It's Only Been Four Days...

I arrived back in Vancouver on Monday and was met by family at the airport.  I cleared customs and got my luggage so quickly my sister wasn't halfway to the airport on the Canada Line Skytrain.  Yes, arriving ten minutes ahead of schedule can make a difference.  The interesting thing is that the plane arrived ahead of schedule in spite of our departure from Narita being delayed.  We sat on the runway a bit while a plane two ahead of us was being checked out.  Just as its pilot was revving up the plane to start a take-off run the plane was struck by a bird.  So they had to rush a couple of engineers out to check that all was okay.  It turned out that the plane was fine so they were able to proceed on their journey.

I've been busy over the past three nights.  Attended a Round of 16 match at BC Place Stadium on Tuesday night.  I had the pleasure of watching Japan emerge victorious over the Netherlands.  Wednesday night's feature was a reception to welcome Mayor Fumiko Hayashi of Yokohama city.  I had luckily managed to scoop up an invitation through a friend who I had phoned the night of my return to Vancouver.  Toss in a dentist appointment the following morning and a barbecue that night and I find myself just relaxing and typing away on my computer on Friday morning.  I've been through a small whirlwind of activity and it goes without saying I'm working on staying alert to make sure I can keep tabs on what is on my calendar.

The next ten days will see me go through a number of dinners and parties with friends and family, a couple of 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup matches, and O-haka Maeri the day before I leave.  That final item being where one attends to the graves of family ancestors as part of the practice of rituals tied to Obon, the annual period when the souls of the dead are believed to visit.  Canadian Jodo-Shinshu Buddhists typically hold their Obon events in early July whilst in Japan they are held in August.  The cause of this difference comes from a decision someone made in Canada to adjust the date for Obon to the Gregorian calendar.  The same was done for Hanamatsuri, the festival celebrating the birth of Shakamuni Buddha, which is observed in April.  The instances where the adjustment wasn't made is for the spring and fall observances of O-Higan, the spring and fall equinoxes.  No need to make any changes there.

Ran Out of Gas....

I had an observer in my final class today.  The girl is a 2nd year junior high school student.  As luck would have it she's in the same school year as the girl who presently is enrolled in the class.  Goes to a different school though.  The class went relatively well but as it progressed she seemed to run out of energy to keep up with my intermittent Q&A barrages.  I chalked that up to the fact that most junior high and high school students show up for classes after a long day at school.  I've seen students almost fall asleep whilst in the middle of writing a sentence.  Anyways, by the time the class had finished her mother had done all the paperwork to have her enrolled.  Which is a good thing as far as business goes.

The standard practice in our school is that the office manager leaves an information slip on a teacher's desk when we have new or prospective students coming in.  I had glanced at the name for this new student, thought it was a unique name, and left it at that.  Ami, our office manager, had said something about the girl having taken English lessons in the past but that didn't leave an impression on me.

After tonight's class Ami asked how the observer had fared.  I said "She seemed to have run out of gas".  Ami didn't understand what that meant but I didn't have time to explain because we had students clearing out after class.  Taking the time to say goodnight and thanks for coming is de rigueur.   Afterwards I explained that the girl seemed to have run out of energy to speak and her facial demeanor had become a bit stiff and expressionless.

I was seated at my desk when I relayed that information to Ami.  I looked over to my co-worker James and then it struck me like a lightning bolt: that girl was his former student.  I had also taught her a few times a couple of years ago.  She had been a rather silent student back then.  Apparently not too much different now.  James got excited, pulled open a desk drawer, and produced a photo taken three years ago.  Yes, she was in that photo.

So my challenge going forward is to start off with a clean slate.  The desire to tell the girl that yes, I do remember her from three years ago is strong but I figure it's best not to haul all that stuff back out.  Being thirteen is tricky enough without having to deal with embarrassment caused by adults whose memories are too long.

The Konbini Event Horizon(?)

