/Intiate copout routine alpha gamma sigma.
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/Hello world!
I figure I've only got a few days left here, so what isn't spent saying tearful goodbyes is spent packing and preparing to leave. When I do manage to travel I'll blog about that, but mostly it's just filler blog.
So here's a list of seven things that I just never managed to get over in my stay in Japan.
1. The ATMs close - This should be self explanatory, but I'll emphasize. The ATM's for the most part are only open from 8/10 am-6pm, depending on the company running it. On a busy day, or a day where you're just being too lazy, this can ensure that you never reach it in time. It also creates that dead period in the evening where there is no way to get money if you spend more than you intended, and it will leave you running around bored out of your mind unless your friends are generous enough to loan you some cash. This has happened enough times to be a severe irritant, and I think when I come home I'm only going to withdraw money at 1am for a whole month just to feel alive. Or something.
2. Walking - This is not in the sense that you need to walk anywhere. I don't mind that, and bicycles, trains, and buses are also an option so you don't need to walk everywhere if you don't feel like it. It's the fact that people here seem to have no sense of spatial awareness when they're navigating on foot. Cell phones are the most important aspect of the life of a Japanese teen, and they'll stand around blocking passageways as they send e-mails, take photos, or attach a string to it and pretend it's a yoyo. Anything to not move out of the way. There also seems to be no code of conduct for walking around. If you don't move out of the way people will actually just walk right into you and then give you a shocked look, instead of moving themselves. Then on the complete flipside of the coin they'll get upset waiting for you to cross their path and motion angrily as they stand in place. I've seen Japanese students push other students out of their path as they walk (especially guys pushing girls) and it's not a one time occurence. There is also the fact that the flow of traffic is different regionally all over Japan. In Tokyo it's on the left, but in the Kansai region it's on the right, and it switches wherever you go. So Japan being as small as it is, that ensures that there are tons of people from all over Japan all in the same places frequently, which obfuscates the flow of traffic wherever you are. Hurrah!
3. Irashaimase! - The politeness. UGH. This might just be a personal thing, but I cannot stand how "polite" everyone here is. It's a superficial business polite but it's everyone. Classmates are polite, teachers are polite, store and construction workers are polite, it's aggravating. It's almots a hivemind. People will shout "irashaimase!" (welcome) in unison the second you walk into a store, and every time you pass them. Clerks will apologize repeatedly for taking too long with whatever they're doing for you, despite the fact that this makes it take longer, or even if it didn't take long. It's such a cold, rote, etiquette that it gets under my skin. I've been telling people that I can't wait to get back to Buffalo where people will be rude to me.
4. Beauracracy - You know how you hate going to the DMV, because it takes forever, and by the time you get to the end of the line you find out that you filled out the forms wrong, and/or in the wrong order, and instead of just letting you correct it you need to start all over again? Well all of Japan is like that. For example, it took me four hours when I needed to get a cell phone. This involved them copying down my bank number, me paying for it, and them activating it. Which took four hours.
5. Amazing Gaijin Prowess! - Every time you do something that Japanese and/or other East Asian people do in their everyday lives, it absolutely floors them. You can use chopsticks? HOLY SHIT you must be some sort of gifted super child. You know how to say thank you in Japanese? The miracles never cease! Basically anything that you could learn from eating Asian food in America they wouldn't expect you to be capable of for some reason.
6. Oshare or death! - Fashion is the lifeblood of young Japanese people. The majority of them would rather be dead than not look good. This includes the men, or what would be men if there were any of them left in Japan. The day I saw a Japanese guy in a public restroom with a fold-out make-up and hair studio that he pulled from his studded leather man purse is the day I realized Japanese masculinity is an endangered concept. One of my friends was riding his motorbike to school in a sleeveless shirt, a light, open jacket, jean, and shoes with no socks in the middle of winter. I asked him why he didn't dress warmer cause he looked like he was freezing his balls off, and his response was that he wouldn't look cool then. GAH.
7. Japanese School - You've probably heard of cram schools. A school after school for those that want to excel. They have those in Japan, and it's a frequent occurence to attend them, probably to compensate for the lack of education in regular school. The fact that so many kids attend them just to pass their normal classes means either the standards are too high, or the teachers aren't teaching properly, and from my time here I can tell you it's definitely not the standards. Pretty much anything taught in class is done so directly from the textbook with no outside thought. Things are not explained in depth and sometimes they aren't explained at all. There is an emphasis on groupwork because Japan is a society based on the concept of teamwork. Unfortunately, the emphasis toward that prevents any actual learning progress from taking place in the classroom, so what you should have learned in class instead needs to be studied by yourself on your own time. But who would want to study more after you've already been in class for 6 hours and didn't learn anything, or in the case of cram school students that have been in class for 10 hours, now with double the homework load, in addition to studying what should have been covered in class. Pretty well off, isn't it?
And that's all she wrote. Tomorrow we'll see if I can scrounge up 7 things I liked.
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Friday, July 31, 2009
Thursday, July 30, 2009
I don't want to set the world on fire
I just want to start a flame in your heart.
So yes, past few days I have been absent from the blog. Apologies, but it was final exams and the first day of vacation, so it's been nice.
Aside from studying, taking exams, playing Fallout 3, and awkward last suppers with departing friends, not much has been going on worth mentioning.
I did, yesterday, hang out with a group of Japanese highschool girls. It's not as creepy as all that, I promise. My friends were leading a tour group and asked me to help them out and talk to them, because apparently they were on campus to practice their English. It was far more amusing than it should have been, because the three of us could say whatever we wanted as long as we said it at native spead and the girls had absolutely no idea what we said, but would nod and laugh at things regardless. Oh ho ho. Also we taught them LOVE AND PEACE , "Sugar Daddy", and my one friend tried to convince them that otakus are the coolest people in the world (otaku meaning super loser geeklings, for you uninitiated). Also they said my facial hair was "kakkoi (cool)" so I guess that's a good thing. And one of them asked me how often I need to shave. Apparently there is a word for razor that is "nori". Nori also means seaweed paper. So when she asked me I got really confused and thought she was asking if I applied seaweed paper to my face.
Oh language barriers. You are ever so amusing.
One of the guys on the floor wants us to go downtown as a last farewell tomorrow. I need to cancel my phone tomorrow so hopefully I somehow can meet up with them after that. Otherwise I'll end up missing out, and that would be upsetting.
After that, I think maybe this weekend I'll go to Yufuin with a friend or two if any are left. Then I plan on hitting the train station a couple of times and going as far as 500 yen will take me, just to see random cities for the hell of it. Then I'm pretty much out of time. I mean really, I have 7 days left in the city before I go to Fukuoka. So things are kind of rushed. Phooey on the semester lasting this long, but I guess if it had ended earlier I would have rushed home for Canal Fest like a fool.
Ah well, there's always next year's souvlaki.
So yes, past few days I have been absent from the blog. Apologies, but it was final exams and the first day of vacation, so it's been nice.
Aside from studying, taking exams, playing Fallout 3, and awkward last suppers with departing friends, not much has been going on worth mentioning.
I did, yesterday, hang out with a group of Japanese highschool girls. It's not as creepy as all that, I promise. My friends were leading a tour group and asked me to help them out and talk to them, because apparently they were on campus to practice their English. It was far more amusing than it should have been, because the three of us could say whatever we wanted as long as we said it at native spead and the girls had absolutely no idea what we said, but would nod and laugh at things regardless. Oh ho ho. Also we taught them LOVE AND PEACE , "Sugar Daddy", and my one friend tried to convince them that otakus are the coolest people in the world (otaku meaning super loser geeklings, for you uninitiated). Also they said my facial hair was "kakkoi (cool)" so I guess that's a good thing. And one of them asked me how often I need to shave. Apparently there is a word for razor that is "nori". Nori also means seaweed paper. So when she asked me I got really confused and thought she was asking if I applied seaweed paper to my face.
Oh language barriers. You are ever so amusing.
One of the guys on the floor wants us to go downtown as a last farewell tomorrow. I need to cancel my phone tomorrow so hopefully I somehow can meet up with them after that. Otherwise I'll end up missing out, and that would be upsetting.
After that, I think maybe this weekend I'll go to Yufuin with a friend or two if any are left. Then I plan on hitting the train station a couple of times and going as far as 500 yen will take me, just to see random cities for the hell of it. Then I'm pretty much out of time. I mean really, I have 7 days left in the city before I go to Fukuoka. So things are kind of rushed. Phooey on the semester lasting this long, but I guess if it had ended earlier I would have rushed home for Canal Fest like a fool.
Ah well, there's always next year's souvlaki.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Tabesugimashita...
