Enjoy The Show!

Wheh, i finally have some free time! This week my school is doing counseling so regular classes are canceled and i don’t have as many lessons to prepare ^_^ YAY!! Also, i have a lot of free time, so i can prepare my lessons for the next TWO WEEKS! Thats gonna make things pretty sweet for me for the rest of the month!!

AND!!! I can FINALLY make a post about my time in Japan

It has been just a little over three weeks since i arrived in Tokyo and i have been a huge jumble of feelings about everything

The first week was spent in Tokyo at a training center where all the teachers stayed for the week. It was like living in a residence, so needless to say everyone got really close and we all tried to spend as much time exploring Tokyo together as possible

The training itself was pretty intensive, and we were constantly being tested on our presentation abilities and practicing our teaching lessons. Two of the days they even had a bunch of Japanese students come to the center and we got to practice teaching them, which was probably the best thing they could have done to make us feel more comfortable with the material.

So then after the training was over we all went our separate ways on Monday, me and one other guy from my training are the only ones who left Tokyo and he came to Sendai as well, but we have not spoken since we arrived because he works at a different school here.

So, on Monday we did all the paperwork type things, got my cellphone, opened a bank account, went to city hall and completed my alien registration paperwork and stuff like that. And then i got to see my new apartment

I am actually pretty happy with it. I am on a corner, so i have lots of windows on each wall, and i can open them up and get a pretty good cross breeze going One of the things i noticed about Japanese buildings is they always have LOTS of windows, and usually, you can open ALL the windows ALL the way! Unlike in Canada, i noticed in a lot of places you will have a full wall of windows, and only really be able to open a small square in a bottom corner somewhere, which is never enough to let good air in Also my windows have very heavy curtains on them, so my room can become nice and dark when i want to sleep

I also have a HUGE closet, and can fit just about everything into it that i need I dont have many hangers though! haha need to go buy some more

My room itself is pretty long, and i will post some pictures so everyone can see.

My apartment came with a fairly decent kitchen, i got a small fridge, a pretty large sink, a gas grill with two burners and a small little baker underneath, just large enough to slide maybe some fish or chicken breasts into, and also it came with a toaster oven As well as a lot of cooking utensils and plates and dishes and all that stuff So i am pretty set and happy with my little kitchen In my living room i have a tv, a small bookshelf, a cool foam couch thing that the previously teacher left behind, and then my futon bed and a small table. The only annoying thing about my living room is these two light fixtures that hang from the ceiling, they are so low i hit my head on them, so i am trying to find a solution and make them hang higher so i can walk under them without hitting them. Its bad enough i have to crouch a little to go under any door frames

So all and all i am very happy with my apartment, it is ideal for one person, and if people came to visit there is easily room for 3 more people to stay, assuming they put their bedding away when they wake up Kind of like camping!

Also, right next to my apartment is a Ramen shop, and it always smells so good! ahaha I also have two shrines just up the street, just like the ones in anime ^_^ And i am about a 30 minute walk from my work place, or i can take the subway and it takes about 15 minutes, and my work pays for the subway, which is sweet!! Within 5 minutes of me is a 7/11 which is 24 hours, as well as a 24 hour grocery store, so i am pretty set, and both of them i pass on my way home from the subway so it is really easy to swing by and grab some groceries I am trying to avoid eating out unless its some kind of a special occasion and then i can save LOTS of money Food isnt AS expensive here as people say, except that the Japanese serve food in MUCH smaller portions, so i can see how someone would buy a lot of extra food trying to get their fill

As for my school and students, i have some mixed feelings about it All my students are just amazing. I am ONLY teaching adults, people around 20 years of age and older. Most of the younger students attend the big university here, and by talking with them i have been blown away by their educations. I have Law Students, aero space engineers, chemical engineers, medical doctors, even one woman who is a sugeon in the Japanese army! Its crazy! Like, who am i to be teaching English to these people who have way better educations than me?!?!? hahaha But they are all great people, and they love to talk about their work and research, i have learned a lot of interesting things from them so far The one thing i have been told by the current teachers is that the small relationships i make with the students is what will make this job worth it, and i can see why, i find myself looking forward to certain classes now because i know certain students will be in it, and we will have chances to talk about what they have been up to

