Stuck in the Queue

I'm bored for what seems the first time in ages, though in all reality I should be far from it. I should be busting balls studying for my Japanese language proficiency test I have coming up in a few weeks, but, instead I think I'll do some writing in the time before I head out to Kashiwa for Amanda's surprise going away party.
I went to Kusatsu with Saki last weekend, it was a really fun trip, I enjoyed it a lot. I took a lot of nice pictures, and experienced Japanese life a little more having my first fancy Japanese style meal in a tatami room, complete with yukata and onsen and everything else.

It's full on fall now, most of the leaves have already changed colors, or are rapidly approaching their end, and school is all kinds of cold these days. We've been doing speaking tests with the 2nd and 3rd graders, so I've been stationed out in the hall a lot the last week, which generally leaves my fingers as icicles rather than appendages.
It's fun to get to talk one on one with the students for a change, I get to see who actually has some ability to speak the language, but it reminds me a lot of when I was teaching eikaiwa. That made it easier though, because that kind of level assessment was something I did on a daily basis back then, so it was kind of nostalgic as well.

Tonight I had the option of going into Tokyo, Harajuku namely, to go to the wedding party of a co worker of mine, but I chose not to go at the last minute. Something about going all the way out to Tokyo these days is just something I can't be bothered to do. I loathe sitting on trains forever and going to events where I don't really know anyone. I should look forward to them, as I get to meet new people and all, but I'd say in the last year or two I've really kinda tried to stay away from it. It's not that I don't want to celebrate with them and congratulate her, I do, and if I had just gotten married I too would want to go into Tokyo instead of doing something local, but, I dunno. For someone I don't really know all that well and have never really hung out with, I somehow don't think it will be the end of the world. So, I wrote and told her my roommate got arrested and I had to go talk to the cops. Not something that hasn't ever happened, so it's not like I completely made something up, but...ya. I suck.

I went into Tokyo the other day though, Ueno actually, to meet up with Mike, a family friend of Saki and her mom. He used to work at Nova as well, a long while back, which is how he met Saki's mother and became friends with her. He's working for a financial firm in Tokyo now and Saki talked to him the last time they all got together about the possibility of me meeting him and pursuing work with his company. He was nice to get together with me and tell me about what he does, but when I explained to him that I was probably going to wait until the end of the school year because of my loyalty to the kids I teach, he kinda seemed like, oh, well, why are we here now, but, oh well. He seems like a nice guy and all, I give him that. But, as two guys who don't really know each other getting together to talk about something like that, I can't really complain that by the end of the night we weren't all super chummy and making plans to play rugby on the weekend. But it's opened up new doors for me, and I look forward to seeing how all that plays out.

But, speaking of lucrative careers, I have to congratulate my buddy Cole on his success in the web series he's a part of called The Scary City. It's crazy that I can look up my best friend's name and have him pop up on the IMDB and such. That would be all kinds of fun, and I really envy him that position. He's put a lot of work into it though, and such are the rewards, you know?

The job I would be taking would be a challenge, as I've been told, but that's the kind of thing I really think is rewarding in employment, and much everything else. Lots of fast paced stuff, on your feet all day, doing quick thinking in a fast paced environment. I know, I sound like I'm reading straight from a job description or a resume, but, that kinda thing is cool to me. I've always wanted to work in a situation like that because it gives me a chance to really shine when I do well at it. On the monetary side, it's a pretty lucrative job as well, starting off at nearly double what I make now. I probably never mentioned it here, but I've more or less set a goal for myself to have doubled my income compared to now by the time I'm 30. If I were to get this job, I would have that accomplished by 28 or 29. Something about making $60k/yr before getting married is kind of a cool thought.

Lately though, thinking about that job and all, I've really had to consider my life here in Japan as something that could be more or less a long term thing. I had considered it before, but never really put any serious though into it, but as time passes by, my desire for a more serious job increases, and my relationship with Saki becomes more serious, it's something that I have to put some real thought into. As Mike put it, there are other jobs out there, but once you get the hang of it, it's hard to justify walking away from it, given how well of you are for having it. That'd be an easy way to let 5 or 10 years slip by. I wonder how life would turn out that way. Someday I will return to America, it's just a matter of when, I guess, and on what terms.

