Floating Papers on the Sea of Japan by Keith Fenske May and June 2000 Copyright (c) 2000 by Keith Fenske.  All rights reserved.

May 2000: Fighting With My Webmail Server

While I can't send e-mail reliably, I sometimes do receive notes from back home.  Brenda A. in Calgary writes, "You are sounding more and more Japanese with each month, did you realize that?  I think that teaching English is rubbing off on your everyday speech.  I find it quite funny; I can almost hear an accent as I read your papers.  How long are you in Japan for anyway?"  My reply is: obviously too long, or not long enough!  Seriously, I can't see myself so I really don't know how much I am changing.

You may wonder why I quote names like an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting: first name and only the last initial.  This is to give some credit to other people, but not too much, or else the internet web crawler programs will index their full names as searchable text.

east side of Kajo Park with new leaves on green trees

April 29th to May 5th is my "golden week" holiday.  With Greenery Day (the 29th), May Day (the first), Constitution Day (the 3rd), and Children's Day (the 5th) all in one week, most schools and offices shut down.  People go travelling.  Buying a plane ticket during Golden Week in Japan is about as impossible as the Christmas holidays in Europe or North America.  I went shopping and for a bus tour of Sendai on Monday (the first).  The rest of the week, I spent at the office.  Without any students or a schedule, the office is a very relaxing place to be!  There were many things that I had wanted to do, but didn't have enough uninterrupted time.  Mentally, I kept putting these details on a list of duties that I would clear up when I got home.  I would type my photo notes so that I could find the correct negatives for old pictures.  (Remember, I use a lot of film: over 50 rolls so far!)  I would get an English version of Netscape and Paint Shop Pro running on one of the Japanese PC's so that I could edit my own web page.  I would break up my Japan web page into smaller pieces because a single file of 128 kilobytes is too big.  I would add forward and backward arrows (actually, bears).  I would put a switching graphic on the home page so that there would finally be an obvious way of jumping to the Japan page.  I would start scanning photos.  I would be a better person.

Most of that I accomplished.  I am happy to use my holidays this way.  It means that there isn't a growing pile of work waiting for me back home.  I'm not thinking about what I should do later and why I can't do this in Japan, because it's already done.  I am much more comfortable being in Japan knowing that I can do what I want to do when I need to do it.

For the technical details, the Netscape 4.08, Paint Shop Pro 3.12, and Windows Write 3.1 computer programs all share one very important feature: they install into their own directory (folder) and don't make any changes to the Windows system files.  Thus, even though they are English versions, they safely run on a Japanese Windows PC.  Standard system services (such as printer dialog boxes) are of course still in Japanese, but the basic program menus and messages are in English.  While I don't mind using Japanese-only software for such things as typing these notes, I do need to fully understand what's happening when I am working with more demanding tasks such as bitmap picture editing and web page creation.  Aya gave me complete use of her computer during the holidays -- otherwise it might get lonely -- and this has been very helpful to me.  In return, I rebuilt the Windows registry: a messy, undocumented chore that few people know about but which makes a Windows 95/98 PC run better.  She's only had the computer for a couple months and already the registry was showing signs of corruption (a bad font cache).

In effect, I have been busy with the mechanics of this web page ... not the contents.  Hopefully, these structural changes will make it easier for me to write the words.  Frequently asked questions will go on a separate web page.

Monday, May 8th.  Wow!  What an intense thunder and lightning storm!  At that time of morning when you're not sure if you're awake or asleep, flashes of light burst through the curtains with immediate rolling thunder.  The storm must have been directly overhead my apartment.  Heavy rain followed.  As I went back to sleep, I remember thinking, "That ought to wash the bird poop off the statues."  Later, at breakfast, I wondered why I was so concerned about birds and statues in the park.  A second thunderstorm developed in the afternoon.  I didn't go look at the statues.

The days are beginning to blur together.  What day was it that I walked through a cloud of cherry petals?  A narrow side street, sunshine, and a wind off Kajo Park coming my way.  Was I ever cold walking to work?  Now the heat makes me thirsty.  I should wash my winter coat if it's not so old that it falls apart.

