“Sure.”

“Okay, we really want to try the mutton massalla.”

Server: “Okay”

A few of us went for Indian food last night. Us being newbies to Iwaki, it took us a few phone calls and about half an hour, but we eventually found the place. I can’t remember the official name of the restaurant, but everybody in town calls it “Baba G’s” on account of the owner/head chef. The place is actually really close to my apartment.

The place is a cool little place on the second floor of a building surrounded by small shops. Inside, the décor is what one would expect from a traditional Indian restaurant in the middle of a Japanese town – lots of tapestries, spices, fennel seeds, and images of famous Indian people (I’m ashamed to say that the only one that I could recognize was Gandhi). The real flavour of the place really comes from Baba himself. Once everyone had been served, he came out of the kitchen and made his rounds through the dining room where he made sure to say hello to everybody. He is from India, but he speaks both Japanese and English very well. This is probably on account of his love for traveling; he had been to each of our countries and seem to know them pretty well – Singapore, Australia, and Canada (he even lived in Richmond for a while). He’s been in Japan for several years now and all of the ALTs seem to know him.

And of course, his food is amazing. The nan bread that he makes is freshly made and easily takes up a foot and a half of the table. We opted for the onion nan, but there were many different kinds to choose from. The curries themselves were fantastic. We had the vegetable curry and the mutton massalla. They were both of the most flavourful curry that I’ve had.

The mutton massalla was also pretty close to, if not the spiciest food that I’ve ever had (I do remember a night out in the distant past where we asked for the hottest hot wings the kitchen could make – and then to make them hotter, and the chef came out and asked us if it was okay to use this small bottle of ‘atomic bomb nuclear holocaust mushroom cloud free-falling to the earth waving a cowboy hat” hot sauce and us saying absolutely). Maybe we should have listened to our server and maybe we did the right thing – who’s to say really. The massalla was delicious and we managed to finish quite a bit of it, but there is still a sizable amount sitting in my fridge right now, which I may have to think twice about in terms of its fate.

Included above is an image of my iron in my apartment. I knew that I’d get to use this photo at some point.

Harry Potter in Japan

Over the last few weeks, I have been shipped off to a foreign country where languages, customs, and daily life are radically different. I’ve met many new people – some new ALTs like myself, others that have been here for a number of years, and some that were born here. I have been put into an institution, the JET program, which has streamed me through a number of orientations, placements, ceremonies, tasks, and goals. I am slowly discovering my way in this far off land as I develop my ability to cook and eat new foods, work in a different language, and grow accustomed to the norms of this world. I imagine that what I’m going through is a lot like what Harry Potter had to go through in his adventures of becoming a wizard and having to learn the ways of the wizarding world.

For Harry Potter, it all started when he was whisked away by Hagrid to his first days at Hogwarts where he would undergo his training in becoming a wizard. It was here that not only would he train to become one of the most promising wizards in this world, but also where he would make several good friends and essentially become the wizard that he was meant to be.

For myself, my entry into Japan was a bit less glamorous, in that I had to undergo a lengthy application process and attend several interviews and seminars. It was less surprising than it was arduous. However, I find that every new situation still bears a great sense of wonder for me. From the moment that I stepped onto the Japan Airlines aircraft, I was being whisked away into a world of bento boxes and genki smiles. Initially, every new stage of this experience was guided by a more senior JET staff member in a purple shirt who guided me to a new event – each one with sort of a patronizing smile of familiarity; it wasn’t so long ago that they walked the streets of Tokyo whilst jet-lagged and out of sorts. In the end, we are all just muggles trying to make it in a world of Japanese.

For new wizards in Harry Potter, their lives are initially filled with social events and ceremonies where they develop bonds with their fellow classmates and gradually find their places amongst the school. While everything is fantastic and exciting, the suspense in finding out whether they will become a Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw, or Hufflepuff is almost unbearable. They try not to get their hopes up, but at the same time they all have their hearts set on a certain future. At last, at the sorting hat ceremony, their placements are celebrated and welcomed amongst the senior members of each house. If nothing else, this rejoice comes about with the knowledge that each placement is indisputable. One gets the sense though, that each placement is in fact grand -- and that each member of their respective houses truly appreciates their place. Could there be an unfortunate outcome when one finds out that they are a wizard?

