Livin la vida loco

It's been a few, humid days since my last post. On Monday afternoon I was given a free paper fan outside of my local train station. The best thing about the fan, apart from it's fantastic cooling qualities, is that it advertises a new Tipness that will be opening in Mukonosou in October. That's the same chain of fitness centers that Yukiko and I belong to. So starting in October we'll have to think of new excuses not to work out. "It's too far," will be pretty pathetic if it's only a 10 min bike ride away.
Yesterday was my usual day off and Yukiko took the day off as well. We had a few of her friends, Yano and Yoko, over for a lunch party. Yoko brought her 1 year old daughter Fuka and she is such a cutie. She was pretty quiet and relaxed although she did attempt to remove every book from our bookshelf... a few times. What a bookworm!


In the evening Yukiko and I relaxed under our air conditioner and watched an old video I bought for her from a 'used video store'. I put that in parenthesis because in Japan used video stores are really just porn shops. They generally have a few shelves of old, regular Hollywood movies stacked outside for a few hundred yen to give the shop a facade of legitimacy but inside there is just wall to wall porn. Now I'm sure that everyone is thinking how cool it is that I'm writing about watching porn on my blog. Sorry to disappoint you but I'm probably the only person in Japan who actually looks through those shelves of cheap videos outside the video shops. Besides, who needs to buy pornography when the Internet is chock-a-block full of it. Not to mention that I probbbbbbbbbbbbbbably wouldn't write about it here. Anyways, I bought the movie 'Quick Change' for Yukiko because it stars Bill Murray. Yukiko has become a big fan of his since watching 'Lost in Translation' and 'Kingpin'.

Thought for the day: Isn't it a little bit strange that this blog's automatic spellchecker doesn't recognize the word 'blog'?

Playing with pictures

I'm just playing around with putting pictures on my blog. I had to start a web page with Yahoo to do it so I'm probably getting in over my head for a little while. Here's a picture of my niece Yuka. She's Yukiko's sister Keiko's baby girl.

Baby Yuka


Here's a picture of my little nephew John. He's my brother Rob's baby boy.
Baby John

Tough day at the office

Friday is always my most challenging teaching day. Lots of annoying kids on Fridays. One boy in particular has made it his mission in life to piss me off. No matter what I ask him he simply refuses to do it. Not just that, he manages to do it in the most disruptive and rude way possible. The urge to utilize my martial arts training (or just a good smack to the head) is strong. But it's so much easier to just flunk him or threaten to do so. In my school if a student fails just one class he has to repeat the entire year so the sword of Damacles is dangling over his head. Oh well, only 1 more week to go and then I have 2 months of paid vacation.

Book Review: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Certainly the darkest, most mature of the series so far. It's nice to see Harry and co growing up, and becoming more adept at using magic. This book really seems to focus on Harry Potter while Hogwarts and the other students take a bit of a back seat. It's also interesting to see how all the books' plots so far have dealt with things from Harry's past. I wonder if one day Malfoy will pose a major threat to Harry, as he is obviously his personal nemesis. The ending of the book was very good and sets up future storylines.

The Thursday Files

Not a very exciting day. After work Yukiko and I went to Tipness to work out but it was closed. Seems they're doing renovations until July 1st. Good thing we didn't buy monthly passes. So we just ate some spaghetti at Capricciosa and headed home. Watched a few videos and will probably go to bed soon.
I saw some pictures of my new little nephew John, not to be confused with my tall father John. Baby John is a real cutie. Maybe I'll get one of my own someday...

Something wicked this way came...

