My Busy Week

Warning: this blog entry is 4 pages long in Microsoft word on 10.5 sized Century font. If you can’t read massive amounts of text on your computer for a long time or have better things to do that sit in front of your computer for a half an hour, you’d best read a bit everyday. It’s probably going to be a long time till I blog again, so just take your time reading this one and hopefully when you’re done, my next one will be ready.

So I, bored at work, figured I might as well right something in my blog to you guys. Although I have no access to the internet as of now, so I am writing this in word, and will copy and paste this into my blog. It really sucks when they won’t give you internet connection at work. But I can’t complain, my work is pretty slack anyway. The last week has been pretty dead, in terms of work for me to do, as school is out. About 2 weeks ago we had graduation ceremonies and ending ceremonies (Japanese society is big on formal ceremonies), and everything till next week will basically be just me staying in the office. I will be studying Japanese and reading articles I have downloaded onto my laptop trying to waste away this last week of boredom before I get back to the nitty-gritty part of English teaching.

Anyway, getting back to the topic at hand…it’s the time of the year where some people leave for other jobs. In Japan, its regulatory for people to change jobs every 2, 3 or even 6 years, at around this time on year. So every year, there’s probably going to be people leaving a given office and heading to a new one. It’s like that with schools too. Of course, there will be new people filling in these positions, but that’s a story for later.

So tis the season for Sobetsu-kais or Farewell parties, in Hokkaido, which is kind of sad. Although I’ve only been here 7 months (almost 8) it is really hard to see people that you’re used to working with, go, especially if you’ve just started really settling down and enjoying the atmosphere at work.

Last week was really busy. Tuesday I had band practice, although that didn’t turn out so well because our vocalist couldn’t make it, and there were customers in the bar (It’s called Romance, I believe I mentioned it earlier) that we were suppose to be practicing at, so the bassist (who’s one of the bar managers) was busy with them. Not to mention that because it’s a karaoke bar, when there are customers we’re pretty much not allowed to start jamming. So that was a shame and I was a little angry at that.

Wednesday was Guitar lessons and then back to romance just to chat with the bassist.

Thursday was killer. It was Toda-san’s Sobetsukai, as she is leaving the office as of tomorrow. Kind of sucks, she gave me a lot of advice on Japanese living and I know shes a lot of help to the office. My supervisor, Takahata-san and my other co-worker Suzuki-san will have a lot of work to do without her in the office. Until the replacement comes (which will be sometime in April or May, I believe).

For her Sobetsukai, we headed down the restaurant they first brought me to when I arrived in Kamikawa, called Akashi around 6:30pm. We had dinner there (Sushi platters, all the good stuff, and all you can drink for 3000 yen). After 3 hours there, that we headed to Tomochan, another restaurant to go eat (we were hungry again). I actually heard news that the Mayor (who had his retirement ceremony on that day, I was in attendance) was in the karaoke bar across from Tomochan, so I sneaked in and grabbed a few pictures with him, before joining my group back in Tomochan. We had Ramen and beer and talked till about 11.

After that everybody decided to go home, that is except for me. I had to go Romance, so that I could meet with Dustin, a Muroran ALT who was also leaving his job and headed for Western Honshu, near Hiroshima. Takahata-san, my supervisor, being the good guy he his came along with me. In fact, he had to work the next day at 8:00 but ended up staying with me till about 3:00am in the morning. Wow, no 40 year old parties like that at home. No wonder why Japan is so fun.

There were lots of people there, Dustin was pretty popular here in Kamikawa. So we partied together, took pictures, drank some more, acted stupid all those things. At 3:00 I was pretty concerned that Takahata-san wouldn’t be able to get up the next morning. He had given me the day off the next day (Friday), but not himself, so I figured we should head out. I paid the bill (as thanks for hanging out with me so late) and we headed out. Unfortunately, two other people we were partying with went to outside to say good bye to Takahata-san and ended dragging me back in. They figured it was ok since I had the day off. So it was more drinking for me even though Takahata-san went home.

On Friday, I was pretty dead tired. I basically slept till 11:00am, woke up, got re-hydrated, slept again till about 5:00pm. Made dinner and then headed out to hockey, were my team lost, though I did get an assist. I think next year I’ll be joining the top league, as I need to play on a team with a closer skill level. I didn’t get home till about 12:00am

On Saturday, I helped Ike-chan and his family move into his new apartment with about 15 other people. So that went over pretty quickly. We moved everything in about 1 hour. Though we had to move a fridge and that was really heavy. It took 4 people to move it. After that we had lunch and some beers at his new apartment.

I was going to take a nap that afternoon, but Ike-chan called me to invite me to his Dad’s office to check out this killer Fender amp (I’m guessing its probably like a 50Watt, most likely more, I’ll double check later) his dad was selling for 20000 Yen (less than $200 CDN). It came with a Boss-ME30 multi effects pedal. The sound was great. So I bought it, even though I’m aiming for an Xbox360 and NHL 08 in the near future, just because it’s a great deal and it’s going to be good for the band.

I went to go drop off the Amp at Romance, since we would be performing there and they have a lot of extra space there anyway. The bassist invited me to dinner at her house with her husband. I couldn’t refuse, since I was extremely lazy and would of ate out anyway. I enjoyed delicious Teppan-yaki (basically roasting stuff on a huge hot plate). We finished up making practice CDs and tabs for the next songs in our band. (We’re doing “Bohemian Like You” by The Dandy Warhols and “You” by Hotei Tomoyasu, a famous Japanese guitarist who has collaborated with David Bowie.)

Sunday was a day of sleep, but some Elementary students managed to ruin that by somehow, finding my house and ringing the doorbell insistently. Of course, I didn’t answer, but I could still hear the ringing and children screams of “WING-SENSEI!!!”. I went back to sleep for a while and then I watched the Oilers beat the Flames 2-1, went to eat Ramen and do some grocery shopping. There was a Hockey practice match that day, but seeing as my knee was sore (it had gotten sore on Friday’s match), I decided not to go. That, going would mean I wouldn’t be home till around 1:00am when I had work at 8:00am. With my week of drinking, it didn’t seem like something I could pull off.

Anyway, at least this week will be a little slower, and involve less drinking, so I am to believe. They sometimes tell me about nomikais, just as I’m about to get off work, so I have no idea what to expect.

Today, I’m going to meet with a Japanese girl who wants to learn Cantonese from me. (All I can say is that’s a bad idea, although there are worse people to learn from, who will not be named, but instead, their names will be spelt. Those people are the following: T, M followed by an O and P, E, followed by two Rs and then a Y). Wednesday is another guitar lesson, which I’m looking forward to (yay, slide guitar). Saturday, is drinking with the hockey team, and Sunday is quite possibly band practice, where I’ll take a few pictures if it happens.

I should end this blog entry now, since its getting to be a hefty 4 pages in Microsoft word. Last time I did that, Tmo stopped reading after the second paragraph. But then again all I talked about was drinking.