久しぶりだよね！

     Hey!  It's been a while.  What, about five months, huh?  Well, lots of stuff has happened in that time, but at the moment, that's no matter since, you know, I didn't even write about my last month in Japan (sans the kokuhaku), and some of the best parts of my trip happened in that time.  So, without further ado: 

July in Japan Part I: The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

          Nadia's birthday was June 20th, so she had a big karaoke 飲み放題 (nomihoudai - all-you-can-drink) party.  I remember it being pretty fun wailing with the birthday girl and friends, but at the same time, there were about 25 people or so in that karaoke room which caused the following to happen: (1) the room became quickly void of any sitting room, (2) people were shouting and shouting for people to order more drinks although the person next to the phone to the desk (me) was telling them that he had already ordered, (3) people had a hard time getting to sing, and (4) total chaos.  The lesson learned that night was never to have such a huge gathering in a karaoke booth.  Please keep that in mind during your travels.

          On the plus side, Nadia had a wonderful time, and that's what really mattered. And hey! Jonas even sang for once!  If you recall, when Jonas came to karaoke with the class, he didn't have fun because there were no songs in the books that he knew.  They happened to find some international songs this time around, one of which was about Moscow and is apparently very famous EVERYWHERE in Europe (and I think the Japanese all knew it, too), so he join in the festivities.  In fact, at the end of the night he kept saying how much of a great time he had, mostly because the place was in complete disarray and there was alcohol.  So, I guess, in retrospect, if you enjoy point (4), have at it.

          I would recommend, rather, hooking up with your old counselor and having her take you to a bizarre restaurant in Shinjuku, though, as my best friend from USHSD 2004, Andrew Pierce, and our counselor Azusa did just that and had a wonderful time.
      The premise of the restaurant was to try to catch your own fish and have the chefs cook it for you, which is already strange, but get this: it wasn't in some little pond or anything, it was in a moat around a giant wooden ship placed smack dab in the middle of the place.  Atop the ship was a large table for the workers to sell giant pieces of high-quality tuna to the patrons that were rich enough to afford a table on the ship.  Needless to say, though I would have loved to get my own slab of tuna meat to stick in my mini-fridge freezer, but at the time my money was running a little short.  Drat!  Should've curbed my Gundam playing for the sake of the tuna...

     To burn a little of my frustration, I decided to go fishing, but let me tell you: it was REALLY HARD.  Basically, I had to resort to trying to lead the hook (complete with bait) into the mouths of the fish, but it was to no avail.  I tried for about two hours, I think, and never caught a thing.  Got two nibbles, Andrew and I decided that the fish that were still alive probably had been seeing their buddies getting eaten the rest of the day and were smart enough to avoid even my masterful line.  So, instead of eating an fish that I myself caught, we all enjoyed some selections from the menu, including some really cheesy takoyaki, yakisoba, and some other things of which I forget the names to.  This was probably one of the best meals I had in Japan, though.  Everything was EXCELLENT, so if you need a recommendation, let me know, 'cause I have a membership card to the place and can hook you up with the location.

    
*EDIT*     So I wasn't the only one trying to catch fish, of course. No one was really having any luck, but then Andrew spotted these Korean guys on the ship trying to catch the motherload fish. The fish was probably a foot and a half wide and two and a half feet long. It was HUGE and absolutely wouldn't bite. These guys, though, decided to use the ol' East Woodland Indian trick of taking out their lighters and putting it near the water so that the fish would come up to the surface. Well, sure enough, it worked, and they hooked the huge fish. Unfortunately, it thrashed around quite a bit and broke the line, swimming away, never to be almost caught again. Alas!

     On the way home, I spotted an homage to Philidelphia's LOVE Park, which used to be a really famous skateboarding spot until they tore it down.  I guess if people really missed it THAT much they could travel to Shinjuku, but such a mecca would prove unfruitful since the area isn't that apt to being a hip skateboarding spot.

          That ends the post for now... I've got to get cleaned up and start packing to head home from school this weekend.  I hope at least one person read this... and if so... well, to you, my friend...

Until next time...!

Kokuhaku Secrets Revealed!!!

