Orangutan!

Once again, we were up at the crack of dawn and jouncing off to the Sepilok Orangutan Sanctuary. We missed the dawn cruise, which would've been nice to see, as that's when most animals are active. Instead, another driver drove Sayaka and I back along the same bouncy road for nearly two hours back. After a twenty minute video before the park opened, we ewnet to the feeding area and were lucky enough to see about eight come for the feeding. The young'uns came first, managing to spill the coconut milk all down the tree in the process. A few more mature ones showed up towards the end, more to bully the babies than anything else. Especially fun was watching one dangle from the rope and, as tourists clicked away in oohs and aahs, proceed to take a poo.

Then there was a long (six hours) bus ride back across Sabah to the village of Kundasang. After a night in a bug-infested cabin and sweltering heat, it was nice to get to our next place. Up in the highlands, with a great view of Mt. Kinabalu, highest in SE Asia, Kinabalu Pine Resorts had a huge room, hot shower, and included our meals (the first beer was free!). The village itself didn't have much, a few market stalls, a general store, and an old WWII memorial that Sayaka refused to even get close to.

We had a delicious dinner, after which I was feeling very relaxed. Then Sayaka wanted to get a foot massage, I guess to work all the kinks out after six hours on a bus, or something like that. So we phoned up the service and they sent two people out to service us. Previously, we'd gone to the parlor to have it done, where they have comfy chairs, low lighting and soft music to relax you. Well, this time it was four of us in a hotel room, with harsh lighting and no music, not to mention the two Malays couldn't speak a lick of English. It was a one-hour, deathly quiet massage. But it still managed to put me more to sleep, at least after the pain wore off. Foot massages are NOT gentle.

Kota Kinabalu to Kinabatangan

Today we woke up at 5:00 (early again!) to leave for the airport around 5:30. So we stretched, got up, finished packing things up and dragged our tired butts down to reception for check-out. The sleepy young guy at the desk seemed really surprised to see us. It wasn't until then that Sayaka looked at the clock. We'd set our cell-phone alarms, not even bothering to notice the one-hour time difference. So we were up and ready to go at 4:30am. No wonder the desk-clerk was shocked. We went back upstairs and reset our clocks (correctly, this time!) and started to doze off, only to have the alarm sound. You know how when you're just drifting off and you get woken up, how tired you feel? It was in that state that we were off to eastern Sabah.

We arrived in Sandakan for our tour, only to find absolutely nobody waiting for us. Despite desparate phone calls to the hotel that organized our tour, no one came for us for two hours. By that time, we'd missed the morning feeding at the Sepilok Orangutan Sanctuary. We rescheduled it for tomorrow and had the driver just take us to the nature lodge where we would stay.

The drive was two hours, over not-so-nice roads. The driver turned out to be pretty nice. I couldn't blame him for not getting us, as it was either the hotel who forgot to give the tour company our info, or the tour operator who forgot about us. He showed us his house and we got to see his family briefly, while he ran upstairs for something. He's a hard-working guy who drive the same route 2 or 3 times a day, every day. He's gotta support those six kids somehow.

The Nature Lodge was off the Kinabatangan River, across and downstream a bit from the car dropoff. We stayed in a little bungalow with a sort-of functioning toilet, electricity from six to 11:30pm only, and a bat that was sleeping in the corner. Guess who had to chase it out and who stood on the porch screaming like a little girl. Sayaka's so brave! At night we were left with a mosquito coil (Sayaka nicked two more from reception) and a little oil lamp for each of us (that I managed to knock over, in the WOOODEN HUT!)

The river cruise was fun, we got to see macaques and a few groups of proboscis monkeys, as well as the odd pied hornbill. I also got to see my first leech, a big sucker (get it? ha, ha) that attached itself to the inside of the boat when we pushed into some underbrush to get a better look at the monkeys. The guide wasn't afraid to pick it up and play with it a bit before tossing it back into the river. He said it wouldn't attach until it found a good vein to get blood from.

It got colder on the ride back, to the point I wished I'd brought a jacket. We had nice people on the boat, a German, two Dutch people and two Japanese, the first we saw on our trip, so Sayaka finally got to ahve a full conversation instead of baby talk with me.

We went back and had a decent dinner, then after it'd been dark awhile, we set out on a night safari. As we were leaving, there was a big commotion on one of the bungalow porch's, and staff came running with spray. Guess somebody'd seen a (poisonous) centipede, and the fire ants had taken a safari of their own, right for someone's building. We saw some cool insects, but not many large mammals. A whip scorpion, lizard (pictured), lantern bug, flying fox, tractor millipede, some sleeping kingfishers and last, a full-on scorpion. It wasn't until the guide had stopped playing with it and let the scorpion go that I realized we were only about 20m from our bungalow. Great. So we went back and drank lots of beer.

