Updates

Hi all. All is well here in kasukabe. Trying to keep warm and dry, as we are in the middle of another Japanese winter. I really shouldn`t complain (what with Manitoba getting slammed with -40C days...maked 5C seem like summer) but it really is cold. One of the things that I am doing to try and keep occupied is to find a job for next year. On Friday night I had a telephone interview with a Canadian company that is hiring teachers for positions in Hong Kong. I did very well with the interview, and was asked if I could attend a second. The problem is that I may have to travel outside of Japan for it. Second interviews are being held in Hong Kong, Vancouver, and Toronto. So, when I get the call, I may have to go to Hong Kong. I would love to go to Vancouver and hang out for a while, but shelling out $1000 to travel for a 1-hour interview is a bit too much. Anyway, will keep you posted.

Natsumi is in Bali until Jan 30th. Luck girl is gonna come home with bronzed skin after a month of beaches and scuba, I`m green! On Saturday my good buddy Nori came up to Kasukabe from Yashio for a night. We got caught upon various things and then headed out for supper. After numerous plates of sushi and several bottles of red, we decided that Karaoke was a good idea. I hadn`t been toKaraoke for months and thought maybe I was sick of it, but we had a great time. After a late-night gyudon (beef and rice) feed, we headed back to mine and crashed. Sunday was spent feeling pretty sorry for myself because of my hangover, but it gave me a good chance top catch up on the NFL playoffs. Go Bears!

Hard to believe its almost the end of Januaryu already! Only 6 more months here in Japan. Then what? Hmm, time will tell I guess. Bye for now.

Blink your eyes and it`s 2007...

Hope everyone had a good holiday. Got any New Year`s resolutions? I don`t have many this year, but there are some things that I want to improve. I would like to be more diligent in keeping touch with people than I have been in the past. Seems like I am constantly forgetting to email, call, write, or otherwise inform people about what`s going on, and I need to improve that. I`ve also set new goals for myself with respect to my health. I want to be more dedicated to my workout schedule and diet. That should be a little bit easier as my scooter finally kicked the bucket over the Xmas break, meaning I have to ride my old granny-style bicycle to work everyday. I still haven`t decided if I want to bother repairing the scooter, as I will only be in Japan for another 6 months or so. We`ll see.

I`ve yet to firmly make plans about what I will do once I leave Japan. As of now, my job and visa expire at the end of July. At that time I will either move back to Canada, or explore other options in another country. After my trip to Shanghai, I think I would be able to get by in China without too much difficulty. I would also like to see what it would be like to live in a place like Vietnam, Cambodia, or even Hong Kong. Over the next few months I will be putting out some feelers to see if I could land any sort of job. Time will tell on that one too. I am anxious to get back to Canada, but I always think that if I go home too soon I might never come back to Asia and miss out one some great experiences.

Another weird (and frightening) thing about 2007 is that this year will be my 10-year high school reunion! Man, I am getting old! In my mind it seems like I just left home last week for University in Brandon, and that all my old hangouts are still the same. Of course, I doubt I will actually be in the country to attend the reunion anyway, but it would be really nice to catch up with the old class of `97 and see what everyone has gotten up to since then. Of course, I am still in touch with some of the boys and I see my friends when I get the chance to come home, but at least half of that class I haven`t seen since graduation. Where has all of that time gone? 10 years already? What have I been doing? I spent 2 years working in Birtle/Foxwarren at various jobs after graduation. In 1999, I moved to Brandon and studied at Brandon University for 5 years. After graduation, I worked for the University for a few months before leaving for Japan. I have been teaching here in Japan since August of 2004. Just like that, 10 years have gone by. Unreal. What`s even more weird is that every time I get news from home, it seems more crazy stuff has happened. Someone else got married, got divorced, had a kid, had 2 more kids, got a great job, lost a great job, and on, and on...

It`s really weird to think of how much of my life back then wasn`t even really documented. When I was in high school, there were no digital camers, no one had a cell phone, and the word "blog" wasn`t even invented yet. I remember high school being great fun, but I have almost no concrete record of it. The few pictures that I have at home hardly do it justice. My buddy Casey and I always kill ourselves laughing at some videos we shot with the school camers in 12th grade. I don`t know if they would have been more special or less special if we recorded the amount of stuff kids do these days. I played a ton of sports in high school, captained several teams,and travelled to many towns to compete, but I`m not sure if I have even a single picture to show for it. I don`t know if high school kids now can even imagine what it would be like to go through their day without receiving 20 instant messages, checking their emails accounts, or downloading whatever they have a desire for that day. In 10 years the life of a typical teenager has changed so much. I can`t imagine what I will be writing about 10 years later, in 2017. Will we still even be writing? Will things be completely automated, or will we use voice-recognition tech all day? Will we even have to speak to document things? Will we be able to document data just by thinking it? Who know... Anything is possible, I mean a lot of what we have today couldn`t have been dreamed up 10 years ago. One reason that I am happy with my decision to become a teacher is that I will be part of the first wave of people to see the effects of new technology. I will be a part of the adapting process to the newest technology and gadgets, and I will see how they change the behaviours and lifestyles of the kids using them. It will keep me up to date as well. I`m 28 years old now. What will I be like at 38? 48? 88? It`s gonna be fun.

