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Friday, August 29, 2008
12:06AM - EEEEEE!
My sister is getting married tomorrow! (Okay technically today. In 15 hours :)
...I sleep now!
Current mood:  chipper
Thursday, August 28, 2008
8:43PM - Woah.
I posted up a bunch of things on Freecycle, basically telling people to come and get them tomorrow during the day whenever. Otherwise, it's all going on the sidewalk with a "FREE" sign.
I have a guy coming over NOW.
O_O
That's efficient.
I hope he takes most/all of it. I am tired of this stuff cluttering up my home.
:::ETA:::
Wish fulfilled! The guy took all of it! w00t!
Current mood:  surprised
3:17PM - Hmph.
The only downside to this move so far has been that I had to turn down a date tomorrow night. We've postponed until next Friday. Nonetheless, I am put out.
Okay, back to my boxes.
Current mood:  calm
6:37AM - Clothes make the man, or something
Anyone in Montreal know a good place to buy cardigans?
Current mood:  curious
1:43AM - How I creeped out the groom's family...
I'm in the Miramichi for ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) longpig and wererogue's wedding. I realised a few weeks ago that should anyone want free bed, my great-grandmother's old home would do. (buckbear and fritzleonhardt will be staying a night or two!)
wererogue's sister and cousin came early to hang out with the assorted guests and took up the offer of a bed for $0 a night. I think I should have prepared them better for the fact that they'd be staying there by themselves. (They thought I was taking them to my house...) The look on his poor inebriated cousin's face when he learned I was about to drive away looked almost hurt.
I did feel a bit of guilt but, while I came up extra days to hang out with WeddingFolks, I also mean to have contact with my grandparents, even if a bunch of it goes to WeddingFolk, and some days it's mostly me zombie-shambling about in the morning. (Also, I am terrible to wake up in the morning, so I have arranged to have my laptop, my grandparents, and a phonecall from Heather be a three tier wakeup system.)
Admittedly if I was more extroverted, I would probably have stayed longer and chatted, like if it were buckbear or fritzleonhardt, but I do not have the magical gift of gab to diffuse the awkwardness. (I was maybe a little short on foresight not realising how awkward that might be for them...)
It is vaguely amusing in one sense though...
Two young adults, foreigners, are driven out into the boonies of Canada, late at night, by a darkly dressed, introverted man, listening to creepy music (neofolk - The Moon lay hidden beneath a Cloud), and left at a dead woman's house which hasn't been lived in for years, where there's no phone, no TV, no internet. (They even commented on how visible the stars were out in Whitney, NB, because they're used to the UK or cities where there's too much light -- ie: people around -- to see them.) He then promises to return in the morning.
That wererogue's sister looks a smidge like Eliza Dushku doesn't help at all dispel what appears to be an impending horror film.
Current mood:  tired
11:55AM - The Day My Teachers Talk About Fisting In The Staff Room
Recently I have been feeling that I am starting to be absorbed and perhaps transformed by Japan. I had my second Japanaversy on July 31st and I am starting my third year! I can't believe it has been two years, it seems so long and so short at the same time. This past week I have been really missing everyone, and kind of jealous of Jen getting to see all of our friends. This year I didn't make it home because I was so busy with AJET in August. Earlier in the year I was thinking of coming home for Christmas because that would have been super nice. However Shou has moved to England and I am missing him like crazy, plus it is a chance to see Europe. We plan to travel around England (which I have an unnatural hate for) I really only want to see stone henge, also go to Scotland (cause part of my families ancestry is from there) and to go to Paris (cause why not? Plus another part of my ancestry is from France) so it should be loads of fun.
In these past few weeks I feel that Japan has stopped seeming like a big random adventure, and more of like my life. Of course I go on adventures all the time and the craziness I don't think will ever stop, however it just seems like this for now, is my life. I do already plan to stay a 4th year in Japan, hopefully with JET if they have the budget. I want to start my masters online as soon as I can, and after the 4th year, I am not really sure what will happen.
I am definitely getting better with fish and seafood. A couple of weeks ago I had lunch with a teacher and we went to a Japanese restaurant and got a set, in my set was raw squid. Really all I thought was, I don't really like it, but I'll eat it anyways, and that was that. I can eat some seafood now and raw fish, but I still can't bring myself to eat cooked fish. Sounds strange? Yes! However the smells and tastes changes, plus there is the skin and bones, and on many occasions heads and tails.
