October 2004 Archives

Friday night I went to the dorms and watched a few movies. Rocky Horror Picture Show and Army of Darkness, both good Halloween movies. It was fun to hang out and watch some films, which I've not done in a long while. We got kicked out at 10, due to the new dorm head who rules with an iron fist.

Saturday Colin and I tried to go to the school festival, but rain caused many problems. The school festival is a big event where clubs and circles preform and try and raise money. Thus there was a whole lot of fair-type food to be eaten. We stood in the rain, ate some food, looked around, then went inside and did some web surfing. Eventually we had some McDonalds, and went into the city and ended up playing video games for a couple of hours. We then grabbed another snack and went all the way back to the dorms to watch some Aqua Teen Hunger Force, which Zack had just got as a gift from home. Which Colin had never seen before, and so we made him watch some. We then went to a bar for a bit. Thats about it.

Sunday I went on a class field trip to Comic City. What is Comic City? Well a short description is that its a really big gathering of independent comic artists who get together to show off their work and sell their stuff. Simple. Or not. A long description is that its really weird. First off these comic are mostly written by women for women, so I felt out of place as a big foreign man (the only foreigners there were my class, and this was a very big gathering of people. Like five thousand people or more). Second off, this is a major subculture. Meaning, its weird. Heres how. These people usually take already established characters and then put them in new storylines. A vast majority of them end up getting it on with other male characters. Thats right, hot, gay, manga. Now do you see why its manga by women for women? Not only do they use anime/manga characters, they also use popular movie and music characters. So this is why I found hot Lord of the Rings action, hot Troy action, hot Master and Commander action, and even hot Harry Potter action (but we already knew this). The Japanese girls from my class were weirded out by it. We all were. Before you ask, I did buy stuff, but not that stuff. I bought some illustrations and some parody manga. Legit artwork and humor. The gay Lord of the Rings comics I bought for Jared Lee. But realize that this convention had some seriously good artists, even if you didn't like their subjects.

Heres an interesting thing that happened to Colin and I this weekend. We were walking to the train station from the bar, and as always, it was raining hard and I was the only one with an umbrella. As we're walking we pass a shop thats closing (at 12:00 at night) and an older woman sees us. She yells at us and hands Colin an umbrella. Would this happen in the middle of a major city in the US? Or Great Britain? I think not, and neither did Colin. This is why Japan is cool.

So my host brother did something wrong, and as all 4 year olds do, was raiding hell. Both my host parents were looking stressed, and host mom said something to host dad, and next thing I know Kai is being locked out of the apartment. This was his punishment. Now compare this to what happens to bad kids in the US, they get sent to their rooms. My host brother was put outside. Why? Because at even this age the worst punishment that can be done to his is to be 'removed' from the group. In this case the group is the family, and man, was it effective. Does this begin to explain the idea of 'group' in Japanese society? It starts to, but man, is the social structure hard to explain.

Sunday afternoon I spent some time going over the JET application. Turns out I need a lot of official paperwork from Gustavus, which I can't get very easily. I spent a good deal of time writing letters to professors and staff at GAC asking for letters and transcripts to be air-mailed to me. The application needs to be in by Dec 1st. Not much time for me to get crackin on this project.

Class is going better these days. Japanese is still super tough. Only 6 weeks left before I return back to the US.

Only two more days until the election. Two more days until Florida screws over America. Again.

This morning I went to visit a real life Japanese elementary school with a bunch of other students from my Level 1 Japanese class. I'll give you a few highlights of my time with these 5th graders before I need to run off and study. The kids showed us how to write some Kanji and we found out that even little kids dislike kanji. We played some games outside during recess, and I even jumped some rope for a while. This after playing some soccer for a while. Later we went around and did different activities with them. Such as Go, origami, some other strange games, and marbles. They were fun. We then sat down and had lunch with the kids, who served us lunch! Wooo hoo! Milk, rice, soup, and dried little fish. I didn't eat the fish. All in all it was a fun time. Elementary schools in Japan are the fun time for kids, before they are hammered down hard by the strict life of middle school and high school. Such cute little kids, and so friendly. Even their bad english was cute. I'll stick up my photos eventually. But I have a bunch of homework to do.

This weekend I'll be watching some movies at the dorms, going my schools festival, and going on a field trip to a crazy Manga convention. Lots of photos.

So just some randomness about Japanese life here. Playboy is a major brand name here. Its a 'cool' thing to have on socks, folders, shirts, jackets, ect. The odd thing is that no one here actually knows what Playboy Magazine actually is. People of all ages, especially women, ware this stuff. At school the other day an American girl was explaining to some Japanese girls what their Playboy folder was all about. You'd think that they would get a hint, seeing how the folder had some very old, and very sexually suggestive, old Playboy covers on it. Sure, no one knows what Playboy is all about, but man I must hand it to Playboy that they've done some really good marketing here in Japan.

So I was surprised tonight with Pizza! Ordering out Pizza here is super expensive, or so I've gathered from the ads I've seen. Host mom was working late tonight so Dad, Kai, and I ate some super large and super stuff crusted and super topped pizza. Very very very good. This coming from the man who hates pizza most all the time.

