The bonenkai.

I used to say it was my favorite enkai because of its suggestive name. But I think this will probably be the last one for me with this school. I like the food, the hot spring, and seeing my coworkers let loose a bit, but man, that smoke wafting down corridors and into bedrooms is too much.

Paris...

I helped chaperone the second-year students to Paris last week. The stay was short and the flights were long but, overall, I think everyone had a good time. It helped that I got a few free days in France as "work."

I'm not too big on going to see the touristy sites when I travel. Certainly I think they're worth seeing (usually), but I often find myself disappointed. The crowds of Chinese tour groups, the German couple taking selfies in front of the Mona Lisa, the pick pockets looking for the unsuspecting Japanese student, for me they all make what could be an amazing, inspiring moment into a few minutes of hectic irritability. When I'm fortunate enough to get the opportunity to travel, I'd much rather take a walk down a random street in a random neighborhood and stop for a drink at someone's meticulously cared for cafe. And if I happen to catch a glimpse of the Eiffel Tower out the corner of a window, hey, all the better.

Monday morning...

The man sitting next to me on the train is looking at a porno mag. That's one way to start off a beautiful Monday morning. 

Dedication...

Let me know if you ever see a train station employee vacuuming the tiles at the station near you. 

Some places just do things better. 

Landslide...

Below is the culprit behind the Tokkaido Line getting shut down. Watching the images on TV, I couldn't really tell how big of a landslide it was. But with the construction trucks here as scale, I understand why this might take a month or two or three to clean up. And that's before mentioning rebuilding that retaining wall.

I spent yesterday devising various plans of feasibility for getting to work. Some of the plans were so ludicrous I might as well have said I would just run a marathon to and from work every day. However, in the end, the train company said they would honor the commuter passes they had sold before the landslide, and allow those passengers with the passes to ride the faster shinkansen bullet trains for no added charge. Problem solved.

Out of order 2...

Whatever I said about inclement weather in the recent past I take back. There were landslides in my area causing the main train line (the essential artery to life) to be shut down indefinitely. Even the road near the train line was affected. The only way people can commute from one side to the other is by toll roads or bullet train. I live in the big city and commute out. The poor folks going the opposite way got to face this line today at the bullet train stop. (And that's on top of paying the bullet train fee.)

Honestly, I think I'd just call my boss/teacher/loved one and tell them I'm going to be 3 hours late and go enjoy breakfast somewhere until the line dissipated.

Out of order...

Some people aren't big fans of inclement weather. But don't count me among them. I'm just a lazy guy who appreciates the day off of work.  

The trains don't run during typhoons.

Green in gray...

There's not much green in suburban Japan, at least not within the housing areas, anyway. But the people in every town I've ever been usually try to add what color they can in the ubiquitous gray.

Maybe you think it doesn't make much aesthetic difference, but I like knowing that people try. 

We shouldn't just let things go.

Ramen...

There was a ramen festival in town. I like ramen. Ramen is bad for you, especially the ones I had. I say "ones" because I went both days.  The first ramen had broth like gravy and the egg yolk helped that gravy cling to the al dente noodles. Both bowls probably shortened my life by about three days. 

No matter. 

I'd do it again in a ramen-infused heartbeat.

Changes not changing...

I like writing about the changing of the seasons in Japan. Coming from northern California where we really only have two seasons (nice and not that nice), living in a place that has four distinct seasons helps to delineate the year. 12 months isn't over until you've gone a full cycle of the seasons and moved the clothes from the back of your closet to the front, only to put them away again when the temperatures change. That's a much better way of measuring the passage of time than tearing pages off a calendar, if you ask me. 

I was all set to talk about how the weather, as usual, turned on a dime, when today's remnants of a typhoon turned that dime back another 180 degrees and brought back the humidity and heat. Ugh. Sweat upon layer of sweat upon layer of sweat. Guess I'm keeping those shorts and tank tops on the frontlines a bit longer after all. 

Interesting business strategy...

The sign is for a Thai massage.

It reads: 20 minutes for 1,000 yen, 30 minutes for 2,000 yen.

I don't get it. Is this some kind of Apple-style strategy of pricing your items against your other items to create a sense of value? If not, who would ever get the 30-minute massage when 2 20-minute massages would be the same price but 33% longer?

Taste Joy...

I've never had an ice cream cone so good that it made me O-face. Have you?

(Seen in Penang)

Colorless San Jose and two years of grad school...

After 8 years of living in Japan, I decided -- more or less on a whim -- that it was time to go home and challenge myself to do something new.

That "something new" turned out to be a masters degree in Education in the town where I grew up.

For two years I was a student. I spent time with my family playing Super Uncle for my many deviously cute nieces and nephews. When I didn't have class, I ran the trails around the bay area, and on weekends I'd get reacquainted with old friends who, surprisingly, remained great friends. I spent every day enjoying the comfortable confines of northern California.

For two years things were really good, really easy. But without me recognizing it, they also became a bit drab, more gray where there used to be blues and yellows. I don't think anything about home actually changed: the weather is still great, the food is mostly delicious with a wide breadth and easy access, and time with the family was as enjoyable as ever. But having spent so much of my life in foreign countries experiencing new things and constantly being surprised by the vagaries of the world, things in the US seemed to lack that splash of vibrant color. My hometown, at 31, looked duller. The reds were somehow less red than I remembered them to be.

So when I was just short of finishing my degree, I -- more or less on a whim -- made arrangements with my professors to finish those last few months of school online, and returned to the school where I used to work in Japan. The timing was perfect, like the world was colluding to help me find that jacket in just the right shade of blue.

Why did I do it? The picture above.

While walking with a friend and my sister and her two kids, who were visiting at the time, we came across a temple built on the side of a mountain surrounded by a bamboo forest. Once inside, we saw endless rows of these beautiful lanterns, set up for a festival to honor the dead. So we made like tourists and took pictures running and jumping and laughing in all those lanterns, in all those wonderful colors I only find in places that aren't home.

Things you don't always find...

Two energy drinks and a wig on the train tracks. Someone either had a really good time or a really bad time. Not sure there's really any in between.

Messages...

I taught the kids how to express different levels of infatuation. One of the phrases was "I'm crazy about ..."

For my birthday, one of the homerooms gave me a bag of snacks. In it was this.

 

Little messages like this make teaching a pretty awesome gig.

 

Summer...

There are a few times in life when a moment can exceed even your greatest expectations -- there aren't many things better than that. Bagan was one of those moments. Out of the places that I've been in the world, these temples rank right up there with the most beautiful, awe-inspiring things I've ever seen.

Ker and I spent the afternoon running through the temples, climbing them, crawling on hands and knees, exploring, admiring. And in the evenings we stood at the highest point and looked for the next temple to explore. With over 3,000 still standing, there was always a next temple.