Spring Impressions, Summer Vacation, and What is Up

First, let me take a minute to revise my thoughts on classes now that they are over:


Intensive Japanese 5:
Still the best class. We had to do a sort of half-assed research project at the end of the semester, but writing the presentation was a valuable experience. Even though the readings were pretty much all about crises (or perceived crises) in Japanese society, I enjoyed them and felt that most of the Japanese I learned here so far was related toour practice of select phrases and discussion of vocab in class.

Empathetic Conversation 4-5: My feelings on this are basically the same as they were before. Good content, hard to internalize. I don't know if some people maybe practiced with their friends outside of class? but if you take this, that is what I would recommend to seriously learn.

Extensive Reading 5-6: The final paper for this class kind of hits you out of nowhere as you struggle to remember what you've been reading over the past semester, but ultimately, reading without a dictionary is good and bad. You sacrifice depth for breadth, obviously, that is the idea. My main concern with it is that you sort of tend to "guess" on kanji/words you don't know, and if you keep guessing wrong, you are essentially "learning" things that are incorrect...

Vocab Building 5-6: Bizarrely, the hardest class. I often got failing grades on the homework assignments. My biggest problem was that I spend so much time doing the Japanese thing (or just screwing around) that I don't really have a background in say, current events, which turned out to be indispensable. I'm trying to work at that going forward...

Honorific Expressions for Communication 5: This class continued to be problematic for me. I have a better foundational knowledge of the categories of keigo, and I can do ok on multiple choice drills (which is how I'm reviewing this summer), but actually applying it on my own is still scary and awkward. Why we also had to do a half-assed group research project is beyond me. Why not spend that time on speaking drills or something instead?

Reading Comprehension Skills for Intermediate and Advanced Learners 5: Overall I did keep feeling that this class was really random, but was happy to have the practice. The grading was very much participation based, with no real homework. We had a final exam, which felt so strange since we were graded on barely anything else.

Enjoy Short Novels: Reading, Listening & Watching Videos 4-5: I continued to really value this class. The readings were the most "fun" out of all my classes, and I guess, that goes for the writing assignments, too. Sometimes the assessments were easy (and clearly just there to have something to grade?) but it was a good way for me to get my feet wet reading fiction in Japanese.

Music of Japan: from Nursery Rhymes to Lieder 4-8: Really happy with this class. I really almost wish I had studied more so I could sing the songs on command, they were that interesting and valuable as cultural touch stones (ok, maybe touch-pebbles, but still).

Developing Discourse Ability in Japanese 5: This class improved as the semester went on. Once we were able to write on our own, I felt more at ease. Some students said they would have rather done more activities like our final presentation, where we wrote about a personal experience, but others said they preferred writing about the dramas we were watching. Some people said it was really hard. For my part, I found it amusing that we spent so much time writing in what seemed at first glance to be a conversation class, but it was fine with me.

Learning Japanese Through Films - Think and Discuss What a Film Appeals to Us 5-6: Once I got over the shock of the class's true identity as series of listening comprehension drills (and made sure to study the vocab), I finally could relax and enjoy it. The highlight was finally watching Departures. I sort of wish we would have had more time to discuss, or that people would have had more to say, but anyways...got to watch some movies and try to have some academic thoughts about them; that made me happy, overall.


The Latest Japan on TV News 5: This was a great class, although the final paper was sort of tedious in that it was multiple parts, kind of almost like a survey. Honestly it kind of highlighted how "unacademic" feeling most of our assignments are. Everything is really casual, which I guess reflects that we are learners of the language, but I need to relearn how to write a proper paper if I hope to go to grad school. Anyways, I digress...uhhh...yeah I continued to like this class and actually made a lasting Japanese friend from the pool of volunteers who came to discuss "news" with us. (We almost always talked about whatever the hell, as none of us were really there to be experts in current events.) I'd like to say this class resulted in me having a news-watching habit, but I don't yet. I'll have to make that on my own.

Japanese Sentence Patterns for Communication (1) 5: This class ended up being just fine. Some of it was review, but that's ok. Gotta have a solid grammar foundation, and unless you are constantly reviewing, even the simple stuff can get shaky.

Here are the main activities of the summer:

Volunteer translation of a document written by the principal of a school in Kesennuma where the tsunami hit really hard last year after the earthquake. The work I am doing is just one part of a bigger document; I'm on a team with Japanese students, so it has already started to become a good way to meet people. Also I'm really impressed that they are managing to translate Ja>En. I'm having a hard enough time...

We're going to Kesennuma soon to meet some of the people involved in the publication and hear some of their experiences first-hand.

I'm also going on a trip to Fukui to experience some organic farming and food production...stuff!

Volunteering at the Tokyo Game Show at the end of the September pretty much right before school starts.

Wondering if I will be able to get a serious boyfriend ever again.

Getting really into seeing (raw) movies at the National Film Center, and loving that I live on the same train line so I don't have to transfer anywhere to get there.

Making pilgrimages to the Waseda Tai Chi club instructor's classroom over the summer break as often as I can (on Sundays). It takes about an hour and a half to get there, so it's good time to read manga or listen to podcasts.

Spending too much time researching grad school etc. to the point where it is disrupting my actual Japanese study.



Other than that I just wrote a new and way more aggressive plan for next semester:

Intensive Japanese 6
Learn Japanese Through the World of Hayao Miyazaki 5-6
Kanji in the Contemporary World 6-8
Explore the Essence of Japanese Classic Novels 5-6
Japanese Newspaper Reading 6-7
Contemporary Japanese through Cinema and News 6
Critical Reading 5-6
Refining Your Japanese Pronunciation with Ondoku & Shadowing 6-8
Reading and Discussing Novels by Contemporary Writers 6-8
Japanese Idioms 5-7
Japanese Sentence Patterns for Communication (1) 6


Honestly this schedule is probably insane. You may recall that I barely tested into level 5 last semester. The idea is that you move up after a semester (hence Intensive Japanese 6), but now is the time; there is only one semester left and I have to make the most of it. I feel like these are the kinds of class I should have been taking in undergrad and that's basically why I'm here, is to make up for undergrad offerings failing me.

The theme of the revised schedule is...READING. Pretty clearly. That is where I need to stop whining and step it up. Speaking will either come or not. I'm no good at speaking in English either, so I don't really expect great things. But the more I read the faster I will progress, so I just want to leap and bound for the next few months.

You may have noticed that instead of doing sentences patterns (2) 5 I'm going straight to (1) 6 next semester. That's quite frankly because there is not that much stuff that seems so difficult in the last half of the book. I am going through it this summer, and maybe I'm not in the most qualified to decide whether I have mastered a concept or not, but I think I'll survive just fine.

As for the other stuff, obviously I don't really NEED a class on Miyazaki movies, but I'm just curious what a class about anime is like. Probably like any other class, well that's cool. If people take it seriously it could be interesting. Also it sounds like we get to read some planning/production materials, so that could be fun.

Taking both the classic and contemporary surveys cuz why not. I hate reading extracts but it's more about collecting the names of the things we should read and then reading them over the summer or whatever...

Obviously that's a lot of classes, just a lot of classes, but one other one I want to mention is that kanji one. Course description basically just says, "We're going to master the daily use kanji (2140)." Yeah, that number used to be 1,945, but they updated it in 2010 to 2,136 when we weren't paying attention. Anyways, I'm kind of hovering somewhere around 1,000 right now and it's annoying me. I know it's more about vocab and actually reading than just knowing the kanji (esp having dropped out of the Heisig method ;P) but at least having studied them all once is a step in the right direction. I'm working on it on my own, but let's nail this jell-o to the wall, shall we?

In any case, I'll be FLYING to my computer on September 18th when registration opens to make sure I get all my classes.

How I Got "Hella Good" at Reading Kanji

Today on the way home from school I ran into a classmate. Actually it's embarrassing because I noticed him and was not sure he would want to talk to me (or maybe I felt for some reason I didn't want to talk to him), so I just kept my headphones on and refocused on the NHK news podcast I was listening to. He caught up to me on the stairs and started waving at me, though, so certainly at that point we were going to have a conversation.

