The Cornelius Group

After giving an impromptu speech in Japanglish about the wonders of working abroad with AIESEC, I had the entire afternoon to waste until the Cornelius concert. Concerts in Japan start around 6 or 7 pm, which is considerably earlier than any concert I've ever been to. I assume it's so people can still catch the train home when the show is finished.

The concert is fairly crowded, and incredibly hot. Then the band plays, and I'm extremely happy to say it was an actual band. With someone like Cornelius, I was afraid a lot of it would be sampled, which would leave the concert with just a couple people pushing buttons and not really entertaining anyone (ie Four Tet live). There was a complete band of 4 members, and while 3 of them stayed mostly with their respective instruments (drum, bass, guitar), the fourth would switch from crazy machines to guitar with crazy machines activated by pedals.

The entire show was synchronized with video being projected in the background. At several parts during the show, a camera was set up on the stage, pointed out at the crowd. The camera caught some segments of audio and video, that was then remixed with some crazy controller. Actually, for a lot of the concert, when Cornelius wasn't singing, he was working some controller to edit video live, as well as looping music that he was capturing. It was impressive.

So, as I already said, the entire show was synchronized with the projected video. A bird would fly, and everytime a tree would appear on screen, it would correspond with a particular instrument. Imagine any Michel Gondry music video. The videos were amazing, as well. Most of it was stop motion, and it's really hard to describe. Hopefully, they'll release a collection on dvd, because it was very impressive.

I barely caught the last bus, and barely made it to my apartment before the torrential rains started. I sit here at an unplugged/no internet laptop, for fear of the lightning ruining my only method of contact with the world outside of Japan; my laptop. Luckily, I have far less concern for the tv that came with the apartment and my record player, so I am able to save battery and listen to records.

Alarmed

I've found the perfect time to go running; 7:30 pm. People are just arriving home from work, tired, possibly a little drunk, and it's already really dark outside. The last thing they expect to see is a tall amalgamation of hair and headphones emerging from a dark alley. The reactions I get entertain me for the rest of the evening.

In the clean room at work is a large, ominous looking trashcan with a liquid inside that gives off an eerie amount of steam. I've always steered clear of it, for fear of catching some sort of horrible disease or mutation. Today, since there were no customers for me to meet with, I spent the day working in the clean room, and was told to use some items that were kept within this mysterious liquid. After putting on multiple pairs of gloves, arm-gloves, clean room suit, apron, and various other coverings, I was assured that I didn't need a gas mask. Cautiously, I reached into the dark liquid and began my search. I couldn't find anything in the murky depths, and seeing my distress, a coworker decided to help...by sticking his bare hand in and grabbing one of the devices.

He then described the contents as a heating element and Magic Wipe.

Pretty much, just warm Japanese Windex.

Weekend In Tokyo

I had four things that I wanted to do in Tokyo over the 4 days I was going to be there:
1) Go to Secret Base
2) Go to my favorite coffee shop/place in the world
3) See my friend's graduation ceremony
4) Eat breakfast with my aunt and uncle who were visiting from Hawai'i.

That's it. 4 days to do maybe...5 hours worth of stuff. A nice, relaxing trip.

It started with a painfully long nite bus trip, on a smoke filled bus in tiny seats. We arrived in Tokyo at 5 am, instead of the planned 7 am. I was glad to get off the bus, but nowhere was open at 5 am. So I walked. A lot.

I went to the coffee shop once it finally opened at 10, then made it to Secret Base at around noon. 1/2 of my list is already done! Then, things became really busy.

I called a friend in Tokyo who was letting me sleep in her friend's mother's company's office. So we went to the office, which was actually an incredibly nice apartment in one of the most expensive areas in Tokyo. So I'm given a key to the apartment, and told to do what I want with it, just don't smoke in the apartment. I'm then taken to the Kabuki Theater in Tokyo where we catch an act, then to the fish market for dinner.

I missed my concert, but ended up getting to try some really good fish. The rest of the weekend was horribly busy; my friend's graduation ceremony, which was only going to last an hour or so, turned into another trip to Secret Base with her sister, lunch and dinner with her family, then me going to a bar. My Saturday, which was going to be spent leisurely visiting Kamakura turned into leaving the station at 7 am, riding the train for 2 hours, seeing every temple/tourist site there is to see in the region with my friend's family leading the way, then dinner at a hotel in Yokohama.

Luckily, I was able to meet with my aunt and uncle for a few hours on Sunday, before my bus left. I also didn't even feel the earthquake, but was probably asleep on the bus at the time. The bus ride back was in a much nicer bus, and I slept for most of the way home. In a fit of boredom, I made the mistake of asking a friend what she was doing later that night. That's what happens when you are bored, and always have access to email. My intention was one of those "I'm just wasting time right now, so I'm making conversation" emails, because I had absolutely no energy to do anything but shower, wash clothes, and sleep.

