The Small Happenings of a Small Life

This post has no real purpose.

2009-12-20T23:57:32Z

Last night I headed up to Lake Haruna with a couple of people to see the "illuminations", as the Japanese call Christmas Lights. All in all, it was way prettier than I expected. Also, it was actually kind of cold, yay!

Other than that: TWO DAYS 'TILL AUSTRALIA!! FOUR DAYS 'TILL CHRISTMAS!! *runs around in crazed circles*

Earthquake #4

2009-12-18T00:38:02Z

(1,2, 3,4,5, everybody in the car and come on let's drive to the, liquor store on the corner~)

Yeah, so I woke up at 5:13 or so this morning to another earthquake. (Just scroll over Gunma and you can click to see the intensity where I was.) It took me pretty much the entire thing just to work out what was going on- if there is ever a more serious one I will probably die you guys, because I just can't muster up the understanding to get into a doorway. >.> (Also, apparently there was a bigger one later, but it was far enough away that I didn't feel it.) I'm just not used to this idea that the ground could shake- I always spend about thirty seconds just working out what's going on. They've been kind of fun so far, though!

Last night my Eikaiwa class had a sort of half Christmas party/half Bonenkai at a local restaurant. Good times were had by all, I believe. I really like all of the members, so the time flew by. ^^

Also, aaagh, it's getting cold and for some reason my hot water ran out this morning just as I was stepping into the shower. Not pleased. Hopefully it was just that my neighbor used up all the hot water or something, and not an actual problem. >.<

Also, also, yaaay, new icons! ♥ athena_crikey

Oh, and as an update on the adapter thing, athena gave me an idea that totally worked, so my computer is charging again. Excellent news, what?

(Five days to Australia.)

Time for a space update! (Writing this entry cheered me right up, so there.)

2009-12-17T01:31:57Z

It's been... *checks last space post* oh, a whole week since the last one! Yay! (I think I need a space icon.)

So, mostly this is just an update on the way that the guy from Maine won the space-glove challenge again. Pretty cool, huh? NASA could not bring anything that his glove couldn't handle, heck yeah! :p Apparently he started a company to "manufacture gloves for the emerging commercial spaceflight market", ie for the people over at Virgin Galactic. (See how it's all connected? :p)The only money left in this challenge is, I believe, the extra prize for extreme innovation in the outer covering of the glove (that is, the part that protects the inner pressurized layer from micro-meteorites and stuff).

Also, in something that I think I forgot to mention, some of NASA's other challenges are clearly aimed at creating the space elevator. Oooor you could just go here, i.e. to the website for the "Space Elevator Games". Guys. I love NASA.

Also, while checking out the other stuff they do for "innovators", I found this list of projects that were tested this year. Some of them are pretty rockin' (quite a few have to do with moon resources), but some of them are especially cool, including this thing about flux pinning, which so far as I can tell is set for making sci-fi like docking, and also for making space-things that aren't actually connected to each other. I also liked the the thing Johns Hopkins is doing, since it seems immediately useful on Earth. ^^

And look, I could totally work for them someday! I might have to go back to school and do international relations or international space law or something, but WHATEV. *gets starry eyed* Or I could just join the history division. (Yes, I probably would marry NASA, shut up.)

In real-life news, this morning I had a class in which students, who as T-sensei says "aren't normally interested in English", were a little interested due to my presence and the betting game! Awesome! Also, for English class with K2-sensei's first years, I got to help them practice the pronunciation of "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town" by singing it to them line-by-line and having them repeat. Aaaaagh. That was less than awesome. >.>

Oh, something that's excellent about living in Japan is that I never have to buy fruits and/or vegetables. Possibly this is just from working at a school (and also because I a.) live alone and b.) don't eat that many veggies anyway so they last forever), but man, people are always giving me food. Like yesterday, I came back from class to discover three giant apples and a pack of mushrooms on my desk. "Uwah", I said. Turns out that some farmers came to give the students food and then the teachers got the extras. And there were a ton of extras. Probably I could have taken four or five apples if I had wanted, but these things are GIGANTOR, so I didn't.

Also, yesterday I managed to break my second adapter, which means that I am once again without the ability to charge my computer in my house. *woe* Hopefully my sister still has hers in Australia, or there goes skyping at Christmas. >.>

But! It's now 6 days until I depart for Australia!! And tonight there is an Eikawa class X-mas party, and the 22nd is my school's bonenkai (end of year forget the past year party), so the time should fly by even faster than you would expect. XD

EDIT: Icon made!

Spam, spam, spam. spam, spammity-spam, spa-spam, spa-SPAM!

2009-12-10T11:32:31Z

Anyway, this quiz was hard, but it seems relevant to certain of your interests.

Also, I appear to have done well, though I reckon it was mostly by guessing~ (except, obvs, the bits on English and the couple of questions on Japanese. :p)

Your result for The Absolute Language Test...

The Rain In Spain Stays Mainly In The Plane

77% Eloquent, 60% Well-Versed, 23% So-So, 6% Amateur and 8% Ignoramus!

The statement above is a play on words, I know it's supposed to be "plain." So please no more e-mails about how I spelled it wrong.

You are a master of the art of language! You probably speak more than one language and are very well cultured because of it. You also get annoyed with people who don't use proper grammar and constantly correct them. Give yourself a pat on the back! You're ready for the Embassy Ball!

It just keeps getting better!

2009-12-09T06:37:07Z

Guys, did you know that the closest city to Spaceport America (which is clearly what you name the place after you're done calling it the Southwest Regional Spaceport [and by "you" I obviously mean the New Mexico Spaceport Authority]) is called Truth or Consequences?! They named themselves after a radio show, what is this amazingness. They're going to run shuttles out to the Spaceport, in case you have the cash for a $200,000 flight but can't afford to rent a car! Also, the Spaceport is ~~scheduled~~ to be finished in just one year! Also, also, to the delight of some on my friends-list, this concept drawing looks like a sting-ray! Yay! (Unfortunately, this motto appears in their welcome statement- "When it comes to outer space, New Mexico is bringing it down to earth!". So sad.)

Also, Virgin Galactic's first two spaceplanes are the Enterprise and the Voyager (though Voyager hasn't been built yet). Also, also, Shatner is too much of a chicken to go up in the Enterprise, ahahaha. XD Further, if their line of Spaceshiptwos is successful, Virgin Galactic is gonna aim for SpaceshipThree, which will either be orbital or actually use sub-orbital flight for transit.
Also, in a way that's not creepy at all, the Enterprise's carrier aircraft is named Eve after the head of Virgin's mother, with this vaguely exciting nose-art.

Clearly, as Dromemicius said, we're living in the future now, you guys. (Guys, remember when video-calling somebody was the height of future technology?) It is also clear that I have finally discovered how to link stuff in my lj without it looking really ugly~

Drawing is Hard

2009-12-08T01:52:58Z

One thing I'm learning to do in Japan- stretch my ~~extremely~~ meager drawing skills to the limit. ~~(The Cheat is to the limit! Everybody come on fhqwgds.)~~ My teacher wants me to draw a room for prepositions/there is statements. Guys, perspective is hard! And so is drawing stuff and then putting other stuff on top of it- I'm totally gonna have to draw it in pencil first, woe. *is laughed at by all actual artists* But at least this means I have something to do today! :DDDDD

In other news, I think the best part of this is the continuous use of the word "spaceport". Heck, yes, sci-fi got there first and named it for you! Also, world's first spaceport will be in New Mexico?

And in other space news, WISE is supposed to go up on Friday. (It was supposed to be Wednesday, but the forecast was bad I guess.) Yay for telescopes! ^^

Discuss!

2009-12-01T23:57:42Z

So, I went to see Inglourious Basterds with a couple of people last night, sort of vaguely against my will (It wouldn't have been my first choice). It was better than I expected, but I came out wanting to talk it to death (like always- I swear, those WA movie trips back in the day gave me a really, really bad habit), and the people I was with didn't want/were really tired. So. DISCUSS. Have you guys seen it? What were your thoughts?

Regarding This Past Weekend

2009-11-24T02:41:09Z

So, I went up to Minakami this past (long) weekend with the awesome J.L.

It was pretty excellent, overall. Like I mentioned in my last post, we didn't have anywhere set-up to stay on Saturday night, but we went up anyway. Because we are ADVENTURERS, traveling Japan with no guarantees.

Anyway, we met up at Takasaki station Saturday morning and took the Joetsu Line up to Minakami. Only 950￥！ I am still amazed at how cheap that is. It was lovely weather all the way up... until we rode into the cloud that was covering Minakami and entered the rain. YAY RAIN. We got off the train and got our first coffee (of many- rule 1 for traveling with J.L.: be prepared for lots of coffees). We got curry rice, too, which was delicious. After that, we headed out into the rain to look for a hotel. (As I said at the time, I love that I traveled half-way around the world, just to end up right back in Vancouver winter weather.)

