Christmas 2007

Merry Christmas everyone!



This is the Christmas Card that I made for the kids at school. You'll see it has all kinds of useful Christmas words.

On the back I put the following:

Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus
By Francis Pharcellus Church, Editor of the New York Sun,
in response to a letter by Virginia O'Hanlan (1897)

We take pleasure in answering thus prominently the communication below, expressing at the same time our great gratification that its faithful author is numbered among the friends of The Sun:

Dear Editor,
I am eight years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, "If you see it in the Sun, it's so." Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?
Virginia O'Hanlon

Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The external light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies. You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if you did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart. Only faith, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

THE END

---

I'm going back to the US for a few weeks this winter vacation. I'll have two weeks with my parents and relatives in Atlanta, GA, and then another week for New Year's with friends and relatives in Oregon. It'll be too short, I'm sure, but packed with fun.

Have a good new year! Here's to more blogging in the future!

One Year and Counting

I've been meaning to post here for some time. I wanted to make a post for my year anniversary that came up a few weeks or months ago, depending on when I first landed or when I first started my job. I've been meaning to catch up with some of the daily minutiae that I could write about, but usually abandon when I realize I really don't care about it. I realize others might, but on the whole, it's disinteresting work for me. I could write books and books about it, still fail to cover it well, and still would miss it entirely because I don't have it from the perspective of the Japanese. That said, I'll continue to write when I can.

Much of my job currently consists of being a human tape recorder and a monkey to play with and watch, but not really or truly interact with. I admit I could probably do a better job sometimes of thinking of good ideas to do in class and with people, but the students don't know enough English, and I not enough Japanese to do anything that intense to learn from. The kids who really want to learn English are, and likely out side of class. They really like the rote text-book stuff here, as dictated by law. And it's too difficult to change the teachers mind, and we've been warned against it, that the teacher would follow their career path ideas rather than challenge the system. They're Japanese, after all.

Which is not to say I know the proper pedagogy and praxis to do it properly. Still working on that.

Anyway, I mostly lament the fact that the interesting poeple I meet here, save one or two neraby, are an hour and a half away from my city in Tokyo proper. The writing group I joined is there as well. Most of the community orientated, non-English-teaching, events are outside of my local travel area. I have to spend 2000 yen just to get to Tokyo to do it. It's hard to feel active or appreciated in the community when everything is that far away. I am still just a tourist, or possibly worse.

And so I look for where my next home should be. If I have the money, enough to make it, then I will move on to another country. If I don't think I can, I move to Tokyo. India has a good potential for a chemistry teaching job at a high school, and that would be wonderful I think. Perhaps some brief stint in Thailand and SE Asia.

I lament that the language seems to be the biggest barrier, and, if I tried applying myself better to those ends (which I have), it would all work out better on every front. But, I see my other friends who've lived here four and six years, those that can speak Japanese fairly well, still walled off from the affection of the Japanese community--still not have any friends they trust.

I have made at least one decent friend from my Aikido Dojo and will go out after practice on Sundays, have dinner, and chat in English and Japanase. Exchange a few emails. So, I should say it's not so bad integrating. Took a year, though.

Perhaps it takes time, but I know people in other countries that I would trust implicitly and forged bonds faster, and I don't find that here. I don't know if that's what I was looking for, but I guess it is something. I don't think the Japanese are any less trustworthy than any other humans, but perhaps less willing to share it? Less invting of it? Something like that.

Which is not to say I haven't been having fun though. I have many sources that are still working for me, but they all involve English and ex-pats. I have a beautiful girlfriend, and though sometimes complicated, works for now. I have a decent RPG group, and am planning on running the new Changeling game soon as well. I've been writing more and more, watching plenty of movies and TV, and have been making at least some more money teaching English to private students. I have some Aikido, and neglect to go often enough to the gym to get in better shape.

