So yesterday was probably one of the worst days I`ve had in Japan and probably one of the worst days period.

 

It started off like a normal day.  I woke up, took a shower, and went to the kitchen. 

 

1） There, I find my door to the fridge busted, hanging loose.  My food inside wasn`t too happy to be spending a few hours out in the 30 degree heat of the Japanese summer night and neither was my nose.  Anyway, I know it can`t be fixed because there are some major issues with it such as the part that`s broken is a one-piece plastic molding.  That`s what was holding my door to begin with from time unimaginable.  I thought it would be made of some metal, but the hinge was made of medal, but it`s cheap plastic that is holding the metal in place.  IN fact, the metal`s support was the cheap plastic.  Anyway, I throw out my food and starve...

 

2) I had a meeting with Matt to talk about evolution and creationism so I was in a hurry to go but when I get to my bike, I find a flat.  Why is there a flat?  I was hopping around the day before and jumping over stairs, small stair gaps that usually would do nothing unless I was a hack.  I guess I`m a hack.  So I take the bike to the shop 5 minutes walk away and get the tube patched.  I have no tools here in Japan.  I go and see Matt and we play Playstation and talk philosophy.  Sometimes it`s kinda cool to talk to a Missionary about evolution because you know where his point is...it was fun.  I get ready to leave because I have to get to work and Matt has to pick up his kids, and I find a flat again...I walk the 40 minutes back to the bike shop and get a new tire.  I call in head office again (I called about the fridge) to tell them I might be late.  I think this day is sucking, but I make it to work with plenty of time to spare.

 

3) Five minutes into my first class, a student comes crying with his dad to the door.  He doesn`t want to come to class.  The kids are about 4 years old here.  Anyway, this isn`t my regular school so I have no idea how the kids are supposed to behave.  The dad has another kid strapped to the bike with him (he came with two kids strapped to the bicycle, no helmet).  So I try to bring the kid in, but he runs away from me and so I leave him alone with his dad for a while and tend to the 4 other screaming children in the classroom.  When I look back towards the father and son, the bike with the other child falls, with the child, the 2 year old boy hits his head on the corner of the curb and the bleeding begins.  The crying begins.  I am in utter confusion.  But because Peppy scares the living shit out of you about your liabilities (everything is YOUR fault) I can only think about being fired.  I don`t even think about the kid`s well being for the first 5 seconds, just my own.  This is how good the company is.

Anyway, continuing the the bleeding, the next door neighbour, a flower shop girl comes running to call the ambulance because I have no idea where I am.  This isn`t my school so I don`t really know the address and on top of that, I`ll be spewing out English to a Japanese operator who won`t understand.  So we hang around, use up a few strands of gauze and towels to hold in the blood/brains and wait...in the meantime, I have to call head office again (3rd time) and tell them that yet again, I have fouled something up.  Of course, they hear ambulance and start yelling at me.  "What the hell did you do?" I explain the situation, but somehow I still feel I am liable for the father leaving the other child unattended on a bicycle that can fall, with the child not wearing a helmet.

 

The irony is, my bike was right next to the kid wh fell with my helmet in plain sight.  While the father was waiting for the ambulance, he took a few glances at the helmet.

 

Yes, I still taught my classes and today I still have to teach, but I`m scared to go to school because I don`t want to have another incident like this right now...I am in no shape to teach but I have to gambatte for the company and put my emotional well being on the side.  As well, I want to find out if the kid is okay!!!

 

 

SO I`m going to copy and paste whatever I was going to say here anyway, but I sent a bit of it to a friend already...

 

With my book list, I really have to update it.  I`ve read a book called Shogun, which is roughly historical about Japan and another roughly historical book called The Tale of the 47 Ronin, which caused the historical events in Shogun.  Shogun apparently was a really popular TV show in the 80s staring Richard Chamberlain.  This, I was told, but a German man with a german accent.  Let`s see, I`m reading a cute little comic book called Yotsuba to! which is about a little girl discovering life in Japan.  She`s learning new words and making up words and it`s very similar to how I feel in Japan sometimes.  The book is in Japanese so maybe that gives you some indication of my ability to grasp another language in a few short months.  I`ve just finished reading "The Dilbert Principle" by Scott Adams, which is about how to survive in the corporate world.  I also read A Case of Need by Michael Chricton, which is a mystery and commentary on the issue of Abortion.  Now I`m reading "Darwin on Trial" an essay by a creationist lawyer, who believes he has the qualifications to discuss the issue more than a creation scientist or a evolutionary scientist because he is a lawyer and they are better at making logical arguments.  Sometimes he gets it on the mark, other times, he`s totally off.

