hey,
We lost one of the ALTs living in my building this Friday: she's moved back to the US, and Japan is a little bit more boring and less interesting now that she's gone. We never had anything going on, but it is always sad when you lose a comrade who's gone through similar things, and someone who always lights up a room. In her place, we have a new ALT from New York.
I've crossed the 2 month mark, and went through my normal rounds of bike parking, housing, school lunch, etc bills. The weather this whole weekend has been about as dreary as imaginable, so I've just stayed in, read, watched anime, and played some video games.
I'd really like to see Kyoto next, but I don't see how I can see everything, or even a reasonable number of sites, over the course of a weekend. It turns out that my school's trip to Kyoto was rescheduled for September due to the swine flu outbreak in the Kansai region, so the trip didn't happen last Monday like I thought.
In other news, my 3rd year teacher wants me to teach the grammar point for the next lesson in English. Previously, she would explain the sentence in Japanese, and have a few examples in English and/or a small conversation featuring the sentence type. Now, I get to do my own presentation, so we'll see how that goes.
Not too much else going on.
Cheers,
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Eating Japan, Part 2
Top Left: Colored azuki bean paste and vegetable oil in balloons(pop the balloon with a toothpick, then enjoy a sweet, chewy treat). Top Right: Chewy treat, slight carmel flavor. Bottom Left: Fried(?) Batter of some kind, sweet and with a lingering spicy aftertaste. Bottom Right: Fried sweet batter of some kind.
Roppoyaki: similar to manju (steamed balls of pounded rice), except cubed instead of blobbed.
Tonkatsu: breaded pork cutlet, with sauce and miso soup.
Beans: Top left: azuki beans covered in some powder; soft and sweet. Top Right: same as left, but a different powder. Bottom: different kind of bean, crunchy, sweet, and slightly spicey.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Kawagoe, Part 2
hey all,
Incredibly, the weather today was crappy, and I had already decided that I wanted to try to visit Kawagoe again. I waited most of the morning and early afternoon for the rain to stop, and ended up doing my laundry in the mean time. Finally, around 3PM, the rain stopped and I asked my neighbor Ramon if he wanted to come to Kawagoe, and so the two of us headed over there.
The first time I went, I must have walked right by the most famous landmark several times without seeing it: the 時の鐘 (toki no kane/ Tower of Time). This time, we walked straight there, and also found the true Candy Lane. After wandering around for an hour or so, the rain started up again, so we came back to Omiya.
Cheers,
Incredibly, the weather today was crappy, and I had already decided that I wanted to try to visit Kawagoe again. I waited most of the morning and early afternoon for the rain to stop, and ended up doing my laundry in the mean time. Finally, around 3PM, the rain stopped and I asked my neighbor Ramon if he wanted to come to Kawagoe, and so the two of us headed over there.
The first time I went, I must have walked right by the most famous landmark several times without seeing it: the 時の鐘 (toki no kane/ Tower of Time). This time, we walked straight there, and also found the true Candy Lane. After wandering around for an hour or so, the rain started up again, so we came back to Omiya.
Cheers,
Ret-Conned
hey all,
So I doubt that this has showed up on the radar, but I've been going back to previous posts and spell-checking them, expanding certain sections if I think I missed something the first time, adding a few pictures here and there, etc. If you get bored, you might want to check out some of the older posts and see if they've been updated.
Cheers
So I doubt that this has showed up on the radar, but I've been going back to previous posts and spell-checking them, expanding certain sections if I think I missed something the first time, adding a few pictures here and there, etc. If you get bored, you might want to check out some of the older posts and see if they've been updated.
Cheers
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Kamakura
hey all,
I just got back from Kamakura. This is a historic town to the south of Tokyo, which contains many famous places. The most famous one is probably Kotoku-in, which has the largest statue of Buddha in all Japan. It is over- and underwhelming at the same time: it is really large and everything, but there is nothing else to see there. Much more interesting is the Hase Dera, which houses a large statue of Kannon, the goddess of Mercy. There is a cave with very low ceilings, forcing you to stoop just to walk around. Inside, there is a statue of some goddess of beauty, I think. The main bulding is up on a hill, and there are several places to look out at the rest of Kamakura and the ocean, and the views are spectacular.
I also went to the Kamakura Literature Museum and Hachiman-gu shrine. The museum was hosting a flower showing, and I decided I'd be Japanese and have a fetish for flowers for a few minutes. Hachiman-gu shrine was my last stop. It was moved to Kamakura by Minamoto no Yorimoto, the founder of the Kamakura shogunate way back in 1191.
