December 22nd through January 12th in 2015

Sadly, this is going to be a break in the usual list of what I’ve done. I can’t give day by day accounts as my vacation was so long and dull that very little of note or merit really took place outside of the anecdotes I’ll share here.
Christmas eve, I seem to remember something interesting happening, but it can’t have been too terribly interesting. Christmas morning I opened my presents, over skype, and talked with mum. I felt, of course, very nostalgic and a bit sad. I get that feeling from time to time. Then, on Christmas Night, I went to a big Christmas party at my favorite bar. I ended up winning a bottle of sake (with gold flecks!) and a big case of beer for winning the karaoke contest and a rock paper scissors contest. A pretty good time, if you ask me. This was where my vacation really started, I was supposed to work on Monday, but I just decided to take the day off.
New Year’s Eve I seem to remember my plans falling through. So, Sam and I went to 7-11, bought some snacks, bought some sparkly booze, and watched the Japanese countdown. New Year’s Day there was a big swim in the Sendai River. I think it’s part of a religious ceremony. I definitely saw the various dignitaries of the town holding some sort of religious function out on a little peninsula (nearly island) in the river. The island (it is in some weather) has a little Shinto thingie or other on it that I’ve seen before. It always gave me an oddly comforting feeling, which, may make what happens next make more sense.
I decided that I, too, would participate in the river swim. However, I was very VERY unprepared for the effect of cold water on my system. My heart was pounding. Hard and fast. And I was swimming pretty quickly in water too deep to stand in. It became clear to me after a while that I was going to pass out. I signaled for help, but, thankfully, was able to avoid needing to be explicitly saved. I found some hand holds on that little island/peninsula and somehow wrenched myself out of the water and onto dry land. Then I sat there shivering for a while before a boat picked me up. Still, I didn’t feel nearly as embarrassed as I should have. I’ve informed everybody that next year is my rematch with the river, and everybody seems to like me for saying that.
I’m trying to remember other things of interest, but it was really a remarkably dull time.
I spent a lot of time proofreading Woody’s college applications. Hours and hours and hours. Not overly fun. I love proofreading, but it gets to be very annoying when the person you’re proofreading for is ungrateful and doesn’t like to take advice. Also frustrating is that he’s applying for colleges that he cannot get into, which bothers me because his mom and I are doing all of the work.
I saw Star Wars, I believe, on the 29th. I have to say, it wasn’t as bad as I’d feared, but it wasn’t as good as Courtney had lead me to believe. I think part of it is just my own old stodginess. The movie did a good job of creating compelling characters who I liked, but they did almost nothing to develop them, and the whole movie felt more like a two part TV series opener than a movie. I realize that, yes, that’s, in fact, what it is, but that bothers me. I don’t like a movie to feel like it exists just to sell additional movies. That was always why, as a kid, I never liked Empire as much as the others. I like it when movies can exist on their own merits. In this movie? Very little that happens in this movie actually matters. Yes, it’s true, the characters are expanded and we get to understand them a bit, which is nice, but I think that the movie would have been better if they hadn’t done that damned café scene and hadn’t bothered with blowing up the Death Star 3.0 ZOMFG SO MUCH BETTER THIS TIME!!!11!!! Episode IV was a complete Hero’s Journey. Empire was another one. Jedi was another. And the three functioned together as a single unit. This movie? Is a two parter series launcher.
I saved a dog last week. That was cool. A sweet dog was walking down the street, having broken its rope, and I caught him, then made sure the police got him. I think I nearly gave Hirayama Sensei a heart attack when I asked him if I could keep a dog for a few days while the police looked for the owner. He said the BOE said no, and it was too cold to keep it in my yard. So, the police had to take it. Sad, because having a dog for a few days would have been nice. The owner called me yesterday afternoon, though, and thanked me, which was really sweet.
I bought a new (used) car yesterday, which was pretty nice. I’m excited. I can finally drive long distances without worrying AND I have a CD player now.
I started watching through Star Trek TNG, and I finished season 2 last night. It really is amazing. Sadly, it’s a series that’s dead. Star Trek in general. The message of the nobility of hard work and suffering, the message that who you are isn’t important compared to what you can do, it won’t fly with today’s young people. And they wonder why I don’t want to go back stateside.
Oh! Sorry for how disjointed this is, I may have mentioned this before: I was cleaning my apartment when there was a knock at my door wall. I opened it, and I found a sweet little old man who I had no recollection of ever having met before. He invited me to a Christmas concert at the Himawarikan (Sunflower Hall, a kind of civic space for various meetings, clubs, and classes). I attended, and ended up getting dragged onstage to sing a bunch of Christmas songs. As it turns out, nobody knows the second verses of any Christmas songs, however, as nobody in the audience spoke English anyway, nobody noticed me flubbing words. Hooray! Anyway, on last Friday, the official who had organized the event, Obarasan, invited me to perform at another concert in Miyanojo, an, possibly, a bigger one in Kagoshima City. So, yeah. That’s pretty exciting.
I was invited, sometime over break, to the last day of work for a lady at my second favorite bar. It was pretty nice. The girl is cute. I should ask her out sometime, but my stomach is not in a good place.
This week, my diet and exercise went out the window. The exercise had been gone for a while, but my diet just died. I was sick, and my sleep schedule was messed up, and I had no schedule to orient myself around. I gained a lot of weight in the last two weeks, mostly eating food I didn’t particularly care for. Ugh. One step forward two steps back, as always.
Sometime this week, I’ve got to sign my renewal contract. I think I need to sign it in the next three days. I’m going to, though I’m still not convinced it’s the best plan. It’s a plan. I am really thinking I want to try to make it in Japanese media. But, I’ve got to have a nice, quiet, out-of-the-way place to matriculate before I try to make it. Satsuma should work nicely.
Bowie died last night. That’s a bit of sadness. It really shocked me. I had always wanted to meet him, maybe have him approve of me. Guess not.
I’m getting lonely, and the thought of my age catching up to me has made me lonelier still. Satsuma is not good for that. I’ve got to get out and about.
Anyway, that’s most of what happened between then and now. This entry is getting posted twice as it spans two years.