Sweet Dreams!

Where do I start? It’s been a while since my last blog post and quite a lot has occurred in the last month. The days are flying by and I have sunk into a pretty good routine. I’ve fully adjusted and now feel comfortable where I am mentally and physically. I love my new apartment and the area I am living in and feel at peace with the decision I made to come here, I love my job and have yet to begrudgingly trudge to work. I find myself laughing at times when I think back to my job at Free The Children, sitting at a desk for hours at a time jamming on my keyboard, never again! “The now” is good, and tomorrow seems to be getting better. Learning new words... I started asking my students to teach me new Japanese words that I can use on a daily basis. It seemed like a good idea at first, free Japanese lessons...this was obviously a naive thought. This lasted a few days when I realized they were not the best at helping me... I asked my students how I would say “have a good night.” They gave me a simple phrase to use and I eagerly wrote it down, said it a few times in my head and used it that evening when I left the gym and the store. I started using my new word and felt quite proud that I not only learned something new but can now show my gratitude and friendly demeanour to those I come across. Back home in Canada I would usually wish a store clerk a good night or have a good day after I leave a counter; I figured I could do that here. So I started saying “Oyasuminasai” to the guy behind the counter at the gym, the liquor store clerk and the ladies at the grocery store. All this time I thought I was saying Thank you and have a good night. I reported back to my students that I had been using the new word they had taught me. When they found out I was saying “Oyasuminasai” to the people at the grocery store they burst out laughing and they were quick to explain that that phrase is used only before you go to bed as if you were laying next to someone, the literal translation was sweet dreams. As they told me this I was laughing and running through my head that facial expressions of all the Japanese people I had said this too, especially the guy at the liquor store, a ponderous look on his face, he probably thought I was a psycho waving goodbye to him and telling him to have sweet dreams. I have quickly erased this word from my vocabulary and sheepishly just say thank you now. Lesson learned. Thanksgiving weekend in Japan: My trip to Hakone. Hakone is a beautiful mountainous region full of hiking trails, hot springs and good eats. My cousin, his wife and I left early Saturday morning for Hakone. The most notable event of this trip was our hike. We took an extensive route through the hills reaching 3 major site seeing peeks as we trekked along the spine of the mountains. The trails were lined with thick walls of grass stretching at least 10 feet in height, the grass was so dense you could not see more than a foot in front of you if you dared to try and stick your head through it, you could not see anything around you only the trail that was laid out ahead. Along the way we would stumble out to open areas where we would be fixated by the epic view of the mountainous area and the outline of the small town we left below us. The trail it self was incredibly rough. It looked like an old river bed, a variety of oddly shaped rocks were thrown throughout the trail making it very hard to navigate, climbing down boulders or stumbling over small rocks that hadn’t yet found its place in the ground yet was a common occurrence. Along the path from time to time we would pass other hikers. Aside from the view the most spectacular part about this trek were the other hikers that we met along the trail. They were not young, they were elderly at times appearing to be closing in on at least 60 years of age. These elderly hikers were in amazing shape. Most elderly people in Japan seem to be still highly mobile at a very old age. This was no easy trail for an older person, it was hard enough for myself I imagine it must have been tough for them. At one point during the hike we had stopped to take a short water break. Close to us were another group of hikers. They were elderly and obviously much wiser than us.... Let’s step back here to our pre departure... a few hours earlier we had stopped off at a small shop to get a few snacks before out hike, we bought water but for some reason thought it was a good idea to grab some of the fried chicken that was for sale in the hot food section of the store. It looked good at the time and to be honest I thought it was going to be a tasty snack to eat at the top of the mountain. It wasn’t...instead it was pretty much deep fried chicken fat....so there we were drinking our water and disgruntled about our choice of snack. We stood there on our short break and watched a group of elderly people enjoy some fruit, a smart choice on their part. It’s pretty safe to say that I learned my lesson here, friend chicken is not the best snack for a long hike, bring some juicy fruit instead...who knows maybe these elderly people had the same life lesson in their younger years. I believe one of us mumbled under our breath, “I’d kill for a slice of that apple pear.” We all had the same thoughts, it did look pretty good. I’m not sure if they heard us, maybe they thought we were going to kill them for their apples, nonetheless as per usual the kindness and hospitality of