So, woke up this morning when I got a series of IM's and I had forgotten to turn the volume down before I went to bed. So I was drowsy and slow moving for a good while after that. Decided after a bit of that to call off my Yufuin trip for today, on account that the two remaining people that were willing to go decided they didn't want to anymore.
And hell, I wanted to see Star Trek anyways!
So on with that!
Went through the trouble of looking up a theater, finding a map, writing down the showtimes, everything. Was gonna make it out to the 6:40 showing, and I left at about 3:30 so I should have had plenty of time. The theater was right near the station after all, so I could go there whenever the need suited me!
Because I had so much time beforehand, I decided that I should eat for the first time today and stopped in at a McDonald's. After wasting enough time there I decided to head to the theater and at least grab the movie tickets. The website said it was on the 3rd floor of the Tokiwa building near the McDonald's, so I figured I'd head there.
I feel the need to point out here that Tokiwa are about as popular as Starbucks. There are two on every block. And they are department store/mall outlet type buildings, so that is a weird thing to have so many of. Anyways, I went to the right one as I recalled from the map, went to the third floor and... promptly began wandering confused through a bunch of bridal shops. A confused foreigner isn't too out of place in Japan, so nobody seemed to mind aside from myself, but I hurried out of there and went back to the station to talk to the Information lady and cry until I got my way.
And of course the information booth was closed for some reason. Aren't those things supposed to be open as late as the trains?
Anyways, thank God my phone has that GPS thing. so I searched for 映画館 and it brought up all the theaters in the area. Oh hey, there were THREE. I found Cineflex which was the one I was trying to get to, and headed back there. Turns out it was a building a block over and across the street from the Tokiwa I went to. Ah... okay, these things happen. Google Maps isn't the most reliable thing in the world.
So I headed over there. And looked at the "Now playing" posters in the display. And... all Japanese movies. All drama movies. And a Yakuza film. What? Where's Star Trek? Or at least an American movie. Checked my notepad against the theater info again and... turns out I was at Cineflex 5. I wanted 11. Well... crap. I had no idea how to get there, so I wandered around trying to hit the other 2 theaters. One more Japanese only drama theater, and another one playing some American movies but nothing I wanted to see (although Terminator 4 is headed there, yay). Time to hit the cell phone again (hurray phoneternet!)
There are two intermediate stops on the way to Oita Station. 東別府(East Beppu) and 西大分(West Oita). I've always been under the assumption that these are primarily for people that live in or near the edge of town, and that they are relatively void of any value outside of that.
I turns out that Cineflex 11 is about a 10 minute walk to the 3rd floor of the Tokiwa near the West Oita stop. Which made it about an hour bus ride from where I was at the time, or a half an hour wait for a train, a 5 minute train ride, and then a 10 minute walk to the theater. Either way, it was over the time that the movie began, and chances are it'd take me even longer to find the place. So I decided to just make the best out of being in Oita and began to wander around.
Found a bunch of bookstores (none had what I'm looking for) and various other stores in the shopping strips, but nothing worth looking at really. And I still can't find cheap/not ugly shoes in my size. So that's unfortunate. I hung out at the pirate ship for a bit, wandered through some of the public gardens, ate at a Yoshinoya, watched some anime that was set up in some store's lounge, and then headed back to Beppu and campus.
Oh, and I bought a mug.
Also worth noting, is that two Japanese girls asked me for help on the train, which I had just asked three attendants for help on to make sure that I was doing it right. So it's good to know that not only foreigners don't get these horrible setups. I think I now have at least a vague understanding of how the local train system is scheduled, but eventually somebody is going to need to explain to me why I leave from a different track every time.
Church is tomorrow. Should be... interesting. Apparently the Sunday mass is in English, so I suppose I'll have to confess. I'll be sure to commit the sin of gluttony by talking JM into going to Ku-ta Ramen and engorging ourselves afterward.
You know, just to be on the safe side.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Cruel Procedures
The Japanese midterms finished up today. I will never understand why speaking for a speaking test is suddenly more difficult than going downtown and speaking with people. I guess it's just the atmosphere, but really, it's annoying that it's the case. The listening test apparently started 10 minutes earlier than I thought (which was 10 minutes earlier than class starts) so I didn't realize this until about the time class started and I walked in, noticed things were going on, and then checked my testing sheet. Thankfully the teacher had just been talking about procedure and not actually administering the test, so the fish sandwich I hastily choked down could rest easily knowing that it didn't cost me a grade.
The tests went pretty well I think, or better than I'd hoped at least. Everybody in the class was freaking out a bit, and you could tell by us all describing how catatonic we would be when our turn came about. I'm not sure if anybody else followed through with their stories but me, but if I'm anything I'm truthful. One of the questions on the speaking test was "At what times do you become nervous?" and
I answered with "Now".
I celebrated by buying my ferry ticket (finally!) and then going downtown. The ferry ticket is from Tuesday night until Tuesday Morning. Meaning I leave Tuesday night and arrive in Kansai Wednesday morning, and leave Monday night and arrive Tuesday morning. Yes, I'm skipping Monday classes, and no, I very do not care. I'm bitter about having a Tuesday exam still, so I'm taking a personal day.
Downtown I bought some more random series to look into: Eatman, Zetman, and Ubelblatt. I've heard of the first two before but never read, and the third one has pretty art and I judge plenty of books by their covers. I'm so excited to be starting so many series that I'll never be able to keep up with when I return to the states. Seems like a great movie, really.
I also went to CoCo Curry house for the first time in forever. I forgot how good non-campus curry was, as I haven't had any since I went to Osaka. Oh man. SO good. The first bite was pure heaven. I don't know why I don't eat there more often. Curry costs about the same as ramen, and both are less than McDonald's. I'm some kind of crazy fool.
I also picked up more in this capsule toy series I've been collecting. Hunting trophy figures. I'm not really into hunting, but these are really cool high detail animal mount figures and I just sorta like them. Except today I found out that there are rare ones that are just the skulls of the animals. Kinda.... creepy.
Tomorrow I go to Yufuin! Probably by myself. Out of everyone I asked, only three people were interested, and all of them have cancelled, or "blocked" as it's come to be called here. Which sucks so hard. But I really want to go, so I'm going. I'll take pictures, and hopefully I can get someone to come along last minute. But if not poo on them, it's awesome Roshi time.
Also have plans to go to church on Sunday. I don't know if anyone is aware of this, but I'm technically Roman Catholic, and at the very best generally Christian, but I don't do much about it. For some reason I have a hankerin' to go to church, which is weird cause I haven't been in 3 years. Maybe I'm going to die soon? Who knows. But it should be an experience.
The church. Not the dying.
The tests went pretty well I think, or better than I'd hoped at least. Everybody in the class was freaking out a bit, and you could tell by us all describing how catatonic we would be when our turn came about. I'm not sure if anybody else followed through with their stories but me, but if I'm anything I'm truthful. One of the questions on the speaking test was "At what times do you become nervous?" and
I answered with "Now".
I celebrated by buying my ferry ticket (finally!) and then going downtown. The ferry ticket is from Tuesday night until Tuesday Morning. Meaning I leave Tuesday night and arrive in Kansai Wednesday morning, and leave Monday night and arrive Tuesday morning. Yes, I'm skipping Monday classes, and no, I very do not care. I'm bitter about having a Tuesday exam still, so I'm taking a personal day.
Downtown I bought some more random series to look into: Eatman, Zetman, and Ubelblatt. I've heard of the first two before but never read, and the third one has pretty art and I judge plenty of books by their covers. I'm so excited to be starting so many series that I'll never be able to keep up with when I return to the states. Seems like a great movie, really.
I also went to CoCo Curry house for the first time in forever. I forgot how good non-campus curry was, as I haven't had any since I went to Osaka. Oh man. SO good. The first bite was pure heaven. I don't know why I don't eat there more often. Curry costs about the same as ramen, and both are less than McDonald's. I'm some kind of crazy fool.
I also picked up more in this capsule toy series I've been collecting. Hunting trophy figures. I'm not really into hunting, but these are really cool high detail animal mount figures and I just sorta like them. Except today I found out that there are rare ones that are just the skulls of the animals. Kinda.... creepy.
Tomorrow I go to Yufuin! Probably by myself. Out of everyone I asked, only three people were interested, and all of them have cancelled, or "blocked" as it's come to be called here. Which sucks so hard. But I really want to go, so I'm going. I'll take pictures, and hopefully I can get someone to come along last minute. But if not poo on them, it's awesome Roshi time.
Also have plans to go to church on Sunday. I don't know if anyone is aware of this, but I'm technically Roman Catholic, and at the very best generally Christian, but I don't do much about it. For some reason I have a hankerin' to go to church, which is weird cause I haven't been in 3 years. Maybe I'm going to die soon? Who knows. But it should be an experience.
The church. Not the dying.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Stuck in the 90's Again
I've been listening to a crapload of 90's music lately. If there's anything that you think I've probably forgotten about, lemme know.
Midterms going pretty well so far. Japanese part 1 was today, and part 2 is tomorrow which includes the speaking test. Final Anthropology test was today as well which was decent, and the final exam is Tuesday.
Star Trek comes out this Friday, and I want to go to Yufuin on Saturday. Going to try to get people along for both events, but dagnabbit I'm going whether anyone else wants to or not.
I also finally found something on TV worth watching here. There's a show called Boss, which is more or less CSI but in Japanese and with better music, and a female lead. I don't actually watch CSI so maybe that matches the show as well, but the only reason I'm watching this is because it's better than pretty much everything else I've seen on TV here. Honestly, immediately following the program was one of those terrible game/talk shows where for some reason a bunch of Japanese guys were crawling around on the set and making cat noises. It was even more annoying than it sounds.
Anyways, if anyone is interested in reading up more or watching an episode of the show, Boss can be found here, so have fun with that.
Two more things:
If you haven't seen it, the new Sherlock Holmes movie trailer is out, and it looks awesome. I'm all for skipping Christmas to go see it.
Also, if you've ever heard of it, I remembered the internet animated series "Tomorrow's Nobodies" earlier today. Apparently they did a series of shorts called "David Forgets" and some of them are entertaining. Here's one of the better ones: David Forgets
On a related note, apparently Tootsie Roll has a contest going on for 50,000 dollars. I need to get myself a tootsie pop so I can attempt it and answer, but you can enter yourself. If you're not an avid Tootsie Pop fan that already knows about the contest, here's the link to guess how many licks it takes to get to the tootsie roll center of a tootsie pop.
Midterms going pretty well so far. Japanese part 1 was today, and part 2 is tomorrow which includes the speaking test. Final Anthropology test was today as well which was decent, and the final exam is Tuesday.
Star Trek comes out this Friday, and I want to go to Yufuin on Saturday. Going to try to get people along for both events, but dagnabbit I'm going whether anyone else wants to or not.
I also finally found something on TV worth watching here. There's a show called Boss, which is more or less CSI but in Japanese and with better music, and a female lead. I don't actually watch CSI so maybe that matches the show as well, but the only reason I'm watching this is because it's better than pretty much everything else I've seen on TV here. Honestly, immediately following the program was one of those terrible game/talk shows where for some reason a bunch of Japanese guys were crawling around on the set and making cat noises. It was even more annoying than it sounds.
Anyways, if anyone is interested in reading up more or watching an episode of the show, Boss can be found here, so have fun with that.
Two more things:
If you haven't seen it, the new Sherlock Holmes movie trailer is out, and it looks awesome. I'm all for skipping Christmas to go see it.