Tomorrow my class is going to visit an elementary school. The fun! I'll post photos. Whenever I go to school after 9:00 I usually see large groups of small children, in uniform, walking around or on the trains. Today I saw a large group of kids on the train. The best part is they all had little red hats on, with their names written on the bills. So cute.

Once again its become painfully clear that my friends parents read my weblog. This is perfectly fine, and I encourage them to read this site as much as possible. Though I guess I now have to once again tone down my blatant racism, curse words, and otherwise devil worshiping activities. Or not.

So I've come to realize that a good chunk of Japanese TV is made up of shows where celebrities watch a show (even US shows), and you can see their odd expressions in the top left hand corner. Colin would also like to point out that most Japanese women on TV just say "awesome" over and over again. Even more odd is advertising U.S. companies have here in Japan, which are often so odd compared to the U.S. equivalent. This country is so fun. If only I knew what these ads really said.

Also on the way to school I saw a car that had a mom driving and a daughter in the passenger seat. The daughter was watching TV from an LCD on the dash, and the mom was playing a gameboy while at a stop light. Only in Japan.

My host family all thinks George Bush looks like a monkey. We laughed for a while about it.

You're a generic blog post?*

*This post done just to make fun of Colin. It was a slow day.

Yeah, I did just spend the last 2 or so hours doing post cards for people. 18 in all. Now I need to buy stamps for them. There goes $18 of my spending cash. Be happy if you received one, be sad if you didn't. As I wrote out cards the actual messages on the cards got shorter and shorter. This is probably due to the fact that there are so DARN MANY of them. Lee is lucky in that his card has actual sentences, in both english and japanese.

Japanese commercials are great. So silly, and yet so informative. If only I knew what they were saying.

Oddly thats really all there is to my day. I know, kinda lame. I should do some homework before hitting the sack. Or maybe I should just hit the sack now and do some homework early in the morning. Glorious Sleep.

PS: Only 8 days until the presidential election.

What a fun weekend I've been having, and for sure, you missed out on the fun. But heres a rundown of what happened.

A special thanks to my Grandma Gwen who airmailed me a birthday card, which made my Friday very nice. I think I aced a writing test in the morning, which is a nice change from the usual. I took a small nap in the afternoon to help prepare me for the evening.

After class on Friday about 8 of us went down into Hirakata for dinner. This strange crew included: Myself, Colin, Zack, Chris C., Michelle, Andrew, Chirio, and Angela. We all ordered up some food and shared the fun. Good stuff as usual. Colin bought some really good sake for the group, which helped start the night out. Once again I'm reminded why I love Japanese food. So much to try and so little time left here.

After that some of us went out to do some Karaoke. Which resulted in some very silly things happening. Motoshi showed up about the also, and let me say, he's the most crazy singing Japanese person I've ever met. We had to endure everything from Zack singing 'Like a Prayer' to Andrew doing some bad white boy rap. Just fun as usual around these parts. Motoshi was super nice and gave me some cool little Japanese banners, and Chirio was just as nice as usual and gave me a fun little Domo-kun phone tie. During the evening of Karaoke I managed to take some very embarrassing video of quite a few different people, and I think you may agree.

Afterwards Zack, Motoshi, Colin, and myself were left by ourselves and found nice Japanese Bar/ Eatery to chill in for awhile. A few plates of squid and several drinks later we were all feeling very good. Colin and I caught the last train home and decided to hang out at a cafe for a little longer discussing the oddities of life. I eventually made it home about 2 and slept for quite a while.

A full fledged photo album of this craziness can now be found here.

Saturday morning Colin, Zack, and I were planning to go to Kyoto, but as usual Zack overslept and was feeling a bit ill from the night before. Colin and I hung out and ate some donuts at Mr. Donut waiting for Zack, and we eventually left for Kyoto on our own. Colin has been complaining that he has not been doing enough touristy thing while in Japan so our first stop was the Imperial Palace. Unfortunately getting in proved to be a bit difficult seeing that all foreigners need to fill out paperwork and get a pass to enter, and the place to get all this done is closed on Saturday. Bummer. We mulled around Kyoto for a while, got a bite to eat, and eventually caught a bus ride to the other side of the city.

After about 45 minutes of bus ridding we reached out goal, Kinkakuji (also known as the Golden Pavilion). This zen temple was built around 1350 CE and stood untouched until 1950 CE when an obsessed monk burned it down. It was rebuilt in 1958 CE to the original specifications. But oddly enough this fact was not at all brought up in our free information pamphlet that we received. It was late in the day and the sun was on the way down, so we got a simply amazing view There was quite the crowd of people and everyone wanted to get their photo taken. We walked around the place and were again amazed by the forest setting. I'll get some photos up tonight of it because it really is just so impressive.

Colin and I started walking back to the train station, and then realized that we were really far away. Along the way we found a British Flag, and I just couldn't stand not to take a photo of Colin under it. For King and Country Colin Young. We also stopped off at a vintage video game store, where Colin drooled over many an old game cartridge. We eventually made it to the train station after another extremely long bus ride. We took the train back to Hirakata were we again partook in the glory of grilled chicken sandwiches.

