*... everyone around me is a total stranger...everyone avoids me like a psyched lone ranger...everyone... ((turning japanese, i think i'm turning japanese, i really think so)) ...*
Saturday, December 14, 2002
*... adjustments ...* Snow is a tricky beast. I have come to have to constantly evaluate it, especially if I have to walk in it, or on it, as the case may be if it is super icy. Mostly it's trying to decide where to step, which makes me constantly concentrating on the ground. I don't think I can have anyone walk and talk with me for the next 5 months since i will be staring so hard at the ground, I will be rendered pretty much useless as a conversationalist. Inside is okay, though. And apparently riding a bike isn't so bad, although I wimped out and went when it wasn't snowing and the roads weren't too icy. I've never heard of snow tires for bikes, but I could be mistaken... (?)
I went to dinner on Wednesday with Mr. Ito (he picked me up with Tiffany the first day I got to Niigata) and his friend Setsuko, and we ended up staying there for about 5 1/2 hours. Good times, plus the waiter was really cute (and Australian!), and Mr. Ito, who speaks very very little English, decided that he was going to try to set us up. So I had to sit through a slightly embarrassing scenario of a very drunk old Japanese man rattling off in French to an Australian about why he should join us, and wasn't I pretty? Actually, Setsuko wasn't much help either.
Next week is the last week of school, for the kids anyway. Teachers are supposed to still be working the week after that. Some of the ALTs I know actually have to go in, despite the fact that there are no students. At my school, we teachers are supposed to do a sort of "home study", or an educational house arrest, from what I understand. Technically we're not supposed to leave the city. But if I can get some major things to come together for me in the next couple of days, than hopefully I will be under plane or hotel arrest, having escaped somewhere abroad. Or at least to Tokyo. Wish me luck! 1:17 PM
Wednesday, December 11, 2002
*... wish list ...* What I would give right now for a pair of DocMartens. Seriously. I think I would kill for them. Style, comfort, TRACTION... important issues here. Also, how unfair is it that Jason&Jane released a new CD when I'm 5000 miles away? I mean that's just cruel. For the SD natives who don't know, JasonandJane are friends of a friend whose musical talents absolutely blow me away. The stuff that comes out of Jason's head and fingers (he's the lyricist and guitar man) and from Jane's mouth (a voice that knocks me down) gives me chills when I hear it.
And on a different note (no pun intended): Is this strange, or is it just me? Someone from the city office, whom I have met once, wants to meet me for dinner with a friend of his b/c his friend speaks English very well (he doesn't) and wants an American friend. I am not sure where the uncomfortable factor is coming in here, but I think it may be leaking through the part that says if I consent to dinner that I consent to being a friend to this person whose primary interest in me is the fact that I come from America. I guess I just don't really like to be framed that way.
*... !#$%&?! ...* Okay, believe it or not, I don't mind this snow action. (Spike, yours is like a light frost compared to what we got over here... 6 inches in about an hour??) Of course, it's all pretty new and novel to me, but for the moment, it is bearable. HOWEVER, I DO mind the effects of the snow. As in my bus ride home taking 2 !#$%&?! HOURS to get me to the bus center, meaning I miss my connecting bus meaning I miss practice. Not since the SB got his nickname has such a strong string of superlatives flowed from my mouth. I am seriously seriously mad here. And now I am trying to think, do I take a taxi? Do I skip it? Do I letterbomb the bus drivers and the rest of the traffic on the road? WHAT DO I DO?! 6:03 PM
Monday, December 09, 2002
*... my nose is froze ...* This morning I took great delight in the dusting of snow covering quite a few cars on my morning journey, and I was lured into writing cryptic messages such as "angry toad shoe" on the windshields. These messages of course made no sense to me, which made me think they would make perfect sense to the few who were lucky enough to receive them, and they will think it is a divine message from the Shinto gods or Santa Claus or Hello Kitty, or whoever it is that they decide to worship. And these thoughts kept me entertained as I noticed that my dawdling had made me late, so I ran quickly from the evidence.
