hey all,
I had a great weekend. I didn't have to work on Saturday, so I picked up some root beer,chipotle Tabasco sauce, and tea from Kaldi, bought a new shower puff ball, and also two new study books for Japanese. My favorite website, smart.fm, is becoming a paysite soon so I won't be able to use it. I also made a fresh batch of peanut butter, but I do this almost weekly, so it isn't that big a deal.
I studied a little bit of Japanese, played some video games (and decided to sell 3 more games, leaving me with only two), until I went to Tokyo to meet up with Travis. A long island ice tea later, and we were watching Gantz at a nearby theater. Although it probably won't make it to US theaters, should you get the opportunity to see it, don't bother. The manga is much better, and if you haven't read the manga, you won't understand what is going on anyway. If you have read the manga, then you will just be disappointed at the shallow characterization, poor handling of the alien fights, and the disjointed pace at which the movie proceeds.
Sunday, Michi and I came to Yokohama and walked around the Chinatown district. No, there weren't any shootings, strange water shortages, or incestuous relationships (if none of that makes sense, go see Chinatown with Jack Nicholson), but there were some colorful temples, lots of Chinese grocery stores, and some really good Chinese restaurants. We had picked where we were going to eat from the internet before getting there, but we kind of stumbled onto the restaurant while taking in the sights. For 2000 Yen each, we got a bowl of mapo dofu, some sweet and sour pork, fried pork cutlet with chopped greens and jellyfish, a bowl of corn egg-drop soup, and a coconut flavored pudding/jelly of some sort. Everything was delicious, but I think I now have an unhealthy obsession with mapo dofu, because I'm now determined to see if I can make it myself and have it taste like that restaurant's. I've found 3 ingredients that are only listed in some versions of the recipe that I think will be the keys. In particular, there is a pepper-like spice called sansho in Japanese which gives you the weirdest feeling in your mouth, kind of like licking a battery except more pleasant.
The only other things worthy of note are that we now have new shower rooms at my guesthouse, which is nice because the old ones were really bad, and that I should be getting the results from the JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) in the next two weeks or so.
Cheers,
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Really?
hey all,
So NHK was actually kinda boring. I guess they are supposed to come back at some point, but they've been in here earlier last week, and I guess from what the other teachers say they've been in here several times in the past. I was expecting a video crew, but it was just one person who came in and took some notes while walking from classroom to classroom. I guess the plan is that they will actually come back soon with a film crew, but I'm not sure why the boss had us prepare and basically script the lessons for just this one person to come in.
In any case, the boss said that the director was impressed by my lesson, so that is good to hear. I think all the lessons went pretty well.
I'd going to confirm this tomorrow, but it sounds like I've been given Saturday off. If this is true, my weekend is going to be amazing. I'll get to sleep in, play video games a little, catch up on my reading, going out with my expat buddies will be easier, etc. What a huge difference 8 hours not at work makes!
Cheers,
So NHK was actually kinda boring. I guess they are supposed to come back at some point, but they've been in here earlier last week, and I guess from what the other teachers say they've been in here several times in the past. I was expecting a video crew, but it was just one person who came in and took some notes while walking from classroom to classroom. I guess the plan is that they will actually come back soon with a film crew, but I'm not sure why the boss had us prepare and basically script the lessons for just this one person to come in.
In any case, the boss said that the director was impressed by my lesson, so that is good to hear. I think all the lessons went pretty well.
I'd going to confirm this tomorrow, but it sounds like I've been given Saturday off. If this is true, my weekend is going to be amazing. I'll get to sleep in, play video games a little, catch up on my reading, going out with my expat buddies will be easier, etc. What a huge difference 8 hours not at work makes!
Cheers,
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Japan, I Take It Back (Kinda)
hey all,
So as some of you might have guessed, I wussed out and went into the bank the other day to pay that health insurance bill. I didn't have to ask anyone to cover for me: as soon as I finished my first lesson in the afternoon, I knew I had a long break and if I hurried I could make it to the bank on time.
So I paid it, and that was that. Or so I thought. I ended up getting about 10 phone calls from someone at my bank, and one of the voice messages explained that they wanted me to come in for some reason. I couldn't really follow all the Japanese, but I understood that much. It turns out that they give me the wrong receipt. To really understand this, here's how most bills work. There are several slips of paper, most often just the same piece of paper that has been perforated into different sections. One of these is for the place where you pay, another is sent on to the payee, and the last is for your own records. Usually, these are similar looking, with almost the same information on them, but differently sized. The slip for the payment I made was three identical (as far as I could tell) pieces of paper. In any case, they gave me the wrong one, which means that the wrong one was sent to the national insurance agency.
Why would this make me want to take back the things I said about the payment system? Well, it really doesn't. What does, is that after I explained that it would probably cost me money and definitely take more time than it was worth for me to come in, one of the bank employees met me at the train station closest to my job (a 2 minute walk), and I passed the receipt on to her. I didn't have to come in to the bank, and I was able to make sure that my lessons were all prepared for. I can't think of a company in the US that would do the same. My credit union in the US is a really unique place, and Moosejaw is a really great company, but I still can't conceive of them making that kind of trip.
