Bah! My sleep schedule is still screwed up but in a reverse way. It's probably good that i'm waking up early enough to get to class, but I hate passing out at like 11pm. That's little kid sleeping time, come on!
Ah well. At least it's kind of nice to use the birds as an alarm clock.
Really, sorry about the blog stuff lately. It's gotten wonky and now I can't remember what exactly to write about as a result of it. So that kinda sucks.
Lemme try to recall stuff.
I've got the box set up, and it fits the briefcase that I'm sending back. So I just gotta pack it and, if it's not raining, I go downtown today to ship it out. This has taken damn forever and I'm glad that it's finally coming to a close, and my room is going to be so clean/empty once I ship out all my books and the crap I bought here. Gonna be kinda weird, but also kinda nice I suppose. The only problem is the tape sealing the bottom of the box isn't very umm... sturdy. Gonna see if any of my friends have some duct tape before I actually send it.
My Gamespace class is great. I'm doing a project comparing the social communities in Final Fantasy XI and Team Fortress 2. What other class lets you do that, huh? It's awesome.
Japanese today we're doing an exchange activity, which involves not doing any actual work and instead just talking with Japanese students for a full period. I'm totally okay with that. Although it's not fair, because these kids have been studying English for like 8 years. They have about triple the study that we do, so we sound dumb in Japanese and they sound fine in English. Lame.
So class, downtown, eat me some delicious curry. Gonna be a good day.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Super Duper Late Update
I fall'd asleep again, sorry. I think my sleep schedule is set up well now because I woke up at an appropriate hour for once, although I thought it was Monday and was freaking out about how I wouldn't get my homework done in time for class until I woke up a bit more, that was fun.
Yesterday was pretty actively good. Woke up early and read a fantastic comic over at Rice Boy so that was fun. Then I headed downtown and got some delicious Sukiya gyuudon which is always nice. Called up a friend and chatted a bit, then started my routine walking through town. Picked up some shorts that will double nicely as swim trunks for the teaching class I need to do, and played with some puppies in the store while I was at it (PUPPIES!). Stopped in an arcade and did my thing there, then went to You Me town to look for shoes.
AGAIN.
I was told there was a Uni Qlo there which is a good store that I like to visit when I'm out and about. You think I'd be more aware that a store I like was in my city but for some reason I never noticed it. This is made worse and worse when I explain that it is pretty much in between the hobby shop that I go to all the time and the food court. I... I really don't know how to excuse this. I don't know if I can. But I do know that I feel like a moron for never having noticed.
Anyways, picked up some sandals because they had no real shoes there, and I suppose these should tide me over well enough. The left shoe's sole is pretty much nonexistent at this point, so really, I just needed SOMETHING. Also picked up a dig dig shirt and an old Tekken shirt for 500 yen a piece both brand new, so that was welcome, as well as 4 generically plain shirts for 280 a piece. I noticed recently that I am sick of having worn the same shirts for roughly a year now, so I really wanted new crap. All the other shirts I bought in Japan so far have been long sleeved, as I got here in the fall, and it's a bit too hot for that now.
I also managed to pck up a new luggage case! This one is fantastic. It can fit my old luggage inside of it with room to spare. It's got a steel pull out handle, and two side grips, one on top and one on the side. It's got a large back pocket and two smaller front pockets, and then the main case. It also has RUBBER WHEELS which is a must have for me. After having two cases with plastic wheels that make a lot of noise that irritates me probably more than it does the people around me (it grates that pet peeve section of the brain) the rubber ones by comparison make almost no noise and roll easier on top of that. I tested it out on the way back home yesterday and it was pretty much everything I wanted. It has the added benefit of only having been 4000 yen, which is 2000 yen cheaper than every other model in the same size by the same brand. The only difference I could find is that it had the two smaller front pockets instead of the one larger one, and I'm fine with that for essentially a twenty dollar bargain.
And to top it all off I finally found a box that can fit the stuff I need to send home in it! That was exciting too.
But of course something bad, or at least awkward, needs to happen to counteract that. This homeless guy tugged on my empty box as I was heading to buy a milkshake. He sort of stared at me for a bit so I asked him what was up. He kind of made a noise and started rubbing his stomach. I'm all "I don't understand". So he just... he does it again. And looks at me HARDER. That's the only way I could describe it. His expression didn't change, he just kind of stared and it felt worse. So I took some change out of my pocket and asked "This?" and after a few seconds he held out his hands and walked over to the convenience store with it. It was horribly awkward and I felt kind of weird after it.
But then I bought a milkshake and all was good.
Also I got sick both ways on the bus. No idea why. I just felt awful. I think I haven't been riding it enough or something.
Yesterday was pretty actively good. Woke up early and read a fantastic comic over at Rice Boy so that was fun. Then I headed downtown and got some delicious Sukiya gyuudon which is always nice. Called up a friend and chatted a bit, then started my routine walking through town. Picked up some shorts that will double nicely as swim trunks for the teaching class I need to do, and played with some puppies in the store while I was at it (PUPPIES!). Stopped in an arcade and did my thing there, then went to You Me town to look for shoes.
AGAIN.
I was told there was a Uni Qlo there which is a good store that I like to visit when I'm out and about. You think I'd be more aware that a store I like was in my city but for some reason I never noticed it. This is made worse and worse when I explain that it is pretty much in between the hobby shop that I go to all the time and the food court. I... I really don't know how to excuse this. I don't know if I can. But I do know that I feel like a moron for never having noticed.
Anyways, picked up some sandals because they had no real shoes there, and I suppose these should tide me over well enough. The left shoe's sole is pretty much nonexistent at this point, so really, I just needed SOMETHING. Also picked up a dig dig shirt and an old Tekken shirt for 500 yen a piece both brand new, so that was welcome, as well as 4 generically plain shirts for 280 a piece. I noticed recently that I am sick of having worn the same shirts for roughly a year now, so I really wanted new crap. All the other shirts I bought in Japan so far have been long sleeved, as I got here in the fall, and it's a bit too hot for that now.
I also managed to pck up a new luggage case! This one is fantastic. It can fit my old luggage inside of it with room to spare. It's got a steel pull out handle, and two side grips, one on top and one on the side. It's got a large back pocket and two smaller front pockets, and then the main case. It also has RUBBER WHEELS which is a must have for me. After having two cases with plastic wheels that make a lot of noise that irritates me probably more than it does the people around me (it grates that pet peeve section of the brain) the rubber ones by comparison make almost no noise and roll easier on top of that. I tested it out on the way back home yesterday and it was pretty much everything I wanted. It has the added benefit of only having been 4000 yen, which is 2000 yen cheaper than every other model in the same size by the same brand. The only difference I could find is that it had the two smaller front pockets instead of the one larger one, and I'm fine with that for essentially a twenty dollar bargain.
And to top it all off I finally found a box that can fit the stuff I need to send home in it! That was exciting too.
But of course something bad, or at least awkward, needs to happen to counteract that. This homeless guy tugged on my empty box as I was heading to buy a milkshake. He sort of stared at me for a bit so I asked him what was up. He kind of made a noise and started rubbing his stomach. I'm all "I don't understand". So he just... he does it again. And looks at me HARDER. That's the only way I could describe it. His expression didn't change, he just kind of stared and it felt worse. So I took some change out of my pocket and asked "This?" and after a few seconds he held out his hands and walked over to the convenience store with it. It was horribly awkward and I felt kind of weird after it.
But then I bought a milkshake and all was good.
Also I got sick both ways on the bus. No idea why. I just felt awful. I think I haven't been riding it enough or something.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Nap attack
I need to stop napping. I always go for longer than I intend to and that's never good.
So today was interesting.
Food in the caf was good. It's been Chinese week so there have been steamed dumplings available for cheap in the cafeteria, which is good cause those are always delicious. Class was as good as it normally was too.
I was hanging out in my room reading when I got a call. Turns out we needed to all of a sudden meet with the son of the guy that was hiring us to help with his English learning activity in Sogasa Saiki next month. We had no warning of this, and got called by the girl that hired us saying "He's on campus, go find him".
So that kind of was sucky and rushed.
The meeting was RIDICULOUSLY informal. The guy was slouched and kept referring to himself using "ore" which is basically treating us like we're bros. He kept trying to be friendly and ask us questions about America instead of bothering to talk to us about the job, and it was extremely awkward, especially when he kept asking Keith questions that would've gotten his ass kicked stateside (Keith is black, thise Shinbo Iida guy had zero tact). It was amusing in a horribly awkward sense, but at least it ended and we know what we need to do for next month.
Next month on the 11th, we need to be up and ready at 7am outside of AP House with swim trunks, a change of clothes, and a towel. We're going to the beach in Sagasa Saiki in order to play sports with the kids and teach them English in the process. It's during the Open Swimming Festival in the city, and we will also have to participate in a tradition of making donburi from scratch that involves washing the rice in the seawaters and using traditional methods of cooking and preparing it instead of doing it in a kitchen.
So, should be fun. And definitely a cultural thing to look forward to.
There is also a yukata festival coming up that I need to look into. I don't actually own a yukata, and they're expensive so...we'll see.
So today was interesting.
Food in the caf was good. It's been Chinese week so there have been steamed dumplings available for cheap in the cafeteria, which is good cause those are always delicious. Class was as good as it normally was too.
