1 Full Year

This is it. As of yesterday, I've been here one full year. This time a year ago I was waking up at 5am cause of jet lag, living in a tiny apartment with no money and my luggage still hadn't been delivered yet, so I was cruisin around in my suit.

I'm going to take inventory of my accomplishments since arriving here soon, but I gotta go to work now and then a going away party for Dave F., a guy I trained with who decided to go home. That could have been me. But no, I'm here. Weird.

Anyway, for what it's worth, I think this year has been a good one. We'll see though when I put it to the test.

Bad Dreams Because They're Good Ones.

I had another dream last night about smoking. Lol. It's funny, I can't tell if I have these dreams because my body wants nicotine, or because I think about quitting a lot and how much giving up now would suck.

Anyway, I had this dream last night I was housesitting or something, I dunno, one moment it was my propert, the next it was someone else's who was on vacation, the next it was my friend's who was there with me. Either way, the property was huge, had a swimming pool and all these open sconces with flames and stuff I dunno, some impressively rich house. And man, we were smoking up a storm. Like, I was smoking two or three at a time, and just puffin away till the filter melted.

Kinda sad that my body would betray me in my sleep like that, cause I always feel guilty after I do it. I wake up and I think, "Damnit! I can't believe I smoked!" but then I realize that I didn't, and it was just a dream, but that feeling like either I smoked or I should be smoking still remains. It's always like that though in the morning. I always thought it was the crappy feeling from having smoked the night before, but it's still here now that I've quit, and I realize it's that my body has gotten used to nicotine in the morning.

They always say the cravings are worst in the morning, cause it's the longest you ever go without a cigarette most times. But, why now? I haven't smoked in a month and a half, why do mornings still affect me most? Eh, force of habit I guess.

Cold, Cold Cats, Cat Ears, and Ear Infections

It got cold. Really cold, really fast. Cold front came in, bringing wind and rain with it, leaving me miserably cold and wet on the way to work. I hate winter, and it's knocking on the door. I wore my winter coat for the first time this season today, and on the walk home I wished I had brought my gloves. Or a car. What I hate is that when I came here this time last year, it wasn't this cold. It was a lot warmer, and sunnier, and not rainy at all. So I'm wondering if in the next 3 days between now and when I got here a year ago if the weather is gonna kick out and do something I approve of, but I doubt it. I think it's time to leave my heater on for the next 6 straight months and just accept it. Fuck I hate winter.

My cat is a moron, and paws at my glass door at all hours, regardless of weather conditions. So I opened it and let him out, but of course when he saw it was raining, didn't go. I picked him up and tossed him out and shut the door. That'll fail to teach him anything. Ha. I showed him.
I was pretty sure he was gonna claw me when he came in, he did the other time Ty and I shoved him outside in a typhoon, and it makes me think of StirFry, the cat I had as a kid. He hated rain, but insisted on going out in it, like he had something to prove. Then when he came in, he'd bite your leg, like it was your fault. I used to wrap paper towels around my ankles when I let him in during a rainstorm. But of course he wouldn't bite me then. They only strike when they know you're vulnerable.

I went down on Monday with Natascha to pick up our visas, and apply for multiple re-entry permits. On the way I gave her the little pick and white cat ears I bought for her a while back, but, like her birthday present, took me a month or two to actually give her. So we're sitting there on the train and she busts them out, and sure enough, we get a snicker and a smile from one or two Japanese folk sitting across from us. From that moment on, the day became a nonstop mission to entertain the Japanese with our cute and silly behavior, which included but was not limited to: prancing, dancing on the train, singing along to iPod music they can't hear, scratching behind cat ears, meowing, and so on and so forth. It was a good thing we were out performing a public service too cause it seemed for all the world like it was "Absolutely No Smiling At All Whatsoever Under Any Circumstance Day". For those of you who aren't aware of the holiday system here, it's every day that isn't some other holiday.
So, we got our visas and re-entry permits after a little mini adventure in finding where to pay for the stamps we needed, and then having the up escalator not work. But more importantly we pranced around and made public silliness look like it was in style. For foreigners.

