Coffee and Huggbees

New Year's In Japan

2008-01-01T22:35:00.001+09:00

New Year's is a magical time when cold weather turns to cloudy, windy, cold weather. Turns to raining, windy, cold weather. Turns to momentarily snowing, cold weather. Turns to freezing slush ice cold weather. Turns to pneumonia causing hypothermia inducing embodiment of wet and cold from the skies above--weather.

Waking up extremely late, I was faced with a decision: leave the warmth of my blanket to see what Japanese New Year's Day is all about, or stay inside the blanket, possibly migrating to the heated table, and play Ninja Turtles Arcade on MAME all day. Unfortunately, I chose the former.

With some reservation, though. I mean, after beating Ninja Turtles, what else can you do but face the world. With a walnut something or other bread thing and peanuts with something salty and crunchy and orange in my stomach, I layered the clothing on. Midway through the layering, I remembered that I still needed to shower. Delayer-shower-relayer.

It wasn't raining when I left, otherwise I would have brought along an umbrella. The news didn't say anything about rain either. The most accurate weather forecast is old women on the street. If you see them with umbrellas, you know it will rain. I was very observant during the walk to the station. If I saw one person with an umbrella, old lady or not, I would turn around and get mine.

No one was carrying one.

A short trip later I was at Atsuta Shrine, renowned for having the imperial sword, which no one is allowed to see. I hadn't gone with the intention of being the first foreigner to defile the sword by looking at it, but had packed my camera just incase.

Packing my camera is no easy task, either. As a masochist, I always have to make everything difficult. A simple point and shoot digital camera? Not for me. No no, I need a chunk of plastic and glass that ruins expensive 120 format film. That I have to tape up after loading, to make sure light doesn't get in. I like excuses to complain.

I follow the torrent of elderly and families to the shrine. We pass by some colorful stands selling festival foods, and I think to myself "I like the colors of the stands; I'll be sure to take some pictures on the way back."

We file into the shrine, where I'm greeted by clucking overhead. A chicken has flown(?) high into a tree, and everyone is flipping out. Pictures are being taken, police are standing nearby to make sure no one throws anything at it. It seems that it is one of the shrine chickens, but I didn't realize chickens could fly. Ofcourse my chicken-related experience has been limited to culinary and Zelda escapades. If playing video games all my childhood is any indication, you can grab on to the feet of a chicken and flutter down. But never up. Also, beware of hitting a chicken too many times with your sword. Maybe flying chickens are exactly what makes them special and why they are kept in the shrine.

The stream of elderly flows past the perched chicken and through the gates to the shrine. With soo many people, they only allow groups in waves to approach the shrine to toss their 5 yen pieces, pray, and then buy fortunes. While standing in a chest-high sea of gray hair, it begins to drizzle. Out of nowhere, every old lady has an umbrella. It's during this debate of where on their bodies they must hide umbrellas that we are allowed to approach the shrine. It's also during this time that the weather gods decide to spite me for not bringing an umbrella. I had saved several 5 yen pieces to toss into the shrine, as part of the custom, but as the rain steadily became heavier, and colder, I decided that Amaterasu really probably didn't need an extra 20 cents. Especially since as the sun goddess, she wasn't even making an appearance to warm me.

So that was New Year's in Japan. A shuffle back to the station in the cold and a short walk to Denny's for dinner.

Record Shopping In Japan

2008-01-01T12:12:00.000+09:00

You've found yourself in Japan, and have discovered your love for vinyl records. Well, you're in the right place. Japan easily has more record shops than any place in the US I've been to. You just have to know where to look, and more importantly, what to look for.

-Probably the most important tip for record shopping in Japan is to learn kattakana. Even if you're looking for western bands, most of the stores will list the band name in the phonetic kattakana spelling on the label. For example, if you're looking for a Beck album, it will probably be listed under ベック. So unless you want to pull every record out and examine the cover to tell what band it is, I'd suggest spending some time and atleast learning kattakana. More importantly, you're a guest in another country, and the least you could do is make an effort to learn the language. Foreigners, with special emphasis on Americans, are notorious for being monolingual, and expect others to adapt to them and learn English. Even if it's just for a few weeks before your trip, learn the phonetic alphabets and a few phrases. It will not only help with finding records, but improves the impression you leave on others.

-The majority of western records you'll come across will be UK pressings, rather than US. While you will occasionally find a US pressing of a record, and even more rare is a Japanese pressing of a western band, the majority of records I've come across have been from the UK.

-I have never bought a used record from a Japanese record store and it not play perfectly. Do not be afraid to save some money and buy from a used store.

-It's very easy to just purchase bands that you know from your home country, and ignore the intimidating Japanese section. But why come home with only records from bands that everyone knows? Find some Japanese bands that you like, and try to see what you can find from them. Get to know shop owners or ask friends to suggest Japanese bands that might suit your taste.

-Record shops divide up their records into very specific genres. Tech House, Nu Jazz, Mondo Grosso, Post Rock, Abstract, etc. Plus respective genres for Japanese bands as well. If you can't find what you are looking for in one genre, try something similar. While the genres are specific, not everyone seems to consider bands a certain genre that I do. As a side note, a common labeling I've discovered is that anything labeled Rock/Pops, is almost always Journey and classic rock.

-Plan for a way to get your records home. I would not trust any records in my checked luggage, so plan for a small box that you can carry on the plane, or if you plan on buying a lot of records, invest in a metal record box.

-This may seem obvious, but if you plan on traveling around Japan, hold off on buying records until the end of your trip. Jumping on trains with luggage is hassle enough without worrying about crushing $400 worth of vinyl.

-Again, this is very obvious, but seriously think about what you want to purchase. Can you find the record in a store back home, or order it from ebay for a similar price? If so, just wait. There's no point in putting forth the effort of getting it back home when you can order it and have it waiting for you when you arrive.

Waiting On My Doorstep

2007-06-03T11:56:00.000+09:00

I found this waiting for me when I arrived in Arlington. My obsession with female Japanese punk-esque vocals continues unabated.

Accomplishments

2007-05-27T01:33:00.000+09:00

Things I've accomplished today, my 2nd to last full day in Japan:
-gave a presentation about my traineeship
-finally cut my hair
-found PAUL'S BOUTIQUE on vinyl
-got a ring stuck on my finger, so instead of tearing my skin, I purchased it
-had far too many energy drinks with drinks, and coffee during the day; now I'm in pain and incredibly jittery

Now I can't stop shaking, there's no way I can sleep, and so I think I'll start packing. Or run a few kilometers at 2 in the morning.

Meandering

2007-05-21T22:41:00.000+09:00

Things are wrapping up, and becoming really busy for my last week. I'm still exhausted from going out on a last night, with painfully early work today; so my listing of events and nonsense are justified.

I have this problem with leaving glasses at a table with something still inside of them. Even water at restaurants, I always have to finish it before I can leave, or I feel wasteful. This is not a good quality when you go out with your company for a farewell party, where they order you unlimited drinks. I blame Cheuck entirely for me not being able to leave a drink half full. When you're with 50 other coworkers, that all want to order you their favorite drink, I'm left with a wall of glasses surrounding my plates, all barely touched. When it's time for everyone to leave for the next place, I'm left with too much to drink, and not enough time. And this is the problem. It gets temporarily resolved by me finishing them quickly, but that only compounds the problem since the next place we are going to is, ofcourse, a bar.

We arrive at this Snack Bar, and snack bars are places you pay an inflated price for drinks, and to have two or three middle aged women pour you drinks and flirt with you. They did have actual snacks, too, although I think that was just a coincidence. After being accosted by the most drunk of the hostesses, she became far too "handsy" for my comfort. While she was making the rounds and molesting people, I moved behind the bar and barricaded myself between the company's chairman and the less-drunk, but more importantly, less "handsy" hostess.

Sunday was spent napping in a rec center while everyone else from AIESEC was sitting through meetings. Followed by going out to yet another izakaya. I get clingy and never want to go home after going out, so a few of us head to...another izakaya. We eventually are forced to leave, and judgment tells me that it's a good idea to catch the last train home to try and sleep for a few hours. This also involves a 4 km walk in the cold since no more buses are running this late.

Odd things that I discovered, in Japan, the term "smart" has nothing to do with intelligence, but instead means being horribly skinny and tall. It's also been pointed out that I am apparently very proud at how long my legs are, although I'm not clear on how that conclusion was reached.

I can get through most conversations by nodding and making affirmative grunting sounds, as was the case this morning when some elderly lady made small talk with me at the bus stop. This isn't the normal old lady that I talk to, but was an ancient lady. She went on about how small the roads used to be before the war, and how everything's changed. I really wish I could have understood more, but it was 7am, and I am unable to comprehend much that early, regardless of what language it's in.

Only a week left, with the goals to:
-get naked in a public bath
-hug everyone I meet (excluding at the bath)
-try to take more pictures
-finally learn how to play hanafuda
-convince Seko to get a tattoo

I think they're all doable.

Late Nite Visits

2007-05-15T21:03:00.000+09:00

I've gotten a fair share of odd people at my door, and always after 9pm. It's not that late, I'm just not used to people I don't know showing up at my door after dark. So tonight, the doorbell rings, and I assumed it was a friend that was going to show up a couple days ago...but didn't...anyway, I assume it was a mistranslation.

I open the door to find two women standing there, and my gianormous presence fills the doorway. I duck to see who it is. I had also changed into clothes to go running in (I CAN FINALLY GO RUNNING AGAIN!), which consists of an undershirt and shorts; ideal running clothes; not ideal clothing for standing in the cold trying to understand what strangers are saying to you.

After the normal shock and awe that occurs once people realize that a non-Japanese person can live in Japan, as well as speak a little of the language, they start their speech. Oh yes, they are a religious sect, and are trying their best to explain it to me. In Japanese.

Now, I'm not too bad with the language. I can easily get around. I don't really have problems dealing with clients in Japanese. Even if I don't understand entirely what is being said, I catch atleast some of it, and can respond accordingly.

Not in the case with religious vocabulary, apparently.

The conversation starts off with them asking if I'm happy, and that I can be happy by meditating with them. They then offer to show me, and it will only take 5 minutes. I have never felt unsafe in this country. Ever. But people that go door to door, asking if they can come in and meditate with you, just doesn't sit well with me. I feign misunderstanding, and decline. I'm sure they weren't going to loot my apartment and all the vast treasures found inside, but I also don't want people I don't know coming into my tiny apartment and sharing happiness with me by passing the divine light through their palm and into mine.

I then get asked what country I'm from, and, like always, answering "American" opens doors to all sorts of questions about stereotypes. They assume I'm Catholic, which I'm quick to correct by explaining that I am nondenominational. This fails horribly, since I'm not familiar with the Japanese term for "Nondenominational," so I explain that I'm Christian, but not Catholic. I guess I said something wrong, because I picked up on the words "hate" and "other gods." Or maybe I didn't say anything wrong.