Kota Kinabalu and Sapi Island

Sayaka sleeps well on planes and buses. Not so for me. While she spent most of the flight dozing to music, I couldn't sleep so I watched a bunch of movies. So when we arrived in KK, all I wanted to do was sleep, which we didn't get to do until well after midnight. Imagine my surprise when, at 5:30am, flick! go the lights and she's up repacking her bags, with everything in plastic shopping bags. Not the ideal way to start a vacation, but at least I could sleep on the island.

Sundays there's a Chinese market that runs the length of one of the shopping streets, something Sayaka really wanted to see. We wandered along it scouting breakfast and some souvenirs. You can find anything at this market, from clothes to potted plants to puppies and bunnies in cages. I'm not sure if the people eat the animals, but they sure are cute. Sayaka found a couple magnets and we had a typical Malaysian breakfast of tom yum mee. You might recognize the tom yum, it's the same style as Thai tom yum kun, but the mee means 'noodles.' It certainly wakes you up in the morning, that's for sure.

After breakfast, we grabbed a kilo of manggis, this purple fruit with a really soft, white inside that's really sweet, along with a couple rolls and headed for the ferry terminal. As with any terminal in SE Asia, we were met by touts trying to get us to go to their counter at the terminal, I presume because they receive a commission. Since the price is always the same, it doesn't really make any difference unless you'd prefer a quiet stroll. We got our tickets to Pulau Sapi and headed off in a small boat, along with a couple of nice Dutch women.

At Sapi Island, we did a short hike around the perimeter of the island in our sandals (bad idea!). We even saw a monitor lizard at a small, deserted beach on the far side. Unfortunately, we were approached by a guy who kept asking us if we wanted a guide. Even though we said no, he went on ahead as though we'd said yes. He kept guiding us around, telling us to watch for something, asking if we want to swim at this beach or rest somewhere. Halfway through he asked us for money. It was rather annoying, but since he had showed us a trail down to the beach with the lizard, a place we wouldn't have gone otherwise, we relented and paid him, hoping he'd leave us alone.

No. He kept showing up, asking if we wanted to rent snorkelling gear, and trying to charge us a high price, even surprising us while we were swimming to see if we wanted a snorkelling guide. Yikes! Eventually, he left us in peace and we were able to enjoy ourselves. Sayaka had the foresight to bring a bag of chips along that she took into the ocean. She would pitch a handful in front and then duck down to watch all the fish clamor for food. It worked beautifully, everyone else was complaining about not being able to see any fish, probably because by this time we were floating in a sea of chips. The only downside was when they started mistaking her bikini for food and trying to nip at her.

We'd intended to take the last boat back at 5pm, but we were compelled to leave an hour early because the wind had picked up and dark clouds had gathered over KK. We made it back about 10 minutes before the rain, but it wasn't much beyond a light sprinkle. We found an ATM for me and then hit Centre Point Mall, a surprisingly modern mall filled with tiny stalls selling all manner of goods. After getting a (somewhat painful, yet relaxing) foot massage, we headed to the seafood place by our hotel for a lobster dinner. We had it fried in a garlic and lemon sauce, which turned out lovely. The cockroaches must've thought so too, as Sayaka spent a good portion of the meal standing on her chair or sitting with her legs tucked up under her. The only other downside was a street kid who thought we'd be good marks and sat down at our table and kept asking us for money. I've encountered it before in Vietnam quite often, I never give money but would usually order a plate of fried rice or something small for them. But this kid was being a bit impetuous and I just wanted to enjoy a quiet meal with my girlfriend. Eventually, when they saw I wasn't going to buy anything for him, the waiter chased him off.

Then it was off to bed early so we could make our flight the next day.

Arriving in Borneo

(Note: Posts during my trips will be dated the day they happen, not the date I post them. This will make it easier to follow my trip. So far, I've got one for every day. Check back often!)

Did you know that AirAsia flies out of a different airport in Kuala Lumpur than Malaysian Airlines? Because I sure didn't.

