Movies, Last Final, and the Game Center

I took the movie "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" out from the library yesterday and watched it today. What a bad movie. I don't understand how that reached any level of popularity. I've heard people talk about how the book is good but the author wrote the screen play for this movie too. It was so bad and anyone that says otherwise is wrong... Dead wrong.

Headed to school around 5 and met up with another student to study a bit before the test. It was pretty easy but took a while cause it was all Essay. I'm glad the summer semester is finally over.

In the evening Kouros and I headed to the Game Center and played some games there. They have a whole wall of capsule toy vending machines. In that picture of the capsule toy machines you can also see the panda and a pig which are basically toy cars and a person can ride around the game center on. There is a wide verity of games but mostly fighting and racing games. One game that I have seen at most arcades and don't understand why is the Horse Racing game. Basically you train your horse and race it against other people playing the game and racing their horses. Maybe if I play it, it would be more fun but I can't see the entertainment value in this game or why it's popular.

School and work

Headed to school and took the Final for Art History which was relatively easy and headed to work.

At work my students informed me of the election results which were very surprising. Many of the unlikely candidates were elected and the Democratic party took over from the previous party that has been in power for many years. Not really sure what changes will occur as a result but like most people my age I'm not really interested in politics.

Work

Worked today and many of the students were talking about the upcoming election in Japan. I'm not completely sure of all the details but there are some "interesting" candidates running. One person is a granddaughter of a war criminal, another person has HIV, and there are a few other unlikely candidates. Right now the Prime Minister has a approval rate on par with Bush and many people think that he will be kicked out of office soon.

Art History test tomarrow, should be good.

Recovery, work, and Heat

Not much happened today, slept in till about 1 to make up for the all nighter pulled the night before. Got up and headed into work. I mostly worked with beginner students which is usually pretty boring. There isn't that much to talk about and it can be difficult to get them to speak. Many students are embarrassed of their English level so they will often say nothing or just short one word answers. Not much else is going on except it's really hot everyday. One sound that can be heard almost every where in Tokyo is that of the Cicada. If you have ever watched an Anime, any scene that takes place in the summer will have the sound of these bugs in the background.

School, Work, and a Club

Had my Japanese final this morning which went well. After that I headed home for a while till it was time for work. When I got to work I found my boss asleep at his desk and I had to wake him up. He told me that he set a alarm but it didn't work. After I woke him he fell back to sleep until the phone rang and then he was up for the day, it was pretty funny.

It's really hot recently and its difficult to go anywhere without sweating, which is probably a good part of the reason for the amount of drink machines around Tokyo.

After work I called my friend Charles and he told me about a party at a club called Salon De Sahara. Kouros and I headed out on the last train out of Daiba. The line normally goes straight to Shibuya where we were supposed to meet but I guess on the last train it only goes to Osaki before heading back. We waited in the train for it to continue but then heard the announcement that it was going back to where we started from so we got off the train thinking that the other trains had stopped. Luckily, the Yamanote line was still running and we packed into the train for 12 minutes and made it to Shibuya. When we got there we met up with Charles and tried for about 30 min to get a taxi but almost every taxi was full at that point cause the trains had stopped. We started walking in the direction of Akasaka which is where the club is and finally were able to get a cab and get there. Once we got there we wondered around the streets looking for this club and asking different people where it was. No one had heard of the club. Finally while we were regrouping and trying to figure out what to do a guy walked past that wanted to practice his English and said "Hello". We stopped him and asked him where the club was and he told us.
It was a large college party there and when we arrived there around 1 or 2 the place was still packed and there was a line out the building. Fortunately, because of a connection from Temple we were put on the list and able to get in at a discount. The place was packed wall to wall and it was hot. Most of the people there were from Sophia and Waseda Universities with some people from Temple as well. They had a couple DJ's keeping the place going at the front and some areas on the sides to sit and relax. I spent almost the entire night on the dance floor so I didn't see much else of the club. Shortly after we got there everyone was asked to move back from the front and two guys came to the front and started dancing. They were pretty good I guess and after then another set in white suits came and also did some dancing. The second set was better, mainly because of the white suits and the incorporation of moves done by Michael Jackson. Danced until morning and Kouros and I headed home around 5:30. It was a good night.

