HANA SAMPO, image servers, and other thoughts

Its late so I guess, I should make this quick... (working tomorrow) but anyway, heres the update, for those interested, and myself:

Me, Kayo and Mari went to HANA SAMPO today (thats a kind of a "flower walking festival" in the country-side) ... I took some really awesome pictures with Kayo's amazing camera and my keitai ...A few words about the event; it was basically tons of people from the city stomping into the countryside on a holiday (fall equinox) to see cool flowers... there were TONS of people... but besides that, it was really cool to look at the pretty flowers, and being out in the country reminded me of hitch hiking with Taro through the back of Japan... awww.. the memories of youth! heh heh.... if your not satisfied with the pictures offered on this page, be sure to check out my Korean site for lots of HUGE pictures that I'm really proud of, they look cool, artsy and all that. Dont worry that the page is in Korean, in the window that pops up (thats not a popup ad!), click the 5th tab from the top and you will be taken to my photo album. The first three pages with pictures labeled "HANA SAMPO" are from today... (the pictures start out loading in their big forms, and then pop into small form when its fully loaded.) Why sending you there instead of posting them here? That brings me to my current problem... its geeky, and technical... but I need an image host!! All the sites I've been using to bring pictures to my blog have been having technical problems. I'm such a geek, I'm thinking about buying a web host now that I have a job.. anyway, if anyone has any suggestions, I'd be interested in what to do.

For those of you who read Japanese, or just want random information, I added a new poem to my Japanese diary yesterday. If there is enough interest, I thought I would include somesort of translation on my English page... working a real translation might defeat my poem.. so I was thinking about sending it through a machine and fixing any words it misses (because it cant see relaxed forms) but leaving the odd grammar in place... anyone interested in seeing this? If so, I might include it here or in a comment box or something...! ^^

On Monday (my first of 2 OFF days) I met Diana (which can be seen on my keitai page) at the bar/restaurant where Hiromi works! Japan has these bars, that are almost resturants... like a Japanese friend said "Kind of like TGIF!" ... You order drinks (sometimes with the option for unlimited drinks for a certain price) and order snack food with the drinks... not a bad setup... I had a really girly icecream drinky thing and Diana had a manly beer mug kind of drink with a Mango Sour (Sours are the Japanese version of wine coolers) It was fun to see Hiromi at her work, she was working hard!!

And other thoughts? I am starting work for another week from tomorrow... not so bad, I'll survive... I'm getting into this whole worker thing. biggles!

SAMPAI JUMPA LAGI!!

train congestion, earthquakes, webpages, and its like that y'all

Last night, at around 6, I was coming home from hanging out with my friend Mio, and the first train station I went to was Takadannobaba. Normally, this train station is busy, and this was rush hour ...but I can't explain to you the sheer MASSIVE amounts of people that were on that train platform. I didn't know it at the time, but on another popular route some idiot had parked his delivery truck infront of the train-crossing (in the road) and went into a convenience store to get a drink... regretfully, he forgot to put his brake on and his truck rolled into the train tracks, which caused the train to hit it and derail. Luckily, no one was hurt. Unluckily, the whole train line was broken because of that. So massive amounts of people had to squish into already crowded train lines... so switch back to me on the train platform. A huge RUSH, a WAVE, of people SURGE towards the next train that has arrived. Its an "express" and it can quickly take them out of this mess. They clog into the train, pushing against eachother, until in some cases they are so closely packed I could see people squished in the train, their faces pressed against eachother--- cheek to cheek. A gaijin [foreign] woman on my left exclaims "sweet jesus!" and I almost get into the mosh pit, but the train guy steps forward pushes in the random arms and legs dangling out and helps the doors shut. I am just one person away from getting into that train. The next train to come is a "local" train which translates into a super slow train, but I guessed that often people don't like taking that so I'll get on there find myself a place to sit down and just sleep all the way back to my station. I get on, and people get on behind me, and more, and more, and more, and damn. The train is filled to the brim again, but this time its a local train. So I've locked myself into slow-motion squished hell. For those of you with itchy brains, the hetero-horny people among us, who might be thinking "ohh yah ohhh ya, pressed against a group of cheer leader for 2 hours! yay!" let me just say ... no. no. Its not like that. The smell, stagnant. Old people rotting, body odor, swaying train, massive blob of people... not the funnest of experiences, but none the less the pure amazing power of so many people locked into a tiny capsule rocketing down the train tracks..that was kind of cool.

So the current rumor mill in Japan is buzzing about the fact that supposedly somewhere in Japan a group of scientists released information that any day now an earthquake, the big one, will hit Tokyo. My personal judgment on this one is its probably fake. But it is really creepy, I mean its possible, so its kind of scary. But whatever, no worries, the world always feels drunk to me... so if the ground shakes a little, I'll be ok.

