Mission(s) Accomplished...and then some.

Pretty productive week so far; got my immigration postcard on Saturday, went in on Tuesday, and walked out with a three-year visa! Not that I'm going to stay for three years, another year is about all I think I can handle without getting permanently Novafied. But still, it's nice to have that piece out of the way.

That night (being still Tuesday) I went out with Jo for the Big Night: meeting her parents. Jo's parents have been in Japan for about a week and a half, spending the first week with Jo in Kyoto where it absolutely poured. Then they spent some time in Tokyo seeing the sights, before coming back to Nagoya to visit their daughter again, and to meet her incredibly handsome boyfriend.

We met up at Nagoya Station, Jo and I at the clock tower and then with her parents at the information Desk - Jo was quite smart and decided that she would meet me first and then introduce me to her folks. After some introductions we headed out to Yagya for dinner. Conversation was light and easy, which made me very happy; I'd been pretty nervous about a potential interrogation when we met. But my fears were completely unfounded: Jo's folks are incredibly nice, and I had a wonderful time with them. Dinner at Yagya was good too; Jo's folks weren't nearly as frightened by takoyaki (octopus in fried dough balls) as I'd thought they might be. We also had some delicious crab croquettes and prawns in a spicy Vietnamese sauce, among other things. Score two points for the home team.


The next day went well too: Jo invited me out to Nagoya Castle with her and her parents; which was great, considering I've been here a year and still haven't been to see the Castle. It ended up being a perfect summer's day, temps in the low 80s F and sunshine with a nice breeze. We ate miso katsu (breaded pork-on-a-stick with miso sauce) and walked around the grounds, saw the various gardens, walls, and moat; and then went into the Castle for a tour. The inside of the Castle is quite nice since it was rebuilt about 40 years ago, and they're in the process of rebuilding the Hommaru Palace that stood at the base of Castle. There's a lot of history in and around Nagoya Castle; three of the most prominent shoguns were born or battled in the area to move Japan out of the feudal era and create a unified Japan.

After the tour of the Castle, we all settled down on benches for an ice cream break. I got set to order a chocolate cone, when the woman at the counter told me it was actually miso soup-flavor. I got it anyway. Not too bad, but I think it'll stay on my "Things I've Tried In Japan, But Probably Never Again" list. Jo, being intelligent, got strawberry.


After THAT, we decided that there was still time in the afternoon to check out Tokugawaen - the Tokugawa Gardens. Originally built over 300 years ago as a retirement home for the head of the Tokugawa family, this park is still an oasis in the middle of busy Ozone. It includes Ryusenko (Ryusen Lake) stocked with koi, several bridges of various design, a giant restaurant/banquet hall, and at least three waterfalls; all along some gorgeous pathways. Jo laughed at me while her father and I tried to plot the best way to see all the sights around the garden, and even took a picture of us with our maps (which I will try to obtain). Boys will be boys, I guess. But it was a lovely park, and I'll have to go back again. We missed out on the museum, which closes annoyingly early, but does house 'The Tale of Genji' - the world's first true novel.

All the walking left us pretty knackered, so we headed back to the station, Jo's parent bound for their hotel and Jo and I for Tsurumai Park. The evening was wonderful, so we stopped for some snacks, then took a leisurely stroll through the park. Tsurumai-koen is great: it has a beautiful rose garden, which was in full bloom; a nice little pond, unfortunately koi-less, on one end of the park; and two or three monument-like fountains. And in spring it's the home of one of Nagoya's biggest Hanami hot-spots. Nice.

Other than that, not a whole lot has been going on; there's a going-away party tonight for some friends, which will be both fun and sad; and then work again on Friday. And so the weekend flies...

peace.

Nagoya Castle and Donjon (left).

One of the "Golden Fish" - the symbol of the City of Nagoya.

Ryumon no Taki (Ryumon Waterfall), Tokugawaen.

Base of Ozone no Taki (Ozone Waterfall), Tokugawaen.

