On being homeless in Japan

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Due to unforeseen circumstances, I find myself with a non-refundable ticket home to America dated August 24th, and an expiring apartment contract on August 1st with no backup place to stay for the intervening 3 weeks. How this came to be is another story. Today, I'm going to focus on what it's like to find oneself in Japan with no place to go.

That's right, I'm homeless! Again!

Also, I'd like to note that I'm very very tired as I write this. ^_^ I last slept in a bed on July 31st, from 7pm to 11pm. It's now August 2nd, 5am.

This all came down minutes before the welcome dinner for new ALTs (Group A). So I went to the dinner still processing the fact that, after the dinner, I would have no place to sleep. Of course, just about every JET who heard my plight offered me a spot on their tatami, because FJETs are cool like that, but I can't see myself imposing on others in that way. At least, not with most people. There are a few JETs with whom I am comfortable enough for something like that. Am I shy or something? News to me. Anyway, I digress.

So the party wears on, and Karl, who shall henceforth be known as Awesome Karl Whom I Love (In A Totally Heterosexual Man-Love Way), tells me about a new inn in Fukui. It's cheap and near the station. Problem solved!

I drive over (picture, if you will, me in my tiny k-car filled with my belongings. The seats don't recline, there's just too much stuff. Rear-view mirror? Who needs it?), pop in and ask for a room.

They're full. No vacancy.

Since the other hotels are too expensive, or don't have rooms after 11 or so (this was midnight or 1am, and checkout is usually 10am) I was in a bit of a spot. But this isn't my first dance; actually, this is the FOURTH time I've been sans home. So, I decide to rough it in my car.

But....where to park?

Parking in Japan is kind of strict. In America, land is cheap and plentiful. Here in Japan...not so much. Pretty much every parking space everywhere is accounted for. This goes to this apartment, this goes to this store, etc. So, where can I park my car?

My first instinct was to park in the spot for my old apartment. I know my successor isn't there yet, so it's empty. ^_^ Unfortunately, all of my old neighbors would see me and it would no doubt get back to my supervisor, and I'm not ready to bring him in on this. So that's out.

1st try: Combini
On my way down Route 8, I felt like I was falling asleep at the wheel, so I pulled into a combini for some coffee. After I made my purchase, I thought, why not just park myself here for now? Doze off for a bit...

Well, no sooner had the thought occurred than a semi-truck pulled up next to me. Was he makin deliveries to this combini? I don't know. I just know that he sat in his truck, staring at me. Creepiest thing ever. He basically didn't move until I gave up and drove away.

2nd try: Genki
Genki is a drugstore, and on Route 8, there's one with a HUGE parking lot. And since the store is closed (being 3am), it's completely empty.

Well, almost. The Genki parking lot is bordered on three sides by big bright lights from neighboring businesses. But there is the fourth side, the dark spot, away from the road noises. The ideal spot for a bit of shut-eye. That spot was of course occupied by another car. Doh!

I ended up near the road, and while I gave it a good try, the lights and sounds prevented me from sleeping much. So I decided to move on.

3rd try: Freaks
Freaks is a cyber-cafe. With reclining chairs. ^_^ Obviously, this is where I'm writing this. Internets!

It's also expensive. Roughly $5 for the first hour, and $1 for each 15 minutes after that. At that rate, I could have afforded a hotel.

And that's where the story catches up with reality. More news as it happens, later. Assuming I'm not shivved by a hobo.

Happy 4th of July.

(The following is from the excellent Questionable Content webcomic author, Jeph. He said it much better than I)

It is the Fourth of July! Today I am going to eat some hot dogs, drink some beers, and think about all the innocent civilians and armed forces personnel who have been killed due to the actions of the Bush administration. Granted, it takes a lot of fun out of the holiday, but I am certain that being alive is more fun than being dead so I guess I have it better than all of Dubya's victims.

Have a safe holiday, fellow Americans, and everyone else have as pleasant a day as possible.

PS: if you send me angry letters because I DARED to criticize our FEARLESS LEADER I will delete them, unread. Don't waste your time or mine.

Tax Day

After having been warned for the past 2.5 months that this day was coming, I felt pretty prepared when my Inhabitants Tax form came in the mail yesterday.  I was told in no uncertain terms that I had to pay it right away.  If even a SINGLE ALT didn't pay their taxes, NO ONE would get their reimbursement in the July pay period.

So during my lunch break today I went to the bank and paid it.  It was 176,000yen.

For those not up on the yen-dollar conversion, a yen is roughly a penny.

Now, I had been previously told that the amount would be between 1man and 9man (man = 10,000yen).  9man is pretty steep.  My tax bill was almost twice that.

But I paid it nonetheless, because if even a SINGLE ALT...yadda yadda.  But it still stung.  Payday is a week away.

