Before we get to the main part of the journal, I'd like to add a special segment:
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CHRISTMAS ADDENDUM
Seems I forgot to mention something in my last journal. For Christmas this year, I dressed up in a Santa outfit that would have been totally impossible if not for the help of my mother, who sent me the pants, shirt, and undershirt that I needed to pull it off. And let me tell you, I make a fantastic Santa. Can't be beat! Almost makes me want to be old now so I can see if I'm still in a holly jolly good mood.
Also, I had said that the only gift I hadn't received was the Call of Duty: World at War game I'd been hoping for. At the time, it was simply a joke, as I'd already received quite a bit and really wasn't expecting anything more. The VERY NEXT DAY a package arrived at my school. Lo and behold, what was inside? The game. Delicious.
And that's all there is to say but that.
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I've recently returned from my week-long trip to the Kanto region, and I'm here to offer you my full report. Shall we proceed?
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December 30th - Meeting a Train
I'd already shelled out my 2.5 man ($250) for my tickets to Tokyo and back. I would be leaving Kyoto at 1409, meaning I'd need to arrive an hour early in order to procure provisions for the trip. To get to Kyoto at 1300, I would need to leave Katata at 1230. But that was absolutely no problem! I was completely packed and ready to go...at 1130. Unfortunately, I'd unplugged the TV, my gaming consoles and computer were packed away, and having stayed up the previous night, I didn't feel I had the energy to read a book.
So I played the most dangerous game known to man (after "Russian Roulette" and "Is This Poison?"). I like to call it "Just Five Minutes." The game consists of lying on your bed and shutting your eyes, telling yourself that you would only be resting for 5 minutes before you'd recharge your batteries well enough to go on.
I lost.
1220: I receive a message on my phone, causing it to vibrate strongly enough to jolt me from my slumber. Jason's message saying he'd meet me in Moriya. I immediately bolt out of bed, call a taxi to the station, grab the suitcase + trash, bolt out the door, chuck the trash, catch a ride to the station, hop in the train at 1230.
Getting to the Shinkansen was uneventful. However the ride was not. At some point, in the middle of a tunnel, our train stopped and I couldn't figure out why. That is, until I looked to the front of the car and saw a news report flashing by, telling me that a man had "entered the tracks and met a train." I can't say that the meeting ended very well. The police were involved and a safety inspection team had to be dispatched. Fortunately it wasn't our train, though. It took a full 90 minutes before the train started moving again. To my later regret, I eventually started cursing the man who'd been hit by the train rather than feeling sorry for him. Around that time, I just went to sleep so that I could put it all behind me. Even after we started moving again, we had later delays to allow other trains to catch up. Added another 30 minutes of wait time, total.
The remainder of the trip was largely without incident, and I got to Moriya sometime around 1930, having originally planned for 1730. Oh well. After meting with Jason, we were immediately whisked away by taxi to his house, where he graciously lugged all my things up the stair and threw them into his apartment before we continued on our way to a drinking party that was in progress. Met a few of Jason's students, and another friend of mine, Matt, there. We chatted at length about music, technology, politics, movies, and more. Unfortunately, no one wanted to stick around for karaoke, so we all went our separate ways. Jason and I returned to his apartment and chatted for a long while before drifting off to slumberland.
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December 31st - Started Slow, Over in a Flash
Having not entirely recovered from my trip up, we decided to make New Year's Eve largely about relaxing and gaming. So Jason and I ended up playing a series of games, including Narutimate Accel 2, Soul Calibur 4, and Rockman 9 (known as Megaman 9 in the West). There are probably many people out there thinking that something more significant should be done on the last day of the year, but hey, it's Rockman! He can't be denied!
But that's certainly not all we did. We had planned to slip down to Meiji Jingu, the most famous temple in Japan, to pack ourselves in among the crowd and wait for the boom of the drums to signal the new year's coming. Didn't quite work out like that. A call from our friend Tina came, and Jason and I were invited to spend the eve with her. Having had my heart set on the shrine, I went on down to Harajuku myself while Jason went off to be with Tina, though we'd already planned for me to catch up them once I'd finished.
We ended up catching a pretty early dinner and so I found myself standing at the front of Meiji Jingu at about 8:30, with almost no one else in the area...relatively. I'm not sure whether or not I expected it to be very crowded considering how early I'd arrived, but somehow I thought there would be more. I began to think of changing my plan and going to Shibuya instead, to go see what was going on at the most famous crossing in Japan. But I decided against it in the end, and was much happier for it. Around 9:30, there were around 5 rows of people, and only half an hour after that, it was so packed that I didn't think anyone else would be able to enter.
I had a pleasant conversation with the group of people standing next to me for a long while, and at some point I was even interviewed by a reporter, though I have no idea what paper, or if it was even printed, considering how many people he must have spoken to. I was asked how long I'd waited, whether I came every year, where I come from, my thoughts on the old year and the new year, things I planned to do, etc.
The only cloud in the joyous feeling of being around all those people was one woman who had positioned herself behind my right shoulder and wasn't able to muster up enough spirit to stay awake. This is where she used her Japanese train-rider experience to sleep while standing up...using my shoulder as a pillow. Now, I wasn't going to just shove her aside, but neither could I afford to simply sit still. My legs were already aching from not moving, so I decided to do the only thing I could to get my legs moving and simultaneously get the woman off my shoulder.
That's right, I danced. Or..well...rhythmic rocking. Did you think I relocated? Sorry, crowd was far too large for that.
I already had the headphones on, so I just started moving to the music, which naturally presented a moving target for my sleepy friend. Any time should would place her weary head on my tired shoulder, another little bump would wake her enough to give me 5 minutes or so of peace. The difficult part was doing my little dancing for 2 hours straight.
Finally, the appointed time had come. One guy had it on good authority that he was the expert of time or something, and was continually giving updates like "33 minutes left," "29 minutes left," "21 minutes left," and so on. Unfortunately, when it came to the final countdown, he was about a second ahead of everyone else. Of course, the possibility exists that he was on time, and everyone else was a second behind. That will be up to history to decide, as I simply observed and recorded the moment. Nonetheless, once the entirety had decided the new year, coins were immediately launched from dozens of people behind me, raining down a monetary storm upon a large area set aside at the front of the temple, followed by the sound of many hands clapping together as those same people prayed for good fortune in 2009. At the same time, the boom of the giant drum echoed throughout the courtyard and likely to the throngs of people waiting beyond.
And just like that, it was over. The man in front of me, the time expert, who had been so eager as to tell me about every passing minute, finished up his prayer, let out a little satisfied sigh, and packed up his things to leave. So I figured I should do the same. After all, I had a train to catch and while I was happy to have been part of the experience, my after-party was meant to be with my friends.
Along the way, I picked up a couple souvenirs, such as the Demon-breaking Arrows and a collection of charms, one each for travel, success, studies, luck, and sickness. I figured I'd let my friends pick one each (except for success, that one's mine!) and then proceeded to the food area to pick up an authentic donner kebab before heading to the train platform. Given the expected increase in volume for the evening, it was no surprise they had trains coming practically every few seconds to pick people up. I managed to catch an earlier train up to Toyoda than originally expected, and from there took a taxi up most of the way.
Unfortunately, the taxi couldn't seem to find the right place, as Tina's apartment is in the Twilight Zone. Instead, I got dropped off at a 7-Eleven and was suddenly charged by an Irish bull named Jason. After getting some alcohol from the shop, we proceeded to Tina's brand new several-boxes-not-yet-open apartment, where we didn't eat, but we drank and were merry, listening to nostalgic music before finally dozing off. Was it 3 or 4? I can't remember.
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January 1st - Getting Off to a Good Start
No clue when I woke up, but I believe it to have been around 12:30. The others were roused soon after. None of us were in the mood for a quick start today, nor did we have any plans which required immediate attention, so instead we simply devoted some time to the appreciation of the arts, and in doing so we listened to more nostalgic music some more. In addition to that, we took some time to flip through the Kindle and delve into some poetry. Having the entire Harvard Classics collection on this baby really does come in handy (mental note: add a cookbook). Some of the poems, at least those I recall, are here:
THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE - Alfred, Lord Tennyson
TO THE MEMORY OF MY BELOVED MASTER WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, AND WHAT HE HATH LEFT US - Ben Jonson
THE ISLES OF GREECE - George Gordon, Lord Byron
SHE WALKS IN BEAUTY - George Gordon, Lord Byron
THE DESTRUCTION OF SENNACHERIB - George Gordon, Lord Byron
WISHES FOR THE SUPPOSED MISTRESS - Richard Crashaw
Tina also treated us to a track from the Space Ghost: Coast to Coast CD, with a parody of Tennyson's (read here as "Tennis Anyone?") poem read by BRAK: BRAK'S VERSION.
Once we were finally up and about, us guys packed up our things and vacated the apartment, walking down the path towards the station. We noticed that it was already approaching sundown, so that any plans we might have had for the day would have to be put on hold. It was rather fortunate, then, that we had made absolutely no plans for the 1st. Meandering down the road, we wound up at a Big Boy restaurant and had ourselves some meat and potatoes, with Tina getting the "Wahoo!" set (pardon the pun...Wafuu means Japanese-style, but I can never resist saying it as "Wahoo!").
Once finished, our paths diverged as Tina went back home while Jason and I proceeded stationward, and were headed back home. We didn't go directly there, however. Instead, we wandered through the streets of Akihabara. Unfortunately, many shops were closed for the holiday and many more were closing up early. Though we'd arrived at 7, even the larger shops were shutting their doors.
One particularly interesting thing about the Japanese New Year is the merchant tradition of the Fukubukuro, or Lucky Bag. In America, one might call it a grab bag, but I don't think they are the same, as Lucky Bags often have a number of goods exorbitantly more expensive than what one paid. Often, there will simply be a listed price on the bag, along with a general description of what is contained inside ("fragrances," "household goods," "digital camera," etc). I was thinking about purchasing one at the electronics store we passed, but we went shopping elsewhere first, and I missed the chance. But the shopping was nice, and afterward we had some excellent kebabs at a little trailer shop.
Once we'd finished with all of that, it was finally back on the train and off to Moriya once more. We ended up grabbing a light dinner (having had our first meal around 4-5 and our kebab snack around 7, and ended up playing Haunting Ground until the late hours of the eve. I do believe it was the first time I ever heard Jason emit a high-pitched squeak. At least, one of surprise.
I heard from one of my friends that there is a superstition stating that what you do on the 1st sets a precedent for how the rest of your year will go. You should not work too hard, because that will mean your year will be stressful. If you are sick or in pain, that is how your year will go. My 2009, then, must be pretty darned fantastic. Woke up among good company, got the creative juices flowing with poetry reading, reflected on the past with Tina's music selection, carried on the day's activities in a leisurely fashion, bought gifts for others, and played horror games.
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January 2nd - Vegetables and Tenderized Meat
Waking up, I suffered from a god-awful shoulderache that has been plaguing me quite a bit recently, and one I absolutely couldn't explain. It was getting so bad that turning my head to the right would cause my entire back to flare up. Not being the kind of self-diagnoser to say "Well, I just won't do that," I decided to see if a massage would work. In order to do that, we would have to take a trip to the mall!
Jason actually wound up there ahead of me, though for reasons I have simply forgotten. We had lunch together, chatting about aesthetics and the difference between cuteness and beauty. Afterward, we wandered around looking at Fukubukuro (see above) sales, though nothing caught our eye at the time. We'd been waiting for an answer from Jason's friend as to which massage parlor would be best, but unfortunately it never came. Since we were downstairs at the time, we went directly to the massage parlor on the lower floor, only to be told by the manager that they would be opening at 5:20...it might just be me, but is that really the ideal time to start your business? Although, reflecting upon it now, I guess that would ensure you get the just-off-of-work crowd who could really use it.
With that option out of the way, we went upstairs to the other massage parlor, which was open and ready for me. I had to fill out some little info sheet and then it was off to the massage table. Placing my head through the ring, I waited for a good 5 minutes before my masseusess came. Once we got started though, it was amazing. With her gentle touch and the right pressure, I could just feel the stress melting off of me. Well, that's what I'd like to say. The truth is she dug her fingers deep into the base of my skull to get started and I seriously thought I was about to die. I'd answered on the form that I wanted a normal-strength massage..I pray to never find out what the strong massage is like.
It wasn't all bad. When she actually got to the parts that had been hurting, the feeling was such that I was laughing. I've heard that laughing during a massage shows just how much stress has been accumulated, but I've never been sure of the origin of that. Even though those parts were great, that was only about 25% of the time. I will admit, however, that once everything was finished, there was no pain, and I was able to twist my head in any direction without problem.
On my way out of the mall, I saw a pretty heap Fukubukuro sale at a perfume shop, and decided to pick up a ladies' bag for the three gals in my school, the manager, the new teacher, and the children's teacher. On a whim, I also purchased a mens' bag. Some of the scents I got, I can only find on Japanese websites, but in the ladies bag, I ended up with:
Juicy Jewel Oil Sheets (630 yen)
Juicy Jewel Mysterious Fruity Body Mist - 140ml (1680 yen)
Christina by Parfums Christina - 50ml (5250 yen)
Miss Soprani by Luciano Soprani - 50ml (7245 yen)
Exult by Naomi Campbell - mini (997 yen)
Incanto Heaven by Salvatore Ferragamo - 30ml (5775 yen)
TOTAL - 21,577 yen
The mens' bag had:
Feroce by Tonino Lambourghini - 50ml (2835 yen)
Intense by Issey Miyaki - 40ml (4000 yen)
Instinct After Dark by David Beckham - 50ml (4000 yen)
Mixte Pour Homme by Jeanne Arthes - 7ml (590 yen)
Samourai Hair Wax: Glaze - 80g (1260 yen)
TOTAL - 12,685 yen
And I got a Ferrari lock as a bonus for purchasing more than 1 man ($100) of stuff. All in all, a huge discount, wouldn't you say?
Went back to Jason's to divvy up the stuff and then to play some Rockman 9. Got all the way up to Dr. Wily's second stage before deciding it was time for dinner. We had actually been hoping to round up a troupe for a merry round of karaoke, but it seemed that none of Jason's friends were around or up for it. So we went to Coco's instead, where we met with Sane, one of Jason's friends I'd met before. We had a nice, long chat, largely about Sane and Jason's upcoming trip to the States. For example, we discussed the fact that Japanese men love large wallets, some big enough that half of them stick out of yer pocket, which would definitely not work in most large cities of the States. We also talked about that great classic work of movie history, The Wizard of Oz, and Jason and I commented that all Americans of our generation still know all the songs. I wonder now how true that may be...and whether or not the generation past us will know anything of the Great and Powerful Oz at all.
Afterward, we returned to the lair to continue gaming, but Dr. Wily proved to be a bit too tough for me. Not wanting to put it off any longer, for fear that we'd be unable to continue, I let Jason take the control and blast Wily into complacency once more. Oh, but the crafty Doctor was able to escape yet again.
After the world was saved yet again, we decided that it was time to watch a movie, and loaded up Sword of the Stranger, one of the very best samurai films, let alone anime films, that I have ever seen. As far as I know, it's currently making all the film festival circuits, and has been put up for nomination for three Academy Awards. Here's hoping that it goes all the way.
After that, bed.
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January 3rd - A Touch of Awe
Big plans on Saturday, quite literally. We were planning on heading out to Ushiku in order to see the country's largest Buddha statue and the third largest statue in the world (2nd until the completion of the Laykyun Setkyar in Myanmar last year). We met up with Sane before taking the train down. Grabbed some lunch at a convenience store in Ushiku before grabbing a bus down. It wasn't very long at all before we could see the big boy in our sights.
Once we'd arrived, I really honestly couldn't say to you why this Buddha is so unknown to most people. The most famous Buddhas in Japan are definitely the Kamakura Buddha and the Todaiji Buddha. They are worthy of note, however - the former for the fact that it is the only huge Buddha in Japan to have gone without change (including restoration) since its construction, and the latter for sitting in the largest completely wooden structure in Japan (and possibly the world). But even both of these hulks sit at a mere seventh of their youngest brother's size. In fact, even I didn't know about the Ushiku Buddha until I was chatting with another teacher (thanks Frances) who clued me in on the truth. I'd been hoping to visit it on my first trip out, but that was not to be. And now with the Buddha in full view, it was simply amazing.
Of course, as with anything dealing with a Buddha, there were things to do like ringing the bell, lighting incense, etc. We also enjoyed a little walk along the fishy pond, and another little stroll down a footpath that no one else seemed to want to use, leading us around the small little pond where, according to pictures, flowers bloom in a vortex of color each spring. Each step closer to the massive statue just made us all take another breath or let out another exclamation at just how big the thing was. Let's take a moment to get some perspective. The Big Buddha is 110 meters tall, with a 10 meter pedestal, total 120m or 394 feet. In comparison, the Statue of Liberty is 46 meters, on a 47 meter platform. Total height 93m or 305 feet. Big Ben's tower is 96.3m or 315.9 feet. This thing is just huge.
Perhaps even more surprising was the fact that when we entered the Buddha, we were greeted by brightly-colored Buddhas lit with neon colors, a golden statue of Buddha prominently displayed in the center of everything, and beyond that a Star Trek-style light strip guided us to the staircase. On the second floor we found a gift shop that contained a 1:1 scale of one of the Buddha's toes, though I have no clue which one. Beyond that was a display hall where people had written well wishes, or simply their name, or the names of other people, for all to see.
The third floor was truly spectacular. A high-ceilinged area where the walls were simply filled with miniature Buddhas, most of which had been purchased by donations to represent a person, group, or family. All of them were a striking gold color, leading me to assume I'd entered some sort of palatial estate on first sight. It was simply astounding to see so many of the little guys around me. Unfortunately, we were unable to proceed any further, due to the highest floors being closed off for that day. We were, however, content with what we'd seen, and progressed once more down the stairs and out of the lotus throne, leaving Buddha behind.
On our way out, we decided to do a bit of shopping, and came across a bust of Ronald Reagan of all people, with a little Q&A saying that there was no real reason for it being there. Jason purchased a Fukubukuro for his hosts at our party later that evening, and we left. At the bus stop, we were surprised to find that we were about a half-hour late for the last bus, much to our annoyance. But not to be dismayed, we dashed for the lone taxi in the nearby parking lot, plopping ourselves in the seats and zooming off to the station. Fortunately, the cost was only double that of the bus with the three of us, so it wasn't bad at all. At the station, we took a train down to Sanuki and Jason let his Japanese teacher know we were coming early. She picked us up in the Crampmobile, or at least that's what I called it due to my knees being higher than my chin, and my head at an odd angle due to hitting the ceiling.
The house was absolutely fantastic, a real old-style Japanese house complete with the little outdoor walkways leading to different areas (though they were covered with glass here). Jason's Japanese teacher, Chiharu, had also invited some friends along besides us, one of them being Angela, a Korean student who Chiharu'd met some time ago during a homestay in Canada, and another, Shi, who was an old school friend. Later, we were also joined by Akiko and Satomi, more school friends. Their English was terrific, as Aki had spent several years as a child living in Durham, England, so she had a distinct accent. Satomi had spent a long while backpacking and hitchhiking around Australia, having picked up an accent herself. While we may have been two Americans, six Japanese, and a Korean, the feeling at the dinner table was very international.
The feast started with a distinctly Korean fare, as Chijimi and Kimchi were brought out to the table, followed by carrots and dipping sauces. Once everyone had gathered, we began making takoyaki, a very popular dish (much more popular in the Kansai region) which consists of a batter, green onions, ginger, breading, and the prime ingredient, octopus. Just for kicks, we also added some kimchi to a few of them to see what kind of effect that would have. Unfortunately, as much as I love watching takoyaki being made, I can't always stomach it. My body tends to reject onions as though it were some kind of poison. The octopus itself tastes like a springy, spicy sausage, so that's never been the problem (though I always feel a chill when my tongue slides across a sucker). I managed to drizzle enough takoyaki sauce over the top that I could chomp them all down, but my body really wasn't too happy with me.
After the takoyaki, there was sushi, and while all the eating was going on, we had plenty of fine discussion, from our musical tastes (due to the fact that MTV was playing behind us all on the TV) to language learning to travel experiences and on and on. And of course, the beer was quite free-flowing, though the ladies wound up sticking to softer drinks. It was the most at-home atmosphere I've had in quite some time, perhaps the first I've felt so comfortable in a large group since my Thanksgiving experience in 2007. And it only got better when we started playing games together.
We began with a rousing game of Uno. Unfortunately, despite it being an American game, those were a couple of disappointing games as Jason lost te first round and I lost the second. Afterward, we played a game featuring a former big star of Japan, Razor Ramon Hard Gay, often just called Hard Gay (the first link is a YouTube video. Safe for work, but a little suggestive). The game itself was also rather suggestive, featuring a barrel where one places swords into various slots. If the player is lucky, HG lets out one of his trademark phrases, such as "Foooo!" If they're unlucky, the spring releases and HG launches out. We had a few different variations, such as placing your forehead over HG, or aiming him at other players and trying to fire him. After that, it was on to the next game, a version of Jenga with colored bricks. We ended up making several teams in different playthroughs. Random couples, Gaijin vs. Japanese, and Men vs. Women. I didn't lose a single time, mwaha! And after that, it was time for some last-minute card games, as we had to depart soon after. In Kansai, the game is called Zabuton (seat cushion), where a deck of cards is spread in a circle, players flip a card in turn, and if the number or suit matches, everyone moves to slap the pile. The last slapper keeps the cards. Then we played another game with pens. Everyone has four cards, and each player passes one to the left with very little time to think. One player makes 4-of-a-kind, he grabs a pen, and everyone else tries to grab one. Last one loses.
Once the games were done, we went back to the station and hopped on the car. Actually, we wound up boarding a green car, which one is not allowed to enter without a special ticket. Hoping not to be caught, and feeling a little silly, the three of us (Sane, Jason, and I) played a little Metal Gear Solid, rushing through the car and peeking around corners with finger-guns. Fortunately, no witnesses. When we wound up at the last car, we laid down a perimeter, kept watch for any officials, and when the train stopped, we dashed off to the next car, a normal non-green, where we could kick our feet back and relax until we finally arrived in Moriya, parted ways with Sane, and Jason and I returned to the lair once more. I spent the rest of the night packing while Jason played Fatal Frame, and beat the first boss. We had another big day planned for Sunday, so it was off to bed a little earlier.
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January 4th - Samurai, Servants, and Shrines
Big plans for the 4th. Being that it was my last day, we planned to visit some of the famous sights of Tokyo. But first! Jason's Japanese lesson. Which gave me the time I needed to finish packing all of my things. Hopping down to Tokyo station on a later train, I needed to secure a storage locker so that I wouldn't have to lug y bags around everywhere. Given that my suitcase was holding both my PS2 and PS3, plus tons of other heavy things, I really was hoping to avoid that. And I was fortunate enough to come across a French couple who couldn't fit their bags into the locker no matter how hard they tried. I was looking to see if any others were open when they simply asked if I wanted theirs. Ching! After that, I boarded another train to go to Shinagawa, the point of our first trip, and waited for Jason, gorging myself on some authentic Indian curry in the meantime.
Our first stop? Sengaku-ji, the resting place of the famous 47 Ronin. I won't go into too much detail, as there's not enough space here to include all the intrigue and greatness that the story entails, but the basic plot is that one lord Asano was treated rather abruptly by one lord Kira in Edo while Kira was supposed to be training Asano in etiquette for an upcoming reception. Asano took it for a long while, but finally couldn't stand any more, drew a dagger and attacked Kira, giving him a minor flesh wound. For even drawing a weapon in Edo Castle, one is condemned to death via seppuku (self disembowelment by sword). Asano's family was left with nothing, all lands and goods were confiscated, and his retainers lost their titles and privileges. 47 of his retainers, led by Oishi Kuranosuke, decided that their lord needed vengeance, and banded together, formulated a long-term plan, and carried out a raid on Kira's manor, decapitating Kira and bringing the head to their master's grave, receiving much praise along the way. They had upheld the samurai code. Unfortunately, for disobeying the shogun's direct orders that there be no revenge, they were ordered to commit seppuku, and were interred in the same place as their master.
The temple itself was very nice, and the graves of the ronin were burning with incense offerings that the various visitors were giving to each one, honoring their spirit. There was also a nice museum with depictions of the entire incident, pieces of authentic armor, writings of the period, and a whole collection of wooden dolls painted to look like each individual member of the team. Jason and I discussed the interesting point about the story being that each of the 47 Ronin is known (at least to the Japanese), and has his own story. It's just got a whole lot of intrigue built up in this little story.
After that, we went to Akihabara. It was around 1600 and that meant it was a perfect time to advance to the second attraction, the oh so famous Maid Cafe of Akihabara. At these cafes, all the servers are women dressed up in various styles of maid outfits (the uniform varies from shop to shop), and they greet the customers as though they were lord and master of the house. While I'd always had a passing interest in seeing what it was like, I was a little afraid of simply being overwhelmed (in a bad way) by the cuteness factor known as moe. But hey, we're manly men, and we can take it!
Having chosen a maid cafe that reviewers said was good for communication (we both wanted to practice our Japanese), we went to the @home cafe, up to the 6th floor. Didn't take too long to get a seat, thanks to the time we'd come. Once we were seated, though, it did take quite a while for our server to come and get our order, something we noticed was not the same with the customers around us. Still, they were polite and courteous, and each one complimented our Japanese, despite our mistakes. I ordered the chocolate milk and the fudge bear cake, my partner ordered hot caramel milk and the fudge bear cake. Just after we finished ordering, the hourly show began, with something called "Moe moe janken" being the main attraction. It was basically an uber-cutesy rock-paper-scissors game. I got all the way up to the 3rd round, and told Jason I was going paper, but at the last minute I lost my nerve and went with scissors, which didn't beat the girl on stage. But nobody else beat her either, so there was another chance, which I lost again. Turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as the two winners got up on stage, one won a final round, and then she got interviewed. Don't think I could have one that.
