Anxiety and Anger

First I will start with the Anxiety.

Well, the past 5 months have been pretty stressful with a karate tournament, Japanese language tests, work and work related meetings. But the overarching, anxiety producing nugget is my future, or lack of a future plan. Not knowing what I want to pursue as a career has me caught me in a bit of a whirlwind. I know that whatever it is that I do, I want it to use Japanese. Over the past few weeks, since the completion of my language test, which I had been using as a procrastination tactic, I have begun thinking of things that I might like to get involved in and ways of making that happen.

Japanese History or Culture
This would involve going back to grad school for at least 2 years, possibly 6. This is an ideal situation if I can find a nice place to study and someone to pay for it it all. At the moment, the East- West Scholarship in association with the University of Hawaii seem like the best choice. Somethings I need to flush out before I apply (next November for the Fall 2012 year): GRE scores, letters of recommendation (fairly easy to get), a specific subject and area of Japanese history which I want to study or can contribute to. I am thinking about Buddhism's relationship in war in ancient Japan and the role that sohei played in these battles.
Pros:Seems like an ideal job doing and teaching what I like. Cons:It's extremely expensive and will take a long time to get there.

Japanese Language Teaching
This would also involve going to graduate school to receive a MA in Foreign Language Education or something along those lines. The added kicker would be the amount of supplementary Japanese courses I would have to take before even getting to the MA program. Pro:I would force myself to become fluent in Japanese. Con:I don't know how I would like teaching Japanese. Probably about as much as I like teaching English...

Translation
This would also be a really fun job, I think. I find that while studying Japanese, one of my favorite parts is translating the garbled mess that is a Japanese sentence into beautiful English. This would mean that I would have to stay in Japan, possibly on the JET program, to perfect my Japanese while I work to get myself out of debt from LMU. I would have to increase my Japanese level a lot to get into this business and Japan would be the likely place of my employment. There is not much call for translating Japanese into English in the states. Pros:Work from home. Good money. Forced to perfect my Japanese. Get to stay in Japan. Cons:Could take many, many years to get up to an acceptable level of Japanese

If anyone has any comments or ideas, please let me know.

Now for the anger.

Salvation Army discards donations because they promote 'witchcraft, vampires, and werewolves'

Apparently the Salvation Army does not want to give children Harry Potter and Twilight toys because they promote witches, vampires and werewolves and they go against Jesus and Christianity. WHAT?! Now, I can understand the desire not to give children toys from Twilight (it is just terrible - seriously terrible), but Harry Potter is a wonderful story about good overcoming evil and love triumphing over hate. Do they not understand the hypocritical nature of these actions? Jesus, if he existed, was an undead cannibal, zombie who used magic all the time before disappearing into the ether to once again return to earth to destroy/save the world. That sounds right up the same alley as witch, vampire, Bond villan and werewolf if you ask me.

"Damn it Jim, I'm a doctor. Not a spiritual advisor."

Prayer In Medicine Survey

I had a brain aneurysm concerning this unscientific hogwash of a survey, but I think that everyone should take the survey as an example of the state of conversation in the US. In short, my problem is with the style of questions. The questions assume that it is okay for a doctor to advise you on anything but medical matters. Sure there is an argument here that people with faith use that faith to help overcome emotional problems, but giving the medical doctor the leeway to "approach healing holistically" is bunk nonsense. Doctors are trained to deal with medical problems. Asking them or being hold by them about faith or spirituality on the hospital bed seems like a bad idea to me. It is like going to a mechanic to get your car fixed and while he is trying to fix your transmission asking him to give you legal advice on your upcoming divorce. "Damn it Jim, I'm a doctor. Not a　spiritual advisor."

The silly part of the whole survey is that you have choices for some questions (Very likely, likely, unlikely, N/A) which don't even correspond accurately to the questions. When the question says something to the effect of, "Will you seek spiritual or faith based information from an information packet?" Where is the "No Fucking Way" button? 'Unlikely' and 'N/A' don't satisfy my survey destroying blood-lust.

I was turned on to this survey by the science geeks over at Pharyngula.

Perhaps I will find some inspiration and write something of my own today after lunch. Maybe...

Rap I Can Get Behind

Now this is an artist I could get behind, though it isn't exactly my style of music.

