Captain's log,
I'm sitting in the airport with 2 hours left in my stay here in Japan. I cannot believe a year has gone by.
I still feel like I just got here, I remember arriving and everything that's happened so vividly (minus alcohol-induced blurriness).
But we're done. I'm going home and I have trouble accepting reality for what it is.
My parents came and helped me get all my crap home, which was nice.
We'll be flying to Seattle, then to Atlanta. I'm not wild about this, but I guess I gotta do whatever to get home. We shall see.
Yoko and I are going to try the long distance thing. I'm not sure how I feel about how well we'll be able to do this. Downside is I told my ex (and best friend here) this, and she now hates me. To the point of cutting off contact. It hurts, but I guess she just has to hate me for a while. Hopefully things will be ok again someday.
I can't wait to see my friends again. I look forward to Warped Tour and my coming home party. I look forward to cheap things, meat, proper cheesecake, and good beer. I'm looking forward to having the freedom of a car again, but I'm not wild about driving again. I haven't done it in a year, and I will be terrified of Georgia traffic. I guess we'll just see how that goes.
Well, it was fun, went by too quick, and the damage has been done. The curtain has fallen, and the actors have taken their bows. Goodbye, Japan, I love you and I'll miss you. You can guarantee I'll be back someday. But when is a question of speculation.
I thank you and apologize at the same time. In the meantime, sayonara.
End Captain's log.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Worst Post Ever.
Captain's log:
Two days ago was my 300th day in Japan. I find it weird that I've been here for so long, I've gotten used to it.
I've been freaking out that I'm going home in less than two weeks. And even more so about finals. Tomorrow is my listening final and I have a 10 page geography paper due that I'm barely into, and should be working on instead of typing this. Next week I have 2 small papers due and 3 tests. Yippee.
Tomorrow is also the final mountain party. Should be the biggest one ever. I'm going to miss those.
I've been doing a lot of reflecting. I've had the best year of my life. I had thousands of new experiences, new friends, new places, I found love, and new frustrations. It's been great. I don't want to go, but I'm ready to come home. I'm ready to see my friends again.
I made a new girlfriend, dumb thing to do this late in the game, but we're going to try the long-distance thing, and I think we can make it. My ex, and best friend here now hates me. Which hurts, but maybe things will be ok one day.
I have graduation looming over my head. I'm terrified of it. I don't want to grow up, and I don't want to go out into the world like this. I guess I don't have a choice, really.
My parents are coming, they'll be here the 17th-21st. And we're all going home together. What's kind of the monkey-wrench in the plans is that my girlfriend got pulled into this bridal modeling thing on the 18th, and the guy bailed. Now they need a new dude, and they're asking me. It'll take up 3 hours on the 18th, and I'm not sure what to do. Any ideas?
Two days ago was my 300th day in Japan. I find it weird that I've been here for so long, I've gotten used to it.
I've been freaking out that I'm going home in less than two weeks. And even more so about finals. Tomorrow is my listening final and I have a 10 page geography paper due that I'm barely into, and should be working on instead of typing this. Next week I have 2 small papers due and 3 tests. Yippee.
Tomorrow is also the final mountain party. Should be the biggest one ever. I'm going to miss those.
I've been doing a lot of reflecting. I've had the best year of my life. I had thousands of new experiences, new friends, new places, I found love, and new frustrations. It's been great. I don't want to go, but I'm ready to come home. I'm ready to see my friends again.
I made a new girlfriend, dumb thing to do this late in the game, but we're going to try the long-distance thing, and I think we can make it. My ex, and best friend here now hates me. Which hurts, but maybe things will be ok one day.
I have graduation looming over my head. I'm terrified of it. I don't want to grow up, and I don't want to go out into the world like this. I guess I don't have a choice, really.
My parents are coming, they'll be here the 17th-21st. And we're all going home together. What's kind of the monkey-wrench in the plans is that my girlfriend got pulled into this bridal modeling thing on the 18th, and the guy bailed. Now they need a new dude, and they're asking me. It'll take up 3 hours on the 18th, and I'm not sure what to do. Any ideas?
Monday, June 21, 2010
Generic, Meaningful Title
Captain's log,
So there is exactly a month left in my time here. And I am freaking out. What's funny is before I left America, it never once hit me with "holy crap, you're going to Japan!" or anything like that. Even as I was getting on the plane, nothing. But now it's "HOLYSHITYOU'REGOINGBACKTOAMERICADOSOMETHING!!!"
So I'm going to Hiroshima finally this coming weekend. Which should rock. Almost everything's been taken care of. Meeting Lindsay there to show us around, and I look forward to trying hormone-yaki (grilled organs) cause I've never had anything like tripe.
Pretty much all parties have been scheduled until the end, my schedule is almost completely full. Meaning I'm going to be completely broke by the end of this.
I don't want to go. I've had the best year of my life, which I know sounds cliche and cheesy, but it really has been. I have almost no bad memories. That said, I would kill to see my friends back home again.
I love this country, though I could never live here permanently. This country will never fully accept me into society, and my job opportunities are pretty much teacher. I could never raise a kid here because I don't like the education and social systems. There is a phrase that goes "the nail that stands up is hammered down," which basically means all creativity and individuality is crushed. In elementary school, it's all math and kanji, and if the kid does something different than the teacher, they are wrong. They aren't taught to reach for the sky or that you can be whatever you want to be. The best the kids look for is to do well in highschool to get into a university with decent standing to get a job at a decent company. Imagination and individuality are discouraged if not downright punished, and I find that terrifying. Kids don't even raise their hands to answer, or even ask questions in class.
The social system is still moderately sexist, and really focuses on the date crowd and date-y activities. Girls develop this dependence on boyfriends to be happy. One of the ryuugakusei here said she would always get mad at the Japanese girls doing exchange at her school because half of them moped around because they couldn't see their boyfriend, the other moped around because they didn't have a boyfriend. They don't teach people independence or to stand up for themselves, which is equally terrifying.
I am mortified of when I graduate. I'm going to shoot for Cartoon Network, or someone that makes cartoons, but I'm not banking on it. I will probably come back to Japan, teach English, get fluent, go to Taiwan, teach English, learn Chinese, then go back to America or move to Australia and work for the airlines or something. I don't know. There's a lot of conversations I need to have.
I feel my future is bleak.
So there is exactly a month left in my time here. And I am freaking out. What's funny is before I left America, it never once hit me with "holy crap, you're going to Japan!" or anything like that. Even as I was getting on the plane, nothing. But now it's "HOLYSHITYOU'REGOINGBACKTOAMERICADOSOMETHING!!!"
So I'm going to Hiroshima finally this coming weekend. Which should rock. Almost everything's been taken care of. Meeting Lindsay there to show us around, and I look forward to trying hormone-yaki (grilled organs) cause I've never had anything like tripe.
Pretty much all parties have been scheduled until the end, my schedule is almost completely full. Meaning I'm going to be completely broke by the end of this.
I don't want to go. I've had the best year of my life, which I know sounds cliche and cheesy, but it really has been. I have almost no bad memories. That said, I would kill to see my friends back home again.
I love this country, though I could never live here permanently. This country will never fully accept me into society, and my job opportunities are pretty much teacher. I could never raise a kid here because I don't like the education and social systems. There is a phrase that goes "the nail that stands up is hammered down," which basically means all creativity and individuality is crushed. In elementary school, it's all math and kanji, and if the kid does something different than the teacher, they are wrong. They aren't taught to reach for the sky or that you can be whatever you want to be. The best the kids look for is to do well in highschool to get into a university with decent standing to get a job at a decent company. Imagination and individuality are discouraged if not downright punished, and I find that terrifying. Kids don't even raise their hands to answer, or even ask questions in class.
The social system is still moderately sexist, and really focuses on the date crowd and date-y activities. Girls develop this dependence on boyfriends to be happy. One of the ryuugakusei here said she would always get mad at the Japanese girls doing exchange at her school because half of them moped around because they couldn't see their boyfriend, the other moped around because they didn't have a boyfriend. They don't teach people independence or to stand up for themselves, which is equally terrifying.
I am mortified of when I graduate. I'm going to shoot for Cartoon Network, or someone that makes cartoons, but I'm not banking on it. I will probably come back to Japan, teach English, get fluent, go to Taiwan, teach English, learn Chinese, then go back to America or move to Australia and work for the airlines or something. I don't know. There's a lot of conversations I need to have.
I feel my future is bleak.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Crunch Time
Captain's Log:
I have never forgotten about this thing, I'm just lazy/haven't had anything too eventful going on.
It's go time. There's a month and a half left and I'm really feeling the time strain. Went to Shikoku and Naoshima last weekend with Mayo, which was fun, but I missed out on this big Sannomiya trip and my friend's birthday shindig.
Other than that, I go to Ayabe on a field trip next weekend, and finally getting to Hiroshima the weekend after that. My traveling will pretty much be done then, there's a couple of places I plan to go when my parents get here. They arrive the 17th, I move out of my dorm the 18th, I come home the 21st.
I'm in a weird place right now. I keep meeting new people and want to hang out with them, I hardly see a lot of the friends I made first semester, which is kinda sad. I want to stay and hang out and improve my language, but I'm dying to get home and see my friends. It really feels like like forever ago and just yesterday that I arrived, bright eyed and confused. Now I'm used to everything and my confusion is aimed elsewhere. I'm mostly getting heavy doses of anxiety as friendships are strained and my future comes crashing in.
I look forward to coming back.
I have never forgotten about this thing, I'm just lazy/haven't had anything too eventful going on.
It's go time. There's a month and a half left and I'm really feeling the time strain. Went to Shikoku and Naoshima last weekend with Mayo, which was fun, but I missed out on this big Sannomiya trip and my friend's birthday shindig.
Other than that, I go to Ayabe on a field trip next weekend, and finally getting to Hiroshima the weekend after that. My traveling will pretty much be done then, there's a couple of places I plan to go when my parents get here. They arrive the 17th, I move out of my dorm the 18th, I come home the 21st.
I'm in a weird place right now. I keep meeting new people and want to hang out with them, I hardly see a lot of the friends I made first semester, which is kinda sad. I want to stay and hang out and improve my language, but I'm dying to get home and see my friends. It really feels like like forever ago and just yesterday that I arrived, bright eyed and confused. Now I'm used to everything and my confusion is aimed elsewhere. I'm mostly getting heavy doses of anxiety as friendships are strained and my future comes crashing in.
I look forward to coming back.
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Changes
Captain's log,
The past couple of weeks have been fun. Nothing too note worthy. Finally got a mountain party to happen. Then after that went to another pretty awesome party. This past week involved a couple of karaoke ventures.
On wednesday I went to Karaoke for the first time with nothing but Japanese people. Which was rather interesting. I sang only two songs, and it was funny how quiet everyone got when I was up, cause none of them spoke English (I'm not good enough to sing in Japanese). Not only does pretty much everyone sing, but they even did the freaking dance moves, which was humorous and terrifying at the same time.
