Halloween means Long hugs and slow kisses

found you

The Sox

The night Red Sox won it all, there was a total lunar eclipse that can be seen from Americas, Europe, and Africa.

Evan couldn't have said it better: "The planets aligned, literally."

I feel good for these Boston bastards, but I'm not jumping onto the Red Sox bandwagon like Jimmy Falon and Drew Barrymore because a) I still can care less about baseball and b) I know jack shit about baseball and c) I have too much respect for the Red Sox fans to jump onto their bandwagon. They deserve this, and they don't need a bunch of fair-weather tourists to ruin their party.

But the Celtics still suck.

Although I'll still be rooting for Payton, and Delonte West, to have a big year. Finally, out with the MLB and in with the NBA!

Structured Procrastination

One of John Perry's essays. This strategy fits my work habits to a T. I should be editing my paper, study Japanese, or walk around school and help students with their projects. Instead I blog about how I waste my time.

Oh well, Coulda Woulda

I wanted to find out some Japanese kanji words that mean completely different things in Chinese. For example, 汽車 (steam car) means train in Japanese, but regular automobile in Chinese. This one is even better: 手紙 (hand paper) means hand-written letter in Japanese, but toilet paper in Chinese. I thought this would be a good cultural note for my students to learn during warm-ups.

And then I came across this thread in some Japanese language forum. There's really no need to go there and look through it, but it's basically a bunch of people asking "What's X in kanji?" Just bunch of idiots actually, who don't bother to learn the difference between kanji, hiragana and katakana, but still want some chinese characters that look cool, most likely as tattoos on body parts from which they derive most of their self-esteem. People were asking questions like "What's 'Forever love, Matt' in kanji?" or the kanji words for Love or Hate or Truth or Strength or Sorrow or Death or Dragon or any other symbol-laden words with trivially abstract meanings that make the tatoo wearer seem like a slightly more sophisticated bloc to another less sophisticated bloc without the kanji tatoo.

I immediately looked for the "Reply" button, and looked up the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese characters for "Idiot" so I can type it in.

Imagine the potential hilarity.

Then imagine my disappointment, upon finding the thread closed and no longer active. Not to worry though, there will be plenty of fools on this list.

Dreamt

Dreamt: I was unable again to put together a poker game with other JETs in Yonago, so instead I took my junior high students to a casino. I sat down at a no-limit table, asked the dealer what the blinds are, and he says, being annoying condecending as if I'm just a tourist "It's no limit baby." No shit, what are the BLINDS! "Oh, $10/$20". Oh.

I couldn't afford the table so I went to the pisser. I couldn't piss there either because the urinal was too high. There's a Freaudian thing in there somewhere. The urinal was also gigantic.

I pissed in an equally gigantic squat-style toilet instead. Both the toilet and the urinal were flesh-colored ceramic.

So I sat down at a $1/$2 no limit table with my kids. Lost everything in two hands to two of my students. First hand I called an all-in with two pair against what I knew to be a set. Second hand I slow-played my made set on the turn, and lost all-in to a higher full-house on the river to Takashi, the 2nd year runner/long jumper.

Then I woke up.

Fuming

Got gas yesterday. According to my calculation, my car went roughly 326km with 18.96l of regular gasoline. That's 17.2km/l! Equivalent to 40miles/gallon! Damn!

If only gas wasn't so damn expensive in this country (current: \106/l).

Did some research, in California unleaded gas averages $2.37 a gallon. Expensive, but still $1.39 cheaper than Japanese gas per gallon.

Furusado Ekiden results

Team: 1:10:23, 12th out of 24 for a total of 16.6km.

Slower than 3A boys, 3B boys, fire department, 2A boys, Takabashi-cho (area of Nakayama), another area that I can't read, 1A boys, elementary track and field, 1B boys, 1st year girls (what!?), and 2S boys (mixed boys from 2A and 2B).

Individual: 5th out of 18, 10:55 (3.1km)

Damn! A full minute faster than what I expected. It must've been the decline. Only slower than Takashi's 10:16 (2A ekiden/long jump), Kenta's 9:48 (2B ekiden, everyone else seem to call him Yama during basketball--the worst cherry picker), Masaru's 10:09 (3A ekiden), and some guy from Takabashi's 9:08. Couldn't compare the time to girls or elementary school kids because they run a course with shorter legs and more runners.

Additional:

I was almost dead on with the previous estimate of placements. I started at 22nd spot, ahead of only 3A girls and 1A boys. I finished at 15th place, moved our team up 8 spots.

Thoughts:

Not bad for just a month of training. 10:55 for 3.1km, that's a 5:40 mile clip. If I can keep this pace for 1.9 more km, that's a 17:37 5k, well ahead of Goerge...

So run Dubya! Run! Tell all the other curs the law's coming! You tell them I'm coming, and hell's coming with me, you hear?! Hell's coming with me!

40 oz of the Mondays

Amazingly I woke up this morning without a hangover. A man can get used to drinking sake. Played and lost a $5+1 SNG, watched and not understood Ghost In the Shell 2: Innocence in Japanese. Wasted time in between by shopping for Halloween stuff and studied Japanese ineffectively. I will have time tomorrow to plan my Halloween lessons and decorate.

