I Forgot!

hey all,

So Christmas is pretty much officially over. The packages of my presents have arrived where they're supposed to be: the presents from me to my family, and from my family to me.

I, stupidly but probably somewhat romantically, carried Michi's presents with me on our hiking trip in Nikko. She didn't carry mine, so I didn't get mine until last night. Of course, Michi's presents from my family were in the package that I didn't get until Monday, so she got those last night as well.

I have to say that this has been one of the best Christmases I can remember. The presents have been good, but I've also gotten to talk to my family (albeit through skype), play lots of games and catch up with Bri, and spend lots of time with Michi.

Below are some pictures from our trip to Nikko.

Cheers,

From Nikko-2

From Nikko-2

From Nikko-2

From Nikko-2

From Nikko-2

Trademark Infringement

hey all,

So I will risk being prosecuted by the Japanese government and reproduce one of their ads: Nikko is Nippon! Nippon is one of the Japanese names for Japan, and Nikko is where Michi and I went this weekend.

Previously, I've written about my first trip to Nikko. I researched that, planned it, and went there by myself. This time, Michi basically planned the whole thing, for which I'm really grateful. We got a great deal on our hotel (actually a ryokan (travel lodge with hot springs) with a 1200 year history), train tickets and bus fare thanks to her.

We met up without a hitch this time, arrived in Nikko at a little before 10AM, got our bus passes (which let us ride as much as we wanted for two days), and were told that our original plans were impossible by the travel staff. The problem was that it is winter, and Nikko actually gets snow, so many of the hiking trails were icy and dangerous. Not to be stopped, we decided to hike around central Nikko before heading over to our hotel. We hiked up to a waterfall I hadn't seen on the first trip, and revisited the something-something Abyss.

Getting to our hotel was quite the bus ride. The scenery of Nikko is spectacular. The bus drove past Lake Chuzenji, and then wound back and forth through an incredible gut-churning, awe-inspiring, switchback trail before leveling out.

The hotel itself was excellent. The hot spring water has a smell that is unfortunately similar to rotten eggs, probably thanks to the sulfur it gets from its volcanic heat source, but sitting outside with snow all around you while you're warm and comfortable is...nice, to be understated. Dinner was good, but it featured some deep-fried small fish that you are supposed to eat whole, plus a baked fish complete with head and tail still attached.

We got a slightly late start the next morning, as I hadn't slept well the night before (Michi wanted the heater on, but even on the lowest setting, it felt sweltering to me), and Michi thought maybe I wanted to start slowly. We had decided to walk to a nearby waterfall (Yutaki), which was incredible, and from there we took a bus to another waterfall (Ryuzu), and finally yet another bus ride to our final waterfall: Kegon Waterfall.

In between and during our bus rides and sightseeing, we got to talk, tell each other stories, and laugh a lot. It seems that we have recently jumped to some new level, without taking the proverbial look before we leapt.

Pictures coming soon.

Cheers,

Christmas in Japan

hey all,

Somehow my day off became busy. I spent the morning sorting through souvenirs and presents, making sure everything I wanted to send back was accounted for, and then went over to the post office and shipped it to the US.

As luck would have it, while I was doing that, my long awaited package from the US came, but since I was out I won't get it until Monday next week.

On top of that, I've just spent the last few hours going over hotel and ryokan information for our (Michi and me) trip to Kyoto. It looks like that is finally settled.

Lastly, I have packing to do for the trip to Nikko tomorrow. My camera is charged, my presents to Michi wrapped as prettily as I can, so I just need to pack warm clothes, toiletries, etc. I've checked the weather for the five millionth time this week, and it seems to be holding at decent.

Some random news before I go, as I won't be back on the computer till Sunday evening. The Japanese teacher who I work with at my part-time job has been fired. He was a really nice guy, and (I think) an excellent teacher, but he had some disagreements about how classes should be taught with his boss, so they actually sacked him. It doesn't matter too much to me, since I'll be leaving the company myself in March, but he really didn't deserve that kind of treatment, and I know the students (and I) will miss his lesson style.

I don't believe I've mentioned it, but in Japan, New Year's is traditionally a family holiday. You're supposed to eat the first meal of the New Year with them, go to a temple, etc. Christmas, on the other hand, is...a couples' holiday, to put it delicately. Whatever you might expect a couple, or a lonely single to do (try to do) on New Year's in the US; that will happen on Christmas instead.

Last item. Yesterday, I had my last day of work for several weeks. It was the school closing ceremony, which seems really poorly named. There are actually teachers at the school right now, and they will be there throughout the break. As far as I know, the students will not be at school. There are no classes scheduled, but there may be club activities. I do know that each of the students were handed thick homework packets by each of their teachers to do over break. I don't think Japanese people understand the idea of "break" or "vacation," that, yes, one can actually stop working/studying for more than 2 days without dying.

Cheers,

9 Months

hey all,

I just realized that I've been here for 9 months. This is actually the longest continuous time I've spent in a foreign country. I was in Amsterdam for about 10 months altogether, but that was 5 months in Amsterdam, 1 month back home, then another 5 months in Amsterdam.

It is a strange feeling. It seems like I've been doing this forever. I mean, I was in the US for about 8 or 9 months, I think, before jetting out of the country again, like some kind of comet with an irregular orbit. Even when I lived in the US, I skyped with some of my family members that were far away, skyped with my friend Mark, and kept in touch with Bri through online PS3 video games. Not so much has really changed, but at the same time, a lot of other things are totally different.

I have to say I'm still enjoying my life here. My job forms a large part of that, and I think it shows in my posts when it isn't going well. Recently, my job has been pretty fun. Despite some recent rocky spots (no pun intended) with Michi, that part of my life continues to be a source of good times and hope for many more to come. I also have something of a local network of people I can talk to here, which I never had in Amsterdam.

As I complained in the previous post, it is easy to start complaining about all the negative things, but it takes some thought and effort to focus on the positive things.

Cheers,

Weekend

hey all,

Interesting weekend. Got to talk and play some Bad Company with Bri Saturday morning, and continued to play video games, watch movies the rest of the day.

Actually, the interesting weekend started Friday, because the ALTs received their pay checks, and we also had our monthly meeting. I don't believe I've described them yet, so I'll go ahead and do that here. First, we get out of work a couple hours early so we can go the the meeting, which is held either in city hall or the Board of Education building (it changes). Those last couple of hours are usually dead time: for the meeting we only miss one class, and we don't have to pretend to be busy after classes are finished. We aren't scheduled long enough after school to take part in club activities, so we can't fill the time with that. So we really don't miss much.

Anyway, at the meetings, all the ALTs gather together with our coordinator, and discuss any problems we've been having. Usually, everyone has the same problems, but a few people really just like to complain. I've already written this job off, so I don't usually say anything at the meetings. We also do presentations about how to teach certain grammar points. I have gotten some good ideas from some of these presentations, but sometimes they are a waste of time.

The highlight of these meetings is actually the drinking of alcohol which takes place immediately afterwards. This is usually lots of fun, but I've taken to leaving them earlier than everyone else, because they frequently devolve into complain sessions: all the complaints that don't get voiced to the school, the students, and our company, all the complaints about Japanese people, culture, food, etc, just come gushing out in torrent of negativity, which I really can't stand. Sometimes there will be one person voicing a few positive things that just get drowned out in the rising tide. The last thing I need when I'm imbibing an emotional downer like alcohol is lots of negative things flying at me like the monkeys in The Wizard of Oz.

This month's post-meeting imbibing was going pretty well, but I still left early because this time I didn't feel like drinking lots of wine and whiskey on an empty stomach.

Today was supposed to be a shopping day, but that got nipped in the bud this morning when Michi suddenly got angry at me. We've made up, but I see lots of fights like this in the future. It boils down not to personality, character, bad habits, or anything like that, but just the fact that I'm American and she's Japanese. I have to admit that these conflicts have lost some of their cuteness.

Anyway, we did end up doing the shopping, and even tying up a few more loose ends about future trips.

Cheers,

Week

hey all,

So this week has been incredible and awful. Work has somehow been going really well. I've been teaching a lesson about prepositions to my 2nd year students, and doing a review lesson for my 3rd year students. As usual, I haven't been doing too many lessons with my 1st years, because after asking me to come to class, I started going to a couple random ones, but they became boring again.

My students seem to want to talk to me again now that my lessons are getting somewhat better or more fun, which is OK but sometimes annoying.

My part time job continues to go really well. I told them I'd be moving to Tokyo for next school year, and they weren't happy about that. I guess their main problem is their high turn over rates, which forces the students to adapt to different teachers all the time. They pay really well, but even that isn't enough to make me stay in Dasaitama. (Dasai means uncool, and I'm living in Saitama prefecture. This is what Japanese people sometimes call Saitama; a kinda of diss/pun.) If I stay here, I could get stuck in the same school as this year, which would be atrocious. Besides which...

