Tuesday, August 31, 2004

and it is finished...

Originally from an old server that is now gone. Reposted in September 2006.

my work here is done

restored from cypicture, original is unknown, i think it was this one. click to see bigger.
A big chunk of the silly people I work with... some didnt come, some already went home when this picture was taken, one isnt one of the teachers (blue shirt on right, thats my friend Kazu) and a lot of people are hiding (about one forth, including scott.. where are you going man?!) but yeah.. they had a goodbye "party" with me at the station. We stood around, talked, drank (beer for the those liking it, juice for those not liking beer) and said goodbyes. I have a sad feeling I wont see most of these cool dudes anymore. I hope I see them all again though, if not, thanks for the memories one and all. ((I made a "point-of-view" animation of some of those people, please check it out at this link, although that site wont work in less than a month so check it out now and save it if you want it!))



oh, and I have to do a sort of geek-up-o-date: I changed my neonvirus logo and made it even more interactive and cool. Click on it. wooo. and if you click the japanese words they morph into korean words... hmm... its symbolic of my trip or something...?!



Now I have to sit around, playing with my friends and relaxing for the next month until I go to work in Korea... oooh.. that sounds difficult. ^o^ I need the relax time, oh yeah. oh and Christina (otherwise known as Sakura-san) is visiting Japan, and I'll go meet her and others the day after tomorrow, so I'm excited about that... and wow, less than 2 months and I will be working in Korea. Wow.



SAMPAI JUMPA LAGI



05:41:00 | permalink | comments (0)

Wednesday, August 25, 2004

thinking about going to Korea soon...

Originally from an old server that is now gone. Reposted in September 2006.

and being quiet-sad?


You know? If I wrote an IQ test it would go something like this... Socks are to clothes dryers as Unbrellas are to _____________ . If you said "trains" you read my mind. I think I have lost about 10 unbrellas to those beasts... you get in, set your unbrella beside you (its wet so you dont want to snuggle up with it) and then forget it when you rush out the doors...



Recently I have been starting to miss Japan, and I havent moved to Korea yet. If I havent made my plans clear before, let me do so now. In early october I will be moving to Korea... I needed a change and a new chalange but I am already getting sad, missing my neighberhood, and all the things about Tokyo that used to annoy me are now sentimental. Because I feel like making another list, I now offer a list of things (in no order) that I will miss about being here:

1) The food. I dont know why this came to mind first, but it did... and I am not even hungry right now... fresh sushi, creamy nato maki, crispy fried gyoza, and the list goes on! yummy!

2) The wild fashions. Last time I was in Korea they had nothing to compare to the young fashions here. Much has been said for the wild punky street-kei stuff, although I havent heard much about the punker grandmas... they remind me of my own mom who said she would do this someday when older.. they dye their hair purple, or other colors and ware strange clothes (even saw one in a pot-leaf sweater but maybe she didnt know what it was?) and sometimes wear semi-reveling clothes (by accident??)... rock on grandmas!

3) The odd-ball advertisements that are all over the place... ok, lets change number three to the odd media that is everywhere. Media weirdness!

4) The energy of the City.... I think it wouldnt be an over statement to say the city of Tokyo itself is Alive.

5) The perverts. Once I found my personal run-ins with gropers, flashers, peeing in public freaks, and all sorts of other messed up people annoying but now I think I will miss the laughs.... with a City this big, I guess you cant help but to have such people.

6) The food. wait did I say that one already? \o.O/

7) The international-vibe... recently Tokyo has been evolving into a real international community, with people from all over the place... I like that, hearing languages from everywhere and the slow stir of cultures.



OK enough of that sappy "missing Tokyo" stuff!



I thought I should mention something that I first mentioned on my Japanese diary... I was coming home from the conveince store after over hearing my new neighbor speak in loud American English and thinking about how many of us gaijin now populate this area. And anyway, I had bought a meal, and I sat on the steps of the coin-laundry and began to eat it. These young guys (early 20s?) came by and one of them looked right at me, and said to his friend: "Dammmmmn man, theres so many of them." I just sat there watching them go past, but I remember thinking this was annoying. Not because he seemed irrated by so many of us non-Japanese being around (I can feel sympathy for that, sometimes us non-Japanese dont follow the rules etc) but because it was very clear by him saying that directly infront of me that he thought that non-Japanese couldnt understand him. That frustrated me.... I cant really put it into words, I guess, but it felt weird.



