I am very tired

And tomorrow is Saturday. So this is good.

Exams could have gone better. We'll leave it at that.

I do have apple candy. This is a good thing. Also refills for my tiny leaded pencil, which is something that I probably shouldn't be as excited about as I am. But I am, and well, there isn't much you can do about that, is there?

The weekend will still be full of studying, but I think I have a plan for after the JLPT. I'm going to try wandering further along the mountain path. I'm told here is a town within 6 kilometers if I keep going. I really hope that my friend wasn't talking about Oita, cause I don't want to walk that far just to get bored.

Other than that, lack of excitement for the moment.

I'm wearing a Flash hoodie? That's really all I've got to offer you.

I do have this along those lines though: Super Powers
Pretty good little short clip.

Anyways, back to sleep deprivation.

I should major in procrastination

I shouldn't even be blogging. Really, tomorrow at 10:35 starts my Japanese final. I'm decently prepared, but I'd like a good grade so decent isn't good enough.

I slept in later than I intended today so that sucks. Making up for lost time by filling out my Japanese shortcuts book.

Essentially, I've been writing a notebook filled with all the forms (the ones that aren't you know... REALLY obvious) and it seems to be helping really well. If you write things instead of just looking at them chances are you'll remember them better, at least form my experience. Plus it helps to not have to turn 20 pages to find the next lesson in the textbook, as well as having all the information I'm looking for at a really easily accessible location.

When I'm finished with it for the three textbooks from this semester, I'm going back through and rewriting them in much easier to follow format with better examples. Having it rewritten in layman's terms with stuff that I actually find useful though is a HUGE benefit, and I recommend anyone learning a language try something along those lines.

Also, it would be totally awesome if I can make my cheat book so efficient that I can get it published. Cause that's like, free money.

There is a picnic on Saturday for the building. I convinced a bunch of people I know to go, so that in turn convinces me to go. And since it's during the weekend I shall take AND upload a bunch of pictures, and maybe even get a do a blog for once!

Wait, I'm doing one right now while I'm supposed to be studying.

I should probably stop.

Marty, you've changed the past!

Holy crap.

So, nothing really new to report, other than the fact that I'm STILL ALIVE.

Just barely though. This week is killing me.

I was awake for three days, which culminated in the event of me giving a sleep deprived speech entirely in Japanese.

If you'd like to know how well that once, go stay up for three days straight and then stand in front of a group of people and mumble all the Japanese words that you know.

Go ahead. I'll wait.

If you managed to say "Suzuki honda karaoke anime domo arigatou" and then promptly pass out flat on yer arse, then you got about the same grade that I did.

Exam part 1 Friday at 10:30, and part 2 at 2:15. Then three day weekend and the Japanese Language Proficiency Test on Tuesday.

しっかり...

Here's hopin I can pull it off.

Also, some friends and I are debating buying airsoft rifles and running around campus with them. Somehow we think that his is a good idea.

If I get deported you'll all be able to see me earlier!

Yay!

I am the Ramen King, hey hello.

Welcome to my very own show. I'll introduce to Japan to you! Oh no, Nihon? BOO!


Anybody who actually gets that reference watched horrible shows growing up.

Still half neglecting/half furiously working on studying. No, I'm not sure how that works, but I assure you that I'm doing it. There is a presentation due tomorrow. I have all the powerpoints done, but I don't have the speech. I think that I am just going to read the powerpoints and pretend that was my plan all along.

Anyways, it's Sunday Sunday SUNDAY! So it's wacky view source day! Let's reach into the magic bag of wonder and see what we pull up.

Dang, nothing that great. I got a search for Shoo be do wa way, which is a bit...odd.

I also got one for "Cats who look like hitler" which is a website that I mentioned way back in October. Why they came here instead of the actualy website is beyond me.

Since I've been studying nothing that exciting has happened. Although I forgot to mention the other day that a store worker asked me if I could speak English. Either I look a different type of foreign or the Japanese think that Americans are debilitatingly incapable in their native language.

Which, given a glance at any internet conversation between people under the age of 18, is not an unreasonable assumption.

Also: I eat way too many peanuts.

Neglect

You'll be seeing a lot of that this week.

Veeeeeery busy with tests and stuff. Monday is a listening exam, Tuesday a paper is due, Friday is a two part exam, and then the following Monday is a BIG exam.

Blog will be updated sparsely, probably with not much interesting. I'll be using quick filler stuff with Japanese info if I can.

Check the Twitter more often, I'll be updating a lot more while this is going on. Mostly youtube links or links to articles, or me whining.

Still want one of those whoppers.

Sonuva....

Dammit Burger King!





That looks delicious!


Everyone who reads this blog is now charged with finding a way to ship me one of these.

Mmmm Donuts

Or as they call them in Japan, donuts. (well, donatsu, but it's really just the closest they can come to pronouncing it).