Also, if you've ever heard of it, I remembered the internet animated series "Tomorrow's Nobodies" earlier today. Apparently they did a series of shorts called "David Forgets" and some of them are entertaining. Here's one of the better ones: David Forgets
On a related note, apparently Tootsie Roll has a contest going on for 50,000 dollars. I need to get myself a tootsie pop so I can attempt it and answer, but you can enter yourself. If you're not an avid Tootsie Pop fan that already knows about the contest, here's the link to guess how many licks it takes to get to the tootsie roll center of a tootsie pop.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
MIdterms Thursday and Friday
So if I don't update don't be surprised. Gonna be studyin me arse off.
Today/Yesterday was good. Class sucked, but I had good food and played some TF2 with JM. And then I walked to the highway bus station and ran into a bunch of people that I knew which was cool. And they were out of potatoe croquettes, so that was upsetting. But it turns out that chocolate bread is pretty good, so that was a nice replacement.
I need to buy my ferry ticket either today or tomorrow, so I should probably get on that.
I got nothin else for now, sorry. Midterms and my anthropology final are heavy on my mind.
Watch a funny clip with Patrick Stewart.
Today/Yesterday was good. Class sucked, but I had good food and played some TF2 with JM. And then I walked to the highway bus station and ran into a bunch of people that I knew which was cool. And they were out of potatoe croquettes, so that was upsetting. But it turns out that chocolate bread is pretty good, so that was a nice replacement.
I need to buy my ferry ticket either today or tomorrow, so I should probably get on that.
I got nothin else for now, sorry. Midterms and my anthropology final are heavy on my mind.
Watch a funny clip with Patrick Stewart.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Surprisingly Good
Today was a really good day and I'm not quite sure why. Nothing out of the ordinary happened. I woke up feeling good, I made a good breakfast (in my opinion hash browns are always good), I even had fun in class. I hate class; I think I've made that quite evident.
Was so weird. I'm afraid that it'll happen again and I'll be genuinely cheerful, and that would be truly frightening.
One thing I need to mention. In less cheerful news, it turns out that I have an exam next week Tuesday. Which means that I can't leave for Kyoto this Friday like I intended, and my vacation is also cut down effectively by that many days. This blows. Quite royally, in fact. So I'm thinking of taking advantage of the fact that I'm stuck here this weekend to maybe take the train to Yufuin for an afternoon, and go to Oita and FIND THE MOVIE THEATER ALREADY SERIOUSLY NOW. Everything worth going to in Oita is located entirely on the opposite side of town, and since I'm unfamiliar with most of the city it's not so easy to navigate.
On another note, I just got done hanging out with Fanxing in the first time since umm... well, since before the semester break started. Him and I have been alternately busy whenever we've wanted to hang out together, so it just didn't happen. He showed me some pics from his trip to Beijing with his dad and we watched a movie. Never Back Down. It was entertaining, but not really that great. Somebody needs to provide me proof that there are highschools out there where everybody looks in their early 20's and all the kids are fight club enthusiasts.
Because that is the highschool that I should've gone to.
Was so weird. I'm afraid that it'll happen again and I'll be genuinely cheerful, and that would be truly frightening.
One thing I need to mention. In less cheerful news, it turns out that I have an exam next week Tuesday. Which means that I can't leave for Kyoto this Friday like I intended, and my vacation is also cut down effectively by that many days. This blows. Quite royally, in fact. So I'm thinking of taking advantage of the fact that I'm stuck here this weekend to maybe take the train to Yufuin for an afternoon, and go to Oita and FIND THE MOVIE THEATER ALREADY SERIOUSLY NOW. Everything worth going to in Oita is located entirely on the opposite side of town, and since I'm unfamiliar with most of the city it's not so easy to navigate.
On another note, I just got done hanging out with Fanxing in the first time since umm... well, since before the semester break started. Him and I have been alternately busy whenever we've wanted to hang out together, so it just didn't happen. He showed me some pics from his trip to Beijing with his dad and we watched a movie. Never Back Down. It was entertaining, but not really that great. Somebody needs to provide me proof that there are highschools out there where everybody looks in their early 20's and all the kids are fight club enthusiasts.
Because that is the highschool that I should've gone to.
Monday, May 25, 2009
A Broken Chain
You know how you can be having a pretty good day, where things are going well, just not that exciting? Everything sort of chains together throughout the day as just happening, not bad, but not fantastic, but at least all in the positive. Then something comes along and all of a sudden the whole day, and everything else after it, just seem broken? Yeah, this was like that.
Slept in late for the first time in a week, which was nice. It was really really really windy out today and my window was rattling, so that was irritating, but at least that means that it isn't hot. Got to the cafeteria and the donburi counter was out of service so I got some nice chicken tonkatsu no tamago toji, which is always good. And I decided to eat at the window, because I keep forgetting that the view from where I live is beautiful and I need to learn to appreciate it a bit more. I think I'm starting to do crap like that because I'm consciously aware of how close I am to coming home. Half the time it's a feeling of anxious joy, and the other half it's regret for not having time to do more.
Another thing in my mind is making sure my money doesn't burn out. I'm trying to cook for myself more to save money on food, and I decided to see if the internet in the lobby is fast enough to play games so I don't need to go downtown anymore. It is, actually, at certain intervals. Early in the day when everyone is in class it's at a good speed, and then again late at night when everyone's going to sleep. I was out there a bit earlier today, and I don't think I'm ever doing that again.
There are professors on campus that use the fact that it's international as a means of making their students do tons of research work by asking random students questions. I don't mind this, if I'm doing something that my attention can be taken off of, or if I'm just eating or walking around or something. But if you come up to me while I'm playing an online game, fast paced with guns ablaze, with my headphones on in addition to that, and you approach me from behind so you can see all of this occuring beforehand, and you interrupt me to do a math problem because you heard that Americans can't do math, at the very least have the common decency to present it in the form of a question instead of stating your facts and then tossing the paper on my keyboard. And if you do do it that way, don't be surprised if I pick up the closest object and shank you as hard as my spindly little girl strength will let me.
And if you don't have the language skills to perform the simple task of asking a favor, then please just leave me the hell alone.
Christ.
Tickets to Osaka will be bought tomorrow for my trip to Kyoto on the cheap. Arrangements have been worked out with Jason, and he is fretting like my grandmother over my sleeping arrangements and travel costs. Overall this trip should be much cheaper than last time on multiple accords. First being that I'm not staying in a hostel for more than a day (I wanna go back to the one in Osaka for a night while I'm in the area). Second, I'm not going to Tokyo this time, so that's an automatic 80 dollar ticket deducted from the price. Third, I bought a CRAPLOAD of junk last time, and I have an emulator for my DS now so I don't need to buy any games anymore either, so unless I see something that I really REALLY need to have, I shouldn't be buying all that much this time around. So most of the costs will go toward travel and food, and overall the trip should be nice and cheap. Just the way I like it.
Slept in late for the first time in a week, which was nice. It was really really really windy out today and my window was rattling, so that was irritating, but at least that means that it isn't hot. Got to the cafeteria and the donburi counter was out of service so I got some nice chicken tonkatsu no tamago toji, which is always good. And I decided to eat at the window, because I keep forgetting that the view from where I live is beautiful and I need to learn to appreciate it a bit more. I think I'm starting to do crap like that because I'm consciously aware of how close I am to coming home. Half the time it's a feeling of anxious joy, and the other half it's regret for not having time to do more.
Another thing in my mind is making sure my money doesn't burn out. I'm trying to cook for myself more to save money on food, and I decided to see if the internet in the lobby is fast enough to play games so I don't need to go downtown anymore. It is, actually, at certain intervals. Early in the day when everyone is in class it's at a good speed, and then again late at night when everyone's going to sleep. I was out there a bit earlier today, and I don't think I'm ever doing that again.
There are professors on campus that use the fact that it's international as a means of making their students do tons of research work by asking random students questions. I don't mind this, if I'm doing something that my attention can be taken off of, or if I'm just eating or walking around or something. But if you come up to me while I'm playing an online game, fast paced with guns ablaze, with my headphones on in addition to that, and you approach me from behind so you can see all of this occuring beforehand, and you interrupt me to do a math problem because you heard that Americans can't do math, at the very least have the common decency to present it in the form of a question instead of stating your facts and then tossing the paper on my keyboard. And if you do do it that way, don't be surprised if I pick up the closest object and shank you as hard as my spindly little girl strength will let me.
And if you don't have the language skills to perform the simple task of asking a favor, then please just leave me the hell alone.
Christ.
Tickets to Osaka will be bought tomorrow for my trip to Kyoto on the cheap. Arrangements have been worked out with Jason, and he is fretting like my grandmother over my sleeping arrangements and travel costs. Overall this trip should be much cheaper than last time on multiple accords. First being that I'm not staying in a hostel for more than a day (I wanna go back to the one in Osaka for a night while I'm in the area). Second, I'm not going to Tokyo this time, so that's an automatic 80 dollar ticket deducted from the price. Third, I bought a CRAPLOAD of junk last time, and I have an emulator for my DS now so I don't need to buy any games anymore either, so unless I see something that I really REALLY need to have, I shouldn't be buying all that much this time around. So most of the costs will go toward travel and food, and overall the trip should be nice and cheap. Just the way I like it.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Good People
Today was a good people day. As in, I kept seeing good people everywhere. Old people on campus were helping each other, I saw some schoolkids helping each other with stuff, I went to the hobbyshop I normally go to where the guy was chatting up his regular customer, and I ate at Mos Burger where a mom was excited to be with her kids and do I Spy books with them. Which yes, the restaurant had Japanese I Spy and Where's Waldo? books. How awesome is that?
So yes, I went downtown, expressly to play me some video games because I am a nerd. Also picked up some more manga. I figured I'd be elitist for once and try to pick up something that nobody else knows of. One of those worked, I got some book called Puzzle that didn't turn up anything on Google. Then the other one I got, Dragon Sister, didn't turn up anything good. Apparently after the first volume it just plummets in quality, so I guess don't buy any more of this series.
In other news, I crashed my iPod. That's about the only way I can describe it. The system crashed and stopped working. It's working now because I'm awesome and I fixed it, but this just made me realize that putting all your tech in one device may not always be the best solution to moving toward the future, especially when said device doubles as a phone and a camera, which I was left without until I could get back to my computer. Also, my iPhone has 4 gigs of secret space being used on it, so if anyone knows what THAT is about, please tell me.
I got some more pizza from the store, different brand this time. Hopefully it's at least as average as the last one, though I have my doubts.
Also, tired, but I managed to blog on time. Go me.
So yes, I went downtown, expressly to play me some video games because I am a nerd. Also picked up some more manga. I figured I'd be elitist for once and try to pick up something that nobody else knows of. One of those worked, I got some book called Puzzle that didn't turn up anything on Google. Then the other one I got, Dragon Sister, didn't turn up anything good. Apparently after the first volume it just plummets in quality, so I guess don't buy any more of this series.
In other news, I crashed my iPod. That's about the only way I can describe it. The system crashed and stopped working. It's working now because I'm awesome and I fixed it, but this just made me realize that putting all your tech in one device may not always be the best solution to moving toward the future, especially when said device doubles as a phone and a camera, which I was left without until I could get back to my computer. Also, my iPhone has 4 gigs of secret space being used on it, so if anyone knows what THAT is about, please tell me.
I got some more pizza from the store, different brand this time. Hopefully it's at least as average as the last one, though I have my doubts.
Also, tired, but I managed to blog on time. Go me.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Haha...haha...
Okay, last time, I promise.
Classes went about the same as they always do, and lunch was surprisingly good for some reason. The weather was also nice and cool for a chance, considering it's been sweat drippingly hot lately (which is about 80 if you're me).