I come to the reason why this week has been awful. I haven't gotten to see Michi at all. Haven't spoken with her at all. We've sent each other maybe 3 texts the whole week. I go to bed at 10:30 or so, and sometimes she might just be getting back from work or from yoga. I get up before she does, and am on my way to work by 7:11 so there's no time in the morning. Shoganai: can't be helped, as they are fond of saying in Japanese. Next weekend, we're going to Nikko, but there are arrangements to make for New Years, and for our trip to Kyoto in early January as well. We still need to go shopping for certain little ones over seas, but aside from any of that, I just want to see my girlfriend. Is that so bad? It just doesn't seem possible to continue this way for another year.

Cheers,

Busy

hey all,

Still busy at school, although today I only taught one lesson. The rest of the time I created a huge pile of cards to use for my second year classes. Yes, I actually spent the better part of 5 hours making these cards. That's how many of them there were.

Something that's been getting me recently is how much time I spend making cards, worksheets, etc for my classes. I mean, I'm not the first ALT to work here; in fact I've met the guy who worked at my school last year. And I know he's no slouch in this department. So the question is: what happened to all the materials he made last year? I've been told that we're not supposed to take these things from the school: since we made them using school materials, they're basically school property. So if ALTs aren't taking them to their next school, then the school must be throwing them away, and I'd like to know why.

It seems like an incredible waste of my life to spend hours making these things if someone has already made them. I don't really mind the worksheets so much, as these are mostly on the computer and thus I carry them around on a USB stick. I'll be able to edit them or completely change them as needed later. But hand-drawn pictures showing how to use various prepositions, piles of hand-written word cards with magnets on the back for the blackboard, drawings of faces for teaching "You look ____" (happy, sad, tired), etc: these took a lot of time and creativity to make, and often get big reactions from the students. If they're going to be tossed when I leave, I'm taking them with me.

Not too much else new this week. I haven't spoken to Michi for a few days. We've emailed, but I guess she's too busy to talk.

Cheers,

Another Busy Day

hey all,

I had another busy day today: 4 lessons instead of 5, which is just about right. I'm also still shopping around for good hotels in Kyoto, which is kinda a pain. I'm trying to strike the right balance between "I want this to be a special trip" and "I'm not made out of money, you know."

Cheers,

I am Batman!

hey all,

I had a really great weekend, and actually a really great Monday too.

Saturday my best ALT friend and I went to Akihabara and shopped for more games and movies. I wanted to sell one of my PS3 games, but they offered me the equivalent of one dollar for it, so I didn't sell it. I did pick up an English copy of Batman: Arkham Asylum, which is by far one of the best games I've played in a while. They have the voice actors from Batman: The Animated Series doing Batman and Joker (the latter voiced by none other than Mark "You're not my father!" Hamil himself), so it is very nostalgic to play the game. Aside from the voice acting, the game looks beautiful and plays amazingly. There are excellent puzzles, interesting stealth challenges, fluid and balletic combat: what more could you want from a Batman game?

After shopping, John (my ALT friend), his girlfriend, Michi and I all met up at Asakusabashi and had some coffee while chatting. After that, Michi and I made some spicy tofu spaghetti (whatever you might think of tofu spaghetti, it was tasty) at her place, and I went back to Omiya. Sunday, Michi and I met up again, this time at Musashi-Urawa and went climbing at an indoor gym there. Lots of fun, since I had gone there before by myself, but this time I actually got to climb some top-rope routes. Michi liked the place too, since we've always gone climbing at two gyms owned by the same company, so the Musashi-Urawa gym was a nice change of pace.

We've settled some more details of our trip to Nikko, but we're still searching for good deals for our trip to Kyoto. I learned that the First Sunrise of 2010 trip is set for somewhere in Chiba prefecture along the coast, but we haven't really set that trip in stone yet.

Today was also a surprisingly good day. I taught 5 classes (out of 6 class periods), and the rest of the time I corrected some worksheets. The classes went pretty well, and (contrary to most lessons), I actually got to be involved a bit more. I made my usual curry for dinner, and spent a few hours playing Demon's Souls and the new Bathman game. I've reached a point in Demon's Souls where I've defeated lots of bosses, but the next areas for three different levels are all too hard for my current character, so I'm going through old levels and beating up the peons to try and get my character to level up. I'm also hunting for some special chunks of rock to upgrade my weapons.

More News As It Happens.

Cheers,

Small Randomness

hey all,

I went out drinking the other night with a friend, and between our talk and the last blog post, I'm feeling much better.

Something I discovered the other day was that Fight Club does in fact have Japanese subtitles as advertised. However, in order to view them, you need to change the settings on your PS3 so that all menus, etc are displayed in Japanese, not English. Why this makes a difference, I don't know, but it's rather stupid when you get down to it: after all, the disc still has the same information on it, and it shouldn't matter what the interface language is; it should always display the same content and same options. That is, in fact, the point of writing interfaces in different languages: so that speakers from different countries can get access to the same features.

Anyway, Michi and I have taken to skyping in the middle of the week, since she sometimes stays at the office till 9 or 10 PM, which makes meeting impossible. Add to that the fact that she does yoga Monday and Thursday nights, and I'm doing my part time job on Thursdays, and taking the time meet during the week becomes a Herculean task.

As usual, we've been planning the holiday trips in advance and playing the intervening weekends by ear. I'd like to get in some climbing here soon, but we'll see. I might end up going by myself if worst comes to worst. For the holidays, we're working on trips to Nikko, some undecided location, and Kyoto.

Cheers,

Still Kicking

hey all,

So in fact I am still kicking around here in Japan. For one reason or another I haven't felt the need to update this recently. So here goes.

Last week not too much really happened. I corrected a bunch of tests, studied Japanese, and made several worksheets for my 2nd and 3rd year teachers. School seems to be going somewhat smoother, but I'm still not too pleased with it.

For instance, there is still no actual English schedule, so when the teachers want me to come to class, they reserve me like a projector or other piece of equipment. If they have an overarching curriculum that they are following, I have yet to be told about it. However, my English teachers know exactly on which page (the right side or the left side) in their students' notebooks the students are currently writing notes on. Yes, students are graded on how well their notes match the official notes that the teacher writes on the chalkboard. But still, is that really an important skill to have? Should we be helping foster critical thought, so that if a person has a problem later in life, they know how to deal with it (or at least can think of ways that they can figure out how to deal with it), or do we want a nation of people who would be lost without their parents and bosses? Somehow their parents and bosses must have learned how to think, and there is the crux.

A second complaint has to do with correcting tests. I always end up doing this for my second year teacher, who uses no less than four unique marks, with specific rules on where and when and how to use them, to mark his tests. These do not in fact make marking tests quicker, clearer, or in anyway better. You could do just as well with two marks (say, check mark and cross-out), along with plus or minus the number of points for partial answers. But no, we need double circle for when students get each member of a group of answers correct (only used in this situation, and never for single answers), circle for when a student gets a single answer correct, triangle for when a student gets an answer partially correct, and slash for when a student gets an answer wrong. And woe to the ALT who doesn't use this system correctly. I get lectured about my test correcting skills by a teacher who shows up late to all his classes, can't remember what lessons he has already taught to which classes, who's desk looks like a Tasmanian devil just finished messing it up, and who generally doesn't know what's going on.

I've put in some more job applications for positions in Tokyo, but no word yet. I also broke down and requested that my company move me to Tokyo next year, despite the (probable) extra hassle of working part-time for multiple companies.

Michi came over this weekend, but things could have gone a little smoother there as well. On Saturday the weather was not very good, and we ended up walking around outside in the rain looking for places to eat. I had already decided on one place, but when we got there it was closed until dinner time. So we walked to a different place closer to my room, and they too were closed until dinner time, but by then it was close enough to dinner time and the shop keeper took pity on us and let us sit inside until service began. After that, I rigged up my PS3 and monitor so we could watch Fight Club on Blu-Ray, which I bought a few weeks ago. I bought it at a Japanese store, and on the box it says it has Japanese audio and Japanese subtitles. Even so, when I played it, I saw Chinese, Korean, Thai, Tagalog, Hindi, Bahasa Indonesian, and several other languages, but NO JAPANESE. So we watched part of a copy of Goemon that a friend had given me instead.

For Sunday, the original plan was to go climbing at an indoor gym, which I was really looking forward to. We didn't do anything last weekend, and at Jogasaki we really didn't get to go climbing very much. But the weather was really nice, so we went to Omiya park instead. That was actually pretty fun, but Michi dropped a bit of a bomb on me. I've been complaining that we only get to see each other once a week, and sometimes not even that, and she suggested that we could get a place together next August.

As long as I get put near her in Tokyo, that will make our lives a little easier, but I've never lived with a girlfriend before, and Michi has only lived with one of her past boyfriends for a month. It seems like getting a place together is a big step, something that my own friends weren't able to do (weren't comfortable doing?) for years. I feel like we are riding on a bullet train, but whether it is heading to Heaven or Hell, it is going there quick. I'll repeat the warning that all my ALT friends have been telling me for the last 9 months: Things happen fast in Japan.

