&nonsense

日本大好きだよ〜！　　

Jun 15, 2008
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It's funny, but as I grow closer and closer to leaving Japan, I am starting to love it more and more (this is actually a well-documented part of culture shock, but anyway...). So it's a bit frustrating that I'm leaving. Yesterday, I was going down to a job fair in Tokyo to see if I could possibly get a job, or at the very least, to get some practice in interviewing. But there was a small problem. Namely, this. I was one of the unfortunate 2,000 people trapped on the Shinkansen for most of the day, and as a result, missed the job fair, which was a bit frustrating. However, event though everyone seems to think I should be mad, but it's hard to think that way. I was annoyed at the inconvenience until I found out exactly how bad it was, and that people died (nine at the moment). At that point, you really realize that there's nothing you can do sometimes. Sometimes life just happens to you. As much as I try hard to be a proactive person, and to work for the life that I want, at the same time, I have to remember to recognize that there is so much out there beyond our control. But end conclusion is that it seems like my time in Japan really is up for the moment, as a literal Act of God prevented me from interviewing for anything. 残念。

Anyway, on a less philosophical note, because I didn't make it down to Tokyo, after spending the rest of my day trying to get back to Hachinohe City in Aomori (where I had left from), I went to a taco party, and ate some great tacos. Had a good time hanging out with the Hach kids, and then fell asleep at Jody's while watching a scary Filipino movie. (After which I apparently talked about cookies in my sleep. God, I'm deep.) Then Jody decided to show us some of the Japanese dramas she's been watching lately, since none of us really watch Japanese tv. Hilariously, all of us got really hooked on the show she showed us, and had to eventually be kicked out. Of course, for added silliness points, all of us are leaving Japan in about five weeks. And NOW is the time we all decided to get hooked on the tv.

絶対彼氏。Zettai Kareshi

Anyway, here is a feature on the drama we were watching. It's called 'Zettai Kareshi' (Absolute Boyfriend) and is essentially a story about a woman who accidentally buys a perfect robot boyfriend for a million dollars. Hilarity (and romance) ensue. It's actually based on a manga that I had read a while ago, but I tend to get bored with manga before they really get anywhere plot-wise, as they tend to go on FOREVER. Anyway, the original was about some high school students, and I personally like this one much better. (Maybe because I have more in common with twenty-somethings than high-school students ^-~) As Japanese television shows, rather than going season by season, are usually a fixed series for a certain amount of episodes before they finish, I'm hoping the ten episodes of this will come out to a well-plotted conclusion. Yay drama!

Rrargh!

Jun 9, 2008
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more cat pictures

Hitchhiking and Onsening

May 7, 2008
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Every once in awhile I have these moments where life is perfect, and I want to hold onto that experience forever. As I am getting geared up to return home, I am having more and more of those moments, as I try to squeeze the most out of my remaining time here.

For a week, I have been down in Shikoku (the fourth of the main islands in Japan) hitchhiking around with my friend Becky. We were competing in a Charity Hitchhike for the Oita-ken JET charity, which is supporting Room-to-Read in building a school in Laos (Room to Read is one of the charities Everest of Apples works in concert with to support the Prajwal School in Nepal). The point was to get people to give us money (Thanks, Mom!) for completing various challenges, or for kilometers travelled, places visited, etc. Anyway, it was a fabulous trip, albeit with one major setback, I lost my camera, with about 200 pictures I hadn't uploaded yet, including all of my hanami shots.

