Juxtaposed in Japan

Wednesday, January 30th

[At Work] You say 'tomato', I say... 'tomato'.

Current Sounds: ANZA - Tobira wo Akate

There is something mildly worse than having a teacher who absolutely adores homework: having that same teacher for two classes. Yes, that is most certainly a little less than awesome. I keep trying to tell myself that all this experience, all the work will pay off in one way or another. Having all sorts of homework is good for you, because it makes you experience it more and more, which will ideally lead to better skills through familiarity.

Alas, I'm not sure I buy that entirely.. especially when I'm given texts from pre-WWII to spend the majority of my time reading. Now, of course, you say "But Jason, that's only 60-70 years ago! How can you ignore material so recent?". Simple: Because I don't want to talk like an old man, AND the entire language system (including how some things were written, what uses kanji and what uses kana) was redone after WWII. Not a 100% change, but still a slightly different beast. Unless, of course, other people enjoy talking like a member of upper-crust 1930s society..

Anyway, it's good for me, I'm able to find the time to do all the work (though sometimes I have to squeeze it in), and all is okay. I'm just really tired as of late. Probably something to do with the 'work and school' thing.

I would, ideally, like to go back to having hobbies, but I think that's something that will have to wait. My schedule right now is pretty much full from morning to night, and then on the weekend I try to go out and do something. Haven't figured out what that will be this weekend, but I might go out to play soccer or basketball or something. Whatever.. it'll be interesting either way. I think my biggest concern, and the reason why I try to push the school work as hard as I can, is that I'll become apathetic in my last semester. I hate to say it, but it's really easy to just not care when you know that you'll graduate no matter what you do, as long as you have a C in all your classes or higher. I intend to push my grades to the end.. but still..

If anything, I need to still do better than everyone else just so I can keep being arrogant and telling people what to do with their lives, school, etc. Seriously, if I'm not doing the right thing, I can't very well maintain a holier-than-thou attitude, now can I? I mean, sure.. one should ideally not do that, but where's the fun in that? It's also important so that way I have a leg to stand on when I try to offer advice to people about learning English. I'd just simply be a bad example..!

That's about all that's going on right now, so I'm afraid I don't have much of interest to say, other than I've been picking up and selling things to get ready to leave the country. Got a new digital camera for awesome-travel-action, which should be arriving sometime in the next few days. Ideally, this will lead to me taking more pictures, since I somehow feel that I'm not taking nearly enough pictures to document my life. At the very least, I should fully cover Korea, and soon Japan. You never know.. when I'm older, I might have a desire to look at 4,000 pictures of when I was 22. Probably not, but who knows?

Have some other stuff to do, but that about sums up life for me right around now. Nothing terribly exciting..!

I should get back to burning more cds for work.. I'll write again sometime soon!
School on 01.30.08 @ 02:50 PM JST [link]

Thursday, January 24th

If homework could kill..

Current Sounds: Inuyasha - One Day, One Dream

If homework could kill, I'm 85% certain I would have succumbed by now. Fortunately for me, homework cannot kill (at least when you're a history/language major.. I suspect your results may vary if your major is something like deathography or some such).

Fortunately, only two of my classes (same teacher) have been laying the homework on nice and thick, though even that's keeping me working on projects for about 6-8 hours. Note that this is only the first full week of school, too. Between the "not getting enough sleep" and "not eating enough", it's a little tough, but I'll be okay. I'm still in relatively good spirits, hanging in there and keeping up the good fight. I have no idea what that really means, but the fight is 'good', and I'm certainly keeping it 'up'.

Other than drowning in homework, placement testing is finally done so I can now get back to a normal work schedule, which involves fixing people's problems and running around. Really, not so bad. I love my job, to be honest, and I really just enjoy being here.. so it's quite all right. I also have the chance to make friends from all different places, which works out nicely. In fact, I'll be going out this weekend to a movie and a trip to the mall with two students from China. It's pretty exciting, and you have a chance to learn alot.

I also found someone to tutor me in Korean between now and March. SUCCESS! Sure, I'll probably know virtually nothing.. but that's better that actually nothing. There's a slim difference, yes, but one worth noting (or so I insist). My main concern is working on pronunciation and acquiring more words, which is something you can't really do with a book (or at least not well). Of course, by
'more words', I mean 'any words at all', since I can only say 3 phrases now (not even introducing myself!).

