Jivin' Jimmy in Japan

2012-01-22T15:06:00.000-08:00

Howdy
How's it going?
So, after getting back to Japan, we've recovered from the airport ordeal and I've finally started to get back into the rhythm of things. It was a real busy week with lots of things to catch up on, but I guess that's the best way to get back into it. I'm pretty busy, but still not nearly as busy as Chie. I'm back to being able to get my work done at work, but Chie has a lot of stuff to do at home. That does mean that I can get on with other things that need doing though. I'll be sending off for my new passport tomorrow and then when that comes, I'll have to send off to have my visa stuck into it. I've also been chugging a away at Chie's visa application, which is really coming along after getting the health check, the JP check, translations, English wedding certificate and English birth certificate done in New Zealand. It really helped getting things done straight into English, as it saved a lot of money on translation. Only a few more things left to do now. Chie will collect our police certificates today, though we might have to have them translated, which would be annoying. However, once that's done, we'll be good to go.

The week has been pretty low-key. We had a little get together for Yokoi's birthday at Ippuku, which good. I also went to Taka's brother's gig last night with Chiaki and Taka. His band was rockin' but it was a weird event with a hip-hop DJ on before they started and then this really talented finger-picking electric guitarist on after. Was choice. We also went to the onsen on Sunday, but we really haven't done anything else. Just getting on with work and bits 'n' pieces.

Having said that, I'm now about halfway through the 500 page Japanese book I'm reading at the moment. It's really good and I'm hoping it helps with the Japanese proficiency test. I've also been practicing/ mucking around on the ol' Irish whistle. It's pretty fun. The desire to play it could probably be linked to listening to too much of the Clancy Brothers, the Pogues, Flogging Molly and The Dubliners...

Not really a lot more to report. It's pretty cold over here at the moment. January will continue to be quite busy, but hopefully February will be less so. We've got a gig at a live house in Wakayama city in February as well, so that should be pretty cool. We've been to that live house quite a few times and our band members seem to have developed a bit of a reputation for pumping energy into the crowd. In fact, I've been asked several times if I'm the guy from Inaka Sunset, which is weird but cool.

This week I've got English conversation class on Tuesday, so we'll be discussing that tonight after I call Cain about some visa advice.

Probably best be getting on with work.
Hope all is well
Cheers
J

Back in Japan

2012-01-17T20:00:00.000-08:00

Hello hello
So, I'm back from New Zealand. It was pretty busy, but really good to be back. Things have been busy since I've been back in Japan, too. Not helped by the fact that I had some problems getting here...

So, I the plane left at 6:00am on Sunday, so we had to be at the airport by 4:00. I ended up staying up all night working on a DVD to use in class on Monday. Chie managed to get a few hours sleep. We got to the airport and checked in, but were told that we would have to check in again at Sydney. Our baggage was given a sticker that said it went all the way to Osaka, which I didn't think much of at the time. So, we got to Sydney and had an hour before the Cairns flight left. We checked out and then tried tried to check in again. As the flight was from Sydney to Cairns, we went to try to find the domestic terminal. After a lot of searching, we found the bus that went to the domestic terminal. We got on and paid the $5 each. We waited a couple of minutes and then I asked the bus driver when he left. He said he'd leave in 20 minutes. That meant that he would leave 10 minutes before our flight did. So, we got off the bus and ran to the taxi stand. The taxi driver was really angry that we wanted to go to the domestic terminal, but I'm not quite sure why. That ended up costing us $30 and it took about 10 minutes. We got there with 5 minutes to spare, before out flight left. We asked someone if it was still possible to check in for out flight, which it wasn't. We then talked to the Jetstar information desk for about 30 minutes, eventually arriving at the conclusion that we had a choice between trying to buy new tickets from another company, although there was no guarantee that there would be available, or be switched to the next available flights to Osaka. We chose that option, which meant that we would have to get the flight to Cairns the following morning, approximately 18 hours later. Also, we were told that our baggage would not have gone to Japan and that although our sticker said contrary, there was no way that our bags could be sent from Wellington to Osaka. She advised that we try to find out bags back at the international airport. She also said that the flight to Cairns didn't leave from the domestic terminal, but the international terminal from which we had just left. On our booking forms they didn't seem to think it necessary to write which terminal things were leaving from.

So, we got another bus back to the international airport. First things first, I bought at international calling card and we called the necessary people. I called my Board of Education and Chie called her parents, who were coming to pick us up. I then emailed a speaking test to one of my teachers, as she needed it on Monday.

From there, we went to the Quantas baggage place, as our first flight was Quantas, to see if they had our baggage. They didn't, but the guy was really nice. He said to go check with Jetstar and told us where to find them. We went to the Jetstar offices and found that they were closed. We went back, told him that hey were closed and he went searching. He couldn't find them but he said that if we came back at the end of his shift, he'd have another look. In the meantime, if Jetstar opened, we should ask them. If they had our stuff, then we should come back and tell him so he wouldn't go hunting. Anyways, we waited a few hours and then found the Jetstar place open. We asked there and they said that they definitely did not have them. Quantas were the ones that definitely had our baggage.

So, we went back to Quantas and at the end of his shift, the guy went back to the Jetstar office to check himself. After about 30 minutes or so, he came back with both of our bags. Apparently he found them in the Jetstar basement.

After 5 hours of searching, we had our luggage. We also had another 11 hours to go before we could check in to our next flight. We wandered about, got some food and tried to get some sleep. Between 12 and 3 we were moved from the airport to a crowded room between the train station and airport.

When the time came, we went back up to international departures to check in. We had spent all of that time in international departures because the that was where our Sydney to Cairns flight had left the previous day. It wasn't written on the screen things. So, I looked it up on the internet and the flight definitely existed. Apparently it left from terminal 2. I tried searching around the airport and the internet to find out what terminal 2 meant or someone to ask. There were no Jetstar people around, so I called them. Terminal 2 meant the domestic terminal. None of this was written anywhere around the airport or on our booking forms.

after seeing that there were no buses at 4:00am, we got another taxi to the domestic terminal. This time it was $18, as opposed to the $30 the day before. We got there on time and checked in. The clearly disinterested girl behind the counter said that we would have to checkout, collect our baggage and then check back in again at Cairns. This time we had 5 hours, so that was alright. She then went and stuck a sticker on our bags that said they'd be going to Osaka. I asked her about it and she said that it was a mistake. I'm glad I noticed her mistake, because it was the same mistake that almost lost us our baggage at Sydney. She didn't really seem to care though.

Anyways, so we checked in and got to Cairns fine. The staff at Cairns were way nicer, but when we were checking in, the lady there picked up on something. She noticed that my passport would expire in three months. She then informed me that I needed to have at least 6 months left on my passport in order to get into Japan. That was pretty scary. She said that I could potentially get in but there would be a $5000 fine. However, she was nice and checked it on the internet. That particular page is updated daily and to her surprise, the 6 months thing had been taken down. Thankfully, she let me through but told me to get onto the passport thing pronto.

We got into Osaka fine and Chie's parents picked us up at 7 in the evening. We went out for dinner and when we finally got home, I saw that I had an email from my teacher saying that there would be some Chinese students coming to school in two weeks, so could I make a different speaking test by tomorrow morning that included an introduction to Hirogawa. She also told me that I would have a full day of 6 classes.

It was Monday night and I hadn't had a proper sleep since Friday night, but I did it. I slept on the plane and at the airport a little bit, but I was pretty stressed and the seats were quite uncomfortable. I finished making the rest of the DVD I'd been working on and got half of the speaking test done before I fell asleep.

The next day, I went to school early to do the speaking test. There was a pile of stuff on my desk and a note from another English teacher asking me to make a card game. I finished the speaking test and then finished making most of the game before my first class. My first class was with the two slightly handicap students. In it we watched the DVD. The teacher thought it was pretty good and that it might be nice to do it in two of the other classes, seeing as I had just come back. So, instead of the card game, she asked me to make a word sheet to go with the DVD.I did this during the lunch break and everything went okay.

I'm still feeling pretty shattered today. I'll go into the rest of the New Zealand stuff later.

Bye for now
J

2011-12-30T17:28:00.000-08:00

Howdy folks!
Again, sorry for the delay. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and all that.
Things here have been pretty choice. Chie and I spent Christmas eve at home. Had a couple bottle of wine and watched Crocodile Dundee. On Christmas day we had some people round for dinner. Bit of potluck kind of deal with Caroline, Andy, Judy and our friend Joey from New Mexico. It was pretty chilled out and good times were had.

I had two and a half days at the Board of Education, complete with shredding. I took half a day off so that we could go to get our police certificates. It took ages and won't be sent to us for a little while, but it was good to get that scraped off the to-do list. In general though, we've just been working on visa stuff, preparing for going to NZ, watching movies, finished all of Outrageous Fortune and trying to get on with work. I've also been reading and studying. As we'll be coming back from New Zealand after the new term starts, we need to get all that prep stuff done before then.

We'll be flying out of Japan on the 3rd of January at 8:50 in the evening. Get to the Gold Cost at 6:55 in the morning, and then we'll be in Auckland at 2:50. We'll finally get into Wellington at 6:50, so it'll be a long ride. Should be pretty choice though.

As of late, we've also been hitting up onsens. We went to two yesterday, which were rad. One of them was in a fenced off area of a river. It was mighty cold getting out of it, so we went to another onsen afterwards.

This is the river one, called Kawayu. As it's a mixed, outside onsen, you can where togs. There were a couple of guys who weren't though.

The onsen were went to afterwards was called Wataze and was quite rad.

Other than that, we've been playing music with the band. Got the best part of 9 songs recorded for our CD. I think there's just three more to go, so it's good to see that progressing. Here's one of the songs:

Nothing else too exciting happening round here. We'll be doing New Years the Japanese way. Have heaps of food at Chie's family's house, go to a temple, stay up till 12, and then head off to another temple in the morning.

Anyways, that's that for me for now.
Hope all is well
Cheers
J

2011-12-21T15:06:00.000-08:00

Kia ora all
How's things? Sorry, I've been really slack with the whole blogging thing. Thing is, I don't really have a lot to report back. Works been busy, it's pretty cold outside and we're trying to go easy on the wallet. However, it is the last day of school today, which is pretty choice. No classes, just a boring assembly thing. After school I'll be going to one of the school party things, but for a different school. My main school, Taikyu, seems to have stopped inviting me to the parties. Probably because I said no to so many of them... Oh well.

Tomorrow is the Emperor's birthday, so we've got a day off. We've got band practice and I might try to get some Christmas shopping done. I've only just realised that Christmas is almost upon us. It doesn't really feel like it when it's this cold. There are all the Christmas lights up around town, as well as Christmas stuff in the shops, but all of that's not really what I associate with Christmas. On the 25th I think a few of us are just going to have a shared dinner or something. See how it goes, I guess.

In terms of doing stuff around here. It's just been a combination of onsen, hanging out with people, working on Chie's visa application, making a photo album, reading, Outrageous Fortune, study and home stuff. We had our phone/internet thing updated to the faster one, as the system we had been using is set to go out-of-date. For some reason, we now have a modem consisting of three boxes joined together with wires. Don't quite know why, but I guess these things happen... Also, the new system doesn't seem to like the number that I dial for my Yabba card. I need to call them about it because at the moment I can't call NZ. This is slightly annoying because I want to call various interesting places, such as the Japanese embassy in New Zealand and immigration. I would also like to call family people and stuff as well, so it's a bit lame. Will try to get onto that today.

Not too much else to say. Hope all is well with y'all.
Cheers
J

2011-12-11T15:16:00.000-08:00

Hello hello
How's it going? I'm back at Taikyu junior high, after a week and a half absence. It's nice to be back... Things have been good as of late. I had a pretty relaxed weekend after a pretty flat out week. On Friday we went to an acoustic gig, that was pretty good. On Saturday, Chie and I pretty much hung out in the kotatsu (warm table) for most of the day. We watched Outrageous Fortune and ate pizza. In the evening we went to a community Christmas party, which was alright. Quite a few of my adult students were there, so it was nice. We came home and were right back in the kotatsu, watching American History X. We also saw a bit of the lunar eclipse, but there were too many clouds...

Sunday was equally uneventful. I got some Japanese study done. We did the shopping and went out for ramen. In the evening we went to another Christmas-y party that Sakura organised. She made a pile of food and good times were had.

This week I'm going to try to get some recording time with Taka, in addition to band recording. We're trying to finish off the second half of the CD by the end of December.

Got other little bits and pieces on the move. Nothing particularly exciting. To a degree I feel like I've lost the buzz of being in Japan. It's just become kinda normal. It probably doesn't help that we're trying to go easy on the wallet and that it's really cold outside, but the weeks seem to pass by without anything too challenging or exciting. We've got routines and things that need to be done. Life here is really good, but I'm kinda looking forward to starting again with the next step in my life, whatever that'll be. I could continue on here because it's a sweet situation, but I'm keen to find something more stimulating. Just being in Japan used to be more stimulating, but as everything starts to point towards the end, I'm keen to see what's next. If I want to re-contract, I've got two months to do so. In March, there's a conference in Tokyo for JETs heading back home. Advice and all that on re-orientating yourself and finding a job and all that. I know I've still got eight months or so left, but it feels like it's winding down. So yeah, sorry the blogs have been a bit bland. feel like it's pretty much turned into detailing a daily life that's not particularly interesting. Oh well.

As of late, I've been listening the Beatles, Johnny Thunders and Woody Guthrie. I'm still chugging away at this book about nuclear energy, but it's so biased that I think I might go back to reading novels. I have learned a lot of words like 'nuclear fission' and 'nuclear cooling' though, which is good.

Anyways, as per-usual, I've got a few things to get on with. School, study, NZ trip and NZ visa. Not much to write home about but it keeps me off the street. Ma will be pleased to know I'm in the process of putting together a photo album, too.

Hope all is well
Cheers
J

2011-12-08T02:08:00.000-08:00

Howdy folks

Sorry for the lateness of this post. It's all been pretty busy here. I seem to have more classes every week, as well as lots of other bits and pieces. I haven't been at Taikyu junior high this week, where I usually blog from. Instead I've been hitting two schools a days at primary school. It's been real tiring, teaching full days of classes and running around with kids of my shoulders in the breaks. We've had one night English class since I last wrote, as well as a Christmas party/ English class. We've had band practice/ recording, which is coming along well. For the most part we've got half the CD done, so that's pretty cool.

I've been studying a lot of Japanese and also finished reading my forth Japanese novel. I've now started a book called Nuclear Power Lies, or something like that. It was published about two months after the Fukushima crisis by a seasoned nuclear protester. I don't expect a lot from it, but I think it will be good to practice some of the vocab that doesn't appear so much in novels. I've also had a few lessons with Judy.

On Saturday, Chie, her dad and I went to visit her two great uncle/ aunt pairs. he first one was really cool. He was an English teacher back in the day, but now he seems to just read the Bible and books about linguistics. Had some really good conversation with him and his wife. She also made awesome cake. The second couple spent most of the time talking about inheritance stuff and I'm not sure Chie's Dad really wanted to stay too long. Was a god day though and the three of us had lunch and dinner out. (I think) I get on real well with her Dad. It's pretty choice.

Other than that, I got 78% and 79% on my two uni papers. Glad I passed, though I'm not sure how useful they'll be. Guess we'll just see how it goes.

On Thursday and Friday we had the mid-year JET conference for all the English teachers. It was my third time going and not very helpful, but it was good to see people. Had dinner and drinks after, so it wasn't too bad. We also had lunch at a pasta/ all-you-can-eat waffle place, so that was good.

Pretty stoked that it's Friday tomorrow. Five more classes over thee schools and then I'm done for the week. It's been a real long one... One Friday night, we're all going out to a gig in Wakayama city. On Saturday, Chie and I ae going to a kids Christmas/ English party. Sunday looks like a get together at Sakura's place. Busier weekend that I'd hoped for, so finger crossed that next week will be a bit more low-key.

Chie's been really busy with marking and work. She should hopefully ease up soon, but she was up most of the night last night. It's 7:30 now, but she's back yet. It' s a bit ridiculous because Chie hasn't taken the fully-fledged teaching qualifications. That means that she can teach, but she can't have a home-class or coach a club activity. That's good but it means she can still have a life. It sucks though because it means she only gets paid for the classes that she teaches. She doesn't get paid for making the tests or marking them though. The marking for four schools worth of exams/ pictures takes a long time, so she's feeling ab it over it at the moment.

Hopefully she'll be back soon though and she's got a curry waiting for her, so it's not all bad.

Hope all is good
I'll try to post sooner soon.
Cheers
J

2011-11-27T23:37:00.000-08:00

Howdy all
Here's a photo from the gig at Bagus a while ago. It's the whole band, including Taka's brother, Yasuji.
The five of us had a gig on the Saturday, but due to the camera running out of batteries, I only got one of the songs, and it wasn't any of the new ones. It was a good gig though and the main guy, a ukelele player from Tokyo wa really good. We hung out till quite late talking at Ippuku after. Was pretty cool.
On Sunday, Chie and I printed a bunch of photos for an album I'm putting together, went out for ramen, did grocery shopping and also went to the onsen.
Monday, I went to Caroline's place with Sakura to talk over the plan for night school. We spent most of the time talking about other stuff, but it was good to catch up.
Tuesday was pretty busy at school, with five classes. After that I went and did the night school thing, which went pretty well. After class, I went out to our local. A small place called Celery. Judy was there and Chie came along, too.
Today, I thought I was at Taikyu all day, but I got a call at 8:30 to inform me that I wasn't. I ended up speeding off on my bike to one of my really small schools, teaching a class, speeding off to another school for another two classes and then rocking on over to Taikyu for two more. I'll be recording the listening part of the test after school, before heading on over to Judy's place for a Japanese lesson. It's been busy.

Got a two day conference Thursday and Friday. Trying to get in 2 hours Japanese study a day. Feeling pretty worn out but it's all good.

This is from the gig on Saturday.

Cheers
J

2011-11-24T15:06:00.000-08:00

Hey hey
How's things?
So, Chie and I went out to Kobe on Wednesday. We'd had band practice the night before and managed to record two songs towards the upcoming CD. I'm pretty happy how one of them came out. It's in the player thing at the top of this page and called ASA NO BEER. Check it out :-)

Kobe was pretty cool but we really didn't have enough time. It took three hours to get there. Once arriving, we had lunch and Chie wanted to go to this big fabric store. She wants to do more sewing and stuff, so I think she spent about 2 hours there. I wandered around. Had a beer at a bar, looked around a CD shop and did a bit of reading. After that, we had a coffee and then went to a gig. We'd bought the tickets ages ago at another gig. It was pushing it a bit though. We had the Wednesday off because of a public holiday, but Thursday was still school. It started at 6:30, so we planned on being there until 10, before getting on three hours worth of train home. We watched three bands and one of them was real good. They were a hardcore band and the moshpit was pretty crazy.

We'd seen the last two bands play before and they both put on an awesome show. In the end we decided to leave a bit early though. It was quite lame being at a gig and having to keep looking at my watch, hoping the current band would finish soon so we could see the last one.

We still ended up getting home at about 1, so we had a quiet one the next night. Just ate pumpkin soup in the leg warmer table thing while watching Outrageous Fortune. After that, I managed to get though about 2 hours of study. I'm going to get a bit more serious about my Japanese study for my remaining time here. If there's a time in my life when I do get level one Japanese, it'll be while I'm here this time. There's so much to get through though, that I have to make it a daily thing. I'm thinking at least an hour a day, broken up into grammar, kanji and vocab. I need to be able to read the various reading for 2,300 Chinese letters, as well as heaps of other stuff. I'm probably on a bit of 1000 now, so I'll try to learn five a day.

Anyways, I'm at Takyu today, so it's a bit more relaxed. Now official classes, but I'll be helping out in a few.

I managed to fax in my voting papers yesterday.
Also, I got some marks back for my uni project. I expected they would pick up on the fact that it was a bit too broad, without enough depth. The whole thing got ab it out of hand. I still managed to get 75% on the project for one course and 78.6% for the other course. It's pretty reassuring because that means that I've at least passed. Just waiting for the last few marks to come though.

Called immigration the other day, too. It was pretty helpful. Got a bit more of an idea of the things I need to put together for Chie's permanent residence visa. So much stuff to do but slightly less than I thought...

Will go out to Ippuku tonight and then we are playing a gig on Saturday. Not much else to say really.

Hope all is well
Cheers
J

2011-11-21T15:26:00.000-08:00

Hey hey
How's things?
Shout out to my mum for her birthday on the 19th!
Things are alright here. I finished reading my third novel in Japanese this morning. It was another Murakami Haruki book, but was pretty weird. Helping with the study though. I'll get another Japanese book from Taka tonight at band practice. I'm getting quicker at reading them now, so that's cool.
On Saturday, Chie, Andy, Caroline and I went out for ramen and then went to an onsen. After that we had dinner at Caroline's house with Sakura, and then went out to karaoke. It was pretty rad.
Friday night was band practice with Yasuji (Taka's brother). We added some mandolin to the two songs we've been working on. The two songs that we've got recorded for the CD at at the top of this page. They are the first two songs on the player thing. Frog Man and Iro ga Mieru. We've got practice tonight for the gig on the 26th, but hope to get another two songs recorded, as well.

On Sunday I had the school festival at Tsuji junior high, which meant I couldn't go to the Taikyu one this year. It was cool. I bought some cheap mandarins and kumara at a bazaar thing, so we've been back to the mandarin juice lately, with the help of the blender. They had two guest musicians playing piano and violin, which was pretty sweet. However, as they've also spent quite a bit of time abroad, they were asked to talk about some of the good sides of going to different countries, too.
This is one of the things that I don't like about the way people in Japan talk about the outside word. They have a heavy reliance on the word GAIKOKU, meaning foreign countries, but they use it as if they were referring to a specific country. So first the good points. They said three good points, one of which was that Japanese look younger than they are. I can't remember what the others were, but they were of a similar vein. Then the bad points were that at the airport, all the officers have machine guns and there are no covers on the pistols, so the police can draw the guns out quick. I found it a bit ironic since the only time I've ever seen a pistol has been in Japan. The advice that the guy gave was to carry ten $1 bills in your pocket, so that if you have some trouble you can throw them and then run away in the confusion of people picking the money up. Also, he said that if people are friendly and say 'hi' and all that, those are the people you need to watch out for. Just say 'no thank you, no thank you' and leave.

These were two musicians that studied in Vienna and have been all over the world. All they had to tell a hall of junior high and primary kids was that.

I also played two songs on guitar. I didn't realise that I wouldn't have any mics or amplification though. I've had more amplification in small cafes, but this was a gym. I played Norwegian Wood, but it wasn't great. I then played a new song I wrote lately, which is a bit more upbeat. It's called Asa no Biiru (Morning Beer) and that went down a lot better. People clapped along and everything. We7re hopefully going to be recording it tonight, so that'll be choice. The band version has kazoo in it :-)

I had five classes yesterday and five today, but we've got a public holiday tomorrow. Chie and I are going to see a gig in Kobe for it. It'll be our first time going to Kobe together, so we'll have a bit of a look round beforehand. I really like Kobe.

Last night, I talked to my Grandparents and my parents on the phone. Had a good read in the bath. Watched some Outrageous Fortune while eating some tomato soup with Chie. Also did some visa stuff, paid bills and rent, and also got some Japanese study done.

Chie's doing well. She's preparing her side of visa stuff, been doing some marking for school and is generally groovy.

Hope all is well
Cheers
Jim

2011-11-16T15:05:00.001-08:00

Ohayo!
How's things?
Been a bit of a busy week around here. Had a discussion about class with Caroline, Andy, Sakura and Chie on Monday, over pumpkin soup and a few beers. T'was pretty good. On Tuesday, we had the English class. Wednesday I had a Japanese lesson with Judy, which was really good. It helped to cement a few things, but there's so much to learn. It's literally all stuff that you don't hear in daily conversation, so it's pretty much all new to me. A lot of it isn't even used in the newspapers, it's specialist words to do with law or politics or what have you. I need to have about 2300 Chinese characters down, too. Including most of the various ways of reading each of those characters and their various meanings. I'm hoping that if I go hard, I might be able to do the test in July, but even then, it could be rough.

Yesterday, I missed my first year classes at Taikyu again because of a timetable glitch. They had me double booked, which only ever seems to happen with my first years... I don't think I have any classes today, so how's that for balance...

Still, I've got various things to get on with. I got an email from the soy sauce boss guy. He said they would print my translation next year, once they sell the bottles with the old translation on them. I also got a few more grades back from uni. Mostly small things worth 5-10% each, but I got between 70 and 80% on them, so that's a relief. Yet to get the project back though.

I think I'll mostly be making worksheets for class today. I busted out a fill-in-the-blanks sheet for 'Have You Ever Seen the Rain' yesterday, which went well. Thought I might make a primary school version. I've also had a request to do something with the Lady Gaga song, Born This Way.

Tonight we've got band practice at Ippuku, with Mandolin. Hopefully we'll be able to finish off the two songs we've been recording. If we do, I'll post 'em up.

Hope all is well
Cheers
Jim

2011-11-13T14:31:00.000-08:00

Howdy folks
How’s things going?
Hasn’t been a bad weekend here. We had band practice out at the Shimizu studio on Friday. Everyone was a bit tired, but we managed to get the base tracks down for two songs. Just need to add in some mandolin and back vocals, then they’ll be done. On Saturday, Chie and I went out for ramen, grocery shopping, found a nice cafe and had coffee and then we went to a gig in Wakayama City. It was a pretty good gig with my friends band, Gull Wings, playing. Gull Wings are a mix of the Rolling Stones and the Sex Pistols, so I brought my dancing shoes. There were a few other bands, but Gull Wings were the best. My friend, Yokoi also played solo, which was good. The four of us, Chie, Chiaki, Taka and I, ended up dancing and talking to people till after one. I talked to the owner of the bar and said we could play there whenever, so that was choice. I think we’ll be playing there in December. On the 19th there’s also a jam session at the bar as well. It became a jam session because the last band pulled out. What I’m trying to figure is who that band was. The thing is, the show was going to have a $75 entrance fee and was for a band called ‘Yes’. I’m curious to know whether the bar actually had THE band ‘Yes’ lined up to play, and if we’ll be jamming there in replacement of them.

Sunday was a bit more low key. I organised some photos for printing, which I am yet to get done. I need to submit a big pile of stuff for Chie’s visa application, so I’m trying to get organised. I assume all documents need to be translated into English, which shouldn’t be too bad. We do need to show proof of other relationship, proof that we’ve been properly living together and proof that’s it’s mutually exclusive. That means collecting a pile of letters, bills, tax things and all of that, which are addressed to both of us a the same address. I really need to ring them and find out roughly how many they actually want. 3-4 or 20-30? I’m not sure... Same with photos. We’re all legit, so I have no worries there. It just seems like a big process. I’m a bit stumped on how to prove that we’re sleeping around. Maybe send in a photo of me not cheating on my wife?

On Sunday, Chie and I also went for a drive up through the mountains to an onsen. It was the first time going to this onsen in Minabe (Tsuru no yu), but it was real choice. I spent most of my time in the outside bath, which had an awesome view of the mountains. For the first half of it, I was there by myself. Was a real nice place.

After that we came home, had dinner and watched Outrageous Fortune. I also did some more reading of the Murakami Haruki book, 1973 Pinball. It’s good but it’s really hard. Way harder than Norwegian Wood.

