Reflecting 2025 (in 2026... Oops)

あけましておめでとう。今年もよろしくお願いします。

Initially I planned to post this before the turn of the New year, but got carried away with other things. In any case I wanted take the time to again look back on my highlights of 2025.

1. I moved
After 3 years, I moved apartments again. This time, I moved in together with my now wife in an apartment meant for more than one person, and we are enjoying the extra space compared to the tiny LeoPalace apartments I have lived I for the last 8 years.

2. I got married
After 10 years, we finally got married at our local city hall. We're currently planning celebrations for this year.

3. Mum came to visit
Mum came to visit us during the summer break. Though there were some frustrations, it was a chance to visit parts of Japan we usually wouldn't go.

We're planning to visit a shrine either today or tomorrow. Hope everyone has a safe and healthy 2026. どうも！

２０２４年の反省 - Reflecting on 2024

With 2024 coming to a close in a few hours (at least here in Japan), I thought I would take the time for a bit of 反省 (hansei/self reflection) on this year. Compared to previous years, a lot of big things have happened for me this year - both good and bad. 

So below are my highlights for 2024, with links pointing to the relevant posts.

I was hospitalized for the first time in Japan.

As a result of a bad diet, I was admitted to hospital for a little over a week. Compared to my experiences with ambulance crew when I had the CCP virus, the nurses at the hospital were actually rather friendly and kind. 

This experience was also a wakeup call to make significant changes to my diet. I'm trying to cook more often, and avoiding a lot of oily food, especially deep-fried food. So no more karaage, or curry and rice. Hell, I haven't had McDonald's or even Mos Burger since then.

I got engaged.

Yeah, after 10 years, my girlfriend (now fiancée) and I finally got engaged, and we are going through the process of getting officially married before having the wedding ceremony. Furthermore, we are looking to move to a new apartment so that we can officially live together.

I visited the future mother-in-law.

Earlier this month, I travelled to Kagawa prefecture. While my fiancée had some other business to do here, it was an opportunity to do a bit of sightseeing in a part of Japan that I have never been to before. However, the main purpose was to visit my fiancée's mother for the very first time in all the years that we had been dating. Her mother was happy and approved of me (even though I had proposed before that), and my fiancée gave her approval of my performance when meeting her mother for dinner.

I went overseas this year.

I travelled overseas for the first time in 5 years. While I didn't go back home to Australia, I did go to the Philippines to see mum and the rest of my mum's side of the family. It's been nearly 20 years since I went to the Philippines, and it's also the first time to go to the Philippines without Dad since he passed away. 

So what will 2025 bring? Hopefully more good news than bad. In any case with just under 3 hours left here in Japan as of this post, よいお年を/Have a happy new year!

Looking back on 2022

First of all, あけましておめでとう. Being the first day of 2023, I thought I would take the time to post and reflect on 2022

The big two things that have happened for me this year is moving to another prefecture altogether, along with taking up a new job. Compared to working as an ALT, there are lot more tasks and responsibilities, and I had to learn them quickly. While it has been difficult to keep on top of my job, it has been fun, and also has given an insight on the other side of an ALT dispatch company, and that there are some people who are clearly not suited to being ALTs, even after they pass the hiring process. 
On the other hand, I have been occasionally asked to work out of town for various periods of time, whether it be to other nearby prefectures, or as recently as the other side of the country. Though it has been exhausting from time to time, it does give me an opportunity to see how other schools handle teaching English, including the team teaching process, with some schools doing it better than others. 

In terms of hobbies, I got back in to the gym. While not I'm not 100% - and probably never will be with my back injury, it feels good to be training again. While working my upper body is no problem, I know I need to put more focus on my lower body, especially my core, though I have to take extra care on the types of exercises I can do.
I also have been purchasing a crap ton of Gundam model kits, and my back log has grown as a result. This is also the year I got back to purchasing official Transformers toys and figures, starting with Blaster. While the quality and articulation is not what I'm used to compared to third party figures, they're still fun to transform. 
On the other hand, I have just about neglected my drawing. I have had very little opportunity and drive to draw these days. 

