Lost count of how long i've been in japan, but if we go by dates, it's been 2 months and a bit. actually, the countdown timer's still there, so i suppose you could just read the number of days off there. by now, i'd say that the foreigner novelty has basically worn off, also helped by the fact that i look (well, am) asian. i've heard stories of caucasian JETs who get the "animal in the zoo" treatment, ie. people keep staring at them. worse, my orientation presenter shared that he'd been non-consensually groped before. i don't think that the perpetrator meant for it to be sexual harassment, but well. at least he said that the incident was resolved to his satisfaction, so that's good. better if it hadn't happened at all in the first place, but this is the best among the outcomes that obey the laws of physics.

weekends are becoming rather lazy. i attribute it to a combination of the COVID situation, the cold weather, and fatigue accumulated over the week. for the past 2 saturdays, i've been sleeping in until the afternoon, which leaves me quite little time for activities, especially when the sun sets and the temperature drops around 5pm. good thing that i've been going out at least one day every weekend. should up it to both days, and try to include visiting a new place each time.

some finance matters - i got my second electricity bill, which is 4 times higher than the previous one. i'd expected it to be about double maybe, because the first bill was for 2 weeks as opposed to 1 month for a regular bill. but to see a fourfold increase means that i'm also using about twice as much electricity per day on average as compared to the first 2 weeks. might be the modem/router combination...and also because i've been careless. there have been nights where i've left appliances (light, kotatsu) on and gone to sleep. i've also left a light on for the entire day because i was in a bit of a rush to leave the house for work. need to be more mindful about all these little things. i'm just hoping that the water and gas bills will be lower than expected to balance everything out.

my nitori shipment came yesterday, which was a day earlier than i'd booked. either that, or i remembered the date wrongly. anyway no major harm done, since i was at home to receive everything. i've set it up, and it's quite a big quality of life improvement. not that the old futon was bad (honestly, the cover felt better), just that the new one is better - more spacious, and a little firmer. the new blanket is thicker and feels warmer, but i actually prefer the old blanket's texture. i think it's because of the new cover that i bought. i'd thought that it would be plush/furry like my old one, but it's coarser. well...it's a very literal case of i've made my bed, so now i must sleep in it. by far and away, my best purchase was the pillow. it's filled with buckwheat husks, which are called soba in japanese. yes, the same soba as soba noodles, which are made from buckwheat. it's firmer and higher, which helps me sleep more comfortably. i think i might want to source for these back in singapore! as an added bonus, i now have spare furnishings for people who may want to sleep over. i don't know when such circumstances will arise, but i suppose it's good to be prepared.

over the past weeks, the sec 3 kids have been taking high school entrance exams, and a few of them have already been offered placements in various high schools. since this town doesn't have a senior high school, they'll have to commute or stay in dormitories. again, it feels kind of foreign to me, to travel so far for school, or to stay away from home at such a young age. come to think of it though, maybe i shouldn't be so surprised. after all, i know friends from secondary school and JC who travelled an hour or more each way for school (some even going across the causeway daily!), and some who boarded at the schools' hostels. i've definitely been fortunate, to have had schools within reasonable distance, as well as people to send me to school.

i could really get used to life in japan. i feel so much more happy and relaxed as compared to when living in singapore. granted that this is rural japan, and it will probably be different in a city. somehow, i still feel like i'm meant for greater things than teaching english in this small town. does that sound too egotistic? hopefully the timing works out such that COVID will be a non-issue by the time JET ends. 

-random thought of the day: Try more different cooking projects!-

Either poor planning and/or an unfortunate coincidence led to the cancellation of english class at the school which i visited today, so i took my leave after lunch, went back to the town hall, and decided to use an hour of my off-in-lieu to knock off early because i don't often get opportunities to clear leave due to being scheduled for class every day. it's unfortunate, because i have had the least contact with this school so far, and the kids there are the closest-knit, i think. after this week, i have 6 more classes with them, maximum. no, wait. 5 classes, because one thursday is a public holiday. hope that no more classes get cancelled in that time. as a reminder to myself, i still have 3 hours of off-in-lieu to clear.

my most recent round of online shopping didn't go all that well. i wanted to order some bed and curtain stuff online, but i found curtains for cheaper at a physical daiso shop. so i ended up ordering only the bed stuff from nitori. turns out that the futon that i'd put in my cart is supplied by a third-party vendor, which meant that i couldn't use convenience store payment. cash-on-delivery was supposedly an option too, but it wasn't presented to me. that left me with credit card payment only, so ok lor. no choice. i'm not sure if i made the right decision to select the 8am to 12pm delivery slot for this sunday. the reason i chose it was because i thought i could write in to narrow it down further (other slots are 2 hours instead of 4). but they replied saying that it wouldn't be possible to do that. well...at least i asked them for a pre-delivery call, so it's not like the deliveryperson will knock while i'm still sleeping...hopefully.