The rest of the week didn’t prove too exciting. They got me to watch an English class and then be part of the group of people dissecting it. Everyone was real positive about my input, so that was cool. I also got dumped with an extra class, which was a bit lame. It was lame because it was on Friday, which is my day when I have my first class at one school, a break in which I go to another school for two classes, then two classes at my third school. The principal gave me a ride to and from the first school due to the rain, but in exchange I had to do another class in the gap. 6 classes over 3 schools is a bit much. After that I got called to a fourth school to discuss lesson plans with two teachers. It’s those lesson plans that I’m putting into worksheet form now.

The week from here on out looks a little something like:
Monday- I’m at the Board of Education as school is closed. I’ve got to plan classes for tomorrow though. Probably won’t take too long to knock together some worksheets. After work, I’ll meet up with Sakura, Caroline and Andy to discuss English conversation class.

Tuesday- School and then English conversation class. Probably have some drinks after.
Wednesday - School and then I might be having a Japanese class with Judy
Thursday - Band practice after school with Taka’s brother. Hopefully we’ll do some recording, too.
Friday-Not sure
Saturday-Maybe go to a jam session
Sunday- School festival for Tsugi schools. I’m performing a song or two there.

Anyways, things to get on with so I’ll leave it at that.
Cheers
J

P.S

Here's a few photos from our day trip to Ryujin.

This hotel was originally built in the 1600s for the first Tokugawa emperor. It burnt down once (like most Japanese buildings) and was rebuilt in the 1800s.

Some Words about Yoshi

2011-11-08T19:02:00.000-08:00

Something I have been meaning to do for a while now is write up a bit about my friend, Yoshi. He's undergone some changes as of late, but I have not gotten round to getting things down on 'paper', so I thought I might give it a go.

Meeting Yoshi

I met Yoshi for the first time at about 10:00 in the evening on my way home from the gym. I had just left the station and was walking along the stretch of road back to my my apartment when I noticed one of those swinging half doors that you see in cowboy movies. It had the word 'OPEN' spelled out with coloured bits of wood tied into it. Though the door I could see up on the raised ground, that a youngish guy was sitting by himself on a chair. Around these parts, I hadn't had many chances to see a lot of young people, other than students, so I was a bit intrigued. I wanted to go in and say hi but couldn't quite pick up the courage to do so. I ended up reading some of the posters next to door, while thinking about walking into this strangers house and striking up a conversation. While I was milling about, watching the posters, he come out onto the road and greeted me in English. He asked me about where I was from and what I'm doing in Japan. He then told me that he was running a community house. The main idea was that people could come in and take a break from their normal routine, while shooting the breeze with him. Above the door he had written 'Sugiko's House'.

The house used to belong to his Grandmother. She lived upstairs and ran a pharmacy of sorts from the first floor. The first room that I came into had a few chairs and a bit ceramic bowl that he was burning incense in. At the back, there was a small shop counter. From behind the counter, Yoshi retrieved some cheap wine a two mugs. We sat down and had a drink together. We got on well. It was really nice to have a conversation with a Japanese guy of similar age. We talked about the house, music and organising stuff in the community. He told me that after studying music at an American technical college, he came back to Wakayama and worked in the city organising musicals. After living the city life for a while and also inheriting a house, he wanted to come back to Yuasa and try to make it a better place, especially for young people.

We got talking about parties and about the differences between Western parties and Japanese ones. They were something that he missed from his time in America. In Japan, parties are not often held in homes and they usually revolve around food. He liked the idea of casual parties where lots of people come and just hang about talking, dancing and drinking. From this first meeting, we decided to organise a party.

I came back the next day after school and he was there by himself again. We passed a guitar around and played a few songs. He also tapped away on a cajon, which is wooden box with a hole in the back and a snare inside. It made a cool sound and we jammed a bit. After a while, Yoshi's friend Taka showed up. Both of their names are actually Yoshitaka, but we decided to split them up to make it easier to differentiate. Taka owns a cafe in Yuasa and he is also a seasoned musician. He bought his banjo along and we played Woody Guthrie sounds together. After a year, I had all but given up on the idea of finding people to play music with in this town, so that was quite the surprise. We got off to a really good start and he too, had really good English.

We organised a late notice party for Friday and when it rolled around, about seven people showed up. Like most Japanese parties, we sat around in a circle eating snacks and having a few drinks. It was a cool vibe though and for the first time in a year, I felt that I was hanging out with a bunch of like-minded people. AFter the other left, Yoshi and I got talking about what we could do with Sugiko's House. It was decided that we would organise regular parties, English conversation groups and a music night for jamming. I also wanted to bring Fair Trade coffee, which we could give to people for free, while maybe accepting donations to pay for it, as well as other things like snacks and drinks.

The music nights worked out best. We had a variety of different people there and mostly jammed over simple songs by Bob Marley, Bob Dylan, Neil Young and the Beatles. The instruments over various session included banjo, cajon, flute, shamisen, accordion and various forms of percussion. The English classes drew a few people, though most of them were quite old. They also tended to revolve around me and much to my dismay, were canceled whenever I couldn't attend. We did have some good parties as well as some pretty quiet ones. The best ones drew about 20 people and the worst, about four.

After we'd continued on like this for a while, but there were a few things that were not quite working. The events we held were once a week each, so it did end up being quite a drain on my time. It was really fun, but while working full time and with a girlfriend who I wanted to spend more time with, it was a bit rough. The other thing that Chie actually really drew to my attention was the donations jar.

The Eco House

Yoshi worked part time as a cram school teacher, which he also did at his house. He had a few students, who at one stage were his father's students before he got sick. Income from this was low, but Yoshi decided to offset this by setting the place up as an 'Eco-house'. The donations jar started off as something to come the costs of snacks and things, but Yoshi decided that he wanted to use it to pay for power and water and the general running costs. That seemed okay in theory, but there were changes to follow. The first one was a sign on the door of the toilet suggesting that 100 yen donation be made for every flush of the toilet. We found this a bit strange, but didn't make too much of it. The next phase in his eco-house was start making new things from old things. He started making geta sandals from bamboo, but gave them up soon because they hurt his feet. In reality, all he'd done was cut a big bit of bamboo in half and stick some rope through them. I remember going to the super market with him once when he was wearing these and they could be heard through the building.

The next set of shoes were made from cloth. I still find this amazing even now, but he got the cloth for this rudimentary sandals by cutting up his Grandmothers old kimonos. Again, he didn't really make them properly, wore them outside too much and they wore through quite quickly. In addition to this phase in his eco-life, he decided to save power by unplugging the fridge.

Food started to come in from the community. He reckoned that it was the community banding together and making a effort to pass food on that they didn't need in order to create a sharing and caring community, without waste. In reality, people were worried about him. People didn't understand his vision and felt sorry for him. Although we recommended against it, his next phase was to turn off the water.

At about this time, I thought I would make a short documentary about the way he was living. In the video, he shows off his candles, used instead of lights, and a contraption he made from milk cartons that let the rain water trickled down through his window and into his bath. He would then get this water, put it in a container with charcoal and use that for washing himself. He also had a container of this water for flushing the toilet. Charcoal apparently has some of the properties of soap. Although I did find some of it a bit strange, I was swept up in the idea behind it. I guess I saw this as the beginning and it was develop to be bigger and better in the future. At this time, he was doing his laundry in the river.

Life without a fridge can be difficult but people have done it for thousands of years. There are ways of keeping things cool and preserving them without power. Yoshi, however, never got around to reading about this. His power bill went done significantly, as did water bill. However, at the same time we noticed that every time we were there, he would go to the vending machine several times to buy fizzy drink. When asked about this in a long debate, he claimed that vending machines are 'community refrigerators'. That phrase has stuck with me and it was after that conversation that I really gave up on his dream, and I think he did too.

To make the house as environmentally friendly as possible, he started sleeping at his families house.

With all of these changes, the few students that he had started to dwindle. It was still summer and he wouldn't even let them use an electric fan. He also started a new style of teaching in which he would try to get the kids to think for themselves. They would study upstairs and once they had finished the task they would come downstairs and show him. He would check the answer and then if it was wrong, he'd try to get them to think about what they did wrong how how they could fix it. I remember once I was at his house and didn't even realise he was working. A student came down while we were talking and Yoshi got the primary school kid to write down a list of words in English. The kid got one word wrong and so Yoshi sent her upstairs to remember them better. "Come back down when you've remembered it." I can't say I agreed with it, and apparently neither did the students parents. I always got the feeling that the students were there because the parents felt sorry for him, but I guess the feeling of pity only extends so far. Even before exams begun, the number of students dropped from six to two. After the exams, they all left. I think Yoshi was relieved. He had other things he wanted to do with his time, and he'd never tried to advertise for more students.

Yoshi the Carer and Romantic
One day, I went to Sugiko's House and he told me that he'd met girl, and he wanted to marry her. They met on the street outside his house and had talked for an hour. Apparently they had clicked perfectly and that she was the one for him. She worked at an after school English class in Hirogawa, close to my house. She actually taught some of my students. He showed me a letter than he had written to her, that included a proposal.

About this time, whenever I went over there, an old woman was at his place. As part of his open house idea that anyone could come in, she had started staying there. She was a very sick woman who barely ate as she had had part of her stomach removed. However, there was no one to care for her, so Yoshi took on the role. Her friend, a town type of guy also came to visit often. He would often come over while Yoshi was still teaching his class, but Yoshi justified this b saying it was part of his students wider education. It was this combination of critically sick old woman, dodgy old man and a new love interest that led to a bit of trouble.

The old woman felt sorry for Yoshi. He was desperately in love with this woman who he talked to once and so she decided to help. She went to the girl's school to vouch for him. Yoshi didn't know she was doing this and after getting a call from his bride-to-be telling him not to send old people to her work, he asked the old woman to refrain from going there. The old woman interpreted this as her presence being unwelcome, so she left. She had two houses, so we are assuming that she went to one of these, or a hospital. On hearing this, her friend the old man went searching for her. As the root of the problem was her going to the English school, he made the informed decision to start his search there. Yoshi's bride-to-be was not called again informing him that she was quite angry at having her classes interrupted by a drunken old man, who was searching for a critically ill old woman who had also interrupted her class on Yoshi's behalf. She asked for him to refrain from any contact with her. He wrote her an apology letter, explaining the situation and that he wanted to marry her. We tried to talk him out of omitting this and to focus more on the apology side of things. I'm not sure if he ever sent the letter.
The old woman had gone to a care facility and the old man stopped coming.

To Politics

He mentioned this a few times before but no one thought he was serious. He decided to run for town mayor. His ace up his sleeve was that he was young. He would be the youthful ray of light, amongst the old political relics of the past. Japan could in fact perhaps benefit from a bit more youth interest and involvement in politics, Yoshi was an interesting representative. If I remember his original plans correctly, he wanted to stop new construction as much as possible, in order to preserve nature and Yuasa's historical feeling. Yuasa is no Tokyo, it's a small Japanese town with a dwindling population and there is not a lot of construction happening. All that's happening is people repairing roads and private companies knocking down houses that are beyond repair to build new ones.

I wasn't there at the time, but I can imagine his reception at the town office. He would go there to talk to people wearing a skirt that he made himself and clothes washed in the dirty river, after bathing in charcoal infused water. He was in the transition period between his environmental phase and his political phase.

At the beginning Yoshi's humble objectives were to put aw halt to construction, reform the education system, encourage people not to leave Yuasa and stop nuclear power in Japan. He was to be the young hero of the town. I remember a friend telling me that she was sitting in the staff room at school when Yoshi came in. He appeared, seemingly uninvited and without warning, to talk to people about the future of education in Yuasa. He was also wearing his skirt.

As the election approached, he started to become a little bit more serious. He started to spend a lot of time with a friend of his mothers, who I believe advised him to start wearing suits. He dropped the environmental thing completely and stopped going to Sugiko's House. He had posters put up around town promising that through his experience with music and living abroad, he would make Yuasa a better town. He would also stand outside supermarkets with a megaphone and talk for hours about why people should vote for him. He left the band, as he had the higher calling of politics and did so by texting me, but none of the other members. We stopped seeing so much of him, but I stayed in contact.

It was around this time that his father passed away. He had had cancer for a while and I believe he had been close to passing away for a while. We went to the funeral, which was sad. One of the saddest parts of it was the state that it left his family. His father and mother had divorced a while back and she had a new husband and family. In Japan, that tends to mean that the old family does not get very much attention. Yoshi, being 27, was still relatively speaking alright. However, there was the question of his 16 year old sister.

The two of them lived in their family home and Yoshi helped out by making food and things, while continuing his to lobby for his election. When it finally came around, he got more votes than anyone but him expected, but he didn't make the cut. I believe that he managed to get together about 200 votes.

From Politics to Business

With the election over, Yoshi was left with care of his sister and no job, but it would seem that he had come into a reasonably nice inheritance.

For a while, he spent most of his time taking taking of his sister and hanging out with her friends. However, his next breakthrough came along and that care was transferred to an aunt. Through a friend of the old man who had been helping him in the election, he managed to borrow some office space in Wakayama city for free. This meant that he technically owned two houses as well as having free rental of an office. From the new office he planned his new business.

His new business was to include music production. He hoped to write and record music for advertisements. This idea came about from his political supporter. The political supporter happened to be a big karaoke fan and asked Yoshi to write him his own song. Seeing this as a business opportunity, he happily accepted.

At this time, Yoshi had changed a little. For the most part he was living in his office and coming back to visit his sister once a week. The thing about living in an office is that there is little in the way of cooking and washing facilities. Although this is not dissimilar to when he was living in Sugiko's House, he ended up going to the other extreme. He would take all of his new designer and brand clothes to the dry cleaners. He told me that he'd raised some eyebrows when he took his t-shirts there, but they did them for him anyway. He even had his underwear dry cleaned. His new look involved suit pants with a shirt, unbuttoned at the top. He had a slick new hair cut with streaks and pointy shoes.

Dressed like this, he managed to find a girlfriend. One day, Yoshi went to an Osaka snack bar. A snack bar is a bar in which pretty ladies work. They can be a little expensive because the pretty lady bar tenders are paid to pour you drinks, talk to you and pretend to find you interesting. Behind one of these bars, he found his future fiance. His future was an art teacher, but worked at the snack bar as well. She also spoke a bit of Spanish and they hit it off immediately.

It had been a while since I'd seen Yoshi, but when I did meet him, he told me that he was engaged. Further probing revealed that they had been going out for a month, but had unfortunately not had time to meet up. They had also not talked on the phone, but it didn't matter because they had exchanged quite a few text emails. About 1-2 every few days.

They did end up meeting up for coffee and occasionally hanging out. That was how they rolled and it worked for them. They were both busy but safe in the knowledge that they had each other.

Meanwhile, Yoshi's hit song was taking shape. He had written the lyrics, paid someone to compose the music and had organised some jazz musicians to record it. The singer, the friend of his mum, was mostly an enka singer. Enka being a slightly modern version of Japanese traditional singing. The aim was to record a jazzy, bluesy enka song.

I bumped into Yoshi in a car park in Wakayama city when he told me that he had recorded it. Unfortunately, he didn't want to use the music that the composer had written, so he wrote it himself. He also had had a problem with the jazz musicians, because the way they played it was too jazzy. After paying all of these people, as well as paying for recording time, he decided to juts record it himself using a midi keyboard and a computer. The drums and bass don't sound bad but the lead instrument, a midi saxophone is quite bad. Yoshi recorded it by playing the song on piano and then converting that noise to a saxophone sound. The only thing was that he played it like a piano. It's got chords in it that can't be played on a saxophone and it's completely flat. It's had to make a midi keyboard sound expressive.

However, work-wise he had a few other projects on the go. First, he had found another office, which he was going to rent in Osaka. From there, he would be able to expand his market. With no experience and no proof of his abilities, the advertising songs idea hadn't worked out. Instead, he had gone into business with his friend, Gon. Gon is really nice guy. He's a Japanese born Korean and worked at a bank. Somehow Yoshi convinced him to drop the job at the bank and instead work together. The two of them managed to get together a pile of business plans. For starters, they planned to employ people studying fashion design to make Western clothes out of old kimonos and then sell those clothes in a shop. This idea seems to be loosely connected to his idea a a year prior of cutting up good kimonos to make bad shoes. Plan number two was to become middle men in the distribution of hot towels to offices. The companies that made and prepared the towels could get in contact with Yoshi and Gon, then they would organise the distribution.
The third and biggest prong was the sales of his CDs. He had 1000 CDs professionally designed and printed, complete with the one song and a karaoke version of the same song. He calculated that if he could sell just 200 of these singles for 1000 yen ($15) each, he could break even. After that, it was all straight up profits.

The plan for sales of the CD was to go to snack bars, have his friend sing the song through the karaoke machine and then sell it to all the people in the bar. Though doing this, Yoshi discovered another problem. The way he was doing the karaoke didn't involved a proper karaoke video showing where and when to sing the lyrics. Ordinarily this would be okay, but there was one addition to the song that got in the way. The song started with about 45 seconds of bar conversation between the singer and a woman. The woman worked at a different snack bar, so she couldn't participate at every performance. The singer also had problems knowing where to start singing. The conversation leads into the singing and the music doesn't change, so it's quite hard. Apparently a few times while he was performing it, he started too early or too late and so when the chorus rolled around, he didn't quite make it. I'm not sure how fussed the singer is about selling it though. All the profits go to Yoshi and the guy got a singer out of it. He's retired but he's also going though a messy divorce, so I wonder how much time he wants to spend practicing.

Soon after the recording had been completed, Yoshi and his girlfriend went to Cuba and Mexico. As you do. Of course they had a blast.

On his return, they have continued not seeing each other for a month or two at a time and only being in contact via the occasional text message. Unfortunately, another of his plans may have fallen through. Since he still owns Sugiko's House and no one is using it, he decided that his girlfriend/ fiance could use that as an art classroom and a daycare centre. I'm not sure if she ever actually knew about this idea, but it would appear that she is hoping to move to Tokyo. The wedding is therefore being put off for a little while. The hope is that she will go to Tokyo, do her thing and then come back, marry Yoshi and they'll move back to Yuasa together.

Some of Yoshi's other plans have also been replaced. For starters, his uncle has now set up Sugiko's House with a bunch of sewing machines and using it for his company. The company fixes and reforms clothes and from the looks of the signs, they are doing it properly.

Gon and Yoshi have also changed their tone. They are calling themselves DO EVERYTHING and have got the idea that people can call them and they will do or arrange for someone else to do anything. They still plan on doing the kimono clothes idea but it is taking a back seat at the moment. DO EVERYTHING, however, is not for just anyone. It's aimed at people they already know or choose to help. This means that won't have a website and would operate as middle men for anything. I have a feeling that I have actually been part of one of their "jobs."

Way back when we were hanging out regularly, Yoshi asked me to help with some translation for his friend, who is the boss of a local soy sauce company. I met the guy, talked through the pamphlet and wrote it all up. The guy paid us in expensive soy sauce. A few months ago, Yoshi asked me to help with another translation thing. Apparently, my pamphlets had gone down a treat in Europe and the soy sauce was told that I should re-write the English on the side of the boxes. Yoshi told me about this and I did it. I then sent it to the guy. He said he'd tell me if there were any changes that needed making and a bunch of things to do with it. That continued for a while, until he stopped contacting me. I wonder if that was actually a Yoshi job. The boss asks Yoshi, Yoshi gets it done and then he gets paid. Not sure, but I think I might flick the guy an email as it's been a while. It was good soy sauce and I want my cut.

The other part of the DO EVERYTHING group is that they are hoping to help foreign university students in Japan. Gon and Yoshi are going to rent some apartments close to the university, set them up with communal space and I guess charge less than what the normal university dorms charge. They also hope to help the foreign students settle into Japan, although since Wakayama university has over 100 foreign students, I wonder if the university actually has some sort of programme for this...

Where will Yoshi go from here? I'm not quite sure. How long will his money last? Who knows. The most recent thing I know though is that he a few weeks ago, he rented a cruise ship and had a party on it. He has also been going to bars that employ Filipino women, because they know more than Japanese women about how to make a man feel welcome.

Thank you for reading this far. That's almost 5000 words. I'll go through and give it an edit sometime and fill in other bits and pieces that I re-call. I mostly wrote this because I had a lot of catching up on things to do. I also wanted to try writing about Yoshi to see if I could do it. I might try writing a book about him one day. I only worry that he might not make a very believable character.

Cheers
James

2011-11-06T15:11:00.000-08:00

Hey y'all!
How's it going?
I'm not yet sure about grades and passing and all that, but I've now finished my uni course. Pretty sweet to not have to worry about that anymore. Tomorrow, we've got the English play for junior high schools, so that'll mean that today will be the last of my after school practices.

Other than that, on Tuesday we had English conversation night class. It went pretty well and then we had a little drinky after. I talked briefly to a guy who's job as of late has been bodyguard to the Dalai Lama on his trip to Japan. He was up in Koyasan.

On Thursday, we had a public holiday. Chie and I went out for a drive to a mountain town called Ryujin and visited an onsen. It was choice. There was a lot of typhoon damage around the area, but the onsen was real nice, as was the drive. We were driving through an area called Kumano, which has lust forests and river.

Friday, we had Friendship Day at Tsugi junior high. It's an annual thing where a few Indonesian workers and a few exchange students from Wakayama university come along, talk about their countries, talk to the kids and cook with them. It was pretty interesting.

In the evening, I put together a pile of pizzas and we had a little get together at our place. Andy and Caroline came and we hung out before heading off to karaoke. We met Sakura on the way, as she had been running predictably late. We got out to karaoke and a few other people joined us, making a team of 10. Had a good go at it and then went out for late night junk food.

On Saturday, Sakura, Chie and I went out to a cafe in Wakayama city, to eat all-you-can-eat waffles and drink reasonably decent coffee. We hung out there for a while and then went on to see a movie. Sakura had free tickets but there's nothing on at the moment. We ended up seeing the Three Musketeers. I guess it is what it is, but what is was was not so good. Nice to go to the movies though.

Sunday, I wrote 2000 words about Yoshi. I haven't written much about him as of late, but there's a lot that I never got round to blogging about. I think he'd be a really interesting character in a story, so I want to practice writing about him and also get everything down. I'll chuck it up on the blog when I've got a bit more done.

Other than that, I mucked around the house, went to Taka's cafe and mucked around there, came home, made dinner and then we had band practice. Band practice was real productive. We recorded demos of our songs to get a feel of the new songs and how long the set is. We getting to the stage where it's actually a little hard figuring out which songs to cut, as we've cut out most of the weakest links. The new set list has a real good flow to it and I think we've settled on a band sound, finally.

Talked to my ma on Sunday, too. It was choice!

Hope all is well
Cheers
J

2011-10-31T15:13:00.000-07:00

Howdy all
How's things?
Chugging along here. Getting to the last little bits of uni stuff, which is good. Just need to get it done before the 4th. Don't think I'll be getting through too much today though. Looking like 5 classes, writing a speaking test, making an activity sheet for English conversation class tonight, helping with the English play and then going to English conversation class. Not quite sure how I'll fit it all in, but I guess we'll see how it goes.

Last night we went to Caroline's place for a hang out and discussion of class. Was pretty good.

Thought I should get round to putting a few photos up. Been a while.

Here's my friend Yokoi at the Happy festival.

Here's Chie at Happy Festival

Inaka Sunset

This is our new car, from the window of our apartment this morning.

I finished Joe Bennett's China book this morning, so now I'm trying to decide between challenging myself again with another Murakami Haruki book in Japanese, or going with 'Stupid White Men' by Michael Moore... At Caroline's apartment there's quite a few books from previous teachers but half of them are Dan Brown and the other half are things like Michael Moore and such. Pretty quality reading...

Anyways, I've got to get on with stuff.
Catch ya
J

2011-10-30T16:05:00.000-07:00

Howdy all
How's things?
Been a good weekend around here. We got the new car on Thursday, which is really big on these small streets. Takes some getting used to after driving the small cars. It's got a reasonable stereo and quite a bit of leg space though, so that's all that really counts.

We had a band practice on Friday at Ippuku. Worked on a new song, which I used to play solo back in NZ. On Saturday, Chie and I went out grocery shopping and then went to an onsen. Was pretty choice. After that, Taka, Chie and I went out to a gig in Wakayama city. Our friend Yokoi was playing, as well as one of Taka's old friends from Kobe. It was a pretty crazy line up of bands.

First there was one of the organisers bands, who I've seen a few times before. They just played two songs and talked a lot. The lead guys gimmick thing is that is pretty fat and he wears very under-sized clothing.

Second band was some sort of fashion punk. The bassist was massive and he was wearing these boots with real tall soles. He also had a mohawk and weird contacts lens. They were all pretty crazy with their clothes but their live shoe was nuts. Throughout the quite punky set, the singer kept throwing stuff out into the crowd. First he through out a blow up doll, then ladies pads and then bread. Towards the end of the set, he then came into the crowd while pouring soy milk over himself. After adding some bean sprouts and taking the rest of his clothes off, he swam around in the mess for a while. Was pretty crazy.

The next band was Taka's friends band and they were pretty crazy, too. The singer started off wearing a leather jacket and ladies underwear, with his sack hanging out the side. They played a mix of hardcore and punk, while he dragged tables around, climbing up on them and dancing a stuff. One of the guitarist, the one in a leotard, was also climbing up on chairing and stuff, jumping around. The singer then got the rest of his clothes off, and performed the rest of the set naked. It made a lot of the shows I went to in NZ seem pretty tame...

From there, a death metal/ hardcore DJ, a shouting guy with a megaphone, a dominatrix and a guy in a gimp mask performed a weird show thing. However, compared to the last two bands, it was actually quite tame...

After that, our friend Yokoi played folk music and didn't even get down to his undies. Disappointing... As I say though, it was a very weird line up. He was really good an people dug him. He may have been a tad out of place though. Especially because next up was a bald guy wearing just his undies, with a sound effects machine strapped to the front. He sang pop songs about love hotels while dancing suggestively, as well talking about how dull his life when he's not performing and how he's also a manager at some company. Halfway though he took off the sound effects box thing to reveal flashing lights all over his undies. Was pretty nuts.

Next was a run of the mill rock band. They were okay but a little average. Unfortunately they didn't really stand out too much with all the other people who were playing. The last band was one they performed last time I went to this monthly gig. They are the house band and played punkish-rock. It was really good but they always play last when people are too tired to dance.

So yeah, it was a pretty cool gig. Quite strange, but cool. They do it once a month and I now know some of the organisers, so it looks as though we'll be performing at the December one.

On Sunday, we didn't get up to too much. Went for a walk, ended up at Ippuku and talked to Taka a bit. Watched a bit of Outrageous Fortune and then the weekend was gone.

University wise, I've now finished my project and I've just got a few loose ends to finish up. Need to do that by the 4th, so I should be alright. I've got English conversation class on Tuesday, so I'll got and have a talk with the guys guys about what we'll be doing tonight. Other than that, things are starting to clear up a bit, so I'll be able to focus on some other things.

I also had a good talk to Thomas, Christa and Gordon the other night on Skype. Was real choice. Also went to a Chinese friends farewell party on Thursday. Was low-key but good. Yoshi was there, as well. hat guy has changed a lot. I haven't talked about him much lately but there's so much to say, I'll get it down in words someday.

Not too much else to report at the moment. Got some class prep and the last of uni to get on with. Once uni is done, I'll be moving onto the next project, which figuring out a residence visa for Chie. Looks like a lot of paper work and I hear it takes a while to go through, so I'll need to get started soon. Hopefully get a bunch of it done before we got to NZ in January. If we can do that, we could maybe check we've got everything then and everything will go smoothly.

