What does CapitalOne have against me?

My lovely credit card company has gone and declined my health insurance payment. WTF? It seems like I have to call up and ask permission to do anything.

Apartment update

Come June 1^st, I should be finally moving out of Todd’s house. It’s something I’m sure he’ll appreciate. I’ll like it better too, in my own apartment and not in a small room with all my stuff piled around the edges. The process has been long and arduous, but I finally got something. The apartment itself isn’t much – the living room is spacious, but my room won’t have any closets, and there aren’t any closets in the entire apartment to store miscellaneous stuff, which means we’ll be spending a bit of cash on things to put things in – but the location is superb. We’re on the hypotenuse of a little triangular sliver of a block, across the street from the shrine, half a block to the main post office (great for getting large packages from home, hint, hint) and roughly ten minutes walk to the station. It’ll add about ten minutes or so to my commute, maybe more to the rural school, but it more than makes up for it by being close to the gym and everything else I routinely go to. It gives me less of an excuse to avoid the gym in bad weather, and I just realized it’s about two blocks from a darts/sports bar we frequent. The view isn’t spectacular. We overlook the car park, and the morning sun is blocked by an apartment. But if you look to the left and lean out over the railing you can see the little wooded area that makes up part of Hachiman Shrine.

My roommate will be Happy Mike. For those of you who don’t know him, it’s because the guy never smiles. We should get on alright since our schedules are so different we won’t actually spend much time together in the apartment. His days off are Tuesday and Wednesday, and he usually finishes work late at night, so he’ll get home when I’m already in bed. As long as we both pull our weight, it’ll probably be like not having a roommate at all. Heck, he can’t be worse than Crazy Joe, the guy who used to take baths with his bike and trundle around the apartment like Doofy.

Adorable little monsters

I've had 2 weeks of elementary school now, four days of teaching little Japanese kids. It's not nearly as bad or difficult as I thought it would be. The kids are elated to have me there, so I'm constantly surrounded by little ones peppering me with questions (in Japanese, of course, which makes for good practice for me). The 4th graders were the liveliest. The liked to run and jump around me, trying to get their heads level with mine. A couple more adventurous ones decided I was a good jungle gym and tried to scale me. It's definitely a good idea to wear my heavy jeans, as a few have decided the best thing to do to an international teacher is try to shove their fingers into my backside. Fortunately, they have neither the arm strength or finger rigidity to actually pose any danger, and they have no concept of anatomy because they're far more likely to poke me in the thigh. Then there was the 9 year-old who decided instead to just punch me in the groin. Yeah, jeans don't protect against that.

The 2nd-graders were far more gentle. I'm assigned to have lunch with one of the classes I teach that day at elementary school. Yesterday I taught 2nd-grade, so I had lunch with a bunch of 7 year-olds. They would ramble on with random and inane stories. One girl spent five minutes telling me a story about her sister, and the only thing I could catch was that she had one. After lunch, two kids decided the best place to digest their lunch was in my lap, so they climbed up on me, while another half dozen surrounded me and petted me like a cat. They were especially fond of my arm hair and chin stubble. Guess that's what I get for not shaving that morning. Overall, they were very cute and adorable, especially when coughing in my face.

Which brings me to being sick. I guess the whole not sleeping and stressing about the new job caught up with me, because I woke up Saturday morning with the telltale cough and tight chest. Predictably, it's moved up into my sinuses and I'm doing my best to get to bed early and drink lots of tea, juice and water, but giving my vocal cords a workout for an hour at a stretch through the day isn't conducive to staying hydrated and resting my throat. Which means I'll probably be worse by this weekend.

And this weekend won't help much. Friday's a welcome party for the other junior high school and Saturday and Sunday are scheduled for seeing friends. At least Monday kicks off Golden Week, so I can rest that day. I want to be better by next weekend. It'll be 3 days off and I might be doing some camping again. Definitely looking forward to that.

Starting School (again)

These past two weeks have ben rather hectic. Between getting over jet lag and starting a new job, not to mention various social obligations, I haven’t had much time for just relaxing. I feel a bit overwhelmed at the new job. There’s a lot more responsibility associated with this position which, combined with not having really used my brain much over the past couple years, has left me playing catch-up. They say if you don’t use a muscle, it atrophies. I think that’s happened with my brain, as well as any organizational skills I might’ve had once. But this is what I wanted, something where I could plan my own lessons and have a bit more freedom. Plus, I’m not working through a contractor anymore, which means no more writing monthly reports or having the vice principal stamp a paper every day to prove I was there (as if people wouldn’t notice if I didn’t show up to teach – there’d be an uproar).

