Just another Saturday

It's Saturday just after noon, and I'm sitting here sipping a beer (Suntory The Premiun Malt's), snacking on moyashi (bean sprouts) and strawberries, and calling it a form of lunch while the pot of water boils on the stove for the laundry and I swish my straightened hair into and out of my face just for fun. Later I'll cook up some bacon for another snack/rest of lunch and hang the laundry outside to dry in the sunshine.

It's so warm that I've got the windows open and my hands aren't even bluing up.

At the store just now, I ran into one of my students who hardly recognized me. And don't get me wrong, I love my wavy hair.. I consider the color and consistency to kind of be part or representative of my personality; but I look older with it straightened (I just got it cut, so the guy just kind of does stuff to it), and tonight there is a sort of goth-Valentine party that I'm attending, so in those kind of situations I like to look a little like someone else.

The hairstylist did ask me again about doing a straight perm, and although I almost never consider changing my hair in such a way (color it, never, perm it, what for?), I had thought about his earlier question about it and to be honest, it might be fun to try. To me, I look like a stranger in straight hair, but I wonder what it would be like to get used to something like that..! And if I were ever in my life going to do it, June in Japan would be the time. That's the month where it rains every day, and no matter how I cut, dry, style, or attempt to tame this hair of mine, it refuses to do anything but explode upward in a frizzstorm of wild curling chaos. Oh but curls are so nice, you say, especially big loops like yours! Yeah, you haven't seen Japan in June. Neither mousse nor dryer has any say.

June was a rough month last year anyway, because every day rain means every day grey, and after a while, that crap wears you out.

Last February, if I recall correctly, was a little bit of a bear too. What's different this year?

Well for one thing, it's warmer now. And I'm not fool enough to think the cold is over, but I do believe the worst is over. I also believe that unlike last year, spring will come in March, not freaking May. Not that that makes a difference in either February. The other thing is Jermaine and how much better my life is without him. I mean, it's not something I think about every day, even, but when I do, I'm so glad to be going through a winter without that mess.

Jermaineless, I was able to go skiing last weekend with Adina. There's a snow park just about an hour up the road. Even then it had been warm for a couple of days, and by the afternoon, the snow was a bit slushy. It was only my second time skiing (and my ass has the bruise to prove it), but I really had a good time doing it. Back when we went to Takarazuka, we also stopped at the outlets for a total of like 45 minutes. I managed to find a good deal on some ski wear which I was buying both for ski trips and for Hokkaido. I got a pretty awesome teal jacket and some khaki-colored snow pants (which made me feel pretty invincible up in Hokkaido). The whole set had at some point been priced at around $600, but of course I would never have paid that much for these wonderful clothes, even if it is the brand that all the popular girls wear (Roxy). I just wanted ski clothes that would last me approximately forever.

While I was at the store, having accomplished the other goals I'd set for the morning (and all before noon! Hurrah!), I decided that I wanted a beer. The problem is that since Hokkaido, I've been more of a beer snob than before. We had some truly good brew up in Otaru that made me realize I'd been settling for the local nama all this time. So I bought two, with the intention of tasting them on a new quest to discover what beer that is widely available here I might like best.

The other news I have to report is, last night Rob came out to Shorinji class. It was excellent to be in a class for the first time with someone who speaks English, and also who is a black belt (and not just a shodan, either!). I was asked to do all my required test techniques on him, and learned a great deal from it. One thing that was totally different was.. Rob is tall. Every other person I have worked with has been approximately my own height (Japanese dudes) or way smaller (the kids). Fighting Rob was kinda scary (in that he's-not-actually-gonna-hurt-me kind of way.. you can always trust black belts' sense of control a lot better than any lower rank). Afterward, I asked him if he had any advice for me and he said "You really need to relax."

Excellent. Not "make sure you do this hand thing" or "kick harder," but "slow down." Which is of course, for me, perhaps the single hardest thing to do. Let go, stop freaking out, stop trying so damn hard. This is not a new suggestion to me, of course, but it is an important one. I try too hard sometimes. He said if I go to fast, even if I am doing something correctly, I might get marked down for it. Plus, doing a technique right will work even if it's done slowly. If you rush it, you can cheat it. Gaaah.