In one week, we traveled to all four prefectures in Shikoku, climbed Mt. Ishizuchi (1982m/6500ft) visited Dogo Onsen, the oldest onsen in Japan, tried out the World's Longest Monkey Bars in Kochi, crossed a vine bridge in Tokushima, and saw the Naruto Whirlpools, where the fastest current in Japan creates two massive whirlpools at high & low tide. We rode in 24 seperate cars, met a ton of really nice people, and did a LOT of walking. Anyway, one of my perfect moments was at an onsen in Mishima, Ehime. We had climbed Mt. Ishizuchi that day, and were both whipped, and we thought we'd be able to stay for the night in Mishima, which looked like a decent sized factory town. Unfortunately, we got hit with the Golden Week traffic, and all the hotels and ryokans seemed to be booked. We finally found one that wasn't, most likely because they weren't offering bathing or food, and they still charged us 5000 yen (about $50) each. :/ However, we didn't really feel like quibbling, and we really didn't feel like camping, so we went with it, much to Becky's regret, as she kept waking up all night, sure that the old woman who ran the ryokan was going to murder us in our sleep. So, because the ryokan didn't have a bath, we went to the local onsen, which we were badly needing after a day of mountain climbing, and after getting ourselves cleaned up, we were soaking in various pools. I was in a warm pool outside, which was perfect, as I was sunburned and so not up for a hot pool, and it was a nice warm night, but with a bit of a breeze to it, which felt great. Anyway, ended up having a great time chatting with all the people in my pool. There were a couple of little families in there, because kids usually don't like the hotter pools either, so there were a couple older ladies in there, and then three moms with all their assorted children, two aged seven and three aged four, who were having a great time frolicking in the pool and generally breaking all the rules regarding proper onsen conduct (heads under water, splashing, dunking, climbing on people) which was generally hilarious. Also had a great chat with a high school student from Osaka who wants to go to Kansai Gaidai, a school that is well known with American students of Japanese, as a popular place to do study abroad. This girl is hoping to do a few years at Kansai Gaidai and then transfer to an American school, which is quite a challenge, so I wish her luck with that. Anyway, we eventually had to leave to get dinner and get to bed before our curfew(!) at the ryokan, but I had a great time chatting with everyone there. I realized later that some of the best conversations I have had in this country have been while I was completely naked. I've never been particularly prudish, but I think the idea of sitting in a big naked bath with a bunch of strangers is so completely foreign in America that at times it still seems really odd. Gotta say, I love it though.

Hanami-- surprisingly cool, for looking at flowers.

Apr 24, 2008
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Note: I lost my camera in Shikoku, so the two pictures here are stolen from a friend of mine, Mark Montgomery, who is an extremely talented photographer. You can find more of his pictures here.

So this week I have been doing a lot of hanami (flower viewing) which is the traditional Japanese thing to do in the spring when the cherry blossoms come. In a lot of ways, I feel like hanami season is kind of like Independence Day in the States-- everyone does it, and it's very quintessentially Japanese, but there's not really all that much to get in a fuss about. At home, we barbeque and watch fireworks, in Japan, you drink under trees and stuff yourself with festival food. And take eight hundred thousand pictures.

Mmontgomeryfoto2

Last year, when my mom came, we saw the sakura (cherry blossoms) in Kyoto, which is one of the world-famous places to do it, but I have actually had a lot more fun doing it in Aomori with my friends. Kyoto is nice, but very alien and touristy, and although Hirosaki Castle, near where I live is accounted one of the best places in Japan to see cherry blossoms, it's also very familiar, and much more relaxed. Plus, rather than just walking through the park and taking pictures, we are doing it full on, with our little blue plastic tarp (somehow it is a requirement that all Japanese tarps must be blue) and our beers and chu-hais (like wine coolers but slightly more credible. Slightly). Anyway, so far I was there saturday night, sunday afternoon, wednesday evening, and will probably be back again on saturday.

Mmontgomeryfoto1

As I am not really of the "Ooh, pretty flowers" type, I wouldn't have really thought that I would get this interested in hanami, but it is basically just a very chill festival, and good time spent hanging out with friends. This hanami has been really nice, and because most of my friends are also peacing out of Japan in August, we're definitely trying to get the most out of our remaining time here, so it's nice to be with people who are as enthusiastic about it as I am. Since I know I'm leaving, I keep thinking of everything I want to do while I'm still here, and it's (of course) going to be impossible to accomplish everything, but it's nice trying. I'm also starting to get excited for whatever is coming next, although at the moment I have no idea what that is. There's good and bad things about going home. I'm not looking forward to living at home again, even though I see the necessity/practicality of it, and I really want to pay down debt as quickly as possible to move out and get on with my life, but it will be good to see family, and friends in Colorado, and hopefully get started on some sort of career. At the moment though, I'm just enjoying looking at flowers.