I got an email from Elsa and I went to the Monday night English/Japanese conversation club at Kashmir Dar Dar (the only decent Indian restaurant, cooked by an Indian-looking man) to meet her. I called around and got Courtney to go with me as an out clause in case it turned out to be boring. Bringing her along turned out to be the right move, as I had met most of the people there but remembered none of their names:

Satoshi (the insurance man, whom I met at Chioko's party and Nichinan tour, who plays on a volleyball team and invited me to join!), Elsa, An (Elsa's colleague, the originator of the Singaporean line dance at Chioko's party), Sachiko (old Japanese lady), some other Japanese guy with glasses who seemed to take on a leadership role, and two Yuko's, both of whom I met at Chioko's party--the older one referred to herself as the pretty Yuko and called the younger Yuko the rich Yuko. It was weird and extremely awkward at the same time. Just one of those Japanese compliments/displays of affection that actually sounded like insults to American ears, I guess.

Neither of the two Yuko's was the one that I missed and thought about the whole weekend. But I guess a Yuko is just as good as any other, right? And two Yuko's gotta be better than one, right?

I wish. I just can't get her out of my mind. I sense the onset of emotional masochism that has plagued many of my blossoming attractions. Tread lightly, Jeff, you've been on roads like this before, and they always led to nowhere.

I am drunk

Sometimes, I like to drink by myself. Sometimes as much as a whole bottle of sake (720ml@<=16%).

And when I do, I sometimes like to dance. With some choice beats, also by myself.

I don't think it's weird, lonersome or even alcoholic. In fact, I think it's a rather cool hobby.

But, there's no way I can share this with others. Unless mastered by the true practitioners of the art, dancing in front of others tend to becomes an exhibition rather than something pure and spontaneous and fun for its own sake. I meant sAkE.

Buw ba bu BOW, bum Ba.bum bu bum buw ba bu BOW.

Matt, the mask, and The Princess

Important discovery about The Coworker is held back due to my primitive HTML. I have no idea how to post a LARGE picture for viewing nor how to provide a link to a page that would show it. As soon as I figure it out I will let you in on the big joke.

Hint: check the last paragraph of the 9/24 entry.

Nisu Haito, Mr. Jeff

Translation: "Nice fight, Mr. Jeff."

Furusado ekiden today. 1 team from elementary track club, 1 from elementary baseball. 12 from the boys and girls of all 6 Nakayama Jr. high classes. 1 from the Nakayama fire department. 5 or 6 from the different areas of Nakayama. 1 from the Nakayama women's running club. 1 from the SDF reserve. There were 2-4 more teams that I couldn't remember. Plus us, the Nakayama Jr. high teachers.

The race was won by the boys of 3A, who had the top 3 runners on the ekiden team plus 1 more member, all of them run at sub 6 pace. I don't know what place we finished, but it was definitely lower than 15, which was where our team was at after I finished the 4th leg. I don't know my time either(the official results will be printed in the town paper tomorrow), but I have a feeling that it was definitely faster than my goal of 13 minutes. I was feeling good, and fast.

I got the baton at the 23rd place, and you can imagine my frustration when I saw Morrita-sensei, the baseball coach, was JOGGING the last 200 meters of his leg, which was not even a mile (1.5km I think; though to be fair, there was a slight incline). We were slower than 2 girls' teams (3B and 2A I think). So much for all the training I did to keep up with the fast guys--they must've been at least 5/4 mile ahead of me when I started. Still, individually it still felt good passing runners (including both of the girls' teams, naturally) and moving up 8 spots. I started out really fast, probably too fast because I was so pissed off at being so behind. Gradually I settled into my pace and breathing. In in Out out In in Out out easy and steady like something else. Then my right shoelace came loose at about 3/4 mile right after I passed one of the men's area teams and the 2A girl. The thought of stopping and lacing vanished and lost behind me as fast as the next guy that I passed. I was out of step briefly trying to catch this mid-age guy who's lean but bald and donned in pink and purple (observation: I was watching him during warm-up and judging from his physique and shoes--Mizuno Wave Maverick--he must've been an experienced long-distance runner; it seems the longer a guy has been running, the uglier their choice of clothing), but I got it back together after I passed a pack of 3. The woman from the running club was the toughest, she heard me coming in and we hung together for maybe 1/8 mile before I "fuck it" and with four OUT OUT IN IN I kicked and looked back over my shoulder only once maybe 200m before the exchange point--I didn't see her.

Of course I still have to pass the baton for the next 2 joggers, but I did my share. After I finished, the boy from 2B, Takashi something (runs ekiden and long jump), who had never approached me before, came over, congratulated me, "Nisu Haito, Mr. Jeff," and we slapped five. The best complement I can receive, from one runner to another, and from one Japanese (who collectively seem to rank preserverance above all positive individual traits) to another. Although "速い, Jeff" (Fast, Jeff!) feels pretty damn good too (from 3B's Sakie, or Haruna--the one that looks like a cabbage--do not question my mnemonics).

I have tomorrow off, so it's a nice bath and sake tonight. Feels good to be running again.

So what's next? All this talking about racing is making me ambitious again.

Although I (3:52:XX) am proud to boast that I am faster than P. Diddy (4:14:54) and Oprah (4:29:20), I have never admitted publicly that I, though trained against and aimed for him, am still a good 8 minutes behind George W. Bush (3:44:52). And I ran an easy one in Silicon Valley too. It's a little bit too late to start training for the Great Wall Marathon (5/21/05), but Arctic Marathon (8/6/05, Greenland) or Everest Marathon (11/1/05, Napal) sound just about right with 10-12 months to go. I did the Silicon Valley as a farewell to Stanford and unemployment, what shall this one be?

