Oh gad If there was ever a hedonistic existence lived, it's my current state of affairs. And you can probably tell this by the complete lack of motivation i've had to write about my life in the past couple months. i've tried so many times, but they all end up in the gutter of my mynd.
like this which i wrote a week ago...
My life in a nutshell. Walnut shaped chaos. Is my existence being observed by a third party, causing the whole system to collapse into chaos? Can I pretend to believe that I'm part of a larger science experiment in order to find a small piece of comfort in this world?
I've written and rewritten in order to put some kidna of semblance of order and meaning to the words I spew out and this is my final attempt.
Perhaps you've been wondering where I've been this year. Perhaps not. Perhaps you go about your daily life and just occasionally check in on me. I feel it's my duty to make that time worth your while, dear reader, and entertain you with tales of buying hamburgers from vending machines, and nearly falling off the side of a cliff while snowboarding.
I promised tales of wonder, so let’s start with those. And let’s simultaneously delve into the world of anal-retentive numbering systems, shall we?
1. snowboarding
2. near death experience
3. love affair with Tokyo
4. Japanese software
5. suzaka stuff
which brings us up to the present. I just want to preface this semi-winging rambling by giving you a short breakdown of my month, March.
Emergency teaching in Suzaka 15 days, train ride back to Tokyo
3 days in the office
travel to Okayama for a week of new teacher training
travel back the following Sunday to Tokyo
meet more teachers for dinner and hold personal interviews
forfeit hope of a weekend by holding an Area Meeting training on Monday
Tuesday to Thursday, grow increasingly bitter about the 12 hour workdays and complete lack of overtime. Bitter about Japanese work system and how everyone is assumed to be a robot who doesn't need to eat lunch or take a break when brain function slows down.
Friday
Today was a day of rejuvenation. Meditated, biked 30 km to Shinjuku and back, found a cool “wine and world foods” store and bought some organic yellow corn chips. Am I such a dork that that very act made me so happy? I listened to music, got some leads of what I want to do after Peaceboat, called some places around the city for volunteer positions, cuz ya know, I'm not busy enough, cleaned my appt and unpacked from last weekend, FINALLY put up my shower curtain and now my bathroom just looks gorgeous. There better not be the damn big earthquake they've been predicting for years, cuz I finally got my pad looking real sweet, and concrete debris just isn't in my interior decorating plans. Today, because I miraculously hooked up my internet using neither English, nor Japanese, but a series of educated guesses on what the random boxes on my computer might mean if I had the script to read Japanese installed on my PC. I am proud that I hooked it up, just have to call the place tomorrow to make sure I did it correctly. But now that I have the internet I feel so plugged in to the world! And I had some super fun conversations with mates I hadn't talked to in ages, like Mike Krela, Amie Coffey, Natasha, and my awesome cousin Joseph who's currently having the time of his life in France. He entertained me with the tales of carefree youth for many hours. It just feels so good to connect with people. I could potentially become a hermit. I'm beginning to think it doesn't matter where you live in the world, just as long as you can connect, and as long as you hold with you that one thing that brings solace even in the darkest of times.
So today, I feel like I got my life rearranged to the way I want it. And I'm one step closer to happiness with the prospect of purchasing couch. yuck. when did my happiness become reliant on material possessions? gotta nip this trend in the bud!!
and now up to present... my love affair with Tokyo continues, Japanese software and I have an extremely fragile love-hate relationship going on that will no doubt continue throughout my time here, but lessen with intensity as i learn more Kanji. it's such a happy moment when i win over technology. i really ought to stop fighting so fervently against it all.
snowboarding... wow, when i was ETing in Suzaka I was fortunate to achieve one of my goals in Japan- snowboarding in the J Alps. the experience was surreal in so many ways, and left my soul feeling completely exhilarated. it was like no other boarding experience i've had to date, owing to the fact i am used to Loch Lomond and Candy. I mean, is that saying much? I felt dwarfed by the grandness of the mountains, and Scott, who came up for tha weekend, and I spent the good part of two days floating up and boarding/skiing down the mountains, up one side and down the other. the view was absolutely breaktaking, peaks stretching to the horizon, so much natural beauty crammed into one space. ive' downloaded some softward to put pictures up on here, and that's the first step in giving you a visual of the endless blue peaks. because it was on a sunday n monday, the runs were virtually void of people, which made it that much easier to connect with nature. why is being out in nature so uplifting? the complete absence of ego that we experience when we're in it? it's times that those that make me happy i live in a big city, but not too far away from natural beauty.
Lately, the air quality of Tokyo has been grating on my nerves. and by air quality i mean complete lack of. when i went for a run last month and got stupid lost for over 2 hours, i came home and blew my nose. black. it was like i just spent two hours running through Recovery & Recaust at Bowater. oh gad, i will never ever forget that smell... but i must say that rivals Amity with the most fun jobs i've ever had.
