Teaching and chillin, relaxing like a villian

I guess I will only be updating this blog sporadically.  With such a small readership, I am sure no one will blame me.  I have been incredibly lazy however.  I won’t even try and claim that I have been busy.  I really haven’t.  I am just lazy about it, and would rather just play my PC games. 

 

While yeah, I am in Japan, and yeah, it’s cool, I am also pretty broke, and even when it looks like I am going to be saving some money… boom! Something happens to eat all the cash up.  Case in point, our refridgerator is leaking.  So we have to buy a new one.  Granted the old one was a hand me down from the early 90s… It was free.  So that is a bummer.  At least we will get a lot of points on our Yodobashi Camera card.  I would love to go out and do some touristy things, but now is not the time really.  Thank god I like games, and 50$ can hold me off for a month.  Just going to Tokyo for a day would cost twice that I think.  From my last post, I was playing Shogun 2 (Which I still am.. ) Mass effect 2 and WItcher 2… All of them were great games.  Now I am downloading Space Marine, LA noir and Dragonage:Origins… let’s see how this goes.  

As far as work goes, I am teaching at 4 different middles schools, peppered by an occasional Elementary school.  Middle school A, the biggest of the lot, is my least favorite.  That doesn’t mean I don’t like it, but I go so infrequently, I have no relationship with the students or other teachers.  I feel bad about this school too, because I really don’t do a lot there.  They always schedule me with so much free time, and I get the feeling that the principle isn’t too keen on me either, and if it were his choice, I wouldn’t be there.  The English teachers are all really cool though, and I have only taught the 3^rd year students.  I have no idea about the other grades.  They are the only school that has invited me to 2 different functions; I have unfortunately not been able to make them, so maybe they think the feeling is mutual. 

School B is one I have to take a bus for, and the kids at that school are the roughest lot of all the schools.  Most aren’t very motivated, and there is quite a lot of acting out by the students.  The poor teachers are always trying to keep things under control more than they teach.  They are all really nice people there, and it seems that I am at that school the most, so I have a bit of a relation with the kids.  Being a foreigner and the fact that they know I used to work for the Department of Juvenile Justice, makes most of them back off immediately, but I still get tested… and they still lose when they do.  I am not enforcing any rules and I am not getting on their case, but they hardly scare me… and most of them see that when they try to do that, they actually encourage me.  Like all schools, that is a minority though.

School C is a smaller school which I could technically walk to, but if I take the bus, its paid for and I get to ride with a bunch of cute nurses who get off at the University hospital down the street… *sigh*….  This school is smaller, but has a good concentration of really motivated kids and teachers.  The teachers there are very accepting of me, and are generally relieved I speak a smattering of Japanese.

School D is my favorite, and is the smallest.  Small schools have always been my favorite, since I can better develop relationships.  The teachers there have an amazing corp de esprit, and the students are a riot.  The only bad part is the girls are openly, and uncomfortably flirtatious…  My job is to be as friendly as possible, develop a working relationship with the students, and basically be an entertainer.  This complicates things a little, but it’s a minor and innocent thing, I’m sure.  I have a lot of fun with everyone there, but unfortunately I go there very rarely.

To finish this off, let me talk about teachers in Japan.  Teacher is not the correct word for them, and is only vaguely similar to what we refer to as a teacher in western society.  I would rather call them social custodians.  They are never off duty, and I mean that in the most literal of senses.  When they are not actually teaching a course, they are coaching or leading some other club… That includes the weekends too.  If one of their students does something stupid outside of school, then the ‘teachers’ are involved sometimes before anyone else.  They are a second set of parents, working for peanuts.  A western teacher would find this untenable, and unions would certainly go berserk.  But they all knew what they were getting into before they joined, and the ones that survive are made of really tough stuff.  You see that while US teachers do less (I am not saying they do little, I am just saying they are only in charge of the lessons), they receive better preparation and much better support.  Teachers here figuratively sink or swim, with only a few weeks of on the job training. 

So here’s to you! Japanese teachers that survive! And to those ALTs who dare call themselves teacher… yeah… you’re really not.

Game galore...

Cornbeef hash skillet...

