絶望した！靴下は絶望した！

More Christmas pictures will be forthcoming, but just a funny little post for the interim. I have mysteriously been losing socks over the course of the last couple months, and I have now discovered that they have been accumulating under the washing machine in the house. The prodigal sock returneth.

絶望した！クリスマスの写真は絶望した！

Here are Christmas pics - more to follow.

My lovely housemates, Clio and Elena.

Elena with a present.

Clio eating pancakes - she made both the pancakes and the strawberry syrup.

Christmas luncheon at our Pastor's house - turkey, potatoes, all the goodies and a great time for all. There must have been at least 100 people there.

Omotesando Boulevard, where my church is - all lit up and pretty.

Our Christmas spread and tree at the house, with our funky little crooked calendar in the background.

絶望した！寒い天気は絶望した！

In the spirit of my having completed my Japanese Literature course, I will write this blog post in the style of the Tsurezuregusa (Essays in Idleness) - nothing more than a collection of free-floating thoughts.

Now then...

1.) Even without snow, Tokyo can get REALLY cold - especially in the morning. Tomorrow's high is supposedly going to be 45 degrees, and we got down to 36 or 37 this morning. I'm still working out how to make my room retain heat - it's not a hermetically sealed facility like some of the ones I'm used to.

2.) My courseload has lightened a bit due to the fact that some of my profs had to get to their home schools for the Spring semester. Now I've only got four subjects to manage, and yet it is still very busy for me.

3.) I really want it to be Winter Break - just two more days...

4.) I have a new friend - a cute little NEC netbook I've nicknamed Sanosuke. I needed to get something with a Japanese version of the Windows OS on it, and buying this netbook was actually cheaper than putting a Japanese version of Windows onto my MacBook to replace my current copy of Vista. Software over here is insanely expensive. The most basic version of Windows 7 (the only software you can get over here anymore) costs approximately $300 dollars - 26,000 yen to be precise. On the other hand, I got a great deal on this little devil with Windows XP (the last Windows system I trust). It also provided a good long-term solution for my issues with CD/DVD region blocking - I bought a plug-and-play CD drive at the same place - it works great. This is especially important considering the fact that the drive in my MacBook has been behaving badly and not burning CDs.

5.) I wish I had known that Downy was just a fabric softener three months ago. Now I need to start buying actual detergent...

6.) I went back to Costco with my dear friend Dana, and I have now rediscovered my love of Stagg chili, Riesen caramels, and big, inflatable lounge furniture priced at $20 for a chair and ottoman set. I also bought a 5 kg box of mikan (clementine oranges). I carried everything home to save 1000 yen on shipping fees. Painful, but worth it - yay for lessons of frugality.

7.) We had three earthquakes two days ago. Nothing to panic about - they were actually kind of fun. I was sitting in my aforementioned inflatable lounger when the first one hit, and I thought my lounger had some secret massage-chair technology in it.

8.) My nengajou (new year's cards) are all set for posting. Be watching your mailboxes!

9.) My application for transfer from the JLP to the KIP for next semester is ready to go. Goodbye to having to wake up at 7 AM 3 days a week to commute for an hour, goodbye to classes on Saturday, hello manageable working schedule!

10) Don't worry about me being alone and/or lonely for Christmas or New Year's. I'm singing two services with the choir at church on Christmas Eve (including a duet solo on our jazzed-up Silent Night), I'm having lunch at our pastor's house on Christmas Day, and I'm celebrating with our choir president's family (both her and her husband also happen to be Keio professors - small world) on New Year's Day - doing a very traditional New Year's Celebration with them. I'll kick off the year of the tiger with my housemates by going over to Gokokuji temple (just across the street - yay convenience) and participating in the festivities there - including the 108 chimes. Good times!

11.) I've been receiving some lovely care packages from home - all of the classic Christmas delicacies have found their way to our happy home and have helped us spice up the season. You have our thanks!

