This blog involving my wonderful rife, takes part for the most part in the small agrarian city of Ohtawara-shi--which translates into English as 'Big-Rice Field-Field City', just in case you thought I was making up that agrarian-thing--Tochigi-ken (Tochigi Prefecture), Japan. I lived there starting in late July of 1990 as a junior high school assistant English teacher (AET) on the JET (Japan Exchange & Teaching) Programme team-teaching with a Japanese teacher of English (JTE).
I, despite constant moaning and groaning here in these blogs, love Japan. Not only because I lost my virginity here as a 25-year-old and then became a sex stud (my own not-so humble opinion), but rather because I got out a lot and experienced a wipe array of sights, sounds and smells. I got out and met and befriended many Japanese folk - male, female in a wide range of ages and occupations, traveled a fair bit within the country - but unfortunately not every where. I love the culture, the food, the drink and the personality of the people, which, to be perfectly honest, really wasn't all that different from what I saw back home in Toronto, Canada.
Screw the stereotypes (though they do exist in one fashion or another), Japan was my home. And home is where the heart is.
Having said all that, this blog is now at Wednesday November 13, 1991 - I believe it is my 481st day here in Japan, and Andrew is not all that happy. Hey, I'm human... despite what you may have heard. Most of it deals with a lack of respect from some of my fellow gaijin (foreigners) who aren't my friends (because I don't know them... hmmm... I guess 20 years later I have a reason why there is no respect), or from my woman troubles.
It beats me why a man who travel all the way to Japan to date an American woman, but that is just what I did. Ashley Benning was and perhaps is 20 years later (I don't know) a super cute chick. She's a couple of years younger than me, but is sharp as she is pretty. There. I said it. It must be true. Aside from her being the first woman to want to sleep with me, we got along pretty well - when we weren't fighting.
I guess she was a loner - or perhaps very quiet and introspective. I was too until I arrived here in Ohtawara, but I said screw that noise and reinvented myself as an out-going extrovert. As such, I would tell you exactly how I was feeling or what I was doing, and was probably the inspiration of the stupid saying "too much information". I call it stupid because it's not too much information. It's simply one person teling another (or in the case of this blog) some 10- to 15,000 readers a month what's going on.
I tell it like it is here. If I look like a jerk, so be it. I try NOT to put words into other people's mouth or thoughts, but instead express my on views on how their actions or in-actions affect me. That's fair, right? I've only changed the name of one person in this blog - at her request... and I asked her about it first. Though I haven't seen her in 18 years, she is still one of my favorite people on this planet.
Ashley, Matthew Hall, James 'Jimmy Jive' Dalton', Colin McKay (you'll meet hm soon enough) are some of the gaijin contingent I like very much and hang around with. Matthew (from upstate New York), U.S., who teaches junior high to schools in the outskirts of this city, lives five minutes away from me in Ohtawara; Ashley (from Augusta, Georgia, U.S.) is a 30-minute bike-ride northwest in Nishinasuno-machi (Nishinasuno Town) and is the boys and girl's high school AET in Ohtawara; Colin (from Calgary, Alberta, Canada) lives in Kurobane-shi and teaches high school, while James (from Stoney Creek, Ontario, Canada) is a junior high teacher in the village of Mamada (I think!).
Other regular characters include: Junko. Man... I could write a book on her. And... I guess I am right here... She is a very sexy, Japanese woman currently enrolled at Utsunomiya University studying to be a teacher. When she was placed for a week at one of my schools, to say we hit it off would be an understatement. Sex, sex and more sex. She would spend every evening at my place - and night to... ensuring I would get no sleep and would be forced to smell her apple blossom shampoo all day long. It was only supposed to be a week-long fling considering her school was 40 minutes (by car) south of Ohtawara, but she decided to start skipping class and would sit outside whatever of the seven junior high schools I taught at... waiting in her car... stalking me.... not moving... just waiting for a glimpse of me... following me home at a discrete distance... and then wait until late in the evening until whatever person was visiting me that day would leave... and then sex, sex and more sex. That's all good right? But try not physically sleeping for a couple of weeks and then being expected to perform like a sex gorilla just because I would rip her clothes off when I saw her. We never went out. We never dated. we never left the confines of my three-bedroom apartment. I tried to break-up with her - but only after she told me she was dropping out of school for me. That's not cool. Sweet, but not cool. Despite her ability to speak English like a native, her beauty and brains, I felt like she was not quite right and could use some help. So I got another JTE involved, who arranged for her to be essentially kidnapped and taken back to her parent's house and hopefully get some medical help. A month or two later, I ran across her again... back in school, not hung up on me and with a Japanese boyfriend. Despite us getting caught having sex in an empty classroom at Utsunomiya University, she seemed less hung up on me than I expected. She wasn't stalking me, and I have to admit I missed being stalked.
