August 27, 2007
Here we go with some new picture sets! Someone's been a busy picture-taking bee.
And here are some videos I've been taking. Some are long, some are short, some are boring, some are interesting. See if you can guess which ones are which!
I will only link the text so this page doesn't explode with flash.
Fireworks Festival - Set to music.
Cool Japanese Street Sign - Of the future!
Twisted Firestarters - These guys are serious about lighting stuff on fire.
Geisha Dance Part 1 - Bonus of my friends Jamie and Chris at the end.
Geisha Dance Part 2 - Bonus weird guy playing an imaginary drum!
Drum Line - Pretty badass. (I'll hear no comments on whether or not the situation necessitates an increase in the usage of cowbell.)
Black Box of F***ing Squirrels - Surprisingly not work safe.
So that's pretty much what I've been up to. Hopefully there remains a lot of camera fodder that I can continue to share with you. I'm already "getting used to" a lot of weird stuff, so I have to remember what I haven't posted yet.
All right, off to bed. I've got a tough day of pretending to look busy ahead!
August 25, 2007
The past few days have been tough. Not for me, for the fictional characters I surround myself with.
I feel the need to warn you of Buffy and Harry Potter spoilers ahead, but since I am so painfully behind on these fads, I probably don't need to worry.
I don't remember how I got interested in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." I remember when the movie came out when I was 12, and I felt it was patronizing and lame. And I still don't get the Luke Perry obsession.
Wikipedia tells me that Buffy (the TV show) and Harry Potter both came out in '97, which strikes me as interesting, as it was a pretty important year. I was finishing high school, comfortable enough in my standing as senior, surrounded by friends, almost ready to take on the world of college.
I was also embracing my nerdery, as we seniors realized that "popular" didn't mean "bitchy" and that my true friends were the bulk of the class who were actually nice to each other and confident with sharing our personalities, nerdy though they may be. This was also the year I started to play Final Fantasy 7. *sigh*
So, anyway, it shocks me that I didn't get into Buffy or Harry when they first came out. I remember referring to Buffy as "that show from the movie? with the morons?" without ever having seen it, and I only read Harry Potter some months later when Cousin Jordan sang its praises, and Aunt Becky swore it wasn't just for kids.
I enjoyed the book, but by the time the second book came out, I was probably waist-deep in college work. It soon fell by the wayside in favor of dry schoolwork or things with Calvin and Hobbes-length storylines that I could read in the dorm bathroom. I still never watched Buffy, although I remember a few friends whose senses of humor I admired telling me I should "really give it a try."
I also recall being introduced to Family Guy by Russ Fincke around that time, which I brushed off with "the show with the talking dog? Yeah, maybe later." Come to think of it, I'm pretty much an idiot. And I'm suddenly wondering what other cool thing in the world I'm missing out on because I have to have a sassy comeback to everything...
It wasn't until 2003, when I cracked under the pressure of working at Eat 'N Park and sought refuge in Switzerland for a month, that I was finally reeled into the world of Harry Potter for good. I had run away from a group of unsavory people I no longer wanted to consider my friends, and, yes, maybe fleeing the country was a little extreme. Anyway, despite the adventures I was having, it got pretty lonely. And when the sun goes behind the mountains surrounding you at about 4:00, it's hard to fill the nights up with things other than playing in the sink and making faces at myself in the mirror (both of which I did).
I ventured into the one bookstore in town, and the only books they sold in English were the Harry Potter series. So despite the strength of the Swiss Franc and the fact that I was paying almost 3 times their American price, I bought books 2, 3, 4, and 5.
Suddenly, I was transformed back into the world of a little boy who sometimes felt lonely, questioned his decisions, but ultimately made great friends and overcame evil, and I felt a little stronger for reading it. I have a picture that I took the day I restarted the series in Switzerland, and looking at it still invokes the same feeling of being introduced to an interesting new world. Maybe you know what I'm talking about, or maybe I'm just a weirdo who really gets into books. Either way, it made me happy.
I guess it wasn't until 2005 that I started watching Buffy. I think the delightful Matt Little took me by the shoulders and shook me, saying that he was a nerd and I was a nerd and he knew what was best. When I found out that Brett, the dark, smoky comedian, also had a secret Buffy obsession, I knew I was missing out.
I started TiVoing it and immediately noticed that I couldn't do it this way. It relied on a lot of continuity, and I was watching some episode from, I imagine, season 6, which I still haven't even got to yet. Watching one episode ruined like 4 story twists.
When I finally got to California, I met Julie, my former-Wiccan, sometime empath-clairvoyant, currently divinity-school-student friend, who sold me her entire Buffy/Angel collection to make room for her Star Trek and Dr. Who collection. Gotta love this woman.