12.) I have my first class this next Saturday, subbing for another Kick instructor. I've got a couple of special event classes over the Winter break, and I start teaching regularly in January.

13.) I nearly made it through the entire Christmas season without hearing 'The Little Drummer Boy' once. I consider it a lost opportunity - we were working on a nearly perfect season.

14.) I think my room is starting to have a vendetta against me - it refuses to be cleaned.

15.) Did I mention how cold it gets here?

16.) Improvisation is the best way to live.

17.) Rest in peace, dear GGL - I'll still head up to Akita and think of you there.

18.) The debut of a Final Fantasy game over here is practically a national holiday - if only they had shut down the schools...

19.) St. Germain's bakery makes very good Croquette burgers. I heartily recommend them and will treat anyone who visits me to one.

20.) BTS instructors over here pay through the nose for program releases. Fortunately I, lacking the need of translation into Japanese, was able to get them for less. Far and away, the best release I've seen of the five programs I teach (they don't have Ride over here - no one's using it...yet...) is Step. Each of the other programs has some issue (not necessarily a problem) that I'm not to crazy about, but Step this time is amazing - I hope I can get a regular gig by the time we launch this one (since that means April, I've got some time).

21.) I'm gaining more and more confidence in my Japanese conversation skills every day - despite the way my homework assignments are returned to me ^_^.

22.) I received some great advice on post-graduate work from one of my professors here over coffee after our last day of class. I think that after my graduation from Rice, I'm not going to be in a major hurry to jump into the next academic adventure straight away - I may take a couple years to do something (not nothing) and just build myself and continue exploring. I was counting on this year providing me some answers, and I think this is a big one.

Well, 22 free-floating thoughts should do it for now, I think. Hope to hear from y'all soon, and if I don't talk to you before then, have a very merry Christmas, a happy Hanukkah, and a spectacular start to the year of the tiger!

絶望した！

絶望した！電車の事故は絶望した！

For any of you who haven't read my recent Facebook post, here is the story of my latest adventure.

This wonderful day started, ironically enough, with a train accident.

No, not the train I was on. The train several trains in front of ours on the circular Yamanote line, amazingly enough. Since it's a circular line, one accident stops the entire circle from moving. We were stopped at a station called Ebisu, about halfway between my house and Tamachi, where I go to school. We got in to the station, and we didn't leave. After we'd been there a couple minutes, an announcement came on saying that there had been an accident between Gotanda and Osaki stations, a few stations ahead of us on the line. Although they didn't give us any details as to the nature of the accident, I found out later that the accident had caused a chain reaction of trains hitting their emergency brakes, sending people (including a couple of my friends who were riding the Yamanote and Keihin-Tohoku lines at the time) flying. We were far enough back that it was a simple slow-down-and-stop.

At this point, I knew that the delay would be enough to make me late for school, particularly so that I would miss the kanji test, my only real motivation for going in the first place - I've grown weary of sitting in the same room for 3 hours doing the core Japanese course. So...

I decided to just say 'shove it' to school for the day and I hopped off the train to go explore Ebisu, an area I'd had a passing interest in for some time, and the place where our train had decided to stop due to the accident. When the opportunity arose, I decided to take advantage. I walked around and found it to be a very charming area, with a fantastic little entertainment area (restaurants, shops, cinema, etc.) called Ebisu Garden Place. It reminds me a lot of Bridgeport Village, for those of you readers in Oregon who know what I'm talking about. As it was still relatively early - around 9 am - there weren't too many people there yet, so it was very serene and beautiful - nothing but the sounds of the various fountains and the dull hum of a city waking up in the morning. After walking around for a while, I popped in to a little bakery cafe called St. Germain for a strawberry crumble muffin, an old-fashioned doughnut, a ham and cheese sandwich on french toast, and a cup of coffee. I stayed in there for almost an hour, casually noshing and reading my book The Mirador. Oh, how I've missed reading for pleasure!

