Wednesday, July 30, 2003

More Nova, a live show, some freaky links and a NEW photo album

So on Tuesday I went into NOVA and found out the wait continues. Now, NOVA must get the OK from the government to let me begin asking for a visa. Yes, you heard that the right. Permission to ask permission for a working visa. Typical bureaucraticrap (check out my new hyperfusion word! giggles!). And the 12 weeks until my first pay check doesn't appear to start until after my work contract starts, which isnt until I have a visa. The boss guy said he normally suggests teachers have about $2000 (??) to start out in Japan.. I have about less than 100. Its time for some miracle magic... I'm going to have to try to drum up some money somehow. Hmmm. I can do it! I can do it! (??)

Tonight I went to this really awesome live show! Kayo had sorta won the tickets to see the DJ for a band I really like Denki Groove (for those of you who know them, yes they are shocking, but all music is cool--!).. Denki Groove has broken up, but their DJ (a guy named Takkyu) is still performing! But Kayo had an appointment with her good friend Buubuu (she was going out to eat and stuff with him) so she couldn't go to the show... long story short, I ended up with free tickets to an awesome concert. The show took place on the roof of a ten story high Tower Records building. It was the outside roof, so you could see the clouds up above, and the air blow on you... There were speakers set up all around the roof which would be used stereophonically (pulsing sound and stuff...) I got there first, and got in the blue ticket line. (The people who had won their tickets by buying a CD had blue tickets, those who had paid to get in had red tickets)... I noticed immediately that there was a difference among the blue and red ticket holders... the red ticket people were more or less your typical clubbers, but the blue ticket people were more of a random mix. Because of this (or maybe its always mixed up at Takkyu's concerts?) there was a really wide range of Japanese people at the concert. There was this one guy who had a huge curly beard, bigger than the unibomber, with a bright neon green stripped shirt. And there was these two classic hippies/stoners dancing next to me. They had dreadlocks, and sandals, bead necklaces, big baggy pants, and a "scruffy" look about them, and every time the beat kicked in, they would say the classic "wohhhyeah!" thing that hippies (this isnt meant as a negative word!) say when they are excited. There was that one person who gets too excited at every dance-party, you know the person who flings their arms too wildly and spins too strongly that they just dont match with anyone around them? There was the classic overly-nerdy guy who was hunched over, rocking his shoulders slightly trying to be cool but too scared to really move and too socially shy to do much of anything. And there was a couple of highschool girls, in sailor-style school uniforms, shaking away. And a young salary man (office worker) still in his suit moving to the rhythm. And that clueless foreigner that always looks out of place (uhm, ok maybe that one was me!) ... Basically it was such a diverse crowd, it was really cool. And the music was awesome, really weird and sometimes broken. (brake-beats, jitter-stops, screech-feed backs) but when the deep bass beats kicked in, it was so danceable. The bass music was so loud, that even if George W. Bush decided insanely to randomly add Japan to the axis-of-evil, and began bombing the hell out of downtown tokyo, I wouldnt have been able to hear it. It was that thunderous. It throbbed so loud that my ears were ringing afterwords. The kind of bass you can feel in your bones, makes you want to dance. And some of the sound samples Takkyu used were really freaky cool (this one that sounded like "dick-dick-dick disco" and another one that was this guy saying "we are the jihad, you know you want us bad, gunna have to shake your butt, the DJ is a slut" and he even had the guts to sample the one line from one of Eminem's famous songs [the one where he is bashing on Moby] when Eminem is saying something like "nobody listen to techno!" in the middle of a hardcore techno beat, which was really cool.) They ended the show with a super heavy techno remix of "you spin me right round, like a record baby" (you know the song from The Wedding Singer?!) and the announcer guy trying to sing the words in English but totally messing up (because it was remixed so heavy the tempo was all messed up) ... everyone cheered really loud and pushed the dude into performing one more song even though he said he was done, and so he put on another song, was really an awesome beat, thundering, then he faded the beat after a while, and then he flipped on a sample that kept looping "disco-disco-disco-disco-disco" and he threw up his hands (in a cool, I am a winner kind of way) and walked off stage. That was the end of the show. the loop kept looping "disco-disco-disco-disco".. the announcer guy came back on and some sound guy faded down the sound effect loop and the announcer guy said [in Japanese] "sorry about that guys, Takkyu is really tired, thats all, hope you enjoyed the show!..." and that was that. Good show though... really wild. (Pictures were illegal, but I took one with my keitai phone but it didnt turn out cool so I'm not posting it.) On my way back to my friend's house, I got off the train at the home station and was beginning to walk toward the exit's stairs when this guy freezes in his tracks, his face expresses complete shock, and he says in English "ddd...da..dansen? what where? what?" It was an AUAP student named Soichi that I had known in America, about a year and a half ago I guess. He didn't know I was in Japan I guess and he was so surprised to see me. I guess I am just too relaxed of a person, I wasn't surprised that much. But it was really cool seeing someone in busy Japan, in fact seeing someone so close to where your living, completely randomly. Freaky fun!

