tesuto
boku no nakama ni aitakute tamarimasen
僕のギルドの仲間に会いたくてたまりません
i'll miss my buds a whole lot
僕のギルドの仲間に会いたくてたまりません
i'll miss my buds a whole lot
Sunday, May 31, 2020
Monday, June 3, 2019
きたばかり
Flight
The flight was long but relaxing. I saw Chris Cooper in Breach - very good - and then that dumb movie with Tim Allen, John Travolta, Martin Lawrence and William Macy about the suburban motorcycle gang. I read a lot of stuff too, and slept about 4 hours. The 13 hour part was totally fine, but I was a little nervous when I got there. On the plane, I got to have my very first real Japanese situation: asking the guy next to me if I could get by to go to the bathroom. It was much more monumental to me than the occasion would suggest!
After landing, I just followed the signs until I got to the arrival lobby, where luckily my 学生相手(student partners) were waiting with a big BERT FORSYTHE sign. They're so incredibly helpful and I probably would have been lost for hours or more without them. Nozomi chan and Saeko chan have shown me around a lot and made the adjustment process a lot more comfortable.
Family
My host family is one person, my お母さん (mother). She and her husband, who is away on golfing trips, have two grown children, and two different homes in Chiba. The one I'm staying in is an apartment in 津田沼 (Tsudanuma), four stations down from the college.
My two rooms in the US are like this, and this, but in Japan it's much different and much more simple. Here's sort of a view of it.
School
Class is actually very light for me. I only have class three times a week on Mon, Wed, and Fri, and a meeting on Tue afternoon, but I have a big project that I need to start working on. A guy who is a grad student in the economics department here could be setting up an interview for me with an investment banker from Nomura Securities, apparently a huge Japanese company. He said she lives in a posh area of Tokyo and would tell me a good time to go, probably sometime later this week. This interview isn't for work, by the way, it's just to get some answers about business in Japan and how it's different from that of the US.
More Pics
So I don't actually have any pictures of me with people yet, but I took quite a few of surroundings and they're all up.
Leaving from Dallas
Off my balcony
Nighttime front balcony of apartment
Train passing by at night
Living Room
The street in Tsudanuma
The flight was long but relaxing. I saw Chris Cooper in Breach - very good - and then that dumb movie with Tim Allen, John Travolta, Martin Lawrence and William Macy about the suburban motorcycle gang. I read a lot of stuff too, and slept about 4 hours. The 13 hour part was totally fine, but I was a little nervous when I got there. On the plane, I got to have my very first real Japanese situation: asking the guy next to me if I could get by to go to the bathroom. It was much more monumental to me than the occasion would suggest!
After landing, I just followed the signs until I got to the arrival lobby, where luckily my 学生相手(student partners) were waiting with a big BERT FORSYTHE sign. They're so incredibly helpful and I probably would have been lost for hours or more without them. Nozomi chan and Saeko chan have shown me around a lot and made the adjustment process a lot more comfortable.
Family
My host family is one person, my お母さん (mother). She and her husband, who is away on golfing trips, have two grown children, and two different homes in Chiba. The one I'm staying in is an apartment in 津田沼 (Tsudanuma), four stations down from the college.
My two rooms in the US are like this, and this, but in Japan it's much different and much more simple. Here's sort of a view of it.
School
Class is actually very light for me. I only have class three times a week on Mon, Wed, and Fri, and a meeting on Tue afternoon, but I have a big project that I need to start working on. A guy who is a grad student in the economics department here could be setting up an interview for me with an investment banker from Nomura Securities, apparently a huge Japanese company. He said she lives in a posh area of Tokyo and would tell me a good time to go, probably sometime later this week. This interview isn't for work, by the way, it's just to get some answers about business in Japan and how it's different from that of the US.
More Pics
So I don't actually have any pictures of me with people yet, but I took quite a few of surroundings and they're all up.
Leaving from Dallas
Off my balcony
Nighttime front balcony of apartment
Train passing by at night
Living Room
The street in Tsudanuma
Sunday, June 4, 2017
目的
Regardless of where I am or how much I reject some of that espoused by American culture, I'm American and so my mind is constantly stuck on objectives. Not having the availability of a formal second class and having to deal with what other students are filling with 10 hours of language class by "independent study" has also, probably moreso, stressed me into formulating objectives.
Academically, I need to:
1) Complete JA390, which consists of a daily culture journal, readings of a very interesting book, and a few presentations over trips we take to both Akihabara and Kamakura
2) Complete an independent study about business in Japan. This step, in June, will consist of creating and executing a handful of interviews with both foreigners and Japanese people who have experience dealing with companies, negotiations, and other various business factors.
That's it. Hmm. I feel like step two won't take 10 hours a week, so I feel like I must do even more. A possible third objective will be 能力試験にある漢字を一生懸命勉強してる, or, fervently studying kanjis that will show up on the JLPT. I'm keeping a notebook of ones that I can't read and I think I might break out the 教科書 (textbook) from last semester that we didn't finish.
All academic... loser! So onto social objectives.
Honestly, right now these are very limited. I want to do Karaoke, I want to play DDR in Japan. I'm not sure what else. Would it be wrong to have "eat whale (ONE TIME)" as one of my social goals? I feel like if I was fluent I would technically be able to go out and see the world of Japan, socialize with people my age who don't speak a lick of English, and all that, but it seems very ambitious. Knowing myself, I laugh at the thought of that social butterflyism, and even if I passed 一級 (the insane level of the JLPT), I bet I'd still be all shy.
So I suppose my biggest social objective is to find some more social objectives. Outside of these, over the month of June I'm going to write a ton of postcards to people back home and from the guild. I ought to start soon since I'll be writing so many.
From the top to here, I'm just bleeding American, huh?
それから。。
I'll show you my breakfast. Check out the pic here.
説明 - i forgot how a bunch of the kanji's go, some items are incomplete :(
お茶 tea
ご飯 rice
とろろ昆布のすまし汁 seaweed soup
目玉焼き fried egg (literally, fried eyeball.. weird!)
しゃけの塩焼 salty salmon
ほうれん草のゴマあえ spinach and sesame
昆布のつくだ煮 seaweed somethin
ピーナツみそ peanuts miso
ミモザサラダ mimosa(?) salad
果物 (banana and apple)
Academically, I need to:
1) Complete JA390, which consists of a daily culture journal, readings of a very interesting book, and a few presentations over trips we take to both Akihabara and Kamakura
2) Complete an independent study about business in Japan. This step, in June, will consist of creating and executing a handful of interviews with both foreigners and Japanese people who have experience dealing with companies, negotiations, and other various business factors.
That's it. Hmm. I feel like step two won't take 10 hours a week, so I feel like I must do even more. A possible third objective will be 能力試験にある漢字を一生懸命勉強してる, or, fervently studying kanjis that will show up on the JLPT. I'm keeping a notebook of ones that I can't read and I think I might break out the 教科書 (textbook) from last semester that we didn't finish.
All academic... loser! So onto social objectives.
Honestly, right now these are very limited. I want to do Karaoke, I want to play DDR in Japan. I'm not sure what else. Would it be wrong to have "eat whale (ONE TIME)" as one of my social goals? I feel like if I was fluent I would technically be able to go out and see the world of Japan, socialize with people my age who don't speak a lick of English, and all that, but it seems very ambitious. Knowing myself, I laugh at the thought of that social butterflyism, and even if I passed 一級 (the insane level of the JLPT), I bet I'd still be all shy.
So I suppose my biggest social objective is to find some more social objectives. Outside of these, over the month of June I'm going to write a ton of postcards to people back home and from the guild. I ought to start soon since I'll be writing so many.
From the top to here, I'm just bleeding American, huh?
それから。。
I'll show you my breakfast. Check out the pic here.
説明 - i forgot how a bunch of the kanji's go, some items are incomplete :(
お茶 tea
ご飯 rice
とろろ昆布のすまし汁 seaweed soup
目玉焼き fried egg (literally, fried eyeball.. weird!)
しゃけの塩焼 salty salmon
ほうれん草のゴマあえ spinach and sesame
昆布のつくだ煮 seaweed somethin
ピーナツみそ peanuts miso
ミモザサラダ mimosa(?) salad
果物 (banana and apple)
Sunday, June 5, 2016
NEW PICS
At Narita
First time at Chiba
Student Center/Restaurants - today I bought a sweet notebook with a few Mohitos on the front of it and it says "Photographic design and function are created for sensuous people." DOES THAT MEAN I'M SENSUOUS!?!
Workin Hard
Outside our building with a student partner, I forgot her name :(
Outside of a tatami restaurant @ which we ate
Eatin' Out
Yesterday we went to a cool restaurant, sat on the floor, and I had real ramen. It was a hell of a lot different from the usual 10 cent maruchan stuff I have at home. Different as in better! I got to get to know some dudes from UA a little better and also Yuu san and Mihoko san. Yuu san lives in Saitama (same as Ed, who I still can't find) and rides the train for an hour and a half every day.
I've started to get a lot better at conversing, sort of feels like I've shifted gears back into Japanese, like when I go to Dallas and get to talk to Peng a bunch. Or like in Hawaii.
発表 (presentation)
On the last Tuesday we're here, I'll be presenting a project that examines the differences between Japanese and American college student social life. I'm pretty sure お酒 will be some common ground, but already there are lots of differences even in the お酒を飲み方.
文化日記
For JA390, every day I have to write something I notice culturally. I set up a little site for it, for ease of use, and because パソコンは僕の体のいちぶんだと思う！It's here, but it might be a touch boring!
At Narita
First time at Chiba
Student Center/Restaurants - today I bought a sweet notebook with a few Mohitos on the front of it and it says "Photographic design and function are created for sensuous people." DOES THAT MEAN I'M SENSUOUS!?!
Workin Hard
Outside our building with a student partner, I forgot her name :(
Outside of a tatami restaurant @ which we ate
Eatin' Out
Yesterday we went to a cool restaurant, sat on the floor, and I had real ramen. It was a hell of a lot different from the usual 10 cent maruchan stuff I have at home. Different as in better! I got to get to know some dudes from UA a little better and also Yuu san and Mihoko san. Yuu san lives in Saitama (same as Ed, who I still can't find) and rides the train for an hour and a half every day.
I've started to get a lot better at conversing, sort of feels like I've shifted gears back into Japanese, like when I go to Dallas and get to talk to Peng a bunch. Or like in Hawaii.
発表 (presentation)
On the last Tuesday we're here, I'll be presenting a project that examines the differences between Japanese and American college student social life. I'm pretty sure お酒 will be some common ground, but already there are lots of differences even in the お酒を飲み方.
文化日記
For JA390, every day I have to write something I notice culturally. I set up a little site for it, for ease of use, and because パソコンは僕の体のいちぶんだと思う！It's here, but it might be a touch boring!
Saturday, June 6, 2015
短いいいぃぃぃ
I played DDR in Japan!
As usual, being out of shape prevented me from doing that well, but I B'ed most of my usual 9-footers and everyone thought it was pretty cool. Also as usual, 汗たくさんきた (I sweat a ton)
More pics here and there
Most of our group
Pretty house on the way to the station
Reason for Konami's arcade diversification!
Looking one way in the supermarket - it's huge like the jumbo, sort of like a combination of a Walmart and a mall
Looking the other way
Roy and Nozomi playin taiko
Yuu playing Pop'nfresh
Public Toilet - I couldn't get the whole thing cause the room was so small
Would I come back?
My answer to this question is changing shape a lot. I don't think I would before I became much closer to fluent. I bet it'd be sweet though, to be here, be fluent, have a job, and be able to get around. I also have the whole WoW question to deal with, I don't know whether I'd give it up entirely, which I'd have to if I did come back for an extended period (don't worry, I'll raid or more until I graduate at least).
