Back on my feet

Things have taken a big change since coming to Tokyo. It's been quite the roller coaster of events in 4 months of arriving here from country-side Mie.

In short, I had to put myself back onto the job market just when the economy really tanked with the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy announcement. Bad enough as that was, the situation that put me there was far worse.

To be honest, I had left my new-found job in Tokyo for the simple fact that no promises were kept. There were a lot of things that were highly questionable at best. Although this experience left me quite angry, karma should handle the rest. End rant.

Anyway, being back on the job market with the news of the economic meltdown was quite stressful. Considering that I was away from my former field of expertise for 2 years only added to the stress. I went through many meetings with recruiters, many emails and job applications over the net, and lo and behold, a lead popped up.

I think over both interviews, I had prepped for questions and responses for a total of 3-4 days. It must have paid off however, since I received positive responses within 48 hrs of each.

I guess that basically answers the question of why I haven't been writing blog updates for so long - being busy and stressed out for finding and changing jobs.

Oh yeah, being busy at my new job does it too. 12 hr shifts are kind of rough, but I'm getting along well with everyone there and seem to be doing a good job so I can't complain.

Release the hounds!

This Xmas season we had some furry visitors from an animal rescue center in Tokyo. Megan convinced me to agree to be a co-temporary foster parent to a cat or dog during the holidays. Apparently many of the regular foster families either to their home countries or on vacation during the holiday season.

Initially we were told that we would be fostering an adult cat. We both were ready to house a cat for a bit until we got an email from the rescue center with a change of plans - Daisy, a rescued breeding dachshund would show up instead:




We were told that Daisy and her breeding mate Goofy were cooped up for 5 years by a breeder who was quite cruel. Cruel enough to use masking tape on their mouths to stop them from barking. We aren't sure how they got rescued (if the breeder died or if they were shut down) but we got to take care of Daisy for the holidays.


A few days after taking care of Daisy (with taking a liking to our new found friend) we got a call from the rescue shelter. They wanted to know if we would take care of Goofy too. Considering how adorable Daisy was in the home we could only say yes. And just like that, in 10 days we had a 100% increase in dog!




There are two things I learned about the Daisy/Goofy pair:

1)As a breed, dachshunds like to burrow. This trait carries on at bedtime and is quite funny when they do laps around you under the bed covers, wedge between your legs and other people for warmth, and spoon you.

2)They like to hang out on your lap, even if you don't have enough lap room to spare.




Daisy was adopted by an older couple after about 2 weeks. Goofy was adopted after the new year at an adoption event. It was quite sad to see them go, but it was ultimately better for both of them as we both couldn't spend much time with them with both of our jobs starting up in January. Although it was tough at times, it was nice to have some furry companions around while it lasted.

5 month break

Well it has been almost 5 months since the last blog entry. To tell the truth, there has been a lot of things going on that have kept me busy. I'll hopefully revisit the past and put in some more details of these past 5 months. In the meantime here are a few thungs that have changed:(in no particular order)

※I am no longer teaching English in Japan
※I am still in Japan and have moved to Tokyo
※I went through a stressful job search and now back into my former industry
※Two of my good friends from Boston visited Japan and had a blast
※I made a short trip back to the States, saw some old friends and met new people
※Said many, many goodbyes to Taki town and all the people I have met long the way in 2 years
※Witnessed my beloved PC go on the fritz (btw writing blog entries on a PDA suck)

Anyway there are still a lot of things that have happened. Hopefully I will be able to find a better way to put updates in but stay tuned.

First student letter of the year

This week I just met all the new 1st year students at one of my schools. I did my standard self intro about myself, America, and Boston. At the end I also introduced "Stan's mailbox" - a decorated box where students can write questions to me about myself, Boston, America, etc. This usually gets a few students to write in English outside of their textbook studies. The 1st year students are just learning the alphabet formally for the first time so the initial letters from these students are basically all in Japanese.

Immediately after one of my self-intro classes I found this in my mailbox:

きょうぼくたちのためにきてくれてありがとうございます。できたらまたきてください。

(Thank you for coming to class for our sake today. If you can please come again)

レミオロメンConcert

Went to my first concert in Japan. First concert anywhere for that matter. The band that was playing was remio romen（レミオロメン）. They probably don't have a lot of exposure outside the country but here they are pretty popular.
When I came here last year it didn't take long for me to hear one of their most famous songs 粉雪　(kona-yuki or powdery snow). This time around they were doing a tour for their new single, Wonderful & Beautiful. My friend Ahkey went though the trouble of entering the ticket lottery for this concert. Needless to say, she won the right to buy tickets.


One of the good things was that this concert was held up in the capital of Mie, Tsu. It made things a lot easier for transport, especially due to the fact that the concert was mid week. As for the concert itself, it was pretty good. I must admit that there was a lot more energy in the beginning of the performance, as there were more visuals on stage. After a while they stopped the visuals for a few songs. The energy level of the concert kinda dropped a bit until they brought them back. Overall the performance was quite good - I think I'll see if I can find the Wonderful & Beautiful single the next time I'm in a music store.