CRAZY LINKS! I've been collecting some funny stories and links to share with the (2 or 3??) readers of this site. They are Japan related, so here we go.... first lets start with the story of Bob Sapp:

...

Its been said a million times in a million ways, but those who have never been to Japan might not really understand what it means when someone says "s/he might not be famous here, but they are big in Japan." This is a phrase that can be used for more than just Bon Jovi (who is insanely famous over here) but also for acts such as Deep Purple (remember them? 70s rock band? Big in Japan, yes sir, they are quite big in Japan.) and also such people as... Bob Sapp. "Who??" you might ask with a puzzled look on your face. Who indeed!
bob sapp is gunna loooove you

Originally, Bob Sapp was in America not sure which direction his life would take him. He had played football for the University of Washington, and he had managed to get on TV's Strongman competition. Bob Sapp was virtually an unknown kickboxer from America (In fact, he recently bought a house in Seattle!) who is currently a super big hit with all the professional wrestling fans all over japan. And that fact in itself is kind of interesting, but it gets even more twisted and interesting when you check out some of Bob Sapp's overly sappy (pun intended!) merchandising deals. Bob Sapp has parlayed his amazing talents as a butt-kicker into an almost rap-funk act out of some distorted 70s-80s fusion of wacky proportions. Words can not express this act, so in an effort to fully spread the joy, some links are now offered. Please enjoy Bob Sapp kicking it, full speed ahead my funkadelic music desire-hungry masses!

video clip of Bob Sapp rapping (and if you dont have a fast modem, you can go low-res here)

And for all you new Bob Sapp fans, we couldnt help but to include a final clip. This one is with Mr.Sapp interjecting random things in a Berry White style voice while a Japanese guy is singing. Oh yeah...

video clip of that (and low-res)

(real player is required for all video links)

You might be inclined to laugh, which would probably be ok with Bob Sapp since he has a reputation for a huge sense of humor, but you should do more than giggle. This isn't just some insane weirdness, this is also entertainment. (And if your interested, you can pick up a copy of his song as a single for about 10 bucks in Japan.) Yes, its different. Yes, its strange. But hey, whatever, we all have different tastes! So before you go and laugh at someone who says "I'm big in Japan" you should check to see if they are big like Bob.

(For more information about Bob Sapp, please read TIME Asia's wonderful article all about him.)

...

Now on to some other crazy links I've found recently! Japanese freakyness! Check this stuff out!

check it out! Akiyoshi's illusion pages (and the original Japanese page) - this page is full of pictures that will totally mess with your eyes/mind/eyemind---! Most of them you should stare directly at the center, and you'll feel like your having a flashback or something! Wildness...
check it out! Tokyo Tower Live Cam - remember the section on my page when I went to Tokyo Tower? Now you can too! (virtually, a lot less groovy, but hey!)
check it out! Ocean Dome (only in Japanese) - this page isnt in English, but you can just click the RGB buttons to download the pictures.... its an inside ocean. A totally contained ocean with a wave system and environmental controls (although the roof can pull back on really good days) and the most amazing thing about this popular fake beach, is it is built next to a real beach. I suppose perfect texture sand, correct temperature water and excellent waves are better than the real thing anyday.....?!
check it out! sky building - I started being interested in this because my mum got me interested in supposed "sky buildings" (huge apartment complexes with weird shapes etc) and this is actually an example of one, the page loads kind of slow, but when it loads you can see the weird shape of this building and the huge connected garden thing plaster on the top of the two buildings, connecting them. Its a freaky, but eye-catching, design!

