|
Good News, but…
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
I did get the green light to move apartments in April. That seems like
great news, which it is, but I can’t move until after April 1st.
I had the 27th to the 31st of March reserved for
moving, but now I will be sitting in my apartment with all the packing
boxes literally doing nothing for those days. I can start moving from
April 1st, but that day is the biggest day of the year in
Japan. It’s the first day of everything new and I have to be at
school. Actually I can’t even imagine not being at school that day…I
think I’m turning Japanese. That’s the day the new teachers will come
and I need to be there to show them I am already part of the group. So
I guess I will move a load that night, and then another load either
the next night or next day. I might take the 2nd and 3rd
off to move and then finish with the big stuff on the weekend.
The other part that fits into the “but” (ha ha not even
remotely what I meant). The other part that is not in the good news
category is that I won’t be getting any new schools until August. The
BoE just doesn’t understand how hard it is on us to change schools in
the middle of the year. So I have to drive to Konan 4 days a week and
probably have classes 2-3 days a week. I’m still super excited that I
am moving, but slightly sad that my whole routine won’t change for a
while. At least I will be able to get my life back and start meeting
people.
Last night I went to Jintei the famous place in Koriyama
with some kind of chicken dish wrapped around cheese. I can’t explain
it, but it’s incredible. I ate with Matt and we chatted about the
usual things we chat about. Mostly online games, science fiction
stuff, and various funny videos or stories we have seen/heard. I’m
still full from it since I ate so much as always. Then I did laundry at the
laundry depot and there was yet another incident, though this time not
related to which coin slot is related to which dryer. This one was
even better. The lady didn’t know how to start the machine. There is a
green button that says START in Japanese and an image of a finger
pointing to it. She had no idea what to do and I thought she was
kidding for a minute. Then I pressed the start button in a slow sort
of “uh….maybe…this button…” way. She gasped with the usual “naruhodo”
(oh I see) and then left. Wow. How do you function in life if you
can’t even start a dryer? Then some couple argued about which dryer to
use; a bigger slightly more expensive one or a too-small cheaper one.
She went with the cheaper one and it didn’t dry the big blanket. The
man kept yelling “sou itta noni” (I told you so), enough so that I
learned it in context. I think that’s a good way to learn a foreign
language and I might start making videos like that. Something where a
certain phrase is repeated over and over in context maybe with
subtitles so students can hear it and see it.
Celebration of Life.
Sunday, March 8, 2009
I stayed home Friday since I had no classes and just wasn't
feeling like being around people. Several small things built up to me
just wanting a "me" day and not having to worry about other people's
schedules. I take about 1 per year so I don't mind. It ended up being
perfect timing since I had some stomach bug, but didn't fully realize
it until after I ate Indian food for lunch. On the way home I slept in
my car in the "Home Depot-ish" place for an hour. Then I got home and
slept for another 4 hours and then went to bed and slept all night. It
was odd.
Saturday I stayed in all day on the computer doing various things.
Then today, Sunday, I was invited to a small wedding ceremony by the
river in Koriyama. It was only about 10-12 people and casual. The
weather was great as they said their vows. It was in English and
Japanese since the crowd was mixed and so were the couple. She is
Japanese, he is American. It was a nice little celebration of life and
I'm glad I was a part of it.
This week I expect the minimal number of classes, if any. Graduation
is this Friday and it's absolutely crucial that it be perfect. I
remember A) having no graduation for elementary or JHS and B)
practicing about 1 hour for my high school one. Without exaggeration
they have practiced about 50 hours so far. Mostly that involves what I
consider to be the most unimportant things imaginable, but formality
is imperative here. They spent one entire hour practicing how to bow.
Certain times they go exactly 45°
and other times they go the full 90°. Then they practiced standing up
and sitting down. It must be done in absolute unison. There is a
precise number of steps the graduates take from the door to the
turning point to the stage to their seats. The first one is 15, but
then I got bored and stopped counting. I can't imagine having any
classes with the seniors, which is fine. They care about nothing other
than graduating.
After graduation on Friday I go into Koriyama for a meeting about
English camp. We have the camp in August and March and this is the
March camp coming it. It should be fun, but it's so much planning.
This year I am in charge of running it. Next year it will go to
someone else which will be great. I love participating, but planning
it is tough. Especially since I emit some vibe that makes people
ignore me or not pay attention. Ah I see you've stopped reading.