Well, sorry for the short post but I've done a lot of work this morning. I have to prep this interview I'm doing with the Nomura Securities girl to perfection since it's such a sweet opportunity. I'll try to plan better and keep the pics comin. シーヤー
As usual, being out of shape prevented me from doing that well, but I B'ed most of my usual 9-footers and everyone thought it was pretty cool. Also as usual, 汗たくさんきた (I sweat a ton)
More pics here and there
Most of our group
Pretty house on the way to the station
Reason for Konami's arcade diversification!
Looking one way in the supermarket - it's huge like the jumbo, sort of like a combination of a Walmart and a mall
Looking the other way
Roy and Nozomi playin taiko
Yuu playing Pop'nfresh
Public Toilet - I couldn't get the whole thing cause the room was so small
Would I come back?
My answer to this question is changing shape a lot. I don't think I would before I became much closer to fluent. I bet it'd be sweet though, to be here, be fluent, have a job, and be able to get around. I also have the whole WoW question to deal with, I don't know whether I'd give it up entirely, which I'd have to if I did come back for an extended period (don't worry, I'll raid or more until I graduate at least).
Well, sorry for the short post but I've done a lot of work this morning. I have to prep this interview I'm doing with the Nomura Securities girl to perfection since it's such a sweet opportunity. I'll try to plan better and keep the pics comin. シーヤー
Saturday, June 7, 2014
払い方が難しかった
Maybe I was a little too preemptive in saying that my culture journal would be boring to read, because today I wrote about how backbreakingly difficult it was to split up a check fairly at dinner. In the end and looking back, it was a fun time of cultural exchange, but the differences we saw were quite complex.
I hear the guild is doing quite well without me, now 1 shotting most of TK, so maybe I can take another international trip to an opposite timezone for the whole of July! Or maybe I can just go to Chicago and play high society sports all day and WoW all night!
A combination of being unconcerned with taking pictures and low battery leaves me with only two good pictures today, today's breakfast, which included tomato juice, milk, a personal pan pizza, and a new tasty salad, and lots of small kids wearing hats, which I took while stopped at a crossing on the way to the station today.
高すぎなシェッキ
Last night right before I went home we went back to the arcade and played DDR (can you see the sweat? ugh). On the way through the supermarket to buy my daily 4 liters of water, I was hardco thirsty, so I stopped at a smoothie king looking stand. At first, I tried to order a 200 yen バブルショット (bubble shot?) having no idea what it was, but the girl told me they couldn't make it. So, I submitted and ordered the most expensive thing on the menu, a 450 yen mineral fortified mango shake.
It was 8 ounces, and not really that good. So there are wastefully priced luxury items in Japan! I learned to expect the unexpected when ordering something I have no idea about :P
学校
I may also have gotten an interview with a German woman who works at Daimler Japan, 2 weeks from now. That would push the count up to two English speakers employed in Japan, and help my project be a lot more legitimate than it is now.
だから
Tonight we're going to 回転寿司店, a revolving sushi restaurant, which should be fun and 写真 (photo) filled. Tomorrow is Tokyo too, same deal. Then Sunday, I think, we're going to a 祭 (Japan festival), so I have to buy some of the traditional clothes. Everyone tells me I won't be able to find clothes that are big enough, so I'll probably look really goofy.
最後、大和魂が言われるTシャーツを着るかどうか分かりません！
I hear the guild is doing quite well without me, now 1 shotting most of TK, so maybe I can take another international trip to an opposite timezone for the whole of July! Or maybe I can just go to Chicago and play high society sports all day and WoW all night!
A combination of being unconcerned with taking pictures and low battery leaves me with only two good pictures today, today's breakfast, which included tomato juice, milk, a personal pan pizza, and a new tasty salad, and lots of small kids wearing hats, which I took while stopped at a crossing on the way to the station today.
高すぎなシェッキ
Last night right before I went home we went back to the arcade and played DDR (can you see the sweat? ugh). On the way through the supermarket to buy my daily 4 liters of water, I was hardco thirsty, so I stopped at a smoothie king looking stand. At first, I tried to order a 200 yen バブルショット (bubble shot?) having no idea what it was, but the girl told me they couldn't make it. So, I submitted and ordered the most expensive thing on the menu, a 450 yen mineral fortified mango shake.
It was 8 ounces, and not really that good. So there are wastefully priced luxury items in Japan! I learned to expect the unexpected when ordering something I have no idea about :P
学校
I may also have gotten an interview with a German woman who works at Daimler Japan, 2 weeks from now. That would push the count up to two English speakers employed in Japan, and help my project be a lot more legitimate than it is now.
だから
Tonight we're going to 回転寿司店, a revolving sushi restaurant, which should be fun and 写真 (photo) filled. Tomorrow is Tokyo too, same deal. Then Sunday, I think, we're going to a 祭 (Japan festival), so I have to buy some of the traditional clothes. Everyone tells me I won't be able to find clothes that are big enough, so I'll probably look really goofy.
最後、大和魂が言われるTシャーツを着るかどうか分かりません！
Sunday, June 9, 2013
週末
I wrote this in notepad last night in bed and now under the duress of having to get off the computer in 3 minutes so there may be lots of mistakes and sorry if the pics are bad, but I gotta go.
Kaiten Sushi
You may or may not have seen conveyer belt sushi either being made fun of or in action, but it's real and it's really cool. About 5 times cheaper than a normal nice sushi place, apparently, with infinite green tea mix and hot water, it's a great place to eat. We went to Chiba station, in the heart of the city, and waited about 20 minutes for our 15, separate even, seats. The guys working the sushi bar said irasshaimase (welcome, you hear it at EVERY shopping venue in Japan) in a really loud and weird way, so as people were coming out after we had paid I would say "himitsu aru, taisetsuna himitsu ga aruyo!" (i have a secret, i have an important secret!) and a few seconds after they huddled up near me I'd yell "IRASSHAIMASE!!!"
aha lol i'm funnay. Well I thought it was, and so did they! Or some of them, others thought I was loud and, inaccurately(!), drunk.
Revolving Sushi
Another View
Downtown Chiba at night (blurry)
Laundry (doing it "as we speak")
My host mom tells me that since Japan has a very humid climate, mold grows really easy in dirty clothes. Eww, I haven't seen or smelled it yet, but apparently a week without laundry is unheard of here, so, I gotta start doing it more. The washing machine is so much smaller and they air dry everything on the balcony, so it will take me like 5 loads to do all the stuff I have tomorrow, and from now on I probably have to do it every 2 days. That's kind of a pain, but I'll deal. Just another country difference to which I gotta adjust!
Tokyo
Today we went to Tokyo to go to Tokyo Tower and to observe THE OTAKU PHENOMENON in Akihabara. We were supposed to go to Odaiba, which are the artificial islands they built to defend against the Americans who tried successfully to open the country to the outside world in 1854ish, but ran out of time. I allcapsed OTAKU PHENOMENON because having gone now, I feel like the blaring examples of atrocious fetishism and crime committed by Otakus probably accounts for about 0.00001% of the whole Otaku demographic.
I'll go as chronologically as possible.
Out of the station to a temple..
First Street out of the Station -
Arriving in Tokyo, by some measures the biggest city in the world, was pretty breathtaking, especially since it was by train. I love big cities, so Tokyo took the cake.
Takashi-sensei's useful group identifier
Far view of Tokyo Tower
An up close shot of a gate
Tokyo intersection
Down a small street
Taken while crossing the street
From a temple to Tokyo Tower
Temple gate
Me-shot in front of temple
Temple+condo
Statue
Memorials to the dead
View from Tokyo Tower
In Tokyo Tower
Approaching
Me in front of one of the four bases
We climbed the stairs - So, a few of us were going to brave the stairs while the rest took the elevator. That somehow turned into everyone doing the stairs (wa anyone!?) and it was quite an ordeal. Tired, sweaty, yet accomplished, I bought a strawberry vanilla ice cream cone from the shop at the top. We got cool little I climbed the stairs certificates too. Worth it? umm..
Some of us in the observatory
What we had at the food court
Tokyo Tower Views (uncropped 1200x1600 mostly) - wish I could explain what some of these buildings are, but just view and enjoy, cause I can't! It was also very foggy
View 1
View 2
View 3
View 4
View 5
View 6
View 7
Down the glass floor
Akihabara Streets
A band
Welcome!
Blurry night shot
Bunch of people playing a bunch of pachinko - they looked liked zombies
Dance rental girls, I think(?)
Cool building art
Crowded street
Crossing a night street, came out weird
Tomoyochan and the colonel
Serious business
Kuai would like this
I went to a Maid Cafe, but it was somewhat lukewarm. Check the culture journal for a more
in depth look at the Akihabara exprience.
Yodobashi Camera - one of the coolest places ever
View from the station
Entrance
Department guide
2F
3F
4F
5F
6F
7F
Abroad/Japan top 10
Game dept - endless
More games
FFXII - Revenant Wings
FFXII - RW Display
Tarutaru fashion (seriously)
Interesting FFXI guides
Me in front of 5000 vending machines - triple the width and there were 2 rows of that
Docomo place
Outside & up close
Full outside view from very far away
Miscellaneous & New
FINALLY got to see a full train
Same deal, wasn't too comfortable!
Mcdonald's Megateriyaki burger - haven't tried it yet, but I'm gonna
Mihoko chan
Same, after 550 stairs
Friday's lunch, it was octopus!
AIDS support/check ad in train
Ocean's 13
I really wanna see the latest and greatest of one of my most favorite movie franchises, Ocean's 13. In Japan. Just thought I'd throw that in there, and when we go I'll report how different (or similar, hopefully not!) Japanese theaters are.
Looming Decision
I had a smashing time doing all this stuff - all of Tokyo was breathtaking. I'm liking Japan more and more, and my Japanese improves so much day by day as long as I'm here, but I see two paths on the horizon. One way takes me either to a job in the states, or grad school in the states and then a job either teaching or at a company, and the other sends me off to Japan, or at least to a job that will eventually send me off to Japan. That's pretty much the great divide at this point, and while I have a pretty large chunk of time to think and decide, having firm intentions from now til then is pretty important. The pros and cons of each path, like in terms of money, job satisfaction, lifestyle choices, and much much more are really quite vast. I'm starting to weigh them now, but it'll be tough and I want not to regret my choice.
Kaiten Sushi
You may or may not have seen conveyer belt sushi either being made fun of or in action, but it's real and it's really cool. About 5 times cheaper than a normal nice sushi place, apparently, with infinite green tea mix and hot water, it's a great place to eat. We went to Chiba station, in the heart of the city, and waited about 20 minutes for our 15, separate even, seats. The guys working the sushi bar said irasshaimase (welcome, you hear it at EVERY shopping venue in Japan) in a really loud and weird way, so as people were coming out after we had paid I would say "himitsu aru, taisetsuna himitsu ga aruyo!" (i have a secret, i have an important secret!) and a few seconds after they huddled up near me I'd yell "IRASSHAIMASE!!!"
aha lol i'm funnay. Well I thought it was, and so did they! Or some of them, others thought I was loud and, inaccurately(!), drunk.
Revolving Sushi
Another View
Downtown Chiba at night (blurry)
Laundry (doing it "as we speak")
My host mom tells me that since Japan has a very humid climate, mold grows really easy in dirty clothes. Eww, I haven't seen or smelled it yet, but apparently a week without laundry is unheard of here, so, I gotta start doing it more. The washing machine is so much smaller and they air dry everything on the balcony, so it will take me like 5 loads to do all the stuff I have tomorrow, and from now on I probably have to do it every 2 days. That's kind of a pain, but I'll deal. Just another country difference to which I gotta adjust!
Tokyo
Today we went to Tokyo to go to Tokyo Tower and to observe THE OTAKU PHENOMENON in Akihabara. We were supposed to go to Odaiba, which are the artificial islands they built to defend against the Americans who tried successfully to open the country to the outside world in 1854ish, but ran out of time. I allcapsed OTAKU PHENOMENON because having gone now, I feel like the blaring examples of atrocious fetishism and crime committed by Otakus probably accounts for about 0.00001% of the whole Otaku demographic.
I'll go as chronologically as possible.