And before I get out of here some notes about inside links (meaning links to my stuff) ... I realized my Japanese lesson wasn't full enough, and although you can check it anytime you want... I added a link to a different (outside) source for learning how to write and read Japanese... it a really good multimedia learning site... check it out! (click hiragana or katakana links to begin learning how to write...they also have 8 useful beginning lessons on useful Japanese below the hiragana katakana parts! with colorful rainbows! a total good site worth spending your extra time on, why not learn some Japanese?!) .... oh before I go go go! I have ANOTHER photo album!! This one is on an English site (my friend Arron's travel Japan site) and its about a local Matsuri festival, so you can see lots of cool traditional clothes and stuff. Start right here and the 16 pictures lead into the second album which is a set of 18 pictures of a bon-odori festival. (if you want, you can jump right to the bon-odori pictures if you so desire!) The bon-odori pictures focus more on the yummy food and stuff, so if your hungry right now you might get even more hungry! ANYWAY! This has been a really long post...!! DAAG!!

bouncing blob of jello, boing! boing! YOU WILL GIVE DANSEN ALL YOUR POWER!!! WAHAHAHAH! or something.

Saturday, July 26, 2003

working, nova & new webpage sections

So this nice lady Kan asked me (Yoshiko introduced us) to help teach some kids English last Thursday. It was fun, the kids had so much energy! They didn't have a lot of English skill, but me and some other native speakers (the rest were students here in Japan, I think) taught and played with them for awhile. I really enjoyed talking with this one guy, Jerome I think, who had been in Japan for awhile and was now working on his Masters degree in Japan. When I met one of the other teachers, my mind was like "ohmygod! I know him!" but I told myself how could I know someone I met randomly all the way over here in Japan? After teaching was over, we were all talking and it turns out that he went to my school in America, WWU, and I figured out I had met him breifly before. Weird, huh? (This happened before when I was with Nakayama in Roppongi and she recognized someone she had never talked to that went to WWU... isnt it strange?? meeting people from such a small place in such a big place!)

I've been spending the last few days hanging out with Taro and staying at his place. We just sorta sat around and talked (and he played Tetris on my keitai, but he couldn't beat my score! ooo!) and we met Tatusya one day. We went to this resturant in Shibuya, and because of that I decided to make a new mini-webpage called EAT.TOKYO (link on the sidebar, to your left too) ... Right now I only have that one resturant on there, but maybe soon I'll have lots of places listed on there. And while I am mentioning pages I've made (I'm over productive, no one cares Dansen! no one cares!) I also made the beginning of a Japanese language thingie. Think about it as "learn Japanese while viewing Dansen's blog" kind of thing. Although this lesson is more to scare people into learning Katakana... anyway, learn Japanese - lesson 1 .. check it out!

And the biggest news right now... NOVA called today, and they said that I have the job!! So if everything works out, I should be teaching soon. Some of my friends have complained that NOVA is like "fast-food style teaching" and maybe it is, maybe it isn't, but I just need to start working, and I really miss teaching...! So I can't wait for it all to start! Although wearing a suit thing everyday will be funny. If I understand correctly NOVA is kind of a hardcore work schedule, 5 days working, and then 2 days off... cant take off Japanese holidays, and the only vacation off is new years, plus 5 days out of each year or something. But whatever, its work, and I'm happy. (I wonder if my mood will change with the future?)

