Looking Up

This weekend turned out to be surprisingly eventful, which wasn't exactly how I had thought it would be. I had too many things that I wanted to do, but was able to do the majority of them.

Saturday morning, I decided that I needed a new book to read. I left the apartment for Nagoya station, where I picked up Pratchett/Gaiman's Good Omens, and I'm really enjoying it. Sayana, the trainee from Russia, is leaving Japan this week, so she gave a presentation about her internship, and afterwards we ate at a friend's house. On the way to his house, I noticed that everyone had their trash already set outside. Now, I've found some interesting things in the trash, such as my bicycle in Austin, so I know to keep an eye out on trash day. I found some ski poles, but I didn't have any use for them, or any room in my apartment for a large, free-standing ski-pole-art-piece. We continued on, when I saw what looked like multiple heads in a trash bag. Some salon had thrown away a bag of 5 or so mannequin heads. They were in a separate bag from the other trash, so I took it.

Apparently taking trash isn't highly regarded in Japan, but I had searched ebay/craigslist for a mannequin head before leaving. I have 1950's era Russian gas mask that I wanted to display, and this is perfect for it. It appears they were used as practice for stylists, as they all have haircuts that are a bit off and uneven. She now sits in my apartment holding my headband and headphones when I need to store them.

I didn't have room for the others, as we were going to go to a club immediately after dinner, plus I probably don't have room in my luggage for 5 mannequin heads. Nakamura, who's apartment we were at, was afraid someone would see me carrying the head and think I was some sort of pervert, precariously wrapped the head in a plastic bag, then let me borrow another man-purse to carry it in. He also had some extra beer that he didn't want, so I was walking around with a bag full of beer and a mannequin head. I hope this isn't the last time I'll be able to say that.

We rush to the club, since we all had tickets that let us in without cover if we got there before 9pm. After running from the station, we barely made it. We slowly worked up and down the 6 floors of music, which was surprisingly a lot of reggaeton. Hip-hop floor; reggaeton. Reggae floor; reggaeton. Both electronic/dance music floors; reggaeton remixed. Lounge floor; reggaeton. The did play some dance hall, though, which I don't think I've ever heard in a club. Although before coming here, I didn't normally go to clubs with the exception of seeing shows. Around the time the last trains were leaving, everyone else except for Diana and myself left for home. So we continued going to different floors until the club closed at 2am.

We had 3 hours to kill before the first trains started, so after a brief Denny's stop, we tried to a find a bar someone had recommended to us. It was deep within the Filipino redlight district, which is a whole different variation of shady compared to the normal redlight district. We hung around the bar until the first trains started, then went home to sleep until 1.

I had plans to meet with Yohei, from AIESEC, and an alumni AIESEC member that owns his own company and wanted to talk to me some more about meeting with other companies to help them get over their apprehension of accepting a foreign trainee. Before that, I really wanted to go couch/record player searching, and make my weekly trip to Osu as well as the coffee shop by my apartment (where the only 3 people in the area that are around my age work). Oh, and figure out how to work a Japanese ATM, which I do successfully.

I order some random cream and coffee and ice and who knows what else drink from the coffee shop, and immediately head to Osu. I waste more money on gifts for people in Austin, and stumble on a used record shop that has a much wider variety than the one I normally go to. I again waste even more money, and come across the first non-tag graffiti piece that I had seen in Nagoya.

I run through the pawn shop to check prices on record player and guitars, but still decide to visit a closer, smaller pawn shop sometime this week before deciding. It was getting close to the time I was supposed to meet for dinner, and I still wanted to visit the International Center's library. I get on the train, don't pay attention, and miss my transfer. I figure I'll waste some time at the station I'm at, which is a good thing. The station is directly under a multi-story store called Tokyu Hands, and I end up finding an actual, full sized pillow for under $10! I can stop using this awful couch cushion that I've been using, and without spending $70+!