Around March or so I'll start preparing for actually leaving America (packing, selling stuff, etc). Until then, I still have time. So my goal is to just sit back and enjoy the time I have, do my best, and deal with things when they come.

Or at least that's what I say. We all know I'm just going to run around like a nervous wreck. But hey, the other way sounds better.

I should get back to work and read some. Gotta change the printer cartridge, get some more paper, and finally eat something. Haven't eaten all day.. I'm hungry! Unfortuantely, I forgot to bring any food. By a stroke of amazing kindness, Ye (new student, we're going to a movie this weekend with Leo) gave me a cup of noodles thing. Yay, food! So, I gotta get on that. Later!
School on 01.24.08 @ 01:08 PM JST [link]

Tuesday, January 15th

'It's a copy of a copy of a copy...'

Current Sounds: Timberland - Apologize

Did someone say placement testing?? No? Oh.. darn. Well, I did. Yep.. it's not only the first week of school, but next week is the first week of school where I work so we need to place all the new students. To do that, we need to know their English level. To do that, we need to make them take 3 computer based tests (grammar, listening, and reading) and a 30-minute writing sample. Looks like enrollment is up, which is good in that teachers keep their jobs, but lackluster in that I have logistical issues to deal with in regard to getting these people in and out of the test.

Tested 33 people today, I hear that we're looking at 43 or so tomorrow. Then we do it again on Thursday and Friday (though likely with less people.. I hope). In total, I should see upwards of 60-70+ new people and new names this week, people I'll somehow get to know within the next few months. It's really not so bad, just tiring is all.

After the first batch of students, I suggested we go out to lunch with the two new student workers, since it'd been a long day and we had an hour to kill. Overall, not too bad of a day. My only wish is that it didn't start at 8am. I could really do without these 7:30-8am mornings. I know I'm just being picky here, but seriously.. why must the world exist this early? I think it's to spite me.

Otherwise, everything else is pretty much par for the course. Have some details I'm not especially keen on dealing with later this week.. but that's pretty much life for you. Just kinda busy, definitely tired, and for the most part keeping it that way. I've decided that I have a renewed interest in pool after playing all weekend and trying to teach my younger brother and sister how to play (better), so I think I'm going to try to play and practice at least once a week in a break between school and work. They have really cheap tables on campus that you just pay for by the hour (not per game), so it's not much of a problem and markedly convenient.

Anyway, that's about all I have to say for now. Just rambling.. wasting the time away until I go to bed and start the cycle all over again. Yay for school! Can't believe it's my last semester..

Oh, and here's a picture of me in the third grade. I sent it to someone last night and it was sitting on my desktop, so.. here we go! I was such an adorable little kid..

jason-third (7k image)
jason-third
Jason on 01.15.08 @ 06:14 PM JST [link]

Saturday, January 12th

Last weekend of pure freedom

Current Sounds: Chobits - I Hear You Everywhere

Well, it's my last weekend before the new semester starts. I feel like I should be making the most of it, but then I wonder.. what does "make the most of it" mean? Should I relax with a vengence? How does one even do that, anyway? Instead, I'm up at a resort/vacation house/timeshare with my family. Overall, not a bad experience, but I feel kinda like I'm missing out on something (my stuff back home!), and I'm really not a fan of the hotel experience generally. While this isn't a hotel per se, it definitely has all the fixings of a hotel, including the fake, plastic cactii (.. as an aside, I wonder if this is related to living in Arizona. I suppose other, non-south-western states probably don't have a penchant for plastic cactii), the simple furnishings, the paintings that are made to imitate art but lack any real feel to them.. that sort of thing.

But on a plus side, I have internet access. Score one for Jason. When traveling, my laptop also serves as a substitute DVD player and all sorts of other things. Markedly convenient, I tell you.

