End of 2nd Month, 2005.

February has been another month of amazing drama. The ups and downs of school, giving and recieving some great blows in Karate, snowboarding in Nagano, and not one missed day of work due to colds, though I probably should have stayed home that one day. I am really eating this place up. I have also run into a lot of good blogs out there in my time out of class. "Drunkuncle" as previously posted, and also Linda Yu's "Kinokonoko" which is a lesson in photoblogging in itself. I have run into various blogs from other JETs in Japan, and even read some reports from an American living in Iraq. If it's out there, you can probably find it, so keep on blogging. If you read this blog and like it, or better yet dislike it, then post me a comment.

I would like to change the title of this blog into something more readable...it's just that Kanji is so cool. I was sitting at my desk about this time yesterday reviewing some new kanji, which usually draws some attention from the teachers around me curious about what I am learning. Discussing the matter with my school's maintenance man is frustrating...I can never get straight answers from him...or from most people in Japan...they love to manuver around questions, makes them seem smart. So I said, "I heard The Japanese Design Sense is so good because Japanese kids have to study the intricacies of Kanji from an early age." Maintenance guy says, "Kanji came originally from depictions of their basic meanings." Ie: the kanji for "eye" actually looks like an eye...that is if you draw it with 5 straight lines and rotate 90 degrees. The conversation continues to the tone of "yeah, yeah, Kanji is really cool, right on Japan!" Kanji, and therefore the Japanese language, is deeply rooted in traditional meanings unlike English where meaning manifests differently at different times and within different groups of people (for the same word). A single word's meaning in English can evolve, whereas in Japan, meaning of individual Kanji stays the same. Big generalization, I can already feel Professor Nussbaum pulling out his red pen on that one. There is something to it though...language and culture are interconnected. Japan is a tradition place. Japan is a very traditional place. This means that the Japanese have a correct form for everything they do, from brushing their teeth to building cars. Japanese have impeccable design sense and are amazingly intelligent when it comes to equations, memorization, and "the way it should be done." Sounds like the exact oposite of a certain place...I won't tell you its name, but I know you know it. If "the Japanese" lack anything it is that flare of pioneering creativity that comes from a lack of tradition...

Nagano Goryu ski resort.

Jason, Andy at end of the day at Goryu. Photo courtesy of Kamikurechi.


Whiteout conditions at the top of the mountain

At the top we couldn't see more than 5 meters in front of us, and at one point we came to the edge of a long run we had not yet been down. Eyes fully open, but all you could see was white. We plunged ahead anyway. Almost immediately after I took this photo the cloud lifted enough to see at least another 100 snowboarders in the immediate area that we couldn't previously hear or see. I preferred to be in the cloud.

February 11th was a national holiday, the perfect chance to gather together at the dojo, go for a hike up to a frozen waterfall, and have a short practice in the cold.


Jason and Andy at "Kankeiko"..."Cold practice."

Yes, it was cold. No, we were not wearing shoes (at least in this photo).

It's March now, the 3rd month of 2005, so look for some posts soon, such as: "The 15" Rims" (I get to put on the real wheels meant for the Works once it stops snowing). "Spring Break" (Okinawa???). And hopefully not "Broken Rib" (which could happen for a number of reasons...a dirrect hit by Jason in Karate, getting all excited and overconfident on the ski slopes, or even just by having a severe cough). Stay well.

Blogging

For a reality check, go check out the blog at
drunkuncle.blogspot. Thanks to Pete Johnson in New Glarus, Wisconsin and his recomendation to see what a well done blog looks like, I now have a new standard for my own. Be cautioned, drunkuncle is not good for weak stomachs, but it does what it claims:

"Feel bad about how your life has gone to the shitter? Trust me...read this and you won't feel so bad anymore."
Quote taken from the blog's introduction.

I hope someday to have a blog as tight as "drunkuncle."

Where do You Stand?

