Happy Halloween! October 31, 2008

I’m not going to properly blog, but about 20% of my regular readers requested I blog before October sails off, so here we go.

• I went to Asahi Beer Factory today for a free tour; it include three free beers; Asahi Super Dry is the best beer ever; I was happy.
• I then went to my school’s festival.  I don’t know if you knew this, but all schools here in Japan have school festivals.  Yes.  Like in Code Geass.  Just like in Code Geass.  Without the Geass.  It was super awesome how much effort everyone put into their booths, and how insanely crowded and lively it was.  It lasts for 4 days, so I’m going again tomorrow and will take more pictures.  Today I got the biggest cotton candy (or, if you like, fairy floss) ever in my life for 100 yen.
• I’m currently preparing for the longest night yet in Japan.  I’m going to an authentic club with a bunch of people.  Being authentic, it doesn’t open until like 10.  We’re going until 5AM.  Why?  Because Japan’s trains stop running at midnight, and start back at 5.  It shall be crazy.  Crazy.
• Turns out there’s more to the me-being-kicked-out story than I thought.  My host family signed up to be a host family for 3-4 months max.  Yet they placed me, a long-haul stayer, in their house without them knowing I would be here for a year.  When my host family found out the discrepancy, they confronted Kangaku staff about it. “Why did you place him in our house?”  “Because he likes jazz and…and you like jazz…and…and…”  That’s the gist, I believe.  So Kangaku staff requested that my host family try as best they can to keep me, and if it turns out to be impossible, that’s fine.  While it has not quite been 3 months, staff member and friend of my mom’s Sakai-san came here to see how things were going with me.  Of course, things are getting a bit hectic here, so my host family decided to just go ahead and move me out.  Honestly, knowing this, I feel way better about it.  Plus, my mom surprised me by buying me all these dorm supplies–cups, towels, sponges, chopsticks, tissues, etc.–because she said I won’t have time to go shopping when I first move in.  I think they really are nice people.  And that’s a good thing.
• That means, however, that I have to return Zelda: Phantom Hourglass and DQIV to their owners
• My second album is coming along very well, actually.  Even in Japan, with no recording equipment, I’ve been able to edit and fine-tune my songs to a much more presentable level.  I hope to let you guys hear it soon.  I don’t really know the best way to get it to you, though.  It’s all instrumental this time around, partly because my voice isn’t great, my lyrics aren’t great, and I don’t have a microphone.  So, some people might think they’re boring.  But I’m very very proud of these songs.  This album is way better than the first one, I think.

Happy Halloween everybody.  DRESS UP AS SOMETHING CRAZY!!

Daily Life October 17, 2008

Since I have some time to kill being bored, I thought I might just tell you how a normal day goes for me.

So, since I’m way past being over jet lag, I go to bed late always.  The problem is I have 9:00 classes three days a week; and it takes an hour to get to school; and breakfast is mandatory.  So waking at 7:30 is pushing it, but really-tired-Chris doesn’t have good priorities, so I push it every morning.  Anyways, I got up, gathered my things, stressed about the homework I was sure I forgot, and headed downstairs to grub some breakfast.  This morning was pancakes (my mom found out I like them last night, and immediately made them the next day!), sliced kiwi fruit, and milk.  It was so light and delicious!

Off to school.

I open the gate to our driveway, guide my bike through the narrow space between the car and the privacy wall, and I’m off; down narrow roads, over busy streets, around and past all sorts of commuters, and unfortunately, up a lot of hills.  Honestly, I would much rather have my returning path be uphill and my going-to-school path be the downhill one.  This is mainly because I’m stressing and running late every morning, so by the time I get to the train station and park my bike, I’m sweaty and tired and thirsty and hot and I hate it.  But returning, I have all the time in the world, and I cruise home at lightning speed, with very little effort.

I get on the first train at Hankyu Ashiya-gawa Station.  I normally don’t get a seat, but I usually at least get a handle to grasp.  The truth is Japanese people are insanely skilled at standing in the middle of the train, and remaining still through the trains bumps, turns, accelerations, and hard brakes.  It’s wild and a skill I don’t yet possess.  So I listen to my music and relax.

