Blogger lets us post photos directly now! Yay!

Maybe that'll give me a reason to use my fancy pants camera that I haven't touched in a month. I was actually considering making a seperate blog to directly post images from m'phone, but I think I'll put that on hold for nows.

fucking with their minds.

I'm a clown style ALT. I make no bones about it. Given the chance I go for the laugh. Better to stir a little passion up in the classroom than leave not having made an impression, I say.

Sometimes this means I sacrifice a little bit of staid dignity in favor of acting stupid, but it's a lot better for me (and the kids, I dare say) to have me pull some buffonery than for me to act like Eric from Eigo de Asobou. He always sounds like he's talking to a retarded 2 year old.

In the name of differentiating myself from that weenie, I have taken to teaching the kids to say hi by contrasting his kimoi hhhhiiiIIIiiii!!! with a proper "hi". It's a great cheap laugh too. (other highlights from my classes include calling arnold schwarzenegger an idiot, and pantomiming all of the instruments I can't play, followed by the one I can "Taiko!............no tatsujin")

milan kundera.

I must really snooty. I've been listening to the unbearable lightness of being, but that's not even why I think I'm snooty.

At the beginning of each new "casette" the book title and the name of the author are reintroduced, but the way the author's name is pronounced rilly rilly bugs me. This despite the fact that I have no idea how it's really pronouced.

The reader says something that sounds like millen and then manages to turn all of the vowel sounds in the last name to "schwa"s, effectively making the name sound like cunt minus the T, followed by the derr that has replaced duh in the pop culture and a plain old schwa.

I am snooty enough to make a blog entry about my displeasure with pronunciation of a name I have no idea how to properly pronounce.

take that nippophilia

Kissui's got momus' number here.
Being complimented and admired for your race is great and all, but please go the next step and ask what it is that's so good about your race. Kissui's Yuki has heard more than enough of the same shit that is at it's heart pretty racist, and immensely presumptive about the japanese people. In one of her clippings, she cites someone saying that they love japanese women because of tubgirl and because of the foreign exchange girl that was "passed around the men's floor" on weekends.

Though the mindless admiration of white men in Japan seems to be in "terminal decline", I still get way more credit and admiration than I deserve. I know it's because of a certain set of presumptions about men of my race that usually don't apply to me, so I take it all with a grain of salt. But the sort of "admiration" that gets heaped upon japanese women for their racial beauty, their subservience and selflessness, child-like nature, and all of the other objectifying, minimalizing, and dehumanizing is a different matter. I'd be damned angry if I was being painted with that brush everywhere I walked.

mea culpa: I'm king of the guilty when it comes to waxing philosophic about japan as a monolithic identity. Sometimes I even commit the ultimate ameteur sociologist's arrogance, and ignore the specific example to his or her face and insist on my own understanding of the culture. But I want to change. I really do.

ajet must be stopped!

Apropos of a post over at jaime's, I concur wholly that the newbies are better off not joining ajet. Like I said over there, for the rank and file jet who can coordinate his or her own life and free time, ajet serves two purposes: they organize the leavers party and they organize the welcoming party for the newbies. And we have to pay for that entirely seperately from our dues.

They also do a couple of other things during the year, but it really only amounts to hanging out and drinking with jets... with the same jets who hang out together and drink together all the time. It's like the year abroad in college. People who you would not like at home become your best social contacts.
If you're stuck in inaka and don't really have options, I suppose this is nice. If you actually have managed to make good friends and find things to do in your own time though, the events are sort of a bad-smelling, noisy version of what you might do with your real friends.

For example, let's go skiing! At the jet ski trips, you sleep a million to a room, with smokers and drink-til-you-pukers, and almost inevitably hear a couple of people trying to quietly have sex. The slopes improve the situation somewhat, but a group of 15 or more chummy gaijin anywhere in japan almost guarantees a lot of noise, and rudeness. Lack of respect for the unrelated japanese people trying to enjoy themselves is the hallmark of all jet gatherings. That's why we are never welcomed back to facilities (the stolen yakiniku flag and the 3 am gongs are a fine example).

But maybe that's my real objection to AJET. I'm a grown up. If I want to have a party with my friends, I'll organize one.

It's my good old "jets suck" rant dolled up in new clothes.

But beyond that, the ajet membership gets you a small discount to said parties, and nothing else. It's just not worth it.

What would I like for ajet to do? Nothin'. It's about as good as it can get right now.

hatsu zaru

Ahhh.... zaru soba. Had my first zaru soba of the year today, and it was passable. I'm absolutely in love with the idea of zaru soba on a hot day, but it never really pans out the way you'd hope. Still, I will carry on as a zaru romantic, imagining that someday, with sweat pouring from my brow, I will stumble into the perfect sobayasan and order the ultimate zaru soba. My stomach as well as my soul will be sated.

