Maybe it is living in Japan, maybe it is having lots of time to myself, maybe it is nothing, but I tend to walk around writing poetry in my head these days. Everything seems to inspire me. Recently my favorite form has been haiku. I was doing some reading on haiku form (free form vs. strict form) and found an interesting segment. I like the idea of describing things that you experience as a "haiku moment." Douzo:

"The haiku poet cultivates awareness so that s/he may experience some unusually forceful impact coming from ordinary life or from everyday surroundings. The poet is apt to think of these perceptions as 'haiku moments', but without any wish to isolate them, for they are part of the continuous flow of experience and may exemplify life on a timeless scale. We use our senses to observe 'haiku moments'; from which point they are developed, not by ratiocination, but by intuition and a release of emotion. "Haiku is the poetry of meaningful touch, taste, sound, site and smell"(RH Blyth). 'Haiku moments' come normally from personal experience. The pain is to give readers the means to feel as the poet her/himself felt at the time, or maybe differently, without any explicit (and so directive) statements about actual feelings."

I hate to always be complaining but this one warrants a blog.

The heaters in the school went on the fritz yesterday morning before classes started. I thought they would eventually warm up, but they didn't. We kept thinking our manager would call someone to fix them, instead she kept vacuuming the filters hoping that would make the problem go away. So we were all really cold yesterday. I assumed (incorrectly again) that the heaters would be fixed today. HA HA HA. Another day with no heat. It is freezing in Fukui and we had no heat all day. I actually taught my classes today wearing my winter coat because it was too cold to take it off! The poor children! The poor teachers! Poor me! Turns out the reason we haven't gotten it fixed yet is because the head office has to have a lot of people approve calling someone to fix it before we can call someone to fix it (and if they don't approve it we never get heat again?). Sean and I think we should cancel school because it is so cold but the manager doesn't agree. The whole situation is ridiculous in my opinion! How can you have a children's school with no heat?

Diatribe on the evils of Text Messaging

Our society has become a safe-haven for the wimp and the cowardly. For individuals who avoid the confrontation, the honesty and sometimes the difficulty of face-to-face communication. Gone is the subtle art of body language, replaced instead by the intricate etiquette of cutesy shortcuts (the meaning of “cu” instead of “see you”, “LOL” replaced by the joy of hearing true laughter, and of course the sly wink ;) expressed in punctuation). As a form of communication our technology is incredibly convenient—cheap, instantaneous and reliable. However, its affects on our society are more detrimental than we realize. People have the ability to hide behind their technology-- send a text message rather than have a difficult conversation. Avoid true communication at all costs. People no longer need to know how to have a conversation if all communication is expressed in 20 word segments. We have the ability to screen our feelings, our emotions and our words before sending them to make sure we aren’t giving away too much. Things that would be shown obviously in person can be easily hidden within the letters of a text message. Emotions disappear replaced by feelingless impassive letters. We also lose the subtle meanings expressed by the voice and the body. “Great shoes!” can have different meanings depending on whether it is said with enthusiasm or a raised eyebrow. Deeper meanings are lost within the technology. But I don’t mean to say that the technology is pointless, just that people have begun to hide behind it. It is used as a shield to avoid things that are difficult. Facing someone to give them bad news is difficult but often necessary, however now it is easier to send a quick text message to someone and immediately forget about it and them. Before this technology people were forced to say things in person, to face the difficult issues that exist in life. So who is being cheated? The person receiving the brush-off text message obviously (for you are being brushed off if you receive a text that should have been delivered in person) but perhaps the person sending it loses also. The longer one can hide within technology, the more true communication is destroyed and any ability for it in the future. I am angry at the loss of true communication and the cowardice that accompanies text messaging, but I also pity the people who have lost the ability to have a real conversation and face things that may be tough head-on.

Yesterday I made an interesting discovery- I am the only person in Fukui who thinks riding a bicycle through a snow storm is a good idea. As I was cruising around town I noticed I was the only bicyclist.

Coming home late last night from a poker game (where I won 600 yen, yeah!), I looked at my reflection in a store window and realized I looked ridiculous. I was dressed in as many layers of clothing would fit under my winter jacket and wearing a funny hat (I may have looked a bit like a bear in the circus) riding a bike through the snow. So I was laughing at how ridiculous I looked until I saw a palm tree in front of a restaurant. A real palm tree covered in snow. I may have been ridiculous, but that poor palm tree was even more riduculous.

Yesterday I saw a little old Japanese man (70 at the youngest) wearing a Boyz II Men Jacket. I was highly amused. Either he was incredibly cool in his early 60's (when Boyz II Men was popular) or he has no idea what his jacket says. Either way....

There is a street somewhere under all that snow!

I spent my vacation in Reno buried in snow! I did have an opportunity to perfect my snow shoveling technique though.

SNOW SNOW SNOW! YEAH! I live in a winter wonderland that is covered in 4 feet of beautiful snow! It snowed all day yesterday and last night and then I awoke to blue skies, miles of untouched snow and a huge desire to have a snowball fight. So much more fun in Nevada where the snow is dry and I don't have to walk to work! I heart snow!