月別アーカイブ: 2011年10月

Mansions vs Apartments

A friend of mine arrived to teach English at an Eikawa here in Tokyo. He arrived from his native California thinking “ I am going to live in a Mansion in Tokyo, how cool is that?!”  Now, lets analyse what was going through his head. He was thinking :” I am going to live in a huge house , perhaps with a jacuzzi  (Japanese love bahing in hot boiling water, right?) , a nice view of the city , perhaps it is a designer type of architecture mansion , with the latest technology , yea! I’ll clap my hands and  the lights will go off and on!  and we will have plenty of space for parties or gatherings…it is a mansion after all”

Well…imagine his surprise when he saw a normal apartment  in the 10th floor of a concrete building with nothing as special or luxurious as described above…”not even technological toilets”  he said. What he didn’t know is that  in Japan  Mansion has another definition from the Amercian concept. Mansions in Japan are residential buildings that usually have more than 3 or 4 stories. They are mainly constructed out of  reinforced concrete or steel reinforced with concrete and they don’t have the  luxury of an American mansion. Apartments are  made out wood and they are not in buildings as tall as the ones with Mansions…. be careful in your  apartment search and don’t be fooled by this cultural difference :p

Pantry

Okay, so I said not much has been happening here but it seems that Oakhouse has decided to put some money and effort into little ol’ Nishitokyo!  Much to my pleasure, after the theater room was complete our manager started working on another little project.

Off of the lounge there is one more room that up until this point could best be described as the junk room.  It is very small so it can’t be another bedroom so it seems like people would just throw anything in there.  But recently our manager cleaned it out and set up some shelves and some box drawers.  So it seems like it is going to be made into a… pantry for all the guests!  Yay!

Of course we can’t keep all our goods there.  The boxes aren’t huge and we can’t store stuff that will attract what we all like to call the “initial G” (aka cockroaches).  However we can store things like spices and condiments.  I can’t tell you how many times I have forgotten salt or sugar or some other little thing and have had to run back and forth, back and forth.  So I’m excited.

Recently there hasn’t been much progress in the room but I do hope that it will continue and be completed soon.  And next I wouldn’t mind having some shelves for outside the showers!  All this will really help open up space in our own rooms which after two years of living here is starting to dwindle….

pantry

Theater Room

Recently there hasn’t been that much happening in the guest house.  You know, the same ol’ same ol’ (although the number of “guests” is continuing to rise!)

However, in September we did have one very big and good change to the house!  A theater room!  With a big screen and a projector we are able to watch movies in a quiet space! Yay!

Of course the regular lounge has a pretty big screen but with everyone eating and making dinner and stopping in there after work to chat and say hi, it can get pretty noisy.

The theater room has a great big screen on the wall and a surround system which gives you that, “I’m watching a movie!” kind of feel.  It’s almost like you are in a movie theater albeit the fairly hard sofa.

As soon as it opened my boyfriend and I rented a movie (Blueray too!) and watched it in the theater room!  It was great!  Before, whenever we rented movies together we always watched them on my computer in my room.  It’s a completely different experience!  And above all this, an iPhone can wireless play from it’s iTunes which means I can study in there as well while listening to music!  I have no stereo in my room now so that makes me the most happy.

Thanks Oakhouse!

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Autumn Garden

Well, Fall is upon us.  It is nice to have cooler weather although this summer wasn’t all that bad (humid and hot-wise).  It was hot but then it would be cool the next day.  Lots of days of surprise rain.  It was an unusual summer.  But seeing as though I am from Colorado, I like weather like that!

However, due to this fluctuating weather my genki vegetables (eggplant and tomatoes) didn’t last quite as long as I thought they would.  This weird weather caused their color to fade and their texture to get worse.  So around the beginning of September, my tomatoes and eggplants were finished.

The green onions that I planted didn’t really grow very big.  It could have been due to lack of care… I was busy during August.  However, when you ate them they had a very strong green onion taste.  That was pretty cool.  Talking about another strong flavored plant that I grew was basil.  I LOVE growing basil.  It is so much more flavorful than the store bought version.

Last but not least was our red peppers.  These were super funny to grow and watch sprout up – first green, then red.  They are pretty spicy as well!

I recently walked past a local kindergarten and they just cultivated their garden and put in some new tomato plants (at least, I think that’s what they were!).  I wonder what will be next for me…?

