Yes, it’s been years in the making, but the Mrs. and I have finally decided it was time to purchase our own vehicle.  I guess this means that we’ll be staying in Japan for the foreseeable future as this is also the first non-portable asset we’ve purchased since getting married.

It’s true that we were looking at buying a car last year; the Mazda Atenza in particular, but after witnessing just how little drivers north of Shizuoka pay attention to their surroundings, we decided that it would be better to buy something that is semi-disposable.  This is why we decided to buy a good, used Kei rather than a really nice, new white plate.

As for the price … we did spend about 150,000円 more than we had planned, but the purple paint job and excessive number of adjectives in the model name forced our hand.  Seriously … how easy should it be to get a Special Limited Edition Daihatsu Move in Pearl Purple?  We take delivery on August 1st and are looking forward to our first road trip.

Here are some more pictures if you’ve ever wondered what a purple Daihatsu Move looks like from different angles:

Now for the next financial hurdle … kids.

That said, there are certainly some advantages to moving around the country; namely the scenery.  Outside the first home that Reiko and I lived in after marriage we were greeted with the wonderful view of アーウィン山.  Now, you’re probably wondering why a mountain in Japan has a foreigner’s name, and not just any name … but mine.  The reason is simple: the mountain didn’t have a name according to any map or sign, so I gave it one.  アーウィン山 stands a stately 112m high and is covered in trees, all of which are less than 70 years old.  80 years ago the mountain was completely bare, so I’m told.

In January of this year, there was a bit of a medical emergency in the family, so Reiko and I moved back in with her parents in order to help them with day-to-day activities, as well as to save for our future home purchase.  On nice mornings, the Mrs. and I would often go for a walk around the block and take in some fresh air before I had to run off to work.  While on these walks we would see a mountain that is known to everyone around 各務原市 for it’s half-naked appearance.  What’s interesting is that a little behind the exposed sections of mountain is a small golf course.  If it wasn’t for a bit of peeking around on Google Maps, I never would have even known the course existed.

As many people know, at the end of June I threw caution to the wind and completely ignored the various reasons I said I would never live in Tokyo to accept a position at a young software company and make the move to 柏市 in 千葉県.  The view from the windows here is quite different from what I had grown accustomed to in 岐阜県.  There are no mountains here.  The land is mostly flat, aside from a few hills here and there to add some variety while riding a bike to and from the train station every day.  But there’s a lot of green; something that both the Mrs. and I believe is quite important.  On top of that, there are literally dozens of young families all around us, making this a very young part of 柏市 … not that I’m complaining.  With all the young children running around outside, I’m sure that the Mrs. and I will have less to worry about when we, one day, have a child and they want to go outside to play with friends.

All in all, I like this new place in 千葉県. The traffic is crazy. The trains are always packed. The sidewalks are non-existant. The grocery stores don’t have as great a selection of fresh produce.  But, despite all of these differences, this new place already feels like home.  I hope that Reiko and I enjoy living here for the next few years as the next chapter of our lives begins: Jason Earns Some Coin.

There have been a number of great authors who shaped my view of the universe, but very few have come close to providing the razor sharp wit and clarity we’ve often enjoyed from the words of Samuel Clemens, otherwise known as Mark Twain. While reading some of the man’s earlier works in high school, I started to take some of his wisdom to heart. Particularly when it comes to how I should live my life and behave.

The above quote is one of my favorites and can be attributed (at least partially) to how I wound up leaving the comfortable surroundings of Southern Ontario for Vancouver at the age of 22 before finally moving here to Japan, where I plan on staying for at least another decade or six.  Mr. Twain also provided two other famous bits of wisdom, which explains why I can write so much online yet be incredibly quiet in person:

“If you have nothing to say, say nothing.”

and

“It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.”

I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve turned my back on several very promising opportunities in the past but, at the end of the day, I learn more about the world around me when casting off from that safe harbor and forging ahead in uncharted waters.  The next year or two will be yet another example of this, and the challenge is more than welcome.  Just don’t be surprised if I keep my mouth closed at times….