      I love karaoke. And so, one night, I decided to invite a whole lot of my friends out to karaoke. If you don't recall from when I told you in April, Japanese karaoke is done privately with friends instead of in front of large crowds. Which do I prefer? Probably Japanese karaoke, but of course, there are times when American karaoke is very appropriate... like when you want to laugh at people or have people laugh at you. But there's something about Japanese karaoke that's magical... and it may be because even the worst people LOVE to sing. With their souls. There are many accounts of me walking to the bathroom or out of the karaoke place where I would hear a Japanese guy (or a group of Japanese guys) singing (/screaming) at the top of their lungs sounding absolutely awful but MAN, there was so much passion.......!!! It influenced some of my karaoke, too, especially when singing in Japanese. Maybe the only times anyone will be able to hear me like that are: a) when we travel to Japan together!; b) when I've been drinking a bit much; or c) when Rock Band: Japan comes out!
      You'll notice that a lot of the people I went with have been featured in my pictures before. Shou, for example, is featured even in the karaoke box because he is known for having a lovely voice, which is especially adored by Akira. The blonde girl in the picture with Shou is Amy, who is one of my international friends from Australia.
      Speaking of international friends, here is Julia of Sweden (pronounced yu-li-uh, not jew-li-uh), one of my favorite friends from Japanese class. I made her cry mid-July. Here's why:
      At the end of June, my classmates and I had an assignment to do a speech in Japanese. This speech could be on annnyyyything we wanted, so after thinking about it for a while, I decided that I wanted to sort of complete one of my goals for Japan, which was to do a kokuhaku, or "confession", most often referring to a "love confession". Brief history of me and my relationship with the word "kokuhaku": when I stayed with my host family in 2004, my host brother Masa and I were watching a television program that involved middle school boys confessing their love for girls in their class over the loudspeaker. Thinking it was hilarious, "kokuhaku" became my new favorite word, and then it became my goal in the future to do a kokuhaku to a girl in Japan. This is a little strange, I know, because really, what's the difference between a kokuhaku and telling some girl in America that you like her? There probably isn't REALLY one, but in MY mind, I can be ridiculous and long-winded in a kokuhaku. I mean, it translates to "CONFESSION" of all words, and that's pretty strong, yeah? Also, another funny anecdote about kokuhakus, they're nowadays OFTEN done over the keitai (cell phone)! And it's socially acceptable! Is that hilariously ridiculous or what?? Really, it just shows the role that keitais play in Japanese society, blah blah, but man... if I could do a kokuhaku over a keitai, that would make my life.
      Regardless, I decided that my speech was going to be a fake kokuhaku to a girl in my class. I made it absurd and vague so that no one would be able to tell "who" it was directed to as to cause chaos and confusion amongst my classmates. Well, in the end, it worked a little TOO well. After class I went to lunch with a handful of my classmates and they were all like "who was it who was it!?" and everyone had their own guess as to who it was directed to. During the merry time I got a text message (yes, I DO text in Japan... it's about the only way people communicate there... sometimes even when they're with their friends [not referring to my own!]) that read, and I quote: "Hey, about your speech, was it by any chance directed at me? Because if it was I think we need to talk." Whoaaaaaaaa! Does that sound like bad news or what!? Well, it was, despite my classmates being really excited about it (in a positive way, obviously). My British friend George even suggested to ask her out to dinner and talk it about it then. But, of course, I was "errrggg"-ing it because of the tone of the message. In fact, two days before I gave the speech I was rethinking it because I really didn't want things to become too too awkward, especially if I had to explain that it was for no one and the recipient didn't believe me. Clearly, though, I ended up not caring. Anyway, we didn't talk until Monday, even after we went to a Star Wars convention with a group of friends the day before (more on that in the future).
      We went on a walk on Monday, though, and I explained to her that it was for no one, but she was sort of correct because the contents of my speech was directed to make hints at roughly two girls and one group of girls, completing basically the whole class. I posted the speech in both Japanese and English below so you can read it and I'll asterisk-ize the place and explain them. Anyway, moving on to the meat of the story, after she heard that it wasn't directed towards her and that I didn't have a crush on her, she cried. And mind you, these were not tears of sadness. She cried because she was so relieved that I didn't like her. MAN, do I suck or what!?!? Who... I... I still think that's hilarious, but it's pretty darn sad, isn't it? Guy can't get a date, and to make matters worse girls cry when he shows any affection for them... shoo'...
     She said that she thought of me as a really good friend and didn't want that to be spoiled. Maybe I wouldn't think that sincere if I actually did have feelings for her, but it was, in a sense, nice to hear, despite the, you know, suck, haha. But it was cool to get that out so that things weren't spoiled for us in the last two weeks of being around each other. A few of our classmates walked by us when she was crying, too, haha. Yowza. But hey! The kokuhaku was done. Sorta. I count it. I mean, it gave results that were similar to if I actually gave one (...but AGAIN, let's hope that doesn't happen when I do it for real XD).

      Back to the karaoke, the other girl who is hiding herself with Julia is her friend whose name I could NEVER remember. Never. Even though we probably hung three or four times. Man... Japanese names... Here's Teresa and her friend. Teresa's actually in her late twenties. Maybe even thirty. I can't remember. Let's just say that she's 22 because she looks it and can still hang with us youngins. She's an excellent singer, and in fact, when she was singing Utada Hikaru's new hit single "Heart Station", Akira (the vein! the passion!) expressed that he thought she was even better than the original. Yeah. That good. Supposedly she's a singing competition winner in China, too, so... yessir. She's good. Jyun also sang a few tunes there, but since I've already introduced him and will talk about our other adventures later, I'll move on. Same goes for Hiroki (but not for unknown Teresa's-friend-girl! I never met her afterwards). Here are the rest of the people (left to right, Shou, Sonya, Amy, Adina, and Hiroki). Adina's a New Yorkian who I met early at the DK House who I hang out with a few times while in Japan.
      So though maybe I can't explain it well, that was probably one the most fun times I had karaoking in Japan because it was the first time that I got to sing Southern All-Stars songs, which I had been sort of practicing that week in preparation for the night. This was also the night that I Jyun decided that he had a crush on Julia, which I found pretty funny. I ended up having to try to hook them up (and failed). Actually, Julia had all of my friends crushing on her... Jyun, Asato, uhhhhh some other guys. Lots of my Japanese friends (and even some Japanese guys that I met maybe only once!) asked me to hook them up with foreign girls, but most of my foreign friends had boyfriends already. 'Twas a shame!
      Anyway, below you'll find my speech in Japanese and English with footnotes. I hope you enjoy it XD

Until next time...!

「告白 」

     最近、僕達のクラスメートは音楽とか、スポーツとか、重要な人についてスピーチをしていた。心から思っていることについてスピーチをしていた。それでは、僕は、何について書くべきか考えていた時、どうしても「愛」についての考えが僕の頭からはなれなかったんだ。だから、このクラスの好きな女性に告白をするより仕方がない。
     まずはじめに、今から話すことを男の人はうらやましがらないで下さい。君達は、僕にとって、告白するほどかわいくないんだ。すみません。でも、ピーターさんはちょっと例外なんだ。時々、僕が好きな女性はシャイガールな事もあるから、そう考えると、ピーターさんはかなり僕のタイプに近いよね*？とにかく、始めましょうね。
     本当に、僕達がこのクラスにいる間、ずっとあなたは美しいと感じている。つい寝てしまった後、目覚めて、気分がとても悪くても、いつのまにかあなたの顔を見てると、その気持ちがなくなる**。ほとんど毎日のようにあなたは笑ったり、日本語で先生の質問に答えたり、お昼ご飯を食べたりする。そんなのは普通過ぎるほど普通のことだと分かっているけど、僕は普通のことをする女性が好きなんだ***。例えば、もしやせるために一緒にお昼ご飯を食べられなかったら、あなたは僕のタイプじゃなくなる。でも、あなたはあなたで。。。あなたは僕のタイプだから、今言ったことを気にしないで下さい。
     とにかく、僕は自分自身と約束した。僕は自分に、日本にいる限り、日本人女性だけをくどくという約束した。でも、僕はもう一つ、愛についても自分と約束した。自分に、百パーセントの女の子を見つけたら、絶対に彼女にするという約束だ。あなたは僕の百パーセント女の子です****！！
     そして、時々、人々はあなたを日本人だと思う。日本語をはっきりうまく話せるので、そう思うのも当然だろう*****。例えば、もし屏風の後ろに立っていて、声だけしか聞こえなかったら、あなたの民族や何人か分からないかもしれない。それに、白人、黒人、アジア人の顔や体を見ただけでは、僕で違いがよく分からないから、日本語で話しているあなたを、後ろから見たら、何人か分からない人もいるだろう******。
     それに、彼がいるか、彼がいないか、そんなの関係ね。三角関係にならなければならなかったら、絶対にそうする。愛を止められないよね！じゃ、愛のために、告白をしなくちゃ。僕はこのクラスに入っている女性が大好きで、その女性は。。。！わー！時間がない！ごめんね。終わってしまいます。失礼します。