Anyway, just wanted to rant a bit about how time always seems to be against us. I guess that is my biggest New Year`s resolution: trying not to take things for granted so much, and appreciating every day the good things in my life and focusing less on the negative. Life is just too short, you know?

Hello? Watch, bag?....Hello? Crazy times in Shanghai

Wow! I'm back in Japan after 10 days of madness in Shanghai. It was quite an experience and made me realize that there is a hell of a lot more to Asia than just Japan. Natsumi and I headed to Narita airport on Dec 21st, and arrived in Shanghai at about 9 o'clock in the evening. By the time we got to the place where our hotel was it was around 10:30, so we just dropped off our gear and headed out for some food. Natsumi had lived in Shanghai previously as a student, and the hotel was near to her old campus so she knew the area well. The little restaurant that we went to that night was great. It was a little shishkabob restaurant that had the best food. We ate until we were full and drank beer until late. When the check arrived, I finally understood that we were in China. The grand total came to 34 yuan, or the equivalent of about $5 canadian. Nice.

The next day we went to a not-so-tourist-friendly market area called Qipu road. It was pretty crazy, and not a lot of tourists go there. The sheer quantity of shops, vendors, noise, and kiosks was a bit hard to take in. We did a bit of shopping there, and then moved on. Our next stop was the more famous Nanjing road. This is the more upscale area near the center of Shanghai where many name-brand shops, fast-food chains, and coffee shops. We spent some time walking around there, then headed to People's Square, a park area closeby. There was a huge Hong Kong style shopping mall there, and we ate some more delicious food. After that, we walked to the river to stroll along the famous pedestrain walkway know as the Bund. At night it is lit up and gives a great view of Pudong across the river. Later we headed back to Chifeng road, near our hotel, to do some "DVD" shopping.

The next day (Dec 23rd) we visited Yuyuan Garden. It was a beautiful temple area, and also a huge maket bazaar. We did some poking around and shopping there. On the way to Yuyuan, we took a very "scenic" walk though a neighborhood that was very traditional Chinese. It consisted od very, very old buildings, some without walls or even floors, but all still with tenants inside. It was weird to see such run-down and slummy looking places but see smiles on the faces of all the people around us. It really put into perspective just how different my life is than anything these people know.

Christmas eve was a bit of a downer for me. The first part of the day had been great. We had met up with a friend of Natsumi's, Akina, and visited some cool shops, a great market, and then headed to Nanjing Road. There, I split off from the girls and went walking around on my own for a bit. I was trying to buy a bottle of water at a kiosk when the "incident" happened. As I took my wallet out of my pocket, someone tried to rip it out of my hands. It fell to the ground, spilling out some cash onto the street. I went straight for the wallet, but the 4 other guys who I didn't even know were there went straight for the cash. It didn't take to long to realize that this little group of guys likely had me pegged for a while before and saw their chance. Anyway, only a bit of cash was lost, and all my important papers and cards were safe. If you are ever in Shanghai, keep a tight grip on you wallet! I should have been more careful!

We woke up early on Christmas day so we could eat some 'Baozi' which is a steam-bun filled with meat and/or vegetables, and is officially my favorite Chinese food. Even better, each bun only costs about 0.7 yuan, which is about 10 cents canadian. SWEET! Later in the day we did some shopping on Huaihai Road. By the time we were ready for Xmas dinner we were pretty beat, so we had a delicious KFC christmas.
We spent boxing day around People's square, and also near to Akina's apartment. We went to an enormous tea shop, tea shops actually, and were allowed to sample many kinds of Chinese tea. Later that night we went out to dinner with some Korean friends of Natsumi's. It was a very weird meal, as there were many languages being tossed around. There were 8 people there: 2 Chinese, 3 Koreans, Natsumi, Akina, and I, but we all didn't share common languages. Most of the people were Chinese language students in Shanghai, but none of them spoke any English. Akina doesn't speak English either, so as a result all of the conversations were in a mix of Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and English. Confusing to say the least. Also, one of the Chinese girls (a Korean guy's girlfriend) was a bit of a cold fish and didn't seem very friendly at all. Not sure if there was some Chinese-Japanese hostilities or what, but Natsumi and I had more than a couple of chuckles at her expense during the meal.

