Aaaand, here’s a video of a baby dwarf hamster easting his first broccoli.

Why, you ask? Because it’s cute. In today’s world, sometimes we see things online that can actually damage our souls. Like this. What? You looked at that?? Why did you look at that when I told you it would damage your soul? Quick! Look at the hamster video! There–now don’t you feel better?

It’s called a unicorn chaser. So now you have a quick unicorn chaser for emergencies.

By the way, if you did look at the soul-damaging picture, and are still going WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!?!–it’s a botfly larva being removed from a human eye. There. Now go watch the hamster kicking his little feet with joy again. Ahhhhh.

A Canadian girl posted this video on Youtube, just splicing together video shots of life around Kumamoto, which is just a bit south of my town. Although her city is a little smaller and a touch more rural (and they have a far more excellent castle), it gives you a good idea of life here. She obviously teaches a different age group, too. Kudos on her inclusion of cute kids and good music.

Iggy Pop celebrates turning 60 by stage diving. If this makes it onto CNN, I bet you $100 somebody says, "Wow, he sure has a ‘Lust for Life’, huh?" And the other anchors will probably look at her blankly and then laugh that polite "OK, whatever" laugh.

Holocaust survivor Liviu Librescu, a 76-year-old professor at Virginia Tech, held the unlockable door to his classroom closed to give his students time to escape out windows while a mass-murderer approached. He was shot to death; all his students made it out alive.

He’s my hero.

So I started my new job this week. I’m a Visiting Lecturer in American Literature and Culture at Kyushu University, Faculty of Letters, Department of English, teaching undergrad and grad both. Monday I was welcomed at a big meeting (had to make a speech–boy was I glad the new Chinese prof made his just before me, because he didn’t know any Japanese at all, so I didn’t feel as stupid), then yesterday I joined the other profs in welcoming the new English undergrad students, and on Friday we’ll welcome the new grad students.

For the past seven years, I’ve been teaching full-time at Fukuoka University and part-time at Kyushu U and Seinan U–those are the three best schools in town, with KU and SU neck-and-neck for best. So becoming a full-timer at KU is a promotion, and teaching lit and culture will be a lot more interesting than English Conversation, which is about 90% of what I’ve been teaching. Also, the number of classes I teach a week will drop from 14 to only 5, while the pay will remain about the same of what I’ve been getting, full-time and part-time included.

My office is kind of a pit, but after I finish cleaning up all the cigarette ashes the last guy left behind, it’ll be nicer. It’s only a 2-year job, though, so it’s just a stepping-stone to whatever is next.

And my youngest, Natsumi, had her entrance ceremony at her new college, Nakamura U, where she’ll be studying business for a 2-year degree. She looks way more mature now that she’s ditched the high-school uniform:

That’s her with a friend–Natsumi has the short hair. The clouds of white in the background are cherry blossoms (sakura).

The Taiko Club gave a great drumming demonstration–very exciting, especially following the very formal, stately rendition of the song "Sakura" by the Koto Club. (That "Sakura" link is to an MP3–imagine that with a dozen players. Oh, and here’s the lyrics, though I’ve rarely heard it sung.)

A new display at my local supermarket:

The whale-meat industry is really trying to get somebody, anybody to eat whale meat. People just don’t buy enough of it to sustain the industry, which officially doesn’t exist–all this meat comes from whales killed for "scientific experiments"…and if you believe that, I have an island to sell you, cheap.

I actually had some whale meat a couple weeks back, at a very swanky dinner (my boss gave me the tickets as a thank you for some above-the-call-of-duty work I did). I ate it because I hadn’t eaten any in a long while–the last time I had any, it was a slice of whale testicle, actually. Anyway, I couldn’t remember how it tasted. Meh–it was nothing special. I think, considering the amount of heavy metals that accumulates in whales, the argument that it’s good for you is particularly specious, and since nobody really wants to eat it, and all the other arguments are empty, the only reason whale hunting continues in Japan is that the whale industry bribes the politicians.

Cherry-blossom season is here. And with your view of gorgeous pink clouds of blossoms, you get election posters:

I think election day is going to be on Easter, which of course is not a holiday here–it’s just a coincidence. I gotta say, overall I like the way electioneering is handled over here better than in America. There are very few TV ads, and thus much, much less money spent on advertising, which I think has a lot of benefits. Those boards are put up in specific places in every neighborhood, and everyone running for an office can put up one poster of a clearly-defined size. Then the pols do a lot of walking around and shaking hands.