A swan is not a big, white goose.

Thursday, May 11th.  Keith the famous wildlife photographer was at Tsuruoka Park today taking pictures of the big, white "geese" with help from three ducks.  There are no pictures of the ducks because they were too close and too helpful.  One was standing on my foot.  Another was pulling on my camera strap.  The third was checking my bags for food.  Between bites and nudges, I took several pictures of the "geese" swimming around a tree immersed in the water.  To identify the exact species of goose, I scanned a photo and e-mailed it to my brother-in-law, who knows more about birds than I do.  The reply was more amusing in that it came from my mother, who pointed out that this big, white bird was a swan....  Since I am equally adept at identifying flowers, it will be no surprise to find out that my favorite book for mountain wildflowers is organized by color: if I have a picture of a blue flower, then I look in the blue pages; yellow flowers are on yellow pages; etc.

Saturday, May 13th.  Those little words "structural changes" translated into all my spare time for two weeks.  A Japan photo gallery is now on-line.  Peter had one idea for the gallery and I had another.  Both ideas were good.  The gallery is threaded three different ways.  As promised in January, there are small thumbnail pictures mixed in with the text.  Click on a thumbnail for a larger view of the same picture.  The larger views are linked together like pages of a photo album.  At the bottom of each page are buttons to go backward, forward, return to the gallery's index page, or to read the related text.  The index page shows all of the thumbnails together.

I wear a belt pouch to keep my own money separate from the school's expense money, bus/train tickets, taxi receipts, etc.  The clip that joins the belt together broke so I replaced it with the same kind of clip used for hiking equipment (conveniently available at the local craft and sewing store in three sizes and six colors for only Y200 each).  Now the clip is probably the strongest part of the pouch!  This belt pouch is a good idea.  In seven months, I've only managed to misplace Y800 (less than US$8) and I haven't lost a single ticket or receipt.  I'm proud to say that (so far) I've never gotten on the wrong bus or train, although I was walking in the wrong direction last week in Tsuruoka ... before I noticed that I was in unfamiliar territory, asked for directions, turned around 180 degrees, and still made it to my class on time!

Sunday, May 14th.  Today I made minor corrections to my home page.  There were a few mistakes in the hypertext links for the new photo gallery.  Everything seems okay now.  Even a small home page requires numerous files; mine has over 150 pieces for the text, buttons, pictures, etc.  I wish people would keep that in mind before they complain.  Just tell me where the mistake is, please; don't waste your energy telling me how stupid I am.  I've noticed that net surfers tend to trivialize the amount of work involved.  We're breeding a generation of passive surfers (internet users) who think that everything they need can be downloaded from the internet for free.  It doesn't occur to them that real people spend real time and money creating those web pages.  If they can't find what they want within a few mouse clicks, they give up.

I didn't spend all of my Golden Week in front of a computer ... it only feels that way!  On Monday the first of May, I went to the big city of Sendai on the east coast.  That's where many young people from Yamagata go shopping.  I bought a postcard.  That's right: I spent Y2220 (US$21) for round-trip train fare and bought one postcard -- because that's how many good postcards are in Sendai.  My snapshots of the train station are better than their postcards.  Collecting postcards in Japan can be frustrating and rewarding.  Some cities have excellent postcards (I remember Fukuoka fondly); others have junk.  Too often I go somewhere and the postcards are the same as what I would get with my camera on a bad day with lousy weather and poor lighting.  Postcards should be some of the best pictures for an area because they are usually taken by professional or semi-professional photographers who know the best time and place for the pictures.

Oh, and I did go on the one-hour and Y260 bus tour of Sendai city.  It turns out that Sendai is not on the east coast, only near the coast.  You have to go to the next smaller city to actually see the ocean, which is like my visits to Tsuruoka where my schedule doesn't allow me to travel the last few kilometers and put my feet in the water.