I make it back in time to go to the library, and meet for dinner; arms loaded with a pillow and records. Mie meets with us as well, which gave me someone to talk to while Yohei and the AIESEC alumni member talked. Between my awful Japanese and her incredibly good English, we were able to keep ourselves entertained while walking from restaurant to restaurant to try different foods.

Resolved to walk from the subway back to my apartment, we go for desert, but by the time we finish, I still make the last bus home, which is a really nice surprise. I get home and start going through my recent purchases, and find myself even more surprised with how pleased I am with the blindbox items I got. I then remember that I have cake in the refrigerator, and only a 4 day work week. I'm taking off Friday to go watch naked people slapping each other, and on Saturday I'm hopefully visiting Takayama.

Hello, Dear Wind

It's usually not a good thing when the plugin Forecastfox has an icon that I've never seen before. Wind swirls. Apparently, tomorrow will be VERY WINDY in all of Aichi Prefecture. Huzzah.

I met some friends tonight in Fushimi to go get some dinner. Not knowing if they had already decided on the place, I was a bit surprised when we went to an American bar. It reminded me of the Simpson's episode, when they visit Japan, and eat at America Town. After forcing down a Guinness as a late birthday present for a friend, we ate, and headed out. I already decided that I was going to miss the bus, and either walk home, or take a newly found limited train back to my apartment. We had been in the area before, and I noticed a multi-story building called Beer Circus. I was intrigued, so we went to find it.

And was horribly disappointed. Nothing mildly circus-related. I was hoping for atleast trapeze artists or something. It looked like a Denny's.

Dejected, we tried to find another bar, but nothing stood out. None of us had ever played Pachinko before, so figured we might as well. It's an awful game. Although Seko enjoyed it just for the moment that the picture was taken:


Dejected, and with lighter wallets, we stole handfuls of candy from the Pachinko parlor, and I left to follow a guy to the secret window. This requires a bit of explanation.

In Japan, gambling, for the most part, is illegal. Kind of. To get around this and insure their safety, Pachinko parlors employ a roundabout method to gamble. You win the balls, turn them in, and can buy things like cigarettes, candy, gamecubes, cameras, and other prizes. Or, you can buy these tiny coins in boxes, that have a dollar (yen) amount written on them. You then take these coins outside the parlor, to a shady looking window half a block away. There, you turn the coins in for cash.

So we followed the guy to the window, and it didn't have any sort of sign or anything at all on it. Just a random window in a wall.

We figured that instead of gambling, we'd just waste our money at the arcade. Where I played Pachinko again. After getting it out of my system, we watched people playing some of the most complex games ever. With proof that the Japanese are marketing geniuses. Two games, one being some sort of samurai strategy game, and the other being a giant robot Gundam game, are the pinnacle of Japanese marketing strategy. You buy these cards, with barcodes (or RFID tags, I'm not sure) on them. You then open the pack of cards, see what you have, and make your way to one of the stations setup around a huge screen so people can watch. In front of each seat is a grid, where you lay the cards down, and by moving the cards on the grid, you control the unit. So you pay for the cards, you pay for the arcade game, and you pay to get the best cards. It's genius.

I didn't feel like spending any more money, so instead of taking the subway to Nagoya, then the train to near my apartment, I just took the subway to the closest subway station to my apartment, and walked the few miles back. It was actually a nice walk tonight, although a bit cold. I really should find out where I can park my bike near the station, but I need it this weekend to try to find a record player. And figure out how to use Japanese ATMs.

...this seems familiar...

My life has become Animal Crossing. 1) I keep on having to buy new umbrellas because my old ones break, or I don't bring them with me and it starts to rain. 2) On Sundays, I sit in a coffee shop and write letters. I don't actually mail these letters for the most part, they just sit in my apartment until I get tired of looking at them. Then I'll mail them at once. 3) Everything in my apartment makes a noise. A cute noise. My doorbell sounds like an entire song, converted to midi. The person is normally in my house and sitting down by the time the song stops. If I ever buy the mic I want, I'll make sure to record all the sounds. 4) When I have nothing else to do, and find myself in Sakae, I buy records. I don't have a record player here. So they just sit on my shelf.