I don’t fall into either extreme, but there have been quite a few decisions I’ve publicly stated which I’ve had to re-evaluate and later modify … throwing into question the credibility of any strongly-stated decision I have made in the past.

Early 1998
Parent: Why don’t you work at McDonald’s or Wendy’s?
Me: I’m a computer programmer. I refuse to take a “Yes, Sir. No, Sir. Would you like fries with that, Sir?” kind of job.
May 1998 – January 1999: Worked at Burger King

Thinking back to every strong decision I’ve made (and changed) as a young adult, this is one that sticks out in my mind the most.  I was frustrated with not being able to find a job in Southern Ontario where my skills could be put to use.  I had the education, but no real work experience.  I was incredibly over-confident in my abilities, but unskilled when it came to job hunting.  Luckily, a cousin offered me a job at the Burger King she managed, and that acted as the stepping stone to every job since.

Sometime in 2000
Friend: Why don’t you buy a Mac?
Me: If I wanted an expensive paperweight, I’d buy a rock.  There is nothing Apple produces, or will produce, that I will want. Ever.
March 2010: Installed OS X in a virtual machine on a notebook to begin development for the iPhone
April 2010: Bought an iPod Touch … my very first Apple purchase

Of all the things I’ve argued, this is the one I’ve worked hardest to argue.  For over 15 years, my entire computer experience revolved around Windows-based devices. I’ve used every Microsoft operating system since DOS 3.0, and every version of Windows (including CE and Mobile) since 1992.  Almost every piece of code I’ve written has been for a Windows-based system.  Almost every hardware purchase took into account driver stability on an expected set of platforms.  And I was happy with this for a very, very, long time.

But, as with everything in life, things get old.  Microsoft has failed to innovate in a way to keep me excited, and I’m really tired of being everyone’s “free” tech support guy. If anyone asks me for an opinion on something, I now tell them to buy an Apple device.  Not because of the coolness factor, or the sleek designs, but because people expect these things to “just work”, and Apple has been able do that better than Microsoft in recent years.

My preferred platform is still Windows, but I’m no longer an Apple-basher.

Not Sure When
Friend: Why not use GMail?
Me: Why would I want to give Google complete access to my mail? They already know too much about me!
January 16, 2010: Successfully migrated 14+ years of email to a new GMail account and made this my default email & calendar client, killing Outlook at last

I’ve mentioned a few times in the past that I would never use GMail to host my email account, often going out of my way to use dedicated mail services with limited capabilities. That said, I’d grown tired of being unable to effectively synchronize my mail between two notebooks and a PDA, so opted to make the switch to Google’s solution.  Less than a week later, I wondered why I even bothered arguing about the issue in the first place.

March 2007
Friend: Have you tried Twitter?
Me: Ugh … what’s the point of that stupid site? Seriously … it’s more limited than IRC, and shorter than SMS. It’s nothing more than a short-lived fad.
September 2008: Joined Twitter

Yes, my first impression of Twitter was marred by an over-excited tech community of bloggers who have all disappeared into obscurity, now … but I’ll admit that I didn’t quite see the potential of Twitter as it seemed to be little more than a HEY LOOK AT ME! self-promotion machine.  While some people continue to use the service that way, most of us have turned the popular micro-blogging platform into a simple way to communicate with a large number of people.

That said, I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Twitter for killing most blogs.  There were far too many “make money online” wannabes spamming the Internets … and now they’re (almost) all gone.

Mid-2006
Friend: Why don’t you live in Tokyo?
Me: There are too many people in Tokyo, and Reiko wouldn’t feel comfortable living there for a long time.
June 2010: The Mrs. and I are looking for a home closer to Tokyo

There are a lot of things that I’ve said I wouldn’t do, and this is one that I was almost 100% sure about just a few months ago.  That said, when opportunity knocks, we’d be a fool not to answer the door.  Five days ago I was officially accepted for a position at a software company in Tokyo’s Azabu-juban area, so the wife and I are preparing to move to the Big City.  We’ve scoured the housing sites for days, and narrowed down our choices to a few decent homes about an hour’s trek from work.

Who knows … if success throws open the door and I’m somehow earning more money than I can spend, perhaps Reiko and I will even buy a house there.  Only time will tell.