Out of the station to a temple..
First Street out of the Station -
Arriving in Tokyo, by some measures the biggest city in the world, was pretty breathtaking, especially since it was by train. I love big cities, so Tokyo took the cake.
Takashi-sensei's useful group identifier
Far view of Tokyo Tower
An up close shot of a gate
Tokyo intersection
Down a small street
Taken while crossing the street
From a temple to Tokyo Tower
Temple gate
Me-shot in front of temple
Temple+condo
Statue
Memorials to the dead
View from Tokyo Tower
In Tokyo Tower
Approaching
Me in front of one of the four bases
We climbed the stairs - So, a few of us were going to brave the stairs while the rest took the elevator. That somehow turned into everyone doing the stairs (wa anyone!?) and it was quite an ordeal. Tired, sweaty, yet accomplished, I bought a strawberry vanilla ice cream cone from the shop at the top. We got cool little I climbed the stairs certificates too. Worth it? umm..
Some of us in the observatory
What we had at the food court
Tokyo Tower Views (uncropped 1200x1600 mostly) - wish I could explain what some of these buildings are, but just view and enjoy, cause I can't! It was also very foggy
View 1
View 2
View 3
View 4
View 5
View 6
View 7
Down the glass floor
Akihabara Streets
A band
Welcome!
Blurry night shot
Bunch of people playing a bunch of pachinko - they looked liked zombies
Dance rental girls, I think(?)
Cool building art
Crowded street
Crossing a night street, came out weird
Tomoyochan and the colonel
Serious business
Kuai would like this
I went to a Maid Cafe, but it was somewhat lukewarm. Check the culture journal for a more
in depth look at the Akihabara exprience.
Yodobashi Camera - one of the coolest places ever
View from the station
Entrance
Department guide
2F
3F
4F
5F
6F
7F
Abroad/Japan top 10
Game dept - endless
More games
FFXII - Revenant Wings
FFXII - RW Display
Tarutaru fashion (seriously)
Interesting FFXI guides
Me in front of 5000 vending machines - triple the width and there were 2 rows of that
Docomo place
Outside & up close
Full outside view from very far away
Miscellaneous & New
FINALLY got to see a full train
Same deal, wasn't too comfortable!
Mcdonald's Megateriyaki burger - haven't tried it yet, but I'm gonna
Mihoko chan
Same, after 550 stairs
Friday's lunch, it was octopus!
AIDS support/check ad in train
Ocean's 13
I really wanna see the latest and greatest of one of my most favorite movie franchises, Ocean's 13. In Japan. Just thought I'd throw that in there, and when we go I'll report how different (or similar, hopefully not!) Japanese theaters are.
Looming Decision
I had a smashing time doing all this stuff - all of Tokyo was breathtaking. I'm liking Japan more and more, and my Japanese improves so much day by day as long as I'm here, but I see two paths on the horizon. One way takes me either to a job in the states, or grad school in the states and then a job either teaching or at a company, and the other sends me off to Japan, or at least to a job that will eventually send me off to Japan. That's pretty much the great divide at this point, and while I have a pretty large chunk of time to think and decide, having firm intentions from now til then is pretty important. The pros and cons of each path, like in terms of money, job satisfaction, lifestyle choices, and much much more are really quite vast. I'm starting to weigh them now, but it'll be tough and I want not to regret my choice.
Sunday, June 10, 2012
飲み会！
Today I spent the time from when I woke up til the evening doing laundry and conversing with お母さん. Then I went out for a big birthday party.
The Night
Izakaiya & Karaoke culture journal entry. I'm starting to write a lot of meaningful experiential type stuff in the JA390 journal, so if you're really interested in what I'm doing day by day in detail you should definitely keep up with it too.
Hopefully you'll like these pics too. Tonight was Ry's birthday, and when I got to the train station I found out it was 2 other students' birthdays too. I dressed for the occasion, wearing my Yamato Damashi shirt and wishing Ry a berry berry happy birthday. So off we went, paying 3000 yen (~$30 - I'm learning to be cheap on the weekdays and spend big on the weekends) per person for tabehoudai and nomihoudai (all you can eat AND all you can drink).
Wow.
It was a massively good time. I'm so glad I caught the call from Non~chan, I'm so glad I went, I'm so glad I'm here. I'm talking too much.
The bday party
The food
Nonchan, Asamichan, Reinachan
Tomochan, Mihokochan, Arichan
Masa and a girl whose name I forgot (/-\)
Yuu kun & Non chan
Some people
Some people too
Some more people
Some more more people
MORE people!
Nomihoudai
Wes & Yukichan
Yamatoudamashi dayo!
Who took this?
Food when we left
The beer glass I got
Asamichan pouring me beer
Us when we left!
@ Karaoke
Due to battery issues, I wasn't able to take very many pictures of my first time at karaoke. It's cool though, because I'm positive I'll go again at least once.
Japanese lyrics
Ry singing his heart out
天職
まだわからない(汗)
The Night
Izakaiya & Karaoke culture journal entry. I'm starting to write a lot of meaningful experiential type stuff in the JA390 journal, so if you're really interested in what I'm doing day by day in detail you should definitely keep up with it too.
Hopefully you'll like these pics too. Tonight was Ry's birthday, and when I got to the train station I found out it was 2 other students' birthdays too. I dressed for the occasion, wearing my Yamato Damashi shirt and wishing Ry a berry berry happy birthday. So off we went, paying 3000 yen (~$30 - I'm learning to be cheap on the weekdays and spend big on the weekends) per person for tabehoudai and nomihoudai (all you can eat AND all you can drink).
Wow.
It was a massively good time. I'm so glad I caught the call from Non~chan, I'm so glad I went, I'm so glad I'm here. I'm talking too much.
The bday party
The food
Nonchan, Asamichan, Reinachan
Tomochan, Mihokochan, Arichan
Masa and a girl whose name I forgot (/-\)
Yuu kun & Non chan
Some people
Some people too
Some more people
Some more more people
MORE people!
Nomihoudai
Wes & Yukichan
Yamatoudamashi dayo!
Who took this?
Food when we left
The beer glass I got
Asamichan pouring me beer
Us when we left!
@ Karaoke
Due to battery issues, I wasn't able to take very many pictures of my first time at karaoke. It's cool though, because I'm positive I'll go again at least once.
Japanese lyrics
Ry singing his heart out
天職
まだわからない(汗)
Sunday, June 12, 2011
ふつな日がくる
クイーンを歌いながら
DONT STOP ME NOW
管理授業
Today I went to a "Principles of Management" class - all in Japanese - and can say nothing less than that it devastated me. I guess lecturing requires a different type of listening that I don't have and there were lots of complicated business terms involved, but I did catch a few things. Corporations have social responsibilities! Some companies in Japan colluded for government contracts! That's about it hahahah..
I wanted to take a picture because the class was pretty cool, but it probably would have been rude. It was stadium seating, and the people who weren't paying attention and talked the whole class all sat in the back, very clearly and voluntarily segregated, whereas in the US they would have just skipped class. He didn't care about them at all. He also made some examples of "obligations" by talking about riding on the train. I didn't catch the rest of it, but no US professor would ever have made a train reference. CULTURAL DIFFERENCE!
Okonomiyaki - "Japanese Pizza" (but not really)
We went out to a great restaurant tonight, kind of like Benihana except for that you do the cooking yourself. They bring you out a bowl of stuff and you prepare it however the correct way is.
Here's one type
Here's another
Afterwards we went back to Chibadai where we sat and asked each other "What should we do" for an hour. I love those moments, er, hours. It was pretty fun, and pretty familiar :P Ry and I noticed some guys break dancing over yonder so we went and asked in PERFECT Japanese if it would be cool to take some pics and then told them they were awesome. Little bit blurry on the pics, but you can see what's going on.
One
Two
Three
Four
Weirdo stuff at the mall
SO we were supposed to try to spot weird stuff in Akiba on Saturday, but there were quite a few weird things in this "hobby store" on the 3rd floor of the Yodobashi building in Chiba.
Not really weird, just funny
Cool a bunch of models
That store's catalog on the ceiling - nice use of space!
(somewhat NWS) ok now here's some weird stuff
Again, this place was 15% of one floor of a massive building whose other stores were completely "normal." This stuff is nowhere near hitting the mainstream of Japan, in my opinion.
Candids & Misc
Find the 6 alien heads and win a prize
Photography, Kaori chan & I
Lots of redeye
Me looking sketchy
A homemade dinner
DONT STOP ME NOW
管理授業
Today I went to a "Principles of Management" class - all in Japanese - and can say nothing less than that it devastated me. I guess lecturing requires a different type of listening that I don't have and there were lots of complicated business terms involved, but I did catch a few things. Corporations have social responsibilities! Some companies in Japan colluded for government contracts! That's about it hahahah..
I wanted to take a picture because the class was pretty cool, but it probably would have been rude. It was stadium seating, and the people who weren't paying attention and talked the whole class all sat in the back, very clearly and voluntarily segregated, whereas in the US they would have just skipped class. He didn't care about them at all. He also made some examples of "obligations" by talking about riding on the train. I didn't catch the rest of it, but no US professor would ever have made a train reference. CULTURAL DIFFERENCE!
Okonomiyaki - "Japanese Pizza" (but not really)
We went out to a great restaurant tonight, kind of like Benihana except for that you do the cooking yourself. They bring you out a bowl of stuff and you prepare it however the correct way is.
Here's one type
Here's another
Afterwards we went back to Chibadai where we sat and asked each other "What should we do" for an hour. I love those moments, er, hours. It was pretty fun, and pretty familiar :P Ry and I noticed some guys break dancing over yonder so we went and asked in PERFECT Japanese if it would be cool to take some pics and then told them they were awesome. Little bit blurry on the pics, but you can see what's going on.
One
Two
Three
Four
Weirdo stuff at the mall
SO we were supposed to try to spot weird stuff in Akiba on Saturday, but there were quite a few weird things in this "hobby store" on the 3rd floor of the Yodobashi building in Chiba.
Not really weird, just funny
Cool a bunch of models
That store's catalog on the ceiling - nice use of space!
(somewhat NWS) ok now here's some weird stuff
Again, this place was 15% of one floor of a massive building whose other stores were completely "normal." This stuff is nowhere near hitting the mainstream of Japan, in my opinion.
Candids & Misc
Find the 6 alien heads and win a prize
Photography, Kaori chan & I
Lots of redeye
Me looking sketchy
A homemade dinner
Sunday, June 13, 2010
野球
野球 - baseball
Last night, for the experience and for the fun of it, we went to a Chiba Lotte Marines baseball game. They were the league champions a couple years ago and I think they're supposed to be pretty good. Japanese baseball follows the same rules as it does in the US, but there are lot of differences.
Marine Stadium
Long line
Before the game
Players on the field
Another view
Me dropping my balloon late - at certain times (6th inning or so?) everyone lets go of balloons and they make a funny noise.
The parks are incredibly clean, like most of the rest of the country. Fans were a lot different, there was an entire section with like a choir of fans cheering for basically the whole time. I forgot most of their chants but it was pretty complicated Japanese. They interview the players over the PA and jumbotron at the end of the game too.
The food wasn't too insanely expensive, just like 800 yen for a burger and fries and chicken wings all in a set. Beer was 600 yen a cup though, and I had me a few. The way they sell beer is pretty awe insipring, and makes me wonder why American parks don't operate the same way. Cute girls go around carrying beer in mini-kegs that they're packing on their backs. We were amazed and so we had to get pictures with as many as possible.
Asahi
Asahi 2
Coke
Sapporo
Kirin - she was pretty mad
Pretty campus pics & misc
The "central park" type place of the campus
Another view of that
Yet another
A heated toilet
With high tech controls
Last night, for the experience and for the fun of it, we went to a Chiba Lotte Marines baseball game. They were the league champions a couple years ago and I think they're supposed to be pretty good. Japanese baseball follows the same rules as it does in the US, but there are lot of differences.
