September 19, 2018
Vacation
is coming up again…my word, it seems like I just got off vacation, right? I
figured I should give an update before October, so here we are. How am I
feeling? Pretty good, overall. I saw my
doctor and got a mostly clean bill of health, I’m feeling healthier than I have
in a while, more on that later, and I am happy. It’s a funny thing. It’s often
been so odd to say I’m happy without a qualifier. But I am. When I was in my
20s, this job would have been more than I could have ever hoped for. Now that I’m
in my 30s, it’s something I aspire to in future endeavors…assuming I can’t just
stay here. I’d like to stay because I do so love this town.
Anyway,
before we get into adventures and the like, let’s break down a few lifestyle
changes that came my way from being sick. When I was sick, I had to change a
lot of eating habits, including more protein and fruits and vegetables, along
with yogurt to help cope with antibiotics in my stomach. It’s helped my bodily
systems immensely, so I’ve kept some of those changes and now have a small
dinner at work instead of just waiting till after. It’s…I’m not sure if it’s
good for weight loss, but I feel healthier and more energetic overall. When I
can, I still have soups and honey water, from when I was sick, because it’s
become such a part of my lifestyle and sports drinks like Pocari Sweat because
I am doing morning exercises again and sweating frequently. My father made a
statement/challenge to me of if I walk, not even run but walk, every day, I
would lose weight. Let’s stress test that. I’m getting up earlier, around 8:30
most days and walking around 9:00, or biking if I want to head somewhere far
away. Usually, it’s for 30 minutes a day and I do sometimes feel tired because
of it, but I can tell the soreness is feeding into better health all around.
Plus, it’s giving me more time to do stuff at my home that I need to do.
Lifestyle
changes out of the way, what have I been up to?
Well, not much. I had a lot and I mean A LOT of doctor appointments to
get to the point where I was healthy, so those ate up a lot of time. I also saw
my dentist and finished some tooth care. I’ve tried to stay in Natori for rest,
but I’ve also tried to get back into my old schedule, like visiting my favorite
pizzeria and the bath house. Nothing really all that special. At work, it’s
great. I love my students and my co-workers are very supportive. I even got to
go to a Mexican restaurant, one of the only ones in Sendai, with one of my team
and we had a good time just relaxing in a rare treat. It’s getting cooler too,
and I have a list of places I want to see once it gets cool enough for me to
wear my coat, so I’m looking forward to that. The rice fields have finally been
cut down though, which is a bit sad. It shows that autumn is here. At the
school we’ve been busy as well. Along with usual classes and planning, we set
up for Halloween and we did some window cleaning, which was surprisingly
exhausting. I didn’t think it would be so rough on my muscles.
In
terms of local stuffs, oden soup is back and that makes me happy. It’s the
perfect above average food. It’s not so wild and amazing you need it constantly,
but it stands just above the usual fare you get from home cooking or
convenience store meals that it is really convenient. I’ve tried a few new
types of oden, like the sausages and chicken skewers and they’re all pretty good.
September is also the month of the moon burger here in Japan and I need a few
more, I’ve only had two. Hopefully I can get them before they go out of season.
A
few random thoughts. I’ve had to get my absentee ballot ready for the November
election and I hope I did it right. I don’t want to get into politics here, but
we have a few spineless sycophants I’d love to see get kicked to the curb in
NC. While waiting for my dental appointment, I got a chance to read some
children’s books in Japanese and I forgot how fun they can be. I missed them. I
used to read them when I was practicing my Japanese in China, since I had a few
of my own. I may be terrible at kanji, but I can at least say my hiragana
reading is pretty decent. Writing is slow going, but it is still going and I
like where it is heading. Dating is heading nowhere fast, but it’s been a
learning experience, though I may shut down my attempts with e-harmony for a
bit and try somewhere else. Not giving up, just changing strategies. Not yet,
but soon, perhaps. My father had his birthday recently and it saddens me that I
wasn’t there for it. It also saddens me that my awesome card will take like
three weeks to arrive(seriously, Japan has amazing cards). Finally, we have a Halloween
party coming near the end of October and I may have gone a bit overboard with
my costume. I just wanted to do right by my school and get something fun and
original, so I ordered quite a few items online to get it ready. A tad pricey.
And
now, games. Feel free to skip to the end, this is a section I am making for me,
hehe. Gwent Homecoming is coming, along with Thronebreaker, which I am happy
about. I want to play them and am…cautiously optimistic after the ruination of
the game about 6 months ago. I like Gwent, so I want to see it succeed. Magic
the Gathering Arena is a game I want to like, but it is just too greedy and
devalues the special nature of free to play collectors. In Gwent or Hearthstone
or any other card game, you can get a special legendary card and you can only
have one. Put it in your deck and good to go. In Magic, to have ANY chance of
playing a decent deck, you need FOUR of each legendary card…it’s not worth all
the effort, so unless you want to pay, don’t play. Warframe, as far as free to
play games go, is awesome. A bit too grindy, but the core gameplay of being a
space ninja is so much fun. I even bought into it a little, I was having enough
fun with it. My Switch has largely become a port machine, sadly, but at least I’ve
had fun with it. Played through Stardew Valley again and finally beat it and
got frustrated with another stupidly hard, poorly balanced platformer in
Messenger, which I wish was better tuned. And, Dragon Quest 11. My god…such a
good game. I’ve always enjoyed the old school nature of Dragon Quest, like no
saves in dungeons, scarcity of healing items, etc. but the quality of life
improvements in the game just make it so much more approachable, from more save
points, to better balancing of enemies and characters, to ways to avoid the
grind…so far, it’s a blast and I love the relaxed pace of it, along with the
beautiful graphics. It is great. My one regret is my SNES classic has been a
bit neglected for newer titles, but I still like having it around for when I
get that Final Fantasy or Yoshi’s island or F-zero itch.
I
am still tired some days, but I really enjoy life here and am having a grand
time. I still worry about the future and I do want to get back to my Japanese
training along with my other future proofing ideas, but for now, life is just
great. It’s nice to say that. Life here is wonderful.