I don’t care if this guy was “drafting” to save himself a few drops of gasoline or not, the fact that he was tailing us with less than 2 meters to spare for over 10 km is just unacceptable.  I took a picture of the dolt to act as a record in the event that he did rear-end us.  This way, even if I couldn’t recall the license plate exactly (岐阜市531 い505) , I’d have some photo evidence for Japan’s feared police force to track the guy down and bring him to justice.

Naturally, since I’m writing a post about a tailgater rather than an accident, nothing bad came of the situation.  It doesn’t excuse it, though.

What I find interesting, however, isn’t so much that the guy was tailgating us … it was his car: a Toyota Vitz.  Maybe it’s just a coincidence, but people who drive this particular car seem to be the most reckless and careless drivers on the road today.  I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen destroyed Vitz’s loaded onto a flatbed after an accident and carted off to be crushed into a cube this year alone, and we’re barely five months in to 2010.

Like I said … maybe it’s just coincidence.

Have you noticed any patterns regarding what cars are typically driven by the worst drivers in Japan? I’d love to hear your horror stories … it’ll let me know what cars to avoid.

This means, of course, that during the 2 weeks of good weather in late spring and mid-autumn, everyone that can do something outside will be outside.  Parks are crowded.  Malls are impossible to navigate.  Amusement parks … well, they’re not even remotely amusing when you’re standing in line for 3 hours just to “enjoy” a 4 minute ride.  However, every once in a while, someone will find a nice little getaway where there are no crowds, but the atmosphere is incredibly enjoyable.  This is where the Mrs’ and I’s hideout comes in to play.

Last year we were told in passing about the large amounts of green surrounding the Gifu Water Works located near 前渡東町 (Maedohigashimachi) in 岐阜県 (Gifu Prefecture).  Everything we were told was an understatement.  The park has several soccer fields, two gardens, and several places for families to enjoy a nice picnic and some outdoor games.  The Mrs. and I have been there several times now, and we’ve never come away disappointed.  Because of this, it didn’t take much for me to suggest that we have a nice picnic at the park on the last day of Golden Week.

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The Food

Reiko has become a fantastic cook in the two years we’ve been married.  No two meals are exactly the same, and she has a knack for cooking Japanese foods just the way I like them.  Today’s menu included her 100% home-made Reiko McMuffins, some potato salad, spaghetti, and some veggies.  すごいおいしいそ～

The Park

The park itself is unusual for a Japanese park, mostly because there’s real grass rather than the soft Astroturf or hardened sand that seems to permeate most every park I’ve visited. There are literally hundreds of trees available for couples or families to sit under and enjoy a picnic, as well as lots of open space for friendly games of Frisbee, field soccer, or whatever other sociably acceptable activities you might want to do while relaxing.  The Mrs. and I arrived just before noon, and we saw a grand total of five families and one couple sitting under the trees for the 90 minutes we were there.

While 浄水公園 (Jiosui Park) doesn’t have too many distractions or attractions itself, per se, nobody can deny it’s a great place to kick back and relax while enjoying the company of your closest friends and family.  It’s marked #1 in my “Favorite Parks in Japan” list, too.

May 1, 2006

My first visit to Japan was during Golden Week of 2006.  This was the first time that Reiko and I were able to spend time together in Japan, and we didn’t waste a single moment.  That said, she did have to work for the first few days I was in the country, so I was able to walk around 犬山駅 and explore a little bit of this part of the country during the day.  May 1st, however, was her first day off work, and so this was the obvious day for our very first date.

To mark the special occasion, we decided to head off to the Nagoya Aquarium.  Reiko was wearing a gorgeous new outfit with stylish shoes (which would later cause problems), and I was more than ready to take a few hundred photos throughout the day.  The blue one on the side was taken at the dolphin pool, and it’s still one of my favorites.

Afterwards we went to a nice little restaurant nearby called Cat’s Cafe and enjoyed a great lunch while chatting about anything and everything.

Both of these events have become annual rituals that we do to bring good luck and remember just how far we’ve come in such a short time.