Test, work, and Home

Headed to class for the Final in Intellectual Heritage which was mostly regurgitating the past two essays and connecting them in a one page essays. After that I headed to work and my students didn't show so I just collected half of the money and left early. Got home and we had a good noodle thing and watched "the Manchurian Candidate" the remake, not the original. Japanese Final tomarrow, should be cake.

Meeting at school, Home, and Good Food

Had a meeting at school today where they talked about our Home stay experience and wanted to know about any feedback he had. My experience has been totally positive so I was pretty much there for the snacks that they had.

After that I headed back home and studied for the Final in Intellectual Heritage tomorrow. For dinner my Host Mom made Okonomiyaki and Yaki Soba which are two really great fried foods from Japan. Okonomiyaki is best described as a Japanese omelet and contains a lot of Cabbage. Yaki Soba is noodles that are fried with vegetables and sometimes meat.

One thing that becomes obvious shortly after being in Japan is how many things in Japan are made with a focus on convenience. The most obvious example for me is the amount of vending machines thought Tokyo and other parts of Japan. It's not uncommon to see a vending machine every block with a wide variety of drinks. In busy areas you can often find between 4 and 8 vending machines side by side. They are also in every subway station, on the platform where you wait for the train and outside before you even enter the station.

Things that set the vending machines apart from what people are used to in the US is the many ways in which you can purchase a drink. Of course drinks can be purchased with cash and being that the smallest paper bill in Japan is about $10 (1000 yen) it's not uncommon to use a 1000 yen note to purchase a drink. Many of the machines in the train stations also feature the ability to purchase with your train pass or cell phone, with the money being subtracted from your train pass or added to your cell phone bill.

Vending machines will also have actual cans on the front and not just a picture like in the US. Strangely it's not uncommon to see a small and large size of the same drink for the same price. Some machines will have TV's that play advertising and sometimes music to attract customers but most just flash the sold out lights in different patterns.

Vending machines offer much more then just drinks. There are still cigarette and beer vending machines on the streets but they are required by law to shut down at midnight. There is actually a beer vending machine right out front of school so if I need to mellow out during class I'm prepared. Aside from consumable items there have been some machines that sell Ipods just in case you are to lazy to go to the store or a DVD rental machine which will have a selection of current releases and can be rented for a low rate.

School, Shibuya, Shinjuku, and Shibuya agian.

Headed to school today to hopefully meet up with some people to study but only one person from class was there so I copied the one reading for class and he and I headed to Shibuya. After walking about Shibuya for a while we headed to Shinjuku and I showed him some of the cool spots in Shinjuku. We chilled at "the Hub" which is a bar in Shinjuku and attracts foreigners so it also attracts girls that like foreigners. It became a frequent hang out when I was in Japan in 2005 after we asked some girls why they come to the Hub and they told us "so they could meet foreign guys" After that it became a frequent hang out.

From there we went to TGI Fridays in Shibuya which aparently is another place that girls go to meet foreign guys. We saw a couple students from school and my friend met up with another girl that he knew. The girls that my friend knew told us that they were going to a club called Gas Panic! which is a chain of clubs across Tokyo.

There we met up with some girls from school and the girls my friend knew. Hung out till around 11 and headed home. Good Times!

The picture is of a shopping plaza near my house called Decks. Also in that plaza is the Sega Joypolis which is a indoor amusement park.

Movies, Work, and Home

Watched "the Illusionist" today, that movie is really good! After that I headed in to work, for the first two hours nobody came in so I worked ahead in my workbook for Japanese and played some games on DS and got paid for it.

One of my students today started talking about the news in Japan. The news shows in Japan for the most part only present one view on any issue which gives the news a very one sided view. This is something that my teacher in Race Studies also mentioned. My student said that it's a type of brain washing, but I wouldn't take it that far.

After that I headed home and had a awesome dinner like always. That picture is of the Karaoke Kan in Shinjuku that was featured in "Lost in Translation"

Work, Hair Cut, and buying some books

Today I had two private lessons at the school I work at and about 3 hours to kill in between.

