I fell off the face of the internets!

For a while I will be without steady internet of my own. Brian left Japan yesterday for Taiwan and took his internets with him. So, I won't be able to update much for a while. So, the real question is, exactly how am I am typing this now? I am at an internet cafe. But, not the typical kind that are in US coffee shops everywhere. This is Japan, so it has special ones dedicated to serving people. This one I am particularly at offers manga, video games, pool (or billiards if you're Japanese), darts, computers and such for use. They also feature a free drink bar for members of this place. It's pretty nice. What's not nice about this place? Using a Japanese keyboard. Finding everything mixed and jumbled up I'm used to, but some things are just horrendous (okay putting the apostrophe above number 7 is okay, but making it so that to capitalize something, I either have to spam the shift key a whole bunch of times or hold shift and press the caps lock is pretty ridicilious).

Other than that, things are going alright. It's also a lot quieter now too with all the people that had to return to their home countries except for Kyuu, but she leaves next Monday . It'll be a month before the new Taiwanese come to Hakuoh, and I am looking forward to meeting them. I feel like I want to do a lot more with the general populus of the school, which is something that has never happened to me before. If I don't get lazy when I get back to the states, I can see myself getting more active in various student groups catered to study abroad. It's a great experience and I suggest anyone to go do it if they have the means to go.

Edit: I will be back up on the internets hopefully on September 6th. Look forward to it! (And my entry about the Nagano trip thing.

Off and On and Randomality.

So, for the past two weeks or something, I've been busy doing a lot of random things. Some days I went with Marco and Keleih to Toys R Us,



another day I went with them to go play board and card games at Yoyogi-Uehara after stopping in Akibahara first


, I saw a taiko concert live on Wednesday

, and I worked some days. Too many things that I have done that I don't think should require a separate entry, but should just be lumped together.

Still haven't seen Brian much or any of the Taiwanese this week. Didn't even get invited to some of the going away parties for people because of a Japanese custom that guests are NOT allowed to bring guests because it would be rude, despite the fact I KNOW whom the party is for and know of most of the guests. It's the only thing (culture wise) that I am at odds with most of the time because that has kicked me out of doing things several times here. But, I am planing a bowling party thing that will take place tomorrow, and of course I going to let the Taiwanese and some of my other friends join in because this is a rare time where I think the American custom, no matter how it might bring obnoxious guests to an event/party, is way better than the Japanese custom that tries to keep group harmony, because the Japanese one seems to be pompous and elitist to me (and excludes people that actually know MOST of the people at a said event). I may look at this entry down the road and realize how stupid of me was to make a comment about this, but it is something I realized before a lot here, but only recently has been confirmed. I am not really upset, I understand the custom, but it is just strange to me. I think there's times in America which would be like the Japanese custom, but it's still more acceptable for inviting guests I guess. But, then again, I haven't seen the Taiwanese or Brian much for the last two weeks. That could explain a lot more than a custom would.

Working, thoughts, and Tokyo.

"A view atop of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building's Observatory Deck"

Got home from Shinjuku today. I've only been to Tokyo 4 or 5 times since being here, but I think during this summer break, I may go more times either by myself or with someone else (perhaps Hiro when he gets back from Hokkaido or Mitsue maybe ^^). I am reading Lonely Planet's guide on Japan (don't get me started on how Lonely Planet treat things in the book, because sometimes it's pedantic, elitist, and sometimes plain silly and wrong, but that rant could be a seperate entry in itself) , and there is so many things I want to see in Tokyo and the surrounding area, but have yet to go to.

I started working on Tuesday, with Mr. Nagao and Mrs. Yukie at Starbucks at Ustunomiya station. At first I was worried when Mr. Nagao didn't appear to show up as early as I thought, but he strolled in right at 4 when the lesson was supposed to start. His English is okay, but it takes him a while to put sentences together. He's a anesthesiologist. Strange thing is, Japan seems like a socialist society sometimes. In America, anesthesiologists are among the highest paid doctors in the profession of medicine. However, in Japan, they make the same amount of money as surgeons and other lower specialties do. It's more about the amount of years you spend in one field that determines how much you make. Kyle (a previous student of Hakuoh's program) told me tonight he watched a program that comes on occasionally in Japanese TV that compares prices of salaries among different professions. Dentists starting out make 40k a year, but 20th year (meaning, working for 20 years as a dentist) dentists make 800k or something a year. That's a huge difference. However, this "age = wages" system is breaking down in Japan, but not as quickly as once thought in most professions. Mrs. Yukie, my 6 to 8 PM student, on the other hand had decent English skills and seems to have taken a liking to me because we both enjoy Astronomy as a hobby. She's even read books I've read (Like Cosmos by Carl Sagan) about that field. I later found out on Wednesday's lesson that she's an accomplished figure skater and has been practicing for 20 years. That's pretty cool.