On Saturday, my company threw me a welcome party. My refusal to eat beef or pork is always a source of great concern by everyone, so the party was held at a restaurant that just serves fish, tofu, and vegetables. Plus all you can drink alcohol for 2 hours. Suffice to say, I tried every variation of alcohol from Japan possible. By last call, I had half a bottle of atsukon, a full glass of wine, and vodka with grapefruit juice left to finish very quickly. Afterwards, some of us went to go eat ramen, and while I wasn't hungry, people bought me more alcohol. Then we get driven to my place, where we listen to music and drink some more. Overall, an enjoyable evening. Although I vaguely remember late night aim conversations, but I'm afraid to check my logs to see what I actually said. I'll just ignore it. So should you.

Valentine's Day

Remember in elementary school whenever there was a gas leak, everyone had to go outside to the playground and wait for the fire department? It occurred fairly frequently at my elementary school, so I associated a gas leak with going outside and not doing work.

Today there was a gas leak at work. Immediately, we leave the clean room, and I start to change out of my scrubs. Halfway through changing, I notice that no one else is. I get my gas mask from the locker, and we return. Everyone working, noxious gas filling the room from the air conditioner, and gas masks.

Happy Valentine's Day. And may the fumes from it not make you nauseas.

Natural State

I have a running, and many times proved, theory that whenever I get lost, I undoubtedly wind up in the red light district. It doesn't matter if the district is 5 blocks, or 1 building, I will always, always end up there when I get lost. It's an odd conundrum, but has been proven many times over.

Recently, I discovered that this phenomenon is applied to magazines as well. It doesn't matter what is on the cover of the magazine, what section of the store it is in, it will always contain smut if I pick it up. After missing the last bus to my apartment, I decided to hang around the station trying to find donuts, before taking a later train to my station and start the long walk back to my apartment. Diana was looking for some sort of Japanese tabloid magazine for her friend, and I could have sworn that I saw a Japanese version of People magazine. On the long walk back to my apartment, whenever I started to get cold, I would duck into a convenience store and browse the magazines looking for a tabloid (and to warm up). Every piece of printed material I picked up had naked people somewhere within. Sometimes it would be the first page I flipped to, sometimes the second or third, but always present.

After several convenience stores worth of browsing, I began to wonder where this power(?) came from. I decided that my natural state must be around smut, and whenever I get lost in a city or pick a magazine at random, my subconscious reverts back to a smut-searching fiend. If only I could somehow use this for good.

On a completely separate note, I finally bought a strap for my phone today, seeing as how it was an animal crossing bottle with a present inside. I was attaching it while on my way to the theater with some friends, when one of them mentioned that the strap was too cute for someone like me. Mildly taken aback, and horribly stubborn, I declared that it shall not be removed until I come across a better one. Now I offer a challenge to anyone that can find a cellphone strap better than this. I'm thinking something along the lines of a tiny ghetto blaster. That would be better. Or if I could find a tiny tape (like the ones at my apartment in my tiny stereo system), I could affix wings to it, and that would be a superior strap.

4 Weeks

I've been here for 4 weeks, and it really doesn't seem like it has been that long. I guess it's just because the weekdays are eventful and I don't include them in my count.

What have I learned so far? Not much. I have noticed that people here are either a) very proud of their cuisine or b) just love food. Now that most of my coworkers have moved past trying to find out horribly personal information, they've taken to talking about food. A lot. And I have to be honest, I'm just not that big of a fan of eating. I eat when I'm hungry, and that's about it. Outside of that small window, I neither think of food, nor talk about it. Here, though, it comes up a lot. Oddly enough, I do watch a large amount of cooking shows, so atleast I have some frame of reference. That is odd...I don't think about food or talk about it, but I enjoy watching cooking shows. I wonder why that is?

