Super Happy Special Nippon Seikatsu Wonderblog

Marathon Weekend

2010-12-10T09:23:00.004+09:00

Manga-kissa, we meet once more. More often than not I seem to find myself in one of these while I am travelling around Japan. But, I only dropped in to catch a few winks. What I did was take a highway bus overnight from Yonezawa into Tokyo, but sleeping on the bus was a challenge. So, after catching up a couple hours uninterrupted I finally feel more energized. I am on my way to Miyazaki Prefecture, which is at the southern end of Kyushu. My marathon is at 9am Sunday moring, so I am less than 48 hours from what may be absolute physical torture.

My training has prepared me well, I hope. This week I haven't run at all because I have been dealing with some nagging injuries like shin splints, so I figured getting as healed as possible would do me better than any light running. Three weeks ago I ran 20 miles and felt very good doing so. I was able to maintain my goal pace through most of that run, but the last 6.2 miles of a marathon is the true test. I have no inkling of how my body will react when I push that extra distance because I have never run further than 20 miles. The "wall" is waiting. My hope is that my friend who is doing the half marathon will be able to take my camera and situate herself at the finish line, and record either photographs or video of my finish.

The title of the post has a double meaning, however. I use the word marathon in another sense, describing the length of the weekend itself. I took 2 days off for this, and on Monday as I make my journey back home I will be stopping once more in Tokyo to take the GRE. Mental torture following a day of physical torture. Would it be a stretch to call me the first human being in history to run a marathon and then take the GRE the following day? I don't think any other human being is that stupid. One computerized practice exam I took the other day gave me a verbal score of 590 and a quantatative score of 620. Thus I will cram vocabulary at any free moment I have this weekend. Gotta raise that verbal score.

And since I haven't posted in a while, I came to a decision regarding post-JET life. Should be clear that I am intending to enter grad school, and I am officially applying to the second language studies program at UH Manoa. Columbia University has a similar program (but under a different name) that I will also apply to. If both schools reject me, then I will make an application to the University of Illinois at Chicago, since they have a very late application deadline. But by that point I will have probably committed to another year in Japan. If UH or Columbia accept me though, the chances are very likely that I am a one-year JET. More to come on this, I promise.

October busyness

2010-10-25T11:20:00.002+09:00

I haven't had a totally quiet weekend in quite a while. There is usually something going on and thus October has been quite the busy month for me.

A couple weekends ago we had a three days off here, which was awesome for letting me recharge a bit. However on one of those days I headed down to Yonezawa to volunteer at a festival, where the international relations association had setup a tent. Most of the day was spent playing janken (rock, paper, scissors) in English with Japanese kids. Fortunately for us all we wrapped up the day by going to a free wine and cheese tasting and watched some movies that evening. I did basically nothing the rest of that weekend, which was good.

The weekend after that was the Oshoshina Half Marathon (also in Yonezawa). I didn't have to run this one all by myself since some other ALTs had also entered, and we had some supporters come to cheer us on as well! My pacing strategy was simple: start slow, finish fast. This is hard to do without a watch/GPS to help in your pacing discipline because many people end up passing you in the first half. But the second half of the race is when I hit my afterburners and blew past a ton of people en route to a 1:47:51 finish. So long as my training continues without any problems I just may be able to do the marathon in December in under 4 hours.

This last weekend is one I'm still recovering from. I also planned it very spur of the moment in less than a week. Friday was scheduled as an office day, where I simply show up to the Board of Education office and proceed to do nothing. So, I burned a vacation day and made a trip out to the Kansai region. Thursday night I used the Shinkansen to get to my friend's home in Shiga Prefecture, which was only a half hour away from Kyoto.

Friday afternoon was fairly tame as I took a trip up to Amanohashidate (one of the Three Views of Japan) and fulfilled my touristy desires in one fell swoop. As of now I have seen two of the three views of Japan (I went to Matsushima in August) so all that remains is the famous floating torii at Miyajima in Hiroshima. Friday night I met my friends and we went into Osaka. I had designs on dining at a Hawaiian restaurant, but the logistics were not working in my favor. We ended up going to Kua 'Aina. While not Hawaiian food, it was at least familiar and the best damn burger I've had in a long while. As we were in the Namba/Shinsaibashi area, we simply drank/partied/wandered there throughout the night until the trains started running again, then returned to my friend's place.

Saturday afternoonish we woke up and headed for Kyoto. My friends all decided to head home before the last train, but I was of two minds about staying or going. A simple coin flip decided that I would remain in Kyoto for the night on my own. I hit up an 8-bit themed bar where I played random Nintendo 64 games with random Japanese people, then to kill off the last hour and a half or so until the first train in the morning I went to a bar/dance club. Unusual situation to put myself in but I was so drunk that I didn't care. Besides, Japanese people can't dance for shit either.

By now it's Sunday morning and I made the decision to make my return. The only sleep I got yesterday was on the 2 hour Shinkansen ride to Tokyo. I met a friend from Hawaii who had studied with me at Obirin and had a Kanto-region specialty, monjayaki. After spending some time in a couple arcades I said my farewell and rode the final Shinkansen back home.

Halloween looms this weekend with a decent-looking rager coming up Saturday night with the other ALTs in Yamagata. I will know in a couple days whether or not I think I want to do that. In the meantime, a 16 mile run looms this evening, since I clearly didn't have time for it this past weekend.

(Mostly) Everything since Sendai

2010-10-05T13:21:00.007+09:00

So, what exactly have I done since that nice trip to Sendai? I'm mostly going to limit this to non-work related things.

August 24-26: New JET Orientation in Tendo. Just outside the prefectural capital, Tendo is the site of an educational institute. We were brought here for some training seminars and otherwise the chance to get better situated within Yamagata and meet a lot of new people. This was the first chance I had to do an enkai and watch Swing Girls, which was filmed in my particular region of the prefecture. After returning home on the evening of the 26th was the Komatsu Matsuri, which was a very local kine festival in the town where I live. Drank some beer and even went up on their stage and introduced myself to the townsfolk!

August 27: This was my first school visit (ever). Went to one of the junior high schools and was legitimately nervous and scared having to introduce myself in front of the whole school in the morning. Followed by the beginning of a near-endless parade of self-introductions in the individual classes. More on the actual work part of being in Japan later.

August 30: Acquired my mama-chari! This is a specific type of bicycle in Japan and again, a more detailed post on this will follow.

September 4: Was invited to a sukiyaki and sake festival by a teacher in one of my schools. The sukiyaki was the first time I ever had a chance to sample Yonezawa beef, which was as soft and tender as I was expecting it to be. The sake was all locally brewed stuff, and I had to resist the temptation to really knock them back. That didn't stop the teacher who invited me from getting pissed (drunk), and he then invited me back to his home where he wanted me to drink even more sake. I took it as slow as I could, and I eventually met his wife and kids. They couldn't stop remarking at how drunk he was. Japanese dudes have no shame in their drinking, for reals.

September 5: Invited to my first official work enkai. Enkai are essentially work parties held at a Japanese pub or restaurant. There is much drinking and they serve the important social function of allowing the normally reserved and reticent Japanese to open up and express their true feelings about...anything really. What's said at the enkai pretty much stays at the enkai. But one highlight was that when they found out I was unmarried and single, they kept asking me what I thought of one of the younger (single) teachers. No holds barred, seriously.

September 11: Went to the tai'ikusai at one of my schools. This is roughly equivalent to a sports or field day back in the States. But in Japan they're far more competitive and formal events. Following my day of baking in the sun...

Every year the Yamagata JET community rents out some cabins up in the mountains of Nagai City and proceed to drink and party away. This year was no different, and the alcohol eventually led to many guys stripping down to nothing but their underpants. Eventually people started wearing other people's shirts. I don't remember much else about the night.

September 18: Crazy busy day. Started with an imoni-kai in the morning and early afternoon. Basically, a bunch of members of the Yonezawa International Relations Association got together by a riverbank and made imoni, a delicious Japanese stew that is enjoyed in the autumn in the northern part of the country. However, Yamagata is especially famous for it.

This was followed by participating in the Yonezawa Sengoku Matsuri, a festival to celebrate the 450th birthday of Kanetsugu Naoe, a famous samurai of the Uesugi Clan. The gaijin from the area (all 10 of us who showed up) were invited to dress in samurai armor (we were just dressed as regular foot soldiers) and take part in the parade they had through central Yonezawa. On the way back at the end we broke out into our own dance and no doubt the locals thought it awesome, if not at least cute.