Anyways, work time for me
Cheers
J

2011-10-25T16:06:00.000-07:00

Howdy all
So, I'm at Taikyu junior high now, but pretty much no one else is. I'd usually have primary school today, but instead I'm here. Everyone else is on field trips and all that but it seems the English teacher isn't invited. I have to finish my Fukushima project by Friday, so that's not bad. It's just a bit weird being here with only two other people; the groundskeeper and the office lady. Oh well, could be worse. I could have my normal full day of Wednesday classes.

Not a lot new to report. We're getting the new car tomorrow. It'll be good to not have responsibility for this expensive new car. New car could be a bit of fun, too.

Everyone seems to be coming down with colds, while I'm in recovery mode from mine.

Watched some Outrageous Fortune with Chie last night, while eating curry. It was choice.

Uni finishes on the forth, but my project needs to be done by Friday. There's no word limit or anything but I'm about 500 words of 10,000. Perfect chance to give it a good crack today, while getting paid :-) I think I might go home for lunch and not come back though. Just depends on how much I'm getting done at school.

Got a call from Yokoi about a gig on Saturday. Might pop along.

Nothing really more to say.

Chur
J

2011-10-23T16:01:00.000-07:00

Kia ora, folks!
How's things?
Been up to a bit of this that as of late. Weekend jogged by pretty quick but it was good. On Friday we had band practice at the Shimizu studio, as the roads have finally been cleared. Way easier to concentrate when there and get some good practice done. Even though we can now use the full drums again, we're thinking we're probably going to stick to a pretty acoustic line-up with Chiaki just playing snare. It's probably what we're best at. We practiced a new song I wrote and it's coming along well. I seem to have come down with a bit of a cold though, so that's a bit on the annoying side.

On Saturday, Chie and I went out to the onsen, rammen and supermarket. We then went out to Ippuku to hang with Taka a bit an he ended up coming over for pizza and pasta. We watched Boy, too. Was a pretty choice evening.

On Sunday, Chie and I went out to see her parents. We explained about the wedding and he won't be coming in January. It's a little bit of a relief, though I do really want to introduce the heads of the two families to each other. Was thinking about maybe organising a Skype thing sometime...

After that, Chie went to a baking class with Caroline and Sakura, while I hung out with Caroline's boyfriend, Andy. I don't know if I've mentioned him on the blog yet, but he came over recently. He's a pro-skater and a builder. We pretty much just got a couple of 6 packs and hung out on my veranda shooting the breeze for a few hours. From there, we went to Sakura's apartment and we all watched the ruggers. There was an American guy there as well, who's pretty cool. The rugby game wasn't exactly the most interesting game in the world, but we won and I guess that's all that counts. After the game we pretty much just hung out listening to Dave Dobbyn and Hello Sailor and stuff.

The rest of the week was alright. I've been chugging away at this uni thing and had a online session where I had to present my progress so far. I seem to be on the right track, but have to finish it off before Friday. Pressures on a tad.
Other than that, it was English conversation class on Tuesday with a little drink after, which was alright. A pile of classes at school, which keep me busy. Not too much else to report. I finished reading Norwegian Wood in Japanese and am now reading a book by Joe Bennet called Where Do Underpants Come From or something like that. It's a pretty easy book to read and is a look at production in China. I'll be doing another Murakami Haruki book after, so it's a good little break from reading Japanese stuff. Also, Chie and I are now halfway through the second season of Outrageous Fortune. Chie really digs it.

Hope all is well with y'all
Jim

2011-10-16T16:06:00.000-07:00

Howdy y'all
Things have been busy around here. On Thursday Chie's car broke down, so that's pretty much dominated our weekend. The timing belt gave out while we were sitting at a traffic light. I managed to put it into neutral and get it off the road, but the garage reckons it'll be really expensive to replace. The timing belts flicked around in the motor and all that, so it would probably cost more than the initial price of the car just to fix it. We wouldn't need a car, if it wasn't for Chie's job. She really needs a car to get up into those mountain schools, so it's all quite lame. We've been borrowing a car from the garage in the meantime, which is a bit too hardcore. It doesn't have a key... You have the beeper thing in your pocket and then you can just press the button on the door to open it. To turn the engine, you just press a button. The headlights also have a light sensitive auto function.

Anyways, so the end result of looking around and talking to the garage and all that is that we'll be buying a a new car. The cheapest one the garage could find is a 1995 Toyota Curran. It seems in pretty good nick and the reason it's cheap is that small kei-cars (660cc) are all the rage now. You pay a lot less in tax for them, so they're now more expensive than a lot of the bigger cars, such as our Curran (1800cc I think). We'll be picking that up next week and using the borrowed car in the meantime.

Other than that, we had a drink or two with Caroline and her recently arrived boyfriend on Friday. They went off to Osaka later that night but he seems really cool. On Saturday we had band practice and looked at cars. Sunday, we went to the onsen and did stuff forms and stuff for the car. In the evening I managed to get to Sakura's apartment for the last five minute of the All Blacks game and then we hung out and talked.

On Tuesday we went to an awesome gig. I only knew the opening guy but the main band plays festival in Aus, the States and the UK. Very cool multi-instrumentalist stuff. They had a bunch of musicians playing a big pile of different instruments and the guitarist/ singer was awesome. On the CDs he apparently plays all the instruments.

So yeah, other than the car stuff, it's pretty pretty good. My alarm didn't go off this morning so I flew out the door within ten minutes of waking. Bit groggy at the moment.

Oh, also my father-in-law said yesterday that he's keen to come to NZ for a few days when we go in January. He's pretty buys so it would really be 2-3 days or so. He wants to say hi my folks and also see my Grandparents. I've told him about how my Grandad is doing, so he really wants to come over and meet him. I haven't actually mentioned the wedding yet though. So yeah, I'll try call my parents about that tonight, but I also need to get onto finding a ticket for him sooner rather than later.

This week looks busy as. I've got English play practice after school today, plus I need to book Chie's dad a ticket. On Tuesday I've got English Conversation class after school, so I need to put together a worksheet for that. On Friday I've got band practice and also need to put across money for Chie's ticket to her credit card. We'll be buying a car in a weeks time, so I need to put stuff for that together. I also have uni finishing up at the end of the month, so I really, really need to get onto that. I've also got the weeks classes to plan. The band is practicing for a gig at the end of November, so we've got a bit of time there. We've got two new songs though, so I need to work on them. I'm also playing at couple of songs at the Tsugi junior high school festival, so I need to decide what songs and practice them soon.

This morning when I got to school, I found that the local cops had decided to hand out bike locks to everyone. Very nice of them but when you look on the back, you can see that it's from the 100 yen shop. I already have a lock on my bike, so that's alright, but really? $1.50s worth of bike lock? Awesome...

A bit all over the place at the moment. Best get to it.
Hope all is well
Cheers
J

2011-10-10T16:18:00.000-07:00

Hey hey
Sorry for the late one
We've just had a three day weekend, which was pretty sweet. Hung out at Taka's cafe on Friday night, shooting the breeze and all. On Saturday, Chie and I went to an onsen for a dip. T'was good. Sunday was a pretty long one. We went out to my friend's art exhibition in Wakayama city. It was very cool. He's a monk in Yuasa but he also goes to America and Germany sometimes to sell his art. It's pretty nuts... It was a really good exhibition and we had coffee there, too. After that, Caroline, Chie and I went on to see a different art gallery. From there we went to an Irish pub for a few hours and had Guinness with fish'n'chips. Caroline Aussie friend came along part way through, so we hung out. Went to a different cafe for a drink and then we went out to a dance club. It was actually pretty lame but another friend joined up and we hung out there for a bit. After a while we left the Aussie to the dance club and went off in search of ramen. We'd missed the last train at 12, so we pretty much just wandered around Wakayama city until the first 6:00 train. There's actually quite a few all night places around. I guess it's because the trains stop running...

Anyways, so we got home at about 7 and had a little sleep. Woke up at about 11 on Monday and went off to the train station to film a listening video with one of the teachers at school. He wanted to do a video in which a foreigner was at the train station asking people directions. I helped him with that, edited the video together, made pumpkin soup, watched some Outrageous Fortune with Chie, had a read and went to bed.

Was a pretty good weekend, but I need to get onto a bit more uni stuff. Going out to a gig with Taka tonight, which should be cool though. Our friend Yokoi is opening for some reasonably big musician, but we're mostly going along to see Yokoi. Another friend is the concert organiser, so it shouldn't be too bad. I also have to help with the English play after school, so it's a busy start to the week.

Not much else on at the moment, so hopefully that will provide a bit of uni time.

Anyways, I'm still going to upload some photos and videos from the Happy Festival. Shouldn't be too long now...

Hope all is well
Cheers
J

2011-10-02T16:07:00.000-07:00

Howdy
How's it going?
So, the weekend was pretty full on. On Friday night we went out to Rub Luck cafe to set up the music stuff, chairs and everything for the Happy Festival. We were out pretty late and got into a few jams as well. The next morning we were out there bright and early to do some more preparation. The festival went from 11 in the morning till 10 at night, so it was pretty hardcore. There were lots of stalls, as well as a belly dancer, percussion group, solo artists and bands. There was also a dance group that featured a few of my students. It was all pretty fun. We played pretty well and since it's cooled down, it was nice to play without getting really sweaty. We were going to play with full drum kit, but as due to landslides we can't get to the studio at the moment, so we played with just a snare and brushes. I'll post some videos and photos soon.

After the festival we put everything back as it was and came home. Upon coming home we found out that Chie's Granduncle had passed away. Chie had only met him a few times but he seemed like a really nice guy. On Sunday we went to his funeral.

Other than that, things have been pretty normal. I'm chugging away with uni, which finishes at the end of October. I've got English conversation school again tomorrow, but normal classes are a bit interrupted this week because of tests. I've been making a pile of listening tests for various classes, and I'll be listening to speaking tests this week. Means I don't have too much preparation to do :-)

University is cracking along, but I need to pick it up a bit. I made some good headway on the project, but there's some other short essays I need to get onto.

Otherwise I'm starting to look into Chie's visa for New Zealand next year. That looks like it's going to be a big pile of bureaucracy. I also need to make the background DVD for a n English play, record a listening video outside a train station, make a worksheet for English conversation class and get onto some more readings. Really looking forward to uni clearing up.

Not really a lot more to say. Still chugging through the Japanese version of Norwegian Wood. Been playing a bit of banjo again. Been a bit busy for it though, so haven't been able to get in as much as i'd like.

Anyways, hope all is well
Cheers
J

2011-09-25T16:11:00.000-07:00

Hey hey
So, things are alright over here. Had a weird week in that Monday and Friday were public holidays and then Wednesday was typhooned off. We didn't end up getting up to a whole lot though.On the first three day weekend we went out for dinner and karoake on the Friday, went to a gig in Wakayama city on the Saturday and had band practice on the Sunday. The gig was really good. My friend Yakoi was playing acoustic stuff as well a few punk-ish rock bands. His performance was awesome. He's influenced by a lot of 1930s blues and other bits and pieces, so Taka and I get into some good conversations with him. The other bands were an eclectic mix, but good at the whole live thing and danceable. There was one band whose guitarist was already doing knee slides through the audience by their first song. Was a laugh.

Tuesday was school and then Wednesday school was canceled. In those cases, as a teacher I'm still supposed to go to school, but I figured no one would miss me. No one did, so that's alright. I made some microwave brownies, bread and curry instead, so it wasn't time off in vain. I've also been chugging along with the uni stuff. We also had Happy Festival meeting that evening, which was cool.

On the Friday, I think Chie and I just stayed in and watched Braindead. It was choice, but not necessarily Chie's all-time favourite movie... On Saturday we had band practice, but due to the Wednesday typhoon, the road to our studio got knocked out. We practiced at Taka's cafe, but it does mean that it may be difficult to get the drums to the gig on the first of October, so we will probably do out acoustic set. I was looking forward to going electric, but I guess that's okay.

On Sunday, we went to a BBQ thing. Talked to some people, ate some meet, had a couple beers. Was pretty cool. Back at Taikyu now with what looks like it will be a normal schedule for at least a week.

It's been a bit all over the place as of late, so I'm feeling a tad distant from the schools, especially Taikyu. Should pick up soon though. I just need to get back into the rhythm of it all.

Heading into the last month of uni, so getting that done should be good.

Not a lot more to say, really.
Hope all is well
Cheers
J

2011-09-23T19:32:00.000-07:00

Here's some bags Chie made entirely from tape.

She's putting a laptop case together for me at the moment :-)

2011-09-19T23:32:00.001-07:00

Howdy
Sorry about the late one
So, Wakayama has had a bit rough lately. We got hit by a typhoon that cause a lot of landslides and flooding in some areas. Not too much around here, but further south it took out a railroad bridge and other things. We've got another typhoon here today, which is unusual. Classes have been canceled already, so I'm not going to school. I'm technically supposed to but I figure no one really expects me there and no one will probably ask about it. Even if they do, I'll jut say that I assumed no school thing applied to me as well. Last typhoon two of Chie's schools got hit pretty hard. Everyones still in the process of cleaning up, and no there's this.

Here's a little thing about it:
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110920a8.html

Otherwise things are going alright here. I had English conversation class on Tuesday, which went alright. The students are more numerous and at a lower level this time, but that's okay. Weekend involved friday karaoke with Caroline, Chie, Sakura and Judy. Saturday was a long band practice starting early. It's coming along. Sunday, we went out to a gig in Wakayama city to see a new friend play. It was a bit of a mix of hard rock/ punk and one folk guy. A few people there had seen us at the Bagus gig and we were invited to play at the venue sometime, so that was cool. It was a real fun gig. We got some dancing and talking and all that done.

Monday was a holiday, so I did some uni work and Sakaura came round for a bit. We've got another public holiday on Friday, so this week is kinda all over the place.

The uni thing is coming along alright. Keeps getting bigger and bigger, so I'm glad I got onto the project sooner rather than later. It's not actually due for a month, but I'm a good 5000 words or so into it. Just need to stay on top of the other bits and pieces.

Today, should I not go to school, looks as though it will involve powering through some of the to-do list. We've got a Happy Festival meeting tonight, as well. I might make microwave brownies as well...

Anyways, that that from me for now.

Chur
J

2011-09-12T15:48:00.000-07:00

So, we've had some construction at school lately. There's new bathrooms and everything. At first I thought this was someone's cool design, but apparently it was in fact a mistake...

2011-09-11T15:06:00.000-07:00

Howdy howdy
So, it's been a busy week.
The typhoons last weekend ended up being pretty big in Wakayama. Further south, there was actually quite a bit of damage. Two of Chie's schools were canceled due to clean up and there was some serious flooding at the bottom of Wakayama. 50 people or so dead and a bunch more missing. A few bridges came down, too. I hadn't realised how bad it was cause of the whole not watching TV thing. Pretty nuts. Around here there were a few landslides meaning that a few roads are out. I'm starting to think that Japan isn't necessarily the safest country in the world at the moment...

Other things in the pipe... We've been continuing working on the Happy Festival. Here's the poster Chei made, minus some of the writing.

It looks like it's going to be a good day. We've also been chugging away with band stuff, which is also coming along. Should have some more recording done soon.
My speech about my experiences with with music went okay, as did the class I taught in Yuasa with Sakura. From this week the adult classes start again, so it'll be interesting to see what that's like without Cain...

School and uni have been the dominating things in my life at the moment. I'm really trying to get on top of this topic as it's quite big. There's no work limit or anything but with just a few sentences here and there to make a backbone spelling what I'm going to do, I'm on 2500 words. I expect it may need at least another 5000, so I'm going to have to go pretty hard.

Plans for the week look like English convo class on Tuesday, seeing a new friends gig on Saturday and ten band practice on Sunday.

Today finally feels a bit like autumn. The weekend was real hot. We went out to the beach with Caroline on Saturday and no one was there, despite the 30 degrees. In Japan when summer officially ends, you don't swim. Pretty nuts...

Yesterday when I was heading out to buy yeast, I found this fella jumping around outside the door. Caught me by surprise.

Pretty big...

Anyways, schools real busy at the moment so I've got a few things to get on with. I'll be freeing up a lot at the end of October when uni ends. Should be sweet :-)

Catch ya later
J

2011-09-04T16:10:00.000-07:00

Howdy howdy
How's things?
My normal schedule has finally kicked in, after a killer week of mostly primary school. I'm also on the uni one week break, which is nice.

Also got my Japanese proficiency test results back. I passed :-) 28/60 for vocab/grammar, 37/60 for reading and 42/60 for listening, giving me a 107/180 pass. It's not amazing results, but it's good to have it done. They were also nice enough to call it two Bs... :-)

Other than that, last week involved Happy Festival meeting on Thursday and then on Friday it was Fish 'n' chips with Caroline, Sakura, Taka, Chie and a new pastry chef friend. Was a real good night. Saturday, it typhooned really hard. There was flooding in some parts of Wakayama (not my parts) and just constant downpour. It was pretty crazy. A couple people went missing and died and things...

We still went out to band practice though, which was rockin'. On the way home, there were diggers out fixing up some landslides.

Sunday was a uni day. I cracked away at my project and got myself up-to-date with all the other bits and pieces. I made up a vegetable soup for lunch and then we went out to an onsen. Was really good to not be busy for a day.

This week will be another one of those weeks. I've got to go pretty hard on my project, as I'm starting to discover how much I've ended up setting up for myself...
I've got a lot of class prep to get though today. Making speaking tests and all that. On Tuesday I've got to discuss ideas for normal classes and two different volunteer classes with Sakura. Wednesday is one of those volunteer classes. Thursday is another Happy Festival meeting. Saturday, band practice. It's getting a bit tiring to be honest, but it is fun. I just really need to make such I keep finding time for uni.

Nothing really to report though. I'm chugging through the Japanese version of Norwegian Wood. It's pretty awesome.

Best be off
J

2011-08-29T15:42:00.000-07:00

Howdy all
How's things?
So, yeah, been pretty busy as of late. I got slaughtered yesterday with the two schools, five classes combo but mostly because I ended up being ridden by students for an hour or so... Today I've got no classes and I'm at Taikyu, so I'm trying to get on with a pile of things.

The weekend was pretty sweet. We went to beach party for the new JETs in Shirahama down at the bottom of Wakayama on the Saturday. It is depicted above. On the Sunday we had a beach party up in the north of Wakayama, which was where our gig also was. You can see some kids practicing kendo on a school trip... They a blindfolded and then have to hit the watermelon... Not the whale :-0

The place was really cool. It's right on the beach and it goes back really far into the place where the stage was. We played alright and we saw some really good bands. We had a few swims and a few dances. Met some cool people and had a few jams on the beach with some randoms. Was a really good day.

I'd like to write some more and I will get on with writing this blog more frequently, but I actually have a lot of uni stuff as well as work to get on with. Chie and I are looking into the tickets for a January trip to NZ for Thomas' wedding. Should be pretty sweet.

Hope all is well
J

2011-08-23T23:18:00.000-07:00

Howdy howdy
So, it's the last day before classes start up again. After talking to my supervisor about the amount of classes I have and the balance of them, he sympathised that it is strange that on Monday I have 1 class and then everyday after that is either 5 or 6. He has now fixed that up for me by filling the Monday a bit. I'm not sure about how the school timetables will work out, but it looks to me as though I'll be scheduled to go to more classes than the schools can give me. See how it goes though...

I've come into Taikyu Junior High to get a few things done and because the Board of Education through out the computer I was using there. It seems as though most of the teachers have spent the entire holiday coming to school. It's kinda sad. Some of them are sitting around watching youtube, so I'm not quite sure why they can't just go home. Poor kids...

We had a recording session last night, which went really well. We got the main tracks done for three songs, so it's just a matter of adding lead guitar and organ and things now.

Uni is quite busy. I'm sorta struggling to keep on top of it all. I think the next month or two, up till the end of the school term, will be quite hardcore. I think I'm going to have to just knuckle down and concentrate on school, uni and the band, without doing a whole lot else. Otherwise I won't get all the preparation down for classes, meet my uni deadlines and get enough practice in for the gigs we've got lined up. It's not too bad though. It does mean that I get to work, study and play but it's really tiring and a little stressful. I guess that's life :-)

Sorry I didn't reply yet, Mum. I will come to Thomas' wedding, I just need to have a few words with my supervisor about it.

The weather here has been mighty strange as of late. We've been getting massive thunder and lightening storms at night...

Anyways, I'll upload the photos I meant to upload to the last post when I get home.

Plan for tonight is to finish off making a DVD for school I was asked to make yesterday, put some class prep together, counsel Sakura about boys, write a couple of uni things and maybe try to convince Chie to go out to the nice Italian place for dinner, even though we had pizza last night and I pasta for dinner :-)

Hope all is well.

Cheers
J

Shikoku and Naoshima

2011-08-22T00:25:00.000-07:00

Hi all
Sorry, it’s been a bit of a while since stopping by. I’ll try to get most of what I’ve been up to down though. First off, I’m back at the Board of Education and will be back at school teaching from Thursday. I’m not quite sure what happened to the summer, but it’s been pretty good.

Caroline came over to take the place of Cain and her boyfriend will come join her in October. So yeah, we’ve been hanging out with her a bit. Hit some karaoke, went out for dinner a few times, got some swimming down and had brunch at her place yesterday. She’s enjoying Yuasa and Japan, so that’s all pretty choice.

Chie and went on a little trip out to Shikoku, which was rad. We ended up having a pretty busy trip in the end. We left at 5 in the morning on Wednesday, trained to Osaka and then caught a bus to the island of Shikoku. Got there about 11:30 and has some of their famous udon noodles. They were pretty good.

After that we just wandered around a bit and found some pretty cool shops, cafes and bars. There were a few rusty old factory buildings that had been converted into trendy shops, which was pretty cool. After venturing around a bit, we ended up in this bar that was situated on the second floor of one of these buildings, but looking down into a hairdressers. The guy there had a massive record collection and he let us put on Muddy Waters, Dylan, Janis Joplin etc. We got talking and he ended up giving us this statue of a bass player. Here’s Chie holding it.

The next day we went out to a museum/ work space/ garden of Isamu Nobuguchi. He was an artist/ designer who Chie really digs. It was really choice. At this gallery type place there was a lot of stone sculptures and cool stuff, but we weren’t allowed to take photos there...

Outside we took some photos though.

After that, we ferried out to an island called Naoshima. Naoshima is another arty kind of place. We didn’t have enough time to see the art museum in the end, even though it was one of the main reasons for heading out there... However, we did get to bike around parts of the island, have drinks bought for us by two quite old people, go to a awesome public bath and they stay in a Mongolian tent.

Bath house

The next day, we went out the other side of Naoshima though a mix of ferry and train until we got to Osaka. In Osaka we met a person who I’d met at a backpackers in NZ and we helped with her English class. She runs an after school English thing and I’d said we’d help out. So yeah, we did that and to degree it felt a little too much like work, but these things happen. We went out for dinner, drinks and karaoke afterwards and then trained home. We ended up spending a lot of time traveling, so it was a tad tiring at times. It wasn’t exactly the restful holiday but it was pretty fun and we both really liked the area, so we’ll be going back again for a longer period of time. That area of Shikoku (Takamatsu) is real arty and there’s also a lot of young people around, so it’s quite different from where we are now.

So, we’re back home. Chie’s finished her part time job packing flowers, we’ve done our travel and school is looming again. From here on out it’s getting ready for school, uni stuff, Japanese study, practicing for the gig on Sunday and other bits and pieces. It’s been a good holiday but reasonably local. I sort of spent my travel money on uni, but it’s been a good break nevertheless. Got lots of swimming at the beach done, music, karaoke, hanging out with people, taught twice at a summer school in Yuasa and stuff. Would have been good to get a bit more of my to-do list done, but I guess these things happen. It seems like the more I do, the longer the list gets. I have one more of the Yuasa primary school classes yet to teach and then the adult classes start, so I’ll be doing a bit of that. I’m trying to keep on top of university stuff but only just managing. I’m doing two papers this time round, so it’s keeping me a bit busier. Before school starts I’ll be trying to get through as much as possible of that.

Also, big news in the family is that Thomas is now engaged. Having had a child, it’s not really really surprising, but it’s still pretty nuts.

For my own use I’m going to write this, but here’s my to-do list for before Thursday, when classes start:
- Blog - check
- Contact the Thursday schools to find out what classes I have.
- Plan the first few classes of the term
Edit a short essay I’m writing on humans inherent violent instincts
Read an essay and then answer write a thing answer this question:
What are your views about the idea of race? How should we think about or act towards people with cultural practices that might not agree with our own?
Read another essay and write an answer to this question:
How useful are concepts like ecological resilience, economic stability and social equity and empowerment in considering global sustainability? What are your feelings about the sustainability of the modern world system?
Get money out to pay my rent and also send money to my credit card to cover uni fees
Work on my projects for both uni courses
Reply to people’s emails
Make some worksheets
Practice for and do promotion for the Sunday gig
Write a presentation/ motivational speech thing in Japanese to share life experiences, as it’s my turn to do the weekly one soon. I’ll probably do it about learning music, which will mean putting together a DVD thing.
Haircut and shave
Organise the next band practice

If I can get all of that done by Thursday, I’ll be a happy chappy.
Oh, and my health check thing came through just now. I’m real healthy, apparently. It says I should pretty much just keep living the healthy lifestyle that I am :-)

Anyways, that’s probably enough rambling for now.
Hope all is well
Cheers
J

2011-08-12T18:19:00.001-07:00

Can't remember if I posted this here, but it's a music video (sort of) from our studio.

2011-08-10T20:16:00.000-07:00

Howdy howdy
So, things are alright here. I’ve been at the Board of Education for all of this week pretty much, but I’ll be off next week. It’s dull and I don’t have the internet, but I can still do some of my uni stuff. For my next project, I’m thinking about joining my two uni courses and doing one big project on the future of energy. I’ll probably use Japan as a case study and look into alternative energies, climate change and also why we haven’t started charging towards stopping coal and oil production already. Still figuring out what sort of shape it’ll be, but it should be interesting researching it up.

I’ve also been chugging away at Clockwork Orange, which I’m only 50 pages off finishing at the time of writing. It’ll be my first completed novel read in Japanese, so that’s kinda cool. It’s actually gotten a lot easy to read as I’ve progressed through. I’ve sort of gotten used to reading vertical, from the top right corner down to the bottom left. It took awhile to train my eyes to find the start of the next line, but I’m getting there.

Last night I helped Sakura out with a kids English class thing. They didn’t tell us that most of the primary school kids couldn’t make it, so it was mostly just the kindergarten kids and their mums. Very hard to teach...

Otherwise, not much else to report. I made a pretty cool bacon, sun-dried tomatoes, eggplant and mushroom on naan with pesto thing last night for lunch for Chie and I. We both get to go home for lunch.

In the afternoon I’ll be helping at school, which should be good. The kids will be practicing their English roleplay for the EFA competition.

Plans for the next few days I believe are roughly as follows:
Coffee with my friend Yuka in Wakayama city on Friday
Beer garden on Saturday and probably beach before that
Band practice sunday and then I might take the week off from there.