Now it's Sunday evening and my routine is to eat pi-bim-bap for supper at the Korean Kitchen ("Arirang") restaurant.  The Japanese language doesn't have the same sounds as Korean, so when speaking in Japanese, pi-bim-bap becomes "bi-bim-pa" in much the same way that Korean kimchi (kimchee) becomes the Japanese word "ki-mu-chi".  One day I went into the Korean restaurant, ordered pi-bim-bap in Korean as I walked through the door, and sat down at a table.  The owner and his wife understood me and started cooking.  The waitress didn't and came to take my order.  We all had a good laugh ... in Japanese, Korean, and English.  Our conversations must be quite confusing to anyone else listening.

Monday, May 15th.  Big biting mosquitoes!  I should rephrase that: big mosquito bites!  In Canada, I had been bitten so many times that I didn't react to the bites unless I foolishly scratched.  The mosquitoes here must be a different variety.  I've been bitten three times this week and all three have swollen up.  One bite on my arm is a welt the size of a Y500 coin.  (There: finally a currency reference that can't be converted into US dollars.)

Saturday, May 20th.  I live in the land of green tea but have developed an almost total intolerance to caffeine.  A cup of anything with caffeine (coffee, tea, Coca-Cola, etc.) in the morning prevents me from sleeping until late at night, and I wake up early feeling lousy.  Even "Pocari Sweat", a sports drink, appears to have trace amounts of caffeine even though this isn't listed on the label.  Such an increased sensitivity would create a new job opportunity for me, if only the government would declare caffeine to be illegal: I could work as a drug sniffing dog at the airport....  (That's a joke, in case this is a non-humor day for you.)

Thursday, May 25th.  Sometimes my schedule puts me in exactly the right place at the right time.  My bus to Tsuruoka arrived in the middle of their annual parade and "Bakemono" (ghost) festival.  As part of the parade, people dressed in fancy costumes with their faces hidden by a cloth or hat serve sake (rice wine) to anyone who asks.  By skipping my usual pizza lunch, I had over two hours to enjoy myself before reporting for work.

Friday, May 26th.  My internet service provider (ISP) changed names several months ago when the CompuSmart store reorganized their internet business as Interbaun Communications.  I didn't bother saying anything because both the old and new addresses work, and will continue to work for the foreseeable future because they are in fact aliases for each other.  I resisted the change because too many people already know me by my CompuSmart address, and people in Japan like the idea that my e-mail and web page have a Canadian domain name.  However, Interbaun is pushing their customers to convert to the new addresses.  A few days ago, they used an automated script on their webmail server to change all occurrences of the string "compusmart.ab.ca" to the string "interbaun.com" in the e-mail address lists.  Unfortunately, they didn't put the little "@" sign in front of their search string, so the script also changed the home page address in my signature file from "www.compusmart.ab.ca" to "www.interbaun.com" which is invalid (see below).  Interbaun later apologized and were so decent about the mistake that I am now announcing my "new" e-mail and home page addresses:

e-mail:	fenske at interbaun dot com
home page:	http://clubweb.interbaun.com/fenske/

Use whichever address you like best.  Personally, I think a home page address that starts with "clubweb" sounds childish, whereas "www" sounds more business-like.

Saturday, May 27th.  My noisy neighbors have returned.  Or new neighbors with similarly bad habits: moderate music and loud talking, inside and outside on the ground-floor balcony area.  Apparently they can exist on four hours of sleep each night.  (I can't.)  The quiet time this morning was from 4:45 AM to 8:45 AM.  Later, when I went home on Monday night, three or four loud male voices were discussing a drum machine (an electronic percussion instrument).  By 9:55 PM, they were playing at full practice volume with the balcony doors wide open: enough to annoy the entire neighborhood.  They quit around 10:45 PM, but that level of noise doesn't belong in an apartment building at any time, much less at night when people are trying to sleep.  What do you say to someone who shows so little consideration for other people?  I don't want to know when my neighbors come and go, and I don't what to know what they are doing.  My boss called the building manager (again), who will explain the building rules (again).  That's all that can be done in a society based on obedience.  Unless, of course, you are willing to escalate the situation into a personal confrontation; however, as I explained before, that's not a good idea.  If I were a wise person, I would write an essay on the difference between obedience and morality.