JUST HANG UP.
Monday, March 09, 2009
I have 4 classes this week, but really two since the other two are
with the seniors and clearly all we can do is some fun farewell thing.
It will be two days before graduation so they are going to be
worthless as far as learning. Even the better of the two classes
wouldn’t pay attention. I’ll have to show Mr. Bean or something short.
I nearly did something terrible today. Not super terrible,
but it would have been bad for someone else. In Japan when you call
someone or talk to someone you have to grovel and apologize for
wasting their precious time with your trivial matter. I’m not actually
exaggerating there. So the school nurse was on the phone with someone
and she was standing in front of me, about 4 feet away, talking
towards me. She started the conversation with “Hello this is
so-and-so, I am so terribly sorry to bother you, you are always so
kind to us, I apologize for wasting your time”. That part is standard
for calling someone like a parent or someone outside of the school.
Then they talked and when it was time to hang up, the party started.
She said the usual “thank you so much for tolerating my petulant
insignificant issues, you are always so kind, thank you dearly, I will
now hara-kiri myself for disturbing you”. Then the other person
apparently said the same, then she said it again, but more politely
and groveling, then again even more so. It was like two lovers saying
“oh you hang up first, really no you, ok, no you, you do it first, no
you, no you.” Then I found myself reaching towards the hang up button
just as she was hanging it up. She looked at me and I realized what I
was doing (acting out a thought) and I laughed and made it look like a
joke.
I spent some of the morning signing these English memory sheets for
the seniors. Most of the kids picked something random to say like
"Hatched" which I assume to be some incorrect translation of
'graduation' or wrote one of the standard phrases they have learned over
the years. One of the phrases is "Don't forget me, I'll never forget
you". A few kids wrote that, but one kid in particular wrote it wrong.
I had to take a picture of it since he wrote it wrong on every sheet.
The other amusing thing that happened today was the school
nurse asked me again for a copy of my health check. I don’t really
mind showing people this since anything that’s wrong isn’t wrong due
to something bad I did. But still there is something that is really
annoying about the COMPLETE LACK OF PRIVACY IN JAPAN. Actually it’s
comical how far they take it. She took my results and read them all,
which was ok I guess since she had to make a copy and file it away.
Then she noticed something interesting and pointed it out to someone.
Wow look at this. ARGH. It didn’t really annoy me, especially since
the results were much better than last year, but the whole cultural
thing about the group knowing everything about someone is so
violating. When I go to the local doctor for anything, the nurse calls
my school and explains exactly what was wrong with me. Again, it’s
usually just a cold or the flu, but MY GOD what a blatant violation of
my privacy. I can see lawsuits flying in the US and other countries.
If I ever had anything even remotely personal or private I would go to
another prefecture and not tell them where I work.
When I had my health check last year and the principal sat
me down to explain that I HAD to go to the hospital the next day for a
recheck, he started with “we respect your privacy”. I actually laughed
out loud a bit since, well, they don’t. The Japanese version of
privacy is at the group level. My version of privacy is at the
individual level. Sure enough, when the school nurse took me to the
hospital the next day it was first written on the whiteboard for all
to see and then she had to announce to the group where she was going.
It was ridiculously absurd and almost like something from a sitcom. If
you were to think of the most absurd situation possible that was the
exact opposite of respecting someone’s privacy, this would have been
it.
Something I am really depressed about (which is partially
causing my recent bad mood) is that I won’t be changing schools until
August. I was supposed to get 1-2 new elementary schools since Konan
only needs me about twice a week, but that’s not going to happen until
August, so I have to sit here doing nothing with my 5 classes per week
until then. The bright side of that is that I will be living in
Koriyama and have a social life again, but now I have to drive 45
minutes each way to sit and do nothing most of the time.
When it rains.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
I am skrewed for money this month. Back in April I told a teacher I
wanted a yearbook for the seniors. It came in today and I have to pay
for it this week. It costs $280. WHAT?
$280
Seriously, I never paid more than $30-40 for one in
elementary through high school. The big thing is that it only has the
seniors in it. Only they buy it and there are no other photos in it.
It’s only about 20 pages of photos and then 40 pages of messages and
some blank pages. But I want it so I’ll do like everyone else, pay it
and get over it.
So I have the $280 to pay, then I have to buy about $100
worth of chocolate for White Day since some kids gave me chocolate on
Valentine’s day (the Japanese have stretched this one into two full
shopping days).