The new teachers after being here a month have started to settle in, and I tried my best to make their transition into their new life easier. It was nice to see what shocked and amazed them. Everyone seems to be doing well and they continue to be shock, amazed, and confused at Japan, cause that is what Japan does. I am just waiting till their homesickness and culture shock kicks in, in October.
Yesterday I was just talking with a couple of my teachers, and they were asking me about the new ones, I showed them their pictures, and telling them that they are getting settled in but it can be a bit difficult at times because Japan and Western Countries can be quite different at times. For instance the medical check validly shocks and grosses out new teachers. Of course each board of education has a different requirement for medical checks and some are worse than others. Some require you bring two samples of your stool from two different days.
That is not fun, and I said some foreigners (almost every single one would have a problem with doing that, because it is gross to the max!) They explained to me that it is to check for bowel cancer. I said maybe we do that in Canada sometimes, but usually they check your prostate by sticking fingers up your bum. They were very confused, they were like, 'they stick fingers up your bum? They do that to men?" and I said yes to check for any bumps or stuff on your prostate for cancer. One of the teachers made the motion of sticking fingers up a bum, and was like.... it's too short to reach your intestine. I said well I think maybe they use camera scopes or maybe they do check your stool, but you don't have to bring it from home, you would probably give it to them there.
The teacher was like, well I heard you can stick your hand up a cow's bum! and then he made the motion of putting on a glove and shove it in, and said you can put it in all the way up to the elbow. The other males teachers seemed interested and nodded. Then he wondered, and then he wondered out loud, " can you do that to a guy?" I just snorted and said maybe, but who would want that? They nodded in agreement.
Yes this conversation did take place in the teacher's staff room, most of it in Japanese. I think my Japanese is improving if I can talk about such things to my co-workers.
On that note I have decided to go for level 3 of the Japanese language proficiency test in December. I have a lot of studying to do these next 3 months!
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
10:05PM - Snippet
Me: "So, yeah, I think the first time I ever came across the concept of homosexuality was when I was a pre-adolescent. I remember it being on one of the BBC programs I used to watch with my parents, probably Masterpiece Theatre or maybe Mystery."
Her: "You watched Masterpiece Theatre?"
Me: "Yeah. Every Sunday with my parents. Right after Nature, and Murder, She Wrote."
Her: *laughing* "Of course you did. That explains a lot."
Me: *laughing in spite of myself* "Whaaaat?"
Her: *shaking head* "Masterpiece Theatre..."
She's vowed to tease me about it for as long as she can get away with it. :)
Current mood:  cheerful
8:03PM
Hello, I'm new, and hopefully people still watch this community enough to reply to my question.
Basically, do you think it's truly possible to practice Shintoism outside of Japan? Or more specifically, do you believe it is possible to practice it outside of Japan if you're not Japanese? Various articles state that there are approximately 100+ Shintoists in America. I'd be curious to know if those 100+ are originally from Japan or are from a Japanese family. There are plenty of religions and belief structures based around nature, spirits, and animism. However, Shinto is directly linked with creation of Japan and the Japanese people.
I'd be especially curious to know what a Japanese Shintoist has to say on the matter.
Personally, I think it's possible for someone of a different origin to practice Shintoism while in Japan. As in, acknowledging that the kami are local and native to Japan (while other gods and goddesses may reign over other parts of the world - Greek, Native American, etc. pantheons). What is hard to get my head around is someone not of Japan worshiping the kami outside of Japan.
Any insight?
4:57PM - Day Six...
of a seven day straight stretch at work.
To those of you who live in apartment complexes, I want you to go and hug your leasing agent. Seriously...we are all pulling out our hair this time of year.
Thank goodness I am escaping this weekend. Can't wait to head up and see the jersey shore.
10:11AM - The day conspires against me
After a really nice evening/night out, the Great Move has just gotten *that* much more difficult: my vacuum cleaner died. It feels to me as though something is stuck in the hose, but my vacuum doesn't appear to have a handy "reverse" switch to see if I can blow it back out the other way. I have to call a guy to come pick it up for service, and repairs take at least a week. So I have no vacuum during one of the times when I will need it most.
Fuck.
My mother is coming by this afternoon to help me, but I was hoping to have the place in better shape by then.
Just strike me down now.
Current mood:  frustrated
1:24PM - So, I'm back to work....
