月別アーカイブ: 2009年6月

First entry

Hi,

 After living in Japan for almost 5 months now, I`ve become quite accustomed to life here and am enjoying it very much.  I`ve enjoyed many different sights so far and am looking forward to seeing more over the next several months.  Although, its very costly regarding living and working, I believe that it can be done if careful even for those who aren`t very good with money because after the first month or two of living here, you become a money saver as to survive. I really think that Japan is a beautiful and safe country to live in and visit at the same time.  Its a small island with a lot to offer.  Life in Japan differs from life in Canada greatly, but there are some aspects that are similar.

Ajisai and the Celt

It’s the Ajisai season at the Ueno Park right now and it’s really nice to see these beautiful flowers around the park. They are the ball looking flowers that come in different colours, such as pink, blue, purple and white. They add a nice colour to all the green in Ueno Park. They are mostly around the Shinobazu Pond. After a nice stroll around these lovely flowers, we ended up at a local pub in Ueno, called the Warrior Celt. They have live music on Wednesday and Friday nights. It’s a great way to relax and enjoy some live music. It’s nice living in Ueno.

hard to imagine …

but i think my english is … degrading … is the word “degrading” even correct? wo … i meant, my english is getting worse. there are classmates that sometimes, very sometimes can speak english to me, however, her english is just … poor … hahaha. yes, cause she is forgetting her english too …

anyhow, after this HUGE language exam in early July, i really have doubts, if it is possible, find a part time that can use my english, geez …

so there is no way i would be writing these blogs in japanese any time soon, haha. recently, i have been writing my diary in japanese, not on computer but on paper, cause it is a lot faster. it is interesting, and i write a lot, however, of course, i think there are sentences, probably many, only ME can understand … hahaha, wrong grammar ALL the way! >.<

Sore Throats and a Fish in Eyewear.

I watched the Dark Knight the other night. I noticed when watching the film that every time Bruce Wayne  put on the Batman costume he would put on the dark and croaky sounding voice (much like what Bob Dylan sounds like on his new album). I guess he does it to both disguise his real voice and to strike fear into the hearts of his adversaries, but the whole time it sounded strenuous to voice and bit to me like he just needed a throat lozenge.  He even talked that way to his love interest in the film Rachel, who was well aware of his true identity. I don’t know what he’s playing at.

On the Topic of Christian Bale, I went the Ghibili Museum the other week. It was  quite interesting as it did go a lot into the tedious yet magical process of animation. My friend got caught taking a photo of Ponyo (the sea monkey under a contact lens) by a member of the staff, then a second time later on in an other area of the museum. Being a two time offender, the staff member wasn’t buying the ignorant foreigner act and seem pretty annoyed.

Fuji Q

Went to Fuji Q Highland on Sunday. It doesn’t have the minute detail in every square inch of park that Disney Land does to create that famous whimsical atmosphere , but it makes up for with the some of the craziest roller coasters I have ever seen. And being the age I am ,I find the latter more appealing.

The ride I found most amazing was the one called Eejanaika. I noticed when lining up for the ride a framed certificate from the Guinness book of records  boasting this ride to be  something like the most ridiculously evil roller coaster ever built. It not only takes  you down a horrendously steep and sharp turning track, who ever designed the ride also thought  it’d be a good idea to make your seat flip every which way at the same time . The result is you (the passenger)not having the faintest clue whether your climbing, falling or flipping. You wouldn’t know if you had derailed  from the track until  you were sitting there, fuzzy headed in a smoldering heap on the ground. I guess what I’m trying to say is… I recommend it.

The Ghibli Museum

The theme for the Ghibli museum  has carefully designed exhibits, original short animated films, and some other random stuff. When I went there it was cool to learn about animation and genraly, I just like the feel of the place.

They have installed a new exhibit, which showcases the new Ponyon movie, which I am yet to watch. They had a big Ponyon that could be squeezed as it was a giant thick ballon full of water, it was cool.

If you go up to the rof, you can see a massive robot from Laputa castle in the sky. The best thing though is the cinema. You get to watch a movie and your ticket is a reel from a real movie.

