Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Is your cat earthquake proof? Is it? Lets find out!
http://japanite.com/is-your-cat-prepared-for-earthquake/
As I have mentioned before there is an indoor market / eatery in my new town and tonight i went there to get some sushi. There is only one place to get sushi there. It is a small tiny glass counter about as wide as two people and the chef is the biggest hardass ever. He is this short kinda older guy who has a death stare like no other. He reminds of a japanese soup nazi from Seinfeld. I have not heard him say one word in the 5 times or so that I have gotten sushi from his stand. When it is my turn he doesn't even look at me and i tell him my order and he makes it silently and then just sticks out his hand without telling me how much I have to pay him. But today, after 5 times of getting food from him when i walked up he gave me a slight nod and immediately got the take out box ready (because I always get take out). I have only see him say anything once and it was to the lady who runs the booth next to his. He said 3 words and she cracked up, which leads me to believe that he has every middle aged woman who works at this market wrapped around his stone faced finger. He rules.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Continued....
I think that I have decided to write a book called "How to pay a bunch of money and NEVER FUCKING PASS A DRIVING TEST". I am currently doing a lot of research. I went back to the toilet hole known as the Kochi Driving Center today and surprise surprise the ridiculous people who work there found another reason to fail me. I think that today's reason was either 1. I drive to well or 2. I am too sexy. One guy in my group passed and he seriously took turns at negative 2 mph which is apparently the correct way to drive....in backwards ass land maybe. At one point this guy waited at a stop sign for about 45 seconds looking to the left and the right. If that is what they want from me then fuck it, I am going to be a sideways looking, slow turning machine.
Yesterday was my day off as well and I did go to the market as I planned and got some peaches that are seriously so amazing. They are the juiciest peaches I have ever eaten in my life. So amazingly good. Next week I will buy double the amount that I got this weekend and eat them all immediately I am sure. I also decided to go for a bike ride cause the day was so nice and I found this really old stone stair case and decided to walk up it and found a huge hiking course, so that is pretty awesome. So if I have nothing to do I will head up there. I had already been riding my bike for a bit so I was pretty tired when I found the course so next time I will try to venture a bit further.
Right now on justin.tv I am watching this history channel special about gangs and I must say that it is actually amazingly interesting. Also sadly 2 of the 4 episodes that I have watched were based on Chicago gangs. It is really unfortunate that gang bangers decide to join gangs because the way that gangs are run and how bangers adapt to their environment and techniques that they think of in order to do what they are are sometimes ingenious. Especially one gang that was from Texas that only exists in prison. It is too bad these guys were not businessmen because they would be insanely rich and probably not in jail.
Time to study some Japanese.
I think that I have decided to write a book called "How to pay a bunch of money and NEVER FUCKING PASS A DRIVING TEST". I am currently doing a lot of research. I went back to the toilet hole known as the Kochi Driving Center today and surprise surprise the ridiculous people who work there found another reason to fail me. I think that today's reason was either 1. I drive to well or 2. I am too sexy. One guy in my group passed and he seriously took turns at negative 2 mph which is apparently the correct way to drive....in backwards ass land maybe. At one point this guy waited at a stop sign for about 45 seconds looking to the left and the right. If that is what they want from me then fuck it, I am going to be a sideways looking, slow turning machine.
Yesterday was my day off as well and I did go to the market as I planned and got some peaches that are seriously so amazing. They are the juiciest peaches I have ever eaten in my life. So amazingly good. Next week I will buy double the amount that I got this weekend and eat them all immediately I am sure. I also decided to go for a bike ride cause the day was so nice and I found this really old stone stair case and decided to walk up it and found a huge hiking course, so that is pretty awesome. So if I have nothing to do I will head up there. I had already been riding my bike for a bit so I was pretty tired when I found the course so next time I will try to venture a bit further.
Right now on justin.tv I am watching this history channel special about gangs and I must say that it is actually amazingly interesting. Also sadly 2 of the 4 episodes that I have watched were based on Chicago gangs. It is really unfortunate that gang bangers decide to join gangs because the way that gangs are run and how bangers adapt to their environment and techniques that they think of in order to do what they are are sometimes ingenious. Especially one gang that was from Texas that only exists in prison. It is too bad these guys were not businessmen because they would be insanely rich and probably not in jail.
Time to study some Japanese.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
I will start off my latest blog post with a bang. Today I saw a small, hunched backed, middle aged woman wearing a shirt that said the following: "For Rent(the t shirt had a picture of a for rent sign and in the white white rectangle at the bottom there was..) please call 1-453-Horny.
This is not the first time I have seen totally sexually explicit t shirts worn by people who I am sure have no idea what they are wearing. Like the 4 year old girl I saw wearing a "slut" t shirt the other day. So good / horrible.
The weekend has finally come, even though I shouldn't complain because my job is not difficult at all and last week was pretty easy for me I am happy to see the weekend arrive none the less. Tonight I am going to a restaurant with an alleged "south east Asian flair" but to me it looks like a small cafeteria in someones garage. But it is supposed to be really good and it is literally 1 minute walking from my apartment, so I hope that it is good so i can become a frequent patron. While I am on the topic of food I found a place that sells Johnsonville brats, which to everyone in America might not seem like a big deal but to me it was like finding a bag of money. I was seriously so happy and spent 10 minutes staring at them deciding if i wanted to buy the smoked or cheese filled. I went with smoked and regretted it almost instantly.
Sunday I really do not know what I am doing. I might just lay low or I might try to take the train to the river and go for a swim, but it all really depends on if i get drunk tonight or not. If i do then instead of going swimming in the river I will probably spend the day moaning and rolling around in my bed wishing I hadn`t drank so much. But there is really nothing to do in my town but drink and eat. I am surprised I have not turned into a fat alcoholic pig yet, but i am sure that is not far off. There is a Sunday market in Kochi and you can get veggies and fruits brutally cheap. So i always try to go there and even if i don`t buy anything the atmosphere is pretty great and you can at least get fresh lemonade or something like that, which is good for a hangover. My co worker Rosie turned me on to this drink at the large beer garden that is the local hangout for everyone who lives in this town. It has freshly squeezed (you watch the lady squeeze them) strawberries mixed with Japanese alcohol. It is awesome and will be all I drink whenever I am at the above mentioned beer garden.
to be continued. .....
