2 months since I last posted. Anyhoo new profile pic and album from my recent Kuju trip. Thanks Sandy! (And to a lesser extent Rob for posting his pics from the day, thus reminding me to do the same).
P.S. I'll post more this weekend.
P.P.S. Make that 3 months. Thank goodness I'm not here in Japan to spread my awesome math skills.
6/13/2008
3/24/2008
Spring time...
...is here in Japan.
Evening, sports fans. Spring break began for me last Wednesday after school. The last day of the school year, and at 4:20 I was out of there. I had after all an enkai to go to. Well, no tales of my drunken shenanigans (revelatory though they were). I woke up the next morning at the crack of noon.
HANGOVER: Enter, stage left.
Actually, thanks to some precautions it wasn't too bad. So, what did I do for the next four days?
hikkikomori
That comes from the combination of two words. The first is hiku, which means to pull away from. In this case, it means to pull away from society at large and social interaction specifically. The second word is komoru, which means to coop oneself up somewhere, in this case at home.
Its actually a social phenomenon that is affecting a number of otaku-types in Japan, and is the harbinger, dare I say, of a very serious pestilence affecting Japanese society in this post-modern world.
But that's not what I'm getting into in this post, so we'll leave it at that.
Indeed, I stayed home for the last four days, and by day four I was itching to go out. I was going to go see a dance recital (gods that makes it sound so lame) done by some of my graduated students, but inclement weather kept me home. Well, they got their ticket money from me, so my appearance was optional.
I did have a plan though, and that plan started to come to fruition today. This week I have all afternoons off (not free mind you. I'm using up my vacation days). So this week I will be organizing and cleaning my apartment. I purchased today a wonderful new bookshelf, which now houses all my magazines, English books, and art books, as well as my 1/100 MG Gundams (and other sundry things). This too was revelatory, because I realized that I have inherited by mother's crazy desire to clean. I nearly had a panic attack when, towards the end of the move, I looked around at the disarray I had created. Well, unlike my mother, I know how to deal with a panic attack. One slug of whiskey later, and I mellowed out, grabbed a trash bag, and gathered all the clutter that was pissing me off.
Well, that's the new shelf. Holy crap I've accumulated a lot of...crap.
Tomorrow I tackle my pantry cupboard, as well as perhaps start sorting through the all the paper in my house.
On an unrelated note, I paid off some more bills, and I came to the realization that, at virtually no impact to my lifestyle here in Japan, I've reduced my consumer debt by a considerable amount. When I first came to Japan, I had something like $2700 debt on one of my Visas alone. All told, I think I had something close to $5000. But as of today, I'm down to under $1800. Total. Spread over 3 cards, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. That makes me pretty damned happy.
And last, but not least, to placate my many gourmet fans, I present tonights dinner (sans the beer, which is only for show).
Evening, sports fans. Spring break began for me last Wednesday after school. The last day of the school year, and at 4:20 I was out of there. I had after all an enkai to go to. Well, no tales of my drunken shenanigans (revelatory though they were). I woke up the next morning at the crack of noon.
HANGOVER: Enter, stage left.
Actually, thanks to some precautions it wasn't too bad. So, what did I do for the next four days?
hikkikomori
That comes from the combination of two words. The first is hiku, which means to pull away from. In this case, it means to pull away from society at large and social interaction specifically. The second word is komoru, which means to coop oneself up somewhere, in this case at home.
Its actually a social phenomenon that is affecting a number of otaku-types in Japan, and is the harbinger, dare I say, of a very serious pestilence affecting Japanese society in this post-modern world.
But that's not what I'm getting into in this post, so we'll leave it at that.
Indeed, I stayed home for the last four days, and by day four I was itching to go out. I was going to go see a dance recital (gods that makes it sound so lame) done by some of my graduated students, but inclement weather kept me home. Well, they got their ticket money from me, so my appearance was optional.
I did have a plan though, and that plan started to come to fruition today. This week I have all afternoons off (not free mind you. I'm using up my vacation days). So this week I will be organizing and cleaning my apartment. I purchased today a wonderful new bookshelf, which now houses all my magazines, English books, and art books, as well as my 1/100 MG Gundams (and other sundry things). This too was revelatory, because I realized that I have inherited by mother's crazy desire to clean. I nearly had a panic attack when, towards the end of the move, I looked around at the disarray I had created. Well, unlike my mother, I know how to deal with a panic attack. One slug of whiskey later, and I mellowed out, grabbed a trash bag, and gathered all the clutter that was pissing me off.