Yesterday was a full day. Moved out of my homestay and into my shiny, new dorm. It's really cool cause I have so much space. It's pretty much an apartment and I love it. That said, I have more rules here than I ever did in my homestay. I still have to call when I'll be out late and whatnot, I have a "curfew" that I am never going to abide by, I'm not allowed to have girls over, and a number of other things that's basically a slap in the face to my past 3 years of living on my own/being an adult. Oh well. Whatever.
After I established myself, I noticed my dorm is missing quite a number of essentials, such as toilet paper. So I had to go grab a few things. Eventually went to Sannomiya and finished off everything.
In Sannomiya, my girlfriend and I decided to break up. We're still friends, and maybe even some day might get back together, but right now we're done. I'm just glad everything's on good terms.
The past couple of weeks have been fun. Nothing too note worthy. Finally got a mountain party to happen. Then after that went to another pretty awesome party. This past week involved a couple of karaoke ventures.
On wednesday I went to Karaoke for the first time with nothing but Japanese people. Which was rather interesting. I sang only two songs, and it was funny how quiet everyone got when I was up, cause none of them spoke English (I'm not good enough to sing in Japanese). Not only does pretty much everyone sing, but they even did the freaking dance moves, which was humorous and terrifying at the same time.
Yesterday was a full day. Moved out of my homestay and into my shiny, new dorm. It's really cool cause I have so much space. It's pretty much an apartment and I love it. That said, I have more rules here than I ever did in my homestay. I still have to call when I'll be out late and whatnot, I have a "curfew" that I am never going to abide by, I'm not allowed to have girls over, and a number of other things that's basically a slap in the face to my past 3 years of living on my own/being an adult. Oh well. Whatever.
After I established myself, I noticed my dorm is missing quite a number of essentials, such as toilet paper. So I had to go grab a few things. Eventually went to Sannomiya and finished off everything.
In Sannomiya, my girlfriend and I decided to break up. We're still friends, and maybe even some day might get back together, but right now we're done. I'm just glad everything's on good terms.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
No, I didn't forget about this thing
Captain's log:
Until school got going, not much had really happened. Intensive period finally ended, then solace faded to boredom.
I finally tried whale, which was delicious. I want to try horse soon.
Sakura kicked in, which was really pretty. Japan has these trees EVERYWHERE, that are barren and ugly for 11 months out of the year, then BAM! April hits and they're exploding with pretty. Because of this, I went on a lot of picnics.
Mayo went off to Tokyo for job training around the 1st. She comes back this coming friday.
Met a lot of the new kids. I like most of them. A couple of the Oxford kids are a little stuck up, but with any luck they'll grow out of it. One dude thinks he's punk, does his hair like Cloud Strife, and basically doesn't interact with us. I talked to him once and found out he suffers from being a dick.
I tried to organize a mountain party, cause we hadn't had one since my birthday, but God goes "no," and it rained. So we all went to an izakaya instead, which was still a lot of fun. I rescheduled the event for this coming friday.
Now for classes, my schedule is:
Mon - Japanese Poetry and Korean Studies
Tues - Japanese Grammar and Japanese Speaking/Listening
Wed - Either Grammar or S/L and Kanji
Thurs - Nothing. It's awesome.
Fri - Japanese Grammar, Japanese Speaking/Listening, and Japanese Human Geography
Poetry seems like it'll be good, LOVE Geog, wish I could have switched out of Korean to Japanese Psychology.
Grammar and Kanji are same old same old, but speaking and listening is atrocious. I've had this teacher before, but never for speaking and listening, and she was already a bad teacher. Now she's abysmal. Terrible examples, I don't even know what we're going over, and quizzes and tests are poorly conducted. /whine
Moving on, I've been trying to schedule my classes at UGA, I've got Intro to New Media, Intro to Korean, and Creative Writing. Not sure what to fill up my last slot with, possibly philosophy, but I can't decide whether to take intro or logic.
And finally, I have to move out of my homestay. My host mother's daughter lives in Holland with her husband, and they're going to have a baby. Since she can't make it back to Japan in time, they're going to her, which means I've got to go. I'll be moving to the dorms in Imazu, and I"m actually really excited about it because I'm tired of living with people.
Anywho, I felt rushed before, now more than ever. I don't have much time left, I need more practice and I have more things to see. These next couple of months will be interesting.
Until school got going, not much had really happened. Intensive period finally ended, then solace faded to boredom.
I finally tried whale, which was delicious. I want to try horse soon.
Sakura kicked in, which was really pretty. Japan has these trees EVERYWHERE, that are barren and ugly for 11 months out of the year, then BAM! April hits and they're exploding with pretty. Because of this, I went on a lot of picnics.
Mayo went off to Tokyo for job training around the 1st. She comes back this coming friday.
Met a lot of the new kids. I like most of them. A couple of the Oxford kids are a little stuck up, but with any luck they'll grow out of it. One dude thinks he's punk, does his hair like Cloud Strife, and basically doesn't interact with us. I talked to him once and found out he suffers from being a dick.
I tried to organize a mountain party, cause we hadn't had one since my birthday, but God goes "no," and it rained. So we all went to an izakaya instead, which was still a lot of fun. I rescheduled the event for this coming friday.
Now for classes, my schedule is:
Mon - Japanese Poetry and Korean Studies
Tues - Japanese Grammar and Japanese Speaking/Listening
Wed - Either Grammar or S/L and Kanji
Thurs - Nothing. It's awesome.
Fri - Japanese Grammar, Japanese Speaking/Listening, and Japanese Human Geography
Poetry seems like it'll be good, LOVE Geog, wish I could have switched out of Korean to Japanese Psychology.
Grammar and Kanji are same old same old, but speaking and listening is atrocious. I've had this teacher before, but never for speaking and listening, and she was already a bad teacher. Now she's abysmal. Terrible examples, I don't even know what we're going over, and quizzes and tests are poorly conducted. /whine
Moving on, I've been trying to schedule my classes at UGA, I've got Intro to New Media, Intro to Korean, and Creative Writing. Not sure what to fill up my last slot with, possibly philosophy, but I can't decide whether to take intro or logic.
And finally, I have to move out of my homestay. My host mother's daughter lives in Holland with her husband, and they're going to have a baby. Since she can't make it back to Japan in time, they're going to her, which means I've got to go. I'll be moving to the dorms in Imazu, and I"m actually really excited about it because I'm tired of living with people.
Anywho, I felt rushed before, now more than ever. I don't have much time left, I need more practice and I have more things to see. These next couple of months will be interesting.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Nagano
Captain's log,
I got back from Nagano at about 6:30 this morning, got home just before 8:00.
The trip was amazing. We met up at about 8:30 on wednesday, and took a night bus to Nagano. This night bus was kinda cramped, and I'm glad no one sat next to me so I had more room. At one of the stops, I ran into a friend of mine, I didn't realize it was her until she screamed in surprise. At the second stop, some random broad told me I was handsome, which I thought was funny for a Japanese person to be brave enough to say.
We finally arrive around 6:40ish in the morning. We take our crap down to this big room, change, and prepare for the day of boarding - sans shower :'(
My snowboarding outfit is all black, and because of this, my tennis circle dubbed me "kokujin," which is the word for black people, much to my amusement.
The weather was perfect, snowing with grey skies. Sadly the sun came out a little bit, but it disappeared again, the weather was even better the second day. Not to mention the mountain scenery was beautiful on an epic scale.
Out of the entire group, I think I explored the mountain the most. I doubt most of them even realized there was a back side of it, which took me a while to figure out how to get to. For all of the first day, and most of the second, the majority of the group was content to stick to one or two runs. Since I have the attention span of a gnat, I quickly moved on to greener (more dangerous/fun) pastures.
The first and second days, as I mentioned, had pretty much perfect weather, there was a good supply of powder, and I only needed to get my board waxed a couple times. The third day was the worst. The sun was out, and it didn't really snow overnight, so everything was icy i.e. dangerous. Not the fun kind of dangerous either, the actual concern dangerous. I ran into a lot of issues of going to fast and not being able to make turns properly, and the irony of (moderately) gracefully coming down a black diamond run (with mouguls), only to bust ass on the bunny slopes near the lifts. Even worse was some of the snow would get kind of slushy. And if your board isn't properly waxed, it will grab and drag a bit. I foolishly ignored this twice, and fell on my head both times, hurting my neck a good deal. Thankfully, I'm indestructible.
On the evening of the second night, we had our nomikai (drinking party). This further emphasized the fact that I need to learn Japanese drinking songs, cause they were fun. I started to learn the words of some of them, but that's only because they were repeated over and over. Lots of beer and umeshu (plum wine, it's retardedly sweet, but thankfully is 10%), and some whiskey. The circle kids would basically pick someone at random and hand them drinks, giving them more if they drank it too fast, too slow, if they were cute, or really they would make up reasons just to make them drink more. They only victimized me once, which kinda sucked because the drink I had just made myself was 50% terrible whiskey. Once all the alcohol was gone, I went to a vending machine and bought some sake to finish the night. Everyone (but me of course) was red faced, which is a funny side effect when you combine Asians with alcohol. Many of them didn't remember much of the evening. But it was cute, cause they all told me how much they loved me :3
We just all wish we could communicate better :/
Other than that, the Motion City Soundtrack show was great, sadly the crowd didn't move that much this time. Oreskaband was fun, and Riddim Saunter was amazing. I really wanted to talk to MCS after the show, since I was one of two gaijin in the crowd, but Mayo had to catch her bus. Oh well. I caught one of Tony's drumsticks! So that made me happy, and you can see me in the crowd on this video (around 0:55), which also makes me feel special. I'm pretty easy to find, I'm near the front, and I'm the redhead with the red shirt.
Tomorrow is White Day, if you remember how I explained Valentine's Day a few entries back, this is the reciprocal day for dudes to give stuff back to the ladies. Since I planned v-day, Mayo gets to plan tomorrow. We're going to Kyoto! We'll see Nijo-jo, some other stuff, and buy my kimono. Sadly, I don't think sakuras are blooming yet, so it looks like I'll be going to Kyoto at least one more time after this.
I'm also really glad the intensive period is over. It was an epic pain. I look forward to meeting the new kids. I also look forward to hanging out with Taiki on tuesday, apparently some UGA kids are coming out. Party funtime.
I got back from Nagano at about 6:30 this morning, got home just before 8:00.
The trip was amazing. We met up at about 8:30 on wednesday, and took a night bus to Nagano. This night bus was kinda cramped, and I'm glad no one sat next to me so I had more room. At one of the stops, I ran into a friend of mine, I didn't realize it was her until she screamed in surprise. At the second stop, some random broad told me I was handsome, which I thought was funny for a Japanese person to be brave enough to say.
