弱肉強食 Survival of the Fittest

Another week goes by and I don’t post anything.

また一週間が経ってポストが無かった。

Well, Let’s see. In a nutshell:

1^st survived Graduation week.

Events: Oikon. Field day games. Congratulating seniors after their graduation ceremony. A party for my Tutor on Friday.

2^nd Survived a Trip. A Seishun(spring) 18 ticket trip.

Events: noted below but I saw Osaka. Slept at an internet café. Met up and hung with the Hayashibara’s for a day, and ended up staying one night there. (Thanks!!) Hung out with Kishi in Hiroshima, saw Miyajima and Hiroshima Castle, went to a Japanese-Irish bar called Molly Malones(Yeah, had guiness). Crashed at Kishis (thanks man!!) for 2 days. Did Karaoke with Emi and Kishi one night. Bowled with Emi, Ayumi, and Tomoko. Then trekked from Hiroshima to Osaka where I stayed at the same internet café again. The next day I spent the morning touring Kyoto, alone. Kinda boring, makes you appreciate friends. Kyoto=Temples, a Kyoto Tower and a really tall (twelve stories) train station with an awesome view! Returns home the same day Ouji returned from America.

3^rd Surviving the Aftermath of a trip (laundry, lack of food reserves etc.)

Events: Laundry, groceries, bank, cleaning my room, giving souvenirs out. Seeing Hanami (cherry blossom viewing) Sunpu park’s Sakura trees are really beautiful.

4^th Preparing to Survive the Start of School.

Events: Lots of listening practice and grammar to be studied before that placement test.

OSAKA 大阪

Hey! Guess where I am? I am in a internet cafe in osaka! Yesterday I hung out with Nana and saw Osaka Castle and a whole bunch of random Osaka places. It was a lot fun. Well, that is all for now. Laters

旗印・義旗 Banner

Oicon = REALLY long party for graduates. A Graduation party.

Or in my case, the party for the 16(possibly 17) seniors, or sempai’s for the karate group I joined.

Well, I was late actually in attending the entire thing, but it was a blast. They started at 12:30 in the aftertoon with a kind of exercise and sports team based olympics. I arrived late (about 1:30pm or so) , just in time to watch the last half of the teams do a 5 person three legged time race thing. It was funny.

I then joined Team mini for the next two games which were “umm” and volleyball. “Umm” was a kind of relay race using pocky and a rubber band. You have the pocky in your mouth and after running back and forth across the room you try and pass off the rubbber band to the next person’s mouth held pocky. Yeah… you can imagine the chaos.

Yeah, volleyball. You know this game, but have you played it with a rubber ball about 20 inches in diameter? Well, how about in a room with a twenty foot high roof? No? Well, in addition to that our net was about 6-7 feet up in the air so a lot of the tactics we used involved the ceiling... it was funny. One of the guys said that I was the “katsuyakusha” of everyone. In other words, I was very active. However, I don’t know whether it was a compliment or if I was being a detriment to “team play.” I tend to focus on simple tactics, Get the ball on to the otherside. The theory is that the other team will defeat themselves. . . . no comment.

Okay… following all that we tallied the scores and my team ended up last. . . most spirited or something like that.

6:30 Purikura with Mini group as a batsu game momento.

7:00 Izakaya number one.　　Drinks lots of Ginger ale

9:00 heads to the next one and waits there until 45 after.

Ikki, songs, craziness. HELP I can’t speak english moments.

11:30 or so in the evening Karaoke

6:00am karaoke ends

7.00 am I attempt to crash and fail.

Studys all day and then sleeps all night.

The next day: Thursday,

Graduation ceremony was unsucessfully attended because that wasn’t the goal of my group. We stayed outside and greeted our Seniors(senpais). All of us decked in our karate uniforms, with the exception of me and a couple of the girls who decided to wear suits. I failed to have the foresight to retrieve mine from the dojo at school, a 30 minute bike away. Oh well, suits are cool.

Afterwards we went to a restaurant without our seniors who were stuck with their respective colleges(gakubu). It was interesting because they were playing Last Samurai on the TV there. They started talking about history so it was interesting. It’s hard to explain.. they kind of likened me to Tom Cruise’s situation. You know foreigner among japanese… that’s where the likeness ends I guess.

After that I toured Parco( the new Parco) that arrived in Shizuoka. It’s a really big really trendy and expensive 7 or 8 story mall like thing. I toured with two of my friends from Karate. We went to the top and checked a music place out and then went back down and left, it was too crowded anyway.

That’s all.

