One month on

So, the past month has been busy, to say the least. After taking 6 trips back to my old town, covering over 1000kms and 15 hours of driving time, I finally completed my move into my new house at the beginning of the month. Actually, I had to make an additional trip later on, so you can add 120kms and 3 hours to those totals. So, now if only someone can tell me what to do with my 3 microwaves, 2 washing machines, 2 toaster ovens, 2 rice makers, 4 beds, a dozen futons, and the rest of my wares it would be greatly appreciated.

Anyway, as I have said repeatedly, my house is big - too big! I am dreading the day when I see my air conditioning bill or my heating bill in the winter, for that matter. I actually don`t pay rent, but my predecessor told me that those bills will more than make up for it. I live in the house alone, but I do have many uninvited guests, namely cockroaches. They are here and there so I simply set up a bunch of poison traps so I end up finding the suckers on their back, still twitching. I think I am going to have to start paying some of my students to put them in the garbage every time I find one. I hate cockroaches, but thankfully they aren`t the size of the man-eaters I saw in Australia.

Other than that, since school is out my work has mostly consisted of playing with the local 1-3 graders during their summer camp. In my downtime I just lick my wounds and complain to everyone that I keep getting beaten up by over-excited mobs of Japanese children. It is a lot of fun though.

For the second year running I went to one of the best and biggest fireworks displays in Japan. Seriously, they know how to do fireworks. The shows go for 2 hours and some 200-300,000 people turn up each night. There is a real festive atmosphere and it was a lot of fun again this year. I also visited Sado, an large island just of the coast, to see Kodo, Japan`s most famous Japanese drum team. Truly spectacular what they can do. For more info on both of these events see my blog entries from last August.

Oh, and speaking of festivals, my new town had one this past week. Since they are the richest town in Japan they get to do things that other Japanese towns don`t ... such as helicopter rides. yep, it only cost $10 for 10 minutes. I even got to fly it. Actually, I didn`t, but I imagined I did and that is basically the same. Anyway, it was so cool and felt like we were in the movies. The chopper soared up, turned on its side, nosed-dived, and then flew just above the trees and down along the river. I will post the videos on you-tube.

I have also been visiting my old high school once a week. I really miss them, although I am kind of glad not to be there in summer because there is no air conditioning and too say that it feels like you are living in Hell`s attic might fit the bill. Maybe a little steamier (more steamy?).

Anyway, school starts next Friday (Sept.1) so I need to plan my speech (Japanese, of course). I am going to be so much busier this year as it appears I teach 20 classes a week (plus 2 more as a volunteer at my old high school), rather than 12 when I was teaching at the high school last year. Nevertheless, I have lots of traveling planned. First up is two visits to Tokyo to see Sumo, one of which will see me seated in a private box at ringside. Look for me on TV if you happen to get the Sumo channel. Later on I have a bunch of weekend trips around Japan planned and maybe a trip to China. Finally, I think I`ll be back in Canada around Christmas for a consultation with a knee surgeon.

So, I think you are up to date. This has been a thoroughly fascinating entry into the life of Dean blog, so I hope you are still awake. This entry has been brought to you by the letter W, the number 3, and the deep thought, "A good way to threaten somebody is to light a stick of dynamite. Then you call the guy and hold the burning fuse up to the phone. "Hear that?" you say. "That's dynamite, baby." Randomness at its best, don`t you think?

Oh, by the way, I do have some interesting news, but don`t really feel like puting it on the blog. Send me an email if you want to find out. And no, I am not pregnant.