As for the actual classes, at first i was freaking out On the first Tuesday i just observed other teachers giving lessons, and they have all been there for at least 3 or 4 years, so they know the material inside and out, so it was pretty intimidating! Then on Wednesday i observed classes again, and taught one at the end of the day. That one went horribly because i was so nervous And then the next day i had to teach 6 LESSONS!!! So when i went home that night i was having a total freak out, and it was the first time since i arrived where i really didn’t think i had what it took. So needless to say, i sacrificed some sleep to get all my lessons plans worked out, and went in and actually ended up doing a fairly decent job. By the end of the first day i was feeling much better about the job. I then had to teach a full day of lessons on Friday and Saturday as well. I also have some classes that are for very high level students, which are discussion classes. One is a time magazine class, where the students pick articles out of Time magazine and bring them in and we read them over and discuss them I have two other classes like that to, but the articles are pre selected by the school, but they still have been some of my favorite classes. Basically my job is to just guide and mediate the debate/discussion between the students and answer any questions about phrases and vocabulary that they don’t understand

There is only one other thing about my office that bothers me, and thats that a lot of times i will be out in the lobby area having a conversation with a student, and then one of the Japanese teachers or managers will come out and start talking to them in Japanese. So needless to say i get completely lost in the conversation and it is a LITTLE frustrating only because we are told that the office was suppose to be an english speaking environment. So its not a big deal, just irks me a little Its not enough to make me not like my job and leave or anything like that

One thing i am happy about is that the majority of the information that was given to me, when still in Canada, about housing and accomodations and things like that was true. I was worried i was hearing one thing from the recruiters in Canada, and when i got here it was going to be ALL different, like lower pay, higher rent, those kinds of things. But in truth, everything has been exactly what i was told from the start and i have not been tricked or lied to, so that puts me at ease with the company.

That Saturday night we had a going away party for the departing teacher (the person i am replacing) and a welcoming party for me. It was held at a bar and about 50-60 of the students ended up arriving! It was crazy meeting so many people at once!! And it was open bar! Actually the way a lot of things happen in japan is if you have a group, you can pay a flat rate to rent out a room for a period of time, and included in that rate is snacks and all you can drink alcohol!!! ^_^ YIPPEE!! haha And in Japan because places are set up like that, they usually have 2 or 3 parties in one night, where you start at one bar, drink, then move to another, and then another. I ended up being out until 4 am!!! The night ended at a karaoke bar!! Which would be the 4th time i have been to one since i got here! hahaha Also with unlimited drinks And i guess Japan really is the “Land of the rising sun” because sunrise is at 4:30 am! I was walking home from the Karaoke club and it was sunny out already! haha Totally was not expecting THAT!

The shopping here is pretty cool, they have lots of 100 Yen stores, which are like our dollar stores, and some of them are massive, like our Dollorama’s I got all kinds of little things i needed to make my apartment more livable, like more pillows and little baskets and stuff to organize things into Now i feel much more at home I still have not gone shopping for any kind of clothes, i doubt i will even bother! ahaha The chances of finding anything in my size is very rare!

I learned there is a place here, its a center for people visiting or working abroad in japan, and they can offer me all kinds of help. So if i need help getting my internet, or setting up an account somewhere or getting around town i can call them and they will do what they can to assist me, they also offer courses for free to learn basic Japanese! So once i feel a little more confidant with my work, i will sign up for some of those and get going on learning the language, cause it is REALLY starting to bug me not being able to communicate with people here. Especially at restaurants. Most of them are good, and have lots of photos so tourists can see what they are ordering, but it would be nice to be able to at least say what i want to order

I also picked up a book at the city hall that is a huge guide to the city and how things are done here, like garbage pick up day, and how to pay bills and all that fun stuff and its ALL in English ^_^ Its full of maps of the city, all the bus and subway times, and also has maps of the popular hiking trails here so i can go out and do some walking if i wanted! ^_^ It has been very helpful for me

Ok, that is all i am going to type for now, i hope that is enough information to keep everyone happy! hahah, i didnt really mean to type out so much! Over all, everything is going good, a few moments of home sickness and what not, but getting the internet back has pretty much fixed all those problems I have seen some really cool things here, and i will post a bunch of pictures in the next post, i am just too exhausted to do it now It takes a lot of clicking and moving of stuffs and things, and yeah, just not happening

Until Later!!