The plan was to meet up with Zack for a halloween party of some sort, somewhere. It was kind of sketchy to begin with. As we stood around the station we kept gaining people. Colin, Mark, Q, and I all decided to go out for a drink somewhere else, seeing how no one was really doing anything and our train did leave at 12:30. We ended up at the bar/ eatery that we were in the night before. Mostly due to my craving for squid. A large amount of Britishness ensued (seeing how I was surrounded by two brits and a Japanese student who spent time in England). The night would appear to have ended at 12:30 when Colin and I took a train to our home area, but no, that would be too easy. Colin and I ended up talking for another hour or so outside the train station.

Sunday was spent doing a lot of paper work. I've still got to finish these post cards, pick classes for next semester, and put some photo albums online. I took Kai to the park for a while where some small children tried to talk to me in both english and japanese. Both of which I really couldn't understand. Kai spent a good deal of time running around and throwing his shoes all over, which is what he always does. Eventually he fell off a swing and we went home to get a band-aid. I should really do all this paperwork.

Before I forget. More extreme weather in Japan. An earthquake of 6.25 magnitude struck middle north Japan killing 15 people. Luckily it struck a rural area and not a major city. Another typhoon is heading toward Japan. Should hit us later this week.

So I turned 22 today! Oh yeah. Thats right! Big time party. Or not. Because of the wonderful time difference between the US and Japan I get a lot more international Birthday time. Beat that! So heres how my day went: I left for school at 7:20, and as I expected, it started raining. Again. I studied for a quiz, and then spent the day in class. Michelle was super nice and bought me a MacDonald's birthday lunch of nuggets. She's so nice. Nate Kemp was on campus (visiting old professors) and I spent some time talking about Japan and Gustavus. I talked to Professor Tracy about building a webpage for him, which I'll probably end up doing next week. Fun times.

This evening my host family surprised me with going out for a super nice dinner. Thats right, the good stuff. 5 course dinner, all you can eat fresh bread, live music, and a nice hot cup of tea afterwards. Super nice of them. Even Kai had a fun time. Afterward we stopped at the Tsutaya next doors and I found myself a book to read. My first Japanese book. Its a Japanese children's book rendition of The Nightmare Before Christmas. For 450 Yen you can't go wrong. I really just want to improve my katakana skills, which kinda suck these days.

In other news. The typhoon we had yesterday was the worst one to hit Japan in the last 25 years, killing over 60 people. I've been watching some TV coverage of it with the host family tonight, and the damage was just crazy. Overall this has been a record year for typhoons, and I hope that I don't have to put up with any more. I seriously saw people being blown away while holding onto their umbrella.

So I was checking my webpage stats and as always, I look and see how people have found my site. I found that several had come from this webpage, where I was somehow proclaimed the 'better' of the two Josh Zimmermans found online. Chalk up one for the old ego there. I really do need to find a way to buy or capture the domain joshzimmerman.com. Call it a hostile takeover.

In case I'm unable to post for a while (due to various things I may do or imbibe): Friday I'm having a proper celebration. Going into Hirakata and having dinner with some of my mates from uni. Saturday I think Zack and I are going to Kyoto for some sight seeing. Sunday I should study, mail post cards, find classes for next semester, and start my JET application. Or watch a movie. Some combination of the two.

Randomness: Andrew Parsons sent me this picture, and I'm reminded why I love this world we live in. 22 years and I'm still entertained by the most silly and strange things. Heres to at least another 22 years of fun filled sarcasm and dry whit. What better way to usher in the next 22 years then with an opossum about to bite a small girl.

So I got up today and went to school. As I entered the building it started to rain. It got worse and worse ad the morning went on. After I got out of my second class at 12 classes had been canceled for the day. Why is this? Another frickin typhoon. This really sucked because I only had my little compact umbrella with me, and I feared for my life as I saw small Japanese students fly past the window. I soon left the school, seeing how the cafeteria had been shut down, and I would need to find food elsewhere.

Colin tried to connivence me to get some ramon, but luckily for me, there was a very long line. On the flip side of luck, there was also a very long line for the bus. So Chris L had the idea to walk a few blocks to another bus stop. Which we did. In the damned rain. We luckily did get on a bus, and so we were dry. For a while. The three of us caught lunch at the train station, and then I was able to get on a bus at my train stop thanks to some kanji help from Chris L.

I've always tried to picture what living through a hurricane would be like, and now I think I know. Thanks Japan.

I got a package from the parents today. Deodorant (hard to find this stuff in Japan), toothpaste, and a card that included $15 in it. Plus, there was the added bonus of a picture of Wilson and Murphy.

Thats about it for my day. That and it was raining for its entirety. It rains a lot here.

So I overslept for class today. Which is sad because I only have one class on Monday. I woke up at 11:15, and my class is at 11. This also means I slept through my alarm, which is the first time thats ever happened to me. Oh well. I did end up going to school though. I got a nice birthday card of Jared Lee, which made my trip to school worth the effort. Thanks Lee! I know for a fact that you're the only room mate from back home who will actually send me a birthday card.

Colin and I went and rented some CDs today. Or he rented some, I rented 1. I'm ripping them right now and I'll stick them on Colin's MD player tomorrow.