そのせいか、最初の頃元気だった庭の野菜たちも少し色が悪くなったり、小さかったりと元気がない。

トマトとナスはそろそろ終わりかな?トウガラシは緑や赤の実を付け始めて、そろそろ収穫。

ネギはちょっと育ちが悪いが、ちょっと食べてみたらちゃんとネギの味がした。

当たり前の事だけど、やっぱりうれしい。

そろそろ秋から植える野菜の準備。今度は何にしようか?

autumngarden

the endless learning

so recently, i just canNOT take my own poor japanese anymore and has to start some new studying again.

the whole stem comes from the fact that i found it SO waste of my time and energy to get irritated by people that i do not want to see around here, but しようがない、because this very irritating brainless person also lives here. once in a while, you just bump into this creature and this creature will ask you in a very “weird” and
“you don’t know if she is sincere or not tone” and said “元気?”

and asking you questions or in a tone that just assume everyone in this whole wide world has problems 24 hours a day, except her.

so when you are in a good mood and you want to be humble and keep it for yourself instead of like her “always like showing off and think herself a princess or something”, you just wonder how to deal with this situation.

i really wish i can be straight enough and next time when she bump into me again she really can realize i DON’T want to even say “hi” to her anymore. because she is so freaking irritating and such a air-head.

that is why, instead of the whole head being irritated by worthless ppl in your life, the space, that very space in your brain, maybe you should fill it in with some useful Japanese words instead, which, in the future, it sure will come in handy one day, でしょう!

please give me the strength to handle all these crap.

and most of all, recently, i really find myself, especially the heart, so hard to breath, and it is something like a 心絞痛。

sometimes i really do not know how long i can live, and if how long i can live healthily. whenever i am down, i really want to smoke, but my body just not good with it …

and the sad thing is, the person that i want to see the most, i don’t think that he will understand. next time, again, if i not show up on time, and failed to contact him on time, he would just left again, instead of thinking … “maybe this person has encountered some problems …”

そんな考え方ないだよね。悲しい。

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my white owl is even cuter.

because i have to do the laundry, and white owl now on my desk, next to my computer, he is SO fat and white. and he really looks like a bird!

how can he be so cute? just like him.

whatever

last weekend was a very good one, so happy, could see the person that i want to see the most the whole day, いいじゃん。compare to this  weekend, it really suck all the way.

とにかく、 what can you do? i am not saying it is completely not my fault but no matter what it is the reaction is just a little out of line. instead of thinking i am SO wrong, why can’t the other party think:  maybe she has encountered some type of difficulties?

my goodness, why he is the only one that is the victim there? i tried soooo many ways and so hard without 1 second of stopping just make the machine work so i can see him ASAP and when i went back to my room all i got was just a message saying he was GONE! i could not believe it, i was ALL ready even before i took the darn laundry to the 2 floor because i had been waiting for his call ALL along!

does he even know that?

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delicious and not expensive SOBA in shinjuku.

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the lovely half-cooked egg.

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the other lovely half-cooked egg. wonderful.

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the BLACK version of my phone that he took me to get. from shinjuku. it is sooooo interesting, instead of getting a high-tech phone, due to my as-usual bad luck, so my WHITE phone just cannot charge anymore and if i fix the white phone all my messages would be gone, 99% of those are from him of course … and … since the contract is not in my name, so the easiest way is just to get a phone same as my white one so all i have to do just have to put the SIM card into the new one.

i did have the choice to choose a new WHITE one, but, as i wanted as much to forget the luck of the past, i found this BLACK one more appealing and so i picked this instead.

even though it said it is 中古、but it is SO brand-new inside out. it still has all the seal on it. amazing. and i actually find it exciting to seem to have a new phone. and this time, the language i use, is JAPANESE. and there is NO data inside, like a brand new start.

自分の世界を広げるって

i was down yesterday and i went into the smoking room and bumped into one of my 知り合い friends.

he asked me how i was doing, so i told him まあまあ、he asked what happened and i told him i seemed to have a fight with someone. he asked who, so just not to make things sound worse i answered 知り合い. then he asked if it is a guy or a girl and i told him it is a male.

he also asked if my job is 順調。after a while, i told him it is 順調。

then i told him, “but i am just very 貧乏>< !!!”

then he told me, “everyone is.”

so i told him how crazy that my account only had ¥2000 at one point.

the very first time, he told me this, “my DAD used to be …..”

honestly, i didn’t completely get what he was trying to tell me, due to my limited understanding of japanese, but i think, he was trying to tell me how his DAD also used to be very poor and could not get a driver’s license or something … yes, he was telling me about his dad …

and, he told me, 羨ましい、because i can speak 3 languages, he said, “自分の世界を広げる”.

but i told him, “you also have 技術。”

he then said, “even 料理 that they cook over there are also 技術だよ”.

yesterday, after what he told me, my mood did get a little more “up”, because, my world has always been kind of small, because the happiness that i want, also is small. however, 世界を広げるって、makes me realize how poor my Japanese is once more, he actually gave me a little incentive to try to learn even when i am down, and … i wish i can understand his language more. their way of thinking, is kind of different and interesting. but due to my poor japanese, i am not able to fully understand the messages around.

one of the worst days of this year

sometimes i wonder, how to keep happiness to stay and never let it slip. why is it always SO difficult to make things last forever? no matter what it is.

crying out loud i don’t even know how long i can stay on this silly earth, so years ago, i decided, “i would like to xxxxx before i die”.