The barbecue was today!
It was a lot of fun.
We went to the train station at about noon and rode to Oita, from where Shingo picked us up and drove us to his parents' house. And there was a pile of food on the grill there for us. Also, the barbecue was apparently a small party. There were the three of us, Shingo's parents, his sister, and a few of his dad's friends and their wives.
The food was really good (aside from the arbitrary shellfish. Apparently it's expensive and I felt bad for not liking it, but not bad enough to eat more) but they kept insisting we ate more. And more. And more. My jaw hurt from chewing and my stomach was more than full, but they insisted "You can eat more. Your stomach only 1/3 full." I'm not sure what kind of alien logic they were running on, but it was definitely about 4/3 full at that point. And on top of that we had to politely not refuse dessert.
So basically, you go to a Japanese person's house, you're going to get fed. And there is absolutely no way out of it.
The people there were friendly and asked the usual set of questions. I also learned that dragonfly is tanbo and that the weather is unseasonably hot and wet so that's why there are so many of them all of a sudden. Also there is a Canon factory and a Toshiba factory in the city, which was apparently important to point out to me. Go figure.
Afterwards we got back to Beppu and the remnants of last night's festival (which I did not attend because it wasn't advertised on campus for some reason) were still around. Lots of people in traditional garb which is always exciting. The girls always look especially pretty in their kimonos, and I really wish I had a guy's yukata cause they look comfy. There were food vendors around still but that was about it aside from the fireworks later that night, but I've seen fireworks before and that's not big.
Besides, I still had this paper to finish!
So I came back, and finished my paper oh... not too long ago. So that's just barely done, and I submitted it online. Studying Japanese right now for the exam part 1 tomorrow, and the exam part 2 is the day after. Chances are that I'll skip a blog tomorrow to get some extra studying in, so here's your heads up.
Now if you'll excuse me I'm still digesting.
It was a lot of fun.
We went to the train station at about noon and rode to Oita, from where Shingo picked us up and drove us to his parents' house. And there was a pile of food on the grill there for us. Also, the barbecue was apparently a small party. There were the three of us, Shingo's parents, his sister, and a few of his dad's friends and their wives.
The food was really good (aside from the arbitrary shellfish. Apparently it's expensive and I felt bad for not liking it, but not bad enough to eat more) but they kept insisting we ate more. And more. And more. My jaw hurt from chewing and my stomach was more than full, but they insisted "You can eat more. Your stomach only 1/3 full." I'm not sure what kind of alien logic they were running on, but it was definitely about 4/3 full at that point. And on top of that we had to politely not refuse dessert.
So basically, you go to a Japanese person's house, you're going to get fed. And there is absolutely no way out of it.
The people there were friendly and asked the usual set of questions. I also learned that dragonfly is tanbo and that the weather is unseasonably hot and wet so that's why there are so many of them all of a sudden. Also there is a Canon factory and a Toshiba factory in the city, which was apparently important to point out to me. Go figure.
Afterwards we got back to Beppu and the remnants of last night's festival (which I did not attend because it wasn't advertised on campus for some reason) were still around. Lots of people in traditional garb which is always exciting. The girls always look especially pretty in their kimonos, and I really wish I had a guy's yukata cause they look comfy. There were food vendors around still but that was about it aside from the fireworks later that night, but I've seen fireworks before and that's not big.
Besides, I still had this paper to finish!
So I came back, and finished my paper oh... not too long ago. So that's just barely done, and I submitted it online. Studying Japanese right now for the exam part 1 tomorrow, and the exam part 2 is the day after. Chances are that I'll skip a blog tomorrow to get some extra studying in, so here's your heads up.
Now if you'll excuse me I'm still digesting.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
No blog today
I'm busy writing my term paper. And even then, the excuse for no blog is late! As is my custom.
Instead enjoy these Vanessa Carlton lyrics. Or you know, you can close the page at this point.
Some people live in a house on the hill
And wish they were some place else
There's nobody there
When the evening is still
Secrets with no one to tell
Some I have known have a ship where they sleep with sounds of rocks on the coast
They sail over oceans five fathoms deep
But can't find what they want the most
Even now when I'm alone
I've always known with you
I am home
Some live in towns
Cardboard shack on concrete
All bluster and bustling life
They search for the color they can never quite see
Cause it's all white on white
Even now when I'm alone
I've always known with you
I am home
[repeat]
For me it's a glance and the smile on your face the touch of your hands,
And an honest embrace
For where I lay it's you I keep,
This changing world I fall asleep
With you all I know is I'm coming home,
Coming home
Instead enjoy these Vanessa Carlton lyrics. Or you know, you can close the page at this point.
Some people live in a house on the hill
And wish they were some place else
There's nobody there
When the evening is still
Secrets with no one to tell
Some I have known have a ship where they sleep with sounds of rocks on the coast
They sail over oceans five fathoms deep
But can't find what they want the most
Even now when I'm alone
I've always known with you
I am home
Some live in towns
Cardboard shack on concrete
All bluster and bustling life
They search for the color they can never quite see
Cause it's all white on white
Even now when I'm alone
I've always known with you
I am home
[repeat]
For me it's a glance and the smile on your face the touch of your hands,
And an honest embrace
For where I lay it's you I keep,
This changing world I fall asleep
With you all I know is I'm coming home,
Coming home
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Milky Way
It's sixty thousand trillion miles from one end to the other, you know.
Yeah, I'm listening to music from Animaniacs. Wanna make somethin of it?
So today was... weird. The last day of classes, woo. I showed up late because I couldn't find my textbook. I decided that I had left it in class the day before and would need to go to the security office in order to get it if somebody turned it in. Turns out one of the girls in the class saw that I left it behind and handed it to me when I walked in. Thank you Yoyo-san.
Also, the teacher was a callous wench today. She tossed my papers at me when she had stuff to hand back, refused to look at me or comment on my stuff (we were doing a board activity. AGAIN) and she didn't even call on me to answer anything (that part I kinda liked). Honestly, it's one thing for a kid to be rude to their teacher (which I wasn't. I disliked her but she's still my professor, ya know?) but there is something about being a professor that ensures that you act with a certain amount of dignity. Chrissakes woman.
Guess I should ace the final exam to show her up or something.
Also got a call from the guy running the job the other day. He can't pick us up so we need to take the train there. It's a fifteen dollar train ride. We're going to pick up our paychecks. The paycheck is only for 60 dollars. The train ride is 15 dollars each way.
Wow, how generous of them! Argh...
I also got bored of being on campus and went for a walk. And then I kept walking. And then decided to go walk down the mountain, cause I haven't done that since last semester.
So I walked.
And walked.
And walked...
And remembered how long of a walk it is.
And then I got attacked by a GIANT HORNET!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
Then I ran the rest of the way down the mountain. Those things are huge, mate.
Also picked up enough groceries to last me til I leave so... that's covered.
Which is about 15 days from now, actually. So, hurrah!
Also as an aside: Sorry this blog hasn't been as exciting as it was at first. When I got here everything was fresh and new and wacky, but now that I've been here for a year things just... don't stand out as much. The scenery is still beautiful from campus, Japanese people still can't use English properly, and there are things at the store like banana protectors and breast enhancing juice drinks. But at this point I've shared enough strange foods and merchandises and complained about the brutality of 母 Nature. When unusual things crop up I try to put them in here but really . . . You live in one place long enough and it's the same as living in any other place long enough.
That's why I like traveling. Traveling allows you to see everything around you with fresh eyes. To the person that lives there that's just the am pm convenience store, but to you that's the am pm in Tokyo where you ate a pizza bun with your friends on the way back from Akihabara. That's not just some temple you pass every day on the way to work, that's a piece of culture foreign, unique, beautiful and interesting apart from the culture you come from.
I feel a need to make a distinction between "traveling" and "tourism" as well. A traveler sees everything around them. A tourist looks at them.
That's all I got for tonight. Thanks for keeping up with my crappy blog that never updated on time, was rarely interesting to read, but had some decent pictures.
Hold in there for a few more updates. The trip is almost over, and the best part is coming home, which is coming up. Countdown on the right.
Yeah, I'm listening to music from Animaniacs. Wanna make somethin of it?
So today was... weird. The last day of classes, woo. I showed up late because I couldn't find my textbook. I decided that I had left it in class the day before and would need to go to the security office in order to get it if somebody turned it in. Turns out one of the girls in the class saw that I left it behind and handed it to me when I walked in. Thank you Yoyo-san.