There was the usual, "Do you live this way?" kind of chatter, but he also asked where I got "hella good" at reading kanji. I personally don't consider myself hella good, or very good, or even so-so—yet, but it was nice that someone noticed I am trying. Of course there's no "where," really; it's a time, not a place. The time is...every day.

I told him I just study kanji all the time. Like, in my free time, that is what I do. It's true and I'm going to take it even more seriously because I have a plan that will actually finally take me through all of the daily use kanji by the end of the year. Not that that's the end of kanji, but...I'm ready to at least have a basic understand of the characters everyone should know.

Of course there will be combinations using simple characters that are rare or I just haven't seen yet and I won't know what they mean, and it will annoy me, but even just knowing another word with a given kanji in it helps you look it up faster, since you can input the reading you do know and edit around it.

The other my classmate said to me is that he thinks my ability is "enough." This immediately brought to mind the book I'm currently reading. It's by Daigo Umehara, the pro gramer, and it's about how to continue winning. One of the things he things he says (which is by no means new, but still interesting to hear from the Street Fighter world champion perspective) is that people who rest easy with their current successes will not be able to continue winning.

To apply the thought to my current status: I don't want to just be the best reader in the class (if I am even that). Accomplishing only that does not mean so much, and it only means it until the term ends. I want to read this textbook and the next one, and actually, I'd like to read Umehara's book itself and understand a higher percentage of the words. Someday I'll understand all of them. The way he describes his determination is really inspiring and exactly what I need at a point where I've changed my life around (and will keep changing it in whatever way is necessary) to focus on studying Japanese and translation.

Procrastinating on my "late marriage" paper

Yepppp, don't really want to write a paper about the late marriage trend. At all.

Instead here are my basic thoughts about the classes I am taking this semester, listed in the order I have them during the week...

Intensive Japanese 5:
The best class, although I don't want to write this paper. We go through vocab and grammar while reading articles about various things. We make example sentences, discuss the articles, etc.

Empathetic Conversation 4-5: It's a sorrrrt of good class, I guess. I tweeted the other day that the content is good but it's hard to internalize. That pretty much sums it up. Of course knowing the ins and outs of conversation is great, but it's those little things that are trickiest to master.

Extensive Reading 5-6: An utterly pointless class where we spend 90 minutes reading out loud in small groups. I guess I knew that going in. I just wanted an excuse to read so it's ok. Just sort of a grind way to end the day.

Vocab Building 5-6: Ahhh I dunno about this. We're basically going through words we mostly know already (or probably should) and making sure we understand how to use them properly. It's good in its way, but kind of tedious. Also I hate that we have to look up the words ourselves and then get tested on them before we know if we even found the usages she wants to test us on.

Honorific Expressions for Communication 5: I kind of hate this class. I really just want to drill keigo into my head and this is like some light explanations followed by a little practice, the handing out of a homework sheet, and then we spend like a half hour doing group work that...I mean it's just pointless. I don't want to spend hours of time in and out of class writing one example conversation. Spending all that time on one example conversation would be much better spent shadowing in my room with headphones on, which I should have just done to learn keigo like I had planned to ages ago...

Reading Comprehension Skills for Intermediate and Advanced Learners 5: Kind of random. We read the weirdest things like about coal and oil, about weird science 'experiments' (like elementary school kids do), to cuisine theories by some guy who is not Japanese. It's sort of hard to know how/if we have to try to absorb all the vocab, but...I dunno. Honestly I guess I don't really seem to have reading comprehension problems unless I don't know the grammar so...maybe this class was kind of pointless? It's still more reading practice though, so I guess it's fine.

Enjoy Short Novels: Reading, Listening & Watching Videos 4-5: This is actually one of my favorite classes probably. The material is a tad simple but there are still things to learn. It's fun to read and then get to see a video version of the story, and the teacher says really hilarious things. We also get to write stuff like our impressions comparing the movie to the book (which makes up for how awful the film class is, a little bit), or like this first story we read we had to write our own ending before we finished it in class.

Music of Japan: from Nursery Rhymes to Lieder 4-8: Kind of a random fun class. We sing and play patty-cake-type games ;D Some of the more traditional songs have obscure-ish vocabulary but it's not the end of the world.

Developing Discourse Ability in Japanese 5: I thought I was going to love this class, but have come to dread it. Group writing assignments are just not a good idea. Also I kind of don't feel like we're moving quickly enough through what material there is.

Learning Japanese Through Films - Think and Discuss What a Film Appeals to Us 5-6: This class is hands down the worst. It's definitely not about thinking and discussing films. At least so far it seems to be about memorizing tons of random vocab that appear in a movie and getting tested in a really difficult way on our listening comprehension. I wanted to drop this but I missed the deadline. I actually cried when I found out I couldn't drop it—that's how big a waste of time this class is.  

The Latest Japan on TV News 5: I like this class more every time I go. Definitely useful even if the in-class vocab explanations are tedious and not super helpful generally. Watching the same news story a million times is not something you get to do usually though, so I sort of wish there were some tips on understanding it as you go...I guess you can only learn by learning. Technically my TV can tape stuff for me if I get a hard drive, I think, so maybe I should look into that at some point.

Japanese Sentence Patterns for Communication (1) 5: I really don't like this class, but I NEED it, so. Just the atmosphere of both the teacher and the students kind of bothers me for some reason. The content is fine, a little hard to remember. I wish there were more example sentences. I just want example sentences that reach to the moon...

BESIDES SCHOOL

...life is kind of whatever. Have not solved my laundry machine issues, but have begun cooking. Frankly cooking is exhausting. When I think of how I only have one burner anyhow so sooner or later things are going to get impossible, it's discouraging, but the idea is to make do and try to have fun, so that is what I'm doing.

I also got a lot of furniture and things, but I don't have curtains yet. My TV is sitting on a badly sagging cardboard box...

Club activities are going ok I suppose. I see the Gundam guys now and then. Honestly I don't have that much time though, so I'm not sure how to best like...interact or be a part of it. Have mostly given up on joining anime club, I think.... Honestly, hanging out with a lot of people at once is just not my style. Four or less is great. More than that and I get kind of tired and alien-feeling.

Writing has been going ok. "Writing." You know what I mean. I feel good about myself when I can fit it in and bad when I can't.

Lately I've been wishing I could just go back to work full-time and study part-time somehow. But what the heck I should take advantage of my time. So far though I just feel really overwhelmed. There are all these loose ends or impending stressers that kind of make me want to just do nothing. So then I end up on FB or the Tw just refeshing like crazy hoping to see something that makes me happy. Or I punk around on YouTube looking at Japanese music from the 70s. I've been renting the same DVDs for 3 weeks now. It's only about a buck per week but c'mon, just watch the movies. I just feel like there is so much I need to do so it's hard to relax. It's one of those line'em up and knock'em down scenarios, but sometimes knocking it down means going across town in a train, not just like, organizing a cupboard (although I should probably do that too).

Also as you might be able to tell I'm not really interested in blogging anymore. Twitter is the spot. It's so much easier to just post an interesting picture as you take it than save them up and try to say something intelligent about them later. I guess it's that "saying something intelligent" that is the trouble. Brain continues to atrophy...

First Day of Classes

...was yesterday!

Kicked off with "The Latest Japan on TV News." It's basically a class where you watch the news and the teacher preps a vocab/phrase list to go along with it. So you study that and then each week there is a quiz on the previous week's content. There's one paper to write at the end about a news event and your thoughts on it.

Since all the classes are in orientation mode, they are only meeting for half of a normal period, and then repeating the same info for the second half. I get suppose it's useful if you aren't sure about which classes you will take, but if you registered with confidence it's annoying and makes your schedule really holey for the first week.

The next class I went to was "Developing Discourse Ability in Japanese." This is perfect for me because I actually get quite frustrated speaking. My conversational ability is pretty low on content, consisting of lots of fragments and basic info. This class is for learning how to make people listening to you really be able to imagine what you are describing and react to it emotionally. Like, they'll actually be interested in what you're saying because you're saying more than just, "Yeah, the party was fun." Stoked, even tho it will mean I'll have to talk a lot...