It's been quite a few days since I last posted so I'll recap the last few days. On Monday a typhoon hit the Kansai area so it was extremely windy & rainy all day. I didn't mind whatsoever though because I was awoken at about 6:30 AM by a teacher phoning me to say that school was cancelled for the day. This was great for me because I was pretty tired from all the weddings I performed on the weekend.
Later in the afternoon Yukiko phoned me from work and asked me to bring our videocamera to her office. The CEO of her company was in town and couldn't get to Tokyo (the Shinkansen, bullet-train, was shut down because of the typhoon) so he wanted to film the presentation he was giving at the Osaka office. Being a real trooper, I packed the camera into a waterproof bag and challenged the mighty maelstrom at it's devastating peak. It was often do or die, grasping for footholds amidst the rubble, dodging the hailstorm of debris... OK, so I'm stretching things slightly. But it was a little tricky keeping my umbrella up as I rode my bike to the station.
After filming the meeting I joined Yukiko and some of her work colleagues/friends for dinner. We were planning to go to a Thai restaurant but it is closed on Mondays so we ended up at a nearby Japanese izakaya (pub). The food was good and I always enjoy chances to speak only Japanese. You'd be surprised, but even though I live in Japan I spend most of my time speaking English. At school I use English to speak to the students and the other English teachers. Most of my friends are foreigners so we usually speak English to each other. Yukiko & I speak a mix of Japanese and English. Speaking to other young Japanese people is always a good way to gauge my current ability. I was always aware of what they were talking about, but sometimes the details are hard to catch. Cultural knowledge is also difficult. When they talked about Japanese dramas, celebrity gossip, old catchphrases, I was pretty lost. You can't really learn these things without watching/experiencing them yourself. I've seen some of my European friends get really confused when my American friends and I start talking about things that happened in the Simpsons.
Tuesday was my day off from school (actually the 5th in a row if you've been keeping track) so I went to visit my friend Dan. We watched a really cheesy Mr. T educational show for kids that I downloaded from the Net. While it was filled with positive ideas and made with the best of intentions I'm sure the show backfired in every possible way. The show offered the lamest possible solutions for problems that young kids may be dealing with. The young boy turning his accidental stumble into the beginning of a break dancing routine to avoid being embarrassed being a key example.
Afterwards I went into Osaka to meet Yukiko and watch a movie. A friend of mine named Matt Kauffman writes for a monthly English magazine called Kansai Time Out. One of his monthly features is an article about movies that are somehow related to Japan. Being about Japanese characters, or stories taking place in Japan. Once a month this movie is screened at a night club in Osaka. This month's movie was a French film about spies/double agents working in Japan before WW2. While I didn't like this month's movie too much previous films have been great. Awful B-movies like The Manster and Karate: Hand of Death certainly stand out. Next month's movie Domo Arigato is in old fashioned 3d. I can't wait.

A very special Fathers' Day

Just got word that I have become an Uncle for the 2nd time this year. Congrats to my brother Rob and Ann. John Robert Harrington Henwood is the newest member of the clan. So a very special Fathers' Day greeting to Rob and my dad John.

Hi Ho Sports Festival, Away

I had no classes at school on Friday because a sports festival was going on. It was supposed to happen a month ago but due to bad weather it had been postponed. The event is actually called a 球技大会, kyuugitaikai, which literally translates as a ball-sports festival. The students play volleyball, handball, basketball, etc. In the meantime I got to relax at home and watch a bunch of movies.

2 1/2 weeks and counting

until Summer Vacation. Then it's 2 months of paid vacation. Ahhh, almost there.
Had a good day on Monday. I finished early at school so I had time to watch a movie, Carandiru, when I got home. Then I met up with Yukiko in Tsukaguchi after she finished work. We were planning to go the Italian restaurant 'Capricciosa' but found another restaurant that we also like called 'Ryu Ryu'. The specialty there is butter rice. I had a garlic butter rice and it was delicious. Afterwards we worked out at Tipness. Tipness has large baths in their changing rooms to relax in (if you can relax in a bath full of naked Japanese men) and massage chairs that nearly put me to sleep. So I always feel very refreshed & relaxed after a workout.
Tuesday is my day off so my friend Dan & I headed to Sannomiya to try and watch the movie Troy. We had been trying to see it for the previous 2 weeks but it was always sold out. Tueday is ladies day in Japan (only 1000 yen compared to the usual 1800 yen), and considering that Brad Pitt's butt gets a lot of screentime it's no wonder that the movie has been sold out. We arrived 2 hours early and picked up pretty good seats. So with 2 hours to kill we went looking for somewhere to eat. Our usual modus-operandi would be to go to Subway, but this day we were looking for something different, something bolder, something that was still reasonably priced. We found an Indian restaurant with a tabehodai (all you can eat) lunch. It was pretty good and I could feel a big lump of nan bread and curry in my belly for the rest of the day. It was like touching motherhood.
Anyways... after watching Troy I headed home. Yukiko was in a bad mood because she doesn't really like her job. The day before she had been talking about taking a course to become a translator. However she'll need to increase her TESOL score before she can enter a program so she has decided to study English grammer for the next little while. Good luck Yukiko, you can do it!