I was hanging out in my room reading when I got a call. Turns out we needed to all of a sudden meet with the son of the guy that was hiring us to help with his English learning activity in Sogasa Saiki next month. We had no warning of this, and got called by the girl that hired us saying "He's on campus, go find him".
So that kind of was sucky and rushed.
The meeting was RIDICULOUSLY informal. The guy was slouched and kept referring to himself using "ore" which is basically treating us like we're bros. He kept trying to be friendly and ask us questions about America instead of bothering to talk to us about the job, and it was extremely awkward, especially when he kept asking Keith questions that would've gotten his ass kicked stateside (Keith is black, thise Shinbo Iida guy had zero tact). It was amusing in a horribly awkward sense, but at least it ended and we know what we need to do for next month.
Next month on the 11th, we need to be up and ready at 7am outside of AP House with swim trunks, a change of clothes, and a towel. We're going to the beach in Sagasa Saiki in order to play sports with the kids and teach them English in the process. It's during the Open Swimming Festival in the city, and we will also have to participate in a tradition of making donburi from scratch that involves washing the rice in the seawaters and using traditional methods of cooking and preparing it instead of doing it in a kitchen.
So, should be fun. And definitely a cultural thing to look forward to.
There is also a yukata festival coming up that I need to look into. I don't actually own a yukata, and they're expensive so...we'll see.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Peanut Butter
I ran out of it again. Looks like I have to resort to my BACKUP BACON AND EGGS.
I think most people usually have it set up the other way around, but I really enjoy my peanut butter.
Today was a waste of a day. Mostly stayed on campus, studying a little (by study I mean read comics), snacking, cleaning my room, and fixing my computer up a bit. Has been running slow so I fixed it the hell up. Stupid computer, we're in the 21st century, there is no going backward now!
I feel drinking all of this C.C. Lemon may eventually prove fatal. All this citrus and vitamin C is going to eat through my body and leave me bed ridden with no insides. It will not be pretty.
I've got roughly 45 days left before I'm home, which is sort of nice and sort of anxiety inducing. I've gotta get rid of all my crap, sell off what I can't get send home and trash the rest, clean my room up, and prepare for the exams and final papers. The last day of classes is actually July 24, so I only have 4 weeks of that and then exams. That's going to go by a lot faster than I'd like it to, and there ain't much doin about that.
Jason is going to be visiting from Kyoto and we have some things planned here to surprise/scar him for life that I'll probably be polite enough not to share in this blog. And that's being fully aware that at one point in the blog I went into detail about the inner workings of a porn store that I visited with some friends.
Going to also try to do some stuff around Beppu that needs doing before then, as well as try to get to Yufuin another time, and hopefully Kumamoto. Mel wants me to come visit in Kanazawa, but that may be against both the time and financial budgetary restrictions, so we'll see.
It's gonna be busy.
I think most people usually have it set up the other way around, but I really enjoy my peanut butter.
Today was a waste of a day. Mostly stayed on campus, studying a little (by study I mean read comics), snacking, cleaning my room, and fixing my computer up a bit. Has been running slow so I fixed it the hell up. Stupid computer, we're in the 21st century, there is no going backward now!
I feel drinking all of this C.C. Lemon may eventually prove fatal. All this citrus and vitamin C is going to eat through my body and leave me bed ridden with no insides. It will not be pretty.
I've got roughly 45 days left before I'm home, which is sort of nice and sort of anxiety inducing. I've gotta get rid of all my crap, sell off what I can't get send home and trash the rest, clean my room up, and prepare for the exams and final papers. The last day of classes is actually July 24, so I only have 4 weeks of that and then exams. That's going to go by a lot faster than I'd like it to, and there ain't much doin about that.
Jason is going to be visiting from Kyoto and we have some things planned here to surprise/scar him for life that I'll probably be polite enough not to share in this blog. And that's being fully aware that at one point in the blog I went into detail about the inner workings of a porn store that I visited with some friends.
Going to also try to do some stuff around Beppu that needs doing before then, as well as try to get to Yufuin another time, and hopefully Kumamoto. Mel wants me to come visit in Kanazawa, but that may be against both the time and financial budgetary restrictions, so we'll see.
It's gonna be busy.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Resolution
The big personal problem has been dealt with. Not in a way that I would have liked, but in a way that is at least agreeable. So I should be less mopey now.
Now then, onto business!
Classes have been going decently well, although I forcedropped one because I didn't like the teacher at all. Doesn't affect my GPA at all so not a big loss, that. I am doing better in Japanese as well, at least when I get enough sleep the night before. Seriously, I have been tired for no good reason and constantly.
One of my classes is about video games, so that's sort of neat. I was conned into joining a group for the project when I wanted to do it by myself (see: a friend wrote my name down on his group and told me tough crap) which is turning out decently, except nobody in my group has played God of War and/or Heavenly Sword, which is what I wanted to compare for the project. Argh. Still, comparing the ideals of masculinity and femininity in Final Fantasy VII and Metal Gear Solid could be just as fun, right? We'll see.
We did go downtown to work on the project, though. To this place called "Sukiya" which is apparently delicious for "DELICIOUS AS HELL FOOD". Really, I am disappointed that I didn't know about this place sooner. It has cheese gyuudon which is delectable on all possible palates. So good, should have sent a poet....
In other news, I keep neglecting to mention that I added a countdown timer about 4 months ago. I'm assuming none of you have seen it because I didn't mention it, but it's been on the sidebar the whole time.
Just screwing with you, of course. Although I did add one, and it's right above my Twitter feed on the right side of the screen. Possibly riiiiight there? --->
Haha, probably not.
Anyways, if it doesn't work, let me know and I'll laugh at you because I don't know how to fix it and it works fine for me.
One more thing: My not bad luck charm is broken. I bought an "Avoiding bad luck" charm instead of a "good luck" charm because I figured they work better if you aren't greeding, and I'm fine with being content. I have had nothing but strings of bad luck since I got the thing, and today after showing it to someone my umbrella got stolen. During the rain.
I need to find a temple and get this thing reblessed or excorcised or something. Seriously.
That's all I can think of!
Now then, onto business!
Classes have been going decently well, although I forcedropped one because I didn't like the teacher at all. Doesn't affect my GPA at all so not a big loss, that. I am doing better in Japanese as well, at least when I get enough sleep the night before. Seriously, I have been tired for no good reason and constantly.
One of my classes is about video games, so that's sort of neat. I was conned into joining a group for the project when I wanted to do it by myself (see: a friend wrote my name down on his group and told me tough crap) which is turning out decently, except nobody in my group has played God of War and/or Heavenly Sword, which is what I wanted to compare for the project. Argh. Still, comparing the ideals of masculinity and femininity in Final Fantasy VII and Metal Gear Solid could be just as fun, right? We'll see.
We did go downtown to work on the project, though. To this place called "Sukiya" which is apparently delicious for "DELICIOUS AS HELL FOOD". Really, I am disappointed that I didn't know about this place sooner. It has cheese gyuudon which is delectable on all possible palates. So good, should have sent a poet....
In other news, I keep neglecting to mention that I added a countdown timer about 4 months ago. I'm assuming none of you have seen it because I didn't mention it, but it's been on the sidebar the whole time.
Just screwing with you, of course. Although I did add one, and it's right above my Twitter feed on the right side of the screen. Possibly riiiiight there? --->
Haha, probably not.
Anyways, if it doesn't work, let me know and I'll laugh at you because I don't know how to fix it and it works fine for me.
One more thing: My not bad luck charm is broken. I bought an "Avoiding bad luck" charm instead of a "good luck" charm because I figured they work better if you aren't greeding, and I'm fine with being content. I have had nothing but strings of bad luck since I got the thing, and today after showing it to someone my umbrella got stolen. During the rain.
I need to find a temple and get this thing reblessed or excorcised or something. Seriously.
That's all I can think of!
Monday, June 22, 2009
Gettin Crazy with the Cheese Whiz
Still lots of bad things going on.
Not really in the mood to blog because of it, sorry.
Go read some other blogs:
Art of Manliness
The Sneeze
I Fight Robots
Not really in the mood to blog because of it, sorry.
Go read some other blogs:
Art of Manliness
The Sneeze
I Fight Robots
Another Day another Blog
Another time of being late with it.
You all should just click on the RSS feed instead of expecting this to have anywhere close to an appropriate update schedule.
Let's do some more "Japanese etiquette" lessons.
- It is always appreciable for someone to alert you that you have been slacking off in the hygiene department. This is why a Japanese person may tell you directly that you have gotten fatter, you don't smell very good today, or that it has become obvious that you are balding and you might want to look into that.
- If you don't go drinking with someone when asked, that means you don't like them. You should generally accompany them even if you don't get anything as a show of good friendship. They may also be shocked if you tell them that you don't smoke, because everyone smokes in Japan. I mean, it's cool, right?
- If somebody takes the opportunity to bring you an English menu or attempt to respond to you in English, it's good manners to respond in kind to their accommodations, as responding in Japanese might make it seem as though they aren't doing well enough. Be prepared to understand what they say in English less than what they'd say in Japanese.
- Eat all the food that is given to you. Just do it.
- Being foreign you are at a weird impass. You sound like a girl if you speak in polite form, but if you speak in a more casual form then you are a rude foreigner that doesn't know their place.
