October 2006 Archives

I knew the Japanese were into Christmas Cakes, but I was just treated with a Halloween Cake. My adult student canceled our class tonight due to a fire at her next door neighbors house, the street was blocked off and she couldn't even get to her house. So her and her husband came over and we had some tea and cake. Notice how nice and fruity the cake looks, and how it says "Halloween" on the front. They're a really nice couple and the cake was just really darn good. (Yes, the Japanese may be super skinny but they love their sweets and cakes, and their sweets and cakes are to die for.) I need to lay off the free food.

While at the grocery story yesterday I found these cool New Super Mario Brothers collectable figures. Only 200¥ for a box with two little figurines in them. I should get some more, they'll make nice little "send home" gifts for friends. That or I could always eBay them. Now thats an idea. The other picture is of two vending machine keychains I bought last week. They're both old NES game characters, one being from Wrecking Crew and the other from Donkey Kong Jr. I was trying to get Mario and Excite Bike, but I have horrible luck.

And to add even more fun to this post area involving video games is the coolest documentary you'll ever see about a video game. Tetris. Who knew the game had such a crazy existence and weird life floating around the international game company world.

I hate the undead. Zombies are the bane of my existence. Which is why I always read up on good ways to kill Zombies. Like this new book by Max Brooks called World War Z, which I'll have to order off Amazon soon enough. Its been getting great reviews and sounds like the kind of book I can curl up with in bed. But only as long as I have my trusty zombie killing shotgun next to me. Now if I was a zombie, or someone who liked zombies in a perverse way, I would clearly go to this zombie walk near Pittsburge, PA. The big kicker, its in the same mall where the original Dawn of the Dead was filmed. If only I could go I promise I wouldn't bike anyone. Too hard. Oh, and one more thing. While researching my Halloween costume this week I found a design for making a Shaun of the Dead pillow. Friends who make gifts like this are worth keeping.

Friday night one of my kittens went to his new home in Hiroshima. Mr. Squeekers, I hardly knew you. Friday evening I gave the kids a bath again, just to be sure. Matt, Tanya, and Natasha came over and played with the little guys for a while. The cute little cats really enjoyed all the extra attention they were getting. I'm actually a bit relieved that Mr. Squeekers is gone. He's a smart one, and overly energetic. He figured out how to climb out of his new box within 2 minutes. With any luck I'll hopefully be able to get a visit sometime and check up on him.

Friday night was also the night I went to my first ever sitar concert. For some reason I felt as if everyone in the bar should have been smoking opium....

Saturday was jam packed with activities. In the morning I went off to a soccer game in Hiroshima. The Hiroshima Sanfrecce won in a 3-0 game vs the Marines! Oh those fans do know how to have a good time at the game. The group of us were lucky enough to be driven down to Hiroshima by some Japanese friends of ours, who also know how to have a very good time (and also know some nice places to eat okonomiaki). While waiting in a very very very long line to catch a bus to our cars, I sat down and tried to 'internationalize' with some little kids. All through the power of my Nintendo DS! The kids weren't interested in playing with me, as they were locked in an epic pokemon battle. That or they found my Domokun shirt a but too odd. I try so hard.

But Halloween! Oh how I slaved over my costume for hours, and much to my surprise, it proved to be a bit too realistic for some people. But more on that later. My costume this year was Shaun, from Shaun of the Dead. Its a romantic comedy. With zombies. I went all out and spent time on the small details. Note my costume picture and the guide to proper 'Shaun' costume attire. Its all in the details people. Plus I have to wonder what my neighbors thought when they saw me bloodying up my shirt in the apartment parking lot on Friday. I am rather... well.. odd around these parts. As seen in the photo.

So the party was quite the smash hit, as it usually always is. But see a guy in a bloody guy ridding a bike around at 4 am is not the thing you typically have here in Fukuyama. Which is why my bike ride home was a bit awkward for me, and for other people. So as I was nearing home this car started following me. Slowly. I didn't think anything of this until I got home. Within a minute of getting home there was a knock on my door. It was the police who had responded to reports of a foreigner covered in blood, and the first thing they asked me was if I'd been in a fight. To which, I had to explain in bad Japanese, that I had just been to a Halloween party, and I had honestly not killed anyone tonight. Luckily for me one of the cops was the nice English speaking one in the area, and we got it all settled out, but not before he informed me that "This is Japan and things are different here." So I guess you could say my costume was so good that it almost got my arrested. (Actually my first thought was that I was being ticketed for ridding a bike under the influence. Thank goodness for that.)