So I went into town today two hours later than I planned. In the rain. By myself. All to try and look for a special edition PSP Final Fantasy Dissidia Bundle set.

Which I did not find. Bawwww.

Was still fun. Wandered around the city, found out that the buses don't come as frequently in bad weather...for some reason. Which made me eat at a McDonald's that was actually pretty good..... Long story short didn't really find anything that I wanted, but I got to go grocery shopping which was a definite plus cause I needed that pretty badly.

Tacos this week because I keep forgetting to write down the ingredients I need to make OTHER things.

I did come across this Wonder Ball type snack, which I thought was a toy. You know wonder balls? "Yummy Nestle chocolate with candy shapes inside. Who knows what surprises a wonder ball can hide." Basically that, except instead of crappy medicine flavoured candy inside, they have actual toys. Super Mario Brothers toys. Pretty good quality too. I got a Luigi that has him jumping in the air with his hat off and came with a stand and everything. Also the chocolate tasted like malted milk balls, and if that's not awesome to you then you need to rethink your priorities.

Also I played some arcade games waiting for the bus which were a lot of fun. Some Gundam game that had complicating controls. But I managed to master the art of the crane game. They have these little rings or strips on the products here that I guess you're supposed to "aim" for, but they pretty much never actually grip those no matter how many times you get a hold of it. So you need to direct the crane nearby so that the claw touches the product, closes, and either knocks the product over or drags it closer to the prize hole (in this case, not your mom).

Anyways, I won some free delicious snacks on my first try which was offset by spending 400 yen on various other harder prize games.

I know I promised actual content today but the internet is working uncharacteristically slow. And considering it's normally slow, that's pretty slow. So I can't upload anything.

Boo hoo.

Shut up and let me go!

I should just title things by what song I'm listening to. Makes it easier. Have a feeling that wouldn't fly on term papers, though.

Had the JLPT practice test today. I showed up late because I'm really lazy, and when I got there there were two girls standing outside of the room looking terrified. I asked if this was the room, and the girl said "Yes, but the teacher said if we showed up late it would be locked." I got the impression that that meant we were locked out, so we spent about 5 minutes knocking on the door, but the REALLY LOUD teacher from the other class was speaking on the microphone and we could hear him clearly with the door closed, so nobody heard us knocking.

After they spent time trying to figure out how to call the teacher on a cell phone, I walked up to the door (there were two doors to the classroom) and just well... I opened it.

Now I don't know if I have some heretofore unbeknownst to me mystical unlocking ability or if the door was open the whole time. I'm gonna go with the former, though, cause that'd be pretty cool. (This is completely neglecting all the locked doors I had problems with the rest of the day.)

I did get this shot after class, and for some reason I'm proud of it:



Got another one in a bigger resolution as well, but that'd take forever to upload.

Anyways, I also saw a Nifty Studio! Production, which is basically the film club on campus and my friend is a cameraman for it.


There he is looking pimp, while our American friend looks like he's contemplating suicide.

Since it's an student film that you have NO POSSIBILITY OF SEEING EVER, NOT EVER WHATSOEVER NO NOPE NOT AT ALL, I can spoil it in great detail for you.

Film was called Mobius Loop (yeah, like that Mobius Loop). Starts off with some guys at a party, and they all get tanked and pass out at this other guy's apartment. Then for some reason this one guy poisons this other guy, and when he passes out he touches the guy's forehead with his.

Turns out he's a weird monster thing called a Hermit, and hermits needs to transfer bodies in order to live, and the ones that they inhabit decay at varying rates. Of course this film had no budget, so this was sort of just said instead of shown.

Anyways, this guy had inhabited the body of someone who had a girlfriend apparently, which is a big nono, you're supposed to yoink shut ins and such. So the girl finds out, makes a big fuss, he lies to her about how it happened, his boss finds out and sends a guy to kill them, blah blah blah. The movie had a good premise, but lack of budget meant no fight scenes where they were set up (if a guy comes at you with a HUGE KNIFE, that should have people fighting, I don't care what you say) and it was really weird seeing so many familiar locations in a movie considering 80% of it was filmed ON CAMPUS.

I'd give it 6 outta 10 but you'll never see it, so who cares, it could be the best thing I've ever seen and you'd never know. But it did suffer from Japanese "never get directly to the point" syndrome.

Last point of contention: I totally watched the Inauguration address. Live.

IN JAPANESE.

ON MY NINTENDO DS.

It was irritating. I wanted to hear what Obama was saying but the Japanese translator was louder.

Anyways, to experience it just like me, play any annoying japanese video and stare at these photo.



Enjoy!

Ooga Booga

That was close. According to the autocomplete I've already done a blog titled "Oogie Boogie" so changing a couple letters saved me from making THAT embarassing mistake.

So I'll level with everyone. I've been somewhat sick since Thursday, and also have't been sleeping well, so I've missed 3 full days of classes. It's awful, I know. Making SURE I go in tomorrow and handing in all the homework and such. Also hopefully the cell phone guy is FINALLY THERE. I did find out that his office is in Kamegawa, so I can go there on my own time if I need to now.

