***Note: the profolio page can be found Here***

November 20th, 2005 - Final Entry

I just wanted to make you all aware that I am not dead. The update delay was caused by a combination of technical issues which still persists, and a general laziness which I'm pretty sure I was born with :-)

It is approaching 4 months back in Canada and I am slowly getting back into the swing of things here in the motherland. The job situation has not improved since I left so it has taken me this long to land a decent job. Next week I will be starting at a software testing company in fredericton. I am really looking forward to it. up untill now I have been working at a Michael's craft store. while I did gain a lot of great experience doing the job it certainly wasn't a viable career. Retail rarely is.

The biggest thing I miss about japan was the social life. The rules were different, you could walk up to any foreigner on the street and start up a conversation, if for no other reason than you both speak the same language. I miss the people, the events, the trips, the "ungodly amounts of money", and the bizarre technology. Thanks to the internet I can keep in touch with some folks who are still there. It's a strange feeling to chat with someone who used to be down the road is now thousands of kilometers away. even more disconcerting is that this was one of the main conduits of communication while there.

I would like to go back and visit japan again someday. I did enjoy a lot of things there even if some of my previous entry's may paint a slightly darker picture. were there problems, Oh Yeah. would I ever go teach english there again? NO WAY. what I loved about japan was the friends and the life I had outside of work. Although often rewarding, the job was a means to an end.

I did some math regarding my photos and came up with some interesting points. In 2 years I have taken over 6000 pictures. broken down that averages out to over 8 photos a day everyday for two years. that is only the photos I have stored,many others were deleted right off the camera. Of those 6000 pictures, roughly 1400 are on this site. I hope to make a memory book of some kind but the sheer volume of text and photos is quite daunting.

Even after such a short time home I am finding my Japan experience fading away in the face of day to day life here at home. This really seems to be a double edged sword. on the one hand the disconnectedness of being away for so long is slowly fading, but so is the feeling of uniqueness I had from doing it.

It is for this reason that I am so glad that I took the time to make this record. not only did it help keep everyone informed about my life in japan but it has become a time capsule of my own memories. Even as I write this closing entry I must point out that I have not read any part of this journal after it was written. I have not gone back to check, correct, or modify any of the glaring errors in spelling,grammar or punctuation. I am not sure when I will read this for myself. I will just leave it here so i can relive some of what I did during these past two years. but when I do, i will read it in the same way it was written, and I will remember.

July 13th , 2005

13 Days and counting. Less than 2 weeks before my time here in japan is over. I just did a quick count and over the course of the past 2 years I have posted over 1300 pictures to this site. if that wasn't enough my total number of photos taken is well over 5000. that averages out to 8 more than pictures a day. camera is still working fine though if I listen carefully enough I can hear it begging for mercy every now and then.

So far I have had my Last days at Kamisaibara and at Okutsu Junior high schools. I got a lovely bouquet of flowers from Kamisai and some large cards signed by all the students in Okutsu. it's a strange thing to leave a place where you have gotten to know so many people when you know you will probably never see them again in your lifetime.

Tomorrow will be my last day in Tomi. By far I enjoyed the smaller schools the most. My last day will be on the 19th in Kagamino. After that I don't have to go to school so I can concentrate on setting the Apt to rights and getting my stuff packed and mailed. Classes are done now so there is nothing for me to do at school, but in true Japanese Fashion I must be here until 4:00 no matter what.

Just as a final Note of Trivia the reason it took so long to get this post up wan"t that I was so busy but that lightning at the beginning of this week killed the schools internet. they said it would take a month to prepare but it was back up in a week and a half. Unfortunately for me I was in Kamisaibara when the massive storm came an it never got to me. there is a string of mountains that shields Kamisaibara the weather systems in tsuyama. once I entered a tunnel with heavy snow falling on one side and came out the other side to sunshine. I was disappointed to miss that storm. I'm told it was prettty spectacular.

With any luck I should be able to get one more update in before I leave Japan with Cat in tow.

June 22th , 2005

I posted some more pictures I have been collecting up for a while. Two new pages, some new pics in Engrish and and japanese cars.

June 6th , 2005

Happy birthday to me, Happy birthday to me!!.... 26 years old but in maturity I'm not a day over 12 ;-)

this past weekend was quite eventful, 3 parties over 3 days. works for me! friday night was My birthday Party. A bunch of us from around Tsuyama Rented out an International Villa in Takabe on friday night and cooked mexican food. As close to mexican as a bunch of non mexicans can do in Japan anyway. I was all looking forward to using the birthday candles I didn't get to use last year, but just as I was walking out the door they disappeared. I couldn't find them anywhere. so I had to settle for blowing out a cigar et lighter held over the cake. Fate being what it is, I found the candles within 30 minutes of arriving home.

While we in the Tsuyama crew do like,e to get together we aren't much for having truly wild parties. so If we feel the need we have to outsource that to the boys in Nimi on Saturday night. Now the Nimi Rooftop barbecues are legendary. this is the place where stories for your grand kids (or Lawyer) are made. this time was no exception. there was plenty of drinking, talking, more drinking, etc. one girl accidentally flushed her cell phone down the toilet and had to use mine to call for a ride. People were having a good time, and not in a rowdy way. This however did not stop the Police from showing up 3 times to quiet us down. The last time they showed up in riot gear!! They had helmets and everything. Now the first two times they came it was just this old cop from the station up the street. he was getting pretty agitated when he showed up the third time with backup. now the backup was a bunch of younger cops, some of them younger than the partiers by the look of them. I think they were just glad to have something to do. I even saw one of them in conversation with a drunken individual about his home country. (beer makes you speak japanese better). about this time we decided to bail out. it seems that some lady 2 floors down had her window open and could hear people TALKING (not singing, dancing, music or yelling but talking) so she kept calling the cops. As we were leaving I saw her tripping out at someone from the party. My thought would be close the window. I guess its not as obvious a solution to some people.

