Happenstance

today was the first time in a long time where i had to work but didn't have any classes to teach. for some of the other teachers here, this happens quite often and we spend the day in the office preparing our lesson materials when this happens. today is the third time in the eight months i have been with the company where i get to do this. usually i'm covering at another teacher's school in lieu of having an office day so the only prep time i get occurs before my lesson. i have learned to get quite creative with this time and usually can conjure up some fun things to do on limited materials. but today i'm here at the office and pre-writing this blog entry instead of preparing. ironic. strangely, considering how renowned the japanese are for being tech-savvy, my laptop is the only computer in the entire office, which is the central hub for about 150 employees. one thing about the business environment in japan that drives me insane is the archaic use of the fax machine for nearly all communications. i'm interested to know how many computers the entire company has across japan, because i imagine they only have a few in the head office if our district office is in any way indicative of the whole. i cringe when i hear the starting whir of the fax machine and wonder if that's what trees would sound like if they could scream in agony.

i can't remember if i told this story in one of my notoriously long group emails, but it deserves a recapitulation. for brevity's sake i'll try to tell it quickly. in april i was invited to an outdoor music festival in osaka by my friend kelley. he was staying at his in-law's place that weekend and would be staying in osaka the night before so we agreed to meet there instead of traveling together as we normally would. i was forced to venture into osaka all alone and try to find the festival. for those of you who don't know, osaka is a metropolis with a population of over 25 million people, and is the third largest city in japan after tokyo and nagoya. i was a little worried i wouldn't be able to find kelley and his wife satomi if i flew solo, assuming i was even able to find the correct location of the festival. fortunately the outdoor venue was right outside of a train station so it wasn't too hard to find, though to my chagrin kelley was nowhere to be found for about an hour's time. in that time, while i was wandering around hopelessly foreign and hopelessly alone, i decided to employ my cell phone in hopes that it would help me track down my friend. just as i was about to write the email explaining my position, i heard a familiar voice that i'd not heard in a long time. i looked up to see an equally familiar face and without thinking i waited for her to pass by me and then called out "jen". she stopped, turned, and the colour drained out of her face. i opened up my hands in disbelief and made the same face back at her. it was jen neales, an old classmate and fellow guelph drama program alumus. we both freaked out. i didn't know that she was in osaka and she had no idea that i was even in japan. remember that this is a country of 126 million people. as i was trying to reenact the face i made when i saw her pass by me for her, i turned and made the same face to vicki hambley and corey liston, who had walked up separately behind me. it was the second time i made the face with geniune shock. i was blown away. it's such a small world.

this weekend i am going to have to cancel my japanese lesson because vicki and jen are having their sayonara party on saturday night. corey's still going to be here, thankfully, but it's sad that vicki and jen are both leaving so soon. it was a stroke of amazing luck that i would bump into them in the middle of osaka and i wish i had more time to hang out with them now that i've found them. but they're heading back to canada and i'll have to wait until i return to see them again.

it's nice to know that i have friends stationed all over the world, as my future traveling adventures will require places to sleep along the way. so get out there. i am still looking for people to be living in south america and africa when i set out. any takers?

Summer Breaks

well, it seems that after a long, long period of incessant humidity and oppressive heat, the world beyond my air-conditioned room is starting to cool off. yesterday the air was said to contain a gentle cool breeze. the rice stalks are heavy with maturation and ready to be harvested. in a way it's a shame, because for many areas it's as much green space as you see and i hate the look of the empty dirt fields interspersed between the apartment high-rises and the run-down stripmalls here in shikama.

my hobby as an amateur runner has suffered greatly from the heat because i've had to change my regimen to avoid the sun, leaving me to run at night. typically this meant starting my run after work at 11pm or later. between stretching and the walking cool-off, i was lucky to hit the showers by 1:30am. last night, however, with the cool night breeze i set out to put myself back on track. there was i time when i was running 12km almost every other day, and i hadn't done a full route for quite some time. but something happened.

i'm now sitting in my apartment in a state of ridiculous pain. based on a brief internet search, i'm pretty sure i've managed to give myself itb, or iliotibial band syndrome. and it hurts. fortunately it doesn't look too serious and i should be able to treat it myself. but it's the first time i have sustained an injury from running and i guess i just tried too hard to jump back into my full route after taking time off. stupid.

well, i won't be jumping around with the kids today. hopefully i can find a way to teach from a stationary position and we can keep the dancing out of it. i suddenly feel 75 years old. i have to teach some of my wildest kids today. wish me luck.

But enough about me...

i'm appalled at the way the american government has dealt with their ongoing disaster. that's not what you want to hear. most of the people reading on this website want to know how my life is going in japan. be assured that life here is both comfortable and adventurous. but i've become so complacent with the taken-for-granted freedom that i have been given that at times i forget about the strife of our american neighbours.

i'll say this, before i turn to partisanship: i am happy that i'm here instead of there, for fear of being imperialistically annexed by the united states. the name of their country has quickly become ironic. never has the u.s. been less united.

how has a single chimp of a leader managed to divide such an otherwise strong nation? god save the united states of america. it won't be long before your radical differences in politics and value systems tear you apart. i pray that civil war on american soil will never happen again. you are ruled by power-hungry idiots with money. they can afford the guns. attempt peaceful protest. avoid violence. don't give them the satisfaction.