After walking past a steam train (which we sort of thought was decoration- discovered later that it is actually the steam train I've been seeing advertised on all of the other JR trains since forever), over a bridge and through the woods we finally reached Grandmother's house. And obviously by "through the woods" I mean "a ways along the road past several buildings, including one that appeared to be a combination Ramen shop and laundromat", and by "Grandmother's house" I mean "really quite large and fancy onsen hotel, which the two of us walked right into, ahahahah". Between J.L.'s phrase book and my Japanese, we managed to ascertain that they had a couple of rooms open, how much it was (sort of expensive, but whatev!) and to book a "junior suite". We also said we would be at dinner for seven. But the room apparently wouldn't be ready until 3 (their normal check-in time), which left us with a couple of hours to kill. So it was right back out into the rain again for some exploring. We ended up having coffee number 2 at a restaurant called the Almond Poodle. (How do you not eat at a place called Almond Poodle?) We went into an omiyage shop in search of umbrellas (ahahaha, Vancouver, why have you cursed me so?), and ended up buying quite a bit of stuff from the lovely old man who ran it (but, alas! No umbrellas). He kept giving us free stuff. :D After that, we headed back to the hotel.

Later, we would realize just how lucky we were to get that room. (By "later" I mean, "after having watched the dozen or so buses full of people pull in for their weekend at the onsen". Traveling on long weekends is my best plan~.) Having checked-in, a very nice guy from the hotel showed us the way to our room, offered to carry our bags and tried to explain how to get to the outdoor bath, the indoor bath, and the dining hall. The room was pretty swank, you guys- there were two beds in a tatami room section, a couch and stuff in a different section, a toilet and a bath/shower (though why you would need one at an onsen hotel...). The toilet was so tiny though! When I sat on it, my knees would touch the wall in front. ^^;

Once we were settled, we called our friend B (who is stationed in Minakami) to see if she was around and could hang out. She said sure, but didn't want us to walk back to the station in the rain, so she would come get us. This is where we discovered that the very nice Minakami tourism website is completely misleading. It only connects to the websites of five hotels. THERE ARE MANY MORE THAN FIVE HOTELS (of all sorts) IN MINAKAMI, Y'ALL. Also, it doesn't help people find you if you just walked into a hotel and thus don't know it's name for giving or asking directions. >.> The moral of the story is that B found us eventually, and we were run down to her house for some tea and a chat before our scheduled dinner time. It was really quite nice. ^^

But of course we ran over time, and thus had to rush back to the hotel. I felt really badly when we got there and discovered that what I thought was an arrangement so that they would know roughly how many people would be in the dining room at any one time was actually a reservation for a swank dinner in their non-Viking restaurant. Uhh... sorry for being late, lovely hotel people? (We were literally the only Gaijin in that hotel, btw. They directed us to the restaurant because we looked foreign and confused.)It was an amazing dinner though! The real deal.

After dinner we watched the Taiko performance for a bit (this being a big weekend, the hotel had obviously arranged for entertainment), and then tried to buy B into the onsen. It's totally normal for non-guests of the various hotels and onsens to pay a much smaller fee (~$10 at this place, but normally more like $4-5) just to use the baths. But when B tried, the guy told her no, so we ended up going back up to our room with the impression that the baths were closed for the night. Upon checking our stuff and calling the desk, we worked out that they weren't so in some confusion, J.L. and I headed down to the baths in our yukata. Did you know you don't wear underwear under a yukata? Neither did I. ^^;

The onsen was much less awkward than I might have expected. Granted, the first wash was a bit embarrasing, but once I settled into the water it was much less so. Mostly because in Japan it's totally normal to have a public bath like that. I think doing the same thing in the US would have been so awkward. Also, happy surprise, B turned up! Apparently as she was leaving, one of the staff told her she could join us. Lucky!

We stayed in the bath probably too long, and then got out all flushed. Seriously you guys, onsen are really hot. Like, it took me until morning to cool down, hot. Crazy! Then J.L. and I went back up to our swank room, with actually mattresses on the tatami, and pretty much went right to sleep. (Hot springs are also really soporific, yo.)

So, the plan was to call B in the morning and try to meet up before she went to the get-together she had been invited to. Since it wasn't raining (just really cloudy), we agreed to take the train the two stops down to her station so she didn't have to drive all the way over to us, and then catch a ride to hang out with her for a few hours at Takumi no Sato (a little crafty town thing- more on that later). But I wanted to stop by a 7/11 or something to take out some money, so first J.L. and I headed away from the station. Upon discovering that walking to the 7/11 would probably take too long, we turned around, walked up to a shrine we had seen, and then hustled to the station. We managed, obviously, to miss the train by one minute. Yay~! Given that the next train wasn't for about an hour, we said we would take the bus to the town and stuff, releasing B from all responsiblity for our care. Then we had a coffee. XD

After asking the bus drivers, we got on the bus they told us. It eventually turned out that that bus went to the Shinkansen station, from whence we had to get a different bus to Takumi no Sato. Which we did, thinking it was just a couple of stops. Turns out, not so much. At this point, we were considering calling B and calling her out on whether this place was really worth it. >.> But then we got there and it pretty much was~. It was basically one of those little touristy places that's full of craft stores and places where people can do their own pottery, etc. But we were definitely there in the off-season, so it wasn't crowded at all. ^^ We had ramen for lunch, and then I commenced Christmas shopping. XD All in all, pretty excellent.

But then we had to get back to Minakami. On the bus. Ahahahaha, me and buses, you guys. LIKE ALWAYS. So the bus stop listed two buses coming, one of which was the same as the one the bus driver had written as the bus to get to Takumi no Sato, and a different one. The different one came first. Eeeeverybody else who was waiting got on that one, but I was like, "Nyoo, that's totally a different bus, J.L.! We should wait for the next one (it will be here in three minutes)." So we waited. And we got on. And we went to the completely other end of the route from where we wanted to be, because I am a smart one who didn't connect with the idea that we would want a bus going to a different place on the way back than on the way there. So we ended up in a town which didn't have any coffee places, only onsen, waiting about an hour for the bus to start it's return trip to the Shinkansen station. It's a terrible thing to be stuck without a coffee in a place with no public toilets, yo. Also, the bed & breakfast we were staying at that night called and was like, "So, you haven't checked in yet, what about your dinner~?" At which point we were like, ";_;" (Also, like "Make it for seven?") It was exciting times! Eventually, the bus did come, and then we managed to make all of our connections right on time (like, just a few minutes to spare between each- incidentally, six minutes is more than enough time to run to the bathroom, yo).

The third bus driver double-checked that we wanted Yunokoya Onsen, and not Tanagigawa Onsen when we got on. And then we found out why! Because it was about an hour on the bus, in the dark, to the complete end of this line that goes pretty much into East Gish, yay! Tanagigawa Onsen (not sure of the spelling though) is quite a bit closer and much more famous than the Tamura Minshuku that we were staying at. ^^; It was a pretty spooky busride, being the only people (after the one other guy got out at Tanagigawa) on the busride to nowhere. In the dark. On really windy, skinny mountain roads with lots of tunnels and signs about ROCKalanches. For an hour. Wheee!

Luckily, when we got there, the lady of the house was waiting for us and took us the one minute in the car from the bus stop to the Minshuku (i.e. bed & breakfast).We managed to get there at about six-thirty (totally just typed "sex-thirty" cuz I got distracted- ahahaha, I meant the Latin, I swear), which wasn't too shabby, considering. And she got dinner ready for us a bit earlier than seven, so we ate. It was a pretty ridiculous, real-deal Japanese dinner, only a bit simpler than the night before. Crazy times! Then we hung out watching tv and chatting until 9:40. At which point it was our turn in the outdoor onsen! This onsen was also the real deal. It was outside in it's only little sort-of building, which was open to the sky in some parts and had no heat whatsoever beyond the fire in the stripping area and the water itself. You have to wash before you get in an onsen, so we took turns. Obviously I got to second, so I stood around shivering by the fire (looove the fire, guys), and then shuddered my way through washing. Here's the thing, though- onsens are so warm that within a few minutes I was pretty much ready to go roll in the snow. I did get out and just stand for a while- I'm not lying when I say that it took me until at least the next morning to cool off, if not until last night. I totally understand why the public bath is so important here- for people who don't have central heating or good (~~any~~) insulation, something like an onsen which can warm you up for hours and hours would be amazing. XD

After the onsen we set out our futons and then went to sleep in order to be up for the 8 am breakfast. ^^

The bathrooms at Tamura are shared, so I woke J.L. up when I got up at about six. (They also single-handedly convinced me that electrically-heated toilet seats are an amazing idea, yo. Fyi, paper windows are also extremely heat-effecient. I know! I was just as amazed.) I obviously went back to sleep after that, but she is apparently a really early riser. Whoops. ^^; Regardless, we were up in plenty of time for breakfast, which was another ginormous meal. Seriously, where does it all go? I only ate my egg, the miso soup, some rice, the persimmon slices and a couple of bites of the fish and daikon&mushrooms. There was so much more available than that, you guys. ^^;; After breakfast, we talked to the innkeep and she said that her husband was headed into Minakami at 10 am, which was perfect for us. She seemed a bit worried that we didn't use the onsen enough- apparently all the other guests used it at least two or three times. I think we would have done it more if we hadn't gotten there so late.