Kokuhaku

      Recently, our classmates have been giving speeches concerning music, sports, and important people... concerning things that come from the heart. Therefore, when I was thinking about what to write, no matter how hard I tried I couldn't get thoughts of love out of my head. So, I have no choice but to confess my love to the girl in this class whom I like.
      Before I start... guys, please don't be jealous. To me, you guys just aren't pretty enough for me to do a confession to you. Sorry. Ehhh, but, Peter's sort of an exception. Sometimes, the kinds of girls I like are shy, so if you think about that, Peter's sort of close to my type, yeah*? Anyway, let's begin.
      Truly, ever since we've been in this class together, I've thought you beautiful. After I unintentionally fall asleep in class, I wake up, and despite me feeling terrible, before I know it I'm looking at your face and those feelings disappear**. Almost everyday you do things like laugh, answer the teacher's questions in Japanese, and eat lunch. I understand that those things are general to the extent of being too general, but I like girls that do general things***. For example, if we were not to eat lunch together because you were on a diet, then you wouldn't be my type. BUT, you are you and... you're my type so... don't worry about what I just said.
      Anyway, I had made a promise to myself: while in Japan, I would only hit on Japanese girls. But, I also made one more promise--a promise to love. When I found my 100% woman I would definitely make that girl mine. You are my 100% woman****!!!
      And, sometimes, people think you're Japanese. Clearly, your Japanese is great, so that way of thinking is only natural*****. For example, if you stood behind a folding screen and people could only hear your voice, most likely no one would be able to tell your nationality or race. Moreover, white people... black people... Asians... if you look at only their faces and bodies, even I often don't know the difference between them, so accordingly people that look at you from behind when you're speaking Japanese and don't know what country you're from exist******.
      Also, it doesn't really matter whether or not you have a boyfriend. If I have to make a love triangle, I will definitely do it! You can't stop love! So, for the sake of love I have to do this confession. I like a girl in this class, and that girl is..........! Ah! I'm out of time! Sorry! I'm regrettably finished. Excuse me*******.

* One of my classmates, Peter, always introduces himself as "Shy Boy" and it's sort like his running joke, so that's why that's in there.
** This one was mainly directed at one girl, but could have been taken as two. In class I often talked to both the girl in front of me, Jess, and the girl behind me, Nadia. Really, in my mind I was directing this to Jess because it's her that I would most often talk to after that happened because she always laughed at me and called me narcoleptic. On the other hand, I think the popular guess on this one was Nadia because the class most often noticed me talking to her because we were always partners.
*** This sentence caused the biggest problem for me in the editing process. The aim of it was to be absurd, but some people didn't really get it and the sentence that I ended up writing was told to be "correct Japanese" but "wrong" in the case of... I don't know, what people would say. My original sentence read weird even in English, but it was kind of the point... but maybe I just can't do that in Japanese or I can't be weird correctly yet. Iuno.
**** The term "100% woman" is an allusion to Haruki Murakami's excellent short story, "四月のある晴れた朝に100パーセントの女の子に出会うことについて", or "On Happening Across the 100% Woman on a Fine April Morning".
***** This was directed toward Julia because her Japanese is really great, and she's white!
****** To make the girl seem like she may be Asian (like Yi-Chen <3<3<3), I added this sentence. If the girl had blonde hair like Julia, it would be kind of obvious that she wasn't Japanese, but with the other Asians in the class... not so much.
******* There was a time limit and my speech was waaaaaay over, so it made sense to have this there.


     Thanks for reading if you did, haha. And, if anyone in my class is reading this, hope it cleared a few things up : ) Once again...

Until next time...!

The Tokyo Blue Note

      Back on June 5th (or sometime thereabouts) I went to the Blue Note jazz club in Tokyo to see legendary bass man Ron Carter play with other jazz masters Mulgrew Miller and Russell Malone. This probably doesn't mean anything to most of you readers, but that's okay because I won't be going into detail about the performance or anything. So, no worries.
      Before I get to anything involving any real content, I want to iterate how much I hate making reservations in Japanese on the phone. I don't really even like speaking or listening to Japanese on the phone in general because for some reason, compared to speaking directly to a person, it's much harder to pick up. Maybe it's just me, though. Iuno. I suck at talking on the phone in general. But yeah, I had to call the Blue Note to make reservations for two first-year friends from the Jazz-ken circle (Ko and Yukiko) and myself. When I called, I wanted to make it flawless. I mean, HOW LONG have I been studying how to make a reservation in class!? REALLY LONG. We start that in 101. Of course, in 101 it's like:

"Hello. Is this the movie theatre?"
"Yes, it is the movie theatre."
"What time is Indiana Jones?"
"7:30pm."
"I will buy two tickets."
"OK. What is your phone number?"