Pond at Tsurumai-koen.

Jo and rose beds, Tsurumai-koen at sunset.

May thus far

Wow, it's been almost a month since my last post; how the time flies! It's hard to believe that it's been almost a year since I arrived in Japan; so much has happened, I've seen and experienced so much, and my cultural horizons have practically exploded. My world has gotten very big and very small at the same time. It's been by far the most amazing experience of my life. My advice to you, gentle reader, is that if you ever get the opportunity to live abroad, take it - it's the most unbelievably eye-opening thing you can do.

So much news, so much news...
Well, it's official, I've decided to stay in Japan for another six months to a year. I've filled out all the paperwork for both the new contract and the visa renewal, which will hopefully all work out quickly. Y'know, so I don't get deported and all. My contract renewal is in, all the paperwork filled out and pending the visa renewal, which is also all filled out and in process. Hopefully all will be resolved within the next 2-3 weeks...

So yes, another year in Japan. It was really a tough decision to make; I really miss friends and family at home, and not seeing them for another six months will be really difficult, but hopefully I'll be able to head home for a visit. The main reason for the stay I guess is because I just haven't seen and done everything that I want to see and do: I still haven't been to Sendai, I haven't visited an onsen, and I haven't been south of Osaka, which means no Kyushu trip. And I haven't traveled outside of Japan; China, Korea, Australia, and New Zealand are high on the list. So I'm sticking around and hopefully meeting some of these goals.


And recent life has been pretty good in it's own right; Nagoya is ramping up for summer with some pretty nice days - temps in the 70's F and sunshine galore have been great for a few day-trips to nearby towns. But it isn't all sunshine: it's been pissing down rain for the past couple of weeks. But watching CNN and seeing how the Northeast US is underwater makes me feel a little better, and I live on the 8th floor so chances of my belongings washing away are pretty slim. But rainy season doesn't officially begin till mid-June, which means there could still be a lot of days of damp clothes and smelly tatami. But that just makes the nice days all the better for spending time outdoors in the sun and raising any flagging spirits.

Well, mostly. One of the downsides to having been here a year is that most of my original friends have left or are leaving shortly. Out of the staff and teachers at my home branch, only my supervisor and I are left. Original roommates Alwyn and Devin (above) left in January and February respectively. Jen and Lorri left within three days of each other in late March. Jen's roommates Kristy and Sarah (also above) are leaving in three weeks; Kristy and I arrived in Osaka the same day, Sarah came with Jen, Francis, Mitchell, and Lorri a week later. Kasey is leaving Tokyo and Japan in just two weeks. Change is in the air. It's sad sometimes; like we are merely minor characters walking through scenes in each others' lives. But I also know that if I ever travel anywhere in the world, I'll have a place to stay and friends to see; everywhere I go will be a homecoming of sorts.

For these friends I write. I love you all, and hope to see you again.

But I won't be all alone here in Nagoya, the friends that remain are growing tighter: I'm still living with Francis and Rob, who are both staying for at least the next six months, and Mitchell who lives just upstairs is staying as well. So is Iain and his newly-arrived girlfriend Fiona, as well as Iain's flatmate Darius. And so is my "newly-arrived" girlfriend, Jo. (All four of whom are pictured here, albeit blurrily.) It's beginning to feel like a family whose members are just discovering each other around a very strange dinner table; we all bring something and we all remember those who have moved on to other parts of the world. It's like a rotational Thanksgiving dinner. The meal has been a good one and will hopefully last a long time.

And yes, I did mention a girlfriend: some of you have already heard about Jo, or Joanna for long. We met, ironically enough, on Valentines Day when Francis invited the cute new girl from his branch to come back to our flat for a not-Valentines/Housewarming party. Jo and I really hit it off and started hanging out quite a bit, and then started dating "officially" about a month and a half ago. Jo is a wonderful girl and things are going quite swimmingly; I'm meeting her parents when they come to visit via Kyoto. Yikes!