The movie we watched was about a girl travelling through a forest, every sound effect was done in a kind of Police Acadamy way, by a few people using their voices to create onomatapaeic noises. For example “Whooooooooooooooooooooshhhhhhhh!!!”….. that would be wind. Well, it was better than I make it sound.

Tower Records

For any music or book lovers out there, go to Tower Records in Shibuya. If you go to the Hachiko exit (You can find it by walking down the Yamanote line) then walk down the road to the right of the massive Starbucks, you will find a big building called Tower Records.

In there is a countless array of music and DVDs etc, but if you go up to the 9th floor there is a heap of English books. They have a great selection and they also have a sales bin where I was able to pick up a couple of bargains. Towards the back of the store is a load of Japanese study books and flashcards for learning Kana.

If you don’t already know kana, then it is really easy to learn using flashcards. Once you have learned it then you can read al the train stations and other useful things. It also helps you to identify the Japanese that you already know, and in conjunction with a little grammar study will help you to understand the basic sentence structure of Japanese.

Memebers can recieve points or something from the store, but I have never really understood what for or how to cash them in, still, might as well do it in case I ever find out what they are actually worth.

Clean Home

Recently our guesthouse has been really dirty since some tenants don’t want to cooperate to keep it clean.  Every week it’s someone’s turn to take the garbage out and up until May it was going fine but for some reason it all stopped after May. Now, only a few of us who care to live in a clean house take the garbage out as often as we could. This is not fair especially when other tenants are also using the same kitchen and garbage bin!

However, we are very lucky to have a wonderful landlord, like Mr. Takeshi Ishii, who always answers any enquiries promptly and willing to help. He arranged for a professional weekly cleaner to our guesthouse from this month after hearing my request. Thank you Oakhouse for always listening to our needs!!!

As some of us would like to say, “Cleanliness is next to God!” or simply, it is much nicer living in a clean house, especially during the Japanese summer when all insects seems to be on a mission in Tokyo! 

The busy week

For me it happens four times a year. The busy week.  In my case, I have the option of turning one severely busy week into two moderately busy weeks or even three mildly busy weeks. Instead I choose, or rather the choice is made without my input, or – more accurately – expressly because of my lack of input, I am plunged each year into a week dominated by work at four separate occasions, spaced roughly evenly throughout the year.

Compared to most, my busy week is pathetic in it’s lack of busy-ness. Or so I am made to believe by throngs of “business people” who tell me of their hellish schedules. My university students, as well, at least judging by the looks of exhaustion on their faces, seem to have it worse off than me.

And so they should, from my perspective. It is, afterall, their “fault” I am so busy. It’s their mid-term assessments that cause me, in fact, to be so busy. It’s the cash they fork out to take my class, as well, that finances my breezy lifestyle, so let it be clear, at the same time, that I don’t “blame” these kids for anything.

The fact remains, to return to the point, that I am having, for better or worse, a busy week.

And this is what it boils down to:

Not enough time to do laundry.

Could be worse.

Manga Cafe

Gotta love the manga cafes… I can spend hours there! (Although I don’t have so much time anymore recently), but in the first week of my stay in Japan, I went to the Manga Kissa (cafe) almost every day.

I love manga, but in the 13 years that I live in Canada, it was very difficult for me to obtain any. There were very few Japanese book stores in Canada. But now that I’m in Japan… it’s all I can read!

So buying each one of these comic books brand new (or even used for that matter) can be a little pricy, and that’s where the manga cafe comes in.

Manga cafe allows you to pay a fee (usually around 1000 yen for 3 hours, depending on the location, and type of room you want) and gives you access to the internet and all the mangas you can read! … ok, and not to mention all the free juice!

My favorites are Slum Dunk, Detroit Metal City, Kimi wa Pet, etc etc.

But what suprises me is that since these Manga cafes are in business 24 hours, there are many homeless people that go there during the night time and spend the night there. To accomodate these people, most (bigger) manga cafes even have showers, towels, etc…

 What a strange culture!