This weekend I got out to Omiya, a city about an hour from my place. It's where Cam lived last year. It was really strange to be back there without her, and to remember all the times we shared at the places i saw. i felt like i was 'coming home' in a way, being there. i met up with some teachers and Japanese staff in the area and we had a lil hanami.
Hanami is the truly Japanese experience of, basically, getting sloshed under the cherry blossoms and admiring their natural beauty through your cocktails-in-a-can, and watching business men fall all over themselves, invite you on their blue "leisure mat" for whiskey, and eating fried squid, cotton candy, okonomiyaki, and takoyaki (fried octopus balls... erm... balls in which fried octopus, ginger, and dough are contained...) from food stalls. it's one of the most beautiful times of the year in japan. the street outside my office is lined with cherry trees and walking to work while they were in full bloom (they are fleeting, only lasting for a couple weeks in their prime) and having them softly float in the wind, down into my cup of frozen mangoes, was just enchanting. so many things here are inspired by the sakura (cherry blossoms), including all the sakura flavoured drinks, and sakura scented bath products and sakura printed stationary. Awe, Japan is so cute.
and also so irritating.
I think i'm on a downswing right now. i'm madly homesick for Canada again, esp after talking to so many people back home. i'm past the fact that life here isn't that easy, i'm past the fact it was impossible to sleep or nap today as earthquakes kept waking me up, it's the mere fact that i just need to hear more English! one of the great parts about being a trainer now is that i can speak a lot more English with my fellow trainers, and with the teachers. And trust me, using 4 syllable words is still a treat!
so basically that's what's going on with me, without delving too deep into my psyche and inner turmoil i've been experiencing, based on the strange place i find myself at in life. kinda feels like the end of university when the $64 000 question was, "Now what?" for some reason, an extraordinarily large amount of people have bombarded me with the burning question "what are you going to do after Japan?" and i think they expect some kind of well-rehearsed, well-thought out career-focused plan to tumble from my mouth, but nothing could be farther from the truth. like the leaf in the wind that i've always been, i have plans but none stretching longer than a 6 month increment, and none of which are completely career oriented. i just think there's so many things i want to do in life before i start a career... but let's save that rambling for another rainy day.
oh yes, spring is here, and i'm LONG overdue for a cleanse! after Australia, i'm embarking on the 3rd bi-annual Master Cleanse....
but i've written enough tonite. i swear to the stars that i will try to be better about writing bout more exciting things on here, and certainly more frequently...
like this which i wrote a week ago...
My life in a nutshell. Walnut shaped chaos. Is my existence being observed by a third party, causing the whole system to collapse into chaos? Can I pretend to believe that I'm part of a larger science experiment in order to find a small piece of comfort in this world?
I've written and rewritten in order to put some kidna of semblance of order and meaning to the words I spew out and this is my final attempt.
Perhaps you've been wondering where I've been this year. Perhaps not. Perhaps you go about your daily life and just occasionally check in on me. I feel it's my duty to make that time worth your while, dear reader, and entertain you with tales of buying hamburgers from vending machines, and nearly falling off the side of a cliff while snowboarding.
I promised tales of wonder, so let’s start with those. And let’s simultaneously delve into the world of anal-retentive numbering systems, shall we?
1. snowboarding
2. near death experience
3. love affair with Tokyo
4. Japanese software
5. suzaka stuff
which brings us up to the present. I just want to preface this semi-winging rambling by giving you a short breakdown of my month, March.
Emergency teaching in Suzaka 15 days, train ride back to Tokyo
3 days in the office
travel to Okayama for a week of new teacher training
travel back the following Sunday to Tokyo
meet more teachers for dinner and hold personal interviews
forfeit hope of a weekend by holding an Area Meeting training on Monday
Tuesday to Thursday, grow increasingly bitter about the 12 hour workdays and complete lack of overtime. Bitter about Japanese work system and how everyone is assumed to be a robot who doesn't need to eat lunch or take a break when brain function slows down.
Friday
Today was a day of rejuvenation. Meditated, biked 30 km to Shinjuku and back, found a cool “wine and world foods” store and bought some organic yellow corn chips. Am I such a dork that that very act made me so happy? I listened to music, got some leads of what I want to do after Peaceboat, called some places around the city for volunteer positions, cuz ya know, I'm not busy enough, cleaned my appt and unpacked from last weekend, FINALLY put up my shower curtain and now my bathroom just looks gorgeous. There better not be the damn big earthquake they've been predicting for years, cuz I finally got my pad looking real sweet, and concrete debris just isn't in my interior decorating plans. Today, because I miraculously hooked up my internet using neither English, nor Japanese, but a series of educated guesses on what the random boxes on my computer might mean if I had the script to read Japanese installed on my PC. I am proud that I hooked it up, just have to call the place tomorrow to make sure I did it correctly. But now that I have the internet I feel so plugged in to the world! And I had some super fun conversations with mates I hadn't talked to in ages, like Mike Krela, Amie Coffey, Natasha, and my awesome cousin Joseph who's currently having the time of his life in France. He entertained me with the tales of carefree youth for many hours. It just feels so good to connect with people. I could potentially become a hermit. I'm beginning to think it doesn't matter where you live in the world, just as long as you can connect, and as long as you hold with you that one thing that brings solace even in the darkest of times.
