My Weekend
I thought I would throw my weekend up on the weblog. Some of you have commented that you don't read my longer posts, so I thought I'd break this up day by day. You can pretend you're reading a bunch of smaller posts.

Friday
Went out for a night on the town with Mike (the other JET in Ajimu) and his friends.
Social life on the JET program tends to be divided by year. For instance us 3rd year JETs tend to hang out mostly with other 3rd year JETs, and first year JETs (Mike and his friends) tend to hang out mostly with themselves.
It's not intentional on anyone's part, it just sort of happens every year. The first years meet each other and form tight bonds at orientation before us 3rd years even have a chance to meet them. And us 3rd years, as you can imagine, tend to feel more comfortable with the other 3rd year JETs, whom we have many shared memories and experiences with. I suppose it's somewhat like University.
Thus Mike, the first year JET in Ajimu, and Me, the old man on the block, have different social circles we hang out in. This Friday night, Mike had four of his friends come into Ajimu to visit him. I was invited along, and the six of us went out in Ajimu.
The night life in Ajimu is virtually non-existant, except for a couple mom and pop type little bars hidden away. Mike and I have gone exploring these places in the past and enjoyed the small town charm. (see previous post here). But previously, it had just been the two of us acting as observers of the small town bar scene. This time, with six of us, we really took the place over. And we just talked among ourselves. We could have been anywhere really, we just happened to be sitting in a bar in Ajimu at the time.