In other news (in the near future this will literally be true), NHK, the national broadcasting service of Japan, is going to do another special about my school. The nerve-wracking thing is that it looks like I will be one of the teachers who gets a lot of air time. At least, who actually gets the most air time will depend on which classes perform well, and all that, but still.
In still, other news, I do actually have to work this Saturday, so I'm probably going to hang out with some of my fellow US expat friends Saturday night after work. One of the only nice things about all these Saturday work days is that my paycheck will be very good.
We're in the process of hiring more teachers now (which means that myself and another teacher will not have to take turns working 6 days a week), and two of them seem very good. But a different two are not native speakers, and they would need lots of training and still they might not be able to perform adequately. And then there is another teacher who I haven't seen teach much.
Cheers
So as some of you might have guessed, I wussed out and went into the bank the other day to pay that health insurance bill. I didn't have to ask anyone to cover for me: as soon as I finished my first lesson in the afternoon, I knew I had a long break and if I hurried I could make it to the bank on time.
So I paid it, and that was that. Or so I thought. I ended up getting about 10 phone calls from someone at my bank, and one of the voice messages explained that they wanted me to come in for some reason. I couldn't really follow all the Japanese, but I understood that much. It turns out that they give me the wrong receipt. To really understand this, here's how most bills work. There are several slips of paper, most often just the same piece of paper that has been perforated into different sections. One of these is for the place where you pay, another is sent on to the payee, and the last is for your own records. Usually, these are similar looking, with almost the same information on them, but differently sized. The slip for the payment I made was three identical (as far as I could tell) pieces of paper. In any case, they gave me the wrong one, which means that the wrong one was sent to the national insurance agency.
Why would this make me want to take back the things I said about the payment system? Well, it really doesn't. What does, is that after I explained that it would probably cost me money and definitely take more time than it was worth for me to come in, one of the bank employees met me at the train station closest to my job (a 2 minute walk), and I passed the receipt on to her. I didn't have to come in to the bank, and I was able to make sure that my lessons were all prepared for. I can't think of a company in the US that would do the same. My credit union in the US is a really unique place, and Moosejaw is a really great company, but I still can't conceive of them making that kind of trip.
In other news (in the near future this will literally be true), NHK, the national broadcasting service of Japan, is going to do another special about my school. The nerve-wracking thing is that it looks like I will be one of the teachers who gets a lot of air time. At least, who actually gets the most air time will depend on which classes perform well, and all that, but still.
In still, other news, I do actually have to work this Saturday, so I'm probably going to hang out with some of my fellow US expat friends Saturday night after work. One of the only nice things about all these Saturday work days is that my paycheck will be very good.
We're in the process of hiring more teachers now (which means that myself and another teacher will not have to take turns working 6 days a week), and two of them seem very good. But a different two are not native speakers, and they would need lots of training and still they might not be able to perform adequately. And then there is another teacher who I haven't seen teach much.
Cheers
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Lucky Gods?
hey all,
We visited Kamakura today, and did a tour of the "Seven Lucky Gods." In Japanese mythology, they are:
Each of these gods had a small shrine located at seven larger temples in Kamakura, and we visited each of them. It was a pretty fun day, with some interesting sights, a good lunch, and Michi even found an amazing obi (the belt worn with a kimono) as a gift for her mother.
The punchline is that we had just gotten off the train at Yokohama, when we realized that she had left the bag with the obi on the train. We then spent a bunch of time trying to explain to the station staff exactly what train we had been on, where we had been sitting, and what the package and its contents looked like. And then we spent even more time waiting at the station to see if someone had found it, or turned it in at one of the stops down the line.
I had a good time overall, but I think losing that obi really seemed to make a huge impact on Michi. Afterall, we just visited the each of the seven lucky gods' temples, and then she gets hit by this bad luck? She's convinced that she has to go to one of her god's temples and cleanse herself...
If I'm lucky, I'll have a regular 5 day work week this week, and actually get Saturday and Sunday off.
Cheers,
We visited Kamakura today, and did a tour of the "Seven Lucky Gods." In Japanese mythology, they are:
- Hotei, the fat and happy god of abundance and good health
- Jurōjin, god of longevity
- Fukurokuju, god of happiness, wealth and longevity
- Bishamonten, god of warriors
- Benzaiten (Benten-sama), goddess of knowledge, art and beauty, especially music
- Daikokuten (Daikoku), god of wealth, commerce and trade. Ebisu and Daikoku are often paired and represented as carvings or masks on the walls of small retail shops
- Ebisu, god of fishers or merchants, often depicted carrying a sea bream
Each of these gods had a small shrine located at seven larger temples in Kamakura, and we visited each of them. It was a pretty fun day, with some interesting sights, a good lunch, and Michi even found an amazing obi (the belt worn with a kimono) as a gift for her mother.