I wonder if all this big talk was just caused by residual runner's high. Perhaps I should aim lower and gun for Bush's 5k time (20:20).

I swear, last random thought of the day: perhaps my reluctance to vote against Bush is caused partly by my inability, due to no lack of trying, to run faster than him?

There is a speck of parmesan cheese on my screen

And I have internet right in my kitchen this weekend!

Somehow, it has never occurred to me that I could simply take the school laptop home! Stupid. Downloaded the wireless driver from Amy's apartment last night and, viola, instant internet right here on my kitchen table, next to my pesto alfredo. Heaven.

I have Furusado ekiden race tomorrow with the teachers' team. A 3.2km leg with a slight decline. Hopefully I will be able to run it under 13 minutes. Ran 4 miles this morning, 2 hard 2 easy. It was probably a bit too much of a workout the day before the race, but I feel strong and confident, and I don't mind my legs being slightly tense tomorrow. They'll be there for the 2 miles that matter.

The teacher's team will be running against the boys and girls ekiden teams of our school, the elementary school kids, and an unspecified number of men and women teams from Nakayama. If I run 13 minutes, I should be able to 1) keep up with the jr. high boys and 2) not be overtaken by jr. high girls.

After the ekiden race, I have to go back to school. The students begin to prepare for their cultural festival, and I have to decorate the classroom for Halloween. I've been putting it off all week, and today I found out that, no shit, you can't buy ready-made Halloween decorations in Japan. I guess I have to cut out my own interpretation of Jack-O-Lanterns and witches from construction papers tomorrow. I have Mon off instead, but I will probably have to spend it working on the Halloween shit too so that it'll be ready for Wed's class. Stupid Halloween. I just want to get drunk and party in costume, is that too much to ask?

A night to remember

usually turns out to be the same as nights that I can't remember.

Partly due to excess alcohol consumption (8 or 9 drinks: 4 @ Hangover, 2 @ Hi High Picadoss, 2 or 3 @ Tom's, one more @ Karaoke Gold), partly due to sleep deprivation (averaged 6 or less hours all week) , partly due to physical exhaustion (1 mile warmup, 6x800m @ 6min mile pace, 1 mile cooldown), I couldn't remember last night after leaving Karaoke Gold. Did not wake up this morning until Amy came knocking.

Predictably, I will be hanging-over for the rest of the morning.

Can't knock the hustle

Payday. \5000 was deducted from my paycheck for 宴会 (party) expenses. Apparently that amount is deducted and collected for the entire school, regardless of whether or not you show up to any of the social events. Hell, if I had known this I would have shown up at the enkai after the softball game and drunk my runny nose and sore throat silly, instead of eating that almost average pizza with Simona and playing in a lukewarm, civilized, and uncompetitive card game with 3 girls. Can you tell that I'm bitter right now?

I also had to pay \3000 for my parking spot. I guess that's not so bad compared to the parking fee paid by one of those 3 girls. But still, you mean I have to pay for parking, when there's enough nothing all around me to have a 40-minute commute everyday? Ever heard of urban planning?

\5800 for a month worth of school lunches isn't so bad though. That's 18 lunches for an average of \322 each. And our lunches are so fucking good, our principle is being flied to Tokyo on Nov 9th to receive a national recognition for it. That's how fucking good our school lunch is. Booyah...uh, I mean Bonzai!

\28500 for rent is okay, I guess.

But back to the bitching and moaning. What the fuck is this \42,288 worth of social insurance premiums: \2447 of hiring insurance (no idea what or why), \25,081 of Pension insurance (to be refunded after completion of contract, I heard), and \14,760 of health insurance (how often do I have to be hospitalized in order to get my money's worth?).

A-Rod is a little bitch

Not a huge fan of MLB or baseball in general, but still followed ESPN's live feed of the ALCS games 6, due to the obvious historical importance.

But reading about it on ESPN just does not do it justice. I thought maybe it was a questionable play or a dropped ball. considering the reaction of the fans and the fact riot-police had to take the field. But when I saw this:

What a little bitch! Talking about embarassing himself under pressure.

Voices of Iraq

Voices of Iraq: This is not an ordinary documentary about Iraq: more than 150 digital cameras were distributed across Iraq to real Iraqis. Beginning amidst the Falluja uprising in April, going through the marshlands in the South and Kurdish communities in the North and ending less than a month ago, thousands of ordinary Iraqis became the cameramen of this film. I've been told that watching it was a real political rollercoaster, jumping back and forth from "Bush was right in invading," to "It was a mistake." This is the real stuff, about real people and real lives, not some Michael Moore rhetoric formulated 6000 miles away from where the war really mattered.

Voices of Iraq will be distributed on Oct 29th in just 10 cities. I hear that there will also be DVDs distributed for people who can't make it to theaters before election day.

Obviously I have no way of watching this movie in Japan. Although I'm not going to vote, I still want to watch this movie and be better informed. Anyone help me out?

New email signature?

