11.28.2004

tom waits is my hero.

okay, boss #1. my boss that im living with (for those in the know, you know the rest) and boss #2. my real boss. the 'good guy'. nice and giving. the one that owns the school i work for. i feel like i needed to clean that up.

uh, im going to be living with boss#1 for another two weeks. i want to live on my own! but, boss#2 will take another bit of time to get my new place. so, i have 11 classes, teaching for boss#2, and boss#1 wont come to my classes. so im happy.

okay, tis getting cold. and i need more leg warmers. and wool socks.

11.26.2004

a refreshing brew to brighten your day.

or evening. i wish i could read the script (kana/kanji) so i could know more about this beer! but anyway, just a quick post, like all. jason is playing great country songs on his geetar. tomorrow i have my demo lessons. new kids! total beginners! fuck!

uh, tuna in my teeth. yummy. and wasabi in my belly. ha ha. anyway, on monday i go to look at places and by the end of next week, move out. yippe. i cant wait to live on my own, and make fun crafty things for my house.

now i just need to find someone to love me, and snuggle, and keep me warm into the cold winter nights in my tiny tiny town. its so cold and dry here that my skin is cracking like crazy and i busted my budget spending 500yen on hand cream ($5, not bad).

11.23.2004

long weekend

this weekend was a glorious long weekend. and i did nothing but sleep, lie in bed, reread "a heartbreaking work of staggering genius", and be very self involved. so i wrote a lot in my journal (pathetic), and resisted going out. basically, why would you want to try and familiarize yourself with a city, when you have no money, and wont be living here in a few days anyway? thats what i thought. i know pretty pathetic, but what is one to do. lots of work this week, yikes.

xoxo di.

11.17.2004

snow!

the snow fell on the tops of the mountains, and then melted. quite sad really. its getting chilly. and im still knitting my new scarf. to match my ugly jacket. too bad the scarf is going to be beautiful. its after 10pm and im afraid that im going to get in trouble upon returning to the place im staying. we will see.

my socks are wet. and im going to eat some food soon. yippe. and then return back to my jail. ha ha. im reading a book called *life isn't all ha ha hee hee* by meera syal. its incredible. its about modern indian women growing up in london. yippe. tied to traditions, etc.

okay, im going to go. xoxo di.

11.14.2004

so sad

hey ya. well, its raining. and its pretty tough here. i am not the person that I am supposed to be for my employment and im bumping heads quite a bit. which is pretty hard. so i have to try harder to be a good japanese woman and fit in. which is hard, if you know me, independent diandra. im really tired and stressed out, and im in search of friends. which is hard considering i dont have a telephone yet and i have to return home early in the evening. tomorrow morning i am going to airy, the international association of yamagata, or something like that, and get some books to reduce the loneliness of staying home, in the presence of someone elses house, when you dont really feel comfortable.

yesterday i went walking and found so many great shops. great shoe stores. when i get my paycheck, i am going to treat myself to a pair of vans slipons. even though they wont really do me anygood this winter. when the snow falls. i need boots. there are women ugg lookalikes with studs and skulls i was thinking about, but they:re kinda small. big monster feet that i have.

okay, so because im trying to more japanese for the sake of my job, im not going to be emailing so much. so stay tuned for random emails and posts.

xoxo di.

11.11.2004

oh yeah!

i dont know why im so excited. amanda says my writing is hemmingway esque. and well, i dont know what thats supposed to be like, because well, im illiterate. its getting cold here and the snow hasn:t fallen yet, yet.

im at jasons yet again, leeching off his internet. i brought gifts. so...

i have nothing to say, what is that supposed to mean?? im writing in my journal so much (thank you so much mr. jeff) that i think im going to explode. work has been kind of boring because i dont have much to do. i think that we are going to be making new curriculum for the new school. which is exciting. why am i not into writing anything!!??

what has happened in the last few days? went to jason and gen-san`s show at roughroll. it was great. i met a few people, but was really into watching them perform. i feel like an asshole for not saying goodbye to gen-san, because he is moving to warsaw. i drank two g.and.t.s, and then rode the big bird bike home. i got to see a whole bunch of people that i had met, and talked to somemore ppl who go to the university here. i met a girl. shes from colorado and she works in the prefectural office. admittedly i wasnot too into her, but she:ll make a good acquaintance. thats so awful for me to say, yikes. but whatever. i saw this group of girls hanging outside of this great clothing store at night, foreigners they were. and they were so hip. i just rode on by. is it not awful of me to not stop and introduce myself. this is not the situation for those with low selfesteem. i feel like i need a shirt like caitlins proclaiming the self esteem project. id be one large fucking project ill tell you that.