Stuck in the deep recesses on my mind is a small segment from Douglas Adams' "The Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy".  The part in question was only included in the radio play version and it features a student interacting with his teacher over some form of electronic teaching paraphernalia.  The topic of the lesson is related to the history of the planet which the main characters have found themselves on.  I don't recall the name of the planet but I do remember that it was covered with a thick layer of solidified muck which archeologists had found to be made up of compressed shoes.  The lesson shed light on the reason behind this: "The Shoe Event Horizon".  In response to the final question of his lesson the student proclaims that "The economic cycle goes on until it reaches 'The Shoe Event Horizon' where everything is involved in only the production of shoes and nothing else but shoes!"(sic).  If I recall correctly the population of the planet became so fed up with shoes they evolved into a race of bird people, never to set foot on the planet's surface again.

Any ways, I was out for drinks at one of my haunts and the snack "Mama" and I got onto the topic of new construction in town.  Aside from the new library (we reached the conclusion it won't revitalize the old downtown area), most new construction we took note of in our conversation were for stores or restaurants.  One is going to house a branch of a chain of yaki-niku (grilled meat) restaurants.  Her comment was along the lines of "Who'd go there given that the local competition serves local high grade beef and the chains usually use lower grade imports?".  The next site to get picked on is next to a local church and kitty corner across from a ramen shop.  Apparently they're putting up another 7-Eleven store.  Our verdict on that was a solid "What for?".  It's not like there's a shortage of convenience stores (aka: "konbini") in town.

My tongue in cheek thought is that the city is headed for the "Konbini Event Horizon"...where all economic activity in town will revolve around supporting the profitability of convenience stores.  For instance, there is one street in town where one can come across two Family Mart convenience stores only a block apart.  If you're not paying attention you'll think you've entered some alternate dimension because you've passed what seems to be the same street corner twice while you've been travelling in a straight line.  Then there was the time when I missed a turn on my way to the cinema because a new 7-Eleven store had popped up on the corner where I should've turned.  The snowy conditions and lack of expectancy (to seeing a new shop) contributed to that navigation error.

All in all though, I don't believe Yonezawa will approach the concentration of ABC convenience stores in Waikiki.  I recall a tour bus driver referring to them collectively as "Another Bloody Convenience" store.  It was almost like the joke about Vancouver where you can't throw a rock down a street without hitting at least two Starbuck's coffee shops.  Aye...I suppose we're still safe in Yonezawa from reaching the "Konbini Event Horizon".


PS:  I listened to "The Hitch-hiker's Guide on the Galaxy" on CBC Radio back around 1982.  So there is no chance that I can recall the exact words to lines from the radio drama.  None whatsoever.... 

It's April 7th...

Yesterday was an interesting day of sorts at work.   It seemed like every class I taught had a little surprise....

First off was my early afternoon intermediate level class.  Normally there are two men and two women in the class but one of the ladies has gone AWOL after heading down to Tokyo for a little trip back in mid March.  Of the two fellows, one joined the class officially this week.  I had chatted him up a bit the previous week during the warm-up stage of the lesson and found out he was working on getting his teaching license.  Currently he's teaching at a private cram school.  This week I found out a bit more about his academic career.

If I recall correctly he had originally been enrolled in a private university down in Chiba.  He went abroad to England on a ten month stint as an exchange student.  While he was abroad he became a bit homesick and proceeded to search for all manner of things Japanese on the Internet.  A certain subject caught his fancy and when he returned to Japan he transferred to a different university to obtain his bachelor's degree with a major in that subject.  The subject in question being Buddhist statuary from the late Heian period to the end of the Muromachi period.  Needless to say that isn't a major which will open doors to opportunities in the corporate world so he now finds himself in my English class.

The following class was a beginner's class.  All the students are adults and four out of the five are retirees.  The newest student who joined about a month ago is a quite spoken lady in her sixties.  A few weeks ago she mentioned in a rather straight forward manner that she's a Christian.  So this week during the warm-up portion of the lesson she read through her prepared text and mentioned that it had been Easter this past weekend.  I chuckled a bit to myself when I heard that.  Last year I had been caught unawares when I had gone down to the Canadian embassy only to find it was closed on account of Easter Monday (whilst my American co-worker was able to conduct his business successfully at the US embassy).  Anyways, this student presented the rest of us with a container full of Easter eggs and some German style cookies (the name of them which escapes me - they're the variety with nuts in them and they're rolled in powdered sugar - a late Austrian friend of my mother baked them in crescent shapes).  Needless to say this was a most pleasant surprise!  On closer inspection afterwards I found that the eggs had been decorated in a peculiarly Japanese fashion - their artwork was printed on plastic sleeves which could be removed in the same fashion as the plastic sleeve labels can be removed from commercially sold PET drink bottles.  Somehow or another they had been made to fit the eggs exactly.  My guess is that the plastic sleeves were made to shrink and fit the eggs snuggly by placing the hard boiled eggs in them them when the eggs were still hot.