... which of course sucks. The students are a little reluctant to get back into things but about half of them are playing along. I have my level ones reading and performing a mini-play version of Thesues, Ariadne and the Minotaur story. I have props, which helps a lot. Theseus gets a plastic sword, I have reindeer horns for the minotaur (best I could find - no devil/bull horns available), the ball of yarn, a paper MickeyMouse crown for King Minos, an empty wine bottle for Dionysus, and Ariadne has to wear a pink shiny princess crown. This of course goes over GREAT in a room of teenage boys. So does the killing scene. In one class today, Theseus killed the Minotaur then went ahead and killed everyone on stage, and then killed the Minotaur again. He was the only one so far to get creative though.
Oooooh Im already dreaming about winter vacation.
I also introduced a game to Level 2 this week which I *thought* they'd love, but it got a luke warm reception. There were words pinned up all over the walls. I'd call out a question, and one memeber of each team would have to run to hit the answer posted somewhere on the wall with a flyswatter. It was a chance for rough-housing - they could fight off their opponent and try to keep him away form the answer - but they didnt seem to get that aspect. Even though I said it was "ok to stop the other player". Some of them just slowly shuffled to the word, some of them didnt even try to find it. Only one class really got into and caused some carnage. All in all, I was a little dissapointed. They said it was too easy. Maybe the questions should be harder... Buh. I hate coming up with games.
It's lunch time, and someone in the office is snoring.
Im dying for chocolate, but Im dieting again. At school I am off snacking. At home I try to stay away from bad food, but if Im going out with friends I'll eat whatever they're all having. Just cutting back a bit, not really anything hard core. I'd just like my gumdo pants to fit a little more loosely.
Speaking of gumdo, my 2nd degree blackbelt, uniform and certificate/card arrived this week. So now Im stuck wearing a white uniform, and I hate It. it is soooo unflattering. My pants shrunk alittle in the wash, and now are too short. ah well. They also spelled out my name on the belt in English,for some unknown reason, so the master said I could tear out the stitching and we'll send it back to be redone in Korean. It is very cool having your second degree. You get these two obvious lines at the bottom of one end that mark your status. I am worried though, that I won't get to do the next test before I leave Korea. It is offered fewer times a year. It may conflict with leaving for Europe. I don't want to be stuck with this white uniform for the rest of my days... in Canada, it can take a lot longer to level up. They do things a bit different, and also the uniforms there would be in English, and therefore less cool.
blah blah blah beans.
Current mood:  blah
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
10:31AM - Goth Night at Club Renaissance: August 27
Guess who's DJing the goth night tomorrow? That would be me! Put on your stompy boots and come on down to Club Renaissance, and make sure you say hi!
Current mood:  awake Current music: traffic
10:13AM - I knew I was forgetting something...
I totally forgot the administrative crap that goes along with moving. I just spent the better part of the morning changing my address around with various services, and now I must hie me to the Post Office to redirect my mail until I can get everything changed.
I must also go to the bank to change my address there as well.
It seems so silly, given that I'm changing all of one digit in my mailing address. On the plus side, when I called Bell the customer service guy was super friendly and actually saved me $12 on my current bill *and* made it retroactive! It almost makes up for the $20 service fee I'm being charged by Hydro.
I've changed my mailing information with the SAAQ and the Québec government, so now I just have to go double-check all my bills and such to make sure I'm not forgetting anything...
Current mood:  busy
8:46AM - Good intentions
I had planned to be up around 7:00 this morning. I ended up sleeping through my alarm, however, after spending a very fun (but unplanned) two-plus hours on the phone last night with BorderCrossing (who has no LJ). I'm having dinner with her tonight, but it's not as though we've run out of things to talk about just yet
That being said, I am very tired today. I have about three hours now in which to get ready and get some packing done, and then I am slated to do some canning with ai731. I also have to call my mother. *goes to do just that*
Current mood: calm
10:49AM - The Day I Took A Bath With My Students/ Maybe End Up On An Adult Site
Last week I went and volunteered to work at and English camp. It was a special 2 day camp for a high level high school English class that will be doing a 21 day home stay in Australia next summer. It was my first time teaching high school students, but it went pretty well!
The camp was fun, and they will be doing another one in spring which I hope to volunteer at also. The first day Sam and other ALTs had to have meetings with the governor and sign contracts so Nick and I were doing activities with the students, but they also had lots of lectures from upper classman who just got back from Australia so really after Samantha left we didn't have all that much to do.
That evening the students were to go to the Onsen and be out by 9:15 because it closed at 10 and we wanted to go to the onsen as well. However in order to go to the onsen you had to be there by 9pm. We got in at 9pm and we didn't see our students so we thought they must be out already. We started to change and then a few students came out, and we just went...ohhhh crap. We stopped and waited around for a bit and they eventually came out of the onsen and I was decided it should be alright they have come out, we can go in.