But it was a good class, and I feel like a good little karateka, or kempoka, or whatever I am. And you know what? Life is pretty good.

It's Saturday, bright and clear and warm, and as I pulled out of the parking lot, I sipped my strawberry milk. Yep, that's good.

Her name is China, and she’s beautiful.

And she, too, will change my life, but I feel like I say that about so much lately, it’s becoming a cliché.

Today the planets aligned, my motivation, cashflow, and ability to let go/make decisions all took exactly the right positions, and I biked to Jusco for toilet paper, knowing full well toilet paper doesn’t fit well in my bike basket.

In my old bike basket.

Originally, all I wanted was a bicycle not entirely made out of rust.

Okay so this isn’t actually a photo of my old bike in reality…

But after the Himeji ride and my extended borrowing of MiriJET’s bike, and after the weather began to change, I began to hurt for the bent-wheeled rusty creaky thing that was my bike. I had inherited it from Predecessor, who got it as a hand-me-down from one of the BOE people. Nice.

A few things began to up the stakes. One of them was the Himeji ride. My rental bike, for starters, on both the pre-ride and ride days was so much nicer than my old one. On this bike, I rode an estimated 25 kilometers. And it didn’t make me sore, or feel outside of my ability level. (Granted, I did it all over the course of a whole day)

The ride also brought me into contact with people who bike their commutes. A thing I would have considered unreasonable for myself, except that IllustratorJET’s commute is pretty much the same time as mine (his train, mine bus, both 20 min).

And, I see my boys doing it all the time.

Early on, it was just the badass crew. My graduated new HS students biking from the place where I work to around where I live. It warmed my heart every time I saw them from the bus window, in their little solidarity cluster, Ichinan freshmen.

But all of this broadened my ideas of what you can use a bike for, how far it can reasonably take you, and what that can mean.

When I first got Robin Red, I expressed joy at the newfound freedom. And indeed, I wouldn’t want to give her up. But I wanted to be able to explore more of the tiny roads and sprawling township around where I live. I wanted to be able to set off without a real destination, just to see where I could get to. Walking was too slow, driving too fast and nerve-racking on those tiny roads where you are going too slow for everyone if you don’t know what is up. If you’re biking, you don’t need a reason; you aren’t wasting gas and you aren’t in the way. You move faster than you can on your own, but you’re not inside of anything, so you feel the air move by and you’re really in it. Sort of like ground-flying.

Partly because of Jermaine, I began to think of biking as my go-to for how to spend a pretty afternoon. Pretty afternoons began to increase in frequency.

I did a little biking before, in Nashville which is in my memory Made Entirely of Hills (and so I’m confused to imagine it flooded—that shit is just surreal!).. which is probably why I think going for a bike ride requires more energy than you have and leaves you sore for days. And sometimes that is good. But I was seeking a different kind of freedom.

So I began to ask around, get information and ideas. I began to expand the image of what I wanted in this new bike of mine. More than just a shiny version of the old one (which is what I did when I replaced my camera this past week), I might want something with gears to handle the hills, a back basket for weight; when I went to the bike store in Himeji I discovered that they make lights that don’t make it even more of a fight to pedal because they are charged by an internal device in the wheel base (or something). I began to worry and obsess that the nearby Jusco or Namba would not have what I now required. I became convinced that I needed to get it from this sweet bike shop in Himeji.

This was a totally impractical plan because although their staff was great and the were clearly tip top in knowhow and selection, Himeji is about an hour drive. Robin Red, while lovely, is not big enough for a bike. The Asahi commitment to service and accessibility is such that they loan out a little K-truck to let people get their bikes home. But that would total up to like 4 hours of driving on whatever day I would want to get the bike. I looked at that prospect with sad horror and put it off and got scared and worried and obsessed and watched every pretty day go by with hungry eyes.

Until today when I said, enough. All I want is a glorified momochari anyway (I don’t actually know what that term means, only I think it refers to your classic standard bike that everyone has and which I also had in rusty form). I am going to get toilet paper and see, just SEE if there is nothing at all in Jusco that fits my minimum requirement.

She stood, tall and six-speed and glorious, and once I got the basket installed and the seat adjusted to my height, I felt like I could actually lean back like a gangsta with one hand on the wheel.