I keep reading up on paranormal stuff because I'm an idiot and I like scaring myself. I became absorbed in it today though and actually neglected playing video games with a friend. So, sorry Jason. Scary stories are more important than video game training for the zombie apocalypse.

Anyways, partially because I find it interesting, and partially because I have nothing better to talk about, I figured I'd give my top three favorite Japanese demons. That I can remember. At the moment. Oh, how comprehensive!

Here goes:

- Makura-gaeshi - Literally the Pillow Demon. I can't remember where I found the original description, but what it is is a monster that comes into a person's room at night and.... moves the pillow from the head of the bed to the foot of the bed. Ancient Japanese people were essentially incapable of grasping concepts such as "Sometimes people move around in their sleep."

- Akaname - This is another absurd creature. For more than one reason. The creature itself is a hideous one toed, frog-like monstrosity but allegedly harmless or easily frightened. It apparently climbs into the window at night and licks the bathroom floor clean. That's disgusting, but it also raises some questions. Mythical creatures are normally based off of things that you know, happen around you. Were ancient Japanese people waking up with magically clean bathrooms on a regular basis? Maybe this one really does exist. If so I should start leaving my window open.

- Nukekubi - These monsters sound creepy as hell at first. They are creatures that by day seem like normal human beings and will often live normally. Allegedly they will kill a family and replace them. Then at night their heads detach from their bodies and they begin to fly around in search of human prey.

Holy crap.

The part that makes them suck however: Seriously? A flying human head? After the initial shock factor of "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH DECAPITATED HEAD!" wears off, you really need a large book or a blanket or something and you can easily best it in battle. Plus monsters are always depicted as screaming at you for no reason, so it's unlikely to just catch you unawares. And even if it does, it's your own fault for dying if you can't pry a head off of you that's gnawing on your shoulder. Even better, if you can keep the head detached until morning, it just dies. So that whole blanket thing would work pretty well for that.

You can identify them by red symbols around the base of the neck, which I have a sadistic urge to tattoo on my own neck, aside from the fear of repurcussions via death squad.

Honorable mention: Ittan-momen - It's a sentient cloth that tries to wrap itself around your face.

Yeah.

As it is Sunday

And Sunday is the day I look at my search results and share the weirdest ones with you, let's do that.

What? What do you mean I don't do that? I've DONE it. Not necessarily on Sunday. And not necessarily more than once. But I've DONE it. And I enjoy doing it, so Sunday will be the day that we ridicule people for using weird searches to stumble upon my site. This is the first step in my resolution to bring actual content to this barren thing I call a blog.

This time it was a tie for the weirdest result:

Leopard Fingerless Gloves
Fergalicious Lyrics Replaced with Prepositions

I know I have talked about leopard print fingerless gloves before, but it unnerves me more that somebody is actively LOOKING for them. Hopefully my article making fun of them will have discouraged the person from thinking that it's a good fashion idea.

As for the Fergalicious one.... I... I fail to see how that got people here. Have I mentioned Fergalicious? I think I've mentioned that I am in fact, fergalicious, as a self descriptive adjective. The prepositions thing confuses me, but I may just have to go look for this myself now.

As for the rest of the day: It rained. Seriously. Wet as hell. In January. We had snow a week ago. This sucks, I miss the snow.

I did find a guy who might be willing to go on the Shikoku pilgrimage if I do decide to go for it. I don't mean a random guy, it's one of my numerous friends. Yes, numerous! I know people! Shut up!

So if I do feel like throwing away a month of my stay, then it's good to know that I have the opportunity to do so.

I've got some regular content planned for Wednesdays too I think. So let's see how long I can keep this crap up.

Hurk.

President Millard Fillmore

Went to my school!

Well, my American one.

I got bored and I looked up a whole bunch of stuff about UB, and that's really one of the things I should have known.

There were a bunch of random people that went there that were pretty cool, but I don't remember any of their names so it probably wasn't important.

I do know that the MTV shows Sorority Life and Fraternity Life apparently each had a season filmed there. Also, the show Jesse was filmed at South Campus. These are things that I probably should have been a bit more aware of.

Still no luck with the cell phone. The guy who sells them hasn't shown up in the cafeteria the past couple of days. If he isn't there by Monday I'm just going to have to go buy one at the mall using my terrible Japanese skills.

They really are terrible.

Also, word from the wise: If you buy pizza, don't let it go bad before you eat it. I tried to eat pizza that has been expired for 4 days, and it didn't go so well. 3/4 of a pizza is now in a trash can somewhere.

Honk honk

Okay here I am. Don't worry, not maimed by a shark.

I should stop updating when I have nothing to say. It'd be a nice change of pace.

WELL SCREW THAT.

