Some children just followed me home from the post office... I thought I could lose them on my bike simply due to superior speed and such, but they were able to glimpse me turning into my apartment complex and caught up with me right as I was opening my door... They know where I live. This could be a fatal mistake due to my laziness as I usually ride for as long as it takes to either lose them or have them lose interest and give up the hunt. One of my vice principals warned me that the children discovered where the old ALT lived and constantly hounded him at his apartment until the school finally had to make an announcement telling them to leave the poor man alone. I fear for the worst.

However only four girls know my secret now and I think they are still lingering around to try to catch me leaving. Four deaths to keep my secret. Is it worth it? Only time will tell...

Just kidding! Or am I?

Seems NOVA's president might finally get what is coming to him.

The Mainichi Daily Paper

The labor ministry's regional bureau in Osaka is planning to send information to prosecutors possibly later this week on Nozomu Sahashi, former president of Nova Corp., on suspicion of nonpayment of wages to language instructors, sources said Monday.

The Osaka Prefectural Police are separately planning to launch investigations to build a criminal case against Sahashi, 56, for alleged embezzlement of fringe benefit provisions for employees at what was once the largest English-language school chain in Japan, the sources said.

According to the sources, the allegations by the labor bureau concern a total of around Y100 million that should have been paid last September and October to around 400 instructors and staff members nationwide who worked for now-bankrupt Nova.

The amount represents one of the largest cases of nonpayment of regular wages ever.

However, the allegations constitute only a part of wage nonpayment at Nova. During the two-month period, it is known that around 8,000 employees did not receive salary payments totaling Y1.8 billion.

The unpaid wages are thought to be as high as Y4.1 billion in all if the period after October, when Nova went bust, is included.

[...]

However, the labor bureau believes Sahashi bears criminal
responsibility for the suspected violation of the Labor Standards Law, given that he continued to operate Nova even though he had no prospect of paying the wages for its workers, they said.

The bureau is not seeking to hold other executives liable because Sahashi was in full control of management, the sources
said.

I got a wedding invitation from my friend Erica today for her wedding in July. It really made me stop and think about just how removed I am from all that is happening back in the states both with friends and family, as well as just how far away I am. Due simply to the cost of flying home I won't be able to attend her wedding, just like I missed the wedding of one of my best college friends in May due to work and the price of flying home. While Erica's wedding happens to fall during my summer vacation, it is depressing to think that I won't be at the wedding of one of my best friends who I have known since eighth grade.

When I originally came to Japan it was with the intention of staying for my year contract and then returning home to go to graduate school. However that year has now turned into a year and a half and I will most likely be here for another two years or so. I never thought that when I decided to come here I would really be making the choice between experiencing the lives and celebrations of my friends and family back home as opposed to my own journey to find myself as a man. I still am almost paralyzed into disbelief when I think that I have and will most likely miss more of the weddings of my best friends, events that will ideally only occur once. I also have an uncle who will be getting remarried at some point and there is very little chance I will be able to come home for that as well.

At times I worry that people feel I don't come home for said celebrations out of some selfish motive, but that certainly isn't how I feel. At the end of the day it comes down to weighing two thousand dollars for one or two days back in the states with missing weddings, graduations, Christmas, etc. I know that people understand that I'm not just flying in from New York, but I know how easy it is for people to forget just how far away I am. I haven't come home for a year and a half at this point and while Ayuko and I are hoping to come home during Christmas/New Year's that could also change. At times my desires could be viewed as somewhat selfish as I simply want to experience the most I can from my time here in Japan and that often means spending my vacation time here in Japan and the surrounding countries.

At the end of the day I know my true friends and all of my family understand my decisions and only want me to get the most out of my time here as I possibly can. This knowledge is what allows me to truly feel free to exploit every opportunity I have here even if it means I might not be able to partake in celebrations back home.

So my friend's bike was picked up by the police today for being in a no parking zone and carted off to the bike detention center in the south of Kyoto. Not only does she have to make the trek down there, but she also has to pay a $25 fine to get her bike returned to her. Now I know some of you may be thinking, "Now Chris she did park in a no parking zone so it is well within the rights of the police to impound her bike for so blatantly ignoring the law", and usually I would agree with you as long as we weren't talking about Japan. For a country that is so heavily infested with bikes there are very few areas in which you can legally park your favored form of transportation. Now while there are no parking zones all over the city it certainly doesn't mean that people adhere to these warnings as evidenced by bikes left in virtually every available space. What this usually means is that the chance of your bike being picked up by the police is very low, but when it does happen it is very inconvenient and exponentially more expensive if it happens to occur more than once. I just feel that the government should encourage people to ride bikes as it is beneficial to the environment and your pocketbook, not make it increasingly difficult to find places to park your hulking 'Mama-chari' as they are called. Mine is literally a tank. I also realize I just ranted on about bike parking...I am way too tired to be blogging right now. On that note I will call it a night and be off to read some before bed, but remember this. A bike in the garage is worth two in the impound lot. I am so wise.

I'm back! After a much extended 'break' from blogging I have returned to once again post my thoughts on this here information superhighway. Far too much has happened in the intervening months during my stay here in Kyoto, so instead of attempting to catch all of my eight readers up on my life I will just continue like nothing happened.

Random thought that I must put in is that as I am writing this I am listening to one of the radio stations on Itunes and the song is about having the sweetest ass in the world. Surprisingly catchy for such lame lyrics, but it is a dance song so they don't tend to have mind blowing lyrics anyway.


I have also decided that elderly people should be barred from operating any form of transportation whether it be self powered or otherwise. Perhaps those walkers some of them use are acceptable, but any faster mode of transportation should be made illegal. This coming mainly from my daily experiences with old Japanese people on their bicycles doing their very best to get in my way at the most inopportune moments as I bike around the city. Most especially when I am biking my way to school and am therefore on a strict time limit. I do take some pleasure in the fact that often when I pass them they are unaware of my approach so many a time I hear a sharp intake of breath on usually associates with people on roller coasters. No on has crashed as of yet, but I am sure it is only a matter of time until that happens.

Anyway here are some random pictures of my new friends and such...