Seeing the drive in the daylight was pretty amazing! There were mountains and rivers and turns tight enough that I kept knocking my head against the window. Seriously, though, it was really pretty. ^^

When we got back to the station, we checked when the train left and discovered we had about an hour. So of course we got a coffee. (Hot chocolate in my case. RETCON: everytime we "had a coffee" before this, I had juice or water or iced milk [wth, Japan?].) Then we wandered over to the bridge, took some pictures in the lovely sun and ridiculous wind, wandered back and bought some omiyage, and then got on the train.

Once we reached Takasaki, we had lunch and then went our seperate ways. I just about died biking back from the train station, you guys. It was really hot and I was tired from all the onsen and walking in Minakami! Next time, I will plan to take the bus. *is lazy* BE END.

Woah, long entry is long; sorry y'all.

J.L. and I are planning to go back in the spring, so as to see the cherry blossoms, ride the mysterious steam train, and use the onsen again at a time when we won't actually freeze before we get in. :DDDD

In other news, I still get really nervous/embarrassed about giving omiyage. Blushing all over the place, wtf self. ^^;

Pretty much useless

2009-11-20T00:51:38Z

Mahahaha, more memes.

This is the part where we find out I am actually an English major. ^^;

Romeo & Juliet- Freshman English. Read the play, saw the Leo version (fairly new at the time) and the 1960's version, I believe. (Holy crap, this was ten years ago, wth.)I didn't really like it much- I was pretty shocked at how much it wasn't a romance at all. ^^;; [Also, I've seen the Wishbone version. :p]

[For that matter, I'll just throw out that I've seen the Wishbone version of The Tempest. Seriously, Wishbone gave me all my classics. What a great show!]

Midsummer Night's Dream- read the play. I think this was also Freshman English. The Furb must not have known any movie versions, though, cuz I don't think we watched any.

Macbeth- Sophomore English. Read the play, saw a sixties version of the movie, possibly saw the play put on by the high school drama club. I thought it was okay? It wasn't my favorite. Read it again in 5th year University and gained a bit more of an appreciation for it, particularly for MacDuff, but we only spent a week on it. So not too much more of an appreciation. ^^;

Hamlet- Struggle, AP English, 5th Year University (Major's Seminar)- This is pretty much my favorite Shakespearian play, possibly because I have seen just about every movie and read it multiple times so it's really familiar. Seriously, I've seen the black & white version, part of the version with no props, the really epic version set in the 1800s, the Mel Gibson version with the Oedipal complex, the modern version with whathisface... (I am really bad with actor's names and stuff, okay? Also, Mr. F. really liked to show movie versions when we read Shakespeare, and I had him for AP English.) Also, watched Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead in Struggle and never looked back. Maaan, I love that movie so much. (arisha, how can you not love it? They'll come alive again next time~ [and be really confused and lost until they die again, but whatevs! :DDD])

12th Night- The first Shakespeare play I read on my own, I think the summer after high school. I read it in preparation for seeing it my friend in Bard on the Beach. So... read it and seen the play. It was the first Shakespearian play I saw live (except for the possible MacBeth school production, but that really didn't count), and I gained a whole new appreciation for Shakespearian comedy (hurhurhur). Also read it at least once, possibly twice, in university. It's my other favorite~

Richard II- Second year university. My older brother was reading through all of Shakespeare, and I thought I would accompany him (ahahaha, how long that didn't last). But I did read Richard II! There were... battles and things. >.>

As You Like It- I think this is the comedy I read during that time. I always get all the comedies mixed up, you guys. Possibly because they do not helpfully have characters' names in the titles. But this one has shepherds, and that's all I remember from that time~.

Now on to the stuff we read during my actual Shakespeare course! We read a play or a poem pretty much every week, which adds up to, like, 8 or 9 plays over the course of the semester. It's all a blur, yo! These are also totally out of order.

Othello- I finally read another famous tragedy! Yay! Can I just say, what the heck, everyone in this play. You're all pretty much crazy.

All's Well that Ends Well- Bertram totally doesn't deserve her. Also, my prof had to make it all about sex. Including gay sex between a man and a woman, and how do you even do that?

The Winter's Tale- You know, after a while these things just seem kind of silly. :D

Measure for Measure- I really liked the Duke, but what the heck is up with pretty much pressuring the almost-nun into marrying him? Also, harsh for Lucio. Harsh.

Antony and Cleopatra- Holy crap, long play is loooong. It was also pretty good, but I haven't read Julius Ceasar, so in some ways I felt I was missing out on the backstory? Like, the prof (and everyone in the play) made the point that the Antony you see in A&C is, like, a fraction of the man he used to be, i.e., the man he was in Julius Ceasar. But I got to bam along being like, "I don't know what you're talking about?". ^^;

Cymbeline- This one was pretty fun. Go historical-AU!Shakespeare! Some of the brothers-really-really-loving-their-sister-who's-disguised-as-a-man-and-that-they've-never-met-before was a bit awkward, but hey! Shakespeare loves the awkward.

Like I said, we also read MacBeth and Twelfth Night, plus sonnets and a play by another author, so it was a ridiculous semester~.

The Comedy of Errors.- Last on the list. R&S took me to Bard on the Beach in Vancouver to see it in August for my birthday. That was the first time I saw a Shakesperean play without reading it first (because they kept it a big secret right up until we got there and I saw the sign, the big lugs). It was AWESOME. So much fun. They did it with older period costume, but also threw in modern music and some extra lines, to make it a bit more accessible. And while that was more modern in a way, it really felt like it was in keeping with the spirit of a Shakespearean-era comedy, so I was totes behind it. Plus, it was hilarious. XD

In sum, I am much more of a pretentious English major than I had ever thought.

Yet another edition of:

I remembered what I forgot the other day, guys! Okay, so I was confused for several months over this one phenomenon, ie, that sometimes the students would come into the teachers' room, and one of the teachers would attack them with an eyebrow pencil. Girls and boys, yo. Well, I finally asked, and it turns out that much like the kids aren't allowed to use dye (or even gel- saw a boy having to wash it out the other day) in their hair, they are also not allowed to pluck their eyebrows! So if they come to school that way, then the teachers will draw more eyebrows on. It's kind of hilarious. XD

So, table manners. They're pretty different in Japan. Like, it is totally okay (and pretty much necessary) to slurp up your food, especially noodles. Also, they are all the time picking up gigantic pieces of food and then ripping it in half with their teeth. Also, you use the same utensils (i.e. chopsticks) for the whole meal, including meat, rice, soup and dessert. Granted, all of these things are based pretty much on eating school lunch, so presumably it's a little different if you're eating with the emperor. But, still, so far as I can tell the moral is that nobody cares how you eat?

You know, they totally give their students practice exams. I mean, this is middle school, and not only do they have midterms and finals (which I only just thought about- pretty sure we didn't in middle school?), but they also pass out standardized practice exams that come with the textbooks. School is serious business, y'all!

I discovered last night at the eikawa club that the Japanese have a saying (superstition?) that if you lose something important to you, it's called "an escape from bad luck". Meaning that instead of being injured or killed or something awful, the bad luck was diverted into the loss of something important to you. My gosh, XXXHolic, you make so much more sense right now. >.>

That's all I can think of right now! Exciting things are going on with the hotels in Minakami for Saturday night, but we definitely have a place on Sunday. So let's all party hearty! XD

Orate to you later!

Non-Title

2009-11-17T04:42:20Z

Man, I have this problem, where I think of things to write to you guys throughout the day and then as soon as I sit down to actually write them out... I can't remember anything. (Hence the fragmentary nature of this post.)

I'm back to having pretty much nothing to do, at least for this week. The good news is that I had at least seven classes each week for the past three, so I'm pretty pleased in general. This week is midterms, so I figure that's why nobody needs me.