Marine Stadium
Long line
Before the game
Players on the field
Another view
Me dropping my balloon late - at certain times (6th inning or so?) everyone lets go of balloons and they make a funny noise.
The parks are incredibly clean, like most of the rest of the country. Fans were a lot different, there was an entire section with like a choir of fans cheering for basically the whole time. I forgot most of their chants but it was pretty complicated Japanese. They interview the players over the PA and jumbotron at the end of the game too.
The food wasn't too insanely expensive, just like 800 yen for a burger and fries and chicken wings all in a set. Beer was 600 yen a cup though, and I had me a few. The way they sell beer is pretty awe insipring, and makes me wonder why American parks don't operate the same way. Cute girls go around carrying beer in mini-kegs that they're packing on their backs. We were amazed and so we had to get pictures with as many as possible.
Asahi
Asahi 2
Coke
Sapporo
Kirin - she was pretty mad
Pretty campus pics & misc
The "central park" type place of the campus
Another view of that
Yet another
A heated toilet
With high tech controls
Sunday, June 14, 2009
あそこに行けないと。。ちょっと
I can't be there
There have been lots of goings on. I wanted to call Aronn when his mom went to the hospital and my I really want to call my family now, and be able to go to the services for Uncle Albert. I told my sister to tell him bye for me when she went.
So this is something that's bad about being here, I can't be there. Sounds stupid, sounds like common sense, but it feels like more.
The Alienware
I found out I had actual card readers on my laptop, not sure of the names (maybe one is MMC?) but I can directly plug in digital camera cards and PSP memory sticks and read the files. It's really cool, and I can't believe I didn't know about it before. Bad pic, but oh well.
Yesterday, on the town
I saw some new things yesterday, and Roy took some hot pics of me. I bought a tie at the 百円店 (100 yen shop) and looked for Cameron Diaz DVDs for my host mother. Any suggestsions? I think Charlie's Angels is a bit too kiddy but I can't think of any other good movies with her that are out on DVD.
Vouyerism :(
Candid Walkin
Owl Building (this is the police station!)
McChicken - you can scan that odd looking label with a cell phone and get the nutritional info off the internet here. that's on a lot of food and it's VERY cool
Mitsubishi Cider! yeah, the car guys
They cast me in an umbrella commercial
There have been lots of goings on. I wanted to call Aronn when his mom went to the hospital and my I really want to call my family now, and be able to go to the services for Uncle Albert. I told my sister to tell him bye for me when she went.
So this is something that's bad about being here, I can't be there. Sounds stupid, sounds like common sense, but it feels like more.
The Alienware
I found out I had actual card readers on my laptop, not sure of the names (maybe one is MMC?) but I can directly plug in digital camera cards and PSP memory sticks and read the files. It's really cool, and I can't believe I didn't know about it before. Bad pic, but oh well.
Yesterday, on the town
I saw some new things yesterday, and Roy took some hot pics of me. I bought a tie at the 百円店 (100 yen shop) and looked for Cameron Diaz DVDs for my host mother. Any suggestsions? I think Charlie's Angels is a bit too kiddy but I can't think of any other good movies with her that are out on DVD.
Vouyerism :(
Candid Walkin
Owl Building (this is the police station!)
McChicken - you can scan that odd looking label with a cell phone and get the nutritional info off the internet here. that's on a lot of food and it's VERY cool
Mitsubishi Cider! yeah, the car guys
They cast me in an umbrella commercial
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
冒険
イモ （ポテトじゃないｙｐ
うそは嫌いだね！ーカダジ 次回に実を教えてくれくれ
鎌倉, Kamakura
Kamakura is both a Japanese city and era, rich in history and religion. Buddhism and Shinto are the two religions whose temples and shrines can be found in this area. We visited a few as well as some other interesting sites. I'll post a copy of the "speech" I wrote to read during class on Monday for my presentation. You'll be more entertained, though, by the bunches of pics I got. Get ready for some things you may have expected to see from this tourist's perspective!
Flowers - The first two temples we went to, 円覚寺 (Engaku-ji) and 明月院 (Meigetsu-in) were full of flowers. I took a lot of pictures of them and some of them are really pretty.
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
円覚寺
Kamakura Station - much more rustic
Street in the city
Gate of the first temple
Temple entrance
Same gate from the top of the stairs
Traditional roof seen from inside the temple
Interior Gate
Inside a gate
Building
Where people go to pray
Throw in some yen, and pray
A cave in the distance
Statue
Some really old trees I bet - seeing the trees was a good reminder of how old the place was
Pond plus koi
A symbol of Engaku-ji
Just a pretty picture
Another building
A lot of statues
It's that symbol again heh heh
Kirin
Restricted area
Large side view of a gate
明月院
Explanation
Small statue
Top of the shrine
Another good picture at the top, showing what it looks like up there
UA & CU students
Incense burning in a pot
A rock garden
Looks like bamboo
Look up
It says "don't vandalize these trees"
Look up again
Traditional dress lady
鶴岡八幡宮 (Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine)
Cool tunnelish type thing on the road
Handwash station before going in
Some torii out front
A building
Looking down from the top
Front view of the famous shrine
Cool tree
A couple being married Shinto style, I think?
大仏にて (To the Big Buddha)
Street sign!
Lunch (cold seaweed noodles)
PACKED train going to the Big Buddha station, Read culture journal article for more.
The Big Buddha
Pic with me from far away
Closer up
Compare
His sandals
Yuu in front
Inside of him, can't really see
Side/up view (don't you wish you hadn't given me a sketch copy of photoshop now alex)
The beach
Down the beach
原宿, Harajuku
今日、冒険として東京に行ったよ～ Today, as an adventure, we went to Tokyo on our own. First we stopped at the Tokyo Dome, a baseball stadium, to buy a present for my host mother. She loves the Tokyo Giants. There was a cool amusement park that had a rollercoaster with a pretty funny twist, a dancing fountain, and lots of other stuff. We just looked at most of it and went on.
Suidoubashi Station
Amusement Park at Tokyo Dome
Some water in Tokyo Dome City
The rollercoaster from far
From a little closer
Go
View outside of the park
The interesting twist of that coaster
The dancing fountain
On to Takeshita Street, a place well known for its clothes shopping venues.
日本の服について, about Japanese clothes
Some of the stuff Japanese men wear is crazy by my standards, but there are quite a few things I think are very cool. I ended up not being able to shop really any though, CAUSE JAPANESE STORES HAD NO SIZES FOR FAT AMERICANS LIKE ME! Well seriously, the largest sizes were like a US medium :( I saw a few things I definitely would have bought loved and worn, but the size thing ruined it all! :( I was sad.
So I ended up with a few gifts, a 和の漢字があるｔシャツ and a lot of pictures.
Takeshita Street from above
From inside
NB
Crossin tha street
From above
Around where we stopped and ate
CHYEAAAAAA LETS GO
Supposedly a gym
明治神宮, Meiji-Jingu Shrine
Gate at the Harajuku entrance
Walking on the inside
Taken from a bridge
Look up!!
Up! - flash looks funny on these two
Apparently sake was stored in these
At the shrine
Vertical view of gate
The shrine
Where you throw your yen and pray
I love lamp
Where we then ate! - I had noodles enhanced by okra, seaweed, and egg.
Cool lookin schedule
On Monday I have a 7 o'clock in Tokyo. Tuesday night gonna be on David Letterman. Wednesday back to Tokyo for an interview with an investment banker.
カラオケはいつですか (When's karaoke?)
うそは嫌いだね！ーカダジ 次回に実を教えてくれくれ
鎌倉, Kamakura
Kamakura is both a Japanese city and era, rich in history and religion. Buddhism and Shinto are the two religions whose temples and shrines can be found in this area. We visited a few as well as some other interesting sites. I'll post a copy of the "speech" I wrote to read during class on Monday for my presentation. You'll be more entertained, though, by the bunches of pics I got. Get ready for some things you may have expected to see from this tourist's perspective!
Flowers - The first two temples we went to, 円覚寺 (Engaku-ji) and 明月院 (Meigetsu-in) were full of flowers. I took a lot of pictures of them and some of them are really pretty.
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
円覚寺
Kamakura Station - much more rustic
Street in the city
Gate of the first temple
Temple entrance
Same gate from the top of the stairs
Traditional roof seen from inside the temple
Interior Gate
Inside a gate
Building
Where people go to pray
Throw in some yen, and pray
A cave in the distance
Statue
Some really old trees I bet - seeing the trees was a good reminder of how old the place was
Pond plus koi
A symbol of Engaku-ji
Just a pretty picture
Another building
A lot of statues
It's that symbol again heh heh
Kirin
Restricted area
Large side view of a gate
明月院
Explanation
Small statue
Top of the shrine
Another good picture at the top, showing what it looks like up there
UA & CU students
Incense burning in a pot
A rock garden
Looks like bamboo
Look up
It says "don't vandalize these trees"
Look up again
Traditional dress lady
鶴岡八幡宮 (Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine)
Cool tunnelish type thing on the road
Handwash station before going in
Some torii out front
A building
Looking down from the top
Front view of the famous shrine
Cool tree
A couple being married Shinto style, I think?
大仏にて (To the Big Buddha)
Street sign!
Lunch (cold seaweed noodles)
PACKED train going to the Big Buddha station, Read culture journal article for more.
The Big Buddha
Pic with me from far away
Closer up
Compare
His sandals
Yuu in front
Inside of him, can't really see
Side/up view (don't you wish you hadn't given me a sketch copy of photoshop now alex)
The beach
Down the beach
原宿, Harajuku
今日、冒険として東京に行ったよ～ Today, as an adventure, we went to Tokyo on our own. First we stopped at the Tokyo Dome, a baseball stadium, to buy a present for my host mother. She loves the Tokyo Giants. There was a cool amusement park that had a rollercoaster with a pretty funny twist, a dancing fountain, and lots of other stuff. We just looked at most of it and went on.
Suidoubashi Station
Amusement Park at Tokyo Dome
Some water in Tokyo Dome City
The rollercoaster from far
From a little closer
Go
View outside of the park
The interesting twist of that coaster
The dancing fountain
On to Takeshita Street, a place well known for its clothes shopping venues.
日本の服について, about Japanese clothes
Some of the stuff Japanese men wear is crazy by my standards, but there are quite a few things I think are very cool. I ended up not being able to shop really any though, CAUSE JAPANESE STORES HAD NO SIZES FOR FAT AMERICANS LIKE ME! Well seriously, the largest sizes were like a US medium :( I saw a few things I definitely would have bought loved and worn, but the size thing ruined it all! :( I was sad.
So I ended up with a few gifts, a 和の漢字があるｔシャツ and a lot of pictures.
Takeshita Street from above
From inside
NB
Crossin tha street
From above
Around where we stopped and ate
CHYEAAAAAA LETS GO
Supposedly a gym
明治神宮, Meiji-Jingu Shrine
Gate at the Harajuku entrance
Walking on the inside
Taken from a bridge
Look up!!
Up! - flash looks funny on these two
Apparently sake was stored in these
At the shrine
Vertical view of gate
The shrine
Where you throw your yen and pray
I love lamp
Where we then ate! - I had noodles enhanced by okra, seaweed, and egg.
Cool lookin schedule
On Monday I have a 7 o'clock in Tokyo. Tuesday night gonna be on David Letterman. Wednesday back to Tokyo for an interview with an investment banker.
カラオケはいつですか (When's karaoke?)
Monday, June 18, 2007
新宿
I'll put a lot more on this later when I have more time, including pics, but yesterday I went to Tokyo for an interview with a girl who works at Daimler in Japan. It was at a posh Italian/Asian cafe near Yoyogi station and afterwards we walked to Shinjuku (one of the coolest places in the world) and hung out.
The interview was amazing. So was playing in Shinjuku. So later, when I have more time, you'll see.
The interview was amazing. So was playing in Shinjuku. So later, when I have more time, you'll see.