Sunday night was a good-bye party for some of the Private school teacher who will be leaving japan pretty soon. it was pretty packed but since these neighbors were more tolerant the police didn't make an appearance.

So now here I sit, on a monday morning desperately wishing I was still in bed. But it was not to be. Monday truly is a terrible way to spend one 7th of your life.

May 13, 2005

Yet another entry to sate your hunger for pictures. This past golden week I went to Hiroshima and saw the A-Bomb memorial & museum. It was one of those things I was glad to see, but it was also one of the most sad and terrible things I have ever seen. the museum is very graphic. I challenge anyone to walk through that place and still think nuclear weapons are a good idea. I think they should try handing out Prozac at the exit. this is not something you want to do if you are already feeling down or at the end of a trip.

Miyajima was a different story though kinda sad in another way which I will get to in a bit. it's one of those must see places in Japan, the large red torii (shinto arch) is pictured in almost every japan tour book ever made. The main shrine is on Miyajima island. the place is crawling with deer. there are signs everywhere saying don't feed the deer (only in japanese). But still there are people who make their living selling deer treats. so we did like everyone else and fed the deer anyway. We took the cable cars up the mountain, to see the monkey park and to walk down but when we arrived the monkeys were off in the forest so we never saw any. we walked up to the top of the mountain to see the shrines there an arrived just as one shrine was beginning to burn. this was sad to see as it was obviously very old. the people around tried to improvise a kind of water brigade but without buckets or water pressure there wasn't much hope. Especially considering how dry the wood was. fire fighting efforts broke up when large objects started falling off the roof. We were planning to walk down but, after the time we lost watching the fire and that the trees were starting to burn we opted for the cable car back down. As we were leaving I picked up a set of Samurai swords. totally blunt and just for show the do look really cool on my book shelf.

April 14th 2005

Here is the long awaited journal entry for my trip to Australia. Some of this entry is taken from emails I sent while I was away. Internet cafe's in Australia are like Tim Hortens in Canada, they are everywhere. I took a few minutes each day to email the days events back home and to compile a running commentary of the trip. It saves me trying to remember it all after the fact.

Day 0 - In transit

I write this from the Airport in Hochi Minh City (Saigon) Vietnam. My touring options are limited to the transfer lounge but even still it is interesting. I seem to be getting the hang of the long flights, I feel surprisingly good so far though it was only a 5 hour flight. the real test will be the flight to sydney. One of the biggest differences here is that they use the Roman alphabet. The spoken language is based largely on Chinese so they use a lot of accents when writing, much like French only more so. That would make life much easier for someone learning the language here. you would only have to think about the words not the words and the symbols. It is very hot and humid here outside of the air conditioned areas. There are also a lot of foreigners around. English really is an international language. Most people unable to speak either english or Vietnamese would have a hard time. The prices here are rather strange, even for an airport. Food prices are through the roof. Everything is done in US dollars. But at the gift shops you can by souvenirs at prices I would consider low in japan. I got a meal courtesy of the airline, a kind of fried noodles and pork. It was rather tasty. I've had layovers longer than this in a lot of places now but have never been given a meal ticket. I couldn't belive this but when I went to the bathroom on the plane there was a small box full of vietnam airlines travel tooth brushes, and disposable RAZORS!! I was pretty shocked, I picked up one of each. anyhow my time on this computer grows short, $4 US for 30 minutes! ouch!

Day 1 - Sydney Arrival

this day was pretty uneventful. I the plane got in around 10:30am. by the time I had cleared customs, got my bags, and made my way to the hostel it was about noon. I slept for a couple of hours then wandered around Sydney. It was nice to be in a western style city with english everywhere. I was kind of turned off by all the people pan handling. I was approached 5 times during the day. In the evening the bar next door the hostel was offering cheap pizza and beer to people staying at the hostel. I went down and chatted with a number of people. If you want to meet people the Hostel is the place to do it. I felt like I needed a nationality checklist by the end of it. One guy I talked to told me about a tour of the blue mountains leaving from the front of the hostel at 8:00 the next morning. since that was on my list of things to see I decided to give it a shot.

Day 2 - the Blue mountains

I saw the blue mountains today, The Three Sisters and Wentworth falls. There was a lot of hiking around. I found out about the tour the night before from a guy I was talking to in a bar. He told me the tour group was really small so if I showed up at 8:00am I could probably sneak in. When I arrived in the morning he wasn't there nor was any tour. So I waited around for a bit longer and managed to attach myself to another tour group going to the blue mountains. It's a good this I bought a new bigger memory card for my camera, the tour was a photo gold mine. I got to see some kangaroos too. still waiting on the Koala though. Tomorrow I will look around the city, then it's off to Brisbane. Backpacking is really the way to go here, it is easy to spend months doing it. I really wish I had more time to spend here. Some people complain that is is a little expensive here but after the prices in Japan everything feels like a bargain.

