Strange Encounters

Well, yesterday I went to visit the two JHS where i will be teaching... The first one was Sawauchi JHS. It seemed nessled in the middle of the Mts. and my meeting with the principal was quite interesting. We were discussing some things and i told them what my interests were... Then we got to the subject of philosophy (that seems unavoidable when trying to converse with me) and they asked me what type of philosophy i had or read. I told them that i read alot of marxism. Their reaction made me smile to some degree... They responded by saying how difficult and smart i must be to read up on marxism. In america just the suggestion of being a marxist (or rather reading marx, since i dont think i am a marxist in the orthodox sense of the term) would be probably more than enough for a dismissal from most jobs and ridicule or isolation from ones surroundings, yet here, once i said that they looked at me as if i was quite inteligent. Then i said that i read Fredrich Nietzsche and they immedietly understood and knew who he was (at this point i was a little bit estatic inside and in awe, i thought i found a place where i could, if i get fluent enough, have some fruitful conversations in subjects that i am interested in with the people i work with). Later when i met the english teacher at sawauchi he showed us around the school, when i said that i was interested in kendo (it turns out the school has a judo and possibly a kendo club, but im not sure about the later, i might have missed something in the conversation)and wanted to learn the piano and compose music...things got interesting, it turns out the english teacher is also the music teacher at the school, and seemed a little bit more than eager to teach me to play... THe visit to yuda JHS was not quite as eventfull, i botched up a simple introduction (i am going to do the same once i visit the mayor later today) but the teachers seemed to be quite willing to persist with my half broken japanese and seemed somewhat enthusiastic (though im still trying to find out if its genuine or not, but then again that question is b.s. since its assuming there is an essence, something behind the masks we wear, when all we have are the various facades, shillouetes to cloak a void a phantasm of a center...the center must not hold. Anyways, i have to give an introduction in front of both schools (with all the kids) which should prove to be interesting, but im not concerned, i have faced worse when dealing with my parents. Though it might not be as good as i am making it out to be due to my haphazard japanese skills, i am fairly sure that im at least in a proximal distance to an understanding of my environment. The sense of being in humility has not worn off, but a week in japan thus far has been more insightfull from a linguistic standpoint than three years of japanese in college. While i admit i wouldnt be here if it were not for college, the actual content of that education left much to be desired. Though i know my experience is due to some degree of orientialism and occultism, who among us has not held a sense of alterity, a sense of desire for something different? is that not one of the fundamential (insert flaw/reasons for despair/perspectives that arise from ignorance of the totality or nothingness of everything/or whatever perspective one holds) of the ontological paradox? Not that i am justifying my perspective, or saying that others should do as i have done, but i at least hold myself to a degree of humility....Its odd....I can still say that most of my views have not changed, as a matter of fact they have been somewhat reinforced by the experience hitherto (i wont say what, so as to leave ambiguous the suggestion) but it puts somethings into a different light. Like i said before feeling like a baby having your dipers changed for you (while your an adult)is probably a similar experience to the linguistic bootstraping and generosity/aquardness of being an alterity, a phenomena, something of a wonder in this new environment. I think it would make most pretensious politicians step back from their ivory towers and powerlusts and just realize the humility of it all, the existential paradoxs and mundanity of living, the temporal locality and dislocation of oneself into the depths of ones own understanding. In a sense, just to deconstruct oneself...I think this practice should be taken by a few people, to stare into the abyss....the abyss also stares back at you.. Sometimes one just should try to jump into the depths...and let the fires consume or revive.