Anyway, I met a surfer from South Africa last night and I was talking to him about the book and we get into a discussion about Berkeley`s philosophy and epistemology.  We talked a lot about the philosophies in that movie, "What the bleep do we know?" and went further.  He said he read a book by an author named Sawyer or something about an alien who comes to earth to talk to the world`s leading palentogist/evolutionary scientist because the Alien believes in God and wants to go into a detailed discussion about the implications of God being real and evolution as a means for God to create humanity or at least beings able to communicate the word of God to others.  I have to read that soon.

He also talked about a book called The Field or something, which is an extension of Berkeley or even Descartes because it`s a dualist approach to science.  The author was mentioned in the What the bleep movie.  One of the main discussions is on Zero Point Field which is where energy can be stored, where memories are stored and information can be stored (kinda like the internet sometimes, where is all this information, really?).  Anyway, this goes on to say that our brains are mere receptors to the zero point field to access memories.  Those who have brain damage simply have bad receptors and cannot access the field.  So loss of major functions result in it.  But we didn`t get into too much more because his girlfriend and some other girls came in and wanted us to dance instead because they didn`t have a clue what the hell we were talking about.  But typical of Japan, and probably the "real world", our intellectual conversation was completly irrevelant.  In fact, it made us look like "nerds" which implies "not fun".  I hate the world, I want to have something to say from time to time, you know?

Anyway, talk about deep thoughts, I`ve had a few I guess.  But I am severely lacking in humans who want to discuss this.  I met a Metis girl from Alaska last week and she asked me what I wanted to do in the future and I said "Environmental toxicology, possibly philosophy" and she said, "but teaching English is easy and pays well...you don`t have to think".  A lot of people I`ve met think this week.  And these are people with university degrees.  Why did they bother going if all they want to do is sit down and speak English all day?

yeah, that was quicker...

 

Not much else to say...it`s hot here...

 

I forgot to mention that I took my bike to the shop to get it tuned up.  The summer is dying down so it`s almost good enough to go riding again.  I think all my frustrations will go into doing some stupid stuff.  I have my old pads with me so I will tend to get hurt a lot.  Oh well, to take sick days cuz I bashed my shins into my bike pedal or some other foreign object is better than taking a sick day cuz I was hung over..I didn`t drink so much...just enough to cause trouble, yet again...

 

 

Yeah, well, there`s not much to say.  I will finish my contract in January and then head off to China for an indefinite amount of time.  I figure that maybe I`ll start doing something with my life when I come back from Japan.  IT`s been a nice break, but I`ve been having difficulty with homesickness again.  Ah well, I can`t really do too much about that but just got through with it.  A couple of my friends have gone back to home and they say it sucks because nobody really cares about what you`ve done abroad.  I guess that`s true.  Oh well, life is continuely moving forward in Canada, I suppose.  When I get back, it`ll be like nothing has happened to me for an entire year.  I`ll be stuck at home, looking for work again, applying for grad school, probably and other things.  It`s as if I had put my life on hold for a year.  It`s depressing when I think about everyone moving in some direction when I have no direction to head to.  Should`ve listened to Vince some more.  I had a dream last night that was really weird but cool.  I guess my mind hasn`t had any video game stimulation in a while so I dreamt that I was in some Final Fantasy world.  The game is really cool because you can enter and slaughter everything and the spoils of war return to reality.  I won the Ultima sword against Cloud and it was brought back into our world.  Then I sat around with the guys, all of whom had swords of equal value.  I didn`t want to wake up tonight because I wanted to go back and get my Genji armour.  Oh well, maybe tonight I can dream about that, if I don`t do anything stupid tonight.

 

Ah, well, off to work soon...screaming kids...I have a sore throat.

 

I was supposed to be in Roppongi right now in a drunken daze bar hopping across Tokyo, but due to things like my inability to read Japanese, I`m stuck here in Okayama.  I guess there`s not much to it and i better do something fun while I`m here.  I should go to Osaka or something and actually have a blast, but maybe I ought to take it slow.

