Beard goals

I wrote my last post two months ago. I felt like it was just last week until I realised that it was two months ago. Time flies no matter what you are doing. I scratch my beard trying to think about what is new and I realise that that is is the answer to my question. I have grown a beard. I like having a beard. I actually would like to grow it out a little and then shave it and restore myself back to being not quite so fresh-faced but just with a little bit of a shadow. I don't shave with a razor because I have super sensitive skin. hahaha. I grew a beard when I was working as an IT consultant and one of the project leaders made assumptions about my religion, he was wrong.  I am actually going to grow it out until I reach a goal of mine and then I will shave it off. Or maybe I won't. I may just keep it growing until I reach the next goal and then see from there.  Maybe it will grow on me :| . If my posts are going to be whimsical, then I shouldn't wait for two months for the next one.

Ted is a dick!

So, there are two things that are ruining my life. Ruining is an overstatement and a cop out. The thing that is getting me off track is ME.

The world of social media is one and the other one is sweet things.

Social media is a great tool but I am stuck to it sometimes. I know that I have a problem. I let go, I come back but what I really need to do is strike a nice clean balance. However, like a three-year-old, my balance is way off. I need to think of some rules to ween myself off. Once I have established them I will tell you. There is one I have stuck to, however. It is not to check my phone until after I have left for work and am on the train.  You get a lot accomplished. If I do look at my phone I end up slumped over like some weirdo gazing at things I do not really care about.

What I will do for the above is limit my social media time.

The second one is sweet things. I mean snacks, not girls. Get your mind out of the gutter!

 That is the one that is killing me. It is terrible. It is like a drug. They need to treat people for sugar addiction? Do they? Sometimes, I  walk into a shop to buy something sweet and literally have to talk myself out of it. Yes, moderation is good. I am not moderate. If someone followed me around and calculated how much I spent on snacks last year and told me today. I would probably slap myself and ask all my friends to slap me 3 too. I will also need a strategy. If you have any ideas let me know.

Ted is a dick!
A dick is Ted
A dick Ted
(there you go)

3 + 3

I am writing this post on the eve of my 33rd birthday hence the 3 +3 which is more like a 3 and 3. Too many threes in one sentence, so I started another one. Almost 3 years have passed since I wrote my last post. If I had any regular readers then I am sure they would have long disappeared.

I am free.

I have three jobs I teach English, translate from Japanese to English and teach a dance that I am still learning. I deleted a lol from the end of that sentence as I don't want to use lols in my blog but I have used two lols in this sentence alone, now three.

I live in Kyoto, Japan and have done so for three years with my wife who I married three years ago and we have a three-year-old cat and a son who will be three next year. It is funny how you can make links to something if you try to. For example, I have two brothers, but that means there are three of us.

I have enjoyed this, it feels good. I actually love to write. I hope people still love to read.

Last train winner

Sometimes on the last train, Japanese people are not afraid to strike up convo. it happened to me twice yesterday. Anyway while I was with my friends. This guy started to exercise his English but we kind of ignored him as he was a lil tipsy and we didn't have time for him.
I felt sorry after dissing his high 5 . SO I asked him a question just to help him out. What follows is detailed below.

Me : How tall are you?

Tall Japanese guy : 187 cm (Yes we do cm here)

Me : Wow, really tall .(taller than me)

Tall Japanese guy : Yeah,how tall are you ?

Me: 183cm

Tall Japanese guy : Oh. I'm TALLER than you. I'm the winner. I'm the winner.

He continues in this mocking tone which irritates me a little.Plus his friends were giggling and he was trying to show me up.

Me: How many centimetres are you ?(Pointing to an area of my anatomy)

Tall Japanese guy: (Looking confused) says nothing

Me: WINNER !!! WINNNER !WINNER.

Legally beat them

When I told her what I was going to do I thought she would have an objection, but she told me she was interested to hear that I was going to take part in a Judo PE lesson with her form class and even came and took pictures.