I have several candidates. Your comments, if any, WILL be factored into consideration:

"The knee feels fine, I've been training Confuciously."
--Mike Tyson telling ESPN's Pedro Gomez about his latest comeback

"I would rather die in an abandoned building, by myself and my family not know anything, than play for him."
-- Shannon Sharpe on Tom Coughlin

"That was just instinct. Kind of like running from the cops, I guess you could say."
-- Virginia's Marquis Weeks after returning a 100-yard kickoff against UNC

"Whenever I see a homeless guy, I always run back and give him money, because I think, 'Oh my God, what if that was Jesus?'"
--Pamela Anderson in TV Guide

"We're all idiots here. We all have fun. We all hug, kiss, grab, whatever."
-- David Ortiz on the 2004 Red Sox

"We've been waiting since 1918 for the Boston Red Sox to win the World Series, and ... if I had a choice between the White House and the World Series this year, I'm going to take the White House. How's that?"
-- John Kerry

This week's writing exercise

Katherine came up with it: write about some complaint you have about Japanese life in general, using any form of the verb "to be" only twice and the noun "milkshake" exactly once. Below is my attempt at satire.
-----------------------------------
My biggest complaint about life in Japan: there simply aren’t enough Japanese people around. True. Non-Japanese people pervade all aspects of my so-called “Japanese” life. Every morning, a bus-full of Chinese migrant computer workers get in the way of my parking spot. Every evening I hear the Thai-ish goings-on of my next door neighbors through the nori-thin walls. My drinking buddies on weekends consist of Yanks, Brits, Canucks and other varieties of English-speaking boozers. Show up at an AJET party or JET orientation event? The same English-speaking fools, harmlessly jolly in a very un-Nippon way. My fellow students at the Wednesday Japanese class? Malaysian, Singaporean, Brazilian, and not a single daughter/son of Yamato. In my three months here I have yet to have a proper conversation with a proper Japanese person. Where do I have to go in Japan to find these people?

Some of you, less knowledgeable in Japanese culture and language, may mistake the people you see everyday and their nonsensical utterances as Japanese. But not me. I have taken a full semester of Japanese language prior to my coming here, and I have watched countless Japanese movies and anime—in Japanese with English subtitles, mind you! With the above qualifications I can assure you that the gibberish out of these people’s mouths, be them supermarket cashiers, your co-workers, or the ojisan behind the ramen counters, hardly resemble the Japanese under which I was schooled. Just the other day, I got lost trying to find the milkshake shop, thinking that I might meet some Japanese people there. I asked a woman on the street for directions, and she tried to fool me into thinking that she spoke Japanese with five minutes and three paragraphs of jabberwocky, when I know enough Japanese to know that a simple “あそこです。“ will do. Nice try lady, but no mochi.

If you have sighted a Japanese person during your stay, please contact me immediately.

Haiku

I have my third year elective students writing hiakus for their cultural festival. I've written some as well:

just a short email "see you soon!" a small promise but a big hope a golden leaf falls covering the body of a dead cicada I hear September tiptoeing near. Huh? August? I don't remember

on the train ride home, see the sunset swoops and skips between the lamp posts not enough typhoon to wash farmers' hand prints off the rice paddies two cappucinos empty table between cups no conversation

The gap above is the direct result of my elementary HTML skills.

Why don't you just stroke your bats and balls

Red Sox lost their game 3, and I sucked at my softball game.

2 dropped flyballs to the left field; both of which resulted in home runs and 4 total runs. 1 caught flyball. 1 for 2 with 1 single.

We lost 14-3 to the eventual champion Yodoe Jr. High.

Did not attend the enkai afterwards. It was at the expensive-looking French restaurant at the Yonago convention center. Probably should have though, I heard from Ian that the principles from Yodoe and Nawa got into a fight with 2 yakuza types at the karaoke.

Screw softball. Balled properly with Adam on Sunday at Yumigahama park. He was just the type of baller I suspected he might be, all flash and crossovers but withers against either physical defense or more atheletic opponent (I was the first but not the second). A JWill with lesser skill, but as a compliment. It was fun to play with him and catch those out-of-nowhere shoulder/elbow passes against those Japanese kids. They played some funky rule such that you must check the ball after every change of possession, so that there was absolutely no transition to speak of. Although without it they probably would have passed out after 3 possessions. Hopefully he can hook himself and me up with his elementary school teacher, who plays in a league, or regular pick-ups.

Daddy? Daddy.

Just finished reading Sports Guy's ALCS Game 2 running diary. It was the least I could do for The Nation.

I wonder about Kayvon and Ev (footnote1), and the collective blood alcohol level of Bostonians world wide today. I used to disdain their die-hard provinciality, but now I'm starting to understand why people from Boston are always such adamant Sox fans: I guess it's something like collective masochists' pride. I can sympathize, and at some level I can even identify with that mentality. You've suffered for so long, your father and grandfather have suffered even longer, and though you know that it is irrational to choose to continue the dispair, you instead hold onto it even tighter because without it, you don't have, and have never had much else. So you say to yourself, "Well it's (almost) been a shitty century without a Red Sox championship, but at least we still have those 4 World Series game 7's, and the Yankees, to bitch about." So I guess it's between suffering and nothingness. More than a World Championship, Red Sox fans need a rope, or Buddha.

But I guess it's still too early to tell? Down 0-2, your best pitcher's ankle can't be fixed with horse tranquilizer, and your second best pitcher is the self-proclaimed son of New York?

