Saturday June 16, 2007
New pictures
Mood: 
Happy
The webserver crashed so I've been busy recovering from backups. I have added the Disney pictures as well as pictures from my new apartment. You can check them in the Picture Gallery
Posted at 01:24 AM | Comments (0)
Saturday May 5, 2007
Slow update
Mood: 
Excited
Wow, no updated in what, 5-6 months!?!? Well I've been very busy and not much happened in my life to justify continuous updates. Also, since I am now a supervisor, I don't want to share so many things on the internet and expose them to my co-workers.
This being said, some things changed. I have a girlfriend and her name is Tomomi. We've been together since Feb and everything is going well.
I had a car accident in Feb. I missed a stop and drove in an other car. The other car had damage and the girl was only slightly injured (a bruise on her hip) but the nonsense doctors gave her 3 weeks off and this costed me 6 points. I had to go to a 1 day driving safety seminar to bring my license back to 0 points. It was pointless; all in Japanese and they had me drive a little to give me advices. I forgot to remove the parking break so it didn't start very well but then it was good. Then we listened to people talking about how it's important to be a good driver and what not. Of course because this is Japan, we were all shameful drivers and we needed to show that we felt very bad. One example of that is a so-called personality test to see what kind of driving monster you are. There are 5 types of personality, all bad. How can you have a good score? You can't: This is Japan! The insurance settled for a 80/20 responsibility so they paid 20% of my damages. They say my car was worth 1500$ but I call it bullshit because I see cars like mine, same year, model and mileage for 2400$. Anyway, I am lucky I got 20% and they gave me 300$ for it. The car cannot be fixed for a small amount and I will need to scrap it, a process called haisha. I am waiting after I get my new apartment to scrap the car just in case I need to load some stuff on the next day.
I am getting a new apartment. It's a 2DK which means 2 rooms plus a dining/kitchen. One room has flooring and the other one is a Japanese-style room with tatami mats. The rent is slightly more expensive but the location is much better and it's double the size of my current apartment. I will move-in May 27th and I have off the next day to shop for furniture and whatnot. I won't need to buy much though because the company sells me all what I currently rent from them for 140$.
Starting in June, I will shop for a new car. I want to buy the same kind of car: a Kei car (Ultralight).
The reason that I have some time to write is because we are in Golden Week now in Japan (1 week off!) and my girlfriend is working today so I have nothing to do. I am working 2 days only during Golden Week. The reason being that I am taking 2 days off next week to go to Disneyland with Tomomi for 4 days!
Posted at 06:41 PM | Comments (0)
Sunday November 19, 2006
Staff meeting and a good night
Mood: Happy
I had to do a four hours staff meeting yesterday. It went very well; I was relieved when it was over though. After the meeting, we went to a place called JoyJoy100. It's a big amusement centre but I wasn't told much about it. Once arrived, we had to sign-up for a member card and just to fool around, we did not put our real names but our nicknames (I am Max Power). Well believe it or not, even after checking my drivers license, they issued a members card to the name of "Max Power". JoyJoy100 is an amusement centre, it has all the latest arcades, karaoke, bating cage, pool, bowling, comics, etc... And it only costs 2$ an hour. That's right, all the arcades are on Free play mode and everything else is also free. I am tempted to draw similarities between JoyJoy and heaven... Then, we went to BellCity in Suzuka where we had Subway for dinner, it was delicious. We then went to a bar that one of the teacher knows. We stayed there for one hour and then a girl came to invite us to a party with her friends. So we took off and drove to this Japanese restaurant and hung out with them until about midnight. Then on the way to Marwin's apartment, we saw a restaurant called "Mister Chicken". It's only open at night around midnight and it's a Brazilian restaurant. One thing I should say: Suzuka, the city we were in, has 20% of its population being of Brazilian origin. You can see things written in Japanese and Portugese everywhere. It's intimidating for the Japanese and so the Brazilian tend to stay within their group. As soon as we arrived in Mister Chicken, we felt as we were in South America. Everybody talking in Portugese, not a single sign in Japanese and everything in Portugese. In the front and the back, 4-5 strong guys lotering and chatting. This is very intimidating for Japanese and apparently, they never had a Japanese customer that was not accompanied by a foreigner. So back to the chicken. It was so delicious! We ordered a full chicken with fries and salad. I had a drink called Inka Cola which had nothing to do with CokaCola and was yellow. The chicken was roasted and spicy. At around 1am, I dropped Marwin and Paul at Marwin's apartment and I drove back to Tsu. Today I woke up at 12:00! I woke up because I have new side neighbours moving in. Being in Japan, my walls are made of paper and not sound proof at all! I will see how it develops and I think the neighbour is a new employee for our company so there should be no problems.