getting a haircut in singapore is easy, because i know exactly what to tell the person to get the look that i want. in japan...less so. thankfully, it went better than nitori shopping! upon my colleagues' recommendations, i went to a barber shop in the neighbouring city. 1100 yen for a haircut! depending on where you normally go, that might be expensive or cheap. i consider it expensive, because i normally go for $10 haircuts at EC house. the experience was good though! i somehow managed to get my point across with mangled japanese and a reference photo. good thing the stylist was patient, too! he also kept checking if everything was ok, and if i wanted anywhere to be shorter. but the thing that i liked the best was the hot towel they applied before the final tidy-up shave. i've never gotten that in singapore. while my hair is decidedly shorter than before, the overall look is just a little bit too round. i think i'll try to go even shorter on the sides next time, or maybe just leave it to the stylist.

although life has more or less fallen into a routine by now, there are times where i'm struck by disbelief. i mean, i flew to japan in the middle of a pandemic, and i'm being paid decently well to teach very simple english to primary and secondary school kids! when things don't go according to plan (which really hasn't happened all that often so far - if at all), i remind myself that i'm tremendously blessed to be able to do this. i just hope that things continue in this vein for the remainder of my term, and if possible, get even better.

not sure if i want to talk about the actual teaching now, because i think that it should be its own post. let's think - what interesting content can i use to fill some space here? ah, i know! remember that time i drove to kochi city, and said that driving on one-lane roads for over an hour either way wasn't my idea of fun? over some conversations this past week, i've found out that some of the teachers in my schools live in kochi city, and thus have to make that trip (back and forth!) every day. granted that they use the expressway, so it's faster but also more expensive because of tolls. i think i should try to think bigger, in terms of travelling and distances.

-random thought of the day: Eating healthy is surprisingly easy.-

Stayed in bed for most of today, despite having errands to do. it's like the accumulated fatigue from the past week hit me all at once. i even dozed off a couple of times last night while fishing in final fantasy! granted, that's not the most exciting thing that the game has to offer, but still. i think it's a sign that i have some sleep debt to repay. on average, i sleep between 6 to 7 hours a day, which should be enough, but for some reason isn't. my alarm is set for 7:15am every day, and i sleep at about 12:30am? maybe i should sleep a bit earlier.

week 2 of my full teaching load was manageable. there are things that i still haven't quite understood about japanese thought processes and attitudes, but i think that'll come with time. i'm actually more worried about how they view english. the sec 2 kids in the biggest school seem to place little to no emphasis on it. having said that though, i don't think they're bad kids. it's just that they dislike stuff that they're weak at, which is very normal. wish i knew how to convince them that english is weird, but not impossible.

that reminds me. you might recall that while i was in quarantine, i had to watch orientation and training videos for teaching english. the one thing that i didn't like about those videos is that when the trainers interacted with the kids, they used a tone of voice which i thought was rather patronizing. but somehow, it seems that that tone of voice makes enunciation easier. is that why i, as a native english speaker, think it's patronizing? because for someone to use that tone of voice with me, they're implying that i'm not capable of understanding them when they speak normally? the japanese kids probably don't have that association, because (1) that tone of voice is featured in training videos, and (2) there hasn't been any negative press about it...not to my knowledge, anyway.

i was thinking about dating recently. even asked my predecessor about his experience. he was nice enough to share that he has a girlfriend, and they dated long-distance while he was on JET. on top of that, he offered to introduce me to a few of his female JET friends...an offer which i declined for obvious reasons. within my current social network in japan, i think there are 2 people whom i consider dating prospects. of course, this doesn't in any way imply that the feeling is mutual. so, first is a colleague from the board of education. he's nice, very smiley (blocked by the mask though), and generally easy to get along with. the second is a teacher in one of the schools, and by some stroke of luck, i visit that school the most often. better yet, i sit next to him in the staff room! unfortunately, they're both like, 8 or 9 years younger than me. i wonder though, would they come with me to singapore, or even to another city in japan once my term on JET ends? unlike my predecessor, i'm not sure if i could date long-distance. of the two, i think the teacher looks better because overall better fashion sense and look (or maybe because he has to dress in formal attire for classes), but somehow, i think of the colleague more. but this is me putting carts in front of horses, counting chickens before they hatch, all that stuff. i haven't downloaded any dating apps yet, and frankly, i'd be a bit nervous to get matches in this town (colleague and teacher being the two exceptions). but well...i still have many months to go, so we'll see how things develop.

my recontract offer came in last week, and i accepted. the mildly annoying thing about JET is that given the timeline of the application cycle, we have to make recontracting decisions about a third of the way into our year-long term. it's worse this year because our late arrival means that we had to decide barely a month into our placement. early recontracting means that if things go south sometime in the remaining 8 months or however long is left, there's not much anyone can do. i mean sure, the JET can break contract, but that's just ugly all around. at least for the first recontract offer, it was an easy decision for me. because if i decided not to recontract, my term would end in august this year, meaning that i'd be 3 months or so short of a full year in kochi. that wouldn't be fair to myself, i think. it might be harder next year, because doing 2 or 3 years on JET is generally the sweet spot (financially), although there are a not-insignificant amount of people who do do the full 5 years. i guess another factor influencing my decision is how my job hunt will go. again, there's a timing issue since most companies hire in april.  but that bridge is still some ways into the future.