All this Bostonian passion for their team is putting my LA basketball roots to shame. The fact that Jack (Nicholson, not Cho), the most recognizable fan of the Yankees or the ManchesterU of the NBA, apparantly made an appearnce at the Yankee stadium yesterday did not help my cause at all. But I will always have the Clippers.

(and to be completely fair, not just because I'm a Lakers' fan: the Lakers are winning like the Yankees and Manchester U but do not sell out with the ludicrous payrolls of either team; in the NBA, that honor belongs to the NEW YORK knicks)

By the way, all this talk about baseball, a sport in which I have no inherent interest, is only partly spawned by the ALCS. I have been enlisted in our staff softball tournament tomorrow, and I'm pegged in the left field. Vegas has put the over/under of my dropped fly balls at 5.3. I just hope I don't strike out as many times.

(footnote1)
a reply email from ev:
--------------------------------
Thu, 14 Oct 2004 22:23:33 -0400
From: "XXXXXXX, Evan F"
Subject: RE: 0-2
To: thejeffcho@yahoo.com, "Amir XXXXXX (US - San Francisco) XXXX"

I seem to remember a game like this last year when the chips were down... When a lot of people were throwing in the proverbial towel, but we fans of Louis Tiant knew better. Late in September 1978, El Tiante overheard Rick Burleson telling a reporter that "it's really too bad, we thought we had the season wrapped up but now we're 4 back with 8 to play (or something like that) and we have to face the fact we won't be playing in the postseason..." Louis stormed over, interrupted the interview, and shouted at Burleson,

"Bool-cheet! BOOL-CHEET!!!!

You win today!

YOU WIN TOMORROW!

AND THEN YOU SEE WHERE YOU ARE!!!!"

And they ran off eight straight to force a one-game playoff (which need not be mentioned save in passing).

Believe.

-----Original Message-----
From: Jeff Cho [mailto:thejeffcho@yahoo.com]
Sent: Thursday, October 14, 2004 6:56 PM
To: Amir XXXXX (US - San Francisco) XXXX; XXXXXXX, Evan F
Subject: 0-2


Just found out this morning, my condolences. Still
believe?

cho

Corvette Power and other rants

Ogura Yasushi-sensei, who sits next to my desk, is a car freak of sorts. Or at least is enough of a car freak to own an English copy of Car and Driver magazine from March. Anyway, I looked through it and found an ad for the Chevy Corvette, proudly advertising the fact that the it was chosen, by JD Powers and Associates, for the 3rd year in a row, as the "Best Performance Sports Car in Initial Quality" (my italics).

Wonder how long initial quality lasts?

Recall that I deposited another $200 into my then depleted PTY account about two weeks ago. Just today, during my free time between periods, it occurred to me that I haven't been working off my 20% reload bonus of $40. Well, it's gone now, having played only 53 out of the required 280 raked hands. Felt like I've just been robbed. Probalby one of the few times when I'm completely justified in saying "I knew I should have played more poker at work."

Now what? Reflect.

I'm alone in the staff room again. I have nowhere I have to be and no idea where all my teachers have gone. Think I'll load up PTY soon.

I hate writing summary/catchup blogs like the one below this one, a laundry list of fading memories and bleached insights. Without a computer at home to blog regularly over the weekends, what else could I do?

These are the two most important projects going on in my life right now.
1) Study Japanese--consists of making flashcards and studying grammar from the textbook.
2) Thesis re-write--need to shorten my senior thesis by 50% for grad school app.

Unfortunately I have not even begun to take either seriously, and I've been here for over 2 months. My grad school app. efforts are especially disheartening. I don't have a 3rd letter writer, re-write isn't even in shape, haven't even started on the statement of purpose and only gotten 2 applications (out of "potentially" 6 choices) so far. I can't even read the many philosophy books/papers I brought without nodding off. I am so discouraged with the way everything has been going on this front I am having doubts about the whole grad school venture; and even against my vigilance, thoughts of law school have again grabbed an unthreatening but alarming beachfront in my mind.

And of course, I have no Japanese to speak of. It hasn't improved much and there's a reason for that. Instead, I have been wasting my time in other pointless pursuits:

3) Watching Japanese movies without subtitle, basically time-wasting entertainment under the pretense of language learning.
4) Watching Japanese TV under the same charade.
5) Patronizing various ramen shops.
6) Playing pool. Getting my ass kicked regularly by Shuichi with no signs of improvement.
7) Playing with calligraphy. Play, not practice with rigor.
8) Socializing without depth or connection. "Acquaintancizing."
9) Spacing out. Doing nothing. I wish I could call this meditating but it really isn't.
10)Doing any of the above, plus others, with a minimum of 2 drinks.

Yet there ARE positives in my life. There has to be or I have no excuse not to hang myself.

I have been running regularly, with training intensity. My teachers enlisted me on their ekiden team for the 10/24 race, and I'm running the 3.1km leg. Been training at 6-7min/mile pace, with sets of 400m sprints or no more than 6km jogs. I ran a sub 6 mile two days ago. I'm starting to feel strong again.

And of course. There's my friendship with Yuko. I'd like to start dating her (ahm, with proper dating activities) but don't know exactly where to start with the language/cultural gap. I never thought that I could be attracted to someone without being able to communicate at a deep personal/spiritual level, but I really like the fact that I never overthink or outthink myself when I'm with her. Everything with Yuko is straightforward and simple and fun and natural. So I'm comfortable knowing that it will come naturally eventually.