She is a CADILLAC OF BICYCLES.

Sooner, rather than later, I needed her in my life.

Everything is changed

Sometimes it seems like things change so fast, it's hard to believe that the version of yourself on which you look back is barely a week old vision.

We roll back into Shisoshi to find it finally out of the grip of a freakishly Canadian spring (chilly/rainy) and well into its baby-green mountainside phase. We can leave the windows open. We can spread the nutella. Everything is different.

We return in the triumph of mid-spring, and the knowledge that Jermaine is dead, after 3 months, one week, and three days in this world.

I haven't said much about him in a while. The persistence of that remarkable burn has continued in the background. At times it has continued to get in my way. I didn't let him stop me from visiting hot springs in Hakone or Kinosaki. He made me want to get a bike rather than trusting my old shoes to take me jogging to escape the noise in my head. In Okinawa, I went snorkeling.. and had to wear just one flipper (along with my prescription mask since I forgot contacts.. win). I bought two new pairs of Jermaine-friendly shoes in Tokyo which vastly improved the quality of my life. The first pair of shoes were pretty terrible. They wore out quickly and painfully.

Exhibit A. Check out those plastic ridges. Those were only digging into the skin of my foot for like a month. I am lame for not buying shoes earlier.

My Tokyo shoes are still in pretty good condition. And they are cuter. And they were the same price. Thank you Harajuku shopping district, boo, Jusco, for your lack of selection.

My first outing in the new shoes on that freakishly nice day in March.

On Saturday, May 1st (how wild, how gay, the lusty month of May..?) I wore my real shoes and spent the entire afternoon walking through the streets of Hong Kong. After that, it hurt too much to wear my old silver 3-euro (actually free because I stole them from Ashers) slippers, so I relented.

On the night of Monday, May 3rd, I was in the shower in the second best hotel of the trip. The washcloth caught on the edge of Jermaine and I winced. But when I got out, the scab was gone, and there was no wound underneath, only pink scarred skin. And every ability to go out in real shoes forevermore, amen.

I like that Jermaine went for good as the last vestiges of winter did the same. I find that quite fitting.

Things Lately

So sometimes I pop on here to gush about how it's the Best Weather Ever and life is better than predicted and my kids are awesome, etc.

Lately, things have been busy, not because they actually are busy, but because we have graduation practice every day, which requires us to stand in the gym for two hours each day. And two hours isn't that long; considering that normally I am in class about 4 hours a day, having only one class and then two hours of grad practice gives me a net of one more hour to do random stuff at my desk.

But here's what we didn't reckon with: I hate grad practice. Well. Odi et amo, I suppose. It allows me to get all emotional and watch the graduates walk by and hear all their names called and hear the younger students sing "Goodbye, goodbye" to them. But I have absolutely no function at grad practice. And some days I am either so emotional or else so bitter about having to stand around doing nothing at all for two hours (NOT SIT, STAND) that I don't even help move chairs or anything. I did at the last one. But not the one before.. heh.

It just sucks to spend two hours actively doing nothing at all. When there is so much stuff you would have yourself doing, both work-related and non! I finally got some of the stuff done by Monday that I had planned to do Wednesday, and let me tell you that is great for your ego.

Then there was today. Two weeks ago, I had an elementary-stack day at Big Elementary. This was the day with the photos from recess. Because it was like 65 degrees, sunny, and awesome, so even though it was a stack-day (all six classes), it was still great. Today was also stacked, only instead of 1st, 3rd, and 4th, I had 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. And the weather?

This is my favorite part because this is where my life goes back to being a movie about extremes. The weather was perhaps the shittiest weather I have seen in Japan. Made worse for what came exactly two weeks before, you know, back in February, when it was spring or something?

I ran to the bus stop thinking my coat and umbrella were going to be enough. And for where I live, south amongst the mountains, it was enough. But as we traveled the whole 18 minutes northward, the windy chilly rain gave way to windy chilly snowy rainy winterskyvomit, which persisted all day. The worst part was that it all happened sideways, which meant that if you had an umbrella it was 1, useless, and 2, broken. I had a ball with the "how's the weather?" question today because the kids were throwing out everything from "cold" to "rain" to "snow" to "wind" and "cloudy" and beyond, and I had magnetic weather cards for all of that (my predecessor? was/is amazing and I will be in her debt until I pass her materials, assuming they survive, on to my successor).