To make my trip cheaper, I booked a return ticket to Kuala Lumpur through the travel agent in Japan, then booked a separate ticket with AirAsia to get me to Borneo and back. Sayaka and I arrived in KL around 4:30 or so. I kept looking around trying to find my flight and what gate I should head to. Finally, I approached the information desk and the nice girl there kindly informed me that my plane would be leaving from another airport. Thirty minutes away by taxi. I told Sayaka I'd be waiting for her at her gate and, after a sprint through customs (fortunately, there wasn't a long wait at immigration and customs didn't decide I looked like a smuggler -- there's a death penalty for drugs) I burst out and rushed around looking for a taxi. I eventually found one for MR 20, actually I think it was just some guy who was looking to make some weekend cash, and we rushed off to the LCC Terminal. Malaysia has very nice roads, at least around the airport, a lot nicer than Vietnam and less crowded than Thailand. Despite my concerns, I made it there in plenty of time, enough to sit down and have a coffee at the local Starbucks lookalike chain.

The flight wasn't too bad, especially for a discount flight. But I was a bit surprised when they charged me for my snacks, I'm so used to the major airlines and their all-you-can-drink beer service. So we pulled in to Kota Kinabalu, the major transport hub of Sabah, the province of Malaysian Borneo we were visiting, around 10:30pm. I got through
immigration (again!) and went out to find Malaysian Airlines. The screen said her flight would be arriving at Terminal 1, I was at Terminal 2. I started looking for directions to where I could meet her, but none were to be found. So I asked the information desk girls. They took time out from gossiping and watching TV to tell me that Terminal 1 is the same airport, but on the other side of the runway. The only way to get there is by taxi. Again. I'd arranged for transport to our hotel, but they certainly weren't waiting for me in the arrival area. So I bought a taxi coupon, MR 20, and jumped aboard. It was closer, only twenty minutes this time. I arrived to find Sayaka wandering aimlessly outside the arrival doors, wondering where the hell I'd gone off to. She'd completely managed to miss the hotel pickup sign with my name on it, though to be fair it was written in tiny writing and the guy was holding it about level with his crotch.

We got to our hotel around 11:30 local time, an hour earlier than Japan. The Hamin Lodge wasn't bad, the room was a bit small, but the shower put out hot water and it was located next door to a really cool open-air seafood restaurant area with tanks full of various fish and shellfish waiting to be hacked up or dropped into a pot of boiling water. Yum!

Off to Borneo from Tomorrow

I've been on vacation this week, except one day where I had a little bit to do for work. But I've been busy nonetheless, trying to get things sorted out for my absence, like making sure my roommate can handle watering the plants. I'm also trying to get in touch with my landlord, there was a problem with the bank getting the direct-withdrawal of the rent going. The problem is, it's due on the 27th, which is today.

See, in Japan when you sign for something, you use a hanko, your official chop. It's a unique stamp with your family name on it and is very difficult to copy. I suppose it's better than a signature, because you can forge a signature. But if someone gets hold of your hanko, they can sign for anything, and legally it's as though you've signed it. Being a foreigner, though, I don't have an official hanko, although I can and at some point will get mine registered so I can use it with the bank. So I have to sign for official documents, but I'm also supposed to put down a super-double-secret number that I selected more than three years ago when I first came to Japan and set up my bank account. Unfortunately, I never can remember it, and the bank is loathe to give it out. I spent two and a half hours in the bank Monday trying to get my 4-digit number.

So the guarantor company sent me a form to fill out again, because the first one didn't have my super-secret code, but I had to go to the bank to get it filled out properly, which I wasn't able to to until this week. And I'm going to be gone from tomorrow until next month, when I'll arrive back the same day that my rent's due again. So I'll have no idea if they'll get the money or not until after I've gone. Bleh. I had similar problems with my last apartment that never got resolved, thanks to their unwillingness to try and either get the forms filled out properly, or
set up a new way of payment. So I just had to wait until after rent was due, the company called, complained that I wasn't paying, I tried to explain why, they refused to change anything because "it's in the contract" even though it's obviously not working. So now I'm in the same boat again.

So my landlord isn't answering the phone, which is a bit suspicious. I've got some complaints about the apartment, but I also need to know how to arrange for rent to be paid if the bank thingy doesn't work. Well, if he's not gonna fix things, I guess I don't need to pay rent.

As for packing, I've done precious little of it. The heat during the day has me so lethargic I can hardly move, let alone think about what I need to pack. I'll get something things put in, then maybe go spend the hottest part of the day wandering around a department store or sitting in a cafe reading with an iced tea. Mmm, iced tea.