since i took today to rest and recover, tomorrow will be a bit more activity-packed. haircut, maybe some shopping, and a spot of laundry/vacuuming as well. i should really tidy up a bit...put the empty suitcase away and whatnot. maybe i need to do something to raise my energy levels. eat differently? i think i'm getting fairly good nutrition, although i usually only buy what's on sale at the supermarket. good news! i seem to have lost 3 to 4kg since last week's weighing. this is without doing any extra exercise, by the way. all the exercise i'm getting is climbing stairs in the town hall, and walking around in schools/classes. even then, i somehow managed to clock 6000+ steps on one day in the past week. can't wait for the weather to get warmer, when it'll be easier to take walks and stuff. also have to do a round of nitori shopping, for curtains, bedding, and maybe some kitchen stuff. as much as i want to buy things left and right, i must remember that this is only temporary accommodations, and it probably wouldn't be worth it to ship the stuff that i bought to my next destination. - be in singapore, or somewhere else in japan. not to mention less spending means more saving.

-random thought of the day: Should I even download dating apps?-

Ironically, despite my misgivings/apprehensions about teaching primary school kids, i find myself enjoying primary school classes more than secondary school classes right now. i guess it's because japanese primary school kids are easier to impress and better behaved than singaporean kids of the same age. that's not to say that the secondary school kids are bad though - far from it! but most of them are so quiet and reserved. apparently, the sec 2s in one of the schools have an unspoken rule that nobody gives their opinion on anything the teacher asks, for fear of standing out and making mistakes, maybe? i had what i thought was a below-average class with them on monday, only for the other english teacher to tell me she thought it was a good day!

there's one kid in particular that's caught my attention, for all the wrong reasons. i don't know how he's like in other classes, but for english class at least, he literally sleeps through the whole period. i wish i knew why! although now that i think about it, why is it important for me to know why? might be to assuage my guilt from leaving him to his own devices. or perhaps to justify me having to leave him alone - like "oh, he's tired from working on the family farm" or something. but well...not knowing english probably won't kill him if he doesn't travel out of this town or out of japan.

fatigue is interfering with my ability to think coherently for this post, so perhaps i'll expand on it over the weekend. just for my own reference, some of the topics that i want to talk about include regular english class, common stumbling blocks for japanese kids learning english, living in rural-ish japan, and if i manage to do it, my first experience getting a haircut here.

-random thought of the day: Will I even have time and energy for dating?-

Fibre internet came in last week, but i haven't had the energy to blog. i've had a taste of my full teaching load this past week, and it's heavy but not unmanageable. i think let's talk about fibre first, then move on to other topics.

the installation was done last sunday, and it took about 20 minutes. the guy came by with a modem and a connector, which he fused with the fibre optic cable that was already in the house. i was seriously impressed. the machine, which is about the size of a small/medium lunchbox, melted both ends that were to be joined, and joined them in such a way that wouldn't distort the light signal passing through the cable. i'm currently using wi-fi for my laptop and phone, but i have LAN cables on standby if the connection becomes bad.

with fibre, i've been on the computer/internet a lot more, and back in final fantasy as well. slowly catching up on raiding, but since this is the last raid tier of the expansion, i have almost a full year to clear it. but i figure that i'd better do it soon-ish, before my guildmates and the wider community lose interest in raiding.

having internet has kind of shifted my sleeping hours, because there's something to do now! i'm sleeping at around 12:30am on average, which isn't bad exactly, but i think that it could be better. it's weird, though. my working hours are significantly shorter than when i was working full-time in singapore, but there seems to be less free time available? or maybe it's because i take longer to eat dinner and bathe/shower. perhaps i should leave work more punctually too.

like i mentioned earlier, i've now been to all my schools, and experienced what a full week of teaching feels like. it's tiring, more so physically than mentally. there's a lot of walking and driving, because 2 schools are located some distance away from the town hall. one school is literally next to the town hall, and the last school is a short, but very uphill walk away. in class, though, the content covered is relatively simple. sec 1s are learning present continuous tense, ie. "-ing". looking back on my own english learning, i actually don't remember how or when i learnt all the various tenses and conjugations.  i don't think we were formally taught more complex stuff, like "had had" or "would have been". somehow i think i just broke up the phrase into component words and figured out when in time the event was supposed to have occurred. actually, one particularly strong memory from lower secondary was learning what "ostentatious" meant. don't know why that stuck with me, but it did. back to the point, my concern is actually how kids are expected to jump from "i am running" in sec 1 to "carbon fibre is a reinforced material that is stronger than steel" in sec 3 or JC. 

this also makes me wonder about the difficulty progression of content in japan. it's very very different from singapore, that's for sure. they learn basic statistics (dot plot, histogram) in primary school. i'm sure i was exposed to that only in sec 2, or maybe sec 1 at the earliest. whereas for science, i briefly saw a sec 3 class learning about eclipses, which i think was a primary school thing for me? i don't know if one country's system is necessarily better, but i wonder why singapore's STEM-focused education system hasn't yet produced a nobel laureate in any scientific field, compared to the dozens from japan. might be a time issue, since japan has had a longer history overall, and most of their nobel prize winners are past their 50s. personally, i also think it's related to how the singapore education system stymies creativity, but that's a discussion for another time.

