I'm alive, I swear it!

Sorry for the delay in posts everyone, Silver Week was a busy time, and as soon as I got home, I turned around and went back to the mainland for a speech contest. As I mentioned previously, I spent 5 days (well 4 because of the ferry schedule) in "lovely" Osaka with several of my Irish friends. And several of their Irish friends. And some more Irishmen who happened to be in Osaka. Anyways, I'm not a fan of that city. It was, and still is, quite dirty, at least by Japanese standards, and, despite its considerable size, there is very little to see or do there other than shop and party. My new travel guide had a few more notes on the place than my last one, so I was hoping to see at least a few new things, but alas, twasn't meant to be.

We arrived Saturday evening, after a 3 hour cross country train ride through the absolutely gorgeous countryside of nearby Tottori Prefecture, and a 45 minute Shinkansen (that's the bullet train to you) from Okayama to Shin-Osaka. After we made it to the hostel district, my friends and I went to our separate hotels, because by the time I was on board for the trip, their hostel was totally booked. Upon checking in, I learned that my hotel had a curfew of midnight. Please keep that in mind. After everyone got settled in and showered, we went to an Irish Pub on the north side of the city for dinner and a few drinks. Afterward, we hung out in near a zoo, till about 2 am, which then forced me to crash on the floor of Martin's tiny hotel room.

The next day, we got going around noon, with four of us heading up into the southern half of the city to check out the crazy stores in Amerika-mura (American Village). Apparently this is the same area I wandered around to find my Engrish shirts the last time I was in the city. It was much nicer during the day though, I must say. We even stumbled across a break-dancing contest. The real thing I was look for, however, was a Southern restaurant that the Atlanta JET alumni had recommended. After hours of searching, we finally found the place, only to learn it had shut down a year ago. In fact, nearly every place I had wanted to go to shut down during my absence from the country, including my favorite bar, the Peace Street Grill, where Sohei, the bartender put on spectacular flair bar tending shows complete with juggling and fire-breathing.

The Mexican restaurant that I knew was alive and well though, and we ended up having dinner there. Afterwards, we made it to our first real "landmark" in Osaka, Murphy's - Japan's first Irish Pub. Later we went on to Karaoke. I had the most Japanese experience of the eleven or so people present though, which forced me to be the go to guy for payment anytime someone left early or wanted another round of food or drink. This got very tiresome, but I still staid out till 6am. This time I made it back to my hotel in time for it to reopen for the day and actually slept in my own room.

After waking up and rendezvousing across the street at the good hotel, some of us decided to go to Den Den Town, Osaka's electronics district, before finally getting in some sight seeing. Some of you may remember that I've been here before, and walked into a two-story building totally dedicated to Gundam. Well I went back and bought two more models, after consulting with my students on which ones all the cool kids were after. We continued to walk around, and I eventually bought speakers for my iPod, and my friend Shane, having served three years in the Irish military, bought a replica Irish-made assault rifle, for airsoft competitions. By time we were done though, it was after 5. Meaninig all the sights were closed. So we instead headed back into the city for dinner and a final night of partying. I missed curfew again and had to once more crash in a friend's hotel room. I'm starting to think that it would be cheaper in the future to just split a single room with two people, as the hostel never really caught on to what was happening. By time I woke up, it was well after checkout, and time for Martin and I to head back to Matsue, so that we could catch a ferry the next day for the islands.

One word for Osaka: "Blingtastic!" (Pictured above: 2 Mercedes Benz Crystal Editions)

A mere two days later, I returned to Matsue for the annual Lafcadio Hearn Speech Competition. Hearn, an Irish writer, is quite famous in Japan, and in Matsue especially, as he lived there for a number of years. He was the first westerner to write about Japanese culture in Japanese, thus providing a new perspective on their history and culture. I had been coaching my student, Maria, for over a month now, and she has gotten quite good in her pronunciation and intonation; so good I felt sure she could at least get an honorable mention, i.e. 10th place or better, out of the 38 competitors. However, due to the ferry schedule, she had to go first, which I think always works against you unless you're the absolutely best competitor there. We had to leave after the fourth student went, but if they were an indicator of the quality of speeches to be given, I felt for sure Maria had this in the bag. Unfortunately, when we called in this morning to learn the results, we discovered that she hadn't even placed. The judges, it seems, were far more interested in showmanship, i.e. gestures and making a big scene out of the story, than they were in quality of English. I feel terrible for Maria, because she's such a great student, and her skill level is far superior to most 2nd years I've met or taught. She has one more year to go on the Junior High level though, so I'm hoping she can bring it home next year, and win a trip to Ireland.

Well that's all for now. After Osaka, absolutely everything has just felt like work to me. Even building my models or updating this blog. Blah. Now I have to remember how to do my job, at least until the weekend, when Martin comes to the Douzen islands for a visit.