ONE OK BUNNY vs the Earthquakes

So I'm in Japan and the big elephant in the room at the moment here is the disaster that happened on March 11th. An almost unimaginable and unheard of 9.0 earthquake struck just off the coast of the Tohoku region of Japan. Unheard of that is until the recent increase in mega quakes.

As everything unfolded before my eyes on CNN I worried about my friends and their families. My heart went out to all those lost as well those they left behind. I really wanted to be on the next plane to Tokyo to go help out those who were not homeless and living in make shift shelters. But pushed in the back of my head was the most selfish of thoughts....

"What did this mean for my dream of moving to Japan to become an English teacher?"

Now we know what happened after; I got hired by Interac and ended up moving my departure to July 7th. I am now sitting in a seaside city(thankfully a city mostly high up so no worries so much) and I see damage from the earthquake everywhere; mainly in the appearance of tarps up on numerous roofs around the area and cracked stairs as well as severely damaged sidewalks.

I have been here about a month and half and the reason I am deciding to collect my thoughts so far is because the largest earthquake that has happened since I arrived happened today.

Earthquakes are a part of my life right now. There is not a day that goes by that one or two 3 to 5 pointers happen. The first night in Japan just before 4 am I experienced my first earthquake here this time. It even got to a point I could assume there would be a sizable quake sometime in the 3am hour. ^^; The one that worried me the most was a... 6.2 that happened when I was down in Yokohama for the weekend. Since I was away I worried about what had happen with things in my apartment. I thankfully only returned to this

A couple knocked over classes and picture frames. So yesterday I came to the conclusion that I am too numb to earthquakes now. I fear to the fault of not taking cover when I really would need to. Today opened my eyes to that more.

I was at training with 7 guys that are the first batch of fall intakes for Interac. One of them had never experienced earthquakes before landing in Japan. There were two quakes strong enough to notice during training today. The first happened and I didn't think much of it at all. I heard some slightly panic breathing next to me and realized to one who was not numb... perhaps used to is a better term.... to the earthquakes it would be a frightening thing. Especially this is someone who did not come early to be placed "most probably" in Tohoku and might have had worries of being so close to disaster area. These earthquakes would be very scary in your first week.

I might smile and laugh a little about the fear but if you were to put me in the middle of tornado alley and a F1 was touching down or a hurricane cat 1 was coming I would be really scared.

So that was my reason for talking about daily life and quakes! ^^

The ones that do worry me are the ones that epicenter is within a few km of here. The earthquake monitoring station near by is the first to read the quakes. They have been strong jolting quakes but they only last a couple seconds.

outside of all that....

Still waiting for my first payday but life is fine and I have one more week before I start teaching! I am looking forward to it but after today.... bombed my demo and had to take a moment for some tears and pull myself together... I am a little worried about my "AH!!! I CAN'T DO THIS!!!" phase but I got to get through that to get to what I'm looking forward to when it's second nature. ^_^ v

ONE OK BUNNY vs the Juo Matsuri

Today was the local Matsuri!

Even though I've studied Japanese culture there is still so much to learn about it! I have to say that today felt like some happy memories from my childhood.

Growing up the town I lived in was one of the few in the area that had a Independence Day Parade. I lived only a few blocks away from the parade route so within the blocks between me and the route was staging grounds. A block away was the horses and the block after that was the line of floats. I remember waking up early putting out chairs to save our spot then walking around and seeing everything. There was just something about being so close like that.

Today reminded me of that feeling! I walked out to take a look after applying for my concert tickets to go see ONE OK ROCK in November and saw things were still getting ready and people where really out yet. I also remembered that I needed lunch ^^;; So had a quick bite and checked again. I loved that! Going and coming back then heading out again.

Today was really hot! So after getting some footage of the shrine being moved and some girls dancing on the stage I went back to my apartment in fear of getting sunburned. I also poked my friend who wanted to check it out (sadly the one i talked about in the previous entry). She came over and as I got an update from her about things we cooled down in my ac'd room before heading out.

So what to know about a Matsuri!

First off Matsuri means festival! just in case you didn't know ^^;;

The man things to see at most matsuri is the shrine being carried along as well as the hanabi or fireworks at night. Sure there are some huge matsuri out there like the Gion Matsuri in Kyoto which is worth seeing! And I plan to find a way to weekend in Sapporo for the Snow Matsuri in February as well. But there are a ton of matsuri's happening all over because there is no set date for them. though July and August with Tanabata and Obon sees a lot of them.

