Lest We Forget

IN FLANDERS FIELDS
-John McCrae

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Envy.

I've always had a romantic image (and wanting) of old books. I think there is something magical in a early edition, authentically bound book. Whose hands have touched it's pages, what countries, homes and libraries has is rested in, why has it remained intact after all these years?

I have a meagre collection of old books -nothing rare or expensive (yet). I like to buy books of stories I like and authors I admire, but what's more, I particularly enjoy books with interesting personal inscriptions inside the covers, or notes and messages within the pages.

Not long before coming to Japan I read a book called "The Island of Lost Maps: a True Story of Cartographic Crime" by Miles Harvey. click here for a description

A good read for nerds like me.

What prompted this post?

The following article which left me envious of the new owner.



World's first printed atlas - 1477 edition - sells for record US$3.9 million

19:16:35 EDT Oct 10, 2006
Canadian Press

LONDON (AP) - The first atlas ever printed sold for a record US$3.9 million at auction Tuesday.
The sale at Sotheby's of the 1477 edition of Claudius Ptolemy's landmark atlas established a new record for any atlas ever sold at auction.
The atlas was part of a collection sold by the family of Lord Wardington, a prolific British map and atlas collector who died last year. It is one of only two copies still in private hands.
The price paid by a private collector, who was not present at the auction, eclipsed the previous record of $2.7 million, paid for the "Doria Atlas" sold at Sotheby's in October 2005.
Ptolemy was a Greek-speaking geographer, astronomer and astrologer who lived in Roman Egypt. He authored several scientific treatises that were influential on both Islamic and European science and devised maps and atlases of the Roman Empire.
"The price for the 1477 Ptolemy atlas was extraordinary - a fitting testimony to the rarity and importance of the work - but the excitement it generated was echoed throughout the sale," said Catherine Slowther, Head of Maps and Atlases at Sotheby's.


Money well spent if you ask me. What do you think?

Am I back in Lethbridge??

I'm sitting in my apartment at the moment and the wind is HOWLING!!! And even more shocking, there was HAIL on my way home from work today.

I feel like I'm back in Lethbridge...the whole building is swaying back and forth, the windows are rattling, the water in the toilet bowl is sloshing, and I could lose the laundry rods off my balcony at any moment.

I remember the long walks to the UofL...well, long if I were going against the wind - I could cut the time in half if I when I was walking with the incessant gales that used to come howling out of the foothills.

Where did this come from? We've had perfect weather here for months now. Is it time to finally admit winter is coming?

I've thought about turning on the heater (I usually use my air conditioner's 'heat' function)...but I haven't done it yet. It's a common game among ALTs - who will be the first to pull out the kerosene heater? Who can withstand the chilly autumn mornings and frigid nights the longest? I wonder who will it be this year -I think I've already beaten Sista K. Those of us with smaller apartments have an advantage since we basically only have to worry about heating up one room. Pity the JET who has a large apartment or, heaven forbid, a house to live in during the winter months.

typical kerosene heater

I got this photo from a website which provides a great explanation of Japanese heating meathods.

click here to view the site

No More Mr. Grumpypants

I teach an adult eikaiwa (ei=english, kaiwa=conversation) class on Monday nights. I've been doing it for 3 years now. We meet in a meeting room in one of the municipal buildings downtown.

For the past 3 years there has been a man at the front desk who is THE grumpiest old man I've ever met. He rarely looks up from his TV program when I come through the door, and if he does, he doesn't say anything. I thought at first that maybe it was just my gaijin-ness (being a foreigner), but no he treats everyone the same way. He's always harsh when he speaks to the students in the class -for example if we try to turn the air conditioner or the heater on without asking permission he'll come banging on the classroom door telling us it's not time yet (there are often predetermined and somewhat arbitrary dates for when things like heaters and fans are to be used in this country, as is the idea that you don't go in the ocean before or after a certain date -regardless of the actual conditions). We also have to pay a monthly rental fee for the room and he will not allow us to start class until it's paid on the first Monday of the month...seriously. I hate to be disrespectful of my elders, but this guy is a jerk.