If you didn't notice, I'm starting a new campaign. Nicky will maybe attack me, because I'm so damn annoying, but I thought I should. So yeah, I was thinking about two things recently... how I should really work harder on my Cantonese, and about how Nicky should teach some to his little kid because it would be so cool to learn a language naturally with no effort when you were a baby. Now I know I'm not the daddie, and I shouldn't try to make plans for N&E, but.... isn't it a good idea? Lets all think about it and say yes! heh heh.... But anyway, in my campaign I use Nicky's baby's picture (IF you dont want me to Nicky, I'll take his picture off!) because I feel like a baby myself when I'm learning Cantonese, I have to try to say the same word over and over again. Its really hard for me to pronounce those tones and stuff. If your interested in checking out a collection of some of the learning tools I found, feel free to check out my new temporary homepage about that (I will be changing it's location soon)! And talking about homepages, and links, and all that.... I feel like offering a few locations for you to visit. First, this link is anti-Bushwhacker not really anti-american, but take it as you will. I thought it was an elegant example of how crafty editing can make any reality true. .... also!! I have been thinking about net-museums. There are so many!! You might know there is a mullet museum but did you know there is one for comb overs too? (By the way, I so want a combover when I'm older! Its my favfav style of hair!) What you also might not know is that there are tons of AOL disk museums and all sorts of freakyness out there. The internet is wild, yah baby! Anyway... please feel free to comment as much as you want!

DAAG!

Nicky and Elaine's new baby & I am a worker!

Andrew Alex - Congrads N & E, I am so happy for you guys. Its so amazing! I want to come back to America and see the little guy! Elaine gave birth to him on September 7th, and he looks like a wonderful baby! Congratulations!

So I'm now a NOVA worker! Its fun, but its really hit me this isnt full teaching of course, its more working, but I will have some teaching time so thats good. To me, the schedule reminds me of a factory! We get there, and while we are still learning everything they give us an hour to start making the lesson plans we will need for that day, then a bell rings we grab our lesson plan run to a cubicle looking classroom (have to get there before the bell finishes!) and teach between 1 to 4 people for about 40 minutes (10 min. on each section of the NOVA defined lesson) and then another bell rings, we ask if they have any questions, and run back to the office grab our next lesson wait for the next bell in a few minutes and run back to the next class. (If your wondering why I feel like a worker? One reason is I was teaching my students and in "warm up" they ask you questions sometimes, and one student asked me "why did you come to Japan?" and I said "To be a teacher!" and he said "ohhh your a teacher??" he was surprized... uhm... what did he think I was doing? I think the answer is ... working! so maybe I'm just a worker kind of.... or something!) Now for my dear readers that might think this is scary.... let me say ... it is a little scary! heh heh.. .but I think I'll get used to it, and its not that hard. For Trenchy and Popsicle (I'm using internet nicknames!) it might be something they could do instead of JETT if they want other options... at Shinjuku orientation I saw actually a lot of couples... and if you live in NOVA housing they let couples live alone (singles have to share with two other room mates) and they give you all your housing and all that. And in case your starting to say "You stupid idiot, Eikaiwa [conversation english schools] suck!!!" I know that a lot of people here in Japan think that those kind of schools aren't so cool to work at. But I think life is what you make it, so I can try to be a good teacher for my students, and thats all I can do! Anyway, I'm happy to be working and thats about all I can say about that for now. I start full time work from tomorrow... Often from 1 to 9 at night, but on weekends from 10 to 6 (but I need to come in from 9 to 6 to prepare) .. .they have two days off each week, and for me thats monday and tuesdays. Anyway, I'll answer any other questions! PEACE!
SAMPAI JUMPA LAGI!

the return from Korea!

OK! you all can stop making fun of me in my comments box, because I'm back!!
So lets start off my entry with a huge picture that is a collection of almost all the pictures I took with my keitai, the normal digicam I borrowed stopped working, so these tiny little pictures are all I have to offer of pictures I took:

pics missing, try keitaipage

Descriptions:

1) Dansen takes a last picture in Japan, in the airport! "see ya Japan!"

2)This is the main terminal in the airport, I got there and had to find the bus to my friends house... I tried to ask some people where the correct bus was in Korean, but no one understood my bad korean. I tried english, but still people got confused and sent me in several directions. So I just pointed to the bus number (606) written on my address book, and finally this guy puts his arms around my shoulders and says in slow english "see that sign over there, lets go there, see?" and took me there. I smiled to myself and said "welcome to korea!" because Japan is totally a not touchy country, but often people (even strangers) are way more touchy here in Korea. I got on the bus, and saw tons of the tiny red neon christian crosses dotting the darkened landscape (Korea is a strongly christian country) and I thought again "Welcome to Korea, Dansen."