The last class with an element surprise in it was an evening class taught at a client's site.  The first student to arrive was tardy and he apologized for being late.  Then he went on to say "It's April 7th...do you know what today is?".  I was completely stumped.  "It's the day the Yamato was sunk", he carried on.  "Ah...I see", I said to myself.  I had been tipped off by my predecessor about this fellow.  He had mentioned the student's somewhat right leaning attitudes.  So his little piece of trivia wasn't a total surprise.  Yet it was in spite of my interest in the conflict which included the sinking of the Yamato.  The irony in my case is that I've read a couple of books about the ship's last mission but I'd never taken it upon myself to remember what day it had been sunk.  I can remember details such as the struggles of the men in the water after the ship sank or the role of the Japanese-American crew member but not the day.  Nonetheless, I followed his comments with a brief discussion on technical details of the ship.  That's a relatively neutral topic and it served well to avoid going down the rabbit hole of nationalistic feelings attached to the ship.

I didn't get caught off guard in my last class of the day so more or less it was business as usual there.  I say "More or less" as I was able to catch my student off guard when I gave her the last remaining Easter egg.... 

"Magical Chain"

The following is from a post I made in small forum I help moderate.  There's very little activity on the forum so I haven't had to do much moderating there in ages.  Nonetheless here's my blurb about the concert I attended last night....

I got to see Ulful Keisuke in concert last night. Lady Luck was on my side this time.  I think the gig sold out in about 30 minutes.   I saw a poster with the "Sold Out - Thank You!" sticker on it at Billy's Bar back in February.  I mentioned to a friend I had seen him in concert last year and it looked like I was going to miss out on his show this year.   She said she had heard that someone had six returned tickets from cancellations.   So I asked her to put in a word for me.  A few days later she got back to me and said she had managed to secure the last ticket for me.  Needless to say I was extremely pleased with the turn of events.

I've been to Billy's Bar for concerts in the past.  It's not a big place so I've learned the lesson that it doesn't pay to show up just before shows start.  So yesterday I showed up 15 minutes before the doors opened.  Even then I has at the back of the queue.  Luckily it wasn't a long one.  So I managed to nab a good seat about a meter behind the soundboard.

Opening act was MinxZone (http://www.last.fm/music/MinxZone).   They're a trio who originally were based in Osaka but they're now based in Tokyo.  Since they don't have a bassist they had to rely on taped bass track on their opening song.  After that they chugged along as two guitartists and a drummer.  They're an upbeat feel-good pop-rock unit.   Similar to the band I saw last month, Zukunasi, they include elements of audience participation in their set.   Their output isn't limited to music as they had knick-knacks, books, and art T-shirts on sales too.

Ulful Keisuke is the guitarist for the now reformed Ulfuls.  The band started out pre-1993 in Osaka and were known for an irreverent and tongue-in-cheek style of rock and roll in the beginning (the name of the band came from dropping "so" from "soulful").   Commercial success followed in the mid nineties.   I remember seeing them on an edition of the annual Kohaku Uta Gassen (Red-White Song Battle) in the mid 2000s.

I believe Ulful Keisuke has been doing his annual tours through the Tohoku region for a number of years.   He's visited Yonezawa three years in a row.   I was at last year's show and it was a good one but the venue was too small for the size of the audience in attendance.   This year the layout of the venue was better suited to his style of show.  He likes to take an occasional stroll up the aisle to stretch out a guitar solo.  His selection of songs are his own ones which he may or may not have collaborated on with members of Ulfuls.  He definitely doesn't mine the Ulfuls catalogue. He likes to chat things up between tunes too.  Not up to the length of the monologues done by Yamada Koshi though (another person whose shows at Billy's Bar sell out too).  The selection ranged from a cover of an old Stones tune (though written by Lennon and McCartney) to a couple of ballads and a lot of peppy and energetic rockers.