I finally got to the office on the right day to do stuff about my scholarship, and the woman I spoke to knew surprisingly good English, and her assistant knew surprisingly little. Or at least confusing English. I was told to bring a photocopy of my bank book and I handed it to the girl and she asked if she could keep it. I really hope that she uses it for the scholarship and not for her private collection of foreign boys' bank notes that she collects in her creepy underground shrine.

Apparently I have to go to the office twice a month and sign this book to let them know that first off I want the money, and secondly that I've GOTTEN the money. It seems like... a hassle. I wish they'd just give me all the money at once so that I can spend it on a boat and hookers, but no, monthly installments with check ups, and then at the end of it I have to write a 2 page essay about what I did on my summer vacation (or something).

Ah well, free money is awesome so no complaints here (aside from all that complaining).

I tricked some people I know and some people I sort of know to come over and watch the third Futurama movie. That went over pretty well, though I think only two of us really got most of the jokes, and one of those two was me, so that should be a good indicator. Afterwards the two girls, one from Finland and one from Australia, took turns regaling us with tales of their countries and putting up with my smartass accusations about their countries (I still hold by the fact that there are only 2 cities in Australia and everyone is in constant danger from giant hell insects).

Also, I found some alphabet crackers, which taste suspiciously like animal crackers, and are also delicious. I think I have a new addiction, which is good cause they also happen to be the cheapest snack I've found here.

Om nom nom.

Take that, haters!

Not that I have haters...do I? You guys would tell me if you hated me, right? Please?

Awww who am I kiddin'. You all only check this blog to see if your hitman have succeeded in offing me yet.

Anyways, blog is late due to internet problems. Seriously, irritating. I can't even get onto AIM at the moment. I LOVE AIM. It's like having a real social life (ouch, my pride.)

Speaking of haters and social lives though, I'm starting to get curious how some of my friends are doing. So if you read this but you don't talk to me on AIM, seriously, send me a message and let me know how life is holding up. Hell, even if you do talk to me on AIM do that anyways cause I talk about myself too much.

I looked at the children's books and the Tanuki one seems more popular, so I'll be translating that one. I'll post the story here when that's done, but don't expect it for about 2 weeks. Just a heads up.

Those Marvel Minis that I was collecting are so awesome:



I was so excited to get the secret figure and be done spending money on them.

But then I went to find a link on ebay for them and it turns out that there is ONE MORE SECRET FIGURE.

Well crap.

There goes my money.

That was close

So that mandatory mention that I mentioned? It started at 11am, and I woke up at noon.

Good thing I checked my e-mail though because apparently it's only mandatory for half year exchange students, so I got off that one scot-free.

My scholarships started coming in, so that means I'll have travel money for over the break, which is a definite good. Also, I can go buy some vidya games and go grocery shopping, hurrah! Not that I ya know, couldn't before, but now that I have funds coming in again it's encouraging.

The cell phone guy wasn't here today, muy triste. So no photos of that. No photos at all actually, but mostly because I'm lazy. There's a bunch of photos from the floor party on my camera but that's next to me and it doesn't upload things by itself, so that sounds like WORK and Wednesdays are my day off.

Also Sunday and Saturday.

Also pretty much whenever I feel like taking a break.

But still, day off.

JLPT's are at the end of the month like I said so I'm really nervous about that. Going to be studying a lot and trying to read some books for practice, so if there are pictures don't expect them to be of anything outside of campus.

Although maybe if I feel up to it I'll translate one of the children's books and post it up here. There's the one about the Tanuki that turns into a pot, and the one that has a cover of dancing animals for some reason. I'll pick one at random or whichever one people want if I actually get asked for one.

Until then, later days.

Edit:

So, I came across this video. It's an animated short from Disney that's apparently pretty old (see 14 years). I entirely forgot about it and watching it proved that Mickey cartoons can be totally awesome. If you want to check it out, follow the link below.

Mickey Mouse in : Runaway Brain

Thirty Four Days is a Long Time

I keep thinking about this Shikoku pilgrimage. I have no idea why I want to do it so badly. I'm not buddhist, nobody I know wants to go with me, it takes at the very shortest 34 days to do (that's the shortest time I can find at least) and it's a VERY LONELY trek where you spend most of the time walking miles by yourself in nature. I keep thinking that I can rush it and get it done in 2 weeks instead of 4 but I really doubt it. Maybe I could keep that pace up for the first 4 or 5 days but it would ultimately only shave off that many days.

Someone should really talk me out of wandering aimlessly to my death in Japan.

Come on, I'm waiting.

I have 1 (one) final paper for my religion class, and 2 (two) final exams and 1 (one) presentation for Japanese. These are all upcoming in the next two weeks, so if I disappear all of a sudden for a few days, then just assume I died honorably (and badassedly) fighting space ninjas on top of the mountain.

Space ninjas are like normal ninjas except partially robotic and TWICE as awesome.