Well, i decided to try one of these tests to see how much of a nerd i am, turns out i am not as bad as i thought! Some of my friends may find this dissapointing, while others may find it a relief!

Click on the box if you want to take the test for yourself

I was talking to a friend tonight about a situation he is caught up in with his family, and it occurs to me that in this world where it seems 90% of the people i meet are pumped up on one clinical drug or another, and everyone seems to be living depressed lives, that i have yet to meet a person on anti depressents or anti anxiety pills who “have it all together”. They are just as depressed and anxious on their pills as they were off of them. Which always leads me to beg the question, what the hell are the pills doing other than unnaturaly screwing up their biochemistry?

I find a lot of people are very overwhelmed by the world we live in. I of course don’t blame them really, its a tough place, maybe in a different way than it was thousands of years ago, but still tough for someones emotions, and i find a lot of people get caught up and swept away by it all, and end up losing themselves for years of their lives.

People think that life is a very difficult and complex thing, and they don’t seem to realize that in all honesty, when you step back and strip it down, its really very very simple. We just make it complicated cause, well, humans are like that, we like to complicate things.

There are a few lessons i have learned in my short life so far, a few pieces of wisdom i have been able to glean from all the shit i have wallowed through and watched others go through as well.

1) We are all our own individuals, and we are all responsible for the outcome of our lives

A lot of people live in situations where they have given away their individuality to others and become victims to others control. In reality, lots of people are forced into this situation due to war and oppression of one form or another and it is possible for a person to feel as though their power has been taken away from them.

2) We always have a choice

No matter what life has thrown at you you always have choices. Most people, for various reasons, just dont have the courage to make the tough choices. Instead they make the poor choices, which in turn leads to a path of more poor choices, which in turn would take even more courage to overcome, and thus they begin a cycle where they are trapped for the rest of their lives.

3) Life is simple, but we get caught up in the details

Again, because we like to complicate things, we make situations way more difficult than need be, and we like to pretend there is more to it than there really is. We do this because a lot of people dont want to take the respoinsibility for their actions, so, in essence, they CHOOSE to avoid responsibility. So instead we come up with ALL this detail and drama to justify why we shouldnt have to make the tougher choices, and of course, since everyone else is using the same coping skill to avoid their own respinisiblities we let each other get away with it, kind of a “you scratch my back and i scratch yours” deal.

4) Most people are seriously out of touch with their core-self

They live lives so full of defense mechanisms and coping skills that they have no idea who they actually are as a person, and can not define themselves. They are just struggling everyday to survive what the world is throwing at them, and i truly believe that people can go periods of months and years where they actually stop developing emotionally, and sometimes even begin to work backwards.

5) Most of our suffering is self inflicted.

Most people who are depressed right now tell themselves they are depressed becuse of the actions of other people in their lives, but again, i restate that we are responsible for our lives and the choices we make, so in essence depression is a choice we make for ourselves. What happens is everytime we make these poor choices we feel guilt and shame inside ourselves, cause we know we went against our core, so we start the proccess of closing ourselves off from the person inside, and then our life becomes a whole game of keeping oursleves distracted enough to not be able to hear our core talking to us. This is why so many people are afraid of being alone in life and they look in others for the things they cut off from themselves. They repeat this pattern until something extreme happens in their lives, something that really rocks them to the core, and forces them to face the perosn inside they have locked away, which leads to lesson 6.