We received our food and drink, and had to infuse it with "moe" using a special incantation. Thank goodness our maid was quiet, because I heard so many maids around us practically screaming the incantation. Phew. Dodged a bullet there. The cake was absolutely delicious, though. A cupcake-like fudge cake and two smaller dots of fudge made the bear shape, with a hand-drawn face of frosting, and whipped cream bursts everywhere, all covered in chocolate sauce. Not my normal fare, but when in Rome!
We'd also both ordered a "cheki" which is Japanese for a Polaroid. The maids decorate the picture personally before delivering it to you, and you get to choose any maid currently serving to take your shot with you. I had no clue who all the maids were, so I had our server bring a list and did the old eenie-meenie, while Jason chose one of the girls he'd seen on stage. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to make our own poses. They told us what they wanted us to do (in Japanese), and we did it. But it wasn't that bad. Perhaps the most embarrassing part about it is that you're doing it on stage in front of everyone else. And once that was done with, we paid our bill and received special membership cards (site in Japanese only, but you can see the ranks and how many times you need to visit to get it). Apparently if you level up, you get special cheki and commemorative items. That Platinum Card is ridiculous, but I feel a bit relieved that no one's gotten the Black Card yet. To make 2,000 visits, you'd have to visit every day, without fail, for more than 5.5 years!
And once we were done there, it was off to Asakusa, to visit one of the most famous temples in Japan (yes, the title of this section said shrine, but I was going for alliteration), the Senso-ji, the oldest temple in Tokyo, having been originally built in 645, and rebuilt after World War II due to bombing damage. Actually, the way we ended up doing it was going backwards, entering the Senso-ji grounds through one of the side paths, then heading to the entrance, which meant passing through the Hozomon, a curious gate adorned on the backside with 400kg sandals and thee large lanterns. Past that, we went through the Kaminarimon, the true main entrance to the temple and the outer gate, guarded on each side by the powerful gods of Wind and Lightning, Fuujin and Raijin. There were also quite a number of food and game booths, perhaps because of the New Year, or perhaps they do it all year round. I saw a copy of Chrono Trigger for the DS available at one of the cork-shooter games, but alas I couldn't get it despite hitting the target with all but one of my cork bullets! Oh well.
Afterward, Jason and I proceeded to a nearby Starbucks, where we simply relaxed and discussed the events that had gone on in the past few days, what would happen in the future, and other general stuff. This lasted until it was time for me to head back to Tokyo station and grab my things. We separated at the train station, and I got my luggage, went to the platform, and had a nice long chat with the train conductor while we waited for the Shinkansen to appear. I was a little worried when he suddenly told me it looked like the train was 10 minutes late (my last train home was leaving 20 minutes after we were scheduled to arrive in Kyoto), but we apparently made up for it along the way, as we arrived only 2 minutes later than usual. Made the transfer, and I was soon home again, home again, jiggity jog.
And that's that.
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See you next time, Space Cowboy!
Pictures are here:
New Year's - http://picasaweb.google.co.jp/pigon
Ushiku Daibutsu - http://picasaweb.google.co.jp/pigon
After-Buddha Party - http://picasaweb.google.co.jp/pigon
Tokyo Excursion - http://picasaweb.google.co.jp/pigon
Videos:
New Year's at Meiji Jingu (countdown starts near 4:00 in) - http://www.dailymotion.com/kyoushibanza
Making Takoyaki - http://www.dailymotion.com/kyoushibanza
But that's next week. Here and now it's time for my December Report! Open up them eyes and read well!
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As many of you know, or would know if you read this journal as well as I type it (okay, so I make some typos, but you know what I mean!), December 7th was my Japanese Language Proficiency Test, also known as the JLPT. Now while some of you may be thinking that I was probably freaking out the closer the day actually came, the opposite is so much closer to the truth. That's because, when it comes down to it, I am an awesome test-taker, and I've found that the more effort I put into my studies, the more nervous I actually become. That's why I rarely ever study before my tests (sorry to disappoint any of my professors reading this), because I've always been of the belief that if you aren't already aware of what's coming up, there's no point in forcing it into your head. Generally, I stop myself from studying for about a week before tests. Let me clarify, though, that studying before a test comes up is perfectly acceptable. I'm always glancing through grammar books, discussing fine points of conversational Japanese with my fellow staff, etc.
Speaking of which, I did receive a rather ill omen right before the test. 3 days before I was to put pencil to paper, my dictionary suffered a tragic skydiving-related injury. That is, it tried falling from a great height without the aid of a properly-prepared parachute. At the moment, she's in critical condition. She can be brought back to consciousness given the proper stimulus (pressing the power button), but generally, she says one word and passes out once more. There's also massive internal bleeding that seems to be spreading despite our best efforts. At this point, it's best to cut our losses and go on to a new machine, but that option also requires a great amount of money which isn't covered by any insurance.
But I digress, back to the test.
On the 7th, I wanted to get to the testing site early. Not, as I mentioned earlier, so that I could get in some studying, but so that I could visit the shrine I'd seen on Google Maps. So I woke up not too far after the crack of dawn and zipped off to Kyoto University. I'd been told that this was in my favor, as taking a test in an academic atmosphere meant I would absorb some extra knowledge. Bonus points. So I got to the university and immediately made my way to the shrine, where I enjoyed a brief little stroll and some odd diversions. Not sure if I was praying to a god of education or not, but can't hurt!
I'm not allowed to talk about the actual content of the test, but I will say that I think I may have passed. However, if I did, it was by a hair's breadth. Probably. I won't know until February. One thing that was kind of troublesome is the amount of prep time taken up. The test started around 10 and lasted until 3. 30 minutes for each test was devoted solely to going over the rules, handing out answer sheets, test booklets, and verifying that the faces in our photos match the person in the seat. For all 3 sections of the test. Seems to me they could cut that down a lot. I was amused at the soccer-like penalty system. You got a yellow card as a warning for some actions, like chewing gum during the test. You got a red card for others, like having your cell phone go off during the listening section (which would be a lot of trouble given that the room moderators don't control the listening. It was all piped in through the speakers). Two yellows = a red card, and immediate ejection. Fortunately, I got a wonderfully well-behaved group. Even with the guy in front of me suffering from a cold, I didn't hear a single sniff or cough.
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So, after the test, I had plans to meet up with an old friend from my original training group: Matt, whom I had met way back in the year for my first trip to Arashiyama and the monkey park. But that wasn't to be until and his friend had finished exploring Osaka for a bit. So I went back home, played some UFO Catchers, won a Predalien and a Zenigata figure, did my shopping, and scooted down to Yamashina to meet him. Originally, we'd planned to eat some Chad-Kebabs and head back to my place, but the bar was closed, so we just went back to Katata, ordered a pizza, and slipped into my apartment.
Spent the rest of the evening chatting for awhile before my Predalien was rousted from his position on the shelf above my closet and jumped down to attack Matt. Fortunately there was no blood shed. I assume Matt's head to be rather hard, or the Predalien simply thought Matt wasn't enough of a threat. Or Matt's already spawned another alien. Dunno. After that, Matt revealed that he'd brought his DS along, so we ended up playing Mario Party twice before finally drifting off to sleep.
The next day we woke up early to go and catch brunch at the local Coco's before seeing them off on another Osaka adventure.
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After the tragedy or possible victory that was the test was completed, I was really looking forward to going to see some non-Christmas Christmas lights. That's right, it was time once again to go and visit that special light show known as Luminarie...or Ruminarie. I never know which is the proper one, though I assume the former since it reminds of Luminous.
Tha plan was to meet with some friends down at Sannomiya station before zipping over to Motomachi and proceeding to the show from there. Didn't quite work out. I went down to Sannomiya, waited until the appointed time, and became slightly worried when I noticed that I was the only one. So I called up my co-coordinator of the event, asked how she was doing on getting there. Was met with "Whaddya mean? It's tomorrow, you numbskull!" only much less archaic and not nearly as insulting. More like "Oh, I'm sorry, Chad, I guess there was a mix-up." Oh, indeed there was. Never one to be deterred, I instead phoned up another teacher I knew who was heading to Osaka for a get-together and met up with her and her friends for their outing, which started at a nice old-fashioned izakaya. Played a drinking game called categories, where one player calls out a category and everyone has to say something belonging to that category in turn, and in a certain amount of time. Our poor Japanese compatriots ended up on the short end of the stick quite a few times unless we helped them.
After drinking, we decided to make it an all-nighter and planned to zip off to a certain club, Pure, to dance the night away. Didn't work out like that. First, no one was sure if Pure was even open on a Sunday. One of our group said he thought it might be open until 2. We weren't satisfied with that, so we ended up asking some locals, who ended up telling us to take a taxi and just say "Nightclub" to get a good one. That option was less appealing, so we went to Shinsaibashi to check out Pure. Closed.
On the way to Pure, though, we had come across another club open until 3, so we zipped back that-a-way (<-) and entered that club. A bit of a burden came up when we were told that the coat check was full and that we would have to carry all of our stuff with us, but we ended up dumping it on some little platform and someone was always staying around it just in case. Of course, I kept all valuables on my person. Then I learned a new skill: dancing for 2.5 hours straight. To be perfectly honest, I thought that with the heat, the smoke machines, and my asthma, I'd be out in seconds flat, so I was surprised at my own stamina. Our group was pretty popular when we were together, but many of us split off on occasion, and I pretty much spent the last hour in the front row dancing with some guy wearing a fake afro, a full set of grills and some of his friends.
After the party, we proceeded out of the club, amusingly getting hassled along the way by one drunk girl who kept telling us to "shut up," though it took us a while to get that. I say it was amusing because we hadn't even spoken to her.
All the way down, and one of our group realizes she'd forgotten a special scarf of hers in the club. I decide to go back in and get it, clearing past the bouncer and to the staff running the elevator, who tells me I can't use it because there's a special sensor which won't allow it to go back up after closing if there are people inside (without a key, of course). He says, however, that I can take the stairs. Seeing no other option and not wanting to go back out empty-handed, I start climbing.
Did I mention this club was 11 stories up? About 5 stories, I thought I was at my limit. At 8, my knees were numb. At 11, I just waited for a few minutes to gather enough strength to turn the door handle, only to find it was locked. Knock, knock, click, open. "What are you doing here?" "My..friend...forgot..scarf." "Okay, but why'd you take the stairs. Just take the elevator next time." Curse you staffer, wherever you are. So, after talking with the manager (who pretty much blew me off), I couldn't find the scarf. Left my info with the coat check guy, and was about to take the lift back down when I notice the "shut up" girl is still there, holding a scarf in her lap that perfectly matched my friend's description. A quick query to the boyfriend as to whether it was hers or not, and I had it in my hands, with the girl admonishing me (this time in Japanese) for forgetting my things. And back down I went.
After returning the scarf, it was off to McDonald's to get a quick bite before first trains. Amusingly, we had to wait a while because the McD's staff wasn't taking orders between 0300-0400, and we'd arrived at 0350. And just when they opened, some ruffians had settled into the front of the line. What gumption!
Food, and first train, and back home...where I had to go to sleep immediately since this was the day that I went to...
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Sannomiya. Ah, it felt like just the previous day that I'd been there. Probably because it was. So I once again found myself in that bustling little village, meeting up with the group I had supposed I was meetng on Sunday, and wandering off to a local Itarian restaurant (Italian restaurants don't exist in Japan). They apparently had all-you-can-drink wine for 90 minutes, and at a low-low price that just shows how good the wine is. Not that I have a clue about what's good and what's bad. After trying white and red and rose, I just settled for anything that said Brut because I hate when my wine is sweet, gosh darnit! Plus, I'm quite the brute myself.
And the pizza wasn't bad, either.
Did I say lights? Yes, there were lights to be seen. After our party grew a bit more, it was off to look at the pretties. I think I may have mentioned this last year, but all of the lights in Luminarie are hand-painted, donated by the Italian government to commemorate the Great Hanshin Earthquake that struck Kobe in 1995. Thus, not Christmas. Which doesn't make them any less beautiful, of course. We had quite a good time admiring the arches, throwing coins at the bells to gain our eternal salvation, and simply chatting, before we zipped off to an izakayato top off the evening. I think I was the first to leave, though, given that I couldn't afford another all-nighter and my last train was something like 10:30. Oy.
The night was really much more interesting than 2 paragraphs might make it seem, but when the main focus of an event is conversation, food, and lights, it's a bit difficult to stretch.
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Sad news, boys and girls. The staff at Katata is losing a good portion of it's main body. About 60%. That's right, my manager and JET are both leaving, the former to move to Kawaramachi school in Kyoto, and the latter to do some world-exploring in Africa before finding a new job. That leaves just me and the Saturday kids' teacher.
In recognition of this, we decided to go out on Saturday, for the first time all gathering together as one. First we stopped by our favorite yakiniku place and stocked up on delicious meats and rice before scooting out of there and on to the main location, the new Raju's which opened in Katata just recently. No idea why, but we wound up being the only customers in there from 2230-0100. Not that we were complaining. We felt like we had rented out the place just for us. Neither were we bad customers. The beer was free-flowing, and the bartender even allowed us all to test some new concoctions he'd been working on. We ended up playing all kinds of contests, mostly dealing with drinking, but Takeshi said he wanted to arm wrestle me just once before we parted. So we set ourselves up on one of the upturned barrels and went. I kept moving him down to a near pin before he would burst and push me back up to dead center, never further. Then I realized my mistake...I was kneeling and Takeshi was standing. So I shifted to a standing position and took the prize. But it was a pyrrhic victory, since wrestling for a full five minutes had severely strained our arms. We were quite alright by the time we left, however.
But no, this was not the end of the party. Rather than break up our first and last gathering, Chika and Chizuru decided to skip the last train and join Takeshi and me at my apartment (Takeshi couldn't drive home since he'd been drinking). We popped into the nearby Lawson to procure more libations before proceeding to the apartment. There we spent quite a lot of time playing vidya games and generally chatting. At one point, I brought out Fatal Frame, but I couldn't get past the first battle without the girls begging me to change, so we switched to Soul Calibur 4 and beat the stuffing out of each other for a few hours before bed. We all had to get up early tomorrow for the Xmas party the next day.
Oh right, speaking of which...
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Hey, guess what?! It's Christmas!
I must apologize to many of you for the fact that I only just sent off my cards/gifts on the 22nd. With all the various outings that I've had going on, there's been very little time. I've pretty much received all I'm going to get. Lots and lots of dress shirts, pants, bleu cheese dressing, jerky, Spaghetti-o's, candy canes...eveything but the Call of Duty game I asked for! GRRR! No, just kidding. Thanks for all the great gifts. Couldn't possibly ask for anything more.
As I mentioned in the last part, we were to have a party, and all of us overslept...woke up around 11. Party at 1. The girls couldn't even go home (though one wasn't really required to go the party). So we slipped out into the midday sun and trudged to the school, where we started feeling a lot better once we started getting everything ready. Wrapped cotton up in tape to make nice, fluffy, flingable snowballs (don't use tape and they crash into the ground immediately upon release). A nice snowman decoration on one of our spare whiteboards, etc. And Takeshi went out to do the shopping.
The party turned out to be a huge success. We had only 6 kids show up, but we had plenty of games to keep them entertained. While we'd originally planned for a darts-style game with the snowballs, the kids all wanted to make their own, and started throwing them, and so we had a 15-minute pointless snowball fight to work out some spare energy before playing pin-the-carrot-nose on the snowman, followed by melting that same snowman by throwing wet tissues at it. Then we took an idea from Chizuru-sensei and played a gesture game for awhile. Every kid wound up with presents as a result of winning something, so it all worked out well. And at the end, we sang a couple of songs, including the Rocky version of "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" which involved lots of jumping and stomping, none of which pleased our downstairs neighbors, I'm sure.
After the kids and cleaning up after them, Chizuru-sensei went home, but the rest of us weren't finished yet. We had yet another party to attend. A student had invited us to his friend's club, a place that often features soft jazz. Every year he gathers people for a party and everyone has to perform something. Some people did a piano piece, others sang. I sang "Stille Nacht," my manager sang Celine Dion's "My heart Will Go On," and as a group, we all sang the "Biwako Rowing Song", about a group of young men traveling to different places along Lake Biwa and their appreciation of each place's beauty. (English version here and an absolutely fantastic version by John Denver here - about 4:00 in). Then I got up again to sing "O Holy Night," followed by Elvis Presley's "Blue Christmas," dedicated to Chika and Takeshi. I was impressed with the latter, as I had to recall the lyrics completely from memory, as the song's not in my collection and I've only ever sung it once.
Finally, we returned to our various homes. On the 22nd, I did nothing but send gifts home and send Xmas cards to lots of you dear readers.
23rd was another party, this one for adults. This one also had a rather small turnout, but that just made it more cozy for conversation. We listened to music, exchanged stories, sang songs, ate pizza, and threw styrofoam airplanes around for a couple of hours before disbanding. 5 of us, including Takeshi and Chika, decided to go back to my place for more gaming and more conversation, and we also ended up having a little manga reading, as well. Everyone got a character made in SC4, and we again had fun beating the stuffing out of one another, baffling at how something like a giant hammer could literally shatter cloth.
And then we finished, people went home, and here we are. Abrupt ending, I know, but I wanna watch a movie, so I'm gonna send this one out early.
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So there you have it, my last entry before the New Year. Have a great holiday season everyone, and I'll see you all some time after the 4th!
Pics:
Busted Dictionary - http://picasaweb.google.co.jp/pigon
Test Day - http://picasaweb.google.co.jp/pigon
An Average Day - http://picasaweb.google.co.jp/pigon
Clubbing - http://picasaweb.google.co.jp/pigon
Luminarie - http://picasaweb.google.co.jp/pigon
- Touching my soul:Kenji Kawai - ~Sky Crawlers OST~ - Adler Tag
pigonjinn@gmail.com
So, while I find myself with a moment of respite and nothing to do, why should I not write to you?
Also, as a small note, Happy Thanksgiving. Plus, since Christmas is on the way, I need to know who would like a Christmas card. You can send me your mailing address to pigonjinn@gmail.com and I'll do my best to get one out to you before the holidays arrive. Of course, I know there are plenty of you out there who are not in the habit of receiving without giving back, so I'm certainly willing to give my address as well. Just say the word!
For those curious, all I want for Christmas are clothes, money in my bank account, and a copy of Call of Duty: World at War. And I'm not expecting any of these things from most of you, so don't worry your pretty little heads about it.
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How could I possibly not write this journal entry without talking about the absolutely fantastic election results? Though I certainly would have loved to see Obama pass that magic 375 mark and have his election determined to be a landslide, I guess even Missouri couldn't have made that happen. Can't really call it a landslide when you aren't really sure until 2 weeks after the main election, can you? But hey, grabbing 53% of the vote isn't a bad feat by any stretch of the imagination. And it is no small comfort that I contributed to that number, even if I made no significant scratch in the red paint that covers my home state. When your state's name literally means "red people," I guess it's difficult to change. Plus, it's difficult to say "Oklaokchvko" (blue people in Choctaw). So even that's working against me!
I will say, however, that I do admire the job John McCain did in his concession speech. It made it seem as if those final few weeks had never come to pass, though I still can't believe he ever let it get that far to begin with. Going so far as to claim that one could not hear the death threats and such that had been shouted at the rallies and such is one thing, but to simply brush the subject aside like so many autumn leaves when it is broached as a subject of debate? That's just an insult. One thing that's also got me curious, though, is just what some of the pundits are going to say after this is over. For example, Ann Coulter, who once made the comment that it would be better if women were no longer allowed to vote because no Democrat has won since the passing of the 19th amendment without the support of women voters. Now that demographics have shown that a majority of men also voted for Obama, I suppose she'll have to expand her scope to include non-whites and adults under 21 in that list of people whose suffrage should be repealed, eh?
However, there was some sad news that came along with all the good, and they were hand-in-hand with one another. I speak of the passing of Proposition 8 in California. I say that this went hand-in-hand due to the fact that Barack Obama's incredibly powerful Get Out the Vote campaign got quite a number of people out to the polls, many of them African-American, and at the same time, McCain's campaign managed to get the Religious Right stirring even more powerfully than before. These groups together amassed to get the proposition passed. There's a humorous take on the result here in this Daily Show Clip, and again in this clip from the Colbert Report.
Now, religious or not, I honestly cannot see why this bill succeeded in passing. If these people love the country, shouldn't they also be respecting the whole separation of church and state idea? Not that our government has done a bang-up job of that, but there are plenty of religions out there that have nothing against gay marriage, so why should Christianity be the decider? The thing that makes it really hard for me to understand are all the ideas being thrown around in support of Prop 8. Things like 'legalizing gay marriage will lead to other kinds of crazy marriages.' Unbelievable because most Amercan adults ctuallyhave legal standing and can therefore enter into a contract like marriage. Children cannot, the dead cannot, animals cannot, inanimate objects cannot. The problem? 'Okay, but straight marriages are designed to produce babies!' Right, which is why we don't allow the elderly or otherwise infertile to get married. I think the one that takes the cake is how accepting gay marriage will mean children are taught to be gay. I don't remember being *taught* how to be straight in school. And I think it's plainly obvious that straight parents do not only raise straight children, otherwise this wouldn't have come about in the first place.
Anyway, this is an ongoing fight, and each time the support has been tilting more and more towards the accepting side. Soon that tower shall crumble to the earth and the sun will shine once more (mayhaps). But I do feel that I should share something that sums up the feelings I have better than I could write in a simple journal entry. You may have seen it before, but here is Keith Olbermann's (yes, that's right, I watch real news, too) special comment on the passing of Prop 8. I'm well aware that some people find Keith's personality to be as grating as Bill O'Reilly's can be (beware: explicit language), but please take a look.
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Anyway, I mentioned in a couple of journals that I had a special trip planned for the election, and I finally managed to take that trip..a week after the election itself. And that's how I find myself in the city of Obama, a small town about 2 hours north of me, on the coast of the Japan sea. Instead of a "last minute rally" to support Obama, I ended up going to celebrate Barack's victory, and to see if there were still any goods with Obama's face plastered upon them. And I was certainly not disappointed!
Actually, the day even started with a little bit of extra excitement. Before I went to Obama, I wanted to get my shopping done, since I wasn't sure what I would be doing for the next day, and so I thought it would be a good idea. But I realized upon opening my eyes that morning that there was something different. I heard drums. At first, I thought I'd entered a primitive battleground. Then I thought it must be a festival, and I was missing it! So I rushed into my clothes, opened the window to try and locate the source of the drums, and proceeded out, only to find that it was at the apartment a few blocks down from mine. Just an event to sell more rooms. Still, I thought, I might as well take a picture. Unfortunately, just as soon as I whipped out my camera, they finished performing and began taking all their stuff down.
For those unaware (which could very well be all of you), Obama, Japan has been an avid supporter of Japan for quite a long time, when the mayor pledged his support to the campaign. Obama-fever swept the city, causing all kinds of goods to be produced in recognition of the campaign, such as Obama chopsticks, Obama kites, Obama-shaped food products, and much, much more. Tourism has no boundaries, you see. You can even find pictures online of the various parties they had to celebrate election night, not to mention the Obama Dance. So I had planned to meet up with a few other teachers in the area and explore the place, since it was supposed to have castle ruins and a nice seaside view. Unfortunately, none of my friends were able to come. But since when has that ever stopped me before (although you'd be surprised how many times I get pity from students when I tell them I travel by myself)? Obama is actually a pretty difficult place to get to. I had to take a 45-minute train to Omi-Imazu, followed by an hour-long bus ride over the mountain to Obama itself. By train alone, it would have been 3.5 hours. One of my friends had intended to come, but missed her train and would have had to wait 1.5 hours for the next.
So, after waiting for half an hour, I scooted off to go and see some of the sights close to the station, so I could return in case I got a cell phone call. First, it was off to Mermaid Terrace, a terrace with, believe it or not, mermaids, and overlooking the sea. On my way there, I encountered many "I <3 Obama" signs, along with a store that was selling tons of different Obama goods. Purchasing and donning a headband, I then went on to the Terrace. While looking at the sea, I noticed that there was an interesting looking tree in the background, and immediately decided that I needed to take a trip up to go and see it. I have no clue why, but almost as soon as I had made that decision, the heavens opened up just a bit, and began plopping down rain upon my poor widdle head. Not one to be so easily deterred, I trudged up the path as the rain became harder and harder, snapped my photo (which turned out pretty well, I think), and proceeded once more back to the station. I waited for my friend for another half hour or so, until I decided that she really wasn't coming, then sent her an e-mail saying I was heading home due to the rain.
The Weather Wizard must have sensed my intention, for he immediately mitigated the flow of Heaven's tears. My curiosity piqued, I waited around for another fifteen minutes as the final droplets fell to the earth and allowed me to proceed once more in my journey. This time it was off to the ruins of Obama castle, destroyed by a fire. It was time for school to get out by this point, so I met up with many students on the way, all of whom stopped and pointed when they saw the silly gaijin with the "I <3 Obama" headband. Some of them even chatted me up for awhile. One amusing child kept saying "Awesome" to whatever I said. And, of course, I continued to see more Obama support everywhere I went.
Then I reached the castle ruins and proceeded inside. Since it's a little difficult to tell from the front, I asked a man inside the gardens if I was in the right place, whereupon he immediately gave me a complete history of the castle and wht had been built upon the ruins, half of which I understood. As soon as he let me wander off on my own, though, rain once again crashed down upon me. No way I was turning back since I was right there, even though I had decided not to purchase an umbrella. My camera remained in my pocket for all moments except those where I wanted to snap a quick photo. Still, the ruins were pretty interesting for a quick stop. After I was satisfied, I once again started on the road to the station.
Of course, I wasn't about to leave Obama without at least doing some shopping, and certainly not without having lunch (thanks to my office hours, I can call a 5 o'clock meal lunch). Wandering down the rainy streets, the sidewalks of which were thankfully covered, I discovered a couple of amusing shops. One was named Pinocchio and had all kinds of strange little toys and old models outside. My initial thought was that Pinocchio would mean it was a woodcraft store, or something for nostalgic toys. Wrong. Instead, it was the local vidya game shop, while doubling as the place for plastic models of all kinds. The guy had quite a selection! Unfortunately, I wasn't in the market for games, and the figures were all well over my budget. I did, however, find a reasonably priced Gundam Deathscythe Hell. The owner started chatting to me about Gundam for a long time when I was in that area of the store. What made the conversation difficult was that he was using an electrolarynx. When I actually bought the figure, he asked if I had any Gundam media at home. When I told him I didn't, he gave me a free Gundam 00 DVD! It was like doubling my purchase value without doubling the cost!
