4.29.2004 - Enjoy refreshing time with Tom!

Mmmm... Thursday afternoons off rock. Too bad I've got work tomorrow, otherwise it would be a freakin 7 day weekend! I suppose I could take time off, but since I have no plans, it's probably not worth it. And if I did, I'd have one of my favorite Yawatahama teachers all pissed off at me.

Yesterday I indulged in a bottle of Mon Frere with compatriot Nathalie after hearing its virtues being sung on an online message board (Big Daikon). Yes, all in all, a bad idea. Fortunately, since all wine tastes like absolute crap to me, this didn't taste any worse than usual. And, for only 340 yen (~$3), it's cheaper than a single drink at any single bar in this town. At some places you can get two bottles for less than a single bar drink. Bastards, luring me in with their karaoke and their "ambience". I miss Murphy's in Urbana, where I'm sure "Eat Shit Tom Schmidt" still remains etched in large letters in that booth near the door. Ah, good times.

A lot of woes recently:

• Woe #1: The finger that I stubbed a couple of months ago still hurts sometimes when it's bent in certain ways. The nurse I saw about the problem said that it probably healed funny and so now might not fully recover, or may just take a long time. Well that's a real punch in the crotch. They also told me to wrap it for a couple weeks in case, so now I have a pathetically done splint on my pinky finger made up bandaids and lots and lots of scotch tape. In addition my neck hurts. I blame it on rolling around during a random aikido practice I went to last week. They told me to wrap it up too, but I don't think I have that much tape.
• Woe #2: I have a hard time communicating in Japanese. Not the simple, "I'd like two oranges" kind of communication, but rather the expression of more complex thoughts. Rather than blaming my lack of ability on my own shoddy study techniques and lack of motivation, I find it much easier to blame my parents. I think I will apply the same idea to all of my future failings. Much easier than actually owning up to problems and coming to a real solution, ha ha.
• Woe #3: I'm poor as always. The difference this time is that instead of only being a week from being paid like when I usually utter this complaint, I'm 3 weeks from being paid. Immediately after sending 40% of my income home for savings this month, my office tells me that they are having me pay for the room and travel expenses for a nationwide JET conference next month up front, and will reimburse me later. This woe is compounded by general spite at everyone else for not paying the same 220000 yen (US $2000) I had to pay to move into an unfurnished apartment. By and large the majority of JETs in my area paid little to nothing to move into fully furnished apartments. I could gripe more by complaining about the extra vacation time and free cars they get too. But I won't. I'm bigger than that.

No real English today, so this will have to do:

If there ever was an image screaming for me to photoshop my face into it...

Does Tom whine too much? You Decide. .

4.25.2004

Hey, this looks like how I tried to write some of my college papers:

Brought to you by the hard efforts of Seiseki Junior High students.

Today my arms are still a pulpy mess of swollen flesh and bone fragments. You can tell me to stop whining like a girl, but not only would that be sexist, it would also be offensive to the girls I practiced with a couple days ago, who took the 4 hour club practice seemingly without feeling a thing. I, on the other hand, started cringing whenever a ball came near me after the first 2 hours. Those Minami junior high school girls are hardcore. Even though school ended early at around 12:00, I joined the volleyball club after being invited, not knowing the intense agony that I would put myself through. I should stop embarrasing myself and just participate in the English club or something.

I've been getting really lazy about the whole journal thing, I think it's mostly cause it's a pain for me to reformat and compress images that I upload with each entry. Oh well. In the interim I managed to get myself a new passport, so I no longer run the risk of being offhandedly deported. It's made extra cool by being issued by the Consulate General of Osaka-Kobe. So now all of my schools have new teachers, making for a whole new potpourri of inter-office relations. So far so good, hopefully things will stay that way.

In any case, it's just good to be back in school. The seven weeks of forced office labor nearly broke my spirit. I've learned to appreciate them somewhat as good opportunities to study, but not for seven weeks in a row. Although when it comes down to it, for actual work purposes I don't need any time at the office, since I never do any work actually related to my job there.

I've been spending the last week checking out various martial arts in the local area, in the hopes that I'll find one that I want to do. Tonight was shorinji kempo. I arrived not realizing that the kids' lessons come first, so I got to watch them run around kicking for about an hour. It was funny watching them spar, half of the kids standing around looking all puffy in their body armor while the other kids attempt to beat them repeatedly. And then came the adults portion. Remind me to avoid sparring nights if I decide to do kempo. Wow.

Speaking of little kids, here are some pictures of me with Sarah's international club that I helped out with a little during spring break. Cute little monkeys.

And the aftermath:

Which brings me to another point. I'm not sure why, but my education office seems to be rather possessive with me, the big man up top is reluctant to give me permission to visit other schools and do other educational activities during my long office periods. Astonishing, since when I visit other schools and teach, I am not only educating/entertaining, I put in more hours, making me infinitely more productive than when I sit at my desk reading some random book. Grrrr. VEXATION.

Well, that was a boring post. Care to leave (a) ?

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