5.26.2004 - あれは、トムだ。間違いない。

Tom's random injury of the week:

I managed to give my ankle a mild sprain during lunch break at Seiseki last week. Good times. Ever since the stubbed pinky finger incident I have been a little paranoid and am attempting to treat my ankle very carefully. Hey, I use that thing to walk. So you'll notice that it's all nicely wrapped up, and I've been icing it down, etc etc. You also probably notice the leg hair. For the first time ever I was tempted to shave my leg, just so that I wouldn't cry like a girl every time I changed my wrapping. I think by the time I leave this country there's a good chance I'll be blind and in a wheelchair due to random injuries. I should start a pool to see who can guess when I will next get injured. We can even take into account things like which school I am going to, and which sports I plan on playing. Maybe even what I had for breakfast. Might as well make my debilitating physical injuries entertaining for the public.

So I got paid. Yay, I can now afford such luxuries as food and socks without holes in them. Some of that money was immediately spent at the Uchiko spring international festival (and beergarden), which was almost exactly like the Uchiko Oktoberfest, except that it was May. That, and the German dark beer was on tap instead of bottle. As much as I'm tempted to I can't put up all the pictures that I managed to take that night, seeing as some students read this page and I wouldn't want them to think that Karen is anything other than temperate and well-mannered.

Seeing as I'll probably be busted up for a while, it works in my best interest that I was invited to watch the Minami brass band club instead of the basketball club. And per the students' demands that their photos be put in the webpage (like I wouldn't have put them in there anyway):

Speaking of Minami, there is a Ozu city civil war brewing. Both North (Kita) and South (Minami) junior high schools have been practicing lately for an all out cheering competition between the two of them, taking place tomorrow. Here's a pic of some of Kita's practice:

Since I've been watching them both practice for it I would really like to see it, but unfortunately I won't be at either school tomorrow. I will however be at the joint Kita-Minami afterparty, which should prove to be a star-studded event. Especially if that intern student teacher shows up. Oh hotness.

5.19.2004 - ふところが寂しい

Holy fricking crap I'm broke. I am at the point where I may have to bike the 4 mile uphill route to one of my schools because I won't be able to pay for the bus. For those who are curious, I have exactly this much money to my name:

Only 49 more hours till I will plunder my freshly stocked bank account. It always looks like so much money when the month starts. One wonders how one could ever manage to spend 260,000 yen in a single month. Sounds like a lot doesn't it? Yet come June 12th or so you'll see me ranting again about how I'll have to become a male prostitute on the side to afford my extravagant lifestyle. I'll need to actually try to retain some of my earnings this month, because the 3rd of next month will be the recontractor's conference in Kobe, where I expect about 1000 JETs to converge like 1000 little Gameras, and wreak havoc on the city.

Japanese schoolgirls have it rough in this country. Not only do they have to deal with the intense academic pressures of the Japanese educational system, they have to do it wearing uniforms that could at best be described as "fetish forming". If you want confirmation I recommend either skimming through a few manga or watching TV. Like I did. Yesterday, I saw a classic of Japanese cinema, Eko eko azakura, which from what I was able to gather, is a touching story about a group of high school girls, and another group of high school girl satanists who try to kill them. I was especially touched by one scene, where one girl kisses the other, and then stabs her. Interested parties can research further here (imdb.com). I am curious how the protagonist manages to appear in the sequel (which played immediately after the first), after the whole stabbing and being disintegrated thing.

Speaking of schools, I was wondering how many of the JETs out there participate in school club activities. In Japan, from junior high school on almost all students participate in club activities, which range from a standard variety of sports to culture clubs and band. These clubs add on 2-3 hours to every student's day, and also take place on the weekends. Although I don't make anymore money by staying, I usually find myself running a couple of hours late coming home on schooldays. In my case, where I go to a school and see my students maybe once every 5-6 weeks, I find the clubs to be a good way to get to know some of the students a little better. If that in turn increases their interest in what I say (i.e. in class), all the better. If not, I still get the benefit of exercise and a little sports training.

Another reason I join in clubs is that I've found that I'm a big attention whore. And I mean big. I like being recognized. Come, inflate my ego some more! Adulate me people, ADULATE!! On that note, I leave you with some old pictures taken in Tokyo of me, Adil, and Atsushi (or hot sushi, if you like being stupid) at Roppongi and the Tokyo auto showcase. Fawn at your own pace.

So, club activities? Yes, no? Waste of time? Not as big of an attention whore as me?

5.14.2004 - I miss the old man's hat

He used to always wear a hat that read "Moving at the speed of quality", which is funny since he always walks at about cane-wielding septuagenarian speed. Perhaps it's his subtle way of saying that quality of life is not based on the speed at which you rush through it. Or maybe not, since his current hat has some random 4 letter acronym on it. Man, I wish I had a hat that said "Moving at the speed of quality". Or even a picture of that hat. Instead, I find myself wearing the same old dress shirt/slack combo I always do. I also only have a couple of ties, so it looks like I'm wearing the exact same thing everyday. It's a good thing I make a full rotatation through my schools only about once every few weeks, otherwise everyone would probably think that I never change my clothes, ever. Considering that walking more than 5 feet in the summer in this country makes me sweat, that would be a very very bad thing.

Finally, sweet sweet weekend. With no ostensible plans for this weekend, maybe I'll actually get 8 hours of sleep a night. My sleep patterns tend to run so that I get really tired around 6 PM, and 2 AM, so even though I should go to sleep around 10:30 to get a full eight hours, I usually end up going to bed around 1:30 and getting a meager five hours. Does this happen to anyone else? Damn you night Tom, always screwing day Tom over.

I'm really learning to appreciate my apartment more, even though I am still bitter that it ended up costing me around $2000 more to move into. I haven't had to worry about massive slug, mosquito, or poisonous centipede infestations. And I don't have a hole in the ground, squat toilet. Cheers to Brian for reminding me how not crap my life is.

There have been many vociferous claims made by people regarding their video game prowess. While there are a lot of people who can beat me in games, I have yet to meet any who can consistently do it in this prefecture. That's right, an open challenge to your video gaming egos, right from the T-man's mouth. Come and have a go if you're hard enough.

Today's disturbingly funny quotation (supposedly) taken from a 3rd year elementary student's t-shirt: "Pop like a cherry"

If only as many people commented on this site as those who read it. Then I'd have at least... uh... 3 comments.

5.11.2004 - (ominous voice) It has begun...

10 PM and it's 80 degrees in Tokyo. Soon Ehime will be engulfed in a humid swamp-like haze.

I had another awesome day at Minami junior high school today. I find I'm not as bad at table tennis now, I am learning and improving on a whole bunch of techniques. I can actually return what's sent my way a fair amount of time. I think there will be little to challenge my ascendancy to the Makino ping pong throne upon my return to the States.

In other news, I went on a school excursion with my Ozu higashi first year class. 20 km hike to a nearby mountain top. 2 hours of running around at the summit, followed by a descent to the nearest train station. Got my first Japanese sunburn too, rock on.

A good time was had by all. I presume. I didn't actually ask anyone's opinion on the matter.

Let's enjoying videos together! (Files are fairly large. Seeing as how I have no idea how to compress/alter these in any way, apologies)

Centrifugal 1st years
Indiana Jones' style 1st years
Coolest. Slide. Ever.

Tom is not a fan of the "skirts over jeans" look. What do you think? ?

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