We went in and took our showers and get into the pools, and relax a bit, about 10 minutes later the students came back into the onsen and we were all like 'what the hell', they stood in a circle and talked for a bit (nude) and I could tell they were daring each other, eventually they all came over and got into the pool with us. Can we say uncomfortable? Please let us say it together, uncomfortable.
However I think I am turning Japanese cause I just shrugged it off and went oh well this is Japan and it's not 50 kinds of illegal like back in Canada, and started talking to them. Eventually they left and we continued our onsen bath time.
After bath time was over, we were back in the locker room and I noticed something quite strange. There were no less than 4 video cameras in our locker room. They weren't concealed they were the big security mall cameras in a not so large room. Again, illegal in Canada, however I am almost certain it is some kind of illegal in Japan. What did I do? Shrugged it off and accepted that probably I will end up on some Secret Locker Room Camera Adult Site. I asked the girls if they noticed any cameras in their locker rooms, however they did not notice if there were any or not.
The next day of camp was fun, we taught them little games or songs individually to each of our groups, and then helped them practice their skits they will perform at their school culture festival in September, and then had a thank you party where the ALTs had 5 minutes at each table for the students to talk with and ask questions and then we changed. It felt kind of like speed dating.
All in all the camp was fun and I look forward to the next one!
10:27AM - The Day I Show My Wang To The Canadian Embassy
So the firewall at work has changed and the trade off is that I can access livejournal and facebook again, but now I cannot access MSN. But hooray for writing time again, it has been awhile and I am sure I have lots to say and hopefully it will all come back to me.
Last year I spent the month of August in Canada, and missed all the bonding time with the new JETs of Kagawa, and didn't see them until mid September. This year has been very different and I have been with the new ones almost the entire step of the way. I was at Tokyo Orientation A and B, during B orientation I was enlisted with other assistants to heard the Canadian JETs to the embassy for embassy night.
10 minutes before we left for the embassy I went to the washroom and ended up breaking the zipper on my pants. I was sad, I loved this pants, they were the first dress pants I got when I lost all my weight, they are comfortable and look nice, however I guess they are kind of old now and the zipper be broke. Unfortunately they were the only ones I brought to orientation.
With the help of others I managed to secure some safety pins and arrange it so I wasn't totally wide open (thank god I was wearing black underwear so it blended in) so my fly is half open but there isn't anything I could do. We took the new ones to the embassy (which turned out to be painfully boring) it was an hour and forty minutes of speeches where they all began with ' I'll keep this short cause I know you guys are tired’ It was in a dark auditorium, and Orientation is super busy and super long and requires that you also sleep very little, so most of us passed out. Then we had a 20 minute reception which consisted of Canadian Beer, Sandwiches (the highlight being that some of them were made with pumpernickel bread) and fried chicken.
The next morning I also had to wear a suit to fly back to Kagawa with the new ones. The safety pins were not cooperating so well, so I decided to say screw it and just rock the open fly look. No one said anything, but at a later time one of the new ones mentioned they noticed it opened and thought it was a little weird, I explained what happened, and they thought it was slightly less weird.
Monday, August 25, 2008
8:03PM - The limits of isolation
When you're rather isolated (ie: no face to face human contact in several days except at work), almost anything sounds like a good idea to keep your brain from spinning. But there are limits. Today I went to the second of three new faculty orientation days at work, where I actually am meeting some interesting people. Several of the presentations were quite useful and I may have decided to rope myself into the Honors College as a form of service activity that is very amenable to my personality, before I can get roped involuntarily into more tedious things.
However, limits, like I said. At the end of the day a helpful person informed us that our next exercise was an 'interactive resource orientation'. What is that, you might ask? Basically various services and auxiliary organizations (the tech centre, interlibrary loans, the university press, the campus police, etc.) each had reps at tables, and we were supposed to go around and talk to them. But to make it more 'interesting', we were put into groups and given green sheets of paper with dozens of descriptions of services, and we were supposed to fill in the blanks with the names of the organizations that provided them. Bear in mind that we are all Ph.D. holding full-time faculty. To make it even more exciting, we were supposed to turn in our worksheets at the end and then they would tell us which group got the most things right!!! OMGWTFBBQ!!!