The teachers at these schools are all lovely. They’ve been nothing but friendly and helpful. At some schools I’ve been to there is an underlying tension that makes the mood heavy and sullen. Even people not involved in whatever’s going on have a depressed look about them. One school is somewhat known as a party school, they definitely seem to have a more lively and carefree feeling than the other school, which is a bit more serious. It may also have something to do with the economic disparity between the two areas the schools serve, the Party School families are more well-off and the school looks newer. The Country School is more worn-looking and slightly dingy. Of course, it probably doesn’t help that it’s rained heavily all three days I’ve been there, so everything’s damp.

Part of starting a new job in Japan is going to welcome parties. The Party School, of course, had theirs first, last week. They look for any reason to go drinking, and it’s a common topic in the teachers’ room. The morning meeting one day consisted of, “OK everyone, please do your best today. I know it’s been a busy week, but it’s Friday and we can all go drinking soon.” I wasn’t able to make it to that one, but I’m not concerned. There’ll be another one soon. I did, however, make it to the Board of Education welcome party last night. It was held at the local Prince Hotel, a very nice establishment indeed. As it has every day this week, it was raining steadily, so I showed up in wet jeans and soaked shoes while everyone else had dark suits since they’d just finished work. And of course, as a new person I had to give a speech, on a stage, in front of everyone. At least I went last, when the guests were all bored of hearing speeches and had gotten good and liquored up. On the upside, the food was excellent. There were six or so courses, though the portions were divided between the eight people at the table. Each platter was placed on the biggest lazy susan I’d ever seen and rotated around so everyone got a chance. I stuffed myself with the uneaten sushi, and the guy next to me kept my glass full of beer, a full-time job for him. I had it easy, as he couldn’t drink more than a glass without getting red-faced and sick.

The ride home was not terribly fun. The bus that took us dropped everyone off at the train station, so I was left to walk back to the town hall and get my bike, then ride home. The wind on the way back made using an umbrella nigh impossible, so I ditched it and just rode back in the blustery wind and driving rain. My raincoat managed to cover my upper body but in doing so insulated me so much I arrived home damp from sweat anyway. It completely failed to help my lower body, so my shoes and jean are still drying out.

I was very excited to be able to ride my bike to work, and in fact when the weather’s good it’s a very pleasant ride. Not to mention I can leave at 8am instead of 7:20. The Party School’s a quite pleasant ride, either along the river lined with blossoming cherry trees, or an easier ride skirting the mountain that pops up between home and work. The Country School’s a bit more of a workout. The time’s only a few minutes longer, and it’s following the same road, but that road goes up and over a very steep hill and it’s frequented by large trucks. I was nearly run off the road this morning, and I’ve learned that my bright idea of using a poncho doesn’t work well when riding against the wind, nor when cars going by send spray up from underneath. I’m already working up a sweat, I hate to think of how it’ll be when it’s summer and the humidity’s 80% and pushing 30C.

Home and back again

Well, I'm sitting here in Hiratsuka again, with a bad case of jet lag/insomnia. The trip back was decidedly unpleasant. Because of the start of spring break for Americans, I had to make two connections. The first was a short, inevitable layover in Chicago, and the second was one in Seattle. I didn't mind too much, because it broke up the flights and meant that instead of a 14-hour flight, I had a 4-hour flight, a 2-hour break where I got a final Qdoba burrito (mmm, Mexican) and a Starbucks Seattle coffee mug, then took off across the ocean to Japan.

My trip home was great, but there certainly wasn't enough time to see everyone. I was able to make a couple out-of-Indy visits: one to Purdue to see some old ballroom friends plus Sam, and the second to Columbus, OH, where my aunt lives. I stayed in her house which lies just outside the historic German Village district. Granted, the houses are too expensive for me to ever afford, but if I had to return to the Midwest to live, I'd try to find an area similar to that. It had restaurants, bars, a grocery store, and a city park, all withing walking distance. Not to mention that the downtown area was only a 30 minute stroll. It'd take only 10 minutes by bicycle, which is about how long it took me to drive and find parking. The trip was slightly disappointing, however. I was able to meet Amanda and her fiance, a really cool guy named Ish (at least, I think that's how it's spelled). We hit a famous German (what else, it's the German Village!) restaurant called Schmidt's. The sausage was tasty, the sauerkraut sour, and the beer came in ginormous steins. The sad part was that I wasn't able to visit my high school friend Meredith, she's pregnant with her second child and has been having some difficulties, so she was in the hospital getting needed nutrition. Her husband said it's not serious, just really bad morning sickness. I hope she gets well and produces another healthy, happy Healy.

Back in Indy, my time was mainly divided between family, my high school friends, and Ana and Damien, who are currently living in the Fountain Square district downtown. It was really nice to see people, though I didn't get to see everyone I'd hoped to. I did get to have lunch with my friend Chris, a lady I worked with a long time ago during a summer job at a bad insurance company.