Anyhows. I'm tired and should go to bed. Only 3 more days till my B-Day.

Thats right. I just had the best day in Japan thus far. It was just so much fun, and so thrilling! Be prepared for one long entry, with a lot of detail and probably some historical mumbo-jumbo attached to it. If nothing else, the pretty pictures should be enough for those of you with short attention spans.

So my day started out early for a Sunday. I got up and rushed to the station to meet up with Zack and Albert, and in the process didn't eat breakfast. This didn't matter much because as usual Zack didn't wake up on time and was running very late. Albert and I went to Mr. Donut and had some much needed sugar and juice. It's been too long Mr. Donut. Too long indeed. Eventually Zack did make it to the station and we left on our long trek.

Oh and to help set the scene for this day, let me tell you it was probably the most beautiful day I've had the pleasure of being alive to experience for quite some time. The sky was clear, the sun was shining down, the air had a very slight breeze, and the temperature was cool but not cold. Perfect as a day could be.

So it takes about an hour to get to Kobe from where we three live outside Osaka, and this also requires 2 train rides and a subway ride. On our way there we started talking about what we wanted to do, and so I started looking through my Lonely Planet travel guide. Long story short, we decided to skip Kobe completely and to take a 40 minute train ride to Himeji, and see the castle there. This then added another $10 onto our train ride, but allowed us to have relaxing train ride in the countryside, much of which was along the ocean. Along the way we got to see a beautiful view of the new Akashi Kaikyo Bridge, which spans between the mainland and the island of Honshu. Its over 3910 meter long, which makes it the longest suspension bridge in the world.

Himeji is a city of about half a million located slightly inland from the ocean and snuggled up next to some beautiful hills. We all liked this city, because it had very big and wide sidewalks. From the train station its a strait shot down a very big street to the Himeji Castle, which looms over the entire city. We stopped at a flea market and picked up some food. Zack and I need to take a Sunday trip into Kyoto to do some flea market shopping sometime, because its a lot of fun.

So Himeji Castle is probably the best preserved castle in Japan (many others are modern day recreations of them). The castle is now an official World Cultural Heritage site, because of its good condition and its use of excellent wood work. The castle site itself dates back as far as 1333 CE, when a fort was built there. What we saw today was finished in 1609 CE. It includes a five-story main tower (with basement), three smaller towers, and several moats and defensive walls. Quite the impressive big white tower. We walked along the park sounding it for a while and then paid the 600 Yen to get in. The beautiful woodwork and stonework made Albert and I stop every 5 feet to take a picture, slowly annoying Zack in the process. We were allowed to walk all the way to the 5th floor, but only after taking our shoes off and putting on slippers. Thats how seriously they were about preserving this castle. The inside is all original, and you can even see era style guns in the actual gun racks used 400 years ago. The view from the top was worth the climb, an I took several panoramics of the area. I always enjoy places like this, mostly due to the fact that we don't have stuff like this in the US. The idea that people lived, fought, and died there over 500 years ago is amazing! but also the fact that this place is still standing, and in such good condition. Defiantly worth the trip. My pictures don't do it the justice it deserves.

Before we made it to the train station again we stopped for ice cream. We were hungry. While the guys ordered food I actually got up the courage to talk to a group of young girls who were carrying curiously tall objects with them. So I actually tried to ask them stuff in Japanese. Turns out they were a group of archers who had come up from Kyoto for an archery contest. Their very tall objects were their bows. They found me funny, and I did use some Japanese, and they used some english. Fun times. See, I'm actually learning.

We then took the train ride back to Kobe, because we had yet another thing to do (once again, thanks Lonely Planet). There is a cable car that will take people to the top of a a very big hill (mountain?) that overlooks Kobe and the ocean, and also features a nice greenhouse and herb garden. Not bad for 1000 Yen. We took the Shin-Kobe Ropeway up and the view was simply thrilling. The city stretches on forever, and we were able to see many a ship on the high seas. At the top of the hill there is a nice touristy place with shops and food, which looked like it was plucked out of the french alps. We walked down the hill and into 'The Glass House', which is a very nice greenhouse and herb museum. We strolled through and talked to some Japanese people (in english) who worked in Kobe for Proctor and Gamble. They had just visited China and noticed my China Orchestra trip T-ship I had on. They explained some stuff to us about a little garden. After that we went to a cafe overlook the city and watched it slowly light up as the sun went down, while having some nice hot tea. We took the cable car down again, and were able to see Kobe stretch on forever, all lit up. Very beautiful.

To end the evening we went to Wendy's. Yes, kinda lame. But Zack and I both have a common love of Spicy Chicken Sandwiches, and Zack did teach me how to ask for 'no mayo' in Japanese (the Japanese drench their sandwiches in mayo). A good end to a good evening, if not for the hour and a half trip back to my house. At least the night air was cool and I had the soothing tunes of my iPod to keep me going. Now imagine me spending an couple of hours going through all the photos and posting stuff on my blog, and you have my day. Don't you wish you were here also?

UPDATE: Virtual photo orgy happening from today. Check out the photos.