September 20: This day was decided upon on a whim the night before. The local ALTs decided to get together and drive out to Niigata Prefecture to the Sea of Japan. This was on a holiday but decidedly out of beach season, so we knew the beach would be almost utterly abandoned once we arrived. Turns out the weather was also overcast and rainy too. However, when we got there, much to my surprise there were a few Japanese dudes surfing in the water! The beach itself was dirty and the water didn't look inviting since there was an oil rig visible off shore and industry a few miles down the shoreline. However, I went in the surprisingly warm water and realized soon why the surf was breaking into rideable waves, as there was a sandbar in the water. Grabbing a body board I was able to ride a couple waves and this was the nicest surprise yet I've had in Japan. However, the quality of the waves suffered as the day went on, as the tide seemed to have an effect. We eventually packed up and left and spent the evening soaking at an onsen.

September 25: Some friends and I drove up to Yamagata City to attend a soccer match. In this case, we went to see Montedio Yamagata take on Shonan Bellmare. Both teams compete in the upper level of the J-League, and the match ended in a 1-1 draw. Montedio needed an equalizer in the second half to salvage the point. Save for the supporters' sections the crowd was remarkably quiet. There were moments when neither team's supporters were in the middle of a song or cheer, and I swear you could hear a pin drop in the stadium. Afterward we went to a fairly legit Indian restaurant and it was nice to break out of the relative blandness of the usual Japanese fare. The night was not over either, as we trekked to a theater to catch the new Resident Evil movie. Can't say I was too terribly impressed with it or the 3D (I really hope this fad dies off, but it seems this one has legs), but it was still better than the damn Nightmare on Elm Street remake.

September 26: I spent the night in Yamagata City, because it was here I was also to do my first-ever half marathon. Even in training I had never run 13.1 miles before, so everything about this was unknown territory for me. 11 miles was my previous longest run and I had suffered through that when I tried it earlier this year while still living in Hawaii. However, as part of my regular marathon training I was more than ready for this. At first I wanted to treat it as a training run and use it as a testbed for pacing and trying the energy gels I had brought. However, once the race got underway I was determined to turn in the best time I could. The course itself looped twice, the first half of which was mostly uphill and the second half mostly downhill. As such I took it relatively easy until halfway through that first lap (about 3 miles or so in), after it turned downhill I turned on the jets and didn't really let up from that point on. The energy gels helped stave off hitting the wall, but I quickly found out after finishing that I did not take in enough fluids during the race. This was even with actually stopping at the aid stations. Anyway, the course was measured a bit short so I only ended up running about 12.88 miles, but I did do it in 1:48:36. Assuming I ran the remaining 0.22 miles, I would have finished around 1:51:00. It doesn't bode well for being able to run my first marathon in under 4 hours, but I also have another half marathon in a couple weeks to see if I can run faster.

仙台

2010-09-28T08:47:00.005+09:00

I have let quite a bit of time slip since the last post! As such I can only break down the highlights of what has been going on with my life here. Lazy as always with pictures, but I did at the very least manage to get pics of my Sendai trip uploaded a while back. In fact, my Sendai trip is going to require its own post here.

I really like the place. All of the pictures, by the way can be found here, and I really suggest looking at them all. I figure I would have enjoyed it even more if I had given a little more thought to planning. My first day was spent getting my multiple re-entry permit (so I can enjoy travel outside of Japan in the future) and then travelling to Matsushima, about a half hour or so away from Sendai. Matsushima is one of the most beautiful natural sites in Japan, with hundreds of islands much like this one.

The bay itself offers views like these.

I saw and did way too much to list, but I did make sure to walk around and take in some views of Matsushima, even if the place is a bit touristy. Fortunately on a Wednesday it wasn't too crazy there. I can say that I wrapped up my evening in Matsushima by having a delicious teishoku with fried shrimp and oyster.

I returned to Sendai at night and found a nice bar owned by a guy from England. After engaging in some light drinking and random chit-chat with some foreigners and Japanese alike, I left without a place to stay for the night. My plans to stay at a youth hostel fell through, but fortunately I found a capsule hotel to stay at! My impression? Much, much nicer than I was expecting. Yeah, it feels like the equivalent of being a mouse in a shoebox, but at least it was comfortable and I get a full night's rest.

My second day in the region was a little more ambitious, and ultimately the most disappointing of the three. Not to say I didn't have a great time, but again better planning would have made it so much better. My plan was to visit the island of Kinkasan, which is truly quite a ways away from Sendai when you factor in the boat trip required to get there. I went in hoping to be able to view the main shrine on the island and all of the tame deer that live in its environs (I did), but the shuttle boat unfortunately had to depart early that day. So, my plan to hike to the top of the island and maybe see some monkeys along the way was foiled. I had maybe an hour to spend there, and I really underestimated the transit time require to get to just the town where the boats originated. But for what it's worth, here's a picture of me with a deer in the frame.

It wasn't all disappointment though because upon returning to Sendai that night I took in the local delicacy known as gyutan, which is grilled cow tounge. Absolutely delicious and I went in knowing exactly what it was too. See for yourself. Not so bad eh?

For my second and final night in Sendai I decided to do it old school like my trip to Kyoto a couple years back and crash at a manga cafe. In reality that was a poor idea, because the sleep (if you can call it that) came in bursts of about an hour each. Sleeping in a chair is not advised. An extra $10 would have bought me another night in the capsule hotel and a much more restorative sleep. As such I felt like a zombie much of my third day, which was spent entirely within Sendai.

I took the "Loople" tourist bus that hit all the major sites of importance within the city, but the highlight was definitely visiting the site of the now-destroyed Aoba Castle. The Date (dah-tay) clan made their base here and there is a great statue here of Date Masamune, the fellow who basically founded the city of Sendai. The former castle is built upon a hill in a well-defended location, but even it couldn't survive the reforms of the Meiji Restoration. Many castles in Japan were unfortunately lost during this period, and Aoba Castle is no exception. What's left still offers a stunning view of the city of Sendai though.

And don't forget Masamune himself! Obviously a statue increases his stature quite a bit, but the real guy was quite a shortie. I viewed his armor on a mannequin in a museum, and I was quite shocked that such a samurai badass could be so small.

In the early afternoon feeling very tired I made sure to get some goods from the foreign food store at Sendai Station and then proceeded to make my way back to Yamagata. All in all a very satisfying trip in spite of the haphazard planning. Next time I go back though, I will probably opt for a business hotel so I can better enjoy the nightlife side of Sendai. I only got a taste of this.

到着

2010-08-17T17:16:00.000+09:00

The title of this entry says 'touchaku' which means arrival. It's a bit misleading because I've been in Japan for over two weeks already, but I only just yesterday got my Internet access at home so I can finally make posts on my own computers!

Unfortunately I have to be brief with this one but I will try to hit all the major points. Tokyo Orientation went from 8/1 to 8/4, with that first night in Japan spent going to Kabukicho, since we were staying in Shinjuku. Sadly I have very, very few pictures of my time in Tokyo in general, maybe because I had a bit of a "been there, done that" attitude. At any rate, the orientation went well though it was a bit bittersweet because the other Hawaii folks are all very far away. A few budding friendships are going to be tough to maintain with the physical distance.

Fortunately the ALTs here in Yamagata seems pretty tight-knit. I arrived here on 8/4 and met my supervisor and the rest of the Kawanishi Board of Education staff. In the interim I've mostly been adjusting to life here and getting things squared away, as well as hanging out with the other ALTs in the area. We went to a fireworks festival last weekend and witnessed some Bon-related activities this past weekend. So far though I haven't really done much in my own town since everyone else lives in other towns/cities. Hopefully I'm not missing out on opportunities to weave myself into Kawanishi, but I also feel obligated to get to know the other foreigners in the region as well.

I can't prattle on much longer because I need to go for a run (more on that stuff later) and prepare for a 3-day trip to Sendai (definitely more on that later).

The next chapter begins soon!

2010-07-31T16:35:00.003+09:00

I don't think anyone reads this right now, but as I re-disseminate the blog hopefully more do! Anyway, I'm sitting here almost 12 hours from departure to Japan. JET is going to be a very different experience from study abroad, and despite all the stories I've read, questions I've asked, and expectations I hold, I will do my best to approach this with a fresh point of view and no expectations at all. My only expectation is that I will continue to be able to run and train for the marathon in December.

At any rate, I had a good run of it here in Hawaii for the past 11 months. I know now that I love and cherish this place. I've discovered that I absolutely get stoked about surfing, hiking, and so many other facets of life here. Without question I will miss Hawaii but I know that I can live here no problem. For now I take a little spur route into Japan and we'll see if it leads back to the main highway I've enjoyed driving on here in the islands.

My next post will be from somewhere in Japan. I'm not sure yet if that will be in Tokyo or until I get to my little town in Yamagata, but until then, ta-ta!