Overall, it was good to be back, though I was disappointed by some things. I'd gone back with a hankering for the foods I'd enjoyed before I left that aren't available in Japan, namely buffalo wings. But they just left a bad feeling in my stomach, as did a few other dishes. Unfortunately, social obligations kept me from eating at home with my parents. Despite these complaints, I did have some very good culinary experiences. There's a really good restaurant on Main Street in downtown Zionsville, called Plum's Upper House. Since there's not microwave or freezer, everything's made fresh and served as quickly as possible - even the bread dough is made on premises daily. A bit pricey for lunch ($15-20 for entree, drink and dessert), but it's tasty and will fill you up. Another was
a diner in Fountain Square I went to with Ana and Damien. It looks like a short-order diner, but the food that comes out is well-made and delicious.

Another surprising thing was the size of drinks in the States. I went to Starbucks and ordered a coffee. The smallest available size was equal to the medium size at a Japanese Starbucks, though both were priced about the same. I guess it's a thing about value, and I could have just drunk only half of it, but that would be wasteful. It's a perversion of the adage "waste not, want not." One of the reasons Americans are so big is that we eat (and drink - beverages nowadays have as many calories as some meals) so much. In my opinion, the American mindset is one of, 'look how much I can get, it's so cheap,' rather than one of 'how good is the quality, and do I really need that much of it.' I'm the first to admit I get caught in this trap quite frequently and don't realize it until I'm bursting at the seams.

Speaking of which, I went to the gym on Sunday, the day after I arrived back in Japan. I weighed myself after the workout (which was awfully painful. No exercise and excessive eating/drinking left my normally robust legs shaking by the end) and found I'd gained 4.2 kg above my weight before leaving, which itself was a couple kilos above what I was last year. When I started working out I was in the mid-70 kilo range and over time as my muscles built up I slowly gained until the fall when I was about 78 kg. I think the winter padding I gained plus my 0n-again-off-again workout schedule bumped me up to 80 kg as of the beginning of March this year.

All this means that I'm very glad I went clothes shopping at the beginning of my trip, when I was still the same shape. The last time I bought work clothes, in Vietnam while travelling, they were cut to the shape I was while backpacking, i.e, skinny with no muscles, as opposed to how I am in Japan (skinny with big upper legs from cycling around everywhere).

So that's my trip in a nutshell. I'll try to flesh out a few of the points made in this post and maybe, if I don't get overwhelmed with work, I'll post about the beers and wines I had on vacation.

Today's my first day of work, but it won't be strenuous. It's just the contract-signing ceremony (your guess is as good as mine) and introductions to the schools. Tracey's a bit worried about how we're going to prepare the curriculum for the elementary schools, so hopefully we should get a better idea of how many classes we need to plan for and what grades they'll be, and we can get it done this week.

Great, it's now 7:30am. I've been writing this post on and off since 2:30am when I woke up. Jet lag's a bitch. Bollocks.

Dolphin slaughter

This video is awful. Don't watch it unless you have an exceptionally strong stomach. As an American who grew up not really eating fish, and consuming meat that in no way resembled the animal it came from, I was horrified to see this video. Japanese people may be more desensitized, as it's not uncommon for them to eat fish that was just recently killed, or even live octopus or baby squid. I've seen whale bacon on the menu at some restaurants. I wonder how much of it came from this. Probably not much, as these roundups only take place in a few isolated areas of Japan, not in "small towns across Japan" as the narrator claims.

Another thing to note. The comment section of the blog I found this on is normally intelligent and articulate, but the racism that came out should serve to remind us that even 60 or 70 years ago Asians and other so-called 'ethnicities' (including German, my main ethnicity) that weren't Anglo-Saxon were considered to be sub-human. That wasn't so long ago, and certainly not long enough to prevent it from burrowing away into the recesses of normally open-minded people. Something to keep in mind for all the people who claim racism doesn't exist in the US anymore.

(via Pharyngula) --check the comments for my admonition (I'm #53, so probably no one will read me)

(edit: link fixed)

Tick, tick, tick

Well, instead of getting to bed early, I decided to take a break from packing and upload a bunch of photos. So now there are new photos on flickr from October. Quite a feat. I'll get around to labelling them next week when I'm back home visiting. That is, if I get any free time. The clock's ticking. Three days left and so much to get finished by then.

A(nother) Belated Update

This update has been a while in the working. I'm currently shoehorned into my friend Todd's spare bedroom. I've got all my stuff stacked up in boxes and suitcases around the edges of the already small room. There's enough space to lay out my futon and sleep, but I've gotta fold it up every morning. And this isn't even counting the stuff in the rental box I've rented elsewhere. I haven't been looking for a place at all, which is nice because I've had the past couple weekends to not think about it, so it's been less stress and worry. I've gotta figure out what I'm gonna do when I fly home on the 16th, the two suitcases I plan on using are currently stuffed full of curtains and my summer clothes. I know Indy's had some warm weather this winter, but I doubt I'll be able to wear shorts and a T-shirt while I'm home.