Cheers,

Dave's Lonely Weekend

hey all,

The original plan for this weekend got scraped. Instead of having dinner with Michi and watching a movie yesterday, I talked with Brian and played video games. Michi wasn't feeling well, so she didn't come up.

Today was much the same. Michi thought she might be up to the trip today, but still wasn't feeling well. I've been watching Goemon, Valkyrie and Blood: The Last Vampire. Really a pretty disappointing and lonely weekend.

Cheers,

Sweet

hey all,

I believe I mentioned the trip John and I took into Akihabara earlier this week. The trip itself bears a little further elaboration.

I've been looking for an mp3 player, but I actually wanted something to play my ogg vorbis files. I was prepared to settle for a Sony Walkman, and convert everything over to mp3, but at the electronics shop they didn't have a card for that. How you buy one of these items in Japan is there is a stack of cards next to the item, and you take the card for the item you want and bring that up to the counter. They didn't have one for the Sony Walkman I was looking at, so I started looking around for other options, and hit upon the Cowon S9. This is made by a Korean company, and actually plays Ogg Vorbis files without any problem. They had cards for that, so I took one and went to the counter to ask if they had The 40 Year Old Virgin and Fight Club on Blu-Ray. After determining that they didn't, I said "Ok, just give me this, then." It turned out that they didn't have the Cowon S9 in stock either, despite having cards for the item.

So John and I stopped by a different shop, and went through the same thing. The Cowon S9 was $50 more expensive here, but they had it in stock. I started charging the batteries as soon as I got home that Tuesday night, but I actually haven't been able to play with it until today.

I just put about 25% of my music collection on it, and it sounds great. It is pretty easy to use so far, but I haven't really done a whole lot with it yet. Apparently, it can be used to read books, play movies, and view pictures, aside from playing music.

Cheers,

Busy Busy Busy

hey all,

This week has been ridiculously busy. Tuesday, a friend and I went shopping in Akihabara in Tokyo. This is the main electronics district, so we hopped from store to store, checking out games, Blu-Rays, TVs and computer monitors, and MP3 players. I've been meaning to get an mp3 player, but actually that name is rather deceiving. Yes, the machine I bought plays mp3s, but I don't actually have any mp3s. It also plays Ogg Vorbis files, which is the file format that all my audio files are in.

The other main items I was looking for were Fight Club and The 40 Year Old Virgin on Blu-Ray. It turns out that neither of these movies have been released in Japan on Blu-Ray, although Fight Club is actually coming out this Friday. I reserved a copy at a local shop today, so I won't have to spend $10 on train fare just to go and pick up a movie. Why these movies? Because Michi is actually coming up to Omiya this weekend, instead of me heading in to Tokyo. The current plan is dinner and a movie Saturday evening, then Omiya park and possibly Kawagoe on Sunday. During out trip to Jogasaki, I told Michi about Fight Club and The 40 Year Old Virgin, and she was interested in seeing the later. However, as it hasn't been released in Japan yet, we'll probably have to settle for Fight Club. Although I am envious of her English ability, she would probably have a hard time following rapid, slang filled dialogue without subtitles, and the US Blu-Ray release does not feature Japanese subtitles. (Of course, both these movies have been released in Japan on DVD, but neither my PS3 nor my laptop can play Japanese DVDs, and I'd rather not shell out any money for a DVD player, nor clutter my already (electronics- and otherwise) cluttered room with another clunky piece of hardware. Thus my insistence on the Blu-Ray format, since the US and Japan are in the same region for Blu-Ray.)

Today, I went in to Tokyo again to see Inglorious Basterds, Quentin Tarantino's latest piece. A pretty enjoyable film, even more so since I got to see it for free. I even hit up several local electronics shops for accessories for my mp3 player.

Tomorrow, I've got my part time job, and on Friday I've got possible skype appointments.

Cheers,

Jogasaki

hey all,

As foretold, Michi and I went rock climbing in Jogasaki. According to my guidebook, there are over 500 routes to climb there, but Michi and I had a hard time finding any. The Jogasaki climbing area is located on the Eastern facing coast of the Izu Peninsula. It is almost entirely volcanic rock, spread across around 5 miles of gorgeous coast line. Because the climbs often end directly in the sea, the routes are mostly top-rope. I also think that the bolts rust too quickly to be worth replacing when they go bad: they are exposed to sea air and salt water 24/7; 365 days a year. Most of the places that Michi and I looked at had screws still placed in the rock, but the eyelets had been removed.

As usual, there were some shenanigans meeting up. Michi tends to be a little late, and Saturday the plan called for us to meet at Yokohama, which is about an hour South of Tokyo. She was on a different train than I expected, so I rode past Yokohama for a few stations, then waited for her train to arrive. Before going climbing, we went to a grocery store to buy things for dinner. Our hotel room had a small kitchenette with pots, pans, dishes, silverware, a range, fridge, and microwave, so we had planned on cooking our own dinner from the start. We bought things for curry rice and nikujaga, and dropped them off at the hotel. One of the staff members actually drove us to the start of the coastal hiking trail in their car, which was incredibly nice.

Unlike my experience at every other climbing place in Japan, we didn't see any other climbers than us the first day. This is really unprecedented. Yugawara has been busy both times I've been there. Ogawayama's camp site had at least 250-300 people in it, maybe 100 of them climbers. Koutakuji hear Hon-Atsugi was also crowded.

The first day, we only climbed one route. We hiked up and down a small stretch of coastal trail looking for signs that people had been climbing there, and for clues as to which climbing area we were near. We picked one place, and then I chickened out, as it was a difficult looking lead climb with a high start: if I fell before I reached the first bolt, I'd land on sharp unstable boulders after falling for 15 feet. So we changed to a different wall, and set up our top rope. We only got to climb it a few times before it began to get dark, and we walked back to the hotel in twilight. For the first day, we made curry for dinner: just chicken, carrot, potato, rice, and curry mix.

The second day we didn't go climbing at all. We had a very late start, and then we dragged our feet because it was quite cold that day. I probably would have gone climbing still, but Michi declared it too cold to climb. Instead, we went hiking along the coast, and searched for places to climb for Monday. We actually ran into a group of climbers that afternoon, but otherwise the many cliffs were abandoned, although the hiking trails were still quite popular. That night we made nikujaga: literally, "meat-potato," but probably meaning "meat and potato:" just some garlic, ginger, soy sauce, chicken, and yes, more rice, carrots and potatoes.

The last day, we had a slightly late start, and the hotel staff were kind enough to give us a ride out to the climbing place again. We only had to walk about 5 minutes, which was good because we were both carrying the leftover food, all our clothes and toiletries, etc in addition to our actual climbing gear.

We set the top rope in the place where we encountered the climbers the day before, and were able to switch it around to several different routes throughout the day.

One of the features of Jogasaki's climbs is that there are many overhangs, so they require more upper body strength and endurance than a typical 90 degree climb. Because of this, Michi wasn't able to complete a single climb we tried, and I was only able to complete two out of 6. While a little disappointing, we both had fun trying the climbs.

We made really good time on our way back towards Tokyo: only waiting a few minutes for the bus, and the first train, and catching each train after that without having to rush or to wait for too long.

Eve before Battle

hey all,

The combination of lots of sleep, long hot showers, "grandpa's cough medicine," and actual cold medicine seems to have eradicated my cold germs. I still cough occasionally, and hawk up interestingly colored phlegm from time to time, but the racking coughs and constant streams of mucus have gone the way of the dodo.

I know I've been writing about it for some time, but it seems there are always a few people (probably ones that never read the blog anyway, like Bri) who seem surprised when I disappear for a weekend. So just to throw it out there once more: I'm going rock climbing with Michi on the sea cliffs of Jogasaki this weekend (and Monday), and won't be checking email until Monday evening.

I was really worried about today, because one of my elementary school teachers is getting married, and last week he asked me to create my own lesson plans for my classes today. I spent a good chunk of my free time at the junior high school this week preparing some card files, and typing up the lesson plans. So I showed up today, and was still frantically tweaking them, when one of my teachers' mentioned that I didn't have a job today...I blinked at her in surprise, and she explained that all classes had been canceled because of the flu.

Instead of teaching, I spent all day today reading, and surfing the internet. Why did I do that, instead of heading over to the junior high? Because I had already paid for school lunch today, and I wasn't going to pay for some food I'd never get to eat. Anyway, as I was leaving, the vice principal asked me why I even came in today. Didn't so-and-so tell me that my classes were canceled? Nope. No phone call, no email, no smoke signal. Maybe he hired a runner who got too depressed with his life in Japan (maybe he felt no one was talking to him), and jumped in front of a train...Even that would have been a little better than just not making any attempt to inform me at all.

So that little thing is one more example of the Japanese style of communication, or lack thereof. In similar fashion, I don't really know what the schedule of English classes is at my junior high school. They publish a class schedule, which at the beginning is more or less correct, but then for some reason these unexplained deviations start to show up, and I tend to catch a little flack for not being prepared or not being aware of what is going on. I shouldn't have to ask what is going on everyday, and they shouldn't have to explain it either. If they'd just take 5 minutes, and let me know the weekly schedule has been changed, it would save everyone a lot of hassle and mutual annoyance.