Oh my God, I'm a Chav!

Apr 4, 2008
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So in between working on my resume, writing an article for the Aomori Rough Guide, planning a bake sale for our charity, Everest of Apples, and actually doing my real job, I have been watching a bit of TV lately. Specifically, I have been watching the new Doctor Who, and it's spin-off, Torchwood. Both of which are excellent (in an extremely cheezy way), and which everyone should watch.

However, the result of this, aside from keeping me from doing laundry and other things I should be doing, is that my extremely suggestible self has started picking up the British (and Welsh) patterns of speech, and slang. Which would be fine if it wouldn't get me smacked by other Americans, and generally making me sound ridiculous. Combine this with the time I spend hanging out with Brits (not insignificant), and reading British literature and novels, and you have one generally confused American. It's funny, because I think Americans are very fluid with slang. We tend to pick a lot of it up, and then we use it, and it's all very laissez-faire. The amount of Spanish slang spoken by the average whitey American being a good example, eh chicos?

But there's something different about British slang. For one, the Brits I know tend to be a lot less likely to absorb other people's slang and language. Not unconsciously, but consciously. Living in a gaijin community in Japan, there's a lot of Japanese words that everyone uses as a matter of course, even if there are perfectly serviceable words in English. Keitai (cell phone), Combini (convenience store), Bento (lunchbox), Hashi (chopsticks), et cetera, et cetera. This is, I think, a perfectly reasonable accommodation to the fact that we all live here, and spend a significant amount of time everyday speaking Japanese. In my personal opinion, Brits tend to do this less than other people, seeing it as a bit of twat-like thing to do.

Now Americans are another story. Americans absorb everything. I can have a conversation with a friend here, and it will encompass English, Spanish, Japanese, whatever, all in what I would think of as an English conversation. The exception to this is British English. I think this is because it's seen as a bit of a competition. Like an American is trying to not be an American by using British slang, or as if a Brit is being non-British. Whenever I call someone chica, or tomodachi, I don't feel like I'm being un-American (rather, I feel very American). But people seem to take it very oddly if I say mate (although perhaps understandably, mate in an American accent sounds like I'm trying to be a pirate), or nicked, or mad, and so on. Of course, the number one example of this would be the C-word. To Brits, this can be an insult or a term of affection, whereas in America, this is debatably the worst word you can use. The former president of my University lost her job over defending someone for calling a woman a c***. Which puts me in big, big trouble if I happen to use this particular word when I venture back Stateside.

So I find myself in the odd position of trying to defend my native slang from an incursion of British. Not as a nationalistic thing, or because I don't like it (I do, I love slang) but as a matter of pure self-defense.

Smug

Mar 30, 2008
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Had a ridiculously good day today with some very good friends. Bit of backstory first though. Last week, I took most of the week off to do a backcountry avalanche safety snowboarding course. I spend a lot of time snowboarding, in particular at a mountain range called Hakkoda, which has two proper runs, and a whole lot of backcountry. I'm not really a good enough boarder to be doing so much backcountry, and last year there was a bad incident at Hakkoda where two people on a guided backcountry tour were killed by an avalanche, so we've always tried to be careful, and a friend, Melanie, had the idea of a few of us doing a safety course, and so we arranged for a guy, Dave, who runs an outfit in Nagano, Evergreen Outdoor Center, to come up and give us a basic safety course. We spent five days hiking around Hakkoda in snowshoes, digging test pits, camping, snowboarding, and learning a lot about snow, weather, and basic rescue techniques in the event of an avalanche.