So, after a lovely morning, I hopped on another train that was able to get me directly back to Ikebukuro, and I decided to do some work on two papers that are coming due in the next couple of weeks. I was expecting one or two good pages on each one. I finished them both - each over 10 pages. Now my workload is significantly lighter and I shall have a relatively clear head from here on out, I daresay. Good times!

The other big development is that I now, thanks to my contract at Oasis, have access to their fantastic club facilities. I'm finally going to be able to get going on a regular workout regimen - and not a moment too soon. I'm going to start teaching event classes just before New Years, and I have a regular class starting in January on Saturday afternoons. Woo!

絶望した！

絶望した！肉は絶望した！

Today was Choir Sunday at church, where we did John Rutter's "Gloria" for both services - a 20 minute piece that was a big challenge for us, but very rewarding. I think I've increased my singing range since I've arrived here - some of the last notes are SO high!

Afterwards, a bunch of us went out together to a restaurant called Barbacoa, which is a Brazilian Tabehodai (all you can eat in two hours) place. There is only one word that can truly describe the grandeur and majesty that was this meal:

MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAT!

I don't think I'll need to eat for the next three days. Every time the waiters came around with some type of meat on a long skewer, offering it to the table, I took them up on single, double, sometimes triple-sized portions. There was every conceivable type of preparation for beef, along with some lamb and other fine meats. Every morsel was delicious, but I have to say the pepper steak might just be the best thing I ever eat in this country. The amazing thing is that I don't feel overstuffed or ashamed for how much I ate (approximately two whole animals and an entire baked pineapple, as well as one trip to the salad bar - eat your veggies!). I just feel so immensely satisfied and full that I think eating will be a much lower priority in the days to come.

Not long after I got home, I got a call from my housemate Clio, who was going over to Gokokuji Temple, which is literally fifty feet from our front door (although you have to go a bit further to get to the gate) in order to do some reading during the last hour or so of this lovely sunny day. She invited me to tag along, so I did. I cannot believe we've had such a spectacular place so close by and I've never been there once in the three months that I've been here. Mark my words, though, I plan to go there a lot more now that I know how beautiful it is.

I'm in the midst of, well, not a rush - per se, more like a push to the finish of the semester. I've got two papers coming due in the next couple weeks, each of which I'm working on piecemeal, a little bit every day. It keeps me committed to them without feeling overwhelmed. After the insanity of NaNoWriMo, things just feel very open and workable now. We've got a good end to the semester, so it seems.

Friday night was particularly enjoyable. Because some of my professors have to return to their home institutions in time for the Spring semester to start, they are concluding their classes several weeks early, before winter break (hence the push to the finish described above). In some cases, this means that we have extra classes during the week in order to qualify the course as a full semester-long class. On Friday, I had my pop music class, then Japanese law, then pop music again. It was a long go, but the prof took the faithful students, whom he termed 'the elite' out to a little pub round the side streets and we had an after-hours little shindig of sorts. I'm afraid I don't have any pictures, but suffice to say it was a great time and it was very fun to connect with our professor outside of class time. There are some days when I am really glad to be here - this was one of those days, and today was another.

Looking ahead, I'm thinking about switching programs in this next semester. I'll still be at Keio and still studying Japanese, but there are a few things about the operation of the JLP that I'm not particularly happy with. The biggest two are scheduling - I just don't think that having three solid hours of intensive work three days a week is the best way for language study to work. By the third hour, I am usually mentally and sometimes physically exhausted - partially from having to wake up so early in order to be there on time, partially from the (I believe) ridiculous pace that the class takes - there's hardly any time for the things we are taught to really sink in before we are off on some other subject. I am thinking that the alternative, the KIP (Keio International Program) will be a better fit for me in this second semester because it still allows me to work on Japanese language skills, but in specialized and focused classes rather than the trying core classes of the JLP. I've done it for a semester, and I don't really think it's the best fit, at least not for me. With KIP, I'll be able to dial back a bit on my courseload and focus more priority on the areas I truly need to work on. I'll start putting my application together tomorrow and we'll see what we can make work. Whatever happens, we're going to be all right.