Blueberry, cheesecake pancakes

Now that work is in full swing, I have let the blog kind of go by the wayside.  My wife and I have kind of settled into a routine as well.  It seems I have become the chef since I get home about 4 hours before she does.  This wasn’t really a rule, its just how things ended up.  A couple of my creations have been the breakfast skillet and my blueberry, cheesecake pancakes...

I have been cruising other blogs lately from people who just arrived in Japan not too long ago, and I am reminiscing quite a lot.  They are all in their Disneyland phase of Japanese life.  It’s the best phase to be in and usually last for only 3 months.  This is when everything is so new and interesting that everyday is an adventure.  Every little festival is a gold mine of culture.  Since my return to Japan, I didn’t get any of that… I had mine long ago I suppose.  I am also saving a lot of money for things like pension payments, initial apartment set ups and healthcare, which isn’t much now, but it will be next year.  I do really miss going out to explore on my days off or going into Tokyo to be irresponsible with my money.  Instead, I stay home and play video games… Not that it’s upsetting me.  Truly, I love it.  I have 4 great loves right now.  

The first is Dawn of war II…  I have always loved the Warhammer intellectual property, and since I can’t play the tabletop games anymore, I play the computer games and read the books by black library.  Incidentally, I am going to try and snag a gold copy of ‘Aurellian’ tonight.  Shipping is free, so it’s worth it.  Wish me luck… They sell out super- fast, so I will be playing quick button on the computer.  Plus its by Aaron Dempski-Bowden… One of my favorite up and coming authors.  As for DOWII, its actually an uninspiring game as far as story goes… It’s just really gratuitous violence, and Astartes.

The second is Shogun Total War 2.  I am a huge fan of the total war series.  They are usually about 90% historically accurate and a great way to relive tumultuous times in history.  The whole total war series started with Shogun… and this is such a beautifully rendered version.  It gets my strategy fix on.

The third is the Witcher 2.  Honestly, I haven’t played it a whole lot… yet, but its stunningly beautiful and really adult.  Most games for adults are PG13 if they are movies… but the Witcher 2 is definitely R.  I haven’t played much, but there is full nudity and a whole lot o cursing.  I like to call this low fantasy.  High fantasy is your D&D realm stuff, which borders on science fiction.  This feels like it could be what medieval Europe would be if it had magic.

And lastly is an older game… Mass Effect.  Oh my god! It’s like playing a movie.  The story is amazing, and what makes it more amazing is that you can import your files to the next installment, and from there you can further do it to Mass Effect 3… coming out soon.  Since they all link, the game has a lot of replay value.  I am stuck to this game like crack… The trailer is for the second installment... which I have yet to play... but its better than the first, which does it no justice.

Anyways, I have been living vicariously through the blog of someone I interviewed with for my current job.  It’s kind of like reliving a lot of past experiences.  Of course she has a bunch of experiences unique to her, but the over- all jumble is very familiar to me.

Settling down

Life is now starting to settle into patterns, and I can honestly say I am giving it my 120% effort.  Life in Japan is not at all like the first time I moved here.  Of course I was single then, but I really threw around cash like an idiot back then.   I have seen a couple of differences in people since I have returned as well, it could be like this nationally, or of course it could just be the area I am living in.  

1)      Really hot young mothers who look like they about to hit the club with a Gucci  stroller.  It looks like instead of adapting to a motherly lifestyle, they are adapting motherhood to their image.

2)      More chubby people.  Not a lot really, but it was a rare thing to see someone I would consider obese when I first lived here, now I see at least one a day.  This is nowhere near the US where it is common to see obesity, just an observation from a chubby dude himself.

I have also had photo filtering growing on me.  It seems like its popular lately to filter photos so they look like they are from the 60s/70s.  Instagram, through Iphone seems to be the number one way, but since I do not own an Iphone, I can’t use it.  I sometimes think of getting an Iphone, but most apple products smack too much of fashion for me.  People get them because it’s the ‘in’ product… If you get an apple, you are a stylish hipster, whereas if you have a PC… you just can’t afford an apple.  I am probably a bit off when I say that… but I have a tendency to not like what is in at the moment.   Anways, I found a free filtering program that is pretty damn cool here: http://pixlr.com/o-matic/

"We are hip individuals, absolutely unconcerned with what is trendy..."

