Thats Good Crack

Today I learned that in Ireland it is common to say "that's good crack" when you like something. For example, "Have you been to karaoke?" "Yeah, its good crack." Apparently in Ireland there is a lot of good crack.

The last few days here have been FANTASTIC! Really, fantastic. The weather had been incredibly beautiful. From what I'm told, it wont last long so I have been trying to enjoy it as much as possible. The sky is blue, the sun is shining, and its a crisp 18.9 degrees.
Perfect biking weather, which is good because I've been doing a lot of it. We'll start with Friday.


Friday, September 22

I woke up early Friday morning (as I do everyday because the sun comes up at 4 am) and tried to recoup a little from the days past. Training was long and very overwhelming. I realize I came here to work, but after being here for only a week I had moved and lived in two different cities, met three new roommates, experienced a Shinkansen (bullet train) catastrophe, and been trained for a completely new type of job that is unlike anything I've ever done before. If I were a PC, all you would see is the blue screen of death. So after three days of On the Job Training, I spent Thursday going through Kids training. Not surprisingly, there is an entirely different system for teaching English to kids. When I was finally allowed to go back to Fukushima I was exhausted. So Friday was my day to take a breather.

That morning, my roommate, Katie, let me know that I had been invited by a Japanese friend of hers to go to dinner at his house with her and another mutual friend. This sounded exciting but what really sold me was the promise that his mother was an excellent cook. I was sold. A smart man once said "A little birdie told me that the way to your heart is through your stomach." (Its true.) But first, I needed a bike. The only way for me to get to work is by bus or by bike. The bus is 600 yen round trip so I figured I should get a bike. So, Katie and Donna took me a few blocks down to a little bike shop where a little old man made me test ride a teal bike with a black basket on the front. FYI: all bikes have baskets here. Because I hadn't rode a bike in about a decade I think the bike was testing me more than I was testing it. After the handing over of about 6,900 yen the bike was mine and we were on our way. (More bike story to come.)

After a quick stop at the apartment Katie and I ventured out to meet Yoko so she could drive us to dinner. Katie's friend lives at the base of the mountains just beyond fields of peach, pear, and apple trees. The drive was beautiful. I've never seen anything like it before. The mountains were gorgeous and the rice patties were so quaint and simple. I couldn't imagine a more peaceful landscape. When we finally arrived there were slippers at the door and food on the table. After the brief niceties and short conversation the feast began. There was so much food, I ate until I thought I would burst. I think maybe there was an Iron Chef hidden in the kitchen because everything was delicious. There was shrimp tempura, potato salad with egg and shrimp, mashed okra with chicken, smoked chicken, smoked ribs, smoked cheese, a pear, apple, and peach salad with croutons (yum), sweet potato cake tarts, and HUGE purple grapes. And, not only was the food great, but the company was too. I met a few very special people who really made me feel at home. Thanks guys.


After dinner, I had my first bike riding adventure. Katie and I rode to an electronics store to buy a wireless router so we could all be connected to the internet at once. I started off a bit wobbly but gained my composure fairly quickly. After all, I have been told that riding a bike is just like riding a bike... Yeah, try telling that to the guy I almost had a head-on-collision with. Oops. Helmets and knee pads are welcome care package items.

Needless to say, I slept pretty well that night.

Saturday, September 23

Saturday was my first official day of work. I must say, it went smooth as pie (or is that easy as pie?) Everyone was really nice and extremely helpful. All the students were curious about me and did very well in their lessons.

*An average day is 8 hours with 8 forty minute lessons and a food break

Pete, another Nova instructor met me in the morning and we rode to SATY (the shopping mall where the Nova office is) together. He's Irish (good crack) and I can barely understand a word he says but it was nice to have the company for the long bike ride. Speaking of which, I had no problems on the way there but I did totally wipe out on the ride back to my apartment. Don't worry though, a wooden railing broke my fall. Again, helmet and knee pads welcome.

I've been experimenting with food a bit more. That night I had udon noodle soup which I ate with chopsticks. Pretty impressive, I know.

Sunday, September 24

I woke up Sunday and went straight to work. It was the first time I rode alone to work and I had more of a chance to take a look around. It is absolutely gorgeous here. The shops are so different and even somewhat humorous. For whatever reason, Japanese people like inserting English words into random places. So you will see signs written in Japanese that have 3 words of English inserted in the middle somewhere. I would say its helpful but its usually not because the words are mostly ambiguous. I also ride over a river that has a small park next to it. Very scenic. The best part is I get to ride through a mountain. Yeah, right through it, down this long tunnel. Its a pretty awesome bike ride. The whole thing takes me about 30 minutes, so I am definitely getting my work out. Everything I do not only keeps me on my toes but keeps me pretty tired. With that said, I bid you farewell.