And despite all that has happened, I feel a sense of emptiness and sadness. It has now been 4 years since I last went back home to Australia, and after what went down in 2021, I'm trying to mentally brace myself for what will happen when I go back. Many of friends have settled down and starting their own families, and I'm left wondering what I'm doing with my life, and asking myself did I make the right decision to live and work in Japan? And even after a year on with what happened that leading up to what happened back in 2021 (which I still don't feel comfortable spelling out here at the moment), I continue to wonder whether I made the right decision to not go back home at that time, despite there being no certainty that I would have been able to enter Australia at that time, not to mention that I would have lost my job at the time, and it would have taken a long time to recover financially from that. I think it will take me a very long time to move on from that, as there have been numerous times over the past year where I have thought about that incident, and I still don't have the answer that I'm looking for - and I don't think I will ever find that answer.

Merii Kurisumasu---!!!

メリークリスマス皆！

Merry Christmas everyone. Despite not being able to go home for Christmas (for the second year in a row...), my girlfriend and I went out with some friends for some yakiniku. In a post I made years ago about traditional Christmas meals in Japan, yakiniku is bit unusual in comparison. Even so, the yakiniku restaurant that we went to on Saturday was very busy. Fortunately, my girlfriend booked a table in advance for us. We also made sure to skip breakfast and lunch so we can eat big for dinner. 

In terms of presents, I got my girlfriend some nice chocolates and a nice one piece dress for her (which was also to make up for her belated birthday present), while I got myself a Gundam kit, but not just any Gundam kit, a solid clear version of the Master Grade Gundam 3.0. It was from an Ichiban Kuji campaign back in 2018, but I was very surprised at how cheap I was able to find a copy of it on Rakuten. It was around 4,000 yen (around $40), which is comparable to most regular release Master Grade Gundam kits, so I'm happy with my purchase. My girlfriend will be getting my Christmas present a little later this week. 

Unrelated, I was able to get back to going to the gym these last two days. After 3 months of resting (after fucking up my back doing something stupid in the gym), I was finally able to do some training. Of course, I'm still not 100%, but it definitely does feel great to be back. Though the gym will be closed for the New Year break, I'll be looking forward to going back afterwards. As long as I'm careful and avoid exercises that affect my back for the time being, and as long as I don't do anything stupid at the gym again, hopefully the recovery will continue without further issues.

As for plans for the New Year, I have none. We were planning to do a little bit of travelling, but unfortunately, with the Omicron variant of the CCP virus in Japan now, and everyone else most likely planning to travel during this period, we decided to hold off on travel until after the winter break has finished, and instead go during a period where not everybody is going to be travelling at the same time... possibly for my birthday maybe? Who knows. 

While I will be having a quiet one again this year, I hope you will have a safe and happy New Year. 

Happy 2021

 I know I'm late, but Happy New Year （あけましておめでとう）.

For those who may not know yet, a number of prefectures across Japan are now currently under a second state of emergency. But like before, this is not a lockdown, as apparently the country's constitution prevents the government from implementing any such policy. However, what this means is that they can dictate to businesses to close earlier (especially restaurants and bars, which currently must close by 8 p.m.), and implement other measures to minimise the spread of the CCP virus. Also, they're urging businesses to have their employees working from home where possible. However, for some companies working from home still hasn't apparently caught on for apparently dumb reasons - basically, they can't seem to trust their employees that they will actually do their work from home.

However, while Ibaraki prefecture is technically not under a state of emergency, places have started taking measures anyway, as numbers had exploded until recently in the prefecture - over 100 cases daily, with a number of them coming from Mito. Fortunately, the city I'm in has only seen single digit number cases for the most part. In any case, restaurants around here are closing by 8pm, with last orders by 7:30pm, and the public gym around here has closed until early next month. While I would have no problem with that, the fact that all other private gyms are not subject to this kind of ... actually, really pisses me off. While it would be simple as just going to another gym, the problem is, I would be required to enter in to a contract, and pay monthly for it, which I'm not interested in doing - the public gym only requires I pay every time I go there, and I'm pretty comfortable with that arrangement.
Also, I had to take a break due to injuring my back for two weeks, and then finding out that the gym went shut down from the 21st of this month (just after fully recovering) really frustrated me, as I did gain weight from the winter break of stuffing my face. Well, I guess I just need to wait for another week before I can finally go again (assuming they do not extend the shut down period).