Short note on Nimanendou a (glasses place). I went and got my a glasses cloth there and the service was really good. They even cleaned my glasses. Actually it wasn’t the service, the products or much of anything. I finally didn’y get the strange “It’s a foreigner” looks while I was speaking. Phew, maybe I can actually speak japanese.

Later’s all

ごめんね、　翻訳する時間がなくなちゃった。　土曜日から旅行するので。
またね

桜海老 Cherry blossom Shrimp

Here it is St. Patricks day. In America that is. Never been one to celebrate things at the right time, I spent all Saturday morning and afternoon volunteering. Then in the evening Nick made Pizza and we had party. Now, here it is near midnight and while I could go out and celebrate it with a guiness at a local foreigners bar. I would have to go alone. Then I thought about it and realized, I think I celebrated it in the best way possible. I spent the time with friends.

My morning activities consisted of joining up with Kousuke (ko-skay) and participating in a cooking activity that was entirely done in English. I think I had the most trouble just speaking enlgish… Japanese just kept coming out. I think it was because I could more easily communicate with them in Japanese than English… although they really could understand a lot of English the answers were a little slow in coming. Although, its funny, if I am going to say anything in any language, I try and make it come out fast. I go slow if I am reading something, repeat a memorized phrase or something like that but if I am actually talking, both Japanese and English come out fast.

Back to the topic. We cooked a Tempura (breading and fried) dish special to Shizuoka. It had Sakura shrimp in it. (sakura btw is Cherry blossoms, but to me Cherry blossom shrimp sounds funny) They are really tiny shrimp special to Shizuoka. Shizuoka bay and a place in Taiwan are the only places in the world these shrimp exist so they are quite expensive.

My group cooked our mixture of sweet potatoe, scallions, batter, and shrimp, but we couldn’t get it to stay in globs. It kept separating. It was kind of amusing. However the product in the end tasted more like potatoe than shrimp. All in all though it was a lot of fun.

After that (litterally.. .. only a 5 minute gap) I rushed back to the kaikan(dorms) and led our “Take over the world” club for 2 hours. We mostly talked about random stuff. It was awesome, as usual. Plus we had a new recruit today.

Okay following all that I had a short break in the afternoon where I began to study a little and then decided to get up and do something. So I went downtown and did a little book shopping. I need to not do that anymore. Books cost money. However I bought three books and am threatening a fourth. Before anyone panics, it’s not like I am buying useless books. Rather the problem is they are excellent study materials that I do not have enough time to go through in a month.

I bought the Kanji test step book for test level 4( on a scale of 1-10, 10 being the easiest), nevermind that I am still in book six.

I also bought a book of Listening problem questions for the Japanese language proficiency test that had 4 CD’s attached.

Also, as a totally extra thing, I bought a korean book complete with 2 CD’s for proper listening and mainly phrases and key usage notes.

The fourth book I am threatening is the Bible. I want some light reading, but I decided to pass for now and ask at my church if they have a copy I could buy from them. I do not want an English alongside Japanese translated version( it’s too bulky). Actually I want one that has furigana (characters that allow me to understand readings) attached and has a soft binding. Oh, and it is key that it has the proper canon, none of this Apocrypha removed thing. As if it was an Apocrypha to begin with… hmph. Well, I will ask tommorrow after Church an maybe get a copy. (side note: Asked but well, they only had a really big copy(4inches thick!), but they said will get in a smaller one so that I can have a copy. It was pretty interesting.)

Okay, Shocked people behind the counter. When I went to buy the books my mere presence seemed to terrify the two girls behind the counter. Oh well.

Saturday Pizza party, Nick made pizza, we ate pizza. FUN!

Sunday: My Karate group hung out with kids!! We apparently appeared on TV! We also made it very fun for them having to karate drills.

Digging a hole.. needs picture.. I am attempting to grow something, mostly spurred on by Nam jun who is growing lettuce. The problem is the back is soooo rocky!! When digging I seriously find more rock than dirt. I found a rock the size of hmm… well about the size of 2 softballs put together. It’s one of the ones in the picture..

Later!

日本語の部分！

土曜日の日曜日は凄く忙しかったけど楽しかった！　

土曜日の朝ESSと一緒に英会話の料理パーティをした。　作った食べ物は静岡の特別の食べ物。　　桜海老天ぷらを作った！　僕のグループはジャガイモをちょっと使いすぎたけど　美味しかった。　　

その後　会館に戻った。　会話クラブを司会した。　　一時間は英語、つぎの一時間は日本語。　　めちゃ楽しい！

晩では　ニックはピザを作ったから　皆と一緒にピザパーティをした。　当然抱けど　みなは　ピザを食べた。　：）　　

昼では　本を三冊買った。　漢字試験四級の本「まだ六級をやっているから買っておくだけ」。　日本語能力試験の読解の本を買った、CD四枚が付けたから　詳しく聞き取る練習をする事が出来る。　最後のは　한국말「韓国言葉」の本を買ってしまった。。　CD二枚が付けたので発音の練習しようと思う。。。