Day 3 - Downtown Sydney

I decided to take today and see the sites of Sydney, I contemplated taking the bus to Circular Quai (pronounced "Circular Key") but in the end I decided to hoof it. I was glad I did. there were lots of great shops and things along the way. I came upon a whole nest of computer shops in one building. I managed to find some treasures. it rained for a while as I walked. I was rather damp by the time I found a place that sold umbrellas. One thing about japan, you are never far from an umbrella. The rain had stopped by the time I made it to the Opera house. The sun even came out for a bit which made for some nice pictures.

Once I had seen the sights there I took a ferry to Darlings Harbor. there were a lot of museums, and tourist attractions around here. I didn't get to a few things around here because I wanted to make it back to the computer stores before they closed. I knew what I wanted but I wanted to get them on the way back to save carrying it around all day. on the way back it started raining again. and again, it stopped just before I got to where I was going. Luckily this time I had an umbrella.

Day 4 - I'm a Genius

I have once again proved myself incompetent when it comes to booking flights, My original plan was to leave this morning but the way expedia ended up reserving my flight it was at 7:35 pm not AM. so I ended up with an extra day in sydney, which worked out because it let me cover the last things I wanted to see like the Imax and the Chinese garden which I didn't get to yesterday.

I have realized how I am not as suited to the backpacker lifestyle as others. It's fun and I wish I was here longer but seeing as I am hard up for packing space after 4 days I shudder to think what would happen after a couple of months (yeah I bought computer stuff) .

Just to give you an idea of the strength of the sun here, its mid autumn and I am tanning though spf45 sun block. I have been warned on several occasions about it both before and after I arrived. I would be in rough shape it I was unprotected.

Day 5 - Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary

After wandering around Brisbane city center for a while I hopped a bus to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. I read in one of the travel books that you can get your picture taken holding a koala. for me that alone was worth the trip. Again I found a photo gold mine. I was able to see lots of Australia's native animals. From Wombats (which I will forever think of as the Chinchillas from hell) and the Tasmanian Devil (not quite as fearsome as I expected). The highlights were certainly feeding the kangaroos and holding the Koala. I did feed the emu's too but I kept expecting to loose a finger the way they went for the feed pellets. the whole place can be comfortably done in 2-3 hours but it is a definite must see if you are in the area.

Day 6 - Brisbane

I was pleased to discover that Subway stores in australia know how to make a good steak and cheese sub. The places in Japan have a lot to learn. most of the late morning/early afternoon was spent trying to contact the airline and arranging transport to from the hostel to the airport. Later in the day I met Richard Mc Alary and his family. He is a relative on my fathers side of the family who started up his own business on Australia. He showed me around parts of the city I hadn't seen and they served up my first real roast beef dinner in months. Their hospitality was greatly appreciated. it was nice to talk to people who not only spoke english but also had a similar background. Two things that are hard to come by back in Japan.

Day 7 - Return (I'm a genius part 2)

I got up at 4:50am catch the bus to the airport. I checked out of the hostel and got to the Airport in good time. I waited in line for my flight. got to the desk. and what happens? oh the Time on the flight was right, but the date on the flight wasn't. The flight on the ticket was for the day before and was so restricted it couldn"t be re-scheduled, I needed to be on that flight or I would have missed my flight back to japan so I ended up paying for another ticket on the spot. I was not impressed. while it was my own fault for not paying close enough attention to the tickets when I ordered them I am pretty pissed that these times and dates were there since they were not the time and dates I requested. In the future I will try and stick to travel agent sales simply to ensure accuracy and flexibility.

In the end I did make it in time for my flight home. the 8 hour layover in Hochi Minh city was kind of brutal; though. I discovered that the food concession people were gouging people on the exchange of foreign currency's. The exchange rate is 76cents US for one australian dollar. The food people were only giving 60 cents on top of outrageous prices. I took my money to the duty free shop and they changed it for me at 76 cents, then I went to the food court.

The flight back to Japan was reminiscent of the flights to canada. it left late at night and arrived early in the morning. even though there was no jet lag I was still pretty wasted. Negotiating the japanese trains while heavily fatigued is not recommended.

All in all it was a fantastic trip an I wish I had more time there. I guess I'll just have to go back again sometime and see the rest.

March 25th 2005

Hey Folks, I was hoping to have a few random pics posted, and put up a journal entry about Graduation before I left from Australia but I just wasn't able to get it together in time. I leave for Osaka tomorrow where a whole crew of us will celebrate Jaime's birthday. On Sunday I fly out of Osaka for OZ. Once I get back I should have a pretty massive amount of pictures if I stay true to form. It's about quitting time so I will see y'all when I get back. Toodles.

March 7th, 2005

Here it is march and I am not yet a ward of the state so I can consider myself lucky ;-). not a lot has happened this month. (my own bitter complaining can do without being immortalized.) Right now the school year is winding down, students are finishing off tests and getting ready to graduate. I have been getting ready for my trip to australia at the end of the month. I am really looking forward to it. though it is a little daunting to do a trip like this solo. my arrival in japan while far more of a leap was totally planned before I got here so I didn"t have to worry about it. I"ll probably buy another memory card for my camera. a weekend in Kyoto was pushing it for my current one so a week in Australia would probably have it bursting into flames by the third day.

The week after I get back from OZ will be a big Sumo competition in osaka. There will be a really big group of jets going. I haven't seen sumo yet other than on TV so I'm glad I shelled out the big bucks for the better seats.

The next big thing will be golden week at the end of april beginning of may. I hope to take a run to Korea and visit some of the folks around there. I now know 3 people teaching english there now so I will have some visiting to do.