I've got 2 current prospects, I might end up with a roommate, unfortunately not Japanese. His name's Mike, Happy Mike for those of you familiar with the moniker. He's probably leaving Nova in April, I've recommended him for my position, so maybe he'll get it. In which case he has to leave his current apartment. The second option is, I know a Frenchwoman married to a Japanese guy, they're moving to Morocco for some reason or other. Which means their house will be vacant, so I can probably set up shop in their place while they're gone. Since they'll be gone for some years, I'll definitely be gone before they return, if ever. Those two aren't mutually exclusive, but since I don't know how big the house is, nor exactly where it's located, I don't know how up for it Happy Mike will be. It's located in Oiso, which isn't exactly the party center, and I believe it's placed a ways from the station. It's fine by me, since I can bicycle around the town no problem, it's where I'll be working from April. But Happy Mike might end up with my job in Fujisawa, which places him even further than I am now. We'll see.

In other news, I'll be headed home from the 16th through the 30th, so if you're in Indy, let's meet up. I'm planning on a 2-day trip to Columbus, OH to visit family and friends out there, and potentially a trip up to West Lafayette if I can find people around there.

This weird weather we've been having has been playing havoc with my allergies. I've determined I've got the allergy to cedar that puts so many Japanese people behind a white gauze mask for 2 months out of the year, but there's no way I'm wearing one of those things. Last year at this time I was floored with the sinus infection from hell. I foolishly also decided to take a trip to Nikko, in the mountains, where it rained constantly the entire time I was there. That rates as one of my worst vacation trips. Nothing like spending a trip lying alone in your room trying to make the pain stop. But this year, I've successfully fought it off, by getting a good couple days of sleep and not pushing myself. Unfortunately, I've spent the past 3 or 4 nights deprived of sleep, so I might be gearing up for another bout. Keep your fingers crossed, I don't want to be stuck in the US with an illness. The US sucks for medical care when your insurance company refuses to cover you there (it's the only place in the world I'm not covered. WTF?).

Can I get a job doing this? I'd look good in purple spandex

(via Octopusdropkick)

Soon-to-be homeless, but I'll be back soon!

Well, that hasn't gone very well. After getting a cheap line from my 'friend,' I started searching on my own. The realtor was nice and showed me some smaller and cheaper places. I found a great little place, just big enough for me, but not the tiny places that are smaller than my freshman dorm in Carey Quad. It was a 5 minute walk from the beach, and close to two friends of mine. I was totally sold on it. I filled out the paperwork that day, and went home to relax and plan how I was going to move in.

Then Sunday happened. Why do all the bad real estate things happen on Sunday? I got a call from the realtor saying the owner didn't want to rent to me, that he was worried there might be a 'communication problem.' In other words, he thought I was going to be a bad gaijin. He probably didn't even think of what I could do, he'd just seen something on TV somewhere that somebody'd had a bad experience, and it's tainted him for life. The worst part about being in this situation in a country like Japan is that you never know if they really are worried, or if it's just a cheap line to avoid conflict. Like the guy who decided not to room with me, it's not big loss to them, but it is to me. I'd lost a month looking with my friend, and another week with this prejudiced owner. Everyone said I'd been looking too early. Well, now it was almost too late.

After that rejection, I was kind of soured with the agent. She really hadn't done much to help me out, maybe explain to the owner that I could actually converse in Japanese (not that it would've changed his mind), not to mention she was never prepared and seemed to know next to nothing about the places we saw.

I checked out another agency, which was much more helpful, even though they didn't speak a lick of English. The very kind and helpful agent showed me a decent place and I decided to take it, even though it was a bit old. Then I had more problems with emergency contacts and pseudo-guarantors. I've probably mentioned the guarantor deal before. In Japan it's required to have a guarantor, somebody who will vouch for you and become liable if you don't pay your rent. It's a pretty big deal here, but parents will almost always do it for their children. Unfortunately for foreigners, we can't do that, which makes it mor difficult. We either have to find a very kind person to guarantee us, or shell out a half month's fee for a guarantor company. I went this route last time, and it was rather troublesome. The owner could never direct withdraw from my bank account and, instead of trying to rectify the problem, just waited and then complained to the guarantor company that I wasn't paying. They, in turn, would call or send threatening letters. Nevermind the money was sitting there the whole time, waiting for somebody to do something. And because of my job and the stupidly short hours the bank keeps (and remember, the ATMs are only fully functional during banking hours; after that you can only withdraw and deposit until about 7pm), I was never able to do the bank transfers. Basically, it led to a 2-year headache that would regularly come up at rent time.