Well, I don't know what happened to him- maybe he retired, maybe enough people complained and he got turfed, or maybe my students' curses finally worked and the guy fell down a flight of stairs...regardless, he's gone and I couldn't be happier with his replacement. A warm and friendly old guy whom I'd gladly adopt as my grandfather. He says hello to everyone as they come in, he makes sure the room is comfortable when we begin and he's even offered to see me out to me car with an umbrella when he saw I didn't have one (my car was 10 feet away...).

Goodbye Mr. Grumpypants, and WELCOME Mr. Sunshine!!

Bedside Book: Finished

I have to say I was disappointed with the end of "Larry's Party".

I don't know what I was expecting. Actually, I think I was expecting what actually happened, but I didn't want it to happen, and then it did happen, so I was disappointed.

Now I have to wait for my next Amazon order to arrive (hopefully this week) so I can finish the RING trilogy ("LOOP" finally came out in paperback). And I also ordered Richard Kearney's "The God Who May Be". Couldn't resist after listening to him on CBC's Ideas. Dad, I hope you got a chance to listen to this particular series - would love discuss it with you. And Mom, if you caught the Idea's series on Sleeping and Dreams, I'd like to know what you think.

In the mean time I've scavenged through my bookshelves and have settled on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I've read the complete works, most of them twice and some of them many many more times. Always great bedtime reading.

21 Grams

I've had an infatuation with Sean Penn lately. I won't go into the reasons why...but I've been renting a lot of his movies. The latest is called
'21 Grams'.

Wow.

Like most of his films, it's intense, a bit raw and fabulously written, cut and cast.

Bedside Book

I'm currently reading "Larry's Party" by Carol Shields, a Canadian author from Chicago.

I'm thouroghly enjoying it and am looking foward to reading more of her books when I'm finished with this one.

I started reading Jack Kerouac's "On the Road", but put it down after two attempts. I just can't get into it. Disappointing.

my head space at the moment

A few weeks ago I had the privlege of attending the debut reading of my friend's first soon to be published novel. A wonderful experience in itself, but also the impetus for the following ramble.

After listening to Matt read from the final pages of his book, the 3 Canadians in the room- me, Matt and Owen- merged in a corner and started talking about our future plans. It started with the whole idea of what it takes to write a full novel from beginning to end. It was during this conversation that I came upon the stark realization that for the first time in probably my whole life, I don't have any long term goals.

There is not a single thing that I am striving towards at the moment (again, I'm talking long term). I'm not sure how or why this has happened. I know that in coming to Japan I have learned to live more in the present. No, let me rephrase that. I have learned to live in the present. I had never done that before. But now I feel like maybe I've swung to the opposite end of the spectrum and I live too much in the short term, immediacy of my existance.

I haven't decided yet if this is cause for concern. I'm leaning towards 'no'. I seem to be doing fine, causing no harm to myself or others this way. I don't feel like I'm spinning my wheels by staying here in Japan year after year like many people do. I find it funny when individuals come here and stay one one or two years and then insist they have to get back to "the real world".

Why can't the real world be where ever you happen to be at the time. Why does Canada have to be the real world; why does teaching here under the title of "ALT" have to be less legitimate than being in a classroom at home?

I used to make most of my decisions based on what I thought others wanted me to do, or thought I should do. I've learned to make decisions now according to what 'feels' right to me. I still stumble and make mistakes, but for the most part I'm much happier with my life now than I was in the past.

Ok, I'm straying from the topic...

Why don't I have any long term goals?

While talking to Matt and Owen one of them asked, "Well, don't you want to be in a relationship and have a family?"

I answered honestly and openly that yes, I do want those things. But I can't make that a 'goal'. I used to think that way. It used to be a 'goal' - until I realized that I have no control over who will fall in love with me and want to have children with me -and whether it will be mutual. It's a want or a desire, or even a dream, but it's not something I can take aim at.

Sure, I have lots of wants. I want to travel more, I want to be better at Japanese, I want to teach, I want to get my Masters degree, I want to have children, I want a vintage VW collection, I want to be thin...

But unlike in times past, I don't have anything marked on my life calendar. There's no "Save X amount of dollars to fix up my Thing." or "Start my Masters by 2008." I haven't a clue if I'll ever own my own house, have a 'career' - or even when my next trip abroad will be.