So anyway, I'm alive. Looks like everything is working out... and besides having more than 12 weeks until my first paycheck and less than 120 bucks in cash... other than that, I'm fine! Everything will be ok, don't worry, be happy, as its said. Blah, blah, blah. SAMPAI JUMPA!
this smile face looks like yukA! hahaha

Tuesday, July 22, 2003

No calls from Nova...

So the English conversation school NOVA said they would call me back, but so far they haven't. I really wanted to have my next post here be good news, but no luck. Nothing really good to say, just silence from NOVA. ... NOVA is actually starting to frustrate me. I'm slowly running out of money & time, but hopefully I'll find somewhere to work soon. I really do like teaching, and I hope I get the chance!!

In other news... MfOP is an awesome peice of net-software that I found that allows me to connect my keitai (remember! that means cellphone!) to the internet, so I can now update a diary from anywhere live--with pictures and text! Click here to see that diary, theres also a link to your left. Right now I don't have a lot of posts, just a picture of my Anman doll thing, and a picture of when I hung out with cool Diana in Shinjuku. (We walked around and went out to eat some yummy Takiyaki [friend chicken on a stick] ... I owe you Diana!!) I think posting to the net live is cool, although a lot of people I've told have only said 'oh thats cool' kinda quietly...!?! I must be a gadget-freak! It costs about 20 cents for each picture sent to the diary, and because I'm not working right now I don't think I'll update the page that often... but after I start working I think I will make it a daily picture from Japan kind of thing! Yay!

In other techno-web news, I have a kinda 'arty' web photo album now! For a few days I borrowed kayo's digicam and took some weird pictures at night. The page is in Japanese, so read the instructions carefully, and then click the small picture of the chochin (latterns) on the right:

Read this! . / . this is the chochin
Talking about that, Kayo is going to Fuji Rock Festival for two days this weekend. Thats this HUGE (the Biggest!) out door concert (think Woodstock X 10) that is held each year. Its going to be so wild, tons of bands and tons of crazy people. Some of the bands (just the ones I recognize when I look at the poster) include: Ben Harper, Bob Weir & Ratdog, Macy Gray, UA, Underworld, Back Drop Bomb, Bjork, Coldplay, Godsmack, Iggy Pop, Kemuri, The Mad Capsule Markets, Primal Scream, Asian Dub Foundation, blodthursty butchers, Dirty Vegas, Elvis Costello, and Keruri. (and tons more I dont quite remember right now!) I think it would be so awesome to see ANY ONE of these bands, but seeing a lot of them at the same concert would kickass! (For example, I've always thought UA's music was cool, and Ratdog is the new band of one of the Greatful Dead people, and Ben Harper can be an interesting band sometimes, and Macy Gray is awesome, and Godsmack, although annoyingly pop sometimes, knows how to rock it, and I am a tottal fan of Kemuri's awesome ska-punk, and Keruri (dont get mixed up!) alternative rock vibes, Costello has my respect, Dirty Vegas is the techno band from that one car comerical in the usa so it would be interesting to hear their other stuff, Mad Capsule Markets is just awesome techno-metal and and and (etc!!)... I could go on forever! I have a very wide range in music tastes, so mm anyway! lots of stuff there that would be awesome!) So yeah, the moral of the story is, if your ever in Japan atound the end of july, and you have tons of extra money (all three days with out the transportation, just to get in, cost about $400! Sounds totally expensive unless you know that a normal concert for just ONE famous person, in Japan, can cost almost $100!!) you should go check out Fuji Rock! ...

Tonight I met an AUAP student that I met last year in America. Hiromi (at that time Yohei was my AUAP campus buddy) and I just walked around looking at things, and talking (maybe 60% Japanese, 40% English?) and took a purikura (sticker picture thing) ... we were standing in front of this busy road and this weird drunk guy walked up about 3 feet behind Hiromi and just started peeing! It was kind of gross, and it smelled bad, so we left... but I thought it was really kind of funny-shocking. Tomorrow I will go help my friend's friend teach kids at a language camp, I will also meet Taro! I haven't seen him in a couple of weeks I guess, so it will be fun to say hello! Well, its time for me to go sleep or something... leave your comments, let me know what ya think! TEMAN SAYA, SAMPAI JUMPA! o.o

Its now about 3:30 in the morning and I just told myself I should really go to sleep!! really! but I remembered that the other day I had been sitting on the floor late at night, and the ground had shook, swayed, like a small earth quake. It was kind of creepy, slightly, but when I mentioned it to my friend, they just said "oh, thats been happening a lot recently..." thats suppose to make it feel less creepy?? Anyway... life is alive, my mind is clogging up, need sleep. DAAG!