... etc, etc.. But in REAL LIFE, the reservations go something like this:

"HellothisistheTokyoBlueNoteTakahashispeakinghowmayIhelpyou?"
"I would like to make a resrb... rervti... rsvtn... res-er-va-tion for um... the Ron Carter live performance, but..."
"Aojaosjfo0uq0ufF"
"Excuse me? Sorry, girl, I didn't understand your keigo. Could you speak to me like I'm a real human being instead of you pretending that you're my vassal? I mean, it's kind of hot, but I just want to make a reservation! COME ON."

Or, you know, something to that effect. Longer story made less long, I stumbled around and they decided to say some things in English to me, which frustrates me more than if they spoke slower keigo to me. Whateverrrrr. I made it and we were set to go. Tickets were $80. That's double I usually pay for seeing someone who I doubly want to see.
      I arrived early and sat around in the lobby for a while until my friends came, and much to our surprise, one of our senpais, Jyunsuke, was there! So, when we got into the club we sat down at our respective seats until practically everyone was seated and then we had Jyunsuke moved over to where we were sitting. You can see the seating in the Tokyo Blue Note goes something like this and we were sitting in the second row back from the stage at one of the long tables. Originally, Jyunsuke was sitting in the front row off to the left side of the stage, but that's because he got inside much later than us. The seating is first come first serve, and I was one of the first ones in the waiting area, not to mention the fact that I payed for the $80 ticket. Jyunsuke, on the other hand, payed about half that much at a student price and as a result was let in later than everyone else. But, I guess that still didn't matter now, did it? *sigh* There went eight Gundam games...
      Oh, and as for the people I was with, I'll give them a short introduction. First, here's a picture of us in the train station afterwards. From left to right, that's Jyunsuke, Ko, and then Yukiko. I met Jyunsuke at a rather late Jazz-ken function where he turned out to be a wily, off-the-wall kind of guy. Rather hilarious, really... he wouldn't stop shaking my hand. We talked about onsens and he kept on making the sound effect that is in regards to someone just jumping into an onsen and making a huge splash (I think it was something like "ZABUUN"). Why he would do that for an onsen... eg, so yeah, that's him. Ko I met during the first nomikai that the circle hosted. He started as a metal bass player and moved to jazz this semester. He majoring in English at Sophia and also likes Radiohead a lot, so we sang "No Surprises" at the karaoke that took place after said nomikai. I don't know much about Yukiko, but she was always very nice when I talked to her. Her instrument of choice is the alto sax, and the last time that I played with the Jazz-ken members we played one of those rhythm changes songs that has a name like a bunch of other bebop songs so it makes me forget the title. She just started playing and couldn't really do the song, but as I had mentioned before, it was cool that she would even just attempt it playing with and for players that are just leagues above her.
      Anyway, the place was beautiful. I wish I could have taken photos, but unfortunately it wasn't allowed in the club, so you have to see online for yourself if you're actually interested. The place was a really nice restaurant, too, and although we weren't obligated to buy any food, each of us had to buy one drink. So, we all picked up the drink that Ron Carter HIMSELF recommended, which was some fancy grappa. I don't even know what a grappa is, per say, and neither, I guess, does spellcheck. Regardless, it tasted, if I recall correctly, sort of like a champagne... dry... with an odd flavor to it. Overall? Probably wouldn't buy it again. Thanks a lot, Ron Carter. JEEZ.
      As for the show, it was good. Ko was floored by it particularly because it was his first concert featuring real jazz masters, and as a bass player, Ron Carter's playing really made an impression on him, especially when he played a song with no accompaniment. But, did I myself fall asleep like I do during every movie/practically every jazz show? YUP. Just a little bit though. The good thing is, I was able to listen to the whole thing again and can now forever because I snuck in the Zoom H2 recorder. Yoink!
      I may as well talk about the other show I went to on June 19th at the Blue Note now as well because I don't have any pictures of that. I ended up going by myself because I was ditched by fellow saxophonist senpai Ryuuichi from the circle because he had to use his money for saxophone repairs instead of the show, but it was still cool. His loss, missing the Mike Stern Group (featuring Randy Brecker, Chris Minh Doky, and Dave Weckl!). Randy Brecker isn't even close to being one of my favorite trumpet players. In fact, I don't really like him, especially because he gave a masterclass at ODU my first or second year in high school and it kind of really sucked. But, he can indeed play, proving that to me at that show. Oh, and by "play" I mean "play good" and, at the same time, mean "play corny". Seriously, sometimes I just didn't understand why he thought what he was playing was hip because to me it was really just lame and made everyone look like they crapped their pants or something. It was embarrassing. The other players were cool though, especially Mike and Dave. Got a recording of that show, too, though it's a little crappy because I was in the VERY front. But yeah, score. That show cost me $80 at first, but then I got the cheapest meal and ordered one of the band's recommendations and another drink, soooo it was something like $120 in the end. Egad.

      One thing thing that is funny about Japanese audiences is that when someone plays a standard, like in this case, "Autumn Leaves", they go crazy. And I'm not talking about old people rockin' out to "Girl From Ipanema" crazy, but they shout really loud, clap a lot before and after the head is played, etc.. It was funny to hear, especially when they played some pretty hip originals that were MUCH more exciting than another rendition of "Autumn Leaves". But, what do I know?
      Another thing about the audiences is that there was a good amount of young people in the audience. There were a lot at the Mike Stern show which makes sense because that band was funk- and rock-based, but there was still a surprising amount of kids my age at the Ron Carter show. They were playing more old-school and Ron Carter and the other guys are in their 80s, probably, so the show may inherently be a little bit of a turn-off to the younger crowds, but that didn't stop a good deal of younger people from actually coming.
      Lastly, sometimes it seems like Japanese audiences don't really know the boundaries between rock and jazz-based rock or funk and jazz-based funk. I'm not saying that many people in general understand that there's a difference either, but one may think that okay, maybe the audience is a little more knowledgeable about jazz styles because they're coming to see Mike Stern and not, oh, Chris Botti. Maybe that's a bad example because Chris Botti has nothing to do with rock or funk, but I think you may get the point. There were also tons of examples of the clouding of genres that existed within the playing of members of the Jazz-ken circle, too. But anyway, Mike Stern knows that the Japanese love the rock, I think, and so he really hammed up his performance at some points. He went for the metal/rock style high-note hammering and came to the front of the stage to rock that playing out for the crowds... stuff like that. He'd make goofy smiling faces when he was doing it or at other points in the show, too, which was evidence enough for me that he was kind of poking fun at the situation.

