Finally, a new post

February 5th, 2009. How absolutely perfect that I have trouble expressing myself while I'm stricken down with this damnable sickness that robs me of my voice, yet again. Why is it that I always seem to lose my voice? Is it that I talk too much? Perhaps it's the effect of alcohol, loud bars, sickness, well I guess I may never know, but I'm definitely going to try and be more conscientious of taking care of my Voc-chords.

Sometimes you just feel like the world is pressing in on you. Today is definitely a day where this sentiment rings true. Work is so utterly involved that it eclipses my daily desires to pursue my goals of artistry. From graphic novels, to reading, to writing, to thinking, to hitting up the gym, I feel like my time is so unevenly divided between my obligations and my goals that it's like I'm treading water. (And if anyone has ever seen me in a pool, you can see how hard that is for me.)

At least I'm not in a situation as difficult as some of my friends, and at least there are moments of escape to keep me content. Also, I'm glad to have a job, seeing how the economy is going to be 'harder' over the next two years. My job would be more enjoyable if it had less responsibility, but therein lies the conundrum. If the job didn't have so much involvement, it'd be hard for me to take it seriously and to enjoy it. I guess what I'm saying is that I need a new change of pace, something to pull me from this static pond, and into another river.

I need some chapstick, 'cause my lips are breaking apart.

Episode 28: (delayed post, Fuji-continued)

Konnichiwa Mina-san!

Well, since Laura and I didn't finish the posts from our trip around Japan, here's some more pics, experiences, and fun that we had.

We got picked up from the Bus station here in Tsu, right close to the station. Yumi-chan (my old co-worker back at my home branch), her boyfriend Hiro, her father, and her sister all met Laura and me bright and early in the morning. We were all packed up, and excited to climb the highest peak in all of Japan. Measuring in at a whopping 3776 meters, it's a huge mountain, and so lovingly adored by the general populace that it's referred to as "Fuji-san."

Through a couple naps and a lot of conversation, we arrived at the fifth level of Fuji-san with lots of energy and ready to go. Here's a quick pic of the group.

Fuji is divided up into ten different 'levels'. Not like RPG game levels, but just levels of height somehow distinguishable from each other. Laura and I paused to take a photo on each level, and had a great time doing it, as I'm sure you can see by this one taken at level 7.

Now one thing that I should mention was that we started the climb about a half-hour late. Not only that, but there were a few kids and elderly people on the trip, most of whom were not very good at climbing a mountain. (go figure). It was a pretty hefty hike up the mountain, and we were really worried about oxygen deprivation issues, so Laura and I bought a couple of cans of Oxygen to bring up with us. Anywho, we ended up being fine, but the children and elderly people had a lot of trouble, and we had to pause very frequently to wait up. This meant that by the time we reached out resting spot at level 8, we were quite late, and pretty much had our two-three hour sleep reduced to a shabby 55minute freeze fest. Instead of sleeping, poor Laura pretty much spent an hour shivering in those thick and very cold blankets. It wasn't the fact that the mountain was really that cold, but our 'mountain bunks' had some freezing cold blankets that took forever to warm up.

At about 2am, we got up, used those terribly stinky toilets (we honestly almost spewed from the smell) and started up the last legs of the mountain. The view was incredible, and I'm sure you can see from the pictures that we were given some great weather to see the sun and sky.

We hung around up top for a good little while, soaking in the view, and then began our long, LONG, decent back to level 5. I don't want to say too much about the walk down, but let's just say that there were a few moments were it was very difficult, and our legs were pretty tired. We paused every once in a while, and took a couple pictures to bring up our spirits. I especially like this one here on the left.


After a LONG long and almost never ending walk back down, we had finally made it! Yosha! To celebrate, Laura removed her long worn hiking boots (which at this point she made her hatred of them quite vocal) and then placed her Birks on her feet, which made her quite happy.

The Bus ride home was long and we all tried to have a nap... though none of us succeeded quite as excellently as Yumi and Hiro.