- Trains are not made for talking on. Neither are buses. If you must speak, you must do it quietly. Also, turn off your cell phones. This rule is able to be ignored by punk kids that sit there flicking their lighters open and closed behind me repeatedly until I turn and glare at them with my foreign superpowers.
You all should just click on the RSS feed instead of expecting this to have anywhere close to an appropriate update schedule.
Let's do some more "Japanese etiquette" lessons.
- It is always appreciable for someone to alert you that you have been slacking off in the hygiene department. This is why a Japanese person may tell you directly that you have gotten fatter, you don't smell very good today, or that it has become obvious that you are balding and you might want to look into that.
- If you don't go drinking with someone when asked, that means you don't like them. You should generally accompany them even if you don't get anything as a show of good friendship. They may also be shocked if you tell them that you don't smoke, because everyone smokes in Japan. I mean, it's cool, right?
- If somebody takes the opportunity to bring you an English menu or attempt to respond to you in English, it's good manners to respond in kind to their accommodations, as responding in Japanese might make it seem as though they aren't doing well enough. Be prepared to understand what they say in English less than what they'd say in Japanese.
- Eat all the food that is given to you. Just do it.
- Being foreign you are at a weird impass. You sound like a girl if you speak in polite form, but if you speak in a more casual form then you are a rude foreigner that doesn't know their place.
- Trains are not made for talking on. Neither are buses. If you must speak, you must do it quietly. Also, turn off your cell phones. This rule is able to be ignored by punk kids that sit there flicking their lighters open and closed behind me repeatedly until I turn and glare at them with my foreign superpowers.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Bad news, bears
So, there is some pretty bad crap going down right now. Rather not talk about it here.
So here's another list of random completely true facts about Japan:
- The ninja has been a long standing cultural icon in Japan. So esteemed is it that it has been incorporated into pay customs at restaurants. Most people will opt to wave for the waiter and pay for their meal, but you are free to make a mad dash out of the restaurant and see if you can out-ninja their restaurant ninjas.
Hint: You can't.
- Black ink is used to write everything. If you aren't writing with black ink, technically whatever is written does not exist. This can also be used as form of ridding yourself of unwanted children, by writing on them with blue or green ink and just ignoring them completely. It's okay, they're entirely invisible to everyone else.
- If you like a movie at a theater, you must remain entirely silent, before, during, and after the film. You are in fact not allowed to speak until you are out of ear shot of the viewing area. This is in respect to the movie.
- Tonkatsu, fried, breaded pork, is a meal that restaurants train pigs to cook for you themselves as a means of entertainment. The pigs are told that the meat is chicken.
- Video games and anime/cartoons are culturally adored in Japan. If you enjoy either of those things, be sure to tell every Japanese person that you meet, repeatedly, how much you love those things. They will be excited and impressed with your knowledge of Japan, and not at all creeped out by your oblivious foreign manchildness.
- If you bought clothes that didn't cost 300 dollars per outfit, then what you are wearing is worthless
- The hornets here are huge and will kill you
- Seriously
So here's another list of random completely true facts about Japan:
- The ninja has been a long standing cultural icon in Japan. So esteemed is it that it has been incorporated into pay customs at restaurants. Most people will opt to wave for the waiter and pay for their meal, but you are free to make a mad dash out of the restaurant and see if you can out-ninja their restaurant ninjas.
Hint: You can't.
- Black ink is used to write everything. If you aren't writing with black ink, technically whatever is written does not exist. This can also be used as form of ridding yourself of unwanted children, by writing on them with blue or green ink and just ignoring them completely. It's okay, they're entirely invisible to everyone else.
- If you like a movie at a theater, you must remain entirely silent, before, during, and after the film. You are in fact not allowed to speak until you are out of ear shot of the viewing area. This is in respect to the movie.
- Tonkatsu, fried, breaded pork, is a meal that restaurants train pigs to cook for you themselves as a means of entertainment. The pigs are told that the meat is chicken.
- Video games and anime/cartoons are culturally adored in Japan. If you enjoy either of those things, be sure to tell every Japanese person that you meet, repeatedly, how much you love those things. They will be excited and impressed with your knowledge of Japan, and not at all creeped out by your oblivious foreign manchildness.
- If you bought clothes that didn't cost 300 dollars per outfit, then what you are wearing is worthless
- The hornets here are huge and will kill you
- Seriously
Friday, June 19, 2009
Bang bang
So I didn't sleep last night again.
I got a sudden OCD tick at about 3 am to clean. So I cleaned my room a bit, and scrubbed clean my bathroom, and by the end of it I was too wide awake ot go to sleep, so I just stayed up and finished my homework and such. Not so bad, that, really.
The day went alongas most Thursdays do, except that I forgot it was Thursday until late in the day and ended up missing onsen club because of that. I was eating dinner and saw a poster for a club that looked interesting and thought "Man I hope they don't meet on the same day as senjinkai" and then recalled that it was Thursday and past the meeting time, and smacked myself on the head in private shame of my idiocy.
To cope with my forgetting to go to club I healed the wounds by going over to JM's and playing some Resident Evil 5. Heck yes co-op mode. Co-op veteran mode in a game I'd never played before. That didn't go so well. Apparently you're supposed to shoot the zombies, not knife them several times in hoping they'll die of boredom.
My bad...
The school store also has haribo gummy bears now, which are the delicious juicy ones they sell at the movie theaters in the golden box. So, so good. And on top of that the vending machine guy listened to my request and filled the vending machines with larger cans of beverages other than Pepsi! So now I can get me some C.C. Lemon in big can size and remain thirst-quenched for a much longer period of time. Go me and my American type whining to get things my way!
God Bless America.
Still no boxes. This is starting to get troublesome...
I got a sudden OCD tick at about 3 am to clean. So I cleaned my room a bit, and scrubbed clean my bathroom, and by the end of it I was too wide awake ot go to sleep, so I just stayed up and finished my homework and such. Not so bad, that, really.
The day went alongas most Thursdays do, except that I forgot it was Thursday until late in the day and ended up missing onsen club because of that. I was eating dinner and saw a poster for a club that looked interesting and thought "Man I hope they don't meet on the same day as senjinkai" and then recalled that it was Thursday and past the meeting time, and smacked myself on the head in private shame of my idiocy.
To cope with my forgetting to go to club I healed the wounds by going over to JM's and playing some Resident Evil 5. Heck yes co-op mode. Co-op veteran mode in a game I'd never played before. That didn't go so well. Apparently you're supposed to shoot the zombies, not knife them several times in hoping they'll die of boredom.
My bad...
The school store also has haribo gummy bears now, which are the delicious juicy ones they sell at the movie theaters in the golden box. So, so good. And on top of that the vending machine guy listened to my request and filled the vending machines with larger cans of beverages other than Pepsi! So now I can get me some C.C. Lemon in big can size and remain thirst-quenched for a much longer period of time. Go me and my American type whining to get things my way!
God Bless America.
Still no boxes. This is starting to get troublesome...
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Today was Wednesday
And I slept in. Yay!
I read a bit, watched some tv, showered, talked to people. Got some food. The usual. I've been deciding things with coin flips lately. That's probably a bad habit.
Did a questionnaire for a friend that was about my health and diet before APU and after APU. Was pretty interesting, and I have to admit that I eat much, MUCH healthier here in Japan. Partially because greens taste better here, and partially because I don't have much choice in what they put on my food. So there's that.
Also cleaned my room a bit and invited Fanxing over to watch some Family Guy. It stopped loading for some reason, so we had to watch the ONE episode that I have downloaded, which turned out better because he has a class first thing tomorrow morning. Hopefully I can get this crap working tomorrow.
I also still cannot find a large box. Japan doesn't seem to believe in boxes over a certain size, and I need to fit my briefacse and a bunch of books into one. This is making it difficult to ship things home, dammit. I did find a really nice luggage that I need to pick up that's surprisingly cheap. Although this'll be my third one, so considering how much all three of these have cost, I should've just gone for a big expensive one in the first place. There's probably a long standing lesson to be found in that revelation, but why bother.
I talked with a guy at the kebab cart the other day about Japanese teaching style, as well as my friend Max earlier today. The fact that other people are bringing up how awful it is leads me to believe that it's not just my procrastinating learning style that has a problem with it. This is good to know, as I'd hate to think anything like that was my fault, no matter how much it probably is. As an American, I prefer to heave the blame onto somebody else's shoulders as frequently as possible.
Also this may sound odd, but I am in love with a mechanical pencil. It's literally the greatest mechanical pencil (or as the Aussies call them, "pacer") that I've ever owned. Fits my grip perfectly, feeds the lead in a consistent, tight fashion, and somehow enchances my writing so that it's at a consistent thickness, instead of other mechanical pencils that tend to vary between thin and sloppy thick the longer you write with them. You know, like normal pencils do when you dull the tip. I'm buying like 10 of these things and shipping them home so that I can use them for the rest of forever. Maybe I'll get a whole bucket full and just distribute them to everyone.
Maybe... maybe I'm a bit too excited about it.
I read a bit, watched some tv, showered, talked to people. Got some food. The usual. I've been deciding things with coin flips lately. That's probably a bad habit.
