Update from the belly of the beast (aka the junior high school)

So, last week I was really sick, which is unfortunate because it was my first full week living with Jun. Fortunately, it's not the first time she's seen me feverishly rolling around in my own sweat and was a good sport about the whole thing. She even made me soup.

I missed a couple of days of work, which wasn't ideal, and I spent Monday, a holiday, sick. That kinda sucked. Over the weekend, we had planned to meet one of Jun's many international stalkers to show him around parts of Tokyo, but it's hard to do that with a fever and horrible intestinal cramping. It's too bad, because a) he seems like a nice guy, and b) it's harder feel good about hitting on someone's girlfriend from abroad if you've met their boyfriend. The good news is that he sent us some cocktail sauce and wine from Canada, and we had a nice shrimp dinner with the cocktail sauce. It's apparently impossible to buy here, for reasons unknown. The Japanese market is strange in many ways.

So, tonight I'm headed off to the city office to officially change my address and get my new insurance card. I get off work at 4 and they close at five, which is going to make this complicated. I hate complicated. Also, Japanese paperwork is *not* multilingual. This is not the California DMV, where I have my choice of paperwork in 17 languages. This is Japan. I have my choice of Japanese...and Japanese, which is, incidentally, one of the most difficult written languages in the world. They really cotton to foreigners around these parts.

Ashes bio: still in progress. Actually, typing at home is kind of a pain, which is really slowing my progress...need to figure out a way around that.

Signing off. Must work.

*edit* Actually, the paperwork was in Japanese and English. I was a little unfair to the good people at the Foreign Registration desk, which is not cool. I don't want to become another incessantly whining 外人 (foreigner). There are a lot of them.

Working on it...

I'm still working on Ashes' biography...turns out that it's going to be a bit of a bigger project than I'd originally envisioned, but I think I can probably have it done within a week or two. It turns out that 10 years and multiple moves together ends up being a lot of history. A lot of her history and a lot of mine. To do it justice will take some time, but I'll take it. I want to remember her as completely as I can.

So it goes.

Jun and I are headed over to her folks place tonight for some sushi and really...really...nice sake. Fortunately or unfortunately, I'm soon going to have to add sake to my ever-growing list of snobberies.

So it also goes.

Bye Sara.

Well, I just put Sara on the train a few hours ago, and she is now somewhere over the Pacific Ocean. We had a really good time at the onsen and around Tokyo, and I'll be putting up some pics sometime soon. It's been a nice distraction from the loss of my kitty, but I still owe Ashes a full accounting of our time together, so I'll be working on that in the next few days.

I already miss Sara (eeenchhh).

The Sadness.

My cat, Ashes, passed away this week. I'm planning on writing a long blog about as many memories of her as I can dredge up, but I can't actually work up the willpower right at the moment.

I loved my sweet kitty. I'll miss her for the rest of my days.

Needing to get back in the habit...

I've gotten out of the habit of updating this thing since summer vacation and my trip to Oregon.  I don't really have a particularly good excuse, I've just been distracted by life back in Tokyo, I guess.

I started work last week, and everything went pretty smoothly.  The junior high is usually easy, and I think I'm hitting a pretty high level of comfort with the elementary school.  It's definitely more challenging, but practice goes a long way toward smoothing things out.

In other news, Jun and I will be moving in together soon.  I basically live at her apartment, as it is now, and that doesn't seem likely to change any time soon.  We have to work out some of the specifics in term of storing some of my stuff, since the place is not large, but I don't foresee any problem.  We'll either get a storage room somewhere else or buy a little storage cabinet to keep out on the balcony, which is actually bigger than the apartment...might as well put it to use.

I'm DJing on Friday at a party for a bartender...I need to practice up a little, but it should got pretty smoothly, I think.  I'll be heading to my local electronics store to hijack some of their gear a few times this week.  I'm seriously considering picking up more gear, but that seems like a bad idea, maybe.  I still have a lot of stuff back home, and it'd probably make more sense to just have it shipped over.

Anyway, I'm going to try to blog a bit more than I have, lately.  It's cathartic, and it lets people know what I've been up to.  It's easy to write when things are shitty, but it's a little harder to pull out the inspiration when things are going well...so I guess things have been going well.  Yay, me.

Long time coming.

Due to a surprise party for my dad back in the States, I had to stop the blogging for a while. When nearly your every thought is centered on an upcoming even, it makes it difficult to concentrate on others things.

In any case, the surprise party was a huge success. My sister, Sara, flew in from LA and I made the trip from Tokyo. Further adding to the surprise, my girlfriend, Jun, came along as well. The parents had no idea that we were in town, or, in my case, the freaking country. I think you, my dear reader, can imagine the shock.

Sara, Jun, and myself were sitting on the back porch at my brother's place in Oregon wine country. My brother, Jeff, had carefully set the trap, with the help of my aunt and uncle, also in town from California, and now all that remained was to spring it. My parents came out onto the back porch and around the side of the house where we were sitting.

My mom took one look at my sister, whom she had spoken to (in the airport) that morning and screamed and clapped her hands together. She then looked to her left and saw me, screamed a little louder, and clapped again. She then looked slightly further to the left and saw Jun, whose picture she had only seen, and screamed a final, third time...the loudest and perhaps most delighted scream of the three. She then promptly broke into tears. Meanwhile, my dad's jaw was very nearly literally on the ground...he was basically dumbfounded.

So, we had a nice round of hugs with everyone and proceeded to drink beer and eat barbecue and have a generally fine time. Jun took to my family like a fish to water and they took to her with great, great delight, which I think reflects very well on all parties involved. In addition to the intrinsic rewards of being home in Oregon, spending time in its natural beauty with my incredibly wonderful and loving friends and family, it was amazing to see it all through Jun's eyes. She absolutely fell in love with everyone she met, and was constantly awed by the Oregon scenery. One of the things that I think I'll never forget about the trip were her constantly murmured expressions of awe. She is a wonderful person.

So, I owe great, great thanks to my brother and sister, who sprung for my ticket, and especially to my brother for generously lending me my old car so that would could get around hassle free. Good god, what a time. Awesome.

Summer vaction and DJing!!

So, I taught my last classes today for the next six weeks! I am excited. I still have to work a bit, but it's all more or less silly training exercises...I literally have to be at work for about 3 hours a day. Following that, we're supposed to do some reading and possibly some worksheets, but I'm thinking that it will be pretty light. Nice. I also have 3 weeks off, paid, which is AWESOME! I'd like to do some traveling around Japan, but I have to do some research first. The summer months here are going to be hot as hell, but I should be OK. Maybe I can find a nice place in the mountains to go camping or something.

Tonight I am going to meet a friend of mine and discuss my DJ night at the new club in Aoyama. I'm really frickin' excited about hooking this up. I have a lot of work to do, though. I need to name the night, put out a flyer, and scare up at least one more DJ. I'm planning on playing a long set, though, so I think I can get away with just one more person DJing. The important thing is to get as many of my friends and their friends there as possible. I should be able to fill it up, and that's good for my friend's business and it's good for me. Assuming all goes well, I can start eventually charging a door cover and paying my DJs (and myself). However, above making money, the main goal is to have a fun party. If I can make that happen regularly, then money will follow. Guess we'll find out, won't we?