There is also a Bonsai display going on in front of the dorms. It's been there for like a week, but I keep forgetting to mention it. It's right next to the new sanitation stations. They have liquid sanitizer dispensers up front because of the swine flue that isn't in Oita. Ah, well, guess you can't be too careful. I still just go around touching everything though, so screw that noise.
On a more newsworthy note, I had a fee for a monthly payment. I don't... I don't pay monthly, I paid a lump sum at the beginning of the semester. So I went to go ask them about that in the dorm office. To which they replied "Actually you owe us 2100 dollars" and I was all "WHAT!?". I presented them with my bank book to which they were dumbfounded, because apparently they lost my payment. Yeah, that's right.
After about an hour to an hour and a half of trying to discuss this matter with a woman who for some reason refused to use English (all the people in the office speak at least moderate English as a part of their job requirement, so either she snuck through that somehow or it seemed like I understood her Japanese enough for her to continue that way) they basically said that since I had proof that I paid them, or at the very least that I sent two thousand dollars to them, they can't in good conscience make me send them another couple grand to make up for their oopsy. So it's probably lost in the system, and as far as the situation has progressed I don't need to pay.
Which is good, but it was a bit frightening at the time.
Also, talked to Jason about quarter break plans. I'll be going to Kyoto for a week (ish) and probably not be able to blog then. Be gone from about the 29th til the 7th. So, looking forward to that.
Classes went about the same as they always do, and lunch was surprisingly good for some reason. The weather was also nice and cool for a chance, considering it's been sweat drippingly hot lately (which is about 80 if you're me).
There is also a Bonsai display going on in front of the dorms. It's been there for like a week, but I keep forgetting to mention it. It's right next to the new sanitation stations. They have liquid sanitizer dispensers up front because of the swine flue that isn't in Oita. Ah, well, guess you can't be too careful. I still just go around touching everything though, so screw that noise.
On a more newsworthy note, I had a fee for a monthly payment. I don't... I don't pay monthly, I paid a lump sum at the beginning of the semester. So I went to go ask them about that in the dorm office. To which they replied "Actually you owe us 2100 dollars" and I was all "WHAT!?". I presented them with my bank book to which they were dumbfounded, because apparently they lost my payment. Yeah, that's right.
After about an hour to an hour and a half of trying to discuss this matter with a woman who for some reason refused to use English (all the people in the office speak at least moderate English as a part of their job requirement, so either she snuck through that somehow or it seemed like I understood her Japanese enough for her to continue that way) they basically said that since I had proof that I paid them, or at the very least that I sent two thousand dollars to them, they can't in good conscience make me send them another couple grand to make up for their oopsy. So it's probably lost in the system, and as far as the situation has progressed I don't need to pay.
Which is good, but it was a bit frightening at the time.
Also, talked to Jason about quarter break plans. I'll be going to Kyoto for a week (ish) and probably not be able to blog then. Be gone from about the 29th til the 7th. So, looking forward to that.
Friday, May 22, 2009
Let's do this, shall we?
So, my sleeping schedule is still thrown out of whack. If this isn't up by noon, then check back at about 5 for the update.
There are tons of animals on campus all of a sudden. Maybe my memory is poor, but I don't remember all of them here before the winter hit. There are bugs everywhere, especially in my room (where they do not belong), cats on campus, someone brought a dog, more birds than usual (the bridge is filled with crows at all times) and generally smaller birds everywhere else. Really, I walk around and they just swoop at me. It's like an Alfred Hitchcock film.
Class is still boring, and I doubt that's going to change. It's almost as if I'm repenting for my sins for two hours a day at this point. But, I have the upcoming break to look forward to, so that should be good. Speaking of which, JM bought my extra tickets to Fukuoka off of me, so that's a free 4000円 right there, which is nice. Does anyone have problem seeing the yen symbol? Should I use ￥? Aw whatever.
I had every intent of going to Senjinkai for once, but it started raining. And then it started thundering. And then we got an announcement over the intercom that everyone whom is outside needs to come inside immediately, and we aren't allowed to leave until they announce to us again. Apparently thunderstorms are a bit more dangerous in the mountains, and in actuality are a bit scarier, but also pretty cool. VERY loud, they are. Hopefully the next one is a bit later at night so it's really dark out when it happens.
Debating going downtown after classes today. I still need to download some Family Guy for Fanxing, and that's hard to do on campus. Guess I should probably go then.
Hip hip hurrah.
There are tons of animals on campus all of a sudden. Maybe my memory is poor, but I don't remember all of them here before the winter hit. There are bugs everywhere, especially in my room (where they do not belong), cats on campus, someone brought a dog, more birds than usual (the bridge is filled with crows at all times) and generally smaller birds everywhere else. Really, I walk around and they just swoop at me. It's like an Alfred Hitchcock film.
Class is still boring, and I doubt that's going to change. It's almost as if I'm repenting for my sins for two hours a day at this point. But, I have the upcoming break to look forward to, so that should be good. Speaking of which, JM bought my extra tickets to Fukuoka off of me, so that's a free 4000円 right there, which is nice. Does anyone have problem seeing the yen symbol? Should I use ￥? Aw whatever.
I had every intent of going to Senjinkai for once, but it started raining. And then it started thundering. And then we got an announcement over the intercom that everyone whom is outside needs to come inside immediately, and we aren't allowed to leave until they announce to us again. Apparently thunderstorms are a bit more dangerous in the mountains, and in actuality are a bit scarier, but also pretty cool. VERY loud, they are. Hopefully the next one is a bit later at night so it's really dark out when it happens.
Debating going downtown after classes today. I still need to download some Family Guy for Fanxing, and that's hard to do on campus. Guess I should probably go then.
Hip hip hurrah.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Late Again and Again
Sorry for this happening so much lately. I've been exhausted from trying to reroute my sleep schedule. I'm back on waking up early and falling asleep early, which is unforutunate, but in a more positive trend. At the same time this is making me sleep through the time I normally blog so.... that sucks. Anyways....
Yesterday was a great day. I woke up early and hung around on campus, playing some games, making breakfast, drawing a bit out of boredom. Then I remembered that I needed to hand in the work permissions application, so I went ahead and finally did that. They say it'll be in sometime after the first of next month, so I'll have that in and can try to get a bit of work after the mid semester break comes around.
I got in a full work out in the morning too, which was really nice because I haven't really gotten to that in a while. I'm not sure if I've mentioned that at all in here but I've been trying to do a bit of working out here on account that otherwise I'm just sitting on my ass at my desk all day. Really, desk, bed, and kitchen in a cycle. There is nothing to do on campus and very little within walking distance, so there isn't much of a point to leave the dorms. Although now that the weather is nicer I think I'm going to try walking down town. It takes about an hour to an hour and a half from what I've heard, so better make sure my iphone is charged else I want a really boring walk.
I went downtown and immediately negated the workout by going to McDonald's and an internet cafe. Go me! I've been meaning to get down to the internet cafe for a good week now and just haven't bothered with it (been looking for shoes instead) so it was good to get down there. Finished downloading Thor comics (all of them. I have all of them now. Boo ya.) and watched Hot Fuzz onMogulus livestream. I can't believe that I hadn't seen that movie yet, it was hilarious. Also got around to playing TF2 which was always good. I can't remember how to add scripts in though, so I'm playing au natural. It's unfortunate that I'm still kicking ass to the top of the charts, because that means that I really need to find better servers or something.
After I got out of there I was hungry again. So, I figured I should get some ramen. The internet cafe is right next to Ku-ta Ramen which is the best ramen in the world, but I figure I need to diversify a bit. I was going to just be lazy and eat the stuff at You Me town again, but I passed the smelly ramen place and decided to stop there. Really this place smells. Or at least from the outside, cause it wasn't so bad inside, but the outside smells like raw sewage. Pretty sure it's supposed to, though. Tonkotsu ramen is made with pork bone and is supposed to smell rank, and it's said that the more awful it smells the better it tastes. And the place is Ooita Tonkotsu Ramen, so I guess it's living up to its namesake. The ramen was also damn cheap at only 500 yen for a good sized bowl, and it was pretty good. There were these weird possibly vegetables in it that I had no idea what exactly they were, but they were tasty. Unfortunately I didn't eat the seaweed paper, because I wasn't exactly sure how to go about that, and when it got down to it it was the only thing left in the bowl. Felt sort of bad, but I also feel like I don't really care.
Went to You Me town afterward to pick up some snacks and a One Piece figure (shut up) and to look at the shoes again to see if they've changed. I probably am going to be stuck buying an 80 dollar pair of shoes. They'd better last me for that much. I'm going to try Foot Park before anything though, and hopefully they've got cheapass shoes that I can pick up. The soles on mine are practically nonexistant and there is a small hold that you can poke through on one of them. I have a feeling we're going to hit a rainy season again, so probably a good idea to get some watertight foot coverings.
I was sort of in and out on the bus ride home, which was nice because it went faster. Got back to campus and fell asleep the second I sat down, then woke up a few hours later and took all the stuff out of my pockets and got my shoes and belt and glasses off so that I could sleep for real. And forgot to blog in the process.
Well, I'm better now, things should fare well tonight. Still though, the day was really enjoyable for having done most of that stuff alone (ran into someone I knew at McDonald's though) so I should try to get that going on more often. Hurrah.
Yesterday was a great day. I woke up early and hung around on campus, playing some games, making breakfast, drawing a bit out of boredom. Then I remembered that I needed to hand in the work permissions application, so I went ahead and finally did that. They say it'll be in sometime after the first of next month, so I'll have that in and can try to get a bit of work after the mid semester break comes around.
I got in a full work out in the morning too, which was really nice because I haven't really gotten to that in a while. I'm not sure if I've mentioned that at all in here but I've been trying to do a bit of working out here on account that otherwise I'm just sitting on my ass at my desk all day. Really, desk, bed, and kitchen in a cycle. There is nothing to do on campus and very little within walking distance, so there isn't much of a point to leave the dorms. Although now that the weather is nicer I think I'm going to try walking down town. It takes about an hour to an hour and a half from what I've heard, so better make sure my iphone is charged else I want a really boring walk.
I went downtown and immediately negated the workout by going to McDonald's and an internet cafe. Go me! I've been meaning to get down to the internet cafe for a good week now and just haven't bothered with it (been looking for shoes instead) so it was good to get down there. Finished downloading Thor comics (all of them. I have all of them now. Boo ya.) and watched Hot Fuzz on
After I got out of there I was hungry again. So, I figured I should get some ramen. The internet cafe is right next to Ku-ta Ramen which is the best ramen in the world, but I figure I need to diversify a bit. I was going to just be lazy and eat the stuff at You Me town again, but I passed the smelly ramen place and decided to stop there. Really this place smells. Or at least from the outside, cause it wasn't so bad inside, but the outside smells like raw sewage. Pretty sure it's supposed to, though. Tonkotsu ramen is made with pork bone and is supposed to smell rank, and it's said that the more awful it smells the better it tastes. And the place is Ooita Tonkotsu Ramen, so I guess it's living up to its namesake. The ramen was also damn cheap at only 500 yen for a good sized bowl, and it was pretty good. There were these weird possibly vegetables in it that I had no idea what exactly they were, but they were tasty. Unfortunately I didn't eat the seaweed paper, because I wasn't exactly sure how to go about that, and when it got down to it it was the only thing left in the bowl. Felt sort of bad, but I also feel like I don't really care.
Went to You Me town afterward to pick up some snacks and a One Piece figure (shut up) and to look at the shoes again to see if they've changed. I probably am going to be stuck buying an 80 dollar pair of shoes. They'd better last me for that much. I'm going to try Foot Park before anything though, and hopefully they've got cheapass shoes that I can pick up. The soles on mine are practically nonexistant and there is a small hold that you can poke through on one of them. I have a feeling we're going to hit a rainy season again, so probably a good idea to get some watertight foot coverings.