In other news, I finally have my ticket for Korea. I e-mailed my teacher and let them know that I'll be missing a day of class to go to Korea, bought my ticket, and all should be settled. I'll be in Korea for a whole 163 hours (it's an 18 hour trip, by the way, and a 16 hour time difference. I arrive 2 hours in Arizona 2 hours after I leave Korea when I come back.. kinda funny). Roughly the same amount of time I was in England and, oddly enough, the temperature in both places is almost exactly the same (England is 1 degree colder during March, on average). Tentative plans include.. I have no idea! But ideally, no zoos. I have a firm embargo on those things

As for my Korean studies.. it's going okay, I guess. Korean, like Japanese, has a basic alphabet and more complex characters. For my purposes, my goal is to just learn the basic alphabet, and it's coming along pretty well. I can write words, people's names, stuff like that. I can read, albeit slowly. I rarely have any clue WHAT I'm reading (my vocabulary in Korean consists of 3 words/phrases: "Hello", "Goodbye", and "I love you". Seriously, that's all I know in Korean), but it is progress. The goal is to be proficient at the basic writing system so I can at least use a dictionary and recognize signs/place names. Reading a menu is a plus, even if I don't know what I'm reading. I also want to know some basic phrases and structure, so I've enlisted the help of some Korean students in addition to my book. Good times.

Why bother? Simple: I feel I should at least know something before going to another country, even if I'll have a native speaker of Korean with me at all times. It's the least I can do. If not, how can I complain to people here to learn English? Gotta watch out for hypocrisy!

I've also started making plans to meet people in Japan. While it's still 6 months away (only 6 moooonths! It's too soon..), it's good to at least give people a heads up now to let them know I'll be in the country. I have Tokyo well-covered, Chiba, and Nagoya, I need to try to get in touch with some people in Osaka and some other cities south of there. I want to visit at least 5 or so places before I start working.

Anyway, I should get going. Not that I have anything to do here.. I just should so I can feel important and pretend I'm doing stuff. At the very least, I can play another 1-2 hours of Uno with my brother and sister.

(ironically, that's the one thing that I need to bring to Korea.. but the three of us [Hyunji, Risa, and me] played hours and hours of it.. so I guess it kinda makes sense)
Jason on 01.12.08 @ 10:32 AM JST [link]

Tuesday, January 8th

Making progress..!

Current Sounds: P-Anime - Blue Skies

So, maybe it's a little late, but I finally got/uploaded a picture of me and my little Christmas tree that I had up for about a month at work (under "more.."). Too bad I had to take it down, but at least the lab looked festive for awhile. Next up, decorating for Valentine's Day! Since I'm a bit at a loss as for what it does, yes, I will be cutting out construction paper hearts and taping them up as soon as February hits. I'm gonna make these students from abroad enjoy American holidays.. oh yes.

Hmm.. what else..

Got confirmation on the job in Japan and found out what day I should actually start work. Yeah.. I'm quite nervous at this point, but ultimately.. this will be a good experience. Pretty soon I can start making plans with people in Japan and figuring out who I'll be meeting with and when.

Korea.. should pick up the tickets really soon, but still need to hear back from someone via e-mail before I can actually pick exact dates and times.

Otherwise.. pretty exciting! We'll see how it goes, and I'll keep people updated as new info comes in.

Now I just need to find out what the style of dress for my teaching job in Japan is. I might need to buy some more dress shirts.. which leads to the question: do I buy them now, or wait until I get there? A least I still have 6 months to figure these minor details out..

Off I go..!
Jason on 01.08.08 @ 01:30 PM JST [more..]

Monday, January 7th

When dreams come to life..

Current Sounds: Within Temptation - See Who I Am

All the stuff regarding my next six months is starting to become very, very real. And it's very, very scary. Today I got a confirmation e-mail regarding the job in Japan and asking when I'll come in to start working.

When? Like.. you mean you want me to actually do it? This is 'real' and not some distant illusion I've been talking about for years? Hmm.. the prospect of moving to Japan is very quickly becoming a reality. Unfortunately, the logistics aren't so simple. I graduate mid-May, and I said I'll start around mid-June. This leaves me about 1 month to take care of my affairs.. so ideally, I'll deal with that stuff during the semester so I don't spend my finals week packing. And selling stuff. Blah.

But I don't want to just pack up, fly, and take a train into the new city.. so I'm going to Japan 2 weeks early, mailing all my boxes of stuff and bags, and taking a small bag with me on a whirlwind 2-week tour of Japan. With a train pass you can buy in the states, you can ride any train in Japan for 1-3 weeks for free (well.. with the purchase of the pass, but it really pays for itself). Not only is it a good experience, but I know a bunch of people around the country who I've met over the years through school and work that I can visit/live with for a few days at a time.