Also, the teacher was a callous wench today. She tossed my papers at me when she had stuff to hand back, refused to look at me or comment on my stuff (we were doing a board activity. AGAIN) and she didn't even call on me to answer anything (that part I kinda liked). Honestly, it's one thing for a kid to be rude to their teacher (which I wasn't. I disliked her but she's still my professor, ya know?) but there is something about being a professor that ensures that you act with a certain amount of dignity. Chrissakes woman.
Guess I should ace the final exam to show her up or something.
Also got a call from the guy running the job the other day. He can't pick us up so we need to take the train there. It's a fifteen dollar train ride. We're going to pick up our paychecks. The paycheck is only for 60 dollars. The train ride is 15 dollars each way.
Wow, how generous of them! Argh...
I also got bored of being on campus and went for a walk. And then I kept walking. And then decided to go walk down the mountain, cause I haven't done that since last semester.
So I walked.
And walked.
And walked...
And remembered how long of a walk it is.
And then I got attacked by a GIANT HORNET!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
Then I ran the rest of the way down the mountain. Those things are huge, mate.
Also picked up enough groceries to last me til I leave so... that's covered.
Which is about 15 days from now, actually. So, hurrah!
Also as an aside: Sorry this blog hasn't been as exciting as it was at first. When I got here everything was fresh and new and wacky, but now that I've been here for a year things just... don't stand out as much. The scenery is still beautiful from campus, Japanese people still can't use English properly, and there are things at the store like banana protectors and breast enhancing juice drinks. But at this point I've shared enough strange foods and merchandises and complained about the brutality of 母 Nature. When unusual things crop up I try to put them in here but really . . . You live in one place long enough and it's the same as living in any other place long enough.
That's why I like traveling. Traveling allows you to see everything around you with fresh eyes. To the person that lives there that's just the am pm convenience store, but to you that's the am pm in Tokyo where you ate a pizza bun with your friends on the way back from Akihabara. That's not just some temple you pass every day on the way to work, that's a piece of culture foreign, unique, beautiful and interesting apart from the culture you come from.
I feel a need to make a distinction between "traveling" and "tourism" as well. A traveler sees everything around them. A tourist looks at them.
That's all I got for tonight. Thanks for keeping up with my crappy blog that never updated on time, was rarely interesting to read, but had some decent pictures.
Hold in there for a few more updates. The trip is almost over, and the best part is coming home, which is coming up. Countdown on the right.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Reverse the Polarity!
Then shoot right through their shields!
Today was the second to last day of class, which means tomorrow is the last day. Which means that Monday and Tuesday are the final exams, which means I will be HAPPY FOREVER.
Except today's class was lame, as it was all "group competition" charades crap. Which is never fun in class. And then the teacher made us fill out these sort of "friendship cards" where we have to write (in Japanese) memories and well wishes toward our classmates. Individually. It's irritating because I am friends with a good one person in that class, and the teacher is going around and checking them to make sure we're writing enough. Augh.
I got in and wrote a bad review of the class and the teacher on the evaluation, and included in the additional comments section that APU needs to rethink it's curriculum, so that's about the best I can do.
Other than that! Played Fallout 3 until it crashed then realized the time. As a result, missed kitchen duty, but considering nobody actually, you know, came knocking on my door (Which is lame cause the person I had it with is my neighbor) and the RA's take responsibility to make sure you're there, and it's pretty much the last week of school... I'm really not all that concerned.
Also took down the pop can wall in my room. I passed it off as a decoration, and actually now that it's gone the room does feel a lot emptier, which is strange but I guess I'd grown accustomed to it being there. Ah well.
Not so much looking forward to class tomorrow, but not much you can do about that. Also need to spend Saturday writing the paper for my other class, but after all that I'll be done.
Then it's wasting time here, and heading to Fukuoka. Speaking of which I looked into booking a room and there are only availabilities for the second day I'm there. Debating either just staying in an internet cafe again, or taking the train to some random town and staying there for the night. I already put my moving out forms in, so all I know is I gotta be out by the 7th. Should be fun.
If anyone can think of anything Japanese to do before I leave the country, gimme a shout and I'll see what I can do about it.
Today was the second to last day of class, which means tomorrow is the last day. Which means that Monday and Tuesday are the final exams, which means I will be HAPPY FOREVER.
Except today's class was lame, as it was all "group competition" charades crap. Which is never fun in class. And then the teacher made us fill out these sort of "friendship cards" where we have to write (in Japanese) memories and well wishes toward our classmates. Individually. It's irritating because I am friends with a good one person in that class, and the teacher is going around and checking them to make sure we're writing enough. Augh.
I got in and wrote a bad review of the class and the teacher on the evaluation, and included in the additional comments section that APU needs to rethink it's curriculum, so that's about the best I can do.
Other than that! Played Fallout 3 until it crashed then realized the time. As a result, missed kitchen duty, but considering nobody actually, you know, came knocking on my door (Which is lame cause the person I had it with is my neighbor) and the RA's take responsibility to make sure you're there, and it's pretty much the last week of school... I'm really not all that concerned.
Also took down the pop can wall in my room. I passed it off as a decoration, and actually now that it's gone the room does feel a lot emptier, which is strange but I guess I'd grown accustomed to it being there. Ah well.
Not so much looking forward to class tomorrow, but not much you can do about that. Also need to spend Saturday writing the paper for my other class, but after all that I'll be done.
Then it's wasting time here, and heading to Fukuoka. Speaking of which I looked into booking a room and there are only availabilities for the second day I'm there. Debating either just staying in an internet cafe again, or taking the train to some random town and staying there for the night. I already put my moving out forms in, so all I know is I gotta be out by the 7th. Should be fun.
If anyone can think of anything Japanese to do before I leave the country, gimme a shout and I'll see what I can do about it.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Therapeutic Crushing
Sorry about the lack of updates. Some such things put me into a mood foul enough to go destroy Tokyo.
You can't tell from this angle, but I'm actually on a saddle on his back.
Today was a goosfraba day.
Slept in late, which is always nice. Everyone like that.
Then I got me some lunch (Mmm-mm nanbread pizza) and hopped on the bus down to Kannawa. Found myself in the most expensive onsen that I could give (hint: They don't really get higher than 500 yen. So it's totally affordable) and was in there for a good while. I actually only intended to be in there for a good 20 minutes, but I couldn't bring a watch in with me. So I'd try counting it off in my head, but then I'd sort of drift off cause of the heat, start floating in the hot water and... and... then I'd lose track of where I was and start counting all over again. By the time I got out I had been in there for an extremely relaxing hour and a half by myself. Everything about me feels better and I wonder why I don't go to the onsen more often.
After that I walked across town to a tonkatsu restaurant, because I thought to myself "Kyle, you haven't had any real tonkatsu since you got here, just the crap in the cafeteria." and I knew I was right, so I figured I'd try it out. It was expensive, a good 1200 yen for a medium roast katsu with rice and miso soup. I could've gotten an almost unfinishable MEGA bowl of cheese gyuudon for 700 yen at Sukiya where I had almost stopped in (note: I normally get the 500 yen medium sized bowl, so yeah. . .) but it was really, REALLY good so I was glad I got it at least once before I left. Still, I'll stick to getting my katsu in curry form for the fact that it's cheaper that way (no I don't know why).
Because I wasn't done pampering myself I went to Baskin Robbins (although it's called 31 here) and got a fruit smoothie, then bought a new shirt at Uniqlo. Then I came home and got kitchen duty switched to tomorrow, cause I'm cool like that.
So all in all, a damn good day I'd say.
Since I haven't been updating, I might as well mention that this weekend was pretty good as well. Jason came in on Saturday and the first thing we did was bitch about the heat. Then I told him to meet us at the Daiso, figuring that he lived here for a good 6 months before, so he should know where it was. We went there looking for him and he was nowhere to be found, so I bought a candy filled samurai sword and we went looking for him. He was on the next block at McDonald's sitting in the window and told me I'm an idiot because there was no Daiso around there. Yeah... except for the one a block away. Smooth move, jackass (I hope you're reading this so you can relive it. AGAIN). So the ramen was delicious when we got around to eating it, and then at my insistence we went to go look at PUPPIES.
Believe it or not that was the smartest idea I've ever had.
At the place that they keep the puppies, we ran into people that we knew that were glad to see Jason while he was visiting, as well as Marcelo, whom contacted Sjors, whom was hanging out with some of his friends from Holland, whom we met up with, and then followed to Gusto and had dessert and hung out for a bit for the rest of the night.
It was pretty fun.
The following days Jason was here were spent distracting him from the paper that he needed to write by playing video games, and then playing more video games. Because what better thing to do with people that you haven't seen in months than sit in front of the idiot box beating each other up in virtual world, amirite?
Yaaaaaaaaay.
Today was a goosfraba day.