Did a questionnaire for a friend that was about my health and diet before APU and after APU. Was pretty interesting, and I have to admit that I eat much, MUCH healthier here in Japan. Partially because greens taste better here, and partially because I don't have much choice in what they put on my food. So there's that.
Also cleaned my room a bit and invited Fanxing over to watch some Family Guy. It stopped loading for some reason, so we had to watch the ONE episode that I have downloaded, which turned out better because he has a class first thing tomorrow morning. Hopefully I can get this crap working tomorrow.
I also still cannot find a large box. Japan doesn't seem to believe in boxes over a certain size, and I need to fit my briefacse and a bunch of books into one. This is making it difficult to ship things home, dammit. I did find a really nice luggage that I need to pick up that's surprisingly cheap. Although this'll be my third one, so considering how much all three of these have cost, I should've just gone for a big expensive one in the first place. There's probably a long standing lesson to be found in that revelation, but why bother.
I talked with a guy at the kebab cart the other day about Japanese teaching style, as well as my friend Max earlier today. The fact that other people are bringing up how awful it is leads me to believe that it's not just my procrastinating learning style that has a problem with it. This is good to know, as I'd hate to think anything like that was my fault, no matter how much it probably is. As an American, I prefer to heave the blame onto somebody else's shoulders as frequently as possible.
Also this may sound odd, but I am in love with a mechanical pencil. It's literally the greatest mechanical pencil (or as the Aussies call them, "pacer") that I've ever owned. Fits my grip perfectly, feeds the lead in a consistent, tight fashion, and somehow enchances my writing so that it's at a consistent thickness, instead of other mechanical pencils that tend to vary between thin and sloppy thick the longer you write with them. You know, like normal pencils do when you dull the tip. I'm buying like 10 of these things and shipping them home so that I can use them for the rest of forever. Maybe I'll get a whole bucket full and just distribute them to everyone.
Maybe... maybe I'm a bit too excited about it.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Old People are fun.
So, I had class today, as I often do. And I skipped the first one again, as I often do. 0/3 so far. I should really go to the Friday one, cause I don't even know what is going on in that class. I'll probably show up for a test on things I've no knowledge of, should be fun.
Frankly I only bothered going to Japanese because there was a test. Then suddenly, after the test, we were told to go to the other classroom. So I realized there was a cultural exchange activity today that I forgot about, and was on the verge of walking out of there and just going back to my dorm when I decided against it. And for the better, really. The woman I got paired with was pretty cool, and friendly. We were the only triple group, so another American from my class was with me, which was helpful cause he had the questions sheet. I'm always shocked that my Japanese is better than I think it is when I actually bother speaking to people in the language. My accent is crap, but unless the person is an old lady from Kansai, they can understand me just fine. I told her about the stalactite cave tour in the mountains and she said she'd never heard of that before. Score one for the foreigner knowing more about the town than a resident!
Afterward, got me some delicious yakiniku from the yakiniku man, and discovered that I've been saying chicken wing wrong. It's tebasaki, not temasaki. I... I don't even know what I was saying, and I'm not sure I want to. People kept giving me weird looks when I asked for it. You may think I'm being silly, but the word for fish paste snacks and the word for nipples are only one syllable apart (the first chikuwa, the second chikubi) and my highschool Japanese teacher made that particular mistake. I'd hate to know what I've been doing.
Went down with the intention of grabbing a whole bunch of books to send home. And grab I did! I spent ￥3700 on a combination of books and comics (mostly comics) to send home that should keep me occupied and practice for years to come. I'll probably buy a couple more before I leave (looking for some cheaper copies of Toshokan Sensou) but I figure I can afford to put a few books along with my luggage. Hopefully I don't have too much. It'd be mostly clothes, a couple textbooks, my laptop, and souvenirs that I buy right before I leave, so I should be fine.
Got some food, hung out in Kitahama park, poked a butterfly, and then went to buy some peanut butter. I've been out for a while, and you should never be out of peanut butter. Why, it's uncivilized! Anyhoot, the arcade that closed down reopened. Or at least there's one in pretty much the same place. Except this one has no ventilation so walking in there is like standing in a smoke shack. Not too pleasant, and there is only one game in there worth playing, which is Tetris, and I already have that. So sorry arcade, but you get none of my money.
And then I hung out in the tatami room and played Team Fortress for a few hours. Which is why the update is late.
Again.
Like always.
Frankly I only bothered going to Japanese because there was a test. Then suddenly, after the test, we were told to go to the other classroom. So I realized there was a cultural exchange activity today that I forgot about, and was on the verge of walking out of there and just going back to my dorm when I decided against it. And for the better, really. The woman I got paired with was pretty cool, and friendly. We were the only triple group, so another American from my class was with me, which was helpful cause he had the questions sheet. I'm always shocked that my Japanese is better than I think it is when I actually bother speaking to people in the language. My accent is crap, but unless the person is an old lady from Kansai, they can understand me just fine. I told her about the stalactite cave tour in the mountains and she said she'd never heard of that before. Score one for the foreigner knowing more about the town than a resident!
Afterward, got me some delicious yakiniku from the yakiniku man, and discovered that I've been saying chicken wing wrong. It's tebasaki, not temasaki. I... I don't even know what I was saying, and I'm not sure I want to. People kept giving me weird looks when I asked for it. You may think I'm being silly, but the word for fish paste snacks and the word for nipples are only one syllable apart (the first chikuwa, the second chikubi) and my highschool Japanese teacher made that particular mistake. I'd hate to know what I've been doing.
Went down with the intention of grabbing a whole bunch of books to send home. And grab I did! I spent ￥3700 on a combination of books and comics (mostly comics) to send home that should keep me occupied and practice for years to come. I'll probably buy a couple more before I leave (looking for some cheaper copies of Toshokan Sensou) but I figure I can afford to put a few books along with my luggage. Hopefully I don't have too much. It'd be mostly clothes, a couple textbooks, my laptop, and souvenirs that I buy right before I leave, so I should be fine.
Got some food, hung out in Kitahama park, poked a butterfly, and then went to buy some peanut butter. I've been out for a while, and you should never be out of peanut butter. Why, it's uncivilized! Anyhoot, the arcade that closed down reopened. Or at least there's one in pretty much the same place. Except this one has no ventilation so walking in there is like standing in a smoke shack. Not too pleasant, and there is only one game in there worth playing, which is Tetris, and I already have that. So sorry arcade, but you get none of my money.
And then I hung out in the tatami room and played Team Fortress for a few hours. Which is why the update is late.
Again.
Like always.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Yankee-kun
Ack, sorry it's late. I was reading. We'll pretend that it was homework that I was reading, and not some comic books. Why would I waste my time on such things when there is homework to be done, right?
So, in preparation for a test today, I had to read those 200 or so pages in the assignments I mentioned last night. And I stayed up all night so that I could finish that, and also some homework for another class.
Turns out the class I did that for did not take attendance, and postponed the quiz to Saturday. Which is...just peachy. So now I can't skip the Saturday class because there is a quiz. In addition to that I was exhausted and feeling sick, so I had to sleep through the next class in the day so that I didn't go there and just sleep in class (fell asleep 5 times in the first class. So... pretty bad).
Rest of the day was good though, so no harm no foul.
Forgot to mention this the other day, so I'll put it here. I was hanging out with a friend the other day, and a girl he knows asked us to do a sort of English teaching class sometime soon. It's next month, I think. Not exactly sure on the date. But it's a day where we go to the beach and hang out with kids and teach them English. And we get paid for it, so I volunteered twice as hard. This is pretty much what my job was back home, so I've got no problem with it.
And hey, I could use the money.
I'm staying on campus more these few weeks so that I can sort of preserve a bit of money. I really need to go downtown either tomorrow and/or Wednesday for last minute shopping on stuff and then shipping things home. Still haven't done that yet, and I need to get it done before it's too late.
Here's hoping it's not already.
So, in preparation for a test today, I had to read those 200 or so pages in the assignments I mentioned last night. And I stayed up all night so that I could finish that, and also some homework for another class.
Turns out the class I did that for did not take attendance, and postponed the quiz to Saturday. Which is...just peachy. So now I can't skip the Saturday class because there is a quiz. In addition to that I was exhausted and feeling sick, so I had to sleep through the next class in the day so that I didn't go there and just sleep in class (fell asleep 5 times in the first class. So... pretty bad).
Rest of the day was good though, so no harm no foul.
Forgot to mention this the other day, so I'll put it here. I was hanging out with a friend the other day, and a girl he knows asked us to do a sort of English teaching class sometime soon. It's next month, I think. Not exactly sure on the date. But it's a day where we go to the beach and hang out with kids and teach them English. And we get paid for it, so I volunteered twice as hard. This is pretty much what my job was back home, so I've got no problem with it.
And hey, I could use the money.
I'm staying on campus more these few weeks so that I can sort of preserve a bit of money. I really need to go downtown either tomorrow and/or Wednesday for last minute shopping on stuff and then shipping things home. Still haven't done that yet, and I need to get it done before it's too late.
Here's hoping it's not already.
Monday, June 15, 2009
A Short Break to Blog
Has anyone ever had one of those classes that requires you to read two hundred pages of extremely boring psychological analysis? Cause apparently I have one of those. I've got about 30 pages left, and blogging right now is a welcome reprieve.
