So, I leave for Hiroshima tonight, which begins the long and hopefully irreversible process that will be coming home. However, as I've come to expect, a snag has emerged.
I'm only bringing the small suitcase I bought in Nagoya home, as I don't know if I'm going to be able to store my big one anywhere
Well, at the behest of my mother, I have been asked to post an update that isn't a disjointed conversation with the scattered fragments of my psyche, as apparently she shows this to people at work and doesn't want them thinking their son is some sort of lunatic*. As ever, I live to serve, so here be some words for youse to chew on. No pictures since I still have uploading troubles, but remember that it's basically at freezing in my apartment, and I can't type with mittens on, so this story should be proof positive enough I'm making an effort!
In Japan, school terms start in the summer, so I'm rapidly approaching the end of Term 2, and Term 3 only seems to last from January to March, and if the impression I've gotten is any judge it's a lot less hectic in terms of schoolwork and a lot more intense for the ninth graders as they start preparing for high school entry. What this all means is it seems like they're acting like they're wrapping up, at least from the standpoint of English classes, as evidenced by today when they wrote about their favourite memory from Junior High School, despite the fact they still have three months to go.
This is context by the way, not the story, the story is what they wrote about. Most of them basically copied the sample paragraph given, with a few "Insert the details" here, which I would love to object to if I didn't do the same thing all the time in my classes. However, three of them wrote about the track and field race that happened a few months back in Toei (the one I wasn't invited to). They all wrote basically the same thing, due to the aforementioned paragraph copying, and no, the simultaneous memory isn't the story either. I merely feel the need for exposition.
The STORY is that I happen to know they lost that competition, apparently quite badly. I remember being told this, and have further evidence from the fact that they wrote about how they lost (quite badly). Naturally I corrected them and told them they couldn't write about this because they were supposed to write about their favourite memory.
They told me they understood.
I said they might be mistaken, since they were writing about a competition, and the point of the exercise was to write about something that they found enjoyable, something they would look back on when they were older and smile about, and share with their children and things like that.
They told me they understood, a little more doubtfully this time.
I sensed victory was at hand! I told them that they shouldn't write about a story where they lost, because this was supposed to be a happy memory, one they cherished and wanted to live over and over again, not a memory about something disastrous or off-putting. I was on a roll, and mangled my way through what little Japanese I knew in order to get my point across
They told me they didn't understand, not just due to my horrible grammar, and we ended up staring at each other for a bit before I asked Mr. Ichikawa for help, and he told me that they understood the exercise fine. I, apparently, didn't.
See it turns out I'd forgotten something about Japanese culture, they really do value memories of a sound thrashing more than an easy victory. Their fondest memory was being thrashed, because it gave them a chance to redeem themselves later, something to work to overcome and proof that there was still a long way to go. It was the kind of self-inspiring speeches that would make Canadian high school students grown and get someone in a movie be torn apart by zombies because no one likes an inspirational speech. Except they meant it!
The reason I'm writing about it is that this is the sort of thing I really wanted to get out of Japan, so I'm actually quite happy. And still cold of course, but mostly happy. And now back to burrowing under blankets and killing zombies on my Wii. 1 week until I'm home!
*Apparently said co-workers of my mother don't know my family very well.
So, it's time for another STERLING session of Q&A, because quite honestly I'm too lazy to do anything else.
Q: Are you dead?
A: I thought so, for awhile. Then I realised that I was
considering my life from a cosmic level, and since when the vastness of
both time and space means that the insignificant clustering of atoms
that forms my body and the not-even-instantaneous delusions of
consciousness don't even register. Therefore I had come to believe that
I didn't exist any more and so updating a blog was pointless. THEN I
found out that the new season of Scrubs had started and I should really
start downloading it, and I had to snap out of my delusions to do that
Q: So you're better now?
A: I'm going to treat that question with the contempt it deserves
Q: A lot?
A: Exactly.
Q: However I can safely assume you ARE going to start updating your blog again?
A: Not even remotely close to exactly.
Q: So what's your excuse this time?
A: I'm coming home in a week and a half, for two weeks. I will see
family and friends and be well and everything will be good. FOREVER!
Q: Really?
A: Boy you're gullible today.
Q: Was there call for that?
A: Yes, but allow me to continue so that you don't have to ask another question
Q: Thanks
A: Any time. You see, my mother, in all her infinite glory and
kindness, and above all her wisdom in knowing that her Christmas meals
requires vast quantities of people eating it in order to even make a
dent in the volume produced, has invited large numbers of friends and
relatives over for a party, plus I'll no doubt be seeing people during
the time I'm home outside of this too.
Q: So where's the problem?
A: The problem is that I'll have to TALK to people.
Q: That's a problem?
A: It is for me, because I'm not good at talking to people
Q: I know.
A: Shut up, that wasn't a question! Anyway, that means I'll need a
large volume of Japan stories to tide people over for the holidays, get
it?
