When I decided to do this blog about my life in Japan, I knew I was going to lay out the good as well as the bad about myself. I was going to show myself as an adventurous young man learning about love, life, Japan and himself. That part about learning about myself, is also the bad.
It's Friday, August 23, 1991. I'm living in Ohtawara-shi, Tochigi-ken, Japan - having moved here to teach English on the JET (Japan Exchange &Teaching) Programme nearly 13 months ago. I'm nearly 27 years old (in a few months). I love Japan. It's also my first time away from home. I lost my virginity here. I'm slept with a lot of women here... and I aim to place a few more notches in the bedpost before I'm done. I've slept with a few Japanese women, but also women from Canada, the U.S., England, Australia, Thailand... and more that I'm too lazy to think about at the moment of this writing, suffice to say that I loved everyone of them at the time I was with them.
Ashley has arrived back in Japan a couple of days ago after going home to the U.S. for a vacation. Ashley is currently my friend-with-benefits, though we were boyfriend/girlfriend for much of our first year in Japan. We lived near each other (so does my friend Matthew, but I never slept with him), had way different personalities... I had one, she did not, but she did like me when no woman back in Canada seemed to like me in that way. It's too bad that familiarity breeds contempt.
While I saw her when she arrived back in her nearby town of Nishinasuno-machi (Nishinasuno Town), I haven't seen or heard from her since. I knew she would be jet-lagged, and the day before she arrived (I think), I stocked her fridge for her with with some of her favourite foodstuffs and drinks. I am nothing if not polite.. okay, maybe I'm not polite, but I am considerate... or maybe I'm somewhere in-between. Maybe. I don't know. Have you ever really psycho-analyzes yourself and then tried to justify your good points even though you know that your bad points contradict them? Welcome to this blog. Welcome to my mind - ignore the echo.
I go to Ashleys at 10AM (she called and invited me bright and early at 9AM), and stay until 1PM. We watch her favourite movie The Princess Bride. I had never seen it before, but I havce to admit I really, really liked it.
She watches as she does her laundry, but seems even more distant towards me. More so confusing considering how passionate we were just before she left here a few weeks back... I was just getting into this friends-with-benefits thing, too!
Sure she's heavier since returning, but she's still cute - and my was the sex good. At least it was for me. I only have her eyes rolling back into her head to make me think she enjoyed herself too.
She gives me a couple of presents... a My Little Pony doll because I once mentioned that I wanted: "... a
car, a house, a pony..." and she gives me a can of Southern Dirt.
I'm still pissed off that when my mom and my friend John came, that no one gave me anything neat... like comic books. It's my friggin' major hobby, and I haven't seen a new comic book in 13 months... except for the 10 or so that Kristine sent me. She knew! She cared!
From Ashley I got a toy pony and some dirt? What sort of crap is that?!
I don't even want to talk to her now. I fall asleep listening to a tape of her favourite comic - Steven Wright. He's dull, but morosely funny. But my mood won't let me enjoy it or anything right now.
She wakes me up at 1PM so that she can go get her haircut. Who leaves America to come to Japan to get their haircut by people for whom English is a completely foreign tongue! Especially in a small town like Nishinasuno-machi?! Whatever.
On purpose, I leave her gifts at her place. It's crap. I ride part-way to her hair salon before parting towards Ohtawara-shi. We didn't talk much on the bicycle ride, and we didn't talk much at her place. I was excited to see her, and she was obviously not excited to see me.
I spend the rest of the afternoon perched atop my western balcony reading reading Sherlock Holmes - I guess he's not the only one looking for a clue.
Matthew calls later at night and we go out to the 4C for a beer... but sorry, buddy! I'm in a crappy mood. I still have dysentery, but I can't blame that for how I feel. Crappy. And she never thanked me for the food and drinks I left for her!
Somewhere never starting a land war in Asia,
Andrew Joseph
Today's blog title is by The Kings - I love this SONG! An excellent Canadian band!
PS: "Never start a land war in Asia" is my favourite line from The Princess Bride. Peter Falk, who is in that movie, died this past week. R.I.P Columbo!
PPS: So... 20 years later... I re-read this blog entry for the first time since I originally wrote it ... and man, I was such a suck. The crappy presents? They weren't crappy... at least not to the eyes of a now 46-year-old man. Ashley tried to make me happy by giving me at least one of the things I always wanted. It was a joke, sure, but it shows that she was listening. And the can of Southern Dirt. Stupid present sure, but at least I would always have a little bit of Ashley's hometown with me. No wonder she was done... I showed zero enthusiasm or respect for her and her gifts! It's a wonder I ever got laid! Days later, Ashley dropped my presents off. I, the ignorant prick, threw them out a few days later. While I still would have preferred someone bring me some comic books in English - like Kristine, who mailed to me some on a couple of occasions - Ashley at least listened to my dreams (joke though it was - as I was parroting what a spoiled rich teenaged girl might say), and tried to provide me with something that was uniquely Ashley. And this is me 20 years later... having gone through many a female relationship with people who don't seem to listen to me, who don't seem to know what I'm about, who I am... after re-reading this blog, it was obvious that who I was back in 1991 was a greedy, whiny bastard. And I blew it.
PPPS: So... having read that... are you still with me? It gets better. Life/Rife, I mean. At least my mom will be back from her trip out West in Japan tomorrow. I should probably be nicer and start showing her a good time... that I have grown up... even if it's just a little bit. Ahhhh crap. I guess pride goeth before the fall. That's from The Bible: Proverbs 16... and I'm no longer a religious person, but it's worth remembering.