絶望した！

絶望した！また生きているのは絶望した！

My, oh my, phone the neighbors, wake the kids, this is an extravaganza you won't want to miss.

Yes, after 28 days of grueling noveling and now with my fifth book under my belt, I will now make my triumphant return to the world of the blogosphere. So, what all has happened in the last four weeks? Pretty much each day followed the same schedule.

1.) Wake up

2.) Get out of bed

3.) Drag a comb across my head

4.) School

5.) Homework

6.) Novel

7.) Back to sleep

Every now and then, I'd throw some eating in there - you know, staying alive and all that good stuff. This was a tough novel for me - for the first time I was writing completely in first-person. I probably won't be doing it again for a while - it's much tougher for me than third-person. What's more, this has been by far the hardest NaNoWriMo month for me yet - I can't say I'm particularly surprised. Still, the book is done, I'll tuck it away for a year or so and let it cool down, and now my workload is significantly lighter. So, taking things in order...

The week that I made my last post, I had two major presentations in two different classes - both of my philosophy seminars. Naturally, my brain was temporarily blown out as a result. With these presentations, I always adopt a 'let's get this over with attitude' when it comes to the actual day of presentation. That way, I don't feel on the hook for a long period of time; so, when both of my presentations were split by the ends of their respective class periods, requiring me to continue each a week later, that really put a bit of a damper on things. Still, I got them done and they went well. I also had a speech in Japanese class that went really well. We did the entire class in one three-hour class period - it was actually the fastest-moving class I've ever had in that subject. Small favors.

I've started working out with some friends at one of the local sports clubs over here - running though classes and such. It's great practice for me because I'm now a contractor with Sports Club Oasis and will be teaching event classes for them all over the city and surrounding area. It's a really exciting opportunity and one that I'll be able to resume when I return after graduation - it's starting to look like this is the place for me to be and that I will be able to find work here. Furthermore, I've heard from several friends that an English-speaking personal trainer in Tokyo would make bank because there are hardly any available. If things go well on these first few events, they may even consider giving me a regular class during the week, which would be just about the best thing ever. Miraculously, through these few run-throughs that I have done, I've discovered that I actually am capable of teaching a full hour-long class IN JAPANESE. I really didn't think my skills were at that level yet. Granted, there is still some polishing and vocabulary I could use, but I can make it through without issue.

I also finally started my work with BTS/BFS over here. I've done some transcribing work with some of the program videos so that they are set to go to the translators. Basically, I watch a video, pause it every few seconds, and write out a verbatim script of what it being said. It's long work, but it's work nonetheless, and it's with the company that I love and hope to be able to find eventual long and full-time employment with. I can think of no better way to start than with what I'm doing right now - building connections, interning, networking. This is good stuff. During the year I'm back at Rice, I'm going to try and see what I can do with regards to becoming a BTS trainer - it'll be much more convenient for me to travel to Georgia from Texas than it would be from Japan. We'll see what happens.

We're into the Advent season at TUC - the church is all decorated up and Christmas is in the air. Next Sunday is Choir Sunday, when our choir is doing this crazy 20-minute performance piece in place of the sermon. We've been working on it ever since I joined the choir, so this will be very exciting. I was also finally presented to the congregation, along with about twenty others, as new members of the church. There were five baptisms and about fifteen new members yesterday, so it was a very exciting time.