Saturday
Got a good afternoon of hiking in with two other JET friends, Greg and Aaron. Both of these guys enjoy hiking and outdoor activities just like I do, but for some reason or other we seldom get our act together enough to coordinate a hiking trip. Somebody (usually me) always sleeps too late, and then the day is over before we can even get a proper start.
But this weekend was different. Greg phoned to wake me up at 9, and we were out the door and headed to the trail by around 11.
Great hike. We went up a mountain in Innai, only one town over. Aaron and I had down it before, but it had been so foggy on that day we couldn't see anything. This time it was a clear day, and the view was amazing. We could see all the way to the ocean, and all the towns in between.
Greg, who is a bit more hard core than I am, had actually cycled all the way over to my house before the hike even started. As the hike was a bit harder than he was expecting, he began to hint that he would like a lift home. I was somewhat reluctant to do this as he lives about an hour away, but I agreed in the end. I drove him back to his town, and then we caught dinner at a restaurant close to his place.
It was a Japanese restaurant, and so everyone was seated on the floor and in close proximity to each other. I noticed that the couple behind me was continually talking about us from the moment we sat down. A bit odd, since we were well within earshot (the guy's back was almost touching mine) and had already demonstrated our ability to at least understand some Japanese by ordering our food. But these kind of things happen occasionally in Japan. Not seeming to care if we could overhear or not, the guy was explaining to his girlfriend that we were American English teachers (Greg was actually British) and commented on just about everything we did. ("Oh, they ordered the pizza. Americans always order the pizza, don't they?")
Eventually I just turned around and attempted to engage conversation. Since this couple was so interested in us, I assumed they would want to talk, but I got a cold reception. This may be in part because I had started things out by winking and smiling at the girlfriend.
Yeah, I suppose that sounds pretty bad when it's written down like this, but I was just trying to be deliberately cheeky in kind of a playful way. I was hoping they would just have a sense of humor about it and laugh, but the guy was not amused.
We did have a brief conversation though. He was a member of the Japanese Self-Defense Force. Since Japan's constitution forbids having an army, they have a Self-Defense Force instead. However it is increasingly becoming a misnomer, as this year, because of pressure from Washington, Japanese troops have been sent to Iraq in a mission that is obviously not self-defense. Those of you following the news know that it has been a very big contraversy in Japan.
Anyway, this fellow said he had no desire to go to Iraq, and he hoped he wouldn't have to. I felt like I should apologize because my president was causing Japanese troops to be sent to Iraq to serve in an occupation force they have nothing to do with.
Following dinner, Greg and I headed in Oita city for an 80s party.
The night life in Japan is somewhat segregated into foreigner bars and, well, everything else. I say "somewhat" segregated, because even the foreigner bars are usually at least half Japanese. But in a country with very little ethnic diversity, and especially out in the boon docks of Oita prefecture, even a club that is half foreign is an unproportional concentration of the foreign population.
I wish the night life wasn't segregated like it is, but the truth is a typical Japanese night out doesn't appeal to us westerners. Dance clubs and places where you can mingle with and meet people you don't know are usually absent from the Japanese social scene. Therefore these places usually attract a high percentage of foreigners.
As for me and the dancing scene, I can take it or leave it myself. I don't mind it, but I'm just as happy having a quiet night with a few friends. Also if there is something going on locally, I usually opt to do that instead. Oita city is an hour away for me.
In fact when we entered the club, someone commented to me that the last time I had been to this particular place was when I brought my friend from home. That was almost a year ago now. Had it really been that long? I can't remember.
My friend will remain nameless, but he knows damn well who he is. Although he was only at this club for one night, he made such an impression on the folks here, he and his drunken antics have become a bit of a miny legend.
I usually don't drink at these events myself. Although there are stories of excess and indiscretion connected to my name, more often than not I'm happy to just go the whole night without having a drink. I don't like the feeling of loosing control over what I'm doing, and I like to wake up with a clear memory of what happened the night before. Also I like to think I'm a fun enough guy that I can be entertaining without alcohol. All this, plus the fact that I don't drink often means I don't know my limits very well, and a little alcohol can sometimes be a dangerous thing for me.
The party was an "all you can drink" party, which are common in Japan. Discounted entry fees were given to anyone who dressed in 1980s fashion. I shamelessly tried to get the discount fee by just putting on a pair of sunglasses, which I borrowed from Greg as we were walking to the door. After getting the discount, I promptly took the sunglasses off again.
Since the party was all you can drink, most people around me got pretty trashed. I took a bit of flack for not drinking, like I always do. A fair amount of my conversation that night was spent explaining to other people I wasn't drinking. I usually use driving as my excuse, but most people that night were planning on crashing in Oita. My friend Ryan, formerly of Ajimu, now lives in Oita city and had a lot of people staying at his house. But as I was planning on going to Church the next morning, I opted to drive back.
I left Oita city at about 4 in the morning. Totally sober, but somewhat fighting sleep.
I'm usually pretty good about staying awake driving. I like to drive, and even on sleep deficits if I can sing along to the radio I'm pretty happy and wide awake. But perhaps because of the hiking that afternoon, I was really tired driving home. On the express way I briefly nodded off, and was awakened by the jolt of my car scrapping the guard rail. That shock kept me wide awake for the rest of the drive.

Sunday
The last couple weeks I've been pretty good about going to church, but I ended up just sleeping through it this Sunday. I woke up at noon, and went to play Volleyball at Ajimu Junior High School.
Since graduation is this week, tradition at Ajimu is to have a yearly pre-graduation volleyball game in which the students, teachers, and parents all play together.
Although it is an annual event, this is the first time I was invited. And in fact I wasn't invited by the other teachers, but by the parents.
Afterwards, I had dinner with the families of two of the students whom I had taken to America this Christmas. It was partly to thank me for the trip to America, but also party a graduation celebration which I was just invited to. In this latter respect it was very nice because since I wasn't the guest of honor, there was no pressure to be entertaining, and I just relaxed and enjoyed myself with the families.
Rules of hospitality in Japan indicate it would have been rude for me not to drink, so I had a few beers at the occasion. This isn't the first time I've been in this situation, but it always strikes me as a bit ironic that I can avoid drinking when I'm at big parties, but at the home of my students I'm obligated to have a couple beers. Perhaps it is just my conservative up bringing, but as a student I could never imagine my teachers drinking alcohol, so it feels weird to me to drink at my students' house.