Things have been pretty dry for cool pictures recently. I have a few worthwhile ones but not enough yet to warrant even a random pictures page. The weather is warming up nicely now so the photo opps should be getting more abundant. I expect them to be flooding the rice patties pretty soon. It is always something really cool to see so I will make a concerted effort to get lots of good pictures. After this July the only rice fields I am likely to see will be on the learning channel

February 4th, 2005

Today I have some extra time so I'm making some updates to the site. this week has certainly had it moments. Monday with the fried whale for lunch (see Jan 31st post)

Yesterday I went to Kamisaibara as I do every two weeks. however today mother nature had a little sup rise for me. when I left Tsuyama there were signs of a few flurries in the night but nothing that would withstand the first rays of the sun even this time of year. Kamisaibara is my second farthest school. the distance is probably the same as for Tomi but since the road to Kamisai is much better it takes less time. most of the drive was clear sailing, the sun was out, everything looked good. Then as I drove on I noticed the snow, by the time I had made it most of the way through Okutsu it was blizzard conditions, snow packed roads, the works. As I made it into the town I saw heavy equipment trying to clear the roads but with them already snow packed it was taking a while. the road to the school was terrible, it is a side road of the main one that serves a few houses farms and the school. it hadn"t been plowed at all and un driven areas have a bout a food of snow down since the plow came through the day before.

Now think of my car, Suzuki Wagon R. It looks like a shrunken minivan, rear wheel drive, no weight in the back and the equivalent engine power of a leave blower. The end result; my car became irreparably stuck in the middle of the road a bare 5 minute walk from the school. so I trudged up the hill enlisted the help of the english teacher and the vice principal who helped me dig out and find a place to put my car. It was painfully obvious that unless we wanted o shovel 50 meters of road there was no way my car was going to make it up that hill. the school had a covered garage set aside for guests a little way back down the road so after a bit of clearing I was able to get my car in. Then the three of us hoofed it back up to the school.

Due to it's altitude Kamisaibara gets a lot more snow than the rest of this area. This is one of the reasons it is the closest place to go skiing, every part of japan has mountains but not everywhere has snow. the way back was the reverse or my arrival, the snow steadily decreasing the lower I got until you could see it hadn't snowed at all. Last year was the record for cold in Kamisai a whopping -13 degrees C. this year they seem to be going for the snow accumulation record. though they have nothing on Canada.

January 31st, 2005

My horizons got broadened a notch or two today, I arrived in the lunch room as per usual to help serve the lunches. today's main lunch option looks like fried squares of thinly sliced beef. I asked what it was and was told it was niku, Japanese for meat. I figured I was safe, took my tray and sat down to eat . I was having trouble identifying the meat. it had similar color and texture to beef, but the taste seemed much closer to fried clams. So once the crowd in the lunch room broke up I found an english teacher an asked what kind of meat it was. sure enough, it wasn't beef, it wasn't fish, but it was seafood. yes my friends I had just dined on the Japanese delicacy of fried whale meat. I had just had a lunch that would have landed me jail time or at least a hefty fine back in canada for eating an endangered species. from what the teachers said it is very rare for them to get whale for school lunch maybe once in three years or so. "oh what a lucky boy I am". so now I can add whale to my list of strange foods consumed. I have no more incentive to eat more whale than I do octopus on stick. As it was it didn't set really well with me.

after a little research online I was able to determine the type of whale. It is called a Minke Whale. here is another page I found with someone else's account of eating whale though they were a bit more proactive in their search for a blubber based banquet . now Al I need if some raw horse meat with a side of Chihuahua and I have my bases covered.

January 14th, 2005

Well here I am back in Japan yet again, I tried hard to stay, but airport security managed to pry me off the bumper of my Dad’s car and kick me onto the plane right before takeoff.

It was a Christmas worthy of national lampoons Christmas vacation. Family friend’s food and strange happenings. Firstly I didn't get in until 3:00am on Dec 24th as Toronto airport was reeling from a snow storm the previous day and still had a lot of unhappy people to fly out.

It was really interesting once I got home because of the "feeling" of Christmas. I really noticed its absence in Japan both last year and this year leading up to Christmas. In Japan there was no shortage or decorations covering the stores, mad shoppers, and the radio was constantly belting out Christmas songs (mostly from the 80's). But it had the feeling of a people just going through the motions. They put up the decorations because that's the time to do it and on such and such a date they take them down to make room for the next holiday. Back in Canada Christmas is just as commercial but there is a definite difference. When you walk into that crowded mall full of tacky decorations, fake Santa's and crazed toddlers you can feel that it's Christmas time. It's the type of thing you wouldn't even think about until you are in a place where that feeling just doesn't exist. For most people here the most awaited part of Dec 25th is to come home from work and have a semi expensive "Christmas cake" with dinner. It first struck me as odd when here I was 3 days to Christmas, ready to fly home, but to me it was just Tuesday. Even though I am past the childish insanity for opening presents Christmas morning I always felt the anticipation of the Christmas season. Don’t get me wrong I was happy to be going home, but I just felt something was missing. Once I arrived home it was Christmas time and I could feel it was Christmas, and I could tell that everyone else felt it too.

