It’s finally here – a never-before-seen photographic documentation of the strange world of the Japanese sex industry: The Pink Box.

This would be an awesome Christmas present, if I didn’t have to show it to my grandmother . . .

２月２４日２００５年

お正月になった秒に、日本語で話していました。しかし、日本にいるんではありませんでした。ニューヨーク市のパーティによっぱらっている日本人の女性としゃべていました。その日は始めから面白かったです。何１０００人と一緒に新しいMOMAと言う博物館を見に行ったり、３年間話をしていない友だちに会ったり、夕食でタイ料理を食べたり、アッパーウェストサイドの金持ちっぽいパーティで酒を飲んだりしました。

その彼女は実は名古屋の留学時代から友だちになって、今はニューヨークしに住んでいます。お酒のドリンクを三つ飲んだ後に、タクシーに乗りながら寝てしまったときに、彼女が酒に弱いものがわかりました。ですから、２００５年になった秒に、「知らない人のアパートでたくさん吐くことは大丈夫だよ、この町で誰もしっていないからだ」という話がありました。

日本にいる日本人の友だちはお正月の時に家族と訪ねたり、神社に行ったり、よっぱらったりしたと教えてくれまして、そういう順序わけではないかもしれません。神社では新年のために健康や幸運と祈ります。アメリカのクリスマスに似ていることがわかりました。私がしたかった面白くて楽しい経験が結局できました。今の所より面白いはずです。あなたは、お祈りしたとうりになりましたか。

So, it’s been a week and no word from BBJ. I’m not too surprised, but I’ve been too busy to notice. It turns out that the interpreting gig that I blogged about NOT getting here fell into my lap. Here’s the story from start to finish:

So Andi, of E’s Kellner Scholarship brethren, works for a Hungarian film production company called Pioneer. They landed a deal with giant Japanese advertising conglomerate Dentsu to shoot a commercial for a shoe called the Midori HiGRIP. Being their first experience with a Japanese firm, they tried to play it safe by hiring a “professional” interpreter from an agency here in Budapest. Andi contacted me as well as a backup, and that was the source of the previous disappointment. Luck changed places, however, as the Hungarian director of the shoot took a dislike to the original interpreter, and pretty soon she got the boot, and I got the shoehorn.

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Oy, the Japanese Language Proficiency Test is finally over and done with.  It (among others) has been the main reason for the lack of recent updates or interesting commentary on things such as this.  I won’t know the results until March and to tell the truth I really won’t know if I passed until then.  Thankfully, the kanji and listening sections went better than I thought they would, but the grammar could have gone either way and the reading comprehension went terrible.  I didn’t even have enough time to finish, and had to fill in the last four bubbles at random.  I really hope I pass, but to tell the truth the test isn’t an even remotely accurate depiction of what I know.  After all, there’s no speaking section and certainly not a Kansai slang one either!

Check out a couple new galleries and additions to old ones here.  The links area has also been updated with lots of time wasting web content!  Enjoy.

12 hours left in my life in this place
I’ve said many good byes and still have some left
Packing in an illogical flurry
So excited and yet so worried
I wish I could say I was thinking
Farther ahead than the next 5 minutes
But I guess it’s my slogan
That I’ll sleep when I’m dead
And before it’s all over
I’ll see your face again
Under the Balinese sun

In three days this whole JET adventure will be over.  I’ve spent the last week at work doing basically what I did a year ago – absolutely nothing school related.  Well, I have been e-mailing my successor about the circumstances into which he’ll be entering in another 10 days.  And I guess I’ve been doing as the other teachers do (“when in Rome . . .”) and taking cat naps at my desk twice daily.  Today the climbing club had it’s first and last official outdoor climb of my tenure.  No gruesome deaths, I’m happy to say, even though we’re supposedly in the middle of a typhoon.

The visit of my friends (James and Mike) from back home went well, although they spent far more money than they imagined (mostly on beer).  Some of their adventures included all-nighters in Osaka and Tokyo, two incredible days in Kyoto, a bitter Australian ex-pat and passing out on busy train platforms in Nara, climbing all the way to the top of Fushimi Inari to find the secret “lit-up” gate (a first for me too), meeting a bunch of my Japanese friends and eating lots of convenience store food and McDonalds.  I think they had an amazing time and really got to see what Japan and my life here is like.  As so few people from back home have been here, it really meant a lot to me and will help in my transition back to American culture.  And in this time of uncertainty and change, it was nice to not be so alone.  James, I’m glad you came ya knucklehead, and Mike, we are blood.  Y’all make me miss the Bean.  See you in two weeks.

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Today was the last day I will see the students at Toban High School, probably for the rest of my life. The atmosphere resembles that of when I arrived almost exactly one year ago – the rice fields are emerald, the heat is cloying, the house is smelly and the drivers are still bad. I’ve spent the last month in a flurry of activity and will spend the next ten days before leaving for Bali in an even greater rush. After one year I have an array of feelings, but the one that’s most different from when I arrived is that I am tired. I think a combination of the pace of life in Japan and yet being so static here in Kakogawa has drained my sense of adventure and excitement. As hard as it is to do so, it’s time to move on.

Both Japanese people and my friends in other countries often comment that “you love Japan”. At this point it’s not possible for me to either refute or comply with this assessment, and perhaps it never will be. Let me just impart the polar opposites of my experience, what I love and what I hate about Japan. Like a giant iceberg that spans the seas, only arising at one home and another, this is only the tip, and the majority of how I feel lies somewhere beneath the surface. If global warming continues as planned, they’ll be visible soon enough. The following diatribe is intended to be both serious and not, as this represents my experience, so please do not be offended. Let me start with what I hate.

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Not much to report, other than that I saw a couple good movies this weekend, Adaptation and 25th Hour, both directed by Spikes. Also saw Episode III which predictably sucked, although not as much as the previous two disasters. This week a good friend from home, Mike, is coming to Japan. Should be pretty crazy. Stay tuned for more info.