Happy Halloween!

Nostalgic Pumpkins

That was a busy week; for some reason I’ve managed to schedule something for all my free days. Monday and Thursday I tutor. Tuesday I get tutored. Every second Wednesday I teach an adult English class, and then it’s the weekend, when I went to another English camp. It’s strange to try and make plans to meet with a friend when you’re literally busy every day of the week. Luckily (?) my Thursday class was canceled, and I managed to watch a couple movies among other things. Right now there are over 50 emails sitting in my inbox that I need to get around to answering…

Every night before bed I also study some Japanese, then again when I roll out of bed in the morning. I was actually late for class one day because I was going over some vocabulary… It’s so nice knowing the new grammar and conjugation rules for different types of verbs. Like today I figured out “isoide” worked backwards into its basic dictionary form is “isogu” thanks to the rules. It allows me to properly file it in my brain, and reinforce all the other stuff I’ve learnt prior. Since last week’s list I’ve learnt some new ways to conjugate, using eat as an example again: “Tabetari” (have done things like eaten) “Tabetara” (if you eat) “Tabetayouni” (eat openly/publicly) “Tabenaiyouni” (better to not eat) “Tabeteoku” (eat in advance) “Tabeteshimau” (finished eating)

As a bonus on Thursday it was class match. Usually I get pretty excited about that sort of thing, but I spent the day reading a kids book in the library instead. It took many hours, but I managed to get through the whole thing with some help, and it’s amazing how much reading helps me form and fit new words and thoughts together properly.

I left half way through the day on Friday so I could go to the Halloween themed English camp. I had some time to eat sushi for lunch and grab drinks/food for the night. It’s strange how not having time after work cuts out even things like shopping; I still need to go and buy my Halloween outfit. One of the first things we did at the camp was carve pumpkins. It’s been so long since I’ve done that last, it was rewardingly nostalgic. I wanted to jump in and do it too, but I wanted the kids to get the most of out it; maybe this was the first time any of them got the chance to make a Jack-o-Lantern.

Later we were put to the task of making a scary story or a commercial. All too often I’m used to the students sitting around without ideas, then stealing whatever suggestion I pop out of my overactive imagination. This time I tried to be as hands-off, but still supportive and motivating as I could. While we ended up needed a lot of time, the creativity and quality the kids put forward was amazing. The product they advertised was an “invisibility potion”, and their first idea, among others acted, was to use it and rob a bank. “We’re rich now, and you can be too! Why don’t you buy it today?” Haha it was so cute.

The judges gave them the first place prize the following day after presentations. We had some extra candy and some extra time, so I taught them to play “99” to practice their numbers and determine who would get the extra loot.

On Friday night we watched “The Nightmare Before Christmas” which I showed my kids at Yayoi a week or so ago. After retiring to our rooms, we had drinks, snacks and great talks for hours. When it got late, we opened up my board game “Settlers of Catan” again, and I claimed my 3^rd victory with that game :) That game is so good. After the presentations Sunday, we played a ‘scavenger hunt’ style game, where you had to find the teacher somewhere at the campgrounds and play their game. I was in charge of a Halloween themed pictionary, and we topped the camp off by wrapping a mummy; one student in each group got covered in two rolls of toilet paper :)

Michelle and I were hoping to have a games night that night, but the rest of the group was tired, and I became quite tired myself later so it was a quiet night at home. Sunday was a lazy/quiet day as well, which turned out to be amazing. I did have to leave the house late at night though when I remembered to buy groceries. I wanted to do a cooking class with my 3^rd year students and it turned out quite well; we made banana pancakes today.

Since this was my first time doing such a thing, we kept the recipe really easy, and we were still pressed for time to eat and clean in the same 50-minute period. One group of boys maybe didn’t read it too closely because it was all in English, and added salt twice, once was in the absence of sugar. It was hilarious watching them eat from the same plate like hungry animals and complaining how salty it was, while the other groups had their own plates, sat on chairs, had tea, ate gracefully and so on. Regardless it was a great success, and I look forward to doing it again.