The last class of Friday was "Japanese Sentence Patterns for Communication (1)." This one worried me a bit because the pre-test was a little shakey. I'm considering taking the second half of level 4 simultaneously to review some of those patterns while learning the new ones instead of taking Extensive Reading (I think they meet during the same period, so I'll be able to take orientation for both on Monday and decide.) The other thing that is scary about these grammar courses is that everything depends on the tests (75% of your grade). That is a lot of pressure. If the tests are similar to the pretest I think it might be hard to figure out which pattern the teacher intends us to use...but maybe I'll get used to it through the homework. No matter what I have to take this class, so...

The Gundam Research Association was hanging out after school. I had to ask for directions to the meeting room, and then still got a little lost, but once I found them it was pretty fun. They planned a cherry blossom viewing party, and even though it was really cold we followed through and went to a park. Ate more chips 'n junk than I have in the past year altogether, haha, but it was fun to get try a bunch of different snack foods at once, since I don't usually buy them on my own. When we all got too cold at the park, we went on to round 2 at an izakaya near Waseda station. Everyone got prettttty plastered, but they all seem like basically good guys. Yeah, I'm the only girl :P Most people use Twitter and Facebook it seems like, so it's easy to stay in touch.

In other news, my homestay situation got messed up, so I quickly worked with a housing agency (?) to find an apartment near school. I haven't even moved in yet and I'm already getting teased for living in a boring neighborhood, but...I kinda feel like I'm lucky to have found such a sunny clean room within walking distance of school at such short notice, so I will just deal with whatever neighborhood it is for now. If I need to break the lease later, I guess that's just life. Sucks that they are all two years in Japan, though (just like phone contracts, which...yeah I have a phone now, too! Can't figure out some of the functions, but it's an iPhone so for the most part I'm used to it already. 4S, ftw!)

As for why my homestay got messed up, well, it seems like just a misunderstanding. I thought I got across the fact that I did not want to share a room. My understanding of 'share house' was that I would be able to share a house with a Japanese family, but if more people show up and the rooms are split with curtains, that is just not a comfortable scene for me. I feel bad to cancel, but I feel like we worked it out in a fair enough way.

I have a lot more stuff to think about like buying a fridge and laundry machine, futon, cooking supplies etc. I do want to try to cook! The latest issue of Tabeyoubi is all about things you can do with just a frying pan, which is perfect for my house haha.

Other random news, uhhh I joined the student co-op so I can get discounts on textbooks and cafeteria food. Today is Saturday but I'm still going to campus to take a tour 'n hopefully buy a book.

I'll try to post some picture next time so it's not as boring :P

Just mentioned this blog on FB

Well, it seems like I'm here so I should try to say something about it. Finally I'm studying abroad in Japan. The gist is that I'm doing a year of intensive Japanese at Waseda University in Tokyo, the 別科日本語専修課程. So I'm called a bekkasei (which means...special course student lol).

Yeah so for those not following along I quit my job back in November for the immediate purpose of going back to school, but also for other reasons. It was a hard decision but I (think?) I'm very happy to be where I am now.

That said, I'm extremely nervous about my homestay which kind of starts next week. I've met them before and even stayed with them before, but I dunno. I'm just nervous like that. I think I'm more suited to living alone, and probably having people are all the time and sharing their space will really stress me out, but I need to force myself to speak Japanese and sitting around alone on the Internet is not a good way to do that.

I'm really stressed out about my part-time job because as much as I love writing I just don't know if I'll have the energy for it. Or more precisely, if I choose to have the energy for it, I could choose to put more energy into my studies, which seems like the correct course of action. Seriously just breaking my head over this one. For multiple reasons.

Let's talk about school, though. I had general orientation on Tuesday and it was boring, but went better than expected, i.e. I met some people who were nice. The act of speaking Japanese to non-native speakers was not as painful as anticipated. I think the challenges for Asian learners are different enough that I don't cringe so much as I do when talking to other white kids, maybe? That's kind of racist, but I can be less judgmental somehow around Asians, sorry :O

Yeah, if I'm going to write here I might as well be honest.

So the orientation went ok and I learned a bunch about MORE PAPERWORK etc haha. I'm still in tax hell as well, so it's just no end to the unpleasant paperwork.

Yesterday I took the Japanese placement test. They use the J-CAT. It was hellish and I guessed a lot, but I came out a Waseda level 5, which means like...upper intermediate. I need to choose classes based on this level, but it's very difficult. I need to take 11 classes because most of the classes are only 1 credit and only meet once a week. The intensive course I tested into is 3 credits and meets twice a week.

Here's the list I have so far, but I may change it:

Intensive Japanese 5
Empathetic Conversation 4-5
Extensive Reading 5-6
Vocab Building 5-6
Honorific Expressions for Communication 5
Reading Comprehension Skills for Intermediate and Advanced Learners 5
Enjoy Short Novels: Reading, Listening & Watching Videos 4-5
Music of Japan: from Nursery Rhymes to Lieder 4-8
Developing Discourse Ability in Japanese 5
Learning Japanese Through Films - Think and Discuss What a Film Appeals to Us 5-6
The Latest Japan on TV News 5
Japanese Sentence Patterns for Communication (1) 5

So that is the total amount of credits I am allowed to take. I could take one less class, but it seems like I should try to take as many as I can? I dunno. Also, I think this will be extremely difficult, but I think I made the mistake of underestimating myself in college so I'd rather work myself to the bone here than waltz through...

Here is my idea of what to take second semester:

Intensive Japanese 6
Japanese Sentence Patterns for Communication (2) 5
Hesitant Expressions, Responding to and Commenting in Japanese 5-6
Kanji Learning Through the Media 5-6
Communication at Workplace 5-6
Learn Japanese Through the World of Hayao Miyazaki 5-6
Contemporary Japanese Through Cinema and News 6
Listening Comprehension: Radio News, Note-taking, and Summarization Exercises 6
Critical Reading 5-6
Japanese Idioms 5-7
Learning Japanese: Reading Out Loud 5-8
Natural Expressions in Japanese 5-6


I kind of feel like it's do or die.

Q1 JP

Arrived for the first time at Haneda last night. Damn getting in so late, seriously. I don't really WANT to have to crash out immediately upon entering my apartment; I LIKE having that period of forced wakefulness to anchor you to your new ground. I mean, I can't say I feel very jet-lagged this morning, but it is never so bad traveling West across the dateline. But who knows, maybe it'll hit me like a pile of sleep-deprived bricks tomorrow. Or maybe this ripening cold will come crashing down likewise.

So far plans are slim, which is nice. I will meet two friends. I will meet a friend. I will meet a friend of a friend. I will bestow X-mas cookies on everyone until they are gone. I will make a joyful return to Cafe Orchestra and apologize for not e-mailing them even though they were both kind enough to give me their cell phone addresses. (Note how "Cafe Orchestra" is a one-to-two mapping of the young guys who run it.) I will see Yuichi Ushioda perform. I will see Norwegian Wood even though I heard it was awful, but I will finish rereading the book first. I will see Cheburashka even though I was hoping to see the Japanese dub and they are apparently showing it in Russian. I will read more Japanese. I will study more kanji. I will go to a bookstore and look for a intermediate-advanced French textbook (in Japanese). I'll drum. I'll swim. As if the New Year holiday was not enough, I'll take Coming of Age Day off.

I think work will go well. Things continue to evolve quickly. Sometimes I feel like I need to just sit down with a blank piece of paper and think really hard with a pen, but other times I feel like I should think as little as possible, just observe and react. Log. Send e-mails. Keep the users safe.

Happy 2011.

NHK gear + (Shopping Day)

Today I went shopping because there were computer issues preventing me from accomplishing anything. It's OK! I will make up the time this weekend once it's fixed.

Things I bought while I was wandering around Shibuya:

- one (1) water bottle at Mono Comme Ca (because I forgot mind in San Francisco). I actually like this one even better, since it's orange, which is the color I wanted in the first place. It comes with a freezable insert, so you can keep your drink cold.

- one (1) repurposed-into-a-skirt Lucky Band jeans. It's the waist and butt of the jeans (fly etc.) but no legs, instead a fringe of (also repurposed) neckties. There are even giraffes! (FB pix soon...)