      So that was my Blue Note experiences in a nutshell. Coming soon, awesome karaoke and more baseball.


Until next time...!

Classy

      I'm on a time limit right now (ala leaving in about half an hour), so I'm going to try to be quick and stuff. YEAH!
      I don't really remember what necessarily inspired the first couple of pictures, and most likely nothing really INSPIRED them, but anyway, one day after class, my classmate friend Nate and I decided that we were going to drink after class around Sophia. Cool thing about Japan is, you can drink in public, so don't worry about us getting arrested. Also, you can be drunk in public, too, and it actually is seen as good because it's showing that the salarymen are actually getting out there and having some kind of fun in their lives. It probably keeps the suicide rates down a little bit more by allowing them to not have to care how much and where they drink.
      Anyway, originally we were planning on going to sit in a park, but then we ultimately decided that it would be kind of fun just to be around school. So, we went to 7-11 and bought the two items that Nate is displaying here, some crackers, and some cheese. Basically we labeled it as a wine and cheese party with that $6 or so bottle of wine (one per person) and string cheese. I think it's kind of bad when I can safely say that the Ritz crackers were the classiest thing about this wine and cheese party.

... egh.

      It was good, though, and we even drank some of these babies, too. They're called Oni Koroshi, or "Demon Killer"s, and while they look like innocent juice boxes, they in fact are not. I think they were recommended by Matt Pollard to Jen Doo. But, keep in mind, Matt downs the worst of 40s and drinks gin out of the bottle, haha. Oh, and he also recommended the One-Cup, which I haven't had yet just out of sheer principle and respect for myself, haha. Don't worry, Matt, I'll probably try at least one before I leave, heh.
      They weren't as good as the wine, p.s.. But, after everything, we cruised down to the actual campus part of Jouchi (where we drank was the Sakura-dori, just outside of campus), sat, chatted, and went home. I remember being really sleepy at that point, and that mixed with the alcohol actually made me take the train in the opposite direction to get back home. So hooray for adding another 15-30 minutes to an already really long train ride!
      Speaking of riding the wrong train when I had already been in Japan for two months, I actually ended up riding the wrong train during midterms! Call me retarded and it's totally valid, but call me unobservant and, well, I would appreciate it. At the Akabane station, there are two orange lines. One is the Shonan-Shinjuku line, which is blue and orange, and the other is the one that I accidently rode that day. When I looked at the arrival schedule in the station, I noticed that the Shonan-Shinjuku line wasn't coming for a long while, so I headed to get on Saikyo. But, when I passed a certain gate, I heard the fateful mamonaku ___ban sen ni kakueki teisha blah blah the train is coming. So, thinking that maybe I looked at the wrong board, I ran up there and dashed on the train! "Tsugi wa, Ooku" 'Ooku, where the hell is that...' Turns out Ooku is a desolate wasteland with about 12 train tracks, all of ONE that is being used. Excellent. The next stop was Ueno, but forgetting where exactly Ueno was, I rode back to Akabane and rode to school, getting there a tad 10-15 minutes late. *sigh* I tried to take that track again one day because I thought it may be faster than taking Saikyo or Keihin-Tohoku all the way to Kanda, but yeah, of course it wasn't. I got to Ueno and lines to get on the Keihin were backed up from the train, all the way up the stairs, and out into the station hallway. Bah!
      Looks like I'm out of time. Next post will be about the Tokyo Blue Note, the greatest night of karaoke I had in Japan (thus far!), more baseball, my illness, and one more night of USHSD-ness.

Until next time...!

Almost Done!

      Wooo, time whipped by since that last post. During the time from then until now I have visited Kyoto, climbed Mt. Fuji, and made a girl cry. But before I get to all of that awesome stuff, I have to continue with writing about stuff from the past couple of months or else I'm going to forget even more. If you read the last post, it was a mess, so I need to bust the next picture sets out before my blog turns incomprehensible. But hey, I just finished my second exam today (kanji was yesterday and grammar was today), don't need to study for tomorrow's (it's listening, writing, and oral), and then I'll be home free sans my 25 page anthropology paper! Yikes...!
      The first picture starts us off at the two-month anniversary of the Sannin's arrival in Japan. To celebrate we decided to out to dinner, and after wandering around Warabi for a while (reminiscent of our first night in the city), I spotted an excellent prospect: a poster that had unagi on it!!! For those that don't know, unagi is Japanese for "eel", and you can try some Americanized unagi in the little sushi packs that they sell everywhere, right next to the California, Spider, and Dragon Rolls! This is my favorite Japanese food, and for good reason. The eel isn't really fishy and the Japanese have concocted a superb sauce for it. Yoink! I highly recommend trying some at home. Don't get fooled by the name "eel" either... I mean, just take for example a cow or something. You wouldn't ever look at cow never having steak before and say "MAN that's a tasting looking animal!" Same for pigs. They're smelly and dirty, but holy crap is bacon awesome or what!?

