Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in contra_7's LiveJournal:

[ << Previous 20 ]

Tuesday, July 8th, 2008
7:44 am	It is now July: Part II In case anyone wanted to know what actually happened with that medical check up, I just used two samples from one sitting. I didn't actually go near the neighbors' dogs. You wish I had, though, eh? (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, July 27th, 2006
10:14 am	It is now July Dear Friends, I've shaved my head. Apparently the joke "I got into a fight with a pair of scissors and lost" isn't very funny in Japan. I've tried it a few times and I got the distinct impression that the only laughs it earned were out of politeness. But anyway, yeah, I haven't been this bald since 8th grade. It doesn't actually look any better on me now, but it's damn hot here, so... Today I had a mandatory medical check-up for being a town employee. I was given a packet about it a couple weeks back, but as per my style, I didn't open it until the day of. It turned out they needed a stool sample, though I prefer to say, "they wanted my shit." But I had a problem. The shit was supposed to be from different days. Two different sittings if you will. I quickly deduced that I had but two options. One: To take the first sample from my own fecal matter and then the second from the neighbor's dog. Or two: Take one sample from the neighbor's dog, and the other sample from a different neighbor's dog. I'd rather not get into what unfolded after that, but man you should have seen the look on her face when she stuck that shit into the machine. Probably the most annoying thing about the whole experience, though, was when I forgot to write my name on my urine sample. I knew I was supposed to write it, but it simply slipped my mind before I handed it over. Then out of nowhere, one of my school's office ladies showed up. She quickly explained that I was not Japanese, but rather a 4th generation Japanese-American. These are words that frequently occasion a reaction not unlike when one hears that someone is "a little slow." So instead of asking me to write my name in Japanese, she retracted her outstretched hands, produced a pen, and wrote it herself. I've been able to write my name in Japanese since 10th grade, but today that meant jack and shit, and shit had just left in two plastic tubes. Nikkei = Gaijin = Nihongo dame And that's why my job was created. Anyway, that's me for now. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, April 19th, 2006
3:23 pm	Kousa Howdy, I suppose it's been a while since I've updated. Today the skies over Japan look like shit. They call it kousa, or "yellow sand." Basically, winds kick up a fine powdery sand from deserts in China and scatter it all over Japan. Anyone with any kind of asthma or lung problems immediately gets fucked. For me, I'm mostly concerned with the layer of crap it leaves on my car. With luck, it'll rain again soon and I won't have to do anything about it. I've been put solely in charge of teaching one of the two hearing impaired students. This one's name is Masahiro, and his hearing is unfortunately very poor. Last year, I was teaching Shunya, the third year hearing impaired student alongside another teacher, and Masahiro makes Shunya look like a normal student. On top of that, I'm teaching him alone with his sign language assistant. Fortunately, she knows a bit of English, but we're still having a lot of trouble. Aside from the normal issues that might arise in such a situation, there are a couple of other major roadblocks. First, I can't understand his Japanese because my Japanese sucks and because his pronunciation is difficult to understand even for native speakers. Second, he is also slightly handicapped mentally, something I have absolutely no experience with. I'm a bit worried about this, cause I feel responsible for something extremely important. But my friend Franz reminded me that the potential is huge to develop a deep and lasting friendship with this student as well as his signer. I hope it goes well. The cherry blossoms have fallen from their trees. Ikeda mountain is no longer pink, the green leaves blending back into the forest. I'm so glad it's finally warm again. I better enjoy it, though, cause in a month or two it'll blazing fucking hot. All right, that's me for now. DGKF (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, March 14th, 2006