Things I bought once I found the NHK shop:

- はなかっぱ plushie. He's soooooo cute. Pix on FB.

- はなかっぱだいずかん It's like a picture encyclopedia about the show, Hannakappa.

- はなかっぱはなしシリーズ１ It's a picture book with stories from the show. I REALLY LIKE HANAKAPPA YOU GUYS.

- three 花根付 (Hannakappa strap figurines...like keitai straps, basically) I got one "secret" one, which is the main character, Hanakappa, with a weird big smelly flower on his head. Then also the dad, and one of the "villains." These come in a capsule toy machine, and I'm looking for people to trade with to collect them all.

- three はなかっぱカプセルシール They are packs of tiny little stickers you buy in a capsule toy machine.

- どーもくんコレクション１９９８−２００８ DVD It's the 37 Domo-kun spots from NHK through 2008. He is their mascot, and also really cute :)

-教えて！ニュースのことば Actually I'm super excited about this book. It is from the NHK Weekly Kids News people, just published this year, and basically...it's a book to help Japanese kids understand the news. I.e., the perfect glossary to current issues in an easy to understand format and no need to recognize all the kanji immediately, since there is ample furigana (hiragana written next to the kanji to show the pronunciation). I'm gonna learn a TON.

Anyhow, mostly, you can tell I am a big はなかっぱ fan. I wake up in the morning, watch his show, and then go to the pool and pretend I can swim as well as a kappa :P

The best thing about Roppongi is...

Azabujuuban. Ok, it's not Roppongi, but it is next door. When the Hills feel a little too much like a mall, a little too chic, Azabujuuban brings the cute and cozy. I really truly love it, hopefully not only because I'm a girl D: Maybe it's not as "Japanese" as some areas, but I'm fond of Euro-J fusion (esp France and Italy), so I don't really mind.

I was thinking about how to compare it to San Francisco, since it does feel a lot like home to me, and I think that I arrived at three neighborhoods:

Noe Valley - Family friendly, bakeries, toy shops, a videogame/card shop with kids sitting outside playing or trading. Lots people walking or riding bikes, and some strollers, too.

North Beach - Definitely has a Euro-vibe, and the way at least one of the streets kind of a widens to make an island in the middle (they were having some sort of unofficial-looking market there over the weekend) for some reason makes me think Washington Square Park even though it's nowhere near as big or even that similar..... Plus there the cafes everywhere give that vibe.

The Mission (well, Valencia) - It's just so hip :P Cute clothing shops, etc. It's a little more utilitarian, too, with groceries, convenience stores, 100 yen shop, pharmacy, etc, but there are enough restaurants and DUH, the amazing vegan place (more on that later) to make it feel very much like my hood in San Francisco. Actually, there is a Mexican restaurant, too, called Frijoles. I have yet to try it, but I'll be sure to report back or at least tweet when I do. Maybe...Friday? I gotta say, it looks legit (!)

The other funny thing about Azabujuuban is that I see WAY many more white people there than I do in Roppongi. I mean, it's not like there are not foreigners in Roppongi (otherwise it wouldn't be stereotyped as crawling with them) but I think people (like me?!?!) are attracted to Azabujuuban for obvious reasons. I feel like I actually saw MORE white people than Japanese people, I think, tonight, at least. That probably isn't really true, but it's the first time I have felt that way.

So let's see. I ended up exploring Azabujuuban more both on the suggestion of a friend (whose adorable craft blog is here) and because it happens to be on the way to Motoazabu Hills.

This week the spa (ugh I hate that it's called that, let's just call it a "gym") THE GYM is closed for maintenance, I guess. This means no free breakfast and no swimming 5 minutes away from where I live. The breakfast thing is no big deal: I bought some chocolate protein mix, soy milk, and oatmeal and have been really enjoying eating that in the morning. Turns out the swimming 5 minutes from where I live thing is not a big deal either, since I have access to three other gyms through my membership, one of which is at Motoazabu (also the second closest).

It took me two tries to get there over the weekend (because it's hard to find my way around without an iPhone :P), but I ended up finding a really fun route that does, as I mentioned, go through Azabujuuban a little bit. The sp-GYM there is really nice. I like that you can tell it's part of the Hills Spa group, but it has it's own feel to it. For instance, in this one, the locker rooms are set up so that guys and girls take their shoes off together before going into separate changing rooms, whereas at Roppongi, even the shoe lockers are separate. The pool is a little bit bigger than the one at Roppongi Hills, although somehow the locker room is a ton smaller. I'm going to make sure I try out all the gyms I have access to. Maybe I'll eventually work up to being able to participate in the Master Swim class at Ark!

Incidentally, I set up a meeting with a swim coach on Thursday. That's in two days! I have no idea what kind of lesson it will be or whether I will be able to understand his Japanese. Hopefully it will work out. If it does, I will be happy to keep taking lessons there.

Food so far:

Koots - Yep, I realize this is a chain, but I really don't care when their tuna yamakake donburi is so good. Raw fish, runny egg, yamakake (I don't even know how to say this in English, potato slime? haha It is white with the a smooth snotty sort of sticky consistency, similar to...), okra (this is a very common veggie in Japan, as opposed to say, Wisconsin), and bell peppers over white rice. OH and nori. I did taste some wasabi in there, too. Some slightly sweet soy sauce. So so tasty. I was really happy and felt so healthy afterwards that I had to go ruin it with dessert ;)

Naniwaya Cafe - This place I found out about from this 8Tokyo post. I ate the same thing they did, and it was excellent. Like I commented on that blog post, whatever flavor the cake was made the whole thing seem extra special. I don't really eat a ton of roll cake, even though it's very popular here, but I will have to try hard not to stop by here every weekend now :P I do need to make sure try their taiyaki, though, since it's what they are famous for. If I go with a friend we can order those and a shaved ice and share hot vs. cold :)

Eat More Greens - This is where I went tonight for dinner. Had the tomato and raw yuba caprese salad with spicy miso. It was probably my favorite thing I've eaten since I've got here. Just last night I was daydreaming how great it would be if someone did a caprese with tofu instead of mozzarella—and then they stepped it up with yuba! I was very sincerely impressed. So impressed that I gave the vegan apple pie a shot even though I mayyyyy have had a cream bread (uhm, sorry, what else do you call that? It's not really a donut. Ok it was custard not really cream. I don't know) this morning... I'm hooked. I'm hooked I'm hooked. Can't wait to go back and try their pumpkin pie (it appears to be made with kabocha, i.e. Japanese pumpkin, so I'm guessing it will be a fair ways removed from Thanksgiving!!) and the delicious looking salads and pastas. Eek eek eek. And they do brunch on the weekends ;) AND they have the cutest rainy day promotion... I'm in heart

Anyways, there will be lots more hanging out in Azabujuuban, for sure. Aside from that let's see what is coming up soon:

CURRY BATTLE - My Japanese friends are coming over to have a cook-off. It's going to be GREAT! And we're going to go see a fountain show in Roppongi's "Midtown" (sorry, I kind of lol at the name, since it was just some area that they developed recently and decided to call that) district.

FIREWORKS - I'm not sure how this will work. Maybe we can see both? I wonder if I will be able to see them from my house. My Japanese tutor said I should really try to see them because "Japanese fireworks are maybe different from American fireworks" ;)

OBON - It's a Japanese holiday! I missed the dance practice, but I'm probably ok just watching ;)

MOUNTAIN CLIMBING - Ok, just hiking, but I'm excited. I'm gonna walk up a mountain 8/28!

TOKYO DISNEYLAND - I gotta see Captain Eo! It's probably dubbed right; Michael Jackson, Japanese? I must experience this. We're gonna do a whole weekend in early Sept. Can't wait to see what kind of fusion we'll find :)

MYSTERY GUEST - A friend is actually coming to visit (!) at the end of September. Hopefully I will be blog again before then, haha, but this is just looking ahead.