Q: Couldn't you just save one or two stories and tell them to
everyone over and over again despite the fact that repeating yourself
makes you twitch and your blood pressure rise to a dangerous level
until you just start focusing on their insignificant little heads, why
can't they understand that this doesn't MATTER any more and why won't
they just shut up and stop talking before my hatred makes your pitiful
little brain EXPLODE!:
A: Right.
Q: So, see you in Vancouver?
A: Exactly! Looking forward to it!
It's a question I'm asked over, and over, and over, and over again to the point where I start trying to kill people with my brain. I usually just end up hyperventilating and giving myself a headache, but I haven't heard from Eric in awhile so maybe I should stop just to be safe. However, I shall address your concerns with this completely legitimate Q&A session held with myself.
I have a lot of conversations with myself, now you're privy to them!
Q: So, why DON'T you post more?
A: Good question, working under a very specific
definition of good and question. You see, my internet sucks, and while
it has been reconnected from home, it can no longer load Vox at home,
meaning the only time I can post is while I'm at Tomiyama.
Q: Wow, that sure sucks. So why don't you post more from Tomiyama?
A: Because I'm at work, and am often busy.
Tomiyama usually has something going on that prevents me from writing
long entries. Plus the internet is prone to failure and I have to
reboot, losing what I'm working on. This is discouraging.
Q: Couldn't you prepare entries at home and just upload them there?
A: Yes, but last time I did this I ended up with a massive backlog, and also I'm lazy. REALLY lazy.
Q: Alright, but can't you just use MSN to talk to us at
Tomiyama? It's evening in Canada while you're at work there, but we can
at least chat right?
A: Wrong. I have narrowed the major
perpetratory of random internet failures at Tomiyama to MSN, not my
gigabytes-a-day torrenting habit. Therefore, using MSN means I can't
download things
Q: You place downloading things over talking to your family and friends?
A: Yes, but internet failures usually occur over the span of minutes, not hours, and it's REALLY frustrating!
Q: You're exaggerating this, right?
A: My internet failed twice so far while doing this Q&A. I'm unhappy.
Q: So why don't you use MSN at home?
A: I do, but when I get home it's often
after midnight in Canada, and on the weekends I go out for shopping or
to prevent myself from going stir-crazy.
Q: I understand.
A: Good, because I don't answer questions that come from outside my head.
I'm at work so this'll be a short post, but I went to Toyokawa with Colin this Sunday, and at my whining insistence we checked out a new dollar store, which was actually two seperate yet identical buildings connected by a parking lot. My GOD how it puts Canadian "dollar" stores to shame. Thus I have decided that for the next little while I will do short snippets about how awesome it is. So we'll start with the awesomeness about the coming Christmas season.
And of course, as you may be able to read on the signs, EVERYTHING on the shelves, is 105 Yen, every single item.
And there's more to come.
Right, so now that I have a computer and an internet I suppose I should start posting again. It'll help to unload my stores of pent-up neuroticism. Although fighting that is really a losing battle, still, it's time for an entry about a brand new kind of snack I had the other day, and it's delicious and nutritious! Probably!
The yellow ones were my favourite, and I call them the "Crunchy" bees, because they... were crunchy. Obviously. I have no idea how they were prepared, but they're like eating a little disheveled peanut, that was first soaked in something kinda sweet and sour. Kinda weird.
I have internets again! And my cold's feeling better!
So my car's most likely going to explode tomorrow. While I'm driving it. I'll keep you posted.
Unless it does do that, in which case I probably won't.
Internet/Phone: Very no.
Computer: Working in theory, some programs still give me trouble. Cannot access Microsoft Word.
TV: Yes. Have a new one.
So for those of you keeping score, which would be me, I'll rate that as, on the whole, a good thing, as although I have trouble doing anything productive on my computer, the majority of what I do is unproductive. Plus I've been leeching like a bastard from Tomiyama, I wonder if they keep track of it.
You MIGHT think that this is a good thing, that again things are starting to look up for me. To this I would point out that you're an idiot who isn't paying attention. If something goes right something else must, by definition, go wrong.
For example, today at Tomiyama, half the students are out sick, and the other half are either getting sick or have been sick. With the Mumps.
Huzzah.
A small update. My computer has now gone about 12 hours without failing on me, which is nice. Very, very nice. So nice in fact that the universe noted I was feeling upbeat again, so I could check my e-mail to reveal that NTT just cancelled my phone line for non-payment of bills I haven't received which means my automated payment system is, well, not.
Are you starting to see why I'm a pessimist? ARE YOU?
No internet at home for the foreseeable future.
Again.
At least I hope you've asked that, it has been awhile. Anyways, no, I haven't been morbidly depressed or despondent lately. Actually I suppose I have been.... very much so really. It's unbelievably boring here. I think I've covered that.
Doesn't matter, that's NOT the reason why I haven't been posting. Well not entirely, I'm sure had I the ability to post I would have been not posting because I just didn't feel up to it, but again, not the point. The point was I COULDN'T post.
Yes my computer was broken for the last little while. Not the entirety of time that I haven't been posting, but a fair bit of it. It's fixed now. Now I shall resume not posting, but for apathy rather than inability.
It's nice to be back, and now to merely be unresponsive!
