per adam's request to blog a bit of awesomeness, i've thought about my life a bit - my life is no more exciting than anyone's: it's basically just riding my bike to and from work, reading harry potter, eating sushi from a convenience store, being infatuated with the local waitress (lockett, she got prettier!), playing with widgets on my Tiger installation, and sleeping. that's all...
... but then i realize i'm not telling the truth. my life is awesome (with a hint on loneliness which keeps me humbled), so allow me to use my verbose gift of elaboration to entertain you while you work.
kissui
on Friday i took the ol' train down into Osaka and met my friend Eri-chan and his friend Yuki. Yuki is extremely e-popular. she is the creator of the popular site kissui.net - i actually had bookmarked her site before i even came to japan (i think, if that's chronologically possible). she gets like a ka-jillion hits a day.
she takes amazing pictures too. i liked that, always snapping a camera, even when she was passing out due to exhaustion, she'd perk up, snap a picture and fall asleep. she was entirely smart and made my week interesting. at the risk of sounding like a dork, and yuki, i hope you read this, i'd like to meet up with her again and lomo-ize japan.
capsules
that night i stayed in a capsule. we know how that goes...
the thing about sleeping in a capsule is that when you're a man of my stature and someone who tosses and turns in your sleep, you find yourself not only in a small confined space when you wake up periodically, but also being constricted by your yukata and bedsheet. and then, somehow you always wake up smelling a bit sour. i don't understand the metaphysics of it all. but, for a hotel cheaper than a train ride back, i can't argue.
and in the bath a guy with a tattoo came in... that means he was yakuza. it's illegal to bathe with tattoos here. we both sort of stared at eachother with the "you're not supposed to be here" look... nice.
"he looks like a gaijin"
YATTA! I DID IT! the other day i went to a shamisen recital practice on Sunday with a married japanese couple. i played and sang and sat down and read Potter. an elderly woman commented about me to my friend saying "he looks like a foreigner", implying that she thought i was indeed Japanese, but could pass as a foreigner...
thanks Obaa-chan! i've hoodwinked you, so now it's just a matter of time before people call me "Hiroshi".
then the night turned into a triple date at an all you can eat restaurant. it was the married couple, a dating couple, and me and sachiko. whoa! talk about pressure. sachiko's cute though, i won't lie to y'all.
sayonara partings
so my friends are now leaving the Island, as contracts are up and it's time to go home. yesterday was actually my 2nd Anniversary of being here in Japan. as the JET Programme/Life works, people leave and go pursue their futures. Eric and Mary have left Supertown. and i'm sad. they made Supertown cool. thankfully, eri-chan will be back in Japan sometime... and thankfully, he's letting me hold onto his Telecaster (Adam, Dave & Dave, i think you know what that means, send your phrases...). and my friend John is going home for awhile, i'm sad, but i'll always remember how he was able to kill us all with kung fu, but didn't - he spared us in his mercy.
so it's a new leaf, the third year is starting as of today. my circle of friends is shifting a bit. i may get satellite television. i have no eikaiwa during the week, so i'm free to study more japanese. i got to get better at reading.
so i kind of lied. this post has nothing at all to do with bamboo.
today there was a meeting at school where one teacher (the oldest) spoke passionately of how we're to uphold the "working hours". and how everyone has been lazy for extending lunches and showing up late for work in summers past.
... that same man, ten to fifteen minutes later in the meeting was asleep at his desk while the others talked. salt in the wounds. why do we have to stay if we just sleep at our desks? for example, because i saw him sleeping, i felt very comfortable watching 4 totally legit episodes of LOST on my computer today. does me watching LOST make the public happier?
i have no work. no responsibilites. no real point in being at work all summer, but yet i'll sit there on my ass day in day out. for the sake of "working hours" and "because as a public worker, the public would be upset if got money and didn't work a full day in the summer". 9 out of 10 tax payers i've talked to don't understand themselves why i need to be at school all summer.
the problem isn't that it's a school of obsessive workaholics, it's just they don't know anything better. they were taught you work all summer and it's wrong not to... so they believe that. imagine growing up and not knowing or even thinking there's a better way to do something. i can't fathom.
Dear Mr. Ido,
My name is David and I live and work in Hyogo Prefecture as an ALT and you are my Governor. I'm writing you today to tell you that I think your prefecture has a long ways to go before it is internationalized. I was told by my country, when I arrived, that I am an ambassador of America. And I'm told that when I leave the JET Programme I will be asked to be apart of the Hyogo Envoy, if you will, an ambassador of Hyogo.
As much as I want to go home and tell America about how great Japan was, I feel I'm left with only horrible examples of Japanese bureaucracy. For example, today I will write my family and say, "Today, when there were no classes, my school made me use part of my nenkyu (yearly vacation leave) to throw away my trash at the dump which is only open 9am-4pm on weekdays. Rather than throwing away my trash, I decided to let it continue to amass, and I'll do it another day." I devised a plan to bring the trash with me to school and stack it up on the gym floor, so that way it becomes a "school problem" and not a "personal problem".
That's just one of many examples, don't even get me started about changing my license. I hope that you will do all that is in your power to relax the bureaucratic insanity that plagues your Prefecture. It's kind of out of control.
Yours sincerely,
David
PS: Your website says that I can send "Suggestions to Governor Ido", but I couldn't find the link. Once I do, this will be in the mail to you.
not this sunday, but the sunday a long time back i went to Osaka. it was raining and i wanted to get to church but i didn't really know the way through the underground malls, though i had walked it before. deciding for adventure, i chose the underground mall.
y'all, i've never been so lost before in my life.
i've been lost before in Osaka. but this took the cake. i walked for about an hour and was near what i thought would be my desired exit, so i popped my head up to street level, like a groundhog, and realized that i was walking in the opposite direction of where i was supposed to be. so i hobbled back down into the recesses...
...after about 30 minutes of walking around passing some familiar stuff and seeing new things, i popped my head up and I KID YOU NOT! i wasn't more than 40 feet away from where i popped up the first time. at this point i because a little worried and frustrated. but i laughed about it because for some reason, being totally lost is funny to me. if only i had GPS in my phone.
eventually, with the power of my orienteering skills (girls only like guy's with skills), i made it to my destination. i was awesome.
after church i came home and did the normal routine of watching TV and computing. i took a minute to look down and email and when i looked up - my TV was only purple and green. a tube musta busted. star wars was on and obiwan's skin was purple and his hair was green. made for a crappy night cap. i called my supervisor -because it's their tv- and well, it's been a week and i haven't heard jack about getting a new tv...
i guess i could see this as a blessing. but it only falls into the curse category in my head. after that the week kinda tumbled in a Job-like fashion. except i didn't lose my cattle and my children...
yuup. purple and green tv. rock n' roll.
