Wow… the last two weeks have been… interesting? Intense? Exhilarating! Disappointing… kind of like a roller coaster!
I sang Karaoke with the owner of Romance (a bar), Aiko, Charles’ friend! It was awesome - count her in the “new friend” category!
I went for pizza in the mountains… beautiful view!
I went to a Marching Band Festival with Erika, a new friend (also Charles’ friend). It was exhilarating to hear students playing live music well again!! As my friend Chrissy would say, “it fed my soul”! Also - I was so happy to hear Kamikawa Junior High play!
Mark’s Certificate of Eligibility came!! And after a brief celebration, when I expected I would be seeing him in a few weeks… disappointment! Weird mail issues in Japan - no express courier service… it will take 2-4 weeks for him to receive the certificate!! Arghhhhhhhhhhhhh! If I am really lucky (not so far) I will see him near the end of July :0( It is not an easy path to retirement bliss that we have chosen. But…
Also some emotional experiences this past week… attending the WCHS and Pioneer Band Concerts virtually.
A lovely tribute from the Band Parents, commissioning a piece of music in our honour!! Wow!! So humbled and appreciative. Lovely intro to it at WCHS by Janice P - not so much at Pioneer. Happy that Mark got some recognition and closure after spending 30 years putting his heart and soul into that program!! Time to move on.
Continuing to figure out what my job is… little by little. I am excited to start some adult activities next week! I am involved with a 2nd grader (remember it is grade 11 to you all) on an independent project. He is a talented artist named Sora and he is doing my posters for my events and my business cards!! I have attached the Canada Day poster here! I am obviously meant to be a Manga character…
I started my English Lunch with Kim Sensei Club and it has been a success!! Yay! Love the high school - but it is challenging to excite the students! Mr. Watanabe, who sponsored me coming to Kamikawa, attended my lesson on Friday - hmmm - I hope he thought it went well. Off to another Welcome Dinner tomorrow - Kamikawa Friendship Society - perhaps he will tell me what he thought? 2 third graders came to see me at the end of the day yesterday to tell me how much they enjoyed my club and when they could come again - so happy!!!! Today - it is the 2nd grader club - fingers crossed…
Oh yes! And I made ramen at a local restaurant with the students from Infinity School. One senior, Koga, is a musician and I had many great conversations with him! He has left to go back to Tokyo ( eventually). I will miss our chats!
And this past weekend, to avoid going mad completely (watching the concerts virtually was a draining experience for me), I spent a night in Asahikawa for a change of scenery. The view from my room was lovely and I spent a couple of hours in Starbucks just “chillin” Loved it. It was on this trip that I looked out my hotel room window and it hit me… I live in Japan. This is my home now.
And yes - I am still me… I got stranded in a parkade in Asahikawa last week. No cash - no Japanese - thank goodness for technology! When the machine was spitting back out my visa and the line behind me was growing… I pushed the HELP button and just said “VISA, VISA” over and over! Eventually a security guard pulled me out of the line and explained (with gestures) that I did not have the correct type of card. So with our translators (AKA phones) he helped me discover there was a JP bank machine in the train station. The problem is that I had been leaving the parkade when I remembered seeing the Pay Machine in the mall. So I parked where I wasn’t supposed to so I could run in. So before following my Google Map to what I hoped was cash, I went to move my car. In Japan, everyone has a back up camera and everyone backs into their parking spots - not me. Did I mention that Top Gun had finished? I sat in reverse, in my car, which beeps btw, the entire time you are in reverse. For 10 minutes. Then I started yelling and crying in my car. It did not help. I decided if I was towed I would move back to Canada. Off I went with my Google Maps - I found the machine and realized I had never used my bank card before. It worked. I took out 1000 yen and by the time I got back to the machine I owed 1200 yen.
Lucky for me, I had 300 yen in coins in my wallet. I did not have to fly home to Canada.
It was yesterday that I was informed that it could take up to 4 weeks for Mark to receive the certificate he needs to apply for a Visa. I was gutted - mad. I tore out of the parking lot at the end of the day.
Oh - side note - thankfully drove to school - I almost never do. I am greeting students as they come into school and I realized that I had forgotten to cover the tattoo on my left inner arm. (I am happy to do this because I respect the opportunity to be in Japan and tattoos are not cool) I raced home in my car and covered the tattoo. I have no idea at all if anyone saw it.
Anyway - I angrily drive to the market because I need dish soap. And I am mad - did I say that? So I bought chips! I almost never do this. I opened the bag on the way to my house and started munching.
Later in the evening, after realizing there was nothing anyone in Kamika could do about the Japanese government - I sent a message thanking everyone for their help and apologizing if I had seemed ungrateful.
Off to Japanese class! No keys. I also discovered that I had not even locked my car. I emailed Nicky to say I was looking for keys because she would be expecting me. Of course she came over with jumbo flashlights to help me look. Nope. I reasoned that I could always get new keys tomorrow. Perhaps I was calm because this was not the first time I had lost keys (haaaaa haaaa). I was going through my garbage after Nicky left (no Japanese lesson tonight) and I remembered that I had taken the opened bag of chips and hid it in a high cupboard so I would not eat any when I got home.
Of course my keys were in the opened bag of chips in the high cupboard.
That is all.
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