We did have the campus festival during this last month - a weeklong period in which classes are canceled and all of the clubs and organizations of Mita Campus put together a big festival. Most of us exchange students - not particularly involved with either the festival or the supporting clubs, took this simply as a well-deserved week off. Many of my friends went traveling to Hakone, Osaka, Kyoto, Nara, Kobe - all kinds of wonderful places. I was considering going to Karuizawa - the place is really fun, inexpensive to get to, and above all, the Winter Festival was beginning right in the middle of the break. Unfortunately for me, due to the national holiday causing a long weekend on the Monday after, every hotel in the city was booked solid. As such, I decided to stick close to home and grind out some work for school and BTS and to get a bit ahead of the game. It was a working holiday, to be sure, but there was at least one day where I did go out and have some fun. My friend Dana and I did a tour d'Ikebukuro, going to all the anime shops and availing ourselves of all sorts of wonderful little stuffs. Later that night, my housemate Clio and I went out and saw the movie Saw 6 in theaters. Being an American horror movie, we went there mostly to laugh at it and make constant comment. We bought our tickets and went to Wendy's for dinner - where I proceeded to have a Li Shengshun-caliber dinner in a period of 10 minutes, wanting to get back to the theater on time. We walked into the theater, and it seemed that the movie had just started. There were all the usual elements, and we enjoyed it, but it seemed that there was more going on than we knew about with the plot. Then, when the credits started rolling after only 45 minutes, we started to wonder if something was up. Looking at our tickets, we saw that we had actually arrived an hour early and come in halfway through the flick. As such, we stuck around to watch the first half second, which made the second half make a lot more sense. Then we left, already knowing the ending.

Thanksgiving isn't that big a day over here in Japan - for most people it's just Thursday. In fact, it was one of the first days back from break, so it didn't really seem like a holiday at all. Still, I had a fantastic microwave beef-bowl as my Thanksgiving dinner, and I was very grateful - as I have been for so many of the things that have gone on here.

Looking forward, I've got a couple of papers coming due in the next few weeks - nothing terribly difficult. One's for Japanese Literature, and I'm comparing/contrasting the works of Ueda Akinari and H.P. Lovecraft in regards to the mechanics of the ghost story. The other one's for Popular Music in Postwar Japan, and I haven't chosen my topic yet. Other than that, we've got three weeks until Christmas break, and I'm just going to have to keep on keeping on until that time. I think we're gonna make it.

So, until next time...

絶望した！

絶望した！色々な絶望した！

Not a very long post - more a note that I am in fact not dead, but alive and well and keeping myself very busy. This is a very high-octane week for me: two philosophy presentations and four chapters' worth of testing in my core Japanese class. I've also started this year's NaNoWriMo novel, and it's really been an interesting one so far. More details to come when (if) I get some spare time.

絶望した！

絶望した！ハードロックは絶望した！

Birthday party for the epic win. We started out at Hard Rock cafe at Ueno Station - always a classic. It was beyond incredible. In addition to the obligatory mass of rock memorabilia, we got to watch an amazing performance of bartending flair - the guy was incredible. At the end, he was standing on the bar, balancing a bottle of vodka on his forehead and juggling four more. It was incredible. We were lucky enough to get a picture with him afterward. We also had a pyrotechnic birthday dessert delivered to us after dinner and played around a bit in the rock shop afterward. Later, we hopped on the train and went back to Ikebukuro to do some karaoke. We went for two hours with soooo much good music. We finished up with a sensational rendition of Yellow Submarine that was the perfect end to the night. Here are pictures:

A rousing rendition of Tina & Ike Turner's "Proud Mary".

Our whole group plus our waitress and the incredible bartender.

During the show.

Our crew gathered 'round the table.

Looking smug with dessert. Sideways.

Flaming birthday dessert!

Restaurant logo burned right onto the tortilla.

Most. Incredible. Branding. Ever.

Friends Joe (left) and Paul (right) from school.

Friends Elena (left) and Clio (right) from the house.

Baby's first drink as a legal American adult - One Mint Julep.

Paul at karaoke, rocking some Green Day.

Clio, teaming up with me for the theme song from "Axis Powers Hetalia", a mutual favorite anime of ours.

絶望した！誕生日は絶望した！

Well world, I finally get some respect in the eyes of America. Japan beat them to it by a whole year.