I get off at the biggest hub in my area, Nishinomiya Kitaguchi Station.  Just like you’ve probably seen on TV, people rush off of the bus and onto as well.  It’s absurd to me.  People cut me off at the train’s door to get out, and then walk at a leisurely pace.  I don’t get it.  But I continue the people-watching I was doing on the train, as I walk to the next train, this time headed toward Nigawa Station.  Unlike TV, I must say, the station isn’t too packed, nor is it dirty.  It’s not even close to Tokyo.  It’s nice and spacious and most people are chillin’ out as they transfer trains, coming and going.  I hop on the train to Nigawa–again, usually not getting a seat–and head out!

I must say that listening to music, especially certain types (Utada, Sigur Ros, Last Samurai, YMCK, Amos Lee), gives me a really good feeling when I’m on the train and when I’m walking around Japan.  It’s that movie feeling that we’ve all experienced, but the scenery is so much better, and the thoughts so much more open-ended when I’m here.  In that way, I get a slight bit of magic every morning and afternoon.

I walk along the Nigawa River, surrounded by my fellow Japanese Kangaku students.  It’s a long walk, but I love walking and listening to music, so it’s all gravy.  This morning I had grammar class with Abe-sensei, a fairly foxy teacher, I must say.  But class was lame as always.  I mean, if I wasn’t forced to go Japanese class, I wouldn’t go; which is weird because I want to learn Japanese more than I want to do anything in the world.

I immediately returned home after that class, because my next Friday class is at 5:00.  I got home, fell asleep, ate some awesome meat-&-veggie-stuffed bread balls, listened to some jazz, didn’t worry about homework, missed the bank’s open hours which were necessary for me getting money for this weekend, and just chilled.  It was fairly hot outside today, and I was lying on the couch in the living room, fully clothed, when my mom told me that I would catch a cold if I didn’t use the huge blanket next to me.  Eh? I just got up and went to the computer when she said that.  I wasn’t mad, but I was not going to use a blanket.

Got back to school, met up with my friends for my Language & Culture class, which is a Let’s-Talk-About-Fun-Japanese-Pop-Culture-and-Weird-Language-Quirks-But-Not-Work-Hard-At-All kind of class.  After that, me and a bunch of ryuugakusei waited outside the school building, just chatting, enjoying the cool night air.  The night–the weather, the people, the Friday–was calling my name, but I had to leave.  I got home and ate curry rice, tuna salad, and persimmon (my new favorite fruit, but only when it’s slightly soft).  And now I’m blogging and listening to 1UP podcasts!  What a day!  It wasn’t a particularly exciting day, only, nothing bad happened.  You know those kind of days?

This video is of my getting lost in Osaka trying to find the train back to my hotel.  I say I’m in DenDen Town, but I think I’m actually in Namba, which I believe is different.  And forgive the necessary neck-craning.  I’m definitely scared and alone in this video, because I had only been here for about two days.  It’s not a great video, but it definitely shows you a live-feed-ish of a bustling Japanese city.

This is Half About Japan. October 17, 2008

I’m not sure many people will care, but I finally uploaded some videos, the first of which is an argument between Kenny and Juice about FFVIII’s monsters coming from the moon.  It’s hilarious, especially if you think about how they’re arguing about FFVIII’s monsters coming from the moon. So watch if you like.

Also, I’m getting kicked out of this house because my mom has high blood pressure and thinks her son will get married next year.

Believe it.

I’m going to a dorm that’s not too far from here, and seems quite nice.  But damn, they’re just dropping me on my ass.  In fact, protocol here for host families is to call the school and have the staff do the dirty work.  Home life was peachy as can be until yesterday when I was called to the exchange office and told I gotta leave my house asap for fairly weak reasons.  And it was not negotiable from the start; actually, before the start, for me.  So when I got home, my mom was like, “So, did you hear from Sakai-san?” all non-chalantly as if I knew this was the point to which we’d been building for some time; or as if she had actually told me herself that I have to leave.  It was wild.

Dorm life,
It’s been a while.  You weren’t my favorite the two years we were together.  You’d better treat me right this time around.
–Chris.

Parts III-VII October 14, 2008

I decided that I’d rather just type the last part. It supremely pisses me off that my video quality is great until I upload it to youtube, which is precisely when the audio gets off track.

