Flowers for Santa

Wow, how long has it been? Sorry I haven't posted in a while.

This is a picture of some flowers that I received in December. Actually, it wasn't for me per se... it was for "Santa".

In mid-December of last year, I was asked by my school if I could visit a local kindergarten to play as Santa. Of course I said I would do it, but I was really nervous about it. A lot of questions popped up in my mind as I thought about this special visit:

"How am I going to pull this off? I've never done this before..."
"What if the kids pull my beard off?"
"How will I communicate to the kids? They don't know much English."
"What questions are they going to ask me? Should I google info on Santa?"
"What should I do if one of the kids cry?"

Anyway, the day before my kindergarten visit, I was told that my translator came down with the flu. I would have to answer all questions to Santa in the most simple English ever, yet I could not use Japanese at all because Santa "doesn't know how to speak Japanese".

The day of my visit came, and I was quite surprised. The children were so well-behaved, did a singing performance for me, and were so polite when I handed gifts to them. It was funny because I kept telling myself to say "ho ho ho" every 30 seconds or so... and the kids loved the Santa chuckles. Also, the questions they gave me were simple, and I made very simple replies in English with gestures... so there was no problem there. Some of the kids sat next to me and patted me on the back. We took pictures and had a great time. I didn't worry once about a child getting too rowdy. What was weird was, despite the fact that I didn't look anything at all like Santa (I didn't even have a pillow to make me look fat), the kids were so excited and happy to see me.

When I was about to leave, one of the people from the kindergarten came up and gave me a few things to take before I left. One was a cake and the other was the pot of flowers. The woman said that the kids wanted to give this pot of flowers to Santa as a token of their gratitude.

"A... pot of... flowers. What am I going to do with this?", I thought to myself. It had just snowed for the first time in the year that day, it was freezing and I was going to leave Japan for two weeks to visit my family and friends in America. How would I be able to take care of something like this? Every time my parents left for monthly trips to China and asked me to take care of their 50+ plants while they were gone, half of them would die by my hand... no matter how much I would water them and take care of them. I was just lousy with plants.

When I got back to school, I gave my fellow English teachers the cake to share amongst themselves. As for the plant, I asked one of the English teachers (let's call her Mrs. S) if she could take care of the plant while I was away from Japan. She said she would and I left Japan about 2 days afterwards.

I remember coming back to Japan, settling back into my school routine and getting ready for the new semester. 2 weeks after I came back to school, Mrs. S brought me the pot of flowers that I totally forgot about. The flowers looked like they were in really bad shape and seemed to have wilted quite a bit. She asked me what should we do about the plant.

In a knee-jerk reaction, I told her that I have no idea what to do with those flowers, and she said that she would keep it on her desk and care for it. But during that day, I started to feel bad about pushing that task on Mrs. S. Also, the kids from that kindergarten gave it to "Santa", and I didn't think it would be right for "Santa" to refuse such a kind gesture.

Later that day, I asked Mrs. S to return the flowers to me. "Santa" needed to take good care of his gift from the kids.

This picture was taken just yesterday. After some watering and some pruning, the plant looks healthy and happy. I occasionally put it by the window to catch some sunlight when it makes its rare appearance. Some of the teachers gave me good advice on how to care for the plant. What impresses me the most about this plant... every time a leaf or flower dies, another one takes its place quickly. This little plant is really persevering right now, and it makes me happy every day I see it. It reminds me of those really energetic kids that I saw that day.

Before I forget, here's a picture of me as "Santa".



I'm glad Santa made some kids in Japan happy. In turn, those same kids made "Santa" really happy as well.

2-Year Anniversary

July 29th, 2007 was the start of my second life. I made a big leap of faith in coming to Japan, not knowing a single soul who lived there and leaving everything familiar behind. All I had coming in to the Land of the Rising Sun were two heavy suitcases filled with all my worldly belongings and a glimmer of hope. Although I worked really hard to get to Japan, I had no idea what my future held after arrival.

It seems so long ago since that day, but then again... it also seems like yesterday.

After reaching this 2-year milestone, I started to reflect on many things.

* I'm 33 years old now, but I still feel like I'm 25
* I put in 2 productive years in a Senior High School and learned a lot from the experience
* I have a new challenge ahead with the new Junior High School that I'll be teaching at, starting on Monday
* I have been simultaneously experiencing both sides of language learning, as a teacher and as a student... and it has been one of the most difficult things I have ever done
* I made a lot of friends... friends who I trust and friends who made life in Japan so much more enjoyable
* I had done a lot of rewarding and worthwhile volunteer work
* I have progressed in learning the Japanese language and passed Level 3 of the Japanese Language Proficency Test
* I had seen and done many crazy and/or interesting things, with a few of them being so bizarre that it felt like it was straight out of a comedy flick
* I fought loneliness and depression for long stretches... probably the worst depression I have ever experienced, but I have recently emerged as a more confident and happier person
* Living in a foreign country helped me learn so much more about myself, and I know I will continue to learn even more as I continue my life here

I have absolutely no regrets coming here to Japan. This was the shot in the arm that I desparately needed to put some punch back into my life. In America, I was lucky to have 2 interesting days in one month... but here in Japan, almost every day is an adventure. I always utter this statement to anyone who asks me about my life in Japan.