I had wanted to join in training with the Judo club but for some reason or another I hadn't made it. Kawara the Judo Sensei told me I should join the first years for a lesson and that he would bring in his own Judo gi for me. He stressed the length of the arms and legs may be short and this was no exaggeration. It was also a bright blue one which contrasted heavily with all the various shades of white gis the students had. You could tell which students had hand me down gis as theirs were bordering on a creamy yellow colour.  

I walked to the Dojo with a nike pro t-shirt so all my students were in double shock first reaction "Ariyo da!!!" - It's Ariyo. followed by "wow, sugoi(great), tsuyoi (strong), macho baby" etc. They were all excited that I joined in. I was surprised to see two other teachers with their black belts. I never even knew they did Judo.

Kawara sensei passed me the blue gi and Akurai sensei helped me get the obi (belt) on. Orai sensei lead the class through the introductions and I joined in ,as Orai sensei put it, as a foreign exchange student. We warmed up and practiced Ukemi which are breakfalls which I picked up after a while. We practiced a few pin techniques, only Kawara sensei and one of the giant first years( a member of the Judo team) managed to escape my hold.

Finally we had a challenge type sparring round. I was surprised at how many students were willing to fight me. I'm a big guy in Japan and according to my JHS first years I'm a titan. I kicked all of the kids asses, some were easier than others but they all went down. I had a try with one of the teachers and that was a stalemate. I really enjoyed it, might be something to learn ( get my first black belt not from H&M ).At the end of the class all the students bowed and thanked me for coming.

On leaving the gym the class from which I have students that cause me a problem came in. How I wish I had them during judo would loved to have thrown some of those guys around.

that internet racism

So I was looking up success stories about other Gaijin in Japan well more specifically about how black people have found it. I stumbled across a forum on a website that I frequent and one  guy was saying black people shouldn't come to Japan  that we're not wanted here and how we can never get a decent job  or a woman if you're black or bla bla bla and that we should stick to our own kind etc and I was fuming especially because this was written by a black dude.

I just got given a lift home from the vice principal of my school who is such a welcoming figure. Also received lifts home several times  I have received meals , a (big) sack of rice, free trouser repair endless amounts of Japanese snacks , free Japanese lessons so far drinks (real drinks) and been offered 2 bicycles and more so far all from the Japanese people who I've met in the last month. If they don't want me hear then they have a funny way of showing it.

Nobody gave me a bike in London. The kids all say Hello on the street and are just sweet as can be.

It's a shame that some punk probably put someone off coming to this wonderful country.

Everybody has generally been welcoming yeah people are like Oh there's a big black guy not seen one of those before let me stare at him, but nobody has thrown eggs at me- like they did in London back in the day.

Just be aware that a lot of people only know what MTV and the media has told them about black people but once they realise there is much more to you than meets the stereotype then you're all cool and if they don't wanna be open then don't bother yourself. Really ain't nobody got time for that

The group I hang out with is varied from Italian American, American Chinese ,Japanese American, Black british straight American, Japanese British, NewZ, Ozzie, and we're all having a great time we are seen different ways from afar but would be that way anywhere.

But there is a lot of racism on the internet and it's really sad man, like jokes are jokes but some of this stuff makes me worry.

Day 1 x 2

So, I came to Japan for many reasons but my vehicle here was and is teaching the English and it's something I had thought about since I was 19 when I read the blog Gaijin Smash you can find here http://gaijinchronicles.com/ . I actually just got sidetracked reading it for like half an hour.


Anyway I'm here now and I had my first day at my Junior High School yesterday and my first day at my Elementary School today. I've never taught a real class of school kids, only fake ones with  my peers pretending to be Japanese kids. There is a big difference, sometimes you get that kind of silence that comedians get when their joke doesn't fly or the silence you get when you ask a girl her name and she blanks you ( Neither of these have happened to me by the way).  Doing the same class a few times allowed me to fine tune my class and it went done quite well, it was aimed as an introduction and they got to know my name with thanks to Super Mario as a lot of times I introduce myself as Mario without an M. It helps trust me.