Slept in late, which is always nice. Everyone like that.
Then I got me some lunch (Mmm-mm nanbread pizza) and hopped on the bus down to Kannawa. Found myself in the most expensive onsen that I could give (hint: They don't really get higher than 500 yen. So it's totally affordable) and was in there for a good while. I actually only intended to be in there for a good 20 minutes, but I couldn't bring a watch in with me. So I'd try counting it off in my head, but then I'd sort of drift off cause of the heat, start floating in the hot water and... and... then I'd lose track of where I was and start counting all over again. By the time I got out I had been in there for an extremely relaxing hour and a half by myself. Everything about me feels better and I wonder why I don't go to the onsen more often.
After that I walked across town to a tonkatsu restaurant, because I thought to myself "Kyle, you haven't had any real tonkatsu since you got here, just the crap in the cafeteria." and I knew I was right, so I figured I'd try it out. It was expensive, a good 1200 yen for a medium roast katsu with rice and miso soup. I could've gotten an almost unfinishable MEGA bowl of cheese gyuudon for 700 yen at Sukiya where I had almost stopped in (note: I normally get the 500 yen medium sized bowl, so yeah. . .) but it was really, REALLY good so I was glad I got it at least once before I left. Still, I'll stick to getting my katsu in curry form for the fact that it's cheaper that way (no I don't know why).
Because I wasn't done pampering myself I went to Baskin Robbins (although it's called 31 here) and got a fruit smoothie, then bought a new shirt at Uniqlo. Then I came home and got kitchen duty switched to tomorrow, cause I'm cool like that.
So all in all, a damn good day I'd say.
Since I haven't been updating, I might as well mention that this weekend was pretty good as well. Jason came in on Saturday and the first thing we did was bitch about the heat. Then I told him to meet us at the Daiso, figuring that he lived here for a good 6 months before, so he should know where it was. We went there looking for him and he was nowhere to be found, so I bought a candy filled samurai sword and we went looking for him. He was on the next block at McDonald's sitting in the window and told me I'm an idiot because there was no Daiso around there. Yeah... except for the one a block away. Smooth move, jackass (I hope you're reading this so you can relive it. AGAIN). So the ramen was delicious when we got around to eating it, and then at my insistence we went to go look at PUPPIES.
Believe it or not that was the smartest idea I've ever had.
At the place that they keep the puppies, we ran into people that we knew that were glad to see Jason while he was visiting, as well as Marcelo, whom contacted Sjors, whom was hanging out with some of his friends from Holland, whom we met up with, and then followed to Gusto and had dessert and hung out for a bit for the rest of the night.
It was pretty fun.
The following days Jason was here were spent distracting him from the paper that he needed to write by playing video games, and then playing more video games. Because what better thing to do with people that you haven't seen in months than sit in front of the idiot box beating each other up in virtual world, amirite?
Yaaaaaaaaay.
Monday, July 20, 2009
This is your Sunday Night Broadcast
Clear skies and high temperatures for the rest of the week, possibly breaking into a thunderstorm the following weekend. Piles of work on the horizon with little to no breaks between them, followed by some brief exams coming in with the cold front the following week.
In local news, Roshi has been exhausted from work, but his friend visiting has been fun this weekend. However it's cut into study and homework time, so he's a bit agitated about that but at the same time relieved to be doing things.
More details at 11.
(By at 11 I mean tomorrow and probably sometime after noon like normal).
In local news, Roshi has been exhausted from work, but his friend visiting has been fun this weekend. However it's cut into study and homework time, so he's a bit agitated about that but at the same time relieved to be doing things.
More details at 11.
(By at 11 I mean tomorrow and probably sometime after noon like normal).
Saturday, July 18, 2009
mini celebration
Hey blog number 250! I like the number so I thought I'd point it out. This also goes to show how many I've missed. There are 365 days in a year, and I left on September 20th last year. September 20th is 64 days from now. So 250 plus 64 is 314. So essentially I'm....52 blogs short?
That can't be right. Someone check my math.
Ah well. . .
It seems as though the cafeteria has taken it upon itself to scrounge the backs of the freezer and sell us expired food. Nothing has tasted right from there this entire week, and I didn't buy enough food to last for the week (when tacos are your priority, nothing else matters) so that was more or less an unpleasant change of circumstances. Pacific Cafe still has decent stuff, but as tomorrow is el Sabado, I will have no mas, porque es closéd.
Jason IS coming in tomorrow. He arrives at 4:30 and then we're going to get ramen and wander around Beppu, so should be fun. I also have my part of the presentation due tomorrow night so... so really I should be working on that.
I think I'll go do that....
4 days of classes, 2 days of exams, and I'm done. Gonna be so nice.
That can't be right. Someone check my math.
Ah well. . .
It seems as though the cafeteria has taken it upon itself to scrounge the backs of the freezer and sell us expired food. Nothing has tasted right from there this entire week, and I didn't buy enough food to last for the week (when tacos are your priority, nothing else matters) so that was more or less an unpleasant change of circumstances. Pacific Cafe still has decent stuff, but as tomorrow is el Sabado, I will have no mas, porque es closéd.
Jason IS coming in tomorrow. He arrives at 4:30 and then we're going to get ramen and wander around Beppu, so should be fun. I also have my part of the presentation due tomorrow night so... so really I should be working on that.
I think I'll go do that....
4 days of classes, 2 days of exams, and I'm done. Gonna be so nice.
Friday, July 17, 2009
SKITTLES TASTE THE RAINBOW
You know, I have not had Skittles since I got here. I love Skittles. I wonder if I can find an import store that sells them...
Today was:
Class
Wander
Group work
Study
Blah.
The group work was mostly assigning roles for the presentation. I'm stuck doing everything Metal Gear Solid related, armed with having played the first game and using Wikipedia. So, this should be interesting. Also need to look into finishing up my own paper, so I should get that going too.
As far as class goes, the teacher moved the Kanji quiz from today to tomorrow, so I can't skip class and work on crap all day like I was planning to. B'awww.... ah well.
Plans might change this weekend as well. Jason apparently was a sick jerk and decided he might stay back in Kyoto and not come down til NEXT week. During exam week. When we'll all ignore him to study for finals.
So, you know, he's got this planned out pretty well.
I realized that I've been here a year and haven't sent postcards home. I think I should do that soon, and arrive at the same time as them. For novelty's sake more than anything. I like mail, but it's just so much effort...
Also selling my worldly possessions before I leave is proving harder than I thought. It'd be nice to have some money...
That's all. Back toplaying video games studying.
Today was:
Class
Wander
Group work
Study
Blah.
The group work was mostly assigning roles for the presentation. I'm stuck doing everything Metal Gear Solid related, armed with having played the first game and using Wikipedia. So, this should be interesting. Also need to look into finishing up my own paper, so I should get that going too.
As far as class goes, the teacher moved the Kanji quiz from today to tomorrow, so I can't skip class and work on crap all day like I was planning to. B'awww.... ah well.
Plans might change this weekend as well. Jason apparently was a sick jerk and decided he might stay back in Kyoto and not come down til NEXT week. During exam week. When we'll all ignore him to study for finals.
So, you know, he's got this planned out pretty well.
I realized that I've been here a year and haven't sent postcards home. I think I should do that soon, and arrive at the same time as them. For novelty's sake more than anything. I like mail, but it's just so much effort...
Also selling my worldly possessions before I leave is proving harder than I thought. It'd be nice to have some money...
That's all. Back to
Thursday, July 16, 2009
GTFO
Yaaaay pre departure guidance yaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!
It was boring.
I showed up late cause it was early on my day off, and I didn't miss anything. Then there was a good hour straight of nothing happening but them asking the students to come on stage and share their experiences. I tried to get out of it, but Sjors is a dick and called me up after him. So I announced on stage that Sjors was a dick, which was probably unprofessional but meh. The food was actually pretty good for once. They usually have the same three bland dishes at these events, but they had nanbread pizza and two types of kara age there, so that was really nice. Plus rolls, and I love rolls, and these were pretty good, so hey, nice.
I found out from it tha I need to pay my library fees or I don't get my transcripts sent back home. So I went and paid those off, which was an irritatingly complicated process that had more steps than "Give librarian the money". Come on Japan, really? Anyways that means I'll stop getting overdue notices for the book I took out in November, so that's good at least.
Going to the library also let me run into Bolor which was cool cause I haven't seen her in a while yay. She reiterated our discovery that the erotic performance theatre had closed down and asked to be invited on any other sexy excursions that we were planning, so if that happens then it happens. I still need to get to the sex museum, so maybe we can get that going on.
I also looked into Antarctica.
