what intentions? instead, ramblings part 4

about 2 days ago i posted that thered be a huge update about everything here. well, i can pretty much sum up everything here by this:

theres nothing new. everything is par for the course.

sorry. news for the japanese is basically that the leaves are changing color which is pretty useless info in nagoya since the city is devoid of trees, save for a few parks like tsurumai park and meijo park. for all of the emphasis on the changing of the seasons here im rather surprised that those who live in the major urban centers (nagoya, tokyo, osaka, yokohama, kobe, ect...) are so hyped up about it. hardly even the weather has changed much...im still walking around in a polo shirt, cargo shorts and flip flops.

my apartment has been an unintended boom town for english books...the english book library in the main office has proved quite resourceful, and with a lack of any good tv, reliable internet, video games, new music, or cheap english magazines, that free book library has been my main source for media/entertainment in the past month. the new one i picked up is the shining by stephen king, and while im far from a king fan, my obsession with the movie led me to the title and 300 pages in it isnt half bad...enough variants from the movie to make reading the book worthwhile. the movie is still better, though.

major elections in japan were the other week and as expected the current pm junichiro koizumi is still in power and even strengthened his hold on the government, that means he can proceed with his reform agenda, ie; privitizing the postal service. im not sure what any of it means to be honest...i have one student whos a political scientist, feminist writer and columinist for major japanese newspapers explain it to me every week, talking about women political assissins and the difference between the upper and lower house of government and its all a wash to me.

ive been computer shopping and ive finally made a decision on what computer id like to buy; a 12-inch apple ibook. ive been using my roommates mike 12 inch ibook for the past few months (im typing on it right now) and its the best and most reliable machine ive ever used. at first 12 inches for a screen is too small but you get used to it and the portability and coolness of the machine is just great. unfortunately its expensive, especially if you upgrade the ram, hard drive, and buy warranty and microsoft office with it (which i plan to do)...maybe next year for a purchase after i save some money, and possibly with it a new 60 gig video ipod. id be set for at least 5 years with that material. personal sidenote - yes, i am a technology geek.

some theme lessons are going to begin at kids classes at ecc, starting with halloween week. next month theres american thanksgiving week, then christmas week, then valentines week, then easter week. all weeks get a special theme lesson. the halloween one stands out because as teachers we have to go to school in costume. me, i think im planning to go as rambo, probably only so that i can bring 100 yen plastic guns to school under a pretense of "its part of my costume." then if kids get out of line i can tell them to get down and give me 20.

still watching lots of 24...that is an amazing show. in season 3 right now, and while it started out slow its getting really good now. truly the best show on tv. in other tv and media news, i seem to be winning every single game in my fantasy football pool despite a rash of injuries to all of my top wide receivers. i attribute that all to owning shaun alexander...with him on your team you simple cant lose a game, unless you play a team that has ladanian tomlinson, and even then alexander would probably get 4 touchdowns. i also see that the canucks are doing quite well, despite having a few players on the team ive never heard of (who the heck is lee goren???).

so yeah...not much new going on at the moment. work is going fine, the city itself is convenient, apartment is working out, people are pretty much the same, diet would be okay if i could just cut down on the fast food and the fake beer, health is fine, weather is probably better than vancouver at this point, and money is no problem.

i suppose there is one new bit of information that i hadnt revealed yet; i bought a flight home for the winter holidays. i leave here on december 23 and get to vancouver on the same day, and leave vancouver on january 4 and arrive back in nagoya on january 5. 10 days basically. its with united airlines and has a connection at san francisco, but at least i was able to fly out of nagoya instead of having to take the shinkansen to narita airport to leave japan. the cost...well, wont mention it except that sometimes i dont know how some of the airlines price people (or whatever you call them) sleep at night. japanese people only go on vacation 3 times a year; may golden week, august obon, and christmas/new years. coincidentally, those are the 3 major times that i dont work, meaning every time i want to go somewhere on vacation the price of flights, trains, accomodation, ect...will be incresed threefold or fourfold. not fair, but very japanese, as there really arent any consumer advocacy groups exist here to complain about it. complaining isnt really in the japanese mindset, it isnt considered polite. if it happened in north america thered be outrage among the degree that the teachers strike in british columbia is taking hold right now.

i think ive successfully rambled on here enough, so ill leave it at that for now.