In this incredibly moving and beautifully shot entry, Anthony Gilmore shares with us a glimpse into the life of Craig Morrey - a 40 year old American living in Okazaki, Japan. His three-year- old son, Spencer, is severally handicapped with cerebral palsy and requires around the clock care.
My friend and fellow multimedia extraordinaire Satomi Okane (http://goo.gl/5BlR) produced this here piece. A very moving story and great insight into the challenges of parenthood.
Sorry for the lack of updates in the last few weeks readers-- I've been busy. Recently while contemplating my own selfish and sometimes foolish reason for being in Japan, I remembered that I am here to first and foremost have a set of experiences that I wouldn't otherwise be able to, or at the most have a hard time experiencing back in my own country for various reasons. For a long long looooooong time I often wondered why it was so hard for me to work in my chosen field, mass communications... I went to school to study it twice even--just in case I missed something the first time... But alas-- it seems whenever I land a job in the fifth estate, I end up getting laid off, pushed into another department, or my contract simply doesn't get renewed. I guess it's me-- I'm a creative type to be sure, but definitely NOT a corporate suit. Hell, I hate wearing neckties to church (the few times a year you actually catch me in a church--that's a whole 'nother conversation...) Basically what I'm saying is, I work hard for what I believe in, and the nanosecond that I feel my hard work isn't being appreciated, or worse, being taken for granted ,or even worse still, being taken advantage of-- I start acting really bitchy and let my feelings be heard, seen and felt. So it's no surprise that I'm not really trying to work in some faceless corporation's PR unit... I just don't fit in.
Ok so back to me being in Japan. Of course I came back here 9 months ago to just ESCAPE my boring-ass, monotonous, monotone, any-other-boring-sounding-adjective-goes-here life. Check the back issues of the blog from last year to see what I mean-- just look on the right side in 2008 and you'll see what I mean. Anyway I came here I guess to recapture some of my good vibes... and see if I could make my one chance to do something seemingly impossible (for me anyway) possible... To be a success somehow doing something I love, in the place that I love. No secret, I love Japan... even with all it's idiosyncrasies, irritations, inconviences, and other words that start with "i", I still gots love for this place. But I want more. I'm selfish that way. In the same manner I like to blog, I want EVERYONE to feel the same feeling at least for 5 seconds, that I do... Yep, I know, I am a tad narcissistic. There, I said it, happy now? So with these self-serving reasons in mind, I've banded together with 4 other like-minded folks here in Nagoya and created a new magazine-- RAN Magazine.
So what exactly is this rag we've slapped together? Well its kind of a conglomeration of all the foreign voices here in this city-- If you live in Nagoya and you're not Japanese, and have been here long enough for the shine to wear thin, then I don't have to explain... But to the others:
We want to expose you to things that exist, even if they aren't so P.C.. We're not trying to be politically correct, we're trying to be useful and informative, even entertaining. Life isn't perfect, neither are we. Not everything is funny or cute, but some things are. We hope we can show you some of both. And, we want you to let us know what you like, what you think, how you feel and what's on your mind. We hope RAN will be a truly multicultural piece of work. We hope it will be a "bulletin board" of ideas, events, and opinions, expressions and thoughts from a wide variety of people. The racial boundaries of yesterday are dissolving before our eyes, but traditions die hard. RAN hopes to shed light in dark places. We want to connect people in order to build a society of people looking forward with hope and optimism— based on what we've learned, and are still learning—a true community of open-minded people. We're into music, food, sports, fashion, politics, humor, culture, spirituality, relationships, shopping, travel, language, adventure, friendship, community, and more. We're not into hate, but if you are a hater, send us your feelings and comments. We'll talk about them. RAN is about healing and progress. Let the dead bury the dead. We're into the future... It's about the society we're building, not the one that's falling apart. But we've got to learn about what we've done wrong to be able to do it better. Society is at stake. It's our "family" outside of our homes. Everything is connected.
So I invite everyone that is a part of my world-- whether you're in my machi or back in the states, or wherever in the world you've happen to be-- I invite you to follow me on this journey here with this new magazine. As editor-at-large, I am responsible for making sure all the contributors and collaborators are doing their tasks accordingly and also from a technical standpoint, make sure the grammar, written style, and continuity is in check-- I also tend to write 2-3 articles per issue too... I am also in charge of the online presence, so check out www.ranmagazine.com in the next week or so-- we release the magazine in print form bi-monthly, but we want to build an online community, so as articles get done, they'll have their own discussion forums tagged to them--in this manner I hope we can tie our communities together. Also while I am on this subject, I want to make it clear that it's also my intention to make a Japanese companion site in the near future too--It's not fair for the English readers to have the ability to flame our pants off, without the Japanese readers not being able to take part!
Sorry for being long-winded this time ya'll-- but I hope you understand why I've been incommunicado lately.... Love and Peace as always!