Luckily I should be getting $200-300 back in late March,
maybe more actually. Every month I pay $65 for school lunches and $35
for teacher related things including some parties. Since I haven’t
eaten every school lunch and even had to pay for July and August and
December I should get all that back. Plus I didn’t go to the end of
the year party as well as a few others that were paid for by that so
I’ll get that back. Last year it was about $280 (ironically), but I
will double check that. This year should be more since I have also
been going to Ohse once a week so that’s about another 25 visits at
$3.50 per lunch. It’s just that-that money will come in after I need
it. If possible I am going to put that in savings, but there’s always
some expense that is exactly the same as what I intend to save,
sometimes to the penny.
Chocolate Butt (reprise).
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
I had a class with the 2nd years (8th graders)
and I was so worried about it since I felt like I didn’t have a good
plan. I tried out some ESL card games I have been making and they
actually worked well. One was called “shichi narabe” and is based on a
Japanese game (hence the Japanese title). 4-5 people take all the
cards, put down the 7s and then line up the cards incrementally or
decrementally from the 7 card. I made it using a sentence and color
cards. So the red cards spell out “I think Godzilla is stronger than
King Kong. Godzilla is the strongest of all monsters.” even though he
is not. That’s from the textbook in the comparative/superlative
chapter. Heaven forbid that a Japanese creation be inferior to another
monster. If King Kong punched Godzilla it would be lights out, but
Godzilla has the tail and the fire breath.
Anyway, that game went over well. Then the other game was
a question/answer game where there are 50 cards and half are questions
and half are answers. They are all set up so only one answer fits one
question. I tried this at Ohse and it was ok, but I found some
problems. I marked the question cards with the word Question and the
same for the answers. Then I had 3 people ask questions to three
people with answer cards. It was a lot of speaking and listening and
thinking if questions and answers fit.
Then I get back to my desk in the teacher’s room and see
some chocolate smeared in my seat. OH GOD, did I sit in chocolate? I
mean of all the places to have chocolate smeared. Please tell me this
isn’t so. I ran to the bathroom to find……dramatic music…….there was
nothing on my pants, so I don’t know why there smeared chocolate came
from. That has happened to me before and I had an elementary school
girl (group of 2-3 actually) point at my butt and laugh. That was
awkward in a “why are you pointing and laughing at my butt” sort of
way. I have been driving and eating chocolate and then gotten home and
seen it was smeared on my pants (same area), but luckily no one saw
that. I don’t know what the connection is since that has only started
recently.
[later]
The English teacher just told me the English room was
going to change next year. It would be moved to the spare classroom
across the garden. I didn’t really react because I didn’t really care.
The room will be smaller and tighter and it’s a stupid idea, but there
have been so many stupid ideas that this one just fits right in. Still
I didn’t say anything since it’s like a bulldozer in a flower bed once
decisions are made. The n
I asked why, assuming it would be made into a meeting room or
something since it has carpet and is a little nicer than the other
rooms. No, that would make some shred of sense so it can’t be that.
It’s going to become a room where elementary school students can play
after school. I actually laughed when I heard that because that would
be the absolute last thing I would have imagined it would be used for.
That’s a horrible idea and I can’t understand it at all.
Photos: All the time and effort I have put into making the English
room look nice.
First of all, it’s in the JHS. So the kids are now going to
run around the JHS which
 is
so kid-friendly. Second it’s no where near the door to go out and
play, the kids will have to run (while screaming) past the teacher’s
room. They currently use the ES library and Big Hall. Why can’t they
use the big hall instead of the English room? That would be logical.
I’ve put so much time (and some money) into the current English room
and I’ve learned my lesson. I’m going to pull it all out and not do
anything. I may not even decorate the new room since it’s just a
stupid classroom. Japan never ceases to amaze me at how stupid things
can be.
It has been warm for a few days now and the snow was melting, but
today is another blizzard. I didn’t even wear a jacket this morning
since it was warm, but now it’s frigid and there’s about 3 inches of
snow
on the ground. The stupid weather fits perfectly with my stupid mood.
I’ve been sick and or really annoyed for most of February and March
and I really need a big vacation during the break. I plan to do
something that involves me not being at school or around Konan. I
REALLY had hoped to be moving in, but I can’t do that until April 1st.
Maybe I will go to Tokyo and take photos.
