Incredible That I Get Paid

This month's been going pretty well. I had my last class at 宮古川井高校 (Kawai HS) 2 fridays ago, meaning that since last week I've had friday off and will continue to have friday off until the end of my contract. This, paired with the incredible frequency of nat'l holidays in Japan make 4 day weekends a very likely possibility - this coming weekend is such an example: I've got Thursday through Sunday off. Tack on to that the fact that because 宮古高校 (Miyako HS) is testing this week I don't have any classes, and I've had one hell of an easy ride this month.

Still, I have to be in school during the testing, which is at once unnacceptably lame and a great opportunity to get other work done. Like I mentioned in my last (2nd to last?) post, I've been pursuing a much more productive lifestyle of late, so while I'm at school but outside of the classroom/not planning, I'm either reading or studying. I just finished Pollan's 'In Defense of Food' which was alright if brief, and am now working on Dick's 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep' (for those Blade Runner fans out there, I'm sure that title'll ring a bell). In addition I've developed something of a regime for studying Japanese, mostly practicing writing and different readings (most if not all chinese characters used in Japanese (known as Kanji) have at least 2 different readings, and this number can increase significantly) while at school. I usually do memorization/drill stuff at home.

And speaking of studying Japanese, I just put an order in for a bunch of study materials for the 日本語能力試験二級 (Nihongo Nouryoku Shiken Ni-kyuu, also known as the Japanese Language Proficiency Test, 2nd Tier) which I'm wicked excited about. Granted, I've been studying what I could find online for the test, but considering the difficulty of this test (perhaps most notalbly, this iteration of the government-sponsored exam features upwards of 900 separate kanji) I figured it wouldn't be a bad idea to spend a little bit of cash on it. All told, all the stuff I ordered only cost around $50, so I'm really not at all put out by it. This order I put in is also my first experience using the totally rad Japanese system of sending products ordered online to a local Lawson convenience store for COD pick-up, no credit card required.

So aside from that, and the exercise routine I've also been sticking to, what the hell do I do around here? Good question. Its getting kind of warm recently, though I can't imagine this'll stick around, so I've been going on photo hunts occasionally; There was a party at a local bar, Mecca, last weekend that turned out pretty OK; I've been doing a bit of travelling to the surrounding areas to visit friends/coworkers(in particular Iwaizumi, Morioka, and soon Kamaishi); playing a LOT of guitar, for which I'm seriously considering throwing down 3K yen or so for this shitty used amp at a local thrift store... better than nothing, and hell with the kind of damage I'm looking to do, a shitty amp just might be the ticket.

The guitar thing is definitely a sore point for me, if there are any, about living out here, though - I have not yet been able to find ANYONE to play with, and really have no idea what channels to go through to find that info out, if there are any at all. Practicing is great and all, but without any opportunities to implement what I know, it gets old pretty fast. That paired with my recording equipment still being busted, I can't really do too much of anything but practice modes, chords, and number sequences.

So all in all, life's pretty good. Cooking a lot of my own food, with a LOT of that-day fresh fish, getting into better shape, learning a good deal more Japanese, getting better at guitar despite the lack of any real opportunity to show that off, and basically honing whatever willpower I had when I arrived here into something sharper by my, and mine alone, conscious efforts.

Oh, and I think I might be at another threshhold with Japanese - over the past few days I've noticed my speaking ability has partially shut down. The first few times this happened, I was a bit put off/freaked out because the words and grammar just don't come when I try to summon them (though I understand all that's being said to me, and reading or writing are still 100% intact). Now, though, but I'm now familiar with this feeling as being that which immediately precedes my break through to another, at least relatively higher, level of familiarity with the language. Just gotta wait it out.