So posts may be lighter, depending on internet access and how much I'm doing, and there will be no post for the next week, probably, until I see Sayaka off. Honestly, I'd like to have not much to do, just find a place on the beach and stay there. But knowing me, I'll get restless and want to run off and do things. I'm debating now the merits of trying to climb Mt. Kinabalu, the highest mountain on Borneo. It's awfully tempting, but I'm not much inclined to bring cold weather gear to a tropical country for three out of 30 days.

Little Brother Update

Heard from Ben. He's at Fort Lewis in Washington for his permanent assignment. He gets a nice view of Mt. Rainier, and since he's Mr. Buff now, he's looking at climbing it when he gets back. But first, he's going to be deployed to Iraq for more than a year.

He'll be in an Air Cavalry unit, which means lots of flying about in helicopters. I don't like the sound of that one bit, I think he'd probably be safer with both feet on the ground. Helicopters have a penchant for either getting shot down or crashing.

At least he gets to go home in August for a bit before shipping out. It's well past his B'day, but I've got some things to send him.

Meetin' the parents

So I'm heading to Borneo with the girlfriend. She's only coming for the first week, after which she has to go back to work and I'm left on a tropical island paradise all by my lonesome. *sniff* It's hard being me...

As a condition of her going, her parents had to meet me. Guess they didn't want their eldest daughter running off to a foreign country with some baka gaijin. And they don't speak a lick of English, so I was left to charm them with my eloquent Japanese. Riiiight.

Sayaka and I met before so we could go over our trip. She's especially excited about seeing orangutans, and this is the entire reason that I'm not headed to Mongolia to drink fermented mare's milk and wrestle fat, sweaty men. I'd found an online tour offered that would organize a night on Turtle Island, where we could watch sea turtles come onto the beach to lay eggs, then head to the orangutan reservation to see big, orange monkeys. Unfortunately, the tour company, which had been so enthusiastic about getting me on this tour, then emailed me to regretfully inform me that Turtle Island was fully booked that night and we couldn't go. So we're scheduled for a river cruise instead. Dunno how good that will be, but Sayaka thinks we might see wild orangutans, so she's psyched.

After talking about monkeys, we wandered over to the department store where she works so she could show me off to her co-workers. Foreigners in my area are rather common, or at least they are to me, and most Japanese folk seem to be accustomed to our presence. Well, I guess some people just aren't that used to us. I expect it with kids, because they don't get out much. But the moment I walked into the store (incidentally one of the biggest chains in Japan), her two co-workers could do nothing but stare at me like I'd grown another head. One mustered enough English to tell me her name was 'Kana.' The other just stared until her friend elbowed her and from that point she just babbled in Japanese about my eyelashes. I guess they're long or something.

Well, at least they liked me. I suppose. And then it was off to meet the parents. Her family's actually quite lovely. She and her younger sister don't look a thing alike, but they both have eyes that resemble their mother's. It's funny how two people can not look like each other, but readily resemble a third. I'd had nightmares about inadvertently blurting out something inappropriate, or perhaps mentioning that weekend in Izu that she supposedly went on with her friend (don't worry, they can't speak English).

As it turns out, her father and sister handle alcohol as well as Sayaka, ie, half a can of chu-hi and it's lights out. So they stayed sober and Mom and I got blitzed. We stuffed ourselves silly with sushi and tempura, really good stuff. I think I just can't always find the good restaurants. That place was spectacular. All in all, things went well and her parents approve of me. Which is good, because if they didn't, I don't know what we'd do about the grand she spent on tickets and the ton I've dropped on reservations.

Lovely holiday weekend

Nothing says 3-day weekend like a typhoon followed by an earthquake.

Yesterday was Umi no hi, or Sea Day. It's officially the first day for the beaches to be open, although people go once it gets warm, like in May. I'd thought to have another beach BBQ and maybe do some hiking or wandering about somewhere. Instead, Saturday I was treated to lots of rain, followed on Sunday by promises of much more rain and high winds in the form of Typhoon Man-yi, or Typhoon #4 as it's called in Japan. Sunday the rain for the most part after 3pm, though the sky was always threatening.

Sunday happened to be the day I went to meet the girlfriend's parents in Yokohama and I was rather wary, there's a bridge somewhere on the Tokaido line that floods if somebody upstream spits in it, as I found out my first year when I was stuck in a typhoon in Yokohama and it took 3 hours to make the normally 30-minute trip.

Monday was scheduled to be sunny and warm. I was looking forward to this one day, particularly because typhoons come through and sweep out all the pollution and clouds, making everything clear and beautiful. I thought I'd save that day for laundry, maybe take a bike ride to the top of Shonandaira, in general laze about and enjoy summer.