Friday, July 18, 2003

You got the job! wait, never mind...

So I called NOVA and they told me that they were wanting to hire me and he was wanting to know if I was interested, and I said sure yes, and he said 'ok, so why don't you come by the office tomorrow for a more details.....wait, oh one of your references didn't get back to us yet... uhm, yeah, sorry about that, I guess I'll call you sometime next week then ok?' and that was that. I had a job, and then it still wasn't mine. I want to start teaching, I want to share with students, but I have to still wait. wait, wait, and wait.

OK, so in Japan they have small police stations everywhere called koban... (ignore that if you know that) and I recently figured out that they have these signs on the side of each building with the accidental trafic fetalities totals listed daily (for the day before):
totals
It often hovers from 0 to 3, in fact I've never seen it over 3 yet. Interesting for a city of about 23 million...!

And over there is a picture of the outside of a shopping center in Ebisu, I took the picture with my keitai phone.

The weird string thing in the picture is some sort of art thing.... the huge arch stretched out over a courtyard, it looked really cool, gazing up at the windowed panels, it felt like a spaceship's roof or something. hee haw! ... I am really wanting to start teaching soon, I hope something works out. I'll be ok though, whatever happens will happen! until next time comrades, SAMPAI JUMPA!!

..look.

..inside.

..your mind.

(please give your thoughts in the link next to this...!!)

Tuesday, July 15, 2003

a trip to the market, still wanting to teach, and an awesome tshirt

I went to the market with Kayo and her sister Mari (I am staying with them until I get a place of my own). I thought it would be fun to post some pictures of that on my diary. On your left is the main entrence of the food market (in the basement of a shopping center, like many markets over here.) Notice the yen sign on the upper left of the picture, thats the cashier. In the other picture Kayo and Mari are trying to decide which meat to get... if your still interested, feel free to check out bigger pictures of what I call the 'solids aisle' (in the solids picture, look to your right..see the 'roll back' just like the signs in Walmart in America??! Thats because this market chain was bought by Walmart but not forced to change most things... interstingly they did use the roll back sign thing though.) and the 'fruits aisle' (in that fruit picture, notice the yummy watermellon!) I suppose the market isn't so different than a market in America, although a little more fresh and smaller I guess.

In other news... I'm still waiting for NOVA to call back. It hasn't got to their deadline yet, so I guess they might still want me for a teacher. I guess I should start looking at some more 'other options' too. I really want to start teaching soon, so I hope I find something.

This last weekend I traveled out to Kanagawa to visit the 5 year old girl (and her wonderful mum, Yoshiko, and her husband, and their new little kid) Mio who was one of my students 3 years ago, when I was working illegally as a teacher (I wish I could put that kind of stuff on my resume!)... it was fun to see them all again, and they let me stay the night and fed me yummy food. On my way back to Shinjuku area I stopped by and hung out with another Mio (this one is about my age, a friend from school)... and that was cool too, hadn't seen her in about a year I guess!

And I also had my first major experience with a 'Japanese Version of English' T-shirt. (I mean, an incorrect, but funny, Tshirt... and in case your wondering there are tons of examples of 'English versions of Japanese' when we try to use Japanese in the states but write it wrong!) ... anyway, it was a Tshirt with big letters and a muscle man on it. The words said....:

knowledge & power
My Ass
try to make the
best of a bud
situation.