Well that’s my week; I had a number of reflections as well. I remember before I left Canada many of the restaurants started to look the same; with their onion soup, chicken wings, pasta, pizza and whatever. I’m starting to feel the same way in Japan with the ramen, sushi, curry-rice, ‘hamburger’ (meat on a plate) and so on. Maybe I’m about ready to move on. October is almost finished already, another 1/3^rd of a year gone. 1/3 of a year later I’ll have to decide again to stay a 4^th or not. It’s hard to believe that number got so high already. For no particular reason of course, just a gut reaction to move on.

Which is maybe my problem, not setting up something long term and concrete for myself. I know I have millions of choices and options, and perhaps having that available to me makes it hard to pick one thing I’m interested in and want to move towards. I just need to take what I’ve learnt here about having the time of my life and apply it to where ever I may end up; yet another thing to consider. I was thinking maybe Vancouver eventually but I don’t know yet. It would be great to live somewhere in Canada that doesn’t have 5 months of winter a year…

Which brings up my next, very difficult decision. While half reading that kids book, I spent the day Thursday looking for plane tickets to Canada. If I could leave earlier, I could get tickets for $700. I was quite shocked how cheap that was, and I wonder why I paid so much the last time I went. Alas it would be quite hard to leave ½ way through December and I like to save my holidays in case I need it for a bigger trip later. Because of the holidays I managed to secure almost 3 weeks off, from Dec 19 to Jan 11, using only 5 of my 20 days off a year.

Regina is so hard to vacation at for more that a couple weeks, as my sister Patty can attest to. The first week or so is great, but after that people go to work and other things we keep busy with, and you’re left to watching movies or whatever; trying to keep warm in the sub-zero surroundings. I’m not much of a shopper either. I still wanted to go though, so I looked into other options like maybe spending a week of those 3 in Ontario or something. Alas it was still complicated and expensive, so I just got the (surprisingly cheap and not complicated) $500 tickets to Thailand again.

I could have paid twice that to go to the Philippines, but I’m rather jaded by travel at the moment still. It does take a lot of time, and coincidentally money, and I’ve checked off most of what I want to see and do in Asia; much like my career path I don’t really care where I go and what I do now, and Europe with be its own, separate adventure next. I was talking with my buddy Mervin about my dilemma, and he said just go have fun and relax.

Somehow I made things more complicated than it should be and forgot about the simplest option to me; I don’t always need to have a game plan. I have friends there, doing things is cheap, and I don’t have to deal with winter in any way, shape or form. I still have great memories of that beautiful beach Richard and I stayed on for 3 short days, of which we hardly got to enjoy because of all the running around and being busy.

It’s a shame; I really wanted to be home this year for mom’s roast chicken among other things. The high price, the long/cold winter, and my really long holiday had me thinking otherwise though. I’m glad I at least visited home once this year now. I still need to get some presents together and send them home.

The longer I stay here, the more of the “holiday spirit” I seem to lose. Christmas is not this huge holiday for me anymore; I still remember my first year here when I was working the actual day of; it was depressing. Although KFC’s Colonel Sanders is already dressed up as Santa (it’s not even Halloween yet!) Christmas gets a big pass here like other holidays.

"I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong." -Bertrand Russell

tnoy

Old and Smoky Cabins

My Japanese classes have moved to Tuesday nights and the test is fast approaching. My tutor Kayo laid out a book of the basic grammar that was to be covered, and I stumbled on all the basic, first grammar points; it was my first time seeing them. There are millions of ways to conjugate verbs here; it seems a majority of the grammar is in doing that. Frightened, I found the motivation to study every day since then.