This is not the first time I have seen totally sexually explicit t shirts worn by people who I am sure have no idea what they are wearing. Like the 4 year old girl I saw wearing a "slut" t shirt the other day. So good / horrible.
The weekend has finally come, even though I shouldn't complain because my job is not difficult at all and last week was pretty easy for me I am happy to see the weekend arrive none the less. Tonight I am going to a restaurant with an alleged "south east Asian flair" but to me it looks like a small cafeteria in someones garage. But it is supposed to be really good and it is literally 1 minute walking from my apartment, so I hope that it is good so i can become a frequent patron. While I am on the topic of food I found a place that sells Johnsonville brats, which to everyone in America might not seem like a big deal but to me it was like finding a bag of money. I was seriously so happy and spent 10 minutes staring at them deciding if i wanted to buy the smoked or cheese filled. I went with smoked and regretted it almost instantly.
Sunday I really do not know what I am doing. I might just lay low or I might try to take the train to the river and go for a swim, but it all really depends on if i get drunk tonight or not. If i do then instead of going swimming in the river I will probably spend the day moaning and rolling around in my bed wishing I hadn`t drank so much. But there is really nothing to do in my town but drink and eat. I am surprised I have not turned into a fat alcoholic pig yet, but i am sure that is not far off. There is a Sunday market in Kochi and you can get veggies and fruits brutally cheap. So i always try to go there and even if i don`t buy anything the atmosphere is pretty great and you can at least get fresh lemonade or something like that, which is good for a hangover. My co worker Rosie turned me on to this drink at the large beer garden that is the local hangout for everyone who lives in this town. It has freshly squeezed (you watch the lady squeeze them) strawberries mixed with Japanese alcohol. It is awesome and will be all I drink whenever I am at the above mentioned beer garden.
to be continued. .....
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
This post will be a bit longer because I am not totally dead after work today and feel like posting something. Today I started work at a Jr. High school. I only go there twice a week for two classes but todays experience was so good I am considering trying to weasel a full time job out of it at the end of the year possibly. The high school that I am forced to wasted 4 hours of my life at every friday is seriously a garbage dump compared to this school. It made me honestly pity the students at the high school because the quality of education that they are getting is so much lower than this Jr. high school and the weird thing is that the high school is private. For example, the high school has no computers and no projectors for the classrooms. The Jr. high school had multiple projectors, these crazy magnetized projector screens that can be rolled up, and while they were setting up the projector I noticed that there was no computer but within 2 minutes of me letting the staff know there was no computer one had arrived in the classroom along with a member of the AV staff to set everything up. When the bell rang the students actually sat down instead of walking around shirtless (which routinely happens at the high school because the boys are trying to look tough), when they asked me a question they stood up. Also, there was a Japanese teacher in the room with me. Which makes an insane amount of difference. In the high school i have to waste so much time translating what i am trying to say to the students that the amount of time they actually hear me speak english is so minimal that it makes no difference. but at the Jr. High school the teacher translates in 10 seconds, the students understand perfectly and we move on.
The biggest difference that i noticed at the Jr. High school was the attitude of the staff. The teachers room at the Jr. High school was wide, lots of windows, spacious, the teachers were smiling, and greeted me with waves. Someone met me at the front door and everyone at least tried to speak english to me (the schools TA cant speak japanese). I made a powerpoint presentation about Chicago and the teacher who I assist told the vice principal, the principal, the head of the english dept. and other teachers I had made this presentation and when my class started seriously like 15 people who had free lessons, including the principal and vp and head of the english dept. came to my classroom to watch the presentation and when it was finished they left. It was just nice to be working at a place where the teachers actually cared about the students education and i think they realize what a native english speaker can add to a child's education and were excited that I had put the time in to make a presentation.
Last weekend was pretty fun. Other than the times when i contemplated suicide while waiting in the Japanese DMV. My friend Noriko was kind enough to come with me to the DMV and help me practice the course. After that we had lunch at a Denny's style restaurant and then went to one of the many rivers that run through my new city. I went swimming for a little bit in the river and after that she drove me to a bookstore that sold used english books and i got some old novel by Dan Brown that is not related to the Da Vinci Code. Then on monday i went back to the DMV and then went to the beach with a friend of mine. We got bento boxes, which are basically nothing more than pre made lunches with a variety of meats and veggies and then headed to the beach. There is a really delicious bento shop near my work that makes them fresh when you order them and they are only like 5 bucks. So good. The beach was nice. It was monday so there was basically nobody there and it was a beautiful sunny day about 75 degrees or so. There is no swimming at the beach we went to because i guess there is a huge drop off and the undertow is really dangerous so there is no surfing or swimming. The only other people at the beach was a group of old people who volunteer to clean up the beach and a group of vietnamese tourists. There is also an aquarium on the beach but we didn't go. It doesn't look very nice.
I think i might have my chicago card taken away but I am really enjoying living in a place where the main attraction is its nature. After living in big cities for basically my whole life I have learned to appreciate things like swimming in the river which unless you want some kind of rash is basically unheard of in chicago. Maybe I am becoming a softie.
The biggest difference that i noticed at the Jr. High school was the attitude of the staff. The teachers room at the Jr. High school was wide, lots of windows, spacious, the teachers were smiling, and greeted me with waves. Someone met me at the front door and everyone at least tried to speak english to me (the schools TA cant speak japanese). I made a powerpoint presentation about Chicago and the teacher who I assist told the vice principal, the principal, the head of the english dept. and other teachers I had made this presentation and when my class started seriously like 15 people who had free lessons, including the principal and vp and head of the english dept. came to my classroom to watch the presentation and when it was finished they left. It was just nice to be working at a place where the teachers actually cared about the students education and i think they realize what a native english speaker can add to a child's education and were excited that I had put the time in to make a presentation.