最後の面白いことは僕は　会館の外でちょっと何かを植えてみているけど最初に土を掘っているけど　石ばかりを見つけている。　でも　あきらめたくないので　まだ掘っているけど。。　できるか。　　実はスイカを植えてみたいけど。。　まあ　出来ないところ　出来るようにする。

またね！

No reason なんとなくー

Tuesday this week The vice chancellor came, so we went to school and had a small luncheon with them, which was very enlightening for me. Being able to talk with someone who really doesn’t know about Japan allows me to understand once again that I am actually learning a lot about this culture I am in.

ごめん。。。今日訳しなかった。。　まあ。。そんな面白くなかったけど。。。

Okay, that might sound kind of harsh now that I look at it, but it was really fun getting to meet people in the same intercultural / international world as me. That and the food was good. We had sushi, sandwiches and stuff. It was really good. Wait, I already said that…

Okay the other thing is that I joined Nick and went to a get together that a friend named kousuke invited us too. It was really interesting. They made some form of pizza with corn and pineapple on it and one with bacon and some other stuff. They were really good but still very unusual.

After eating and such we went up to the third floor where Nick and I played table tennis with some of the group while the rest of the group went off to the side and played cards.

Wow… let’s see. Umm… I ate food. Drank water… went food shopping. Slept.... LATER!

えっと。。あのう。。　食べ物を食った。　水を飲んだ。。。　食べ物を買い物をしに行った。。　寝た。。。　

また！

差別 Discrimination 遊園地 Amusement Parks

As the two titles suggest today is a double whammy. However the two topics are not connected.今日のトピックは二つだね。 でも　そのふたつは関係がない。

Okay, Discrimination “lovely title”, but no seriously. How do you tell if you are discriminating or not? It is obviously not so simple as someone pointing out differences. Like Bob’s Hair is green but Joe’s hair is red. There really isn’t anything wrong with something like a difference. However, I think it would be a little different if there were thoughts and prejudices associated with that difference assessment. Something like: Bob’s hair is green, so he is a good gardener and can only communicate with plants. There is then an assumption based in what was said. If we look it up in my dictionary

Discrimination is “The practice of treating somebody or a particular group in society less fairly than others.”

はい、はい。　差別　楽しいトピックではないですね、でも僕はほんきですよ。　誰かは差別をするかどうかが分かり方は何ですか？　差別は違う点を対しているだけじゃないですね。　例えば田中の髪は緑なんですけど山田は赤毛です。　そんな事は違わないですね。　でも違うのは　田中の髪は緑だから野菜を植えるのは上手および野菜だけが理解できます。　

辞書で調べたら差別は　「ある基準に基づいて、差をつけて区別すること。扱いに違いをつけること。また、その違い」

Okay. Why even bring this up.

オケー。　どうしてこのトピック

Nearly a week ago now on Sunday, I played sports with a large group of people from two of the Colleges here. I was the only American in the group and everyone else was either Japanese or exchange students.

一週間前の日曜日僕は学校へ行って二つの学校から来た人達とバレーをしました。僕は一人のアメリカ人でした。　たにんは日本人か留学生でした。

In America, since I was little whenever we played sports, we split the teams by a choice system to avoid discriminating. Like we choose leaders and then have them choose players one by one based on whatever. Some people get picked last and is that because they are being discriminated against? I don’t know. However, with the group I played with Sunday we first split up by gender and then numbered off or used rock-paper-scissors to split into teams. Always first was gender. For some reason that bothered me. Mostly because if we did that in America the girls would have killed us(figuratively speaking.) Also, the conversational emphasis was on whether there was an even number of guys and not whether the same was for the women or not. It’s an obvious implication someone thinks “Women are weak,” whether they really do or not. I don’t know how to react to that because if it happens in America someone vocalizes their thoughts and shuts down the person who started it. Here, everyone went with it like it was perfectly normal.

チームを選ぶ前に皆は性で分かれました。　毎度　この事が起こりました。　アメリカでだったら皆はその事を始まった責任を持つ人にはチャンと叱りました。　性の区別をしたら　アメリカでは女性達は怒りますけど　日本では大丈夫だそうです。　　怖いと思いますけど　起こったら　僕はどうするかどうかが分からないので混乱してきました。　

Well enough on that. Amusement parks. Why Amusement parks? Because I went to one yesterday. A place called Fujikyuu Highland. I went with a group of 5 other people. We were only at the park about 5 hours and only got to ride 5 times. Just right, once per hour. The rides we rode were “fujikyuu (79meters tall, top speed 137km),” “do-don-pa(top speed 179km),” and “eejanaika.” The last one was the most fun. You strap into these highly restraining seats which were able to spin as though they were the wheels on a car. Then you go through the ride, backwards. It was awesome. While I could regale you with the details of the rides further, I actually have a cultural observation for this.