Yeah, I went to Kobe today. Kinda dull actually. All the people wanted to do was shop. Not my bag of tea, I wanted to go sight seeing. Zack and I ended up leaving the other people and going back to our respective homes due to our tiredness and lack of urge to shop anymore. We're going back tomorrow to do some actual sight seeing. I'm a bit tired still from the mid-terms all week, and I need some sleep.

The weather here is just amazing right now. Sunny, not hot, and clear. Good times. Kobe is an hour away and next to the ocean. Quite the hub of commerce and fun. It has some cool shrines and a nice castle, which I hope to see tomorrow. The trip was made better by my new J-Rock playlist on my iPod, featuring some nice Japanese rock music. Mmmmmm J-Rock. Note to self: Rent more music. I've not been listening to enough music lately, which could explain my stress. (Note the photo was taken in Osaka, not Kobe)

On a super sad note, I saw a pet shop with lots of cute cats and dogs. Too bad they were in little tinny cages, which made me both mad and super sad! I honestly had a tear in my eye. Too bad the every pet was at least $100, some even being up to $1000, or I would have come home with a few.

I need to send post cards off. That and pick classes for next semester. Yoga here I come.

わたしは日本ごをべんきよします If you can see these as actual Japanese, then your web browser doesn't suck. If you can't, then stop using Windows. STOP NOW! Use something better and free. Once you make the move, you'll wonder why you ever used Internet Explorer at all. Mac user please discount this, as you're already cool enough. (If you're wondering, it says 'I study Japanese')

So I went to the concert, and I put on my red jacket. I am so ashamed of myself. Anyhow, here is what happened: First I walked an hour home, and dropped my backpack off. I picked up my iPod, my camera, and my jacket (in my own defense I needed someplace to put my iPod). I then walked the hour back to school.

I met up with the guys, and we walked (still more walking) to the train station. The club we were going to was in the middle of Osaka. See, Peter's host mom offered to buy tickets for a bunch of people, and who could pass that up. Peter's host mom is super nice. Not only did she also buy us some pre-show snacks, but her and her friends (30ish Japanese women) all were rocking the show.

The concert venue was a little place called Live Square 2nd Live. Whatever that means. There would be 5 bands playing tonight, all of them I enjoyed. Well, not the last one, but I'll get into that later. So to the list of the cool rockers.

The first band up was a band called Wead, and to quote one the guys I was with "they had the most talent of any of the bands" we saw tonight. They were very good, and it was a good start to the show. The band gave us some free copies of their single as a reward for filling out a little review of their show, which is cool, because I wanted to buy the single anyhow.

The next band was called Kooky, and they were a bit kooky. But overall I can't say I was too impressed by them. Just my honest opinion.

The third band was called The Salinger, and we all were rocking hard over them. Lets just say there were several of us lining up to buy CDs after they got done playing. They're quite an intense rock band, with a substantial library of music under their belt already. I ended up buying their two older CDs. One for me, and one for as a gift. I was able to bum their latest CD off of one of the other guys in my group so I could copy the three songs off of it (come on, $16 for 3 songs!). I'll say this now, I don't buy music very often. But I never feel bad about dropping down some cool cash to support an independent artist. Ever.

The fourth act was The Harebrained Unity. Also an extremely good band. A slightly lesser heavy rock band, but mind you, my ears still hurt afterwards. They were so good in fact, that I bought their CD. $10 is a small price to pay, and I didn't pay to get in the club. I'd go see these guys again anytime. I sometimes wished I worked for in the music industry, because I'd sign over groups like these to ncie record contracts. Some nice original frickin music.

The final act was... well... an act. Blast-one was a cross between a party rock band and some rejects from 70's clown college. That being said, we left before they could finish their encore. It was just that bad. The best thing they had going for them was their outfits. Thats about it. I would have rather they brought back any of the other bands. Any of them.

So thats a rundown of the 4 hours of music I listened to tonight, and why I bought some awesome CDs. I should go to bed, now that I've ripped all these CDs and written this somewhat small review of all the music.

Actually, its just the end of mid-terms. Yeah! Its over. I had the ever so scary writing test. Now you're probably wonder "Hey, whats the difference between the writing class test, and the written test for the speaking class?" Well to tell you the truth the writting test is usually a heck of a lot tougher. For one its using kanji, and also our professor usually tries to trip us up. Tricky one she is. I actually feel better about this mid-term then the spoken written test I took yesterday. I don't know why.

I video chatted with the parents for quite a while last night. It was good to actually use my $150 iSight again. Makes me feel better about buying it over a year ago. If nothing else it helps my mom feel better when she remembers the bill for the iSight I odered for them (on their credit card). Wilson is getting bigger again. How I miss the little guy. Life is always better when you have a cat around. Honestly, the one thing about college that was tough for me, was and is, not having a cat around. (Its not that I don't like dogs, I do, but I enjoy cats more) On another happy note, I was able to use my BlueTooth headset with iChat again, and I also used the program iGlasses to help out the video feed. iGlasses add some fun manual controls to iChat for the iSight, which is seriously needed in general.

This afternoon I don't think I'll go to class, but I can't figure out what to do with my time. I've been offered free tockets to a rock concert. Which would be cool to go to. I'm also tempted to go home and sleep, seeing how I'm going to go to Kobe tomorrow. No idea. I may just be lazy and not really do much of anything at all. Which would be nice. Hmm... if I do go out, I think I may want to go home first, drop off my bag, and then come back to school. Though that would actually take 2 hours. Damn my commute.