I’m trying to read kids books too, but the problem I’m constantly running into is the odd vocabulary. Being a kid’s book, you’d think they would be useful words and stuff, and maybe they are, but it seems to be impossible to find a dictionary that will tell me what it’s saying. This also presents my next big problem: good luck finding a dictionary that will explain the grammar point being tacked onto the end of the verb.

At the risk of boring you, I’ll give a very basic run-down of what I mean with different ways to conjugate “eat” off the top of my head:

Taberu, tabeta, tabenai, tabenakatta (coliqual eat, ate, didn’t eat, haven’t eaten) Tabemasu, tabemashita, Tabemasen, Tabemasen deshita (same as above, but polite) Tabemashoka (shall I eat) Tabemasho (eat together) Tabetemiru (try to eat) Tabetai (want to eat) Tabekata (how to eat) Tabenagara (while I eat) Tabehajimeru (begin to eat) Tabedasu (same) Tabeowaru (finish eating) Tabetakotogaaru (have eaten) Tabetagateiru (someone wants to eat) Tabenaide (don’t eat) Tabete (please eat) Tabenakereba (should eat) Tabenakucha (same but less polite) Tabenakya (same) Tabechatta (unfortunately ate) Tabetekara (since eating) Taberumade (until I eat) Tabetsuzukeru (continue eating) Tabeyasui (easy to eat) Tabenikui (hard to eat)

There is obviously many more ways to do this, and many different verbs conjugate in different ways, but that’s enough. In retrospect maybe this makes the language easier to speak? Regardless, I need to write an old exam already so I can be assessed and study from there, but here I am writing up my blog at 9 at night after another really busy day…

Studied and worked and did stuff during the week. Friday, for some reason I don’t remember, I got the idea to have a board game party; and I invited people over to Mervin’s house in Okaya to play it. There we drank, ate and were merry for many hours, and I finally got to play the game that I’ve owned for over 2 years but haven’t played yet: “Settlers of Catan.” What an amazing game. There were 7 people and only 4 could play because I didn’t get the expansion, but that was ok as we made teams. Richard and I ended up taking the gold home, which was great, and then crashed at Mervin’s as I surprised myself how many cans I emptied.

We got off to a late start Saturday, but Richard and I headed down south to a camping ground in Edo style houses. It was way off in the mountains, and I recognized them right away as the sort of place my mom and I saw when going through an “old house museum” in Tokyo.

It mostly looks like a common house in my opinion, other than being really big, have really cool wooden doors that open all along the outside of the house, a big dirt floor entrance, and a huge pit/area right in the middle to build a fire. Everything was alright, but easily the most flawed thing was ventilation; the smoke had nowhere to go. So we had an entire night in a house billowing with smoke; my blankets still stink even after leaving them outside for a day to air out.

Naturally we had doors open just so we could breath, which effectively let out (some) of the smoke and (all) of the heat the house may have had. Ah another adventure of sleeping in my winter coat with my toque on, but oh well. It was a fun night, but after Friday’s binge, I was less than inclined to drink again. It was surprising how hard it was to get into the party mood with all the stuff going on, but oh well.

The house had many charming touches, like an old wooden bathtub, these funny containers that looked like coffins in a room, an old fashioned adjustable hook thing to hold the pot over the fire in the middle, a variety of old stoves and other fun stuff.

If we had shown up on time, we would be able to join the hike, but luckily we missed out because it ended up raining all day. We played more games while we waited in our cabin. It started getting dark and we were worried the group got stranded on the mountain out in the rain somewhere so we went looking for them. They set up camp in the wrong cabin, of which we were later kicked out of regardless of the raging fire and half-cooked stew inside. But ya, another night of eating, drinking and merry making.

