_valerian

So all day between Matsudo and Yokohama I was thinking about this first year (today!) in Japan. To be more specific, it has been one full year. Counting the 3 month fall program at Senshu University in 1998 and then the month of July in 1999, and then again ofically at Senshu University from September 2001 to August 2002– I have been in country for a rough total of 2 years and 3 months. The weird thought is that in 2008 I will have been in (and out of) Japan for ten years. I am not so sure my Japanese ability reflects 7 years of study. By 10 you had better be fluent. I don’t think I have really improved since 2003, but thats also the last year I had a Japanese class.

My work visa has another 2 years on it. If all goes well I will be at the school I am at. This past year has been great, every day it feels like study-abroad and not Work. I have learned more than I thought I would but there has been a cost to all that. Nothing that I would ever write about here though.

Getting to this point, the whole teaching and living in Japan thing, has been a goal of mine since I first heard about the jet program back in 1997. JET and I broke even- I was turned down for an interview with them in 2003 because I forgot a transcript with my application, and then in 2004 I turned down an offer to participate in their program. Funny how things work out the way they do. Now I have to think about what to do next. For now I want it to involve my school, my apartment, my friends, my salary— But it can’t last like this forever. I have also wanted to apply for the Monbukagakusho scholarship to do research in Japan. If there is anyway I could get to do that in the realm of photography that would be what I want to do. Grad School is also an option. Again, I would want to do it in Japan.
In the near future I have my photo show coming up. Next year I want to try and do two exhibitions in Tokyo. Sometime I want to publish a book. This fall I am going to get my portfolio put together, my work from Japan.

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Originally this post was going to be collection of what-ever about the past year. Some things like this:

___In the past year I have:

shot just over 660 rolls of Fuji presto 400 35mm film. Developed over 1000 sheets of 8×10 Ilforb black and white photo paper. Bought some cameras (not going to post that total). I am not sure how many polaroids I have shot but my digital camera says that I have taken 3748 pictures with it since I got it in June.

seen no less than two grown men (at different times) just standing there peeing on the sidewalk near a bush or off the road into the field right in front of my house. This is also a spot where people throw old adult magazines from their car, I think.

had the title of “Sensei” given to me by not only students, but convienence store workers, bento shop cooks, neighbors, ramen shop owners, taxi drivers, etc.

have been told I was cool or handsome (neither is true) by more girls than I had ever thought possible. Half of which will start elementary school next spring. The other half would be those same kids’ mothers and grandmothers.

spent 700 yen on some meal and thought, “wow that was cheap”

slept on the deck of a ship in the pacific ocean, climbed (the stairs) up a volcano

bought a leica and had to get it repaired. Twice.

___Still have not:

ever had a beer or sake.

gone to an onsen or public bath.

come to like soba, green tea or ikura.

ever hesitated to blurt out an awful oyaji pun in front of the principal or a class of kindergarten students.

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Here is to many more.