Anyway, so this Sunday, a few of us from the course, me, Melanie and Julia, decided that we wanted to get some practice in, and play on the (8 cms ;-;) of fresh powder that fell on Saturday. So we went out this afternoon, did some hiking, did some boarding (and skiing in Mel's case), dug a test pit (snow condition = stable, some sluffing) and generally had a fab time. It's really nice to feel like you really know what you're doing out there. And that it's safe not just because you assume it's safe, or there are a lot of other tracks (which there weren't) but because you know the mountain, and the conditions, and the snow, and you know what all of that means. So today the three of us were pretty impressed with ourselves, and got to have a grand old time feeling like experts.

Ouchie!

Feb 17, 2008
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Having kind of a difficult time typing this as my left wrist is in a splint. Typing right hand-only is a bit dodgy. Went snowboarding yesterday, and went down a trail I haven't been down this year, where they're doing a lot of construction of features. Unfortunately got myself into mogul territory, and while trying to get out of it, hit a ditch in the run. I jumped it, but landed badly, and slid my snowboard into my wrist. It's not broken, but it's pretty badly sprained. So I had my first trip to a Japanese hospital. It wasn't horrifying (I have heard nightmare stories), but it didn't leave me particularly impressed. They x-rayed my wrist, and when they determined that it wasn't broken, they wrote me a prescription for shippus and then sent me on my way. A shippu is a cold pack, and these might be medicated, but given that they didn't even stabilize my wrist, I was pretty annoyed. I went to the pharmacy, figuring I'd buy myself an Ace bandage, etc and do it myself, but when I tried to, it just hurt too bad and I couldn't do it. Anyway, so I went back to the hospital and made them give me a splint, which helps a bit, and was definitely necessary. I have to go back on Monday to pay my bill, and I think they intend to take the splint off then, but I don't think I'll be willing to give it back by then. They also actually wrote me a prescription for drugs this time, but I haven't filled it yet. I have not heard good things about Japanese medication, and I dislike medication enough without having to eff around with a powder that I have to measure out and take on a schedule I probably can't read. I'll probably get it filled tomorrow, but I'm not really in any major rush.

UPDATE (4 April 2008): Ooops, it turns out it IS broken (and in a dangerous place, too)! Of course, they didn't find this out until two weeks after, when my wrist was still hurting and I couldn't move it after being in a splint for two weeks. Which makes their treatment of my broken wrist 1. Cold Pack -> 2. Hard splint (at my insistence) -> 3. Soft splint (for two weeks) -> 4. Cast (after they realized it was broken-2 weeks) -> 5. Custom molded removable wrist splint (3 weeks and counting). So it took them five tries, but they finally got it right. Maybe it's bad, but I'm glad I only had the proper cast on for two weeks, that thing was a nightmare. The wrist brace now is a bit stinky, but it's low-profile and I can take it off to take a shower or onsen, which is all I really ask for.

Life

Jan 30, 2008
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Been in a good mood lately, bit stressed out about money stuff, but that's pretty much always true. Still bolstered by my vacay, and planning things for my last year on JET, and how to tackle the real world after I am (most likely) booted from Japan's tetrapod encrusted shores.

Had quite a desire to go surfing lately, which is a bit shit, as it is the deepest darkest days of winter, and I am not one of the absolutely insane who will brave the water when there's a meter of snow on the ground... that's what snowboarding is for! We had the AJET Ski Weekend at Hakkoda last weekend, and it was excellent. Dicked around a bit at Karen's on Saturday with Becky before the three of us headed up the mountain and got three amazing but exhausting runs in. Headed back into town to onsen, get dinner, and pick up Kathryn and Sho, who joined us for the party. Which was excellent. I love cabin parties, but this was the best party I've been to in ages, probably since the Welcome Party when the new JETs first got here. I talked to everyone, everyone seemed to be having an awesome time, people were drinking but not ridiculously drunk (at least not when I went to bed). A lot of good talking and socializing with people I haven't seen lately, and no one I dislike. I love it when an excellent party comes together.

The next day, the powder on Hakkoda was insane. Like so insane that one of the two basic runs, Forest, was closed. 65 centimeters of powder had fallen on Saturday night, and as I haven't done much deep-powder this year, my legs were feeling it. But it was all great, then had a good lunch, and only got one more run in, cause it took an hour, and then headed into the city for Freshness Burger before dropping Karen and Becky off and heading home.

