December 2004 Archives

So this is my last post from Japan. By the time anyone reads this I'll be in the US of A, or at least somewhere over the Pacific. I should arrive in the US about 11:30 on Saturday (yet I leave Japan at 1:25 on Saturday... hmmm...) and should be back in South Dakota by that evening. You know, unless some wild snow man kills me along the way. Hello Jet Lag.

I did some massive packing last night, the only thing left is my computer junk and my bathroom junk. Both easily put into plastic bags or carried on with me. I went to school to have lunch with some friends, and then helped a fellow student with his new 15in Powerbook. Colin and I went to Kiddy Land near the station where I picked up some fun vending machine toys as gifts. You'll like them. Although Colin kept buying some, and kept getting the same one he didn't want.

I came home at 6 because host mom had something for me, something for me to do. One of her students, a 9 year old 4th grader named Mame, wanted to meet me and talk to me in english. We had a fun time and I even spoke some fun Japanese. Mame made me some fun origami stuff. My hands are way too big to deal with small pieces of paper. We all ate dinner together and had some fun, where I showed off my chop stick skillz. After dinner I went to a small part with my host mom at a friend of her's place. Her friend is a mininite missionary from Canada, and her nephew is visiting. I had some taco salad and some toco-yaki (A night of tacos as you can see), and a lot of short bread cookies.

I later went to bar Mono to meet up with Colin, Mark, and Chris L for one last goodbye. Our favorite Tasmanian bar maid Catharine kept us well entertained, as well as well hydrated. Good times had by all. Its a sad thing to say goodbye, especially when you've met such cool people and had such a good time.

Back at the ranch, and by ranch I mean small apartment, I find myself thinking how this is the last night I'll have to suffer on a futon. But yet how I'll soon be suffering on the crap beds at my college. No more fun food, trains, vending machine beer, or being run over by bikes. Well, maybe the bike thing can still happen, but the others probably not. Maybe to make myself feel better I'll watch the Simpsons Japanese episode on the plane, seeing how I'll have 12 hours. Oh well. I'm all out of Yen anyhow.

Wish me luck. Goodbye sweet sweet Japan. May your earthquakes be few, and your seas whale free.

"Am I some clown here for your amusement?" The movie Goodfellas is a great film. Which is why Colin and I watched it. Continuing our week of Gangster Movies in a Japanese Library! This was after I was asked to do an english conversation with some Japanese students, who recorded our talk for class homework. Thus reminding me that yes, at least I speak one language halfway well. As opposed to the two others I speak badly. Yo necessito una siesta. でも私は元気です。

One my way home from school I bought a little plant for my host mom, as a kinda of xmas/ going away gift. Host mom appeared to be quite surprised at the gift, which was what I expected. I need to pick up something for Kai as well, maybe a little train or something tomorrow. I may also spend some money buying little vending machine gifts for some people back home. They work well as stocking stuffers. Cute little things. Its amazing what you can buy out of a vending machine, which is just about anything. I love a country where you can buy jugs of beer out of vending machines, and then drink them on the street corner.

We ate out tonight, ate out big time. An all you can eat Japanese place, where they had just about anything you could want. We grilled up a bunch of meat on the grill that was built into our table. I made sure to stay away from the curry this time. The weirdest thing happened when I attempted to eat some jello. I guess I wasn't paying attention to the blackness of my jello because when I put it in my mouth it turned out to be coffee jello, which is very popular in Japan, and to which my host mom topped hers off with some cream. So weird. Do we even have this in the US?

I think I'll pack a bit tonight and also make a quick DVD of pictures I have of Kai. I love you iDVD. I think they'll like that. Host mom was saying how I had taken a lot of photos of Kai this semester, I think this will be a nice gift. I also need to burn off some music for Colin. You know, just to stop his belly aching. I'll miss his Britishness so much....

Colin and I watched The Godfather, part 2, which again, is an amazing film. And again was on laser disc. I so hate laser disc. I really need to watch the final movie some time. So many good lines.

Colin and I had a few drinks at Mono, and had a nice time talking to Catherine the bar maid. On a very randomly weird note I ran into a Gustavus grad at bar Mono. One of my classmates Maria came in, along with her husband who had come to pick her up, and a friend. As the three were leaving I said a quick goodbye and her husband asked me where I was from, I said Minnesota. The girl that was with them said she was from Minnesota, and asked me where I went to school. I then said that my school was right above Mankato, to which she said "Gustavus?" She graduated in 2001 and had living in New Zealand for the past few years being a nurse. She was in Japan for 2 weeks hanging out. How weird is that?

Word of advice. Never eat two big bowels of curry at 1 am after having had quite a few drinks. You pay for it the next day.

