Year-end-beginning thingies

[dr4b]

A year ago I said:

In 2009, I resolve to be there for my friends.

Goals for the year include:
- Pass the JLPT 2-kyuu exam
- Lose another 15 pounds
- Go to Shikoku

So, um. I don't know how I did on being there for my friends. I certainly kinda fucked up on being there for my family, as I left my dad and then he died two weeks later, but on the other hand I did come back for the funeral and all. I've tried to talk to my brother a lot this year and I actually think I've succeeded on that end. (It's not hard. He has a lot of photos of his daughter to show me.)

I don't have a lot of friends in Japan and so it's hard to be there for them per se. I did, on the other hand, go all kinds of crazy places with my baseball friends...

I tried to keep in touch with everyone back in the US better this year -- but I think what happened is I kept in touch really well with a few people and not so well with others. This is mostly because a lot of people have transferred to Facebook, and for me, Facebook is output-only, I don't tend to read anything there. I'm on AIM all the time, but I rarely actually talk to people on there, partially due to timezones and partially because it's sometimes kinda weird looking at my buddy list, but not really having a reason to talk to anyone.

Sigh.

As for goals --

I took the JLPT 2, but I'm pretty sure I failed. On the other hand, at least I went ahead and studied and finally TOOK it, so I can feel like I didn't totally blow off that goal.

I didn't lose any weight this year. I pretty much weigh the same now as I did on January 1st last year. If anything I weigh one or two kilograms more, which sucks, but I haven't been very active these last few weeks, mostly sitting at home under the kotatsu.

I went to Shikoku! Hooray! One goal completed!

As for 2010, I have a few goals. Some of these are part of how I always say "I don't want to leave Japan while I feel like I still had stuff to accomplish here", and some of these are just stuff I want to do...

Goals for 2010:

1) PASS THE GODDAMN JLPT 2-KYUU
1a) Take some actual goddamn Japanese lessons already
2) Go to a baseball game in the new stadium in Niigata (preferably Hokushinetsu League)
3) Take the train to Hokkaido instead of flying
4) Go to Okinawa
5) Go to as many prefectures as possible
6) Get a new job (this kind of goes without saying)
7) Make some new friends -- preferably for karaoke and/or board games
7a) Have a board games party at my house sometime
8) Actually keep my japanese baseball code base up to date (and fix the Perl scripts I never fixed in 2009 because I was a huge fucking slacker)
8a) Have Westbay teach me cool baseball database programming tricks
9) Write more baseball blog posts, and shorter blog posts
9a) Do at least 2 player interviews this year
10) If I'm working at a JHS again: I want to actually work with a sports club on a real tangible regular basis, and I also want to have a 95% or better success rate on Eiken interviews again
11) Go to see a Broadway show here in Tokyo (well, a Shiki show but still)

But most of all...

2010) Write my book already.

No, really. The last one is the biggest. And the problem is that some of what I want to write about, I pretty much have to research here (namely the history of the ouendan, which is something I've been learning about by essentially TALKING to ouendan and other related people).

Another thing I'd really like to do in Japan, but I hesitate to make it an actual goal because it seems so totally unlikely, is that I'd really like to someday sit outside a train station and play guitar and sing music with somebody. Any volunteers? :)

Oh, and as of now, unless I'm forgetting something, my prefectures-visited status is:

Actually spent time in 21 prefectures:
Hokkaido, Miyagi, Ibaraki, Saitama, Chiba, Tokyo, Kanagawa, Toyama, Ishikawa, Gifu, Aichi, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyogo, Nara, Okayama, Hiroshima, Yamaguchi, Kochi, Fukuoka, Nagasaki

Been through 9 more, but never got out of the trains/stations:
Fukushima, Tochigi, Gunma, Niigata, Shizuoka, Shiga, Tokushima, Kagawa, Saga

Have never been through or in the remaining 17:
Aomori, Iwate, Akita, Yamagata, Fukui, Yamanashi, Nagano, Mie, Wakayama, Tottori, Shimane, Ehime, Kumamoto, Oita, Miyazaki, Kagoshima, Okinawa

Not sure I have time to really reduce the third category entirely, but I'd like to bring the first category up to at least 30 and the third category down to fewer than 10.

I'll probably add to this post a bit...

Also: I realize I am a really terrible person who told a lot of people I'd be moving back to the US at the end of 2009, and that I'd be there for some things in 2010. I just... I don't feel ready yet. I want to come back and visit, but I want to be here for next year too. There are so many people I want to see again for baseball stuff and places I want to go and... ugh. I don't want to make any promises about next year, but given how I feel this winter, it's quite possible I'll be ready to get the fuck out of Japan by next year. I've actually heard from a lot of people that 1 year is not enough, 2 years is not quite enough, 3 years is starting to be too much -- and I'll hit 3 years in August 2010. Well, or more like, "3 years is when you either get the fuck out, or realize you'll be here for the rest of your life". I can't see being here for the rest of my life, so...