One feels similar emotions when entering the JET Programme. While everyone has their hearts set on certain regional placements – and certain placements may be met with some initial hesitations, ultimately, each new JET is welcomed with such feverous euphoria, that one cannot help but grow excited. After all, how could one not feel the excitement of going to Japan? Of course, the build up to finding out these placements are stressful, especially amongst all of the orientations and social gatherings that are designed to build cohesion and comradery amongst this year’s fare. All of us latch onto each other as if to build a safety raft to take with us into new territory. These bonds are initially formed amongst those of us who come from the same place – for me, Vancouver, where we all partook in the same flight together. Then in Tokyo, we landed amongst countless other life rafts of people from different countries. We unmanned and sought anyone close to us who we could learn from and find commonalities – only to be broken up again when it became time to ship off to our respective prefectures. This cycle would repeat itself one more time in that we built bonds amongst this group only to break off into our individual cities, where there could only remain small remnants of the everyday comradery.

At this point, most JETs are now settling into their roles as ALTs and the daily work order is beginning. Classes are starting and students begin crowding the halls at our school. The reality of working for a living is starting to kick in. As for Harry Potter, as much fun it is riding broomsticks, eating every flavour beans, and trancing around in invisible cloaks, there is studying to do – spells to learn, potions to brew, and the like. I’ve definitely had a good fill of soba noodles, odd Japanese game shows, and J-pop. Now its all about lesson planning, teaching, and marking. While this work may seem tedious at first, it is ultimately rewarding – and I look forward to when it pays off and I can become a fully fledged Japanese wiz.

***next up, maybe I’ll write about vampires.***

The Old Man on the Back Porch and that... Old Man is Me

It's Sunday and many of the other ALTs were invited to spend time in Aizu with homestay families. Due to my particular contract arrangements, I was not invited. Maybe it's not a bad thing though. I've had a chance to spend time recharging in my apartment for a couple of days and I'll probably be heading to Aizu next weekend for some sort of social gathering.

In the meantime, I've managed to spend some time learning how to stitch photos together and have made a composit of the view from my back porch. It took me way too long to do, and i discovered that there was also a gap between a couple of my photos, which made it take even longer, but I'm pretty happy with the results overall. I don't think it's too bad for not using a tripod. The panorama makes use of 8 photos in total.

While viewing this photo, it might be a good idea to open one of the following links in a new window (right click on the link and select "open in a new window"), press play, and then come back to this post.

Background Music
Background Music (alternate)

(Click on the photo to see it enlarged)

Rat Racing in Japan

I think it was my dad that told me once long ago that in order to get used to a new job, it will probably take about 6 weeks to get to the point where you feel like you actually know what you’re doing. It will take another six months before everything becomes routine. I can’t remember if he was the one that told me this – or if anyone ever said this at all. I remember this anecdote from when I was quite young and I can’t imagine a context in which this conversation would come up.

In any event, I am about three weeks into my new “job” – if you could call it that and it’s starting to feel more natural. I hesitate to call it a ‘job’ because it seems to go beyond any other occupation that I’ve had before. My first week of work involved being shipped off to foreign cities, making friends, eating strange foods, being orientated, setting up an apartment, and learning a language. It wasn’t until my second week of work that I was able to explore my school and meet some of the teachers – although this week was a holiday week for most teachers and so I actually spent most of this time alone in my office. I would look through textbooks, previous ALT lesson plans, study Japanese, or walk around the school grounds. Interesting enough, during summer break, club activities still happen, and are still run by teachers. There are also study classes held and many students will come to school, in uniform, and spend their day studying in an empty classroom. During this holiday week, there were still a handful of students in classrooms studying away.

In Japan, teachers don’t get the same vacations as the students and their situation is very different from North America. Teachers don’t get summers off and during Christmas/New years, there is only about a week where they don’t have to work. In general, national holidays are the only days where teachers don’t have to come to school. My first week when most teachers were away is called “Obon” week where many Japanese people go home to visit their families. Most teachers use vacation time during this week because taking time off during the school year is frowned upon – maybe even not allowed. Many teachers don’t even use all of their vacation time and many don’t ever take sick days.

