creepin while ya sleepin

Season's greetings one and all. I am presently still in Japan. Just about every other foreigner has taken off for exotic locales but not I. I will leave Christmas morning and fly north 2 hours to Nagano. There, I will spend 6 days snowboarding on the beautiful slopes that were the setting for the 1998 Winter Olympics. It's been a pretty mild winter so far, hope it dumps when I get up there. Also, I have a year end party with a group of my teachers which promises to be a wild night. We have Thursday off for the Emporer's Birthday. Thanks, Emp.

Check out GOOGLETHINK from Adam's site. Pretty amazing stuff. Thanks for the link, Adam. (I can't figure out teh trackback thingy.)

Anatomy of an Affair

So yesterday I had the TV on when I glanced over and noticed a few familiar faces from my Board of Education on the local news. The cameras panned the audience and I noticed the room was filled with local principals from my schools and other guys I recognize. I didn't catch what the story was but it looked as if it was a important meeting. The head honchos of the city board of education were bowing in an apologetic way. So today I had to go into the office to take care of some stuff. As I was getting ready to leave, I casually mentioned to my supervisor Yuji, that I saw my principals on TV yesterday. I proceeded to ask him what the meeting was about. He sat me down and brought today's newspaper. He told me at one of the city high schools, a teacher was found to be having an affair with one of the students. So of course I had to ask him a bunch of questions. I talked with Yuji for about 20 minutes about the incident and about attitudes about this kind of stuff in Japan.

Apparently, a 30 year old teacher had been having a consensual relationship with a 3rd year student (17) for a few weeks. He said an anonymous e-mail had been sent to someone at the BOE. The course of action after this: the director of the Teaching Personnel Section, Mr. Kawakami, met with the teacher in question and got all the lurid details of the entire relationship. He then called the media and explained the situation who then interviewed Mr. Kawakami at length. Soon after this, a meeting was held (the one I saw on TV) with every prinicipal from every school in Kumamoto (Elementary, Junior and Senior High). I think the point was to let them know what happened and to stress what a severe issue this is. (My principal talked for about 10 minutes about it in the morning meeting at my school). The superintendant, along with Mr. Kawakami and some other higher ups decided to fire the teacher, therefore revoking his teacher's license. One thing that is truly Japanese: Yuji told me that the principal and vice principal of the high school where the man worked will be penalized, as in foregoing perhaps 10% of their salary! Unreal. Yuji also said there were people calling the BOE and the high school all day today. He said all the sports clubs at the school have been cancelled for the next few days because of increased media presence at the school.

If only this guy could have waited until this girl was 18 (whenever that is) or at least unitl April when she graduates. Now he'll be riding a bike around town with massive bags of aluminum cans hanging all over it. The moral: keep it in your pants at school, man.

Gaijin Traps

I spent the weekend in Aso. Jamie, Brad and I climbed the jagged peak next to Aso called Nekodake. I was the first to reach the top. I looked over the edge and it was a good 100m drop straight down. The ridge at the top was no wider than a footpath. Really cool though. We barley made it down before dark. That's what a 2:30 start time will get you. Then we spent the evening at various restaurants and bars in Jamie's small village of Uchinomaki. The night ended with me beating Jamie in three straight games of Othello on his PS2.

There are so many stories of things that have happened in Japan. Driving around the mountain roads today made me think of one story in particular. Two guys, Jason and Joe, were driving around on the rural roads. Many roads in Japan have drainage ditches running next to the roads. The are often referred to as gaijin traps, because it is very easy for unsuspecting foreigners to dip a wheel of their car into one of these ditches. One afternoon, Jason was driving with Joe the passenger and did just that. The car was jammed in the ditch and they couldn't budge it. At this point Jason had been in Japan quite a while and Joe, not so long. Jason had better Japanese. He asked a nearby farmer for some help. Right in front of Joe, in Japanese of course, Jason said his friend was driving and stupidly got his car stuck in a ditch. Joe realized what he said a few days later. (The farmer dragged their car out with the help of a tractor, but that's not important) Good stuff.

Pancake Breakfast

Pancake Breakfast
Originally uploaded by KumamotoMark.

This picture is from August 2003. It is the morning after a big party in honor of myself and sending me off for my second year in Japan. I am enjoying a nice drunken breakfast with Chip and Rebecca (and Biscan behind the camera). I would board a plane back to Japan in a few hours. It's the last photo I took of Chip. I said farewell to him that August morning. 11 months later, he was gone.

Sleeping Buddha

Aso
Originally uploaded by KumamotoMark.

This is Mt. Aso, a massive volcano about an hour from my house. I took this picture on the way to Kurokawa. It was in June when the grass is the greenest. The spot where I was standing is on the lip of the caldera. It's a massive bowl, hundreds of square kilos, the biggest in the world, so I've heard. I have many friends who have lived in the area, just a beautiful place. If you use a bit of imagination, you can picture the figure of a sleeping Buddha. The face is the jagged set of peaks to the left, which is Nekkodake. The belly button is Mt. Aso itself, where the active crater is. You can see a bit of smoke rising from the sulfur pit. Check Adam's Higo Blog for more gorgeous photos of Aso (Link to the right).

Billiken in Osaka

Billiken in Osaka
Originally uploaded by KumamotoMark.

Apparently the mascot of both my high school and college, the Billiken, has its origin in Japan. During my trip to Osaka in October this year, I found its roots. There is a district in Osaka City called Shinsekai (New World). There were Billikens all over signs, in front of restaurants and in gift shops. I picked up a few collectibles as you can clearly see in the picture. In addition to a ton of sightseeing in Osaka and historic Kyoto, I purchased a video camera in the technology rich area of the city. I had fun recording, then editing a video about my trip there. It will be available for public viewing when I return to St. Louis in January.

I am taking the Level 3 Japanese Proficiency Test this coming Sunday. I have been spending a little time recently just reviewing stuff I have already learned. I feel pretty confident about the test. The test has 4 levels, 4 being the easiest and 1 is pretty much complete fluency. My brother's friend Ed (seen in some of the wedding pictures) is taking level 1. Pretty impressive. Best of luck, Chu-hi.