Try explaining the concept of having your own, personal religious beliefs, but are still able to respect other peoples' and cultures'. Ok, now do it in another language.

Disproving their fear that all American Christians would immediately get angry and violent, we chat about what I'm doing in Japan. I'm still mildly curious what they were referring to when they asked if I was happy, and if I wanted to become happy by meditating with one of the ladies, so I ask if they can write down the name of their sect. They do, and apologetically give me a huge pamphlet, in mostly Japanese, and try to explain the pamphlet as best they can. I thank them, they point out that I'm probably cold, I agree, and they leave.

I vaguely remember studying this religion in one of my Japanese religion courses, but there were so many New Religions that we covered over a short period of time, I had to use wikipedia to help me. Apparently, Johrei is "a method of channeling divine light into the body of a patient through the palm of the administrator. To do this, the administrator holds his/her hand about a foot away from the area to which the spiritual power is purported to be directed."

Thanks wiki!

Top 3

2007-05-10T21:27:00.000+09:00

With nothing but busy work to do, I spent all day thinking about my 3 favorite albums. I really needed to pass the time.

3: Explosions In The Sky - How Strange, Innocence

This album is perfect for anything from sleeping, to driving, to boiling vegetables for a late-night meal; after forgetting to eat anything during the day. It's such an incredibly well made album, and I still find myself coming back to it. Their later albums are good, but none are nearly as consistently amazing. It provides really good afternoon napping music, and let me explain. Napping is an artform. And choosing the proper music for afternoon naps is equally important. If you choose something too soft, you'll not want to wake up later (why I can't nap to Blue States anymore). Something too loud, well, it's just hard to feel rested after sleeping to Fall Of Troy. Something without lyrics is ideal, too, although I've tried sleeping to Godspeed!, and just ended up with nightmares. This album finds a perfect blend.

2: The Mountain Goats - All Hail West Texas

I just happened upon this album, and the lo-fi-ness(?) off it adds soo much to the tone of the entire disc. As a lover of folk-music, but despiser of country music, this album hits the perfect mix of pure folk. Folk-ish. For the record, I'm not folk expert, but I know what I like, and this album is it. I'm not particularly attentive to lyrics, but more to the overall style and flow of music, although I find myself picking up phrases in songs that astound me. Good driving music, not bad walking music, PERFECT Japanese-countryside-train-riding music.

1: The Violent Femmes - Violent Femmes Reissue

If you have ever ridden in a car with me, in which I was driving, the chances of you hearing this album is extremely high. I bought it 5 years ago, and the only time it has ever left my car was when I was loaning it to someone, or when I drove my car into 3 feet of water, and had to get a new car. Now, this doesn't mean it's ALWAYS in the cd player, but it is often enough. I bought the cd on a whim; it was on sale, it was a double cd, and I may have possibly heard a song of their's previously; I wasn't sure. Easily the greatest piece of recorded media ever created. And the passion behind the songs is so strong, that it's tangible. Three guys are so unhappy and angry, that they just grabbed whatever instruments they had, and played angry rock. Oddly enough, these instruments are a crappy guitar, a mariachi bass, and a homemade drum. But their anger transfers so well through the acoustic instruments, that there is this sense of discontent the vibrates with the strings. A punk band, stuck with acoustic instruments.

Honorable Mentions:
Kings Of Convenience - Quiet Is The New Loud and Riot On An Empty Street
I really don't distinguish between the two albums, and if it wasn't for Versus, I would simply recommend all of the albums. Unfortunately, Versus exists, which completely ruins the entire mood of their discography. "The Build-Up" is proof that Muses exist. Great rainy day, reading a book and staying inside music.

The Willowz - Are Coming and Talk In Circles
Again, I don't distinguish between the two. It's lo-fi garage at some of its best. Perfect walking around downtown and subway music.

Jim O'Rourke - Bad Timing
I found this on vinyl first, and was amazed, but restrained to enjoy it only in my apartment. I later was able to put it in digital format, which increases my enjoyment of the album. There's a bit of a setup behind recreating my perfect listening situation:
1) Ride a night bus from Nagoya to Tokyo, that arrives 2 hours early and drops you off in Shinjuku at 4:30 am.
2) Grab some bad coffee at a gas station, then search for a locker to store you luggage, all the while enjoying the eerie quiet of 5 am Tokyo.
3) When the trains start running, catch a train to Yoyogi, where you search for a really hidden art store, all the while recognizing graffiti artists' work.
4) Grab two more cups of coffee with some toast, then wander Yoyogi Park at 7 am.
5) Listen to Bad Timing while walking along the gravel path of Yoyogi Park; jittery from the cold and not sleeping all night and 3 cups of coffee.

It's a bit of work to recreate, but it's worth it.

Golden Week (So Far)

2007-05-06T02:33:00.000+09:00

Golden Week is a series of holidays organized so that people get about a week off work. Not in my case, though. Monday is a holiday, then Thursday and Friday are both holidays. So I had work for two days in the middle of the week, which seems odd.

After the concert on Sunday, Monday was spent...I'm not sure. I don't think I did much that day. Maybe just hung around the apartment area. Probably. Tuesday I went to work, and didn't accomplish anything since I hadn't brought my laptop with me. Tuesday night, we had a going away party for Diana, the trainee from Canada, so right after work, Caitlin and I left to go to Nagoya City University. We ate a lot, I drank a lot, and it was all around great fun. I nursed the idea of continuing to eat and drink, and the only person that was as adamant about it as I was, was George, the trainee from the UK. So we say our goodbyes/convince people to meet with us at the bar, and Caitlin and I start to follow George's friend to, what I thought, was the bar. After walking quite a distance, we realize that he's going to the station, not the bar. A 30 minute wandering walk later, as well as multiple phone calls to find out where everyone is, we finally get back to the campus. We start towards the bar, when I suddenly decide that I am pretty tired. So instead, we came back home. At this point, I had also decided that I had no interest in going to work the next day, so I slept in.

On Wednesday, Caitlin left Nagoya for Kyoto. I don't remember accomplishing much that day, either. I rented Children of Men, which was ok. I guess.

Thursday morning, I woke up early so that I could get ready, go to the atm to withdraw money, grab some coffee, and be at Nagoya station by 10 to meet people to go to Hamamatsu. Instead, what actually happened, was I woke up, got ready, went to the convenience store, and couldn't withdraw any money. Frustrated, I left for the station to try the atm's there from other banks. None of them worked. I finally had to borrow money for train fare, while I sent out emails to everyone I knew, trying to find out why I couldn't get any money.

We arrive in Hamamatsu, where we try more atms, without success. After a call to the bank, I find out that I can only use my atm card at very specific places for the next few days, because of the holiday. One such place being a convenience store. So now we alter the plan to finding this specific convenience store. We do, but they don't have an atm. An hour later, we finally find a proper atm, and I restock myself with money. We then go to the kite festival.

It was a lot of fun. Drunk people flying and retrieving giant kites; food and music everywhere; local beers. Tired, we went to catch the bus back to the station, but the line was incredibly long. Not feeling too keen on standing in line for two hours, I suggest we go to the beach. So we walked around the beach for a while, eat ice cream, and eventually catch the bus back. I had planned on staying in an internet cafe for the night, since I had wanted to see the area some more. This changed after walking around the city all morning, and not finding anything of particular interest. So we left for Nagoya that evening.

Not one to enjoy going home at a sensible hour, I spent the train ride emailing people if they wanted to get together that night. Which we do. A $240 bar tab later, we meet some people at a karaoke bar, then head to a new bar. Having already resigned to stay out for the rest of the night, and convincing those with me to do the same, we sat around talking for most of the night. I eventually started falling asleep, which entails hugging the nearest person to me and using them as a crutch to support my head. At about 3:30, we decide to walk the few kilometers back to someone's apartment, and sleep there until the first trains start. I sleep on Seko's floor until 8, when I return home to shower, and sleep for the rest of the morning.

Caitlin was supposed to return on Friday afternoon, but without her having access to a cellphone or often available internet, it was hard to find out exactly when. I had an appointment at 5 that I had to go to, and by 4, I hadn't heard anything. Not wanting to have her locked out of the apartment, and only with one key, I stuck the key in an envelope, and taped it in the mail slot; disguising it as mail, although taping it so it didn't actually fall all the way through the slot and into my apartment. I get a call from a payphone at about 6, luckily before we started, and explain the key situation. I hurry home afterwards to find that the key hadn't slipped into the apartment, and that everything worked out. Curry and Little Miss Sunshine for all.

International atms are really hard to find, and with the holiday, the few that exist, are usually closed. Caitlin needed to access her bank in the US, so we spent the morning looking up where the closest international atm was. Ofcourse, it's a bus and subway ride away, so after coffee, we go to Sakae. We find it, do some record/toy/dirt cheap clothes store shopping, and meet with Seko for dinner.

All in all, not a bad Golden Week. I still haven't been to a public bath yet, which has been one of my goals this trip. Hopefully I'll get a chance to get naked in front of strangers before I leave in a few weeks.

We're Going To A Hardcore Show

2007-04-30T13:59:00.000+09:00

Sunday was designated as the day I would finally go see a ska show in Japan. While the US has had waves of ska popularity, Japan has maintained a fairly consistent level of interest in ska. I had heard of a club called Zion that had mostly ska concerts, and especially considering the name, I assumed that there was bound to be ska. Tired from eating and drinking all day in the sun at the barbeque, Caitlin and I left for the club.

But not just the two of us. I convinced a friend to come as well, despite the high heels/skirt probably not being the best clothing to wear to a show. She didn't seem to mind, so we bought our tickets, and waited around for the doors to open. During this waiting period, I browsed through the store, where they had a series of sludge/doom metal, thrash, and punk shirts. No ska. I started to think that maybe this wasn't exactly the type of show I was expecting, but oh well. We grabbed some coffee before the show, and in we went.

To be greeted with hardcore punk. I didn't mind it, and actually enjoyed a few of the 7 bands that played, but Caitlin left early because she was tired, and I really feel bad for dragging the other girl to a concert like that. It was fun, though. I'll have to try my luck again sometime next week, since I have some drink tickets left over.

Horribly Witty Title

2007-04-29T02:12:00.000+09:00

I'm not sure why it surprised me so much, but on the way to work, a car passed me, and the driver was shaving with an electric razor. The first thing that I thought of was "There's going to be hair everywhere in the car." It's illegal to drive while talking on the phone without a headset, but it seems like they haven't gotten around to passing legislation on shaving (or applying far too much makeup while driving, which is incredibly common). Although, at times, I wonder if forcing people to use a headset might cause more accidents. Whenever I ride with one particular coworker, he holds the headset to his ear with one hand, his phone in the other, and steers with the remaining 2 fingers not holding the phone.