For all that, the classes went pretty well. I tried to pull some alphabet games that were a bit tough on the firsties, but for the most part, kids were okay.

I took a photo just for kicks.

Why yes, that is snow on the mountain in the background, and frozen slush on the ground underfoot. The only reason their umbrellas work is because we just stepped outside for dismissal, just now. (Even so one of the kids came up just before this to borrow a new umbrella since his was mangled by the wind)

Because I could not imagine worse weather. It's like winter turned around to bitchslap me for doing a little happy dance that it was almost gone.

Oh and my house? Which I was going to clean.. or anything else I wanted to do today? I bet you can guess how done it is about now.

I was supposed to go to the doctor's again today, possibly for the last time..! On my last visit, he said I could "take a bath" with Jermaine now (since I had not, in like five weeks.. only showers with my leg all propped up on the side of my square tub), which to me meant all bets were off. I think Jermaine just didn't do anything at all in the cold. Once it was kinda warm, there was healing happening, or something. Today when I got home from work, I opted to take a bath, rationalizing that I had not yet, and maybe it was not safe to drive across town..?

Okay but really I ought to go and do something with my evening, like run a vacuum, a laundry cycle, or read a book.

I'll bitch about graduation more once it's over. ^_^

Talk About the Weather

I wasn’t really willing to believe what I was seeing when the weather report was calling for highs of 16.. what with last week having highs more like 8.
But I had six classes today, and in every one we ask “How is the weather today?” and the kids respond with varying degrees of proficiency in English depending on their age and temperament.
I try to get the older kids to use two adjectives. “Sunny and…?” sometimes in the past they would say “hot!” because they’d just come in from running. But today I felt it too. Today I wore two pairs of pants (as always) and was sorry I did it.
Seriously, sometimes I set my heater on 17 because that is the temperature I would like my room to be. And it’s doing that out there right now, with the sweet sunshine.
I know we do ‘weather’ (along with day and date and “how are you”) because they are daily conversation topics that kids should know how to say, and which change every day. And in my country, we ‘talk about the weather’ if we can’t be personal with someone.
But to me, and especially here, the weather is personal, and it really does affect my day. Today I wasn’t afraid Jermaine would last forever, because the spring is coming, and it feels today like the freeze is broken, and Jermaine as a winter burn cannot stay for the warming wind. Today I had six classes, six, that’s the max that there are in a day, and they were grades 1 through 4, that’s six to ten years of age, and I couldn’t stay inside and rest during recess.. I had to go outside and give piggyback rides to first graders who somehow had not got enough of me in first hour. Because I had to feel the sun and smell the water in the myriad water channels and find the rose-acorns (I have no idea what they are called for real).
JET of clearly Viking descent said something quite poetic the other day; he said people age year to year through the winters.. because they get all bent by the winter, and each spring they can’t quite stretch out to the reach they had the year before, as the years go on, we get older. I believe it.
But still, I’m never as old as I am in winter.
Tales from recess:

Cherry tree shade.

Storming the fortress.

Irrepressible ichinen and her pet gaijin.

Jump! Rope!

Seed pods that look like flowers.
[I really like this because I can't ever tell if this girl likes me or not; she doesn't respond well in class. But today after recess she presented me with a rose-lookin-seed-thingy. I asked her to hold it so I could take a photo or them both.]

(This is the one I'd picked up myself earlier.)

Thursday vs. Tuesday

No, I really had to work today to push the fifth graders into saying the two such that I could distinguish what they were saying. They see the letter "u" in both Tuesday and Thursday and somehow just slur it all into the same word.

In the continuing saga of Thursdays, this one should have been just banner. You haven't heard from the Thursday front for a week, because last Thursday was National Foundation Day which allowed me to hide from gale force winds indoors, watch Coming to America unedited, and pine for my far-off lover, rather than attempt to wrangle fifth graders into some kind of English learnin'.