Also, it looks like I'll be doing another year in this city as an ALT - presumably, due to the CCP virus, the plans my employer had for me for the following next year did not come to fruition, combined with perhaps the inability to hire from overseas due to Japan closing its borders to most of the world. I did rent out my current apartment for two years when I first moved here, just in case I ended up doing a second year here anyway, so I'm not too bothered. However, I will need to plan for next year in the event that there are no vacancies for better positions within the company.

Japan extending the Winter Break

I came across this article recently.

Naturally there are pros and cons for this. One of the pros being long break time during Christmas and New Year instead of the usual few days most people get during that time. Also, the theory is that by extending the holiday period, the crowds will be smaller and scattered around all the major locations associated with the New Year festivities (such as shrines and temples) over a longer period of time, reducing the spread of the virus.
However, the con for this is that while in theory the scattered crowds could work, the flip side is that there could possibly be big crowds but rather than being scattered, it will be big crowds everyday, increasing the risk of spreading the virus (not to mention the flu during this period). Another con is that for many people who are on contracts and only get paid for days they work (people like me), it means we get less pay than normal. This especially irks me, because I get paid a handsome amount, as any unused paid leave days at the end of the year will be added to my December paycheck. 

I am torn on this, as I would like a little more time off, as I only got two weeks off during the summer break (though I did like getting paid for August for once), so two weeks in December/January would be a nice change. On the other hand, I also like getting paid more than normal during this time. Admittedly though, due to this pandemic, my options on where to go and what to do are limited. I am still hesitant to go to Tokyo during this time, even if my girlfriend goes there once a week for work. Though it would be a good opportunity to check out some of the shrines around my city, especially one that is literally right next to one of my junior high schools.

New Year (正月）

I know it's a little late, but Happy New Year everyone! ちょっと遅いけど、あけましておめでとうございます！

Celebrating New Year in Japan is a totally different thing compared to Australia. Whereas in Australia, people will typically party on the New Year's Eve, recover from the previous night's party on New Year's Day, and then back to work the next day, Japan is a totally different thing altogether, at least from what I experienced.
For starters, the holiday lasts from the 1st of January until 4th, so a majority of businesses are closed during this period. Also during this period, people will go to temples and shrines and pray for safety, good health, etc. During this time, everyone is going to the temples and shrines, so the more popular ones are incredibly busy. My girlfriend and I did exactly that, although we didn't go to any of the busier ones. We went to Goryou Shrine to pray, before we headed to Shimogamo Shrine, and we decided to check our fortune. My girlfriend had told me previously that whenever she had her fortune told, she would always end up with a bad one - so imagine her surprise when she received the best fortune possible. I ended up with the second best one, so I was happy too, and as per the instructions, I'm keeping that fortune in my wallet. We had a look some more around the shrine area, before we started going around the food stalls area, and ate just about everything possible - taiyaki, candied strawberries, chocolate bananas, takoyaki, red bean soup with mochi (sticky rice cake) in it - yeah, quite a bit. I also had a chance to sample some shouchu that I spotted at a stall. Having little experience in the way of drinking (especially drinks that she's never tried before), she drank in one go and was completely overwhelmed by the strength of the alcohol, while I slowly sipped mine so I can get an idea of the taste. The taste actually reminded me of the Vocaloid Shouchu Lily that I bought on my previous trip to Japan. However, compared to that, this sample was certainly a lot stronger, and the taste more distinct. I was considering buying it, but the price kind of chased me away. However, I will keep it in mind to possibly purchase before I return to Australia.

Also, I forgot to mention, it snowed on New Year's Day and the day after. Having never seen snow before (because I live in Western Australia, and it never snows there because of the climate), I was totally excited. On the second day, at night my girlfriend and I headed to Gosho and play in the snow, building snowmen and throwing snowballs at trees to knock off all the snow hanging on them. Also, because of the snow, it was fairly bright at night, making walking around Gosho really easy.

Anyway, that's it for now. I finish uni at the end of this month, and then I'll have two months of break before I return to Australia. I certainly do have plans for the break, so I'll be sure to post about it when it happens.