Yakumo Music Concert

This was the reason why I had to come back to Japan so early. I only got a days rest before I would have to suit up and get back to work. It wasn’t really that bad since when I got home I was able to sleep like a baby. I got more and enough rest and was able to get ready to meet with students and teachers. I had arrived about half an hour early, so I took a walk around and got a little snack to eat before the event. The event itself was really well organized and it was a pleasant experience. I’m glad that I came back to Japan to see it. They were really good. I like the mixes that the conductor had taught them, it was a great mix of the songs that were familiar. I noticed that there were a lot of western songs that were thrown in there. It was a great performance. It was strange to see my co-workers again after all that has happened this week. It seems almost surreal that I’m living in Japan and this is what I do for a living now. How quickly things seem to change and how disoriented I am.

I went home with another teacher, not to my house, but to Yokohama station. She sat next to me all year, but we hardly talked, but I made the effort to talk more tonight. I think it worked pretty well since we talked for most of the ride home. I think that was a nice thing since I have moved my desk for the upcoming year. I have been told that I will be moving over into the next aisle and that I will be more in the center. I think that all the other people haven’t moved very much and very far. Only a few others have moved grades.

On the plane and landing

The plane ride wasn’t that great, but wasn’t that horrible either. I sat next to a bunch of guys and they were quiet. I think that’s a good thing but not incredibly good. They didn’t say anything and I mean I should have engaged them into conversation, but they didn’t seem interested. The movie on the plane was After the Sunset. I think that was a pretty decent movie and would have actually liked to see it on a bigger screen or at least a closer screen. But anyways, I liked the jist of it. Since I was flying on United we had one of those shared big screens for the Economy class. They also had a lot of TV programming that I didn’t bother to watch. I was just sitting there and listening to my MP3 player. Thank goodness that I decided to buy that thing. It has been my savior for the boring times.

When I arrived I had some trouble going from place to place. I was looking for many things and trying to figure out a way to get to Terminal 2 and to find my friend who was working there, CFmori. It took a long while, and I’m not sure why. I had to buy many things at the airport that I couldn’t find easily anywhere else. Like a 3 prong to a 2 prong for Japanese outlets for some equipment that I brought over. I was able to meet up with my friend, even though she was working. It was nice to see my friend since it has been awhile since we have last met each other. And I haven’t seen her working before. The woman she was working with is really cute. My friend was really helpful for me to get my ticket to get back home. Everything was very convenient on the way back except that I had too many things and not enough room on the train. It was a bit awkward, but I survived. I caught the Narita Express to Tokyo Station and then transferred to the Tokaido Line to get to Totsuka station. It was crowded but wasn’t as bad as I expected.

Catching a plane back to Japan

I wanted to get some sleep before I left to the airport but I hadn’t slept all night and then I had to drive to LAX. I spent the night watching TV after I had finished packing. My whole family wasn’t able to sleep either, which was a weird thing. That wasn’t really pleasant I’m not sure why this had happened, but it did. I thought that was really weird. Going to the airport wasn’t very bad, I had made it even though I was tired as hell. It was a pretty smooth trip and I had gotten there fairly early. We had our last meal as a family at a restaurant in LAX, which tasted like crap. It was made fresh, but still tasted like crap. I needed to get some whiskey at the Duty Free store, but didn’t want to carry it on the airplane since I was tired and didn’t want to carry it. After I had entered the terminal, my sister and mother left. They were planning to go to Chinatown today, and I was going to jump on a plane back to Japan.

The plane ride wasn’t too horrible, but it wasn’t great either. I was sitting next to two guys, actually I was sitting between two guys. The movie wasn’t that great and the food wasn’t either. But it was tolerable and since I got the tickets at a discount I really can’t complain. I don’t remember what movies were being offered, but if I can’t remember it, I guess that it wasn’t that interesting. Actually there weren’t any movies offered. It was only Japanese TV programs. I was listening to my mp3 player the whole time. I’m extremely happy that I bought it and have used it more than what it had cost me to buy it.

Pack and the last meeting with my friends at Tea Station

Tonight was the last pow-wow that I had with my friends. The beginning of the day was packed with packing, and finally I ended up with enough time to see my friends. I didn’t go fast enough since I was on the computer most of the time. The computer screen was much larger than I had remembered it and it was weird staring at it and chatting and things like that. I had fixed it up with all the updates and new programs for my sisters so that it would be great. I had really wasted a lot of time, just packing. We had decided to meet at Tea Station and I told my friends to spread the word that I would be able to go chill with them one last time, and if they wanted to see me they could. I didn’t leave my house till around 9pm, but I think that was enough time to meet with my friends. This is the last time I see my friends and this is the message they give me, “Bryan, you’re heartless and emotionless!” what’s up with that? Damn guys, I love you, you know. Just because I don’t say it like that all the time and in the way that you want me to doesn’t mean that I don’t…geez. Give a guy a break dude. Anyways, it was all in good fun and I guess I haven’t really improved since my days working for my internet company. I’m still a heartless asshole who doesn’t share my emotions very well.

I had run into some other friends that I wasn’t planning to meet and it was very interesting. I met a person who was a good friend of mines and she’s one of the top players on the Grossmont Girls tennis team. And I think she was with her boyfriend, who happened to be one of my mentor’s old room mates, what a small world!!

I had lent my bass guitar to my friend AC on the promise that one day he will teach me how to use it. I really do hope that he keeps it; I’d like to learn, since my best friend gave it to me a long time ago. I haven’t had the time to learn it or play it. It was a great evening and a good way to end my extremely short and busy spring break. I needed to get home earlier because I was going to go to the airport early in the morning. I was going to drive to LAX so I needed somewhat of a good rest to make sure I had the energy to do so. Plus I needed to finish packing.

Driving that's about it ~ Traveling

Since I hadn’t slept at all, I was a bit tired. I really didn’t have much energy to do much, but since I was starting to get tired when the sun came out, I took a shower and was refreshed to continue with the days plan. I had breakfast with my Aunt and my cousin, on my mother’s side. We had gone to get breakfast at Lucky Star for Dim Sum. It is conveniently near my house so it wasn’t that bad since I had to drive. I missed Dim Sum because I haven’t had it in Japan. They have versions of it here, but it just isn’t the same. They don’t have the whole deal with the rolling carts and the mean people who don’t listen to you when you order something. I mean it’s an experience that everyone should have. We had gotten the usual, but once again, I couldn’t stuff any more in my face. I found out that my cousin went to the football game that I wanted to go to. She had scored tickets from a friend.

After that, my family spent the day driving. There were many things that I wanted to do on a Sunday because it’s the perfect day to go as a family to do things. It was then that I realized that nothing was open. We went to Fashion Valley, but it was closed because it was Easter Sunday. How come no one told me that Easter was in March this year? I was surprised and shocked to come to that realization that nothing was available for me and my family to do on our day off. After the trip to the deserted mall, my mom had the idea of going to see Linda Trang Dai in concert. There was going to be a Vietnamese concert and she wanted to see it. So she dragged us to go check it out. So we drove to Pechenga Indian Reservation, where my cousin had told me that’s where her mom went to go to the concert. But since I wasn’t having any good luck, we found the wrong place. It was at another casino, and we were joking that it might be near our house. It was quite a bit of a drive and my benz is a gas guzzler so we were eating up all the gas just to drive there. At this point we were all getting hungry, so we wanted to catch dinner, but where do you think we wanted to go?

We wanted to go to Red Lobster, which was like an hour away. That wasn’t even the bad part. There was about an hour and a half wait, just to go in. So we ended up driving all the way back to La Mesa and going to Grossmont Center Mall. After getting in, it wasn’t too bad. We were watching a NCAA basketball game and Kentucky had just lost, I was shocked since they are a superior team, but just couldn’t get a win. We were put in the back room, where there was only minorities. I found that to be very suspicious and wondered why there were so many minorities there in the first place. It was a shock to see that many in one room. The dinner was fun and it was a delicious dinner. I’m surprised that I actually ate the whole thing. I never get a chance to eat such high quality food and I’ve been only filling my body with junk that I thought I needed to fill it with something better. Who would have thought that I would be able to do that? I guess that I’m finally getting used to American food again. I mean it wasn’t too big to begin with. I had a Steak and Lobster dinner, but the French fries were nasty. DON’T ORDER THE FRENCH FRIES!! I think that was the only thing I couldn’t eat this week.

Working on finishing up all the things that I need to do

I met up with ALiu and NA in the morning to have breakfast at IHOP. It was really nice to see them since I haven’t seen them in a long time. I was wondering how they have been doing and since I don’t talk to them often it really was a surprise to even see them. I had forgotten how large American food was and couldn’t even finish my International Omelet, when I was able to down two before. I think I managed to finish half of it this time. While we were eating breakfast, I saw my mom’s car getting towed to get repaired. It had broken down the day before and it was being towed to the mechanic, which was weird since I saw it in transport while eating breakfast. It wasn’t a very long meeting since ALiu needed to go to SDSU for a group project that she was working on and NA needed to go home to study too. After breakfast, I took her to her school since it was close by and we were able to chat a little more.