9:42 am	Graduation Hey, My ninth graders graduated last Friday. Actually they're middle school third graders to be exact, but they'd be 9th graders in the US. In experiencing graduation, I've realized how heartbreaking a job teaching is. Teachers watch the kids grow up and really get close to them as people. And then one day, without fail, they leave and never look back. Well, I suppose some of them look back, but it's never the same. For all of the other teachers here, the transition back to work was seamless, but I was actually pretty sad. Most of my favorite students were 3rd graders. I know that's not how it's supposed to work, but it always unfolds that way. The teachers all have favorites, etc. I guess I felt closest to them because we're not all that different in age. When I got here, they were 15 and I was 21. That said, the actual graduation ceremony was rather boring. I suppose all graduation ceremonies are. The room is almost silent as the hundreds of names are called out. They're called in order of their class number, and each replies with a loud "hai!" That's followed by speeches up the ass. Then they sang several songs, during which there were a lot of tears. I wish I knew the words to some of them. Anyway, it was a moving experience. On a shittier note, it's snowing again. Even though it was 17 degrees on Saturday, it somehow made its way back down below zero. This, I find to be lame. DGKF P.S. Procrastination reached a new high last week when I ordered a ¥5000 cast zinc model airplane in order to avoid paperwork. So far it looks pretty good in my living room. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, March 5th, 2006
12:06 pm	wiped out I am in Tokyo. I came up here for a surprise party for Eri, and we surprised her pretty well. The party and karaoke/clubbing afterwards was a lot of fun; HOWEVER, the weekend consumed a HUGE portion of my salary as well as my life force. I came in on the Shinkansen on Friday night, itself a ￥10,000 ride. Followed by drinking with Minori(￥4000), followed by lunch with Hiroaki(￥900), followed by coffee with Motoko(￥400), followed by coffee with Anna(￥she paid), followed by all you can drink(￥5800), followed by karaoke(￥1000), followed by a House club(￥3200), followed by Dennys until the first train(￥1000). Total train bill(￥700). Shinkansen return ticket(￥10,000). Total bill for the 48 hours or so between the evening of March 3rd and the evening of March 5th: ￥37,000 in US dollars $318.96 Remaining Energy - 6.4 Kilojoules Remaining Funding - I may be in the red (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, February 24th, 2006
3:35 pm	Wall space Hey people, I'm looking into picking up some artwork, either affordable originals or high quality reprints, to cover my apartment's plentiful wall space. If you know any artists operating in Japan, I wouldn't mind checking out some websites or something. Also, if you do your own work, please let me know. I've already contacted a few friends about possibly purchasing reprints. Jerry, if you read this, I sent an email to your SU account about the matter. If you're using a different account now, lemme know the new addy. Seriously, the situation is dire. All I have for my first floor walls now are an unopened poster of Batman, and a picture of a monkey taking a shit. The latter I placed opposite my toilet at eye level. Naturally, the desired goal is for guests who use my "throne" to come out and tell me how that's funny shit and how I'm clever. So please help me out if you can. Kay, laterz. (Comment on this)
Friday, February 17th, 2006
9:57 am	quake Small earthquake last night. The epicenter was in Gifu about 20-30 miles Northeast of Ikeda. Here, it measured a 3 on the Japanese scale. I was awake in bed on the phone and man did that scare the shit out of me. My house shakes like a mofo. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, February 14th, 2006
10:01 am	GOKAKU!! I fucking passed 2kyu. Fucking 2kyu has been passed by me. I passed it by ONE PERCENT. The second highest level in the Japanese Proficiency Test, that is. I expected to fail by at least 5%, but last minute cramming and some of the test taking skills from the LSAT class pulled me through. It goes like this: There are four levels of the test, and they are four separate tests. A near miss on 2kyu does not get you a 3kyu certificate, etc. However, one does not need to take the lower levels to attempt the higher ones. Also, each level is exponentially more difficult than the previous one. 4kyu is the lowest, 1kyu the highest. I came in knowing that 3kyu would be far too easy for me, but 2kyu was a stretch. Four of us, Franz, Keith, Xiao Yan, and I busted our asses studying all fall for the exam at a dark, cheap, Brazilian-infested restaurant called Saizeriya. I spent well over ¥45,000 on books and a new electronic dictionary to prep for the test. Then sometime around early November, I burnt out and hardly studied at all until just before the test (Dec.4) when I crammed. Franz and Xiao Yan were on track, though, and they both passed with scores well over the cutoff. Keith went for 1kyu, and he won't find out for a couple more days. It was a long, arduous process, but seeing those scores yesterday made it all worth it. Now it's 1st and goal. Nowhere to go but all the way. 10 months left and counting before the next test. Naturally, we're gonna drink tonight. (9 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, February 6th, 2006
