Three down, one to go...

Em does love a good castle.



Inuyama Castle (犬山城 Inuyama-jō)



Himeji Castle (姫路城 Himeji-jō)



Matsumoto Castle (松本城, Matsumoto-jō)


These three castles make up 3/4 of the National Treasure Castles of Japan. Hikone Castle will complete the set...

The Sun Disappears... Light Returns...

Well, in the land of the computerless, I've stopped compulsively checking my email seventy times a day. Probably for the best. I wasn't really achieving much by constantly baying at my own little window to the world, and I was actually making myself more anxious for my effort. I am now acutely aware of just how much I was completely addicted to my computer. Giving up smoking was easier than giving up computing. And as this blog post is testament, I am still not reformed!

I've dropped out of my Japanese class. I'm disappointed in myself for not finishing it, but it was robbing me of 3 hours of being with my Tom, and at least 2 hours of sleep... on top of the train fares to get there and back, it was turning into a burden I couldn't sustain. I've resigned myself to a bit of self-study for now, until I find a better way of learning some Japanese. I don't feel particularly driven to learn lots of Japanese, as I have very little aptitude for languages other than English, and once we've finished our time here, I doubt I'll be using much Nihongo in my day to day life. I'll resign myself to partial comprehension and a bit of conversation. It will just have to do.

As the title of this post suggests, we are beginning to find a little bit of peace here.

With the crash of the Aussie dollar and the downturn of the Australian Economy, we have assessed our situation here far more favourably. With our yen now being worth almost twice what it was worth when we arrived, and a worsening employment situation in Tasmania, we have canned any plans for coming back for at least the next few months, and possibly the next year... though I know not to put too much faith in plans...

Osaka is cheap, and with Tom focusing on amassing a huge amount of musical equipment, and me focusing on getting a new computer, we have come to the conclusion that we are best to just stay put for now, and keep working for ECC Kansai. I have been given my last set day on my schedule (at last!) and with Tom only substitute teaching one day a week, our general discontent levels have dropped quite substantially.

Although we have decided to stay in Osaka, we are looking at moving out of this apartment next year, somewhere closer to the main drag, and hopefully less dusty, cramped and expensive. The real estate market here is daunting, and being a foreigner, it's hard to find a good deal. But time, as they say, is on our side.

I have saved some money for a replacement computer, but then Tom lent the money from me to buy a very rare amp that just happened to be in the local Ishibashi music equipment store. So, that puts us in the poor house with a church mouse for at least the next couple of weeks. The soonest the computer could be acquired is January - that would have been true whether Tom had borrowed the money from me or not... and if we need to move house before then, the computer may be pushed further into the future. I am trying not to get anxious about it... the operative word being trying... I really like having a computer, and I'm finding not having one to be a little upsetting. But if that is the sum of my woes, then really, life isn't that bad. And it feels like things will continue to be on the up.

The cooler weather is far more pleasant than the boiling, steamy summer. We have had some opportunities to get out and about a bit and see some more of the seasons:

Arashiyama and Daikakuji

Ginkakuji

Updated - Kiyomizu Dera

Updated - Urban Osaka

And Japan continues to be crazy:

Sometimes you continue to wonder...

We're off to Nagano for Christmas, and I'm going to have a crack at skiing. Hopefully it will be a good crack at skiing and not cracking bones. I'm also going to see if we can come past Matsumoto Castle on the way home, and maybe drop into Nagoya on the way past... but it will all depend on all of those things that things tend to depend on... ra, ra, ra...

Hoping that December is bringing you Australians some lovely warm weather, and that you all have pleasant Christmases, no matter how you choose to spend them. Until next time...

Foreigner's Koens

1. If a gaijin sits down on a subway, is it any different to anyone else sitting down on a subway?

2. If a gaijin is not present to observe gaijin-ized Japanese behaviour, does anyone behave any differently?

3. Is it me you hate, or the world?

Meditate on that.

Death of an Old Friend

My trusty mac, who has been with me through thick and thin for the last four and a half years has finally gotten too temperamental to be reliably used for any more than 30 minutes. The cooling fan has busted, and she overheats.

Apple, a company of whose products I have been a great fan of for some time now, has now done the BASTARD thing of not including a Firewire port in their latest Macbook models (unless I get the really baseline one, which doesn't have much more grunt than the one it's replacing) and so I am being forced to buy the next model up, which I really can't afford right now.

(Apple have also downgraded the memory size on the largest of their iPods, which is really giving Tom the shits because he wanted to buy a 160G, and now they're not making them that big anymore).

I need the Aussie dollar to bounce, but it doesn't look like it is going to, and so, this month, I will be unable to talk to any of you via the internet aside from the brief moments where Tom is kind enough to let me use his blackMacbook.


Last week, I killed my phone and was forced to fork out ¥42000 for a new handset and whatnot with Softbank/Vodafone. It felt a lot like the Terry Gilliam film Brazil, wherein I had paid out my departure fees with Vodafone when I left last time, telling them "I'm leaving the country." After the date that I had told them I would leave the country (and indeed I had left the country), Vodafone thought it would be a great idea to send me a bill to an address that I had told them that I had left. Then they got all hissy about giving me a new phone this time because I had ¥4400 owing from 2005. To say I was livid would be an understatement. Anyway, I relented, Tom and I are now with the same phone provider on a 'Family' plan, and this will eventually deliver us great savings, or at least, that's what I've been lead to believe. Anyway, I've had a bad month for electrical equipment, and I am making sure that the hairdryer stays well away from the bath, because I'm convinced that technology is out to get me at the moment.