3) At the Priema Hotel bus stop Seung One was waiting for me, even though it was almost midnight by the time the bus got there. She was driving her mom's car and so we stopped and picked up Mirim and they took me out to get some yummy dinner. I forget what you call it (I'm bad with names) but it was those good noodles that have black sauce and stuff. Hmm. Guess that dosent really explain it. heh heh. Anyway, it was tasty.

4) This could be a shot of Japan! Its a picture from a train while me and Seung One were going to the Japanese embassy. I was thinking about how Korea dosent look so different from Japan, instead its the culture that is more different, although Korea does look unique. S.O. was so nice to help me find the embassy on Thursday morning.

5) After that we met Da Yeon and Tae Yeon and S.O. went to go work out, and we went to lunch at this cool restaurant.

6)After that Sung Won met us and we played this funny card game in the restaurant, it involved matching fruits and hitting a bell when you did... it was funny!

7) Later Sung Won borrowed his sister's car and we drove a while out of Seoul to Tae Yeon's neighborhood (She explained it this way "Seoul is like New York, I live in like New Jersey!" heh heh!) when we got there we went to this park and walked on this weird path for old people. You took off your shoes and walked around on these different size pebbles. It was really good for the feet, but after awhile it was difficult for some of them to walk on it!

8) This is a closeup of the inside of the temple things roof... this is one of the key differences between Japan and Korean temple things .. this cool color pattern!

9) After all that, they took me out to some good yummy korean BBQ!

10) The next day, I woke up early and went to the Japanese embassy and picked up my work permit (that easy!) and then went to COEX mall to meet my friends. COEX mall is HUGE! one of the biggest underground malls in Asia... in this picture this group of guys is taking down (putting up?) a big road sign thing.

11) First I met Won Young and Hyo Eun (in this picture) and Youngim in front of KFC and we waited for Jin Suk and then we went to Pizza Hut (international culture huh? although the pizza was what companies call "localized" it wasnt one you could buy in america! a complex multi-topping pizza with corn and stuff in the center and then a rim of sweet potato and then a thick rim of cheese pizza and no crust. yummy!) 12) Hyo Eun, Jin Suk and Youngim get ready to take a picture of themselves with a cellphone, and I took a picture of that with my cellphone, trippy huh? heh heh. Hyon and Won Young were there at that time but werent in the picture...

13) Later that day after most people had gone home, Hye Jin Shin met me after her work and I remembered I forgot to call.... 14) Bored Girl (Hye Yeon) and so I called her and invited her to hang out with us too... we all went to eat ice dessert, yummy!

15) Exit is translated as "way out" in Korea, I think thats funny for some reason. 16) Korean ONIGIRI (triangle rice)!! .. its called SAMGAKKIMBAP in Korea...

17) Hanging out with Hyon and S.O.

18) Later Hyon took me to see "Bad Boys 2" ... it was so cool seeing an American movie in a Korean audience... I felt almost surreal watching your native language with "foreign" subtitles in a huge crowded theater that replied vocally to the jokes and scary parts (lots of laughter and gasps) it was cool..!!

19) Next on Saturday I stayed with Mr.Frog (Jiwan Park is his real name, but Mr.Frog is cooler, huh?) and we mainly just hung out watching TV and talking. I saw this one Korean TV show that shows three stories and you have to guess which one (out of 3) isnt true. One of the stories was a reenactment of World War 2 England. But the actors were funny, since it was of course made in Korea using local foreigners. The woman spoke in a thick Russian accent and the man spoke a heavy Australian accent,,, which made their conversations really funny I thought!

20) Next on Sunday I met Mirim, S.O. and Mirim's cool friend and we walked around Seoul and Yon Sei University.

21) For a couple of hours I hung out in a coffee shop (drinking a shake!) with Yeun and Suah, they took a couple of crazy pictures of me holding my leg and stuff. Crazzzy!

22) A pink monkey in orange pants? thats all I need to say!

23) This is a silly picture of Sung Won, on monday afternoon we hung out in COEX mall...

24) This is a picture of KIMBAP, its kind of a version of Japanese sushi. The rice is rolled in unique things though... normal seaweed, but also leaves, american cheese, etc. and the inside tuna is cooked, along with carrots etc. Yummy! Sung Won and I bought it for lunch, he loved the cheese ones.

25) This is a random sign in Korean alphabet, in front of Seung One's house.

26) This is a random train station, it looks kind of like a Japanese train station... I like how these train tracks go down, fading into a "tunnel" of bright sunlight.

27) Monday night I met my good friend Uni and her friend KeyHyon (he isnt in the picture) at a restaurant after her work. The restaurant was kind of like a buffet (you selected your food from a row of food booths) but you paid for each item individually.

28) After the meal, Uni and her friend drove me to S.O.'s house.... the night lights are sparkly!!

29) S.O. had bought some super tasty fried chicken for the last night I stayed at her house?@(because in the morning we were both going to the airport...she was going to north america and I was going to japan!)

30) Seung One's brother, a funny nice guy.