After that, I was up some lunch, and I had seen an interesting looking cafe with the oh-so-curious name of "A, Sure." And I figured, "Ah, sure. Why not?" Since the place was close by, anyway, I went in and immediately noticed the huge biker club sigil on the near wall, followed by the gently-lit bar and counter area with the floral arrangement at the end, and my thoughts...how could this place possibly be a biker bar? They did, however, serve some excellent curry. One thing that caught me off guard was the little treat they left with the meal. I thought, at first, it was just a piece of chocolate. This would be my second incorrect assumption of the hour. Plopping it in my mouth and crunching down, I discovered it was filled with, of all things, raspberries, which I find entirely too sour to enjoy. But I gulped it down, and off I went, back to the train station, where I managed to find some manjuu decorated with Obama's face, before hopping on the bus back home.
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Tragedy struck the quiet village of Katata a few weeks ago when Chad was taken down by none other than the right foot, a close companion of his since birth. Details are fuzzy, but apparently at some point, the foot decided that Chad was taking advantage of her friendship and was forcing her to do too much. This caused the relationship to become rather st(p)rained. We met with the left foot for commentary. Though he didn't have much to say, he gave the distinct impression that Chad was simply trying to do too much. After all, both of the feet had only just purchased their new vehicles, which have been identified as shoes, and Chad was demanding to be taken along for rides just about everywhere and any time of day. The right foot gave up and would only offer to carry him in short spurts, leaving most of the burden on the left, as well as requiring Chad to acquire other forms of transport for the right foot.
So basically, I sprained my foot. Dunno how it happened, but I figure it comes from walking too much in the new shoes without breaking them in first, so I switched back for a bit. I went to the doctor, of course. Since I was there, I asked him about some pain I'd been experiencing in my knee and would he please look at it. Slightly creepy experience when he rolled up the pant leg to the knee and said (in Japanese) "Wow. Even though your body is so big, your leg is so pretty." And no, that wasn't even natural for Japanese. My manager was just as o_O'd out by it. No clue why, but he wouldn't give me a support shoe or anything. Instead, he just told me to walk slowly. No, really? Anyone reminded of this old joke? Patient: Doc, my arm hurts when I lift it over my head. Doc: Well, then, don't do it! Another thing the doc said that kinda got me was how he was talking about how I can't be walking until I lose weight. I told him I walk *to* lose weight, but that didn't seem to faze him.
Anyway, I got to walk around with a hiking cane for a bit, which was fun, though the cane itself ended up losing a centimeter or two. No rubber stop or anything, because, well, it's for hiking. Not hauling my butt around town. Pain's gone away at this point. Only took about a week of recovery, including one day where I spent a half-day away from work just to relax and ice my foot. I had 3 kids classes and didn't really have the ability to run and play like I would have liked. My foot was aching so, so badly.
Hopefully it's not just the shoes themselves. It would suck if I had to buy another pair, yeah?
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Though my school has had more barbecues than anything else, we finally decided that it was instead time for a good old-fashioned drinking party with the students this past Sunday. I had actually forgotten about it while I was injured! I had planned a nature walk to Arashiyama on the 16th, but unfortunately I had to postpone those plans, pushing them to the 23rd. Then I suddenly remembered that's when our party was! Oops.
So, having planned to wake up quite early in order to take advantage of the day, I set my alarm for 8 (which is quite early for me, especially given I don't get home from the bar until about 1). But it was not to be. I awoke at 8, for certain, but after that, it's simply a blur of hopping up just to press the snooze button until 3PM rolled around and I decided it might be a good idea to actually get up and do something. Instead of doing something, I sat at the computer and watched anime for an hour, then got up and decided to go shopping for groceries. Then I remembered that I didn't need to. I stopped buying pizzas, and snacks, and was settling for Special K and milk, but I had enough in the fridge to last another week. So instead, I went to play UFO catchers. Ended up winning some stuffed animal that was, in fact, a piece of tofu dressed as Santa, and a wreath with Nightmare Before Christmas decorations (this country goes NUTS for Jack...and Stitch).
Heading back to the apartment to drop off my prizes, I realized I was ever so slightly late for the party. Thankfully, it was right next to my house...okay, well, maybe 2 minutes. We had a pretty good turnout, with some 13 people coming. Half of the people were smokers, so I ended up trading seats with the manager and sitting at the end with the 3 kids and the mother of 2 of them. I think I spent about as much time eating and drinking as I did holding a super-active 3-year old, most of which was to prevent him from climbing the oh-so-tempting latticework behind my back. The kids taught me how to do some kind of special rock, paper, scissors that involved punishments from a slap on the back to an Indian Burn. I taught them how to make it look like your nose is broken. We also made a robot with two of the kids strapping themselves to my arms and one to my head, kinda going for Pirates Docking 6, but with no legs. Good times had by all. I really didn't get around to talking to the adults until near the end of the party, but the conversation there was nice as well.
Afte all was drunk and ate, most headed back home, but some of us proceeded down to Yamashina to continue drinking at my favorite bar, along with having a few Chad-Kebabs, all the way to the last train. I was talking with my manager about maybe doing karaoke with one of the students who stayed to the last, but then the student got a call saying she had to come home, so we were all heading to the train station when my manager spotted a Jankara near the station. Really having been in the mood for karaoke, we decided to make a go of it until the last train. Popping inside a booth, we ended up singing for 5 hours straight, which really surprised me since I never had a problem using my voice even considering I'd downed more than 10 beers by this point and was singing some pretty rough songs. But hey! Our initial energy eventually ran out around 4AM, and we were both lying on the bench seats as we continued to sing. At 5, our time was up, so we proceeded to a nearby Sukiya and ate something. The first train wasn't until 5:50 or something like that. Finally, we trudged on to the train platform, plopped ourselves in some seats, and were homeward bound.
At Katata, I decided I was too tired to walk all the way home, so I took a taxi, got on the computer to do some stuff, then set about to having a 3-hour nap by setting an alarm on my computer that would be so loud as to wake me up in time for...
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My trip to Arashiyama was finally going to happen. One of my favorite things about coming to Japan is the variety of nature you can get even in such a small condensed area. Rivers, mountains, forests, plains, desert, etc... And the changing of the leaves, I feel, is one of the most beautiful times one can go out and explore.
Since my alarm managed to work well enough to drag me out of bed on time, there were no problems getting in to Kyoto. There, was, however, a problem with the sky, that being that it was far too gray and was leaking. Leaking for quite a long time, and over quite a large area. There was really no hope of waiting for it to let up during the day. But hey, I love the rain, and it certainly wasn't about to stop me from enjoying myself, nor the company of my partner. Oh, didn't I tell you. I wasn't alone in this venture. Maizuru school recently received a new teacher, and we'd finally managed to work out a meeting (she was supposed to come to Obama, too, but that ended up not working out too well). Although I simply had to mention that it was more than a little odd that every time we made plans to meet, rain clouds gathered.
Anyway, once we met up at the station, it was off to get a little lunch, where we enjoyed both curry and chat before finally heading off to the mountainside. Thankfully, the rain was a light one. As much as I love the stuff, I simply can't enjoy myself when I know that the sensitive electronics in my coat and backpack are in danger of being moistened to death. There didn't seem to be much of a chance of that, so we could enjoy ourselves as we shuffled along amongst the sea of umbrellas, pinks and blues and blacks merging together with a sporadic patch where a clear umbrella would allow a significantly taller person some glimpse of the creatures beneath their protective cover. Daryn, I was only too pleased to find out, is about as picture-obsessive as I am, so we ended up stopping every few minutes along our journey to snap some stills.
Just like the last time I visited Arashiyama, our main task was to go and visit the monkey park, which was right where I left it last time, I'm pleased to say. I was a bit worried because the pamphlets given out warn customers that the monkey park is closed on rainy days, but once again, we were fortunate that the heavens hadn't opened up quite that much. Ascending to the top, we were met by a relatively small crowd and about as many monkeys as there were humans. I figured that most of the monkeys were simply staying home under some kind of protective shelter, and the weather kept the tourists from coming. But really, it was quite beautiful up there. For one, we had the fall colors to view, and for another, the rain always brings along with it the Smoky Mountain effect, which I simply love. I would absolutely adore the chance to go and visit Huangshan, just to go and see those roiling clouds beneath me.
After a couple of photos, I went inside the shelter to procure sustenance for the animals. I was feeding a couple of critters when this mother came up with her child, the child shifting to the side and both holding their hands out. I offered something to baby, and mama SNATCHED IT AWAY. Survival of the fittest. I solved the problem by feeding both momma and baby a piece at the same time. At some point, a guy started going around with a bucket, calling for the monkeys and rattling something in his bucket. I would say it was food, but none of the monkeys seemed even slightly interested in what was inside, and given their love of food, I ruled that out. Soon enough, the place was absolutely packed. Daryn and I couldn't take a few steps without being crowded by monkeys. Got in a lot of great shots before the monkeys started heading back. By the time we decided to leave, there wasn't a monkey left. Good timing, yeah?
Initially having thought of taking a boat down the river that skirts the mountain, we cancelled due to the fact that it was prohibitively expensive for Daryn, and instead we strolled along the mountain path for a bit, snapping more photos before proceeding back to the station. There we ended up chatting a few of the foreigners we had seen at the monkey park. Taking the same train as them to Karasuma, we had some good conversation before parting ways. At Kyoto, Daryn parted from my company to go and catch her train ride home, while I proceeded to Subway, then Jupiter to pick up more oatmeal and root beer. Mmm, root beer.
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So lately, I've decided that I really haven't been treating my Kindle fairly. Considering how much I paid for the beast, I wasn't really getting my money's worth with the level of reading I was doing. So I have now devoted myself to reading at least 90 minutes every night. That's not including any time I get to myself during lunch or something at the school. You'd be amazed what you can do while reading. I'm even typing this up while reading the biography of Benjamin Franklin, thanks to the Harvard Classics series (those friends who have eBook readers of their own can download the Classics for free through a link at the bottom of the page).
I'd like to actually write some book reviews given time, but I will say one thing I'm slightly upset about: Eragon is a quadrilogy now? Here I was, 95% of the way through Brisingr, and thinking "Y'know, unless Eragon just flies to the capital now and kills Galbatorix, this isn't going to end!" And sure enough, it didn't end. I had no clue it was going to become a cycle, rather than just a trilogy. Curse you, Paolini!
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And that's all for this installment. Hope I brightened up your Turkey Day. Personally, the only thing I can remember about this Thanksgivng now is Sarah Palin's post-turkey-pardoning interview. I'll see you guys another time!
Obama City - http://picasaweb.google.co.jp/pigon
Arashiyama - http://picasaweb.google.co.jp/pigon
Arashiyama Video - http://www.dailymotion.com/kyoushibanza
- Touching my soul:Brian Tyler - Fear is the Mind Killer
Other than that, let's get this show on the road, shall we?
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As I mentioned in the last issue, I was recently upgraded to the position of an Area Leader, meaning that I take a largely supervisory role over 7 schools, including my own. I've gone through a few weeks of it, and I have to say that I'm really enjoying it. Of course, paperwork (even if it's computer paperwork) is not something I find myself enjoying all too often, but the major part of the job is in the personal calls I get to make to all the schools. While it's largely business-centered conversation, there's opportunity to enjoy myself as well. So it works out.
The only problem I'm having at the moment is with time management. After all, I have to call all 6 schools and talk to teachers each week, but sometimes schedules don't allow for that. I've never been very good at time management until I work it into a routine, and though this is a bit trying right now, I'm sure that once I'm used to it, it will grow easier to control how much time I'm spending on phone calls and reports.
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In a slightly related note, I ended up having a triple party day recently. I don't recall whether or not I mentioned it, but the 26th included both of my school's Halloween parties. We had decided, in the end, to separate them into both a kid party and an adult party. While it certainly seemed a good idea at the time, the fact that we only had 3 adults at our second party made me reconsider that decision. Oh well, all in good fun, right?
I had been very very worried about my party costume, having initially planned to go as Totoro. While I had a majority of the materials needed at my fingertips, the piece that was missing, the MAJOR piece, had not arrived the week before. My mother had sent it on October 10th, so I couldn't understand what was taking so long. Finally, late on the 25th, the mailmen came in and dropped off a huge, bulging package, complete with my gray hoodie and several pairs of pants, which I'd also requested at the time.
Unfortunately, Saturday being my busiest day, I had very little time to look through it, and no time to do anything with the costume, so I simply stowed it all away in my backpack for the time being. After work and my bar visit, I spent the hours between 1 and 5 cutting up shirts, coloring toilet paper rolls, snipping holes in gloves, etc. Finally, I managed to slip into bed, confident I could finish everything up before the party the next day. I managed pretty well, though I had to steal a leaf on my way to the school so that I could top off my costume. And it turned out quite well. You'll have to see the pictures for yourself.
The kids started arriving just as I'd finished up making some of the props with my co-workers. We had a relatively nice turn-out, something like 10 kids total. This included some kids who weren't part of our school. And most of the came in cute costumes like witches, or wearing the Scream mask, etc. And, not to toot my own horn too much, but I got quite a few nice reactions on my own costume. Of course, my co-workers were also decked out in their Halloweeny finest. My manager was dressed up in a Mandarin Gown, with an afro, and smeared lipstick. Not entirely sure what she was supposed to be, since she'd gone from being Whoopi Goldberg in Sister Act to a jailbird to who knows what, but it was interesting to look at. As for Takeshi, he ended up with a huge rubber mask of Homer Simpson. Unfortunately, nobody in our school knew who he was, despite that he can be seen in Mister Donuts commercials (there are two, watch both!)*.
Once the party gt started, we had a lot of nice activities, such as Pinning the Tail on the Black Cat, and Trick or Treat Musical Chairs. I think the highlight of the party, though, was when we went outside and played a game I'd been keeping in reserve. Just in case I never did get my costume, I'd planned on having the chillins race to wrap me up in toilet paper. Since I did get my costume, now it wouldn't be a necessity, just fun! So we split into two teams (one for me, one for Takeshi). My team won for completeness, but Takeshi's team won for looking like a movie zombie. Unfortunately, we didn't get to celebrate long, as I simply attacked Takeshi while the kids tore the toilet paper off our bodies. Why is it my parties always end in physical violence?
The adult part was significantly less populated. Or, at least, not so populated by adults. Three children from the first party, their mothers (one of whom had been at the first party), and our helper from the kids party. We only had one new adult and 3 teens who came with her (another of her children and two friends). Nevertheless, we enjoyed ourselves quite a bit. Mostly it was informal chatting and eating with a few games here and there. I was surprised when, at one point, Takeshi put on his mask and picked up a pig puppet, started to walk it on the ceiling, and started singing "Spider-pig," which prompted us to search for it in Japanese.
When we finished, we didn't really have the time to sit around and chat more. So Takeshi and I cleared up most of the trash before zipping out, leaving it to our wonderful volunteers to take care of the rest. I was on my way to another party, which leads me to...
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Off to Omihachiman to greet the newest addiion to the staff in Shiga. Takeshi had agreed to drive me over since Omihachiman wasn't too far out of his way home. I got to the designated meeting point a little early, so I just started reading outside until I saw a bus coming up. And so I found myself waiting outside as a busload of people I didn't know suddenly piled out. Fortunately, they were all rather pleasant! It was great to meet all of them. I even managed to meet teachers I'd never managed to see face-to-face before, so that was nice as well.
I spent most of the night at one of the tables with a group of about 3 or 4 people to talk to, and we had a lot of fun taking silly photos. It started due to one of the people telling me that I had a kind of mysterious look in some of my photos. So we started doing all kinds of special poses. In addition, along with Jared, we were talking about all kinds of Western vs. Eastern cultural differences, like how Japanese people use their handkerchiefs to dry their hands after washing, and Americans don't bother folding their handkerchiefs after use, etc. All the while, we were chowing on delicious Italian food.
After all the food was gone and the time was slipping away, we were treated to a speech by the manager as he said farewell to Summer, as she went on to become a sub teacher. Funny thing is, he lifted the speech off of a transcript from one of our supplementary texts, Listening no Tatsujin IV. We all had a good laugh at that. Just another way to prove you can use your GEOS education in everyday life, not just in class. Afterwards, Summer took the floor to both give her farewell speech and to bid welcome to the new teacher, Jared, who in turn gave a how-d'ya-do speech of his own. Once all was said and done, we all proceeded to our various homes. Sleepy time!
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One thing I'd been in constant worry of since coming to Japan is buying clothes. While I have a majority of my shirts and pants sent to me from the States, there are others that you simply can't purchase without trying on for yourself, like shoes. And considering even socks here don't fit me quite right, I really wanted to find a place for good shoes. Fortunately, with a new mall only an hour's walk away, I figured that would be the best place to start. On arriving, I checked out the map to see what stores would be good to check on. 6 specialty shoe stores and not one was really intriguing me. So instead it was off to the sporting goods shop.
I actually found some pretty nice looking shoes, but, as I figured, the sizes were all too small. Maximum size? 27.5, and that wasn't even for the shoes I wanted. As usual, I was looking for something that could be both casual and used for hiking. So I had to call over an attendant to help me out. While going through various shoes and checking different sizes (apparently they had large sizes for running shoes), we ended up chatting about a lot of things. Apparently she'd lived in America for about 6 months, though it was strictly through a Japanese program, so she didn't really speak any English.
In the end, there was nothing we could do but order out. So, a week passed and I got my babies. As with every new pair of shoes, they've been kind of tight for the past week or so, but I'm sure that will loosen up soon enough. I still love that new shoe feel, with my feet being massaged every day I put them on again. Whoo-hoo. They did serve me well on a recent trekking trip.
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About a month ago, some friends of mine at Raju's invited me to go along with them to Amanohashidate. This is one of the Three Views of Japan, considered to be the greatest scenes available in Japan. And now, with Itsukushima, this makes the second one I've seen. So now I have to go up to Miyagi at some point in order to see the last one. Someday soon, perhaps.
Driving up to Amanohashidate took over 2.5 hours, and because we started at 9 AM, I was unable to get any sleep at all. So I ended up sleeping in the car almost the entire way. Though I did wake up near the end for some beautiful scenic shots. As soon as we arrived, all of us piled into the nearest restaurant (literally) and had lunch. Afterwards, we proceeded straight to the actual strip of land that is the so-called "bridge to Heaven," taking many many pictures. We competed to find the most interesting things possible, including the wooden turtle, the deer tree, and many others.
Once on the other side, we zipped ourselves to the top of the observation deck and took part in the traditional viewing method for looking at Amanohashidate. That is, to turn your back to it, then bend over and look at it through your legs, so that it appears like the bridge actually is in Heaven. This doubled-over pose is so famous they have souvenirs and treats galore shaped just like that. Another interesting thing was some kind of giant ring, like a bubble blower blown up to huge proportions. Into the hole, one is supposed to throw clay disks, and you get three with your purchase. If you get one through the hole, you get something you wish for. So I wished for three things: bleu cheese dressing, passing the Japanese test in December, and world peace. In that order. Unfortunately, I missed them all. Funny thing, I was calling out all my wishes in Japanese, and I heard people cheering me on. When I tossed the one for world peace, there was a collective cry and one person lamented the oncoming global war that I'd just caused.
After we'd finished all that, it was back to the car and another nice long drive and sleep. But before sleep, I managed to see that we were entering an area with a lot of tunnels, so I told everyone about the legend that if you hold your breath all the way to the end of the tunnel, you get a wish granted. So we all held our breath, wishing for world peace again. I took a picture of one of my friends, and she did the same with me, and burst out laughing. Upon showing the pics to others, they all did the same, as did I. I fear for the safety of our planet in the future. Please forgive me. I did my best.
On the way back, we stopped at a restaurant known as Tenka Ippin, or more commonly as Tenichi. Supposedly, the one at which we were stopping had the best ramen of any Tenichi in the Kyoto prefecture. The general opinion after we all finished eating was that, while the food was indeed delicious, it was not worth driving out that far to get at it. With our bellies full once more, we proceeded the rest of the way to Yamashina, where I took my leave and zipped back home on a train.
While I had planned to go to Obama to throw my last-minute support to my candidate, I decided that it would be best to put it off for a few reasons. For one, the people I'd invited had had to pull out. Second, I was still rather tired from the trip, so I wasn't up for going anywhere, especially not if it would just be me myself, and I. I bore myself far too easily. Instead, I'll be going next week to celebrate President-Elect Obama.
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Speaking of the election, I know that it's currently going on, and if you haven't voted, GO. If you are standing in line when the polls close, you can STILL VOTE. I honestly don't care who you're voting for, it's just important to vote. And for goodness sakes, please let there be NO MORE HANGING/PREGNANT/DIMPLED CHADs. Thank you, that is all.
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And that's all for me! Enjoy the pics!
Halloween Parties - http://picasaweb.google.co.jp/pigon
Jared's Welcome Party - http://picasaweb.google.co.jp/pigon
Amanohashidate - http://picasaweb.google.co.jp/pigon
Amanohashidate video (wih subtitles! Though the timing on the last bit is off for some reason) - http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7atu5
- Touching my soul:Above the Rising Falls - Kingdom Hearts OC Remix
(*gold star to the first to get the reference. Hint, I'm DYING to tell you, but I'm afraid I have to STOP(pard) myself.*)
As you no doubt have guessed, I have searched far and wide for tales that were worthy enough to lay before your eyes, o worthy readers. For as much as a writer expresses himself within his work, is it not true that we do not seek others to peruse and approve it? I await your comments yet again. And now, without further delay, on with the show!
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A Lesson That Could Have Been Easily Avoided by the Appropriate Use of Common Sense
Written by
Life
Thanks to
Typical Male Pride, without which this story would not have been possible.
FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY
NIGHT. Out of the station, down the curving road. A group of young teens hangs out by the AM/PM. What seems to be a gathering of businessmen breaks up outside of the Yakiniku Shop. Down the street, we finally reach-
EXT. STREET, RAJU'S -- NIGHT
CHAD O'BRIEN stares at the remnants of his drink, pondering whether or not to order another. This is the second beer of the night. He catches, in the corner of his eye-
[Japanese]Ooooh, great jab. Now, more like this!
??? seems to have some skill at boxing, currently teaching the bar's owner a few tricks. For no apparent reason, Chad decides to have a go at it, having had a little bit of practice. As he approaches, RAJU steps to one side with a laugh.
[Japanese]You, too, huh? Okay, let's go!
Chad and ??? exchange blows with one another, though the advantage is clearly ???'s. What strikes Chad makes mostly land in non-critical areas. As this is simply a spar, there is no risk to either party. After a few minutes-
[Japanese]Hey, pretty good! You're a tough guy! None of that hurt at all?
CHAD
[Japanese]Nah, I'm just fine. You?
???
[Japanese]Great! How about this?
??? strikes a rather hard blow to Chad's gut. Chad doesn't react much. ??? continues to strike while Chad stands and allows it. The strikes become harder and harder with each volley.
[Japanese] Hah! I like this guy. But I guess I should stop. Karate strikes can be pretty serious, you know. I'm an INSTRUCTOR in Kyoto. You should drop by sometime. That really didn't hurt?
CHAD
[Japanese]It stings slightly, but I'm not complaining. Anyway, I'll see you next week. I have to catch my train!
They exchange farewells before Chad walks towards the station. Cut to-
INT. CHAD'S APARTMENT -- MORNING
The sun shines through the apartment window, illuminating the room, and Chad's sleeping body, curled up around a Totoro pillow. He stirs awake. Sits up-
OW! WHY DID I DO THAT!
Chad continues to lie in bed, prodding at various bruises to see which ones hurt most.
FADE OUT.
CREDITS.
END.
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I was going to post something about voting here, but since I have a special trip in mind to go along with it, I'll hold off for now.
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Right now, my school is a week away from our Halloween party, and it seems that our bad luck is continuing. I'm not sure if the people at our school just don't like parties, or if they really are as busy as it sounds, but it seems ever time we set a party, even if it's more than a month and a half in advance, it's always too short notice and people have other things to do. I don't recall evr planning a month and a half in advance back in university. But, then again, I do make longer-term plans these days.
I am now beginning to wonder if it was a good idea to have the manager split the parties in two. While she originally wanted a party with kids/adults together, I wanted to split them. That way, we could entertain the kids with goofy songs and activities for an hour and a half, then the adults could come and not have to feel stresse about all the little ones running around, nor bored with all the lower-level games, etc. Now it seems like only 5 or so people are coming.
This is not, however, terrible. After all, last year's Christmas Party had only about 10 people, and it seems that there's going to be some of the older children as well (we counted the older children as adults for the sake of not boring them with the little ones' games as well).
Of course, Halloween is supposed to be all about the costumes. Unfortunately, I might end up havng to improvise. I had a grand scheme that relied upon my mother sending me a package from the States that I could modify to my liking. However, she sent that package on the 10th and, according to the USPS website, it has yet to leave the same post office it entered, let alone the country. I'm probably working myself up for nothing. I hear a lot about how the USPS is terrible at actually scanning packages (another package sent to me on the 14th says it hasn't even been received). But I do believe this is the longest I've waited for a package. Let's hope Murphy isn't standing in my way!
If you're waiting for me to tell you what my costume is, you'll have to wait until the pictures come out. Only a select few have heard it, as of now. And should any of you that know happen to spill the secret...well...I'm pretty sure nothing will happen, but I'll make D: faces at you. A LOT of D: faces.
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Recently, I had the good fortune to meet up with my former trainer while out in Yamashina (not the same night I got beaten up. I said good fortune). What's more, she introduced me to the Japanese teacher who had been working at my school just before the arrival of my first Japanese teacher. Considering all the good things I'd heard about her from not only the students but other teachers in the area, I'd been hoping to have the opportunity to run across her at one point. And I can see why everyone liked her! I still have yet to meet my predecessor, however.
