A variety of adventures

It is unfortunate that we got Internet so late in the game. We have been having all sorts of adventures. In the interest of looking to the future, I may not really get around to describing our early weeks in detail, but here are a few highlights.

Hiking

Kobe is situated on the coast and backed by medium size mountains (not snow-capped or anything, but not just hills either). I decided that we should be intrepid and take the mountains on, so we bought a local hiking guide. I can't read any of the descriptions, but there are maps and highlights and a key that tells you the altitude gains for any given span of time on the hike. The problem was that the guide was in kilometers, so I had no idea what I was getting into. I wanted to start slow, so we chose a one star hike up Mount Maya that we could walk to from our house. When we started, there was a lovely old lady that helped us find the path and who explained that she climbs Mount Maya every day. This gave us confidence. Unfortunately, by the time we reached the top, we were prepared to kill ourselves - or perhaps, fairly sure we already had. We had to take the gondola down the hill. We just couldn't move anymore.  We ended the day with a nice hot bath in our super deep tub and haven't looked at the hiking book since. Incidentally, we discovered at another bookstore that "Mountain hiking" is different than "Mountain walking." It turns out that mountain walking = hiking and mountain hiking = mountaineering. One star hikes are only one star because they don't require special equipment. Awesome.

Food

We have also had all sorts of awesome food. For example, takoyaki which is very popular street vendor food. It consists of balls made out of batter with vegetables and octopus bits in it. Super tasty.  

We also had nabe, which consists of a shallow pot on a grill into which goes broth and a huge pile of meat and vegetables (especially cabbage). The grill is turned on, and the vegetables cook down into the broth. When it is all cooked, you pull the vegetables and meat out of the broth and eat. It was a rather exciting adventure. We also found dark beer at the nabe restaurant. It was a very welcome surprise and not one that has been repeated at other restaurants. 

Another delectable grilled dinner is yakiniku. It consists of a hot grill in the middle of your table and a plate of super tasty marinated raw meats and vegetables. You just grill the meat how you like and eat it as it comes off the grill. It was divine. Russell and I were quite pleased with ourselves. Russell was a real champ, too. He had to do an awful lot of talking to figure out what to do for both the nabe and the yakiniku. They are intimidating the first time you try them.

Social Events

Event #1: I had heard before I came that it is common to go out for social gatherings, often involving large amounts of alcohol, with your coworkers. It is a kind of bonding experience. As it turns out, our particular office hasn't really been known to do that kind of thing. This year, however, one of the other new hires took it on herself to get us all properly loosened up around each other. To be fair, our boss took note of her vague interest in having such a party and assigned her to make it happen. Which she did. There were probably around 19 people total. She chose a nomihodai (no idea if I spelled that right) which is an option at some bars where you go with a group and for a set period of time (and a set rate) its all you can drink. The drink list has a respectable variety, too. This particular gathering was in a private room (less chance of running into students) and included dinner. Oh, and it was in an Aladdin themed restaurant. It was incredibly tacky, but very fun. I didn't really drink very much, but the food was good, and it was fun to hang out with everyone. 

Event #2: After the big group social event, the native speaking English teachers decided to get together and have a night out as well (without bosses around).  This time, we chose a more typical izakaya which is a bar where you can order smallish quantities of food to share (kind of like tapas, but Japanese food). Apparently it is typical for everyone to just have as much as they want and then split the bill evenly at the end. (Well, the splitting part may not be typical - often one person treats - but none of us were feeling so generous).  This time we were a bit more liberal on the drinks - which was unfortunate because drinks are definitely not bottomless at an izakaya. We ended up paying a bit more than we expected - though it was still very reasonable for as much as we ate and drank. And before you get the wrong idea, we didn't way over-indulge. We all made it home safely and to work the next morning by 8am. We did enjoy ourselves, though. I work with a really good bunch of people - quirky, as you might imagine, but definitely good people. All but one of us are new to the job, too, so the bonding is very welcome. Russell has become an honorary teacher on nights like this because he was around so much the first few weeks when he was borrowing Internet for work.  

Health Check Up!

A week ago I was told something to the effect of, "Oh, tomorrow is the health check up day," by my boss. That didn't catch my attention much until I heard something about a chest x-ray. Huh? I asked what this was likely to involve. My boss said they would just take some blood and do a quick chest x-ray. She said it was no big deal, but we do need to do it. Apparently last year she put it off for several months and she finally got chewed out over it and went to the hospital to have the physical.  One of my other coworkers was scheptical. She had worked at several other schools and she told me that the physicals she has experienced take a long time and are quite thorough. She recommended not wearing an underwire bra so I wouldn't have to de-robe for the chest x-ray. Awesome. The next day I arrived and started filling out my medical history form (with extensive translation help). Once the group of us were done, we trooped down to the temporary medical clinic in the lobby to be checked out. Keep in mind we all had to teach starting at 9:00am, but the doctors weren't accepting anyone until 8:30 - and I needed to give blood and get a chest x-ray... this wasn't sounding very feasible. 

As it turned out, it was the full physical - not just blood and an x-ray. First we were presented with a cup and shuffled off to the bathroom. We then took our cups to be tested and were weighed. Next we had an eye exam. Then we gave blood and a doctor listened to our heart and lungs. At this point, it was time to teach, so the doctors asked us if we could come back after class. We agreed, but for me, that meant after 12:30, and the doctors were already gone.  So now I need to go finish my physical at the hospital - which includes the chest x-ray and (did I forget to mention?) an EKG. Seriously. And all workers have this done once a year in Japan. This isn't just a funny thing at this school. 

Don't hit the red button! Or the blue one, for that matter.

One last story and then I'm off to bed. An early mistake I made (uh, twice) was pushing the wrong button in the bathroom stall in public restrooms and setting off the safety alarm. Many public restrooms have emergency buttons in case someone follows you into the bathroom. Its a good idea - unless you can't read Japanese. The first time, I was searching for how to flush the toilet and I saw two buttons on the wall. One was silver and one was green. I figured "green for go" right? The real problem is that once the alarm goes off, you have exactly 30 seconds to decide between trying to figure out how to turn it off again, or pulling up your pants before the security guard comes running in. The confusing thing, is that you DO hit a button on the wall to flush the toilet. So I wasn't that far off, I just hit the wrong one. In this case, the guard came in and yelled at me to push the button again to turn it off (again, I had other things on my mind rather then figuring out how to turn the alarm off). 

And unfortunately, that wasn't the last time I pulled this stunt. My second day at work, before anyone else had arrived, I found myself in a similar situation. Except this time there was no obvious way to flush the toilet other than a red button on the wall. I had learned from before that buttons on walls are used to flush toilets, and my associations with color and meaning are not trustworthy, so I hit the button. The alarm went off. I could hear it ringing through the whole school. Luckily there were no students around yet - but the alarm really echoed. I tried hitting the button again as the guard at the station showed me, but it didn't do anything. Having failed to stop the alarm, my first priority returned to my pants. I went outside and explained to the guard what had happened - well, in as much as I can explain anything with my broken Japanese. He was very kind, and turned off the alarm (only the guards can do it at the school).  It turns out there is a normal flushing handle on the school toilets, but it is hard to see behind the enormous toilet lid. I also later found out that I was not the only non-Japanese speaker to set off the alarm in the bathroom.