Ackk! Why can’t I keep cavities out of my mouth? Last year(as you’d know if you’ve been reading since then) I had 11 cavities filled before I left for Japan. I only had myself to blame for this. So armed with knowledge and a tooth brush and floss, I began my quest to have zero cavities. Well, one year later a quick visit to the dentist shows that I have four more cavities!!! Sadly, they are not able to give me those wonderful white composite fillings that make me look cavity free, so now I am on the road to cyborgdom!!!
If anyone out there in toothland has any suggestions that can help me stay cavity free, I’d appreciate it greatly. I thought diet coke was a good solution to the sugar bowl that is coke. But I guess I was wrong!!!
In other, less decaying news, I’ve decided to get a trim. Here are the English soccer hooligan like results!!
England’s out,eh? Time to torch Liverpool!!!
It’s been quite a week. With bowling, basketball and all sorts of other activities behind me, I’m going to unwind at an Onsen in Yamagata with some friends. Let me explain the concept of onsens for those of you who don’t know. An onsen is a bath(either inside or outside) that pipes in water from mountain springs. You usually bathe in the nude, and it’s quite relaxing. If you’ve ever been to a hot spring before, you’ll know what I’m talking about. My body aches all over!! I just realized that it’s been a while since I posted a picture up here. So let’s do that now:
This is odaiba. It’s sort of the south east part of Tokyo. It’s full of amusement parks and other crazy things. The picture is of Rainbow Bride close to sunset.
I played basketball this morning at my High School. It was all for the sports day, where each class(and staff) compete for the title of best in school. My team was up 12-7 in the first half, but we ran out of energy in the second half and class 2A took us out. I was covered in sweat for a good two hours, but now I’ve developed a lust for sport. Bring it on baby!!!!
Would you pay to go into space? I’m thinking I would, once I get over my fear of flying.
I survived the largest Typhoon I’ve ever been in before. The winds and rain were quite extreme, but I was able to pass the time watching the launch of the worlds first private spacecraft!
In other news, I completed my Japanese course here and am now preparing to interview for a special translation course that is being offered. I doubt I’ll get in, but it will be good practice for the proficiency exam I expect to write later this year. Also, stay tuned!! My Japanese blog is coming soon.
So here I am, in my local education office at 10:30am, sitting in a pile of my own sweat and contemplating existence. Today had to be the hottest day I’ve ever experienced before. I go to the bathroom and that causes me to sweat out all the water that I drank ten minutes earlier. I just came from a staff meeting where it was discussed that people that work for the education office more than 25 years get 5 days of special leave.
Here is the funny thing about the Japanese. On paper, they get far more holidays then we’ll ever get in the west. The odd thing is that they never take them. They get 40 days of sick and holiday leave, plus countless national holidays. Culturally speaking, if they take any of them they are shunned by the group. Now I know this is generalizing, but I’ve talked to many people who have worked in education for more than 10 years and have never taken more than 4 days off. I think that’s kind of sad. Also, you’ll see Japanese people working from 7am to 11pm and they also work weekends as well. Many people never get a chance to unwind from a hard day at the office. It’s no wonder they have a word for death by overwork. They call it “karoshi”. I just need to rant about that for a while. I’m all for hard work and effort, but I also enjoy my free time as well. I’d like to see everybody enjoy their free time.
Also, for those who don’t recognize the girl in the picture, her name is Youko and we’ve been going out for 2 months now. We have sort of a contract going on. I’m teaching her “English” and she’s teaching me “Japanese.” So far I’m happy to say that there is a lot of “Education” going on.
The struggle for humanity to get to space is now taking a grassroots turn. On June 21st, Spaceshipone will attempt to reach 100km, making its pilot an astronaut. This attempt will happen at the Mojave Airport, and if you follow their blog, it looks like people are getting excited.
http://www.mojavebooks.com/mhv/040618-1.html
I for one have been anticipated this since I was a child. This could spell the end of government controlled space travel. Let’s wish them all luck!!!
I’m really sorry about the lack of updates. I just got back from Tokyo and I’ve been trying to get some other things done. I’m not planning on traveling for a little while, so I will be able to give some updates quite soon here. I will let you all know that I’m doing fine though, so no worries.
