Rainy Day Blues

   I went to bed last night (and woke up this morning) feeling the vibration of rain beating against the window that covers over half the wall my head rests next to. While I was falling asleep, I spent a bit of time thinking about all of the plans I had in place before I found out that I Had to move to my new school.

   So many of them have come off the tracks. Dieting, losing weight, studying Japanese... sleeping.

   Sigh.

Neglect

   I've been neglecting a lot of things lately, mostly due to work. I haven't been taking pictures (though I tried -- more on that later), updated my resume, exercised/worked out, cooked, worked on the proofing company idea with rav, or punched up my blog's layout. What I have been doing is a lot of work and kendo followed by vegging out and not sleeping well.

   Read on!

Stormy Mountain Clouds

   One of the reasons I really love living in this area is the scenery. Not only are there tons of nicely-sculpted mountains all over the place, but there are also tons of great cloudscapes. Every once in a while, the two come together to make a really, really neat mountain cloudscape.

   Like this one from yesterday afternoon.

   Unfortunately, I didn't have my good camera on hand to take a picture and I had to make do with my cell phone camera. Too bad.

   All of the dark and brooding clouds seemed to predict rain, and sure enough, it's drizzling a bit today.

   I'm really annoyed at that, since I have to go down into the city for a farewell party from my old school for all of the teachers who left this year (including me) -- that means a bit of biking in the city, in a suit. I also was going to bike back after the party thanks to my replacement screwing me over... but I really don't want to go through that again.

   Maybe this time I'll "sleep" in the 24-hour McDonald's near the bus stop.

Morning Mountain Mist

   I thought about titling this post "Misty Mountain Hop," but there was no hopping involved.

   On Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday mornings, I walk to school. The school is so close that I'd barely save any time at all by riding a bike and the brisk walk is probably better exercise, too. Another thing that makes me prefer walking is the road; it's steep and covered in loose gravel, with very small shoulders, which would make me incredibly nervous on a bike with cars flying by.

   If I go by foot, though, I'm only very nervous.

   Read on!

Junior High Scenery

   Today's my first day of classes at the junior high and, appropriately enough, the scenery is changing. Since it's spring and finally starting to warm up a bit, flowers are blooming, the cherry blossoms are finally all coming out, and of course, my allergies are acting up.

   The scenery inside the school is changing too; students are a lot more active now that they're out of the seemingly endless tedium of orientation. Hand-drawn posters are going up around the school, advertising various club activities -- all of the clubs want to attract new first-year members to replace the third-year members that will retire, come August.

   Some of these posters are really good!

   Read on!

First Elementary School Day

   I was a bit nervous today because it was my first day at the new school. I woke up around 8, which was fine, since my elementary days start at 10 for some strange reason. It means I miss the first two class periods of the day, which is inconvenient since it makes my schedule less flexible -- there are only six periods in a day and I'm only there for four of them.

   Since I have five classes to teach, that means that one class gets left out and the schedule gets lopsided as I skip between the two.

   Not much I can do about it, though.

   I left the apartment at 9:30 since I didn't know how long it would take me to get to the school. Since it wasn't cloudy, aside from some general light cover, I took my camera with me to get some pictures on the way down the mountainside. Yes, pictures for you, faithful reader.

   Read on!

Disappointing Replacement

   I've tried really hard not to be influenced by my first impression of my replacement, Judy.

   When she was going to move out to my apartment, I told her that I would meet her, show her around, take her to city hall to change her registered address, and help her buy all the important things she'd need. She said she'd be at the apartment around two, and I ended up waiting until seven. Not only was she not on time, but the guy who was driving her didn't have his cell phone on, so nobody could contact either of them.

   What were they doing? Buying a refrigerator and getting a USB dongle for mobile internet.

   Read on!

The Picture Extravaganza

   First, I'd like to point out that I made two backdated posts that I wrote at home, before I had internet access here at school. You can read about my first night in Fujimi and the disaster that was my school introduction.

   Someone asked me to take more pictures, so I did, last Friday. It was dark and I was using my cell phone, so the pictures are less than stellar, but here they are.

   Read on!

Rainy Odyssey

   I went down to the city yesterday morning to meet the new ALT, who's replacing me; she's new to Japan and doesn't know Japanese, so I wanted to do a few things to help her out -- things that our company had never bothered to do for me. I guess you could say that I felt obligated to help her since I'd never been helped and it sucked, despite me knowing some Japanese.

   Read on!

Worlds, New and Old

   When I first started working in Japan, I lived in a neighboring city called Takasaki. My apartment there was an old, somewhat run-down place that wasn't improved in the slightest by the fact that the previous tenant had left it incredibly filthy. Incredibly. Filthy.

   The least of his filth was a pile of old wine and beer bottles on a sticky floor in the corner of the kitchen.

   Incredibly. Filthy.

   I hated that place, even though it was in a relatively good location life-wise -- a grocery store, 100 yen store, electronics store, used book store, everything was within a 10-minute bike ride. The schools were around 20-30 minutes away, but it was good exercise and helped me slim down a lot when I first got here.

   Read on!

Day of Clubs

   Yesterday afternoon was the most eventful part of the day; I can't even remember what happened in the morning, other than a staff picture.

   I also took a picture from the teachers' room. You can see the whole city spread out beneath the mountain from up here... well, at least on clear days.

   Read on!

First Day of School

   Yesterday was my first day of school here; it was basically all introductions. The new teachers were introduced to the second- and third-year students before the opening ceremony; the opening ceremony itself was basically an introduction of the new first-year students. After it ended, the teachers all filed back to the teachers' room and the students went to their respective homerooms for an hour or two of orientation.

   Read on!

School Introductions

   I haven't slept well for a single night since I moved here and it's been frustrating me, especially since I can't figure out why. It's not doing my mood any good that I'm always tired, either. It could be the light streaming in through the giant glass doors right next to my pillows -- if it is that, I need to get ANOTHER expensive curtain because the one I bought just isn't up to the job. I guess I can't just get by with only one layer of fabric.

   Another thing it could be is the neighbors; they tend to bang around a lot from five to six -- if that's what it is, I can just try going to bed earlier. I tried a few nights ago and woke up around three in the morning, though, so I don't know if that's it. I kind of wish it were that simple so I could just fix it, because I'm really tired in general; I just feel like I need one good night's sleep to get my mood back on track.

   Yesterday was probably the most eventful day I've had here since I moved, and I was actually kind of excited about it. Was.

   Read on!

First Night in Fujimi

I'm in the new apartment and a bit sore after my first night of sleep here; I don't know if it's because of the harder floor, the moving, or the kendo last night. It was a very long day.

I ended up waking up around 8 yesterday morning, after about 5 hours of sleep. I spent all morning packing and cleaning, and cleaning, and cleaning. My Japanese teacher, an older woman, very kindly said she'd help me move, since everyone else ditched me. I was skeptical about our ability to put everything in her car, but somehow it worked out with two trips.

   Read on!