Tomorrow is apparently a mandatory party. I've... never heard of a mandatory party before. But all the exchange students have to go to it, apparently. Which sucks cause Wednesday is my sleep in day in the middle of the week, so I am angry about my lack of...sleeping...in.

Yeah.

I might buy a cell phone tomorrow while I'm at it. If I do, I'll have pictures and info about it. I promise that it'll be exciting. Maybe I'll take a picture of the camera using me phone, and then a picture of the phone using my camera.

How wacky!

Alright god that's retarded. I need sleep.

Doing that.

Coming of Age Day!

At the beginning of the year, specifically the second Monday in January, the Japanese celebrate all the children who turn 20 this year, thus finally becoming an adult. There is usually a festival to celebrate this, and presents are passed around and such.

Usually.

Beppu is apparently an exception. I went down with the intent of finding tons of food stands and maybe a shrine with craziness going on or something, but I was greeted with absolutely nothing.

Crapdammit.

Oh well. I finished off the Marvel minis collection while I was out at least. The secret figure is..... Stealth Armor Iron Man! Yeah, kind of a let down. The paint on it is actually really sloppy and everything. Blech.

Also got the urge to try some things from Paris Croissante again. The last time was met with undesirable results (what with the last time having random things filling my bread and all). I got a hotdog on a stick with bread on it (nope, not a corn dog) and something that was called "Royal White Bread". It didn't seem special which is good because I wanted it to be just a giant biscuit like it looked like. Turns out the hot dog stick was FILLED with mayo and the Royal White Bread had some sort of...awful goo inside of it.

I really need to stop taking chances on this crap.

Also, nothing to do with Japan and I know this is old (though I'm sure not all of you have seen it) but I still love it:

fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid too Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can. i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!

If you can't read that then you're either not trying hard enough or you're an English major.

Campus is cold

So I woke up at the nice round hour of 10 oclock and proceeded to just hang around being lazy in my room. By the time I realized that I had been doing this for too long, including staring at dancing dinosaurs and Norse gods of thunder I made a mad dash to shower and get to the cafeteria before it closed.

I didn't make it.

So, churros for lunch from the school store! Huzzah!

After hanging out in my room staring at those dancing monstrosities for a few more hours (or not that, your choice) I remembered that I had promised photos of the campus to you people, so I set out to do that.

And do it I did!

First off, here's that map of the school campus.



That's sadly the best map I could find in my two minutes of searching for one.

Anyways, the leftmost is the dormitories, and the rightmost is the classrooms. Everything else in between is just FLUFF. Or you know, the cafeteria, the academic offices, and the student union/school store.

I took a whole crapload of photos. Or less of a crapload, and more like doubles of the same shot. Sometimes even triples!

Alright, here's essentially a mini tour. Startiiiiiiiing NOW:



Stepping out of the dorm and going down the walkway leads to this. It is the stairwell up to the bridge. It is a long arduous trek and it's not worth it to wait for the elevator so I walk it nearly every time. 7/10 times it leaves me out of breath.





This is the bridge. It annoys me. It's always VERY windy for some reason, and also people are incapable of walking properly on it. Most of the time there will be a group of people spread 5 wide, and nobody walks on the same side of the bridge.



Time jump! For some reason I took a different route walking around, and the photobucket album shows that. Essentially looking at the map I looped around the top behind the buildings and then took the picture back toward the dorms. But yeah, that's just a view from the middle of campus around the fountain.



This is my favorite piece of architecture on campus. The two side stairways lead to the second floor, and inside the arches are a bunch of benches. It just looks cool. Unfortunately, it's within breathing distance of the smoking shelter, so I never get to actually ENJOY being there. Stupid smoking shelter. You ruin everything.



That's the last picture I took before I got too cold and went to go eat dinner. IT's basically that with buildings on either side and then mountain. The giant staircase up to the highway bus station where I get croquettes is that way too.

Also:



For anyone interested, this is the spot I've deemed zombie proofingest on campus. Too many hurdles for them to even try to get over. And zombies are not hurdley enough for the hurdle club. (I can't believe I just typed that.)

Anyways, that's about it. I uploaded 80 pictures to the photobucket. Not all of them are from today, and some of them probably need an explanation so feel free to ask. Also, most of this batch was unsorted so there are some pictures that are apparently of just sky. I promise there was a bird there.

I mean, only an idiot couldn't see the bird.

So you see it.

Right?

What a Fantastic Cruise!

That I'm sure everybody else in club enjoyed going on.

I woke up so excited today to go on the cruise. Granted it was just kind of going to circle around Beppu Bay for a couple hours, but there was going to be food and music and good times for everyone. I was rushing through my morning and getting nervous because I had to finish laundry before I could even shower.

Then it turns out neither Yuan or I were on the list to go. Despite talking to the guy directly. However, our friend who we told the guy in charge wanted to go WAS on the list, and he ended up being busy today anyways, just for SPITE.

Dammit, Japan..... dammit.