      So the unagi turned out to be my first real expensive dinner in Japan, pricing about 2,000 yen or so. Was it worth it? Well, let's see the presentation first. Looks pretty good, right? A really nice box, that is! Mystery box, mystery soup, mystery vegetables (they're ALWAYS mystery here), and mystery drink. Well, the drink is green tea. You know, 'cause I'm in Japan. Anyway, voila! There are some open boxes. Everything looks delicious, right? Well, the verdict is, it turned out to be good, but not up to expectation. The soup was delicious, and I even liked the cucumbers (pickled, that is... pickled is the mystery of vegetables that is not so mysterious in Japan). Rice was good... unagi was... par. It's possible to get boneless unagi, but I unfortunately didn't, and it took away from the flavor, which was a little hard to sense in the first place.
      Funny thing about the trip, though, was that we all agreed we STILL can't perfectly order food in Japan. The menu is just full of kanji that we don't know (because I mean, there're fish names and stuff... and I'm busy learning how to read and write "meteoric belt" and "volcanic zone"... COME ON!). And yeah, it's still a problem. I mean, do you inherently know what "Unagi Yamakake" is? (whatever, Akira!)
      So there went the two-month anniversary reunion thing, and on the horizon was a load of other reunions that involved my friends from USHSD 2004 (starting front left and making a U around the back back to the front, that's Yusuke, Fumi, me, Miki, Aika, Yuuka, Ayano, and Urara). There we met in a pretty nice restaurant to eat and drink a bit, talking about old times and catching up with everyone. One thing about not seeing these people for a long time... you tend for forget names. And even worse, you tend to forget faces. Take, for example, my blunder. I walked in the room, looked at the people inside, and thought '... who's friend is that...?' Errrr, that was actually Yuuka. In my defense, I think I have absolutely no hard copy of what she looked like in pictures either, so how was I supposed to know?? I was safe with my secret for a while, too, until Ayano asked me if I remembered everyone's name. GOD I hate when people do that! Stephen did it to me a few times with the baseball guys, too. Did I know them all? Nope. Do I still not know them all? Yup!
      Anyway, dinner was pleasant, especially hanging out with a couple of my homeboys, Yusuke and Fumi. Fumi's presentation of Japanese to me was hilariously semi-insulting. It was really slow, but EXTREMELY sarcastic sounding. He got out of the habit after a little bit, and then later on when I wouldn't understand something he'd do it again, but at those times it was okay. The girls didn't hold back too much, though sometimes Miki and Ayano would speak English... which I was cool with. Man I have a lot of pictures of the girls... But yeah, we went to purikura afterwards and took some good shots. I also played Poppin' Music while the girls were cutting out the pictures. It was fun!
      The next time we met was at Kohji's wedding surprise party. Kohji was a counselor from USDHSD 2004 and an all around spectacular guy. He was the first Japanese friend that I had that really listened to jazz. By that, I mean he even kept up with current artists (I specifically remember talking to him about the Dave Holland Quintet). He ended up getting married at the beginning of July when I was in Kyoto, but as for the party, it was really early and he showed up to be surprised and greeted by friends from when he was a student in HSD and from every year he was a counselor. People came from all over to see him, too, which was very cool. Aika ended up giving him a speech on behalf of us '04 kids. What'd she say? Don't remember, and probably wasn't really sure when she was saying it anyway. The important thing is, though, that he was happy, and he may have even shed a tear or two! He should have, at least, and if he didn't, he better have had after he read all of what was on the shirt that we gave him! That's an HSD counselor shirt fitted with signatures and messages from every person in attendance. I wrote in Japanese on it, and if you think that writing on a shirt in marker is hard, well, imagine what I had to go through. My year had these cats in attendance (from back left, Taka, Nori, Fumi, Jiro, Miho, me, Miki; from front left, Youhei, Azusa, Kohji, Ayano, Asami, Aika, and... uh... who the hell is that?). Oh no! She's in another picture, too. I think she set up the event. Was Azusa's partner in crime. Everyone thought it was cool that I was wearing the HSD shirt, by the way. It turns out, though, that it's one from HSD '03, not USHSD '04. HA! Joke's on them... suckers!
      Afterwards, Jiro, Youhei, Fumi, and I hung out in Harajuku while the girls went shopping. Youhei left early, but the other two and I went walking around. Old men like this were enough to make Jiro, the Osakan, exclaim, of course, just like Kohei, "Tokyo is not Japan...". After cruising around we all went to eat and drink some more, ending with the videos of Jiro talking about how he hates Jews. I mean juu-s.
      I have to leave to go correct some random Japanese dude's English. Hopefully he pays me : ) But, I will leave you with one more photo. FEAR THE POMPODOUR!!!!


Until next time...!!!


* Everyone that reads my blog (whether you like it or not) should download Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. I'll even pay the $4 you lost if you don't like it! (don't quote me on that)
** Hey Flicka-Flicka Fans, Sprite Remix may be a lost cause in the US, but that doesn't mean it is in Japan! Asahi's new drink is "Lucky Cider (with KIRAKIRA SPARKLE)" and is a refreshing replacement for the Flicka that we know and love.