We finally arrive around 6:40ish in the morning. We take our crap down to this big room, change, and prepare for the day of boarding - sans shower :'(
My snowboarding outfit is all black, and because of this, my tennis circle dubbed me "kokujin," which is the word for black people, much to my amusement.
The weather was perfect, snowing with grey skies. Sadly the sun came out a little bit, but it disappeared again, the weather was even better the second day. Not to mention the mountain scenery was beautiful on an epic scale.
Out of the entire group, I think I explored the mountain the most. I doubt most of them even realized there was a back side of it, which took me a while to figure out how to get to. For all of the first day, and most of the second, the majority of the group was content to stick to one or two runs. Since I have the attention span of a gnat, I quickly moved on to greener (more dangerous/fun) pastures.
The first and second days, as I mentioned, had pretty much perfect weather, there was a good supply of powder, and I only needed to get my board waxed a couple times. The third day was the worst. The sun was out, and it didn't really snow overnight, so everything was icy i.e. dangerous. Not the fun kind of dangerous either, the actual concern dangerous. I ran into a lot of issues of going to fast and not being able to make turns properly, and the irony of (moderately) gracefully coming down a black diamond run (with mouguls), only to bust ass on the bunny slopes near the lifts. Even worse was some of the snow would get kind of slushy. And if your board isn't properly waxed, it will grab and drag a bit. I foolishly ignored this twice, and fell on my head both times, hurting my neck a good deal. Thankfully, I'm indestructible.
On the evening of the second night, we had our nomikai (drinking party). This further emphasized the fact that I need to learn Japanese drinking songs, cause they were fun. I started to learn the words of some of them, but that's only because they were repeated over and over. Lots of beer and umeshu (plum wine, it's retardedly sweet, but thankfully is 10%), and some whiskey. The circle kids would basically pick someone at random and hand them drinks, giving them more if they drank it too fast, too slow, if they were cute, or really they would make up reasons just to make them drink more. They only victimized me once, which kinda sucked because the drink I had just made myself was 50% terrible whiskey. Once all the alcohol was gone, I went to a vending machine and bought some sake to finish the night. Everyone (but me of course) was red faced, which is a funny side effect when you combine Asians with alcohol. Many of them didn't remember much of the evening. But it was cute, cause they all told me how much they loved me :3
We just all wish we could communicate better :/
Other than that, the Motion City Soundtrack show was great, sadly the crowd didn't move that much this time. Oreskaband was fun, and Riddim Saunter was amazing. I really wanted to talk to MCS after the show, since I was one of two gaijin in the crowd, but Mayo had to catch her bus. Oh well. I caught one of Tony's drumsticks! So that made me happy, and you can see me in the crowd on this video (around 0:55), which also makes me feel special. I'm pretty easy to find, I'm near the front, and I'm the redhead with the red shirt.
Tomorrow is White Day, if you remember how I explained Valentine's Day a few entries back, this is the reciprocal day for dudes to give stuff back to the ladies. Since I planned v-day, Mayo gets to plan tomorrow. We're going to Kyoto! We'll see Nijo-jo, some other stuff, and buy my kimono. Sadly, I don't think sakuras are blooming yet, so it looks like I'll be going to Kyoto at least one more time after this.
I'm also really glad the intensive period is over. It was an epic pain. I look forward to meeting the new kids. I also look forward to hanging out with Taiki on tuesday, apparently some UGA kids are coming out. Party funtime.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Reflection and Plans
Captain's Log:
We had our "orientation" for the coming Spring semester today after our morning Japanese classes. They're not offering one of the classes I need to do to get my credit transfer. Damn.
It was in room G202.
The first and the only time I've ever been in that room, were the three days followed after the placement test in mid-September last year.
We talked a lot today, about what seemed like just a few weeks ago that we, excited and lost, were having our first orientation about the 10 and half months ahead of us. Today, I sat here... 5 months down, 5 and half more to go.
Remember I wrote about the placement test back then? I felt especially stupid while doing it because the girl in front of me, was practically going through the whole thing effortlessly, which gave me a slight shock. But she turned out to be one of the two people who could take normal university courses with normal Japanese students straight away.
Time really flies. At first, things seemed like a bit of a drag, but once they're over, and you make friends the days go by faster than you can count them. And it goes without saying how much my Japanese have really improved in these few months. Despite that it still sucks...
The amount of people that filled the room, practically halved than it was just 5 short months ago. From what I've heard, there's at least double the amount of people that's coming in the next semester for just one semester, and even the university said themselves that they'd be expecting a lot of people to be in levels 3 and 4 Japanese classes during the next semester, and so they'll be splitting one of these levels into 2 classes. I'll be level 3, so this could be interesting.
First semester, we had 15 or 16 kids in our class, now we number at 7. I'm looking to welcome the new kids.
We're about to have another break. I'm gonna go see Motion City Soundtrack the day before exams. Sadly I'll miss out on my tennis circle's going away party for the 4th years, but I was going to miss that anyway. Sad day.
However, immediately after that, I'm going snowboarding with them in Nagano, which I'm pretty stoked about. And we found out there's a ferry from Kobe to Shanghai that's only, like, $30. But visas to get into China are about $100, which is unfortunate, I was looking forward to a week of cheap, opposed to the life of expensive in Japan. I guess I'll go to Hiroshima instead.
I normally hate when people do things like this, but I have to brag about my girlfriend. We've been together for 2 months now (which have flown by), and it's been awesome. She's cute, silly, open about everything, gets and laughs at (most of) my jokes, and most importantly, not crazy (such a nice change). She's pretty much a westerner with Japanese quirks, and I love it. This may not end well, but I'm going to enjoy it while I can. My only criticism is that I wish she spoke less English with me. So yea, happiness.
We had our "orientation" for the coming Spring semester today after our morning Japanese classes. They're not offering one of the classes I need to do to get my credit transfer. Damn.
It was in room G202.
The first and the only time I've ever been in that room, were the three days followed after the placement test in mid-September last year.
We talked a lot today, about what seemed like just a few weeks ago that we, excited and lost, were having our first orientation about the 10 and half months ahead of us. Today, I sat here... 5 months down, 5 and half more to go.
Remember I wrote about the placement test back then? I felt especially stupid while doing it because the girl in front of me, was practically going through the whole thing effortlessly, which gave me a slight shock. But she turned out to be one of the two people who could take normal university courses with normal Japanese students straight away.
Time really flies. At first, things seemed like a bit of a drag, but once they're over, and you make friends the days go by faster than you can count them. And it goes without saying how much my Japanese have really improved in these few months. Despite that it still sucks...
The amount of people that filled the room, practically halved than it was just 5 short months ago. From what I've heard, there's at least double the amount of people that's coming in the next semester for just one semester, and even the university said themselves that they'd be expecting a lot of people to be in levels 3 and 4 Japanese classes during the next semester, and so they'll be splitting one of these levels into 2 classes. I'll be level 3, so this could be interesting.
First semester, we had 15 or 16 kids in our class, now we number at 7. I'm looking to welcome the new kids.
We're about to have another break. I'm gonna go see Motion City Soundtrack the day before exams. Sadly I'll miss out on my tennis circle's going away party for the 4th years, but I was going to miss that anyway. Sad day.
However, immediately after that, I'm going snowboarding with them in Nagano, which I'm pretty stoked about. And we found out there's a ferry from Kobe to Shanghai that's only, like, $30. But visas to get into China are about $100, which is unfortunate, I was looking forward to a week of cheap, opposed to the life of expensive in Japan. I guess I'll go to Hiroshima instead.
I normally hate when people do things like this, but I have to brag about my girlfriend. We've been together for 2 months now (which have flown by), and it's been awesome. She's cute, silly, open about everything, gets and laughs at (most of) my jokes, and most importantly, not crazy (such a nice change). She's pretty much a westerner with Japanese quirks, and I love it. This may not end well, but I'm going to enjoy it while I can. My only criticism is that I wish she spoke less English with me. So yea, happiness.
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Been Busy, My Bad.
Captain's Log:
A lot has happened in recent days. Pretty much as soon as I got back from Tokyo, the intensive period started. The intensive period is basically a semester crammed into a month, it's 15 hours of solid Japanese classes a week. I was dreading it, but it's not as bad as I thought it was going to be. What will kill me is waking up at 6:40 every morning so I can catch my 9 am class.
My biggest gripe about the intensive period, is that it's basically a chapter a day, meaning we pretty much have no time to make sure everyone has an understanding of the material. I've been kinda floundering for the past couple chapters.
Other than that, Valentine's Day was last sunday, it was the first one I've actually had a girlfriend on. It was fun. We went to this awesome Spanish tapas restaurant, then to the sky building. Valentine's Day is very different in Japan than in America. In America, it's usually the chicks getting showered with materialistic objects, demonstrating that they really are loved if their man will empty a paycheck on them in a day. Here, pretty much the only tradition is the chicks give the dudes chocolate. Which is awesome. Then a month later, they have White Day, where the dudes reciprocate with candy for the chicks. I have 3 girls I have to reciprocate to.
Last night, my lady and I had a date in Sannomiya, we went to a place called Lock-Up, which I heard was an izakaya where they put you in cages, and guys dressed as monsters randomly come up and scare you or something. The place was interesting. It was kind of jail/halloween themed. We went in and the hostess, dressed as a sexy police officer (the rest of the staff wore striped prison uniforms), asks if we had been bad. She handcuffs us and leads us to our table. We get our food and drinks and enjoy the cool atmosphere. A lot of the food was spicy (like, habanero stuff, which is pretty tough to find here), sadly, my girlfriend is Japanese, and therefore can't handle spicy. At all. At 7:20, they had their event, where dudes dressed as monsters came around and hassled customers, then the sexy police officer comes and kills them. Afterwards, the music was the Brian Setzer Orchestra for at least 20 minutes. If it weren't so expensive, I would have been in love with the place.
Other than that, there's not much to report, other than gripes about my classes, the culture (I've been saving that for an entry - I'm just lazy), and I desperately need a haircut. It's almost down to my chin again.
A lot has happened in recent days. Pretty much as soon as I got back from Tokyo, the intensive period started. The intensive period is basically a semester crammed into a month, it's 15 hours of solid Japanese classes a week. I was dreading it, but it's not as bad as I thought it was going to be. What will kill me is waking up at 6:40 every morning so I can catch my 9 am class.
My biggest gripe about the intensive period, is that it's basically a chapter a day, meaning we pretty much have no time to make sure everyone has an understanding of the material. I've been kinda floundering for the past couple chapters.
Other than that, Valentine's Day was last sunday, it was the first one I've actually had a girlfriend on. It was fun. We went to this awesome Spanish tapas restaurant, then to the sky building. Valentine's Day is very different in Japan than in America. In America, it's usually the chicks getting showered with materialistic objects, demonstrating that they really are loved if their man will empty a paycheck on them in a day. Here, pretty much the only tradition is the chicks give the dudes chocolate. Which is awesome. Then a month later, they have White Day, where the dudes reciprocate with candy for the chicks. I have 3 girls I have to reciprocate to.