Oh well. Nice relaxing day on campus then. I managed to resist the temptation to go spend money on things. I'm pretty addicted to it. As a result of actually staying in my room, doing a bit of cleaning, and eating the food I have here for once, I found out that the Cosmos half of the Final Fantasy Potion drinks is actually pretty good, and also that the brand of chicken nuggets that I had in my freezer is amazingly delicious and I should purchase more of them for the purpose of consumption.

Ah well, I feel bad about not having pictures that I promised. I mean sure I have pictures, but I don't feel like uploading them, and also they aren't from the cruise that I didn't go on.

I'll go take pictures around campus tomorrow or something. I don't think I've done that yet. And I'll take a card from a certain bonnie lass and post a map of my campus if I can find one too.

Spider-man out.

Touchin, Lovin, Squeezin

I haven't been playing music lately. I'm not sure why. I just turned on my playlist and have been rocking out to Journey. If you're not, I suggest that maybe you should be, if you ever wish to find true happiness.

Holy crap this week kicked the crap out of me. I have no idea why.I blame my do-nothing attitude from the break. That couldn't have helped. Thankfully, Coming of Age Day is on Monday, so that means I get a three day weekend that is very welcome.

In class we talked about something called the Shikoku Pilgrimage. Well, that's what it is in English, damned if I know it in Japanese. Anyways, it's the original trek that the Koba Daishi made (he was a Buddhist guy. Pretty important. For Buddhists. In Japan) and people follow in his footsteps quite literally walking to and visiting 88 temples in the circuit, and some people do it multiple times in their lives even. You can do it by bus if you're a jerk or handicapped, but there isn't much fun in that.

Anyways, I REALLY want to do it. This would be a bad move, because I wanted to see a whole lot of Japan over the 2 month break coming up, and while this would be travelling a good amount of Japan on foot, it's limited to a specific aspect of Japan instead of the entirety of the culture. Needless to say, it would probably be an enriching experience in and of itself, and I'm sure it would help my language skills to travel on a trek that forces you to rely on the kindness of strangers. There are houses along the way that travellers can stay at for free and the people there give you food and stuff. Pretty cool.

Also, the entire journey (according to my quick Google sleuthing) takes at best 34 days. That's slightly more than even the longest of months (Sleptcember). I'm not sure I'm willing to dedicate that much time to something, regardless of how free it is. We'll see though. And if it does happen, chances are the blog will update extremely sparsely in the time I go, but it would have plenty of pretty pictures, yah? Yeah.

There is a cruise tomorrow for Senjinkai. A FREE cruise! With food and stuff! Should be fun. I'll take a bunch of pictures, and then I will post them here. And also in the photobucket album (incidentally, please tell me if the photos stop working. I get the impression I'm using up most of my bandwidth from the album).

Til tomorrow, bon voyage.

1999 was 10 Years Ago

I hope that makes you feel old. It makes me feel old to think of it in those terms. You know Spongebob has been airing since then? Yeah. Remember when Spongebob came out, and you and all your friends in Middle School would talk about it? Or the Backstreet Boys? YEAH?

Alright, I'm done with that.

I've been neglectful of this lately. Apparently if you take the time to actually do your homework and study it erm, takes time.... to do. And then you get to busy to do other things. True story.

I did make it to the post office yesterday. Japanese post is a LOT cheaper than American post. It cost 30 dollars less to ship a box to America than it cost to ship here, and I don't really think they weighed too differently. Then again, I am a bit foolish so that could be it as well. Also they charged for the box not being a pre-registered size and the fact that I had letters in it, so that's sort of irritating. But I'm not complaining about spending 30 dollars less.

Which I promprly spent right afterwards! Hurray grocery shopping! I did pick up most of the Final Fantasy Dissidia Potion collectible cans, though. I haven't drunk any yet, but I hear they taste like ass stirred with gym socks, so I'm not really looking forward to it. They ARE pretty though, so they will do nicely erm...displayed after they're emptied. yeah. Wooo.

I'm blogging after just waking up, by the by. Like, literally just after. I don't even have my glasses on. I've also noticed that waking up is depressing. I'm far less awesome when I'm awake than I am when I'm asleep. Of course, considering how fantastic I am you might deem this impossible, but I assure you that the laws of the conservation of awesome fluctuate a little to allow dreams.

I totally had a jetpack and wings or something. Not exactly sure how that worked. But I definitely had a Rocketeer jacket, and if you don't think that's awesome then there might be something wrong with you. I was hired by the US and British governments to infiltrate a Russian base in the arctic. I was seen off after walking across about 200 yards of floating platforms, and then given mission orders from the president, told to meet the Queen for the other half of the orders, and then I woke up.

Just rubbing it in your face about how you dreamt you were naked at school for the fourth time this week.

What I did during my Christmas Vacation

Nothing. Alright, next topic.

