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Mixing it up

February 2005

There's nothing like Mum's pumpkin soup recipe to keep me going through Japan's winter. The temperature here in Tokushima city is much easier on my bony frame than Iya's mountain cold. There's no ice on the roads, for example, except for a freak snowstorm last week, and I'm even game enough to go running most nights. But it's still quite cold enough, thanks very much, so Mum's soup is still a staple of my winter survival strategy. That, and a fair dose of snowboarding, and lots of AJET work to keep me busy at night.

I've been having my soup as more of a stew until now, however, because my new place didn't come with a blender. Nothing wrong with stew, of course, but since I finally came across a spare Saturday just today (thus the time to write some news!), I got out in the Honda Civic and finally bought myself a little mixer. I'm hoping for some good reviews from my neighbours when they get to sample the stew as a soup for the first time.

I needn't hurry to invite them over for dinner, though. Just last week, all three JETs residing in Kimura Mansion signed on the dotted line to re-contract with the Tokushima City Board of Education for another year from August. Jenna, Dan and I will therefore be keeping each other company for another 18 months or so. I have to say, I'm pretty happy about it. They're both great people and always good company over soup, a DVD, cards or whatever. If they miss out on my soup during what's left of this winter, there's always next time.

I guess at this point that I should just come out and say it. Yes, I am staying in Japan for yet another year. That'll make five years on the JET Programme, which is a pretty long old time. Or at least I think so until I see a few of the other guys who have been hanging around here for more than ten years. Take, for example, Thursday night, when I had a few beers with "The Danna-san Club" down in Tokushima's nightlife district, Akitamachi. Three pretty cool guys who all have Japanese wives. It was interesting to hear them talk about how their wives talk about them when they get together. Can't be easy having a foreign husband, I guess. They all seem pretty happy with their situations, though, and I enjoyed hanging out with them. Until they started speculating about when I might be able to become a member...

So yeah, a fifth year in the land of sudachis, whirlpools and dancing fools, and then who knows? My three weeks back in Australia over Christmas and the New Year were pretty useful for surveying my possible future back home if I choose to leave Japan in 2006. I am looking forward to taking up some formal study again once I'm finished with AJET, so I might be able to go home with a masters degree under my belt. I also have some Japanese study goals to get serious about. If a good job opportunity comes up here before my time on JET finishes, maybe I'll stay, but I reckon it'd have to be a big change of scene from English teaching to keep me here. I've also got a British passport that I should put to good use one day... nice to have choices! And nice to have time to consider them, too.

Speaking of finishing with AJET, my council is officially into its run home now that election season has begun. This month we'll elect a new council. In May we'll get to meet them at the changeover, and then they'll finally be on their own by late June, after some big conferences are out of the way. We've just recently made some major decisions about changes to the way AJET does things, so it'll be an interesting few months and the next team will have their hands full! Fortunately, a handful of people from the current team are intending to continue for yet another year, so I think it'll all be in good hands.

Some people ask me what I'm going to do with myself when I retire as AJET Chair, but I don't think it'll be too much of a problem! My workload as an English teacher will change significantly from the start of the new school year in April. I'll spend more than 50% of my time at elementary schools - should be great! Connected to that, I'll probably spend a lot of my summer running training seminars for Japanese teachers, giving them tools to use in their own classrooms for teaching English. Then there's Japanese study, touch rugby and Awa Odori to keep me busy beyond work. I can also start a masters by distance education in July - maybe in education, but I'm still thinking on it. And if I need more than that, I had this silly idea about starting a science forum here in Japan, too. Since I heard that 2006 is the official year of exchange between Australia and Japan, maybe it'll be a good time to give it a go! Looking at all this, maybe I should stick with AJET... :)

For all the cold of winter, though, I can happily say that February in Japan is great for at least one thing. Valentine's Day. It means lots of chocolate for boys, since it's the done thing for girls to do the giving. Well, it had better mean lots of chocolate. I think I'm owed a bit. :) But anyway, since it's that time of year - oh, and it's also my parents' anniversary, too! - I thought I'd share a poem with you. I wrote it for a friend's wedding, so there's a Japanese version, too, which is pretty. Maybe the seasons are different in your part of the world, but I hope you like it anyway. :)

           Love lives for the spring

           Love hangs lazily in the summer air
           Flutters around in the autumn
           And slips under the covers in the winter

           But love really lives for the spring
           For fresh hope in every flower
           For giddy kisses in the sunshine
           For warmth after the cold

           Love lives for the spring
           And so do we

Love, of course,

Dave