Well, it was sunny until about 10:30am, when I'd put all my laundry into the washer. Then it got cloudy, which I thought was odd, but didn't mind. I'd felt the earthquake and was watching the news on TV. I guess it was pretty big, a 6.8 on the Japanese scale, which is different from the Richter scale. Five people lost their lives, all of them in their 70s and 80s, crushed by debris when their houses collapsed, and more than 800 lost their homes. But that was up in Niigata, well away from Hiratsuka. But it was surprising still, to feel it on the 2nd floor this far away. It happened in what seems to be the same area as the 2004 earthquake, the one that derailed the Shinkansen.

So after watching all this and doing some reading and cleaning, I decided to take a little bike ride up to the discount store. It's a bit far, so it's a treat to go up there and find some things for the house. I ended up getting a new frying pan and a kitchen knife, things sorely needed. As I walked out, I felt the rain hit me. It wasn't raining hard, but for a 30-minute cycle back, it doesn't matter how much it rains, you still end up wet. So I got wet riding back and got home just in time to bring in my damp sheets and dry them by fan. Bleh. My pillowcases haven't dried out still. At least I'd brought my futon in -- I'd debated leaving it to air out.

So now it's Tuesday, and the rain hasn't let up. It stopped briefly in the morning, enough to make me regret that I chose this day to take the train. But as the train pulled up to my destination, I looked out and it had started pouring. Guess I made a good decision after all.

So after a 3-day miserable weekend, I'm ready for my vacation to begin Saturday. It'll be nearly 40 days of vacation, minus one little bit on the 26th I've gotta do. After that last piece of work's finished, it's off to Borneo for a month. I suppose I can't complain too much, then.

Halle -frickin-lujah!!

As some of you may know (I've bitched about it to anybody who'd listen, and a few who wouldn't), I've had some internet problems. That's putting it mildly. For me, it's been a crisis.

I rely on the internet for everything, and since the beginning of June I've not been able to use half of it. It may sound like nothing, but for me it's like waking up one day and you've lost a testicle. The part of the internet that got severed was the part that allowed me to download listening sections for my students, talk to my family, and get my credit card company to allow charges to go through so I could pay for hotel reservations in Malaysia. Basically for a month and a half my life was paused.

Turns out my fool of a roommate(the internet's in his name) told the phone company he was moving, but somehow neglected to tell the ISP that we were. Turns out that something got reset, and the network barrier (ISP's firewall?) was set to allow browsing, but packets were put on the strongest filter setting (ie, nothing gets through).

After half an hour of complaining to the wrong company (in Japan they aren't very clear as to who's handling what part of the operation), they gave me another number.

This time I got the right guy, but he spoke no English, only keigo Japanese. He directed me through their website and had me fix the address and filters, and less than 5 minutes later, we're up and running. Now I got 75 podcasts queued up on iTunes. Let's hear it for rikaichan, it saved me with the kanji. Otherwise I'd still be listening to him say, "now go down 5cm and click on the button with lots of kan-- wait! Not that one!"

Happy Mike (my roommate) told me that fixing the internet "isn't one of my top priorities." Now he either owes me a case of beer, or I might find that it's not one of my priorities to keep the gas, electricity, or water on in MY apartment when I go on vacation for a month.

Cucumber Soda

It's out there, but I haven't found it yet. Wonder if it's more of a Tokyo thing, I might have to head into the megalopolis and see, but $20 just to see if I can spot a bottle isn't really worth it yet. Incidentally, it's by Pepsi.

My friend was at school and some of her students came running up to her with a bottle of greenish liquid, begging her to try it. After trying to think of whether they'd just had science class and being generally wary, one of them took a sip. So my friend tried it and said it was "cucumber-ish."

When I find it, I'll have a ginormous photo posted.

It's Tanabata baby!

Today marks the last day of the 4-day long Tanabata Star Festival here in Hiratsuka. My new apartment is about 2 blocks outside the main area of mayhem, which is better than can said for Tracey's apartment, where she's had the joy of listening to a generator chugging and awful karaoke from the stage set up outside her window.

Typically, I try to avoid Tanabata, and in the past Ana, Damien and Julian have been my accomplices in escaping to somewhere else, usually the Narita Gion Festival. But this time I decided to stick it out here. Mostly because I took a trip to Shimoda last weekend and with the Borneo trip coming up, money's a bit tight.