But that's not what happened.

A rushed shower, flurry of laundry being put in/taken out of the washing machine, and far too many emails later, I'm sitting in a restaurant drinking milk tea with some sort of alcohol in it. The drinking made our sleepiness even worse, and we fell asleep on the train.

At work, though, I was able to sleep for the first 2 hours during some meeting, which was great. I then got to sleep in the car as we ran around all of Aichi meeting with clients. Tomorrow I get to go to Shizuoka, a 2 hour drive, which means another extended nap! Being paid to sleep and go on car trips is awesome. Plus, whenever we meet with clients, I'm fawned over as the token American, I get taken to lunch, then back to the car to nap some more. I can only hope that this continues.

Bman Skullbrain, as well as an impulse bought single Obake Dog. I couldn't justify $100 for the Obake Dog set, though.

The Zen temples I visited in Kamakura and Enoshima all had a familiar symbol displayed in the architecture. That's right, the Triforce. At the top of this mountain on the island (well, the mountain was the entire island) were a series of temples, as well as charm-selling vendors. Naturally, I couldn't miss a chance to own a Triforce charm, let alone a green one.

It Works!!!

My 96 cent record player from the junk store actually works! Out of the 4 record players they had, which were all in the junk section and hadn't been tested/would not qualify for a refund, this was the only one with a needle. Plus, it was the cheapest. The 3 mile bike ride both ways was worth it! Although trying to ride a bike and carry a giant record player is very difficult...

I also found a vending machine for rice. I don't know what to make of it.

Leaving for Tokyo in a few hours, where I get to waste my money at Secret Base! And instead of getting a hotel, I get an entire floor of an office building. I originally planned to sleep in internet cafes for the entire trip, just because I didn't want to worry about hotel reservations, or curfews, or anything of the sort. Then a friend offered me my own floor of an office building in Ginza to stay in. It sounds like a premise for a bad movie. I can't wait.

Kyoto

At the last minute, I decided that I was healthy enough to go to Kyoto on Saturday. What I didn't know, was how much effort it would take to actually get there.

We bought day passes for the railway, which meant that we were going to do the entire roundtrip in one day, which is a 3 hour train ride each way. Waking up at 6:20 to catch the first bus, I met up with everyone at the station, and from there we rode the overfilled train to Kyoto. Since there were no seats for the majority of the trip, none of us could sit down and properly sleep.

After arriving, we bought lunches to bring with us to eat at Nijo. The huge selection, and my insistence on buying breakfast, required more than the leisurely stroll through the aisles. So off we went to Nijo.

We looked around Kyoto castle, which consists of Honmaru, the reconstructed "main" castle, and Ninomaru, the secondary castle, but ironically, not reconstructed, and is the original building. Ninomaru also has what is called Nightingale Floors, which squeak to alert it's occupants of people trying to sneak in.

After Nijo and lunch, we went to the grocery store, which was the main purpose of the trip. In an effort to educate AIESEC members about environmental choices, especially concerning bringing your own grocery bag and using your own chopsticks, instead of disposable ones, we went to a grocery store that required you to purchase plastic bags if you did not have your own. It took us a while to find the proper bus to arrive at the store, but eventually, we were able to...go to a grocery store.

We had some extra time before needing to catch the train home, so we went to Chionin Temple, in Gion. Chionin Temple is the origins and headquarters of the Pure Land Buddhism sect, so we walked around it, and the adjacent Shinto shrine. We then ate desert at a small restaurant in the Gion district, and headed back to Nagoya.

The late night walk in the cold from the station the my apartment wasn't good for my cold, but with my remaining change, I bought a bottle of CC Lemon (the bottle has 70 lemons' worth of vitamin C!) and some melon-custard bread. And with 20 minutes left of St. Patrick's Day, I drank half a glass of coffee and Bailey's. The rest was finished this afternoon with a tuna sandwich. Not exactly appealing for someone with a head cold, but it was my only glass in the apartment.

I've discovered a few things about photography with this last trip:
1) I refuse to put up a peace sign in pictures. Absolutely refuse.
2) Standing in front of landmarks/monuments and facing all the people taking pictures is a great opportunity to ruin many people's photos.
3) I keep on wanting to buy a nice DSLR, but I refuse to even carry my tiny camera with me when I travel. My phone is much easier for me to use; I always have it on me, I don't need an extra charger, and it's the same quality as my current camera.
4) In light of the above, I find myself simply stealing pictures from other people that went with me's facebook/flickr accounts of the event, which saves me the trouble of actually taking the picture.

Time for some undercooked rice-porridge and The Warriors.

