Journal 22 - On the Road Again, just can't wait to get on ...

So, it's Sunday, October 30th, the day before all Hallow's Eve. I'm listening to this radio station you can get from Yahoo Messenger and it's called "Trick Or Treat" ... all Halloween songs, which I didn't think existed except for "The Monster Mash", which by the way I think I heard 4 or 5 different versions of. Quite amusing! Anyway, some of the songs are quite interesting, some get the raised eye brow rating. But, it's getting me into the spirit ... no pun intended. I do miss Halloween, it's always a fun time. Japan's version of Halloween is bringing out the "Nightmare Before Christmas" paraphernalia. Oh yeah, just to let you know, the current song I'm listening to is "Welcome to my Nightmare" by Alice Cooper. So, hopefully everyone is doing well and also getting into the Halloween spirit. I, myself, have been going quite nuts. More things happened since last I wrote. The title pretty much says it all ... Yes, I'm moving again!

Here's the story ... A few weeks ago, I was in Nagoya for a 2 day training session. The training went well, I learned a lot. Some of it was a little useless, but I digress. Anyway, during one of the training sessions, I got pulled aside by my trainer and director. Of course when you hear your boss go "Can I talk to you?", you sense the worst or at least I do. They put me in this room, just the three of us and preceded to give me a review of how I was doing. Well, I was happy to hear that I received the best review ever. We're talking making Joe's head swell up 10 times over. They heard nothing but great things about me from students, other teachers, and my co-workers. So, naturally that made me feel great. Then there was a "therefore" .... they want to move me to another school in a mall. This school is in a city called Hamamatsu about an hour west from where I am now. The school just opened last April and has grown immensely. Unfortunately, there has been an issue with the current teacher and the rest of the staff. So, they want a more experienced teacher, someone who can not only work well with students, but with management as well. That's where I come in. Recently, GEOS, has opened up a few schools in malls and have been quite successful. This, apparently, is going to be one of the biggest schools. Not only because it's in a mall, but because Hamamatsu is known for shopping. Anyone who mentions Hamamatsu will know that it's the place to go shopping ... I have no idea why. So, as of November 20th, I'll be moving ... AGAIN ... to another city and to another school. Oh yeah, did I mention my classes will consist of mostly children? That's always fun, but at the same time very difficult. Children just suck the energy as I'm sure some of you know. I know I will be extra busy, but at the same time I'm looking forward to the challenge.

The next couple weeks, I'm sure will be difficult. Telling my students that I'm leaving won't be easy, especially the kids. But, if you think about it, it's not unusual for an English teacher to leave after a year. Afterall, that is the duration of our contract. So, right now I'm going through mix feelings of excitment, fear and sorrow. But, I know it will be a good move. And look at it this way, I might actually have more to write about.

I know this is very short, but I wanted to get this out and let all of you know what is going on. Some of you already sent me an email asking what my new email is. This is the reason why I haven't given it to you yet. Once I move to this new city, I will definitely send it to you.

Anyway, hope all is well with everyone and I will chat with you later. Oh and to end this blog, we have "The Vampire Song" by Concrete Blonde.

Sayanara

Journal 21 - So, there was this Abduction!!!!

Sooooooo ... how's everyone doing? Good I hope!

OK OK, so I'm sure a lot of you are wondering where the hell I've been for the past few months. Well I had a lot of excuses thought up like:
- I broke all my fingers after defeating a huge gang of ninja's.
- I thought the volcano wasn't as bad as I thought and decided to go back up, but lost my way.
- I got so into the language that I became so fluent that I completely forgot how to speak english ... daijoubu, daijoubu!
- After spending a year teaching simple english, I was embarassed because I forgot how to speak properly ... I go shopping, I met accident.
- I met up with that Buddhist pimp and some of his other Japanese fashion crazed fanatics and started hanging out with them. Thus, following my dream of growing a mullet, dieing it platinum blonde, wearing the fake tan make-up because it's just so cool and wandering the streets in my pink and yellow patterned yukata (Japanese style clothing, but really they're pajamas) with my wooden sandals. In the words of my friend Carl "Fashion never died, they just moved to Japan."
- I found my very own geisha (K, I didn't think of that one, that was from a friend of mine, but when I heard that, I laughed ... a lot!)

Anyway, the real reason was ... there just wasn't anything to talk about. After being here a year, the novelty of travelling around this area has warn off. I've pretty much seen everything and have told you all about it. Don't get me wrong, there's lots still to see in Japan and I'm going to try and see as much as I can. But, unfortunately that requires taking a few extra days off because they're farther away. So, for now it's been the same thing. Go to work, come home!