Thursday was the opening day, and since the crowds were smaller, the decorations newer and the stench of rotting garbage not yet overpowering, I hit the streets with various people and consumed large quantities of Japanese carnie food. And beer. Which led to Friday being a quiet day at work. But then the weekend came with a vengeance and we hit the beach for a BBQ. Edwina (in the cowboy hat) makes fantastic cookies and killer BBQ sauce. This was the alternative to the day swarm of people inside the festival area. The beach was really quiet. It probably had something to do with the intermittent rain that would sprinkle down suddenly and then quit just as we would make a move to cover things up.

The weather held, the food was good, and I have a major hangover from the festivities. All in all, a good way to celebrate a star.

In other news, I've commented most of the photos at my flickr site so you have some reference to what you're seeing. Enjoy.

Vertical farms? Buying local in Manhatten

How cool would this be?

As many of you know, I no longer have a car. My Bimmer died just before I left for Japan. In Japan, there's no need for a car (well, mostly. I have a pile of old futons that need to be driven to the recycling center, and it's easier to go camping when you have a car to carry the BBQ, etc.), so I would take the train to work and tool around town on my bike. As of last April, I changed jobs and am able to bike to work, so I get some good exercise. It's not so great now as it's 30 degrees C and the rainy season, but a towel and sink help, plus no aircon means I sweat all day anyway, I just get a head start. This means I don't use any petroleum-based fuel for my transportation. It's all environmental, isn't it?

I was listening to NPR Science Friday's podcast a while ago, and they had Lester R. Brown on, who brought up a good point. If you live in the US, he said, and decide to save gas and walk a mile instead of driving, you'll save a mile's worth of gas, right? Well, all that walking has probably made you thirsty. So you drink a pint of milk to replenish yourself. Now that milk had to come from somewhere. And our globalized economy means that milk probably isn't from the dairy down the road. Most likely it's been shipped by refrigerated truck from a couple thousand miles away. So now you've just consumed more energy than you would've if you'd just driven your car. Counterintuitively, by attempting to conserve gasoline, you've inadvertently consumed more of it.

Now there are probably some logical holes in this argument. You burn energy anyway, by just living, so you'd have had to consume something in that time anyway, which means that not all that milk is going to replenish your lost energy from walking, most of it is for your brain and normal body functions. But it makes a good point about globalization that for many people is difficult to grasp. We've become so accustomed to the excesses available to us that anything else is alien.

Buying locally produced food is a good way to reduce this. Every school system I've worked in gets milk for the students. Each student gets one carton at lunch. I don't know if it's 'free' (funded by education taxes) or if it's paid for in students fees, etc., but it's there. This milk all comes from the school's town. It's locally produced. In many cities, even getting closer to Tokyo, you can spot open areas from the train that are planted, either with rice or a variety of vegetables. I'm not sure who owns the land, but I know people who rent a small plot and grow veggies that they use to supplement their diets. It's a small thing, but possible. I've got my tomato plant, which has flourished and has now started growing tomatoes. Their tiny and green, but they'll ripen up.

Not that I'm an environmental angel. I don't drive, but I fly often, roughly twice a year. And not piddling distances, either. March saw a roundtrip flight from Tokyo to Indy, and at the end of the month I'm headed to Malaysia for a month. That's another 7-hour flight each way. Yikes!

Little brother update

Heard from Mom. Guess Ben's got his posting. He didn't get into the paratrooper program like he wanted, but he gets to drive around in a big, honkin' truck. He'll be based somewhere out of Washington state, around the Tacoma area. At least he can visit coffee house Mecca.

Happy Birthday, America

That's about it. No fireworks or cookouts for me. No day off from work or school. I colored a bad imitation of the flag on a piece of paper and made a paper hat to wear at school. That's about all I could get done in the few minutes between classes and marking a thousand papers.

Oh, and it rained the ENTIRE day. Heavily.

Mushroom cloud over Prague

From boingboing:

Like many European TV channels the state-owned CT2 broadcasts live panorama / weather streams from popular recreation areas in its morning programme, fully automated 30 second pans per site with music in the background. Initiative Ztohoven, a collective around Roman Tyc, somehow managed to inject a pre-recorded pan with a sudden atomic explosion in the midst of a beautiful countryside. No word how they did it, assume they tricked the cabling on the unmanned camera site. Tyc also replaced traffic light icons in Prague with illustrations of drunk, pissing or ranting figures a few months ago.

Ah, but is the food quality?

So one of the places I might head to on my trip is Brunei. It's a teeny, tiny sultanate on the northern tip of Borneo. This is what you can look forward to when visiting there (thanks, Brunei News.net):

"The tiny but thriving Islamic Sultanate of Brunei perches on the northwestern coast of Borneo, completely encircled by the East Malaysian state of Sarawak.