I headed to Kinokuniya which is probably one of Japan's more famous bookstores, like Boarders in the US. There I picked up some books made to help study for the JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) This test is basically what you have to take and pass if you want to prove your fluency in Japanese and work in any Job that would require you to speak Japanese. The one book is just a study book that comes with a CD to prat ice listening and the other is a copy of the test that was given last year. I might try for 2nd level this year depending on where I'm at Japanese wise in 2 to 3 more months.

After that I got my hair cut and as usual they cut it a little too short but my hair grows fast so I guess it's ok.

Burger King recently reopened in Japan and I headed there for something to hold me over till dinner. When I got there there was a line outside the building and as I waited in line some Japanese girls asked me what the best things were on the menu which I of course told them the Whopper, but I warned them that if they eat too much Burger King that they will get fat. The inside was much nicer then the Burger Kings in the US and had a modern feel to it.

After that I headed back to the school that I teach at and gave my last lesson and headed home.

Sleep, Study, and Sushi

This morning I slept in for a while and caught up on my sleep. During the day I did some laundry and studied a bit. On TV they had the Soccer game between Japan and Australia. I didn't see the whole thing but I think it may have ended in a 1 to 1 tie.

For Dinner we had Sushi which was awesome and made me happy in my stomach.

At night Kouros and I went out and walked around Odaiba. I saw a EVO IV and took a picture of it. Those are sweet and I think one of my favorites in the EVO series. One of the direct competitors with the EVO is Suburu's Imprezza. In the US the standard Imprezza is a popular tuning platform because of it's affordability and performance. In Japan the most common version of the Imprezza that you see is the STI which is the more supped up version and if more comparable with the standard EVO. I love living in Japan because I get to see all the sweet Japanese cars everyday.

School, Meeting, Work

Started off with Japanese as usual and we watched a short Anime as a listening exercises, It's the last class already, Monday is the Oral Exam. Art History some people did their presentations and we reviewed for the Final on the 30th. After class all the study abroad students had a meeting where they told us about different visa issues and getting a work permit.

I Headed home grabbed some food and headed to work. It was cool today because I was able to meet some more of the students I had in 2005 and some of them even remembered my name.

Japan attracts a interesting type of person and as such most of the other study abroad students are either here to get away from their parents or because they really love Anime or Martial Arts. I'd say about 90% of the male study abroad students are dorks and 98% of the girl students. While Japan is a great country and has many interesting aspects some of the Study Abroad students take it a little too far. A common hair cut in Japan for guys is to let your hair get long and dye it a blond color, this is mostly seen by the men who work as Hosts or some Yakuza. While this hair style generally looks pretty bad it looks even worse one one of the white kids that goes to our school, but whatever.

School, Home, and a Supra

Got up this morning and headed to school where I met up with the Intellectual Heritage teacher and we went over my 3rd paper together. He gave me some helpful feedback on it and after we had our last class. After that I headed to my last Race Studies class in which the other groups made their presentations and the teacher announced that all the groups got a good grade. On the Way home I saw a sweet Supra so I took some pictures of it. Supras are sweet and if they changed nothing on the car and released it today I would be totally happy with it. When I got home we had dinner and watched Blade 3 on TV in Japanese. Snipes is so awesome I found the movie enjoyable despide the poor voice acting.

School, Home, and Sleep

Japanese and Art History like usual. The semester flew by, next week is pretty much all the final exams. Next semester should keep me pretty busy, right now I'm taking 16 credits, so I'll see how it goes and if it's too much I drop one of my classes.
After I got home I worked on my paper for Intellectual Heritage and I'm going to be meeting up with the teacher tomorrow to review it.

As I've mentioned before Japan has way to many shops that sell things for your pet dog. With all the things for your dog, from Onsen to Fancy treats it seems like cat owners are left out, but not in Odaiba. Not far from my house if this place that sells all the cat related merchandise that you could ever want.

School, Race Presentation, Home

Headed to school for Intellectual Heritage and Race Studies. We had a group presentation in Race studies today which was ok I guess. I think we could have been more together but I think the video that the one guy in my group and I made really saved the presentation. We interviewed different people around Shibuya and asked them about their views on Koreans.