The next day, there was to be a live performance starring one of my friends playing on the viola. Since it was actually down in Nara, this meant getting up pretty early in order to be able to get my shopping done and take a train. There seems to have been a miscommunication along the way, as I informed the person I was meeting that I'd arrive at 3:30. I got a call from my trainer asking where I was at around 2:30, and had to tell her the same thing. Fortunately, she and the others decided to wait for me (bless their hearts). I guess it's only natural that something involving Dave (my friend playing at the event) would mean someone was late.
So off we went to Nara, picking up one more person along the way, and actually running in to one of the ex-substitute teachers, as well! It's amazing that, given how many people live in Japan, I'm still able to come across people I know rather regularly. When we arrived, Dave and his companion were still playing, so we ended up staying outside listening to the last piece before popping in. There were 2 sets planned, with the same music for each, so we would simply relax and converse while waiting for the second. And that we did. There was dining involved, as well. Mmm, mole (oh right. It was a Mexican restaurant).
The music was certainly enjoyable. Dave fiddling on the viola, his friend banging on various kinds of hand drums, and people dancing in the small area in the front. They played many different kinds of ethnic music, from old Irish jigs to traditional gypsy tunes. Though I'd heard that Dave played the viola, I'd no idea he was up to that skill level. Later, when I heard him talking to his companion about different scales, I knew I'd been away from proper music study for far too long.
After the music, there was more wining, dining, and discussion, as everyone pretty much just enjoyed the evening. At one point, I excused myself to go on a walk. Something I enjoy doing whenever I find myself in a remote area is to go out in the dark to, first of all, scare my endorphines out of hiding, and second, to find the highest, best place to get an overview of the land. Sometimes the two go hand in hand. Others, I have to search for the first before going after the latter. This place was the second kind. Since there was a lot of farmland and abandoned looking buildings in the area, however, it wasn't too difficult to find places to put a bit of fright in the evening. Why do I do it? Because fear fascinates me. I'm not a thrill-seeker, but if there's a chance to get goosebumps, I'm up for it.
I did end up finding a pretty spectacle after climbing up a few roads, but as I had forgotten my camera, it was impossible for me to take a good shot. On my way back down, I wound up finding a perfect scare spot...a long tunnel of hedges leading to a shrine. Of course, in the daylight, I would have thought it quite lovely, but I could only imagine zombies and lurking shadows as I creeped along to the temple beyond. Not wanting to disturb any residents, living or dead, I simply took a quick look around and retreated to the restaurant.
After consumables had been consumed and bills had been paid, the majority of us were on to the next venue. Having planned to go to Yamashina again, I was looking forward to more kebabs, but we instead ended up in Okubo on the request of one of our group. That ended up being a nice move, though the bar we wound up in had absolutely no ventilation, I'm sure. Given that most of the people in the room were smokers, it was not the proper environment for me, so I ended up spending the last 20 minutes or so outside reading. Thank goodness for the Kindle. After that, it was pretty late, so I went back home, leaving the others to travel wherever they pleased.
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There are those that say planning ahead for an event makes people more willing to come. Well, I'd had a plan to go to USJ in the making for quite some time. About 3 weeks or more. I even had other people asking around for me. But in the end, the only people to come were those I'd entrusted to talk to others about it, and 1 other. Ah well, I'd even prepared for the possibility of there being just 2 people.
Arriving at the station about 10 minutes early, I decided to look around the shops near the entrance, and found myself a small little arcade with a wonderful-looking Xenomorph figure in a special crane game variant. You control a small cylindrical rod and try to position it (first left to right, then front to back) so that when you release the second button, it enters a hole in the playing field. When it does, it releases the lock on one of the rear shelving units, causing the prize to drop. So I shoved my 200 yen in, and missed the target.
I was frankly surrised at the machine's honesty. Usually when I get the rod positioned perfectly over the hole and release the button, the rod travels back another half second or so, causing me to miss. If I release before the hole,it drops immediately. So I'd tried to catch this one off guard, and released a hair of a second early...and it dropped immediately! Well, if it was going to be honest, this would be easy! Another 200 yen...move right...go back...and in! So I won my prize. The box itself was rather bulky, but that was alright. I went to go watch a monkey show before my friends arrived.
Once they did, we all proceeded to lunch, splitting paths so that my companions could get takoyaki and I wound up at McDonald's. I'm not a big fan of takoyaki xcept in very rare cases, and especially when they're covered in green onions, it simply isn't appetizing to me. We ate lunch in the main courtyard between the park and the park's downtown area, giving each other philosophical quizzes, discussing plans for the future, etc. And in we went. We did take some time before really getting o enjoy the park as my companions had decided to get year-long passes to the park. Having only been to the park twice in two years, I figured that a regular pass would be good enough for me.
It wasn't nearly as crowded as I was told it might be. Given that it was such a beautiful day, and a Sunday, and not too hot or cold to be outdoors for long periods, I worried that there would be huge lines everywhere. In fact, it was the opposite. All of the lines for the same rides I went on as last time were much, much shorter. Sometimes by as much as half. My guess is that everyone had already gone the previous weekend, which saw a national holiday on a Monday, so more people were probably willing to make the trip out there.
Of course, every trip starts with Spider-Man: The Ride. As we were all sitting in front, we didn't get to see Spidey sitting on anyone's head, but c'est la vie. Then we proceeded to Back to the Future, a classic favorite. After that, it was Jurassic Park. We insisted that we get to sit up front, but the park attendant wasn't sure we'd all be able to fit there, so we split up, two in the front row, and two behind. Since it was the first time for two of our ranks, we let them go in front. Being in the second row turned out to be quite a nice decision, as we missed all the water spray from the Dilophosaurus, and were in the perfect position for avoiding too much soaking from splash-down, which is more than I can say for our front-row companions. Next time, use the ponchos. We didn't really help the situation by riding on Jaws afterwards, but atleast that doesn't have huge soaking action. The attendant at Jaws was pretty bad, sometimes shooting as many as 5 seconds before the sound effect/water burst went off. We also tried to go on the Hollywood Dream roller coaster, but, once again, my size prevented entry. Maybe one day. But that was it as far as rides go.
Universal Studios isn't simply about rides, though. We also took in a few shows. While my companions were getting their yealy passes, I ended up watching a bit of some show about white lions searching for the meaning of The Cradle of Life. Sounds a little familiar to me, but I'll leave it at that. We also caught the Rock n' Roll Horror Show, which ended up being hilarious for several reasons. For one, Beetlejuice was the only person speaking in Japanese. All of the other cast members were foreigners and were speaking English, both in singing and in dialogue (though there wasn't much dialogue to go around). Second was the introduction of their monsters, in which they had a black Dracula. All of us immeiately started calling him Blacula. Third were their new characters, Hip and Hop, who weren't monsters at all and made me wonder why they were even included. The other show we took in was the Peter Pan Wonderland thing. We had eaten dinner beforehand at MOS Burger, so all fueled up and ready to go, I went to get some seats while the others went to ride the E.T. Ride. I passed since I thought there'd be no way to make it back in time to watch the show. I was wrong. I also learned that Japanese people don't typically stand to watch the shows, which I thought was kind of odd.
With all of our riding and viewing finished, it was time for some last-minute shopping before we proceeded out the gate and bid a fond farewell to USJ. Perhaps one day we shall meet again, but that day is not on the near horizon.
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And with that, it looks like it's going to be a relaxing few weeks ahead, with the exception of next Sunday due to my Halloween party. But I'm sure that'll be a lot of fun.
Speaking of work, there's a bit of exciting news on that front. I was promoted yet again, to the position of Area Leader. Like my position as GIEA Leader, this means that I will be calling schools and keeping track of results, though these are more business-related and not overseas counseling-related. However, I'm now more focused, having gone down from 30+ schools to about 7, including my own. This allows me to pay more attention to the schools and really be able to help them out a lot more.
I was happy to end my stint as the GIEA Leader with a bang. We recently had a campaign to get students interested in traveling abroad, which meant I was calling, on average, 7 schools a week (sometimes 10 or more) just to make sure they're talking to the right people, using the right approaches, etc. On our end, our school ended up with 6 students coming to overseas counseling and 1 of them signed up. In my area, 4 schools made their goal (goals were based on both how many students came to sessions and how many signed up, so unfortunately I missed the goal), and together with the other GIEA Leader, our area of the country got more referrals and sign-ups than any other, plus we came in second place (percentage-wise) in the goals. But now that's over and done with, as I've passed the torch.
Interestingly, the person to whom I passed it is in my area. I was actually asked who I wanted to take over for me, and just as I'd planned to call my supervisor to give my decision, I found that she'd been promoted to an Area Leader in a different zone. No worries, as I had a second person in mind for the spot. So I was about to call my supervisor again, and I find that she'd already been given the position. I swear that this company has mind readers on the payroll, and they must simply have been poring through my thoughts at the time.
And so, since this Tuesday, I've taken over, for now gathering reports and making a few phone calls. It seems that I've assumed the position at a rather busy time. The schools are going through a few campaigns/sales at the moment that I need to make sure everyone is up to speed on. The bigger points of import are the counseling and the book sale. These two go hand-in-hand about every six months. For counseling, we fill out some green forms to tell the students how well they've been doing. This is supposed to be more formal than our little mini-counseling sessions we do every month or so. It's really nice to see students improving, watching them achieve their goals and set new ones, etc. At the end, we recommend a few books, as most of them are on sale. It's really great to see students doing their homework, looking forward to their next book, etc. I actually managed to take the top native teacher position in our region (though since Japanese teachers took the top 11, that amounted to 12th in the end). I hear from the last area leader that our area usually does pretty well, so I'm hoping to get a lot of motivation going among the teachers. Wish me luck!
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And so we come to the end of yet another series of fantastic tales. What shall we learn in the future, dear reader? Will Chad's costume arrive in time for the party, or shall he be forced to wrap himself in toilet paper and go as a mummy? Will his campaign succeed beyond his wildest expectations? You'll have to read the next issue to find out. But make sure you check the photos!
Universal Studios Trip - http://picasaweb.google.co.jp/pigon
- Touching my soul:The Rasmus - In the Shadows
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On occasion, I go around different sites for selling items in Japan. Of course, you always have to be careful, especially on sites like craigslist. They always seem to be selling ridiculous things from America and other countries. Risky business, that. However, one site I end up frequenting is the Kansai Flea Market which has a number of wonderful things for sale on occasion, such as Nintendo Wiis. But I was rather surprised when I saw that a violin was being put up for sale for 10,000 yen (a little less than $100). Though I've never ever played a violin, I figured this was a great deal, especially given that it also came with a case, resin, tuning meter, and a complete set of extra strings. This is what is known as an offer that one cannot refuse. Besides, I actually had some money to burn at the time, so I thought it could make a good investment, and, if not, I can always sell it again.
So I e-mail the guy and ask to purchase the violin. Get a reply saying that 3 people are interested and it's first come first served, so I let him know I'm coming down to Osaka that weekend. Another reply asking for my contact information. After giving it, I ask for the same in return. Get a message telling me that he owns a music studio and plays lots of instruments and, if I'm interested, I could jam with him a little bit. I respond that I'm not much of an instrumentalist and that my best music comes from my voice. But what would really be great is if I could please get some contact information. Another mail: Can you freestyle? I've got a mic and we could lay some beats or something. Once more I politely decline and ask for his contact information. Finally I get a reply with his phone number!
So, finally armed with the information I needed, I scooted off to Osaka and met up with the guy. With the way the guy was talking, I figured he had some kind of soundproofed room that he used to produce some of his music, but I was mistaken. He apparently just had a lot of electronic instruments. One thing that surprised me was that he owned a didgeridoo and claimed that it wasn't loud enough to rile his neighbors, then proceeded to blast some techno music, as an example of what his neighbors do get upset about. After that, though, the actual transaction was squared away and I was off!
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So, I'm on a social networking site famous in Japan known as Mixi. Basically, it's a way to get in contact with Japanese people and other expats. Recently I made a couple of friends in the local area through the site. On the way back from my violin purchase, I received an e-mail from one of them asking to meet in Kyoto. I was asked out on a date! A first!
So we met at the station and decided to try and find some place to eat. however, given that it was after 9:30, that was relatively difficult, especially given that there's not really anything open near Kyoto station that late. We finally managed to find a couple of places, walking in to a place called Nakau. This is one of those restaurants where you have to purchase some kind of dinner ticket. So I got the curry and we chatted for a bit. I actually got into a new vegetable when I was explaining that I didn't eat the red stuff in curry because I hate ginger. Apparently it's not ginger! I learned that it was, instead, daikon, a giant white radish. So I tried it. No taste! Well, figuring that eating veggies, even with no taste, is better than not, I added that to the mix. We then discussed how I hate most of the veggies (onions, carrots, and most forms of potato) in curry, but I like curry because I can't taste 'em. Ho ho ho.
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The next day, I had some bowling to attend to. Our school was going to have an epic competition against the school on the other side of the lake. Unfortunately, our opponents had no one sign up to come up, so our school won by default! Maybe next time we'll have to go over to the other side of the lake, and the shoes will be on the other foot.
That beig said, we had quite a showing for our own side. About 20 people showed up by the time we got started. I didn't fare too well, personally, though I did get the top place out of all of us, and that's including giving handicaps of 80 to the children, 50 to adults with no experience, and 30 to adults with a little experience. But being a staff member, I was not allowed to receive the prizes. Ah well.
One reason I wasn't able to perform so well, besides my loss of skill due to lack of practice, was because I had been straining my arm quite a bit over the weekend. On Saturay, I ended up arm wrestling about 10 people, some of them using 2 hands at the same time, and while I was fine that evening,, I was feeling it both Sunday and Monday. Owwww. Also, I was playing around with all the children, and when I lifted up one with one arm, the others immediately began to clamor, wanting to be lifted up. Got so wild that I ended up havng to intertwine my fingers and lifting up all 4 at once. 70 lbs per child (except for the littlest one). About 260 lbs. in a straight lift with all 4. More owwwww.
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Some of you may be aware that I have had a thing for my manager for a few months, beginning when I asked her out on a date back in July. At that time, I was turned down because she'd just broken up with her boyfriend, so I held off on doing anything else. However, we still did get together on occasion as friends. I planned on waiting for a little while and asking her again for a date when I felt that she'd recovered and was no longer "on the rebound" from that break-up. However, last weekend I managed to receive a life lesson that should have been obvious but wasn't.
I've told a couple of people I know about my interest in the manager, including my co-workers and a couple of friends at the bar I go to every Saturday. The thing I learned was that even though I may be mostly immune* to alcohol, the regular patrons are not.
On occasion, my manager will make the trek down to my fav. bar with me, and since her friend had cancelled their plans to meet, she decided to come along. Within the first five minutes, she'd met some of my friends. And after telling them she works at the Katata school, they expressed surprise, saying "Katata? Really? The girl Chad likes is at Katata, too!" Though I understood exactly what he said, the shock of what he just said took me off guard, so when Chika asked me who he was talking about, I had to confirm twice that he'd actually just blown my secret. So after answering a few questions and trying to delay being found out: "So how old is she?" "Oh, your age.." "What class does she take?" "She doesn't take a class..." Finally, it came down to it. I was told she'd never thought about it before, as managers get transferred a lot and was worried about that. Afterwards, she said she'd think about it. Her attitude hasn't seemed to change at all, and though I'm not sure whether or not that's a good thing, I guess I'll have to wait and see.
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Last weekend was a rare three-day weekend for me, as that Tuesday was a national holiday celebrating the beginning of Autumn. So, I made plans for a trip up to Tokyo to go visit one of my best friends, Jason, from my initial GEOS training way back in Vancouver. This was the first time we'd managed to meet since our special training session in South Korea. The day I headed up to Tokyo didn't start out on the best foot. When I woke up at 10, there was a veritable downpour, thunder crashing every few seconds, and while it made for fantastic window viewing, it was terrible for the idea of setting out. Combine this with the fact my manager had just found out I had feelings for her, and this entire weekend was just not shapinbg out right. Fortunately, the rain died down so that I could do some last minute shopping and zip off to the train station.
The Shinkansen to Tokyo was great mostly because I was chasing the storm, so I got a beautiful sight of all the plains lit in electric glory for the 3 hour ride. Upon arriving in Shinagawa, it was time for a quick switch to a track headed for Akihabara and then to an express to Moriya, about 40 minutes away from Tokyo in Ibaraki prefecture. I've often envied my friend for having had a placement in Moriya, especially when the guy picking him up was named ARAGON. How awesome! The first thing I did when I met my friend was ask if Mayor Balrog was up for another election. Apparently there's some significant resistance from the Dwarf faction, but since the Goblins always manage to overwhelm with sheer numbers at the polls, chances are good he'll see another term.
(If you still have no clue what all the references are about, assume it's Star Wars and please go about your daily business)
The first night was mostly just for vegging and watching Detroit Metal City, an absolutely hilarious anime about a guy who travels to Tokyo to become part of a trendy pop band and instead winds up taking the reins of a death metal group and gains massive popularity through it, forcing him to deal with a sort of split personality (*DISCLAIMER* Before anyone goes out to watch it a site like this one, please realize that, given the subject material, there's a lot of profanity and adult topics, but none of it is meant in seriousness at all). Though we did go check out his mall, ate some Italian, and hosted some of his friends, including Tina, another friend from my initial training group in Vacouver. A relative reunion! There was also some watching of DBZ, as during a moment when Jason was out getting Tina, Jason's Japanese friends noticed I drink beer with my pinky extended (don't ask me why. I always extend my pinky. Maybe it's my inner Brit). They started calling me "Elite..like Vegeta!" And since we'd found one of Jason's Dragonball Z DVDs, we plugged it in and strted watching, laughig as we watched the heroes battle with Nappa. Good times.
Then sleep.
The next day, we ended up goofing around for god-knows-what reasons, and finally got off our keisters to head out to Akihabara. We stopped someplace first for lunch, planning to go visit Jason's student's cafe, but that was closed for the holiday weekend, so we ended up finding a random cafe, where I had some excellent curry and the others had pasta. We had some fun with the drinks, though. I had ordered cafe au lait, Jason iced coffee, and Tina got the hot, bitter coffee. When the waitress brought out our drinks (after our food, in true cafe style), she gave me the bitter coffee and Tina the cafe au lait. We figured it's because I looked like the bitterest out of all three of us, and Tina was the girl, so she got the sweetest drink. Of course, by the time Jason finished adding sugar and milk to his coffee, it looked exactly like my own.
Then off to explore Akihabara. For those not in the know, Akihabara, also known as Akiba, is essentially the Otaku capital of the world, with an almost exclusive focus on manga, anime, video games, and high techonology. Almost anything a geek could want, Akiba is the place to find it. We managed to stumble across the Japanese Illustrators Festival while looking for a great anime museum Jason knew about. We ended up going to the festival because the museum was closed. And hey, it was rather enjoyable, especially given that it was free! Not many chances to see catboys as serious artwork, but there were some fantastic pieces including kabuki dancers and one interesting piece with two soldiers playing chess with a crowd of onlookers looking on. We ended up conjecturing whether who the bad guy was, who the traitor in the group would be, etc. It was amazing to see computer-quality coloring on canvas. I would definitely have taken some pictures if I'd been allowed.
After that, we scooted down to Harajuku to go and see Meiji Jingu, a shrine dedicated to the late Emperor Meiji and his wife. Meiji is most well known for being the catalyst of change within Japan, having been the one to abolish feudalism and bringing about an end to the age of the samurai. It's one of the most famous shrines in Japan, covering 175 acres of land in the middle of one of the busiest areas of Tokyo. Though the actual shrine itself is quite modest, the forest around it is filled with tons of trees donated by people all around Japan, giving it an incredibly varied appearance from point to point. Here is where we met with Matt and Alison, Matt being yet another Vancouver training friend. We enjoyed a brief stay at the shrine before heading out into the heart of Harajuku.
Harajuku is another relatively famous place in Tokyo. You might have heard of Gwen Stefani's back-up dancers, the Harajuku Girls, but those are mostly just girls dressed up in various flashy costumes and stereotypes. Which is not to say you won't find that in Harajuku... It is the number one area in Tokyo to find the latest and greatest fashion trends. Things like mismatched socks, platform shoes, all kinds of make-up, etc. You will find all of this here, and some bolder fashion statements as well. One store we found, "Alice and the Pirates," actually sells contemporary-style pirate outfits among their other merchandise. Quite intriguing! We also went to a wonderful kebab stand run by a delightful Turk who, I kid you not, greeted us all by saying "Welcome in to my life!" And the kebabs were simply delicious!
After this, we walked down to Shibuya to see the famous Shibuya scramble crossing. HUGE. We met up with some more of Jason's friends and proceeded to traverse through the crowded streets in order to find a bar where they served beers for 300 yen. Too bad the larger glasses were 500, but the price still wasn't bad. Jason and I had planned to go and see a movie, so our idea was to simply drink a beer and be out of there. I finished my beer in about 30 seconds, just as Jason started, so I ordered another, and finished off the beer of the girl who was coming with us to the train station. We parted from the rest of the group, promising to meet later for more drinks. Then Jason, Alison, and I proceeded to Shibuya station, rode the train to Ikebukuro, and the men were separated from the women, off to watch their cinematic tale.
And what epic tale would that be? Gekijouban Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: Gurren-Hen (Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: The Movie - Crimson Edition). While Jason and I had both watched the anime simultaneously through various chat programs, we couldn't wait to see the movie, which was billed as a condensed form of the first half of the story. And condensed it was! They took out almost all of the sidequests and character pickups, though they added them in montages so that the audience wasn't entirely lost. But the surprising part came toward the end. Just when I thought that there was no time to wrap up the story and get to the end of the first part, they totally blew us both away with brand new crap that neither of us would have every predicted, and we were both on the edge of our seats for the last half hour or so. Now we can't wait for the second movie to come out! There are very few ways to top the ending to the original series, but we'll see what they do with it!
(Anyone wondering what reason there is to watch Gurren Lagann should take a look at this article. An informal poll of user-submitted entries for a new UK flag incorporating the Welsh dragon was held, the winner being the flag which featured the logo of the heroes in Gurren Lagann)
After the movie, the two of us, high on spirit and overflowing with awesome, traveled to Oimachi, where the rest of the group were gathering to imbibe spirits. I ended up with two Moscow Mules, a couple of pints of Guiness, some concoction thrown together by one of the other patrons who just so happens to have her own cocktail, and couple of glasses of Jim Beam Black before ordering a couple of DELICIOUS tacos. Also had some fun with Haruna and Keisuke, the two Japanese people who had come as part of the crowd. Every chance I get to practice my English, I take. The more I do it, the more I feel confident in being able to pass the upcoming exam. We'll see what happens in December!
After the bar, we all zipped off somewhere else to go and perform some karaoke. This karaoke place actually had costumes the patrons could wear. On a lark, I thought it would be fun to throw on the maid costume, and another guy grabbed an airline attendant outfit. No clue if he actually put his on, because it took me quite a while to figure out the logistics of putting on a costume made for a Japanese woman when I don't even fit the clothes made for the largest Japanese males (sumos excluded). Ended up ripping the vest and wearing the shirt as an ascot, but I think it worked. Sang a lot of great songs while consuming more whiskey. Apparently beer was not on the all-you-can-drink option we'd chosen, so all we had were hard liquors and sours. After the 7th whiskey I excused myself to the restroom and..fell asleep. Didn't wake up until 5 when we were leaving. Felt sorry for all the people who had to use the stall, considering I was occupying the only one. We all walked off to the nearest restaurant, ordered some food, but I couldn't really stomach it. Got back on the trains and Jason, Tina, and I finally wound up back at Moriya, where we trekked to Jason's apartment and finally crashed. And didn't wake up for quite some time.
So I finally got drunk! All it took was [Inventory of Chad's stomach: 2.25 large glasses of Asahi, 2 Moscow Mules, 2 glasses of Jim Beam, 2 pints of Guiness, 1 unknown cocktail, 7 whiskeys]. At least I've learned that I'm a sleepy drunk and not a belligerent drunk or random-acts-of-crazy drunk.
Woke up a lot during the night to take a swig of Pepsi Nex (sic). Dunno what I was thinking, as all that did was create a gas bubble which was soon expelled, but it felt good at the time. When I really woke up, played around on the computer for a bit and read. When all of us were finally up and showered and everything, we once again headed for Akihabara, though it was so late that it was time for dinner. Jason and I grabbed something from McDonald's and Tina wound up with stuff from one of the three 7-11s we spotted within viewing distance of each other (I'm sure Lewis Black would have pitched a fit at that). Then we proceeded to the area where we'd visited the Illustrators Festival, which had a nice little seating section.
Afterwards, we proceeded to Shinjuku to go visit Kinokuniya, one of the largest book chains in the world, and a great place to pick up English-language books. Wound up purchasing more than $100 worth of stuff that I can't get on my Kindle. I never said the printed word was dead, y'know! I was glad to have purchased my Shinkansen ticket earlier, because I was now almost broke! I had started the trip with $800, and my wallet had just $100 remaining! Most distressing considering the way I manage my finances is to withdraw money every 10 days, only refilling my wallet to $800 (sometimes I only take $300, sometimes the full $800), and I'd last withdrawn on the 21st! Here it was, the 23rd, and I was almost in need of another withdrawal! Oy vey. Anyway, that was when we parted. Headed to Shinkuju station, and I was on the train to Tokyo alone, then on the Shinkansen and finally back home.
If I didn't thank you properly before for allowing me to crash at your place, Jason, let this be my official statement of gratitude.