On Wednesday, I had 6 classes, but only had 5 because one student canceled the lesson at the last minute. My first lesson was with Ms. Rie and her English is okay. She spent some time in Australia and Norway/Sweden so her ability was pretty good. This lesson I discovered that teaching the Japanese how I (and other non-native speakers of Japanese) learned Japanese, she was better able to understand how to translate things she wanted to say into English. The next lesson was with two women, Ms. Eri and Ms. Ae. Both women's English ability was decent. Ms. Ae really surprised me though, as she is the oldest of my students about double the age of Ms. Eri. She loves to travel, and she says her travel English is the best of her English, but outside of that, she doesn't know much. She also said that it's "never to late to do anything" and that's very admirable. Next I had about a 2 hour break. I walked from the school (I just received my bike rental card, so I couldn't use it that day) to a Tsutaya bookstore and was impressed with the amount of books and magazines available compared to Oyama's bookstores. I later went to an arcade which was cool as shit because it was an old school arcade (I am talking about an arcade with a laundry place attached to it). Japanese arcades never cease to amaze me, and I'll do another entry eventually just for them.

After that, I walked back and had Mr. Hamaguchi. His English is okay, but he wants to practice mostly his listening because he too is also a doctor and he attends medical congresses where there are foreign speakers giving seminars. He occasionally wants to ask me if I can read a part from medical journal at a "normal speed" (i.e. my natural reading speed) aloud so he can practice his listening. My pronunciation with new words seems to be great in English, but with these medical terms and such, my speed is sometimes hampered at trying to maintain my speaking rate. After that, I had Mrs. Rie again. We talked about 天文学の単語　(Astronomy Vocabulary) in English. I knew of most of the planets were called in Japanese, but because Mercury (水星）　and comets (彗星）　have the same pronunciation in Japanese, specialists and hobbists of Astronomy call Mercury (すいぼし） or Suiboshi instead of Suisei. My last lesson was canceled so I was able to go home early and not on the last train.

I hate working though until 8 (or past 8) sometimes at Utsunomiya, despite I've only worked 2 days so far. On some days I may want to do shopping or go hang out at an arcade somewhere like I do in Oyama sometimes, but the major shopping areas close at 8 or start to close at 8PM in Utsunomiya. I still can't get over that fact that places that could have a lot of business because people just start getting off work at that time close, and have to resort to cobinis and such for food (and possibly reading material on the way home for the commuters). I am so used to that if say a mall closed down at 9PM in America (which they do), then I could go to a Target or Wal-Mart to get any shopping I needed done, and Meijer and Wal-Mart are 24-7 shops. Don't get me wrong, I am used to the system here, but a LOT of the crap that is said about Japan being "convenient" and "timely" is mostly incorrect (meaning, not all the time true).

Take for instance, trains. Japanese trains are a popular stereotype of timeliness in America. I am also guilty of that one. I would have to take the Indy Go bus system to get to school when I had classes, and would have to time it out because I figured the bus would come usually 10 minutes behind schedule. I dreamed of a public transportation system that would be like Japanese trains, so precise and timely. But, the reality is, Japan trains aren't ALWAYS on time. In times of big events and regular commutes, trains are packed. Even if the train came on time, there might be a time where you might not be able to ride one train because it was packed to the brim with people. There's also times of natural disasters (your train being more likely to fail after the line being struck by lightning than being derailed because of an earthquake) or the lesser talked about person whom committed suicide by jumping in front of the train (this DOES happen, but it usually is treated like the rest of the problems that can go wrong and is just referred to as "so and so train line is stopped" only). But, for the most part, trains are pretty precise in most other times.