Hello World

2010-04-23T20:24:00.004+09:00

This blog is going to be making a comeback. Why you may ask? Simple fool, this sucker is going BACK to Nipponland. Yeah, I know it's been almost a year since the last post and a hell of a lot has happened since that time. The short of it is, I wisely decided against eikaiwa and recent news pretty much confirms I made the right choice. I also decided against private ALT dispatch companies like Interac after realizing they are a fairly shitty deal just to be able to live in Japan. Too much abuse going on there to boot.

So, I decided I'd move back to Hawaii and I made a successful go of it. However, I kept the dream alive and applied for JET again, this time as an ALT. Whatever I did this time around worked, because I survived the gauntlet and was shortlisted (meaning I got in). All my preliminary forms are in and I just wait until May to find out where I'm going. Departure for Tokyo orientation is July 31.

In the meantime, I'm having my mom mail me all my Japanese texts out here, because I desperately need to brush up on it. I was on the precipice of giving up on 日本語 but it seems I will have a purpose for mastering it again. This also puts off my grad/law school plans for 2-3 more years, but I can live with it. Life is too short and I feel like I didn't do Japan right the first time around. With all the changes I've made in my life I feel better-equipped for life over there.

The blog here is going to serve much the same purpose it did while I studied over there. I hope to actually update on a more frequent basis. Until I actually get out there though, I'll be posting from time to time to update on my preparations for the big move.

What's up?

2009-05-03T15:36:00.002+09:00

Yeah, I'd say it's been a while since I've decided to post something here. Lots of what I publish online ends up on Facebook or Livejournal, so I've simply just forgotten about this little thing. Of course, I did say this was a blog without a purpose a ways back, and certainly it seems that way. I don't have a seikatsu in Japan right now to talk about, but maybe that changes in the near future.

Previously I mentioned that I would be interviewing with the JET Program. Said interview occured in February, and it did not go well. Over a month went by until early April, when I found out that I had been made an alternate (essentially, waitlisted). In any other year, maybe I could have gotten the job, but with the economy being in such terrible shape there were many more applicants for far fewer positions than usual. The opportunity to be upgraded still exists, but is quite remote.

So, I'm pursuing other avenues to make a return to Japan. I have gotten word back from a couple companies in regards to English-teaching positions, so I'll interview for those (and possibly more may come up), then sit back and see what happens.

The sitting back part is a bit worrisome, but I'll be doing that in Chicago this summer. I hope to find a couple chill part time jobs and be able to crash on some couches. That's so I don't have to pay out of the ass for rent, be able to have a good time, and maybe even save a little cash. Chicago is a great base of operations for a job hunt, and I have enough connections to be able to live cheap until deciding whether to settle down and find more stable and long-term employment. Ideally I get a job in Japan and don't have to execute the latter plan.

I've been accumulating photos for a while now and hope to have those uploaded sometime soon, plus I have my graduation in two weeks followed by a week-long stay in Los Angeles. I'll have lots of goodies up in due time!

JET sez: u can haz teh interviewz

2009-01-28T15:01:00.000+09:00

Sorry, I promise to never to adopt lolcat-speak again.

But today I found out that I was accepted to interview for the JET Program! I'll know exactly when within a week or so, but I do know that the interview will be sometime in February at the Japanese consulate. Oh, and since I'm applying for CIR I'll have to interview in Japanese. Believe me, that's what I'm most nervous about. But, the whole reason I applied for CIR was to be flexible, because often CIR rejects are offered ALT positions, so long as they are enthusiastic when asked if that is a possibility. Still, I won't know until April or thereabouts whether I have a job waiting for me somewhere in Japan or not.

My first couple weeks of school went well, but I've been battling senioritis this week. I plan to get my ass back to class and back to work tomorrow. Both my Japanese courses are chill and going pass/fail with them pretty much means no stress. If I slack a bit it won't kill me. Both my poli sci courses are also chill, but those I do actually have to put forth as much effort as I can. My law class actually turned out to be a Constitutional law class with a heavy focus on civil liberties and the Bill of Rights, and that's just plain awesome. All we really have to do is write up a few case briefs throughout the semester and some other not so tough shit. My poli sci senior seminar juts requires me to write a short midterm paper and a short final paper based upon a group project I'll be doing.

The only major change was with my storytelling class, which I dropped. In its place I picked up an American studies course, entitled Religions in America. This isn't too tough either, only requiring me to lead a discussion session for about 10 minutes or so only a couple times during the semester, visit a religious site on the island, and a few other things.

So, with that out of the way I look more toward the future now. If JET hires me that means I go live with Bryan this summer for a couple months. During that time I'll fine my way back to Chicago, and yeah, probably even South Carolina for a few days (as much as I dislike the place, I can stand a short visit).

If JET doesn't hire me, then I've got some ideas. Staying here is one option, but highly dependent on finding a job well BEFORE I graduate and starting perhaps a week after I do so. Honestly, staying in Honolulu is the least likely thing. More likely is moving out to SoCal to live with Bryan for a while I either make myself comfortable there or seek out employment elsewhere. About as equally likely is finding a job back in Chicago and moving back home. Of course, in either case I hope to get involved in paralegal or otherwise find employment in a law office, which would be an ideal environment for studying for the LSATs and seeing first-hand if law school is what I really want. Seattle might be an option, but my friend who lives there is moving out, so no dice. Minnesota could afford an opportunity if Bryan and Jonathan both decide to go there for their PhD programs...and my Seattle friend is actually moving there as well. I can say for certain that South Carolina is not an option. I'd rather scrub toilets in a McDonalds in Montana than live there.

The final semester is underway!

2009-01-14T18:41:00.001+09:00

After two days of class I have attended everything I registered for, and I gotta say this will be a fairly chill semester so long as I keep up with my poli sci readings. I'm doing JPN 415 (Listening) and 425 (Translation) as pass/fail, so no pressure on me there at all. Plus, Ogasawara-sensei is teaching 415 which is awesome.

Both my poli sci courses will require a good deal of reading, and since I'm getting a letter grade for both I gotta not slack off. 375 is a law class focusing on constitutional law, and being my first class related to any kind of law it should be pretty valuable. Lots of reading, but no exams and some seemingly easy papers to write. 406 is my captone course for poli sci and the always awesome Mike Shapiro is teaching it. Basically we're going to look analyze cities via films, crime stories, music, essays, what have you. Easy enough.

The only class I really wish I had thought ahead about is my speech class that I'm using to fulfill my oral communication requirement. The class is storytelling, so I'll have to get up in front of the class and tell various kinds of stories like fables, folktales, biographies, etc. I realized at the last minute I should have probably taken this American studies course that would fulfill the requirement but not require speaking in front of lots of people. Oh well, I'll deal if I'm stuck with it.

Giving more and more thought to what to do after graduation. I'm basically acting as though JET will reject me at some point, which is simply a way to motivate me to find some backup options. One thing I've looked into is paralegal, which might serve as a good way to prepare me for law school. Plus it counts as a "real" job. The only difficulty I see there is having absolutely no experience in the field. We'll see how everything goes.

あけましておめでとう！

2009-01-06T08:16:00.001+09:00

Kinda late, but I haven't gotten back to regular net access until just last night. 2009 is already off to a wonderful start, consider: the Dolphins got crushed yesterday, I got food poisoning from eating a hamburger in Atlanta's airport. Things will surely get better. :/

2008 was one hell of a year though. It had its ups and downs for sure. Let's review it really quick.

Jan-Mar: Bored out of my goddamn mind at my mom's place in SC. Believe me, this more than cemented my desire to never live there for more than a week at a time.
Apr-Jul: JAPAN! Highlight of the year without question. Learned more about myself than I figured I ever would, met a lot of interesting people, but I'm still left with some questions and regrets about my time there.
Aug-Dec: Possibly my most satisfying semester of all here at UH. Was able to get out regularly and hit up the beach as well, but the big story is my academic success. I scored a 3.67 over 18 credits, so big ups to me there. To cap it all off one of my more rewarding trips back home to Chicago, but the whole Christmas deal is starting to wear thin really fast. Turning 25 was nice, but each birthday from here on out is significantly less important, save for those big ones (30, 40, 50, etc).

I didn't make any resolutions last year, because I don't like them. Instead I will list off some things I'd like to do.

1. GRADUATE (please?)
2. Shed off about 30 pounds or so
3. Meet someone (female) who I might be able to fall in love with
4. Get a job of some kind, be that JET or somewhere else
5. Become better at meeting people and making friends
6. Find a hobby that does not involve being a total nerd
7. Continue improving my Japanese, and pass 2-kyuu (assuming I didn't totally luck out and pass it against all odds already)

Onward to a new year!