The punchline is that we had just gotten off the train at Yokohama, when we realized that she had left the bag with the obi on the train. We then spent a bunch of time trying to explain to the station staff exactly what train we had been on, where we had been sitting, and what the package and its contents looked like. And then we spent even more time waiting at the station to see if someone had found it, or turned it in at one of the stops down the line.
I had a good time overall, but I think losing that obi really seemed to make a huge impact on Michi. Afterall, we just visited the each of the seven lucky gods' temples, and then she gets hit by this bad luck? She's convinced that she has to go to one of her god's temples and cleanse herself...
If I'm lucky, I'll have a regular 5 day work week this week, and actually get Saturday and Sunday off.
Cheers,
Friday, January 21, 2011
6 Days
hey all,
Tomorrow is Saturday, but I'll be at work. Saturday is a monster of a schedule. 9:30~10:20, 10:30~11:20: 11:30~12:40, 1:00~2:00, 2:00~2:30, 3:00~3:50, and 4:00~4:50. As I said, there's not much free time there. If you actually do the math, there is 90 minutes of it, but only 30 minutes of it is stuck together and that is lunch time. The rest of the time is required to get from one class to another, and get materials organized, etc.
The week has gone pretty well so far. As always, it wouldn't be life without the drama, and it seems that especially life at my school seems to abound in it, and there is always private drama.
Probably the best news is that I have gotten one of my problem classes to focus for me using a combination of swamping them with material, being strict, and never giving the answers to their homework questions to them in class. This is the graduating class, and they need disciple and they need to be given as much English and material as they can take, since they'll be leaving and going to Japanese public schools where everything will be in Japanese. My problematic afternoon class has also gotten much easier, since the boss has said to reduce the pace and to be more lenient with them; they are only 3 years old, and they have to sit for 4 hours and write and speak English. By the time I get to them after lunch, they're exhausted. Something cool for me is that I'm building a working Archimedian screw from cardboard discs, duct tape, a pencil, and a plastic pop bottle (I'm a little out of touch on this. Are they called PET bottles in other countries as well, or just in Japan? I can't remember.) I'm currently teaching the kids about Archimedes, and my recent visit to the Da Vinci museum had left me with an urge to build something.
Sunday should be kinda exciting. Michi and I are planning on visiting some temples in a nearby town, drawing some Buddhas and maybe some sutras, and also visiting an island that has an origin story similar to that of Sleeping Bear Dunes in Michigan.
Totally random jibe at Japan: for all that Japan seems to be a country about convenience, I sometimes find myself asking Convenient For Who? I went to a bank recently to try to pay a health insurance bill that was 742 Yen, which is something like $9. Yes, they bothered to send this bill to me, and yes I took a train that cost 120 Yen to get to the bank (and another which cost 120 Yen to get back to work). And they told me that it was after 3PM (it was 3:04, and they had made me wait for 10 minutes), and they couldn't pay the bill because they had to call the ward office of the prefecture where the bill was from in order to confirm the payment. How and when am I supposed to pay this thing? Why should I bother when they are stacking the cards against me this way? The banks don't open at all on Saturday or Sunday, and I can only pay at a bank. Most bills I can take to the convenience store and pay there, quickly and simply, any day at any time. Do they really expect a sane person to take time off of work to pay a 742 Yen bill? There is no option for mailing it in. And as a teacher at a private school, how am I supposed to find someone to cover for me before the afternoon? It could be done, but I'm not going to ask someone to do this so I can waste time and money paying a bill that has been PURPOSEFULLY DESIGNED TO BE DIFFICULT TO PAY.
Phew.
Cheers,
Tomorrow is Saturday, but I'll be at work. Saturday is a monster of a schedule. 9:30~10:20, 10:30~11:20: 11:30~12:40, 1:00~2:00, 2:00~2:30, 3:00~3:50, and 4:00~4:50. As I said, there's not much free time there. If you actually do the math, there is 90 minutes of it, but only 30 minutes of it is stuck together and that is lunch time. The rest of the time is required to get from one class to another, and get materials organized, etc.
The week has gone pretty well so far. As always, it wouldn't be life without the drama, and it seems that especially life at my school seems to abound in it, and there is always private drama.
Probably the best news is that I have gotten one of my problem classes to focus for me using a combination of swamping them with material, being strict, and never giving the answers to their homework questions to them in class. This is the graduating class, and they need disciple and they need to be given as much English and material as they can take, since they'll be leaving and going to Japanese public schools where everything will be in Japanese. My problematic afternoon class has also gotten much easier, since the boss has said to reduce the pace and to be more lenient with them; they are only 3 years old, and they have to sit for 4 hours and write and speak English. By the time I get to them after lunch, they're exhausted. Something cool for me is that I'm building a working Archimedian screw from cardboard discs, duct tape, a pencil, and a plastic pop bottle (I'm a little out of touch on this. Are they called PET bottles in other countries as well, or just in Japan? I can't remember.) I'm currently teaching the kids about Archimedes, and my recent visit to the Da Vinci museum had left me with an urge to build something.