Anyway, this week's been pretty good. Work is boring, but predictable, and I'm trying to get a lot of the stuff I want to do for myself done. Haven't got time to go snowboarding this week as every night is either my eikaiwa or dinner plans with someone (or both!) but I think I shall likely spend the weekend cleaning, snowboarding at Aji, and studying if I can scrape up some discipline.

Ooh, sexy.

Jan 17, 2008
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MacBook Air

So I saw the new MacBook Air yesterday, and baby, I WANT IT. My computer is already on it's way out, with no working disc drive, a cracked casing, not anywhere near enough hard drives space or ram, and too slow a processor. I realize the MacBook Air isn't necessarily more practical than the MacBook Pro for my usage (although slightly cheaper), but ooh, do I want it. Especially as I think I'm looking at two more years before going back to school, and that's long enough that I'm going to need to upgrade my hardware either when I start, or not too long after, because the programs I'll need will take a workhorse. Meanwhile, I want a lovely machine on which to run Illustrator, keep my pictures, music and television, make the new yearbook on Quark, play my games, and schlep with me anywhere I care to go. Definitely going to start saving my pennies now, and hope that I can buy it for my birthday. If I'm really lucky, they'll have a hardware upgrade and a price downgrade before my birthday comes around. Hoping to buy the external superdrive to use in the meantime when I'm in Sapporo, which should hold off some of the current problems and let me watch movies and play games again.

Sunshine to Champagne to ???

Jan 14, 2008
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So it's Monday, but today was a national holiday, so it's the end of the weekend and it feels like Sunday. It's a little weird to think about the fact that a week ago I was in Cambodia (although admittedly about to get on a flight home). I'm back in Aomori, powder has been falling like crazy, I spent today snowboarding, and my main priority is staying warm while still managing to wear clean clothes. Rather than everything being a dollar, I can't even buy a small can of coffee for a dollar. Also, Thursday after I got back, I managed to rear-end a bus-type thingie while sliding on the ice (going apx 5 kms/hr) and I now have to pay for new headlight mounts and probably some other minor repairs (Can't get it looked at until I get paid though). Luckily the bus driver was all "It's okay, don't worry about it" and he didn't want to call the police (no damage to his bus) because my office had previously told me if I had another accident they'd find a way to confiscate my car.

Speaking of my office. So before Christmas, Allison had sent a text to Eric and me saying that she had heard through the grapevine that our office was only keeping two ALTs next year instead of three. If all three of us decide to re-contract, then one of us is out of a job. Guess which one? This put me in the uncomfortable position of hoping that one of two people I like would decide to leave. Over Christmas I was worrying about this a bit, although I came to the conclusion that there wasn't much I could do about it until I knew anything for sure, so I was pretty much just letting it go. Fast forward to last Friday. We had an office day, and none of the Japanese staff was there except for the office lady. So Allison, Mark (who hadn't heard one word of this-- although he's not a JET, so his job isn't endangered ATM) and I sat down and talked about it. Allison had been really upset about the whole thing (and in possession of the most information), so she contacted our prefectural advisor, who talked to the people at the prefectural office, and the general conclusion is, if our office is dead-set on this (which they appear to be, but we haven't gotten official papers yet) then the person who is not getting re-contracted (me) will be moved to another position in Aomori. So no one is fired, and no one is getting sent home. Which is cool. I wanted to re-contract on the basis of how much I like my current job/schools/teachers/students but if the other option is heading back to America, which I'm not ready for just yet, then I am willing to give another job a shot. Especially if I can scope out the territory ahead of time, figure out who's leaving who has a job/place/situation that I like, and then take their spot. Other bonus? This saves me the hassle of finding a new place to live, as I will be going to whomever I replace's house. And as no one in the prefecture (and possibly all of Japan) lives in as big of a house as me, then I am guaranteed to have a smaller (and most likely cheaper) place. So this could all turn out okay.

Anyway, I'm optimistic, but curious to see what will develop.