Weekend Warrior

This double post will cover both Saturday & Sunday. On weekends I work as a Wedding Minsister. I go to a Wedding Ceremony Hall in Tokushima (about 1 1/2 hrs away on Shikoku) and perform wedding ceremonies for Japanese couples.
First of all, I'm not a real Minister. I'm not exactly a Christian either. I would classify myself as more Buddhist orientated - although I don't really like how Buddhism is practiced in Japan either. More on that in another post some time in the future.
Of course the couples I'm marrying aren't Christian either. I've read that only about 10% of Japanese are Christian and I think even that's a stretch. If the couples were real Christians they could get married at a real church. That's the other thing, the wedding hall I work at is not a church. It's just a business, with a few small chapels and many large banquet rooms for receptions. Weddings are big business in Japan. Traditional Shinto style weddings, typically reserved for the immediate family only, are not fashionable. Young Japanese think that Western style weddings with tuxedos and white weddings dresses are very romantic. Part of the fashion is to have a Western minister (read as white male) perform the service. This is where I come in. As I'm both white and male I'm suddenly fashionable (perhaps for the first and only time).
Many people ask my why I do this job? Well there are several answers. The most obvious is that it pays very well. For a very busy month my weekend salary will triple my high school salaryl. Secondly, the service is all in Japanese, so it is very good practice for me. Thirdly, weddings are a joyous occasion and everytime I do it I remember how I felt at my wedding.
This weekend I only had weddings on Sunday. Saturday was a 'butsumetsu' day, an unlucky day. It signifies the day that Buddha died so it is not considered an auspicious day to marry. Because I had the day off I was able to go to a party at my friend Dan's place. It was good mixture of Japanese and foreigners. Many of the people are members of the same Japanese language school that I go to. Unfortunately, due to my Sunday wedding schedule Yukiko and I had to leave early.
Well that's it for the weekend. Yukiko and I are watching the 1st season of '24' on DVD with Japanese subtitles for Yukiko. I've already seen it once, but it's interesting watching it again knowing which characters are hiding things.

A typical Friday

Just 3 classes on Friday so it's not too difficult. However I teach my most challenging class on Fridays so I usually have a bit of a sore throat afterwards from yelling 'sit down' and 'be quiet' for 50 mins straight. A typhoon just missed Kobe today so there were very high winds and lots of rain. I was hoping it wouldn't miss because then school would have been cancelled and I could have had the day off. Oh well.
I came home directly and, with a few hours before Yukiko got, watched a video.

The Thursday Chronicles

Thursday starts off pretty well for me. I've only got afternoon classes so I can take it easy in the morning. I still get up at the same time, take out the garbage, make breakfast for Yukiko, but then I can relax for a few hours. This morning I tried to phone my dad and wish him a happy birthday (Happy Birthday Dad!) but I couldn't get through to him. So I put my feet up and watched the movie Phone Booth. I rented it last week but hadn't had a chance to watch it. I'd heard good things about it but I wasn't that impressed.
11:00 and I'm off to school. At this time the trains are pretty empty so I get a seat the entire trip. I only had 2 classes to teach today and in 1 of them there was a University student (studying to be an English teacher) observing my class. After the class I was speaking to him about the material we covered, prepositions and their proper usage, and I realized my students had a better grasp of the material than he did. Whow.
I've got a Japanese language class this evening so until then I'm going to stay at school and study on my own. Yukiko is going to Tipness by herself after work to exercise so we'll meet up at home at about 10pm.