Ultimately, this means I have about 2 weeks from graduation to settle everything. Amazing. Scary.. and amazing. I'm sure things will work out, but it's a matter of finding out how things will work out that tends to be tough. I find that you tend to figure that out somewhere in the midst of new things, just moments after everything seems impossible.

The plans for Korea have also been finalized, dates are chosen, I just need to get the ticket (waiting on someone else to confirm when they'll come). Pretty exciting, all told.. but still hard to make myself stop thinking about it and just relax. I have 6 months, and all things must change. Things have a tendency of working out..

I should get going.. gotta work again tomorrow and should study a little more tonight before I go to bed. I'll keep people updated on this stuff as more details come along.. More personal stuff (like exact dates of departure, addresses, phone numbers and the like) will be sent along via e-mail. I doubt I'll know my address for awhile, though, and my phone number will be a cell, which I won't have until I get there. So.. we'll see!

Let's keep on truckin'..
Jason on 01.07.08 @ 08:41 PM JST [link]

Sunday, January 6th

More late night ramblings. And Korean is hard!

Current Sounds: Bana - Half Pain

Didn't do a whole lot today.. just went out, bought some more cards to mail off for people's birthdays and such and started on studying some Korean. Got the basic vowels down to about 95% accuracy and working on the consonants. Seems fairly straight forward.. it's just tough to get yourself through it and to actually start.

Back to work this week, then school starts next week. It's so strange to think about my 'last semester'. I know it seems to trivial, but all the 'lasts' just seem like so much. You want to hang onto it, even if it does seem unimportant. These are the memories you'll want later.. right? I'm not sure how important "my last textbooks" will be in a year or so, but hey.. might as well make the most of it while it's here.

I've also gotten around to downloading more Japanese and Korean speaking practice audio files (yay for free podcasts), so hopefully I can start listening to those soon. So much to learn.. blah. Fortunately, I like school and enjoy these topics, but still.. I get tired of it sometimes. But I don't like to sit around and just 'enjoy' things either, because then I feel lazy. I guess it's good in the end, but.. "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy", or so I hear.

Anyway, I included a picture under "more..". I may have already uploaded it, but no loss either way. For the record, that's lemonade in the glass there.

OH! And Kat, I tried to call you, but I guess the phone number I have for you is outdated. If you have a new phone number, could you e-mail it to me? I'd like to call sometime, and it's no problem.. I just don't have a current number. Thanks!
Jason on 01.06.08 @ 10:42 PM JST [more..]

Saturday, January 5th

You have to be bad to get good

Current Sounds: History Channel in the background

Not really a whole lot to say, just that I'm back to work.. much happier to be out and have something to do during the day. I also got all my textbooks for this semester in, and some other stuff ordered on Amazon. It's really ironic that in the same package I get high-level explanations of Japanese on linguistical levels and of casual slang (things not taught in the class) and a book on beginner's, very basic Korean.

I don't imagine I'm going to become terribly good at Korean in the two months I have before I go, but I'd at least like to be able to read the native writing (Hangul) so I can at least say what I'm looking at, or identify trains stations and such.. nevermind if I can understand it. That shouldn't take too long. Now, learning vocab and pronunciation.. that'll be the interesting part.

I've worked so hard to be conversational and halfway decent at Japanese. It's hard to go back and be terrible at this (which is what you have to do in order to start any language). But, ultimately, it'll be good. Or so I hope. Who knows.. I may really enjoy the language. Let's see how it goes, huh?

I'm gonna go to bed, but just felt like rambling about learning a new language..
Jason on 01.05.08 @ 11:15 PM JST [link]

Wednesday, January 2nd

2007 - Year in Review

Current Sounds: Lemon Demon - The Ultimate Battle of Ultimate Destiny

Well, 2007 has come and gone, and now we've entered 2008. What does this really mean? Absolutely nothing, and especially nothing remotely significant. Technically, the Earth has gone completely around the Sun from an arbitralily chosen point and back. This isn't to say that the new year isn't special. Nay, it's to say that I find it a bit interesting that taken outside of Western culture (and those Eastern cultures that have chosen to adapt it), there's nothing siginificant.

