What...Storm?

Hey blog readers!  How are you doing?  Well I'm happy to report that nothing serious happened when first hurricane in 2 years to hit Japan, Hurricane (Typhoon 台風) Melor came to shore in Osaka.  The winds were quite strong at night and I really couldn't sleep.  There was strong rain and wind for the duration of the night.  3am was probably the worst time for me.  I just watched the news on my cell phone and hoped nothing would break or fall apart.  The eye of the storm didn't hit Osaka directly luckily.  Unfortunately, other parts of Japan were not so lucky.  Here is a quick story that sums up the storm from The Examiner. Typhoon Melor  School was canceled for most of Osaka on Thursday.  I was glad because I really didn't want to venture outside with all that rain on the streets.  To sum it up, my first experience with a hurricane was uneventful, thankfully!

So today was the start of the 3rd term here at my school.  There are 4 terms total at my school.  Later this month is the school festival called 文化祭　"Bunkasai".  I talked about this event in the past, so look at the archives if you wish.  It will be held on the final Saturday and Sunday of October.  The bad thing is that I have to work on that weekend.  The good thing is that we get "make-up" days off the following Monday and Friday.  Brilliant!  That's another perk of working at a school in Japan.  When you have to work on a weekend, they will will usually give you the following Monday off or a day of your choice during the week!  I can't really complain about that! :)

This Saturday I will volunteer at a local Elementary school down the road from my high school.  They are having an "international festival".  That's a pretty vague term, but basically they will have some foreign English teachers and foreign exchange students from around the area to teach the kids about games from our countries.  From my school, 2 exchange students and I will volunteer to help.  I have to teach the kids from the elementary school about a simple game I used to play when I was a kid in school.  So the best game that I have memories of was Heads-up 7up!  That was a great game!  If you don't know this game, I'll give you the basic rules.  You get a group of students to come to the front of the class and have the rest of the students stay seated.  The seated students have to put their heads down on the desk with their eyes closed.  They have to stick their hand out with their thumb up.  The standing students will walk around the classroom quietly touching one students thumb.  Afterwards, the students who had their thumb touched will have to stand up and guess who picked them.  If they guess correctly, they get to stand up and join the standing group.  Pretty simple right?  Well I will see how it goes tomorrow!

I'm trying to decide where to travel this Christmas holiday season!  Any suggestions?  Until next time!

peace

vince

Meet Ms. Melor!

So it's been raining all day long here in Osaka.  I had a class this morning and it felt like it was night time.  Dark gloomy clouds were lurking overhead.  Well Typhoon (hurricane) Melor is heading towards Osaka right now.  It's supposed to arrive on Thursday morning.  We are supposed to see if there is an advisory at 7am on Thursday morning to see if we have to head into work in the morning.  So we shall see what happens.  I really don't think there will be too much trouble, but the rain should be abundant.  Those clouds were looking menacing as well.  Ok, I'll let you know what happens tomorrow.  I have to get ready to get soaked riding my bike home again today.  Take care!

peace

vince

Check out the location of the storm here.

http://www.weather.com/outlook/travel/businesstraveler/map/interactive/JAXX0071?from=36hr_topnav_business

Oh and this 大阪 means Osaka!

Typhoon season

Hello all 3 of my blog readers!! I hope this day finds you in good spirits. As for me, well I think I might be coming down with a retched cold. I suppose it is all my fault however. Last night I went for my weekly football practice. The weather looked a bit gloomy as I set off on my trusty bicycle. The sun was still shining bright in the late afternoon sky. The football pitch is about 20 or so minutes from my dwelling. I was wearing shorts, a t-shirt and some flip-flops. I was surprised because there was a bit of a nip in the air. Anyway, it started rain while we were playing football. That's no problem because the pitch is covered so we didn't get wet. Unfortunately it continued to rain, and I was forced to ride my trusty bike into the cold evening and onto the wet and slippery streets back home. Needless to say, I was freezing. I felt like a dog probably feels after a shower. Well, perhaps that's not the right analogy, as a dog probably feels great after a shower. Umm..well anyway, I arrived home and took a warm shower and I already started to feel horrible. Now today is nice and rainy again. I was chatting with my co-worker today and he said there should be a typhoon approaching Osaka tomorrow. Which basically means that it will rain all day long. Cold, rainy and gloomy for the next few days I fear. But that is life in Japan if you live close to water.

Two weekends ago I played in a football tournament in Kobe.  It was called the "International Charity Football Tournament".  Various teams from the Kansai region of Japan came to play in this tournament.  All proceeds went to charity, a charity for starving African children I heard.  There were eight teams in total.  The team I was on was the Osaka JET teachers team.  Obviously the players were Osaka JET teachers.  We ended up not losing any games.  We drew 3 games and won 2 games.  The last game we were down by 3 goals to 0, yet we still managed to come back and win 4-3.  We played six games, and I was completely tired after everything.  We arrived in Kobe at 8am and stayed there until 5pm.  It was a long day, but it was fun also.  We met many teams and players from around this area.  Most of them were foreign teachers, but there were also some Japanese teams too.

Last weekend my Xbox 360 died again.  The way you can tell that your Xbox has died is because 3 flashing red lights appear on the front.  This means "Hey, your xbox is now a fancy box of parts".  Last time this happened,  I had to get it fixed back home in the U.S.A.  However, I didn't want to deal with all that again.  So I just decided to buy a new one here in Japan.  It was on sale anyway at Amazon.jp.  I love Amazon.jp by the way.  You can literally buy anything from there and it is usually cheaper than buying it at the store.  Also you can ship everything for about 300￥ or about $3.00.  Cool!

Last weekend, my friends and I attended a J-League 2nd division soccer match.  The team name is Cerezo Osaka.  They play Nagai stadium which is about a 5 minute walk from my apartment.  The stadium they have also hosted the International track and field championships last year.  It's a really nice stadium, and I can see it from my apartment!  The match was a 1pm kick off, and in typical fashion we arrived about 1:20pm.  The match was fun and we drank some beers and ate unhealthy food.  All part of the experience I guess.  The Cerezo Team is doing quite well at the moment so they may get promoted to J-league 1st division!  That would be great, and it would make 4 teams from this area in the J-League 1st division, 2 teams from Osaka, 1 from Kyoto and 1 from Kobe.

Nagai Stadium

So after much debate with myself inside my head.  I have decided to buy a bed.  After living in Japan for 2 years of my life sleeping on top of a futon on the floor, I think my body needs a break.  So I am looking into buying a bed.  It's quite difficult though.  The sizes in Japan are different from the kind that I know in the U.S. .  The sizes in Japan are Single, Semi-Double and Double.  From what I gather a single is actually smaller than a "Twin" size in America.  So I think a Single may be a bit too small.  However, I don't really want to take too much of my limited space in my apartment with a large bed.  So I have to weigh my options.  To give you an idea of what I am looking at check out this link. http://www.nitori-net.jp/result.html?s.q=%8Br%95t%82%AB%83%7D%83b%83g%83%8C%83X&s.ie=Shift_JIS  This is a popular furniture shop in Japan.  It is quite cheap and the quality of the items are quite good as well.  I have bought my futon and various other articles in my room from here.  My price range is no more than $300 or ￥30,000.  I don't want to spend so much on a bed.  I've never been good at interior design when I was in America, so you can imagine how horrible I am here in Japan.  I will make my purchase next week and I will let you know how it goes.

Well it's about time for me to get out of here (work).  I had no classes today, so I used my whole afternoon writing this blog.  What a difficult job I have!  Talk to you all soon, have a brilliant week.

peace

vince