On the way to the station to pick up Caitlin, there was this very biker punk looking guy that got on the train with me. All black, big jacket with skulls, boots, chains...and the scowl of someone trying to portray toughness. On the train, he pulled out his phone, which had a sticker of a big cloud with a smiley face.

I've only been to one show since coming here, and I really want to see what punk and ska shows are like in Japan. There's a local punk band that my friend is always talking about, so I guess I'll try to find one of their shows to go to. For ska, I found a ska club nearby, so tomorrow we'll just show up, and hope for the best. I'm sure one of the bands will be tolerable, atleast. I don't recognize any of them, but that could make for an even more interesting experience.

I wish I knew how to do metal work...

A Brand New Circle Of Hell

2007-04-24T18:56:00.000+09:00

I spent 6 hours in the car today, driving around to meet with different customers. The trip itself wasn't bad, although I had neither a book, nor my notebook with me. The non-reclining seat didn't even bother me that much. Nor did the 4 square inches of space I had to put my feet. No, today was a very special day.

Avril Lavigne Day.

The only radio station that my coworker listens to, and refuses to budge from, played her entire discography over and over. I didn't realize she had songs other than ones about skater boys, and complaining about something "complicated." Apparently, she does.

And I heard them all.

Repeatedly.

I didn't start counting until a few hours in, but in the 4 hours that I was counting, I heard Skater Boy 9 times.

When I arrived home, a hour and a half late, I immediately walked in, didn't even put down my bag, and threw Softball's Tenku on the record player. I needed verification that it is possible to have true, female-vocals punk. It's on it's second play through, so I'll round out the evening with some Seagull Screaming Kiss Her Kiss Her and Youjeen. Maybe some You Say Party We Say Die or Be Your Own Pet. I just need to get this out of my head.

The highlight of the day was driving through the mountains and passing one of those "watch out for deer" signs, with a picture of a deer leaping. The sign after it had a big monkey on it, which I can only assume is a "watch out for monkey" sign. Next time, next time, I'll take a picture.

I just need to make it through half a day tomorrow, then I take off to pick up Caitlin from the station. I've decided that I'm going to introduce her as my sister to everyone for two reasons: 1) see if anyone questions why I never mentioned a sister/question why she has much lighter hair than me and 2) people are nosy, and claiming she's my sister avoids a whole category of questions that I'd have to answer otherwise.

Living In Japan Tip #43

2007-04-21T21:45:00.000+09:00

Never eat a large amount of rice at a meal, then immediately drink Guinness.

More Uselessness

2007-04-18T17:38:00.000+09:00

Another day, another long car ride, another list of unrelated thoughts:

1) I never really thought about it, but until very recently, I was always under the impression that Lois Lane was Wonder Woman. It just made sense. Superman's costume looked similar, there was always that connection between Superman and Wonder Woman...it wasn't until just the other day that I realized that isn't the case. Oh well, Batman's far better anyway.

2) If You Haven't Heard, aka I Can't Wait: http://www.mcfly2015.com/

3) In Japan you don't really have gradient driveways, you have 3-5 inch drops from the driveway to the road, even though the curb is cut. When you're precariously set in a seat far too small for your giant legs, every little bounce hurts, and these more so than others.

4) A coworker was looking for a place for us to eat lunch, and always the no beef/no pork thing makes people find a place that ONLY serves chicken or fish, as if restaurants with beef or pork refuse to serve anything else. So my coworker takes me to this antique tea room, where old ladies are dressed up in Victorian maid costumes. There are antiques everywhere, and we're surrounded by equally elderly woman having tea. This didn't faze my coworker at all, as we finished our meal and drank coffee from tiny tea cups.

5) The new Battles single, Atlas, is awful.
...until the third time you listen to it. Then it somehow becomes magical.

6) I was being driven home from work today, when my coworker asked if I would mind if we made a quick stop. Not sure where he was going, I agreed, and soon found myself in a liquor store. We spent half an hour browsing alcohol and talking to the owner, and I was eventually given a bottle of Umeshu as a bribe not to mention the whole "liquor shopping while at work" thing to the other people at work. Now my refrigerator is entirely alcohol and coffee, with, I think, a single egg somewhere in the door.

Shape Of Things To Come

2007-04-11T19:57:00.000+09:00

When I'm stuck at work with nothing to do, and without access to a computer, I waste away my time by writing. The majority of it is fairly asinine, but it's an effective way to pass the day. Keep in mind the state I am in when I wrote most of this; extremely bored. Some of it gives insights into Japanese culture, some of it is just horrible ideas that I have that day. So without delaying further, more thoughts, but without access to my computer:

1) I'm very glad that i decided against studying abroad; interning has far more benefits. When you study abroad, you're usually stuck in classes with other study abroad students. This completely ruins my entire point for wanting to travel, which is to be immersed in the culture. At my internship, I'm surrounded by coworkers and am the only intern (as well as the only English speaker). I also get paid, which couldn't happen if I was here on a student visa. This job is moderately an actual job, so I'm not just another English teacher in Japan. This seems to often surprise people; that I'm an American working at an all Japanese company. Finally, through AIESEC, I have a group of friends that know everything about Nagoya, and can easily help me. Plus, we all share the common interest in traveling and wanting to experience other cultures. Studying abroad is too sheltered, and often ruins the chance to truly experience the culture.

2) I gave a variation of the previous speech to a group of incoming freshmen at Nagoya University, in an ad libbed mixture of English and Japanese. I have no idea how much was understood, but it went over well.

3) (I then write 2 pages worth of descriptions on how my handwriting has changed. Not only would it be incredibly boring for most people to read, but without the diagrams and size charts, it's even more confusing. I was really, really bored.)

4) I have an odd relationship with suspense. I will read spoilers for movies or books without a problem, but will not do so for TV shows (ie BSG). I also really enjoy when my phone beeps to tell me that I have an email, but I am unable to check who it is from because I am in a clean room suit. So I get to imagine who it's from until I can take a break or until I head home. Even then, I'll wait until I get on the bus, then finally check. Sometimes, the email is a big waste of my time/suspense (stupid phone company emails). Recently, though, the emails have been from people much more interesting than I had imagined while waiting. The content of these emails have increasingly become better, and put me in a good mood as I quickly change my plans to meet up with the person; so the suspense is worth it.

5) On days that I work with the sales team, I consistently miss the bus to work. I put off shaving and ironing until the morning, sleep in, and always have to check ebay auctions in hopes of finding some missing records. But it really doesn't matter, as I've already been here ~~1.5~~ 2 3 hours, and have done nothing more than say "good morning" to some people. Maybe I should sleep in even more...

6) I'm fairly proud that I can speak, atleast some, Japanese and use it as much as possible. But I discovered something; if you're intent is to flirt with a girl you haven't met before, the "confused, English-speaking-foreigner" is much more effective than the "confident, but bad at Japanese foreigner." Although encounters stemming from the former tend to remain much more short-termed.

7) I've tried to organize my thoughts on this before, and eventually hope to formally write about it; the prominence of convenience stores within Japan. These stores exist separate from gas stations, which is almost always the case in the US. Ironically, if gas stations here have any sort of building, at most it houses a drink vending machine. The convenience stores here are completely independent, and are everywhere. You can do all the normal stuff: buy food, limited supplies of groceries, magazines, some dvds. But you can also buy concert tickets, bus tickets, pay for online purchases...before I set up direct-withdrawal with my bank, I would go to a convenience store to pay my phone bill.

The prominence of vending machines on every corner encourages the notion of instant gratification, and such places expand on it. These 24-hour havens often provide surprisingly well made food, access to microwaves and hot water dispensers for ramen, as well as a wall of magazines that they have no problem with you standing there reading for hours. If you go by any Japanese convenience store, you will always see atleast 3 people just reading magazines inside. At times, I'll stop in and thumb through one while waiting for a bus. Which may be a reason why convenience stores are so successful. Japan is primarily a place of pedestrian traffic and mass transportation. With people walking/riding their bike/waiting for a bus right in front of the store, it is very easy to entice them inside (opposed to car traffic, which requires more effort to park, then enter the store).

The highways in Japan, from my experience, have primarily been toll roads. This discourages people from exiting, find a restaurant to eat at, then get back on the highway. Instead, they have these hubs of small restaurants/convenience stores/vending machines that cars can access, without exiting the highway area and paying a 2nd toll.

8) I am awful at guessing girls' ages, and being in Japan has done nothing but increase the frequency of these inaccuracies. The enforced uniforms for schools normally keep me from thinking someone is older than she actually is, and whenever I see a school uniform, I immediately know that she is nowhere near the age range of people I like to meet. Mistakes still happen.

After missing my bus, I walked to the larger bus stop to catch another. Diagonal from my own crosswalk, I make eye contact with an attractive girl. Continuing my "smile" experiment, I smile at her, and she smiles back. I play the whole coy "look away, then look back again" act, with success. A slight wave, a quiet laugh and a smile later, I check to see if I have enough time to talk to her before my bus comes. I'm already late, so I start to walk for the adjacent crosswalk, where we would meet on the other side. We both start to cross, when I see that she's wearing a high school uniform. I decide that punctuality is an important workplace virtue, and turn for the bus.

To counter this, and correct my "age karma," I accidentally flirted with a lady atleast 20 years older than me. It all evens out.

9) The prevalence of cellphones in Japan is an odd occurrence. Other than a few rare occasions, high-tech personal computers aren't that common. And despite its image, the general population of Japan aren't particularly gadget savvy. So why is the Japanese mobile phone market one of, if not the, most advanced in the world? I think this stems from similar reasons for Japan's prevalence of convenience stores; Japan's mobile society. Riding trains/buses and waiting for said buses, gives one a lot of free time. Organizing a meeting place also requires active communication, since plans change, trains are missed, etc. Calls are not allowed on public transportation, but emails are. Often, commuters use their phone as a media device. TV, radio, mp3, movies, internet...many people don't own a PC because a phone satisfies all their needs. Japan's street and city layout make absolutely no sense, even to people that live here, so navigation software and applets are commonly found built into phones. Mine came with a Japanese/English dictionary, which has been extremely useful. There is a movement to tie your phone with a debit card, then use the phone to pay for items. With Japan being very cash oriented, this may encourage the widespread use and acceptance of credit cards.

Despite the common use of cellphones, Japan is very peculiar about wireless transmission safety. When around train seats reserved for the elderly, there are signs warning you to turn off your phone, for fear of interfering with pace makers. Very, very few phones in Japan have bluetooth, and with the law requiring a hands free headset while driving, they are all of the wired variety.

10) (4/11) After sitting at my laptop all morning organizing music/fixing my resume/checking news sites, I assume that today is going to be another day of nothing to do. That is until 10:30 comes, when I'm told to grab my stuff; we're going to Shizuoka! It's up in the mountains, so I'm looking forward to a nice road trip through the mountains.