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If you thought I was done, you're dead wrong! There has been quite a growth of structure to both my city and the city just across the bridge. On the 20th, a brand new mall opened up on the end of the bridge. Unfortunately, I was working on that day, and I was off to Tokyo the next day. So I had to put it off until this past weekend. A brief half-hour walk to the entrance made me realize just how much my perception had been deceived by looking at the building from my end of the lake. If I compared this mall to Crossroads Mall or Penn Square Mall (the malls close to my home), I'd say this one could eat both of 'em up and spit 'em out as outlets! Or at least it felt like that. Checking actual numbers, it's about half the size of either of the aforementioned malls. What a gyp! Anyway, with over 200 stores, there was plenty to exlore, including some neat furniture shops (as if I could afford it, either in money or in space). And there's a Jupiter, for all my foreign shopping needs. I can buy Swiss cheese from Switzerland, but they STILL don't have bleu cheese dressing! Travesty! It's amazing that the only two types of salad dressings I like (ranch and bleu cheese) can't be found anywhere, though I can find 20 different types of Caesar, French, and Italian. Anyway, with all the new shops to explore, I ended walking for about 4 hours within the mall itself, and that's not including the dinner I had at the lakeview buffet. Despite all of the wandering, I only made couple of purchases..some Halloween stickers for my children's classes and a great Star Wars poster at a store that specializes in selling vintage American stuff. And we're not just talking valuable vintage, like G.I. Joe lunchboxes (which they have), but worthless vintage, too, like dozens of cups featuring an old Subway ad with the Coneheads!
And then I got home. That's all.
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So yeah, what the last sentence said: that's all.
But hey, you aren't going away empty-handed. There's pictures to view! Please enjoy!
Bowling Competition, Minus the Competition! - http://picasaweb.google.co.jp/pigon
My Tokyo Trip - http://picasaweb.google.co.jp/pigon
And, as a special bonus, I'm adding in some shots of my apartment. Specifically, my decorations. As a side note, about 90% of the stuffed items and figures/toys come from UFO Catchers. All character sources have been added, as well. - http://picasaweb.google.co.jp/pigon
Enjoy, and see you another time!
- Touching my soul:Megumi Nakajimi - What 'Bout My Star?
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For the most part I seem to have healed, at least well enough to wrestle control back from the computer. Though I assure you that it was much less exciting than watching Tubbsy McCrea fighting against Auto in WALL-E. I still cannot imagine how a man with bones that are no longer connected you did see those diagrams, yeah?) was able to stand and maneuver like that! We humans are tough cookies, you betcha!
I still cough sometimes, though. And the ridge of my nose is swollen like I broke it or something. What's up with that?
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This past Saturday, I was quite pleased to see a package from the USPS arrive at my office, and after stamping my seal of approval (or receipt, I guess), I tore it open to find my baby. That's right, the "Covenant of Primus." At least, that's what I would be calling my new Kindle if it didn't require me to log on to the network in order to make that sort of change. "Chad's Kindle" simply doesn't have the same ring to it.
I'd been looking forward to this arrival for a month, and was only sorry that I could only look at it for a few minutes and ooh and aww before one of my students walked in. Being that this was a Saturday, this meant I was guaranteed to be unable to touch the book for a solid 6 hours, whereupon I would probably be grabbing lunch before touching the thing. But once I was able, touch it I did! Lo and behold, there was rejoicing among the person! Having already stuffed quite a few books inside it, I was ready to tackle them all at once, but I decided to go with the very first I had bought. And thus begins Chad's BOOK REVIEW:
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Randy Pausch - The Last Lecture
"If you knew you were going to die relatively soon, what wisdom would you impart before you passed away?"
That is the theme of the "Last Lecture" series at Carnegie Mellon, a series which has had quite a fair share of lecturers, but for Randy Pausch it was actually quite literal. After all, he died - from pancreatic cancer - 10 months after having made the speech, and that in itself was a feat given that the doctors had claimed he would live only another 2-5 months afterwards. Perhaps it was excellent health (aside from the cancer) that managed to keep him alive for double the allotted time or his determiniation to be with his family as long as he possibly could, but it's impressive for whatever reason.
Not wanting to talk about academics or book smarts or even general ethics, but chose instead to give his lecture on "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams." Why such a topic? The eason was two-fold. For one, Pausch had determined that one of the things that made hm a really unique person in the world is that he had accomplished all of his childhood dreams, at least according to his personal feelings. These included such feats as being in zero-g and writing an entry in the World Book Encyclopedia, and what better way to help yourself and others than to share those dreams and the feeling of accomplishing each of them. The other reason? Pausch realized that he would be dying before his kids could really understand anything he had to teach them, and aside from giving them all the love he could, he wanted to do more. And so he made the speech for his children, so they would have their father's advice in time.
So on to the meat of the review? I'm afraid that I'm really not the type for exegesis, but I'll give it a shot. The book was actually quite impressive. Anyone who begins their speech mentioning that they're going to talk about achieving anything automatically sets off my "self-improvement speech" alarms, but that wasn't the case here. Randy delivers several powerful messages about breaking through barriers, taking risks, thinking outside the box, and interacting with others that show he would have been quite awesome person to know. There are certainly moments of bragging, such as his constant referral to having been an Imagineer, but hey, the man's about to die, so I can cut him some slack on that. Plus, he's earned everything he talks about. While the text is filled with quite a number of cliches, he explains that he uses them specifically because they're cliches, and cliches generally work.
This is not to say that the book doesn't have anything new to offer to people who have grown up with common sense and morally upright values. As I said, one of his focuses was on thinking outside of the box. Numerous anecdotes are given to show that Randy is a man who never really views anything from just one side. And he has tenacity to get through any obstacle. From talking about painting his room as a child to his introduction of the First Penguin Award to his students, I was really impressed with the vitality he seemed to show in his words. And at the same time, stories such as those about his children and wife made me tear up, as I knew that the man didn't have much longer with any of them.
All in all, I highly recommend this book. 4.5/5 stars.
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Of course, that's not the only book I read. I had a full 2 days over the weekend, so I scraped another 2 books onto the pile. So here's some more reviews for you:
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Lewis Black - Me of Little Faith
While I personally love Lewis Black for his stand-up work and his nearly regular contributions to The Daily Show in their Back in Black segment, I wasn't really sure what to expect of a book written by the man. However, I did know that he'd been a playwright at some point and by nature of his profession, he was still a writer. I guess I couldn't be too disappointed.
And I certainly wasn't. The book is mostly about bashing organized, and sometimes even unorganized, religion (something which I can't really condone, but all's fair in the land of comedy), but it includes several areas that deal almost specifically with secular anecdotes which are incredibly fun to read. One excerpt from a segment about waiting for his plane to take off. Having boarded the plane and fallen asleep within the span of ten minutes, he woke up an hour later expecting to have made the majority of the flight. Instead, he saw only tarmac and a line of planes:
"At that point my brain began to eat itself because it had run out of things to do so it turned on itself and my only thought wasn't a thought, it was the color red."
The book definitely does a swell job of taking each religion to task, including some of the more obscure groups like the Assemblies of God, Astrologists, Psychics, and 70s gurus. It was enought of keep me chortling throughout my reading, though I'll admit I never fully laughed out loud. That's relatively hard for me to do anyway, so I don't consider that a full measure of effect.
Another highly-recommended book. Loses a star for the occasional dull section, though they are few and far enough between that it's not a drag. The ending play really didn't pique my interest, though. 4/5
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----------WARNING: EXPLICIT LANGUAGE-----------
Interesting thing about this book is that it was defending the use of the word "fuck," claiming that there really was no other word that managed to sum up all the necessary feelings one had so tersely and powerfully.
As a point of curiosity, I decided to see just how often Black used the word in the book. So I typed "fuck" into the search and I get 25 hits. But that's 2nd place! The winner is Spirit House, a novel in the Vincent Calvino series, with 27. "Well," I figure, "maybe old Lou is just using some colorful variations of the word! So I put "fucked" into the search and get an additional 12 for Spirit House, but only 4 more for Lou. Total count? 29-39. So, in a last chance effort, I add "fucking" to the search, and BAM...out of nowhere comes Old Man's War by John Scalzi with a whopping 53! Next are Black's book with 18 and Spirit House with 16. Total for Black: 47. For Spirit House: 55. So I go back through the other two searches, and sure enough, it's Old Man's War with 80. Wow.
----------EXPLICIT LANGUAGE PERIOD ENDED-----------
I'd heard a lot about Old Man's War from a friend, before I found out about the crude language. In fact, the person who first showed me a Kindle was the one who recommended it to me. Plus, I had gotten it for free from the Kindle Store due to Tor being kind enough to have a giveaway of about 16 books. I got all of 'em.
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For those who skipped the explicit language section, here's the links again:
John Scalzi - Old Man's War
The premise of this book alone makes for great amounts of imagery floating about in the head: 75-year-old Americans are taken in as recruits for an interstellar defense force and turned into Incredible Hulks (minus the roid rage) and with computers in their heads.
While it starts out as a rather confusing text due to its assumption that the reader knows what's going on, the details are slowly filled out and intriguing enough to draw interest without lingering too much on specifics to bring up questions during the initial reading. Questions of breaking physics are always met with one character quipping "You don't have the math to understand it," which, while derogatory towards the reader, makes me say a silent thank-you that I managed to avoid a scientific lecture on quantum theory. And even the ones they throw in are interesting.
It loses something towards the end with the introduction of the Special Forces but I had already gained enough interest in the main characters not to keep reading through to the end, so I suppose that makes up for it. There's certainly enough action to satisfy those people who like that, and enough descriptive details of things like anthropophagy (though I guess since the aliens are the onese eating the humans, it doesn't really count as anthropophagy) and liquidifying organs to keep the gore fans in check, as well. At the same time, there's romance, friendships, comedy, military brotherhood, etc.
Decent all around, but the sci-fi elements are what keep me sticking around. Hope to see more of them in the sequels! 4/5
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And that's all!
As I stated in the introduction, there's really nothing to say this time around, and, having realized that it is getting to the point where I'd rather not strain for something to come up with, I will instead be putting a halt to the weekly edition of the journal. This shall be replaced, instead, by a special, subscriber-only, "Whenever the Heck I Feel Like It" edition. That doesn't mean there won't be periods where the journal comes out weekly. After all, the fall season is coming up, and that means the leaves will be changing color, which leads to parties and travels. Plus, next week my school will be having a bowling party, and the week after that I'll be going to Tokyo, so I'm sure there will be something to write about.
And so, given that I have made a total of 40 posts prior to this one (remember, I did not start at Week 1), this shall now become known as Chrysanthemum Journal Issue #41. Isn't that just swell?
So, see you around!
- Touching my soul:Jero - Umiyuki
Your beloved Chaddy-waddy was taken down by an illness known only as...something.
That shall be described later, so I'm afraid you'll just have to wait a bit, yes? As far as I know, Chad has almost fully-recovered from his life-threatening disease, through some slim chance and a couple of miracles, but I have confined him to his quarters under the bed.
And who am I? Why, Chaddy-waddy's roommate, of course. His ever-so-loyal computer. So if you'll excuse the intrusion, I shall be the one spinning the tales this evening.
Of course, he regrets he could not be here to author his 52nd week's account himself, but such is the way of things.
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While I am quite up-to-speed as far as the Owner's schedule goes, I do not believe that a great deal transpired over the past week.
One thing that has attracted quite a bit of his time recently is that he finally began playing Metal Gear Solid 4 for more than just a few minutes at a time. And apparently fell in love with the series all over again. Though he'd planned to go to bed rather early several nights, the simple lure of the game, involving lots of sequences such as motorcycle chases and crawling through hallways filled with microwaves (perhaps the hardest moment in the game, I would show it except it has major spoilers for the game's plot). And speaking of the game's plot...CLOSURE. The Owner has pondered at length, so many times, on the game's many many ties into itself, trying to untangle and re-attach the threads into one coherent reel. It's nice to know that there will finally be an end to all of this inane pondering. Although, there might be opportunity for "What Ifs" and more future pondering now that the world is the way it is.
Anyway, I'm sure that were he here to type this message, he would be offering his whole-hearted recommendation that all of you go out and buy this game. He's already made plans to go back and try again with the Japanese version. That's right, he never did sell it back to the store. Perhaps he might improve on his Japanese just a bit.
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As we have arrived at the topic of Japanese, I would like to take this opportunity to mention that the Owner has once again devoted himself quite fully to his studies of the language, and no matter how much I complain about the 2-byte characters weighing me down so much more than all of those healthy 1-byte characters (Japanese characters take up twice the memory space as Roman letters/Arabic numerals - quite fatty for us machines, really). Anyway, my apologies, as I seem to have digressed for just a bit. Worrying about my weight always causes me to go off on tangents. Allow me to return to the topic at hand:
How exactly does the Owner plan to go about his renewed study regime? Why it's very easy, really. He's taken some practice tests in the past and not done so well on them, but it has been many a month since that time, so he figured he might as well try again, using the material from last year's test as his practice test. And the results were rather shocking. Listening: 70% (70 points), Kanji/Vocabulary: 60% (60 points), Reading/Grammar: 55% (110 points - though Reading itself was rather highly-scored, the grammar was of a sufficiently poor quality that it was dragged down a fair amount). The total results? Exactly 60%. That's right, 240 points out of a possible 400. The results needed to pass the test? Exactly 60%. That's right, 240 points out of a possible 400. No, you didn't make a mistake. Neither did I. That's the same sentence. Twice. He got in just on the line. Though he initially feared this result, there is still a fair bit of time left before the real thing comes, so it's time to buckle down and begin studying harder.
Maybe I should purchase a book or two for the poor fellow.
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Aside from that, I am sure that the Owner forgot to mention to you that he had an all-important barbecue with his students. Of course, it goes without saying that I couldn't very well attend. Even though I /am/ a notebook PC. I don't do travel very well. But whatever, I'm just as happy at home. However, I now know enough to be able to report on it:
While it seems that there were quite a few ominous clouds in the sky that day, there was nothing to worry about. After all, the weather forecast had warned only of very brief rain in the morning, and the forecast is actually rather reliable over here. So Chaddy-waddy set off to the local supermarket to meet with his co-workers, whereupon they shopped for various necessities, loaded up their vehicular unit and proceeded up to the pre-determined destination. Apparently, one of the previously mentioned co-workers was late, and that delayed them from arriving for 10 minutes or so, but nothing bad came about, as there was only one student there at the time, and she'd not been waiting too long.
More and more students began to gather, and it was finally decided that the fire should be started. So a great communal effort began, as lighting charcoal logs can be a rather frustrating task, especially in cutting winds like those present on the day in question. Interestingly, not just humans were there, but also a couple of other animals, including quite a fair amount of dragonflies, and a white cat, immediately named "Byakko" by the Owner, presumably in reference to the White Tiger of the Chinese constellations. Somehow, this managed to spark a debate between he and his manager on just what Byakko meant. Though often willing to back down on a language-based argument with a native speaker, this was not one of those times. Apparently, it caused a rift, some people at the barbecue arguing that Byakko meant "White Fox" and others arguing that it meant "White Tiger". The end result? Both are right. But obviously, "White Tiger" is much more appropriate when naming a cat, especially a white one, yes? The cat was actually a bit mysterious, as it stayed around the barbecue and specifically around that barbecue for quite a while, even though no food was being offered. Eventually, the children did give in, but by then the cat had moved nearby a small abandoned house. That's when the reason for it's sustained vicinity to the barbecue became clear. There were apparently 3 kittens waiting for their mother. The children tried to offer them food, but mama ate it all up. Greedy, that one.
The food was, I suppose, what you would call standard barbecue fair...at least for a country like Japan. Meaning there were lots of small strips of beef, chicken, pork, vegetables, etc, all of it perfectly suited for being picked up by chopsticks. Chaddy-waddy, however, had decided it would be perfect for swimming, seeing as it was still summer and he'd yet to enter any body of water. So, changing into his swimsuit, he proceeded into the cool waters of Lake Biwa to play with the children who were already out there, helping them catch their fish and explore the murky depths of the waters. Of course, he also had to show off his prolific sleeping-on-water skills, and why not go for a real swim as well? Although i hear tell it was difficult to swim as the depth of the water was not really sufficient for it, and lines were placed in the area to prevent people from going very far.
Once the barbecue had ended and goodbyes had been said, both to students and to cats, Chaddy-waddy retreated to his private abode, playing a bit of Metal Gear Solid 4, getting dinner when it was that time, and soon felt a bout of fatigue, retiring to bed at some point around 8PM.
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And woke up around midnight absolutely burning up. Grabbing his trusty thermometer from the bathroom, he checked his temp. 39 degrees. I believe that's 102.5 degrees Fahrenheit to many of you out there. He quickly returned to bed in order to sleep it off...hopefully.
It wasn't until 2PM the next day when his fever had finally subsided enough for him to crawl out of bed. This had been helped with liberal consumption of Vitamin Water, absolutely loaded with Vitamin C. Why didn't he take medicine? Well, he doesn't know what medicine to take! Brands like Tylenol simply don't transfer themselves across the seas, and he's certainly not in a mood to go through medicines looking for suitable alternatives when his head is pounding. And so it was that he stuck with Vitamin Water. But at least that has tons of Vitamin C. That could do some good, even when someone is already succumbing to illness, yes?
After some time, his fever finally subsided to a relative low of 99.9, and even lower to an almost regular 98.8 later on. Chad began to feel that he would be able to get through the worst of it. However, those hopes ran into some obstacles when he noticed that his temperature was once again climbing. Rather than risk it going up anymore due to his activity, he sent messages to his manager, supervisor, and co-worker indicating that he might not make it in the next day and crawled into bed to sleep it off once more. Being a firm believer in the idea that one can sweat out any form of sickness, he covered himself up thoroughly, though he had to wake up several times during the night in order to change positions. Strange thing was? No sweat. How once can have a fever of 100+, in summer, covered with thick blankets, and no air conditioning whatsoever, and still not sweat is far beyond the capabilities of my logic processors. But since the only option the websites were giving him for THAT symptom was a case of heat stroke, he decided to let that one remain a mystery.
Fortunately, when he finally awoke on purpose the next morning, all was...relatively well. His temperature had lowered some to 98.8 again, and he decided after a few hours at home, that he was going to be alright at work. So it was that he tromped off to school. Fortunately, Tuesday is his easiest day, with only 4 classes and 2 of those being adult classes and the childrens' classes being extremely well-behaved (for the most part). The day went relatively without incident, although Chaddy-waddy ended up downing about 4 liters of Vitamin Water. So delicious. So I hear, anyway. And when he returned home, it was straight off to bed again. This process continued for a few days, and in the end, even though the fever was gone, he was still coughing and sneezing. Thus, he was unable to write the entry last week.
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That's about it. Considering the illness, it's easy to see why there wasn't anything sent out last week, but Chaddy-waddy insisted on granting you all an extra gift. Crazy Japan, Part 2! Plus, it brings the album count to 52. 52 albums in 52 weeks. Glorious, yes?
So, here are the photos!
Crazy Japan, Part 2: http://picasaweb.google.com/pigonjinn/C
Barbecue Pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/pigonjinn/B
W..well...oh, come on, don't cry.
Fine, I guess I can tell you another few stories, but this is the last time, okay?
Let's see, I believe we were just entering Chad's 51st week. Ah, yes, here we are. Let's begin, shall we?
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So the week at school was wildly regular. Especially considering that there was no manager. For the most part, it was just quiet. Takeshi and I often teach with mirroring schedules, so that while he is teaching, I'm doing busy work, and when he's doing busy work, I'm teaching. Basically this means that we already get very little face-to-face time unless he gets a cancelled lesson or I do, and so this added up to a generally boring few days. That's all there is to say about that.
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One of the biggest things to do in summer in Japan is to take as much explosive ordinance as you can legally purchase and set up an ignition such that the ordinance flies in the sky and detonates, raining down fire and debris in a scorching display of light. That's right, I'm talking about fireworks. However, unlike America, where fireworks are pretty much reserved for July 4th, or England, where I think the only time is Bonfire Night, and other countries with their pathetic "fireworks are sometimes entertainment," the Japanese often just load up the explosives-mobile and hit the beach to fire some off.
Unfortunately, I couldn't find anyone to do it with, and fireworks are no fun when you're all alone, so I was looking into various displays. Japan is not at all lacking in fireworks festivals. However, most of them occur on Saturdays or scheduled days each year which just so happen to fall on non-Monday weekdays this year. Just my luck, yeah? But hey, them's the breaks. So I was psyched when my cell phone told me about some phireworks going down in Seta on Sunday, and I decided to get my keister out there. Of course, watching fireworks alone is about the same as launching them alone, so I asked my manager to go with me. No dice, as she had a sick niece to go see. So, I retreat home on Saturday and e-mail another teacher near Seta to see if she wants to go. No response by bedtime = despair!
The next day, that despair dissipated when I received a message asking about the details. And then mail from another teacher who was interested in coming along after he'd heard about it. So, after finishing up some shopping and various errands, I zipped off to Seta, and met up with the 4 other members of the party. Not bad for last-minute plans. Not bad at all. Hopped on a pretty tightly packed train to get us closer to the site, and ended up chatting with all of the nearby Japanese people. When we arrived at the station, it was just as tight a crowd to give the stationmaster a ticket and go on our way to the bridge. It certainly wasn't missing any of the things one can normally associate with Japanese festivals, such as food stands, lanterns, and even organized dancing in which most of the participants were locals and crazy gaijin who wanted to give it a try. Cool beans. The kids back home still say cool beans, don't they?
So we hopped down the nature trail and found our way to the bridge, where I'd seen some space on the nice soft concrete before (better than being near the bushes people seemed to have decided were actually a hidden lavatory). Settled down with kara-age, fries, and, of course, beer. After chatting for a little bit, the show was underway, with both fireworks and some kind of display on the river where there was a guy singing in a very traditional style. I can only assume that this is to bring in good luck for the harvest ahead...or something, I have no idea. One nice thing about this display was that it was scheduled to run for an hour. At first, I thought this meant we'd be seeing a burst every now and then while we waited for the main event, but instead we were treated to little displays about every 10-15 minutes. It was nice because, after they finished, there would always be people who got up and left. I assume that the shows are there to give patrons the feeling that they saw something nice and can leave it at that.
But not us. True fireworks fans cannot be satiated by such paltry displays of explosiveness. And so we waited, and waited, and saw lots of awesome displays, including hearts, stars, and a horseshoe-like object which was said to look like a skull but was most definitely the Millenium Falcon. And finally, we came to the finale. Whereas all the mini-displays had lasted about 1 minute or so, this one went all of 5 minutes! Crazy! The only thing I regret is not taking more pictures. I did what I could, but the fireworks setting on my camera isn't the best without a tripod, and the regular setting simply doesn't pull it off well enough. It's alright, though, I made sure to get you all some videos. You didn't think I'd leave you in the dark, did you? UNFORTUNATELY, I took the vids at a 90-degree angle. And for some reason, even though I rotated them on my camera and saved them like that, when I put them on my comp, they came out sideways again. So I downloaded a program to rotate .MOV files, and changed them again. Now they are vertical on my camera and my computer, but are, for some reason, horizontal on DailyMotion. I guess you'll just have to alter your screens somehow. Or imagine it as a very one-sided naval battle.
After being bedazzled by bunches of bright blasts, we pointed ourselves once more to the local train station and trudged onward, befriending and bechatting with some small children along the way, who were simply amazed to be chatting with both an Australian and an American. We took our train to the next train station (had to transfer), and decided that, since the last train didn't leave for a while, we should go eat, drink, and be merry. Off we went to a local izakaya called "Hana no Mai" (the dance of flowers). We had a lot of fun with a certain scratch-and-win card game that they had. Order a beer, get a card. Scratch 3 circles out of 6. Get "gold," "silver," and "bronze," and you win a free beer. Miss, but collect 5 cards, get a free beer. We kept trying to beat the system, but it never did work, even when we got the staff involved in our guessing games. As we had 5 people and 6 circles, we needed the staff to answer questions sometimes. Thankfully the Japanese in the group were there to translate for us, and the staff were very cooperative. Of course, beer wasn't the only thing we had. We were starving, too, so we ordered plenty of food, including a new taste treat, basashi. Go ahead. Read the link. I'll wait.
That's right, raw horse meat. And let me tell you, it was pretty good! Although...I have to wonder about raw horse meat-flavored ice cream...
Anyway, that was all for the evening. I had to get up relatively early for a certain task the next morning.
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And what exactly was that oh so important task? Glad you asked. Actually, I had to go about getting my visa renewed. It's that time, after all, and my visa was about to die. Interesting thing about applying for visa extensions in Japan is that there are really only two types..for working visas, anyway. Basically, you can choose to get a 1 year extension or a 3 year extension. However, the one you choose really doesn't seem to matter, as if they decide to give you a 3-year extension, they'll give it to you, and if you apply for 3 years, but they feel 1 year is fine, you get that instead.
Anyway, going through the renewal process is actually a heck of a lot easier than I had originally thought it would be. Basically, it involved me going to the main office with some papers like my contract and tax slip, filling in some forms, and waiting around awhile. Technically, this was not the first time I'd been to the office for this. I simply forgot to report it the last time around. Last time I went, I was told that I couldn't complete the process because I didn't have one of the required documents, that being something basically proving that I work for GEOS. So I had to cancel that trip. When I reported this to my supervisor, he told me that only the strictist immigration offices needed that. Guess whaaaaa~t?
So I got my documents, mailed them in to the office, and waited until I got my card saying "COME ON DOWN!" this week. Zipped into the office at something like 3 PM, much later than the early morning I'd been hoping for, but that couldn't be helped because I stayed up far too late the night before. And lookie there, got my new passport stamp in a right jiffy. Funny thing was that there had been a guy before me in the line who'd had to step out for a moment to take a phone call. His thing was taken care of relatively fast as well, so we ended up riding the elevator together and I could hear him talking to someone on his cell phone. I say it's funny because the conversation went on for awhile about how he couldn't do this or that, and then he ended that segment of the conversation with "Well, I don't know what to do with them. My Japanese isn't that good and the guy was too bored to try and speak English. I'm a foreigner, so he doesn't want to talk to me." The mind boggled for a moment. This was the *immigration office* he's talking about. They're only reason for being, really, is *specifically* to talk to foreigners. If that's not your thing, you don't take the job!
