The Eve of Instruction

Ah, tis the night before Chieko and I are back to work. A quiet Sunday. We've had a lengthy vacation though, a nice mix of travel abroad and relaxation back here at our own apartment. Classes don't actually start until next Monday, but this week is full of meetings and planning for our classes. It was at this time last year that we both had just moved here to Kanazawa and were nervous about starting the new job. A year later, we're pretty settled in and I'm hoping this run up to classes won't be anything near as hectic as it was last year. We have three new teachers joining our department this term, so I will definitely be sympathising with them and helping them out however I can.
We'll kick things off with an entrance ceremony for new students around 10 tomorrow morning. These things are always fun because they are like and hour and a half long, and I can't understand much of anything. After I give up even trying to follow what's going on, I turn my attention to looking for old Japanese professors and students who have fallen asleep. It's easy to spot the professors because the majority of them seem to nod off right after we sing the national anthem. The students are harder to spot because they are all nervous, and eagerly follow along to the speeches by the school president and his cohorts.
I like this time of year because all the new freshmen bow and greet us (teachers) when we pass in the halls or on campus. After a month or so they wise up to the fact that this really isn't necessary, but I enjoy it while it lasts.
Moving on, at long last here are some pics of the our new ride, in all it's redness. I've been catching some heat regarding the redness of this car for some reason, but it was never an issue with me. I suppose the fact that my mother is obsessive about red stuff, and for this I grew up in a house with a red sink, I'm a bit desensitized to it. So it's going into the shop next week to get a big Boston Red Sox logo painted on the hood.



Here she is parked next to my neighbor's much cooler, and markedly NOT red, Subaru WRX, which I covet daily.



If you are reading this post on or around April 1, you might be interested in taking a look on the bottom of the page at the current weather here in Kanazawa. You can see that the prevailing condition at the moment is 'widespread dust.' We, and a good portion of western Japan (as well as Korea, for that matter), are currently under a cloud of sand that has blown over from the Gobi Desert. The result is a cloudy haze that looks like fog, except it lands on everything. Glad we took the car through car wash today. One more thing for Japan to be pissed off at China about I suppose.
Before I came to Japan I had no idea just how tenuous relations between Japan and China are. China doesn't like Japan because of World War 2; Japan doesn't like China because they won't get over World War 2, and they copy all the stuff Japan (and everyone else) makes and call it their own. That may be a simplistic view of things but I don't think it's far from the truth.
I tend to side with the Japanese when it comes to China never allowing Japan to live down the horrible things they did in WW2. Yes, Japan did horrible things, but it kinda sorta came back to bite them in the ass, and they've committed the existence of their country from then on to being democratic and peaceful. They made some terrible mistakes and learned from them, which is more than can be said for my country in a lot of instances.
But the Japanese are some of the most nationalistic people I've met, and this has led to some issues. Most notable of which is that the Japanese Prime Minister makes a yearly visit to pay homage at Yasukuni Shrine. The long and the short of this controversy is that Yasukuni (for those of you too damn lazy to read the link) is a shrine to Japanese people who have died in wars; not just WW2, but all wars Japan has ever participated in. Among those honored on the list of war dead are several folks who were convicted of war crimes during WW2. China spins this as Japan condoning war crimes, Japan denies this, sites all the non-war criminals, the beat goes on... Again I'm dealing in generalities here but you can get the idea.
At any rate, dust and sand aren't the only things in the air recently. Spring is making a strong push as well. For one, the aforementioned BOSTON RED SOX featuring DAISUKE MATSUZAKA are kicking off the 2007 season tomorrow, and I am happy about that. We're also on the verge of cherry blossom season here in Kanazawa, the highlight of which is having booze fueled picnics under the cherry blossoms with friends and colleagues. I'll post more about this in the next few weeks once the blossoms arrive.
And now, for something I haven't done in quite a while--it's time to break out the iron and get my duds all set for tomorrow. Unfortunately tomorrow's ceremony represents one of the rare occasions when I'm required to wear a jacket and tie to work. When I first got a 'real' job, I thought it was kind of cool that I had to wear a tie. About a week into that job, I embarked on a hatred of ties that continues to rage like an inferno inside of me. So on that note, everyone go to hell! Night night.