Unit’s end May 30, 2007

I feel I am loosing touch with a lot of things in my life.  I am loosing the excitement of teaching.  I am loosing the feeling of discovering something new.  I am loosing my love for gourmet cooking.  I am unfocused and feel that my goals are falling apart.

The worst realization is that even after getting out of the prefecture and taking a mini-vacation, I don’t even feel refreshed.  Before, all my road-trips and backpack trekking around Japan made me feel refreshed.  But now, I don’t even know what I can do to spark my lost zeal.

I have fallen out of track.

Life’s end May 29, 2007

My uncle passed away on Sunday (or by the time, it should have been Saturday night).  Condolences to my aunt and my cousins.

I knew my uncle from very young, and up till last year, I still visited him and his family frequently.  He had partial paralysis caused by a stroke, and my aunt took care of him for most part.  But her blood pressure hiked up recently because of all the stress involved in taking care of my uncle, so she decided to take a short vacation.  Then right after she left, he suffered another major stroke and went into a comma.   I am saddened to know about the loss of my uncle, whom I remember with fondness.  He was an extremely funny yet strict man, and always doted on my brother.  He rests in peace in now.

Friction May 29, 2007

This is one post that I hope many will find useful for future reference. I wished I had known earlier.

On our way to Atami in Shizuoka on Sunday, we went through a range of mountains throughout Yamanashi, Kanagawa and Shizuoka prefectures. When we almost arrived in Atami, we had to go down through a very steep and long mountain range from Lake Ashino. This is when my brakes started to fail (I’d like to thank two fellow JETs for telling me that Atami was NOT that far, and that taking the I.C. would cost me 30-50 pops).

The brake disk pads slow down your car. Just like the pads on your bicycle brakes apply friction to your bicycle tires, the pads apply friction to slow your car wheels down. During that process, braking fluid is flushed through these pads to avoid over-heating and a nice potential fire. And when you are descending a long mountain pass road, repeated application of the brakes over-heat the braking fluid, causing it to boil and smoke. That is what exactly happened to my car when I went down that deadly mountain pass. You can imagine how scared I was, with two non-speaking Japanese in my car and some 150 km or more away from Yamanashi (wait, but I did have my Japanese equivalent of AAA with me).

The recommended course of action in order to avoid over-heating brake fluid or wearing out of brake pads is to apply engine friction. Engine friction will help slow your car down from the engine out, so eventually that friction is transferred to your tires (thus less friction on your brakes). On automatic, drive on 2nd gear. The change in gear applies the needed friction to slow your car. Some also recommend turning your A/C on to add to that friction.

Special thanks to Freddo for contributing to this post.

When having fun is not enough May 28, 2007

My cousin and his friend came to visit me in Yamanashi for three days, and although there was a lot of things involved, I had a great time with them.  On our drive back from Shizuoka yesterday night, I realized that I knew very little about my cousin and vice versa.  I’m glad that I got to spend some time with him.  There were a lot of, ehrrrr, mishaps involved: making them go through their most expensive meal in Japan to their worst one, driving around mountains for five hours to get to the beach, taking them to a lava cave that took only five minutes to peruse.  A lot of things didn’t come out as planned; nevertheless, I am glad they came and I am glad I got to know them better.  I don’t know if they had fun in Yamanashi, which still worries me a lot.

I’ll soon post a video of my cousin and his friend visiting as special guests in one of my elementary classes.

Puzzles May 21, 2007

This weekend was a Tokyo one. It has probably been more than three months since I last went to Tokyo, and that is definitely a long time despite the city’s proximity to Yamanashi.

The reason why I was in Tokyo was to meet up with my cousin, one whom I haven’t seen for more than… 15 years. His family used to live in Panama, and I still remember going to their house to play during the weekends. I grew very close to my cousin because we were about the same age, and following the ways of little kids, you just grow fond of having a play-mate to fight over things. So it was very sudden to me when I heard he and his family were moving to Canada.

My aunt and my mom were pregnant at about the same time, and lo and behold, they traveled together to Los Angeles to have their babies. I was born on the 3rd, my cousin 20 days after me.

I was very young when they moved away, but I remember certain things with much vividness. I still remember looking over their house garden from one my aunt’s house and feeling sad that I wouldn’t see my cousins again.

And now after more than 15 years, it seems almost surreal to see him. Even though we are so closely related (his mom is my dad’s little sister), I don’t know how to be close to him. It’s like having the memory of a best friend erased and having to start over again. Because we’ve grown apart, I don’t know what kind of person he is.

Nevertheless, it was fun to get re-acquainted with my cousin. I am piecing the puzzle back of a childhood friend. It’s good to remember how life was back then.

                 Listening to: Ano Hi (That day)- WaT