Another thing is that ATMs are NOT 24 hours here. They are usually open from 8 to 7 on weekdays and 10 to 5 on Saturdays and during certain holidays (like Golden Week) they are closed (going from ATMs in Oyama experience). Banks close at 3PM here. They are NOT open on weekends or holidays PERIOD. Post offices usually have ATMs in them as well, but are usually open for the same length as the rest of the ATMs in the city. Banks and ATMs are one of the major disappointments of "convenience". The only thing that is always convenient is the cobinis, but they HAVE to be convenient. It's in their name.

Sorry to go on a rant, but that's just a few things I've noticed since being here. I like to share this with you all, so that if you're ever in Japan, you know what to look out for.

Before I went to Shinjuku today, I bought a new digital camera at Yamada-Denki. It has 4x optical zoom and 10.1 megapixels (uploading time to flickr increases because each picture is now between 1.8 and 2.5 MB in 10 megapixels). My last camera cracked the LCD screen when I had it in a really tight pair of jeans with my wallet in the same pocket. So, I forged ahead and bought a $37 dollar protection case. I found it weird that they didn't have many off brand protection cases, just the main ones from the manufactures of the cameras themselves. I thought it was a rip off having to spend that much for a case, so I just used my built up points on my Yamada-Denki card to spend towards that puchase which knocked $50 dollars off that price. America would NEVER have a points system similar to the Japanese systems found at many stores,grocery stores, bookstores, etc . Card point systems are pretty much 1 point = 1 yen, so it acts like REAL money. America would be content with just giving shoppers a percentage discount, rather than a 1 point = 1 cent kind of deal. This kind of points system in Japan ENCOURAGES more people to buy things so they can save up and knock down a huge chunk off the price of like an I-phone or something.

I went to Tokyo today to meet up with Kyle and Shrida. We ended up meeting at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building in Shinjuku. The view from the observation deck was amazing and I got to try out the new camera I bought today. The pictures turned out pretty awesome, except for the occasional glare from the windows you can see in the pictures. The zoom pictures are okay, but with the glare from the windows, it messed with the zoom pretty bad.

We later headed to one of only 2 Mexican restaurants in Tokyo, one being in Shinjuku. The inside of the restaurant was pretty amazing and the food was alright. I also discovered riding home with Kyle, a train line that goes directly from Oyama to the heart of Tokyo (i.e. Shinjuku), allowing me to bypass the fuckhole that Ueno station can be sometimes during rush hour. That's awesome.

Next time going to Tokyo is this Sunday with Keleih to meet up with Marco and play some board and card games in Akibahara. Saturday is the Oyama Fireworks Festival (actually "big event" 大会、but same thing) and I should get plenty of pictures of the festival and such. I heard it can be as crowded as Utsunomiya's matsuri I just went to in Oyama, so that should be interesting to see (Oyama isn't a big enough city I think to hold 100k+ people all at once, but eh). So, see you all later!

Utsunomiya Matsuri

(A portable Oomikoshi in the streets of Utsunomiya)

I returned to Oyama around 3PM so I could take a shower and get ready for the Utsunomiya Matsuri with Mitsue. Normally, I wouldn't bother with such things as taking a shower, but seeing how this is a girl I like and the weather in both Ashikaga and Oyama was like 88F with 80% humidity, I was sweating like a dog in the heat of Japan.

I stopped by Keleih's to meet up with Shirida, an IUPUI student that is thinking about taking the Hakuoh program next semester. We talked with her for a bit and she gave me two things of pop-tarts from home. It's the ONLY thing I can't find here in terms of food here. But, Shirida and I had to leave pretty quickly and I wasn't able to answer personally all her questions. Maybe, I might see her again in Tokyo before she heads off back to America.

I went home, showered (after putting at the lowest temperature setting I have ever put the thing), and left. I arrived just at 6 and waiting for me outside the gate was Mitsue, her mom, and Mitsue's friend Miki. I was surprised to meet Mitsue's mom (and her cute miniature dog), but apparently I asked later and Mitsue said she's a "big fan" of me and wanted to meet me. Whatever that could mean?