And that is just the BIG stuff. I'm sure there will be all kinds of small wonderful things in between. I know some peeps from work are on their way over here soon, as well, so many many fun times coming up. And always lots of studying :)

#happy #lucky #EXCITED

The skills I lack

I'm still trying to decide if it's really that important that I learn to cook. I found a couple good books at the store today, either of which would be fine. It's just that if I do it I'm not gonna half-ass it; I'm gonna try really hard and buy all the correct equipment and not, you know, crush garlic with a fork (not that I will probably be crushing much garlic for Japanese food?) Anyhow, I spent like almost an hour looking at cookbooks at Tsutaya after running around with friends today in Shimokitazawa, which is an area I will definitely return to.

Roppongi Hills is really fancy, but it lacks personality as far as a neighborhood. There is a ton in it, but it's sort of a maze, and it feels incredibly superficial. Shimokitazawa, on the other hand, has a ton ton ton of stuff crammed all over, some cute, some grungy, some chains, some adorable indie spots. It's also a maze, but at least it's more of a "city" feeling than "mall." We had houjicha shaved ice, which is not a flavor you can find everywhere. The store we went to was tucked away upstairs around a corner (like most things, it seems) but there was a line outside.

After that we popped into a bookstore overgrown with stuffed animals, shower curtains, backpacks, snackfood, etc. I forget the name of this chain, but uhm...yeah it's like being a book store just wasn't good enough. I realize that Borders and other places stock things that are not books, but you can still TELL it's a book store readily. This, though, was just a cacophony of goods sprouting from every shelf like a new strain of consumer-ready weed.

I bought a couple used jazz CDs at Disk Union. I kind of want to go back there, too. Somehow I'm not used to shopping for used CDs, but I buy used games often enough. I should check out Amoeba more often (or you know, when I'm in San Francisco).

Later on we got drinks at an adorable cafe which is most definitely a secret, but the kind that people know about so there, again, was a line. Ended up ordering "orange spice" Sangria. I'm not really a Sangria expert, but this was more like a very small cup of juice (the wine was super diluted) with ice. The flavor that was there was good, but it missed the depth of the red wine base, somehow.

Dinner was "soup curry" at a place called cocoro. All three of us ordered the 14 vegetable combo with brown rice, but at various spicinesses. I got 6, which did end up being rather spicy. Soup spiciness is harder to do that other types of food because since it's liquid it hits your throat faster. Somehow if you "taste" food "more" before you swallow, it's easier? Maybe your spit dampens the heat. Anyways, the veggies were great, but we all ate too much.......

Incidentally, since I'm just sitting here in my room listening to Chet Baker wondering whether I need to cook, I might as well discuss (briefly, emo-ly) my TWENTY-FIFTH BIRTHDAY ANGST.

It doesn't really have anything to do with my birthday. It's just a convenient excuse to have it out.

Things flitting across my mind:

25 = one quarter of a century.

[excised because it's the perfect emo birthday tweet]

Not cute anymore. Not sure when that happened exactly, but I don't feel cute. I feel...like a disheveled adult.

I haven't cooked a meal in...ages. Absolutely ages. Does that matter?

I'm really bad at laundry.

I'm single.

Haven't really gained expertise.

I was far more disciplined during college than I am now. What happened? It's not like I'm genuinely more relaxed.

Etc.

This has been Birthday Angst With Tiger, only remember that the Birthday part is a clever ruse to make you think I am not always this emo when really I am.

#sigh

Random Things I Have Enjoyed of Late

the "short" Starbucks size

Yamanote line platform jingles

salad for breakfast (although I think I mentioned this already)

bossa nova in almost every cafe

Anyhow, as usual, there is so much I want to do that I end up aimless. Gonna just lie here and listen to more music. It's late, anyhow.

Pix or it didn't...

Well, I can't figure out how to get pix off my iPhone, and I figured blogging without them was a mite pointless, but now that I've been here for about a month, I figure I should relate what I have been up to.

Kamakura:

Went to Kamakura and Yokohama with one of the owner's of my favorite [Mission, San Francisco] local izakaya, Nombe. Ate shirasu both fresh and boiled, which was a new thing for me. Also tried a chocolate croquette. Who knew those even existed? Got to sample some really tasty pickles as we meandered around a shopping district. Saw the daibutsu and walked over to the bridge to Enoshima. Dinner in Yokohama included, I recall, some really tasty wontons.

Takoyaki Party:

Got together with some peeps from work and made takoyaki. Yup, grilled'em right at our table; you have to pour the batter into little cups, add ingredients, and then kind of spin them around as they cook to make them into ball shape. Here is a pic I took of the finished product, complete with mayo and tonkatsu sauce smiley face.

HBJB Concert:

A friend I met on Twitter took me out on a Friday night so see her friend's band. They play some pretty funky music, just cosplaying as Native Americans for some reason. The opening group was this a capella trio, DSC. By the end, they invited a lot of guests (including DSC again) up on stage, so the last couple songs were pretty epic. Overall, it was really a lot of fun, despite the bizarreness, and I'm glad I have the chance to hang out with Japanese people while I'm here! When I lived in France, I had next to no French friends. Still looking for more ways to meet people, but Twitter and other websites have been an ok start.

Asakusa:

One of my co-workers and his wife took me to Asakusa, where there is lots of shopping and a famous shrine. Actually, I went to the shop mentioned in this blog post. We also had excellent sushi for lunch. I've discovered that I do actually like ikura. Maybe my taste buds have changed yet again..

Mt. Fuji (you know what Fuji-san looks like):

I hopped in the car with a (different) co-worker and his family (wife and two young girls). We had a ton of fun, but really spent most of the time in the car aside from lunch and a brief outing at the 5th step up Fuji. The youngest was only five, so we didn't hike. Ate a variety of strawberry desserts with lunch. Escaped a traffic jam to hit the dreaded McDonald's for dinner (I had some kind of lemon and salt chicken sandwich with wayyyyyy too much vinaigrette on it, but it was not something I had ever tried before. Also, you can get a salad instead of fries, and the dressing--used sparingly--was delicious). We played probably HOURS of the Japanese word game, shiritori. I'm surprised there was not more janken. Anyhow, the kids were adorable. The oldest sewed me a super cute tiger doll! I wish I could post a picture :P

WOWOW Music Unlimited:

I got tickets to go see the Okamoto's, a rock band I found out about when they came to San Francisco as part of the Japan Nite Tour, with Chatmonchy. There were four other bands, and I enjoyed Lego Big Morl and Avengers in Sci-Fi enough to buy CDs. Shibuya AX is a pretty great venue. I hope to return sometime, maybe get tix earlier so I can be on the floor where it's crazy. The balcony was rather chill.

Japanese lessons:

Started private lessons at Berlitz. I'm learning all stuff for work. It is pretty challenging, but I'm trying to put in study time each evening!

Random food:

Been eating lots of curry, of course, of many varieties, though, not just Japanese. I also LOVE omuraisu; there is a place right by the Roppongi metro stop that does take out. Have taken a shine to Lauderdale, after having a leisurely and relaxing basil omelet experience last weekend. Tried Toraya Café today for lunch. Did Junkadelic's chicken burrito, which was tasty, if a bit soupy and nowhere near spicy enough even with the salsa. The best so far, though, was probably eating hiroshima-style (layered, not mixed) okonomiyaki straight off the griddle with fresh tomato, spicy pickled cucumbers, and sesame tofu and cabbage salad on the side.

Apartment:

It's still ridiculously fancy. All my friends think I am rich and/or a CEO. (I'm not the CEO, guys!) I love going to the pool in the morning during the week, and almost love it even more on the weekends. There is almost never anyone there. The most crowded I have seen it was four people, which, four people is fine since there are two big lanes. More than that and we'd be circle-swimming, which is less than ideal (but when you start complaining about that, you really know you've gone off the deep end...not that the water is very deep; in fact it's rather a bit shallow, BUT once again...one really cannot complain about such things).

Anyways, I think that's all I got for now. I want to try to see the new Ghibli movie, maybe, and possibly hit up a jazz bar tonight. First San Francisco is already this Tuesday! Time flew, naturally.

A little less lag, please! A little less lag!