almost too sexy for this web page: Keith Fenske wearing hotel yukata

Sunday, May 28th.  Hot and cloudy with a forecast of rain, which makes this a good day to finish my Japan notes for May and to post them on the internet.  Bits and pieces have already appeared as I rebuilt my home page, but today will be the complete text.  As a bonus, I will include a picture of me dressed in hotel yukata.  One meaning of yukata is an informal kimono for summer wear.  A hotel yukata is slightly different.  It's more like a bathrobe ... or a sleeping robe for people who travel a lot and are too lazy to bring their own pajamas.  This is the closest I've come to wearing traditional Japanese clothing.  As for who took the picture, and why I'm smiling: those questions I shall avoid.  I'm going to make a joke now.  (You're supposed to laugh.)  This picture is almost too sexy for my web page.  Any pretty girls [women] who have erotic dreams about short, fat English teachers in hotel yukata, please call....

Next month I should write something that my grandmother can read -- so no more computer talk!

June 2000: Scheduled Days

Yamako bus terminal behind Daiei department store

I usually arrive at work between 9 and 9:30 AM on Monday to Friday.  I find it easier to always come at the same time even if the schedule differs.  The choice of time has more to do with the opening hour of the post office (9 AM) than with the official opening hour of the school!  I am a frequent customer of the Ekimae post office and I prefer to stop by on my way to work.

Lesson preparation and paperwork such as proofreading are not shown in the schedule.  Adult conversation classes work from standard textbooks and preparation consists mostly of getting the materials ready and making sure that I'm familiar with the current lesson.  Classes for children are much more time-consuming; to prepare their activities often requires as much time as the class itself.  Fortunately, I only teach children on Mondays and Fridays.

Travel time is shown in the schedule below.  Short trips are easier to handle than long trips.  Anything less than an hour is a quick commute; anything longer is tiring.  That makes my overnight trip to Tsuruoka one of the low points of the week.

The start to finish times are long by North American standards, sometimes over 12 hours.  Within the schedule are many empty periods.  As explained in my October 1999 notes, you can let this anger you as wasted time, or you can make use of it.  The office is a convenient place to sort through photos, write letters, answer e-mail, and edit my web page.  (Nobody complains about me using the office for personal business so long as I finish my job first.)  I shop for groceries and pile the bags beside my desk, with perishables like milk in the office fridge.  I might return to the apartment to clean up and wash clothes.  Explore and never walk the same way twice.

Monday		10:30 - 12:00		informal workshop for Japanese English teachers
		2:30		walk to another school
		3:20 - 7:10		teach four 50-minute children's classes
		7:15		take taxi back to main school
		7:30 - 9:00		adult conversation class
Tuesday		10:30 - 12:00		adult conversation class for regular students
		12:00 - 1:00		lunch conversation with intensive students (no books)
		1:00 - 3:00		regular class for intensive students (textbooks)
		3:50 - 4:36		take train to Yonezawa City
		5:00		take taxi to company location
		5:15 - 6:45		teach one 90-minute company class
		6:55		take taxi back to train station
		7:14 - 8:01		take train back to Yamagata
Wednesday		2:04 - 2:31		take train to Sagae City
		3:30		take taxi to company location
		3:45 - 6:15		teach two 75-minute company classes
		6:15		take taxi to Tendo City
		7:00 - 8:30		teach business class at city office
		8:30 - 9:00		talk to business students after class
		9:00		walk to train station
		9:48 - 10:07		take last train back to Yamagata
Thursday		9:30 - 12:00		regular class for intensive students
		12:00 - 1:00		lunch conversation with intensive students
		1:00		walk to bus station
		1:30 - 3:15		take highway bus to Tsuruoka City
		3:15 - 3:45		eat pizza
		3:45 - 5:15		walk and shop to company location
		5:40 - 7:40		teach two 60-minute company classes
				(stay overnight at Puchi Hotel beside Tsuruoka train station)
Friday		7:02 - 8:55		take first highway bus back to Yamagata
		9:43		take city bus towards technical college
		10:00		walk to barbering school
		10:30 - 12:00		conversation class for barbering students
		12:00		get ride back to main school with secretary
		3:09 - 3:28		take train to Tendo City
		4:10 - 4:55		teach one 45-minute children's class
		5:00 - 7:00		(wait in Tendo)
		7:00 - 8:15		adult class at community center
		8:30 - 9:00		take last city bus back to Yamagata

The strangest part of the schedule has to be the Wednesday taxi ride from Sagae City to Tendo City costing ten times more than the bus or train.  There isn't enough time and even the taxi only gets me to my Tendo class with 5 minutes to spare.