schooling in japan is more different from singapore than i'd thought. academics aside, it seems more holistic and wholesome. then again, that could be because i'm in a rural area with small class sizes, and where people basically (are forced to) stick together from primary 1 to sec 3. somehow, the staff seem to be more caring to the kids. could also be because they interact more, for instance, over school lunch. it's more family-like compared to singapore schools, i guess. i mean, you'd never see teachers and students eating at the same table in any of my schools. also, the interaction between classmates is quite different as well. everyone seems to get along and be good friends, but that could be just because of how rural this area is. a teacher told me that japanese education focuses on cooperation and teamwork, and students are encouraged to work together to solve problems. guess that's how the high-context society comes about; people interact extensively with each other from young and develop a common thought pattern.

despite how good it looks on the surface though, i'm sure that there are underlying problems. there's this phenomenon called 不登校. the kanji literally means "not registering for school", and it's used to describe kids who choose not to attend school. often, the cause is not a physical incapability, but a mental/psychological block. like past experience of being bullied, low confidence, being academically weak, video game addiction, family problems, among other possible reasons. of course, there are also bound to be kids who think that an education is useless and who would rather spend their time on other pursuits. in singapore, where job prospects and career advancement are so closely tied to academic qualifications, such an attitude is basically financial suicide. whereas in japan, i actually believe that people can survive just fine without a high-level education. i mean, they'll probably need to know how to read and write, but that's basic. just imagine - someone inherits the family farm. they can grow their own food, and sell/trade any excess. don't need a university degree for that, surely? in a more extreme scenario, i'm sure that if someone was determined enough, they could survive off the land. given how big japan is, and its terrain, a person could feasibly remain off the radar for a long time without being discovered.

back to the 不登校 thing. i was quite shocked to learn that it happens here in my town as well. again, i'm looking at this through my lens, which has been shaped by my own experiences growing up in singapore. i don't understand why there would be kids in the town who are not going to school. school life is fairly stress-free, the content taught doesn't seem to be that difficult, and the kids seem to get along fine. of course, this is just be what i see on the surface. there could be some history that i don't know about. unfortunately, i don't think i'll get the chance to meet those kids. and even if i do, i'm just some foreigner who'll be gone in a couple of years. at this point, i think i want to try to engage with them somehow...although i'm not sure how to go about doing it. maybe i'll revisit this in a few months, after i've gained some more credibility with the board of education and the schools.

although i've been fairly impressed with the japan education system on a whole, their teaching of english leaves a lot to be desired. the metaphor that comes to my mind is "the blind leading the blind". japanese teachers of english are unfortunately, not very good at the english language. not only that, the testing criteria/requirements are so far removed from how english is spoken in daily life. i was quite curious as to why secondary school teachers always spelled the date out (eg. "january sixteenth") on the board in class. turns out that it's tested. honestly, the last time i had to spell out a date was...primary school? even in official correspondence, people use like "16 jan". the only time i've seen a date spelled out is on super formal documents, like legal stuff ("dated this sixteenth day of january". but well...i'm not here to rock the boat too much. if it's what the japan government wants, it's what they'll get from me.

something that i'm still getting used to is the japanese system. it's more regimented, for one. not in the army way, but there's a lot more structure. like, people want to fit you into a "box". with a clearly defined role. and people get nervous when they can't identify your position relative to their own. i guess that's why people wear nametags with their position/job title...like that cute delivery guy, but that's another story. it's good in a way, because it saves embarrassment arising from not being able to recall someone's name. but more than that, the school mindset carries on to work, apparently. it starts from school, actually. classes have meetings at the end of every schoolday, and i got to watch one in progress. felt weird to me, but i guess that's because i didn't grow up in this system. another example is how there are "school bells" for working hours. 3 chimes per day - 8:30am (starting work), 12:00pm (lunchtime), 5:00pm (knocking-off time). the midday bell even sounds on the weekends, which is a little odd to me.

feeling sleepy, so i think i'll end here. might elaborate on the delivery guy situation next time, but we'll see. my most recent uniqlo purchase was 2 sets of fleece attire (top and pants). should have bought these from the start and scrapped the short-sleeved heattech shirts. they're so warm! definitely a good purchase. but it seems that the coldest of the winter is over, so perhaps i was a few weeks late. bad timing, but there's always next winter.