I drained half my wallet again on CD purchases.  Got them autographed by MinxZone and Ulful Keisuke respectively.  I complemented Ulful Keisuke, in English, on his T-shirt selection. It was a Monty Python T-shirt that names the members of the troupe and then, for no particular reason, goes on to list "Spam, Spam, Spam" and other nonsense.  Ulful Keisuke did a double take when he asked what my name was as he was about to sign a CD for me.  Guess he wasn't expecting to get an English name delivered in a flat North American accent in the middle of a sentence in Japanese....


Footnote: I found out last week that the ticket I purchased came courtesy of Pinky-chan (real name Eriko) who sings in the house band Brilliant Shine at Billy's Bar.  I bumped into her at Yasukuni about three weeks ago when I went there to catch an acoustic night gig which I found about from our office manager.   She remembered me from when she made her rounds through the audience after Brilliant Shine finished their set when they had opened for Zukunasi.  That was back in late February,

A Change

I'm not sure what made me decide to purchase a new laptop to replace my early 2011 model Macbook Pro.  I suppose it was the realization that it wasn't performing as quickly under the weight of the latest edition of Mac OS X.  Or perhaps it was the fan spinning away madly while I was playing some game.  Nonetheless, the decision was made a few months ago.  I let a co-worker know that I was looking for a buyer for the old machine and he expressed interest in it.  So the die was cast, so to speak.

Once the new 2015 Macbook Pro models were announced about a month ago I signed onto the Apple Japan online store to place my order.  I checked the option to pay in 6 interest free installments.  With that I was led to a website to submit a loan application.  I dutifully started filling out the form but by the fourth page the questions were getting more difficult to interpret and the information requested harder to obtain.  So I ended up phoning Apple to cancel the order, make changes to what I had ordered, and resubmit it.

Unfortunately there was a problem with the payment option I had chosen.  The e-mail telling me about the issue was delivered to an e-mail address I check somewhat infrequently.  Thus I failed to take action in time and the order was cancelled.  Once more I submitted the order.

Today I'm working away on my new purchase.  It's an interesting example of computing hardware evolution.  The machine has no optical drive and the mass storage device is a flash memory drive.  So it's dead silent.  I had it customized by having it assembled with a US keyboard and additional RAM.  The assembly work was done somewhere in China.  That I know from the tracking information of the package it was sent in.

I had some issues transferring my data from my old machine to this one on account of the smaller capacity of the mass storage device on the new machine.  The initial attempt to transfer the data using Apple's migration assistant failed to complete successfully in spite of the fact that there was ample space on the new machine.  So I ended working on it until the early hours of the morning.  After waking I went about restoring the old machine to its initial condition: Mac OS X Snow Leopard and no user accounts set up on it.  I shot a video of the "Welcome" video and shut down the machine down for the last time. Thus I parted with a machine I had hauled back and forth across the Pacific Ocean five times.

Footnote:  When I was shopping for the original Macbook Pro a friend suggested choosing a Macbook Pro.  I thought about it but decided not on account of the slower processor speed, smaller mass storage device capacity and lack of an optical drive.  The Macbook Pro I purchased this time around is like a Macbook Air...on steroids.  Faster processor, more memory, and the mid-size mass storage device which is the top-end mass storage device on the Air.

A "Congratulations Graduates!" Concert...and Miscellaneous Things

I attended a concert several years ago where a number of the participating musicians were students who were soon to graduate from their respective educational institutions at the time.  The poster advertising that show didn't make mention of that fact...it sort of came out as the night's proceedings carried on.  This past Saturday I attended a concert which was organized by a certain Mr. Shimanuki and was visibly identifiable as a concert for three graduating students who also have connections within the local music scene.  The three musicians, a male and two females, represented three levels of local schools: the fellow is a university grad, the first female is a women's college grad, and the next a high school grad.  The middle section of the concert featured these three musicians: the fellow played keyboard in a band and the two young ladies were acoustic guitar playing singer/songwriters who each did a solo set.