 

I took some random snapshots around town today and filtered them when I got home.

I haven’t got a handle on teaching again quite yet.  That is because by the time I get used to a school, I am flipped to another school.  It’s a process I am not too fond of, but I suppose I will get used to it.

China Town

Shorompo,,, yum!

Chukagai (China Town)

Well, I finally finished training for the new job.  It was alright, and I learned a couple of new tricks.  The new kind of contracts are a bit odd though, but I think I can thank the unions for that.  Anyhow, it thankfully has cooled off quite a bit lately… not enough to be really comfortable, but enough not to feel like I am about to melt away.  Some of the people I met were really good teachers, and some of the others… well… I think that consideration of another full time endeavor may be in order…  To be nice about it.  The main office of my new company is in Yokohama, and is really near the China Town there, which means I have been stuffing my face with Chinese/Japanese food.  The reason I put that slash is that its food made for Japanese people in a Chinese way… Much like American Chinese food is not real Chinese by a long shot.  But where American/Chinese is cheap and low quality, Japanese/Chinese tends to go the exact opposite route.  At the Yokohama Chinatown (Chukagai), there seemed to be a greater mix of the low end crap…  I would recommend just stuffing your face with stuff from the street vendors.  They are a little more expensive, but they are delicious.  I had something called shorompo...  These things are amazing...  Imagine a potsticker that intentionally has a lot of meaty juiciness left in it.  I took a huge chomp out of one and it almost sprayed across the street!

Making a shorompo (kind of like pot sticker but way better... and jucier)

I have done almost everything a new foreigner immigrating to Japan has to do.  I went to a doctor’s clinic in Tokyo, where the doctor has an excellent reputation and can speak English quite fluently.  That was a real plus for me.  I have opened a post office bank account, registered as an alien (I always think that is rather quirky to say) and have done a lot of shopping for the basic set up stuff.  The station that I am closest to is Machida station, which is actually in Tokyo, although I am not… I am just on that border to be considered Kanagawa.  It feels quite odd, because my apartment feels like I am way out in the country, but once you hit Machida station, you may as well be in the center of Tokyo.  There is just oodles and oodles of shopping on one side of the station.  The other side looks cool, but I have yet to really explore it.  I am living next to a huge public housing area.  What that means in Japan are people need a subsidized place to live and they keep it relatively nice.  In America it means drugs and gangs… I should know, I lived in public housing before. There is one Udon chain here I love called Marugame... and it is hubba hubba!

No old noodles here... They make em fresh, boy!

End result... Bliss... with fried things on the side

This is my last week to really goof off before work starts.  Sure I have done this kind of thing a lot, but in truth, I am still a little nervous.  It has after all been a while.  It is how I started down this long road however.  From an Eikaiwa, to Japanese public schools, to the South Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice, to teaching American history and Geography in a High School, and back to the  Japanese public schools again…  I don’t know quite what to expect.

On a different note, I have been addicted to nerd-rap lately… They actually have a really good beat to them, despite the silly background or topic.

 

 

Too hot and a waterproof frog

Now I am moved into my new apartment.  Sort of…  We don’t have any kind of storage set out for all these boxes, so they will just sit here until we buy some tension rods for the closets as well as some storage bins of some kind.  This means we are kind of stuck in a half way unpacked apartment until we can get this resolved.  The weather here is consistently hot and humid.  Not as bad as South Carolina, but we don’t have an air conditioner.  Since I have moved in, I have been in a constant state of sweat and have been leaving cold water in the bath tub, so I can jump in whenever and cool off.  My back has unfortunately been giving me a lot of grief as well and it seems that I have overworked it.  It really frustrates me, because I feel like an old man that has to stop every few minutes for a rest.

Other than the heat, my back and my unpacked place, I am loving this place.  The location is great and the apartment itself is large for our needs.  Today is also a god-sent, since it rained, the temperature must have dropped 10 degrees, which means for once, I am not sweating. 

On another note, I will be training for my job and this video clip from the movie “Gung Ho” (From where I get the title of my blog) is how I feel it will turn out.