Don't get me wrong: as I've said before, there are tons of things I love about Japan. The food, rock climbing, its history (OK, really just samurai and ninjas, but still), my girlfriend, anime and manga, the friends I've made through work and the outdoor club. But the lack of clear communication and organization in my workplace is really getting on my nerves.

Anyway, that'll be all the ranting for tonight.

Cheers,

Trinity

hey all,

My cold is still with me, but I bought some throat and nose medicine, and today I shelled out some big bucks for honey, lemon juice, and brandy to make some cough medicine. Mix equal parts, heat in microwave, and sip. For my time at work, when drinking alcohol would probably be frowned upon, I bought some Halls cough drops.

As much for my health as for anything else, I'd like to get rid of this cold really quickly. It is bad enough having to ride my bike through the chilly weather (and the recent spat of cold rain), without dealing with a cough and the snuffles.

Cheers,

1st Year Classes

hey all,

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this on the blog, so I'll go ahead and tell this story from the beginning.

After my summer vacation back in August, my 1st year teacher asked me to write a presentation about what I did. I thought a slide show plus speech about climbing Mt. Fuji, going camping and hiking would be a little more interesting, so I made a picture slide show. After I showed it to her the next day, she said that it was great, but she'd need to reserve a computer room. I assumed she'd do that, then let me know what days/times I'd have to come in to do my show.

Since that day, until today, she hasn't said a single word to me. Since she didn't talk to me, I didn't feel comfortable just coming to class, and her classes were always the most boring anyway, so I stopped going to her classes. No one asked me why I stopped going, or even seemed to notice, except for 2 weeks ago the vice principal looked at my daily work report, and pointed out that I hadn't gone to any 1st year classes. I told him the teacher hadn't spoken to me for almost 2 months, and that was pretty much it.

This morning, I was a little flabbergasted when she came up and gave me a lesson plan for today and asked me to come to class. Not only that, but no mention was made of her not speaking to me for over a month and a half, nor of the presentation I spent an hour making that was never used, nor the fact that I haven't been going to her classes...I am I really on planet Earth? Are Japanese people really human, evolved from the same species as people elsewhere? In what sort of culture is this OK?

Anyway, I taught two classes for the 1st years today, and they went OK. Since yesterday, I seem to have caught another cold, so I was hoping to just read, study Japanese, and sleep at my desk today, but I also taught a 2nd year class. For some reason, Japanese people come into work even when they are sick, unless it is the flu, which is always treated like communicable cancer. So I came into work despite feeling under the weather (I also receive no sick days, and can't really afford to take time off), and my Japanese students were all imitating how to sound like a Midwesterner with a cold.

That's all for now.

Cheers,

Shakespeare is a Liar

hey all,

This weekend Michi and I hung out and celebrated my birthday a bit. Saturday, we met up and made chili. As I've been writing about what a pain it has been to find the ingredients, I thought I'd document the recipe here.

250g chopped stew beef
500g kidney beans
500g canned sweet corn
500g salsa of choice
1 beer of choice
bag of tortilla chips
2 tablespoons chipotle Tabasco
black pepper, salt and oil
1/2 tsp cumin
1 tablespoon chili powder

I searched my own local grocery store (a Maruetsu), 2 grocery stores in Ageo (a Co-Op and an Ita-yokado), an international food store in the local train station, a Kaldi in Saitama-Shinitoshin (Kaldi is a coffee/international food store), another Kaldi in Ueno train station, and a Meiji-ya in Kyobashi (a highly reputed international food store), and couldn't find anything resembling a can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. The Meiji-ya was the last store I searched, the afternoon Michi and I met, so I settled for a bottle of chipotle Tabasco sauce.

What you do is toss the meat with black pepper, salt and oil, then brown it. Remove the meat from your cooking pot, and deglaze the pot with half the beer. Next you add everything to the pot: spice, salsa, corn, beans, meat, (and the rest of the beer) etc, and cook for 25 minutes. At the end, and a few handfuls of crushed tortilla chips to your chili. Serve in bowls, and enter paradise.

There is no chopping, no dicing, no peeling the skins off of tomatoes, no 5 hour cook times. This recipe is quick, easy, and delicious! I was a little worried that the chipotle Tabasco wouldn't add enough flavor for a whole pot of chili, but the flavor was perfect and Michi was quite impressed.

Michi also made me a birthday cake that was pretty good. The chili recipe above is my own adaptation of one by the almighty Alton Brown, and Michi made my birthday cake in a manner that would have done Mr. Brown proud. Most Japanese homes, apartments etc do not have ovens; only toaster ovens, so I was wondering how she'd make cake. Her recipe was okara mixed with cocoa powder, plus eggs beaten with brown sugar over a double boiler until thick and foamy. Combine the two, then add milk, chopped nuts and chocolate, then bake in the microwave. For a pan, Michi cut one side off a cardboard juice carton, and lined it with a brown paper bag. The last bit is particularly like Alton Brown: who needs a cake pan when you have a juice carton and a brown paper bag? Why buy a specialist tool that only does one thing when you can build your own, or use something else that can be used in many ways?

On Sunday (today), we got to skype with one of my friends, and afterwards went to the Tokyo National Science Museum near Ueno station. Pretty interesting place, with lots of displays geared towards kids, which was perfect for me. We even got to investigate a display about what types of rock found in throughout Japan, so we could see what type of rock we'll be climbing on in Jogasaki next weekend. After that, we had a late lunch at the International Children's Library, also near Ueno train station, where we finally said good bye until next weekend.

What makes Shakespeare a liar is Romeo's line "Parting is such sweet sorrow." Personally, I've always seen Romeo and Juliet as a cautionary tale more about adolescent infatuation than about true, lasting love, but I really don't understand this line. There is nothing sweet about saying good bye to someone you like; I'm not even talking about someone with whom you're deeply, passionately in love with. Michi and I like each other, and I like to think that we're old enough to take things a step at a time. Still, saying good bye (even for the span of 5 days) sucks.

Cheers,

Something Japan is Not

hey all,

I mentioned earlier that Michi and I are planning on cooking some chili this weekend. Because of that, I've been haunting grocery stores near my house looking for ingredients, but have not had much luck finding some of them. No, I'm not looking for things like Dragon's Eyes, Unicorn Tails, or jellied manticore brains. I've been looking for salsa, tortilla chips, tomato paste, and canned chipotle peppers. I have seen salsa and tortilla chips, and something that might be tomato paste, but chipotle peppers are apparently in the same class of items as Unicorn tails, etc.

No one has ever accused Japan of being a cultural melting pot, and that is probably with good reason. Although there is the indigenous Ainu people, they receive less attention than the aboriginals of Australia and the US: Japan is basically just for the Japanese. Even second and third generation ethnic Koreans born here are treated as foreigners, despite being educated in Japanese public schools and speaking only Japanese.

Their food is about the same. While you can find curry, spaghetti, and pizza in the grocery store, don't look for tacos, mascarpone cheese, barbecue sauce, or anything else like that. Like in Amsterdam, the average grocery store here is about 1/4 the size of its US counterpart, and has 1/4 the variety of items. I've even searched two nearby international grocery stores, and still have not turned up any chipotle peppers. I remember being able to buy these at Meijer's, Kroger, and Harris Teeter in the US. (I think part of the problem might be that I live in Saitama, which is just outside of Tokyo, and has a lower population of foreigners.)

I started asking some of my ALT friends about it, and they (at least the ones from other countries like New Zealand) seemed to think that the US is unique in this regard. Growing up, I never thought it was strange that I could eat pizza, spaghetti, macaroni, and tortellini, all Italian foods, in a country that is 5000 miles from Italy. Or eat Kung Pao chicken, Mongolian beef, or lao mein 8000 miles from China. Same thing for Indian, French, Middle Eastern, and Mexican food. Not only could I eat these foods at a restaurant (you can do the same here), I could easily find the ingredients to make them at a normal grocery store.

For all that the rest of the world is forever complaining about Americans' lack of knowledge of the rest of the world (What is the capital of Columbia? I sure don't know off the top of my head.), we experience the cooking and culture of other countries much easier, much more often, and expect to be able to do that. America is rightly called a cultural melting pot. The sheer lack of variety in other countries is hard to understand.

Cheers,

Pics

hey all,

I've gone back over the last month's posts and added pictures where I had them. If you're bored, check them out.

Cheers,

Splurge

hey all,

Today I had a day off. I was supposed to work on Saturday, but they informed me too late to change my doctor's appointment, so I didn't go to work that day. Because they wanted me to come in on Saturday, they gave me Monday off. Even though I didn't go in on Saturday, nobody would go to school today anyway, so I didn't go in either. The doors would have been locked, and no students would be there to teach.

