too late

This post is far too little, too late. This blog has been about my time in Japan. That time, this is a little strange for me to say, is over. At the end of July I finished my job, said goodbye to Japan, and rushed onto a plane to New York. The end was indeed a rush; I left Japan the day after my contract finished. I technically should have worked the last 2 days before my departure, but thankfully my school listened to my pleas for time off to get ready, though I had no vacation days left.
It was a strange feeling being at the airport... for the last time? I'm inclined to say no, it won't be my last time, but it certainly was the end of an era for me. I arrived plenty early because I had one last piece of business: to end and finish off my cell phone contract. Unfortunately this business led to my last Japanese language interaction IN Japan (for now at least), which was an argument with the clerks at the company booth in the airport. They explained to me that the disconnection fee was 20 dollars, reasonable, that my plan costs 40, which i know, and that my additional fees come to just under 200 dollars. I have never paid more than 40 dollars over my plan, and usually it's more like 10. I had no idea why my last bill would be for so much, so I told them there must be a mistake or something. Anyway after lots of me complaining and them not giving in I just concluded by saying that I don't have enough money to pay ( not true). So I ended up giving them 100 dollars (about what i expected to pay originally) and the person behind the counter would have to see about the remaining.

This is still the last conversation I had in Japanese. Sigh...

But after this I still had enough time to both be annoyed and think about more substantial matters. Like the last two years of my life, which, oddly enough, I spent living in Japan.

What was I doing there? Teaching English? Well yes, sort of. Really I was more of an English "presence," providing insights on the language not from the perspective of a teacher, but as a normal (though well educated I'd like to say) guy who happens to speak English as a native language. Sometimes I had a lot of responsibility. Sometimes I taught a class completely by myself, which I was legally not allowed to do. But honestly, more often than not, I didn't really have all that much responsibility. There were even weeks when I had absolutely nothing to do.

Is that what I was doing in Japan?

Getting some real experience teaching was one of the factors behind my decision to go all the way to Japan. But I could've pursued teaching at home. I could've even taught English in a number of other countries. But I chose Japan. The reasons aren't so crazy, really. Like a lot of other college bound middle class jewish kids from the burbs, I found other cultures that seem so distant from my own, interesting. Not to mention I grew up in the 80s and 90s. That means Nintendo, that means Mario, that means Vultron. And karate. Not to mention samurai and ninja, which though not specific to my generation, I thought (think) are totally awesome.

As I grew out of mario and vultron (sort of) I found Akira Kurosawa and Hiyaou Miyazaki. And like most people, their movies blew me away. Kurosawa manages to take everything that is cool and mysterious about samurai and put into an incredible movie that, even at 3 hours and without color manages to keep my 19 year old American mind totally focused.

But really I'm probably more of a Miyazaki guy. That would be redundant to say in Japan, since pretty much every movie he's made for the last 10-15 years has ended up being the highest grossing movie in Japan, breaking the record previously held by his last movie. In my opinion, movies don't really get more beautiful that Castle in the Sky, My Neighbor Totoro, and Spirited Away. The animation in all three is unbelievably good, but that's only part of it. Castle in the Sky has some long shots of the floating castle, once civilized, but now only inhabited by a few giant robots who have been maintaining the flora for countless years. Sure it's got flying robot/airship action scenes like in plenty of other anime movies, but they're not the focus of the movie. At least in my mind, that movie is about people who thought themselves above the world they lived in, and what happened to them.
And can't forget Totoro. Sure he's cute and marketable, but again the backgrounds are astounding. And even though it's clearly a kids movie, Miyazaki wasn't afraid to put long shots of a snail climbing a plant stem, or of the kids eating vegetables in a garden, or other scenes that seem inconsistent with the animation that comes from the same country as pokemon.

So I took some Japanese classes in college, liked it, found out about the JET Program(me), applied, got in, went to Japan. I'm still not exactly sure what I was looking for, but I liked Japanese stuff, wanted to try teaching, and needed a job/money. And 2 years later I have experienced Japanese things, tried teaching, and have some money (though no job!). I was hoping to become better at Japanese than I actually did, but I have only myself to blame. I had no real incentive to become fluent in Japanese other than a romantic idea in my head of me blabbering on in a crazy asian language. I do still regret that I lived in a country for two years and never really learned it's language...

I'm not in Japan anymore, but here's some last crazy images.

Here's a pep rally type event. That's the principal shouting.
Me and the special kids

A few friends at a goodbye dinner.
A last shabu shabu (think japanese fondu) dinner with a bunch of ALTs (and maybe some Japanese people, too)

Here's some adorable kids. Listen closely and you can briefly hear me speak silly japanese.

Here's Amber and I at a beach near Tokyo. Not the best beach I've ever been to, but lots of cute girls in bikinis (especially Amber!)
Me and Amber singing karaoke
Little kids brushing their teeth
Some kids practicing Kendo. I actually went to Kendo practice a few times, thinking it would be cool to whack some kids with a big bamboo stick. But, like a lot of clubs, there was little to no supervision or actual practice. Some of the kids taught me the few strokes they've learned, and then there was just a lot of awkward hanging around. I then decided they didn't really need me to awkwardly hang around.
My triumphant return to PA.
My dressing up for Hume and Ali's weding.
Two good friends from high school... getting married... weird.
The real deal.

I've got plenty more pictures and videos, but this isn't the place to put all of them. If I do put them all on the web, I will post the link on this site. However, this will be my last regular post on this site. My 2006-2008 Japan adventure has ended. I did some teaching. I learned some Japanese. I visited lots of great places in Japan, China, and Thailand. I met lots of cool, interesting people. I made some money. Anything else?

Oh yah.

I met my Amber. I can't even describe what a big part of my life she's been these past 1-2 years. But maybe this will give you a clue: I just moved to Australia for her. And it's no short move. In fact, it was a 5 and half hour flight to LA, a 13-14 hour flight to New Zealand, and then a 4 hour flight to melbourne. Good thing I've perfected the Benadryl and wine with dinner sleepy diet for these long flights. Having a nintendo DS and book helps too.

So here I am in Australia. I've been debating whether or not to keep a blog for Australia, too. I've decided I will. I'm only now starting to vaguely settle in here, so don't expect much yet, but I will get it going. Any suggestions for a title? Blogspot has treated me fine but I'm thinking there must be a site with easier picture and video posting. I may even use facebook since everyone and their mother is on it now (literally).

I'm not sure who reads this (besides ma and pa, hi ma and pa!) but thank you for taking the time and listening to me talk about my day for pages and pages. Looking back some of the pictures are interesting, but little of the text is. I'll try to keep my monologues shorter and wittier in the future, but no promises I won't occasionally rant on and on.

I left Japan in July. I watched my friend from high school get married in August. Visited lots of friends and family furiously for a month. And then I moved to Australia. 2 weeks later I finished my blog about living in Japan. 遅くなってすみませんでした．

ありがとうございました。

さよなら

Aaron