This past week of organizing classes was fun, considering I skipped all of them that weren't Japanese and cancelled one. It's a luxury you can afford during registration week, as none of the classes take attendance. So I took advantage of said luxury, and had an easy week of just Japanese.
Yesterday was the World Festival.
It is not something exciting.
We were made to believe that it was.
They advertised free food, games, and entertainment. What we got was awkardly put together small portions of food that ran out before you got your turn in line (each booth only had enough to feed 150 people, for the 400 or so students that showed up to the event. Also only 2 booths were open at a time).
The games room consisted of uno and some playing cards and a PS1 with no good games on it. We were about to go in when we saw people being hit on the face with pie, and decided we'd rather not be a part of that. There was also a massage room, but I've never been comfortable getting rubbed down by strangers, so I don't tend to be a customer at massage parlours or brothels.
Pretty much all the performances were bunk as well. There was one with a bunch of guys dressed as girls that involved some zombies rushing on stage and dancing to Thriller that was interesting, and another one called "Spirit Dance" that looked like a whole lot of fun with people just dancing and waving flags to crazy upbeat tribal music. I didn't even bother going to my floor's performance, which was some boy band wannabe dance performance where everyone was wearing very tight pants.
All in all the festival was a big disappointment, especially cause it even has a wikipedia page about it. Really? They usually delete unnecessary ones...
I gotta get back to this dumb reading assignment. I'll be back tomorrow night.
Same bat-time.
Same bat-place.
This past week of organizing classes was fun, considering I skipped all of them that weren't Japanese and cancelled one. It's a luxury you can afford during registration week, as none of the classes take attendance. So I took advantage of said luxury, and had an easy week of just Japanese.
Yesterday was the World Festival.
It is not something exciting.
We were made to believe that it was.
They advertised free food, games, and entertainment. What we got was awkardly put together small portions of food that ran out before you got your turn in line (each booth only had enough to feed 150 people, for the 400 or so students that showed up to the event. Also only 2 booths were open at a time).
The games room consisted of uno and some playing cards and a PS1 with no good games on it. We were about to go in when we saw people being hit on the face with pie, and decided we'd rather not be a part of that. There was also a massage room, but I've never been comfortable getting rubbed down by strangers, so I don't tend to be a customer at massage parlours or brothels.
Pretty much all the performances were bunk as well. There was one with a bunch of guys dressed as girls that involved some zombies rushing on stage and dancing to Thriller that was interesting, and another one called "Spirit Dance" that looked like a whole lot of fun with people just dancing and waving flags to crazy upbeat tribal music. I didn't even bother going to my floor's performance, which was some boy band wannabe dance performance where everyone was wearing very tight pants.
All in all the festival was a big disappointment, especially cause it even has a wikipedia page about it. Really? They usually delete unnecessary ones...
I gotta get back to this dumb reading assignment. I'll be back tomorrow night.
Same bat-time.
Same bat-place.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Kyoto Excursion Part the Third
We figured we could wake up at the usual time and then head to Osaka and meet Mel at the aquarium. The usual wake up time is 10am, which is pretty much the earliest time that exists in the world. Anyone who claims to wake up earlier than that is a liar.
So those liars managed to be awake and ready and heading to the aquarium all in time to get there by 11. Which sort of ruined our half of the plan, so we took our time getting lunch and browsing game stores and such before heading to Osaka. Stopped by my hostel to drop my crap off, and started heading to inner Osaka before I got an e-mail from Mel,where we promptly made plans to meet up at Osaka station and then get ice creams.
It was a good plan. I like ice cream.
So that lasted for all of between 30 and 40 minutes. A short reunion, but I am not exactly lacking in exposure to Mel back in the states, so I didn't mind too badly.
Jason and I wandered around aimlessly for a few more hours, a good chunk of which was trying to find a garbage can. Japan has a severe lack of them. Tons of bottle disposals, but nothing for actual trash.
We also wound up playing on the moving walkways in the train station. Or rather, I played on them, and Jason followed at a distance shaking his head. He afterward commented on how I seem to view the world completely and entirely from a unique perspective from everybody else in the world. Not entirely sure it was meant as one, but I took it as a compliment, so it's a compliment. Then he put his finger on his nose and nodded his head and flew back up the chimney.
Or he got on a train and headed back to Kyoto.
Afterward I started wandering around looking for a movie theater. I found one, but didn't care to see anything they were showing, so moved on. Then I found a random street concert. I'm guessing these are common, and it had a decent crowd, but most people only stayed for one or two songs before moving along. I stayed for the majority of the set and bought their entire discography. It was only ￥２０００, so that really wasn't that bad. The band is called Fabled Number, which I have no idea what it means. Probably a number that nobody can count up to, and since everyone always counts up to 10 I'm guessing that it would be 11. Possibly 12, but that seems more mythical than fabled. Anywho, their website is over at fablednumber.net if you feel a need to check them out.
The next day was spent by my lonesome. I played some arcade games and got some food. Then after I had already eaten some Yoshinoya, I weeped at the Wendy's I came across. I couldn't ignore it, but I wasn't hungry anymore. So I got a frosty. Delicious, wonderful, chocolate frosty. It tasted exactly how it does in America, and for five in a half minutes I was home again.
I bothered to sit through another movie, because I don't get to do that often and it's something I enjoy, I don't need you judging me! Unfortunately I sat through Blood: The Last Vampire. It wasn't too bad, really, but the special effects were crap, or at least the cgi was. It was about mid 90's quality cgi, back when most people avoided using it in favor if the much more realistic animatronics. Really, they should start thinking that way again, cause animatronics are awesome.
I got panicky and headed for the ferry terminal immediately after the film. I figured it took me about 2 hours to get there last time, so I should do it again this time. Hey, turns out that now that I know how to navigate train system properly, and my foot was only bleeding a little this time, and I had less crap to carry... well I wound up with something like an hour left to kill. That was... that was pretty boring. I did find a weird shop or something with pretty much every action figure and prop ever created lodged inside of it (a few pics are in the photobucket). They had scale model Jurassic Park dinosaurs, Darth Vader masks, every Lupin III toy.... It was like my neighbor's old store but on a bigger scale.
Oh right, my neighbor used to own a collectible toy store. You... you probably wouldn't know that. I need to remember to point these things out.
Anyways, took the ferry ride back, which was pretty nice, but I didn't eat from the cafeteria this time. They had pretty much only a fish selection, and I was not in the mood for fish. I ended up getting a dumpling and nikuman set from the hot food machine and calling it quits after that.
Got back to Beppu at about 7 am, and had breakfast at McDonald's. I love hash browns. So, so much. If McDonald's started servind a hash brown value meal, where it was a double hash brown sandwich (made up of two hash browns in between two other hash browns) with a side of the BK mini hash browns, I would love it. Also, a glass of milk.
Ended up skipping the first class of the day so that I could do the homework I neglected for Japanese, and the rest as they say is history.
Now we're caught up! Oh wait, except I need to take tomorrow to recap everything that I neglected to talk about writing this.
Ha! Nice to have a buffer.
So those liars managed to be awake and ready and heading to the aquarium all in time to get there by 11. Which sort of ruined our half of the plan, so we took our time getting lunch and browsing game stores and such before heading to Osaka. Stopped by my hostel to drop my crap off, and started heading to inner Osaka before I got an e-mail from Mel,where we promptly made plans to meet up at Osaka station and then get ice creams.
It was a good plan. I like ice cream.
So that lasted for all of between 30 and 40 minutes. A short reunion, but I am not exactly lacking in exposure to Mel back in the states, so I didn't mind too badly.
Jason and I wandered around aimlessly for a few more hours, a good chunk of which was trying to find a garbage can. Japan has a severe lack of them. Tons of bottle disposals, but nothing for actual trash.
We also wound up playing on the moving walkways in the train station. Or rather, I played on them, and Jason followed at a distance shaking his head. He afterward commented on how I seem to view the world completely and entirely from a unique perspective from everybody else in the world. Not entirely sure it was meant as one, but I took it as a compliment, so it's a compliment. Then he put his finger on his nose and nodded his head and flew back up the chimney.
Or he got on a train and headed back to Kyoto.
Afterward I started wandering around looking for a movie theater. I found one, but didn't care to see anything they were showing, so moved on. Then I found a random street concert. I'm guessing these are common, and it had a decent crowd, but most people only stayed for one or two songs before moving along. I stayed for the majority of the set and bought their entire discography. It was only ￥２０００, so that really wasn't that bad. The band is called Fabled Number, which I have no idea what it means. Probably a number that nobody can count up to, and since everyone always counts up to 10 I'm guessing that it would be 11. Possibly 12, but that seems more mythical than fabled. Anywho, their website is over at fablednumber.net if you feel a need to check them out.
The next day was spent by my lonesome. I played some arcade games and got some food. Then after I had already eaten some Yoshinoya, I weeped at the Wendy's I came across. I couldn't ignore it, but I wasn't hungry anymore. So I got a frosty. Delicious, wonderful, chocolate frosty. It tasted exactly how it does in America, and for five in a half minutes I was home again.
I bothered to sit through another movie, because I don't get to do that often and it's something I enjoy, I don't need you judging me! Unfortunately I sat through Blood: The Last Vampire. It wasn't too bad, really, but the special effects were crap, or at least the cgi was. It was about mid 90's quality cgi, back when most people avoided using it in favor if the much more realistic animatronics. Really, they should start thinking that way again, cause animatronics are awesome.