I was sort of in and out on the bus ride home, which was nice because it went faster. Got back to campus and fell asleep the second I sat down, then woke up a few hours later and took all the stuff out of my pockets and got my shoes and belt and glasses off so that I could sleep for real. And forgot to blog in the process.
Well, I'm better now, things should fare well tonight. Still though, the day was really enjoyable for having done most of that stuff alone (ran into someone I knew at McDonald's though) so I should try to get that going on more often. Hurrah.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Time Keeps on Slippin
Into the future. And holy crap, apparently I have two weeks left in the quarter. Who would've thought? I am so close to the break, and closer still to coming home. I feel like everything is going by too fast and I'll never be able to get everything done.
I looked into Kumamoto bus tickets and those are 2700円 each way, and I already plan on getting to Kyoto which is going to be a 10800円 round trip ticket again. Still need to talk to Jason about that, though. Not sure where to find geisha yet, although I suppose I could ask at the tourism office. It seems like a weird thing to ask, but I guess I'm still tied back with the Western notion that geisha are prostitutes instead of performers. I'll get over that eventually.
JM and I are still going to hike the mountain one of these days, so probably after the break sometime. I need to start going to Oita more frequently, and I'm thinking of one day just picking a random city on the train route and going there to see what's what.
Debating if I should actually try to get a job, considering it'd take away from the time I have to do things, but I guess once or twice a week wouldn't take away from things too much. It'd make up for my bus fare, at least.
One thing I forgot to point out from the other day when we took the cab back. The city is a lot smaller than I thought. The buses take forever, but that's because they take routes that are a bit out of the way and stop once every two blocks. What amounts to a 40-45 minutes bus ride is essentially a 15 minute drive at the most. It shrunk the city so much in my head that I've basically been encouraged to get out of it more, so hopefully that's a bit more possible in the future.
I also need to work harder on my Onsen Master towel. I have umm... zero, stamps. Every time I've gone to the onsen I always forgot to bring my stamp booklet, and I'm not actually sure where to find it in my room at the moment. If I find it before I go downtown later then I'll bring it along and hopefully find an onsen to hop into (unlikely that I won't, there are like three on every block).
Overall, Japan suddenly became bigger, Beppu suddenly became smaller, and I'm out of time. Now to rush some enjoyment.
I looked into Kumamoto bus tickets and those are 2700円 each way, and I already plan on getting to Kyoto which is going to be a 10800円 round trip ticket again. Still need to talk to Jason about that, though. Not sure where to find geisha yet, although I suppose I could ask at the tourism office. It seems like a weird thing to ask, but I guess I'm still tied back with the Western notion that geisha are prostitutes instead of performers. I'll get over that eventually.
JM and I are still going to hike the mountain one of these days, so probably after the break sometime. I need to start going to Oita more frequently, and I'm thinking of one day just picking a random city on the train route and going there to see what's what.
Debating if I should actually try to get a job, considering it'd take away from the time I have to do things, but I guess once or twice a week wouldn't take away from things too much. It'd make up for my bus fare, at least.
One thing I forgot to point out from the other day when we took the cab back. The city is a lot smaller than I thought. The buses take forever, but that's because they take routes that are a bit out of the way and stop once every two blocks. What amounts to a 40-45 minutes bus ride is essentially a 15 minute drive at the most. It shrunk the city so much in my head that I've basically been encouraged to get out of it more, so hopefully that's a bit more possible in the future.
I also need to work harder on my Onsen Master towel. I have umm... zero, stamps. Every time I've gone to the onsen I always forgot to bring my stamp booklet, and I'm not actually sure where to find it in my room at the moment. If I find it before I go downtown later then I'll bring it along and hopefully find an onsen to hop into (unlikely that I won't, there are like three on every block).
Overall, Japan suddenly became bigger, Beppu suddenly became smaller, and I'm out of time. Now to rush some enjoyment.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Like the Dumbest Person You Know
So, the paint is wearing away on my glasses frames, right? Any normal person would just ignore this and possibly start thinking about buying new frames. Not me though, because I'm crafty. I had the genius idea to take my permanent marker and color in all the areas that were rubbed away. Thankfully my shaky hand didn't smear any on the lenses as far as I know, but considering I'm still letting it set for a few more minutes I guess I can't really tell yet. Here's hopin.
I had stayed up all night again, because that's what I'm all about lately. Was doing fine, doing real well, when I needed to finish up my homework. Now, my desk is cluttered and unusable, so I had to do my work on the bed. The bed where I can get comfortable, and most likely fall asleep. Which I did. But never fear, I didn't sleep through class this time! Just the first five minutes, and managed to get there with most of the class left. Teacher asked why I was late and I told her I came in from Beppu and missed the early bus, and that seemed to suffice.
I was planning to go downtown after class, but I decided against it. Two reasons: One, I had a bad feeling that I'd run into my teacher either on the bus, or downtown for some reason (it's happened with other teachers. Beppu is not very big, and everyone takes the same bus route) and she'd question why I was going down twice in one day. Also, by the time I was going to go down I'd end up taking the last bus back to campus when I wanted to come back, and I hate doing that cause it's always damn crowded. Silly reason, but I stick to it.
Anyways, because I should be doing stuff like this more often, quick Japanese lesson/commentary:
For those of you whom don't know, there are two types of Japanese "alphabets" plus the kanji (the complicated Chinese characters). One of the alphabets is for native Japanese words and the other is for foreign ones (or at least that's what they tell you, considering the line gets blurred to jigoku and back).
Of the foreign alphabet I've noticed 3 ways to localize things.
1) Direct translation (or closest capable). This is generally the most frequent one, but because it needs to be adjusted for Japanese pronunciation, generally it'll sound different. For example, gas pump would be ガソリンスタンド(gasolinstando-Gasoline Stand). Then there are the ones that just work, like ワイン(wine). Then there are ones that get butchered, like マクドナルド(makudonarudo - McDonald's)
2) Direct spelling change over. This completely disregards the way that the word is pronounced and will just translate the way the word is spelled instead. I've seen this mostly in electronics and some city names, but it pops up in other places too. Example for this would be ニュース（nyusu - news) where it's pronounce closer to noose than news.
3) Shortening. This changes the word beyond most recognition. Little kids learning English in Japan have been known to do this with English words the way that it's done in katakana, much to the bewilderment of their teachers. Examples would include エイアコン(eiakon - air conditioner) and レモコン(remokon - remote control).
My examples are terrible, but I'm still tired from my one hour of sleep and there are people yelling in the hallway for some reason. So that's the best yer gettin tonight.
I had stayed up all night again, because that's what I'm all about lately. Was doing fine, doing real well, when I needed to finish up my homework. Now, my desk is cluttered and unusable, so I had to do my work on the bed. The bed where I can get comfortable, and most likely fall asleep. Which I did. But never fear, I didn't sleep through class this time! Just the first five minutes, and managed to get there with most of the class left. Teacher asked why I was late and I told her I came in from Beppu and missed the early bus, and that seemed to suffice.
I was planning to go downtown after class, but I decided against it. Two reasons: One, I had a bad feeling that I'd run into my teacher either on the bus, or downtown for some reason (it's happened with other teachers. Beppu is not very big, and everyone takes the same bus route) and she'd question why I was going down twice in one day. Also, by the time I was going to go down I'd end up taking the last bus back to campus when I wanted to come back, and I hate doing that cause it's always damn crowded. Silly reason, but I stick to it.
Anyways, because I should be doing stuff like this more often, quick Japanese lesson/commentary:
For those of you whom don't know, there are two types of Japanese "alphabets" plus the kanji (the complicated Chinese characters). One of the alphabets is for native Japanese words and the other is for foreign ones (or at least that's what they tell you, considering the line gets blurred to jigoku and back).
Of the foreign alphabet I've noticed 3 ways to localize things.
1) Direct translation (or closest capable). This is generally the most frequent one, but because it needs to be adjusted for Japanese pronunciation, generally it'll sound different. For example, gas pump would be ガソリンスタンド(gasolinstando-Gasoline Stand). Then there are the ones that just work, like ワイン(wine). Then there are ones that get butchered, like マクドナルド(makudonarudo - McDonald's)
2) Direct spelling change over. This completely disregards the way that the word is pronounced and will just translate the way the word is spelled instead. I've seen this mostly in electronics and some city names, but it pops up in other places too. Example for this would be ニュース（nyusu - news) where it's pronounce closer to noose than news.
3) Shortening. This changes the word beyond most recognition. Little kids learning English in Japan have been known to do this with English words the way that it's done in katakana, much to the bewilderment of their teachers. Examples would include エイアコン(eiakon - air conditioner) and レモコン(remokon - remote control).
My examples are terrible, but I'm still tired from my one hour of sleep and there are people yelling in the hallway for some reason. So that's the best yer gettin tonight.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Haha Oops
Lost track of time there. One update fresh off the grill comin up.
Since it's Sunday, and I claim this as customary to provide myself content when I'm lazy, let's look into the referral info.
I've resigned myself to accepting that I will never stop getting hits for Maine Coon. It's just not going to happen. For more information about Maine, check out this informative and entertaining music video.
Another hit comes from a search for "chiizubagaa" and that brought about a comment from a fellow Japan traveler, whom assured me that my issues with trying to custom order my food are universal. Good to know that I'm not just incompetent. I've grown accustomed to that, but I like to be proven wrong.
So I had grand plans today. I woke up early and I was going to go downtown. Watched a couple episodes of One Piece and took a shower and was all ready to go down and get some ramen and do some shopping and maybe look for something cool to do while I'm down there. And then a typhoon hit and all of the buses and school services stopped. So... that really, really sucked.
There was also a movie tonight as with every Sunday. The announcement said that it wouldn't be in English or have subtitles so I stopped caring. When I went to the mini-coop later I saw a poster for it saying it was the Death Note movie. Well dang, I really wanted to see that, and by the time I saw the poster the movie had ended. Well poop.
Mother Nature and Murphy's Law are teaming up to hate on me.
Since it's Sunday, and I claim this as customary to provide myself content when I'm lazy, let's look into the referral info.
I've resigned myself to accepting that I will never stop getting hits for Maine Coon. It's just not going to happen. For more information about Maine, check out this informative and entertaining music video.
Another hit comes from a search for "chiizubagaa" and that brought about a comment from a fellow Japan traveler, whom assured me that my issues with trying to custom order my food are universal. Good to know that I'm not just incompetent. I've grown accustomed to that, but I like to be proven wrong.
So I had grand plans today. I woke up early and I was going to go downtown. Watched a couple episodes of One Piece and took a shower and was all ready to go down and get some ramen and do some shopping and maybe look for something cool to do while I'm down there. And then a typhoon hit and all of the buses and school services stopped. So... that really, really sucked.
There was also a movie tonight as with every Sunday. The announcement said that it wouldn't be in English or have subtitles so I stopped caring. When I went to the mini-coop later I saw a poster for it saying it was the Death Note movie. Well dang, I really wanted to see that, and by the time I saw the poster the movie had ended. Well poop.
Mother Nature and Murphy's Law are teaming up to hate on me.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Hit Parade La La La
So, last night was the party at Hit Parade. Because I'm not sure I mentioned it or not, Hit Parade is a club/bar set up in the fashion of the American 60's. Kind of a strange thing to find in Japan (and strangely not uncommon), but it was cool. Also, don't let them find out that you're an APU student. Hurray justified prejudices!