People who know me very well know that I have developed a phobia about blood sucking insects. Something that came about thanks to years of Boy Scout trips where mosquitos descended on me every night, leaving no part of my body bite free. I've found fleas on the kittens, so I went to the store and got anti-flea stuff. Now I made sure to ask at least 5 times if the stuff was ok for kittens. My Japanese is bad, but I know I told her at least 4 times that I have kittens and that they're 4 weeks old. I even used hand motions. Now I used the stuff on the kids, and then was actually looking at the box, just out of random curiosity and paranoia, and managed to work out that the stuff was to be used with cats who were 6 kilos or heavier. Meaning adults. Then I washed that stuff off with lemon dish soap because I was told that the fleas hate citrus. Which they do, as the all swarmed towards the little kitten's heads. Michelle had stopped over and, much to her dismay, was given the task of picking fleas off the kittens. What a fun evening for all. So now the kittens are mostly, and hopefully entirely, flea free. (I can't say for sure about Michelle.)

The biggest, and the most litter trained, of the kittens is going to go to Hiroshima on Saturday to meet up with his new owner. I'm already tearing up. These guys are so cute...

I made donuts in school today. The handicapped class at this one school is very progressive. Two kids and two teachers are running a little donut shop where the kids collect orders from the school's teachers, make the donuts, wrap them all up, and deliver them. The kids (and I) had a very fun time making and eating donuts, and it seems as if they're saving the money up to buy something for the school. Apparently before this they were making pizzas and growing veggies in the school garden. Way to go you guys! (Plus the donuts were really good.)

The JET Programme has had since its being a maximum length of three years. Which means you can only avoid life so long. Well thats all changed. According to our month newsletter, due to the high demand of English teacher caused by the now mandatory teaching of English to elementary school kids, contracts can now be renewed up to 5 years. But only if your office "deems that the JET participant's work performance, level of experience and ability are of an exceptionally high standard." Which means that no one in my office will be around for a 4th or 5th year.

New Macbook Pros are out. The ones I've been lusting after. Holding off from even thinking about buying until certain things are added. Well those things have been added. My urge to buy grows... but once again I am held back by a lack of money until after Winter Vacation. Maybe I can sell a kidney, seeing as how I'll need around $2,300 for it all configured the way I want it. I'm going to be dreaming of Macintoshes tonight.... (Or of this way cool old black Macintosh 5420 I found I school today. Very old school.)

If anyone needs a lot of fake blood for Halloween, heres a good recipe webpage full of fun and cheap ways to gross people out. I know I'll be needing a bunch of it....

I've had a slight throat tickle for about a week now, and it seems as if it might turn into something more. Like a full blown illness. Which is bad. As I need my throat for working more than any part of my body. If the JET Programme could, they'd stick our heads in jars, a la Futurama, and put us every class that way. Probably just to make sure we stay out of trouble. Seriously, heads in jars would probably do a better job than the vast majority of people on the JET Programme. Its just that perfecting the head in jar technology is something Japan isn't to keen on, seeing as how they're spending all their money perfecting giant robot technology. (On a side note I think I should take a day trip just to see this thing. It would totally be worth it.)

Two really good 2.0 downloads for you! Skype 2.0 for Mac is out. Now it does video, and quite a bit better than the beta versions that have been out. Also, for those of you who hate Safari, Firefox 2.0!

And now sleep. Seeing as how I've got to work now to feed 3 little mouths. Little hairy mouths....

The kittens are doing quite fine now. I built them a bigger box home and have started trying to get them to use a makeshift tupperware litter box. Its been a touch and go training session (I think we're hitting about 50% success rate right now). I was a bit worried because unlike most weeks, it seems that I won't be coming home for lunch every day. Which means no kitten feeding time. I've luckily got some really nice friends who don't work during the day (mainly Michelle who loves cats) and can come feed the little guys. Trust me. They are cute.