Also, teachers in Japan usually work from about 7-8 in the morning and are at the school until about 7-8 in the evening. They will also quite often come in to teach classes on Saturdays.

I should clarify that my school is a senior high school as opposed to a junior high or elementary school. The difference being that the elementary and junior levels are mandatory and are public institutions. It is my understanding that senior high schools fall into the realm of private education and that it is optional. However, I think something like over 96% of Japanese students attend senior high school.

Anyway, in this last week, school is starting for its second term (the school year started back in April with the symbolic blossoming of the cherry trees). Teachers are back to work and I’ve had a chance to meet several of them informally in the halls or in the teachers office and also more formally at a teachers meeting where I gave a short speech – partially read from a piece of paper (the Japanese portion) and the other part in English (very slowly). The students’ first day was on Thursday where they had a large assembly of all 1100 or so students – where I also got up on stage and gave my introductory speech.

Thursday and Friday were again much different than the first days of school that I am used to. Before any official business happens in the school, the whole school, teachers and students, get together and clean the building/grounds. Every class has a certain portion or job that they are responsible for. I think that throughout the year, a certain amount of time each week is allotted for cleaning as well.

After cleaning the school and holding their first assembly meeting, students go straight into writing two days worth of solid exams. I haven’t asked yet what the rational is behind this; usually in Canada, we teach first and then assess. I assume that these exams are more about review and encouraging students to continue studying throughout the summer, but can’t be sure.

My days have still been fairly relaxed, but they are starting to pick up. I’ve had a few meetings with the teachers that I will be working with about lesson planning and such. I also spent about four hours on Friday marking exams from the previous day. I also help out with various English related consultations around the school. Several students from the school are entered into an English-speaking speech contest and so I’ve looked over several speeches and helped with the editing a bit. This editing has been a bit too heavy handed in my opinion, but it seems to be what everyone wants. I’ve also helped to choreograph an English skit that some students were performing in a contest this past week. Alas, they did not finish in the top three as they had hoped, but I think they did a pretty good job. I also help some of the English teachers with interpretations and inflections.

Overall, I think that the school and I are starting to warm up to each other. The teachers that I am working with are very friendly and I share an office with another English teacher who is extremely helpful. I’ve also had several students come by my office to say ‘hello’ and ‘how are you’ and ‘nice to meet you’ and several other phrases in very broken English. I have yet to see my other two schools, nor do I know how to get to them, but their school year does not begin until the end of the month.

I’ve included some photos from my office at Iwaki High school. The place is great as I get my own desk and I share couches, coffee table, fridge, microwave, sink – that kind of stuff. I’ve also got a computer set up at my desk now. It is a laptop that I found beside the couch, but the screen doesn’t work so I had a tech guy lend me a monitor to hook up to it. The keyboard also doesn’t work so I have a keyboard plugged in as well. There is also a mouse plugged into it because the computer uses an old-school knobby-mouse, which just doesn’t make much sense. The flag is the only decorating that I’ve done so far.

And yes, I have read every single one of those books behind my desk.

Sounds from Japan (via the Internet)

Most of the content on this blog so far has been very visually oriented. With the multifaceted nature of the Internet these days, it is possible to explore other forms of media. That’s right, these days, I can actually communicate sound to you people from afar – although I must admit that I will only be linking sound clips and not actually generating them myself.

In the time that I’ve been in Japan, I’ve discovered that there is not only a difference in the way everything looks, but also in the way that everything sounds. For one, Japanese people do not talk as much in public as North Americans do. More specifically, they don’t generally shout either – unless they are hawking some sort of wares or broadcasting political messages. Another note on Japanese speech patterns: they all speak Japanese. Although public places are usually visually full of hustle and bustle, I find public places to be less auditorally (spellchecker didn’t like that one) intrusive. I could be a bit ill-informed in this regard as the city I am living in now is much smaller than my hometown Vancouver.

I should also clarify, that although the people in the streets are comparatively quieter, the noise inside electronic stores is significantly louder. Inside Kojima for example – one of Iwaki’s central electronic hubs, one cannot walk down an aisle without being barraged by multiple sound inputs. TV shows, Advertisements, music – it all blares at the same time. It is very Blade Runner-esque, or the Fifth Element if you’re into that sort of thing (I personally love the movie).

