August 20th-24th in 2015

Regarding yesterday (Thursday the 20th), I went on a long walk. I was looking for either the Nafco (which I didn’t find) or the town’s one Italian restaurant (which I also didn’t find). Barring that, I was looking for bars, or just general places of fun where maybe, just maybe, I could meet a young person. Well, I did find where the Cosmos was (what it is, beyond a big store, I’m not yet entirely sure) and another small culture/handicraft center that appears to have some decent food in it. I also chatted with a few lovely little old ladies. However, I walked largely along the Sendai River. Towards the terminus of the walk, half an hour or so out, near the Cosmos, I went down a staircase that lead me directly to where the river is. Around here, civil engineering is everywhere. Things in Japan are not left to chance, to the extent that chance can be avoided. There are too many disasters as it is, and they can’t allow anything to worsen that situation. As a result, for the most part, in the settled areas, the banks of the Sendai are pretty well protected. There’s a large area for the river, giving it adequate living space, but then, maybe fifty yards out on either side, an embankment starts and rises for a good fifty yards, gradually sloping backwards towards the town. You end up with a little bowl with a river in the center. The wind always blows along the water, and as I had been singing a bit while crossing an earlier windy bridge, as I went deeper into the wind and concrete, closer to the river, I sang louder and louder. Standing on a rock, near the banks, under one of the bigger bridges, I found such a lovely singing spot. That whole area along the river . . . it’s really just lovely. You can be almost alone there. Nobody can see or hear you, unless they’re down there as well. And people are almost never down there. I certainly doubt I’ll find many people there at night. I think I know where I’d like to start spending some time. I want to sing, and I want to sing loudly and without reservation. I want to throw myself and my voice into the wind and the river, I want to charm the crows and dragonflies. I want the rocks along the riverbed to raise me up and carry me high above the town. I want to be there. I cannot wait until I can go back.
At quarter to 4, ish, I got some more freaking amazing news. No language and culture summit. And orientation has been moved to the 27th. Instead of getting paid to do the language and culture stuff, I, instead, have to sit at my desk and to do nothing even longer. Just what I freaking need. A typhoon is coming, though, and there’s not a lot that can be done about it. A lot of the people are out on islands and have to be ferried in. This is just really frustrating and terrible.
Well, after that, on Friday, Hirayama and I dealt with the internet company for a while which frustrated me incredibly. I was just so angry at how difficult they’re making everything possible. I went home and listened to some recorded ASMR for a while to calm down. Then, after a while, I headed out on my walk. It was pretty pleasant, as I recall, and I went pretty far. I don’t have a steady route yet, but I do prefer to hang out by the river if and whenever possible. Well, after that, I took my ukulele and I went to the Don restaurant that Sam and I had gone to last week. This time I brought my ukulele, as we’d mentioned possibly doing that last time. I played a few songs for the owner (whose name escapes me) and I ate yakisoba and drank whiskey and soda. It was really a nice time. We talked and talked. Finally, as nobody came in and I was hoping to find friends, I left to go and find a bar. My first choice place wasn’t open, so I went to a nearby area. There are three bars stacked on top of each other, so, I decided that I’d try the one on the first floor. I had a really nice time. Lots of talking. However, as people get drunker here, they tend to go into Kagoshimaben in addition to having their normal drunk speech. One of the bartenders is a beautiful Indonesian girl, so, that was nice. Well, beautiful is relative. She’s certainly one of the prettiest girls in town, as well as being one of the only ones over 16 and under 40 I’ve yet met. Then, rather drunk, I walked to 7-11 to partake of The Feast of St. Swithun, and then went to bed.
