Its halloween time again!!!

Yeah so Straight Talk had a really great party yesterday night. At 3 o'clock was the kid's party. We played games, had a costume contest, the kids had performances, and in the end there was a pinata. The kids' costumes were so cute. Ron and I dressed up as fireflies. We bought a bunch of glowstick bracelets and put them all over us. Ron thought of the idea of making a bunch of them into a firefly butt. Everyone really liked our costumes...of course. I think the Censored Costume has a great successor. After the kids party, the adult students came in. Out went the ring toss and in came the beer and Chu-hi (girly drink). Everyone really dressed up and we had fun talking and teaching Japanese people how to shot-gun a beer. At one point we showed them all our American amazing-ness by dancing the "Time Warp." We had an incredible time. The people at Straight Talk are amazing. I think we really found ourselves a good place here in Morioka. For pictures of last years Halloween bonanza click below: http://www.engura.com/gallery.php?sel=halloween_2006 also for hearing another perspective of our night, check out Scary Monster. http://scaredmonster.blogspot.com/

A Joke From Mr. Oren Bordo

The following is an actual question given on a University of Washington chemistry mid term.

Bonus Question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)?





Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle's Law (gas cools when it expands and heats when it is compressed) or some variant.





One student, however, wrote the following:





First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So we need to know the rate at which souls are moving into Hell and the rate at which they are leaving. I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving. As for how many souls are entering Hell, let's look at the different religions that exist in the world today.





Most of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell. Since there is more than one of these religions and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all souls go to Hell. With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially. Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because Boyle's Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand proportionately as souls are added. < /P>





This gives two possibilities:





1. If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose.





2. If Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over.





So which is it?





If we accept the postulate given to me by Teresa during my Freshman year that, "It will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you," and take into account the fact that I slept with her last night, then number two must be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic and has already frozen over. The corollary of this theory is that since Hell has frozen over, it follows that it is not accepting any more souls and is therefore, extinct......leaving only Heaven, thereby proving the existence of a divine being which explains why, last night, Teresa kept shouting "Oh my God."





THIS STUDENT RECEIVED AN A+.

Beautiful Morioka

The Culture Shock of the Japanese school system

Ive now been in Dai Ichi for three months. I find the staff amazing and incredibly smart. All the things that I heard about sexual discrimination against the women workers, I have not seen here. The teachers all respect each other and truly care about the students and each other. I feel really blessed to be in this school. With that said, there are so many things that I have seen in the school that has completely boggled my mind, both in a good way and bad way. I think the most culture shock that I felt in Japan (besides the size of their pizza) was in the way the school works. So instead of having you all wait until you go to Japan to become and assistant English teacher for a year, possibly two, I thought Id save you the plane ticket.

Being a teacher in Japan is a highly prestigious job. Many people in Japan respect teachers and what they do for their children. Teachers are seen as the second parent, sometimes even the first parent. If there is one thing I can say about the Japanese teachers is that they are fully dedicated. Teachers actually follow their classes throughout the year so that the students have consistancy with an authority figure. Teachers will arrive at school at 6am and maybe not leave until 9pm. On the weekends, teachers will most likely be with their students for extra classes, club activities, or club tournaments. Teacher eat, live, and breathe their students. Even when students are on a break for a month, teachers are still in the teachers room working. They rarely have vacation. Compared to my 40 hours a week, Im no match for these teachers.

Another thing is that teachers are constantly circulated within the prefecture (state). The life span of a teacher in a school is roughly 7 years. Around that time, teachers will be called in and the principal will tell them that next year, they are teaching another school in another city. Now, that wouldnt be so bad in a prefecture thats the size of Pasadena, but for Iwate, the largest prefecture in Japan, you could be working at a southern city and then be sent to a school 3 hours away. So you have a family? Well, they can either leave everything to come with you or you can live by yourself. I live in a building they call "teachers housing". I guess I know what that's for now. Ive heard many stories of teachers that havent seen their family for three or four years because they live so far away.

Im not completely complaining about the school systems in Japan. If anything, its incredibly efficient. Students are very smart and grow up well rounded because they have positive role models all around them. If one goes astray, a teacher will be there for them. If the students live away from their family, their school provides comfort. Teaching is a presidious position because teachers are so effective. They sacrifice a lot, but there is a heap of reward that they see. I dont know if I like the system just yet, but this is truly a learning experience.

PS. Teachers have a life span of 7-8 years...principals have a life span of 2-3 years.

A tour of Morioka

Here are some the things that we did when Kunino and her friend Shizuka came into town this past weekend. We went around the city the first day and went to Hachimandai the second day. We were really lucky because the fall colors started to show. It was a beautiful sight to see.

Soup party!

I've realized that things like "Soup party", "Cricket party", and "business party" never really have anything to do with soup, cricket, or business. It's all code for DRINKING PARTY. This past weekend, we had an amazing experience. Our friends from Tokyo came and we got to show them around. It made us realize how cool Morioka actually is. We went to a nearby mountain and already the fall colors are showing, and showing beautifully. Ill have pictures later. We got to take them around and really realized that our little city had a lot to offer.

One of the places we went to was a bar that Ron and I have grown to love. Its a small sophisticated whiskey bar called "Lupin." The bartender (who we call Master) makes amazing drinks and when we went he invited us to his Soup Party. After dropping off our friends at the station, he picked us up and we went to his home where 12 other bar regulars were. We quickly realized that although there was soup. The real celebration was trying to finish a Sapporo keg that they brought. But we ended up spending 5 hours with these people, who many of only speak Japanese. It was an amazing time to meet amazing people and to further try out our Japanese. We left really full, really buzzed, and really happy. We walked home feeling like we were the luckiest people.

Inekari~

Ikanadate

THAT'S RICE!!

Hirosaki Castle Front Gate

Inekari in Japanese means "rice harvest" and this past weekend that's just what we did. We picked up two friends and went to Hirosaki which is about a two hour drive away. Its best known for its Cherry Blossoms in the springtime at Hirosaki Castle. But for this weekend, we went to Ikanadate which is a little ways from Hirosaki. Its a town with a size of 800, but for the rice planting and harvesting, they get about 200,000 visitors to help. So for that Sunday, we chucked rice, bundled it up, and schleped it off to the side. The most amazing part of this rice field is that every year, the planters make a design with four different kinds of rice. They spread it in such a way that as the rice grows, the different colors start to make designs in the rice field. The have created Edo period art, Samurai, and this year they did a design in the model of Hokusai's wood block tsunami. They built an observation building just to show the design. It's positively breathtaking. After the harvest, we made our way to look at Hirosaki Castle, also awesome, and made our way home. It was an amazing experience. It made me realize the hard work those hunched over baachans were doing. I felt a little bit more Japanese after that. I would gladly try that again.