My last weekend out in Japan of the year is now over - and I have new photo for you. I met up with Brent on Friday night for Shimizu’s fire festival - a standard festival with good food stalls and music and crowds. It was out of season tho - December doesn’t really have a lot of festivals. But, we ate well from these guys.

Saturday, I caught up with Aroop and we ate at a Chinese restaurant - heh - the next 2 weeks are gonna be sweet. Really looking forward to the food and atmosphere. After a good talk, we went to Shimizu to chase down a rumor of a jazz trio playing in a small bar/cafe. We found it, and we found our information to be wrong - not free, not even Y2000, but Y3000. We passed and went with Brent to a bar. I ended up ordering a “Cookie Beer” from Belgium and drank sweet, 8% ginger beer.

In case you’ve been excited about all these frequent postings, I’m just trying to justify not writing here for about 3 weeks while I’m away in China. See you in the new year!

If you’re bored, check out vidprofile, my recent submission to the open source world.

I can’t believe how embarassed I am that this is news now. This should’ve been the policy from the beginning…. How come we had to vote at all? And why does the president need to make excuses or underline the reasons he had for changing his mind? Or, why did he need to change his mind in the first place? Love is blind, but so is hate.

heh, designed the entirety of the 2nd year’s winter curriculum (6 weeks of classes) in under 2 hours today. The ideas flowed and it was good. We’re going to make picture books of old Japanese fairy tales!

Played ‘Santa-san’ today - my Uncle Joe sent out some of the classic Christmas cheese popcorn in the C&I tin. The kids went nuts! Sure makes handing exams back a lot easier, too.

Some good news for the all the diligent volunteers out there….

Last night was a great enkai for the failed volleyball attempt. But, losing’s an excuse to drink, right? And so we did.

We met at a small izakaya near Yaizu station (a new one for me) that was quite full, and proceded to eat and drink to our heart’s content. Really got into the spirit of things and enjoyed talking in Japanese. I learned from Masuda-sensei about the kinds of alcohol in China - lao-chu and shokoshu, and that cheers is kampei. I told him the German (prost) and we toasted in Norse (skoll).

Only a week to go before landing in Beijing. ii da yo ne!

Good ol’ Dave Lane sent me a good link: Imagine there is No Heaven. While the arcticle lacks any compassion or tact whatsoever, it did illicit a resonant comment from a reader, which prompted Dave to forward the link to me. His confusism was something we talked about for a while way back when I was in ChCh building this site, and I’d have to say that I’ve been re-affirmed again.

some guy named Jake…
I am resigned to living with the ambiguity of agnosticism–literally not knowing–because in matters of faith the void of uncertainty is the only truth. Until and unless someone leaves this plane that we experience with our paltry senses, goes to another, and then comes back and reports on it, we can be certain of nothing regarding faith, either pro or con. And I am neither naive enough to believe that such a journey can exist, nor arrogant enough to believe that it can’t. I don’t know.

Dave’s Confusism…
So for me, the path of exploring faith helps me to live my purpose. So why should I look at my faith as something that has, at some point time, to be carved in stone, made a cornerstone of my identity? Just as my maturity, self image, priorities, and circumstances change every day, why can’t my faith?

…

I believe that while the desire for faith is fundamental to our human condition, it differs for each of us in flavour and associations. As a result, my faith of one is one that is allowed to be ethereal, impossible to pin down precisely, sometimes internally inconsistent, but always as honest as language allows it to be. I call my faith confusism, because I like the idea of embracing change, and don’t align myself with what I see as a prevalent need to apply certainty to something which is inherently human and therefore subject to emotion, irrationality, and - sometimes uncomfortable and unsettling and sometimes altogether delightful - chaos.

Went to a lovely Christmas party latst night. Met up with a few other ALTs for bring-some-everyone dinner. I contributed some greay rye bread from my bakery (with balsamic and olive oil, of course), and there was pasta, salad, salsa and guacamole, and even Scot-made shortbread.

We had a gift exchange as well, and Nami and Brian supplied a huge bottle of sake as the gift chooser. The group decided it would be best to finish the bottle before spinning it. The gift spun for me was decent - a glow in the dark orb thing that made for good pictures. One of the girls got a small handbag that had the words: “Pornography - a little alcohol will do you no harm”, and there was Maraiah Carey Christmas CD among other things as well.

I borrowed a Murakami book from Annie at the party and started reading him again (different book than before, and I didn’t finish that one). I hate his characters. HATE them. But his writing style is capturing. I think maybe I feel so strongly because the things his characters think and say are the things I’d find in people around me if I could speak to them. I’m worried that’s what I’d encounter if I connected well with someone. Or maybe, he somehow works out a way to embody all the things I don’t particularly like about the culture into his protagonists. Cold, distant, stoic, defeatist, ideal-less, (hell, opinionless), plain. Or maybe some of those characters’ traits are too often reflected in my own trains of thot? I dunno, prolly a mix of everything. At any rate, I’ll give this book a proper go and see how I feel at the end.

Today was my iai dojo’s end-of-year party. Great food and drink (beer and Nihon-shu), good conversation (the parts I understood), and a warm atmosphere. There are pictures, of course, even with me sporting new specs (tho you can’t see them so well).

I got a chance to eat some great sashimi (which I need to eat more of, I’ve decided), and drink Nihon-shu (which I need more of, as well). The tastes are great, and a good break from the other fried foods in the cuisine.

Sometimes I wish my life was non-linear, or at least controllably monotonic. There are time intervals I want to condense, and others I want to dilate. 7 days are really short, but I’ll take every hour I get.

Suppose the sense of sight from me is seized,
And with it, stolen, beholding your face;
Remembering the sun, and how it pleased
My senses, could I then your grace retrace.
Or if someone should take my world of song
So that I cannot drink your lovely voice,
The garden where the freshest fruits belong
Would bear the sweetest juice that my mouth moists.
And should my tongue be cut out from my head,
Preventing me from telling you my thoughts
About you, I would master one hundred
And one instruments to play for you Bach.
Even without my sight or sound or speech,
Your happiness to me will always reach.

It’s cold here, but my heart is warm.

God, has it really been over a week?

Development has taken a sharp up-turn - I expect to release my new program before the winter holiday. Here’s hoping… Nearly neglected to eat dinner last night I was so lost in code. heh - 8 hours teaching, 8 hours coding. I need to work for Google and get 20% (paid) time to work on my own private projects. New ideal employer in some respects (while the constant programming would prolly get to me, everything they do for their employees is incredible).

Played volleyball with my teachers over the weekend. Like sensei soccer, but sensei volleyball. And, like sensei soccer, we didn’t progress in the tournament. But, unlike sensei soccer, we won a game! mochiron, sashin ga aru yo!

Tomorrow is the last day of teaching till the new year, and I’m really needing it. A break from the lessons, needy teachers, needy students, and thankless looks. Winter’s cold weather (or my apartment’s lack of heating) doesn’t help, either. However, this year I have a magical plush hot water bottle (just need a kettle, d’oh!).