So its getting cool here. Many students are already breaking out the winter geer. I on the other hand is taking it into my own hands to go all out and keep putting on shorts and a t-shirt every day, and have even shunned my classic red jacket! I think I'll continue to shock the Japanese by only putting on shorts, all winter! Take that Japan!

Thats right. I ate an extra big bowl of it this lunch, and then an extra big one for dinner. So I'm bursting with the fun that is Curry Rice. So good.

So I've so far done well enough on the three tests I had today. I'll end up studying for a few hours tonight for my test tomorrow. Studying with Michelle last night helped out a lot. I'm getting better at Japanese, but I'm still trying to wrap my head around all this vocab. Making me go crazy. Though I am finding that by spending time speaking out stuff it helps me remember it. If only I could pronounce it properly.

This weekend I think I'll be going to Kobe. A lot of people are going to Hiroshima this weekend, which is why to expensive for me to do, so some people I know decided to make their own 'cheaper' trip. We'll all probably stay in a capsule hotel (only $10!) and do a lot of sight seeing. Something to take our minds off the horrible mid-term week we all just had.

I should go study. Nothing fun happening around here at all. Move along.

Don't ask. Mid-terms starting tomorrow. Some wonderful oral exams and a mid-term 'quiz' in another class. This may be a short week, but man will it suck. Turned in a fun filled paper on Japanese education. Its interesting as hell to me, but probably dull to most people.

So I went to the dorms to study for a while. It kinda worked. We'll see how it goes tomorrow.

In odd news, the Republican Party sent some junk mail to my host family's house, because that is where I had my absentee ballot sent. Too bad I already filled out my ballot. Wow, the only mail I get lately is from the US Gov. Go figure.

IMPORTANT: If you'd like me to buy you anything while I'm in Japan, tell me now. It may take me time to find it or rent it. There is a goo-gob of manga, video games, movies, and music here. So let me know peoples.

So as I continue to avoid studying this afternoon, I figured I should post a bit of info about my Sunday and Monday fun.

On Sunday I met up with Zack, his friend from Tokyo named Michelle, and Kat in Hirakata. Today was our trip to the Osaka Aquarium! It was a very long and confusing set of subway and train rides to get there, but luckily I had the power of the internet at home, and also the ability to draw fun maps. Really, my map was super bad-ass. We eventually got there and decided to stop for some food at a mall next to the aquarium. Zack got some noodles, Michelle got a burger, and I got a strawberry-jelly float. Ok, so it wasn't really jelly, it was more of jello, and it wasn't that good overall. But I mean, it did cool me off. Now about the aquarium. Its big, and amazing. The layout of the aquarium is critical to its understanding. The building is tall, and you start from the top. You circle your way down, and around you are various 'habitats.' Some of which go down the entire length of the building. This creates a really neat effect, as you see different levels of each environment as you go down. I must say, this is by far the best aquarium I've ever been to in my life. I wasn't a fan of the giant crabs they had in the basement. For some reason giant crabs kinda freak me out a but. Though I did find the jelly fish to be very pretty, even though the rest of my party cringed at their sight. I took quite a few photos, even though taking photos through a foot of glass is kinda tough. Some turned out well, and I made a photo album and stuck it up along with some other random photos. I even did something very odd, for me at least, I took some video of a ray playing in bubbles. I hate taking video with a digital camera, its never very good. But I think it turned out ok this time.

Afterwards we went back to Hirakata again and grabbed some dinner. Nothing like Japanese food to make your day better. After that we decided on doing some cheap karaoke. Something Kat and Michelle had never done before. A few drinks and some 80's pop music loosened them up to the idea of bad singing. We only did an hour of singing, and then retreated to hanging out in a nearby park. All in all a long and very fun day.

So Monday is a day off for me, and I should have spent it doing homework. Which I will, I guess. Like, right now even. Watch me go do it. Hello stupid anthropology paper.

So Friday afternoon I braved the world of Japanese hair styling and got a haircut at a barber shop next to school. I took along fellow GAC student Nick, because he needed a trim and he spoke better japanese then me. I have never been to well trimmed in my life, and I even had my neck lathered up and shaved. Good times and a good haircut.

In the evening I went to my first Japanese birthday party. Zack was in charge of getting a birthday cake, and as 7:00 rolled around it was quite obvious that he had not made one. So we trekked off to a super market to try and find one. No dice. Go figure, it being 7:30 on a Friday night. So instead we got some 2500 Yen Japanese super grapes as a gift. (Grapes so big, other grapes tremble in fear) Once again a typhoon was hitting Japan, which means we got a lot of rain and wind. As usual. But this did not damper our spirits. We made it into Hirakata via a bus, and after much searching, we found where our friends were.

The Japanese birthday girl is a mutual friend of ours who we talk to at Bar Mono, names Sayaka. We were also met there by the Aussie bartender of Mono named Catherine. From our rendezvous place we headed to the nearby red light district, where we went to a fine eating establishment. Where we ate, and talked, and my leg kept falling asleep because I was sitting on it. Sayaka enjoyed her grapes, and we enjoyed the food. Afterwards we all went out for some cheap karaoke and more drinks.