Anyways, hope all is well
Cheers
James

2011-08-09T00:25:00.000-07:00

Hi all
How’s things?
I had a pretty busy three day weekend. We had dinner with Chie’s family on Friday. Just BBQ and some beers, but it was pretty cool. Chie’s sister was there as well, so that was good. The next morning, Chie went to her job wrapping flowers and I trained/ walked to a temple where Chie’s mum was performing with a dance group. It’s big group dancing and is kinda popular in Japan. She was really happy that I cam down for it, so it seems I scored some family points there. I popped in again for tea at the family house afterwards, which was okay.

From there, the Saturday wasn’t too eventful. I had lunch at Taka’s cafe and we got some chatting done. In the evening we had dinner at an okonomiyaki place, with Caroline and Sakura. T’was alright.

Sunday was real long. We went to the beach and did some jumping off the rock for about three hours. From there, some of us dressed up in kimonos and stuff for the fireworks festival.

There were heaps of people there, but it was pretty good. The fireworks pretty much trump anything I’ve seen in NZ, although from what I’ve seen, NZ wins with the do-your-own fireworks. So yeah, we wandered around, bought food, got swamped by students and then sat to watch the fireworks. Once they were done, we went to karaoke. After a few hours of karaoke, the place closed so we ended up going down to the port to have some drinks there. It ended up finishing at 4am, but it was Cain ‘n’ Ikuho’s farewell, so these things happen. I knew something like that was bound to happen, so I’d taken the monday off. Not heaps happening on a monday around here but I made vegetable curry for Chie who came home for lunch. I then made scallop and tomato soup, as well as bread for Chie’s dinner. The job she’s doing for some of the summer holidays is pretty labour intensive and tiring, so she’s been knackered lately...

At 5:30 I went out to a school party thing. It also led into karaoke, but it was okay. I’m quite knackered myself though today. I think we might have to tone things down for the rest of the week a little.

I’m at the board of education now. I’ve got some uni readings to do and need to put some more thought into what projects I’ll be doing.

On the not so good side of things, my Grandad fell from a ladder and has had a bit of neurosurgery... Really not good and so I’m hoping he’s going to be okay...

Cheers
Jam

2011-08-05T00:31:00.000-07:00

Hi all
So, I’ve been at the Board of Education as of late and for some reason they threw out the computer I used here. Instead of mucking around on the internet, I am instead back to shredding stuff. Finally after a few 7 hours stints of it, I seem to have go through everything. It’s nuts though, these guys seem to use it as a rubbish bin. I saw one guy shredding a newspaper! I’ve finished off a big pile of textbooks myself. Yep, old textbooks. I asked them why I couldn’t just biff them and apparently as they were bought with government money, you can’t just chuck them in the bin. Instead, you shred it and no ones. Weird... Anyways, after a bit of practice I managed to get pretty good and have been reading while I shred. Finished off Tale of Two Cities and am back to Clockwork Orange in Japanese. After a bit of a hiatus in which I did quite a bit of Japanese study, I’m actually finding it quite a bit easier now. Got less than 100 pages to go. I also set up my computer with some uni essays on it and just read through them while shredding.

Uni is going pretty good but it feels like a bit more work than last time. That’s probably on account of doubling the courses, but the reading seem harder and longer, which is a good.

Also, the new teacher is here. She’s a freelance designer from Dunedin. We had a BBQ party on Wednesday at a teachers house, which went well. I also had a little drink with her yesterday before going to band practice. She seems pretty cool. We’ll be hanging out on Sunday with Cain and Ikuho as well. I think it sounds as though we’ll be going to the beach, a Yuasa fireworks festival and then have some farewell drinks. Might also catch her on Saturday, but we’ll see how it goes.

Not much to say at the moment. Chie is doing well and she’s working part time for part of the holidays mass wrapping flowers. That seems to be going okay. Next few days should be interesting. I’ve got a work party thing on the Monday, but I think the Sunday might be a late one, so that should be interesting... Tonight we’ll be heading to Chie’s parents place for dinner. Still makes me a tad nervous, even though they are really nice people.

Also, I’ve been spending a bit of today working on putting a few videos of us at the studio together into a music video. This is the recording of the song that we’ll be using for the next CD, although there might be some minor mixing to do. I haven’t listened to it on a real stereo yet. Does give you a bit of an idea of what the practice room of our studio is like and also what sort of sound we’ll be heading towards with the drums and organ.

Anyways, I’ll leave you be.
Hope all is well
J

Summer Time!

2011-08-01T14:56:00.000-07:00

Hi there!
Sorry about the complete lack of contact. How's things?
We're in the summer holidays at the moment, which isn't too bad. Nice not to have to go to school, though there seems to be plenty of things to do and things that need doing.

For the first part of the break, I took a bit of time off and got some stuff around the house done, as well as some much needed beach/ cafe/ city time. We also went to a town called Iga in Mie prefecture. It's the town where ninjas first originated, so we kinda had to go there. Cain, Ikuho, Sakua, Chie and I spent a night and got to see a bit. It wasn't actually as amazing as expected. though apparently the annual festival is pretty cool.

The main attraction place had three parts. There was a house with a bunch of secret compartments and things, there was a museum and there was a show. The museum had some interesting stuff but the show was a it of a joke. That had people demonstrating the ninja weapons in scripted fights, with really silly sound effects. It was kinda like Power Rangers or old fashioned Batman. It was alright though. Afterwards we got to through some shurikens around.

So, that was alright. We went wandering about the town afterwards, got some dinner and had some drinks. Sakura and Ikuho went back to the hotel place early while Chie, Cain and I hung out till about 3:30 at the castle grounds. Was a nice view from up there, so we just sat around talking.

Next day, after spending a bit more time in Iga we came back. Ikuho and Cain stayed in a hotel in Wakayama city, as they have had to leave their apartment. If I remember correctly, the new ALT arrives tomorrow (Wednesday). Cain and Ikuho are still around but in Kobe.

Chie and I had band practice after we got back, which went pretty well. We tried out a new song, which is actually coming together pretty well. We've also got one song pretty much recorded for the album. It just needs organ. Another song is also pretty much done, needing organ, vocals and back up vocals.

Skipping ahead to Monday. I had my health check, which was a new experience. I'l give you the order of things;

Lined up with my form to sign in.
Sign in, get given a normal paper cup and directed to the toilets.
Stand in another line holding my cup of urine. Had to know how bad it is to see other peoples urine...
Give the cup to a lady who puts a litmus paper thing in and then does my blood pressure.
Once the test is done (my urine was clean) she pours it into the group jar.
From there, I had my height (186.5cm) and weight (71.5kg) checked.
Next, a doctor listened to my insides but didn't seem to hear anything interesting.
From there is was a weird test where they stuck things on my chest and around my feet and I think it had something to do with electricity. Not quite sure though...
Blood test next. I don't actually consciously remember having had a blood test before, but I guess I had one in primary school...
Last, juts an x-ray.

I was really glad I didn't get the barium treatment. Cain and Chie had it for some reason, though your not actually supposed to get it when your under 35. The barium test is where you take barium and they watch it go down your throat with an x-ray, as it lights up well. It also coats the inside of your stomach to show any weird bits. Thing is though, barium is quite a hardcore chemical and you need to pass it out quick. For this you get laxatives.

Cain had a not so good experience as no one told him about what was happening and that he was being given laxatives. He had classes that day...

The Japanese pronunciation actually through me. When I first heard about it I thought people were saying valium. (B/V and L/R don't get separated in Japanese). I couldn't understand how they could be feeding people valium for an x-ray...

Anyway, after that I was at the board of education where i shredded textbooks, while reading Charles Dickens. Why was I shredding textbooks? Well, apparently they were ones the government sends and weren't needed. I asked about recycling them but was told that the government don't like the idea of textbooks they've made being in put into recycling bins. The obvious answer is to.. shred them. I got five rubbish bags full done. Crazy...

Anyways, I'll post again. Sorry for the delay.
Cheers
Jim

2011-08-01T00:29:00.001-07:00

2011-07-25T16:05:00.000-07:00

2011-07-24T16:08:00.000-07:00

Howdy howdy
How's things?
After a weird ending to the term in which the last day of classes was half canceled due to the typhoon, the ceremony was therefore canceled the next day though it was fine and then on Thursday we did it and it was dull. Really just the principal doing what he loves to do, which is give inspiration speeches about going to sports club and studying.

I'm at school at the moment, but most of the teachers seem to be away on various things, so I think it'll be a lonely day. The main reason I came into school as opposed to he Board of Education way English roleplay practice. I'm helping them write their script. The other reason is the internet. My two uni courses have started now, so I'm working on the readings, forum posts and all that. Big readings this time... My courses this time are called:

IHST/IHSO 8809 Dimensions of the Human Experience
IHST/IHSO 8810 Technologies, Economies and Ecologies of the 21st Century

I took Friday off to get a few things done at home with Chie. Household chores, spring cleaning and the sort. Really just getting a bunch of the things done that didn't get done during the school term. Strawberries are coming out again and the eggplants finally taking off a little more. No more tomatoes as of late though.

The weekend was alright. Had band practice on Saturday and went to the beach/jumping rock on Sunday. Got quite a bit of a Tale of Two Cities done, too.

There isn't too much point in me being here today, but I'll get on with a bit of stuff and then maybe slink off.

Hope all is well
Cheers
Jimmy

2011-07-19T16:09:00.000-07:00

Hey hey
How's things?
So, classes have been canceled because of the typhoon, which to me seems to have already given up. It was raining a lot yesterday and there was a bit of wind, but nothing to write home about (incidentally I am). So, I'm in the staffroom today then they'll be the closing ceremony tomorrow. They're going to call all the students to school just to tell them to have a good, safe and productive summer holiday. That's all the ceremony is about.

Just in case they decided to change their minds about having the ceremony today,

I came to the staffroom today, prepared with a sweater but they've cut down on the air conditioner today.

So, not much to say really. I'll be doing various bits and pieces of study today, along with a little planning about what to do with this summer vacation that I've got. I'm not in the right place to start planning next terms lessons yet.

Went out to dinner with the Yuasa gang last night. It's getting pretty close to the time that Cain and Ikuho will be leaving.

Nothing really to report at the moment.
I'll catch y'all later.
Chur
J

2011-07-18T08:29:00.000-07:00

Hi all
Reasonably eventful three day weekend.
I got my grades for the IHS course. The overall being 82.94%. I also realised that last time I did the Japanese proficiency test, I was one point out of 180 off passing. I also reached all the minimum requirements on the different sections, so I really, really hope I've passed this time. I'll find out in September. I'm chugging away at level one study anyway though.

On Saturday, we had a gig at Ippuku with some bands from Kobe and Osaka. It went really well and people seemed to like us. I think it was probably the best we've played.
Here's two videos from it:

Half Pie

Frog Man

On Sunday, Cain and I went to the beach and did some body surfing. After that, we went to the rock and did some jumping. It was pretty rad.

Monday, Chie and I went to see the new Harry Potter movie. I don't think it really needed to be in 3D but it was alright.

Today has been a little all over the place. There's been talk of a typhoon coming, which has finally arrived. I think the word typhoon is a big of a exaggeration. I mean, yeah, it's raining quite a lot. That's about it though. So, over the towns loudspeakers came a warning, but not a school cancellation. The school cancellation came through just before 10, so everyone still had to come to school, they just got to go home at 12. The teachers still have to be here, but they come in cars, so it's alright. Well, most of them come in cars. I don't but whatever. The typhoon is all over the news and it seems pretty big. It also means I had only three classes instead of five, leaving me with some time to get some study and things done.

The typhoon will probably cancel the closing ceremony tomorrow, meaning that it will be happen the day after. Not quite sure where that leaves me, but it seems I've finished classes for the term.

Also, the bloody air conditioner is still on, even though it's only 27 degrees outside. The whole of Japan is going hard trying to conserve power and I'm wishing I had a sweater or a jacket or something because someone feels the need to put the air conditioner on in a typhoon!

Still not 100% sure what's happening but I guess we'll see. Probably would have been cool for them to have just canceled school for the day, rather than just cut it in half. It means that out of my third year classes, one have done their English presentations and the other two have to wait till after the summer break. Bit lame. The presentations were good though. The had to give a presentation on a country, as if they'd just come back from visiting. There was a good mix and they made some cool posters. I was a little surprised when one pair of girls who are really good at English said that while they were in France they met Johnny Depp, went to a hotel and had a good time in bed. The kids did real well though.

Anyways, that's that for me for now.
Cheers
J

2011-07-12T19:55:00.000-07:00

Hey hey
How's it going?
It rained really hard yesterday and it's a little on the cool side today. I'm freezing in the staffroom though...

I've pretty much finished my soy sauce translation though, which is good. I've also been building up my Chinese characters. I'm trying to organise my time a bit better, so I'm going to build up a few things in 15-30 minute blocks. I'm starting with kanji study and singing practice. I figure if I can stick to a daily routine of short blocks, it'll be easier to continue and hopefully add up over time. I'm also thinking of trying to add some stretching into the mix, as well as some writing. Not such yet though.

Not really much to report. I'm still in the process of figuring out what I'm going to do with the summer holiday. I'll have to have some time at the Board of Education or school, but that pretty much means I can put in a few eight hours days of uni. Should be a good start to my two IHS papers. I also want to put some videos together to introduce various countries and stuff. Might do some video quizzes and the such. Also thinking about doing some of the free courses on Alison to fill a few gaps in my general knowledge.

Chie and I will do some travel though. Hopefully hit Shikoku and Kyushu. We might walk some more of the old pilgrimage road, Kumano Kodo and I'd like to try some traditional whitewater rafting. Might go kayaking, too. We'll see how it all goes.

Band practice tonight towards the gig on Saturday.

Four more days of classes after tomorrow!

Cheers
j

2011-07-10T16:03:00.000-07:00

Howdy howdy
How's it going?
It's getting pretty hot around here. Enough to make it hard to sleep, even without bedclothes. I am, however, sitting underneath the air conditioner in the staffroom, which I'll be doing for most of the day, and it's freezing. I've only just got in but it's like a beer fridge. This is my only school that's thrashing the air conditioner though, as all the others school are following the general trend in Japan at the moment, which is to try to save power. It's over 30 degrees outside and again, the person next to me has a blanket around her legs and is wearing a jacket. How's that for efficiency!

The weekend was pretty good. On Friday night we went out to karaoke with Sakura, Cian, Ikuho and Judy. On Saturday, I met Yoshi, who hasn't been in town much lately. He's busy pursuing various crazy, crazy ideas in Wakayama city and now apparently Osaka. I'll do a proper post or ten about him at some stage, but he's got some wild ideas... Anyways, so I got the paper from the soy sauce company that I'll be translating. Weirdly, there's already a translation. It was one done by a guy from America a few years ago. Apparently what happened was that the head of the soy sauce company went to Europe for some soy sauce awards, taking with him the things I translated, as well as the other thing that the American translated. What he was told was that the American one was a little on the incomprehensible side and that he should get the kiwi guy to re-do it. Apparently the thing that I slapped together in an evening was perfect...

The American translation had a few grammatical things and of course, American spelling... I'm not exactly the grammar whiz-kid, but even I could pick up on it. The other things were that it didn't say anything. I've only skimmed the original Japanese version, which looks like it has more content, but the American translation read like the back of a wine bottle. However, it didn't mention things that I would assume a chef might want to know, such as sweetness, saltiness and things. The closest was one phrase, which I quite like.

"Enjoy Ki-ippon Kuromame Shoyu in sauces for noodles and other dishes or any time saltiness is required".

The other interesting thing about the pamphlet that he translated, which doesn't seem to be in the original Japanese version, was a recipes section. This is a type of soy sauce that wins awards and costs a bomb. The people buying it are chefs in trendy Japanese restaurants. They don't really need a recipe that consists of "Use as a dipping sauce for sushi, sashimi and tofu."

There were five of there recipes, but my favourite one was basically mix the sou sauce with mayonnaise and then serve it with vegetables, seafood and sushi.

I don't blame him though. I mean, the pamphlets are being written in Japanese by the head of the company. I don't think there's an editor involved. It's then being translated, re-written, proofread and edited by a random teacher in the community. They American guy and I have no experience writing for advertising or anything, but that's the way they role. The boss doesn't give much in the way of direction either. When I talked to him last time, he was thinking it could just be a direct translation. You can never do a direct translation of Japanese to English, especially in advertising. So yeah, that's my challenge I'll be working on.

My other challenge I've set myself is to try to learn five kanji a day for thirty days, as well as a few words that they are used with. I'll then probably drop it to three kanji a day for the rest of my time in Japan. I figure that if I realistically want to have a crack at the level one test, I'll have to have to really have the kanji under my belt. The grammar, I'll be able to pick up to a degree from reading newspapers and things, but I need to get the kanji (Chinese characters) down to do that first. I need to know about 3000 for the level one test... I'll be my first time taking a really structured approach to Japanese, rather than my normal learn as I go and then cram for the tests approach. Should be interesting.

On Saturday, we had band practice, which went well. Had the mandolin along and I think we'll be ready for the gig this Saturday. Got another practice on Wednesday though.

On Sunday, I got some cleaning done while Chie marked tests. Went to the supermarket and then watched movies in the evening. Psycho and then Shaun of the Dead.

Book wise- I'm chugging away at Tale of Two Cities in English, Clockwork Orange in Japanese and a linguistics textbook...

Just popped out for the Monday morning student pep-talk at school. These pep-talks are down by the teachers and although I've never done one at Taikyu, I'll be doing my second one at Tsugi in September. I say pep-talks but really you can talk about anything. You can also introduce them to new things or ideas.

Today's talk was about the teacher's life as a junior high school student. She talked about how they were great friends in junior high and she's still friends with lots of them now. Still hanging out and going for dinner etc. The moral of the story, which she ended on, was that the people you know now will be your friends forever. That's nice... Well, nice for the kids who have a lot of friends. Kinda sad for the kids who don't...

Anyways, I need to get back to work. The class starting in 40 minutes time isn't going to plan itself.

Hope all is well
Cheers
Jam

2011-07-05T16:09:00.000-07:00

Hey hey
This is my second blog for the day, but my internet decided to be silly and delete my last post. I'll keep it short and maybe copy in some of an email I sent I sent to my Grandfather.

Anyways, we had a bit of a earthquake last night. It was mag five in Hirogawa but didn't really do much damage. Strangely, the only real damage it seems to have done is that it damaged a water pipe at school. That's a little unnerving, as the school was recently earthquake proofed, with strengthened walls and everything...

Chie and I were at a restaurant at the time. It was a pretty nice place.

Grandad sent me a link to this article, which is about Japanese education. Worth a read if you have time.

I can sympathise with a lot of the issues it brings up and find it really difficult to comprehend Japan's stance on English. It seems as though they are actively trying to avoid appropriately qualified teachers, and have no idea about the changing theories of language education. The Japanese teachers at junior high school learned English at school, but do nothing to keep it up. You can imagine how much language you can forget in twenty years or so. It ends up with the teaching have an English ability that is only slightly high that the students. One teacher I know studied education at university in order to become a primary school teacher. A few year ago the Board of Education decided to change her to a junior high school and make her an English teacher, so that is what she is now. She really just wants to go back to primary school.

On top of this, the textbooks are horrific. Nobody, not even the teachers, know that words like 'bus', 'train' and 'bike' can be used as verbs. According to Japanese education you can say "I walk to school" but you have to say "I come to school by bike". If you write "I bike to school" in a test, it will be marked as incorrect. Of course this also means that past tense is not "I biked to school", it's "I came to school by bike".

The other thing that really gets me is the use of commas and fullstops. I know I don't have the best grammar in the world but there are some terrible examples. It teacher that before the words 'but' and 'so', you have to have a full stop. I was taught that you can't start a new sentence with the word 'but' but that's what they teach here. I'll quote you one text:

When we want to order in Japanese restaurants, you usually say "Sumimasen," in a loud voice. But in in America, we just make eye contact or raise our hand. So I still have a hard time in Japanese restaurants. I always say, "Sumi... uh uh, sumimasen," too quietly. It's not easy for me to get food. So I get very hungry.

What do you think of that? I don't like the capitalisation of the word "Sumimasen" either. Just because it's a Japanese word, doesn't mean it needs a capital letter.

Yesterday we were teaching the students the sentence construction: I (verb) you (noun). It's not the most useful phrase in the world. Examples of the sentence in action involved phrases such as "I read you a story", "I teach you English" and "I give you a book".

It really sad because students compulsory English education has now been extended from six years to eight. People expect to be able to speak English, but there's no one there to teach them. They do get teachers like myself here, but they tend the favour the ones who do not have teaching qualifications. We are also put into roles where we are the assistants, so we have little say in the content of the classes.

Things are going well with us though. I'll be doing more translation work for a soy sauce company this week, as they were happy with the work I did last time. Apparently they used the English pamphlet that I made last time to sell the soy sauce in Europe, which is really surprising. Given that I wrote it in one night and had to spend much of that time battling with Japanese people, who wanted to make sure I mentioned this and that. It came out a little some this like this, and makes up their entire English website. Re-reading it now, it is really quite embarrassing... I wouldn't mind re-doing it but it sounds like they have other things for me to do.

Anyways, hope all is well.

Cheers
J

2011-07-04T16:08:00.000-07:00

Hey hey
How's things?
So, it's quite nice not to have any deadlines or study for the moment. Gives me a bit of freedom to think about school preparation, music and things. I've got exactly two weeks left of classes for this semester and I've got most of those classes planned already. Today the third year junior high students are going to start making presentations about fictitious trips they went on. I made a demonstration poster yesterday, which mostly just involved me google imaging photos with Kim Jong Il in them, cutting out pictures of my face and sticking me into the photos. I'm not sure how it'll go down, but I think the kids will dig it.

Other than that, I enrolled in two courses for uni, which will be the last courses towards my post grad certificate. If the papers weren't so expensive, I'd probably do the diploma but there you have it.

Had a good chat with the Grandfolks last night, who seem to be doing alright. We then watched American Graffiti and about half of a documentary about Japanese soldiers and war criminals. It talked a bit about Unit 731, which was the 'research' institute in China. It was basically where Japanese doctor did medical experiments on people, which involved infecting them with the plague and things, as well as removing organs to see what would happen. It was a really terrible place but the heads of it ended up getting immunity as they handed the information they collected over the Americans. One of them ended up becoming the head of a pharmaceuticals company. It's one of the things that Japan is often being criticised for leaving out of its textbooks. I haven't had a really good look at them but from what I do know, the main focus of education on the war is to show how bad nuclear weapons are. There are even some textbooks in which the progression of the war is basically, "one day, we don't know why, the Americans decided to start chucking nuclear weapons at us."

Anyways, the movie is called Japanese Devils, should you be interested in seeing it. If you type Riben Guizi into youtube, it'll come up. It's mostly just ex-soldiers talking about their experiences. Pretty shocking...

Other than that, not much else to report. Plans for the week involve band practice on Saturday. Not at the studio but at Taka's cafe, as his brother will be coming to jump in on mandolin. Should be choice.

As of last Sunday, the beach is officially open, although I've been going there for the last few months. It's really hot at the moment but yesterday I spent a lot of time in the staffroom, where my seat is right under the air conditioner. I was freezing.

Five classes today, so I best prepare myself.

Hope all is well
Chur
J

2011-07-03T16:13:00.001-07:00

Hey hey
How's things?
Things are reasonably well here. The accumulation of things that led a very tiresome week have finished for now, so although I'm pretty tired, I can relax a little. I still have quite a bit of class prep to get through today, but still, this week looks a lot better. Last week I had kindergarten, which is always tiring. I also had to stay late on Tuesday to make listening tests for both the first and second years. It seems I'm the only one who knows how to use a computer, so that also involved taking listening tracks from various CDs and burning them onto a single CD. What was kinda nuts though was that on Thursday, after a full day at primary school, I was called into Taikyu to re-make a listening test. It seems that the day before, the teacher somehow managed to leave the test in the classroom and the kids saw it it. I have no idea why he would be taking the tests into the classroom two days before the actual test, but he did. That was a bit lame, but still kinda funny.

Anyways, so on Sunday I had my Japanese test. It took over two hours to get out there and it's really hard to know how it went. The test has three sections, each worth 60 points-making a total of 180. One needs to get 50% overall but also meet the minimum for each section, which is 20/60. The listening was really easy. The grammar section was hard but i think I did okay-ish. The reading was killer. I took a watch with me this time as there is no clock in the room, but I still didn't have time to read everything. I managed to get answers down for every question, so for the last few, it's a matter of luck. I have a 25% chance of guessing each answer.

I'm not too worried about the overall mark, though even that is hard to know... I'm actually mostly just worried about the hitting the 20 out of 60 for the reading. I understood the readings that I read, but the questions were really hard. I guess we'll see how it goes though.

After the test, I came straight back to Hirogawa and then went out to band practice. We've got three gigs lined up and practice is coming along. Having drums really pulls everything together. After the acoustic gig (drums are brushes and snare drum), we'll probably start recording. Chiaki's drums are coming along, as is Chie's bass, so that's pretty cool.

Chie's got a killer week this week, with marking tests and such. I' ll probably be doing some more soy sauce translation stuff, as they liked the translation I did last time. They actually used it to sell the soy sauce in Europe, so that's pretty cool.

Other than that, I'm going to keep studying Japanese. I want to improve my reading and also work towards the top Japanese test. So for now, I won't study grammar but mostly focus on learning kanji (the Chinese characters). I need to know about 3000 for the test, so I might as well start studying sooner rather than later. That also means I can study by reading novels and it's useful in everyday life.

Interesting thing about the test though, is that about 90% of the people there were Chinese. That makes the reading a lot easier, but so many of them don't seem to understand the test instructions. We were told about ten times to take the paper covers off our erasers, but then they had to tell about 15 people individually. Even then, it took a while for a few of them to get what they were being asked. Before, during and after the test papers were being handed out, we were constantly being told not to open them yet. The first thing the guy in front of me does is open it and flip through. While he was doing this, we were told again, so I thought he'd stop but didn't. I eventually tapped him on the shoulder and told him he should close it. He didn't get caught, but he risked getting kicked out of the test... Was pretty crazy.

Anyways, I've got some work to get on with. I'll get my uni results on the 18th, which is just before the summer holiday starts :-) I've also enrolled in the last two papers of my post-graduate certificate.

Sorry for the late one.
Cheers
J

2011-06-27T16:08:00.000-07:00

Howdy all
How's things?
We're all good here. It's getting really hot though, which I'm struggling with. I got quite burnt at the beach on Saturday, but we got some good jumping in and I also managed to catch a few wages body surfing. It's the first time I've found waves big enough for body surfing here, so that was pretty cool. After that, we had band practice, which went quite well.

Other than that, I've been devoting my time to study. It's kinda destroying me, but for the most part I'm managing to get between one and five hours study in a day.

I was hoping the week before my exam would give me some time to study at school, but it's seeming like the busiest week so far this term. Had Tsugi junior (my Thursday school) yesterday and taught three classes by myself, as the teacher wasn't there. I've then got my usual five classes at Taikyu today, plus I have to help make two listening tests and arrange the two test alongside tracks from other CDs so that can use them from tomorrow.

Tomorrow I've got kindergarten, which means that I work slightly shorter hours, but I get trashed by the kids at lunch time. In this heat, it's especially tiring.

I also have a meeting tomorrow for the happy festival in the evening, but have put band practice off until after the Japanese exam.

On the plus side, I've received half of my results from my uni course, with the full thing coming through July 18.

Contribution to unit activities 25%
Amount of contribution 80.00
Collaboration and knowledge building 60.00
Critical engagement with readings 80.00
Quality & value of forum posts 79.00
Total: 74.75

You made a very strong contribution to unit activities

Portfolio 50%
Learning journal (yet to be marked)
Critical reflections
Project work 90.00
Portfolio achievement statements

Project
Content of final product 90.00
The project is very well organised and explores a number of issues in great depth.