Upon arriving home I had a late night reunion with the folks (traumatized them with a Japanese snack I brought) then had I a long winter’s nap. My grandfather arrived the next day and we had our traditional Christmas Eve dinner of Chinese take-out with my father’s side of the family. My brother was never keen on Chinese so he opted for good old KFC. Christmas day involved a leisurely wake up, gift exchange, and my mom beginning the colossal task of cooking our ostrich wanna-be turkey for Christmas dinner. Grandma showed up in the afternoon and the rest of the brood showed up around 6:00 or so. Turkey is just something that you don't see in Japan, certainly not the whole bird, and certainly not cooked in a pan that could double as a baby bath. Thanks to my late grandfather's work, every year my grandmother receives a freshly slaughtered turkey, never frozen, for Christmas. My Mom then cooks it for Christmas dinner. That turkey tastes great anytime but when you buy most of you meals from a convenience store for the better part of two years you can imagine the pleasure I got from that meal is beyond words.

Boxing day we laid low (let me know if I'm forgetting anything) and when out for dinner with moms side of the family, then came back to our place for plum pudding made by my uncle. The following day was a major blizzard so we were completely snowed in. It delayed my grandfather getting home and me getting to stores (I needed my Tim Hortens) though it did make for some good photo ops. I ate without guilt trying to remember what I hadn't eaten in a while and thoroughly enjoyed being home. New Year’s Day was tarnished as we got word that morning that my great grandmother had died in the night. She was 96 and went peacefully in the wee hours of 2005.

Following news year was mostly just me getting everything together that I wanted to take back. Mostly it was stuff I would use and not have to worry about carting back home come July. On my last night mom made me a roast beef dinner with all the fixings (I do love beef) topped off with a belated birthday cake as a surprise. (Whose birthday it was for is still in question though).

The next day I was up dark and early (it’s not bright at 4:45am) and my dad took me to the airport. I was all ready to go when my staggering genius reared its head. My tickets were for the previous day! I had mistaken the dates and showed up at the airport a day late. Needless to say I was not a happy camper. Luckily the Christmas rush was over so they were able to work me into the flight that day but they could only guarantee me to Tokyo, since they could only change my Air Canada tickets. The flights to Tokyo were brutally long but I did make it into Japan. Then I had to try to make it the rest of the way home. Two airports and a horde of confused Japanese people later I did manage to get back to Tsuyama. My oddest however was not yet finished. You see I had parked my car in a store parking garage. It was free parking, never full, and there was a car there that has been sitting in the same place for over 2 years so I figured it would be ok to leave it there. Famous last words. Once the car had been there a week the people in the store decided it was suspicious and called the police, who in turn called my Board of education since it is their name on the car lease. They freaked out and rather than try to contact me in Canada they called the car dealer and had a new set of keys made so they could move the car. They moved the car to Kagamino 25 minutes away and left a message on my cell phone which I got in Tokyo once I was in range. I had to call Aurelian to get me at the station so I could get the car. They charged me $130 for the keys they made. And I picked up the car. The keys thing really urks me because if they had bothered to contact me I could have told them where my spare key was. Instead I now have 4 keys for a car I will have for 6 months.

To add insult to injury the main reason they didn't call was because they couldn’t figure out what my number in Canada was. It was in the forms I sent them when I arrived but they found 2 numbers and couldn't figure out which one t use. The fact that one number was under my name on my resume, and the other was under "Physician contact info" on my "health check form" appeared to not be explicit enough.
ANYHOW..... I am back, I’m online, I'm mobile, and I'm about to go home for the day.

Later folks.

Monday, December 20th, 2004

5 days to christmas, and 2 days before I leave for home. things seem to be coming together quite well so far. Fingers are crossed hoping it stays that way. picture pages are all up to date. I just went public with the cell phone backgrounds section by posting a link to the Okayamajet yahoo group. Ajet Quarterly balance sheet is done, I've found a place for the cat to stay while I'm gone (thanks Leis). Classes also finished at Kagamino today so I will see if I can sneak out early on wednesday to make my life easier when beginning my trek around the world. This is going to be a brutal bit of traveling though. between really long waits between planes and inconveniently places airports I'll be traveling for 36 hours between here and home.

As today was the last day of classes the students had to give the school good cleaning. I was assigned to clean the windows. The technique for washing windows that was used leaves me questioning it's overall effectiveness. take one bucket of water and ball up a piece of newspaper, dunk the newspaper and use it to wipe down the windows. then u use a dry piece of newspaper to wipe of the water. the reasoning is that the ink in the newspaper is very effective for cleaning the glass. The Jury is still out on that one. Last year it was the mini sponge and now it is the newspaper scrub. I didn't try to take any pictures as that would have been rather conspicuous, but also there wasn't anything worth taking a picture of. it doesn't take long for newspaper to become a shapeless gray blob when it is wet.

Anyhow as I said things seem to be winding down and coming together so with any luck I will be back in Canada with a turkey dinner in front of me before the week is out.

Wednesday, December 15th, 2004

I am alomost done updating the Photo section. along with finishing some long over due pages I also when through all my pictures looking for interesting pictures that for one reason or another never got posted. as of this writing only the Totori sand dune need to be finished for me to catch up completly. with any luck I should be able to finish it this coming Friday. with any luck I can type up a good journal entry or two that day.

*******SITE UPDATE NOTICE*******

The site updates continue, I have added some files to the download section and have catagorized the phone background page to make it more compatible with phone limitations.

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Wednesday, November 24th, 2004

I went to a town called Mimasaka yesterday where a group of us got to try our hand at blowing glass. The most difficult parts were done by the guy who worked there but we did get to do the actual blowing and to work the glass with the tools. It was pretty cool. I would have liked to try something more complicated but they were pretty set as to what they let people off the street do, which is understandable. In the end I get a cool drinking glass that I made. I haven't gotten the glass back since it needs a full day to cool properly so you have to go back to get it later. For this reason I am holding off on posting the photos I have so I can get some pictures of the finished products to go with them. With any luck that will be on Friday so stay tuned.

