...into shape. I think.
Yes, having joined the Cult of Billy (Cult of Blanks after all would just...suck), I have come to the realization at just how frickin out of shape I was. OK, no surprise. I went from a fairly active job slinging around motor oil, antifreeze, and tires, to a basically sedentary job. Sure I bike to work, but that's hardly a work out anymore. Repeated warnings from my doctor, as well as a ever so slight tightening around the waist of my pants meant that it was about bloody time I did something about it.
Japan right now is in a big Billy Blank's Boot Camp craze, with people who wouldn't seem to need it working out. My cousin, two ladies from Tsuyazaki City Hall I met today playing tennis, the handball coach at school who sits behind me at work, all thin as rails, and all doing the circles. circle. circle. circle...
Even anime has jumped on the band wagon. I give you... Jin-Rok's Boot Camp for lulz. Its from Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei.
9/10/2007
A year in review.
It's been a while since I've posted, and if you've been reading my blog for a while, you know I usually do these review things.
So where am I now? How's life for me in Japan?
Back, almost 2 years ago, when I first started the ball rolling on my JET application, it was in response to an epiphany I had a year and a half previous to that. Then, I had stood in front of the ashes of my ancestors, having come to the realization that I wanted to live in Japan. My acceptance into JET was the first step towards that dream, and a year ago when I was at the park overlooking that temple where my ancestors lay, I felt a great sense of...accomplishment? Satisfaction? I felt I had come full circle.
So what then? Well, circle of course is a closed circuit, and so there is something to be said about the symbolism of a circle as a fixed track, and thus a poor (however appropriate) it is in describing someone's life. I guess the real question is, do I see my life as that symbolic circle?
Well, in one way I suppose it is an appropriate metaphor. My daily life is as ever routine. I go to work, do my lessons, come home, watch some TV, and read before I go to sleep. It's a comfortable, if somewhat boring existence. But then again, I've always been a bit of a stick in the mud.
But then again, I've added exercise to my routine (I've joined the cult of Billy Blanks), watch what I eat, and in general taken a genuine interest in developing my teaching skills. Its a bit of a revelation that the stuff they teach you at monthly meetings and seminars has a definite practical use in the classroom. I feel over the last few months, and especially over the summer, I've become a better ALT.
So then if it's a circle, lets instead think of it as a coil. A continuous ring, that takes me in cycles to some eventual goal. Heady stuff...or a silly metaphor depending on your point of view.
Indulge me the metaphor. What's the goal? I think, as always, it remains to live in Japan. This is something I am accomplishing, and as it stands, I don't see a real end. I don't know for sure if I will commit to the entire five years I can on the JET Programme. After all, things will eventually get old. And it also has the negative side-effect of prolonging any real decision as to what I will do with my life, something which I really shouldn't be keeping off at my age.
In the end, I think, I'll just keep on keepin on. It's what I do the best, and thinks always seem to work out anyway.
So where am I now? How's life for me in Japan?
Back, almost 2 years ago, when I first started the ball rolling on my JET application, it was in response to an epiphany I had a year and a half previous to that. Then, I had stood in front of the ashes of my ancestors, having come to the realization that I wanted to live in Japan. My acceptance into JET was the first step towards that dream, and a year ago when I was at the park overlooking that temple where my ancestors lay, I felt a great sense of...accomplishment? Satisfaction? I felt I had come full circle.
So what then? Well, circle of course is a closed circuit, and so there is something to be said about the symbolism of a circle as a fixed track, and thus a poor (however appropriate) it is in describing someone's life. I guess the real question is, do I see my life as that symbolic circle?
Well, in one way I suppose it is an appropriate metaphor. My daily life is as ever routine. I go to work, do my lessons, come home, watch some TV, and read before I go to sleep. It's a comfortable, if somewhat boring existence. But then again, I've always been a bit of a stick in the mud.
But then again, I've added exercise to my routine (I've joined the cult of Billy Blanks), watch what I eat, and in general taken a genuine interest in developing my teaching skills. Its a bit of a revelation that the stuff they teach you at monthly meetings and seminars has a definite practical use in the classroom. I feel over the last few months, and especially over the summer, I've become a better ALT.
So then if it's a circle, lets instead think of it as a coil. A continuous ring, that takes me in cycles to some eventual goal. Heady stuff...or a silly metaphor depending on your point of view.
Indulge me the metaphor. What's the goal? I think, as always, it remains to live in Japan. This is something I am accomplishing, and as it stands, I don't see a real end. I don't know for sure if I will commit to the entire five years I can on the JET Programme. After all, things will eventually get old. And it also has the negative side-effect of prolonging any real decision as to what I will do with my life, something which I really shouldn't be keeping off at my age.
In the end, I think, I'll just keep on keepin on. It's what I do the best, and thinks always seem to work out anyway.
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