31) S.O.'s dog.,.... it was like a cat-dog. Small, and it licked it self clean!

32) The final picture from Korea, my Northwest airlines plane waiting to fly me away!...

You should also check out these two pictures Sung Won let me take with his camera, the left one is a group of appartments... so many appartments in Korea! In big groups, kind of like Appartment gangs or something! and the right picture is a traditional Korean todem Pole kind of thing:

[[pics missing]]

In Japan...
I'm back in Japan, living day to day. Yesterday, I met Taro and we walked around and talked. He is going to Indonesia soon for a trip, I'm so jealous. (although, I did spend an hour or so teaching him some basic Indonesian words that might help him! WC KE MANA? ^^; ) Before I met Taro, I randomly met an African guy from Liberia on the train. He was friendly, but his English was about the same as my Indonesian. He knew some words, and phrases, but had a hard time communicating. He asked if I spoke French, but I don't and he couldn't speak Japanese so we didnt talk so much even though he was nice. I did understand he had been here for 3 months, and he was going to work right then... but he was wearing jeans and tennis shoes... so I couldnt help but wonder where an African man, who can't speak English or Japanese, was working. At first I thought teaching French at somewhere like NOVA, but they maybe don't want African accented French, and also they would for sure require a suit. ..... Today I met my Japanese friend USK and he bought me lunch, because he had won some money at slot machines and he was sharing. It was nice to see him, we hung out---walk around talking---for a long time. He also helped me apply for my alien registation card.... yup, I'm offically an Alien now!! Anyway, thats all I have to say for now I guess. Let me know your comments about my Korea trip... or anything else!

SAMPAI JUMPA!!

goodbye japan (until we meet again)

A somewhat fuzzy view from my keitai of Sakuragicho. I went there today to see Ayano's photo showcase thing, showing pictures from her travels in a kind of gallery. There was so many cool pictures, although I didnt meet Ayano. In my keitai diary I say that place is Yokohama, which isn't really wrong.. but the part of Yokohama or whatever is Sakuragicho, that bit of information is for you triva buffs.

I came back to Shinjuku and I was looking for Citi Bank near Kabukicho area... (Quick side note for anyone planing to come to Japan, Citibank offers very good international ATMs with English) So anyway, I was walking across the street and I saw this lady litterly prancing forward in a small "school girl" outfit with a camera man behind her snapping pictures rapidly at a suspiciously low level. I was directly infront to the right, basically in full frame. My instant reflex was to dodge and hide from the camera (being that I don't like having my picture stolen from me) but on thinking back on what was obviously going on, I thought I should have just smiled or something. She was clearly a model of sorts, and they were clearly taking pictures for some sort of "flesh magazine" (heh heh I like to say fleshys) and I could have put my face in there. As it is, my face is maybe still in some random errotica magazine, but instead of a smile I just have this surprized shock look as this random model walks towards me and the thousands around me, the photographer's photo freezing it forever.

Next, I wanted to mention "flash mobs" ... and you are really behind world events if you have no idea what I'm talking about (go type www.flashmob.info into your browser to get more information about these random people coming together to do something silly events) ... its recently attached slightly to my interest, as well as the interest of a lot of other people in this world of ours. I also think its interesting that its traced to New York earlyer this year, I have to say that although I cant prove it started in Japan, I think Japan has had geeky random gatherings among the fans of comic books, or movies like the matrix, and at these random gatherings people have done weird things and what not, basically a flash mob, and some of this was before new york's first event I think... although maybe no one will pay attention to that. (Wanna see pictures of one of these Japanese style flashmob event thingies, look here for pictures and text in Japanse.)

I'm off to Seoul, Korea tomorrow! My flight is in the early evening but I'm going to leave here in the afternoon because I have nothing to do, and being early is always better than being late. I have to pick up my tickets at the airport, so I hope nothing goes wrong. Yikes! Going to Korea, yay, yay! I'm going to see some of the students from the BIP exchange student thing I did... I also plan to meet a few Korean students I met at my school in america.... So I'll be in Korea until September 2nd, then I come back to Japan and the following monday I go to job training (or maybe indoctrination is a better word! heh heh) and soon after that I start teaching. I really hope my students like me, I am so excited. Really, really! Enjoy your days, peace to the people.

AKU KE MANA? JALAN JALAN!! SAMPAI JUMPA LAGI!!

nova updates, and elvis is dancing in my head

I've been doing a whole lot, and honestly my brain is going WAHHHHH right now, so I don't really remember all of it... lets see.... I did meet Diana last weekend for lunch, that was cool. We went to this nice deli restaurant that I added to my EAT.TOKYO page. (If your looking for it, the name is NEWS Deli, and its near the bottom of my review site...)