I have been in Japan for almost a week now, but it feels like I have been here a month.  I began moving stuff into my new apartment, which I am very impressed with, but I have completely destroyed my back in the process and I am now just sore all over.  The humidity means I have also been in an almost constant state of sweat, which is really no fun at all.  It is not as bad as I thought though.  All in all I still really like it here, despite the fact that I still feel like a fish out of water.  

View of my hotel room from the back of the bed

Hotel room from the desk

Love the view from this hotel room. Lots of pretty girls holding the hands of much older men... hmmm

The apartment is really nice, and my wife did a great job with the place.  There is no AC, but the constant breeze in the area where I live is just amazing.  We have not met any of the neighbors unfortunately, and that is probably because of it being Obon (a yearly festival where people often return to their hometown).  

View of my new apartment from the kitchen

I am really lucky that the hotel has a connection to the internet, because who knows how long it will take for the net to start working at my new place.  So I guess I will post more later… whenever I really settle down.  It won’t be too exciting though, since I am conserving money and just staying put.

The park/garbage pick up near my apartment... yeah... thats all of it.

Touchdown Japan

Well, how fast time flies from my last post.  Since that time, I was given the placement call for the Yokohama branch of Interac and contracted to Isehara.  Soon after, I was given a time and date to show up and given a Japanese level test which I bungled badly. 

The interac staff has been fairly accommodating and has worked well with my wife in getting a nice apartment for me.  It’s actually quite large for Japan and is a good deal.  Unfortunately without an air conditioner, I will sweat it out for a while until I can buy one, maybe next spring.   I booked a ticket for an outrageously expensive ticket of 1055USD… one way… its about 1200 round trip… pretty stupid if you ask me.

So now I am sitting in my hotel room in Yokohama.  It’s a lot nicer than I expected with a cool view.  Tomorrow the real work starts, as I am meeting my new landlord and getting the keys.

I have kind of surprised myself with how many little things about Japan I forgot about, and can’t shake the feeling of feeling off balance.  Since I am a veteran of living in Japan, I thought I would adapt instantly, but that isn’t the case.  In fact I am glad about that… I feel like it’s my first time, and things feel new and fascinating… Just like my first time… It’s like being a virgin all over again… hahahah!

View from my hotel window.

Being a Ronin part VIII

While in Japan, working for Interac, I got married.  It was really cool, because when I first went to go ask her parents for permission, I made sure to wear a good suit.  Some buttons got damaged while I was teaching, and the whole teachers room came alive with activity as everyone was trying to help out and wishing me good luck.  Later they all chipped in and gave me an envelope full of money.  Its rare in my life when I feel truly touched, but I did feel that way.
Some of my friends always want to know why I don't talk about my wife often, and its a simple reason... She doesn't like the idea of being on the internet, so while I love her dearly, I don't speak about her online because she asked me to do that.  When I do speak of her, I do so only in the vaguest of terms.

Soon after we registered as husband and wife, I left Japan to get work in the US.  I have to admit, my students really inspired me to make teaching my profession, so I decided to become a social studies teacher in America.  I also got a job again with DJJ.  It was still a messed up position, with me breaking up lots of fights, butting heads and basically being a hard ass, but it was an improvement from when I worked with DJJ before.  It was hard for me because those very hard and strict characteristics which makes a good officer, is very different from what I naturally am.  It allowed me time to take the courses I needed to become a certified teacher.  I also had some time to get a TESL certificate... just in case.  Unfortunately, the five years my wife and I spent in America did not work out and we came to the decision to return to Japan.  There is no more need for teachers in America, so my wife and I chose to go back to where my passions were ignited.  She left in October to get the ball rolling... and so here I am now... waiting to go... I have my spousal visa ready... All I need is the word to go.

And so that is my reflections on being a Ronin...

The wait

The wait...

The beginning sound of this music clip is what is going through my head constantly.  Every T has been crossed and every I has been dotted, so now its just a waiting game... When and where will I be placed in Japan?  How is this going to work out...  When can I start living?  Its all about the wait now.

Its making me slightly mad...

That 2!

Haha... I finally got more than one viewer... I have two!  Haha... I'm such a dork.