Finally we got home and though we had to wave good bye to the Mori family, I think we were both pretty happy to have accomplished something like climbing a mountain together. Of course, if you were to ask us whether we'd do it again, you'd probably get two very different answers. :)

ja na,

-benjamin

Episode 27: A bit of a crash...

I've been waiting to do this post for what seems to be an eternity now. It's been over a month, which is the longest I've taken a break since the get go, and furthermore, I haven't finished everything that I've wanted to post.

Is this just because I've been lazy? Or perhaps just because I've been in a bit of a down-time? I can tell you that though I may be a little lazy these days, (I've been spending less time working-out, less time cleaning, and even less time cooking) I can assure you that I'm not lazy. Each and every day is full and busy, and some days even turn out to be all-nighters in order to soak in as much of this culture as I can. The other night was spent being up all night, trying different kinds of Sake, and enjoying some new foods, new people, and new areas. I probably only sleep for about 6 hours a night on average, and my Japanese fluency recently took a boost. I can formulate simple sentences in about half the time that I could before, in fact, sometimes I've convinced people that I speak a lot more than I actually do based solely on that fact. If only they knew that I can barely speak...

No, laziness isn't the problem. I'm in a bit of a sour-mood this morning, and so I'm going to try and elaborate on some of the reasons why my life has recently been a little... different/difficult/darker.

Ben's 8 Reasons why his life here in Japan has been difficult recently: (not really in any order)