Then my lunch appointment was with RW and his girlfriend at a Korean Restaurant on Clairemont Mesa Blvd. I was stuffed because of breakfast and really couldn’t eat that much more. It was horrible I think I only ate a bit of fried gyoza at a Korean restaurant. I really didn’t have enough room to put anything else inside. We stayed there for a long time then we left kinda late. I think we were there for about 5 hours or so, just chatting it up. It was a bit quiet and they didn’t really get into it. His girlfriend, MY, was a bit shy at the beginning, but after a bit we were able to break the ice and get everyone to feel a bit more comfortable.

I wanted to go catch the indoor football game that all my SDYSCAA friends were going to and since I had free tickets. But there was a dinner with my family tonight so I couldn’t do both. But it’s ok, family is important since I haven’t seen them in a really really long time. We went to Lucky Star, even though there was a Wedding Reception there. We had a little area in the back. I had seen an interesting bumper sticker on the car that said that marriage sucks or something like that, and it was on the couple’s car. I found that to be quite interesting. Dinner was good, but I was still full from breakfast even though this was like 7 hours later. I really have been eating a lot lately and couldn’t eat too much. I wanted to eat a lot since I don’t get a chance to eat food from San Diego anymore. I wanted to treasure all the things that were missing. It was weird to see all my cousins all grown up. They are in High School now, which is something I can’t imagine. It’s interesting when you see people you haven’t seen in a really long time and realize that it’s been years since you’ve last seen each other and things have changed a lot. It was weird to even be in my old room, and it didn’t really feel like I used to stay there for 10 years of my life. It was familiar, but wasn’t comfortable anymore. I slept a bit late because I wasn’t able to sleep. Actually I didn’t sleep at all. I was watching TV all night. I had seen the movie Equilibrium, which was pretty interesting and then another Japanese movie about Pyrokinesis. I liked the movie and found it weird that I was watching a Japanese movie in America and watching American movies in Japan.

One missed appointment, bad communication

My breakfast appointment today wasn’t confirmed so we both ended up missing it. It was a shame since it would have been nice to see all of them and now that I hear they are planning to start a family. I’m so happy for them. But I would have been late anyways since I didn’t get up on time. I was very sluggish getting up since I haven’t slept very well this week. Plus I didn’t get a chance to sleep very well last night. I slept late too.

My afternoon appointment was with the doctor to get my blood tested. That wasn’t as bad as I thought, just the nurse talked too much. It was getting on my nerves a little bit. I actually had my blood drawn today to get tested for something. Not a great experience, but not the worst either.

After that, I was starving so I picked up YS and CN at CN’s house. I was a little bit late, but it was ok. We went to Saigon for lunch and YS was even ordering in Vietnamese. It was cool. She goes to eat Vietnamese food often. I wasn’t able to finish my food, which was ridiculous. I usually eat this and then some, but recently I haven’t been able to eat so much.

After lunch, we went to Tapioca Express to kick it for a little while. It was nice. I ordered Earl Grey Milk Tea with Grass Jelly. One of my favorite drinks there.

For dinner, I was meeting up with YYchi, YM, CFoka and another person. We went to On the Border at Parkway Plaza, which was pretty busy. It didn’t take too long to get in and to order and to get our food. It was pretty good service and the food wasn’t too bad either. I only got Chicken Flautas, which were pretty damn good. It was something very small for me since I usually eat a lot more. But I think that it was a good thing to save it up. After dinner, I went around the mall shopping a little bit. It was late and they didn’t have many stores open, but I was able to find something for a friend of mine. I was planning to make one last visit to my friend that I won’t be able to see for a long time, but things didn’t work out and I thought that it would be better just to go home and call it an evening since I was stuffed like a turkey at this point of the day.

A day at Tea Station

I was meeting up with the bunch today. I had a breakfast appointment today with AB. I haven’t seen her in the longest time. I had to drive hella far to meet up with her, but it was good to catch up on old times. She is basically the connection to my friends in High School. She’s still current on the lives of all my friends even though she doesn’t live anywhere near me. She still knows what’s going on, which is great for me to hear it from her.

My lunch appointment seemed to be pushed back later and later. It wasn’t much of a lunch meeting anymore; it just became more of a late afternoon drink. I had wanted to meet up with them for a little while, but I had to go to the doctor’s office first to get some things checked up. Then after that, I went to Tea Station to meet up with everyone. It turned out to be only just AC and S”E”K. Little did I know that it would be the rest of the day that I would sit there.

Later on, we were joined up by AW and then his gf came for about 3 minutes. It was nice to finally see her. I hear good things about her and they seem happy as a couple so I’m happy to see that. It was a short meeting and AW seemed to be extremely tired and out of it. But it was good to see them.

When we were about to leave, a group of people from the SDYSCAA came into Tea Station. I think it was random that I got to see them two days in a row, but this time I saw new people there. It was nice to finally meet everyone. They were just like I expected though, from all the stories that I’ve heard from people and the way that they carry themselves. But AC and S “E” K took off early around 10pm and then I stayed around with the rest of the group. We didn’t end up leaving till around 12:30am. I really felt good being with this group, for some reason they clicked very well and I just fit in well.

After that I had a late late dinner with BH. Actually I didn’t eat since I had to get a blood test I wasn’t allowed to eat anything. But I wanted to talk about many things. I think that even though I was really exhausted and didn’t know how tired I was, I’m glad that we were still able to have this talk. It was really important for me to see how things were and to see what was going to happen in the future.

SDYSCS and SDYSCAA

I have three appointments today with members of both groups. It will be an interesting day and I’m not sure how things will turn out, but I’m sure that I will do my best to get the message across. It will be good to get back into the swing of things, but I’ll see how things go. I had also scheduled this day to be one with family, but things in Japan had altered today’s plan. Instead of taking care of my shit, I had to take care of other peoples’ shit. That seems to be common in San Diego, partly a reason why I’m a bit bitter for coming back. I really never get enough time to focus on the things I want to take care of, and always have other people to worry about. You can tell I’m a bit pissed about it. I mean it’s nice to see these people and all don’t get my wrong, it’s not like I hate these people. But I would have like to spend more time doing the things that I wanted to do since my trip is so short.

My breakfast appointment was with the President of the SDYSCS. I first went to her house and then we talked for a little bit. It was nice to walk into her house again. Since she does have an amazing view of San Diego and it’s such a traditional and modern house all wrapped up into one. It really was nice. The conversation that we had was something revolutionary for me too. I really learned a lot and was impressed by many things that I guess I hadn’t realized before. Then we went to Ichiro restaurant to continue our conversation. After that she took me to Ranch 99 to get some stuff that she needed to prepare for a party the next night for some arena football players that were from Yokohama. This only happened because my lunch appointment had cancelled on me this morning. But after buying all the stuff and going shopping, she took me back to her house. It was nice to ride in her brand new car too. It was cool.

My lunch appointment was cancelled because he caught a cold. I was going to meet with the Vice President of Kyocera International human resources department. I think that was a shame to have missed this appointment. I think that there were many things to explain and talk about. I needed to learn what was going on in the society on this side so I could help the association on the other side and get things going again.

My dinner appointment was with the SDYSCAA. At first we were going to go to Hooters, but I didn’t really feel comfortable with that. Since I was meeting the members of the association for the first time and I didn’t want them to have that kind of impression of me on our first meeting. So we switched to go to T.G.I. Fridays. They were nice to me even though I think there were alternative motives going on. I know that there was a lot of tension, but not really tension. I was being watched close under a microscope I felt like. I know that there were some other people, who happen to want to learn more about me than just knowing me. I know it’s hard to explain since I know that one person who reads this will know that I’m talking about this matter. It’s a very delicate situation and I came at an awkward time to just mess things up for people. I seem to be pretty good at doing that. It was volatile without really being volatile. After we had dinner there, we went to Tapioca Express to get some drinks and just hang out for a little bit. I ran into some friends while I was there. They hadn’t known that I had moved to Japan since I haven’t seen them in a long time they just didn’t know. It was nice way to end the evening and it wasn’t as tiring as I thought, although I know that I didn’t get much sleep during these past few days. I know that I wasn’t going to be able to get a good night’s rest tonight either.

Getting back to Driving

I had awaken late today, only because I had slept around 7am San Diego time. This means I didn’t sleep for over a long time. I had been exhausted from my plane trip and since I was really sleep deprived I wasn’t able to get back to working mode. I didn’t do much for the most part of the day time, but in the afternoon I went with my mom and drove my sister to work. I also found out where another prominent Kiwanian lived since that’s where my sister worked. She did basic things and I didn’t really think that it was worth her getting that job since it would cost more money to drive back and forth from her job and school in gas than she got paid for. She only worked for a short time so it wasn’t like she was getting paid lots of money either. But I guess that it does count for experience and if she needs a reference on her resume it would be good to have that kind of experience.