Sunday should be kinda exciting. Michi and I are planning on visiting some temples in a nearby town, drawing some Buddhas and maybe some sutras, and also visiting an island that has an origin story similar to that of Sleeping Bear Dunes in Michigan.
Totally random jibe at Japan: for all that Japan seems to be a country about convenience, I sometimes find myself asking Convenient For Who? I went to a bank recently to try to pay a health insurance bill that was 742 Yen, which is something like $9. Yes, they bothered to send this bill to me, and yes I took a train that cost 120 Yen to get to the bank (and another which cost 120 Yen to get back to work). And they told me that it was after 3PM (it was 3:04, and they had made me wait for 10 minutes), and they couldn't pay the bill because they had to call the ward office of the prefecture where the bill was from in order to confirm the payment. How and when am I supposed to pay this thing? Why should I bother when they are stacking the cards against me this way? The banks don't open at all on Saturday or Sunday, and I can only pay at a bank. Most bills I can take to the convenience store and pay there, quickly and simply, any day at any time. Do they really expect a sane person to take time off of work to pay a 742 Yen bill? There is no option for mailing it in. And as a teacher at a private school, how am I supposed to find someone to cover for me before the afternoon? It could be done, but I'm not going to ask someone to do this so I can waste time and money paying a bill that has been PURPOSEFULLY DESIGNED TO BE DIFFICULT TO PAY.
Phew.
Cheers,
Sunday, January 16, 2011
ahhhh
hey all,
Finally, a nice relaxed weekend. I got to touch base with Bri for the first time since coming back to Japan, made something half way between a chicken chili and a normal soup together with Michi, and watched The Holiday. Yes, it is a chick flick, but I thought it was watchable.
Today, we went over to a gym in Yokohama called Pinnacle rock Climbing. Not a bad place, but very small. It was inside a shopping mall, so actually most of the "customers" were kids who their parents were indulging or keeping busy for an hour of two so mommy and daddy could get some shopping done. Again, not a bad place, but a far cry from the climbing gyms that we usually go to. They also had a lot of gear all by Millet, which seems like a decent company, but everything was so expensive that I couldn't bring myself to even be interested in it. Clothes, most of which were 30% off, were still over $80, and they weren't that amazing. (Their backpacks, on the other hand, seemed nice, but I now have 3 Osprey backpacks: an 18L, 46L, and my new massive 70L. So, I'm kinda set in terms of backpacks. Although, the 46L is getting old, and something in between 18 and 46 would be handy, say, a 28L or 30L, especially something geared towards climbing needs...See what a problem I have when it comes to this? Outdoor gear has definitely replaced my past obsessively collected items of books, CDs, and movies.)
Anyway, we stopped by Yokohama station, which was convenient for Michi, since she had to return to Tokyo, and convenient for me since I live in that general area. I took her to a ramen/tsukemen restaurant, but alas, she was not too impressed. Their ramen is so-so, but their tsukemen is really quite nice: the soup is served boiling hot (literally still bubbling when they set it in front of you), and once it cools, has a thick meaty flavor and consistency which goes well with the noodles. She ordered the ramen.
Tomorrow, I go back to the grindstone. This week will be a long one, as will the next one: Monday through Saturday. One of our Saturday teachers has left, and myself and another teacher have agreed to divide each month's Satudays between us until we can get a replacement. For next month, it looks like I'm actually supposed to be in charge to supervising the new teacher for a few Saturdays, which is kinda a hoot because I still consider myself a new teacher.
Cheers,
Finally, a nice relaxed weekend. I got to touch base with Bri for the first time since coming back to Japan, made something half way between a chicken chili and a normal soup together with Michi, and watched The Holiday. Yes, it is a chick flick, but I thought it was watchable.
Today, we went over to a gym in Yokohama called Pinnacle rock Climbing. Not a bad place, but very small. It was inside a shopping mall, so actually most of the "customers" were kids who their parents were indulging or keeping busy for an hour of two so mommy and daddy could get some shopping done. Again, not a bad place, but a far cry from the climbing gyms that we usually go to. They also had a lot of gear all by Millet, which seems like a decent company, but everything was so expensive that I couldn't bring myself to even be interested in it. Clothes, most of which were 30% off, were still over $80, and they weren't that amazing. (Their backpacks, on the other hand, seemed nice, but I now have 3 Osprey backpacks: an 18L, 46L, and my new massive 70L. So, I'm kinda set in terms of backpacks. Although, the 46L is getting old, and something in between 18 and 46 would be handy, say, a 28L or 30L, especially something geared towards climbing needs...See what a problem I have when it comes to this? Outdoor gear has definitely replaced my past obsessively collected items of books, CDs, and movies.)