As of 1 hour and 24 minutes prior to the typing of these words, the Earth completed it's 21st circuit around the sun since the time I was born. I am now officially completely out of the teenager status (as some relatives still believed I was a teen through age 20). Since I'm in a place where I've been able to do all the things a 21-year-old can do in America, it doesn't feel incredibly different from yesterday. Still, that's the way birthdays tend to be.

Still, I received more e-mails and cards from people all over the world than I could possibly have expected, along with a ton of Facebook greetings. I am SO feeling the love right now. Even though we're all over the place, it's still been a very happy birthday. AND it's not over yet- I'm having a little shinding with some friends at Hard Rock Cafe - Ueno Station tomorrow night after an all-day choir rehearsal, so that should be a really fun time. Celebrations on Thursday were also fun - my friend Dana called me out in class that it was my birthday despite my objections. (Hey, you got to, it's tradition ^_^), and we had a little bit of cake at the house afterward (pictured below). My housemate Clio even got me a little present - a case of chocolate cigars from Seibu - classy and tasty - win-win!

As far as presents go, I've ended up with some fantastic things. The biggest one for me is the jacket that I'm wearing in the pictures below. Anyone who can identify it in the comments section wins a cookie when I come home. Well, on with the photos.

Happy birthday!

And all of Harry Hill's people said...

"CAKE AFTERWARD!"

Just like me!

The obligatory anime-style licking-the-knife picture. Sideways.

絶望した！チッピチップスは絶望した！

For those of you who translate the titles of these posts, the word in the middle this time is 'chippy chips'. If you aren't aware of the significance of this wonderful phrase, you need to watch more British comedy metatelevision.

Since the last post, things have been chugging along with school. I'm getting along well with all of my teachers, including the ones that seemed a bit abrasive or tough to work with at first. It's a lot of focus on correct grammar and such, and I'm starting to get positive feedback from my instructors that I'm improving. That feels good, really good.

On the church front, I attended my first choir practice on Thursday night, and was received quite warmly. Not only were they happy to have a new member, but they were especially happy to have a new member who sang tenor. I have always been a tenor, and until further notice, I will always be a tenor. We're working on John Rutter's "Gloria", a three-movement suite that we'll be doing on the first Sunday of advent (first Sunday of December). We've got a full-day practice this upcoming Saturday, so I'm playing hooky (with advance notice) and spending the day singing my lungs out. It's a tricky piece, but working on it with this group is fantastic. The TUC choir is a bit smaller in membership than my choir back at SMBC in Houston, but they have just as much passion and enjoy the work just as much. I feel right at home with them. We also practiced on Sunday morning during the education hour, even though we had the week off from singing in the service. After the service, I went and joined the new members' class - an introductory course on the history and works of the church, accompanied by a great lunch. I am now officially an associate member of Tokyo Union Church - holding a membership here while retaining my membership at South Main in Houston. I'm already hooked up with a couple more groups - including a Theology Literature Group that's going to start meeting a week from Wednesday. We're reading "The Shack" by Wm. Paul Young - a book I've been wanting to read and one that has been recommended to me several times.

The other big news story happened directly prior to the composition of this post and is thus the basis for the title of this post. A very good friend of mine from school, Dana, has a membership at the Tokyo Costco, and she invited me to go along with her to do shop for oversized wholesale goodies. As she described it, the Tokyo Costco is "an American's playground." Boy, was she right about that one. If I didn't know better, I'd say I was right back in Oregon at the Costco in Troutdale. Same gigantic items, same Kirkland brand, same ridiculously low prices, same merchandise - including several things that I've been pining for but could not find elsewhere. I brought a decent amount of cash, figuring that this food would keep me going for a long time. I try to budget about 3500 yen (about $40) per week for food, and I found some things here that will last me much longer than a week. Among my purchases were such diverse items as:

Ground beef for burgers

Burger buns

Cheddar cheese

Tortilla chips and salsa (chippy chips!)