I was ridding home with my big old box today after work and the strange old lady that lives next to my apartment building laughed at me. She followed this up by asking me if the box was for the kittens. Seems my paper thin walls strike again!

I sent Jared Lee a fun birthday surprise in the form of a big stuffed daikon, which now sits in his office at school. Its the perfect pick up tool for the single college man. "Hey baby, want to come into my office and see my big daikon?" If this doesn't help him get women, nothing will. I mean honestly. How is that not the best gift you could possibly get in a shoe box from Japan? The little guy is even holding his own cup of tea! Will my odd gift giving ever end? Probably not. Well, not as long as I'm in Japan....

Former room mate Zach sent me this fun Japan factoid. Seems the oldest company in the world, founded in 578 by Korean immigrants in Japan, is being liquidated. Sad to see this happen to such a an interesting piece of history be taken away from the family who started it.

While Apple Computer may only have 5% of the US computer marketshare, it seems its laptops have taken an astounding 12% of the US laptop marketshare. I can say for a fact that quite a few English teacher I know over here have really spiffy new Macintoshes. Something I hope to join in on this Spring.

This is by far the silliest video game commercial I've ever seen. Love that 'American' hairstyle.

Like an NFL game, every good birthday party needs a post party wrap up show. The 2nd annual "Matt and Josh Birthday Party" brought out a record 31 people. We ate some fun filled food, drank some fun filled drinks, and did some fun filled karaoke afterwards. I was even surprised that my friends came up with some very creative gifts. Some highlights include: Starwars and X-Men pillow covers from Bill that seem to have fallen out of 1992. A balloon powered car from Rose and Yan. A barbie sex doll of some sort from Jess and Jeremy (see picture to the left). An addictive Nintendo DS game from James. And some little transformers from Crystal. The pictures below show the kind of fun we had that evening. (So this guy, who I don't really know, rolls up a 10,000 note and snorts wasabi.) I can't say my evening was super duper crazy, as I went home at 1 due to my sleepiness and to feed the kittens, but it was a very good evening. (Notice how cool I look sporting my new Domokun shirt.)

One of my friends send me a link to this company who is selling allergy free cats for the low low price of $4,000. They found some cats who lack the gene to create the protein that causes people to sniffle around cats. Allergy free cats. The gift that keeps on giving.

Speaking of the kittens, they're doing quite fine now. They're super active and I had to tape up the box lid sides so they'd stop getting out. Its amazing what a bit of food will do to a kitten (and webpages that give you tons of kitten help). I also think I've found homes for 2 of the 3, which is good news for me and my allergies (I've started taking my medication again because of these little guys). The neighborhood kids who originally had them stopped by my apartment this afternoon, something that no doubt took a lot of guts on their part. They wanted to see the kittens. I got out the bottle and let the kids feed them for a while. They seemed kind of worried about the little guys. This evening I figured I should clean them up a bit (they were quite dirty), so I gave them each a little bath in my sink. The best part is that they all purrrrred their little hearts out as I hand dried them in little towels. They are just the cutest things ever.

Flying Toasters for Mac OS X and Windows live again. If only they would add the option to adjust the level of toastedness on every slice of flying toast. At least its free.

I may head over to Nagoya to meet up with an old friend who is now doing JET. Seems that Nagoya just opened a new Robot Museum and I can already hear the lyrics to Mr. Roboto dancing through my head. Theres a three day weekend right away in November. Now if I could talk Simon and Bill to come with me... that would be quite the trip...

Ok, heres the deal. Got my big box of fun from my parents. You can check out the haul in the picture below, minus the beef jerky that customs took out. Also pictured are the three small kittens I found outside yesterday. I've been bottle feeding them for the last day. Need to find someone to take them. Someone not Japanese. The Japanese way of dealing with kittens usually involves a bag and a river. On a sad note, there were four kittens but one was really sick. It died last night. So sad.

Well I'm off to my birthday party. Will post pictures tomorrow. If anyone wants a kitten, let me know.