After that I headed home had a great dinner and worked on school stuff till I went to bed.

Sunday continued... Then Work and light show on the beach

So not long after getting back from "Die Hard", Kouros came home with a bottle of Sake that one of his Kendo teachers gave him. Since Monday was a holiday we took the bottle and headed to the convenience store to buy some cups and headed to the beach to find someone to share it with. We met up with a group of three girls and started talking and working on that bottle at the beach.

There weren't really familiar with the Odaiba area so we recommended some things and places to go and headed to the game Center. There we played a game where you throw balls at different targets on the screen and air hockey. After that we headed to the Picture Booth and took some funny photos.

They asked us if we wanted to go to Karaoke and, I'm not one to turn down a offer or Karaoke even if it is at 3:00am. We sang till 6:00am. Kouros and I were able to walk home but they had to drive 1 hour to get home. I guess living in Odaiba has it's benefits.

When I got home I slept till about 10:00 when I was woken by a strange noise coming from the wall of my room, I got up and realized that it was a Earthquake. Thankfully Tokyo wasn't really affected by the quake. Had some Chicken Ramen for lunch worked on some school stuff and headed to work.
After work Kouros and I headed out to the beach where they had a kind of light display of paper lanterns with various designs covering the beach.

Yippie Kai Yay!

Got up today and continued work on my term paper for Art History. I'm almost done. In the afternoon our Host Parents other son came to visit and he seemed really cool. Kuros and I gave him our phone numbers and E-mail and he wants to hang out and take us out to some cool places that he know.

Kuros' family is heading back to Switzerland so he spent the night with them and our Host Parents and I headed to Cinema Mediage to see Die Hard 4! That was a cool movie.

The Typhoon mostly missed Tokyo but there was a strong wind blowing throughout the day.

Work, Onsen, hanging out with the locals

Today I had work from 2-7 but since it was raining so much only a few students came in and I was able to do all my Japanese homework and get paid, so it worked out great.

After work I headed to the Onsen where I met up with Kuros, his family, and our host parents. Being Swiss they primarily speak French but were also fluent in English. It was fun meeting his brothers and cousin, and Parents, plus it was cool cause Kuros and I were like the guides cause we know the place so well. We went to the restaurant that we visited the first time and enjoyed Shabu Shabu. A Typhoon is sweeping across Japan and has flooded the south western part of Japan, so when we left that night it was raining heavily.

When we got back there were some people hanging out in the lobby at our Apartment and Kuros and I hung out with them, played Uno, and practiced our Japanese.

School, Work, and new Schedule

Japanese in the morning. The teacher is allowing us to use a cheat sheet for the test and then we'll have a 3 minute speech that we have to make for our final. In Art History we reviewed a bit and talked about what will be on the Final. After class we had Teacher Evaluations. Apparently, this is not something that is done in Japan so it was interesting that the Japanese students actually read and answered all the questions accurately, unlike the US students which typically check all top or all bottom scores based on if we like the teacher or not.

After class Natsume Fusanosuke, a top Manga critic in Japan came to speak at our school. His grandfather was Natsume Souseki, a famous Meiji period author who used to be on the 1000 yen note until 2 or 3 years ago. Natsume receives income just from different endorsements that he allows his Grandfather to be associated with. His Grandfather's image was used for a type of cookie and the cookie company sent him a large shipment of cookies as a extra thanks. Since he doesn't really have to work he just reads Manga and occasionally writes books on it. Pretty interesting guy. He gave his lecture in Japanese and there was a translator who translated everything he said.

I cut out early and made a quick stop home to grab some things and drop some stuff off before I headed to work. Today I just did the conversation table which basically means I'm paid to talk to people and occasionally explain words that they are unfamiliar with. It's cool cause it's really casual and doesn't really require a lot of effort on my part, so I'm able to relax at work. I think the conversation practice really allows the students a opportunity to practice that they would otherwise not have and alowes them to feel more comfortable with speaking.