I caught some sort of cold on Wednesday; on Thursday it got worse, and today even more so. I originally was going to leave work early today so I could pick up my registration card that allows me to live in Japan and not be arrested. The office is closed on the weekends and after work, so it was the only time I could get it. So I had arranged to just come in for the morning, then leave at lunch. Last night, some friends called and invited me to go hike some mountain all day today, but no, I knew that I needed to go to work so I could get off a couple days next month for the Hadaka festival and a trip to Tokyo.

I was all set to go to work for a few hours, until this morning. I slept through my alarm, which is a rare thing, and woke up at about the time I would be leaving the office. I figured it was too late anyway, so I declared today a sick day. Lucky me, my cold got worse over the night, and I really was/am pretty sick. I went to check the bus schedule so I could get to the ward office to pick up my card. With 45 minutes to the next bus, I walked over to the drug store to purchase some random pills that I can only hope will cure this cold. I had a huge headache, and just didn't feel like asking/reading the box, and grabbed something with a picture of a kid with red glowing dots on his nose and neck. My nose hurts. My throat hurts. It should work.

I catch the bus and pick up my card at the ward office. On my way back to the bus stop to go home, I passed a haircut place. I desperately needed a haircut, but I was still feeling too groggy to try and hold a conversation in Japanese. I arbitrarily decided that if it started raining, I'd go. Ofcourse, it started raining, so I went in. I like leaving my decisions up to silly things like the weather.

I go in, and get the normal "what do we do" look. I ask if they do haircuts for guys, as it was more of a salon looking place; they said yes and gave me some form to fill out. Again, I could barely see and my head was pounding, so after I scrawled my name and phone number on the form, I gave up trying to remember my address and just handed it in. I was taken away to have my scalp molested for an hour or so, and I have to say, I like the results. I blame my father for my natural desire to want to start a conversation with anyone I meet, so ofcourse I'm well into a conversation with the stylist before I realize that my headache has worsen. Oh, and the conversation turns to food as well.

Between mechanical chairs and people taking my glasses/giving me my glasses/taking them/giving them back/taking them and so forth, some guy comes up and starts rubbing my head. Not the girl that was cutting my hair, this guy that washed my hair earlier. I wasn't exactly sure what to make of the situation, as I also wasn't sure if I had the money to pay for "guy rubbing my scalp service." And he narrated the entire process. I always feel the need to respond when someone says something to me, so the conversation went like this:
Guy: I'm putting oil on your scalp
Me: Yes
Guy: I'm rubbing your scalp
Me: Yes
Guy: I'm washing my hands then rubbing your shoulders
Me: ...Yes?
Guy: I'm tired. I'm done
Me: Yes

I go to pay, and the clerk gives me a bag of candy. I'll assume it was for valentine's day, but I really do get given a lot of candy for some reason. It just sits in my bag until I dig through it and start giving it away. Just an odd observation.

Not feeling much better, I made lunch, then slept on the floor watching Rome. When I eventually woke up, I still wasn't feeling better, so I attempted to make ja, or cha, or I have no idea how it's spelled. Rice porridge...congee...stuff. It actually came out really well; I was surprised. I've cooked a lot before, but never in such cramped conditions with so few things to use. I have a wok. And a spoon. And a set of chopsticks. That's about it. Oh, and a really dull knife. After eating half, I set the other half aside for tomorrow morning, and surprisingly felt better.

Until I watched one of the worst movies ever. This ranks up there with Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Top Gun as movies I hate. Not quite Paulie Shore's movies, but still, really bad. Le Grand Bleu, or グラン・ブルー, or The Big Blue? I'm not sure, but it was bad. Jean Reno was in it, and even he couldn't save it. The cinematography of the first 15 minutes was mildly interesting, then it went downhill from there. For another 2 hours and 15 minutes. It really was an awful movie.