これ、現在目的がないブログのだ。

2008-11-15T14:25:00.002+09:00

The title of this post says "At present this is a blog without purpose."

A fair assessment, as this is supposed to be a blog about life in Japan, and I haven't been living there for quite some time now. All my pictures from Japan have been uploaded and available for perusal for quite some time now, so having no new material makes it hard to post. Of course the subheading of the blog says differently, but honestly school and life in general precludes me from finding the time to devote to this thing.

School is going well, and very little will hold me back from graduating. I can't speak to my grades this semester, but 3 As, 3 Bs seem to be in the cards. My Japanese courseload will be totally finished, and I can enjoy my first and last semester at UH with a single Japanese course in the spring. Speaking of spring, I will only be taking 4 classes, and they will all be either Tues/Thurs classes or online, which leaves me plenty of time to be working part time, but also job hunting as well. Oh, and looking back on my previous post, I did decide to keep political science as a second major. Thinking on it there was no reason not to and it provides an extra selling point I can use

On that front, I've started keeping an eye on Craigslist, and eyeing potential openings with non-profit organizations. Staying in Hawaii to work after graduation is looking quite unlikely at the moment unless I can get a hefty salary or wage, so I'm looking into the Chicago area, but also Seattle as well. Working in Japan is still an option, as I will be sending off my JET application early next week, but I still have to be selected for an interview, interview, and then be accepted. That process takes a while. Jobs outside of English teaching are hard to come by for foreigners in Japan, and there seem to be two ways to go about obtaining them. First, getting your start as an English teacher and building up a network of people who know people who can hook you up with people who are connected to a company that may be able to interview you. Knowing people helps a lot for sure. The other way of course is to work your way in from the outside by working for a foreign firm with ties to or who does business directly in Japan. Honestly, if JET is a no go, then I will be leaning toward the latter. I'm open to suggestions and all job offers though!

The life part of well, life, is going okay. I've actually been able to go to the beach quite a bit this semester, which for the first time really makes me feel like I'm living IN Hawaii. I don't go to the beach for the sun though, I go to swim in the water and bodysurf some waves when the conditions are not life-threatening. As of yet I have not gotten pictures uploaded from these various trips, but I do have some videos I put up on Youtube. I'm not featured in any of these (as I am the cameraman) but I hope to eventually get a friend to film me while I get my ass kicked out there.

Waimea Bay on the North Shore of Oahu. This place is known for monstrous waves as winter swells roll in from the north, and there is a surf competition held here annual but only if the waves are above 25 feet. In this video the waves aren't anywhere near that extreme, but I wouldn't advise weak and/or inexperienced swimmers braving these conditions either.

Sandy Beach on the east side of Oahu. On clear days you can very easily see the island of Molokai to the east. This place is notorious for its literally killer currents and shore break. If you're not careful you can get caught up in the shore break and get mercilessly pounded by waves breaking right on top of you repeatedly. I normally swim out far enough to avoid the break, or if I have to face it I just swim underneath and hope to not get taken by it. Of course these intense conditions make Sandys a haven for bodysurfers, and many of the world's best come here.

Wake Me Up When September Ends

2008-09-24T08:36:00.002+09:00

I have not totally abandoned this blog, but I will admit that I had forgotten about it! Partly due in part to school, partly due to thinking on the future. The latter is what this entry will actually be covering.

As I've mentioned before, I will be graduating with my BA in Japanese this coming May. All of my Japanese credits will be accumulated by the end of this semester. I'll be attempting to pass level 2 of the Japanese Language Proficency Test this December. Then sometime in the spring I'll be taking the GRE. That much is certain, as everything else is up in the air for now. I still have to decide whether or not I want to double major in political science, and I think my indecisiveness regarding that is characteristic of my life in general. My goal for any kind of graduate study is going to be related to Japanese or linguistics, and so poli sci is really of secondary importance. Even if I wanted to study poli sci in more depth in grad school, having majored in it isn't at all a pre-requisite. A BA in just about anything will gain you access to most liberal arts masters programs. Meaning I'm heavily leaning toward declaring it as a minor, and freeing up 6 credits I can use to take anything I want to in the spring.

That would mean I would have to fill up a whopping 9 credits with courses that won't count toward anything. So, I'll probably be auditing a few Japanese courses, taking some kind of directed reading/research course, or enrolling in a graduate level course or two. Basically, this would give me a chance next semester to get a feel for what graduate-level work is going to be like, and I think that's a lot more valuable than a second undergraduate major.

But, I don't want to rush straight into grad school either, and even if I were to be fully funded, there's still cost of living expenses to deal with, and grad school leaves almost no time for jobs on the side. At the same time I have a desire to return to Japan. So, how does take a year off from school, earn some money, and get a chance to do so in Japan? The easy answer is theJET Program. I've always talked about JET being a kind of last resort for employment if I couldn't find anything better; at the same time though it offers a chance to work at a decent salary for just one year and provide some excellent experience (which my resume honestly is greatly lacking in). Getting accepted to JET would mean I would be living in Japan from early August '09 until late July of '10, which would give me more time to nail down exactly what I want to do for graduate school, do some more thorough research on various programs, and save up some money in the process.

That's the idea at least, JET applications go live tomorrow and the dealine is in November, so this is something I gotta decide on in short order. I'll report back once things are a little less ethereal.

Pictures!

2008-08-13T10:44:00.003+09:00

If you haven't been checking my photo album out, I added a ton of new pictures a few days ago. Just look up above and click on 'My Photos' and they will open up in a new window. I even added some non-Japan ones, just scroll further down to find some older photos I've had sitting around on my hard drive. They've been rather unappreciated by anyone but me, so please take a gander.

With basically every last photo I took from Japan up now, I'll eventually go back through and explain my experiences relating to some of them. The Kansai and Fuji trips definitely deserve some elaboration. Any new photos being added will be from Hawaii and the rest of the good 'ole US of A, so the book is definitely closed on Japan there.

I've wasted little time trying to get back into a groove here, wearing the rubber slippers full-time again, riding my bicycle for transportation, swimming, and so forth. Sunburns are common too, and my shoulders got fried up after going to Hanauma Bay this past weekend, which is strange because my sunscreen kept the rest of my skin from being baked. Got to see a couple sea turtles though, which was surprising given the sad state the coral reef there is in.

The only thing really missing right now is the grind of school. I both relish it and at the same time will hate it approximately one day after it starts again. This semester is gearing up to be my busiest yet, even if you count out preparation for grad school and other activities (volunteering, part-time job, drinking beer and eating pizza). My schedule is in a bit of a flux right now, due to a recent realization that I need to become semi-proficient in a second East Asian language. This would be quite beneficial moving onward to masters (and perhaps even doctoral) studies. I decided Chinese would be the way to go, but since Chinese 101 is only offered in the fall it means I'd have to juggle some things around. It's all good, and having a year of Chinese under my belt before graduating means less time I have to spend taking it later on. Anyway, my new tentative schedule is as follows:

Japanese 407, Japanese 420, Japanese 451, Japanese 452, Chinese 101, Political Science 337

The spring would look something like this:

East Asian Languages and Literature 271, Chinese 102, Political Science 3XX, Political Science 40X

I'll know for sure what it will be in a couple weeks.

Owari

2008-08-03T08:29:00.002+09:00

I arrived back in Honolulu at 8am yesterday, and had forgotten just how clean and fresh the air is here. Anyway, I'm slowly getting used to the fact that I'm back on American soil and that I can use English freely once more. Something feels a bit "off" for lack of a better way to describe; a part of me feels like I'm still in Japan and there's a bit of cognitive dissonance to be dealt with. If I were staying anywhere but Waikiki this wouldn't be a problem, but there's enough Japanese tourists here to make me want to blurt out stuff in that language.

Coming up to the UH campus yesterday I ran into a former Japanese teacher and I just let it fly. Save for a small discussion about housing for the upcoming semester (which was admittedly in English), everything else was in Japanese. I hope I can continue to speak Japanese and will be taking steps to ensure that I can, but I'm afraid that my ability will deteriorate even a little bit, since I'm surrounded by English again. Even if I take steps like downloading and watching Japanese TV shows and anime on a more regular basis, I'll still be missing the everyday things: hearing random conversations, reading signs and posters, and other things that simply can't be replicated.