Slightly Better Mood.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
I went to Ohse today and time dragged on like a turtle. I had two
classes with the first years and then they cleaned the school
hardcore. After lunch we had graduation practice for the 1-2 years,
the seniors went home. It was 4 long hours of watching them stand up,
sit down, bow, sing songs, rinse and repeat. Finally it was over and I
went to Koriyama to have a meeting about the upcoming English Camp.
I'm planning it and there are two first years helping me. We are
talking about ideas and getting ready for the bigger meeting tomorrow
with all the EC people.
Before that meeting I had 40 minutes to kill so I went by the BoE to
drop off a copy of my car insurance, license, and something else for
moving in April. I asked about setting up utilities and they said they
would do all that for me as well as fire insurance. That's a huge
relief since it's a hassle and tons of paperwork and expenses. Then
while the lady was copying some stuff, the man in charge of the
foreigners asked what I planned to do during the break after the
English Camp. I said I would be sitting around my apartment with
everything packed doing nothing since I can't move in until April. He
said it would be better if I could move some boxes on March
28-29-30-31, but not move in until April first. That would be much
better than doing nothing until the first, but not as great as moving
everything (including myself) on the 28th. So in the end that is great
news. I will have those days off and I will pack my little Pajero up
and make several trips. Then I'll hire a rental truck or moving van
for the big things. I'm not going to ask the BoE to pay for anything
else since they have been so kind about letting me move and setting
everything up.
Tomorrow is graduation for the JHS. The kids are going to cry like
babies, they always do. It's a big thing for them since the group is
dissolving. Most of these kids have been together in a small
tight-knit group for 3 years and then 6 at different schools as
elementary kids. When I came to Konan these kids were elementary 6th
graders and now they are graduating. I won't cry, but I will be sad to
see some of them go. Not all of them, but some.
Today was the day.
Monday, March 16, 2009
Today
was the day that the kids find out exactly where they will be going to
high school. Many of them already knew, but some failed the first
entrance test and then took a secondary test. Today was the day that
secondary test's results were posted. The whole day consisted of the
vice principal getting calls from various students explaining how they
did and whether or not they were accepted in the school of their
choice. Many kids didn't make it and have to go to the local school
that literally takes everyone. Last year they took the kid that NEVER
SPOKE and wandered the halls during class.
Some boys came and announced they were accepted to that school and
were so relieved. The stress was killing them. I congratulated them
and refrained from telling them the school takes anyone and everyone.
Other kids came by and showed off their acceptance letter from the
schools of their choice. I found myself just congratulating anyone who
was smiling and holding a sheet of paper and not saying anything to
people with nothing in their hands and the look of death. That's the
main part I hate about this process, if they fail the test they have
to come and announce it to all the teachers. I mean is it not enough
that they failed the test and cannot go to the upper level high school
and now they have to go to a lower level school, but no that's not
enough...now they have to come to their JHS and announce their shame.
Japan can be brutal sometimes.
Beautiful Day.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
I drove home with the window down. It was 13°C
which is about 58°F whereas yesterday it was around freezing. It was
such a nice day. The only thing that bugged me was that it was cold
this morning so I wore my thermal long johns and a sweater so I was
sweating most of the day. I took vacation time from 2 so I could wire
money back and get some things for the upcoming English Camp. For
dinner I ate with Dan, Matt, and Angela at the Indian place and it was
good even though I ate way too much.
It's less than two weeks for me to be in my new apartment in town. I'm
so excited, but don't want to think about it too much in case I jinx
it. That would suck royally. Currently I have hay fever from all the
pollen falling around. My nose is a virtual mucus waterfall and it's
annoying it. It just won't stop. Other than that I'm in a good mood
and glad things are running smoothly.
Free Friday.
Friday, March 19, 2009
I drove into town early today to give
Kathy a lift to the station with her big bag. She's going home to
Singapore for spring break and needed a lift. When we arrived we had
McDonald's breakfast and then walked around a bit. I bought some candy
for the English camp next week. Her bus came at 11:20 and she boarded
and then I left to get some Starbucks coffee. Then I did some more
errands related to English camp.
Before heading home I went by John's apartment which is the one
directly above my new one. I went there mainly to take his photo so we
can give the kids little stickers of us when they ask us questions.