Today it's back to the wrangling and the deck looked stacked against me from my waking vantage point. I still had that sore-throat feeling you get while a cold is starting its engines. I had forgone a shower in favor of those extra twenty minutes' sleep. I still almost missed the bus. Oh and Jermaine-site, AKA "Yakedo" is still around/infected. So you know. I'm on drugs for that and no longer to wear shoes with backs, according to the doctor.

And I was facing fifth grade again.

Yesterday, the Powers That Be sold the rights to My Life, The Sitcom. Coming soon is My Life, The Motion Picture! Yesterday was absolutely insane. If the sun hadn't been out, I might have had to cut someone. I pleaded "kaze" (I have a cold) and made some vague reference to the idea that I would eat with the second years on Thursday since I didn't feel well enough to do it Wednesday. I was secretly looking at taking the whole rest of the week off lunch duty, though.

So someone tell me why I feel great? Not only did I walk back from Big Elementary smiling, I did eat with the 2nd years, and I feel fine. Someone tell me, was it that MyLifeTheMovie has a greater budget for special effects (which I noticed when snowflakes began to float lazily from a relatively clear sky.. also, despite the lack of shower, it's not really a bad hair day--I still felt fine about the fact that it was picture day and no one told me)? Was it that I gave up on freaking out about never getting everything done and just tried to enjoy those brats? Was it the drugs I am now on thanks to Jermaine? I have no explanations.

Over the weekend I met a high school JET who mentioned preferring to work with the littler guys. I sighed and remembered how hard I hoped I'd end up in a high school. But when I was in class today, I wondered briefly how that HS JET would handle things in that ES class.. I tried to emulate the way I figured he'd enjoy just being there.

One of the 6th grade classes was like.. total bomb of plan. The other was epic win. I can't predict these things and I have no idea what comes next. But I am glad to be here, even on a Thursday.

Jermaine Goes to the Doctor

..twice.

I went first on Friday, after my school's nurse delivered her grave look and shook her head, saying it would heal faster with more medicine.

My thoughts were, hell yes, give me more medicine, because here's the thing about Jermaine/Jermaine-site/Yakedo: it was a hilarious story. But it is still there. It's gone from being a little hassle to being a big change in my life. I can't swim. I can't run. And now I am actually forbidden (well, advised not) to wear shoes with backs. It’s kind of not funny anymore.

It's not so much that it hurts or that it cramps my style beyond all bearing. I can bear it. It gets in the way, but not in such a way as to constitute a full blown emergency all the time. But. It is still there, and it's been nearly four weeks, and it's not anywhere near gone. That's the real issue. I have Jermaine fatigue.

It was in this spirit that I left for the doctor's office Friday afternoon. The clinic I went to before referred me to a skin clinic south of town, so on I went. The doctor went on in Japanese to me while I stared at him wide-eyed trying to catch whatever I could about how to make it go away. I don't think he said much about that, only it was all I cared about hearing. I know he said something about how they get a lot of yutanpo (hot water bottle) burn victims this time of year, and how they are slow to heal.

Which makes sense, slow burn, slow heal. Plus it's cold and the cold does not make you heal faster. But OH AM I EVER OVER THIS. He prescribed a cream and asked me to come back sometime the following week.

On the way out of the parking lot, just for good measure, I backed Robin Red into a blue pole, broke the taillight glass, got blue paint on the bumper and red paint on the pole. I'm just glad it wasn't another car there.

So, I went on Wednesday afternoon for my re-check, because by then it hurt more often, and looked worse, and this time they had me sit up on the bed thingy and suggested I not look, thought it 'shouldn't hurt'.. then the guy took out what looked like a tiny scalpel and pair of tweezers, and I thought he was about to remove the whole gross-looking layer of whatever-the-hell, so I braced myself for the equivalent of tearing off a scab, only times a zillion-- which made what actually happened feel like the breath of a gentle breeze. I’m rather amazed at the gentleness and dexterity with which he operated on that horrible mess of mine. I ended up staring in wide wonder because I guess I like watching horribly gross things happen to myself. He removed a few small pieces of the.. um.. like white-surface, then put some of that cream he's prescribed onto a gauze square and taped it on there. This time the cream burned a little, and I think maybe he created a path for the cream to reach the burn through the buildup or something.