6) Being honest with yourself and forgiving yourself for your mistakes is the key to a happy life

No matter how far life takes you away from the person inside you, ultimatly that is the person you will have to answer to, and in turn is the person most of us are constantly running away from. To most of us we have run from it for so long that we do not even recognize that person anymore as being ourselves. Depending on what choices you have made, and for how long you have been making them, the process of being honest with yourself can be a very difficult path to walk down, especially alone, but if one can muster up the courage to do so they will find they can begin to let so many other things go, in turn leading to Lesson 7

7) Being in touch with your core-self negates the need for defense mechanisms and coping skills

Ultimatly these things are used to defend us from the actions of others who would try to oppress us, but if one is truly in touch with themselves, they will have a self-confidence from within which, as long as they maintain it, can easily replace any walls or shields that we have ever put up. We also find that we can take the energy we were using to maintan these defense mechanisms and can put it towards improving ourselves in other ways. This in turn leads to more self confidence and in the end it does not matter what anyone else says or does to us, because we know that our life is our responsibility, and our choices are ours to make, and no one else can take that away from us.

Well, last night I finally decided to start going through some of the movies I have been meaning to watch. I settled on the movie Stardust, which is based off the novel of the same name by author Neil Gaiman. I had promised myself I would not watch this movie until I had read the book first, but I am very glad I decided to set that idea aside.

Well, to say the least this movie was a breath of fresh air. Even without a great cast (Claire Danes, Michelle Phieffer, Robert DeNiro) I am sure I still would have loved every little piece of it. It was a true work of fantasy, complete with stars falling from the heavens, two worlds split by a wall, witches struggling for immortality, air pirates, unicorns and warring princes, all focusing around the journey of a young man who finds his destiny overcoming adversary in the fight for true love.

The lead role was played by Charlie Cox, a very cute charming young man, who took on the role of a stereotypical country klutz, who just cant seem to get a break. It was also great to see Claire Danes back in a movie again, it seems like it has been awhile since I have seen her in anything and I think this could be one of my most favorite roles for her. Of course both her and Michelle Pfeiffer were looking fabulously beautiful in their respective roles. As for Robert DeNiro? Well, he was just fabulous as he danced around in a womans undergarments to the Can Can, trying to pick out which frilly dress to wear for the night.

I am not going to waste time critiquing the production value, or the music (which i loved, most of all the closing credits song, which fit the mood of the movie perfectly) because I do not have much of an eye for those things unless it really is just horrible. However, for the life of me, I do not know why this movie did not do so well in the theaters. Of course the fact that it even took me this long to decide to watch tells me that many other people must have missed out on this little gem, which is a shame too because watching it in a movie theater would have increased the experience even more.

I really do believe though that if you have ever dreamed, even a little bit, then there is no way you will walk away from watching this movie without a grin on your face and a much lighter heart, in which case I highly recommend reading the book. I know I am going to be going to Chapters first thing tomorrow and picking it up, and most likely locking myself away for a day or two to make my way through it.

As well, Neil Gaiman has had another movie produced based on another one of his works, a graphic novel named Mirror Mask which, while having a very different theme and tone then Stardust, I believe was adapted quite wonderfully into an amazing movie and I would recommend to anyone who was a fan of Stardust.

This is going to be my first of many reviews i will probably do on this site. Occasionally i find things that i really love, and i like to share them with others to see if they may be able to find something special in them like i did.

Ishmael is an amazing piece of work. I first read this about 3 years ago. It was leant to me by a co-worker but i had to return it quickly so i sped through the book a little bit, but even at the time i was very moved by the message within. It took a lot of my scattered thoughts and feelings about what exactly is going on in the world, like pollution, global warming, deforestation and overpopulation, and really helped focus my thoughts into one single idea.

Although Quinn deals with a very heavy subject, one which would make most people throw this book right into the trash, he approaches it from such a logical and scientific angle that once read it is difficult to just forget. Using sociology, anthropology, evolution, theology, ecology and population demographics he paints a very clear picture of exactly what has been going on with our civilization since the Agricultural revolution.

The best part about the book, i would say, is how he doesn’t actually blame any specific race, sex, reigion, industry, government or country. He deals purly with population size, and does not make an effort to break it down into regions or classes, and thus laying the blame on all of us as a whole.