Anyway, we stopped by Yokohama station, which was convenient for Michi, since she had to return to Tokyo, and convenient for me since I live in that general area. I took her to a ramen/tsukemen restaurant, but alas, she was not too impressed. Their ramen is so-so, but their tsukemen is really quite nice: the soup is served boiling hot (literally still bubbling when they set it in front of you), and once it cools, has a thick meaty flavor and consistency which goes well with the noodles. She ordered the ramen.
Tomorrow, I go back to the grindstone. This week will be a long one, as will the next one: Monday through Saturday. One of our Saturday teachers has left, and myself and another teacher have agreed to divide each month's Satudays between us until we can get a replacement. For next month, it looks like I'm actually supposed to be in charge to supervising the new teacher for a few Saturdays, which is kinda a hoot because I still consider myself a new teacher.
Cheers,
Saturday, January 15, 2011
More Drama
hey all,
Work is going pretty well. As I mentioned, there's been a bit of drama what with one teacher leaving (a Saturday only teacher), and other teacher just leaving unannounced. I guess this is what tends to happen at this school a lot. Because the expectations of the parents and the boss are so high, there is a lot of stress and pressure to perform. At the same time, I think both the parents, other teachers, my boss, and the kids appreciate a teacher who tries their best.
There's some additional drama that I can't get into here, but for the most part things are going well.
This weekend I'll actually be relaxing.
Cheers,
Work is going pretty well. As I mentioned, there's been a bit of drama what with one teacher leaving (a Saturday only teacher), and other teacher just leaving unannounced. I guess this is what tends to happen at this school a lot. Because the expectations of the parents and the boss are so high, there is a lot of stress and pressure to perform. At the same time, I think both the parents, other teachers, my boss, and the kids appreciate a teacher who tries their best.
There's some additional drama that I can't get into here, but for the most part things are going well.
This weekend I'll actually be relaxing.
Cheers,
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Shoes, Etc
hey all,
I mentioned that I had sent my climbing shoes in to a shop to be repaired, but they had come back not fully repaired. On climbing shoes, there is the sole, which is made from a special type of rubber, and there is the RAND, to which the sole is attached. The RAND is attached to the leather of the shoe, and that is where one of my problem areas was: the RAND had pulled away or detached from the leather in some spots. The other problem was that my soles were starting to wear thin in some spots. I got new fronts on the soles, but for some reason the RAND had not been reattached to the leather. So, I bought some superglue, and went to town on the seams, and then duct taped them in place for 24 hours to make sure the bond held.
I haven't climbed on them yet, but I think they should hold. They are getting old anyway, and instead of getting them repaired again, next time I might just buy a new pair. These I'll keep, and they can be my back up pair.
I've been planning on writing about rice treats for some time, but have never gotten around to it. A lot of things in Japan are made from rice (go figure): bread can be made from rice. There are manju, which are are streamed cakes of flour and rice flour that have different fillings.
Senbei, which are rice crackers. It is actually dismissive to just say "rice crackers:" senbei come in a bewildering number of different shapes, sizes, and flavors.
There are mochi, which are balls made of pounded glutinous rice. Even this is dismissive: mochi come in many varieties, and are eaten in many different ways.
Sake is brewed from rice, as is amazake (a type of sweet drink which is one of the precursors to real sake but has no alcohol in it).
Kasu, which is the solids that remain after sake has been brewed, fermented, and filtered, ss used as an ingredient in some soups. And of course, they just eat the stuff (rice, that is) by itself.
In other news, come January 16th I will have been in Japan for 1 year and 10 months, minus the four days I spent in the US. The 2 year mark is just around the corner.
Today was tough because one of the teachers decided to not come in without warning anyone. No call, no email. Everyone had to scramble and cover some of his afternoon classes, and miraculously our boss found a potential candidate to come in and cover his morning class. I'd hate to be him if he comes tomorrow.
Cheers,
I mentioned that I had sent my climbing shoes in to a shop to be repaired, but they had come back not fully repaired. On climbing shoes, there is the sole, which is made from a special type of rubber, and there is the RAND, to which the sole is attached. The RAND is attached to the leather of the shoe, and that is where one of my problem areas was: the RAND had pulled away or detached from the leather in some spots. The other problem was that my soles were starting to wear thin in some spots. I got new fronts on the soles, but for some reason the RAND had not been reattached to the leather. So, I bought some superglue, and went to town on the seams, and then duct taped them in place for 24 hours to make sure the bond held.
I haven't climbed on them yet, but I think they should hold. They are getting old anyway, and instead of getting them repaired again, next time I might just buy a new pair. These I'll keep, and they can be my back up pair.
I've been planning on writing about rice treats for some time, but have never gotten around to it. A lot of things in Japan are made from rice (go figure): bread can be made from rice. There are manju, which are are streamed cakes of flour and rice flour that have different fillings.
Senbei, which are rice crackers. It is actually dismissive to just say "rice crackers:" senbei come in a bewildering number of different shapes, sizes, and flavors.