Ugh I accidentally fell asleep even earlier than the last time. So it's still sort of rough. Yesterday was good. In the morning I checked out the pool. It's two big lanes, but there were barely any people so I don't feel like I will ever have much trouble. The locker room is ultra clean and they make you take off your shoes before you even go in (there are two sets of lockers, one for your shoes, and then inside, one for your clothes). I really want to find a swim cap and new goggles, but I'm not sure where I will be able to find them...

Before work I went to Arc Acadmey to up a pre-test so I can get some lessons at an appropriate level. It was sort of an unplanned visit, but they were really friendly even though the teacher didn't have time to talk to me. Complementary iced tea!

Then...hmm, got together with a Twitter friend and planned an epic shopping trip followed by dinner with her boss and a study abroad student from Singapore, so I'm really looking forward to that this afternoon. Other than that, just work. I did have lunch with Yukari and Reina—ultra Japanese style with grilled fish, salad, miso, and rice. On my way home I grabbed a slice of very bacony quiche at the Keiyakizaka Bakery, where they have "Moose" on the dessert menu, heh.

So yeah I mean to stay up, but I put on the TV and conked out almost immediately. So bad. I've been waking up pretty reliably at 4:20 am, but I managed to lie around until about 5:30. I figured I maybe the Starbucks on the corner would be open, but they aren't until 7!!!!! That's crazy. Shout-outs to Mission and 4th, man. They wake up early and we love them for it. Anyhow, luckily (?) there was this 24hr/365day Chinese cafe nearby. I had kimchi veggies and xiao long bao. They were not as tasty as the ones I ate in San Francisco, but I can't say I was expecting a ton from this place. No matter. It was ok.

Interesting people watching, too. It was pretty hopping for 6 am. Lots of (also jet-lagged? or maybe just party-people) foreigners, some of them discussing how their friends wrecked their attempts at picking up girls. One British guy was talking about how nonchalant the "Chinese style" of ordering food is, and how he tried to emulate it for this meal. It seems like he ordered a ton of stuff. The food started coming and hadn't stopped even when I left (and it took a while to order because I didn't realize I had to go back up to the counter).

Going to try to pop into the Twitter company meeting shortly, and then probably study for a while. I haven't been so I feel all rusty and horrible. And you can tell! My Japanese is awful :X

Disjointed first JP-side post

Oh noooo, I failed in my mission to be jet lag free. I'm not sure if that's even entirely possible, but I definitely went to bed way too early last night. It was either that or caffeinated. Energy had plummeted straight to zero.

Let's see, though. As for the flight, pretty standard, low-drama. I sat next to a family of four, but the kids were more or less behaved. Didn't watch any movies, but played a lot of video games. Slept extremely minimally. It was annoying that they had the lights off for most of the flight even though it was light out outside. It was daytime in Japan! They were setting us up for jet lag fail from the beginning ;p

The bus ride from Narita is really the most dangerous, though. It is soooo easy to conk out on that ride. I stayed mostly awake and got off at the Grand Hyatt (where I'm not staying) to meet my supervisor, a couple co-workers, and the guy who helped set up my apartment. From there we walked a short way to Roppongi HIlls Residence D where I AM staying.

It's really too fancy. Although the kitchen is small, I'll be able to cook most things that I would want to, and it comes with dishes and stuff. The TV has cable. The balcony has a view of Tokyo Tower (and a Blue Man Group billboard, heh). Breakfast is include and served at the spa (which has a pool and gym, so I won't have to worry about finding a club to join).

The area is basically like an outdoor mall with lots of shops and restaurants and things. There are four residence buildings. Maybe I'll meet some people at the cocktail party they're having in a couple weeks?

The first night we went to one of the restaurants owned by Akira Kurosawa's family for oden and udon. I was pretty tired, but managed to stay up after that till after 11. Contrast this with yesterday when I conked out before 9:30. Ugh! So this morning I am up so early…

Yesterday was my first full day. In the morning I had salad, juice, bread, yogurt (apple kiwi!) and coffee for breakfast, explored the neighborhood a bit (there's so much stuff everywhere!) then met Yukari to head to the Digital Garage offices. It's a really quick trip on the Hibiya line, just two stops to Ebisu.

I met too many people to remember all their names, but hopefully I'll get the nearby ones down soon. There are a handful of people I know from the phone whose faces I just need to get to stick. Everyone was really friendly. I got to meet the CEO, too! His office has some fish in it :)

Steven took us to this awesome korean restaurant for lunch. Had kimchee, tofu, raw egg, and rice. I love when rice is served in a hot dish so the grains on the bottom crisp up.

Work was mostly uneventful, but I'm a little behind and there are some issues lingering from before I left that I need to take care of. Looking forward to being caught up! Hopefully I'll be less tired today, even though I didn't sleep perfectly and woke up really early…

Last night I went for some food in my neighborhood at a place called Arata. I have no idea if it's supposed to be good or not, but I liked it well enough. Had cabbage salad, tsukune (which is like a meatball), and mushrooms wrapped in pork. The staff there had some of the most energetic "irasshai" I've ever heard. There are plenty of places where you'll get greeted by the whole place as you enter (or leave), but they really nail it here, to the point where it can be startling when a customer walks in, haha.

Ha, I'm distracted from writing this because I found a channel on TV with nothing but Japanese movies. Really I'm just waiting for the pool to open. I have about another half hour.

The rest of today will be checking out Japanese schools and hopefully getting some work done. It's gonna be kind of hard to figure out where I'm going. But I guess if I get lost I will have to learn fast ;) I think there are enough places in Shibuya that once I get there I should be ok. And supposedly I can walk back to Daikanyama (where the office is) from there. Anyways, I'm not sure. It'll be an adventure I guess.

Mostly I'm just really happy to be in Tokyo. And I hope I can learn a lot of Japanese while I'm here in addition to getting a lot done for Twitter. I'm hanging out with a Japanese friend on Saturday, so hopefully that will be good practice? I know she speaks English, though, so I'll have to be diligent.

This blog is gonna be really tedious without pictures. I might try taking some with my iPhone and seeing if I can get them on this computer without accidentally deleting all my iTunes ;)

Last Night in the Mission

Bid an extremely fond farewell to Heirloom Cafe over espresso and cookies with Nila. Caused no small amount of chaos (my pet exaggeration of the evening—they handled us like heroes, really) at Nombe with the biggest Twitter posse to date. Rocked Beretta with the Foursquare mayor and special guests. These are exactly the places I wanted to be on my last night in San Francisco before this trip, and exactly the places I will miss the most in the Mission.

It also just felt really good to have the support of so many friends as I'm taking off. Nombe was full to bursting in the front window with peeps (mostly tweeps) there to say hey. Lots of them had plenty of reasons to be too busy—including one co-worker who had two of them sitting in her lap :)—but they came anyways, which I appreciated so much.

Sappy sappy sappy, but when I have love I gotta show it <3

Before I leave:
-packing
-breakfast
-coffee
-Walgreens
-bank

There are some things I meant to do and then somehow did not do them. That sort of figures. Thankfully, none of them seem terribly major. The one that seems more major, may in fact be minor, where the one I thought was maybe more minor could be major if other things are also true. You know. Life.

It's not yet five am.

TOKYO: so soon

It is once again that time of time when I cross a large body of water which this blog affectionately if diminuitively refers to as a "puddle." The body in question is Pacific in nature, which could indicate a trip to Japan (if you know me) and if you DO know me, you may already know that it's true, and I'll be living in Tokyo for the next six months (minus a San Francisco check-in and a birthday stint in Vegas, of all places; Justin Bieber, the things we do for you).

No further news at this time :O Although I must say I am violently tempted to move this shebang to Tumblr, if for no other reason that to extricate it from The Past.

Finally!

Pix are up on Facebook :D

Crazy Parfait (and the rest of the trip)

We did meet Dan! In the morning! I'm back already, but here is the rest of what happened.

Dan! He came to have lunch/parfait with Kayo and me. Kayo and I split an herb chicken pita sandwich while we waited for him to arrive, but it barely had any chicken. Also, too much mayo...

Some people think that mayo in sushi is an abomination, but you know, they do it there, too. They really like their mayo.