After not being able to find anyone to guarantee me, because my friends are all roughly my age, many of them female, I was ready to give up. A guarantor must meet certain requirements. They must make a certain amount of money, they must be at least a certain age, and they must be male. I think the last one is a lie, the guy who told me worked at an agency that I've since learned is very biased against foreigners. I know other friends who've had a woman guarantee them. So I decided to save my cash and find a temporary situation. This has led to some problems itself.

I'll move in with my friend Todd, but only for a couple of months. The best news out of all this is that I'll be back in the US from March 16th through the 30th. By not shelling out thousands to move, I can afford a plane ticket home to see my family and friends. The downside is that I'll have to move twice. I have a possibility of taking over someone's apartment if/when they leave in April, but it's not certain and even then, I don't know if it'll be fully furnished. So I've gotta find a place to stash my fridge, washer and aircon unit while I'm at Todd's, since there won't be enough room. Currently I should be packing/cleaning, but I'm taking a break after 2 full days of it. I'm amazed at how much junk I've accumulated. Unfortunately, I'll be coming home after I move to Todd's, which means I've gotta take all the stuff I plan to take home with me and organize it separately. Oh, the headaches it's causing. Not to mention I've got a very limited time frame to sort it all out. I never get home before 5pm, and on Wednesdays and Thursdays I work until 8pm, and it takes a good hour to get home. So packing and cleaning time is limited.

Not to mention I've gotta either find a moving company, or find a person to drive, then hire a truck. Plus find a temporary storage place for my large items. Yuck. Hopefully it'll sort itself out in the next couple of days.

But one way or another, see you all in March!

The Bane of My Existence

This year isn't as bad as last, when I spent 3 months doing the SAME EXACT THING: 2-minute interviews with every kid in every school I went to (around 2,000). So far it's been much more spaced out, but that doesn't keep it from dredging up bad memories.

*knock knock* [student opens door, comes in, closes door]
Student: May I come in?
Me: *sigh* Sure.
Student: Good morning, Mr. Jeremy-sensei [it's 2:30pm]
[student sits down at desk and gives his evaluation sheet]
Me: Good afternoon.
Student: Here you are.
Me: Thanks [but you already gave me the paper]
Student: You're welcome.
Me: How are you [glance at name on sheet, written in scribbly kanji, can't read it]...?
Student: Imfinethankyouandyou.
Me: I'm tired and the miso soup gave me gas. Thanks for asking.
[student looks pleased they made it this far, then their face falls when I ready the Hamtaro timer. Who ever thought such a cute thing could inspire fear in a 12 year-old?]

The rest of the interview is even more mundane than the beginning. They have 1 minute to answer all the questions I throw at them. In the process I learn that 90% come from the immediate vicinity of the school (go figure), every one of them plays either baseball, soccer, badminton or table tennis, they're all either 12 or 13 years old, and they all watch one of the same 3 TV programs. How enlightening. Having completed their ordeal (they're trapped in an empty classroom with a big, scary, farting gaijin-san who's barraging them with questions, hoping they can answer enough of them correctly that I don't have to fail them), they leap up, race out, politely close the door and run down the hall screaming "yaaaa-daaaa!" Not my most exciting moment.

Repeat 3 or 4 times a day, for one week. Yuck.

On the upside, my mother sent me a care package with some Valentine's Day cards, the kind you got when you were a kid. You know, the ones with Scooby-Doo and the gang on the front and "Boo! my Valentine" on the back. I've been handing them out to the kids randomly, as they come by my desk, and gave big ones to the student council kids. They were a huge hit. It's amazing what little things will do for your popularity.

Snippets

On a student's Minnie Mouse pencil case: "Why be a girl if you don't use it?"

Another students example for the present continuous: "I am playing sex with my friend. How about you?"

And on a final note, here's the daily highlight on Wikipedia's main page, talking about the Kitsune.

Rollercoaster weekend

I got a letter from Oiso Town Board of Education Saturday. They're going to hire me on as their AET at the schools starting in April. So I have a new job, yay! It'll be one where I'm not going through a contracting company, which means no more stupid hurdles to jump through. The pay isn't much more, but the conditions will be better. That's good. I also went to the gym, and cleaned house, all in all the day was good. I felt good.

Then Sunday happened. I played soccer with some friends, which is usually tough, but good. But this time I twisted BOTH ankles and managed to wear a hole in my insole, which in turn wore a hole in the ball of my foot. So I spent the aftergame lunch in the bathroom of the restaurant picking pebbles out of my blister with a toothpick. In addition, my future roommate decided to tell me he couldn't move into the apartment we'd all but signed the contract for because his brother's moving out and his parents want him to stay. Did I mention he's 29? Japanese culture and all that, I guess.

So that's the end of my little rant.