GROSS I KNOW. Then he prescribed me two days worth of pillz which I am now taking. And I just want to do whatever it takes to get this thing gone as fast as I can. If they said "pour this into a tub of water and soak your foot in it for an hour," I'd do it. I don't care if it hurt.. I don't think they understand me here.. I don't want to necessarily have painful things happen to me in public, but I would totally go into my house and whimper and cry and keep my foot in that material, if they told me it would fix it.

It's part of my system of belief, that things worth having (like a wonder-drug to just effing cure Jermaine already) have to be earned (like through pain).

Just as an FYI, I've tried to just use the name "Jermaine" to refer to the blister. I named it because it was so tall and had a life all its own. Now the blister is gone, and the infected site remains.

To see a photo of Jermaine when Jermaine was still.. a blister.. please click here.

Please do not click there. It's gross. The later iterations, however, are so gross I did not even take photos.

 

EDIT: In retrospect, I think the surface area occupied by the current burn is smaller than Jermaine was. Which is a sort of comfort. Kinda.

not what I was going to write about

Someone tell me why some days I am the picture of existential panic and others I am as calm and happy as a snug little pet?

Wait, I think most of those days of perfect happiness start with a "Fri." That might help explain it a little.

Here we are and haven't seen the sun for a nice solid week. HULLO FEBRUARY.

But that wasn't what I was going to write about, no. Today is a Friday islanded between yesterday's national holiday (National Foundation Day), and Lupercal weekend (HAH - like I'm going to strip down and run through the streets of windy, frozen, rain-soaked Yamasaki), better known both in America and Japan as "Valentine's Day." But a steady stream of cloudcover has continued to roll across China and Korea to replace that which was overhead six seconds ago (yes, actually, yesterday I opened the front door and the wind immediately attempted to WREST IT FROM ME).

This Sunday is also the official start of the lunar New Year, and the Year of the (metal) Tiger officially begins! That's not the only double-whammy holiday this year.. as I was preparing my "Coming Events" board, I learned that both types of Easter fall on the same day (April 4th) this year, which only happens a couple of times a century or so.

None of this was what I was going to write about. Stop distracting me.

The plus side is, I can leave whenever I like today, because I drove myself to school. I didn't want to do this. I wanted to take the bus. I ran out of my house just in time to see it coming up the street, but I had no fear, for I've caught it at the corner before. I dashed across the street right in front of it actually.. the buses are pretty good about letting pedestrians cross. I guess this particular driver did not realize that my immense hurry was caused by none other than his arrival, and after I crossed the street, he drove on, with me staring after him sadly.

Then I felt really dumb, because having just stopped traffic to cross the street, I had to cross back to my own side. HAH. Damn. Today also happened to be the day the BOE returned their answer to my request to please let me drive my car only occasionally to work.. basically I am going to do that anyway, and I'd just like it to be legit if possible. They said if I am sick or injured it is okay. I guess I am currently injured... And for that I have to drive all the way back to Yama after work because I want to go to the doctor's. I showed the Jermaine site to the school nurse again and she said what must have been more or less "Yeah, that looks infected, maybe you should go get someone to give you some medicine for that mess." Excellent. In the meantime, ikebana which is normally Thursday was pushed to Friday. It would have been awesome to take the car today if I didn't have to go back to town and then come back out here for flower class.

The pains we take to keep beauty and life in our homes..! Speaking of keeping alive inside our homes.. my kerosene heater ran out of fuel yesterday and I was absolutely not going out front in that wet gale to attempt to refill it, and I was absolutely not going to fill it inside after the last time I tried THAT, so I just used the electric ones, which are passable, but which pale in comparison to my little champion.

None of this is even remotely close to what I was going to write about, at all.

Thanks for being here today, folks. It's time for me to do some Japanese HW and take myself to the doctor.

As per request of my brother (my actual, biological brother, mind you), I'm going to find a way to make the gross Jermaine photo optional in case you want to see it. I promise that you don't though; the girls asked to see it Superbowl Monday and were thoroughly grossed out.

Speaking of the Superbowl, I don't know whether to climb the walls in utter happiness or insist that I TOLD YOU the end was near and that 2012 gotta start somewhere, but I realize that perhaps not everyone grew up in a household where "When the Saints win the Superbowl" was interchangeable with "When pigs fly" or "When hell freezes over." So I chose the excitement option instead.