All day yesterday it snowed, which was really more annoying than anything else since I spent most of the time trying to figure out if it was snowing hard enough to put my umbrella up. It kept going back and forth. The problem with snow is that it doesn't fall, it drifts, so regardless of the use of an umbrella, you are still likely to end up quite dusted yourself. I spent the afternoon wandering around Niigata Daigaku, that is, Niigata University, which appeared to me to be an oversize high school, and even more deserted on a Sunday afternoon than you would find UCSD (if you can believe it!). Although its expanse was pretty big, it was a small university, building and dorm wise, and it, plus the surrounding town, was surprisingly dirty. I guess the pride of keeping the streets clean is put on hold when one has to devote themselves to college. I tromped around the back woods of the place for a while, and ended up at a building of "International Institute for Research of Hazards in Snowy Areas." Hmmm... To add to my amusement, the apartment complex right next to this "Institute" was titled "Heights No Sweat". HMMM...
I came back city-wise to meet up with Kelly and we treated ourselves out to coffee, dinner and a movie. Felt almost normal, except we both left the movie theater quite ill, we think because of the weather and the fact that they turned the heater up so high that we were stifling and had to leave the movie periodically to breathe. We both had been a little MIA, so it was nice to catch up again and grumble about boys and Japan and boys and dumb boys. Yeah, that's always good. 10:17 AM
Sunday, December 08, 2002
*... ((grumble)) ...* I do not like rain.
I do not like cold.
I do not like snow, hail, or any other combination of rain + cold.
I like to feel my digits. 12:17 PM
*a bit o' *britt*
In Niigata City, Japan it is:
* vItAl StAtS: *
* eYeS/hAiR/wEiGhT. brown/reddish?/yes. * cUrRenT wHeReAbOuTs. back back to cali, cali * bEdTiMe. my body has decided to forgo sleep for now. * fOoD. it has also decided it's anti-food. * pHrAsE. ahh! too many people speaking English! * mOoD. i feel weird, yo. Like twilight zoney, in another world weird. * tUnEs. i get to listen to the radio in my car again! * qUoTe: "whereas i am trying to read in the succession of things presented to me every day the world's intentions towards me, and I grope my way, knowing that there can exist no dictionary that will translate into words the burden of obscure allusions that lurks in these things."
*"One, seven, three, five -- The truth you search for cannot be grasped. As night advances, a bright moon illuminates the whole ocean; the dragon's jewels are found in every wave. Looking for the moon, it is here, in this wave, and in the next." Zen Master Hsueh-tou
* tHiNgS i WiLl MiSs... *
* kaori (kojima) and mariko, kaori (honma), marika and etsuko, setsuko, nakano and sakai (aka "the boys"), kelly, alan
* most of my students
* some of my teachers
* the Shin Ken Kan crew
* my granny bike (a little)
* speaking Japanese
* traveling
* tHiNgS i WoN't MiSs... *
* the staring
* the bus
* being bored outta my gourd
* sleeping on the floor
* the Japanese Way
* secondhand smoke
* the fashion
* jApAn, AkA tHe LaNd oF... *
* "We Don't Believe in Cilantro"
* "We Don't Believe in Towels"
* "Obscurely-Sized Paper"
* "Flouride is Foreign"
* "It's Rude to Eat on the Streets, but it is Perfectly Acceptable to Blow Smoke in your Face"
* "9am is Too Early for Stores to Open"
* "We Just Make the Technology, We Don't Use It"
* "Central Air? Never Heard of It. Central Heating? Nuh-uh. Heated Toilet Seats? Well duh, of course!!"
* "Deodor-what?"
* "Open 24Hrs = 7am - 10pm"
* "Our Knees Don't Freeze"
* "We Want to Speak Like Americans and Look Like Americans and Act Like Americans, But We Don't Actually Like Americans"
* "Hey, Free Beer!"