Quality & value of project final product 90.00
The final product is very well written with an objective and reasonable tone that is very suitable for the topic. I think it provides a very useful reality check on an emotional issue.

Incorporation of research methods 90.00
The project does an excellent job of incorporating historical methods within an overall critique of assumptions about whaling.

Category total 90.00 0.00–100.00

I think this project is a very valuable contribution to the whaling debate. It is also a great example of complex thinking (thinking that doesn't just take a simple, one-sided and emotional approach.

... So that was kinda cool. I'm pretty exhausted at the moment, so it was nice to hear that I'm on the right track with at least one of the things I'm doing. It's so hard to know which of the 6000+ words and 2000+ Chinese characters are going to end up in the exam, so I'm just trying to learn it all...

Anyways, I need to get onto work and stuff.
Probably my last post of the week, but I'll be back next week.
Hope all is well
Cheers
Jim

2011-06-21T16:10:00.001-07:00

Kia ora, folks!
How's it going?
Things are alright here but all of a sudden yesterday, it started getting hot. I was a really swift change and although I don't dislike heat, I don't have a high tolerance to it. I'm thinking about starting a new habit of going for a swim everyday after school...

Last night I had my last university conversation for the semester and it looks as though my project marks (not the full course marks) will be here this week.

Other than that, I only had two classes today but I've been asked to take part in anyone, which will be a research class to demonstrate teaching techniques. It's usually the type of class I don't want to be a part of but since I wrote the conversation they'll be practicing, made the flash cards and also made the DVD listening quiz, I guess it's not too bad to be involved.

Japanese studying is starting to tire me a bit. I'm enjoying it, but it's a lot to remember. The test has something like a 30 or 40% pass rate but I definitely want to get it this time.

I've also been invited to play another gig next month but Taka won't be able to make it. I'm mulling over whether to go for it or not. In someways I feel like I probably have enough music related to things to do at the time, what with arranging the songs to fit an acoustic set, a semi-acoustic set and then a rock recording, practicing and helping Chie with practice. I really want to get back into writing songs again, but nothings coming to me at the moment...

I've got a pile of DVDs that various teachers are asking me to put together, as well as listening tests and my own lesson planning, so work is keeping me pretty busy.

Looking forward to the summer holiday starting at the end of next month...

Hope all is well
Chut
J

2011-06-19T16:14:00.000-07:00

Howdy all
How's it going?
Been a pretty low key week here. School was quite tiring, but I've come to expect that. It's starting to warm up, though the pre-summer rains are coming down hard. I actually have a new student at primary school, who spent six years of her life in America. Her fathers American and so although she spoke Japanese at home, she has very little written Japanese. I feel a bit sorry for her because I understand it must be hard to fit in. It's hard to feel really sorry for her though, as she's so self confident. In Japan, over-confidence tends to come across as showing-off and doesn't make it easy to fit into social groups. I was talking to her before class and she started talking in Japanese but I couldn't catch everything was saying. I think she saw this as an indication that my Japanese was pretty poor because she said. "Can I be your assistant? With Japanese like that, I think you really need one. I could translate for you."

During the class, I ended up having to explain a few things in English just for her, as she didn't understand all the Japanese. As I say, I do feel sorry for her and in English class especially, I know she wants to show that she's awesome. I'm trying to treat her as an ordinary student though, as that will make it easier for her to fit in. Still, she does things like when everyone's practicing counting together, she'll count really fast, which puts everyone off. Sort of hard to know what to do with her, but at least at forth grade level, it's mostly games. She's going to find it very dull when she gets to junior high and has to spend huge amounts of time learning how to write...

In other news, I've been stepping up my Japanese study. Last time I focused on grammar and it's nice to see that I haven't forgotten it all. In fact, a lot of it seems to have cemented a lot more than it had this time last year. It's also been useful that I've been singing a few songs for the past year that are littered with grammatical structures from the test. My vocab has improved since then, so I think it's mostly going to be a case of getting my kanji (Chinese characters) knowledge up. This is something I want to do anyway though. I've been vaguely thinking about maybe having a crack at some of the kanji tests aimed at Japanese students. The top level one is ridiculously hard, meaning that most Japanese adults couldn't do it without a lot of study, but if I aim a little lower, say primary level, I could work my way up.I'm also going to have a crack at the top level (level 1) Japanese proficiency test if I pass level 2. I figure while I'm in Japan, I should probably try to get as much Japanese into me as I can. Most of the things I'm studying don't apply to real life, but at least I'm in the Japanese mindset.

So, on the weekend I studied quite a bit. We also had band practice on Saturday night, which went really well. She's bass is really starting to come along, as is Chiaki's drums. For the next to gigs and also our CD we are going to have some mandolin in the mix too, so that should be cool.

Uni wise-I'm waiting on my results, which won't be out until July 18. On July 16, we have a gig at Ippuku and on July 3 I have the proficiency test. We'll also start recording in that time, so I've got a few things to kill time with.

I've got a couple of practice tests, so I think I might have a crack at them and see how they go.

Not much else to report really. I'm getting quite a lot of basil from my garden, the tomatoes are getting bigger and the eggplant is poking it's head out. I also got my certificate for the JET Japanese course, which isn't really much to write home about.

Hope all is well
Cheers
J

2011-06-13T16:16:00.000-07:00

Hey hey
How's things?
Japan is chugging along alright. I spent a lot of yesterday putting together some video clips Hayashi Sensei made into a coherent DVD for class use. I've just finished up some more speaking test stuff. It seems like it never ends...

Tomorrow, I have another day where I have two classes scheduled on at the same time at two different schools, so I won't be able to go to the junior high class.. Means I only have 5 classes rather than the full six though.

Yesterday was alright. I started on a Tale of Two Cities but will resume the Japanese version of Clockwork Orange later... I also started reading a linguistics textbook, which was quite dry. I'm interested in the origins of words and applied linguistics, but I'm a little bit glad I didn't pursue it at uni. I also received my ticket thing for the Japanese proficiency test, which is good. It was a bit late so I was a tad worried my application got in too late. I have less than a month to go, so I'll be stepping up my Japanese study. Uni is pretty much finished for the semester. I just need to write the last little reflection on what I've learned, which I'll hopefully get done today.

We have gigs in June, July and September (I think) but we may have a new part-time member. Taka's brother has become a lot less busy and he plays the mandolin (and pretty much everything), so we're thinking about making some room for the mandolin in our songs. We're leaning more and more towards rock music, but as we still play a lot of smaller places, we have acoustic versions of most of our songs, too. I'm quite excited about the various gigs, as well as starting recording. I'll be having a jam at Taka's restaurant with him and his brother tomorrow. Should be choice.

On Sunday, Cain, Ikuho, Sakura, Chie and I went out for dinner, which was nice. Not much new on that front. We know that the person replacing Cain will be a 26 year old woman, who I beleive is coming with her boyfriend. I don't think they speak Japanese, but that'll be alright.

On Sunday, Chie and I also watched a 50s film called Vertigo. It was pretty cool. I made chicken and corn soup last night, which we had with Chie's homemade bread. Was good.

Not much else to say really.
Hope all is well
Cheers
Jom

2011-06-11T17:45:00.000-07:00

Howdy howdy
The weekends not too exciting. To demonstrate this I thought I'd post some pictures of our garden...

Veranda Garden

Tomatoes

Basil

More basil, parsley and the broccoli

Onions that Chie's Dad grew - drying the Japanese way

Chie and I went to an onsen in Shimizu on Saturday and then we had band practice. I tried our recording some of it to see how my mic would pick up everything live. I've posted two demos...

The line-up at the moment is Taka and I playing guitars, Chie on bass and Chiaki (Taka's girlfriend) on drums. She hasn't been playing long but she's coming along. Chie's bass is getting more interesting as well.

Other than that, I've been finishing off the last bits of my university course and reading a textbook on linguistics.

Chie and I went out for dinner and this nice Italian place on Friday night and then watched the movie of About a Boy. I really liked the book and the movie was okay... I like High Grant but his movies start to always feel the same. I guess he only ever plays the one character, which is Hugh Grant though...

On Thursday, Chie and I watched One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, which was great. I really need to get around to reading the book though.

I think that's about it for now. Don't have much in the way of plans for the weekend. I was really shattered during the week as school is way too busy and it's getting hotter...

Cheers
Jim

2011-06-06T16:06:00.000-07:00

Howdy howdy
How's it going?
Not a very eventful day yesterday. I bought a bunch more basil plants, which are now on the veranda. I also got a mandarin tree to put out there, too. As I'm living in pretty famous mandarin country, I figured I might as well go with the "when in Rome" way of thinking.

I also got new windscreen wipers and put them on Chie's car. Pretty exciting. Made a chicken salad for dinner, which we ate while watching Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing.

That's pretty much it. After a pretty relaxed day at school yesterday, I've got full days from here on out. Another 21 or 22 classes to get though...

Meeting for the Happy Festival on Wednesday night and band practice sometime. That's about it really.

Hope all is well
Cheers
J

2011-06-05T15:02:00.000-07:00

Howdy howdy
How's things?
So, t'was a pretty good weekend.
On Saturday, Chie, Cain, Ikuho, Taka, Chiaki and I went up to Shimizu. We had a picnic at one of Chiaki's friends places, which is unoccupied. It was a real traditional place like you see in Samurai movies, so that was cool. As you sometimes have with old Japanese houses, there was a urinal and weirdly there was a crab in it. Was kinda weird, but we had a good time. We had cold minted pea soup (with mint from my garden), Chie-made bread and sandwiches. We then went to the studio, which is pictured below:

This is the first of three rooms. It's being used as storage and so we have to leave the stuff there, but it's not too bad.

This is the second of the three rooms, where we jam. It was used ages ago by a band and so the walls are all sound-proofed and there's even double doors (one going inside and one going outside stacked on top of each other) to prevent sound leakage. It gets pretty hot, but it's quite perfect.

This is my guitar, which I don't think I've posted any photos of...

So, we had a little clean up and then a jam. It was really awesome jamming with drums and electric guitars after such a long time. We had bass, two guitars, drums and a mic, so that's about all you need. I'm really looking forward to getting stuck into recording. I got to have a good jam on the drums myself, which was awesome :-)

From there, we went to a river, but it was about 5:30. Cain and I went in. The current was pretty strong and it was cold but it was really refreshing. There was an old lady down there walking her dog. I talked to her a bit and I'm sure it was one of the oddest things she's ever seen. No one is swimming yet...

After that, we had a BBQ and hung out for a few hours. Wasn't too bad at all.

On Sunday, Chie and I went to Wakayama city and I bought some jeans that don't have any holes in them! I also bought a summer hat.
From there, we went to try to get the pick-up in my acoustic guitar fixed, but they couldn't figure out what was wrong. They reckon I might have to replace all the electric things in it, which would be expensive. I can still use it as an acoustic guitar though. It just means I can't play an acoustic guitar with drums, unless I play it into a mic...

From there, we met Sakura and her friend and saw the new Pirates movie. As predicted, it wasn't great but you only really go to see them for Mr Depp and Ms Cruz.

Came home, had some dinner and now here I am at school again. My whaling assignment is done and after talking to my parents, I've decided I probably won't go down the linguistics road. I'll study it on my own, which should benefit my teaching and my chances of getting through the CELTA test, but it's $5000 to do the post-grad certificate. Add the cost of my IHS study and the CELTA test and it starts getting into a lot of money. I'll do two IHS papers next semester though, so I won't have any study in the first semester of next year.I've got Japanese though, so I might just stick to that or I might pick up some interest papers free from the Southern Institute of Technology, although it would be at a pretty low level and the choice isn't great. I could pick up some online environmental or horticulture papers though, so that could be interesting.

Anyways, that's me.
Cheers
Jim

2011-05-31T16:07:00.000-07:00

Howdy
How's it all going?
So, the pre-summer rain has been falling for the last few days. I'm hoping it'll easy up for our BBQ on Saturday up in Shimizu, but I guess we'll see how it goes.
Not a lot to report. I'm pretty much finished my university course for the year. Just adding a few touch ups here and there, but nothing major to do. I'm going to take on two courses next semester, which fits in nicely after the Japanese proficiency test. That will complete my postgraduate certificate. I'm thinking over the whether or not to extent it to a post-grad diploma. It would cost almost $6000 to add on the extra four courses, so I'm thinking over whether or not it's worth it. More than the money side though, I'm thinking about time. In some ways I'd rather do a post-grad certificate in linguistics... I could bounce it up to a diploma or add the linguistics and get it done before coming back to New Zealand, it would just mean doing three papers in the second semester and three in the first semester of next year. Either option means I'd end up doing a total of eight post graduate papers. If anyone has any thoughts, I'd be keen to hear them. The linguistics would be through Monash University. In some ways, I feel linguistics would work quite well if I choose to pursue teaching English and it would combine well with the CELTA course I plan to do. I'll either do the one month course in the gap I have between finishing work and coming back to NZ or when I get back to NZ. CELTA is a done through Cambridge university and is a pretty top notch teaching English qualification.

Oh well, enough on that. I'm just thinking 'out loud' at the moment.

Chie and I have been watching through a few films as of late. We watched A Fish Called Wanda the night before last and then last night we watched The Worlds Fastest Indian and Sione's Wedding. I've also been showing Chie bits and pieces of Fred Dagg and Billy T. James to ease her into typical New Zealand life.

With the rain coming down as it is, there's not much to do so I have not a lot to report. I might head on over to Taka's cafe tonight, but we'll see.

Anyways, love to all
Cheers
J

2011-05-29T15:59:00.000-07:00

Howdy howdy
How's it all going? Things are alright here. Has band practice on Wednesday and Friday and then a JET talent night thing. We played five of our songs, 'I'm a Lumberjack' from Monty Python and then played backing for another guys song. It went pretty well and there was some interesting talents out there. We've now got Chiaka (Taka's girlfriend) playing a snare drum with brushes as Yoshi has left the band. She only started on Wednesday, but she did really well. We're hoping that once she's got the snare drum down, she'll be able to start tapping a bass drum along, too. Then we can add a few cymbal hits and things will be even cooler.

I know a guy who got a video of I'm a Lumberjack, so I'll see if I can get him to upload it.

On Friday, I was pretty shattered after two full days across three primary schools. No break, full power. I ended up falling asleep at 9:30 on Friday night after practice.

On Sunday, Chie and I went to an onsen, which was really nice. It rained like the clappers, so I sat out in an outside bath, which was rad.

Uni wise-Things are clearing up. I've got a few more bits and pieces to do but I'm most of the way there. It doesn't look like I have any classes today on account of tests, so hopefully I can get some things done, other than just class preparation (of which I have a lot of).

As of late, Chie and I also watched 2001: A Space Odyssey and Seven Samurai, which were good. Over six hours of viewing required for those two movies. They're pretty long... I have to say I think I liked Seven Samurai better, but they were both pretty sweet. I'd been meaning to watch Space Odyssey for quite a while, but I don't think I got the ending...

Anyways, I guess that's me for now.
I'll catch y'all later
Cheers
Jim

2011-05-24T16:09:00.001-07:00

Howdy howdy
How's it going?
At Taikyu again today, with only two classes. I'll be recording a speaking test, making a few prints and planning some classes, but otherwise I've gotta little time on my hands. I'm getting pretty close to finishing my whaling project, so I'll be getting along with that. I'm finding it really interesting, but I'll be happy to see it done. It's mostly just tightening things up from here on out.

Chie and I had pea soup and homemade bread for dinner while watching Annie Hall. It was a lot better than Apocalypse Now, which we watched the other day. I also made a whale pie (graph).

Today we're jamming with a guy called Danny, as we'll be backing him for a song or two on Saturday. We'll be able to try out the bass amp and mic stand that arrived yesterday. Should be sweet. Danny will also hopefully join us in I'm a Lumberjack.

For those who missed it, last night I uploaded a photo of the re-sized engagement ring photo to my last post.

Going to get on with some things so I'll spot you later.
Cheers
J

2011-05-23T16:03:00.000-07:00

Hey hey
Sorry, it's been a while since I've been here. To be honest though, I don't have anything really exciting to say. The biggest excitement is that Taka's girlfriend has found a little building that we can rent up in the mountains. It used to be used by a band for practice, so it's sound proofed and there is a drum kit there. It's got two relatively big rooms and it's not too far from a river, a BBQ area and an onsen, so we're pretty well covered.

Chie and I might go up there on Sunday to check it out, but if not then we'll have the first jam up there the weekend after. We'll have a little party thing, so that should be cool. Also, Taka's girlfriend has started learning the drums :-)

Also, I think I forgot to mention but we had the engagement ring that my Grandparents gave us re-sized. It took quite a long time as it went to quite a specialised specialist, but it looks amazing. We both really appreciate it.

Otherwise, I've been chugging along with study, teaching and the Japanese version of Clockwork Orange. I'm not too far off the end of the course, so that's pretty choice. We've been jamming a bit and Chie's bass is coming along. We're playing at a JET talent night thing on Saturday, so we'll be playing a few songs there and then finish up with our rendition of I'm a Lumberjack from Monty Python. It'll mostly be Americans there though, so I'm not sure if it's something everyone knows there or not..

The weekend included band practice, going to the beach twice and a bit of a tidy up. We tidied the T.V into a cupboard, which has made a lot more room. We didn't watch it at all, so it was a just a dust catcher. Chie also cut my hair last night, so it's quite a bit shorter now.

So things are going really well. I still have my little frustrations. My timetable is all over the place, which is hard for me to balance and also the teachers and schools. Also, yesterday I realised why lots of my students begin written sentences with "So", even when it's just a continuation of what they're saying. For example:

'The water is heavy and it takes time. So she cannot go to school.'

Also

'Easter Island is very small. But it has about 1,000 moais.'

To me, starting a written sentence like this is weird. Could someone tell me if it is me that's got the wrong end of the stick, or the textbook. I hadn't realised that that's where they came from, but it makes a lot more sense now. I feel bad because I'd fixed things that people had written when they'd made sentences starting with 'but' or 'so'.

The other one is that they teach that you can say 'I walk to school' but that if you come by a vehicle you have to say 'I come to school by bike'. The teachers don't even know that you can use words like bus and bike as verbs... It's so much easier...

Anyways, so what I have to teacher and the timetable are minor frustrations, but otherwise things are great. It actually makes it really hard to write songs, so I haven't been doing that so much lately...

Hope all is well with y'all!
Cheers
J

2011-05-15T16:06:00.000-07:00

Howdy all
How's it going? First, I'd just like to say happy birthday to my Grandfather. Grandma and Grandad will have just come back from their adventures down south yesterday. I'll give them a call tonight to catch up :-)

I haven't really been up to too much as of late. Mostly just hanging out with people, trying to study, reading, playing music and the sort. Taka told me last night that his girlfriend found a place that we rent really cheaply and also practice drums, so we're thinking about doing that. We'll be playing without drums for the next too gigs though.

We had dinner and karaoke on Saturday night as a Sakura birthday celebration and then on Sunday night, a beach BBQ with Yoshi. I had a swim and we also went to Sugiko's House, which is something we haven't done in a long time.

Not a lot more to say.
Hope all is well
Cheers
Jim

2011-05-09T16:20:00.000-07:00

Howdy howdy
Things are going alright, but my new schedule is proving to be not quite what it was cracked up to be. I'd had roughly the same timetable as all the previous foreign teachers until my supervisor made some changes. I'll now be missing out on my another set of first year junior high classes, because I'll be elsewhere. I'll still be coming to the junior high, it'll just be after my classes... I've already prepared everything for them though, which is the hard part... I made a short Spanish conversation, but now have to leave it to the other teacher to introduce it. It took me ages, too. I made it yesterday as well as two speaking tests and a conversation game.

Not been up to too much else. We watched Godfather Part 2 last night, which was really good.
I've also been using Monty Python to help Chie with her English. We now have phrases such "nudge nudge, wink wink," "Are you insinuating something?" and of course, "A nods as good as a wink to a blind bat" written on pieces of paper around the house. The joys of the English language :-)

Not a whole lot more to report on.

Cheers
Jam

2011-05-08T17:35:00.000-07:00

Howdy all
So, after the two three day holidays and a weekend, I'm back. The Golden Week holiday is usually arranged better than this years one. This year we got Fri, Sat, Sun and then Tues, Weds, Thurs off. I still ended up having school on Monday and Friday, which meant that we couldn't really go anywhere.

Still, it was good to have a break. It's warming up here and I've already went for a swim in the river and the beach. Otherwise, my holidays were pretty normal. I got quite a bit of uni stuff done, as well as some class prep and Japanese study.

We had a band practice and it looks as though we'll be having a gig in Wakayama city with some reasonably big bands, who Taka is friends with. We're trying to find a drummer for the gig, which is still three months off. We'll see how it goes though.

Otherwise, we've hung out with Sakura and Cain and all them, hung out with Taka and Chiaki last night, watched Citizen Kane and Godfather and not done too much else. Yesterday Sakura, Chie and I biked out to Hirogawa beach, which was where I had a swim. We also threw a rugby ball around a bit.

I've been working through a lot of my to-do list, so things aren't so busy anymore. I still need to finish of my whale project, as well as other bits and pieces to do with uni, but it's gotten a lot more manageable.

So yeah, things are just chugging along. Chie and I are trying to get through some of the classic movies, hence Citizen Kane, Godfather and a while back we watched Elephant Man. I'm also trying to get through books, study, work and music.

Not really much else to report. We got our first few strawberries from the patch and the tomato plants are coming along.

It'll probably continue on like this for a while. In May: We've got dinner for Sakura's birthday, some plans to go to Osaka, a gig on the 28th, a BBQ with Yoshi and I guess whatever else comes up.

Hope all is well
Cheers
Jim

2011-05-01T16:07:00.000-07:00

Howdy howdy
How's it all going?
So, we had a holiday on Friday, which was nice. It's been busy though and to be honest I wouldn't mind having a little time at home.
On Wednesday, we went out with Jonathan again, who was still in town. Friday we went out with Sakura, Cain and Ikuho and then again with Judy on the Saturday for her birthday. Again, on Sunday we went out for lunch with Chie's uni friends in Osaka, so it's been expensive and tiring. Tonight, Chie has to go to a high school reunion and I have to go out to dinner with Shimobo who's some old lady who is friends with Judy and has wanted to see us all again for ages. I'm kinda over going out for a little while.

Other than that, I hung with with Taka and his girlfriend a bit and got some good talking done.

As of late, we've also been discovering some of the lamer parts of Japan.

On Wednesday when we went out with Jonathan to the only bar in Hirogawa. I didn't even know it was there but it seems to be. However, it's not technically a bar but a 'snack'. This seems like a uniquely Japanese thing. The different between a snack and a bar is that usually but not always, some pretty ladies are working there, meaning that things are more expensive. They also have little baskets of potato chips or small snacks, which they give you and charge you for regardless of whether you want them or not. It gets a little sneaky though as they will never tell you the price of the snacks and the whole price system seems to be based on what they think they can get away with charging. There are also hidden "table charges", which they don't tell you about or have displayed. These are also decided by the bar people, much to the surprised to the inexperienced. Lots of things come into this price, such as if you are a regular or not and how drunk you are. If your drunk, which we weren't, you're more likely to pay more. So on Wednesday, the four of us got charged $120 for 2 ginger ales and 4 beers.

Quite ridiculous.

We then got snagged again on Friday. When went to a place which advertises itself as a bar/ live house. It was small and there was just one guy working there. No bands were playing so there was no entrance fee written anywhere. The guy was really friendly and we got talking. We got onto music and he then gave his friend a call who plays drums. The drummer came down and we got along well. He was looking for a band and we thought that it might be cool to have a jam. The owner said we could jam at the bar the next day using their PA and all. Everything was really peachy when we left. So, we asked for the bill and the owner (who was drinking quite a bit) said "it's a bit steep, but if I tell you the price divided between the 5 of you, it'll probably seem cheaper." In the end he just told us the price undivided between the five of us, which came to $400. We were quite surprised and so asked about it. We pointed out that according to the menu a beer was $7 and a cocktail type drink (gin 'n' tonic) was $9. That meant that between the five of us we drank $42 worth of beer and $45 worth of other stuff. We didn't even hit the $100 mark, let alone the $400 mark. So he said "yeah, but a put out three small baskets of bar snacks". We asked how much they were and he couldn't believe we were even asking that. He wouldn't tell us.

In the end he said, "look, if you think it's too expensive then I don't want your money. Just go!"
Ikuho said we'd pay and not come back. We then put three $150 notes on the bar, Cain said "F*** you!" to him and then we started to go out the door. The 26 year old owner with his pants are his knees and his underwear hanging out (in what we sometimes refer to as 'the penguin look' or 'the nappy look' shouted to the five or so of his mates in the bar that this gaijin just said "fuck you". They all then followed us out of the bar (although the drummer didn't come).

Cain, Sakura and Ikuho got into the car while Chie and I stood outside talking to them. We'd been talking to the owner for a good while and he seemed to like us. He we just really angry at the use of the F-word. I think he was under the impression that it carried a lot more weight than it does.

Anyways, he was shouting for Cain to get out of the car, while I tried to calm him down. Cain sometimes has quite a short temper with things like that, so we all knew that if Cain was outside the car, things might have got a lot worse.

Another guy (his cousin) was also there, who was a real nuisance. The cousin was pretty small but he was holding an empty beer mug, which I didn't like. Anyways, while I was talking to them and trying to explain that it wasn't that bad (stepping around the issue that Cain was probably justified), the cops showed up. About 7 or 8 of them. Ikuho had called them from the car.

Anyways, it lasted for about an hour and a half. There was no, "we'll keep this angry guy away from you while you drive away" (Ikuho wasn't drinking). The cops wanted to calm the guy down while we there. This was made harder as his cousin was egging him on. All he wanted was an apology but the cops realised he was being unreasonable. One of the things about Japanese cops is that they feel uneasy dealing with the businesses. An example of this is the gambling for money is illegal, yet it is also one of the biggest businesses in Japan.

So, the owner was talking the cops and started making it all racial. He seemed to have a problem with Japanese always having to bend over to foreigners. He was telling them that the bar was his hobby and he wasn't doing it to make money. He just wanted to give people a good time. As I was the foreigner outside the car, the cops assumed it was me and seemed quite happy that I could speak Japanese. He told them it wasn't me and that I was cool, it was the guy in the car.

They asked the owner if he'd been hit and he said he hadn't, so really they didn't have anything. All it came down to was that he shouldn't have used the f-word, but as he's a foreigner, he probably can't or won't apologise.

They seemed to have no interest in the money that he'd charged us and I think they really just wanted to calm him down. He really wanted an apology. Chie, Ikuho and I apologised to him and everyone seemed to think that was okay. He started walking away until his cousin (who had put the beer mug away when the cops came) that it wasn't enough for him. He wanted the to hear it from Cain himself. It didn't have anything to do with the weedy little cousin, but it got the owner fired up again. They were both quite drunk, which seems a bit unprofessional while working.

The guy kept spouting on stuff about how hurt and angry he was at being spoken to like that. To the police he was saying stuff like "you understand, we're both Japanese and we know enough English to know that the f-word is really bad. If a foreigner said that to you, you'd be angry, too." The police nodded along.

The police kept trying to explain that as the guy was a foreigner, he wasn't going to be able to apologise. To be honest, I didn't want Cain to apologise to these two little dweebs but in the end he got out of the car and did. He really, really didn't want to but he didn't want us to have to stay there talking any longer.

