Getting settled in Shizuoka

Well, it’s been just over two weeks since I arrived in Shizuoka and I've finally settled in. I'm teaching around 22 hours a week, I've got my little black Nissan hatchback, my cozy little apartment and a nasty green tea habit, which I, ignorantly, thought was caffine free!!

I live in Oiwaga, Shizuoka, a small town about 30 minutes southeast of Shizuoka City and 15 minutes away from the Bowers English School in Makinohara City, where I teach 80% of my classes. I teach three classes in my apartment on Tuesdays and one on Saturday evenings. I also go to a private Kindergarden school on Monday afternoons, where five adorable, yet vicious, kindergarden students torment me for an hour. Teaching the high school and adult classes are not much of a problem for me, as I've been trained to teach them, but the children are still a bit of a challenge, yet enjoyable all the same.

Makinohara City (fomerly Haibara) is a surfing community and I take a walk on the beach everyday to watch all the Japanese surfers get all 90210 and shit. I've made it a priority to learn how to surf; a vow I made (but never kept) when I lived in Australia. Lately, the waves haven't been too big, but some dudes and dudesessies still get out there and try to Jeff Spicolli.


Ranie Bowers and her mom Hiroko have been incredibly kind and giving to me, as I try to settle into this new situation. They've fed me all kinds of Japanese delights, initiated my aforementioned green tea habit and took me to my first on-sen, a Japanese hot spring.

Now, for those of you who have never heard of this Japanese tradition, you get buck naked and hang out in hot baths. The men and women are seperated, so I was left to figure out what to do by watching the other men do what they do. All the men were between the ages of 50 and 300 years old, so I really felt out of place, however, it was an amazing experience, with the outdoor bath high on a mountain, looking over a river.

Tomoko Kobayashi came for a visit last weekend and helped me move into my apartment, which is probably 9 tetami, which means its pretty big in Japanese standards, but small compared to places in Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal or Melbourne, where I've rented apartments.

As I was cleaning up today, I looked out my the window and realized I have a decent view of Mount Fuji. It reminds me of that stereotype we see in the movies that every apartment in Paris has a view of the Eiffel Tower. For the record, almost every apartment I've had in Toronto has had a view of the CN Tower!! Here's a picture of my view of Fuji-san.

I'm tying to get to Nagoya (around three hours away) to see The Pixies play in a 1,500 capacity club on Friday December 9, but my lack of direction and a 9:30 am class on Saturday morning may 86 that plan!

This weekend is our Christmas party weekend. On Friday, the kids and Saturday with the adults! It should be a lot of fun.

The birth of Baby Ethan

My cousin Hubert and his beautiful wife Gladys are the proud parents of a new son! Ethan was born at 12:26am on Sunday November 27, weighing in at
approximately 7 lbs, 2 oz. All reports say that the new mom, dad and son are doing well.

I wish I was there... somebody please send pictures so I can post pictures!

So in honour of the birth of Ethan Samuel Barco Ramos (my brother thinks that's his official name), here's The Doods' "Top 10 names I would have given Ethan"

10. Eliseo (our late grandfather Ramos' name)

9. Fernando Valenzuela

8. Theodore (Hubert's father's name)

7. Grover

6. Jacob

5. Jun-Jun or any form of Junior or Hubie Jr.

4. Diego

3. Principal Skinner

2. Joshua (the name our Mom calls me -- I don't know why)

1. Doods

Greetings from Shizuoka, Japan

Konnichiwa,

I am sitting in the home of Hiroko Bowers in Makinohara City (formerly Haibara-cho) in the prefecture of Shizuoka, just 45 minutes outside of Shizuoka City.

Hiroko is the mother of my sisters’ lovely friend Ranie, and they run the family-owned Bowers English School where I will be teaching. As I sit here with their two dogs Milanda and Hanako and one of their three cats Momo, I think of how much of a whirlwind the past three days have been:

Friday, November 11, 2005

I spent the whole morning at the Japanese Embassy in Manila trying to authenticate my work visa for Japan. The chaos of trying to get hundreds of Filipinos to get in an orderly line and wait their turn was very confusing, but in the end my mission was accomplished.

My last night in Manila was spent at two places called Mayrics and Big Sky, regular hangouts for the local musicians, where I got to see my friends in the bands Sandwich, Imago, Itchyworms, Sun Valley Crew and Bad Burn play. I had to leave for the airport at 5am, so I got home at about 2:30 and finished my last minute tidy up. I got no sleep!

My cousin’s husband Andy and my uncle Matt drove me to the airport, where the chaos of trying to get hundreds of Filipinos to get in an orderly line and wait their turn was very confusing, but the end my mission was accomplished.

Saturday, November 12, 2005

Because I didn’t sleep at all on Friday night, I thought the 9:40 am flight to Tokyo’s Narita Airport would be a great time to sleep, but wouldn’t you know it, I sat beside a baby with colic, and it aggressively cried for the four hours to Tokyo. I got no sleep!

The lovely Tomoko Kobayashi picked me up from the airport and the 2 hour train ride into downtown Tokyo was pretty uneventful, except for when my big suitcase fell while we were ongoing up an escalator, nearly crushing the non-expecting woman below.

I got into Shibuya area of Tokyo at about 6pm, where we checked into a hotel and I had time for a shave and a shower before we had to go to a restaurant to for my reunion party with a bunch of former students and friends I had met at KGIC, the ESL school in Toronto where I worked for two years.

A whole range of students during two year stint at KGIC showed up to the dinner. Some of the students didn’t know each other from Toronto, but after a while they were chatting like old friends. I remember at one point asking all of the students to take a picture together because I didn’t think (my friend and KGIC co-worker) Trevor Marshall would believe that I got all these people together.

