Monday, June 25, 2012

Time in Japan

I learned a few days ago that one of my close friends back in the states broke up with his girlfriend.  What sucks is that this happened a few months ago.  It's sad because they had been going out for a few years and I thought they made a pretty good couple.

I like Japan but for the most part I'm not having any luck making Japanese friends like I had hoped.  Japanese people are a very group oriented people and as hard as it is to make friends, the ones I do make aren't interested in letting me into their groups, which makes it easy to drift away.

In contrast, back in the states, I do have some close friends.  It's not many, and as they all have their groups of friends it's more one on one than anything else, but I do have them.  But I feel like the longer I'm here the farther away I get from them, and that makes me sad.  I'm already not very good at social situations so trying to make new friends on my own does not sound like a fun task.

I don't think I can do more than 2 years in Japan.  If I didn't have any friends or family back in the states it would be an easy 5+ years.  But the lack of Japanese friends, lack of real job satisfaction and the drifting from my good friends back in the states makes it really hard to do more than 2 years.

I am also more in love with what Japan appears to promise, its potential, than I am with its reality.

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Japan Junior High School Sports Competition

So over the weekend the middle schools had their sports competition where they compete with other schools in their prefecture (could be wrong about this and probably am).  I went to see basketball and ping pong.

One of my school's girls team got blown out by around 13 to 60.  One of the girls cried after the other team got off to a 13-0 run in the start.  Sucks.  The same school's boys team did better and won with a score of around 55 to 43.  My other school's girls team ended up winning with a score of around 33 to 20.  Neither team could shoot the ball, luckily for them.

Went to watch ping pong after lunch, and the boys didn't fare so well in either of my schools, but one girl killed it!  She won the whole thing and will go on to the prefectural tournament.  I think it's the prefectural tournament, which would mean my earlier guess of schools in prefectures competing would be wrong.

Picture of my students killing the tournament!

中総体 【ちゅうそうたい】 (chuusoutai) Japan Junior High School Sports Competition

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Shaken, New JET, States Visit & Mooland

Been a while huh?

My car's in the shop, not because it has anything wrong with it, but because they have this car inspection/insurance that has to get done once every 2 years.  It can cost hundreds and up to over a thousand dollars, and if stuff is wrong with your car that they ask you to fix, you have to fix it.  It sucks and I am expecting that in a week I will get a huge bill seeing as my car is 14 years old and probably needs things done that will cost a pretty penny.  On the other hand, it keeps cars in great overall shape and is likely the reason they seem cheaper here than elsewhere.  The ridiculous price of this bi-yearly insurance called "Shaken" (pronounced shaw-ken) drives the value on cars way down.  You also don't see that many used cars on the road because they are just too expensive to maintain.  Makes people like me who have cheap cars cry.

We've already found out who will be coming to Kesennuma this summer, at least one person.  His name is Pierre but we don't know who he'll be replacing.  He seems cool.  I sure hope he is, normal people can be a breath of fresh air sometimes in this JET program.  You have to do an interview and I seriously don't know how some people made it through.  But anyway, we're getting one more person and I hope that person is cool too.

I've got a ticket back to the states, set for July 23rd to August 9th.  I want to make it back for some festival that'll be happening on the 10th.  I'm excited to see my family and friends who I haven't seen for a year.

I went to this place called Moo land (In Japanese it's pronounced Mow land, as in mow your lawn).  Below is the best picture I took of the whole place.

車検【しゃけん】 (shaken) vehicle inspection