According to Fitbit, that was the best sleep I’ve had since getting Fitbit. I believe it. I woke up the next day feeling much better than I had any right to. Then, I kind of lazed around for a bit. I missed my chance to get lunch at the little lunch shop near the BOE, so I ended up going to Satsumasendai. I had googled instrument stores in town, and the first one I went to ended up being a piano service place. The second one, one Sam and I had been to before but it had been closed, ended up having no guitar stuff. However, the owner (or at least the guy I talked to) said he knew a place. So I went, and I bought a guitar there. It was a decent $200 number. It’s an acoustic, but it’s got a built in tuner and you can plug it into an amp. I like that. The flexibility is nice. I also got some McDonald’s, which is just not as good as I remember it being in Japan. I don’t know what’s up. Well, I went home and tried to go to this Italian place for dinner, but it was closed, despite being open. I think maybe there was a private party or something? I don’t really know. Well, anyway, I played guitar for a bit. Then, I got bored and decided to see if this one bar I had really wanted to try was open (it had never been open before when I’d actually been able to go). I ended up stumbling on a matsuri, so I drove home, changed into my yukata, told Sam, and we went. It was fun. We got there at the tail end of it, so we missed out on a lot, but what we did get was fun. I got an amazing melon snow cone, and we watched some pretty spiffy fireworks. We also met a really cool couple and their 18 year old daughter. They kept trying to fix one of us up with her. I was entertained. If she were prettier, or we had anything (especially a language) in common, I’d consider it. His name was Toshi. As a dude, he seem pretty good. So, I don’t suppose he’s the Toshi. His wife’s name . . . escapes me. They were also the first people, so far, to tell me that I look like Tom Cruise. Also, Toshi’s wife wanted to feel my hair. She patted my head and said I felt like a dog. I’m not sure if that was a compliment or an insult.
After that, I went home, but I was bored and couldn’t sleep and my fingers hurt from the little guitar that I had played. Well, I ended up going to try that first bar I had tried on Friday. Turns out it isn’t a bar. It’s a restaurant! It also turns out that the owners are amazingly sweet, and the gyoza is freaking great! Also, there was a party (well, four or five women) consisting of ladies who work in schools in the area. The nurse was super cute. I enjoyed that. Well, we chatted quite a bit. After a while, they left, and then the owner and I talked. She was wonderfully kind. After that, I left, and went to that same triple decker bar. I had been to level one, so I tried level two. It was closed. So, I went up to level three. I liked what I saw.
The decoration was dark, and a bizarre kind of cheap, overblown, and actually elegant that only Japan seems able to pull off properly. The selection was good. There was a very talkative middle aged bar lady, a chubby one, a young pretty one, and the owner. The owner was wonderful-ish, and seemed to be drunk. She kept clutching my hand to her chest. Thankfully, as she was Japanese (and therefore small) and old (and therefore saggy), I didn’t end up touching anything. Karaoke was a hit, though, and I had a lot of fun. After a long time of drinking and singing, I returned home.
I didn’t sleep as well that night, for whatever reason, and, having gotten home 2ish (walked back home with one of the dude patrons from the bar who lived nearby. We parted ways at the 7-11 before I partook of The Feast of St. Swithun) I slept until a bit before 9 and couldn’t get back to sleep. I was surprised to find that I had a Skype contact request. It was from Anna! I was so happy. Well, we talked and talked and talked for ages. I can’t even imagine how much data I burned through. It was so nice. The lunch shop I went to was closed while I talked to her, so I went to the Italian restaurant which was also closed. So I drove to the burger place which was also closed. Why everything closes on Sundays here I don’t understand. Well, I ended up going to the Chinese restaurant in town. It wasn’t great, but it was expensive. So, that was a bit frustrating. I had Gyoza (that was actually pretty good), and really pretty lousy shrimp chili. It disappointed. So, I played guitar, and I dicked around. I cleaned a bit. I hung out with Sam for a while (he bought a bass that day), and then I ended up going to bed. Just 7-11 for dinner. I bumped into Toshi and the wife and daughter repeatedly on the way to and from Plasse. All things considered a pretty dull day. I had trouble sleeping that night, but I managed all right in the end. Oh, I also got a car wash on Saturday. Of course, today, Monday, it’s raining.
On Monday (today, the 24th) I got up, and I went on my walk. I spent a bit more time on it than normal, which ended up being a good decision as it’s now raining. We’re in the outskirts of the typhoon. It’s currently 10:35. Sam and I have been chatting a decent amount today, which has been pretty nice. It’s killing the time. I’ve only got an hour and a half until lunch, and, then, we’ve got the eikaiwa, which means we get to leave at 2:45, so this will be a pretty okay day, from the look of it.
