This cheered me up. Maybe it’ll make you chuckle, too. WHHHEEEEEEeeeeee!!!!!!

This weekend was another kind of flower viewing party - wisteria, or fuji. I joined a mixed group of ALTs and Japanese folk for some nice snacking and talking under the very aromatic fuji boughs. Some bread from the German bakery topped with camembert cheese made for a splendidly relaxing afternoon. There are few photos to see as well.

Afterward, I went to the Spring Brain Monkey for its closing night party. After nearly getting into a fight with a drunk Aussie (I couldn’t understand what he was saying, so appareently I had the wrong answer to one of his questions, or he couldn’t follow me), I enjoyed the last white russian at the fine establishment.

Finally, the flowers Brent and I planted last October are growing rather well. The tulips have since lost their petals, but the pink hybrids are still as beautiful as ever.

Mac North…
Tonight the doco has a screening in Shizuoka! Nervousness and excitement don’t mix as well as rum and juice…

Well that was quite possibly the most unexplainable disappointment I’ve ever experienced.

Tonight the doco has a screening in Shizuoka! Nervousness and excitement don’t mix as well as rum and juice…

News Commentary Day

(1) Italy’s election.

• At least the US isn’t the only nation with difficulties in choosing between two lousy options. And what kind of political atmosphere must be present for such polarization? These kinds of close elections are quite new in history, and I bet it’ll lead to more problems than solutions.

(2) Reading the English newspaper here (Yomiuri):

• Companies shying away from overtime (sounds like progress, right?) Some companies now believe work efficiency and performance increase when employees finish their work within regular working hours without doing overtime. Working women can benefit from their employers’ encouragement not to do overtime work because they can have more time after work for household work, raising children and for themselves. (Glad to see employers’ priorities are where they belong. Another choice quote includes…) A spokesman for the company said, “We aim to increase productivity by making employees finish their work on time and providing them with time to rest and recuperate.”

  At least working too hard (and having common sense about it) is a better problem than, say, the I’m a World Policeman superiority complex.

Only in Japan would you find yourself a card-carrying suit-wearing door-to-door rice salesman ringing your doorbell at the diinner hour. poor guy.

The advancement of iai continues now that I’ve finally started (shodan is considered the beginning). I’m learning the waza of the school’s _four_ different ryu (schools of study - like savoy or hollywood in Lindy). Last week I learned the first 4 waza in Omori-ryu, and this week I learned another two.

One of the two tonight is called “juntou” (順刀), which is the form used by a friend or kaishakunin during the ritual of seppuku (honorable suicide). The other waza, inyoushintai, was quite difficult because there are many transitions between standing and kneeling, one with a particular balance. I like learning new non-standard forms. I feel like I’m finally digging into the art and the local nature of my dojo. It’s a shame there’s only 3 months left.

A clever, inflammatory, and slightly dangerous new use for LED highway road signs.

This weekend was filled with tea - went to a tea ceremony in a Shizuoka department store, thanks to a co-worker at school who gave me tickets. His niece leads tea ceremony, so he had a few extra to give away. I tried to go last year (when he gave me some), but I didn’t have time because of the doco. Now that it’s finished, my weekends are mine, and so I went back to tea for some reason - like a lost puppy.

Anyway, after the tea ceremony (which was filled with middle aged women - I could count the males, children included, on two hands), I went down to Kayana town for its once-every-two-years tea festival. I went with a cat named Sam, who won the Suruga grant this year (he’s researching old Japanese wood-block prints). We wandered around, enjoying a good festival food dinner and hiding from the cold valley wind.

Eventually, we found Aroop’s group - since Aroop lives in Kanaya, he got the chance to particpate in the ‘parade’ - pulling a huge float with all of the others and showcasing some good group dances. As always, there are photos, which do a better job of description than these words.

And today, I used the sunny April mid-day to plant some vegetables in the small plot of ground out back. I’ve got green onions, bok choy, peas, and soy beans. Perfect ingredients for a good pasta/rice dish, or fresh salads. Also, the soy will make good edamame for summer snackage or sushi rollage. Just gotta water and wait now. Given that the flowers (tulips and daffodils) came up without issue, then I think I’ll have a better shot than my failed hot-pepper plot back in my high school days in Colorado. Green thumbs are also related to your geographic location, I think.

First lessons weren’t so bad. I figured out that I like teaching, but the preps are what kill me. I hate planning!

I saw an iPod nano in the store the other day, and a recent article about installing linux on the nano, and a maturing firmware for portable players (not only *pods, but also iRivers and others) are piquing my interest in acquiring such a portable pocket-filler. Rockbox looks escpecially enticing for its feature list.

Either way, if I get a personal anti-social device, it’ll be 100% solid state storage for me. No hard drives, thank you.

Last night, on the way to iai practice, Fukushima-sensei explained why the moon appeared to be behind a mist: sand from the Gobi desert. Wind carries it to _Japan_ during this windy time of year. No wonder my place is so dusty. I thot it was just decomposing.

Despite the apparent uselessness of English for my students, I’ve been thinking English as a language (tho it doesn’t _have_ to be English - Spanish, Chinese, Norwegian, … would be good, and maybe even better) is a Good Thing for Japan. The only times I get glimpses into a friend’s thots or feelings is when they’re not speaking Japanese. Somehow, a second language liberates their thinking, and they more openly express their individuality. With the government making laws forcing workers to take holidays, Japan could use another outlet for emotion.

As for me, my course load went up this term - 3 preps and 17 lessons. Again, the ALT is leading the entire 3rd year curriculum, so that’ll add to the business of preparing things for the next teacher here. It’ll be a different feeling for them: when I arrived, there were only 2 preps (and 18 lessons) a week. But prepping a lesson takes about 6 hours, so there’s more work and stress for a new-to-living-in-Japan person.