The
term’s back into full swing, and it’s all go in school. The
biggest news this, er… This time, I guess. I can’t say ‘this
week’ because these blogs aren’t nearly that regular, and I can’t
say ‘this month’ because that’d be admitting my laziness in
posting. Well, it’s not really laziness. Stuff like this just skips
my mind, and when I get off work more typing is low on the to-do
list. But not only is it good to get the news out about the sort of
stuff I do in my day-to-day, it’s meant to be healthy for the old
mind as well.
Oh,
hey, on that subject. We were asked to fill in a mental health
report, like, mid-last year, and the results were out a few weeks
ago. Turns out I’m not doing too bad. I get enough exercise to stay
healthy, I’m eating alright… But apparently I’m ‘dangerously
depressed’… Yeah, me and half the ALT community, it seems. I
mean, I don’t feel depressed. I fell pretty alright with
stuff, actually. A part of me wonders if I was expected to lie on
that report. That’s quite stereotypical of Japan, eh, lying to make
your company, and your problems with that company, seem
insignificant. Maybe the test wasn’t designed for the cold, hard,
brutal truth of ‘sometimes it feels like I don’t have enough time
to finish things’.
Or
maybe I’m just reading too much into a silly test. It’s not like
Japanese medical reports have a lot of respect among us here in the
‘Yama. Half of us have this thing called ‘metabolic syndrome’,
which Wikipedia tells me is called something like Syndrome X in the
UK. Doesn’t that just scream… Ah, no, hold on. I’ll explain
later, but what I was about to say isn’t allowed this month.
Actually, I’ve probably already broken that rule a few times
already. But yeah, it’s a Japanese test designed for a Japanese
lifestyle and perspective. It’s fairly common knowledge that stuff
like that isn’t such a big deal.
So
yeah, it’s Lent, and I’ve given up sarcasm. And as people back
home might attest, this is gonna be a rough forty days. But I decided
that, as hilarious as irony masterminds like Chandler Bing or Xander
Harris are, it’s indicative of a negative perspective. And if I
start paying more attention to the things I say, maybe it’ll help
me spot things that do actually bother people. And maybe also help me
make more understandable lessons for class. So if you see me in the
next few weeks, and I utter some witty riposte of irony, you have my
permission to dance to the tune of my defeat.
As
I was saying at the beginning, though, the biggest event of the last
lengthy stretch of time has been entrance examination season. Today I
saw off a good number of my third year kids as they went to take
tests for international programs around the city. Over the last few
weeks we’ve been discussing key interview techniques to boost
confidence, the building of opinions on important social issues like
the population thing and nuclear power, and also why it’s a little
more friendly and natural to refer to your dog as a ‘he’ rather
than an ‘it’. I have a lot of confidence in… some of them. I
shan’t lie, there’s a couple of kids where I don’t even know
why they’re trying for it. They’re good kids, but not good at
English. Not even by a long shot. And as one kid in the city is most
certainly gonna be turned down a place, and may have to fend for
themselves in part time jobs until the exams reopen next year, I do
fear for them. But really, and this is the line of thinking my OTE
has been using when the poor kid’s not in earshot, they really
should have thought a lot harder about what they’re capable of in
terms of English. There’s no shame in aiming high, but regrettably
there’s a lot of shame in failing in this country. And it would
break my heart if it came out the only reason they chose that one
particular school is because it’s apparently ‘easy to get into’.
That’d mean their own laziness was what tripped them up. But yeah,
I’ll pray for them anyway. Who knows?
Recently
we attended the first Kobe English Festival. It’s like Summer
School’s speech contest; actually that’s exactly what it is. The
contest was taken out of Summer School and put here at the beginning
of the year. And this year’s theme was ‘Kobe: My City’. I have
to say, every time there’s a speech contest I feel a bit of dread.
And yes, this year there was one poor school in particular whose kids
did not want to be there. I felt real pain watching them glum their
way through their scripts. But the rest of the time, I am absolutely
blown away by what these kids are capable of. EngFes was no
exception. We had some real knockout performances, and I pitied the
judges their task of deciding a winner. I have to say, though, that I
doubt any of my kids could do something like that. They’d be so
shy, and understandably so, that it’d be like getting water out of
a rock. Nevermind, maybe I’ll be surprised yet. Tonight we’re
having a party to celebrate the event’s many successes. Sounds like
fun, and I’ve heard I will have my perceptions of the Board of
Education staff flipped overnight. I’m talking about alcohol.