As in, getting a job there.
I know, that sounds crazy. But they need people down there in pretty much every position, so I figure it's something to look into for after I graduate. They got everything from maintenance staff, to researchers to writers. All of it has free room and board and transport, in exchange for the fact that weather conditions ensure that it's dangerous to go outside roughly 5-7 days a week, so that should be fun. But they also have hiking excursions and such so you don't get cabin fever, so that would be nice. And I love the ice and snow, and I don't mind cold weather (although I guess there is a difference between 'not minding' and -89 degrees F), so this could be a good idea for me. More info here if you're interested.
That really makes it sound like I'm growing up, thinking about my future and all that, doesn't it?
To assure you otherwise, I've also made plans for supervillainy and conquest.
This is a map of the claimed regions of Antarctica. It's actually nine different countries, but I overlapped the maps because I have that kind of time on my hands so why not?
The unclaimed portion is mine, or ours if you join my service. That's right, I'm going to establish a kingdom. We're going to go in on the short at the unclaimed side and trek in a bit. Survey the land, and find a nice area to set up fortifications, and preferably a modern day castle. From there we'll bring in military fortifications, and demand the surrender of the rest of the continent. The continent is inhabited primarily by researchers and tourist agencies, so the odds of them being heavily armed are slim to none. Should be slim pickins.
From that point on we'll use the continent as a base of operations and build technologies in an attempt to create something that would be capable of melting the majority of Antarctica, which would flood great portions of the continents. Unless the world submits to MY REIGN AND MY REIGN ALONE.
BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
And I probably jumped straight past the FBI watchlist and made it on the UN one.
Choice.
It was boring.
I showed up late cause it was early on my day off, and I didn't miss anything. Then there was a good hour straight of nothing happening but them asking the students to come on stage and share their experiences. I tried to get out of it, but Sjors is a dick and called me up after him. So I announced on stage that Sjors was a dick, which was probably unprofessional but meh. The food was actually pretty good for once. They usually have the same three bland dishes at these events, but they had nanbread pizza and two types of kara age there, so that was really nice. Plus rolls, and I love rolls, and these were pretty good, so hey, nice.
I found out from it tha I need to pay my library fees or I don't get my transcripts sent back home. So I went and paid those off, which was an irritatingly complicated process that had more steps than "Give librarian the money". Come on Japan, really? Anyways that means I'll stop getting overdue notices for the book I took out in November, so that's good at least.
Going to the library also let me run into Bolor which was cool cause I haven't seen her in a while yay. She reiterated our discovery that the erotic performance theatre had closed down and asked to be invited on any other sexy excursions that we were planning, so if that happens then it happens. I still need to get to the sex museum, so maybe we can get that going on.
I also looked into Antarctica.
As in, getting a job there.
I know, that sounds crazy. But they need people down there in pretty much every position, so I figure it's something to look into for after I graduate. They got everything from maintenance staff, to researchers to writers. All of it has free room and board and transport, in exchange for the fact that weather conditions ensure that it's dangerous to go outside roughly 5-7 days a week, so that should be fun. But they also have hiking excursions and such so you don't get cabin fever, so that would be nice. And I love the ice and snow, and I don't mind cold weather (although I guess there is a difference between 'not minding' and -89 degrees F), so this could be a good idea for me. More info here if you're interested.
That really makes it sound like I'm growing up, thinking about my future and all that, doesn't it?
To assure you otherwise, I've also made plans for supervillainy and conquest.
This is a map of the claimed regions of Antarctica. It's actually nine different countries, but I overlapped the maps because I have that kind of time on my hands so why not?
The unclaimed portion is mine, or ours if you join my service. That's right, I'm going to establish a kingdom. We're going to go in on the short at the unclaimed side and trek in a bit. Survey the land, and find a nice area to set up fortifications, and preferably a modern day castle. From there we'll bring in military fortifications, and demand the surrender of the rest of the continent. The continent is inhabited primarily by researchers and tourist agencies, so the odds of them being heavily armed are slim to none. Should be slim pickins.
From that point on we'll use the continent as a base of operations and build technologies in an attempt to create something that would be capable of melting the majority of Antarctica, which would flood great portions of the continents. Unless the world submits to MY REIGN AND MY REIGN ALONE.
BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
And I probably jumped straight past the FBI watchlist and made it on the UN one.
Choice.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Wrench in the Plans
Damn you everything else! Damn you to hell!
So I had intended to go downtown today after classes.
Then I remembered "OH CRAP WE HAVE THE GROUP PROJECT TO WORK ON TODAY" so I couldn't do that. So I figured I'd do that tomorrow.
BUT THEN I got an e-mail from Funaki-san reminding us about the mandatory pre-departure meeting tomorrow, so I can't skip that.
So I'll just go THURSDAY after classes.
BUT WAIT. At about 6:30 I get a call saying that the group meet up was cancelled and we're moving it to Thursday. But at this point the ATM is closed so I can't get money to go downtown, so I'm stuck on campus anyways. Today, tomorrow, and the day after. Hokay. Friday, maybe? Nah, we'll need that for more group work.
Alright, well at least I got Saturday to look forward to the hiking expedition!
But wait, there's more! Jason comes in this weekend, and he intends on hanging out with us for the weekend and then go apartment hunting during the weekdays while we're in classes. So hiking has been postponed another week or two!
I don't... I don't even know anymore....
But hey, friends coming to visit will be good at least, so that's something to look forward to in lieu of the canceled plans.
Was just kind of odd how hectic all that shifting was is all.
Also I pet a lizard today!
Prolly gonna get some sorta disease now... but it was cute and it was free. Because anybody that charges you to pet a lizard is either a monster or a sexual predator.
Thank you and good night.
You'll be too busy trying to get the image out of your head that you'll realize too late that that didn't make any sense.
So I had intended to go downtown today after classes.
Then I remembered "OH CRAP WE HAVE THE GROUP PROJECT TO WORK ON TODAY" so I couldn't do that. So I figured I'd do that tomorrow.
BUT THEN I got an e-mail from Funaki-san reminding us about the mandatory pre-departure meeting tomorrow, so I can't skip that.
So I'll just go THURSDAY after classes.
BUT WAIT. At about 6:30 I get a call saying that the group meet up was cancelled and we're moving it to Thursday. But at this point the ATM is closed so I can't get money to go downtown, so I'm stuck on campus anyways. Today, tomorrow, and the day after. Hokay. Friday, maybe? Nah, we'll need that for more group work.
Alright, well at least I got Saturday to look forward to the hiking expedition!
But wait, there's more! Jason comes in this weekend, and he intends on hanging out with us for the weekend and then go apartment hunting during the weekdays while we're in classes. So hiking has been postponed another week or two!
I don't... I don't even know anymore....
But hey, friends coming to visit will be good at least, so that's something to look forward to in lieu of the canceled plans.
Was just kind of odd how hectic all that shifting was is all.
Also I pet a lizard today!
Prolly gonna get some sorta disease now... but it was cute and it was free. Because anybody that charges you to pet a lizard is either a monster or a sexual predator.
Thank you and good night.
You'll be too busy trying to get the image out of your head that you'll realize too late that that didn't make any sense.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Google Maps is useless in Japan
I tried finding Ku-ta Ramen in google maps. I tried finding it in every variant spelling in both English and Japanese that I could think of. Never showed up.
Then I tried just searching for ramen in the same methods, and something came up in the NEXT CITY. So apparently Google maps doesn't like Japan.
HOWEVER, I did use it to find directions to Yufuin, and I can get there for a cheaper way than my friends told me. In fact, it only costs about 12 bucks to get there this way, as opposed to the 20 or so that my friends recommended. So I would like to go soon, possibly as soon as this Wednesday, we shall see.
My room is cleaner now, but there is still much to clean. There was also an infestation of ants that I took care of, and it was disgusting.
Also spent the day mostly doing homework, cause class starts again tomorrow. It feels so wrong. I finally had days off during what my body is telling me is summer vacation, and then I'm being disrupted from it again.
Ugh.
I can't wait til this is all over.
Also I'm in the mood for spaghetti, so I might end up making some of that. Bon apetite.
Then I tried just searching for ramen in the same methods, and something came up in the NEXT CITY. So apparently Google maps doesn't like Japan.
HOWEVER, I did use it to find directions to Yufuin, and I can get there for a cheaper way than my friends told me. In fact, it only costs about 12 bucks to get there this way, as opposed to the 20 or so that my friends recommended. So I would like to go soon, possibly as soon as this Wednesday, we shall see.
My room is cleaner now, but there is still much to clean. There was also an infestation of ants that I took care of, and it was disgusting.
