I Love This Summer.

Here's the schedule of my big events:

June 17-July 2 Jackson Hole, WY (Jackson Fire Festival)
July 24 Kinabalu Malaysia racers come to visit
July 25 61st Annual Fuji Mountain Race (I'm not running, Mike is, I coordinate all the foreigners coming to run).
July 26th, Shiseisai (Fujiyoshida City's Summer Festival)
July 31-August 5, Colorado Springs
August 21-24, Faust's Wedding, Minneapolis, ever flew overseas for the weekend? This will be my shortest visit yet to the states.
August 26-27, Yoshida's Fire Festival
September 17-22, San Diego, Gale's wedding
October 8-15, Chamonix France, Sister City 30th Anniversary.

My to do list for Wyoming looked something like this:

Remember:
-Passport
-Money
-Clean Laundry
-Water Plants
-Finish Reiho Fuji
-Sanity

God, what else have I done this year? How about the UTY show in February? I still need to do a write-up about that. Oh yeah, I went to Seattle in March. Hunter came to visit at the end of March. My mom came to visit for the first time in April. I went to two weddings in April. I have no idea if May even happened.

It's not that bad; I am doing exactly what I want to be doing. And, I do find time to go to the gym, watch movies, read, and play video games. But please try and schedule things with me at least 2 weeks in advance. Thank you. Later.

Last Year...?

Right, when I first came to Fujiyoshida, I figured that I would be here for two years. That turned into 3, then 4 and 5. I am now, at the end of July finishing my 5th year, and I signed on for another, what I suppose is to be my 6th and final year here. What a journey. Fujiyoshida will always be a second home to me.

However, I've been very bad, despite the warnings of family and friends, that I should be writing more of my experiences and daily insights down. Well, I do write a lot down, but much of it is personal and makes sense only to me anyway, so it doesn't appear on this blog. But every day I have numerous little realizations, events, happenings, insights, etc that I believe would be valuable to remember someday, so I am trying to get into the habit of blogging.

Whatever, I just want to talk about myself. That's all this blog really is. Don't be fooled.

Great.

Here's a couple profound thoughts from today:

1. American and Japanese work ethics are completely different. Americans ideal going home at the end of the day and forgetting all about work. Same with weekends. Personal life and work life are best separate. For the Japanese work life and personal life are often blended, which is why many spend so much time at work during overtime hours, even if they are not getting paid extra for it. Work is a huge social mechanism in Japan. I am an American. I have to escape. I have to get the hell out of the office, the city, wherever, and escape at least a little every day. If not I get grumpy, and people who would otherwise be friends become jail keepers. On the other hand, I am Japanese. I like the fact that co-workers are not robots, but friends who I can trust. This is the group mentality of Japan. For more on this, see my alter-ego's blog here: http://mercenary.blog.shinobi.jp/

2. City workers fit the mold of city workers. They value long term contracts over money, they value tradition over the new. They value family and inter-dependence over independence. They are the glue that holds the city together; the people who come up with fun events for city kids; who create communication networks that mobilize when there is an earthquake or other natural disaster. They move and grow only as fast as the city itself. By the way, Fujiyoshida has not grown in population for about 80years; it's been the same, about 54,000. There is not much room to grow here if they wanted to, we are bounded by Mt. Fuji, mountains, lakes, and other natural barriers. To what type of job/role do you mold yourself? Do you fit that mold? The police are naturally people who like to police people. Business people like money, and artists do not. Teachers like kids, are often like kids, and often need to grow up themselves.

Come on? Don't I have more profound thoughts than that? Or anything? Not really. I spent the day driving around to local businesses thanking them for their donations for the Jackson Fire Festival. Most of the business managers who we really wanted to talk to were out and we ended up talking to secretaries instead. I have another post about the Jackson Fire Festival coming soon hopefully.

Mt. Fuji climbing season is in full stride, but it is still the rainy season.

I'll end it there for the day.