so this week i was a little, how do you say, flabbergasted with japan. whenever i have a frustration its probably 90% likely i'll point the blame on this country rather than (a) myself, (b) my western-ness, or (c) an awkward singularity. and truth be told, sometimes it is this country... but sometimes i have to give it a little more credit than i do.
NOT THIS WEEK THOUGH! allow me explain. about 3 weeks ago i get this little thing in the mail. it looks like a bill. its all in japanese. i can tell its from the prefecture and it deals with my car. the yen total inside is: 48,300 YEN (about $470 USD). for a split second, i think: "oh a refund is coming!" then that progresses to: "hmm... maybe this is something i paid for, this is a receipt." then i come to the sober realization that, INDEED, i will have to pay this. i take it to school and get some translation help and indeed it is a notice of tax due on my automobile. due by MAY 31st. ha! magically i must pull out $500 within a month!
luckily i'm filthy rich (which is read, "Still in debt in America"). so i do have this cash. but, rediculous! i had no idea when i bought my car - only $900 for a luxury car, the equivalent to an early 90s Lexus - i had no idea that i would have to pay this tax - based solely on engine size, not age or usage. it's a little upsetting.
so i paid this, joyfully actually - because at that point my car battery had died because i left the door open all day and i was riding my bike around town. i like to ride my bike around town. i could do that all day.
side note on my bike... i may equip it with a mini-speaker sound system to rock my iPod while i ride to school.
the moral of this story is that this week i thought about selling my car and buying a moped.. i'm about 80% sure i'm going to do this. because (a) its cool and (b) its cooler and cheaper. but rainy season and unplowed roads during the winter months are making me hesitate. but for sure, i may downscale my car because its too big, which big = expensive. and that's my story. i hope you enjoyed it!
TOTAL COST OF THIS POST: $500
this will be found by others sooner than later when i re-public (is that a word!?) my blog. i guess somewhere down the line i decided i didn't need a new blog, or to delete mine... i just needed to change it a bit. maybe that will suffice and give revival for at least another little while. no time to post though. n o t i m e ! ! !
\\ i like this style. nothing real spectacular about it... but it looks like my word documents a bit more which makes me feel good.
total loss of self-control
this weekend i successfully broke every sort of anti-habit behaviour i have developed. my fingernails, chewed off. my drinking, cokes (not smoothies). my food, pringles and candy bars. i was doing alright, but whoops. time to pick up and get going again. 'back on the ol' wagon', as it is said.
today one of my students told me that i needed to put on my bike helmet (all of this was in Japanese). and i replied in English, "No, I don't." and then he said something about how i understood his Japanese and replied to him in English (this was in Japanese too). Then his friend next to him said, "This is JAPAN!" (as in, 'This is Japan, speak Japanese').
i've never felt so racially discriminated. and my childhood creeps up on me. 'This is America why don't they speak English.' but i think i had enough sense to keep that opinion to myself and my white friends. shame.
i guess it doesn't bother me. it makes me want to speak more English. i'm paid to speak English, so i'll do that as much as possible. I'm paid to internationalize Isolationist Japan. I'm paid to ignorantly take in racist comments in order to make Japan less racist. that is a weight, however, i didn't know i was going to bear when i signed up for this. i think though i'm willing.
this is what i thought about re-naming my blog. it'd be about me, returning to normalcy. as in, it'd be about me quitting blogging and returning back to being a normal bloke - like one who doesn't automatically think "cool, how am i going to blog this". but i'd ease us both out of this whole blogging thing.
i'd get to say all the things i was too chicken to say.
but, i don't think that's happening yet. and the fact that i'd have things left unsaid sort of upset me. today i wrote down some ideas that had been brewing inside of me (this being one of them) and so i'll blog about those, and by then i should have sometime to ramble aimlessly about life. time is what i'm missing here folks, -not aimless words (got enough of those) and -not inspiration (everyday can offer me something), and -not the damn movable type upgrade.
so... until next time... i'll blog your face off later!
so the good people at movable type upgraded to movable type 3.0. COST: over $100!!! i'm freaking pissed. i just switched my whole blog over from blogger (who upgraded recently, quite nicely i might add). i'm quite unimpressed and this is one more notch on the "i want to quit blogging" belt. rawr. maybe i'll just scrap all of the last two years and start over on some new engine... or cut and paste it all into a Word Document and sell it as my memoirs... like bridget jonses diary.
i think blogging is ruining the novel. five to ten years ago people could have written a book like bridget jonses diary and it would have been mildly successful. now there are zillions of overdramatic diaries online. meh.
on the flip side of things...
on a better note. as of YESTERDAY (!), many experts now agree that drinking water...before, during and after sports is a vital. thank God they figured this out! about time. it's the year TWO THOUSAND AND FOUR and now people are starting to think WATER IS GOOD FOR YOU, and it took THE GOVERNMENT to let people know this.
have i told you this country is crazy? in a lot of ways its a first world country on the outside... but beneath the surface, its entirely not.