We showed up a bit earlier than we were supposed to, but they let us in anyway. We got a seat and hung out for a bit waiting for people to arrive and got a good look at the decor. Nice open setting with a dance floor and pictures of old American celebrities all over the place. Our section had Frank Sinatra, Doris Day, Judy Garland, Cary Grant and a few others that I can't recall. All the waiters had pompadours. It was fantastic.
The place was a tabehodai/nomihodai, so essentially "All you can eat all you can drink". Food was decent, with chicken, fish, french fries, and some Japanese stuff and spring rolls. Also, ice cream. The ice cream was pretty good.
There was a live band that played 25 minute sets then took a 15 minute break for the whole night. I'd hate to have that job. There were two guy leads and a girl who was pretty cute and wearing a go-go girl dress. The non-singing band members were dressed in identical suits with yellow and black blazers, and I totally wanted one. The lead guitarist was awesome. He had this kinda dazed happy look on his face the whole time like he was drunk out of his mind, and he would come out and rip these awesome solos while just standing there smiling and looking around like he wasn't sure entirely what was going on, and then just go back into the corner.
About halfway through the night, the guy who's party we were there celebrating actually left. Boooo. Who does that (other than a certain someone at a certain grad party. Oh snap). So that was a bit weird at first, but we quickly closed the gap and kept onward. We were a dual group, though, and the other half of our group was celebrating a different person's birthday. The girl got absolutely smashed and began stumbling around everywhere, and even fell on me at one point which was awkward. After about an hour of that she just passed out dead drunk for the next 4 hours or so. At about the same time the jerks on that side of the party got all rowdy and ended up getting our drinks cut off for the rest of the night, which is the main point of not saying you're an APU student because then they do that pre-emptively. So that absolutely sucked, cause it was 30 bucks to get in and on top of that I was really thirsty. Stupid Americans.
The band was good, and the ambience in the place was generally enjoyable. There were people on the dance floor that had to come there often or something, because they knew every dance move that the performers were doing and did them along with them. That was odd.
Made some friends, talked with some people, had a good time. The taxi finding process afterward was a bit awkward, but we managed. The birthday girl was placed "delicately" into a cab with her drunk ass self, and then we had to talk another girl who was too drunk to function into going back to campus, but it worked out in the end.
The place was really fun and I'd like to go back, but probably make sure that the people we're there with don't just suck overall.
Also: Technical difficulties. I tried uploading the photos, but it just is NOT WORKING. THey'll be up when I can get them to work.
We showed up a bit earlier than we were supposed to, but they let us in anyway. We got a seat and hung out for a bit waiting for people to arrive and got a good look at the decor. Nice open setting with a dance floor and pictures of old American celebrities all over the place. Our section had Frank Sinatra, Doris Day, Judy Garland, Cary Grant and a few others that I can't recall. All the waiters had pompadours. It was fantastic.
The place was a tabehodai/nomihodai, so essentially "All you can eat all you can drink". Food was decent, with chicken, fish, french fries, and some Japanese stuff and spring rolls. Also, ice cream. The ice cream was pretty good.
There was a live band that played 25 minute sets then took a 15 minute break for the whole night. I'd hate to have that job. There were two guy leads and a girl who was pretty cute and wearing a go-go girl dress. The non-singing band members were dressed in identical suits with yellow and black blazers, and I totally wanted one. The lead guitarist was awesome. He had this kinda dazed happy look on his face the whole time like he was drunk out of his mind, and he would come out and rip these awesome solos while just standing there smiling and looking around like he wasn't sure entirely what was going on, and then just go back into the corner.
About halfway through the night, the guy who's party we were there celebrating actually left. Boooo. Who does that (other than a certain someone at a certain grad party. Oh snap). So that was a bit weird at first, but we quickly closed the gap and kept onward. We were a dual group, though, and the other half of our group was celebrating a different person's birthday. The girl got absolutely smashed and began stumbling around everywhere, and even fell on me at one point which was awkward. After about an hour of that she just passed out dead drunk for the next 4 hours or so. At about the same time the jerks on that side of the party got all rowdy and ended up getting our drinks cut off for the rest of the night, which is the main point of not saying you're an APU student because then they do that pre-emptively. So that absolutely sucked, cause it was 30 bucks to get in and on top of that I was really thirsty. Stupid Americans.
The band was good, and the ambience in the place was generally enjoyable. There were people on the dance floor that had to come there often or something, because they knew every dance move that the performers were doing and did them along with them. That was odd.
Made some friends, talked with some people, had a good time. The taxi finding process afterward was a bit awkward, but we managed. The birthday girl was placed "delicately" into a cab with her drunk ass self, and then we had to talk another girl who was too drunk to function into going back to campus, but it worked out in the end.
The place was really fun and I'd like to go back, but probably make sure that the people we're there with don't just suck overall.
Also: Technical difficulties. I tried uploading the photos, but it just is NOT WORKING. THey'll be up when I can get them to work.
Friday, May 15, 2009
Sweet Glory Lordy Almighty
Apparently studying can be useful towards learning things. Somebody inform the presses.
On that note, even though I'm doing better in classes now that I'm actually attending them, Japanese still is increasingly unbearable. These things happen, being in Japan and all.
Apparently I had some photos on my iPhone. Let's look at those.
First up:
Look at this shirt. Look. at. this. shirt.
Is that not the worst shirt you've ever seen? I'm pretty sure the thing at the bottom is a pun using a kid's name, so this was made by a mother or grandmother I'd assume. Gifts are supposed to be an act of love. This was clearly part of a machiavellan scheme to get the kid to be so ostracised by the world that he'd never leave his mother's side. Pure evil genius.
This was just a cool car. Photo might be a bit blurred because the guy was walking up to it while I was taking the shot. This was right after checking Kumamoto prices, which are something like 35 dollars roundtrip if I checked right...hopefully.
This is McDonald's in Japanese. Double Quarter pounder, fries, and a coke. English writing galore. You can't see it in this photo, but the fries actually say "Golden Crispy Fries. We love to see you smile." There is virtually no difference between the layout except the fine print being in Japanese. Oh, also it tastes better here. I'll sort of miss food this cheap being this tasty.
Obligatory Pac-man shot
This was the best thing to happen to me all week. I bought this pizza on the assumption that it'd be better than the other pizzas I've bought form the store on the assumption that it didn't have corn or mayonnaise on it (dammit, Japan). I opted to bake it (we can do that apparently! There are tiny oven...things built into the stovetops. Almost nothing fits in them.) and this chose to be the best option available. This pizza wasn't quite delicious, but it was adequate. All other pizza that I've ingested here tastes like bile, so this was a very nice change of pace. Will by again, although it is sort of expensive. Maybe I'll make my own tiny pizza? Who knows.
Blog might be late tomorrow. Possibly non-existent. Going downtown to celebrate a friend's birthday, so I'll be back late.
On that note, even though I'm doing better in classes now that I'm actually attending them, Japanese still is increasingly unbearable. These things happen, being in Japan and all.
Apparently I had some photos on my iPhone. Let's look at those.
First up:
Look at this shirt. Look. at. this. shirt.
Is that not the worst shirt you've ever seen? I'm pretty sure the thing at the bottom is a pun using a kid's name, so this was made by a mother or grandmother I'd assume. Gifts are supposed to be an act of love. This was clearly part of a machiavellan scheme to get the kid to be so ostracised by the world that he'd never leave his mother's side. Pure evil genius.
This was just a cool car. Photo might be a bit blurred because the guy was walking up to it while I was taking the shot. This was right after checking Kumamoto prices, which are something like 35 dollars roundtrip if I checked right...hopefully.
This is McDonald's in Japanese. Double Quarter pounder, fries, and a coke. English writing galore. You can't see it in this photo, but the fries actually say "Golden Crispy Fries. We love to see you smile." There is virtually no difference between the layout except the fine print being in Japanese. Oh, also it tastes better here. I'll sort of miss food this cheap being this tasty.
This was the best thing to happen to me all week. I bought this pizza on the assumption that it'd be better than the other pizzas I've bought form the store on the assumption that it didn't have corn or mayonnaise on it (dammit, Japan). I opted to bake it (we can do that apparently! There are tiny oven...things built into the stovetops. Almost nothing fits in them.) and this chose to be the best option available. This pizza wasn't quite delicious, but it was adequate. All other pizza that I've ingested here tastes like bile, so this was a very nice change of pace. Will by again, although it is sort of expensive. Maybe I'll make my own tiny pizza? Who knows.
Blog might be late tomorrow. Possibly non-existent. Going downtown to celebrate a friend's birthday, so I'll be back late.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Mexican Radio
I am so sick of that song. It keeps coming up on my playlist. I used to like it, but come on. Enough is enough.
So, today I was supposed to go down to the post office. Like I've been meaning to do for the past two weeks. And I'm sure you're all expecting me to say that I slept in and I missed it and I just stayed on campus lounging around instead.
That'd be funnier, but for once it isn't true. Ha! I went to a different, CLOSER post office that apparently is open even later, but I still got there early enough to have gone to the other one, so I was on top of things this time. Was a nice change of pace.
So, I talked to the lady, and I had prepared some words for this. I had the word for "shipping by sea" and I asked if they were able to do that. Mel had told me that I'm probably being too cautious and that I could've probably just used ship and boat and been fine, but I wanted to do it right. So the woman looked at me confused for a moment and then I asked her if they could ship by boat, to which she went "Ah, Sea Mail!" Yeah... Sea Mail. So much for learning Japanese.
She gave me a chart for pricing for air, surface, and sea shipping. Shipping by sea is 3 times less than air mail. That is RIDICULOUS. Even so, 20 kilos is still a good 100 dollars. So I should probably try to keep it under that. Also, their predetermined box sizes are sort of small, so it'll probably cost an extra ten dollars to ship an irregular sized box. Even more reason to keep it lighter! But I need to get rid of all/most of my books/comics/toys/winter clothes and old luggage before I leave. Don't want all that crap hangin around when I need to get on the plane, no siree.
I also went to go to the hobby shop that I used to go to frequently but haven't made it to in months, at least since before the winter break. Turns out that they were closed today for inventory.
The odds....
Got me some KFC which has also been a while, and was going to get some ramen but I ended up going grocery shopping instead. Got some actual tasty looking pizza for once, we'll see how well that holds out, and some more hash browns. Also some instant ramen, Japanese style. It has a dip in it that you're supposed to cook an egg in? While the noodle block is boiling? We'll see how that works. The noodles are really thin though, and flat, and the flavour packet came pre-mixed so couldn't make them dry like I wanted to. Dang. Ah well, still tasty.
All in all, a good day. Although I did wake up late and I'm still finishing my homework. Yeah....
So, today I was supposed to go down to the post office. Like I've been meaning to do for the past two weeks. And I'm sure you're all expecting me to say that I slept in and I missed it and I just stayed on campus lounging around instead.
That'd be funnier, but for once it isn't true. Ha! I went to a different, CLOSER post office that apparently is open even later, but I still got there early enough to have gone to the other one, so I was on top of things this time. Was a nice change of pace.
So, I talked to the lady, and I had prepared some words for this. I had the word for "shipping by sea" and I asked if they were able to do that. Mel had told me that I'm probably being too cautious and that I could've probably just used ship and boat and been fine, but I wanted to do it right. So the woman looked at me confused for a moment and then I asked her if they could ship by boat, to which she went "Ah, Sea Mail!" Yeah... Sea Mail. So much for learning Japanese.
She gave me a chart for pricing for air, surface, and sea shipping. Shipping by sea is 3 times less than air mail. That is RIDICULOUS. Even so, 20 kilos is still a good 100 dollars. So I should probably try to keep it under that. Also, their predetermined box sizes are sort of small, so it'll probably cost an extra ten dollars to ship an irregular sized box. Even more reason to keep it lighter! But I need to get rid of all/most of my books/comics/toys/winter clothes and old luggage before I leave. Don't want all that crap hangin around when I need to get on the plane, no siree.
