Sorry it's been a while, been kinda busy I guess. Actually more like I haven't been at work, which is where I do the majority of my updates during my downtime. Go figure.
I waited until MovableType 3.2 came out of beta and just performed a really easy upgrade. Quite nice. Maybe now I can spend my time updating instead of blocking all of the spam I still manage to get despite all my best efforts. Damn spammers.
Tomorrow it's back to school, so you'll probably be seeing more coming up soon. At least I hope so.
I make a huge committment in my life to come to a completely foreign country and teach my language to a bunch of unappreciative spoiled brats.
How do they repay me? Naturally they steal my only mode of transportation.
Yesterday I announced that I was going to climb 富士山 (Mount Fuji) with Roy. Could that have just been yesterday? Seems so long ago.
We left Tokyo Thursday (yesterday?) night and traveled to the 5th station (about halfway up) of Fuji. We arrived at about 10:00PM and got going by a little earlier than 10:30PM. You see, it is somewhat of a popular custom to hike during the night to reach the peak and watch the sunrise. So we hiked for the next three and a half hours (it would've been three, did I not have weak chickenlegs) up some pretty steep volcanic scree. I can't believe grannies and kids do that hike, let me tell you.
The good news is that we passed pretty much everyone on the mountain. It became this kind of self-feeding obsession to not allow anyone behind us to pass us once we'd passed them. There were, naturally, other reasons I won't belabor. The end result was we got to the summit at around 2AM which is way too early. See it's friggin cold up there and waiting for two hours in near-zero temperatures with a whipping wind does not equal fun. So we spent two hours, me curled fetally in the corner of a stone wall and Roy sharing a tiny smelly public bathroom space with 6 other people.
We survived and the pictures prove it.
Tonight I'll be hiking Mt. Fuji, the highest mountain in Japan, with Roy. Hopefully we'll make it up in time to catch the sunrise (a Japanese tradition) and come down the crazy "sand slide."
Wish us luck!
Let me give you a quotation from the Saitama Navigator book that every Saitama JET is given upon entering Saitama to live and work:
The Nakatsu River originates in Juumonji Pass at the border with Nagano Prefecture, forming a gorge of breathtaking beauty. The Nakatsu-kyou Gorge is claimed to be the best scenic spot in the Chichibu region of Saitama.
Today I went there and did a little walking around, preceded by a near-two-hour train ride which was followed by an hour-long bus ride.
Let me tell you, whoever wrote this book acts like (s)he's never set foot out of Tokyo. It was very pretty and all, but nothing I couldn't find back home in humble little Western Massachusetts. I don't even think this was a gorge. In fact, the only breath that was taken was my own ... when I dove into the river and my pants migrated to my ankles.
Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed it. Swimming in "the wild" in Japan is a rarity, and it was nice (after being busted for swimming in a fishing area ... oops). And now I know not to fully trust this book of mine. I should've known when I realized it had completely omitted the part about the busride being an hour long.
But hey ... I did something with my day, and that's good.
I've always been put out by the myth that Daddy Long Legs are spiders that are so venemous they'd kill you in a single bite but were unable to bite you. To me it seemed ludicrous because they're not even spiders. I even heard the myth for the millionth time while back in Western Massachusetts. So today I decided to take a little time and look it up. Simple enough.
And there you have it.
It's been a while indeed. But let me tell you a few things I've picked up while back in the States:
- Baseball is an incredible televised sport.
- American is definitely the worst airline I've flown. I can't explain to you the seething rage I weathered while standing in line at check-in for two hours only to almost miss my flight. Every other airline, you can get to the airport an hour before your flight and still have time to noodle around in crappy souvenir shops. I (and several hundred others) stagnated while the entire flight to Puerto Rico got checked before us. This was, of course, because the flight was leaving in 15 minutes and American had failed to provide adequate staff to check in the horde. So then I got to my plane 5 minutes before it departed. Maki did miss her flight because they printed the wrong gate number on her boarding pass. Way to go! As I said at the beginning of this trip: Never. Again.
- A wedding can have a 5 hour open bar without killing its attendants.
- Food in the States really is that much larger than it is in Japan. I had apparently forgotten. My stomach has obviously shrunken to the size of a pea, as I couldn't eat a single meal without being obscenely full. It's like I got a gastric bypass. Without the staples.
- Japan is way too hot for its own good.
- The MBTA in Boston still sucks. But now the Airport stop is all high-tech and Park Street has a souvenir shop.
- Reverse Culture Shock, whenever I should return, is going to sting ... a lot.
- Trees are the most fantastic thing I have ever laid my eyes on. Gyoda should give a few of 'em a try.
- I've been a lot more homesick than I thought. I guess it took a good jolt to get me out of hiding it from myself. I think I prefer to keep hiding it.
- My sister is not Bridezilla and that is awesome.
- Must ... figure out ... career ...
- 18 days is never enough time. Oh, how it had looked so long on my calendar.
- There were so many things that didn't need to come with me. Computer, shirts, pants, shorts, shoes, Japanese study ... What was I thinking when I packed this stuff?
- My Japanese still absolutely sucks.
In all, I am happy to be back. Of course it was incredible to be home after nearly a year, but it was also hard at times due to memories, a slight dose of reverse culture shock, and habits I've picked up since coming here. For one, I've come to very much value my time alone. You don't really get much of that when you have only a short time to get a million and one things done with a million different people. And I didn't even get to go golfing!
Anyway, it was great. Thanks all, especially my family, for making it memorable.
I'm back, and boy is Japan hot, humid, and full of creepy loud cicadas. The fiery ball of death scenario nearly came true on my flight from Chicago to Tokyo, as we were delayed a few minutes to "fix the engine." No kidding. Aren't pilots supposed to use technical-speak in order to instill confidence in their passengers? Something along the lines of "we will be performing routine maintenance" (if we don't fix this the plane will explode mid-flight) or "just a little systems analysis and we'll be off the ground" (the wing is about to fall off and we're getting the duct tape) would be nice. Luckily my terror morphed into extreme boredom midflight, and then a severe headache by the end.
By the time I finally got home, the overbearing smell of tatami (normally not an unpleasant smell) in my closed apartment sent my stomach into spasms and my recent airplane meal nearly into the sink. Manfully I choked it down and collapsed into bed at 6pm. Yeah!
Expect more later, as soon as I get my apartment out of catastrophe-mode.
O my faithful, I have not forsaken thee.
I had feared I'd be full of little Japanese sayings and mannerisms enough to confuse and irritate people at home. But for the occasional bouts of driving on the wrong side of the road or saying something randomly, I've been pretty clean.
Except for "See you!"
How did such a cutesy habit sneak up on me and ingrain itself so easily? I can't say goodbye to people in any other way. I can't even say it in full-on English.
So until further notice ... "Shii Yuu!!"