7:28 am	Superbowl The Seahawks made it to the fucking Superbowl. Unbelievable... If anyone else thinks this is late, then f*ck off. (8 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, February 4th, 2006
9:10 am	The die is cast Hey, Yesterday was February 3rd, the deadline for my decision. I took the paper to the board of education and sat down with my boss. I wanted to make a few things clear before I signed it. I asked him what I'd be doing next summer. In Japan, classes are out during August and September, but teachers still have to go to school every day. I'd like to think that I'd sit down and diligently study Japanese, but that didn't happen last August, so I'm not counting on that. So I asked if I could be permitted to go elsewhere to study Japanese, as did my predecessor's predecessor. I'm talking like an intensive private school. At first he thought I was asking them to pay for it, which he refused. But I was only concerned about the need to use up paid leave or not. In the end, I got him to agree in principle to allowing me 30 days of "study leave" if I am attending a Japanese language school in another city. I wanted to put this in writing, but written contracts are less binding here, and I felt it would have been insulting to request that. Honestly, I had hoped for more than just 30 days. But if he honors this deal, I still might be able to spend 30 days in Kansai with my family, or gods willing, in Tokyo. At this point, I'd kill for even two straight weeks in Tokyo. Him granting me that time was a major breakthrough in negotiations. The second thing was my 'freedoms.' When I first got here, he told me flatly that I am not allowed to have a motorcycle. Actually, there's nothing he can do to stop me, but he can prevent me from using it for work. Still though, I was alarmed by the amount of influence they were hoping to have on my private life. Actually, that's nothing unusual here. I do what I'm told and in return they take better care of me than any boss would in the US. Anyway, I was concerned that he'd stop me from traveling to certain places. When the tsunami struck two years ago, several hundred JETs were actually in Thailand, and many went unheard from for a long time. So I wanted to make sure there weren't any restrictions on that. I asked simply, "will you let me travel anywhere I want to, no matter where I want to go?" And he's said, "You mean private travel or on work time?" I replied "private travel" and he said, "sure, you can go anywhere." So then I thought about it for a few minutes, said "okay," signed the paper, and slid it across the table. So I'll be here until July 2007. Starting from April, I'll be at elementary school rather than the Jr. High school. So the boring days will be over. So will the easy days, though. Here's hoping it all goes well. DGKF P.S. Congrats to Maddy on legally getting in to Canada. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, January 20th, 2006
6:09 pm	At least it's not Russia Hey I just read an article saying that in Russia, every spring, a bunch of bodies turn up when the snow melts. Apparently it's a common thing for people to drink themselves silly, then go for a walk alone and pass out in the snow and die. I guess their big western cities are seeing something like -37 degree Celcius weather. That makes me feel like a pussy considering how much I'm bitching about my 4 degree weather. It's okay though. If this were Russia, I'd have been dead long ago, and I know that. Hey, big shout out to Madeline (one of like three people who read this blog) who sent me long underwear and a blanket. I'll make excellent use of them. :) Em, you prolly don't wanna know if I've used what you sent me, eh? haha... Yeah, at this point, I need just about anything to keep me warm. At least the snow has mostly melted in my area. I'm told it'll be back at least a couple more times, though. I'm not looking forward to it. 　 