Please send me cookies from home

Here are a few updates...

• We're into the summer school stretch of work right now, which forces every native English speaker in my company into an eight-day stretch of work without a day off. At the end of this period, which makes the Japanese teachers quite wealthy because of the bonuses they receive for selling spots to the parents of the regular students, we do receive a couple of bonus days off. It's not really worth the grief of it though.
  
• For my first leg of the summer school stretch, I was sent on a business trip to the Osaka area where I taught in an area of Japan I hadn't been to. The company put me up in a hotel in Wakayama City, which I've only ever driven through before when I went to the prefecture during the Golden Week holiday. The city is quite nice and I found a little bar called Faces which is run by a man named Ricardo who is half-Japanese and half-Brazilian. Nice guy, and definitely a place I'll go back to if I ever go back to Wakayama city.
• My friend Jesse has returned from China only 3 months into his planned 6 month retreat due to visa complications. I guess in the time he was out there learning kung-fu he learned a lot and it would have been nice for him to stay to finish his plan, but stuff happens.
  
• I'll be going to Tokyo for the first time in the near future during the Obon festival. We had originally planned to party in Tokyo on the Saturday nights and head north to Nikko after that but everything is all booked up. Obon is one of the most popular times in the Japanese calendar for Japanese people to travel, because the celebration is held as a time when people are supposed to return to their home towns and pay respect to their elders who have already passed on. It's a lot like the Mexican celebration of el Di­a de los Muertos.
  

And nothing else is really new. Life is busy as usual, so why don't one of you send me a message or funny story that I can add to here. Your lives deserve to be written about, especially if there's nothing of note happening in mine! I'll try to find some interesting photos or videos to post soon. Assuming I can find something picture-worthy to capture. I might just be getting some urban-wasteland fever here in Japan.

When the rain comes, they run and hide their heads

Well, as some of you know from my incessant ranting on the subject, the summer months in Japan are also the infamous rainy season, which is later interrupted by the arrival of the typhoon season in late September. Usually, there's a bit of a break between the rainy and typhoon seasons, but it's hard to tell when the weather's going to let up. For the last two months it's been torrential on a few occasions here in Himeji and I must admit that it's starting to try my patience. How I long for the soft summer evenings of Algonquin Park and how a Canadian summer morning on my screened porch in Markham feels as the dew evaporates away.

Of course, looking at the photos I've posted up here, you probably don't believe a word of this.

Now I realize that my memories are quite selective. I hear that Toronto has been facing some pretty extreme summer weather lately. I shall nonetheless continue to roll about in the patch of nostalgia I've planted for myself because it just helps me get through the wet, wet summer I'm dealing with over here.



Summer does bring some good news with it, of course. Everyone's in the mood for the beach! While most of the beaches in the vicinity of Himeji are pretty polluted (in the name of industrial enterprise) and are thus somewhat unswimmable, there are a few places to escape to if you play your cards right. This past weekend was once again a truncated one-day weekend, but I managed to squeeze in a trip down to Tokushima for a surfing trip. I haven't gotten any better at it since last year, but I'm committed to practicing more this time around. It was a fun-filled and exhausting day to say the very least. I was pretty wiped by the end of the day, and it probably didn't help that I went to a beach-themed party the night before.



At Coast, a sports and surf-themed bar just north of Himeji Castle, the floors were covered with beach sand and the owner Yumi threw a barefoot beach-style party that lasted until about 4:30 am. My friend Timmy and I decided that we would dress-up for the occasion in hopes of out-doing the many bikini-clad Japanese women who would be there, so we bought some bamboo curtains to fabricate some tropical skirts (there were no grass skirts to be found) and decked ourselves out in leis and touristy hats and sunglasses. Timmy even fashioned himself a coconut bikini top and we blasted into the party (quite) fashionably late to the shock and awe of everyone there. Being the only topless men in the whole place we attracted a lot of attention and the night was just fantastic. I think I snapped nearly 110 photos that night, although most of them were of Timmy and I in compromising poses, as you can clearly see.



As an aside, I might recommend that anyone thinking of converting bamboo blinds into pseudo-grass skirts have their head examined. The back of my legs are scratched to a bloody pulp, and the salt water surfing I did the next day didn't feel very pleasant. Never a dull moment in Japan.

Yesterday I had a big all-day meeting out of town so I'm still not completely recharged. Today should be an easy day, and all these one-day weekends have forced my company to give me some other days off at the end of the month, so I think I'm looking at a 4-day weekend coming up. What am I going to do with myself, I wonder?

Hope you're all well. Drop me a line or send me a photo if you find the time!

Just in Case...

Konnichiwa!
Hello!
Christian (Kurisuchan) desu.
My name is Christian.
mayotteitara, byouin ni.
If lost, take to hospital.

Sore Thumb is to Hand as Christian is to Train

Almost a day off...

I finally have a moment to relax. If only for a second.

After not having a two-day weekend for over three consecutive weeks, it was nice to have only a short Monday due to an early morning staff meeting. I've just returned from it now and will make my way out again as soon as my laundry is done.

But in the meantime, an update opportunity! Oh, giggles!