A New Direction for This Blog

This blog started 2+ years ago as a way for me to share my experiences in Japan with my family and friends who cared to read my dribble. Seeing as I have been very busy lately and have not had the time to go out and have adventures worthy of repeating, I am going to try a different direction. In addition to the occasional stories about my life, I am going to also be posting commentaries, articles, and comics which I find interesting for one reason or another. This will be a useful way to spark up more comments and interaction on this blog and perhaps increase readership.
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http://edition.cnn.com/2010/BUSINESS/11/15/ilist.japan.englishization/index.html

It is certainly a unique idea coming from a Japanese. It certainly would force internationalization.

As someone who teaches English in Japan (or attempts to) there is something to be said about the "Japanese complacency" to which the CEO quoted in the article alludes. Of the perhaps 1000 students I have taught over the past 2 years I can remember maybe 10 that planned to use English in their daily lives. Nearly all of my students have resigned themselves to the idea that English is too hard and if they never leave Japan and join a typical 9am-8pm office job they won't ever have to learn any other language because Japanese people speak Japanese.

A Japanese friend of mine calls this, "The Complex." The Complex is, according to him, a fear of speaking English. It is a silly fear, but one I am rather acutely aware of in its reverse, i.e. my fear of speaking Japanese and Spanish. But the Japanese complex with English is rather, to risk stating the obvious, complex. English as a foreign language, though it has changed and adapted over the many years, has been taught in Japan for nearly 60 years at the junior high school level. (I cannot be certain of the validity at the moment, but this article seems to point to a long history of English in Japan). This relates to "The Complex" because even though modern Japanese have a long history of learning English, in some cases more than 8 years of formal instruction, many feel as though they cannot speak a word of it. There are many reasons for this but the main one being that Japanese English education is focused on the grammar and vocabulary of the language and not the speaking.

For those unfamiliar with the Japanese education system, everything is based on test scores. To get into high school, you must take a test. To get into a university, you must take a test. So in a response to shoddy international English test scores, the Japanese government will force elementary school students to learn English in an attempt to boost English education. But who knows if that will work? It might have the opposite effect and make students hate school and English even more than they already do by high school.

As a side note, I have come across many wonderful English speakers in my travels and bar hopping in Kyoto. Many of whom had no interest in English as students but learned English through day to day interaction with foreigners. The focus on an international business language could lead more people to seek English as a second language as a way to better themselves in the business world. It could be a good step to revitalizing Japan, though the implementation of this will undoubtedly be met with resistance.

The comments on this CNN article are hilarious, which is to be expected from people who comment on CNN articles. Somehow the mandatory speaking of English in the office of one particular business became the supplanting of the Japanese language and culture in all things throughout the country. One thing I would like to see happen within the Japanese language is the removal of katakana-ized English loan words. Sometimes it is impossible to understand what they are. Then again, in English we say, "carry oh key" and "car a tee" instead of "ka ra o ke" and "ka ra te".

These ideas are pretty interesting to me. Of course, as I already speak English, they are inherently selfish.

Update

It has been a long time since I have come up with anything entertaining to write about on this blog. Life has been relatively calm in the last few months. I broke up with my girlfriend in April, passed my 1 kyuu (last brown belt) karate test, started a new school year in Japan, bought a Playstation 3 and a bunch of Blu-ray movies, started a low-sugar and low-carb diet which has resulted in the loss of a couple of kilograms and two belt notches, and I have seriously started studying Japanese.

I have been reading the news every day and it has me in a worried panic for the continued existence of the human race.

I have finally come to terms with my atheism and I am proud to be able to share that. Years of consideration and wishy-washy flip-flopping aside, I am much happier now than I ever was as a Catholic. The realization that this life is all I have, while short and seemingly uneventful so far, is a great motivator to get out there and live my life as I deem fit. It is an amazingly freeing feeling. Though this outlook can be bleak at times, I believe dealing with the reality of the world around me is more useful than worrying about the unlikely eternity awaiting me beyond the grave.