Friday I was going to go to Hiroshima with Zack, but ended up putting it off until Saturday because Motoshi wanted to come with us. So Friday I hung out with Zack and Colin, and ended up saying a few more goodbyes and watched a movie. Hmmm... yes, more movies. Yet I have completely forgotten which movie we watched. No bother. Zack and I went into Kyoto for some souvenir shopping, in which we bought some nick knacks for our friends and family, and then had some Wendy's. I know I know. I didn't eat hardly any junk food the first half of the semester, but this second half has made up for it. My mid-western heritage keeping dragging me back to deep fried foods.

So I was up early on Saturday, and met Zack and Motoshi in Osaka at 9. We had ahead of us about 6 hours of train traveling. Sure, we could have taken a bullet train and the trip would have only taken 1 and a half hours, but where would the fun be in that? Zack and Motoshi started off the day strong by having a nice morning glass of beer. Yes, beer on a train. This is why Japan is so much fun. We took all local trains, which meant we saw a lot of the countryside of Japan. Or should I say, Zack and Motoshi probably did. As I always do on trips, I ended up falling asleep as soon as we got on the train, which was no easy task. These local train seats were not very comfortable. We ended up missing a train at Hemeji, so that added another hour onto our trip. Lets just say the entertainment on the train was fun Japanese pastries and teaching Motoshi more US slang. He now knows when to and how to say "lets get the hell out of dodge."

We got to Hiroshima about sunset and decided to see if we could make the floating torii gate at Miyajima before sunset. Miyajima is a cute little island with a very important shrine on it, or if nothing else a very cool looking one. Its said to be one of the three most photogenic places in Japan. By the time we caught a ferry boat over to the island there was very little light left, but the view was still really nice. Too bad the shrine itself was closed for the night, so we couldn't get a strait on view of the gate. No big loss. Motoshi and Zack continually pestered the many deer that run freely on the island. Good thing the monkeys that usually run around had turned in for the evening, or I think there would have been a fight. We caught dinner on the island and then went back to Hiroshima.

Thanks to my handy dandy copy of The Lonely Planet we found a cheap youth hostel not too far from the station. After dropping off our bags and picking up an Australian we headed to the A-bomb Memorial park to see the A-Bomb dome lit up at night. Transportation was cheap and quick thanks to the city's trolly system. The dome was very pretty all lit up at night. For those of you who don't know (like our Australian friend) Hiroshima was one of the two cities which the US dropped atomic bombs on at the end of WWII, killing over a 250,000 people and injuring countless others. The a-bomb dome was one of the closest buildings to the epicenter of the blast. Its now part of the memorial park.

After the park we headed into the main part of the city to find some fun. We found an Irish bar which was filled with more white people then I had seen in a long time. Turned out to be a JET christmas party. Go figure. We headed out to an isakaya and had some drinks and some food. I'll miss that food a lot.

The next morning we headed to the memorial park again. Shot some more photos. Looked around at all the different memorials that were set up. Very sad stuff. We eventually made it to the museum, in which we walked away totally depressed. Words can not describe the suffering that took place in that city after the atomic bomb was dropped. After visiting the museum you come to understand Japan's reluctance to be involved in armed conflict and its continuing protests of nuclear proliferation. It causes me to ask all sorts of questions about the nature of war and the morality of the actions taken by my country in both the past and the present. It left us on quite a downer for the rest of the day.

Our train ride back was much the same as the train ride there. I once again slept for the most part of the ride. We again taught Motoshi more slang. Back in Osaka (6 hours later) I ended up hanging with Colin for a while. We played some video games, which is always a good way to end the day.

I slept in today, even though I had slept through most of the previous days train ride. Colin and I went to school where we watched The Godfather, which is quite possibly the greatest movie ever. My urge to watch the other two is growing, and I think I'll watch #2 tomorrow before going to a big 'going away' party at one of the local pubs. Good times I think. Oh, and once again, the movie was on laserdisc. My god, the insanity of these giant ass CDs from hell. Hmmm.... the Godfather movies... good... yet another trilogy I need to buy.

Yesterday I went to school. Wrote a paper. In the library. I eventually got it done. Lets not talk about that. Later in the evening Colin and I ended up watching a movie, which was bad. We watched Star Wars Ep II, which sucked. Colin had never seen it, and it did have like 20 minutes of coolness somewhere in there. Man, it really did suck.

We went and had a drink with some Japanese girls who we talk to now and then, who were actually sad to see me leave. We even had some fun little photos taken of us. Gotta love the photo booths. We then met Zack for a drink and a mid-night snack. So all in all the usual.

This Friday I spent partially studying for a test, which went well, and then a bunch of nothing. Zack, Colin, Chris C, and I all watched Groundhogs Day. Probably the best movie of 1993. Then I guess I went home. Ok, so I guess I have nothing witty or fun to say to day. Sue me. I'm tired.