the Japanese people was shown. The elderly man from the group came to us and offered some over some of his fruit. I had a slice of the apple pear and that pretty much picked me up for the rest of the trip. The trip took us just over 3 hours, powering through the hills we must have walked at least 10 km’s, it was intense and I would say my legs almost gave out a few times on the way down. We hobbled back to Tokyo the next day, exhausted but eager to have a day of rest back at home. Thanksgiving Monday I decided to have a few people over, my cousin Kristen, his wife Kathryn, my friend Loy and Shanna were able to cram ourselves into my apartment and enjoy a thanksgiving feast. I had made a trek earlier that day to a gaijin supermarket where sure as you’d have it there was a special display full of Canadian Thanksgiving treats, I was able to find stoughing, cranberry sauce and turkey gravy! I wasn’t about to miss out on a feast, Turkey or not I was going to cook up something. I had a craving for a good food coma that comes with the tradition of any Canadian Thanksgiving feast. I had one burner and two frying pans, there was no way I could cook a turkey, instead I made chicken cutlets on the frying pan. I made mash potatoes, gravy, and stoughing. It all turned out pretty good for what I was working with. Sure enough after about a good 45 minutes of eating I was sitting on my floor barely able to move, ahhh, it felt like I was home, there’s nothing like a good old Canadian food fest on Thanksgiving. Some tid bits about my class. I don’t know what it is about being a teacher, I could be extremely tired, but as soon as those kids walk in the room I seem to gain momentum. This is obviously my first year teaching, I have only seen really a few classes back home but my class seems to be bounding with energy, I am feeding off it and enjoying it each day. Each student is just bursting with charisma, witt and eagerness to learn, it keeps me going and on my toes, they always want to test themselves with something harder. We just started a new science unit on light and sound, they were just bursting at the seams the day I told them we had our first science experiment, I advised them to listen closely to instruction and follow along and they did so as if they were adults, I was extremely proud of them. I have a few running jokes with the students, one student in particular using the phrase easy peezy lemon squeezing all the time. Whenever I give him something challenging to do I tell him that it should be easy pizza lemony treatza...he laughs, and tells me that I must be really old because I forgot how to say things that kids usually say. On that same day, one student asked me my age, I told them I couldn’t tell them and she said, “well you must be at least 40”...haha I laughed, then another student piped up and said, “no way he is not forty,” thinking that this student might catch on to my youth I was a little relieved...he continued to say, “there is no way Mr. Montgomery is 40, but he’s at least 35”...still way off, but nice try. I also had the class believing that I lived in a secret underground house, the door to this place was underneath the classroom carpet. This was kind of funny as I really think they actually believed me. I caught one of them lifting up the carpet one morning when I was out of the room...haha, maybe they were looking for me. I had them going until I walked out of my apartment one day and one of my students was passing by. The jig was up and sure enough the next day I had all my students in my class telling me they knew where I lived...ugh...I hope I don’t have to move again. Soccer baseball... Kathryn (my cousin) teaches my class P.E, she invited me out on Friday afternoon to play soccer baseball with the kids. It was pretty fun watching them play this game, it was their second time playing and they were still getting used to it. It’s fun to watch them outside the classroom setting like this, they get pretty competitive and you see some real intensity light up in a few of them. I played along with them and was trying to go easy on them. I was actually really worried I would just kick the ball and nail one of my students in the face. Every time I was up to kick the ball my team would beg me to kick a homerun, I wouldn’t instead I would kick it pretty softly and let them catch it or try to tag me out. This was a bad game plan...my team fell behind by 7 points. It was closing in on the last two innings and two of my most competitive male students were begging for a miracle...as luck would have it, bases were loaded and Mr. Montgomery was up. We needed to score, I figured oh well let’s have some real fun, I blasted the ball out of the park, grand slam! I felt pretty bad for the other team as my team rounded the bases... we had just won the game...I really wondered if I should have done that, that was until one of the kids from the other team came over to me at the end of the game and said, Mr. Montgomery, that home run you had was the coolest thing I have seen all week. He lost the game, but he didn’t care, he just couldn’t believe a “35” year old could have a kick like that. Lesson learned son. I will try and keep my blog more up to date so that I don’t have to post huge posts like this. That way I can include shorter stories with more detail and likely really take a good look at the grammar before I publish them. Hope this one was ok. I will write again soon!