This is the season where old JETs begin to pack their bags and head home as their contracts expire in the next month or so. I have already said good-bye to a couple of good friends last year and there are a few more leaving (one is already gone) this year. It is sad, but I envy them for being able to pull the trigger and make a decision to leave this cushy job for the uncertainties of the Western world job market. Currently I am exploring the idea of staying in Japan and doing a Master's degree. It seems like a good idea now, seeing as I really enjoy living in Japan and teaching English as a foreign language is quite entertaining. If only for the occasional hilarious "Engrishisms" that pop up now and again. I also feel that mastering a second language will be useful in the job market. Whatever market that will be in the future...

As to the Japanese language progress; I have made a significant leap in my listening ability. My speaking is still sub-par, but I have a few Japanese friends with whom I attempt conversations. Attempt being the key word. I have been studying for a test next December, so I hope I can stay dedicated to my study methods. I have also started a new Kanji learning method which is based on associating elements inside the kanji characters with English meanings and using those vague meanings to create stories so that I can easily remember the English definition and the shape of the character. Over the past 4 weeks, I have "mastered" the writing and definitions of over 300 kanji. That, in addition to the other 200+ kanji I have come across over the 2 years that I have been here, should be enough to help me pass the test in December. I have also been studying grammar and reading manga in Japanese.

Well, I have successfully wasted the last 30 minutes of work today writing this update. So let's call it a day.

Seriously?? This is your response?

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i6T2FZuW588xFahgyr8KUJFK1TJAD9FH00GO2

This article reports the RIDICULOUS opinion of Archbishop Dadeus Grings of Brazil on the Church sex scandals. I do not usually like to go into politics or religion on this blog because this is not one of those blogs, but life has been boring lately and this article was just too horrendous to pass up.

Basically the Archbishop believes that the recent (I guess he means over the past 50 years) flood of sex and pedophilia cases involving the Catholic clergy are due to the evolving pedophile-nature of society as a whole and the underlining homosexual nature of adolescent kids. You know, because "boys play with boys and girls play with girls." Duh!

The clergy really has no shame. I mean, I know that it is the common defense for offenders to blame the victims for "wearing revealing clothing" or "wanting it," but now it is the spontaneous (assuming temporary, too) lapses into homosexuality of the children for the immoral actions of the adult priests? Maybe I am reading this wrong, but do the priests have no responsibility for their actions? Are they really so weak willed as to not resist the "sexual" advances of a pre-teen?

Grings denounced the abuse within the church, but he said internal punishment of priests guilty of abuse was sufficient and that police should not be involved.

Apparently, yes. They are that weak willed. This is not the 16th century anymore. The clergy is not above the law. The church and the state are, at least in theory, separated. Why should they not stand trial for their crimes? If this were a public school math teacher that touched 200 some odd children over the course of decades he/she would be in prison for a long, long time. There is a fundamental hypocrisy in the way that people think about religion and religious figures. People think that because they are devoted wholly to God/Jesus/Allah (whomever) that they are flawless, holy people that can be trusted. Wrong. They are people, just like you or me. We all have the same propensity for good and bad, so why do we trust religious figures more than we trust homeless people with our children? Is it the hats? If I saw a robed man in a pointy hat kneeling down touching my fictional child, I would be just as frightened as if he were are ragged man with a scruffy beard sitting in front of the supermarket doing the same thing. Maybe it has to do with the fact that religious people listen to these men talk about God every Sunday and they think that they know this man because he works for the "man upstairs." Wrong. He is a sexually frustrated man bound by guilt and frustrated by celibacy.

I remember when I was in high school there was a convicted, tried, and reformed sex offender who was an assistant coach for a sports team to which I belonged. When word came out that he was in prison for having sex with a 16 year old girl over a decade before, everyone went berserk. I think rightfully so, too. There are plenty of other things reformed sex offenders can do, one thing the should not do is hang around with children. People went so crazy that the official coach and the assistant coach were fired from their positions. Ironically this happened at a Catholic school. Why do people not get this outraged when a priest does something equally or more horrendous? Why do we as post-Enlightenment humans not see that the Church is a harborer of sex offenders and pedophiles?

"The question is — how are we going to educate our children to use a sexuality that is human and suitable?"

Hint: How about not raping them? That would go a long way to helping them avoid unnecessary trauma and sexual frustrations in their own lives.

And this is the most frightening part of this article:

"When sexuality is trivialized, it's clear that this is going to affect all cases. Homosexuality is such a case. Before, the homosexual wasn't spoken of. He was discriminated against.

