Traveling 旅行している

Well, Just another day isnt happening anymore. I am off in Hiroshima now after having a lot of fun in Fukuyama since last Wednesday, but more on that later.
Ouji and I spent our first night in Hiroshima in a comfort inn hotel. Waking up we had the free breakfast that was at the hotel. A japanese/western mix food style. There was onigiri(salmon and conbu), inarizushi, bread, toast, cereal(real cornflakes!), salad, fruit salad, etc. I mostly stuck to onigiri with salmon in it because I thought the protein would allow it to stick in my stomach a little longer.
Polishing off breakfast and following our check out we went and sat in Starbucks for almost three hours. We sat their for an unusual amount of time because we were awaiting responses from the people we could hang out with today. After a bit we were able to confirm a meeting with Eri and Aki from 2 years ago. With that Ouji and I dropped our luggage off and perused Hiroshimas parco(A 8 story mall, that is mainly clothes) after acquiring a map.
After a while we met up with them and went to a place called Marina Hop, which is kind of like an outdoor mall. There we did some shopping and ended up going to Sega World and playing games together. Note: I found SNAPPLE!
From there we went with them to Diamond City which is more like a mall than a city. There we had Hiroshima style Okonomiyaki and a custard like ice cream. Maybe, I shouldnt have eaten it but the guy who was selling it was really entertaining. He takes the ice cream and puts it on a stick like thing that and uses that to put your ice cream on the cone he has you hold. The custard sticks so well that he flips the cone out of your hand and flips it around as you try and retrieve it. TORUKO/Turk ice cream supposedly.
Oh, I forget to point out that Hidemi also joined us when we ate. However while we were eating the ice cream Yuri and Ayako joined us about when we said farewell to the others. Yuri and Ayako took us to do karaoke but along the way we stopped at a gas station and convenience store. The interesting thing was that the Gas Station had a convenience store attached. Okay, for those of you that dont know this is actually impossibly rare in Japan. It is the first I have seen since coming.
Now, I find myself watching Brave Story while I post this blog. I am in a Manga kissaten for the night. Laters

Cicada 蝉 せみ？

I have an official statement to make: Cicadas can be deadly... no, they won't bite, sting, spit or otherwise do such thinks as pick your eyes out. They will however simply terrify the daylights out of you at three in the morning before your daylights have even come for the day. A situation that could potentially result in a heart attack, if not only a adrenaline induced insomnia. As if their normal buzzing wasn't bad enough, I had made to venture from the lobby back to my dorm room for what I can't remember. Thankfully, I wasn't carrying anything. In the dead silence of night I made my way up the first flight of stairs but was stopped by the sight of something on the top step. At first glance, I recognized it. Of late, I have seen many lying on the sides of the street completetly inactive. The live ones stay safe in their glades and attempt to simply make your ears fall off. I digress however, before me there was a cicade lying much like dog that had been asked to play dead with its legs pointedly in the air. "Well, I suppose I should toss it out the window to save the body from being crushed by some oblivious sleepwalker," I reasoned as I imagined with a grimace the carcass before me going "squish." You see, I traverse the halls barefoot, so this was not in the least a pleasant thought for myself. I completed my journey to the top step, and stretched out my right hand. I made to pick it up and as if in reaction to the warmful presence in its vicinity the legs sprang to life and flailed helplessly at the air. What happened next caught me completely off guard, as I saw a flurry of brown movement which I can only surmise to have been that of the wings. In the shock and the loud blast of sound that was similar to a electric current with a slight cold, I am not sure what exactly happened. I had blinked, and in that instant had found myself at the base of the stairs on guard with the previously thought dead body nowhere in sight. I searched my surroundings. The couple unihabited webs on the ceiling were still in place, the spider the size of a pringles cap was still in his resting place in the upper corner, and the floor was as usual, clean. I set back along my course up the stairs, eyes alert, hands ready, and body quite in shock. It wasn't visible on the open window's sill, there wasn't anything resting on the stairs going further up, and the laundry room before me only had the dead beetle resting on the floor that had been there earlier when I did my laundry. I relaxed my guard a little and returned to my room in hopes doing so would stir forth memories of my original errand. However, I had not yet quite forgetten the cicada.
fin.

Youtube Phase 3 中間圏 Mesosphere

Last phase for now.
とりあえず最後

Whiteberry - Natsumatsuri

I've now heard this song almost everytime I have done karaoke with a group mainly comprised of Japanese. The title means Summer Festival and the words pertain to that.
夏祭り。。。　よくカラオケで出ている。

King Gidra (キングギドラ)　- Unstoppable

Thanks to Kazu for singing this at Karaoke. This is one of the first Hip hop/rap songs that I have heard in Japanese that rocks.
かず！この歌を歌ってくれて　ありがとう！！　初めてそういう最高なラップな歌を日本語で聴いた。

Sakura (cherry blossoms!)

Another Sakura entitled song... Japan must have a hundred or so with that title.
桜という名前が付けた歌。。多すぎる！　

God's Child

Only the song is important, the song was used as the opening song for a japanese drama called Trick. The song rocks.
トリックというドラマの歌だった。　

Pachelbel rant

... it's got spanish subtitles!!! Sorry can't find the Japanese subbed one, but the subtitles help you identify the songs later on in it.
ごめんね、日本語の字幕がない。。あるわけじゃいないね。　それなのにつけたスペイン語の字幕はビデオの中の歌の名を明らかにするから選んだ。

The evolution of dance ()
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMH0bHeiRNg

a classic...
懐かしいじゃないかなー？

Crazy, ninja-like gymnast
http://youtube.com/watch?v=z34JYwNGFtw&mode=related&search=

umm.. wow. I wanna be able to do that too.
。。。すげ。　やりたいけど。。。

Youtube Phase 2 成層圏 Stratosphere

Phase 2

There are too many videos so it might take loading time:
ビデオは多すぎるかもしれないからロード時間がかかる。。

Swedish Chef, the remix...