Also spent the day mostly doing homework, cause class starts again tomorrow. It feels so wrong. I finally had days off during what my body is telling me is summer vacation, and then I'm being disrupted from it again.
Ugh.
I can't wait til this is all over.
Also I'm in the mood for spaghetti, so I might end up making some of that. Bon apetite.
Monday, July 13, 2009
ERROR! ERROR!
Okay, having troulbes with Blogger. It wasn't letting me create a new post, and just kept redirecting me to some page telling me that I should report some error.... So for once I have a reasonable excuse for being late with an update! Alright, yeah!
One thing I think I forgot to mention yesterday. I looked into the plane tickets with the other, allegedly cheaper flight agency. The ones that were supposed to be half the price as my current one. And basically it's a good thing I looked into it before jumping to conclusions, because it actually costs MORE than my current ticket and only gets me to TORONTO. So... that's out of the question. Apparently the Obon festival is going on at the same time and that's why the ticket prices are outrageous. Guess I should've tried leaving at the end of this month instead of the beginning of next month, but ah well. I get to hopefully do some last minute Japanese stuff before I leave this way.
Speaking of which, today was spent mostly lounging around eating cold pizza and making plans. I have plans for karaoke, and FINALLY to go hiking next weekend. We were going to go hiking today, but a combination of my being sore and sunburnt as well as the high probability for rain cancelled that.
Also, Jason is coming to visit next week, so that will be good too. I found out about a better Ku-ta Ramen shop, so hopefully I can figure out exactly where that is and we can get there.
I need to start buying some small trinkets as souvenirs when I get home. A surplus of them, really. For all the people that I'll run into that go "Hey, what did ya get me?" that I didn't plan on getting anything for so only have a piece of paper with "Good luck" written in Japanese on it or whatnot. Oh ho ho....
That's about it for tonight's broadcast. I'm off to eat more peanut butter and sip more grape juice.
One thing I think I forgot to mention yesterday. I looked into the plane tickets with the other, allegedly cheaper flight agency. The ones that were supposed to be half the price as my current one. And basically it's a good thing I looked into it before jumping to conclusions, because it actually costs MORE than my current ticket and only gets me to TORONTO. So... that's out of the question. Apparently the Obon festival is going on at the same time and that's why the ticket prices are outrageous. Guess I should've tried leaving at the end of this month instead of the beginning of next month, but ah well. I get to hopefully do some last minute Japanese stuff before I leave this way.
Speaking of which, today was spent mostly lounging around eating cold pizza and making plans. I have plans for karaoke, and FINALLY to go hiking next weekend. We were going to go hiking today, but a combination of my being sore and sunburnt as well as the high probability for rain cancelled that.
Also, Jason is coming to visit next week, so that will be good too. I found out about a better Ku-ta Ramen shop, so hopefully I can figure out exactly where that is and we can get there.
I need to start buying some small trinkets as souvenirs when I get home. A surplus of them, really. For all the people that I'll run into that go "Hey, what did ya get me?" that I didn't plan on getting anything for so only have a piece of paper with "Good luck" written in Japanese on it or whatnot. Oh ho ho....
That's about it for tonight's broadcast. I'm off to eat more peanut butter and sip more grape juice.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Today is a Good Day to Die!
Actually, can we take dying as an open action item? Move it up to next Tuesday? Maybe we just write it off the plans entirely.
So work was today. I stayed up all night for some reason so that I'd be ready to leave at 6:30 am. Turns out the departure was pushed back to 7:30 but for some reason I wasn't informed, and I totally could've gotten some sleep. Ah well.
The ride there was... kinda long, to say the least. Probably about 45 minutes to an hour in a car, so it's further than Saiki. The place was umm....Segashi Seki? Sagashi Saiki? I can't recall the name because I'm awful like that, but it was a nice little city from what we saw, and their 7-11 had delicious chicken.
We got there and wandered around the beach for a bit confused as to what to do. Met Shingo's dad who was the man in charge of the event (he's some public official and it was part of his reelection campaign) and he gave us wheat stalk(?) hats to wear and nametags. We ran into some kids that asked us in practiced English how we were doing today, and Keith mumbled a response that they seemed incapable of understanding (especially considering they looked at each other and asked what he said in Japanese) and I repeated that we were doing fine thank you, and they giggled and ran back off to the beach. Kids :|
There were huge spiders everywhere. Feel a need to point that out. A large hunting spider on top of the door to the changing room, spiders hanging from all the rafters of the beach structures, everywhere. Was kind of offsetting.
The events began soon enough. The two Americans were given assistants because we're pretty dumb (honestly, we are) and my girl basically took charge of taking attendance and smiling politely at me. I got to take care of all the dirty work, like trying to get some kid with severe ADD to stop yelling during the announcements, accepting various "gifts" from kids (a seashell, a ball of wet sand, a rock, and seaweed), and standing crotch deep in freezing cold water to be the tag point for the relay races. Oh boy.
After the games was a period of free swim, and there were jellyfish in the water. Seriously. A tentacle floated over near the shore, and there were a bunch swimming a bit away from where we were. Not cool. But, none of them actually came to us, and it was a nice time hanging out with the people I came with and all the kids.
Then food! We assisted in making curried rice from scratch using traditional methods (traditional curry. Yeah, okay Japan). Somehow the ADD kid was allowed to volunteer with working the fire, and my lovely assistant motioned that I should also go work the fire. So I pouted and walked over there, and spent a good thirty to forty minutes trying to talk the kid down from fanning the fire so strongly that ash and smoke flew everywhere (like my eyes and throat) and embers flew all over the ground. Eventually Sappho came over and helped trying to calm the kid down, but he just kept commenting how she was a girl and he didn't have to listen to her. So in what I assumed was a commanding Japanese voice I looked at him and went "YAMERO." essentially a direct command saying "You must stop." The kid seemed kinda shocked and did as he was told and quit misbehaving... in spurts... when my back wasn't turned. Really though it was better than he had been before, so it worked out.
I lost a round of janken (rock paper scissors) and as a result had to play a group round of the game with all the kids for prizes. SAISHO WA GUU! JANKENPON! And then the kids win prizes based on the fact that I pretty much chose rock every time. There was also some parent that tried to get in on the janken action, and I have no idea what that was all about.
That was pretty much the end of that. There was a semaphore performance and final closing things, and then we got changed and helped clean up a little. We got to keep the hats as gifts and were invited back for a barbecue later in the month, so that'll be good. The kids kept excitedly hanging around us a bit as well. The kids were awesome. I wish I had o- wait, no, dangerous thought path. Let's not go down that road...
The ride back was alright, but I was trying to keep up conversation with Keith while on the verge of passing out. Sappho did pass out. I had to stay awake for the group meeting in Beppu to work on our presentation though, so I managed to hold out for a bit.
I was in my room on the computer, and figured that lying back for a minute wouldn't be too all of a sudden Keith was knocking on my door and asking me why I wasn't ready yet and man how could you fall asleep? My bad. So I said I'd shower quick and meet them all at the station.
We got one cancellation and the other guy was 45 minutes late, so I was really the least of the problems anyways. We did what we could do with the project, and then went back to Lee's place to play some vidya games. I lost at Street Fighter so hard, but I only lost three rounds in Soul Caliber 4, in all the two hours we were playing it. Go me.
And I just realized I still haven't had much sleep. I got little sleep the day before because I needed to wake up early to get my homework done, and then I got no sleep last night, and a 45 minute nap today.
Gonna go do that now. ZzZzzz.
So work was today. I stayed up all night for some reason so that I'd be ready to leave at 6:30 am. Turns out the departure was pushed back to 7:30 but for some reason I wasn't informed, and I totally could've gotten some sleep. Ah well.
The ride there was... kinda long, to say the least. Probably about 45 minutes to an hour in a car, so it's further than Saiki. The place was umm....Segashi Seki? Sagashi Saiki? I can't recall the name because I'm awful like that, but it was a nice little city from what we saw, and their 7-11 had delicious chicken.
We got there and wandered around the beach for a bit confused as to what to do. Met Shingo's dad who was the man in charge of the event (he's some public official and it was part of his reelection campaign) and he gave us wheat stalk(?) hats to wear and nametags. We ran into some kids that asked us in practiced English how we were doing today, and Keith mumbled a response that they seemed incapable of understanding (especially considering they looked at each other and asked what he said in Japanese) and I repeated that we were doing fine thank you, and they giggled and ran back off to the beach. Kids :|
There were huge spiders everywhere. Feel a need to point that out. A large hunting spider on top of the door to the changing room, spiders hanging from all the rafters of the beach structures, everywhere. Was kind of offsetting.