On a different note: I'm a little disappointed with the coverage about former President Reagan's death. The revisioning of History is just mindboggling. People are describing him as if he was a saint. Bush is talking about Reagan's fight with the 'Great Evil Empire' to spur on Americans to support his war on terror. Why is there no mention of his support for Death Squads and murderous dictators in Central America? Who sold the chemical weapons to Saddham Hussein? Who supported the terrorists (Contras) in Nicaragua that killed 50000 people? http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=54&ItemID=5683
Is Libya's Quadhafi the only diplomat brave enough to question Reagan's legacy?

Soup du jour

Wednesday is the busiest day of my week. I have 4 classes at school and they start early so I end up stuck in rush hour on the trains which is especially unpleasant in this muggy weather. Luckily I'm usually the tallest person so my face isn't jammed into anyone else's armpit. The people around me aren't as lucky as their faces align perfectly with my armpits. My commute is about 1 1/2 hours each way, 2 trains and a bus. This is when I get to do most of my reading. And my plan is to use this time to do all my course reading when I start the Linguistics program next month.
Actually today I only had 3 classes because my 3rd year students are still in New Zealand. Another nice thing is that because it's really hot these days the school cafeteria now offers hiyashi udon, a cold udon mixed with cucumber and mandarin. It may sound strange but it's quite tasty and VEGETARIAN.
After school I have about 3 hours to kill so I stay at my desk and generally study Japanese (only 6 months to the big test!). You may be wondering why I'm still studying Japanese after all this time... haven't I learned it yet?! Well first of all you probably give me more credit than I'm due. Second of all, there are thousands of Chinese characters (kanji) and I'll never learn all of them... or half of them... or probably even a quarter of them.
I said I was killing time because every Wednesday I have a martial arts class that begins at 7. I study Brazilian Jiu Jitsu at a dojo about halfway between my school and home. It's a mixture of wrestling and Judo, with no punches or quicks. It's mainly choke holds and submissions (arm/wrist/shoulder/neck/leg/knee/ankle/foot locks). It may sound barbaric but it's definitely not. When caught in one of these potentially dangerous holds you merely give up by tapping out. Once the hold is released you are fine and there is no damage. At the end of practice I'm exhausted but healthy. Sports where you kick or punch are far more punishing.
I get home about 10pm and eat a small dinner with Yukiko. Then we usually relax for the rest of the evening. All in all Wednesday is a full day for me. School, studying and martial arts. And I still squeeze in about 3 hours of reading.

The Tuesday Report

Ok, here's a usual Tuesday in my life in Japan. Well this year I have absolutely no classes on Tuesdays. I've also got nothing in the evenings. It is a completely free day!! So I woke up with Yukiko (she's not as fortunate as me, she's still got to go to work) and made her some breakfast. Then I lounged around for a few hours on the Internet, reading various news web sites (Yahoo News, The Vancouver Sun), friends web sites, checking email, etc. Then I watched an old episode of Twin Peaks. I participate in a weekly Twin Peaks discussion group at http://www.twinpeaksgazette.com/tp/ Every week they watch a different episode and discuss it. I'll admit I'm a bit of a Twin Peaks freak. It's one of my favourite TV shows and I've gotten quite a few friends and roommates hooked on it over the years. I even went to the filming locations in Snoqualmie Washington with my parents about 4 years ago. That's the extent of my craziness though. I don't dress up as any of the characters or wear Spock ears or anything like that.
I also wasted about an hour playing a computer game (hey I work the other 6 days of the week remember?). It's the Warcraft3 expansion pack. I've been patiently working on it for a few months now and I'm almost finished. Controlling small, pixelated armies of humans, elves, orcs and/or the undead lets you, momentarily at least, satiate that desire we all have to occasionally pillage, plunder and generally smite others.
In the evening I met up with Yukiko and we went to a spaghetti restaurant together. Yukiko had been there with her friends a week before but it was my first time. It was delicious. They're specialty is a bacon & eggplant spaghetti. Yukiko took my bacon in exchange for some of her eggplant. Now that's teamwork.