The schedule for Saturday varies with a mixture of private students, intensive English classes, a discussion class at the prefecture library, etc.  Intensive English students come to our school for two-week sessions, from 9:30 AM to 3 PM on Monday to Saturday.  When we teach intensive students, everyone works overtime: regular schedule plus the intensive classes.

Saturday, June 3rd.  Speaking of the library, that's where I injured myself most recently.  After the class, I was walking down the stairs and didn't notice that the last step was longer than the others.  The tread on my hiking shoes caught on the edge of the last step and I fell, twisting my ankle.  Everywhere in the world, stairs seem to be the same height and length, but beware of decorative steps that architects add for appearance!  As Elizabeth G. said in her birthday e-mail to Uncle John G., "HOPE YOU'LL MANAGE LESS FALLS THIS YEAR!"  (The capitals are hers; quoted with John's permission.)  My current injury status is: left wrist, left knee, and right ankle.  The good news is that my hair is growing back (see March 2000) and getting thicker.  I no longer have to worry about going bald.  More good news is that my mizumushi (athlete's foot, see February 2000) is going away now that I'm using a cream that the pharmacist insisted was the wrong type.  After five months of using the recommended type, I went to the store when the helpful pharmacist wasn't there and bought the type that I wanted.  Having a scalp (hair) irritation at the same time as athlete's foot makes me wonder if the two problems were related.  My washing machine only uses cold water, so I don't have the luxury of scalding hot temperatures when washing underwear, socks, towels, etc.

Wednesday, June 7th.  My bosses offered me a second-year contract with a raise (more salary), a signing bonus, and a completion bonus.  I accepted.

Friday, June 9th.  The rainy season has started.  It doesn't rain every day.  Often it's only hot and wet and sweaty.  The humidity is near 100%.  You can take a fresh sheet of paper from a package of writing paper, and by the time you are 2/3 of the way down the page, the paper is so damp that the pen won't write anymore!

Saturday, June 10th.  My noisy neighbors have decided that climbing over the balcony railing is easier than using the hallway door for entering their apartment.  This makes quite a sound late at night because the railing, the trim around it, and the balcony doors were never designed for that kind of punishment.  The absentee owner of the apartment may have a surprise when his tenants finally move out: a repair bill that exceeds the amount of rent paid.  You can fairly well judge the attitude of tenants by whether or not they empty their mailbox.  Utility bills are delivered to the mailbox.  If the tenants never open their mailbox, you know that someone else is regularly paying their bills without ever seeing the originals.  People who aren't paying their own bills are rarely aware of the costs of their actions.

softball pitcher

Sunday, June 11th.  I lost a running bet today.  A running bet is a long-term question that takes weeks, months, or years to answer.  This bet was about whether or not I would be invited into a Japanese person's house or apartment while I'm here.  In Western tradition, that would be a sign of hospitality.  Eastern traditions differ.  We may show respect and understanding for other traditions, but deep down inside of us, we still judge politeness and courtesy by our own standards.  My first invitation came after eight months.  I would like to thank Ayako N. and Kazumitsu T. for an excellent lunch and for showing me their travel pictures.

There are two more running bets, but I can't tell you what they are without affecting the result.

Monday, June 12th.  My noisy neighbor(s) kept me awake every night this weekend -- Friday night until 4 AM, Saturday night until 2, and Sunday night until 1:30 -- with their drum machine, practice, and discussion.  Sunday night sounded like a teacher instructing a student.  It's become clear that they are using this apartment as a practice and meeting room for their music friends.  The building manager's previous warning had only a small effect.  He may just be hoping that the problem goes away by itself.  In other words, that someone else takes care of it first.