The events began soon enough. The two Americans were given assistants because we're pretty dumb (honestly, we are) and my girl basically took charge of taking attendance and smiling politely at me. I got to take care of all the dirty work, like trying to get some kid with severe ADD to stop yelling during the announcements, accepting various "gifts" from kids (a seashell, a ball of wet sand, a rock, and seaweed), and standing crotch deep in freezing cold water to be the tag point for the relay races. Oh boy.
After the games was a period of free swim, and there were jellyfish in the water. Seriously. A tentacle floated over near the shore, and there were a bunch swimming a bit away from where we were. Not cool. But, none of them actually came to us, and it was a nice time hanging out with the people I came with and all the kids.
Then food! We assisted in making curried rice from scratch using traditional methods (traditional curry. Yeah, okay Japan). Somehow the ADD kid was allowed to volunteer with working the fire, and my lovely assistant motioned that I should also go work the fire. So I pouted and walked over there, and spent a good thirty to forty minutes trying to talk the kid down from fanning the fire so strongly that ash and smoke flew everywhere (like my eyes and throat) and embers flew all over the ground. Eventually Sappho came over and helped trying to calm the kid down, but he just kept commenting how she was a girl and he didn't have to listen to her. So in what I assumed was a commanding Japanese voice I looked at him and went "YAMERO." essentially a direct command saying "You must stop." The kid seemed kinda shocked and did as he was told and quit misbehaving... in spurts... when my back wasn't turned. Really though it was better than he had been before, so it worked out.
I lost a round of janken (rock paper scissors) and as a result had to play a group round of the game with all the kids for prizes. SAISHO WA GUU! JANKENPON! And then the kids win prizes based on the fact that I pretty much chose rock every time. There was also some parent that tried to get in on the janken action, and I have no idea what that was all about.
That was pretty much the end of that. There was a semaphore performance and final closing things, and then we got changed and helped clean up a little. We got to keep the hats as gifts and were invited back for a barbecue later in the month, so that'll be good. The kids kept excitedly hanging around us a bit as well. The kids were awesome. I wish I had o- wait, no, dangerous thought path. Let's not go down that road...
The ride back was alright, but I was trying to keep up conversation with Keith while on the verge of passing out. Sappho did pass out. I had to stay awake for the group meeting in Beppu to work on our presentation though, so I managed to hold out for a bit.
I was in my room on the computer, and figured that lying back for a minute wouldn't be too all of a sudden Keith was knocking on my door and asking me why I wasn't ready yet and man how could you fall asleep? My bad. So I said I'd shower quick and meet them all at the station.
We got one cancellation and the other guy was 45 minutes late, so I was really the least of the problems anyways. We did what we could do with the project, and then went back to Lee's place to play some vidya games. I lost at Street Fighter so hard, but I only lost three rounds in Soul Caliber 4, in all the two hours we were playing it. Go me.
And I just realized I still haven't had much sleep. I got little sleep the day before because I needed to wake up early to get my homework done, and then I got no sleep last night, and a 45 minute nap today.
Gonna go do that now. ZzZzzz.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Late again
Better late than never as has become custom.
I'm very tired. Been up all night reading the Metal Gear Solid wiki. This is for a project, so it's totally excusable, but I have work in two hours (WHAT) and I won't get to sleep before it. Then going to go work on the project afterwards. Augh.
Yesterday I went to Kannawa. I hadn't been there since last semester, so I didn't exactly know my way around.
As such, I got lost.
I got VERY lost.
Kannawa is still in Beppu, mind you, but it is entirely the other side of Beppu. The way I normally go is on one side of the mountain, and Kannawa is on the other side.
That said, somehow I re-emerged in Ishigaki, which is the area of Beppu I normally wander to. I don't know how it happened but it happened, and my legs hurt pretty bad from all that walking.
Kannawa either has less to do than I thought, or I just looked in the wrong direction. I found all the stuff I encountered last time I went, but I didn't have any coins which are needed to get into the onsen, so I was looking for a convenience store which got me lost.
I'm such a ditz sometimes.
After all that trouble I treated myself to a pizza. Apparently a medium is only 5 cm larger than a small but twice the cost. Logic!
Oh well, it was good enough and now I have some leftover in the fridge, which is nice when I don't feel like cooking.
Work should be fun if it's still on. It's POURING now, but the job is about 40 miles away, so should be a bit different weather there.
I'm very tired. Been up all night reading the Metal Gear Solid wiki. This is for a project, so it's totally excusable, but I have work in two hours (WHAT) and I won't get to sleep before it. Then going to go work on the project afterwards. Augh.
Yesterday I went to Kannawa. I hadn't been there since last semester, so I didn't exactly know my way around.
As such, I got lost.
I got VERY lost.
Kannawa is still in Beppu, mind you, but it is entirely the other side of Beppu. The way I normally go is on one side of the mountain, and Kannawa is on the other side.
That said, somehow I re-emerged in Ishigaki, which is the area of Beppu I normally wander to. I don't know how it happened but it happened, and my legs hurt pretty bad from all that walking.
Kannawa either has less to do than I thought, or I just looked in the wrong direction. I found all the stuff I encountered last time I went, but I didn't have any coins which are needed to get into the onsen, so I was looking for a convenience store which got me lost.
I'm such a ditz sometimes.
After all that trouble I treated myself to a pizza. Apparently a medium is only 5 cm larger than a small but twice the cost. Logic!
Oh well, it was good enough and now I have some leftover in the fridge, which is nice when I don't feel like cooking.
Work should be fun if it's still on. It's POURING now, but the job is about 40 miles away, so should be a bit different weather there.
Friday, July 10, 2009
Class away from Class
I completely forgot that there was classwork due at a specific time, and ended up waking up, going "OH CRAP" and rushing through it to submit it online. But I managed to do it, because I have a phD in horribleness. And I ended up missing the lunch block again because of it. Dang.
Spent the whole day on campus, so nothing exciting there. I was really hoping that people would start ignoring the policies by now, but nobody has. I'd be the first to try it out, but the fact that pretty much every infraction earns you an eviction serves as a pretty good deterrant from acting up.
I'll likely end up out tomorrow and Saturday. Tomorrow I want to go to Kannawa like I didn't today, and Saturday gotta work on the project and also go do the teaching activity in whichever city we're going to to do that. So, should be entertaining.
In the meantime I should really clean my room. It's not like I've got anything better to do, and I leave in 30 days. Should really get prepared.
Then again I didn't really pack to come here til the morning I left, so why break up tradition?
Spent the whole day on campus, so nothing exciting there. I was really hoping that people would start ignoring the policies by now, but nobody has. I'd be the first to try it out, but the fact that pretty much every infraction earns you an eviction serves as a pretty good deterrant from acting up.
I'll likely end up out tomorrow and Saturday. Tomorrow I want to go to Kannawa like I didn't today, and Saturday gotta work on the project and also go do the teaching activity in whichever city we're going to to do that. So, should be entertaining.
In the meantime I should really clean my room. It's not like I've got anything better to do, and I leave in 30 days. Should really get prepared.
Then again I didn't really pack to come here til the morning I left, so why break up tradition?
Thursday, July 9, 2009
You'll never be a better kind
If you don't leave the world behind.
So day three of quarantine went well. I woke up at 2 in the afternoon cause why not. Went to go pick up my Japanese homework from the spot the teacher dropped it off to, and was surprised to not have negative marks all over it for once (the teacher hates me. I am convinced of this. It could partially be because I refuse to use proper Japanese with her, but hey, whatever).
Then on an impromptu decision I ran full speed off campus and jumped off a bridge. There was a 40 foot plummet that was interrupted by a large conifer, and I broke my left arm, dislocated the shoulder, and sprained an ankle, but am otherwise fine. Was in the ER for a good 3 hours and the service was cold and professional like everything else here, but the seats are comfier than in the states. I've never had crutches before so that's kinda fun, but it's going to be a bitch when I have to get to the airport next month.
Not really, of course. I actually just took the bus downtown and wandered around for a bit. Got some gyuudon because I wanted it, but I should've got some ramen because I NEED it. I think I might go to Kannawa (the hot springs area of Beppu) tomorrow cause I've only done that like...two, three times. It's really for old people so I never bother going there, but I feel up for it, so it should be fun.
Also picked up some "merchandise" to trade for some "goods" back home. Meaning I got a figure as repayment for a friend buying me a game. The circle of nerd goes on.
And I was craving Lotteria for some reason, so I went out of my way to get some of that. Then I neeeded to question why I was craving it, because after all the MacDonard's and Mos Burger I've been having, it seemed like a lackluster greasy sausage. I mean, it doesn't even have ketchup on it. That's whack.