The 1st week of 2007 -- not so great

So my New Year's was more or less a bust. After a small gathering to go out and hit the usual places, I woke up with a massive headache and spent the day lounging at home, watching comical specials on TV. This has the be the only time I found the programming available on Japanese TV to be consistently funny. I flipped it on to find a bunch of semi-famous people clinging to punching bags hanging over a pool of water outside. Every now and then someone would fall off. The last person got an envelope with cash in it (a tradition gift on the New Year). The next segment had an enormous table filled with sushi, dominated by a rice mountain ringed with red tuna sashimi so it resembled Mt. Fuji. Most impressive. This carried on throughout the day, until I headed off just after dark to see the local shrine. Unfortunately, I forgot the memory card for my digital camera, so I trudged back and spent the rest of the evening under the kotatsu, watching a sports competition with Tracey. New Year's Day was THAT exciting.

Instead of doing the traditional cleaning (like I should've been doing since I'll move out soon), I spent the rest of my time playing my fantastically enjoyable Wii. The main downside is that it's more fun to play with people, but it's not common to have people over to homes, really. At least, no one ever comes over to mine.

So that's how I spent my first week of the new year. Today I went back to work, which was not terribly fun since I'm not used to waking up at 6:30am anymore, nor am I used to the incredibly cold school. So I spent the entire day huddled in the teacher's room, wishing I could be back in my warm bed. One reason I didn't sleep much last night were the many concerns I have. In addition to the obvious one mentioned below, I'm looking for a new apartment. I have a roommate lined up, and we've checked apartments, but everyone wants us to move in immediately, and if not then, then by the beginning of February. I don't relish paying for two apartments, so I've got some thinking to do. In addition, I'm concerned about my job prospects coming up. We'll see what happens, but needless to say, they're another concern keeping me up. Another is writing this post, which is why I'm going to stop and go to bed early, for once.

Paul F. Benedict, MD

I got a call Friday night from my mom. She apologized for calling so late and then, as I was fumbling with the phone, told me ----- had died. Not hearing the name, I immediately assumed it was our dog, who's got osteosarcoma cancer, and 3 weeks ago was given a month to live. "Penny died!?" I exclaimed. "No," Mom said, "Granddad did."

He'd had congestive heart failure, and other medical problems for some months now. He went into the hospital on Wednesday with some complications, and passed away early Friday morning. Here's the obituary.

He was the patriarch of our family. I have lots of fond memories of him. Motorboating on Lake Wawassee and him letting me steer occasionally when the lake was calm and empty. I used to imagine piles of sunglasses on the bottom of the lake because he would always dive in and forget they were on his head. The way he went to the end refusing to give up a bit of ground in the fight against time, insisting on golfing after heart attacks and never using a cane. A great heart surgeon, he was probably the worst of patients. He always believed he knew more than his doctors he knew the risks he was taking, but never gave up because he believed it better to live a shorter, sweeter life rather than a long, dull one. He was 81, so it was really more like a long, sweet life for him. He lived a long, fruitful life, so it's not time to be sad. It's a time to celebrate his many achievements.

I only wish I could've made it home to see him one last time. Due to financial and time constraints, I can't make it back for the funeral. I last saw him when I was home a year ago for the holidays. Not seeing him is my only regret. So, I love you Granddad, and I hope you have a good adventure in whatever's next.

Obligatory New Year's Post

I'll try and spend tomorrow writing a more detailed account of the festivities, but let me just wish a Happy New Year to everyone. Unfortunately, we had an all-too sobering reminder of the world we live in. Let's all resolve to try to be a little nicer to our neighbors and solve our conflicts without violence.

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas all!! I love holidays, mostly because of the parties that are involved. Since I couldn't get home to see the family, I spent Christmas Eve with some friends and went for yakiniku. Unfortunately, the meat overload did a number on my stomach, not to mention only the day before was I released from my teetotaler status. After dinner, a few of us headed to another izakaya for a second party, and finally Tracey and I headed to our favorite Sunset bar to celebrate midnight arriving.

Tracey couldn't control herself and opened all her presents on the 23rd. It's a good thing I didn't do my shopping til the 24th, so when we got back she actually had a present to open. Same for me, though for a different reason, I think the presents from my family got stuck in customs. Dad must've slipped something illicit into the package. I'm hoping for persimmon pudding, but it's probably a small monkey.

So to welcome Christmas, let's all start off by reviewing how Canadians can ruin even the best things, like AC/DC:

I can see clearly now....

Well, at least mostly clearly. More clearly than I've ever seen in my entire life. Yesterday I had my lasik surgery. Friday night was an end-of-year party for an English society that I occasionally attend, so I ended up drinking too much and singing lots of karaoke, then waking up early to go to Tokyo.