After driving for 4 hours, we drop off a pipe-type object for a customer, turn around, and drive back to Nagoya. 8 hours of driving to talk to customers for...20 minutes at the most. I got a nice long nap in going both ways, although my legs hurt from being squeezed in the car for so long. You can actually see my knees above the dashboard if you are looking through the front windshield. I should find a new book or something. Atleast the mountains were interesting. We went to an area where the entire town is famous for its tea, so there were tea fields everywhere. If you haven't seen a tea field, it's rows and rows of identical looking small, green hedges; almost like waves. We drove by an area where the mountains met the ocean met the green ocean of tea fields. If it wasn't for me getting home an hour late, I would have called it a fairly good day. And if I had time to take pictures. Oh well, next time.

11) I need to get back into the habit of continuing my smile experiment, but I recently became more interested in a different experiment. Until I can think of a better name, I'll dub it the "Touch Experiment." The west is much more...touching(?)...when it comes to other people. We shake hands, hug people on the second time we see them; there's a lot of touching going on. Japan is not so much, with bowing and staying your respective distance from each other. So I'm going to test reactions when I go against this. I'm talking about hugging on re-meets, and more specifically, touching during conversation. I'm curious what the reaction will be when we're laughing, and I gently touch their arm or something. Will they make a connection between laughter and my touch? Or will they just think it's an odd American habit? I guess the judge for the verdict won't be if they accept the touch without moving away/flinching, but if they respond in kind with tactile feedback. It'll either be a great experiment, or I'll just come off as creepy. I can't lose!

Happy Easter

2007-04-08T23:24:00.000+09:00

Nothing quite like celebrating Easter than with robotic chickens:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyRooxtcnzM

Other ways I chose to celebrate today:
1) had a large amount of records delivered to my parent's house
2) partake in the most delicious combination of food I've ever had: bread/cake, cheese, and apples
3) bought a pen
4) went to a random church for Easter services
5) cried that I'm not in Tokyo, and won't be able to get there before this run is gone (http://www.secret-b.com/photo/t-brain.jpg)
6) listened exclusive to Outhud and Múm all day

I've started to feel really uncomfortable whenever I'm around a large group of native English speakers. I'm so used to thinking about everything in Japanese before I speak, that it's become odd to just use English.

I've also determined that I offer too much information about myself when I meet new people, and that I drink too much coffee. I don't even like it.

Weekend Dusk; Post-Work, Pre-Bar

2007-04-06T20:10:00.000+09:00

I have a lot of free time at work. A lot. Combined with having an awful memory, I make a habit of taking notes of things that stand out during the day, using my phone. It's after work on Friday, but too early to go to the bar, so there's nothing to do now but go through my notes.

1) I spent the majority of today looking up charset utf-8 on wikipedia, or copying the contents of a brochure in Japanese...to Japanese. It gave me a chance to read through it to see how much I knew, and something to do since I prefer to work on the company's webpage using my own laptop, which I didn't bring.

2) When I'm introduced to customers at work, each staff member has their own particular way of listing who I am, and why I am there. One coworker says that I'm a study abroad student that can barely speak Japanese. Ok, that's fairly close, with the exception of the study abroad stuff.
Another coworker introduces me as some University student that was interested in Fluorocarbon Resins, so I started to work at the company. This one is a bit more far from the truth, but atleast being a student part is correct.
A third coworker goes through the same script everytime he introduces me, and I have my parts too. He introduces me as a Linguistics student that is interning at the company, and although I don't have an interest in chemistry or resins, I'm really there to study Japanese and help out at the company. He continues to say that I am fluent in Japanese, at which point I tilt my head, give a questioning look, and say something along the lines of "not really." This is where my coworker goes into a full listing of my amazing skills, emphasizing that I am able to eat with chopsticks. This consistently gets gasps of amazement, which is beyond me; manipulating two sticks in order to get food into my mouth is not an achievement. Recently, the same coworker has started to add more to our little introduction script, which goes as follows:

Coworker: "Yep, he's good with chopsticks."
Customer: "Amazing. Dark hair and good with chopsticks, he's pretty much Japanese already."
Coworker: "He's from America. And he's not fat. Look how skinny he is."
Customer: "America!? I thought all Americans were fat. Aren't your sodas at fast food restaurants this big (use hands to pantomime a gallon-sized cup)"
Me: "Something like that, but I rarely drink soda."
Customer: "And french fries! So many french fries in America!"
Me: "Well, I don't eat fast food too often either."
Customer: "...and hamburgers! Your hamburgers in America are so big!"
Me: "We don't have the MegaMac, like they do in Japan. I don't think McDonald's in America carries a burger that big."
Customer: "..."
Me: "I don't really know, I don't eat beef."
Customer: "..."
Coworker: "He's from Texas."
Customer: "Do you have a Harley Davidson?"

Around this point, I've successfully broken most stereotypes of Americans, and we can continue with the meeting.

3) Kit-Kat's are incredibly popular here. There are varieties that I have never seen before, although, I don't normally pay particular attention to candy in the US. Today, one of the office clerks gave me a Brandy and Orange Kit-Kat.

4) There's a little bar right next to my apartment. I can literally touch the building from my balcony, and yet I've never been. I think I'll go tonight, and just hope that it isn't a senior citizen bar. Although, the last bar I went to that catered to the elderly wasn't bad. I sang karaoke with some old lady and her husband, and didn't have to pay for my drinks. Hmm, I'll try there tonight.

5) There has to be some chemical in the air at Japanese grocery stores that keeps products fresh, because within hours of leaving the store with any sort of produce, it goes bad. I had perfectly good bananas start going bad 5 hours after leaving the store. I don't know about you, but I'm used to irradiated produce that will give me diseases, but will last for a week. Haven't Japanese farmers seen 28 Days Later? Those apples in the grocery store were the only "fresh" produce they could find! How is Japan expecting to survive during a zombie outbreak? I'm appalled at this lack of planning.

6) SciFi Original Miniseries have to be some of the most poorly acted programs on TV. In addition to poorly acted, the screen writing is equally awful. This is a shame, since the story is fairly interesting. I started watching The Lost Room, which is surprisingly entertaining, in a "Heroes won't be back on for a few more weeks" kind of way. But the acting is awful; as I mentioned. The screen writers also gave the main cop characters such names as Joe and Lou. The villain in first part's name? The Weasel. I don't know about you, but if a character is going to be named The Weasel, it better be in a poorly made late 80's teen movie. And it better be shortened to The Wheeze. Oh well.

This is what I spend my days thinking about.

Hanami + Food Poisoning, Hurray!

2007-04-05T21:46:00.000+09:00

With it now being spring, the cherry blossoms are blooming, and that means everyone gets together, sits in a park, and drinks. And eats an incredible amount. So that's how I spent my Sunday. I met with some friends from Nagoya City University, and we sat outside eating and drinking until everyone passed out from eating too much. All in all, great fun.

I was incredibly full and wanted to nap, so I started to head back to my apartment. Well, on the way back home, I passed the subway stop that I get off at to go record/designer vinyl shopping. I had already spent my quota on records for the weekend the day before, but I couldn't resist, since I already had an all day subway pass. A quick trip to the atm was followed by buying more records. I really need to start planning how I'm going to get all these home. Shipping will probably be too much, and I'm not sure if I can have 3 check-in bags on the plane. Oh well, I'll just worry about it later.

Monday at work, I get an email about a second Hanami party, this time with people from Nagoya University. So I go straight there after work, and being a Monday, I worked in the clean room, which is actual work that I really don't enjoy. I'm already tired, and hungry, but I go straight to the park. There, we eat some more, and I eventually bury myself under everyone's bags to try and stay warm. Cold, but yet again, great fun.

Now Wednesday night comes along, and my stomach decides it is very unhappy with something it received. I think it might have been from some bad tuna that I ate. Or maybe having McDonald's twice in a week (for the record, I've had more McDonald's in the past week in Japan, than I have in the past 3 years in the US). Wednesday night and Thursday morning were spent pleading with my body, promising no more fast food no matter how hungry I am, and to make sure that my refrigerator is closed when I have perishable food in it. By Thursday afternoon, we come to an agreement. Ofcourse this is far too late for me to go into work, so I call it a sick day, and stay home to work on the company's website.

I also don't think to actually call into work to tell them this. Nor do I think to check my phone if it is charged, since it slipped my mind to charge it last night; with all the unpleasantness and such. I eventually get a worried email making sure that I wasn't dead, and this is when I realize my phone is off. Three worried phone messages later (albeit, in Japanese), I make a note to call into work when I don't show up. I assume this is probably good advice for anyone.

Cornelius, Again

2007-04-05T09:58:00.000+09:00

I was surprised when I stumbled onto some of the videos that were projected behind the band during the concert:

The Cornelius Group

2007-03-31T23:26:00.000+09:00

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

2007-03-29T22:50:00.000+09:00

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

2007-03-26T18:32:00.000+09:00

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!!!

2007-03-21T15:30:00.000+09:00

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

2007-03-18T21:42:00.000+09:00

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!

2007-03-14T23:08:00.000+09:00

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

2007-03-10T22:11:00.000+09:00

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

2007-03-08T20:42:00.000+09:00

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

2007-03-04T01:15:00.000+09:00

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.

Looking Up

2007-02-25T23:35:00.000+09:00

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

2007-02-24T00:20:00.000+09:00

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...

2007-02-19T20:06:00.000+09:00

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

2007-02-14T18:34:00.000+09:00

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

2007-02-11T14:08:00.000+09:00

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

2007-02-10T00:25:00.001+09:00

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。。。

2007-02-06T21:59:00.000+09:00

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.

Town Crier

2007-01-29T19:07:00.000+09:00

town crier –noun
1) an amazing 8 inch Qee designed by Tim Biskup (see picture)
2) a person employed by a town to make public announcements or proclamations, usually by shouting in the streets (see old lady at the bus stop)

This lady and I always ride the bus at the same time, and since we see each other often, we say good morning and such. She's a nice enough lady that puts up with repeating what she says so I can understand, but our conversations have gotten as far as "wow, look at the crow eat the trash" and "go ahead, here's the bus." Today, running late for the bus with a handful of crackers, she decides that enough is enough, and that she should know who I am and why I am still living there.

She asks if I live close by, and not wanting to seem like an old-woman stalker, I tell her the complex I live in. Her next question was if I was single, as residents of Japan are amazed that people can live on their own and not with their parents/wife to take care of them. Seeing where the conversation was going, I steered away and started talking about me being a student, and how I was working in Japan for the semester. Nothing much, just my University, and the company I work for. The bus comes, and off we go.