Until then, I will eat zaru soba with sauce too watery, or simply not plentiful enough; with completely limp, flavorless noodles that clump on the serving tray into a hard to eat katamari of buckwheat, or barely enough noodles to build a pile at all; with wasabi too cheap to properly dissolve, and with no real kick; with negi that was cut hours before and has lost its zest. Yea, I will eat them, one and all, and I will smile, believe against the odds that the true zaru of zarus lies tucked away in the next back alley.

you must eat food to survive.
climb buildings and punch open windows to find food.

Today, I met with the preacher man. Russel's back in town, and he's wantin to hang out with the gang a bit. I suppose there's nothing wrong with that in theory...

Today we played frisbee, which was kinda fun...

Anyway. Afterward, I ran 8k in around 40 minutes! I felt all strong and healthy, that is, until I got home. I've been drowsy and bodily exhausted for the last five hours. it's a good exhausted though. I'm off to bed right now, but not before I start listening to the audiobook of the unbearable lightness of being.

Yesterday, I posted a letter I wrote to neil. Today, a much more serious letter I just wrote to my grandpa ray. I hope it's not too livejournal-y.

Hi grandpa,

It's me, Nate, the one who never writes or calls or anything. For that, I'm really sorry. It's taken me a long time to get around to growing up and being responsible. I bloomed early in school and late in life, I think.

I'm glad you got my christmas present, although I intended it to arrive much earlier and accompanied by a proper letter. I'm also glad I got your christmas present. It makes my life a lot easier when I don't have to make international bank transfers so often. Thank you.

The present I sent to you was a traditional japanese wreath (or centerpiece) for the new year. Here, the new year is the most important family holiday of the year. All the younger generations come home to be together for a few days, and the whole country closes down for a few days.

It was during that time this year that I got a lot of thinking done about myself and my family, and decided it was time to make some changes. It's taking time, but the changes are falling into line.

I hope you weren't hurt by my being a terrible grandson at times. I've never felt very close to anyone in the family but my dad and michelle, but that's no excuse for being as callous and selfish as I have been in the past. I don't have a lot of memories from my childhood, but a lot of them are of christmas at your house. Thanks for helping me to have a great childhood in spite of a lot of turbulence in the world around me.

Sorry that this letter came out so heavy. It's just been so long since we've talked, and I felt like there was a lot to say... And there probably still is.

For now, I hope this email finds you in good health and good spirits.

psp porn, huh?

All of those titles are going to be released as properly sony licensed UMDs for the PSP this year. That's kind of cool, isn't it. Japan really doesn't give a shit about porn.

Anyone who reads this probably knows by now that men here read porn (and/or comics regularly featuring things that should make anyone blush, or feel repulsed) on trains, and joke about delivery health (on call prostitution) at work, and that (like many other countries) the biggest circulation papers have lots of pictures of naked women.
Almost every Japanese girl is the cool girlfriend who doesn't care if you read and watch porn. In fact, the overwhelming impression I have from tv and personal accounts is that frequenting prostitutes and otherwise cheating on your girlfriend is considered less a fatal flaw and more a bad habit. It seems to be on par with blowing tons of cash on pachinko or booze.

Japan also doesn't give a shit about alcohol, getting into fist fights, homosexuality, religion or authenticity... and it's a better place for it. Its a damned long way from perfect, but I'm starting to like it here.

If any major american entertainment corporation were to show such open condonement (not a word?) of porn, they would be spending a lot of time in a box on the left side of cnn, accompanied by jerry falwell on the right side telling us that they are what is wrong with the world today. Boycotts would be threatened, and despite the fact that they would have no impact, joe anycorporation would cave.

America is a bunch of nosy fucking neighbors. America deserves goatse.cx and maybe tubgirl too.

My back hurts. Like an old man. At the rate that my body has decided to spontaneously age, I could well be the victim of tomb robbery by my 40th birthday, and having my bones examined by overzealous archeologists by my 50th.

I expect that by the time I reach retirement, people will be speculating whether my skull, the same capacity as modern man's, might indicate that I was intelligent, and potentially capable of using tools.

Also, tsukurimichi has a new kouchou... He seems very well kempt... And is also a talker.

For your stay, the back room is in damned fine shape, has an internet connected pc, futons a plenty and a rather comfortable couch. No tv, but eh, what's there to watch anyway?

Oh, and ample booze. Which sounds a little like ample boobs.

nate