We now learn that the building manager knew my neighbor was a music student when he rented the apartment.  The understanding was that the apartment would only be used for living in, not for music practice.  This is an interesting admission because it means that at the time of my previous complaint, the building manager already knew that the conditions of the rental were incorrect, and that much more needed to be done than just a simple warning about noise.  He knew there was a potential problem but did nothing to monitor the situation and was unprepared to act when the problem did occur.  He did, however, manage to collect one month's rental at the expensive of my comfort and sanity.  The short translation of the manager's new warning is "If you play musical instruments again at night, you will be evicted."  My opinion is that this condition should have been part of the rental agreement, and that action should have been taken after the first complaint.

I wonder how much the yakuza (Japanese mafia) charge for removing unwanted neighbors?  That's a joke ... maybe.  I'm not in a very good mood today.  I'm tired, I have a job to do, and I feel lousy.

Tuesday, June 13th.  I was able to sleep last night for the first time in four days.  My neighbor did do a few little things to show that he was angry, but nothing on the same scale of retribution that might occur in America.

[Start of delete section.]

In the past month, I have formed a negative opinion of Japanese youth, that is, the ones you notice because they are causing problems.  They are brainless with no thought to the immediate consequences of their actions.  Their behavior is obnoxious simply to attract attention.  My noisy neighbors have contributed greatly to this opinion.  There are others.  The high school boy who occupied three seats on a crowded train -- one to rest his feet on -- and refused to move until a businessman literally threatened to sit on him.  The young man quickly riding a push scooter (basically a skateboard with an upright handle) inside a crowded train station.  He hit me; he probably hit others.  The group of teenaged boys who covered the ground by my bus stop with their own spit.  This was at seven o'clock in the morning on a school day and they weren't wearing school uniforms, so why were they there?  The motorcyclists who drive through the streets slowly while revving their engines to make the maximum possible noise.  Why advertise the fact that you're stupid?

Adults are unable to deal with this because their rules of politeness prevent them from showing the public nastiness needed to confront unacceptable behavior.  This gives the youths a sense of power: they perceive the adults to be powerless to stop them.  The adults have their own problems.  Many men are strangers in their own houses, so their only release from a monotonous work life is to go drinking with their co-workers.  They eat, they drink too much, they vomit.  Not everyone, not everywhere.  However, you only have to step in that mess once to have a lasting impression.

These comments are mostly about men and boys.  Since women grow up as second-class citizens, girls learn that they have to pay attention to the feelings of others, or at least half of the population that is male.  That's not to say that females don't have their own ways of showing anti-social behavior.  They do; they are just less likely to injure others while doing so.

[End of delete section.]

Now, after those thoroughly depressing paragraphs, let's have some good news....

Wednesday, June 14th.  Today was my first Japanese wedding, and I rode on the shinkansen (bullet train).  A wedding on a Wednesday?  Why else would the day start with the letters W-E-D?  Could it be that the bride and groom both work at Ban Ban Ya bento and Wednesday is their day off?

traditional Japanese (Shinto) wedding ceremony for Makoto and Shizuka O.

The wedding was a traditional ceremony in a shrine with Shinto priests.  The bride was beautiful; the groom was handsome.  I got to sit in the front.  Not the front seats where the family sat ... in front of the front where the priests sit!  I was taking pictures.  I was so close that I needed my wide-angle lens.  I must say, kneeling on a wooden floor (to take pictures) with a twisted ankle is intensely painful.  I kept my silence.