Instead, I did more laundry, researched a recipe, and went over to Bic Camera to splurge on a HD monitor. I picked up a 21" HD computer monitor so I could play my PS3 games and Blue-Ray DVDs in Hi-Def, and even after playing on it only one day, it has been worth it. Confirming my thoughts about school today, I ran into two students while I was carrying my prize back to my room. Despite being "larger" than the TV that came with the room, it takes up less desk space, and of course has much higher resolution. I can actually read the text in my games now, and of course the images are much clearer, sharper, and the colors are better too. I can even adjust the brightness, etc.

Tomorrow is my birthday. I'll be turning 27. To celebrate, Michi and I are going to cook some chili together on Saturday, and she promised to bake me a chocolate birthday cake, which was sweet.

Cheers,

Another Nice Weekend

hey all,

Just another nice weekend here in Japan. Saturday, I went to Shinjuku for a check-up at the doctor's, did laundry and played video games. Result from the doctor's office is that I'm healthy. The game I played afterwards was Demon's Souls, which is an incredibly punishing RPG. It is tough, but I've come to like that part about it, and its difficulty makes it more rewarding when you succeed.

I had originally planned on doing more of the same on Sunday, but one of the outdoor club members invited me to go rock climbing outdoors, so I couldn't pass that up. We went to Tenno-iwa, near Musashi-Itsukaichi station, which is in Okutama, which is technically still in Tokyo, but is pretty rural.

Some really nice climbs there, but we ran into some trouble with some of the "locals." Tatcha and I wanted to climb this one route, but all the bolts already had quickdraws hanging from them. We debated what we should do for a bit, then decided I'd climb and take the quickdraws off before replacing them with my own. I didn't feel comfortable using someone else's gear, and the other option (putting my own quickdraw through the same bolt as the abandoned quickdraw, then trying to sort out which to use (all while hanging from the rock by one hand)), seemed too much hassle, besides being outrageously dangerous. Anyway, I climbed the route, and brought the "abandoned" quickdraws down with me, and a Japanese guy approached Tatcha and I and wanted to know why we took their quickdraws off. I explained, and this dufus (who is apparently a corporate sponsored climber), said I should have done the dangerous option. He and his friends seemed really upset that I had removed their quickdraws on a route they weren't even climbing, hadn't climbed for hours, and didn't seem to have any plans to climb in the near future. Tatcha and I disagreed, returned his quickdraws, and moved to a different spot.

The thing about this is that there were only about 40 routes to climb at this place. We arrived at 10AM, and this route already had quickdraws on it when we arrived. At 2PM, when we decided we'd climb it anyway, of course the same quickdraws were still there. So these people climbed it, then prevented others from climbing it for 4 hours by not removing their gear. That's rude, in my book, at least.

Other than that incident, it was really fun. I climbed a nice 5.10a, a 5.9, and a fun 5.10b. Michi couldn't come because she was busy with a yoga conference, but we ate dinner together at a Thai restaurant.

Cheers,

Weather

hey all,

I've been asking around about Japanese weather recently, because I can't quite believe what's happened. Sunday, the day we went rock climbing in Hon-Atsugi, was really warm. For the last several weeks, it has been getting gradually cooler, but it has usually been comfortable in the afternoon. But since Monday, it has stopped getting warm in the afternoons and now stays cold all day. One day the weather was decent, the next it was cold.

It feels like there was no transition between autumn and winter, but more like someone flipped a switch.

I don't remember any specific days where it felt like "Ah, summer just started today," "Ah! Fall just started today," but for some reason, this Monday I said to myself "I guess winter starts today..."

In somewhat weather/seasonal related news, most of you probably don't realize that Japan has not yet joined the rest of the world in daylight savings time. So now I am waking up when it is dark, spending all my daylight hours at work, and riding to the train station at dusk (16:20).

Cheers

Anticipation of Need

hey all,

I just had a chat with a new ALT friend tonight. Pretty interesting guy. During our conversation, as ALTs are wont to do, we ended up talking about the downsides of the job. Invariably, one of these is always working with Japanese teachers, but he expressed a particular grudge of mine very clearly: anticipation of need.

I work from 8-16, 8 hours per day, from Monday to Friday. It seems like my teachers often come to me at 15:55 with something that they urgently need done, and are mildly surprised when I say, "OK, I'll do it tomorrow morning," and proceed to leave. These same teachers were sleeping at their desks from 13:00-15:00, and there are numerous breaks during the day when they could have asked me to do something, but it rarely occurs to them. I am always told about things at the last possible minute, because for some reason my co-workers only just realized that they would need me to do something 5 minutes before they need it done.

A specific example involves this weekend. On the weekly schedule today, there was a notice about working on Saturday, and one of the secretaries stopped by to collect money for Saturday's lunch. Today was the first I'd heard of it, and I had already made plans for this Saturday two weeks ago. But as usual, the people at my school were surprised to find that I had a life outside of school, and 3 days prior notice was not enough. I politely refused, and sent an email to my company notifying them of my intentions.

This kind of thing strikes me as very Japanese. I've already commented on one of the trends in Japanese manga and anime: empathy and intuitive understanding, the sheer amount of thought and time and effort that characters devote to puzzling out each others' thoughts and feelings and needs. Unlike Japanese people, I do not pretend to read minds, nor do I have the willingness to think about what someone might be thinking or feeling for hours at a time. If I'm not sure how someone feels about something, I generally ask them. If I don't feel like my feelings are being understood, I usually confront the person. Directly asking someone what they need, or directly telling someone that you need something, seems to be looked down upon in Japan. In Western culture, open direct communication is how adults deal with each other. In Japanese culture, being subtle and indirect, and relying on your partner to fill in the gaps is the adult way.

With Michi, I've tried to make her feel that she can say anything, ask me anything, that nothing is taboo, and she has encouraged me to do the same. Since we come from different cultures and speak different languages, open communication is even more important than in a regular relationship. Part of the appeal of our relationship is in fact these cross-cultural conflicts, where one of us will do something or react to a situation in a way that seems strange from the perspective of the other. But what makes these appealing when it happens with Michi is that we give each other an explanation, and we understand each other better afterwards. With my teachers, they never seem to learn, and I don't get paid enough to explain where the communication is breaking down.

Anyway, that's my rant for today.

Cheers,

Weekend and Weekday Holiday

View from the middle of the climb.

Michi on an an easy (but tall!) climb.

hey all,

Last Saturday, Michi and I met up near Tokyo station, had some lunch, and yes, actually studied a little English and Japanese, respectively. Afterwards, we went to a book store and picked out some study materials for each other: an audiobook for Michi (Little House in the Big Woods, if I remember correctly), and a 2nd grader kanji puzzle book and listening/speaking practice book for me.

Sunday, as I mentioned before, I organized an outdoor rock climbing trip for the outdoor club. It went pretty smoothly, but we had some trouble meeting each other at the beginning, as there was some confusion over where we were meeting. 6 people signed up, including Michi and myself, but only 5 were able to make it.

Access was a little difficult. From Hon-Atsugi train station, you take bus number 9 to Koutakuji onsen iriguchi, and from there you walk about 20-30 minutes to the main rock: Ben-Ten iwa. Those with good memories might recall that this is the goddess (Ben-Ten) who breaks up couples that visit her places, the same goddess that has a shrine in Inogashira park (where Michi and I had our second date). Anyway, Ben-Ten iwa is quite tall: it has routes that are at least 35-45 meters tall, which meant that we couldn't actually climb some of them from the bottom to the top.

We spent the first part of the day on some underwhelming routes, really just hiking up steep slopes, but eventually the Japanese climbers started to leave and we took over some of their routes. These were the longer routes: more interesting because of the greater height, but still quite easy. Tatcha and I ended up doing a semi-multi-pitch route. Basically, she climbed up about 10 meters, created an anchor point, then belayed for me as I climbed up to her. From there, I lead climbed another 25-30 meters, then came down to Tatcha's anchor, and belayed for her as she climbed the same route, only top-roping it.

After that, we moved over to another rock face across the road from Ben-Ten iwa. Here, I finally got to climb an interesting route, a lead 5.10a/b. I set up a top-rope, and a couple of our climbers gave it a shot, but this wall proved a little too much for most of them (yes, I am bragging slightly). By this time, it was getting darker, clouds were rolling in, and it looked like it was going to rain, so we jetted out of there, caught the next bus back to the station, and parted ways at Shinjuku station.

Yesterday was just a regular day at work. I studied in my new kanji puzzle book a little, taught a class, and started creating a worksheet for my 2nd year students.

Today was a holiday. What holiday, I don't know, but Michi and I got to hang out the whole day, so I'm grateful for it. We had a picnic in Shinjuku park: this time I brought some curry I'd made the night before, and Michi brought some azuki beans (sweet red beans). This is a reversal from the last meal we made ourselves, where she made the main dish, and I made the dessert. It was a little cold, so the park was empty til a little after noon. After that, we headed to Kinshicho, and, of course, went indoor climbing.