However! I happen to be Western, and whether or not the universe rocks with the change of one year to the next is of no significance to me. As such, it is special and different and I fully intend to treat that way. So before we talk about the new year and where things will go, let's review the last year!

2007, as a whole, left a little to be desired, especially the second half. If one were to focus on the negatives, it really wasn't such a cheery year. I lost all contact with one of my closest friends, had to fight it out with my college department and dealt with teachers trying to toy with my grades, two people died, and right before the year ended, things got ugly with my father. But life isn't all about the negatives. The good comes with the bad and vice-versa. As a whole, taking the wins with my losses, I think I came out ahead over this past year. If anything, the 'negative' events ultimately continue to strengthen my resolve and made me learn new things about myself and the world, even if these are lessons I would've sometimes preferred to do without.

I started working a steady job this year, even two jobs for about 6 weeks. I initially did it to give me something to do over the summer (since I really do dislike having nothing to do), but I've really enjoyed working and find it incredibly fulfilling. This is not the case with any job, as Target and I didn't exactly see eye-to-eye, but it is important to find something that meshes well with your personal ideas and values. In a little over half a year, I've gone from "the new guy" to working as the person in charge for the computer lab, doing scheduling, and organizing all other aspect of my job. Not exactly the most impressive thing in the world as a 'computer lab monitor', but it is progress, and the respect is important. It's nice to have people value what you say.

For the people I've lost touch with.. that's always a shame, and it's never something I do easily. In fact, I tend to 'cling' a bit. In fact, I do it quite often and way too long. No matter how bad the relationship is, shy of absolute and utter betrayal, I believe in at least trying to give a second chance. Of course, I tend to hang onto grudges for years and am liable to not trust the person again, but that doesn't mean we won't be talking anymore. When it does come time to sever ties, though, I believe in doing it completely and totally, without looking back. I won't go into the details, but it was important for me to break it off with some people this year, because maintaining a relationship was just becoming harmful to me.

This, again, isn't all bad. I've made many great friends at my job, and gone out and done alot of things I never would have. Maybe I taught them some English, but they taught me alot about their own cultures, customs, and universal concepts of people. I also had a chance to go visit a long-time (I've known her about.. 5 years?) friend in London for a week over spring break. Knock off another country from my list of 'places to make curry in'!

I think if there's anything specific stands out that I'm going to recall for years to come and has labeled 2007, though, it probably would have to be the people who died, one by sheer freak chance and the other by grief and choice. I can't really frame these as positives, but in a way that in itself is the valuable lesson behind it. Some things in life are just markedly, incomprehensibly painful. Life isn't fair, and sometimes it seems to border on the unfair even. It's all right to accept and hold onto the pain for awhile.. it's an important part of coming to terms with loss. But there's a limit to it. You need to let go, you need to live. Holding onto the pain forever is no better than dying yourself. You stagnate, and you lose in the end. It's like holding onto anger.. in the end, you gain nothing, and all you do is lose yourself in the process.

It's weird.. because I only knew Wendy for about 5 or so months. In that time, however, we became really close and talked alot about our personal lives and thoughts. She was just that type of person, the type who listens unconditionally and always has a minute to spare, no matter that's happening. I still see her in crowds sometimes. Pretty often, in fact, in large groups I can swear I see her walking in-between the people. I guess a part of me refuses to let go.

That's pretty much 2007 in a nutshell. As for what 2008 will bring.. I can't be sure yet. It will be interesting, though, regardless. I'll go to Korea in March and Japan.. likely in June or so. Life's changing pretty fast, but for now I want to just take things as they come. I've never been big on resolutions, but I opted for the good ol' standby: I'm going to do my best. I'll be the best person I can, and do what I can to bit-by-bit make the world a better place. When I go to bed at night, I'll be able to close my eyes knowing that I've done the best I can.

Cheesy, but hey.. it works.

This is long enough, so I'm gonna run for now.. but I'll write sometime again soon in this brave, new year!
Jason on 01.02.08 @ 10:21 AM JST [link]


January 2008
S	M	T	W	T	F	S
		1	2	3	4	5
6	7	8	9	10	11	12
13	14	15	16	17	18	19
20	21	22	23	24	25	26
27	28	29	30	31