The first season was a little slow, and some episodes were cheesier than others, but I was pretty much hooked. Since then, I have shown an amazing ability to pace myself, when all I really want to do is watch the entire Buffy/Angel series in one afternoon.
I am currently in the midst of Season 5, forcing myself to slow down and watch Angel between episodes to stay in the canon's chronology. But watching Angel is sometimes like homework. If I want to watch moody people who live in LA and struggle with the hazards of being 20-something, I'll fly back home. Well, actually, there are slightly less demon attacks in real life. But just as many infuriating lawyers.
So this past week has been especially harrowing. Buffy's mom dies right after Buffy's boyfriend skips the country, and her mortal enemy professes his undying love for her. Sheesh, Joss, twist the knife a little!
Joyce's death episode was something I love seeing in series with a standard formula -- bucking the system and having almost no mystical battles. It just dealt with how people react to death. Willow's agony over which sweater to wear...I had to get more Kleenex about 3 times during that monologue. That sentence sounds absolutely absurd, but you have to see it. It was just so something someone would think about.
I hope Spike and Buffy get it on soon to lighten the mood a bit.
As for Harry, I just finished the series, and I can't really describe my feelings better than was said here. I have been attached to the fictional lives of a group of British kids, and knowing that I'll never hear about their antics again is a little depressing. Dude, I cried at the series finale of Fresh Prince. Although saying that may lose any credibility I previously had, I'm trying to tell you that I get sappy when things end.
Many times during the final chapters, I kept thinking how happy I was at how JK handled herself. She tied up all the strings I was hoping for. I just feel like she did everything right, and it was the perfect and perhaps only way to end it.
And now that I've allowed myself to read things on the internet about the final book, I've learned that many people don't like the epilogue. I don't know what these fans were looking for, and I'm not sure what other way it could have ended that would have been satisfactory.
I had a hunch for a while that Harry was a horcrux and had to die, and of course I was very concerned that JK might choose that route. I understood that she had to do what was planned, but when I read somewhere that Stephen King was pleading with her not to kill him off, I knew there would be a huge backlash if the inevitable happened. Thanks to the media, who love to spoil things, there was 24/7 Harry-Gate Coverage after the book came out. The following morning, I learned that rabid Potter fans had indeed NOT burned JK's house to the ground, so I figured he had stayed alive. Which made me happy.
And I wonder in my heart of hearts if that was her true intention. I hope so, of course, but I keep thinking of that scene in "Stranger Than Fiction" where Emma Thompson (that's Professor Trelawney to you) and Dustin Hoffman talk about how she changed the ending of her book so that Will Ferrell lived.
"It's okay," he says.
"It's not great," she admits.
"No, but it's okay. It's not bad."
He asks why she changed it, and she replies: "It's a book about a man who doesn't know he's about to die, and then dies...But if the man does know he's going to die and dies anyway -- dies willing, knowing he can stop it, then...well, isn't that the type of man you want to keep alive?"
Yes, I just compared my favorite series to a Will Ferrell movie no one even saw, but I kept thinking of it, and Professor Trelawney has a point. Nevertheless, I am very happy with the way things turned out, and it makes me happy to think of an exhausted JK Rowling, finally letting out a deep breath and finally, after 10 years, sitting back and relaxing...on a huge pile of money.
Hopefully I won't be equally torn up when I reach the end of Buffy, because there's always Director's Commentaries to look forward to and, of course, the first season of "Firefly."
But now I'm looking at the other books I brought to Japan with me, and they all seem so cheap, so un-life-changing. Where is Gilderoy Lockhart when I need him to wipe my memory, so I can discover the series for the first time again?
August 19, 2007
Here are some picture sets. I'm constantly uploading more, so expect them as sneaky alternatives to interesting posts.
And here are some samples to tempt your eye buds. (Ew.)
August 16, 2007
I guess it was about September of last year that I decided to apply to the JET Program. I had heard of it, of course, mostly from Gaijin Smash, back when he was Outpost Nine. It's actually on my list of life goals, which I guess I should update a little.
Anyway, even though I had had applying in the back of my mind for almost five years, it was kind of a rushed decision. There had always been something that held me back, whether it be the silly hopes of a relationship doomed to end minutes later, the need to purchase and eventually pay off a car loan, the desire to get out to California before my soul was sucked through the grease trap of Eat 'n' Park. Or sometimes I simply remembered that I wanted to do it at the wrong time -- months before the application due date, or much too close to it to get a decent recommendation.
