:Japan )

Around the 4th of this month I signed a contract to stay on for the 3rd year of the JET programme. At the time there was still more of Japan that I wanted to see and still more of Japanese that I wanted to learn (a few more kids to torture?) but it hasn’t been until now that I am starting to see how much of a gamble recontracting really has become for me.

In a little less than a week’s time the Town of Shimoda, 117 years old and where I call home, will be no more. Now this isn’t quite as dramatic or cataclysmic as the nuclear plant in Rokkasho blowing up and wiping us off the face of the Earth, but it does mean that my job is in for changes, some of which could be more than I bargained for. The cause of all this ruckus is the merger of Shimoda Town and Momoishi Town to form Oisrase Town.

The first definite change is that the building that I have showed up to for work every morning for the past year and a half will now be located it what will soon be formerly known as Momoishi Town. My office and a couple of others have to be completely moved in and ready to work by March 1st along with our counterparts from the Momoishi area. Besides the actual weekend of time to move all the junk it will take from me, there also could be some drastic changes to the schedule since my office lady will no longer be making the school schedules for me…it will be one of THEIR ladies. Could be dangerous.

On the other hand Mehan and I will now be working in the same office so we can finally put to rest the shimoda vs. momoishi gang wars and get down to some terrorization of Oirase town and students. There are some pluses and negatives to this whole shebang, I’m just hoping I’m not thinking “Dear God what have I done” come August or sooner.

Last Sunday I had my last chance at getting ranked this season. To be ranked you must meet certain time goals on 2 of 3 possible tests: 500m, 1000m, 1500m. Naturally most people select 500m and 1000m, I’m no exception. This season there were 3 possible testing dates, each about a month apart. The first test, I was still getting used to the ice again and healing up from my summer injury, failed both trials. The second chance I attempted after a previous nights nomikai (intraoffice drinking party). Between the remnants of that and not lacing my skates up tight enough, I made a disasterous run of the 500m, falling several times, and was full of self-doubt on the 1000m — failed both trials. In the week leading up to the third and final test of the season, I made a new personal best on the 500m at 1:05 so I was feeling quite good going into the last test. Had been training pretty diligently, my ankle had healed completely, and I had learned to pay specific attention to how my skates were laced up. The goal was to obtain E rank (the lowest sadly) which is 500m in 1:10 and 1000m in 2:30.

Dispite an unexpectedly strong morning wind on that Sunday I was able to make the 500m trial in 1:07. The 1000m proved to still be elusive as I had a terrible start from the line and then fell down on the 2nd to last curve. I got back up as quickly as I could to finish in 2:45.

The goal this season was to get the cross-over on the corners perfected but as this season is beginning to draw to a close I still can’t say I feel too much closer to that goal. I feel like most of the beginning of this season was dedicated to building back up the muscle and endurance that I lost due to inactivity and injury in the summer. Nevertheless I’m happy that I was finally able to show some progress from last season’s best time of 1:10.