Cherry Blossoms in Nishinasuno

Because the cherry blossoms are starting to appear in Tokyo, I thought I would sort of honor that event with the photo up above. 

It was taken in Nishinasuno-machi (Nichinasuno Town) back in 1992, 20 years ago.

It has my classic photographic elements - a real image across the middle, a reflection below, and an over-hanging branch in the foreground up above. What is odd, is that the sky is blue rather than filled with ominous, dark grey rain clouds.

After all of that, you may also have noticed that the photo is not quite in focus... that it's not as sharp as it should be. No... it's not your computer monitor. It's the photo (sigh).

For those who know (and those of you who don't), during this epic time if the year, one's office often sends a couple of representatives out to a park to stake out prime real estate under a cherry tree in bloom. They could be sitting out there all day until the mid- to late-afternoon when the rest of the office shows up to begin the hanami enkai (flower viewing party - though for the Japanese, it's usually cherry blossoms that are viewed). 

I'm unsure how much actual cherry blossom viewing goes on after the first few minutes upon arrival, because very quickly alcoholic beverages and a modicum of snacks and food are brought out.

After way too much drinking of wobbly pops (beer) and o-sake (Japanese rice wine), people get drunk. Bums get pinched. Promises get made. Friendships are cemented. And someone probably pees themselves in laughter after the gaijin (foreigner)  - let's say me - makes everyone laugh with some stupid Japanese line he picked up from watching Shimura Ken on television.

Like I said...  people are drinking... and drinking, and for a change of pace, there is more drinking.

Pretty soon, everybody's vision gets blurry.

And that is what this photo represents. Really.

Or... as is more than likely, I may indeed suffer from astigmatism, which means I have trouble completely focusing my eyes from time to time, and what I thought was a great photo, is really just a blur... much like the drinking party. Ahem.

Like I said... this photo was taken by myself in Nishinasuno... I live and work in the big city next door of Ohtawara-shi, Tochigi-ken. My OBOE (Ohtawara Board of Education) office party would not be held in Nishinasuno. It would be held, more than likely on the grounds of the ruins of Ohtawara-jo (Ohtawara Castle)... if there were any actual ruins. It's just a big park. I've been sitting on a blog about this place for a month now...

Anyhow... after my office party in Ohtawara - you should NEVER bring anything that takes a photograph to any sort of party where there may be drinking, by the way - the next day I rode my bicycle out to Nishinasuno and found this wonderful vista by getting lost - something I could do with remarkable ease in Japan. That's when I took the photo above. I need to get my eyes looked at.

Cheers (kanpai)
Andrew Joseph

When Love Comes To Town

It's December 6, 1991. For some reason, I have placed a larger asterisk on the first page of my diary. All I know is I'm unsure if I want to find out.

I'm at the OBOE (Ohtawara Board of Education) - my office where I work once a week as a respite from teaching at one of the seven junior high schools in Ohtawara-shi, Tochigi-ken, Japan.

I've been here for 16 months. I must be comfortable here, because I've put on weight - unless I'm the type of guy who eats when he is stressed. I'm only stressed or uncomfortable because of my women problems: both Japanese women and foreign women, and my current streak of no women, just those who sleep with me when it is convenient to them.

Man... I am so out of shape. I'm going to get back in shape! Eat well, but not everything. That should be my mantra. Tomorrow I will take a long overdue bicycle ride all over Ohtawara. Jogging at 6AM. A half-hour - maybe 20 minutes to start.

Am I effing crazy, or what? This will never happen.

I go to the OBOE and ask for a new set of business cards (meishi) - I've given away 500 in 16 months, and request my work schedule for the next three months. I get both by the afternoon.

It's a standard office goof day for me. I write some letters, write a story, study a bit of kanji to make people think I am 'getting' this language. I may love Japan, but I do not 'get' the language. I don't even get English.

After work, I head home. Matthew, who teaches at five junior high schools on the outskirts of the city (now actually a part of Ohtawara in 2012), comes over and we watch some Simpsons episodes.
 
We then ride out to the Nishinasuno Wedding Hall for a party (enkai). It's a get to know the local gaijin (foreigner) party hosted by the a social club. It's cool. People want to talk to me as I drink. And drink I do. But I talk to everyone who wants a piece of me and enjoy myself and the sake (Japanese rice wine).