After work, I come back home, and at the stop before mine is a mother/daughter pair. The mother is probably in her 50's or 60's, with the daughter in her 30's. I ofcourse get the "he's not Japanese" inquisitive look, and they sit behind me. They continue to talk about me in hushed tones, mentioning my University, where I worked, my current dating status...things that strangers should not know about me. Curious where this new found knowledge came from, I thought back. All the way to this morning.

If you ever need to get a message to an entire borough in Japan, tell an old lady. Atleast this will save me from answering a few questions whenever I meet someone new.

This Means Nothing Without Pictures

2007-01-28T15:15:00.000+09:00

Saturday morning was spent trying to find the post office. Once I did, I discovered they were closed, and will only be open while I am at work. I was told that I could buy stamps at a convenience store, but I have no idea how much postage I should put on each letter.

Afterwards, I needed to break a 10,000 yen bill so I could easily get an all day bus/subway pass. I had time before I was going to meet people at the aquarium, so I stopped by a coffee shop near my apartment. The coffee was alright, I guess, but the waitress was really interested in where I was from and practicing English, so we might get together next weekend to practice.

I finally took some pictures around my apartment:

I caught the bus to the station, the train to the other station, and walked to the aquarium. I met with Kimihiko and Yohei, and took the best picture...ever:

After the revelation, we went to a replica of a Venetian village, then I headed home to nap. I wanted to go to Sakae, the club district, and the last bus out of my area to the station was at 10pm. The first bus back from the station was at 6:15am. So if I wanted to go out at all, it would have to be for all night. I napped, and by napped, I mean played Castlevania until 9:30, got dressed, and caught the last bus.

I didn't really have a plan on where to go, but I had read about this English pub. Really wanting a London Porter, I went there hoping to find. Ofcourse, I got lost first, but the area was interesting to walk around in. There's a small park running the length of the road, with a TV tower at one end that looked like the Eiffel Tower. A group of kids were playing music in the park, and seeing as how my ipod died on the train ride there, I stood around and listened.

I finally found the English pub, and had a feeling of not fitting in. Well, technically, the feeling was fitting in too much. I can't stand not standing out, and in a rural area of Japan, I stand out almost always. In this bar, it was all really drunk American and Australian people, as well as a few desperate looking Japanese girls that looked close to 40. They didn't have London Porter, so after a quick Negra, I took off. I just didn't want to hang around there anymore.

I tried to find another bar, but the majority in the area were either hostess bars, or members only. I debated going to a club, but couldn't justify $30 to listen to awful pre-recorded dance music by myself. I apparently wandered into the redlight district, which I often do, and as soon as I was offered a massage on the street, I knew I wasn't going to meet anyone I wanted to get to know in the area. It was only midnight or so at this time, and I still had 6 hours to kill. I walked over to Osu, a couple train stations away, to look for graffiti to photograph. Most of it was bad tags, and I couldn't find the big tentacle piece that I had seen a couple days earlier.

Disappointed with the rebellious youth of Japan's artistic talent, I stumbled on a Denny's. So, yet again, it was my hotel for the night. Flipping through the menu, I made a profound discovery. Chicken Jambalaya. Intrigued, I ordered it. A horrible mistake. A combination of stale rice, what I later discovered to be hot dog slices, chicken pieces, and mayonnaise did not sit well with me. I sat in the Denny's, in pain, for the next few hours dozing over Gulliver's Travels. I finally catch the first train back, showered, then slept until noon. Today will be a much more lowkey day, in hopes to save money. I have some pictures to organize, some stuff to finish reading, emails to write, and laundry to do. Fun fun fun.

Oh, and a Flickr update.

EDIT: I always forget things that I intend to mention. First, at the aquarium, there was a giant robotic penguin that danced and sang "The Yellow Rose of Texas." I have never been more appalled and entertained at the same time. Second, this Japanese comedy troupe from some tv show was at the replica village filming a segment, which included multiple camera pans of me standing there watching. Then us slowly edging our way towards the camera while filming. I only hope that I can catch it on tv or someone uploads it to youtube.

The Great Experiment In Comforting People/Making Them Uneasy

2007-01-26T21:33:00.000+09:00

Blah blah blah work.

After work, I run by the little general store to buy something to seal envelopes with, seeing as how I picked the only envelopes that are not self adhesive. There, the clerk that I always get, strikes up an indepth conversation that went along the following lines:

Her: "Tape, huh? Didn't you buy paper and envelopes just the other day?"
Me: "Yep"
Her: "Mailing letters and need to close the envelopes?"
Me: "I don't understand"
Her: "To close the envelopes"
Me: "Sure...my Japanese is really bad"
Her: "See you next time!"
Me: "Yep"

Normally employees at stores go out of their way to avoid saying anything besides "Hello," and "Come again," especially to someone that doesn't look Japanese. So it caught me off guard. I'm proud to say that I've started confusing Japanese and English, and often times can't remember which language someone asked me something, nor which language I answered with. This makes me happy because I take it as a sign that I'm more thoroughly understanding the language. Of I've just become extremely absent minded. Most people have a stigma about languages, like feeling uncomfortable using a particular language outside of the environment they're used to using it. Like someone raised to speak Vietnamese around their family, but English everywhere else. There is often a barrier of extreme discomfort when using Vietnamese outside of their family, which they're most used to. Hopefully, this means any sort of barrier I have of using Japanese in a classroom setting is gone.

After this amazing revelation, I head over to the super market to pick up some peanut butter and trash bags. There, I find nirvana. I see a bag that says miniature donuts. Ok, I'll give it a try. I'm assuming some sort of mildly donut flavored discs. Like cookie crisp isn't really tiny cookies, it's discs that kind of taste like cookies. These tiny donuts are just that; tiny, individually wrapped, donuts. The novelty has yet to wear off.

Coming home from the high of finding tiny donuts (and eating one on the way home), I find another unique surprise that I can only hope is restricted to Japan. Porn in my mail box. No, I didn't sign up for anything. Actually, they can't deliver mail to my apartment that's addressed to me until I drop off this form (tomorrow, tomorrow, I'll do it tomorrow). Not used to naked people being freely exposed among my coupons, I quickly decided to mail the less racy of the two pamphlets to a good friend in the states. We can only hope she appreciates my discretion.

After a tiring day filled with porn and tiny donuts, I just don't feel like a) going out for all of 2 hours before I have to head back to my apartment or b) going out and staying out all night, then meeting people tomorrow at 1. So I opted for option c) finish writing letters and emails to people, then run in the rain until I feel like passing out. Sounds just fine to me.

But tomorrow should...hopefully...be an eventful day. A morning trip to the post office, followed by running around taking pictures around my apartment. Afterwards, a trip to the curry shop to flirt with cute curry girl some more and try to cajole a meeting for coffee or something tomorrow night. At 1, a trip to the aquarium is planned, which will inevitably lead to eating. So much eating. After that, depending on the coffee situation, a trip back to the apartment to nap. Now, I feel like I need something a bit more along the lines of a unique Japanese adventure. Last time I was here, I was attacked by a little girl on the train, locked out of my hotel, sang karaoke with an 85 year old man and his wife, among other, mildly interesting stories. So I've decided to sleep as much as I can tonight, and tomorrow after the aquarium, wake up in time to take the last bus to the station, and just hang around Sakae all night. The trains start running again around 5 or 6 am, so I should be back at the apartment around 7. Worse comes to worst, I'll be incredibly tired, probably wet from the rain, but atleast it will be another story to tell. Boy do I love stories.

And grand experiments. I've noticed that people on trains/buses/the street try, for the most part, to avoid eye contact with people passing by as much as possible. Being tall, and non-Japanese, I do catch a lot more looks before they have time to look away. So I plan to exploit this, and try an experiment. Every person I make eye contact with over the next few days, I will smile the biggest, cheesiest smile possible (or atleast a smile with teeth...I have a big mouth). I will then log their reaction. So far, the categories I've come up with have been:
Look away and not look again
Look away, but then quickly look back
Smile back
Continue to stare, but not smile
Look horribly uncomfortable and embarrassed
GASP, actually say something??

I will also try to categorize the people based on gender and an age estimate. I'm really curious what will happen when I try this in the States, too. We'll see. Oh yes we will.

EDIT: This guy I work with looks just like Open Face from Pete and Pete.

Sapporo Ramen

2007-01-25T22:02:00.000+09:00

Work work work, then leave immediately for Nagoya station. There, I make a quick trip to Sofmap to pick up Mother 1 and 2, then meet with Sayana, Kimihiko, Yohei, and Nakamura. We eat ramen from Sapporo, apparently, which tastes a whole lot like the ramen I've had here. We then ran through several bookstores, and tried to find a way to see the skyline from the 51st floor without paying. Unfortunately, there were no windows in the lobby, nor near the bathroom. Other than that, a fairly normal day. These posts are just going to get shorter and shorter as fewer things stand out during the day. We made plans to go to the aquarium on Saturday, as well as flirt with Cute Curry Girl then as well. I still haven't had a chance to go to the club area yet, so I think tomorrow I'll come home from work, run, shower, eat, nap, then leave for Sakae on the last bus. Stay around Sakae until about 5am or so, then head back to my apartment to sleep until noon. Sounds good to me. We'll see how awake I am tomorrow to try it.

Highlight

2007-01-24T22:21:00.000+09:00

Yesterday and today were fairly boring. I worked and watched BSG yesterday, while today, I watched Heroes and wrote letters. Great fun all around. My highlight of the day was watching some kid try to spit, and end up getting it all over his shirt and pants. There's really very little reason for you to need to spit, but the surprised look on his face made it worth it. Tomorrow I meet friends for ramen and will probably miss the bus back home. Stupid rural-area apartment. Where are the flying cars and jet packs I was promised existed in Japan? Not in Nakagawa-ku, that's for sure. We have old people. And cats. And lots of bicycles.

Hutou And Fried Pork

2007-01-22T18:18:00.000+09:00

So I've pretty much given up on trying to go out to eat on days when the only bentos they have are ones with beef or pork. I just bring ramen too, give away the offending material, and eat what's left of both. It's a fairly good system, atleast so far. Although I'm still fairly hungry, with nothing in the apartment of substance. I have old apples, old bananas, yogurt milk, a tiny bit of peanut butter, and some twice-microwaved tentacles from a creature I'm unsure of.

Work in the clean room is great. Not only do I do actual work, and not just busy work, but I talk about music all day, and am given candy at random intervals. I'm not sure if they give me candy out of pity, or some sort of reward, but it helps me stay awake.

I really do miss walmart, as much as I can't stand the store at times. I tried to find stationary and envelopes today, which I found out requires a trip to the stationary store, several buses away. Come on, I just want something to put paper in so I can mail it. I'm amazed at how difficult it is to get a simple envelope.