Work has been pretty busy this spring; Imaike, my home branch, had a Kids room built to accomadate the Kids classes we're absorbing due to the closure of about three branches in the Nagoya area. We're not absorbing ALL the kids, just the ones from the branch just down the road that closed. I actually like teaching kids, it's pretty fun and a good break from being in a 7'x7' room with up to four adults for 40 minutes. Plus they can draw pictures of me on the whiteboard and that's considered an acceptable form of learning. The downside is they had to knock out three of our seven classrooms to build the Kids room, which makes it difficult to teach in the smaller classrooms because of the proximity to other teachers and students.

And I've been pretty busy teaching as well; I've been to five different branches in the last six work days, and have now worked at 12 of the 15 branches in my "district" - which will hopefully stay my record.


On the leisure front, I've been reading quite a bit recently; mostly on rainy days, to and from work, when the girl is otherwise occupied, and when I can't be bothered to go out (i.e. "saving money"). I've talked a bit about Haruki Murakami, who I have become a huge fan of, and I'm still reading my way through his works: I finished "The Wind-up Bird Chronicle" and "South of the Border, West of the Sun" and started on "Norwegian Wood". Good stuff, I recommend all of it. Also reading/read Chuck Palahnuik's "Diary", Shakespeare's "Measure for Measure", and the first Harry Potter book. Iain let me borrow Hemingway's "Fiesta", which he highly recommends and I can't wait to dig into.

No news on performing, I still haven't had a chance to talk to a couple of bands about playing, but hopefully soon. I've been playing around a bit on guitar, but I'm still pretty rusty. I have been listening to a lot of music though, as usual. And it's been quite a mixed bag: Johnny Cash, Ben Folds, Sigur Ros, Jimmy Eat World, and Counting Crows, just to name a few. To quote Drew, "Good times...good times."



And good times on the social front as well: I've spent so many good nights out with friends, good for so many reasons, that I can't hardly pick a good place to start. But I will: about two weeks ago I went out with Francis to a local "English" pub for a pint. I was pretty tired and wasn't going to go, but Rob had wimped out, so I decided not to leave Francis hanging. And it ended up being such a perfectly quiet night: the pub was mostly empty so we played darts and talked for almost three hours; not since Mayslacks in Minneapolis have I had such a great night with my boys. (The exception being Misfits nights with Alwyn, of course.)

Jo and I have spent quite a few nights in good conversation as well and we've discovered some really good places to eat in the process. She and I went up to Gifu a couple of weeks ago for a walk-around; we didn't quite make it up to the Castle, which we've both seen already, but we did get to see some really cool temples and shrines and we hiked up Kinka-zan (Mt. Kinka). We went to Inaba-jinja (shrine, right) just as it was starting to get dark, which was amazingly tranquil; they had just lit the torches/streetlights and everything carried a mysterious air. A student told me in class that Basho, a poet famous for haiku, had written about the tranquility of shrines, how the stillness is so complete that the buzz of cicadas seems to penetrate the very rocks with their sound. It was absolutely amazing; the peacefulness was so deep that we barely talked as we walked through the grounds.

We also spent a day in Inuyama walking along Kiso-gawa, the Kiso river (right), also known as the Japanese Rhine for it's beauty. Jo and I went to Momotaru shrine, then a semi-hidden waterfall, and lounged on a jetty sticking out into the river. It was a nice day, sunny and warm with a good breeze, and I really couldn't ask for better company. =)

More recently a bunch of us decended on Inuyama for a night at the river, complete with talking, singing and playing guitar. Got home around 3 this morning. Good times. Kiso-gawa has definitely become one of my favorite places in central Honshu, probably because of the usual company that comes with my visits there.


Okay, well this post has gotten out of control yet again; I'll leave you with this: I am coming home, eventually. Life is an amazing gift, and where I am now is incredibly wonderful; I wish you could all be here to experience it with me.

Blessings,
thom