Thursday, August 19, 2010

The Lonely Island Video Blog Ep. 8 and 9

Episode 8, is a quick video showing my adventure during the Fire Works Festival and an adventure around some mountains near my town.

Episode 9, shows the town's 7000 Person Festival and then an explanation of Sapporo Orientation with pictures.

Enjoy!





Wednesday, August 18, 2010

7000 person festival


I just recently returned from Sapporo Orientation and it was truly a great experience. For me to get to Sapporo it's quite the effort, just as it is for many of my fellow JETs in here in Hokkaido.

I left for the Sapporo Orientation on August 15th (sunday). This also happened to be the same day as the 7000 person festival in Shihoro. I had a wonderful time participating in the festival. Days leading up to the workers and towns people volunteer to make the long long sticks of washi paper flowers that I showed on my previous post, well this festival was the reason for all the hard work. 

My train was scheduled to depart around 2:00pm, which meant that I was able to participate for a little bit in the festival. What I did was join in on carrying a shrine on my shoulders and marching it around. Here are some pictures.



The weather wasn't exactly the best for the event, but they still managed to get a couple of people on to the Hot Air Balloon... unfortunately i was not one of those people.




This is the area where the festival took place. The pink things you see in the background are the "Hana Mikoshi" that me and a bunch of guys will be carrying our shoulders... There's two of them, the smaller one of the "mikoshi's" is for the kids to carry around.





The mayor to the right in a picture with, what I can assume to be important people... All the people in Shihoro are important!!!




I am somewhere underneath the big pink mess trying my best to help carry the big heavy box. It was surprisingly heavy even with the number of people we had carrying it.




That's me trying to look useful... unfortunately in the beginning I wasn't helping much at all. I was too short for the wooden beams to reach my shoulders, but I still managed to do what I could to help.




Some of the guys I became friends with while carrying the massive box. A bunch of real cool guys. Notice... my extremely short shorts... Yeah, imagine my face when I was handed my gear and they said, "change..."




A wonderful panoramic of the dancers dancing in large large circle surrounding the entire area. It was pretty cool, I could only get a 180 Panoramic shot.



Soon after carrying the "hana mikoshi" I changed back into my own clothes. It was great to wear my own shorts and not shorts that made me feel like I had Daisy Dukes on...

I walked around the festival a bit looking at all the cool stands and I had to hurry home to finish packing for my trip to Sapporo for Orientation.

To see what happens next tune into the next Lonely Island Video Blog.


Sunday, August 8, 2010

The First Full Week of Work

NOTE: Since, I arrived my blog has received some attention from the town, so the local monthly newspaper requested to publish the link for the people in town as part of my introduction article. I`ve also been asked to translate my blog as I write it... I`m no officially trained translator, so please expect errors as I don`t read or write Japanese well at all.


It was a little over a week ago, that I actually started working in the office at the BOE. In this short amount of time I:ve been able to do a lot of things and have a lot of experiences. The first few days I registered for the Alien Registration Card, created a bank account, started the process to get internet, reserved my iPhone, purchased necessities for the apartment. The following days were spent preparing my self introduction, and creating a stamp of myself for my students. I also joined the Town Hall`s Baseball Team, toured the schools, learned my way around the town, and enjoyed the Shihoro`s Beer Fest.

仕事を始めて一週間がたったが、この短時間で色んな事を出来て色んな経験も作ってきた。最初の三日間で外国人登録証を作ったり、口座を作ったり、インターネットを登録して、iPhone4を予約して、アパートの必要品をかった。その後は自己紹介のじゅんびして、自分の顔のスタンプをつくって、役場の野球チームに参加、士幌の学校を見学、士幌の道を覚えて、ビール祭りを楽しんだ。


Here are some pictures of my first week in Shihoro.


The biggest Burger I`ve Ever seen!!!

I went sight seeing and there were some horses.


A nice panoramic shot from an observation deck near a mountain.
A bit cloudy...



A very beautiful landscape.


I actually got to see a deer frolic in the pasture... I see deer all the time in florida, but this was the first time I heard a deer cry... It was a very high pitched echoing sound...



This is me, helping create the flowers for the Festival in my town.


This is what the completed ones look like. Later these will be placed on top of a box that we will parade around during the festival... Hard to describe, I will have pictures of it later... haha


I then participated in the Sports Festival for the elderly... we lost. The gentleman to the right with the ribbon on his shirt is the Mayor.



The Beer Festival in Shihoro


Ladies and Gentleman... Obi Hiroshi in the background with the white Jacket. He`s a singer based out of a city near by called... Obihiro-Shi


How to make a Stamp.

First: Find an Avatar online of your likeness and print it out or draw your own caricature.
Second: Make a mirrored image of the caricature.

Third: Go to the local craft store or school supply section and purchase a very very large eraser... It is about 5in by 5in and about 3/4 inch thick.
Fourth: Cut a piece of the rubber that will fit your caricature and using carbon paper trace your caricature to the piece of eraser. You may have to go over the copied image with a marker on the eraser.
Fifth: Using wood carving tools or chiseling tools remove the necessary sections very carefully as to not undercut your imprint.

You are Now done and have your own personal stamp of your face! This you can use on the student`s papers.































Sunday, August 1, 2010

A Tour of the Apartment The Lonely Island VLOG Ep.7

This is a tour of the apartment and a small tour of my town.

I plan on doing another tour of the apartment after I've got most of my things settled in and I feel like it's more or less the way I like it. In the video I hadn't even unpacked or started moving things around, so the apartment looks completely different in terms of furniture placement.

enjoy.