So when I got back to the office, I sent an e-mail about the sticker shock to the head ALT.  I had heard from other ALTs that their bill was less than 2man, but they didn't live in Takefu, so...

Quite soon after I sent my message, my phone rang.  It was the head ALT.  "You didn't pay that tax bill yet, did you?"

Uh, oh.

Yeah.  Clerical error of some sort.  So I'm broke now, and they're trying to figure out how I can get my money back.

Today was not a good day.

Persistence

So, having been busy with life for a while, I finally get a chance to slow down and play some games. I break out my old PS2 and pick up a used copy of MGS3, which I have been dying to play forever.

I start with disc 2, Persistence, the online component.

That was about 30 minutes ago.

....

I think you can see where this is going. (If not, check out this informative link)

What the *$$@?

I finally finally finally get a chance to play Persistence, and...I don't. Why didn't I find out about this sooner? Sure, the Persistence - Coming Soon ads were plastered everywhere, but the Persistence - Say Goodbye To Your Purchase ads? Nowhere to be found.

Where's the emoticon for ::devestated:: ?

I understand why the game was so cheap now. If it seems too good to be true, it's probably Konami screwing you over.

Best part: "As the team now moves on to the next phase, we hope that you will continue to offer your kind support for future MGO titles."

Oh, OF COURSE. I'm going to rush right out and buy the next game you make, since your dedication to customer service is unmatched!

::cries::

(And yes, the irony of the name is lost on nobody)

The Simplest Ideas

The simplest ideas are often the best.

This thought occurs while I'm watching YouTube videos. Recently I watched the "I'm a Marvel, and I'm a DC" series. It is sort of a parody of the Mac/PC ads, but more of a commentary on the various comic books and their characters.

It's also just a guy playing with his action figures.

Here's a sample for those that haven't seen it:


These are consistently highly rated, and the premise is very simple. Simple to shoot, simple to edit, just mix in a little cleverness and Bob's your uncle.

The early Ask A Ninja videos were the same, just a guy in front of a camera. Again easy to shoot and edit, and highly popular.

So where is your simple idea?

Blogger Beta Blows pt 2

Remember when all that stuff you put in your profile had a purpose? You could click on an item and see all the other people that put that same item in that same question. It was pretty cool.

Well, that's gone. So WHAT'S THE FUCKING POINT of the questions?

The more I use the new system, the worse it gets. It was FINE when it was OPTIONAL. Now that it's mandatory, it sucks.

Ironically, my efforts to return to blogging (which forced the conversion to the new shitty system) may be what pushes me away permanently.

Way to go, Google.

Thomas' Meme

1. What is your official job title?
   Assistant Language Teacher Until the end of July anyway. Then I will be returning to EWU as a grad student and working as a systems administrator. Yay for me!
   
2. Do you wear a watch? If so, is it digital or analog? If not, why not?
   I wear a dual analog-digital Fossil. It's way old, but I love it. It has the time in Japan and the West Coast, so I know if it's a good time to call or not. Sadly, they don't make this model (or anything remotely like it) anymore.
   
3. What's a really great but fairly obscure website that you visit regularly?
   http://slumbering.lungfish.com/ is where Lore Sjöberg went to after he disappeared from the formerly-excellent Table of Malcontents. (Here is a small taste of what it used to be like) He also writes Alt Text.
   
4. How long can you hold your breath?
   I'm back up to 2:45. Not quite three minutes, but I'm almost there again. (I think it helps that I have basically no muscle mass to drain that precious precious oxygen from my blood ^_^)
   

Blogger Beta Blows

I logged in from an un-blocked computer last night, or at least I tried.  It turns out that you can NO LONGER user Blogger log-ins, you must now use Google log-ins.  And that converts all your blogs to the new blogger beta.  AND deletes your old profile.  UPDATE: AND changes the e-mail address to send new posts to.

This is ridiculously retarded.

Anyway, I redirected my blog to a different domain, so I could access it at work.  And it turns out that blogger.com is accessible from work, AS LONG AS you only use blogger beta and Japanese pages.  I can't change the language to English, so I don't know what most of the buttons do anymore, and I can't post from there (still only via e-mail).

So the stupid blogger beta and the stupid blocker at work, two great tastes that go great together.

Ah, technology.  What a bitch.

Late (update)

I went downstairs to take a picture of the "T.T." in question (not that I can send pictures to the blog ...yet), but it has already been changed to tomorrow's schedule.  Doh!  I hate missed opportunity.

However, *ALL* of tomorrow's Team Teaching lessons (regularly scheduled and otherwise) have BIG "T.T."s on them.  Someone may have been scolded for my tardiness this morning, and it wasn't me.

Late

I was late to my first class today.

Let me explain why: I had dropped by a convenience store to grab some breakfast, because I was too tired/lazy this morning to make it myself.  So, that put me a few minutes behind, and I was a bit late for work.