I made my Fall schedule and it's gonna hurt, bad. I'm taking Japanese, Math, Accounting, Law, and a Business class. It's gonna hurt!

Rain, School, Rain

It rained all day today. Headed to Intellectual Heritage and followed it with Race Studies. Today in Race Studies we had a guest speaker, I don't remember his name but he's a pretty involved political guy and has been interviewed for various TV programs including the BBC. I guess that is another advantage of going to school in Tokyo, I guy that I would normally see on TV I was able to listen to and ask my own questions. Going to Temple many of the people in the school have connections all over Japan so we often will get a very good selection of speakers from all over. One person that speaks at the school frequently is Donald Richie a reputable Japanese film critic who did the DVD commentary on the movie Kagemusha

School, Homework, News, and more Homework

Japanese in the morning I got my test back and did pretty well on it. After that was Art History. During the class the teacher showed a video and literally half of the class fell asleep, at one point he looked around the room and noticed this and just laughed. It was pretty funny.

Headed home after and worked on my Art History paper and bit. For dinner we had Eel over rice and it was great. After dinner we watched the news and apparently packages and envelopes containing 10,000-yen bills (about $100) have been found in various men's bathrooms in city halls all across Japan with notes saying, "Please make use of this as a provision for the city" or something like that. Needless to say I'm going to be hanging out at the City hall bathroom a lot more

After that I worked on Intellectual Heritage till it was time for bed.

Term Paper, rain, and meeting Aya

Got up today and started work on my term paper for Art History. I'm doing the paper on Da Vinci's Last Supper painting. I don't really know how I'm gonna stretch a painting out into 5 pages but today I got up to two pages. After talking about how the painting was made, comparing it to other Last Supper paintings, and disproving all the points made in the "Da Vinci Code" I've only got 2 pages.

Around 5:00 I headed out and met up with Aya. We hung out at her super narrow apartment and Played DS for a couple hours before she took me to a Tonkatsu Restaurant. After that we headed back to her apartment and I showed her the sledding video and the Japan video I made.

Headed home around 11:00 and it was raining pretty hard. I took this picture looking at the apartments across from the one I live in and it looks pretty cool cause the rain makes the lights on top look cool.

School, work, and home

Japanese and Art History like usual. I had to work today so I hung out at school and tried to get a start on my Art History which I kinda did, but not really.

Around 4:00 I headed over to Words and Joy where I have started teaching again. Today I had a private lesson with a girl that is planning on going to College in England. She was pretty cool was into pictures and video. I'm just glad to be working again. Watching your bank account drain faster then you'd like is never a good feeling.

Got home and had dinner, worked on some school stuff and played Yoshi's Island on DS.

Interviewing people in Shibuya

Today I headed out to Shibuya and met up with a guy from class where we interviewed people and started work on our presentation for Race Studies. The quickest way from Odaiba to Shibuya involves using the Rinkai line. The line actually runs under the sea as opposed to the bridge that is used by the Yurikamome.

At all the train stations in Tokyo they have guides posted that let you know where the exits are in relation to the train so you know what car to use to save yourself sometime when you get to your destination station. I took a picture of this one because I think the icons used to show the elevators or escalators are funny. All the people figures have smile faces on them.

So I met up in Shibuya with Yuya and we took the camera to the streets to find out what people think of Koreans living in Japan. We had a slow start as we found that many Japanese are very shy and did not want to be interviewed. We were able to get a couple interviews but we're gonna meet up again soon to get some more interviews done. The people that we interviewed had a much more open view then I thought and didn't really see a difference between Korean and Japanese people.

Racist views are still common in Japan. It's not uncommon to see large black vans that have the emperors crest painted on the side that will be parked in front of large stations such as Shibuya or Shinjuku. The vans are equipped with Megaphones and will typically be found with a Right Wing Nationalist Japanese on top with a mic talking about how Japan should be a pure country, basically wanting to go back to how Japan was in the 1930's

A cool thing they they have in Shibuya is a interactive map on a touch screen display that is about 35". It's really cool, it works in English, Korean, Chinese, and of course Japanese. It's a great tool to find your way around and helps take the work load off of the police who's main job is giving people directions when they are lost.