There are mochi, which are balls made of pounded glutinous rice. Even this is dismissive: mochi come in many varieties, and are eaten in many different ways.
Sake is brewed from rice, as is amazake (a type of sweet drink which is one of the precursors to real sake but has no alcohol in it).
Kasu, which is the solids that remain after sake has been brewed, fermented, and filtered, ss used as an ingredient in some soups. And of course, they just eat the stuff (rice, that is) by itself.
In other news, come January 16th I will have been in Japan for 1 year and 10 months, minus the four days I spent in the US. The 2 year mark is just around the corner.
Today was tough because one of the teachers decided to not come in without warning anyone. No call, no email. Everyone had to scramble and cover some of his afternoon classes, and miraculously our boss found a potential candidate to come in and cover his morning class. I'd hate to be him if he comes tomorrow.
Cheers,
Monday, January 10, 2011
Da Vinci
hey all,
I wish I could say that this weekend was relaxing but it wasn't. I had to come in for another teacher on Saturday and I had maybe 50 minutes of free time between 9:30AM and 5PM.
The next say was pretty fun, though. Michi and I went to the Da Vinci Museum in Hibiya Park in Tokyo, and though expensive, it was pretty interesting. One of the major attractions is that they have real models of many of his designs from his notebooks, and you can actually play with some of them.
They were doing some kind of "Secrets of the Mona Lisa" exhibition, which featured some highly detailed pictures and analyses of the famous painting. To be honest, I've seen the real thing in the Louvre, and I found it underwhelming at the time, and I still don't really understand people's fascination with it. In any event, the secrets all turned out to be things like "he changed his mind about the positioning of the fingers on the left hand" or "he never finished the fingers on the right hand" or "the paint used for mona lisa's eyelashes has not stood the test of time" (which is why she doesn't have any eyelashes).
Playing with his gear trains, his irregular cams, and ball bearings was a lot more interesting.
Today, we relaxed a bit, and headed over to the movie theater with the intention of seeing Norwegian Wood, a movie adaptation of a novel by Haruki Murakami (one of Japanese most famous living novelists). Unfortunately, we got there a bit late, and since I had to return to Yokohama and run some errands, we opted to see Unstoppable instead, since it had an earlier showtime. Not bad.
Cheers,
I wish I could say that this weekend was relaxing but it wasn't. I had to come in for another teacher on Saturday and I had maybe 50 minutes of free time between 9:30AM and 5PM.
The next say was pretty fun, though. Michi and I went to the Da Vinci Museum in Hibiya Park in Tokyo, and though expensive, it was pretty interesting. One of the major attractions is that they have real models of many of his designs from his notebooks, and you can actually play with some of them.
They were doing some kind of "Secrets of the Mona Lisa" exhibition, which featured some highly detailed pictures and analyses of the famous painting. To be honest, I've seen the real thing in the Louvre, and I found it underwhelming at the time, and I still don't really understand people's fascination with it. In any event, the secrets all turned out to be things like "he changed his mind about the positioning of the fingers on the left hand" or "he never finished the fingers on the right hand" or "the paint used for mona lisa's eyelashes has not stood the test of time" (which is why she doesn't have any eyelashes).
Playing with his gear trains, his irregular cams, and ball bearings was a lot more interesting.
Today, we relaxed a bit, and headed over to the movie theater with the intention of seeing Norwegian Wood, a movie adaptation of a novel by Haruki Murakami (one of Japanese most famous living novelists). Unfortunately, we got there a bit late, and since I had to return to Yokohama and run some errands, we opted to see Unstoppable instead, since it had an earlier showtime. Not bad.
Cheers,
Tuesday, January 04, 2011
At long last, something like a narrative
hey all,
I've been telling everyone that I need a vacation from my vacations. When Brian showed up in Japan, I got to act the tour guide. And when Michi and I went to Michigan, I got to do basically the same.
In any case, for Bri, we went to several different restaurants which served Japanese and Chinese food while in Japan, and went to a couple bars and clubs. Such as Dr. Jikel and Mr. Hyde, a movie-themed bar that had the guns from Pulp Fiction, the sword and shield from 300, the frozen Han Solo from Empire Strikes Back, etc, or PoPoPuRe, a maid-cafe in Akihabara that lived up to our expectations more than the place John and I went to last year. And last of all, we hit Nyoibow Club, a Dragon Ball-themed hostess club. My favorite of the 3 is definitely Dr. Jikel and Mr. Hyde.
But for the most part we spent a bunch of time in Kyoto. We were able to hit up Ryoan-ji, the Arashiyama area, and I got to see the Golden Pavilion at dusk, which was worth it by itself. Our second day in Kyoto was used up seeing Fushimi Inari Taisha, Tou-ji, Nijou Castle, and the Silver Pavilion (which is not silver, by the way). The third day was kinda wasted because we just came straight back to my place and spent the rest of the day inside playing video games. Bri looked like he was coming down with a cold, and his popped blisters had already formed more blisters underneath from all the walking. Don't ask me why a pro tennis instructor got blisters underneath blisters...