It was so cool... I wanted it so bad, but I dont have the money right now, but I made a note of where it was (mental note: 4th floor of Seibushinjuku Pepe, back row of surf goods shop) and I will get it when I have the money... oh yeah! If your interested, I think I know what the intended message was. Sometimes Japanese people say 'yap' instead of 'yup' so I think one of the vowels was switched, and some of it was shortened in weird ways, so maybe it should be:

knowledge & power
My Ass[ingment]
[is to] try to make the
best of a b[a]d
situation.

Anyway, it was cool, ya, ya.

So I've been just living day to day in the crowd known as Tokyo-area... Syrinx and Trenchy (clearly those are not their real names, but since I dont know if they want me to use their real names, I just used those) are talking about coming to Japan and working as teachers. Last I heard, they intended to work in some small tiny town in Japan. I think that would be lots of fun, but I cant help but wonder if they will be missing the amazing interconected weaved mix of the Tokyo-area. I cant really explain it, but it just feels like such an amazing mass of people and stuff. I wrote a poem (!) about it, and in an effort to make my internet diary very open to the public, I will be offering it here. Its kinda "dark & moody" so dont think I'm not having fun. It was just a flavor, I hope you enjoy:



The 

Noise is an ever present

tactile sensation,

almost solid

in the ears

it becomes

more,

an essence,

an ever closer

grip of chaos,

threatening to grow

so large

it will erase

the mind,

like a fly

resting on a branch

moments before

spinning off

into the air

Anyway, there you go. I also wrote a poem in Japanese recently, but maybe I will have to post that on my Japanese diary page or something.

Anyway, life keeps on going. Please click the comments link that follows and give thoughts about this entry in my diary!! DAAG!!

Friday, July 11, 2003

a monster is born...! (maybe)



monsterDansen wears a suit, joining the 10 weirdest things in the world. Heh heh. I had my job interview at NOVA today so I wore those kinda cheap clothes taro helped me find (notice I wasnt able to buy fancy shoes though!)... the interview itself was hopeful. I really want to start teaching, and so I hope they will call me and say I'm hired ("we'll call you sometime before next thursday to let you know" they said). The interview was kind of fun, a woman with a british accent (?) asked me questions that I was supposed to answer with short replies. Things like, "if your friends descriped you in one word what would it be?" (and for you silly people in the audience, no, I didn't say 'insane'---!) and things like "who irretates you?" (I said 'basically no one...') and "in what way are you creative?" .. .anyway, I hope I get the job. But thats all for now, cus thats all I feel like writing... because I'm kinda tired and I just feel like sleeping or sitting on the floor or watching tv or reading this book 'a novel with no name' or something (WOW! I dont feel like using the computer tonight??) anyway.... until later.. DAAG!

UPDATE: I got tired of my old stupid comments system disapearing randomly, so I decided to go with a more solid (?) comment system. Its less fancy, but it works... so you can keep adding general comments about the page to the upper left or add SPECIFIC entries right here. .... In other news, I just got done watching a round of Japanese comedy TV. "BAKSHYO ON AIR BATTLE" which sounds a lot more gruesome than it really was. Its this comedy show where comedians perform infront of a live audience and at the end each member of the audience presses a button saying if they like them or not. The comedians who get the most votes get shown on TV (kinda like the show on American TV these days 'last comic standing' except for this isn't some silly reality TV drama... its just comedy).. the key word here is performance... a lot of mainstream Japanese comedy is performance based. No subtile comedy textures here, we're talking Jim Carry kinda stuff... running all over the place, talking about finding yourself on the internet and then falling over backwards for god knows whatever reason. I was laughing so hard sometimes (when I could understand the Japanese that is!) ... but anyway, enough from this corner. Alright you comment bunnies, I have comment boxes for EACH post now... comment like there is no tomorrow... or uhmm.. comment like there is a comet comiting to coming closer to covering clueless campers in canada_!!?!_!? uhm.. SAMPAI JUMPA LAGI! ^^ hehe INI HIDUP LUCU!