The time has come for me to decide whether or not I want this job again next year. For most, the answer is easy, but for me it's a day to day thing. If asked yesterday, I would have recontracted. Today, I'd have told em where they could shove that thing. In an attempt to make things a little clearer to myself, I've listed the factors I'm taking into account, and my stance on each. 1. Japanese - If I return to Hawaii, I simply will not study. I may never pick it up again. A very, very sad thought for me. 2. Theatre - I've been wanting to get back into recreational acting. In Hawaii I have many links to the community. Here, not so much. 3. Weather - I've discovered that my moods are deeply affected by the weather. From my point of view, the temperature here sucks five months out of the year. Dec, Jan, Feb, Jul, Aug. In Hawaii, the temperature is perfect all year. Summer in southern California is much hotter than summer in Hawaii. When it rains, you can drive to sunshine. 4. Job - My job is boring, but very easy. It gives me little gratification. In Hawaii, I would probably be working much harder for much less pay. I'm hoping to get experience in a law firm. I might feel like what I'm doing is worth my time, though. 5. Social life - I have friends here, but they are few and I seldom see them. Free weeknights have led me to buy a gamecube. In Hawaii, I have many friends and a great social life. The flip side is that I know I would spend a LOT more on entertainment there than I do here. 6. Stress/Mental Health - I haven't lived at home in five years, so I can't say if I'll be less stressed, but overall mental health I'd have to say would be better at home. Better social support, better weather, more to do, no language issues, young people around me, etc. 7. Family - Being around my family for an extended period might be nice. But I know I would lose a lot of the privacy I enjoy here in my two story apartment. I can forget blasting music or playing video games whenever I feel like it. Not to mention guests. 8. Money - Taking all things into account (rent, taxes, etc) I estimate that doing what I'd probably be doing in Hawaii, I'd take a pay cut of around $5100 a year or so. That's after taxes. That would hurt a lot considering I want to knock down my college loans ASAFP. When I take my easy job, subsidized rent, health insurance, and lack of income taxes into account, JET's not too bad of a deal. Aite, that's all. Any ideas? (8 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, January 9th, 2006
3:58 am	Tanbo e To the rice fields Greetings, It is 4AM and I need to be at the airport in three hours. I probably should have started packing a little earlier. Oddly, my screwed sleep schedule over this two week vacation has left me in sync with Japan time. I've been regularly going to bed at 4:30AM Hawaii time, which is 11:30PM JST. I don't think I've gone to sleep before 2AM even once during this entire trip. Maybe the partying was pent up inside me. Every trip back here, right before I leave I face the question of when I am visiting home again. Unlike my many trips home from Seattle, this time I have no answer. I have 13 days of paid leave to use before July. With no summer vacation for teachers, I'd have to burn a good portion of that to make any trip home one of meaningful length. That is lame. At times like this, I wonder if I can stand being away from Hawaii for an entire year. I've never done it before. This time around, my sense of Hawaii being home has strengthened quite a bit. Honestly, though, that might just be because it's snowing so much in Japan this year. Okay, I think I'll go pack now. Tomorrow, I return to the rice fields. Y'all should come see what it's like. sore ja (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, January 1st, 2006
2:45 pm	Warzone This entry is dated for Japan time, but I'm still in Hawaii. It's 7:45PM on new year's eve. As per Hawaii's tradition, the entire island of O'ahu has begun to sound like a giant warzone. Despite the fact that the fire department has repeatedly called for a ban on firecrackers, the tradition has pressed on and every year a few houses are burnt to the ground. Who could blame people? Firecrackers are damn fun to play with. Since so many illegal aerials are available, just going shopping for them is a blast in itself. It usually goes something like this: Customer: "Ey, you get faiya-crakaz?" Translation - (Hey, do you sell firecrackers?) Clerk: "Sorry, we no more nuttin." Translation - (Meet me in the back of the store.) - Five minutes later - Customer: "Kay, I like twenny-fai Killah beez, chree Pagodas, an' one hundret-tousand roll a' da red faiya-crackaz. You get um?" Translation - "Okay, I'd like twenty-five Killer Bees, three Pagodas, and a hundred-thousand roll of the red fire crackers. You got that?" Clerk: "I get um, brah." Translation - "Got it." Customer: "T'anks yeah." Translation - "Thanks." Okay, I'm out. Gonna hit Kaneohe, then Aloha Tower before heading to the temple for the new years service. After that I'm gonna go drink and play with fire at Alvin's house. We're thinking of catching the first sunrise out at Makapu'u. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, December 25th, 2005