Well, that's the new shelf. Holy crap I've accumulated a lot of...crap.
Tomorrow I tackle my pantry cupboard, as well as perhaps start sorting through the all the paper in my house.
On an unrelated note, I paid off some more bills, and I came to the realization that, at virtually no impact to my lifestyle here in Japan, I've reduced my consumer debt by a considerable amount. When I first came to Japan, I had something like $2700 debt on one of my Visas alone. All told, I think I had something close to $5000. But as of today, I'm down to under $1800. Total. Spread over 3 cards, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. That makes me pretty damned happy.
And last, but not least, to placate my many gourmet fans, I present tonights dinner (sans the beer, which is only for show).
3/07/2008
Mama-mia!
Hot on the heels of my last post, I bring you my next creation. There are many things I miss about Canada, and not least among these is food. While the Americanization of Japan continues apace, luxuries such as Pizza Hut and Burger King remain the purview of the mandarins in Tokyo.
Among the food I really miss though is Mom's cooking. When people ask me here what kind of food I ate at home, while I usually tell them things like katsudon or yudo-fu, I also explain that my mother's repertoire necessarily included a healthy dose of western food. Meatloaf and lasagna were probably my favourite.
This post, unlike my last, demands a certain amount of verbosity, not only because this is the first time I've made lasagna from "scratch" (that is, not kit-bashed), it is also is a sense an homage to my mother's cooking.
So here I will walk you through the lasagna-making process. Unlike my mother's, which is highly nutritious, filled with vegetables and all such manner of goodness, mine is much simpler fare, made with for the most part pre-prepared ingredients.
1 Large pack of minced beef/pork mix.
2 packs of tomato sauce
1 pack of cottage cheese
14 pieces of lasagna pasta
1 pack of shredded Mozzarella
Parmesan cheese
salt
pepper
oregano
garlic paste
tomato paste
First, brown the meat, adding salt and pepper about 1/2 way through the cooking process. Drain fat, and transfer to a bowl. Put the tomato sauce into the pan used to cook the meat, add tomato paste, oregano, garlic paste. Add meat, mix on low heat until even.
Boil lasagna pasta. I did mine in 2 batches. In a Pyrex baking dish, put down a layer of sauce and cottage cheese, then lay down a layer of pasta. Continue in this manner until you've used up the pasta, cutting some into smaller strips to fill out the layers.
Each layer should be perpendicular to the last layer, so as to reinforce the structure of the lasagna. Each layer in mine had both sauce and cottage cheese. Top the lasagna off with the remainder of the sauce, sprinkle Mozzarella and Parmesan.
Bake in an oven at 180 degrees Celcius for 30 minutes. For the last 10 minutes, cover the lasagna in aluminum foil.
And done. I've modified the recipe instructions above after reflection on my meal. First, I left the lasagna uncovered the entire time in the oven, leading the mozzarella cheese to harden into a crust. In future, the aluminum foil should help with that. Also, though the lasagna is solid in the last picture, it collapsed as the pasta slid away. For this, I might try to reduce the pasta sauce a bit (as in let the water content evaporate a little more), and try to spread the cottage cheese a little more evenly.
Also, in a effort to save time, I would do both the sauce and boil the water for the pasta noodles at the same time. I did this today in the order listed, and as a result it ended up taking about an hour to prepare, and a further 30 minutes to bake. Eating was a 20 minute affair (x2 nights, so 40 total). Ideally, I'd like to get something closer to a 1:1 ratio.
Manic.
Among the food I really miss though is Mom's cooking. When people ask me here what kind of food I ate at home, while I usually tell them things like katsudon or yudo-fu, I also explain that my mother's repertoire necessarily included a healthy dose of western food. Meatloaf and lasagna were probably my favourite.
This post, unlike my last, demands a certain amount of verbosity, not only because this is the first time I've made lasagna from "scratch" (that is, not kit-bashed), it is also is a sense an homage to my mother's cooking.
So here I will walk you through the lasagna-making process. Unlike my mother's, which is highly nutritious, filled with vegetables and all such manner of goodness, mine is much simpler fare, made with for the most part pre-prepared ingredients.
