Maybe there's still some life in this thing

I didn't mention it in my last posting, but my only real compulsion to get this thing going again came at the goading of Charlie Danoff. Before I explain the entire circumstances of it, I should probably introduce Charlie...

Charlie Danoff's my closest JET-neighbor. If you drive 40km-ish drive south from Sarufutsu on Route 238, you'll arrive in his town Hamatonbetsu. Hamaton's about 5,000-people large and is the site of the world-renowned Lake Kucharo (well, maybe just Japan-renowned(. The lake's famous for the swans that annually migrate from Russia and make Kucharo their home for the winter. I don't think it's a World Heritage site, but it does a few distinctions like that of a lesser caliber. For it's size, Hamatonbetsu seems to be a pretty lively, high-spirited place. Maybe towns outside of the northermost, coldest region of Japan blow Hamaton away; proportionally it just feels far more bustling than my town, Sarufutsu. That's also why I often escape what can be the boredom of my town for whatever's happening in Hamaton (festivals, dinner-parties, etc.(. Case and point: I'm actually typing this from Charlie's right now (and on his computer with a broken end-parenthetical key, which is why all my afterthoughts and specifications end with this...(. Charlie's originally from Chicagoland, spending most of his formative years in a suburb that actually neighbor's where my aunt grew up.

All that said, Charlie is always pushing me to keep up the blog. He initially had similar struggles keeping his afloat, but now it seems to be experiencing a renaissance of sorts, as you can see here: http://leftinfront.wordpress.com/author/cdanoff/ (he wants to add him to his "blog roll," which I don't know how to do; so for now he'll have to settle with the above link(. For my previous entry, it was a mutual agreement that we would post something by last Friday that motivated me (although both of us missed the deadline by a couple of days(. This time, it's the agreement that if I write another blog entry and start a Twitter account (he's recently become infatuated with that, too(, he'll download Skype. Right now I also have some time to kill, as he's still sleeping off our night--with James, another Northern Hokkaido JET, and various locals--of a nature-drive, an enkai (you could call it a dinner party, but there's a little more drinking and raucousness involved(, and karaoke. As soon as he wakes up, we should be off to near-by Nakatonbetsu for a basketball tournament. Wish us luck...

Breathe, damn it, breathe!

Haha, yeah, that last post never happened. My worst fears about slacking on this blog (maybe it's more like not doing it at all) have come true. Anyway, Obama won the 2008 election last Tuesday and that's wonderful. I'm not as diehard a fan as many of my pears are, but I'm really honored to be part of what it all represents. The US seems suddenly galvanized, with something ineffably special running through zeitgeist. That's mostly just my perception coming from Facebook, so the reality of it could be really warped.

Back to what this blog was made for: Japan. So it's been just over three months since I last posted--damn. I basically wrote twice within two weeks of arrival and haven't touched this thing since. Not that I've written this, hopefully it'll open the flood gates for future posts. As far as catching up on the last three months, there's seems to be a lot to say and very little to say. Although everyday's not always a rollercoaster of fun, it always manages to be pretty interesting. There's always something new to observe or figure out; plus the extreme language barrier makes things that much of a challenge. Along the way, there's always the really entertaining stuff too. Kind of hard to name any one thing or create a definitive list, but in the last three months I've been to the great city of Sapporo a bunch (a very unique place), started routinely on the opposite side of the rode, had many misadventures driving on those same roads, traveled many other places around Hokkaido, etc. Like I warned, it probably wasn't a very good list. Sorry, this is a really crappy post; I'm hoping at least it'll do the job of resuscitating my ailing web log.

So it's been a week or so and hopefully I haven't missed to much. Here are a few things that I happened in the last 7 days:

• I've harnessed my Japanese keyboard a little bit. As you might have noticed in the last post, all my commas and quotations are messed up with something that looks like a French accent. Well, now--thanks to solution from my predecessor, John Stupart--my contractions and possessives are looking nice. Although there's still a few markings that I ellude me.
• Cooking's fun! That chicken and beans I mentiond in the last post was real tastey. The self-made dish I'm most proud of is the squid soba with chives and cabbage I made the other night.
• I now know what the Pacific looks like from the Eastern Hemisphere. I saw the Pacific in California years ago, but now I've witenssed it from the other, very far off side. I drive by it with two of my coworkers on our way to Wakkanai (the neighboring town of 40,000), but I count my first true experience with Japan's side of the Pacific when I ran there. That didn't come without failure, though. Last Saturday I planned on running to the...I'll finish this later, probably on Monday.

Following is probably too much of a preface

So I finally got around to writing my first blog entry. It`s actually my first entry ever. I`ve never considered myself a blogger, but hey, I`m in Japan. It probably would have been a better narrative if I started up in the days leading up to my departure and made posts with my very first impressions soon after arriving but I`ve just been a little bit too busy to do so. By the way, the title of this blog refers to a memory from my previous and first experience in Japan: I was watching a soccer game with my host family (Japan vs. China during the AFC Asia Cup, I believe) and my brother said `subarashi!` After asking him what it meant, he paused and finally said, `it means...fantastic.` For some reason, to this day (four years almost to the day) I can so vividly remember this; I`ll probably remember it for the rest of my life. There was nothing significant about this interaction (I probably asked my host family and once again am asking for English-Japanese equivalents every five minutes). I think it`s just become a representation of all the life-changing and -enriching experiences I was lucky enough to have over those two-and-a-half months. And I hope my current tenure in Japan will be filled with similarly wonderful experiences that are...fantastic. Corny, I know, but it was the best title that came to mind.