*******SITE UPDATE NOTICE*******

I have added a section to the site. for those of you outside of japan this will be of limited value. it is a large number of Background images for Keitai's (Cell Phones). I got sick of the only places I could get decent backgrounds were pay sites so I decided to make my own download page for them that was Phone compatible. Only the background section is working though. If I can find a way to make a ring tone I'll be sure to post it. There are two ways to use this section. By computer go to this site and click downloads in the main window, the click phone features. use this to check out the images before you download them to your phone. with your phone, Must be Web enabled go to www.gb-dub.com and click on the "Cell Phone Section" link. Then just follow the links to the background you want. I plan to keep working on this so if there is an image you want posted email it to origamigreg@yahoo.ca. and I will make it phone compatible and post it.

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*Friday, November 12th, 2004

It's been a while for the journal so I added several past entries at once. For right now I will talk about what happened a couple of hours ago. We were delayed from going to class because of an issue with one of the students in the class. Every student in the class writes a life Diary, which they write in each day and the teacher checks it. Anyhow one student, who was described as "a very sad boy" had something rather disturbing in his diary when it was handed in. on the most recent entry among other things was "I'm going to kill you" and the page had been slashed with a knife. Needless to say the homeroom teacher who was doing the checking (one of my english teachers) was quite worried so she went to the class to get to the bottom of it. We waited for her to tell us if it was ok to start english class. As it turns out the "sad" student did not write it. It was put into his book by the boy ahead of him as a prank on the home room teacher. No one was amused.

*Sunday, November 8th, 2004

I just got back from a weekend trip to Osaka. I met Yuki there since it is roughly halfway between Tsuyama and Nagoya. I had a good time there. I have been in Osaka a couple of times but usually it is only for a few hours between train, planes, and busses. I did spend the day at Universal Studios Japan after the Kobe conference last spring but I really didn't get to see much of Osaka city itself. the most impressive thing I saw was the famous Osaka Castle. It was really something to see. Photos were posted earlier in the week so they can do the explaining better than I can. the castle itself is over 400 years old and was built in the early 1600's.

We also rode on the "Big Ring". It is a Giant Ferris wheel that has the distinction of being the highest in the world. The Wheel in Tokyo is actually bigger but the one in Osaka is attached to the top of an already tall building which puts the gondola peak at about 110 meters from the ground making it the highest. at the top you have a great 360 degree view of down town Osaka. we also did a lot of exploring around the shops in the city center. there are tunnels running under the city for miles lined with stores and shops of every kind imaginable. it is very easy to get lost since the streets are so narrow that keeping a land mark is pretty much impossible. your only hope is to remember what steps you took or to ask for directions if you lose your way.

Getting to and from Osaka I took the bus. It is a sad state of affairs when the bus fare to go somewhere is cheaper than the highway tolls to go to the same place. not counting the price of gas. the train really isn't an option either since I'd have to go to Okayama city fist then change trains. so even if I took the shinkansen it would still have a longer travel time than the bus, go figure.

*Sunday, November 1st, 2004

We just had our annual halloween party ant the Jibutei Samurai house. we had a major turnout. somewhere between 85-90 people showed up. it seemed a lot more tame this year than last even though there were more people. there were some really creative costumes. As can be seen on the photo page. I went as a Zombie ALT. I had an enlarged 3rd year text book on my chest, my face was painted, and I had a digital recorder on my waist that would read a common story from the book, since ALTs often feel as if we are human tape recorders. Being on the AJET committee and having a car I was one of those people shuttling people from the station to Jibutei. After driving that road so many times I doubt I will ever forget how to get there.

Everyone was pretty well behaved though there was almost a fight in the kitchen area. Same old story: guy A gets drunk. Shoots his mouth off at Guy B. Guy B not exactly fit to drive himself takes offense. Guy A being drunk, continues to aggravate guy B and his friends. Someone, guy A or B not sure, takes a swing. People around take notice and try to get them separated. Guy A is being pulled from one side, Guy B from another, with me trying to separate them from the middle. In the end those more suited to the task got them apart and disaster was averted.

In an effort to make finding the road to Jibutei easier I made these arrows out of cardboard and attached chemical glow sticks to them. I though it was very clever and once they were made they showed up fabulously in the dark. However, my genius was to be short lived. once the arrows were all set up on the road the flaw became quite evident. the glow sticks looked great in the dark. but I had not considered the effect of car headlights. as soon as the headlights of the car hit the sign it totally washed out the light from the glow sticks leaving only a small cardboard arrow which was almost impossible to pick out while driving. should've gone with the reflective tape.

October 20th, 2004

Well it is nothing short of wild out there right now. Typhoon #23 arrived this morning and it has been pounding us ever since. I have never experienced a storm like this before. Typhoons thus far have not impressed me much up until now but this thing is a monster. as I sit here at my computer the building is shaking like a low grade earthquake form the wind alone. I didn`t get to leave work until the wind was getting really strong at 1:15pm (most JETs just got sent home when they found the students would not be coming to school today). the drive home was harrowing. Stuff was flying everywhere; tree branches, leaves, some light building materials, etc. I had to take an alternate route home when I found that trees had been felled across the road I usually take to go home. it wasn`t just one tree either, it was enough trees that it looked like the road had disappeared behind a wall of green. at one point I had to dodge what looked like a gas can that had blown into the street. the guy behind me didn`t see it and when I looked in my read view mirror saw his van dragging the gas can around a corner with it. just as I got out of the car to make the mad dash for shelter I heard a loud thunder-like sound, I turned around to see the corrugated roof of a shed get torn off by the wind. even sitting here in may apt the sounds of the wind and the shaking of the building are hard to ignore. This is one of those times when living on the top floor of a building isn`t so great. Needless to say I don`t plan on poking my head outside for a while.

