Birthday

   Yesterday was my birthday.

   Quarter of a century, yep.

   I had a simple plan; wake up around 5 to shower/clean the apartment a little, catch a ride at 6:40ish to go to the judo tournament and cheer for my judo girls in the prefecturals, then come home and do laundry or something. Nothing spectacular; I don't really celebrate birthdays. Not that there's anything to do out here. Or anyone to do it with.

   So I woke up around five, showered, cleaned, worked on the HTPC a bit more...

   Read on!

Making a Home (Theater!)

    I've never really had a home in Japan, for whatever reason. I've had apartments, but they were generally just places to dump my stuff and sleep. My last apartment was really big, but I only ever really used the corner of it -- that's where I put my futon. I always sat/laid there while I used my computer and that was all I needed.

    Sure, I got a sofa bed and put it in the other room of my old apartment, but that was more of a concession to impending visitors from America and Britain than anything else -- just like the table I bought. When I wasn't expecting visitors, my apartment turned into a giant dump.

    Literally.

    I'm not kidding. I would just dump my stuff on an empty space on the floor, lacking the furniture or some other more organized place to store it. As far as I was concerned, the apartment was just a giant storage shed because I never did anything else that warranted... well, anything else.

    That changed this year.

   Read on!

New Placement Differences

   Something that's constantly lingering at the back of my mind, even after a month here, is the nagging feeling that I'm not really getting any work done up here. At Azuma, I felt more like I was teaching, despite frustrations. I was proofing tests before they went out, checking tests when they came back, helping teach the textbook and deal with grammar questions...

   Now, though, it seems like I've taken a step back. Although I'm more accepted at Fujimi as a person, I'm not really being used much as a teacher, albeit an assistant. This comes with the job, though; ALTs generally can only do what the school wants them to do, however satisfying or unsatisfying it is.

   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!

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!