Crickets

(PICTURE: A jar of marinated crickets.)

I've said it before and I'll say it again: You can take the boy out of Fear Factor, but you can't take Fear Factor out of the boy.

As I've mentioned once or twice, I worked for the television show Fear Factor for a number of years. Every once in a while the show would pay me $100 to taste test something revolting. Well, old habits are hard to break. As class was ending on Friday I heard Katie next door talking with her students about crickets. One of her student's mother had marinated a jar full of crickets and the student had brought them in for Katie to try. I walked into the classroom, approached the table and was the first one to gobble one down. Unlike the stuff I would eat at Fear Factor, the crickets were actually delicious.

(PICTURE: The cricket is in my hands and soon to be in my belly.)

Katie -- after bugging out for a few seconds -- eventually ate a cricket too. Paula then walked into the room and matched my bravery as she ate a cricket without flinching.


(PICTURE: Katie in her moments up to eating her snack.)

Super Flu

I got an email the other day from the company I work for saying that a couple of students had "Super Flu." Super Flu is the rough translation for Swine Flue/H1N1; at least that is what my company is calling it.

There have been a few students out sick recently and an escalating rate of kids wearing masks. For Halloween two weeks ago we had a party and we had all of the students decorate their own surgical masks to wear as costumes. Mine was straight to the point...

Parking

If you look at this not-so-great picture I took you'll notice something. Take a moment and see if you can figure it out....

Okay, time's up. All of the cars are parked facing outward. To me, this is just one of those little things that makes Japan so very different than Vietnam. In Vietnam you park wherever and however you can.

In the states we usually park our cars in head first. We pull up to a spot and go right into it. In Japan, it is never that quick. If you stand around a parking lot you can always watch people lining up their car to fit in a spot perfectly. I live around the corner from a big shopping area with a huge parking lot. There are always tons of spots available yet everyone takes their time making sure they are parked as perfectly as if they work at a car dealership.

I can guarantee you that if I had a car in Japan I would be the only one pulling in head first.

Platte, South Dakota

As some of you may have noticed on Thursday, my mother made a blog comment that she was going to email the Governor of South Dakota since that was the only state which had never read my blog. I thought she was kidding but, well, she emailed the Governor. Perhaps it is just a coincidence but...

...someone from Platte, South Dakota logged on the site on Thursday! Thank you random kind stranger from Platte. With your log in, Ahoy Hanoi has now been read in all 50 states!!!

And they said it couldn't be done.

Bowing

One thing that I have not gotten used to yet is the bowing. Frankly it makes me feel uncomfortable.

I would say on average I only bow my head once a day and I usually do it with a slight smirk. I know it's the culture but I want to yell at the senior citizen security man at the university not to bow to me every morning when I ask him for the key to the teacher's room. In fact, today I even told my bow-crazy-only-female student to stop bowing to me...and of course she said "okay" as she bowed.

To me the weirdest thing about the bowing though is when people do it on the phone. Recently I had to go to the office for my apartment complex and sat a guy's desk for fifteen minutes. The guy made a couple of phone calls while I was waiting and literally bowed about 30 times in five minutes on the phone. Yes, he was bowing while talking on the phone!

600

Just typing the title gave me chills. Yesterday's blog was my 600th post. Yes, Ahoy Hanoi has hit 600. As excited as I am about this milestone, I can't help but think how much other stuff I could have done with my time!

It has been a while since I posted some Ahoy Hanoi facts and stats so here they are:

- Ahoy Hanoi has officially past the century mark for countries. The site has now been read in 103 countries including non traditionally Jewish friendly nations like: the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Saudia Arabia, Egypt, Iran, Qatar, Jordan, Yemen and Iraq!!!

- Ahoy Hanoi has had over 66,000 page views.

- 64% of the people who have visited my site have come back at least 9 times.

- The oddest google search words (non sex related) that directed someone to my site were: "Joe Biden's Bible." I have no idea how that got someone to by blog.

- The average viewer spends 2 minutes and 27 seconds on the site.

- All that said, Ahoy Hanoi has still not been read in South Dakota! I don't know what is crazier: the fact that nobody has stumbled on to my site there or that nobody who reads my site has traveled there and logged in!

Snow

On Monday night it snowed here. Yes, it snowed on November 2nd. Yes, I froze my ass ass. Yes, I have become a giant wuss in cold weather. Yes, I graduated from Syracuse University where it snows a hell of a lot. Yes, I left my bike at school so I wouldn't have to ride home in the snow. Yes, I slept with two thick blankets. Yes, I'm worried that it is gonna get much much colder before I leave Japan.