hey all,
Very excellent weekend. I finished watching Shutter Island and chatted with a friend Saturday morning, and then headed up to Tokyo to meet up with Michi. We didn't see each other at all last weekend, as I worked on Saturday and we both had colds. So this weekend was the first time we'd gotten to spend more than 2 hours together in two weeks.
We made a decent dinner of vegetable soup and yakisoba (fried noodles), and talked about A Song of Ice and Fire,the first book of which she is now about half way through...This actually makes me really jealous. In English I can get through one of these books in a couple of days, given enough time to read each day. But it has taken me the better part of 5 months to get through the first book in Japanese, and she's gotten through half in about a month.
Anyway, we also got around to the topic of baby names, somehow. No, that's not a hint or clue, but especially with my economic situation seeming to improve it is a topic that's come up. The funny thing is that we came back to A Song of Ice and Fire for this as well: there are actual attested fans of the series who've named a son or daughter after a character from Mr. Martin's excellent fantasy series, and if I had a daughter, I couldn't think of a better name than Daenerys or Dany for short.
Today we went indoor rock climbing, as there was a typhoon yesterday and the weather was still not too great today. We both did pretty well. Michi has been going bouldering after work almost every night this month, and she even took a private lesson outdoors earlier , like I did when I first started climbing. She can now climb some 5.10a's and 5.10b's, but her reach is a little short and sometimes her weak left hand holds her back. Still, it took me 5 years to reach the 5.10a mark, so who am I judge? I didn't break any records, but I did a couple 5.10a's and 5.10b, and finished with two 5.10d's. I almost completed a third, but I smashed my knee trying to pull myself over the last ledge at the end, and that really took the fight out of me.
I've been watching talks on TED recently, and I thought I'd share two here.The first is really brilliant, and the second is pretty interesting.
Cheers,
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Odd
hey all,
So the other day I had to do all those change-of-address errands, and I noticed that I've always lived in a room number with 3 in it. In Omiya I was in 103A, in Tokyo I was #3, and now I'm #203. What gives?
Cheers,
So the other day I had to do all those change-of-address errands, and I noticed that I've always lived in a room number with 3 in it. In Omiya I was in 103A, in Tokyo I was #3, and now I'm #203. What gives?
Cheers,
Monday, October 25, 2010
Busy busy
hey all,
I received the afternoon off, so after morning classes were over I bolted and started running errands. I updated my gaijin card, setup a mail forwarding system at the post office so my mail will be sent to my new address, and updated my address at the bank and at my phone company. I also managed to renew my national health insurance and make a trip to Tokyo to pick up the last of my stuff.
Eating my dinner now, and then it is to the showers and to bed.
Cheers,
I received the afternoon off, so after morning classes were over I bolted and started running errands. I updated my gaijin card, setup a mail forwarding system at the post office so my mail will be sent to my new address, and updated my address at the bank and at my phone company. I also managed to renew my national health insurance and make a trip to Tokyo to pick up the last of my stuff.
Eating my dinner now, and then it is to the showers and to bed.
Cheers,
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Um
hey all,
So it has been an interesting weekend. As it happened, I wasn't supposed to work on Saturday after all, just like the schedule had showed me, but...That teacher who's wife just had a baby? The one I subbed for two weeks ago? Well, he had called in at 8:30AM saying he couldn't make it in because his wife had a fever and he had to look after the baby. When I showed up unannounced, everyone was breathing sighs of relief because it meant that they could actually do their classes and not have to make embarrassing explanations to their students/customers.
Anyway, I worked until about 5PM Saturday, and then went back to Tokyo and spent the night at the old place. The southern guy and I watched The League, and then I hit the sack. This morning was spent organizing and packing, and realizing that despite my intentions of carrying everything by myself (in only three trips), I would actually need help today, and that I'd still have several items left over even if I received help.
Just like my last move, I lured one of my friends into helping me with promises of free train fare and lunch. It went pretty smoothly, and now I've got two more plastic crates from Muji, my PS3 and monitor, plus my rack for drying clothes, etc. All that actually remains behind are a fifth of tequila, a wood pulp shelving unit, my blender, and an Asian style straw hat that is a souvenir for a friend.
Last night I also bought and started taking some cold medicine, and already I'm feeling much better. My cough and runny nose are still pretty bad, but I think in a couple days I'll be back to normal.
I think I'm going to study a bit, since I haven't had time to do much of that recently.
