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Typically I'd say having to re-acclimate to the schedule (going to bed and waking up early), but in my present case jet lag has made that moot and I'm actually going to bed and waking up earlier than I did before I left, which I'm hoping to keep doing. It's nice to have some time to relax and take it easy, make a hot breakfast and some tea and consume them at my own pace, and not just be in a rush for the entire first hour or so I'm awake. (The unfortunate trade-off being that for some reason in spite of going to bed early enough to comfortable wake up at 5:00 or 6:00 am, my body also demands a nap sometime between 4:00-7:00 pm and I really don't get anything done after that before going back to bed again except dinner and my shower. Maybe come this weekend I can set that right somehow, because I really don't need twelve hours of sleep per day and I'd like to actually got some things done like laundry, cleaning, writing, and looking into things like studying for proficiency exams or education and job opportunities for after I leave). When I do have schedule changes, I'm typically only woozy over them for the first two or three days, maybe until the first weekend marker if I really got on a bad schedule during the break (such as during the summer, where I'm as much as six hours off my regular schedule).
And typically this wouldn't be a problem, but in my present case the hardest part about going back to work is re-acclimating to the temperature of my workplace in public Japanese schools. It's been cold enough that every day back the schools have run their kerosene heaters, but it's also been cold enough that even outdoors feels genuinely cold and so they don't put much of a dent in things. At least it's also considered such a rarely severe level of cold by the locals that the teachers keep offering me places to sit and stand near the heater every time I'm in the classroom. In my centrally-heated homeland I'd consider the recent temperatures in the high 20s to be average if not high for winter, but as always they are unacceptable for indoors and so I appreciate their efforts to make me comfortable! (Though, yes, schoolgirls are still shivering in their knee-length skirts and knee socks and last week I witnessed gym class-- short-sleeve tee and shorts uniforms required-- taking place outdoors in the freezing rain, which would be child abuse where I come from >.<). They're also doing the "OMG IT'S SNOWING WHAT DO WE DO???" thing that I find cute when in southern climates; the teacher I worked with today began English class by expounding at length-- in Japanese, lol-- about how they haven't had blowing snow in five years or so and he can count the number of times he remembers it from his youth, and people are panicking about driving. Admittedly I'm not out driving in it either, but I *drive* a bike whose tires are not only unequipped for snow but rather flat at the moment.
I'll get back to you on whether I'll ever get used to the situation of my workplace being more than 50 degrees colder than what I'd like it to be.
My gifts from over break have been assisting me with both of my re-acclimations in various ways, however. For instance, today I wore a pair of my new fingerless gloves, a pair of kairo toe-warmers, and my new quilted jacket, and yesterday I wore my red sweater from Papa and Jana. And my army of stuffed friends have been sitting dutifully at my side on the couch under the kotatsu so when I need to take a nap I can just pull the blanket over me and flop sideways onto them, instead of having to know my naptime in advance in order to set the electric blanket to turn on in time for my bed to be a tolerable temperature when I climb into it. Thanks, everybody!
In other news, I got the little built-in fish grill under my stovetop to work, and it is about the most convenient thing ever. My first attempts to use it (on a whole sanma, or Pacific saury) were mostly successful, as I had it on too high and the outside of the fish was crispy while some of the inside was still uncooked, but I don't think it will take too long to master it. Pan-frying is great, but with the grill I don't need much oil and I don't necessarily even have to flip my fish. Just gauge how long it's done, and voila!-- yummy whole grilled fish with all the nuances of flavor around the backbone, head, etc you miss out on with just a fillet.
Typically I'd say having to re-acclimate to the schedule (going to bed and waking up early), but in my present case jet lag has made that moot and I'm actually going to bed and waking up earlier than I did before I left, which I'm hoping to keep doing. It's nice to have some time to relax and take it easy, make a hot breakfast and some tea and consume them at my own pace, and not just be in a rush for the entire first hour or so I'm awake. (The unfortunate trade-off being that for some reason in spite of going to bed early enough to comfortable wake up at 5:00 or 6:00 am, my body also demands a nap sometime between 4:00-7:00 pm and I really don't get anything done after that before going back to bed again except dinner and my shower. Maybe come this weekend I can set that right somehow, because I really don't need twelve hours of sleep per day and I'd like to actually got some things done like laundry, cleaning, writing, and looking into things like studying for proficiency exams or education and job opportunities for after I leave). When I do have schedule changes, I'm typically only woozy over them for the first two or three days, maybe until the first weekend marker if I really got on a bad schedule during the break (such as during the summer, where I'm as much as six hours off my regular schedule).