Asparagus

A 100+ serving box of Quaker Oatmeal (the real breakfast of champions)

A bottle of cinnamon sugar (to accompany said breakfast of champions)

Cashews

Chocolate-covered raisins

Cheese bagels and cinnamon raisin bagels

One bottle of Malbec wine (my favorite)

And all that sort of thing. Of course the beauty of Costco is in the price - all of this, which will easily last a month and a half (some things longer than that) all came out to just over 12,000 yen (around $130).

The last great thing about Costco in Japan is that for an incredibly low price, they will send your purchases to your home via post with two-day shipping. Since Dana and I had taken the train there, lugging multiple Costco-sized bags was not exactly a viable option, especially since rush hour was approaching fast. We each took some things home that needed immediate refrigeration, and the rest will arrive on Wednesday. Talk about great service!

Now I've got to press some patties to freeze for when I need them and study some kanji for two tests tomorrow.

絶望した！

絶望した！カイジは絶望した！

With my background as a trained anthropology student, it is not like me to make broad, sweeping generalizations about different cultures, whether in a positive or negative light. However...

Japanese movie theaters are absolutely and undeniably better than American movie theaters.

Well, that's that out of the way. The weekend was (or rather still is - I have tomorrow off) an excellent one. I've already discussed my new church in Omotesando in my previous entry, so this will be about the rest of the weekend. After school on Saturday (with the curriculum pushed back a full day due to the typhoon earlier in the week) I had a lazy-ish afternoon at home, finishing up new homework and relaxing. That evening, I went out to the Humax Ikebukuro Cinema 4 to see a movie that had just come out that day. The film was 'Kaiji', and was based on the anime of the same name. I had gotten hooked on the anime in my first year at Rice thanks to a fellow member of Jo Mai, Rice's anime club, and the news that there was going to be a live-action remake of it was very exciting news for me - further amplified by the fact that I could actually go and see the thing. I first became aware of its existence via a train advertisement - further solidifying my belief that I made the right choice in living on the Yamanote line.

So, as to the movie itself. First off, the Japanese theaters go out of their way to make seeing a movie more than just sitting for two hours and leaving it at that. Instead, the experience of seeing a movie in Japan is closer to that of seeing a live theater show in the States. To begin with, there are no pre-screening advertisements or gimmicky little plugs for TV stations. It is a blank screen, and the music being piped in consisted of the themes from both the Kaiji anime and the new movie. The movie theaters are squeaky-clean, too. No sticky floors or weird smells to be discovered. Once the lights dimmed, there was one reminder about turning phones off, one trailer, and then the movie was rolling; not to mention the fact that the screening started at eight o'clock on the dot. Afterward, there was a small shop off to the side selling merchandise from the movie, including programs [read: playbills] and CDs of the soundtrack (exceptional in and of itself), in addition to many other fun little trinkets and such.

The movie itself did great justice to the series, particularly in the casting. Every role was true to the show, well acted, and very believable despite the far-fetched storyline. Some of the fun little quirks from the show were even replicated with great skill. Of course, some creative license and trimming took place due to the different resources of a live-action movie. The plot remains virtually the same, but one of the main characters, Endo - a loan shark, is played by a woman, whereas Endo was a male in the original series. This causes a small change to the movie's ending, and Endo has a much more significant part in the whole story, but it doesn't diminish from the movie at all - in fact, it actually changes the end of the story in what is still an appropriate fashion for the story as a whole. I won't divulge the whole plot in order to allow any with prospective interest in the series to enjoy it for themselves. Otherwise, you can wiki it and find out what happens for yourself.

Naturally, the movie was presented entirely in Japanese with no subtitles. While this might be considered a handicap for some, I actually enjoyed it all the more - seeing it in its natural presentation. Of course, it helped that I knew the gist of the story and had some degree of Japanese in my head. What this did for me more than anything else, though, was allow me to separate the plot of the movie from its production value a little bit more cleanly than when I watch one where I can understand 100% of the dialogue. As a result, I really noticed things like the use of music, the cinematography, and all of the small subtleties in the movie that can be overlooked due to absorption with the plot. I was very impressed. The director, Toya Sato, is incredibly gifted as a moviemaker. His direction and use of unusual camera angles and shots is of a caliber that I have rarely seen. I'm going to have to check out some of his other movies to see more of the magic he works.