May 1, 2007

The following year Reiko made the trip to Canada where she was able to meet some of my family.  This was only a few months before I made the move to Japan, so it made more sense for her to fly to Canada than it did for me to visit Japan.  The flight was incredibly, long, though.  Although I was living in Vancouver at the time, my family is found mostly in Southern Ontario.  As a result, Reiko and I decided that we’d meet in Toronto at Pearson International Airport, and get a ride down to Simcoe to visit some family.  All of this happened on April 30th …

Which meant that on May 1st, we would head off to Niagara Falls!  A place that Reiko had wanted to see for most of her adult life.  Despite having a severe case of jet lag, Reiko climbed into the van at 9:30 am and we made the 90 minute drive, stopping only at the Welland Canal and a Tim Horton’s.  What’s interesting to note, though, is that May 1st in Canada is very different from that in Japan.  In Japan, you can expect temperatures somewhere around 20 degrees.  The day we went to The Falls it was much closer to 5 degrees, with a strong southerly wind!  Suffice to say, everyone was terribly under-dressed for the occasion … but we made the best of it.

May 1, 2008

Here’s a day that I’ve mentioned numerous times on this website: the day Reiko and I “officially” got married.  Sure, there was that thing on August 13th the year before, but women don’t dream about paper marriages … only the real thing will do.

This particular May 1st was the culmination of over 14 months planning, three years of saving, and 12 hours of doing.  Exhausting is not the word for such an event.  For anyone who’s ever planned an international marriage, you know just how difficult it can be do pull everything together without a hitch.  Reiko worked day and night to make sure that everything was absolutely perfect, down to the pattern design of the napkins people used to wipe their faces with after dinner … and I helped out as much as I could, whenever I could.  Truth be told, I wish I could have done more.

Alas … we’ll make sure our next wedding in 23 (or so) years is less stressful than the first.

May 1, 2009

Last year was the first year that Reiko and I could retrace the steps we took on our first date as well as our wedding day to start a tradition that will undoubtedly go forward for another decade or two.  We woke up early and had a great little breakfast at home, exchanging gifts in the morning.  For lunch, we went to the Cat Cafe and (likely) ordered the very same food that we had the first time we’d been there three years before.  From there we took a walk around the aquarium, took a few pictures, then made our way to the place where we got married to enjoy some coffee and cake.  All in all, it was a relaxing and peaceful day … one that I would gladly re-live a thousand times if I were stuck in some Groundhog Day-like existence.

By the time Reiko and I made it home that night we were both exhausted from all the walking.  Luckily, the super-rich cakes served at Arc en Ciel gave us the quick energy we needed to make it from Nagoya Port to Kanayama Station, where we promptly fell asleep on the train all the way home.

May 1, 2010

This year, like last year, involved a trip to Arc en Ciel, but there was also a little twist.  I’ve mentioned before just how difficult it is to buy gifts for my wife and, as a result, I’m always looking for creative ways to make a special day special … without so much emphasis on the gifts.  This year’s plans started on April 29th, and will finish tomorrow.  I won’t get into too many details, but it involves special written cards placed in yellow envelopes which can be found in various locations.  It’s not quite like a scavenger hunt, but it’s certainly a nice way to keep things different.  Reiko put an incredible amount of effort into our wedding day preparations while working full time, and I wanted to show her that I could do the same … albeit on a smaller scale.

Hopefully she’s not tired of reading notes written on sky blue paper written in secret, yet … there’s still one more to deliver….

What’s In Store For 2011?

The Mrs. and I were discussing what we might find in store for us next May 1st, and both of us came to the same conclusion: we’ll likely be welcoming a new member to the family on that day.  If it’s not our first child, then it’ll probably be a puppy.  She really, really wants a puppy.

But only time will tell.

Protruding stomach aside, the Mrs. and I managed to enjoy the sights, sounds, and smells along the river for over an hour near lunch time before heading off to Jusco for some much needed clothes shopping.

