Good grief! It's hard to believe that the last Blog entry was in July! In fact, I had to reload the page a couple of times just to be sure. So, I'll warn you right now... This is gonna be a long one!

Time flies here in Japan. It's almost unbelievable to me that we will have been here two years... We miss our family and friends, but we're also still enjoying it here too. Hey, if anyone is unsure of where to take that next vacation -- you're always welcome here! At the very least, you'd have a place to stay and someone to give you the dime-tour.

Well, I may as well start with a quick summary of goings-on since July. It's been a whirlwind summer and now even autumn's almost gone. With Halloween dead and gone, all the tacky, cheezy Christmas decorations have gone on sale in virtually every store in Japan. Funny thing is, if you ask anyone whether they're going to give or receive gifts for Christmas, the answer is usually "no." Even more bizarre, is the fact that if you ever thought that the "reason for the season" has been lost in North America, in a over-commercialized, torrential frenzy, try dealing with it in a country where the "reason" for Christmas never existed in the first place! As a result, anything even remotely resembling a Christian message is strangely absent, leaving behind a trail of secular-looking Christmas trees, Santa Clauses, and Christmas carols dealing with snowmen and reindeer. You want to put plastic figurines of the aforementioned on your front stoop with some outdoor lights? No problem! Just drive down to your nearest hardware store. You want a Nativity scene with that? Ha! Ha! What's that?! What does that have to do with Christmas?

Anyway, on to other business. Late July and most of August was quite a learning experience for me. No. Really. I meant that literally. I enrolled in a month-long intensive Japanese course in Okazaki City, Aichi Prefecture. I won't get into the details or anything, but for an entire month, I lived in a traditional-style Japanese "ryokan" or inn, eating Japanese meals, and attending language classes for several hours a day, taught almost entirely in... you guessed it... Japanese. So, am I fluent yet? Nope, but I'm doing better than before. I can use and conjugate verbs now! Woohoo! I also got to satisfy my surfing and body boarding habits, as one of Japan's top surfing beaches was only about 1.5 hours away by car, so I made it a point to go out every day/weekend that I wasn't overloaded by homework, and there wasn't a typhoon blowing through. I must admit though, the waves you can catch right after the typhoon are gnarly! Bonnie went to visit me for a week, and if we ever talk in person or on the phone, ask us about Bonnie's departure day from Okazaki. It's a tale and a half! While she was there, we took a couple of trips to Nagoya and even took in a J-League Division 1 game! My first ever! (That's soccer for those of you who don't speak the lingo).

A day after my course ended, I loaded up the van with all my junk (including my scooter, which I took with me....) and headed further south to the fabled city of Kyoto. Japan's Mecca. The must-visit spot on the itinerary of anyone coming to Japan for longer than a few days. Funny. How is it then, that it took me over a year and a half to get there? Perhaps the distance from Kofu? Much more likely, the price factor. Anyway, my main reason to go to Kyoto, not even so much for the sightseeing value (which I enjoyed immensely), but to put "shaken" (pronounced: SHAH-ken) on my car. Japan, like many countries, requires you to perform a mandatory bi-annual safety and mechanical inspection on any motor vehicle with an engine larger than 50cc (making most scooters exempt! Woohoo!) The bad news is, average "shaken" cost is over 100,000 yen!!! I'll let you do the math into your own currency, but to give you an idea of what that's actually WORTH, an average English teacher in a privately-owned language academy earns about 250,000 gross per month. In other words, imagine just over 40% of your month's salary going to a single vehicle inspection! It's no wonder the Japanese dread it so much and would do anything to make it cheaper or get out of having to pay it. It's not unusual for people in Japan to GIVE-AWAY a car for FREE, rather than paying for shaken (and any repairs that need to be performed at that time) on an old vehicle. That's probably why you don't see that many older-looking vehicles on the road. To get "shaken" on an old car: 100,000. To bring it to an auto-wrecking yard to get it crushed: 10,000. To give it away and not worry about it any longer: 0. You do the math.

Well, in a nutshell, the place I found in Kyoto advertises on the Internet that they offer "cheap shaken" service. So I figured that, since I was in a nearby region of Japan at that time anyway, I may as well get it done there. Smart move! I only had to pay 80,000 yen. Still WAY too much, and it blew our budget for months, but it's done, and we have a vehicle to ride in until August, 2006 at least.

September started a new school term, which also meant a new co-worker, and even a couple new students. Other than that, almost everything else has been going as it had before. I still enjoy my job at the Board of Education, and Bonnie still seems to be enjoying the YMCA. To stay true to my original promise though, that's all I'm going to say about our work.

October was extremely busy! Every weekend was something new. I had planned another trip to Kyoto, since I found out during the summer that I could drive there in only 4.5 hours on the highway, and the cost wasn't so bad -- especially since finding 2,500 yen/night rooms to stay in. This would be Bonnie's first trip to the city, and we extended an offer to all our friends to drive with us, to help off-set the cost of driving there, parking and highway tolls. In the end, only 1 other person came along through a strange set of circumstances. We had a fantastic time, though Bonnie figured the trip was a bit too long, and was a little scared on the highway. I can't blame her -- the front end of our van is flat, and there's no hood (it's like a bus) so you're seated far forward and can see nothing but road and scenery zipping by you at high speeds. I will try my best to post some photos of our trip soon. That's the next thing on my agenda.

We also went to Tokyo for an English-teaching book exposition, and celebrated another year's Paul Rusch Festival, and Katsunuma Wine Festival. Both events are worth looking forward to. Once again, we sampled our fair share of wines -- I forgot how many, and though it was in pouring rain, we were undeterred. A friend who came with us called me the next day and asked me how he got home, as he didn't remember getting there. I reminded him that he took his bicycle, but didn't look in such bad shape when we saw him off.

Now, it's November 2nd here. It's still November 1st in North America, so we are all waiting anxiously here for tomorrow's American election. We've already organized an election party so we can watch the results come up live, and either celebrate Kerry's win or mourn Bush's loss. I'm not America, and I normally wouldn't burden anyone with my political views on this Blog, but hey, my hopes in who will win this thing is no secret. I can pretty much assure you that all the American ex-pats (that we hang out with here in Kofu, anyway) don't have many kind words to offer about G.W. Bush. The only Busch we want to see is in a frosty mug. Heh. Heh.. Whew! Tough crowd!... I bet you didn't even smirk when you read that.

I also recently submitted a new batch of photos to the Japan Times 2nd Annual Photo Competition. I will try to get those pictures posted soon as well. In any event, some of you may know that even though I didn't place in that particular competition last year, one of the photos (Dried Persimmons) did well in another competition, and is being published into a coffee-table book with some other photos (you could probably describe it as an anthology). So, wish me luck.

I'm also working on a new batch of postcards. If you haven't yet given me your mailing address, it's never too late if you want to receive an occasional photo from us in Japan. I hope to send out 3 more this year. I want to send one very soon, one for Christmas, and one for the New Year. Yeah, I'm being ambitions - but I'm going to try.

With that, a big "shaka" sign to everyone. Oh yeah, did I forget to mention in my notes from the summer? I bought a surfboard! I'm now a bona-fide resin monkey! It's a mini-long board (about 7'9) and I already can't wait till Spring so I can practice some more... So, hang loose everyone and don't forget to drop us a line sometime. If you've lost our phone numbers or whatever, e-mail us. We'd love to hear from you.

zadok@zayith.com