Oldies
First day of school.
I’ve just arrived at my new base school. It’s called Kyowa Junior High. I have to ride my bike about 5 mins… take the train 3 stops to Motoyama, then walk for another 5 to the school. It’s not a bad deal, just hotter than all get out. I was surprised at their ‘whatever’ reaction to my arriving today. I was expecting more Japanese hoo-ha, but it was refreshing just to be showed my desk.
So there’s not a goddamn thing to do around here. I spoke with my supervisor yesterday and he apparently told the VP here to let me go home early because there’s no point in me being here. That really makes me happy. He’s pretty much giving me the ok to do what I’ve been illegally doing in Kotohira for 2 years. Good guy. I think I’ll leave at lunch… or somewhere around there.
I have to work on my self introduction speech for the assembly… only two or three minutes. Then I have to spruce up my self introduction for classes. I have to come tomorrow and the next day as well, so I think I’ll work on it then. Today, I will soak in the environment. And then I’ll make some low sodium chili.
There’s a boxing match tonight… a Japanese boxer (Kameda) is going for world champ I guess. He’s almost a celebrity here… has a tuff guy dad who taught him to box and two younger brothers who are also boxers. It’s so funny… they’re kinda what the Japanese call “Yankee.” I don’t know what the word is… but it’s kind of a mixture between white trash and thug…? Any thoughts on this Grant? How do you explain a Yankee. Maybe… it’s hard to explain, but anyways, they’re a bunch of characters and the one boxing tonight is actually really really good. I don’t know anything about boxing, but these kids rarely go to round two. More like they knock the other guy out within a minute. Now, this doesn’t make for a good match, but it’s pretty cool to watch. I’m excited. Maybe I’ll videotape it for yous.
I’m gonna try going by this fancy looking supermarket on my way home today. It’s really close to the house. I need some diet cokes. Snacks. There’s no food in the new apartment… but it’s so FUN! The ice maker is fantabulous! It will be fun finding all the goodies around the place. I don’t know why, but something about this supermarket makes it look like they’re gonna have ethnic food in there. I know it.
Ew, I’ve only been here for an hour and a half and I’m already getting antsy. I need to get my boredom power back.
Thursday.
If I can just make it to lunch, I’ll be fine.
I left work at noon yesterday and I think somebody wigged out because my supervisor called and said that I should stay until 3 today. He wasn’t even mad and didn’t say anything about my leaving at noon… just made a point to tell me to stay until 3 today and tomorrow. So if I can just make it to lunch I should be ok. After lunch is a breeze. It’s 9:30 now. I should, in theory, use this time to work on my self introduction that I’ll have to do about 30 or 40 times. But I think I have summer vacation disease. Even if I’m at my job. I must admit that, after 2 years of working in Kotohira, my work ethic has disappeared. The office is just not a place to do your job. To me, this desk where I sit every day is a place to read books and make lists. Today I already made my list, made unnecessary entries in my Atom planner and stared at a map for 10 minutes. I’m almost sure that map is wrong. I think it is… honestly. They’ve put the street light in the wrong place, or there’s one too many streets or something… I don’t get it, and I don’t want to think about it. The reason I have to look at the map like that is because now that I’ve moved I have the luxury of travel by bicycle. I try to find the shortest route, and I look for things of interest that are close to my apartment. The bowling alley is very close. I went to that supermarket yesterday and it was no big deal… no ethnic foods really. Just the same supermarket with a little makeover. Although they DON’T have the banana cannibal video that runs 24/7 in the Marunaka in Kotohira. I think that’s a real interesting video… you may have to go back a long ways to recall the banana eating banana boy and his cannibananabal mother.
Cannibananabal - n. A banana eating banana.
Cannibananibalism - n. The practice of eating a banana done by… a banana.
Cannibananabaphobia - n. Fear of cannibananibalism, or the practice of eating a banana done by… a banana.