So, Friday night was my first “night out” in Japan. It took me weeks longer than it took anyone else that I know of to get a cell phone, and contact is especially difficult in Japan without a cell phone. Anyways, I bought one, got everyone’s number as soon as I could, and ended up going to an Izakaya after my late Friday night class. My good buddies Sean, Chen, and Sayan went, plus two Korean girls, Min and Ji Yon, whom I’d seen before but never really met. The last guest was a real-life Japanese named Azusa. She met Chen in class; but she didn’t actually have the class. She just popped in Friday night because she thought it would be interesting. But what’s more surprising is that, probably minutes after meeting Chen, she agreed to go to a Nomihoudai (all-you-can-drink restaurant) with all of us. But that’s kind of common I think for Japanese girls: somehow, they become good friends (to the above-mentioned extent, at least) with strangers very quickly, but the other important part is that they’re always busy. It’s the weirdest thing, but you have to schedule hanging out with them, like, a week in advance. Case in point: Chen asked Azusa if she wanted to go the KGU football game this Sunday, and guess what she is? Busy.

Anyways, we went to the Izakaya, which is a type of Nomihoudai, paid around 1350 yen for an hour and a half of all-you-can-drink, plus more fairly good food than we could all eat. Some of us were pretty drunk by the time we finished drinking, but me? I was just really happy. I had fewer enemies, ya know? I was touching people more–not JUST because I was drunk, but because I always want to touch people more, and I don’t feel like keeping composure in that sense while I’m drunkish. I did something stupid though.

Min was encouraging us to play a game of janken (rock/paper/scissors), the loser of which had to eat the rest of the wasabi on the sashimi plate, which was a lot–maybe 4 thimbles full, or 2.5 starbursts. So, we cut it down to just a little piece, but of course I lost, so I downed the wasabi by itself.  It didn’t taste like anything, so they encouraged me to eat it all, which I did.  After that, though, I started to feel sick.  Like, throw-up in the bathroom sick.  But I didn’t!  It ended up being a very small portion of the fun we had that night.

So we decided to go karaoke-ing afterwards.  Being me, I had to complain about the money it cost, but I went anyway.  It was suuuuper fun, with some hitches.  For instance, I don’t like karaoke.

Everyone was drunk and dancing and singing and high-fiving (and yelling), and that was all well and good.  The bad parts happened when I tried to sing a good song that I knew.  The Backstreet Boys songs were allowed to be butchered, but the jazz standards, A Whole New World, and some Utada stuff was not.  I felt bad for trying to correct some of their pitches and tempos, but gosh darn it I couldn’t help it!  I just wanted it to sound decent.  And there’s no problem with how it went down.  The girls were actually very good, as well.  It’s just, I can’t help but get caught up on things like how bad it sounds, even while having such a good time.  But karaoke really is great.  Other than that stuff I just wrote.

We all caught the next-to-last train home at about 12:19 am, and said goodbye at our respective stops.  It was more expensive than my previous Friday nights in Japan, but by far the most fun.  Everyone I went with is cool–all kind and easy-going and willing to have conversation and not just tell stories.  Ya know?  It was awesome.

P.S. I just had dinner before finishing this blog, and on the TV at the time was a program called Oneemanzu, which is a pun combining “sister” and “man.”  It was just a gathering of transgenders sitting around talking, and (of course) eventually cooking.  Only like, one of them was believable, but the point is it was primetime TV, and all about transgenders having fun.  Has America done that?  Maybe MTV, but those true life shows are really niche and always sad.  I was impressed with Japan for that show.  But I was not impressed by how my host family and my friend’s (who’s gay) host family kept talking about how he would love this show cuz it’s about gays.  He had to miss it, but man his host mom came over for dinner and she kept talking about how he should have been here to watch it.  Wow.

Parts I and II October 14, 2008

I only had time to upload the first two parts of this series of videos, so ignore the ellipsis for a day or less.

Twitter October 3, 2008

I got one because I have little cool things that I want to tell you all and also just to record for the natsukashisa and laughs later on.

Please visit often to hear about the little things!

So Many Requests! October 3, 2008

I’m home for a few hours before my evening class, but instead of making you watch me mouth words after I say them on a silly audio-lagged video, I’m gonna just type up a few responses to the great comments I received.

(By the way, I just read in a linguistics textbook that “silly” originally meant “holy” but was used sarcastically so often that it became today’s silly.  I don’t know if I believe that.)

Haisten, I shan’t buy a helmet.  They’re uncool and seriously I don’t know where to get one.  And I would lower my head in shame every time I passed a super old lady on her bike without a helmet.