The real reason that I am writing this post however doesn’t have much to with the people of Japan; this is about cicadas [sɪˈkeɪdə]. Before coming to Japan, I had never heard, let alone heard-of this insect. When I first heard it, I thought that I was walking beside a construction site… inside a park, or that somebody was using an angle grinder – over, and over, and over again. You can hear a clip of this sound here: Cicada sounds.

It is pretty amazing the amount of sound that these insects can generate. Apparently the sound does not come from any sort of friction – as is the case with crickets. Instead, the sound comes from the ‘clicking’ of a rib-like membrane within the exoskeleton. This sound is then amplified within the cavernous insides of the creature – moreso in the males than the females. Females tend to have less of a cavern and are more meatier, which is why they have preference when eaten in certain parts of the world.

As one of the loudest of all insect-produced sounds, these insects can produce volumes of up to 120 dB at close range. Apparently they only make these sounds during the summer – and mostly during the heat of the day. I have some refuge from this noise at my apartment, although I’m not sure if this is because I’m not home during the day, or if it's because there are few trees around me. My school however, is surrounded by ravines and their constant buzzing is all that I can hear from my office.

When asked about this sound, a Japanese person will not know what you are talking about. “What noise?” they will respond. At which point, you will try to find every which way to emulate this sound: “RWAAH…RWAAH…RWAAH…” or “BZEEE… BZEEE…BZZEEE…” or “MNUGH.. MNUGH.. MNUGH…” Although, now I am starting to think that they do in fact know the sound that I’m asking about and that they would rather enjoy watching the silly Canadian make an ass of himself. Either way, they’ll just look at you with an inquisitive face while the cicadas laugh in my face. In case you missed the link above: Cicada sounds.

Sorry, but I haven’t managed to actually see one of these insects in order to take a photo of one. Instead, I have borrowed from a few sites. Check them out here:
http://kobekevin.blogspot.com/
http://www.canyouseethesunset.com/tag/blog/

I also got my info from wikipedia – I know, bad scholar. Although I’d rather have the experts on the internet do this research than the nut-jobs at Websters.

Images of Tokyo City

I think i owe you peeps some photos. Here are some images that i took while we were staying at the Keio Plaza Hotel in Tokyo. It was so long ago that i really can't remember much about tokyo and don't really know what to write. I believe there were several seminars and ceremonies and the like going on. Most of these photos were taken one morning when i couldn't sleep from jet lag. I'll admit that JET kept us so busy that we couldn't really stray too far from the hotel and I did feel a bit trapped. As such, most of these photos were taken from within 200 meters of our hotel. The Japanese business man is probably by far one of my favorite photos since being here in Japan -- Tokyo or otherwise.

I'm just a big baby in Japan

Being illiterate is frustrating in Japan – as I imagine it is in any other country. I have started using the phrase “watashi wa aka chan desu,” which translates to “I am a baby.” This usually gets a bit of a laugh out of the Japanese people that I am with at the time.

These frustrations definitely come out when I’m at the bank and I grab a children’s picture book and have to ask comprehension questions about a teddy bear cooking pancakes for breakfast. It's all in good fun though.

Japanese Sports Clubs

I had the pleasure of attending a couple of sporting events in the last few days. They weren’t serious events in any sense – the school teams are still holding practices and off-season games at the school while everyone’s on vacation (students are off about 4 weeks for summer vacation and many teachers took off this last week for Obon, where they go home to visit their families – which leaves me pretty much by my lonesome in the school to study and lesson plan and such… bit more on this another time maybe).

The first event I watched was a high school baseball game. Even though it was an off-season game, the players take it very seriously. I generally thought of baseball as a fairly quiet and relaxed atmosphere with spectators sipping on bear and eating peanuts. Their wasn’t much of a crowd, but the players were constantly shouting at each other, which made for quite a lively scene. The coaches were especially exciting as anytime a player made a mistake they would scream and berate the players – and upon returning to the dugout, they run laps along the foul lines. I can’t wait to see a real game played.

