My first impression of Yokohama was: hot, muggy, noisy and concrete. During that time I studied a little bit on my own (the first two weeks there) but gave up and decided to try immersing myself in the culture by meeting people, going out on my own, getting lost while using maps, and everything that makes life fun. I enjoyed that but still found that there was not enough peace and quiet. During my year there I met Mayu (my wife) and we dated. I also studied kendo there and got my 1dan, or first black belt.I made it through a year but wanted to go home, having gotten the megalopolis burnout. So I went but left a piece of my heart in Japan. I didn't, however, leave Mayu there. She came with me and we spent a year living in an apartment together in Winnipeg. After a year of looking for work in Winnipeg, spending time off and on again doing part time jobs (and one really great term job with an insurance company) and really wanting to go back to Japan anyway, I decided to apply for a government-sponsored position in the education field in Japan. Mayu's working-holiday visa expired in May so she left for Tokyo. I was accepted in the JET Program in May 1991 and posted to Fukui Prefecture, an agricultural but wealthy area on the Japan Sea side of the country to work in Ono High School for three years in July of same year.
Mayu and I got married atop the Winnipeg Art Gallery on August 17th, 1992. We have been married now for almost 16 years. We have no children to date.
After that contract at Ono High School ended I moved to the company my wife has been working for working for and have been here in tiny Kamishii-mura for seemingly forever, enjoying the mountains, rivers, rice paddies, cicadas, frogs, snow and even the slugs and cockroaches that lived with us in our home.
After that contract at Ono High School ended I moved to the company my wife has been working for working for and have been here in tiny Kamishii-mura for seemingly forever, enjoying the mountains, rivers, rice paddies, cicadas, frogs, snow and even the slugs and cockroaches that lived with us in our home.
I love you!
Cam
Stay tuned for Part 7: "Shigoto" in Japan
Slugs are fascinating to watch.. but I hate getting up in the middle of the night to have a pee and stepping on one in the dark....Sl--ugh.
ReplyDeleteEwww Stefnee, gross! But I do love to see the sparkles they leave as they trail across the concrete on my patio.
ReplyDeleteCammy I am getting into this story now, and waiting on pins and needles for the episodes to follow.
I love you.
Ewwww Stef! Cam, like Mavis, cannot wait to hear or in this case read more! Isn't amazing were life will lead us!
ReplyDeleteLove ya!
Slugs. I don't do slugs.... http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-zqI.HVY7eqJUTvLuofyjaZwG?p=47
ReplyDeleteAnd now I have that song stuck in my head. *grins*
Morning, Cam!!!
Love this story and I love you, too!
ReplyDeleteKarina - And I love you!
ReplyDeleteJaime - That was a cool story! I have determined that slugs actually use black holes to travel through time and space (even though current science says it is nearly impossible to come out again - current science). But slugs come from a different multiverse so they are not bound by our perceptions of life. Anyway, how else can the be absent one second, and present the next?
Faster than a speeding bullet... it's SuperSlug!
SuperSlug! *shudder* Your theory really does explain a lot, Cam. After all, we know exactly how wrong current sciences can be!
ReplyDeleteOnce the current sciences was that the earth was FLAT. I wonder what crazy idea they will think we have in about 500 years. Cam you will just have to live that long to prove the point of where we are coming from.
ReplyDeleteWell, I have planned to live to 202 so there will most likely be a lot of changes over the next 160 years. I hope so!
ReplyDeleteYea I'm so excited to know that there will be some one that will remember me 150 years from now.
ReplyDelete