Anyway, before anything else, on to the good news!! I called NOVA the other day and they said I got my permission to try to get my working visa. I think I'm on my way to start working now... yes, I know its only Eikaiwa ("conversational english school") but I think I can be a good teacher anywhere that I get the chance. I'm excited!!

Well, having extra time on my hands has led to some more funky computer things to share. Kayo's sister is a computer graphics major and tonight she was showing me how to map faces onto 3D objects and animate them in this little program. We fiddle around and made me bow, and wear a weird helmet and stuff... I even talk in a Japanese robot voice (so have those speakers on!) and all that, if you want to see our finished product, click here!! Its really weird and silly, but it was fun to make... and talking about making things....

Another bigger Quicktime VR PANORAMA!!
(Once again, you need the newest version of quicktime to see this! File is 1.9MB so will be slow to load on a slow modem/computer, of course!) This time I took a picture in the late afternoon (3, 4?) right infront of the station. The train station, in the picture, is behind us and we cant really see it. In front of us is the town of Tanashi... we are standing in the middle of a Rotary Club (japan division) sphere art thing with water fountain, to our right is a group of taxis waiting for lazy people getting off the train, and to our left is buildings, but mostly we can just see kids playing infront of a fountain-wall. Somewhere in here is a NOVA building, can we find it? Anyway, if you can, check it out and let me know... I was thinking last time no one was gunna say anything cool about my extreme effort to make these silly things (now I should be giggling, its hard effort, but I enjoy it-- I'm such a geek?!!) but anyway, I've decided to make another one to help you all enjoy what Japan feels like kinda.

The other day, I got some money from that teaching kids thing I did and I made some dinner for everyone. I decided to make my very own invention, and so I'll offer here knowing that soon it will be a world rage I helped inspire... ladies and gentlemen, I present to you YAKISUSHI [fried sushi!]...

In case you want to try this yummy recipe for yourself, I decided to let the world know my amazing cooking secret and provide it here. (note you have to sort of improvise while making this food, its all about random flavors of the imagination!) so presenting...

YAKISUSHI RECIPE

Ingredients:

* ground beef

* chives (or any kind of onion thingie)

* cheese (any style of solid cheese)

* nori (the green seaweed put on sushi)

* mayonnaise (and any other flavor enricher u want!)

Directions:

mix the small amount of mayonnaise & chopped up chives into the meat to make 

it softer and richer in taste, add any other flavors you want to the meat 

(sometimes I use BBQ pepper etc) and then take a small square of nori 

(about the size of a origami sheet, if that helps) and put some of the meat 

into the center of the nori, then insert some cheese in the center of the meat, 

make sure to wrap the meat over the cheese again and then roll the nori 

around the meat, trim the extra nori off and continue until you have a lot.

Next fry the yakisushi in vegetable oil (place them into the already hot oil 

with their seem pointing down) until they are really crispy looking.

Yumyum! Enjoy!

I'm starting another feature, I might stop doing this soon... but I was thinking about how thoughts happen to me suddenly and then those same thoughts run away quickly. My keitai diary is good for quick short thoughts and pictures, but when I want to think about something complex I have to wait to type it here.... so I invented the mobile-blog... but this one is kinda not hi-tech.... I've started writing in one of my notebooks where ever I am, with the idea to type it here when I can.
My first entry was:

Sitting on a train, hum of the air conditioning and subsequent waves of fresh air feels quite refreshing compared to the outside's amazingly hot air. I'm on a semi-express (marked with a green sign) train headed for seibu-shinjuku. I wanted a full express (marked with a red sign) but oh well. On my way to the train I spotted a display selling kids toys, rows of masks, tiny plastic cars, and a huge selection of toy knifes. I dont remember seeing a lot of toy guns here either.. And although I could be wrong I dont think this has anything to do with Japan being some sort of "anti-violence" country, I suppose its just market economics. The Yakuza [gangster] here normally carry nasty knifes, being that guns are hard to get, and so the social image is maybe something that is more accessible, if I dare guess, and thus more marketable? I don't know its just something I was thinking about as the train swayed me back and forth. Incidentally on a related but contrary point, you haven't truly lived until you've walked down a long train as it sped along a curved track, all the train's cars twisting dramatically as you walk forward, amazingly cool I think.

Wow. I was tripping out on the train huh? I wrote that to kill time, and its kind of weird, but whatever. Yeahhhh!