The only bad thing, really (other than the widespread corruption, but that’s not much different from back home), is the use of sound trucks, which is pretty annoying. But then a lot of people use sound trucks, and I would actually miss some of them, like the baked-sweet-potato guy who drives around singing the "My baked sweet potatoes are de-li-ciouuuuussss! Come and buy my baked sweet potatooooooes!" It would be nice to get rid of the ultra-rightist neo-facist guys in the huge armored trucks, though.

[  Mood: Happy ]
[  Currently: Watching BSG while uploading pictures to Photobucket ]
This month, both of my daughters have had graduation ceremonies. Natsumi finished high school, and Sayumi finished college.

Natsumi will be starting at Nakamura University Business College in about a week, working on a 2-year degree, following which she plans to go to Osaka for 2 more years in a cooking school. Then, assuming she doesn’t change her mind over the next four years (how many times did I change my mind during my university years? a lot), she’ll join her birth-father in the family business, a traditional Japanese restaurant in Arita, a small town famed for porcelain.

Sayumi isn’t sure what she wants to do for a living, but she’ll be going to Shanghai University for a year to study Chinese language, starting in October. She majored in Asian Culture Studies in university, focusing on China.

This is the gym at Natsumi’s high school, which happens to be a girls’ school. (Most Japanese high schools are private schools.) The girls are in their uniforms, standing at attention. They must’ve practiced standing up and sitting down a lot–they did it with military precision.

The ceremony was about as unbearably boring as any graduation ceremony, but during the valedictorian’s speech, and then again during the singing of the school song, the sniffling and sobbing were almost deafening. I had to suppress laughter–as a teacher, I’ve been to a lot of grad ceremonies, and there are always a lot of tears. Whereas American grad ceremonies are always cheerful "Thank God it’s over!" affairs. The speech was mostly along the lines of "Thank you to all the teachers; you always helped us, and now we will miss you so much…we promise to do well in the future!" The parents cried like babies, too.

Nobody but the valedictorian receives a diploma in the main ceremony. Everyone else receives them from their homeroom teachers back in their homerooms, so that’s where Natsumi is here, looking at me like, "If you take one more picture, I am going to kill you":

And here she is with her diploma:

As a farewell present, she also received a honkin’ big kitchen knife. I was all like, "Why do they give the students kitchen knives? Is it because they’re girls? Are they supposed to stay in the kitchen?" Junko told me that the high school used to be a school for cooking. Oh.

Natsumi’s homeroom teacher, reaching for a handkerchief to wipe away tears, as the girls are about to give him a bouquet of flowers. He had one of the most ridiculous combovers I’d ever seen. You just gotta have some affection for a guy like that.

The homeroom teacher-in-training, also crying, as are most of the girls at this point. She’s wearing a hakama, an alternative to a kimono for people who want to wear traditional Japanese clothes on a formal occasion.

The graduate with her proud parents, wearing her school uniform for the last time. As soon as she got out of there, Natsumi went downtown with some friends, where they all got their hair dyed and styled for the first time in their lives. Japanese kids cannot wear makeup, have any piercings (including ears), dye their hair, or wear their hair any way other than 2 or 3 approved styles, depending on their school. There are a few exceptions, but nearly all schools have very strict uniform codes. Graduation day is the busiest day of the year for beauty parlors.

And now for Sayumi’s graduation. This is in the auditorium, from the balcony where Junko and I were sitting. 99% of the girls wore hakama, which in recent years seems to have become the de facto uniform for girls graduating from university. 99% of the boys wore black suits. And almost everyone kept themselves awake during the interminable speeches by text-messaging on their mobile phones.

Another look at fashion. The guy in the middle is dressed kind of like a Buddhist priest. I later found out that all the graduates of the various martial-arts clubs dressed that way. And no, he’s not meditating–he’s sleeping.

Up on stage, the top students of each college in the university accept their diplomas. As with the high schools, the mass of students receive their diplomas later in sub-ceremonies.

The sign, by the way, reads "Year 18 of the Reign of Emperor Akihito, Fukuoka University Graduation Ceremony." Sayumi attended the same university where I taught; in a way, we graduated together, because I start work at another (more prestigious) university next week.

Outside, the cheerleader squad awaits the graduates.

Sayumi with her mother.

Sayumi with her best friend, who happens to have gotten a job as a stewardess with Japan Airlines.

The karate club, tossing a member in the air.

The dropped him, by the way. Ouch.