Colin and I caught the last train back to our home area, and then made our way to bar Pyro. I had passed it before, and I thought we should check it out. To our surprise it was a surf bar, with only three people in it at 1 am. Two girls and the bar tender. I then proceeded to prod Colin into talking to the ladies. I sometimes wonder how the English procreate at all.

So I then slept in on Saturday. Mulled around the house all afternoon, because my host family was no where to be found. I went into Osaka to meet some friends for a night of Swing dancing. Somehow Andrew had found a swing joint on the internet and gotten directions, and now he's good friends with the owner. There were more foreigners (ok, there were 6 of us) then there were Japanese for most of the time. I tried to remember all my super bad-ass swing moves, until I remembered that I never knew any in the first place. But all in all it was a fun time listening to some good old swing music and me trying to dance.

So what is happening these last few days. Nothing really. I slept for a long time yesterday evening. Made me feel good. Looking forward to the weekend, but not the large amounts of papers, and tests, and mid-terms that come this next week. I may have to kill someone.

Rodney Dangerfield died the other day. Very sad indeed. He was a super funny man. I think I may watch Caddy Shack tonight in homage to him. The king of one liners. "Did someone step on a duck?" (Note, Jared Lee has probably not seen this movie)

My parents got their iSight working again. Looks like my father did something wrong when he moved the computer a week or so ago. Anyhow, Wilson is super big now. Amazing.

Did I mention how great it was leeching wireless off of someone? I do. Nothing like high speed wireless thats not your own. Cuz you know... I do like my software.

For some reason my site is attracting a large number of parents/ friends of people I know here. What do I say to that? "Your son/daughter/ friend is a butt-head, and clubs baby seals before each meal." You know its true. I promise that I'll put up a ton of picture of Collin acting like the silly englishman that he is, as soon as I can.

One of my professors on campus wants someone to help him make a webpage. Says he wants a quote on price and time. Hmmm.... I wonder how much Yen per hour my webpage skills go for these days? I'm not used to actually working for money on these webpage things.

Another typhoon is hitting us tonight. Goes well with the other earthquake we had the previous day. The weather is actually getting colder here, and you can tell its autumn. So, when do we break out the sake?

The parents gave the green light for me to go back to Japan after college for a year teaching english. Not like I need a green light from them, but its nice knowing they support me. I do need someone to send me deodorant and tooth past while I'm over here. Now what will I do with the webserver while I'm gone for a year! Its a bit too big to carry on a plane.

So my friend Kat has been having an interesting long distance spat with her ex-boyfriend. Its so funny, to the extent that any trans-Pacific spat can be. Ok, so its not that to you, but she did send me a copy of an e-mail that shes sending to him, and I thought I'd include a few bits of it on my blog to make all my friends back home feel better about their lives. Note, these are bits from a 5 page e-mail. Remind me never to get on Kat's bad side.

You thought the quote about me not sitting and writing you e-mails was an emotional wedge?  No, no: that was you being an oversensitive wimp.  This is the e-mail that is the emotional wedge.  This one right here.

Well, why don't you go ****ing paint it on a water tower so your ego can fell nice and vindicated.  And by the way, the average person doesnft equate being emotionally confused and ****ing a near stranger whom you like to drink away your money with while your quote-unquote girlfriend stays at home making you dinner as the same level of **** up.  But, I tell you what, why don't YOU throw a little Kat-bashing party for yourself right now and invite everyone we ****ing know. 

And furthermore, I am not ****ing crazy, like for real crazy.  I might be stupid, but there are those who told you never should have started dating me in the first place.  Like Leonard and Ben.  Maybe YOU should have listened to them.  Then you would never have had to deal with a crazy, stupid ****** like me.

Mind you, she's really ticked off at getting cell phone calls, in Japan, and lots of strange e-mails. Again, I do not want to be on her bad side. Especially when she exits law school. No Kat spats for me.

Myself and a couple of other guys taught some Japanese girls how to say 'groovy' and 'rock on' using the corresponding hand singles to go with them. My gift to this generation of Japanese young people. Then again, a bunch of high school kids were visiting campus today, and someone's mother came by and took a picture of 4 of us foreigners with 6 Japanese students. Cuz we're so photogenic.

Friday night I plan on going to a Birthday Party. Saturday, I think I'm going swing dancing. Sunday I may be going to the Aquarium. Monday I'm writing a paper. And at all free times during my weekend, I think I'll be studying. Darn mid-terms. I guess what I'm getting at is I may not post till next Monday, depending on how my weekend goes.

I broke down and bought some McDonald's fries today. I know, I'm weak. But thats how things go around here, in a world of rice and fish.

I just realized I'll be turning 22 in about 15 days. Where has my time gone. Its very weird to be thinking that I'm going to be 22. Oh well. All the more reason to be graduating from college.

I downloaded and started to look over the JET program application. I think coming back to Japan for a year to teach english, and get paid to do so, would be very nice indeed. Maybe it'll help focus me. I need to have the application IN by Dec. 1st of this year, so I should really get cracking on it.