In another unrelated idea, I love creative thinkers. These people spent the time to program on a plant simulator. This dosent just simulate the end result, it allows you to watch the flower grow and to change evolutional patterns and all sorts of things. This is by deffintion useless to such a large spread of the world, and because of that I think that its really beautiful.



I have decided to be depressed and quiet for awhile. Sad feelings might do me good for awhile. So let me sit in my misty room, mental blankets pulled up over my head. Besides, being sad produces good poetry...





Enjoy your moments. DAAG




03:03:00 | permalink | comments (6)


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I fixed it I fixed it. All you who use good browsers like Mozilla, it will work now.
Aaron


RED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ted


I had no idea that Tokyo had such an assortment of perv's--I thought that was an Albuquerque exclusive.

If you don't like living in Korea after you get there you can always move back to Japan, so don't freak out ; )
Steph


if theres any new users of this blog or old users who are not using MS Internet Explorer... I'm sorry.. my menu wont go in the right place, I'll fix that sometime soon.. but for now, enjoy the menu.. and my site's new look! woooo!
dansen


diego.. this isnt a porn diary, and porn jokes are for porn pages :p you are just lucky I didnt delete your crazy post heeheehee but thanks for trying to chear me up, you are one nice man-man! :)
Dansen


Whenever you are sad, just think about the good times and the cuddling we used to do, and when I whisper a foreign language in your ear sweet nothings about the island we'll live on while raising our two kids.

And being nude all the time without a care in the world about how skinny your butt looks.

Hey, I cheered you up with that visual trip.

Yeah, sounds like you'll miss Japan. It's been such a big part of your life.
Diego

Saturday, August 21, 2004

its the bright light...!

Originally from an old server that is now gone. Reposted in September 2006.

opening blog #5


I was talking to one of my students at the start of a class, and I came to the self realization its not the summer heat that sometimes makes me feel uncomfortable ... its the bright light, I guess because a lot of my life was spent in the backwoods of Washington state... a place where direct sunlight (versus rain) was as about as common as alien attacks... which could have happened to a few of the odd locals at one time or another I suppose. Because I realized that the evenings here are devine, and I have always enjoyed the pleasent dark brooding heat. And when a warm breeze stalks the night, its all the more enjoyable.



And with a drum roll, I open blog number # 5 to the public... KATA SAYA. Its an indonesian blog, but dont over think my skills. I have been off and on studying Indonesian for about 4 years now I guess, and I still havent gotten much past the introductions ("hello my name is..." level) and I think thats quite sad. So in an effort to change this, I am opening a blog where I will try to use new words, basically with heavy looking at a dictionary and other tools of learning. So for now it will look something like a chopped up Haiku blog, with short sentences and odd grammar... no pain no gain. besides I might give up next week?!



You know? I should add a little about why I love studying Indonesian so much... so here you go, "Why I Love Studying Bahasa Indonesia"... and maybe you'll learn some too!

1.) The words sound so cool.. for example, gray is "abu-abu" ..sometimes is "kadang-kadang" etc!

2.) The litteral meaning of words are awesome... Fall is "musim gugur" or litterally "The Season of Wilting" ... "kupu-kupu malam" is something like prostitute but litterly its "Night Butterfly" which is somehow poetic... and you can say you are going to "eat the wind" ("makan angin") when you are going for a walk, but you say the wind entered you ("masuk angin") when you have a flu.... and the list goes on.

3.) Its not super complex, but its not over simple. In fact, the structure of the language is really cool.

And I could go on and on... maybe you've learned some Indonesian with me today, woo woo!



The cool new "next blog" function led me to a blog complaining about something that I hadnt noticed on the web before. Annoying ignorant stupid people sure do make the world narrow. Its kind of sad. Apparently there are endless links on the net about how the Beatles are Evil. Warning, the few I read were closeminded, racist, anti-everyone-but-us, and scary.. ..!! This one shows how "the lyrics are evil" (including references to masterbation being a sin and using drums being evil) and this one goes into explanations of why their "actions were evil." (Edit: I read the odd page at the base of the second article, and although I'm puzzled by most of whats on it, the author does say in an interview at one point that its good to respect that other people have other opinions, so if thats a true opinion, I shouldnt consider this second link too close minded I guess...)



tonight I will go see Tatsuya, the guy who let me stay with him my first time in Japan. Every year he has a firework viewing party at his place in Futakotamagawa.. I am excited to see him, its been over a year! Time passes fast, or actually it never passes at all, but my viewing of it shifts fast when I convinvce myself that it can have different speeds. Uhm. yeah. DAAG!