Last weekend was pretty fun. Other than the times when i contemplated suicide while waiting in the Japanese DMV. My friend Noriko was kind enough to come with me to the DMV and help me practice the course. After that we had lunch at a Denny's style restaurant and then went to one of the many rivers that run through my new city. I went swimming for a little bit in the river and after that she drove me to a bookstore that sold used english books and i got some old novel by Dan Brown that is not related to the Da Vinci Code. Then on monday i went back to the DMV and then went to the beach with a friend of mine. We got bento boxes, which are basically nothing more than pre made lunches with a variety of meats and veggies and then headed to the beach. There is a really delicious bento shop near my work that makes them fresh when you order them and they are only like 5 bucks. So good. The beach was nice. It was monday so there was basically nobody there and it was a beautiful sunny day about 75 degrees or so. There is no swimming at the beach we went to because i guess there is a huge drop off and the undertow is really dangerous so there is no surfing or swimming. The only other people at the beach was a group of old people who volunteer to clean up the beach and a group of vietnamese tourists. There is also an aquarium on the beach but we didn't go. It doesn't look very nice.
I think i might have my chicago card taken away but I am really enjoying living in a place where the main attraction is its nature. After living in big cities for basically my whole life I have learned to appreciate things like swimming in the river which unless you want some kind of rash is basically unheard of in chicago. Maybe I am becoming a softie.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
So I took the driving test again last Monday and let me tell you it was like some hilarious teen movie where a kid is in desperate need of a license to drive to a party where he expects to lose his virginity to some girl. But instead of getting his license the main character falls prey to one hilarious wacky situation after another. I will just tell you about the test itself. There were three of us taking the test. Me, a Japanese girl and a Japanese guy. The instructor (who thought by yelling slowly inches from my face would somehow make me understand more of he was saying) made us all stand equal distance apart in a row. I was chosen to go first and literally without joking failed almost immediately. I tried to pull out of the spot with the emergency brake on and in Japan the turn signal is on the right of the wheel, not the left. The left side controls the windshield wiper. So not only did I try pulling out with the cars emergency brake still pulled up but I also accidental set off the windshield wipers. I started laughing but my stone faced instructor however did not find is as funny. So i ended up turning on the windshield wipers about 9 times but even if I didn't do that then I would have failed. The best was when I guess i dint stop long enough at a stop sign and he started yelling "stop stop stop stop stop" as if I was punching his mother in the face with brass knuckles. I think when all is said and done that I will end up killing at least one person who works at this driving center. It will not be pretty.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Amazing
http://gizmodo.com/5252014/japanese-marriage-bra-gently-nudges-men-toward-nuptials-with-boobs
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Today a student of mine was reading from the text book and was trying to read the world "closet" but just kept saying "cock, cock, cock" for about thirty seconds. It was hilarious / horrifying.
I am currently watching the movie Eragon. It is as the Japanese would say "complete fucking shit" But yet, i do not stop watching, why? No idea.
Recent Playlist:
Manchester Orchestra - Mean Everything to Nothing
Jeremy Enigk - OK Bear
Coalesce - Ox
RiceboySleeps - S/T
Alexi Murdoch - Tour CD
I am currently watching the movie Eragon. It is as the Japanese would say "complete fucking shit" But yet, i do not stop watching, why? No idea.
Recent Playlist:
Manchester Orchestra - Mean Everything to Nothing
Jeremy Enigk - OK Bear
Coalesce - Ox
RiceboySleeps - S/T
Alexi Murdoch - Tour CD
Monday, May 11, 2009
P.O.W Camps
Today I went to the driving center because I have to get a drivers license for my job. The building looks like some kind of pow camp and the workers at the driving center were about as friendly as people actually being held as pow`s. They were nice enough, but didn't really seem to have the time to deal with me and my lack of fluent Japanese and to add insult to injury the driving center is in the middle of fucking nowhere and I am not allowed to take the test again for 2 weeks due to some kind of problem with my paperwork. This whole process is slowly making want to kill every person who has a Japanese drivers liscense.
I went out drinking saturday night with my co worker and one of his friends whose name escapes me. We went to the usual place we go but it was kinda dead so we stayed for only two drinks then we went to a different usual place which was also pretty dead but we met up with some of my co workers other friends and these two Japanese people i didnt know. Everyone (my co worker and his friends) wanted to go to some dance club type place and we all know how much I love going to dance clubs, so I didnt go with them. I ended up hanging out with the two Japanese people for a bit then we went to a bar that one of their friends owns and it was pretty nice. They were nice people and gave me their contact info and mailed me the next day to say thanks and invite me over to their place for a dinner part which was really cool of them since I really do not have that many friends out here.
Other than that not much is really going on. I really need to get this drivers liscense so I am freaking out about it a little cause it is totally inconvient for my new boss and her staff that i do not have a liscense, so I dont really want to piss her off. But hopefully it will get sorted out soon.
I don`t know of any of them read this blog but to Missy, Dan and Heather congrats on your soon to be weddings and I am sorry I can`t be there to celebrate with you. But good luck and congrats anyway.
I went out drinking saturday night with my co worker and one of his friends whose name escapes me. We went to the usual place we go but it was kinda dead so we stayed for only two drinks then we went to a different usual place which was also pretty dead but we met up with some of my co workers other friends and these two Japanese people i didnt know. Everyone (my co worker and his friends) wanted to go to some dance club type place and we all know how much I love going to dance clubs, so I didnt go with them. I ended up hanging out with the two Japanese people for a bit then we went to a bar that one of their friends owns and it was pretty nice. They were nice people and gave me their contact info and mailed me the next day to say thanks and invite me over to their place for a dinner part which was really cool of them since I really do not have that many friends out here.
Other than that not much is really going on. I really need to get this drivers liscense so I am freaking out about it a little cause it is totally inconvient for my new boss and her staff that i do not have a liscense, so I dont really want to piss her off. But hopefully it will get sorted out soon.