And I don’t get how, in America, people don’t know to commit to keeping to the right side of the path in circumstances like Robbie’s.  Glad he’s okay, though.

And, I’m so scared of getting fat.  That’s a good point about adjusted metabolisms influencing weight.  And for real, I think I’m getting fat already.  I need to bike more or something.  The beer doesn’t help I think.  But it is nice getting a buzz every once in a while.  But usually my and my mom and dad usually split just a couple of beers between the three of us.  Also, it’s kinda cool that I’m already quite used to sugarless condimentless green and black tea.  They’re not so bad when you have to drink them!

Oh and seriously, you really have to bike aggressively…one really has to bike aggressively.

Gweb, the truth is we have like 7 channels here, and not a lot of anime comes on.  Sure, it comes on primetime some nights, and that’s glorious, but One Piece and Gintama are the only ones I’ve seen that I know.  I’ll have to investigate where and when the good animes are actually aired.  So I can watch them and not understanding.

I’ve been spreading the love about Rhythm Tengoku Gold DS since weeks before I left America.  I want that game so bad.  (It was also reviewed on the 1UP show.)  It looks great.  I had it in my hand a couple weeks ago, but in line to check out, my dad offered to lend me money to buy a PS2, and I couldn’t pass that up.  But I’ll get it soon; I’m glad you like it too.  I mean, I love Ouendan 2, but I only bought it because that store didn’t have Rhythm Tengoku Gold.

The truth is, I haven’t been able to get that into games here yet.  I already own six, which is insane, but I’ve only beat one and a half.  I beat Rez like the day after I bought it and it was mind-blowing.  Area 5 was super hyped by 1UP staff, but I didn’t expect what I got.  And it was only 500 yen.  You should steal buy it.

I see, like, no less than 50 high school uniformed people a day; half of which, of course, are females.  It’s not attractive or anything, though.  They’re uniforms are lame and homely.  But I did see a girl in a Sailor Moon-style uniform today, which was weird.  Plus, I saw one of the Beck/Code Geass black, giant button uniforms, which was SO AWESOME!  I was thinking, “That guy may not even know that he’s wearing Lelouche’s clothes.”

People sleeping on the street?  No, I’ve never seen that.  But what they say about what people do on the trains is totally true: they sleep, read manga, and most of all text on their cell phones.  It’s unreal how much people stare at their open cell phones here.  Unreal.  Literally.

I probably won’t go to the movies/karaoke until I befriend more real Japanese people.  The international kids are sometimes cool, but I don’t feel compelled at all to sing and drink with them when they’re just as out-of-their-element as I am.

It would be so sick to go to TGS.  I didn’t even think about that.  Wow.  I can’t possibly.  But I’m almost too close not too, right?

About the “you’re fucked:”  It’s totally different to think you’re in a bad spot to yourself and telling someone else.  And saying “you’re fucked” or “you’re screwed” or “oh that sucks” is, to me, completely different from saying “Be careful.”  or “You can make it.”  Obviously, you get the differences in tone and connotation.  And I think that might be picky of me, but I can’t help seeing straight through a comment like “you’re fucked” and start to question this guy’s intentions and intelligence and such.  And it may be considered “looking out” by some people, but to me it’s the total opposite.  Saying “you’re fucked” is saying “I see you’re in a tough/awkward situation, and I am not going to help you.”  Why not instead offer some advice?  It can be joke-like advice even.  Like, “Be strong.  I believe in you,” or “Just pretend that something in the other direction is incredibly interesting.”  Or, as in the many cases in high school when one of us would utter “memory card” (remember?) actually try and help the person out of the tough situation.  Saying stuff like “you’re fucked,” and believe me I have way more evidence than just those 2 words, makes me think people like that are not as intelligent, and it makes me know that people like that aren’t as kind=not as friendshipworthy.

It’s not a huge deal.  I well know how to move on and adjust my relationships with people as I learn about them.  It’s just, I think deeply about these things.

Yo yo!

P.S. Ryuugakusei is Japanese for foreign exchange gakusei.

Ryuugakusei sei sei! October 1, 2008

It’s super lame that my videos’ audio is always off.  I think it’s because of my crazy old laptop with crazy no RAM and crazy full hard drive and crazy suckiness.  I’ll try and see what I can do about that for future videos, but I can’t guarantee I’ll be able to figure it out, actually.  Anyhow, please enjoy the video.

Bikey Wreckies October 1, 2008