Archive for the ‘General’ Category

Bad Neighbors and Tree Trimming

Thursday, July 12th, 2012

I have a tree. It’s a big tree. It’s a strange tree that has leaves pretty much all year round. It loses it’s leaves in the spring for a short time.

It also drops what looks like sawdust for about 3 weeks in July. It’s messy. I admit that.

I also know it provides shade for us, and the apartment building next door, and keeps us from having to look from our second floor balcony into the second floor balcony of the neighbors’ apartments beside our house.

All in all, I consider it a fair trade.

Two nights ago some crank came to complain that the dust from the tree was a problem.

Really?

These people can never say anything to the myriad of folks illegally parking anywhere and everywhere along the street, using the grocery store parking lot exit as an entrance, or worse as a through street, dogs left alone and sweating it out all day long in the apartments next door who then spend all day (I mean _all_ day) barking at each other, and yet they complain about a tree that wouldn’t listen to me if I did tell it to stop shedding?

Idiots. Ingrates. Ungrateful B*******.

Still, Sulseob doesn’t want to cause a problem, so we got after it to do a bit of trimming.

Not that there was a tropical storm coming through today. Killed 14 people nearby…

Didn’t stop us. uh-uh.

I’m going to be really sore for all that tree climbing and then the extra chopping, and still I’m not finished with the cleanup though I put in a good straight 8 hours on it after class today.

<sigh>

Just hope no one comes to the door to complain and it’s me that answers. I’m not nearly so diplomatic when it comes to these types of whiners…

Here are a few pics to let you see what kind of trimming it was – (not minor, I assure you).

Meito Junction performing at Music Festival

Thursday, July 5th, 2012

The band I play with, Meito Junction, is going to be doing a short set at a music festival this weekend (July 8th).

I really am looking forward to having a chance to play in front of a different crowd. It’s been a little while since we’ve done that or played anywhere other than at Meito Church.

You can read more about the festival here:

http://rockchurch.exblog.jp/

You can read more about the band here:

http://meitojunction.com

Meito Junction

Famous Korean Temple

Thursday, June 28th, 2012

I’m really missing Korea these days. I’ve heard several times from one of my friends there, and almost went over to speak at a conference, but that fell through.

All of that just makes me want to go there for a visit even more.

I lived in Korea for 6 years (already 10 in Japan now, wow!) but it seems like yesterday and like it was a lot longer. It was a very big part of my life, and well, still is.

One of the things that always impressed me was that old stuff was really old.

In the US, old was 50 years, maybe 100. In Korea that’s still infancy.

It was really amazing (not using that word lightly here) to walk into a temple or garden that had stood, virtually the same, for 100’s of years.

One of my favorites is Bulguk Temple – λΆˆκ΅­μ‚¬Β – located in Kyoungju (often called BulgukSa Temple, but the “Sa” means “Temple” so is redundant).

Actually the name means Land (country) of Buddha Temple and began construction in 751. You can ‘feel’ that when you enter the gates. It’s been restored a number of times, but still has essentially the same structure as it had when originally built. Pretty impressive.

Here’s a photo I took of it the last time I visited:

bulguk temple - Kyounju Korea

Father’s Day in Japan

Thursday, June 21st, 2012

This past Sunday was Father’s Day.

It’s a much bigger holiday in the US than here in Japan. There is Father’s day here though it’s not such a big holiday. It’s the same in Korea, but there is only one holiday for both parents called, oddly enough, Parents’ Day. It’s sort of a big deal, but not as big a deal as Children’s Day in Korea.

Anyway, we celebrated Father’s Day sort of. I didn’t really mention it to my sons because it feels strange to teach them about a holiday that means they need to treat me specially or get or make me a gift.

They didn’t remember that in the past we usually call Grandpa to wish him a happy Father’s Day either.

At church though it was a major part of the service and part of the kids’ activity as well.

<sigh> the traditional gift loved/hated by all fathers? a necktie. Even better? A handmade one πŸ˜‰

So, I got my first Father’s day presents. Here’s a picture of my first presents:

New School Year Underway Again for 2012

Sunday, April 15th, 2012

Yeah!

Class has started up again, and classes are underway. I haven’t met all of my classes for the new year/semester yet, but I have met most of them.

It looks like another good year with some good classes and interesting students.

I have my regular classes of English Interaction that will meet next week for the first time, but I have already met my other classes.

Web English got kicked off this week with lots of students, and a few I know already.

Took a picture at the end of class last Friday. These guys look like they might be ones to watch πŸ˜‰

webenglish-3rdperiod-2012-spring-guys-sm