It's a good thing I ate some French toast before arriving here - because there wasn't any food. I don't see Matthew, so I assume he's found a pretty woman to chat up. Me? I see Ashley, my ex-girlfriend, and supposed friend-with-benefit—though I am at a loss to see what benefit I am getting out of this.

Still... despite being stood up on US Thanksgiving - a day in with I blew ¥40,000 (~$500 Cdn/US) on a turkey dinner with all the fixings... and hating her guts... I still  invite her over later tonight to watch Edward Scissorhands. Johnny Depp HAS to help me get laid!

Anyhow, back at my place, the movie is over and the clock strikes 12:00AM - midnight... the witching hour.

Ashley says she's going home. Okay. I'm not stupid. We didn't touch all evening. We haven't kissed in weeks. Or hugged (I might have hugged her, but it wasn't returned).

She's changed her tune.

Being a former newspaper journalist with the Toronto Star, I'm used to being quite direct in getting answers to questions, so I say 'fug it'  and ask her.

I want to know 'who' and 'why'. Basically, I want to know what changed her tune.

This is the part I asterisked. Crap. Maybe I should end the friggin' blog here so avoid further embarrassment. And just recall that just yesterday, I was giving relationship advice to a Japanese woman. Is it too late to apologize to her?

* After much evasion, Ashley finally decides to tell me that: "In every relationship there is always someone who loves the other more."

Bull-crap! (I originally wrote something much more expressive than that!) If I believed that, I would never want to get married, and would encourage others against it. Isn't marriage supposed to be a caring, give-and-take relationship?

If it is uneven, it's not a fair relationship, and no matter how much counseling or psycho-therapy, people revert to whom they are, and the relationship will disintegrate.

I tell her that. I don't have the luxury of her nearly 24 years to formulate this... I had seconds.

She is nodding in acquiescence at everything—right or wrong—and the sight of her doing so infuriates me, as it looks like she thinks I'm crazy... so I help her out.

I call her a cruel, cold and calculating bitch.

I continue, stating that while I am exceedingly calculating, I am not cold. I've always believed in that Beatles' axiom: "The love you take is equal to the love you make."

Is that love in its simplest form? I've always been a black or white guy - never grey.

That said and done, she picks up her stuff an leaves - thankfully without a word.

I'm probably a little buzzed, but I'm not drunk. I've become the type of guy who can drink like a fish and function... I'm unsure, of course, if I function properly, though.

Still, I call up Karen Irwin in Yaita. Karen wants me for a boyfriend, But I just want to get laid, not tied down. You know what I mean. It sounds strange coming from a guy who wants love... but Ashley and I were just screwing - why can't we do that until love comes to town?

Karen is still up, so I avoid that hassle of waking her up... but I harangue her about Ashley and then hang-up on her when I don't get the answers I want.

Karen was the root of Ashley stopping sleeping with me.

No.. Ashley was the root herself... Karen was just a bitch interested in messing things up for her own gain.

But....

Ashley and I....

I feel like it's really over this time....

I feel remarkably at ease...

Somewhere *,
Andrew Joseph
This day was the only time Johnny Depp let me down. Or did I let myself down? Crap.
Today's blog title is by U2 and B.B. King:

         

My Way

Clickety-clack... the roller coaster has reached the top and has reached the apex and is perched precariously.

Today is Friday, November 1, 1991. In eight more days I'll be 27-years-old.

I was a virgin in body only until about 15 months ago when I arrived here in Ohtawara-shi, Tochichi-ken, Japan as a junior high school assistant English teacher (AET) on the JET (Japan Exchange & Teaching) Programme.

It's that lack of experience with women, which is the important factor here as I have been able to handle every single thing Japan has tossed my way. It's just relationships with women which have been tricky.

Not impossible, mind you, but maybe the one I am hung-up on was just to young (23) to know what she wanted yet from life. I know I didn't when I was Ashley's age.