In regards to being nervous on stage, the fellow had the advantage of being a member of a band.  He wasn't at centre stage.  Instead he was stationed near the front on the audience's right hand side of the stage.  The solo artists were dead centre on stage and both admitted they were quite nervous.  Actually, if I recall correctly, both asked Goro-san who was manning the sound board and lighting system to not use the stage lights which shone on the audience.  Megu, the older one, managed to finish her performance with only a minor hitch but the younger one who goes by her stage name of "Yatte Mo-taro?" hit a big bump.  Prior to launching into one her songs she announced that she wasn't going to perform it any more.  That became apparent once she started singing and playing it.  It was a song about high school life and wondering about the future.  As a high school graduate, the time and place for the song had passed.  Things went fine until the third verse.  She stopped mid-song, froze for a second, and said "Oh.  I've forgotten the lyrics (to the next verse).  Does anyone know what they are?".  There was no one around who could yell out the start of the verse so it was few awkward seconds until she was able to recall it.  After she finished the song she removed the school necktie from around her neck (she was on stage in her school uniform) and tossed it into the crowd.  She quickly stormed off stage, leaving a few in the audience wondering what to expect next.  I heard someone say "She's probably changing out of her uniform".  Sure enough that was the case.

After they had finished their sets, the three grads were assembled near the stage to receive congratulations and bouquets.  Ms. "Yatte Mo-taro?" was given a potted flowering plant.  I'm not sure if there was any significance in that.  There was plenty of bowing, words of appreciation, and taking of photos.  Then things were handed over to the last flight of bands to finish off the night's proceedings. 

The last band to take to the stage was from Nagai, a city north of Yonezawa.  They go by the name "Vanishment This World" which Mr. Shimanuki provided a loose translation of.  I didn't get anywhere close to thinking "Yeah, but it doesn't really mean anything in English".   Their music is a form of "speedcore" but they advertise themselves as "A three piece, bass less, downcore" band.  Labels aside, they were loud and fast.   The vocalist was hardly didn't sing so much as he belted out guttural sounds that resembled low frequency yelling.  What was more noticeable were the youths who took to the floor to "dance" to their music.  It wasn't dance so much as it was high intensity bursts of mock fighting moves.  When four of them were going at it in the space in front of the stage, the rest of audience having wisely backed off by about a couple of meters, it was a miracle that no one came out of all that flailing about without taking a kick in the mid-riff or a swinging fist in the back of the head.
 
By the time it was all over the whole event had clocked in at around 5 hours in length.  I had arrived after the first hour and a half but it was still a long night after a day of work so I was quite tuckered out when I got home.

-*-

On Sunday, the next day, I was in the mood to wander off somewhere again but wasn't exactly sure where or for what purpose.  I hastily came up with an idea and found mention on the Internet of a shop which seemed to fit the bill for a place to check out.  Its location was in Nagai city which is north of Yonezawa.  To get there one heads up to Akayu and then hangs a left to head west for a short distance.  I don't think it took me more than 45 minutes to drive there.

Once I got to Nagai I parked my car in the lot of a park more or less in the centre of town.  I headed off to find the shop...and discovered it was no more.  Hence my statement that "its location was in Nagai".  Nonetheless, I took the time to stroll through the side streets back to my car.  I stumbled across a soy sauce shop where they make and sell it in a rather traditional looking building.  Interestingly enough it was located next to a fire bell tower.  Another interesting building featured a thatched roof.  A local temple had a small structure on its ground which housed an altar and had massive 2 meter long straw sandals hanging on its walls outside.  So I didn't go home empty handed.  Well, literally yes, but that didn't matter.

-*-

Over the years, every now and then I have heard a particular song being blasted over a PA system.  It's no more than a single verse and chorus but it is quite loud.  At some point in time I thought it was related to an election campaign but I kept hearing it after voting day.  Until recently I thought it came from a nearby nursery school.

This morning I went for a walk over to Uesugi Shrine and thereabouts.  On my return leg, as I turned onto the street leading up to my apartment a large truck passed me.  And then I heard that song!  It was delivery truck for a local co-op food service.  Ah!  Mystery solved...more or less.  I may time my next walk so that I can shoot a short video of the truck and its song.  Then I can listen to it to my heart's content to try and figure out what the heck its about....