The last month or so has been quite the adventure. My parents were due to arrive in Japan on June 17th where they would've been joining me on a two-week holiday across Japan. The prospect of which excited me greatly; not only could I see the parts of Japan I've yet to see (read: Tokyo) but also get to see Lynne and Larry after a long six months away from all things home. I started salivating at the thought of a surprise batch of Mom's cookies.

Unfortunately, my father had a bit of a heart "episode" which was later upgraded to "attack" and the trip was put off for the time being. It was a complete blessing in the way because old Dad's perfectly alright now, and the heart attack was so minor that he wasn't even completely sure he had had it. Larry's ticker is still tip-top and he's okay. I'm relieved. It could have been terrible if something had happened on the plane or even here in Japan. Confident as I am that I could get us both help and subsequently to a hospital if there was a health incident while my parents were here, the environs would have added to the stress of an already stressful situation.

In both the long and short run of things, I'm entirely happy that my parents were not able to come. Everyday there are people having heart attacks who lose to them immediately. Pops got a knock on the door and his heart attack even wiped its feet before coming in. No damage to the heart and a strengthened artery and Dad joins me in the ranks reinforced MacInnises (MacInni?) with Six Million Dollar Man upgrades (I for my hernia, now reinforced with some surgical procedure involving a damaged muscle wall and bionic Teflon mesh, and Dad for his remolded artery). How cool is science?

Saying all this, I still can't wait for them to arrive for their rescheduled November vacation to the Far East, which should be right near the end of my own adventure here in Japan. I was allowed to cancel the vacation time I booked and reschedule it for the end of my contract. Less rain then, and now we have more time to plan our agenda out. I now plan on arriving in Thailand come December. From what I understand, this should help us avoid the rainy season in some of the areas we're going while still allowing me to be back in Canada by June of next year. I'll be all traveled-out by then, so would all of you please-please-please come and visit me wherever I end up. I've decided I definitely need to be on Canadian soil for a little while. I was telling my friend Alex yesterday that I know and understand what it means to identify as a Canadian now more than ever before, but what its like to live the life is starting to escape my mental grasp. Being here has changed me. You all know it. For one thing, I have never been this bad at email in my entire life. And I'm more a citizen of the world, more a pacifist than I was prior to arriving, and living without an internal fear-gauge for the first time in as long as I can remember. Maybe I'm just finally coming into my own, but it sure feels good.

Back to the email thing, I suppose that I'm always just a bit busy. Were there countless university hours to spend in front of the computer? There weren't, but I managed to find hours anyway. As a result I slept in a lot, missed a lot of classes and probably got less than I should have out of some of my courses. At the time, I found this particularly easy to justify in my electorate classes. Missing them was a breeze. But I know now that if I do decide to return for some graduate work, it'll have to be all or nothing. I've learned a lot of discipline with this little stint in the workforce.

Now time seems to stretch a little bit between each commitment. I'm lucky in many ways because I know a lot of great people in the Himeji area. I try to see people whenever I can, but there's less time for everything as things are busy. A few of the teachers have been on vacation over the last little while so I've been working some extra days to fill in for them. It's hard to deal with, especially in the face of losing your own vacation, but I'm glad someone got to have some time with their folks in lieu of mine arriving for me.

Oh mother, I can feel the soil falling over my head.

Some great people are leaving Japan before me, it seems. My American friend Jesse left to go to China and study kung-fu. Seriously. He's a good guy to have on your side. And so very amicable! But now, to lose two lovely people I've met here (and in the same week!) is heartbreaking! Both Miako and Miki are leaving this week to embark on their own adventures. Miki-chan is off to study at Carleton in Ottawa and in a playful twist of irony, this Canadian remains here in Japan; Miako is commencing her two-year round-the-world travel with about $20,000 to her name and time to kill, starting in Thailand and Nepal. I imagine that she's going to see it all. Selfishly, I don't want you guys to go anywhere, because we'll all miss you both. I nonetheless endorse your journeys whole-heartedly and demand pictures from time to time.

Miki and I did get to see Kyoto last weekend and I'll throw up some pictures from that trip shortly. It was her first time there, so I was her gaikokujin (foreigner) tour guide. It was kind of fun showing a Japanese person around Kyoto because it's such a cornerstone of old Japanese culture and incredibly well preserved. Our visit to Kinkaku-ji remains a definite highlight of the trip. The Golden Pavilion of Kyoto. Majestic. I regret to say that I have yet to see a kabuki show, and seeing as how I'm a theatre alumni, I find it disgraceful. Apologies to the following wonderful Guelph faculty: Alan Filewod, Harry Lane, Allan Watts, Ric Knowles, Sky Gilbert, Kim Renders, Judith Thompson, and Jerrard Smith.

Don't worry. I'll get there eventually.

Have to run. The laundry's finished and I have an appointment with punishment. More details soon.

Long Days and Pleasant Nights

i'm still alive, 'naught should you fret
nor cry alarms from minarets
delayed are these - words so afew
partitions of a story new?

or should you find to have a laugh
distracted by a photograph?
it seems said path will run its course
this misdirecting sleight aforce

crawling through a country's old
time-insulated manifold -
but such tales deserve the time
i've not to give right now of mine

should patience now you find to wait
and i, time to elaborate
you'll find it here, so please return
and something new perchance you'll learn...