1) Nova. For anyone who doesn't know, Nova has been having some serious problems recently. Not only is there a very good chance that we won't be paid in October for a month of work, but the company has been fighting off Bankruptcy for the past couple months. We have been paid late, which due to the Japanese payment system, means that I received pay on September 19th, for work that I did on August 1st. I was kicked out of my apartment (something that ended up working to my benefit, but I digress) because Nova didn't pay my rent to the landlord. They of course took my rent money, but just decided to keep it instead of paying my landlord. He wasn't very happy and he evicted the lot of us (myself, Jon, and Miles.) In case you didn't know, yes, that's illegal, and there is a lawsuit (I'm not involved) getting ready to be launched, on account of over 50 other Nova teachers who have been subject to this same treatment. Our students come to work worried, but because of the social norms here, they never ask about the situation, and furthermore, I'm not really allowed to tell them that they should try and use up all their points as fast as possible. All of this has changed the Nova experience of back room conversations from 'fun and happy talk' into a lot of doom and gloom, and really brought down the energy. A few of my friend teachers haven't even given their 30 days notice, and they've just walked out half-way through the day saying "I quit. Bye." Now, I don't advocate that behaviour, but then again I have quit myself... which brings me to number 2.
2) Quitting. I haven't always been happy with working for Nova, but the good times have definitely out-weighed the bad. I'm just sad to be leaving the company that took me here and helped me have this great experience.
3) Losing my students. I have grown to love a lot of my students, and there have been some mornings where after a longer or somewhat sleepless night I have wanted to just lie in bed all day instead of going to work. It has been the promise of seeing some of my favorite students that has gotten me up and ready and off to work. I really enjoy the kids classes, and students like Yuuta (the little monster), Sou (the coolest kid), Tomohiko (class clown), Mami, (the smartest and most fluent English speaking senior I've ever met... she helps the other students and sometimes even teaches me a little Japanese) and Tetsuya (the shy but hardcore Chuunichi Dragons Baseball fan) are all really enjoyable to teach. To top that wicked list has to be Hotaru, Kenta, and Kaito, who are all family and have been pulled out of regular lessons to be put into 1-to-1 lessons with me, and are just a really sweet family. Hotaru is hilarious.
My adult students are also a blast, and a lot of the older women have become like my moms away from my mom (who I miss!). Kuniko, Taeko, and especially Kaeko (the loudest laughing woman I've ever met) have been great fun to teach, learn from, and to become friends with. They've taught me a lot of what the Japanese experience of being a married woman in Japan is, and have given me an in depth understanding of how important this time is to them. Sometimes Nova is less of a language school, and more of a social therapy session, and students like these really enjoy this time, so not being able to talk to them anymore will be difficult for both me, and for them. I feel a little upset about that.
4) Losing my coworkers. They have been the single most important part of my experience here. Ashanthi, Jon, Neil, Kaori, Nao-bear, Miles, Yumi-chan, Karen, Rachel, Matthew, and others, have been my friends, my social bubble to help me when I'm missing friends and family back home, and also they've been my travel companions. Each of our experiences have been changed by having the others there, and so without them, I wouldn't have ever done all the things that I've done, or seen the things I've seen. Karen's moving away, but the rest of us are still going to hang out outside of Nova... of course that'll be a little more difficult when I'm living in Shiroko... which brings me to number 5.
5) I'm moving further away from my friends. This will be my 4th move in just over 8 months, and like pretty much everyone ever born, I don't like moving. The packing sucks, the difficulty in setting up and taking down everything without breaking it sucks, and getting used to a new place again kinda sucks. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy about moving to Shiroko, to my own new private apartment, (It's also SUPER cheap) but at the same time, I'm going to miss being able to walk over to Ashanthi Karen and Rachel's place in literally 2 seconds. (They live next door.) Also, it'll be more of a hassle to get to the gym, Japanese lessons, and also Archery in the mornings.
6) "Binary life" I don't know exactly how to call this one, so I just tagged it as 'binary life.' Basically, this one has been taking it's toll on my ever since Laura went back to Canada. I came to Japan for a number of reasons, but one was to live my life by my own in a new place where I'm forced to conform, adapt and survive with little to no support. Call it a test, or a coming of adulthood, or whatever you want, but that's what I was after. Well recently it has been very difficult to do that while trying to be connected, and function like I was back home. In case you haven't done this whole "Living abroad for a year" deal, you may not understand, but essentially it is very difficult to live two lives, in two different countries, especially when they're on the opposite sides of the clock. I've have many plans here in Japan, and I'm almost always running around busily and sometimes I get caught up in those plans and have trouble making sure to do the things that I would normally for friends and family back home. For example, I didn't call my mom on her birthday, I have totally forgotten about e-mails for upwards of 30days at a time, I've missed some scheduled Skype conversations times with Laura, I haven't been updating my blog for the benefit of those back home as I planned, I haven't sent back the gifts and souvenirs that are piling up in my room for my friends and family as originally planned (though, I wouldn't worry about them, you'll still be receiving some souvenirs guys). Obviously none of these missed opportunities have made my happy, and believe me, they're never intentional, but I guess that's just the difficulties of living abroad. I can't really blame any real reason besides myself for this, but it just feels like sometimes I'm torn between two lives. This one in Japan, and that one back home. My thanks go out to those of you who have been patient with me for any of the above mentioned.
7) Weather. I love that we're finally getting some cooler weather here, but it seems like forever since we've had a sunny day. It rains more in Mie in September and October than it does in the rainy season. Go figure.
8) Lack of days off. My days off are normally Wednesday and Thursday with Nova. But, I work every Wednesday as well, and so after taking my obligatory relaxation period and clothes washing, cleaning, etc, I don't really have any time to go traveling around. Today is my first Wednesday off since July, and I was planning on going to Osaka, but instead I'm opting to wait until Mid October because then I can hang out with some cool Canadians who have just come overseas working with ECC. Anyway, I guess I just want to have some more time to myself, to feel like I have enough time to do my blogs at a leisurely rate, and get caught up with everything back home. I'm looking forward to my new job as then I'll have the actual weekend off, every weekend.



Alright, well that's my 8 reasons as of right now. I hope it didn't sound like I was complaining too much or anything, because I'm still having a good time, but like most experiences there are ups and downs. Well right now is a bit of a down. I'm looking forward to when it hits another up.... like when my brother comes to visit in November! Yosha. He's really gonna like it.


Okay, I may just go back and post a lot more details of the Laura-Ben trip, seeing how you guys are probably really interested in those photos that we were going to post, but didn't end up because we were, well, busy.

matane,

-benjamin