Outta here soon!

Well, to those who have been wanting an update, sorry it's been so long! I've been busy as always! Recently, because of the weather getting warmer, I have been getting up at 6am 4 or 5 times a week, and going for a 5km run. I'm so happy that I'm able to do that now, before Xmas I was so sick with a chest infection that I couldn't even breathe properly. Thankfully the docs in Canada gave me some good meds, so I'm all better now! When in doubt, go home to go to the doctor! The docs here think everything is a cold, and will give you only 3 days of amazingly weak medicine, which of course has no effect. Then you gotta keep going back to get more meds, which is such a pain, and you tend not to get better very quickly, if at all!

So, as well as running, I've been going to the gym 3 times a week too. I'm getting much stronger now, when I started my gym program about a year and a half ago, I could only do about 2 pushups, and not even a quarter of a chinup! Now I can do 3 chinups pretty easily, and about 15 to 20 pushups. I did it! It feels so good to be healthy and strong! I am so ready to join the Air Force next month!! I can't wait! I know it will be a really challenging experience, but that's what I want. I hate jobs that are boring and predictable. Snooooooze! Here's a pic from the Royal Military College, where I'll be going to finish up my degree. Pretty cool eh!


Also, I've been taking one more course from Massey University this year, Japanese-English translation. It's good, and I would have liked to take more courses, but as I'm leaving next month, I didn't want to overload myself with school work, especially as I do spend a fair amount of my spare time exercising. I have my final exam in a week, then I can concentrate on getting everything ready to go home. I already sent some winter stuff back a few weeks ago, if I'm lucky it will be waiting for me when I get back to Canada!

Oh, and here's a picture of some little kids getting wheeled past Kanayama Station in Nagoya the other day. In Japan, when the preschools take their kids out on an outing, they chuck them into this big basket on wheels. It's kind of like a stand-up pram, but usually all the kids are so small that you only really see their little heads poking out the top! Sooo cute! They look like little birds all waiting to be fed!


I'm glad I'm leaving now, Japan has just introduced new tax laws that have seen most people's tax burden double. In theory, the increase in city tax is supposed to be balanced by a decrease in income tax, but it doesn't seem to be working that way. Even though I'll have to pay more than double what I did last year (this year will be about $1700 Canadian), I've heard about some people who have to pay more than $4000. And, usually this city tax isn't taken out of your paycheque, you have to physically make payments about 4 times a year, which makes it seem all the more painful for most! Like most things in Japan, the new tax laws just prove the lack of logic that permeates this country! I'm amazed that anything ever gets accomplished at all!

I've also been looking into ways to keep my energy up, both physically and mentally, as my new career will be very strenous. I found a good website at choosingprosperity.com, which has some interesting forums and stuff. It's based on the writings of one of the women who appeared in the Secret, which was an awesome movie. I know, a lot of people don't believe in stuff like that, but I figure, if it makes me feel happier on a daily basis to think that I do create my experience, then why wouldn't I try it intentionally? Worse comes to worse, your life doesn't change from how it is now, but you've learned something. Best case scenario, your life becomes exactly how you want it. Why wouldn't you give it a go, it's a win-win situation!

So, I'm going to keep focused on what I want to accomplish, and try to enjoy my last 6 weeks or so in Japan. I'm glad I came, I learned a lot, not only about the language and Japan in general, but about myself. I'm also glad I won't have to live here permanently! It seems like no matter how hard you try to fit in, it's just never going to happen here. Not that people are mean or evil or anything like that, it's just that there is a certain way of thinking here that will never change. I don't mind being different, but I do mind being stared at and treated like some kind of exotic pet in a zoo. From what I've experienced in other places, once you get over the language barrier you're pretty much ok, whereas Japan isn't like that. As a foreigner, you are definitely the odd one out here, and there is absolutely nothing you can do to change that. Even if you have a great family here and great friends, people who don't know you will still react to you in a very strange way, which can be very frustrating after living here for years, and studying your ass off to learn the language. I know everyone here means well, but if one more person expresses amazement at the fact that I can use chopsticks so well...! Oh well, outta here soon, I just have to focus on the good things that have happened to me here, and the opportunities I've had. I will be finished paying off my Canadian student loan next month, which is mainly why I came here in the first place. I've managed to pay off $20,000 in 3 years, which I never could have done at my old job in Canada. So, I am grateful for the things I've been able to do here, and the things I've seen, it's just that now it's time to move on.