Somehow, last year, everything lined up, and I was ready to apply. Two problems: selling the idea to Justin, and selling the idea to Melissa. I didn't plan on Justin being a problem, and in fact it was almost insultingly *not* a problem. He agreed that I should apply to leave the country for a year with the same tone most people agree to have the beef burrito over the chicken burrito. Men...
I knew Melissa would be a different story. First, I knew exactly what her argument would be, and I didn't know if I could accurately explain my actions. This was a dream of mine. I wasn't running away from L.A. or trying to avoid doing the footwork involved starting a real career. I wasn't overwhelmed by the city life and looking for an escape. This was something I honestly wanted to do.
I had "done" Europe. I can hold my own in a country where a sign says "La Restaurante" or "Das Doktor" and not worry about what's beyond the threshold. I know all about European customs, and I can blend in well. Hell, a couple times, I've been mistaken for a native German speaker.
I wanted to go to a place where all the signs had squiggles on them, and I would have to flip furiously through my dictionary, trying to put all the puzzle pieces together like a game. And when I deciphered a character, I really felt like I accomplished something...like the chance to eat another meal.
But how do you tell your best friend that you would really like to live thousands of miles away from her for a year? How do you fight for something like that? And what would happen when I was inevitably lonely or I had a bad day and wanted to talk to a friend who always made me feel better? Would she shake her head and say, "I told you you shouldn't have gone" or "I knew this was a rushed decision" or "Way to abandon our friendship for a year for something that didn't turn out the way you'd planned"?
As I read this over, it sounds really narcissistic -- worrying about depriving my friend of my charismatic presence. But as a true friend, Melissa knew exactly how I was feeling, and that my concerns were legitimate. She made sure I was going for the right reasons and gave me her blessing. In that between-friends scrunched-up-mouth way that made sure I understood that if I flipped out and decided to live the rest of my life in Japan and never came back, she would personally learn the ways of the samurai just to be able to fly over here and kick my ass back to the States.
Meanwhile, Justin munched on his burrito and told me to have a good time.
I guess that was all the support I needed. Now, it was off to fill out the application.
August 08, 2007
"Dear Everybody,
A hamburger eaten when you're alone isn't very tasty. But when you're feeling energetic, with a smile on your face, and in love...that's when the hamburgers really taste delicious.
Thank you.
Dear Everybody,
To find a shop which serves the best hamburgers in town isn't too difficult. What's really difficult, and more important, in my opinion, is to find a true friend who's always happy to eat with you.
Thank you."
That is the mysterious message written on the glass I'm using to drink water, and although it's sort of the truth, it leaves some unanswered questions.
How can you eat a hamburger with a smile on your face? Does the manager of this establishment insinuate he will be your true friend, or does he just hope you find one and bring them in with you?
And I assume it's an establishment that made the glass, but I don't see a name anywhere. Maybe the glass company just wants people to enjoy hamburgers.
So many questions. Such is Japan.
I've been avoiding writing ever since I stepped off the plane, because I already had so much to write, I dreaded sitting down and tying my experiences together with a compositional beginning, middle, and end, where everyone learns a life lesson, and you are a better person for having read it.
Well, I guess I can't do all that, so I should just come out and tell you that last night, I had fried octopus balls. Well, if the person I described it to is not a liar, what I mean is parts of octopus scooped into a ball shape, not the reproductive organs of an octopus.
Still, though. I have to admit I felt a little nauseous after I found out what it was. And, yes, I realize that's ridiculous. I also ate eel happily on the plane ride over, thinking it was tofu, and when my friend Nancy informed me what it was three days later, yeah, I felt a little loopy.
Then today I stopped by a Denny's, which is so unlike any Denny's you could imagine, and I had a Cobb Salad with a side of fries (cue theme song: "Proud to Be an American"). The fries came out with a strange pink sauce that, um, had tiny pink spheres in it. I started chowing down on it, thinking it tasted a little like mayonnaise, when it occurred to me that the tiny spheres may be fish eggs. I guess there was a hint of fishy.
I asked the waitress in broken Japanese, and she spelled out what I later looked up to be "taste of cod sauce." Now...is it taste of cod because it IS cod? Or is it like tartar sauce that you're supposed to taste WITH cod? And fries, for some reason?
Once again, the food actually didn't taste too bad until I thought of what it might be.
Well, I'll continue to embark on my culinary exploration of Japan (read: I am going to Ma-ku-don-a-ra-du's tomorrow), and I'll be sure to update soon with real happenings.
I'd also like to recount my application process, since it started nearly a year ago, and I just got here now.
So, yes, things to come! Let's enjoy!