Anyways, I am feeling in a rather hyped mood today.  A strange feeling since I was pretty relaxed about an hour ago.  One thing I am going to miss, is sitting on the back porch while listening to distant thunder from a storm that will only brush us, but enough to kick up a cool breeze.  I can just look up at the clouds, hear the wind rustle the leaves and the cicadas hum.  Yeah... Im going to miss that.  Being Independence day however, the kids are now shooting off fireworks.  I can look forward to seeing all the trash in the morning from it.

Japan: The greatest hits...

When I was in Japan, the highlights of my stays there are... Not in any sort of order...

1)  My first trip to Kyoto!!! My parents and one sister came and visited, and believe it or not, I got to lavish my father with a meeting with Geisha at a tea house in in Gion!  How did I manage this?  I did some research and I found a Canadian fellow who does tours, and is the only foreigner on Earth that had the necessary connections..  Peter MacIntosh.  It so happened that NHK even got involved with this one and we were part of a documentary!  They bought my dad the chocolate cake.  The Geisha were amazing, and so skilled in the arts.  They danced and played shamisen for us.  They are also experts in drinking games, and soundly kicked my ass.  This is really number one, as most Japanese do not get to experience this closed world either.  I believe that particular tea house closed, but if anyone is ever in Kyoto.. really...  get a tour with Peter at kyotosightsandnights.com!!!

 Later, we went to Hiroshima (honestly unimpressed), Himeji castle (really impressed) and then Miyajima (freakin awesome!!!)

Front gate to Jizoin... Oh... and exgirlfriend...

2) My second trip to Kyoto!!!! haha.  Honestly, my first trip was so whirlwind, we didn't really get to see much of Kyoto at all.  I went with my girlfriend at the time, so she appears in a lot of my pictures.  The highlights of my Kyoto trip was Sanjusangendo and Jizoin.  The latter being a small shrine hidden in a bamboo forests almost unknown to tourists, which makes it so quiet and peaceful.

Stock image of the inside of Sanjusangendo

 

 

 

 

 

3) Trip to Nagano and the winery in Yamanashi with my wife.  Late in the cherry blossom season, my wife and I went on a bus tour of a famous park in Nagano to see the cherry blossoms.  It was so awesome up there.  I was using a pretty crappy camera at the time, so the colors seemed a bit washed out.  Later we stopped at a winery on the way back and sampled wines.. and resampled them, making sure they were all of the finest quality.

4) The Fuji fiasco.  Ok... I tried to hike up fuji once.  You do it in August from the fifth station, which is halfway up the mountain.  Once we got there, a frickin taifun came!  We ended up having to stay in an overpriced hovel to wait it out.  Of course next day it started to break... but it just didnt happen.  Perhaps one day I will conquer Fuji... but it kicked my ass that time around.

Fuji in the process of kicking my ass.  Oh.. and another exgirlfriend...

Being a Ronin part VI

The Interac years...

Me playing for Aogumi on sports day.  This is with the 1st year kids at Ichihara-chu.  They were fantastic kids!

Being at NOVA was not all that bad.  There were people who had a far worse time of it, but in my experience, many of those same people had 'entitlement issues'.  They often seemed like they wanted Japan to conform to them as opposed to them conforming to Japan... Sorry, there is no middle ground on the issue, but for those who have spent more than a couple of years there, it starts to become a big issue that a balance has to be struck on.  Its also true that working at a country school for NOVA was the best way to go.  Big city schools had every kind of manager wanting to stick their fingers in a the pie, and pissing off everyone else in the process.  In the country, everyone was a lot more relaxed and had fun compared to their city counterparts.  Truly though, it was the Japanese staff that got screwed over the most when it came to work demands.  As for me, I saw a lot of the crookedness NOVA was up to, and I wont lie... Being someone that had taken on a lot of extra responsibilities, I had a sense of entitlement myself.  I honestly think what did it was I used to get very steady yearly raises because of my performance except for my last year there.  Their reason was because I had too many sick days.  That was true, I got really sick and missed almost 2 weeks straight.  I have never been as sick in my life in fact...  The first time you get the flu overseas is a real trial simply because your body has no defense against that particular strain of influenza...  I shit you not there were a couple times that I thought I was about to die.  I actually should have gone to the hospital for that, but I am far too stubborn I guess.  I thought I was getting punished enough with 2 weeks of no salary...  We had no sick days, and they would not allow me to use my paid leave for some odd reason...  But 10 days of unscheduled leave was too much to considered for a raise.  I lobbied against that train of thought and I actually made them a graph of how, overall I was still becoming more and more skilled at my job...  They still didn't bite and that pissed me off, so I quit.  No... I didn't rage quit, I looked for another position, quit, went home for Christmas, then started a new job with Interac.