The last time we went indoors, we both had scary falls while lead climbing, so this time we just top-roped it. I didn't really push myself difficulty-wise, but I still climbed a consistent 5.10a-d range all day. I think I'm getting a little more stamina in my forearms, and today felt kind of like a consolidation day: reviewing and reaffirming recent skill and strength gains. Michi still surprises me at how good she can climb. She weighs more than 30 pounds less than me, is 4-5 inches shorter, and 6 years older besides, and on top of all that, has only been climbing since this September. But somehow, she can do some really amazing moves.

The rest of the week should be pretty good, as I've got my part time job to look forward to, skyping with family and friends, and a meeting with some fellow ALTs tomorrow and also Friday night.

Cheers,

Clean!

hey all,

Another pretty decent week. Classes went ok, and my part time job was more fun than the first time. The guy who gave it to me said that the first day is always the best, and from there it gets worse, but I thought the second day involved more teaching, better class structure, etc. The students are good too, and I guess they like my teaching style.

Today, I've given my room a savage cleaning. Yes, savage. Piles of receipts from March and April til now, printouts, hiking maps, hand-drawn road maps and train schedules, empty boxes for my phone, clippers, and electric toothbrush, American pennies, and underneath it all, dust bunnies. Clothes, both clean and dirty, littered the floor, and my school bag and climbing bag took up whatever floor space wasn't already occupied.

So the receipts and empty boxes have been pitched, hiking maps stored, and clothes sorted. There's not really anywhere to put the school bag and climbing bag, but now that the clothes are where they should be, I can walk instead of hopping from clear area to clear area. I even broke out the vacuum.

At the moment, Michi and I are planning what to do today. Possibly indoor rock climbing, but we're going outdoors tomorrow with 4 outdoor club members, and I don't want to be too worn out for that. We were going to have lunch with a friend of hers, but that has fallen through, so I'm thinking lunch and a study session afterwards.

The trip tomorrow should be pretty good. We're heading over to Koutakuji, which is halfway between Odawara and Tokyo, and actually quite near Hon-Atsugi (where I went on the leech hike and saw the dragons burned).

Cheers,

Baby!?!?!

hey all,

No, I'm not having a baby. Michi is not pregnant, and we're not setting any dates for marriage. But during our dinner and movie date, the question did come up: don't you want kids?

The question raises all sorts of qualms for me. Delving into my family's history, kids have tended to get shafted by their fathers, at least on my father's side of the family. My father's father's father (paternal grandfather's father, if that makes it any simpler), was killed in a street robbery when my paternal grandfather was quite young. He became a heavy drinker later in life, and my father, the oldest of 5, took the brunt of his drunken violence.

My own father never drank, but his temper was no less scary to a child, and I remember being angry at him and afraid of him as a child, and even into my twenties. Following an episode I don't care to recount right now, I gradually cut him out of my life.

As if going through puberty were not trial enough, my parents began a lengthy, tumultuous divorce procedure when I was around 12-13 years old. My parents had been fighting for years, but with the divorce it became a tug of war over me and my brother.

That is my experience with fatherhood. Why would I want to inflict something like that on my hypothetical children? Obviously, I am not my father, nor his father or any of the fathers in my mother's family. I can tell myself that I am not doomed to make the same mistakes, but even thinking about the divorce or some other painful experience from my childhood is enough to start the tears flowing, with promises never to let that happen to my own children; the only sure way being never to have any children.

Many of the women in my life have told me that they sense a great kindness in me, from my mother and Michi, friends, and co-workers, to sometimes random strangers. Personally, I feel like Wolverine or the Hulk: capable of kindness, but with an inherent savage rage lurking in the background. Only the wish to be different from my father keeping the violence in check. Melodramatic or cliched, maybe, but that's how I feel. Can a person like that really raise a child without devastating emotional scars, or make a relationship last?

I have been debating this with myself since my teens, to no resolution. Sometimes I think about what I'll do with my own children, forgetting that just a few weeks, days or hours earlier I had decided never to have any. Of course, having kids (in the current socially accepted sense) goes together with marriage, and I've been debating that too for over a decade. The majority of my relationships have been so short-lived, or at least reared major problems early enough that I've been believing that I'd be alone forever.

Maybe in some sense, I've been believing that I don't deserve love or happiness, that I'm incapable of giving that to others. Do I believe any different now? Maybe not all the time, but I'm trying.

Needless to say, the question has brought about a lot of self-reflection.

Anyway, the date was really good. We made gyoza, soup, and sabayon, and watched Zatouichi, about a blind swordsman who wanders around helping peasants in need.

"We feel that to reveal embarrassing or private things, we have given someone something, that, like a primitive person fearing that a photographer will steal his soul, we identify our secrets, our past and their blotches, with our identity, that revealing our habits or losses or deeds somehow makes one less of oneself."
~ David Eggers, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

Cheers,

School and Weekend

hey all,

So this week has gone relatively well. Not an incredible amount stuff going on at work, because my junior high school had their mid term examinations, so no classes for a few days. I helped out by making some tapes for the teachers to play during the listening portion of the tests, but other than that, I've been studying kanji, making flashcards, and reading.

I taught at the elementary school today, and this time they didn't try to steal my bike, which was nice. Lessons went pretty well, but I find I'm usually tired by the time Friday rolls around, which is kinda sad because I'd like to show my elementary classes a little more energy.

The big news is that I started a part time job yesterday at a small eikaiwa (English conversation school). One of my fellow ALT's decided to take a break from doing lessons on Thursdays, so he needed to find a replacement and offered the position to me. Right now, it's just Thursday evenings for a couple hours, but these kind of places have high turn over rates, so if I stick with it, I might get to take over more days. There is a lot more one-on-one teaching, since you're only dealing with 1 or 2 students at a time, and at least the first day was pretty fun. They wanted me to work weekends as well, but I refused. I should have asked if they would pay $60/hr for that time, but that would have amounted to refusing to work during the weekends anyway. No way am I giving up Michi-time or rock climbing time.

Speaking of which, Michi and I are doing a dinner and movie thing tomorrow: cooking dinner together, then watching a samurai movie that she recommended. Maybe Sunday we'll take a day trip to Nikko to see the autumn leaves, which are supposed to be spectacular.

Tonight I actually went to an outdoor club social night, and met up with several of the climbing members. Since I've started dating Michi, I almost feel like I've been neglecting the climbers in the club. Michi and I have gone climbing by ourselves maybe twice, and since we've been going out, I've only organized 2 trips for the club. So I'm thinking about organizing an outdoor climbing trip for the club next Saturday, but not sure where yet. Maybe Yugawara again, but as a day trip. I'd kinda like to do somewhere in Okutama, but it seems like the transportation is just not as convenient as for Yugawara.

That's all for now.

Cheers,

7 Months

hey all,

So this past weekend marked the 7 months point of my stay in Japan. I feel like I've slowed down my pace of taking pics of food, because I often eat the same things as I've been eating for the last couple months. Also, I feel a little awkward taking pics of my meals with Michi, since that kinda takes us out of the moment, and I think highlights the fact that I'm a foreigner here, who might someday return to the US.

How to Spend A Weekend, Part 2

hey all,

Michi and I did in fact go on our rock climbing trip together, and it went about as well as it could go, which is to say it was amazingly fantastic.

We met up at the train station, and I gave her a Casablanca lily as a make-up present. Made it over to Yugawara, and headed over to Maku-yama koen, which is where the rock climbing is. We spent almost the entire day there, and decided to leave just as it was starting to rain. Other than the rain as we were leaving, the weather was really good: a little on the cold side and a little cloudy, but when you're rock climbing, both those are advantages. We got to climb some routes we hadn't tried before, and also visited some ones we had tried on the outdoor club trip to Yugawara this past September.

The hotel we stayed in was incredible. Traditionally dressed Japanese hostesses greeted us and guided us to the room, and we took an hour long bath in the public onsens that the hotel had. After soaking away some of the soreness from climbing all day, we were treated to a tasty multi-course Japanese meal in our own room: first 5 or so dishes of appetizers, miso soup that was cooked right at our table, rice, ume-shu (plum liquor), several types of fish, etc. And finally the dessert: some sweet tofu with fruits.

For Sunday, I had originally thought we might go hiking, but we were still feeling really good, so after another delicious Japanese meal in the morning, we went back to the park and climbed all day Sunday too. Re-visited a few sites from the first trip there, and tried some new ones. The weather was warmer and sunnier than Saturday, so we tried to climb in the shade as much as possible.

I've been teaching Michi how to lead climb, so she practiced that on some easy routes, and she is really good at coaxing me into climbing routes that are just outside my comfort range, so we're both improving quite a bit. I'm consistently climbing most 5.10's and even doing passable on some 5.11's. For reference, 5.12 is widely considered the cut off between professional rock climbers and amateurs.

Please just listen to "Woman From Tokyo" by Deep Purple or "Such Great Heights" by Postal Service so I don't have to get all gushy here.

Cheers,

What a Day

hey all,

So keeping in my tradition of making people pissed off at me before trips, Michi and I got in a fight last night.

So I spent most of today wondering whether we'd still be doing our rock climbing trip. At the moment, we've sent a few emails back and forth and it looks like we're still on.