 

Last night, upset with my own stupidity, I ran off into a shop and met some friends and new friends who taught me more Japanese.  Looking like a Japanese helps me tremendously here in terms of being accepted into their culture.  Anyway, last night I spent the first part of it playing Big 2, or this stoner induced version of it.  It was a lot of fun and more so because my friends were high.  They thought I was just really good at picking up the game Big 2, but being an outcasted nerd in High School, I did nothing but play the game day after day.  What else were we to do?  Work out in the gym?  Play sports?  Nah, we were gambling and starting to make accounts and dealing in cash.   No, I am joking, but we should`ve done that, eh, guys?  Then we could`ve made a lot of money in illegal gambling on school grounds.  Chinese kids, eh?

 

Anyway, I pretty much won every single game except for the first two but it never got boring because they kept on making up new rules as we went along so that maybe they could have a chance at winning.  But it never happened.  The last game, they made up some weird rule about 4 of a kinds reversing the heirarchy of cards.  Lucky for me, I had 4 of a kind and a lot of low cards (3s, 4s, etc) and two jokers (wild, unbeatable).  In other words, I made sure they got rid of all their lows and then changed it so they were left with kings and queens, which became useless.  Apparently this put them over the edge.  I got really drunk shortly after that and had a pot of ice cream to boot.

 

After that, it was only 12am, the night was young.  I headed off to this bar that I heard about but have never been, so off I go.  At the entrance of the bar, there is a club, japanese exclusive.  There are many places like that.  They had an MC battle or something in there.  I`m not into the hip hop culture so I don`t understand it, but there were a lot of people about and I bump into another guy, stoned out of his mind.  I`ve partied with him a few times before and his name means "Mackerel", like the fish.  So Fish and I talk for a bit, I say I`m heading for the bar and he said I need to see the battle, but I`m reluctant to pay the 2500 yen fee.  Somehow, Fish gets talking and I`m in without a fuss.  That`s the way I like it.

 

Inside the club, it is packed with people.  I mean, you could not move unless you had some crazy desire to be trampled on.  Fish was happy though, and so were many guys because a packed club like this in Japan means the endless groping of innocent, but scantly-clad women was a neccessity.  Being a gentleman, I tried to avoid that, but it was impossible not to touch someone.  It`s much harder to avoid women and their jutting breasts.  Yes, guys, Japanese girls have breasts, pretty big ones. 

 

Fish and I meet at the bar, after 15 minutes or so of struggle through the crowd.  With my drink ticket in hand, I order more alcohol.  I am desperately drunk at this point and stare into the breasts of one of those scary cat like women with their fluorescent raccoon like eye make-up and skin tight clothing.  I say "Hi," right into her chest.  She smiles, says, "Kampai" and Fish laughs at me.  He tells her I`m Canadian and all hell breaks loose. 

 

Next thing is, I`m back outside the club for a spot, Fish and I go for a night cruise into the city.  I`m amazed at his ability to ride even though he is drunk out of his mind.  I guess being 27 and an ex-pro-class BMXer and House DJ makes your life a blur.  Now he just mainly smokes dope and chases tail, rarely landing any.  Sorry to say this about Fish but he`s a small guy with bad teeth and lives a terrible lifestyle.  Still, you`d think girls would over look that if you were a DJ and a retired BMXer.  Fish smells like he`s 80 year old as well.  Ah well, he`s fun to hang out with.

 

Back in the club, I loose Fish.  I panick for a second and then my ticket number is called and somehow I`m whisked off onto stage with a bunch of other guys.  Of course, they all know what`s going on, but I stand there, staring at the audience wondering what the heck is going on.  They hand me a couple of flags: a blue one and a red one.  We move to one side of the stage and stand there, and the last battle begins.  I found out soon enough that we are the judges.  After about an hour of standing under the spotlight and some other things, a winner is declared unanimously: Phader1 is crowned the top MC in all OKayama Prefecture.  He will be in Tokyo two weeks from now competing for top spot in the country.  I`m glad I helped out.

 

The party ends, and by now it`s 3am.  I head off to the next bar, this one, almost exclusively foreign.  Some Russians are sitting in the front.  There is a striking blonde in a yellow dress smiling.  "Konbanwa" she says.  I reply "Ah, I can speak English, so no worries."  She can`t.  I don`t talk to her anymore because some big russians and other eastern european types walk by and they all give me a stare.  I forget that here in Japan, I`m a big guy, but back home, I`m just a tiny Chinese guy. 

