Second last day of the year and nearly 2 months since my last post in this here blog. OK, I’m finally in a typing mood, yay! (writing’s not my forte; I’m much more visual..). So you ask, what’s happened in the last two months???

November
Moved to Marunouchi - a stone’s throw from Nagoya station, Nagoya Castle, and the downtown area. Surprisingly there’s no Macdonalds within 4 blocks. I’ve yet to take photos of the location or my abode, but have some of the living room as we were figuring out how to best fit the two sofas, table and chairs within the room while maximising space. The current configuration has my sofa (yes I obtained a sofa) in my smaller-than-gokiso (but-really-cosy) room. Two weeks ago I found mold growing on the wall around the window, which obviously was due to having the humidifier on and the big temperature difference between inside and outside (the walls are bricks, but they don’t seem to have any insulation.. no surprises there from Japanese architecture). I haven’t had that on since and left the window ajar at night and it hasn’t really grown back since. But the new place is very nice I’m all settled in finally after two months. I’ve nearly finished organising my room. I have an unbelievable amount of stuff. Oh well, looks more homely.

Resigned from Nova on the 9th. Good choice so far. They’re still screwing students and now teachers again.

Looked for a new Job. Had an interview with GABA on the 7th. Was called back for a second interview. Didn’t hear back from them for a few days then got a phone call asking if I could work the next day. Kinda unprofessional and it’s didn’t seem like a good company for a full time job (pay isn’t guaranteed, no paid holidays etc). Nova finally sent me my job separation certificates that I need to claim unemployment insurance (only 5 days illegally late). Received my first paycheck from said insurance on Christmas Day. The ‘7 day waiting time’ to start receiving benefits is so misinformed. It was also only pay for 16 days so was only half a month’s pay, and just enough for my rent and some food, but not a few bills. Nova owes me around half a million yen (around AU$5k) in unpaid wages. It’s still uncertain when we’ll receive 80% of our wages. It’s crazy that there’s a near infinite amount of paperwork that they go through when they already know we’re elegible for the payment, they already know what we’re owed (it took Nova 15 days to calculate thousands of paychecks every month, and already know our back details, addresses etc. So many people over here are so frustrated. I reckon I’ll get it before Xmas next year. Hopefully around springtime though. In the meantime I’ve had a few private students to keep me going a little, but recently they’ve all become too busy…

Voted.

Went to a few going away parties. Cody had one celebrated with a Brasillian bbq, where lunch was 99.9% meat (big sausages and apparently aussie steak). That was sooo yummy! Here I also met a wonderful new friend

Found the first new series of Dr Who on Japanese TV, right where I left off watching it in Australia. yay~~

Had my first Thanksgiving dinner with a bunch of friends.

Visited Nagoya Castle.

Went with an English student to Korankei, a really famous place for Autumn leaf viewing (250+ photos), and even better viewing at night.

Walked around a park/free zoo in Okazaki (more red leaf photography) with my new friend, followed by karaoke and purikura.

Saw Yellowcard (a US pop/punk band with a violinist) live. That was totally awesome. Might have fallen …

Showed an Aussie mate, Mel, around Nagoya, who had some free time from her Martial Arts schedule. Held some Wolverine claws in a Martial Arts shop.

December
Mak visited and went to see Glay (a really really famous jpop band that dresses in Goth but has happy positive feel-good love songs) live in Yokosuka, just south of Yokohama (near Tokyo). Had a cold and gave it to Mak whose temperature skyrocketed and stopped our plans to go snowboarding/skiiing in Nagano a few days later. Went to Akihabara, and wasted some money on an awesome shuriken keyring. Cut the holiday here short for a sudden interview with W5 Staff Services.

Had a successful interview and signed a contract with W5. I’ll start working as an Assistant Language Teacher at 4 elementary schools and 2 junior high schools in Kasugai city, about half an hour away from Nagoya station from the 10th of January until the end of March. My first payday is at the end of February, so I’m going to have to ask kindly for some sort of advance payment. Should be lots of fun though - team teaching to a group of 35 kids

As the colder weather has (at times) stopped my graphics card from overheating, I had my first AAL race in nearly two years. Good fun

Christmas eve was mostly uneventful, but the Christmas lights that Nova never used brightened up the day. Cheers

Went to a Bounenkan (literally a ‘forget the year’ party) with an ex-workmate’s host family in Komaki. There was too much food to choose from, and much alcohol. Was also invited by one of their friends to meet a 6th Dan Iai practitioner who speaks English.

Today I met said Iai practitioner, Todoroki-san, who showed me his collection of swords and Japanese samurai tradition. I was then suddenly overwhelmed by a showering of gifts, including a 40 year old video of Iaido Kata (techniques) and sword making, a neck-tie holding thing (that’s one English word I never learnt.. what’s it called?) that’s made from a handmade part of a sword that I have to learn the name of (one of the two metal bits between the handle and the woven grip), a sword bag, a sword inner-bag (my vocab is crumbling down), and an iaito (katana for iai practice). Yes. I couldn’t believe it. It’s slightly shorter than my sword acquired last year through Matsuoka sensei, but has a better balance, has a wider blade (wide as in the blunt and sharp edges are further apart), and is very easy to practice suburi with. I took some photos of his swords and must print them for him as a thankyou.

Tomorrow I’m going to Nagoya station at 6.40am to go snowboarding in Gifu somewhere with Leith, who’s in Japan for a holiday. It looks like New Years Eve will be a fun and tiring day, followed by a small new years’ party at a friend’s apartment.

I guess that’s most of the highlights for the moment
Ooh yeah one more thing, I found out how to make photo planets! More on that next year. Or later tonight.

Edit: Oh! I also went to my first Onsen (Hot spring). It was so relaxing. It was also a mixed onsen, but there were no other younger people there…

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 30th, 2007 at 9:19 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.