My classes at the elementary school went really well today, and overall I was feeling good as I left work, only to discover that my bike was missing from the school parking lot. Where did it go? Who took it? Did someone just move it to a different spot? I explained what I thought to a secretary, who passed on word to a teacher, until finally the principal and vice-principal were involved in wondering what could have happened to my bike.

I spent a good 40 minutes describing the bike and going over security footage, and was about to phone The Company, when one of the teachers exclaimed "Atta!" which is Japanese for "It's here." And there it was, magically returned to the spot where I left it.

Apparently, the school owns a number of bikes. These bikes apparently use the same type of key as mine, and somehow they were able to move it to some storage place. Basically, they tried to steal my bike. Even if the bikes used the same type of key, one would think that different keys would not work on different bikes. So I bought another lock on the way home: if they want to steal my bike next week, they'll need a hacksaw.

Cheers,

Exception

hey all,

It just occurred to me that there is in fact a very famous exception to the white/other male-Asian female combo: Bruce Lee and his white wife.

Pretty decent day at school today: actually taught 3 classes. My second year students are banned from school thanks to flu, and my 1st year teacher hasn't said a word to me in over a month, so that leaves me just 3rd year classes to teach. Thank god I teach at the elementary school tomorrow: at least they give me a consistent 4 classes each time.

Cheers,

Time Passing Slowly and Some Reflections

hey all,

As I'm sure you're all familiar with, when you have something you're looking forward to in the near future, time seems to slow down, making the anticipated event seem farther and farther away. For me, that event is what I've began thinking of as my "big weekend" with Michi. Appropriately, things have inexplicably slowed down a bit at work, so that I've recently only been teaching two classes per day (average used to be around 4), which leaves me 6 hours of free time....in which I have nothing to do except think about this weekend. I've taken to walking around the school grounds rather than sit at my desk.

Today I bought another 6 sets of flashcards (another 666 cards in total: 111 in each set), as I've filled up all my other ones: some 333 with kanji, 666 with words, and 222 with verb conjugations. Both the words and kanji actually over- and under-estimate how many I know: I might forget a couple kanji or words that I've written down, but there are still kanji that I can read that I haven't entered, and words that I know that I haven't written down yet.

Requests to The Company for information regarding possible positions next year have been disappointing. No, they probably don't have any office positions available. They might have part-time elementary school positions available in Tokyo, but that means getting at least 1 other job just to make the same amount of money as I do now: same pay for much more hassle. Boo.

In case anyone has been wondering, no, I most likely will not return to the US this year. Because Michi and I have extremely limited time together, we both have taken to making plans for long vacations several months in the future. For example, this weekend we're going to Yugawara, but we're already making plans for a 3 day holiday in late November (probably spending it at her family's second house near Ogawayama), and for Christmas break (probably spending part of it in Nikko, hiking, sightseeing, and relaxing in onsen). I booked Yugawara 2.5 weeks in advance, and there were only 3 rooms left at the hotel, so yes, I'm finding it is necessary to think ahead about these things.

The weekends in between those long holidays will probably be spent the same way as the last couple have: indoor rock climbing or local 1 day climbing trips, trips to parks with lunch and dinner, hiking trips, etc. Those kinds of things are relatively easy as we can make-up our minds (usually, I suggest something, then we do what she wants) the day of or the day before.

Although Michi has lived in Japan her whole life, there are still many places that she wants to see. Since I've just arrived, there are tons of places that I've never been, so we have a huge number of possibilities for trips, and have tentatively began suggesting places we could visit next year. We both have a bit of the traveling bug.

My last girlfriend happened to be Asian (Thai), and 5 years older than me. I mentioned before that Michi was born in the year of the dragon, but I don't think that really means anything to Westerners. This is a round-about way of saying that she is 33, although one of my friends has complimented me on dating someone who looks like a 14 year old. Why is it that I'm dating another Asian girl who is 6 years older than me? I can't be that much more mature than other 26 year olds. I'd probably argue for the opposite, in fact.

In any case, somehow we get along, despite coming from different countries, growing up speaking different languages, being raised in different cultures, and even being born 6 years apart. What does any of that even mean in the face of common interests, shared likes, and compatible personalities?

As something of an aside, should you ever come to Japan, or I'd bet any Asian country, you will see tons of foreign male-Asian female couples, but almost no Asian male-foreign female couples. In my couple watching (which as a long-term single person, is something like worrying at that one sore spot on the inside of your check with your tongue: it hurts but you can't seem to leave the thing alone) I've never seen a single one. Michi and I have even talked about it, and we can't quite find a good answer as to why. I'd like to find one of these couples and take a picture of them just to prove that it does happen. What is it about the first combination that makes it so common, while the second is never seen?

Cheers,

That's How You Spend a Weekend

hey all,

So this weekend was quite long and jam-packed. Saturday, Michi and I hung out for a bit, ate lunch together, and then went rock climbing at an indoor gym. Sunday, we spent the whole day at a park, and today, I organized an indoor climbing event for the outdoor club, and Michi came to that as well. So, basically, we've spent a ridiculous amount of time together this weekend. Altogether, a good warm up for our rock climbing trip next weekend. The only smoke on the horizon is the weather looks rainy.


Some pictures from the park we went to on Sunday:



Going back to the daily grind of work will be tough.

Cheers,

Typhoon

hey all,

Yet another typhoon is supposed to be sweeping through Japan tomorrow. School might be canceled, but I'll still have to show up.

Pretty relaxing day at work. I taught two classes, studied a little Japanese, took a nap, and talked (I couldn't believe it myself) to one of my teachers for an hour or so.

Friday I teach again at the elementary school, and Saturday Michi and I are going indoor rock climbing, just the two of us. I suggested we could see a movie that she had mentioned being interested in, but she brought up rock climbing. I think I'd marry her just for that. Monday is a holiday, so I think I might organize an outdoor rock climbing trip to somewhere in Okutama.

That's all for now.

Cheers,

Weekend

hey all,

So my date last night went really well. We went to a park in Kichijoji Tokyo, whose local goddess is Ben-Ten, apparently a lonely goddess who likes to break up couples (according to Japanese legend, so Michi tells me). Michi and I have not broken up, but we are postponing our excursion to Yugawara. Nothing serious, just some circumstances beyond our control that I can't really get into here.

Anyway, we rented a swan boat and paddled around the lake a bit, and I gave her a drawing I had made: her climbing a rock wall in Ogawayama, with a Japanese style dragon-spirit imitating her pose behind her, and a stylized dog spirit wagging his tail at the top of the climb. Michi was born in the year of the dragon, and I was born in the year of the dog. Kinda silly and childish, but she liked it.

We walked around the lake afterwards, then had some yakitori (broiled chicken meat on skewers) at a restaurant, and went back to the park to sit by the lakeside for a couple hours. We had to say goodnight, as I had important things to do today.

Today, I did my usual indoor climbing event in Kinshicho. A couple first timers showed up, as well as some of my regulars. Fun as usual. When I first started climbing here in Japan, I felt that I was climbing really slow compared to how I used to climb, but today, I was blazing up the routes. In Ogawayama, I think I regained some of my speed and confidence. Although I have been improving steadily over the last 2 months, I feel like at first I was hesitating at crucial moments rather than just attempting a move and taking a fall if I fail. Most often a fall will help you figure out how not to do a particular area, and really isn't a big deal: after all that is why we are wearing harnesses, using ropes, and have belayers we trust in.

Overall, this weekend was great. I got to rock climb, and I got to spend a solid 5 hours with Michi. The more time we spend together, the more I like her. My friends and acquaintances know me as a really picky guy when it comes to just about everything, especially women, so I feel like this kind of experience is kind of like some kind of amazingly rare event, like being struck by lightning while reading a book about Benjamin Franklin. Wow, did that last sentence come out weird.

Cheers,

Speech Contest

hey all,

A few days ago I was a judge at an English speech contest. The last few weeks, I've been spending a little time tutoring 2 students from my school so that they could compete. I've felt a little bad about it, because my 3rd year teacher kept asking me to stay after school and tutor them, but I always left. You see, school ends between 3:35 and 2:25, depending on whether they have 5 or 6 classes that day. I'm only scheduled until 4:15, so if my students didn't come to me before 4:15, I'd book out of there like a bat out of hell.

After all, I'm not a volunteer worker: I'm only paid to come in from 8:15-4:15, after that, I'm literally working for free. There is no overtime. I know some of my fellow ALTs did in fact choose to volunteer, but when I talked to them, I found out that they like their schools. Some of them even hope to teach at the same school next year, so great is their love.

In any case, like all Japanese events, there is a huge amount of ceremony surrounding the speech contest. I didn't describe all the speakers (and speeches), special guests, and important announcements that were made during my school's sports festival day, but the speech contest was much the same. Maybe go back and re-read my post about the first day at school, and all the bowing, speeches, "Do your best"-ing, etc surrounding the beginning of the school year.