The Elementary school now was like the best fun I've had in a long time, and it helps that I understand a fair bit of Japanese because although I only teach one year in the school, everybody is running up to me and asking questions and they don't even think about talking to me in English, I'll just have a kid asking me if they can jump on my shoulders or, how tall i am?where I am from`? Can I dunk? How strong am I? what's my favourite song? my favourite animal? The only thing everyone can say in English is 'HELLO'

Like I could go into detail but I mean being able to laugh and smile and make people do the same at work is amazing. I mean there are man things I could do better but it is just the start I think I'll learn a little each day and eventually I'll be that guy.

Oh and the teachers act like I'm some wonder child and they love that I brought Earl Grey Tea in a little souvenir box.

It's really happening

Just running a bath so I can only take a few minutes here, usually at home I have showers or bucket baths in the morn but now I'm here I'm doing the whole Japanese shower and soak in the evening.

It's crazy how things change, I took a run to the Ocean today it's only 20 minutes away, I  used to only see the Ocean when I was on holiday but now it is in my own back garden.

I've dreamt and dreamt and hoped and prayed for years that I would be here in Japan and finally after so long it's true, I'm yet to start teaching here but that will soon come and the nervousness I have now will soon hopefully die away. Right now is the hard stage the lonely stage I have few new friends and the only close friend I have in the country is too far away to even try and reach. This freedom across the seas ironically is its own prison, it's along time till payday and the costs of moving abroad  and the lack of local knowledge confine me to the only place I can say is mine and mine alone, no communal kitchens or showers, it's all me.

Being alone you start to worry there are an unlimited amount of scenarios you can run through but I guess that's natural for anyone living on their own without another family member in the whole continent.

Checked the bath it's hot but not full yet.

I plan to explore the area I live in and then the capital city of the prefecture possibly on the weekend with the new friends I met who are all in the same boat. As I do have some shy Japanese ability I am in someways better equipped  than others the dark skin does make me stand out no matter how much Japanese I can deliver and it's a fact that I will always and forever be an outsider and you can feel that, funny  enough it is part of the charm.  I am an exotic creature in this land and I choose to enjoy the fact that I am being watched, pretend to not see the obvious photo takers the pointers and pretend to not understand the little kids who say "Look Daddy there is a Black man".

Baths full now so :D I'll be back soon

COma

I could say I've been in a coma  for a few months and that would have been a great excuse for not blogging but I wouldn't wanna wish that on myself. I don't even have time to sleep 8 hours what would happen if I "slept" for 8 months.

Now I only started on this path to explain my absence in a comical way, but it has got me thinking. If i got stung by a tropical bee and plummeted into a coma. what would happen?  who would come and visit me? would anybody talk to me like they do in the films? would i wake up a new man with a new focus? (inception), who would be there when I wake up? would I go on a rampage tracking down the bug that had put me there (kill bee) oly to realise that the Bee had died from a common cold, as it was infact a tropical bee after all.. This is not what i wanted to ponder right now but I've pondered it before and Im pondering it now, Also what wouldnt I have acheived that I had set out to. 

Something deeps coming.

Some people live their lives in conscious comas, they dont do anything they have no goals at all and even worse acheive nothing.

If you havent acheived anything in a certain amount of time then you may as well have been in a coma

I just wanted to tell you about my mums birthday trip to NYC my change in direction - a lot of performances, my new workout and why I need to learn to write again.

next time i guess

I Run Kamogawa

If you know me a little, you may know that I like water, I mean I'm not a great swimmer but I like being by lakes, the sea, rivers ponds, even a bucket of water will keep a smile on my face.
In London i live like 2 stones throw from the river Thames, like literally you throw a stone walk up to where it lands,pick it up, throw it again it should land in the waters deep.

I usually cross tower bridge and London bridge and then return to my dwelling place very sweaty faced and exhausted but with a sense of accomplishment and that sort of thing. Now being 5895.882 miles away from my post code( and yes I just spent 10 minutes on http://www.daftlogic.com/projects-google-maps-distance-calculator.htm working it out) I am fortunate enough to be very close to a smaller but more scenic river the Kamogawa river in Kyoto. Pretty pretty and I ran along it yesterday and the day before and I will again today maybe.

