Post-Posted Post

My intention was to recap what I did this past week but decided against it because that would take too long so, I'll just do a quick rundown:

1) Spent a lot of time in the office reading.
2) Met my new supervisor, teachers, staff members, students, schools, etc.
3) Went to far too many enkai
4) Spent a whole week at school with no classes to teach and, for the most part, alone in the teacher's room
5) Went to an izakaya (Japanese bar) at least once every other day
6) Made soba noodles again with my Japanese teacher
7) Made it to payday with 2761 yen in the back account
8) And a whole lot of other stuff that is probably not appropriate for this blog (indeed, a JET got severely scolded by CLAIR for putting some pretty offensive stuff on his/her blog about their school, Japan, contracting organization, etc.; it even made it into the CLAIR newsletter)


I'll try not to make the "point-form post" a regular habit but seeing as I have to go to my furthest school this week (commuting time: 1.5 hours!), I'm about ready to hit the sack.


This shot took -a lot- of liquid courage. Although I'm glad I got it, it's not exactly how I pictured it so, I'll be heading back underground to grab a couple of more photos. I know it's probably not the best idea to take photographs on a crowded train but, as the Japanese say: One-chance, One-encounter.

This will probably be my last post until I get back from Korea so, until then, "Shi yu."

I'm here -- just not right now.

I want to say I've been busy with work so, that's why I haven't blogged much -- but that wouldn't be completely true. I've been busy -- it just hasn't always been of the working variety.

As for my pictures, I actually have quite a few to post but I'm having trouble getting them to display properly via Flickr. I shot most of them in RAW and after converting them into JPG in iPhoto, there seems to be something amiss. The colours are unsaturated and everything looks over-exposed. I've been reading up on this iPhoto-Flickr-RAW incompatibility and it seems to stem from Flickr stripping the colour-profiles of JPGs converted from RAW in iPhoto and displaying them all as Adobe RGB instead of the more mainstream sRGB colour profile. Until I can figure this out, I'll be shooting in JPG from now on. *sigh*

Anyways, I'll be heading to Korea this Golden Week for a not-so well-deserved vacation. As always, thanks for reading and hopefully I'll be able to get up to speed before I leave.

EDIT Ia: Son of a @#$#@! I think I figured out what is going on with my photos. Apparently iPhoto, by default, -assigns- Adobe RGB to any photo without a preassigned colour space. When I was shooting in normal JPG, this setting didn't affect my photos because my in-camera settings assigned the sRGB colour profile to each photograph. However, when I switched to RAW, because RAW photos aren't assigned a specific colour space (for post-production purposes), iPhoto arbitrarily assumes you want them in Adobe RGB. Even when I export them, they are all assigned under the Adobe RGB colour profile even though they are exported as RAW photos. Argh.

EDIT II: I've decided to dump the RAWs and work exclusively with the exported JPGs; I don't have time to tweak all my pictures. I read THIS great article by Ken Rockwell that convinced me it is probably better to spend more of my time going outside taking photographs rather than sitting in front of a computer tweaking them. Good stuff.

EDIT IIIa (haha~ only Nikon users will understand the lame joke I just made): Okay, last edit. So, here is the colour problem I'm referring to:


Alpha One


Beta Two

Which one do you prefer? Obviously the first one, right? Those are screen-shots of the -exact- same photograph. The first one is in iPhoto and the second one is the same photo after exporting to Flickr. What's a technically illiterate person to do? :)

Digital Democracy

We truly live in an age where information travels at the speed of light. No sooner had the incidents begun, web pages, blogs, a wikipedia entry and, in one case, a live video of what was going on at the scene, appeared on the Internet for everybody to see. Live updates were being made continuously by those around and inside the premises. Astonishing.

Embarrassing

I had the dubious distinction yesterday and today trying to explain to a couple of Japanese teachers why Canada sanctions the slaughter of 250,000+ seals a year. Personally, I couldn't. I could only apologize and bow multiple times (you know, in that general way) and try to explain to them that I don't know much about the hunt (which I don't).

That being said, I wasn't defending the hunt (hey, what do you expect?) and, in fact, I agreed with the teachers in that the hunt is probably not a "good" thing. This is especially true given that most of the ice glaciers and islands -- where the pups are born -- have melted earlier than expected this year due to global warming. In hindsight, I probably could have easily compared the Canadian seal hunt to the annual Japanese whale harvest but I was too busy trying to get myself out of the sticky situation.

Frankly, this is one of the few times that I'm actually embarrassed to be Canadian.

一礼

The view from below.