Last night, my lady and I had a date in Sannomiya, we went to a place called Lock-Up, which I heard was an izakaya where they put you in cages, and guys dressed as monsters randomly come up and scare you or something. The place was interesting. It was kind of jail/halloween themed. We went in and the hostess, dressed as a sexy police officer (the rest of the staff wore striped prison uniforms), asks if we had been bad. She handcuffs us and leads us to our table. We get our food and drinks and enjoy the cool atmosphere. A lot of the food was spicy (like, habanero stuff, which is pretty tough to find here), sadly, my girlfriend is Japanese, and therefore can't handle spicy. At all. At 7:20, they had their event, where dudes dressed as monsters came around and hassled customers, then the sexy police officer comes and kills them. Afterwards, the music was the Brian Setzer Orchestra for at least 20 minutes. If it weren't so expensive, I would have been in love with the place.
Other than that, there's not much to report, other than gripes about my classes, the culture (I've been saving that for an entry - I'm just lazy), and I desperately need a haircut. It's almost down to my chin again.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Tokyo!
Captain's Log,
Not much has happened between the last entry and going to Tokyo, mostly been hanging out with the girlfriend.
Anywho, we took a night bus to Tokyo (just Mayo and I), and arrived in downtown Shinjuku. Upon getting off the bus, I was greeted by a building that resembled a giant phallus. I laughed and took it as an omen that I would love this trip.
We get to our hotel around 9:00 am and are told we can't check into our room until 3:00. Since we were just on a bus all night with no shower, I am not pleased with this news.
We make the best of it and just move on. We first went to Akhabara, which was cool. Mostly shopping, particularly electronics and porn. We went into a 6-floor sex shop, which I akin to Dante's Inferno, in that each floor was like a circle of Hell.
We walked from Akihabara to Ueno, which was also cool. We spent most of our time in the Museum of Natural History. I love dinosaurs.
By the time we left, it was 2:00, and we were starving, so we go and get lunch, then head to Asakusa.
Asakusa was cool, bought some omiyage there, and it was starting to get dark so we went back to the hotel to shower, eat dinner, and whatnot.
Next day involved getting up at 6:00 to go to Tsukiji, which has this awesome giant fish market. We went there and looked at the shops, I had some of the best tuna and crab I've ever had in my life, and the best part is that it was caught that morning, so it's also the freshest I will ever have as well.
After all of this, we went to Shibuya, Harajuku, Shinjuku, and others to go shopping. I really liked Harajuku. I was just irked because there's a certain style of jacket I'm looking for, but when I manage to find one I actually like, it's either too expensive or doesn't fit. Woe is me.
After shopping and having dinner in Shinjuku (including hot-light Krispy Kreme!), we go to Tokyo Tower, which was cool, but a bit of a rip-off. Afterwards, we were exhausted, but kept getting delayed. One of the most notable delays was the train, because somewhere on the Tokyo loop, someone has thrown their-self into the train. Yummy.
We got to sleep in the next day. So we head out around 10:30-11ish. We mostly revisited areas, shopping and looking at things we missed. Then at night we went to Odaiba for dinner, more shopping, and to be date-y.
We got steak for dinner. It was amazing. After that we wandered around the island and rode a giant (overpriced) ferris wheel. It was fun.
The next day involved us checking out and going to Yokohama, we stashed our suitcases in lockers, and did some more shopping, and went to Kamakura to see the Daibutsu (giant Buddha statue).
We took a shinkansen back to Osaka, which was cool, and it SNOWED!! Yay! Didn't stick, but oh well.
The intensive period starts up tomorrow, it will be 15 hours a week of nothing but Japanese classes. I am going to die. Wish me luck.
Not much has happened between the last entry and going to Tokyo, mostly been hanging out with the girlfriend.
Anywho, we took a night bus to Tokyo (just Mayo and I), and arrived in downtown Shinjuku. Upon getting off the bus, I was greeted by a building that resembled a giant phallus. I laughed and took it as an omen that I would love this trip.
We get to our hotel around 9:00 am and are told we can't check into our room until 3:00. Since we were just on a bus all night with no shower, I am not pleased with this news.
We make the best of it and just move on. We first went to Akhabara, which was cool. Mostly shopping, particularly electronics and porn. We went into a 6-floor sex shop, which I akin to Dante's Inferno, in that each floor was like a circle of Hell.
We walked from Akihabara to Ueno, which was also cool. We spent most of our time in the Museum of Natural History. I love dinosaurs.
By the time we left, it was 2:00, and we were starving, so we go and get lunch, then head to Asakusa.
Asakusa was cool, bought some omiyage there, and it was starting to get dark so we went back to the hotel to shower, eat dinner, and whatnot.
Next day involved getting up at 6:00 to go to Tsukiji, which has this awesome giant fish market. We went there and looked at the shops, I had some of the best tuna and crab I've ever had in my life, and the best part is that it was caught that morning, so it's also the freshest I will ever have as well.
After all of this, we went to Shibuya, Harajuku, Shinjuku, and others to go shopping. I really liked Harajuku. I was just irked because there's a certain style of jacket I'm looking for, but when I manage to find one I actually like, it's either too expensive or doesn't fit. Woe is me.
After shopping and having dinner in Shinjuku (including hot-light Krispy Kreme!), we go to Tokyo Tower, which was cool, but a bit of a rip-off. Afterwards, we were exhausted, but kept getting delayed. One of the most notable delays was the train, because somewhere on the Tokyo loop, someone has thrown their-self into the train. Yummy.
We got to sleep in the next day. So we head out around 10:30-11ish. We mostly revisited areas, shopping and looking at things we missed. Then at night we went to Odaiba for dinner, more shopping, and to be date-y.
We got steak for dinner. It was amazing. After that we wandered around the island and rode a giant (overpriced) ferris wheel. It was fun.
The next day involved us checking out and going to Yokohama, we stashed our suitcases in lockers, and did some more shopping, and went to Kamakura to see the Daibutsu (giant Buddha statue).
We took a shinkansen back to Osaka, which was cool, and it SNOWED!! Yay! Didn't stick, but oh well.
The intensive period starts up tomorrow, it will be 15 hours a week of nothing but Japanese classes. I am going to die. Wish me luck.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
I get so lazy when it comes to writing these
Captain's log:
Haven't updated in a while because of exams and papers. I think I did ok. Anywho, much of the past few days have been parties and hanging out with my girlfriend.
The parties were fun, they were typically tabehodai and nomihodais, so nothing new to report on. A lot of the ryuugakusei have left, which is depressing.
The day before yesterday was a good day. My girlfriend and I went to the Osaka aquarium! It was fun, and had a lot of cool stuff. A little smaller than the GA aquarium, but I felt it had a bigger variety. Afterwards we got lunch and rode this gigantic ferris wheel, and then we went to Shinsaibashi to explore and kill time before dinner. All in all, it was a good, full day.
Found out we won't really have time to go in March, so my girlfriend and I are going to Tokyo in about a week or so, should be good. We're hitting up Harajuku, Shibuya, Ueno, Ginza, Akihabara, Shinjuku, Yokohama, Kamakura, and a few other places. Night bus there and shinkansen back. Good times will ensue.
Need to start on my linguistics paper, my topic is effective methods of teaching articles to Japanese learners of English.
Haven't updated in a while because of exams and papers. I think I did ok. Anywho, much of the past few days have been parties and hanging out with my girlfriend.
The parties were fun, they were typically tabehodai and nomihodais, so nothing new to report on. A lot of the ryuugakusei have left, which is depressing.
The day before yesterday was a good day. My girlfriend and I went to the Osaka aquarium! It was fun, and had a lot of cool stuff. A little smaller than the GA aquarium, but I felt it had a bigger variety. Afterwards we got lunch and rode this gigantic ferris wheel, and then we went to Shinsaibashi to explore and kill time before dinner. All in all, it was a good, full day.
Found out we won't really have time to go in March, so my girlfriend and I are going to Tokyo in about a week or so, should be good. We're hitting up Harajuku, Shibuya, Ueno, Ginza, Akihabara, Shinjuku, Yokohama, Kamakura, and a few other places. Night bus there and shinkansen back. Good times will ensue.
Need to start on my linguistics paper, my topic is effective methods of teaching articles to Japanese learners of English.
Saturday, January 2, 2010
New Years
Captain's log,
A lot has happened in the past few days.
One of the girls from Christmas Eve is now my girlfriend, if you want the full story, ask me on facebook or skype or something.
On the 26th or 27th, she and I went to Osaka Castle, which was a fun little date. The castle was cool, it was prettier than Himeji, but not as big.
On the 28th I went to Kyoto to hang out with my Nihongo partner's family, we made mochi, takoyaki, and some other foods that were pretty good, but Moe's dad started feeding me alcohol at 10:30 in the morning. This continued until 5:00, when I left. I met up with Mayo (my lady) and her friends at Ikeda station, waited a while on Drew and Aaron, they didn't show, so we ate without them. Afterwards, Mayo and I went to Nishinomiya to hang out with Aaron, we drank a bit and spent the night at Bertrand's place.
The next day, I went to meet some friends from my tennis circle for this fancy dinner party. It was a several course meal, and was absolutely delicious.
New Years went waaaaay better than I thought it would. Some kids wanted to go to a club, but because I'm kinda burned out on clubs, and I have a girlfriend now, I was a tad hesitant. Thankfully, however, a lot more people than I thought were coming came, including my girlfriend. So we all went and had a blast. The club did the countdown about 2 minutes late, but it was still fun nonetheless.
Yesterday and today has involved my extended host-family staying over, and lots of food. Tonight I have a date with Mayo for Nepalese food. I'm pretty stoked.
This year so far looks promising. My resolutions are to keep up with working out, be able to have a full conversation in Japanese, and actually get some music recorded. We'll see how that goes.
A lot has happened in the past few days.
One of the girls from Christmas Eve is now my girlfriend, if you want the full story, ask me on facebook or skype or something.
On the 26th or 27th, she and I went to Osaka Castle, which was a fun little date. The castle was cool, it was prettier than Himeji, but not as big.
On the 28th I went to Kyoto to hang out with my Nihongo partner's family, we made mochi, takoyaki, and some other foods that were pretty good, but Moe's dad started feeding me alcohol at 10:30 in the morning. This continued until 5:00, when I left. I met up with Mayo (my lady) and her friends at Ikeda station, waited a while on Drew and Aaron, they didn't show, so we ate without them. Afterwards, Mayo and I went to Nishinomiya to hang out with Aaron, we drank a bit and spent the night at Bertrand's place.
The next day, I went to meet some friends from my tennis circle for this fancy dinner party. It was a several course meal, and was absolutely delicious.
