20 - Dungeoneer

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!