That's it I guess. Gotta go pick up Amy.

Weekend plans @ Osaka: typhooned

(update: pictures from the sports tournaments on 10/7 have been posted)

On Friday afternoon I found out that typhoon #22 was heading straight for Osaka over the long weekend. "最悪!! (the worst!)" said the weather report. Carrie also adviced against it. So I cancelled the trip to Osaka, thinking better of doing the tourist round in the rain and wind. As it turned out, the typhoon veered away from its projected course and cleared Japan by mid-Sunday morning. ARRRRRGGGGGHHHH! WHYYYYYY!

So, instead I visited Kurayoshi on Saturday with Pam. I knew there wasn't much in Kurayoshi, but I dragged Pam along anyway just so I wouldn't be by myself when I show up at Yuko's choir concert. I really wanted to see a bunch of choir boys and girls! I don't care about scoring points! Really! Elsa, Chioko, and Brian Wilson, an ALT from Tottori-shi and UCI grad, were also there. We went to a nabe mochi place afterwards (where you cook and soften dried mochi in a stock pot). Pam couldn't eat any of it, so we went to Hoa Chi cafe after we got back to Yonago around 9pm.

Sunday I stayed home, watched movies and whacked off all day in the rain. Made the dill weed tuna salad for the pot-luck party at Chioko's house in Daisen. Matt was also there, the only non-Asian besides Brian. Besides the Japanese people, there were a bunch more Singaporeans, Indonesians and Malaysians of Chinese descent, so the party turned out to be a pretty multi-lingual experience: at any time during the party, there were Japanese, Chinese, English, Malaysian, or Indonesian conversations happening all within a 400 sqft area. It was a wooden barn/garage/loft type space right outside of Chioko's parents' house in the middle of the Daisen rice paddies. Dimly lit with candles and lamps running with generator electricity, we sat either on the floor or in portable picnic chairs. With Brian and Satoshi playing the guitar and Chioko playing the Shamisen in candlelight, it definitely had that woodsy country thing going for it (not to be confused with the snooty country thing of the Martha Stewart variety). Another friend of Yuko, named Asami(sp?), showed up around 8pm. She is a Japanese living in Singapore who works as a stewardess for the Singaporean Airlines--you imagine what she looks like in a SIA Kabaya. A definite head-turner. Though I resisted her obvious charm, she also brought moon-cakes (a traditional Chinese sweet eaten during the moon festival, the 8/15 of lunar calendar, which was 2 weeks ago and I couldn't find any in Japan) which completely neglected my efforts. Did not talk with her too much, her being Yuko's long-time-no-see friend and all. At about 9.5pm some Singaporean guy named Lin decided to take the lead and MC the whole party. Not surprised, my first impression of his brown-tinted glasses plus black-and-black outfit pegged him as the "I'm too cool and stylish for this party" type. His choice of activities were even lamer than his image: some sort of women vs. men trivia Q&A and the Singaporean variation of line dancing. Most people acquiesced and participated out of pity I think (I know I did). Thank god Shivley (a Malaysian/Singaporean whose name is actually Shirley, but a spelling mistake by the Japanese immigration/customs changed her name in Japan forever) drank too much and had to pass out, throw up, and be hospitalized; I don't know what else could've stopped the lameness. The party broke up soon after. Yuko was staying at Chioko's and I didn't get a chance to talk with her more.

Monday I went with Matt to Izumo, to visit the shrine there and the ekiden race. 出雲大社 (Izumo shrine) is one of the most renowned in Japan. Apparently, after the fall equinox, all the gods all over Japan leave their home shrines and take a collective vacation to chill and gather at this shrine in Izumo. It is also the shrine for some god of love. With the collective powers of all Japanese gods, visiting and praying at Izumo shrine must have had favorable effects on my overall seductive potency. Also there was a big ekiden race happening the very same day. 44km, 6 legs ranging from 5-10km, between all the major Japanese colleges and a team of selected IVY league runners (good choice: slow runners from famous universities). Matt and I got there 5 minutes before the start:



I had a feeling that our car was one of the last that got through before they closed off the roads. And after the starting gun (actually right before the starting gun--Matt's camera ran out of battery)


we went ahead and saw the shrine.


It gives you good luck if you can throw and lodge a coin inside that huge turd of a straw bundle. I got in several \10 pieces, just to be sure.

Another look at the many sub-shrines inside.

We also saw a Japanese wedding take place. I can never understand why you would ever want to be married amidst hundreds of tourists. But they did.

I also paid \50 for a paper fortune to tie on a tree branch. From the few kanji characters, I gathered that with the grace of god and plenty of worship I will become rich. So I guess I'm all set.

In the space between passing and meeting

I saw a woman this morning. She had a face that you glimpse only briefly while passing by, but never find among people you know.

I wonder who will meet her tomorrow.

The real purpose of communication technologies

Nowadays, it is really easy to keep you from talking to me.

If I don't want to talk to you, but at the same time don't want to ruin the relationship by appearing to not want to talk to you because someday I might want to talk to you for some reason, all I have to do is send an email, leave a voicemail, or write text messages shortened and abbreviated beyond recognition. This is made possible only recently in the information age.