New Years went waaaaay better than I thought it would. Some kids wanted to go to a club, but because I'm kinda burned out on clubs, and I have a girlfriend now, I was a tad hesitant. Thankfully, however, a lot more people than I thought were coming came, including my girlfriend. So we all went and had a blast. The club did the countdown about 2 minutes late, but it was still fun nonetheless.
Yesterday and today has involved my extended host-family staying over, and lots of food. Tonight I have a date with Mayo for Nepalese food. I'm pretty stoked.
This year so far looks promising. My resolutions are to keep up with working out, be able to have a full conversation in Japanese, and actually get some music recorded. We'll see how that goes.
Friday, December 25, 2009
Christmas
Captain's log:
Christmas in Japan is weird. It's like in movies, where a guy gets killed by an alien or something, and takes his place. All of his friends know something's off, but can't quite put their finger on it.
You have the decorations and all that. But no spirit/cheer. It's very strange. This is the most not-Christmas Christmas ever.
Secret Santa was wednesday and went off for the most part without a hitch. I was really pleased and happy everything went well. My present was a bottle of Makers Mark. The ryuugakusei know me too well.
The next day (yesterday), was Christmas Eve. X-mas Eve is pretty much valentines day for the Japanese. Couples go do couple-y things, exchange gifts, and whatnot. So Aaron and his friend, Mayano, set up this singles party at a small restaurant. The only ryuugakusei there were Drew, Aaron, the Norwegians, and Me. The party was awesome. Lots of beer and sochu, the food was excellent, and the company was even better.
I also brought a bottle of Southern Comfort, cause I hadn't had it in so long. A few people helped, but I ended up drinking nearly the entire bottle.
5 of the Japanese girls there pretty much rotated between Drew, Aaron, and me. They were really awesome, got a few numbers and whatnot, and dates will be set up. Eventually we got out, and my memory's a little hazy, but somehow I let my friends talk me into going to a club. I really didn't want to go, but we go anyway and it ends up being terrible.
Came home this morning, went to sleep at about 6, woke up at 10:30, talked to family, talked to friends, mailed postcards (finally), made some bacon. I really haven't done that much today, and I haven't seen my host family. I really don't like being alone in general, much less on Christmas. Today has been very lonely.
I can't decide if I want to still go out on New Years, we'd go to a club. However, New Years is the big family holiday here, so I dunno if it will be all that fun.
Christmas in Japan is weird. It's like in movies, where a guy gets killed by an alien or something, and takes his place. All of his friends know something's off, but can't quite put their finger on it.
You have the decorations and all that. But no spirit/cheer. It's very strange. This is the most not-Christmas Christmas ever.
Secret Santa was wednesday and went off for the most part without a hitch. I was really pleased and happy everything went well. My present was a bottle of Makers Mark. The ryuugakusei know me too well.
The next day (yesterday), was Christmas Eve. X-mas Eve is pretty much valentines day for the Japanese. Couples go do couple-y things, exchange gifts, and whatnot. So Aaron and his friend, Mayano, set up this singles party at a small restaurant. The only ryuugakusei there were Drew, Aaron, the Norwegians, and Me. The party was awesome. Lots of beer and sochu, the food was excellent, and the company was even better.
I also brought a bottle of Southern Comfort, cause I hadn't had it in so long. A few people helped, but I ended up drinking nearly the entire bottle.
5 of the Japanese girls there pretty much rotated between Drew, Aaron, and me. They were really awesome, got a few numbers and whatnot, and dates will be set up. Eventually we got out, and my memory's a little hazy, but somehow I let my friends talk me into going to a club. I really didn't want to go, but we go anyway and it ends up being terrible.
Came home this morning, went to sleep at about 6, woke up at 10:30, talked to family, talked to friends, mailed postcards (finally), made some bacon. I really haven't done that much today, and I haven't seen my host family. I really don't like being alone in general, much less on Christmas. Today has been very lonely.
I can't decide if I want to still go out on New Years, we'd go to a club. However, New Years is the big family holiday here, so I dunno if it will be all that fun.
Sunday, December 13, 2009
I should probably update more.
Captain's log,
Well, a lot has happened over the past week. Last friday, some of us ventured out to Nishinomiya, and found this kickass, American-sized, but most importantly cheap liquor store. And by cheap I mean a liter of beer for $6.00, and a bottle of 7 year old cuban rum for "$22," but it was rang up at $15, but I wasn't going to say anything. It is a shame Cuban stuff isn't sold in the US, cause that stuff was the best rum I've ever had. We took all of our alcohol and hung out in a park, continuing to make a bad name for gaijin (foreigners).
The next day, I went to Nara, which was cool, the daibutsu was impressively large, and is housed in the largest wooden building in the world. The daibutsu is about 52 feet tall, and is by far not the largest in Japan. Insanity came from the shika deer that roam all over Nara. They are regarded as spiritual messengers in Shinto, so they're allowed to do whatever they want. You can buy senbei to feed them, but if you do, god help you. As soon as my friends bought some, the deer swarmed them. It was hilarious and terrifying.
Later that evening, Cooper, Rika, some friends from my tennis circle, and I went to a bar that my friend John knew the owner of. The place was a little pricey. We started doing shots because they were cheaper than beer. Also they served tacos, which were awesome, cause I was fiending for some.
Tuesday was a Nabe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nabemono) party with my friends from my circle, which was fun, but could have been better, here's why.
An example of how Japanese girls can be bitches: I was seeing this one girl, went on a few fairly successful dates, and things were going well. But on friday I helped her make a facebook, she asks what the relationship slot was, I go "do you have a boyfriend?" she says no, and continues filling it out. Now, Christmas Eve is Valentine's Day for the Japanese, so I thought "hey, this might be a good idea," and I ask "Hey, what are you doing on the 24th?" Only to get "I see my boyfriend that day." Words cannot describe my confusion. Upside is I pretty much decided I wasn't that into her.
Anywho, bitching aside, the rest of the week went smoothly. This past friday was this big party for the exchange kids, which was fun, met a whole lot of people, and then we went to Shinsaibashi to go to a club. Sadly, I was put in charge of directing the 30-odd people who were coming, and I think I got sober from the yelling. Eventually I gave up on them and decided I wasn't going to let them ruin my evening.
The club was fun, we went to a place called Onzi-eme, had plenty of people, ok music, and overall wasn't bad. I couldn't get drunk though, meaning I couldn't dance. So I went through a lot of dancing partners. Thankfully Austin is awesome and in his drunken ridiculousness got us some girls to dance with, I ended up dancing with one who didn't even come up to my collar bones. She was so tiny.
Shortly after this, we find out some of our friends were kicked out for stealing liquor bottles from the bar, so we left. I got home around 6:30 in the morning.
Yesterday, we went BACK to Shinsaibashi for this all-you-can-eat pizza place, which wasn't bad. It was a nice change of things. Their chicken nuggets tasted EXACTLY like Chik-fil-a's. It was awesome and terrifying.
It's 10 days till Secret Santa, I'm excited. I've got 4 more parties this month. 3 Christmas, and 1 Costume. I need to borrow another schoolgirl outfit...
Well, a lot has happened over the past week. Last friday, some of us ventured out to Nishinomiya, and found this kickass, American-sized, but most importantly cheap liquor store. And by cheap I mean a liter of beer for $6.00, and a bottle of 7 year old cuban rum for "$22," but it was rang up at $15, but I wasn't going to say anything. It is a shame Cuban stuff isn't sold in the US, cause that stuff was the best rum I've ever had. We took all of our alcohol and hung out in a park, continuing to make a bad name for gaijin (foreigners).
The next day, I went to Nara, which was cool, the daibutsu was impressively large, and is housed in the largest wooden building in the world. The daibutsu is about 52 feet tall, and is by far not the largest in Japan. Insanity came from the shika deer that roam all over Nara. They are regarded as spiritual messengers in Shinto, so they're allowed to do whatever they want. You can buy senbei to feed them, but if you do, god help you. As soon as my friends bought some, the deer swarmed them. It was hilarious and terrifying.
Later that evening, Cooper, Rika, some friends from my tennis circle, and I went to a bar that my friend John knew the owner of. The place was a little pricey. We started doing shots because they were cheaper than beer. Also they served tacos, which were awesome, cause I was fiending for some.
Tuesday was a Nabe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nabemono) party with my friends from my circle, which was fun, but could have been better, here's why.
An example of how Japanese girls can be bitches: I was seeing this one girl, went on a few fairly successful dates, and things were going well. But on friday I helped her make a facebook, she asks what the relationship slot was, I go "do you have a boyfriend?" she says no, and continues filling it out. Now, Christmas Eve is Valentine's Day for the Japanese, so I thought "hey, this might be a good idea," and I ask "Hey, what are you doing on the 24th?" Only to get "I see my boyfriend that day." Words cannot describe my confusion. Upside is I pretty much decided I wasn't that into her.
Anywho, bitching aside, the rest of the week went smoothly. This past friday was this big party for the exchange kids, which was fun, met a whole lot of people, and then we went to Shinsaibashi to go to a club. Sadly, I was put in charge of directing the 30-odd people who were coming, and I think I got sober from the yelling. Eventually I gave up on them and decided I wasn't going to let them ruin my evening.
The club was fun, we went to a place called Onzi-eme, had plenty of people, ok music, and overall wasn't bad. I couldn't get drunk though, meaning I couldn't dance. So I went through a lot of dancing partners. Thankfully Austin is awesome and in his drunken ridiculousness got us some girls to dance with, I ended up dancing with one who didn't even come up to my collar bones. She was so tiny.
Shortly after this, we find out some of our friends were kicked out for stealing liquor bottles from the bar, so we left. I got home around 6:30 in the morning.
Yesterday, we went BACK to Shinsaibashi for this all-you-can-eat pizza place, which wasn't bad. It was a nice change of things. Their chicken nuggets tasted EXACTLY like Chik-fil-a's. It was awesome and terrifying.
It's 10 days till Secret Santa, I'm excited. I've got 4 more parties this month. 3 Christmas, and 1 Costume. I need to borrow another schoolgirl outfit...
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Fairly Tame
Captain's log,
During dinner today, we were watching the news, and the weather came on. I noticed that there were two people giving the weather report. Then I realized it was just the man speaking the entire time, and all the woman did was either agree with him/affirm what he's saying, or provide pointless commentary like "That sure sounds cold!" I found this oddly hilarious.
This weekend involved a birthday and going to Kyoto again.
Drake kinda put planning his birthday on my shoulders, by having me make a facebook event for it... a day and a half ahead of time. So he wanted to go to a club, which sadly would have had a small turnout because there was very little notice and clubs are expensive. So instead, I decide we should go get Mexican food (we were all jonesing for some, and Drake's half Mexican), then go drink. Well only about half of the group wants to drink, so we break into two groups. We were SUPPOSED to go to this one bar in Nishomiya, but the guy I knew who had the info got sick. The only Mexican restaurant we knew of had a staff of two people... using one stove. So food took FOREVER. We ate, got out, and went to go drink, which added further complications. Finally we got alcohol and I could relax, cause I felt bad with how the night was going.