Picture Group 7/10

      That's how far behind I am. Four folders of pictures! And that's not four days, that's four spans of time between uploading photos. Luckily for me, I don't have billions of pictures per folder, so technically that's not SO much work, but looks like I still have plenty to do, no? I'll also have plenty of photos to share after the trip when I steal everyone else's from my class and stuff. [guffaw]
      The first group has all to do with the weekend that my friend Kohei came to visit from Hiroshima which was... a long time ago. May 16th, my camera says. Jeez.
      For all of you who have never met him, here's Kohei, my Japanese friend who homestayed with my family and me this summer. He doesn't normally look like that, but at the time he was frustrated with a weight puzzle that he was trying to solve on my Nintendo DS from the game "Professor Layton and the Curious Village". When playing the game, I often wear that kind of face, too, and it's usually on the trains. It's cool to know that he could read many of the puzzles' descriptions enough to solve them. I myself could buy the 2nd "Professor Layton" game in Japanese, but there would be no hope for me.
      Anyway, we went off to Yoyogi park to show Kohei Tokyo. Yoyogi (which I think I've talked about already.. it's the park in Harajuku with the people that dress up and stuff) may be an extreme of Tokyo, but it's fun for people to go see, I think. It wasn't Sunday (the traditional day to go), but luckily for us, even Saturday that weekend was full of unusual happenings. It started with happening upon this giant thing. I don't know what it is, but it's hilarious looking, and it must have been important because there were enough people there that were interested in worshiping it. Or at least move it around... that's like worshiping it because who would want to move that thing around, right?
      Kohei was the first person that I heard say that Tokyo "is not Japan". He first commented on Yoyogi itself, but think he may have said it again after we did more stuff that weekend. Yoyogi people especially scared him, though I think everyday Tokyo fashion did, too. But, it seemed like he found it amusing, too, especially when we were in the area of Yoyogi that's full of a bunch of bands playing even though are clear signs that say "no playing allowed". Take note that the sign is also in the first picture in the back.
      In the park itself, Kohei, Dan, Jen, and I sat around and talked. Kohei taught me a lot of useful words in Japanese that I can use to make friends, we wrestled and raced a bit, and then happened across a bunch of elementary school kids that were racing themselves. It was actually a televised event that was being hosted by a famous Japanese television personality, though I don't remember his name. We ended up cheering for some kid who, when asked to speak some English, actually spoke some. (海の) Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hopefully we got on TV : )
      Basically that day we just walked around. After Yoyogi we went to a Reggae festival because they happened to have one there across the street. I bought a taco there. It was awful.
      Oh yeah, and while walking to the park, I talked a little to Kohei's aunt who used to be a famous comedian in Japan. I'm not really sure where she's living right now, but she was living in Hawaii until she decided to take a long vacation to China and, I think, India. In fact, she told me that she was there around when the earthquake happened. Luckily, I think that she was out of the country before it hit.
      Like I said, we basically walked and talked that day/night. When we went back to Dan's I remember that we played Free-For-All Super Smash Bros. Melee. I have to regain all of the skill that I gained at home all over again, boooo. It was the first time Kohei had played, and he got very determined to win so we gave him a bit of a handicap and I think he may have one once, haha.
      When we woke up the next day we went to Shibuya to eat at an Indo-curry tabehoudai restaurant (all the nan I can eat??? wooooo!) and then went to Tokyo Dome City to ride the roller coaster there. It just so happened that on the day we got there there were a bunch of cosplayers prowling the city. The word "cosplay" means to dress up like a character of some show or video game and run around like them. Take, for instance, these really good Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children cosplayers. The Cloud one was especially good, we agreed. Even the sword he had was bad-ass realistic. The Sephiroth and the two clones there weren't as good because they didn't have the face for their characters, but their costumes still were quite cool. There weren't just Final Fantasy cosplayers there, though, of course. I saw some people dressed up like Evangelion characters, people from Gundam 00, Darth Vader, some girl dressed up like an E.S.F.S. girl that I don't know (Warning: XXX), etc.. Hey, we even joined in the fun at the park! BAM!!! Not only were we members of the End of the Century Heroes Go Renji, but we also all took our turn becoming Forrest Gump.
      Kohei and I ended up having a blast on the roller coaster, even if it cost $10 to ride once. Neither of us had been on a coaster in a really long time, and I'm glad to say it's invigorating for me once again. Afterwards, we some some musical duo play on a stage that had this birthday song... oh man, I wish I could remember it. It was hilarious. If Dan and I can remember, I'll record us singing it and everyone can use it for everyone's birthday in the future. I think they said "Happy Birthday Song" over and over in the actual song.
      In the end we ate okonomiyaki lead by master chef Kohei, who was actually confused at first because the way that Tokyoians make okonomiyaki is different from the Hiroshima way. Of course, it's a well known fact that the taste is different (the Kansai area's okonomiyaki is famously better, starting, I believe, with Hiroshima and going down from there), but he didn't know that the actual production was, too. And, truth be told, the first time I made the stuff here in Tokyo I thought something was wrong, and I was right (in USHSD I made it in a restaurant in Hiroshima).
      After dinner we watched Kohei go off and planned on meeting again in the future. And, I plan on making good on that this month when I go to Osaka, which should be good, clean fun.

      Time to continue to bust through my homework load. Hopefully I'll be back to cover more of the photos soon because I really want to talk about the details of this actual weekend asap.

Until next time..!!!

*Edit: While adding more photos from Jen's album on here, I realized that I totally mixed up the chain of events. In reality, it was Yoyogi, Tokyo Dome City, Okonomiyaki, back to Dan's to sleep, then Indo-curry and Kohei's departure. Maybe you noticed how I did, which was by looking at Kohei's shirts.
** Edit Two: Have fun, Japanese readers. タワーレコードという店の外で、有名じゃなくて女が二人いるバンドはこうこくした。車の「おしり」の上でグラスの函の中に座って、俺は、新しい単語を使うために、携帯で「ムラムラだよ。赤外線をしたい！！！」というメッセージを書いて、女を見せた。でも、その女の表情は変化してしまわなかったんだ。残念だな。。。
*** Edit Three: If my Japanese is off, that'd be embarrassing, but I'd appreciate you telling me. I know I can count on you, James! But, Akira reads this, too, so...

Lists

      With time dwindling down, I'm actually starting to think about home more and it's made me a little homesick, honestly. Not to any major extent, it's just that it's more on my mind than usual, and while I don't want to necessarily leave, I can't wait to get back either. That said, I started to compile a list of what I miss about home and, to be fair, one of what I will miss when I leave Japan to remind myself why I shouldn't be in any rush to get back home. Here's what I came up with in a short amount of time:

