I was about to use the cliche “Time flies”, but I’ve been science-minded lately, and I know if Steven Hawking reading this, he would figure out a way to gruesomely wheelchair over those words a thousand times. In fact, he’s probably already figured out the way. Most gods seem to have been born as gods, but if there is a person who can figure out how to become a god, it would be Steven Hawking (assuming he hasn’t already.) So, there’s that, and then there’s what I really meant to talk about. I continue…

A few days ago I was chatting on AIM with a friend I met here in a city near mine called Niihama. He’s a pianist and singer that graduated from University of Northern Iowa who came to Japan with his boyfriend and was trying to make it here as a musician. As you might know, Japan is very inflexible and conservative when it comes to foreigners living in their country; It’s next-to-impossible to live here for life from my understanding. For example, another one of my friend’s friends was told that if he wanted to continue working here, he’d have to pass the JLPT 1, which is the most difficult foreigner Japanese test offered by the Japanese Government – 2000 kanji (Chinese pictographs) and 10,000 vocabulary words along with all the grammar must be memorized if you want to assure your passage. So, they obviously don’t want foreigners to stay here. With that said, my friend was able to get a whopping 1-year artist visa (sponsored by a local taiko drum sensei.) Not knowing when he obtained the visa, I asked him when he is leaving and I believe he said September. “Oh, I thought you said it was for a year…” I questioned. “Right, I got sponsored in September.” “Seriously? When I met you, you didn’t have your visa yet.” “We met in mid-August.” “Gee, really? It feels like only a couple months ago…” So this is my reminder to try and make the most out of everyday here. The winter has had more of an impact on me than my confidence had predicted.

When I got back from my visit to Chicago in December, the jet lag I experienced for the couple weeks after never quite seemed to have left me. If I ever denied my need to socialize with humanoids such as myself, then I was truly oblivious to my heart…Despite how much I loathe waking up early for work, I enjoy the social aspect of being at the school (even though I can’t really verbally communicate with most of the people there.) The students especially are often the meat-and-potatoes that enable me to comfortably work my way through this journey of this time in my life that is Japan. Like in many societies, the aging process from child to adult many times (but not always) includes an increase in serious disposition. Especially in Japan, when adults are at work, this seems to hold very true. Whenever they’re not working they seem to be some of the most relaxed people one could ever meet, though. Since I only see the teachers when I’m at school, I tend to resonate with the playfulness of the students more since they have yet to make that olympic-sized jump into a more adult-like disposition. However, this is not to say that some of these students don’t have adult like qualities. I was profoundly surprised at the level of respect and curiosity some of the students showed. Unfortunately the opposite holds strong in existence, too. I suppose without the disrespectful, there would be no respectful, and vice-versa. My point is this: Thanks to organic lifeforms (excluding the occasional fly in my apartment but including the flora in the local park) I mentally survived my first winter here. Now, spring is penetrating the winter wall, poking its head through, and it feels oh-so-good.

This month: From the 26th, students have spring break, so I’m either going to Seoul, Shanghai, or Okinawa for 5 days or so. I’m leaning toward Okinawa because, while I’m a sucker for experiencing new countries, I’ve never been to the tropics before and I think I could use a relaxing week on the beach.

April/May: Matt leaves April 30th and arrives here May 1st. I will meet him tokyo and he will enjoy the awesomness of Japan and a foreign country for the first time.