"When we begin to say they have rights, rights to demonstrate publicly, pretty soon, we'll find the rights of pedophiles," he said.

This guy really is a 16th century nutjob. I really hate when people make the argument that homosexuals are as bad as pedophiles. It is horrible. So far, the most prominent pedophiles I have seen have been priests.

I think I should just add a little post script here. I was led to this article by www.thegoodatheist.net blog.

Feel free to comment or not. I do not particularly care, I just really wanted to vent my frustration after reading the quotes from Pointy Hat Bigot Bishop.

Rugged Handsomeness

I just had a student seriously ask me out in the middle of class. Then she asked, "Why can't I be your girlfriend?" So I said, "You are too young...and you're my student." So they chattered away in Japanese for a few seconds and I deciphered the words, "after" and "graduation" from the squealing girl noise.

Then she asked me when we would be able to go out together. So I said, "Maybe in 2 or 3 years...maybe..." Hoping that would stop the onslaught of embarrassing questions to come. It didn't. Then she asked if I wanted to go see Alice in Wonderland the movie with her. Then all of her friends asked if they could be invited to the wedding ceremony.

A few minutes later she said she was going to send me a love letter and wanted to know if I would respond...I said, "Maybe...in 2 or 3 years."

Then the Japanese teacher assigned homework to write a self-introduction letter to me! He then said, "Here is your chance to write a love letter to Mike, if you want." The whole class burst into laughter.

I always knew my rugged handsomeness would come between Japanese girls and their education. (Just joking)

The plus side is that they were doing this whole inquisition in English...in English class! What are the odds of that?

Graduation Observation

I had planned to wear a tie today, it being graduation for my 3rd year students and all. But planning and doing are fundamentally different. Right now, my fancy green and blue patterned tie is sitting on my bed where I left this morning.

Most of my readers have probably experienced the traditional American high school graduation; "Pomp and Circumstance" playing endlessly as the students walk into the hall, then the same song playing endlessly as the students accept their fake-diplomas, and then the same song plays endlessly as the students leave the hall. Of course I use the word "endlessly" very loosely but I think you all get my point. Japanese graduation is all "circumstance" and no "pomp." The students walk into the hall wearing their everyday school uniforms. The school band, which is comprised of a bassoon, 4 clarinets, 2 flutes, 2 alto saxes and 2 drummers, plays an unrecognizable version of the school song while the students enter the room. Once everyone is in place, everyone stands and bows to the front of the room. This is only the first of many bows.

After all of this, the Japanese national anthem is played over the loud speakers. This shocked me last year, but this year I made it a point of interest to look around the room and see who was sitting down during the anthem. Apparently, as a method of protest for some transgression or another, Japanese teachers sometimes sit through the national anthem. I vaguely remember a teacher telling me that the anthem hearkens back to a nationalist spirit from the Second World War that many teachers, history teachers from my observation, do not wish to revive. Yet, immediately after the anthem, the band strikes up the school song again. This time, the people in attendance are expected to sing along. Those same teachers have no problem belting out like a teenager driving in a car with her friends and their "jam" comes on the radio.

The format of the graduation is as follows: student attendance is called, the principal gives a speech, the leading mother of the PTA gives a speech (I find it unusual that the Japanese school system uses the PTA acronym because there are words in Japanese for "parent" "teacher" and "association"), a student representative from the underclassmen comes to the front to tell the graduating students how great they are, then a graduating student receives a diploma/letter on behalf of the class from the principal, then a new representative receive a diploma/letter from the PTA chief, then two students come forth and tell everyone how great the last 3 years were. (Yes, I know that was a hell of a sentence.) Between every new speech, there is a standing bow for the students.

Last year, the graduating students sang a song to the teachers and parents. This year there was none of that nonsense. The band began to play and the students rushed out.

All in all, we were in and out of the gymnasium in one hour and twenty minutes. Not too shabby. Of course, they didn't waste time giving each student a fake diploma up on stage. Lack of pomp, overflowing with circumstance.

Holy Crap

I am writing this now as an escape from my duties at work. I have been asked to edit and grade one student's Australia Home Stay Journal. Usually this activity takes me about fifteen minutes to finish. I have been working on this two-page atrocity for nearly 4 hours, on and off. I have to take a fifteen minute break after every sentence to stave off the insanity and the mounting berserker-rage that grasps for ground in my mind caused by the severe lack of understanding of grammar, spelling, and punctuation.