All this proves is that when it comes to learning a foreign language, experience in the mother country is worth its weight in gold. There is a bit of an anti-corollary to this however. A native speaker isolated from his native language community invariably suffers. Words and expressions that one would rarely use even in their native country tend to become harder to recall. I wouldn't say that one "forgets" their native language, and in my case I had plenty of other foreign students with which to converse in English, but there are plenty of expats who move to Japan for years at a time and really isolate themselves from English-speaking communities. If you end up using Japanese for most things, and don't expose your ears and eyes to spoken and written English, you can and will "forget" words. The grammar itself is practically fused into your brain and can't be forgotten, but recalling some words becomes a bigger challenge the longer you isolate yourself. Even if you manage to keep using your native language, there's a problem in being isolated from new words and expressions as well. Upon returning you may find yourself puzzled at small, but subtle changes in the language; others may look at you funny as you say something that's just slightly outdated. But, this is all second-hand knowledge; I only stayed in Japan for four months.

Anyway, I've prattled on for long enough. With all this free time I'll eventually get around to posting pictures I've neglected, and relaying the experiences that go with them. I will attempt to keep a noted focus on Japan with this blog, but the overall theme here will likely change into "general life blog" or something along those lines.

9 hours to go!

2008-08-01T09:48:00.003+09:00

Climing Mt. Fuji is easily the greatest physical and mental challenge I've ever faced. There will be more to come about that later, but I've simply run out of time here. My flight back to Honolulu departs in about 9 hours. I'm scrambling to leave this apartment as spotless as I found it, before heading out and running some final (non-critical) errands. I plan on being at Narita 3-4 hours before my departure, and from there it's approximately 7 hours to fly back to Honolulu.

The whole time-travel aspect of this is kinda funny. As I post this it's 9:51am on August 1. I will be taking off from Narita at around 7:30pm. When I land in Honolulu, it will be about 8:00am there on August 1. The International Date Line is tricky like that, and as such this will be the longest Friday I will likely ever experience.

I've also gone and switched my computer's GMT offset to -10, so it's back on Hawaii time, thus all future posts (including this one probably) will be BEHIND (in all likelihood) the time zone you're reading from.

Anyway, I'll check in again once I get back to UH and its freezing cold library. This is Mike, signing off from Japan.

72 hours to go!

2008-07-29T19:03:00.002+09:00

First of all, my trip to western Japan was quite awesome. In a span of 36 hours I left from Paul's place in Gifu, visited Todai-ji in Nara, Himeji Castle in Himeji, had okonomiyaki in Osaka, and visited five separate spots in Kyoto, before stopping off in Nagoya to await the trains that would return me to Tokyo. There are over 200 pictures, so I assure you I'll get around to posting them.

I have many other pictures from the past few months I haven't yet even touched. They're all sitting in random folders on my desktop, cluttering things. So, in the interest of cleaning things up a bit, I'll move to getting those uploaded and posted once I get back to Hawaii.

The last major event is my climb of Mt. Fuji. Tomorrow morning my group and I will be on our way out. In preparation I have packed accordingly. First, make no mistake, Mt. Fuji is a honest-to-god mountain, the highest peak in all of Japan. I will be packing a sweater and a jacket to help keep warm up there, since our assault on the summit will be at nighttime. Temperatures below freezing do not faze me whatsoever, but normally one has time to acclimate. Instead, I'll be going from 95 degree heat and humidity to under 30 degrees in a matter of hours, not to mention the change in altitude from sea level to 12,000 feet. Food and water, although available even at the summit, is hideously expensive. So, I will be lugging a 2 liter bottle of water with me (which will at least get lighter as I go up), as well as some Calorie Mates for some highly portable nutrition. Of course I'm still lacking a couple things. When we arrive at the trailhead I'm going to be purchasing a pair of gloves and a hiking pole as well. Maybe a poncho as well, even though my outer jacket will be waterproof.

The day after I return from Fuji is the day of my departure. Everything for that has been taken care of. All my heavy luggage is packed and already being delivered to Narita Airport. I've already test-packed everything and I'm good to go. The only thing I may do is make a quick stop to a bookstore in Shinjuju (which is on the way to begin with) to get a couple books that I can use to study for the Japanese Language Proficiency Test. Beyond that it seems time is running out very quickly. Following my trip to Fuji I plan to make one final update here, so I'm not signing off from Japan just yet here.

So, about those July plans...

2008-07-21T21:49:00.002+09:00

Nothing ever really goes 100% as planned, and as such let me update you on the past month or so. I never did get to go to that soccer match, since it was raining that day and I was in no mood to deal with that. My friend Paul did visit last weekend, but all I had time to do with him was visit Akibhabara and check out a couple places in Tokyo. I have pictures and will get to uploading those. The weekend before that my friend Kelly came to visit Tokyo (she had been studying in Korea this spring) and I went to...Akihabara. She was with her mother and her auntie and they surprisingly had a good time there, especially when I took them to the toy section of the giant Yodobashi Camera store.

I also did get a chance to visit the Ghibli museum, and though pictures inside were not allowed, I did get plenty of nice pictures from outside! The place was really cool and when I get pictures uploaded I'll dedicate a post to it. If you're not totally familiar with Studio Ghibli, all you need to really know is that they are the Japanese equivalent of Walt Disney Studios.

This past month I also visited a couple Japanese elementary schools as part of my Fieldwork class, and it was quite fun. Since I also have pictures of these visits (but I didn't actually take any of the pictures) I will also do a separate post on these when time permits. Lord knows that's running out right now.

I actually only have three more days of school left now. Tomorrow I take my Japanese final, Wednesday I submit my short paper for Fieldwork, take an exam for another class, and Thursday I submit a term paper and take my final exam for Japanese lit. Immediately following that I will be returning to my apartment and packing up for a couple days in Kansai (Western Japan). I'll be getting there by Shinkansen (bullet train) and with my friend Paul (who lives in that area) we'll be doing a whirlwind tour. We'll try to get to Osaka, Nara, and Kyoto in a matter of 36 hours. Saturday night I return to Tokyo by night train, so the following day I'll probably bomb around Tokyo a bit, maybe make a final visit to Akihabara (can you tell I like that place yet?). I'm most looking forward to visiting Kyoto, and Paul and I plan to spend the bulk of our time here. As it was one of the very few places spared by Allied bombing during the second World War, it's a great opportunity to see a great deal of the old Japan.

Following that trip I'm basically packing up and taking care of the loose ends, like canceling my cell phone and health insurance, since the two days prior to my departure will be spent climbing Mt. Fuji. Then it's back to Hawaii. I could ruminate and reflect on my time here, but I think that's better spent after I've visited another part of Japan and climbed its highest peak. At that point I think I'll have a better perspective. However, I'd be a huge liar if I said I wasn't looking forward to returning to the States. Hawaii may not be home, but I feel I've carved out enough of a niche there to make it feel like one. So, who doesn't look forward to going home after being away for so long? Yet, I feel that I will one day yearn to return here, and I have months of experience (both good and bad to draw on) when the time comes. Of course I'll have more later.

July Plans

2008-06-26T17:31:00.002+09:00

The last month I'm here in Japan is rapidly approaching, and the last month and a half or so has been pretty quiet and tame, save for a couple things here and there, and a trip I took to Yokosuka Naval Base. However, I should be getting busy again quite soon, and I'll certainly have things to do again the very last week I'm here (and with no school to get in the way). Anyway, here's how things are looking.

June 28: Going to Akihabara and to a bar in Shinjuku later in the evening.

June 29: Going to a J-League soccer match in Tokyo. I've never been to a pro soccer match of any sort before, so hopefully the weather cooperates and I get to go.

July 12: Going to the Ghibli Museum, a museum featuring the work of famed animation studio, Studio Ghibli.

July 13-24: My friend Paul will be visiting from Gifu, and though I haven't yet decided what to do, likely a trip to some parts of Tokyo is in order. I may or may not take this time to take in a baseball game in Yokohama, if the Baystars happen to be at home. I'm also speculating that somewhere in this timeframe my Japanese lit class will be taking a field trip to Kamakura.

July 23/24-26/27: School will certainly be over by this time, and I'll be taking a shinkansen train out to Gifu to visit Paul. We may or may not take a daytrip to Kyoto, but it remains to be seen yet if I'll go at all.

July 30-31: This here will probably be the highlight of my entire time in Japan, so nothing like saving the best thing for last. This is when I will be traveling to Mt. Fuji and climbing to the summit (in this case, more like hiking) just in time for sunrise over Japan. Land of the rising sun indeed.

August 1: Flying back to Hawaii.

I'm sure there will be one final izakaya or karaoke trip in there somewhere, so needless to say the last month I'm here should be a good one.

George Carlin (1937-2008)

2008-06-23T18:32:00.003+09:00

I know this is a Japan blog, but this is too big to ignore. Ask me who my hero is. Go ahead, ask. You might be surprised to hear that my hero is a comedian. Well, he was a comedian. That person was none other than George Carlin, and it is with a very heavy heart that I report that he has died at the age of 71.