Part of me thinks that it's just a temporary inability to commit. Another part of me thinks that I'm just being lazy, for lack of a better word...

Yet I don't feel guilty. I don't feel bad. Rather I'm feeling a slight sense of awe about the whole thing. Where once there was a perception of linear progress to my future, I find the current view to be vacantly chaotic -or chaotically vacant, take your pick.

Wants, desires and dreams sitting just ahead of today, but nothing in any particular order or place.

Wants, desires and dreams waiting for me to cement them down to a time - to a latitude and longitude - to a single point which one day will be 'now'.

Where once this activity of choosing and putting things into their appropriate slots along my life's continuum -getting my driver's licence, graduating from high school, graduating from university - was effortless, fun, and if not somewhat predetermined, I find that at the moment I have neither the desire nor the energy needed to seek out and persue new badges to sew on my sash.

And what baffles me even further about my present state of mind is that I'm not concerned about what other people may think about this! Ha! There seems to be low levels of stress involved in this state of being. Perhaps that's just it. Without goals, there is no stress or worry of acheiving.

-Or more pointedly: failing.

Can you handle more pumpkin?

When I brought my internet-ordered pumpkin to my little school (Maezawa) last Wednesday everyone went crazy over it. I had carved a simple face on it (see previous posts), but I guess when you've never seen a Jack-o-lantern before it's a pretty cool thing. Much more effective than showing a picture or flashcard.

Well, my principal was also interested. And when he found out I got it from the internet and had paid around $20CDN for it, he looked at me and said, "You know that Nyuzen is becoming famous for pumpkins, right?"

I did know that, but when there's a language barrier (and a cultural one), it's not so easy to go knocking on people's doors asking for pumpkins. Besides, the pumpkins grown here are NOT the same as the pumpkins we use at home for Jack-o-lanterns. Their skin is much paler and the rind (rind?) is much thicker. They kind of remind me of the little gourds or 'fancy' pumpkins you can see at home, just on a bigger scale. They don't have that vibrant orange color, nor do they seem all that pumkin-like to me.

Back to the principal...he told me he knew a guy who knew a guy - and before I knew it, he was one the phone with 'the guy'. Half way through the conversation, he cups his hand over the receiver, and in perfect English leans towards me and asks, "How many?" I paused, made a quick calculation: 3 schools = 3 pumpkins. "Three," I answered, hesitantly, not really knowing what the right answer was.

He took his hand away from the receiver and told the guy, "Five."

Within the hour, a little white truck rolled up to Maezawa Elementary School and 2 guys jumped out and unloaded 5 pumpkins. They told us, somewhat apologetically, that these were the smallest they had:
















So now I had two extra pumpkins...and I couldn't even lift the first 3 myself!! This is where my two favoritest neighbors came into play!! It helped that they both work at elementary and jr. high schools too, so I knew they were also teaching halloween lessons. Whew. I would have looked pretty ungrateful had I not been able to take all 5 of them. I'm not sure what Johnny did with his, but I know Sista K managed to carve one up for her school festival last weekend.

Yay for pumkins!!

p.s. I lit the little guy and put him on my balcony all night. When I got up this morning he was still burning bright!

Sumo: me through K's camera

This is Tochinonada. A fun
Maegashira to watch.





Here's me and Aminishiki, one of my faves. He's quiet, and reserved in the ring, a real gentleman.

The last of the Halloween photos

...until I teach this lesson 3 more times next Monday!

Make it stop. Halloween's not one of those lingering holidays, like Christmas or New Years. The build up is great, but once it's November 1, the ghosts and goblins get put away for another year. Make it stop!!!

Here's some of my students from the past week's lessons.





click here to see a video

Jack-O-Lantern #2

The big day is just two sleeps away.

I've got more classes to teach and this little guy will be tagging along.









Ain't he cute?







Thanks to Mom, Marilyn and Karla for sending me stickers and other goodies. The kids love them! As do I.

I'm updating!

no really, i am.

please be patient.

I love my job

I've got stories about this day but it'll have to wait until for another day.

Oh, and

HAPPY B-DAY OBRALAHAN!

One week and counting...