The secondary reason I went by was to see his apartment. I saw someone
else's apartment in the same building, but it was the reverse layout
of what mine will be and I was mentally unable to flip it around. I
even drew out what the apartment looked like and then flipped it, but
I kept putting the kitchen on the wrong side I also envision the
living room being where one of the bedrooms will be. So seeing it was
a nice mental image. He has a cool set up as well. I like what he did
and plan to copy much of it.
I'm in an annoying holding pattern now. My apartment is almost
completely packed up, but I can't move anything until they clean the
new place and give the BoE the key. I was told it could be Friday
night, which would be perfect since I could start making some trips on
Saturday and Sunday and then just have the big stuff to move Tuesday
and Thursday. I'll be at school Monday and Wednesday. Monday for the
farewell bit and to move my desk in the teacher's room and then
Wednesday to greet the new teachers and have boring meetings. If I
can't move stuff that weekend then I'll have literally nothing to do
other than sit in my packed up apartment doing nothing.
Ready to Move.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
I went by the local "convenience" store on Saturday to get something,
but it was closed all day. ARGH. I am really tired of living in a
small town and I am ready to move. I went to Milky Way to eat first
since I haven't had vegetables in a few days. I got the salad bar and
a small hamburger plate. After that I did laundry and I think I ruined
my comforter. I usually send it to the dry cleaner, but since I was
washing the futon mattress thing I figured I would wash the comforter
as well. Big mistake...the innards are all clumped up now and it's not
fluffy. After that I went to the park to walk around a bit. This is
the park that is 3 minutes from my new apartment. Then I came home
around 4 and continued to work on the preparation for English Camp
this week.
SO Ready to Move.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Ok, so
let's see. Monday was graduation for the elementary school. That was
on the verge of painful at how long and formal they made it as well as
how they made the 1-5th graders sit through it. It was bad for the 1st
and 2nd graders mostly since they haven't sat through that many. It
was painful for me because it dragged on and on. The worst part was
when EACH graduating student stood up and said a few words to their
parents about how thankful they are. The painful part of that is there
are 27 kids each speaking for at least a minute, but really more since
someone would stand up and say "mother and father...." and burst into
whimpering tears for about a minute. They would then realize how long
it had been and start talking while crying. It's hard enough to
understand what they are saying normally, but while crying was just
awful.
Then today I took the day off to prepare for the big English Camp from
Wednesday to Friday. It's held at a YMCA type place on the outskirts
of Koriyama (the big city). About 50-60 kids come from all the JHSes
around Koriyama and participate in 3 days of English games and general
fun with foreigners. I love doing it, but not running it so much. I
realized most everyone participating was new so I couldn't delegate
that much, but we'll see how it goes.
Success.
Friday, March 27, 2009
The camp went great,
well mostly great, but great as far as the kids knew. There were some
problems that come back to me since I planned it. One problem was that
the game show is still boring at parts. I redid it from last year, but
it's still a bit boring at times. All the AETs did great and there was
no drama or arguing like there was years ago, but we still have some
planning things to work on.
The best part of it all was the superintendent of Koriyama schools
came by to give the students their "official" certificates. After his
speech we had it planned so Detective John (an NT like me) would
interrupt the fake speech made by the Board of Education department
head and tell everyone there was a murder in the gym and they all had
to go help figure it out. He was dressed like a 70s detective and
played the part well. They were all surprised since the speech was by
someone important
and why were we interrupting that. Finally we convinced them to get up
and go to the gym where they saw a body under a sheet in the dark
surrounded by candles as they entered to the theme song from Eyes Wide
Shut. After they were sitting there for a minute staring at the body
(that
 was
in near darkness) Mrs. Body came in and found her dead husband and
summoned the butler. Then he called the cop and detective and then the
suspects came in and lined up against the wall. The suspects were the
people that worked in the house such as the maid, Mrs. Body, the
gardener, the driver, the cook, and the butler. We went with the
clichéd ending of having the butler do it.
The next day they learned about our hobbies and played Rounders
(English game), learned about taking pictures, Angela had a drawing
class, Lydia did a dance class that was popular, John and Henry did
games in the gym and they learned about the New Zealand Maori Haka
dance, finally Maxime did a class on how to make fake wounds using
latex. After that kids were walking around with huge gashes across
their legs and arms. Then we had a game show that didn't work so well,
but we don't know why yet. After lunch we showed them what their skits
were for the night.
