Just Another JET Blog

I just turned all of the history of Canada into 7 pictures. I’m trying to figure out how I feel about this. I tried to keep it interesting, so the pictures are of a pre-European discovery of Canada First Nation camp, the death of General Wolf (from the battle on the Abraham Plains), the Taking of Washington by the British, the Fathers of the Confederation, railriders from the Great Depression, The invasion of Holland (WW2), and the “Goal heard around the World” from the 1972 Canada-Russia Summit Series. Do these accurately present the history as well as any 7 pictures can? I’m not sure… BUT, they are 7 interesting moments from it! If you have a better picture as a suggestion, go ahead and e-mail me and I’ll consider putting it in instead (or if if it comes too late, I’ll use it next year).

That aside, I should probably update you on the comings and goings of my life. However, there is nothing important to tell really… there was a massive 3 day snowstorm that prevented me from leaving my apartment on New Year’s. It was the first time I’ve ever seen so much snow fall… and the temperature remain ABOVE zero degrees. Mountains are strange places. I also spent 2 day’s worth of afternoons digging my car out… only for all to melt now… just under 2 weeks later.

I’ve driven through a few snowstorms here now and my conclusion is that my car can do anything. Those tires I bought were worth every last yen… as they tore up some snow and ice on some really narrow mountain roads.

I spent a lot of time hanging out in Takayama during the break… since almost everyone I knew had left the country. However, I did manage to make a new Japanese friend named Aiko who I’ve spent almost every other evening with since getting her phone number. The only problem is that she’s moving to Australia (for a year) next month.

I also want to thank everyone who has sent me Birthday and Christmas cards! Real mail is awesome in a way I never imagined before. When I see a letter with roman characters on it in my mailbox I can’t even take the 5 steps to my door before opening it and finding out who it came from and what he/she/they said. Thank you! I guess since I agreed to spending a second year here I often worry about what will happen when I return to Canada… who will still be around and who will be gone? Who’s actually going to bite the financial bullet and come out to Japan? And how many of my holidays should I use on coming back to Canada? It seems to me that if I returned to Canada today it would be like I never left almost immediately. How long will it stay this way? Questions, questions. Another reason I’ve started thinking about this is because one of my friend’s here suggested that we move out to Korea for a year after the second year in Japan. It’s awfully tempting… and it’s an idea that’s making my Korean friend Jun very excited. We’ll see how I feel a long time from now. On the one hand I want to travel when I’m young, and on the other I want to go back to university to get my education degree before I get too old. I wish I would’ve started traveling long before when I did! I’d like to see some of Europe too… and I’ll probably visit Aiko in Australia at some point while she’s out there… I should have gone to a different country for a month every summer while I was in university…. oh well. C’est la vie.

Also I’ve gotten thinner apparently. Every once in a while some Japanese person who hasn’t seen me for a while will comment on this. The undertone in the conversation is that the food in Japan must be a lot healthier than that in Canada. It might be more correct to say that I eat healthier in Japan than I did in Canada. This is partially because I’m not eating on as limited a budget as I was when I was in university and partially because the foods I like here are often the healthier ones… with exception to my obsession with Center 4 Hamburgers. …an egg on a burger! Ingenious!

Thing I miss most about Canada today: Understanding what people are saying around me without having to concentrate with all my effort (and even then often getting it wrong).

Thing I love most about Japan today: It’s plus 5 here right now!!