-random thought of the day: Need a haircut.-

Most of my bills came in around the new year. i referred to them as negative otoshidama (japanese equivalent of red packets) when talking about them with my supervisor. that got a few laughs from the office. so i've talked about water and electricity, both of which were relatively cheap. i know internet and rent will be pretty expensive, so i'm mentally prepared for that. nothing prepared me for the gas bill, though. considering how little cooking i did, i was expecting no more than a thousand yen. imagine my surprise when they billed me 4600+ yen for 4 cubic metres of gas! after some thinking and checking a user manual, i found out the reason. it's because my water heater heats water by burning gas. in my defense, i thought it was electric-only, because the last time i saw a gas-powered water heater was...never! and because of my (wrong) assumption, i didn't think twice about leaving the heater running throughout the night, when i went to work, or even continuously over the weekend. so all the time that it's been on, it's been burning gas, which explains the ridiculously high consumption. ah well, lesson learnt. good news is that if i turn the heater on only when i need hot water (mainly for showers and baths, maybe doing the dishes?), the gas consumption will drop by about 80% or more. looks like it's time to ramp up the self-discipline and mindfulness/attention to detail. almost makes me wonder if this is patent attorney training in disguise. whatever it is, it's giving me an opportunity to work on one of my weak areas with no serious consequence (except losing money), so i should be grateful.

spent most of this past week packing and preparing to move to the new town hall. another downside just came to light, and that is parking is no longer free! from what my colleagues told me, the carpark building adjacent to the town hall is meant for guests and common-use/shared cars owned by the town. employees have to park their personal vehicles some distance away, on privately-owned land. and thus, the landlord reserves the right to charge for use of their land. admittedly, the fee isn't that high; 3000 yen per month, or about 100 yen per day. more like a token sum, actually. but still, going from paying nothing to paying something is a little jarring. my supervisor is trying to get me granted use of a lot within the carpark building (which is free), so i'm hoping that that works out. as an alternative measure, i'll try something creative, like parking elsewhere and walking the remaining distance to the new town hall. worst case is i'm told to suck it up and pay the fee, but i'm hoping that they manage to get me out of it.

what other news is there? based on how frequently i'm writing, there really shouldn't be much to add every day. yet, here we are with paragraphs of text. oh! i stupidly forgot to bring my wallet out of the house this morning. it's because i had to dress formally to meet a teacher to discuss our lesson plans for tomorrow, and i left my wallet in my jeans, which i'd been wearing the previous few days. lucky for me, i brought my coin pouch, which i remembered to transfer from my hoodie to the jacket which i wore today! the combination of those two things meant that i only had 323 yen on me to get something for dinner. a decent-sized tray of chicken was going for 30% off, and the final price was 270 yen. go me! i threw that into my hotpot (which has been going for about a week now, with daily top-ups of ingredients and soup), and made a meal out of that along with spinach scrambled eggs. it was supposed to be a spinach omelette, but i messed up the temperature control. well, you know what they say, try for an omelette, because even if it comes out horrible-looking, you can say that you were going for scrambled eggs. do they even say that? i don't know, but it's true. oh oh oh. talking about price reminded me. i really dislike how in japan, the before-tax price is displayed more prominently, and the after-tax price is usually displayed below, in significantly smaller print. nearly got caught by it a few times, but i've adapted. suppose it's good that i scrutinize labels, even back in singapore!

going to wrap it up here and head for bed soon. have an early day tomorrow, and i'm expected to address the primary school. it's also the last day in the old office building, which i'll miss quite a bit despite only having been there for about a month. it was so much more convenient! but i'll look forward to getting to see cute guy more often in the new place. and i'm scheduled to visit one of the secondary schools in the afternoon. not sure why they want me to go over, because classes don't start until next week. well, i guess i'll find out once i'm there. i'm a bit nervous to drive up there tomorrow, especially with the current weather. it snowed today, which is a rare occurrence in these parts. snow means slippery roads, and along with high winds, is a cause for concern. before i go, i just wanted to talk about one thing that REALLY impressed me today. so i got a failed delivery notice in the mail today. no, that's not the impressive bit. it said that i could reschedule delivery through line! so i did, and part of the process involved taking a picture of the QR code on my missed delivery notification and sending it to the chat bot. the AI somehow processed and recognized the code as belonging to my mail article! amazing. if only singpost had that service, instead of requiring me to either call in or go down personally to the nearest post office. 

-random thought of the day: Another Uniqlo sale!-

Guess who did something stupid last night? if you can't get the right answer, you're almost as stupid as me, um, i mean that person...whoever it is. ok, fine, it's me. what i did was that i was feeling nice and sleepy around 10pm last night, but i spoiled it by reading in bed until about 1am. in my defense, the story was good, but a little too idealized. like, the protagonist didn't have to really put in effort to deal with issues or conflict. everything just kind of fell into place for him. but well, i guess that's the power of writing. you can make whatever you want happen to whoever you want...which is why i'm a little reluctant to find hope in fiction. especially stories about people coming out, finding acceptance everywhere they turn, and meeting the person of their dreams. although, if i could, i'd like to live in such an ideal world.

in my life so far, i've been involved in moving twice. first time was in army, when my unit moved from the run-down old buildings into the nice new buildings. second was moving house from bishan to sengkang. this move from my current office to the new town hall will be the third move of my life. lucky for me, i don't have many belongings in the office, so i think my stuff (excluding teaching materials from previous JETs) will take up 1 to 2 boxes maximum. i'll still have to help with moving the stuff in the office, so it's good that i have very little to pack. i followed a couple of colleagues to view the new town hall today, and it's...fancy. looks way more modern than the current town hall. it's also literally next to one of my schools, meaning that i don't have to book a car when i'm scheduled to teach there.