Monday, June 19, 2006
また小さいポストだよ ：（
今日
Today we went to a junior high school and taught some kids English for about an hour. Then we talked with a Japanese professor about the education system in Japan and I totally busted out Savage Inequalities from freshman year. そのあとで、教育学生に沢山会いました。本当にまた会いたいよ！これを読んだらコーメントを書いてくださ～い！
中学校
As part of our Japanese Culture class we're looking at the education system. It was created by the Allies as part of the "peace agreement" and mirrored that of the West, but it's taken a few Japanese turns, for both the worse and the better. And right now, tons of problems are starting to rise in the form of kids being unruly and violent.
But the school we went to seemed very normal. It's affiliated with Chiba University so maybe it's an exceptional case but as we walked in we saw kids in their groups cleaning the school grounds, planting flowers in the little garden around the building, and all saying こんにちは as we walked by. When we entered, they had slippers already laid out for their guests (you take off your shoes everywhere with clean floors in Japan). Up we went, a few floors, to our destination, an "English activity class." Here, they haven't put English into the mainstream of the curriculum yet so saying that "kids are taught English" doesn't necessarily mean they take a proper "class."
Anyway, we were briefed in an adjacent empty room by the teacher and his aid, two men in their 30s, and then entered the room with all the kids. The grade system is different here so they were called "2nd graders" but I think their age was around that of US 8th graders. We played two games, one was kind of like hot potato where you passed it around but had to name an item of a category (fruits, sports, personality traits) and the other was called "Ringo" in which you had to count to 30 in English but say "ringo" instead of multiples of 3 or numbers with 3 in them.
MLK
After those two we were handed MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech and the teacher asked if one of us could demonstrate it. I hesitated, volunteered, and then did my best to impersonate a semi-angry charismatic black guy fighting for civil rights. People liked it! Then we had to try to teach them how to read it, and I did pretty poorly at that. The whole experience was so cool, and made me want to have kids, and also made me want to be a teacher, but the teacher thing went away in about 20 minutes.
Afterparty
After the visit we came back to the campus and compared Japan's education system with that of the US. I remember reading Savage Inequalities as the "freshman book" or whatever and asked how public schools were funded in Japan and if it caused any inequality. It was a pretty short little lecture but she demonstrated a few funny little child teaching tactics.
Education students
Then we went upstairs to somewhat of a party that the 教育学生 (education majors) had prepared for us, wherein we all introduced ourselves and then talked. I chatted in all Japanese for an hour with 3 or 4 people and it was pretty exhilarating. I gave some of them my blog address and told them they should come by our classroom, so I really hope that they do!
ダイムラー・クライスラインタービュ Daimler Interview
Yesterday I went to Yoyogi Station to meet a German girl, now working for Daimler, whom my host mother met a few years ago.
DoCoMo building from the station
Around where we ate - we had gyuudon at Yoshinoya. It was pretty good for the price.
Cool car
We went to a very sweet Italy/Asia mix cafe, one I'm sure no foreigners like myself would know about, and talked about my interview stuff. As soon as I organize the information I'll post more about it, but I learned some cool things from her.
"American wit" is absolutely useless and pretty dangerous to use with Japanese people.
When Japanese people ask you personally probing questions, which they often do, your only good defense is to ask the same question back after answering.
We also talked a lot about Japanese negotiation and a ton about the whole stay at work really late phenomenon. She also gave me a lot of personal advice about working in Japan, language, and other important things.
新宿 Shinjuku
Afterward she showed us to Shinjuku, which was less than a 10 minute walk from the cafe. I suppose it's like the Manhattan of Japan, with TONS of stores, office buildings, and apartments. Oh and people too! I'll just post a flurry of pictures to try and give you an idea. My camera is having trouble detecting/balancing light I think, so pictures I take in the bright or dark have started to turn out horribly. I borrowed most of these from a friend.
We arrived at the Southern Terrace first, a place with a bunch of malls and bridges over the station, as well as an awesome view of the DoCoMo building.
Southern Terrace
Southern Terrace from further
More to the right
Clock on the top of NTT building
Then we took a left out to the middle of the busy area.
Malls on top of the station
More of those
Walkin down the street
Three story ad
Megane su-pa-
A square type place
Another view of that
Some stores
Some more stores
A pretty... sign!
More cool... signs!
We went down here
After the initial loss of breath we walked further in to a huge square with tons of people and huge signs. We went into Don Kiho-te-, a store with 5 floors of everything, looked around a little bit, and then went to Kabuki-chou, an apparently promiscuous place that's I can't quite understand.
That big square
A little to the right
The biggest sign we saw
Inside don quixote
In front of Kabukichou
Inside Kabukichou
Its sign
The last two days were incredible and really have had a profound effect on my desire to come back, for a pretty long time even. Tonight may be no different, as I'll be meeting Josh in Tokyo station and heading out to interview a girl who works for Nomura Securities, the biggest securities exchange company in the land.
Today we went to a junior high school and taught some kids English for about an hour. Then we talked with a Japanese professor about the education system in Japan and I totally busted out Savage Inequalities from freshman year. そのあとで、教育学生に沢山会いました。本当にまた会いたいよ！これを読んだらコーメントを書いてくださ～い！
中学校
As part of our Japanese Culture class we're looking at the education system. It was created by the Allies as part of the "peace agreement" and mirrored that of the West, but it's taken a few Japanese turns, for both the worse and the better. And right now, tons of problems are starting to rise in the form of kids being unruly and violent.
But the school we went to seemed very normal. It's affiliated with Chiba University so maybe it's an exceptional case but as we walked in we saw kids in their groups cleaning the school grounds, planting flowers in the little garden around the building, and all saying こんにちは as we walked by. When we entered, they had slippers already laid out for their guests (you take off your shoes everywhere with clean floors in Japan). Up we went, a few floors, to our destination, an "English activity class." Here, they haven't put English into the mainstream of the curriculum yet so saying that "kids are taught English" doesn't necessarily mean they take a proper "class."
Anyway, we were briefed in an adjacent empty room by the teacher and his aid, two men in their 30s, and then entered the room with all the kids. The grade system is different here so they were called "2nd graders" but I think their age was around that of US 8th graders. We played two games, one was kind of like hot potato where you passed it around but had to name an item of a category (fruits, sports, personality traits) and the other was called "Ringo" in which you had to count to 30 in English but say "ringo" instead of multiples of 3 or numbers with 3 in them.
MLK
After those two we were handed MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech and the teacher asked if one of us could demonstrate it. I hesitated, volunteered, and then did my best to impersonate a semi-angry charismatic black guy fighting for civil rights. People liked it! Then we had to try to teach them how to read it, and I did pretty poorly at that. The whole experience was so cool, and made me want to have kids, and also made me want to be a teacher, but the teacher thing went away in about 20 minutes.
Afterparty
After the visit we came back to the campus and compared Japan's education system with that of the US. I remember reading Savage Inequalities as the "freshman book" or whatever and asked how public schools were funded in Japan and if it caused any inequality. It was a pretty short little lecture but she demonstrated a few funny little child teaching tactics.
Education students
Then we went upstairs to somewhat of a party that the 教育学生 (education majors) had prepared for us, wherein we all introduced ourselves and then talked. I chatted in all Japanese for an hour with 3 or 4 people and it was pretty exhilarating. I gave some of them my blog address and told them they should come by our classroom, so I really hope that they do!
ダイムラー・クライスラインタービュ Daimler Interview
Yesterday I went to Yoyogi Station to meet a German girl, now working for Daimler, whom my host mother met a few years ago.
DoCoMo building from the station
Around where we ate - we had gyuudon at Yoshinoya. It was pretty good for the price.
Cool car
We went to a very sweet Italy/Asia mix cafe, one I'm sure no foreigners like myself would know about, and talked about my interview stuff. As soon as I organize the information I'll post more about it, but I learned some cool things from her.
"American wit" is absolutely useless and pretty dangerous to use with Japanese people.
When Japanese people ask you personally probing questions, which they often do, your only good defense is to ask the same question back after answering.
We also talked a lot about Japanese negotiation and a ton about the whole stay at work really late phenomenon. She also gave me a lot of personal advice about working in Japan, language, and other important things.
新宿 Shinjuku
Afterward she showed us to Shinjuku, which was less than a 10 minute walk from the cafe. I suppose it's like the Manhattan of Japan, with TONS of stores, office buildings, and apartments. Oh and people too! I'll just post a flurry of pictures to try and give you an idea. My camera is having trouble detecting/balancing light I think, so pictures I take in the bright or dark have started to turn out horribly. I borrowed most of these from a friend.
We arrived at the Southern Terrace first, a place with a bunch of malls and bridges over the station, as well as an awesome view of the DoCoMo building.
Southern Terrace
Southern Terrace from further
More to the right
Clock on the top of NTT building
Then we took a left out to the middle of the busy area.
Malls on top of the station
More of those
Walkin down the street
Three story ad
Megane su-pa-
A square type place
Another view of that
Some stores
Some more stores
A pretty... sign!
More cool... signs!
We went down here
After the initial loss of breath we walked further in to a huge square with tons of people and huge signs. We went into Don Kiho-te-, a store with 5 floors of everything, looked around a little bit, and then went to Kabuki-chou, an apparently promiscuous place that's I can't quite understand.
That big square
A little to the right
The biggest sign we saw
Inside don quixote
In front of Kabukichou
Inside Kabukichou
Its sign
The last two days were incredible and really have had a profound effect on my desire to come back, for a pretty long time even. Tonight may be no different, as I'll be meeting Josh in Tokyo station and heading out to interview a girl who works for Nomura Securities, the biggest securities exchange company in the land.
Monday, June 20, 2005
異数
Real quick on the title, I called this post 異数 because it's what the dictionary returned for "phenomenal." I doubt it's used the same way in Japanese as it is in the US, but it's the best way I could describe my time in Tokyo last night. I also wanted to learn words other than めっちゃ (kind of rude as well as unspecific) to describe 大喜び (great joy). So like I said, it went well. Really well.
Maybe this example sentence from ALC will do better, because I think 異数 has a lot to do with the unusual aspect of 'phenomenal':
僕は丸の内でインタービュを満喫したよ。
Well, so, lately I've been in and out of Tokyo a lot and I'd like to describe my feelings in the words of someone else:
The lone critical/observant pedestrian's experience with the modern city, the way in which they simultaneously construct each other, is one of the sexiest things possible to me.
Me too.
もう一つ冒険だった
Josh had told me to meet him at Tokyo station, to which I asked which exit, since I'm so good at Japan and know that you gotta know an exit to meet properly (huge sarcasm/ignorance on my part, you'll see). He said central, so with that I was set. That afternoon I headed into Tokyo after changing onto the rapid line from the next station down from Chiba Univ, and got there about 20 minutes early.
東京駅
Tokyo Station is like an airport. I had to take 3 escalators to the ground floor from where my train stopped, and on the way I saw that this was where just about every Shinkansen line (bullet train) met. So there were tons and tons of people and tons and tons of floors, and, unfortunately, tons and tons of central exits!
Bought a coffee, checked to see if there was wireless (wasn't) and worked on words a little bit. There was Yaesu Central, Yaesu Central Underground, Marunouchi Central, and Marunouchi Central Underground exits. Haha, so I guessed Yaesu and was wrong :(
丸の内
I caught up via text messages and there we were. He had just finished interviewing with Michael Page International so he was wearing a slick suit much to the contrast of my jeans and stolen from a gay man gap shirt. But it was cool, I may be there soon enough. We found out that our interviewee had something come up and couldn't make it until 8, so we had to kill some hours.
To do so we walked around inside the Shin-Marunouchi Building and looked around, had some beers, and talked a ton. He advised me about a great deal of things, including a very feasible solution to having to choose between Japan and grad school. After that we still had some time, so he showed me to the Imperial Palace, which was very cool. The best thing about Meiji-jingu and the Imperial Palace to me is that they are important, green, historical, non packed areas right in the middle of the capital. We talked a lot, and then it was time.