There were about 30 students competing, and only one of them was a boy. His speech wasn't even that good, which made me feel kinda bad for him. Both of my students choked: they hadn't memorized their speeches very well, so they stumbled and paused, a lot and probably went over the 5 minute time limit. They both scored close to last place out of the 30.

Their pronunciation was ok, but my idiot of an English teacher actually insisted that we waste precious practice time working on Ls and Rs. We spent 10 minutes trying to get this poor girl to say "Europe" not "Eulope," and finally got her to do it correctly 3 times in a row, only to have her go back to "Eulope" on the very next time. I told her "Every student is going to make this mistake. We shouldn't bother with it. The judges (all ALTs) know that most Japanese people can't hear the difference between L and R." I wanted to say that even my Japanese English teachers make this mistake, but I don't think they would have appreciated that.

Tonight, Michi and I are heading to a park with a lake in Western Tokyo, and renting a small paddle boat to do the couple thing. I'm also booking a hotel room for us in Yugawara for the weekend after next, so we can relax after a hard day of climbing. Tomorrow, I've organized yet another indoor climbing session at the gym in Tokyo. Next weekend, I might host another one. Not sure yet.

Cheers,

Stable Dissatisfaction

hey all,

In an earlier post, I said that only 3 things got me down: no girlfriend, bad job, bad apartment. Well, now that 1 of those things looks like it might not be an issue any longer, my dissatisfaction with the other 2 seems to have increased. After all, my job and my apartment actually make it inconvenient to see Michi. Even assuming our thing doesn't work out, I'm still stuck with a room the size of a large bathroom stall, and an unfulfilling job where I work with boring, unhelpful people teaching English to disinterested apathetic students.

It is almost as if the 3 things that GMD formed a triangle: the simplest, most stable and strongest structural shape. When I had 3 things that GMD, they didn't jar against anything else, but just maintained their shape. Now that one of the struts is gone, I've got these two loose ends that clash, jangle, and make a nuisance of themselves.

These last days, I've been putting in more job applications, but most of these are hopeless: some have over 1000 applicants. I've even asked my coordinator if the Company has any openings for office workers near Tokyo. Although I'd still be with the same company, I wouldn't have to deal with the teaching environment (or lack thereof) of Japan.

The photo shoot for that modeling gig is tomorrow, but I'm not going because my ankle has been bugging me again recently (I stupidly agreed to run in a race on sports day, and of course I ran seriously and now my ankle hurts again), and now I have a pretty bad cold or flu or something to go with it.

Anyway, it looks like Michi and I actually have a date this Saturday afterall, which brings my mood up.

Cheers,

School Sports Day and Date

hey all,

Yesterday was my school sports festival day, so I had to come into work on a Saturday. The nice thing is that I get Monday off. Not too amazingly interesting, but kinda nice because I got paid for coming in and being a spectator.

So those who talked to me after my Ogawayama trip know that I asked Michi on a date. She said yes. Originally, we were planning to see a movie, but we ended up going to a famous monjayaki shop on Tsukishima island. Monjayaki is kinda difficult to describe: at each table in the restaurant, there is a hotplate where your monjayaki is fried. A waiter will bring the ingredients to your table, mix them, and pour them onto the hotplate. You then take some small scrapers, and mix it up while it cooks. The result is kinda like a runny omellete, and looks a little like vomit, and tastes incredible.

I had a really good time, and we'll be going on another date in a couple weeks (she's really busy, plus we live an hour away from each other). I'd like to do a climbing trip with just the two of us, but we'll see.

Cheers,

Oh! Oh! Ogawayama!

hey all,

Wow what a vacation! I just got back from my camping/rock climbing trip to Ogawayama. Getting there itself was quite the adventure. I got up slightly later than I intended, and missed first my local train into Shinjuku, then just missed the express train as it was starting to pull away from the station. Like an idiot, I ran after it for 20 or 30 feet with my 20kg bag full of tent, sleeping bag, climbing gear and food. It certainly wasn't how I envisioned the trip beginning.

I caught the next train, which was full of people with similar ideas as me and my companions: getting out of Tokyo for a few days, so I got to stand for the first 1.5 hours. I met up with Patrick and Ayako from the outdoor club at the next major stop, and we arrived at Shinano-kawakami (try saying that 3 times fast) together. After that, we took a bus to get closer to the campsite, but were still about 45-60 minutes away. We walked about 1 km, and then hitchhiked the last leg in the back a service vehicle. After arriving in the campsite, setting up camp, we went out to find some climbing places.

From Ogawayama

I said in my last post that Ogawayama is the premier climbing spot in Japan, and there is good reason for that: there is tons of rock, everywhere you look. Only some of it is bolted, and some used to be in good shape, but now features rusty bolts or rock covered with moss and fungus, making it unclimbable unless you are spider-man. And for beginners like two of the people on the trip, and even for people with experience (but still lacking certain skills or strength like me or Patrick), there are maybe only 30-40 routes that are real options, which is still twice the number of most other places. The problem for us that first day, and in fact everyday, was finding which areas featured good climbing for us, and actually finding those areas.

Unlike Yugawara, Great Falls, or even Harrisonburg, the climbing areas of Ogawayama are spread over 20-30sq km, so just getting from the campsite to a likely climbing spot often proved difficult. Sometimes we'd walk past the entrance of a climbing trail, or end up farther downstream or upstream of our intended climbing spot.

Anyway, continuing the day's trend of misfortune, on the very first climb (a lead 5.11, by the way), I fell while trying to reach the 4th bolt and twisted my ankle. Later in the day on a different rock, I fell while trying to lead a 5.10d and twisted the same ankle. Although it hurt, it didn't seem too bad, so when we finally found a nice 5.8, I climbed that with no problems. By the time we got back to the camp, I could barely walk and was almost crying from the pain. I was afraid I had broken my ankle, and I couldn't remember any sprain that had hurt that much. The worst I've done to my legs is hyper-extend my knees a few times, but that shuts you down immediately. I've never had an injury that felt OK while I was using it, then suddenly starts hurting when you aren't using that body part anymore.

I soaked my ankle in the bathroom sink in cold water for 30 minutes, took 800mg of Ibuprofen, and wrapped it in the remains of an old T-shirt which I sacrificed for my ankle.

The next morning I still had a limp, but I could walk, so I went with Patrick and Ayako to a beginner's rock 2km from the camp down a road. They both climbed 4-5 times each on slightly different routes before I felt comfortable climbing on my ankle. No falls, and only slight pain. We then went back to camp to meet another member who had decided to arrive a day late. (Actually, we ate lunch, and unsuccessfully tried to find another climbing spot, then came back to met her.) By then, it was 4PM and we went back to the beginner's rock before returning to camp and making dinner. I believe it was that evening that a Japanese man and woman approached me and asked if I'd like to be a model. Yes, me a model. The guy said he was an assistant photographer for a magazine, and they were looking for experienced climbers to shoot for a climbing theme. Anyway, I gave him my contact info, so we'll see. The pay sounds good, but it is during my normal working hours. I could actually skip my normal work, be a model for a day, and still come out ahead, but not by very much.

From Ogawayama

So ended our second day of rock climbing. Our 3rd day was amazing. We headed for a spot which someone in the camp office had said was good for beginners and climbed the hell out of it. We began with Gama Slab, a long-ish stretch of rock that has a heavy less-than-vertical tilt to it, so with good climbing shoes you're basically walking up a steep incline. Still fun, but not very challenging. Right next to that, there were about 10-15 more routes, 5-6 of which we attempted, including a tricky lead 5.10a-d(can't remember the exact grade) and a freakishly long and dirty lead 5.10a. The lead 5.10a was 30m long, and we had a 60m rope: just enough to let me come down from the top. I led both of those climbs, and established anchors at the top so Patrick, Ayako, and Michi could top-rope them. We lost Ayako that day, as she had to return to Tokyo, so it was down to 3 again.

The final day, we went to a spot near Gama Slab which Patrick and I had scouted the previous day. There was only one route that looked doable, so we did it. Patrick found access to the top from the backside, and set up a top-rope for us. This was really nice, because I don't think I could have led it, at least not the first time.

Below is a video of me climbing it (5.10a-ish) for the 4th and last time. When Patrick says "Nice move" that is because I just made a nice move: the hand holds in that area are not very big and not very comfortable to hold, and I practically did a pull-up on them. This is probably the most fun route that I climbed: not so difficult that I couldn't even start/finish it, but challenging enough that it is interesting and I can feel a pleasant ache in my arms afterwards.



After that, we returned to Gama slab and climbed one of the routes which was occupied for the whole time we had climbed there the previous day, and I led that climb, so the others could top-rope it. After that, Michi and I closed down camp, and hitchhiked all the way back to the station with this retired science teacher who first took us to his house and gave us coffee and lettuce, in addition to giving us a geological history of the area, which is apparently known as the Japanese Yosemite.




Above: Michi and I eating raw carrots on the train. I guess most Japanese people think eating raw carrot is weird, but we like it.

So that was my trip to Ogawayama.

Cheers,