Sep. 17 Loss of time for better endeavors

Ever wonder where the time goes? Recently I find I’m watching far much too TV, and wondering how I can make better use of the time.  Considering studying Japanese seems like a good idea, and also researching more business ideas. Want to float this sale of kids’ clothes idea with my better half, though I have to wonder if the declining birthrate here really offers a large market for left over warehouse inventory.

Working out is another option, and one I’m contemplating considering, though urges to flex muscles come and go. Sweating is easy in the summer, but sometimes the sports club makes me feel old as the number of retirees at our club makes me feel like ‘retiring’ too.

Making new habits is not easy, though the ‘laminating business’ is picking up as I ready another semester’s offerings. With last semester’s batch, I’ll have a complete academic year’s worth. Copying is just not my bag, as the copy room ‘heats’ up pretty badly every semester.

Using blogs will be another point of interest, though I wish I had more chances to use blogs and a better developed one. But all good things come with time (and soemtimes money).

But time is a resource, and do we all really make the best use of our time? I suppose it depends on your goals. Sometimes having free time is a great destresser and other times it can be a burden. It just depends on what you think you need to do.

Sep. 9 2008 click in a clique

Remember when you were in high school? And there were various cliques, like at my school; jocks, gear heads, stoners, preppies, etc. And did you ever have the feeling you just never fit in anywhere?

Well it turns out that a bunch of teachers at my school branch didn’t feel very welcome as they were unable to join any of the already existing social groups. They considered also forming their own worker’s union, as they felt unduly pressured to join the present one at the branch.  So they formed a group that aptly uses a name reflecting their subterfuge status, which sometimes has group events that only members are invited to. What they failed to recognize, was that in feeling rejected by the other groups ‘ insularity, they have gone and duplicated the same standards that they disliked when they arrived. Nothing like copying what you loathe, yes?

Sep. 7 2008 What we remember en route

When you look back on your life, what you remember sometimes tells you about the type of person you are, or just simply about the way your mind works. My wife had asked me to meet her and some friends near  a street that I have gone up probably countless times on my way to a university in the Shibuya area. She named a chain coffee shop’s location, which for some reason I had simply blanked from my mind. Yet I could probably tell you about where I wasn’t when Armstrong and company landed on the moon, and maybe recall my first kiss, both events of which happend a lot less recently than my passing the said coffee shop on or from teaching at that university.

It could be the significance of an event to oneself, or simply what strikes one as memorable. For some reason, I am one of the worst people at finding places via landmarks. If you give me a street address and a map, chances are I can locate and show up on time at the said location. But let me loose in Tokyo, where even taxi drivers frequently ask directions, you risk not seeing me any time soon, regardless of how many times I have supposedly frequented that venue.

Perhaps I’d have a better chance if the destination is a place I have visited rather than just it being a point in passing, but still my orientation skills seem to be continually rusty one at best. Ive gotten lost by not remembering which exit I used even when I had been to the same place half a dozen times, and at all times perfectly sober (or as sober as one can be in such instances). Still I seem to reverse the location of landmarks in my mind, and trusting these mirror image markers to lead me to my destination, but rather they lead me astray. Luckily I have not gotten lost on the way to work recently, only en route to social events. Perhaps the thought of spending money is a factor, I can’t really explain the unexplainable. But then in that case, I should get lost more often in the case of going to even a vending machine or a convenience store.

Sep. 5 2008 Bowling for meaning

What is it about us guys that often we need to do something to have a reason to talk. I went out with some workmates tonight and I enjoyed myself as I think they are a pretty funny bunch who don’t take themselves too seriously. I honestly think a few of them should get into comedy just by taping stuff they adlib in the teachers’ room. Often some teachers can be quite entertaining just simply because they are bored waiting to participate in another structured lesson where their creativiity is not really challenged. I guess you can say, “Welcome to the world of EFL in Japan”.

Getting more back to our topic, men tend to want something to do, while having conversation as a background device. This in itself is not necessarily a bad thing, it just means that often you can’t simply sit down and talk to another guy without scheduling something else to do such as killing small animals or dismantling something, preferably while drinking alcohol or coffee, or better yet, both.

Myself, I often don’t mind just getting together to talk and find out what drives people. This is where businesses are born and people find out what they are really meant to do sometimes. Of course socialization is part of it, as relationships are also important for most of what we do, unless you plan to be a hermit or participate in one of those wilderness survival contests.

Onward shock – Sep. 3 2008

I’m thinking about the future, and all I can think about is future shock. Yes, many will snigger when they recognize the 1970 classic book title of ‘future’ trends, including social trends. One of the most telling for me is how people will move around more to find jobs (uh, huh) and how friendships will change in this faster paced world of communication.

How you may ask? Well think about it, things are faster paced with people changing locations; countries, sometimes continents as some industries become truly global. But what happens to the relationships that people spawn? Well, for many people, it’s difficult to maintan those connections as we realize we might want to spend more energy maintaining relationships with people closer to home, i.e. where we live and work now.

In Japan this has been a common problem for many foreign residents, as many Japanese don’t feel that foreigners will be here for the long haul, so they are wondering why bother to forge a relationship, when the average foreigner leaves in about 3 years. Multiply this factor by those same foreigners who left Japan, many of who now look at their past relationships in Japan often as disposable ones. These foreigners have settled into new lives, and Japan doesn’t feature as a main conversation topic unless they visit there or deal with Japanese people on a regular basis in their new place of residence. So ‘living in Japan’ quickly becomes ‘background history’, and their reasons for keeping touch with people there become less and less.

Friends now seem to come in cycles, and besides jobs sometimes defining work friends, places that we live also define friends for many as they find maintaining and keeping some social networks too time consuming. I think it’s a pity as now with web technology it’s easier in some ways to stay in touch than ever before, yet for many people their reasons for staying in touch seem to be declining as they are perhaps too busy or less emotionally attached to many people they call ‘friends’.

Or is it the defintion of friend has changed? Perhaps nowadays we have just a long list of acquaintances and ‘convenient friends’ until we decide to uproot ourselves and move to another place to work and/or live. Definately food for thought, and not one that may go down easy for many people who have lots of people they call ‘friends’.