Natascha's getting over a gnarly sinus infection that made her eye swell shut, and a concurrent throat and ear infection. Today at work my right ear throbbed for a moment, and my sinuses are experiencing some odd pressure which could be from a number of things, not the least of which is the random severe shift in weather in the last 24 hours, but all the same I immediately remembered Natascha and I sharing headphones and sent her a message saying I'm worried I inherited her infection. She informed me it wasn't communicable in that way, so I relaxed a bit, but I'm not going to relax really till I wake up with no ear pain and two fully openable eyes.

Busy Week

So yea. Haven't updated in a while. Had a busy week.

Sunday of last week was Walter's going away party. Walter moving back to Oz is tragic. He 's iconic. People really look up to him. He's larger than life, just a jolly, happy guy, not to mention a physical presence and can be somewhat intimidating. But his going away party was nice, a LOT of people came, and I got to talk to some people I hadn't in a long time. Afterwards, we made our way out towards karaoke, but, Dave and I wound up splitting after the dinner part of the evening cause I had to go down to the immigration office on Monday to apply to renew my visa.

Or so I thought. Natascha had to go pick hers up as well, and so we were gonna go down together, and I gave her a call at 7am on Monday morning like we agreed, and she had just gone to bed after the all nighter for Walter's going away, and decided we should go at 11 instead. Come 11, Natascha, being the smart lass she is, called the office to see if they were open, and they in fact were not. Bank holiday. Holidays in this country, FYI, are all on Monday it feels like. At least, banking holidays are. So basically I got up at 7 for nothing. Good thing we didn't actually go down there.

Tuesday morning however, I DID get up early again and go down to the office, having very little clue what I was actually going to have to do since I didn't really pay attention when Kerry was telling me. I got down there at 9:12am, 12 minutes after they open. I figured I would be screwed getting there after it actually opened, especially the day after a holiday closure. But, I was #28, and they were calling 11 when I took my number. So, I found the forms I needed and filled them out, waited, read my book, oggled a couple cute girls, marvelled at the sheer number of Phillipinas, and then suppressed my marvelling when I realized that, well, they're the Mexicans of the Asian world. And Japan is the America. Doesn't help that the Phillipines are dominated by Catholic Spanish influence/genes. Breeders.

They called my number, I handed them my forms and paraphernalia, she stamped my passport, and sent me on my way. That was it. Time? 10:20am. I was home dorking out on my compie again before the office even closed for lunch. So much for "come prepared to spend all day at work."

Wednesday. Work. Then crazy party at Eleni's place. This included the rather poorly executed Ice Luge, a bucket of Crunky Juice (jungle juice minus fruit), girls kissing girls, Wai and I kissing for some reason, me pouring aforementioned Crunky Juice all over Alissa while filling her cup and her just starting blankly while I did it, pull ups on the train, flips on the train, and so on. And a great many pictures I look forward (or not) to seeing. Oh, and Jin-Ro is still the devil.

Thursday...I went to J's place after work and we had tacos and sex. That's oversimplified really, but, yea. The tacos were good, even if the taco shells after the first batch were less than crunchy thanks to my oven ineptitude, but the sex was good all around. J had a little mini freakout the next morning regarding her choice of attire for the coming important day, and made a comment which I log in my head every time I ever hear: "how are you always so calm?!" She asked me about our situation on the way to the station in the morning, and I told her that if she's ok with having sex with me knowing I don't want to be her b/f, then that's fine, she's a big girl. I think that made her happy to hear. I know it made me happy to say it, cause, well, it's how I've always felt. And I feel stupid that I let myself really think of her as a kid or that she should be treated as one. I think she's happy I'm being honest, and I am too. Besides, getting laid is nice, and well, better than that (yea, I know) for me is knowing I made the right choice about treating someone as an equal and an adult. And then having sex with them.