My goal today was to get some stuff done. I mean that’s actually the goal for my spring break. So today I was working and tried to fix my copy machine. I had thought that it would be a quick just buy some ink and it would be fixed, but obviously it wasn’t that simple. I think that there are some serious problems with that machine that I won’t ever be able to fix or find out. There always have been problems with it ever since we bought that shitty ass machine. It almost feels better just to buy a new machine to replace the one we have. It was an expensive piece of machinery so we don’t want to just toss it to the side of the street. But it’s also costing a lot in maintenance. But anyways, I took my sisters to Costco, wal-mart, Fry’s electronics, and it started to rain today. It was nice going shopping for all the things that I used to buy. It was weird since I was using my money that I had brought from Japan and instead of using the family money to buy things. It was like I was treating my sisters to a shopping spree and they really did go on a shopping spree. They haven’t been shopping in a long time so I think they felt good spending money and getting some new stuff. We didn’t buy anything at Fry’s, but I did check out the prices of the things that I wanted to get. My sister has a friend who works there so he could hook me up with an Employee discount. How great is that? We bought a boat load of stuff at Costco, for which I won’t use any of it. And we got some things at Wal-mart that I might use later, but most likely will never use. It was actually pretty tiring doing all that shopping and since I was already fatigued I didn’t end up feeling better. But it also felt good to drive. I wouldn’t say I missed my car, but it does feel good getting to drive it again. It feels like it’s still brand new and rides smoothly. It was wonderful and very enjoyable. I didn’t have any appointments to meet up with my friends today, which is probably the only day this week that this occurrence would happen. I would call this a family day though since it was a main reason for me to go back to San Diego.

Part II - In America hanging out with BHu, YSki, ICn

I’m not sure what the plan is today. But what did happen was I got picked up late, but it was so wonderful to see my friends at the airport. I really had missed them. It was great. I had to wait for about an hour, but still it was all good. I had time to get a drink down in the Tom Bradley terminal so I could get change to go back to Terminal 6 and make a pay phone call to my mother, who called my youngest sister, who called BH to let her know which terminal I was waiting in. I should have carried the phone number with me, but stupid me forgot about that little detail. So it was nice to have my mp3 player.

After they came, we went to lunch, which turned out to be a long time before we had left. We went to Arby’s in Irvine at the El Toro exit. They were really really hungry and I could really tell. They were about to rip off my limbs and eat it, they were that hungry. Well not really that hungry, but pretty hungry. So we settled for something in between since I wasn’t that hungry and just got off the plane. It was great, we sat there for a long long time just talking. It was great to catch up with friends. Everything seemed so big for me though. That was a weird feeling that I haven’t had. I mean I felt like I was a munchkin or something. It was a culture shock that I couldn’t get used to.

Then we went to Tapioca Express to hang out and try out my puzzles that I gave to IC. These puzzles took forever to solve. They were the easy ones too. I didn’t think that they would be that hard, but everyone solved it and each one too. I had four in total. I had a very nice drink tonight; it was one of my favorites. It was earl grey milk tea with grass jelly. It sounds gross, but absolutely heavenly. We had stayed a bit too long I think. I had told my family that I would get home around 7pm so we could have dinner together, but that didn’t happen according to plan. I didn’t get home till around 10pm. I had dinner afterwards, and then I just talked to my sister till 7am. I was exhausted at this point, but still needed to use all the time that I had in San Diego. I know that time is already counting down and running short. I went to sleep in my sister’s old room.

Part I - In Japan and on the plane

Today, I’m off to catch a plane to go back home. I know I’ve mentioned it many times, but I just have been thinking about all the things that I need to do this week and how important this trip is for me. I left my house a little late and missed the bus I wanted to take, which lead me to miss the train I wanted to take. So I tried to take a faster train to get me to the station faster, but I’m not sure if that worked out or not. Anyways, I had figured out that there is a rotation of trains that comes every hour to goes to the airport. Since I aimed to go on an earlier train, it was ok that I missed my train. I just couldn’t miss any more or I’d be stuck at the airport.

I’m very glad that I had bought my mp3 player. It has accompanied me very well on the train ride to get to the airport. It was a long trip, about 3 hours from start to finish. I arrived at Narita Airport Terminal 1 around 2pm, which was the time I was supposed to go check in and get my ticket. Everything went pretty smoothly actually. I didn’t run into any troubles, other than just leaving my house a little late. I wanted to grab some bite before I boarded the plane so I got a nice udon noodle set right next to the boarding gate. It was pretty good and enough to get me through the flight.

But the problems started when I got on the plane. There was something wrong because we didn’t leave the tarmac on time. In fact we were one hour late to take off. Three young ladies walked on the plane about 45 minutes late and I’m not sure if we were waiting for them or not. They were the loud type too, which to my luck sat right behind me. They were the cutesy type though, but loud. So not sure if that really worked out well for anyone on the plane. The flight attendants were pretty old and pretty rude. The food is airplane food, so I didn’t expect much. I didn’t get much either, but overall, it wasn’t too horrible. I survived, which is a good thing. The movies on the plane were Bridget Jones Diary – didn’t watch it, Shall we Dance – didn’t watch it, Sky Captain and the world of tomorrow – wished I didn’t watch it. And the Incredibles – good movie and glad I watched it. It was a bit choppy, but still got through most of it without too much interruptions. We actually arrived earlier than I thought we would. Somehow the pilot made up for about 45 minutes of the lost time and we weren’t too late. I don’t know how that works out, and why they don’t always just do that.

Immigration and customs was actually quite quick. I was amazed and shocked, and then amazed again. I think it was because we landed in a smaller terminal and it was early. It seemed like it was the first flight that came in internationally. I like the swiftness that came with it and landing in terminal 6 instead of the Tom Bradley international airport terminal.

Geting everything ready for my departure

I guess it has finally hit me that I’m leaving Japan and going back home. I know that’s it’s only for one week, but it feels like I’m going to a foreign country. I have such a strange feeling just thinking about it. I mean going back is making me nervous since I’ve already made my plan of what I will be doing all week. I’ve announced to everything that I will be going back and even though I won’t be able to meet everyone that I want to, I will at least be seeing some of them and getting some things checked off my goals list. Those are really good things indeed.

My list of things has expanded with things that I want to do along side with things that I have to do while I’m there. I wouldn’t say that I’m very excited to go back, but it’s more of a numb feeling. I know that it’s just something that will just happen without me really realizing it. Being in Japan has really made me numb to everything. I seem to have no more feelings and it’s not something I really think about anymore. I just do the things that I have to do and that’s about it. It has become almost automatic how things happen. It’s just one thing after another and it’s a process that I just go through and not really get from. I think that’s a bad thing since I should be feeling and getting the experience that I’m living in a different country and that I have access to unlimited things if I only got off my ass and did something about it. I also feel pretty jaded since I now live in Japan and have done almost everything there is to offer in this country. I know that’s a little overstating it, but I’ve done more things than most other people have done or will do. The byproduct of making a kick ass plan of course.

Tying up loose ends

I finally put the finishing touches on my preparations to go back to America. It finally hit me that within a few days I will be on an airplane headed for Los Angeles. I had told many people that I wouldn’t come back for another few years. I feel awkward that I had went against what I said because I feel as if I’m doing so to go ahead. I had set some goals this year that I wanted to achieve and was spending a lot of my time here in Japan trying to fix, but haven’t been successful in doing. But I had prepared everything so that when I go back, I will be able to put the check next to the item. I had dropped some clothes to get Dry Cleaned today since they will have more time to get it done, when I’m on my trip.

After I did that, I proceeded to go to Yokohama station. I wondered around a bit in Yokohama, going to Tokyu Hands, and getting money exchanged, getting some lunch at Yoshinoya, and taking a short trip to Sogo department store. It was a nice walk to get done and I felt better doing all of this. I spent more money than I had wanted, but I think that it was well worth it. I needed to get more things, but I think that at this time, it was appropriate and enough for the things that I wanted to get done. I know that it will go to good use and will hopefully send a message to my friends that I do care.

When I got home, I parked my butt in front of the TV and watched The American President. I just peeled it open from the nice plastic covering and enjoyed it. It was a really nice way to end the day. I really like that movie because it really shows how life and politics really cannot mix. It’s a fairytale story that if it were to happen in real life, wouldn’t end up like that. It’s a really nice story and all, but a fairytale. It was one of the movies that first got me interested in majoring in politics though. I have to give them that much credit. Aaron Sorkin can write a great well intertwined story of love and politics like no other.

It reminded me of the time when I would have to make decisions in my life about what I would want to do in the future and how I wanted to impact the world. I know that politics is really dirty and manipulative and that I would become less of a person for doing such things, but I figure it’s the only arena that I would be able to excel in if I had the dream to guide the way. If you hold yourself to a certain amount of morals and stick to them, that should be the shield that keeps all harm at bay. I’m counting on my character to get me through the tough times ahead of me and the creativity to innovate the system we have now.

Meanwhile I had updated my xanga. I’m getting close to catching up since I’ve noticed I’ve been falling behind and not posting as often as I should be. I mean I write things down on another place before I load them onto the internet, that way I don’t lose anything that I write, which was the common thing before and I would have to start over. That became too annoying and tedious for me to deal with.

Visiting old members of the YSD exchange

Today started out late again. I’ve been staying up late recently, I guess trying to get my sleeping habits off to match the U.S. but that’s not really working. I got up early enough to take care of my laundry today. I thought that was a great thing. That really needed to be taken care of. I was starting to run out of clean clothes. But I took care of that and didn’t realize I had estimated my time wrong to leave my house to get to Ishikawa cho station. I ended up leaving around 45 minutes late. But that didn’t matter since the person I was meeting was also late. I arrived to the station before she did and was looking for a bank to get some cash out of my account. I couldn’t find one near the station.

