Episode 9: Living & Loving Life at Large

I think the garbage cans on the left say it all. After two full months, I can honestly say that I finally feel pretty set up here in Japan. Nothing is exactly as I want it currently however, but things are on the move, and that I can truthfully say is a nice thing. For one, my room isn't set up exactly the way I want it, but I've been slowly making improvements each week. My improvements range from something as simple as putting up a new picture or poster, to building a new piece of furnature, to re-maximizing my space, to outfitting my wall with a map of Japan. As I've mentioned before, keeping my room clean is now not only just something I enjoy, it's also an act of necessity. I don't have too much space here, and with every new improvement, addition, or purchase my room gets just a little smaller. Still, I'm rocking out to the fact that I've received some mail, some packages, and most recently, a new toy and some coffee from my mom and dad. (THANKS GUYS!) Now all I need to do is purchase my new coffee maker, and voila! The world has just followed my room's directions and gotten a little smaller.

About my new toy, here's a nice pic of it. Basically, it's something that normally is supposed to go into a specially designed pair of overpriced Nike shoes that you can get from Apple, and it is a glamourized pedometer. But, man, I have to say, thus far I love the thing. Check out first, how beautiful it looks. Second, you will notice that the transmitter receiver is just a tiny little plug that goes in your ipod, rendering it into a super-powered workout medium of incredible design. This thing measures and records not only my distance, time, calories, and is able to graph it in full colour, but it also voices over and lets me know my distance between songs. It is also programmed to have a POWER SONG, which kicks in if my tempo falls below a certain level. For those of you who are American, yes, it can speak in your foreigner Imperial system speak (Miles, etc.) Now, instead of putting it in my shoes via knife and cutting, you can just stick it under your laces, and make sure that it is taped in as well. Works just as well, saves you $200. Beautiful? I think so. :)

Okay, with that off my chest, I am ready to divulge some of the events of this past week.

First, let me begin with elements of bad news. Nova experienced a gruesome murder recently, which I'm sure many of you have read about over the international papers by now. A young beautiful English woman was murdered by some deranged guy after going to his house for a private tutoring lesson. I myself never met the woman, but I feel really bad for her family. I can only imagine how painful it would be for my family to have to fly over to Japan to collect my corpse. Not really the thing you'd want to think about. Anyway, if any of you are concerned, I will state this now. No, I am not privately teaching at the moment, and if I were, then I would definitely have to do it in a public space. This experience is one that is really sad for all international teachers, and hopefully they find the SOB who's still running from the Koban (Japanese cops) as far as I've heard.

We also had a pretty big earthquake just recently. I personally missed it, and I kinda feel bad since it would have been my first real earthquake, but at the same time, I'm also just glad that it wasn't any bigger than it was. I heard that it was about a 7.0 on the Richter scale at its strongest point, and it toppled some houses and killed one woman. About 80 others were injured in the quake, and it could be felt all over central Honshu in varying degrees. It woke up some of my friends who work for Nova, and Steven really didn't like it. (He lives on the 12th floor of a shakey apartment.) All in all, none of my students seemed too phased by it. Apparently the last big one killed around 6000 people, so they seem pretty content with anything smaller than that.


Another negative thing that happened this week was an injury to my closest Japanese friend, Tomo-san. We were playing a friendly game of Footsal (small field soccer) and Tomo-san resumed his normal position of keeper, since he's pretty good at it, and we started playing as per usual. It was a nice night, and everyone was in good humour. Then, all of a sudden, after resuming a play, we noticed that Tomo-san hadn't gotten up from the ground after his last attempted save. We asked him if he was okay, and he didn't answer. This was bad news, so we all ran over and saw that he couldn't get up. After sitting for a minute, I noticed that one of his shoulders was hanging a little low. I quickly asked Neil for conformation in my observation, and he looked at me and nodded. Neil, being a man of intelligence, quickly kneeled down beside Tomo-san and said "now Tomo, have you ever seen the Lethal Weapon movies?"

One ambulance ride later, and we were back on the field. I scored the first goal of the night, and nailed another couple before the night was through. In case you're wondering, he's doing well, this wasn't his first time dislocating his shoulder, and he should be back playing with us in a month.

Other bad news is the fact that I had to work overtime today, making it a one-day weekend. I'm a little short-pressed on time, and so I feel like I haven't had the relaxing time this week that I would have otherwise enjoyed.

Now, FINALLY, on to some good news.

This week I received my internet access.... YES!!! FREEDOM!!! This will be the first blog post done from the comforts of my own home, and I have to say that though this is a lot fun here in my chair, I kinda miss going to the International Center, getting my can of Ko-hee, and my Cho-ko-rat Su-ko-ne. (Coffee & Chocolate Scone) I would have had my blog uploaded way earlier, but sadly, I had to do some overtime work today and so, I didn't get a chance to do everything that I wanted. My grocery shopping took a hit, and so did some of my cleaning efforts. Still, with the promise of internet, I'm in a great mood.

Also, this week, one of my fellow Gaijin friends got a Mac-book. One more convert in operation "Mac-in-tsu-city." I helped her set up her mac, and gave her some software to get her started. Here's a cool pic of my comp and hers side by side. Wow, I'm really a convert from my earlier PC cult days. If you haven't tried a Mac, just think about no viruses and easier nicer looking software. It's here, it's real, and it's the future. Do it.

In the world of fun and positive events, I would like to add that won poker the other night. After feeling pretty rejected by Lady Luck in the past couple games (2nd place twice in a row) I'm glad that I finally had some horseshoes up my arse. The pot wasn't as big, but it was still pretty decent. So far my winnings are $150 Canadian, and my losses are $40. I'm up, and it only costs $10 a night, so I'm gonna be up for a while. I'm pretty happy about the situation, but no doubt, people will be really suspicious next game, as I've had a pretty good track record thusfar. Also, the nice thing about going out for Poker with the guys is that it's a chance to get hang out with different people. I've made a few friends so far, and probably some good opportunities to travel as well. I'm also friends with a bar owner, which is always a good thing in this neck of the woods.

In celebration for my Nana who turned 97 on the weekend, I would like to leave off her words of advice.

"Eat food every day, and ... knit."

Experience in literal format.

Ja matta neh,

-benjamin


Have you ever had warm apple juice from a can or a juice box that kinda tastes a little bit like pee smells? Well, not only do they have that here, but they also have the real thing. Check it out man! PEE!!!




If these look like deep fried whole baby crabs, that's probably because that's what they are. barf. Of course, I've eaten crab brain since I've been here, so I guess I'm one to talk.

Ahhh... the perfect Japanese family... except... they're not Japanese.... hmmm....