A wedding ceremony at Hachiman-gu.
As with my sightseeing trip to Nikko, I bought a few souvenirs at the shrines and temples: a small demon mask at Hase Dera, a pair of geta near Hachiman-gu, a caligraphy brush at Hachiman-gu, and some snacks for my teachers from Kotoku-in. Since I shaved my head a few days ago, I also bought a hat after I noticed my scalp was on fire, but that was a practical item and not really a souvenir.
Cheers
I just got back from Kamakura. This is a historic town to the south of Tokyo, which contains many famous places. The most famous one is probably Kotoku-in, which has the largest statue of Buddha in all Japan. It is over- and underwhelming at the same time: it is really large and everything, but there is nothing else to see there. Much more interesting is the Hase Dera, which houses a large statue of Kannon, the goddess of Mercy. There is a cave with very low ceilings, forcing you to stoop just to walk around. Inside, there is a statue of some goddess of beauty, I think. The main bulding is up on a hill, and there are several places to look out at the rest of Kamakura and the ocean, and the views are spectacular.
I also went to the Kamakura Literature Museum and Hachiman-gu shrine. The museum was hosting a flower showing, and I decided I'd be Japanese and have a fetish for flowers for a few minutes. Hachiman-gu shrine was my last stop. It was moved to Kamakura by Minamoto no Yorimoto, the founder of the Kamakura shogunate way back in 1191.
A wedding ceremony at Hachiman-gu.Cheers
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Book and Game Recommendations
hey all,
So this is only slightly related to being in Japan. Because I have so much free time at work, I've been spending a lot of time reading books (and not studying Japanese like I should be), and I read a really amazing sci-fi series by Dan Simmons consisting of Illium and Olympos. It starts as a futuristic re-telling of The Illiad, featuring post-humans, sentient robots, advanced nanotechnology, and several other sci-fi staples, but then turns into this amazing adventure as the plot starts to diverge wildly away from Homer's classic. If it sounds trite or overdone, it isn't. The tone is spot on, sombre, ironic, touching, and uproarious at all the right moments.
I've also been re-reading George R.R. Martin's The Song of Ice and Fire fantasy series, and I remember why I love it so much: it is the most adult fantasy series I've ever read. By that I mean many things: that the characters are not simple; each one is complicated enough to be featured as the main character in his/her own book, but the cast starts with about 10, and you slowly gain more characters as you go. I also mean that it features violence and, yes, sexuality: things for adults. Another thing is that no one is safe: by the end of the 4th book, about 5 of the characters you started with in book 1 have been killed. Each one of these deaths tears at you: the character might not have been your favorite, but you were in his/her head for several thousand pages, and it hurts to lose that presence. The only downside to this series is that it is not complete: the 5th book will be published later this year, but there are 2 books projected after that. Between the 3rd and 4th book, there was a wait of 5 years, and between the 4th and 5th book, about 4 years. So the end of this story is still a good decade away.
I've been tempted to return to the Wheel of Time series, but now it looks like the final book is still several years from being published in its entirity. The author, Robert Jordan, died of cancer several years ago while working on the last book, and now they have asked another author to finish it, but now the final book is being split into 3 volumes to be published over 3 years, starting in 2010. Oh how they love to keep us waiting! Fans of this series have already been waiting 20 years and almost 10,000 pages (11 published volumes clocking in at around 700-1000 pages each, depending on edition) for a conclusion.
Since I finally got my PS3 working several weeks ago, I've also been looking at what games are coming out. The sequels are looking the most exciting: Red Faction Guerilla, Bad Company 2, Assassin's Creed 2, and Bioshock 2. Red Faction and Bad Company will both feature destructible environments. In the old days, this used to mean you could break boxes, tables, chairs, and bottles, etc, but these games allow you to deform the terrian and put really big wholes in walls, roofs, trees, and doors, which takes away cover and hiding places from enemies. To be honest, not that much is out there about Assassin's Creed 2, but I'm really stoked about the game nonetheless.
I've finally completed the prologue chapters of Ryu ga Gotoku Kenzen!, the game which features Miyamoto Musashi, and I've been making a little progress in KillZone 2, but I only have about 5 hours free after work each day, and most of that time goes to grocery shopping, eating, researching future trips, recovering from past trips, and coordinating with other ALTs. Even my weekends are usually much too busy to squeeze in more than an hour or two in a row. Which is really a good thing, because I'm enjoying the sights, smells, tastes, and sometimes the people of Japan.