ah, jason and i climbed a mountain. im so out of shape. huff puff huff puff. yuck. but the sight was glorious. and the air was so fresh. it felt great. but i was so sweaty and gross. yuckity yuck yuck. and then what? i dont remember. this weekend i think that im going to go see monster , which i havent seen yet. and this weekend the united states of leland opens. and that is exciting. i just taught myself how to read the movie flyer today even though i dont know any of the script. its pretty funny. so i figured out when the movies are playing, which theatre (though i dont know where it is) it is in, and approximately how much it costs. which is exciting. everything is exciting. ha ha.

okay, im going to go now. we will talk soon kids. keep the love strong. xoxo di.

11.02.2004

inspired by

hey this post was inspired by an email i sent to kieran. he wondered if the walls are actually paper here. this is the answer:

sucre.would you believe me if i told you that yes, in the older houses here, the walls are made of paper. my rooms inside walls are paper-thin, ha ha. the floors are traditional tatami mats. the bathroom is three parts, shower separate from toilet, sink also separate. the *shower* is a tiled room with a stone concrete floor, and a square tub. you never clean off in the tub, it is only for relaxing. its quite funny. the toilet seat is heated and the water is always bright blue. the toilet paper is pink and scented. there is no oven. there is no dryer, and i have to use an electric-keroscene lamp to heat my room.

kids on the street sneak around corners and stare at me giggling. i go into 7eleven and i have no idea how to use a fucking atm. the sushi is awesome. dollar stores are 100yen shops. beer is at the corner store, and its 152 yen a can, which is about $2. there are a million kinds of mushrooms in the grocery stores. pocky is cheaper here. everyone rides a bike. sidewalks are covered with them. if people do lock them, which is rare, they only lock the tire. not to anything, just to itself. pretty funny. a woman in a train station gave me samples of tissue twice, did she not remember me from the first time i went through? i mean, im the non japanese person within that area. ha ha.

at the gas station the attendants wipe down the windows of your car with a hand towel. when you go to a store to purchase something you put the money into a little plate. you can buy cigarrettes from vending machines everywhere. the packs are small and they:re only $3. for 6 cigarrettes. theres this one brand called *pink* too funny.

girls here wear slouchy boots and leg warmers and ballet flats and so many pairs of faux vans slip ons for only 1250yen ($15). i went to this store that was floor to ceiling manga and action figurines in little plastic baggies. they have so much shit for automobiles. girls have feather boas along the inside of their front windsheilds. everywhere you go in a store there is loud music playing and japanese adds coming from everywhere. at the grocery store you can buy a huge tray of sashimi and sushi for 480yen, which would be $10 in canada (approx. 900yen).

the rusted countryside.

well, today i went for a ride to akayu, takahata, and yonezawa. it was amazing. the countryside here is incredible. all of the trees are rusting, and all three towns are in a broad valley. its so beautiful. when we pulled into akayu, i decided that i wanted to live there. its small. 30,000ppl, but so nice. two main streets. everything i would need for daily life. its so beautiful it kills. there are hotsprings there. i cant wait. i went on the drive with my boss, arimoto-san. hes truly great. he bought me ice cream and took me by his junior high. i love this man. he smells like an old man too. thats the funny part. yuko, my boss, said that he is very generous and calm. which is exciting.

as for that lesson, it was my first, an adult lesson, with one woman. we talked about twins. it was from a text book. and i thought it went okay, i was really nervous and just getting the feel for the material. she and i also have to get used to each other, then perhaps the lessons will happen at a better pace and more successfully. fuck, i cannot even talk.

right now im mooching space off of jason again, using his computer and hes singing and playing his guitar. were getting along quite well, but i feel like im always imposing. which sucks. i hate being around all the time. i need to get working on my japanese and find some friends. someone to cuddle. i appreciate all of his hand-holding and friend-ship, but i feel too reliant. but alas, whats a girl to do? his performing of music is great. at rough roll on monday he:s playing a gig, so, uh, you should all come! ha ha.

well, its almost 10pm, and i have to go away soon and go to sleep. tomorrows a national holiday and that means, no work! so, im going to sleep in and try to find an open post office. the atms at the post office are the only ones which accept international debit cards. and hey, the government is trying to privatise the post-office banking system. news about privatization of the worlds largest bank

okay kids, have a good night, im sorry that there are no apostrophes, this japanese keyboard stuff is really inconvenient for my northamerican-trained ways. xoxo di.