I still haven't managed to see the whole game, but I hope to eventually because what I did see was good, and what I heard about the second half was much better.

And now I really AM going to end this post so I can do whatever it was I said I was going to do.

Things that are easier in Japan: glasses

Even before I came to Japan, I was looking into getting a slightly stronger pair of glasses. My old glasses weren’t really a problem, but they seemed to fall short in dimly-lit far-seeing situations like theatres. I also wanted new glasses for scenery gazing.

But I don’t understand insurance and eye doctor visits and deductibles and charges in my own country. It is natural to assume that in a foreign country, navigating that mess is difficult tantamount to not-worth-dealing-with. But I tentatively asked people like my JTE and keeper Mikan-sensei, and our Japanese teacher what the procedure might be, and where to go to get an eye exam.

They were all a little vaguely confused and suggested I just go to the glasses store.

So the day Jermaine was born, I did just that. Heke accompanied me first, and we were later joined by The Cat. We ended up in Himeji by the end of it, browsing frames and exclaiming over how easy this whole process actually was.

Once I picked out my frames, I looked into a little machine, requested higher power, tried on some trial glasses that made me look like a classic nerd in eighties depiction, and then my glasses were produced in about twenty minutes for under fifty dollars (well maybe not with the conversion rate, but still).

I don’t wear them all the time, because they are heavy, and my old ones are still sufficient. But when I want to see far, they are there to provide me with super vision.

So, thanks Japan for making that at least a bit easier.

Re-Contracting

Two weeks ago, the decision was due as to whether one would continue on another year as a JET, or not. I just realized I have not written about that yet!

I said yes, of course, I want to stay. I've rehearsed all the reasons, but the basic underlying notion is that when I imagine that I only have six months left in Japan, I feel terrible. I feel choked and trapped and desperate. It is simply not enough time to do all that I want to do here. (This is not a surprise; I doubt there ever will be, for any place)

I briefly considered not recontracting based on my reaction to leaving the US after Christmas, but ultimately, that very reaction was an echo of the same symptoms. I didn't want to leave because I had more I wanted to do, more people I wanted to see, and in general, more I wanted to say. The difference is, I'm not planning to live in Japan for 'the rest of my life.' Once this gig is over, it's over. And when a gig is this sweet, you've got to really work it for what it's worth. This opportunity is a goldmine and I'm not done yet.

What, to have only one autumn in Japan, and it already be over? To have only one Japan spring to look forward to? And only one year of trying to remember names and faces and impart some English verbs to these students? Only one year of the ridiculous stupidity I've displayed? I should stay if only to validate those lessons learned..!

Honestly, the question in my mind had been more of whether I would stay just two years, or three. ^_^ This, however, is not a big deal, as I don't have to make decisions like that for some time, and I am sure I will be equipped to do so when the time comes.

Even though I more or less knew I would stay, I basically refused to say as much. I take commitments pretty seriously (it's just a personality thing I have), so I am not going to say "I'm staying," until the paperwork is turned in. I don't like to go back on my word or decisions, so if there is even a grain of a chance that I will change my mind, then I won't deliver sentence.

Now that the decision is officially made, and only major understandable catastrophe will prevent it, I can say, I've decided to stay.

I have no idea how I'll feel a year from now. One drawback to this time schedule is that everything could change in April. They rotate teachers around the school system after they've been in a place for around 5 or 6 years, and from what I understand, two of my three JTEs are pushing that limit. I could have two totally new people to work with once April gets here. I might get really awesome and engaging co-teachers. I might get teachers who SUCK [at working with me and using me effectively in their classes]. Either way, I am predicting that I will lose at least one of my partners in English.

This change in April isn't just English teachers, of course. They move VPs and principals too. I'm pretty sure to keep them, and Mikan-sensei (the guy who is kind of like my keeper, and of the three, my favorite co-teacher).. but I am aware that a shift in personnel means a shift in the entire feel of an office environment. I could go from a happy and laid-back office to an office full of xenophobes without even leaving my desk..!

This was calculated in my decision to stay. I'm glad I get to keep Mikan-sensei, and for the rest I'll just have to take my chances in the mystery wall.