September 28th,2004

Well folks it’s been a while, too long in fact. As you know I have just changed the web site to a new address. While it was nice to run my own web server for free trying to administrate it remotely was becoming more and more troublesome as well as unreliable. So I decided to bite the bullet and pay for professional web hosting so even if my updates don’t happen as often as some would like, the page itself will still work.

Now it’s time for some catch up assuming you were able check out the page in between the down time you would have been able to see some of my pictures from when I was home in Canada since then I have added five new photo pages for your viewing pleasure. But for the moment I will I might as well tell you what I have been up to in the last few months.

After I got back from my trip to Canada I barely had time to catch my breath before I was off again. This time to Nagoya, a city about 6 hours from Tsuyama by bus. I went to meet a girl I met while chatting on the Internet Named Yuki. This was our first meeting in person but we got along famously. She is Chinese and is taking her BBA in Nagoya. She has been living in Japan for 3 years now. We toured around the city and got to see some pretty interesting things that are best left to the photo page to explain. A picture being worth a thousand words and all that. I stayed there for 5 days. I would have liked to stay longer but I had to come back to Kagamino for late Friday afternoon to deal with the car insurance guy. I got in a fender bender (my fault) the day before I left and they wanted to get the paper work started before the weekend.

A few days after I got back from Nagoya my friend Steve who has been teaching English in Korea for the past year came to visit. He was in the process of renewing his Korean visa to start a newer better job so he had to leave Korea and go back. So he crashed with me for the better part of a week. It was good to see someone from back home herein Japan (hint hint). The trip proved to be pretty quiet. I don’t entertain many guests so it wasn’t until now that I realized how dead the nightlife in this area is. I mean I knew it was dead, but I was shocked at the sheer level of dead. It’s like the entire city shuts down at 8:00pm. Between that and they expense compared to Korea I now feel I need to take a trip there to see what it is all about. Steve spent a good portion of the time telling me how much cheaper stuff was in Korea compared to Japan. I have to admit that while there is a lot of interesting stuff here it certainly doesn’t come cheap.

As if August wasn’t busy enough the day after Steve goes home I am helping out with the orientation for new Okayama Prefecture JETS. The First day was a bus trip to a traditional Japanese village in Bise (bee-say) town not unlike Kings landing back home. I had never been there before so it was a good experience for me as well as the new Jets. They had demonstrations in sword making, food, Japanese tie-dye, etc. They even had some traditional Japanese costumes for people to try on. They finished the day with a kind of Dance Theater, which was also pretty cool to watch, especially when the guy in the giant snake costume came out.

The following week, Yuki came to visit me in Tsuyama. While she was here we went to Totori Prefecture to the north to see the Totori Sand dune. I really wasn’t sure what it was before hand so I was pretty shocked when I first saw it. The Totori sand dune is just that, a giant sand dune over 4 stories high. It looks like a giant hand took a chunk of desert and dropped it on the coastline. You walk up some stairs past some trees and grass and suddenly there is this giant expanse of fine sand where nothing grows. I have no idea what caused this to form but it certainly was something to see. Check it out on the Photo page.

For the next couple of weeks were just people getting ready for sports days and then having the events themselves.

Finally there was Mount Fuji. It was one of the most memorable good and bad experiences of my life. I do have the distinction of having made it to the summit. On the photo pages you will see me standing net to a stone pillar, which is the summit marker for the mountain. Once you make it there you know you are at the top.

The climb itself cannot be described as anything but brutal. Even for those people who were in really good shape had a rough time. Especially when you get up around the 3000m level where the atmosphere becomes increasingly thin. While I did take my time and avoided altitude sickness I did find progress became more difficult. I had to stop more frequently and took a few hits from the oxygen cylinder I picked up before I set out that morning. It’s odd sensation, not at all like running and you can’t run any more cause your legs and chest hurt. It’s more like being a windup toy that is running down, you have to stop to wind back up for the next while.

The walk down was just as bad as the climb up. We took a different route that didn’t require any climbing but it was extremely long. The distance measurements for the trail were really messed up. It was measured as the crow flies rather than the length of the road that zigzagged sharply all the way down. At the beginning the trail sign said that 5th station was 5 km away. After 2 solid hours of walking the next sign we came to said that the station is 4.5 km away. I was not impressed. The trip up took 6 hours and the trip down a little more than 4. Upon returning to the bus I had 4 main concerns: food, drink, sleep, and death.

The climb up Fuji was described pretty accurately by the people of previous years; they said it was a great experience and that they would never do it again. And I have to agree with that assessment. I got so great pictures during the climb but they can’t do justice to the things I saw while I was on the mountain.

Thursday august 5, 2004

I'm not DEAD!!!

Though there have been some days recently where death may have been an improvement, but I'll get to that later.

Yes It's been a long time since I last updated, this is partly due to technical concerns and the two week outage to my site, and my two weeks home in Canada where I fixed the site but didn't have the stuff to do the update there. I gave the server some updates and a little TLS (Tender, Love, and Software) so it should be running better from here on out.