Oh, this tells you how I end my day. Posting on MacNN forums. Its not just for my fun, but for the fun of all. One of the other members took this screen shot of my profile, and I think its kinda funny. Oh, and before anyone asks, I don't know why I picked 'MilkmanDan' as my name. It sounded funny.

Chris C just made a blog on his webpage. Fun if you want to read. Just a warning, he is from New York.

Lastly, Jared Lee sent me a post card from Australia! And it only took a week and a half to get here! No way! Maybe this is a sign I should send out my own post cards. Yeah, I should, after mid-terms.

Midterm Schedule:
Quiz Tomorrow
Paper Due Monday
Quiz next Wednesday
Spoken Japanese Mid-term next Thursday
Written Japanese Mid-term next Friday
And I think I have another lesson test in there somewhere.

Kai's grasp of english is good enough to tell me 'no problem' when I said 'thanks' to him tonight. What a guy.

School was fine. My test came back and I did pretty well on it. I have another test tomorrow and a quiz on some kanji. I hate kanji. Most Japanese hate it. Go figure.

Not much happening lately. Just chilling and waiting for my birthday to roll around, and midterms to roll over.

So I usually forget to post over the weekend, mostly because I'm either out late, or I'm feeling extra lazy. Very extra lazy. But not like my weekend was very interesting either.

Friday afternoon Zach and Kathryn talked me into going to Osaka with them to find a store that had 600 yen shirts. I'm still looking for a good shirt with some fine Engrish on it, so that I proudly put it on at home. It'll be a fine tribute to my Japanese adventures. Anyhow, Osaka was... well... Osaka. And Zach got us lost very quickly. I managed to stay sane by buying some really good Japanese snack food. As seen in the photo, they're little tiny cake like baked snacks in various shapes. Like in people shapes. You could call them people crackers, except they're cake. On the upside, our wondering did let us see some new stuff in Osaka. Giant billboards, big mechanized crabs, Zach bout a coat without trying it on. We later went into a thrift store and the girls bought some shirts and some retro post cards. On the way back to the dorms Zach wanted to buy some new pants, he had lost a pair due to a massive accident involving a pen in his pocket. The cheaped pair of pants he could find were some jeans for 4,000 yen (about $36), but they were too long. The clerk was being helpful, but alas, we did not understand. To our surprise, another clerk chimed in with some near perfect english. Long story short, we went and had dinner while his pants were shortened.

After a while in the dorms everyone decided to go out for some karaoke. The problem is, that with me along, they were one bike too short. The solution, a bicycle built for 1.5. I rode behind Zach, or tried to. Eventually, he got on back, and I peddled. It was very odd and very tough due to the change in the center of gravity while ridding. We made it eventually, but I was afraid a car would make some American Pan Cakes out of us. So while we waited for more people, Chris C. showed me his amazing skills at the shoot'em up game Time Crises 3. I sucked it up. Later in the night we saw quite the sight, a business man, about 40ish, playing the game. Also doing better then me. Anyhow, the group of us sang, danced, and I kind sucked singin. But when do I not suck singin.

Saturday. I eventually went from my host family's house to the dorms for a Tacoyaki Pary! For those of you who don't know what Tacoyaki is, its a breaded octopus ball. Spencer bought a thing to make them, and so we all hung out and ate them while having a drink. Ok, so thats not very interesting, and quite frankly, they were not the best. I guess I don't have a liking for octopus balls. But thats just me. Kathryn, Zach, and I went for a walk afterwards and eventually ended up in a park where a bunch of Japanese people were having a dog party. A large group of people with their dogs (of various shapes and sizes) hanging out and letting their dogs socialize. The odd thing was, all the dogs were perfectly behaving. Go figure, Japanese dogs are as polite as Japanese people. I eventually made a move and went over to the dogs, due to my complete lack of any animal contact since I've been here. I think all the Japanese found it funny that 3 foreigners, who were not speaking Japanese, came over and wanted to pet some dogs. I miss being in a home environment where there are animals.

That night Collin and I walked around our home area looking for some late night fun. We eventually found a nice little cafe were we had a beer and talked about the confusing nature of US Government. Silly English. We ended up talking to a couple of Japanese college girls, one of which lives in my building, for the next hour. A much easier night then the previous one (of which I learned that Collin went clubbing all night long the night before).

Sunday was very lazy. The most interesting point of Sunday was that my host mother took me to a CD Rental Store. Imagine this, if you can: a Barnes and Nobel, a Block Buster Video, a Starbucks, and a CD rental store all rolled into one. That would be this store. My host mom helped me through the process of getting a rental card, so I rent many many CDs. Thats something that would never happen in the US, renting CDs. To get a one day rental of a CD, its only 200 Yen, which is about $1.80 US. How can I go wrong! The store has both US and Japanese artists, so I think I'll be coming home with a few gigs more of music on my computer.

So that was the weekend. With pictures. I hope your happy! My father tells me that a whole bunch of neighbors from back home are reading this site. Honestly, am I that interesting? I think not. Oh, and I may watch a recording of the Presidential Debate on campus tomorrow. Though I already know who won, and how dumb our president looked. Silly Bush, debates are for grownups.