This is just one thing that can contribute to a complete change of heart between my decision date 2010 and decision date 2011. I'm sure you'll know which way the wind is blowing as the seasons change.

A mini-update on Jermaine: I killed him quietly on Wednesday night because I thought that surely after a week and a half, he was too disgusting to go on, and also that the wound underneath must be MOSTLY HEALED BY NOW. The first: true; the second: not so much. What ha' happen' was, It began to heal really well from the outer edge inward, and I guess planned to meet in the middle once it healed its way there. So the middle was (is) like this horrible gross wound and the outer edge is almost fully healed..! I had the nurse approve of the disgusting shade of gross that the wound happens to be (I wanted the pink of new-healed flesh and I get the red of.. well..)...

Hot Danger II: Jermaine

When I told people I'd "burned my foot" they again naturally assumed it to be the fault of that cute little kerosene device which has so many safety features, I'd be hard-put to injure myself if that were my intent. (It even turns itself off after three hours, just for good measure)

But no, something much more innocuous-looking was the culprit this time. And I consider this instance to be more severe because injury was done to my person.

Don't I just look like I would burn a bitch?

I have a hot water bottle, because as I may have mentioned, we don't have central heating, I don't want to fall asleep with my kerosene heater on (CO poisoning), blah blah blah. Long story short, to prevent my feet from getting frostbite overnight (exaggeration), I fill this cute little sheep with scalding water and stick it under the blanket.

There is a little warning label that comes attached when you buy one of these things. I can't read, but the picture of a little girl with pain zig-zags coming out of her head and a bright red foot was unmistakable. The instructions were, put this thing in the blankets to warm up the blankets, then don't leave it by your feet overnight.

Bah! Who ever heard of such waste of warmth? Certainly not I. And so, night after night I left that cute little thing in the sheets, and I never suffered the worse.

Until...

Last Friday I attended a certain Alice-in-Wonderland party (as Tweedledum, no less). After imbibing, I biked home to sleep. As usual, I filled the water bottle and went to bed. When I woke up, my foot hurt, and I couldn't remember harming myself at the birthday party (goodness, was I really like that..?). And the more I considered it, the more I was convinced I would have noticed the scrape or burn or whatever when I crammed my feet into shoes for the bike ride home.

No no, what happened was much more sinister. Overnight, while my foot rested against yutanpo for eight hours, it slowly cooked my skin.

Gross.

I went to the store and bought burn cream and bandages large enough to accommodate the freaking thing, which was too wide for band-aids. I bundled it up Saturday evening and spent Sunday running errands. When I took off the bandage at the end of the day, the creepy burn had turned into the biggest blister I have ever seen.

I'll spare you the pictures, although I did take some, just because I was fascinated with horror at the whole thing. The blister is now named Jermaine because it is too large and has been with me too long; it has almost taken on a life of its own as it proceeded to alter mine all week.

For one thing, it's about a half centimeter tall. Not long, not wide. Tall. Which made wearing shoes (at least correctly) out of the question. I went to work on Monday hoping to show our school nurse, but she was out that day. I was at this point a bit nervous because a friend mentioned having to have a burn 'drained' to prevent 'infection.'

Noooo, infection! No! But I also couldn't bring myself to do it myself. And I wanted someone who knew their stuff to look at it and tell me what to do with it.

On Tuesday, still wearing my regular tennis shoes and tromping all over the back of the right one, I went to the middle school after elementary time and showed it to her. She took one look at it and said "Oh! Keep! Keep!" and then explained to me in Japanese (which I am proud to have gotten) that new skin is growing underneath so I should basically keep the bubble as long as I can.

I promptly went to Jusco and bought backless shoes. I've been wearing the guest slippers at work all week (except that one day I brought my Jelly Belly slippers instead), which only made me feel strange in front of the kids' parents on Thursday. Otherwise I really wanted the kids to ask me why I was wearing them so I could tell them the story of my BADASS blister experience.

But by Tuesday night, the novelty had worn off; I haven't been able to really go for a walk or jog (or swim, either) all week, and now I'm sitting here, contemplating Jermaine's murder so I can wear real shoes tomorrow for my Kobe expedition.