Prior to the information age, avoiding one another without appearing so is much more difficult. One have to rely on lies such as "Ah, the carrier pigeon must have gotten lost," or "I phoned but you weren't home this morning." Of course, these lies are risky: your friend may very well have been home the same time you allegedly called but didn't, and, as we all know, carrier pigeons have that magnet thingin in their heads.

After the invention of answer machine, all one really needs to do to avoid someone without burning the bridge is to leave a voicemail saying something like "Oh man, I missed you again! I know we've been playing phone tag but we must connect! I hope everything is fine and great with you and I'll chat with you later!" You can even use this to give the impression that you are REALLY trying by calling multiple times a day, say once before 7am and another time during lunch hours.

This practice was thwarted briefly by caller ID, but thanks to text messaging and email, we can now achieve the same without arousing suspicion. Information technology gives us means to show that we care without the bother, which brings us closer together.

But of course, the above does not apply to me. If you get an email or whatnot from me, naturally it means that I care. If you get a postcard, or a carrier pigeon cooing on your windowsill, I guess that means I love you.

新人戦 has left my nose runny

Those kanji characters denote yesterday's sports tournaments for all club sports in the area. I didn't go to school, but drove around and visited the table tennis, track and field, baseball, soccer, and kendo tournaments all over my area. I took lots of pictures but regretabbly I did not bring my camera to school today. Check back on this entry next week when I will have posted the pictures and written about them.

(updated 10/12/04)

Here are the pictures taken from 新人戦:

Table tennis tournament. The girls in red are the ones from Nakayama.


The biggest middle-school ping-pong player I've ever seen in my life! I'd put him at about 6'1" and at least 200lbs.


During long-jump warm-up.


This kid cleared 170cm. About 5'8". I don't think he's taller than 5'6".


Our girls got 1st and 2nd places for 110m hurdles. Of course, there were only 3 entrants, and the 3rd girl from Nawa couldn't even jump over the hurdles (she "hurdled" them one leg at a time).


Nakayama played against Nanbu junior high in baseball. Score at the top of 3rd: 5-0 Nanbu. Our kids were simply dominated by Matt's school. They had a man-sized pitcher and we only got on base once. They stole bases at every opportunity and our catcher could barely make the throw from home to 2nd. Even I could tell that it was a fiasco wating to happen. I left soon after.


Kendo tournament. This was taken during the boy's team matches.


Ken-girls. I guess. The girl on the left, 大西晶子(Akiko Onishi), a 2nd year, is the captain of the team and THE best girls' middle-school kendo player in Tottori. She got first place for the individual tournament on this day, small fry for a girl vying for the top spot at the Chugoku-area tournament.


These pictures were taken just seconds before Nakayama(red) scored one against Nawa. We won this game 1-0 but lost the previous one 0-1.



(end update)

I think I also caught a cold yesterday. My nose was and still is runny and I made full use of my ratty puke green sweater/nose rag yesterday. Not a good sign before the long weekend and the trip to Osaka. I got in touch with Carrie Walsh--the ex-Stanford women's soccer goalie, the Japanese major with a Fullbright to write about J-hop, my and Jung's temporary roommate in Mountain View for fall 2002, and the friend of that soccer chick in Narnia and later Terra--in Osaka. She's been here for 2 years, studying Japanese @ some university and teaching English. Though I never knew her all that well from the 2 weeks that we lived together, there was always something about her that made me instantly comfortable with her, both back in Mountain View and on the phone last night:

Carrie: I have to warn you, my apartment is small and kind of a mess...
Me: It's cool. You don't even have to clean it.
Carrie: Awesome. I don't think I will then.

It should be a fun weekend.

Cosmo

We started a writers' group over email in Yonago. The topic of the first writing exercise is writing about non-verbal communication. My first entry @ 319 words:

Jillian slurped at her Cosmopolitan loudly while her girlfriend droned on about The Boyfriend. The Cosmo was halfway finished, but her girlfriend has hardly touched her apple Martini. Jillian put the Cosmo back on the coaster, and played with the ring of condensation on the Minimalist aluminum high table, making swirls with her fingertips. It was a trendy bar on its second Friday since the opening—Jillian could not have gotten in without the help of the bassist in the same band as the cubicle mate of The Boyfriend.
“…can you believe that he…” Jillian’s eyes wandered from the waiter’s shoulders to the bartender’s hands, and finally rested on the charcoal pinstripes of the twenty-something who just walked in and joined another trio of clean-shaven twenty-somethings in the 28% tax bracket. The pinstripe sat down and looked her way.
“…got off work at 7, but I didn’t get his call until…” Jillian’s eyes stopped wandering. Her fingers left the table, and slowly lifted her hair behind her ears. She tongued her upper lip, moistening and making it glossy.
“…I mean, he could’ve…” Jillian looked away and sat up straight. With both hands, she lifted her hair back, and her proud breasts up. The pinstripe didn’t find the waiter from her direction, apparently.
“…there’s no way…” Jillian’s feline nose crinkled slightly for a nanosecond. She took off one of her porcelain pink slingbacks. Legs crossed, she dangled it rhythmically under the table with her pedicured toes. Her long skirt strategically ruffled to reveal the StairMaster-ed calf. She gently massaged her heel under the suggestively dim light.
“…surely he could’ve…” The pinstripe caught it, or was caught. Jillian could feel his wandering eyes. With her hand, Jillian directed his stare from her heel up her calf, to her thigh, and finally to her almost finished Cosmo.
“…I mean, how could he?” Jillian giggled and drank the last bit of her Cosmopolitan.