Friday...I did something....I know I did. I came home, changed clothes, and AH. Yes. After work I met up with Natascha, to whom I had not yet spoken after apologizing for asking to kiss her on the way to the station after Wednesday's party, and we went to an internet cafe to look at plane tickets home. Found tickets. Started chewing over ideas in my head.

Saturday night after work I went straight to Shinjuku to meet Yuri for Tomomi's going away party, where I surprised the bejesus out of Tomomi, but then again everything does. Keigo was there, Mai was there, Junko was there, Yasuko was there, it was crazy to see everyone back there again. We went to Tiki Tiki, and drank Hawaiian cocktails before going to karaoke in the redlight district in the shittiest room ever. Additionally, Midori, a particularly cute/fluent girl who was an RA the summer after I was there (she was studying at the UofO while I was in Japan) was there, and Yuri is arranging some kind of dinner with the three of us so we can start hanging out more and I can finally have some Japanese friends in this country. Woot!

Sunday I was just happy to be off work. I also don't remember what exactly I did that night. Monday...laundry? No, that was Tuesday. My days off this week I did jack AND shit, very deliberately.

Wednesday was another party at Eleni's a little more low key this time around, Thursday morning I booked my plane ticket home. Cost me $1240.

Today I looked on another webside and found a ticket for ~$400 cheaper. Of course. And I purchased a non-refundable ticket. Fanfuckingtastic.

K. Phew. Pieced together the last two weeks for ya there.

Oh, as a side note, it's colder now. I hate cold. Halloween is coming up, and that's great. I'm also fat. I've gained weight, and I have to lose it before I go home, otherwise I'll feel like I accomplished nothing in the last year. Since my phyiscal appearance and the girth of my pocketbook are the only two measures of my success. K, that's all for now.

Ok Nevermind

I guess I'm not sick and perhaps Jeb was right. I've got this sore-ish throat thing going on, that's always worst when I wake up, much like most times one is sick, but after the typical kinda, try to hauk something up unsuccessfully, then kinda just drink some water and try to forget about thing, it usually goes away to the point I rarely think about it during the day.

I've been forced to reconsider the notion that it's part of having quit smoking. But, in exchange for what I've tricked myself into thinking are the benefits, it seems worth it.

3 and a half weeks now, without a cigarette. Without so much as the desire really, either. When Jeb and I finished the Dali exhibit today we were walking outside and I realized that she probably wanted a smoke pretty bad, and the thought hadn't even occured to me. Not that I would normally smoke then, but that she would be wanting one, knowing that she smokes. It was weird. I feel so far from where I was when I was smoking. I almost never think about it anymore except between lessons when I just try to busy myself with reading.

The weirdest part is, I can't remember exactly what it feels like to smoke anymore. Like, even though it's only been three or so weeks, smoking already feels like something I didn't use to do, especially every day for 4 years. Huh. Oh well.

Salvador Dali

I went to see the Salvador Dali exhibit at the Ueno Occidental Art Museum today with Jeb. It was cool. It was also funny/annoying to see the Japanese working in straight traditional J-style art conveyor belt, look for 5 seconds take a step to the right, lather rinse repeat procedure.

I was really impressed with a lot of the works, it's interesting to follow someone's works from their earliest to their last, to see the change in style and theme, and skill. It's amazing the difference in skill from his works around 1920 to his works in the 80's. Then again, that's 60 years of experience but I mean from year to year you can see the level of detail and the subject matter changing and deepening to accompany increased skill and comfort behind the brush.

Anyway, Dali is fucking amazing, check out his works if you ever get the chance.

After that I met up with Natascha for some Denny's and went to her house to meet the kittens she's temporarily taking care of, and left promptly after her friend Nobu arrived, the son of the pastor of the church she attends here in Japan, needing to unload some stress or something whatever I don't really care. We were going to see Dali together on Monday, but she went without me without thinking or talking to me, and I went with Jeb today, and we both kinda noticed when we were talking about the exhibit that there was this odd, we said we would go to this together kinda tension, so we agreed to go check it out again together some other time since it'll be here a while, and neither of us object to seeing it a second time.