I got panicky and headed for the ferry terminal immediately after the film. I figured it took me about 2 hours to get there last time, so I should do it again this time. Hey, turns out that now that I know how to navigate train system properly, and my foot was only bleeding a little this time, and I had less crap to carry... well I wound up with something like an hour left to kill. That was... that was pretty boring. I did find a weird shop or something with pretty much every action figure and prop ever created lodged inside of it (a few pics are in the photobucket). They had scale model Jurassic Park dinosaurs, Darth Vader masks, every Lupin III toy.... It was like my neighbor's old store but on a bigger scale.
Oh right, my neighbor used to own a collectible toy store. You... you probably wouldn't know that. I need to remember to point these things out.
Anyways, took the ferry ride back, which was pretty nice, but I didn't eat from the cafeteria this time. They had pretty much only a fish selection, and I was not in the mood for fish. I ended up getting a dumpling and nikuman set from the hot food machine and calling it quits after that.
Got back to Beppu at about 7 am, and had breakfast at McDonald's. I love hash browns. So, so much. If McDonald's started servind a hash brown value meal, where it was a double hash brown sandwich (made up of two hash browns in between two other hash browns) with a side of the BK mini hash browns, I would love it. Also, a glass of milk.
Ended up skipping the first class of the day so that I could do the homework I neglected for Japanese, and the rest as they say is history.
Now we're caught up! Oh wait, except I need to take tomorrow to recap everything that I neglected to talk about writing this.
Ha! Nice to have a buffer.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Kyoto Excursion Part the Second
One thing that I forgot to mention in yesterday's blog: We totally went ot Mos Burger. There is a photo of one of the displays in the photo album, and it has a burger with a donut pattie. It reads "Delicious hole" in Japanese. To the less gutterminded of you (which should be none of you, if I know who reads this), that would be none of you. So I hope you find it amusing, you perverts.
We looked into more things to do in Kyoto. Aside from shrines, and the Tezuka museum (which I had no idea how to get to, and Jason didn't care about), there didn't seem to be much, although this is probably due more to our limited attempts at searching in exchange for watching Family Guy and DBZ Abridged than it is for a lack of things to do in Kyoto.
After being convinced to buy a PSP (oh god all my money) I in turn was convincing in getting us to go to Nara, the best place in Japan. No, you don't get to argue, it is really the greatest place.
We ran right to the deer enclosure and I bought some 鹿せんべい (deer crackers). The deer swarmed me the instand I bought them. They know what they want and how to get it, apparently.
Also, one of them bit me on the ass. According to a friend, I have now become a were-deer. I guess I need to start starring in Fallout Boy videos.
After plentiful deer shenanigans, we headed over to Todaiji, which is a very old and gorgeous temple with a very well tended lawn.
Also it houses the world's biggest Buddha.
Legend has it that if you can pass through the nostril of the Buddha, then you achieve enlightenment. Instead of allowing you to do this, there is a pillar with a hole the same size carved into it that you can attempt to crawl through. Neither Jason or I noticed this, so I ended up finding out about it after the fact.
Ah well, still cool. The whole building was great, actually, and there were interesting carvings aside form the Buddha statue. But the Buddha is absolutely huge. The photos I've captured don't even come close to showing you. You'd have to see it in person. Or at least find better photos.
Afterward I spotted a random udon/soba shop that I made us go to out of my hunger and desperation. I ordered udon despite not actually liking it, but I figured I'd give it another shot. It was pretty decent, but I still don't think anything beats ramen.
Afterward we went to a few more temples and a 5 story pagoda (the second tallest pagoda in Japan!), and then attempted to go to a grand temple that was closed by the time we reached it. It was also in a quite deserted area of the town, filled only with happy families, mostly in their homes, and very few tourists, aside from some girls we saw camped out playing badminton.
We headed back soon after. Or attempted. Jason is an idiot and got us on the wrong train, then we got off at a stop where we needed to wait 45 minutes for another train to stop by. What a jerk. Totally his fault and not mine for rushing us on the next train I saw just because it said express. Definitely not mine.
Somewhere in those past few days we ordered a pizza as well. It was from Dominoes, and tasted about as good as Dominoes ever tastes, but I introduced Jason to a mystical technique passed down through the ages called actually-reading-the-damn menu-fu. This allowed us to get a pizza for about ￥２１００ instead of for ￥３８００. Pretty big price gap there.
After Nara we went back and watched one of the Futurama movies, and called it a night. We made plans with Mel and her friend to meet up at the aquarium the next day, and had high hopes that they wouldn't leave before we woke up.
to be continued...
We looked into more things to do in Kyoto. Aside from shrines, and the Tezuka museum (which I had no idea how to get to, and Jason didn't care about), there didn't seem to be much, although this is probably due more to our limited attempts at searching in exchange for watching Family Guy and DBZ Abridged than it is for a lack of things to do in Kyoto.
After being convinced to buy a PSP (oh god all my money) I in turn was convincing in getting us to go to Nara, the best place in Japan. No, you don't get to argue, it is really the greatest place.
We ran right to the deer enclosure and I bought some 鹿せんべい (deer crackers). The deer swarmed me the instand I bought them. They know what they want and how to get it, apparently.
Also, one of them bit me on the ass. According to a friend, I have now become a were-deer. I guess I need to start starring in Fallout Boy videos.
After plentiful deer shenanigans, we headed over to Todaiji, which is a very old and gorgeous temple with a very well tended lawn.
Also it houses the world's biggest Buddha.
Legend has it that if you can pass through the nostril of the Buddha, then you achieve enlightenment. Instead of allowing you to do this, there is a pillar with a hole the same size carved into it that you can attempt to crawl through. Neither Jason or I noticed this, so I ended up finding out about it after the fact.
Ah well, still cool. The whole building was great, actually, and there were interesting carvings aside form the Buddha statue. But the Buddha is absolutely huge. The photos I've captured don't even come close to showing you. You'd have to see it in person. Or at least find better photos.
Afterward I spotted a random udon/soba shop that I made us go to out of my hunger and desperation. I ordered udon despite not actually liking it, but I figured I'd give it another shot. It was pretty decent, but I still don't think anything beats ramen.
Afterward we went to a few more temples and a 5 story pagoda (the second tallest pagoda in Japan!), and then attempted to go to a grand temple that was closed by the time we reached it. It was also in a quite deserted area of the town, filled only with happy families, mostly in their homes, and very few tourists, aside from some girls we saw camped out playing badminton.
We headed back soon after. Or attempted. Jason is an idiot and got us on the wrong train, then we got off at a stop where we needed to wait 45 minutes for another train to stop by. What a jerk. Totally his fault and not mine for rushing us on the next train I saw just because it said express. Definitely not mine.
Somewhere in those past few days we ordered a pizza as well. It was from Dominoes, and tasted about as good as Dominoes ever tastes, but I introduced Jason to a mystical technique passed down through the ages called actually-reading-the-damn menu-fu. This allowed us to get a pizza for about ￥２１００ instead of for ￥３８００. Pretty big price gap there.
After Nara we went back and watched one of the Futurama movies, and called it a night. We made plans with Mel and her friend to meet up at the aquarium the next day, and had high hopes that they wouldn't leave before we woke up.
to be continued...
Friday, June 12, 2009
Kyoto Excursion Part the First
So I just uploaded all the pictures from the trip. There are over four hundred new pictures. That is quite a bit of pictures, and I do not feel very much like going through all of them in order to post examples like I normally do. They are not difficult to navigate on a connection faster than mine, so if you read the blog posts first and then go through the pictures you should be able to realize what I'm talking about.
So here goes.
The trip began at about 5pm. The ferry does not leave until 6:50, but for some reason I got confused and panicky and ended up leaving an hour earlier than I intended to. This led to me walking around bored, drinking some ginger ale, and taking photos of the dock. Also looking at some tourist maps which show that there actually are things to do in Beppu, they are just on the outskirts of town and expensive to get to. Apparently we have a cave tour on one of the surrounding mountains, so that'd be kinda cool. Also had enough time to realize that I forgot my shampoo, my comb, and my Lord of Vermillion playing cards so... that sucked.
Anyways, the ferry was about the same as last time. Set myself up in my room, read a bit, ate dinner, you know, nothing special.
Oh, except for the fact that the most beautiful girl I've seen since coming to Japan was working on the ferry. I should have made progress towards making her my wife, but it apparently was just not fated. So I instead went back to my room and ate some ice cream, defeated before I could begin.
I took the first train down to Osaka and got some dirty looks from an old man who reminded me of a dragon. I'm guessing it was the first train out full of workers, and this guy didn't like getting crammed in somewhere with a dirty, unkempt foreigner. Actually, I was more observant about these things this trip, and people tend to stare at the foreigners in Osaka. Probably a bit in Kyoto too, but I was with Jason most of the time so I was a bit distracted by conversation. But I did see some other tourists walkig around when I was sitting in restaurants and such, and people just stared at them as they walked past. It is really awkward.
I set up my reservation for Sunday night in the hostel, and then played some arcade games and stopped in at La La to get me some Indian food that I love so much. On the way I walked around a bit, saw a backpack I wanted to buy before I left (that I forgot to pick up) and saw some cool restaurant statues and displays. Then I got lost.