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I believe that's all there is to tell for this week. Look forward to our next meeting! And for now, here's fireworks:
Photos: http://picasaweb.google.co.jp/pigon
Video (keep in mind these videos are rotated 90-degrees left, as that's how I took them with my camera. For some reason, I can change that on my camera, and on my computer, but not on DailyMotion. Sooorrryyyy:
1 - http://www.dailymotion.com/kyoushibanza
2 - http://www.dailymotion.com/kyoushibanza
Finale - http://www.dailymotion.com/kyoushibanza
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So as I mentioned in my previous note, one of my friends has come to visit for awhile, all the way from America. Of course, Japan just happens to be the final leg on his pan-Asian trip, which included Taiwan as well. One thing this has helped me to realize is that my room is not exactly as small as I had thought. I'd previously figured it would be impossible for two people to occupy a space this small, but we manage it quite well, even with Cory's ridiculously oversized suitcase. It seems that whereas I overcompensate on vacations by bringing too much money ($2,000 for 3 day trips? What *am* I thinking?) Cory overcompensates by bringing far more than he really needs. For example, he has more shirts in his suitcase than I have in my home closet (I didn't count the dress shirts at the school).
Of course, the very first thing that can cause a problem with a house guest is the expenses that can arise from it. For example, I need to provide entertainment, don't I? So, I ended up buying Soul Calibur IV. However, having never had company over for the purpose of playing vidja games, I also had to buy a brand new controller. The combo together cost me over $100, and the injury to my wallet only got worse when I threw in a copy of Call of Duty 4 to replace the one I'd given back to my student.
So, anyway, another thing that comes with having a house guest is the new and exotic experience every night, yah? And so, because of that, the two of us have been going to quite a few resturants in the area. Fortunately all of them are quite familiar to me, but I'm running out and may have to improvise soon, which could spell big trouble? Well, probably not, but you never know, because we are two wild and crazy guys. Of course, it's not limited just to dining options, but Katata is a little light on anything else. We have yetto actuall walk over the bridge over the lake, but we have done quite a bit of walking, albeit pretty much all at night, and we of course went to go and play my favorite Gundam game. And Gundam card builder, and some Guitar and Drum game whose name I forget.
It's great to have a personal servant here at the house, though. Why, Cory's perfect for doing laundry while I'm away, and going shopping if I need him to, and giving me money if I need it. Good job, Cory.
*I was also happy to hear that many of you out there in Rutgers-land, or those having eently graduted from that land, are enjoying my journals. Thanks for that! Always happy to hear a word from back home and, while I can't promise to respond on the spot, I always make an effort to keep in touch as much as possible.
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I still wonder if the police ever found Ed. He must be pretty crafty.
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One thing I forgot to mention in my last journal is that there as beenan increase in the ranks of those capable of handling the Chad Kebab. Or, well, perhaps I should say that there is one more person who can consume, as I'm not really sure "handle" is the appropriate term.
That's right, fans, Cory Ma has successfully passed the challenge!
The tally at this point has been raised to 4, excluding myself (* denotes someone who flinched):
1 - Unknown Woman* - The unknown woman finished the kebab in 20 minutes, before the Kebab challenge was firmly estblished, and even though she used to be spotted in the bar all the time, has not been seen since. We believe the spices may have taken her out.
2 - My mother* - Mother mostly made it through rather clean, but lost some points for needing lip balm halfway through in order to get rid of the burning sensation on her lips. If you can't stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen! But since she did manage it, I can't deny her a place on the list. After all, if I let people drink during the consumption, why shouldn't I allow other tools?
3 - Takeshi, my co-worker - No problems whatsoever. Taakshi ate it about a fast as I do. Actually, a little faster since he doesn't have a cat's tongue (the Japanese way to say one has an aversion to hot - temperature-wise - foods), so hedidn't have to wait for it to cool down like I normally do.
4 - Cory* - Finally, Cory managed to wolf it down, but made a near-fatal error when he stopped halfway through to try and let it settle, despite my warnings that the spice is actually a time bomb and is just *waiting* for you to drop your guard.
So that makes two people from America who have attempted to try the Chad Kebab and succeeded. Don't let the numbers fool you, though. Many have tried and failed. In fact, the main reason I run the contest is simply to start conversation, letting people try the kebab and talking to them afterwards about the experience, followed by any other conversation which happens to cross their minds.
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As far as school-side things go, we're doing quite well, and are, as always, planning more and more activities. The busy Back-to-School season is coming up in just a bit, so we need to make sure that we have plenty of activities to intrigue new students. This month, it's a barbecue party. Perhaps a bowling party next month? Not quite sure, but I do need to break in the new lanes here.
Kind of nervous, though, as it seems our manager will be out of the school for a few days due to the Obon Festival. If I had to compare this festival to an American tradition, it would come closes to Halloween, and not because they put on costumes and go get candy. No, we're talking Samhain-ish stuff here. Basically, the boundaries between the world of the dead and the living get kind of fuzzy, and the dead are allowed to return to our world for a brief visit. So, during this time, a lot of families hold festivals for departed spirits and go to visit the graves of their ancestors. Fun stuff, yeah?
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As if one run-in with the police, I had yet another this weekend, though at least this time it was for mostly harmless reasons. Theonly thing that I was forced to sacrifice was a bit of sleep, though I ended up catcing up on quite a bit of that as it is.
Anyway, there I was, sleeping peacefully on my paper-thin-blanket-like-thing-that-serve
So I tell him to keep his britches on (no, not literally), and throw on some britches of my own before hopping out to go and greet him. I forgot to serve him a cup of tea, but I was very thankful that he didn't beat me for forgetting this piece of courtesy. In fact, all he did was ask some questions. Apparently the police in Katata are often hard up for things to do, so they spend their time going to each and every apartment in the area and asking the residents questions about who they are, what they do, and about life in general. I gave not only my phone number and occupation, but ended up talking about my 5-year plans for the future, and stuff like that. And he wrote it all down in this huge book. All while profoundly apologizing for hving disturbed me from my rest.
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The only plan I'd originally had for Sunday was to head out for Kinokuniya, having determined that this was the place to pick up the application for the 2008 Japanese Language Proficiency Test. However, since the only Kinokuniya I know of, in Shiga, is in Otsu Parco. Since there's a theatre in the mall, I figured we might as well try and catch a flick. As luck would have it, Hamunaptra III (known as "The Mummy III" in what I sometimes refer to as The United States of America). I think eventually they'll have to change the series name over here, given that Hamunaptra hasn't appeared since the first movie, and this movie is set in a different part of th world entirely, as will the next.
So, according to the plan, we went to grab my application form from the bookstroe. Interesting thing about Kinokuniya. At one point, their major business focus was on lumber and charcoal. But apparently their main office in Tokyo was destroyed, and when theyopened up a new shop, they changed ther structure so that they'd be selling books instead. Um..quite a leap. Imagne that speech on the office floor. "Now I know that books are slightly more difficult to chop out of trees and pick out of caves,but lets try our best!" But hey, it works for them. In fact, if I recall, Kinokuniya has the largest bookstore in Australia and Singapore.
Also, the movie was great, though not having seen any previews myself, I was very surprised about wat happened to the O'Connel's wife between the movies! I was not prepared for an actress switch! And the woman has signed on for the next three Mummy films!
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Monday saw us making a rather long trip all the way up to Nagoya. We only had plans for one activity, that being to go to a certain art exhibition featuring Cory's favorite illustrator. Of course, the city is about 3 hours away from where I live, meaning we had to set out relatively early. Once we did arrive, though, I was introduced to a certain Indian restaurant. Cory had mentioned this place to me earlier as having had relatively spicy curry. He'd had the regular curry and was almost taken out by that alone. Apparently that experience had made him doubt that he could handle the Chad Kebab. "Ho ho," says I, "what can a mere curry dish do to me?" So we go in and order our food, me ordering the Level 3 curry (the highest). Lo and behold..well...it wasn't negligibly spicy, but I did manage to get through it. I think that due to the fact that it was mostly sauce and not much substance, it had more of an effect, but I woulda been able to have a second bowl, I'll betcha. Good stuff, none-the-less.
So we got to the place where the exhibition was being held and, upon trying to enter, were verbally shooed back by the staff, who offered no explanation aside from saying that the reason was written on a sign outside. So we go to read this sign, and neither of us understand but I notice a spot for a time to be entered, even though no one had filled anything in, so I figure it means we just have to wait. Cory pulls out the dictionary and starts tapping away, eventually discovering that the reason is the gallery is too crowded. Turns out that this artist is also popular for his hentai drawings (Japanese cartoon-styled pornography), but he does have other works which are not quite so bad. Those who have played Shining Tears or Shining Wind might recognize him as being the character designer (don't worry, the links are safe). Still, it was a little awkward standing outside with a bunch of promotional art featuring suggestive images. As that kind of thing is relatively common in Japan, I had no problems with the Japanese customers, but the foreigners were all staring at me! Gah! Turns out we had to wait because they were shooting a news segment inside, so once they cleared out, we were allowed in. The gallery was pretty small, and the pictures inside weren't nearly as suggestive as those outside. They were on sale, too. Only $2,500!
Anyway, once that little excursion was done with, we headed to Mandarake, a game/video/clothing/etc store featuring all things anime/manga/video game related. Found a copy of Tales of the Tempest for only $6, which just so happened to be the same price as all of their games for the original NES. The second floor was home to a number of awesome models, from super-tiny-sized to great bigguns. The third floor held all of the store's cosplay (costume play) gear, including wigs, outfits, accessories, etc, and also their doujin manga (comics). Doujin is a way to say a work, be it video game, manga, or anime that's produced by a fan of a certain series. Sometimes these can be rather famous, such as the Melty Blood fighting game, a douji video game based off of a visual novel called Tsukihime. But even smaller releases can garner quite a bit of popularity. However, a majority of doujin are pornographic in nature, so you have to be careful when shopping for them or you might get something you weren't expecting at all.
And then it was back home on another 3-hour train ride. Slept most of the way, played Phoenix Wright for the rest of it. Cory later discovered that the same artist was having an exhibition in Osaka at the same time, meaning we could have saved 1,000 yen and 2 hours. Hindsight is 20/20?
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There you have it, folks. Hope you enjoyed this week's segment. Look forward to the next one!
- Touching my soul:Globe - Face
And you almost figured correctly.
Indeed, I'm writing this while watching yet another movie. I actually got kind of sidetracked due to the fact that one of my friends is visiting from America and has been taking up a lot of my time. But, that aside, let's get on with the show!
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While there are not that many new things to speak about, there are at least a couple of interesting events.
The day after my vacation, one would think that I'd be able to get a nice long rest, or at least would be able to relax for a few days. With the busy travel we'd all had during the week, I could really have used a day or two to slow everything down, but that wasn't quite in the plans. Instead, I had to show up bright and early for work the next day. Blah. And due to the fact that I needed to unpack as soon as I got back home, I wasn't really able to get a whole lot of sleep, either.
Ah well, another day, another dollar.
But the most tiring part of all of it was that I had forgotten exactly what we were going to be up to after work that evening. First, me and my coworkers headed to the regular bar so that the JET could pick up a Chad-kebab. Lo and behold, another challenger capable of dealing with it! That brought the list to a total of 3 besides myself. But we were not to be staying there long. After settling our tabs, my coworker suddenly announced that we had about 3 minutes to get back to the station to board the last train bound for Osaka, the next destination for the evening. And so off we went, bounding down the streets! But we were unable to make it. We stood on the platform wondering what to do when I decided to check my cell phone to see the train schedule for myself. Turned out that my coworker got some bad info, and the last train hadn't actally come! Safe!
Now why Osaka on a late night on Saturday? Well, for clubbing, of course! Takeshi was set to meet with some of his friends to take the rest of us out to some club. Just which club, I didn't know. But it certainly wasn't what I was expecting. First of all, the heat. Ridicuhot in that place, and that was even without standing around tons of people standing far closer to each other than they otherwise would. We all stepped out into the dance area and that was when I heard the music. Weezer's "Pork and Beans, which felt kind of out of place in a dance club, but I figured maybe the DJ was taking a break or something. But nope, that was it. Many people were dancing and swaying to the music, which I guess was alright, but that wasn't even the worst selection of music. The next one on the playlist was Fountains of Wayne's "Stacy's Mom." And that was where it got crazy! Every time the chorus came up, it was a mosh pit in the center of the dancing area. Japan will never run out of things I think would otherwise never happen.
But the music definitely wasn't hitting a nerve for me or the manager, so we went to find Takeshi. After exploring a labyrinthine complex that they call a second floor, we couldn't see him anywhere. Finally, we found him sitting down at a table playing on his cell phone. Turne out he wasn't exactly pleased with the musical selection, either. Soon enough, we were joined by the rest of the crew, and we commandeered a couch, complaining about the heat and making fans out of flyers for other clubs, while also comparing our own musical tastes and generally discussing interests.
Eventually, all of us decided we'd have enough of the music and the heat, so we packed up our stuff and scooted out of the club in order to go and sing some of our own music instead, moving our group to the nearest karaoke spot. And of course, we had some fun there singing some of our silly songs, as well, such as Takeshi singing the fight song for the Hanshin Tigers or me and a couple of the other guys singing the opening themes for classic anime such as Dragonball Z and Mobile Suit Gundam (enjoy the Spanish subtitles in the second). But of course, once all of us were finished at about 6 in the morning, we were dead tired, hopping on to the train going home and pretty much everyone catching some Z's before Kyoto. Got back home, got some breakfast, and got some sleep. Ahh, finally a chance to relax!
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Oh, what wonderful things the national holidays of Japan are. The 21st of July brought about the celebration known as Umi no Hi in Japan, or Marine Day in English. The significance of it is that people are supposed to pay their respects to the ocean and continue to pray for good fortune as far as maritime Japan is concerned. But there really are no celebrations involved, so most people just use it as an excuse to go down to the beach. Hey, what better way to pay your respect to the ocean than splashing around inside of it? Plus you get the benefit of taking a day off from their work!
Or...well...if you're in the majority of workers who go from Monday-Friday.
Not us Tuesday-Saturday workers.
Lousy ocean.
ANYWAY, since it was still a day off for me, I didn't intend to let it go to waste. In fact, I had already made plans for this day all the way back in April (I think. I don't want to read that far back and check). Takeshi and I had planned to go to a baseball game featuring the legendary rivalry of the Hanshin Tigers and the Yomiuri Giants (also known as the Tokyo Giants), perhaps the most famous teams in Japan. The Hanshin Tigers represent the majority of Kansai, with diehard fans, crazy theme songs, and even a curse! After they won the 1985 Japan Series against the Seibu Lions, a group of fans gathered in Osaka and a fan resembling each team member jumped into a certain canal in Dotonbori. However, there was no fan that looked like Randy Bass, the foreign MVP slugger who was largely responsible for their victory. So they grabbed a statue of Colonel Sanders from a nearby KFC, chucked it in, and thus began the Curse of the Colonel, as they've yet to pull off a championship since that point. On a side note (of a side note), Randy Bass now serves as a State Senator in, of all places, Oklahoma. Represents the Fightin' 32nd! As for the Tokyo Giants, well, they're generally the best and the strongest of the teams in the country. Not much else to say about that.
So, anyway, we'd gathered up a bunch of students and other teachers to go to the game with, so it was promising to be a good day. One of the teachers backed out at the last minute, but that was alright, as he gave his ticket to a friend of his who happened to be staying in the country for 2 years while he figures out what he wants to do with his life. While chatting with him, I was shown the Amazon Kindle, something I'd had a growing interest in for quite a while, but had never seen up close. Just from what I was shown alone, I could tell I had to get one for myself in order to discover just what else lay in store. Here I thought it was just simply a book, but I had no idea you could do such thigns as convert your own electronic writings into Kindle-friendly formats and send them to the machine itself! That's just crazy! But I'm really impressed with the electronic ink format it uses. It uses real ink, and uses electricity to change how the screen looks, then the electricity cuts off and the screen stays just as it was, no more power being used! That apparently makes it able to read many thousands of pages on a single charge. Ridicuincredible.
So we met with all the other people at the stadium and decided to take a quick stop in the Tigers Store. However, with the prices they were charging in there, many of us decided just to take our leave. It was a big surprise when Takeshi walked out with a ton of gear in tow. Apparently he sets aside a part of his budget just for Hanshin stuff. Or at least, this is what I am forced to assume. And so, we headed into the stadium proper, and I was quite shocked to see that there were very, very few food/drink booths, but also pleased to see that it wasn't really anything like what you'd expect. No popcorn, no hot dogs, no burgers. Instead, there was curry and rice at one booth, lunchboxes at another, and okonomiyaki at yet another. Another difference from American baseball games is that there are very organized cheering groups and chants. You can see this in the videos, and there were actually flyers going around with the chants written for various players!
The match itself was surprisingly dull, though. Even Takeshi mentioned that it was the worst live game he's ever seen, and not just because they lost 3-1. But hey, that's alright, because baseball isn't about watcing the game all the time. There's a lot of socializing to be done! I chatted with my fellow spectators for a majority of the time, catching up with faces I haven't seen in a while and learning about those I hadn't met before. A great event is in the seventh inning, when everyone blows up huge balloons and releases them into the sky. They're designed to screech instead of making the standard balloon fart noise, so it kind of sounds like fireworks going off, and with the multiple colors flying around all at once, looks like it, too. Plus, it's fun to see the clean-up crew running out to grab up the mess immediately afterwards. Once the game was over, we joined the slow-moving mass heading to the outside world, and trudged our way to the station and the train platform. Dunno why, but the train was surprisingly free. Considering everyone was going to Osaka, I guess we just got lucky. And then back home again!
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Aside from that, you'll be happy (or perhaps disappointed) that there's really not that much more news to share.
I did go on a sort of testosterone movie rush, watchign quite a few action mvies, some of which I'd seen before and others which were knew. The list includes 300, Firewall, Rambo, Rocky Balboa, Hostage, 16 Blocks, Ali, Cinderella Man, and Warlords, a Chinese film starring Takeshi Kaneshiro and Jet Li, as well as some other Chinese man whose name I forget, all playing three men who work up the ranks of the army by vanquishing all enemies.
I think I'm now macho enough to fill three Johnny Bravos.
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A funny thing happened on the way to the forum...wait...I mean something there was something strange in the neighborhood. No... An odd occurence at the school when I got a call from some man speaking to me in vey irate Japanese, which is a rarity in and of itself. And it was rather fast, so I wasn't quite able to catch what was going on. So I asked him to speak a little more slowly as I wasn't able to understand what he was saying. I heard him then mention a parking lot. Thinking I understood, I told him that our school doesn't have a parking lot of its own and he'd have to find parking elsewhere. Then he kept talking and mentioned something about a specific license plate. So I changed my assumption to guessing that he was talking about a car already parked in the downstairs lot (not ours, but part of the same building). So I informed him that neither I nor the manager have a car, and our last staff member lives 2 hours way, so it wasn't likely his. That's when the guy demanded to speak with the manager, and I told him she wouldn't be in for a little while.
*click* Hung up. Good riddance?
So I get a message from the manager. Sick. Going to be late. Oh well. My first student comes in and we go in to class. I hear the phone ring a couple of times, but I'm teaching. Then Takeshi comes in and we both have a class, so we're both teaching. I hear the phone ring a lot more. Then I notice some guy wandering outside in our lobby area. I go to greet him, thinking he's a visitor. I'd explained to my student that it would only be 5 minutes, and she'd given the go-ahead. As soon as he starts talking, I understand he's the guy who was on the phone. I tell him about the manager's situation, and he says he'll come back. Go back into the lesson, finish, stand outside talking with Takeshi and some students. Lo and behold...
The fuzz show up.
Takeshi goes to talk to them. Turns out that there's a car in the parking lot and it's registered to a foreigner. And, of course, that means it has to be the property of the only foreigner that the owner of the lot just happens to have seen before. Takeshi politely explains to them that I don't have a car, nor even so much as a driver's license, so it was in all likelihood not my car. The police seem satisfied, begin walking away, get a radio call which just so happens to be about the car, and return to make sure my name is not Edward...or Eduardo. Not sure, as the Japanese pronunciation is the same. After assuring them that I am Chad, they left once more.
Manager shows up. We explain the situation to her, and we all have a nice big laugh about how I got profiled just for being a foreigner. Then it's back to the daily routine, correct?
Wrong again, my fine feathered friend.
The previous caller shows up *yet again* and while I wasn't completely sure about what his statement was, I rather easily understood the lead-in, which went something like, "I know the police came by to speak to you all, but I want to confirm that this Edward person is not here." This guy just refused to give up, which is ridiculous considering that Edward's car had already been towed. But this final confirmation seemed to satisfy him. Or not, considering how he stormed out of there. How dare there be another foreigner in his city!
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Anyway, now my friend Cory from Rutgers is here, and we've done nothing over the past weekend but play Yakuza III and Soul Calibur IV, with also a little arcading involved and some Japanese taste-testing. That's about it. Catch you all later!
Ha. You thought I'd forget the photos, didn't you? Well, you thought wrong, bucko!
Karaoke in Osaka (despite the title of "Clubbing") - http://picasaweb.google.co.jp/pigon
Baseball! - http://picasaweb.google.co.jp/pigon
Videos!
Singing Chants - http://www.dailymotion.com/kyoushibanza
Releasing Balloons - http://www.dailymotion.com/kyoushibanza
More Chants - http://www.dailymotion.com/kyoushibanza
- Touching my soul:Yoshida Kiyoshi - ~Toki o Kakeru Shojo Soundtrack~ - Daylife
I know that I missed a week back when my family was here, and also last week, but I'm afraid that you're just going to have to wait on some things. Due to the sheer volume of stuff that has happened, I decided that this week would be for letting you know about my family's vacation, and then next week I will catch you up with the 19th-August 2nd. Okay? Sound good? It's a deal.
So here you are, a full account of just what happened on my recent vacation with my family.
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Saturday - The Arrival
On Saturday I got treated to the very rare chance of actually sleeping in, and took it to full advantage, arousing myself from slumber somewhere after 1 PM. Unfortunately, the ride on the train down to the airport is somewhere around 3 hours, I had to set out pretty early. So I had to finish loading up all of my luggage before scooting out of the door.
"But Chad," you might ask, "why would you be packing luggage if you live in Japan?"
The answer would be that it's because I'd decided to stay with my family for the nights that they were here, putting myself in the room right next to theirs. I might be, perhaps, the only person who would think of staying overnight in a hostel that ws only 2 hours from my actual home, but with no space for extra people in my apartment, I was left with very little choice. It's not as though it was bad, though, for we had already made plans to stay at the J-Hoppers . I'd already stayed at the place in Hiroshima twice before that, so I certainly knew something of the quality of service that I'd be getting. Of course, I'd recommend the J-Hoppers chain to just about anybody who was planning to stay out in the Kansai/Chugoku area of Japan. They're all wonderful places in the middle of busy areas. But after we dumped off all of our things at the hostel, I decided to bring my family to the delicious yakiniku place where I'd been earlier, with the super-cheap all-you-can-eat/all-you-can-drink specials. Ended up paying only $90. Now I know what you're thinking...$90 for a buffet of any kind is ridiculous, but trust me, that's dirt cheap here. Afterwards, it was off to bed at the hostel. We had an early day ahead of us.
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SUNDAY - Off to Hiroshima
We awoke well early in the morning for our trek down to Hiroshima, though we were going to be arriving a little later than I had originally planned. With both a schedule in mind and a knowledge of just how lng it would take to get to various places via train or streetcar, I decided to forego our trip to Miyajima sland for a day and instead focus on things that we could do in the heart of the city. That way, we could simply have a bit of relaxation after the long Shinkansen ride over. As fast as those things might be, it can still wear you out by sitting so long in one place for that long a period of time.
Before we could do anything at all, however, we had to get settled in. This would take even more time than I'd originally planned, but it wasn't really a bother. We got to the hostel about 30 minutes before they actually opened up for check-in, which was alright as we got to veg a bit and chat with the people in the lounge while waiting for them. When we could actually check in, we had a nice chat with Tomoko at the front desk. After joking that I should be getting my room for free because it's my 3rd time, she actually gave us all a 10% discount! I was really surprised. I asked what would happen if I stayed another 10 times, and Tomoko joked that I could probably stay at her apartment at that point. After all of that, we finally got settled into our rooms before heading out.
As I mentioned already, we didn't really have the time to go to the big ol' island. So our plans changed instead to visiting my absolute favorite garden (thus far), Shukkeien. I'm apparently shooting for visiting in all seasons, or something. January, April, July. I guess I need to head out in Autumn next time. There were quite a few fish and turtles openly swimming around in the lake since the last time I went, and for some reason there were a ton of crabs everywhere! Red crabs, black crabs, yellow crabs, it was like they showed up at every turn. And since it was a hot day, we needed to settle down in the gardens and sample some of the ice cream.
After that, we sauntered off to Hiroshima Castle, which had already closed up for the day, but since the most beauticious thing about a castle is always the outside, we weren't really disapointed. And there was also Gokoku Shrine, which was incredibly empty compared to the last time I visited way back at New Year's. Here's a comparison for you - now: http://picasaweb.google.com/pigonjinn/1
Mother had been mentioning that she would like try pachinko, and having heard all of the stories about how money can disappear in an instant when playing real pachinko, I decided that we should go for the next best thing, medal game pachinko at the arcade. So off we went and bought a bunch of medals. After a few plays with pachinko, we split off and started playing other things. Showed my brother my favorite arcade game, looked around at all of the gachagacha machines, and then we proceeded to the Peace Park. As it was already well past nightfall, we weren't able to see everything too clearly, but there was, at the very least, the eternal flame and the peace bell. Always very nice.
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MONDAY - The Grand Ol' Island
Waking up relatively early on Monday, we had to check out of the hostel as soon as possible before leaving our stuff with the staff and taking the next streetcar down to the island. It's about an hour's trip all told, so we all had to purchase some snacks at the 7-Eleven first, loading up on sammiches, sushi, and drinks, as well as packing up some extra insect spray (due to some mosquitos that had apparently plagued the rest of my family at Shukkeien). Thetrain ride down was rather interesting due to an old woman who was sitting down near us and absolutely insisted on talking to my family. The only problem is my family knows a rather poor amount of Japanese and the woman really didn't seem to take that into consideration at all. I was sitting a bit far away so I couldn't always hear her to translate, leaving them to simply smile and nod until she ended up getting off.