A heads-up for anybody thinking about coming to Japan: this weekend I confirmed the existence of a tourists-only railway pass. So if you're coming, make sure to look up the JR Railpass and buy it BEFORE you get to Japan. Cuz you can't get it after. >.> I'm not sure how much it is, but I'm pretty sure any price would pretty much be worth it, since it includes the bullet train as well as the local JR Railways, and the shinkansen is normally waaay more expensive than the local. So getting it means you can go much farther much faster for the same price. FYI. ^^; (Granted, not every railway in Japan is JR, but all the ones around Tokyo are, and I think all of the bullet trains are. So, definitely worth it.)

This weekend I stopped by the Tamamura Harvest Festival on Sunday. Without a doubt, it was the biggest event I've seen in Tamamura so far. Like many festivals, it was mostly about the food, with an added emphasis from the harvest. ^^ But I saw some Taiko drumming at last! (Apparently, I just missed the G-5, ie, Gunma's own team of power rangers. I KNOW. *woe*) Also, I bought a plant. His name is Jake. Pictures later, I guess.

Speaking of, W'eerd, someday I will put up all of the pictures of bugs and things I've been taking for you. ^^;

Yesterday in the morning was our staff photo, which I totally forgot about. Luckily I was already dressed okay, just because, but I didn't bring my nice jacket. So I went outside to take the picture in just my shirt, prompting every single teacher to ask me whether or not I was cold. Or to say 「寒そう～」. You guys, this is pretty much the story of my life here, it's sort of ridiculous.

Last week I got my re-entry permit (went with multiple, obvs, since it's only twice as much as a single and lasts for as long as my visa?), so now I am all set to go to Australia! Basically if you are living in Japan on a visa, you need a separate permit in order to leave and return, which seems to me mostly like a chance to gain a couple extra thousand yen for the government. Do we have anything like that, all of the aliens on my friends-list? *listens to crickets chirp*

In NASA-related news, Atlantis successfully lifted off yesterday. ^^ Next big event is the WISE launch on December 7th. And then a long burst of nothingness through January.

Also, this weekend I'm heading up to Minakami (northern Gunma) with a friend in order to hand out at the hot springs, baby! I'm pretty pumped- it's a long weekend, and what better way to relax than by spending all day in a hot tub? XD

GUYS.

2009-11-14T03:37:47Z

PROBABLY GOOGLE ALREADY TOLD YOU, BUT:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LCROSS/main/prelim_water_results.html

In summary, there's a ton of water on the moon, yo!

"We are ecstatic," said Anthony Colaprete, LCROSS project scientist and principal investigator at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. "Multiple lines of evidence show water was present in both the high angle vapor plume and the ejecta curtain created by the LCROSS Centaur impact. The concentration and distribution of water and other substances requires further analysis, but it is safe to say Cabeus holds water."

Tidbits

2009-11-13T02:25:46Z

Another edition of Stuff About Japan!

1. So, I noticed that all of the kids write in their textbooks all the time. In pen. So the obvious conclusion was that the books were theirs. Turns out they are! And the school gives them to them, forever and ever! The teacher I was talking to was pretty surprised that we have to hand ours back at the end of the year. Free textbooks y'all! Though that's only true if middle school is free, which I'm not sure it is?

2. So, that whole thing about them having school on Saturdays is a lie, but apparently it was only changed about ten years ago or so. And there are some people who want to change it back. ;_;

3. In Japan, the gutters along the side of the road are pretty deep, like a couple of feet. Quite often they're covered in easy-to-remove concrete tiles, but a lot of the time they're not. Obviously, my first thought was, "I would totally drive into one of those (because the roads are pretty narrow), but surely they don't." BUT THEN. I saw a car tipped into the gutter the other day you guys! This is like the "no one wears bike helmets" thing, wherein my assumption is that people bike more often, so they are more skilled, so they have fewer accidents, but apparently this is not the case and everyone just. Doesn't wear helmets.

There was something else I thought of earlier, but now I can't think of it. qq

In other, completely unrelated news, I can get so worked up about NASA you guys. THERE IS NOT EVEN ANYONE HERE TO ARGUE ABOUT THIS WITH, wth self.

Oh, and apparently President Obama is in Japan, starting today. I am totally clueless about the world you guys. *goes to argue with him about NASA's budget and the importance of the government's role in space exploration*

Also also, catching up on Supernatural season 5. I. I kind of love Castiel. (Episode 3 shoutout, yo!)

EDIT: Because I have nothing better to do than kick around on NASA, check out this guy: http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/holding-a-winning-hand_prt.htm. He's from Maine, *le gasp*!

An Idyllic School Life?

2009-11-09T02:46:17Z

So, more of school. Last Friday we had our

I totally went into the beginning of this month thinking that this was a cultural festival, but that was a dirty, dirty misunderstanding. This was the chorus festival, in which all of the classes compete against each other in singing. Much like with the Sports Festival, the competition was in-year, with each class competing against the others (e.g., Class 2-1 versus 2-3 and all the other 2nd years). However, because my school has been laid out by the pig flu, pretty much nobody had had enough time to practice. They actually post-poned the first years until the 26th, since half of the first year classes were sent home last week.

Basically, each year sings one song as the entire year, and then they split up and each class sings their song one-by-one. In another case of "Japanese school kids get way more responsibility for their own lives" the accompanist and the conductor for each class were students chosen from within that class. (Man, a lot of these kids can play piano.)

The full-year songs both sounded pretty good, but some of the class songs were... extremely questionable. Mostly this is because it's a problem both when you can only use singers from within the class and when everybody has to sing. For example, one class had way more boys than girls. Since the girls tend to be more in tune/better singers (more practice at karaoke?) this was extremely unfortunate- the boys totally drowned the girls out pretty much the whole time and the song just sounded unbalanced. And then there were times when the girls were way to sharp, etc, etc. They were mostly alright, with a couple of pretty/really good and a couple of pretty/really bad.

Luckily, the teachers had to vote on how they thought each class did, so that kept me paying attention to most of the groups. ^^; I haven't heard the results, so presumably they'll be announced with the first year ones later.

Also, this past weekend the local university had their school festival, so I went to check it out with a couple of people on Saturday. It was a pretty good time- the couple contest was funny (sort of like cosplay contest, but you have to do it in pairs), and the dance competition was really good, especially when they had the guests/judges get up and dance. This one guy did the best robot I've ever seen, ever. It was pretty much awesome. XD

Now at school, where this week we have parent-teacher(-student) conferences, so everyday has only four periods, I have nothing really to do today. But I do have 7 classes again this week! (Seven- my lucky number?)

Meme (x2)!

2009-11-06T16:04:47Z

In which I was bored at school, so I did this meme:

Leave me a comment saying "Resistance is Futile."
• I'll respond by asking you five questions so I can satisfy my curiosity.
• Update your journal with the answers to the questions.
• Include this explanation in the post and offer to ask other people questions.

1. Favourite DBZ character. BECAUSE I WANT TO KNOW.

Uhh... the answer to this question is possibly more complicated than it should be, insofar as it kind of depends on the arc? Top three: 1. Mysterious!Adult!Trunks, before we know all about him. 2. Attending-school!Adult!Gohan, because he's hilarious. 3. Settled-on-Earth!Vegeta, because he's just. The best.

2. If you could see one band, regardless of whether they've broken up or not, who would you see?

aslkfj. Five Iron Frenzy again, now that I'm more grown-up, I guess. (They mostly win because they ARE broken up, qqq.)

3. When you're finished your education and whatnot, where do you see yourself living?

There's a big part of me that says "Maine or at least New England", and another that says "Vancouver". I... I might have to be a Floridian, but without Florida. ^^;; The important part, though, is SOMEWHERE WITH INTERNET.

4. WHO DO YOU THINK SHOULD PLAY SNAKE IN THE MOVIE?

Omigosh, you have no idea how much I never think about these things. I always think it's really weird when people are like, "Oh, I would totally cast so-and-so as Rand from Wheel of Time." o.o Possibly I don't pay enough attention to descriptions. Or Actors. Or, I dunno, my eyes. But anyway. CLINT EASTWOOD.

5. I asked someone else this question but I think it's interesting SO: have you ever consciously tried to change yourself to be either more or less like a character? If so, why?

The answer to this is yes, wherein for a portion of my childhood I wanted to laugh like Ernie. Umm... because I liked his laugh better? Ernie was pretty much my favorite (along with Grover and the Cookie Monster). At this point I have no idea if that period had a permanent effect on how I laugh now. MYSTERY~.