That was the longwinded intro that I warned about in the title. My longwinded-self will probably write a lot of those. Anyway, I should probably get to something actually Japanese. Ha, from the top...My flight was nice enough for being confined to the same seat for 12-plus hours.

I managed to watch several movies multiple times each. It`s even more ridiculous that I watched the same movies over and over considering they were all bad (e.g. 10,000 BC). Next up was Tokyo. Around half of this year`s new JET (Japan Exchange and Teaching)-participants and I attended orientation in the other city that never sleeps (I don`t know any actual nicknames for Tokyo) from July 27th-30th. We were pretty busy with mundane workshops, but I still managed to see some of Tokyo`s more namesake districts (Shinjuku, Shibuya, Harajuku). I also managed to hang out with a high school friend, Tim Wong, which was very fun. Probably my favorite experience in Tokyo was encountering some local skaters. We chatted about skating (to the best of our abilities), casually played games of SKATE, and I even got to be an imaginary skate photog. There were a few moments when the skateboard shot out from under me and uncontrollably zoomed towards a massive sheet of glass in the plaza we were skating. Fortunately, out flying skateboards always bounced off it. Still, every time it happened, visions of shattering it and loosing face forever as the hapless gaijin flashing through my mind. I also went out for enkai with the other Hokkaido JETs. We went to tabehodai nomihodi (meaning all-you-can eat and drink), so it truly was a party. Although I don`t normally drink, I figured this was the time to go a little crazy. I had sake for the first time, among a number of other drinks...The thing I overwhelmingly did in Tokyo was take endless photos. Just before leaving I purchased a digital SLR. As anyone can imagine, the bustling and colorful city of Tokyo is the perfect place to wield such a machine. Hopefully when I get more familiar with this blog I`ll start posting pictures. [As you can see, I figured that out]

Orientation

Varial heel attempt.

The heart of Tokyo: Shinjuku Station

Wednesday, the 30th came and it was time to ship off to Sarufustu, my home for the next year. Where as most other JETs placed on the island of Hokkaido traveled for 2-3 hours, Sarufutsu`s status as north most village in Japan meant that I traveled for a good five hours.

So now life in Sarufutsu beings. First off, my living space is a completely new experience. Even though I lived on my own in college, an apartment is far different from the dorms of Pioneer (plus, I hopefully won`t be cleaning up vomit like I did as a CA/RA in University Housing). It`s new and weird to me realizing, `this place is mine; this bathroom is mine; if I wanted to, I could buy 20 lbs. of lobster and boil it on my stove.` Anyway, I arrived there late last night so I haven`t had time to do much more than sleep in my bed, suffering from my jet-lag.

Today was also my first day at work. I was presented with two different contracts; both affairs were so formal they were almost like ceremonies. Right now I`m working at Sarufutsu`s government offices. It`s probably the town hall, but my Japanese isn`t nearly good enough to decrypt/ask that. I won`t spend too much time here; just when school`s not in session. Although the kids here just began their one-month vacation the day before yesterday, so initially I`ll be here getting settled and preparing things. Right now there`s not too much to do, hence this horrendously long entry (I commend anyone still reading). The most novel things at the office so far are my name-stamp (can`t remember the Japanese word for it) that I use to signature documents and the bushes outside trimmed to look like animals! I also got my picture taken for the local newspaper while sitting at my desk, looking more professional and disciplined than I could ever hope to be. I`m also a little self-conscious because I had to send my omiyage (souvenirs) in a separate box from Tokyo and it hasn`t arrived yet. I probably should have given them out today, but obviously I can`t at the moment. Hopefully I`m not to gaijin/barbaric to them as a result.

I look forward to exploring my new home as soon as I finish this. There are so many things I want to do: go for my first run through the beautiful surroundings, bike to the ocean 5 km away, explore around town, etc. I`m also really anxious about how acceptable skating will be here. Hopefully my answer won`t be fingers forming an `x` and the word `dame,` which means don’t. There are many places I want to go outside of town too, but those are mostly inaccessible until I get my international driver`s license from AAA (probably in two weeks or so). Yeah, I`m a car-owner too. For anyone that`s driven with me and witnessed me transform our transportation into a death-box on wheels, wish me luck on what may soon be the icy roads of Sarufutsu.

After eating professionally prepared dorm food for the past three years, the big challenge tonight will be cooking dinner. It looks like chicken, string beans, and omiyage are on the menu. Yum...if I don`t screw it up or give myself food poisoning. Anyway, the office is closing now. Talk to everyone later. I didn`t have time to proofread, so sorry for any typos.

*Amendment on 08.07.08: I went back and ran it through MS Word to rid it of misspellings (but didn't have the patience to look for typos. Thankfully now you can't know just how poor a speller I am. As you can see, I also figured out how to insert pictures.