Cheers
So this is only slightly related to being in Japan. Because I have so much free time at work, I've been spending a lot of time reading books (and not studying Japanese like I should be), and I read a really amazing sci-fi series by Dan Simmons consisting of Illium and Olympos. It starts as a futuristic re-telling of The Illiad, featuring post-humans, sentient robots, advanced nanotechnology, and several other sci-fi staples, but then turns into this amazing adventure as the plot starts to diverge wildly away from Homer's classic. If it sounds trite or overdone, it isn't. The tone is spot on, sombre, ironic, touching, and uproarious at all the right moments.
I've also been re-reading George R.R. Martin's The Song of Ice and Fire fantasy series, and I remember why I love it so much: it is the most adult fantasy series I've ever read. By that I mean many things: that the characters are not simple; each one is complicated enough to be featured as the main character in his/her own book, but the cast starts with about 10, and you slowly gain more characters as you go. I also mean that it features violence and, yes, sexuality: things for adults. Another thing is that no one is safe: by the end of the 4th book, about 5 of the characters you started with in book 1 have been killed. Each one of these deaths tears at you: the character might not have been your favorite, but you were in his/her head for several thousand pages, and it hurts to lose that presence. The only downside to this series is that it is not complete: the 5th book will be published later this year, but there are 2 books projected after that. Between the 3rd and 4th book, there was a wait of 5 years, and between the 4th and 5th book, about 4 years. So the end of this story is still a good decade away.
I've been tempted to return to the Wheel of Time series, but now it looks like the final book is still several years from being published in its entirity. The author, Robert Jordan, died of cancer several years ago while working on the last book, and now they have asked another author to finish it, but now the final book is being split into 3 volumes to be published over 3 years, starting in 2010. Oh how they love to keep us waiting! Fans of this series have already been waiting 20 years and almost 10,000 pages (11 published volumes clocking in at around 700-1000 pages each, depending on edition) for a conclusion.
Since I finally got my PS3 working several weeks ago, I've also been looking at what games are coming out. The sequels are looking the most exciting: Red Faction Guerilla, Bad Company 2, Assassin's Creed 2, and Bioshock 2. Red Faction and Bad Company will both feature destructible environments. In the old days, this used to mean you could break boxes, tables, chairs, and bottles, etc, but these games allow you to deform the terrian and put really big wholes in walls, roofs, trees, and doors, which takes away cover and hiding places from enemies. To be honest, not that much is out there about Assassin's Creed 2, but I'm really stoked about the game nonetheless.
I've finally completed the prologue chapters of Ryu ga Gotoku Kenzen!, the game which features Miyamoto Musashi, and I've been making a little progress in KillZone 2, but I only have about 5 hours free after work each day, and most of that time goes to grocery shopping, eating, researching future trips, recovering from past trips, and coordinating with other ALTs. Even my weekends are usually much too busy to squeeze in more than an hour or two in a row. Which is really a good thing, because I'm enjoying the sights, smells, tastes, and sometimes the people of Japan.
Cheers
二万円今日
hey,
So the title is "ni-man-en kyou" or 20,000 yen today, which is about what I've spent paying my phone bill, bike parking bill, school lunch bill, and buying some hair clippers over at ビックカメラ (Bic Camera).
The hair clippers themselves cost more than any of the other bills, but I really don't care. They will pay for themselves in two months, because a hair cut would cost me 4000円 at least for a buzz cut.
My third year students are taking a field trip to Kyoto on Monday, and I'm very jealous of them. The teacher suggested I should go with them, but I'm not sure if I'm actually allowed to go, or even if there is enough time to include me in the trip. I'll stop by the junior high after I finish the elementary school tomorrow and see if this is possible.
Cheers,
So the title is "ni-man-en kyou" or 20,000 yen today, which is about what I've spent paying my phone bill, bike parking bill, school lunch bill, and buying some hair clippers over at ビックカメラ (Bic Camera).
The hair clippers themselves cost more than any of the other bills, but I really don't care. They will pay for themselves in two months, because a hair cut would cost me 4000円 at least for a buzz cut.
My third year students are taking a field trip to Kyoto on Monday, and I'm very jealous of them. The teacher suggested I should go with them, but I'm not sure if I'm actually allowed to go, or even if there is enough time to include me in the trip. I'll stop by the junior high after I finish the elementary school tomorrow and see if this is possible.
Cheers,
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