I also purposely tried to make myself more like some of the people I met in sixth grade (which you'll remember is when I moved up to middle school). Two in particular showed me it was okay to be ridiculously silly and geeky, and you can (possibly) blame them for how outgoing I can be.

Arisha asked me many more than five questions.

I know you've been a beta for fanfiction, but do you write fanfiction as well? If so, for what fandom?

Nah, I've never really felt any sort of urge to write. Uhh... sorry. ^^;

Are you sad you won't be in Vancouver for the Olympics?

Omigosh, yes. PERFECT TIMING SELF. [EDIT: D: Also, Colbert, Vancouver is not in Saskatchewan. SASKATCHEWAN IS NOT EVEN NEXT TO BC. qqq.]

How is it possible that I know so many people who have been to Japan and yet so few people who have been/plan to go to Tokyo Disney? >:(

... because I found Disney(World)'s rides not-that-exciting? I am actually planning to go at some point, I just don't know when. Maybe it would be a good thing to do when I have visitors.

Name one person/fashion/thing from the '80s that you would want to see make a comeback.

The 80's, eh? DEFINITELY HE-MAN.

What's your favourite song right now?

Loop and Loop, by ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION. Probably.

What's your favourite movie?

Currently? SO TOTALLY STAR TREK REBOOT, BABY!

Which do you do more of: read, or watch TV?

Read, for shur. If I have books and/or the internet, I almost never watch tv.

You've just been given the chance to introduce someone to the entire concept of anime, but you can only show them one episode from one show. Which episode do you pick?

Omigosh, what? Uh... Maybe... Go Go Cactusman (or whatever the episode is called) from Cowboy Bebop? Bebop is awesome, and that's a fun episode...

Name one famous person you look up to.

I don't really think much about famous people. Maybe Ogura-san? Possibly that's just respect for the aged, though.

What is your favourite thing about studying Japanese? Least favourite thing?

I really love it when I can watch tv or listen to a conversation and actually understand it without trying. That makes me feel like I've accomplished something. My least favorite thing is that it takes effort, and if I'm not using a set of vocab it vanishes out of my head like cheap special effects. >.>

What is the main thing you've learned since you began living in Japan?

Possibly just to be a bit more independent. It's my first time living alone without even roommates, so it's been a bit different.

You've just been granted the chance to go back in time and change one thing about the last Harry Potter book. What do you change?

The amount of camping, probably. Without the school year events to sort of fill out the narrative, some parts of the plot really dragged for me.

Feel free to ask for questions (or try to resist) if you want. XD

Paaarty!

2009-11-04T01:11:28Z

By which I mean, This was a pretty big deal, because for most people they get taken to a welcome enkai (enkai=drinking party/night out with colleagues)like, right when they first get to Japan. And I wasn't, which fact was sitting in the back of my mind, making me anxious.

Luckily, on Thursday, K2-sensei came over to ask me if I could go out with the first-year teachers on Friday night cuz S-sensei (who gave me a ride to the ekiden and organized this particular outing) told her she should. I pretty much fell all over myself in my haste to say yes. ^^; So on Friday, K2-sensei picked me up at 6:30 and we headed over to a bar in Maebashi. It was the real deal, yo. A Japanese izakaya, ie bar. You know how sometimes in Japanese restaurants in the States there's a place where people sit on the floor at a really low table, but the floor is raised so that under the table is a place to put your feet? It was like that, but without the hole. Sitting on the floor for so long almost did me an injury, but it was all-you-can-drink plus the food they brought, and the other teachers paid for me. Niiiice. Apparently, it was a combination start-of-term and welcome-Liz enkai, about two weeks and two months late, respectively. I also got some flowers. ^^

Granted, quite a bit of the conversation was over my head, but they periodically made efforts to include me, in both English and Japanese, so that was cool. And it was fun to see some of them let down their hair a bit. Also, I finally spoke to the one English teacher who had never said anything to me! I think he might just be really shy? So, good things come to those who wait, I guess. I didn't go out for karaoke afterwards, since my ride was heading home, but it was still definitely worth it.

On Saturday, I bought myself some (green) Japanese pumpkins and carved some jack o' lanterns with my friend K at D's house. We also ate stew and pumpkin pie and candy, watched a scary movie and played worms. Also, Puzzle Fighter. ^^ It was good.

Downside to the end of Halloween, though, is that I'm now back to having pretty much no classes. Two this week, yay! :DDDD /sarcasm. There was no shirogane this week, either, since yesterday was a public holiday. Instead, I spent the day catching up on facebook and DA pretty much. Also, gonna buy my tickets for Australia soon, hoo-yeah!

P.S. The weather is finally cooling off. Hello, Fall.

R poked me with a stick.

2009-10-26T00:56:12Z

So, I'm updating. 久しぶり、皆！！

I guess the last time I checked in was after the ekiden, eh? So about two weeks ago! Since then, not that much has happened.

The second term of school has started.

Last last weekend there was a little international fair put on by the Tamamura International Association, so I spent some time on Saturday baking for the American table, and then on Sunday taught some kids go-fish and wore a kimono. (Pictures when facebook stops hating me!)

Later on Sunday I went to a little festival at the local shrine, which I think was for the dolls that they dedicate to the shrine so that kids will grow up well. There were lots of pretty lanterns, and saxophones, and a dragon.

Through these things met some of the international students at the university and the elementary school ALTs.

I actually had classes last week! And this week! I figure it's because of Halloween.

My school came down with the pig flu.

So I spent this past weekend hanging out in my house and keeping warm, mostly, except when I went out with K-chan to buy new shoes yesterday. They have laces!

Be end!

Filmateleven

2009-10-13T00:36:48Z

So, the ekiden is basically like cross-country. Except it only happens once a year. And they only run 2.5 or 3 kilometers. Oh, and also, it's a relay. But still, pretty much a cross-country race.

On Sunday I stopped by the Tamamura-machi Sports Festival- quite a bit of it was hilarious. The teams were based on the various districts/neighborhoods of the city, so all of the races had people from elementary schoolers to senior citizens. It was pretty great.

On Monday, I basically sat around for the day off. ^^

In other news, guess who's rewatching Avatar as a part of her quest to finally watch the ending? That's right! (Although, I've been interspersing it with breaks to read Watchmen fanfic, wtf self.)

Bukatsudou!

2009-10-09T09:26:39Z

Uhh... I'll change that title to Japanese later. Probably.

Anywho, there have been a couple of exciting events this week.

Number 1:

Going to at least some club activities, even if you don't join a club, is something that practically EVERY JET recommends. Thus, I've decided that at least once or twice a week I'm going to stay after school and hang out with one of the clubs.

Thus on Tuesday, I went to see the

I might have mentioned this before, when talking about the Student Council elections that happened last month, but as of Septenmber, all of our third years had to quite their clubs in order to concentrate on studying for their high school entrance exams. So right now, all clubs have only first and second year members. This policy is apparently pretty common.

I have to say, Judo was pretty impressive! Practice didn't start until 4:15, though, so I was right on time. Because I couldn't think of any more ways to futz around at my desk. I was actually there before about half of the members had finished changing, whoops. ^^;

They seemed pretty happy to see me though! Also, as soon as I appeared, they started trying to speak English, or saying that they should count off their stretches and things in English, which was cute. (Although they only actually did that once. ^^;; )

They were pretty amazing though! They did everything forwards and then backwards. Like, they were warming up with some somersaults, and then they went back across the floor doing them backwards. They did the same thing with their handspring-things. It was amazing! After warm-ups and way more exercises for the stomach and arms than anybody should ever do, they learned/practiced some holds. (I think they might have been new to the first years?)

For about the last half hour of practice, they did a ton of really short sparring bouts. Like, wrestling- one person would start on the floor, and the other would start by grabbing them. They jan-kenned to see who would start down, and switched partners every minute or so. It was really interesting!

Probably the most interesting thing, though, was that the practice was almost entirely run by the team captain, supported by some of the other second years. The coach literally showed up at about 4:45 to give the captain instructions and then left again. This is pretty much standard practice for Japanese clubs, so far as I can tell. I find it pretty amazing, because I can't think of a single American school that so consistently leaves its students in charge of themselves.

Number 2:

I can't help it, that's the way the Japanese spell it, and it actually means something that way! I.e. "Great (or big) wind". Which is pretty much what it was, at least where I was. I mean, I am hours from the sea here, so we didn't have to worry about the sea-swell. Nor did I have to worry about mudslides or anything, cuz it's flat here. Also, at least where I was, there wasn't that much rain. It rained pretty hard on and off from the day before (Wednesday) until about 9:30ish on Thursday, but the rest of the day was sunny.