What do you call an eggplant? Do you know that an eggplant has many different names, even in English speaking countries? Known as an eggplant in North America, an aubergine in Europe & Australia - according to my dad it is called a 'garden egg' in Jamaica. I wonder if there are any other English names out there? Here are some foreign names for eggplant; Japanese - nasubi, Spanish - berenjena, Italian - melanzana.

Okay, enough of the eggplant interlude. After dinner Yukiko and I went to our local fitness center (Tipness) for a workout. It's usually somewhat expensive to be a member of this club, but we have a corporate membership through Yukiko's company. We just pay 500 yen (about $5) each time we go. That includes a free rental of towels, shorts, t-shirt and even shoes. No need to wash my stinky, sweaty workout clothes. Thank you Tipness. And that's a typical Tuesday for me.

Monday is no fun day

Starting today and for the rest of the week I'll run through a typical week for me so you can all experience 'Being Jason Henwood'. As per usual I'm teaching today. I teach at a private Christian high school called Kobe International High School. It's also called St. Michael's High School, not to be confused with the very fancy private school of the same name that is also in Kobe. I say not to be confused but my school is not in the least bit fancy. When I started working here I was under the impression that it would be quite a good school. In Canada private schools are generally very impressive. Parents send their kids there because they are usually better than public schools. My school in Japan is quite different. It is one of the lowest level schools in the prefecture. Students who can't get accepted at nearby public schools come here. I'm sure most of you have heard that the Japanese educational system is very competetive, from pre-schools to Universities. Students must pass entrance exams for each level of education. Those who can't pass the entrance exams are forced to enter lower level schools. My school caters to parents who would rather pay for their children to study here than go to the lowest of the low public schools.
Now I don't want to make my school sound like the 9th level of Hell. It's not quite that bad. I haven't seen any murderers or telemarketers here. It has it's good points; there is an attached College (which operates under the same principles and will accept ANYONE who can pay), and they have a very strong baseball team. In fact this is probably the school's strongest selling point. Last year one of the players was drafted by a professional Japanese team, the Kintetsu Buffalos. He is probably the most successful graduate of the school ever... even if he got injured and never played in a single game.
Despite the good baseball team the school is sometimes a challenge to teach at. Firstly it's an all boys' school and they are all going through puberty. Guranteed, if I say the word 'six', some boy will immediately stand up and yell 'SEX' to demonstrate his wit to his classmates. However, ask the same boy what comes between 5 and 7, and he's stumped.
The main problem at my school is that the students just aren't interested in English. And for those of them who aren't interested in going to University, travelling abroad, expanding their horizons (I should point out that I've described nearly all my students) it's understandable. English just isn't necessary in Japan.
The other big problem is mobile phones. They are very interested in using mobile phones, whenever and wherever they can. My English Communication class is just a slight roadblock to an otherwise effective 50 minutes of typing text messages to their friends, who are undoubtedly also suffering likewise in the classroom across the hall.
Luckily today my 3rd year class is cancelled. They are on a farm stay trip to New Zealand for a week so I get to go home a few hours early. It will be interesting to hear about their trip when they get back. Some of the students, despite the fact that they have had English Communication classes 3 times a week for 3 years, can speak absolutely no English. They can't introduce themselves, they can't answer the question 'How are you?' OK, too much ranting about this for now. I'm about to head home. I'll get home hours before Yukiko does today so I'll probably relax and watch a movie I downloaded from the Net.

The joy of not working

Today was one of the first Sundays in a long time that I haven't had to work. It was great. I slept in, lounged around for a few hours, did a few chores, then went with Yukiko to visit some friends of our that live nearby (Kawakami-san & Yano-chin). We all ate Takoyaki (well I ate a vegetarian version, mochi & cheese) and drank some beer and chu-hi. Afterwards we played a Taiko drum game on their PS2. They have 2 taiko sets so it was really fun. Now I'm back at home waiting to watch K-1 on TV. This is how weekends are supposed to be.

Every saga has a beginning...

More to come later.