Of course he lays out a clear path of exactly where we are headed, but unlike most works of our time that talk about the demise of the human race and the destruction of the world, he manages to end it on a more postive note, showing how we can change to possibly avoid the catastrophe ahead.

The book actually has two more that follow it in the series(The Story of B, My Ishmael), which serve to reiterate his main ideas, and then to develop them a little more in depth. Reading the entire series has left me forever changed, and as well solidified a lot of the views i have about what we are doing to this planet as a civiliaztion, and where we are headed as a result.

So lately i have been going over a lot of stuff in my head, trying to sort out a lot of the stuff i have been going through the last couple months. I have always been a deep believer in the old cliche “You can not truly love another person until you learn to love yourself”. This led to me coming up with the idea that when you are not in relationship with another person, you should try living life as though you are in a relationship with yourself. Like, could you actually stand to be with yourself? Could you take yourself out to dinner? Could you go out for a walk with yourself? If you were sitting across from yourself at a table listening to yourself would you be thinking “Oh dear god, what is this guys problem?”

I have known a lot of people in my life who are afraid to be alone with themselves. This is usually because they do not want to face the personal problems that they have hidden away in their mind. However, this is a bad way to live life. The most important relationship you will ever have in your life is the one you have with yourself. Other people come and go, but you will always be with yourself. Just like any regular relationship, it should be approached in the same manner. You need to be open and honest with yourself, you need to know your fears and your flaws, and most importantly you need to know how to love yourself inside no matter what. With this love comes self esteem and self confidence.

In practice, most people ignore this fact, and they look for someone else to come along and give them their confidence, they let someone else define them. This may be great, but it only lasts for as long as that relationship lasts. Eventually that person may leave, and with them they will take those things they gave to you. So you never really gained self confidence, you just borrowed someone elses. For this reason a lot of people will do crazy and desperate things when they feel the security of that relationship is threatened, because they know if that person leaves, then they will have to be alone with them selves again. Since most people are afraid of this, they make bad choices to avoid having to deal with their personal issues, which usually comes in the form of throwing themselves into the arms of the next person who comes along, and in turn keeping the cycle going. Others find a way to be alone with themselves, but they turn bitter and jaded, living their life out of touch with their true feelings.

Of course, there are lots of people who are in touch with themselves, and they do truly love the person they are, who find themselves getting into a relationship. Sometimes they are lucky and the relationship supports their efforts to continue to grow as a person, but sometimes people get caught up in their partners issues, and lose sight of themselves. At this point they begin living for their partner, off their energy, and have begun to neglect themselves. This usually leads to the partner being able to take control of the relationship, and for the person to find themselves trapped in a situation where they are suffering. Of course, when this ends, it is even worse, because not only have they lost their partner, but they also have a void they are not too sure at first how to fill. Some people, usually with the help of friends and family, find the advice needed to learn how to connect with themselves again, and others go on and continue the cycle like above.

Add to this all the other problems with life, money, school, work, stress, family, kids, marriage, sex, and health, and you can see how easy it could be to completely lose sight of yourself in the mess. However, if even in all that mess, you can find an outlet, take some time to date yourself again and get back in touch with yourself, you really can discover a confidence that is totally from within, and that no one else controls or owns, and as long as you are remaining true to yourself, it is always yours to take with you in your life.

I didn’t think i would make a second post tonight, but i totally just had to put this up. It was a cool little film that my sister sent me today while we were talking about the Blue Planet series of documentaries and things in the ocean

Click here to be sent over to it

The ending is the best, i hope you are blown away by it too! Really cool!!

Hello hello people of the world

This is my first entry in my new blog At a friends suggestion, i have decided to start a blog so i can document my experiences when i leave for Japan. I intend to send this link to my family and friends so everyone can keep posted on what is happening to me. I originally intended to just send out quick emails to large mailing groups, but decided this was a much easier and faster way to get my info across Now people who are actually interested can come here instead of being forced to read my emails in their inboxes.

Of course….they could just block me………

ANYWAYS!! Look forward to more posts about lots of fun and interesting stuff!!!!

(Disclaimer – author of the site makes no garuantees that said stuff will be fun and/or interesting)