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Saturday we went to the Keyaki French Festival but unfortunately the rain gods decided to pick on us. Cloudy with rain off and on, it didn’t make for the best festival or picture-taking weather. There was a lovely accordian player who played many classic French songs. It helped to liven up a dreary Saturday.

With only a couple days left of complete freedom, my other half and I decided to go to a movie. “Last Days” is LOOSELY based on Kurt Cobain from Nirvana who killed himself at a much too young of age. We made the mistake of expecting insight, even a totally biased one, on the last days of his life.

Wrong! Warped is more like it. Though they claim it is only inspired by him, the promotion of it speaks otherwise. As we are at an age where we, ahem…, were around and experienced his impact on our generation, it was quite the disappointment. Even as a story, it didn’t make me care.

I will say there was a really good scene with the main character singing a song that was the closest to capturing the isolation and frustation he must have felt.

3 1/2 good minutes out of 110.

Now, I know what you have been thinking…already given up on the blog…knew it wouldn’t last…yadda yadda….

But really, I do have a good excuse for not writing. First I must back up a bit.

In April, I ended a 7-year CIR job (coordinator for international relations-essentially I helped with anything related to English or foreigners) at city hall. I was going to catch up on things and enjoy the unemployed life as long as the bank account would allow while preparing myself for a career more focused on design and communication. As everything in Japan seems to be focused around Tokyo, and me wanting to keep my base in Shizuoka, I figured the only option for me was freelance. Even though freelance work is unstable and learning how to market myself would be essential, the idea of working in my pajamas when I wanted did sound good.

But then all my plans changed…

I was introduced to a design company based in Shizuoka City who works on a local and international level with designers, companies and artists. Their design work ranges from print to web to even commercials; they produce multimedia art festivals, modern art shows and do non-profit work promoting design in the community. Their international network had grown to the point where they needed a native English speaker who knows design to join their staff full-time.

Me, me, me…!!!!

Design, art, cross-cultural communication & exchange…everything I want to do. I think we were made for each other (ok, the international business trips and my own mac laptop was also a big bonus!).

Work officially starts in June but I have been doing translations almost everyday for them already. That and hurridly finishing up other projects (been designing a bilingual map for the international association here) has meant that the blog has been idle.

But from now on I will have lots of new and hopefully exciting experiences to share.

On a different note, this weekend in Shizuoka is the Keyaki France Festival. Lots of music, food, and most importantly wine, will be available in the Marui & 5J department stores area. If the rain gods cooperate, tables will also be set up so people can relax in the French atmosphere.

Ahhhh…it has been a long time since I have been on “international time”. In Japan, especially Shizuoka, things run to the second; schedules are planned and followed and people do not upset the system in general. It is funny how all that meticulous planning can go down the toilet when international time is brought into the picture.

Currently Shizuoka City is hosting a tourism working group meeting for APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation) with representatives from over 15 areas. I am helping with some of the interpreting (at dinners and other fun stuff; nothing juicy).

Already on the first day the schedule is out of whack; meetings running over the scheduled time, meetings finishing up early, people arriving at the last minute…all in all not going according to schedule. Not that the meetings aren’t going well, because it seems that they are. It is just entertaining to watch the non-internationalized Japanese run around with their foreheads all wrinkly trying to change schedules and plan ahead while always playing catch-up.

International time is the clear winner in this case. Luckily for us, the trains here are still on staunch Japanese time.

Getting better at customizing this weblog; finally figured out how to put my own banner and other stuff up onto this blog.

Another project that started just recently for me is radio. Yes, I get to live out 15 minutes of fame (?) twice a month on a local radio station. The international exchange association (SAME) sponsors a 15-minute information spot 4 nights a week with a different language each night-English, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese and Tagalog. Yours truly along with Terrie & Joe “DJ” twice a month.

You don’t even need to be in Shizuoka to find out what is going on here or just to hear our voices. Past broadcasts are listed on SAME’s radio blog web page. And if you happen to be in Shizuoka City, catch the broadcast on Thursdays between 19:45-20:00. We rotate once a week with another English group. And here is a face to put with my voice.

If you do listen to the radio blog, do leave a comment. It would be nice to know that we are not just talking to ourselves…but then again, maybe we are…

Decided to change from Movable Type to WordPress. I needed something a bit more friendly to the codephobic person. I’ll try this and see if I can get the look I want a bit easier.

I will add past posts and comments. Sorry for any mixups along the way!

What better way to spend one’s last holiday days than sitting in front of the computer trying to figure out how to customize a blog. Still not there yet but figured out how to add my own banner and change some colors. Slowly getting there…

Golden Week hasn’t been a total anti-social event for us. Had a wonderful bbq with friends and spent yesterday walking and people-watching around downtown. Stopped for yummy tea and rasberry tart along the way.

Did see some young Westerners sitting on the staircase in the middle of a department store eating. First time to see that. Am I getting old (ok, that is a given) or are non-Japanese here getting ruder? There have always been some, but one never really saw them in Shizuoka. Of course no one told them to get up off their butts and leave… that would be too confrontational.

On a happier note…Mister Donuts has a new campaign. Spend 2400 yen on donuts within a month and get a nifty foldable shopping bag. One can never have TOO many bags.
http://www.misterdonut.jp/newcamp/index.html

The 7th annual Shizuoka Samba Carnival was held in downtown on May 3rd & 4th. Samba dance teams from around Japan come and participate.

Samba teams in Japan?! Actually Brazilians are the 3rd largest foreign nationality in Shizuoka City (and the largest in the prefecture). Brazil and Japan have a deep relationship which started with thousands of Japanese immigrating to Brazil in the early 20th century to work. Now there are many ethnic Japanese Brazillians who are coming to Japan to work (thanks to special laws for ethnic Japanese or “nikkei”).

With them has come Brazillian-owned restaurants, stores, music, and Japan now has more opportunities to experience Brazillian culture and (hopefully) catch a bit of the Latin spirit.

While there weren’t many spectators today dancing along to the music, the streets were so full of people that security had to push people out of the way so the samba teams could go through.