Tokyo Tower from Marunouchi
A building of the Imperial Palace
Another view
Business District view of Marunouchi
These next two exemplify Tokyo's greatness, or at least one part of it. Like I said above there there are some very cool, non-urban places in the middle of the megalopolis. A good illustration I heard was that during the late 80s the land the Palace is on was worth more than the state of California.
Bridge behind which the Emperor of Japan lives
View after doing a 180
驚天動地
We met back in front of Shin-Marunouchi biru and went into the cafe right in the front. It was this dude's place, but the cafe version of it, so not a million yen for a 8 oz. steak and piece of parsley. We three had some coffees and had an incredible talk about her experiences working for both Nippon Koei and Nomura Securities. After that Josh had to head back for his part-time job, and we sat and drank a few more drinks and ate some nice light French sandwiches, during which time I got some very good advice.
Aside from a grade for and completion of the independent study course I'm taking, the advice I've been getting from the interviewees and people who connect me with them has been invaluable. That and life changing. I'm so glad for the few massive opportunities I've had to get together with really important people and hear what they have to say.
Another breakfast
Out the apartment, cross the street, under the bridge, and up the stairs
Maybe this example sentence from ALC will do better, because I think 異数 has a lot to do with the unusual aspect of 'phenomenal':
僕は丸の内でインタービュを満喫したよ。
Well, so, lately I've been in and out of Tokyo a lot and I'd like to describe my feelings in the words of someone else:
The lone critical/observant pedestrian's experience with the modern city, the way in which they simultaneously construct each other, is one of the sexiest things possible to me.
Me too.
もう一つ冒険だった
Josh had told me to meet him at Tokyo station, to which I asked which exit, since I'm so good at Japan and know that you gotta know an exit to meet properly (huge sarcasm/ignorance on my part, you'll see). He said central, so with that I was set. That afternoon I headed into Tokyo after changing onto the rapid line from the next station down from Chiba Univ, and got there about 20 minutes early.
東京駅
Tokyo Station is like an airport. I had to take 3 escalators to the ground floor from where my train stopped, and on the way I saw that this was where just about every Shinkansen line (bullet train) met. So there were tons and tons of people and tons and tons of floors, and, unfortunately, tons and tons of central exits!
Bought a coffee, checked to see if there was wireless (wasn't) and worked on words a little bit. There was Yaesu Central, Yaesu Central Underground, Marunouchi Central, and Marunouchi Central Underground exits. Haha, so I guessed Yaesu and was wrong :(
丸の内
I caught up via text messages and there we were. He had just finished interviewing with Michael Page International so he was wearing a slick suit much to the contrast of my jeans and stolen from a gay man gap shirt. But it was cool, I may be there soon enough. We found out that our interviewee had something come up and couldn't make it until 8, so we had to kill some hours.
To do so we walked around inside the Shin-Marunouchi Building and looked around, had some beers, and talked a ton. He advised me about a great deal of things, including a very feasible solution to having to choose between Japan and grad school. After that we still had some time, so he showed me to the Imperial Palace, which was very cool. The best thing about Meiji-jingu and the Imperial Palace to me is that they are important, green, historical, non packed areas right in the middle of the capital. We talked a lot, and then it was time.
Tokyo Tower from Marunouchi
A building of the Imperial Palace
Another view
Business District view of Marunouchi
These next two exemplify Tokyo's greatness, or at least one part of it. Like I said above there there are some very cool, non-urban places in the middle of the megalopolis. A good illustration I heard was that during the late 80s the land the Palace is on was worth more than the state of California.
Bridge behind which the Emperor of Japan lives
View after doing a 180
驚天動地
We met back in front of Shin-Marunouchi biru and went into the cafe right in the front. It was this dude's place, but the cafe version of it, so not a million yen for a 8 oz. steak and piece of parsley. We three had some coffees and had an incredible talk about her experiences working for both Nippon Koei and Nomura Securities. After that Josh had to head back for his part-time job, and we sat and drank a few more drinks and ate some nice light French sandwiches, during which time I got some very good advice.
Aside from a grade for and completion of the independent study course I'm taking, the advice I've been getting from the interviewees and people who connect me with them has been invaluable. That and life changing. I'm so glad for the few massive opportunities I've had to get together with really important people and hear what they have to say.
Another breakfast
Out the apartment, cross the street, under the bridge, and up the stairs
Thursday, June 24, 2004
様々
Big Groups
I saw the whole relationship between ease of satisfaction and # of people in a group rear it's ugly face this last Saturday. Before, I had been to Tokyo in groups of 1-4, and it was very manageable, very fun, and incredibly meaningful. Saturday we went with about 10, who all wanted to do different things, and making everyone happy even in 2 separate groups was a near impossibility.
We did get to see Shibuya though, during the day, and damn was it alive. I'd love to go back but I don't know if I'll get an opportunity before the 30th.
Roppongi
My classes are finished on Wednesday, 2 days before everyone else's and 3 days before I have to fly back. yes, 米国に飛ぶ三日の前 :P I will probably go back into town Thursday night and maybe spend the night if it's cool with my host mother, because I did wanna see Roppongi and Shibuya at night Saturday, even though we weren't able to. I saw on the train that there's a Monet exhibit at some museum there, whose tickets have a student price(!), so maybe that will be part of it as well as riding the Tokyo subway and eating expensive 和食 (Japanese food).
Chiba Park
But anyway, because of the soon to be critical mass of social confusion that was happening in Tokyo on Saturday, 7 or 8 of us just went back to Chiba and chilled in the park there.
I learned through experience what I had been told what the most common gaijin mistake in Japan is: trying to use any kind of wit or trying to be funny. I kind of hurt someone dear to me by accident, and while everything seems fixed now, I still feel really bad. I know though that I won't do anything like it again because I experienced it instead of just hearing it. Just having heard it obviously wasn't enough :(
At the park though, we wrote and acted out a lot of incredible poems. In Japanese. My first one was
世の中は。。
大変だね。
And the ensuing ones were great. I also was coerced into comparing abs with Ry and then as we were Johnathan came over and slammed his hands into both of our stomachs, turning them a bright candy apple red. It was pretty cool aside from some mishaps with some people calling their host parents.
Exploring a lot more lately, accostations
The first couple of weeks I was here I felt that not being fluent was really restraining, but now (unfortunately sort of too late), that's gone. I approached so many random people and said things like この場所をまったく知らないけど楽しみたいだから大学生がたくさんいる場所はどこですか or simpler things like 渋谷はどの方にあるの？ (i don't know this place at all but i want to have fun, do you know a place with a lot of college students) (which direction is shibuya?). Doesn't sound very exciting but the rush is quite sweet. I've had some really interesting conversations with women smoking next to the subway entrance.
また居酒屋かよｗｗｗ
We went to another chain Izakaya and had a really good time. The atmosphere was incredible as it was last time, but the CD that was playing over us seemed like Magic 96 from 10 years ago. We didn't go 飲み放題 (all you can drink) so it was a more quiet, more tight knit, and more deliciously memorable.
自動販売機で富士山から来た水をのんだよ。広告みて、天然水ということがあった。でも天国から来た意味をわかってしまったので、買ったよ('～')
I drank water that came from Mount Fuji at a vending machine. I saw the advertisement, which said it came from natural springs. But it had the kanji for heaven and I couldn't read the rest so I thought the meaning was that it came from heaven. So I bought it.
I've been thinking a lot about the future, and been getting a lot of advice from various important people. I had that list of shapers (in the Beowulf sense) on my website a few years ago, and if I could find it now I'd add at least 10 new people to it.
That stuff can go up later though. I'll arrange some pics too. For now, ぺらぺらにならなければならないよ！
I saw the whole relationship between ease of satisfaction and # of people in a group rear it's ugly face this last Saturday. Before, I had been to Tokyo in groups of 1-4, and it was very manageable, very fun, and incredibly meaningful. Saturday we went with about 10, who all wanted to do different things, and making everyone happy even in 2 separate groups was a near impossibility.
We did get to see Shibuya though, during the day, and damn was it alive. I'd love to go back but I don't know if I'll get an opportunity before the 30th.
Roppongi
My classes are finished on Wednesday, 2 days before everyone else's and 3 days before I have to fly back. yes, 米国に飛ぶ三日の前 :P I will probably go back into town Thursday night and maybe spend the night if it's cool with my host mother, because I did wanna see Roppongi and Shibuya at night Saturday, even though we weren't able to. I saw on the train that there's a Monet exhibit at some museum there, whose tickets have a student price(!), so maybe that will be part of it as well as riding the Tokyo subway and eating expensive 和食 (Japanese food).
Chiba Park
But anyway, because of the soon to be critical mass of social confusion that was happening in Tokyo on Saturday, 7 or 8 of us just went back to Chiba and chilled in the park there.
I learned through experience what I had been told what the most common gaijin mistake in Japan is: trying to use any kind of wit or trying to be funny. I kind of hurt someone dear to me by accident, and while everything seems fixed now, I still feel really bad. I know though that I won't do anything like it again because I experienced it instead of just hearing it. Just having heard it obviously wasn't enough :(
At the park though, we wrote and acted out a lot of incredible poems. In Japanese. My first one was
世の中は。。
大変だね。
And the ensuing ones were great. I also was coerced into comparing abs with Ry and then as we were Johnathan came over and slammed his hands into both of our stomachs, turning them a bright candy apple red. It was pretty cool aside from some mishaps with some people calling their host parents.
Exploring a lot more lately, accostations
The first couple of weeks I was here I felt that not being fluent was really restraining, but now (unfortunately sort of too late), that's gone. I approached so many random people and said things like この場所をまったく知らないけど楽しみたいだから大学生がたくさんいる場所はどこですか or simpler things like 渋谷はどの方にあるの？ (i don't know this place at all but i want to have fun, do you know a place with a lot of college students) (which direction is shibuya?). Doesn't sound very exciting but the rush is quite sweet. I've had some really interesting conversations with women smoking next to the subway entrance.
また居酒屋かよｗｗｗ
We went to another chain Izakaya and had a really good time. The atmosphere was incredible as it was last time, but the CD that was playing over us seemed like Magic 96 from 10 years ago. We didn't go 飲み放題 (all you can drink) so it was a more quiet, more tight knit, and more deliciously memorable.
自動販売機で富士山から来た水をのんだよ。広告みて、天然水ということがあった。でも天国から来た意味をわかってしまったので、買ったよ('～')
I drank water that came from Mount Fuji at a vending machine. I saw the advertisement, which said it came from natural springs. But it had the kanji for heaven and I couldn't read the rest so I thought the meaning was that it came from heaven. So I bought it.
I've been thinking a lot about the future, and been getting a lot of advice from various important people. I had that list of shapers (in the Beowulf sense) on my website a few years ago, and if I could find it now I'd add at least 10 new people to it.
That stuff can go up later though. I'll arrange some pics too. For now, ぺらぺらにならなければならないよ！
Thursday, June 26, 2003
最後
This will probably be my last post from Japan because of internet and time, but I'll probably post the whole meaningful final post of this blog from Bizzama.
Culture Shock
My host mom recently got a fever and got pretty sick. I kept offering to help go to the hospital with her or buy her something at the store but she kept refusing, saying she was ok, and even got sort of annoyed I think.
I learned that health in Japan is totally different from in the US. Not like the technology available for the healthcare or anything, just the way it's communicated and who's allowed to know things. Even recently there was a case of a doctor not telling the patient he or she had a terminal disease. Thinking of bad health as a bother or as shameful is something to which I think I'll have a really hard time adjusting.
I finished up my culture journal for class today and wrote a few things at the end of it that have a bit of conclusion. I definitely haven't come close to learning even 1% of everything but what I have learned will be extremely valuable even if I somehow don't come back, and invaluable if I do.
奥さん。。i mean laptop
My laptop battery is completely dead and unrechargeable :( Poor baby. Someone told me you can rebuild it yourself for pretty cheap but I might also not want to accidentally spill battery acid on my eyes somehow so I might just buy one... for $169 :______________( ouch.