Brunei is a little slice of Islamic heaven. Alcohol is virtually unobtainable, there's no nightlife to speak of, and the political culture encourages quiet acquiescence to the edicts of the sultan. The folk of Brunei are amply rewarded for their conformist ways with free healthcare, free education, free sporting centres, cheap loans and high, tax-free wages."

I can't wait to go!

Drumroll please....

Borneo it is, for this summer's vacation. I'll be gone 30 days, from July 28 to August 27. Though not all of that will be spent on the island. I'll be there through August 14, at which point I'll jet back to Kuala Lumpur and decide what to do. I've a couple friends in Singapore who need visiting, and Thailand's a day's train-ride away. I can get back to Koh Tao, the island I was on last year, and do my Advanced SCUBA cert. Let's hope the cash holds out!

My take on the new place

Not bad, but several things wrong with it that together might've put me off renting had I noticed them all. Most of them are minor, but a couple of them, like the fact that I don't know how to put on the screen doors, are rather major. We also have to move the aircon unit from Mike's bedroom to the living room. I went into his room the other day to mess around with the internet (another problem -- later) and found he'd left it on. I don't know if it's gonna be a regular occurrence or not, but I don't want to pay for the most expensive electric item and not get any cool benefit from it. My room's completely unairconditioned, but it stays fairly cool, as long as I keep the window open. The downside to that is I get to hear every door slam for all 11 floors.

But the location is just awesome, I tell myself every time I find a new problem. I think most of it is that I've got a bunch of extra stuff that I haven't been able to get rid of, and I haven't figured out the best way to organize my room. Right now, what hasn't been put into my drawers has been cast about the room. I'm weighing various organizing solutions and when I figure out which one I want and get it set up, things should be much smoother.

In other news, I not have a tomato plant and a habanero bush. Both are tiny and growing. I'm watering them often and I think I've noticed a bit of growth on both. Let's hope they don't keel over.

The weedwhacker analogy

If your "underlying beliefs or theories" made you stick your dick in the blender, even "reluctantly," and you haven't thoroughly reassessed these concepts, I frankly don't want to hear your advice about what to do with the weed whacker.

credit to thers

Fourth Graders Smell Like Rabbits

That is all.

Moving...again

And hopefully for the last time for a couple years. I might not have internet, my roommate got his transferred, but can't get it working for some reason. Guess that means if I can get it to work, we're screwed for a while.

I got my friend Naomi to drive this time, and I'll pretty much be doing all the heavy lifting. Glad I haven't been going to the gym so I can save up my energy for tomorrow...or something like that. The sinus trouble I'm having is just icing on the cake -- nothing like physical exertion, bending over picking up things, when your face feels like it's being hammered with an ice pick. Tomorrow's gonna be fun!

The heat, the heat!

I think I've overdone it this weekend. I've been out in the blistering sun 3 of the past 4 days. The only reason I wasn't out Friday was because there was a torrential downpour the entire day. Actually, the sun wasn't out, I still rode my bike to work in the pouring rain. All the teachers laughed at me when I walked in looking like a soaked rat in swim trunks and flip flops. When rainy season hits, they'll get to see it every day.

Yesterday was field day at the junior high schools. I went to the party school's festival. It was a lot of fun watching the various events. They had different ones from the previous schools I've been to. One interesting even I didn't catch the name of involved various objects ranging from tires to soccer balls to bamboo poles to 4 balls as tall as the kids, all placed on the midfield line. Two teams stood at the goal line and when the gun sounded ran to try to get the objects behind their goal line. It was amusing to watch them tugging at tires and trying to bounce the giant balls over their opponents heads. As with all Japanese field day events, it wasn't without danger. The bamboo poles looked like they could impale somebody. At one point, two girls collided. One was bleeding from her forehead, the other from her mouth. The nurse sat the second girl down and, after washing out the blood, started poking around in her mouth and trying to wiggle the front tooth. At that point it got to be too much, so I took off to the water fountain.

On the way, I got jumped by a gang of elementary school kids that I teach. One little girl who I swear is an angel in class, took to trying to spank me when my back was turned, even resorting to a quick kancho stab when I leaned down to get a drink. I only had running shorts on instead of my denim armor, so she got me quite good. All of the parents watching thought it was so cute. "Aww, isn't that cute. Little Kanako is poking her teacher in the butt!"