Posted at 11:46 PM | Comments (0)
Wednesday November 15, 2006
The kerosene heater is out!
Mood: 
Relax
This is it. I had to fill my heater and start it. Now I smell like oil fumes. The temperature drops as low as 13 during the night! It's better than Miyakonojo where it drops to 11. I can't wait to get my fiber optic internet and get some decent speed. I like doing my job and I really enjoy the office environment. I am running a big staff meeting on the 18th and I am spending this week to prepare it.
I received a kit of kanji flashcards. Kanji are the chinese characters that are in the Japanese writing. I know about 400 of them but I have to know 2500. Now that I work in an office, it becomes more and more important for me to be able to read the documents presented to me. My conversational skills have improved and I can hold a casual conversation with the office staff.
I went to purchase a travel insurance last week and it was kinda weird to get travel insurance to go to Canada. I will even need to get an international drivers license to drive in Canada because I only hold a Japanese license.
Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments (0)
Wednesday November 8, 2006
Saturday night in Kyoto
Mood: 
Tired
So it goes like this. It's 4pm and I am calling one teacher to see what he is doing tonight. He says "We are going to Kyoto and we want you to come". Kyoto is 100km away and we have to go by car. We left at 10pm and came back at around 7am! What a night, we were to a club and danced all night. Almost all my area came and it was really good. I am tired of going to Nagoya all the time for work but I think I will stay in Mie for the rest of November.
The photo gallery has been updated with pictures for up to October.
Posted at 11:16 PM | Comments (0)
Wednesday October 25, 2006
Broken internet
Mood: 
Sad
I received internet yesterday but the connection works intermittently. I often get cut and I have no speed. Email only and a little bit of surfing I guess. I am getting fiber optic soon I hope...
Posted at 08:25 PM | Comments (0)
Friday October 20, 2006
Soon internet
Mood: Excited
I should get my internet Monday the 23rd. I am very excited about finally getting it. My transition to Mie went smoothly and there was no problems catching the ferry and driving home from Osaka; thanks to my GPS system... I like the office and my co-workers are very pleasant. The job description fits me very well. I am very new to Mie and sometimes I get frustrated by things that I am not able to accomplish easily that were easy in Miyazaki. I knew a lot of places in Miyazaki and I am still a newbie here. Because I work 9 hours a day, I do not have time to discover the city. I am very glad to have my car though. Last Saturday, I went to a club with some other native teachers and I really enjoyed the night.
Posted at 10:10 PM | Comments (0)
Thursday September 21, 2006
Damn internet
Mood: Sad
This sucks so much. The fiber internet will not be available at my new apartment. Furthermore, the DSL won't be over 3mbits and I am at a distance of 3500m from the central office. This is terrible and should my internet connectivity be limited or otherwise not suitable, I will request a new apartment. I am stuck with YahooBB which was shitty when I had it in Miyakonojo and my distance was only 1800m. Now all my downloads will take forever, I expect numerous cuts and just shitty service. I was told that we are now 5 people in the area who requested the fiber internet and it takes 10 people to get it done. But I can imagine the great delays. The notification period to change apartment is one month so I really see myself moving around Christmas if my internet solution did not improve. For me, in Japan, Internet means:
- Phone
- Tv
- Games
- Newspaper
- Books
- Radio
- Music
So I don't think I am bitching for nothing.
Posted at 12:54 PM | Comments (0)
Wednesday September 20, 2006
The Summer is over
Mood: Happy
The Summer is not officially over. It's midnight and the outside temperature is 23 celcius. Today the max temperature was 29 celcius. Not even over 30! I don't need the air conditioner when I drive and the indoor temperature is now currently 27 so I don't need it inside neither. Here are some stats regarding the temperature in Miyakonojo from my wireless digital thermometer.
Outside:
Max 42.9
Min 4.2
Inside:
Max: 34.7
Min: 11.9 (No central heating nor insulation)
I am moving to Mie which is cooler in the Summer (around 34), less humid and hotter during the Winter (barely).
Posted at 12:04 AM | Comments (0)
Sunday September 17, 2006
ShanShan typhoon
Mood: Sad
What a bummer. I miss my last training on Oita. I was really looking forward to this day so that I can see my collegues one last time before I leave. A nice dinner was planned. Because of the typhoon, all trains are stopped.
Posted at 01:21 PM | Comments (0)