So me and KHma, decided to go to find the nearest Tokyo-Mitsubishi bank. The nearest one was about 2 kilometers away. Not that near, but we still walked there. We strolled down the street of Motomachi and walked on the cross bridge to Yamashita Park. It was through a way that I’ve never been on before. I found the Yokohama Doll Museum, which is right next door to the immigration office. We trekked through the park, and went past the Jonathon’s restaurant and then past a few more blocks to finally get to the bank. It didn’t feel like it was that long of a walk, but I really think that it was a distance to go. I got the money for my trip back to San Diego, so that was set. Then we just started walking back to Ishikawa cho station. But KHma wanted to get some coffee, so we did that. I got a nice cold drink since it was a nice warm day.

When we walked out of the café where the old YOKE office was, clouds came out of no where. And they weren’t the nice pretty ones either. It wasn’t too much time later that it started to sprinkle a little. We were in the middle of Yamashita Park when we decided to go somewhere and find shelter from the weird ass weather. Again, the temperature changed on me with a swiftness of that like a ninja. The temperature had dropped about 10 degrees Celsius. I was wearing a short sleeve shirt today, which was the first time I’ve done so since last summer. Imagine the look on everyone’s face, when they were all dressed up in winter wear. But in the morning, it was freaking hot, so hot in fact that I was sweating just sitting here. Anyways, we decided that we would go walk to Landmark Tower and wait there for the rest of the group to catch up with us later. We had walked back and forth many times today, which seemed like a waste of time, but it was fun talking. I think my Japanese isn’t good if I didn’t get enough sleep.

It was nice and warm in the Landmark Tower. That was a great thing that I believe. We just hung out in there for a little while and under the amusement of the new Pokemon Center that just opened there. We didn’t go in, but was amused with the long ass lines to go in. I mean this thing opened two weeks ago and there’s still a few hours wait to go inside. Talk about making bank. We found some seats on the bottom floor, but still had some time, so I mentioned that I wanted to pick up something at the YOKE office, not realizing what I had just done. We walked to the YOKE office so I could do that.

It took about 1.5 hours to get it. It wasn’t that it took a long time to prepare, but just that I was getting more and more things to do. I had been delegated to bring back gifts from the YOKE to give to the society members back in San Diego. I mean I had to carry many things and now must change my schedule to be able to fit all of it in my schedule. I didn’t realize that I would be asked to do so much. I only asked if there was anything I could do to help. But it was a very informative meeting with Miss Mu..i. I realized a lot of things and something that I need to do to help remedy things. I had gained a new perspective of things and I need to work on a way to help prevent things from happening. It was about the program and the purpose. The procedure for doing things had always been skipped and certain people weren’t involved with the decision making that should have been. So I need to be able to send the clear message to those who need to hear it. I would like to meet more people in order to get the clear message myself and then be the bridge between the older and younger generations of the organization. I actually see the purpose behind things and how exactly I am able to help too. It was an epiphany that I suddenly realized and have the idea of how to implement it as well.

It struck a cord with me and now I realize that I might have been part of the problem as well. I mean everything that was done by everyone was all in good spirit and the point of it was to bring the life and energy of young people and to corral them into bringing new blood to further the organization. Of course, being in its first year, there are bound to be some communication mix-ups as well as many innocent mistakes. We call this process “growing pains.” They are a nuisance, but are incredibly necessary to the learning and growth process. I am in a position where I can make a difference in the words that I speak as well as being able to give my interpretation of the process to those who need to hear it. All of this was dawning on me at this particular moment.

Afterwards, after receiving many gifts from the office to deliver back to San Diego, we all went to dinner together. We headed to the Landmark Tower and found a nice Italian restaurant on the B2 floor. It was actually pretty good and a decent meal. It was nice to finally see everyone again. I haven’t seen some of the people for years, so it was great to finally hang out. But it had a different feeling too. I mean, I really started to understand the situation that I was in and learned more about the people I was with. There was another American there; actually he didn’t grow up too far away from me in San Diego. I just realized today that he was American. I had always thought he was a Native Japanese, since his Japanese speaking and listening level are incredible. He found his way here through the JET program and it turned out to be something great for him. I realized that he is the second foreign friend that I have in Japan. Everyone else that I know and hang out with is a person who is from Japan.

I caught onto the characteristics of the people around me. It was a change in my paradigm because I had never seen these people in that light before. Only seeing them individually had really changed the way that I saw them when they were hanging out in a group. Some of those that are really talkative when they are just with me alone, tended to be a little quieter. But those who aren’t very talkative being alone with me were speaking up more. The focus and the attention of the people speaking during dinner really focused into two groups, the guys and the girls. But it was interesting when the conversations merged. It was extremely interesting for me to see it. Usually I’m either speaking or listening, but today I was more passive and just watching as others were speaking. I was able to get a better perspective on things, which was very educational for me. We left kinda late after everything was closed. Everyone went their separate ways and during the ride home I was thinking a lot. It had gotten incredibly cold again. Something that I didn’t appreciate either since I had to carry a lot of crap with me.

Change of plans

Today, I didn’t do much in the morning. I woke up late and then headed out to Shibuya to meet up with EK. I haven’t seen him in a long while. I guess since I wasn’t told that I wouldn’t have to go to the annual teacher’s relaxation trip that I just assumed that I was going, that was a big mistake. Since now I’ve just wasted a lot of time and time is something that shouldn’t be wasted. I had made a change in my plans and had the free time to meet up with him.

I had asked him to bring his laptop computer so I could watch a video that my friends had made for me for my birthday. But because I know EK very well, I knew that he would forget to bring it. Which in fact was the case. I also presumed that he would show up late from the time that we both agreed to, and again, I was correct. He was earlier than I thought, but still late. Since I was on a roll, I was happy, but unhappy that things hadn’t gone my way. It was the last time that I had the opportunity to see the video that my friends made for me before I would actually get a chance to meet up with the people who made it for me. Next week I will be going back to San Diego and meeting up with my friends, so it would have been nice to see it all and then talk to the people about it. But then I guess they shouldn’t have entrusted EK with that responsibility since he flakes on everything.

Anyways, we met up at Hachiko and then went walking around the Shibuya area. I was showing him around since he never really goes there. I’ve been there a few times already so I knew it pretty well. I showed him all the things that people go there to see like Shibuya 109. We got a bit hungry and went to eat a Freshness Burger. It was pretty good, but only served as an appetizer because we were supposed to meet up with another friend of ours. I had sent her an e-mail about where we were and what time to meet, but I presumed that she would be late too, since she’s always late as well. A few hours had passed and we got tired of waiting, so I sent her another e-mail to say that we were going to eat dinner first and then meet up with her later. Just before we walked into the restaurant though, I thought I had seen a teacher that taught at my school. But I didn’t want to go say hi, since on the last day, she had said something to me that left us in an awkward situation and I guess that’s still how it goes.

EK and I went to a nice restaurant. I think it’s a restaurant more than an izakaya, even though it was much like an izakaya. Its specialty was Tofu, so we had ordered many things of Tofu. It wasn’t bad at all. We actually had ordered a lot of food, but we finished it. It was about $30 a person for the meal. Not sure that it was worth that much. I learned a lot about what had been going on in San Diego while I was gone. It doesn’t seem like much has changed. And the circle of friends had grown by one person after losing me. It was an interesting mix of how things worked out and it was an interesting conversation. I did learn a lot about the situation that I would go into when I go back to San Diego.

Even by this time I hadn’t gotten an e-mail back from MTka. I was wondering what was going on, since the e-mail she had sent yesterday said that she was going to come. But at this time I had to go back home. I didn’t want to miss my last train. So it was a disappointing day in many ways, and that really isn’t a good thing that I can learn from, since I saw it coming.

Chillin' like a villain

I didn’t do that much today. I wanted to take care of some laundry today, but since my landlord wasn’t home, I was unable to do that. Since I couldn’t get inside the house I think I’ll just put it off till tomorrow. I really didn’t need to wash my clothes, but since I had time, I thought it would be nice to do. So I do what I normally do and park my butt in front of the computer and read the news and study a little. I did prepare for my English lessons too, but I kinda figured that I wouldn’t need them.

My student flaked out on me again. I’m not sure if it’s her or me that’s not good. I can tell that since we haven’t had a lesson in a long time, I don’t think that there will be more lessons. Every week she still sends me an e-mail to let me know that there won’t be a lesson. I could kinda figure that out since it’s been almost a month since the last lesson. Since I’m only doing this as a favor to my landlord, I won’t let it bother me too much. But if it was any other situation, I would just stop them and move on. I don’t need the money and it’s not my loss by any stretch of the imagination. I really feel bad that she really won’t learn the message behind all the lessons that I’ve already taught her. I was teaching her something cool, but was only just leading up to the main point before she called it quits. Oh well.

