Haha...haha...

Okay, last time, I promise.

Classes went about the same as they always do, and lunch was surprisingly good for some reason. The weather was also nice and cool for a chance, considering it's been sweat drippingly hot lately (which is about 80 if you're me).

There is also a Bonsai display going on in front of the dorms. It's been there for like a week, but I keep forgetting to mention it. It's right next to the new sanitation stations. They have liquid sanitizer dispensers up front because of the swine flue that isn't in Oita. Ah, well, guess you can't be too careful. I still just go around touching everything though, so screw that noise.

On a more newsworthy note, I had a fee for a monthly payment. I don't... I don't pay monthly, I paid a lump sum at the beginning of the semester. So I went to go ask them about that in the dorm office. To which they replied "Actually you owe us 2100 dollars" and I was all "WHAT!?". I presented them with my bank book to which they were dumbfounded, because apparently they lost my payment. Yeah, that's right.

After about an hour to an hour and a half of trying to discuss this matter with a woman who for some reason refused to use English (all the people in the office speak at least moderate English as a part of their job requirement, so either she snuck through that somehow or it seemed like I understood her Japanese enough for her to continue that way) they basically said that since I had proof that I paid them, or at the very least that I sent two thousand dollars to them, they can't in good conscience make me send them another couple grand to make up for their oopsy. So it's probably lost in the system, and as far as the situation has progressed I don't need to pay.

Which is good, but it was a bit frightening at the time.

Also, talked to Jason about quarter break plans. I'll be going to Kyoto for a week (ish) and probably not be able to blog then. Be gone from about the 29th til the 7th. So, looking forward to that.

Let's do this, shall we?

So, my sleeping schedule is still thrown out of whack. If this isn't up by noon, then check back at about 5 for the update.


There are tons of animals on campus all of a sudden. Maybe my memory is poor, but I don't remember all of them here before the winter hit. There are bugs everywhere, especially in my room (where they do not belong), cats on campus, someone brought a dog, more birds than usual (the bridge is filled with crows at all times) and generally smaller birds everywhere else. Really, I walk around and they just swoop at me. It's like an Alfred Hitchcock film.

Class is still boring, and I doubt that's going to change. It's almost as if I'm repenting for my sins for two hours a day at this point. But, I have the upcoming break to look forward to, so that should be good. Speaking of which, JM bought my extra tickets to Fukuoka off of me, so that's a free 4000円 right there, which is nice. Does anyone have problem seeing the yen symbol? Should I use ￥? Aw whatever.

I had every intent of going to Senjinkai for once, but it started raining. And then it started thundering. And then we got an announcement over the intercom that everyone whom is outside needs to come inside immediately, and we aren't allowed to leave until they announce to us again. Apparently thunderstorms are a bit more dangerous in the mountains, and in actuality are a bit scarier, but also pretty cool. VERY loud, they are. Hopefully the next one is a bit later at night so it's really dark out when it happens.

Debating going downtown after classes today. I still need to download some Family Guy for Fanxing, and that's hard to do on campus. Guess I should probably go then.

Hip hip hurrah.

Late Again and Again

Sorry for this happening so much lately. I've been exhausted from trying to reroute my sleep schedule. I'm back on waking up early and falling asleep early, which is unforutunate, but in a more positive trend. At the same time this is making me sleep through the time I normally blog so.... that sucks. Anyways....

Yesterday was a great day. I woke up early and hung around on campus, playing some games, making breakfast, drawing a bit out of boredom. Then I remembered that I needed to hand in the work permissions application, so I went ahead and finally did that. They say it'll be in sometime after the first of next month, so I'll have that in and can try to get a bit of work after the mid semester break comes around.

I got in a full work out in the morning too, which was really nice because I haven't really gotten to that in a while. I'm not sure if I've mentioned that at all in here but I've been trying to do a bit of working out here on account that otherwise I'm just sitting on my ass at my desk all day. Really, desk, bed, and kitchen in a cycle. There is nothing to do on campus and very little within walking distance, so there isn't much of a point to leave the dorms. Although now that the weather is nicer I think I'm going to try walking down town. It takes about an hour to an hour and a half from what I've heard, so better make sure my iphone is charged else I want a really boring walk.

I went downtown and immediately negated the workout by going to McDonald's and an internet cafe. Go me! I've been meaning to get down to the internet cafe for a good week now and just haven't bothered with it (been looking for shoes instead) so it was good to get down there. Finished downloading Thor comics (all of them. I have all of them now. Boo ya.) and watched Hot Fuzz on Mogulus livestream. I can't believe that I hadn't seen that movie yet, it was hilarious. Also got around to playing TF2 which was always good. I can't remember how to add scripts in though, so I'm playing au natural. It's unfortunate that I'm still kicking ass to the top of the charts, because that means that I really need to find better servers or something.