Comments

[februaryfour]

Fully agree with the "three years is either too much or you're spending the rest of your life here" thing. I'd have left if it weren't for Doug.

[eiriene.livejournal.com]

Why is three years too much, out of curiosity?

[februaryfour]

I don't know, but somewhere between two and three years you feel as if you've had enough... or you feel as if you've found your place. I couldn't tell you why it was three years, though.

[dr4b]

I don't know either. I just remember several people telling me it in the past... I won't know until I reach the 3-year point, I guess?

[februaryfour]

For me, it was two years and 8 months. Just FYI.

[dr4b]

What happened then?

[februaryfour]

I just decided I'd had enough of struggling on a daily basis. Most of it has to do with not being fluent enough in Japanese to be stuck in teaching.

[eiriene.livejournal.com]

Also, Deanna, if we randomly go to Kakunodate, then you'll hit Akita that way. =)

[dr4b]

What on earth is in Kakunodate?

Akita is actually the only prefecture in Tohoku I have absolutely zero interest in, come to think of it. But that wouldn't stop me from getting out of a train to eat dinner somewhere to add it to my prefectures-visited list :)

[eiriene.livejournal.com]

Cherry blossoms and preserved houses. Also, really beautiful onsen. It's in the article I sent you.

[indigodove.livejournal.com]

Deanna, stay as long as it's making you happy and you're getting the things you wanted to find...within reason, of course :-)

You are having an adventure and I'm glad you've been able to!

Also, you were there for your Dad. You spent time with him and it mattered. No one can really predict when someone who has cancer is or isn't going to die. You did the best you could, I think (and sure, I don't know or remember the details). He knew how much you love him, and that's the important thing. *hug*

[bhudson.livejournal.com]

Agree on the being there. Flying back from Japan for a couple months is a ton more than most people manage to do for their parents.

[jiggery-pokery.livejournal.com]

Your list of goals looks really cool, and I am delighted to read your plans for your book. There are very few books that you might write which I wouldn't love, but I can't immediately think of a subject that strikes me as more "you" than that. Just, generally: YAY!

[daviticus.livejournal.com]

Another thing I'd really like to do in Japan, but I hesitate to make it an actual goal because it seems so totally unlikely, is that I'd really like to someday sit outside a train station and play guitar and sing music with somebody. Any volunteers?

If I was in Japan or had any chance of going I would totally volunteer for this. That's one of my 2010 goals in Boston :-P

[dr4b]

Sadly, I won't be in Boston either :)

Is it as common there for random people to sing in front of train stations? In the Tokyo area, there are always people out there playing. I don't even think they need a permit or anything, though I'm not sure. There used to be a pair of guys playing outside my old station all the time and they were terrible. It took me a while to figure out that they were actually practicing out there, since playing in an apartment building is apparently less desirable than playing in front of the station...

[daviticus.livejournal.com]

Mostly in the train stations -- in the Boston stations, you need a permit and there's a designated performance area in each station, but permits are easy to get and anyone can do it. Outdoors the laws vary, I think Cambridge you need a permit, but Somerville anyone can play. It's pretty common to pass musicians of varying quality in places with a lot of foot traffic...

[donutjay.livejournal.com]

Are you going to be visiting your brother this trip? Don't forget to look us up.

[dr4b]

Yes, I'm hoping to, so yes, I should get in touch with you guys too. Argh, I really ought to plan that part.

[bhudson.livejournal.com]

Yay, a book!

There's no hard and fast rule about how long you should live anywhere. Do whatever you want. If you aren't ready to leave after three, there's no reason to. Also, I still haven't made it over there...

[dr4b]

Yeah, but now you don't work for a company that's likely to send you :P

[bhudson.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but now I'm more likely to have time!

[eub.livejournal.com]

You came back for your dad to say goodbye to you. And I'm pretty sure he knew during that visit (more than he let on) that he wasn't going to be alive for another. You were there at the right time.

I didn't make yeastcakes this year, and I thought, oh, next year if I make them I'll remind myself to send one to Deanna's dad. Hmf.

[dr4b]

Yeah, I'm still pissed that he didn't write down his Quicken password somewhere.

He really liked those yeastcakes -- thank you for sending them to him every year. I think I failed at ever baking anything good for my family :)

[eub.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on starting your book!

[skydiamonde.livejournal.com]

Yay! can't wait for your book =)

[the2belo.livejournal.com]

It was year 5 before I decided "okay, I'm staying here". That, in itself, was 12 years ago... oh shi

[shandrew.livejournal.com]

I want to read your ouendan book! Write write write!