I don`t know of any of them read this blog but to Missy, Dan and Heather congrats on your soon to be weddings and I am sorry I can`t be there to celebrate with you. But good luck and congrats anyway.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Umeda, Raging Bull and Wild Things
Sorry for the lack of anything here but I went back to Osaka for 4 days to hang out with my old roommates and to do some shopping. It was a good time, but going back defiantly made me realize that I am happy where I am now and that I think I made the right decision moving out here. Osaka has everything that you would want from a city. It has good shopping, live shows, every type of restaurant imaginable, but now that I have begun to live in the countryside all of the things that Osaka lacks have become obvious to me. Where i live now has horrible shopping, no live shows, basically only Japanese restaurants, but in Osaka there is a visible barrier between Japanese and Non Japanese. Non japanese people living in Osaka and Kyoto, in my opinion are used as some type of entertainment. People always ask the same questions “where are you from” “how long have you been in Japan” But the people who talk to me in Kochi treat me more like a real person and less like some oddity that has been thrust into their lives as a source of amusement and for that I am grateful.
But I got some good shopping done, I got ITUNES gift cards, a few books, a Japanese text book and a few clothes. It is amazing how little shopping there is in Kochi. It is almost impossible to buy english books here and if do somehow actually find some your choices are nothing more than Harry Potter or The Da Vinci Code. So it was nice to pick up some books that you cannot buy out here.
My old roommates and I went to a rock club. I had never been there but I had heard a lot about it and it was actually really fun. For some reason I like dancing. I have no idea why, but I enjoy it. But I only enjoy it when I have crossed the line of drunkenness when I don`t notice the fact that jumping up and down and singing into an imaginary microphone is not actually considered dancing. But going to this club has also made me realize how horrible white and Japanese men are at dancing. Even keeping time with the song for some people is as difficult as asking them to perform open heart surgery at moments notice with nothing more than a pen, a paper clip and an Oreo cookie. There was some other guy, who I am only assuming is American based on nothing more than the fact he was running in circles yelling WOOOOO at the top of his lungs, who was the worst dancer possibly ever. I bet that he thought he was the best dancer in that place but he was total and utter shit. Not that I am much better but it just made me realize two things 1. no one is as good as they think they are at anything and 2. Dancing rules.
The bus ride back to Kochi from Osaka was a bit brutal. I was sooooo tired. I didn't get to bed until about 530 or so the night before because we went for a night out. Then i woke up pretty early around 10ish and couldn't go back to sleep. I went down to Umeda which is the main area of Osaka and had a burger at Outback steak house. It is funny, In America if somebody said to me “Let`s go to Outback” I would probably make a face like someone had just tried to push my face into a babies freshly soiled diaper. But in Japan my face lights up like it did when i would watch the Thunder cats movie when I was a kid. I become excited almost to the point of retardation and devour whatever it is that I have ordered with the speed and heart of a lion that has found a decaying carcass in the desert. So after that I walked around Umeda for about 2 hours. I couldn`t find a coin locker that wasn`t being used so I had to carry my bag in my arms for the whole time. So my body being the incredible human specimen that it is, I became tired in about.....1 minute. After that it was agony carrying around that heavy shitty suitcase.
In other news, recently I have been watching a lot of older Robert DeNeiro movies. I have realize that he is an amazing fucking actor. If you have never seen Raging Bull or Cape Fear, he is seriously amazing in those movies. (also surprisingly Juliette Lewis is awesome in Cape fear and Nick Nolte is horrible). I have always liked DeNeiro. Of course he is always awesome in gangster movies like Goodfellas and Casnio but I had never seen his movies from the 70s and 80s. I am, as I am writing this watching Taxi Driver and he is awesome in this movie as well. But if you have never seen Raging Bull I suggest that you stop reading this shitty blog and go rent it and watch it as soon as you get home. That movie is so good and he is utterly amazing in it.
One last movie related thought. I have watched the trailer for “Where the Wild Things Are” seriously, with out exaggeration about 50 times. I don`t know what it is about the trailer but I love it so much and I want to see this movie so bad. If it is bad I think i will seriously cry. The monsters look fucking amazing and I think that the movie industry needs a movie like this to come because recently the movies that have been coming out have been pretty shit and don`t really inspire anything. With the exception of Slumdog, So i really hope that this movie is good because the preview is so amazing.
I Will leave you with this : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQ2ZVWyOVRI
But I got some good shopping done, I got ITUNES gift cards, a few books, a Japanese text book and a few clothes. It is amazing how little shopping there is in Kochi. It is almost impossible to buy english books here and if do somehow actually find some your choices are nothing more than Harry Potter or The Da Vinci Code. So it was nice to pick up some books that you cannot buy out here.
My old roommates and I went to a rock club. I had never been there but I had heard a lot about it and it was actually really fun. For some reason I like dancing. I have no idea why, but I enjoy it. But I only enjoy it when I have crossed the line of drunkenness when I don`t notice the fact that jumping up and down and singing into an imaginary microphone is not actually considered dancing. But going to this club has also made me realize how horrible white and Japanese men are at dancing. Even keeping time with the song for some people is as difficult as asking them to perform open heart surgery at moments notice with nothing more than a pen, a paper clip and an Oreo cookie. There was some other guy, who I am only assuming is American based on nothing more than the fact he was running in circles yelling WOOOOO at the top of his lungs, who was the worst dancer possibly ever. I bet that he thought he was the best dancer in that place but he was total and utter shit. Not that I am much better but it just made me realize two things 1. no one is as good as they think they are at anything and 2. Dancing rules.