"Things That I Miss About America"
Family. This is a no-brainer for me. Although I'm in contact with some of my family through Skype, I still feel that large land gap between us. Just being around home to know that my family is near is really comforting to me. Even at UVA my home is only two and a half hours away, so I could really go there whenever I felt like it if there was some emergency (not that I've ever felt the need to leave in the middle of the week for home).
Friends. Another duh. What I really wish is to be able to warp friends here and do fun things here with them here. I think I've said it before, but I think that Japan is a place that partners itself with things that I like to do with my friends at home, with a few exceptions that will be on my other list.
Hugs. Yes, this was the third thing I wrote down. I give SO MANY at home, whether they're to my family in Virginia Beach or to friends at UVA. Here I've given a few, but they're so few and far between, and I'll give a leeway of two when I say I've hugged probably five Japanese (a few HSD members, Shuuji from the baseball team when he was happy about winning the most recent game [which I'll get to later], and uhhh...)
Couches. I really look forward to returning to the couches in the den, relaxing, and naturally falling asleep on them.
Diverse Foods. This week especially I've been bummed with food choices here. I eat the same stuff all of the time, and since stuff that I've been eating all the time has hit a hard, unexpected roadblock as of last weekend, I refuse to eat things such as: Yoshinoya, fried rice balls, and bread sweets with cream inside.
Mexican and Chinese. I went to a Mexican place on Saturday with Jonas and Juun (Sugiyama) and got fajitas, but... this was no Plaza Azteca. There also are no American Chinese food places anywhere [but America].
Home cooking. This would naturally go higher on the list, but I was just throwing food nostalgia everywhere at this point. Also, I miss home cooking at UVA, so this is nothing new. What I DON'T miss at UVA is the above food because it's still around. Anyway, my mom cooks great food, as does my dad, and let's not forget about my grandparents! Man... I would consider making lumpia like my grandma taught me this winter here, but the peripherals here are just too gross.
Cookouts. The smell, the gathering, and not to mention the actual foods. Summer is all about cookouts at home, and I'm missing them. You know, I think I'll try to put together a Japanese barbecue now that I think about it... not that that will by any means make up for a burger off the grill and a pool to dive in.
Jazz. I can't practice here because I just don't have time, so that's one thing, but another thing is, I don't play with people like the people I play with at UVA. Hands down. Attitude about jazz and playing-wise. You know who I'm talking about. Maybe it's just that talking about music with people here is IMPOSSIBLE for me the way I talk about it with my jazz friends at UVA, and even sometimes at home.
Driving. Driving a car is the first thing that comes to mind, not driving a bus. The freedom of hoping in my car and going someone I want is awesome. So is SINGING in the car (that originally was just another point on the list). I can't belt out here. Sometimes I sing at night when I'm coming home late and there's no one around and sometimes in my room, but usually never outside of karaoke. I miss the bus, too, but it doesn't compare to the car when you don't have a car around.
Tub. Maybe I should just say "non-communal showers". But I like sitting in the shower at home, too.
LOST and other good TV. I missed so much...!!! Supposedly there's a website I can go to, but I don't remember what it is... I'm going to have to find whoever told me about it...
Rock Band. You know it had to come sooner or later. When I get home there're so many new songs to play aaaahhhhhhhh!!!
Home Games. Really it's the idea of having friends to play games with, as that is my main goal of owning games in the first place in this modern era of my life. Smash Bros., anyone?
Candy Bars. I love Kit-Kats, but COME ON, Japan. What I really want is a Milky Way.
Open Spaces. They don't exist here. When I wrote this, all I had to do was think about walking outside my front door and walking along the street. Open. Lovely.
Nature. Part of open spaces, I presume, but not totally. I miss nature a lot anywhere, but there's just SO MUCH city here. Even going to Yoyogi park is less nature-y than, say, the Lawn due to the sheer number of people there. Not that there aren't a lot on the Lawn... maybe they're even...
Clean Laundry. It doesn't get clean at UVA either, but at least the dryer does its job.


"Things I Will Miss About Japan"
Friends. Goodness I'll miss the friends I've made here, Japanese and not. As I said before, it's only recently that I started to make actual good relationships with a lot of people, so no matter what it's going to be like a rug pulled out from under me. It's happened before with HSD, but that was ten days versus months, which is a little different. Maybe it's bad to even compare it this to HSD at all because that's like an inexplicable phenomenon.
Baseball. I'm not going to be playing baseball when I get back. Softball, yeah, but not baseball, and I'll miss that. I'll also miss growing up with the other first years of the team, which is sad to think about. But, hopefully I'll return in the next four years and I can come back to see a game of theirs when they're awesome.
Different Ethnicities. What? Different ethnicities aren't in America!? Not like this. My Japanese class alone has Germans, Brits, a Russian, a Swede, Thais, and people from all around America. Not that the Americans are recognizably different from me, but the others are non-diluted citizens of their respective countries and it's very cool.
Gundam. Haha, you know it.
Speaking Japanese. I guess I'll be speaking Japanese in class, but the Japanese I want to speak is not the Japanese that I'll be speaking in class. I love the casual conversations and dialect that I use with my friends, and though sure, I can't speak a little Japanese to fellow classmates back home, I'd rather speak English to them. Furthermore, I'll want to use a lot of Japanese slang when talking in Japanese, but who the hell's going to understand me???
HSD Friends. Not to beat a horse any more than it should be, but seeing these guys again have really made a part of my life.
Tabe/Nomihoudais. Cici's is one thing, but there won't be anything like paying $25 for either as many plates of beef as I can eat in two hours or as much as I can drink in the same amount of time. Er, man... $20 is a lot... but not here!!! It's like paying $10 at home, maybe... 'cause that's how much Cici's is (less, even!).
Japanese Girls. They don't exist in Virginia Beach. THAT'S going to be reverse culture shock. I e-mailed Mike at one point and told him that there are just loads of beautiful women here, and it's true. Hey all of you guys that say I like Japanese girls more than white girls! Listen up! I think there are more good looking Japanese girls walking around Japan than there are good looking white girls walking around America, and that's all you're getting from me. I still won't admit there being a preference!!!
おつかれさま！ This phrase never gets old.
Crepes. What a great treat.
Udon. Yes, I will eventually miss the noodles. Udon IS awesome, no matter how much I have to eat it.
Weight Loss. I project I won't be this skinny for much longer after I get home.
Helping with English. Teaching is great. Subbing is fun and all, but when there are guys like Juun, Asato, Hiroki, and Shou constantly trying to speak English and asking me how to say things and whatnot and they're actually LEARNING (unlike those pesky high school kids), it feels great to be helping them.
Amazement at Crowds. I won't be seeing crowded streets like there are in Shibuya much, if ever, in the States. It always is fun to watch how many people are moving around there.
Karaoke! DUH. This is low on the list, but probably because I figured I didn't even need to mention it! Going crazy in a karaoke booth with friends is awesome.
Jazz Club. Unless you're talking about Enrico's, I still won't have one in Virginia Beach.
Good Rice. No matter how much the Asian market tries to fool you, you just can't make rice like how it's made here. Maybe I should buy a Japanese rice cooker and bring it home.

That's it for now. I'm going to sleep early tonight, woohoo!!!


Until next time...!!!