Repeatitude

Every year, the somewhere-under-100 Mie JET program ALTs gather in the capitol city, Tsu, for a November meeting, the agenda for which is this: discuss the meeting to be held in January.

Granted, that January affair is more than a meeting (it's the mid-year seminar), but the whole operation is an exercise in -- what's the word -- repeatitude. We gather. The guy from the BOE reads a few key points about a few key things. It's nothing they couldn't inform us about via faxed/mailed/e-mailed document.

Mainly they bring us there to force us to decide who will have to give presentations at said January seminar. And essentially, it's already decided, on a mysterious document known as "The List."

While volunteers can step up, The List is there as a back-up when people don't. The List's victims rotate every year, so, it's essentially fair. But despite its objectivity, this annual meeting still exists.

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Every once in a while, I'm reminded about third molars, aka wisdom teeth. They make themselves known with bursts of pain, ranging from mild pain to moderate pain. The other night, my lower-right wisdom tooth started in on a kind of pain between moderate and high.

While at this hour the pain has shifted down to what I'm calling sustained mildness, it all raises the question: do I need extraction?

Since I'm not a qualified dentist (anymore) I plan to schedule an appointment soon. There's an English-speaking DMD around who I hope can take a look at the situation.

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It's now inside a month until arrival in Oregon. We're very excited to spend time there and see family and friends. Of course, Portland, Corvallis and Pendleton (plus maybe Vernonia?) are all on the agenda.

And this year it shall be a three-week affair rather than a rushed, Winter-Blastified two weeks. Not that I'm complaining about the Blast. While it complicated travel and caused some stress, who doesn't like a weather story?

One Pot

Ah yes, my blog, that canvass of neglect, that conduit of silence, that never-ending, rarely-updating story of my life.

Why do I ignore you so?

Blah. Enough with the sentimental stuff.

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Last I wrote here, I was weathering a storm. A typhoon (aka hurricane) to be clear. Obviously I made it through that all right. If you were really following along, you would have also seen my (cell-phone-powered) twitter updates at the time, which picked up after the power went out and took my Internet access with it.

By morning, all was well. Minor damage (none to my building). Slight floodery nearby. Trains weren't running. The power was still out.

At school, the trees rained down debris overnight. In the morning, with the students told to stay home, we teachers cleaned it up. One student who showed up by mistake joined in the cleanup.

And now, roughly two months later, I'm here. I don't know if I'll keep the blog going again. I came back last time in a spurt, but then it sputtered out. We'll see.

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Right now, as fall picks up -- winter temperatures have reared and shall rear again next week -- the season of nabe has begun. Nabe literally means "pot" in Japanese, but in practice it means much more.

The nabe pot is brought to the table, heated on a gas-powered or convection burner. A base broth of some kind is brought to a boil, then whatever ingredients you like are thrown in. Popular broth bases include curry or kimchi. The toppings of course include a variety of vegetables and meat.

Nabe represents a communal eating style popular in many Asian cultures. Everyone grabs what they want from the central pot. Sometimes, when you finish your solids, you pour the extra broth in your bowl back into the pot to cook up the next round. Nabe fosters this level of closeness. Though in these times of the new flu, perhaps the communal nature of nabe will be seen as a threat this winter.

I've had nabe at restaurants as part of a course menu (blow fish!), and I've had nabe at friends' places. But as of this last weekend I can now nabe (sure, it's a verb) at home.



I did the kimchi type over the weekend and then curry tonight, with my ALT colleagues Annette and Conrad as guests. We were all quite full after the session, which also featured a screening of the latest episode of Dexter.

Now, as 11 p.m. nears, I'm winding down, wondering what's for dinner tomorrow. More nabe? We'll see.