I also went to go to the hobby shop that I used to go to frequently but haven't made it to in months, at least since before the winter break. Turns out that they were closed today for inventory.
The odds....
Got me some KFC which has also been a while, and was going to get some ramen but I ended up going grocery shopping instead. Got some actual tasty looking pizza for once, we'll see how well that holds out, and some more hash browns. Also some instant ramen, Japanese style. It has a dip in it that you're supposed to cook an egg in? While the noodle block is boiling? We'll see how that works. The noodles are really thin though, and flat, and the flavour packet came pre-mixed so couldn't make them dry like I wanted to. Dang. Ah well, still tasty.
All in all, a good day. Although I did wake up late and I'm still finishing my homework. Yeah....
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Sometimes a parrot talks!
You know what Japan has a lot of? No, not crappy food. Okay, yes that, but not the answer I'm looking for. They have plenty of HUMIDITY.
It's so humid that my sweat is sweating. There is vague circulation in my room via the cracks in the door, but I can't keep the door open and listen to music so screw that noise. I'm debating if SCIENCE can help my by turning on the bathroom fan and trying to use that as circulation. I wish they'd just turn on the air conditioning already, don't want my laptop to crash again or anything.
Speaking of my music, check out this awesomely nerdy Winamp skin:
If anyone's interested, you can pick it up here at the official site.
Was exhausted from not sleeping last night (I hate the heat. SO. MUCH.) so I crashed after classes. It was very relaxing, but it also ensured that nothing got done. No classes tomorrow, so at least I'll have that to compensate, but I should probably do some tonight so I don't fall too far behind.
If I don't oversleep then tomorrow I will FINALLY make it to the post office. The event that I've been speaking of for two weeks now. Cause I'm on top of things.
Speaking of being on top of things, I forgot to transfer money into my checking account when I bought my plane ticket so it was overdrawn by 380 dollars. Only 60 of that is overdraft fees, but it's pretty much my own stupidity there so... what're ya gonna do. Ah well, I still got enough to survive the rest of the time here.
But feel free to send me bags of money, especially the kind with dollar signs printed right on them.
It's so humid that my sweat is sweating. There is vague circulation in my room via the cracks in the door, but I can't keep the door open and listen to music so screw that noise. I'm debating if SCIENCE can help my by turning on the bathroom fan and trying to use that as circulation. I wish they'd just turn on the air conditioning already, don't want my laptop to crash again or anything.
Speaking of my music, check out this awesomely nerdy Winamp skin:
If anyone's interested, you can pick it up here at the official site.
Was exhausted from not sleeping last night (I hate the heat. SO. MUCH.) so I crashed after classes. It was very relaxing, but it also ensured that nothing got done. No classes tomorrow, so at least I'll have that to compensate, but I should probably do some tonight so I don't fall too far behind.
If I don't oversleep then tomorrow I will FINALLY make it to the post office. The event that I've been speaking of for two weeks now. Cause I'm on top of things.
Speaking of being on top of things, I forgot to transfer money into my checking account when I bought my plane ticket so it was overdrawn by 380 dollars. Only 60 of that is overdraft fees, but it's pretty much my own stupidity there so... what're ya gonna do. Ah well, I still got enough to survive the rest of the time here.
But feel free to send me bags of money, especially the kind with dollar signs printed right on them.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Good news, Everybody!
Bad news!
Wait, no, it is good news. I found out that the one class that I've missed a whole bunch of classes in hasn't actually been taking attendance, so it's like I was actually there! Also, all the reading, films, and tests are online, so I really haven't missed anything if you get down to it. Also my nihongonese teacher is letting me do make up for the homework I missed there, so, also good.
And I had a kebab! That's not really out of the ordinary, but it's tasty and I figured I'd mention it.
Also made plans to watch some cartoons with Fanxing ('e wants to watch some Family Guy and Simpsons so I figured I'd download/ stream a couple episodes and we could do that) so that should be fun. Also, party this friday (::noisemakers::) so that'll be cool.
Have a friend knocking on my door tomorrow morning to make sure that I'm awake, so that's covered. I really need a bed that retracts into the wall when I wake up. Do they make those? They should. Best idea ever.
The air conditioning isn't on. They came through the dorms and tested them all to make sure they worked the other day, but then turned them off again for some reason. I supposed it's not that hot out (especially when I realize that I don't need to wear slippers anymore) but my laptop overheated earlier today, so that's upsetting. There is a slight possibility that this is due more to the fans in it being clogged with dust than to the actual heat, and the fact that it was extremely hot to an almost melting point in the fan area that went away almost instantly once I took my compressed air to it, but I feel like blaming the school for stuff and also I want my air conditioning, dangit.
I also found a toy in my bookshelf. Completely forgot about it.
I might go photographing this weekend, on account that the party will cost a lot of money (30 bucks? Augh) which is excusable for the unlimited food and drink they're offering (hard to come by here. Normal buffets are 15 bucks+ as is, and this one offers alcohol, so apparently that makes it cost more) so I need to find fun for the rest of the weekend that doesn't cost money.
And I haven't been to the lil waterfall area in a while, so should be fun.
Wait, no, it is good news. I found out that the one class that I've missed a whole bunch of classes in hasn't actually been taking attendance, so it's like I was actually there! Also, all the reading, films, and tests are online, so I really haven't missed anything if you get down to it. Also my nihongonese teacher is letting me do make up for the homework I missed there, so, also good.
And I had a kebab! That's not really out of the ordinary, but it's tasty and I figured I'd mention it.
Also made plans to watch some cartoons with Fanxing ('e wants to watch some Family Guy and Simpsons so I figured I'd download/ stream a couple episodes and we could do that) so that should be fun. Also, party this friday (::noisemakers::) so that'll be cool.
Have a friend knocking on my door tomorrow morning to make sure that I'm awake, so that's covered. I really need a bed that retracts into the wall when I wake up. Do they make those? They should. Best idea ever.
The air conditioning isn't on. They came through the dorms and tested them all to make sure they worked the other day, but then turned them off again for some reason. I supposed it's not that hot out (especially when I realize that I don't need to wear slippers anymore) but my laptop overheated earlier today, so that's upsetting. There is a slight possibility that this is due more to the fans in it being clogged with dust than to the actual heat, and the fact that it was extremely hot to an almost melting point in the fan area that went away almost instantly once I took my compressed air to it, but I feel like blaming the school for stuff and also I want my air conditioning, dangit.
I also found a toy in my bookshelf. Completely forgot about it.
I might go photographing this weekend, on account that the party will cost a lot of money (30 bucks? Augh) which is excusable for the unlimited food and drink they're offering (hard to come by here. Normal buffets are 15 bucks+ as is, and this one offers alcohol, so apparently that makes it cost more) so I need to find fun for the rest of the weekend that doesn't cost money.
And I haven't been to the lil waterfall area in a while, so should be fun.
Monday, May 11, 2009
Redundant Blog Title
I was going to open with a joke that according to my auto-complete I have already used before. I have been at this gig so long that I'm running out of material.
Hoo-boy.
Today was another hang out on campus day, As I'm saving my bus tickets til Tuesday on account that going to the post office while it'd open is a good move.
You'd think that my plans to just hang around all day and do nothing had no chance of being ruined, but you'd somehow be wrong. That's how much the universe enjoys kicking me in the spleen.
Essentially, I had homework to do, and being an American and thus highly likely to be a procrastinator, I wait til the last possible moment to do my work. For that rare occasion, I waited til the day before instead of right before class like I normally do, and I went to log into blackboard to do the assignment (hurray online work!). For some reason, the site was down, and has been down all day, and is down right now! Luckily the teacher sent out an e-mail saying she was aware of it, but still, the one time I decided to do something right and I can't. Go figure.
Also I had cookies for dinner. I really need to go shopping.
And because I feel like reminding you of how long ago everything was, guess what you're getting?
Hoo-boy.
Today was another hang out on campus day, As I'm saving my bus tickets til Tuesday on account that going to the post office while it'd open is a good move.
You'd think that my plans to just hang around all day and do nothing had no chance of being ruined, but you'd somehow be wrong. That's how much the universe enjoys kicking me in the spleen.
Essentially, I had homework to do, and being an American and thus highly likely to be a procrastinator, I wait til the last possible moment to do my work. For that rare occasion, I waited til the day before instead of right before class like I normally do, and I went to log into blackboard to do the assignment (hurray online work!). For some reason, the site was down, and has been down all day, and is down right now! Luckily the teacher sent out an e-mail saying she was aware of it, but still, the one time I decided to do something right and I can't. Go figure.
Also I had cookies for dinner. I really need to go shopping.
And because I feel like reminding you of how long ago everything was, guess what you're getting?
Sunday, May 10, 2009
200 Sbemails!
I mean, 200 blog posts.
Man it has been a wild ride. To think that I update this almost every day, even if I don't have anything to say in it! And that at least a handful of you are here every day whether I update or not in order to read about my mundanity. That's super, that really is. Touching, would be a word.
At the 100 mark Iphotoshopped MS Painted a picture of Godzilla wearing a party hat with explosions.
At the 200 mark, I've created a second blog.
"Oh. Shit." you probably just said to yourself. "Now he'll never update on time ever again."
You're probably right about that, but it has little to nothing to do with having a second blog, and much more to do with the fact that I am lazy and easily distracted. Besides, the other blog will only update Tuesdays and Fridays for now. It's a review site (in a sense) so it shouldn't be stealing any of the lack of content from here, and most likely will be a better read.
If you only visit there and avoid this blog, I'll understand. I won't forgive you, no, but I'll understand.
To actually put some relevant content down in here, I did go downtown today, but not until about 6. Now, the ATMs on campus clase at 5:30, and the ones in the convenience stores tend to close umm.... later. I didn't know an exact time. But apparently the time is right before I show up, because they closed at that exact time. I literally walked in as the bank attendant was locking it up for the night. So that sort of put a damper on the evening.
I did get excited to see that the shoe store was opened, on account that I need new shoes. Unfortunately, they don't have any in my size, and on top of that the cheapest shoes they offer are about 80 dollars. Boy do I love having comically large feet. I tried the mall again and no luck there either, so I think that I've resigned myself to ordering some shoes online. Probably Japanese Amazon, so that I don't need to pay more than slightly exorbitant shipping fees.
I did look into the Kumamoto tickets while I was out, and if I managed to converse properly with the guy, then they'e about 12 dollars each way, which is surprisingly cheaper than I thought it would be, so that's good at least. Going to double check that sometime soon, and maybe it'll even be lower! Wouldn't that be nice.
I also need to get back into cooking. I was given a lovely potato recipe in an old comments section (did I mention this already?) so I gotta try that out, and I still need to try the other recipes I've got written down. I went out and bought a pot, so that should be helpful and I totally won't just use it to cook ramen noodles.
Totally...
Man it has been a wild ride. To think that I update this almost every day, even if I don't have anything to say in it! And that at least a handful of you are here every day whether I update or not in order to read about my mundanity. That's super, that really is. Touching, would be a word.
At the 100 mark I
At the 200 mark, I've created a second blog.
"Oh. Shit." you probably just said to yourself. "Now he'll never update on time ever again."
You're probably right about that, but it has little to nothing to do with having a second blog, and much more to do with the fact that I am lazy and easily distracted. Besides, the other blog will only update Tuesdays and Fridays for now. It's a review site (in a sense) so it shouldn't be stealing any of the lack of content from here, and most likely will be a better read.