This is normal for me.  I'm always late.  Ask anyone.

Last school year, I was late so often that they stopped scheduling 1st-period classes for me.  I would be late up to an hour, but I'd stay after two or three (or often actually more) hours, so it MORE than balanced out.

This school year, however, I have many more classes, so my schedule is pretty full.  I can't afford to be late regularly anymore.  That's fine, I can make it on time if I try.  But today I didn't have any 1st period classes, so I was taking it easy.

This week, for some reason, we are on 45-minute lessons, and the schedule is pretty random, so when I got to the school, I checked the teacher's schedule board.  If classes are rearranged, it will be reflected here.  Last school year, this would even indicate whenever I had a Team Teaching class, because it was kind of a special class (each class would see me only once every two weeks).  Every Team Teaching lesson would have a big " T.T." written on it in yellow chalk (which stood out clearly against the normal white chalk).  This year, since I see every freshman class at the same time every week, my lessons aren't so special, so they are not indicated unless there is a change.

So anyway, I checked the schedule board, and there were no "T.T."s, so I knew my schedule hadn't been changed, and I wouldn't have class until 2nd period.  I went upstairs to my desk and sat down to enjoy my breakfast.  While I was eating, I noticed a note on my desk from the teacher I would be Team Teaching with 2nd period saying that the schedule was changed.

To 1st period.

I looked at my watch.  Class had started 10 minutes ago.  As I'm running through the halls with my stack of worksheets, I couldn't help wondering "WHY WASN'T THIS ON THE SCHEDULE BOARD?"  And, why didn't anyone call me?  My cell-phone number is on a piece of paper, taped to the bookshelf by my desk, in clear sight.  How could you miss that?

Anyway, I got to class (JUST as the teacher was about to start an alternate lesson, after having apparently waited for me for 10 minutes), apologized for my tardiness, and rushed the lesson.  It went OK (I plan flexibility into my lessons for a reason), but I was still upset at being late.

I was so mad at whomever wrote up the schedule today.  Immediately after class I went back to the schedule board to confirm that there was NO indication that I had a Team Teaching lesson 1st period.

And that's when I noticed that, next to the kanji for "English" for that class and that period, was a small " T.T." in white chalk.

In clear sight.  How could I miss that?

Unreadable

Recently, I was chastised by Thomas for not posting to my blog for a year.  He is not wrong.
Also recently, my school beefed up their computer security, so I can't bypass the block and at least read blogspot blogs anymore (farewell, Worthless Hack).  Not that I could post comments anyway, but at least before I could read the original posts sans pictures.

Well, this aggression will not stand, man.

I'm (hypothetically) going to actually start posting again, via e-mail.  This post, for example.  There are some drawbacks:

1. I won't be able to respond to comments, although I should have the comments e-mailed to me by the blogspot system, so I'll be able to read them.
2. I won't be able to edit my posts.  If I make a smistake, just live with it.  I won't even be able to see it.
   

There are lots of things I'd like to post about, but didn't have time to before.  Now I do.

What will I miss about Japan?  What will I NOT miss about Japan?  What am I looking forward to, back home?  How am I getting back home?

Look forward to it.  This is just a test post.  And a new post after a year of silence?  THIS is what RSS was invented for.  ^_^

Be seeing you.

[News] Weak!

This year's Leonids will peak in the middle of the day here in Japan.

[Me] Status Update

Haven't seen me online recently?  No blog updates?  Wondering if I fell of the face of the Earth?

Well, kind of, yeah.  My computers have died.  Both computers overheated and killed their hard drives (heat is bad, m'kay? [not that it's a problem right now]).  I should (hopefully) be back online within a week or so, but in the meantime my only Internet connection is at work, and most things are blocked.

For example, I won't be able to check to see if this gets posted correctly or not.  So maybe no one is reading this at all.  Testicles.

Anyway, it's winter now here in Japan, which really underscores the fact that my girlfriend and I broke up.

A cold room is even colder when you're in bed alone.

Sigh.

[Sad] ..||..

I remember that September.

..||..

[Link] (ZUG) Shakes on a Plane

No actual content today, but a link to the latest John Hargrave gold.

He felt the outline of the marital aid, looking at me strangely. "Is it supposed to be vibrating like that?"

"Yes," I said with authority, as if I was dying and vibrators were my medicine.

"Okay, I'm going to need to give you a private screening."

"Fine," I said, my heart pounding. I hated myself for starting this Web site.

I would try and explain, but ...

[Everything] Howdy

I am, as my GF would say, f$#^%!ng busy. But I have time for a brief rough-draft ramble.