Only to forget to set an alarm to go to Kyoto. We were supposed to meet at Juso at 7:45. So I was gonna get up at 5:45. Instead I wake up at 8:10. Shower, run out the door. Get to Kyoto after a lengthy trainride, take a bus to where I need to go, and walk a good mile or so to Fushimi Inari shrine. Now, I am PRO at being in a hurry. You can ask anyone close to me, I HATE being in a hurry, it causes me to freak out. After all this, despite being over an hour behind them, from my walking fast, I only ended up being half an hour behind my friends and didn't really missing much. Not long after I get there, they want me to do silly things for pictures, but I had just practically run up a mountain, so I'm in no mood. Or condition. I got better after drinking something and lunch.
Other sights we went to were Heian Jingu and this thing called "Light Up" at Kiyomisu Temple. Japan is famous for the fall, when the leaves turn really pretty, vibrant colors. And at night they put spotlights on them. It looked like a huge couples thing.
Nothing all that special for the rest of this week, other than I finally saw Inglourious Basterds. I found out the subtitles were in both English and Japanese, so I jumped on that. It was awesome, and definitely Tarantino's best. One of the things I loved while watching it was watching the Japanese people's reactions to the scenes where people were scalped, or the one where a guy is beaten to death with a baseball bat.
This weekend is (improvised) party, trip to Nara, and another party. Yay.
During dinner today, we were watching the news, and the weather came on. I noticed that there were two people giving the weather report. Then I realized it was just the man speaking the entire time, and all the woman did was either agree with him/affirm what he's saying, or provide pointless commentary like "That sure sounds cold!" I found this oddly hilarious.
This weekend involved a birthday and going to Kyoto again.
Drake kinda put planning his birthday on my shoulders, by having me make a facebook event for it... a day and a half ahead of time. So he wanted to go to a club, which sadly would have had a small turnout because there was very little notice and clubs are expensive. So instead, I decide we should go get Mexican food (we were all jonesing for some, and Drake's half Mexican), then go drink. Well only about half of the group wants to drink, so we break into two groups. We were SUPPOSED to go to this one bar in Nishomiya, but the guy I knew who had the info got sick. The only Mexican restaurant we knew of had a staff of two people... using one stove. So food took FOREVER. We ate, got out, and went to go drink, which added further complications. Finally we got alcohol and I could relax, cause I felt bad with how the night was going.
Only to forget to set an alarm to go to Kyoto. We were supposed to meet at Juso at 7:45. So I was gonna get up at 5:45. Instead I wake up at 8:10. Shower, run out the door. Get to Kyoto after a lengthy trainride, take a bus to where I need to go, and walk a good mile or so to Fushimi Inari shrine. Now, I am PRO at being in a hurry. You can ask anyone close to me, I HATE being in a hurry, it causes me to freak out. After all this, despite being over an hour behind them, from my walking fast, I only ended up being half an hour behind my friends and didn't really missing much. Not long after I get there, they want me to do silly things for pictures, but I had just practically run up a mountain, so I'm in no mood. Or condition. I got better after drinking something and lunch.
Other sights we went to were Heian Jingu and this thing called "Light Up" at Kiyomisu Temple. Japan is famous for the fall, when the leaves turn really pretty, vibrant colors. And at night they put spotlights on them. It looked like a huge couples thing.
Nothing all that special for the rest of this week, other than I finally saw Inglourious Basterds. I found out the subtitles were in both English and Japanese, so I jumped on that. It was awesome, and definitely Tarantino's best. One of the things I loved while watching it was watching the Japanese people's reactions to the scenes where people were scalped, or the one where a guy is beaten to death with a baseball bat.
This weekend is (improvised) party, trip to Nara, and another party. Yay.
Monday, November 23, 2009
Not as Much Whining as I Thought This Was.
Captain's Log:
Nothing real eventful in the past week or so, this update's mostly obligatory. Last weekend I tried Singaporean food for the first time, met some cool kids, then went and hung out in a bar in Umeda with some friends.
Over the week, we went over our midterms, I barely passed the grammar, did considerably better on the listening, and raped the kanji. We're going over things, and there is a grammar rule that you use when someone does something for you, there's verb+てくれる and verb+てもらう, which literally means "I was given verb" or "I received verb." In examples, a lot of it seemed rather arbitrary. But as we're going over it the midterm, we get it explained to us that whether "に" or "が" determines if it's one or the other. It would have been nice if they explained that to us when we were given the grammar rule, which was nearly a month ago. /whine
This weekend involved going to a bar for a quiet evening with Doori and Taiki, then on saturday trying Korean food for the first time and going to a club in Shinsaibashi.
The club was kind of a blur, this time Rachel got kicked out, so we left early, apparently went to a bar, wandered around a bit, then according to them I wandered off "we looked up and you were gone." I remember coming to on a bench and being confused as to why I was alone.
So I wander my way through Shinsaibashi, taking a random subway back to Umeda. The only thing I'm actually mad about with this experience is that McDonalds fucked up my order and gave me a mcmuffin instead of a mcgriddle. Blood will be spilled. Got home, passed out, spent the rest of the day hating life in hungover wonderfulness.
Today, we have school off. I don't really know of much going on this week, other than that I will be celebrating thanksgiving with my friend Rie in Sannomiya.
I wanted to try and put together a special dinner with the exchange kids, but there just isn't enough time. I would have to order a turkey from amazon, which would easily be around $60+, and then we have the task of finding an oven that it will fit in. Amongst other complications.
Oh well, I demand everyone eat twice as much turkey, stuffing, and gravy for me.
Nothing real eventful in the past week or so, this update's mostly obligatory. Last weekend I tried Singaporean food for the first time, met some cool kids, then went and hung out in a bar in Umeda with some friends.
Over the week, we went over our midterms, I barely passed the grammar, did considerably better on the listening, and raped the kanji. We're going over things, and there is a grammar rule that you use when someone does something for you, there's verb+てくれる and verb+てもらう, which literally means "I was given verb" or "I received verb." In examples, a lot of it seemed rather arbitrary. But as we're going over it the midterm, we get it explained to us that whether "に" or "が" determines if it's one or the other. It would have been nice if they explained that to us when we were given the grammar rule, which was nearly a month ago. /whine
This weekend involved going to a bar for a quiet evening with Doori and Taiki, then on saturday trying Korean food for the first time and going to a club in Shinsaibashi.
The club was kind of a blur, this time Rachel got kicked out, so we left early, apparently went to a bar, wandered around a bit, then according to them I wandered off "we looked up and you were gone." I remember coming to on a bench and being confused as to why I was alone.
So I wander my way through Shinsaibashi, taking a random subway back to Umeda. The only thing I'm actually mad about with this experience is that McDonalds fucked up my order and gave me a mcmuffin instead of a mcgriddle. Blood will be spilled. Got home, passed out, spent the rest of the day hating life in hungover wonderfulness.
Today, we have school off. I don't really know of much going on this week, other than that I will be celebrating thanksgiving with my friend Rie in Sannomiya.
I wanted to try and put together a special dinner with the exchange kids, but there just isn't enough time. I would have to order a turkey from amazon, which would easily be around $60+, and then we have the task of finding an oven that it will fit in. Amongst other complications.
Oh well, I demand everyone eat twice as much turkey, stuffing, and gravy for me.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Hopefully this will be the last of these for a while
Captains log,
This weekend was a little different, namely in that I did nothing on friday. Everyone was studying for midterms, so I just kinda hung out at home, studied a little and did some hw. Nothing big.
Saturday, however, was quite eventful. Woke up at 6:00am because I was going to Kyoto! Met up with Drew in Juso and within minutes the jokes started rolling. These would continue all day. Finally get to Kyoto around 8:15 and Drew and I start wandering because Rika and Jukka would not be joining us for an hour.
We all finally meet up and set off on sightseeing. We journey to Yakasa Shrine, where we saw a wedding in progress, and move to some temple/shrine thingy that we didn't know what it was to see a funeral in progress. We walk through a massive graveyard, and wander around the gardens and what not before heading towards Yakasa pagoda. On the way we see a bunch of Geishas and stop by a Daibutsu (big-ass statue of Buddha). After finding the pagoda, we grab lunch in a non-touristy area (tourist areas were ridiculously expensive). It was cool because we ate at a Chinese restaurant, where the waiter could barely speak Japanese.
After lunch, Rika and Jukka part ways with Drew and I. They wanted to see this Geisha dance show and see an old brothel, but this would have cost around $40, whereas sightseeing would be less than $10, so Drew and I set off. We end up walking the wrong ways a few times, but finally get to our destination: Nanzen-ji. The gate (sanmon) was more worthwhile to look at than the temple, because it was one of the largest free standing wooden structures in the world. Drew and I leave from there to find this mile long walk translated roughly as the Philosopher's walk. So we walked about 5 miles to walk a mile.
A good ways into the walk, we realize the error of our ways and decide to come back during sakura season, when the walk would actually be pretty and worthwhile.
All of the souvenirs were expensive, I'll find cheaper versions elsewhere, though I think I'll get my kimono made there. It wasn't that expensive, I just need someone who's fluent in Japanese to be with me when I get one.
So finally we meet up again, and we head towards downtown Kyoto to get dinner. We got conveyor-belt sushi, which wasn't bad, aside from when my beer got spilled. Afterwards we went down to a Konvini to grab some booze and hangout by the river.
At the river, some fire dancers entertained us, then we wander around, consider messing with couples, Rika and I have a heart-to-heart, and all of us pretty much make asses of ourselves. Mostly to the other tourists.
Apparently, Rika and I fell asleep by the river. This is where my memory stops working. Drew wakes us up and we head to the station to go home. On the way, Drew's half-dragging me, half-trying to get me to shut the hell up, cause I was apparently yelling at people. He evetually gets us to the station where I fall asleep on the train. When we get to Juso, Drew and I, in our respective states, forget that I have to take a different way, but instead I get on his train and go to Nishinomiya. Which I can still get home from, provided I catch the last train. We eventually arrive and here's where my memory starts working again. I say bye to Drew and head down to my platform... just in time to see the last train leave. So I go upstairs and don't see a soul. Particularly Drew. My phone also died around noon that day. Despite the drunkenness, I remember thinking very clearly "welp, I'm boned." And set off to wander the streets.
My shoes had been killing me all day, so I took them off. I start trying to follow the tracks, and only later do I realize I was going the wrong direction. For some reason I did not think to go to a konvini until I couldn't find one. The reason for this is because konvinis sell these handy battery packs that you can cordlessly charge your phone with for emergencies such as this.
