After the Long Weekend
So, my brother arrived safely in Japan. I guess he basically looks the same except that he's got a LOT more hair on his head than when I left Canada a year ago. It's been fun so far. I took him to a party on Saturday night so he met all my JET and non-JET friends (well most of them)... so now he can put faces to the names he hears, for better or for worse.
Sunday we went to the Gion Matsuri in Kyoto with the Moritanis (the family that I teach French for). They are awesome. They are the nicest people... showing Adrian and I around like that, while dealing with 3-year-old twins... who burst into tears the second they laid eyes on my brother... Adrian has that effect on people (haha, joke). It was a good day but there were SO MANY PEOPLE. The Gion Matsuri is one of Japan's 3 most famous festivals so people come from all over the country (and the world) to see it. I'll post a few pictures as soon as I get them uploaded onto my computer.
Yesterday was holiday Monday so we spent the day shopping in Osaka. I took him to Sofmap in Den-Den Town so that he could see the Japanese electronics... I had to physically pick his jaw up from of the floor. That was entertaining. After moving from one air-conditioned store after another... Japanese summers are very hot and very humid just in case you didn't know... we decided to call it a day. We headed home first before going to the Quiet Little Mountain Town for dinner and football on XBox (the boys played, not me).
Today is Tuesday. It is HOT. I am bored at school, trying to study Japanese because I have fallen behind in my self-study plan. Adrian is out exploring the wonders of Nara Machi... probably laughing at the tourists being chased by the deer... that's what I did the first time I went to Nara Koen... I should have brought my computer to school... Dang...
I've said it once, I'll say it again
"Woman, just give up already..."
Bush, Cheney, Blair should be held criminally responsible for the aggressive war in Iraq, according to the
World Tribunal on Iraq in Istanbul...
Edit: right... because a tribunal modeled after something that Simone de Beauvoir was on has any authority... C'mon... have you read any of her books?!
This Just In
I just got the time off that I asked for!!!! HOORAY! Now I can travel around Japan this summer instead of wasting away in my unair-conditioned school! HOORAY!
Won't you be my neighbour...
Oh the relief! It's such a beautiful day! The sun is shining, the birds are signing and my baby brother will be in Japan in just a few more hours. I CAN'T WAIT! Although I don't think he likes it when I refer to him as my baby brother... He is 21 after all... Oh well, whatever...
So...
I was checking out Pinky's Blogdom for my dose of cute for the day and I came across an older post linking me to another blog (which is definitely not cute) right here on Blogger.com!
This isn't just any blog though. It is the blog of Joseph Edward Duncan III a Level 3 Sex Offender, accused of kidnapping, murder and sexual assault in Idaho. See full story here.
I read the most recent post and the comments that people had written. I admit that my curiousity was piqued so I went back to his earliest posts and read the blog entries. It was really fascinating. I spent close to an hour reading his posts, complaining that he was a victim of the institution, blaming society for not curing him of his affliction... complete with conspiracy theories and everything. His last post is on May 13th, just 3 days before the alleged crime occured.
I'm pretty new to the Internet and the world of blogs. Before, the Internet to me was merely a tool for research, email and IM... but now that I am so far from home and that I have so much time on my hands (and seeing as I can't watch TV because I can't speak Japanese), I have discovered a whole new universe... Amazing what you can find out there!!!
Harry Potter Preview?
Smoking too much in BC again? A grocery store sold 14 copies of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by mistake and now the people who bought it have been ordered by a court not to read the books... HAHAHAHA! as if! For the full story, see here.
Old News
I've been reading up on the London bombings and in case you missed the new developments, it seems that this was the first case of a British suicide bombing AND that the bombers were all young British men of Pakistani descent... Found a good opinion piece here although I wonder how Mr. O'Neill's article would change in light of the new findings...
Bored
I gave in and brought my computer to school today. Haven't been doing that very much lately but I no longer have anything to do at work. Ahhh, the life of an ALT... So I have spent the morning reading the news and trying to stay awake.
The countdown is on. My brother will be joining me in the Land of the Rising Sun in just 2 days. I can't wait. The sun is finally out today, I finished cleaning my apartment (almost) and the new episode of Bleach is out raw (couldn't watch it on TV yesterday because I was out wasting my money)... All and all, it looks like a good day... The only thing that could possibly make this day better would be if my school principal came to me and said that he would give me the time off that I'd requested... but I doubt that will happen (T_T)
I have to meet with my English Club after school today. We have "business" to attend to... Ahhhh, my ESS Club... Let me tell you a bit about my ESS Club. ESS means "English Speakers' Society". However the amount of English spoken in the 2 hours that we have together is probably about 10% of that time and most of it is coming from me. There are technically 9 members (all girls) in my club but I have not once had all 9 members show up at one meeting. We came close once with 7 but that's the best showing so far. So what exactly to we do? I try to get them to play games in English and they sit around and talk about make-up and boys in Japanese. And that is my ESS Club. Again I ask you, what's the point?
My lunchtime eikaiwa girls are my only saving grace. At least I know that I am making a difference with some people. Oh and who could forget Kousuke. That boy is just the sweetest 15-year-old boy ever! He is so shy to speak English but he tries so hard and when I understand what he wants, his eyes light up... This is why I stayed for a second year...
Purikura Will Be The Death of Me
Ok, so another day that I should have been spending cleaning was wasted on the evil money sucking invention known as purikura (which is the Japanese take on "Print Club"). Puricura is basically a souped-up photo booth that makes stickers out of pictures. It is a complete waste of money and one of my few useless addictions in Japan (that and gyoza... yum!). Purikura is so much fun and being somewhat unphotogenic, it is fantastic because I actually look decent in the pics (YAY white light!!!) Yes, yes, I know... Vanity, seven deadly sins... I apologize.
