A view from the top

It is hard to believe that March is already here. Things at school have been so busy lately that it has been quite hard keeping track of time. Weeks cruise by obscuring the true amount of this year that has already passed.

The Cd project I have been working on at Kosha is completely done. The CDs have been burnt with audio, and printed with the top design. The jacket inserts have been designed, printed, cropped, and folded. The copyright logo stickers have been attached to the inserts. They are stacked and waiting to be handed out. Everyone at Kosha is quite impressed, and to be honest I even impressed myself. They look really sweet. I hope that I get the same project next year. More so since I know the programs better (since most were in Japanese) and I have better ideas for the design.

On other school news, four of my graduating students have been accepted into the intensive English program at the high level academic high school in town. I am really proud of them, especially the two who I helped with the English interview. They each spent about 10 hours outside of class to practice listening and answering interview questions. They worked really hard, and I know that after all the hard work they will put in at Nakano Nishi that they will be on a good start towards their dreams. Manami wants to be an English teacher, and Hanami wants to be a flight attendant.

Well winter has turned out to be a beautiful spring here in Nagano. It is really quite sad. One 65 year old man in the English Night Class loves to ski. He has lived his whole life here in the mountains, and he can't recall a winter like this. Ever. Scary. Aside from the greater implications (which I only leave aside since I know I will write for way to long if I do), the local ski hill are a few weeks away from being prime pick-nick spots. The whole world seems to be focused on the issue of Climate Change. Let's hope, for the sake of the future, that this is not just a passing trend.

persuade The beautiful weather made for a really neat adventure a few weeks ago. My friends Jun, Ken, and TB (Tatsubon) are all backcountry snowboard guides and pro riders. Cool ass cats, who just happened to meet while they were all living in Vancouver. It was a Saturday morning, and Jun rang me up. There was no new snow, and Jun knew I wasn't going to waste my time driving to Nozawaonsen for no snow. He said he was going to hike to the top of Mt. Kosha (my school's namesake). He invited me along, so I borrowed some snowshoes (which we really didn't need) and headed to the mountain. We started at the bottom of a ski hill, and took their lifts as far as they went. From there it was boards on our backs and snowshoes on our feet. With avi-beacons (completely not needed) and telescopic poles we were all geared up. This was mostly for show. Jun likes to promote his sponsors, and also he feels a professional responsibility to visually beginners from attempting to follow. The gear actually works well for that.

We started up a path to the top of the mountain. The snow was not very deep, but that made it very bushy. For comparisons sake, Jun pointed out a 3 to 4 metre rock, and said that he has never seen that rock in the winter before. There is a good 12 feet of snow that is just not there. At one point we passed a tori gate, this is due to the fact that there are two shrines at the peak.

We bagged the peak in about 35 min, and set up shop. Jun pulled out a mini MSR stove (free sponsor swag, along with almost everything else) and we boiled some water for cup noodles. Never before has so disgusting a meal tasted so good. More than that, the view was simply spectacular. I live my life in the valley surrounded by impressive mountains, but at that moment I was up there looking down on the valleys. I was sure if we were on a higher mountain we could have seen the sea. It was truly spectacular.

After packing up, and saying a prayer at the shrines, we checked out the ski hills on the other faces of the mountains. Normally you can board from the peak to one of the other hills, but there wasn't enough snow, and way to many bushes. So it was back down the path to the ski hill. This day provided me with another pure Japan moment that I will never forget. I will post pictures on my pic site. Check 'em out.

The Leg Report:
Saw the head doc last week. He felt my knee with the other docs. They were very surprised at how much stronger my leg has become. They now feel that I may not need full reconstruction surgery on my ACL. There is still a chance, but the most likely method now is a medicinal treatment that will cause my ACL to adhere to my PCL (which my have already started). In order to determine the course of action, I will still be going in for surgery, however this will be exploratory. I will have 'spinal anesthesia' (sounds so freaking scary) and then they will put a camera in my knee. Yummy. After a little less than a week I will be sent home. If I need the big deal, then I have to wait a month to spend my month there. That being said, they seem quite hopeful that I will not require the full ACL surgery. I am not getting my hopes up, but this is a turn for the better.

On a sad note:
An ambulance rolled up to my neighbours house this morning. After school today there were sings and lanterns out in front of the house. I asked around, and that is the traditional marker for when a member of the house has passed away. Since I have seen both Mrs. and Mr. Tanaka, that only leaves there mentally-disabled daughter, who I believe to be in her 30s or 40s. I don't know the details, but after seeking advice from my English teachers, I will take some flowers to Mrs. Tanaka tomorrow. She is a sweet old lady, who is always friendly as she slaves in her back yard farm. She looks after Kuno when she is out, and she brings me fruits and vegetables when ever I tell her I am having a party. Please take a moment and give a thought to a lady who I don't really know, but means a lot to me.