Tottori Sand Dune Beach Party

Before I get into my vacation back home I'll just briefly outline what happened at the Tottori Sand Dune Beach party. I"m pretty sure I typed up an entry about it somewhere but I'll be damned if I can find it. I have a load of pictures ready to post for it and I think they will tell as much about it as I can. it's a big beach party a weekend long kick ass beach party. those who weren't among the lucky few to get a room at the small Japanese Inn on site camped on the beach. it is pretty funny to watch a bunch of semi drunken Jets put up a tent in the dark. I could have helped but then it would have been far less entertaining. so in the end I just held up my flashlight and watched. I wasn't even camping and I was one of the few who brought a flash light. the music pretty much didn"t stop for the entire weekend, and I mean all night and all day. Saturday and Sunday were mostly swimming, sunbathing and beach games. In some cases recovery from the previous nights festivities. I did my share of the beach stuff but also took some time to explore the cliffs caves and coves around our beach. my camera got a good workout. The scenery was great and so was the weather. A typhoon was forecast and everyone was afraid it was going to hit us so a lot of people didn't come. In the end the typhoon missed up completely and all we got was a few scattered showers on Saturday afternoon and evening. There were some sordid tales Sunday morning about a bunch of people who went skinny dipping late Saturday night but I the details remain shrouded in mystery. Unfortunately I had a meeting in Okayama City and had to head out first thing on Sunday in order to make it so I missed the last day. One thing is certain though I will be back next year. if I have emailed anyone a more detailed or different account of this beach party could you send it back to me so I can add it? it's been a couple of months now since the party and It's hard to dredge everything up from memory.

Surprise Canada 2004

My master plan came off with out a hitch. My master plan being my surprise return home to Canada on the 15th of July. I had been planning the trip since February and I'm quite certain that the prospect of going home was the only thing that was keeping me sane. I was away from home for a full year. That is a long tome to go without Mom's home cooking and Tim Horten's coffee. my Middle brother was the only one in my family who knew I was coming so he was able to pick me up at the airport. my flights timed out well in that I arrived at the house at about 11:50pm. Now a with a return of this magnitude you don't simply walk in and say hi, so I decided that the doorbell was the way to go. I will never forget my dad's face as he opened the door and stood stock still for a couple of seconds trying to figure out how I got there. I don't recall mom's expression since as soon as she saw me she gave me a huge hug and was hard pressed to let go. I can't easily describe the emotions I felt at that home coming, but it was really great to have everybody together again.

My next victim was my grandmother (my Mom's Mom). after lovely roast chicken dinner on friday night my mom managed to coerce my grandmother to drop by to have us sign a birthday card for my great grandmother, her mother. She arrived with her usual elegant flourish which was shattered as I stuck my head around a corner and said hi. unfortunate for my grand mother she had one more shock coming. My father, not to be out done went out of the room once we were all seated and chatting. he scooped up a blanket and wrapped it up in a pink and white baby blanket we had found. he then came into the living room claiming that I had one more surprise for her. WELL, this is not an easy woman to get. but he got her good with that. Mom and I were sitting opposite to each other and could see he was holding a bunch of blankets. it wasn't until we saw Nanny on the edge of heart failure that we realized what it looked like from where she was. I guess she wasn't ready to become a great grand parent just yet. she tried to recover by claiming she thought it was a tiger or something be she was still far to flustered to make it convincing

I also was able to see my grandfather (My Dad's Dad) he has been in hospital since May when he had a stroke. My brother let him in on my secret arrival before I arrived. this was to give him something to look forward to and to minimize the shock when he did see me. he's had enough heart problems without my help. after I got the family out of the way I took to hunting down friends and former co-workers to say hi. I took a trip up to fredericton where I visited everyone favorite Tech director, and the guys at the anime club. While at anime I handed out pieces of jerkied Octopus tentacles. most people wouldn't go near them, some tried it, but only one person asked for more.

just by the luck of the draw my parents both were taking time off for my second week home. they were planning a four day trip to Maine in the U.S. for them selves and my youngest brother so I was able to tag along on that too. it was a good chance to spend some time with my now gigantic youngest brother. I would love to take him to school here. he is the same age as 3rd year students in Jr high school here but he is well above the average height for a full grown japanese man. it was a good little trip, we did some sight seeing and some shopping. I bought a few things but the touristy stuff didn't do much for me.

Now this is where things start to get ugly. My plane flew out at 6:15 am the morning after we got back from the states, which meant a 4:30 wake up call was needed to make the flight. what had been a minor nuisance of a sore throat had blossomed into a full blown head cold just in time for me to fly out. You know how they say you shouldn't fly when sick? well there is a really good reason. at one point I tried suicide but the guys down in purgatory said they couldn"t improve on the perfection of my suffering and sent me back. on the landings even my teeth hurt. I have also come to the conclusion that flying to japan is much worse than flying from japan. I have been home for 3 days now and I am finally feeling better, but I have a ways to go yet before I'm 100% but that is more due to the cold than anything else. on the up side I find changing over to japan time to be really easy and quick while I was sleepy and out of whack for the better part of a week getting used to atlantic time again go figure.

Well now I'm back at work feeling productive as always. but I can"t deny that I do feel much better mentally than I was before I left. I will be going home at christmas time this year so I won't be away for such a long time again one year was too long to be away.

 

to Keep the size of this page manageable I have divided up the journal into two pages.

Click Here to read all earlier Journal entries