First day I ran though it was so hot like 28degrees and blazing sun , I nearly keeled over due to the heat but it was such a good run. And I saw some serious wildlife , Huge fish in the river. I am going to stick my neck out and say they are koi but they may not be. The other day me and the Mrs walked by a otter type thing called a Kawauso and there are always Cranes and a huge bird called the Tonbi -Japanese black kite which isn't actually black but hey.They are spectacular to watch and they will swoop down and steal your food. I ran past a snake in the grass, it was pretty long as well. I wanted to take a picture but it was too fast and i was too scared. I saw another snake swimming but this is when I was studying later on when the killer sun had taken some time off behind the buildings.

the sun seriously tried to scorch my hairless head so i need to take a cap next sunny day, lately its been cloudy but still hot in the high 20's enough to really make you feel exhausted. Okay it's nearly 10 I need to run now or I will just make myself a sandwich and be done with any chance of exercise.

Schools out

日本語を勉強するために日本行きました。
I came to Japan to brush up my Japanese and enjoy a place I love and this involved attending a popular school called the human academy which sounds like a weird institution where body parts are harvested for the socialist elite, like in Never let me go.

So Friday just gone was my last day at school after attending for a month and I was pretty much devastated when it ended (for real) , I built a nice rapport with my international class mates the awkwardness of being new boy was over and I was getting into the swing of things. I couldn't afford to go to school any longer but if i could I would be there now or at least on my way class starts at 9.20 :(.

Somebody want to sponsor me please huh?

After University I didn't think I would want to study any more but this didn't feel like studying I think im a have to do this again after my japanese level 2. I loved languages at school getting good grades at French , German and Latin I am still puzzled as to why I didnot follow langauges through to A-level and degree level.
.
no point looking back, it's onwards and upwards


I managed to buy a plain fan from a 100en shop, a sensu which is one of those fold out fans you see Geisha using. I got all my classmates to sign it and I will keep it as my little souvenir, it is priceless now. I had classmates from China,Taiwan,India,Ukraine,Hawaii,Bolivia,The Phillipines and Korea sign it and my teachers

38 years and PuriKura

IT IS Relatively early I am in Bed at 1am and I went to Osaka from 1pm to meet my friend that I met at a language event in England. Had enough time to eat some okonomiyaki and do some Purikura which is the most feminine ditsy thing you can do. No doubt if you go out with girls in Japan you will do Purikura.
think a normal photo booth, then add, pixie dust, rainbows and gumdrops
I went in though, gave it 110% .

no homo though

Went to a BBQ all you can drink language party in Osaka with my boy Francis afterwards and then chilled at various bars got good news from my mrs and dodged going to Karaoke (although I wanted to go) and grabbed Takoyaki in time for the train back to Kyoto.

met a guy who had been here for 38 years
i could not blame him
at all
he was so 'shiawase' happy

I quote- i love kansai'

loner boy and the bellydancers

The title sounds like the name of a band , but this was no band my friend this was the title of my yesterday evening.

I wonder how I came across yesterday smartly dressed black man posted against the wall BIIRU in hand, uttering a word to no1. Did my shyness come across or did i look stuck up like so many of my peers told me I came across in the first year of UNI.
I'm bloody shy sometimes, among my friends and with their backing i can be loud and boisterous but ge me on my own and I will shrink like your bank account balance would if you gave your details in reply to Baba Tunde's sob story of an email.

Last night I went solo to a japanese language exchange event www.midievents.com, ended up being a really cool night though japanese belly dancers and all.

speaking to a stranger is daunting enough for me, I mean i can ask for the time or directions BUT to strike up a convo for no reason (ahhh Kowai desuyo) Scary, for real. Multiply that feeling by the fact that you speak completely different languages and then time this by the power of shy and then you get me standing against the wall with a BIRRU.

Nice guy called danny had no problem initiating convo but as more me, the wall was my friend. With Dannys help I got talking to some guys and the conversation started to flow. Increased my japanese network by 3 which was cool, spoke a lot of nihongo as well. Bare in mind I've been doing this for a few months i have to pat myself on the back just a little.

Anyway MATA