Today is my last day of work at my base school. Tomorrow is my last day of work at my visiting school. It's difficult not to cry like the little girl I am when I think about how I'm not going to see these awesome students and teachers anymore. *sigh*

Over the past few weeks, I've managed to watch the entire "The Show" with Ze Frank archive. Considering that "The Show" only started a few months ago, and each episode is only a few minutes long, this is not a big accomplishment. Now that you know it exists, I will think less of you if you don't watch it (this will be on the test). I'm kind of an ass that way. I love his random songs; someone (not me) should rip them from the show and spread them around. Unless they're already on iTunes, in which case I should just re-install iTunes.

I love "The Show"; someone (still not me) should do one about stupid people. Because they don't know they're stupid, and that's a problem. I'm not talking about people who think the Internet is made of tubes; that is but one example of the underlying problem. The people that think Google is evil for following Chinese law on their servers located in China.... I think those people are incredibly stupid. I'm not going to go into the reasons why, because stupid people lack the capacity to comprehend them, (and it's not my job to do their thinking for them, that's Ze's job). I'm just going to say they're stupid, because they don't know.

I saw this in the comments for today's show:

So lemme get this straight. Bush executed more prisoners while governor of Texas than every other governer in the U.S. -- COMBINED -- and he's okay with that. He read that Osama bin Laden was "Determined to strike in the U.S., and he was okay with that, so he didn't do anything about it. When it happened he attacked the wrong country, killing over 2500 American soldiers and some say up to 100,000 Iraqi civilians, and he's okay with that... But take frozen masses of embryonic cells from fertility clinics that were going to be destroyed anyway and use them to find cures for diseases that could save millions of lives... no, he's not okay with that. You know, because he's so pro-life.

by The Idiot - 2:17p

I don't know of those facts are correct, but I enjoyed the contrast of ideology.

In less than a week I begin my big move from Echizen (town) to Echizen (city). I will be without Internet for a few weeks, so if you don't hear from me... it will be the same as always.

Someone (me) mentioned it elsewhere, but you all should really listen to Jonathan Coulton.

Time's up.

[Work] Placement

I'm changing schools after this contract year. There's nothing wrong with my current schools; quite the contrary, they're awesome. But I don't want to burn out in one place.

I just got the call. It went something like this (really):

Phoenix: Moshi moshi.
Nancy: Hello, Phoenix? This is Nancy. Am I interrupting anything?
Phoenix: No, what's up?
Nancy: I just wanted to call you and let you know your placement for next year.
Phoenix: Great!
Nancy: Your new school will be bzzrt.....
Phoenix: ...hello? You're breaking up.
Nancy: Can you hear me now?
Phoenix: Yes.
Nancy: Your new school is schchchchhc.....
Phoenix: ...is this a joke?
Nancy: Is that a "good" joke or a "bad" joke? Are you unhappy with your school?
Phoenix: No, I mean, my phone keeps breaking up RIGHT when you say the name of the school.
Nancy: The name of the school is ....zzzzzzzsh
Phoenix: *sigh*
Nancy: I know you were anxious to hear your placement as soon as possible.
Phoenix: Well, I still haven't heard, but I appreciate the effort.

Well, eventually it came through. My new school is

[Holiday] Today is the Glorious 25th of May

(image created by Jez)

...were you there?

As both a Terry Pratchett fan and a native of Spokane (the Lilac City), this day has a special meaning for me.

What is the Glorious 25th of May?

RIP John Keel, et al.

Misc random linkage:

• Excerpt
• Lyrics to All the Little Angels
• More art
  
• Blog
• Fanfic

Why do I care about a holiday commemorating a fictional battle? After all, how can any of us celebrate it? None of us were there.

The fight was not real, that is true, but the IDEAS are. That is enough for me.


Fittingly, today is also Towel Day, in honor of the late Douglas Adams.

RIP DNA.


Finally, today is *also* the anniversary of the release of the original Star Wars. I don't really care about that, but it is a coincidence worth mentioning.

RIP Anakin.


Today should be a catch-all holiday for all nerd-dom.

(Man, this was a link-heavy post!)

[Me] CHOsen One, Episode 3

Third CHOsen One is up. This time, because of my unfortunate accident, I didn't even have Word. Thankfully OpenOffice is a quick download.

[Me] Osashiburi

Well, it's Sunday, so of course I'm at work. :-/ Not that I can really spare much time between classes to say that I'm still not dead, but here I am.

I bet KEN ALTs have Sundays off. If I hear another KEN ALT complain about their lack of vacation time, I swear I'm going to [DELETED] their [DELETED] off.

Had an unfortunate computer problem (requiring completely reformatting the hard drive). Still recovering.

A friend of mine got a nice job offer from Amazon.com. He will be making 2x what I make. Good for him. ^_^ No one can say that I'm in JET for the money.

Don't know when I'll post again. There are so many things I want to do with my time (studying Japanese, programming, "exercising"). Hopefully, I'll have more time at my next job, wherever that is.

Talking of which, my time is up. See you next month (maybe).