The bus ride back to Kochi from Osaka was a bit brutal. I was sooooo tired. I didn't get to bed until about 530 or so the night before because we went for a night out. Then i woke up pretty early around 10ish and couldn't go back to sleep. I went down to Umeda which is the main area of Osaka and had a burger at Outback steak house. It is funny, In America if somebody said to me “Let`s go to Outback” I would probably make a face like someone had just tried to push my face into a babies freshly soiled diaper. But in Japan my face lights up like it did when i would watch the Thunder cats movie when I was a kid. I become excited almost to the point of retardation and devour whatever it is that I have ordered with the speed and heart of a lion that has found a decaying carcass in the desert. So after that I walked around Umeda for about 2 hours. I couldn`t find a coin locker that wasn`t being used so I had to carry my bag in my arms for the whole time. So my body being the incredible human specimen that it is, I became tired in about.....1 minute. After that it was agony carrying around that heavy shitty suitcase.
In other news, recently I have been watching a lot of older Robert DeNeiro movies. I have realize that he is an amazing fucking actor. If you have never seen Raging Bull or Cape Fear, he is seriously amazing in those movies. (also surprisingly Juliette Lewis is awesome in Cape fear and Nick Nolte is horrible). I have always liked DeNeiro. Of course he is always awesome in gangster movies like Goodfellas and Casnio but I had never seen his movies from the 70s and 80s. I am, as I am writing this watching Taxi Driver and he is awesome in this movie as well. But if you have never seen Raging Bull I suggest that you stop reading this shitty blog and go rent it and watch it as soon as you get home. That movie is so good and he is utterly amazing in it.
One last movie related thought. I have watched the trailer for “Where the Wild Things Are” seriously, with out exaggeration about 50 times. I don`t know what it is about the trailer but I love it so much and I want to see this movie so bad. If it is bad I think i will seriously cry. The monsters look fucking amazing and I think that the movie industry needs a movie like this to come because recently the movies that have been coming out have been pretty shit and don`t really inspire anything. With the exception of Slumdog, So i really hope that this movie is good because the preview is so amazing.
I Will leave you with this : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQ2ZVWyOVRI
Monday, April 20, 2009
It has been a few weeks since I wrote any kind of update so I will take some time out of my busy day (10:47pm) to write a little blurb about my boring life. Nothing really much has happened the past few weeks, since one of the teachers at my school had to go home due to an emergency it has been really busy at my job. We also started going to this high school in town to teach english. We are not employees of the high school, our boss has just whored us out to them for what we are all guessing is an astronomical amount of money that we will never see any of. I would call the people we teach “high school” students but half of them would probably not pass a junior high entrance exam. Things that have been asked to me by students thus far “do you like sex?” which in shitty high school english is “you sex?” “are you a hippopotamus?” or again in high school english “you hippopotamus?” and “i like girls” or “me, girls, yes!”. I think our boss had no clue what she was getting into when she agreed to send us to the school. At first she told us to “just make the lessons fun, play games like telephone” We all (the teachers) told her that contrary to what she may think 17 year old rugby players do not like to play telephone. What they do like to do is slouch in their desks with their arms crossed and stare at you in silence and randomly say something quickly in japanese which causes everyone in class to laugh. The other teacher I go to the school with said after the first lesson he taught (our boss was in the room) that our boss had a look of fear on her face, shocked at the stupidity of these students. For all the downfalls of american high schools, at least where I went the students were quiet. Maybe we didn't learn much, maybe we didn't pay attention but at least we weren't assholes. I wish I could say this much for the the students of Chuho high school.
Other than going to the high school I don`t hate any part of my job. It is easy, there is virtually no preparation involved, the students are nice and my co-workers are awesome. The city I have moved also is nice. I like the fact that I can ride my bike anywhere I need to go, part of the city look like a total dump but parts of it are really beautiful. The people have been friendly, but the nightlife is not as lively as a single 27 year old Chicago boy would like. My co-workers are really nice, awesome people though. Australians might be my favorite kind of people that I have met while traveling. When i traveled Europe I met this couple from new Zealand (which yes i know is not australia) who were amazing people and the guy I traveled with and I met a guy from Tasmania who was hilarious and awesome (despite smuggling hash across international lines without telling the guy I was traveling with or me). Almost all my co-workers are Australian and have all been amazingly nice to me. Two of them are a couple and are leaving in september and I want to move into their apartment so badly. It is so, so, so nice, they are also selling their playstation 3 and about 10 games for 500 bucks so I will prob end up buying it when they go. I played it for the first time at their place yesterday. they had a BBQ and after the three of us played it for a bit and the graphics are so insane. The best game we played was some tennis game. They spanked me in it but it was still pretty awesome.
I have been going out almost every saturday night until around 3 or 4 am with my co-worker and some of his friends. As I wrote previously I am horrible at small talk and last weekend when I was waiting for my friend to arrive I was chatting to some Japanese guy at the bar, who at first slightly creeped me out by saying “i like big butts” in english, but ended up being a pretty good guy. He was putting in so much effort talking to me. We were both in the bar by ourselves, he was waiting for his girlfriend and I am just a loser. So we were chatting and I was trying to think of things to talk about and I realized that maybe my lack of conversational skills could stem from the reality that maybe I am just not that interesting of a person. A lot of other people who live in this town are so chatty with each other and i watch them with envy as I just think to myself how I wish I could be that friendly all the time but maybe it is just the fact that I don`t really have much to say. Who knows? not me.
Speaking of Ipod`s yesterday I got an ipod touch. I mostly blame Pat for convincing me to do this. I was planning to buy one in a few weeks when I get paid but I figured that I had the money so why not buy it now. It is pretty awesome, but I want to buy applications for it but I do not have a credit card and no stores near me sell itunes gift cards so someone reading this should buy me a gift card and send it to evanmallon@gmail.com. Thanks everyone.
One hilarious thing that the kids that I teach do while we play games is something that they would like to call “obama power” when they are playing a game, for example UNO, and they want a red card they will say “red red OBAMA!” and turn over the card and if it is not red they say “aww obama didn't help me” and if it is red they say “OBAMA!!!!” it is pretty hilarious. And the group of kids that do that every week did another thing that was pretty hilarious. They hid from me when I walked into the room and then they all jumped out and yelled JACK BAUER! in really deep voices. It was awesome.
