March

1. It’s March 26th, one day away from the one year anniversary of my arrival in Japan. I’ve been thinking about that a lot over the last couple of weeks, thinking about all the things I’ve had to learn and adapt to. And all the things that I do now that I never thought I could do as well. I never thought I would like teaching, but I’m enjoying teaching immensely. I never thought I was any good with languages (well, I’m not, but that’s through lack of study rather than lack of talent), but I have picked up a bit of Japanese, and I’ve been remembering a lot of Cantonese as well. And who would’ve thought I’d even like the kids classes? I imagine a few of my friends have just fallen off their seats. Yep, I do fine with kids these days — a few even like me.

2. (One 3 year old likes me so much that her mum once asked me if I was her dad. Her mum! Mothers should not make those kinds of jokes. It’s just not cricket.)

3. (And speaking of cricket, we’ve been playing a few games of corridor cricket, one of the benefits of working with a Brit. If anyone wants to send me an inflatable cricket set, I’ll love you forever…)

4. Some things won’t change though; I completely forgot to renew my work visa, so I will have to do that today. That wouldn’t be such a big deal, if not for the fact that my visa runs out tomorrow.

5. I’ve been playing a lot of guitar right now, building my chops and my ears by listening and working out different songs. I haven’t enjoyed playing so much for ages now, and I’m looking for people to play with — I’ve already met a bunch of guitarists, bass players, trumpeters, saxophonists and harmonica players, which makes for one hell of a mix. And I’ll be adding guitar teaching to my rotisserie of talents, I’ll start teaching a class next week. Maybe I can turn that into another source of income… extra beer money!

6. Not much more to report for now. I’ve put up more photos on my portfolio site, look for the highlighted entries. I’m planning on spending my Golden Week holidays on a road/train trip to Tokyo with a friend — using the cheapest possible modes of transport and accomodation there and back. I’ll be writing about that, so stay tuned. The first of my Indonesia stories are ready, so I’ll be posting it as soon as I choose the accompanying photos. That rounds out this month, (I can sum up my entire month in less than 500 words. I lead an exciting life) more later.

February

1. I once mentioned that the reason we drink ourselves to oblivion every weekend is because we don’t know what else to do — not being able to read Japanese makes it very difficult to browse the entertainment guides. But, I’m happy to say, we’ve started branching out, and the weekend is no longer solely devoted to breaking one’s liver (though, we still do that quite often).

2. Last week, my friend Dan and I wandered down to the river by the peace park and sat under the bridge and rocked out some blues — me on guitar and he on the harmonica. It was too damn cold to play for long outside, and we were quickly upstaged by a bunch of uber-cool Japanese lads cranking out Sting and other tunes. I can’t wait until spring comes, there’ll be tons of kids down by the river cranking out tunes. Sundays will be totally awesome.

3. Afterwards I went bowling. Yep, Ten Pin Bowling. It’s pretty popular here, and you can drink while you play! Drunk bowling is great, if somewhat embarrassing. You can count the drinks you’ve had by the number of gutter balls per game. You should try it some time.

4. What else was there? Ahh, yes, Valentines Day. Valentines runs a little different here than back home. Here, girls buy guys chocolate, and guys reciprocate by buying girls candy and cookies and stuff on March 14th, which is White Day. And it’s not solely people you really like, it’s co-workers and friends as well, so it’s kind of a nice day for everyone, rather than a miserable day for single people. I got 8 boxes of chocolates, so I got some White Day shopping to do (as well as some serious exercise to burn off the choco-fat).

5. That’s about it for February, which marks my 11th month in Japan. I’ve received my new contract, which I will sign tomorrow, and I have my papers together to renew my work visa here. So I’ll be here for another year at the very least, though I don’t see myself coming home permanently for some time yet. Sorry Mum.

When Money Goes Out of Fashion

1. I’ve been failing my new years resolutions miserably.

2. Losing my wallet meant money went missing, weekends away meant more money spent, and last weekend saw the double strike of a new guitar (a beautiful and not so expensive solid top acoustic with a nice thin neck and body that fits me perfectly) and a day of snowboarding. On top of which were two birthday parties. It was one of those expensive weekends.

3. First, the guitar. Ahhh, I had not realised how much I missed playing until I decided to buy it. I’ve never owned a decent steel string acoustic, so I’m rather excited about my acquisition. When it warms up a bit I’ll be heading down to the river with my friend, who plays the harmonica, to bust out some tunes, and hopefully pick up girls. We’re gonna call ourselves “The Only Guys Here Who Sing in English”.

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January

1. Someone once told me what happens at the beginning of the year is a precursor to how it will end. Good January? Great December. Bad January? Uh-oh December. If that be the case, December ‘07 is going to suck.