Here are just some of the pictures we managed to take today:

Reason #5 – The Green Ratio

Living in Canada has spoiled me when it comes to how I see nature.  I’ve lived in more than 10 Canadian cities throughout my life, and each has had an abundance of green for at least four months of the year.  In Gifu prefecture, I’m surrounded by “planned green” as well as unplanned mountains blanketed with a thick canopy of more trees than is naturally possible (thank you 1960s Public Works Program!).  As a result, I enjoy living in areas with a very high green-to-gray ratio.  That is, for every 100-square meters of concrete, I hope to see 200-square meters of green.  Tokyo does have green in the ratios I seek, but not in the areas I can afford to live.

Reason #4 – Alien / Monster Invasions

Sure, you’re laughing and saying that this post is by far the worst Japan-related post I’ve ever written (which might be true), but it seems that whenever anything bad happens in movies or on TV, it’s always in Tokyo.  If it weren’t for the likes of the Power Rangers, Kamen Rider, or the soon-t0-be-realized Evangelions, the city would be at the mercy of all sorts of evil.  The Mrs. and I hope to have a family in the next few years.  The last thing I want to worry about is some big mean monster throwing my apartment building at their opponent for reasons unknown.

Reason #3 – I’m Not Foreign Anymore

Central Japan is home to a few thousand foreigners, most of which have come from China and Brazil.  There are relatively few Caucasians in the area, which means people will sometimes stare for longer than necessary or give me ample space on the train because I might break the golden rule and start talking to them.  I like having young kids point at me saying “みって！英語人！” or something equally cute only to see their parents blush and hurriedly shuffle their kids out of hearing distance.  In Tokyo I’ll just be another foreigner, and ignored like the common plebe I really am.

Reason #2 – Too Much Selection

Yes … this is a problem.  It’s hard enough for me to find the perfect gift for my wife with the hundreds of stores I have available between my house and work.  Living in a city the size of Tokyo, I’d be able to find anything … even my beloved fig newtons.  While this might sound like a great reason to move to the big city, it would actually be a bad thing in my case.  Instead of making things easier, it would compound the problems I already have.  I’d never know what to buy because there would be an endless supply of selection, which means that most gifts would probably be little more than hurried, last-minute deals that lack the sentimentality that goes into buying that “perfect gift”.

Absolute Balderdash

If you’re still reading, then I tip my hat to you.  You’ve managed to patiently read (or skim) nine points of complete triviality without closing the browser with extreme prejudice.  It’s true that the nine reasons I’ve listed above are 98.6% exaggerated tripe, the likes of which you’ll likely never want to see again.  But this next reason is genuine:

Reason #1 – My Family Wouldn’t Be Happy

The main reason my wife and I live in 岐阜県 rather than a major city in Japan or Canada where I can earn some serious money is because we wouldn’t be happy anywhere else.  My wife is very close (emotionally) to her parents and sister, so I would never want to pull her away from these important ties.  On top of this, living so far away from her home means that she’d have no friends (initially) when we move and she’d be too overwhelmed by the sudden changes.  As a result, she wouldn’t be happy.

If the Mrs. isn’t happy, nobody’s happy.

I can live and sleep darn near anywhere.  I can adapt, and have adapted with each and every move.  That’s what I do best … adapt and make due.  So long as I have a decent internet connection and a steady supply off both food and coffee, I’ll keep my mouth shut and work hard to provide for my family.  But if I were to come home every day to an unhappy wife, then my own spirits would be dragged down as well.

The Next Two Years

From all indications, I will likely be working more in either Tokyo or Osaka within the next two years.  Regardless of which city it ends up being in, I will undoubtedly choose to move us a little bit closer to the big city, but still far enough away to accommodate my family’s desire to be close to each other.  I have no problems being on a train for two or more hours a day, and I’ll likely enjoy the long train ride as it’ll give me time to catch up on RSS feeds, write some blog posts, and study kanji.  But, as for living in the big city of Tokyo, I really don’t see myself doing so at any point in the near future.

Turning the question around for the city-dwellers, would you choose to live in a rural prefecture like Gifu given the opportunity? Why or why not?  I’d love to hear your reasons.

Living in Tokyo is one of the few things that Reiko and I absolutely refuse to do, despite the better opportunities for money and … well … that’s it.  But why the hate?  There are more people living in the Tokyo area alone than the entire nation of Canada. It can’t be that bad … can it?