The new place! and a sumo match!

I have found a new place to move into, it’s a little more expensive than I wanted to pay but I really liked it and it is within walking distance to my school.

Although I was excited to move into my new neighbourhood I would definitely miss the area I had lived in for my first few weeks in Tokyo. It was always buzzing, full of vibrant coloured signs and young university students running amuck. I decided to take a good walk around the area the night before I was to move with a good friend Loy. We decided we wanted to go to bed early that night but wanted to just grab some ice cream and take a short stroll. We had started walking in an area I had never gone down before. A good 10 minutes went by...then the most beautiful waves of sound ran through my ears, I could hear Texas Flood by Stevie Ray Vaughan, someone was doing some justice. I had to seek out this source, where was this coming from.

A tavern, a few blocks away from my place was the scene of a local blus jam session held once a month and I just happened to walk across it. I walked down into the basement of the large business building poking my head through the door and gazing through an ominous cloud of smoke I saw a hoard of Japanese men with loosened neckties releasing their stresses on the fret board of a guitar. And just like that, I sailed through the clouds of smoke up to the counter, “I’ll have a Guinness please.”

On a side note, if I haven’t said this before, it is legal for people to smoke inside restaurants and bars, it’s disgusting and I try to avoid it at all costs. Nothing mattered at this point though, I was in heaven. These guys were good, masters of their craft they were able to play anything and everything. There was a master, or director who had a list of about twenty names, he would randomly call upon people to play, piano, drums, guitar, harmonica or sing and they would just go up there and do it, seemed too simple really. The funny thing was that all these men were drinking Smirnoff ice, and loving it, they only needed about 2 and they were on cloud nine, yes its true Japanese people have a low tolerance. I ended up staying there for the whole night and not leaving until the jam session was over. I was able to make a new contact and friend Dimitri, a local who I hope to share a few beers with and talk about music in the near future.

Moving day...

I have now moved out of the sardine can to a lavish and larger apartment. It is two floors higher than the one I am in now and includes a much nicer balcony that I might be able to fit a chair on. The place I was living in was 16sq meters the place I have moved into is 22sq meters which is big for a single bachelor in Tokyo. There are a few new and amazing amenities that I now have, like a freezer and a real fridge, as well as my own washing machine, oh and I would also like to note that my kitchen is no longer in my bedroom! This new place is still pretty small but large enough to make it my own and feel comfortable in...I will post some photos on facebook of my new place...

Moving Day Continued...I dropped all my stuff in my new place and ran off to the sumo tournament!
A sumo wrestling tournament is a must see when in Japan. This age old classic tilt between two obese men in diapers is truly remarkable, hilarious and quite a boisterous event.
In all seriousness these “athletes” train their whole lives to have the chance to get in the circle and amaze a crowd of thousands. All sumo’s are aware of customs and rituals that are done before a fight and complete each with profound dignity and respect. This event is truly a celebration of the past and a great example of how a piece of cultural is carried through the times.

The sumo tournament I went to on Saturday started early at 8am and went until 6pm with a few breaks in between. I became aware that the heavy hitters did not come out and battle until the end of the day so I showed up with some friends around 2pm.
We managed to find our seats and comfortably hunker down with some beers to enjoy an afternoon full of grapplin’ slap happy sumo’s.

When the sumo’s enter the circle they first must complete a few rituals before the grappling begins. The most frustrating part, as an observer is the anticipation of the engagement between the two sumo’s. When each sumo enters the circle they lift their legs, smack their bums and stomachs as they prepare to grapple. These “comical” traditions are used to scare away demons and intimidate your opponent.

The leg stretch is quite remarkable, I would have never guessed that a 300+ pound man could raise his leg 4 feet in the air. In any instance where some gas is released at this point I am pretty sure they could scare away anything. And with the diet that these boys have I am sure they would push a few sour ones out. Lets just hope this happens on their own time.

After the sumo’s scare away demons and intimidate their opponent they are given 4 minutes to get ready for the match. Salt is thrown by each competitor into the ring in hopes to purify the ground. After purification both men get closer in the middle of the circle and bend down towards each other in an aggressive stance, the match is about to start! Just as everyone thinks they are about to fight both competitors stand up walk back over to their corner and throw more salt on the ring. This is done to the point that no one knows when these guys are going to go at it, they continually psych you out. Finally the moment comes and you start thinking, ok, they have done the salt throwing thing 4 times they must be ready to go by now, you are on the edge of your seat and the anticipation can be felt within your lower bowels... nope, they stand up again and walk off to the corner, more salt is thrown. At this point every gaijin in the stadium is screaming, “what the hell! Have at it!” Finally the sumo’s come back to the center of the ring... the moment you have bitten all your finger nails off for begins. The sumo’s lunge towards each other, slapping their opponents face, stomach, and well pretty much grabbing at anything they can get their hands on. This happens for about 10-15 seconds, then it’s over and you are stuck sitting there again biting off your nails watching another round of rituals take place. The tournament was a doozy, I had boat loads of fun and have taken some incredible pictures, please check out my facebook page if you wish to sneak a peek.