I was actually really pretty freaked out by the winds though, you guys. It's been a long time since I was even in a weak hurricane, and so the strong winds kinda scared me. They woke me up from about six in the morning, and then kept me sleeping on and off until around 10 am when it really cleared up. Pretty much that whole time the wind was whistling in through my (closed and locked) windows, and my house was shaking pretty good sometimes. I was really glad that my apartment isn't near any trees, for pretty much the first time ever. ^^; At about six in the morning, they canceled school so the kids wouldn't have to try and force their way there through the worst of it, and I was really glad of it at about 8 am would I would normally have left.

It was still kind of cool though! And the rest of the day was pretty much bright and sunny and breezy. So much so that I felt kind of bad about not being at school. ^^;

Number 3:

Today I went outside to the

Which was pretty normal- the ones I could see were all the sprinters, so obvs. some of them were wicked lazy. Mostly some of the second-year boys: the girls and the rest of the boys (supposedly mostly first-years) were all working most of the time I was there. I got suckered into running a couple of the hundred meters with them, though. Boy am I out of shape, *coughCOUGHdie*.

Apparently the long-distance runners weren't around cuz they were off running. But apparently they also just get to run around the school, which sounds wicked boring to me. Ick. Especially if you did that for practice everyday. (Guess who showed up to give me all this info? Why, the amazing K-sensei, of course! She saves me every time.)

I have to say, though, that I am totally behind this "Go to club activities" thing. Given that I've been going to, like, no classes (I seriously think something is up with the system we have now), this week alone I've spoken more English with more students than in pretty much any other week. Some of those second year boys who didn't seem to be practicing that much spent quite a bit of time talking to me, and I spoke with some of the girls too. Definitely encourage people to start hanging out with some of the clubs if they've got time. ^^

Tomorrow at about 8:15, S-sensei is giving me a ride over to Isesaki, so I can watch the Ekiden. So far as I can tell, it's some sort of cross-country relay? I'll report back later!

がんばれ！

2009-10-05T03:46:42Z

So, the big thing to happen last week was obviously the sports festival. It did, in fact, rain on Wednesday so I could actually go, yay!

Wednesday itself (ie, the Gunma-JET workshop thing) was alright. As per usual came away with some okay game ideas and got to talk to everyone, which was excellente. ^^

Thursday was pretty amazing though! At my school at least, when they say "Sports Festival" what they really mean is "School-wide Track Meet". Within the years, the classes compete against each other, in sprints, middle-distance runs and some field events. Also, the relays. Ahahaha, the relays. ^^ Everybody has to do at least one thing.

The day started with the parade in. In the very front was the student council with the school flag, followed by all the classes. They were played in by the band, which I was really impressed by. All of the members memorized all the music, even though a bunch of them had only been playing their instruments since May, being 1st years. I was also amused by the amount of Sousa (or other music that I think of as typically American) they played. Each class made it self a banner, so there would be one person in front carrying the flag of that classes color (determined by their number: class one, regardless of year, was red, etc.), followed by two students carrying their banner, followed by all the students in the class marching in line. Pics will be up on facebook eventually. ^^; Then we had the opening ceremony, which involved the principal saying a few words, along with some of the local bigwigs, like the mayor. They introduced all of these people, though I didn't catch where most of them were from. Quite a few of them stayed for at least most of the morning, which was cool. Eventually, the day got started with the 50 meter hurdles, followed by the 100 meter dash, which was obviously the most populous event. The field events consisted of a shot-put style event involving a handball and high jump, which they do in the craziest way evar. Basically, the kids just run at it and jump it normally, instead of going over the bar backwards like we do. It was pretty amazing, because a couple of the boys were jumping 5' like that. o.o The middle distance races were the 800 meter (for the girls) and the 1500 meter (for the boys). They put up some pretty respectable times on that too.

After lunch, though, were the relays. Which were AWESOME. The club relays were great- the first one involved dressing up in the club uniform (like the kendo outfit, or your swim trunks) and then doing a 200 meter relay. The trick being that the "hand-off" had to involve something from the club. The kendo runners collected bamboo swords. The judo club carried a mat, and for the handoff, the old runner had to throw the new runner down onto it. It was pretty hilarious! After that, they had two more serious relays, with batons and everything, one for the girls and one for the boys. Pretty obviously, the track club won. ^^;

Then they had the first set of class relays, which involved the students racing each other, but also their teachers. You can tell that the teachers normally lose, but for some reason the first year teachers were all fired up and went all out. ^^; They won (sort of, since the anchor didn't actually cross the line, obviously). But after that, it returned to normal, with the teachers coming in dead-last. I raced with the third-years, a race which involved a mysterious number of teachers running strange distances, like 25 meters or a 100 meters or 200 meters. *still confused*

After that came another set of year relays, except that these ones were ridiculous and varied by year, and also involved most (if not all) of the class. The first years' race involved a regular section, followed by a three-legged race section, followed by a chain-gang section, which was pretty hilarious. The second-years' race had a regular section, a three-legged section, and a section where they had to grab an envelope of the ground and then race with whatever was written on the paper inside. Like a handball, or the principal, or possibly somebody's mom. XD That happened twice and was EXTRA hilarious. The third years' had two sections, one for girls and one for boys, though both were the same race. Basically, they had one person act as the runner, and everybody else had to be her ground, ie, she was walking on their backs and the other students had to keep running around to the front in order to create more ground for her. They raced to a cone, around the cone, and back, and then had to raise their flag at the end. I think the runner must have been called "Princess", because when the boys did it, their runners all wore skirts and bunny-ears. Mysterious~

Then there was the closing ceremony and the reading of the results over which class won in each year. Oddly enough, they tend to start at number 1 and then work their way downwards. ^^; I think the closest comparison would be some sort of mix of Spirit Week and a track meet. *nods*

The big news of this weekend was that I got internet! YAY!! Someday, I will catch up on things. ^^;

The big news this week is that on Friday, NASA is crashing the LCROSS satellite into the moon in an attempt to discover whether significant amounts of water exist on the moon's south pole: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LCROSS/main/index.html (having already confirmed the presence of trace amounts of water: http://www.nasa.gov/topics/moonmars/features/moon20090924.html ).

crosses fingers for rain

2009-09-28T00:14:20Z

So, it's been a while, I guess. Mostly what happened was the five-day weekend, which was pretty excellent, although admittedly it messed up my hard-won school-matching sleep-schedule. ^^;

Yep, I trekked it out to Nikko (which is written with the kanji for "day/sun" and "light/shiny/bright", so I guess you could translate it as "Daybright", but who would?) on the Sunday. It was pretty awesome, although I was absolutely exhausted by the end of the day. I biked over to Shinmachi Station, took the train to Takasaki, then took the Ryomo line from Takasaki to Tochigi and then switched to the Tobo system to get to Tobunikko. On the way back, I did all of that in reverse. >.>

The ride over was pretty nice- I actually got to see some mountains and countryside! (Although the train mostly skirted the mountains.) It was pretty, but it took forever- like 2 1/2 or 3 hours. Luckily the Ryomo line wasn't crowded at all, so I had a seat for the long part.

When I got to Nikko I was slightly confused, but then I worked out that I should just follow all the people who were walking up the hill. ^^; Doing this, in fact, led me straight to the reason for all of this tomfoolery, ie, the area of Nikko that is chock-full of temples and shrines. There are three major areas- Futarasan, the Toshogu Shrine, and Rinno-ji. Probably the biggest reason I went was the Toshogu Shrine, which is where Tokugawa Ieyasu is enshrined. (History guys! I love it!)Basically, though, Nikko's advertising should say, "You want temples? WE GOT 'EM!" because holy crap, do they ever. Each of these areas has, like, eight million shrines (or temples, in the case of Rinno-ji, which is Buddhist.) within them. They were pretty much all really pretty, but there were way more than I was expecting. ^^; I pretty much exhausted myself walking around them in the heat, and I still didn't actually go to all of them. >.>

Part of this was probably due to the day on which I chose to go, ie, the Sunday of a five-day weekend. It was ridiculously crowded- there were people everywhere, and lines for a lot of the stuff, like getting in to Ieyasu's grave area (up a really long flight of stairs- think Wreck Beach, y'all). The line for this was kind of hilarious, though, because it was mostly caused by people taking pictures of a the famous "Sleeping Cat" carving on the cat, and pretty much everybody who saw it was like, "Wow, that's really a lot tinier than I was expecting." XD Cracked me up.

It was really interesting though! Also, there were trees and hills and things, which I find I'm really missing living in Tamamura, which is pretty much really flat and full of rice. On the way home, I had an epic, probably two-hour long battle with Lavos, which ultimately came to naught. So I'm having to level up all my characters, qq.