Gifts
I'm getting a lot of people a lot of cool (I hope) gifts for going away. Watch out!
Again, few pics. There are quite a few on the camera but I've been too lazy to mess with them lately. I stole a couple though, Me & Ry in the room, Me & Alicia in the eki
'Til next time =o
Culture Shock
My host mom recently got a fever and got pretty sick. I kept offering to help go to the hospital with her or buy her something at the store but she kept refusing, saying she was ok, and even got sort of annoyed I think.
I learned that health in Japan is totally different from in the US. Not like the technology available for the healthcare or anything, just the way it's communicated and who's allowed to know things. Even recently there was a case of a doctor not telling the patient he or she had a terminal disease. Thinking of bad health as a bother or as shameful is something to which I think I'll have a really hard time adjusting.
I finished up my culture journal for class today and wrote a few things at the end of it that have a bit of conclusion. I definitely haven't come close to learning even 1% of everything but what I have learned will be extremely valuable even if I somehow don't come back, and invaluable if I do.
奥さん。。i mean laptop
My laptop battery is completely dead and unrechargeable :( Poor baby. Someone told me you can rebuild it yourself for pretty cheap but I might also not want to accidentally spill battery acid on my eyes somehow so I might just buy one... for $169 :______________( ouch.
Gifts
I'm getting a lot of people a lot of cool (I hope) gifts for going away. Watch out!
Again, few pics. There are quite a few on the camera but I've been too lazy to mess with them lately. I stole a couple though, Me & Ry in the room, Me & Alicia in the eki
'Til next time =o
Sunday, June 30, 2002
感情
I'm back on my bed, back in Birmingham after that long, pensive, and intermittently sleepy flight. Shooter is a pretty decent movie. I got to spend a lot of time thinking during those 20 or so hours... thinking and writing everything I was gonna say here. Get ready for a good, long, and final read.
It's a long post, with huge graphics, sorry to ask you to bear with it. Also, I'm probably going to take a break from blogging for a while because I'm kinda burned out (as you can see by the lack of frequency lately, hopefully this makes up for it!) on very thorough blogging. Just so much new was going on the whole time.
予定 Plans
I have to talk with Dr. Hilton and Dr. Bachrach before any of this becomes firm, but the #1 goal is to get back to Japan next June or September, for a year+, with a reasonable purpose such as grad school, an internship, or a job.
Before then I want to finish up my study from the interviews, apply to some US grad schools, see if there are any good opportunities for jobs here that might involve Japan, pass the JLPT, score well on the GMAT, do well in school, and improve my general quality of life in things like health and nutrition. Sounds like a lot, and there's still more, but I feel like I can do anything as long as my food's not poisoned. Which may be hard to deal with =x
高橋先生 Dr. Takahashi
Takahashi sensei helped me in innumerable ways. Among the biggest were hooking me up with a month long JR pass, getting special permission/hardware for wireless in the classroom, and helping me make and print meishi on the computer. He also mentored me a bit on my plans and helped a lot with Japanese, as well as led the group on a few weekend excursions. He's the man and I'll be glad when he comes to UA in September and I can maybe treat him or just chill somewhere.
Narita Ticket Counter
Narita sittin, chillin
Narita off
Narita offf
Narita offff
素晴らしい詩
wonderful poem (rofl)
終点に着てきました
We've arrived at the last stop
でも今から乗り換えりが沢山あります
But from now there are many interchanges
さっきの旅は種だと思います。さらに、その種は人生のもと
The trip we just finished is a seed I think, and that seed is a part of our lives
それで将来へ行こうか！
So lets head toward the future
I hope by now you can tell I love the train analogies! I also love 「稲毛ー 稲毛です」 and 「まもなく、一番線に、各駅電車、千葉の方面にまいります。あぶないですから、黄色い線までお下がりください」 and 「ドアがしまります、ご注意ください」. What a wonderful educational tool thems trains is. Useful for gettin' 'round town too woodencha say? Oops, things are already changing.
Speaking of change 変わりといえば
Some reentry shocks I've experienced so far:
和食、アメリカ料理 From Japanese to American food
Not too much explanation is needed, really. Not only will I be eating so called "American food" that doesn't really exist outside of everything you can buy at a baseball park, but I'll be cooking it myself. I'll probably gain back what bunches of weight that I lost and turn my life expectancy back in a negative direction. And for one last edition of the notorious meal pic series...
I'll especially miss the food. 特に和食が恋しいです
おはし、ホーク From chopsticks to a fork
I caught this one eating on the plane. Not too big of a deal but I really enjoyed getting used to using chopsticks and sort of paused for four or five seconds when I picked up my fork to eat my delicious airline food. I stopped saying itadakimasu too, oops, better start back. Also, my host mother gave me the chopsticks that I had been using for breakfast and dinner every night as a gift. I'll keep 'em close.
Not too big of a change, but meaningful. 変わりがあまり大きくないですが感情です
電車、車 From train to car
This one depends heavily on the situation, so I don't prefer one system to the other, but I'll really miss the train. Being able to use the train and subway is a rite of passage of sorts, and I really appreciate all the people who tutored me in its mysterious ways.
電車が恋しくなります, I'm starting to miss the train
団欒、一人 From group to solo
From now on I'll probably be going around alone a large share of the time compared to being in a group nearly all the time. I feel really neutral about this because the sort of tension that sometimes arose from always being in a group was a little bit uncomfortable. But being with friends is usually, well, almost always, better than being alone.
一緒に行った方がいいですが時々一人でもいいと思います
Going together is better, but sometimes it's also ok to go alone I think
円, ドール From Yen to USD
I might miss the cheaper stuff at some places (if that was even the case) but I sure as hell won't miss the coins. THE COINS!!! I left my mom 30+ 1 yen coins as a joke and she gave me 3 10 yen coins that are over there on my dresser.
一円とか十円とか五十円とか百円は不便だ！1 yen, 10 yen, 50 yen, and 100 yen coins suck!
ゴエンが違うけど、なぜならラッキからだね！it's different for 5 yen though, because they're lucky :P
ワシュレット, トイレ From space age toilet to American Standard
Best illustrated by a trip to the DFW bathroom, my feelings on this change are pretty clear. So I go into the stall and of course the seat is all nasty. Then after I wipe it off the auto flusher flushes it and gets it wet again because the flushing mechanism is out of alignment or something and goes way too violently. So I sort of do a little uncomfortable trick to stay in front of the sensor the whole time, clean it up, do my thing, and... well, if you can't imagine it never mind but holy crap it was annoying.
I'll miss the high tech toilets, not the low tech ones though. ワシュレットが好きだった
静か、煩い, 性格の場合 From "quiet" to "loud," personality wise
Airport too. First, the security guy stopped a black man who had some shampoo not contained in a plastic bag and the way he did it was honestly really shocking. "You failed to put this in a 3.5 pint bag as is clearly indicated on the large signs hanging overhead that you should have read on your way in" or something to that effect. Guy had two small kids he was policing and probably hadn't traveled since the latest wave of paranoia. Wait, I take that back. I seriously had to go through a straight up Half-Life style explosives scanning booth. 世の中は大変だね。Whatever the case with the guy with the kids, the redneck white Texan officer was just a straight up asshole to him. Now maybe I had just missed it happening in Japan but never once did I see any sort of employee of any kind ever be anything other than over the top nice and honorific to customers.
Also, youth groups at airports SUCK. Seems like there's always one when I'm flying home. UGH!
I'll miss the quietness in terms of respect - Tokyo isn't exactly a "quiet" place - and the great service. Those are definitely two great things about Japan.
ファンタジー、本当 From fantasy to reality
I tried to answer the question of whether I could live in Japan as part of my trip and the answer now is a resounding "yes." That disregards that I would have to do a lot more work both in school and have to pay for everything on my own so it's sort of the "easy thinking" that my host mother said I must stop.
I can live there in fantasy, but whether I can in reality will be up to another trip. Basically, お金が必要なんだ。Better get started!
帰りの方が行きより難しいだと思ってます I'm thinking coming back is harder than leaving
Perhaps I went to Japan because I dig the culture, and wanted to be a part of it. Now that I'm back in the US I see a lot of things that I both like and dislike when compared to the Japanese counterpart. If in truth, which I can't see very clearly yet, I like Japan's culture better than that of the US, I'll probably have a resistant time getting readjusted.
僕の場合、もしアメリカの文化は日本ほど好きじゃなかったら、おそらくアメリカでカルチャーショックを経験されるでしょう
Rehab
This trip was like rehab for my drug addiction. I'm almost kind of glad my host mother was strict on the internet because it kept my internet time from being unrestricted, which combined with a lack of discipline is usually what causes my problems. On that note the plan is to go back 'til school. I feel like I'll be able do anything when I'm not addicted to drugs.
Metaphorically of course. ずっと遊ぶゲームはいらない
六本木
Thursday was a free day for me, the last, and so I wanted to throw down. All of the Alabama students were busy with their host families or studying for the Japanese class final, and I felt like the Chiba students didn't want to stay out all night and spend billions of yen, so I asked Asami from that part toward the beginning of the trip.
We went and had an absolutely insane blast.
First, we took the subway(!) from Marunouchi to Roppongi, where we looked around Roppongi Hills, a pretty gaijinized foreigner high class high price shopping and living area. We saw a stage being set up where the cast of the new Harry Potter would be coming later that day, then went up the Mori Tower (pic coming up from subway) to Tokyo City View on 52F. Here are some unfortunately cloudy views of Tokyo from the observatory.
One
Two
Three
Famous proposals on the wall up there
Right by the tower was the Asahi TV studio, outside of which lies a really sweet looking garden. If it doesn't look like much, it's so great, again, cause it's right in the middle of a world class tightly packed city. Inside there were some easily recognizable character displays and products, not that I knew anything about any of them :( After Asahi TV it was off to the 国立新美術館, or more easily the art museum. That word is a pretty good Japanese tongue twister too: kokuritsushinbijutsukan. After 3 days of practice I can say it pretty naturally! On the way I got another neat but cloudy view of Tokyo Tower from Roppongi and a good shot of some cool apartments. A while after we saw Monet at the museum we headed to Shibuya for dinner. We went to a pretty nice izakaya where I took one of those damn self taken 2 person pictures and look like I weigh 400 lbs. Afterward we went to Womb, which was quite a spot. It wasn't too picturesque but it was an amazing time and I did get a pic of the myspace ad on the lockers.
本当の恋に落ち方って感じについて話したり、六本木も渋谷にある有名な場所見たり、美術見たり、居酒屋で食べたり飲んだり、wombというクラブでダンスしたりしました。めっちゃたのしかった！！！
That was Thursday. Friday we had a really nice departing party in appreciation of the Chiba students.
Hey now
Aya, Becca, Kaori
Aya, Tomo, Take
Me and Josh - the man
Ikue, Hikari, and Tomo
Jonathan's group - Totoro shoutout
Mihoko, Ry, Tomo
Saeko, Me, Nozomi
Another
ANOTHER! - light is so screwy on the camera nowadays :(
Ry <3>
Party people
Everyone taking our pic
Afterwards we went to a karaoke place for a while and went kinda crazy. Enjoyed the hell out of it, here's proof!
The Chiba partners' attitude of genuinely wanting to do simply whatever it is we would like, without any sort of self-interested angles is something I can't appreciate enough. Today when we left, they gave us an amazing present with notes from each of them and a group photo.
僕たちは千葉大生にすごくいい贈り物がいただきました。その贈り物は沢山の年の以前に、一番大事なものです。忘れちゃだめ！
That gift is one of the most valuable things I've gotten in the past many years. I'll never forget it.
Other various outings外出中
Lunch with Amano sensei
Guys pay 300 yen more for all you can drink!