Anyways, the best part was the amazing parfait. Exactly like an anime parfait or something. Insane. Huge. Monstrous, even. We ordered one that had either sweet potato or pumpkin ice cream, I forget. Whichever one of those flavors wasn't the ice cream, though, was this really thick cream almost like frosting, decorating. There was also more traditional whipped cream, banana, cookies, other fruit, chocolate corn flakes. Insanity! There will be a picture.........

heh

Kayo saw me off to the airport, which was nice. The flight was pretty uneventful. We had some turbulence, which I enjoyed. I like turbulence. Makes things more interesting. I watched The Spiderwick Chronicles, which was sort of cute as a distraction. Food was good. They had these insanely fine scrambled eggs. More like a paste than...an egg. Fluffy.

I dunno! The BART ride back was a cinch and I managed to stay up all day. Lonnnnnng day. So that's that. I'll post again when the pix are up :D

Ack, too much happened!

I've been so busy that there hasn't been time to update!

Well, first of all, the trip with Watanabe-san went very well. We all piled in his car and went to a tiny seaside place. (Later you'll see sunset pix on a beach where the opposite coast is North Korea.) At Matsukura, a famous sushi restaurant, we all had chirashizushi, which is a mix of raw fish and sometimes egg or fish eggs or whatever is around, over rice. Ours had raw tuna, shrimp, lots of fish eggs, what else....other stuff, squid, scallop? Some other fish. Lots of food. And it came with miso soup on the side---with shrimp heads in it!!! hahaha! Yikes. Made for good flavor, though.

What did we do that night when we got home? I don't remember. Maybe played video games or just went to bed. The next day we went to Asahikawa, which is a city near Utashinai WHICH to clarify IS the smallest CITY in Japan. There are smaller classifications of city-type areas, though, like villages, or something. SOOOOOooooOOOoooo it's not quite as small as you might imagine, but still quite small. ANyhow, Asahikawa was nice. We picked up a couple other JETs on the way. The plan was arcade, karaoke, and a movie, but one of the other girls had to leave early so we sort of condensed everything by splitting up.

Round 1 is a huge entertainment center that had nearly everything. Bowling, karaoke, darts, arcade, etc. I sang karaoke with the two girls I had never met, which was fun, but sort of annoying because they made us buy food. It was like...part of the cover charge or something. I was sort of sick of sweets by then, since we had some dango (sweet sticky mochi with sweet sticky sauce) in the car so I ordered something cheap that didn't look like ice cream or soda. Turned out to be nachos, only crazy Japanese nachos made out of regular potato chips instead of tortilla chips, and with aonori seaweed powder on top. DELICIOUS and totally deadly hahaha

Sang some songs, mosty in Japanese. The girl Ari and Caroline turned out to be really really good at singing. Esp the J-stuff. They really had it all down, so that made it extra fun. After that we hooked up with Three and Melissa for some videogames. Tried out a Gundam simulation (even got my very own pilot ID ;D) and then hit up the purikura for tiny insane pix of the five of us. I dunno if we have such crazy photo booths in the states, except when imported heh. One of the pix looks like a horribly 80s boyband poster, while another has us all popping out of a giant mouth. In one, we are being hugged by a huge koala. Really crazy stuff.

From Round 1 we went to an Asian restaurant where I had some fusion pasta with anchovies, ham, asparagus, and cabbage. Really really good, except they dust it with some kind of salt and I didn't realize I had to toss it, so the first bite or two was pretty awful, heh. Caroline had to go home, but Ari stuck around and ordered chili cheese fondue (chili the spice, but not spicy...it was pretty weak, actually, as far as anything with the name chili cheese tends to go), Melissa had cream sauce pasta, and Three got garlic steak that was actually pork. All very good! (And once again, the constant refrain, pictures on facebook when I get back!!! Cuz I suck!!!)

After dinner we made it JUST in time to the new "Indy Jones" movie. Well, actually we were a couple seconds late. But only a couple. So it was ok. I liked it well enough, I suppose. Campy as hell XD So whatever, that's fine. There are a few too many moments where you're thinking, "Oh hrm, this is cute cuz everyone is old hee hee hee" which is a bit uncomfortable, but other than that, the corniness is pretty managable.

It was a late night, then, because there was an arcade in the movie theater, too, with some actually good games. Like Mushi Hime Futari. I got the high score on Twin Bee, which rocked. I have a pic of my scoreboard initials DUK and they are way higher than anyone else. Not like anyone comes to this arcade to put scores up on the Twin Bee, but still cool.

The next day, which was yesterday, we couldn't sleep in at all. In fact, we had to get up early! I went with Three to the local elementary school to teach English. I've wanted to visit a Japanese school pretty much since I started learning Japanese, so it was really ridiculously exciting to be able to interact with kids in the classroom. We taught them numbers and how to tell us their names, letters of the alphabet, just simple things, but it was pretty sweet. They were all very surprised and excited to see me, and they clamored that we run around with them during recess. We totally did, too, except I was wearing the slippers that visitors have to wear inside the school (since visitors don't know/remember to bring extra shoes)

OH SPEAKING OF SHOES

The shoes I have not even had for a year that my mom bought me in August have holes in them. BOTH shoes have holes by the balls of my feet and this is me in the rainy season in Japan lol lol lol Oh well. I have other pairs in the states. Just a silly coincidence that I should happen to have holes now of all times.

Anyways, the kids were adorable. My favorite part of the day was either being beaten up by a crazy babbling chorus of RASENGANs and KAGE NO BUNSHINs (good thing I got into Naruto, or I wouldn't have any idea what they were talking about--turns out a big part of socializing with Japanese school kids is knowing all the cool characters in popular anime etc) or kyuushoku. If you remember last time I went and had fakey kyuushoku at the delicious kyuushoku toban restaurant in Akihabara. THIS time, though, I had the real thing with real 1st graders. There was rice, cabbage soup, veggies with tofu, and salmon. I didn't take any milk which caused a minor scandal among the kids, heh.

It was a tiring day, after not sleeping much, so I was pretty wiped out by the time we went to the board of education offices. The people working there were nice, though. Three was right when he said that it was one of my only chances to practice "real" Japanese. Elementary school chaos might as well almost be another language. (Also, Three's friend Yuuko's daughter uses so much slang that Yuuko told me she can't understand her--i.e. sutaba for sutaabakkusu = Starbucks)

The tiring day wasn't even close to over yet, though, because we went to Yuuko's house for tea. She showed us the temple where she works. It's pretty nice and the entire area around it is being rebuilt, including a new house for Yuuko and her family. I very nervously rang a HUGE bell that you could probably hear all around town.

Tea was great and she bought tons of fancy Japanese desserts like mango pudding, anmitsu, the best dango I've ever eaten in my life (with black sesame sauce....zomg...just too good). I'd like to say if I gained weight on this trip that it was alllllll rice and fish, but that would be a lie. That said, I did eat LOTS of rice and fish.

We went out to sushi yet again (the third time) but this time it was at Three and Melissa's favorite restaurant, which had just that day re-opened after being remodeled. Couldn't have had better timing! It was some of the best sushi I've ever had. The salmon alone was heavenly--and about A DOLLAR. Yes, 130 yen for two delicious strips of pinky perfection with dabs of wasabi to hold it to the rice. Dipped in soy sauce, the finest thing you will ever eat. Ever. Also tried some types of sushi I had never had before, like engawa (still not sure what exactly that was, in English) and kanimiso (crab and miso paste) We requested copies of the grand opening fliers to commemorate the occasion. SO GEEKY.

To top off the final Hokkaido evening, we watched Party 7. Actually, they both fell asleep, and I nearly did, but it is tricky without subs. I would love to see this movie again to see how much I actually managed to catch for realz and how much I just pretended I understood. Definitely worth seeing again in any case, it's crazy time. The opening credits are anime, too! Whoo! There are some people in a hotel and some people spying on the people in a hotel, and a very unprofessional travel agent. You kinda just have to see it...with subtitles o_o I wonder if there is a domestic release.

