Ouch.

Sucks to be you guys. At least out here I have a 660cc engine that makes the $4.50/gallon gas go a long way.

Sunday Night Depression

Well, it's Sunday night at 11:50 pm and we're not in bed. I TOLD YOU SO, GREG. We totally should have watched The Chronicals of Narnia, but you were all "Let's try to get to bed early". Well, where are we now? Where are we now.

Anyway, we had a pretty restful weekend, which means I didn't do any of the things I mean to do. Mostly this involved figuring out what I'm going to do for the new weekly 90 minute English lesson Mrs. Suzuki talked me in to giving her daughter. I have got to learn how to say "No" to people. I'm trying to teach her real, useful English like the varitions of calling someone an ass (such as asshole, ass clown, ass hat, etc). But I don't have a text book or really any sort of plan, and I certainly didn't fix any of those problems this weekend.

So from tomorrow we have work. A full 5 day week at the end of which we will spend Saturday drinking and meating (yes, as in the stuff that comes from animals) and singing for a 3-way birthday party extravaganza... or whatever. Then if we can live through Monday and Tuesday of next week without becoming violent towards our coworkers we are rewarded with the much coveted GOLDEN WEEK 5 DAY WEEKEND. Then of course we don't have another holiday off until the end of June.

Now, I know how much you guys all hate to nag Greg, but he has to get his visa changed and he just refuses to email Saki about it. Basically, he can go to Boston without doing it but it's a huge waste of money for us. So everybody please but the crap out of him. He has learned to ignore me.

Dead tired

Although neither of us are as ill as we were in the days immediately surrounding the beginning of the new school year, both Sam and I have continued to suffer mild colds over the last week or so. That, combined with the fact that last weekend was completely taken up by events (read: drinking parties) with the PTA and union activity, left me utterly exhausted. But now it's noon Saturday, I've just woken up, and all is well. Anyway, this is the time of year when the rice paddies are flooded for planting. Somehow, thousands of years ago, the Chinese figured out that rice is a water-resistant crop. So by planting rice seedlings and then flooding the fields, the rice grows and the weeds drown. Pretty neat, really.

 
  

Iran

I usually try to keep my political ranting segregated to places like bars, but the stories I've been reading over the last week from back home have me scared, quite frankly. Living overseas during the buildup to the Iraq war wasn't fun. If the rumors about US plans to attack Iran have any basis in fact, the protests resulting from such action will be even worse. People overseas are much more predisposed to anti-Americanism now than they were in 2002. And if, god forbid, we were stupid enough to use nukes, well, I shouldn't need to point out that the Japanese have particularly strong feelings about the use of nuclear weapons (so much so that there are ongoing protests about plans to replace the Kitty Hawk with a Nimitz-class nuclear carrier at Yokosuka). It wouldn't be pretty here.

The Union of Concerned Scientists has more about the limited effectiveness of bunker-busters (Flash animation).

And if people can't understand why Iran could possibly be so deadset on aquiring the bomb, maybe this graphic will help. US flags denote countries where we have military basing and/or flyover rights.



There. I apologize for my ranting. We now return you to your regularly scheduled Japan-blogging.

Springtime! (for Hitler)

Springtime in Japanese elementary schools brings two things, reliably: sakura (cherry blossoms) and six year-olds. April 1st brings the beginning of the new fiscal year (and school year) here in J-land, which came this year without fail, as usual. The cherry blossoms, however (at least compared to our experience last year), have all been blown down by high winds, nearly as fast as they've been able to blossom. This time last year, we were treated to trees fully consumed by the pink and white blossoms, this year the trees are nearly bare, with the blossoms decorating our sports fields. Here's the evidence.


Like I said, the blossoms are all on the ground instead of in the trees.


Weather be damned, the new first grade students are still the cutest things on the planet.

Oops!

I thought this might interest recent visitors who have been to Tateyama.

Philippines-registered container ship Eastern Challenger is seen half submerged after collision with Japanese freighter Tsugaru Maru, off Tateyama, east of Tokyo, April 13, 2006. All crew members were rescued and none injured. REUTERS

OK, my update

Blogger hasn't been letting me log in. SERIOUSLY!

So Greg and I have been in an out of the doctors office all week. He's looking and sounding better, and I'm getting there. Somehow in all of the mess (hmm... I wonder how) we didn't sign new contracts. This is great for our position in the union. Health insurance, pension, and unemployment insurance here we come! Of course Greg won't bother Saki about his new visa status, which is making life difficult. C'mon Greg! Just email her.

I saw Mrs. Suzuki on Friday. She just about jumped on me. I'm not sure of the exact details (because she was so excited she could hardly speak any language and she was trying for English), but I believe we are going to be some sort of Goodwill representatives at the re-opening of Narita Airport Terminal 1 this June. So, yeah, that's like exciting. Yay for us? Also she suckered me into tutoring her daughter in English. I'm not happy about that at all because... because. I think Greg and I are the only foreigners in Japan who are perfectly comfortable with our income and work hours and don't want to take extra jobs. I really don't. But it's Mrs. Suzuki and she wants her daughter to be able to go to study abroad in high school or college so obviously the kid needs to level up or whatever.

Whatever. We have a lot of laundry to do so I now have to convince Greg to do it.

back to normal

After a final stop at my favorite ramen shop in the world (a tin shack off route 62), our visitors departed safely this afternoon. They should still be en route to San Francisco, although not for much longer. Now they'll both experience the joy of having two Tuesdays. Flying home from Japan is weird like that.

After seeing my parents off at the airport I took a train to Ichikawa, just this side of Tokyo, where Sam had driven a truck to earlier. Two friends of ours are leaving Japan, and we arranged to take a bunch of their stuff. Navigating Japanese streets in a 2000kg truck seemed daunting to me, but Sam jumped right into the cab and did all the driving. It was impressive. And now we have another dresser, a real bed (as opposed to the Japanese-style futon mattress we've been sleeping on for two years) and a soft bean-bag-like chair that Subaru hasn't left in hours.

And finally, tomorrow is the first day of the new school year, so Sam and I have to bring our suits for the ceremonies. Should be fun.