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Archive for the ‘Living in Japan’ Category
Anyway, it was a good for us to get out. The photo is of us in from of a big cherry tree. Guess you can’t see the tree, but then who really cares what the cherry trees look like anyway; damn things only bloom for one week anyway. PS: Tomoko hates this picture of her. Typical woman. I can’t believe my wife called me “papasan.” It was the first time in a very long time. I must be doing something right. Ah, that’s right. I AM doing something right. Allow me to explain how to get back on your wife’s good side. Stop drinking. I don’t mean stopping completely. That would be asking too much. I’m only human. But stop missing the last train, sleeping in until 2:00 and stinking up the house. Stop spending more than your allowance. Or in my case - just stop spending. That means you are going to have to sacrifice seeing the only people in this world that keep you from dying a long death. You might as well just put on a black suit and carry around a briefcase wherever you go. Learn how NOT to say “why,” ask questions or make requests that have anything to do with having fun. Because as we all know, having fun costs money and usually includes drinking. Learn more Japanese. Ahem… yeah so um. Pretty easy. OH. I forgot. Find a really good job. LOL! Man. I hope this recipe works; otherwise, I’m f$#%ed. Speaking Japanese for more than two hours makes me tired. If I have to speak to an older person, then you can bring that down to an hour. So, it gets very difficult if I have to keep on my toes and try to say what I really want to say later in the conversation. Sometimes I think its just to hard to say some things or simply I just don’t care to explain myself. When this happens I may tend to look as if I don’t care. But if I pull the silent treatment, that gets translated into many different things since in Japan, silence means more than words. A few weeks ago I had a meeting with a real minister about getting work to be a wedding celebrant. The minister is about 70 years old. If you have ever spoken to older Japanese, you’ll understand when I say I couldn’t understand a word he was saying. For two hours I had to sit there and nod to this and that while he explained the origins of weddings and probably what life was like 40 years ago. While his hands were shaking, I took paper after paper from him and tried to act as if I understood what the bazillion kanji meant. He pointed here and there and looked up at me every 5 minutes or so. He seemed content and never gave up while as I had given up after the first 60 minutes. Luckily for me, I live with a Japanese. That means I am able to listen to Japanese everyday. I could understand enough to reply with a question that was at least in the ballpark. When it was time for me to ask questions, I would try to ask the three or four most important ones, including “When?”, “Where?”, and “Who do I meet?” After a few rounds of asking those, I had a pretty good idea of what was to happen next. I could understand what I needed to “bring” and “sign” and “when” he was going to “contact” me. …. It’s been a couple weeks since that interview and I have had quite a few phone calls with him. Things are better know because I can understand his vocabulary. He’s getting easier to understand. He understands that when there is nothing happening on a particular day that he should not explain why, and to just say “Kyou wa nashi,” today is nothing. It works, and we both understand each other. The job is going well. I can’t understand my son about 60% of the time; especially when he’s shooting of those bad words to complain about something. Last night he was saying he wanted a Wii. Tomoko doesn’t like video games, and letting Kai play DS for hours is a real torture for her. He only does his homework for about 5 minutes and then turns to the DS or watches Animax on TV. He does play with friends outside. Anyway, he was asking for this Wii and Tomoko was telling him that he doesn’t study enough and plays DS too much. That’s why he doesn’t have a Wii. To which Kai’s reply is something along the lines of , “Nah ahh. You just don’t care. We’re a poor family.” What do you think I should have done in this situation? If you live in Japan, and you’re a father, you probably answered, “Nothing. Let the wife take care of it.” Well. I don’t like that answer one bit. He’s my son. He deserves a father who lays down the law at times and bites back when needed. So I took his DS and hurled it across the room thinking it would make Tomoko happy and force Kai to study more. But noooooooo…. totally wrong move. Tomoko turned on me and went up one side and down the other, putting me back in place. (By the way, if it breaks you can send it back to Nintendo and they’ll fix it or replace for free.) Advice. If you are going to have a child in Japan with a Japanese wife, expect to be treated like a salaryman: never home and silently “dis”respected. Finally! It’s been quite a long vacation, 10 hour work weeks for the last 16 months. Nice you might say, but stressful more like it. Money has been pretty dismal and my social life has been demolished. But thanks to the Japan lifestyle, I have been able to survive. I’ve been studying and waiting for the right opportunities to surface and it finally looks like things are going to turn around. I was offered another gig teaching a couple nights a week that will pay over 4,000 an hour, as well as picking up the wedding work on weekends. Together with the university work I should come out all right. Whew. I’ll have more stuff to write about and I don’t have to drink happoshu as often. Yeah. I might even be able to get out of the house again. Yesterday I had a private lesson with a student who is working for an accounting firm. He told me they are leaving today for an eight day business trip to Germany in which they will be securing new clients. The problem was that one of the accountants asked to go, and the only one who can speak English well, decided to quit a few days ago. He mentioned that he tried to call me on Thursday but that my phone didn’t work (he dialed the wrong number). He said he was going to ask if I could go to Germany with them to do some translating and that they would have paid me one million yen to go ($10,000.00USD)!! The co-worker has since decided to go..gee, I wonder why. |
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We went to the zoo today to spend some quality time together. I hooked Kai up with camera so he could take pictures of the animals. It was good fun having him take control for the day. He ran from cage to cage clicking off photos of his favorite animals while we dodged the crowds to find him. I’ll try to scan the artwork he’s making right now and post it later. 
Peace.
so uhm yeah, greetings from an half irish half arabic guy that lives in germany! ah and start making more podcasts, like 3 a week 
Senzoku - Stable wedding job:
A Recessionary Christmas:
Are we going to have a Christmas this year?:
Public Baths - Sentos:
I'm sorry. It was my fault.:
Meyer's Briggs...ENTJ:
The ride up slows down...lessons learned:
DJ and Shamisen:
World's oldest man turns 113:
Things are looking better...but:
I just get sick now - alcohol:
Is it worth it to go to Japan?:
Podcast Episode #89:
16 things it takes most of us 50 years to learn:
Sex doesn't sell in Japan?:
They treat me like a child...why?:
Podcast Episode #88:
Anki - Studying Japanese - Motivation: