It's Wednesday, October 23, 1991 here in Ohtawara-shi, Tochigi-ken, Japan. It's pretty chilly outside, but this is my second autumn here, and I'm from Toronto, so the weather doesn't really bother me - at least not enough to whine about.
This week, I'm visiting the small, old school called Chikasono Chu Gakko (Chikasono Junior High School), one of the city's seven middle schools I visit each week.
This place, has always been a strange one for me. Everyone is nice at this school surrounded by rice and corn fields - it's like I'm stuck in a cereal box! - but they aren't completely, over the top nice... kind of what I am used to getting from every other school but one (Kaneda Kita Chu Gakko - where the teachers are great, a few students, too... but the rest make me sad and angry).
That's why I am surprised that I had fun at school today. The students were all genki (fine and energetic), the English classes were boisterous, the students were even interactive with myself and the other teachers... so it sucks when I have to get driven home early because there's a teachers meeting! Sucks... but I like my free time!
By the way... I had brought my Japanese red maple leaf bonsai tree to school As I am sure most of you are aware, a bonsai tree is the dwarfing a regular-sized tree via pruning and tree binding... wrapping limbs with copper wire to bend it to the desirable form of one's choosing.
I call bonsai, tree bondage, and find that it turns me on.
Anyhow, perverse musings aside for the nonce, Uetake-san (pronounced ooh-eh-tah-kay) looks at the pathetic tree of mine and proclaims: "Not enough water."
Actually, he says it in Japanese, and I need a proper translation from anyone... fortunately the caretaker (ie janitor) is there and provides that. How is it that the guy with the worst academic school record can provide a Japanese to English translation before anyone else in that damn office - including the Japanese teacher of English who was lost in his own thoughts about how to soup up his car.
Anyhow... I tell Mr. Uetake that I water my bonsai tree everyday.
He sticks a finger into the enamel pot, pulls up a root, snaps it between two fingers and says: "Too much water."
This he says in English.
Crap.
But through further translation from the janitor, I learn that the roots are rotting out and that my bonsai tree will probably die.
I go home and stare at my bonsai tree until Ashley comes over.
We're supposed to go to kyu-do (Japanese archery) lessons today, but we don't feel like it... after all... I have a fake cracked rib courtesy of an Ashley-thrown sake (Japanese fermented rice wine) shot glass - and Ashley is just a lazy bitc... no... I won't complete that thought.
So... Ashley and I sit in my toasty warm apartment and talk and kiss.
It seems that mutual friend Karen (who likes me and wants me for a boyfriend) had asked her friend Ashley (who is my ex-girlfriend with benefits) whether or not we are still sleeping together.
Ah... that must have been why I was yelled by Karen on Monday evening.
Ashley truthfully told Karen that we hadn't slept together in a month. Crap. Has it been that long? Oh well... thank goodness for all of the other women I've been sleeping with.
I've been here in Japan for 15 months now... and while I arrived here with no knowledge of the country, including social customs or language, and was a virgin, I am now confident enough to know I can sleep with damn near any Japanese women I choose... or any woman I choose, for that matter.
Chalk it up to 'desperation breeding tiny monsters', but back in 1990 and 1991, I chose poorly. That's something I hope to rectify in the future.
Anyhow... I don't get total sex, but like talking, there is some oral satisfaction.
I reassure her that all of the crap from the past is past (like hell) and that I am here for her.
She trusts me again, and as a sign of good will I give her almost all of the booze in my place. It would have been all of it, but her backpack was stretched to overflowing...
In keeping with the evening, I don't ride her home, and collapse into my Queen-sized bed feeling very tired.
By the way... she left at 2AM. What the hell? I'm the one that can stay up that late... she's usually toast by 10AM or earlier! I guess she doesn't have work tomorrow.
But I do. Crap!
Somewhere I can't see the trees for the forest,
Andrew Joseph
Today's blog title is performed by U2, of course.
This week, I'm visiting the small, old school called Chikasono Chu Gakko (Chikasono Junior High School), one of the city's seven middle schools I visit each week.
This place, has always been a strange one for me. Everyone is nice at this school surrounded by rice and corn fields - it's like I'm stuck in a cereal box! - but they aren't completely, over the top nice... kind of what I am used to getting from every other school but one (Kaneda Kita Chu Gakko - where the teachers are great, a few students, too... but the rest make me sad and angry).
That's why I am surprised that I had fun at school today. The students were all genki (fine and energetic), the English classes were boisterous, the students were even interactive with myself and the other teachers... so it sucks when I have to get driven home early because there's a teachers meeting! Sucks... but I like my free time!
By the way... I had brought my Japanese red maple leaf bonsai tree to school As I am sure most of you are aware, a bonsai tree is the dwarfing a regular-sized tree via pruning and tree binding... wrapping limbs with copper wire to bend it to the desirable form of one's choosing.
I call bonsai, tree bondage, and find that it turns me on.
Anyhow, perverse musings aside for the nonce, Uetake-san (pronounced ooh-eh-tah-kay) looks at the pathetic tree of mine and proclaims: "Not enough water."
Actually, he says it in Japanese, and I need a proper translation from anyone... fortunately the caretaker (ie janitor) is there and provides that. How is it that the guy with the worst academic school record can provide a Japanese to English translation before anyone else in that damn office - including the Japanese teacher of English who was lost in his own thoughts about how to soup up his car.
Anyhow... I tell Mr. Uetake that I water my bonsai tree everyday.
He sticks a finger into the enamel pot, pulls up a root, snaps it between two fingers and says: "Too much water."
This he says in English.
Crap.
But through further translation from the janitor, I learn that the roots are rotting out and that my bonsai tree will probably die.
I go home and stare at my bonsai tree until Ashley comes over.
We're supposed to go to kyu-do (Japanese archery) lessons today, but we don't feel like it... after all... I have a fake cracked rib courtesy of an Ashley-thrown sake (Japanese fermented rice wine) shot glass - and Ashley is just a lazy bitc... no... I won't complete that thought.
So... Ashley and I sit in my toasty warm apartment and talk and kiss.
It seems that mutual friend Karen (who likes me and wants me for a boyfriend) had asked her friend Ashley (who is my ex-girlfriend with benefits) whether or not we are still sleeping together.
Ah... that must have been why I was yelled by Karen on Monday evening.
Ashley truthfully told Karen that we hadn't slept together in a month. Crap. Has it been that long? Oh well... thank goodness for all of the other women I've been sleeping with.
I've been here in Japan for 15 months now... and while I arrived here with no knowledge of the country, including social customs or language, and was a virgin, I am now confident enough to know I can sleep with damn near any Japanese women I choose... or any woman I choose, for that matter.
Chalk it up to 'desperation breeding tiny monsters', but back in 1990 and 1991, I chose poorly. That's something I hope to rectify in the future.
Anyhow... I don't get total sex, but like talking, there is some oral satisfaction.
I reassure her that all of the crap from the past is past (like hell) and that I am here for her.
She trusts me again, and as a sign of good will I give her almost all of the booze in my place. It would have been all of it, but her backpack was stretched to overflowing...
In keeping with the evening, I don't ride her home, and collapse into my Queen-sized bed feeling very tired.
By the way... she left at 2AM. What the hell? I'm the one that can stay up that late... she's usually toast by 10AM or earlier! I guess she doesn't have work tomorrow.
But I do. Crap!
Somewhere I can't see the trees for the forest,
Andrew Joseph
Today's blog title is performed by U2, of course.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment