Cooking really helps to relax me and take my mind off things. of course, i've got to be cooking under no pressure or expectations for best effect. today, i was testing a recipe for crepe cake. well, the crepe part, anyway. i'm planning for the filling to be chocolate ganache, which is something i've made many times before. so i'm not too worried on that front. crepes, however, are something that i've never made before today. thankfully, like most things, making them is a little tricky at first, but it gets easier over time. here's just a quick recipe, mostly for my own reference.

250g all-purpose/medium-strength flour

50g sugar

pinch of salt

500mL milk

100mL water

4 eggs

100g butter

melt the butter and allow it to cool while prepping the main batter.

combine flour, sugar, salt.

add milk a splash at a time while whisking.

add water, eggs, vanilla, whisk to homogenize.

add the cooled melted butter (it can be added hot, but little lumps will form in the batter even with whisking).

use the pan that the butter was melted in (preferably).

pour in enough batter to cover the bottom of the pan, and swirl around.

let the crepe cook for about a minute or two, and flip.

remove after another 30 seconds to a minute.

repeat until batter is used up.

right now, i'm investigating 2 related variables - thickness and crispiness of the crepes. i know that the textbook answer is that crepes should be as thin as possible. but for this application, i'm thinking a little thickness might be beneficial so the crepes don't rip when i spread the filling on. although honestly by the time it's done, i don't think it'll matter! more practically, thicker crepes means that fewer layers are needed, and that in turn means less time, gas, and effort. personally, i wouldn't go for crispy crepes in a crepe cake, because the filling will un-crispify them anyway. maybe for the top few layers. i'm also trying to see if resting the batter overnight will improve the flavour and/or texture. i've heard that it does, but we'll see tomorrow when i cook the other half.

i should probably mention that the reason i'm thinking of making crepe cake is because my supervisor's son turns 4 sometime this coming week; i forget the exact day. but i used my "visit anytime" card and am scheduled for dinner at her place next saturday. i figured that i should take up their hospitality once in a while. i'm also finding out that i quite like to feed people. while i don't think that i'll be opening up a restaurant anytime soon, i'm more than happy to cook for people that i care for. so count yourself lucky if i've ever cooked for you! and if i haven't, get in touch. we'll see if we can arrange something.

more JET thoughts over the past week. right now, my thought is that i'll stay until the end of my current contract at the least. although at recontract time this december, i plan to ask if i can be recontracted for half a year, ie. until march/april 2024. the goal of doing that is so that i can see one more cohort of students all the way through until graduation. unfortunately, this timeframe means that i won't get to see the current primary 6 kids graduate secondary school, as i'll leave halfway through or at the end of their sec 2 year. it's when faced with this kind of fact that i have to remind myself of what i said before JET - that ultimately, i should prioritize my own life and future. the kids here are really sweet and all, but at the end of the day, i'll probably just be another face in the long list of teachers in their lives. it's to be expected, given the transient nature of JET. i don't think any of the kids keep in touch with my predecessor, even though he left less than 2 years ago.

speaking of teachers, i should talk about the 2 encounters that i alluded to in the last post, and explain why they stuck with me. the first was my primary 3 science teacher. for background, i hated homework as a primary school kid, to the point where i'd hide my workbooks and worksheets (i wasn't brave enough to throw them away, though i should have). i could owe homework for half a year or more, and i think every year of primary school without fail, i'd be in trouble for not doing work. having said that, it amazes me how i got to my current academic qualification. so, yes, primary 3 was a particularly bad year, i think, because it was afternoon session and i didn't like my chinese teacher very much. my recollection now is that she was a mean little old lady with an unpleasant voice, who rarely smiled. so, i didn't do much/any of her homework. and when i got in trouble for that, i had to go the the staff room with her as she called my parents. while standing against the wall outside the staff room, my science teacher passed by. i remember she was quite heavily pregnant at that time. she said something along the line of, "why are you here again? you're such a smart boy, this shouldn't be happening".

the reason this stuck with me is that it was the first time someone outside of people that i was related to had sincerely told me to my face that i was smart. and perhaps that shaped my self-perception. of course, i'm not a polymath or anything that advanced. but i do think that i'm capable of greater things than teaching english in rural japan. like, i should be applying myself more, using more of the knowledge and skills that i've accumulated to help society and improve my own standing (financial, possibly social) in life.

encounter 2 was with the chinese teacher who taught me in primary 5 and 6. i think it was because i didn't do homework again, or maybe i was daydreaming in class. she said something like, "你是不是打算要这样子混着过日子?", which translates to "do you plan on muddling through the days like this?", criticizing me for not being as on the ball/driven as some of my other classmates.

in direct opposition to encounter 1, my thought is, 'is it wrong to muddle the days away?' some people are perfectly happy working in a little diner, or as a supermarket cashier. some of the town hall staff are in their twenties, and plan on working here until retirement. they won't revolutionize the world. then again, most people won't. bringing the context back to my situation, there is nothing wrong with teaching english in japan. it's a respectable job, the pay is decent, and i know teachers who have taught in this area for most of their careers. the high-pressure type A lifestyle has been overly glorified, i think. you know the standard phrases - work hard, hustle, steal peoples' lunches. i still cannot get over or forgive the fact that singapore's PRIME MINISTER said that last one. it shows how soulless and heartless those in power are.

so, those two opposing arguments are in conflict within me now. perhaps if i'd done JET right out of undergrad, or majored in education/english, it might be easier for me to switch to teaching english. but i know that i wouldn't be fulfilled. i'm very happy with my current life in japan, but i don't feel fulfillment. and it's for that reason that i can't see myself teaching english here forever.

i've read a bit more about my parachute colour. there's this exercise called a flower diagram that's supposed to help you understand yourself better, with the eventual goal of helping you find a job that you'd love. each petal of the eventual flower represents an aspect that's important while job hunting (work environment, type of job, salary, etc.) and i'll probably be starting on that soon. since flowers take time to bloom, i'm not in a huge rush to complete it...by this year would be good. side note: maybe i haven't read it closely enough, but i don't think i've seen any mention about parachutes, literal or otherwise!

today's post wasn't very focused/deliberate. but neither have my thoughts been for a while now. perhaps i'm getting restless and looking forward to the next adventure? i don't know. the current plan is to finish JET, and try to get into australia, be it for work or study. i'm still undecided about going for the masters, but i plan on getting in touch with some prospective employers and asking for advice...assuming they'll even give me the time of the day. in my most recent kaypoh on the accursed IP firm's website, i saw that most of the people from the science division that i knew had left the company, including some who i thought were definitely going to stay until qualification. maybe they found greener pastures, or were asked to leave after a certain period of time passed without them qualifying. well...who's there has no impact on my life now, but i'm happy that we (the company and i) parted ways. i don't regret the experience of working there, but i do regret how i let the negativity consume me for so long. but if that didn't happen, i wouldn't have made the drastic move to accept JET. well...everything happens for a reason.

-random thought of the day: Need more reflection time.-

Earthquakes happened both this past saturday and the previous saturday. it worries me a little, because of the regularity, and also because the most recent earthquake was quite strong. like, i felt things shaking around me. more than that, the epicentre was close to the nankai trough, which increases the chance of the nankai happening soon. i just hope that it can wait until after my JET term finishes, but natural disasters don't wait for anyone. it's a reminder that i should prepare a disaster evacuation kit. my predecessor left me the bag, but filled it with barbeque supplies. well...it's a start. at least i don't have to buy everything from scratch.

unrelated next thought, i was just window shopping for bicycles. no, i'm not actually going to get another one...not yet, anyway. my two bicycles are more than enough for my current needs. but one can dream. after about 3 to 4 months of cycling to work almost every weekday, i think i have a better idea of what i want in a bike. thankfully, the starting points that i kind of arbitrarily chose were already quite close, so i didn't waste money on an unsuitable bike.

right now, i think i'd go for something that looks more like my hybrid bike, but with a belt drive. that would necessitate an internal gear hub. i would prefer a few more gears than the 5 that are on my grocery bike, so maybe 8 or 11 gears. and if i'm only going to have one bike, i'd want it to be convertible for different purposes - like to go grocery shopping, or for a fun ride around town. that means it'd have to have a cargo rack and/or mounting points for bags. not a full-blown basket, i don't think, unless it's detachable too. i actually have a few bikes in mind already, like the trek district 4. this one in particular has basically everything i'm looking for, along with some bonus things like dynamo lights (they should be called generator lights) and disc brakes. while the company does have retailers in japan, the japan website doesn't have this model listed. maybe it's by special order or something. well, i'm not too concerned about that, since the next bike purchase i make will probably be after JET. unless a super good deal comes up, in which case i'd sell one of my current bikes to balance it out.

this weekend was really restful, which is a nicer way of saying "i didn't do anything". i think it's the cold weather, plus the sense of novelty wearing off. again, i get the feeling that i should be doing more - making full use of my time here in japan, especially since JET affords me tons of free time. i was just thinking that if i pursue further education in IP, i don't think japan is the right place for me to do it. i mean, probably the most important skill in IP is reading and writing accurately. and while i can get in the ballpark as far as japanese verbs go, i'm way more precise in english. so, i was looking at masters programs in australia. there's a one year full-time option by the university of melbourne that leads to eventual patent attorney qualification after some work experience. the drawback is that it's in-person on campus, meaning that i'd have to move to australia. an alternative is the fully-online masters course by the university of technology sydney, but i get a better impression of the melbourne one. also the sydney one has a duration of 1.5 years, which means more fees and time. for now, i know that i'm set to be in japan until at least july/august 2023, and the main thing i want to do this year is pass JLPT N2.

gosh, thinking about that really gave me a headache. it feels like i'm being pulled in two separate directions, and the worst part is that i don't have a clear preference now. each country has its pros and cons, and the pros are all attractive, but in different ways. i suppose that i could go study a for year in australia then come back to work in japan...but i really think that my progression in japan will be limited by my lack of language ability. or i could settle down in australia and visit japan occasionally. or i could skip the degree and just find work in an IP firm in singapore...although now that i've written it out, i'm not sure that i want to work in singapore.

well...i will have to think about this more concretely in the near future. one thing i still have to sort out in my head is whether the idea that i am meant to do great things is really true or not. related to that, how does one define "great"? might dedicate a whole post to that soon. is this what a mid-life crisis feels like? i sure hope not, because if 33 years old is mid-life, it means i'll only live till 66. maybe it's a one-third-life crisis. as a reminder to myself for whenever i write that post, i want to talk about 2 interactions with my primary school teachers (one science, one chinese) that may have shaped my mindset/attitude. but that's for another post. this one feels heavy enough.

-random thought of the day: Would being a digital nomad work?-

This week, i've discovered the benefit? joy? of leaving work an hour early. i'm usually more inclined to just take a whole day off instead. my leave-taking habits were greatly influenced by the army, since that was the first time i actually had to take leave. for most of my NS life, i was posted to really inaccessible camps, so much so that it was just easier to take a whole day off rather than waste an hour or more on the commute. come to think of it, that might also be why i greatly prefer using my leave days to extend my weekends. but now that i live less than a 10 minute cycle from work, it's not such an unthinkable idea. to be honest, i was kind of "forced" into it this week; i had to clear my off-in-lieu. and since school is going on, i can't take more than an hour off per day without good reason, because of the way my classes are scheduled. but i'm not unhappy with the result. like i said before, it made me discover that going home an hour early is quite satisfying sometimes.

remember how i was saying that the tax rebate thing wasn't worth it? to further prove that point, i bought some sea urchin from rakuten. about 3500 yen for 200g, which i used some points for and ended up paying under 3000. i've had sea urchin over rice for the past 2 dinners, and i quite like it. and although it's far cheaper than what i'd pay under the tax scheme, it's still more expensive than a regular meal for me. so, i probably won't do this too often...maybe once a term or so. although i did get a 7000+ yen tax refund earlier this month (they calculated and determined that i was due some money back for some reason), so maybe i can afford one more order?

i should tell you all about the magic ATM. i said "ATM machine" last post, which is like saying "SAM missile" - the last word is redundant since it's part of the acronym. but i digress. my bank still operates in quite an old-school way, and by that i mean there's no internet banking (not like i could use it for very much, anyway), and i have to keep track of money going in and out of my account using a bank book. the amazing thing that happened to me was that on my most recent bank book update, the machine detected that my bank book had run out of pages. instead of asking me to contact the bank for a new one, it issued me a new bank book, printed my name and account number on it, and continued from where it left off in the first book! the last time i used a bank book before japan was in...JC? i do remember updating it at ATMs in singapore, but that's something i haven't done in literally more than a decade before coming to japan. so perhaps i've been out of touch with bank book technology. i've also never met this scenario in singapore, so it's possible that singaporean ATMs are capable of this function too. but for ATMs to be able to do this, it means that they have a stock of empty bank books inside. that's not something i've really thought about before.

my spontaneous diet went pretty well. surprisingly, eating only fruits for dinner didn't leave me hungry. guess it's all the bulk from the fibre. i'm also feeling much better now; stomach issues have all gone away. just to be clear, i don't think there's a correlation between the fruit diet and my recovery. the annoying thing is that i've developed an ulcer on the inner surface of my upper lip, so that's causing some pain. i suspect the ulcer came about because i'm dehydrated. i can see the water i lose just by breathing! need to up my water intake even more. and if the ulcer persists, it's time for salt treatment.

it got cold enough for me to activate my electric blanket when i sleep, which i did 2 or 3 days ago. it's such a small thing, but the quality of life increase is ridiculous. downside is that i don't want to leave the futon in the morning! i still haven't got round to taking cycling videos yet - it's still too cold! but i have messed around a little with the gopro and have a decent idea of how it works. don't think i'll mess around too much with the "pro" settings - ISO, exposure, etc. as long as the video looks decent, i figure it'll be ok.

-random thought of the day: Looking forward to bedtime now!-

Usually, i'm pretty good about not bringing my work home with me. but something that happened in school stuck with me all throughout the weekend. skipping all the details, the basic story is that this student gave me attitude when their performance wasn't up to standard. according to various people i've talked to, this student uses attitude to hide their insecurity about being bad at english. i wish i could communicate that no matter how much attitude they give, their english isn't going to get better if they don't study. also, i'm not the enemy. my job is to raise the standard of english here. everything i do is with that goal in mind. but at the end of the day, i can't do anything if they don't take charge of their own learning. side note, this is the first time i've actually felt like slapping someone in japan. but i know the child protection laws here, and i'm not about to jeopardize my job (and worse, my criminal record) because of some stupid kid. my next alternative would be to yell at them, but the impact is lost when the two parties can't speak each other's language well.

maybe one reason that this stuck with me was that i was sick this weekend, and thus didn't have the energy to occupy myself with anything more interesting. it was the weirdest sickness, too! so i ate dinner and did everything as per normal on friday night, including going to sleep at the usual time. cue me waking up at 4am feeling bloated. unfortunately, i ended up throwing up most of dinner, and that gave me stomach cramps that lasted the whole of saturday. so, i slept most of saturday (and today) away. this has only happened to me one other time before, and that was in singapore. i think the common factor was that i ate food that was too oily for dinner. should do a better job of skimming my soup. anyway, thank goodness for small mercies, there was a big bowl conveniently placed beside my bed so i didn't mess up the tatami mats. i'm feeling almost back to normal now, compared to the worst of it when i thought that i might have to take MC on monday. strangely too, i had a mad craving for apples on saturday. might have been from feeling dehydrated or something. consequently, i've got a box of aomori apples sitting around now (they were the cheapest per apple), and i think i'll have only fruits for dinner for the next couple of days. might help to reset my stomach too.

better head off to sleep. it's a normal work week starting tomorrow, although i do get to claim 4 hours' off-in-lieu. while i'd normally prefer to take it all as a single block, my schedule necessitates taking them separately. i'll probably do an hour a day for 4 days. also, reminder to self to tell you about the magic ATM machine and bank books.

-random thought of the day: When to start taking videos?-

New format testing time! i'm going to try to write haikus about the major events that happened this week. thought i'd stretch my creative muscles a bit. the haikus are in no particular order, by the way...except maybe the order in which the ideas popped into my head.

biggest irony // my gopro came to japan // shipped from singapore.

despite the distance // and less flights due to COVID // it took just 4 days.

how did they manage // to give free shipping to me // in the current times?

helping teachers out // voluntary overtime // i get off-in-lieu.

just because you're weak // don't show me your CB face // study more english.

(bonus one, in hokkien) eh, li si ginna // na si ka ki mai tak chek // mai ga wa guai lan.

(eh, you rotten kid. if you yourself don't want to study, don't be guai lan with/at me.)

it snowed on thursday // my kind big boss and colleague // drove me to and fro.

a kid told me off // teacher saw and intervened // karma at its best.

english meeting soon // not much has changed since last year // just a wayang show.

how i love it when // sec 1 kids know sec 3 stuff // teaching them's a joy.

taking a shower // while waiting for the postman // is a big gamble.

saw delicious snacks // resisted temptation and // bought edamame.

that's not quite true though // actually i also bought // a box of chocolate.

they have batang here! // only that in japanese // it's called sawara.

cute music teacher // i enjoy talking to you // tell me, are you gay?

the new year's party // more damaging than i thought // five thousand yen each.

someone took my car! // the one that i booked for work // lucky we had spare.

easing into work // not that many classes yet // next week will be worse.

forgot just how much // i spent on online shopping // bad for my wallet. 

not really tracking // how much i spent with my card // scared to get my bill.

that was way more fun than i thought it would be! and look at the amount of words i saved. just imagine - each haiku replaces a few sentences, or even a paragraph! i might just do this more often. although i like long-form writing, a change can be refreshing. as alluded to earlier, i've still got work tomorrow, so i'm just going to wind down and (maybe) sleep early. not before gaming though!

-random thought of the day: Remember the 5 people who were nice, not the one who wasn't.-

Knowing that a long break is going to be over soon has always sucked for me. there was one exception, and that was for the 7-month break between ORD and the start of university. was a little too long, if you ask me. then again, i didn't have many things to occupy my time then. anyway, it's back to the daily routine for me tomorrow. i typed "daily grind" at first, but then deleted it because it's certainly not a grind for me. the downtime was nice, and i think it was a good break away from each other, for both me and the kids. but i'd be lying if i said that i'm not looking forward to seeing them again. hope that feeling lasts for most of the term.

wrapping up my holiday business, i bought the gopro today. i'm mostly excited for it, but my heart still skipped a beat in fear when the transaction went through. not used to spending like that, you see. but yes, it's done, and i also bought some accessories for it. some were third-party, like the various mounts and cases; but i did buy authentic batteries and a charger. i figured that it'd be safer to go original for potential fire hazards. that should bring my spending total for aeon to above 50000 yen. makes me wonder if my groceries for the next month will make up the remaining 50000 yen to hit the highest reward tier...but i doubt it. either way, i'm not going to change my spending habits just for the campaign. maybe an unavoidable big expense will come my way if i'm lucky. or should i say unlucky?

for a guy in his 30s, i don't really have a good handle on shaving. more often than not, i cut myself unintentionally in the process. in fairness, i use a safety razor, which takes a bit more skill to handle than the disposable cartridge blades. but i've read that it's better for the skin, and causes fewer ingrown hairs. today though, i learned that adjusting the razor (mine's adjustable, not all are) to a milder setting helps prevent cuts, though at the cost of efficiency, as less hair is removed each time. and for someone like me who doesn't shave very often (once a week or even less), and whose hair grows at a decent rate, i think the best method would be to do a preliminary shave at the higher setting, then fine-tune at the lower setting. or, perhaps shaving more frequently might negate the need for that first step.

oh, i found some interesting things to put into my hotpot, namely chicken skin and beef tendon. they're supposedly high in collagen or something like that. the hotpot also helps to cook some of the fat out of the skin, so i guess it's healthier as long as i skim the fat off. one interesting effect was that these ingredients caused my soup to jellify, and quite solidly at that. it melts back down to a liquid after heating, and i quite enjoy the resulting thick soup. i wonder if i could sell it as premade stock, or a hotpot base...

even though school is starting, i don't think there'll be much difference from my average day in japan. i hope term 3 will go well, and that there will be more positives than negatives every day. also, i should start thinking of various logistics things as far as video recording/streaming is concerned. but well, let's see if the camera and accessories get here in one piece first!

-random thought of the day: Raiding has started again.-

Dry air in winter is apparently the cause of many illnesses, including colds. something about how the lack of mucus means that germs are less likely to get stopped in the nose, and so there's a higher chance that they go on to infect the body. strange that i didn't feel it as much last year. anyway, the fact that (gross mental image incoming) bits of dried blood are coming out when i blow my nose further convinces me that the reason i'm sick is the lack of humidity. to combat that, i've jerry-rigged a makeshift humidifier in my computer room - basically just a bucket with a towel draped over the upright handle. might be the placebo effect, but i've felt that it's easier to breathe after i set it up yesterday. there's still one component missing from the set-up though, and that's a way to circulate the moistened air. sure i could set up my fan, but it seems like a waste of electricity. i guess diffusion or occasional manual fanning will have to do for now.

pleasant yet mildly annoying surprise yesterday - i went to work in the morning only to find that the town hall doors were locked. that effectively meant that i got up, got out of bed, and got changed, all for nothing! at least i did get some exercise in by cycling to and from the town hall. goodness knows i need it after rotting at home for so long. i've got to get a better handle on the year-end break dates in japan. right now my impression is that it's from 29 december to 03 january, both dates inclusive. let's see if that holds true at the end of this year. i also have to sort out a pending issue with my leave balance, because i took half day's leave for monday without knowing that it wasn't a work day. should be easy enough to settle.

in future events, i've got another 2 days of leave before going back to the office on friday, then a long weekend (public holiday on monday), before school goes back into full swing. term 3 is usually the busiest, because the graduating sec 3 kids have high school entrance exams to prepare for, and it's a shorter term (just about 3 months compared to almost 4 months each for the other 2 terms). that means that there's less time into which to pack activities. i shouldn't have any difficulty adjusting back into the routine, but i will miss the ton of free time i've had over the winter break.

one odd thought before i go. youtube recently recommended me videos about record players. i was incredibly surprised to learn that there are modern versions, and that people still use them! it seems a little pretentious/excessive (especially since these people are generally referred to as "audiophiles"), but perhaps i shouldn't be so critical considering i still use fountain pens. i don't understand it, though. is the audio quality of music from vinyl records THAT superior to digital audio? it isn't worth the hassle to me, in terms of the effort needed to play music and keep the records in good condition, as well as the space requirements for storage. give me a hard drive full of music any day. well, ultimately i suppose it's a case of "to each his own".

-random thought of the day: Bit my lip really badly this morning.-

Potentially divisive question incoming: is french toast a savoury or sweet dish? the vast majority of recipes i see and places where i've ordered it from the menu pair it with things like fruit, syrup, honey - suggesting it's leaning towards the sweet side. but in my mind, french toast is savoury. is it actually divisive, or is it just me against the world here? my reasoning is that french toast is, in essence, eggs and bread. yes, i know that eggs are used in desserts, but for their ability to incorporate air and to thicken mixtures rather than their taste. i like to taste the egginess in my french toast. prior to this morning, the last time i made french toast was at least 10 years ago, when i made it for my bowling friends and coach during NS/undergrad. one of the pieces of feedback i got then was that the egg mixture wasn't runny enough, and it tasted like an omelette cooked into bread - which was what i was going for! in that vein, this morning's egg mixture was made of eggs, water, salt, soy sauce, and pepper. i would have used stock if i had some ready, but i was feeling lazy.

it's 2022! you can bet i'll get the date wrong at least once in the first few weeks of work. that's dangerous, since i have to fill in some forms for changing my electricity and internet plans. i'm going to shift them to credit card payment instead of bank account withdrawal, so that means it's still automated, and i can accumulate points for those things now!

yesterday's post was more about looking at the past from the present. today's post will be looking towards the future. i mentioned before that there are some key questions that i need to answer by the time i'm close to the end of JET. i think that i've made some progress towards knowing the answer for some of them, but i am definitely not ready to give a final answer yet. let's capture my thoughts here for future reference:

live in singapore or japan? 40% singapore, 60% japan

give up singapore citizenship? 70% no, 30% yes

consider teaching as a career? 85% no, 15% it depends

go for a job in IP? 75% yes, 25% no

go for a corporate job using science? 90% yes, 10% uncertain

go to grad school for IP? 55% no, 35% if conditions are favourable, 10% yes

go into academic research? 100% no

go into industry? 75% no, 25% yes

finish my full 5 years on JET? 85% no, 15% if it can't be helped

stay in kochi beyond JET? 90% no, 10% yes

for more immediate things, i have some goals this year. some are related to my future in japan specifically, others are more general. the main japan-specific goal is to pass JPLT N2. preferably on the first attempt, but within my time on JET. i'm thinking of taking the december exam this year, because i don't think i'll be able to study everything in time for the june/july one. there are 2 strategies for JLPT study...textbooks, and drilling past year papers. i'm currently thinking of mixing them both, but we'll see if one wins out over the other.

general goals have to do with work. money, and health. on the work front, i want to maintain my good relations with my colleagues and kids. shouldn't be too hard. ideally, i want to raise the english standard, but i need more time and freedom. not time as in years on JET, but like, time for more english classes per week where the teachers are not rushing to cover the syllabus and can cover things that are not critical for their knowledge, but that can help their english learning. prefixes and suffixes (un-, dis-, -ly), for example.

i haven't done my finances in great detail yet, but between the money in my bank account and the national pension program (similar to CPF), i think i have about half my income saved every month? i'll do a more detailed calculation when i update my bank book on monday. i'm tempted to send most of the money in my bank account back to singapore and start the year on a clean slate...except that the exchange rate absolutely sucks now! it's 85 yen to 1 SGD, compared to about 79-80 when i came over! hopefully it'll go up in a few years. but does the exchange rate really matter if i may not go back to singapore? considering that i have to pay residence tax this year, i don't think that i'll save more than i already do. then again, i'm scheduled for a pay raise in august, i think? so that might help.

as for health, i lost weight last year without taking any special effort to exercise. sure, i did go for bike rides sometimes, but i saw those as more of learning to cycle than cycling for exercise. this year, i think that i should be able to lose more weight with the addition of deliberate exercise. my current idea is to have longer cycling trips. so far, most of my trips have been less than 5km. my plan is to cycle to the next district, which is about 15km round trip. eventually, that will progress to cycling to my supervisor's house in yet another district, 15 km away and at a significantly increased elevation! of course, it goes without saying that i still have to be mindful about my food intake. more cooked food, less processed stuff, and minimal (preferably zero) mindless eating. note: cut back on snacks. also, reminder that it's ok to feel hungry/peckish, especially close to bedtime or when no more major activity is scheduled for the day. 

on things that are beyond my control, i hope that the pandemic will be solved somehow. it started in late 2019/early 2020, meaning that we are going into year 3 of COVID. am i the only one who feels that given the technology and knowledge at our disposal, it is unacceptable for a pandemic to last this long? but for various reasons, like incompetent governments, stupid/selfish/fearful people, that's the reality that we're facing now. i'd like to be able to go back for a short visit to singapore, without fearing that border policies might change while i'm away. while i'm being hopeful, let's hope that i can make a short trip back this year without the need for any quarantine. ideally in summer, but winter break would work for me too.

life here isn't super demanding, so i think that i'll have plenty of energy to direct towards my various pursuits. while i am worried that i may be sacrificing too much time by staying put here for too long, that worry hasn't become powerful enough to cause me to want to leave yet. i'm optimistic that 2022 will be a great year as well.

-random thought of the day: The cold is still persisting.-

Right, it's that time again. let's start with straightforward things, then move into things that require more reasoning. number 1 straightforward thing - theme. i don't remember when exactly i thought of it, but my brain suggests april or earlier. my theme for this year is just one word: "healing". it's quite broad, and that's because it does refer to various aspects of my life. including the physical, obviously. i lost about 23kg from when i last measured my weight in singapore, to my most recent measurement a few days ago. that's something i'm incredibly proud of.

mentally, i feel like i'm in a much better place than i was back in singapore. my first major setback in the cruel "real world" in mid-2019 put me into a slump that lasted for more than a year. of course, that wasn't the only reason. living under the same roof with someone that i would rather not associate with was also quite a big stressor. not to mention the living conditions in singapore, which were bad enough already due to the overcrowding, and that were made worse by all the constantly-changing COVID regulations. interestingly, i have not lost my temper at all in japan. sure, i've been irritated, annoyed, even frustrated, but i've never flown off the handle at anyone or anything here. while i feel well enough mentally, i also admit that my regained mental strength is still untested - i have to be placed back into a job that requires more from me to truly see how i've recovered. i'll talk more regarding that tomorrow.

let's take stock of the present. things went well during my first year in japan! i get along well with the kids i'm teaching, i have good rapport with my colleagues, and the teachers in school see me as an asset. my predecessor said that the average stress level in this job was 3/10 to him. i feel similarly, though i might go as low as 2. most of the stress is self-inflicted. if i were to just go in and teach, without doing anything extra unless the teachers asked, i might even rate the stress level as 1. but that is also my biggest gripe with my current situation - that i'm not being utilized fully. not just because i'm not using my scientific knowledge, but even for teaching english, i am more often than not used as a glorified tape recorder. but hey - i knew that it was a possibility since many JETs report the same treatment, and my predecessor did tell me to expect it to some degree.

while i wouldn't say that i'm living my best life in japan, i would say that i'm living a good, happy life. there have been multiple avenues for growth; some necessary - speaking japanese every day, settling my own living activities (food, money, laundry, schedule, car maintenance), acclimatizing to living in a temperate climate; some optional - learning to cycle, attempting some new recipes, being present for my students beyond working hours. i'm happy that i chose to step up to most of the challenges that came my way. 

i'm not sure whether this should go here or in tomorrow's post, but i also wanted to talk about how my thoughts have changed this past year. initially, i only planned on staying for 2 years, maybe 3 at most. now, that's changed to wanting to see the current primary 6 kids graduate secondary school. maths time! they'll graduate primary 6 in march 2022. 3 years of secondary school means they'll graduate in march 2025, at which time i'd have been here for 4.5 years - or almost my full possible JET term! i'll also be 36 going on 37 by then. of course, there are intermediate solutions to explore, like finding a job elsewhere and coming back to attend their graduation ceremony...but that's for future me to figure out. the one thought i want to leave here for future reference is that however long i stay, i had better be able to justify the time and opportunity cost to myself.

on a larger scale, i wonder if i could make japan my permanent home. a year ago, i firmly said no to the thought of giving up singapore citizenship in favour of japan citizenship. now, i'm more open to the idea. not saying that i'm definitely going to do it, but it's something that i am willing to think about in the future. of course, i know that becoming a japanese citizen is not going to be easy for a number of reasons, but thinking about it now is still very premature. i am also less certain that i want to live in singapore again. previously, it was the only lifestyle i knew, so it was the only logical choice. but now, knowing that i can thrive in another country, it's cause for me to reevaluate certain core beliefs. as i've started telling people who ask me if i'm homesick, the thing i miss most about singapore right now is the food. i can reach everyone who matters online, but taste-a-vision still hasn't been invented yet.

adding on to that, there hasn't been much good news coming out of singapore. i am aware that it could be the echo chamber effect, because i tend to get my news from sources that aren't exactly pro-establishment. regardless of the news source, there's no denying that the government dropped the ball several times in the COVID effort. all the underlying problems that were swept under the rug got exposed when COVID pulled the rug out from under their feet. immigration policies and decision-making procedures were two major things that came into question. i'm more convinced now that had i taken the option to defer JET by one year, i'd be in a much worse place than the one i'm currently in.

chemical engineer cousin said that she celebrated several big events this year with steak dinners. by pure coincidence, i planned for a steak dinner tonight! i'm not really celebrating anything, though. maybe i'll take it to be for celebrating a good year. i did a reverse-seared steak with creamed vegetables (corn, spinach, broccoli) and accompanied by store-bought horseradish sauce. i accidentally bought a plant-derived cream, in which i detected a hint of coconut. not sure if i like it in this application. the steak was great though! easily the best steak i've made without a water circulator. the one modification i'd make is to dry it out for less time in the fridge - the crust turned out a little too stringy. no pictures of the final dish, unfortunately, because while it tastes good, my plating skills leave much to be desired. in fact, in a bid to do fewer dishes, i actually plated it in a lunchbox, and i'm eating out of that. it'll also be easier to store leftovers...not that i think there'll be any! i do have a picture of the steak itself though, before final slicing and assembly. do excuse the mess, i still have more cleaning to do around my kitchen area.

so, that's my year. easily one of the top 5 years i've had. i still don't believe that i'm in japan some days when i wake up. it's also only one out of a potential 4 to 5 (or more!) years that i'll spend here. i'm hopeful that subsequent years will be equally, if not more, rewarding.

-random thought of the day: Happy and content. Great feelings to end the year on!-

Clearly, i underestimated how much time i'd need to do the exercises to determine my parachute colour! i suppose the length of the book (461 pages) should have clued me in. so that's going to evolve into a longer-term project, like i'll do bits and pieces when i have downtime, and have a complete picture by the time JET is over. i suppose doing it too early isn't good either, because who knows how japan will affect my wants and expectations over the next few years. at a preliminary skim-through, i picked up a couple of important tips - to clearly ask for the job at the end of the interview, and to gauge how favourably an interview's going by the flow of questions. also, to set an odd duration for the interview. the author recommended 19 minutes, but personally i think i'd try 22 or 23.

the past few days have been relaxing, as a break should be. just have some quality of life issues with the cold (both the sickness and the weather), but i appear to be on the mend because there was less phlegm today compared to yesterday. i also got some cleaning done, but i need to vacuum a little bit more and sort through the various documents and mail that have accumulated over the past year. most are destined for the bin, which will help to reduce the feeling of clutter around the place. i'm also thinking of throwing out some of the clothes that i brought from singapore, because there are items that i have literally never worn. perhaps at a later stage. i'll give them one last chance this coming summer.

after more digging for info, i don't think that i'll do the tax-relief purchases any more. first of all, the items are grossly overpriced. like say, for sea urchin. the special site that sells products eligible for tax relief lists a 100g box for about 10000 yen. that's about SGD1.20 per gram. rakuten, on the other hand, lists a pack of two 100g boxes for about 5000 yen, so we're looking at a fourfold difference in price per gram between the two sources. the auntie in me can't justify paying the inflated price in the first case. to make things worse, the tax relief comes as a deduction from taxable income, which means that i actually only save 10% of the amount i spend, less 2000 yen for some reason. so spending about 30000 yen (the maximum claimable amount for my income) actually means that i only pay [(30000-2000)X10%] = 2800 yen less in tax. it wouldn't be that bad if the products i got in return were worth the 27200 yen difference, but as reason 1 shows, they clearly are not.

to be fair, this scheme isn't meant to help people evade tax or anything like that. it's a way for people to support local industry/businesses, with the tax savings and items received being more of tokens of appreciation than actual products. it's good for me to pass on this because i spend less overall. initially, i wanted to aim for the highest tier of the aeon credit card campaign (spend minimum 100000 yen to get 10000 points), but i think that i'll settle for the middle tier (spend minimum 50000 yen to get 5000 points). considering i have the gopro purchase scheduled for january, it seems very possible to make the 10 february campaign deadline. i just hope the promotion will still be running, and that the camera will still be in stock in time for me to buy it!

by the way, i should clarify that this isn't the year-end post. i'm still trying to figure out how i want to order it, and what i should cover vs. what i can leave for another time. that should be up before the day is over, as it always is. have to juggle that with dinner prep, where i'll be trying to reverse-sear a steak. wasn't the saying "eat like a pauper on new year's eve, eat like a king on new year's day"? or was that dinner and breakfast? i might have gotten that mixed up. it's all just superstition, anyway.

-random thought of the day: Need to preheat the oven!-

My long break was too good an opportunity for uncle murphy to pass up. i'm down with a cold, which means i'm coughing up grey phlegm in the mornings. ok, it may not actually be grey, but it sure appears that way under my orange toilet light. i started feeling symptoms on sunday night, probably, which means today is day 3. hopefully it gets better within the week. but with the cold weather (pun intended) now, i don't know. i'm grateful that (1) it's not the debilitating man-flu, and (2) i can't recall the last time i was sick, apart from the vaccine side-effects. rural life must be agreeing with me. or maybe it's so rural that even the germs are like, "nah, forget it. there's nothing to see there".

close to exam season, the kids in one of my schools will be made to come up with a daily schedule. things like "morning - school. 5pm - reach home, 5:15 - shower, 5:30 - dinner..."; basically accounting for entire days' worth of their time. i remember my dad tried to get me and my siblings to do that in secondary school. it failed terribly, for me at least. while i do appreciate the value of a precise, well-planned itinerary, i'd much rather do it for special events, like a holiday, not everyday life. that's why my regular planning focuses more on events and deadlines, instead of a detailed breakdown of every hour and minute. with that in mind, here's my more detailed plan for the next 2 weeks.

29 dec (today) - laundry, buy tax-relief stuff

30 dec - parachute, drop by supermarket, house cleaning

31 dec - regular rubbish disposal, year-end post

01 jan - new year's post, attempt french toast

02 jan - bike maintenance, grocery run (maybe)

03 jan - half day work (morning), update bank book, finances

04 jan - special rubbish disposal (paper things), raid release day

05 jan - 

06 jan - special rubbish disposal (bottles, cans, styrofoam trays)

07 jan - full day work, new year's party

08 jan - 

09 jan - 

10 jan - buy gopro and memory card (aeon double points day)

11 jan - term 3 starts

not the most taxing of schedules, which is good because this should be a time of relaxation. i'll probably be slower (both in mind and body) thanks to the cold, so having a few empty days for buffer is a nice safeguard.

for now, i'm off to browse the tax-relief items (i may blog about the entire scheme separately) and to take a nice warm shower. thinking of getting some sea urchin and tuna. then again, the 2kg increase in my weight over the past month is giving me pause. i need to reevaluate my food choices.

-random thought of the day: Less bread!-

School's out! we're entering that lazy year-end period where there isn't much to do and everyone's feeling festive/disinclined to work. well, i am, at any rate. i think my colleagues still have deadlines to rush and next january's events to prep for. as mentioned earlier, i'm only working 2 days in the period from 25 december to 11 january (2 out of 11 working days), so there's plenty of time to relax and refresh myself for the next year. just to remind myself, i'm working half days (mornings) on 28 december and 03 january, as well as a full day on 07 january. it would be bad to show up on a rest day, or worse, to not show up on a work day!

let's quickly recount what's been going on since the last post, which was...2 weeks ago? thereabouts. i had a performance review with my new supervisor (supervisor 2) and my vice-superintendent. my current (probably outgoing) supervisor (supervisor 1) was conspicuously absent. i think they're trying to get me used to not having her presence around. anyway, i thought i would only be assessed by the board of education, but it turns out each school also had to submit feedback for me. makes sense, now that i think about it. i was rated in several aspects from 1 (worst) to 4 (best). i didn't see the actual ratings, but my vice-superintendent told me that the majority were 3s and 4s. i was caught a little off-guard at the time, and didn't ask what exactly the 3s were so i could improve. later, supervisor 1 told me that the majority were 4s, and that there were like only a couple of 3s. i guess that means i'm doing something right!

quick vent about supervisor 2. she's nice enough, and probably still finding her feet in the office since she's a new hire this financial year. but unlike supervisor 1, who i feel totally comfortable with, there's a bit of distance with supervisor 2. it doesn't help that her idea of explaining things to me is to take the relevant document, throw it into google translate, then print the translated version out and ask me to read it. if that's all it took, i'd be a master at japanese! it also doesn't work perfectly for everything. example: i was supposed to write a report about the workshops i attended earlier this month. i was told that it was ok to write it in english, and that supervisor 2 would translate it into japanese for the higher-ups' understanding. wouldn't you know it - she did the google translate thing. unfortunately, google translate is quite bad at capturing nuances. one of the sentences i wrote in the report was "we had our temperatures taken". now, the implication that human readers would immediately pick up on is that the word "temperatures" here refers to body temperatures. google translate chose 気温 instead. while it does mean "temperature", it refers specifically to ambient temperature (literal translation - "temperature of the air"). supervisor 2 didn't catch that. worse, my superintendent did. so i got called into his office for a chat about the japanese report that "i wrote". i was as equally shocked as he was about the error, because it was the first time i was seeing the japanese version! side note: i was mildly offended that my superintendent thought i wouldn't know the difference between 気温 and 体温. i may not be strong at japanese, but i do know the meanings of simple kanji, especially since these 2 terms exist in chinese as well! so yes, that didn't help my impression of supervisor 2 at all. i don't think supervisor 1 trained her badly, considering how good a supervisor she's been to me and how on top of JET-related things she is, so there probably is a break in the processing somewhere. well...it's good for my learning, since it means i have to be more independent and get a better grasp of japanese to prevent any similar events from happening in the future. i just pray that my eventual successor will be somewhat decent in japanese (for their own sake) if supervisor 2 remains as the JET supervisor after i'm gone.

supervisor 1 invited me to her house for a christmas-ish get-together on friday night. maybe she thought it would be better for me to spend christmas eve with some company. considering all the JETs under her care before me were american, i can see why she might think so. but even though i don't see christmas as a big holiday where i need to be surrounded by people, i was still grateful for the invitation. i also finally got to meet her husband, who works in the city. he's really friendly (and looks really good too!). i'm happy that her family seems to like me well enough, probably helped by the fact that her usually-shy son sticks to me like anything. her dad told me to go over to their house anytime. although he was half-drunk when he said that, i don't doubt his sincerity. just that i'll probably use that card very very sparingly, or if i have an emergency that requires it.

in the upcoming 2 weeks, there are quite a few things i need to do. in no particular order, they include:

- washing the car

- buying tax-relief things

- buying the gopro

- doing my finances

- chores (cleaning, laundry, throwing rubbish out)

- reading about my parachute colour

- writing year-end and new year posts

with all the buying i'm planning to do, i suppose it's good that rakuten increased my credit limit to 500 000 yen. i just went to check, my bank account is set up with aeon for automatic bill payments, and there's a spend X amount to receive bonus points campaign going on now. i'll come up with a more detailed schedule tomorrow or the day after for my long break, but for now, it's off to the city (again) to use my 5% off discount coupons that the supermarket gave out for christmas.

-random thought of the day: It's getting even colder!-

As expected, things happened and blogging took a backseat for a while. but i figure that i should update, so that future posts don't become overly long. let's do the 10 sentences per point thing for conciseness.

the business trip was a good experience. got to meet up with other JETs and JTEs. i am so grateful that i don't face most of the problems mentioned, like not getting along with other staff, and various forms of abuse. it was also a nice reminder of what city life is like. i think that i could tolerate living in kochi city, maybe with a little less traffic and more shops open. somewhat embarrassing confession: i was kind of...jealous? when a japanese teacher that we didn't know praised an american (caucasian-looking) JET for speaking japanese while taking for granted that i could speak it. but yes, i get it - the asian-looking person is more likely to be able to speak japanese than the obviously foreign one. i also met up with the other singaporean JETs and a previous english teacher at one of my schools, who took us for great tsukemen. and i finally bought my first mcdonalds since coming to japan. 390 yen for 15-piece nuggets!

i haven't been progressing through final fantasy as fast as i'd like. ideally, i'd be finished with the story now and be working of getting raid-ready gear. but like i mentioned before, it's not a race, and that's something i have to deal with internally. externally, i was also hampered by my internet speed getting killed. you see, i didn't know that my ISP has a practice of limiting upload speeds when a user uploads more than 150gb over 3 consecutive days. between long hours of streaming the story, plus uploading the stream recordings to youtube, i accidentally crossed that limit on...monday? thankfully, the limitation period is only 3 days, and things are back to normal now. have to spread out my uploads, i guess. the story itself is great, and while i have guesses on what happens next, i don't know anything for sure beyond where i'm currently at. excited to see how it develops!

finally, aeon accepted my credit card application. the biggest positive sign was that someone actually called me to confirm some of my personal details this time, as opposed to just sending a rejection postcard via mail. the biggest difference was that i applied with the added backing of a japanese driver's license, i think. and i may have filled out a question wrongly in my previous applications. i'm facing one more issue now, which is the linking of my bank account to automatically pay my bill. something about the name on my card account not exactly matching the name on my bank account. so i couldn't do it online, and had to send in a form. japan is really a paradox of modern and old-fashioned. it's nice for things like architecture, less so for administrative procedures. hopefully that goes through soon, though the customer service lady i spoke to said it may take up to a month.

now that end-of-term tests are over and the holidays are approaching, school will probably wind down for a bit. i have 2 more weeks of school, followed by 2 weeks of term break, then term 3 starts. decided to clear a chunk of my leave, because i can't carry over more than 20 days, and i have 36 now. i think i took about 5 days' leave in the 2 weeks that i don't have to be in school. add on the standard year-end break that civil servants get, and the result is that i'm only working for 2 days in that period. mental note: year-end would be a great time to travel back to singapore in a typical COVID-less year. as things stand now, the cost and time requirements for quarantine, plus the possibility of being denied re-entry to japan, make it totally not worthwhile. hopefully japan soon eases the travel restrictions it imposed in reaction to omicron. i'm personally not super affected by it, but i know couples who are being physically separated because of it.

i really should go and get some exercise. gaming for hours at a go is fun, but not healthy. also, i may have eaten something wrong, because my stomach has been hurting for the past few days. apparently it's not just me; some other teachers are experiencing it too. i wonder if it's a reaction to cold weather? semi-related thought - i know winter's here when i become reluctant to step out of the shower. that, and when my gas bill rises. good news is that i'm more prepared this year - fleece sleepwear, thick socks, huge heavy blanket. i haven't seen the need to activate the kotatsu yet, so perhaps i'm becoming more acclimatized?

-random thought of the day: Find time for year-end and new year posts!-

Things look like they might be getting a bit busier until year-end, so i thought i'd do a quick post before bed to sort out the mess in my head.

on the work/school (same difference) front, i have a business trip to kochi city next week, where i'll be staying overnight. i feel so grown-up, saying "business trip". it's really just to attend workshops. i'll probably bring my laptop to play final fantasy on, but i'm still debating if i should stream that night. while i'm in kochi city, i have a few errands to run - namely (1) ordering and collecting a package from uniqlo; (2) meeting up with the other JETs in my area; and (3) meeting up with the singaporean JETs who are in kochi. none of them are near me, as it turns out, so this is a good chance to meet them since we'll all be in one place. as for the uniqlo order, i'm thinking of getting a thinner pair of gloves that supposedly have the same insulating power as the regular ones. maybe a fleece jacket too, but they don't have my size in stock right now.

in personal matters, final fantasy's new content expansion is launching this coming friday. unfortunately, i have school until the 24th, so that means that i can only play at night. it's definitely more than enough time, and i'm not like, rushing for world first or anything. so the plan is to remind myself to stop and smell the roses, and that i'm playing a game to enjoy it, not make it a chore. the plan is to drop by the supermarket before friday night to stock up on snacks and other quality of life things. although i do think that i need an actual grocery run too...but i'll figure that out later.

black friday is over, and there didn't seem to be any good deals on gopros. the promotion on the official site is still the best, sadly. looks like i'll be getting it from there soon. targeting to settle this by the end of this year. apart from the gopro itself, i'll also be looking to get accessories, like various mounts and a higher-capacity memory card.

related thought - one of the people i follow on twitch has english study streams. feels like something i can do, except for japanese! with the goal of taking the JLPT N2 exam this time next year, and with the impending gopro purchase, it feels like things are coming together nicely. of course, this might be me trying to justify the gopro even more...so, i don't know.

while talking with the singapore JETs a few nights ago, the conversation somehow led to how long we each planned to stay on JET, which then led to post-JET plans. i had the idea to check out grad school courses in IP, and it doesn't seem too daunting? well in the case of japan, they asked for japanese language proficiency, which will probably kill me. but for other countries, like australia, it seems pretty doable! the other killer is the school fees, but i'm sure there's some sort of funding/scholarship available. still, it's a little too early to think about the details. besides, things might change. it's probably good for me to have knowledge of this possibility in the back of my head, because it means more doors to consider. before that though, i need to find out what colour my parachute is - something i've planned to do over winter break!

-random thought of the day: Got my thick blanket out!-

Happy one-year-in-japan anniversary to me! this time last year, i'd probably just arrived at the hotel to start quarantine. how far i've come since then...both literally and metaphorically! considering that i'm probably going to talk about a lot of the same stuff in the year-end post, i don't think i'll be talking too much about my japan experience. but in order to take some extra content away from the year-end post, i'll just mention some stuff about english in japan now.

one thing that japan has made me grateful for about my upbringing in singapore is that we were exposed to many languages since young. so, it's easier for us to switch between speaking and thinking in different languages. not to mention it got us used to the sounds of different languages. i've often said that a singaporean person can mimic any accent with decent accuracy after listening to it for a while. my kids here really seem to struggle with english pronunciation! for example, the sound of the letter "v". we've pronounced it for them more times than i care to remember, and every time we see them, they default to the standard japanese pronunciation, which sounds like "bwuee". also, they're awfully fixed in pronouncing english words in the japanese way. examples like "salad" (japanese version - sa-ra-da), or "orange" (oh-rehn-jee). these things have, on more than one occasion, made me question whether i'm really having a significant impact on their english learning. of course, it may just be that they're surrounded by the incorrect pronunciations from other people and in the media, so they forget what those words are supposed to sound like.

the state of english in japan is abysmal, considering how long the government has been pushing for english language education. it seems to me that english learning isn't being taken seriously here by the vast majority of people, despite it being one of their 5 core subjects. it can be explained by a few things, one of which is the way english is taught in schools. i was just discussing this with one of the english teachers earlier. i said that in my language-learning experience, chinese was taught only in chinese, and japanese was only taught in japanese. the problem here is that english is being taught in japanese. i get that it's necessary sometimes, for example, for vocabulary words. but it's certainly not necessary for grammar points. the largest roadblock is that students think in japanese to study english. so they write a sentence that is grammatically correct in japanese, and 90% of the time, it won't be right in english. of course, there are other factors as well, but this is one of the more significant ones.

ok, i really shouldn't be so negative on what's supposed to be an important date. after all, i think i did quite a few significant things this year. losing about 25kg, for one. learning to cycle. trying new recipes. surviving in an unfamiliar country. there are huge positives, but i think that i should sometimes acknowledge the negatives and see what i can do to improve them, just for balance. perhaps i'll adapt the compliment sandwich idea - one negative post surrounded by positive ones.

looking forward...one of the other singaporean JETs gave me an idea - to go to grad school (again) to study IP in japan! plus is that it's only two years. the downside is that i'll have to do it in japanese if i want to do it here. i'll probably plan this out in a bit more detail in the new year's post. but for now, it's something for me to think about. first step: JLPT!

-random thought of the day: Half day of work tomorrow!-