The clinic has to be the most relaxing place I've ever been to. There are lots of people coming and going, the nurses come to the waiting room every few seconds to call a patient, but still, the atmosphere is so entirely calming that I just want to close my eyes and fall asleep. Probably this is partly an effect of the aforementioned party, but most definitely the very soft lighting and music box sounds did most of the work. Coming off the streets of busy Tokyo, with cars roaring by and people shoving every which way for Christmas shopping, I stepped off the elevator and into napland. The lighting wasn't dim, but very diffuse, so you couldn't look at a fixture and think, boy, that's bright. The nurses were all very sweet and cute, and of course wearing matching pink outfits. It wouldn't be Japan without that. They didn't speak much English, but they managed to get a doctor whose English was passable to examine me and explain everything about the operation.

First I was gowned up and given dilation drops. Then they took me to a room where I lied down and the English-speaking doctor cut the corneal flaps. They put pressure on your eye, to pin it down, then the sight in that eye goes dark, and stays that way for a bit. It wasn't bad when they did my right eye, but when they did the left one, I knew what it felt like to be blind: you know your eyes are open, but you can't see a thing. Afterwards, the vision came back and everything was really fuzzy, understandable since I'd just had my eyeballs sliced open.

I was a bit off balance, so they guided me into the next room for the lasering. After lying down again, and being sternly warned not to move by myself, they positioned my head directly beneath the laser. After taping my eye open and flushing it with some liquid, they put a tube or something over it to hold it in place and line it up directly with the laser. There's a red light shining in your eye, and it refracts just when it hits your misalinged cornea, so you see this weird refracted circle hovering in that position. It was strange. Then they peel back the flap and tell you to look directly at the green light. Then the laser goes.

I'd been warned about it by someone else, but I wasn't really prepared for the strange burned/ionized smell that came out. It was rather strange thinking it was my eyeball that was causing it. My vision went black, but I could still make out the green light in the center of my field of vision, with 2 red lights that would flash on and off on either side. Eventually it stopped and my vision came back. Then it was time for the left eye, which took a little longer. I was starting to get nervous, but they said later that it wasn't anything bad, just took a little longer. Which would make sense since my vision is worse there. Well, I hope that was all.

After all was said and done, they took me back to the waiting room and told me to take care on my way back and gave me some sunglasses (that weren't half bad - I'd been expecting to have some bug-eyed coverings taped on) and sent me on my way. I was starving, so I stopped in at a Yoshinoya at the station and had a quick lunch, where I was constantly interrupted by some old guy who wanted to ask me questions. Normally, I could strike up a conversation, but after that experience, it was the last thing I wanted. I grunted answers and pretty much ignored him, which probably contributed further to the national dislike of foreigners, but I didn't care at that point. By the time I got on the train, the anasthetic had worn off and I was in agony. My eyes wree stinging like no tomorrow, I could hardly keep them open to see in my bag for eye drops. It was at that point that I realized I had absolutely no idea which of the five or six eye drops and one pill were the painkillers. Yay. I tried the pill and one kind of eye drops, to no avail, and sat there with my eyes shut all the way to Hitatsuka, at which point I called my friend Miwa and made her come down and meet me, so she could read the instructions and tell me which one I had to take. Within seconds, I felt totally better and could actually begin to realize I could see everything around me. It was amazing!

Now that I knew what medicine did what, and Miwa had helpfully translated the other parts, which nobody thought to explain to me, like I had to wait five minutes between drops and do them in a specific order. I took the bus home and from that point, about 5pm, until I went to bed, I had nothing to do. I couldn't watch TV, read, or use the computer. And I couldn't take a nap because I had to put eye drops in every hour, so I was basically trapped. Mercifully, my parents called and I was able to talk to them.

Sunday (today) was basically the same, although I cheated (not really, I realized later I could) and watched a movie. I went for a follow-up checkup in the early evening, and I have to go back in a week to make sure everything's ok.

Besides a bit of a halo/glare effect at night, which should wear off in a couple weeks, my visual acuity is 1.5. What that means, I'm not entirely sure. The doc said anywhere between one and two is good, so I'm going to accept that. If anyone knows of any information about it, like what's considered average or normal, please let me know.

I'll let you know how it goes. I have to follow a strict regimen of eye drops, not getting water in my eyes, no alcohol, and taping these stupid-looking plastic shields over my eyes when I sleep.

Well, glad that's over

I took the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) today. I went for level 3 this year, despite passing level 4 with a 65% (60% is passing). It has no real meaning or conesequence for me, besides dropping 5,000 yen on it, but I hope to use it to spur my lagging studies. The bad thing was that I've been very busy up to and including today, so it really ended up being just another headache.

