Changes in the work situation

Hey there,

How are you all?  I hear the summer rains have hit and you are all now living in the tropics! 

Over here the weather has warmed up - and for once I'm not happy about it!!  Kate turned out to be the weather fairy, with good weather showing up everytime she makes plans (bar yesterday, although it was an exceptionally warm 4 degrees!).  Unfortunately, this means no snow in Jinseki while Kate is here.  Tonight is her last night with us, so unless it cools down in a hurry today, she won't see white flakes for Christmas.  As I'm sitting here in only longjohns and a cotton sweatshirt (my improvised PJs), I'm not picking that we will see snow anytime soon...

This week Kate has hung out with me in Jinseki, doing local things.  In fact, we realised that the whole time she has stayed with us, we haven't cooked her dinner once!  The first night we took her out for ramen, then once we brought her back here after her two weeks of work, we have been fed Monday night by Luc (the other JET/ALT in the area), Tuesday night by the Yamamoto's and the rest of the English group Jeff helps out at and tonight Nishikawa-san will be feeding us.  We were supposed to have our pretend Christmas tonight; Kate and I were going to try to make chicken and potatoes without an oven.  However, when Nishikawa-san heard she wouldn't get a chance to feed us, she looked so pained that Kate agreed to pass up her night in Kyoto to stay in Jinseki and have another mean feed (honestly, Kate and I have eaten so much I don't fit my jeans!  Which is an issue when we go on holiday to Taiwan a couple of days after Kate leaves!  Maybe it's a stale bread and water diet between Kate leaving and us going to Taiwan, so I can do my pants up on the plane, lol).

Anyway, when Jeff heard, he was a bit concerned about Kate sacrificing her night in Kyoto for one dinner, so he had the great idea of Christmas breakfast instead of lunch/dinner.  Our attempt at Christmas dinner was always destined to fail, so when Jeff suggested pancakes with ice cream as a Christmas brekkie, we immediately saw the excellence in his plan (any plan that involves ice cream for breakfast has got to be good!!).  So tomorrow morning Jeff will make pancakes, Kate will make a mushroom, sweetcorn and chicken thing to go on pancakes with cheese, and I will...  serve the ice cream I bought at the supermarket!  Life's hard!!  We will then open some of the presents from home that Kate brought in her pack (her 20kg pack had 9kg of her clothes, then 11kg of stuff for us!!!), before taking Kate down to Fukuyama for her shinkansen (bullet train).

For actual Christmas day, Jeff and I are thinking of going traditional Japanese style - eating at a restaurant, then going to see the 'illumination' display at Shobara park.  Japanese illuminations are like when people at home put a lit-up santa in their garden, only they have huge multicoloured creations.  In Hiroshima they had a massive illumination display and we took ages walking up and down the street while Kate took photos of every single one.  I can't decide which was my favourite - I'm torn between the griffin and the pirate ship!  Keep an eye on Kate's facebook in the next month or two for the multitude of pictures! 

As referenced in the title, my work situation looks to be changing.  My boss contacted me yesterday to say that their contract to teach one of the factories has ended and they have a fair few students quitting, so he can't keep me working the same hours I do currently.  What he has offered instead is that I work one week a month (rather than four days a week), without paying rent or utilities.  I can't see how the logistics work, as it doesn't seem practical, so I think he is basically just making up work for me to keep me around, so he still has a trained person on hand when any other staff leave (because both the other guys are nearing the end of their visas).  In all honesty, I was getting sick of the commute and paying all the tolls anyway, so was starting to think about other options (translation: I had spent the last three weeks talking about quitting).  So this is timely news.  I will have an opportunity to see what else I can do with my time and whether it is feasible to be self-employed around here.  When I first came I really struggled with culture shock and my job really helped, but now I feel settled enough that I think I can make a routine with practising my Japanese, teaching English and trying to write.  So although traditionally 'we are cutting your hours from 16 days a month to 5 days a month' is bad news, in this case I'm pretty happy about it. 

I hope you are all well and that noone else has been told work is cutting their hours to one week a month!!  As I may not write again in 2010, have a great Christmas - eat lots of potato and cake for me! - and make the most of the rest of the year.  Enjoy the break - you deserve it!!

Sloooowwwww typing... hands coooollllddd

Hey everyone,

Sorry I've been totally slack about updating here.  Things have been busy with Kate visiting - we took her out to Karashiki (no, I don't know how to spell it!) in the weekend and we will go to Hiroshima this weekend.  This means I've only been popping home once a week, which also means only getting on the internet once a week.  By which time I have such a backlog of emails and bits and bobs to organise (eg. booking hotels - anything to avoid trying to speak on the phone to the Japanese!), that I haven't had time for this.  I guess I should follow that by warning you that when Kate leaves, we have a few days of downtime, then we leave for ten days in Taiwan.  Should be total awesomeness, but it means I will continue to be slack about updating my blog. 