かわいい！！！！！！！

ええとね。あのね。じゃ、昨日は、私は朋美ちゃんといっしょに東京デイズニーランドへ行った。凄い楽しかった。この後は朋美ちゃんはすぐアメリカに動く、だから、会いたいんでした。

Anyway, yea, so Tomomi and I met up at 6 or so in Maihama to go to Tokyo Disney Land, and we had a blast, despite the fact it rained the WHOLE time we were there. But oh well.

We went on just about every ride of any value, which was awesome, and worth getting wet for. We did Pirates of the Carribean, which made the movie make much more sense, and then the Jungle Cruise, complete with cheesy announcer, and then the "Honey I Shrunk The Kids" 3-D adventure, then the StarTours Star Wars ride, then Splash Mountain, then Thunder Mountain, and the Nightmare Before Christmas Haunted House ride thing. Everything was a sit down, conveyor belt type ride, but eh, whatever. I'm ok with that. It's nice to have absolutely no effort required of me once in a while. Especially when it comes to entertainment.

I bought a cool chain and ring from the Pirates gift shop, and though it rained the entire time we were there, it made the lines much shorter, especially after they cancelled the Parade, and all the parents with their hordes of J-kids left to go home, or at least to crowd into the line for the Peter Pan thing.

I was happy to see that Tomomi recognized the silly Japanese habit of getting in line blindly, as we saw a LOT of that at Disney Land. Lines here must be the longest in the world, if for no other reason than people just kinda, well, get in line here. For no other reason than there's a line. And they tend to pick the longest one, cause it's the most trusted line. Why test for a shorter route, when everyone else is already waiting here? If so many people are here, it must be for the right thing, and worth waiting for. Right? UGH.

Anyway, we had a blast. Tomomi is the most fun person to be around ever. I will miss her when she moves to America. But then again, I hope once I too move back to America, we can continue to hang out. Even though she's moving to Nebraska of all places.

Contractual Agreements

It's official people, I've put my name down on my new contract, effective Oct. 28th, 2006, through Oct. 27th, 2007. I went in on Monday, my day off mind you, to the Matsudo branch, and got that all taken care of. Kinda takes a load off my mind, but at the same time, puts an entire other, somewhat more immediate and pressing set of obligations on my plate.

See, in the next couple days I have to go down to the Chiba Immigration Office (CIO, for short) and apply to get a new Visa. Not the credit card, folks, the 'you have permission to be here as long as you're not a complete fuck-up and do some kind of socially acceptable work' kind of Visa. But the office opens at 9am and gets busy quickly, so I basically have to be there when it opens, which means I have to haul some ass down there early one day to take care of it, and that's either going to be tomorrow (not gonna happen) or Friday, the more likely of the two. But, I'll have to go to work straight away, so all in all it's going to be fun.

Kerry (the boss) gave me a lot of paperwork to do something or other with but honestly as soon as she started talking about it my ears shut off and I have no idea what to do. Eh, I guess I'll flip that packet again and get shit figured out. It's kinda too imprtannt to really slack too much on.

OH. And that reminds me, this also means it's been about a year since I came here, and as such, a year since I got my phone. Wchich means I can get a new one cheaper. And a new phone shall I get. A supermegauberbadass phone, the battery of which won't die after two hours like mine, being a year old, has begun to. My phone is more or less falling apart, as I've noticed all phones do after a year. Or, at least ones I own. Every cell phone I've ever owned (4 to be exact) has made itself completely and utterly worthless after a year, with the exception of my Sony-Ericson T616, which even now still holds a battery charge, after a year of not being used, sitting around my room. But towards the end of my using it, it was startin to get a little slow.

Ok, anyway, yea. New contract. No raise, and I applied to have my days off shifted to Sunday and Monday. Kerry said she'd get back to me about that on Wednesday, so hopefully that will work out.