We laughed, reminisced about Toronto, ate great food and smoked a lot of cigarettes (in Tokyo, you are allowed to smoke inside, but your not allowed to smoke outside!)

Tomoko, who did a great job of organizing the party, asked me to say a speech in Japanese, but because I was tired and a little drunk, all I could say was “Domo arigato" (Thank you). I did say (in English) that it was almost like a dream being in Japan, so far away from home, but knowing so many lovely and kind people were here to make me feel safe.

We exchanged cell phone numbers and said our goodbyes before Masato (known as “Fuckin’Mark Guy”) took this picture. Sorry Shingo, your face got cut out!

Sunday, November 13, 2005

After checking out of the hotel, Tomoko took me around to see some sites and sounds of a Sunday afternoon in Tokyo. We had lunch in Akihabara, the Electronics capitol of Tokyo, then later had a cup of tea in Shinjuku, where the amount of people on the street was incredible! We then had dinner in Shibuya, which was even more crowded than Shinjuku. By the time I got on my train to Shizuoka, I was so overwhelmed, because Tokyo felt like a scene from a movie (much like the way NYC did, the first time I went there.)

Hiroko and Ranie picked me up from the train station and after we got to their place, after some unnecessary drinking, I got my first real sleep in three days.

photos from dinner in tokyo

Here are photos from my dinner in Tokyo. Thanks to everyone who came and called (Masayuki from Nagoya and Yuuki from Osaka)
This dinner was truly one of the happiest moments of my career. For details about the party, please read the entry called "Greetings from Shizuoka, Japan" November 14, 2005

What I dug in Manila

It is 1pm and I leave Manila for Tokyo in just over 18 hours. Here's my top 5 things I dug during my brief stay here.

5. The Itchyworms’ new record

4. Instructing locals how to take transit.

3. Adding 7 new pairs of specs to my glasses collection.

2. Having a crush on my second cousin.

1. A huge sushi dinner for the equivalent of $3 CDN

Next time you hear from me, i'll be in Japan...

November 11 - Happy birfday Lolo Jesus!

My Lolo (the filipino word for Grandfather) Jesus (pronounced "Hey Zeus", like Sam Jackson in Die Hard 3) turns 100 years old today. And in honour of the man and the legend, my brother has compiled yet another list (na naman?).

In honour of our Grandfather Jesus' 100th birfday, here's the Doods' top 7 Jesus references.
7) "Jesus, Mary and Joseph...Let the boy marry your grandmother!"- Chris Farley

6) Jesus Christ Pose -Soundgarden

5) (Big Baby Jesus) I Can't Wait - Ol' Dirty Bastard

4) The Jesus Lizard.

3) "Plastic Jesus" from Cool Hand Luke.

2) Jesus, Etc. by Wilco.

1) "DON"T FUCK WITH THE JESUS!"- Jesus Quintana from The Big Lebowski

Yet another Doods list. For hockey fans only

My brother went to the Nov 8 Toronto Maple Leafs win against the Washington Capitols . Here are the top 3 heckles overheard at the game
3. Shoot the puck Kaberle or I'm gonna shit on your face!!!

2. Klee! stop playing like Aki Berg you fuckin idiot!!!

1. Ah, Fuck this--I'm going home!! [After Andy Frost announces that Aki Berg is scratched from the line-up before the game]

The Doods top 5 things he will miss now that Wes is gone

For those of you who don't know nuffin', The Doods is my twin brother and he calls me Wes (as in Wesley J Ramos, Wesley Krusher, Wesley Snipes, Maestro Fresh Wes, etc.)

TOP 5 THINGS I WILL MISS NOW THAT WES IS GONE

5) Randy Ray references

4) "Aksing" to borrow your dvds

3) My dysentery

2a) beautiful Korean Girls pointing and giggling at me on the Subway.

2b) beautiful Turkish girls giving me the eye.

2c) beautiful Japanese girls jumping in front of my bike yelling your name.

1) Jess...go!
(A reference to the way I answer my cell phone, a la Kosmo Krammer, just ask Kevin Chlebovec, he'll tell you!)

Greetings from the Philippines

Like every other trip to Asia, my trip begins in the Philippines.

After two days of no sleep, i finally got onto my Korean Air flight bound for Manila. The only news to report was that I had a brief, scarey situation at the Incheon Airport during my six hour stop over in Korea. I dropped my passport while sleeping on a bench and a very kind American man from Atlanta watched my things as I tried to retrace my steps, 20 minutes prior to boarding the airplane. The Korean Air staff found it and it was waiting for me at my gate. This all happened in five minutes, but it felt like two hours!! I believe that karma was on my side.

I landed on Oct 29 and my mom and dad picked me up at Ninoy Aquino International Airport to take me to Luisana, Laguna, a provencial village where my Grandfather Jesus (who turns 100 years old on Nov 11) and step grandmother live. My grandfather is bed ridden with a broken hip and he's frail, but he immediately recognized me and gave me a blessing. Then I slept for three straight days!

The end of October always brings about "All Saints Day", the celebration of the dead, when Filinos go to there hometowns and party for three days at the cemeteries where their dead relatives are buried. So I went to my parents' hometown of Cavinti, Laguna, where it seems life hasn't cahanged for about 40 years. I hung out with my cousins Andy and Danny and we indulged in some San Miguel beer.

By the way, when it rains her in the Philippines, it's quite forceful!

I am now at an internet cafe in Marikina, Metro Manila, where I am visiting with my cousin Judy, her husband Andy and their beautiful new adopted baby Anjali (who I have been named Godfather to!)

I am still waiting on some paper work for Japan and I just bought my ticket to Tokyo for November 12, where my firends and former students will meet and have a party...I can't wait!

Stay tuned, y'all

Nemeste!
xo
Jess