Zack and I are going to brave the Japanese Train system tomorrow in an attempt to go to Hiroshima for an overnight trip. My host parents were helping me plan out the route, which isn't too tough, but will take about 5.5 hours. Yes, we're going the cheap rout and taking local trains, which ends up being $55. We could take the bullet train for $120, and our trip would only be 1.25 hours and we'd be in the lap of luxury. But we're poor. I'm sure I'll have lots of photos to post when I come back.

So now that I'm done with class, and I only have 10 more days in Japan, a great sadness has filled me. How I'll miss you Japan, with your efficient train system, your low door that hit my head, your silly candy, your funny TV, and your casual racism. My only hope is to come back. But even more sad is that I'll probably never see a lot of the friends I've made here, ever again. People are leaving already, and the goodbyes have been plentiful. At least I have some fun filled class photos to keep my memories fresh. Such as this one, which has most of my class. You get the idea. Notice my in my trademarked red jacket.

I'm now finished with all my Japanese tests. Which leaves me with a large paper to do tomorrow, and a test on Thursday.

I ended up watching a movie with Zack this afternoon in the Library. A Japanese movie, which was depressing, but good. Which is what I expected. Such a sad tale. If only I could remember the name.

So people are starting to leave, or leave this weekend. Expect for those few who will be back next semester (I'm talking to you Colin) its goodbye. Or the slow going goodbye, which means that they may still be here but I won't see them. This will probably be the last time I see many of these peoples, but I guess thats why I have a webpage. To tell them the mundane details of my life.

I picked up a load of shirts from professor Tracy today. About $120 worth of shirts. He had some nice shirts printed up with the school logo on them so I bought a few as gifts. Like 5 to be exact. Some sweat shirts and some t-shirts. This also means my x-mas shopping is also done.

So, heres some interesting stuff. So complaints to the FCC were up this year, by like 500%. Too bad 99.8% of all these complains were from one small group of people. When will people realize that if they're so concerned about what children what, maybe they should throw the TV out or actually parent. Just because you find something objectionable doesn't mean everyone does. The group, Parents Television Council, has a list on their webpage of TV shows they find offensive. Its a real funny read (They rate CSI and Will and Grace as the worst shows on TV this year, and even has Friends as being one of the worst last year). Obvious these people are a bit overboard. Compared to other western nations the US has a very restrictive TV content, so there really is no reason to blame TV for sex and violence. I mean, if Japan, Canada, and the majority of Europe can show soft core porn on late night TV and YET still have a lower teen pregnancy rate and murder rate maybe TV isn't the problem. Maybe parents should stop crusading against everything and do some parenting, which is really what matters in the long run. "Censorship is telling a man he can't have a steak because a baby can't chew it." - Mark Twain. Do the world a favor, read a challenged book or watch a challenged movie. That or just watch cable TV.

I guess even more chilling is how a Florida congressman paid a programer to come up for a way to 'cheat' on electronic voting machines. He's now come out and is saying that the way he came up with is undetectable and can easily turn any election, and is wondering what his program has been used for. Does this surprise anyone? Could this have been used in the last election? Maybe we'll know soon.

After a semester of using my iSight as my main form of communication with my parents I have found that it lacks certain things. Mainly manual software controls for contrast and brightness. This usually isn't an issue but it can be. This is why I just spent $8 on iGlasses, which adds manual controls and a whole bunch of other options to the iSight. Look Ma, I'm buying software. What has my life come to.

Had my reading test today. Yes, I can read. Yes, I suck at vocabulary. Yes, I have more tests tomorrow.

Thats the gist of things. I'm sure I'll be more funny and more interesting after I get done with all my tests. I should study for my speaking test which is tomorrow. Curse you short form! Curse you!

The fam got a new laundry machine today. Its a washer and dryer. Amazing. Plus its super small. Its what you'd expect of a Japanese laundry machine.

Thats about it. Leave me alone! Tests! So many... tests!

I had both a Japanese Oral Examination in my Japanese Speaking class. Oh, yeah, plus I had a reading test as well in Japanese Reading and Writing. Major bummer. I did ok in both. Reading wasn't tough, and neither was the majority of my Speaking test. Sigh... next week is finals, which will blow my mind off. I also had a test in my Youth in Japan class, but luckily it was very quick and easy. Good fun stuff.

After being a zombie all day long due to all the tests and whatnot, Chris L, Colin, Zack, and I tried to watch the movie version of Akira in the Library. Too bad we had to watch the VHS version, which has an english dub from the late 80s. It was sooooo bad. I mean, the voices were horrible for the majority of it. Not like it mattered for everyone except Colin, because Zack, Chris, and I kind all fell asleep towards the middle of the film. And then all kinda woke up towards the end of the film. Though Chris was so konked out that we were tempted to leave him there. Or draw on him. One of the two.