on the personal front, i currently see that the move brings more cons than pros. firstly, it's further from my house and the supermarket - meaning that i can't take a short walk to grab lunch, or easily go for groceries after work. but that's not a big deal since i have school lunches catered, and i plan to make bento boxes when school's out. my main concerns are with the layouts of my new office and the carpark. office first. the current situation is that the board of education is split into the main office and the branch office, and i belong to the latter. we're housed in a small little building on our own, so it's quite private/cozy. in the new town hall, we're merged with the main office, so there are more people. not only that, we share floor space with 2 or 3 other departments. as for my seat, i'm currently seated at an innermost corner of the office, furthest away from the door. that means that only my direct neighbour can see what's on my computer screen. my desk in the new town hall is way more exposed...like, my back is facing the main body of people. due to the open concept in the town hall (and perhaps all japanese companies), anyone and everyone can see my screen. i suppose it's not THAT big of a deal, since my PC is heavily firewalled anyway, and i can't really slack off on it. i can use my phone for non-work things. but it's the feeling that others are always watching, i guess. the biggest pro here is that the cute guy's desk is diagonally behind me, so it increases the probability that we interact. it's not the most ideal layout; i'd have loved to have him seated next to me, but at least it's better than the current situation of him being a 20-minute drive away. although i'll mostly be out of the office and at schools once term starts...but that's something i can think about later.

my biggest worry is the carpark. you see, the new town hall and the adjacent carpark are built into a hillside, so the carpark entrance is actually at the top of the hill and we go downwards. think of it as an above-ground basement carpark. makes sense? what's more, the way that the carpark aligns with the town hall is that the easiest way to enter is from the top floor of the carpark (closest to the entrance), so people who arrive relatively later to work are "punished" in a sense, as they have to walk/drive further and climb stairs. shouldn't affect me much, as i have to be early in order to reach some of my schools on time anyway. oh, i have to figure out where the shared cars will be parked, as well as where their keys will be placed. my colleagues were all saying that the access road to the new town hall was a bit narrow, and that there might be bad traffic in the mornings and evenings. i'm hoping that my slightly different hours will allow me to bypass all that during term time. come summer though, when school's out...fingers crossed that the situation isn't as bad as we believe it might be.

despite all the cons i've listed, it's actually not as bad as it seems. the few really huge pros outweigh them. sitting near to cute guy, for one. more importantly, and the whole reason for the move, the new town hall is at a significantly higher elevation than my current office, meaning that should the nankai or any similar disaster happen while i'm at work, i'll be safe. come to think of it, at least 3 out of my 4 schools are located at high elevations. if only they would relocate my house as well!

while deskwarming today, i spent some time to study the demographics of my schools. first, some context of my own experience. in singapore, class sizes are generally over 30 at the primary and secondary school levels. plus, my birth year of 1988 was considered as doubly auspicious (88 and dragon year). this meant that there were more kids than normal! my level in primary and secondary schools had 11 classes, and there were 39 classes in JC of between 10 to 28 people(?). if you do the maths, there were anywhere between 300 to 500 people in my level alone at any stage of my education. multiply by 6, 4, or 2 (depending on the stage of education), and we can see that each school would easily have close to 1000 students, even after adjusting for the different cohort sizes each year! in japan, well, rural japan, my secondary schools have total enrollments in the double digits. my least-populated school has 8 students from sec 1 to sec 3. EIGHT! well, more like sec 2 to sec 3 because there wasn't a sec 1 intake last year, but you get what i mean. there are also 11 staff, meaning that the student-to-staff ratio is less than 1, ie. there's more than one staff per student! my first thought was concern/sympathy that these kids wouldn't have a normal school life. but then, i realized that "normal" is subjective. i was looking through the lens of my normal, which i've described earlier. having so few classmates is normal for them! i guess it's good if they get along well, not so good if they don't. a part of me still feels like they're missing out on a robust school life with more social interaction, but i'm sure that there are merits to this current scale that i'm not seeing. it's also reflective of the japanese education system, i think. even for such a small town and such a low student population, they have fully-staffed schools to ensure that the kids get an education. how the standard of that education compares to more urban areas though...i don't know. but i think that it's good enough, such that japan has an almost-100% (99.7% i think?) literacy rate.

this is probably something that i should ask my supervisor or the teachers in schools, but i really wonder what these kids grow up to be. i have a part of the answer - some of these kids go on to senior high after graduating junior high, while others go to vocational schools. where do they go after that, though? i'd like to think that the answer would be university, but i don't think everyone will/can/wants to end up there. maybe some of them are happy to stay in this small town and be farmers, fishermen, shopkeepers, or civil servants. there's absolutely nothing wrong with that; all those are honest ways to earn a living. personally, i don't think that that kind of path is suitable for me. maybe my stand might change after spending time here, but for now, my opinion is that this is a touch too rural.

perhaps it's a type A vs. type B thing. don't remember which is which, but one type tends to go all out and wants to be the best at everything it does, while the other type is the kind that takes things easier. i think that this "type" applies not just to people, but to countries too. singapore is firmly type A (i googled, type A is the one that goes all out), probably because of its history of having had to struggle and stay competitive to get where it is today. from what i've seen so far, this town is very much type B to me. like, people are diligent at their jobs and don't slack off, but the general vibe is just more casual/relaxed. i still think that this is somewhere i'd like to maybe retire to and live in peace, but that's still a few decades into the future at least. 