Getting adujusted...

I realize I am a little behind on my blogging, I will catch up! Caution, ramblings ahead...

Japan so far has been a whirl wind of hustle and bustle since I got here. I escape only when I arrive home to my apartment however, I don’t feel like it’s not much of an escape. The bathroom and my kitchen and everything else I was able to cram into this place from home is within a two meter radius of each other... No matter how hard I try I am really always stuck in the kitchen, I really could have breakfast in bed every day if I wanted to.

For some reason the Japanese like to call these tiny apartments “monthly mansions” these are merely much smaller versions of what we know at home as bachelor apartments. I am slowly getting used to it and have picked up a new frying pan and coffee maker to save some money from eating out all the time.

The only problem with cooking inside a sardine can is that anything you cook you will smell like, that day...and the next...so when picking out what you have for dinner you have to realize that if you go with chicken curry it will not only be your dinner, but also your choice of cologne for the next day. One these days I will move out, just waiting to find the right place, a place of course with a few more square feet! Trying to adjust to the small living space has probably been the hardest thing to deal with as of yet.

I have spent a lot of free time just wondering around the city, a good chunk of that time was spent actually hunting down a French press so that I could make some coffee in my “mansion.” Japan is a tea country and in every store I went through I had to ask where the coffee makers were located, my response was, “ahh, follow me sir...” the first few times this happened I naively followed the store clerk through a few isles that were loaded to the ceiling with everything from Royal Dalton Dolls to pace makers, only to be lead to the kettle section where the store clerks would then just point and say “instant,” I would reply in a curious tone, “coffee?” Then he would reply, “ahh, yes, instant.” Not good enough! And so very disappointing. It took me a while but through the grapevine I was told that Starbucks sold a few different kinds of French press’ so I immediately started looking for one. It was somewhat embarrassing asking a Japanese person for directions to a Starbucks, typical gaijin move, but it worked and before you know it I was fixed on a nice caffeine high, smile on my face a French press in hand I strutted home.

After a few days of walking all over the city I took the opportunity to get out and visit the country side for a day. It was a Sunday afternoon and my cousin and his wife wanted to hike up Mount Tokai. It was a good 8 km hike up and down. I would say after the first .25 km the humidity had me sucking for air and I had felt like I had the Mississippi river running down my back side. Despite this we trekked on, walking through the crowds we hiked up the hill.

I consider myself a pretty easy going person, I take most things in life lightly and don’t think of every simple task as a serious objective that must be completed with extraneous effort. This type of lifestyle is at the complete opposite spectrum of the majority of Japanese people here. They must look at me sometimes and really wonder which mental facility I had escaped from in the U.S... So there I was hiking up this mountain in jeans and a t-shirt, not the most glamorous of gear but it got me up the hill. Surrounding me on the hike up were hundreds of other Japanese hikers, who escape their hectic work week to enjoy the outdoors, outfitted with all the gear, they were extremely serious, clambering up the hill in their huge hiking boots outfitted with multi coloured spandex under their hiking shorts and swinging their hiking polls alongside themselves as the manoeuvred up the staircases that had been built for the path.

Despite the heat and the hilarity of the Japanese hikers the forests were amazing, extremely thin but tall trees and forested areas full of bamboo stretching more than 40 feet high just waving in the winds. It kind of had a euphoric feeling to it, relaxing, even though you were huffing up a mountain in humidity that could stop a train in its tracks. I look forward to going back in the fall, the air was thick and it was hard to see the scenery at the top, mount Fuji was slightly visible and in the distance, apparently you can see it clearly in the fall, so thats when I will head back.

On the way down we took a much less public route, with very few Japanese on the way down we headed in this direction to catch glimpse of a waterfall that we had spotted on the map. We did find the waterfall, unfortunately it was being habited by a hoard of men wearing only towels and drinking beer, a perfect bathing spot for a male local, but no place for a gaijin.

...Going into a store here can often be like someone is shining a bring light in your eyes, it almost seems as if each company is having a contest with each other on how bright they can make their packaging... And dare I enter a pharmacy to buy Tylenol, nothing here looks like it does back home. I could be buying a bottle of ex-lax, when all I wanted was dish soap, let’s hope I was the dishes well if I leave any residue I may be in trouble. Is this toothpaste? Wrong again that’s calking for your bathroom tub...