 

I enter the bar and a pair of breasts jiggle in front of my face.  It`s Angela.  This is her boyfriend`s bar.  Her jiggling breasts are a secret handshake between us.  I return the jiggle.  I`m a fat boy, I`ve got them too, almost larger than hers.  :)  I pay my little entrance fee and get a better deal on the drinks.  It`s nice to know the locals.

 

I enter and a Russian waves me by her side.  I`ve met her before, Na-chan, she`s called.  She`s got a japanese name, Natsu, which means Summer.  So Summer and I talk a bit, I get introduced again to her sugar daddy, a middle aged Japanese man with a steel factory in Okayama and a small village in China.  Business is going bad.  I can tell by some of the marks on Summer`s body.  Summer and I can only talk to each other in Japanese, which is fine and I enjoy flexing my mind in Japanese whenever I can.  Anyway, her sugar daddy buys me a drink and I refuse, he tries harder, I refuse, he tries harder, and I finally accept.  Hopefully, I`ve refused enough time so that he has a good amount of pride that his ability to persuade isn`t suffered.  I toast, "kampai" and off I go to great some of the other locals.

 

There are too many Russians here tonight, usually not a good sign.  They look like they`re going to war, looking for something to slay.  I talk to a Polish girl and her Peruvian boyfriend and then ask the bartender how she`s doing.  (Rich, yes, it`s Becky. She`s lost weight.)  Becky looks tired, probably endless nights of working in this bar and days teaching English is showing on her.  Most of us are like that.  I guess in Japan, there is nothing but work so on weekends, you ought to go have some fun.

 

At about 4am, Summer`s sugar daddy takes me to the side and tells me he has to go but Summer wants to stay.  He`s worried about the Russians and asks me to watch over her until she gets home.  He hands me some cash.  I take it and stay at the bar doing nothing but talking to Summer until 6am.  I walk her home and say good morning.  The sun is up and I`m ready to go to bed.

 

 

 

 

 

Ah, what can I say about Japan?  Most weekends can be said to be like this.  Maybe I`ve gone and flared everything up a bit, but usually, this happens to me.  I`ve met Summer`s sugar daddy before last night and he`s always given me money for some reason.  I hope he doesn`t ever ask for more favors other than to take Summer home.  I`ve only had to do it a few times, luckily.  Summer herself makes me weary.  She`s most likely a hostess on weekends as well, which is probably how she met the Japanese man.  Sometimes when I take her home, she stops to talk to Japanese guys that look like Yakuza. 

 

Oh well, as much as I`d like to make this up, I guess it`s true.   I guess this is why I gotta take it slow.  I`ve got a few days off.  I`ll go see a castle tomorrow that`s supposed to have survived the fires of WWII.  I played soccer this afternoon with an American, Pakistani, Kenyan, Congo(nian?), a Middle Eastern Arab, a French Black African and a French Arab African.  In Canada, I doubt I`d have the pleasure of hanging out with such a diverse group.  It`s more international here in a small Japanese town than in Vancouver.  Sure, there are more people in Vancouver, and the city is modern and beautiful, but it`s clique-y like a high school.  I love Vancovuer so much.  It`d be better if everyone just got along.  I`d like to go play some soccer with some Arabs when I`m back.  I think I`ll have to walk into a park and ask if I could play with some random guys.

 

I have 3 hours in this cafe.  I`ve used up an hour to type out this blog entry.  Probaly one of my most detailed ones yet.  Whatever, maybe people need to know what I`m doing.  Maybe they don`t.  Gotta slow down, stop drinking, study.  I have my proficiency exam in a few months.  I have to learn 300 chinese characters in a few months.  Piece of cake.  I need to exercise my brain or I`ll rot like the rest of society.  Stay in school kids, it`ll get you laid...

 

 

Um, MSN spaces looks a little weird to me, but whatever, I guess as long as everything still works.

Anyway, there hasn`t been much to tell these days about Japan.  It`s just hot here.  Also, I worked 10 days straight and now they are giving us absolutely nothing for that amount of work.  Just a small thank you written by my supervisor who can`t write in English very well.  That`s fine I guess. 

 

Yesterday, I went to a waterpark and got burnt to a crisp.  I feel a lot of pain right now.  Why didn`t I use more sunscreen?  Probalby because I felt strong and brave and idiotic.  There were 5 of us guys there.  We`re all burnt.  Tonight there will be some crazy fireworks festival.  I`ll take some pictures and upload them soon.  Until then, I`ll recover my wounds.