If you only visit there and avoid this blog, I'll understand. I won't forgive you, no, but I'll understand.
To actually put some relevant content down in here, I did go downtown today, but not until about 6. Now, the ATMs on campus clase at 5:30, and the ones in the convenience stores tend to close umm.... later. I didn't know an exact time. But apparently the time is right before I show up, because they closed at that exact time. I literally walked in as the bank attendant was locking it up for the night. So that sort of put a damper on the evening.
I did get excited to see that the shoe store was opened, on account that I need new shoes. Unfortunately, they don't have any in my size, and on top of that the cheapest shoes they offer are about 80 dollars. Boy do I love having comically large feet. I tried the mall again and no luck there either, so I think that I've resigned myself to ordering some shoes online. Probably Japanese Amazon, so that I don't need to pay more than slightly exorbitant shipping fees.
I did look into the Kumamoto tickets while I was out, and if I managed to converse properly with the guy, then they'e about 12 dollars each way, which is surprisingly cheaper than I thought it would be, so that's good at least. Going to double check that sometime soon, and maybe it'll even be lower! Wouldn't that be nice.
I also need to get back into cooking. I was given a lovely potato recipe in an old comments section (did I mention this already?) so I gotta try that out, and I still need to try the other recipes I've got written down. I went out and bought a pot, so that should be helpful and I totally won't just use it to cook ramen noodles.
Totally...
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Professional Nothing Doer
That sounds like a pretty sweet gig, methinks. It may possibly be my dream job, but I know that that position will always be held by "Chick Sexer" (not what it sounds like. They're the people who check the gender of baby chickens for 'distribution' and then toss them down chutes into other piles of baby chicks. Totally awesome).
That's basically explaining today (exciting, I know). Was going to head downtown, but time got away from me as it is oft to do. I ended up eating in the Pacific Cafe and being waited on in English which is a rarity there, considering the only two people I've ever seen working there are these nice middle aged Japanese women. It was possibly a result of my being white, but not in the way that is directly because I'm white. I was asked what drink I wanted, and for some reason was drawing a blank so I glanced over at the beverage list, and must have looked like a slack jawed foreigner as I stared blankly at a list of roughly 4 drinks because the question was repeated in English, and that furthered the rest of the order in the language.
Luckily, this guy was a student, and not like some of the less intelligible conversationalists from downtown.
I hate the word intelligible. It seems negativised already, but then you get unintelligible. Telligible should be the positive form. Then again, I guess we'd have telligent, and you'd sound pretty unsmart thanks to that.
Not sure if the post office is open on Saturdays, but here's hopin. I'll just try to get down there early, and then the rest of the day should follow accordingly.
That's basically explaining today (exciting, I know). Was going to head downtown, but time got away from me as it is oft to do. I ended up eating in the Pacific Cafe and being waited on in English which is a rarity there, considering the only two people I've ever seen working there are these nice middle aged Japanese women. It was possibly a result of my being white, but not in the way that is directly because I'm white. I was asked what drink I wanted, and for some reason was drawing a blank so I glanced over at the beverage list, and must have looked like a slack jawed foreigner as I stared blankly at a list of roughly 4 drinks because the question was repeated in English, and that furthered the rest of the order in the language.
Luckily, this guy was a student, and not like some of the less intelligible conversationalists from downtown.
I hate the word intelligible. It seems negativised already, but then you get unintelligible. Telligible should be the positive form. Then again, I guess we'd have telligent, and you'd sound pretty unsmart thanks to that.
Not sure if the post office is open on Saturdays, but here's hopin. I'll just try to get down there early, and then the rest of the day should follow accordingly.
Friday, May 8, 2009
Dr Horrible
My love affair with the movie Dr Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog is once again in full swing. My Captain Hammer shirt may be ruined, but my fandom is made anew. I came across the Commentary: The Musical tracks that somebody was nice enough to upload to Youtube, so I don't need to wait til I get back to the states and buy the DVD to hear them.
Of course, I'll still by the DVD, and probably watch it enough times for it to melt and cause the player to catch on fire.
Worth it.
In other news, the teacher yelled at me for missing classes. I didn't know... they could do that? In college at least. They're not supposed to care. But she seemed intent on hammering in the point that if I continue to miss classes (as if it is my plan to never attend class again) that I will fail, and that I missed assignments from being out (which, considering we're not allowed to hand in late work, which includes if we're out sick, seems redundant of her to mention). So all in all, I've missed three days total out of a semester long class thus far, and she is needlessly upset about it.
Oh well, guess I'll go master Japanese over the weekend to SHOW HER UP.
Tomorrow I'm going downtown to check on shipping prices for my junk (I've got a hefty package) and also check the ticket costs to go to Kumamoto. The couple people I've asked thus far seem intrigued by the idea, so hopefully I can build up a sizeable interest of people willing to spend 20 bucks to go to the zoo (I really wanna go to the zoo).
Also get me some ramen. Boo ya.
Of course, I'll still by the DVD, and probably watch it enough times for it to melt and cause the player to catch on fire.
Worth it.
In other news, the teacher yelled at me for missing classes. I didn't know... they could do that? In college at least. They're not supposed to care. But she seemed intent on hammering in the point that if I continue to miss classes (as if it is my plan to never attend class again) that I will fail, and that I missed assignments from being out (which, considering we're not allowed to hand in late work, which includes if we're out sick, seems redundant of her to mention). So all in all, I've missed three days total out of a semester long class thus far, and she is needlessly upset about it.
Oh well, guess I'll go master Japanese over the weekend to SHOW HER UP.
Tomorrow I'm going downtown to check on shipping prices for my junk (I've got a hefty package) and also check the ticket costs to go to Kumamoto. The couple people I've asked thus far seem intrigued by the idea, so hopefully I can build up a sizeable interest of people willing to spend 20 bucks to go to the zoo (I really wanna go to the zoo).
Also get me some ramen. Boo ya.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Tetrominos!
That's what they call 'em. The Tetris pieces, of course. Which I just got done playing. Boo ya.
I had every intention of going downtown today, but then I thought "I should probably study. It's been a while since I studied." And really, I was just going down to play video games anyways. Then I remembered that I had a reason to go downtown, what with the not having gone to the post office yet. But I'd already resigned to not go down, so I hung out on campus.
Also I only studied for like, an hour, so that plan also fell through. Man I rock.
So I don't know if I actually mentioned it in my blog yet, but I bought a plane ticket home. I leave August 9th at 12:10 pm, and I arrive August 9th at 10:12 pm. I also have a 7 hour layover in Chicago (O'HARAAAAAAA! [shakes fist]). So, apparently I'm time travelling.
I'm also going to make sure that I see the Brachiosaurus skeleton that they have on display at the airport this time I go. I was too concerned with not having slept/first time flying ever/going out of the country other than Canada for the first time ever/needing food/ craziness to wander around the terminal too much last time, but now that I'm aware that there is such a skeleton, I will probably get
arrested for climbing on it.
Unfortunately, I am not the type whom remembers to check concert dates and such. So last night, two days after I purchased my plane ticket, I looked up the 2009 tour dates for the pillows. And saw that they're playing in Fukuoka. On August 9th. At 6:30 pm.
So 6 hours after I LEAVE THE COUNTRY, one of my favorite bands is going to be playing downtown from the place I just left from. Talk about poor planning. And since I got it through this weird student flights site I can't push the date ahead a day or anything so... I weep for my failure. I might try to intersect a concert date with my traveling to Kyoto dates later this semester, but it might prove difficult. Unfortunately all the bands go down to Fukuoka and back up to the mainland, so the odds of anyone even coming close enough to travel to are insignificant.
Le sigh ~
At least I'll always have my hash browns.
I had every intention of going downtown today, but then I thought "I should probably study. It's been a while since I studied." And really, I was just going down to play video games anyways. Then I remembered that I had a reason to go downtown, what with the not having gone to the post office yet. But I'd already resigned to not go down, so I hung out on campus.
Also I only studied for like, an hour, so that plan also fell through. Man I rock.
So I don't know if I actually mentioned it in my blog yet, but I bought a plane ticket home. I leave August 9th at 12:10 pm, and I arrive August 9th at 10:12 pm. I also have a 7 hour layover in Chicago (O'HARAAAAAAA! [shakes fist]). So, apparently I'm time travelling.
I'm also going to make sure that I see the Brachiosaurus skeleton that they have on display at the airport this time I go. I was too concerned with not having slept/first time flying ever/going out of the country other than Canada for the first time ever/needing food/ craziness to wander around the terminal too much last time, but now that I'm aware that there is such a skeleton, I will probably get
arrested for climbing on it.
Unfortunately, I am not the type whom remembers to check concert dates and such. So last night, two days after I purchased my plane ticket, I looked up the 2009 tour dates for the pillows. And saw that they're playing in Fukuoka. On August 9th. At 6:30 pm.
So 6 hours after I LEAVE THE COUNTRY, one of my favorite bands is going to be playing downtown from the place I just left from. Talk about poor planning. And since I got it through this weird student flights site I can't push the date ahead a day or anything so... I weep for my failure. I might try to intersect a concert date with my traveling to Kyoto dates later this semester, but it might prove difficult. Unfortunately all the bands go down to Fukuoka and back up to the mainland, so the odds of anyone even coming close enough to travel to are insignificant.
Le sigh ~
At least I'll always have my hash browns.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Haha wow
So this is embarassing. I slept for 16 hours. SIXTEEN. That's almost a day. And as a result, missed bloging. Hoo boy. This is what I get for sucking at life, apparently.
Also missed a class or two, but that's less important.
Word to the wise: don't forget to set your alarm if you haven't slept in two days and are extremely exhausted. I know it seems like a good idea, but just don't do it.
So the kebab guy wasn't here yesterday, but the yakitori guy was here today. It was an inverse from last week, and one that I'm okay with. The yakitori guy (as well as the bread lady) leave me fulfilled for only about a dollar more than the kebab guy whom leaves me longing for more kebab.
I just went back and corrected that to say 'whom' instead of 'who'. How many bloggers do you know that spend the amount of time and effort to go back and correct things like that? And watch, I just typed all that while I was staring at my door because I heard a noise over there, so it's probably filled with tons of typos and junk that I'm gonna miss. Well, no time to check, got the future to head toward.
I may not be able to join Taekwondo Club. Apparently you need a gym membership, which is free, but they only give them out for the first two weeks of the semester. Which seems kind of.... well it is stupid. I will leave this country without understanding the rhyme and reason for the way that they do things. If I ever claim to, you should ready a stabbing implement for my arrival because I apparently have gone crazy, and the Roshi that you all knew and loved will have died.
Speaking of which, the noise at the door wasn't a zombie. Floor meeting slip. It's all cool.
Because I have nothing else really to say, I'll share some Awesome with you, or the Axis therein.
Have some Birdplane.
Also missed a class or two, but that's less important.
Word to the wise: don't forget to set your alarm if you haven't slept in two days and are extremely exhausted. I know it seems like a good idea, but just don't do it.
So the kebab guy wasn't here yesterday, but the yakitori guy was here today. It was an inverse from last week, and one that I'm okay with. The yakitori guy (as well as the bread lady) leave me fulfilled for only about a dollar more than the kebab guy whom leaves me longing for more kebab.
I just went back and corrected that to say 'whom' instead of 'who'. How many bloggers do you know that spend the amount of time and effort to go back and correct things like that? And watch, I just typed all that while I was staring at my door because I heard a noise over there, so it's probably filled with tons of typos and junk that I'm gonna miss. Well, no time to check, got the future to head toward.