After I got out of there I was hungry again. So, I figured I should get some ramen. The internet cafe is right next to Ku-ta Ramen which is the best ramen in the world, but I figure I need to diversify a bit. I was going to just be lazy and eat the stuff at You Me town again, but I passed the smelly ramen place and decided to stop there. Really this place smells. Or at least from the outside, cause it wasn't so bad inside, but the outside smells like raw sewage. Pretty sure it's supposed to, though. Tonkotsu ramen is made with pork bone and is supposed to smell rank, and it's said that the more awful it smells the better it tastes. And the place is Ooita Tonkotsu Ramen, so I guess it's living up to its namesake. The ramen was also damn cheap at only 500 yen for a good sized bowl, and it was pretty good. There were these weird possibly vegetables in it that I had no idea what exactly they were, but they were tasty. Unfortunately I didn't eat the seaweed paper, because I wasn't exactly sure how to go about that, and when it got down to it it was the only thing left in the bowl. Felt sort of bad, but I also feel like I don't really care.

Went to You Me town afterward to pick up some snacks and a One Piece figure (shut up) and to look at the shoes again to see if they've changed. I probably am going to be stuck buying an 80 dollar pair of shoes. They'd better last me for that much. I'm going to try Foot Park before anything though, and hopefully they've got cheapass shoes that I can pick up. The soles on mine are practically nonexistant and there is a small hold that you can poke through on one of them. I have a feeling we're going to hit a rainy season again, so probably a good idea to get some watertight foot coverings.

I was sort of in and out on the bus ride home, which was nice because it went faster. Got back to campus and fell asleep the second I sat down, then woke up a few hours later and took all the stuff out of my pockets and got my shoes and belt and glasses off so that I could sleep for real. And forgot to blog in the process.

Well, I'm better now, things should fare well tonight. Still though, the day was really enjoyable for having done most of that stuff alone (ran into someone I knew at McDonald's though) so I should try to get that going on more often. Hurrah.

Time Keeps on Slippin

Into the future. And holy crap, apparently I have two weeks left in the quarter. Who would've thought? I am so close to the break, and closer still to coming home. I feel like everything is going by too fast and I'll never be able to get everything done.

I looked into Kumamoto bus tickets and those are 2700円　each way, and I already plan on getting to Kyoto which is going to be a 10800円 round trip ticket again. Still need to talk to Jason about that, though. Not sure where to find geisha yet, although I suppose I could ask at the tourism office. It seems like a weird thing to ask, but I guess I'm still tied back with the Western notion that geisha are prostitutes instead of performers. I'll get over that eventually.

JM and I are still going to hike the mountain one of these days, so probably after the break sometime. I need to start going to Oita more frequently, and I'm thinking of one day just picking a random city on the train route and going there to see what's what.

Debating if I should actually try to get a job, considering it'd take away from the time I have to do things, but I guess once or twice a week wouldn't take away from things too much. It'd make up for my bus fare, at least.

One thing I forgot to point out from the other day when we took the cab back. The city is a lot smaller than I thought. The buses take forever, but that's because they take routes that are a bit out of the way and stop once every two blocks. What amounts to a 40-45 minutes bus ride is essentially a 15 minute drive at the most. It shrunk the city so much in my head that I've basically been encouraged to get out of it more, so hopefully that's a bit more possible in the future.

I also need to work harder on my Onsen Master towel. I have umm... zero, stamps. Every time I've gone to the onsen I always forgot to bring my stamp booklet, and I'm not actually sure where to find it in my room at the moment. If I find it before I go downtown later then I'll bring it along and hopefully find an onsen to hop into (unlikely that I won't, there are like three on every block).

Overall, Japan suddenly became bigger, Beppu suddenly became smaller, and I'm out of time. Now to rush some enjoyment.

Like the Dumbest Person You Know

So, the paint is wearing away on my glasses frames, right? Any normal person would just ignore this and possibly start thinking about buying new frames. Not me though, because I'm crafty. I had the genius idea to take my permanent marker and color in all the areas that were rubbed away. Thankfully my shaky hand didn't smear any on the lenses as far as I know, but considering I'm still letting it set for a few more minutes I guess I can't really tell yet. Here's hopin.

I had stayed up all night again, because that's what I'm all about lately. Was doing fine, doing real well, when I needed to finish up my homework. Now, my desk is cluttered and unusable, so I had to do my work on the bed. The bed where I can get comfortable, and most likely fall asleep. Which I did. But never fear, I didn't sleep through class this time! Just the first five minutes, and managed to get there with most of the class left. Teacher asked why I was late and I told her I came in from Beppu and missed the early bus, and that seemed to suffice.

I was planning to go downtown after class, but I decided against it. Two reasons: One, I had a bad feeling that I'd run into my teacher either on the bus, or downtown for some reason (it's happened with other teachers. Beppu is not very big, and everyone takes the same bus route) and she'd question why I was going down twice in one day. Also, by the time I was going to go down I'd end up taking the last bus back to campus when I wanted to come back, and I hate doing that cause it's always damn crowded. Silly reason, but I stick to it.

Anyways, because I should be doing stuff like this more often, quick Japanese lesson/commentary:

For those of you whom don't know, there are two types of Japanese "alphabets" plus the kanji (the complicated Chinese characters). One of the alphabets is for native Japanese words and the other is for foreign ones (or at least that's what they tell you, considering the line gets blurred to jigoku and back).