It's Friday, August 23, 1991. I'm living in Ohtawara-shi, Tochigi-ken, Japan - having moved here to teach English on the JET (Japan Exchange &Teaching) Programme nearly 13 months ago. I'm nearly 27 years old (in a few months). I love Japan. It's also my first time away from home. I lost my virginity here. I'm slept with a lot of women here... and I aim to place a few more notches in the bedpost before I'm done. I've slept with a few Japanese women, but also women from Canada, the U.S., England, Australia, Thailand... and more that I'm too lazy to think about at the moment of this writing, suffice to say that I loved everyone of them at the time I was with them.
Ashley has arrived back in Japan a couple of days ago after going home to the U.S. for a vacation. Ashley is currently my friend-with-benefits, though we were boyfriend/girlfriend for much of our first year in Japan. We lived near each other (so does my friend Matthew, but I never slept with him), had way different personalities... I had one, she did not, but she did like me when no woman back in Canada seemed to like me in that way. It's too bad that familiarity breeds contempt.
While I saw her when she arrived back in her nearby town of Nishinasuno-machi (Nishinasuno Town), I haven't seen or heard from her since. I knew she would be jet-lagged, and the day before she arrived (I think), I stocked her fridge for her with with some of her favourite foodstuffs and drinks. I am nothing if not polite.. okay, maybe I'm not polite, but I am considerate... or maybe I'm somewhere in-between. Maybe. I don't know. Have you ever really psycho-analyzes yourself and then tried to justify your good points even though you know that your bad points contradict them? Welcome to this blog. Welcome to my mind - ignore the echo.
I go to Ashleys at 10AM (she called and invited me bright and early at 9AM), and stay until 1PM. We watch her favourite movie The Princess Bride. I had never seen it before, but I havce to admit I really, really liked it.
She watches as she does her laundry, but seems even more distant towards me. More so confusing considering how passionate we were just before she left here a few weeks back... I was just getting into this friends-with-benefits thing, too!
Sure she's heavier since returning, but she's still cute - and my was the sex good. At least it was for me. I only have her eyes rolling back into her head to make me think she enjoyed herself too.
She gives me a couple of presents... a My Little Pony doll because I once mentioned that I wanted: "... a
car, a house, a pony..." and she gives me a can of Southern Dirt.
I'm still pissed off that when my mom and my friend John came, that no one gave me anything neat... like comic books. It's my friggin' major hobby, and I haven't seen a new comic book in 13 months... except for the 10 or so that Kristine sent me. She knew! She cared!
From Ashley I got a toy pony and some dirt? What sort of crap is that?!
I don't even want to talk to her now. I fall asleep listening to a tape of her favourite comic - Steven Wright. He's dull, but morosely funny. But my mood won't let me enjoy it or anything right now.
She wakes me up at 1PM so that she can go get her haircut. Who leaves America to come to Japan to get their haircut by people for whom English is a completely foreign tongue! Especially in a small town like Nishinasuno-machi?! Whatever.
On purpose, I leave her gifts at her place. It's crap. I ride part-way to her hair salon before parting towards Ohtawara-shi. We didn't talk much on the bicycle ride, and we didn't talk much at her place. I was excited to see her, and she was obviously not excited to see me.
I spend the rest of the afternoon perched atop my western balcony reading reading Sherlock Holmes - I guess he's not the only one looking for a clue.
Matthew calls later at night and we go out to the 4C for a beer... but sorry, buddy! I'm in a crappy mood. I still have dysentery, but I can't blame that for how I feel. Crappy. And she never thanked me for the food and drinks I left for her!
Somewhere never starting a land war in Asia,
Andrew Joseph
Today's blog title is by The Kings - I love this SONG! An excellent Canadian band!
PS: "Never start a land war in Asia" is my favourite line from The Princess Bride. Peter Falk, who is in that movie, died this past week. R.I.P Columbo!
PPS: So... 20 years later... I re-read this blog entry for the first time since I originally wrote it ... and man, I was such a suck. The crappy presents? They weren't crappy... at least not to the eyes of a now 46-year-old man. Ashley tried to make me happy by giving me at least one of the things I always wanted. It was a joke, sure, but it shows that she was listening. And the can of Southern Dirt. Stupid present sure, but at least I would always have a little bit of Ashley's hometown with me. No wonder she was done... I showed zero enthusiasm or respect for her and her gifts! It's a wonder I ever got laid! Days later, Ashley dropped my presents off. I, the ignorant prick, threw them out a few days later. While I still would have preferred someone bring me some comic books in English - like Kristine, who mailed to me some on a couple of occasions - Ashley at least listened to my dreams (joke though it was - as I was parroting what a spoiled rich teenaged girl might say), and tried to provide me with something that was uniquely Ashley. And this is me 20 years later... having gone through many a female relationship with people who don't seem to listen to me, who don't seem to know what I'm about, who I am... after re-reading this blog, it was obvious that who I was back in 1991 was a greedy, whiny bastard. And I blew it.
PPPS: So... having read that... are you still with me? It gets better. Life/Rife, I mean. At least my mom will be back from her trip out West in Japan tomorrow. I should probably be nicer and start showing her a good time... that I have grown up... even if it's just a little bit. Ahhhh crap. I guess pride goeth before the fall. That's from The Bible: Proverbs 16... and I'm no longer a religious person, but it's worth remembering.