Why do I idolize a comedian? I don't fancy myself one; I was never a class clown in school either. Simply, it was what he said that drew me to him. He could see the (pardon my French) bullshit in American life for what it was, and he was never afraid to push the boundaries of what was deemed "acceptable". I tend to notice the small, trifle things in life, and no doubt that Carlin did the same and used it in his comedy was what attracted me to him. However, his philosophy on life and death itself informed much of my own early thoughts on the same, and because he could make me laugh his authority was that much greater to me, and still is.

Fortunately I did get an opportunity to see him once in the flesh back in 2005. He was out of rehab and working on material for his then-upcoming HBO special "Life is Worth Losing" and happened to make an appearance in Waukegan, IL. I didn't even realize he was going to do so until the very day of his performance until my friend Vadim called me up and asked me if I wanted to see George Carlin. Apparently word hadn't gotten out about it so we got tickets and thoroughly enjoyed his routine. I knew at the time that getting such an opportunity was special, given the condition of his health, and sure enough three years later he's gone.

It's not easy when the hero in your life dies. When I read the news I felt like I had actually lost a close friend, even though I had never the chance to meet him personally. It's more of a sadness that America's best bullshit detector is no longer alive and that I will never again get a chance to laugh at new George Carlin material.

In other news, last week I made a Youtube video. If you're interested in what my apartment here in Japan is like, give it a watch!

Mike? Are you okay?

2008-06-09T21:57:00.002+09:00

In a manner of speaking, I'm fine. The apartment living has its up and downs, but the positives far outweigh the negatives. I've been enjoying the fact I can choose when and what I want to eat, and I've made a few meals of my own. Stir frys are quite simple and taste quite good with a side of rice, but I'm soon going to make some curry. That's going to be fun and the sheer amount I'll be making should last me quite a while. Some nights when I don't feel like making anything, I just pick up some cheap eats from a nearby sandwich shop since they discount everything after 5 pm. Speaking of food, I will be hopefully throwing a taco party (yeah, a party where I make tacos) in the future since I crave something vaguely resembling Mexican cuisine. I'll even spend the extra cash from some Coronas as well!

School has kept me occupied for the most part, but for what it's worth I did get a 93.5% on my Japanese midterm and I feel I'm doing well elsewhere. Attendance is another issue, but so long as I'm not falling behind I can deal with it. So, I haven't actually done much lately. Since I only have about seven more weeks or so left, that will have to change soon. A Japanese baseball game is still on my menu, as is going to Kamakura, and visiting other parts of Tokyo. Hopefully there is another all-you-can-drink karaoke waiting in the wings as well. Also, the big trip comes at the end of July, when I will be venturing out to Nagoya, Gifu, Kyoto, and hopefully Osaka. My friend Paul has offered to pay for a Shinkansen (bullet train) ticket for me to get out there, and I'd be wise to not refuse such a generous offer.

In quite recent news, I've recently been dealing with something called a Pilonidal sinus. Basically a cyst forms over one's tailbone around the gluteal cleft (read: buttcrack), likely caused by ingrown hairs. The word pilonidal itself means "nest of hairs". I won't go into too much detail since the wiki article describes it all much better, but needless to say it's been a painful experience. I had it lanced this past weekend and been taking antibiotics which has made it feel a whole lot better, but I'm worried that a second cyst may be forming, and another trip to the clinic may be in order. Fortunately they speak English (quite well I might add) there so I have no qualms about going back whatsoever. Japanese health insurance is also a wonderful thing and I'm quite glad I did not dilly-dally in getting it.

I hope to provide more visual content shortly, as I still have photos from a visit to Akihabara (and if you've read the news recently, what an unfortunate event) from last month yet to upload, and since I can take videos with my digital camera, I would like to at least offer a tour of my apartment to illustrate some finer differences between American and Japanese living. All for another time though. I hope to be posting more frequently in the future!

The Honeymoon Period Ends

2008-05-14T20:30:00.003+09:00

Well, it ended a while ago, but it's taken me a good while to get around to blogging about it. Basically, the concept of a honeymoon period that you can apply to a newlywed couple can also be applied to living in a different or foreign land. The novelty keeps one from initially recognizing or dealing with any problems that may arise. So yes, I'd say the novelty of Japan has worn off. There's still much to see and do, but for the most part everyday life is boring and not very thrilling; school or work tends to do that to people, including me.

Anyway, it's time to air out the dirty laundry and then relegate it to the past. A week ago I had a bit of an incident with my host mother. She is quite the overbearing one and the overprotection from her made me feel just a bit uncomfortable. There were cultural chasms as well that I didn't think I could cross given my relative lack of ability to express my feelings in Japanese, and my host mother's inability to really understand my English. Of course there was some inaction on my part, and if you know me well enough at all I can be a bit too passive and quiet. Couple that with a bit of a bout of depression (and everything else) and I could no longer get along living there. The family as a whole I have no problem with, and I know that they and my host mother are good people, but sometimes you can't just live with good people. My brother is a great example (and not because I was forced to live with him for most of my life), as I would certainly avoid having to live with him for a significant period of time if I could avoid it. So anyway, Obirin University was very understanding of the situation as it is not an uncommon one for them to encounter, and moved me into an apartment.

So, I've got a place I can call my own, and it certainly feels a little strange. Even though I've lived in apartments and dorms (and a house without a parent there, thanks Mom!) for the past five or so years, I've always had roommates. I really haven't lived completely by myself before, but there are other students in the adjacent apartments, so it's not so bad. I'm just hoping I can deal with my present mental condition (read: a bit depressed and unmotivated) and get back to enjoying Japan again.

I've got plenty of pictures that I've been too lazy to post. I've also got some from a trip to Akihabara, but I'll upload those at another time. Also, I didn't get to see a whole lot since I didn't go on a Sunday, which is when all the really interesting people come out. One of these days.

I went to the Tama Zoo a few weeks ago, and the best part was a bus we rode that let us see some lions up close. Very up close.

Karaoke differs greatly from in the US. Instead of singing in front of an entire bar, you rent out a private booth (or in the case of this picture, room). It's hard to meet new people this way, but the upside is you usually get to sing a whole lot more songs, and most places offer nomihoudai or all-you-can-drink for a number of hours. Anyway, fill me up with beer, give me a microphone, and this is what happens.

The flying carp flags you see are called koinobori, and they honor the boys in a household in hope they grow up strong and healthy. They are flown in late April to early May in observance of Children's Day, which was on May 5. We were all here because a friend's host father was having an outdoor barbecue (as were hundreds of other people as well).

Fall Plans

2008-05-03T00:32:00.005+09:00

I'm going to shift gears a bit from the Japan-only posts and fill you all in on what I will be doing upon returning to UH for the fall semester. Today was my registration day...at 4:00 AM to be exact, and fortunately I was able to get into every course I need. Being a senior certainly has its benefits, and lack of registration headaches is definitely a perk I enjoy having. Of course it wasn't without a bit of effort, since my credits here haven't transferred yet, and had I not emailed the right people a couple days ago, I would have not been able to register for some of my classes today. If I've learned anything from school, it's definitely not to expect people to take care of you 100%.

Anyway, pending approval from a teacher that has restricted enrollment to a class I'm interested in taking, my schedule is basically complete. The good news is everything I'm looking at is confirming me to be able to graduate in almost exactly one year. I could do it at the end of this year if I really wanted to, but go me for wanting to also double major in political science. Anyway, the classes!

Japanese 451 (Structure of Japanese): An upper-level course in Japanese linguistics. This is the type of stuff I'd like to work on in grad school.
Japanese 452 (Introduction to Japanese Pedagogical Grammar): Essentially, how to teach Japanese. Also important stuff to know for a budding grad student.
Japanese 407 (Readings in Original Texts: Modern Literature): I honestly don't like most Japanese literature, but I'll grin and bear it. Linguistics is what I like.
East Asian Languages and Literature 271 (Japanese Literature in Translation: Traditional): Tale of Genji and the like. At least this stuff is going to be read in English!
Political Science 337 (American Political Theory): See, it's not all Japanese stuff! The name of the course explains it all, but the professor who teaches it is quite awesome.
History 321 (History of Japan): Self-explanatory.

Everything is set in stone for me save for one exception. There is a Japanese course that offers a travel industry internship, and as a sweet bonus it provides an oral communication credit, something UH requires to graduate. I'm awaiting approval to register for that, and if I can I'm dropping the history course. But, if I can't get it then my schedule as above stands.

Where are all the posts?