After that, it was kinda downhill: we checked out Akihabara, met with Michi for dinner after walking around the entire exterior of the Edo Imperial grounds (something like 4 or 5 kilometers), and then packed our bags.
Michigan was cold. I was a little disappointed in Michi's listening ability, but wasn't too surprised about how she fared communication-wise: as long as people were willing and had time to sit and listen, and make sure they understood her or she understood them, she did really well, but that just isn't possible in most stores and restaurants. The first real day in Michigan was mostly driving around MSU's campus, showing her one of the buildings where I used to have most of my classes, getting tickets for our Amtrak ride back to Chicago for the flight to Japan, and shopping at Moosejaw and at a crappy Kroger. As always, I was really impressed by the Moosejaw people. They know their stuff, they really like to help, and they have some of the best gear, even if their selection is a little small. We made our parents some ginger pork which was pretty good, but a little too strong on the ginger.
The second day we drastically overslept, and didn't get to the rock climbing gym in Ann Arbor until about 2:30 or 3:00. We had a short day of climbing, and then bought a butt-ton of gear. It was just so cheap I had to resist buying more.
The third day was more sports/outdoor wear shopping at an outlet, and then showing everyone my presentation, seeing my bro for the first time since our fight almost 2 years ago, and doing what must have been the 4 part of Christmas presents exchange. There was a bit of drama about that, but that's all I'll say here.
The fourth day was January 1st, 2011. We woke up early, and drove to Lake Lansing to watch the sunrise over the frozen lake. Alas, it was cloudy and all we saw was a brightening, and not a dawn. After heading back to the family house, we did a bunch of cleaning, but still had time to go for a walk around part of the private lake, and to watch some Mythbusters and part of The Last of the Mohicans. And then we headed over to Jackson to catch a ride on Amtrak. I hate to rag on this poor dying mode of transportation in the US, but it was really kinda deplorable. The station building closes at 3PM, so for any trains after that you have to wait out in the cold or heat, depending on the season. There are no bathrooms, because the building is closed. You just walk around it and wait by the tracks. There is no information about the train or its status to be seen anywhere; if you need to, you have to look it up on the internet using a smartphone, should you be rich or lucky enough to be carrying one.
The train was 23 minutes late, but we got on and from there it was smooth sailing to Union Station. From there we got a taxi to the hotel, checked-in, passed out, and got up to make our flight back to Japan on January 2nd. You all already know the only interesting things about our flight back.
I'm glad today was not a full day of work. As William Gibson writes:
I've been telling everyone that I need a vacation from my vacations. When Brian showed up in Japan, I got to act the tour guide. And when Michi and I went to Michigan, I got to do basically the same.
In any case, for Bri, we went to several different restaurants which served Japanese and Chinese food while in Japan, and went to a couple bars and clubs. Such as Dr. Jikel and Mr. Hyde, a movie-themed bar that had the guns from Pulp Fiction, the sword and shield from 300, the frozen Han Solo from Empire Strikes Back, etc, or PoPoPuRe, a maid-cafe in Akihabara that lived up to our expectations more than the place John and I went to last year. And last of all, we hit Nyoibow Club, a Dragon Ball-themed hostess club. My favorite of the 3 is definitely Dr. Jikel and Mr. Hyde.
But for the most part we spent a bunch of time in Kyoto. We were able to hit up Ryoan-ji, the Arashiyama area, and I got to see the Golden Pavilion at dusk, which was worth it by itself. Our second day in Kyoto was used up seeing Fushimi Inari Taisha, Tou-ji, Nijou Castle, and the Silver Pavilion (which is not silver, by the way). The third day was kinda wasted because we just came straight back to my place and spent the rest of the day inside playing video games. Bri looked like he was coming down with a cold, and his popped blisters had already formed more blisters underneath from all the walking. Don't ask me why a pro tennis instructor got blisters underneath blisters...
After that, it was kinda downhill: we checked out Akihabara, met with Michi for dinner after walking around the entire exterior of the Edo Imperial grounds (something like 4 or 5 kilometers), and then packed our bags.
Michigan was cold. I was a little disappointed in Michi's listening ability, but wasn't too surprised about how she fared communication-wise: as long as people were willing and had time to sit and listen, and make sure they understood her or she understood them, she did really well, but that just isn't possible in most stores and restaurants. The first real day in Michigan was mostly driving around MSU's campus, showing her one of the buildings where I used to have most of my classes, getting tickets for our Amtrak ride back to Chicago for the flight to Japan, and shopping at Moosejaw and at a crappy Kroger. As always, I was really impressed by the Moosejaw people. They know their stuff, they really like to help, and they have some of the best gear, even if their selection is a little small. We made our parents some ginger pork which was pretty good, but a little too strong on the ginger.
The second day we drastically overslept, and didn't get to the rock climbing gym in Ann Arbor until about 2:30 or 3:00. We had a short day of climbing, and then bought a butt-ton of gear. It was just so cheap I had to resist buying more.