Then I kicked around for a day. On Tuesday I went to I had been planning to go to some other places in Ueno too, but the zoo itself took several hours, and again I didn't see it all. (It closed at five. I really cannot handle living so close to the equator, you guys. The sun goes down at five-thirty, even during the summer, wtf!) It was really cool though! I especially liked the small animal house and all of the birds, like the hawks and owls and things. ^^ I'm definitely gonna go again sometime, especially since it was only 600 yen!

Then I kicked around for another day, and then it was back to school for two days before this weekend, in which I did nothing except watch Sasuke (aka Ninja Warrior). Man, that is one tough obstacle course. >.>

This week should be pretty busy, although I'm still pretty much hoping for rain on Wednesday, so that the sports day will be moved to Thursday and I can actually go.

In other news, I possibly sabotaged my own efforts to get internet by included the phone-line in the box I sent back with the modem. ^^; I mean, my pred told me to put everything in, and there was a picture of the phone-line on the sheet which told me what had come with the box, so I threw it in, but. When I managed to get across to my supervisor that my phone hasn't been hooked up since then, it seemed like that might be the problem? >.>

This just in!

2009-09-18T02:04:18Z

When the windows are closed, the shoe-locker area smells like shoes. I know! I was shocked too.

In other news, yesterday we had In some ways, these were pretty much the same as student government elections back home (or at least at SoPo). There were a bunch of candidates for the various positions, and they made short speeches so that their schoolmates could decide who to vote for. It was also pretty long. >.>

There were a bunch of differences too, though. For one, every single candidate was introduced by another student, who acted as their sponsor/character reference. Apparently, sponsors can be any one of the other students. They go up with their candidate and then go to the mic (mike?) first and introduce themselves and their candidate. Some of these speeches were longer than others, involving why the sponsor was supporting this candidate, but some of them were basically just introductions (which I totally understood, since being a sponsor required that student to get up and make a little speech, and I figure most of them were really nervous).

Also, the speeches were done in front of the entire school body at once, while I remember the ones at SPHS being done by year. They basically don't have individual class presidents or anything, just a council for the whole school. They also have two vice-presidents, and I think there had to be one boy and one girl for that. The candidates all sat on the stage, while the rest of the students (and teachers) sat on the floor of the gym. The sponsors also sat on the stage, behind the student they were introducing. (A note: at Minami-chu, at least, there is no auditorium. The gym is set up to handle most indoor sports, and has two basketball courts set-up horizontally, with the stage at the front. Pretty much any time there's a gathering in the school, they use the gym.) Each candidate was announced by a current member of the student council (the president??), and then their name was shown on the flip list that was on stage.

It actually took a while, because there were something like 22 candidates for various positions, and each one came with a sponsor who also had to make a short speech. There was a ten-minute break half-way through. Afterwards, all of the students returned to their rooms to vote. It was a nice break-up of my terrible, terrible boredom. ^^;

Basically, the third-years are stopping all student activities in order to concentrate on their exams, so things like the Student Council have to switch over. (All sports clubs and things are currently first and second years only- think Eyeshield 21.)

More observations:

Japanese toilet paper tends to be double-length, and also (at least the places I've been to) really thin.

It's really true that nowhere in Japan do they provide paper towels or anything in public bathrooms. Sometimes you'll find a blow-drier thing, but almost all of the time you have to bring your own towel with you. Also, sometimes they don't provide soap, so traveler beware!

This weekend is a five-day weekend, so Hello, Tokyo! Also, Nikko. Since I still don't have internet at my house, I'll update y'all when I get back. *hopes for miraculous internet arrival*

Also, I'm going to say it a day early. Happy Birthday, Littlest! <3

Observations

2009-09-15T06:59:24Z

You know what's really different here? The bugs. Except for, like, one butterfly, all of the bugs look really different. There's a little bit of that with plants too. I mean, cats and dogs and deer and things are basically the same everywhere, I think, but I never see weird Japanese hornet-looking things on tv. ^^;

Pretty much noone who's above middle-school age wears a bike-helmet. *fights peer pressure*

I'm learning to eat my soup with chopsticks.

Almost all Japanese advertizing makes use of celebrities. Really. Regardless of what it is, you're almost certainly going to see some sort of celebrity on the commercial. (This feeds into my thoughts on the Japanese media world/pop culture as a vast circle, but tl;dr.) Also, I think they're a bit shorter?

(I totally just had that moment when students comment on your eyes and things. This had never happened to me before! Also, apparently I smell good, which... I don't really know what to make of.)

Japanese students have way more responsiblity for their school and school life, I think. Like, they don't have a janitor because the kids are supposed to clean everything themselves. I think they also tend to run things like clubs mostly by themselves. In some ways, it's pretty different.

Rice looks pretty much like other kinds of wheat. I'm not really sure what else I was expecting? ^^;;;

You Think you Know a Guy.

2009-09-08T06:07:46Z

Crap. Now I have Disney songs stuck in my head.

So, I`m back in that place again! The place where updating my lj seems like a good way to spend half an hour. Although, also a loud way. *feels sort of guilty*

The last time I updated it was the beginning of my first full week, aka, I basically spent all my time that week making a powerpoint for my self-introductions with K-sensei`s second years on Friday. It was a pretty awesome experience, mostly because I haven`t used powerpoint pretty much since 10th grade, and even then I was part of a group. The bottome line being that I basically had no idea how to work Power Point beyond the most basic of "add a title" type stuff. (I know, "for shame".)And to add to my joy, the copy of powerpoint on this computer at school is in Japanese! And Microsoft read that I was in Japan and would only let me download the Japanese demo version! And then the demo wouldn`t even let me do anything! Ahhh, it was awesome. :DDDD

It was actually pretty fun, though. I managed to work out how to do everything but one thing on my own by using what Japanese I have (the biggest problem here being the amount of kanji in the labels/menus) and made a wicked awesome friggin` powerpoint, if I do say so myself. Also, making powerpoints can be very time-consuming, if you do it right. I managed to pretty much fill the week until Friday by messing with my powerpoint. ^^

On Thursday night I had the first of my English Conversation classes at the Rec Center. It`s an intermediate-level class, so it seems like it will be pretty easy. It`s entirely women, most of whom have kids, generally at least in high school, although there are a couple of women about my age and one grandmother. It`s every other week. This time we just did introductions and then sort of talked about what they normally do. Next time, though- prepositions. *hides* Anybody have any suggestions?

Then, on Friday I attended my first actual classes, which we actually did in the IT room, because that`s where the projector is. (Things I wish I had known earlier.) They went fairly well. I tried to speak slowly, and they got some of what I was saying (another useful aspect of powerpoint- pictures and writing). K-sensei would step in and translate the really difficult stuff, or ask them questions to check their comprehension, so it ended up taking pretty much the whole class. The first two classes were pretty normal. At the end K-sensei would ask them if they thought my English was fast (almost the whole class, "Yes."), and then she would tell them that I was actually speaking slowly. ^^; But in general, they were about what I expected. The third class was sort of the lower-level, although apparently they were also the trouble-makers/unmotivated students. I could totally see that, but, at least in that class, they weren`t too bad. K-sensei translated pretty much everything for them, though. ^^;

Friday night I went to L`s house in the hopes of downloading the service packs for my computer (long story short I had to wipe it because I screwed up the registration thing on the vista my friend gave me), only to discover that I hadn`t actually installed any of the drivers when I thought I had. So we chatted for a bit, and then I went home. Whereupon I recieved a package from my mother, full of books and clothing and lovely magazines of Knowledge!

Saturday I went to the local shrine, Hachimangu, with two of the ladies from my Conversation class. (Pictures when I have home internet again!) It was actually really good to have them there, because otherwise I wouldn`t actually have understood anything, although it would still have been really pretty. After that I went home and read books. All day.

Sunday morning I went out to a mall in Maebashi with K-san, also from my conversation class. She has a car. (BFF, ne?) The bookstore there actually has an alright English-language section, so I grabbed a Gaiman I haven`t read yet. We also went to the foreign goods store and some of the character shops, full of the cute things that the Japanese love so much. ^^ It was really good. Once I got home, I discovered that my dvd player reads burned dvds, so I spent the rest of the day rewatching Tiger & Dragon. ^^

Yesterday started out with a bit of confusion, in the suddenly being told about something way. (Yay, for being saved by T-sensei!) But at least now I know what the kanji for "All" "school" "morning" and "polite" mean in combination: morning assembly. ^^; There`s one on the first Monday of just about every month. It was pretty much the same as the opening ceremony, except that I didn`t have to introduce myself.