Today was fun. No, really, it was! I actually didn't even check the time once during my class! I'd say classes, but apparently we were running on the Monday schedule and I wasn't aware of this because there wasn't like, an announcement or anything. So I only went to one class as a result. Huzzah!

I did have lunch with two of the girls I met at the New Year's party. They're fun. Everyone has a lot of weird questions about America, so that's always a good chunk of the conversation. Also apparently I hold my chopsticks beautifully Or something? I'm not sure, but the one girl told me that so hey, maybe you should all take lessons.

Le blech. I actually just woke up. It's about 2:30am as I'm typing this. I think my good schedule should be reset by tomorrow night. Stupid winter break screwed with that, but having classes again should forcibly refresh it. So, blog updates should be back to normal by Friday.

One thing: I made a mogulus channel. Mogulus is internet tv basically in case I didn't explain it before. The free accounts only give you 1 gb of storage space which... isn't much. But you can stream Youtube videos on it as well, so I have that running on autopilot at the moment. If you want to check it out, the link is right here and there are something like 13 clips on loop right now. I'll probably show a full length movie Friday night, so I'll announce that on the twitter for anyone who is interested.

Another thing, there is a site called The Art of Manliness. I found the site a while ago and always forget ot mention it. It's essentially a guide to being classicaly manly and it updates pretty frequently so that's nice. The latest article (at least that I saw) is about Bartitsa, the gentleman's martial arts. IT's being featured in the next Sherlock Holmes movie starring Robert Downey Jr, so you might want to check the article out.

My fingers are itchy, I'm done typing.

Super Blog-pology!

Holy crap. Two days in a row I've sucked at this.

I was exhausted yesterday and I figured I'd hop into bed and take a nap for a couple hours, then wake up and do my homework and put out a blog. Apparently I really, REALLY needed the sleep, because I didn't wake up until 5:30 in the morning. So I got a good 10 and a half hours of sleep in.

Well, I got to Oita. It was... Oita-esque. Actually it sucked.

Me and Jason went, and we took the train. So bus from campus, then train to Oita = long time to go nowhere. But there were some awesome pigeons hanging out on the train stop with us. Pigeons know no fear. I haven't had that much exposure to them ever, but I know this now. I'd walk up and try to get them to go away and stomp my feet and stuff, and they'd just sit there looking at me. Oh, also they're racist, cause they were picking on this poor little guy:



Anyways, the train was fun and quick and not as crowded as bigger cities, so I could walk around and poke things as I'm known to do. Yesterday was worse though, because I hadn't slept the night before so I was sleep drunk. This is a condition some of you have seen me like a number of times. It's every bit as amusing as you'd think it is, if you haven't.

We got to Oita and ate some fast food, because we're Americans and we do that. Restaurants still have smoking sections in them, and the only spot left was in there, so it was possibly my least favorite part of the day. Afterwards we wandered around looking for something to do and found a castle.

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay castle! We didn't actually go inside, but we walked around the gardens and such. Apparently there is ALWAYS a heron in the water at these things, and this one didn't let us down. There were also tons of huge carp and other birds running around, so it was all in all a pretty nice place, even if you could still see cars and neon lights from the garden. Ah well, Japan will be Japan. Was definitely peaceful there and you can kind of get the idea of where shintoism comes from looking at these types of spots. They can be so beautiful that you don't want to doubt that they're magical in some way.




We then wandered around the city for a few more hours and realized that there was essentially NOTHING TO DO. Honestly, it's more boring than Beppu is there. I'm pretty sure there is stuff to do near the airport, but we were definitely not walking that far and we don't know the bus routes. Ah well, some other time.

We went grocery shopping in Beppu when we got back. That's umm... that's exciting, right? I got more Honey Roasted Chicken Pringles. Those are probably the main part of my diet at this point.

Anyways I gotta go do my homework and stuff. Possibly blog later tonight if I have something to say.

You've lost me to Peggle

I'm... I'm sorry.

I spent all that time writing about how I'm going to blog better, and now this post is like 2 hours late. I suck so hard.

But now that I sort of have Steam again (see: downloading for 2 hours has not yielded my full copy of Beyond Good & Evil) I've been playing the hell out of my former addiction.

No, not Team Fortress 2. Screw that noise. Everybody knows that the best game of all time is Peggle. With all the colors, and the blinky nights, and the noises, and the characters and powerups, if you have as short an attention span as I do the game is like crack. Dirty, dirty, virtual crack. That I only paid 5 dollars for. So, damn good crack for 5 dollars.

Anyways, once I get all these games downloaded, I should be nice and settled in to flunk out of all of my classes. Should be great.

I did get something done for the blog though. I spent like 20 minutes convincing some friends to go to Oita tomorrow. AND I charged my camera. Yeah. Tell me that's not exciting. So there should be fresh pictures of SOMEPLACE NEW AND EXCITING come tomorrow's blog.

Provided I don't forget to blog and/or fall asleep.