Okay... maybe I do love Japan because of all of the sex.
Kanemaru-san and Hanazaki-san are my two bosses (and special handlers) at the OBOE (Ohtawara Board of Education Office). Both are in their 40s (younger than I am now in 2012!?), have families with kids in university and high school and grade school, are extremely generous with their time and money and love, and funny, intelligent hard-working men who like to have a good time. Hanazaki-san speaks far better English than Kanemaru-san, but Kanemaru-san has taken me under his wing and become like a second father to me. He takes Ashley and myself out to kyudo (Japanese archery) lessons once a week... and I must admit I hate it.I'm not that good at it, but I really don't want to disappoint the man by quitting. I did the same thing with my dad and the accordion and piano, and I did eventually become a piano teacher, which helped pay for my journalism school which helped me get here to Japan and then here again to this blog about Japan.
There is also the Ohtawara International Friendship Association. You wouldn't think that an agrarian city of 50,000 would have such a club, but it does. I'm unsure if it was a powerful entity in the city, but they always had a very large presence at every cultural event and always made sure they invited every single foreigner in the city (including the Asian Rural Institute and others over on work exchanges) , though I will say that perhaps Matthew and myself were the star attractions of the maybe 20 foreigners in the area. Matthew and I each teach a night school English class organized by the Association. Matthew owing to his far superior Japanese language skills taught the advanced class and I taught the beginners. Personally, I always felt it should be the other way around. Wouldn't you want someone who can speak Japanese teaching beginners? It beats me why I never thought of that until 2012.
Other making an appearance are: Shoko, the shy but beautiful student of mine in my night school class; Karen Irwin, the pretty, bubbly redhead fro North Bay, Ontario, Canada who would like me as her boyfriend - but for some reason I don't; Mr. Maniwa the old man and pervert pharmacist who is a laugh riot despite him pinching Ashley's ass and trying to grab her boobs; Nobuko Kikuchi who later in this blog I will ask to marry me; the students of: Ohtawara Chu Gakko (Ohtawara Junior High School), Nozaki Chu Gakko, Wakakusa Chu Gakko, Sakuyama Chu Gakko, Chikasono Chu Gakko, Kaneda Minami Chu Gakko and Kaneda Kita Chu Gakko. This last school contained a pack of kids I hated - even one I put in a choke hold and held until he turned blue. I told you I would write about how I could look like a jerk.
Regardless... 2012's blogs will take you from the end of 1991 and well into 2012 of my life in Japan (and even to other countries!). It will be warm, funny, astute, sad, hurtful, sexy and above all perfectly written without any grammatical or spelling errors. Hmmm... I guess that's one new year's resolution already out the window. And... to mix things us, I will continue to post up true stories about the weirdness of Japan; researched looks into various topics concerning Japan; re-posting of links to blogs I like who write about Japan; sporting events; beauty pageants, everything you didn't know about the religion, food, drink, culture, language and society about Japan. Oh... and let's not forget about the haiku (specialized Japanese poetry) I like to write about Godzilla. And to keep things honest, along with all of the great things I will write about Japan, I will also write about some of the not-so-great things about Japan.
My one vow to you, dear reader, is that I will not be critical, but that I will present the facts as I find them and let you make you make up your own mind on things. Okay... maybe I will take the piss out of somethings, but that's only fair, right.
Welcome again to Japan - It's A Wonderful Rife.
Somewhere wishing he could type with more than three fingers and a thumb,
Andrew Joseph
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