13:13:00 | permalink | comments (1)


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:-) First time here... And hey... you made me wanna learn Indonesian too.. And hey, its strikingly similar to some indian languages, including Hindi, marati and my own native toungue konkani... Will click in back again...

And I've got a blog too... www.dpradeep.com
Pradeep D

Thursday, August 19, 2004

visiting c & m in kansai

Originally from an old server that is now gone. Reposted in September 2006.

and congrads to diego on new baby!


I want to first congradulate Diego on the new baby... Zoe looks like a beautiful baby girl, and I am sure she will make her parents proud. And now for the pic:

[[missing file]]


And now to some pictures of my own, its getting late over here in my part of the world so I guess I shouldnt update too much text about my trip. I just had a lot of time, taking some time off work. People down in Kansai are very different than the people up here in Tokyo, and I enjoyed the change. About the following pictures... me and kayo went to visit C & M, but we got to Kobe (in Kansai) to early so we went up in a cable car, and checked out the view of downtown (top pic) and later me, kayo, C & M, and their friend Al went downtown Osaka (Nanba distract I think? thats the middle picture) and even later we were in a train and I stole this picture of C & M (if they mind being on the net, I can take this picture down, just let me know.... I havent had time to post one of their friend Al or anything else at the moment)..

[[missing file]]

We had fun, trying out restraunts, going to a festival and taking purikura pictures... I want to write a lot about all the silly stuff we did and talked about, but I should go to sleep and continue my work cycle tomorrow...
SAMPAI JUMPA LAGI !!



01:18:00 | permalink | comments (4)


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Hey, that crab thing is in Kannai, Yokohama too. That's pic of "C" isn't very revealing anyway.
Aaron


Over time at the internet cafe, going to punch a whole in my pocket book. We`re trying to send out pics to everyone but damn if I know how. Yes scoff yes laugh and even chortle but we`ll see who has the last...erm...laugh? Had fun Dansen, come again anytime!
Trench


Cute baby!
Steph


Wow that's col Danses however I do find it odd that I get a picture of there location form you beofre i get it form them. Damn them.
Ted

Monday, August 09, 2004

summer sonic 2004!

08/09/2004
Originally from an old server that is now gone. Reposted in September 2006.

and my crazy 'hood


The battery on my digital camera (oops, was I supposed to not bring that into the festival??) died because I took a lot of pictures and sound, so I cant upload anything that I took of the music festival yet, maybe later, but I thought I would give a taste of what it was like... here is a collection of a few of the artists that me and kayo saw... I added their names to the offical pictures (which are maybe better than anything I took anyway) and present them here:

not orginal photo, reuploaded from cyworld backup. click to see full size

Jurassic 5 was great, a nice show, good lyrics and nice beats... N.E.R.D. won my award for most amounts of chrisma oozing off any of the bands there... and N.E.R.D. was cool, being the typical tempermental rock band, quitting in the middle of old hiphopish songs they didnt want to play anymore ("I just wanna rock!!" in the lead singer's words...) and doing strange covers of old songs by other artists... Schadaraparr wins the award for best audience interaction.. but maybe because they were Japanese and could speak with the auidence... they were really funny, and had some good songs. Beastie Boys finished the show... we ran from a small stage (where we had seen Schadaraparr) and back to the stadium... it was full.. the people undulating in waves, pulsing, wanting.. it was surreal.. . a big welcome for the Beasties... their concert was ok, for old dudes... the fact is they are kind of old and they got kind of tired, but they tried their hardest, and it was pretty good! Anyway, thats all from the Summer Sonic 2004 report for now...



In weird news... when I was going to work the other day, another train-jumper increased the sad number of people, on my train line, to 2 while I've been here. And then that evening I saw a big group of police scrambling up the steps at my station. They stopped an old man from buying a ticket and were saying something about how he 'did it' and they confiscated a nasty-long knife, wrapped in a bag, from his bag. Damn scary.



Anyway, thats all for now. "This brain was made for sleeping. And thats just what it'll do. " Uhm.. I'm tired. Thats all.... waaaaa... DAAG!