My weakness is grammer. Japanese adds all sorts of little post-positions (like prepositions in English, but, you know, post) and combine them with various verb forms to give a particular nuance. I suppose I could learn those faster in a class, but I'm too cheap to pay for a class, and the free lessons offered by city hall aren't that great. But, gift horse and all that. It's funny because it contrasts with my learning Spanish, where I had the grammer down pat, but didn't have the vocabulary to actually say anything.

Coming on the heels of Sam's visit, evidently my social calendar is filling up with end-of-year parties. The schools have them, the gym (even though I haven't been in 2 weeks) is having one, an English-discussion group I visit occasionally has invited me. Looks like I don't get a weekend off for a while. Not that I'm complaining.

Big things coming up this month are, especially, lasik surgury on the 16th, and beginning some semblance of apartment hunting. My lease is up at the end of February, and depending on my work situation next spring, I'll decide if I want to stay in Hiratsuka or move to Fujisawa, where I'll have easier access to Tokyo if I decide to try for a graduate school up there. Then there's that little matter of what to do for the week on either side of New Year's. I think I'll take it easy, go to the gym and work on that six-pack (hah!), and visit an onsen or 10 and unwind, all while trying to catch up on the backlog of reading I haven't been doing.

A vistor from home

Sorry for the lack of posts over the past week. My friend from Purdue, Sam, dropped by over Thanksgiving holiday. We had a good time here. She's not very much the tourist, so it was a bit challenging for me not to just drag her to the usual touristy places.

I met her up in Tokyo on the 18th, right after a preliminary visit to the eye clinic to determine my odds for successful lasik eye surgury. That was quite an interesting experience. After the standard eye check, they took me into a darkened room with rows of machines, each with a young lady, decked out in identical nurse outfits, behind it. So this is where they keep all the cute, just-out-of-university girls! It looked like something out of the next Austin Powers flick. One machine would light up a bright orange spinning spiral when you looked at it, like one of those old hypnotizing machines, then the candystriper would tell you to move on to the next machine. At the end, the matron of the flock of birds gave me some funny eyedrops and had me exit to a waiting room. After a while, my eyes were sufficiently dilated, and they had me lie down and put some anasthetic drops in, then used a funny little machine to tap on my eyeball, I presume to test the pressure or thickness of the cornea. It was really bizarre because the lack of sensory feedback from your eyeball means you notice your eyelid blinking over your eye. In addition, every time the machine would tap, you'd see a ripple go out from the point of contact. Really strange. I wonder what the surgury's gonna look like.

Anyways, after a while I spoke with a doctor, in English luckily, who informed me I have very healthy eyes (besides the obvious) and a thick cornea, which makes me a good candidate for lasik. I'm scheduled for December 16th. Wish me luck.

So after that, I ended up walking to meet Sam at the hotel she got for us. I have to say, I'm quite impressed. When Aaron and Molly came, I found a decently located place, but the rooms were pretty boring and bland. Sam got a really nice European style pension. It wasn't huge, and while it was in the middle of Ginza, the ritzy shopping district, it wasn't terribly convenient like my first pick. But I have to say I was impressed, I'll definitely head back there if I need to stay in Tokyo anytime soon. Sorry Aaron and Molly, maybe next time.

I took last Monday off and Thursday was a holiday, so I had some time to spend with Sam, showing her around. She took off on some long walks around Hiratsuka while I worked the other days, and on Friday she hit Yokohama's Chinatown with a girl who lives surprisingly close to me (as in the next building over in the same complex) who we'd met in a bar earlier that week. I can't see the appeal to wandering around Hiratsuka all day, but her curiosity really reminded me of how I felt when I first arrived, how everything was strange and new and goofy. That's worn off in the 2 1/2 years since, but having it rekindled now and then reopens your eyes. On Saturday we went to Hakone, a mountainous area west of Hiratsuka, and did the typical tourist loop around the area. It was a beautiful day and gave Sam her first look at Fuji. We topped it off at an onsen, for which Sam needed a couple stiff drinks before working up the courage to go parading around in front of a bunch of Japanese women in the buff. But she pulled through, and actually stayed so long I was contemplating having her paged so I didn't get too bored.

Sunday I did a 5k run at Tanzawa Lake, in the Tanzawa mountains NW of my town. It's a real pain to get to. The way there was about 1.5 hours, and the return trip was over 2 hours due to an hour wait at a tiny train station in the middle of nowhere. Boring. But the run was fun. I finished in under 26 minutes, which shocked me because I usually just set the treadmill at the gym to do it in about 35 minutes and go, plus the fact that I hadn't been to the gym in over a week since Sam was around.

Sam was smart enough not to come with us, and after sleeping in she hit Kamakura, the ancient capital. She left today, so I'm sad she's gone, since we get along so well, but I'm sure we'll hang out next year when I head back for a visit, probably in March. Now, the question is, who's next to come for a visit?