After arriving at the terminal and jumping on the ferry across to the island, I was surprised to see that the tide had actually receeded. I knew that the shrine was built such that at low tide, one could walk out to the gate, but this was actually the first time I'd been out to the island during that time. Of course, right at the entrance were all the deer looking to get loving attention and maybe some free food from all the visitors. Even the antlered deer were out in droves. Since I told me mum that she would have the opportunity to pet a penguin at the aquarium, we decided to head there first. On our way, bro and I stepped out to the gate itself, and I finally got to experience firsthand just how big it is. I was quite impressed because even from the shore line it looks a bit smaller than it is. Nice work.
Afterwards, some lunch at a place that was serving oysters, a delicacy on the island. I'm not a fan of the oysters, but mum wanted some, and the restaurant had plenty of other great food such as tonkatsu. Then off we went to the aquarium, where we learned that we had just missed out on the sea lion show, but not all bad news, as we were pretty much just in time for the penguin show. We managed to get a nice look around at the rest of the exhibits before it began, then we enjoyed the show, pet some penguins, and explored some more. I had no clue that out back, there was an entire penguin farm, so we sat back and watched that for a bit before heading up to the ropeway.
Since we had all made the decision to purchase the 2-day passes, the ropeway was totally free. Yay! If any of y'all ever go to Hiroshima, make sure you do the same. 2,400 yen is chump change when you consider that the ropeway tickets are 1,800 yen when you purchase round-trip fare. So we got up to the top, enjoyed the view for a little while, along with all the monkeys slacking off and vegging up there. And then it was back down to the shopping areas, where we picked up some goodies, including those delicious manjuu, before hopping back on the ferry to the the mainland. As we still needed to pick up our bags and such at the hostel, and we were slightly behind, we slid ourselves into a taxi and scuttled off. Everyone was tired enough that they went right off to sleep, save for my mother and I.
Upon arrival, we grabbed our things, threw them in the taxi, and proceeded towards Hiroshima station to pick up our Shinkansen. I was aiming for us to arrive back in Osaka in time for us to have an hour's time at check-in, since there were some things we needed to get, such as rental towels. When we arrived at the station, we had very little time to hop aboard the train but, since it was dinner time and we were starving, I decided to make a run for McDonald's. There was a slight problem with our order, but we managed to get everything perfect just in time. When we got on to the platform, we just ran in to the first open doors we could find, and they closed about 20 seconds afterwards. On the way to our seats, we saw that someone else had visited McD's, and had spilled his drink, leaving long trails of sticky soda spilling all the way down the aisle and under the seats. He went through with paper towels, sweeping the liquid with his foot two times before someone decided to call staff. Embarrassing, ne?
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TUESDAY - Let's just relax.
Since we'd already had quite a bit of walking from the island trip, I had planned on Tuesday just being something of a relaxing day. The only real plan I made was for us to head up in to Kyoto in order for us to become changed into ancient Japanese people.
That's right.
There's a service in Kyoto called Studio Shiki, which offers patrons the chance to dress up in old-timey Japanese garb and have their photos taken. It's surprisingly cheap, considering you get a real quality contemporary outfit, accessories, and such all for cheap. 6,500 for the samurai plan, which I, my father, and my brother got, and 9,500 for my mother's plan, a Maiko transformation. For those that have heard of geisha, a maiko is basically an apprentice-level geisha (more commonly known as geiko in Kyoto). Since mother wanted a group shot with all of us together, the guys had to wait for her to get her make-up on, meaning we sat around for an hour simply chatting. Fortunately, they were also playing Pirates of the Caribbean, so we got to watch that for a bit. Interesting to see some of the Japanese translations. Such as "Savvy" as "Wakari? (Understand?)"
After we had waited for a bit, we all got called up. Considering the amount of foreign friends I have whose pictures at this studio I've seen, I figured they'd have the ability to accommodate..shall we say, "larger" size foreigners...pretty well. Unfortunately, that wasn't quite the case. They gave us baskets with what amounted to tights and told us to strip to our skivvies and put 'em on. At least they stretched. A lot. Then the girls came in and wrapped us up in underrobes, kimono, and hakama before bringing mum in. We each took turns getting our photos taken in various poses before heading outside in geta for a group shot. Unfortunately, the rain started just after the first shot, so we had to take the next shot inside. After that, it was pay and scram. A little bit of shopping and off we went to Shiga.
I had told my manager that we would probably be visiting the school on Tuesday, but she seemed to be completely unprepared when all of us showed up at the door. Fortunately, our Tuesdays are relatively free in the afternoons/early evenings, the time I'd planned for us to be there, so we weren't bothering the Japanese teacher or interrupting classes or anything. Gave them the tour of the school and chatted a bit with the staff before heading back to my place. Since my parents had brought along my American copy of Metal Gear Solid 4, my brother and I played for a bit while we just chilled, my mother writing down what we'd done while my father dozed off to sleep. After we were all done, we went to get some dinner and it was once again off to Osaka to rest.
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WEDNESDAY - Osaka with the fishies.
Wednesday was supposed to be another relatively relaxing day, as I really had no plans for us save for going to the aquarium. The reason for that is really because my family had some plans of their own in the evening, so I could only make plans for the afternoon. So zip we go, off to the aquarium, taking a rather small break for lunch once we got close to the place. Rather than going straight in to the aquarium, however, we decided first to hop on to the great big wheel known as the Tempozan Harbor Village Ferris Wheel. While we were speculating at first, it turns out that the wheel really is one of the largest in the world, at about 110 meters diameter. Gives a nice 17 minute ride in which you get to see quite a bit of the city. After that, we explored the neighboring shopping area for a little while, though we passed up the opportunity to see the ninja house. I'll have to go back at some point and check it out.
Finally, we proceeded to the aquarium, where I got to see all the nice little critters that I'd seen on the last visit, including the otters that seemed to be skewered on the trees in their little habitat, tons of tiny crabs (as if I hadn't seen enough of them in Shukkeien), etc. There was, however, a new addition in that they'd thrown in one more whale shark in to the mix. The strange thing about it is that you could see the fish were starting to take loyalties. Tons of fish were swimming in a loop around the older whale shark while the other one was simply swimming all by himself, looking lonely in the corner and going by the windows to say hello to everyone.
Though I have to say the highlight of that visit was going to the cafe and hearing Three 6 Mafia's "I'd Rather" come over the airwaves (WARNING: highly explicit lyrics). Furthermore, it was the completely uncensored version. Just the kind of thing you have to get used to when you live in a country where 80% of the people don't understand the words coming through in their music, and even less than that can understand it at speed.
So my brother had decided he wanted to meet up with some people he knew about in Japan, and we'd heard they were going to be in a specific place in Osaka, so while my parents vegged back at the hostel, me and him went out to meet them. Unfortunately, we couldn't find them, even at the appointed place and time. So, that plan scrapped, we went out for a bit of general exploration before grabbing some dinner and going back to the hostel, where we proceeded to watch a Lupin III movie which had some ridiculous plot about the government creating a secret type of new metal and covering it up by saying they'd actually retrieved the metal from a spacecraft that landed in the desert. Oh hoh, that crazy Lupin.
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THURSDAY - Gion Matsuri
Our big day, and perhaps the day that my parents had planned for the most, was the day when the Gion Matsuri tower parade was held. While the Gion Matsuri is held every July, the parade on the 17th is certainly the high point of the entire occasion. There are some 30 floats that are brought out each year, each one controlled and by one of the wealthy merchant families within the city, and taken care of by the locals. Though the floats are the same each year, their order is decided by drawing lots. The festival itself is held to honor a purification ritual. In the past, plagues and other disasters haunted the villagers, so they were told to honor the god of the Yasaka Shrine. And they;ve been doing it ever since 970.
The parade is usually led by the naginata tower, to represent the blades that were originally used in the purification ritual. There is also a boy adorned with the Golden Phoenix, always the child of one of the merchant families. This was, after all, a way for wealthy merchants to show off just how wealthy they were. In addition, every float comes with ornate tapestries that are regarded as national treasures, and the passengers themselves are usually prominent artists in traditional arts and crafts of Japan. All of the carts are hand-pulled or carried, and can weigh anywhere from 12 to 15 tons, and that's before you add people in it and on it. That's where the dozens of helpers come in, pulling the cart along and also steering it. Since every cart is single axle, steering it means you have to raise one of the front wheels to turn it ever so slightly. And when it comes to corners, they place bamboo rods under the wheel and pull it sideways to the next direction.
After the parade was finished, we had a quick lunch at Bikkuri Donkey (a hamburger restaurant), then split up to do different things. My brother and I first went to Yasaka Shrine, which had something going on but was a bit too crowded to really enjoy anything, so we went back to the Sanjo area in order to get some shopping done. My brother had desired for a long while to get an Engrish shirt, and I figured that'd be the best place to do it. Unfortunately, the only place that had shirts he was interested in didn't have them in his size (which is ridiculous, because he's a twig, but it was also nice to see I wasn't the only one who had trouble finding clothes for once). Then we went to an American classic, Shakey's Pizza, for dinner, and zipped back to Osaka.
Before heading back to the hostel, though, I wanted to take my family one other place that I'd been planning for a little bit. We took a taxi to the Umeda Sky Building. I'd been given the impression thatthe view would look quite a sight better at night and I was not at all disappointed. I even had a nice place to take night shots from, a feature I've barely been able to use with my camera due to the shutter speed being so slow that simply holding it never works out. Once finished at the tower, we proceeded once more to the hostel, where I had to pack up all of my belongings, since I would not be returning the next day with the rest of my family, since I had work on Saturday.
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FRIDAY - Daytrip to Tokyo
As crazy as it sounds, yes, I made plans for a simple daytrip to Tokyo. I was very fortunate that I make pillow plans, for I really had no idea how much time would be consumed by travel and everything. First, we had to hop on the Shinkansen out there, which meant no food, really, as we were leaving pretty darned early. And with a 3-hour train ride, that could make anyone cranky. But my bro and I watched Tengen Toppa as much as we could, until my batteries gave out. Once in Tokyo, we immediately went to purchase our tickets for the train back home, as I figured they would probably be very crowded. Friday night means all the people who live in Tokyo would be looking for an excuse to travel, after all. Sure enough, when we got there, we were told there were no reserved seats left for the last train that was covered by the JR Rail Pass. The last train with reserved seats would've been a little past 5PM. Ridiculous, since it was almost 1 by this point. So we got the non-reserved seats. Putting up my luggage was no easy task, either, as all of the coin lockers had been taken. Fortunately I was able to leave my stuf in the cloakroom. I'd been anxious about it, having seen some guys with bags about the same size as mine be rejected, but I got through with no problems.
While I can navigate my way around the Osaka subway pretty well by this point, Tokyo's Metro Line had me completely confounded. I had planned first to go and see Meiji Jingu, but it was raining that day so I decided we would instead go to my father's desired destination first, the Kodokan, headquarters of the judo world. Even getting there was a bit of a challenge. Got lost at one point, came out the wrong end of a station, and found a Subway, so we munched lunch, sitting next to some girls who were busy studying verb conjugations in Japanese (foreigners). Then we took another stab at the subways, and wound up at Kourakuen, coming out immediately upon the Tokyo Dome, a rather impressive site. After some walking, we wound up at the Kodokan and went up to the observation deck, to find that nothing was happening. I went back down to the gift shop to ask if anything was planned for that day, turned out we were 90 minutes early for the show.
Deciding that they were a bit tired the folks chose to stay in the dojo area while my brother and I explored. First, I veered us toward Kourakuen Hall, a place I wanted to see because it's the place where most of the boxing matches in Hajime no Ippo are held. Got lost, and we actually ended up strolling through a park we randomly encountered. After that, we did eventually make it to the Hall, and I even took a picture of the stairs where main character and his rival part ways. Such a fanboy. Anyway, I wanted to get to Meiji Jingu, but wasn't confident about navigating the metro system in limited time, so instead I opted for a taxi, having mistakenly thought that the shrine was at least somewhat close to the Kodokan. Wrong. That was a $25 mistake. Unfortunatel, by the time we got there, I found that we had only about 15 minutes to explore before needing to return. Feeling that's not enough time to devote to shrinage, I instead opted to show my brother the wonders of nearby Harajuku for a little bit before we hopped in a taxi back to the dojo. There, we watched the various groups practce fora bit before nabbing dinner at the nearby theme park. They had some kind of Johnny Cash loop on their in-house speakers, which was a bit odd. My father amused some small children by singing "Ghost Riders in the Sky," to which they started clapping and cheering, due to his karaoke skills.
Had a bit of a mix-up getting back on the trains, though. Since I had to get my bags, I let my parents and bro go on ahead of me to the Shinkansen tracks, telling them to find the Hikari platform. Unfortunately, as I was in a different part of Tokyo station on our return, I had no clue where to find my bags, and wandered around for 15 minutes before finding something that looked familiar. With bags in tow, I went back up to the Shinkansen tracks, and only then noticed just how complicated the layout of the station was. I could only hope that everyone had made it to the platform. That was when I saw on the signboard that there were 2 Hikaris, and they were on seperate platfoms. Hoping against hope once more, I hopped up to the correct platform, ridicupacked with people going off to various locales, and gaijin-shoved my way through the entire landing, not finding them. Sigh. Down I went, and up to the other platform, where my bro found me. So I got to the family and informed them they were in the wrong place, as the train they were in line for was leaving in 10 minutes and they were at the end of a line turned in on itself 3 times. The platform we wanted was crowded, but once the Nozomi came by, most people got on that and we were left at the fore. Sure, we had to wait 30 minutes for our train, but we got first dibs on the seats, so no complaining.
On the way back, we chatted, played Nintendo DS, mum wrote events down, dad slept, I explained procedures both for getting to the hostel and for getting to the airport the next day, and when it came time, we parted ways at Kyoto, where I would take another train back to my place and my parents would continue on to Shin-Osaka. Tired as I was, I collapsed almost immediately after returning, though I did stay up long enough to get online and wait for a G-Mail message that the fam had gotten to the hostel alright. Then it was off to sleep so I could get up bright and early for the workday ahead.
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And there you have it, the exploits of the O'Brien family over the course of 10,080 minutes. Hope you enjoyed this presentation, and remember that, as always, this was funded through the kind generosity of Viewers Like You.
As always, here are the photos:
Sunday - Hiroshima City: http://picasaweb.google.com/pigonjinn/1
Monday - Miyajima Island: http://picasaweb.google.com/pigonjinn/1
Tuesday - Samurai/Maiko Transformation: http://picasaweb.google.com/pigonjinn/1
Wednesday - Osaka Aquarium: http://picasaweb.google.com/pigonjinn/1
Thursday - Festval Parade and Umeda Sky Building: http://picasaweb.google.com/pigonjinn/1
Friday: Tokyo Day Trip: http://picasaweb.google.com/pigonjinn/1
And some videos:
Cart-pullers turning one of the single-axle carts in the Gion festival parade: http://www.dailymotion.com/kyoushibanza
A view of Osaka at night, from the Umeda Sky Building: http://www.dailymotion.com/kyoushibanza
I'll see you next week with more updates, including things such as baseball and clubbing!
- Touching my soul:Blackmore's Night - Windmills
However, on a number of occasions, I see people complaining that GEOS is out to make money from students, as if it's some kind of heartless company for doing so. But that's just a ridiculous notion. After all, while I am certainly doing my best to make sure that our school has money coming in, I'm still a face for the company, so I also have the task (as well as the desire) to make sure my students are getting an education that's worth the yen the put into it. I've recommended GEOS to several of my friends who are looking for a way to get into Japan without paying for it, and I'll continue to do so. But I want everyone to realize that my job is as an employee of an international corporation. If making money and selling a product is something to be considered evil, then please do not apply. You'll only burn yourself out, and that's not good for you or the students.
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Had a bit of a heat wave at the school recently. Came in as usual on Friday morning and flipped on all the elctronic equipment. Prepped for classes, logged in the system. About an hour in, I noticed I wasn't feeling cool at all, and was actually sweating. Even in summer, our office is kept nice and cool, so it was not usual. Get up, go and check on the thermostats. 28 Celsius (82.4 Fahrenheit). This is up from the starting 26 (78.8). I figured that the air conditioners were just being clunky and hadn't fully kicked in yet. Just to make sure they were trying their hardest, I set them all at the lowest temperature setting (19 C - 66.2 F), planning to raise it back up once we had some results.
But the results weren't exactly what we hoped for. By the time my first class started, it was up at 30 (86), and when that class ended, the stats were saying 31 (87.8)! So, I discussed the problem with the manager, who said that a repairman had been there earlier in the week and had been unable to fix the main unit because he needed to order a part and it would've taken about a week. However, with climbing temperatures, we couldn't really stand it.
Our manager decided to go and speak with the building manager about the situation and we were thankfully able to come up with a solution. Our school is right next to a big room that is currently not being used by any business, so the building manager was kind enough to let us borrow it until the problem is fixed. All we had to do was transport some of our necessities like whiteboards, books, CD Players, etc. Tables and chairs were already available. The only problem was that, while a huge room, it didn't have any sort of dividing walls, so basically my coworker and I picked a corner and stayed there.
Unfortunately, there were some casualties in all of this. My manager, since she has to be able to answer the phone, write e-mails, send faxes, and generally do all kinds of office work, had to stay in the office. Must have been hell, as during the height of the heat, our school was a crisp 35 C (95 F). In addition, another teacher comes to our school every Saturday to teach some kids as part of a separate GEOS program, and we had no place to put her in the big room, as her classes involve running around and screaming a lot. Kind of a distraction for most adult students. So she ended up teaching there on Saturday when, again, the temps climbed to 35.
I was told that a repairman would be coming either today or tomorrow, so we'll just have to hope for the best, eh?
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Been catching up on quite a few videos I've been meaning to see for quite some time. It started with watching relatively recent releases such as "Iron Man," "The Incredible Hulk," and "Kung Fu Panda." But then I decided that there have been many many movies in the past that I've had an interest in, but haven't checked out yet. So, the first one I saw was "The Green Mile," which I'll admit I never knew was a science fiction film. I simply thought it was another Steven King prison drama. I was quite impressed, though, but then I always have loved Michael Clarke Duncan and Tom Hanks. And David Morse ain't a bad addition, either. After that, it was "Remember the Titans," since my manager has told me on a couple of occasions that it's one of her favorite movies. Both of us love human drama stories, so I figured it'd be a good flick, and I certainly wasn't disappointed.
Sunday I had a horror marathon, beginning with both of the new "The Hills Have Eyes." The first one actually did get me on a couple of occasions but the second one was a big let-down. I've never really been a big fan of the "roughneck-military-types-versus-big-sca
The next day, it was international horror day. I began by watching "The Descent," which was bloody brilliant (have to use British expressions to describe British films, yeh?) up until the last third, when one character was treated brutally for no reason other than she made a mistake and kept quiet about it. And didn't seem to mind. Umm...? Then for some Asian horror, I watched "Forbidden Siren," and "Shutter (The Original)," both of which were wonderful and disturbingly creepy, just as one expects from the Asian horror genre. No reliance on the flash-in-the-pan fright moments you get with most horror in the West.
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And that's it for the week! Sorry, but there was absolutely nothing picture-worthy this time around. But next week my parents will be coming to check up on me in Japan, so I might not be able to write a journal entry. This is just a heads-up!
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Something I forgot to mention in the recent journals is that I've taken up a new position within the company. This has nothing to do with my promotion or anything, but I chose to take up the mantle of GIEA Coordinator for our area. GIEA, in case I haven't explained it before, is an acronym for GEOS International Exchange Association (on a side note, an acronym within an acronym always amuses me). Basically, we work together with them in order to help people achieve their goals of going abroad. They offer all kinds of special programs, not just homestays, but things like dancing class, farm stays, and various interesting activities in many different countries.
So, as I've said, I've become the GIEA coordinator for the area. The job is a rather simple one. I call other schools in the area and make sure they're aware of the counseling sessions being offered in their schools, as well as helping them get students interested in traveling abroad. I've found it a pretty nice job thus far, as it gives me the opportunity to speak with teachers around the area who I don't get to meet very often. There's no pay, but I guess it works as a resume padder. Official Overseas Liaison or something :P
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Once again I got the opportunity to head down to Osaka in order to attend a training meeting for the Big Jump program. Fun stuff! I have honestly always been glad to be able to get out of the school for a day in order to do something a little different from the usual. Even though I love all the teaching I get to do, it's always good to get a change every now and then.
So, training mostly consisted of us giving various reports such as how our schools did in the last business month, and also our descriptions of how our schools appeared when we looked at them as if we were a brand-new visitor. Some of the stuff was repeated in every report, but I did find it interesting to hear about some of the different set-ups in the schools, such as English videos playing, or getting various ideas for new displays and posters.
After that was finished, we ended up discussing learning cycles, how a student generally moves from not knowing that they are ignorant of something to eventually becoming unaware of just how much they know. We then talked about different learning types and compared them to characters from the original Star Trek series. Turns out that I was most like Dr. McCoy, better known as Bones. Too bad, as I was so hoping that I would wind up as Scotty.
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I got 2 new experiences on Friday, as well, one of them good and one of them bad. After returning from the training, I talked my manager into showing me what yakitori is like, considering I hadn't partekn of that particular "yaki"-style restaurant before. I actually thought that it would be a lot like yakiniku, but I had no clue how wrong I was. In fact, you don't do the cooking yourself. You order skewers of meat from a menu at a price of something like 100-200 yen per. We ended up ordering pretty much one of everything so I could find out what I liked and didn't like. We ended up taying there until closing.
After escorting her back to the train station, I slipped back home, and found that I was missing something quite important. That being? My keycard. I still have absolutely no clue of where it might be, but at the time, I ended up searching all my pockets, both my wallets, inside my umbrella, everything. No luck. First, I phoned my manager, hoping she could help me out. No answer. So I called the toll-free number for the building, and thankfully they're 24-hour. I had to explain that my Japanese was probably horrible, but I managed to explain the situation, and was told to wait for a phone call. When it came, the man said I'd have to wait until 0140 (at this time, it was 1230).
So, I decided that I wouldn't just wait at the apartment and I scooted off down the street in a random direction, where I soon found a sign indicating that a grave was nearby. being the lover of horror stories that I am, I couldn't pass up an opportunity to visit a grave in the middle of the night. I made sure to take plenty of photos, as well. When I returned home, the man came 10 minutes later and wound up spending half an hour unlocking the door due to various mistakes. Oy. As soon as it was open, I popped in, thanked the man, and scooted off to bed.
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This Saturday, we actually had one of those GIEA counseling sessions of our own here in Katata. I had been looking forward to talking to the counselor, Mio, for quite a long time, since it'd been a while since we last met. Unfortunately, I wound up oversleeping. My first class on Saturdays is at noon, and I'm usually at the school around 10 or 10:15, but on this particular morning, I wound receiving a call at about 11:30. I woke up wondering why my alarm tone had changed, but when I checked the time, I immediately leaped out of bed and took a super-quick shower and shave before tossing some clothes on and zipping out to school. Managed to make it 5 minutes ahead of time!
Since I teach 6 classes back-to-back before I finally get a break on Saturdays, and due to her having a session with one of my students during the day's only break, I was unfortunatly unable to chat with the counselor for a long time. However, we decided to go out together to the Yamashina bar, where we enjoyed a number of kebabs, cheese, tandoori chicken, and, of course, beer. Might be doing the same thing again next week, but I don't know any plans just yet.
The rest of the weekend was quite relaxing. On Sunday, I met up with my manager in order to generally hang out, and we ended up playing Nintendo DS together (for some reason, I bought Trauma Center: Under the Knife several months ago but I'd never really decided to play it, so we played together). Also, after discussing our mutual interest in human drama, in all of its media forms, I decided to show her "Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo," a film which affected both of us just as strongly (we both were cryng). Afterwards, it was off to dinner at the local steak place before we went separate ways.
Monday? Nothing. Shopping, sleeping, and anime. Also, I decided to do a documentary marathon. Watched An Inconvenient Truth, Bowling for Columbine, and Sicko.
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Also, being a soccer fan, I absolutely couldn't pass up the final match of the 2008 Euro Cup, even if it meant that I would be staying up practically all night (hence why I put sleeping as part of my Monday activities). I gotta say that i was a little let-down by the match. It was spectcaular offense and defense for both sides, which is why I say I'm upset that the only goal scored was a lucky one from Torres. I can't watch the video of the winning goal and say that it was a well-executed play. Ah well, maybe next time.
And no, I'm not saying Germany was the team that should have won. I'm saying I would have liked to see a more definitive shot. Spain's offense was clearly leading the game and I do feel that they more than deserved their win, but wouldn't it have been a little better if it didn't come the way it did?
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And so, that's all we have for the week. See you all next time!
Here're the photos from the grave: http://picasaweb.google.co.jp/pigon
- Touching my soul:E-Type - Campione 2000
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Don't listen to that guy. He dunno what he's talking about. So here I am to give you the real skinny. The week was relatively uneventful, save for the fact that I went three times to places with the word "yaki" in their description, so I'm well and satisfied for the next few weeks or so, I think.
After discussing the events of last weekend with one of my students, he told me that he, too, had gone to yakiniku, but it was in no way super cheap. However, he was laughing because he said he had no clue how much it had cost, since it was his parents who paid for it and not he. But since we both chatted about yakiniku for about 10 minutes, I had a hankering for cooked meat, as did my co-worker. So that night we headed out for some cheap place and spent a few hours discussing our various tastes in music, movies, and sports while grillin' up some food.
Funny thing was seeing his reaction to his Caesar salad. Though I'm often picked on for being averse to most vegetables, I was surprised when I saw his absolutely horrified expression while looking at his salad. Inquiring as to what was the matter, he explained that he absolutely hates cucumbers, and apparently they put cucumbers in this Caesar. Not a big deal, just pick them out, I say. He replies that the taste will still be there, at which point I laugh because this is the exact same conversation we had about onions in my Gyuudon, except in reverse.