In other news, Osaka in Autumn is pleasant, dry, comfortable and prettier than usual. I've been sick so I've been having to take it easy, but I have been thoroughly impressed with the Kansai Autumn, and I hope we will be doing more than one of them...

Things what I have learned.

1. Never accept a "gift" that you think should be paid for. The giver will probably extract a much heftier payment in flesh than they ever would have accepted in cash.

2. Never expect a new journey to flow from an old journey. Each new beginning is hard.

3. Never think that people will respect or like your ideas. The ones that they like they will steal and pretend were theirs in the first place. The others they weren't even listening to.

4. You can never have enough savings for a rainy day if you live in a country that gets typhoons continuously. My camera broke the other day, so now I am eating beans until pay day so I can replace it.

Just so you know that not everything is shit

Today I drew this poster on a substay. It is the first hand drawn poster I have done in years.



From T7M to ECC. Heh, I had a giggle, I did.

Darker days

Summer is finally over.

Mindless optimism isn't always the best response, but sometimes it's the only one available. I've been playing the mindless optimism card for a while now, but it's getting harder and harder to ignore the fact that things have not necessarily improved for us. Indeed, darker days haven't been seen since we were stranded in Brisbane.

This was supposed to be the big pay off that we were working towards, but it's beginning to look suspiciously like "same shit, different bucket." I'm drinking too often to try and sleep, but I've decided I'm better off being an industrious insomniac than a lazy sleepy drunk. Maybe I should start evolving my own Tyler Durden? Is that really how desperate our situation has become?

I've been besieged by computer disasters. After nearly 5 years of service, my laptop is beginning to falter in her step. I really can't afford another computer right now, so I thought I would try and free up all her memory to help her run more smoothly by moving (not copying, moving) all the photos to an external hard drive. Which then had a fatal error and I am currently in the process of getting it replaced under warranty (which is turning into a nightmare in itself because I need to have an American address before the company will deal with me - luckily Krista is helping me with that one). The photos however, are gone.

I had backed up everything prior to July, but August, when we were traveling around in the Obon holidays, that's all gone, and everything subsequent to that has gone too. I feel empty inside. My photos are a great source of joy to me, when I feel lonely or like I am forgetting the good things in my life, a quick trip down memory lane by opening iPhoto has made me feel better. I also feel a lot like I haven't got very much to share with you all, being so far away, and my words being so empty and hurt at the moment. I can not say it has been anything less than an extremely painful and unhappy time.

Work hasn't improved. We are still subbing two days a week. I find myself resenting the teachers who don't sub. I came here to teach, just like they did... but I am not given the same opportunities they are to do what they do. As I have only one stable shift, I find it impossible to adapt to my circumstances, for my circumstances are constantly changing. I am not enjoying teaching at the Web School two days a week. It gives me a sore neck due to the lack of ergonomically sensible seating arrangements, and I don't get to know the students very well. I only have 3 or so regulars, and the rest are a hodge-podge of first timers. Don't get me wrong... the students, well, they're still lovely, and the staff, well, they're OK - at some schools they are, anyway - but I feel like the company has mislead us about what our duties would be like here. And that feels like a betrayal of trust. We trusted them enough to sell our car and put all our savings on the line for this. We trusted them a lot. That they are now beginning to admit that they deliberately misled us, well, that feels unforgivable. My two year plan in Japan, is looking like it might now be less than one, because the working conditions are not good enough for Tom and me. We had more stability when we were temping back home. Which seems so ironic, when part of the reason for coming back was to have stable jobs.

We were told in a Personnel Workshop a few weeks back that we would have stable shifts by the end of October. This remains to be seen, and with the track record of bending the truth or just flat out lying that the company has, I must admit to being slightly skeptical.

I went to Tokyo for my birthday with Tom. We had a lovely time, spent far too much money, galavanted about and got a feel for the city. It reminded me that I had asked to be stationed in Tokyo, to which the company representative said that "we don't have couples in Tokyo." I asked why, and he said that they didn't "...have couples accommodation options available", to which I said, "I can arrange my own accommodation" to which he said "no - you are forbidden to find your own accommodation." We were told Osaka or no Japan, and at the time, I was so desperate to get back over here, that I compromised and came to a city I never wanted to be in.

Have I learned nothing from the Brisbane experience? If there is only one place you want to go, then don't go elsewhere... go there!

Anyway, we went to Tokyo, I took a stack of photos, of which these few remain. Thank goodness for the facebook or I would have nothing to show you at all.

Hiroyuki Sakai's restaurant in Shibuya

Tsukiji Fish Market

I have started looking at job websites in Tokyo, with an eye to move there at the end of this contract. If I do not manage to secure a job there, then I will quit the company, and go stay there in a gaijin house for a month or so. It may actually be a more rewarding experience to do it that way, anyway.

I feel gutted. Last time I was here, Japan was such a great experience, and now that we're back it's being a terrible experience. These dark days, were not what I was hoping to be sharing with my love. Now that the equinox has passed, we head inexorably toward winter, and who knows what lies there.