Life's Good

I found our two week trip to Japan very refreshing. Of the times I've been to Japan, I have to say I definitely had the most fun this time around. Maybe it had to do with getting away from work for a prolonged period of time, but the trip reminded me that life truly is good. I had started to forget that after 6+ months of 50-60 hour weeks at work.

I thought I was mature when I got married, but over the last year and a half I've learned a lot from my wife (and her family) and discovered that in some ways I'm not as mature as I thought I was. I'm learning not to sweat the small stuff so much. And I'm learning that the very nature of "work" in today's world means that there will always be more to do than you possibly can get done. One of my goals this year is for a standard work week to be 40-45 hours, with maybe a 50 hour week here and there as needed. My personal life and health are far more important than killing myself to keep the bosses happy. As I heard one of my co-workers say once, my employer will not be at my funeral.

So, I've been trying to remind myself that life is good. Given the current economic situation I'm grateful to have a good paying job, and as far as I can tell, job security. When things go to crap at work or I'm feeling overwhelmed, I recite my mantras: "I love my job" and "Life is good". And I'm making more of an effort to leave the stress and worries of work at work.

But ask me midway through tomorrow and you might get a different response....

Deep breath..."I love my job"..."Life is good"...

Hayai!

During our travels in Japan we rode the "bullet train" (shinkansen) a few times.  One of the shinkansen we rode was "Hayate" to get us to Tokyo on our journey home.  According to Wikipedia, Hayate has a top speed of 275 km/h...that's 172 mph!

While standing on the platform one day while waiting for our train, there were several other shinkansen that passed through the station without stopping.  I doubt they're going the full 172 mph when they go through a station, but they're moving along pretty well.  It's enough to give you a rush (and enough for my wife to tell me to step further back on the platform, despite the boyish grin on my face).  A video doesn't quite do it justice, but check out this video to get a feel for it: Video of Hayate Passing Through Fukushima Station.

(By the way, hayai! = fast!)

There's a Tear in My Sake

Every New Year's Eve in Japan they have the "Kouhaku Uta Gassen" (Red/White Song Battle).  Musicians of Japan who were popular that year are split into two teams (red team = female artists, white team = male artists) and perform their songs.  At the end of the night a winning team is chosen based on votes from the studio audience as well as text messages from those watching by tv.  While watching "Kouhaku" this past New Year's Eve I realized that the Enka singers tend to be much more talented than the J-pop singers.

Enka is a Japanese form of music.  It's often said to be similar to American country music.  However, the only similarity is really lyrical themes.  I'd say that enka is probably closer to lounge singing in terms of musical style.

New Year's Eve we also watched part of an enka flashback show.  I was very impressed by the voice of one singer in particular: Misora Hibari.  I bought a two CD set of her best hits before we came home.  You can hear one of her songs here.

Incidentally, a black American has recently become a very popular enka musician in Japan.  He goes by "Jero".  He sang on "Kouhaku" this past New Year's Eve.  You can hear the song he sang on "Kouhaku" here.

 

Bicycle

In my previous post I mentioned that I was nervous about speaking Japanese during my trip to Japan.  I found that it came back fairly easily.  This just reaffirmed what I already knew - the best way to study/learn a language is to travel to the country where that language is spoken and immerse yourself in it.

I also found it interesting that despite the fact that I haven't done any serious Japanese language study in over three years that my listening comprehension has improved significantly.  I could better understand tv shows and even the scratchy announcements by the conductor over train PA systems than when I was last in Japan three years ago.  A few people even mentioned that they thought my Japanese is better than it was three years ago.

I suppose some of the credit needs to go to my wife since her influence allows me more exposure to Japanese than I would have otherwise.