1 Large pack of minced beef/pork mix.
2 packs of tomato sauce
1 pack of cottage cheese
14 pieces of lasagna pasta
1 pack of shredded Mozzarella
Parmesan cheese
salt
pepper
oregano
garlic paste
tomato paste
First, brown the meat, adding salt and pepper about 1/2 way through the cooking process. Drain fat, and transfer to a bowl. Put the tomato sauce into the pan used to cook the meat, add tomato paste, oregano, garlic paste. Add meat, mix on low heat until even.
Boil lasagna pasta. I did mine in 2 batches. In a Pyrex baking dish, put down a layer of sauce and cottage cheese, then lay down a layer of pasta. Continue in this manner until you've used up the pasta, cutting some into smaller strips to fill out the layers.
Each layer should be perpendicular to the last layer, so as to reinforce the structure of the lasagna. Each layer in mine had both sauce and cottage cheese. Top the lasagna off with the remainder of the sauce, sprinkle Mozzarella and Parmesan.
Bake in an oven at 180 degrees Celcius for 30 minutes. For the last 10 minutes, cover the lasagna in aluminum foil.
And done. I've modified the recipe instructions above after reflection on my meal. First, I left the lasagna uncovered the entire time in the oven, leading the mozzarella cheese to harden into a crust. In future, the aluminum foil should help with that. Also, though the lasagna is solid in the last picture, it collapsed as the pasta slid away. For this, I might try to reduce the pasta sauce a bit (as in let the water content evaporate a little more), and try to spread the cottage cheese a little more evenly.
Also, in a effort to save time, I would do both the sauce and boil the water for the pasta noodles at the same time. I did this today in the order listed, and as a result it ended up taking about an hour to prepare, and a further 30 minutes to bake. Eating was a 20 minute affair (x2 nights, so 40 total). Ideally, I'd like to get something closer to a 1:1 ratio.
Manic.
3/06/2008
GINOURMOUS SALAD
Ceasar style. This is my dinner tonight. Instructions as follows:
Chicken Tenders
Romaine Lettuce
Croutons
Ceasar dressing.
IF YOU CANNOT FIGURE OUT HOW TO MAKE THIS, YOU ARE ST00PID!!
/ahem
Chicken was cut, marinated with olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper, coriander.
Did you know that Ceasar salad was actually invented by a Mexican chef? It was not, as some people believe, invented by the Roman Dictator cum Emperor. Such a salad would no doubt have a healthy dose of daggers, blood, and et tu, Brute?
2/28/2008
Shepherd's Pie
...or more correctly, Cottage Pie. Directions as follows:
(Keep in mind that I find cooking a chore)
(Also keep in mind that cooking is an art, not a science, so I'm not listing any measurements. That and I'm lazy.)
Ground Beef (maybe a pound or so)
Frozen mixed vegetables (half a JP bag)
Water
1 cube of beef stock (or gravy mix)
Tomato paste
Mashed Potatoes
Parmesan Cheese
Cook beef. Add water (enough to cover the meat). Add frozen vegetables. Add gravy mix. Add tomato paste. Add spices. Stir, simmer until reduced. Make sure the meat doesn't dry out. Transfer to Pyrex dish, and cover in a layer of mashed potatoes. Sprinkle with parmesan. Dot with butter if so desired. Put in the oven at 120 degrees Celcius for an hour.
2/19/2008
News
If bad things come in threes, I suppose my posting must come in threes too. Not that I have bad news, that is.
In fact, there are 2 news items, in a way inter-related. Lets start with the good news. First, my re-contracting confirmation came in. So my third year is locked and loaded. /emote sigh of relief.
On to the other news. A fellow Fukuoka JET I know was denied re-contracting. When I heard this news, I was thrown for a bit of a loop. In JET circles, re-contracting was a sort of unspoken guarantee, provided that you didn't do something stupid like steal, break laws, get a student pregnant etc. As far as I know, this ALT did none of these things, and was in fact a pretty straight-laced guy.
They say that not knowing can make your fears and imagination run wild. So lets follow my imagination and see where it leads.
On the simplest level, ALTs are subject to a performance review. With the expansion of the JET Programme allowing for a 4th and 5th year, I think there was a thought that re-contracting was similarly an unspoken guarantee. After all, why keep an ALT 3 years if you're just going to get rid of him or her in the 4th year? Presumably a 3rd year ALT has built up enough of a presence/goodwill/connections to weather any possible threat of recontract denial.
Balance that with the warnings we've gotten from our Prefectural Advisor (liaison to the Prefectural Board of Education), that recontracting is NOT guaranteed.