On the 27th we headed to Shanghai station. We went to this are that was a huge underground are that was all eyeglass shops. I managed to get a great pair of glasses with prescription lenses for about $25 dollars. Silly me, I didn't check them until I got home and found that the prescription was off a little. Ah well. Later, we went to the trendy area of Xintiandi. It is a pretty upscale little are full of shops, restaurants, etc. In the evening we met a Shanghainese friend of Natsumi's called Xiao Li and enjoyed a delicious traditional Chinese-style meal.

On the 28th, we visited Jing'an temple and the nearby area. There was even a Burger King there! Of course we had to go it. I hadn't had Burger King in 3 years, as there are none in Japan. Whoppers are great! Later that night we went to the high rise district area called Pudong. From there we could get a beautiful view of the Bund. Also, we headed up to the 88th floor of Jin Mao tower.
Our last day we went back to Qipu road maket to do our shopping. We were able to buy tons of shoes, clothes, watches, etc. It was a tiring day, but we managed to get it all done. To cap off our trip, we headed back to the same shishkabob restaurant that we went to on our first night and enjoyed another night of good eats and good drink. Our flight the next day left early, so we had to get up at 4:30 am to catch it.

The trip was short, wild, intense, but was an unforgettable experience. If you want to see more of the photos from this trip click here.

Seasons Greetings from Joe and Natsumi

Hi everyone. Hope you have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! We'll be in Shanghai until the 30th so I won't be posting for a while. Enjoy the holidays! メリークリスマス　と　明けましておめでとうございます！

My 2006

It`s that time of year...time to write about the main events from the last 365 days. It seems like every year just goes by faster and faster, and I am never able to realize it until it`s happened. It`ll soon be 2007, but I am still getting used to saying 2006.

I began my 2006 with a New Years party in Tokyo. I had been up in Akita prefecture doing some skiing with friends and had returned to Tokyo for a New Years party held at club Unit in Daikanyama. There was a good vibe in the place, and it was a fun night (minus the nausea trouble I got myself into as a result of drinking too many Heinekens).

I was busy in January, because my band (The Peacemakers) had a gig scheduled for the 22nd. It was at a large concert hall in Yashio, the same venue we had played a year earlier. We had been rehearsing in December and continued that into January right up until the date. The show went off well, with no major malfunctions other than the atrocious weather. It snowed a total of 3 days all winter last year in Yashio, but one of those days was the day of our concert, just my luck! We had a large post-concert party at a local izakaya (Eena) to cap the event off. Little did I know that it would likely be the final time I would play a gig with them.

February and March were spent trying to keep warm in my apartment. As I`ve no doubt mentioned hundreds of times, it is wickedly cold here in the winters. My apartment was also furnished with the world`s worst kerosene heater. It stunk up the place something awful, and didn`t kick out much heat. So instead, I used my aircon/heater despite the horribly expensive price of electricity. To stay warm, I would often spend long hours at the local gym. It was better to be warm and exercising than shivering in my apartment. I was lucky enough to have a decent community gym not far from my apartment. Community gyms are adequately equipped, and 300 yen ($3) per visit was much more reasonable than the 12,000 yen ($120) monthly fees charged by most private clubs.

In April, I was lucky enough to have my sister Natalie and her husband Mats come out to Japan to visit me for a week. It was nice to see them, as I hadn`t seen anyone from home since the previous year at their wedding. We toured many local areas in Tokyo, including Asakusa, Odaiba, Shinjuku, Harajuku, etc
I think it was a little hard for them to adjust to Japan`s climate/culture/food in such a short period of time though. If you are in Japan for a week, it taked a good 2 or 3 days just to get over the jetlag before you can fully comprehend things. They were troopers though, and we went on lots of day trips and tried lots of local Japanese cuisine. I am expecting more visitors from home in 2007 as well. My tour guide skills are top notch! lol

In May I met a wonderful girl named Natsumi. Since we have been together, my experince in Japan has been 100% different. I still do all the same things that I used to, but now I have so much different input and alternate viewpoints on things I thought were pretty obvious. Being with Natsumi has really opened my eyes and unlocked a culture that I have been immersed in for the past 2 years. I am now privy to all the subtle nuances of people`s actions, business strategies, pop culture, and history and as a result, I am really beginning to appreciate my experiences here the way they should be appreciated. Natsumi is a 4th year university student studying Chinese (Mandarin) and she is currently writing her thesis (actually she finished it 2 days ago! Omedetou!). Her English ability is also very high. We generally communicate in English, but I try and use the Japanese I`ve learned, and I am learning much more from her as well.