Here's the first Jack-o-lantern I've made this year.
I'll be bringing him to most of my classes this week











-if he survives!

I ordered the pumpkin off the internet for about $20 (from costco in Japan).

Sounds expensive but it was totally worth it when I stuck my hand in for the first time to scoop out pumpkin seeds! I love this holiday.

Part II

This weekend was full of entertainment.
First of all, I went to my 6th live sumo event.
Kirsten and I jumped in her car Saturday morning and spent the day at Ariso Dome in Uozu city watching our favorite sumo wrestlers, or better yet, sumo stars. They really are celebrities, just as hockey players and ball players are back home.


This guys's waiting for the bus. No, seriously, he is.

The official name for a sumo wrestler is 'rishiki'. There are various ranks of rikishi and that rank determines the order they will fight in any given match or tournament. Lower levels go first. These are usually the younger athletes whose size and strength might dominate even some of the higher level rikishi, yet sit at the bottom while they strive to acquire the technical skills needed for sumo.


These guys are helping the Yokozuna (the highest ranked rikishi) tie a huge white cord around his waist.

Here's the result.


I have been up close to some of my favorites in the past, and this year was no exception. I still have a hard time pushing my way through a crowd to get a good photo, I see these guys first as athletes and don't want bother them by asking for a photo. However the temptation is pretty strong at times and Kirsten and I managed to get a few shots of ourselves with some of the high level rikishi.

After the sumo exhibition we went to Toyama, had a great dinner at Santoshi, an Indian restaurant I really enjoy, and then went to a live theatre production to watch my friend Lee's puppet performance.

Lee is a 4th year JET like me, and a good friend. He came to Toyama years before becoming a JET with a puppet production company and then ended up here again when he applied for the JET Programme. In his spare time he works with theatre groups to produce some amazing puppetry.

This latest endeavor involved a group of musicians and throat singers from Mongolia! Together they retold the popular children's story "Suho's White Horse".

The music on it's own was beautiful -especially the vocals. But combined with the visuals created by a wonderful variety of puppets -marionettes, shadow puppets and even life sized puppets, it was truly a wonderful evening of entertainment.

Outside the theatre a traditional Mongolian house had been erected for people to enter, view some photographs, and try a type of milk tea common to Mongolia.

So a very special congratulations to Lee for a great performance!

Next on the entertainment list was Kirsten's swim meet on Sunday. I got up and drove to Toyama to watch (with some envy) as she swam her events for the Master's Swim Meet.
Great job Sista K, I really enjoyed watching your swims.

Lastly, the icing on the cake was that my FAVORITE AUNT sent me season two of "Corner Gas". I've almost finished watching all 18 episodes...in less than a week. Oh, come on, you all know they're addicting!!! Thank you M for spoiling me to death (that included the stickers and Wee Sing book too!!!)

A great weekend of entertainment, don't you think?

Feels like high school...

...you know, you leave your homework until Sunday night? That's how this blog feels. I've been putting it off all week, and now it's Sunday night and it seems like there's too much to do in just one blog.

I've got two themes to this post, one is first aid. The other is entertainment.
Totally unrelated, I know.

Let's start with 'first aid' shall we? At the beginning of the week there was a grade 2 student who got hit in the face with a ball at my school. He came into the staff room with a scraped knee, a fat lip and bleeding gums. The school nurse was off on a school field trip with the 6th graders, so the homeroom teacher was responsible for him. She got on the phone right away and called his mother. Sounds reasonable. She then called the hospital and told them that he'd be coming in -another good idea. What she didn't do however, was TREAT THE CHILD. I sat and watched as he bled and sniffled, teachers walking by tsking and shaking their heads, "poor kid". BUT NOBODY DID ANYTHING FOR HIM!!

I turned to my Japanese Assistant Teacher and said, "Somebody needs to get that boy some ice." Her response was, "Oh, but the nurse isn't here today, and besides, they've called his mother."

...

I repeated my concern for his swelling lip and she shrugged and said that he'd be going to the hospital soon.

...