The skits were popular movies that they had to act out. They couldn't
say the name of the movie in the skit such as "look it's ET", everyone
had to speak, and they had to say "Yes we can" in context somehow. The
skits stopped way too early so we had the girls from the dance
workshop give a presentation as well as the boys from the Haka dance.
Finally the AETs talked about what we remember most from the camps
(there is one in August and March with the same kids. As a finale we
gave them the certificates we made for them which were drawn by Angela
(and looked tons better than the previous years) and also had a photo
of their group on it.
The next morning each group got up and talked about their favorite
memory from the camp and then we had more interviews. The kids had
little notebooks and would ask us some questions and then we gave them
a little sticker with our name and face on it. It was someone to
remember us by since they couldn't bring digital cameras and take a
billion photos like we did. We being the AETs, they being the
students.
Camp finished at 10 and I did a few errands and then drove home to
sleep for a bit since I was exhausted even though I slept 6 hours at
the camp each night. Part of the reason I was exhausted was they
INSIST on playing some chime song at 6am. In Japan it is crucial that
everyone wake up as a group so they play this annoyingly loud song to
wake everyone up together. They also broadcast the song on loud
speakers in my town at 6am as well. It's annoying, but you learn to
ignore it until it's on a speaker a few feet above your head. There's
another chime at 12 and one at 6 as well.
Around 4 a friend Chloë
came by and took a car load to my new apartment. It was really
nice of her to offer to do that since I live 40 minutes out in the
sticks. Her car is small, but when the seats fold down there was a lot
of room. It was about the same as two trips in my car so my car was
full, plus hers means that was a good three loads. I estimate I have
about 5 more trips in my car and then I will just have some big things
that I will need a truck for. I might see about renting a truck today
for Tuesday. She then drove home since she lives beside me in the new
place and I drove to get the key from the BoE. They gave me the key
and went through all the details of living there. I managed to take
some photos even though it was getting dark. I need to buy curtains
today since there are none on the sliding doors.
Standing in the entrance.
|
Looking right into the big kitchen. |
Looking behind me into the spare bedroom.
|
The other bedroom. All the bedrooms have tatami
floors of which I am tired, but whatever. |
I had a separate sink from the toilet and
shower. |
Look how big the shower area is and it's not
IN the bath like now. I can sit and scrub my feet. (I would be
sitting on a special bath seat) |
|
|
There's also a living room, but it looks
just like the room on the left. I can't decide what I am most
excited about. It's either the big shower that I can sit down in or
have two other people in it with me, the fact that I now have a
balcony, It has two huge rooms PLUS a living room (as opposed to my
one-room place), or that the door jambs are 2 meters tall and I am
just less than 2 meters. All the doors in my current country apartment
are stupidly 180 cm. WHY? What is the point of that absurd height? The
doors at school are two meters which makes sense, so why are they 180?
I am 188cm tall and have hit my head about 428,438 times (roughly). It
also has curtain hooks in places that make sense, like one at the door
entrance and one to the bathroom area entrance. My current place has a
stupid door blocking the kitchen from the bathroom and entrance. That
would be convenient if I ever ran out from the shower and didn't want
to disturb people in the kitchen. I have never once closed that stupid
door, I even taped it open.
Basically all this weekend I will be making trips back and forth in my
little Pajero Junior. It holds a decent amount, but not as much as
that van I used when my 2nd car died. I thought about asking to borrow
it, but I'm just going to rent a van from the Toyota place or a truck.
I hope they don't give me a toy yoda.
About Halfway.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
I have made about 5
trips so far and expect to make about 4 more plus one with a long van
to carry the couch. The current issue is taking the washing machine
and the refrigerator. The WM should be ok, but the fridge can't be
tilted to one side since the oil will run out of the compressor. I
think I can lean it forward in a way that doesn't mess it up, but
we'll see. I'll post photos of the minute by minute progress on that.
I also bought some curtains and hung them and installed the sliding
door locks that the BoE bought for us since someone's apartment was
broken into recently.
On an annoying note (well two), around 7:00 I went to the local (in)convenience
store to get something to eat since I ate dinner around 4 and had the
munchies of sorts. It was closed as it has been a lot recently and
that was really annoying since the only other food place in the
general vicinity closed at 7. I wasn't too hungry and ended up having
a beer, but still....I am ready to get out of the country (inaka in
Japanese [e na ka]). Apart from being really lonely and far and cold
it's also inconvenient too. The nearest ATM is Koriyama which is 35
minutes away. Same with dry cleaners and anything else really.