Valentine’s
Day today. Not really a big deal. Steph’s baking me something,
though, and that’s quite exciting. I do like the Japanese
Valentine’s tradition. Girls make the first move, and boys have a
whole month to reciprocate. Sweet deal, eh? I hear in Korea, though,
that guys do have to reciprocate, under punishment of some
kind of trick played on them the month after. Korea, you so crazy.
So I’ll be racking my brain looking for a decent gift for Steph. I
don’t think I can top my first one: a psychopath’s hockey mask
with a bloody ‘Happy White Day’ written on it. Genius. But this
year games, my one fallback, are also out, on account of Steph having
so many she still needs to start. It’s true for me too, mind: Steam
Christmas was a goldmine. So I’ll be thinking, and you men out
there be thinking too!
And
on the topic of games (you all knew it was coming), my mate Donal has
ruined my life. I’m an addict, and the first step to healing is
admitting it. Ever heard of Puzzle and Dragons? It was game of the
year in last year’s big gaming thing in Tokyo, I can’t remember
the name right now. Steph says it’s like Pokemon crossed with
Bejewelled. But yeah, it is huge here, the most played iOS app
for two years running, and it’s only getting bigger. ‘cos now I’m
in on it. You line up the coloured gems to attack the monsters you
find in these dungeons. Then you can capture those monsters, boost
them up and evolve them to fight in bigger dungeons. It’s awesome,
and it’s free. Simple, yet deep. And some of the dragons are so
awesome-looking it’s all I can do to stop myself dancing on the
train some days.
Okay,
there, it’s out. Now we can go back to more cultural things. Like
books. I’m reading the next Wheel of Time book, and it’s still
good. I hear it loses steam after some time, but it’s holding out
so far. Though if the Amyrlin uses one more fishing metaphor I’ll
want to gut her like a silverfin. And when did everyone turn into
fighting mega-masters? I thought these were lowly farm boys, not
legendary superheroes! I guess that’s kinda the point, though,
isn’t it. But yeah, it’s good stuff. Also read a series of short
SF stories that I got at the airport, something called Wool. It’s
awesomely well-written, though I’m not sure how much I like it
towards the end. But each story works well on its own as well as part
of the overall narrative, and it’s so wonderfully sinister in
places. Didn’t take long to get through it. Also there’s
Ex-heroes, which Amazon assured me was a graphic novel I could read
on my Kindle. Not the first, nor the last time, that Amazon has
disappointed me. But Ex-heroes was good. It’s an attempt at
crossing superheroes into a zombie universe, and it works pretty
well. A review of it I read said it’s right up the street of anyone
who likes stuff directed by Joss Whedon, which I can attest to.
And
on that note, Buffy. I’m finally watching it. And what’s more,
I’m enjoying it. To say it’s well-written is a gross
understatement, and with a few blips every now and then I’m loving
the characters. I’ll bet watching a couple of episodes every day
helps make it feel a lot more lively than maybe it is, but I am
enjoying it. Plus, the British guys in it are only sometimes evil and
always awesome. The only other time I’d taken a stroll around the
sizable perimeter of the Buffyverse, as I hear it’s called, is that
time someone used the Buffy RPG rules to make a Heroes one-off game I
played in. It was a fun system, and the story was great, and the
other day I looked at the rules again in the hopes of maybe using
them in my own campaign. I mean, maybe I could do something
like that here in the ‘Yama. Maybe one of the other games. I wonder
if SLA would be popular… I’d need to test the water first;
there’s a lot of boardgamers here and the line between that and
this is thin, but it can look pretty daunting to someone who’s
never tried before. Plus, it’s still very early days for my GMing
experience. I mean, the Maid RPG extravaganza on the ferry to
Hokkaido seems so long ago. But yeah, maybe when the new lot arrive
in the Summer I’ll get something rolling. Some dice. Some dice
rolling. Yeah, you got it. I need to buy dice…
That’s
all from me. Thanks for reading!
