13 posts tagged “nippon”

Japan: The Final

Feb 10, 2008
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Uploaded more pictures from Japan to facebook and Flickr

Today is my last full day in Japanland. Ive seen all there is to see and done all there is to do. Yesterday I went to Nikko, which was amazing but the weather sucked. Im honestly looking forward to coming home, I miss the sun and my stuff. All that remains is a day and 16 hours of travel, oh boy!

Travel Log: Day 3

Jul 9, 2007
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Helped Dan clean his place up and got a late start in the morning. We went straight to the Nerd stalls in Akihabara. That place is truly amazing, and it makes me so sad that there nothing like there me. Its a rats nest of tiny alleyways lined with people selling analog components and assorted gadgetry. It wasn't very crowded due to it being a monday morning I suppose which is fortunate considering that there was barely enough room to move as it was. There may not even be that sort of thing any place in the US because people just buy all the parts wholesale. Sux. We made a stop at Yodabashi(?) which is an enormous BestBuy++ store selling anything that runs on electricity, office supplies etc. Imagine all the Electronics & Office superstores in the US voltron-ing into one store. They had some of those crazy Nippo watches that I linked a while back, but they were more expensive that I thought so I didn't get one...yet. Also: $100+ ties.

We met up with Dan's friend Mark someplace south of the city starting with "moto" and ending in "machi". I believe its the first place that foreigners were allowed to settle and it had a completely different feel from Tokyo. A lot of boutique shops, a lot of residential areas. The houses in the area were a lot more asthetically pleasing with an overal mediterranean feel. There were a lot of cats here. And nasty cucumber flavored sprite. For lunch we went to some random joint in Chinooknook Town. It was allright. On Monday a lot of the none chain stores close, perhaps for some historically significant reason. The area is laced with all-girl schools. We passed by a tennis court overflowing with schoolgirls and instructors shouting "NICE SHOTO DESU" over and over and over again at like every volley. That made me crack up.

Dan and Mark told me a lot of stories about how fucking awesome their year at Showa was and how it will never happen again. I'm jealous : <.

We met Moeggi Dusty, another one of Dan's friends, and headed over to Yokohama(?) We were going to have a drink on the top floor of the the tallest building in Toyko(?) but the cover was Y2,000 a person and the drinks were similarly priced so we decided to keeps it gutta instead. We went to the Sakura-cho(?) area and got food at some random place. My camera battery died here :[ The joint was cramped as hell and the owner was an old lady with purple hair. Moeggi had to order for us, and the owner kept scolding her because we kept DOING IT THE WRONG WAY. The food was good, except this nacho pizza thing that was covered in mayonnaise. Thats how they do here. After eating we stumbled about and got some Kirin green (shitty not-beer) from a vending machine. Moeggi had to leave and the guys showed me how it was totally cool if I just peed in public. We wanted to go bar hopping by the country is dead on Monday so it kinda fizzled out at some expensive place where I successfully requested water in Japanese, well almost.

My knee feels fine but is slightly discolored and I get the feeling it I'm going to have a few new bitching scars that I lie to people about. See these? Its from stage sliding during my career as front man for an arena rock band.

Travel Log: Day 1 and 2

Jul 8, 2007
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Pictures to be added later. I realize this is old hat to almost everyone but I need to write this down to remember it all.

Friday, July 6th - Saturday, July 7th:

Slept all of maybe 1 1/2 hours before getting on the plane. Survived that ride with some dramamine and "300". There's some shitamachi festival going on this weekend so Dan Moegi and I went to get some food. On the way I tripped on some cleverly hidden sheet metal and put a hole in my knee. The pressure in my veins must have been somewhat higher than the outside air due to the flight because I started bleeding really really badly given the hole. At first we just put a bandaid on it and walked around for a bit but blood starting pouring down my leg and into my sock so we had to stop at a store and get some gauze and medical tape to wrap it. A lot of people pointed and stared at my leg in the store, and given the amount of blood I really can't blame them. A random nipponese woman and her grandapa saw us patching my leg and went to the store to get more stuff. It's since healed up, but Dan got a nice picture of my leg covered in gore. It wasn't really a good night for walking around after that.