The other annoying thing happened at English Camp. The people that run
the place are on the verge of being Nazis. That building is the
summation of everything that is annoying about Japan. All the rigid
cultural points come to a peak there. Last year they told us we could
not use the lights in a meeting room from 8am to 9am, only at 9am
could we use them. That wasn't terrible since it was daylight, but it
was just absurd. This year I think they topped it. Some girls were
playing piano in the music room and the crotchety old guy came in and
barked "why are you playing that? Who said you could play the piano?
It costs money to play it." Actually no #$%@-head it doesn't cost
money to play it. Why on earth would it cost money? When we rent this
facility for three days why doesn't that include the piano? How much
does it cost? What about just one note, how much is that?
Here is the absurdity from last year.
Do not
put diapers or dogs in the washing machines.
Stretch limo, man that would suck to drive a limo in Japan.
The
bathrooms at the baseball stadium. Women on the left, then they walk
right
by the men peeing. I'm standing in the passage way where they would
leave.
I
don't have any idea what this means. It was a sporting goods store.
An air
freshener shaped like a pot leaf with the caveat (don't do drugs).
Smells good though.
If
it's one price, why are there two prices at the bottom?
f
Red
lights don't mean anything in Japan, but occasionally the other
drivers
cut you off before you can run the intersection. Classic moron and not
surprising.
What's
wrong? I'll tell you. It's perfectly ok if anything Japanese blocks or
covers anything
in English, but absolute blasphemy the other way around. That's what's
wrong.
My
shoes are in locker number 4, or was it 14? It was neither since those
are
bad luck numbers in Japan. There are usually no 4th floors either.
There's no 104 or 204 apartments at my new place.
Perfectly acceptable in a children's arcade. I wouldn't mind it in my
apartment...
Last Night in Konan.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
I nearly saw two bad
wrecks. Both were because people pass whenever they feel like it here.
On a hill... who cares do it...around a turn...who cares do it....on a
hill around a curve in a tunnel...yea. It's like people cannot wait
for one second here.
Well I rented a van and filled it up with my couch, wardrobe closet,
washer, mini-fridge, set of 1967 English encyclopedias, and desk
chair. I planned on taking two trips, but the van was bigger than I
thought and I managed to get it all in with only one trip. I loaded it
alone, but two other English teachers helped me unload. It was a
diesel van and I had to fill it up when I finished, but it was
only about $5. It didn't take long to unload it and then I waited for
a lady from the BoE to come by and inspect various things in the
apartment. After that I returned the van and ate some dinner and after
that I got a lot of the stuff arranged in the new apartment. Tonight
is my last night sleeping in Konan. I really don't mind at all. I love
the town, but living here is a bit much for me. I really feel like my
life has been on hold for so long and I plan to really make some
changes when I move.
Tomorrow the new teachers and principal show up and we have a full day
of meetings. Luckily
my desk is now way in the corner so I can pretty much do anything and
they won't see me. I was attached to the 2nd years, but when the vice
principal was printing the schedule he asked and I made a sad face,
then he said what about the 1st years and I lit up. I love the
incoming 7th graders, they are my favorite kids in the whole school.
So I'm happy about that and really ecstatic about moving in general.
There's a party this Friday for the new teachers and I can easily go
and drink and walk home. No more hotels for me. Then there is a PULL
DJ party after that I can go to and drink. It's been months
since I have gone out like that and then I had a hotel room.
I transferred my internet to the new place, but they can't flip the
switch until April 9th so I will be radio silent for a while. Maybe I
can update Facebook from an internet cafe. I need to buy a lot more
stuff for the apartment since it didn't come with lights or curtains.
I also need a bike since I plan to use the car only for school and
long distance stuff. It seems like I will be driving a lot more now,
but I would usually come into town 3-4 times a week and now I will be
driving to Konan 4 times a week or less if there is a meeting or
something here. So it's really the same, but the best part is I have
things to do at night. Every night this week the local Smile Mart has
closed around 6 or 7. It's annoying since that is supposed to be the
place to go after 7, but now everything shuts down by 7. I am so ready
to get out of here. All I have in the apartment now is my futon, the
TV, this computer, a carpet, some blankets, and a trash can. That can
all fit in the car tomorrow. I am about to sign off this and clean up
one more time. So, the next update will be in a week or two from
Koriyama. WOO HOO.
next ::
menu ::
home
|
