I've been in Japan 9 months and 7 days.
I work at Kawasaki Nova teaching English. Scheduled days:
Thursday, Friday 1:20pm - 9pm; Saturday, Sunday, Monday ~10am -
~5:30pm.
But right now, I'm on day 8 of 9 days of winter
vacation.
I live in Bell Wistaria in ¹ËÅç with Dan. John, our strange
roommate, moved out recently.
I have been taking Japanese every week on Friday in Shibuya for
some months. My Japanese is getting better. Recently I asked
Ayana to jump back to learn the ¤Æ form of verb conjugation,
which is where I seemed to lose it and new grammars just piled on
top.
(This reminds me of jumping into Calculus my first year of college
and doing miserably, and then jumping back to college algebra and
doing famously. Well, better.)
Today I went skating for the first time in Japan, though I've
had my skates here for 3+ months.
This was my first New Year's (I think???) spent outside of the
US.
I've not hung out with Miki in a while; she has been removed
from my list of potential mates (for lacking the courage to meet
me in Ginza for dinner), but I'll probably still be buds with her.
I've drawn a painting thing that I'll probably give her
soon.
I judge that I owe her an explanation so that she can choose to
better herself if she wants.
I have hung out with Yuuko some recently. She's loud and funny
and seems more apt to go for what she wants. I kissed Yuko a few
times on New Year's Eve night. I haven't seen her since
then.
janette and I have decided to break up after she comes to
Japan in a couple weeks. We'll still be buds though we haven't
really defined what that will look like. I'm partially torn
about her coming as if it's for the wrong reasons; like if we are
going to break up, then she shouldn't oughta come.
Her POV suggests that we are already broken up and she is coming as
a Friend With Benefits and she says she's okay with that. I have
tried FWB relationship in the past (Christine) and it was somewhat
disasterous. This time, though, I'm much more emotionally and
personally mature. I imagine it can work for us.
The answer to, "tell me something sweet" is not "like
what?"
Fortunately, I knew this. I said, "I like how clear your eyes
are," then added, "when you smile at me." Whew.
My new computer battery (obtained free via Apple Store in Ginza
and my Applecare Warranty (with which I have been veerry happy))
holds a charge for hours instead of 8 minutes.
I've not had the "courage" to bring a burned CD to work, like,
"hey guys this is my offering to our musical stylings in
the back room," but now I'm listening to the final draft of my
playlist and will burn a CD today probably.
The playlist:
Homer explains the Muppets The Simpsons
Johnny Ryall The Beastie Boys
I left my wallet in El Segundo A tribe called Quest
Posse On Broadway Sir Mix-a-Lot
The Frail Nine Inch Nails
The Wretched Nine Inch Nails
MC Speller Muckafurgason
My name is Lenny Lenny
Turning Japanese Punk Covers
Just a Friend Biz Markie
Pollen Mirah
Moe And The Lie Detector The Simpsons
Apache Rap Sir Mix-A-Lot
Like You Just Don't Care Si Begg
Particle Man They Might Be Giants
What Would Brian Boitano Do... South Park
Fish Happens S.O.L.O.
Hit It Run Run-DMC
Bulls on Parade Rage Against The Machine
Die Mother Fuckers!!!! Office Space Soundtrack
Roll Out My Business Ludacris
Back back (gimme fifty feet) Lil' Flip
Rubber Car Enon
Jay's Rap Jay & Silent Bob
It's just slightly different than the CD I sent to
janette.
Douglas
Adams (apparently) wrote "anything that gets invented after you're
thirty is against the natural order of things and the beginning of the
end of civilisation as we know it until it's been around for about ten
years when it gradually turns out to be alright really."
As I see the world changing around us at an ever increasing
rate, I wonder if I've begun to fall into the after 30 category.
For example, I don't have an MD player; though I do have mp3s on my
computer.
Part of it is that I don't buy as much stuff as (I imagine) would
be required to keep up with the latest technologies. That's been
true for me since high school.
But then besides just buying stuff, there are online RPGs that are
super popular I've heard, but I don't know anything else about
them. And I don't know how to use or even access IRC.
Maybe he's talking more about different technologies as in earth
shaking technologies like cloning will be, or nanotechnology will
be.. Sigh; I dunno.
I have just realized a point of confusion in my brain. It
seems to stem from me looking to other sources for guidance.
janette has told me that she is money ($) and I'd be hard pressed
to find anyone as amazing as her and I therefore believe that and
think of ways to make myself get over my judgement that janette
is too old for me.
But there it is; I think janette is too old for me; I take to
heart my peers (Frank, in one case) saying rude things about anyone
who would date someone 18 years older, and just remained silent when
they all agreed to various degrees.
I think my angels are telling me to make a list of qualities I want
to find in my perfect mate. Wende did this some time ago and a cat
named Peter showed up (and by cat I mean man (not her cat Peter (and
by cat I mean feline housecat (and by feline housecat I mean fat
feline housecat (and by fat I mean gentle giant))))). janette has
talked about doing this.
I trust that this will work. My shadow consciousness says "the
universe can provide, but can you recognize?"
I trust that this will work.
($) dammit I don't want to use this phrase in such a serious (+)
thing as a State of My Life Address, but I'm going to anyway
because I'm dumping out what is truly coming to my mind, like the
thoughts just wiggle down my arms and through these keys (thanks,
janette)
I often use the term money to mean good; Frank put it in my
brain.
(+) Yuuko says I'm serious a lot, so it's interesting that I
use this term; maybe there's a lesson in this about acting serious
all the time, like life is seriously serious.
I tend to seek things that bring me joy; that allow me to not be
so serious. (I'm intrigued by this word "allow").. These things
are (currently): sleeping, having the attention of attractive
women, eating. These things have been: YRUU advising, riding my
bike, skating, climbing waterfalls,
There's something in here about proving to others my integrity, or
being myself (who is serious(?)), or being the best me I can be.
Like being such a stickler for spelling, and for honesty, and for
determination, and strength, and health, and generosity, and all
these myriad traits that I think are good in a person; I went them
all for myself. Not all for myself, but all in myself all
at the same time. I want to be the best me I can be, and part of
that drives me to monitor my every action and scrutinize it and see
how I could have done it perfectly, (right now I'm thinking about
how I continuously try to optimize my transit time when I'm
traveling between any points A and B) instead of just fucking
relaxing that scrutiny and allowing myself to do just whatever I
want to do.
What comes from that is that I'm worried about what people will
think of what I do, or that I don't trust myself to always make the
right decision. I wonder what's underneath each of those?
I want Dennis Church Powerful Loving Hawk to be like, "wow;
you're a really great human and I honor what you are doing, and I
think you've got a huge potential." I want to look back on my
life and be like, "whooooooo that was amazing! Best
life ever," and to really mean it.
I just noticed that there's a fear that if I conquer (interesting
word) my current problem du jour, I will have different
(and I fear different = bigger) problems to conquer, and I imagine
this tends to keep me focused on these problems that I think are
therefore smaller cause they are being dealt with first.
From all this rambling, I want a task; a list of things to do
today. Recently I have not been particularly task oriented; more
like schedule oriented. And I've not at all been goal oriented.
I want to get back toward goal oriented, Important not Urgent
oriented.
Goals:
Learn Japanese enough to chat with friends in
Japanese.
Have a long term marriage oriented relationship. (marriage?
what am I, crazy?)
Tasks:
Write conjugation flashcards
Write a list of perfect mate qualities
There is something the fuck wrong with my desire around
relationships as written above. I'm pushing for something that I
don't actually want or actually need. I'll meditate on
it.
Okay, bye.