So, we went home and that was the end of that. Such a waste of a place to play music and a drummer. The drummer did actually come out as we were leaving to shake hand with me and after the apology, the owner did, too. Some of the police seem okay, although quite incompetent. One said sorry to Cain as he was getting back into the car and another said to me that he hoped I wouldn't look badly on Japan because of this. I told him I really, really like Japan but although this was my first time, I didn't like being subject to this kind of discrimination.

We won't be going back there.

Anyways, it was an experience and a half. I think it was also valuable in that we won't be going to any place like that again. I'll be asking about hidden charges from now on and so in some ways, that experience may have prevented stickier and more expensive situations.

In other news, I'm reading the Theban plays at the moment. I got through two of the three yesterday and I'm looking forward to seeing what happens to Antigone now that Oepidus is dead. It's a really good read and it's amazing that a story written 2500 years ago can be so enthralling to today's audience. Lovers and Sons by DH Laurance was also really good and next I think will be Charles Dickens 'A Tale of Two Cities'.

I'm starting to put some more work towards the Japanese proficiency test, as well as my uni work. I've got work today and on Friday, but we have three public holidays in between, so I hope to finish or near-finish my whaling project during that time.

Been an interesting week and I'm looking forward to chilling out a bit more.

Work is going alright. I had parents come to my class on Thursday at Tsugi primary school. The head of the PTA said that my class was really fun and informative, and it was his first time really enjoying a class. I thought that was nice.

On the subject of work, that is where I am now and for that reason it is also what I should probably be doing.

Until next time.
James

2011-04-25T16:52:00.001-07:00

Howdy howdy
Looking like a busy day today with five classes at junior high school. Tomorrow I don't have primary school though, so I've only got two. Pretty sweet. I've got my first year classes tomorrow, which are quite good. We're doing a bit of basic French conversation in them, which is cool. The new young teacher really wants to introduce other countries, which is good, but he's got this idea that the best way of doing this is to spend a lot of time talking about flags. At the moment I'm trying to keep him in check as we need to give the students quite a bit of time to start on the speaking test we'll be doing. At the same time though he's trying to fit in big things like getting the kids to get in groups, look at a flag, think about what the colours and thing mean, draw it, show their results to the class and then get told the real meaning. It's a cool idea and I want to do it, but we need to get rolling on the speaking test. I feel like a bit of a spoil sport, but I guess that's just what us senior teachers have to do...

On Thursday I've got parents coming to watch one of my primary school classes, after special request from my ex-supervisor. Much appreciated...

Last night, Jonathan (the English teacher before me) came down to Yuasa. He's living in Australia at the moment but came to Japan for a holiday. Against better judgment, we went out to yakiniku (Japanaese BBQ restaurant) for dinner and then had two hours of karaoke. It was fun though and it was good to see him. I think I'll try for an early night tonight though.

Education wise - I ordered my Japanese proficiency test application today, so I'll get that away soon. I finished the JET Japanese test, which is nice to be able to cross off the to-do list. I'm chugging away at uni stuff but should probably get back on with my whaling project. It's a really hard one because the figures on whale populations are different wherever you look. Some say the minke populations are growing and are actually quite big, as they weren't really targeted in during the age of mass whaling. Some say that the populations are small and decreasing. The whaling project isn't the only uni stuff I have to do though. I have to write learning journals, make forum posts about readings and write small essays and topics discussed.

I've got all the videos together for the sports DVD that I'm making and done the background music. I just need to finish putting in the Japanese subtitles and introductions. I'm thinking about making a sports section as well as an animation section though. I might as well stick them both on the same DVD, though I can use them separately. The animation one is to show Japanese things like Dragon Ball Z and Pokemon, but with the English voice actors. I haven't decided whether I'm going to put Japanese subtitles in as well.

So yeah, I'm keeping busy. Friday is a holiday, so that's cool :-)

Garden wise - My strawberries are starting to come out. They're still green, but they'll get there. I now have eggplant, broccoli, tomatoes and basil to add to the parsley, Italian parsley, strawberries, mint and flowers.

Anyways, little late but Happy Easter and happy ANZAC day.

Thanks for readings.
Cheers
James

2011-04-24T16:05:00.000-07:00

Kia ora, folks!
How's it going?
Things were quite busy here last week. It looks as though my basic class structure will mean I have only one class on Monday and then pretty much full classes for the rest of the week. Most Japanese teachers only do about 3 classes a day at junior high, but I'll be getting 5-6. I'll also be traveling between 2 (sometimes 3) school in one day. I do most of the planning as well, so it's looking pretty tiring. It'll be better once I get int the swing of things a bit more though, I guess.

Other than school stuff, I haven't been doing a lot. I'm finding it hard to get into uni frame of mind, which I'm going to try and do this week. We had band practice on Tuesday and Friday, then two gigs on Saturday.

It rained really hard but quite a few people came. The Rub Luck gig was really fun and they had some good food and things there. I bought a James Taylor CD for a dollar :-) Here's two clips from the gig...

In the evening, there weren't so many people. I would say it was a combination of the singer not being known around here, the tickets being really expensive and the rain. We had fun though. Played a good set, listened to Mi My Mo, who was really really good and then we all just hung out. Got a bit of jamming and chatting and stuff done, so it worked out pretty well.

On the Sunday, we were a bit on the quiet side. Went to the supermarket, I made a tomato soup, did some reading, went for a walk, bought some plants for my for my planter garden and got a bit of work done. I've been working on a sports DVD to introduce weird and wonderful sports from around the world. Things like BOSSABALL, which is like volleyball with a bit of soccer in it (you can use your feet), but played on an inflatable field that has a trampoline for spiking. Worth having a look at. Also, cheese rolling and things like that are in the mix.

Anyways, best be on with work and such. Want to try and get a bunch done today.

Hope all is well
Cheers
James

2011-04-18T16:11:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone!
How's it going?
Sorry for the long absence. Things have been busy around here. The new term looks all right with my new line-up of teachers, but it also looks busy. I'm having to plan most of my classes and the ones where I don't make the plans, I have to prepare all the games and worksheets and stuff. Yesterday I only had one class but was making stuff on the computer all day. It's better than having too much free time, but it means I don't get to work on my studies while working...

I'm finding it a bit tough balancing the expectations of primary classes from my old supervisor (who seems to think it's still his job), my new supervisor (who has a lot more of an idea about things), the textbook, the teachers, the parents and the students. Everyone seems to be pulling in different ways. My old supervisor is especially bad as he is pushing the team teaching thing really hard, trying to make me plan and teach classes 50/50 with the homeroom teachers. However, I spend so much time going between schools and teaching that I don't have time. On top of that, the teachers are way too busy to fit into my schedule and don't even speak English. I don't see the point in using them too much and would rather they let me do my thing and just help out with keeping the kids quiet and focused.

My old supervisor is still trying to push for me to include listening, conversation, reading word recognition, new words (including numbers, months, days of the week etc), new grammar, revision, international activities (such as songs) and phonetics into a FUN 45 minute classes once a week.

It's impossible to do all that in one class and make it fun, so I'm pick and choosing. Going well so far but I've told some of the homeroom teachers who were a bit worried about English becoming a real subject to not worry about the Board of Education and to just go on with our current classroom roles. One 60 or so year old teacher was really pleased when I told her that. She's got less English than a lot of the kids.

Anyways, the weekend was good. Hung out with Sakura and Cian and all that. Hung out with Taka. Did some uni work. Been making a lot of soup and bread... Chie has decided that she loves the soups I make and so it's been soup every day... I've done seafood soup, pea soup, tomato soup, pumpkin soup as well as potato and leek.

I've finished my JET Japanese study now, so I can tick that box. I just need to find some time to do uni stuff, as well as more Japanese study. I'm still making plans for primary school, which I hope to finish off today. I've got a full schedule of classes though, so it could be tough. Band practice tonight but some other bands are playing at the first gig now on Saturday, so we'll be playing 40 minutes instead of 2 hours. It's a bit of a relief.

Anyways, I just thought I'd get a word in to say I'm still here.
Need to get back to work though.
Got some cream eggs from my parents yesterday. Very awesome. Thanks guys!
Cheers
James

2011-04-11T16:08:00.001-07:00

Howdy howdy
How's things? Not too much to report. Had a university online tutorial last night, which was quite helpful. Need to put a bit more work into the course, but it's going pretty well. After that, I made pumpkin soup for dinner.

The night pretty much consisted of hanging out playing music with Chie, then reading and I did a bit of sketching. Chie starts class today and I'll be getting right into it tomorrow. Means I've been able to get together quite a bit of planning, though I'm still yet to meet all of my teachers.

I should be able to clear a bit of stuff out today, so starting classes again shouldn't be too bad. See how it goes though.

I also got an email from my friend asking if we could play two hours on the 23rd and as a concert, not just background music as we supposed... That's the first gig, and then we've got aw second one in the evening. The first gig is at a flee market in a massive factory/cafe, then second is in a little cafe with a quiet, soulful Tokyo singer. Should be completely different pace, but it'll be fun. ]

Nothing else to report.
Cheers
Jam

2011-04-10T16:08:00.000-07:00

Hello, my droogs
How is thee?
Second day of school here, although classes won't be startin' up till Wednesday. School looks like it's going to be pretty different from last year. I've got an almost complete new batch of teachers to teach with, which should make things interesting. My classes at junior high don't technically have the same restrictions as other English classes, so they differ quite a lot depending on who I'm with. This means it should mix things up a bit after having the same teacher up until now, but it means I have no idea what the classes will be like.

I'm teaching with one young guy who studied French in France for a year. He seems really cool. He's fresh out of uni though so he's not really quite sure hwat he's supposed to be doing. Should be alright though.

In terms of things that we've been up to as of late.

The weekend involved the last of the cleaning and tidying a way, class prep, band practice and stuff. I went out with Sakura and Cain on Friday for dinner. On Sunday, Chie and I went out for lunch at an Italian place. I did Japanese and uni study also.

Music-wise, we've been working on some new songs lately, which we'll be playing at two different gigs on the 23rd. One at Rub Luck cafe during the day at a flee market. Rub Luck is the cafe in an old factory. It's pretty big, so I don't really know how it's going to turn out. Should be fun though. In the evening, we'll be supporting some Tokyo singer/songwriter at Taka's cafe. Once we get these gigs done, we'll get on with recording.

Otherwise, I've been reading Sons and Lovers by D.H Lawrence, which is really good. I think I'm going to have to get onto some more of his books. I've also been getting back into T.S Elliot a bit as of late. Good stuff.

Nothing else much to report... Spring is finally here, the cherry blossoms are out, my strawberries, mint and parsley are spreading out some good leaves, and I'm thinking about adding some basil and lettuce into the mix. I'm using planters though, so it's a bit limiting but that's okay.

Anyways, best get back to the grind of work. Lesson plans, uni study, Japanese study and all that.

Hope this find y'all well
Cheers
Jam

Hey hey hey hey

2011-04-04T18:37:00.001-07:00

Hooooowdy!
How's it al going? Sorry for the very late update. Figure it would be good to at least get one up during the spring holidays, so here it goes.

It's been a pretty sweet break so far but I have school again on friday. I probably won't have classes then, just an opening ceremony.

Married life is proving to be pretty cool. We're still in the process of tidying Chie's things away but at least all her stuff is here now. We've also cleared out a lot of the things thing that have been here for the old English teachers. Broken CD layers and all that. That's cleared up quite a bit of room, which is nice. Chie's sister is actually moving back into her families house, so Chie's had to be pretty quick about clearing her room out. All going well though.

In general, we've been working on other various bits and pieces. We've been having to get gifts together for the people and schools who gave us money. I managed to find these Fair Trade coffee gift sets on amazon, which I'll be handing out to the schools. Figure that'd be better that the usual gift sets of nescafe instant... of which I don't really see the point.

I've also been working away at my uni study, which is interesting. I'm doing my project on whaling. I'll be looking mostly be looking into the history of whaling, what the present situation is and what the future might look like. The course I'm doing at the moment uses lot's of timelines and charts and stuff, with an emphasis on conveying information visually, rather than with just words. I also plan on looking at it from moral, political, and cultural angles, so there's a lot to do. One thing I've realised is that when you get into it, the anti-whaling movement seems to really take it's stance an emotional stance, without as much substance as I expected. The Japanese seem a lot more scientific and thought out about it. I'll let you know how it's going.

On the 22nd of March, we had a charity gig at Taka's cafe. It well really well and we managed to get together $1000 or so towards the tsunami and things. It was a really fun gig to play :-) On the 24th, we then had a wedding party, which involved a little bit of music but was more focused on dinner. I made heaps of stuff for people, including tomato soup, seafood soup, two pizzas, a beef and mashed potatoes thing, a salad, two loaves of bread, NZ onion soup dip a well as cheese 'n' crackers with blue cheese and sun dried tomatoes etc. Took ages to put it all together, but people seemed to like it. We had NZ wine there as well. This was also at Taka's cafe, so it was a pretty busy start to married life.

On the 28th, there was a board of education dinner and drinks, which ended up in karaoke. It was quite weird. For a really long time there was a guy walking around with no pants on. Some of the other people then hid his pants, so he actually went to the karaoke bar without pant. Another guy was wrapped in toilet paper for a while. Very silly...

Other that than, my supervisor has now changed again. The roles seems to go to the lowest person in the office. My new supervisor was a teacher at primary school, who I've actually taught with for all my time here. Should be interesting... He seems to have his head screwed on a lot more than my last supervisor, so that's good.

Of the teachers I teach with at junior highschool, only one is remaining at the school. That means that of the 12 junior high classes I do a week, only three will have familiar teachers. I'll probably go into school to meet them today because I have no idea what they will expect from me. Should be interesting to have a change though, so I didn't get any new English teachers last time they did the big mix up.

In other news, Chie and I spent three nights down south. We walked a portion of the pilgrimage trek that Buddhist monks used to use to get to the various temples in the south of Wakayama. They'd start in Osaka, go through Kyoto, down to Koyasan right down close to Shirahama to Hongu (where we got married) to Nachi (where there's a temple and a massive waterfall) and one more temple. They they'd go up the other side through Mie prefecture and all the way up. It's quite a journey all in all. We started in a plce called Takijiri at 3:00. It's a really hard place to start as it's pretty much just straight up a mountain. We got to the top and found a tiny village to stay in. There was a really nice hotel-type place to stay up there. The whole area is famous for it's natural hot springs, so everywhere we stayed had an onsen (natural hot bath). The first place was great. We had a really nice dinner and breakfast, as well as a bath at night and in the morning.

The next day we missioned off for a full days walk. The trek is really different in different places. Sometimes the road is paved with rocks in the ground and sometimes it's just a dirt path. It's really well marked though with signs telling you which road is Kumano kodo and what what really helpful was the signs that siad THIS IS NOT KUMANO KODO. :-) Very useful.

Japanese koru :-)

So we wandered on through mountain towns, saw lot's of shrines and everything. We arrived at a place called Tsugizakura, which seemed awesome. We couldn't find a place to stay so we went off to find a bus stop. We weren't far from a road, so that was handy. We went off to a real onsen town. It has a 1300 year old bath Emperors used to soak in sometimes. We had dinner and bath and then sleep. In the morning, we went in the really old hot pool. It's called Tsuyubo.

I'd somehow bunged my knee a little the day before, so we just did a short work in the morning. We arrived at Hongu Taisha (where we got married) at about 2:00. After going to the temple, we found a great cafe. We had pizza and soup and then lay by the river for a while. I had a little dip, but it was really cold. From there, we found another place to stay, had curry for dinner and then stayed up talking for a while.

The next morning, we bused and trained home. I had prior arrangements to meet Sakura in Osaka, so I went out to do that.

Sakura managed to get tickets to a concert and she needed someone to go, so I was the lucky one. It was a show for a guy called Yamapi, but not the type I would usually go to. The crowd was mostly junior high school girls, many with their mothers.
He is part of an organisation called Johnny and Associates, which has a massive monopoly over the Japanese music industry. When you get selected to join, after first being selected for Johnny's junior you do everything. Johnny's juniors members go to a company school, where they learn to sing, dance and act. They usually join at 11 years old. Once they get famous, they will be in piles of commercials, act in all the dramas and Japanese movies, be on game shows and do music. Anything for exposure. Oh, and they only employ males.

Anyways, so this singer we went to see is also part of a backstreet boys style group, but he now does solo stuff, too.

THe show was pretty amazing, even though the music was rubbish. There was lasers, fireworks, fireballs, floating stages, floating TV monitors and lot's of back up dancers. All the songs are love songs about "one in a million" girls, or about himself and how great he is. The backup dancers co-ordinate the crowds actions. How they should be waving their re glowsticks and everything. They also help you to know when to sing "go, go, Yamapi!" or what have you. Very weird experience seeing "live" music, and having the crowd completely in sync. It actually reminded me a little of 1984 or Brave New World....

Very weird experience but I'm glad I went.

After that, Sakura and I went to a British pub, talked to some people and ended up going to karaoke with them. We stayed a capsule hotel and then in the morning came back to Wakayama. I managed to finish reading Songbird on the train back. That's an amazing book! Mum gave it to me and I've now passed it on to Sakura. Really recommend it.

And that pretty much brings us up to date.

Rest of the holidays look like getting through a pile of study and class preparation. Might pop into a school or two today. Probably get a band practice in as well, seeing as we now seem to have two gigs on the 23rd of March. One during the day at Rub Luck cafe, and then one with a Tokyo songwriter at Taka's cafe in the evening...

Thank you so much everyone for the tea towels and things. I'm sorry I haven't got in contact with people yet. I will do so. I've just been a tad busy.

Will post more photos soon...

Hope all is well!
Cheers
Jim

Wedding Video - Part two

2011-03-25T04:18:00.000-07:00

2011-03-23T02:45:00.001-07:00

Howdy!
So yeah, this is part one of the actual ceremony. I'll post the second half later. It just takes a little while.

Today is the last day of school, so there's no classes. Just the closing ceremony.

All the teachers will be told where they'll be teaching today, so they're a tad nervous. Chie was actually told early that she will be staying at the same job, which is good.

Last night we had band practice and today we have the charity gig.
It's going to be a busy time for us, with the next few days looking like this:
Thursday: charity gig.

Friday: Chie has school drinks.

Saturday: Wedding dinner, for which I'll be making food for nine people. After that, more people will come and it'll be a bit of a party.

Monday: I have Board of Education drinks.

In April and May we also have gigs.

I went to the Board of education yesterday and was told about my new schedule. It looks as though I'll be busier but with slightly less classes. I think it works out that about three days a week I'll be at two different schools, which means biking around a lot. All good though.

I'm in the process now of preparing for next year, as my supervisor has lots of things he wants me to do.

Not really a lot to say. Things are going really well over here. It's my last day of school and actually, as I was reminded this morning, it's my birthday :-)

Anyways, I'm going to get back to organising this gig, party and next years plan.

Cheers
J

Just married

2011-03-21T16:46:00.000-07:00

Howdy folks
How's it going?
So, I got married and such. It also seems as though we're famous or something. Quite a few people seem to have seen us in the newspaper. Pretty nuts...

So, the weekend went a little something like this.
On Saturday, I bought some strawberry plants, mint and parsley. I then planted these on my veranda. I also made bread, copied off 18 CDs for school and did some cleaning. From there, I popped in at Taka's cafe for coffee.

After that, I trained to Gobo (no walking this time) and had dinner at Chie's parents house. Ended up talking to her dad for a pretty good while.

The next day, we drove to Kumano Hongu Taisha. We were early, so we hung around there a little. However, as rain was expected, we started half an hour early. I had two people to help me get my get up on, and Chie had three. From there, we went up to the temple part of it and started taking photos. Many, many photos.
We were wondering where our friends had got to but they showed up just before the end of the photo shoot. Apparently, they'd been told to wait somewhere for us, but no one thought to tell them that we'd started. They got there though and everything was peachy. There were heaps of tourists taking photos of us, too. I think this is because A. I'm a foreigner and B. Because our get ups are really, really traditional. The ones we had aren't worn a lot these days. Inside it's simpler versions or the increasingly popular Western style clothes.

After the first round of photos, we went into a building in front of the temple and I was handed a piece of paper. The piece of paper was kinda like the religious vows, and I was told I'd have to read it. It was pretty difficult and I thought it might have been nice to get hold of it slightly earlier so I could make sure I actually knew what I was saying, and so that I could practice it a bit. Not really how it worked though.

Anyways, so we walked into the temple. Everyone sat down, stood up, bowed, sat down etc. The priest talked for a while and then waved a stick over us with streamers on it. After that, we had three small plates of rice wine each, drinking from the same plate (not at the same time). Each time you drink, you take three sips. When they pour it in three goes. Next, we put the rings on each other, which is something a bit different in a traditional ceremony. Up to the front of the temple next and I said the vows. Chie didn't have to because she's a girl. I mucked up one bit a little. From there, it was back to our seats and after a last drink of rice wine, this time by everyone in attendance, we were married. Between the various activities, there was also talking and chanting from the priest.

I have a video of it, so I'll chuck that up when I get home tonight.

After that, we went outside again, talked to people and bit and took more photos.

Next, we went to the town office and signed up our papers to make it all official.

In the rooms where we got dressed, everyone gathered and we had tea, chatting and photos down with them all.

Once we were all undressed and re-dressed in our normal clothes (without the help of the helpers), the groups parted ways. Chie's family went out for a gathering, and we went out for coffee, then to the hotel and then out for dinner. Taka, Yoshi and Judy couldn't stick around for the night so they went back home, while the rest of us bought some drinks and hung out at the hotel.

Next morning, we woke up, as one often does in the mornings, and went out for coffee. From there, we went back to the restaurant from the night before for lunch, because it was pretty good. We also went there because I left my jacket and hat there. On the way home, Chie and I went to an onsen and then had Yoshinoya for dinner.

Chie has one more day of school today (Tuesday), so she hasn't moved in yet. It'll probably be the 23rd, as she is also helping her mum with some work.

Chie's parent, especially her mum, put a lot of work into the wedding, so Chie wants to help her out. And yeah, that's the weekend.

This week will involve the moving in process, study, work, charity gig preparation, party preparation and stuff so it'll be a little on the busy side. We also need to get together things to give to the people who gave us money.

The way it works over her is that if someone gives us $100, we need to give them a gift or about $50. It's nice but kinda weird. It takes a lot more effort to figure out how much money everyone gave you and then buy gifts for everyone accordingly than to just give money. Weird custom...

Re: my name. At the moment I'm going to unofficially take Chie's name and then change it when I get back to New Zealand. It's too complicated doing it from Japan, especially with all the documentation and stuff that I already have in order to be in Japan.

So yeah, that's that from me.
Will update again tomorrow.

Cheers
James

2011-03-17T16:11:00.000-07:00

Howdy folks
So, yeah, things in Japan... Just want to say thanks to everyone for your messages and checking up on me and all that. I'm quite safe where I am, in the south of Japan. People around here are being told not to worry too much. Just continue on with your life. It doesn't seem like the nuclear power plants in this area have anything wrong with them, so we're not even being asked to conserve power, let alone actually having blackout like some places further north.
In some ways, it seems as though the information that is being put out there is less in Japan than overseas, but it also seems like the international media is going for the kinda sensationalist approach... It's really hard to know what is actually happening. Some embassies are telling everyone to come home. I don't think that's really necessary where I'm at though.

Either way, it's not a good situation and the nuclear things has really eclipsed the tsunami/earthquake side of things. Last night I checked it and it seemed like there were 13000 reported dead. However, that's bound to rise a lot as there a lot of people missing.

Here's a really explanation about what is actually happening within the nuclear reactors.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#42080592

And here is an explanation for kids that they have in Japan.

We're putting on a charity gig for the 24th and there's also a lot of JET's putting in $150 as part of a 'man up for Japan' or something. 'man' being Japanese for 10,000 (yen). I'll be getting in on that, too.

Otherwise, things are chugging along. It's seems like there's a big list of events and such coming up.
20th March: Wedding/ dinner etc after
24th March: Charity gig
26th March: Wedding/ birthdays party
Sometime in May: Wakayama JET party (probably at Ippuku)
After that: Happy Festival

I'm a part of organising all of these..

Also, re: changing my name. I won't officially do that until I get back to New Zealand. I might start unofficially being known as Jisaka though.

Also, I got birthday/ wedding gifts from my Grandparents, parents and Shona/ Jack. Thank you very, very much!

Study is going well and my next project is going to be an attempt at a balanced perspective on the past, present and future of whaling.

Got a few things to get on with. Only one class today so it's a good chance to get on with a bunch of piles of things.

Cheers
Jim

2011-03-14T16:13:00.000-07:00

Hey hey
How's things?
So, first things first. I'm alright. The earthquake, as I'm sure you've all heard about, didn't hit this side of Japan. We had a tsunami warning for a little while but I think that was mainly a precaution. It's pretty scary, but I'm sure you all know that from the news.

The only thing way that we were really affected was that the trains weren't running for a while. That was a result of the tsunami warning being on, rather than what happened further north.

On Saturday, Sakura, Chie and I were hanging out down south a little. We went out for dinner and karaoke. After that, Sakura and I went to get the train home, while Chie drove home, which was close. Realising that the trains weren't running, not being able to get hold of Chie and the fact that a taxi would cost $150, we decided to leg it. So we started out on the 21km trek through the dark mountains of rural Japan at 11 and didn't get back home till 4am. It was pretty interesting but I think it is a result of that that I now have a cold. It is actually getting warmer here, so I consider it unfair that I have a cold just at the end of winter...

During the day on Saturday, I went pretty hard on the cleaning front. I even detached a pipe from under the sink in order to unblock it. On the Friday night, my Board of Education party was canceled due to the earthquake/ tsunami combo and I pretty much spent the evening watching the Japanese news on TV and the English live coverage on Al jazeera online. It was about the first time I've sat down and watched my TV.

On Monday, I had my last day of primary school for the term, which was good. Went out to Italian for Chie's birthday, with Sakura there as well. Chie is hella busy at the moment, so we're planning on just putting birthdays and wedding celebration together in a big mash up. I also went to the Board of Education and was informed of the changes to primary school English, as it's a compulsory subject from April.

- The class is to be known at Foreign Language Activities, not English, even though the textbook is called Eigo Noto (English Note).
- The kids expect it to be an English class and actually want to learn more ENglish in preparation for junior high.
- The Japanese teacher is to participate about 50% in the class, even though most of them are 50 years old and haven't had to use or teach English for 30 years. That's like telling someone, you are now a Maori teacher. Go!
- We have to have lesson planning times before my designated 4 o'clock finish time, which is next to impossible as they have other work to do. However, they are being told to make time, which I think is unfair. At the moment, lesson planning involves a two minute conversation in which I tell them what I'm going to be doing. Beer in mind, some of the kids speak better English than these already overworked teachers.
- There is a big list of things that they want me to teach, that aren't in the textbooks. But they also want me to chuck cultural stuff in, as well as DVDs and CDs. That means I have to cover a lot of English in the one class a week I have with them, as well as the extras bits and pieces.
- The most important thing is to make it fun. I agree with this, but it's hard when you've got so many things to teach. I mean, there aren't many fun ways to teach the months of the year.
- At least five minutes of listening practice every class. Easy.
- As much speaking practice as possible. In a class of 37 or so students of about 11 to 12 years old, this is difficult. They each do a speech and that's the 45 minute class gone. Get them to talk in pairs and they just chat in Japanese. I think I'll be able to do this if I put some structure into the speaking exercise, but I'll never get all of them doing it.

