31

I am a little disappointed in myself that my last post was over a month and a half ago. January 14th. Really?

There are no excuses.

Today, I turned 31. Well, at least according to the timezone that I'm currently living in. If you were to find yourself in the timezone in which I was born (EST), I would still not be born (but my mother would be going through some early labor pains, I'm sure).

Busy is a word that I would use to describe my day. An almost full day of classes, though three of them were less like class and more like a celebration - a number of last classes for several of the kids I teach. There was a scrabble game / wasabi treat game (everyone picks a cream puff, some of which are loaded with wasabi - deadly!) / brownie-eating class (one of the boys in that class shares my birthday). There was the special student class, where he prepared meals by himself for himself, his teacher, the Japanese teacher of English, and me - a final celebratory meal if you will. And there was the elementary class that didn't go as planned, but turned out to be more fun than what the plan called for.

This evening, I met up with a great group of guys at the Nago A&W, chilled for a few hours, ate two scoops of Baskin Robbins 31 flavors ice cream (this year's goal - eat all 31 flavors for all 31 years of life!), and had a good number of laughs, many of which were definitely not safe for use in public, but such is the benefit of speaking English in a country where English is not well known.

And now, just before bed, I am looking forward to the remaining 18 months or so on the JET Program here in Higashi. If things go well, I will leave Higashi satisfied with my time spent here, an advanced level of ability in the Japanese language, a solid grasp of the fundamentals of karate (and the black belt as indication), and a heartfelt appreciation for the five years spent here and the countless little paths and influences that came into my life before now to make this experience possible.

So with 31 years accrued in this body, I can look back at what I remember and be happy and content. And with, what I hope are, many more to come, I can look forward and imagine all the joy waiting to be had.

PS - Happy Birthday to Shan, my 3/3 birthday friend. I hope you had as great a day as I did here.

About Higashi

I've been in Japan for almost three and a half years. And I realized I have never really given a good overview of some of the more basic aspects of my daily life. For example, what each of my three schools are like, how they differ. Or a mention of what kinds of activities I get involved in during my free time.

So for the start of this year, I've come up with a list of topics I'll be touching on over the next several posts. Here's a list, in no particular order at the moment:

• Higashi: what kind of place is it?
• My Schools: Higashi, Arume, and Takae
• My Perspective of Life as an Assistant Language Teacher
  
• Living in the Inaka (or rural area)
• Okinawan Karate: Shuri Sho-Rin Ryu (首里少林流）
• Studying Japanese (And How to Keep if Fun)
• Okinawa vs. Mainland Japan: how are they different?

It's my hope that through posts like this, you'll get an idea of - very brief as it may be - of how things are going in Higashi.

Aside from that, Happy New Year!

Cold Outside

Woohoo! 200th blog post.

Anyway, it's gotten cold in Okinawa. What's cold?

There's no official measure, but to me it's the feeling of having to wear long sleeve shirts and long pants to stay warm, even in my own home.

Granted, the temperature is more likely somewhere around the lower-60s, but in Japan (especially in my teachers' housing) lack of insulation and heating systems makes even mild temperatures sometimes feel downright cold.

In a few weeks, I'll probably break out the little electric stove heater I have. It's not very effective at heating much space, but it will keep a pair of feet hotter than you can imagine. There's always the food angle, too. Hot tea, hot oatmeal, and hot cooked foods.

Despite welcoming the mild chill, there's one thing I don't miss that much - snow. I don't mind visiting places where it falls, but I currently prefer not to have it fall where I live.

Changing of the Seasons

The season has changed noticeably in Okinawa. It's gotten cooler here in the past week or so.

Some other things have changed as well...

It was the lynchpin of my Halloween costume.

No Longer Indebted

I am happy to report that, as of today, October 29, 2010, I am debt free.

Supertramp Loan Servicing:

First Disbursement Date	Loan Program	Current Balance
2003-07-02	SUBSIDIZED CONSOLIDATION LOAN	$0.00
2003-05-13	UNSUB CONSOLIDATION LOAN	$0.00
Total Current Balance:		$0.00

The payment scheme I adopted for my student loans has varied over the past few years. When I worked in Chicago, I paid more than the minimum payment. But I put a lot more of my money into investment accounts, since the interest rates back then meant that I was earning more money than I was paying on my loans.

After coming to Japan, that changed. Interest rates crashed, investments were losing money, and in a practical sense, investing from abroad became harder to do. So I shifted my priority to paying off my debt. I slowly ramped up the payment amounts, looking for ways to squeeze my budget to make it happen.

When I passed below the $10,000 debt mark, I made a concerted effort to pay the loan off as quickly as possible. I was helped by the rise of Japan's yen against the dollar, meaning that a transfer for 100,000 yen, typically understood to be about $1,000, would turn into something closer to $1,200 or $1,250. These little "bonuses" helped the loan drop more quickly than expected.

And so last week, I submitted my loan payoff payment of $1,233.55 and eliminated my debt.

There were no fireworks. No special feeling, really. Just the realization that from now on all the money I was paying to a lender I can now pay to myself. And the savings are going to be fantastic.