Anyway it is really late and I am getting tired and gotta work tomorrow.
Other than going to the high school I don`t hate any part of my job. It is easy, there is virtually no preparation involved, the students are nice and my co-workers are awesome. The city I have moved also is nice. I like the fact that I can ride my bike anywhere I need to go, part of the city look like a total dump but parts of it are really beautiful. The people have been friendly, but the nightlife is not as lively as a single 27 year old Chicago boy would like. My co-workers are really nice, awesome people though. Australians might be my favorite kind of people that I have met while traveling. When i traveled Europe I met this couple from new Zealand (which yes i know is not australia) who were amazing people and the guy I traveled with and I met a guy from Tasmania who was hilarious and awesome (despite smuggling hash across international lines without telling the guy I was traveling with or me). Almost all my co-workers are Australian and have all been amazingly nice to me. Two of them are a couple and are leaving in september and I want to move into their apartment so badly. It is so, so, so nice, they are also selling their playstation 3 and about 10 games for 500 bucks so I will prob end up buying it when they go. I played it for the first time at their place yesterday. they had a BBQ and after the three of us played it for a bit and the graphics are so insane. The best game we played was some tennis game. They spanked me in it but it was still pretty awesome.
I have been going out almost every saturday night until around 3 or 4 am with my co-worker and some of his friends. As I wrote previously I am horrible at small talk and last weekend when I was waiting for my friend to arrive I was chatting to some Japanese guy at the bar, who at first slightly creeped me out by saying “i like big butts” in english, but ended up being a pretty good guy. He was putting in so much effort talking to me. We were both in the bar by ourselves, he was waiting for his girlfriend and I am just a loser. So we were chatting and I was trying to think of things to talk about and I realized that maybe my lack of conversational skills could stem from the reality that maybe I am just not that interesting of a person. A lot of other people who live in this town are so chatty with each other and i watch them with envy as I just think to myself how I wish I could be that friendly all the time but maybe it is just the fact that I don`t really have much to say. Who knows? not me.
Speaking of Ipod`s yesterday I got an ipod touch. I mostly blame Pat for convincing me to do this. I was planning to buy one in a few weeks when I get paid but I figured that I had the money so why not buy it now. It is pretty awesome, but I want to buy applications for it but I do not have a credit card and no stores near me sell itunes gift cards so someone reading this should buy me a gift card and send it to evanmallon@gmail.com. Thanks everyone.
One hilarious thing that the kids that I teach do while we play games is something that they would like to call “obama power” when they are playing a game, for example UNO, and they want a red card they will say “red red OBAMA!” and turn over the card and if it is not red they say “aww obama didn't help me” and if it is red they say “OBAMA!!!!” it is pretty hilarious. And the group of kids that do that every week did another thing that was pretty hilarious. They hid from me when I walked into the room and then they all jumped out and yelled JACK BAUER! in really deep voices. It was awesome.
Anyway it is really late and I am getting tired and gotta work tomorrow.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Porno anyone?
Since I have come to Japan my life has blurred the lines of reality and really fucked up situation / people don`t believe me when I tell them things that have happened to me. When I started working at an all women's college my life became a border line low rent porno plot. But now I has broken through that glass celling to full blown, award winning porno plot. Tomorrow.......I start......teaching.....a class of.....71......20 year old....Japanese.......nursing students. That is right people..... I have entered the world of full blown porno. But this is not only a mile stone of my life becoming totally fucked up but I can also add this to the list of stuff that I have been paid to do in Japan that I am vastly under qualified for. I have been a college teacher, a kindergarten teacher and soon to be a teacher of nurses. In America to work with children you have to be checked out by the police, have special training, a degree (I am assuming) in childhood education. But in Japan it is just like “you speak English? Great! go into this room with 5 nine year old children and we will leave you alone with them and trust you unconditionally not to do anything wrong.” It is really fucked up and quite frightening. But as to how I got this job teaching nurses I do not know. How I continue to con people into thinking that I am qualified to do this or any of the above mentioned activities I am still unsure, but I have. Maybe I am just an extremely accomplished liar because I am not as smart as people think that I am. So teaching this class of 71 people will be quite interesting. I can`t believe that in high school I was too nervous to give speeches in front of my class and now I am walking in front of 71 Japanese girls and spewing shit off the top of my head and being paid to do it. I feel bad for the students of this class because they are not going to learn anything.
My life here in Kochi thus far has been interesting but I am not totally sure if moving out here was a good move or bad move. At first everything was great but now that it is slowly becoming my day to day reality the magnificence has slightly worn off and I have begun to view my new home as what it is: a small, sea side town, where everyone knows everyone. I feel like this would be a perfect place for a person with a personality opposite to mine. Someone who is outgoing and over the top friendly. I am neither of these things as much as I would like to think I am / hope I could be. I do not regret moving here yet and I am really thankful for having a full time, easy job in this withering economy but my life here would be so much nicer if i could just meet one person who has a personality similar to mine. I have been hanging out mostly with Australian surfers. They are, don`t get me wrong, hands down some of the nicest people I have ever met in my life and will keep inviting me out for drinking, to parties or to their houses to play cards for as long as I live here but as nice as they are I still miss what i refer to as “my real friends” back in Chicago. In Japan most of my friends, with a few exceptions, have really just been friends of connivence. By that I mean we are thrust in the same situation as each other and have formed a bond based only on that one shared experience. This leads to lots of complaining to each other about Japan and thats really about it. I miss the kind of friend who has known me for going on 10 years and knows so much about me that they would see something in a shop or on tv and think that I would like it. I miss the kind of friend who knows so much about me that small talk is not even an option. But my life here in Japan is easy and I get to study and speak Japanese so for the time being I am not going to give up on it. And since I have only been in my new town for two weeks and there are so many people I havn`t met yet that this place could became as much as my home as Kyoto became.