-random thought of the day: Maintain good sleeping habits!-

Tell any singaporean around my age that you're showered and ready for bed at 8pm, and they'll likely ask after your health. because in singapore, nobody goes to sleep this early unless they're sick and/or old. but in rural japan, going to bed early is the norm rather than the exception. my supervisor's dad says that he sleeps around 9pm...although he wakes up at 3 or 4am, so the hours slept are about the same. personally though, i think going to bed too early won't be productive, as i'll be tossing and turning for a long while.

new year was uneventful; most of my days were spent at home. under normal circumstances, a 6-day break would mean some extended travel, perhaps to a not-so-near but still reachable city like osaka for a few days, even. but with COVID getting worse again, the risk isn't worth taking. it's bad to the point where the 3 remaining singapore JETs whose departure was delayed to 10 january now don't have a solid departure date again, and news is that tokyo has announced a state of emergency. just when it looked like things were headed back to normal! despite this though, i heard that some of the australia/new zealand JETs were planning to travel to osaka over the new year's break. whether they actually did or not, i don't know, but i'm super grateful that i'm not placed anywhere near them.

i was doing my budget spreadsheet yesterday, and it seems that i'm in the red for november and december. if you count the day i flew, i was in japan for 3 working days in november. so, they pro-rated my november salary and income tax accordingly. that's fair, nothing to say. but then, they said that i had to pay the whole month's worth of pension contribution and employment insurance. why not pro-rate that too!? apparently it's inconsistent, because one of us didn't have to pay it. the rest of us did, though, so perhaps it's a luck thing, or that person's supervisor knows the system super well. i'm looking at it as startup cost, or them trying to reclaim the costs of the hotel room and food/electricity/water/internet during quarantine. from that perspective, i think i still come out ahead. it probably won't matter in the grand scheme of things, so i think that i should just take it in stride. on the bright side, at least i'm in japan already, and my time in quarantine was counted as working days!

while i'm on the topic of finances, i should also talk about ways to transfer money. my original plan was to use DBS remit in case i needed to convert SGD into extra yen, but that didn't go through. somehow, my DBS app required me to re-authenticate using an OTP from my physical token. i actually had the foresight to bring the token, but i didn't anticipate it to malfunction on me. probably a dead battery, or a temperature-related issue. well...DBS is out, but at least i was able to transfer the excess funds i had there to my UOB account using paynow.

so, to convert SGD to yen in case i need it, i'm using UOB mightyFX. it's a multi-currency account that i already use to pay my final fantasy subscription, as well as for online purchases in different currencies. best part, the account comes with a debit card that allows me to pay directly in the foreign currency, in the case of japan, in the yen that i converted from SGD. i tried it over the weekend, and it worked! also, the exchange rate is much better than DBS remit, with zero fees, too!

for the reverse process (yen to SGD for savings), my plan is to use transferwise. i don't quite know how it's going to work yet, but from what i see, their fees are the lowest around. i'm waiting for next month's payday to make my first transfer, because i have a discount on the fees from using my cousin's referral code, and making a big transfer maximizes that discount. if i can just charge my transferwise account directly with yen from my japan bank account, then it would make more sense to get the transferwise debit card since i save money by bypassing the currency exchange step. unfortunately, the card doesn't seem to be available in japan yet, so perhaps that's something to do the next time i go back to singapore.

actually, an even simpler alternative would be to apply for a japan credit/debit card. at the same time, applying for a japan credit card is simpler and more difficult than in singapore. not because of the language barrier, either! in singapore, you apply for a credit card with a bank, and they'll usually request for supporting documents, like CPF contribution history. that's about all there is to it. in japan, banks don't offer credit cards...at least my bank doesn't. instead, i was advised to apply for a credit card tied to a company (aeon, rakuten, JCB, etc.). the requirements are less stringent than singapore, and the benefits are better (zero annual fees). but the annoying thing is that certain cards' bills can only be paid by linking the card account to accounts with certain banks. so far, i haven't seen a company that accepts my bank. then again, i've only looked at 3 companies, so i'm sure that there'll be something out there i can use. in addition, i'm thinking of applying for an ETC card as well, which can be done together with a credit card, i think? ETC card is the japan version of the cashcard, ie. the card you use to pay for tolls on the road. unlike the singapore cashcard though, you don't load money into it. instead, it works like a credit card, where the total sum is billed to you every month. not that i'll use it very often, since i can even drive to kochi city without paying tolls. perhaps for when i'm pressed for time, or for further journeys, like to other prefectures.

checking back on the last post, my target was to save the equivalent of between SGD 2000 to 2500 per month. seems doable, unless i have unforseen expenses, like lights spoiling or other house/car repairs that i have to take care of. the key is really to watch my consumption, i think. there are ways to save money, like ordering off the internet and getting free delivery, vs. going down to the shop and buying things. good news is that i have school lunch, which is subsidized by the town. that saves me a little bit of cash. if i had to guess, i'd say that most of my spending will be on food and housing items. maybe membership fees too, if i join a gym or other club(s). but that will probably be in the spring at the earliest. it's really too cold to do anything in winter once the sun sets! we'll have to see how things go.