My iPhone is truly not that reliable. Well, in a way it is. It gives you the most efficient, both costwise and timewise, way to get somewhere. So my iphone kept trying to lead me to an invisible bus stop that would carry me to the edge of Osaka to take another form of transportation from there to Osaka. Really all I wanted to do was go to JR station and take a train from there, but the iPhone wouldn't help me with that. I tried finding a JR station using it as well, and it led me to a car rental building. Sonuva....
I eventually found it and headed out a full two hours after I had intended to. I was cranky and tired from the excursion so I hopped on the express sonic train. The normal express is the same price, but this is the luxury express, and that costs an extra ￥６００ to ride. In Oita I can sort of gaijin smash my way into riding it for free, but the guy working the Osaka-Kyoto line spoke fluent English and wasn't having any of that. Dang. So the whole ride ended up costing me about ￥1500, which was a bit more than I intended spending...
It took about 40 minutes to get a hold of Jason when I did arrive at the station, and then another hour or so before he showed up. That sucked, but I did walk around the station a bit, and they had some Osamu Tezuka displays everywhere. Osamu Tezuka is the man who brought animation to Japan , inspired by Disney, way back when. His stuff is respectable in Japan along the same lines, and everyone knows who he is. Except Jason, who has been living in Kyoto for four or five months now. Way to go, guy.
We ate at Subway and went back to his modest apartment which he wouldn't let me take a picture of. He's quite private. As revenge, I proceeded to dump my crap all over the place. Or rather in a corner near the door, because I am a good guest.
We watched Family Guy and got McDonald's, which wasn't so bad. Then we slept. He bought a futon for me to sleep on. That is ridiculous. I told him I was fine with the floor, but apparently he's too nice for his own good. This was a Japanese futon of course, which is really just a bedroll, but still. Crazy.
The next day we went to his school, the other Ritsumeikan, and I hung out there while he was in class. Mostly just went to the cafeteria, the bathroom, and the school store, then walked around a bit litening to music and read some One Piece. I don't think I even took any pictures of the place, but it looks like a crowded college campus. It's also pretty irritating to navigate and it's easy to accidentally wander off the grounds.
Afterwards we went to some zen rock garden and shrine. It's apparently a world heritage site (Japan has a grand amount of those for some reason) and it was really peaceful and pretty, so that was really nice. I blessed myself at every damn fountain we came across, and Jason made fun of me for being superstitious. We'll see who's laughing when he gets pulled through the cracks in the walls of his apartment because he didn't take protective measures against the demons.
The next day we went to 金貨維持(Kinkaiji), which is the Golden Temple. Unfortunately the shots I got of it aren't that great because I used my iPhone for it, but holy wow it is beautiful. It's a shiny golden temple as the name says, with a bird ornamentation on top. It's been rebuilt a few times I think, but it's still really nice to look at, and as always with the shrines it's surrounded by beautiful scenery and a lake/pond/moat with a heron in it (There is ALWAYS a heron in the lake. Always. There is no avoiding it.)
Jason then had classes, so I stayed in his apartment for a couple of hours pretending to be a lawyer, by which I mean I played a bunch of Phoenix Wright on my DS because there was nothing else to do. When he got back we went to the movies.
Star Trek. is. AWESOME. Go see it now if you haven't. I don't care if you don't like the tv series, the movie is just great. Anyone who disagrees just hates fun. The movie theater also has the option of caramel corn, which I went with, and I wish all movie theaters in the states followed this example. The food is also pretty cheap on top of that, and the tickets were cheaper than normal for some unexplained reason. We weren't late enough for the late show discount, and the student discount only brings it to ￥１５００, but it only cost us ￥１０００, so that was a nice treat.
After that we got dinner, wasted like an hour in a book store while Jason tried fruitlessly to find good novels to read and just ended up buying comic books (I however wrote down the name of an interesting looking novel series, 図書館革命(Library Wars) to try to find at a used book store, so go me.
Then we watched more Family Guy, and I forced him to watch other things in addition to that. He's convinced Family Guy is the highest form of entertainment, and refuses to see the truth (because it's actually Futurama. Honestly).
Then sleep again.
to be continued...
So here goes.
The trip began at about 5pm. The ferry does not leave until 6:50, but for some reason I got confused and panicky and ended up leaving an hour earlier than I intended to. This led to me walking around bored, drinking some ginger ale, and taking photos of the dock. Also looking at some tourist maps which show that there actually are things to do in Beppu, they are just on the outskirts of town and expensive to get to. Apparently we have a cave tour on one of the surrounding mountains, so that'd be kinda cool. Also had enough time to realize that I forgot my shampoo, my comb, and my Lord of Vermillion playing cards so... that sucked.
Anyways, the ferry was about the same as last time. Set myself up in my room, read a bit, ate dinner, you know, nothing special.
Oh, except for the fact that the most beautiful girl I've seen since coming to Japan was working on the ferry. I should have made progress towards making her my wife, but it apparently was just not fated. So I instead went back to my room and ate some ice cream, defeated before I could begin.
I took the first train down to Osaka and got some dirty looks from an old man who reminded me of a dragon. I'm guessing it was the first train out full of workers, and this guy didn't like getting crammed in somewhere with a dirty, unkempt foreigner. Actually, I was more observant about these things this trip, and people tend to stare at the foreigners in Osaka. Probably a bit in Kyoto too, but I was with Jason most of the time so I was a bit distracted by conversation. But I did see some other tourists walkig around when I was sitting in restaurants and such, and people just stared at them as they walked past. It is really awkward.
I set up my reservation for Sunday night in the hostel, and then played some arcade games and stopped in at La La to get me some Indian food that I love so much. On the way I walked around a bit, saw a backpack I wanted to buy before I left (that I forgot to pick up) and saw some cool restaurant statues and displays. Then I got lost.
My iPhone is truly not that reliable. Well, in a way it is. It gives you the most efficient, both costwise and timewise, way to get somewhere. So my iphone kept trying to lead me to an invisible bus stop that would carry me to the edge of Osaka to take another form of transportation from there to Osaka. Really all I wanted to do was go to JR station and take a train from there, but the iPhone wouldn't help me with that. I tried finding a JR station using it as well, and it led me to a car rental building. Sonuva....
I eventually found it and headed out a full two hours after I had intended to. I was cranky and tired from the excursion so I hopped on the express sonic train. The normal express is the same price, but this is the luxury express, and that costs an extra ￥６００ to ride. In Oita I can sort of gaijin smash my way into riding it for free, but the guy working the Osaka-Kyoto line spoke fluent English and wasn't having any of that. Dang. So the whole ride ended up costing me about ￥1500, which was a bit more than I intended spending...
It took about 40 minutes to get a hold of Jason when I did arrive at the station, and then another hour or so before he showed up. That sucked, but I did walk around the station a bit, and they had some Osamu Tezuka displays everywhere. Osamu Tezuka is the man who brought animation to Japan , inspired by Disney, way back when. His stuff is respectable in Japan along the same lines, and everyone knows who he is. Except Jason, who has been living in Kyoto for four or five months now. Way to go, guy.
We ate at Subway and went back to his modest apartment which he wouldn't let me take a picture of. He's quite private. As revenge, I proceeded to dump my crap all over the place. Or rather in a corner near the door, because I am a good guest.
We watched Family Guy and got McDonald's, which wasn't so bad. Then we slept. He bought a futon for me to sleep on. That is ridiculous. I told him I was fine with the floor, but apparently he's too nice for his own good. This was a Japanese futon of course, which is really just a bedroll, but still. Crazy.
The next day we went to his school, the other Ritsumeikan, and I hung out there while he was in class. Mostly just went to the cafeteria, the bathroom, and the school store, then walked around a bit litening to music and read some One Piece. I don't think I even took any pictures of the place, but it looks like a crowded college campus. It's also pretty irritating to navigate and it's easy to accidentally wander off the grounds.
Afterwards we went to some zen rock garden and shrine. It's apparently a world heritage site (Japan has a grand amount of those for some reason) and it was really peaceful and pretty, so that was really nice. I blessed myself at every damn fountain we came across, and Jason made fun of me for being superstitious. We'll see who's laughing when he gets pulled through the cracks in the walls of his apartment because he didn't take protective measures against the demons.
The next day we went to 金貨維持(Kinkaiji), which is the Golden Temple. Unfortunately the shots I got of it aren't that great because I used my iPhone for it, but holy wow it is beautiful. It's a shiny golden temple as the name says, with a bird ornamentation on top. It's been rebuilt a few times I think, but it's still really nice to look at, and as always with the shrines it's surrounded by beautiful scenery and a lake/pond/moat with a heron in it (There is ALWAYS a heron in the lake. Always. There is no avoiding it.)
Jason then had classes, so I stayed in his apartment for a couple of hours pretending to be a lawyer, by which I mean I played a bunch of Phoenix Wright on my DS because there was nothing else to do. When he got back we went to the movies.
Star Trek. is. AWESOME. Go see it now if you haven't. I don't care if you don't like the tv series, the movie is just great. Anyone who disagrees just hates fun. The movie theater also has the option of caramel corn, which I went with, and I wish all movie theaters in the states followed this example. The food is also pretty cheap on top of that, and the tickets were cheaper than normal for some unexplained reason. We weren't late enough for the late show discount, and the student discount only brings it to ￥１５００, but it only cost us ￥１０００, so that was a nice treat.