I got a big "Denied!" (or as my friends and I like to call it here in Japan: "dekenai-ed") from the Japanese government this past week. As my birthday is this weekend (hint hint) my parents send me a nice big care package filled with goodies from home. One of these items is 0.15 kgs worth of beef jerky, and knowing my parents its the good stuff. See my parents are not up to date on the whole Japan vs US beef battle, and thus didn't realize that importing US beef is a no no. Which means my package is being held in Osaka waiting for me to send a letter back telling them its ok to burn the beef before sending the package back to me. Thats right. They're going to burn my jerky. Though I suspect that somewhere in Osaka some Japanese postal worker will be enjoying my wonderful 0.15 kg worth of Wisconsin beef jerky. Jerks.

While at the post office today, getting my nasty anti-beef jerky notice, I came across a display showing off special collector stamp which you could buy for 3,000¥. Not to long ago there were Super Mario stamps, and even now there are Biohazard Stamps (aka Resident Evil) for sale. But as always, these things thrill me not (I lied. Mario does thrill me to no end). Then I saw it. Domokun stamps. Collectable stamps. I held back, because if I bought them I'd just end up sending them in the mail and losing a lot of money (as you pay 3,000¥ for about 900¥ worth of real postal stamp value.). Instead I'll just post a picture of it here and hope for the best. (Though if anyone would care to buy these stamps for me I'd be totally willing to frame them and stick them on my wall. If they're behind glass I probably wouldn't take the time or effort to remove them. I am rather lazy after all.)

After a conversation I had this past weekend with some other JETs a group of us have started a Hiroshima Unite! group on thefacebook. If you live in Hiroshimaken and use thefacebook.com feel free to join.

If anyone is worried about North Korea trying to fire any nukes at Japan, don't be. Japan knows how to deal with Korea in all the best ways. They do have almost 700 years experience invading them. I personally think it would be funny to have Japanese pirates start invading the country 13th century style. Japan has something up their sleeves....

Anyone looking for a super easy way to mod your DS to play music, movies, and 'back up games' your answer is here. DS-Extreme (first look and website) is a regular DS cart with a USB port on it and 512MB inside. The only downside I can see is the $125 cost. Though it would be a reeeaaaallllly nice buy if it allowed someone to play old ROMs..... (this may be on my xmas list...)

This past weekend was a rather busy one for me. I had a fun filled three day weekend which was filled to the brim with travel and fun. Well, some of it was fun and some of it involved a lot of butt pain. No, nothing like that you sicko. Wow, I mean, I can't believe you thought that. I should put a password on this site in order to keep you perverts out. Shame on you Jared Lee and your impure thoughts.

On Saturday I took the train down to Saijo for the annual Sake Festival. What does one do at a Sake Festival you ask? Well drink lots of sake. This festival is a favorite with the JET community (and it brings in a lot of people from the surrounding prefectures). The big draws are the tours of the sake breweries which always include some free sake, the fabulous vender food, and the fun filled people passing out all over. Oh, and the 1,500¥ all you can drink sake area (which I did not partake in for a second year running). The big surprise for me this year was the big bamboo pole filled up with sake, to which, you could buy a bamboo cup and drink yourself silly. The picture shows the silly clowns I hung out with this year.

On Sunday I was convinced to go to Shikoku, which is an hour ferry ride away from my part of Japan. The logic behind this was that Sunday we would travel there by ferry and have some fun. The Monday we would bike ride the 80 kilometers (about 50 miles) back across the 7 bridges that connect the various islands between Honshu and Shikoku. No, I was not drugged when I agreed to this. We spent Sunday getting there and eating a bunch of okonomiaki. (I also hugged one very big Totoro! If only I had 93,000¥ to buy him. Thats around $900.)

After a very early morning wake up and train ride we set out on Monday. We rented bikes (real bikes, real big bikes that made my long legs rejoice) and set off around 10 am. I've done a 50 mile bike ride before, but that was on an extremely strait and extremely flat bike trail. The bike trail we had to go on went up, down, left, right, sideways, and into oncoming traffic. The bridges were nice, and the islands were very friendly, and the horror we faced as we went down very steep hills while scooters came up (and reverse that at the other end of each island) reminded us of the natural beauty of the inland sea. Several of our members stopped to drink wine on a beach, other of us ate lunch and had lots of ice cream to eat.