Later that week, my manager was also expressing a desire to go out and have yakiniku. So I told her we could go on Saturday. However, she wanted to drink cheap beer at the same time, and the cheap yakiniku place may have cheap food, but the beers are nearly 500 a pop. So we decided to do both...yakiniku on Friday, beer on Saturday. My co-worker came along, as well, and we again talked about movies, music, but also relationships, video games, and much more. In the end, we decided we should try and have yakiniku every week, just to relieve some pressure from the job.
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The Chad-kebab has claimed another victim. The foreign bartender at Raju's returned after a long stint away from home, and I told him about the challenge. Extremely confident that he could handle any sort of spice, he said that he'd wolf the thing down in 2 minutes, instead of 10, if I doubled the reward. So I handed him the kebab I'd just ordered, he took a bite...waited..and then handed it back: "F**k that s**t. Where's my drink? That stuff can't be healthy for you!"
We still haven't seen the girl who managed to actually complete the task, though. Wondering if it got her in the end.
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I was invited by a teacher at the Moriyama school to join her and a few students for an Okonomiyaki party on Sunday, instead of having our usual walk. I was all for it, considering my only other plans were to sit around in my house and be bored for a few hours between sleep and chores.
So I ended up meeting with 5 other people at the station and we drove off to the okonomiyaki place. One thing that's always impressed me about the Japanese business world is that it's still in an innocent phase where there aren't huge chains every 6 feet. While McDonald's, KFC, Starbucks, and several other restaurants have a strong foothold here, I find that you actually have to know about where they are in order to reach them. Mom and Pop restraurants and shops are actually far more common here than in the States and it makes me pleased to see the pride of ownership is still strong somewhere in the world.
The food was quite good, though I didn't eat everything. Can't pay me enough to willingly eat shrimp, but because I got pretty full off of a drink bar they had, anyway, there was really no problem. And mmmm, cheesy okonomiyaki. Also, yakisoba and plenty of pork. We even got to have ice cream at the end. I used my Rutgers cafeteria worker skills to make a 4-storied ice cream tower. And it was cheap, too! Drink bar + yakisoba + 4 orders of pork + 2 orders of gyoza + 4 okonomiyaki + various other things we ordered = $120, $20 per person. and of course, we all had a good time conversing, in both Japanese and English. It's gatherings like that, though, that remind me just how far I have to go in my Japanese study. While I can catch subjects and a line here or there, I was lost at many points as to what, exactly, was being discussed, especially when they were joking around. Oy!
After stuffing ourselves, I had figured the party would be over, but I was mistaken, as we decided instead to head over to Act and get some bowling in, since for some reason, we had been discussing bowling earlier. I ended up learning just how far I'd fallen since I last bowled. When I was in a league, my average was up at 170, but in my first game I barely cleared 100. It was fun, though. Our team ended up losing, and so we had to purchase drinks for the others. We came back, though, in the second game, and ended up having a higher overall score, by 1 pin: 682 - 681. In that game, I ended up pulling in a respectable 137. Need some more practice!
We all loaded up in the cars again and zipped off to the station briefly, to visit a convenience store. I figured people were just purchasing a snack. However, when I made my selection, one of the girls snatched it from my hands and took it up to the counter and paid for it. I'd completely forgotten that the winning team got their drinks paid for! I had been a bit curious as to why she was following me around the convenience store...just never clicked with me. Having paid various debts, we parted ways, and I was fortunate to get a ride home with one of the students, as she apparently lives on my side of the lake, but goes to school in Moriyama because that's where she works.
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One thing I'm a little excited about is an ongoing building project going on near my apartment. Seems they're building an entertainment complex as part of the ACT chain. ACT is the place I went bowling in Moriyama, so I'd love to have some bowling close by, especially as it seems to be really popular with Japanese people. Plus, they have game centers, as well, so I'll have yet another arcade to explore. I had heard that there would be movies, as well, but I'm skeptical about that, as it seems for the information I've received from students that ACT is pretty much just bowling, games, and pachinko. However, given that there are three absolutely huge pachinko parlors less than a minute from where ACT is planning to be, I guess it's possible they might minimize the pachinko side and offer something no one else here has. I'd certainly love to have a theatre close by.
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And that's all we have for the week. Before I go, here's an interesting video I received in an e-mail from my mother. Seems that there are scientists out there who are making bad things like sinking ships into good things like research tools. Check it out!
FLIP Ship: http://videos.komando.com/2008/06/20/fl
And here's your photos of the weekend. Not much, but hey:
http://picasaweb.google.co.jp/pigon
- Touching my soul:nobodyknows+ - Hero's Come Back!!(sic)
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Though summer is less than a week away here, there is already a lot of heat and humidity flooding the area and causing me a whole lot of grief, since I am one who tends to sweat rather easily (not just due to the weight, either). Last year I arrived around the end of August, so I experienced only the end of the hot season. Even that was unbearable. Really not looking forward to what happens when summer comes about in full swing. And with Kyoto being known as one of the most humid places in Japan....
Oh well.
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I had a disappointing experience recently when I purchased a game at the local store. As I'm sure some of you may well know, I've been waiting to purchase Metal Gear Solid 4 for quite some time. It's definitely the main reason that I bought a Playsation 3 to begin with, yeah?
So, I made my reservation for the game about 2 months ago, looking forward to getting it in early June. And as it came out on the 12th, I was very happy when I picked it up. Interestingly, the clerk at the store knew immediately who I was, asking "Are you Chad-san?" in perfect English. I guess I shouldn't be so surprised. Probably the only gaijin in the area who frequents that store for PS3 games, though I dunno.
So I brought my lovely prize back to the apartment, carefully unwrapped it, palmed through the various goodies included in the special edition, and shoved the disc into the system.
Then I saw that the install system was all in Japanese. Not that big of a surprise, as it occasionally happens with games here. Sometimes I have to change the language settings in the game itself in order to get English.
No such luck. The language option simply didn't exist. here's where I was finally surprised. After all, MGS4 is an international release (the game is released worldwide at the same time). Usually this means there's both an English language and Japanese language track, and the game detects the settings of your console to determine what it should use. But there was no English at all. Checking online, I found out why: No English subtitles on the Japanese version, and no Japanese voices on the English version. Even though it's an international release, they'd made localized versions! Agh!
So I decided to test my luck by putting myself through a trial of fire and playing the game in Japanese. Unfortunately, I understand about 15% and that's being generous. While I can understand some games in Japanese, this one focuses on scientific, military, medical, and technological lingo that i simply don't have knowledge of. Moreover, Metal Gear Solid's plotlines are well known for being convoluted and difficult to understand even in English, so I decided there's no way I can complete it in Japanese.
Fortunately, I've put a request through to my parents for a copy of the American version. Thank goodness the PS3 is region-free!
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I'm amused that in my attempt to get my manager addicted to Monster, I've also ensnared myself back into the nitty-gritty story of Tenma, although I have to say that my major fascination has always been for the supporting characters like Grimmer, Lunge, and Roberto. Even now when I rewatch the episodes, I always get a chill whenever I know Roberto is about to show up.
However, those expecting a report on just how scared my manager was to have played Fatal Fram are going to have to live with a small bit of disappointment, as she was apparently unable to play the game on her system, even though she says she has both an American and a Japanese PS2. Apparently her American PS2 doesn't have a converter on the power cord (something I find highly unlikely, but not impossible), and so she can't get the accurate power level to get the thing working. Ah well. I've invited her over to my place so that she can play here. Maybe by next week we'll have something?
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Had a fun time this weekend with a former student of mine. She'll soon be heading out of the country for a whirlwind tour of Europe and decided that when she returns, she might be changing locations to Kyushu or Okinawa. Because of that, she wanted to meet in case she didn't have time after returning from her vacation. So I met her and we decided to get some sightseeing done. First, it was a trip to the Umeda Sky Building, which I just discovered is the seventh-tallest building in Osaka, not the tallest. It goes all the way up to 173 meters and offers a fantastic 360-degree panorama of the city from the rooftop.
After finishing up with the tower, we went on quite a trip involving three different transfers, in order to get to Sumiyoshi Taisha, one of the oldest Shinto shrines in Japan. Like the Wikipedia article says, the architecture is really quite different from what I'm used to seeing at the other shrines in the area. I was definitely intrigued.
Once done with that, we decided that it was time for some dinner, and so we met up with another GEOS teacher who lives in the area, and we headed out for some super-cheap Yakiniku. They had an all-you-can-eat-and-drink special for something like 3,000 yen for 90 minutes. Not bad at all. And we proceeded to a small izakaya afterwards for more drinking and chatting before I headed back home. Always glad to visit Osaka, but I definitely think that it would be difficult for me to live there, considering I am just not a big fan of crowded places like some people may be.
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I'd just like to take a moment here to discuss something that's kind of been bothering me. I've noticed quite a lot of people in the online video world posting videos discussing their claims of sexism in the online media and how it's unfair that Hilary Clinton lost the democratic nomination..so unfair that the only choice left for the American voter who once supported her is to vote for John McCain in the general election, in order to somehow prove a point that their vote should have had more pull in the first place. Let me show you what I mean:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMs-KKtS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KACQuZVA
This line of thinking is just plain disgusting. First of all, if Hilary's portrayal could be described as being sexist, then Obama's could just as easily be called racist. The media certainly made some comments that were out of line, such as comparing Hilary with the stereotypical image of the "nagging wife," but they also made comments about Obama, such as when he was bowling for a campaign promotion and the media commented that he should stick to playing basketball, or Clinton's comparison of Obama's victories in South Carolina to those of Jesse Jackson in previous years.
Even beyond that, to make a decision to vote for someone whose views are dramatically opposed to the person you initially supported, simply because they lost, is just ridiculous. Obama and Clinton had similar platforms, and though their political experiences may be different, I don't believe it justifies the change of opinion. Of course, if people honestly believe that the top candidates were Clinton, McCain, and Obama, in that order, then fine, let them vote for McCain, but I'd hate to see him win from spite alone.
If you wanna vote McCain, Obama, Barr, Nader, or Jonathon Sharkey, you're more than welcome. Just don't do it without reason.
Anyway, that's all I have to say.
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So there you have it! Hope you enjoyed this week's edition. I've posted some new pictures so that you can enjoy the sights as well. Plus, there's a video taken from the top of the Umeda Sky Building.
Umeda Sky Panorama: http://www.dailymotion.com/kyoushibanza
The day's events: http://picasaweb.google.co.jp/pigon
Well guess what? Thanks to the rainy season in Japan, I have nowhere to go as the downpour outside continues to continue. And so, in light of that, you shall be treated once more to the continuing continuation of the continuity of Chad O'Brien. Shall we get stated, then?
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I'm sorry to say that there isn't much to say about this week, but rather than struggle to come up with interesting ways to spin things, I figured I'd just push what I did and let you be the judge.
Last weekend, I ended up dragging my new manager down to the same bar I usually go to in order to relax and generally get acclimated to the area she now lives in. Good times to be had by all, of course. I do think I'll have to start bringing more people down there, as that seems to be my newest trend. And of course the night would not be complete without me being able to munch down a few of my specially prepared Chad-kebabs, as well.
My manager, being a self-proclaimed master of spicy foods, decided that she, too, would have to try and challenge one of the kebabs. This prompted a chain of people wishing to attempt the challenge, and so 5 people put their hats into the ring. However, with so much at stake ($20 worth of meat and a lot of pride), I didn't want to let them all go down easily. So I let everyone interested try a piece of the meat in my own kebab, and that quickly removed all competitors from the game. My manager commented that she wouldn't be able to come into work the following Tuesday because she was in so much pain. Of course, she did herself absolutely no favors when she decided to try another piece an hour later, something she would forget.
There was recently, however, one person who managed to take on all of the kebab on her lonesome. This weekend I retreated once more to that safe kebab heaven, and there one lady who said she absolutely loved spicy food was invited to challenge the Chad-kebab, especially after I offered 1000 yen if she could do it. And she actually did it, though it took her about half an hour of biting and healing! So there is now one more person capable of doing it. Hoozah.
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Not much in terms of school news, though I am happier than ever to have the manager we currently have. I think it's absolutely great that she shares quite a lot of my interests. I've even managed to get her hooked on a couple of things. For example, after some discussion of the comics I got from my various care packages, in which my manager expressed utter surprise that American comics are all in color, we started talking about manga and our mutual love of the Big 3 in Shonen Jump (Bleach, One Piece, Naruto), I mentioned Monster to her. A brief summary of the plot got her interested and when I brought in the comics, she finished the first two volumes in two successive evenings. She's absolutely hooked!
We've also been talking a lot about our love of different video games (finally, someone else who plays the Tales Of series!) before discussing our favorite genres. Of course, I had to say that I absolutely love my various horror games, and that got us into a conversation about different kinds, such as Biohazard (Resident Evil) and my personal favorites, Silent Hill and Fatal Frame. I ended up describing Haunting Ground, the concept of which freaked her out, as she said she doesn't like games where you can't kill your threats, nor does she like being chased all over. However, she has decided to challenge Fatal Frame, so we'll have to see how that plays out. Sadly, she decided she'd be playing with lights on. Ah well.
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That's as far as my news of the week goes, but I thought that this is my 42nd week, I've made an album collecting my favorite photos from the past 42 weeks here. So here you are:
http://picasaweb.google.co.jp/pigon
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And..uh..that's all? Sorry! But hey, here's a video showing one of my favorite songs, "Hope, Vol. 2" by Apocalyptica (I wouldn't watch this at work, though). The clips in the video come from the movie Vidocq, about Jean Valjean..er..uh..Eugene Francois Vidocq, and his pursuit of a criminal named "The Alchemist," who steals souls and assassinates people with lightning. Not exactly your typical French criminal. While the overall plot lacks a little certain something, and the acting is a bit forced at times, the visuals are absolutely stunning. This is, after all, the first major film shot entirely on digital film. And the song is just great. Cello rock, while not my favorite genre, is certainly very high on the list, probably because I was a cellist in a past life.
And that's all you'll get out of me. But for continuing coverage of this continual continuum, stay tuned next week, when something may happen!
- Touching my soul:Apocalyptica - Hope, Vol. 2
So a change was in order. From now on, I'll be (attempting) to do these journal entries over the weekend. Although one must keep in mind that my weekend is Sunday and Monday. Of course, with the difference in time, that means most people reading this will have it on Saturday and Sunday. So there you have it!
Now, on with the show!
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Before we head to the main events, however, I'd just like to say that I'm highly disappointed that Gmail ads decided to give me this after my last journal entry:
http://www.taylorshoes.com/p-262-kids-b
Crocs are bad enough, but Batman crocs just hurt.
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So last weekend was actually rather nice, weather wise. We've just entered the beginning phases of the rainy season in Japan if Saturday evening was supposed to be a sample of what was to come, then we're in for a whole lot of trouble. The downpour was so much that simply in a 10 minute walk home, my pants were soaked from the knees down, and my arms were dripping (umbrellas here don't generally come in gaijin-size). Of course, I fared quite a bit better than my companion, whose umbrella was only working sporadically. He ended up with his face being the only thing dry by the end of the evening.
However, aside from that, it was actually a rather nice weekend for simply enjoying the days outside. So on Sunday I decided to have another of my walks over to the next city, various sightseeing, etc.
Monday I zipped off to Omihachiman on the other side of the lake to join up with Emiko and Hiroko, two fellow teachers in the company. First we met up at the station and proceeded to chow down on some ramen at a nearby establishment before continuing with the main activities. While I thought our plan would be to simply walk around a bit, or perhaps add some shopping to the schedule, but instead we ended up taking a trek to the top of Hachiman mountain. This change in plans was not at all unwelcome, although I was unfortunately not able to take any pictures due to the fact that I wasn't prepared enough to have brought my camera.
As we approached the entrance to the mountain's climbing areas, we were accosted by a group of survey-takers. Emiko and Hiroko pawned them on me, for laughs. Fortunately, the questions were rather easy, save for the last one, where they asked me what I would like to see in Hachiman. Considering the city is much bigger than Katata, I couldn't really think an answer, so I just asked for more ramen shops. We all got a big laugh from when the girls acted with absolute shock when they heard I was from America. Especially when the next question was "How did you get here?"
One interesting thing that I liked about climbing up the mountain is that I got to see a number of interesting species of bugs, including a couple of centipedes and one super-fuzzy caterpillar. This led into a 30-minute discussion about bugs, all in Japanese, while looking at the view from the top of the mountain. Interesting conversation topic, I know. I was actually kind of surprised that Hachiman mountain was not nearly as difficult a climb as it appeared. But the bird's-eye view of the city really does make it a nice place.
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Aside from that, not much has been going on in the life of this young Irish lad. I did, however, get a nice surprise recently when a couple of belated birhday gifts came through the mail to my school. One of them contained several comic books from the States, including such big name titles as Batman, Green Lantern, Iron Man, and others. I now officially have too many comic books at my school to be displayed at one time. So we're setting up a rotation system, and also letting students check comic books out to read at home. It's great because it gives my students something interesting to read, usually at a level that's not extremely high, save for the plethora of idioms and flowery language that appears rather often. Other items included a nice fancy new shirt, some beef jerky, a can of (UH-OH!!!) Spaghetti-o's, and fresh new memory cards for the camera, along with a flash drive/card reader so I can use computers anywhere.
That's not all, however. I also got quite a large number of video games that I'd been greatly looking forward to, including Xenosaga II and III, Castlevania: Lament of Innocence, and others. With Metal Gear Solid 4 coming out in a matter of days, I think I may have my days comsumed by gaming for quite some time. On that matter, I treated myself to another birthday present, in that I used the funds from my raise to help me in purchasing a brand new Nintendo DS, and I only just realized that in my choice of color schemes, I am inadvertently (though not with regret) showing pride in my university colors. That aside, I've assigned the name "Sarge" to my new baby, and hopefully he'll live up and fill the shoes that "Void" left behind.
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Last week I mentioned that I've been having somewhat of a superhero obsession as of late, and it's even begun to stick in my imagination. During one of my silence-induced totally random thought sessions, I managed to come up with an idea which would never under any circumstances work as a story idea but just kind of piqued my imagination a bit. The basic idea is a collection of one-shot stories about superheroes (or villains, I'm not picky), who all have names that are intentionally misleading. However, the problem is that the stories would be forced to work off word play, which is difficult to do in a text-based medium.
For example:
A former construction worker by the name of Samuel Teal. One day while working on an addition to a nuclear facility, an especially stong earthquake strikes the area, causing the reactor to melt down due to some damage in the containment. While evacuating the consturction site, an aftershock hits and causes Teel to lose his footing. The other workers plan to go after him, but the afteshock also brings down a couple of girders crashing down in the same place as Teel, forcing his co-workers to leave him buried. What they didn't know was that he was still alive, though just barely. When the reactor exploded, the intense heat melted the steel girders over Teal's body. The radiation causes a strange transformation, however, as Teel survives even this change, the metal bonding with his skin. He gains increased strength, incredible durability. But the most intriguing gift granted to him? The ability to shoot girders (specifically, I-Beams) from his hands. Hence, the superhero "I-Beam" is born, though most people assume it's supposed to be "Eye Beam" and he just shoots lasers from his eyes...and has a really lame superhero name.
My other ideas thus far?
-A character everyone thinks is named "Peace" because they don't like to fight but is actually named "Piece" for their ability to segment their body and those of other people.
-Someone named "Cannibal" but who actually has access to special capsule technology that allows them to trap large creatures and objects in hand-sized containers. Real hero name: "Can of Bull," due to a bull being the first successful test subject for the containers.
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Last item of the evening, a discussion about intelligence. I recently read this article: http://www.newsweek.com/id/138536.
I was quite happy to see an article in mainstream media that actually sicks up for the common man. There are far too many reports in both video and print that mentions just how stupid kids are today, and while I'm inclined to agree with the falling test scores proving that our education system is seriously lacking, I've also been well aware of the rising IQ scores in our nation, and I feel it's been something that's overlooked by too many.
To be perfectly honest, I would only have guessed that Lake Superior was the largest lake in the U.S. because it's called Superior, and I had no clue as to what the oratorio "Messiah" even was, though I knew Handel wrote the "Hallelujah chorus" section of it. Just didn't know the name of the full piece. Kind of like how it took me a long time to learn that the Lone Ranger's theme song was actually part of a bigger piece, and the musical setting for "Ode to Joy" came from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.
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But that's all I've got on tap for the evening. We should do this again sometime. Maybe I'll see you next week, but you're buying the drinks, yeah? Catch you later!
Technically, since this is Sunday, I guess I'm a bit late on this one. But not much has been happening lately, so I kinda needed that extra time to let some extra activities crop up. Certainly hope you don't mind, but, hey, this is my journal, and I'll run it the way I want to.
Also, I'd like to take a moment to thank everyone who has sent me some kind of birthday thingamajig, be it an e-mail, present, first-born child, what have you.
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Last weekend, I managed to get an Indian man upset with me after I kind of insulted his cooking. At the usual bar I go to on Saturdays, I'm accustomed to getting some really tasty kebabs, but I mentioned that it would be nice if they were spicier. This made the cook raise a few eyebrows, so he made one with quite a bit more spicy sauce than is the norm.
Unfortunately, this one, too, was not really up to snuff, and I made that known. So, the owner of the bar went behind the counter to talk with the cook, and after whispering for awhile (which I didn't see a need for, as they were whispering in Hindi), they seemed to have formulated a game plan. Apparently, the plan was to marinate the beef in special sauce from some secret blend with additional powder added in, and then topped with extra powder and more sauce.
In the end, it required something like 20 minutes to prepare. However, the end result was certainly appetizing. One person actually had to move away from me in order to get away from the smell, which was spicy enough to set his sinuses ablaze. And sure enough, it was num-num tasty. Spicy enough to kick my tongue where it counts, but meaty enough to leave a filling feeling. I was a bit surprised when the spice flared up again a few minutes later, but fortunately I could handle it. Still, I had to give my thumbs-up to the chef.
Form that point on, the Chado-kebab was born. To date no one has been able to handle it except for me, but if any of you'd like to give it a shot, you're welcome to try.
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One thing that kind of caught me by surprise is when I got a call from one of the sub teachers about someone who had just arrived in Japan. I was given a kind of rushed explanation that basically involved a place and time to be but no other real details except for a name.
So I arrived at the appointed location at the appointed time and met the appointed person, but unfortunately this was not the person who had just arrived in Japan. Apparently the two of us were supposed to meet the girl, but we really had no idea when she would be arriving because she still had to wait for her luggage to arrive.
Luckily, the two of us didn't have to wait very long, and in the meanwhile we chatted about our favorite PC and console games. When she finally came, we scootedoff to help her buy some necessities for her apartment. basically, this involved buying food for the next few days. The funny thing was that, despite the supermarket being right down the main street, we managed to get just lost enough that we had a mini-adventure that involved quite a large amount of twists, turns, and dead-ends. If we had been trying to invade the city, I'm sure we would have failed rather quickly.
Afterwards, we zipped down to the heart of Kyoto to enjoy ourselves by first invading the school where the new teacher would be working and getting a small tour. It was amazing to see a school that took up an entire building. Much bigger than our 7-room suite, to say the least. Of course, they also have something like 5 teachers working there. Then it was off for a bit of gnosh at MOS Burger, where we had fun playing around with the placemats and answering the quiz challenges.
Of course, no first visit to Kyoto should go without a visit to something cultural, and so we proceeded to Yasaka shrine for a nice walk and an evening view of the city before finally returning to our respective homes.
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Our new manager arrived on Saturday, a day after she was originally supposed to. The computer at her previous school had busted up a bit and she'd been forced to stay an extra day.
I have to say I am absolutely ecstatic that our new manager seems to be almost exactly like the old one. She doesn't have the exact same sarcastic sense of humor, but she went to the same university, was part of the same training group, likes the same kind of music, etc. She also has some differences, such as being a big fan of karaoke. Seems like this is going to be fun.
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So, my birthday was on Thursday, as many of you already know. Unfortunately, it was not to be celebrated with drunken revelries and the like. Instead, I was fated to spend my special day of the year in Osaka, doing some training for the Big Jump program.
Of course, as I've stated before, I really do like to go to training, so this wasn't really a bad day for me. Got to hang out with other teachers in the area, have a break from the routine of teaching every day... Plus we got to finally give our presentations, so that was a nice big weight off of my back. I do so enjoy the theory of Multiple Intelligences, though, so I certainly won't be giving up on the research completely. But there is an old rule that when you're supposed to do a project for work or school, it tends to drain some of the fun out of it.
Anyway, one really nice birthday surprise was that I was made aware that I'd received a promotion for my work up to this point. Basically, this means I will be getting an extra 10,000 yen per month. That's about a 4% raise. It's not exactly a reason to break out the bubbly, but considering I already make enough to pay all my bills and keep quite a fair amount set aside, I think this is great.
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As far as my personal life goes, there really isn't much to tell. I've been rather busy due to this month being the big semi-annual book sale we have (I've managed to make it as the top native teacher in the region thus far, but apparently it's a pittance compared to the Japanese teachers!) In addition, we're doing a lot of counseling with the students, so this requires a lot of extra time for preparation and such.
I guess the only thing is that I've been getting back into watching Justice League again. I never had much of a chance to watch it while in college, so it's great to catch up on all of my favorite heroes. Of course, Batman could never possibly be topped. Here are some quotes to prove it:
"Next time I let Superman take charge, hit me. Real hard." - Batman
"The closer I am to someone, the stronger I get. I can go inside your brain even if you're wide awake." - Doctor Destiny
"My brain's not a very nice place to be." - Batman
"You're a princess from a society of immortal warriors. I'm a rich kid with issues. Lots of issues." - Batman to Wonder Woman
And last, from Static Shock: "Wow...Batman playing /good/ cop..." (referring to the future and present Batman interrogating a thug)
The only thing I've wondered about is..why's Batman almost never involved in space missions? Even Flash has been to places like Oa! C_C
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So that's it for now. See you next week, and though it's the same Bat-channel, I'll try to make it a different Bat-time.
- Touching my soul:Justice League Unlimited Theme
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