02:05:00 | permalink | comments (5)


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The Beastie Boys came here once and I remember some guy I knew saw Ad Rock in the street and said, "Hey, I'm sorry if I'm bothering you but can I get your autograph" and he said, "Well, don't!"
Tanya


hey, i still cannot find the kimchi-natto maki thing you were talking about at your k-tai diary ! where did you find it??
kayo


Hey dansen. I still read your blog. I just don't allways comment. :)
Ted


The Beastie Boys aren't that old--they're probably all still in their thirties. That's a little age-ist! Maybe they just kind of suck now, that's all.
Steph


Cool pics! I've been a fan of Jurassic 5 for a while now, they have some great sounds with that old hip-hop turntable style and different MCs jumping in and out of the song. They are really cool! I actually enjoy most of their songs and am now officially envious of you, yo!

Cool!
Diego

Friday, August 06, 2004

my friends from korea visited

Originally from an old server that is now gone. Reposted in September 2006.

and other thoughts


My friends from Korea just went home the day before yesterday... it was a whirl-wind week of doing all sorts of things and going all sorts of places... it was really fun to see them here in Tokyo, and to introduce them to some of my Japanese friends...


From left: Chige, Da Yeon, Yusuke, Tae Yeon, Chie, and Hiromi
not original, this was reuploaded from japanese diary source.
(2nd, 4th, and 5th are the Korean people who came to visit...!)


I took litterly millions of pictures, and a lot of those can be seen on my korean page, and maybe I will post them here too if I feel like it (but thinking its too much work and space to load into this account.)



The turn of the new month blanked out the entry I put at the end of last month, so if you missed my thoughts about rain rain rain feel free to check it out... or any other entries, just navigate by using the calander on your left.



I think this picture of college students expereincing zero g in a dropping NASA jumbo jet is awesome. All the faces and ways the bodies are posed make it so classicallly cool. This is the future, someday college kids will be spinning around in space for spring brake?? (link is hi-res and will load super slow if you dont have a super awesome fast speed modem.)



I was doing some more VR research in my never ending quest for useless knowledge and found this interesting article about how video game characters/robots scare some people. I have never found lifeless beings annoying or "uncanny", I wonder if I could have a tea party with a group of mind eating zombies and not care?



Has anyone here seen The Swimmer? It came on TV last night at about 1 at night, and I should have gone to sleep but I was some how pulled in... its a really odd late 1960s movie about ... well, just watch it or read a review I dont think I can explain it good in a few sentences. But I have to say atleast it captavated me. I also saw the ending of some Japanese movie before The Swimmer which must have been made in the 1980s, and it had high school students singing in the rain and taking their clothes off (but you couldnt see anything, if you have a kinky mind) and then ended with some kid jumping out a third-story window. I would have had to see the whole movie to understand what was going on, I guess...



I am thinking about opening two more blogs. One in Indonesian, not because I am any better with that language, but because I'm not and I need some way to practice... and another in Korean, not because I can even use Korean yet, but because I found an awesome Japanese-Korean web dictionary that I want to use more. OK, first person to call me a language geek wins 10 points. Wooo woo. DAAG!





02:36:00 | permalink | comments (5)


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hello dansan!
its christina from pennsylvania. well, san antonio now.
2802 Goliad Road #A303
San Antonio TX 78223

send a postcard
im lonely over here ^^
Take Care
Christina


ok, lets not be sexist peoples, i have a lot of friends... female and male, and both are equally cool human beings. :) human equality yo! and yeah, Tanya... I am leaving, I am moving to Korea!! will go some time in late september or early october.. new post soon but i think i am too sleepy tonight to clearly right anything... aaaaaah...
dansen


I saw "The Swimmer" years ago and thought that the film was about a suburban man who has had a nervous breakdown after losing his family somehow. But, I linked onto the review, and maybe he was just dead or dreaming through the whole film. I don't know. Anyway, the movie was really weird and a little depressing.

Anyway, Diego's funny. You have dozens of girlfirends, huh, Dansen!
Steph


Hey Dansen you language geek (where's my 10 points?!). Actually I saw this really geek magazine at the store the other day. It had articles like, "How to talk physics, and still pick up". It think it was some yank mag because it was 15 bucks! Heard on the grapevine you are going to leave NOVA. Where are you going next? Another job? Another place?
Tanya


Two more blogs? You're too much! You need a girlfriend! Go procreate or something! I am afraid of your photoblog because it bogs down my browser - but I will be adventurous...


Diego

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