Of the foreign alphabet I've noticed 3 ways to localize things.

1) Direct translation (or closest capable). This is generally the most frequent one, but because it needs to be adjusted for Japanese pronunciation, generally it'll sound different. For example, gas pump would be ガソリンスタンド(gasolinstando-Gasoline Stand). Then there are the ones that just work, like ワイン(wine). Then there are ones that get butchered, like マクドナルド(makudonarudo - McDonald's)

2) Direct spelling change over. This completely disregards the way that the word is pronounced and will just translate the way the word is spelled instead. I've seen this mostly in electronics and some city names, but it pops up in other places too. Example for this would be ニュース（nyusu - news) where it's pronounce closer to noose than news.

3) Shortening. This changes the word beyond most recognition. Little kids learning English in Japan have been known to do this with English words the way that it's done in katakana, much to the bewilderment of their teachers. Examples would include エイアコン(eiakon - air conditioner) and レモコン(remokon - remote control).

My examples are terrible, but I'm still tired from my one hour of sleep and there are people yelling in the hallway for some reason. So that's the best yer gettin tonight.

Haha Oops

Lost track of time there. One update fresh off the grill comin up.

Since it's Sunday, and I claim this as customary to provide myself content when I'm lazy, let's look into the referral info.

I've resigned myself to accepting that I will never stop getting hits for Maine Coon. It's just not going to happen. For more information about Maine, check out this informative and entertaining music video.

Another hit comes from a search for "chiizubagaa" and that brought about a comment from a fellow Japan traveler, whom assured me that my issues with trying to custom order my food are universal. Good to know that I'm not just incompetent. I've grown accustomed to that, but I like to be proven wrong.

So I had grand plans today. I woke up early and I was going to go downtown. Watched a couple episodes of One Piece and took a shower and was all ready to go down and get some ramen and do some shopping and maybe look for something cool to do while I'm down there. And then a typhoon hit and all of the buses and school services stopped. So... that really, really sucked.

There was also a movie tonight as with every Sunday. The announcement said that it wouldn't be in English or have subtitles so I stopped caring. When I went to the mini-coop later I saw a poster for it saying it was the Death Note movie. Well dang, I really wanted to see that, and by the time I saw the poster the movie had ended. Well poop.

Mother Nature and Murphy's Law are teaming up to hate on me.

Hit Parade La La La

So, last night was the party at Hit Parade. Because I'm not sure I mentioned it or not, Hit Parade is a club/bar set up in the fashion of the American 60's. Kind of a strange thing to find in Japan (and strangely not uncommon), but it was cool. Also, don't let them find out that you're an APU student. Hurray justified prejudices!

We showed up a bit earlier than we were supposed to, but they let us in anyway. We got a seat and hung out for a bit waiting for people to arrive and got a good look at the decor. Nice open setting with a dance floor and pictures of old American celebrities all over the place. Our section had Frank Sinatra, Doris Day, Judy Garland, Cary Grant and a few others that I can't recall. All the waiters had pompadours. It was fantastic.

The place was a tabehodai/nomihodai, so essentially "All you can eat all you can drink". Food was decent, with chicken, fish, french fries, and some Japanese stuff and spring rolls. Also, ice cream. The ice cream was pretty good.

There was a live band that played 25 minute sets then took a 15 minute break for the whole night. I'd hate to have that job. There were two guy leads and a girl who was pretty cute and wearing a go-go girl dress. The non-singing band members were dressed in identical suits with yellow and black blazers, and I totally wanted one. The lead guitarist was awesome. He had this kinda dazed happy look on his face the whole time like he was drunk out of his mind, and he would come out and rip these awesome solos while just standing there smiling and looking around like he wasn't sure entirely what was going on, and then just go back into the corner.

About halfway through the night, the guy who's party we were there celebrating actually left. Boooo. Who does that (other than a certain someone at a certain grad party. Oh snap). So that was a bit weird at first, but we quickly closed the gap and kept onward. We were a dual group, though, and the other half of our group was celebrating a different person's birthday. The girl got absolutely smashed and began stumbling around everywhere, and even fell on me at one point which was awkward. After about an hour of that she just passed out dead drunk for the next 4 hours or so. At about the same time the jerks on that side of the party got all rowdy and ended up getting our drinks cut off for the rest of the night, which is the main point of not saying you're an APU student because then they do that pre-emptively. So that absolutely sucked, cause it was 30 bucks to get in and on top of that I was really thirsty. Stupid Americans.

The band was good, and the ambience in the place was generally enjoyable. There were people on the dance floor that had to come there often or something, because they knew every dance move that the performers were doing and did them along with them. That was odd.

Made some friends, talked with some people, had a good time. The taxi finding process afterward was a bit awkward, but we managed. The birthday girl was placed "delicately" into a cab with her drunk ass self, and then we had to talk another girl who was too drunk to function into going back to campus, but it worked out in the end.

The place was really fun and I'd like to go back, but probably make sure that the people we're there with don't just suck overall.

Also: Technical difficulties. I tried uploading the photos, but it just is NOT WORKING. THey'll be up when I can get them to work.