The postal service here is EXTREMELY efficient-- If I'm not home when they come, they let you reschedule delivery over the Internet for same day even... also they will come at night until 9pm AND even on SUNDAYS. No wonder working for Japan Post means a good life-long career.
Oh and did I mention the Postal Service also operates a bank too?? Did I mention it's the largest bank in the country (because where there are people, obviously there's a post office somewhere) So just about EVERYBODY has a postal savings account--including me. It makes it easy for people to pay me--no excuses about not knowing where the bank is (and in Japan, there's no such thing as "check's in the mail"-- they don't exist--everything is either done as a bank transfer, or good ol' cash (although there are now credit cards and stuff too)
I remember I once had a part time job as an English teacher in an after-school program (called "juku"). I taught Tuesdays and Thursdays, and at the end of every Thursday lesson, I would get handed an envelope with straight cash and a receipt. Of course I would run to the nearest PO-ATM and deposit it (about $500, not bad for 10 hrs total.) Even now I mostly pay bills by going to the 7-11 on the first floor of my apt bldg and giving them the bill and paying it in cash at the register. Since my bank's ATM is in 7-11 its easy to do it that way. I know it's paid, and it's hella convenient. If the bill doesn't have the bar code that the convenience stores use on it, then I have to go to an ATM or use the Internet and do what's called "furi-komi" meaning send money to another bank account. You have no idea how hard it was to navigate the ATM's menu in JAPANESE trying to figure it out. The English menu didn't have that option!! Thank God I can read every other Japanese word now. It still took 15 minutes. I know there were some pissed folks behind me, but WTF? Sorry, but I like having running water in my crib, so you gotta wait dammit!
Ok, now what's inefficient? Anything that involves operating a vehicle for example... OK what else is new? The American system of getting a driver's license is a state operated affair, and therefore varies from state to state, but not by a wide margin; everyone HATES going to the DMV in most places so there's nothing new there. Here though its even more time consuming! The prefectural police departments run these places and there's usually only one to three centers in most prefectures. Meaning if you live way out, you're SOL and you must take a whole day off from work, school or whatever to do anything.... Oh yeah, thats also because these places are CLOSED on the WEEKENDS!! WTF?! Also, if youre CURSED like I am and are American and not Canadian, Australian, New Zealander or from most of Europe, you're f***ed-- and you gotta take this hard @$$ driving test that only 33% pass the first time.... Even though most of us Americans drive way more than Japanese, or Europeans, by virtue of our gas-guzzling mentalities and lack of decent, timely, affordable, safe public transportation. I've been driving since I was 15 1/2 years old. I learned how to drive on the streets of Los Angeles, and have driven almost anything with wheels, from motorcycles to fast cars, to limos, to over-the-road buses!! I have driven for over half my own life, and I'll probably fail the damn driving test the first time... Why? Because its very SUBJECTIVE.
The driving test isn't about you driving safely on a real road-- there's an actual track that looks like Mario Kart set up behind the DMV. You drive there. But guess what? They aren't gonna tell you where to turn!! You have to MEMORIZE this beforehand. I know people that can't remember how to get to places in their own neighborhood that they've been living in for years!! But its up to you to do it in the period between your passing the written test (hella easy--only 10 questions) and taking the driving test. Oh yeah that part sucks too. You must take the driving test on a different day-- so its back to the DMV again for that. Now how to memorize the courses? Yeah courses, 'cause there's TWO, A & B. You gotta memorize them BOTH. When you get into the car (after making the checks outside the car for sleeping cats underneath, trash or children underneath, etc--then adjust EVERYTHING in the car--seats, mirrors, steering wheel, etc [I'm not making this up!]) the testing dude (some guy with a bad disposition and a mean look on his face maybe) will simply say "take course __." and then you gotta drive that course. with no help. at all.
Faced with this, and the knowledge that the testing dudes at this place are known for their strictness, I decided to take 2 hours of road course driving, to memorize the course, and to hear some advice from the testing guys. For $140... Expensive right? But I wanna pass this the first time. Even still I was surprised at how precisely I'll be judged...
I took the practice test on Saturday; I was criticized for not being all the way to the left or right IN THE L/R LANE when turning. Meaning I was in the correct lane, but not all the way ON THE CURB when turning. HUH?! Also I need to not slow down as much thru flashing yellow lights... These things get you killed in ATL if you did that...sigh.
BTW I read this little informative site for JETs here that talks about how to go about getting a Japanese Driver's license. Please read it to be sure that this isn't just me overeacting, ok?
So now I have one more practice to get it right. after that I take my test on the 19th at 9am. Wish me luck!
come at night until 9pm AND even on SUNDAYS. No wonder working for Japan Post means a good life-long career. 
This is an experiment of sorts to try to tie together my online identity and my offline personality. I've made plenty of business oriented sites, but I have never actually put together one for myself personally... With the advent of social networking sites like Facebook and Myspace along with blog sites like Blogger and Twitter, I find that I have cut a wide swath here in the internet, in terms of being actively online, but there isn't one place to really tie that information together. So this will be an attempt at doing so.