Just one day left before migrating south. On this, the shortest day of the year for us Northerners, I look forward to watching the Life of Brian in Melbourne’s Royal Botanical Gardens on Friday.

For redundancy….

12/23/2004 CI101 Narita -> Taipei 16:30 to 19:30
12/23/2004 CI051 Taipei -> Sydney 22:20 to 10:40 (12/24/2004)

01/07/2005 CI052 Sydney -> Taipei 12:55 to 19:10
01/08/2005 CI100 Taipei -> Narita 09:25 to 13:20

See you in the new year!

よい おとし を！ あきまして おもでとう ございます。

Mac North foolishly…
Then, Aroop and I booked a bus to Tokyo for the swing dance. The shinkansen was full, so we decided to give the bus a go. It’s a bit cheaper (US$20) and and a bit longer (3 hours vs 1.5). Free tea, tho, and an on-board toilet. A proper touring coach. We made a goal to try and book a ferry to some place on the Izu peninsula during the spring, that way we’ll have travelle in Japan by all forms of transport.

Uh, yeah. Glowing misconceptions there. No toilet, no tea. Just a 40 person bus with 46 people inside. Aroop and I got the miserable folding seats in the aisle, and there was terrible traffic - an extra hour on the bus. We got off a soon as we knew we were in Tokyo.

After we got back from Tokyo, we went to a small Opera - Carmen. The music teacher at his school sang to a piano accompanist. Both were great!

I went to Tokyo this weekend. First, Aroop and I did the shop-tourist thing. We went to Ueno and Harajuku to look at and buy crazy fashion. Ueno is a full-on bizzare, very packed and fun and loud and odious. Harajuku is much more trendy, with huge used-clothing stores (with fairly reasonable prices). Aroop and I came out with a pair of pants each, and I bought some great wesern (cowboy-style) long-sleeve shirts.

After, we went swing dancing! It was the last dance of the “A Train” flavor - the monthly midnight to 5am dance - since the owner of the venue decided to cancell the event indefinately. But the night was great! Very friendly dancers, and I was able to ask people to dance in Japanese (and the usual hand gestures). Also, there were two guest tap dancers. Both were amazing, and they danced with the live band!

Afterward, Aroop and I went to Akihabara to gauge the nutsness of Tokyo’s elecronic capital. It is nuts in the sense that Llaox falsely advertises deals that they offer. For example, Aroop and I waited in the queue (for fun since our shink back to Shizuoka wasn’t for another 5 hours). We wanted to wind up the other liners by asking if they were also waiting to get a visa.

Anyway, clerks came out and explained to us (the folks in the lines) that the still and digital camera specials were off - ie they had no cameras. And those deals were the best (and largest advertised) deals in their flyer. Tsk-tsk!

Three days of work before trying swing back in the southern east part of the globe. I’m destroyed from not sleeping last night, but I’m still awake at 8:30 and quite excited. I have heaps of washing to do, and I hope things dry in time.

Also, I have new photos to add, but there’s a small problem with the gallery (which Carter is working on) so you’ll have to wait until it’s fixed….

OK, the plane ticket problem has been solved. I’ve paid for them, and now I have them! I kept calling back and on the third try, an English-speaking person was able to describe how to pay for them. Simply go to a convenience store and pay them. It turns out two chains of convenience stores have machines in them similar to ATMs. These machines can let you pay for anything - flights, busses, taxes, wire-transfers, ad nauseum.

Then, Aroop and I booked a bus to Tokyo for the swing dance. The shinkansen was full, so we decided to give the bus a go. It’s a bit cheaper (US$20) and and a bit longer (3 hours vs 1.5). Free tea, tho, and an on-board toilet. A proper touring coach. We made a goal to try and book a ferry to some place on the Izu peninsula during the spring, that way we’ll have travelle in Japan by all forms of transport.

So much travel! Many people and things to look forward to! And not long into the new year will Dice and Jo be visiting.

The only annoyance now is the unkillable rotty stuff in the drain of my shower. Draino, pipe cleaner, and kitchen cleaner have yet to make a dent in the hidden nose-sore.

I also made swing shoes yesterday!

I went to Joyful Pal, the trusty hardware store that even sells Blu-Tac and found everything I needed.

• 1 pair of blagged Nike trainers
  black wool felt
  leather glue

I figured a pair of Nike look-alikes were okay, seeing as how I only paid US$8 (so the cost-to-consumer is appropriate to the wage-of-shoe-maker, the ratio is much closer to balanced). Total cost: less than US$20. I cut the wool, glued it to the shoes, and now I’m ready for the 5-hour marathon in Tokyo (Shibuya).