50 Lemons' Worth Of Vitamin C!

This morning I woke up extremely sick. A combination of working in sub-freezing conditions, and eating a lunch of pork cutlets, which I thought was chicken (my head cold has kept me from being able to accurately taste anything). I decided to call in sick today.

...and since I don't have any of my manager's numbers, calling in sick consisted of me turning off my alarm and rolling over.

After 15 hours of sleep, I ran across the street to buy some juice and some face masks, used to keep my germs to myself, and new germs out of me. On the walk back, I noticed that the vending machine near my apartment had C.C. Lemon, with 1000 mgs of vitamin C. So I purchase it, and drink it with my toast and eggs.

Obviously not planning for having today off, I didn't know what I should do. I wasn't tired anymore, but I couldn't really go out and risk getting worse. I had bought some stuff to paint my man purse with, and today was as good a time as ever. I painted, caught up on some American tv, and read. All in all, a good day. With the exception of the whole feeling horribly sick part.

Daily Routine

I've been asked how my normal weekday goes several times, so I thought I would simply write about it here. This is exactly how my Friday went, and how most of my weekdays are spent:

6:00: First alarm goes off, which I turn off.
6:30: Second alarm goes off, which I again turn off.
6:50: Third and last alarm goes off, so I wake up, but stay in bed.
6:52: I turn the tv on from my bed, as well as the heater. This is the only time I ever turn the tv on during the day, and I only do it because it displays an accurate clock in the corner.
6:52-7:20: I check my email, websites, weather forecast, downloads, talk to people in the US since they are actually awake at this time.
7:20-7:31: I quickly get dressed and leave for the bus stop
7:37: The bus comes, but not before I talk with the gossiping old lady. I found out that she owns a bar that's half a block from my apartment, so I will go try and cajole free food and drink sometime next week.
8:15: The head manager gives a speech; I don't understand what he's saying; eventually, everyone dismisses and I head to the first floor.
8:25ish: The floor manager for the first floor gives another speech; more vocabulary that is beyond my grasp.
8:35: I'm given something to do (hang these...things with holes on wires)
9:00: I finish hanging everything, so I loaf around until someone is not busy, and tell them I finished. I'm told to remove all the screws from some giant tank that has just been coated. Oh, and this is outside, where it's 35 degrees and windy, so I get my jacket.
9:30ish: I start shivering, which causes me to slip and mar part of the coating. I point this out to the closest manager, who gets someone else to finish, and finds something new for me to do.
9:35: I'm told to cut away some coating from the inside of a pipe. This is a bit difficult to explain, but I'll try. Imagine a pipe about 1' long, with a diameter of about 6". It's really thick metal, and the flared parts of the pipe, that lead to the inside, has been coated. This needs to be cut away with an exacto knife, which is an extremely difficult process. There are about 20 of these pipes of various sizes, and I'm given the largest one to start with.
Noon: Lunchtime, and I still haven't finished the pipe. I'm maybe halfway done, and it's taking forever. I eat my lunch of rice and shrimp.
0:30: I meet with some coworkers that are practicing English, and we have a 30 minute conversation classes where we talk about the weekend, what we did last night, etc.
13:00: Back to cutting the pipe.
14:30: I'm still working on the same pipe, and thinking more and more how doing this work is an extremely big waste of time. I could help a lot more with other things within the company, but so far, the only skills I've learned are how to wrap pipes in aluminum foil. Oh, and I'm pretty good with an exacto knife, too.
15:00: More of the same pipe. I also begin to wonder why they hire really qualified people at the company, to do really monotonous, blue-collar-type work. Not to insult those that choose to work in this field, but my coworkers all have degrees in civil engineering or chemistry, and all they do is spray coating onto products. It seems very unfulfilling to me, and I wonder if it's just my company, or if this is common in Japan.
15:15: Someone brings rice cracker snacks, so we all take a break and eat. This greatly improves my day of stewing over the same pipe.
16:30: I FINALLY finish the pipe. I then debate if I should try to start on another one, or just do nothing until 16:45...
16:31: I grab another pipe and start to work. I figure I might as well try anyway.
16:55: I forget to watch the clock, and end up leaving a little bit late. Which is alright, because I have to ask off for a trip to Tokyo, and it looks better on my part if I'm doing so after I just worked a little longer than normal.
17:05: I change, get the days I needed off without any trouble, then head for the bus stop.
17:17: The bus arrives, and I head back to the apartment.

After this, my normal weekday evening consists of little more than watching American tv, or reading, or writing emails. Then I cook something to eat, read some more, and go to sleep.

Luckily, today is Saturday, and I've decided to have a lazy weekend where I don't do much. Diana had wanted to go to Inuyama Castle nearby, but I just didn't feel like doing much besides looking for souvenirs for my family. I figure I'll get all my souvenir shopping done early, that way, I can send the stuff back with Caitlin in April; if she has room.