In other news, I'm heading back to Korea this next Wednesday...! I am beyond happy that I get to go to korea to get my Japanese working visa at the embassy there!! When I first called a company to ask about a ticket, I asked to speak English (not wanting to make a mistake and end up with a ticket to Bangkok or something!) and the guy took all my information in English (kind of shyly, but with a fairly good accent) and then said he would transfer me to a person who could "speak english" who would finish my order. He transfered me to a person with one of the thickest Japanese accidents I've ever heard, and she was horrible in customer relations... and said the ticket would cost me over $600 before tax! I was sure this price was a Gaijin Price (more expensive prices for non-Japanese, something that I cant prove exists, but that I think regretfully does sometimes, most noticeably, and most justifiably, in the housing sector) so I just told her I would try other places. It was too late to try anywhere that night, so the next day I looked through the magazines and found a cheap offer and called the place and asked (in japanese!) "Can I speak English?" and the guy said (in Japanese) "Actually, sorry, but all our salespeople who speak English are busy." So I asked (in Japanese) "When should I call back?" and he told me about 10 minutes... maybe its just me, but I thought it was funny having a conversation about when I could speak English, not in English... I should have just tried to buy a ticket from him... but anyway, I call back in 10 minutes and this guy answers and I ask him in Japanese again if I could speak English, and he says "Sure, man, how can I help you?" in a non-Japanese accident. Turns out this nice guy was from Turkey! and he was married to a Japanese woman, so he came here to work. His Japanese was really good, almost no accent. That was cool... and I ended up getting my ticket for about $400, after tax, which was what I had saved away for my ticket so I didnt really go broke. (although it feels weird spending the savings I had been keeping carefully!) So here I am, ready, so ready, to begin teaching... on the edge of the storm, I'm ready to begin!!!

TEMAN SAYA, TERIMA KASIH! DAAG!

hello kanagawa :: rain :: art thingies I've made

This last weekend (what was it? This last Saturday?) I was going to go to KANAGAWA to check out HANABI (fireworks show) with Tatsuya and Taro, but because its been so rainy in this part of Japan, they had to cancel the show. That totally sucks because the fireworks show season is almost over, so I guess I won't be able to have another fun fireworks party in Japan this year. Its been so weird this summer; some normal hot and humid days but mostly wet and cold days... anyway, we all got together (me, tatsuya, taro, and a female friend of tatsuya) and decided to hang out anyway, even though there was no fireworks. We watched Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon which is called "Green Destiny" in Japan. (I still like that movie, even though the wire work making them look like they can fly is still kinda weird...) and after that Tatsuya drove us around in his car. I stayed with Tatsuya the first time I was in Japan, and he told me about his red souped up 1980s sportscar, but he had it in storage far away at that time. So getting a chance to ride around with him felt like a sequel to my younger memories, which was nice. The rain was really smacking down hard, thick sheets against the front window as we whooshed through the dark streets at night (it was about 11 when we started I think) ... I took a picture of Taro and Tatsuya's friend making weird faces in the back of the car, but for some reason the picture I took without the flash posted, but the picture I took with the flash wouldn't post. So actually you cant see anything in that picture! oh well...! We stopped at a cheap TONKATSU [breaded & fried pork] restaurant (and because I wasnt taking the train home, I had extra money in my budget!) and we all got some Tonkatsu on top of a bowl of rice (I didnt add this restaurant to my EAT.TOKYO page because I was too lazy to record the name or anything) ...the food was really hot and good, felt nice to fill my stomach with some fresh Japanese food, yummy deshita! ... After we all finished eating we walked to the car (while I sang Japanese kid's songs in weird ways, for sure bothering everyone?!) and in the car me and Taro played that game where one person says a word, and the next person has to say a word that begins with the last letter of the other word... Taro was so good at this game, he kept picking words with "Y" as the last letter so I would have a headache trying to remember Y words (Yank, Yak, York, Yankees, Yellow, and my favorite best one of the night Yesterday)...

And now, presenting to one and all, another weird boxy thing of weird picture randomness, representing night, and rainy tokyo:

OK, and actually I've been way too productive recently... in a very unprecedented ability (atleast from my site) I am now offering something really cool. Yes, I mean it, really really cool (atleast in a geeky interactive sense!)...

QUICKTIME VR 280 Degree Panorama!!
Click above (if you have the latest version of Apple's Quick Time, and if not get it.) to see a panorama of the view I always see right below the apartment I am staying in. This is the road right infront of my friend's apartment building at about 3 in the morning (I stay up late!) right after it rained again, its been doing that a lot. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy it (if you have a slow modem please wait for it to fully load before you click on the image and drag it to move) because it took me a long time to figure out how to make and then to make it. Look at the details (if you want, you should be able to do a little bit of zooming too if you want because its a fairly high quality image)... for example, can you see the barber shop? And the gate thing leads to the temple where they had the bon-odori festival, etc... Its not perfect, I know there are some image glitches and stuff, but I think its a totally cool way to see what it looks like over here! Yay! I really need to start working so I stop doing all these silly geeky computer stuff and start teaching!!!! uh huh!!

Right now I was eating some of the candy Seung One sent me from Korea, and I realized something funny. I was eating a Mentos for the first time (??) and it was from Korea.. international culture! I guess its not something that other people can relate to, but I found it profound somehow (and those "MENTOS: the freshmaker" commercials were popping up in my head like popup ads, along with this one weird fake MENTOS ad I saw once about this guy shooting his friend because his friend did something with MENTOS or something... anyway, I am totally just talking to myself here, aren't I?? hahaha!!) Still no word from the Japanese Government about working visas... Oh well, I hope for good news soon!!