Part time teachers' dinner

I didn’t do much in the beginning of the day, just getting ready to go to the part-time teachers’ party. That was late in the afternoon, so before then I was just sitting at my computer and just reading up on news and doing some research on some topics that I have been studying. We were having a party to see off two teachers. They seem very nice and even though I haven’t talked to them all year, it was nice to finally do so. One of them was a science teacher, but I didn’t know her name and I still don’t know her name. The reason for her leaving is because she just got married. The other teacher, Ms. Hashimoto was just leaving. I’m not sure of the reason for that and not sure what she teaches. I’m guessing that she taught Japanese. How horrible I am for not even knowing these people even though I’m a part-time teacher.

We were set to meet in Ginza at 5pm, but since I didn’t know the location, I was going to meet another teacher at 4:45pm at Yuracho station by Bic Camera. Since this was a location that I knew because of MTka, since she works near there. I got there fairly early since I think it would be bad to get there late. I had really dressed up to go, even though it was a casual affair. I’m more comfortable dressing up to go to these things because I don’t want to appear under dressed for these things. We went to a nice izakaya where most of the teachers were drinking it up. I got sit next to another English teacher that I was working with this year. She’s also a first year teacher and actually joined the school when I joined the school. She’s very nice and extremely pretty. She used to be a flight attendant before she worked at my school. I guess she didn’t like that deal and decided to put her English to another use. Her English is pretty good compared to the other teachers even. But it was nice to sit next to her and chat. I found out that over the spring vacation she will be going to a European tour to France and Italy. I asked for a souvenir and I will give her a souvenir from San Diego when I go back. I also found out how she got a job working at Yakumo. She knew another teacher that introduced her to the job. I didn’t even know they were friends outside of school. But it was Ms. Arai that brought her in. They will be going on the Europe tour together, which was another shock to me.

I also learned that I was an asshole to another teacher. It was the other day that I had ran into a teacher while I was going to school. It was convenient for her because that day, she had to cook for all the students since she’s the home economics teacher and the cafeteria staff doesn’t work in the month of March. She wanted me to go help her carry some things to school with her as she was going to go shopping at the Tokyu store. But I had really misinterpreted what she had said; I thought she told me that she was going to get lunch. In fact that was the truth, she was. I just didn’t understand the part of me helping her out. Since it was all in Japanese, I think that she could have gotten that I just misunderstood and that I wasn’t purposely avoiding work. I really felt bad because she was laying it on thick too. She had told everyone that she got a cold afterwards too. It’s not because of me not helping her, but she just conveniently added that at the end of the story. Well, I really need to study Japanese better so I don’t get into this situation again. She’s a nice teacher too and she understands that I don’t really know much Japanese.

We had two parties, the first for the all the teachers, and then a second party for the party-goers. I saw a side of some teachers that I didn’t know existed. Some of them liked to drink and drink a lot. They also had an extreme liking for Natto, which is something I really would rather not have seen. It wasn’t a pleasant experience for me because he was just way to drunk and his breathe smelled of Natto. I’m going to have nightmares for weeks because of this. All of the other teachers though were pretty good about the alcohol. They seemed pretty mellow. I had the opportunity to talk to the teacher who was going to leave the school. She seemed extremely nice and it was sad to realize that it was going to be the last time that I ever get to talk to her. But I guess it is better to have crossed paths than to have never met at all. I talked to another English teacher at this party too, which is something I haven’t done all year really. I think her English is pretty good, but there’s something that she’s holding back. I don’t think that it’s because I lack the ability to speak in Japanese, but she seems to want to stay away. I wouldn’t think that it’s her self-esteem about her English, but it might be something else. Anyways, we talked a little bit, which was good.

My last day of class for the fall semester - white day

Today I will have my final three classes of the semester. I guess that I should be relieved, but in a way I’m not really looking forward to it. I know that a lot more challenges will be ahead of me and since I’ll be working more and harder and that more responsibility will be put on me. I’ve really got to get my act together for this one. They went pretty smooth kinda. The first 7th grade class was good, and I was doing more teaching that I usually do partly because the other teacher was a bit sick. But I didn’t like the activity that we were doing so I really couldn’t get into it. I didn’t think the students got into it either, but they at least played along.

The 8th grade classes were good too. Since the speeches had already passed, we just did a few other things that were fun to end the school year. But at this point I think both teachers were about to die. In one of the classes we didn’t even have a Japanese teacher to help us since she was sick. We did a section about shopping, the same thing that we did with the 7th graders, but at a faster pace. Actually one of the 8th grade classes were talking too much that CP had to stop the class and wait for them to be quiet. I think it was a multi-purpose break because she had forgotten to take care of some minor details in the handout that she was about to pass out.

I had prepared some Sees Candies for the female teachers and gave them out to the teachers that had given it to me. I even gave some to the 3rd grade teachers, who didn’t give me anything. Just because I’m a nice guy and all. It wasn’t much of a big deal, just something that we did just to get it over with. Sounds like a nice Valentines equivalent eh? I mean all the men did the manly thing and just gave it to one lady to pass it out to the rest of the people in the group. I guess that’s the usual tradition that goes on at this school. It’s great though, since they are all incredibly bright, young and beautiful ladies, I’m probably the luckiest guy in the world. Most of these ladies of course are single too. But that’s just gotten trouble written all over it. Ok, I’m all finished with the whole love bit.

I had also pissed off another teacher today. I had offended her by doing something that I’m pretty good at and that’s being sarcastic. I had mocked her major of study even though I had been agreeing with what she was saying. I was being such an ass about it, but didn’t realize I was doing it. I wanted to make the topic playful, but she obviously didn’t like that. I felt bad because it was the last day that I would ever see her again. It was her last week of work at the school.

Two Appointments

The first appointment was a private English lesson with one of my students MO. This was fairly late in the morning, so I was surprised that I had arrived late. I guess that being unprepared isn’t a good thing. But I wasn’t extremely unprepared otherwise I might have missed the appointment altogether. I hadn’t prepared all the paperwork that I wanted for my student to complete for me. But it didn’t take too long to get them either, but so some reason it was like I was bound to be late. Things were just slowing me down some how, I mean it felt like it didn’t take too much time, but really it did. The walk to the station was shorter than usual since I was partly running, but the time seemed to be the same. I even went the short-cut way too.

Anyways, when I met up with her at the station, I had realized that I had been feeling a tad ill. My throat was killing me and couldn’t breathe so clearly. But I figured that it would only be an hour so I could tough it through, which I did. I thought the lesson went pretty well. She did the vocabulary test within one minute so I think it might be too easy for her. But I think that over time, it will get progressively harder. I need to add more to the list and get her to do a better job at understanding the words, not just memorizing them.

We then went onto the next lesson which was the reading. I was teaching her some skills that she could use for taking tests. It wasn’t anything revolutionary to her yet. I think that she’s been through other classes where they teach these kinds of things, so she is on a higher level than the other people that I’ve taught before. I’ll have to be prepared to kick it up a few more notches before the next lesson. I just want to make sure that she’s got a foundation to build upon.

The second appointment I had today was with my friend KH. We met up in front of Sakuragicho station, and then went to a café to get some drinks. It had really gotten cold at some point from the morning to the afternoon. It dropped like 10 degrees quite suddenly. But we found a nice place to have a little chit-chat. We talked about a new organization that he wants to start up. It’s going to be based on the model of that was seen by him in San Diego for his trip. He wants to spearhead an international organization to work with other cities. But I believe that he’s a bit lost. I don’t think that he truly has the drive to lead such an organization because he lacks the vision to guide the other members. They look to him, but I’m not sure what he’s looking at. He was too focused on the structure of the organization rather than the guiding light and the purpose of the organization. I think it’s at least a start to get something going. He hasn’t been through many leadership positions before, so I wouldn’t imagine that he understands these things clearly. Especially since he has to deal with the government in a way that I wouldn’t imagine that he would have any experience. I mean we don’t deal with that kind of pressure in San Diego, but I have to commend him for the effort to get something started. He was asking me for some advice about how to get one started and just the basic stuff, like the structure and organization and what they do.

After we finished our little talk, we went around the Sakuragicho area. I went on the side that I haven’t been to before. It was good to do that since I was always curious what was over there. It is opposite from the Landmark Tower, but still around the same area. We went to the free zoo. They don’t have many animals and it isn’t world famous or anything, but it was nice to see. It’s a nice place to go on a date or bring your family. It’s one of those types of venues. I’m not sure what the name of the zoo was, but we didn’t have enough time to go through all of it since we went in 10 minutes before it closed. We also took a stop at the biggest library in Yokohama. I didn’t get a good look at it, but I will probably come back some day to check it out.

We walked around a little bit and then we got a bit hungry. We found a nice little place and the voice of someone reminded me of a place I had heard about. We then proceeded to go inside a joint called Freshness burger. It was pretty good, well one of the two hamburgers that I ordered. It wasn’t bad at all, but I’m not sure that I would make the claims that others make and say that it’s the best hamburger joint in Japan. Something weird happened today too. I mentioned that it had dropped about 10 degrees but the part I didn’t mention was that it just started to snow out of no where. It was the strangest thing I’ve seen in Japan. It was sunny, but snowing. It wasn’t a lot of snow, but enough to be annoying. I’m glad that I had checked up on it and brought some extra gear for the freezing cold. From there, we got back to Sakuragicho station and then went our separate ways. I chilled at home for the remainder of the day.