I also sat in on a kendo club practice – kendo being a form of martial art that uses a bamboo sword. When I arrived, the students were on a break, but I was immediately impressed with their kendo uniforms: dark robes, caged helmets with neck and shoulder pads, body armor, heavy duty gloves that went up their forearms, and of course, bamboo swords. Each member also had a their name stitched into a personalized cloth that hung from their belt. Once the sparing began, the kendo gym was filled with screams of “EEEEEE”, “YAAAA,” “MEEEEN,” “DOOOOOO,” and the loud cracks of their swords as they engaged in a flurry of combat. I asked the teacher what they yell at each other. He said he wasn’t really sure and that it was different for each warrior. I asked why they do it and he said that it was for intimidation and to keep up one’s own intensity.

One of the students showed me one of his swords and helped me with a few moves. There is a lot of poise in the sport and the movements are very specific and coordinated. It took me a while to get a feel for the maneuvers. Overall, it was an impressive site to see the students decked in all of their gear screaming at each other as they smashed each other with their swords. Students take their club activities very seriously in this school. They will generally spend at least 2 hours a couple of times every week.

Again, unfortunately I didn’t have my camera at school and did not get any photos. Instead, I've included a video of a Japanese baseball game. Apparently this amount of excitement typically carries on throughout all nine innings.

A photographer and a frog walk into a thunderstorm...

A teacher of mine shared a story with our class a while back in one of my photography classes that I think has a particular bearing for me here in Japan.
This teacher was in Texas for a high school reunion and somehow ended up in a heritage building of some sort for reasons that I cannot remember. While he was visiting this house, a freak thunderstorm broke out that knocked the power out to the building. It was apparently a fantastic storm as the lightning was arcing directly in front of the house quite rapidly and it lasted for quite some time. While he was standing at the front porch of the house watching the amazing light and sound show in front of him, a small albino frog wandered onto the deck. He said that it was the oddest looking frog that he had ever seen and that there must have been something about the weather that drew the creature out as he seemed out of place in the daylight. The creature was probably out of sorts because it had no qualms with the teacher walking right up and sitting down beside it. The frog seemed equally fascinated with the storm as its attention was focused out towards the elements. It was with this frog that he sat on the steps of the heritage home and watched the most amazing lightning storm that he had ever seen.
He had brought his camera to this house, but had only brought a slow film (he only shoots film) and did not bring a tripod or a flash. With the darkness of the blackout and the harsh cloud cover overhead, without a tripod, there was no way that he could capture any images of this amazing frog or the beautiful lightning in front of him. At first he could not believe his misfortune in not being able to capture any of this situation. Eventually however, he said that instead of focusing on his camera and taking pictures, he was able to sit and enjoy, to a much greater extent, the surrealness of the scene before him.
This being my first time away from home in such a foreign country, I realize that I have not been taking nearly as many photos as I should be. At the same time, I’m not sure that I would be enjoying myself as much as I am if I made more of an effort to lug my camera bag about with me everywhere I go. I’m overwhelmed as it is in this country without having to worry about my aperture or ISO settings. I’ve been taking my small point-and-shoot camera with me quite often, but the batteries seem to die very quickly in it – not exactly sure what’s up with that. Anyway, I hope you will have patience with me as I am sure that there will be many photos to come.

Adventures in Bicycling... and Fukushima Orientation

I arrived back in Iwaki last night from our Fukushima orientation where JETs from around the prefecture were gathered to attend several seminars about anything from teaching to Japanese pop culture. It was a long two days and my exhausted mind and body was looking forward to a hot shower and a warm bed.

I had left my bike parked in a bike lot near Iwaki Station, where we caught our bus the previous morning. In this lot, there are probably about two thousand bikes parked at any given time, but I was pretty sure I knew within a reasonable area where my bike was parked. Of course, upon arriving at the lot last evening, I could not for the life of me, find my bike. It was dark out and the lighting in the lot is not particularly good so I spent a good amount of time checking and re-checking the area where I had left my bike. Then I thought that the bikes looked much more organized than when I had originally parked my bike and figured that maybe someone had arranged the bikes – or maybe I had put my bike in the wrong area, or maybe it got ticketed and placed somewhere else. I progressed to checking all of the bikes in the lot with no luck. So I checked again – still no luck.

