Just about seven months

It's been just about seven months in Japan. Perhaps it's time to take a little look at those seven months, and think about the next few. I have to say that most of my time in Japan has been good to me. I do get a kick out of being out of my element and trying to understand things I had previously never even known about. There's also of course the standard stranger in a strange land frustration that there are many new things that are not to be understood, merely accepted. People sometimes accuse me of keeping what I'm thinking too far away from what I'm saying, but let me tell you, I don't know what any of my coworkers, or dare I say, friends, are thinking much of the time. Some days I think I'm on another planet. How come, no matter how hard I try, I just can't eat as cleanly, neatly, and gracefully as all the other people in the office? Why do kids spend all damn day, night, weekend, and holiday at their shoddily constructed, ugly, unheated, understaffed, schools? How come people in this country can have Louis Vuitton wallets falling out of their backpocket, stuffed and overflowing with cash, totally unfazed by the possibility of someone just grabbing it. How does every last one of their trains run exactly on time, all the time? How do they fit so many people in such small places and not get at each others throats? How do they watch those ridiculous variety shows on TV, about 70% of which seem to revolve around stupid food-themed games. How do they learn a language that requires a comprehension of about 2,000 complicated characters, with multiple readings and abstract definitions?
But really most of the time, I do feel like we are all essentially all the same human beings. The Japanese are also illogical yet reasonable, and somehow both efficient and totally unproductive. And they've got problems, just like everyone else. Though maybe Japanese people are cuter and weirder on the whole. I'm not sure how to substantiate that, but just take my word...
But what am I doing here? Maybe a good question to ask every now and then. My job is to "assist" in teaching English to bratty Japanese adolescents who mostly only know and care about English as it regards to hollywood movies and the cute nonsensical phrases littered all over this country. Like most people in my position, the specifics of my job are somewhat tertiary to my actual purpose of being here, though I did come hoping to get some real teaching experience under my belt. I am getting some of that teaching experience, but more than that, I'm simply learning how to deal with life. My job may essentially be easy and not demand an overwhelming a lot of responsibility, but I do get thrown into some ridiculous situations. Sure I get annoyed/confused when a teacher storms out of the classroom because a student teased her, or when a grown man and certified teacher tells me to please change my schedule because he's afraid of teaching alone, or being essentially unable to communicate in English with English teachers. But these aren't issues specific to only a few individuals, or to this one country. That's life, whatever that means.
As for what's next... well that still depends I suppose. I told my supervisor I would sign on for another year on the condition that I get enough time to go home this summer for 4 or 5 weeks (instead of just sitting at my desk and looking pretty while there's no class). In a recent talk, he approved this, but in a somewhat vague manner that I am still hashing out. I am still searching for my next step though...
In the mean time though, I do enjoy the scenery. I went to a pretty onsen and ryokan with Amber last weekend (not this past one, the one before that) in the north of my prefecture. We had planned to go with an Aussie friend of hers, but through some mysterious Australian miscommunication (someone didn't reckon what the other was reckoning) it ended up being just me and Ambs. I know, life is tough.

a cute little wooden bridge over a cute little stream running around the inn
Amber being Japanesey? Or maybe just someone uncomfortable in the cold...
What a flattering picture!
Here we are at a German cafe near Gokan station, a really tiny train station in the middle of nowhere in the north of a slightly out of the way prefecture. "German cafe?" you say...
We just ducked into this place for a coffee before our train came, but we both were blown away by perhaps the strangest eating/drinking establishment we've ever seen. The was place was decorated from wall to wall with all kinds of various German themed decorum, all dated to maybe World War I era and before. Most of the time we were there music box music twinkled in the background, and the host, dressed and moustached to fit the early 20th century German atmosphere, prepared us amazing coffee after asking us if we preferred sweet or not sweet. He also had heaps of drawings on his menus, mostly dated from the early to mid 1980s, that he drew himself and depict (sort of) stereotypical looking German people enjoying various German food. My favorite was of the World War II plane (though a Japanese plane for some reason) crashed in the background, while in the foreground WWI German soldiers happily enjoyed some curry in the trenches. The art vaguely reminded me of famous "outsider artist" Henry Darger. Anyway, both artists in this case, I firmly believe, are too crazy to even describe appropriately...

Sorry for getting hung up on that place, but it really did my head in. Back to stupid details of my life though: I didn't really do much last weekend, just hung out with Ambs and the crew of expats floating around Takasaki. I dragged Amber to not one but two movies this weekend, at the independent theater in town. We saw Little Miss Sunshine and The Devil and Daniel Johnston. Little Miss Sunshine was cute and funny and enjoyable, and the Devil and Daniel Johnston totally did my head in. Daniel Johnston a singer/songrwriter I really like, and has a reputation for being crazy (less in the "look I'm a crazy artist way" and more in the sad and truly unbalanced way). I guess I didn't know quite how crazy he was though. The last scene as he danced around in his room in his parents house (he's in his 40s, and very overweight), with drool catching on his shirt and an indescribable look on his face... made me wonder what fans like me get/got out of his music. Perhaps we should be ashamed of fueling a dangerous path for such an ill man? Regardless, whatever was (or wasn't) in his mind allowed him to create music that exposed his soul more than perhaps would otherwise be possible in a 2-3 minute "pop" song. And that's something. The movie itself was a little melodramatic and had too many talking heads, but might still be worth seeing for those who have listend to Johnston's music.
I apologize for the long post, but you are welcome to read and not read as much as you like. Not to mention send emails and post comments!
My love to all.
Aaron