Oh, and it's freezing outside. I'm sure not as cold as it is in Texas...stupid Texas...but still, really, really cold. I've started running at night; not for exercise or anything of the sort, because honestly, I don't care too much about my health. My lack of concern for my health results in me being healthy. But no, I run at night just to look around the neighborhood. I pick a direction, and run that way until I get tired. Then my poor planning skills kick in, and I have to force myself to make it back after exhausting myself on the way there. Riverboat Gamblers and In Flames make a perfect playlist for running in the rain among old people. As does giant headphones that not only inflict my taste of music on others, but keep my ears warm.

Big plans for the night; more tentacles, running, and hopefully BSG will be finished after I shower.

Weekend

2007-01-21T18:34:00.000+09:00

Friday Night:
I fell asleep on my floor and listening to Explosions In The Sky at about 11pm. I moved to my "bed" at about 3am.

Saturday:
I was supposed to meet Yohei at Nagoya Station at 3:30, but I wanted to go by this vinyl store in Osu. I got directions, and left a bit early to go to Osu. The store was actually pretty cool, reminiscent of Gomi, but they didn't have the Eric So Pointman, nor the infamous Eric So Hellboy. They did have a lot of Kozik stuff, though, which I was surprised to see outside of the US. I ended up buying tiny guitars that serve no purpose, except to make me want to buy more.

The current fashion fad in Japan for girls is to wear tiny skirts or shorts, with street walker boots. The wind, many, many stairs, and people's carelessness resulted in more panties being exposed in my general direction than I thought possible. Honestly, it's winter, aren't you cold?

I headed to Nagoya Station at around 2 to walk around, then wait for Yohei. Nagoya Station has a lot of stores, which I guess is find if you want to buy clothes, or shoes, or cake, but nothing really interesting. I decided to grab some food before I met with Yohei, and I stumbled on a curry shop. The curry was alright, but this girl that works there easily has the best smile ever. We talked for a bit and I left her my cellphone address, but I have little faith in my horrible Japanese and what I can get across when using it.

I met with Yohei and we headed off to another station. There, we went to some donut shop to meet up with Nakamura and Kimihiko; and have a delicious almond donut. We then walk around this bookstore/sub-culture/probably a head shop, then go off to meet more AIESEC members at this huge shopping complex.

We had to take a train to the station, then a shuttle bus took us to the shopping complex. I was amazed. There, after a maze of stairs, we went to a cafe that specialized in parfaits. Now, it's winter, and it's cold, but that doesn't stop people from eating 7 parfaits at a time. A little bell sat on our table that we were supposed to ring, calling the servers. We would ring it, just to entice others to order more parfaits. Between three people, they ate 16 or so parfaits total. I was amazed, and satisfied with my seafood pasta.

Afterwards, we went to a bowling alley/arcade nearby. I suck at bowling, with the exception of wii bowling, and suck even more when the largest shoes they have are still 4 cm too small to be a tight fit. I get a ride to my apartment from Kimihiko, and call it a night. I've moved my bed to the floor also, instead of that stupid bedshelf. It just makes more sense, I can lay in bed and type, or watch tv, or not wake up and think I'm in a coffin. All are benefits.

Sunday:
Kimihiko picked me up today, and we went to the train station (avoiding the bus). We met with Nakamura at the entrance to a shrine pathway. Today was an anniversary for...something...and in honor of this, all the shrines in the area were open, and vendors abound. I'm always reminded of a combination of fairs when I walk through vendors on the way to a shrine. And that Bible story where Jesus ejected all the vendors out of the church. Well, these vendors make some mighty fine dango.

Visiting a shrine presents some problems for a tall, caucasian male. First, I stand out, and especially at a shrine that was rebuilt after WW2 because of bomb damage. Secondly, as the Japanese population ages, they seem to shrink. There were people literally knee high to me. I think I stepped on some lady's forehead in the process of getting to the shrine.

Over a lunch of chicken and rice, I learned a valuable lesson. Never, never answer the question "what sort of girls do you like" when around Japanese friends. Immediately after, anytime we saw someone that even remotely fit into the category I described, I would get jabs, and points, and gestures.

Bored with the shrine, we went to Osu, with the intention I thought of just to waste time. Apparently, the true intention was to visit stores in which potential dates for a foreigner might be found. For the record, the furniture store was a fairly nice store, but we really didn't need to go to the glasses stores.

We wandered for a bit with more jabs, when we decided to start to head back. At Sakae, I wanted to walk around a bit, and seeing as how I had an all day subway pass, it wouldn't cost me anything more. I parted with everyone there, to wander a bit, get rained on, then get back on the train. After a train and bus ride, a quick trip to the grocery store was necessary. I mistakenly bought "yogurt milk" the other day, and I had to rectify it as soon as possible. So here I sit, eating some sort of tentacles they had on sale at the store, and drinking cloudy water flavored with lemon? Melon? Well, hopefully it's flavored. And purposely cloudy.

I'm Tired Of Titles

2007-01-19T19:43:00.000+09:00

Nothing much happened today. Worked in the clean room again, forgot to order lunch so I ate ramen that brought with me, and stood in the cold for 30 minutes waiting for a bus. I did happen to write an entire song today, so as soon as I find a cheap guitar here, and a mic, something may come from it. Time to waste time until I head out for the night.

7,000 Tiny Bullets And Coffee Exploits

2007-01-18T18:52:00.000+09:00

It's amazing how much your mind wanders when you're set to do repetitive tasks and have no idea what it is your actually doing. Especially when you only understand maybe 1/4 of what people are saying around you.

So today I worked in the clean room again, which honestly, I enjoy. The work I do in there doesn't seem like busy work, since other people are doing it too. Plus, I get to talk about punk music and hardcore, not to mention get away from Crotch Fat and Muppet.

So I go to the room, and Kid Boss gives me and this other guy instructions. Kid Boss looks like he's maybe 13, but has this weird superiority attitude sometimes, and takes everything really seriously. I piss him off by yelling things in English at him, then pretending it wasn't me.

So our instructions are to use an air compressor to make sure there is no dust in these freshly-tefloned pipe pieces, then wrap them in aluminum foil and tape, sealing everything off. Ok, that's fine; I like arts and crafts, and this is pretty much like a giant stencil. And I do happen to have stencil making experience.

So me and this other guy clean them, then sit down to start wrapping them. I'm trying to think of a nickname for this guy, but nothing is coming to me. He's just really quiet. So I started thinking of calling him Mouse or something...but then the smell came. This kid just sat there, creating all sorts of new and horrible stenches. Now I HAD to incorporate this into his nickname. There's the immature names such as Silent Smell or something, but it just didn't fit. I look down at the table where there are these forms spread out, and I see it; Assy. It's some sort of abbreviation for some sort of coating, but it was just so perfect. So from now on, he's known as Assy to me.

Assy and I finish up the pipes, and go to lunch. Afterwards, we're given these tiny little things that look like rows of bullets. We're supposed to arrange them in this special grate for some reason that I have no idea. Since I also don't know what they are used for, I'll just assume they are bullets for tiny Japanese guns. I arranged about 7,000 of them. I spent the day imagining what sort of person carries such a tiny gun. I really should be more productive; like write songs while I'm doing this stuff...or something.

5 rolls around, and apparently I'm one of the few people that leave then. I meet the head honcho in the office, and the current president is there too. We talk for a bit, and I find out that I'll be working in the clean room for a couple more days. Fine with me. I find a shirt in the cafeteria that has my name on it, so I take it. They've given me 4 entire sets of clothing, plus shoes and jackets. Too bad they're all too short, and I'll never wear them unless I'm dealing with spraying actual teflon.

I head to the bus, hoping I can just catch the early bus. One leaves at 4:53, the other at 5:31. So obviously, I try to get out in time for the earlier one, but haven't made it so far. It's freezing outside, and me in a stylish undershirt and UT sweater, I try to find a vending machine with hot coffee in it. It isn't hard, so I figure I'll warm myself with the coffee so I can brave the cold for the next 30 minutes. There's about 7 varieties of coffee made by 1 company, and some are served hot, some cold. Being indecisive, I choose one at random. Stupid me, I choose one served cold. I wasn't even paying attention. So I drink my cold coffee, which gives me super shakes; a combined effect of the coffee and the cold.

I slowly walk back to the bus stop with nothing really to do, so I stare at cars. It's great. People think you can't see in cars, but when you stare right where they should be, they always have great expressions. Then some office girl comes by on her bike. Now I still haven't actually met her, but she works in the office, and makes a point to dangerously cross the street so she can pass by the bus stop I'm at. She always says something in Japanese, and I've taken it upon myself to say a new English phrase each day as she passes. Today it was something like "Drive Safe!" as she swerves against the wind on her bike. It's surprising how easily you can win people over here just by smiling at them, which really isn't a common thing. Most people just stare at the ground or look the other way in passing. At most, you might get a tiny bow. Screw that. I'm from Texas. We're known for being overtly friendly. Or something like that.

I get off a stop early to buy some more hangers. I need to wash clothes, but there's no dryer around, so I have to hang dry my clothes. I'm also not sure if I bought normal detergent, or bleach...I didn't read the word bleach anywhere on it, but I'll test it on a wash cloth and some white clothes first. OH. I can't read the washing machine either. Stupid Kanji. Another day, another adventure.

So on my way back, I almost cause a car accident! It was great! I'm walking along the sidewalk, and for the record, I'm probably the only non-Japanese person in about a 5-mile radius. Atleast. I'm the only non-Asian person in about a 9 or 10 mile radius. So I'm used to the looks I get. Well, on the sidewalk, some lady goes to turn into a drug store. I'm nowhere near the turn-in, so she doesn't stop for fear of hitting me, or someone else. She just stops and stares at me, half in the driveway, half in the street. A truck turns the corner blowing his horn. She finally comes to and pulls quickly into the driveway. I hope I made the old lady's day.

Every lunch, there are these three guys that study English everyday, and are really devoted to it. They've only been studying for about 3 months, but they're surprisingly good, and we hold conversations in English really well. So today we're practicing after lunch, when head honcho sneaks over with a camera. Suddenly, I'm swarmed by English learning people trying to squeeze into the picture. Something about the situation just doesn't sit well with me. I don't know, it kind of gives the wrong impression. I can just see them putting a picture like that in a newsletter or something saying "Our employees actively learn English with a native speaker," or "we employee international students to broaden our horizons." I did none of these things, nor was I asked to by the company. These are just three people that really want to learn English, and I need a break from trying to speak and understand Japanese every once in a while.

A completely separate, mildly unrelated thought: handling really delicate, expensive items and concentrating on wrapping them safely, while holding a conversation in an unfamiliar language is really hard to do. Incredibly difficult.

There's been a dramatic lack of any sort of alcohol over the past few days, and I miss the sweet nectar known as Japanese beer. Hopefully this will be resolved tomorrow. Oh, and hopefully I can find a girl that lives nearby that has a western bed. That's really my only requirement at this moment. And preferably with short hair. And glasses. And, while we're at it, fairly tall. And American pillows, or atleast throw pillows on the couch. I'd never return to my apartment again.