The reception was at an equally traditional restaurant with low tables and cushions on the floors.  Owen Raccoon was somewhat disappointed since he thought that when the manager of Ban Ban Ya take-out bento restaurant and deli got married, dinner would be all-you-can-eat bento.  I said, try the sea cucumber, Owen.  I said, try the eel, Owen.  After watching him eat for a while, I finally said, try the chopsticks, Owen.  He tried them all so well that when I came back from taking pictures, my food was gone and the guests nearby were looking at empty dishes.  Owen now wants to name his first child either "Ban Ban Ya" or "Ebi-Fry Bento".  He was last seen following the servers into the kitchen area, politely calling them "Tabemono-sama-tachi".  (He's trying to say "Food Ladies" in his limited Japanese; another wording is "Esayari-no-obasan-tachi" for "the ladies who feed me".)  I guess raccoons really are opportunistic eaters.  I will explain to him later that children aren't normally named after menus or restaurants.

"Hello Kitty" doll in traditional Japanese wedding dress (from McDonald's)

Congratulations to Makoto and Shizuka O.  With their permission, I will post a wedding picture on this web page.  My present to Makoto and Shizuka came from McDonald's!  For one week only, McDonald's restaurant had "Hello Kitty" bride and groom dolls in traditional Japanese costumes (Y380 each), and I gave the pair to Makoto and Shizuka.  The costumes looked the same but I don't think Shizuka got her wedding kimono from McDonald's.  Yes, I gave them the photos and the negatives too.

Thursday, June 15th.  Yumi N. brought her pet gopher "Chi" to class today.  She's an active little girl (the gopher)!  She was pushing open the top of her cage, so I put a dictionary on top.  It wasn't enough: she was so strong that we needed three books.  She escaped later.  We closed all the doors and windows and had a small gopher chase where Yumi chased and I laughed.  Chi likes this game, and after a while accepted a leaf of lettuce in exchange for going back into her cage.

Sunday, June 18th.  My noisy neighbor...  Ah, what's the point?  We'll just assume that he's an idiot until proven otherwise.  His compliance with the previous warnings is partial and only temporary.  ("No" does not mean "no": it means "less for a while".)  His actions both at night and in the morning continue to dictate when I can sleep.  (A few minutes of drum practice after sunrise won't bother anyone, will it?  After all, that's not really "at night", is it?)  He may be so stupid (or socially inept) that he needs simpler rules that leave no room for personal judgment about what the phrase "no noise at night" means: a specific starting and ending time, a prohibition against having visitors during this time, no playing music, no music practice, no music lessons, no programming the drum machine, no practicing with drumsticks on wooden blocks, no video games, etc.  However, that just creates a hundred petty little rules, each of which can be avoided in a different way.  The real problem is that he can not understand one big rule: don't annoy your neighbors.

Monday, June 19th.  At least rainy days are cool days.  The days that aren't rainy are so hot (over 30 degrees Celsius) and humid that I lose my appetite completely.  One-liter cartons of orange juice look big in the supermarket, and are heavy to carry home, but they don't last long when you pour yourself a cold drink ... or two.  Don't feel too sorry for me: my apartment has air conditioning.

This is cherry season and I live in the best fruit-growing region of Japan.  Today, life is a bowl of cherries.

NTT card/coin pay phone

Here's a humorous comment about life in Japan.  Many countries have laws against using a cellular phone while driving a car.  Japan needs the same for bicyclists and their hand phones!  They sure don't pay attention to where they're going when they're talking to their friends....  A rough estimate is that half of Japanese teenagers have "handy phones" (their pronunciation).  Temporary residents of Japan (like English teachers) also find hand phones more convenient because start-up and registration fees are less than Y8000 (US$75) compared to over Y70,000 (US$650) "deposit" to get a regular telephone line installed in a house or apartment.  This deposit is a combination of an installation charge, a true deposit, and a license fee that can be bought, sold, or transferred.  As in America, profit from hand phones is in the "air time" which costs several times more per minute than the local charges for regular phones.  The phones themselves are almost given away for free.

Wednesday, June 21st.  I can never remember, is June 21st the longest day of the year, or is it June 20th on a leap year?  Why do we say "on a leap year" when we say "in the year 2000"?  How many different prepositions are used for the same idea of a year?  Another good question is where is the rain in this rainy season?  The last week has been seven hot, sweaty days.  I sleep better and wake up in a better mood when I turn on the air conditioner at night.  Let's just hope that the electricity bill isn't too expensive!