The third day was more sports/outdoor wear shopping at an outlet, and then showing everyone my presentation, seeing my bro for the first time since our fight almost 2 years ago, and doing what must have been the 4 part of Christmas presents exchange. There was a bit of drama about that, but that's all I'll say here.
The fourth day was January 1st, 2011. We woke up early, and drove to Lake Lansing to watch the sunrise over the frozen lake. Alas, it was cloudy and all we saw was a brightening, and not a dawn. After heading back to the family house, we did a bunch of cleaning, but still had time to go for a walk around part of the private lake, and to watch some Mythbusters and part of The Last of the Mohicans. And then we headed over to Jackson to catch a ride on Amtrak. I hate to rag on this poor dying mode of transportation in the US, but it was really kinda deplorable. The station building closes at 3PM, so for any trains after that you have to wait out in the cold or heat, depending on the season. There are no bathrooms, because the building is closed. You just walk around it and wait by the tracks. There is no information about the train or its status to be seen anywhere; if you need to, you have to look it up on the internet using a smartphone, should you be rich or lucky enough to be carrying one.
The train was 23 minutes late, but we got on and from there it was smooth sailing to Union Station. From there we got a taxi to the hotel, checked-in, passed out, and got up to make our flight back to Japan on January 2nd. You all already know the only interesting things about our flight back.
I'm glad today was not a full day of work. As William Gibson writes:
She knows, now, absolutely, hearing the white noise that is London, that Damien's theory of jet lag is correct: that her mortal soul is leagues behind her, being reeled in on some ghostly umbilical down the vanished wake of the plane that brought her here, hundreds of thousands of feet above the Atlantic. Souls can't move that quickly, and are left behind, and must be awaited, upon arrival, like lost luggage.
I woke up this morning feeling exactly like this, like my consciousness hadn't quite caught up to my body yet. I went in to work, organized the room, did some recording for the boss, and then took off. I was able to get some grocery shopping done, clean up my room a little bit, and even await my repaired climbing shoes. I'm actually not too happy about that: only some of the spots that needed repair were actually repaired, so I'd like to send them back, but I think they might try to charge me again, which is BS. We'll see.
Cheers,
Monday, January 03, 2011
Japan!
hey all,
I'm back in Japan, and boy am I tired. Another long flight with no sleep (I know it seems crazy, but naps really mess up my sleep cycle), and for some reason a lot of drama. First off, we didn't get business class, which wouldn't be that bad, but economy sucks more than I remember it sucking.
We couldn't even choose what movies to watch or when: the whole entertainment package was pre-programed and there were only like 15 monitors scattered throughout the economy class seating area to view them. It seems like on my last few flights, such as the one that brought me to Japan in the first place, or the ones I took to and from Amsterdam several years ago, all had monitors on the backs of the seats so you could watch whatever you wanted.
In and of itself, not too big a deal. Except for the guy next to me. I noticed that he was sleeping before the plane even took off, and on his left wrist I could see a hospital-style wristband: one of those white plastic things with your name, etc on it.
I was stretching my legs by walking around the plane, and when I came back to the seat they were giving him oxygen. He was shaking and felt sick, I guess, and then the call went out: "Is there a doctor on the plane?" I left to give them room, and soon they had him on an IV of something or other.
He slept for most of the rest of the flight, but he was shaking again after they took the IV out just before we landed. I still don't know what the issue was. The paramedics were waiting for him when we arrived at Narita.
That's going to be about it for.
The trip to the US went really well, but I'm not sure I'll be able to type coherently long enough to get it out there today.
Cheers,
I'm back in Japan, and boy am I tired. Another long flight with no sleep (I know it seems crazy, but naps really mess up my sleep cycle), and for some reason a lot of drama. First off, we didn't get business class, which wouldn't be that bad, but economy sucks more than I remember it sucking.
We couldn't even choose what movies to watch or when: the whole entertainment package was pre-programed and there were only like 15 monitors scattered throughout the economy class seating area to view them. It seems like on my last few flights, such as the one that brought me to Japan in the first place, or the ones I took to and from Amsterdam several years ago, all had monitors on the backs of the seats so you could watch whatever you wanted.
In and of itself, not too big a deal. Except for the guy next to me. I noticed that he was sleeping before the plane even took off, and on his left wrist I could see a hospital-style wristband: one of those white plastic things with your name, etc on it.
I was stretching my legs by walking around the plane, and when I came back to the seat they were giving him oxygen. He was shaking and felt sick, I guess, and then the call went out: "Is there a doctor on the plane?" I left to give them room, and soon they had him on an IV of something or other.
He slept for most of the rest of the flight, but he was shaking again after they took the IV out just before we landed. I still don't know what the issue was. The paramedics were waiting for him when we arrived at Narita.
That's going to be about it for.
The trip to the US went really well, but I'm not sure I'll be able to type coherently long enough to get it out there today.
Cheers,
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)