your government has manipulated your value systems by acquiring control of the media and subsequently sedating you with it. think for yourself. question authority. never has critical thought been a more important asset in your history. never before have you been so bombarded with such extremist rhetoric. never before have you been so needlessly afraid.

i must pause, however, at this very point. for quite some time, on this side of the world, i have been ready to preach that the fear you have been programmed to arm yourselves with has been unnecessary. but i must refine my stance to let you know that i now feel your fear is misdirected. your fear is valid, though its current target is a scapegoat. fear the decisions your government is making. fear a leader who decides on your behalf that a war should be waged against those who have yet to attack you. fear those who instate laws to remove the people from the diplomatic process. fear those who demonstrate their incompetence to protect you by taking a six week vacation while your poor and disenfranchised drown in the tides of an aforeseen natural disaster. fear those who forget the poor, the black, the historically victimized. fear them because they are the least compassionate of all. but for christ's sake, do something about it. refuse to lose your agency to fear.

i wish i could update this blog with more pictures of me eating sushi, but it just wouldn't be fair. this disaster in new orleans is going to be a turning point for america; i know that right now, as i write all of this, george w. bush is taking this opportunity to mention 9/11 in whatever speeches he is making, but i want you to understand that this is only being done because karl rove believes that a 39% approval rating can be improved.bBoth of these men are criminals.

can you trust any leader who takes a six-week vacation while the citizens of his country are dying, whether they be in a remote country (fighting an unprovoked war) or at home? can you trust anyone who delays in taking action when people of his own country are dying or drowning on their own soil? can you trust a government who will dedicate time and money to impeaching a president with a cigar fetish but not one with the lowest approval rating in American history? can you trust someone who has been wrong time after time, or someone who makes a practice of ruining anything that he touches? can you trust a person who will abandon anything he gets tired of maintaining, whether it be an oil company or a baseball team or a nation? can you support a man who will wage an international war to resolve the unavenged grudge of his father? forget god bless america. somebody please save america. save america from themselves.

for anyone who has read this far, know that i am thinking of you all while i am here and you are all the way over there. i have learnt to appreciate human beings despite how often they let me down. i have learned to treasure the ones i love and pine for the ones who have lost themselves in the name of greed or fear or hatred. i may be far away, but my friends and family live deep within my heart.

remember that while you may know hardships and pain, you may never know the people who are lifelong victims. no matter what the media tells you, know that we are one people, and regardless of how you attained your current state of comfort there are people who are in need and it is your ongoing responsibility to ensure the welfare of everyone.

if there is a god willing to help out this secular era, please do what you can with your divine ability to redirect this tragically misguided human race. what a disgrace we've become.

Before the Glenfiddich sets in...

outside of my apartment, there's one hell of a storm going on.

this is my first experience with a typhoon. apparently, september is typhoon season in japan. they have titled this particular storm "nabi" after the korean word for butterfly. she is my no means graceful. oddly enough, i was en route to work today when i noticed a small butterfly was hitching a ride on the train i was taking to work. i tried desperately to coax the small (albeit immensely beautiful) creature into the palm of my hand so that i could release it outside of the train car before a less compassionate passenger killed it, but it was wise enough to be wary of human contact and resisted my attempts. i had my digital camera with me but it never occurred to me to snap a picture of this timid and delicate insect. i was too caught up in plotting its escape.

half of my classes had been cancelled on account of the impending storm, but they sent me to work nonetheless to teach the classes that they could squeeze in before the typhoon was set to hit himeji. it didn't take a lot of arm-twisting for one of my coworkers to talk me into a celebratory "half-day" drink. after all, we were still getting paid for the classes we were supposed to be teaching by the time we got to the bar. but in the interest of customer safety, we had been set free on the town.

two interesting encounters with proprietors happened this evening. both of these gentlemen run bars in the entertainment district of himeji; one has just opened a sports bar and the other is trying to think of ways to attract more clientele to his hip-hop-style club. i was in a particularly generous mood and felt the overwhelming desire to contribute to their success. upon completion of this entry i will be researching new drink recipes for one man and attempt to unravel new means of advertising for the other. while this may seem like i am working within a conflict of interest, neither man has paid me any money and I would be equally happy to see one or both of them succeed. most of the party animals in himeji make a point of visiting osaka or sannomiya to have a good time, but all it will take is a reconstruction of the entertainment district to turn himeji into a happening place.

the wind whistles and whirrs and percolates under the mock shelter of my porch's cement awning. i gasp and sigh and yawn, all within the span of a few brief moments. the excitement generated by the natural turmoil is both fleeting and renewable. i am comforted by the safety of my apartment, and continuously grateful for the roof over my head. not all of us have been so lucky in the last few weeks, and we must hold the residents of new orleans in our hearts.

turmoil happens continuously; destruction and renewal are part of a natural process that is both irrefutable and unstoppable. but the victims are very real - their suffering great, their plight unexpected, and their homes destroyed. remember the people of iraq, the people of sri lanka and indonesia, the people of china and africa: the children of strife. we are but one people, continuously displaced. our geography reminds us of our differences, though feeble and trite that they are.

when we begin to see each other as one people, only then do the wars we wage wax meaningless and the dream of unity shine feasible.

i'm exhausted. be well. keep safe. listen to bob marley.