KONNICHIWHAT!?: Winter...piss off already!

This winter business...it's enough already. Granted, I spent a lot of time in the cold and snow during my days as a Colorado citizen, but my time spent in California was enough to acclimate my body to much warmer temperatures and quite frankly I liked it. Now I'm here in Japan, which has the proper season system that most are accustomed to, unlike Californians, and my body has taken it pretty hard. Not only that, but I was ill-prepared clothing-wise for the harsh weather. I guess what makes it worse is the fact that Oita is quite close to the sea, so those cold wind gusts coming in are brutal! I've been told that the sun will start making more frequent appearances come the end of March. It almost goes without saying that I'm looking forward to the warmer weather. Japan takes it too extremes in that the winter's are really cold and the summers are really hot and humid. No joking around here.

As for non weather related news, another week of teaching is behind me and it mostly uneventful. I was put to use as a carpenter this week, putting together various bits of furniture for different Japanese teachers in their classrooms. Us native teachers aren't just here for the students apparently, but we're your go-to problem solvers! I have a staff meeting tomorrow and I'm responsible for providing the icebreaker welcome activity to the group. This is usually a quick 10 minute thing, so it's not big deal and I have an idea that should work just fine. I plan to issue a celebrity with each staff member, with them unaware as to who it is, and the other staff members have to provide clues so that they can guess the celebrity. Basically, a who-am-I game.

One of the native teachers that I had training with (who is in a different area than me), who I've been buddies with since before coming to Japan, told me that she's planning to quit. Her desire to be back home with her family has been growing more and more since she flew back home to see them for Christmas vacation. Not to mention the fact that she hasn't been adjusting to the culture shock of everything so well and you have a pretty good case for packing your bags. I've been trying to provide her with a shoulder to lean on during her decision-making process because one thing is for sure doing this job, it can be quite lonely and isolating. She was actually worried that I would judge her for her decision but I told her that it was great that she made it as long as she did (she's putting in her notice and will be out before the summer so they have enough time to find a replacement). I told her that no one could judge her for her decision unless they've been in the same situation and even still, not everyone adjusts the same. Some people never do properly adjust. I had a rocky couple of months in the beginning where I thought, "why am I putting up with ____ and ____?", and really just missed being home and hanging out with the people I care about. Now that I've had some time to settle in and assess everything, my motivation in sticking with it at this point is almost purely financial. I knew before I came that I wanted to send funds back home and hammer away at some annoying student loan debt and that's what I've been able to do so far. My point is this; it really helps if you have a specific goal in mind when taking on such an adventure. It helps in dealing with the ups and downs that the adventure throws at you. Cliche alert(!): keeps your eyes on the prize!

P.S. I'm really getting good at Tekken Tag Tournament 2!