Sunday was beautiful, but busy again. Got back, discussed lesson plans with Nakayama; the guy heading the English class I teach Wednesdays now, and various other things as it happens. I really need to get a day planner to start keeping my crazy lifestyle in order. I can always check back thanks to these entries, but what I have planned tomorrow is often cycling in my head to be sure it isn’t forgotten. Hours were spent writing emails again, and now I’ll end so I can get some cleaning done and get some sleep; I’m so bushed. Man I need to study too…

"I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand" -Confucius

tnoy

Tony’s First Open Campus

Late again, but it was a long weekend and Tuesday (like Thursday) is always a busy and therefore sometimes unpleasant day at work. I wish I didn’t have to teach 3 classes in a row in the morning, my whole day suffers then; but I digress.

Speaking of Thursday we had a ‘big’ typhoon hit Japan. It was storming a bit when I went to bed, and it rained a bit in the morning when I got up. That was the extent of it, and the aftermath was a really beautiful day. School was cancelled because the trains were shut down, and I “can’t drive” drive to school, yet I was still expected to be at school somehow to sit at my desk and do nothing. Unfortunately it’s a common double standard to foreign teachers; one hotly and openly complained about as it should be.

I had my first class for adults on Wednesday, and they seemed to really enjoy it. It’s exciting to teach to adults that are motivated to learn. My one student and friend invited me out for food and drinks Friday with some of their friends, so that was fun as well. It seems I’m meeting new people all the time, but it’s still unfortunate if I tend to forget some that I meet along the way. It’s not so uncommon now when someone will recognize me right away, then I feel like a dumbass for not having a clue. Just one more thing to work on I suppose; I am getting better all the time.

So Friday came, and my friend Mervin invited me to Fuji Q theme park with some cute friends of his, but I caught wind of an open campus in Tokyo. For some reason I don’t have much love for Tokyo anymore; it’s a combination of the prices and rushed atmosphere maybe, I don’t know. It was alright though; I bought a bus ticket in the morning and headed out there. I have been good friends with a girl there for a year now, but oddly enough we haven’t met yet. Because of my short notice that tradition would continue, but I considered myself to be on a hit job; get in and get out.

The day started off great, having played over 3 hours of video games on the bus, but quickly turned sour. I walked around for hours trying to find this place. This might be an area of Tokyo suited for big conferences maybe, as there were literally 7 different sky scrapers with similar names getting me confused where to go. Many times I considered just going home out of frustration, but it was good I found it.

I stayed over 4 hours and had many talks with many representatives. The common theme was they were surprised to find someone like me at a convention in Japan of all places, and as such usually have more information on hand. So I got many emails since being back about programs offered and what not, but the one place that stood out the most for me was Surrey University’s Postgraduate study course on planetary exploration, space robotics, propulsion systems and so on. It blew my mind reading about it; I think it would be super cool to do.

But there’s a cost of course. My one-year doing that would probably cost more than my 5 years of university in Canada. Apparently there are other universities in Europe where tuition is paid for by the government. I’d love to see Europe, and see myself in a “seeing Asia” phase at the moment. Speaking of which I’m looking into options for my Christmas vacation. To go home would be around $1200. The Philippines, $1000, and for some reason Thailand was still a really cheap $600. I don’t know if I should go there again though, I just got back. I got some time to decide though.

Well anyways that was interesting, then after I met up with Fumi and Sakurako from Neal’s and my beach trip a couple weeks back. When asked where I wanted to eat, I stressed a “crazy restaurant” because you always here about them. We went to this place called “Lockup” in Shinjuku, and it was fun! You ate in this small booth build like a jail cell after being escorted by a sexy lady wearing a “naught police” branded hat, and were treated to spectacles every hour like inmates doing a prison break and such. Good times. The drinks were really creative too, as you can see mine with a syringe.

After we went for karaoke until almost 3 in the morning. A perfect thing to do is to drive around Tokyo at night. The traffic is gone and the city feels a lot smaller. Sakurako drove and I don’t think I’ll ever complain about parking again after seeing her bill. She paid almost $50 to park for 5 hours.