So on the simplest level, the High School was not satisfied enough with this ALT's performance, and is opting to get a new ALT. That sucks, but such things are a reality in other jobs, so why not this one.
The next level up is that the school no longer wants an ALT. Our brand of teaching, while spiritually, and perhaps culturally enlightening, is of dubious value to the realities of the Japanese education system, which prizes rote learning via grammar translation method as a method of learning English. This is turn is forced upon High Schools due to the rigorous university exam system. In the end, the Japanese system trains students to pass exams, and not communicate in a foreign language. Presumably, the JET Programme grew out of a need to address this deficiency. So in end, if a High School wants to focus more on preparing their students for an exam, then it makes sense to cut the position of an under-utilized ALT.
This links to the next level up, in which the JET Programme is instituting budget cuts across the board. A major sign of this was the cancellation of the Kobe Recontracting Conference. Now this is a cut I agree with, because in the end it was essentially a giant paid vacation for 6 or 700 JETs. But JET jobs might be on the cutting block as well. I can see a situation where CLAIR, the organization that oversees the JET Programme, sends requests to the various prefectures to cut X number of positions. The prefectures in turn ask their High Schools to see if any of them can do without an ALT. In this case, ALTs at high academic schools, whose focus is to train students to enter high education, are in the most danger, as their jobs become more and more superfluous and their class hours are gradually converted to classes that focus on grammar.
What we might be seeing is the beginning of the end of the JET Programme. Admittedly this is a worst-case scenario. However, it's not out of the realm of possibility that, in light of private companies that are offering the same service to high-schools for cheaper. Who knows where the JET Programme will be in ten-years time? Leaner and meaner? Or gone the way of the dodo?
In fact, there are 2 news items, in a way inter-related. Lets start with the good news. First, my re-contracting confirmation came in. So my third year is locked and loaded. /emote sigh of relief.
On to the other news. A fellow Fukuoka JET I know was denied re-contracting. When I heard this news, I was thrown for a bit of a loop. In JET circles, re-contracting was a sort of unspoken guarantee, provided that you didn't do something stupid like steal, break laws, get a student pregnant etc. As far as I know, this ALT did none of these things, and was in fact a pretty straight-laced guy.
They say that not knowing can make your fears and imagination run wild. So lets follow my imagination and see where it leads.
On the simplest level, ALTs are subject to a performance review. With the expansion of the JET Programme allowing for a 4th and 5th year, I think there was a thought that re-contracting was similarly an unspoken guarantee. After all, why keep an ALT 3 years if you're just going to get rid of him or her in the 4th year? Presumably a 3rd year ALT has built up enough of a presence/goodwill/connections to weather any possible threat of recontract denial.
Balance that with the warnings we've gotten from our Prefectural Advisor (liaison to the Prefectural Board of Education), that recontracting is NOT guaranteed.
So on the simplest level, the High School was not satisfied enough with this ALT's performance, and is opting to get a new ALT. That sucks, but such things are a reality in other jobs, so why not this one.
The next level up is that the school no longer wants an ALT. Our brand of teaching, while spiritually, and perhaps culturally enlightening, is of dubious value to the realities of the Japanese education system, which prizes rote learning via grammar translation method as a method of learning English. This is turn is forced upon High Schools due to the rigorous university exam system. In the end, the Japanese system trains students to pass exams, and not communicate in a foreign language. Presumably, the JET Programme grew out of a need to address this deficiency. So in end, if a High School wants to focus more on preparing their students for an exam, then it makes sense to cut the position of an under-utilized ALT.
This links to the next level up, in which the JET Programme is instituting budget cuts across the board. A major sign of this was the cancellation of the Kobe Recontracting Conference. Now this is a cut I agree with, because in the end it was essentially a giant paid vacation for 6 or 700 JETs. But JET jobs might be on the cutting block as well. I can see a situation where CLAIR, the organization that oversees the JET Programme, sends requests to the various prefectures to cut X number of positions. The prefectures in turn ask their High Schools to see if any of them can do without an ALT. In this case, ALTs at high academic schools, whose focus is to train students to enter high education, are in the most danger, as their jobs become more and more superfluous and their class hours are gradually converted to classes that focus on grammar.
What we might be seeing is the beginning of the end of the JET Programme. Admittedly this is a worst-case scenario. However, it's not out of the realm of possibility that, in light of private companies that are offering the same service to high-schools for cheaper. Who knows where the JET Programme will be in ten-years time? Leaner and meaner? Or gone the way of the dodo?
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