Exhausted / Speech Contest / English Club Party

I couldn’t sleep last night and today I had work early as hell. So I didn’t sleep at all. I’ve been going for over 24 hours straight with no sleep, not even on the train. I was afraid to go to sleep on the train because I would have missed my station for sure. If I would have fallen asleep, I would have been out for a long time. I was that tired from all the walking that I’ve been doing recently and the no sleep too. It might have been all the tea that I was drinking last night too. But whatever the cause of it, I had to go through the day with it.

I mean I wouldn’t have had enough sleep either way. I had to get up at around 5am to get to work by 8:30am before my shift as a judge for the speech contest. My two shifts watching about 60 students give their speeches was pretty easy. You could really tell who had been practicing very hard for their performances and who wasn’t. I felt bad for those who had forgotten a line or two in their speeches after they’ve been practicing for a long time for that one moment. I mean the preparations for this contest started about the same time I got hired, which was back in the day. I thought that for the most part, the students I was working with did a good job, but some didn’t show up. I thought that was a bit of a shame. The big one was the competition in the last session when some of the best English speakers at the school were giving their performances. I think that the last person would be one of the winners because she did a good job with a simple speech. I think the event was put together well and showed the effects of all the hard work by all the English teachers to be able to provide an event like this. I was enjoying my time awake, but still yearning to get some sleep after the event.

I had stuck around the school for a little bit afterwards since I didn’t have much responsibility on Saturday; but we still had the English club party afterwards. It was supposed to start at 2:30pm, but it didn’t get going till around 3:30pm. The students were working hard to get things started and they did a good job to prepare everything. This party just lasted forever. It was a good party and I got to meet the two senior girls that have just graduated. I think it was a nice way to end the school year. We stayed pretty late; I would guess that we left around 8pm. I was one of the last teachers to leave today. I had wanted to talk to another teacher, kind of my senpai, which means senior English teacher. She seemed distraught because of her conversation with her boss. It didn’t seem as if she was doing well. I was doing my best to be encouraging, but not sure if that worked out very well or not. We talked only a little as we were walking to the station. She was supposed to meet her husband not too far away. I hope that things work out for her, it would really be bad if it didn’t.

When I got home, I had wanted to sleep, but I didn’t feel so tired when I arrived home. So I jumped on the computer and did some chatting and other things. But eventually I would get tired enough to find a way to sleep tonight.

Immigration / Yokohama / Ofuna

It was quite a busy day today. I spent a whole hell of a lot of money too. I haven’t spent this much money since I’ve been in Japan, even when I was moving in and to buy a lot of furniture. The first of my expenses went into paying for my airplane ticket. But before spending the $500 for that, I had to pay for my re-entry permit. The process wasn’t incredibly difficult and didn’t take that much time either. The whole process took about an hour and a half, but that’s because I had gone there at the beginning of lunch hour and they were on break for an hour. It only took me about 30 minutes of waiting in line to get all my things done. I had talked to a few people in line, other Americans wanting to go back too. That was interesting to start talking to strangers, but it seems like we are all on the same boat.

The process of purchasing an airplane ticket wasn’t bad at all. It was a completely easy process, but just finding them was the difficult part. Everything was taken care of and everything I had expected was fulfilled. I didn’t run into any difficulties at all.

After that I had just walked around and hung out a bit in Yokohama. I did some window shopping and comparing products that I had been meaning to get. But it turns out that the Yodabashi camera, and Bic camera didn’t have what I was looking for. So I took a trip down to Ofuna station. I took the Keihin-Tohoku line, since I needed to kill some time. But by a complete random chance, one of the students that I tutor privately walked onto the train. I had sent her an e-mail not to long ago about her lesson this coming weekend. So it was nice to run into her since she didn’t reply to my e-mail yet. We were going to the same station, so she got a little free conversation lesson on the train. Well more of a practice than a lesson. That’s good for her I think.

I had arrived at Ofuna station earlier than I expected so I did a little more shopping at Yamada Denki. This time I told myself that I will buy the MP3 player. And I did. I decided to go with the Creative 512 megabyte MP3 player with a radio function. It wasn’t as expensive as I expected it to be and fit all the criteria that I had wanted from a player. That was another hit to my wallet, but it’s money that I’ve worked hard for and wanted it for a while now, so I thought it was a good buy. I walked into the DVD section of the store and saw two movies that were on sale for about $10. I thought that was incredibly cheap since the other movies around it went for about $40. It was “The American President” and “Meet the Parents,” two movies that I like a lot. So I had to buy them. My backpack at this point was getting pretty heavy with all the crap that I was buying today. I went to another store to get some school supplies for the next school year too.

I was late for meeting up with MT and the other people from her English Class. It turns out that it was her birthday today. So we were celebrating that and Mayumi leaving for Canada. We went to an izakaya to get some food and drinks. I didn’t order anything to drink, since I still felt a bit sick. But I had been tired for all the things that I’ve been doing today and felt like I haven’t been sleeping well. Dinner was good. I had talked a bit with all of MT’s friends. I found out more about everyone and met some new people too. It was a nice dandy time and I’m glad that I went. We ended the evening a bit past midnight, which wasn’t good since I have to get up early for the speech contest tomorrow.

Dinner at a French restaurant at Haneda

I had awakened on time today, but had left the house late. I wanted to go to immigration to get my re-entry permit for my trip back to San Diego. But that failed because I didn’t realize the amount of time that it took to get to the office and then to get to work on time. I had miscalculated, so I figured that I would just go after my class. That plan backfired too because I wouldn’t have enough time to go to the immigration and then come back to school. That left me with no choice but to go the next day to immigration.

I only had one late class today, but had to stick around for the end of year party that is held for the teachers that went on a trip to Kyushu. The waiting around wasn’t so bad, in fact it was really quick. I had wanted to go to immigration to get my re-entry permit because I was planning to go back to San Diego for a little visit. I wanted to do this after my class, but that couldn’t happen because the dinner time had been moved up. I wanted to study a bit of Japanese during this time, but didn’t really do that since I was working with some students on their speeches. I mean time really flew by and everyone was leaving before us. I mean our car was one of the last to leave. I was riding with Mr. Koya.. We had two other people riding with us too. It was because the situation wasn’t volatile. But I did feel a little bit uncomfortable. They were all speaking Japanese, even though most of the people in the car were English teachers. But I heard many compliments from the back seat and I didn’t want them to get the wrong idea about me. So it was a bit awkward for me to see.

We arrived at the airport, which was just renovated. It really looks nice and since it was the first time that I was there, I had a good impression of it. We hung around a little bit before the teachers and students had arrived. The guy teachers, I’ve noticed hung out with each other. They tend to do that often. All the male teachers, except for one, ordered meat for dinner. We all questioned the boss why he had chosen fish. Just as a joke of course. This wasn’t the bad part, it was actually very nice.

The volatile part was when dinner started. We went to a nice French restaurant at the top level of the airport lobby. It was really nice and well decorated. I had to sit with the Chief of staff and her friends, all of which were provoking me to speak Japanese. I didn’t do such a horrible job, but it wasn’t the pleasant of experiences either. I had to do a little presentation for the returning teachers, as a good-will gesture; going around pouring everyone drinks and asking the Headmaster if he would allow me the pleasure of going on the trip next year. That is pretty cool that I get to go on this trip next year. I think it will complete my journey all throughout Japan. It wasn’t that bad and it is a good-will gesture for all the teachers who had to spend a week with many students, babysitting them.

The dinner was delicious, even though it was incredibly hard to eat considering my situation. I had some nice teachers sit next to me and helping me out. I let everyone know that I would be going back to America for spring break. I had let them in on a few more things so they are learning a bit more about me. They finally agreed to let me teach classes on my own too. So I think next year, will be an interesting year for me. They invited me to go to school tomorrow and join them watching movies and doing other things. But since I didn’t know about it earlier, I had to decline. I really needed to get my immigration things finished so I could pay for my ticket to go back home.

I caught a ride with Mr. Ko..no to go back home, even though the boss had assigned another person to take me home. But to my surprise, he had taken me directly to my house. Last time he dropped me off at a station, but this time he drove me to my front door. I was shocked. I mean it was nice since I didn’t have to walk really far. And I was sitting with the cool teachers. I really like them and get along with them. I was talking a bit more than I usually do.

Yokohama / Ishikawacho

Today, I spend walking around to many places, a lot of different places. I first started off going to the Immigration office in Yokohama to fill out the paper for my re-entry permit, but I ran into a problem and couldn’t fill it out. I didn’t have the papers that I needed with me so I thought that sucked ass. I didn’t bring with me the paper that had my information about the person to contact if something bad were to happen. Since I didn’t plan for that, I figured that I would just go along with the rest of the plan that I had for the day, so I wouldn’t waste too much time.

So then I went to the travel agency to get my tickets, it wasn’t painful at all and actually quite painless. I think it’s a pleasure to do business with them, well so far at least. I have to pick up my tickets at the airport, which seems a little suspect for me, but I’ll have to go with it. It’s a bit weird for me to not have my tickets in my hand, but then again, it could be blessing in case I lost my ticket. I wouldn’t be SOL since they are responsible for the issuing of the ticket and I’d really be able to have a cow about it. But I think they did a good job with taking care of the things that I needed to take care of. I think that it was a good process that didn’t require too much on my part. I only made a reservation and would only pay when I got my multiple re-entry permit. Without the permit, it would be a waste of money, so I had to get that first.

