Entries this day: Sleep_standing_up Work state_of_my_life_address

Sleep standing up

9:54pm JST Sunday 1 February 2004

Today on the train, I fell asleep while standing in tadasana, the yoga standing pose I learned from Catherine. My sleep didn't last very long; I jerked awake when the train started moving and I hit the girl next to me on the arm. Oops. I felt bad at first, but I got over it with happy thoughts of how cool it is that I fell asleep standing up.

Work

9:53pm JST Sunday 1 February 2004

Today was the first day at Nova with the new CAT technique of teaching. It's more like the CAT technique of evaluating students' levels, because I haven't been trained in the new teaching (or evaluation) method, and lots of people have been rumoring about the new evaluation method. Anyway, I was at KQ and therefore didn't see a lot of the disruption that Ali reported went on at big school. Ah whatever; I'll be more concerned about learning it when I get some actual training. Not that that's likely to happen; Nova doesn't spend a lot of time/money training its employees properly. It's a viscious cycle of crap training => high turnover => what's the point of training?

Today Morag was at KQ with me and Ali. Cool.

state of my life address

10:01pm JST Sunday 1 February 2004

State of My Life Address

1. janette and I had a lovely time while she was here last month. She brought Fred!! We went to Fujikyu Highland (my second time to go) and I took pictures with the intention of being published in First Drop, the coaster magazine for the European Coaster Club.

   I was quite impressed with janette's ability to get around Tokyo; she had big fun seeing, shopping, eating, and more. We went to a couple parties with people from my work (to Masayo's apartment off the Keikyu line and to Cory and Janis' all night bye-bye party thing in Shibuya), and she went to Japanese lesson with Ayana twice. Good times.

   In the end, however, I needed to cut the romantic tie that we had; I need/want to focus more fully on myself within Japan, instead of myself in Japan with a direct link back to the US.

2. I can speak some Japanese, though I haven't been studying a lot lately. I'm kinda getting back into it; the desire comes in waves.

3. I live in Bell Wistaria, Tsunashima, Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan. Have lived here for 10 months and 4 days or so. Have worked at Nova for 10 months. I'm considering changing jobs soon.

4. I have an orientation / interview with gaba on Tuesday. Only negative is I have to wear a suit. Morag pointed out today that wearing a suit is a silly reason to not take a job if everything else is cool. I'm thankful for that input.

5. Dan is my roommate here in Bell Wistaria. We are considering moving to a new location, getting out of the expensive housing provided to us by Nova.

6. The Tokyu Toyoko line changed dramatically at Yokohama station yesterday. Yesterday was the first day that the platform is 5 levels below ground; the day before, the platform was 1 story above ground. That they made the change in four hours amazes me.

7. I haven't yet ridden on the みなとみらい線。 (name of new train line that replaces the Tokyu line past Yokohama station)

8. Wow. I have just visited the gaba website, and I'm suddenly more likely to want to work for them. The negative part is their website has some grammatical errors, but I think it's sloppiness not dumbness. Anyway, the site says they use computers to keep track of students' progress, which is like bang on brilliant I think. And yes, man to man lessons. Okay enough about that in the SoML, but I just wanted to say wow.

9. I have a new digital camera. It's the one I bought in Akihabara with Fred's accompanyment while he and janette were in Japan. I've rather liked it. Canon IXY 30 (only available here, I think).

10. I have been learning a little bit of Mandarin from Kathy at work. She's taught me how to count to 10, say "thank you" "no worries" "what's up" and a couple others that I've forgotten. With her direct help, I can get a 4+ (out of 5) on pronunciation of one through ten, but my pronunciation goes down without her pre-loading my brain.

11. I don't know where I'll be living or working in 2 months.

12. In my right wrist, I've been getting a bit of what feels like what I called carpal tunnel syndrome in my left wrist when I worked at FSD. I've been on my computer a lot, but I've been writing a lot more; I wonder if writing is aggravating my wrist. I wonder how much is related to my quick umbrella-powered dismount from my bike.

13. On Tuesday I meet with Josephine, who may become my counselor in Japan. I would like to get back into personal growth work; I plan to successfully grow past the desire to seek comfort from women.

14. I've been really happy with the new battery on my computer. My computer is my original PowerBook G4 667 MHz 30Gig HD, that I bought in June 2002 (wow, that long ago??? (yes)) that has been upgraded to OS 10.3. 512 MB ram now (from 256). 5.8 gigs free on HD.

15. Morag and I are working at KQ on Sundays with Ali this month. I like Morag; we've been studying kinda frequently together, and have started doing JAM sessions like Heather and I did back back back in the day.

16. I've been reading two different books: If The Buddha Dated by Charlotte Kasl (given to me by janette), and History of Japan a bilingual version, given to me by Miho, level four student from Kawasaki.

17. In my Japanese studies, I'm at a point where I'm kinda balanced between "I've learned enough" "I'll never finish" "I'm not making any progress" "I've just got to get over this hump" "Maybe it will be mo better to learn Chinese" "がんばって" (you can do it, rah rah rah) "it will get better soon" and "I look forward to great progress!"

18. Dan just got home; said we have a new roommate scheduled to move in. Some cat named Steve from England. Dan and I agree that we don't need/want another roommate. I go, "dog, we gotta get outta here. Before any cat name Steve moves in, we gotta rock."

    Laughter ensued.

12:30am JST Monday 2 February 2004

Bedtime, ね。