2. Well, that’s not totally fair. By and large January wasn’t so bad, if you discount losing my wallet (which had all my cards and 26,000 yen in it), getting my bike towed away by the cops, having to work on Australia Day (knowing full well all my friends back home were getting drunk) and coming down with a nasty fever laden flu (I’m currently suffering from said flu). And the various bouts of intestinal troubles, probably a left over from Indonesia. But, discount those and I had a pretty good January, filled with fun and frivolity. Really.

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The 2007 List of New Years Resolutions (filed: to be ignored)

1. 2006 was the year where I got the hell out of Everything. 2007 will be a year of focus. It will be so focused, that I have made a list of all the things I will focus on:

2. And the final, most important point…

3. I am usually very organised — I make plans, I work out all the things I have to do to achieve them… then forget do any of those things. This year will be the year where I actually get stuff done. This will be a year of focus, and getting stuff done. It will be a year of focus, of not forgetting, and getting stuff done.

4. Now I gotta go, meeting people for a beer tonight.

December

1. December already! Time goes so quickly — this time last year I was celebrating getting this job, as well as planning an elaborate NYE party. Which was kick-ass, might I add. Wish I was back in Sydney for this year’s NYE, but then I think it might’ve been too expensive to top last year’s effort anyway.

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Alcohol and Amnesia

1. I swear to God I’ve been busy and this month just flew by, but I’ll be damned if I could remember what I’ve been spending my time on. I should keep a diary not to tell me what’s coming up, but what I’ve done in the last week. Maybe I fell and hit my head and now I have amnesia but don’t know it. Ironic.

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I’ve been published!

1. Woooo! They like put my name on it and everything! This is an article I wrote about climbing Mt Fuji, based on what I wrote here on this blog. But different. Check it out!

Remembering one’s name, and future calamities

1. The strangest thing happened to me last week — I inexplicably remembered how to write my Chinese name. Out of the blue, all 50 something strokes of it came back to me. I can’t remember the last time I managed to write my full name in Chinese, must’ve been years. Now I’m practising like crazy, determined not to let it get away from me again.

2. I also have a secondary motivation to relearn my native language — I have recently met a very impressive Japanese woman who is not only bilingual, but she has a smattering of Cantonese as well. By comparison I would say I can speak a “sprinkling” of Cantonese. I just can’t stand people who are good with languages; especially when they are also fun to hang around with. *sigh*

3. The weather has really started to turn cold now, regularly dropping to low single digits at night. It has been raining a bit lately, and with the wind it’s getting very miserable out. I’ve had plenty of Brits and Canadians make fun of my inability to deal with cold weather (The bastards, I never made fun of them when it was hot…), but even they now concede that it is cold. I’ve had conflicting reports of how much snow to expect during January and February, but that doesn’t bother me so much as the fact that it snows at all. I’m kinda excited about living in a city that snows — since it’s been about 15 years since I’d seen snow — but even the thought wears off after a few minutes. Coming back from Indonesia into a white Hiroshima is going to be hell.

4. Speaking of which, I have finally paid for and received my tickets — rock! I’m am looking forward to this trip, dicing with death and all that. Really, it’s not that crazy to go climbing erupting volcanoes and all that, right? I mean, what’s the worst that could happen?

5. Uh-oh. Jinxed myself good now.

Excuses, excuses, and Meeting the Parents

1. I have been really quiet the last few months, but I have been pretty busy. Work is taking up a monster chunk of my time, as it usually does, and I’ve made lots of new friends, all of whom I want to see on the weekend but there is not nearly enough time to see them all and do all those other things. Like grocery shopping (I’ve taken to freezing everything so it doesn’t go off in the fridge), paying bills, the ironing, the cleaning… but things are going tremendously well, though nothing of note to report. I have mentioned that I am enjoying this teaching business, more so that I thought I would, and I think I’ve got the hang of it now. Though I suspect it will be quite some time before I can say that I am good at teaching.

2. Actually I lied when I said there was nothing of note to report, there has been one thing. Last weekend I rather unexpectedly met The Parents. The Girlfriend and I were on a nice stroll through her part of Hiroshima, where she led me back to her house. I [hid] waited dutifully outside as she went inside to grab her mobile phone, and when she came out she announced that her mum wanted to meet me. Well! Ambushed, and having absolutely nowhere to run, I put on a brave face and went inside, (desperately trying to remember how to greet people in Japanese) and found an absolutely lovely woman who was slightly less inimidating than I’d expected. The Father, however, was not so successful.

3. This story is every bit as funny as you think it will be.

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