Sunday July 8th

Dan and Moegi took me on a tour of harakuku, Shibuya and Shinjuku. We were hunting for Lions (ko-gals), but didn't find many. There are a lot of Gothic Lolitas and other counter culture fashion faggots. Maybe its not counter culture in Japan. There were a few people giving out free hugs so I had my may with one. It reminds me of an anime con. (TEARDROP SHIMASU).

After Harajuku we visited the shrine of Emperor Meiji which occupies several acres inside of Harajuku making it worth billions of dollars in potential real estate. Its so large and untouched it was possible to forget I was in Tokyo.

In Shibuya we wondered around looking for more lions and shops. The dinosaur building from Lost In Translation is above a massive intersection where hundreds of people cross at every red light. We stopped at HMV and I got a chance to listen to some "Indie" and "punk" Nip bands. There was a lot of good stuff there; I want to go back with a pen and paper and get some of the names and buy some. In sShibuya everyone dresses very fashionable ( in my opinion anyway ), I'm jealous. On the way out Dan was interviewed by some TV people asking about American urban legends so he talked about the Red Sox Curse. He can describe it better than me because it was all done in Japanese. I can't understand wtf anyone is saying, going on my own is going to be a little scary.

People here are also a lot taller than I expected, given the stereotype that asian people are LOL TINY. I don't feel anymore taller than the average person here than in the States. The majority of people in my age group are also very thin/ in shape which, given the amount of vending machines, I find to be amazing. There are a lot of vending machines here by the way so I'm never at a loss for Green Tea. Haven't found Meron soda, but I did get some tasty Apple Soda.

In Shinjuku Dan and I played Beatmania Gold and Street Fighter. I also gave Guilty Gear Accent Core a try, but I'm awful with the arcade stick so I had trouble even working with the old patterns. I dedicate those matches to Sean Sherman. Dan pointed out to me that nearly all of the Pachinko parlors have Neon Genesis Evangelion themed machines advertisements covering their entranceway. We saw a man in a suit playing a sniper game, Dan got pictures because I feel a little self-conscious about taking pictures of everyone.

As the sun set Dan and I ventured into Kabuki-cho which is supposively one of the more dangerous districts. There are alleyways maybe 3 feet wide lined with compact restaurants trying to rip you off. We were stopped by an old man who spoke english fairly well("I'm not one of those people who say 'Yankee go home' ") and eventually invited us in for a biru. We backed out knowing where that would end up.

After dodging pimps and yakuza we headed back to Ueno and this time managed to get delicious carnival food without losing a pint of blood.

Japlans

Jun 13, 2007
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Sat July 7th:
Arrive at Narita
Sat July 7th PM - Thrus July 12th AM
Tokyo
Thurs July 12th PM - Fri July 13th AM
Kobe
Fri July 13th PM - Sat July 14th AM
Hiroshima
Sat July 14th PM - Mon July 16th AM
Kyoto
Mon July 16th PM - Thurs Jul 19th AM
Kobe
Thurs Jul 19th PM - Mon July 23 PM
Tokyo
Mon July 23 PM
Leave

Hiroshima and Kobe are to be used as bases for trips to other fun things. At this point Im just studying japanese and waiting for my JR pass to arrive so i don't bankrupt myself on train fares. All I need to do is coast through the next few weeks of work and then its just kick the fuck back and let Japan happen.

No Homers

May 20, 2007
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Ilium

Dan Simmons

If you share my taste in literature at all you need to read this. Its about a 20th century scholar resurrected by the Greek Gods to watch over the siege of Troy and verify that it is happening according to Homer's Iliad. That's the first thread. The second involves a group of lazy buttholes in 40th century Earth that set forth on an adventure to contact the "post-human" that live in cities orbiting the poles and equator. The third thread is about a group of Shakespeare quoting sentient robots from the Jovian system. They are on a mission to Mars to invetigate large amounts of quantum disturbances. The book is mostly story, not boring science, driven so I definitely think it would appeal to a lot of people out there. It has an easy-to-read "movie" feel to it and unlike the works of Stephonson actually has more than afterfhought for an ending. I burned through this thing in a few days and now I'm fiending for the sequel, Olympos, which couldn't possible be as good yet I'll happily read anyway. Simmons won a hugo for Hyperion, which I'll probably read as well.