I wanted to post this last week but age got the best of me and it slipped my mind. Ever wonder what goes on during a very formal Japanese ceremony? Lots of bowing. I say this because recently we had the annual Fukuoka Board of Education bowing ceremony. This is a time where we welcome all the new people to the office and strive to "try our best"! Oddly enough, us senior ALTs have to do the ceremony with the new people even though we've already gone through it before (probably because we're considered dirty "haken").

Anyways, during the bowing ceremony there is a STRICT bowing procedure everybody must adhere to at ALL times. Naturally us ALTs are unfamiliar with this routine (except Jon.. but he's Japanese so, this stuff is pre-programmed into his blood) but we try our best to follow everybody else.

1) say "Hai!" when your name is called;
2) get up quietly and walk towards the podium;
3) before reaching the podium, turn to the side and bow to the senior administrators/head-supervisor;
4) turn towards the podium then bow to the director;
5) walk up to the podium with your arms at the side;
6) wait till the director finishes reading the stuff on your certificate, approach the podium then bow again;
7) receive the certificate with your right hand, then your left hand and, while holding the certificate face-up, bow again;
8) step back from the podium, bow one more time to the director;
9) before going back your seat, make sure to turn towards the senior administrators/head-supervisors and bow once more;
10) return to your seat and sit down -- quietly.

Pressure, eh? During the course of the day and after-work enkai (drinking party), I probably bowed at least 200+ times. Fun stuff.

In the News

Last year, some government Boards of Education decided not to teach history to students because they deemed it "unnecessary"; now, when they do decide to teach it, they get it all wrong. Okay, obviously I'm exaggerating but stuff like this boggles me. You can read the full article HERE.

As a side-note, why on earth is the government responsible for screening textbooks in the first place? Isn't there some sort of conflict-of-interest or lack-of-expertise or something? Maybe that's how textbooks are screened in Canada as well -- I don't know to be honest. It just doesn't seem right.

先生達へ： ハーロー

The Train Home.

Well, it looks like the cat's out of the bag. After a year-and-a-half of general anonymity, today most of my teachers now know I keep a personal blog; I can't help but ponder the implications of their discovery.


Row of Sakura Trees.

To be honest, I don't really mind. It probably won't change what I write or what I post -- at least not in English. I will probably have to write a little more carefully if I intend to write something in Japanese that may offend.


"What Am I?"

James, once again, correctly answered last month's challenge.


Sunset in Sakura.

Do I post too many pictures? Maybe I should try to be more discriminating regarding which pictures I post on my blog and which ones I just upload to Flickr. Any input is appreciated.


Green Moss.

I really like the texture of this photo. There was significant lens-aberration on this photograph before I cropped it however, the centre, which you see here, is perfectly sharp.


The Colour of Grey.

I took this shot yesterday during sunset. It turned out better than I had imagined. For those of you wondering how I got the cloud to look like that, it all comes down to the polarizing filter I got for my lens. At the right angle, it produces an almost 3D-like appearance of certain objects under certain conditions. This is one of them.


Sunset Sakura.

This is my last sakura photograph (probably for a long time). Most of the sakura blossoms have fallen off and the sakura trees have started turning green. Until next time.. ずっと、ずっと。。

Inspiration

Who have you inspired today?

You know, it's a difficult thing to inspire others. Politicians often try to inspire others with their words, but once you cut through the rhetoric, they tend to behave in a way that often induces cynicism.


Here's looking at you.

I think the way in which people succeed in inspiring others is when they do something with -passion-. It's no coincidence that the most famous people we associate with the concept of "inspiration" are those that tend to be so absorbed in their work/hobby/interest/etc. that the activity becomes synonymous with their personality.


Shades of grey.

Being inspired isn't merely about copying somebody else. It's not so black and white. Being inspired is about reflection, adaptation, personalization and the perpetuation of that single passion.


What does it take to believe?

I think anybody can become an inspiration to others. It doesn't even have to be -- and it often isn't -- a primary goal; it is a merely a byproduct of an enthusiastic existential existence.


Just wanted to thank those that have been an inspiration to me. But I've run out of pictures so, that's the end of this rather saccharine post. :)

4 Sakura

I'm too tired to do a full update so, here are some photos of the sakura blossoms this year. Spring is definitely the most beautiful season in Japan (albeit a little cold and wet this year).


Sakura and train in B&W.


Sakura grows on trees -- unlike money.


Another B&W Sakura shot.

Change of Plans

Well, it looks like I'll be leaving Japan sooner than I thought. Due to a change in policy, I decided to leave Japan a few months earlier than expected. It's been a great experience.

This blog will probably be on temporary hiatus until I figure out "What's Next," until then, thanks for reading and take care.

Sayonara.