I moved into my apartment the day after I had arrived, the school had arranged a taxi to take me to my new place. In a country full of new age bubble cars and pocket bikes I found the taxi’s to be somewhat comical. The Taxi itself a Nissan model called “Cedric” was sporting an old 1980’s Volvo look, boxy and quite larger than the tiny gas saving “fisher price” cars I saw other Japanese people driving around. Cedric was pretty expensive, that was the last time I had used a taxi, thank god the school paid for it! I will likely have to call upon Cedric if I move again.

School has started and after much preparation day one came and went like a flash of lightning. I have 13 very spirited young students, I am dead tired and I feel like my feet are made of cinder blocks. Heavy and tired I have shuffled home to rest each day only stopping to buy a much deserved beer(s) to quell my mind.

The first day of school was a lot of fun, tiring but fun, the kids showed up with such enthusiasm and energy, extremely eager to start work and happy to be around all their friends once again. Before any introduction I decided to have them complete an activity. Working in groups they were to come in and attempt to put toothpaste back in a bottle (I had squeezed it out previously onto a plate) they were to do this, only with a toothpick. It’s pretty much impossible, this activity lead to a discussion about the difficulty of taking back harsh words and the idea behind respecting our peers, they had a lot of fun doing it and I think really got a good handle around the morality of the activity. They all seem to get along really well, smart and outgoing they have been challenging me every day since then. Week one is almost done, we spent most of the week doing simple activities, making surveys and bar graphs depicting information about each other and introducing the class to different cultures that others found interesting. Next week will get a little more challenging as we start some writing exercises and "serious" math word problems.

I promise to write again as soon as I can, I think by sunday I should be able to send out a smaller blurb of info so that you don't have to read long blogs like this again...until next time.....

My Arrival

Walking out of airplane I immediately hit a wall of humidity. I was amazed at first of how thick and sticky the air is here, I am slowly getting used to it but I still feel like a drumstick from KFC just dirty. Despite the humidity I felt alive; entering a new country I was ready to start my adventure. Walking into the airport I noticed right away how clean everything was, every last square inch was buffed to perfection. Vending machines, phone booths, you name it, it looked as if they were just loaded off a truck, brand spanking new.

I quickly gathered my things and got through customs, although there were thousands of people around me, there was a sense of organization and routine amongst my new Japanese friends. Everything within the airport was marked to perfection even the most navigationally challenged individual would feel like a budding Christopher Columbus.

I made it to my bus and climbed aboard, Tokyo bound! Just as I was sitting down on the bus I noticed an iphone on my seat, how wonderful and such a nice welcoming to Japan, a free iphone for each new arrival! Ya right, someone had obviously left it behind. I went to return it, meandering up to the front I tucked my head low and avoided any forehead collisions with the ceiling racks. When I handed it in to the bus driver, he had no idea what I was trying to say and looked very confused when I tried to hand him the phone. He eventually figured it out and was grateful that I had returned it, little did I know at this point that I was keeping up with Japanese culture...

The Japanese have embodied whole heartedly the morality and ideals behind respect, for one another, for themselves and for their families. They do not take things that are not there’s and if they find a lost item they do as much due diligence as possible so that it returns to the rightful owner...for example I found out that...

During the earthquake/tsunami last year many people lost their safes which were full of money. These safes often washed up in others people’s backyards. Those who found safes broke into them to figure out where they came from. The people who opened these safes would find a life’s savings worth of cash within them along with id, passports etc. The people who found these huge sums of cash were quick to return it, every last cent. This is remarkable considering I come from a place where if you find cash it’s yours and the other person who lost it is out of luck.
I look forward to the personal growth and development I will obtain from this culture, rich with morality they build foundations of respect, honour and integrity within each other...

I arrived in my hotel room and immediately went to use the bathroom, I approached the toilet which looked like some sort of rumble chair from a theme park, it had variety of buttons on the side which resembled a gamers remote... After use it took a good 5 minutes to figure out how to flush the device, I then carried about checking out the rest of my hotel room...that took 5 seconds...it was small.

I was able to hook up my laptop to the room’s internet and connect with my cousin and his wife, they were close by and quickly came to my aid with a beer, refreshing and delicious after such a long day. I left the hotel briefly before bed to grab something to eat. I went to the closest restaurant I could recognize...McDonalds, probably the easiest place to order from, I just pointed at the picture and smiled, the teriyaki burger it was!