...Instead I try waving down cars so I can ask for directions to either a konvini or to the next station I need to head towards. I'm fairly certain at one point I walked out into the road trying to get a car to stop, and that may or may not have been why the police showed up shortly afterwards.
The police get out, give me what was probably the Japanese equivalent of "boy, where 'cho goddamn shoes?"
When you're in a foreign country, and faced with the police, you learn to speak the language real quickly.
I explain that they were hurting my feet, and what my situation was. I ask for the location of a konvini or the way to Takarazuka, and they drive me to their koban (police outpost thingy). They talk to me, get some information, who I am, what I'm doing in Japan, why I'm wandering the streets of Nishinomiya in the dead of night with no shoes on, you know, the typical things. So they ask if I have the money for a cab, I say yes, but I don't want to pay it, and I attempt to explain that if I can get to a konvini (I could see one from their window), I can call one of my friends and everything will be ok. But they didn't listen, it also may have had something to do with my lack of Japanese skills, but they drive me two (train) stations down and drop me off at a taxi, who takes me home, where I pay the $30 fare, and proceed to die on the inside.
Monday I felt terrible. Still coming off the hangover, tired, got my ass kicked by my Japanese grammar midterm, and emotionally conflicted (girl nonsense I won't discuss here - this ain't livejournal). Thank god for TENNIS. Yea, I suck, but my circle is awesome, and I felt waaaaaaay better afterwards. One of the leaders, Kazu, shows me how to get home, and after doing so, I pass right out.
Tomorrow's my kanji midterm. I will slay it. I also start teaching/help teaching English tomorrow! Friday's my listening midterm, which could go either way. After my midterms are over, and I promise I'll finally write my damn postcards. I'm sorry about the delay on those.
What'll be even harder is finding souvenirs for some of you.
This weekend was a little different, namely in that I did nothing on friday. Everyone was studying for midterms, so I just kinda hung out at home, studied a little and did some hw. Nothing big.
Saturday, however, was quite eventful. Woke up at 6:00am because I was going to Kyoto! Met up with Drew in Juso and within minutes the jokes started rolling. These would continue all day. Finally get to Kyoto around 8:15 and Drew and I start wandering because Rika and Jukka would not be joining us for an hour.
We all finally meet up and set off on sightseeing. We journey to Yakasa Shrine, where we saw a wedding in progress, and move to some temple/shrine thingy that we didn't know what it was to see a funeral in progress. We walk through a massive graveyard, and wander around the gardens and what not before heading towards Yakasa pagoda. On the way we see a bunch of Geishas and stop by a Daibutsu (big-ass statue of Buddha). After finding the pagoda, we grab lunch in a non-touristy area (tourist areas were ridiculously expensive). It was cool because we ate at a Chinese restaurant, where the waiter could barely speak Japanese.
After lunch, Rika and Jukka part ways with Drew and I. They wanted to see this Geisha dance show and see an old brothel, but this would have cost around $40, whereas sightseeing would be less than $10, so Drew and I set off. We end up walking the wrong ways a few times, but finally get to our destination: Nanzen-ji. The gate (sanmon) was more worthwhile to look at than the temple, because it was one of the largest free standing wooden structures in the world. Drew and I leave from there to find this mile long walk translated roughly as the Philosopher's walk. So we walked about 5 miles to walk a mile.
A good ways into the walk, we realize the error of our ways and decide to come back during sakura season, when the walk would actually be pretty and worthwhile.
All of the souvenirs were expensive, I'll find cheaper versions elsewhere, though I think I'll get my kimono made there. It wasn't that expensive, I just need someone who's fluent in Japanese to be with me when I get one.
So finally we meet up again, and we head towards downtown Kyoto to get dinner. We got conveyor-belt sushi, which wasn't bad, aside from when my beer got spilled. Afterwards we went down to a Konvini to grab some booze and hangout by the river.
At the river, some fire dancers entertained us, then we wander around, consider messing with couples, Rika and I have a heart-to-heart, and all of us pretty much make asses of ourselves. Mostly to the other tourists.
Apparently, Rika and I fell asleep by the river. This is where my memory stops working. Drew wakes us up and we head to the station to go home. On the way, Drew's half-dragging me, half-trying to get me to shut the hell up, cause I was apparently yelling at people. He evetually gets us to the station where I fall asleep on the train. When we get to Juso, Drew and I, in our respective states, forget that I have to take a different way, but instead I get on his train and go to Nishinomiya. Which I can still get home from, provided I catch the last train. We eventually arrive and here's where my memory starts working again. I say bye to Drew and head down to my platform... just in time to see the last train leave. So I go upstairs and don't see a soul. Particularly Drew. My phone also died around noon that day. Despite the drunkenness, I remember thinking very clearly "welp, I'm boned." And set off to wander the streets.
My shoes had been killing me all day, so I took them off. I start trying to follow the tracks, and only later do I realize I was going the wrong direction. For some reason I did not think to go to a konvini until I couldn't find one. The reason for this is because konvinis sell these handy battery packs that you can cordlessly charge your phone with for emergencies such as this.
...Instead I try waving down cars so I can ask for directions to either a konvini or to the next station I need to head towards. I'm fairly certain at one point I walked out into the road trying to get a car to stop, and that may or may not have been why the police showed up shortly afterwards.
The police get out, give me what was probably the Japanese equivalent of "boy, where 'cho goddamn shoes?"
When you're in a foreign country, and faced with the police, you learn to speak the language real quickly.
I explain that they were hurting my feet, and what my situation was. I ask for the location of a konvini or the way to Takarazuka, and they drive me to their koban (police outpost thingy). They talk to me, get some information, who I am, what I'm doing in Japan, why I'm wandering the streets of Nishinomiya in the dead of night with no shoes on, you know, the typical things. So they ask if I have the money for a cab, I say yes, but I don't want to pay it, and I attempt to explain that if I can get to a konvini (I could see one from their window), I can call one of my friends and everything will be ok. But they didn't listen, it also may have had something to do with my lack of Japanese skills, but they drive me two (train) stations down and drop me off at a taxi, who takes me home, where I pay the $30 fare, and proceed to die on the inside.
Monday I felt terrible. Still coming off the hangover, tired, got my ass kicked by my Japanese grammar midterm, and emotionally conflicted (girl nonsense I won't discuss here - this ain't livejournal). Thank god for TENNIS. Yea, I suck, but my circle is awesome, and I felt waaaaaaay better afterwards. One of the leaders, Kazu, shows me how to get home, and after doing so, I pass right out.
Tomorrow's my kanji midterm. I will slay it. I also start teaching/help teaching English tomorrow! Friday's my listening midterm, which could go either way. After my midterms are over, and I promise I'll finally write my damn postcards. I'm sorry about the delay on those.
What'll be even harder is finding souvenirs for some of you.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Awesome Halloween Accompanied with a Surplus of Bitching
Captain's Log:
A lot has happened since last weekend, where shall I start?
Friday was another BBQ party at Matt's place, which was fun, and we were overloaded with tons of food and liquor, including copious amounts of steak and a $100 cake. Saturday is where the real awesomeness was. We all gather at Sannomiya station, put on/reveal our costumes, then walk to this bar called D-Fence. Tons of people were already in there, and I got an enormous "wtf" look from all the Japanese people for my schoolgirl costume. It was $25 all-you-can-drink for 2 hours. So we got to work. And ultimately we decimated the bar. They had homemade whiskey, which was delicious, and they used quality liquor, which also surprised me.
Once it all ended, everyone either left or went to an izakaya. Hiromi and I wandered off to go home. After a kiss goodbye (w00t!), I get on the train she told me to get on. I'm not entirely sure if I remember switching trains, but I definitely fell asleep at one point and woke up at the stop before mine ....from the opposite direction I normally come from. Yea, I was confused too, but thanks, luck. My guess is that I didn't switch trains when I was supposed to, and ended up getting turned around at a station at the opposite end.
Classes are canceled on monday and tuesday cause we have our school's festival. Which was cool. It was mostly food stands and performers, but it was cool, nonetheless. Some food was awesome (yakitori), and some wasn't (failed excuse for tacos). All in all, it was fun. I worked at my tennis circle's stand for all of sunday, which would have been better if it didn't rain ridiculously hard all day. Nonetheless, the Japanese were a combination of amused and confused as to why this gaijin was advertising a food stand, and I couldn't tell if I attracted more people, or scared them away. I'll never know. It was a fun day, I forgot an umbrella, so I huddled with Hiromi under her's on the way back to the station. Keeping her warm as an exchange for the shelter.
The only reason I went yesterday was because a friend from the other campus came, and some other friends invited me. Later that evening we went bowling for Austin's birthday. Which was fun. Especially when I'd yell something ridiculous and somehow do well.
Today was a study day. Midterms are around the corner and I'm not looking forward to them at all. I studied today because I've got a date with Hiromi in Sannomiya tomorrow, and a party with my tennis circle tomorrow evening. Should be an awesome day though.
I'm getting better at the language, I'm not improving as quickly as I'd like to, but I need to remind myself that I'm a beginner and I'll be here for another 9 and a half months. It's funny, cause whenever you tell the Japanese something cool about yourself (sometimes even something mundane) their eyes will go wide and they will say "heeeeey?" Which got really annoying at first, but I hate to say that I've found myself saying it.
Anywho, I'm getting more and more irritated with my teachers. Actually only one of my teachers. My Japanese classes are taught by 4 different teachers, this one in particular has us for 2 days, the rest have us for only one. All of them can understand English fairly well except for this one. None of us are doing all that well in the classes, but I get pulled aside one day. She wants to talk to me about a section on the hw that I only got two questions right on. I try my best to explain that the example was vague and that I didn't really know what to do, so that made it difficult. Her response is "it's not difficult, everyone else did fine, why didn't you?"
It took every ounce of my willpower to not tear her head off. Good teachers do not say things like this. How is belittling me and comparing me to the rest of the class going to help me, you retard.
To add insult to injury, she said I had an appointment with one of the other teachers so I can learn to "study Japanese properly."
This teacher should not be teaching us. Even the Japanese students hate her. Every now and then one of us will be trying to explain why we don't understand something or we'll be asking a question only to get cut off with "nihongo de!"
We can't, you dumb bitch. Why do you think we're in level 1? You should not be teaching us. At all.
/end bitching
A lot has happened since last weekend, where shall I start?
Friday was another BBQ party at Matt's place, which was fun, and we were overloaded with tons of food and liquor, including copious amounts of steak and a $100 cake. Saturday is where the real awesomeness was. We all gather at Sannomiya station, put on/reveal our costumes, then walk to this bar called D-Fence. Tons of people were already in there, and I got an enormous "wtf" look from all the Japanese people for my schoolgirl costume. It was $25 all-you-can-drink for 2 hours. So we got to work. And ultimately we decimated the bar. They had homemade whiskey, which was delicious, and they used quality liquor, which also surprised me.