And typically this wouldn't be a problem, but in my present case the hardest part about going back to work is re-acclimating to the temperature of my workplace in public Japanese schools. It's been cold enough that every day back the schools have run their kerosene heaters, but it's also been cold enough that even outdoors feels genuinely cold and so they don't put much of a dent in things. At least it's also considered such a rarely severe level of cold by the locals that the teachers keep offering me places to sit and stand near the heater every time I'm in the classroom. In my centrally-heated homeland I'd consider the recent temperatures in the high 20s to be average if not high for winter, but as always they are unacceptable for indoors and so I appreciate their efforts to make me comfortable! (Though, yes, schoolgirls are still shivering in their knee-length skirts and knee socks and last week I witnessed gym class-- short-sleeve tee and shorts uniforms required-- taking place outdoors in the freezing rain, which would be child abuse where I come from >.<). They're also doing the "OMG IT'S SNOWING WHAT DO WE DO???" thing that I find cute when in southern climates; the teacher I worked with today began English class by expounding at length-- in Japanese, lol-- about how they haven't had blowing snow in five years or so and he can count the number of times he remembers it from his youth, and people are panicking about driving. Admittedly I'm not out driving in it either, but I *drive* a bike whose tires are not only unequipped for snow but rather flat at the moment.
I'll get back to you on whether I'll ever get used to the situation of my workplace being more than 50 degrees colder than what I'd like it to be.
My gifts from over break have been assisting me with both of my re-acclimations in various ways, however. For instance, today I wore a pair of my new fingerless gloves, a pair of kairo toe-warmers, and my new quilted jacket, and yesterday I wore my red sweater from Papa and Jana. And my army of stuffed friends have been sitting dutifully at my side on the couch under the kotatsu so when I need to take a nap I can just pull the blanket over me and flop sideways onto them, instead of having to know my naptime in advance in order to set the electric blanket to turn on in time for my bed to be a tolerable temperature when I climb into it. Thanks, everybody!
In other news, I got the little built-in fish grill under my stovetop to work, and it is about the most convenient thing ever. My first attempts to use it (on a whole sanma, or Pacific saury) were mostly successful, as I had it on too high and the outside of the fish was crispy while some of the inside was still uncooked, but I don't think it will take too long to master it. Pan-frying is great, but with the grill I don't need much oil and I don't necessarily even have to flip my fish. Just gauge how long it's done, and voila!-- yummy whole grilled fish with all the nuances of flavor around the backbone, head, etc you miss out on with just a fillet.
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no subject
Date: 2010-01-13 02:45 pm (UTC)I just cannot imagine working inside in that cold of temperatures (obviously not -54 because that would be life-threatening) but in anything below the 60s. *shudder*
Do the girls have to wear skirts or is that by choice? Poor girls.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-13 10:25 pm (UTC)The thing that really bothers me is that Japan has discovered central heat, but they use it in precisely the locations I consider the lowest priority-- like the grocery store. Where I spend most of my time-- my workplace and my home-- are rigidly frigid. I'm sure it comes down to businesses having more money than private residences and schools-- and being built more recently so as to include this strange newfangled invention called insulation-- but it's stupid that the warmest part of my week is the twenty (or forty, because for obvious reasons I dawdle on cold days) minutes I spend shopping for groceries. You don't need to concentrate to do that, but yet you're expected to do your job, perform well academically, and complete all of your daily household tasks in near mind-numbing cold. (Laundry's a really fun one). I don't know what Calvinist with a stick up his ass decided this was good for building character or what, but if I ever find him I am going to rape him with that device from Se7en and fill the resulting crevice with shit.
. . . Sorry.
I also originally hail from a fairly cold region of the world (northern Indiana's not as extreme as ND, but we get our regular share of below-zero shenanigans and lots of snow-- thank you, Lake Michigan), and so I've done cold-- outside. But as I am constantly explaining to my colleagues, that does not prepare you in any way for this. They see me shivering and ask "Japan's so cold, huh?" and I'm like, "Not really, you're just retarded about dealing with it. My home is simultaneously colder and warmer in the most important way."
It's their uniform. They get to wear regulation sweaters and blazers on top, and probably long underwear as long as it remains invisible, but there's no getting around the skirts and socks because they can't wear tights or leggings or anything that shows. (I hope at least they put kairo pads in their socks or something). The boys have long slacks, which they also have to wear in the summer, but boohoo; this time of year they can easily wear 15 extra layers beneath them, which more than makes up for that. I see girls from one of the local high schools wearing tights, but that school's considered less academically rigorous and lax, and so I think there really is a connection in the minds of Japanese school administrators that freezing your ass off is a sign of your superior mental fortitude. (Dude, I think I did pretty damn well in school, and I owe nothing to having gotten frostbite on a regular basis from my school facility).
no subject
Date: 2010-01-16 12:09 am (UTC)I'm so about to fly out there with a construction team, hell I'll use the set-designers from USC, could make a great documentary.