Hat, Meet Ring

I've complained about election season before, and the main reason for my disgust with the whole process is that while I have no right of suffrage over here, I get a big ol' heaping of noise pollution served up on my doorstep every weekend.

I like to sleep in when I get the chance, and I'm the polar opposite of a morning person.

And then those campaign cars come a'rollin' by.

Grrr.

The funny thing about those cars is that they only thing they're blaring out is gibberish. A whole big mess of "Thank you"s and "Vote For Me"s, but not a single word about what said candidate will actually DO once elected.

Probably because in most cases, the answer would be "Live off of your tax yen."

Ahh well.

Anyway, in reference to the title of the post, I threw my proverbial hat into the proverbial ring yesterday. Proverbially, of course.

Not that I decided to run for office or anything that fancy (although it has been brought up in conversation before). I went on the campaign trail.

Today is the election for the mayor and city council positions here in Matsue. The challenger to the incumbent mayor is none other than Dai Kawakami, one of the people responsible for hiring me to work at the school I currently teach at.

I was asked to give a short speech yesterday to warm up the crowd before his final campaign speech.

Those of you who know me can pretty well understand what I thought about this...

"Why the heck not?"

So, I went and gave a speech.

A lot of it had to do with the theme of change and connecting that to President Obama's campaign last year, especially in that I closed out my speech with a "Yes We Can" for full effect.

(Psst...don't tell anybody, but most of my speech was scripted out beforehand...as in "Here's what you're going to say.")

But that was cool because I agreed with most of it anyway, and the whole Obama thing was more for pumping up the crowd and playing off the fact that I'm American, so...no harm, no foul.

I guess we'll find out tomorrow whether Matsue's mayor for the next four years will be the guy I went and stumped for or not.

When The Higurashi Cry

I have a feeling that a lot of my posts will switch between reflections on the past year and current or upcoming events, but then, that's always been how I write.

I'm a big proponent of stream of consciousness.

There's a certain type of cicada over here that's known as higurashi.

During the summer season in Shimane (and probably most of Japan, except for Hokkaido and maybe parts of northern Honshu), as the sun is starting to move toward the horizon and the temperature starts to make some vague effort to cool off half a degree or so, there comes a slightly sad yet hauntingly beautiful sound from out of the bamboo trees. This is the higurashi welcoming the evening.

I remember one day in June of last year, I had just finished work and was walking back to my car to drive home. The school is up on a hill, and on the way to the parking area, there's an area where you can look down into a small valley. The lighting that day was perfect; the valley was just so GREEN, greener than anything I've ever seen back home. Everything was still, and the heat had started to back off a bit, and that's when I heard the higurashi echoing out of the trees.

I remember thinking how damn happy I was to be standing right there at that moment. How everything finally felt RIGHT with the world. And it was the higurashis cries that made me realize that I was BACK. Three years I hand't heard them, and now there they were again, and I just remember standing on that spot, looking down on that small valley, and thinking, "I'm home."

While cicadas can be a bit of a nuisance at times, there's something to be said for hearing a higurashi cry come through your window on a sultry summer evening.

There may not be a whole lot to look forward to when it comes to summer in Shimane, but I know the next time I hear the higurashi cry, there will be a big smile on my face.

Reflections on Days Passed

So it's been a year now since I moved back to Matsue from Hokkaido.

The story so far? Good on most fronts.

The truth of the matter is that I really would have preferred to stay in Shimane.

I suppose there was a lot of bitterness toward the whole situation that led to me having to leave Shimane in the first place. There had been discussions of me staying on in Izumo in a direct contract situation with the city, but once the job offer came up in Muroran, I was told "Good luck up there!"

So yeah, it wasn't exactly my first choice.

I had a couple of good friends come down from Muroran and visit me the other day, and after showing them around and introducing them to my friends and generally talking about how great life in Shimane is, one of them said:

"That's something that's always bothered me about you: If you loved living here so much, why did you choose to leave?"

A fair question, which deserved a fair answer. Who knows? Maybe at the time, I should have fought harder to have a chance to stay. But being told what I was told kind of feels like a sucker punch to the gut that knocks the wind out of you before knocking you right on your ass. I just didn't have the spirit left to fight for it.

Now with me being back online at home, I've been taking a look at some of my Muroran Chronicles posts, and there's some negativity that seeps through. I think at times I must have been more frustrated with myself than anything else.

But saying that...

While I may wish some things had turned out differently, I don't ever regret moving to Hokkaido.

I had some amazing experiences and met some incredible people while I was there, and those experiences and those friends are things I will cherish for my whole life. And most importantly, it's because of where I was that I'm where I am today.

You have to leave to be able to come back.

Sure, not everything is perfect. I wish I was taking home a little more each month. But I get by and still get to do a lot of the things I enjoy.

I'm officially a licensed teacher over here, and I've just been promoted to full-time teacher from "lecturer".

As a good friend of mine said the other day, "A shiny new raise would have been nice to go with the shiny new title."

Truer words have never been spoken.

My apartment's small, cold in the winter, hot in the summer, and I have to keep the dehumidifier on all year round, but it's home.

The love life is sad as always, but the bars in Matsue are nice, and one of them has Guinness on tap and a very nice fish-and-chips meal on the menu.

I've become quite adept at finding silver linings.

Time and distance can bring things into focus, and well, things all told are pretty good.

Time Passes By, But It'll Come Around Again

I've been away from my blog for over a year.

Some stuff came up to keep me away from it.

Let's see:

1) Writing a book
2) Quitting my old job
3) Moving halfway across Japan...again
4) Starting my new one
5) Being sick and tired of writing from working on a book
6) Not having Internet access at home

Well, life's calmed down and I'm online again, so it's about time I got back to work.

Writing stuff, anyway.

No guarantees on how often this thing will be updated, but I'll be writing again.

Stop by anytime.