Wednesday, July 09, 2003

NOVA job interview and running out of money



LOTERIA
For some reason I got it into my silly head that people would enjoy seeing a non-American (this ones from Korea---!) version of McDonalds in Japan.... its Loteria Hamburgers! (L comes before M!) Same colors, same cheap marketing. If you want to try orginal Japaense fast food I would recomend somewhere like Mos Burger, they have freaky flavors! (I ate a Nachos & Ground Beef Naan [indian bread] flavored thingie the other day when I was hanging out with kayo,.... its for sure a flavor you dont get in a lot of fast food places!)

On to the big news...NOVA called and set an appointment for a job interview this friday afternoon (my time). Quick refresher for those who don't know: NOVA is a chain English teaching school, students come in for small group lessons, but its not exactly a "classroom"... anyway, I was nervous because I don't have a suit (and don't normally wear one) but the guy setting things up suggested I be wearing something nice ('the proper attire' I think he said---!) so today Taro helped me go get some really cheap blue suit pants, a gray shirt, and a tie. Its not a full suit, but maybe it should be enough... (and it CUT a HUGE section of my money away, about 5000YEN, which was actually a good deal considering a lot of suits could cost atleast 19000YEN or something.) Anyway, if I don't get the NOVA job... I have almost a suit to wear to other interviews. If I get the job, part of the requirement is flying to Korea! It will be awesome to go to Korea, even if its just a couple of days to get my working visa at the Japanese embessy there. (although I'm worried I don't have enough money to fly there, and I think that would be my expense not theres)

Enough about work and stuff! Lets close off with a silly trainstaion advertisement. Can you guess what for?
PINGU!
If you said, 'DENTIST!' I think your right... if you said, 'a clean zoo', your either silly or wrong. Hmm. Yeah. Thats all from Japan for now I suppose, thanks for all the comments guys! SAYA PAYAH! DAAG!

Monday, July 07, 2003

tokyo tower and onigiri, and big keitai pics!

click for a cooler bigger picture
click this picture for a bigger, better, picture

Today I went to Shinjuku to look for clean pants for my job interview. I never got pants, but I ended up walking near Tokyo Tower... which I refer to on my Japanese diary as [translated] 'an orange colored clone, of the effiel tower' (heh heh) and thats basically what it is. It was designed as a communications tower, although shapped so much like its effiel sister, and I heard that its actually being phased out of communication radio signal use (still used as a tourist place though, for sure!). The tower is next to the Russian embessy, which seemed to be under security lockdown because of the suicide bombings in moscow. There was a police man standing on top of a van watching the intersection, a big armored bus on the other intersection, and infront of the embessy all the guards looked a little tense. Good to know they're ready I suppose.
I also took this useless, but fun for me, picture:
uesless flower
There wasn't any reason for this picture, I just like it. (Talking about useless photos, I suppose its time to mention my 'personal webpage' .. although it isn't done, its almost done. And today I added a funny, totally useless, toilet sign picture to my main english page---!) Hey, wanna see a picture of Onigiri. my favorate cheap food? (I took this picture today---) Notice the blue one on the right... litterly translated as 'Sea Chicken Mayonese' it is Tuna mixed with Mayo flavor....mmmm! so good! Notice also, the small 'AMPM' above the name? Its from AMPM, the same chain of conveience stores over in america...

densha no naka
And no, my keitai (once again, thats Japanese for cellphone) didn't suddenly grow the ability to take huge photos... todays photos are brought to us by the digicam I borrowed (stole?!) from Kayo. I felt like taking pictures, but haven't got a camera yet... (and although my keitai's camera is fun, its expensive to always use it!) ...
ooo ooo! Recently, I've been a good little blogger... updating my diary really frequently. Once again, add some thoughts up there to your left... if your reading, you might as well let me know what you think. Anyway, thats all for now. PEACE is found in you mind. (( Oh and also of note: I decided I should nock downb my 'emotion' icon on your left, from 'excited' to 'happy' ...!!?! ))

UPDATE: Just got one of my pictures back, and found out my keitai can actually take fairly big pictures. This was taken from my keitai phone:
big keitai pic!
I can remember this... it was right behind Tokyo Tower, I accidently found this shrine in the middle of the city. It was a park, with a big temple, and they were building buildings in the background. These three old ladies were talking in the evening breeze, and birds were making a havoc around us. ....anyway... SAMPAI JUMPA!