Another city, another empty department store building: this time in Sagae.  (See my notes for February 2000.)  The store had several names in the past, most recently "PAO".  Now it's the land of "no tenant".

Thursday, June 22nd.  An election is coming and noise trucks are cruising the streets: vans with loudspeakers playing "vote for me" political messages.  More fun is the van playing the "M:I-2" theme song to advertise the "Mission: Impossible 2" movie.  That one I like.

Friday, June 23rd.  The rain hath returned, in time for the weekend, when I wanted to go somewhere and do something.  There are four main train lines into Yamagata.  I ride the Sagae (northwest) and Yonezawa (south) lines every week for my job.  I rode the Sendai (east) line during Golden Week.  Now I want to go to Shinjo (north).  Not in the rain, though.

Saturday, June 24th.  The people on the other side of my noisy neighbor are moving out of their apartment today.  Why pay another month's rent to live next to a problem?  The building manager says that nobody else has complained.  (That may not be true: initially, it is to the manager's advantage to deny the existence of other complaints.)  He is being foolish.  Some people vote with their feet.  He is losing a good tenant who had been in that apartment at least as long as I have been here.  My school is also willing to move despite the nuisance of finding a new apartment after having kept the same apartment for many years.

I'm sick again with another low-grade fever.  I don't feel like staying home so I came to the office and scanned photos for this month's web page.  Even when I am tired at the end of a working day, I find that I don't like going home because I can't predict whether or not I will be disturbed by the actions of my neighbor.  For me, home must be a safe place where I can relax and recover.  I am willing to accept difficulties at work but am unable to tolerate problems at home.  Now is a good time to say that, after nine months, I still have not found any reason to disagree with my bosses.  They have always been reasonable.  When the time comes for me to leave this job, I will certainly act as a reference for them when hiring a new teacher.  In many ways, this whole web page is a letter of recommendation for anyone who truly wants to teach English in Japan and understands that they will be working for a living.  There are good things and there are bad things.  Overall, it's a positive experience.  My bosses know that I write this journal, and that I do so with the office computers, but they choose not to read it.  They consider it to be my private affair.

Sunday, June 25th.  Ah, yes, the rainy season: that time of year when everything smells like dried sweat.

Off to Shinjo I went.  By misreading the kanji on the train schedule, I first took the Shinjo line train that goes only halfway to Shinjo.  The weather was good in Murayama.  The stationmaster was nice and let me keep my Shinjo ticket while I went for a walk.  In the hour and a half before the next train, I toured a flower festival at Higashizawa Rose Park.  My second train went to Shinjo.  I saw lots of trees on my way there.  The station in Shinjo doesn't have stairs and overhead passageways to reach the different tracks.  There is a single walkway for all tracks at platform level because Shinjo is the end of the line.  All northbound trains (from Yamagata or Tokyo) finish in Shinjo, as do all southbound trains from Akita prefecture.  I didn't do much in Shinjo except get tired feet and a sunburn.  The cloudy, rainy day that started in Yamagata was pretty hot and sunny by the time I came home -- this time on one train, not two.

Monday, June 26th.  My grade four boys class was a zoo.  They go to regular school together, they play together after school, and they no longer distinguish between playtime and English class.  Having to use my physical size and the strength of my voice to get brief moments of attention is not teaching English.  Next week I will start using the "social contract" routine where before each student enters the class, they are told (in Japanese) that this is an English class, that I am the teacher, and that they are students whose job it is to learn.  They must agree before they are allowed to enter.  Once inside, cooperation will be strictly enforced.  For the teacher, this is a real strain and major source of headaches, but may eventually return the class to something approaching normal.

Tuesday, June 27th.  My boss made the phone call today to start the eviction of my noisy neighbor.  Unlike my grade four boys, this is a situation where a "social contract" is not possible because my neighbor continues to perform troublesome actions even after being clearly warned twice to stop those same actions.

Wednesday, June 28th.  I don't feel like writing any more for this month.  So, if something interesting happens in the next few days, you will never know about it!

Copyright (c) 2000 by Keith Fenske.  All rights reserved.
 

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