日本語勉強

(scroll down for translation)

今回ちょっとだけ日本語で書きたいと思った。日本に一年半ぐらいすんでいた。もちろん日本で日本語をしゃべらなくていけないだ。その間に、僕の日本語能力が段々あがってきたとおもう。でもよく疲れて、勉強のやる気はあまりない日がある。日常生活には出来るだけ日本語を使うようにする。おそらく日本に来る理由の一つは日本語が上手になることだ。

この一年半間を考えれば、日本語でいろいろなことをできた。

例えば：
ピザを注文
電話でツアー予約
仕事で外国人の生徒に試験の翻訳
同じく生徒に通訳
アメリカ姉妹都市の生徒に英日通訳
国際調理クラスを教える
東京での研修会報告日本語で書いた
生徒からの手紙（Stan's Mailbox)の返事英語でも日本語でも書く　（最近の「ワックスをいくつぐらいを使いますか」って質問が面白かった）
自分で外国免許証を日本免許証を変わりました
友達に自動車免許センターで通訳
テレビのニュースの大部分を理解できます
突然宴会でお礼の言葉を頼まれました　（酔っ払いで間違いが多かったけど）


きっと、日本人にはこれは全然たいしたことはないけど、２年前にはこれを出来るようになることを信じられなかった。でもまだまだ全然知らない日本語のことがたくさんある。これから時間の問題かも。


(translation)

This time around I wanted to write a bit in Japanese. Well if you didn't know, I've lived in Japan for the past year and a half. Of course, while in Japan, you need to speak Japanese. I like to think that in the past year and a half, my Japanese ability has gotten a little bit better. Unfortunately, there have been days when I was tired & was too lazy to study. Anyway, I've tried to use as much Japanese as possible during my daily life, and of course, learning Japanese is one of the main reasons that I'm here.

So looking back at the past year and a half, I've accomplished the following things all in Japanese:

Ordered a pizza over the phone
Booked a tour over the phone
Translated exams for some foreign students at work
Did E-J and J-E interpreting for homestay students from the sister city
Taught an international cooking class
Wrote my report on last year's Tokyo conference (entirely in Japanese)
Write the responses from "Stan's mailbox" to the students in both E and J (the most recent question to me from a student was, "How much hair wax do you use?")
Converted my foreign driver's license to a Japanese license on my own
Interpreted for a foreign friend to convert her license
Understand for the most part television news
Say some words of gratitude for a person during a enkai celebration (I made a few mistakes though due to drunkenness)

Of course, these things are all nothing to talk about for native Japanese people. However, say about 2 years ago I never would have thought I would be able to do these things. There are still a lot of things that I still don't know in Japanese, but I suppose it is really a matter of time before figuring those out.

鷲ヶ岳

Unfortunately the snowboard season is over. *sniff* But I thought I'd share a few of these photos from basically my new favorite place in Gifu, Washigatake. Why, you ask? Well there are a few reasons. First, it's a smaller place than some of the other big mountains in the area. For some that may be a turn off but that's more than ok for me. The smaller the mountain, the smaller the crowds. If there is one thing that sucks, is trying to avoid hordes of newbies that are sitting on the mountain. Or having a newbie slam into you because they don't know what they are doing. Second, the park. There's a lot of terrain in the snow park. There are many jumps, rails, and other fun items out there. Not only that the park layout is well thought out. All the expert kickers and items are out to one side, while the beginner/intermediate items are on the other. So there is no problem trying to go all over the park to use items that are your own level. Also there is a smaller chance of hitting someone else by crossing over to the other side. Finally, there's a decent onsen at the lodge, if for anything to clean off the sweat and grime accumulated after a day of riding.

On to photos:




Here's the view from the main lodge.



This is a shot of the snow park from the lift. The first time I was here I must have counted 12 kickers and 10 rails.



My buddy Chito managed to take a nice shot of me going off one of the kickers. Rather pro-like eh?



Speaking of Chito, here he is at the top of Washigatake.

More snowboarding!

Winter isn't officially over yet but so far I've counted 13 riding days for snowboarding. 13 days in one season and counting - that's really good for me. It's actually more snowboard days than my college and working in Boston years combined (9 years!!) It's really quite amazing to think that this type of chance would be available in Japan. Hands down, with the ease of access to mountains and bus tours, all the trips have really helped out my riding abilities. Now I can ride switch stance (not perfect but still better than your average rookie) and I'm hitting small kickers and trying out ground tricks. Unfortunately I kind of wish I had started doing some of this stuff earlier in life. I could have had some hope of being a pro!

Anyway the season isn't over yet. Two more trips lined up this weekend and hopefully some more in March (provided the snow holds out)