Things As it Is

Tomorrow, 12/23, I'm heading to Kobe. From there, I will catch some trains, pass through Kyoto Station, and end up in a seminar house in the middle of a rural county in Kyoto prefecture. There, I will spend 10 days sitting in silence, not only of speech, but also of mind and body. The purpose?

Peace. Happiness.

Having never done this kind of meditation before, I can't say what I'm going to experience. Nor can I say what I think I'm going to experience. I am heading into this meditation with no expectations. And I will come away with ... I don't know really, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

The goal? To be constantly present. What does that mean? Perhaps it's time for us all to do some reading:

http://www.dhamma.org/

This website can only explain so much. From what I understand, you'll have to do it for yourself to find out what it's really like. I'm not sure how well I'll be able to explain my experience when it's all over. Again, ahead of myself.

Be back on the 4th of January.

Christmas Cards

For the past two weeks at my schools, we have been making cards for the holiday season. Today, I visited my small school for my weekly English lesson. Below are some cards made by two of my 3rd grade elementary students.

Published Photographer

You may remember me mentioning a photo I took a while back. Well, last week, I received a shipment from Tokyo. I opened the box to find this year's 2010 JET Programme Calendar.

(It's official!)

The box contained around 15 copies of the calendar. I took as many as I would need for friends and family and then gave the rest to members of the Board of Education (I found out yesterday that the BoE received their own stash of around 10 calendars in a separate shipment, so I took a few from that stash, too).

I'm planning on getting the calendars out to a few people within a week. Please be patient. And if I could make a recommendation, don't actually use it - just keep it on your desk with my photo always showing. That's the downside of a cover shot I guess. I don't mind, though!

Tops

I spent today supporting a girl (let's call her K-chan [*note: the videos below are not her - they are only examples of the kata that she performed]) from my karate dojo (空手道場) as she competed in the 12th Okinawan Junior High School Karate Tournament. Cliff and I had gone to a previous (and unrelated) tournament a few months ago, but we arrived after she had already participated (she also didn't advance as far as she did today). I made sure not to be as late today.

I arrived at the tournament and made my way to the gymnasium seating just as K-chan was beginning her second kata (形, a series of moves done in succession).

Tournaments work like this: two (competing) participants perform a kata of their choice (starting from the second round) on an 8m² mat. One wears a red belt, the other blue. Surrounding the mat are five judges (審判), seated at each of the corners, with the head judge seated in front of the participants starting position. Each judge holds a red flag and a blue flag. When both participants have completed their kata, the head judge blows a whistle and all five judges raise their flags. The participant receiving the most flags out of the five moves on to the next round.

K-chan is very solid in her kata. Our sensei, Taira, works with her closely at each of our practices. She's serious, dedicated, fast and strong (she's also only 12). So the result of her second round was a unanimous 5-0 victory. For her third round, she scored the same, which meant she advanced to the semi-finals (準決勝), or the "Best 4" as it is called here.

K-chan performed the kata Suparinpei, スーパーリンペイ (below), for her fourth round.

The result was another 5-0 victory. Her victory here meant that she advanced to the final (決勝).

The final varies in two ways. First, the participants - instead of performing their kata at the same time - perform them separately (I believe this is to allow the judges to closer scrutinize). Second, there are seven judges, not five. The two additional judges sit to the side of the participants starting position.

Today, K-chan went first. She performed solidly in the kata, Anan, アーナン.

(The woman performing the kata in the video is Azusa Tomishiro. K-chan and her have some striking similarities - hairstyle, a few facial features, and speed come to mind. Not to mention, they're both Okinawan.)

So solid was her performance today that she scored a 7-0 victory, placing 1st for the tournament.

As a result, K-chan will be heading to Hokkaido (北海道) in March to participate in an All Japan (全国) tournament. Of course, her family, along with Taira-sensei will be going. Surprisingly, Taira-sensei asked me...actually, politely told me...to come to Hokkaido to support her there. So that's my spring break plan - head to northern Japan to support our dojo's number one.

International Exchange

When I left Chicago to come to Okinawa, the exchange rate between the dollar and the yen was around $1:¥125. So let's see what happened to the $2,500 I exchanged before departing for Tokyo:

$2,500 x 125 = ¥31 2500

(While in the US, we split numbers into thousands (000), Japan splits them into man (0000)).

Today, the rate listed by my money transfer service was $1:¥88. Let's see what happens if the exchange rate, at the time I left for Japan, had been what it is today:

$2,500 x 88 = ¥21 8250

Then: ¥31 2500
Now: ¥21 8250

That's a difference of ¥9 4250! Let me put that in perspective for you. I would have lost out on the following:

- 18 months of rent; or,
- 23 tanks of gas (at today's current price); or,
- 3-4 months worth of groceries (food is expensive); or,
- 22 round trip bus trips from Nago to Naha (it's ridiculously expensive!); or,
- 2-3 round trip flights from Okinawa to mainland Japan (depending on the season).

As you can see, it's not a trivial amount of money. Granted, the change has taken place over the course of two years. How about sending money the other way, from Japan to the US? I'll show you (using the same amount of money that I started with in Japan):

Then: ¥31 2500 / 125 = $2,500
Now: ¥31 2500 / 87.3 = $3,580

Sending money from Japan to the US is much more beneficial now than it was two years ago. It's a perfect opportunity for me to focus on paying off my loans in large amounts, as other friends are now considering doing. The exchange rate would also be beneficial if I was in a situation where I would be returning to the US to live or travel.

Day to day, however, the drop of the exchange rate really hasn't affected me all that much. My salary is the same as it was when I first got here (in fact, there has never been a salary adjustment since the start of the JET Programme 21 years ago). For those with intentions to visit Japan from the US, you're money won't go as far. But if you know someone that lives here, at least you won't have to worry about accomodation costs.