2008-04-30T21:57:00.002+09:00

In case you're wondering, general business coupled with general laziness has kept me from posting lately. I sometimes forget that I'm here to study, and in general that part of life in Japan really isn't all that different from being at school in Hawaii. However, I can make a brief comment on differences in Japan and America's school systems. Only basic information for now, since I will be posting in a couple months or so in more detail, since I'm taking a class where I'll actually be visiting a couple Japanese elementary schools.

First of all, Japan's school year starts in April. Spring being a time of renewal and growth, as well as the early April being the peak of cherry blossom blooming, it does make sense to start things in April. As is likely well known, school is a year-round, with breaks of two weeks in the winter and spring, and a six week summer break from the end of July to the beginning of September. At least, this is what I've heard. As is also likely well known, Japanese school children work very, very, very hard. It is not uncommon for their school day to end around 5 in the evening, followed by a trip to a 'juku' or cram school which are designed to help students prepare for the entrance exams they need to get into high school.

Yes, unlike America where education is compulsory until one is about 18, Japanese compulsory education ends around the age of 15. Around 96% do continue their education, but to get into a good high school, a Japanese student must pass an entrance exam, and getting into that good high school is almost a requirement for then being able to pass yet another exam to get into a good university. Hence the cram schools. Hence the suicides when many of these overworked kids fail miserably and see no hope for the future. American students don't work nearly as hard unless their ultimate goal is Harvard or the like.

However, when the time comes for college, the tables are turned. Japanese universities seem to be nothing more than a four year vacation to reward them for slaving away as kids. They don't work nearly as hard as American students do because generally all they have to do is attend lectures, copy notes, and pass (easy) tests. Homework, reports, papers, presentations, and the like are almost entirely non-existent. We bust our asses by comparison, and it is for this reason that American universities are hailed around the world, whereas most Japanese universities are unknown. Don't think though that just because I'm going to a Japanese university that I am also coasting by. The classes designed for international students pretty much require a level of work I expect back home, and Obirin University itself is quite Western-leaning in regards to its educational mission from what I've gathered, so believe me when I say I wish I had more free time.

Look at that, I made that post go on too long. I will be uploading photos and doing more posts in the near future on them, but if you want to check them about before I can write anything on them, be sure to visit my photo album which I also have linked up above. In the mean time, enjoy a picture of a new favorite pastime of mine, (drunken) karaoke.

What is Engrish?

2008-04-19T09:40:00.002+09:00

Without getting too wordy, Engrish can be summed up as usage of grammatically incorrect English, especially in East Asian countries. The term itself is derived from the fact that the Japanese language has ambiguity between the 'r' and 'l' sounds, so the Japanese pronunciation of 'English' comes out as 'Engrish'. English is used for signs, t-shirts, and all manner of things here, and much of it is grammatically sound. But Engrish almost always sticks out like a sore thumb, either stupefying you or making you laugh. I speculate that Engrish exists for a couple reasons. First, a lack of understanding of correct English by a Japanese translator results in the strange phrases and misuse of words. Second, a computer is doing the translating, and if you've ever used Babel Fish you know what I'm talking about. Since I'm finally here in Japan I can finally confidently relate some first-hand experience with Engrish.

This hat highlights the humor that can be found in Engrish. They're all supposed to be emulations of American license plates, but in this case it seems they forgot to put in the 'Islands' into 'US Virgin'. So what we're left with is a hat advertising the fact that you're from an American who is a virgin.

Oh god, here it is, the classic example of Engrish. I need not even explain anything, any native English speaker can see what's gone wrong here.

What I can add here is the fact that English is seen as hip or cool in Japanese culture (all the more so if you can actually use it), especially so by young people, but even in the older generation I think that any command of English makes you stand out. So you end up with many shirts like this that just have a bunch of big, bold words written on them. Of course, don't take only my word for it, because http://www.engrish.com/ has been documenting this phenomenon long before I even knew it existed, so scoot over there and find even zanier examples of Engrish.

School begins tomorrow :(

2008-04-14T19:52:00.002+09:00

Actually, I'm not too sad about it, because I haven't been in a classroom since taking finals about four months ago. It's not good to be totally carefree for that long, and I'm looking forward to some semblance of routine and structure in my life. I'll just get to experience all that in a very awesome place for the next 15 weeks!

I do apologize for a lack of updates recently, but so it goes. My pink eye is completely gone and it seems I didn't pass it on to anyone else. The main highlights of the past few days are basically going to Yokohama on Friday (walking around and seeing the sights), seeing my host brother's soccer practice on Saturday, going to my first karaoke in Japan later that Saturday (nomihoudai for three hours, oh boy), getting my cell phone (keitai) on Sunday, and eating sushi at a friend's host family's place Sunday night. Of course I'll let pictures do most of the talking. If you are reading from Japan, then by all means reply and let's exchange cell numbers if we haven't yet.

Everyone went bowling in Sagamihara last week. I got a 77. I suck at bowling.

This is a Gundam arcade game, you get into that capsule and it's quite the immersive experience, or so I'm told. I didn't play it because it costs 500 yen.

From my Yokohama trip: the tallest building in the photo here is actually the tallest in all of Japan.

Yokohama has a Chinatown that we went to and had lunch at, this is a Buddhist (I think) temple that's in the middle of the neighborhood.

Yokohama has a once-tallest-in-the-world ferris wheel, long since eclipsed by many others but still impressive nonetheless. We rode it!

My little brother's soccer practice: Ryo is the one to the right of the two kids wearing red jerseys.

Hospitals in Japan

2008-04-09T17:28:00.002+09:00

The hospital trip went quite well today, in and out in about an hour. Armed with my electronic dictionary I was able to convey with words (and with my eyes themselves) that something wasn't quite right with my eyes. I think Japanese words like 'ganka' (ophthalmology), 'ketsumakuen' (conjunctivitis), megusuri (eye drops), and 'hokensho' (health insurance card) are forever burned into my brain now. Anyway after registering as a new patient with the hospital, I went upstairs to wait to see the doctor in ophthalmology, and after examining my eyes even he said "conjunctivitis" in English. So, I got myself a nice prescription for some eye medicine to fight off the bacteria. Hopefully this goes away quickly, but I just hate using eye drops.

Moving onto other things, the upcoming weekend will be my last before classes start up. We seem to be planning on going to Yokohama on Friday, and doing various other things but I'll have to see if my host family has anything planned. I did get registered for classes though, as follows:

Japanese III
Kanji II
Modern Pop Culture
Modern Japanese Literature
Political Geography of East Asia
Fieldwork-D

Getting placed into Japanese III sucks, but it shows just how much I've regressed being away from school for so long. Once I get a look at the syllabus I'll know for sure though whether I should be there or not. Everything else covers some interest of mine, but the most interesting experience of all should come from Fieldwork-D. Basically it is a "class" where you are taken to various local elementary, middle, and high schools to interact with students. Pretty neat stuff if you ask me, and excellent resume material I think.

See? Even crappy stuff happens here!

2008-04-09T07:47:00.002+09:00

Yesterday was quite the dreary one. It was cold. It rained all day long. I don't really know if I fell totally dried out yet, but at least this morning the sun is shining. I went bowling with friends here in Sagamihara, and that was quite fun, but that was just the start of the real "fun". My host mother took me to the Sagamihara City Hall to do my alien registration and get my national health insurance card, and while we were there I noticed one of my eyes started to hurt a little bit. Thought nothing of it, thinking that perhaps something had gotten in there and was causing irritation. When we returned home I started to notice a whitish-greenish discharge coming slowly coming out. Uh oh. Don't tell me... Went to bed and this morning...

Yeah, at least my eyes are open. When I woke up the pus had of coursed dried out and fused my eyes shut. My host family is obviously appalled at this turn in events and told me where the nearest hospital is. Looks like I've got a bit of conjunctivitis (pink eye) and will probably need to get some kind of prescription to fight it off. This means I need to venture out into my first Japanese hospital adventure. I know I covered this at some point in my Japanese study, but it all evades me right now. Oh well, gesturing, broken Japanese, and asking for someone who can speak even rudimentary English will be the order of the day. Wish me luck.

First Real Update From Japan!

2008-04-06T20:43:00.002+09:00

At long last I have secured regular internet access in my host family's house, so I can update as often as I want now. In short, I am having an absolute blast here and hope the honeymoon doesn't end. Alas, it will and once the wonder and amazement wears off I'm sure I might find something to dislike about Japan. Right now it's quite okay. Anyway, I don't want this post to get too long, so I'm just going to summarize the past few days. Remember that I'm on Japan time now, so everything is a day ahead of the US.