Then I just hung around Yokohama station for the rest of the day. I went shopping for many things and compared prices and then went to different places to compare more prices and they just didn’t carry what I wanted and what I needed. I am talking about Bic Camera and Yodabashi camera. They don’t really carry much stuff for wireless internet or even the right model of the MP3 player that I wanted. They weren’t really able to supply what I needed. So I thought that sucked. I’m going to have to go with the original plan and just go to Yamada denki to get all my gear. I think I will try to go to finish up my immigration papers tomorrow. So I could pay and get my plane ticket A.S.A.P. It’s good to finally be taking care of the things that I had wanted to take care of for a long time. I feel like I’m accomplishing many things.

I found out someone's little secret

Today I just took the day off of everything. I felt like I needed to stay home for a little bit because I’ve been out and about and doing too much lately. I got bit by a huge ass mosquito today too, just sitting at home. It was hiding under my kotatsu, and it itches like hell. It bit me a few times and I smashed it with my hands and saw all the blood come out, that’s not very pleasant to say the least. I wonder how it got in my house. I think it’s a horrible reminder that summer is coming and that I’ll more than likely be a feast for many other critters to munch on. I can’t hardly wait…

As for the secret, I can’t tell, but I’m working on unraveling it. I need to confirm the details about it and learn the truth behind it. It’s only what I see on the surface, but I think it’s pretty clear to see through the whole of it. I happened to run into it while looking at my Friendster and seeing that something happened around the time I had left for Japan. It made me very suspicious, not that I already wasn’t. It’s a terrible thing to lose trust, since I think it’s the hardest thing to earn.

It’s very interesting to see what I saw, and I haven’t asked about it or done any research. From what it seemed that it had something to do with an old friend involved with another. It happened to be coincidental, but I’m not sure that it was coincidental. I was on a Friendster and My Space craze today. I was looking around and doing different things and doing a lot of updating. I’ve been hacking away with the update of this Xanga blog. I’m trying to incorporate everything into being more efficient. While doing many other things at the same time.

Tired Monday

Today, I don’t know if it was all the alcohol I’ve been drinking lately or something else, but my throat was kinda sore and I was a tad bit on the tired side. It’s one of the few days that I have work this month. I felt all groggy all day. I think I might have caught something from the other teachers. I wouldn’t be able to pinpoint which teacher since a lot of them are sick now and getting sick too.

Today I taught one 7th grade class and a pair of 8th grade classes. In the 7th grade classes we just reviewed the body parts using some cards that the other Native English speaker had been working on. She’s been coming down with something I so took over for a certain part of it, but I think I covered the wrong thing. I had misinterpreted something that she asked me to do. I hadn’t realized it until afterwards, but I think it’s because we both were a little out of it. She had been taking a lot of medication to relieve her sinus problems, so she was really out of it.

In the 8th grade classes, we just did the final preparations for the speech contest. They had done a great job since both these classes are the higher level. I’m not sure how the judging will occur or what will happen, but I think that for the most part they will be fine. It’s going to be hard to judge since I’ve heard all of them before too.

I stuck around for the English club. It was the last one of the year before the end of the year party for the students that had already graduated. We didn’t really do that much because I was really out of it. But I took the cards that we were using for the 7th grade and we played a game of memory. We were practicing for the 7th graders again, so they don’t beat us next time. But I think the game got kinda lame after a little bit. But I wanted them to review the body parts too, since some of them didn’t know some of them. It was a little bit difficult if you hadn’t studied it before. After that we did the final preparations for the party. They had showed me the gifts that they bought for the other teacher and for the graduated students. It was really nice and they did a great job working on it. I think that it was a good way to end the year with the 10th grade girls. One of the top 8th grade girls was there too.

Went to Musashi Urawa

Today the plan was just to meet up with some friends in Saitama. This is two prefectures away, but not really incredibly too far. I like to use the analogy of Washington D.C. where you could be in 4 different states within a few hours. That’s how this is. The trip to get there wasn’t too bad and in fact I got there incredibly early. Much earlier than I expected and faster than any of the other times I’ve gone previously. Since I arrived early, I took a look around the station and the department stores there. I found an electronics store that I decided I wanted to go into. I’ve never heard of it before, but I figured that I could look at some of the prices of the mp3 players and other gadgets that I’ve wanted to buy. I found out that this store sells things for an overly incredible price. I had received a call from my friends who arrived at the station and asked me where I was, so I headed back to the store.

I met them by surprise since I took a different way to get to the station. They were waiting in the department store. I was happy to see them; it had been a long time since the last time we’ve all talked together. I really had a feeling a joy to see them. It’s hard to describe, but it’s like the feeling of seeing someone you haven’t seen in a long time. Yes, it was a great feeling, but we were left there waiting for the last member of our party to arrive. The teacher we were meeting wasn’t going to get there till 5pm, and we all met around 4:45pm. Everyone was early, which was weird, actually they were a little late, but it was still early. We went downstairs together and met up with their Math teacher from High School. I don’t know if that’s a weird feeling or not, but to having dinner with your former Math teacher. I can’t say that I’ve ever had that happen to me before. We hadn’t decided what place we wanted to go to for dinner, but we went to Jonathon’s. It was the same place that we (me and the YSensei) met for the first time. I learned a lot about the girls. The one sitting next to me has the same likes and dislikes that I have, which is a very strange thing, since I have only started to dislike things since I moved to Japan. I thought that was pretty cool, and learned that she worked at the city hall. Also nice. Her friend will work at a pet shop in the Chiba prefecture. She will move to there next month to begin work. I hope she has fun since there isn’t much to do out there. But I think it’s something that she will like since she accepted it. Dinner wasn’t so bad, and actually I was shocked when the person sitting next to me ordered something that I like to order from Jonathon’s, but I ordered something different. I had a tempura shrimp and something else.

While we were having dinner someone recognized me out of nowhere. It was the strangest feeling ever. Disney had it right when they said that it’s a small world after all. I ran into something that I had gone to college with, in fact she was sitting behind me the whole time while we were eating dinner. But it was crazy, we took the same business class at Grossmont and she remembered me, even though we never talked at Grossmont. I was shocked. It was incredible that she talked to me though. This really is a small world. She had only lived like 5 minutes from the restaurant and it was really random that we would eat dinner there and since it’s over 2 hours away from my house in Yokohama. I mean it really is random since there are many other places to eat and do and she ate there. What’s random is that I was at her house but didn’t know it, since I knew her roommate well. We had even worked together.

If I’m keeping count, then I should add this one to the list. People that I’ve ran into randomly that I know, 5.

After dinner, we left to go back to the station. YSensei just dropped us off. He wanted to meet again soon since it’s been a long time since we all last met. The girls stuck around afterwards to chit-chat, and I hopped on a train to go back home. That was the evening, very eventful and exciting. I was happy and enjoyed it. It’s good to see old friends.

YOKE Symposium on the San Diego trip

I went to the symposium that was put on by my friends today at the YOKE office. I arrived a little late because last night made me tired. I didn’t get home till late and I had to get up kinda early to get to the YOKE office on time. But as I found out after the symposium, I wasn’t the only one who was late. All the members were supposed to report to the office by 8am, but it turned out that they just arrived before I did. And I was late. The symposium itself was pretty interesting. The presentation of things wasn’t the greatest of performances, but then again, I wasn’t expecting them to be like Tony Robbins or anything. They got their point across and said what they needed to say. They did the best job that they could have and I think that the audience members appreciated all their work and the information that they provided for the city. I think all and all it was a success and something that will spark into another thing for the future.

I can feel something brewing and that it will start to make an impact. My friend from college, KenHma, made the biggest splash at the event. I think people look to him for leadership, which is kinda scary. But he’s the only one with the balls to really say what he feels. It’s not really Japanese like to rock the boat, but he told me that he felt that it needed to be said and that something results from it. Everyone knew that he was right too and applauded him for the guts to say it.

After the symposium, I took off with my friend from the San Diego 2002 group and we just hung out. We did a lot of walking like we did last time. First we started walking towards Yokohama station. We wanted to go to the Jack’s Mall and the one next to it. We went into the Toys ‘r’ Us store there and look at the toys. It was pretty interesting to see the toys that they have. It was fun, and we stayed there for a little time before we both got hungry. So then we looked for something to eat. We went into a pizza place, but it was packed, so then we went back to the Landmark Tower. She took me to a curry udon shop. I know that doesn’t sound great, but actually it’s really good stuff. And the funny part is that you wear a bib. Makes you feel like a kid again, but since everyone is doing it, it’s cool. I should have taken a picture or something. But the food is actually delicious. I really liked it and I will probably go again.

After a late lunch, we walked around some more and grabbed some dessert. All the while, we were talking a lot. It’s hard to imagine because she only speaks Japanese and my Japanese isn’t near the point where I can effectively speak, but we still were able to communicate with each other. We were talking a lot about many things. I thought that it was fun, but after awhile it got a bit tiring. I think that one can only handle so much of a foreign language before they burn out. I walked her back to Yokohama station because she was going to meet her mother and go shopping. I wanted to go back to meet the rest of the members after they had finished from the second symposium. The other members were stuck doing another discussion type of thing with members of city officials.