While waiting for a bike tired to be fixed, a group of us stopped at a temple on Inoshima island. We were attracted by the very strange white stone monument on top of a hill and were very surprised to find a very complex and beautiful temple. With a giant Buddha statue, and a cave filled with little buddhas we didn't think we could be more impressed. Until we found our way to the giant white stone nutcracker on top of the hill. (Which also had its own white stone cafe that served nice ice cream and coffee.) The nutcracker provided us with some fun picture opportunities though. (Geeks start your photoshop please.)

We finally got to Onamichi around 6 at night, which allowed us to see a really nice sunset. I'm guessing the actual amount of time it took us to bike that distance was around five hours. Matt, being the nut that he is, wants to do it again this next Spring. I will hopefully have bought a better bike with a much more comfortable seat by then. You know, because right now my butt still hurts from it all.

In case anyone forgot, my birthday is the 21st. Just to let you know so you can get your cards in the mail. (Don't follow me with my bad package sending skills. I usually remember birthdays, I'm just horrible at getting packages in the mail around here.)

The french film Renaissance is a work of art. Thank you internet, and I hope it makes it to the US soon.

It was a sad week for me. The little umbrella thats been fixed to my backpack for the past two years has broken. Seriously. I bought it about two years ago in Kyoto while I was in college. At the time it was raining, and a group of us had taken shelter next to a building. We looked rather silly, a group of foreigners hiding under a building ledge. Or at least thats what passing cars thought, as they pointed and laughed. After this embarrassment we all went and bought umbrellas. Not satisfied with a standard 100¥ clear plastic one, I took a giant leap of pocketbook and bought a little 900¥ one. After that it was my emergency umbrella and served me very well on many occasions. On Thursday I found that several joints had gone out, which kind of sucked as it was raining and I had to walk a ways to my school. So once again I served as a form of silly foreigner entertainment for passing Japanese people, as I walked to school with a partially collapsed umbrella. (The major downside is now I have to find a new one!)

On the upside my laptop battery got replaced. My laptop was one of many that had its battery recalled in recent months. You may have heard of these exploding Sony batteries that seemed to have been used by every computer vender on the planet. While the chances of a battery actually exploding is less than the chance of getting stuck by lightning, it is a nice little gift from Sony. I mean at this point my battery was only getting about an hour of life on a full charge, what you'd expect out of a heavily used and nearly three year old battery. Though I was a bit sad when the program iBatt gave the new battery an A- review.

I should have some good photos from this next weekend. Pictures of the Sake Matsuri and of a massive bike ride I'm going on this Monday. If I survive that is.

I know its been a while. I've been busy, or had nothing too interesting to write about. That or the general mundane day to day activities of the school year has set in frying my brain apart. Something like that.

One thing I love about Japan is its love of retro Nintendo stuff. You can find old school Mario toys, keychains, ect everywhere. Last year I came across old school Mario being a theme for the fall collection advertising at the biggest department store in Hiroshima. Last week I came across several fun filled retro Mario toys that I just had to take pictures of. I found this really nice 300 mm doll at the local Tenmaya Department Store. He even comes with his own Mushroom. (Please kids, don't power up at home.)

I almost bought several of these flashing keychains, except they're about $10 each. A bit much more me to spend on a keychain. But I did take this video of it all.

Yeah, but then again I could have also bought these cool little pigs. I love these guys. Seriously. They're probably the cutest thing ever. It takes all my will power not to buy Monokoro Boo merchandise.

I have been sending way too many things back to the US as of late. A lot of birthdays I've forgotten about, or just not found a box the right size to send things off in. (I need more shoe boxes) I recently sent some stuff back to Zach and Ben for their collective birthdays. You can see how much fun Zach had with his goodies. Though in all honesty, Zach, you're not quite 一番 material. Now if I can just get myself some boxes I can send off all this stuff clogging up my tatami room floor.