Yesterday was my last day of tutoring. My schedule is wide open again, except for Tuesday Nihongo no kurasu. I spent most of yesterday studying, focusing on hiregana. I'm tempted to buy more books, but I rarely get around to studying the ones I have. I need to ramp this up because I've visiting in 2 months and I hardly know anything. Anyway, now that I have all this free time it back to the bench to ward off SAd and practicing saxophone which I havent done in earnest for some time now.

Lightweight champ

Apr 15, 2007
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Japanese Grammar (Barron's Grammar Series)

Carol Akiyama

Someone in class reccomended me this book as a study aid. Its $7 and, at under 300 pages, nothing but business. With this book and a little gumption I'll know how to use all 25 hundred particles correctly. Ahem, excuse me, but I believe you meant to say: Basu-Machida wa doko ni arimasu ka. Or something like that... I think its close enough. I have this week off from class, but by next week I'd like to be able to have more interesting conversation with the Nips than "What time does the meeting run until?" and "Is this your business card? Oh, is this your business phone number? Ah I see.". Those poor things. Although now that I know this sort of thing I'm contemplating exchanging business cards with random salarimen while I'm over there.

Fodor's Japan, 17th Edition (Fodor's Gold Guides)

Fodor's

I also picked up this fella to help me plan my journey into places unknown. Fodor's is clearly an anagram for Frodo's, and I can think of no better guide than the famous wanderlust stricken antihero. The cover even looks like the shire, with Mt Fuji shopped into the background, come on! The design staff is clearly trying to suggest a parallel between Mt. Fuji and Mt. Doom, which means that Daniel gets cast as the amiguously gay Samwise. I'm already pumped to cast off some crusty heirloom into the firey depths of Japan, and I haven't even read the words on the inside. I have a feeling they will only corroborate this hypothesis.

Once I finish this book I should have a good idea of what I want to do in Middle Earth, I'll let you guys ( Dan and Sarah ) know.

Help Japan

Mar 19, 2007
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Japanese for Busy People I

AJALT

Guys Japanese numbers are really hard. I keep forgetting shichi in favor of hachi. I understand how non negative integers work, its just... hard to use them. I've been counting to myself like all day for the past week. I was thinking maybe I should start working japanese into my data set evaluation. I'm spend 30% my of time looking at large CSV files, it could work. Uh, once I learn fractions. And negatives.

Also for future reference: Learn Japanese Pod!
Either the people who make this site are stealing from my book or Tanaka and Hayashi get around. The first few lessons follow roughly what I've been learning in class which is really useful!

I think perhaps studying the last hour I'm awake is a bad idea. Tooo sleeeepy.

Biking XX

Mar 3, 2007
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Today the weather was more than acceptable for push-overs like me to go biking. It feels good to sweat; I get a pardoxal feeling of cleaniness afterwards. Everything is still in working condition, I'm pumped for the spring now!

Got my passport today, going to purchase tickets for Nihon this week. Still not entirely sure on the exact dates.

Lesson 1

Feb 27, 2007
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Showa was a lot of fun. I was surprised at the amount of security they have to keep the animals out, or in dot dot dot. I couldn't stop making the nutface, I hope no one noticed >:3 Fortunately, theres only kid in our class who is an outright japanophile. And a douche.( I'm not counting myself here ). Anyway, guys he really wants to be a chaperone for Showa and you can go to him for any pointers because he's really good at the language, also be sure to look for him in Japan once he gets accepted to JET. Man it only took him half a sentence to make me not like him, I hope I don't sound like this when I offer help to people.

Japan: The Final

Travel Log: The End(?)

Travel Log: Day 3

Travel Log: Day 1 and 2

Japlans

No Homers

Lightweight champ

Help Japan

Biking XX

Lesson 1

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13 posts tagged “nippon”

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