In the meantime, some youtube shows to watch.

The first of the bunch is one I'd been introduced to a while ago and forgot about entirely. Apparently it's got a whole bunch of episodes out now, though. I'm on 13, and I'd say not to spoil anything for me but... it's not like it has a plot.

Anyways, it's the Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show and it's essentially faux Japanese hijinx in a completely bizarre setting. If you're into the kind of humor it's absolutely hysterical, but if you're not then you'll just be terribly confused.

In a different line, but by the same girl, is a show called 2 Hot Girls in the Shower. It's essentially an advice show, with the obligatory intelligent useful commentor and insurmountably retarded commentor. Some of these are a lot more amusing than others, so take them as they come. I recommend Episode 15 because it had me laughing my ass off. So probably a good one to start from, and they're not really in any particular order.

And this last one I feel a bit guilty about linking to, and even worse about laughing my ass all the way to hell by watching it. It's called The Retarded Policeman. The actor is in all actuality a guy with Downs Syndrome. They spend a whole lot of time in the comments section explaining that the guy really enjoys doing the show, there are a lot of different degrees of Downs Syndrome so he's fully aware of what he's doing as he only has it mildly, etcetera etcetera. Anyways, the show pretty much plays him as just a silly jerk moreso than an actualy retard (in my opinion at least) so you could imagine them using any other actor and just calling it "Billy the Dick of a cop" or something just as asonine. For a sample, Episode number 13 is practically a work of art in my opinion.

As always, leave comments in the peanut gallery on what you think. It's been lonely in there lately.

Now I'm off to eat more peanuts (and play Peggle)

I'd like to thank all the little people

This is officially my 100th blog.



Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!

What can I say? 100 blogs is 100 days that I've posted. I've missed a few, I've half assed a bunch(see: most) and the majority of them are posted late. Including this one.

The experience has been fun, I have to admit. I've done my best to make this thing readable, but it's not all that I've hoped it to be. I've wanted regular content, I wanted more things about Japan in here, I really have just wanted to make people laugh. From the comments and people just flat out telling me, I can tell it's happened with at least a few of you.

This started out as just a blog to keep my friends informed, and has turned into sort of a way for me to communicate with anyone who visits it. This site is me. Every post is pure undiluted Roshi, and if anyone found this site by accident and decided to stick around, you're probably under the impression that I'm rabid. This site has become essentially a part of my life now, and that's extremely pathetic. Seriously, I'm sad now. Be right back, swallowing handfuls upon handfuls of pills.

Really though, I'm glad that I've been able to bring laughter to a few people who have stuck with me through this, and as a couple days late resolution I resolve to improve upon the quality of this blog. It might not be an immediate change. It might not even be til until I come home if I still care then. But I will bring stuff to the blog that isn't just day to day life of Roshi, that is more Japan, more interaction, more information, more fun.

And yes, that means more pictures. Which probably tells me I should go charge my camera cause it's been dead for a week.

So no real content today, but I just figured I should thank you all for reading.

So, thank you.

Dictated, not typed (but also typed),

His majesty, the self declared King of Ramen, eater of Japanese food, conquerer of the Orient, owner of at least five Transformers figurines, cooker of tacos.

Roshi



(Bet you thought I was about to put my real name down, eh? Fooled ya.)

First Post of the New Year!

Hey hey...

It's probably a little late, but Happy New Year! Mine was pretty good. The school threw a New Year Party and served Udon and snacks and stuff. Apparently long noodles = long life/happiness/etc so that's pretty cool.

I won a hot plate! Boo ya! Well, sukiyaki pan...thing.... but it serves the same purpose. Definitely going to put that to good use. Maybe I'll even make some sukiyaki! The other stuff in the raffle was pretty mundane room stuff, and some other awkward things like a "toilet relaxation set". We're still not sure what it does... it was toilet paper and then a basket of...various other things.

Went to a friend's room afterwards and a bunch of us played random card games and hung out. We played, amongst other things....Go Fish. That's right, Go Fish. And the worst part is that there was contention on the rules, so we actually had to look up the rules.

To GO FISH.

Man, we're the worst Americans ever....

Anyways, long night made short, we all went "home" at about 7am. Some of the girls had plans to go to a shrine that I'm pretty sure they neglected to get some damn sleep in. Apparently in Japan on New Years you go to a shrine and pray for something you desire most. Which in their case was boyfriends. Apparently.

In the meantime, I'm trying to recruit people to GO SOMEWHERE DAMMIT. I want to go to the Aquarium or the monkey mountain or at least to the next city. Nobody has money though. Sonuva...

Ah well. Maybe I'll be a lonely jerk and go by myself.

Schoolwork over the break has progressed as well as anybody would imagine, in that I forgot I had any and haven't touched it. So, I should probably do that, considering class starts in 3 days.

That's about it from me. Break has been mostly relaxing.

Have a funny definition to make up for the lack of news:

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=callipygous