Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Rediscovering My Inner Geek

I had really hope to have some wonderful good information gleaned from my trip to Hello Work on Monday to write about.  Yeah... that didn't happen at all.   I waled into the office and asked the lady at the front desk what I needed to do since it was my first visit there.  She handed me a for and told me to fill out my name, b-day, address, and any relevant info about the type of wor k I was looking for.  I do all that (while juggling Keia), making sure to not that I'm looking for home work opportunities and bring it back up to her a few minutes later.  Its then that I'm informed (despite everything I've read, and what I'd been told by other people) that they don't match people upwith home work opportunities,  to get those you've just gotta have connections.  So that was it, my visit was done before I even got a chance to register.

After this I went home and started looking for some advice on some forums for foreigners in Japan.  I got some really good advice, including suggesting I start doing mommy and me English classes out of my home.  This seems to be the best line of action so I'm currently trying to come up with a plan.  Not just  lesson plans mind you  but business plan as well, prices, class times, payment methods, and promotion.  It's all quite overwhelming.

So what have I been doing to keep myself sane between all this overwhelming stuff, thehouse keeping, and the kids fighting?  Exactly what the title of this post says,  I've started playing videos games again, RPGs specifically; even more specifically the Suikoden series.  At the moment I'm playing Suikoden 5, in Japanese, I picked it up used at the local Book Off for ¥500.  Thing is I've never played the English version, so the reading and trying to understand the story is taking me I'm sure at least twice as long as it would in English.   After I'm done with this one I'll be moving on the the Japanese version of the1st one, really old PS 1 from 1995 I think.  I've played the English version trhough more times than I can count but I finally tracked down a Japanese copy of it used for ¥1000 (it seems to be pretty hard to find).  Don't know why but there's something so fun about playing the original versions, with the original meanings and all, no translation mistakes or anything like that.  Like I said inner geek :) 

Also update on the ear acupuncture while I've not lost a lot of weight as of yet, my appetite is much more under control.  The potluck lunch on Saturday I was pretty worried about, but it turns out I didn't need to be,  I actually found myself  physically unable to eat what I normally would have.  Though I admit today all the stress got to me and a ate a bit more than I should have, but it still wasn't a full on binge.  So if I get these English lessons going and start to get a little bit of money coming in I'll be getting me some more ear beads.  Word of cautions though really be careful not to press to hard.  I didn't realize it but apparently I was because not I've got little bead sized scabs on my ears. 

And now to get a little bit of geeking out in before bedtime :) 

Sunday, June 3, 2012

Bad to Worse

There's a saying in my buddhist organization 'winter will always turn to spring.' Meaning that no matter how bad stuff gets and how long it seems to go on things will get better eventually.  But you know, I've always despised winter.

Forgive me  if this gets, depressing, or ranty, or rambly it's really all I've got to de-stress at the moment.  I don't smoke,  and Keia's still nursing so drinking is out,  and comfort eating...yeah  that would be a good way to flush that money I spent on the ear beads down the drain. 

I've known finances were tight around here for a while, I knew not to expect Kiyo to have any over time again this month;  what I didn't expect was when he told me today that I should probably not expect any for a year.  But, he'S totally cool with that he likes coming home at 6 and having dinner, I would like it too if we didn't depend on his overtime to make ends meet.

So tomorrow it looks I'll be heading to Hello Work, which is a government run work referral center.  The thing is with my language ability, and trying to work around Yosei's preschool schedule I honestly don't believe  I'm going to find anything.  There's also the matter of Keia and daycare.  I really wanted to avoid putting her into daycare,  wanted to wait to start working until she at least started preschool.  Most places won't hire you unless you've got a daycare all lined up,  most private daycares are incredibly expensive, and all the state run daycares (which charge on a sliding scale) typically have waiting lists .

Seems at this point my most viable option is a work at home, putting together trinkets, decorating crap in rhinestones get paid by the piece sort of job.  The apparently have those at Hello Work so here's to hoping they have one or two for me.  It'll kinda be like working in my own little in home sweat shop.  I've ready that lately painting and decorating fake nails for companies has become quite popular, the pay is quite low at around ¥60 for a 10 nail set,  but something like that would be right up my alley (though I'd have to make like 100 sets a week to see any benefit). 

Anyhow wish me luck, and I'll be sure to do a write up on the whole Hello Work experience incase any other gaijin (foreigners) happen to find themselves in a similar position.

Friday, June 1, 2012

Update Ear Acupressure/Acupuncture Diet

In looking up ad reading more about it I've discovered in English it's also referred to as acupuncture despite the lack of needles.  It's been 3 full days since I started this,  now the morning of the 4th day.  Here's a bit of a rundown on what I've experienced.    Day 1 I think was more of a placebo effect more than anything else.  I was very aware that I had these things on my ears and so it made me try harder.  While I managed to avoid snacking and bingeing on sweets I was ravenously hungry by dinner time and ended up eating dinner like I normally would,  but considering I didn't snack all day that that's not a terrible thing. 
Day 2 - This day I was less hungry, and more than fighting cravings I was fighting habit.  I wasn't hungry, didn't really want sweets, but still had to fight the habit.    It should also be noted that on this day I started to get a weird twingy cramp link pain in my stomach and chest on occasion.  The kind of pain where you're not sure if you're hungry or sick.
Day 3 - The odd crampy pain continued all throughout the day as well.  However, this was the first day I wasn't consumed with thoughts of eating and whether or not I was actually hungry. This was a really big thing because in the last 7 months 3 days is the longest I've made it without caving and bingeing.  It was also signifigant because I had to bake a carrot cake for a potluck prechool moms social gathering that will be taking place in just a couple of hours.  I made a smaller cake for us to have and I didn't go crazy making extra frosting just so I could lick the bowl or anything.  That right there is a huge step for me ;)  For dinner I did spaghetti and managed to have one normal sized plate (rather than the two that spaghetti usually ends up being) and a small piece of cake.   

As far as the odd pain I've expereinced I'm not sure if its realted to this of not.  I've got a cold; an awful stuffed nose, achy ear, sore throat kind of cold.  And since Keia is nearly weaned and is now just a night time nurser I took the sudafed for the first time in 5 years, maybe it didn't agree with me after such a long break?   I can think of maybe one other possibility too.  In looking at the chart they gave me as the spa it looks like the two beads inside my ear were placed in the wrong spot,  so I googled some and every english chart I found said the same thing :/  I also came  across some info that said that having them placed in the wrong place or pressed in too deep can cause side effects, including sharp pains throughout the body.  My pains weren't sharp, but it certainly makes me a little more inclined to believe in the effects.  Anyhow I took the all beads off for a few hours and the restuck them in what appear to be the correct places. They say you're not supposed to reuse the old ones but, I don't have new ones yet, and these are still sticky and not itchy. 

I plan to leave them on for at least today as today it that potluck social gathering lunch,  really like going to a free all you can eat buffet, so I'm gonna need all the willpower I can get. But so far it seems like something that might work for me, so I'll keep it up and update periodically on it.  BTW as of my morning weigh in yesterday I was down 1 lb not bad for 2 days :)