On Sunday after regretfully finding out the huge Gundam model in Odaiba had been taken down, I took a bus to Matsumoto to see Neal and others for a big soba festival at the castle. The bus ride was even longer due to the traffic, but I had games again. I got there, saw friends, talked to people, ate soba, then actually had a relaxing night at Neal’s as we watched a movie and slept early after 2 busy nights of drinking each.

It was great catching up with Neal again; it’s a bit tougher now that he’s living further away. He suggested I stay another year. If not, then work in London where the pay is amazing, the holidays are long, and the flights around Europe are cheaper than a bus to Tokyo.

I’m not that motivated by money though, and think people who want “millions and millions” of dollars are shallow. I still remember a certain relative of mine that told me how he couldn’t imagine a life trying to scrape by on less than 500 thousand dollars a year minimum. Who’d have thought it would be tough to find something that you want that get you excited; this is why they tell you to hang on to your childhood dreams. I think either most of mine came true, or I gave up on some others, like building an interstellar space ship and exploring the cosmos.

Monday was a good day too, more time spent at the festival trying different foods and beers. I got home around 6. I know this blog seems rushed now, but I’m tired, want it finished and want to go to bed already. I didn’t even proofread it this time, so it’s probably full of errors. Only 6 weeks left until my test. I feel like I haven’t got much done lately and it’s a crappy feeling. Oh and those pics from last week; I'm not actually naked behind that flag, but I'm glad it looks that way. G’night.

“You always here people say ‘I need to’ or ‘I have to’ or ‘I should’, but what you don’t hear them say is ‘I want to’. Make goals that excite you” –Matt

tnoy

Camping of the Adult Variety

I taught a full day on Thursday after I came back from Thailand, and after a day of transit followed by 5 hours of sleep, I was so tired during the day I felt like getting sick on myself a couple times. Luckily that didn’t happen. Friday night I went out for drinks with some teachers I work with; it was the first casual drinking gathering I had done so it was great, and when the weekend came I went to Takato for an English camp my Philippine friend, Mervin, had organized.

It was your standard fare of fun and games. We played different games from charades to “gozmondo”, where you’re given 2 ridiculous options to pick from, and debate which one is better. Some examples were: would you rather pee your pants at your wedding and have everyone laugh at you, or would you rather laugh uncontrollably at your Grandma’s funeral? Or: would you rather have to crawl everywhere you go, or have to stand on your hands every time you’re not moving?

I headed team Canada naturally, and we gave a presentation. One dude in our group had been to Vancouver before, and while he told his story, it was crazy! Apparently he was originally going to Toronto, but it was September 11^th. Along the way a fearful atmosphere took over the plane, as everyone knew something was wrong, and they landed in Vancouver instead. Once there, they were trapped in the airport practically all day, watching the shocking footage on TV. He said all flights were grounded and he was stuck in Vancouver for one week. He loved it though and wished he could stay longer, so his story ended on a positive note.

For the most part Team Canada did really good. One activity had us discussing what 10 things we had in common. While other groups did things like “we’re not wearing glasses” and “we all live in Nagano” our group was more outrageous with “we’ve all gone skinny dipping” (suggested by the 60 year old grandma), “we all hate Paris Hilton” and “we have grown and eaten home-made vegetables” among others. At night we had a campfire and ate smores, and Sunday we played the best activity of the camp: a picture scavenger hunt.

I’ve done a similar event before, and this one was just as fun. You get an hour to make photos like “funny faces” or “naked” and got points accordingly. I thought it was quality over quantity and the pictures were put to a vote, but that wasn’t the case and we got last place. Regardless, I think we had some of the best pictures, as you can see some that I posted. “First kiss” was a classic I think.

It was an interesting week though following. As I said before, I’m taking something of a “time management” and “goal setting” thing. The lady I tutor called me, and said her son had come down with influenza, so she gave me the week off. In fact she called me again today and said she’s still sick so I have this week off too. Anyways, I had more time to try and catch up with goal setting and stuff like that.