Ok, so what have I been up to?  We have been trying to show Kate around as much as possible.  In the morning before work we have been doing things like catching the ferry to Onomichi and looking around (including getting free omiyagi because the lady was flattered Kate wanted to take pics of her store!  Totally the best thing about living in an area that doesn't get Western tourists - the Japanese are so damn happy to interact with you!  Hence the 'gaijin discount'.  Mean :D ), going for wanders to check out the houses, having dinner with my factory students (super lovely bunch, even if they couldn't understand a word Kate was saying!  In her defence, she was sitting next to the one with the best English, so was tailoring her conversation to that.  However, the others were listening and shooting me confused looks!) and on Friday, going to an onsen!  I'm really excited about that one because I haven't been yet and can't go on my own when I don't know the protocol.  So Kate and I are going to hang out with my workmate, Rie, naked in a hot pool.  Sounds so gooooood....

Hmm... if you're sitting there in your tshirt in your warm office/bedroom thinking it just sounds weird, please understand that it's snowing outside and the cold is affecting my fingers enough that I'm avoiding texting cos it's too damn slow without proper circulation!  I should get out my gloves, but I'm about to make lunch and, in my experience, cooking and fluffy gloves are not a good combination.  So anything hot sounds awesome right now.  In fact, walking on hot coals or being burnt at the stake sound increasingly attractive. 

Having talked about onsen, I'm very tempted to run a super hot bath and soak, but I still need to pay for my car, fill the kerosene canister and go to the supermarket before Jeff gets back.  Guess a hot shower will have to do.  I love my Wednesdays - they are my Get Stuff Done day, but they are also always very busy, especially when I haven't been home in the weekend and therefore my entire wardrobe needs washing.  This time, I have all my clothes and all Kate's clothes to wash.  She was debating what to send home with me and said she would keep a certain merino singlet, as she could just wear it three days in a row.  I insisted that no, I had a perfectly good washing machine and was NOT ok with her just wearing the same clothes for three days, just for the hell of it!  I think her week of South Island hiking must have affected her more than she realises - it's all good and well to be a smelly tramper, but noone likes a smelly teacher! 

This weekend we will be going to Hiroshima to show Kate around and hit up the bomb museums.  Jeff and I have only briefly walked through the peace park, so I'm looking forward to having some time to show Hiroshima the respect it deserves. 

The following week, on Tuesday, we have dinner with the English Conversation group Jeff helps out with.  They try so hard to practice their English without any native speaker to aid them, so I'm so happy Jeff goes when he can make it.  This time Kate and I will go along too, so they declared they would have a party.  I'm looking forward to introducing Kate to the really cute old bloke with massive glasses and sticky-out teeth.  He always brings us the most amazing fruit, usually from his farm, and I just want to take him home and keep him as a pet. 

The next day, Wednesday, we will have a pretend Christmas, with Kate as the family representative.  We will have potato and chicken, although we still haven't figured out how to cook chicken without an oven...  Anyway, we will have wine (including some NZ wine Kate brought us... yum yum!!), sake, little Christmas cakes and chestnuts.  Also, I daresay we will have mame-mochi - mochi (pounded rice) with red bean paste inside.  Since Kate tried it she has become hooked, eating it every day, so it is a safe bet that we will also eat some at Christmas! 

Yes, Japanese food has been a hit with Kate.  I've got her into cold soba noodles (so more-ish!), she eats mochi like it's her lifeblood, okinomiyaki went down a treat, she thoroughly approves of the tempura and ate the prawn tail like a good Japanese, enjoyed the eel at Sushimaru (conveyor belt sushi) and managed to spend 4000 yen ($60) on bento boxes in one go (Japanese lunch boxes, an average cost of 300 yen each).  So to all Kate's loved ones, if Kate doesn't come home, I'm sorry you have lost her to the Japanese food!  Due to NZ not allowing her to bring red beans into the country, she may yet choose to stay here eating mochi and drinking green tea lattes...

Hope you are all loving the sunshine.  Keep your fingers crossed we get some decent snow so we get a white Christmas :D

Charly

And you can all breath again...

Just a quick one to say my JET application has successfully reached NZ and been accepted.  I had a brief moment of panic when they emailled me to say they had received my application, but that I needed to send my JP signed copy of my degree to conclude my application.  My degree is packed away SOMEWHERE in my room in NZ, God know where, and as a compromise I ordered (and paid for!) a letter of completion from uni, hoping it would be enough.  So the idea of then either having Mum have to go through EVERY box and bag in my room looking for it, or of having my application fail when I couldn't procure it, was very depressing.  Luckily he emailled back saying that was ok and that I can bring any additional paperwork to my interview, assuming I get one.  Phew, close call!!