11:38 pm	Hawaii... Good stuff. Merry Christmas, everyone! So apparently, Japan is getting some of the heaviest snowfall its seen in 58 years. The year I get there, this kinda bullshit has to happen. Fortunately, I arrived in Hawaii a couple days ago to spend the holidays with my family. A brief comparison of the morning temperatures INSIDE my houses in Japan and Hawaii, will illustrate the awesomeness of Hawaii and the lameness of this year's snowfall. 7AM, Gifu, Japan - 3C / / 7AM, Honolulu, Hawaii - 23C. That is INSIDE my house, cause Japanese houses don't have proper insulation. Frankly, I can't believe that people survive winters in Japan. I also can't believe that my boss lets me live in such a freezing goddam townhouse/apartment thing. http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WEATHER/12/25/japan.snow.reut/index.html Here's a brief article about what's going on over there. I was delayed by four hours on the most punctual train service in the world. It was lame. If anyone who has contact with Corey's mom happens to read this entry, please let her know that Fukui-ken (bordering my prefecture of Gifu) has received 2 meters of snow. Hawaii, to the southeast of Gifu, has received zero meters. All right, ppl.. again, Merry Christmas. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, December 13th, 2005
10:45 pm	Yuki I have never seen so much damn snow in my life. It snowed all of last night and all day today to leave somewhere around a foot of snow on the ground. I almost felt like I deserved the day off for putting up with such a hassle. And then I realized that the world doesn't stop when this happens. Hard to believe, though.. This morning I saw high school girls riding bicycles to school in frickin skirts as heavy snow fell to the ground. At the same time, I was very close to not even taking off my pajamas for the day. Ridiculous, I say.. It was worth it, though. I spread the word of a snowball fight today after lunch. What started with me and five of the bad kids turned into a sixty person all-out battle that transcended grade levels, gender, and social group barriers. Indeed, I nailed the cool kid in the face, tackled the fat kid, stuffed snow in the face of the girly girls as well as the butch ones, and was knocked to the ground by an onslaught from the jocks. In Japanese, a snowball fight is called "Yuki Gassen," which means something closer to "Snow Battle." A battle it was indeed. Good times. That said.. driving in snow is frickin lame. Today was my second time driving in real snow and ho-lee-shit was that a hassle. Now, I have slightly more understanding for people who get SUVs. At least in certain areas. My eco-friendly Wagon R was more liability than asset. Tomorrow, I plan to walk to school. If only I were from Siberia instead of paradise. DGKF (Comment on this)
Sunday, November 27th, 2005
11:16 am	Elementary School Howdy, I've been informed that if I stay a second year, I will almost certainly be moved to Elementary school. The reason being that I have a car (to service the town's 5 schools) whereas the incoming second JET will probably not. I found that reasoning to be rather stupid seeing as how I will have to start all over again in building relationships with my students. Furthermore, I don't know if I can handle teaching at that level at all. I wouldn't be surprised if I'm back in the US by the end of next summer. On Friday, I participated in an English festival at an elementary school. It was pretty damn fun, actually.. but yeah, I really don't know if I could handle being in an environment like that all week for a year. And that was a "good" school. What do people think? Which is better, elementary or middle school? Why? heh.. Last night I went to what was perhaps the most expensive birthday party I've ever attended. Friggin good time, though. ¥2000 buffet dinner followed by FOUR HOURS of karaoke. That easily broke all previous karaoke session length records. That was another ¥3000. Throw a small gift and some beers in there, and it was pretty dern expensive. ($1=¥119) I attempted to sing "Fuel" by Metallica and wrecked my voice within the first hour. Good times.. DGKF (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 16th, 2005