Once it all ended, everyone either left or went to an izakaya. Hiromi and I wandered off to go home. After a kiss goodbye (w00t!), I get on the train she told me to get on. I'm not entirely sure if I remember switching trains, but I definitely fell asleep at one point and woke up at the stop before mine ....from the opposite direction I normally come from. Yea, I was confused too, but thanks, luck. My guess is that I didn't switch trains when I was supposed to, and ended up getting turned around at a station at the opposite end.
Classes are canceled on monday and tuesday cause we have our school's festival. Which was cool. It was mostly food stands and performers, but it was cool, nonetheless. Some food was awesome (yakitori), and some wasn't (failed excuse for tacos). All in all, it was fun. I worked at my tennis circle's stand for all of sunday, which would have been better if it didn't rain ridiculously hard all day. Nonetheless, the Japanese were a combination of amused and confused as to why this gaijin was advertising a food stand, and I couldn't tell if I attracted more people, or scared them away. I'll never know. It was a fun day, I forgot an umbrella, so I huddled with Hiromi under her's on the way back to the station. Keeping her warm as an exchange for the shelter.
The only reason I went yesterday was because a friend from the other campus came, and some other friends invited me. Later that evening we went bowling for Austin's birthday. Which was fun. Especially when I'd yell something ridiculous and somehow do well.
Today was a study day. Midterms are around the corner and I'm not looking forward to them at all. I studied today because I've got a date with Hiromi in Sannomiya tomorrow, and a party with my tennis circle tomorrow evening. Should be an awesome day though.
I'm getting better at the language, I'm not improving as quickly as I'd like to, but I need to remind myself that I'm a beginner and I'll be here for another 9 and a half months. It's funny, cause whenever you tell the Japanese something cool about yourself (sometimes even something mundane) their eyes will go wide and they will say "heeeeey?" Which got really annoying at first, but I hate to say that I've found myself saying it.
Anywho, I'm getting more and more irritated with my teachers. Actually only one of my teachers. My Japanese classes are taught by 4 different teachers, this one in particular has us for 2 days, the rest have us for only one. All of them can understand English fairly well except for this one. None of us are doing all that well in the classes, but I get pulled aside one day. She wants to talk to me about a section on the hw that I only got two questions right on. I try my best to explain that the example was vague and that I didn't really know what to do, so that made it difficult. Her response is "it's not difficult, everyone else did fine, why didn't you?"
It took every ounce of my willpower to not tear her head off. Good teachers do not say things like this. How is belittling me and comparing me to the rest of the class going to help me, you retard.
To add insult to injury, she said I had an appointment with one of the other teachers so I can learn to "study Japanese properly."
This teacher should not be teaching us. Even the Japanese students hate her. Every now and then one of us will be trying to explain why we don't understand something or we'll be asking a question only to get cut off with "nihongo de!"
We can't, you dumb bitch. Why do you think we're in level 1? You should not be teaching us. At all.
/end bitching
Monday, October 26, 2009
Good Week and Vows
Captain's log,
At the beginning of this week, I finally met with my tennis circle, and they're all a bunch of cool kids. Sadly we can't seem to have frequent meet ups. I was also supposed to go to dinner with them tonight, but it got canceled along with practice. Thanks, rain.
Friday was low key. I got out of class around 12:40, had lunch, dropped off my things and went to Umeda. I had trouble finding a store, so I asked a pretty girl who looked about my age where it was, and she freaking walked me there. I was astounded, because it was the opposite direction in which she was heading too. I love how nice people are here.
After about an hour, Hiromi met up with me. I was expecting more to come around 6, but instead they called and told us to come to Ashiya to meet up with them for dinner. So we did. Afterwards we walked along the river to the ocean, and Hiromi and I made plans for goofing off in Sannomiya later.
Then saturday night was the first of the 3 halloween parties I have. I met up with Rachel beforehand and she did my make up, got food and a small bottle of whiskey and a bottle of coke at a convenience store, and made our way back to the station to meet up with everyone.
We get to shinsaibashi, get into the club, hang out, dance, and the last thing I distinctly remember is getting a drink with Cooper and Drake. My memory picks up at we are about to leave, I'm full of confusion. I get my bag, we go to a restaurant, I realize my expensive, custom made earplugs are missing, I go back into the club to find them to no avail. I go back to the restaurant, Daphne orders something for me, I devour it, put my head down, and wake up when we leave.
The night was then relayed back to me - Apparently I did these things:
- Talked to literally everyone in the club
- Danced at/with/on at least half of the people in the club, discriminating against no one
- Won a costume contest, I have no idea what my prize was cause I apparently lost it
- Danced on stage a whole lot
- Went up on stage to accept a prize that I didn't actually win, but I had the crowd's support, so they gave it to me anyway. (they called the winning number several times before my friends told me to just go up)
- Threw up in a urinal
I also apparently missed a guy dressed as a Chinese communist propose to his girlfriend. So once again I missing a relatively awesome evening. Because of this, I have vowed never to drink Suntory whiskey ever again. Because that's the same whiskey I drank last weekend, and my friends have also had bad experiences.
So, lesson learned. I look forward to next weekend, I've got two halloween parties, a date, and a festival. Updates abound. Provided I don't get lazy.
Oh yea, I bought postcards! I will try to get them written and out to you all soon!
At the beginning of this week, I finally met with my tennis circle, and they're all a bunch of cool kids. Sadly we can't seem to have frequent meet ups. I was also supposed to go to dinner with them tonight, but it got canceled along with practice. Thanks, rain.
Friday was low key. I got out of class around 12:40, had lunch, dropped off my things and went to Umeda. I had trouble finding a store, so I asked a pretty girl who looked about my age where it was, and she freaking walked me there. I was astounded, because it was the opposite direction in which she was heading too. I love how nice people are here.
After about an hour, Hiromi met up with me. I was expecting more to come around 6, but instead they called and told us to come to Ashiya to meet up with them for dinner. So we did. Afterwards we walked along the river to the ocean, and Hiromi and I made plans for goofing off in Sannomiya later.
Then saturday night was the first of the 3 halloween parties I have. I met up with Rachel beforehand and she did my make up, got food and a small bottle of whiskey and a bottle of coke at a convenience store, and made our way back to the station to meet up with everyone.
We get to shinsaibashi, get into the club, hang out, dance, and the last thing I distinctly remember is getting a drink with Cooper and Drake. My memory picks up at we are about to leave, I'm full of confusion. I get my bag, we go to a restaurant, I realize my expensive, custom made earplugs are missing, I go back into the club to find them to no avail. I go back to the restaurant, Daphne orders something for me, I devour it, put my head down, and wake up when we leave.
The night was then relayed back to me - Apparently I did these things:
- Talked to literally everyone in the club
- Danced at/with/on at least half of the people in the club, discriminating against no one
- Won a costume contest, I have no idea what my prize was cause I apparently lost it
- Danced on stage a whole lot
- Went up on stage to accept a prize that I didn't actually win, but I had the crowd's support, so they gave it to me anyway. (they called the winning number several times before my friends told me to just go up)
- Threw up in a urinal
I also apparently missed a guy dressed as a Chinese communist propose to his girlfriend. So once again I missing a relatively awesome evening. Because of this, I have vowed never to drink Suntory whiskey ever again. Because that's the same whiskey I drank last weekend, and my friends have also had bad experiences.
So, lesson learned. I look forward to next weekend, I've got two halloween parties, a date, and a festival. Updates abound. Provided I don't get lazy.
Oh yea, I bought postcards! I will try to get them written and out to you all soon!
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Alcohol is a Fickle Mistress
Captain's log:
This weekend started off well. Went bowling, had a blast. We snuck in booze and my friend Deguchi and I split a bottle of vodka, and because of my threats to lay siege and waste to the bowling alley, I was given the affectionate moniker "Horseman of War."
Afterwards, our massive group split up. I just kinda blindly followed some people, and ended up in karaoke. The other half of the group went to an Izakaya, and I kinda wish we had gone there instead. But regardless, I ended up staying out all night because Deguchi wanted to, and we ended up bonding a good bit, so it was worth it.
The next day, I didn't really do much, but my friends managed to talk me into going clubbing with them. I pregamed, hoping this would result in less money spent. We meet up, I'm just kinda buzzed so I wanted to stop at a convenience store to get some more booze, and we do so. I buy a small thing of whiskey and a bottle of coke, down both, and we head to the club.
The club was cool, and played really good techno and trance. Here I decide it's a good idea to get 3 more drinks. This is when the fates turn on me. All of that alcohol catches up to me, and gives me a swift Kenyan-track-runner-esque kick in the balls. I blacked out. I remember walking onto the dance floor, then a bouncer coming up and escorting me out of the club because I apparently fell down some stairs and accidentally put a hole in a wall. So I'm put outside where I black out again, and when my memory returns I have my bag and my friends and I are leaving. A mcgriddle and some water later and I'm feeling ok.
I'm amazed I wasn't banned from the club. This is good, cause I want to go back. I think I'll give it about a month for them to forget me before heading back though.
I know everyone's a little more proud of me after this story. As far as I'm concerned none of it happened because I don't remember it, and my body doesn't hurt at all. So I guess ignore what you just read.
This weekend started off well. Went bowling, had a blast. We snuck in booze and my friend Deguchi and I split a bottle of vodka, and because of my threats to lay siege and waste to the bowling alley, I was given the affectionate moniker "Horseman of War."
Afterwards, our massive group split up. I just kinda blindly followed some people, and ended up in karaoke. The other half of the group went to an Izakaya, and I kinda wish we had gone there instead. But regardless, I ended up staying out all night because Deguchi wanted to, and we ended up bonding a good bit, so it was worth it.
The next day, I didn't really do much, but my friends managed to talk me into going clubbing with them. I pregamed, hoping this would result in less money spent. We meet up, I'm just kinda buzzed so I wanted to stop at a convenience store to get some more booze, and we do so. I buy a small thing of whiskey and a bottle of coke, down both, and we head to the club.
The club was cool, and played really good techno and trance. Here I decide it's a good idea to get 3 more drinks. This is when the fates turn on me. All of that alcohol catches up to me, and gives me a swift Kenyan-track-runner-esque kick in the balls. I blacked out. I remember walking onto the dance floor, then a bouncer coming up and escorting me out of the club because I apparently fell down some stairs and accidentally put a hole in a wall. So I'm put outside where I black out again, and when my memory returns I have my bag and my friends and I are leaving. A mcgriddle and some water later and I'm feeling ok.
I'm amazed I wasn't banned from the club. This is good, cause I want to go back. I think I'll give it about a month for them to forget me before heading back though.
I know everyone's a little more proud of me after this story. As far as I'm concerned none of it happened because I don't remember it, and my body doesn't hurt at all. So I guess ignore what you just read.
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