書くつもりですが。。。

Note: I'm too lazy to try and post different things both in mixi and on here, so for now, this will just get rehashed posts from mixi. With the exception of a quick rundown of my weekend:

Friday: dinner, drinking; clubbing, drinking; restaurant, drinking; leave the restaurant after everyone except for Diana, the trainee from Canada, and myself have fallen asleep, to find another bar, drinking.

Saturday: mild hangover, buy crazy dioramas of Japanese homes (I love tiny things), buy record albums, meet Diana and George, the trainee from England's workplace, at an English speaking cafe/pub. Then make the last bus back home to fall asleep watching Scrubs.

Sunday: show up for a presentation by AIESEC about the differences between Canada and Japan, specifically McDonald's and Valentine's Day. We then continue with making pancakes and more drinking. We then head off for some people to go bowling, while I leave early to again, catch the bus. Luckily, a co-worker is loaning me a bike, so it shouldn't be a problem anymore. Oh, and the little things in Japan are what makes it so enjoyable to live here. Like buying sake in the middle of a train station, and walking around drinking it. I was entertained.


Rehashed Post:

So I figured that using mixi, it would give me another chance to practice Japanese. Then I realized how horrible my written Japanese is, although I'm not much better at speaking it. So I'll go back and forth between language, with horribly simplistic Japanese thrown in.

私の書く日本語はとても下手ですね。

See?

先週末に、炊飯器を買いたいでした。でも、ちょっと高いです。それは、ぜんぜんごはんを食べません。昨日、英会話時に、私はことを言いました。今日、所長は炊飯器は持って来るに貸しました。

。。。が、問題がありました。アメリカで、両親の炊飯器は使うやさしです。オースティンで、私のアパートの炊飯器も使うやさしです。"Cook"と"Warm"だけがあります。この炊飯器はくるまにみたいです。たくさん分からないボタンあります。大変です。

それは、今日はピーナッツバターサンドイッチだけ食べました。

Other than rice cookers that look like some sort of flying vehicle, today went well, as did the weekend. Clubbing, drinking, eating, drinking, and me wasting money on vinyl records. Crazy clear vinyl 7" Arcade Fire record. I don't even have a record player in Japan...oh well.

Plus this weekend I got to meet a bunch of people from the other AIESEC in Nagoya, which was a lot of fun. I'm still awful at remembering names, though. Although I have trouble remembering names in English as well, so it's apparently not just Japanese names.

来週末の月曜日は休みですね。日曜日から月曜日まで、どこかへ行きたいです。岐阜へ？どこへ行くか分かりません。でも、２日３月は裸祭りですけど、いっしょうにだれも行きたいか！？

Oh, some old lady at the bus stop today had a backpack on. As I approached her, I noticed that across the back it said "Bitch" in giant letters. I had no idea if I should take a picture with my loud phone, or try to explain to the lady what it meant. I chose to just ignore it. I've had to explain too many words that I would never have expected since I've been here. It's only been 3 weeks, but try explaining the meaning and usages of "bollocks." In another language. That you're not familiar with. It's not easy.

Every day during lunch, I meet with some people to teach English/ask them questions/sit around and talk in English for half an hour. It's fun, and gives me a chance to see how people actually begin to acquire secondary languages. Which I guess is my true passion with linguistics. L2 language acquisition.

英会話はしたいば、私にメッセージに送ります。I think I'll start setting aside a time where if anyone is interested in learning either English, or just about American Culture (well, specifically, Austin Culture), they can meet me somewhere. I also think I'll try to convince my boss to allow me time to prepare English lessons twice a week for anyone else that might be interested. Not only will it get me out of work, but I enjoy it.



Dear lord, I've listened to this Inoculate The Innocuous song by the Unicorns more times in the past day than I should have. The album title, in addition to recently posted pictures from this weekend, have reminded me that I desperately need to cut my hair. I think I'll try to butcher it myself before trying to find a barber this weekend.