6:49 pm	I'm a suit Howdy, Guys, I think I'm a suit. It's kinda funny. I went to a meeting for JETs last week and some of the other ALTs gave me a generic "ohayogozaimasu" as they passed me on the stairs. I guess I was entertained because I was expecting nothing at all. But instead of that, I was taken for Japanese and received the greeting that Americans give when they want to show off their level of acclimation. They would not have said "Good morning" to otherwise. How that makes me a suit, I dunno.. but that was just the feeling I got now that I get the generic "ohayogozaimasu." I haven't done karaoke in a while. Who wants to go to karaoke with me? (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, November 10th, 2005
4:56 pm	Gamecube Howdy people, So after about a six year hiatus from the world of console gaming, I have officially returned. As of Monday afternoon, I own a Nintendo Gamecube (Japanese version). I'm already a big fan of Mario Kart: Double Dash, and I'm currently working my way through Biohazard (Resident Evil) 4. I never thought I'd get into another console system, but the GC has reached a point of being sufficiently easy on the wallet. That said, I'm looking for recommendations. Any must-haves? Any big no-nos? On the teaching front, I think I'm getting a bit better at bucking the horse. People say that, right? ..anyway, the quality of the average day has improved slightly. I'm also learning a lot from something that is a very new experience to me. One student at school is hearing impaired, and at the request of his parents learns English separately. I have no idea what his hearing is really like, but if I had to guess, I'd say that he's completely deaf in one ear and has about 20% in the other. English classes are identical to those of the other students, but he has an assistant to help him with sign language. Teaching him has been, and continues to be, an interesting lesson in patience that I did not realize I needed to learn. Today, among other things, I taught him how to politely refer to taking a crap... "Number 2" Yeah, okay, I guess that's it for now. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, November 4th, 2005
10:36 pm	Strong dollar Guys.. The yen is weakening against the dollar... I'm screwed. It goes like this: I get paid in Yen. I make payments in dollars. If the exchange rate is ¥105 to the dollar, which it was not too long ago, I owe ¥2,835,000 in college loans. If the exchange rate is ¥110, I owe ¥2,970,000. And if it is ¥117 to the dollar, which it has just reached today, I owe ¥3,159,000 in loans. From ¥105 to ¥117, that's a difference of ¥324,000. At today's exchange rate, that would be a difference of $2,769, or over a month's salary and another 9 months of payments. I am getting screwed! I swear, in the past three years, I have had the absolute worst luck with regard to the timing of my exchanges. I'm counting on all of you back home to make the economy bad again! I'll see what I can do from here. Thanks, guys. I appreciate it. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, October 30th, 2005
11:40 am	Sunday morning.. Howdy... I blew a hundred fifty bucks on baseball shoes and clothing yesterday. It never quite occurred to me how much money has to go into that sport. I see now why soccer is so popular. When I put all of it on, including my new shoes and a cup, I looked in the mirror and realized that I hadn't dressed like that in six years. I joined a community team called the Benches, which was formed by a bunch of local guys who love baseball but never played much in HS. I taught em the term "pine riders." So Halloween is here, eh? I've had to explain this holiday to students this past week. I've decided that Halloween has gotta be one of our greatest holidays. It's not all that expensive, and there's enormous freedom in the way we choose to celebrate it. Of course, we don't get the day off, but seriously, who would wanna dress up if they weren't gonna go see people. So I bought a glow in the dark Jason mask and attempted to scare the kids. It woulda been better if I had a chainsaw, but all i could find was a stick that one of my predecessors used to climb Mt. Fuji. It didn't have the same effect, and I ended up putting it aside immediately. If anything, one kids mom almost had a heart attack... but that was it. Last night's baseball game: I played 3rd for seven innings. I had four good plays, and I batted .500 with a double, a flyout and a walk. Good stuff... (2 Comments |Comment on this)