Cheers,
So it has been an interesting weekend. As it happened, I wasn't supposed to work on Saturday after all, just like the schedule had showed me, but...That teacher who's wife just had a baby? The one I subbed for two weeks ago? Well, he had called in at 8:30AM saying he couldn't make it in because his wife had a fever and he had to look after the baby. When I showed up unannounced, everyone was breathing sighs of relief because it meant that they could actually do their classes and not have to make embarrassing explanations to their students/customers.
Anyway, I worked until about 5PM Saturday, and then went back to Tokyo and spent the night at the old place. The southern guy and I watched The League, and then I hit the sack. This morning was spent organizing and packing, and realizing that despite my intentions of carrying everything by myself (in only three trips), I would actually need help today, and that I'd still have several items left over even if I received help.
Just like my last move, I lured one of my friends into helping me with promises of free train fare and lunch. It went pretty smoothly, and now I've got two more plastic crates from Muji, my PS3 and monitor, plus my rack for drying clothes, etc. All that actually remains behind are a fifth of tequila, a wood pulp shelving unit, my blender, and an Asian style straw hat that is a souvenir for a friend.
Last night I also bought and started taking some cold medicine, and already I'm feeling much better. My cough and runny nose are still pretty bad, but I think in a couple days I'll be back to normal.
I think I'm going to study a bit, since I haven't had time to do much of that recently.
Cheers,
Friday, October 22, 2010
To Work, or Not To Work
hey all,
Been a long week, and it may not be over yet. As seems to happen pretty regularly, I get told one thing about the schedule, but when I check the printed version, there are changes. It seems that one of the secretaries in charge of doing the schedule is pretty new, plus there are two actually doing it, so there are changes that get made on day, only to be undone, or changed again by the other secretary the next.
So the short way to put it is that I don't know whether I'm actually working tomorrow. As I did on Monday, I'll go in tomorrow morning prepared to work and see if I'm needed. I sure could use a day off, though. I seem to have caught a second cold this season, and taking it easy would be great medicine. Of course, I still have to head back to my old room in Tokyo to pick up the last of my things, and doing that tomorrow would let me rest on Sunday.
I miss seeing and talking to Michi. We've been talking on the phone, but that isn't the same as being in a restaurant or sitting on a couch together, and I only saw her for a couple hours last weekend. It sounds as though she's caught a cold as well, so we might not be meeting this weekend at all, which is a depressing thought.
With the long hours, I haven't been able to keep up my study of Japanese as much as I'd have liked too, but I have managed to put in a little time.
Time to get ready for bed.
Cheers,
Been a long week, and it may not be over yet. As seems to happen pretty regularly, I get told one thing about the schedule, but when I check the printed version, there are changes. It seems that one of the secretaries in charge of doing the schedule is pretty new, plus there are two actually doing it, so there are changes that get made on day, only to be undone, or changed again by the other secretary the next.
So the short way to put it is that I don't know whether I'm actually working tomorrow. As I did on Monday, I'll go in tomorrow morning prepared to work and see if I'm needed. I sure could use a day off, though. I seem to have caught a second cold this season, and taking it easy would be great medicine. Of course, I still have to head back to my old room in Tokyo to pick up the last of my things, and doing that tomorrow would let me rest on Sunday.
I miss seeing and talking to Michi. We've been talking on the phone, but that isn't the same as being in a restaurant or sitting on a couch together, and I only saw her for a couple hours last weekend. It sounds as though she's caught a cold as well, so we might not be meeting this weekend at all, which is a depressing thought.
With the long hours, I haven't been able to keep up my study of Japanese as much as I'd have liked too, but I have managed to put in a little time.
Time to get ready for bed.
Cheers,
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Work, Work, Work
hey all,
Been a busy week so far. I've been asked to do a 6 day work week schedule, but it seems like I might be able to switch to a 5 day if I start feeling pressured or stressed. Classes are going pretty well. I've started a daily grammar activity where I have the students conjugate verbs. I started this because my boss had the students do this for some simple, common verbs and they couldn't do it at all. Things like "Tonight I will eat a cake. Yesterday I ___ a cake. I have just ___ a cake," with "ate" and "eaten" in the blanks. We teach them complicated subjects like physics, tectonic plates, Baroque composers, etc, but somehow some simple things are not been taught/trained.