I’m honestly kind of dreading having the internet back in a lot of ways. I’m finding that, by and large, I’m a lot happier without it. Now that I think about it, I believe that I discovered the same thing the last time I was in Japan. Although, of course, at that time, the issue was just really slow internet. Really, the biggest reason I particularly want the internet again is tutorials. I hope that I’ll actually use it mostly for that as opposed to just dicking around on it as was my custom before. I think that maybe I’ll manage this. It may be a bit difficult, but I’ve had my usual internet routine so thoroughly broken up that maybe, just maybe, I’ll be able to keep a good thing going. Man I hope so. I’m practicing quite a bit of guitar these days. Before that, I was doing good work on Ukulele. I’m even doing some contact juggling again.
Well, now it’s 2:03 in the afternoon. Sam and I had planned on going to the ramen shop nearby for lunch, but they are closed for the next three days, so we went to a little hamburger place nearby. Well, at least, I thought that’s what it was. Their flag said hamburger on it, so I figured that they must have them. There were exactly two burgers on the menu, original, and fried shrimp. Beyond that, there was steak, hamburger steak, pasta, pizza . . . a lot of stuff. The place was, frankly, amazing. The décor was adorable. That Japanese juxtaposition that I enjoy so much. French, Italian, American, Japanese, and Studio Ghibli all together at the same time. I got a burger. It came with a delicious salad and some nice soup as well as an iced coffee for desert. Sam got a hamburger steak. We split their desert sampler, which was a mango pudding, a kind of chocolate raspberry pastry, and some orange sherbet. The burger was tiny, but amazing. It was full of flavor, but it left you with that lightness that is truly unique to Japanese food. I’m, sadly, still hungry, but I’ll get over it. All that for only 2,200 Yen for the two of us (about US$20). I paid half, but, in reality, mine was far less than his. I hope he’s aware. Who says you can’t buy friends? Man I hope they’re wrong, because I’m sure trying.
Well, now I find that we’re leaving at quarter to three rather than at 2:30, as we’re driving instead of walking. Frankly, driving is a total waste, but, with the likelihood of an extreme downpour, literally, any second, it sure beats walking while carrying all of our stuff. If it’s not raining when we’re done at eikaiwa, I’ll go for a walk tonight, and probably get rained on, but that’s different. I’ll be in my workout clothes. Don’t mind getting rained on in those. I’m already excited to see the river when it floods. They’ve got various markers set up to indicate the different flood stages. I can’t wait to see how high it’ll get. I’m amazed that, already, at times it rises over the lower steps of the walkways that the fishermen take to go out into it. I can’t wait to see then Sendai when it’s a real river.
What my fascination with water is, I’m yet to really understand. I don’t get it at all. It’s always drawn me in, while, simultaneously, horrifying me. There are few things that I want so much, yet fear so greatly. I can remember, even as a kid, being terrified by it, but wanting it more than anything in the world. Being terrified, at Grandma Ziegler’s place along the Detroit River, that I’d somehow lose my tiny Fisher Price tape measure . . . being worried that dad’s cheap sailboat would sink in the tiny Kensington lake while we were a few dozen yards from shore and I was in a life jacket. Wearing a life jacket as long as I was able, even into nearly middle school, when I’d go to the beach or the wave pool. The love and horror of the kayaking trip in 10th grade. What is it with water? I simply fail to understand.
Well, eikaiwa was rather dull and uneventful. I think that I came off as a pitchman when I was trying to push my pronunciation system. I’m also somewhat annoyed with myself at my unfortunate tendency to try to apply what I learned in China and the US to Japan too directly. It’s a very different world here with very different people. I also feel that Sam and I are dominating eikaiwa too much. We need to get others to speak more. Well, classroom management is hard, let’s see what we can do about getting better at it. After eikaiwa, I ended up getting dinner at the nearby ramen place because the Italian place was closed. Ramen and gyoza. Then, I read a bit and went to sleep. Both a good and a bad decision. I got a bit of rest because of it, but I woke up after only about an hour of sleep. But that turned out to be most of what I’d get. Sadly, when I woke up, I felt like crap, and I ended up going to 7-11 and pigging out. Which was bad in and of itself but especially on a day with so little exercise. Making it worse, when the typhoon hit, I was so sick feeling and nervous I kept plowing through food.
Ah the typhoon.