When they had finished with their symposium, we went to a bar type of restaurant to get some grub and just hang out. The food was actually quite nice. The atmosphere is one of the best that I’ve been in the restaurant style after work celebration. I liked the people that I was sitting by too. So it was a combination of all things that really made it feel pretty good. The decorations for the place was nice, and KHma was pretty f*ed up. It was pretty funny to see him plastered. He’s one of those crazy drunks. But after the 2 hours that we were limited to, we went on to do more and go to a karaoke bar. It was nice because I was able to talk to some members that I haven’t talked to. I’ve learned some good things from them too. It’s a shame that I’ve waited this long to talk to them too. It’s a shame that I wasn’t able to do it earlier, but at least we talked. I think that there is something inside of each of them that wants to make a difference, but they just don’t know how to apply it. So, hopefully we’ll be able to come up with something that will work with everyone and that everyone can pitch in to get it accomplished.

A Revolutionary day for me

I woke up and found out that it was a bit chilly. I looked outside and all I saw was white. The city was plastered with snow, and I mean it was plastered. I didn’t even see the roads or anything, it was just all white. But I got ready and went to work anyways. I figured that there would be school and didn’t give it a second thought. It really was a snow day and it was the first time for me to walk in the snow like that. It wasn’t that cold since I had on like 6 layers or so and it was pretty cool to see. My day started off pretty easy since I only have one class today and it was at 10:50am and only lasted 50 minutes. All I did in class was listen to my 8th grade students’ speeches. So it was pretty chill.

Then after that, I stayed at school to study Japanese. I really made an effort to try to study Japanese today. I really pushed it hard. I actually started to understand things that I didn’t before. I was getting the help that I needed and things just started to click for me. I’m not saying that I remember all the verbs or vocabulary, but it just started to make sense today. I started to see the big picture. That’s something that I really enjoyed about today because it started to materialize in my mind the purpose for language and how it’s being used.

I studied at school for a good 5-6 hours, until a former student of the school came to visit. She lives in New York now and the other teachers, the top teachers, asked me to converse with her, which I did. At first it was just the surface conversation and chitter-chatter talk. Nothing special, but this conversation soon took about 8 hours of my life. Not saying it was a bad thing, but I think it’s actually a good thing. It’s been a long time since I was able to do that. And I think I learned a lot about the teachers’ history at the school. I never realized so many things that are going around me. I also drank more than any other time since I’ve been in Japan, which to be honest with you still isn’t that much. It was nice to have a conversation in English for a long time since I haven’t done so in a long time. It felt good and I let the other teachers know a little bit more about myself too. I think they really appreciated that since I’ve been very secretive about my life for the better part of 7 months. But I’ve got to wait and see the effects of this in the coming week. I think that many things will change because of this event. I think it was great to have dinner with my superiors. I mean all the people there; with the exception of the former student were the top teachers in the office and at the school even.

So at first I thought it would be a lot of pressure, but I found out that it wasn’t that bad after all. After dinner, Mr. Kyashi took me home, and I mean he drove me to the 7-11 outside. He lives in Northern Yokohama so I know it was an inconvenience for him to take me home, but he did anyways. So that was great. I was happy that happened and told him that I’d like to speak to him more often. He only speaks Japanese so I told him that I will learn Japanese to speak with him. After I got dropped off I just took a rest. I felt it was much needed and started to feel as if something bad was going to happen as well.

an easy day at work

Only having one class is nice, but sometimes it seems as if there should be more. More to do and more to use my time effectively. It leaves the day so empty and I feel like I’m just loafing around just wasting time. I feel I’m not making good use of my time lately. That’s a feeling I really hate. But when I got home I cut my hair, but half way through it, I stopped. I decided that I will give my hair clippers a permanent break and go to buy a new one. I think it’s about time to let go of my stuff and to start replacing things that need to be replaced, like my hair clippers, my internet card and get some new stuff like an MP3 Player, I’ve been yearning to have. After making this revelation, I started to research what kind of MP3 player I want. I’m not sure still and don’t want to just spend the money and have it be wasted. Since I’ve made some realizations in my life, I think that I better keep on track with things or it might get out of hand. I know that there are things in the future that will lead to many bad things. I just gotta watch out for what is coming after me.

Nothing much, but talking to a friend who returned to Japan

I didn’t do that much today. I was planning to see my friend from San Diego, but it wasn’t possible. So I called her up and talked on the phone. The conversation lasted about 2.5 hours, and in Japan the person initiating the call has to pay the bill. Since I called and I pay the lowest plan, I really got nailed. That one call costs me 5440 yen, which is about $54 USD. But I think it was well worth it. I believe it was well worth it, since I haven’t talked to her in AGES. And I mean AGES. I thought that she had fallen off the face of the planet or something because she wouldn’t respond to any of my messages or e-mails. Then one day she did and told me that she was coming back to Japan and wanted to see me. I wanted to see how she was doing too, but then she had to pick this week to come back and when I was incredibly busy. So unfortunately we weren’t able to see each other. So I just chilled at home realizing many things in my life during that conversation. I mean since I hadn’t talked to her in a long time, I was glad to hear from her. I found out many things about her that I didn’t know about and it was good to finally hear it.

This was during the afternoon time we talked up until she needed to board the airplane. She didn’t want to get off the phone because she was bored. After the conversation I went to make something to eat and decided that I wanted to watch a movie. Today’s choice was Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Since I don’t have the original DVD, I only have a LEGAL copy of it which was dubbed in English. I thought it was weird to watch it that way since I really like the Chinese version very much. It’s still an enchanting story, and made me realize many things in my life too. I look at things differently again and I want to be able to get back to my focus and start on achieving my goals again. It was beginning to get cold again after I finished watching. I love to movie and it’s great. I remember the first time that I saw the movie with my family from Australia. It was ok then, but then when I saw it again, I really got into it.

Graduation

Today was the first Japanese Graduation that I’ve been to. It was really nice too, and I enjoyed it. It was much quieter than it is in America, that’s for sure. I mean I could hear the stomachs of people were getting hungry and the hard breathing of people who had fallen asleep during the ceremony. They had many decorations in the gym and it was very traditional. The senior teachers were wearing their kimonos and presenting the diplomas. The parents were all up in the gym and on the second floors with their cameras ready for their students to receive their award. It was cool, much like the ones in America, except INCREDIBLY quiet. I mean it was really really quiet, not like the ones at my graduation. I could hear other peoples’ stomach growling, who weren’t even sitting near me. But the visual effects were pretty cool. I thought it was a memorable thing that I wouldn’t forget. I felt bad that I didn’t take any pictures inside the Gym, but it would have felt wrong to, since no one else was doing it. And the thing in Japan is to fall into place and not be the odd one out. So I just stuck to that and not take any pictures.

After that the teachers had a celebration party, but that wasn’t for another many hours. So I just hit the books and studied Japanese. I did this for a few hours or so. I really feel as if I’m making improvements in Japanese. It’s tough, but I’m really going after it now. I really want to learn it. I feel motivated more than ever and I’ve got good practical use out of it now. I mean I can use it everyday if I need, which I do. I let the students in on that I’ve been studying a little. I mean the seniors because they have now graduated and I won’t teach them anymore. I wrote their names in Japanese in their yearbooks when I signed it. It was fun, and I was shocked that they had asked me to sign their yearbook. I mean since all the other teachers had taught them and I really didn’t have a big role in their lives.

After that, we were cleaning up the school and I was helping with the decorations and the extremely plentiful amount of flowers that the school has. It took a bit of time and a bit of strength to move everything into its appropriate place. But it was completed and all the teachers pitched in to help. I think it was pretty quick when you get a lot of people working together to get it done.

During this time though, there were a lot of students still at school. We needed to get them out because the teachers were going to go to dinner together. I’ve noticed that in March, there are a lot of teacher activities. I mean it’s well deserved for the amount of time that they put in and all the work that they do. Some teachers don’t even get a day off, so I’m really fortunate to get many days off. The headmaster had taken us by microbus to the same Shabu Shabu store that we’ve been to before. But this time I was in a really relaxing position, I didn’t have to sit next to any of my bosses or anything so I had a good time. I mean I was sitting with people who wanted to speak English and some of which are my “friend” in the teachers’ room. I really enjoyed the time and the food was extremely delicious. I learned that no Japanese person can keep a secret and will mention things because they want to. I know this is over generalizing, but I’ve met many Japanese people in my life and all of which aren’t that great with keeping things to themselves after I’ve told them. So It wasn’t a big deal since I knew that to begin with and didn’t tell anything that I didn’t expect them to tell another person. I was just trying to prove my theory, which of course worked like I planned. I think it was interesting sitting where I was because I was sitting across from a person who graduated from Keio University and the other teacher that was sitting next to me just got married. There were many things to talk about all night. I really enjoyed the night and the people that I was sitting with. Today was the first day that I had forgotten to change my shoes at school and was wearing my indoor shoes outside… opps.