So I waste more money than I planned to, but only part of it was on a single record, which is an improvement. I almost went back to get another one, but I'm trying to force myself to wait until after Tokyo. I want as much money set aside as possible to waste at secret base.

A lazy day of buying stuff, and oddly enough, having a lady much older start flirting with me through the glass that separates the smoking and non-smoking section of a cafe. I ignored her at first, but then when I got up to leave, she decided to walk with me for a while. Still, a bit odd.

Tomorrow, assuming this rain lets up, I'll hopefully have a junk record player that works. Plus, if I can find the materials, I'll be doing some painting as well. All in all, a day of listening to music and painting. Then the coffee shop. Sounds like a fine Sunday to me.

New Girl

Some new girl started working on the first floor with me, and it's just kind of awkward because not only does she appear to be over 35, but she's very stoic and won't talk to anyone. This girl showed up on Monday.

On Wednesday, some coworkers were telling me that we were getting a new female employee, who is the same age as I am, to work on the first floor. Curious, I asked when she was supposed to start.

They said she already did.

And that I already met her.




Chain smoking really does make you look incredibly old.


Other than the realization that smoking is really bad for your skin, I now have even less work to do. When it was just me helping on the first floor, I would often finish work at about 4:30, then sit around until 4:45 (unless I could sneak out early), when I would leave for home. Now, with another person doing the same useless work as I am, I finish work at 3:30, then wander the office until 4:45. I need to find a quiet corner to sit and read or study. Just somewhere out of immediate line-of-sight. When I have nothing to do, I'm told to watch other people do the same work over and over; work that I'll never be asked to do. They call this learning by watching, which is ironic. Atleast I can stand near the ovens to warm myself.

Hadaka HOW I SPENT MY NAKED FRIDAY Matsuri

I took off Friday with plans to go to the Inazawa City's Hadaka Matsuri. When presented with the option of spending all day wasting time at work, or drinking, eating, and watching drunk people draped in small amounts of cloth, I chose the nakedness.

The whole festival is about getting rid of your bad luck. The naked people rush the temple gates with big bundles of bamboo. Inside are prayers from people that couldn't make it to the festival. They carry these poles into the temple, and at intervals stand them up on their ends while yelling. The shrine workers take these into the shrine, and wait for the next group.

Once all the groups have made it to the shrine, the Shin-Otoko comes out. He was chosen to stay within the shrine for 3 days, be shaved, then released. Everyone tries to touch him to pass of their bad luck. Ofcourse, this turns into slapping and hitting a naked man, so there are people with buckets of water, splashing those that get too violent.

The Shin-Otoko returns to the shrine, then later that night, is released. He carries a giant cake (or either mud, or mochi, I can't remember), that represents the bad luck. After burying the cake, he returns to his normal life as a non-naked-bad-luck-receiver.

We watched the festivities, which were very festivus. Supposedly, when you are 23 and 42(?), you are supposed to participate in the festival, as these years are bad luck. Maybe in two years I'll give it a try.

Saturday, I had wanted to go to Takayama, a rural village area in the mountains, but eventually decided against it. 2.5 hours each way to and from, and no one in the area right now for me to stay with, sealed the deal. Instead, Saturday was spent in Osu, like most Saturdays. I met with Diana, and just in time to watch the St. Patrick's Day Parade.

Now imagine this, a St. Patrick's Day Parade, in Japan, that culminates in the parade arriving at a Buddhist Temple. It was interesting, to say the least.

Wasting even more money on tiny guitars (I almost have them all!) and records, I headed home to drop my things off, then go try to find the senior citizen karaoke bar I had visited the first time I was in Nagoya.

I went to the area that I vaguely remembered the bar being in, but couldn't find it. In the end, I had walked all the way to a different station, so I rode the subway to Sakae. There, I needed to get my Guinness in honor of St. Patrick's Day Parade-Day in Japan, so I went to the same bar I went to last weekend. In the heart of the Filipino redlight district. After a few drinks, I left for the station, well after the last bus, but I had my bike waiting at the station closest to my apartment. On my way out of the Filipino debauchery, some guy stepped in front of me and started offering me something, in either Spanish or Tagalog. The chances that he speaks Japanese it pretty good, so if I respond in Japanese, he'll probably just continue his pitch in Japanese. There's also a good chance that he knows English. Or atleast enough to continue the sale. What can I use to confuse this obstacle? High school French. As I'm walking by, amazed that I still remember something from that horrible language, the guy just repeats what I said to him over and over.

I'm tired, still a bit hungry, and buying more records online. When I get back to the US, I'll have so many packages waiting for me at my parent's house; it'll be like Christmas. I should probably start planning my trip to Tokyo. And by planning, I mean that I should start emailing people, asking if they have room on their floor for me to sleep.