Another point to matsuris are food! Lots of yummy japanese food like Yakisoba, Takoyaki, as well as one of my favorites Okonomiyaki! But the highlight of summer matsuri is shaved ice! ^^

There was a stage built and seemed throughout the day there were dancing and other shows going on. Some were hiphop dancing to popular songs and others were traditional Japanese dance complete with flutes and drums. I almost wished they had seats in some shade so i could enjoy it the whole time.

I was really excited to see one thing I've known to be popular with matsuri is Goldfish scooping. You get a hoop with thin rice paper and try to scoop the fish into a bowl and you keep what you get. It's harder then it looks I bet!

Something that seems rare in Japan is the added event of bird fishing at the Juo Matsuri. At the river they close off an area and set some torches/bond fires on the shore. Then set two cormorants and their handlers loose in the river to catch fish. It was amazing to see and next year I want to get a pic of the bird with the fish in it's mouth!

After that the lights on the bank were turned off and the fires put out and the hanabi started!

I really wanted to see Hanabi!! But I didn't want to deal with a million people or walk a few km to get somewhere to watch them;alone to boot! nope not feeling it!

so the local small hanabi outside my front door worked perfectly!

The local people are amazing and I really got a feel for who they were as group. The matsuri was more about local flavor then overall japanese flavor and i really enjoyed that.

When the hanabi started and there were about... 30second or a minute of solid fireworks and they stopped the old lady next to me joked that was it. lol I seriously lol'd. Then hearing the girls in front of me laugh and mock one of the fireworks for making a loud exciting noise then not being much visually. I just felt the local community.

Best day for far! ^^

ONE OK BUNNY vs the loneliness

So starts the new world of this blog! I wanted to come up with a way to title my blogs with some kind of uniform. So ONE OK BUNNY vs... what ever the topic would be ^^

Tomorrow will mark a month since I landed in Japan. Though I have only been in my apartment under two weeks I am still working on getting things set up.

What I want to talk about is what I'm sure most people coming over alone will deal with in someway. The situation is worse in my case then most because I tend to be shy in new situations and have had very little money this far. I don't see the situation changing much until my first paycheck at the end of September.

I'm talking about the whole starting somewhere new and meeting new people thing. In this situation every situation is different as every person is different. I am going through a strange phase of being so lonely and going out of my mind sitting in my apartment as well as at the same time just wanting to be a hermit and not do anything or see anyone.

The ALTs I met in Hitachi are amazing and it might because I came right before break that I find myself with a lot of time on my hands. The ALTs I'm sure are also busy because they are on holiday. That coupled with no money means not seeing anyone really.

I got invited out a few times by the girl I came up with from Tokyo because the ALTs invited her out. It was left with a "I'll let you know" from her then nothing came of it. She had done that a few times so I just rolled with it.

I think this phase will go better for those in the fall intake because they start work shortly after arriving and I will have to wait a few more weeks before my first day of class.

I did meet one ALT that lives about 2km from me that I seemed to hit it off with. She told me when she came about a month before me she knew no one until the day we met in training. I couldn't believe it! When I arrived the company was all about me meeting the other ALTs so I wouldn't be lonely.

Today the one ALT so far I've started to get to know told me she wants to go home and break contract. Now this is her business but I wanted to bring it up because she is for sure not one who would crack in a new country; she's been there done that and is well traveled. There are worries about family at home that could turn into an emergency which anyone would want to be home for. Even though every job tells you leave personal problems outside of the work place it's almost impossible to do! Sometimes life points you in a direction that you need to head and that maybe why she wants to go home. on a more personal note one summer I had to drop out of summer classes and go home because everything worked against me and I couldn't afford it. It turned out my mom passed away that summer so I had just short of 2 months with her before it happen suddenly.

I'm sorry about being random in my thoughts and just kind of rambling. Emotions do that ^^

So as bummed as I am about the one friend I'm making leaving soon I totally support her and hope the best for her in the future. I just wanted to point out that I don't think there is a guarantee that you might not get depressed here no matter what you've done in the past or what type of person you are. I look back at my time studying abroad and see I spiraled into a depression and I thought it had to do with having no money to do anything. After today I wonder if there was more to it. I am being fully aware of all that keeping it in mind and trying to stay sane now ^^

And on an unrelated note! My money issues are sure to continue... why? because I had to buy a new computer with my loan... yeah my other broke. Though a friend pointed out that the difference in power would kill the computer at some point. So I got a new laptop yesterday and with that my issues with money continue! ^^