Wednesday: Arrived in Japan at Narita Airport. Spent the night in a hotel near the airport.
Thursday: Everyone was bused through central Tokyo on our way to Obirin University in Machida. There was a welcome lunch before everyone who was staying in either an apartment or with a host family split off. I met my host family for the first time and moved in that night.
Friday: Orientation stuff all day long at school. I learned how to use just a small portion of the Japanese transit system. For those who are familiar, I take the JR East Yokohama Line from Sagamihara station to Fuchinobe station (about 10 minutes) to get to school. Before getting to Sagamihara station I can either choose to walk about 25 minutes or take a bus that takes about 10. From Fuchinobe station there is a free bus that takes another 10 minutes to get to school. Anyway, later that day I went to Yodobashi Camera (an electronics store) to pick up an adapter for my laptop power cable and returned back home.
Saturday: Met up with friends from Hawaii and walked a bit around Machida, got lunch where I eat an absolutely delicious tempura udon. We then went to a 100 yen store (think of something like a Ross but with 5 floors) and from there went to my friend Kristie's host family's house to meet them, and since they were having a party we all joined in. Quite a bit of beer, wine, and sake were all consumed, and I somehow made it home last night.
Today: With my host family (sans host mother, she had to work today) we all went to an indoor water park called Tokyo Summerland in Hachioji. There was also an outdoor amusement park as well. Little kids have way too much energy, because I passed out for a couple hours when we got back home.

So that's it for now. The upcoming week will be full of paperwork and administrative stuff, but there are plenty of days off between now and the 15th, which is when classes begin. Of course, I posted a couple new albums of pictures, so here's a sampling of them. Click on the pictures to go to the album they're in.

Japanese vending machine in Narita Airport. Proud to say that an iced cafe latte from a vending machine was my first purchase in Japan.

A christmas-themed love hotel. Weird? Yes.

The whole gang assembled. Woo-sensei's eyes are closed. :/

We couldn't have come to Japan at a better time; the cherry blossoms are so beautiful.　桜がきれいな

Kristie's host family's place, well before I 酔っ払ってしまった

Lunch at Tokyo Summerland, Ryo is my little brother, Shiina (in English: Sheena) is my little sister.　かわいい子供ね

In Japan! Banzai!

2008-04-04T15:09:00.002+09:00

I am most definitely in Japan now and loving it. I've moved into my host family's place and getting used to life here, but right now net access is a bit limited. Once I can access the net from my own laptop I will provide a more substantial update.

Countdown

2008-04-01T18:07:00.003+09:00

This is it. It's currently 11:08 PM in Honolulu, and my flight leaves tomorrow morning at 9:44 AM. In less than 24 hours I will be in Tokyo. Has the reality of the situation hit me yet? Despite having my bags packed up, despite knowing that tomorrow I will be on a plane to Japan, despite everything it still hasn't it me. Perhaps that's why when people ask me if I'm excited to go that I can't honestly feel it. Of course I'm excited and looking forward to it, but somehow I don't think it's all real. I'm sure that once I reach Narita and go through customs and immigration that it'll finally be very clear to me that I've finally attained this long-sought goal of mine.

Anyway, I may not be updating again for a few days until I get settled and find out where my places of reliable net access are. Until then I assure you that my next post will be from Japan!

Hello Honolulu!

2008-03-30T10:09:00.004+09:00

I arrived back in Honolulu last night after about 21 hours in transit, and fortunately I've no jet lag whatsoever. I just stayed up late in the leadup to the trip, so I was on Hawaii time well before leaving anyway. As for Japan, I'm not so sure if I'll be able to avoid it, but the time difference between Hawaii and Japan is only five hours (right now the difference between Hawaii and South Carolina is six). For now, my feet hurt because I haven't needed to walk anywhere since I left Chicago, but better to work up those callouses on my feet here than in Japan.

With an extra-long layover in Los Angeles (almost eight hours!) I called my old roommate Bryan out to get me, and of course there was consumption of In-N-Out.

Protein-style, sandwiched in between two pieces of lettuce instead of buns. It didn't taste bad at all, but the only real disadvantage to eating a burger like that is it a bit messy.

Of course with a ton of time yet to kill Bryan decided to take me to Venice Beach. The beachfront is like a giant outdoor head shop, but there were also some cool locales to see as well.

If you've seen American History X, you've seen these basketball courts before. See also: White Men Can't Jump

The Venice Beach Boardwalk, and if you ever played Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 there is a level that recreates it.

Bryan told me this guy is famous, but really, I can't at all imagine for what reason.

So that's that. I've got plans to go out and drink with some friends tonight. Tomorrow I hope to spend some time outside and maybe even ride my bike up Diamond Head, but it may not be in the cards because I got sunburned a bit in LA. It isn't too bad though, so I should just need to actually wear some sunscreen and everything will be okay. Monday I will take care of some errands and all of the last minute business. Tuesday I'm on my way to Japan!

Entrance into Camwhoredom

2008-03-28T16:48:00.003+09:00

With my shiny new digicam I do plan on shooting a few video blogs while I'm away, and to test it out I've shot a tour of my Mom's place in South Carolina. As I write this my first flight (of many) departs in less than two hours. So, I should be making my next entry from Honolulu! Anyway, enjoy the video.

Predeparture

2008-03-27T07:54:00.002+09:00

Procrastination to the last minute is a problem of mine as many who know me can attest to, but somehow I can only manage to really get a good deal of work done when I hunker down and really feel the pressure of a deadline. Packing for a trip is no different.

I've got a great deal of things to do yet, but now I've less than 36 hours to get everything here together. Packing all my clothes, making sure I've got everything I absolutely must have, and somehow making everything fit across 4 pieces of luggage remains to be done, but I also have to file my tax return, finish my last bit of FAFSA paperwork, apply for housing for next fall and spring, and otherwise make sure I get any critical paperwork done and over with. Fortunately I stopping off in Honolulu from Friday to Monday before taking off for Japan on Tuesday, so I will be able to take care of everything else I need to do in person.

Undoubtedly I will forget to pack something, or many things, but I just hope to have everything I need. I have other pieces of potentially good news to report on but I'll hold off until I know for sure whether it ends up as good news or bad news. In the meantime, if you're reading this blog please don't be afraid to leave a comment and let me know who are you, and how you came to find it.

Atlanta Adventure

2008-03-25T11:08:00.003+09:00

Since I will be in Japan for four months, I had to apply for a student visa, since Americans can only stay for up to 90 days without one. Since Japan requires you to apply in person, this meant I had to go to the nearest consulate in Atlanta. I took care of this without incident last week, and in the meantime spent some time sightseeing.

Of course, if you were following the news at all recently you'll know that a tornado recently ripped right through Atlanta's downtown area. In fact, I was watching the SEC basketball tournament on TV when the game was stopped because the tornado had touched down and was moving right over the Georgia Dome, but I wouldn't be making my way into Atlanta until the following Monday. The signs of tornado damage were evident in the affected areas, but the really big messes in the streets had already been cleaned up by the time I arrived.

Centennial Olympic Park looks alright here.

But yeah, that used to be a tree.

And yeah, that also used to be a building and a car.

In the park itself, knocked over light towers.

And many skyscrapers looked like this, and a window actually fell out of this one shortly before I snapped this picture.

Atlanta still looks like a fine city at night though.

All in all, though it may certainly be a little insensitive to be taking pictures and gawking at something that could have very well killed lots of people (fortunately it didn't), my mom and I pumped a few hundred dollars into the local economy, which makes me feel better about it.

Layouts

2008-03-24T03:23:00.009+09:00

The layout that you see now is one of the templates that Blogger makes available through its settings, and I actually dig the color scheme, but I would probably like to do away with the image in the header. I'm thinking of either replacing it with a solid color or using another image, though I have no idea what to put up there that wouldn't upset the balance of color everywhere else. Oh well, I'll figure something out.

In the mean time I've settled on using Picasa for image storage because it's free for one, and for two it makes available little slideshow widgets I can embed directly into my posts. Whether or not I'll make use of that is up in the air though. I will likely simply embed a few photos into my posts and have them link to my Picasa album. Video posts will likely be common as well, and you can count on YouTube to host any videos I should shoot.

Of course, now is a great time to test out how photos will look here, so how about one of yours truly at Wrigley Field?

Save for some more tinkering here and there I think this blog is ready to roll, and to kick things off I'll have a post about my recent trip to Atlanta forthcoming. Think of it as a warm up for the main event.

Test Post!

2008-03-23T13:03:00.000+09:00

First post to see how the blog looks! For bonus points here's the title of the blog in Japanese: スーパーハッピースペシャル日本生活ワンダーブログ