PERMEN!! ...SAMPAI JUMPA LAGI---!

no sleep and a fried green brain

Ohmygod, I'm so sleepy. I haven't slept since late afternoon yesterday. My brain is kind of slow, pulling itself along like a slug. Why? (You might ask.) Why not... I have no work at the moment, no appointments today, nothing really to get sleep for... so I've stayed awake, and messed up my health a bit. (I've grown two new big zits just for staying up late, yay!) As the crown for my nonsleeping I took a self portrait. Its kind of a big file, and you'll have to go to my Korean photo album (press three on your menu to the left) to see the whole huge file including my new special forehead zits! yay! But if you don't want to find that picture and just want a direct link, heres a croped smaller version, in which you cant see all of my crazy face, but you can atleast see I haven't shaved. Uh oh! I look like a monster, so be careful not to look at the picture late at night or after watching a horror film. heh heh.

In other news, I've produced my first art picture thingie-box-of-weirdness:

I wanted to somehow convey the huge massiveness of everything... the amounts of buildings, people, things. So I blocked random fuzzy pictures onto a picture of billboards crawling up the side of a Kabukicho building. Hope ya enjoy. (I must pointout the popeye cartoon in center tho!)

I thought I would take a couple of seconds to talk about some geeky computer stuff. Yay! ...I recently setup a website with a Korean website service. Korea is the world leader in people on the internet, and this website is totally setup for those who want to live on the internet. It lets you design an aviator character (you can see mine above) and also a room, but heres the kicker to put virtual stuff in your room (such as chairs, beds, watermellons, beer, etc) you must pay REAL money for them. Now, it is only a couple of wan (less than pennies, right?) but I still think its amazing that thousands (millions?) of people on this site are paying MONEY to have chairs, that they cant sit in... beer, that they cant drink... etc. I'm not saying its bad, I think I'm just saying: thats the future ladies and gentlemen.. a consumer is a consumer, no matter if that consumer is buying things they can hold in their hands, or buying things they can hold in their mind. Fascinating?? ...(that site also has a free diary, free BBS, and a free photo album that accepts huge files...something I'll be using for my big picture uploads!)

In working news... the Japanese government still hasn't given me permission to TRY to get a visa. They better hurry up, my travel visa expires fairly soon. I can't wait though, when (IF?) I get permission to get my working visa... I will go to Korea to get my working visa.. and I will meet a lot of my friends from the exchange student program I went on! Yay! It will be so fun. Anyway, nothing major to say in this update. Just wanted to keep you all updated (well, thats all you 3 or 4 readers! heh heh)

SEGAR! DAAG!

a little work, some karaoke, some orginal music, and other insanity

The other day I went to this school almost outside of Tokyo, near the state of Chiba. It was far away, but I had been offered a one time only (and maybe more than that later?) teaching job at this kind of English preschool. The kids would come in and we would play with them and exchange basic phrases with them. Most of the kids were about 3 years old, and I was very impressed that a lot of them had memorized basic english phrases by that age! I could say "hello whats your name?" and often they would say their name, and then nice to meet you or something, and some could even carry on basic conversations about how they were doing and etc. I was impressed.... afterall, I don't think I was even doing much talking in my native language when I was 3, let alone in a second language! One of the little girls (was her name Mana?) was so young, but she had already became a little comedian (in Japanese). She would constantly make remarks (when a face was being drawn to practice naming the face parts in English she yelled in Japanese "ohmygod! stop it, its scary, it looks like my grandma!" and another time we were arranging ropes on the ground to let the kids play hoping games, and she said in japanese, "freaky! it looks like micky mouse, hurry lets make it into a panda!" and when all the kids were making crafts, they were supposed to make a cat and dog from folder paper [origami] and she made the cat and the dog and then drew a tear on the dogs face and said in japanese that the dog was sad because the cat was giving it a hard time, and other stuff like that! she was so silly!! I couldnt help but wonder if she would become a famous comedian or something!) It was all really fun, and later the lady who hired me (her name is kwi heng, she is Japanese-Korean) will send me a little bit of money for my work. which will be really good, since I am still of course really, really, low in the money department.