I knew it was going to be a long day when I read the first line:

The day, Having thought of Australia for the time being "Time when the homestay is done approaches. Unpleasant", thing.

I had to start a second page just for rewriting the edits. I am fairly certain that this student just plugged his/her ideas into an internet translator and copied them word for word without ever rereading it. That's fine. I have done that before. But these kids are 17-18 years old and have been studying English for more than four years. They should be able to create a simple sentence with the vocabulary they know or can learn from a dictionary. It takes me so long to edit these types of papers because I do not have even the slightest clue what this person is trying to convey to the reader. I could just rewrite the whole essay for him/her and get on with my life, but I want to try to faithful to the context and intent. grrr.

In one of my many timeouts I meandered over to Howstuffworks.com and had a mini-debate about religion and science. This was my contribution to the article:

I certainly don’t claim to “have it all figured out” but I am secure enough, through reasoning and intellectual pursuit, to know that religions are man-made concepts used to control people; to tell them what to think and what to do.

And upon historical reflection it is clear to see (to me) that religions have been the sources and the causes of some of the most horrific events in history, all in the name of god(s). Any flawless, lawful, and good God that lets its believers kill and be killed in its name, is a sociopath. Which is why I always favored the Greek/Roman Pantheon. Their gods were flawed, petty and realistic. They were actually useful in explaining the chaos of the real world. Of course, Greek and Roman mythology became ridiculous once we learned scientific reasons for the causation myths. Once we found out that the fall and winter seasons on earth were caused by the earth’s orbit around the sun and not because Demeter, the goddess of the harvest, was perpetually sad in the fall and winter because her daughter, Persephone, had to spend 6 months in the Underworld with Hades, we stopped believing in the story.

What I am saying is, once we find scientific explanations for the stories in the bible we can stop believing in the myths and move on and develop as a species. The universe wasn’t created in 6 days, it evolved for over 13 billion years. That is a scientific fact as best as we can determine today. Maybe in 2000 years humans will have a better understanding of the universe (I hope) and will look back on our science today as primitive and nonsensical myth stories. In the pursuit of truth and knowledge I hope we can stop living in the past and push forward to live in the present. I fear the only way we are going to survive as a species is if we stop killing each other over these ridiculously outdated myth stories.

A Few Quick Stories

Belated Christmas Story
As some of you may or may not know, I was asked by the janitor/gardener at one of my schools to join him at a nursery school to do some role playing. Those of you that know me, know that I enjoy a good role-playing game as much as the next, so how could I not join in this festivity? Pretending to be Santa Clause has never been one of my life-long goals but it would provide me with a story to tell, I told myself. Those people that know me are probably asking, "Why would you pretend to be Santa? You're the biggest Scrooge I know." And to you I respond with the sound of my tongue and lips vibrating faster than the speed of light to expel tiny saliva particles in your direction (a.k.a a raspberry). Refer to this video if you are still having difficulty understanding. For background information, my problem with Christmas in the US is that everyone walks around with holier-than-thou attitudes and pretends like Christmas is something spiritual and special, but when Black Friday and December 26th roll around people are stomping, trampling and squashing other humans just to get to the fresh, new deals. At least in Japan there is no illusion that this is a consumer holiday, it is purely a day to keep the economy going. *steps off of his soapbox*

That being said, I have no qualms about lying to Japanese children about the existence of two Santas, one portly Japanese Santa and one double-bearded, Godzilla-sized American Santa. I am sure that to the children the play which the nursery school teachers had put on seemed like illusion and devilry but there are very few shocking things more than seeing a large American man with beard trying to keep the fake, white Santa beard from being inhaled with every breath. Overall, the afternoon went well. The kids were shocked at first but were more intrigued as the present giving session came to a close. When we left the room, the teachers released the children like dogs of war. They pounded on the glass of the back room in a desperate attempt to catch a glimpse of the mysterious double bearded man as he escaped out the back window in a leather jacket and beanie.