不在乎天長地久,只在乎曾經擁有。

i can never dispute this idea. i found it very right, and i found it very true.

however, recently, as i grow EVEN older, i find out something else.

even if you have finally achieved what you have always wanted/dreamed of since a you were a child, after your satisfaction has been fulfilled quite a bit, regarding how difficult or how much it has cost, it all comes down to one conclusion … this is not right, … cause, it does not seem to last.

this is not good, if does not last, that would mean, as time goes by, what you have now, will be gone one day, or, in some worse cases, SOON. soon it will be gone.

how to keep happiness and satisfaction LAST, the best would be, last till the day you die.

A few days ago, Steve Jobs passes away. I was very shocked. It feels so sudden. Never thought it would happen so suddenly, maybe because his real health situation had always not been quite public.

Anyway, the thing is, the day we got the news, 社長 came in and asked if I have listened to his 2005 commencement speech in Stanford.

He so wanted me to hear about it, even when I was working. So I listened.

90% of the thing Steve said, I agree. cause I DID experience it, but of course, compare to Steve, my scale is a lot A LOT smaller. cause my goal is not to be the CEO of a company.

and there is also one thing he said that really hit me:

Even those who are Christians, they do not want to die to get to heaven.

THAT, just cannot be truer.

i know EXACTLY what he meant by it.

i sort of knew this feeling before, and so are many of the ones out there, but to summarize this very thought in ONE sentence, that is amazing.

i wish he just message me now. that is a temp. relief.

for the rest, i just have to figure out, somehow, someway, how to keep things “LAST”.

Kamakura 2

So our next stop was the Big Buddha and from the fox shrine there seemed to be a short hiking trail (and shortcut) straight to the Buddha.  So we asked the overseer of the shrine about the difficultly of the trail and he seemed to think it was no problem so off we go.  Now there was two problems with this trail: 1) for an older person, it is not easy (maybe these crazy genki Japanese oldies); 2) seeing as though it had rained the night before, it was not easy for a young person either!  It was quite a hike and a little scary (for fear of slipping down the mountain) but eventually we made it albeit two pairs of dirty feet.

After the Big Buddha we headed to the Hase temple.  This was my first time to this tourist spot compared to the others which I have been before (except the Fox shrine). I really really liked this temple.  It has a variety of smaller halls or buildings, all with different significance, within it.  I felt a little like I was in a small village almost with the amount of things to see.  One of my favorite spots was a cave and you walked through and saw many deities carved into the walls of the cave, including the deity of music!  Pretty cool.  It also has a lovely cafe with a great view of Yuigahama beach.  Nice place to take a breather.

After this temple we hopped on the Enoshima line, a small train that weaves through the backyards of houses with intermittent views of the ocean.  We got off at Enoshima station and caught the monorail to get back to the hotel, picked up our bags and headed home.

What a lovely trip.

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Okunoshima 2

(Admin note: This entry got lost in the shuffle, I’m afraid, and I apologize… it’s well worth it; just check out the pictures!! -James)

Okunoshima may have a dark past but it isn’t all sad and morbid and seems to be well on its way to a bright future.  It is a beautiful little island surrounded by other islands, which makes for awesome sunset pictures.  A beach, a resort (with a fantastic buffet!), tennis courts, hiking trails, a pool, onsens, and …..drumroll please!….. wild rabbits!  Yes, you read it right.  There are about 300 wild rabbits on the island that are everywhere (believe me they scared me a couple times on the hiking trail and at the top of the mountain!). Whether they were used for test subjects in the past is a controversy but whether they were are not they seem to be happy now!  Endless food, government protection (it’s the national parks), and no real natural enemies.  Nice!

You would have thought that I would get sick of feeding these little furry creatures but really I couldn’t get enough. They were all so cute and fun to watch.  If you shook the cup of food they would all come running out of the woods to reap the goods.  It’s like Nara but a hundred times cuter.  But I have to stay they are very hard to take good pictures of.  They don’t like to stand still and the minute they realize you don’t have food, they are off!

Oku 2

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