We had a typhoon last night (24th/25th). My very first one. It was pretty big and pretty serious. I’d guess that the Sendai is up 12ish feet, though it could be higher. I can’t imagine it’s any lower than nine feet raised. Kind of crazy to see. The winds were tremendous. As I drove around this morning, I saw siding had been ripped off of a garage. There’s some debris outside of our house, but Sam and I aren’t quite sure what it is or where it came from yet. Needless to say, sleeping through a typhoon in an unfamiliar house is difficult for the best sleepers. For a man like me, it was nearly impossible. Not good. However, I was so exhausted that I couldn’t really put the lack of sleep to any constructive use. I kept trying to read, but even that kind of failed. More on that later.
My alarm woke me up at 6, as is its custom, and I ignored it, disabled the 6:03 backup, and set one for 7. I couldn’t really go on a walk anyway, and I think that I got to sleep sometime around 5. According to Fitbit, it was 4:21. I rather suspect it was later as it tends to be a bit generous regarding what it defines as “sleep”. Well, no sooner had I shampooed the ol’ hair than the electricity went out (for the zillionth time), however, this time it didn’t go back on. I had to rinse my hair in cold water and then go about my morning. Thankfully the wind, rain, and clouds have lowered the temperature quite a bit. I went on a drive around the river this morning to see the river and to see the damage. Both were impressive, but it’s hard to determine much when you have to be watching the road as well. Almost nowhere in the city has power, but, of course, we do at the BOE, so I’ve got another lovely day of nothing ahead of me. I was hoping that, as I’m obviously exhausted and not feeling well, they’d tell me to go home. No such luck. Oh well. Nothing to be done about that, I suppose. Nearly everybody is here in designated work outfits. Lots of dark blue, and quite a few people are wearing what appear to be speed suits. For some horrible reason. Well, I mean, the speed suits are horrible. The typhoon wasn’t that bad. More than nearly anything, I want a nap. The tablet is running really horribly slowly, but it needs to update. The catch being that it can’t update because I still don’t have internet.
A problem presents itself: When I post this, how am I to edit it into reasonable chunks? I have a full 19.5 pages, at the moment, and it may be fully thirty by the time I actually have internet again. I’m worried about the way to break it up. A lot of it all kind of flows together. It’s also not written in a useful way for time reference. Weekends are usually lumped in with Friday afternoons and Monday mornings. It’s usually written from noon to noon over the course of two days (which means it actually corresponds pretty reasonably with a full 24 hour single day in Detroit). Maybe I’ll just break it up into roughly 3 page chunks? I just don’t think there’s a good way of doing this without having Courtney just edit the crap out of it.
I tried to read a bit yesterday. Feeling kind of unwell, and very tired, and being unable to exercise, I made it a point of trying to read. But I wanted to sleep and didn’t want to get too involved in anything, so I put aside any of the Soseki that I’ve got set aside. From there, I attempted a few things before finally settling on Murakami. I had attempted the copout of nonfiction, but, somehow, that just didn’t work. I was kind of horrified by the results. To be perfectly honest, I just couldn’t get into it. I just couldn’t get into Murakami. It was The Elephant Vanishes. I can remember reading it, the old hardcover from the Birmingham Library back in high school, while lying in bed being absorbed and transported. I know that at least once after, I read it amazed by it. I must have read it again for Kindle, but I’ve evidently forgotten. I’d almost entirely forgotten a lot of what was in the book, but, somehow, for whatever reason, it just didn’t move me. It didn’t speak to me. It’s not just that it didn’t have the impact that I was hoping for, it just seemed to utterly lack impact. I could barely remember a sentence after I was done reading it. I just don’t know what to make of it. It’s hard, I know, reading fiction, and maybe yesterday wasn’t ideal. I was so hopeful after the success of the end of I Am a Cat, but it just didn’t work out with The Elephant Vanishes. I’m a bit worried, but there’s little to do.
More and more, I’m struck by the need to get back into meditation. I’ve simply got to get a handle on my thoughts. My mind wanders too much, and it usually wanders in bad, or, at best, worthless, directions. I’ve got to force some discipline into it. I’m struggling to find a reasonable balance. I don’t want to establish bad habits in Japan, I don’t want to fall back into the easy trap of doing as little as I’ve historically done. At the same time, I don’t want to force myself to alter everything and to feel the need to change myself rapidly. That’s just stress inducing and counterproductive. Once again, so much of this could be remedied, or, at least, mitigated, if I could simply sleep. Yet, for whatever reason, I cannot. Nor, when I do, does it seem to accomplish much.