I listened to some “Zig Ziglar”, a motivational speaker. He has a cool accent and some good stories so that was interesting. I did various other things like trying to meditate. It went poorly though, as they talked about weird things that made me confused and not so relaxed as I probably should have been. (“find your heart”, “match your breathing” and so on…what?) I tried something new too: hypnotherapy. You play a tape, and this dude hypnotizes you and encourages good things. Tracks I got are on things like memory improvement and accelerated learning.

I found out I have an inquisitive mind from his description, and therefore I have a much harder time being hypnotized. This is due to constantly analyzing what is being said, wondering “why” all the time, and constantly monitoring my situation as your senses get heightened. Therefore I wasn’t deeply hypnotized that first time, but it was still a cool experience. I find my body having similar feelings when I’m trying to sleep and focusing relaxing muscle groups and what not. I think it’ll get easier and better the more I do it. (Picture BONUS! can you see what it spells?)

Well that went well Monday and Tuesday, but I woke up in the middle of Tuesday night and spent hours in the bathroom being sick. It sucked. There was something funny in my salad that I made that night; I don’t think I’ll be making salad anymore and just stick to things like bacon and cake :) haha

Thursday I still wasn’t 100%, but I had a great tutoring session. My teacher, Kayo, said she could see the big improvements I’ve made since I’ve started. I find words stick with me a lot easier now so it’s always a good feeling when I leave class. I want to learn to carry that feeling with me through the week and study more. Ya, you can probably see I’ve hit a bit of “information overload” which is all too easy to do when you have access to the Internet.

“Life is like a huge buffet line. You’re only going to have enough room to eat a certain amount, so plan accordingly.” More and more I realize and appreciate how finite life is during my time here. You meet and get to know new and interesting people here for a year or more, and maybe less. During that time you can only visit each other only so many times. Then they’re gone, and then what? Life goes on, that’s what. Learn to cherish your time with people more, and with the things that you do.

All day Friday was a meeting for teachers up in Matsumoto. Surprisingly again, it wasn’t too bad as much as I seem to dread these events where you hear the same stuff over and over again. I’m the only 3^rd year in my block but to be fair I came with only 2 others, Noboru and Patty. Patty went to Nagano City and Noboru went home. Now we’re mostly 1^st and 2^nd year teachers, so I’m the old guy of the block. Except for Jessie, he’s in his 4^th year.

After the meetings, we went out for Mexican food, and I somehow ate 3 main courses: some fried rice from Laos, some soft tacos, and a burrito. I spent a bit too much but wow was the food good. We met up with Neal and had a fairly big and fun party. It was funny how there were about 30 of us out near the main station all being drunk on the street and disorderly; there is a cool atmosphere in Matsumoto where you have more than a couple streets with that feeling, and many people walking around from one drinking party to the next. That kind of cool atmosphere is hard to describe, but I recommend you experience it.

When we got back to Neal’s, we weren’t up long before we were all asleep. Most of the people there were going to an English camp in Iida, and although I was invited, I declined a month back. This turned out to be my first 2 days off in over a week, and I thoroughly enjoyed them at home by playing video games and talking to people back home. Not to mention trying to catch up on some of those goal setting exercises so I could be ready for the next telephone conference on Sunday.

Sometimes I can actually see a routine to my crazy life here, and it’s a bit refreshing. I guess I shouldn’t try to see it as much as I should be making it for myself. I got lots of stuff to work on, but it’s an exciting experience to play around with it. For example at Friday’s meeting they had a presentation on studying for your masters. They brought up European Universities, and how they’re one-year courses you can take for free… I don’t think that would be a bad way to see some of Europe and get “freshened up” with my degree material at all. More planning and decision-makings to come…

"A still more glorious dawn awaits - not sun-rise, but a galaxy-rise. A morning filled with 400 billion suns; a rising of the milky way" -Carl Sagan

tnoy