Ototoi. Kinou.

Day before yesterday: went into Takashimaya(dept. store) with Simona and took my measurements for a student uniform. Had ramen at Menya Usou and talked at length. Watched the Miyazaki Hayao movie Nausicca before falling asleep.

Yesterday: visited Hata-san`s sake shop/tea shop (her rice paddie will be ready for harvest in a week) and bought two bottles of sake; back to Takashimaya and paid for the Yonago Higashi High School uniform. I looked so good in it I couldn`t stop touching myself. Damn you fine!

(I opted not to post any pictures, for maximum effect on Halloween)

Weekend Update

Note: the 9/24 entry has been updated. A picture of the students from the speech contest was added.

Friday night, I went to Brown Sugar with Yuko, had a few drinks, then came back to my place and watched WaterBoys the movie. It was about an all-boys high school synchronized swimming team. The movie was based on a real story and was super popular in Japan. Though it turned into a cultural phenomenon of sorts and spawned two TV series, it wasn`t exactly what I would call a date movie. Spent the whole movie trying to decipher the Japanese dialogog and Yuko`s body language, neither of which became clear to me.

Satuday I joined a bus trip to Nichinan organized by the Yonago international exchange center. Nichinan is about an hour south of Yonago, a city with the lowest population in Tottori (~6000) but the largest area (about a tenth of the prefecture). Over 50% of the population of Nichinan is 65 or older. We met the locals, made mochi(rice cake with fillings, made by pounding steamed rice into a glutinous blob) and soba (Japanese buckwheat noodles), watched Japanese traditional folk music performance, taiko performance, and sat in a Japanese tea ceremony. I also met Yuko`s friend Elsa, the Singaporean girl working at Penasonic who`s leaving Japan in November. Elsa and Yuko have the same haircut, which both excited and terrified me with thoughts of Single White Female and high heels. Some pics:


Mochi pounding.


The owner of the local soba shop demonstrating how to cut soba noodles from the soba dough that we kneaded and rolled out.


The results of 20 years of kneading soba dough. He also does rock climbing.


Guns!


Shamisen, 3-stringed traditional Japanese instrument.


Japanese folk-singing.

Matt learned that pale-skinned demons with shaved heads are big hits with Japanese kids.

No pictures of taiko drumming were taken, 1) I was pretty tired by that point and 2) wasn`t impressed after watching the Stanford taiko for years. They did let us play with the taiko drums after their performance though, which was more than what the Stanford taiko had ever done for me.

Got back to Yonago around 4:30pm. We received more mochi and apple jam from the city of Nichinan. Not bad for a free trip! Biked home in the rain, Made champloos (traditional Okinawan dish with goya, eggs and tofu, also one of the topics of the speech contest) and hung out with Ian at my apartment. He borrowed the car to onsen with Simona and friend, I stayed home until Yuko came by around 8:30. She got wet in the rain and borrowed my sweatpants. Why is it that girls always look better in your clothing? We drank coffee, ate mochi and listened to her jazz CDs. Ian came back and I drove her to YSP bowling alley to meet Elsa. I declined to join Yuko, Elsa and company in bowling. There was much more to be said and done betw/ Yuko and me but tonight just wasn`t the time for it. In my state of unfulfilled wanting, I stopped by Simona`s with Ian, she couldn`t hang out, so I drank chu-hai with Ian back in my apartment until 3am.

Sunday: ran 6km at ~8min/mile pace for ekidan training (I`m running with the other teachers in an ekiden race on the 24th), bought a jacket and a reading chair from the second-hand store, watched Deconstructing Harry in the chair and fell asleep in it. It was a good reclining rattan chair, perfect for dwelling in one`s imaginary world while avoiding reality.

Saturday Blog!

First Saturday blog since the Dell went down!

In exchange for letting Ian borrow my car (which reminds me, I still haven't written about my new ride) to take Simona and her friend from Osaka to an onsen, he left his laptop for me to use. Fair exchange I think. I really miss having computer access during private time to __________ (fill in blank).

PartyPoker is offering a 20% reload bonus until Oct 3. Good timing too, my bankroll has shrunk to a mere $35. Put in another $200 5 minutes ago. So far, I have lost a recorded $150 from PTY ($222.5 counting the bonuses plus the $50 prior to PokerTracker records). Now I have another $240 to lose.

Yuko is coming over in a minute, after she finishes dinner w/ Manj and Varsha. I wonder where this is going?

Ekiden Results

Boys` team: 4th place (out of 25)
Times for 3km(followed by grade: 1=7th grade and so on):
9:43(2); 9:27(3, meet record!); 10:23(3); 10:17(1); 10:44(3); 10:09(2).

Girls` team: 2nd place (out of 25)
Times for 3km(followed by grade: 1=7th grade and so on):
10:31(3); 11:27(3).
Times for 2km:
7:17(1); 7:32(3); 7:13(1).

Pretty impressive for a school of only 142 kids!

Notable: the second runner from the boys' team, Mamoru Harada, the 3rd year who set the all-time meet record for middle school 3km, was the same kid who came in last against high school kids from the previous track meet(refer to the 9/6 entry). From last in heat to meet record!