Reason #10 – The Population

I just said that the Tokyo region (including Yokohama) has a population greater than that of Canada.  According to Wikipedia, Tokyo-Yokohama’s population is about 35,000,000.  Canada’s population, though, is 33,311,389 … give or take the people that have come and gone since 2008. In my mind, that creates a population density that is much, much higher than my mildly-claustrophobic mind could handle on a daily basis.

Reason #9 – The Vomit

Never have I paid a visit to Tokyo without seeing at least one pile of semi-digested izakaya foods and beer spread across the ground at a train station.  Not once.  While I understand that people will drink too much from time to time, this is not something I’d want to get accustomed to.  Japan is not Medieval Britain … people shouldn’t be puking their guts out all over the place unless a huge batch of chlorine has been released into the air ducts.

Reason #8 – The Crowds

Similar to reasons nine and ten, the crowds will prevent me from spending more time than absolutely necessary in the big city of Tokyo.  While it was seldom a problem in Canada, I have become acutely aware of a mild form of claustrophobia that washes over me whenever I go deeper than 20 meters underground, or when I’m surrounded by a sea of humans who are incapable of understanding that people behind them don’t appreciate hitting the brakes because they’ve come to a sudden stop.

On top of this, I don’t like being touched. I avoid human contact with everyone (except my wife) unless it’s absolutely necessary.  The occasional bumping here and there in Nagoya is nothing compared to what citizens of Tokyo put up with, which means I’d start going Chuck Norris on people within a very short amount of time.

Reason #7 – The Rent

I thought living in Vancouver during the lead-up to the 2010 Olympics was expensive, but nothing compares to Tokyo.  One of the biggest reasons I might move to that city is to being working at a great company to develop incredibly useful software.  This usually means being paid a good amount of money and having the luxury of using top-of-the-line computers … the likes of which I can only dream about, now.  However, even if I were to get a job paying 3x what I earn now (which still wouldn’t be much), I’d have a hard time covering the cost of rent at any apartment built this century.

Yes, there are newer and cheaper places that would probably give Reiko and I enough room to move around for a reasonable price … but considering how we both like to stretch our legs once in a while, it might be better for us to live in the smaller communities away from the hustle and bustle of Tokyo.

Reason #6 – The Trains

Before following a bunch of Twits who live and work in Tokyo, I used to think that Japan’s capital had the best-run public transportation system in the world.  That image has recently changed.  Late or canceled trains are a semi-regular occurrence thanks to selfish people who wish to end their life while inconveniencing thousands of others.  On top of this, in seven trips to Tokyo, I’ve managed to get a seat on just one train … because it was a reserved seating car.  I understand that trains and buses get full from time to time, but never have I seen a system so consistently packed that people can’t even get a seat unless they’re outright indignant towards other people.

Maybe I’m just too nice? Nah.

Putting Things in Perspective

Since I’ve just passed the 700-word mark, I think I’ll split this topic across two posts.  That said, by looking at the reasons I’ve listed, it looks like I really don’t like humans.  While this might be true for a select few, the majority of people are really very good people.  Unfortunately, I just don’t do well in large groups of people.

Whenever the Mrs. and I make the trek to Jusco on the weekend we always often end up regretting not eating beforehand.  While many Jusco’s have a pretty decent selection of restaurants around the mall, there is never any place to sit between the hours of 11:20 and 2:45.  Line-ups can stretch for 50 meters outside of a particular restaurant, and waiting lists can be just as long.  If enjoying a casual lunch in 岐阜県 is next to impossible on a weekend, I couldn’t imagine how crazy it would be in Tokyo.

From everything I’ve heard people say about the place, it’s a fun city with a lot of convenience.  It’s just not a place that I’d like to call home.

So, to top things off, here’s a video of the crowds in Harajuku on March 26th in Tokyo.  Enjoy!

Within a split second of seeing the instantly recognizable logo for America’s National Aeronautics and Space Administration I quickly asked my wife (then girl-friend) if there was actually a NASA branch office in Kakamigahara, Japan.  The response, however, was not quite what I was hoping to hear: laughter.