Interac was pretty cool as far as how the management dealt with you in comparison to NOVA.  I was almost given free reign to do whatever.  I pretty much worked by myself, going from Junior High and Elementary schools in Kimitsu.  Their Board of Education had me working at schools for a couple of months before going to a new school, which kind of sucked since I never really got a chance to connect with any of the kids.  My salary with Interac was almost 50,000 yen less a month than NOVA however... Thats a whole month worth of rent, so I started looking for a new place.  I found a tiny little apartment in downtown Chiba (a video of that place is in an earlier post).  When I moved there, they shifted my working area to Ichihara, and I would work at a Junior Highschool for 6 months before cycling to another.  I would also go to an Elementary school once every two weeks, and usually the same one.  Once a month, all the foreign teachers would meet for a few hours.  It was an odd grouping of people which consisted of this one guy from NY who was a fluent Japanese speaker.  He was a really great guy and I always enjoyed talking with him.  There was another entitled guy from Alabama who thought the whole country was dumb, but enjoyed the beer in Japan.  He was a pretty brazen outspoken guy, who I was pretty indifferent to.  There was also this really quiet little Asian girl who wouldn't speak.  I felt really bad for her because we had a pretty intense little group. I tried to be social with her when I could, but she would usually recoil from me pretty quickly.  Later by coincidence, I found a blog she had written and she verbally tore me a new one there.  I guess no deed goes unpunished...  I will post something more about that later, but for now I have written enough

Greased lightning

No... This has nothing to do with show tunes, Olivia Newton, or John Travolta.  It has to do with my visa... It came... Jumpin Jesus on a pogo stick that was fast!  I sent in my COE 1st day priority mail from UPS with return shipping on Tuesday, which was picked up around 4pm.  Fortunately I could ship it using my works account for a huge discount.  It was shipped back today (Thursday) and arrived at noon.  When I got it, I was expecting that I was missing something, because it got there on Wednesday morning and shipped out later that day...  But it was all there.  Its a really cool laser sticker with all kinds of security wing dings on it... There is a massive difference from my working Visa from 2001... Which was just a stamp...

I just sent a scanned copy of the visa, so the ball is in their court.  They said it will probably be August-ish for me... but we will see...

to do list

Time: Monday afternoon
Music: Miles Davis... So what.
Blogging is so incredibly new to me, and I really don't know its in and outs.  The google layout is pretty self explanitory, but there are so many little things that aren't...  I have a feeling I am spending way too much time on this, but I have to admit that there is an addictive edge to all of this.

Getting ready for Japan is a bit of a nightmare too.  I will be sending my documentation to the Consulate tomorrow via UPS, but there are other things I need to pay attention to. 
1) I need to get my commission work done.  I have been fairly slack ass about it, and quite unmotivated.
2) I need to get pension info together to send to Japan, so I can get started with that whole system once I get there.
3) I need to start sorting out what is going to get taken and what is going to get trashed.
4) I need to make an emergency sheet for my parents, including all my account information and passwords.
5) I need to arrange for medications to try and control my wild ass blood sugar, and figure out how this will work once it runs out.
6) I need to do the laundry... like now...

Damn... I have a headache now...