Needless to say, I opted out of this event and went home to test-drive a car. Now I think I'll go out for a walk. Sometimes being alone with your wayward brain isn't so bad, given the options.
Current mood:  pensive
3:31PM - Hurray!
I have people to help me move! This is all to the good.
I have had a stressful day. I ran out of boxes early on in the packing process: not entirely surprising since I had only a "starter kit" from U-Haul, which has only twenty boxes in it, only ten of which are of a size to accommodate books, which is what I started with.
So I rented a car from CommunAuto. First off, there was no car available until 12:30. Fine. I waited, and went to get the car, only to find that the previous renter was running late. He arrived at 12:50, which gave me a little over an hour to go to U-Haul, buy the boxes I needed, come back, unload the boxes, carry them up the stairs, and then bring the car back.
The girl at U-Haul was lovely and helpful, unlike the two strapping young men who sat and watched as I struggled to fit the heavy and unwieldy boxes into the trunk of my car. Incidentally, they didn't fit, and while I was wrangling boxes the trunk tried to close and dealt me a sharp and painful blow to the head.
I came home to find that my delivery from Amazon.ca had arrived in the hour during which I was gone. I was very pleased with this, until I found that the envelope had been slit open and my book was missing. GRAH! Luckily for me ai731 was home and allowed me to rant at her for a few minutes, after which I felt considerably better.
The book debacle turned out better than I thought: I was convinced someone had stolen my book, but it turns out that the envelope got damaged in transit (or something), and they actually still had my book at the post office. I had to sign a bunch of forms declaring that it was indeed my merchandise, and then I was home free! So I am pleased.
In the meantime I am crabby and sleep-deprived. I think I will take a nap for a few hours, and do some more packing this evening.
Current mood:  stressed
9:45AM - I'm Not a Dark Elf, But I Play One on TV....
Last month, I got all tarted up as a Dark Elf and went to a day-long outdoor recording event for the Space Channel's new show, The Circuit.
Here's what came of it. (That black and shiny thing spinning poi is me.) I think the Space Channel did an awesome job. LARP is dorky, but it's COOL dorky, and that's what they captured here so adroitly.
Try this, and if that doesn't work in your browser, try this instead!
If you think this looks like helluva fun (and it is) and you want to play, well, there's an event this coming weekend. This time, I'll be an Orc. You can check out the forums here.
............
![[Cry Havok]](http://photos-g.ak.facebook.com/photos-ak-sf2p/v307/202/15/705976202/n705976202_1603382_4641.jpg "[Cry Havok]")
"Cry Havok"
Details:
When: Aug 29th to 31th, 2008
Where: UW site, Acton On
Cost: $40
Blankets: 1
Our 5th event of the season, we continue to build momentum. Every event so far has broken the attendance record for the previous events and we look to keep that ball rolling.
After the amount of roleplaying plots required for a long 4 day event, we're looking to get back to intense storylines and combat, so polish your weapons... this ride will be bumpy.
..........
Underworld is a fantasy, medieval, live-roleplaying system. Its complex and intelligent rules allow for broad character development including aspects of race, culture, socio-economic background, and faith.
Not for the faint of heart, the Underworld LARP has a minimum age restriction of 18 years of age and prides itself on a wide variety of plot; from the fun adventures which LARPers have come to love, to those which include mature subject matter and challenging social issues that may be unsuitable for some. All players must sign our Waiver/Health form before playing to ensure that they fully understand their obligations and restrictions.
Underworld prides itself on its diversity and encourages a great time and an educational environment where people from all walks of life can interact and learn from and about each other. Players are encouraged to explore our website thoroughly (especially our policies section) in order to make an informed decision before participating in our events.
For more information, contact Dave....
Current mood:  okay Current music: an-ten-nae - Acid Crunk
2:49AM - Three and a half hours...
The night is almost over. I can survive three and a half hours. Absolutely.
I have a looooong week ahead of me.
I have been having paranoid thoughts about this all week, too. Like, what if I'm severely underestimating the time it'll take me to pack my stuff? What if something goes horribly wrong?
It doesn't help that so far I have exactly two people who have volunteered to help me move. I don't have much stuff, and realistically I can move 90% of it myself, but there are about three pieces of furniture that I can't move on my own.
Anyway, today will be spent doing a LOT of packing. That will give me an idea for the next four days of how screwed or not screwed I am. On the plus side, no one is moving into my current place right away, which means I can always make multiple trips up and down the stairs over the course of a few days if needs be.
Back to the grindstone.
Current mood:  anxious
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