Harajuku Audi Forum
Jonathan at Jonathan's
Guess who's buried in the menu
A couple students who are coming to UA next semester
Up to Shibuya's hill
Taken at "Table Night" heh heh heh
Shibuya 109 irl
家族 Family
My host mother is a great woman. 本当の母が育ったようにお世話になりました, she took care of me like my real mother has. I took for granted the opportunity to go through a lot with her and to have meaningful conversations in Japanese with her until I realized last night how special our dinner and night time talks were. She told me to take two things home:
大切なのは
焦っちゃだめ - Don't be in a rush
失敗は成功のもと - Failure teaches success
Through her thorough and pretty much accurate read of my self throughout our month of talks she said those were the two most important things I had to realize to do better in life. She also said some things like "games are like poison," forgot the exact Japanese, and わからない時にわかったといわないで, or don't say you understand when you don't. Cause I did that a lot when she was explaining things to me, and she caught me every time. いつも目が言ったって言った, she always said said my eyes told her I was lying.
We took a picture before she saw me off at the station.
母 父
I'll miss Narashino and Tsudanuma, of course, but I'll miss mother and my friends above all.
泣けてきちゃった。
It's a long post, with huge graphics, sorry to ask you to bear with it. Also, I'm probably going to take a break from blogging for a while because I'm kinda burned out (as you can see by the lack of frequency lately, hopefully this makes up for it!) on very thorough blogging. Just so much new was going on the whole time.
予定 Plans
I have to talk with Dr. Hilton and Dr. Bachrach before any of this becomes firm, but the #1 goal is to get back to Japan next June or September, for a year+, with a reasonable purpose such as grad school, an internship, or a job.
Before then I want to finish up my study from the interviews, apply to some US grad schools, see if there are any good opportunities for jobs here that might involve Japan, pass the JLPT, score well on the GMAT, do well in school, and improve my general quality of life in things like health and nutrition. Sounds like a lot, and there's still more, but I feel like I can do anything as long as my food's not poisoned. Which may be hard to deal with =x
高橋先生 Dr. Takahashi
Takahashi sensei helped me in innumerable ways. Among the biggest were hooking me up with a month long JR pass, getting special permission/hardware for wireless in the classroom, and helping me make and print meishi on the computer. He also mentored me a bit on my plans and helped a lot with Japanese, as well as led the group on a few weekend excursions. He's the man and I'll be glad when he comes to UA in September and I can maybe treat him or just chill somewhere.
Narita Ticket Counter
Narita sittin, chillin
Narita off
Narita offf
Narita offff
素晴らしい詩
wonderful poem (rofl)
終点に着てきました
We've arrived at the last stop
でも今から乗り換えりが沢山あります
But from now there are many interchanges
さっきの旅は種だと思います。さらに、その種は人生のもと
The trip we just finished is a seed I think, and that seed is a part of our lives
それで将来へ行こうか！
So lets head toward the future
I hope by now you can tell I love the train analogies! I also love 「稲毛ー 稲毛です」 and 「まもなく、一番線に、各駅電車、千葉の方面にまいります。あぶないですから、黄色い線までお下がりください」 and 「ドアがしまります、ご注意ください」. What a wonderful educational tool thems trains is. Useful for gettin' 'round town too woodencha say? Oops, things are already changing.
Speaking of change 変わりといえば
Some reentry shocks I've experienced so far:
和食、アメリカ料理 From Japanese to American food
Not too much explanation is needed, really. Not only will I be eating so called "American food" that doesn't really exist outside of everything you can buy at a baseball park, but I'll be cooking it myself. I'll probably gain back what bunches of weight that I lost and turn my life expectancy back in a negative direction. And for one last edition of the notorious meal pic series...
I'll especially miss the food. 特に和食が恋しいです
おはし、ホーク From chopsticks to a fork
I caught this one eating on the plane. Not too big of a deal but I really enjoyed getting used to using chopsticks and sort of paused for four or five seconds when I picked up my fork to eat my delicious airline food. I stopped saying itadakimasu too, oops, better start back. Also, my host mother gave me the chopsticks that I had been using for breakfast and dinner every night as a gift. I'll keep 'em close.
Not too big of a change, but meaningful. 変わりがあまり大きくないですが感情です
電車、車 From train to car
This one depends heavily on the situation, so I don't prefer one system to the other, but I'll really miss the train. Being able to use the train and subway is a rite of passage of sorts, and I really appreciate all the people who tutored me in its mysterious ways.
電車が恋しくなります, I'm starting to miss the train
団欒、一人 From group to solo
From now on I'll probably be going around alone a large share of the time compared to being in a group nearly all the time. I feel really neutral about this because the sort of tension that sometimes arose from always being in a group was a little bit uncomfortable. But being with friends is usually, well, almost always, better than being alone.
一緒に行った方がいいですが時々一人でもいいと思います
Going together is better, but sometimes it's also ok to go alone I think
円, ドール From Yen to USD
I might miss the cheaper stuff at some places (if that was even the case) but I sure as hell won't miss the coins. THE COINS!!! I left my mom 30+ 1 yen coins as a joke and she gave me 3 10 yen coins that are over there on my dresser.
一円とか十円とか五十円とか百円は不便だ！1 yen, 10 yen, 50 yen, and 100 yen coins suck!
ゴエンが違うけど、なぜならラッキからだね！it's different for 5 yen though, because they're lucky :P
ワシュレット, トイレ From space age toilet to American Standard
Best illustrated by a trip to the DFW bathroom, my feelings on this change are pretty clear. So I go into the stall and of course the seat is all nasty. Then after I wipe it off the auto flusher flushes it and gets it wet again because the flushing mechanism is out of alignment or something and goes way too violently. So I sort of do a little uncomfortable trick to stay in front of the sensor the whole time, clean it up, do my thing, and... well, if you can't imagine it never mind but holy crap it was annoying.
I'll miss the high tech toilets, not the low tech ones though. ワシュレットが好きだった
静か、煩い, 性格の場合 From "quiet" to "loud," personality wise
Airport too. First, the security guy stopped a black man who had some shampoo not contained in a plastic bag and the way he did it was honestly really shocking. "You failed to put this in a 3.5 pint bag as is clearly indicated on the large signs hanging overhead that you should have read on your way in" or something to that effect. Guy had two small kids he was policing and probably hadn't traveled since the latest wave of paranoia. Wait, I take that back. I seriously had to go through a straight up Half-Life style explosives scanning booth. 世の中は大変だね。Whatever the case with the guy with the kids, the redneck white Texan officer was just a straight up asshole to him. Now maybe I had just missed it happening in Japan but never once did I see any sort of employee of any kind ever be anything other than over the top nice and honorific to customers.
Also, youth groups at airports SUCK. Seems like there's always one when I'm flying home. UGH!
I'll miss the quietness in terms of respect - Tokyo isn't exactly a "quiet" place - and the great service. Those are definitely two great things about Japan.
ファンタジー、本当 From fantasy to reality
I tried to answer the question of whether I could live in Japan as part of my trip and the answer now is a resounding "yes." That disregards that I would have to do a lot more work both in school and have to pay for everything on my own so it's sort of the "easy thinking" that my host mother said I must stop.
I can live there in fantasy, but whether I can in reality will be up to another trip. Basically, お金が必要なんだ。Better get started!
帰りの方が行きより難しいだと思ってます I'm thinking coming back is harder than leaving
Perhaps I went to Japan because I dig the culture, and wanted to be a part of it. Now that I'm back in the US I see a lot of things that I both like and dislike when compared to the Japanese counterpart. If in truth, which I can't see very clearly yet, I like Japan's culture better than that of the US, I'll probably have a resistant time getting readjusted.
僕の場合、もしアメリカの文化は日本ほど好きじゃなかったら、おそらくアメリカでカルチャーショックを経験されるでしょう
Rehab
This trip was like rehab for my drug addiction. I'm almost kind of glad my host mother was strict on the internet because it kept my internet time from being unrestricted, which combined with a lack of discipline is usually what causes my problems. On that note the plan is to go back 'til school. I feel like I'll be able do anything when I'm not addicted to drugs.
Metaphorically of course. ずっと遊ぶゲームはいらない
六本木
Thursday was a free day for me, the last, and so I wanted to throw down. All of the Alabama students were busy with their host families or studying for the Japanese class final, and I felt like the Chiba students didn't want to stay out all night and spend billions of yen, so I asked Asami from that part toward the beginning of the trip.
We went and had an absolutely insane blast.
First, we took the subway(!) from Marunouchi to Roppongi, where we looked around Roppongi Hills, a pretty gaijinized foreigner high class high price shopping and living area. We saw a stage being set up where the cast of the new Harry Potter would be coming later that day, then went up the Mori Tower (pic coming up from subway) to Tokyo City View on 52F. Here are some unfortunately cloudy views of Tokyo from the observatory.
One
Two
Three
Famous proposals on the wall up there
Right by the tower was the Asahi TV studio, outside of which lies a really sweet looking garden. If it doesn't look like much, it's so great, again, cause it's right in the middle of a world class tightly packed city. Inside there were some easily recognizable character displays and products, not that I knew anything about any of them :( After Asahi TV it was off to the 国立新美術館, or more easily the art museum. That word is a pretty good Japanese tongue twister too: kokuritsushinbijutsukan. After 3 days of practice I can say it pretty naturally! On the way I got another neat but cloudy view of Tokyo Tower from Roppongi and a good shot of some cool apartments. A while after we saw Monet at the museum we headed to Shibuya for dinner. We went to a pretty nice izakaya where I took one of those damn self taken 2 person pictures and look like I weigh 400 lbs. Afterward we went to Womb, which was quite a spot. It wasn't too picturesque but it was an amazing time and I did get a pic of the myspace ad on the lockers.
本当の恋に落ち方って感じについて話したり、六本木も渋谷にある有名な場所見たり、美術見たり、居酒屋で食べたり飲んだり、wombというクラブでダンスしたりしました。めっちゃたのしかった！！！
That was Thursday. Friday we had a really nice departing party in appreciation of the Chiba students.
Hey now
Aya, Becca, Kaori
Aya, Tomo, Take
Me and Josh - the man
Ikue, Hikari, and Tomo
Jonathan's group - Totoro shoutout
Mihoko, Ry, Tomo
Saeko, Me, Nozomi
Another
ANOTHER! - light is so screwy on the camera nowadays :(
Ry <3>
Party people
Everyone taking our pic
Afterwards we went to a karaoke place for a while and went kinda crazy. Enjoyed the hell out of it, here's proof!
The Chiba partners' attitude of genuinely wanting to do simply whatever it is we would like, without any sort of self-interested angles is something I can't appreciate enough. Today when we left, they gave us an amazing present with notes from each of them and a group photo.
僕たちは千葉大生にすごくいい贈り物がいただきました。その贈り物は沢山の年の以前に、一番大事なものです。忘れちゃだめ！
That gift is one of the most valuable things I've gotten in the past many years. I'll never forget it.
Other various outings外出中
Lunch with Amano sensei
Guys pay 300 yen more for all you can drink!
Harajuku Audi Forum
Jonathan at Jonathan's
Guess who's buried in the menu
A couple students who are coming to UA next semester
Up to Shibuya's hill
Taken at "Table Night" heh heh heh
Shibuya 109 irl
家族 Family
My host mother is a great woman. 本当の母が育ったようにお世話になりました, she took care of me like my real mother has. I took for granted the opportunity to go through a lot with her and to have meaningful conversations in Japanese with her until I realized last night how special our dinner and night time talks were. She told me to take two things home:
大切なのは
焦っちゃだめ - Don't be in a rush
失敗は成功のもと - Failure teaches success
Through her thorough and pretty much accurate read of my self throughout our month of talks she said those were the two most important things I had to realize to do better in life. She also said some things like "games are like poison," forgot the exact Japanese, and わからない時にわかったといわないで, or don't say you understand when you don't. Cause I did that a lot when she was explaining things to me, and she caught me every time. いつも目が言ったって言った, she always said said my eyes told her I was lying.
We took a picture before she saw me off at the station.
母 父
I'll miss Narashino and Tsudanuma, of course, but I'll miss mother and my friends above all.
泣けてきちゃった。
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