Oh yeah, before I continue, I just want to clear some confusion ... Yes, I'm still in Japan and no I'm not hiding somewhere in Calgary avoiding everyone. It has been over a year since I left for Japan and my contract was for a year, but I decided to sign up for another. For the reason that there's still a lot more to see here. Look at it this way, it gives all of you a chance to follow through on that comment you made to me. You know which one I mean ... "I've always wanted to visit Japan, now we have an excuse". No Pressure!

So, a year has passed and looking back at the journals I've written, I have accomplished a lot of firsts. First Typhoon, first Japanese karaoke, first ski trip, first experience with "different" foods, first volcano climb .... And the list goes on. Not to mention that wonderful trip to Thailand. I can't say what I have in store for this second year, but we'll see. I have been contemplating the thought of just saving a bunch of money and travelling somewhere for a few months after my second contract before I head back home. Yeah yeah yeah, I know that could change. Still sticking with the day by day philosophy. Some of the goals I have in mind are taking a trip to Harishima, Nikko, and either Hokkaido (far north) or Okinawa (south islands) ... not sure I could do both. I was also told that it's very cheap to fly to Seoul Korea as well as worth seeing. So, a few plans on the works ... I'll keep you posted ... really I will.

The last couple of months have been incredibly busy and not to mention mentally draining. I mentioned this to some of you, but I'm taking on an extra position. I was actually given a promotion to Area Leader. What that means is, I'm pretty much responsible for all the teachers in my area. Any questions they have regarding lessons, campaigns, life in Japan, etc. they ask me about it and I pretend to know the answer. I'm still teaching my regular hours and then adding this to it. At first I didn't think it was going to be difficult, but after a few weeks, I realized ... it's freakin impossible. There's tonnes of extra things I need to keep current on so that I can try to answer questions for these teachers. I'm sure it's just a matter of getting use to everything and building up those organizational skills. Anyway, it does keep me busy which I prefer over sitting around twiddling my thumbs. Not that I was doing that, but you get the idea.

Oh yeah, to add insult to injury, here's a little bit of a shocker I received a few weeks ago. So, I'm at school, doing my regular deal. I had a question to ask my manager, so I went into the office to ask her. After having a long discussion about school stuff, she decides to throw me the comment, "oh, by the way, you have to move". I'm thinking ... huh? She said I have to change apartments. The first question was "why?" Apparently the rental company is going to tear down the old building and build a new one. The second question was "when?" Oh next week! So, it turns out someone, whether it's a person with GEOS or a person with LeoPalace (the rental company), made a mistake. It was known over a month ago that this was going to happen, but decided to tell me a week before I had to move. Well, being the independent, need to know, hate being left out of the loop, kind of guy ... I wasn't very happy with this. So, I had to rely on my co-worker and Manager to find out info for me. That was the longest and most stressful week of my life. I'm the type of person who needs to be on that phone right away and find out what's going, what do I do, when, etc. Well, being in a different country and culture, it doesn't quite work that way. Well, to make a long story short and after a lot of snapping, frustration and well, a nearly fatal murder, I managed to extend the move a week and got an extra day for moving. So, on September 23rd at 8 am, the moving company came to get all my stuff (including the furniture that was already here) and moved me into my new place by 8:30 that morning ... Man, they were fast. There is an advantage to living in a small place. Less to accumulate. Certainly can't be a pack rat in this country. Anyway, so everything was pretty much unpacked and organized all before noon the same day. I forgot to mention the 23rd was a friday as well as a national holiday. I was given the following saturday off as my moving day which meant I had a 4 day weekend ... very nice. Of all the times I've moved in my life, this was by far the easiest and the nice thing was it didn't cost me a cent (or I should say a yen). The only down fall to the whole thing was I had to go through the wait and headache of internet again. So, some of you will notice that I've been offline for a while. That's because I didn't have access until now.

My new apartment isn't really any different from the other one. Maybe a little smaller if that's even possible. It is much cleaner and a lot closer to work (only a 4 minute walk). It's also closer to the fishing port which is good and bad. Good because I can watch the ships come in. Bad because of the smell!!! The end result actually ended up in my favor which I'm happy about.

Well, folks I'm just noticing the time. I need to head to work soon, so I better close. I am sorry for not keeping current with my adventure, but I promise when something interesting happens you will be the first to know. I am still alive, doing well, keeping busy and still enjoying life here. I hope you are all doing the same. I also heard about some new editions the past few months. One of them was my new niece Emma who was born on September 2nd in Halifax. She's a cutey! Congratulations to all of you.

Following this, in other words maybe tonight, I'll post some more miscellaneous pictures including ones from Expo and Tokyo Disney.

Take care everyone,

Joe