Friday, July 04, 2003

keitai = cellphone, plus thoughts

Make sure to pay attention to the above vocabulary lesson. Keitai is the Japanese word for cellphone, I like using it better so I will. ... No one seems to have visited my site, but like a faithful blogger I will keep posting my silly thoughts.

my shiny red keitai
Its a fun little toy. Left picture, of course, is the front. Notice the full color display (of course) and the menu scroll ball thingy below my thumb. (if you want to see a close up of the screen click there to see an almost actual size picture.) The right picture is the back. The round thing below the square is the camera, the square above that is the secondary color display for the picture of the person calling. (Go here to see a cool example picture of me using the keitai camera to take a picture of kayo using her computer.) ...! Why so much detail about a stupid chunck of plastic?? I dunno, someones gotta do it. Its kinda fun...!!

Tonight I hung out with Taro in Shinjuku (I destory the kanji meaning by translating it too litterly as 'newhotel') ... we just walked around. It amazed me, I think its sinking in again. I'm inside of the Tokyo Bubble again. The Tokyo World, the Tokyo Zone, the TokyoTokyo. How do I say it? People swirling around me, huge signs crawling up buildings, advertisements everywhere, keitai phones ringing, people talking, moving moving. I've seen it all before, a lot, but I wont ever get over it I think. One of the many many american countryside gaijin (foreigner) people to feel this way, no doubt. but I'm in awe, it feels good just walking around on the dirty streets, the warm after-hot-day humid air of the evening blowing into my nose. Me and Taro stopped at a telephone box (said this way in japan, instead of 'telephone booth' like we normaly say in the usa) and I tried to call a few AUAP friends from last year (Yohei, Hiromi) but they weren't available. After walking around with Taro for a long time, just talking, walking, talking, we met Kayo after work. We all went to a 24hour post office to mail out my growing pile of postcards...then we went to KFC (or 'kentakii' as its know here) and had dinner. another day in the city... if I get my job my life will most likely be simple and basic just like that, but I'm already smiling. Its good enough for me. DAAG!

on a side note, a love the instantness of the cellphone camera. heres downtown shinjuku at night:

.... (( dont forget to put your comments on this entry, click add/read comments to your left! ))

Thursday, July 03, 2003

Hello from Japan!

Wow. I'm in Japan... I'm sitting here using my friend's computer in the early afternoon, hearing the cars go by outside, the air floats around me, it smells like Japan. My mind recognizes this, I'm really here. The first day I was here I ended up being awake for about 30 hours or more before I finally fell asleep. So far the weather has been kind of humid, but it hasnt been really insane hot yet. I haven't done anything yet except meet Taro (he's a cool friend of mine, I met him here, 3 years ago!) and call a few of my friends and say hello. I need to find a job, so I should start looking for that! Oh.. and yesterday I got a fancy red cellphone. Its so fun. Heres a picture of outside of where I'm sitting, taken by my cellphone:

Its a fun phone, so I hope I get that job so I can keep paying the bill. (about $35 bucks a month for an avrage of 5 minutes of calling time a day, your not charged for people calling you in Japan...each email or internet surf is chaged by the byte, about 4 cents a byte I think.) I'm going to go try to set up a cellphone blog, so I can update more often, or atleast when I don't have a computer use. In other news, I changed the time zone in my diary so all the old entries will have weird time stamps, but the new ones will all let you know what time it was over here when I posted. Wooo. (On that note, I redesigned my Japanese diary so it should hopefully automatically load Japanese, if your computer can do that.) I don't have a billion things to say, so basically enjoy your days, keep in contact everyone! TEMAN SAYA, SAMPAI JUMPA!

 
All original content CC 2002-2012 BY NC SA - first design from dilarangmelarang altered by neonvirus and thunderbunny.