The Vino Venitas Blog 4th Edition The 6 months mark

The Vino Venitas Blog 4th Edition The 6 months mark

Ok so I’ve been here for 6 months now, and I’m not saying I’m getting an itch to do something new. But I will say that I feel like I can handle another year here before its time for me to move on. And by moving on I’m talking about Tokyo. That’s the plan for when I’m done here in the country side. Aight so now let’s get down to all the things that I plan on saying.

–          Teaching Times

–          Gym Time

–          Japanese Learning Time

–          PS Vita

–          Song of the Month

So yup these are the chapters I will cover this time around. I mean I don’t know who is reading these things anymore. But I started it so I figured I should finish it, until I leave here. So without any further nagging of this boy behind the keys let’s get down to it.

Teaching Times

Ok so the boy has been a teacher for 6 months now, and to be honest with you all it’s starting to look like a job. You know how a job goes from something exciting to something you have been doing for a long time. It kind of transforms on you, like you aint been paying attention … yeah that’s kind of where I’m at right now. BUT, and this right here is a big but, I still love these kids. And JUST when I thought I was at the point where I could fall in love any more with these kids they surprise me. So you know what they did, you remember me telling you they had my heart right. And as they held my heart in their little hands, they decided to tell me that I was the best teacher.

DUDE my heart just melted in their hands, I figured they couldn’t do any more to it since they already removed it from my chest and held it. BUT damn they made it butter and I swear I could see them put it on toast. They were eating my heart, these sweet little devils. Yeah that comment of theirs REALLY made my day. So the next anecdote I got is a little different but I thought it was funny, so I figured I would share. Ok so I’m in class right, and the other teacher asks me what I did with my weekend. And it just so happens that, THAT particular weekend I went to this international event.

And so I told her and everyone in the class that I went to this event. And then this one girl shot me a REAL dirty look right. And remember THIS girl was either 14 or 15, I don’t know but that’s the age range of these girls. So she is looking at me with this look, and says something to me in Japanese. Now even though I have been here for a second I still don’t understand that much Japanese, so I couldn’t understand. And so I asked the teacher, and she started smiling and translated it for me. The girls asked me this “Did you leave alone?”

I cracked up, that line combined with the look was SO dope, I just couldn’t help myself but laugh. It was cute, cause it actually felt like she was jealous which is just SO damn inappropriate that it’s just funny. Other than that, nothing much to say about my teaching times other than I love these kids, the adults not so much but these kids are awesome.

Gym Time

I actually found me a gym, it’s called Gold’s Gym and people it’s freaking expensive.

It’s also like 16 kilometers away from where I live. If you combine that with the schools being a similar distance you can tell how much money I’m spending on gas. But yeah the gym is unreasonably expensive but I couldn’t find a gym nearby. Which really sucks but hey it is what it is, and I’m working out. I’m on the diet and working out, trying to get fit. I’m actually on this schedule made by Roberto Sporkslede, who is a personal trainer. And so far, people started complimenting me, like hey you lost weight. So thus far its working, it’s hard, boring and a bit exhausting but hey it works.

Japanese learning time

Ok so first and foremost a LOT of people be asking me, when I will come back to Holland. Here is the answer that I give everyone every time. I will come back once I am able to speak Japanese. It’s one of the goals I set out for myself here in Japan, and I don’t like giving up or failing. So until I reach that goal, I’m here. Now here is the kicker, some of you might not agree with this, and some of you might agree, but I’m an idiot. I have been here for 6 months and I can’t even have me a normal conversation yet. And I have been studying my ass off, and I still can’t get it. I don’t have any language skills so this will just take longer than I expected. I’m not really sorry, but hey I apologize. But on the good note, let me educate you on something.

Japanese works with 3 alphabets, Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji. Hiragana is to spell native Japanese words, Katakana is to spell foreign words. Kanji is the most difficult one, because Kanji are symbols/signs to describe words. And there are about 3000 symbols/Kanji out there. And you just have to learn and learn and learn to know which one means what. Now remember the good note I just mentioned, I am as of now able to read and write Hiragana. (I have no idea what it is that I’m reading of course, but hey I can read it.)

I’m ALMOST able to read and write Katakana, but I’m not quite there yet. In another 2 to 3 months I will be able to read and write that sucker too. And then I will start on the Kanjis, which will take me the longest by far. But hey, I can read 1.5 of 3 new alphabets, which is kind of cool, or at least I think so. But my speaking Japanese is REALLY bad, and is FAR from where it should be. So just keep in mind that I can’t leave unless I get that down. Sorry.

PS Vita

Ok so I went out and bought me the PS Vita, for the noobs among you that is the new PSP. And for the extreme weirdoes among you, PSP is the PlayStation Portable. So yeah I bought it here in Japan, and I also bought the Tenchu like game called Shinobido 2. So as any true gamer would, I was playing with it all weekend, and you have no idea how much this hurts me to say this but I’m not impressed. I actually spent like 2 hours in the mall, wandering and thinking.

Because I wanted the PlayStation phone (Sony Ericson Xperia Play), and I wanted the PS Vita. So I didn’t know which one I wanted to pick, so I was thinking and thinking, and eventually I bought the PS Vita. The reason for that was because I like my old PSP. Second if I would get the phone, I would also have to get a contract with it, which means monthly payments. Third, the Xperia play is LIKE a PSP, so I figured why not just get the PSP. Made sense at the moment, but to be honest I don’t really care for the PS Vita so far. I will give you a better and full review in like a month’s time, when I had some real quality time with my new girl.

 Song of the month

Ok I feel like I should share the song I like that month the most. And this month the song that really makes me smile is this one right here:

Sam Cooke – Another Saturday Night

It just makes sense to me in this period in my life. And oh yeah on the music note, my girls at my school gave me a list of Japanese artists to download and so I did. I burned their CD and put it into my car, and yes I’m bumping some J-Pop in my whip. Makes me smile every time I start that car. You people should download some as well, that stuff is just funny to listen too.

The boy group (yes boy group) I’m currently bumping in the whip is Arashi. I would suggest you Google them or YouTube them, cause these dude are somewhat famous over here.

The end of this one

Now as you might have noticed the poem of the month and story of the month aren’t included. I decided to keep them out of the blog. I want to give them their own little page, this was some advice given to me by a big headed friend of mine, so I listened. I’m still in Japan, and I’m still having a ball, and I’m still teaching. Once again, I have no idea who reads all this stuff, cause no one wants to leave me a message, so this is just me writing something to look/read back on later when I’m old and grey. Oh yeah, don’t forget to buy the book, support the boy.

Vino