“That’s just a pachinko parlor,” she said, crushing my hopes of visiting the place and seeing how NASA was cooperating with their Japanese counterparts, JAXA.

Today, after visiting the chiropractor, I was walking to a nearby coffee shop when the trademark-defying games center came into view again … mocking me with their seductive logo.  It’s a good thing I don’t play pachinko, and an even better thing that I can’t convey to the staff of this place just how wrong their name is.  If they want to name their games center after an American organization, that’s their business.  But they should at least have the decency to steal the name and logo of a profitable one.

Do you see pachinko parlors with odd names like this one?  Have you ever gotten your hopes up because you thought a company you admired as a kid had a branch office way in the  middle of Nowhere Land, Japan?

I loved to swear.  Not so much for its therapeutic results, but for the sheer complexity behind crafting the perfect insult.  Anyone could call us an insensitive a******, a f******* idiot, or the like, but it took brains to craft an insult that at first seems harmless but later an affront to everything good and rational in the world.  And this is where I excelled.

Considering how I have memorized almost every word to every CD released by Eminem, Dr. Dre, and their crews, this shouldn’t come as a surprise.  Yet, whenever I mention this fact to people, they seem genuinely surprised.  How can a man who refuses to step on the train without his tie being perfectly aligned to his belt buckle enjoy listening to such hate-fueled lyrics?

I’d like to know the answer to this, myself.  That said, since moving to Japan, the practice of lacing verbal communication with explicit subtext has waned to such an extent that doing something as innocuous as dropping an “F”-bomb seems like a strange and foreign concept to me.

But what has caused this sudden change in heart?

Do All Immigrants Swear?

An interesting thing that I had noticed while growing up in Canada is that most newly arrived immigrants always seemed to have an incredible knowledge of swearing.  While the phrases they uttered would often have some convoluted grammar forms or misplaced verbs, the context was always understood.  At first I had thought that they received a crash course in “Everyday English” at the airport before making their way to the workforce, but now I see the real reason immigrants in Canada are so willing to curse a blue streak: it’s part of the culture.

Swearing in Japan is, to be completely honest, just not done.  Sure, we’ll hear the occasional person curse under their breath when they see a foreign man with a Japanese woman, or when the trains are late/full/on-time, or when they’re driving, or when any of the day’s aggravating events transpire … but it’s really not that often.  I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve heard a Japanese person swear while I was in earshot this year … and we’re 20 days into it.

Thinking back to the few Japanese people I knew back in Vancouver, I can’t think of a single one that didn’t curse about one thing or another on a daily basis.  Earshot or no, they were well aware of the various explicit words and how they should be used in the various noun, verb, adjective, and adverb forms.

Is this the reason I’m not swearing anymore?  Because it’s not part of the culture, the Japanese music I listen to, the TV I watch, the books I read … it’s not part of my daily lexicon, either?  That seems quite odd … even to me.

So let me ask those of you who have migrated to another country, even if it was a temporary thing: did you notice a change in how you used language?  Am I the only one who thinks that swearing in English sounds completely foreign here in Japan?

Last month, when I was pleasantly surprised by an overnight bout of snowfall, I had said:

Hopefully there is a lot more snow where this came from. I’m dreaming of a white Christmas.

While we might not have received much snow before Christmas, we certainly got dumped on last night.  In the last 24 hours, the neighborhood has been covered in as much as 10 cm of light snow, and this afternoon’s forecast is for another 5 cm of wet snow.  This makes for some treacherous driving as people in Japan, like almost everyone in Canada, fail to clear their vehicle’s hoods and roofs of snow.

Luckily, the Mrs. and I aren’t going anywhere today.

How’s Global Climate Change affecting your winter? Is it as visually appealing there as it is here?

Since moving from Ontario, I have not had the opportunity to see a great deal of snow before February.  Vancouver is just too warm (for snow) in December, and the same is said for Nagoya.  All that changed today, though, as a healthy 5cm had fallen overnight, covering all the depressingly empty fields and dirty sidewalks.

Here is the view from the train station this morning:

Hopefully there is a lot more snow where this came from. I’m dreaming of a white Christmas.