Went to Disneyland with Tiffany. Pretty busy place during a holiday weekend. Much of what you'd expect from a highly commercial and crazy place like Disneyland--except everything in Japanese. Long lines, though they did have these cool fastpass tickets you could get that allowed you through the fast lane. Could only get a few at a time, but it seemed to work well. More or less got to wait in line for two rides at the same time. Felt like we were being worked like a statistic, but the ends worked too. Many fun rides. The second day we went to Disney Sea which had some nice steam-punkish/pulp-sci-fi rides and attraction areas, and the place was less crowded for the Monday holiday. More pics and stuff when I have some time later.

On to pictures.

Yep, that's us at Disneyworld together. Fun times. I hope that doesn't have to mean anything. ;)

And I got a transforming pillow. It Rocks.



...oooh... aahhh...



...hhrrggnnn...



...poof!



...shploooo...

I still lament the lack of ideal vegetarian food, especially in Disneyland (and Sea, which is trying to do the whole international flavor thing), but am managing.

The rain's are back and influencing my plans of camping... as well as poor communicating teachers, but I'll live in the trees some other day.

I'll be doing Nanowrimo again this year and hope to be planning a bunch of the novel in October so that, come November, I'll have a better shot at finishing something pretty decent. And editable by Christmas. It's another faerytale fantasy, but I can't seem to write much else right now. Some short stories are starting more though, so hopefully after I'll get down on finishing more short fiction. If you would like to read some of my more recent short fiction, I've been keeping some track of it over at my writing blog.

And then planning the rest of the stuff out, including a pending trip to the US come early Christmas.

Be well all!

合気道

Well, that was an interesting thing scratched off the list I didn't expect.



第45回全日本合気道演武大会の案内
45th All Japan Aikido Demonstration
(in the Tokyo Budokan no less)



Our small little dojo in Fukaya was on one of the five huge Aikido-tatami mats inside for a one-minute-thirty-seconds Aikido demonstration broadcast on NHK television (maybe...). If the cameras saw us at all that is. But, Aikido we did. And then watched another 4 hours or so (click on the program). Had to fight off sleep a little bit, but
it was interesting to see all sorts of styles of apparently sanctioned Aikido going on in the world. Some decent looking weapons work at some too. My dojo mates decided to head back around 4 pm (got there around 11am) and drink beer, but I stayed a bit longer. Hung in the park for about an hour while the longer programs of various dojos did their thing, and relaxed under the trees. Then went back and saw the last shihan and doshu do their thing. Movies to post soon hopefully, though YouTubing them would probably work better as my camera is not great. Impressive to see Aikido nice and alive still.

Afterwards, did some shopping in Jimbocho and found a good selection of RPG books here in Tokyo; spendy but good to know. Then met a ladyfriend of mine in Tokyo for some okonomiyaki and shaved ice.

And then Sunday, high seas gaming adventure with the homemade D&D game. A nice weekend indeed. We were rocking pirates indeed! Took down our first boat with no casualties, and our captain unconscious the whole time! I need long range psionics.

I'll try to write up a more recent collection of activities, but I've been having trouble getting to writing. Soon if all goes well.

Roommate

Happy New Year folks! Not a great start for that here, but I'll continue nonetheless.

Mostly working and doing the same as usual here. Still haven't gotten my visa figured out yet. I went to South Korea to visit some friends over my winter vacation break from school, and didn't know that, while my visa was in processing, I couldn't leave the country. Couldn't even pay for a re-entry permit. Had to cancel it all and go through the entire process again. The burocracy here is amazing, as I expect it may be similarly in the U.S. Utterly craptastic. Ah well. Should be any day now... still... for the last five months...

Gotten in with the Aikido club here in town though. Their classes are on the weekends unfortunately, so I've only been able to make one a weekend as other activities tend to schedule themselves on the weekend as well.

Winter has been pretty mild, so folk here are saying, and very dry. It's starting to warm up again and a few blossoms are getting ready. Cherry Blossom season should be upon me soon. Much prettiness in store.

Cthulhu has a new roommate.




And another from the Cthulhu files. This is the one from Miyajima. I thought I posted this, and may have in a draft, but I couldn't find it.

I'm going to try and update some of the old drafts from previous in the summer. A lot of my posts never got fully published as they still needed editing.

Maybe even some more recent activities as well! ;)