Anyway, I really should start some cleaning before I go to sleep...
Rainy Season Sucks
Now I know what it feels to live in Vancouver...
Back home if it rained for more than 3 days in a row, people would start getting irritable... Imagine how I feel now that it's been raining every day for the last two weeks... ARGH! I used to love the sound of the rain falling on the plastic and metal box they call my apartment building... Now I just wish it would go away... Mister Sun? Where are you? Maybe if I call
Trogdor he will come and burninate the rain for me...
And Then There Were None...
I think I just won the record for the least amount of time taken to kill all the fish... I don't even know what I did wrong. Maybe they hate the weather as much as I do... I suppose I didn't really get a chance to get attached to them but it still distresses me... My track record isn't that great so I should probably just give up on owning fish altogether... It was fun while it lasted (all 16 hours of it)
The Circle of Life
See I told you that the only thing that fish did was die... I lost 11 fish overnight... I left for work this morning with 5
genki fish and 2 breathing but just barely... although they will probably all be belly-up by the time I get home... (>_<)
This is me in my brand new kimono with my two young French students...
The back is way cooler than the front...
And these are my goldfish!
My New Family
I have 17 children now... they will probably all be dead tomorrow though seeing as I have nothing to feed them. I have 2 white ones, 7 black ones and 8 orange ones. I had 21 but 4 of them died before I made it home... But that's what fish do right? They die...
Sunday... again
I always have a hard time on Sundays because I know that Mondays are lurking just around the corner. This weekend has been less than uneventful. Spent most of it at home reading the news since someone decided that he was going to play video games all weekend.
Friday night was an enkai for all the first year teachers. It was a 6 course meal, including a lobster course AND a steak course... And as with most enkais: all you can drink! Now that provides for fantastic entertainment because the teachers who won't even look at me usually are fall over drunk and speaking to me in English.
Saturday, I should have been cleaning... but instead I was reading about the London bombings again. The BBC News obviously has good up to date information and since that is my homepage, I can't really avoid it. I've also been following the developments in the Filipino presedential saga. President Arroyo has sent her husband into exile and forced everyone around her to resign yet she insists on holding on by the skin of her teeth. Give up already.
And it is now Sunday. I am sitting in my apartment, looking around the room at the disaster I have to clean before my brother arrives on Friday... Boy do I have my work cut out for me... And yet where is the motivation to get my place clean? Now if I knew that then we would have no problems... but my guess is that it is somewhere here. Anyone game to help me look?
News From Japan
So Koizumi managed to get the lower house to pass his postal reform which will see Japan Post privatised entirely by 2017. See here for the story...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4651155.stm
What does this mean? Who knows but it's supposed to be a big deal so I just thought I'd share.
Also Japanese WWII orphans have been refused compensation...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4654681.stm
This one I know a little bit about. Japan has a very strange way of treating other Asian foreigners... Although most western-looking foreigners are for the most part treated as celebrities (except when they do something wrong), Japan seems to have this bizarre hatred for other Asian nationals... There is girl at KHS that is the grand-children of one of these Japanese nationals abandoned in China. By blood, she is fully Japanese, she was repatriated when she was 8 years old, but for some reason, she still has to take the JLPT in order to prove he fluency in her mother tongue... because she is still a foreigner according to her papers. WTF? Things are changing, especially since the Korean soap operas started getting a lot of air time, but change comes very slowly. But I digress...
Elementary Schools Rock!
I was asked a little while back to teach English at an elementary school in Yamato Koryama City, just North of where I live. Since it's exam time in Kashiba High School, I have NOTHING to do except sit at my desk and watch the clock. The wonderful people at the Nara Prefectural BOE (Board of Ed) did me a huge favour by sending me to this elementary school. I am there for three days this week and from now on, once a month and 4 days during the High School exams.
Now I have worked with elementary school kids back home in Canada so I was not worried about the teaching part. After all, kids are kids, no matter where you go, right? Wrong! Well, sort of. Anyone ever wondered what it's like to be a celebrity? Well teach elementary school in Japan for a day and you will know exactly what it's like. Everywhere I go in the school I hear, "Samansa-sensei this" and "Samansa-sensei that" with the pitter patter of dozens of little feet coming up behind you. Of course, the only things that these kids can say to me in English is "Hello", "Goodbye" and "See You Again" but that doesn't matter. It is so much fun!
At KHS, I am there all day every day and I have 8 classes a week (although I have begged and pleaded for more, they never give in). At Showa Elementary School, I am there in the morning (from 8:15-:1:30) and I have taught 5 classes both mornings and then 6 on Friday when I go back. That is 16 classes in 3 half-days. Then I eat lunch with the kids (yes, the school even feeds me!) and then I play outside with them at recess. I love being busy! It's a welcome change. I love Kashiba and my students there but teenagers are difficult (thank you Captain Obvious). It's so refreshing to have undying genkiness surrounding you. I wonder if they'll let me do it permanently...
New Beginnings
Well, well, well... Here we go again. I don't know if this is going to work any better than the last one but I'm going to try it, at least for a little bit.
Welcome one and all to my life in Japan, starting in July 2005. Of course, I have been here for a year already but my last attempts at blogging failed miserably... I'm going to try again though. So this will be just an introductory post and in the coming days, I will try my hand at a proper blog, with links to sites and everything... I will try... keyword T-R-Y...
So hello and yoroshiku ne!