In early June, I met up with another music friend of mine, Kirk. He is formerly from Regina, Saskatchewan, but has been living here in Tokyo for the last 6 years. He is married to a Japanese woman and plans to spend his life in Japan. We rented a car and decided to go on a weeklong adventure. In Japan, it is very easy to travel almost anywhere by local or bullet train, but not so popular to do a Candian-style raod trip. We looked to buck that trend, so we planned a route through Japan that would take us on a scenic, off the beaten track kind of adventure. After a minor fender-bender in Tokyo (Kirk still wasn`t used to the right-hand drive cars, lol) we were off. We headed east of Tokyo and made our way to Nagano prefecture. We took a few roads through the mountains that were more than treacherous, but eventually ended up in the beautiful mountain village of Iina-shi. We stayed with another frind of mine, Carla, who is also origianlly from Winnipeg. We enjoyed a beautiful mountain onsen before pushing on in the direction of Osaka. Or plan had been to travel about halfway to Osaka that day, but instead we made it all the way there in a day. We stayed in Osaka for a couple of days, soaking in the local atmosphere, food, and excitement. The world cup was on at that time, so we joined the sea of blue Team Japan shirts and watched Japan`s game amongst hundreds of screaming Japanese fans. From there, we carried on to beautiful Kyoto. This was such a change after the madness of Osaka. We saw all of the beautiful temples and castles, and really chilled out for a couple of days.
Lastly, we headed back towards Tokyo. Our plan was to stay on the beach in Shizuoka, do some swimming, and just relax. When we got there though, the beach was a bit subpar, and it wasn`t so beautiful. We thought that maybe we should just head back to Tokyo that day, but we weren`t sure. It became a definite plan when Kirk lost his glasses in the ocean after taking a wave to the face. We arrived safely back in Tokyo, no major incidents in our trip.

At the endo of July, I packed up and moved to a new city, Kasukabe. All of the teachers in my previous city (Yashio) were being replaced by a private company, but I was licky enought to get a transfer to Kasukabe. Natsumi and I rented a moving truck, loaded it up, and drove it the 2 hours to Kasukabe. It was sad to leave Yashio, as it had been my home for 2 years here in Japan, and my base for all the crazy adventures I have been on in that time. It`s also where i met my good friends. I also had to say goodbye to a good buddy, Keith. He was heading back to the UK at that time. I think one of the first posts on this blog is about the beaking up of the YA-JET massive, so have a look if you want to read more. Anyway, I finally got settled in my new apartment (which is waaaaaay nicer and bigger than my previous one). I`ve made many new friends here in Kasukabe, and it is a great place to live.


I`ve made friends in Kasukabe who are from the US, the UK, Australia, NZ, Jamaica, Canada, and the Phillipines. My new school, Midori Junior High School, is also a lot of fun. The job is a lot more challenging here. Also, I have been teaching regularily at an Elementary school that is part of a special pilot program in English language education in Japan. It is one of only 3 schools in the whole country to incorporate a high level of English instruction at the elementary level. It is so influential, in fact, that it is regualrily visited by delegations of principals, superintendants, and other education officials who are interested in similar programs for their schools. Last week, I was part of a demonstration day where 500-600 education-related people, media, etc came to the school to watch us perform our classes and classroom routines. The work is a lot more interesting this year.

In October, Natsumi and I headed down to Okinawa. There is also an extensive post about that trip on this blog, so I will not bore you with the synopsis again. I will say that it was great and just the break I needed after the stress of moving to a new city, meeting new people, and starting a new job. Since then we`ve done many fun things including going to museums and parks around Tokyo, going to art shows, throwing parties (had a housewarming in October as well). In our downtime, we both enjoy going to the gym and are lucky enough to have a fairly inexpensive club near my apartment.

This past weekend, the English teachers from Kasukabe got together and threw a little Xmas shindig. We had to have the party early because it was the last chance that we would all have to be together before Xmas. Most people are leaving Japan to go home or take a vacation over Xmas. It was a fun time, and we even had a Xmas tree! Now I am back at work writing this after a hard weekend recovering from that night.

But all is well! Today is Monday, but this week I only work until Wednesday the 20th. On Thursday, Natsumi and I hop on a plane and will be headed for Shanghai!



I`ve got my Chinese VISA all sorted, and I`m ready to go. I am excited to go, as Shaghai looks and sounds like one of the craziest places. I`m looking forward to the shopping too. I`ll have a big post on here about the trip when we get back.

So...that was an abbreviated version of my 2006. Please write me and tell me all about your year as well. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I hope you all succeed in whatever it is you are doing! Bye.

Joe