It seems like the way they are structuring this is not like any of those systems, where you learn language as building blocks. It seems as though they made a curriculum by passing a note around the office, getting everyone to write one thing they think kids should learn, and then devised the order by drawing ideas out of a hat. I'm planning on putting together a lesson plan, which may not always be fun, but that will incorporate most of the things that want us to do. I figure if I can do this, print it out and give it the teachers every week, it'll cut down the amount of time we need to talk.

Annnnyway, reading wise, I finished the Communist Manifesto and am now reading a book called Songbird that mum lent me.

I'm working away at my uni course, and am planning on doing a project about whaling.

Hope all is well
Cheers
Jim

2011-03-10T15:14:00.000-08:00

Morning folks
How's things?
Not too much new here.
Had band practice on Wednesday night, which went pretty well. We're practicing a couple of a new songs and some old songs for the gig in April. Was a good evening.

On Thursday, Chie and I went to another onsen. Despite getting slightly warmer a little while back, it actually lightly snowed this morning and seems to be getting colder again. It makes it quite nice to go to the bathes.

Yesterday, I also had my last day at Tsugi primary school, but of the kids graduating only one won't be in my junior high class. It does indicate that the term is wrapping up though. Last day at Hiro primary school today and I'll only have one more day at Tsugi junior high. I think I might pop in at home to put some read on between schools today.

Got the Board of Education party tonight. Other than that, I'm not sure what the weekend has for me. We'll pick up the rings and probably do something...

Here's a couple of photos from my phone...

This is a poster they have up around the primary schools. I think it was funny that they felt it necessary to put cute little faces on everything. I do think that comparatively, New Zealanders are very squeamish about things like poo. I think it's a good think that it's a lot more normalised in Japan. It is afterall, something most people do. I might see if I can get a copy of the poster for argo :-D

These fellas are for use at primary school when weird people come. The idea being that you can use them to pin someone against a wall, out of harms way. I do wonder about the necessity and the effectiveness of them, but we seem to have quite an arsenal...

There are just photos from the Wakayama amusement park we went to in the weekend.

Nothing else really to report.
Hope all is well
Cheers
Jim

2011-03-08T15:14:00.000-08:00

Ohayo!
So, I got good and drunk the night before, so I both look and feel my best for school today. This is not me being irresponsible, it's me doing my duty as a school teacher. The third years had their graduation ceremony yesterday and I'm still actually a little gutted that the way my timetable was put together, I never had any sort of last time with the kids. What can you do though?

Anyways, so we all went out for dinner and drinks last night, which was actually a lot better than most of the other times I've been out with this school. I think they've finally started to realise I can speak Japanese and also understand everything they're saying, which helps. Also, people wanted to know about the wedding, so I could join in with conversations.

They gave me a congratulations and some money, which was cool. Have to give about half of it back in the form of gifts though. They asked me a bit about Chie and where we're going to live, so I did a sorta speech about that. They also asked me what I said to her, so I told them I said it the traditional Japanese way. "Will you make my miso soup for me every morning". They liked that.

After eating and drinking, a few of us went to karaoke. T'was alright.

I've now finish my classes for the day, so I'm going to try to finish up the Japanese test I'm doing at the moment and write about this weeks topic for my uni course.
The questions are:

Does an understanding of deep time, evolution and big history matter? Can it help us to deal with the challenges and opportunities we now face as a species?

Pretty interesting stuff. I've also got to think up a topic for my project...

If you're interested, I have another blog that I use for the course. I don't know if it's very interesting, but there's a link to it HERE and on that page there's also a link to my WEBFOLIO, which also is probably not that exciting.

Band practice after school. Continue with more cleaning. I'm back to reading the Communist Manifesto after finishing up Songs for the Return Home, which was really good.

Rest of the week looks like a Board of Education party on Friday, but not too much else.

Hope all is well with you all
Cheers
Jim

2011-03-06T15:10:00.000-08:00

Morning all
How's things?
I'm chugging along with uni and Japanese study here. The weekend was alright. On Saturday, Chie and I watched Ray, went out for dinner, went to an onsen and stuff. On Sunday, we went with Sakura to Marina City. Marina City is a theme park in Wakayama. There were some cool rides and I actually liked it better that Universal Studios and Disneyland. You didn't have to wait for a two hours to get on a ride and they don't both with all the character stuff. In some ways it was actually pretty budget, but the rides were slightly more interesting. Some of them last all of 15 seconds, but there was a cool roller coaster where carts spun around as it went.

There was also all this fake Italian town stuff, which I think they did okay.

After that, we found a cafe and had waffles and coffee. The coffee was actually good, which is rare in Japan.
Chie and I also bought a bread cooker and while Chie did some work, I did some hardcore cleaning. Chie's mum wants to come over sometime, so I want to make sure it's all clean by then. Also, as Chie will be moving stuff in, I figure I best make some room for her. We're going to have a bit of a throw out and put transfer stuff to the closets an things. It's all not particularly exciting, but these things need to be done.
I've got no classes today, so I figure I'll be trying to get through some Japanese and uni stuff. Also, I'll be working on some lyrics and some class planning.

Other than that, not to much to really say.
It's Oliver's birthday today, so a shout out to him!

That's that for me I guess.
Cheers
J

2011-03-03T15:12:00.000-08:00

Howdy everyone!
Sorry for the lateness of this post. Been another busy week.
For starters, we've now canceled going to China. This is a bit of a wait off my chest, but it's also a massive waste of money and kinda sucks. We got about two thirds of what we put in back. It sucks especially because of the reasons why we canceled it. Mostly to do with the inflexibility of a stupid system.

Last weekend, we drove down to Hongu, which is three hours away, to dress up and take photos. I wonder how true this tradition is to Japanese tradition, and how much is newly developed culture aimed at spending money. There seems like a lot of "traditional" stuff that has arisen in recent years to provide businesses with money.

It was fun though and there's some cool photos laying around. I'll get a copy of the professional photos soon, but will post some from my camera up. Think most people have already seen them though.

After that, we went to a bar we hadn't been to before with Taka. They have a bit of live music there, so we're thinking about maybe organising something. Chie accidentally consumed more drinks than she thought... :-0

On Sunday, we went to an onsen, which was pretty choice. It sat opposite the sea.
We also went for a pretty massive drive and order some rings. They'll be sized up soon, and we'll be all go.

Wedding things are pretty busy, more so for Chie than I though.

I was given $150 by the teachers at one of my schools, which is nice. Due to custom though, it means I have to give them a return gift valuing approximately $75 (half the monetary gift). Weird system and it applies to all money given on weddings. The couple is always given money, not things to use in their new life together. They then have to give presents out... This system also applies to funerals, although the half rule doesn't necessarily apply, I don't think.

Had a big week of classes at primary school, which is always tiring. Missed out on my last class ever with my third years at junior high, which is kinda sad. I had to hand over my NZ presents to the other teacher to dish out. On the plus side, it does mean I missed out on the awkward last words to the class.
I'm also not going to their graduation ceremony, as again, I have primary school scheduled. What can ya do though.

On other days and places in time I've been doing things such as:
Appearing as an extra on a show at Taka's cafe with some ultra-famous Japanese actress that I don't know. Talked to hear for about ten minutes after. Famous people aren't all that different to real people. If anything, she seemed slightly dull, but who knows.
Went to a small restaurant for dinner the other night, as I couldn't be bothered heading out to the supermarket. There I ended up talking to the scoddy (scody, skoudy? how do you write it?) dentist who seems to be always hitting on girls, whenever I see him out drinking.
Talked to brother Thomas for a good length of time on Skype.
Had a jam with Taka. We're working on some new songs, which are coming along. Might have a drummer or two lined up aswell, so that should be cool. The jam ended up in a conversation about girls and philosophy, but we got some work done first.

The uni course I'll be doing looks pretty interesting. The first weeks theme and general theme for the uni goes a little something like this:

At no other time in history have recent past actions been so salient to present and future prospects. This topic introduces the importance of understanding our evolutionary origins and history as the dominant species on the planet, for understanding where we are now and where we are heading.

I'm also chugging away at Japanese and even reading a book in Japanese, which is pretty cool.

Last night, I went to the supermarket and then met up with Cain and Sakura, who were aboutto go jogging. I joined them and I think the inclusion of guy in clompy heeled boots and a leather jacket, coupled with Cains hoody made us look like we were on the run. T'was alright though. After that I made wasabi-soy chicken and mash potatoes (my own recipe) at Sakura's and we shot the breeze.

Plans for the weekend look slim. Chie will come over on Saturday, but I'm not sure what we'll be up to. Got various things to do in terms of preparation and such, so we'll do that I guess.

Might end up hanging with Taka or someone or something. Who knows? Tonight I think I'll put together another batch of bread in the rice cooker. My success with the last round made me think it's time to start fleshing out ideas. Busting some seeds into it an all that. Made rock in some basil.

Next week is going to be killer tiring. As the term wraps up, the end of year celebrations start. I have to go out on school/ board of education related drinking on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. Still have classes and stuff though. All the other teachers are only affiliated with one school, so they do it once. I'm different.

Not something I'm particularly looking forward to. It's usually dull as I always managed to draw the number from the hat that puts me with the dullest teachers and I end up drinking on my own. It's kinda dumb, but it's not my place to criticize Japanese culture. (Don't tell Chie that).

Anyways, I think I'll leave it at that. I've got plenty of other things to look into and do, although that are noticeably less.
I hope this finds you all well
Cheers
Jim

2011-02-24T15:12:00.000-08:00

Hey hey
So, Christchurch... It's been front page news here for a few days. I get asked about it a lot, but I don't really know a lot about what's happening with the people I know. I've been following it though, and it's really scary.
Taka, who was in the Kobe earthquake in 1995, has got behind it and is collecting donations to send to the red cross.

I'm managing to pile (or have things piled upon me) to make my life over the next few weeks very busy. I don't even know where to start with it all.

I got a call from Chie yesterday to say that her Board of Education is being quite dumb. As I've mentioned before, the teachers in Japan are told on the 24th of March whether they will be continuing on a their current school, or being changed to some other school. They like to have a good re-shuffle, but as you can imagine it doesn't exactly make things easy for either the students or the teachers. Just a cloud of uncertainty that hangs around.
So anyway, as Chie is not a fully fledged teacher, she is going to be told on the 28th or March. This phone call cannot be changed. If she doesn't answer it on the 28th, she'll find it very difficult to continue her job. It can't be her parents either. After the call, she has to go to the Board of Education and say formally say "hi". Again, this has to be on the 28th.

That's all fine and well, but on the 28th we had planned to be in China. Chie talked to one of her principals about this problem and this conclusion was reached by him and the Board of Education. It seems to make less sense to put the phone call forward two days than it does to change the tickets. There shall be no flexibility.

So, now to add to my list of China related things, I need to change the tickets and hope that this doesn't jack the price up too much. Very dumb system.

On to a completely different thing. The big TV network in Japan wants to do a little thing about Yuasa and are going to be filming in Taka's cafe. They want to do it on Monday, which is the only day he's not open. As everyone around here knows this, he needs some customers. I have no classes on in the afternoon on that day (which is strange for me), so I'm going to try and take the afternoon off to act as a customer. I've talked to the TV representative twice, and they're quite keen on having a foreigner in there, so that should be alright.

I have also just found out after coming into the office that my last class with the 3rd years, who are about to graduate, has been scheduled over a day on which I have primary school. This means, that I have had my final class with them, but none of us knew about it. It also means that I need to figure out what to do with the small NZ gifts that were to be given out to the students who filled up their point sheets. I won't be at this school again until after the kids have graduated, as I've also had the graduation ceremony booked over by another school. Pretty much means that because of the timetable my amateur supervisor has put together, I won't really be seeing those kids in school again.

The other problem with the gifts, on top of the fact that I won't be there to give them out and will have to come in out of work hours to pass them on to the teacher, is that I now realise that my 9 classes consisting of 195 students have been promised stuff. I'll need to figure out some sort of rationing system. That's only one school, too. Forget about having enough for any of the other kids, which means I think be copying a bunch of CDs...

Got a text yesterday from Yoshi, saying we are playing live in April. This means we need to finish writing some of our new songs and practice them. We're playing with some singer/ songwriter from Tokyo.

Here is short summary of my next few days, more for my benefit than yours.

Friday:
Classes at two schools.
Go to the Board of Education for the weekly meeting my supervisor wants to do.
Try to get the time off on Monday to help out at Taka's cafe.
Ring the travel agent to find out about what'll cost to change the tickets, and we'll also probably want to check how much money we'll get should we be forced to cancel.
Talk to Chie about what we're going to do.

Saturday:
Drive the three hours to Hongu to take the wedding photos, then drive the three hours back. Why we need to take the wedding photos a month before the wedding, I don't know. Why we're doing it so far away, I also don't know.
Buy wedding rings.
Go to a gig.

Sunday:
Uni course starts.
Band practice and figuring our what we're going to do for the gig.

Monday:
School.
TV programme thing.

I've probably missed out a bunch of things, but that7s what I can think of off the top of my head.
Also on my list of things to do is:
- Do the reading for uni before Sunday.
- If we are still going to China, book hotels so that I can write them on my visa application so I can actually get into the country.
- Send the visa application.
- Re-size engagement ring that my Grandparents sent us.
- Figure out "at least a little something small" for all 195 students at one school, and probably something for kids at other schools.
- Do my monthly Japanese test and write an essay about learning Japanese.
- Prepare a big pile of classes for next week.
- Book hotel for the wedding and figure out who is actually coming.
- Reply to a bunch of emails from people I haven't been in contact with for ages, asking about the Christchurch earthquake.
- Still got to tell some people in NZ about getting married.

I think I'm going to have to print this out to keep track of everything, as a lot of it needs to be done sooner rather than later.

Anyways, that's my woe-is-me moan. Sorry it's not interesting but I'm feeling a little stressed. The Christchurch quake has also kinda put me on my toes a little. It's a really big blow and the lack of news from people I know couple with the rising death toll is quite worrying. I'm sure everyone I know is okay, but it's still a big deal and I wish I could do something to help.

Anyways, I need to get back onto some of these things.
Hope all is well
Cheers
J

2011-02-21T15:39:00.000-08:00

Kia ora, folks
Things in Japan are swimming along at the moment. I'm keeping pretty busy with wrapping up the term and getting ready for the start of the new one, which starts in April. There'll be changes to the people I'm teaching with, as that's what they do in Japan, but no one will know until the last day of term, March 24.
I'm thinking about putting a little test together for primary school students to see how much of the start of the stupid textbook I can skip. I think it's supposed to be there to show the students that they actually know a lot of English because it's so prevalent within the Japanese language, but it does mean I spend a lot of time teaching them things they already know. This means that the 5th graders (as it is their textbook) get restless quite. Doesn't help that two of my three 5th grade classes have about 37 students. Next year, at one school it'll be up to 39 students. It's just ridiculous.

Other than that, I'm two thirds of my way through the JET Japanese tests, which is nice. I just want to get them out of the way. It would be great if I could clean the remaining two out before my post-grad course starts on the 28th, but I still haven't received the 6th book. Having said that, the book I finished yesterday isn't due till March 15, so I'm at least keeping ahead...

I'm reading Lucky Jim at the moment. It's a really good book and I recommend it.

The weekend wasn't really, really eventful. Hung out with Taka, Chie, Maiko and her friend at Taka's cafe. We had a little jam over a song he's been writing. I've also been working on some songs lately, so once this whole wedding and China business blows over and I've got the swing of my uni course, we'll record our next album. Might try and get some more gigs, too.

On a ginger craze, as of late, I ended up making ginger juice and am brewing some ginger ale at the moment. he yeast should be all gone by the time I get home, so I'll report on it tomorrow. The pressure in the bottle is up though, so that's cool. If this works, I'm going to try to make an alcoholic version and also bread in my rice cooker. The ginger/ lime/ lemon juice is really nice :-)

I'm trying to think of ways to cut down household expenses, and also to get better at making things for myself. I don't want to have to buy every ready made product I consume. It's fun and rewarding. You should try it :-D

Had dinner at Sakura's house in the weekend, too. Was good.

Plans for the week... None to many, really. Work on songs, study, drive three hours to Hongu for wedding related stuff, buy the rings we decided on, work and work prep, reading, record speaking test, make next years test, mail the insurance form I got yesterday to NZ to say that actually I did end up receiving the engagement ring etc. Also, book hotel in Hongu for people to stay at the wedding, book a Chinese hotel so that I can write that on my visa application, which I can then send in. Really, I just have a big to-do list that I'm trying to work through, but at the same time trying to find creative ways of procrastinating, ie playing with ginger.

I shall be back here tomorrow.
Until then
Toodles
Jam

2011-02-17T15:13:00.000-08:00

Howdy howdy
How's things?
As usual, not too much to report. School is pretty busy but it's Friday, so that is cool. I have to go to the Board of Education for the third time this week though, as my supervisor is all over the place.
I can't remember if I said this, but I'm apparently owed about $1200, as I've been paying too much tax or insurance or something. I was told this last week and asked to come on Tuesday. I went on Tuesday and my supervisor hadn't done the forms right so he asked me to bring him a document that he'd given me the previous week. So, I went again on Wednesday but though he'd told me to come, he wasn't even there. Today, I also need to ask him for the millionth time about Jonathon's pension money. This has been on-going for a long time now. It's gotten to the point that he's trying to reassure me that everything is okay, but that Jonathon should have got the money about four months ago. In fact, he probably should have got it about a year and four months ago, but that's beside the point.

I don't think it really helps that changing jobs is something forced on teachers by the Wakayama Board of Education. My current supervisor was a teacher until recently, and has no idea about what to do in the Board of Education. He was a really, really good teacher as well, so he's been gutted about the forced change. My previous supervisor is know a vice-principal at some school.

I'm going to try to get both of their email addresses today so I can pass it on to Jonathon.

Other than that, I received my great, great grandmothers engagement ring in the post the other day. They decided that it would be necessary to tax me $400 or so for it, but it arrived safe and sound, which is what counts. It's a bit big for Chie, so we'll be getting it re-sized at a proper place, rather than a department store ring shop.

Practiced some bass with Chie last night and just hung out. Might have a jam with Taka tonight, but don't really have too much in terms of plans for the weekend yet. Want to keep the spending down as it's going to be an expensive little while, what with getting married and going to China and all.

Anyways, that's about that for me.
Thanks for reading!
Hope all is well
Chur
Jim

2011-02-15T15:12:00.000-08:00

Howdy
Reporting in for the second day in a row. I'm not sure this blog has become very interesting, but I still think it's a good record. Not even sure if anyone's is actually reading it, but that's okay.

Since last time, I have been to the last English conversation class until September. Good to be through with it, but it was fun. Went out for some drinks after, which was also good.

After school I also helped some kids with practice for an English conversation exam, which I'll do today as well. After that I'll pay some bills and go to the board of education, so it's a pretty exciting day. Chie's coming over later though, so that's cool.

When I came into the staffroom today, I coughed a couple of times and so was told to wear a facemask. Pretty much everyone is wearing them as everyone is sick, but it makes me feel sicked than I am. I just cough occasionally but the makes, which restricts my breathing, pushes my breath up into my eyes and condensates on the inside makes my face wet, makes me feel sicker than I am. I'm not really sure it really does much good, but these disposable masks are really big in Japan. Apparently, as the third years are about to graduate, they definitely can't get sick, so every precaution is necessary.

I got a call from my Grandad this morning at 6. He went to track the ring that he sent only to be told that they didn't know where it was. The next day he was asked to fill out an insurance form. I happen to know it is in Japan and will be arriving soon, so that is good, but it seems a bit slack on someones part. It's a hundred plus year old ring so getting a call saying "we lost it" is quite lame.
Anyway, it's not lost so that is good.

Don't really have much else to say.
Things are busy, which is good but tiring.
Hope all is well.
Cheers
Jim

2011-02-14T15:13:00.000-08:00

Howdy all
Sorry for the late one. It's been pretty hectic round here. I had a killer cold, which is still in the process of finishing up. It kept me up a few times as I'd have a little coughing fit when I lay down. Bit dumb but it seems to be mending up.
It doesn't help that it's still ridiculously cold. It's not even supposed to snow in Wakayama, but it has been. Yesterday it was nuts. I rode home on my bike in the snow and got soaked. Probably not real helpful for the cold...

What is helpful for the cold though, is that I made made honey, lemon and ginger syrup yesterday. Just slap a table spoon of it in a cup with a chunk of boiling water and you gots some sweet tea :-)

Other than that, I've been to karaoke with Taka and the crew, which was cool. Been to the public baths twice and managed to see two fully-tattooed Yakuza in one. Went to a meeting at Taka's cafe for this years Happy Festival, too. Also, watched Waynes World with Chie. It's been pretty good.

Things seem to be falling into place a bit. Got my certificate from NZ to say that there's no impediment to marriage and I'm almost through my Chinese visa. The ring that my Grandparents have sent will be here in 2-3 days, but Japan wants to tax it. Chie tried to explain that it's a gift and it hasn't been bought for a hundred years, but they were like "still, we want your money. When it's delivered, if you have $300 on you, that should probably cover it". Pretty dumb but sometimes you have to play by their rules...
However, I've been told that someone stuffed up the tax I've been paying up until now and that they owe my $1000 or so, so in typical Japanese fashion, I'll go to the Board of Education today to pick in up in cash, rather that getting it put into my account. It should help with the purchase of wedding bands though, so that's good.

Got my Japanese test sent in and am halfway through the next one. Wanna get it sent off before my IHS course starts on the 28th of Feb.

Today, I've got the last English conversation class for the term.
Other than that, this week doesn't have too much planned.
I only have three classes today, which is nice as it gives me some time to get on with a few things. It's been two weeks since I've only had three classes. Strange, cause some English teachers only do two a day.

Anyways, I best be getting on with a few things.

Hope all is well
Chur
Jim

2011-02-08T20:24:00.000-08:00

Hey hey
How's tricks?
Ended up going to English class last night, but Sakura was off sick. It went pretty well though. I got two valentines day chocolates from old women :-D Afterwards I went to Cain's and we hung there for a while.
Today has been pretty busy. Five classes at junior high. I did manage to find some forms for my Chinese visa application and get through most of them. Have to send that away soon. Also got my Lonely Planet China book and a traveler's Mandarin book ordered.
Really nothing very exciting at all going on. My cold is getting a bit better and Friday is a public holiday, so that's not too bad. Don't know what to do with the weekend yet. I might go to Taka's place after work today, but I'm not sure.

And yeah, that's about that.
Chur
Jim

2011-02-07T15:09:00.000-08:00

Hey hey
Sorry, long time no post. Been a tad busy and I also caught a cold, which is lame.
Last week I was at primary school most of the time, which was fun but tiring. It's hard to believe some JETs only do two classes a day. I've been averaging five, as of late.

Things of late... In the weekend I went to Hongu, which is a three hour drive away, to look at clothes for the wedding. It's pretty funky. I've got so much stuff to do over the next few days though, so it was good to get that done.
I might just list a few of the things so I can refer back later.
- Write two short Japanese essays for my course, by hand.
- Organise hotel for wedding
- Organise people coming
- Decide what to do about last names
- Buy the rings we decided on
- Get visa for China
- Organise some places to stay in China
- Lesson planning
- Buy Lonely Planet China
- English conversation class tonight

I also want to start reading some books about English education, linguistics and teaching. I did, however, finish reading Anna Karenina and the Mutuwhenua. I'm reading travel writings from Karl Pilkinton at the moment, which is funny.

Got my normal three classes today at Taikyu junior high, as well as a class with primary school students experiencing English at junior high.

So, things are a bit on the busy side, and it doesn't help having this cold.

Otherwise, I've had a talk to my folks and Grandparents on the phone, which is always nice:-)
Been to karaoke and dinner with people. Hung out with Taka and some people from NHK, which is the big TV network in Japan. I've also been trying to convinve Japanese teachers that you can use words like "bus" as verbs. You don't have to say, "I come to school by bus" (as no one does) but can say "I bus to school". They didn't learn it and it's not in the textbook, so they won't teach it though... Having said that though, this is a country where if you spell "colour" with a "u", you'll be marked as wrong, so I can't expect too much...

One of the students smoked in the bathroom the other day. At least ten teachers went to have a smell of the bathroom and came back, individually confirming that it was so. Was kinda funny...

So yeah, I just keep chugging on. Got to get though a bit though, so I'll leave it there.
I'll post back tomorrow, probably.
Chur
James

2011-02-01T18:21:00.000-08:00

Howdy howdy
How's things?
Japan is chugging along. In the weekend, I went to Osaka with Chie and Sakura to see The 5678s. They were in that movie Kill Bill, but hardly anyone knows them in Japan. The show was really, really good. It'd been a while since I've been to a gig like that. It's mostly been sitdown events lately, so it was wicked to go and have a groove to some rock'n'roll chicks.

Chie took to the mosh pit like a duck to water. She was dancing on the stage at one stage and got to shake all of their hands. Pretty cool :-)

Other than that, it looks like Chie and I will be having two weeks in China instead of Turkey. Just figure it's cheaper and closer, so we might as well since we're on this side of the world at the moment.

Otherwise I'm still looking over various educational things. I've decided I want to build up a patchwork of experiences and qualifications aimed at promoting a "multicultural community through understanding, education and development." It gets speech marks as something along those lines could work well on a CV:-) It also makes it sound like the various things I've dabbled in do actually go together.

Anyways, I actually don't have too much to say.
I'm mostly at primary school this week so I probably won't be back in till Tuesday.
Hope all is well
Chur
Jim

2011-01-27T17:01:00.000-08:00

Hey folks
How's it all going?
We had a bit of trouble in school the other day. A few students have started using their compasses (maths compasses, not directional) to scrape the black covering off their school uniform buttons, to reveal the shiny colour beneath. I overheard one student being told it was dangerous, as the reflection could blind drivers...

Two students got a real good telling off for it though. One teacher blew his top about it, and I saw him grabbing a student by his collar, pushing him up against a wall and shouting. He then took that student and another one to this small room. I couldn't see what was happening but there was a lot of shouting.

I asked another teacher what she thought about it and she said she didn't agree with his was of handling the situation, but that's just how it is. I told her that teacher would probably be fired in New Zealand. Technically, you're not allowed to hit students in Japan these days, but there are all sorts of things they get away with. Even if they did hit a student, I don't think most teachers would get in trouble for it. Japan also has a really bad record of teachers KILLING or maiming students in judo. I read one thing lately about how a student tried to skip judo practice but was caught by the coach. The coach made the 13 or 14 year old take part in a judo match with him. After knocking the kid unconscious, he stopped. When the kid regained consciousness, he started again. Giving the kid permanent brain damage. The teachers punishment. He was forced to quit the current school.... and begin at another one! He was after-all kinda famous in the judo world, so even if things like that happen, schools are still proud to have a famous judo person coach their students. Over the 27-year period, between 1983 and 2009, 108 students died in school related judo incidents. That figure doesn't include outside school incidents, such as private judo dojos. Pretty hardcore...

Anyways, Japan can be kinda nuts.

Otherwise, not much new to report. Having a jam/ fish n chip party thing at Taka's tonight ,with the local crew. On Saturday night, Chie, Sakura and I are going to see The 5.6.7.8s in Osaka, which should be awesome :-)

Still chugging along with study, lesson planning, teaching, music, reading etc.