Another highlight was the folk dance done after all the events had been run. I was expecting some traditional Japanese dance or something like that. One of the previous schools had done the soran bushi dance, which I think is particularly cool. Instead, we got some rendition of a square dance song, like what we used to do back in elementary school where boys and girls do a short dance with each other then move on to the next partner. Not to mention it was freakin' interminable! Every time the song ended and we all thought it was over, they reset the track. It must've been stuck on a loop or something because we went through it at least ten times. One of the teachers dragged me out there and got me in the circle to go dancing. The students thought it was funny to see me dancing, and most of the girls I had to dance with could hardly walk they were laughing so hard. Glad to know the students have so much respect for me.

The best thing about field day is the nomikai afterwards. We all met up for a couple hours of hard drinking after, because there's nothing better after 7 hours spent in 30-degree heat than consuming large amounts of booze. It was good to get to socialize with the teachers, and I was able to speak to several who hadn't spoken to me before. Also, last week was the first week for the jishūsei (student teachers). So naturally, they each had to stand up and give a speech. In fact, I think every single person there, myself included, gave a speech. I couldn't follow most of them, but they all had to do with field day and how their homeroom class fared.

After the nomikai, I jetted off to meet people to see Pirates of the Caribbean. Don't go see a movie while liquored up. I ended up with a hangover by the end.

Today I played soccer with some of the foreigners in Hiratsuka. I think I overdid the running around in the heat part, because I've got a throbbing headache. At least I had the wherewithal to put on sunscreen, so I'm not burned to a crisp. But my throbbing head and pulled leg muscle aren't happy with me.

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?

A slight lack of downtime

Well, with my one anchor, Julian, gone and unable to keep me semi-boozed up after classes during the week, I felt I ought to do something productive with myself. Not only would I get more accomplished, in theory, but I wouldn't have all that free time to go out and blow cash.

Well, it's worked, and then some. Last week I didn't get home before 9pm at all, not to mention time to sit down, relax, and veg out. Saturday, however, was rainy and generally crappy weather, so I stayed in the whole day. Not that it was terribly fun. So that's the balance I've chosen, I suppose. It won't last for long.

My friend Sam from Purdue is coming to visit. She'll arrive Saturday the 18th and hang around for a week or so. I'm taking Monday off to hang out with her in Tokyo, plus a fortuitous holiday gives me Thanksgiving Day off on the 23rd. Ironically, it's also called "Thanksgiving Day," but the meaning is something more akin to Labor Day for Americans. And I don't recall it ever landing on the actual Thanksgiving Day last year or the year before.

I haven't quite thought through what we'll do, but the first couple days we'll be in Tokyo. Sam got us a hotel somewhere up there, so we'll check out places. She swears she'll be able to hold up against the jet lag and wants to go out, so I'm arranging to meet up with some friends her first night out. A not rare sight in Japan is to see 2 or 3 people out at an izakaya (kind of a restaurant with lots of booze available) with one or two people eating food and texting on their mobile while the other is passed out face-first on the table. That might end up being Sam.

After that, she'll probably have to entertain herself for a couple days. The last weekend she'll be here, I'm scheduled to do a 5k run in the mountains northwest of Hiratsuka, so she gets to come cheer me along. We'll probably go up a night or two before and do the onsen thing beforehand. Should be fun.

Anyways, that's my reason for not being so quick with the posts. Not to mention I've got the Japanese Language Proficiency Test coming up on the 3rd. I'm worried about that, I haven't done very well on the practice tests. Oh well, at least they won't deport me if I fail.

Welcome to Aki

I love fall in Japan. I've spent the past 6 months bitching and moaning about sweating day in, day out, the heat keeping me from falling asleep at night. I'd sleep with my windows open, the fan blowing on me, and no sheet or blanket, yet I still felt hot at night. It's that bad, sometimes.

But now, now it's fall. Well, I guess technically fall was in September. At that time, the temperature started dropping at night, it was cool and refreshing. But the days were still hot, and the humidity still lingering like a sweaty T-shirt stuck to your back. It didn't get to really be fall around here until a couple weeks ago. At that time, we had a huge storm blow in, and after that, it hasn't really gotten hot at all. Occasionally, on a sunny mid-day, you might wish for a fan. But any other time, and you've got your jacket on.

My favorite thing about fall is being able to wear jeans and a jacket out, without breaking a sweat while walking a block. The cool air freshens up my lungs, and then there's always the first fall viewing of Mt. Fuji from my house. Sure, I gotta lean over the balcony to glimpse it between buildings, but it's visible. That's what counts. The other thing in my list of favorite things about fall has to be the boots. The girls here seem to favor a nice miniskirt and some tall boots, which is something you just don't see back home.

Ah, fall.