I intended to take some pictures around my apartment, the area it's in and such, but seeing how it's dark, and painfully cold, I'll wait until Saturday or so.

Nya Nya

2007-01-17T22:00:00.000+09:00

Dear America,
http://www.toshiba.co.jp/product/etsg/cmt/au/w45t/w45t_menu.htm

Love,
Aaron

P.S. If only they had drivers for Mac...

INTERNET

2007-01-17T20:37:00.000+09:00

Finally, I have internet. I can't explain how much I missed it. I made plans to go try to find a bar near the train station tonight, but just out of curiosity, I tried it; and it worked. Screw trying to find a crappy bar for an hour, I can do that some other day. I need to let my parents know that I'm alive. I tried emailing them from my phone, but I couldn't remember their email address, so I wasn't sure if the emails that were accepted actually went to them, or to someone with a similar email address. Anyway, it's nice to finally be able to be in contact with people again.

So today was a pretty boring day. The cold, wet weather turned slutty skirt bus girl into weird, child's shoes wearing high pitched M.C. Giggles. Walking to the company from the bus, we started talking, and she has THE highest pitched voice ever. Almost cartoon like. And her shoes kind of reminded me of children's shoes. I'm not sure why. So after a rousing morning meeting, I'm sent to the research department with Crotch Fat. Awesome. Another day of folding aluminum foil and listening to Crotch Fat and Muppet talk to themselves. Oh, no, not today. Today I learned a new word. That word is "haregane." It means steel wire. I spent the next 4 hours cutting wire by hand to a desired length. Boy, was it fun.

After 4 hours of wire cutting, I left for lunch. Since today was fried pork bits, I decided to go to a nearby Udon shop. Well, not wanting me to be alone, some people from the office came with me, and we all ate together. The food was good, and after a morning with Crotch Fat and Muppet, anyone's company is better by comparison. After lunch, I get sent to a different area in the research department; the clean room. So I put on a lab coat, hat, and go through an x-files-esque wind tunnel to find people sitting there, sanding pipes. Oh, and more wire. I spend the next 2 hours cutting wire thicker than before, and end up slicing my hand.

Some kid comes up to me and gestures for me to follow. We take some pipes to another floor, where through a series of grunts, this kid washes the pipes in some chemical, then hands it to me. Now I don't have gloves on, he does, we both have gas masks on, but he seems fine with me not wearing gloves. Let's hope my hands don't fall off.

So after that, I take the pipes back to the clean room, where I am shown how to cover the pipes with tape and plastic. Ok. So I do that for two hours and talk to some guy about Japanese punk and American hardcore bands. That was actually fairly interesting. At 4:45 the manager calls me, gives me a jacket, and tells me to head home. Awesome. Although the bus doesn't come until 5:30. So I sit around outside for a while waiting for the bus and trying to understand the high pitched voice OL's that pass yelling things to me.

Between the futon and cutting wire all day, I really need a massage, but I don't trust my Japanese enough to try to find an actual massage parlor. It's Japan, there probably aren't any genuine massage parlors. Now, I don't really have a problem with "sexy massage" establishments, it just goes against my frugality and refusal to pay for someone's erotic-attention. Is that a word? Maybe I can convince winking grocery girl to rub my shoulders. Or find someone that lives nearby with a western bed. A real bed. And American pillows. Now that could work.

INTERBLAGS, FINALLY!

True First Day

2007-01-17T20:18:00.000+09:00

I'd like to point out that I still don't have internet. I got the access code, so now I can be teased with internet, but still can't have it. I emailed the company from my phone, so we'll see if they ever respond. I'm getting withdrawal symptoms. Shakes and the heebies. Of the jeebie sort.

There are several other things that I've discovered Japanese people are fascinated about foreigners, specifically me. First, your exact height. Now, I am a fairly tall person for the most part, and even in the US I get asked how tall I am. It's not too abnormal, but here, they expect you to argue with them that you're not really 187 cm when you say you're 185. I don't care which one I am. I just go into basic Japanese mode, where I stop listening, and just nod. You'd be amazed at how useful that has been just today.

Second thing Japanese people seem to be fascinated with is my age. When I introduced myself to the entire company, I made a point to say that I was a University Student. One would think that a University student would probably be, what, under 22? 23? Noooo, I get asked how old I am constantly at work, on the bus, at ramen shops, and when I say 21, I get a huge range of responses. From being called Aaron-chan to being called some sort of amazing genius for coming to Japan at such an age, to big winks at me and explanations how this should be a good experience for me. I get it, I'm younger than you. I'm not after your job, so don't feel threatened.

Third, and most important thing on the population of Japan's mind is my current dating status. Today, just today, I have been asked no less than 15 times if I currently have a girlfriend. The response is always the same, 今、いません。 Not right now. Yet somehow, this opens the realm for them to ask if I like Japanese girls, which I'm not going to lie, the answer is yes. But, it's just odd when you're being asked this, and slutty skirt bus girl is sitting right there trying not to make eye contact with me. No, bus girl, I'm not interested in you; you haven't even made an effort to introduce yourself to me, so I will just continue flirting with tall OL in broken Japanese; thank you very much.

Today I woke up, got ready, and jumped on the bus to work. On the bus was slutty skirt bus girl, but I had no idea she worked at the same company. All I know is, is that this girl was wearing a skirt far too short for this early in the morning. And this cold. She gets off at the stop before mine, I get off at my stop, and as I'm walking to the building, I see her walking towards the building from the other way. Great, she'll think I'm a stalker. Super. I made a point of waiting a loooooong time after she started going up the stairs to go up after her, for fear of her claiming I stalked her and looked up her skirt. This is Japan, you know.

So I go to the cafeteria, which is odd; Japanese companies are just like schools. They have uniforms, serve lunches, have groups and cliques and clubs and divisions based on what floor you work on and where you sit. It's odd. So the supervisor talks, tells me to introduce myself, and I do so. Then everyone scatters while I'm pulled aside and given a locker. Ok, a place to put my coat and bag. That's good. No no no, the locker is for my clothes, I have a uniform. Great. I lug all these clothes for work, and now I have a uniform I have to wear for the next month until I start to work in the office. Plus, it's a Japanese uniform, which means the pants are too short. Super; what a great day.

Smiley the supervisor then pulls me into a room where we watch a video on the company again, and he pauses it to interject his thoughts. He then hands me an envelope with about $450 in yen as a prepayment for this month, and continues. Awesome. Now he has my attention. We then discuss the magic of fluropolymers until lunch. Lunch time comes and all the kids gather in the cafeteria. I eat while Crotch Fat guy talks in super fast Japanese at me. All the while, I'm discussing the Clash and Ramones with this guy sitting next to me, and Crotch Fat doesn't realize it. I then get pulled aside by three other people who take me to a room, and demand that I help them practice English.

These three guys practice English everyday after lunch, and really, I'm surprised at their dedication. The reasons behind it were actually good reasons too; not my cheesy "I like the culture" or such. One guy wanted to learn because Japanese is only spoken in Japan, and English is so much more widespread. Yeah, makes sense. Another guy said he wanted to do something more internationally oriented, and that was why. It was a nice break from me struggling in Japanese and trying to understand to just speaking English with some people. I haven't had that chance since Saturday with Sayako, and while that might seem that long, believe me, it is. Unfettered English for the native speaker is really relaxing when you've been worrying about speaking another language so much.

So after practice, I go back to the cafeteria where another announcement is made, and I discover that I am freezing. I move back to the meeting room with Smiley where we sit. For a while. Then, he hands me off to Crotch Fat and off we go to the research lab. Ok, that's fine with me. I get introduced to Muppet, and believe me, this guy sounds like one. He always talks to himself and laughs, and his laugh is this weird, deep, haughty laugh, so I always think he's making fun of someone. Anyway, I sit down and spend the next 4 hours folding aluminum foil in half and listening to Crotch Fat and Muppet fire questions at me. I have no idea why I was folding aluminum foil, what it might be used for, or anything; just that's what they asked me to do, and I was bored.

I'd ask questions back at them, but I have yet to meet anyone at the company that has any sort of true personality. No one knows any decent Japanese bands, and they all listen to pop and Madonna. No one knows any good Japanese Art-House movies that I mention, and forget lo-brow or graffiti art. It's painful to try and listen to a guy explain the wonders of clothes shopping with his wife, or spending 6 hours reading Japanese comic books at a cafe. Not even good comics! Creepy love comics. Sigh.

So after the folding of aluminum foil, I finished the roll, was sent down to Smiley again, who told me to change and go home, since it was about 5 minutes to 5pm anyway. I do so, and go to the bus where I await slutty skirt bus girl so I know I am on the right bus. She never shows, but I do get on the correct bus, where I head home to try and get internet. No luck. I email them from my phone, and go to the convenience store to buy ramen for tomorrow's lunch. I can't eat pork or beef, so obviously fried pork pieces is out; so I'm bringing my own. I then pass a ramen shop that's closed everytime I pass, so I go in. I'm the only one there, and the shop owner is nice. We talk for a bit while my food is being prepared, I eat, head home, and here I am. I've started making a list of people I meet with their names, how I remember them, and how I met them. It's a fairly interesting list with names such as Crotch Fat and Muppet, which I've incorporated here. Meh, time to shower.

Monday

2007-01-17T20:17:00.001+09:00

Another day, another series of events that makes me think that Japan is the most quirky place on earth. I head to work this morning, where I meet Yohei, Aya, and Ayumi on the bus. We all ride together to my workplace, where we sit in a room for a long period of time. Kimihiko shows up, and that's when we leave...

We drop Ayumi and Aya off at the train station, so Yohei, Kimihiko, and I go run around doing errands. Oh, so many errands. First we went to get my foreign registration card. Ofcourse, that requires a set of pictures, so we had to go get those too. Coming back, we wait and wait and wait, until finally they ask me for $6, then tell me to wait until February.

Next stop is the bank to set up an account so my work can pay me. But wait, before I get a bank account, I have to get a stamp for my name. See, in Japan, signing stuff means nothing, you have to have a tiny little stamp, which anyone can buy an exact copy of your's. Obviously they don't have my name in stamp form, unless I want one specially made for $70, so we select one from a wall that has two characters that somehow remotely sound like my name; A-Ru, something like that.

Stamp in hand, we go to the bank, where we fill out paperwork. A lot of paperwork. What made it difficult was that not only was it in Japanese, but I had to repeatedly write my address in Japanese, plus they kept on requiring crazy formats for the date. 2006 doesn't exist in this particular bank, as it does everywhere else in the world. No no, you need to put the year the emperor has been ruling for, so it's like 17 or 82 or something. I deposit a whopping $10 in my account, and they tell me that they'll mail everything to me. So much waiting.