Hope all is well
Chur
Jum

2011-01-25T17:42:00.000-08:00

Hey hey
How's it all?
Nothing much new round here. Went to English conversation class last night, which was pretty fun. The old ladies there are real funny :-) There's only 12 classes a year though, with two more until the next term.
After that went out for a few beers.

Today and tomorrow are my busy days, so I pretty much have classes all the way through. Going alright though. Getting bits of Japanese study in between classes, too.

What else... Well, here's a clip from our last gig.

Also, not going to go on about it, but I can't say I approve of this new privitisation of state assets... Seems like another round of long term gains being lost for short term cash. It's kinda scary...

Anyways, that's me.
Chur
j

2011-01-24T15:29:00.000-08:00

Hey hey
How's it all cracking?
So, things of late. Looks like we're going to be getting married on March the 20th. It's just going to be a small, Japanese style ceremony mostly for the taking of photos, but with the aim of having a bigger thing in New Zealand. It's pretty exciting.

The other thing we're thinking is to have a little trip away together. At the moment, we're looking at 9 days in Turkey from the 26th of March, which will be most of the spring holidays. Might pop over to Greece in that time, but there's a lot to see and do in Turkey, so we'll see how it goes. It's $1500 return to Turkey, which surprised me. I'm so used to having to add an extra $1000 to any equations, as when leaving from New Zealand you have to leave from the bottom (or the top) of the world.

The other travel on the brain waves is Thailand. Lately I've been thinking if I actually want to do the course there, or if I'll just do the course another time, say in New Zealand, and just travel. I could also do a different TESOL course online, so that's what I'm mulling over. If I didn't do the course, we'd probably go for two or three weeks, hitting Vietnam, Cambodia etc as well. However, I'm putting together plans for getting married and all the things that come with that, such as living together, as well as a Turkey trip, so Thailand is just a tentative plan at the moment.

In other news, I've officially been given an extension of a year, so I'll be back in New Zealand half way through next year.

As of late, I've just been hanging out with Chie, doing a bit of Japanese study, reading, music and meeting up with people here 'n' there. I'm helping Chie learn up some Janis Joplin lyrics, as she wants to do have a crack at karaoke. We're also thinking that maybe we could do some in the band, with Chie singing :-) I've learnt my first two Janis Joplin songs on the guitar, which are pretty fun. We've both been listening to Slade a lot, too. Chie really likes the guys voice and the lyrics are pretty easy, so she can pick up a lot :-)

Ooooootherwise, not much else happening. Just chugging along with teaching, which is fine. I've gotten into the swing of it, so I don't have to put too much effort into it. Still hanging out with the kids, but try to limit the amount of throwing them around. Had a good game of hide-n-seek with two six year old's yesterday. Good times.

Anyways, that's about that for me for now.
Hope all is well
Chur
Jimmy

2011-01-20T16:48:00.000-08:00

'ello 'ello!
How's it going?
Nothing much new to report. Just chugging along with teaching and things.
It does look like I might be getting married up and stuff on about the 20th of March in a temple. I get to wear a 12 layered kimono for it, and Chie's parents are going to pay for it all. Neither of us really want to make much of a thing about it, but they want to do the hardcore traditional thing. Should be interesting though. Hopefully I can get a chance to take some videos of us dressed up funny and make a music video out of it :-)

Other than that, I've been playing Janis Joplin on guitar and am in the final stages of Anna Karenina. It's so big and goes into so much detail that you do kinda get sucked in, but the stories not really interesting enough to want to power through it... Some people reckon it's up there in the best novels, but I'm yet to form that opinion... Gonna to do some shorter books next.

So, I'm thinking about maybe signing up for the one week practical teaching course in teaching English, and then have two weeks traveling around. See how it goes though.

Hope all is well
Chur
Jimmy

2011-01-18T15:41:00.001-08:00

Hello hello
How's it going?
So, as of late I've just been planning lessons, teaching, playing guitar and reading and such. Not too exciting. I talked to my ma and Thomas on the phone last night, which was rad. I then hung out with Chie and we practiced some English with the help of Futurama and Janis Joplin. I also made pizza :-)

It's pretty lame for her at the moment, as she has to commute home every night. However, I think it's going to be in the gap between March and April that we start living together, so it's only a little wait. We'll have to get married and stuff, so that's when we'll probably do it. It's pretty nuts but I reckon we can make it work. She's a pretty cool chick and we have fun:-)
Will give the Grandparents a call tonight.

In other news, I'll probably be seeing The 5678s (the band from Kill Bill) play in Osaka. Should be awesome!

Nothing else much to report.
Hope all is well
Chur
James

2011-01-17T15:23:00.000-08:00

Howdy howdy
How's all going?
First, a shout out to Thomas, who has just had his 18th birthday! :-)
So, first off the gig went pretty well. We played original songs for half an hour. 7 of mine and one of Taka's. Here's one of my songs

I'll put up some more later.

There were about 7 groups that ended up playing, including a really good blues duo. It was funny listening to him trying to get the lyrics for Muddy Waters and Robert Johnson songs though. If you didn't speak English, it would sound fine but if you know the songs and speak English, he sorta stumbled over a lot of it. Really good guitarist though :-)

It was a real good night and there musicians from Wakayama City and Osaka there, so everyone was pretty good.

Other than that, I bought a new guitar. It's a Japanese-made, semi-acoustic guitar and I got a Vox practice amp, which is surprisingly loud when the gain is on. I'll post a video or photo of the guitar sometime. It's pretty fun to play :-)

In the weekend I also went to an onsen with Chie and she finished her primary school license tests, so that's cool. We're going to start stepping up the English now that that's all done. Sunday, it also snowed for a good portion of the day. It didn't stick around in Wakayama but it did in Kyoto, where Chie had the test. It's been quite cold as of late.

I also met up with Cain, Ikuho, Cain's brother, his wife, Judy and Sakura for yakiniku and then karaoke. It was pretty epic :-)

Study wise, I'm putting together various things towards to my on-going education.
This year I'll be doing:
* Integrated Human Studies papers toward my post grad certificate.
* Japanese study towards proficiency level 2.
* Japanese study towards these dumb JET books.
* Teaching English study with hopefully a practical component in Thailand.
* I'm also looking at doing an online course to get NAATI accreditation as a Japanese interpretor.

Should keep me busy for a little while :-)

Other than that, not a lot more to report. Just chugging away at the teaching thing. I also signed my form for continuing on here till July, 2012. I'm calling it quits after that though.

Hope all is well
Cheers for reading
Jimmy

2011-01-13T15:05:00.000-08:00

Howdy howdy
Last day of my first week back! It's been alright.
I still feel kinda distant from my 3rd year students at Taikyu junior, but that's mostly because their focused on exam related and not interesting stuff, I haven't had classes with them in ages and when I do, the other teacher doesn't give me much to do. I'm sort of getting used to it though...

Last night I went to Taka's cafe for a chat. We ended up having another one of those long conversations that start from a discussion about say "it's hard to write lyrics when everything is going pretty well" and it's up snaking around from international problems, domestic Japanese problems, Japanese education and then ends up at religion and the why we are here. It was pretty cool :-)

Plans for the next few days look like tonight might involve dinner and karaoke with Cain, his brother and wife, who are in Japan at the moment. Saturday will be band practice and Sunday will be the show at Taka's cafe. I'm also probably going to go buy some new strings and look at electric guitars sometime in there, too...

Sunday however looks like it's going to have a high of 4 degrees and a low of -2...

This morning was pretty chilly, too. Apparently it's the coldest winter on record, just like how this summer was the hottest.

So yeah, nothing too much to report.
Cheers
Jimmy

2011-01-11T15:19:00.000-08:00

Hey hey
So, things are chug-a-lugging along swimmingly.
Last night I had English conversation class and dinner with Sakura, made a DVD of a few New Zealand ads and the photos from my trip and then played Age of Empires.
Other than that, I've been teaching, planning, making a CD cover, looking into how Chie and I will be able to live together and am heading towards the end of Anna Karenina. It's a good book but it's not particularly exciting. It's kinda 800 pages of a few peoples kinda dull relationships. I shall persevere though!

In other news, I read that a Japanese junior high school teacher was after investigation, found to be a stalker. After sending heaps of emails to her at all hours of the night, calling her "human garbage" and even going round to her house, it was deemed necessary to discipline him. The punishment came in the form of a verbal warning and continues to teach her... Japan can be a little weird like that.

In terms of plans for this year, I'm going to keep going with my post grad certificate in Integrated Human Studies, as well as the Japanese proficiency test. I've also been looking at a programme for learning to teach English. It's half online and half classes, with a practical component. I would have to spend at least two weeks of my summer holidays in Thailand though... :-) There's a bunch of cool looking programmes and not only are they not too expensive, but I would probably be able to get leave to go without using up my holiday leave. It's teacher related travel :-) So yeah, that's kinda food for thought. That'd make me a qualified ESOL teacher, with three years of teaching in Japan experience :-)

After this gig on Sunday, I think we're going to start working on the next album, which should be fun.

I've got a few bits and pieces to catch up on now, so I'll leave it at that. Bit all over the place but I've been trying to write this while doing a pile of other things and it isn't really working.
Cheers
Jim

2011!

2011-01-10T16:30:00.000-08:00

And I'm back

Happy new year, akemashite omedetou and all that.

At taikyu junior high for the 3rd and last term of the year. It's just a short one, so that's cool. Man, it's cold though! We had the new term assembly this morning and just seeing all the kids, especially the girls in their skirts, they were just freezing. Apparently it was about minus 2 or 3 degrees this morning...

This morning has been a strong reminder that I'm in Japan. The assembly started with a talk by the principal where he was saying that he knows it cold but try to come to school everyday with the attitude that your going to try your best. I think this is probably easier said that done, seeing as the kids are frozen when they get in as they either walk to school or ride a bike there. The classrooms aren't exactly real warm either... In comparison to the teachers who drive to school and then sit around in a really warm staffroom, it's kinda lame for them.

After that there was a speech about how the theme for this term is to have no one late for school. Apparently last term there were four instances where students were late to school, so the teachers want to make it zero. Seems a very different attitude to New Zealand..

Then after the assembly, I had another reminder I was in Japan when I was trying to discuss tomorrows lesson with a female teachers, and though many of the male teachers were sitting around doing nothing, she was asked to make coffee for the principal and someone.

But yeah, New Zealand was really good. It was great to see everyone and Chie had a blast. I might write more on it later but I've got a few things to get on with.
On Sunday we're playing live so I need to put together some form of cover for our CD, got to finish and send off the latest Japanese test I've been doing, plan the next few lessons, which involves writing a listening exercise and questions to answer about my NZ trip. I've also got to make a DVD of my NZ photos to accompany it and plan all my other classes. Tonight I've got English conversation class, too.

It's good to to get right back into it all cause it forces me to get out of holiday mode and back to work mode.

Will write again tomorrow.
Cheers
Jim

2010-12-21T15:31:00.000-08:00

Hey hey
So, this is my last day of school for the year and what I also expect to be my last post of the year. I am at school today and have six classes, but after that I am bound for New Zealand!
Had a cool night yesterday. Hung out with Cain, Sakura, Ikuho, Chie and Taka at Taka's cafe. We had fish'n'chips, which was rad and then Taka, Chie and I continued talking till about 1. Packing and preparation is all pretty much done, so that's cool.
However, Chie has been in the wars a little. She managed to sip down some stairs yesterday on account of the rain and slipperyness... She seems alright but I her tailbone hurts a little. She also woke up with a slightly swollen eye. As she has no classes today, she's going to pop into the doctors to make sure it's not anything.
She's pretty hard-case though, so I'm sure she'll be alright. Poor thing...

I'm quite glad I'm heading to NZ. I think I really need a little break from this town. I'm really enjoying it, but it'll be nice to have a holiday and get out for a bit. Only thing is that it's that time of year when everyone is getting out, so it seems like a lot of people aren't going to be in Wellington... Guess that's just the way these things happen though. I'm still pumped about coming.

I'll be into Wellington at 7:15am on the 24th, so it's going to be a long little while till then, but should be sweet.

Anyways, gots to get onto classes and such so I'll call it quits for the year now.
See y'all soon!
Cheers
Jimmy

2010-12-20T15:17:00.000-08:00

Howdy howdy
How's it all going?
So, we're getting pretty close to that time where we'll be leaving. Chie has already told her parents that she's gone as she has no classes left. Means she can stay at my place till we leave :-)
I'm getting a bit excited and a little nervous. I hope all the airport stuff will work out alright. It's not flying that scares me, it's the bureaucracy surrounding it. That and it still makes me a tad weary booking online and then just bringing a printed out piece of paper to the airport. Apparently I can even check in online up to two day before leaving. It's a weird concept, so I think I'll just do it at the airport...

On the other side of things, here's a little crack I had at writing a song in Russian :-)

I had kindy yesterday, which was pretty fun. Those kids are real hyperactive but I'm starting to get used to being climbed like a tree... After work, Chie and I just stayed in and watched Animal Farm. After that, Chie did some knitting and I did some reading, while listening to Pink Floyd. Sounds kinda sad but it was good :-)
Gonna have a jam with Taka tonight, I think.

Other than that, I had a school party on Friday, which included dinner, drinks and karaoke. Was pretty sweet. Went out for yakiniku on the Saturday with Sakura's parents, Cain, Ikuho, Chie and Judy. Was also good.

And yeah, that's pretty much what I've been up to. Nothing too exciting but nevertheless, pretty swell.

Catch y'all soon
Cheers
Jim

2010-12-16T15:40:00.000-08:00

Howdy howdy
So, this time next week I'll be comfy in Wellington, sun shining and birds chirping. In Japan at the moment, everyone just wanders around saying "it's cold, it's real cold." This is in stark comparison to say, summer. In summer everyone wanders around saying "it's hot, it's real hot," and then also autumn, where everyone wanders around saying "it's cooling down, it's cooling down" and spring where communication mostly limited to telling people that "it's getting warmer."

There seems to be a big culture of weather talking in Japan. It accounts for a big part of my communication with other teachers, which gets kinda dull. These statement can, however, be converted into a conversation as people will often say "aren't you cold wearing that", regardless of what I'm wearing.

I dunno, for me it seems weird to wander around stating the blatantly obvious, but I guess if you've got nothing better to say, it kinda counts as communication.

Annnnyways, what have I been up to lately... I had a jam with Chie and Taka in preparation for a gig we have on the 16th of January, playing mostly originals. Taka and I also got talking on wikileaks and passports and stuff, which was pretty cool.

Hung out with Sakura, Chie and Sakura's parents last night, who came to Japan yesterday. I've got a school drinking party tonight and a dinner with Sakura's parents and the NZ kids around here on Saturday. Both look like that are going to deteriorate into karaoke...

I've also been trying to figure out various bits and pieces for coming to NZ, writing a song in Russian, listening to Gogol Bordello, reading Anna Karenina, teaching English, practicing violin and watching various documentaries. I've also been thinking about getting another teaching English qualification. I've got a 100 hour one and a home-tutoring one, but I found a diploma one that is an extension of the 100 hour one I have. It's supposedly 250 hours worth of study across a year, so I reckon I might crack through once I've finished the Japanese proficiency test in July. Getting those two would be good for adding qualifications and stuff to the teaching and language experience I've been getting here.

Anyways, just an idea. I'll be starting on the next paper for my Integrated Human Studies certificate next year, as well as cracking down on my Japanese study. That's for later though. At the moment I'm just focusing on getting my Russian and violin playing up to scratch.

Hope all is well
Cheers
Jim

2010-12-13T17:23:00.000-08:00

Hey hey
How's things?
So, we're getting to that time of the year where classes are slightly culled. I'm still doing quite a bit, but slightly less than the usual.
I passed my uni course pretty well, so that's probably going to be one down and three to go.
Other than that, I've been keeping myself entertained by practicing violin, dabbling in Russian and also still chugging along with Anna Karenina. Feel like I've been rocking along with it awhile, but I'm still only 300 pages into the 800 page beast.

I hung out with Chie over the weekend. We went to a English related Christmas part on the Saturday and they had a bit of karaoke there, so that was sweet. We went out to the bath house on the Sunday, as well as a touch of shopping.

I also talked to my parentals the other night, which was rad.

I haven't really a lot to say. It's getting colder here, so I'm even wearing gloves sometimes. I'd be busting out the scarf soon.

Music wise-I've been listening to Gogol Bordello, which are awesome. Also a bit of Rod Stewart, Janis Joplin and Lou Reed.

Getting some Japanese study done and I'm also trying to figure out stuff for coming to NZ.

That's about that for me for now.

Cheers
Jim

2010-12-09T15:11:00.000-08:00

Hey hey
So, we've finally hit Friday. That's quite nice. I think I'm kinda of at the end of my tether with this term. It's not too long till I'll be heading off to New Zealand, so my thoughts aren't 100% with teaching English. There isn't much to go though...

I talked to Rachel the other day, which was rad. I've actually been invited to play a gig with my old band on the 24th, which is the day I get into Wellington. Not quite sure what to do.. I'll give it a little think over.

Went to a gig last night with Taka. It was at Rub Luck cafe, which is the one in a factory. There were actually three foreigners headlining, but it was a kinda dull show. It was mostly ambient music, rather than songs. There was one band who had drums, bass, piano, violin, three guitars and two singers, but they just played one long composition with lot's of electronic effects. I also encountered something that I haven't really seen before, which was people using a computer in their set to provide background sound. Things like the wind blowing or a river flowing and stuff. I thought it was a bit lame, but each to their own.

The foreign band was really funny. I think two of the guys were English and one was French. The main singer/ guitarist seemed very emotional. He introduced one song by saying that he thought he'd write a Christmas carol for his family but then he got sad, as he hasn't seen his wife for a whole week, so he wrote another sad love song. All his songs were sad love songs that sounded the same, which was actually kinda depressing. All the lyrics were was things along the lines of "winter is cold, cold to the bone, cold to the bone etc etc".
They took themselves very, very seriously though. The French guy on piano even got up once during their set to tell a photographer to stop taking photos as the click on her camera was too loud... This was at about 11:30 at night and I would say that about half the room was asleep, so I don't think it really made much difference. The third guy played bass on one song and electric guitar on another and then sat out for the rest. His playing was about the most interesting part of the band, so that was a bit lame.

It was a interesting experience though. I have now learned that ambient music is very dull, and I got to have a good laugh about the French guy telling off the photographer :-)

Other than that, I've got a Christmas party with kids on Saturday. Joy.

I'm also having to get used to the way the teachers like to keep the temperature. It's weird because in the summer, when it's really hot, they keep the temperature really low. To the point that teachers would come into the staffroom in a t-shirt, and then wrap up in a big jacket and blanket.
Now, you come into the staffroom in a big jacket and take it all off. I'm up to three layers usually, but when I get into the staffroom I take off my jacket and roll up the sleeves of my shirt and thermal. It's kinda nice because they end up imitating the temperature patterns of the southern hemisphere, but it is still a little weird. It seems like the ideal temperature is whatever the opposite of what the seasons say. Weird.

So, the other day Chie and I were walking around Yuasa. We walked past an old couple and the guy asked me where I'm from. I said that I'm from New Zealand and that I'm living in Hirogawa now. He then told me that he had something for me, went into his house and came back with a plastic bag full of origami. It was very nice but I'm not quite sure what to do with it. It's not really complicated or interesting origami and my brother origami that would beat it. It feels a little mean to throw it away so I guess I'll leave it a bit and then chuck it. Bit of a waste but I'm not really sure what to do with it...

Anyways, that's that for me for now.

Hope all is well
Cheers
Jim

2010-12-07T21:28:00.000-08:00

Howdy howdy!
How's it going?
Things are alright here. Been a tiring day, as I've had five classes at junior high, but I managed to kill half of each with a Mr Bean episode. The kids dug it:-) I wanted to show them a bit of British culture and also show them that communication isn't just words. I think it worked...
Last night, we had a Christmas party for the English language classes. I played guitar for pass the parcel, we played some other games, ate and then a few of us went out for a drink after.
I actually lost a bet that night, so I had to buy Sakura and Cain a beer each.
Thing is, there's two classes at the school, beginners and advanced. The three of us teach the beginners class and an English guy teaches the advanced. He came about half a year ago and is very strange...
He's strange because he seems to have a phobia of people that aren't Japanese. When he first came here, I actually went to see him as I was curious, I thought we might have a new friend and I also thought he might want to ask us things about the area and all that. He's been in Japan a few years but quite far from here. I was really just being nice. It was a very one sided conversation...
"Hey there, I'm Jimmy. I teach around here."
"Oh yep."
"Sam aye? Just thought I'd come along to make contact and see if you wanted to hang out sometime"
"Oh yep"
"I'm from New Zealand and there's two other NZers around here."
"..."
"So, you're from England, aye."
"Yep"
"Well, here's my cell phone number. Give me a call if you want to hang out sometime"
"K"
"We're actually going out for dinner tonight and were wondering if you wanted to come, too".
"Oh yep." (He didn't end up calling)
"Hmmmmm, well, I guess I best be off."
"..."

Had another similar conversation at the school but have since given up. He actually lives really close to Cain and Sakura, so they pass in the street almost everyday. As soon as he seems them, he turns his face away and ignores them. Then there was this time where he ended up leaving the English convo school at the same time as them, heading in the same direction. As they left the gates, he bolted. Thing was, the train barrier started coming down, so he stopped in front of it briefly and then ran out across anyway. Managed to hit his head on the barrier as he was coming up the other side :-) There have been many similar occurrences...

Anyways, so the bet was about whether he would come to the party, as both the classes were joined for it, so he'd be in the same classroom for two hours with us. My kind nature got the best of me and I bet that he would come, but that he probably wouldn't talk to us the whole time.
I lost because he didn't even show his face...

I believe he owes me two beers...

Anyways, so I have a kids Christmas party on Saturday and am going to a gig on Thursday at the Rub Luck cafe, which is the cafe in a factory. It's some guy from England that Taka thought might be good.

Also, Taka and I finished mixing the CD, so we just need to do all the cover stuff and then we're all done :-D Music-wise, it's complete though :-)

So yeah, that's about that from me.
Hope all is well!
Cheers
Jimmy

2010-12-05T16:34:00.000-08:00

Hey hey
Very sorry for the late post. I tend to put my updates in while I'm at Taikyu junior high, and I haven't been here in a while. On Tuesday and Wednesday, I had a JET conference thing. I didn't really learn anything from it as it was mostly a repeat of last years one. It was nice to do something different though, and also talk to the other JETs.

On the Wednesday, I managed to get my re-entry permit. This may not sound like a much of a big deal, but I assure you, it is.

The re-entry permit is necessary for leaving Japan with the hope of coming back in afterwards, regardless of whether you have contractual obligations or not. So yeah, you'd expect that you could just pick this up from the town office or even from the airport as you're leaving. No ma'am!

There is one place in every prefecture, so in my case it's in Wakayama city. First off, it's open hours make things difficult. It's open 9-12 and 1-4 on weekdays only. It's also closed on public holidays. In other words, I would have to take leave in order to get it, which means canceling classes. For this reason, the conference was good, as it was close to Wakayama city and it started at 10:30.

Still, it's quite far from Wakayama station, or in fact any railroad stations. This meant that I had to taxi there, costing me a cool $30. I get there, fill out the form and decide between a single entry or multiple entry permit. I choose the multiple entry, just to be safe. So, I hand over the money and they say, "Oh, you can't pay for it here."
Okay...
"If you leave the building, cross the street and go around the corner, you'll see a small cigarette shop. Buy a 6000 yen stamp there, bring it back and then stick it to the form."

So that's what I did, and it was a very small cigarette shop. In fact it seemed at though it had been made in the entrance part of a house. To me this sounds a little suspicious... As though they were trying to get around tax or something like that...

It was very weird. Anyways, all done and dusted, I arrived back from another taxi ride at Wakayama station. I was over $150 poorer, but now had a little sticker in my passport that said when I went home for Christmas to see my family, I had official permission to resume my contractual obligations in Japan. Nice.

As a bit of a fill-in, as of late I've been to the Harry Potter movie, the modern art museum of Wakayama, met a violin played who put some playing into two of our songs, finished recording but am still to finish mixing and mastering. I've also been to karaoke, been out for dinner numerous times with numerous people, written some songs, taught some classes, bought a Mr Bean DVD to show at some primary schools, talked to my Ma, Pa and Thomas on the the phone and generally just cruised along.

Taka has now also introduced fish'n'chips at his cafe, which us NZers went along to taste test. They were very nice :-D

Tonight, Taka and I will mix up the CD. I also put together some cheap video clips for some of our songs though... If one were interested, one could witness them here.

Anyways, I'm not sure what else to say. I feel that the big gaps between posts have made it slightly more difficult to keep up with my day-to-day activities.

So yeah, that's that for me for now.

Hope all is well
Cheers
Jim

2010-11-28T15:08:00.000-08:00

Kia ora, all!
How's things chuggin'?
I had a nice, chilled out weekend, which was the first in a long while... Chie studied at my place on Saturday, while I played guitar, read and did some cooking. On Sunday,we trained up to Wakayama city, as Chie had a test, so I had a bit of a wander. I ended up walking a good 7km so that I could go to a place called Hard Off, as they sell guitar picks. I bought a tambourine though, too :-)
Came back in time to have some coffee and a little catch up with Anna Karenina before meeting Chie again. We then embarked out to the Wakayama Modern Art Museum. They had some pretty rad stuff, and some kinda average stuff, but it was good. Walking there and back to the station would have slapped at least another 3-4 km onto my walking, so that was choice.

After that, had dinner at an Italian place and then we went back to my place. That night, I put some tambourine into some of my songs, got some more reading done and hit the sack.
Pretty sweet weekend, all in all :-)

I'm at school today but only have two classes. I was actually not supposed to have any but thankfully Hayashi sensei thought that if I was doing nothing all day, she might as well make use of me. It's kinda nice to see people using a bit of initiative sometimes :-)

I've now finished my two classes. We were doing the speaking test I wrote about people you respect. Man, they did really well. It's so good to see the kids actually speaking English, rather than just doing dumb textbook stuff. Two people said that the person they respect is me :-D

Anyways, it feels as though the cold has finally hit proper, as when I came to school I thought, maybe gloves wouldn't be a bad idea...

Also, you should check out my bands songs and like comment or tell me what you think or whatever. We're still making some minor changes before calling the CD done, so your opinion may influence the final cut :-)

Anyways, that's probably about that for me now.
Probably going to have a crack at a demo recording of a song I've been working on after school.
Hope all is well
Cheers
Jim

2010-11-25T15:37:00.000-08:00

Hey hey
So, I started putting together some of our songs for the net. Here's where they're at:
http://www.reverbnation.com/inakasunset
Keen to hear what people think :-)

Things with me are good but I'm feeling pretty knackered. Still, only three classes left of the week.
On Wednesday, I finished up the recording with Taka and so now I just need to finish mixing it all up and stuff. Got the beginning of our first internet presence now, so I'll be expanding that, especially when we make some videos for our songs. Also going to start on the jacket and all that.

Last night I watched one of the 1984 movies with Chie, which was pretty rad. Tonight, I just plan on reading in the bath and having an early night. That'd be awesome... Anna Karenina is turning out to be a pretty rad book (800 page), but I'm holding out for War and Peace.

Got a two day conference for English teachers next week, which means I get to skip Tuesday and Wednesday school days. Kinda nice :-)

Not much to really say. I also started a Japanese blog but I've only got one post there so far.

Hope all is well
Cheers
Jim