Taro had his birthday a few days ago... (HAPPYBIRTHDAY TO THE TAROMAN!) and so we met him and went out to eat (at an Italian restaurant now listed on my EAT.TOKYO website under the name "ITARIA ICHIBA" which is currently like the second restaurant listed) and then we went to karaoke. We were walking along in Shinjuku and this guy fished us out of the crowd, which is common in Japan. Its insane how crowded it can get in "downtown" Tokyo, people just flood the area, clogged in constant motion. Words cant explain the massive amounts of people that just exist in a constant flow. Anyway, back to the fisherperson. In Japan, people are hired to stand in the crowd harassing people with posters asking them to go to restaurants, gentleman's clubs, and you guessed it---karaoke! Dear reader, in case you've never had a chance to experience a japanese style karaoke thing (you can experience those in canada) let me explain a little bit. You go to this building that has lots of little rooms, you get assigned to this room with a microphone and a TV with a karaoke machine. Some karaoke places offer free drinks that are delivered (some are drinks like wine coolers and beer, and some places only offer soft drinks) and some karaoke places dont offer any free drinks, and instead they have cheap entrance prices but require you to buy atleast one drink. Anyway, the amount of songs you can sing is insane! This place, just as an example, had thousands and thousands of Japanese songs (both brand new and painfully old) and hundreds and hundreds of english language songs (super new and as old as the mid 1950s-early 1960s) and songs in Korean and Tagalog. What was really amazing about the English song selection was the range of music. This wasn't just brittney spears, it was anything, from greenday (punk) to marylin manson (goth metal) to eminem (hiphop) to anything else you could think. If your wondering, just for fun I tried to sing weird songs by manson, eminem, elvis, and other off the wall artists, it was so fun! the crazyest fun part was trying to sing the Japanese song "LOVE LOVE SHOW" by an artist I like that is named "Yellow Monkey".. (If you've never heard that song I think you can go here and then click the LOVE LOVE SHOW link and it will pop up a sample song window, wait for it to load.) My singing basically was in and out, some parts were maybe quite clear (the parts I had kind of memorized or the parts that were mainly written in Japanese alphabets that didnt use difficult kanji) and other parts were mumbled as I tried to keep up with the song. ^^; ...I don't remember ever trying to sing a Japanese song in Karaoke before though, so it was really fun trying... I'm going to have to practice with my bad voice, and do it again sometime!

NOTICE

I've had time to waste, and I don't like to waste my time just watching the seconds go away... so I made a freaky weird techno song using vintage radio samples and a virtual synthesizer and stuff. Please check it out by clicking here and then clicking the name of the file. (The name of the song "tenaga musuh" is Indonesian and I guess it means something like "energy enemy" or something!) I made this one, unlike the last song I linked to. Let me know what you think, try my weird song!

Right now the wind is really slaming against this appartment. Its late at night, and my mind is a little light headed... but I like the sound of the wind. Although sometimes it slightly shakes the room a little (if its not earthquakes shaking me its wind, when will the shaking stop?? heh heh) ... I really do like nature sounds though, I just hope I don't get blown away to the land of OZ. Apparently its almost a typhoon or something? I'll be ok of course. Let me hear your thoughts, cus I'm a comment hungry bunny. oh yeah.

JALAN-JALAN SAJA! DA-DA!

drinking, living, and other weirdness



Well, the rainy season in Tokyo is officially OVER... and its getting hot, I was walking around outside today and my skin was boiling and my brain was melting. Yes, hot hot. Looks like this summer will fit the Japan reputation.

I am sleepy... I originally started this at 9 my time, and then just forgot to type anything else, my mind blowing around on the internet. (its 1 now!) Do I have a major internet addiction problem, or what? I found some cool websites... Including links to a collection I'm correctly making. I have some extra CDR discs so I plan on making a collection of some super weird strange odd music that can't be heard anywhere. Why? for fun. For example... wish I made this song!!! (IMPORTANT! Click the link, and then click the SECOND file, its the one I'm talking about.) I was amazed to find out that other people enjoy making music in the same way that I do. I really envy that song, its brilliant. (click the link to download it, ya ya)

oh yeah and on a side note, the current [[as of this moment]] emotion for my blog [[seen on the left]] is "dashing" because I'm trying to find some people who will let me tutor them for a little bit of money or food so I don't starve!!

A few days ago (last wednesday, an hour after writting the huge entry!) I met Aki and Satomi and we went to a bar. (you could see this if you had been checking my keitai page!!) It was really fun, we ordered tea and shoju (korean sake, uhh, you know sake right? korean wine.. ok, you should know that.) And so we mixed (and sometimes drank strate) the shoju with the tea and ended up drinking tons of it (one and a half full bottles!) ...needless to say, we were a bunch of drunk kids by the end of the night... stumbling for our trains, getting lost. I ended up jumping the gate at my station when I got there, because I forgot to get my ticket at the station (drunk drunk) and there wasnt any more trains anyways, it was the last train. Hows that for young and immature? (( note to Dansen: enjoy life, but be a good boy! ))

Tomorrow, I plan to meet my American friend Diana again. I want Taro or whoever to join us, but I think he is busy. So this is the end of my strange little blog entry. Just wanted to be a good little blogger, and keep on writing! SAMPAI JUMPA LAGI!

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!

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!

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...
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!)
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.....?!
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!!

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!