November 2002

November 29, 2002

Wow, this the longest that I've gone without putting up a post in a long time...time really flies!

I bought some Japanese textbooks this week, and have started to put a genuine effort into learning the language. It's funny, but I think it takes a little time to really get the feel for the language just through osmosis, and then the desire to communicate starts to take over.

I heard from my friend Karim the other day by email...what a neat pseudo-encounter. We haven't been in touch for years. He's now working in the foreign service in Ottawa...pretty cool in my books. That's definitely a line of work that I could get interested in.

I discovered the wonders of CD rentals yesterday...a pirate's delight! Although the selection of popular western music leaves a great deal to be desired (unless you love George Michaels, Def Leppard, Megadeth and Abba), the choices in Jazz aren't too bad at all.

Renting music seems pretty popular here, and unlike North America, copy-protected CD's are clearly labelled, with details on what kind of duplication is possible...it's almost as if the record companies have set different standards and different rules for Japan. The difference, however, might be in the fact that the method of choice in Japan is to make an MD (which cannot be recopied digitally) as opposed to ripping into mp3 as is popular in North America. Realistically, they probably make more money off of letting people rent the CD and make one copy than they would otherwise, and the artists can thus still make their bucks despite the copying.

November 20, 2002

Laura and I have been trying to get out and do some sightseeing this week, but events seem to be conspiring against us.

Yesterday we had to go to the immigration office and begin the arcane ritual of renewing our visas, which appears to be a somewhat ridiculous process.

This means, of course, that we've now been here for 6 months...something I can hardly believe. Time seems to be racing by.

November 17, 2002

Last night I had one of the more bizarre encounters of my life. Laura, a friend and I had been having a few drinks in a pub in downtown Kyoto. As we walked outside of the pub, we stopped for a moment to decide where to go next, when we were approached by a little old man.

At first it seemed like a pretty standard situation, where someone decides they want to practice their English, so we were happy to chat with him for a moment. "Oh, you're from New York? New York is divided in five parts." "You're from Canada? I have been to Montreal. In Quebec, half of the people are speaking French."

But that's when things took a strange twist. He began telling us that he was a linguistics professor, and that he had published over 40 books. In fact, he said, he was working on a Japanese-English dictionary right now...in fact he had the transcript with him at that very moment...

Before we knew it, the man had reached into his bag, pulled out a section of the manuscript and had divided it up between us. He quickly gave us each a pencil and asked us to proof read a few pages for typos. We were all taken totally off guard, and had trouble containing our laughter as we set down to our task. We marked away to a chorus of "Thank you sir" and "Thank you lady", reading all of the bizarre phrases that he had translated from Japanese. "An ugly woman dreads the mirror" was one of them...there were others too numerous and strange to recall.

We completed our task standing in front of the pub, and in a second barrage of thank-you's he was gone. I could only admire his tactics as he walked away, as he was certainly the first guerrilla linguistics professor I have ever seen. The upside is that I can now, in all honesty, claim on my resume that I have done proof reading for the University of Kyoto...on a volunteer basis, of course.

November 15, 2002

Ahhhhhhhhhhh....payday at long last. Now we can stop begging for change in the subway station!

The funny thing with Japanese companies is that they don't pay once a week, nor once every two weeks...no, no, they pay once a month. If you end up short of cash - for whatever reason - relief is always a very long way away. Most teachers who come here are completely unfamiliar with this kind of practice, and the result is that by the end of the month they are absolutely desperate for money. Then, of course, after a week or two of near destitution, you are paid a huge lump sum...very dangerous indeed.

Sorry if the new background colours give anyone a headache...they're only here for the autumn season! The design is actually based on a scan of a real maple leaf that Laura picked up on our hike yesterday...and once you see some of the pictures of the maple trees here in their autumn colours...well, at least then you will be able to understand my enthusiasm.

I thought the temple here were beautiful before...but now they are painted in breathtaking tones of reds, oranges and yellows.

November 14, 2002

The autumn colours are here in full force, it seems, and Laura and I are going to check out the local temple - Bishamon-do - to check out the scenery. Laura has it on good authority that this is to be one of the most colourful autumn seasons in decades, as a result of an early cold snap. Next week (after payday) we're going to begin the rounds of some of the best maple-viewing spots in town.

November 12, 2002

Well, tommorrow's Laura's birthday, or if you're in North America, it's technically today. Although the timezones can be a little confusing, at least it is not as bad as if Laura had bored a whole to the centre of the Earth, at which point she would be able to celebrate her Birthday continuously for 24 hours in all timezones simultaneously.

Intraplanetary celebrations aside, we have decided to spread her birthday out over the week, as payday is not until Friday and we currently lack the funds to even pay the subway fare necessary just to get where we can look at the restaurants we can't afford (it also saves the effort and expense of smashing our way through several billion tonnes of rock). Come Friday, however, we are officially out of the hole...and the Birthday Week celebrations can begin in earnest.

For any with a mind to contacting Laura, I've updated the contact page with better information on how to call.

November 11, 2002

At long last, I have some more pictures up on the site: a nifty little page on Kyoto's Jidai Matsuri, or 'Festival of the Ages'.

For those with a good memory, this is the parade that we abandoned to go to Starbucks, adding our own little chapter (Japan: The Modern Period) into Kyoto's long history.

November 9, 2002

Wow, somehow the week has just rocketed past...and it's Saturday already. I've managed to scan in some pictures from the Jidai Matsuri...but that's about it. I'll be putting those up tommorrow, and hopefully some others.

One of my students went on a business trip to China last week, and he said that the whole time he had to 'eat and drink too much'. It looks like he got a rough introduction to the Chinese practice of "Ganbei", or 'Dry Glass' in which you have to empty the contents of your glass. He was forced to get really drunk every night of the trip, and as he said "I returned all of my food to the toilet". Poor guy.

November 4, 2002

Today is yet another national holiday, so there is no Aikido tonight. It's funny, all of the national holidays were changed so that they would always land on a Monday, thus ensuring long weekends; good for workers, bad for people who have Monday Aikido classes!

Laura and I resolved last night that we are going to take up archery at the Kyoto Budo Centre...should be pretty cool, but really challenging. It looks as if it is an extremely exacting art form, not to mention the fact that the classes are entirely in Japanese...only a small obstacle, I'm sure.

November 1, 2002

Wow, November already. With that, Laura and I are entering our sixth month here in Japan, and I can scarcely believe it. Six months seems to be some sort of threshhold, and after that Nova teachers seem to start dropping like flies. The average time teachers stick around is about 6 to 8 months...pretty high turnover!

Life in Japan has definitely had its high and low points, but at this point we are settled in and life is pretty comfortable here. I think I'm going to start a small segment on here listing some of the fun and frustrations of living in Japan.

For now, please enjoy our pictures from our Hozu river trip. I like monkeys.

Also, in all my excitement I forgot to mention the great postcard we got from Ian when he was in the Yukon...typical Ian styles. Check it out on the Peeps page.