Updates

Between the last post and this, much has changed in my life--

Got married in the summer of 2012
My brother got married in fall of 2012
Bought a Condo in the summer of 2013
Adopted a Golden Retriever in the fall of 2013
My brother had a daughter in the summer of 2014.
Traveled to Austria and Latvia in summer of 2014.
Published a paper on Yamadaya Daisuke in 2014.
Had and passed a kidney stone in spring of 2015.

JETAA Orientation: The Results

The orientation went smoothly, and I enjoyed meeting the new participants. I don't think they were enthralled with my presentation on language and culture. I divided my talk into the two components. With language, I gave them advice on what to know and prepare before arrival, what to learn upon arrival, and how to continue your studies in Japan. It culminated with a look at regional dialects. The culture half began with Kofun tombs and ended with the Hakodate night-scape. I tried to make the point that to appreciate the full breadth of Japanese culture, one eventually needs to look beyond his or her home and travel around Japan. Aside from a question on the jinja matsuri, nobody really said anything.

The rest of the orientation was devoted to talks on etiquette, preparations, urban/rural, and lesson planning. The first workshop before mine looked at goal-setting. I was opposed to this as a complete waste of time--people have individual goals, none of us was qualified to give that advice, etc. A guest speaker who studies urban planning led the section, but had little to contribute on Japan. The other alumni chimed in and mostly talked about learning the language, which well made the half of my lecture redundant. :(

Sunday afternoon enjoyed a Natsu-Masturi or summer festival with Kendo, sado, and origami presentations. I had to skip out on this portion because I had to work on lessons and my upcoming presentation.

That's about it. Off to Portland for ASPAC 2010 on Friday!

JETAA Orientation

Part of the university faculty's activity report asks me to detail my community service. That is, what do I do for the community? Well, not much, sorry to say. But I do sit on the executive committee for the JET Alumni Association here in Manitoba. An important link to the Manitoba Japanese community, JETAA both hosts a number of Japanese cultural events and prepares new JETs for Japan. These two purposes converge every year during the pre-departure orientation, a two-day workshop that concludes with a Natsu Masturi or summer festival.

So, as my duty as academic advisor or whatever it is I do with JETAA, I have to present at this year's orientation. The topic I chose was Japanese culture, which evolved into "Japanese language and culture." For 20 minutes, I have to lecture on pretty much everything I have learned in my professional life.

In the end, I managed to include Carrot Top, Edo, and Hello Kitty into the same sentence. We'll see how that goes over tomorrow.

iPad

I caved into global peer pressure and purchasedan iPad last month. Actually, I was dragging someone from Apple Store to Apple Store in New York City only to learn that Apple had sold out of their lower-priced models. I gave up the search in the US and pre-ordered one from the Canadian Apple Store in early May.

Having used the device for the past 10 days, am I pleased with the purchase? If it lives up to its potential, then I would be thrilled.

The positives:

+It has great utility as an e-book reader: rather than lug around ten pounds of books with me whenever I travel, I thought it would be much easier to have them on a half-pound device.

+It facilitates access to email, websites, maps, etc.

+It has great apps: the games are fun and the access to various media is superb

The negatives:

-It lacks a standardized format for e-books. While Amazon made a Kindle app for the iPad, the iPad doesn't manage the Kindle's format well.

-Academic presses have yet to embrace the e-book potential. I assume this relates to the high price of scholarly tomes, but I'm not sure.

-There will be iPad 2.0, 3.0 somewhere down the line, outmoding my new purchase.

So, again, the potential is great. It's just a matter of how print literature adapts to the iPad and vice versa that could make it a true innovation at least in my field of work.

Test

Just testing the email setting for some of you (ごめんね).

Conversion

Last week, the faculty from UofW's Religious Studies Department interviewed me for conversion. Yes, how appropriate for the Religious Studies folk to convert me. As I understand it, this is a matter now left to the whim of the university's administration. Am I hopeful? Yes.

Conversion to regular faculty won't affect my salary or benefits. It will ease my course load and thus give me more time to work on my own research. It also provides me with secure employment for the next five or so years. Aside from the harsh Winnipeg winters and relative distance from relatives, I'm can't complain about the situation.

In other news, I'm looking forward to two months off starting in July.

*Sigh*

I'm tired of emails and other pieces of writing that need to express a sigh with *sigh*. Don't do it. If you're exasperated, it will come across anyway.

*Sigh*

Job Search

I and some of my fellow readers--or at least some in the past--are currently on the job market. I'm glad to know that some are getting interviews or callbacks. I'm glad to help where I can, but I feel like someone (and don't worry it's not a constant reader) should be giving me more disclosure on where he or she is applying before asking me for my course outlines or information on sources for Japanese history.

Well, my own position seems secure for a while, so I am glad that I am employed. Still there's a level of frustration working here and trying to teach many students who have little interest in the subject. Like I wrote before, every class has a select few who enjoy the topics, but most take the language or culture class for their humanities requirement.

Perhaps I shouldn't write about this so much. It's enough that my mom always asks me every about if I heard anything... Like I tell her, I'll let others know when I do.