This morning Yuuko picked me up at 7 am, so that was it, my time in Utashinai come to an end. She and her husband had to go to Sapporo anyhow so they were able to take me to the station. Actually, her husband took the car and left us at a bus stop not far from Sapporo so he could go on ahead. It was nice to hang out with Yuuko a bit before leaving. We talked over scones and Hokkaido butter (which, incidentally, IS different from regular butter, but I'm not sure how-- sweet and delicious, though, that is fact) and then ran down to the depachika (department store basement) so I could pick out a lunch box. Shellfish rice! Veggies! Egg! Yum!

The train ride was hellllllla boring because I finished my magazines and my headphones are even more broken. On the way over I could wiggle the cord and hold it a certain way to get both ears to come in, but now that trick won't work anymore. Plus it started getting staticky. That might be fixable with new batteries, but with just one ear, I mean, some CDs don't record for mono. For instance, the new Mates of State has some of the harmony split so you can't hear it all through one 'phone. I mostly just daydreamed and dozed in and out. Tomorrow I will re-up on magazines before getting on the plane.

It was nice to meet up with Kayo again when I got to Tokyo. She made tasty beef curry, which I had been looking forward to this whole trip. We put spinach on top! Yummmm. She also whipped up this psuedo-fancy strawberry jello/pudding/yogurt type thing for dessert. Pretty nifty. That and I had a kiwi shochuu cooler from the grocery store. Finally got the pix from Halloween, and then we've just been relaxing. Or rather, she sacked out and I've been blogging. Which is cool. Been a lot to talk about. And there are so many little details that I don't really get to mention, but I guess that's good so there is something to discuss in person.

Tomorrow in the morning I am meeting Kayo's friend, Dan, who wants to grill me (I'm marinating to prepare...) on the game writing biz. We're hooking up along with Kayo at a parfait shop that one of Three's friends recommended. AS IF I NEED PARFAIT! Should be a good send off, though. For now, I should probably go to bed, since I need to get up and shower/pack in less than six hours...

Surprise Tennis

Yesterday for lunch we had kaitenzushi (conveyer belt sushi place, although we ordered most of it a la carte.) Can you IMAGINE getting a pair of nigiri for a dollar? They didn't all cost a dollar, most were 3ish, but that is still way cheaper than it tends to go for in San Francisco. The salmon was particularly delicious, but I also sampled hamachi, scallop, tuna, shrimp, and a maki with what seemed like maybe little bits of beef or pork or something in it. Hot water on tap at our table made for easy refills of green tea.

Then we spent a while at Tsutaya, a book, cd, dvd, game (and apparently rental) chain. We spent a while deciding what movies to rent, poked around the magazine aisles, and I got a kanji chart to put up when I get home. I'm really bummed cuz lots of my posters got trashed in the move to my new apt. The chart I got has all the sixth grade kanji on it, so it's good motivation--someday I'll finish elementary school ;D

The best part of yesterday was definitely playing tennis. There is a sports arena place in town with two indoor courts, so we met up with some Japanese people Three and Melissa know. One of them lent me a racket and we played for like an hour and a half. The balls were a little flat and the courts were sort of springy--better for jogging on than tennis, I think, BUT I felt really worked out by the end of it and had a lot of fun playing. Felt much less rusty than I had last time. Can't wait to play more when I get home!!

For dinner we got pizza and stuff to stick on top. Fresh veggies and some ham. Really tasty! Then we blended together bananas, frozen blueberries and raspberries, vanilla and pineapple ice cream, and a little bit of orange juice to make super delicious fruit shakes. Stayed up late watching one of the movies we rented, The Number 23, with Jim Carrey. I had never even heard of it before. Where have I been? ;D Anyhow, a decent thriller, I guess. I like Jim Carrey's (good) serious stuff better than his wacky days.

After that reason prescribed bedtime, but I still hadn't written up my last article from the press conference, so I punked around doing that till about 4 am. Took a bit longer not only because I was pulling quotes from my recording of the interview, but also because I kept nodding off and writing gibberish, as tends to happen when I work when I'm overtired. Requires careful self-editing before sending it off.

As expected the whole lot of us slept in pretty well. Easy time in the morning. Had a cup of "the 2nd best miso in Japan" (I guess it won a contest or something?) with tofu and some leftover fried rice for brunch. The miso was pretty excellent, but I"m not enough of a connoisseur to know exactly why or what made it that way. The only part I didn't like was that it was sort of dreggy on the bottom--not something I am used to. The taste was really too severe to finish it off. Not sure if that was a quality of the way it was cooked or the tofu we added or what.

Other than that just have been playing video games and reading. Later on we are taking a short trip (about an hour?) to some other town to be treated to sushi by one of Three and Melissa's Japanese acquaintances. Apparently he likes to go hiking and fell off a cliff not too long ago? I think that's the guy I'm meeting, Watanabe-san.

Up North...

the sun comes up around 3:30 am! :D Which is a little before we went to bed last night XD The train rides were LONNNNNNG but at least it wasn't like an airplane where your nose gets all dried out and you can't breath. I had bento on the way, and some kaki no tane (spicy little crackers with peanuts--my favorite snacky thing bccause it has protein!! Whoo! Corn potage snacks, you don't own my soul yet!)

The Shinkansen was pretty interesting. Part way through the trip they split the train in half and one half went where I was going (thankfully, the half I was on ;D) and the other went somewhere else! Fast, but not distractingly fast, really. Just smooth and easy.


On the second train, a group of kids on a school trip got on. I was sort of hoping they would sit nearby, but they weren't really. I was soooooo bored.

(Oh, apparently we did take the undersea tunnel, Oleya. It was not very exciting, though. We couldn't like, look out and see fish or anything. My thought it why would you even bother making it undersea if you can't see at least some seaweed or something, but I guss the answer is purely technical or something.)

My PSP wasn't charged, heh, so no Crisis Core ;_;

In fact, neither was my phone, so when I got to Sapporo all I could was wander around looking for a payphone, hoping I would stumble across Three and his gf randomly...

which I did! Sweet!

So we put my junk in a coin locker and went to a curry restaurant where I tried Hayashi rice for the first time. It's really hard to explain that sauce. It's darker than curry sauce, but doesn't taste like curry. It tastes like...well, like this, heh. Red wine and tomato sauce? Sure. Mushrooms, definitely. Super super tastey, but this place's was a little too oily for my liking, almost like they drizzled oil over the top instead of cream.

After that we went walked downtown a bit, went to a big arcade. Managed to thread past the UFO catchers without trying to grab even a single adorable stuffed animal, and then played some Drum Mania.

Then it was getting late. Time to hop on the train. It was a fun ride, trading stories about silly things. Got off the train and into Melissa's car to drive to the smallest town in Japan, Utashinai. Just under 5,000 people. No high school! Whoo. It's pretty chilly. I guess sort of like San Francisco weather, although when I left San Francisco it was beaaaauuuuutiful. I hope we didn't use up all the nice warm days, cuz I will want some more when I come back.


This morning Melissa is using expert egg wrangling skills to provide breakfast. I had one over hard with fluffy Japanese toast, and some banana and yogurt. She's a good cook, and the kind that likes the kitchen to herself, so Three is playing Monster Hunter and I am blogging...

Today, no plans, really. Just gonna check out the area, probably grocery shop and rent a movie for the evening. Chillin' sounds very nice, though. His apt is pretty cool, so I'll definitely grab some pictures of that before I leave :D

Something new

Turns out really anyone I know has been to Hokkaido except Three, at least that I know of. Everyone I mention it to, even the people who live here, say they have never been. Of course, I have never been to Hawaii, Alaska, Washington OR Washington D.C. etc etc so it's not that surprising, but I'm just noting that it seems I'll get to break some new ground ;D

STILL nervous about the trains, but all my seats are reserved, so hopefully things will work out. Had a VERY late night last night, which was somewhat irresponsible. Even more irresponsibly, it involved chips and cookies. Assorted junk food and a dearth of sleep is so bad!! Gotta shape it up a bit ;p

Today I'll be playing Crisis Core in the train. And maybe reading a bit more of my magazines. I dunno. Could be a musical selection. Honestly? We'll see how long I can stay awake. Anyhow, gonna nibble some more sandwich before I head out and then...and then...

(!!!)

I'll head out! ;p