The lot is beside a taxi depot and so I asked one of the taxi drivers if it was okay to park my bike overnight. They said it was and that was all the communication that we could manage in Japanese. He suggested I go to the police station down the block.

My first experience with the Iwaki police was an excellent one. Although our communication was very broken and lengthy, I eventually managed to communicate that I was an ALT at Iwaki High School and that I had lost my bike in the Iwaki Station parking lot and that it was very dark and that I might have missed it and that I came from Vancouver and that the Winter Olympics would be held there in the coming monthes and that I thought that my bike was a mix between purple and brown.

Our solution was that I would walk to the lot with three police officers with flashlights and take one more look before pursuing our next option. Within 3 minutes I found my bike and discovered that its colour was actually black.

I dropped off some British Columbia pins and some candies for them today as thanks for finding my bike – and also as a bit of an apology for being a dumbass. I also lost my bike outside of the supermarket the other day. It turned out I was looking on the wrong side of the building.


Another story of note involves my initial journey to the bus station two days ago. It was a rainy morning, but usually when it rains in Vancouver, one needs only carry an umbrella to keep themselves mostly dry. I walked about 3 blocks with my umbrella and I was soaked up to my chest.

I only had one change of clothes and I knew that I would not be able to survive a 2 hour bus ride, a day of seminars, a night out, another day of seminars, and a day back. I ran home, quickly grabbed another change of clothes and put on shorts and a T-shirt and rode my bike to the station.

Most people that I was meeting at the station were smart and took a taxi, but I didn’t know where or how to call one – or how long it would take. Needless to say, they were a bit shocked to see me arrive soaked worse than – well… anything. After wringing out my clothes in the toilet and drying myself off with toilet paper (Japanese washrooms seem to be devoid of any paper towels whatsoever), the only articles still soaked were my shoes. I spent most of my bus ride raising my core temperature and catching a bit of sleep after the whole earthquake debacle of the night before.


Overall, the orientation was pretty good. Lots of good info on Japan and teaching. The night out was a lot of fun – we went to “the Big Apple” for another all-you-can-drink night. This made the next day pretty rough though. Most of us spent the morning seminars trying to stay conscious. I think many of us are eager to start the school year so that we can stop drinking.

Didn’t take my camera to Fukushima on account of the rain. Instead, these are two photos of my apartment as lit by the lightning from the other night. The other is of a skull, which is a representation of how I was feeling last night as a result of fatigue and shame.

My First Earthquake in Japan

I just went through my first earthquake. I think it was a 3.o here in Iwaki. It doesn't sound like much, but my whole apartment was swaying back and forth for a good 10 seconds or so. It is now pouring rain and there are thunderclouds overhead. I've got to wake up early tomorrow to go to Fukushima city for another orientation. If the thunder keeps up, I don't think i'll be getting much sleep tonight.

Festivals in Japan: Iwaki Odori

This one’s going to be mostly photos. Last night was the night of the Iwaki Festival where they had a massive Odori – which means simply, “the dance.” I managed to get a bunch of photos, but in order to get a better scope of the event, I would have probably needed a helicopter; it spanned several city blocks and the streets were filled with singing and dancing.

Many of the foreigners in Iwaki congregate at a bar called Est Est. It is an Italian styled pub that has Italian flags out in the front and wine bottles lined up along shelves. It’s owned by a Japanese fellow who goes by the name of Mado (I think this was his name). There is a photo of him behind the bar giving a peace sign to the camera. This was the same place that I celebrated my birthday a couple of nights ago (it was foreigner’s night where we can get 5 drinks for 1000 yen (about $10).

Anyway, I arrived a bit late in the night, but I believe that the bar is a place where people organize various club activities. Many ALTs from the JET Programme congregate here for events and gatherings. I think that the bar had set up a few groups, including the new JETs in Iwaki, to go and dance in the Odori last night. It sort of worked out for the better that I missed out on the dancing because I got to take a ton of photos.

After the dancing everyone went back to Est Est where there were awards given for the best dancers of the night and tabihada and nomihada (all you can eat and all you can drink). I was still recovering a bit from the night before, so I stuck to the tabihada. It was a good night and I got to meet several new people in Iwaki.