Being a Ronin part V

Time: Sunday evening
Music: Iron Maiden...The prophecy

In August 2001, I moved to Japan with NOVA and lived in Goi, which is in Ichihara-shi, in Chiba prefecture.  Like I have mentioned in previous posts, Goi had alot of illegal activity going through it.  The difference between illegal activity in Japan versus illegal activity in the US is that criminals go after criminals.  From what I understand, the Yakuza have pretty strict guidelines regarding messing with regular people.  When it comes to gaijin, we may as well be on different planets.  I didn't know it at the time, but my favorite bar was run by the wife of a high ranking Yakuza.  Running the gaijin bar was a kind of a side project for her, and when she would come, she would always come with her body guard; a guy with 3 fingers on one hand a running suit and a bit of an attitude. We all just called her Mamasan.  Mamasan used some kind of crazy, outdated colloquialisms in her Japanese, but she had an odd affection for me.  As it turns out, the Yakuza are very superstitious, and I when I was drinking there, business was good... hence, I was her lucky charm.  She was always pretty nice to me, and even tried to hook me up with her daughter... a 17 year old drop out to whom Mama bought some kind of boutique for her to run as a business.  I politely declined.

One night after work, I went directly to The Phoenix, and was having a pretty good time there.  As usual, they had 6 TVs going on at the same time... but then again it was a sports bar.  Most of the Flower mansion crowd was there, and at that time I was the only American.  One guy, a Kiwi, who was one of the biggest drunkards I have ever met, went on and on about how he hated Americans.  I just sat there and listened to him prattle on his venom.  I bought him another beer, and he said I was an exception to the rule.  I really liked that guy...  Soon, one of the bartenders started to tell me how there was some kind of accident in New York, and a building was on fire.  He turned a couple of the TVs to the channels showing it live... And that is when I watched the second plane hit the world trade center.  I just stared at the TV for the next few hours in disbelief while others made comments around me.  The Australian guy was starting to be a real prick.  "America is under attack, man!" he said as he was giggling and bouncing around... I really wanted to smash his skull through with a mug at the time, but I was still in shock, and that level of violence has never been in my character.  My British roommate said to me "Now you know how we felt, getting bombed."  It wasn't in a mean way, and the way he actually said it was kind. For the next few weeks, all my students would always ask me if I had family in New York.  It actually got irritating after a while, but they were trying to be nice and they were generally concerned. 

The view outside my front door in Kisarazu.

After the second year, I had become an old hand at NOVA.  Most people would stay for a little less than 1 year, get frustrated with Japan, and leave.  There were two others that were really long timers there however.  An Australian and a Canadian; both charisma men.  If you have never heard of a charisma man, google it and you will be very entertained.  In short however, its a guy who can not get women in his own country but when he comes to Japan, he starts to get dates fairly easily just based on his personality.  Eventually a charisma man begins to get an overly inflated ego of himself, and begins to think they are the center of the universe.  They were both interesting characters, but each had a very warped view on women.  One in particular would often tell me it was very easy to "bully" your way into a relationship.  I have to admit, in Japan I found dating much simpler than in America.  I never did go to the Charisma man extreme though.  I was very lucky though to meet a wonderful woman while in Goi.  Not as a girlfriend, but as a mentor.  She was an older Japanese teacher and I went to her class at least 4 times a week in the beginning.  Her name was Reiko, and we became good friends.  I often called her my Japanese mother.

drunk charisma man... and Japanese girl trying to get away.  He was a funny guy though.

I stayed in Goi for roughly a year and a half, until I moved to Kisarazu.  I actually was working in Kisarazu most of the time, so I thought that the move would be better.  Living in the Flower Mansion was fun for a while, but the magic was soon gone.  The really fun people had moved on, and in their place came people I really had nothing in common with.  The culture in that building had shifted, and I got tired of the non stop shuffle of roommates.  Reiko helped me with finding a place, and I really liked it there.  My salary was also really good at NOVA, and I lived by myself in a 2DK apartment.  This time truly by myself, and it was a good run while I was there.  I really felt at home in Kisarazu, and just down the street was a Don Kihote, where I was a regular.  What I really loved about Kisarazudont know why.

Hard to see, but that little cloud looking thing is Mt. Fuji.  Its just a low rez pic of my route home

Over time, I did everything that NOVA offered in the way of training courses, and I was pretty popular with the students, but I saw how the Japanese staff treated students, and that bothered me.  Once they had the students money, they treated them like cattle.  As long as they kept getting new contracts and renewals, nothing else mattered, so I quit...  Not before I got another job with another company... A company that was well known for a place that readily hired former NOVA teachers.  That company was Interac... That is another story...