After that we got dinner, wasted like an hour in a book store while Jason tried fruitlessly to find good novels to read and just ended up buying comic books (I however wrote down the name of an interesting looking novel series, 図書館革命(Library Wars) to try to find at a used book store, so go me.
Then we watched more Family Guy, and I forced him to watch other things in addition to that. He's convinced Family Guy is the highest form of entertainment, and refuses to see the truth (because it's actually Futurama. Honestly).
Then sleep again.
to be continued...
Thursday, June 11, 2009
It's Over!
The hiatus that is.
I got back yesterday at about 7 am, got me some MacDonard's (I'm going to continue calling it that when I'm back in the states, just fyi) and went to class. Then I played Team Fortress 2 for forever, and went to sleep. The first day back was a welcome relaxation for my bleeding and sore feet.
Today was likewise restful, in that I slept in til about 1 which was also nice.
I fully intended to have some stuff up today, but it's taking longer than I thought. It took a full half hour to get all the contents off my camera (why does it have two storage folders?!) and I still haven't gotten the photos from my iPhone yet. So... that's to come. Gonna get everything uploaded tomorrow morning hopefully.
Then, like last time, I'll take the next three days to discuss the trip.
It's amazing, I had a week off from the blog and I'm still incredibly lazy.
Like some kind of superpower.
I got back yesterday at about 7 am, got me some MacDonard's (I'm going to continue calling it that when I'm back in the states, just fyi) and went to class. Then I played Team Fortress 2 for forever, and went to sleep. The first day back was a welcome relaxation for my bleeding and sore feet.
Today was likewise restful, in that I slept in til about 1 which was also nice.
I fully intended to have some stuff up today, but it's taking longer than I thought. It took a full half hour to get all the contents off my camera (why does it have two storage folders?!) and I still haven't gotten the photos from my iPhone yet. So... that's to come. Gonna get everything uploaded tomorrow morning hopefully.
Then, like last time, I'll take the next three days to discuss the trip.
It's amazing, I had a week off from the blog and I'm still incredibly lazy.
Like some kind of superpower.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Hoodoo!
Alright, so pictures of the church and the art house are up, as well as a few more shots of Beppu and APU. Told ya I'd put them up today.
Today was pretty uneventful. Got my ferry tickets, cleaned my room a bit, did some packing, played some video games. Prepared a bit for my exam tomorrow, but I don't even know what's going to be on it and each chapter was 100 pages long at least so... can't really read up all 14 chapters in any reasonable timeframe. Figure it'll just be general course questions and very few specifics, based on how the professor has run things the rest of the quarter.
Gotta wake up tomorrow morning and make breakfast and hand in an assignment, then go to the exam, get lunch, and pick up my work papers before running around the dorms panicking that I'm going to forget something, and then heading down to the ferry. Joy o joy o joy.
I really enjoy the ferry ride, for some reason, so I'm looking forward to tomorrow for that if nothing more. The luggage case I bought as a replacement for the one that broke is noticeable smaller, now that I'm packing it anew. It's only missing about 3 inches from the volume, but that makes enough difference apparently. If I find a bigger one for cheap I'll pick it up and sell this one off to someone in the dorms, hopefully.
Nothing planned for the trip, but I figure it shouldn't be hard to find stuff to do. Jason hasn't done ANYTHING since he moved to Kyoto, so he's up for pretty much everything. And I've got all day while he's in class to think of stuff, so, should work out.
Updates return Tuesday, so look forward to that. In the meantime, get a life.
Today was pretty uneventful. Got my ferry tickets, cleaned my room a bit, did some packing, played some video games. Prepared a bit for my exam tomorrow, but I don't even know what's going to be on it and each chapter was 100 pages long at least so... can't really read up all 14 chapters in any reasonable timeframe. Figure it'll just be general course questions and very few specifics, based on how the professor has run things the rest of the quarter.
Gotta wake up tomorrow morning and make breakfast and hand in an assignment, then go to the exam, get lunch, and pick up my work papers before running around the dorms panicking that I'm going to forget something, and then heading down to the ferry. Joy o joy o joy.
I really enjoy the ferry ride, for some reason, so I'm looking forward to tomorrow for that if nothing more. The luggage case I bought as a replacement for the one that broke is noticeable smaller, now that I'm packing it anew. It's only missing about 3 inches from the volume, but that makes enough difference apparently. If I find a bigger one for cheap I'll pick it up and sell this one off to someone in the dorms, hopefully.
Nothing planned for the trip, but I figure it shouldn't be hard to find stuff to do. Jason hasn't done ANYTHING since he moved to Kyoto, so he's up for pretty much everything. And I've got all day while he's in class to think of stuff, so, should work out.
Updates return Tuesday, so look forward to that. In the meantime, get a life.
Monday, June 1, 2009
In the name of the noodle, the broth, and the naruto. Ramen.
So I was woken up early AGAIN by communist anthems blaring through the hallways. One of the Chinese kids was playing their music on full blast, and then singing louder than that. Granted it wasn't all that early today at about 10am, but I still wanted to sleep in. Stupid dorm setup being all inconvenient rabble rabble grouch bitch whine.....
The church that we went to is all the way across town. There's a perfectly good protestant church down the road from campus, but apparently since we're Roman Catholic we're supposed to go to the Catholic church. Come on, we all worship the same God, and I'm lazy and cheap. I wanna go to the closer one!
The service was kind of odd. The priest was Japanese and speaking in English, and kept going on about how God works through him to bring us closer together by speaking to us in our own language, even though half the people there were Phillipino, and most of the rest of them were Japanese, so it's really not any of their own language, just mine and a handful of people hanging out there like me. He also switched into Japanese a couple of times and shared some anecdotes. I was more paying attention to these kids that were harassing their parents. This one kid kept drooling everywhere and making weird noises, and this other kid was literally climbing on his dad, and at one point facehugged clung onto the poor guy's head. Pretty amusing, really.
Going today reminded me really that I just don't understand why people go to church every Sunday. This place had a nice sense of community to it I suppose, though. Everyone was friendly and they were in casual wear instead of rigid formal structures thta I was raised up in for church. So that was nice, although one girl was wearing pants that said "Sweet Fruit" right on the ass, so I think maybe that was taking the casual dress a bit far...
After the service we found an art house nearby and looked inside of that. One of the "artists" made us tweak these fake breasts that automatically take your picture when you tweak them hard enough. It was... awkward, but he was insistent. Walking through the rest of the house reminded me why I don't have so much faith in modern art either, but some of it was pretty interesting.
Ku-ta Ramen later like I predicted, and then plenty of shopping hijinks. I bought a sign for my door that says "Beware of Guard Dog" that narrowly won over a "caution, drunk drivers' sign that looked like an angry man kicking a car. Also found some cheetos, so kudos on that, me.
And after I got back I spent most of the evening up until this quite late update playing Team Fortress 2. Woo hoo. I'm gonna be gone for a week, I needed to stock up hours to prevent relapse. Or something. Shut up.
I took pictures of the church and the art place, and I'll put them up tomorrow cause I am too damn tired to care right now.
Tomorrow will be the last update til Monday most likely.
The church that we went to is all the way across town. There's a perfectly good protestant church down the road from campus, but apparently since we're Roman Catholic we're supposed to go to the Catholic church. Come on, we all worship the same God, and I'm lazy and cheap. I wanna go to the closer one!
The service was kind of odd. The priest was Japanese and speaking in English, and kept going on about how God works through him to bring us closer together by speaking to us in our own language, even though half the people there were Phillipino, and most of the rest of them were Japanese, so it's really not any of their own language, just mine and a handful of people hanging out there like me. He also switched into Japanese a couple of times and shared some anecdotes. I was more paying attention to these kids that were harassing their parents. This one kid kept drooling everywhere and making weird noises, and this other kid was literally climbing on his dad, and at one point facehugged clung onto the poor guy's head. Pretty amusing, really.
Going today reminded me really that I just don't understand why people go to church every Sunday. This place had a nice sense of community to it I suppose, though. Everyone was friendly and they were in casual wear instead of rigid formal structures thta I was raised up in for church. So that was nice, although one girl was wearing pants that said "Sweet Fruit" right on the ass, so I think maybe that was taking the casual dress a bit far...
After the service we found an art house nearby and looked inside of that. One of the "artists" made us tweak these fake breasts that automatically take your picture when you tweak them hard enough. It was... awkward, but he was insistent. Walking through the rest of the house reminded me why I don't have so much faith in modern art either, but some of it was pretty interesting.
Ku-ta Ramen later like I predicted, and then plenty of shopping hijinks. I bought a sign for my door that says "Beware of Guard Dog" that narrowly won over a "caution, drunk drivers' sign that looked like an angry man kicking a car. Also found some cheetos, so kudos on that, me.
And after I got back I spent most of the evening up until this quite late update playing Team Fortress 2. Woo hoo. I'm gonna be gone for a week, I needed to stock up hours to prevent relapse. Or something. Shut up.
I took pictures of the church and the art place, and I'll put them up tomorrow cause I am too damn tired to care right now.
Tomorrow will be the last update til Monday most likely.
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