I'm so happy that Obama won the election. I had a feeling, for a long time watching CNN and their ridiculous Poll of Polls that the results of the election itself would be far different from the ones they were proposing, but to actually see the extent to which Obama took that election really made me happy. It wasn't a, "Obama fought tooth and nail and squeezed out a victory" kind of thing it was a "ok, seriously, we're done with this crap, get the 'bama in here NOW" kind of thing. Though a large part of me wants to have renewed faith in America and the American people for choosing him so soundly, part of me also thinks about just how much it took to push the American people far enough to vote how they did. If this were just a normal election, devoid of the complete and utter incompetence of our current president, and Obama were to have run, how would it have turned out? What if Hillary had taken the nomination? These are the things that bother me. Ya, Obama won with 53% of the vote (something I'm sure Cole was very happy about), but on the other hand, 46% of voters chose McCain. That's still 46% percent of Americans I wanna dunk in cold water and slap in the face a few times.

And now, not only Americans, but the world at large, has placed all their hopes and dreams at the feet of the president elect, and the expectations for him are so high that I have a hard time seeing anyone managing to live up to them. That just sucks. You know? America does something good for itself for the first time in a long while, and now we have a situation where if he turns out to be anything less than Godly, he runs the risk of letting down essentially the entire world. How shitty is that, to have to carry that weight on your shoulders? But I wish him well in doing it, and hope sincerely it's within his ability. That is, in theory, why I and so many other voted for him. But then again, many voted for him just cause he wasn't the opposition, and some just vote party lines anyway, so, who knows. But, here's to having hope!

I'm trying to think about what I'll be doing during the Christmas vacation, which, much to my chagrin, is coming up fast. I know I'll be around in Japan, but I'd really like to do something other than sit around and play the new WoW expansion, tempting though that may be. I want to do some travel, even though it will be all kinds of stupid cold, but Saki and I have a classic dilemma on our hands that isn't easily resolved. See, she's a cold person and I'm a warm person. In winter, I want to go somewhere warm to get away from the cold, and she wants to go to the coldest place possible, to appreciate the season. It's kind of hard for me to appreciate being cold, but I guess I see the logic in it. It's cold, so, enjoy it for what it is. I'd respect it more if we didn't pull a 180 when it comes to summer. She wants to go someplace cool to escape the heat and I wanna go somewhere hot to fully appreciate the season. So, really it's not that she wants to appreciate the season, she just likes being cold and hates being hot. And I'm the same way, just vice versa. So travel destinations are always interesting to choose, but in the end the choice is simple; as long as I have any interest at all in going there, hot or cold, I'll go where she wants to go in winter, cause I have to assume she knows the good places better than I. At the end of the day, I still get to climb into bed with her and that's really all that concerns me.

I mentioned earlier the new expansion pack, and yet again Japan gets screwed and I have to wait until Monday to get it, even though it came out on Friday everywhere else. It's not like there are a ton of Japanese gold farmers, that's all China. I understand why they delay the release in countries like that, but here? Is it just because the market is smaller here? I don't know. I don't really care either, it just means that instead of spending this weekend, where Saki is away the whole time and I could be sitting at home studying Japanese, er, leveling my characters to 80, instead I'm here bored to tears, writing away endlessly in my blog which I haven't written in in the better part of 6 months, waiting to go to my friend's second going away party in a week, the first of which I missed. Why not, say, farm a little bit or do some stuff to get your characters ready for when you get the expansion, you ask? Well, I would, except that there are 1 hour+ queues to log in to any server on which I have a character, thanks to everyone in the world having purchased their copy already and goin nuts with the new content.

Why not play some other game, you might say. Well, I would, but I've not beaten Onimusha 1, 2, and 3, and unlocked ultimate mode and the alternate costumes on all of them, beaten the game on hard mode, gotten the black necklace and vest, etc etc. There's just nothing left for me to do on them. God of War fell pretty quickly too, but that's old news.

Why not study Japanese, you dumb procrastinating moron? Ah, now, that's a good one, one I'll have to put some thought into. I really ought to be doing that, eh? The Kanji are going to kill me. But I'm gonna give it my all, and we'll see how it goes. Actually, I'll restate that, I'll give it all I'm willing to, and we'll see how it goes. It's just a matter, I guess, of how much I'm willing to give. That, in and of itself, is a mystery to me.