My Life So Far (MLSF)

This will pretty much sum up how I have adapted to the Nakano, Japan culture as an english teacher thus far, which I will add is tremendously different from adjusting and living in Kyoto as a student.

I feel it is important to post this chapter now because I am currently in the transition stage from fall to winter.  You can get an idea of how I have been living from the summer through the fall in Nagano, but I am certain my lifestyle will be changing once the winter hits with full force and snowboarding encompasses my life.

Also a side not before I get started, congratulations to my older sister who is pregnant and her husband. Good job, if you were one of my students you would both definitely get sparkly stickers.

Azusa and I went to a temple and prayed for their baby. You get these charms, right a message on it and then hang it in the temple.  This was an outdoor mountain temple in Kamikochi.

So wow, yeah that's like holy shit. It hits me in waves.  I see little babies running around and I just think holy shit that is a baby.

Ok so back to the focus of this post. I really should have put that tribute at the end.  My life is going to look like a joke after that announcement.

Ok, transition, when I got to Japan I had so much ahead of me to look forward to and challenges I would face acclimating to my new way of life.  As Bruce Lee once said,

"Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.”

This quote has inspired me through the start of this adventure.

Here is an image of my room after I had just unpacked my luggage.

After I had completely unpacked, I layed down, without internet or a phone, and thought about everything and everyone I had left behind.  I decided to go for a walk and explore my new habitat,  And just as I spoke as if I was an animal, I felt like an animal, the way I was stared at and observed by every passing person or vehicle.  I even remember walking by a house and hearing someone inside start chanting some kind of buddhist mantra and stopping after I had just passed his house, as if warding off a demon.  I had never felt more alone in my life.

These sad feeling and fear of this intense change instantly dissolved the moment I got a cellphone in my hand.  You can really tell what generation I am from.  It has pretty much been all sunshine and rainbows after that.

By the way that whole sad, depressing, internetless stage was for one day.  I got a phone the next day due to the great help of my advisor and another ALT (assistant language teacher).

So here is my room now!

I am very comfortable and cosy in my little room.  I have always had a small room since I was little, so this is my kingdom, step into this realm and prepare to get your ass kicked. And then I will offer you a drink and we will sit down and watch TV. Thats the initiation.

That table you see with a blanket coming down is call a "kotatsu".  It is quite a marvelous thing.  It has a little space heater attached to the under side of the table.  The blanket keeps in the heat and you sit with your legs stretched out under the table and blanket.  It keeps you nice and toasty.

I have two fish I take care of.  The orange fish's name is Henry.  Henry is very nice but the other fish is pretty mean to Henry.  Her name is Snippy because she chases Henry around the tank trying to bite him.  As you can see I have gone partially insane.

Here is what I currently look like. As my friend Joey once said," you can tell they have gone crazy when you see that twinkle in their eye."  I haven't heard from Joe in a while.  I wonder if he will even read this.

The robe you see me wearing is called a hanten (半天).  It is worn inside your house in the winter and is filled with down.  It is very warm and I feel like a ninja while wearing it.

So, let's talk about work and my extra curricular activities.  

Working a full time salary job stinks.  I have money now to buy the things I want, such as video games, but no time to play them.  

The work itself however is rewarding and very fun.  The days really go by fast, especially when I have a lot of classes scheduled that day.

Here is the teacher's room.  See if you can spot my desk.

You never realize how much smack the teachers talk about the students until you become one.  I was shocked.  All I could think about was how much of a disruptive pain in the ass I was in school and how the teachers probably sipped their coffees in the teachers lounge and said,"mmmm yes that Frank is a complete doodoo face."

This is my night class during our halloween part carving pumpkins.  It is a class I teach every Tuesday night for two hours at the local community center.  

Sharing my favorite holiday and seeing how much my students got into it and enjoyed it was amazing. 

So, on a less professional note, I bet you are wondering how I spend my precious free time. On the weekends, much of my time is spent with this one...

She is partially insane too.  I am from the west and she is from the east so when we come together our insanity creates a kind of hurricane and we feed off each others madness.  I'll have to be more careful.

We have been adventuring around Nagano in my white lazer beam visiting temples, shrines, hotsprings, or the Japan Sea.  I decked out my car with a sick roof rack for our snowboards.  We r ready to tear up the Japanese Alps.

I would also like to take this time to comment on Japanese drivers.  They are absolutely horrible.  I will be driving and old women on scooters will be dive bombing into the street with a death wish.  I picture them saying," I'm too old for this shit, as they dive bomb into the street."

The tailgating  is horrible and the traffic lights are soooooooo poorly timed.  It is designed to have you stop at every friggin light.

Back to my free time...Here is a temple on a cliff we visited which had a great view.  We were also the only ones there so the temple was really creepy, and I loved that about it.

On the weekdays or during free time I enjoy playing an MMO called Dragonquest X which just released on the PC.  It is not available in America which is too bad but guess what. I can speak Japanese, bwaa haaahaha

I consider it studying

When I was in Kyoto I joined the Men's Ritsumeikan Lacrosse team and it will always remain one of my most treasured experiences, but I always had an interest in martial arts.  I regretted not practicing a martial art while I was in one of the native countries.  

This time I decided to try a new sport. 

This is Seidokaikan full contact karate.  My goal was to make friends and continue a healthy lifestyle, so mission accomplished.  I am having a blast and I can not believe how complex a punch and kick actually is.  There is a a lot of (secret techniques I can not disclose) that goes into it.

All is well in Japan.  I am having a blast and I will continue to cruise through life in this fashion.  As long as I do not get mixed up in a bad crowd, like these guys on the right, I think I will be ok.