Colin, Chris, and I ended up going to my train station where we had some KFC and wondered around for a bit. I was tempted to once again pick up all of the Akira manga for only 3800 yen (like $36). But I'll wait a week or so more. We ended up hanging out at Bar Deep again, a place where everyone kinda knows our names. Or at least the Australians remembered us. Played some darts, and somehow won. Which doesn't happen to much. Then somehow Colin and I got talked into going to some Karaoke after Chris left. Which kinda was our night in general

Saturday well, leave me alone. Because I should be studying kanji. So many to know, and so many words I'll be miss spelling next week.

So the number of foreign students in Japan (hey, thats me!) is now topping 110,000. Japan is fun. You should come here. Can't beat the food or the people.

It appears as if I managed not to notice an earthquake last night. I thought something in the kitchen had fallen over, and then I get a text message from Colin about him 'freaking out' over the quake, and then Masa-san sends me an IM about it. Maybe I should pay more attention to whats going on. Or just that Colin is from a country whose greatest natural disaster is fog.

So I studied for a bit today, but I guess my real achievement is that I finished the manga Akira. Thats right, I read the entire last volume today in the Library. Volume 6 of 6, which makes for a total of over 2,000 pages. The landmark manga, in english. Too bad its super expensive in the States, $20 a volume (thats at least $120 for all six). I found the entire 6 volumes in Japanese for about $35. Maybe I'll just buy the Japanese version. Never hurts. I think Colin and I will end up watching the anime version of Akira tomorrow night after all of our tests and stuff. Much like our usual Friday nights. Oh, sadly, someone is trying to make a really horrible real life version of Akira. When will Hollywood stop making crap live action versions of films? I mean, if you're going to do it, please hire a good director and a good writer. We all know how bad Daredevil was.

Joke of the day. The setup: Colin, Chris L., and I were sitting in McDonalds. I say this: "So guys, I have a joke. An Englishman, a Hawaiian, and a guy from Minnesota all walk into McDonalds. I forget how the rest goes, but Colin is gay." Yes, it really was that funny. Man I'll be missing Colin.

I should study my butt off for the next few hours.

Yeah, I'm stressed out about tests. Could you tell? Only a week left though, so that both freaks me out and also relieves me.

So in the last two I've had about 4 people ask me if I had gotten a haircut. Which I haven't, in over a month. I shaved, a while ago. I don't know why I look different. Maybe its because I got a lot of sleep last night. I mean, nothing at all has changed about me, besides me putting on a sweat shirt.

The library was closed today. Its closed the first of every month. This really pissed off a lot of international students who wanted to study in there or who needed to research. Poor guys. Who the heck closes the library all day, two days before finals! To quote someone I talked to "The established rules outweigh the needs of the individual." How Japanese of them.

Zack changed his flight date to the 14th, which means I may be going to Hiroshima by myself. That wouldn't bother me too much, but I would like to go with someone. I guess I'll figure it all out after finals are done. If I could somehow talk Colin into coming I would, except he is low on funds. Silly Colin, spending all of his cash on magic beans.

I love bad propaganda. Remixed propaganda. Funny propaganda. I'd seen this mock up once before, but its been a while. So I thought I'd stick it up on this page. Maybe put it on my door when I get back to GAC. Show my support for the War on Piracy. I mean, you're either with us or against us.

The US dollar is sucking it up these days. I can tell, seeing how my money gets less yen per dollar as opposed to when I got here. It gets worse when some of the non-US students here talk about stopping in the US to buy big ticket items before heading home, because of how weak the dollar is. One of the guys from Germany is buying a Powerbook, and it would be extremely cheap to go to the US and buy a Powerbook and take it to Germany. Imagine how strong the Euro would be if England actually got with the program. Thank goodness we focused on economic issues during this past election, I'd hate to see people losing out. Though this does bode well for me getting paid in Yen next yet. That is, if I get a job.

Is anyone else bothered by reports coming out by the Red Cross about the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba? I wouldn't be surprised if another prison scandal broke out, seeing how the policies that were used in Abu Ghraib were directly taken from policies in Guantanamo Bay. Ok, so a lot of people were not upset about the Abu Ghraib treatment of prisoners, which is just appalling. These people are in prison not because they had a trial or any law proceedings. They are there because they are suspected of doing something. They were then tortured. The US has been using a lot of dubious wording during this War on Terror to justify putting people in jail without a trial. Some people I know are ok with this. I believe the word they use to describe these people is "enemy combatant." Which means they have no rights under the Geneva Convention. So what does this signal to the rest of the world? That it can jail and torture people at will if they do it under the guise of 'State Security'? If the United States, the so called leader of the free world, wishes to side step international law (law that we have to protect own own soldiers), then are we any better then those we fight?