So today, I feel like I got my life rearranged to the way I want it. And I'm one step closer to happiness with the prospect of purchasing couch. yuck. when did my happiness become reliant on material possessions? gotta nip this trend in the bud!!
and now up to present... my love affair with Tokyo continues, Japanese software and I have an extremely fragile love-hate relationship going on that will no doubt continue throughout my time here, but lessen with intensity as i learn more Kanji. it's such a happy moment when i win over technology. i really ought to stop fighting so fervently against it all.
snowboarding... wow, when i was ETing in Suzaka I was fortunate to achieve one of my goals in Japan- snowboarding in the J Alps. the experience was surreal in so many ways, and left my soul feeling completely exhilarated. it was like no other boarding experience i've had to date, owing to the fact i am used to Loch Lomond and Candy. I mean, is that saying much? I felt dwarfed by the grandness of the mountains, and Scott, who came up for tha weekend, and I spent the good part of two days floating up and boarding/skiing down the mountains, up one side and down the other. the view was absolutely breaktaking, peaks stretching to the horizon, so much natural beauty crammed into one space. ive' downloaded some softward to put pictures up on here, and that's the first step in giving you a visual of the endless blue peaks. because it was on a sunday n monday, the runs were virtually void of people, which made it that much easier to connect with nature. why is being out in nature so uplifting? the complete absence of ego that we experience when we're in it? it's times that those that make me happy i live in a big city, but not too far away from natural beauty.
Lately, the air quality of Tokyo has been grating on my nerves. and by air quality i mean complete lack of. when i went for a run last month and got stupid lost for over 2 hours, i came home and blew my nose. black. it was like i just spent two hours running through Recovery & Recaust at Bowater. oh gad, i will never ever forget that smell... but i must say that rivals Amity with the most fun jobs i've ever had.
This weekend I got out to Omiya, a city about an hour from my place. It's where Cam lived last year. It was really strange to be back there without her, and to remember all the times we shared at the places i saw. i felt like i was 'coming home' in a way, being there. i met up with some teachers and Japanese staff in the area and we had a lil hanami.
Hanami is the truly Japanese experience of, basically, getting sloshed under the cherry blossoms and admiring their natural beauty through your cocktails-in-a-can, and watching business men fall all over themselves, invite you on their blue "leisure mat" for whiskey, and eating fried squid, cotton candy, okonomiyaki, and takoyaki (fried octopus balls... erm... balls in which fried octopus, ginger, and dough are contained...) from food stalls. it's one of the most beautiful times of the year in japan. the street outside my office is lined with cherry trees and walking to work while they were in full bloom (they are fleeting, only lasting for a couple weeks in their prime) and having them softly float in the wind, down into my cup of frozen mangoes, was just enchanting. so many things here are inspired by the sakura (cherry blossoms), including all the sakura flavoured drinks, and sakura scented bath products and sakura printed stationary. Awe, Japan is so cute.
and also so irritating.
I think i'm on a downswing right now. i'm madly homesick for Canada again, esp after talking to so many people back home. i'm past the fact that life here isn't that easy, i'm past the fact it was impossible to sleep or nap today as earthquakes kept waking me up, it's the mere fact that i just need to hear more English! one of the great parts about being a trainer now is that i can speak a lot more English with my fellow trainers, and with the teachers. And trust me, using 4 syllable words is still a treat!
so basically that's what's going on with me, without delving too deep into my psyche and inner turmoil i've been experiencing, based on the strange place i find myself at in life. kinda feels like the end of university when the $64 000 question was, "Now what?" for some reason, an extraordinarily large amount of people have bombarded me with the burning question "what are you going to do after Japan?" and i think they expect some kind of well-rehearsed, well-thought out career-focused plan to tumble from my mouth, but nothing could be farther from the truth. like the leaf in the wind that i've always been, i have plans but none stretching longer than a 6 month increment, and none of which are completely career oriented. i just think there's so many things i want to do in life before i start a career... but let's save that rambling for another rainy day.
oh yes, spring is here, and i'm LONG overdue for a cleanse! after Australia, i'm embarking on the 3rd bi-annual Master Cleanse....
but i've written enough tonite. i swear to the stars that i will try to be better about writing bout more exciting things on here, and certainly more frequently...
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