Along with my teaching duties--all seven junior highs in this city, visited once per week that I team-teach with a JTE (Japanese teacher of English) owing to my lack of Japanese language skills--I also am the editor of the prefectural JET newsletter, which I have turned from less of an information based magazine (still plenty of that) to one that is fun to read with lots of stories (in English) to entertain people. It's what I like to do.

It's not as glamorous as I thought it would be, despite having fun creating covers and writing a lot of short stories.

I photocopy some 55, 36-page Tatami Times for my fellow AETs here in Tochigi-ken while I am here at the OBOE (Ohtawara Board of Education) office where I usually spend a Friday writing up a brief report on the week's activity at school. It takes all day, but I am done.

After work, there is an enkai (a party) to celebrate Kanemaru-san's 20th year as a civil servant and Iso-san's 30th year in this same office. At first I questioned their ambition, but I quickly remembered that the Japanese tend to get a job and hold it for life.

That doesn't sound so bad (especially when back in Toronto people are losing their jobs due to the recession that is just starting).

Kanemaru-san (Mister Kanemaru) is one of my two bosses here in Japan. He's also my friend. He and Hanazaki-san have gone what I feel is above and beyond their work duty to make sure that I am comfortable and happy and safe here in Japan... to make sure I have a wonderful rife. Each, I have noticed, has always taken the time to correct other Japanese people who come up and talk to them about me... making sure each knows that I am NOT a gaijin (foreigner), but that I am An-do-ryu-sensei (Andrew teacher). It means a lot that they care enough to do that, even though I don't take any insult at being called a gaijin. I know it's a type of ignorance and is not borne out of any hatred or implied insult.

Hey... it's my job here to internationalize... to help as many people in this country get used to people not Japanese. I think I'm doing alright with the  Japanese. My problems are more with the stupid gaijin here.

Mrs Iso... she's a dear sweet lady who always has a smile on her face and I love to death... I wish we could communicate better.

I give Kanemaru-san an Inuit soap stone sculpture of a wold on his haunches howling. It reminds me of him, especially when I watch him at our kyudo (Japanese archery) lesson... alone and strong.

To Iso-san (Mrs. Iso), I give a plaque with pressed Canadian flowers on it. Here's some advice folks... when going to live in Japan for a while, bring plenty of gifts from your home country to present to folks who have been kind or helpful to you. Plenty!!!! I'd also suggest coins, stamps and pins, tie pins as well as small gifts. People love to have something from a country they may never get to visit. I think.

At the party, there is plenty of drinking. I just take small sips for perhaps the first time in my life, with the express purpose of not getting hammered. There's also lots of eating. I really do beg off on the heavy drinking I have become infamous for here in Japan. I say I am sick still. Which may or may not be incorrect.

Crap! (I actually wrote a word that rhymes with 'luck') I spilled a bottle of sake (Japanese rice wine) on Superintendent Fukasawa's coat. Thank-god he wasn't wearing it at the time.

I didn't know it until now... but it was his birthday today. I tell him I have something for him, but I did forget it at home. I'm telling ya - always have something in reserve! In this it case, I'm thinking a bottle of whiskey reserve. Scraping the the bottom of the barrel this way is actually a goof thing.

Kanemaru-san and I bond some more over his heavy drinking. He is like a second father to me here. He even does a karaoke song and says it is for his good friend An-do-ryu.

Finally! Someone who is a bad singer!!!

When he's done, they want me to sing. The closest thing they have at this bar is 'My Way' the old Frank Sinatra/Sex Pistols song. Guess which version I know?

Anyhow... it's all moot as there are no English words on the karaoke machine. Whew!

The party is over at 8PM, and I walk the four minutes over to my apartment.

Ashley is asleep in my bed. I let her sleep until 8:30PM, wake her up, make her some eggs and bacon and watch La Bamba before we go to sleep. Just sleep. And that's fine by me.

Somewhere enjoying the view from the top,
Andrew Joseph
Today's blog title is by the Sex Pistols, of course. I have always loved the Sex Pistols and Dead Kennedy's - and always respected the punk bands for doing things not the way people expected them to do things. I never walked the walk or talked the talk or dressed the dress... but I liked how the music screamed at me. Just call me a suburban punk. It's what I called myself.I heard that phrase on the classic movie Repo Man.