If you're like me, then you're in your mid 20's fumbling about the world trying to find a spot. You do not easily forget the cliche "home is where you find it." My interpretation is, wherever you are, that's where you find yourself, but that's cliche too. However, Yahoo News today reports Randy Moss is headed to the Oakland Raiders, which means the world is still spinning in sensible dirrections. In news from Aspen, Colorado, Hunter S. Thompson committed suicide this week. Dare I say, that too makes sense in a very twisted way? Didn't John Lewis have a story about arm wrestling the guy at a bar in Divide, Colorado?

Chinook winds blew through Fujiyoshida yesterday as a full moon climbed slowly over the icy silouhette of Mt. Fuji. Sometimes movements are so smooth they are hardly noticed. I notice. The same day I completed 5 classes in a row of speaking tests, which means I examined the English of 175 students. They're OK and Japan is OK, I report. Please, there is no need to worry. I understand this place and I am going to tell you how to understand it too, but only if you read between the lines.

The obvious to some is what I call my secrets, and I am easily read under the gaze of local eyes. To wake up late, take long steamy showers, throw on smoky smelling wrinkled hooded black sweatshirts, brush back wet hair, head out the door, and run into another American on the way to an untimed train is coincidence. More, it is coincidence to depart the train station unplanned, walking heel toe this foggy morning to my car, left unmaned after a night of drinking, and arive at school 5 minutes late in the middle of the morning meeting, recieving smiles from the same 7 staff members. If you use your head, the world is a beautifully simple place. If that head happens to be hung over, simple coincidences may seem serendipitous.

Police stopping drunk test station. Flashing blinkers and uniforms do not deter the movements of determined individuals, as long as there is help. As long as someone's cell phone number who is not under the influence is accesible to call at 1 in the morning while stumbling in the cold air, you can get home without being hauled off to prison. The Police are not omnipresent, but they can smell whiskey if they sniff long enough, be warned. Up to a 500,000yen fine for drinking and driving may be thrown at you if you didn't heed all the warnings. Even worse is that being caught by the police is embarassing to your superiours, which is as about as bad as it can get. Had I decided to drive I might have found myself back in America sooner than expected.

I hope you all don't mind that I am going to Nagano this weekend for some snowboarding. I got a new board from Devin in Snowmass middlemanning for High Society Freeride Company. It has a nice Japanese style design. I always wanted to be a skater when I was little, but I wasn't cool enough. I wish I had put more effort in to bruising and cutting myself up, but then again I did have that one stupid skiing accident that crippled my stride for several months. Anyway, just let go and surf the snow, it feels amazing. I have nice new boots too, which scares me because owning nice things makes one want to settle down and find a big house in which to display all one's fabulous trappings and in so doing build their own jail...shudder. I am already really comfortable in my apartment. The thought of packing up and leaving has been on my mind since I got here and this, concurrently, is the reason that having things scares me and settling in is difficult.

Side note: I hate being showy, I like old, ragged, used, meaningful things. I only bought that new Mac because I really needed it. I took the idea of buying it through at least one year of rigorous interviews and exams. It passed and is now doing its job well. Nothing is more frustrating than a slow Microsoft equipped computer. I am Andy's upset stomach waiting for Windows to load.

Marriage means accepting the fact that you owe the world everything. Discuss amongst yourselves.

Can I get to the point yet? School is good, take a look. I need some more pictures of the students, because they are the reason I am here, but pulling out a camera in the middle of class is distracing and hard to explain.


Asumi Junior High School.


Haruka, Andy, and Yuka Sensei(s).

Haruka and Yuka are what I call "nakama" which means friends or members of the same gang, like school classmates. They are fun to work with and help keep me sane when trouble strikes at school. I imagine I help them too, not just with English pronounciation and such, but also with classroom drama. The other day two kids got in a fight in class, which escalated far enough to require me to force them apart. Am I really that tall?

Spring is coming soon, but not too soon. Come back again for a post about this coming weekend's trip to Nagano. Take care.