My life here in Kochi thus far has been interesting but I am not totally sure if moving out here was a good move or bad move. At first everything was great but now that it is slowly becoming my day to day reality the magnificence has slightly worn off and I have begun to view my new home as what it is: a small, sea side town, where everyone knows everyone. I feel like this would be a perfect place for a person with a personality opposite to mine. Someone who is outgoing and over the top friendly. I am neither of these things as much as I would like to think I am / hope I could be. I do not regret moving here yet and I am really thankful for having a full time, easy job in this withering economy but my life here would be so much nicer if i could just meet one person who has a personality similar to mine. I have been hanging out mostly with Australian surfers. They are, don`t get me wrong, hands down some of the nicest people I have ever met in my life and will keep inviting me out for drinking, to parties or to their houses to play cards for as long as I live here but as nice as they are I still miss what i refer to as “my real friends” back in Chicago. In Japan most of my friends, with a few exceptions, have really just been friends of connivence. By that I mean we are thrust in the same situation as each other and have formed a bond based only on that one shared experience. This leads to lots of complaining to each other about Japan and thats really about it. I miss the kind of friend who has known me for going on 10 years and knows so much about me that they would see something in a shop or on tv and think that I would like it. I miss the kind of friend who knows so much about me that small talk is not even an option. But my life here in Japan is easy and I get to study and speak Japanese so for the time being I am not going to give up on it. And since I have only been in my new town for two weeks and there are so many people I havn`t met yet that this place could became as much as my home as Kyoto became.
Saturday, April 4, 2009
I have no idea why but it is really difficult for me to talk to people that I am not interested in. I am probably the worst person in the whole world at making small talk. Last night I went to a bar with some co-workers and their friends and being the new guy here I didn`t know very many people. I started talking to some guy and he started telling me about how he plays congo drums and guitar and bass. I was only saying things like "oh cool" and nothing else but this guy would just not stop talking. He then told me that he has a "funky, bluesy, folky rock band." and that "his best song is called "Uncle Sam Don`t Sweat" and that "it is a funky number, because I like to get funky". Now, some people might be able to fake interest in a conversation like that but I just cannot do it. When someone says "my best song is" and then that song has Uncle Sam in the title, you know 100 percent it cannot be good. I think that my inability to sustain conversations like this for a long time makes me look like an asshole and because I am new I want to continue these conversations but I just cannot think of anything to say. The guy also told me things like "my claim to fame is that I can speak Japanese better than anyone else" and "I used to get in fights a lot when i was young but now i can channel my energy into other things like funk and surfing" Who says these things?
I think that the reason I am not very good at this is that when I was in high school I and early college years I never really went to any parties. And if I did go they were parties where i knew everyone and saw everyone every weekend and we were all close. So i was never really put in situations where I had to sustain conversations with strangers for a long time. And my friends and I from high school were so close that I never really had that many friends that were only acquaintances and each time i saw them we had to make small talk. Therefore i am horrible at it.
I guess I have been spoiled with great / close friendships in my life and that I have realized that friendships like that are not easily found. Does anyone know if there is a "how to make small talk and not look like a total asshole" book out there? if so, let me know.
I think that the reason I am not very good at this is that when I was in high school I and early college years I never really went to any parties. And if I did go they were parties where i knew everyone and saw everyone every weekend and we were all close. So i was never really put in situations where I had to sustain conversations with strangers for a long time. And my friends and I from high school were so close that I never really had that many friends that were only acquaintances and each time i saw them we had to make small talk. Therefore i am horrible at it.
I guess I have been spoiled with great / close friendships in my life and that I have realized that friendships like that are not easily found. Does anyone know if there is a "how to make small talk and not look like a total asshole" book out there? if so, let me know.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Last night a group of students taught me how to cook fish because I am tired of eating the same shit day in and day out. So today during one of my breaks I rode my bike to the supermarket and got two huge pieces of yellow tail and two huge tuna steaks for a total of about 9 dollars and cooked them they way the students told me to and let me tell you I AM FUCKING AWESOME AT COOKING. And by that I mean I can now cook rice, pasta, sandwiches (boring ones), grilled cheese and now yellow tail and tuna steaks. At this rate my restaurant will open any time now. Other than the learning of the fact that I am an amazing chef nothing really happened today. The highlight of my working day was teaching a guy who had hair like weird al and was wearing a pink tie and he loved jazz and kept hitting his chest when he would get excited about a jazz musician. He told me that he has 1000 records and about 700 cds but lives alone in a one bed room apartment about the size of an american bathroom. He is also 48 years old and going on a 2 week vacation alone to Ireland. Oh, does anyone know what a doggie bag is called in Ireland? I didnt know and just told him it is called a doggie bag. I hope that doesnt get him killed or something.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Robert Downey Jr.
Today was my first real full day working at my new job. It wasnt so bad. It was actually quite easy but the way the schedule is set up is kinda shitty. I had a class at 1045 (which was amazing and will write about shortly) then my next class was at one, so i went home until one then worked until 5 and then had 3 hours off and taught one more class at 8. So i really only taught about 5 classes but it was spread out for the whole day which is kinda lame. But I still had some study time and I live so close to my work that i was able to come home and lay down for two hours when I had a break.
My first class was this woman who booked a private lesson, which means it is just me and her so she pays extra money and today was her first lesson. So I walked into the room and this conversation happened.
Me: Hello! My name is Evan
Student : I love Robert Downey Jr. (spoken is slow, broken english)
Me: Oh.....
Student: (from here on out she only spoke to me in Japanese, so this is a rough translation.) I am a single mother and I have two children, I want you to write a letter for me to robert downey Jr. )
Me: Uh...okay, we can write one together. (then i walked up to the board and wrote "dear Robert" on it)
Student : no no no. (she handed me her cell phone which was open to a Robert Downey Jr Fan site). Here, he will be able to read it if you send it here. I dont want to write it with you, I will tell you what I want to say and then you type it for me.
Me: (I look at the fan site and it says that this site is not affiliated with RBJ in anyway and that if you send a mail to the site it will not be directed to RBJ. So i tell her this)
Student ; I want to say I have loved you for a long time and I will love you for a long time and that I am a single mother and I want him to take care of us.