Random muppets clip, ne?
日本人はマペットを知らないね？

Chrono Trigger Resurrection

This is for anyone who plays video games, some no name group took a classic RPG game and change it into 3-d. Regrettably due to copyright issues it was cancelled but this video remains.
クロノトリッガーは三次元にしたらこういう風になると思うが著作権の問題があってこれを作ったグループやめた。

Fata morgana (what's that mean???)

Really strange... or so I thought until I saw their other video:
変だとおもうね、このグループのほかのビデオを見よう。。

Ding Dong also by EAV

Both videos are really strange. I'm not sure if this one is the best for the young... Weasels?
やっぱり面白い

Gym Class Heroes - cupid's chokehold (Re-interpreted)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_x0I4YEYdyE

Remake of the original..
原作じゃないけど　原作より歌の意味に合う。

Gym Class Heroes - cupid's chokehold original

It's a very negative interpretation of the song in this one, but the first makes it seem cool. Random note, the actual singer of this song likes to brush his teeth in his videos...
歯ブラシが好きな歌手だよ。　次のはそれをもっと示している。

Gym Class Heroes - The queen and I

A song about over drinking, sorta. Note, the toothbrush.
飲みすぎについて歌。　　だけど　歯ブラシ

That's all
とりあえず以上

Youtube Phase 1 対流圏 troposphere

A selection of videos from my bookmarks:
面白いビデオ、ぜひみてください！　
(note: learned how to embed them, so if you have the free time you can watch them all, without leaving here. ここで見られる！

DBZ live action?

Someone doing a Live action version of Dragonball Z. . . funny/a little amazing
ドラゴンボールゼットみたいね？　　実は作った人はドラゴンボールで使われた音響効果

Agar Main kahoon.... (If I were to say ... )

Umm, yeah it's in Hindi, but I think if you watch the typical bollywood exaggerated expressions you can get the jist. (I looked up the lyrics...however.)
ヒンディー語だけど　基本的に見たら意味が分かると思うけど。。　僕だったら歌詞を見た。　

Eli re eli from the movie Yaadein (memories)
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=LLsecMB75p0&mode=related&search=

While, we are doing bollywood stuff, I thought to throw this one in, also. It's funny. The lyrics have no special relation to the song unless you know the movie's plot.
今度歌詞は分からなくていいけどちょっと悲しいね？

Coca Cola? no no, this is a movie clip.

Also from the same movie, but... the only thing noteworthy, at least from my perspective, is the obvious coca-cola placement.
コカコラー？　見たでしょう、派手に置いたな。

Reply to "Gullible is not in the dictionary"

You are suceptible to something else ... RICK ROCK! err... Just watch the first minute, that's all that is funny. However, if you want to watch the video, go ahead... I guess.
最初の一分だけは面白いよ。　それ以外は。。。えっと英語が分からないと冗談がわからないとおもうけど。

Guild Wars Dance video. Techno.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCepqvZDiQw&mode=related&search=

An example of what all those video gamers do in their free time... while playing games. wait... and they are not american either! .. that's german at the end, I think.
暇なゲーム屋達。。ドイツ人だし。　すげー。

Bilingual... umm octolingual? 　or not

Be warned this video is really annoying... English, Japanese, Portuguese?, German, Chinese, Italian?, Spanish, french... ooh, I just realized the video tells you which version is which... not bad at guessing am I?
言語は八つである　日本語の発音は悪かったね？

That's all for this bout.　
とりあえず以上だ。

Still not interesting? まだ面白くない？

Sorry guys, Schools out! Well, it has technically been out for about a week now but that hardly means I am doing anything intelligent. I've decided to kind of take one week and just avoid doing any actual studying or anything. Although playing Final Fantasy 9, and Myst/Riven in Japanese... (beat myst and am actually working on Riven.. used guides to beat myst because the kanji were all small and fuzzy. riven's better in that aspect.) Yeah going back to the subject, all I want to say is that playing games in Japanese some how works it self into being some sort of studying.

As for some other stuff that I have been up to, I read through the 5th, 6th and final Harry Potter books over last week. It all started with a desire to see the 5th movie because Ouji kept talking about it. Before seeing a movie, my personal rule dictates that I have to read the book that is associated with a movie if there is one. Of course, this means I acquired the 5th book and read through it. Well, one thing leads to another, and since Nick offered to loan me the last book once he finished reading it, I ended up buying and reading the 6th also. When all is said and done, despite having read all of the books, I still won't see the 5th movie until I get back to America. Mainly because it will cost me about 10 dollars to see it here.

To be honest, I used to be someone who thought that Harry Potter was likely something evil. As a result of that line of thought, I at first read the books just to give it a fair look over. Currently, I am quite in the midst of rethinking that stance. However, I will say one thing and that is; I still don't agree that the revolving theme in the books, that of death, is dealt with in a way appropriate for children. Nor are the books written with enough difficulty to merit an adult's attention. The books simply land in categorical limbo for me.

On the other hand, while I was reading the books I grew curious as to what it means to be a writer. As a result of this line of thought, I have spent a lot of time in front of my computer writing random descriptions, weaving plots and trying to create convincing characters. The problem is... I am enjoying it.. but haven't made anything I really like. It's fun, and it makes me want to read all sorts of things.

That's all for this update.