just a few big items on the agenda for next week - meeting at the primary school on thursday, primary school starts classes on friday, getting my internet activated on sunday! you probably know which one i'm looking forward to the most. bonus is that the next monday is a public holiday, so i get to spend more time online. um, i mean i get to go out and explore a bit more. apart from that, it's just the usual routine at the board of education. oh wait...we're supposed to be moving to the new town hall, aren't we? haven't received instructions for that, i don't think. hope they didn't inform me in japanese code again, because i really have no idea what the plan is. so i'm just going to show up at the usual time and place, and see what happens.

-random thought of the day: Aim to spend no more than $10 a day.-

Like my year-end post tradition, a change in countries isn't going to stop me from writing my new year's post either. to celebrate the new year (and because we all like to find arbitrary reasons to do things, i set up my keyboard that i brought from singapore. the upside is that typing is a lot more enjoyable now (blue switches!). downside is that the laptop screen has to be further away from me to make room for the keyboard in front of it. really makes me want to get a monitor. or, if i'm feeling really crazy, build a desktop. i doubt i'll follow through on the desktop idea though, because in my mind right now, japan is still temporary. perhaps i'll consider it more seriously if/when i manage to get another job in japan after JET.

a few of you might be wondering how i spent my first new year in japan. the answer of "doing chores and slacking" might disappoint you, but it's the truth. although it's tradition here to visit a shrine at midnight on new year's day to pray for good fortune for the upcoming year, i found myself feeling sleepy even before midnight. i attribute it to my age and the weather, or as i call it, the old and cold combo. still, i stayed up till midnight (local time) to send new year's wishes to some people, then fell asleep soon after. there's a saying/superstition in japan about one's first dream of the year. if i remember it right, the best thing to dream about on new year's day is mt. fuji. second is a hawk, and third is an eggplant. i don't know the exact reasoning, or if i even got the order/list completely right, but surely it's because all of them have auspicious connotations to the japanese. my new year's dream was not that memorable or unpleasant. i seem to remember it being about visiting my professor in the lab, but that's the extent of my recollection.

2021 is...not a leap year. right. so, what goals should i set myself for the upcoming 364 days? on the professional front, i want to help the kids to become better at english. "better" is very vague, though. i guess i want the kids to enjoy english, and to be able to communicate in english for most everyday situations. not to the extent of discussing philosophy or writing an academic thesis, but to be confident enough to go on a solo trip to an english-speaking country.

for my own professional development, i need to find the answer to what i'm going to do after JET, and start working in that direction. scientific IP is still at the top of my list now, and i googled IP firms in japan out of curiosity some time back. they do exist, and some are even looking for english-speakers. thing is, if i want to work towards qualification in japan, i'll have to have a decent standard of japanese too. that also ties in to another overarching goal while i'm in japan: pass JPLT N2 within 2 years. if that doesn't work out, there's always going back to singapore and trying to land a job there.

practical consideration: i have to save money for life after JET. saving SGD 2000 to 2500 every month should be very possible, given the cost of living here. i just have to be disciplined about my consumption (in all aspects), and not make too many frivolous purchases. to have a target to work towards, let's try to save SGD 20000 over this whole year, or 75% of my take-home income, whichever is more within reach. 

outside of work and in the personal domain, i need to work on myself a lot, particularly for health and fitness. as mentioned yesterday, if i can't do healthy living and meet my own goals here, then it's all on me. expressing this goal in numbers as well, i think that it would be good if i could lose between 20 and 30kg this year. i know the theory - have a net calorie deficit. now i just have to put that into practice.

still in the personal domain, but looking outwards this time, i think that i want to be more socially active. what great timing, with COVID still being a thing! also, being in this small town means that there's very little opportunity to socialize. literally all of my contacts are from work! well, there are my neighbours, but they all have children/grandchildren going to schools in which i teach. that somewhat counts as a work connection, right? i think that i have 2 main options to pursue: to make friends with my colleagues (preferably with that cute guy as well), and to find social groups in the neighbouring towns/cities. as mentioned a few posts back, there's a taiko group that my predecessor was a part of, and i'm looking into joining a gym...if i can find one within a reasonable distance, that is.

romance/dating can be considered a part of being more socially active too. although the same restriction applies - there may not be anyone to date in this small town! actually, it probably applies to a larger extent, since LGBT people are the minority anyway. option 2 presented above (find people from nearby towns/cities to date) is probably still viable, but i don't know how the success rate will be like. well...there's no rush. it might even be better not to focus too much on it, because i believe that much like natural products, the best kind of relationship (friend or otherwise) is one that forms organically.

there you have it, my goals and plans for this year. it's not like a typical new year's post, because this isn't a typical year in my life. JET should give me some new perspective and motivation, and hopefully i'll be able to take away as least as much as, if not more than, what i contribute.

-random thought of the day: More slacking this weekend!-