Does this seem totally lame to anyone else? The boy's lip was huge and only getting bigger. The teacher left the room so I went to the refridgerator and got an ice pack for him. I wrapped it in tissue because I didn't know where to find clean, sanitary towels or cloth. As I was handing it to him the teacher came back in and said to the boy, "Oh isn't Linea-sensei so nice, how thoughtful of her."


First aid:
Pronunciation: "f&rst-'Ad
Function: noun: emergency care or treatment given to an ill or injured person before regular medical aid can be obtained
Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.

You don't have to be trained in it to do it -it's common sense. Or so I thought. As someone who has been trained, this was a very uncomfortable situation for me and I couldn't stand by and not do anything, even though I had basically been told I shouldn't.

This led to a whole discussion with my JAT about how I have observed a total lack of training in first aid in this country. I told her how most people in North America get at least a basic level of first aid training as a requirement for many jobs -and that it's especially important for teachers or anyone who works with children. She admitted she hadn't really thought about it before.

Yikes.

Then Thursday when I arrived at school I was informed that a 3rd grade student from another Kurobe City elementary school had collapsed and died during a basketball practice the night before as a result of vetricullar fibrillation (irregular heart rhythm).

He had done one lap and suddenly fell over. He tried to get up, but fell over again.

Now here's the concerning part: according to my JAT, there was no coach, manager nor teacher in the gym at the time. Only parents. Of course they called the ambulance once they realized the seriousness of it. However, they didn't think to contact any of the staff at the school.

Now, nobody can predict what could have happened had a teacher been called, but perhaps had a teacher been contacted they would have been able to administer some kind of first aid while waiting for the ambulance. At least I would hope so.

I would like to point out at this time that since two similar deaths have occured in the last two years in Nyuzen Town, pretty much every school has now been equipped with AEDs(click) (Automatic External Defibrillators). As a Nyuzen High School staff member I was given a 3 hour seminar in how to use this device, as well as a quick CPR lesson. I was astonished at my coworkers' complete lack of knowledge in first aid.

Having an AED machine in a school doesn't mean that every staff member knows how to use it, but that's part of the reason for AED machines -they are designed to be used by trained or non-trained individuals. Perhaps had the parents called a staff member, the would have been able to at least try to used the machine before the ambulance arrived. But it sounds like very little was done.

It's a horrible tragedy, and I can't help but feel that more could have been done for this child. As a parent, wouldn't you want to know what to do if your child (or any child) collapsed, started choking, or was bleeding? You don' t have to be able to set a bone or stitch a gaping wound, but shouldn't you at least know how to stop the bleeding for the time being or in more serious cases open an airway, check for breathing and circulation?

Finally as a last note on this topic, today while watching Kirsten's swim meet there was a woman who apparently had a very bad cramp or some other immobillizing condition in the last 25 of her swim. I watched from the stands as 5 or 6 people walked along the deck watching her way out in lane 5 struggle to get herself to the end of the lane. Finally when she was about 10 feet from the wall another swimmer jumped in to try and help her.

Are you thinking what I was thinking?

Where the hell was the lifeguard. Your guess is as good as mine. One of the first things I noticed when I started swimming in Japan was the complete lack of rescue equipment on deck. Nothing. They must be really adept with a flutter board...

Anyway. So, instead of this woman getting out on the side, she struggled to the end of the lane and then got out on the side. She was a larger woman and I cringed as I watched 4 people try to drag her up out of the water at the ladder. Where is the @!$%$#%ing protocol in this country? Finally she was flopped over onto the deck where now 10 people hovered over her. They brought out a mat and haphazardly yanked and dragged her over to it (instead of sliding it underneath her)....sigh.

Remind me never to get injured in this country.

It's late, I'm tired. I'll leave the entertainment part til morning...before class.

Who's missing from this photo?

After not running at all since my Triathlon (a kazillion eons ago), I joined the Toyama Relay Marathon for the 2nd year in a row. Although it was a blast, as always, it wasn't the same without Jimmy-san on the team.

Add this to the "Lessons Learned" list

Never get your hair done on Friday the 13th.



Unless you want blue hair.



No I don' t have photos...I was in too much shock.

ewwww

my lunch today














see the little chunks of gunk in there...it's called surimi and it's nasty.

ground fish meat -it's all gelatinous and slightly gritty.

in a word: gross