New Year's in Tokyo
I rang in the New Year in Tokyo this year. It was an exciting weekend of drinking and walking around town aimlessly. Being that my college buddy, TJ, and his friend Liz had already been to Tokyo several times between them and I was terribly sick of sightseeing, we decided to see the city as a resident would see the city. TJ had a Chinese friend who lived in Tokyo and called him to come hang out with us on New Year's Eve. Kang (sp?) brought several of his friends along. We decided to wander around our hotel to look for a place to eat with 9 people, last minute. We eventually found a place at a Chinese restaurant called RakuRaku. Coincidentally, we were staying in the China town of Tokyo and there were about 5 RakuRaku restaurants located within earshot of the first restaurant, about 6 Family Mart convenient stores on every corner in this particular neighborhood and a Denny's which, despite the name, did not serve Denver Omelets, pancakes or Grand Slams.

I never thought it would happen to me, but we spent the first half of the New Year sitting around a huge round table eating delicious, yet questionable, Chinese food, drinking Chinese firewater, and talking (or listening) to Chinese people in Tokyo. It was quite surreal.

After dinner, Kang and his friends went to Tokyo Tower and Liz went back to the hotel. This left TJ and I to replay so many college nights...playing games and drinking. We went to a darts bar and passed the New Year by making fun of each other's darts abilities and watching the Japanese version of the New York countdown at Tokyo Tower on tv. After that bar, we retired to another bar and began to consume, which would come to be known as my downfall, a liter of beer at 1:30am. There is a famous bar in Japan called The Hub which is famous for sleazy Japanese women, horny foreigners and liter beakers filled with swill called Japanese beer. According to TJ's demands we were eying the women in the bar. Next to us there were two girls who were getting hit on by foreigners and Japanese men throughout the night. Finally there was a lull in the onslaught and I told TJ to switch seats with me when I went to the bathroom. When I returned from the bathroom, he had engaged the hotter of the two women in conversation and had pulled them over the table closer to us. As TJ worked his magic on the attractive one, he left me alone with the one that spoke ZERO English and looked like a Japanese female version of Moe Howard from the Three Stooges. This was fine. I wasn't remotely interested in her but it was the first time that I was TJ's grenade-jumper. As the beakers emptied and the bar crowd thinned, these girls were getting tired and began asking where we were staying. TJ and I eyed each other. This was all the conversation we needed. We told them nothing! It was quite the confidence boost for me, it was the first time I had a long conversation in Japanese with another human being. It just goes to show that liquid courage does wonders for interpersonal communication.

空手の新年会(karate no shinnenkai)(Karate New Year Meeting)
There was nothing terribly special about the New Year as a foreigner in Japan. There are a few questions you always receive: "What shrine did you visit on New Year's Day?" or "What will you do for New Year's now that you are so far away from your family?" So it is always a shocker when you tell them that (a) you didn't visit a shrine because praying to gods for successful love life is not your idea of "starting the New Year off right" and (2) New Year's Day is a time for recovering from New Year's Eve when you spent half of the night stumbling around town trying to remember what day it was. So I find the shinnenkai ritual to be a bit strange in Japan. Basically, people get together and tell each other to do well in the new year and to try their best to be successful. I don't mean to sound negative, but it seemed like a hilarious group therapy session with Stewart Smalley. The meeting went as such: 80 people (men, women, children) crammed together in the second floor practice dojo at the main headquarters for our karate school. There was just barely enough room to stand up straight, but then we all had to kneel on the hardwood floor. Soke-sensei (the founder's son) entered the room and gave a (thankfully) short speech about how we all need to do our best this year to overcome obstacles in our karate training and how having a focused mind, heart and spirit are essential to being successful. Then he left the room and left all of us in the room to organize how we were going to proceed with the rest of the ceremony. Everyone lined up according to rank and in groups of 5-8, they approached Soke-sensei, knelt and said thank you for teaching us and happy New Year. At this point, the other instructors poured cups of liquor for the adults in the group and they shared in a small toast. After the first few shots of sake, Soke looked a bit red. By the time the last students came through, Soke-sensei looked like the liquor had take a bit of a toll. There is nothing like starting the morning off with a dozen shots of gold-laced sake. At the end of the ceremony, Soke-sensei gave us all 500yen as お年玉(New Year Money) and we took a picture outside of the dojo.

Overall, it was a fun and unique Winter vacation.
Gio

p.s. At the time of writing this, my office smelled of dried cat food.