Lonely Times July 30th, 2007

Sorry about the huge gap in time since my last blog! This year I’m really going to try to make a more concerted effort add to my blog once or twice a week.

Well, the rainy season is almost over and summer is fast approaching. Like most of Asia, the rainy season in Japan is packed into a month or two, rather than spread out over eight or so months of the year like it is in Oregon. The rainy season here is also very humid, which means one must do constant battle with mold and mildew this time of year. Closets and wardrobe doors must be open at all times to provide proper ventilation. Disposable dehumidifiers are purchased in Costco quantities and spread liberally throughout the cupboards and closets around the house. These look like tall Tupperware containers that have crystals on the top half which absorb moisture in the air and change it into water. When the bottom half is full, time to replace. (see pic)

My favorite friends, the frogs, have returned. From this point on, they become steadily more dense until the cold starts creeping in late October/ early November. The increasing warm temps also bring thousands of other insects and following them come the predators, the spiders. I found a spider in my house the other day that was one of the biggest spiders I’ve ever seen. I walked into the bathroom and it looked like a small bat was hanging from the ceiling. I’m usually not too scared of spiders and try to follow a catch and release policy if convenient. But this guy was scary and I was at a momentary loss at what to do about him. I feared that if I tried to catch him, he would be too fast and escape to a different part of the house, or worse, down my sleeve! Well, the long-handled shower cleaning brush was close at hand so I knocked him down and swished him up in a big wad of tissue paper, sealing that into a box and disposing of the whole bundle in the bottom of the trash.

I’ve been a bit sad and melancholy as of late because late July is the time for the old JETs to leave, and a new batch will arrive in early August. I’ve made some good friends over this past year and it is difficult to see them all go. Michelle left around mid-July, my good pal Mark (Marko, aka, "Maaaan diddly maaan maaan maaaaaaan!"...hours before leaving below) left last week, and Mike is leaving this week, as well as Chris and Laura my Canadian pals. It has been great to have Mike around for a bit longer time, and this last weekend we made a final trip to Tokyo together to hang out with my good friend Laura who was in town from the states. These people along with Lopez, Mike and Iku-chan, Jerems and Mands, and a handful of others are all people I’ve become close with and now as they move on to their next adventures in their lives I’m left feeling a bit empty. (Mike-kun, aka "The Nams" above) At the same time, one of the things that made these people so wonderful was that they were here for 2 or three years, and their wisdom and helpful guidance about Japan was indispensable… and this is hopefully what I will bring to the new group coming in a couple weeks. If I can help the newbies even a fraction of the amount that I was helped by the sempais (2nd and 3rd years) then I will be doing a good job. As it is, I’m sad to see my friends go and wish them the best in all of their adventures. I plan on seeing all of these people again at some point in my life, and realize now that this chance to meet these new people has been one of the best aspects of the JET Program. (Chris and Laura above) My goal for my final year here is to try my hardest to make a strong connection with 2 or 3 Japanese people and hopefully establish friendships with them for a lifetime. This is a tough goal to accomplish where I’m living now because there aren’t too many people my age who live out here in the country who are looking for the same kind of friendship. I think in the city this would be an easier task to accomplish with people there more used to seeing different nationalities about and people there maybe even being more open-minded which is a common characteristic of big cities around the world.

This coming Friday (Aug 3rd) I will take the overnight ferry from Sendai to Hokkaido, then a bus to Sapporo where I am enrolled in an intensive Japanese language course for 2 weeks. I’m really looking forward to the change in pace and scenery, and also to beat the heat that approaches like an oppressive giant. Also, I’m the type of person who needs someone to push me and set goals for me sometimes, and this is indeed the case with the learning a language. I’ll let you know how everything is going with the class next week.