Came back early cause I ran out of money and just hung around eating crackers and playing DS, as I am wont to do. Also I bought more tankoban BECAUSE I AM ADDICTED OT THE LOW LOW PRICES. Seriously, if books were this cheap in the states I'd probably have enough to make furniture out of them by now.
Quarantine is still boring. I would very much like to have random things open on campus again.
Oh well.
So day three of quarantine went well. I woke up at 2 in the afternoon cause why not. Went to go pick up my Japanese homework from the spot the teacher dropped it off to, and was surprised to not have negative marks all over it for once (the teacher hates me. I am convinced of this. It could partially be because I refuse to use proper Japanese with her, but hey, whatever).
Then on an impromptu decision I ran full speed off campus and jumped off a bridge. There was a 40 foot plummet that was interrupted by a large conifer, and I broke my left arm, dislocated the shoulder, and sprained an ankle, but am otherwise fine. Was in the ER for a good 3 hours and the service was cold and professional like everything else here, but the seats are comfier than in the states. I've never had crutches before so that's kinda fun, but it's going to be a bitch when I have to get to the airport next month.
Not really, of course. I actually just took the bus downtown and wandered around for a bit. Got some gyuudon because I wanted it, but I should've got some ramen because I NEED it. I think I might go to Kannawa (the hot springs area of Beppu) tomorrow cause I've only done that like...two, three times. It's really for old people so I never bother going there, but I feel up for it, so it should be fun.
Also picked up some "merchandise" to trade for some "goods" back home. Meaning I got a figure as repayment for a friend buying me a game. The circle of nerd goes on.
And I was craving Lotteria for some reason, so I went out of my way to get some of that. Then I neeeded to question why I was craving it, because after all the MacDonard's and Mos Burger I've been having, it seemed like a lackluster greasy sausage. I mean, it doesn't even have ketchup on it. That's whack.
Came back early cause I ran out of money and just hung around eating crackers and playing DS, as I am wont to do. Also I bought more tankoban BECAUSE I AM ADDICTED OT THE LOW LOW PRICES. Seriously, if books were this cheap in the states I'd probably have enough to make furniture out of them by now.
Quarantine is still boring. I would very much like to have random things open on campus again.
Oh well.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Quarantine: Day 2
So, the Quarantine continues.
There are two spots of good news. Number one is that the buses are running again, so we can go downtown, but they're running on the "Holiday Schedule" which means that it's limited, so that sucks. Also, off-campus students aren't allowed on campus, and I have a group presentation what needs working on, so that's inconvenient. But the other good news is that the semester will NOT be extended for longer than it would have been, so I'm still leaving at the same time (provided I'm not detained for exposure to swine flu). So that's good, at least.
This Saturday has the teaching job, so we'll see how well that works out with the quarantine going on. I hope we're not called off because of it.
Also recently I've been wandering the back streets of Beppu. I spent Friday and Saturday eveneings doing it. Friday was after I shipped the boxes home (ended up costing me a good 165 dollars) I wandered across town. Ended up restaurant hopping because of the inclement weather and my not being able to carry an umbrella down as well as the boxes, so that was unfortunate. The rain stopped eventually and I took a long walk behind the Beppu station. I found mostly small drug stores and a couple restaurants, but I also found out where the Beppu Stadium is, as well as the city's theme park, so that was interesting.
Saturday I took a walk more in the heart of Beppu where people live. It was... awkward, to say the least. The people there looked at me like I really did not belong. Their eyes said "We give you people the shopping district and the main road. Leave us here in peace." It was.....rather unpleasant.
I still plan to do more, though. Probably go for another walk tomorrow after doing some self study. We've been assigned doing it on our own from the Japanese teacher (we had an online session today and it didn't work out so well) and I'm confident that I'll learn it better than if I actually went to class. It's a good textbook, but my teacher is awful. Also just going to that class kind of sets me in a foul mood in the first place, so that doesn't help.
So that's what I've been up to, really. Sorry for not updating, I've had blog burnout recently. If it helps I didn't update Walking the Box at all either, but I never really do that in the first place.
Also, had some issue where apparently there is a service offering plane tickets for half the price of my original ticket. Need to contact them yet and see how much it actually would be and if it's worth it to go through the hassle of refunding my old ticket (sans 350 dollars, apparently) and then buying one of these.
We'll see.
For now, back toLegally Blonde the Musical benchpressing grizzly bears.
There are two spots of good news. Number one is that the buses are running again, so we can go downtown, but they're running on the "Holiday Schedule" which means that it's limited, so that sucks. Also, off-campus students aren't allowed on campus, and I have a group presentation what needs working on, so that's inconvenient. But the other good news is that the semester will NOT be extended for longer than it would have been, so I'm still leaving at the same time (provided I'm not detained for exposure to swine flu). So that's good, at least.
This Saturday has the teaching job, so we'll see how well that works out with the quarantine going on. I hope we're not called off because of it.
Also recently I've been wandering the back streets of Beppu. I spent Friday and Saturday eveneings doing it. Friday was after I shipped the boxes home (ended up costing me a good 165 dollars) I wandered across town. Ended up restaurant hopping because of the inclement weather and my not being able to carry an umbrella down as well as the boxes, so that was unfortunate. The rain stopped eventually and I took a long walk behind the Beppu station. I found mostly small drug stores and a couple restaurants, but I also found out where the Beppu Stadium is, as well as the city's theme park, so that was interesting.
Saturday I took a walk more in the heart of Beppu where people live. It was... awkward, to say the least. The people there looked at me like I really did not belong. Their eyes said "We give you people the shopping district and the main road. Leave us here in peace." It was.....rather unpleasant.
I still plan to do more, though. Probably go for another walk tomorrow after doing some self study. We've been assigned doing it on our own from the Japanese teacher (we had an online session today and it didn't work out so well) and I'm confident that I'll learn it better than if I actually went to class. It's a good textbook, but my teacher is awful. Also just going to that class kind of sets me in a foul mood in the first place, so that doesn't help.
So that's what I've been up to, really. Sorry for not updating, I've had blog burnout recently. If it helps I didn't update Walking the Box at all either, but I never really do that in the first place.
Also, had some issue where apparently there is a service offering plane tickets for half the price of my original ticket. Need to contact them yet and see how much it actually would be and if it's worth it to go through the hassle of refunding my old ticket (sans 350 dollars, apparently) and then buying one of these.
We'll see.
For now, back to
Monday, July 6, 2009
Freakin Swine Flu
This just in: The swine flu is bullshit. Utter bullshit. It has killed no more people than any other strain of flu, it's just been hyped up by the media to take your attention away from the prisoner tortures or the Iraq war or the reptilians or whatever.
And as a result of the attention it's gotten, I have school off for the rest of this week. This is not reason for rejoicing, however.
They closed down the gym. They closed down the library. The closed down the baths, the dining hall and the lobby. Why they even closed off the stim stum on the trimminy tum tobby!
They've also quarantined us on campus. I mean this in the we aren't allowed to leave sense. The buses have stopped running, and some people are reporting that there are national guard forces guarding the bottom of the mountain to make sure none of the APU students leave (there is a military bunker down the road, so that's not as crazy as it sounds. Wait, it still is).
Christ on a cracker I am so pissed at this school right now.
I e-mailed someone in the office to find out how this affects the semester schedule. If I'm stuck here for a week longer than I need to be to finish classes that shouldn't be canceled anyways, reducing my summer vacation by another week (limiting it to two and a half weeks, effectively) and making me reschedule my ticket, I am going to kill something. I am going to kill a lot of somethings, starting with the island of Kyushu and we'll see where I stop.
So angry.
And as a result of the attention it's gotten, I have school off for the rest of this week. This is not reason for rejoicing, however.
They closed down the gym. They closed down the library. The closed down the baths, the dining hall and the lobby. Why they even closed off the stim stum on the trimminy tum tobby!
They've also quarantined us on campus. I mean this in the we aren't allowed to leave sense. The buses have stopped running, and some people are reporting that there are national guard forces guarding the bottom of the mountain to make sure none of the APU students leave (there is a military bunker down the road, so that's not as crazy as it sounds. Wait, it still is).
Christ on a cracker I am so pissed at this school right now.
I e-mailed someone in the office to find out how this affects the semester schedule. If I'm stuck here for a week longer than I need to be to finish classes that shouldn't be canceled anyways, reducing my summer vacation by another week (limiting it to two and a half weeks, effectively) and making me reschedule my ticket, I am going to kill something. I am going to kill a lot of somethings, starting with the island of Kyushu and we'll see where I stop.
So angry.
Saturday, July 4, 2009
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