I may not be able to join Taekwondo Club. Apparently you need a gym membership, which is free, but they only give them out for the first two weeks of the semester. Which seems kind of.... well it is stupid. I will leave this country without understanding the rhyme and reason for the way that they do things. If I ever claim to, you should ready a stabbing implement for my arrival because I apparently have gone crazy, and the Roshi that you all knew and loved will have died.
Speaking of which, the noise at the door wasn't a zombie. Floor meeting slip. It's all cool.
Because I have nothing else really to say, I'll share some Awesome with you, or the Axis therein.
Have some Birdplane.
Monday, May 4, 2009
Maine Coons are a breed of very large cats.
They also happen to be rather intelligent and have a variety of unique habits among the domesticated felines. That's about all I know on them, but you can do further reading on your own by clicking this link.
That should take care of that.
Oh right, what was that all about. Well, apparently I get like 12 hits a day from people clicking on the Maine Coon picture I posted like 3 months ago. I figured that I should indulge everyone coming here from that and at least direct them to Wikipedia, which is probably where they started their search from, to be honest.
So, for those of you who don't know, we're smack dab in the middle of Golden Week. You'd figure I would have mentioned it earlier, but shut up.
Anyways, Golden Day is basically a string of holidays starting with the Emperor's Birthday and ending with Children's Day. I'm too old to celebrate Children's Day, but I'm not too old to celebrate Golden Week, which you do by going places and buying stuff while it's discounted.
I was told that electronics were discounted a lot, but apparently 3-5% is a huge discount to my non-American friends here. Not enough to get me to buy crap I don't need. And that's saying something, cause I love buying crap I don't need.
I did buy a couple things I don't need, and was disappointed and confused when the woman at McDonald's told me that they didn't have quarter pounders left for the day. The fiends! So I went to the internet cafe for a few hours and watched some Zelda (Excuuuuuuse me, Princess) and attempted to order some delicious cheese toast only to find out it doesn't exist on the menu anymore (double fiends!). So I was contented with awful french fries and a sad, rainy bus ride home.
And now I'm tired and listening to loud music. That seems counterintuitive. Or whatever.
Yeah.
That should take care of that.
Oh right, what was that all about. Well, apparently I get like 12 hits a day from people clicking on the Maine Coon picture I posted like 3 months ago. I figured that I should indulge everyone coming here from that and at least direct them to Wikipedia, which is probably where they started their search from, to be honest.
So, for those of you who don't know, we're smack dab in the middle of Golden Week. You'd figure I would have mentioned it earlier, but shut up.
Anyways, Golden Day is basically a string of holidays starting with the Emperor's Birthday and ending with Children's Day. I'm too old to celebrate Children's Day, but I'm not too old to celebrate Golden Week, which you do by going places and buying stuff while it's discounted.
I was told that electronics were discounted a lot, but apparently 3-5% is a huge discount to my non-American friends here. Not enough to get me to buy crap I don't need. And that's saying something, cause I love buying crap I don't need.
I did buy a couple things I don't need, and was disappointed and confused when the woman at McDonald's told me that they didn't have quarter pounders left for the day. The fiends! So I went to the internet cafe for a few hours and watched some Zelda (Excuuuuuuse me, Princess) and attempted to order some delicious cheese toast only to find out it doesn't exist on the menu anymore (double fiends!). So I was contented with awful french fries and a sad, rainy bus ride home.
And now I'm tired and listening to loud music. That seems counterintuitive. Or whatever.
Yeah.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Oh wow
Yeah, so I'm sorry.
I just looked at my album and apparently I really haven't uploaded any pics since the trip. Including not actually putting up the 花見(Cherry Blossom Viewing) pics. Wow.
I am really off my game.
So I just uploaded a bunch of pics (that may soon be reduced in number because I know my parents look at them) so get 'em while they're hot.
And since I didn't do much today, I think I'll talk about a few of them, as to have a not-rambling blog for once!
Here goes:
One of my favorite posters in Beppu. Sarcasm doesn't actually exist here, so nobody really knows the connection between that expression on the girl's face (it seems much more stoic in person) and the phrase "Nice Going". Priceless, Japan. Truly.
This is a park that they've been working on since I got here. Almost literally since I got here. About two weeks after I showed up they started digging the foundations, and they've been working on it throughwinter the cold fall and early spring, and only now have almost finished. They've got the concrete flower shelves, the sidewalks, and the benches in there, and are waiting til the grass finishes growing in before they put the finishing touches on and open the place up to the public. Should be nice. All you can do now is walk by, check the time on the huge clock, and write down the location of the strip club that is advertised on the side of the plot.
Puppies! Cause why not. I want a Yorkshire Terrier. Don't try to talk me out of it, you can't.
These pigeons were fighting. My iPhone doesn't record video, unfortunately, but it was hilarious.
Yeah, it gets REALLY foggy in the mountains.
And that's about it for now. Check out the cherry blossom pics and enjoy.
I just looked at my album and apparently I really haven't uploaded any pics since the trip. Including not actually putting up the 花見(Cherry Blossom Viewing) pics. Wow.
I am really off my game.
So I just uploaded a bunch of pics (that may soon be reduced in number because I know my parents look at them) so get 'em while they're hot.
And since I didn't do much today, I think I'll talk about a few of them, as to have a not-rambling blog for once!
Here goes:
One of my favorite posters in Beppu. Sarcasm doesn't actually exist here, so nobody really knows the connection between that expression on the girl's face (it seems much more stoic in person) and the phrase "Nice Going". Priceless, Japan. Truly.
This is a park that they've been working on since I got here. Almost literally since I got here. About two weeks after I showed up they started digging the foundations, and they've been working on it through
Puppies! Cause why not. I want a Yorkshire Terrier. Don't try to talk me out of it, you can't.
These pigeons were fighting. My iPhone doesn't record video, unfortunately, but it was hilarious.
Yeah, it gets REALLY foggy in the mountains.
And that's about it for now. Check out the cherry blossom pics and enjoy.
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Where the Hell is Matt?
I don't know if I've mentioned this guy before, but if I did, he warrants another mention.
Sometime before I left for Japan, I came across this Where the Hell is Matt? website. This guy got sponsored by Sprint to do whatever he wanted, essentially. Talk about an awesome break.
Well, he took the sponsorship and this silly dance that he does, and traveled the world with it. Then he spliced together all the clips, and made a short video showing him dancing with all the people.
It sounds like something dumb, but I implore you: watch it. Watch it in high quality. It's beautiful. That's really all you can say about it.
The guy also has some backpacking tips for anyone who wants to follow in his footsteps (insofar as the traveling goes). Some useful sites and some dos and don'ts for the trip. I really wanna do this someday, so don't be surprised if in a couple of summers I just up and go to Asia for a few months.
As for what I actually did today, well that's easy. I slept through classes. Again.
Hurrah! At the very least, I have a makeup test for the first test I missed due to the scheduling conflicts from the beginning of the semester on Monday, so that's
good news. And I didn't really miss much in class, so... that's good too.
If I go downtown tomorrow, I'm looking into how much Kumamoto tickets cost. I'd like to do a bit more traveling in the area, considering I feel like I haven't seen all that much of the island, despite being on this end and the opposite end (when I went to Fukuoka). So here's lookin to that.
Kumamoto has bears, by the way.
Bears for wrestling.
Edit: FUCK YOU BLOGGER. Seriously. I got an error message and spent about a minute retyping this before I checked to see if it auto saved. If you didn't have so many safeguards to protect us from how crappy your service is, then I'd hate you more. As it stands, I am conflicted.
Sometime before I left for Japan, I came across this Where the Hell is Matt? website. This guy got sponsored by Sprint to do whatever he wanted, essentially. Talk about an awesome break.
Well, he took the sponsorship and this silly dance that he does, and traveled the world with it. Then he spliced together all the clips, and made a short video showing him dancing with all the people.
It sounds like something dumb, but I implore you: watch it. Watch it in high quality. It's beautiful. That's really all you can say about it.
The guy also has some backpacking tips for anyone who wants to follow in his footsteps (insofar as the traveling goes). Some useful sites and some dos and don'ts for the trip. I really wanna do this someday, so don't be surprised if in a couple of summers I just up and go to Asia for a few months.
As for what I actually did today, well that's easy. I slept through classes. Again.
Hurrah! At the very least, I have a makeup test for the first test I missed due to the scheduling conflicts from the beginning of the semester on Monday, so that's
good news. And I didn't really miss much in class, so... that's good too.
If I go downtown tomorrow, I'm looking into how much Kumamoto tickets cost. I'd like to do a bit more traveling in the area, considering I feel like I haven't seen all that much of the island, despite being on this end and the opposite end (when I went to Fukuoka). So here's lookin to that.
Kumamoto has bears, by the way.
Bears for wrestling.
Edit: FUCK YOU BLOGGER. Seriously. I got an error message and spent about a minute retyping this before I checked to see if it auto saved. If you didn't have so many safeguards to protect us from how crappy your service is, then I'd hate you more. As it stands, I am conflicted.
Friday, May 1, 2009
I get distracted easily
And when that occurs, accidents happen.
I was cooking hash browns, because I am a slave to the potato. Afterwards I went to go dump the oil into the sink so I could clean the pan. When I was doing that, one of the guys on the floor distracted me, and I instinctively turned on the water. For those of you who don't know (how are you still alive?) water and hot oil do not mix. So there was a violent explosion of hot oil that somehow missed me entirely (the other guy was far enough away to not be in danger). He kinda stared at me like "what the hell is wrong with you" and I didn't know how to explain "Dammit you distracted me and I followed routine and then this happened!" in Japanese.
Ah well, the hash browns came out great.
I also realized today that I have allergies. I've known that since forever, but they haven't affected me the entire time that I've been in Japan. Probably because the flowers just bloomed for the first time since I got here, and now all this pollen in the air is causing my face to leak in various gross manners. Hopefully I can make it through the season alive, what with my inability to purchase medicine here.
I know I haven't uploaded photos in a while. I've taken some, but uploading is an entirely different process. It's just a hassle, really. It's slow to take them from my digital camera, and then it's also slow to take them from my iphone (cause I have to deal with iTunes booting up). And then my internet here is awful, too, so it takes forever to upload them, not to mention that I resize them (most of the time) and that adds to the process.
I'll have some up by Saturday, promise.
In the meantime, here's some amusing videos:
Japanese censors loathe riceballs.
My life is not complete until I can pull this off.
Japan is really, really weird.
I was cooking hash browns, because I am a slave to the potato. Afterwards I went to go dump the oil into the sink so I could clean the pan. When I was doing that, one of the guys on the floor distracted me, and I instinctively turned on the water. For those of you who don't know (how are you still alive?) water and hot oil do not mix. So there was a violent explosion of hot oil that somehow missed me entirely (the other guy was far enough away to not be in danger). He kinda stared at me like "what the hell is wrong with you" and I didn't know how to explain "Dammit you distracted me and I followed routine and then this happened!" in Japanese.
Ah well, the hash browns came out great.
I also realized today that I have allergies. I've known that since forever, but they haven't affected me the entire time that I've been in Japan. Probably because the flowers just bloomed for the first time since I got here, and now all this pollen in the air is causing my face to leak in various gross manners. Hopefully I can make it through the season alive, what with my inability to purchase medicine here.
I know I haven't uploaded photos in a while. I've taken some, but uploading is an entirely different process. It's just a hassle, really. It's slow to take them from my digital camera, and then it's also slow to take them from my iphone (cause I have to deal with iTunes booting up). And then my internet here is awful, too, so it takes forever to upload them, not to mention that I resize them (most of the time) and that adds to the process.
I'll have some up by Saturday, promise.
In the meantime, here's some amusing videos:
Japanese censors loathe riceballs.
My life is not complete until I can pull this off.
Japan is really, really weird.
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