If the humidity was worse in the day, there were so many people packed into the streets it was unbearable sometimes. We saw some dancers and Mikoshi, then we decided to go to a shrine up a long flight of stairs. I wanted to get some sort of fortune, but we decided to head back down and eat some Matsuri food. I am notorious for picking the things I normally like and eat, rather than try new things like most foreigners do when they come here to Japan, but I had a bit of 大阪焼き　which was Osakan take on okonomiyaki (which was called something else in the form it was, but I forgot what it was) and it was good. It was so packed in the streets that we had to go into a shopping mall several floors up to get the peace and space to actually eat.



(It was this packed around the streets and up to get to the shrine on this hill)

After dinner, we decided to go and take　プリクラ。　プリクラ is short for (picture club). We had fun doing that as we had some funny shots. However, the mail message picture you can receive on your cellphone never came (Mitsue's mail address is really long, so she could have made a mistake) so we were out of luck there. Later, we went into the open-air mall and got snowcones. As usual, I have two main enthusiasms here (with still more to probably come). My first is sampling all the different types of 自動販売機　(vending machine) and コンビに coffee there are, but the other is playing 太鼓の達人　(taiko no tatsujin) and trying to get at least one high score for a song on each machine I play on. I have at least one record on EVERY machine that is in the immediate Oyama area, so I wanted to spread out my bases. Figuring that Utsunomiya's population is like Indy's and such, places like arcades, ESPECIALLY in the open-air mall, would be frequented daily. And here it seems, you are either really good at the game, or you don't play it (and consequently suck) at the game. But, it's something interesting when a foreigner begins to play it. I am no wear near good, but I like playing it (the DS games help me out with rememberization). So, I played Taiko for Mitsue. I chose my usual pick of songs, but because it was a summer matsuri, I decided to start with the aptly named ”夏祭り”　, followed by リンダリンダ　and then ドラゴンメロディー.　I did alright at all the songs, but I felt I wasn't at my best.

After that, we sat down and admired the 七夕　decorations that were strung up for the approaching festival in Sendai. I was going to take Mitsue and some other friends too, but a lot of my friends were either low on cash (It's like $80 one way by Shinkansen) or were vacationing/working/returned to their hometown temporary. I could probably still go with her to it, but I might decide to spend Thursday with Shirida before she goes back to America. I don't know.

In short, Utsunomiya's Matsuri was fun, but packed. I was hoping to see the normal, crazy traditional loin-cloth-wearing dancers, but that apparently was for Saturday and not today. Oh well, those matsuri are more amusing and interesting in the winter anyway.



(Me and Mitsue at the shrine)

Hanabi in Ashikaga

Today I skipped out on Kyudo practice because of the Ashikaga Fireworks festival and would probably be the last time I would see Laura here in Japan. She would be leaving Monday after off and on (meaning traveling back and forth home and other places) living in Japan for 3 years.

I was in sort of a panic because I hit the bottom of the barrel sort of speak when it came to money today. The money that was deposited I wasn't able to withdraw, and I worried that my bank would fuck up my account until Monday like it did previously before once. So, I thought I wasn't able to go, but apparently I forgot that they don't credit deposits until the next business day, so I had to wait until 1PM (or Midnight in EST) before I could withdraw anything. So, because I didn't go with Beth or Brian, I had to go off of Laura's directions to get to her apartment. I am surprisingly good as a guy in directions, but there were several buildings that could have fit the description of what her building was like. I eventually found it (after getting it confused with the Art Museum below the apartment) and made my way to the top floor of the building.

She has the most amazing view of the sky and Ashikaga from her apartment. It's really nice. Laura, Kyuji, Beth, and Keleih were all there and Yoshiko was apparently away with Brian buying the Obi that she forgot from her kimono. After a little while Yoshiko and Brian returned, Kyle came, Ritsuko and her friend from Taiwan came, and Yoshiko's friend Akira came as well. We were there for the fireworks, but really it was because this was Laura's last weekend in Japan. The fireworks later on were really something and it's amazing how many people can come into the tiny town of Ashikaga.

After the fireworks were over, several of us departed ways, but Kyle, Laura (of course), Yoshiko, I, and Kyuji all stayed for a while and several of us stayed the night over at Laura's apartment, but it would be my last time as she was leaving that Monday to go back to America. We talked about several things about life in general and I received Kyle's information as with Laura leaving and all, she was our only real connection to him. But, with her gone, Karaoke and other trips to places would never really be the same again.