Once a month, the swing society has an “A Train” party - where you dance when the trains aren’t running (ie midnight to 5am). That way, you don’t have to worry about a short night. Next Saturday (the 18th) is the day. I’m pretty excited - I haven’t danced since I was in NZ!

so i successfully ordered plane tickets over the phone today. called up airdo and got three return tickets to Sapporo in February (the snow festival). felt pretty good at the end of it. i mean, communication, and i understood most of what she said.

later, I got the faxes about the itinerary, and discovered that they didn’t tell me how to pay them. When I ordered my Australia tickets (eigo de), the fax had instructions about in which bank account I was meant to deposit money. Today’s fax didn’t. I tried calling back, but couldn’t understand the woman on the other side - her voice was too high or something for the phone to recreate so that I could understand properly. I asked for the lady who helped me before, but for some reason (which I couldn’t make out) she wasn’t available.

I have 3 more business days to try and figure this out before payment is due, otherwise, the trip will be forfeited.

Maybe another ‘white-washed tomb’ metaphor could be:

“You can’t see the filth under painted fingernails”

because i saw a guy on the train today who had only one of his hands’ fingernails painted. His other hand looked like he’d been digging around in nearly-dried oil-based paint. Some serious crust.

Term finals begin tomorrow for my students, and that means I have nothing to do for the next 4 days. Sure, there’s grading, but that’s not really anything but time consuming (I’ll spend about 10 hours marking tests). I will try and make lessons for next term as well. I need to because I’ll be missing the first day of class (I’ll be in Taipei). So, I won’t have time to make plans before classes begin. And who wants to do work on holiday? I’m no different, “put my pants on one leg at a time just like everybody else”. (props to those who can tell me that source)

Hopefully, my supervisor will take my recommendation for the 3rd years’ final term: read the Giving Tree and make a skit or other creative performance about it. Last year, they used “Frog and Toad”. Lesson planning will then be a snap. The hardest part is picking/finidng a topic. After that, it’s pick 2 key sentences in a dialog and make a game about it.

Tokorode, there are days when Japanese feels so natural - like it’s the easiest or most regular language. And there are days when it’s bigger than Fujisan. A mess of conjugations and same-reading kanji but different actual kanji (so different meaning). The tongue-twisting parts of the past verbs and adjectives are aggravating. Real practice is seldom, and I sit in the teachers’ room just saying a word and it’s different conjugations. No thot making, no context practice. I need to find a workbook…. Yes, a workbook.

misete kudasai

I finally saw Howl’s Floating Castle. I was surprised how much of the dialog I understood (even though it never crossed the 10% threshold). I was easily able to pick up on the subject (unlike how effortlessly I’m writing now). But, the film was beautiful, and I dropped a tear or two (and I didn’t even get it).

And good things have come out of opening up on the ol’ blog. Sometimes I think I have to go it alone, and then I type something like “I need another piece of iron”, which clearly contradicts my first thot. Helps me see myself. Plus, when you write back, it’s even better. The sounding board is there, and this is what community is about.

The gibberish has not been made straight (but I think it’s of the kind that rarely ever gets lined-up), but more light has been cast, and feelings have been felt. As I wrote elsewhere: I’m content to drift, tho at times I get cabin fever.

My efforts to see the film keep being thwarted. But other things took priority. Friday night I was invited to the 3rd year homeroom teacers’ bonenkai - or forget the year party. I had a sore throat and didn’t feel like obliging them in debachery, cos I wanted to say healthy for Australia.

But, as the tone suggests, I went anyway. And I’m glad I did. I got to practice my Japanese some more, and I even made a short speech about why I became a teacher (albeit 2 sentences). But, I contained their encouragement to drink, drinking only half of what the other did. To bed early and much sleep.

Saturday, I went to a function put on by the “Japan-British’ society, which turned out to be some sort of elitist club for business men. They lured the new ALTs with free food and drinks, but we (Nick and Aroop came along as well) were clearly 20 years younger than anyone else in the room. Afterward, I met up with Kieran, that good NZ bloke, to watch “The Office” at my place. I recently added the neccessary support for my computer to play encripted DVD’s, and it turns out my optical drive’s firmware doesn’t care about DVD zones. And since linux won’t certainly enforce a stupid system like the regional codes, I can play absolutely anything now. It’s very nice.

Today was an exploration of Jusco - a huge dicount department store. Like a Walmart, I guess. It was that big.

Changing gears, this week is the anniversary of Meredith’s tragic car accident. I’m reminded again of how she asked the right questions - the hard ones, the ones that made you look at yourself - and I’m further forced to consider how I don’t have such a sounding board now. Did I learn enough from her to continue to grow and challenge myself? I don’t think so, I need another piece of iron.

As far as romance is concerned, let’s not go there for the moment. I’ve learned from Nick how to find the beauty in every new soul. Comparisons are unintenionally made, but even Mer had a bar, so to speak. Right now, I don’t know what I need, or what I want. I know my current state doesn’t feel right, but that’s yet to be determined if it’s a bad thing.

Look, I said we’re not going there, and you’ve made me type the gibberish in my head. Well, you go and make sense of it and then get back to me.

mata raishyuu