I had my first classes with S-sensei, a third year teacher. Each class was mostly the same: my self-intro, and then working from the text book on writing about their school trip, for which I did the read-aloud and repeat thing. His classes are in the other school building (now I know what it`s for!), which does not have tvs, so I couldn`t do my powerpoint. But it does have air conditioning! Which is good, because otherwise I would have died today. So my self-intro (which luckily only needed to be about ten minutes) involved a map and some of the postcards I brought from home, and then S-sensei asking questions. After class I got to correct the worksheets they did. I did three such classes yesterday.

Today I had two more classes with S-sensei, and then the special education class. I was pretty nervous about it, since I was going in without any knowledge of what level the students were at, and I had to plan the whole thing myself, since I-sensei doesn`t have much English. But it went totally fine! Both of the students are pretty shy, apparently, so when I got there the M-chan met us at the door. At first I-sensei and I didn`t know where Y-kun was, but it turned out that he was hiding under the desk. ^^;; For two kids who were so shy, though, they were pretty outgoing. Especially Y-kun (once he got out from under the desk, of course). I brought out my map and postcards, and then also my computer for the pictures of my family. My self-intro took a lot of time, but we also worked on sort of daily greeting-type stuff. It went really well, I think, especially because I could explain a lot of stuff in Japanese, which made it easier on I-sensei, I think. He was really helpful, though. ^^ I`m actually looking forward to next week, I think.

Hopefully I`ll get my internet in the next couple of days, since I applied on Monday, and then I can more consistent, instead of doing these huge posts. ^^;

It Starts.

2009-08-31T04:40:53Z

So, I finally started going to school.

Anybody remember how I said my first day of school was Monday? Yeah, me neither.

But in truth, I really thought it was on Monday, so got all packed up Monday morning, wore my suit, brought my omiyage and the self-intro I wrote, and went into school really early. Because when I`m nervous, I get early. So I`m there, and I`m wondering when I`m going to be doing my self-introduction, only to sort of gradually realize over the course of the day that it`s still summer vacation. ^^;;; Only now that I`m there, I don`t really feel like I can go home, so I just stay at school until about noon, when K-sensei rescues me and says I can go home. (<3 K-sensei.) I haven`t felt like that much of a keener since I went to pick up my friend on the way to school in seventh grade, only to be told when I got to his house that it was a snow day. I just assumed there was school. ^^;;;

It ended up being pretty okay, though, because I got a bunch of the admin stuff (like my computer) out of the way, as well as my omiyage (bwahahaha, success!). So after that I went home and did nothing, except rewrite my self-intro so that it was the length the principal told me it should be, ie, shorter than I was first told (thank goodness).

Tuesday: Second verse, same as the first! Except that I wasn`t quite as early, and I didn`t have to deal with my omiyage. The school assembly was at about 9:30, at which point I gave my self-intro, in both English and Japanese. I did the English one first, and you should have seen the disgusted looks on some of those faces. Like, "Aagh, this is bogus!" :DDDD It went okay, though, I think. The rest of the assembly was mostly the handing out of certificates to people who placed in things over the summer.

Then began the week-long marathon of "find semi-legitimate stuff to do while at school because they`re not going to need you in class at all until Friday of next week". As you can see, I`m reduced to including updating lj in that list. >.> I`ve gone through most of my JET materials, written postcards, am so up-to-date on my e-mail (and facebook) and have even started going through my old Japanese textbook. I`ve also started to get used to the school day and Minami-chuu, though.

First, dress code: As far as I can tell, my school is like the most relaxed school ever. Ever. So far I have seen two (2) students wearing the regular school uniform. Everybody else I`ve seen has been wearing their gym clothes all the time. (This contributed to my "summer" vs. "first day of school" confusion above.) The teachers are wicked casual too. Not just the gym teachers, but a significant portion of the male teachers of other subjects wear sports-shorts, t-shirts, or a track suit type thing. The girls are slightly more formal, but I get the feeling that`s more because they prefer not to wear printed t-shirts and stuff, and chose slightly more flattering clothing. So I don`t worry about it. I also have (as far as I can tell) unblocked internet- I have no problem accessing e-mail, facebook or lj, a situation which is totally not the case at (most) other schools.

Anywho, I`m required to be at school by 8:15, ie, in time for the morning teachers` meeting. This is begun by a teacher (who is chosen in a way that is totally mysterious to me), who generally lets Kouchou-sensei (the principle) speak first. After that, any teacher with an issue or concern for the group raises a hand and gets called on to speak. A lot of this passes right over my head, as you might imagine. ^^; After that, they split off into year-group meetings, ie, the first-year teachers` meeting, etc.

(A note on office set-up in Japan: Japan scorns the use of cubicles- every office you`ll enter is set up on the open office plan. This means that there are four sets of desks in my schools` teachers` office- three long ones, in which about 8 desks are on each side, for a total of about 16 desks, with every desk facing another [for example, if I look up, I see the nurse`s face, b/c her desk faces mine], and one row of single desks. The three groups are the various years (I`m in with the first years), and the single desks are for the Kouchou- and kyoutou-senseis, plus admin staff. So when we have year meetings, they basically just restrict their attention to their particular desk-grouping.)

The kids generally start showing up at about 8:30, although some come earlier for clubs and things (I assume). There are six periods in a day, each 50 minutes long. First period starts at 8:50. There`s a ten-minute break after each period, except 4th, because lunch is after fourth period. Lunch is 40 minutes, followed by a 25-minute recess. 6th period ends at 3:35, but the kids don`t leave until after cleaning time, which lasts until 3:50. A bunch of them stay longer for clubs, which during September end at 6. I, however, am free to go at 4 pm. People recommend staying later at least sometimes, but seeing as how I`ve done two actual bits of work in a whole week, I`ve so far been disinclined to waste my time-wasting techniques on time when I don`t have to be there. ^^;;

Other than the boredom factor, though, my school has been really good so far. All of the teachers are really nice, and they`re also really relaxed amongst themselves. There`re are a lot of fun-sounding conversations and things in the teachers` room. Even though I almost never understand the joke, it`s a lot more relaxing than being somewhere where nobody ever talked to anybody and just worked all day. ^^

So, this past weekend was pretty awesome. First, the Board of Education (usually referred to here as the "BoE") gave L and I a welcome party. It wasn`t quite an enkai, since it seems to have been on the town`s tab, but man it was good. Teppanyaki- the real thing this time. There was so much food. I think the best part might have been when the chef set the ice cream on fire, though. So good.

Saturday, though. Saturday I headed down to Tokyo, met up with a friend of mine in Ueno and then headed with him over to Odaiba. To see Gundam-san!! Man, it was pretty much awesome. He was taller than the trees, so you could see his head from the train on the way in. Once we got off the (really quite crowded) train, we just followed the thousands of people heading over there. No directions needed! It was pretty amazing- life-size gundams are big, you guys. It was also really hot and dusty, and stupidly crowded, since this was Gundam-san`s last weekend.

After that, friend Y and I headed over to the mall to get food (also really crowded), which was delicious Chicken-katsu Curry for me. Then we briefly checked out the stuff outside Fuji TV, and then headed over to the cannon, or "daiba", for which the area is named. Pretty rockin`, and also a very pretty walk. We stopped off in Akihabara on the way back, ate there, and then split up so I could head home. I was so wiped you guys- it was a really long hot day. But so worth it.

Yesterday I did nothing. At all. Except watch tv, of various sorts. It was awesome.

I`m going to lose internet at my house after today you guys, while it switches over from my pred to myself. Luckily I`ll still have internet and stuff at school, so I probably won`t lose contact. But if I actually get busy at work, I might be a little slow in replying. A girl can dream, right?

Point of Order

2009-08-21T11:53:05Z

Things I forgot to mention:

The first couple of nights I was here were really stormy. Like, the thunder was so long and loud it shook my windows, stormy. IT WAS AWESOME.

The first week I was here, I experienced not just my first, but my first three earthquakes. Each of which shook my couch and some of my lights, but did not rattle my windows. Talk about confusing. ^^;

Tamamura may not have the most exciting views, being a flat, flat place, but it has some serious history! People have been here since 500 AD or before (the explanation was mostly in Japanese, okay?). Also, the Tokugawa family comes from Gunma-ken; Tokugawa Ieyasu is totally buried in Nikko. I am definitely going there in September.

I totally just got paid for a month of basically being useless. This isn't actually true of all JETs, since a lot of them go into school during summer break, but L and I were not needed. I feel kind of guilty, but hey! Free paycheck?

Onigiri are delicious, either warm or cold, but three is too many. ^^;

The green onions in this town are huge- I bought some last week that were, like, two-and-a-half feet long maybe? RIDICULOUS.

On a totally different note: who would have guessed when all of this started that Dean would end up being the good son?