As I enter my 3rd year of life in Japan, I come in with a lot of hope and excitement. My first year was a rollercoaster ride that seemed too fast and quite unbelieveable at times. My second year was filled with hardships, trials and tribulations that really tested my faith.

Let's hope that third time's the charm for me.

Coming to fruition

I feel like a proud father right now. =)

The two biggest graphic design projects I have ever been involved with are exploding with publicity right now. Both of these projects saw great success when I designed them last year, and it's really picking up more steam this year. It's just really exciting.

BEE Japan is one organization that I have helped design for. Last year, I was asked by two fellow Fukui JET Program teachers to design a bicycling jersey for their 2-month bike ride (called "BEE Ride") through Japan, in efforts to spread environmental awareness to Japanese residents throughout the country. It saw a lot of publicity on the radio, TV and newspapers all over Japan. Bee Japan will be riding for the 13th time in 2009.

In a few months, a new team of riders will make their yearly trek around Japan. Just recently, the website released a preview of the new jersey design. It's mostly the same as last year's jersey, but with a few cosmetic changes and a new color scheme for 2009. Jerseys are actually available for sale right now (limited time only, probably only a few weeks longer) for $100, and they are made of really high-quality material.

Salem Willard, the head rider for this year's BEE Ride group is currently a JET Program teacher in Shiga Prefecture, and he came to my current residence (Sabae) to help with a clean-up activity last week. Our small group went around Sabae JR Station picking up trash for an hour. Taisuke Fukuno, owner of jig.jp and a 2nd year sponsor for BEE Japan, is planning to make this a monthly event. Salem posted a few more Sabae pics on the BEE Japan flickr photostream, if you would like to see it.

Arcade in a Box is the other big project that I worked on since last year. AIAB is a company that hails from my hometown of Tucson, Arizona, and they make excellent professional-grade fighting game joysticks for home systems such as Playstation 2 and 3, and XBox 360. The quality of these joysticks are unrivaled, fast becoming the preferred fighting game stick for fighting game enthusiasts in America.

Ed Farias, proprietor of AIAB, made a post a year ago on a popular fighting game forum, asking for help on designing a new logo for his up-and-coming company. I answered the call, and the rest was history.

The publicity has been pouring in steadily for AIAB. AIAB has been featured in "The Jace Hall Show", a popular online show with Jace and his misadventures in the video gaming world. In Season 2, he takes a pilgrimage to Tucson to visit AIAB headquarters. NOTE: Unfortunately, this episode is region locked in Japan.

This weekend is big for AIAB. In Phoenix, Arizona, one of the nation's biggest video game tournaments is being held for huge cash prizes at Devastation 2009. AIAB is one of the sponsors for this event, and they will be at the site promoting their joysticks to convention visitors and tournament players. I was asked to make a huge banner for their booth, so hopefully I will be able to show you pictures on a later update. My logo is everywhere at the event, with representatives wearing AIAB shirts and tournament participants toting around their own AIAB joysticks. I was able to see this because of the live tournament webcast that they have at the event. Yes, this event is really that big.

It's exciting to be a part of something so big, and I hope this is just the start of more great things to come. =)

Fukui's rank on "areas in Japan we don't care about"

Take a look-see at the following link to see where my Japanese home ranks.

Japan Probe's article

This article has been passed around Facebook by fellow Fukui foreign cellar dwellers, and I figured I'd pass this info along to you as well. We are up in arms!

Fukui is different, but I kinda like it here. The people are pretty friendly, it's got some interesting places, and it's a little better than the hustle and bustle cities IMO. It's a little more laid back... and we don't have swine flu yet!

We do have nuclear power plants here that supply half of Western Japan. Think of us as a Simpsonesque Springfield... Japanese-style.

Although I'm disappointed that we didn't get first place, I think I'll live with the ranking.

Swine flu is 2 hours away from me

It's in Osaka and Kobe right now, and it's a 2 hour train ride from where I live. 130 cases have already been reported, up from only 20 cases the day before and 3 cases the day before that.

Am I going to die now?

Hello World, Hello Kitty

I know there is another blogger who also goes by "Ninja Gaijin" at ninjagaijin.blogspot.com, and I apologize to him in advance. I honestly didn't know the nickname was taken so long ago, but then again there's no patents on stuff like that so hopefully he won't mind.

I also named myself "Ninja Gaijin" for a few reasons.

I live in Japan.
I look Japanese.
I cannot speak Japanese very well, so it's hard to make friends.
I feel like an outsider, not just in Japan... but socially in general.
I am a big video game nerd.

Thus, I used the name since July 2008. I even have it as my Street Fighter IV data card for the arcades here in Japan as 忍者外人.

The nickname was inspired by the classic Famicom/NES game called "Ninja Gaiden". It was revolutionary back in the day, having great graphics, excellent music and challenging gameplay. Of course, I played the Ninja Gaiden series on my old NES back in the day. It's a classic that will always have a place in my gamer heart.

That's the end of this post... and no, I don't have anything to say about Hello Kitty.

Blogger virgin

Yep, my new blog home.

Will post anything of interest here, but right now life's been difficult and stagnant.

<3 U