Okay, in America you go to a theme park and you either get a wrist band or entrance into the park itself acts as your all day ride pass. Here in Japan it’s a little different. We first paid and got a ticket, then when we got to the park we put that ticket in this little machine. The machine took our picture and put it on a personal ticket. It was cool. (Still have the ticket.) Now, everytime before you rode a ride you had to show this pass.

Which brings me to another thing. The ride staff is very Japanesized. They apologize everytime they invade your personal space and check the buckles. They clap once the ride starts and when you return. Some of them even do “Hi-fives” as the ride starts. Also, as is typical in a customer-staff relationship they use only polite forms.

While all the rest of that stuff is cool, this next thing is the one thing I would rather never have to endure again: subliminal brainwashing. Each of the rides we rode except the Fujikyuu had a themesong, or rather a recording. This recording consisted of just the rides name repeated on into eternity. For the first few minutes it’s kind of nice but when you have to hear “Do-don-pa” for about an hour straight, it’s annoying. I am not sure of the intended result but I won’t ever be able to forgot those rides names ever again in my life. Which is just wrong.

富士急ハイランドへ行きました！！！　それだけで十分かなー？　ほかの事は遊園地のことについて

Okay.. next I have some other news: I would like to thank Becca for sending me another hand drawn picture!! J It’s awesome!

Also I want to thank my aunt for all the correspondance that I have been sent. Thanks!

最後のはベッカはもう一つの絵を送ったので　ありがとうを伝えました。

Later, 언녕,またね, Adios, Arrivederci, Au revoir, Tschu:s, that all?

Randomness 混雑？

Why do I forget to write anything for you guys??

どうして皆の為に最近何も書いてないかな。。。？？

Well, to start with. I decided now (Midnight Friday) that Japanese parks lack the ever important Squirrel infestation. Why is that anywhere you look you can see Crows but squirrels are really rare. In reality the number of times I have seen squirrels here is zero. So, in order for world peace to be secure Japan needs a massive importation of squirrels.

最初に　今決まった（金曜日深夜）日本の公園にはリスがうじゃうじゃいることは必要だ。　どうして日本でどこでも見てカラスが見えるけど　リスは凄く珍しい？？？ 現にまだ日本でリスをみたことはなし。 だから世界の平和の為に日本に過度なリスを輸入しなきゃならない。

Ahora decidio (viernes) parques de japon los many cuerpos animales y furriouses tails?…. Oh whatever… I don’t remember spanish apparently. No puedo remembrarse espanol… ?que? how do you even do that extra question mark thingy again..

안녕하세요 anyeonghaseyo. HELLO!!! … umm Self introduction? Yeah I can say My name is ed. 저는 앧 입니다.. err… cheonun ed ipnida. That’s the extent of my korean. Let’s see what else can I do

The walls are white. They are really white. The white is closing in…. AH!!! I need to get out of the kaikan more often!!!! This whole studying thing…. Yeesh. Umm actually I have been getting a lot done right now, but this whole spring break thing is giving me a good reason to do some more traveling. So, I think I will.

Umm.. the only other thing besides study and preparatory things is .. umm. Monday was interesting. I started korean lessons, taught by a fellow exchange student who happens to be from Korea. I am taking the class with two other exchange students, one from Thailand and one from Poland. It’s interesting being taught a language from the context of a language other than that which is native to me. Yes, I am learning it through Japanese… when in “class” so to speak. Any other time I am just using the internet. Also, BTW, I am only studying it for about 15-30min a day… so it’s not like I have forgotten Japanese.

Following the korean lesson we had a “Valentine’s day” discussion group set up by some Japanese people we know. It was interesting. I learned two new words B専 and 姉系. The first is a shortened form of baka major, meaning it contains the meaning “are you so stupid your major is idiocy?” The other one I can’t clearly define because it doesn’t show up in any dictionary. Sorry.

After that I invited whoever from the group wanted to stay to watch a movie in the lobby. We watched Daisy. For me the…. Not saying… th time.

And after that I went out for supper at a nearby place with ujun, nam jun, and marta. We amused ourselves with the hole in the middle of the table and it’s covering by making it look like it was “magically” floating.

Umm yeah that’s all.