On top of the long week, the hours are also a bit long, but unlike my last job, if classes are done, or if I'm already prepared for my next classes, I'm allowed to take off (as long as I'm back in time if I still have a class later that day). It looks like they might be reducing the length of some of my days, as I'm working 6 days.
I ran into this on the internet today: a robot that sings and dances! The average Japanese pop singer can be said to have about the same personality as the robot, so think they should be worried about being automated out of their jobs.
That's all for now.
Cheers,
Been a busy week so far. I've been asked to do a 6 day work week schedule, but it seems like I might be able to switch to a 5 day if I start feeling pressured or stressed. Classes are going pretty well. I've started a daily grammar activity where I have the students conjugate verbs. I started this because my boss had the students do this for some simple, common verbs and they couldn't do it at all. Things like "Tonight I will eat a cake. Yesterday I ___ a cake. I have just ___ a cake," with "ate" and "eaten" in the blanks. We teach them complicated subjects like physics, tectonic plates, Baroque composers, etc, but somehow some simple things are not been taught/trained.
On top of the long week, the hours are also a bit long, but unlike my last job, if classes are done, or if I'm already prepared for my next classes, I'm allowed to take off (as long as I'm back in time if I still have a class later that day). It looks like they might be reducing the length of some of my days, as I'm working 6 days.
I ran into this on the internet today: a robot that sings and dances! The average Japanese pop singer can be said to have about the same personality as the robot, so think they should be worried about being automated out of their jobs.
That's all for now.
Cheers,
Sunday, October 17, 2010
New Place
hey all,
So I moved a load of stuff over to the new place yesterday, and signed the contract, and made the first rent payment. That took up a bunch of time, and I spent even more time packing, transporting, and unpacking today. I've got all of my clothes and books and school materials here, but my monitor, PS3, rock climbing/camping gear, and some food items are still back in Tokyo.
I originally received tomorrow off, but then I was given Saturday off as well, and was told that my schedule would be set later on Saturday. Well, I still don't know exactly what's up, but I'm going to go in to work tomorrow anyway, as it is now so close. If I'm told to go home, I can update my address with the bank, phone company, post office, and city hall, and maybe bring down another load to the new place.
If my uploads worked, below should be two videos: one from rock climbing, and one of my new room.
Please excuse my enormous brain farts on simple vocabulary while introducing my room. Even in the US this happened to me a lot, but living in a foreign country will multiply the frequency and severity many times. I should also have noted the size of the room: there is ample designated storage space (every room has a little box) for food, shoes, etc outside of the rooms, so a lot of stuff that I had to keep in my room in Tokyo or Omiya, I can put elsewhere. But the room is so freaking BIG! My climbing gear will fill part of the closet, but there will still be empty space in there, and then the room itself will still be mostly empty.
The rent is higher, of course, but I'll be saving a lot of money by commuting by foot or bike to work. Plus, there are the intangibles: actually living in a room you can wave your arms about in without scraping your knuckles or pissing off the neighbors.
Cheers,
So I moved a load of stuff over to the new place yesterday, and signed the contract, and made the first rent payment. That took up a bunch of time, and I spent even more time packing, transporting, and unpacking today. I've got all of my clothes and books and school materials here, but my monitor, PS3, rock climbing/camping gear, and some food items are still back in Tokyo.
I originally received tomorrow off, but then I was given Saturday off as well, and was told that my schedule would be set later on Saturday. Well, I still don't know exactly what's up, but I'm going to go in to work tomorrow anyway, as it is now so close. If I'm told to go home, I can update my address with the bank, phone company, post office, and city hall, and maybe bring down another load to the new place.
If my uploads worked, below should be two videos: one from rock climbing, and one of my new room.
Please excuse my enormous brain farts on simple vocabulary while introducing my room. Even in the US this happened to me a lot, but living in a foreign country will multiply the frequency and severity many times. I should also have noted the size of the room: there is ample designated storage space (every room has a little box) for food, shoes, etc outside of the rooms, so a lot of stuff that I had to keep in my room in Tokyo or Omiya, I can put elsewhere. But the room is so freaking BIG! My climbing gear will fill part of the closet, but there will still be empty space in there, and then the room itself will still be mostly empty.
The rent is higher, of course, but I'll be saving a lot of money by commuting by foot or bike to work. Plus, there are the intangibles: actually living in a room you can wave your arms about in without scraping your knuckles or pissing off the neighbors.
Cheers,
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