Me: Uhhhhhh
Student: You cant do it?
me : I can write the letter for you but he probably wont read it.
student : oh.....
Then she just got up, walked out of the room and quit the school. When she explained why she was quiting the school my boss looked very, very confused and told her that we do not offer creepy robert downey jr fan letter translations at my job. Other than that student the day was pretty normal. I am so tired right now though. My job is to basically talk and not do much else but it is so tiring pretending to be interested in what everyone is saying and trying to make out exactly what they want to say. Woe is me.
My first class was this woman who booked a private lesson, which means it is just me and her so she pays extra money and today was her first lesson. So I walked into the room and this conversation happened.
Me: Hello! My name is Evan
Student : I love Robert Downey Jr. (spoken is slow, broken english)
Me: Oh.....
Student: (from here on out she only spoke to me in Japanese, so this is a rough translation.) I am a single mother and I have two children, I want you to write a letter for me to robert downey Jr. )
Me: Uh...okay, we can write one together. (then i walked up to the board and wrote "dear Robert" on it)
Student : no no no. (she handed me her cell phone which was open to a Robert Downey Jr Fan site). Here, he will be able to read it if you send it here. I dont want to write it with you, I will tell you what I want to say and then you type it for me.
Me: (I look at the fan site and it says that this site is not affiliated with RBJ in anyway and that if you send a mail to the site it will not be directed to RBJ. So i tell her this)
Student ; I want to say I have loved you for a long time and I will love you for a long time and that I am a single mother and I want him to take care of us.
Me: Uhhhhhh
Student: You cant do it?
me : I can write the letter for you but he probably wont read it.
student : oh.....
Then she just got up, walked out of the room and quit the school. When she explained why she was quiting the school my boss looked very, very confused and told her that we do not offer creepy robert downey jr fan letter translations at my job. Other than that student the day was pretty normal. I am so tired right now though. My job is to basically talk and not do much else but it is so tiring pretending to be interested in what everyone is saying and trying to make out exactly what they want to say. Woe is me.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Well I have left Kyoto behind and have settled into my new city. Packing and cleaning up my apartment in Kyoto the morning of moving was somewhat surreal. I still feel like I am just on an extended vacation and will be going back in the next few days. A lot of people I knew in Osaka and Kyoto have been mailing me to check up on me which is nice and makes me realize that the two and a half years I lived there were not wasted. I decided to take a cab to kyoto station cause my suitcases were extremely heavy and I have become a complete out of shape wuss so I took a taxi. The taxi driver did not look too thrilled and actually I think tried to act like his window didn't roll down when i knocked on it to ask him if he could take me to Kyoto station. The bus ride out to my new city was nice. The bus had almost full reclining seats and the highway that we took ran alongside the ocean so it was quite beautiful.
I arrived in Kochi about 3pm and my new boss met me and then took me to my new apartment. Which is about 3 times the size of my apartment in Kyoto and the same price. After I dropped everything off she took me to the school I will be working at so I could watch a few classes because I had to teach a trial lesson two days after I arrived. The lesson I watched was basically a guy saying random words in English to the children and then the children playing uno for an hour. From what I can gather the quality of lessons is not the number 1 priority of this school. After that I just came back to my apartment and started to put everything away and at about 9 pm one of my co workers called me up and invited me out for some drinks so that was really cool of them.
They took me to this one place which is basically a glorified cafeteria at an overnight camp. It is just a bunch of wooden tables and there are about 20 to 30 places to buy food and booze. It seems like the place where the whole town goes to get hammered before they go out drinking. It closes at 11 and is really cheap so I think it will become the place I go before going out for a night out.
Last saturday I went out for an all nighter with a coworker and his friends. He and his friends were probably the nicest people that I have met since I have come to Japan. They love living in Japan and especially this city, they all welcomed me as if I had been their friend for years. The one thing I have noticed about living here for a week is that everyone who lives here seems so unpretentious which is a big change from Osaka. It seems to me that foreigners living in Osaka compete with each other for jobs and attention from girls and people look down on other people who havn`t been living here as long as they have. They also seem to complain a lot more about Japan and things about Japan that they don`t like. But everyone I have met here thus far has been the exact opposite and just seem to really love living here. It is refreshing and has given me new energy.
I still have not really started working my new job yet but if it is at least bearably good I think that I have made the right choice moving out here.
I arrived in Kochi about 3pm and my new boss met me and then took me to my new apartment. Which is about 3 times the size of my apartment in Kyoto and the same price. After I dropped everything off she took me to the school I will be working at so I could watch a few classes because I had to teach a trial lesson two days after I arrived. The lesson I watched was basically a guy saying random words in English to the children and then the children playing uno for an hour. From what I can gather the quality of lessons is not the number 1 priority of this school. After that I just came back to my apartment and started to put everything away and at about 9 pm one of my co workers called me up and invited me out for some drinks so that was really cool of them.
They took me to this one place which is basically a glorified cafeteria at an overnight camp. It is just a bunch of wooden tables and there are about 20 to 30 places to buy food and booze. It seems like the place where the whole town goes to get hammered before they go out drinking. It closes at 11 and is really cheap so I think it will become the place I go before going out for a night out.
Last saturday I went out for an all nighter with a coworker and his friends. He and his friends were probably the nicest people that I have met since I have come to Japan. They love living in Japan and especially this city, they all welcomed me as if I had been their friend for years. The one thing I have noticed about living here for a week is that everyone who lives here seems so unpretentious which is a big change from Osaka. It seems to me that foreigners living in Osaka compete with each other for jobs and attention from girls and people look down on other people who havn`t been living here as long as they have. They also seem to complain a lot more about Japan and things about Japan that they don`t like. But everyone I have met here thus far has been the exact opposite and just seem to really love living here. It is refreshing and has given me new energy.
I still have not really started working my new job yet but if it is at least bearably good I think that I have made the right choice moving out here.
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