Aya sent me a picture of her at work, it's hilarious.

Sleep, Shunjuku, and Sushi

Woke up today around noon had lunch and studied for a bit. I headed to Shinjuku. From Shiodome I have to switch lines and I walked around there for a bit where I took this picture of a band playing.

Got back on the train to Shinjuku and headed to Words and Joy the language school that I taught at in 2005. There I met up with my old boss and he rehired me on the spot. After that I headed to Yodobashi camera which is kinda like the Best Buy of Japan. I picked up a cable to hook the video camera to the computer and some DVD-R's there.

School, Scheduling, and Shinjuku

The day started off with a Japanese test was followed with Art History and then I met up with the Guidance counselor who helped me get my schedule for fall together. I'm still deciding between a couple courses so I'll let you know my schedule when I get it finalized.

After that I headed home and found a E-mail from Yumiko, an old friend from Cleveland. She is in Tokyo for about 2 weeks and wanted to meet up. I think the last time we met was in 2004 so it was good to see her again. We met up in Shinjuku and headed to "the Hub" which is a bar that I would sometimes go to with friends from KCP when I was there in 2005. After that we headed to the Karaoke Kan and sang songs for about 90 minutes. It was fun.

Unfortunately, the Yurikamome line ends at 12:30 so when I got to Shiodome station I wound up walking to Rainbow Bridge and taking a taxi to cross it. At night they close the Bridge for people walking but not for cars so I had to take the Taxi.

By the time I got home it was close to 1:30 and I met up with Kuros at the Yoshinoya where we enjoyed bowls of ButaDon and headed to the Onsen from there. It was a little after 2 when we got there and 4 when we left.

School, Study, and Sleep

Intellectual Heritage and Race studies like usual. When I got home Kuros, the Swiss guy was back from his trip around Japan that he took with his family. After dinner I just studied Japanese and worked on homework till I went to bed.

Study, Math, and Mega Teriyaki burger.

Got up and headed to school this morning on my day off to study for the Math placement test. From 9 to about 1 my friend and I studied the math placement study sheet provided by the school. Took the test and headed home.

One of the burgers that McDonald's has been advertising recently is the Mega Teriyaki burger. It's a rather large burger as you can see from the pictures. I put it on top of the DVD case for scale. For some reason I love eating giant burgers that just by looking at them I know I'm gonna be in pain after. I guess my main motivation for doing this is for the story that I'll be able to tell later, which is the same reason I ordered and ate a Whopper from Burger King with 5 patties of meat on it. Burger King opened a couple franchises in Japan in the past but it failed, they have recently opened 2 new franchises in Shinjuku and Ikebukoro so we'll see if the King is able to pull it off this time.

Some people ask why I would want to eat a burger when I have all this other great Japanese food to choose from. I guess it's the same reason that you eat foods from different countries when living in the US, you want variety. I love Japanese food, and I think it's the best food in the world. It's healthy and it tastes great, but every now and then I want to eat a burger.

It's the 4th of July, so they have big fireworks displays at the different military bases in Japan but that's about it. I wanted to see Transformers today but everyone I know is either out partying or catching up on homework.

Also Happy Birthday Dad.

IH, Race Studies, and Home

Typical Thursday, Started with Intellectual Heritage and the school day ended with Race Studies. Got my mid-term back for Race Studies and it was graded in parts and I got B's and A's on it, so I'm pretty happy about that. Went home and studied math, cause tomorrow I'm taking a math test to hopefully place in a math class above the bottom.

School, home, and Homework

I can't believe it's July already. It doesn't seem like I've been here two months at all. I'll be signing up for next semesters classes next week.
Started the day with Japanese class at 8:30, being that early, Monday, and the fact that it's pretty hot and humid, I really had to focus to stay awake for class. I made it through and headed home.
Pretty much spent the rest of the day working on Intellectual Heritage homework till I went to bed.

Study, Trying to study, You Tube

Well today I had planned on studying all day but I find it really hard to stay focused when you have youtube at your disposal, so much dumb stuff to watch on there. Oh well, I got my homework done and I'm ready for tomorrow.