Next, we go to find a cell phone. Now, I've really needed one since I still don't have internet in my apartment, because I need to email my parents to let them know I'm still alive. We go to Soft Bank, and it ends up they don't have contracts for the short period that I am going to be there. So we drive around, witness an intense car accident, and go to a shopping center. There, they talk Japanese really, really quickly around me, and I'm told to select a phone. Ahhh, Japanese phones. Does your phone have a 4 megapixel camera and flash? What about a GPS built in, where you can not only track yourself, but your friends too? A Japanese-English/English-Japanese dictionary? And so much more that I haven't discovered yet.

More talking, more paper signing, more stamping, and I have myself a phone. If you ever want to impress someone in Japan, sign something. It's great. Everytime I sign a document, in English, with my messy, looping cursive handwriting that's scrawled in .05 seconds, I get gasps of amazement. People not even with me, just standing near, would say things such as "cool," or "amazing." Yes. Yes it is.

It takes a while for the phone to be ready, so we eat, then buy some much wanted peanut butter. We pick up the phone, and head back to my office.

There, we again sit in a room and drink coffee for a while, watching some guy smoke. He then takes us around the building, introducing me to people that I still can't remember their names, and says that's it, he'll take me home. So he drives me home, I buy some bread to go with my peanut butter, and sit here about to have a sandwich with delicious nut milk. Mmmm.

ADDED: Oh, and having a middle name is awesome in Japan. It's so easy to confuse people. I have to write my information down on forms last name, first name, middle name. So at the bank, while waiting, this girl would periodically call me up for...pretty much no reason. She called me by my last name, plus -sama, which is the correct way (although -sama denotes that I'm in a higher position than her, which is a bit odd for me). Then the next time, she called me by my middle name plus -sama. She did that a few times, then suddenly switched to my first name and -sama. We placed bets on what she would call me next. Great fun.

Important Note

2007-01-17T20:17:00.000+09:00

Japanese milk kind of tastes like some sort of nut.

Later Sunday

2007-01-17T20:16:00.001+09:00

Well, I had a fairly productive afternoon. I found out that Japan loves charging $5 bucks for 3 apples, although 3 very good looking apples, which I purchased. I also found out that walmart is a God send in America. Desperately needing an iron, ironing board, hangers, outlet adapter, and pillow, I had to go to 3 different stores. 2 of which are a good 30 minute bus/train ride away.

I wander around a bit more and find a general...junk shop. Inside, I find hangers and an ironing board, but no iron. Ofcourse. Because it's what I really need before tomorrow. I was happy to find hangers, though, so all the clothes on my floor could finally be put in my closet, although wrinkled. I go back and start hanging up my clothes.

I would like to note that in japan, they have a crazy system of trash distribution. You have three bags, one for burnable garbage, non-burnable, and recyclable. Well, isn't cardboard recyclable...AND burnable? It doesn't have a recyclable icon on it, though. I have no idea where it goes, and with all this new item purchasing and Japan's love for packaging material, I have a lot or garbage to distribute.

So I'm hanging up clothes when some crazy music starts playing. I'm not using the microwave, so it can't be that. Must be the doorbell. Oddly enough, the doorbell connects to a phone in the apartment, and phone with no numbers, and whose only purpose is to be used to talk to the person at the door...8 ft away.

Yohei arrives and I explain how desperately I need an iron. Off we go to Nagoya station. A bus and a train ride later, we wander around the station and find Bic Camera, where I buy the cheapest iron there, as well as a power adapter for my laptop. Yay! I still don't have internet, but atleast I can watch scrubs now and listen to music without worrying about the laptop dying. We then set out to find a pillow, which is a difficult procedure in Japan. Not so much that finding the pillow is hard, just finding one under $80 is difficult. Walmart, I miss you.

We go to a store that sells house goods and bedding, and the cheapest pillow I can find is $30, without a cover, and is bright pink. I'm about to purchase it when Yohei finds a bunch of throw pillows. Screw it, they're soft, not exactly normal sized for a pillow, but at $10 for the pillow and $10 for the cover, I'm fine with it. Hopefully my neck will be too.

We then make plans for tomorrow morning, my first day of work, but I'm still unsure of what those plans are at the moment. Yohei said that he and two other girls were going to come with me to my work, then take me to get a cell phone and my residence card. Now, from what I understood in Japanese, he said they would be at my apartment at 7:37am. Well, the bus I need to be on leaves at that exact time, so now I'm curious if he meant that he would meet me on the bus at 7:37. The more I think about it, the more it makes sense, since that bus comes from the station, so they'll probably just ride it from the station and I'll jump on at my stop. It's good that I reflect on these things, otherwise, I may have been late for my first day.

I guess I should iron, eat a $1.50 apple, maybe some crackers, shower, watch some scrubs and go to sleep. I really should keep a budget so I can keep track of my money. I'll do that now. Hopefully it won't be too bad until I get paid. Which I'm not sure when that is either. This job is a hoax.

Still No Internet

2007-01-17T20:16:00.000+09:00

Yep, so I ran around buying food and stuff for my apartment today. Oh, and the makers of my microwave tried to make it the cutest thing possible. When finished, it plays this crazy song, which won't stop even if you open the door.

I need some peanut butter. I couldn't find that at the store. I also desperately need an iron before tomorrow. Oh, and my three pronged plug for my laptop charger doesn't exactly fit into the two pronged outlets in my apartment. I need to fix that soon.

Other than that, I enjoy it here. Some people are coming over later tonight, and hopefully we can find an iron and an adapter, then get some food. And a normal pillow. These corn filled pillows in Japan just don't cut it; my neck is full of knots at this moment. Anyway, time for ramen.

So I've Arrived In Nagoya

2007-01-17T19:57:00.000+09:00

I woke up early this morning to email a friend to meet her for breakfast in Harajuku before I left for Nagoya. So I'm emailing her back and forth, and while waiting for a response, I exchange some money, and run to the train station to buy my ticket for Nagoya. I buy it, then email my friend in Nagoya to tell him when I should be arriving. I run back to the hotel, and finalize plans to me Sayako at the bakery I always go to, then visit Secret Base, where I plan to waste large amounts of money on hand painted designer vinyl.

Well, I go to Harajuku, get some food at the bakery, and sit for a bit reading. I get ready to head to Secret Base, as Sayako hadn't arrived yet, and then she did. We hung out for a while, and I lost track of time. I ended up not having time to go to Secret Base, which is probably for the best, and ran back to my hotel.

I was already running late, so I changed my train ticket to Nagoya for 40 minutes later, emailed Yohei in Nagoya, then checked out.

Carrying any sort of luggage larger than a backpack is a huge pain in Japan, and I was carrying luggage that weighed about the same as the average Japanese person. I get on the train, go to a different station, get on the shinkansen for Nagoya, and finally arrive.

I go to meet Yohei in Nagoya, can't find the place, go to ask directions, and while leaving the office, run into another AIESEC member. We find Yohei and group together, then go to my office to meet with the president and chairman of the company.

Everyone I met at the company was extremely nice, and we all went out to eat after meeting with them. More and more food appeared, along with Japanese beer, and it was great fun. I'll hardly remember anyone's name, but it's ok I guess, since I am working at a separate office.

I'm driven to my apartment, where we drop off my stuff, find out I won't have internet until Monday, and make plans to get that, as well as a cell phone. We go out again to the bus station where I can get the bus times to get to work, then a member of the company shows me around my apartment and where the supermarket and such is. I eventually say my goodbyes, and am dropped off at the apartment.

I'm unpacking a little, but there are no 3 pronged plugs, so my laptop will only last so long until I get an adapter. Not to mention that I don't have internet. The apartment is actually really nice, and surprisingly large. I ran to the convenience store to buy toilet paper and some tea, but I really need a couch or something. Anyway, I'll probably unpack a little more, maybe walk around a bit, and shower. I have plans to meet with some more people tomorrow, so maybe then I'll be able to take care of everything else in the apartment.

Already Lost

2007-01-13T00:50:00.000+09:00

I normally don't stay in downtown Tokyo, and for the most part, I avoid the area just because there's not much there that interests me. Well, my hotel is right next to the Shiodome and Ginza, which means it's true downtown Tokyo. I ran out to get something to eat, and when i got back, I couldn't use my ticket stub to leave the train station. It wouldn't take it for some reason. I assumed that I didn't put enough money on the ticket, so I went to a fare change machine to add some money to it. After not accepting the ticket, it finally took the ticket and kept it. So now I needed to buy a completely new ticket, because I didn't have mine anymore. I went to the guy working behind one of the counters at the exit, told him I lost my ticket, and he waved me through.

Now, this train station has atleast 8 different exits, and I wasn't paying attention when I went in to which exit was my hotel's. I ended up several blocks from my hotel, got directions, ran into horrible construction that made me walk 3 blocks out of my way to get around, and finally arrived back at the hotel. I'm still hungry...

Tokyo

2007-01-12T21:29:00.000+09:00

My hotel bathroom has a giant glass wall that looks out into the room, then over the Tokyo skyline. I can shower, and look out of a giant panoramic window over Tokyo while naked. I love this place.

Not Remotely Related

2007-01-07T17:20:00.000+09:00

I haven't left yet, and won't be until Thursday, so don't expect anything of substance until after then. I do feel the need to tell the tale of the Butter of the Beast, though. I found a box of butter in my apartment that expired on 06/06/06. In December, I was posting some items on ebay, when I thought to put the Butter of the Beast up for auction as well. I wrote a lengthy description, with a surprising number of errors in it, but it can all be found here:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=270062542680

Ofcourse no one buys it, but I didn't expect anybody to do so. Nearly a month later, on January 1st, I get an email from an ebay user named theg1963, that had a question about my auction. Below are the contents of the emails back and forth between myself, and this concerned ebay user:

theg1963: There is nothing paranormal about your butter the numbers are 060606. If it was 666 maybe and even then it's pretty stupid sounding an unbelievable to say the least

Me: I am glad that you took the time out of your busy day to point out that you have absolutely no sense of humor. Not to mention to comment on an auction long since ended. Maybe one day we can all be as cynical as you. Until then, one can only hope that your inability to catch sarcasm and parody remains a core characteristic of your personality. Happy New Year.

theg1963: I thought it was pretty stupid to put something like that on ebay. And the fact that i saw it on a website depicting what some people will try to sell for money

Me: Now you've piqued my curiosity as to what sort of website would find my auction enjoyable. If you get a chance, I would like the link to the site. I'm very curious what other sort of auctions were listed that could generate such scorn and animosity in people such as yourself. I would also like to thank you for taking the time to point out the differences between 06/06/06 and 666. Your eye for detail is appreciated. In addition, you have given me yet another wonderful story to tell. Thanks!

I still have not received any response, and my searches for the site have been unsuccessful.