It’s a lot different living in the city. On my way to work people are always popping out of shops holding big flags and shit and they don’t look where they’re going. People also like to throw water on the street in front of their shops. No one looks around here. In the past 3 days I’ve nearly had about 5 people walk right into my bike because they’re oblivious. This would never happen in Kotohira… but that’s because there are no people. Today on the way to work I saw the flower shop lady watering, and I saw kids in front of the shrine trying to catch bugs with nets. Then the flag woman almost collided with me… then I had to wait at a big intersection for the light to turn. There was a lot of people walking and people on bikes. It only takes 5 minutes to get to the station on my bike. Yesterday I finally got an Iruca. This is a card you can use to ride the train. You put money onto in and then when you ride you just beep it on the little sensor, and again when you get off. Kinda like the gas pass Mom and Dad use at the Marathon station. I have 1330 Yen on my pass now. It’s fun. I should have gotten one a long time ago. But now I’ll be riding the train or taking a bus every single work day. I can use it on the bus too. So I’m glad I got it. I went out looking for a curtain yesterday after school. There’s a shop near the apartment called BIG LIFE KAGAWA. It’s kind of an all purpose place… a hardware store, if you will. They have some furniture as well… along with all cleaning supplies, bedding, some lumber, and bicycles, random exercise equipment, and so on. I needed to buy like a fabric curtain to cover the metal rack on which I’ve placed a good portion of my clothes. One to hide them, and two to keep them from sucking up unsightly odors. So Big Life Kagawa only had Japanese style Noren, the kind which you might see hanging in a doorway. This wouldn’t work, too short, has a slit in it. So I went to the department store, God told me to get off the escalator at 7, and when I turned the corner there was a pile of remnants. Isn’t that what you call pieces of fabric? Whatever… a bunch of stacks of pieces of fabric. So I got a nice pink one. I pinned it all up and nailed it to the wall over the rack… then I used a curtain rod to hang it over the edge. It worked out really nice. I wish I could go home and look at it. I’m like my Dad. When I finish a job I like to look at it for a while.
I was reading Mozart’s Women. The beginning stuff about his life was really interesting. I liked the letters and things… I also liked that he talks about poop and pee a lot. See, musical genius Wolfgang Mozart and ME. TOILET HUMOR lovers. What does this say about me? What does this say about Mozart? Anyways, the book was really good until you get to the chapter actually titled Mozart’s Women. This part, so far, has been a play by play of all his operas and things. I have trouble sitting through that, honestly. It’s well written, and I like it… but I don’t know why we need a play by play. Really. I don’t know if I have the guts to finish the book. I just don’t know.
I’m cold in this air conditioning. That’s what happens when you sit in a chair all day long and don’t really do anything. Your body grows cold like a December breeze.
11:22 - I brought my Japanese Proficiency Test study book today. I looked at it for a while and it only makes me feel bad because I don’t know anything about KANJI. I’ll just put that book away for now. The English teacher, two desks down from me, was falling asleep at his chair. He left the room now, maybe he’s gonna have a nap on the toilet. This is my first school that has ever had a western style toilet. Last stall on the left I think I might be forced to sleep on that every now and again. It doesn’t feel like it’ll get that bad today though… I’m full of energy. Oh yes. It’s almost lunchtime. I think I’ll be going out with the sleepy man for food. I just don’t want udon. I don’t know why… but I don’t need those fat noodles in summertime.
Let me tell you about my chair. It SUCKS. It’s big and the arms are so bulbous that the chair won’t fit under the desk. This means, no matter how hard I push up, I will be leaning in to get to my desk from way back here. I’m destined for back pain. What a hassle!!! Who makes a chair that can’t fit under a desk? I’d like to get rid of this fucker. Its noon now, where’s my food.
I was taken to an udon restaurant with 3 dudes. Of course… it has to be udon. These 3 dudes aren’t gonna say, “Let’s go have an omelets-rice!!! I want mine with a béchamel sauce!” They go to udon. They want the one with the fish in it. The big one, yeah. It was not right… I felt sick while eating that udon. I think I DEFINITELY hate cold udon. Almost hate hot. Can’t eat it. It’s too filling and not flavorful enough. I don’t get enough out of the DEAL. Got it? I don’t want Udon anymore unless it’s covered in something red and spicy or fried into the shape of a crispy crème donut.
It’s 2 now. Only one more hour of fun. I guess it hasn’t been that bad. Hopefully tomorrow I can go out for lunch with some women who will spend MUCH more time talking about stuff and take me to a MUCH more delicious place. I can’t wait to find out all the things about my new schoolio.
This will probably continue tomorrow.