Furthermore, I was able to better appreciate the ability of the actors to convey the story of Kaiji through methods other that dialogue. Everything from facial expression and body language onward suddenly became much more of a factor for my experience of the movie. The cast did not let me down. Not only did they reflect their characters from the original series, but each of them gave his or her new depth and substance. The lead, Tastuya Fujiwara (playing the title role), had already made a fan out of me after an exemplary performance as Light Yagami in the Death Note movies. The fact of the matter is that anime characters are generally very difficult to play in a live action setting without looking like a total spaz. Fujiwara has found the delicate balance between the energies and caricature of an average anime character and the limitations and reality of an actual human being. He maintains that balance throughout the movie and puts on a very praiseworthy performance. The character of Kaiji is definitely not an easy role to play - you'll see the many reasons why if you investigate the series, but Tatsuya Fujiwara carries it naturally - as do the rest of the cast.

In short: great movie, perfect cast, exceptional production value. Win.

絶望した！協会は絶望した！

After a month of settling in and getting into a groove with school, I finally found a church to go to here in Omotesando, Tokyo - Tokyo Union Church - and I think it's a great fit. Not surprisingly, a large part of my liking it stems from the fact that it is very, very similar to SMBC. Granted, SMBC isn't nestled between a Giorgio Armani and a Louis Vuitton, but that's neither here nor there. The worship services are at the exact same times and presented in an almost parallel format (8:30 being a bit more traditional and 11:00 being more contemporary). They even do the Doxology right after the offertory! I was welcomed with open arms from the moment I walked in the door and immediately chatting with four or five people who helped me get an idea about the church and its operations. I'm already in touch with people about joining the sanctuary choir, and I can't wait to get going on that. The sanctuary is much smaller than SMBC's, but it still comfortably accommodated everyone in the place.

One thing that was a bit different was that instead of coming down to the front of the sanctuary at the end of the service, newcomers were asked to stand in their spot and introduce themselves to the congregation with a microphone. It's an English-speaking congregation with people from all different countries, including many from Japan, in attendance. I just did a little spiel about myself, my home church, and I finished with the phrase, "...and I'm glad I found y'all." This led to some very interesting results. When the pastor got up to give the sermon, he started with a (supposed) tangent about how people speak differently in the American southeast, and in particular about some of the wonderful and unique words we used. Referencing my use of the word 'y'all', he talked about how it's weird that in English that there is no standardized pluralization of 'you', and how that can sometimes make reading of the bible difficult in distinguishing when the 'you' being referenced is a single or multitude. The entire sermon that followed was about the interconnectivity and plurality of the church and how while an individual relationship with God is important, equally important is the ideal of fellowship and interconnectivity between people in the church. I don't know if this is what was planned beforehand, but now a whole congregation in Tokyo has gone out from this place with the message of 'it's not just about you, but about y'all.'

We even did a little language lesson, with everyone in the congregation practicing saying 'y'all'. It was great.

More on the events of the weekend in a separate, upcoming post.

絶望した！

絶望した！宿題は絶望した！

Just a few quick points, and then I've got to go do two more days' worth of homework. The one downside of class cancellations.

1.) Yes, I did survive the storm - it was mostly heavy wind with some medium to heavy showers here and there,

2.) Yes, school was canceled today (if you couldn't surmise it from the prescript for this list).

3.) Yes, I was very happy that school was canceled today, even if it means more homework now.

4.) Twitter is up and running (Heaven help me): http://twitter.com/ZetsubouSeito

Now to homework.

絶望した！

絶望した！天気は絶望した！

This one is just a short notice to allay any fears you may have concocted due to recent weather information regarding Japan.

1.) Yes, a tropical storm is forecasted to hit the Tokyo metro area tomorrow night (approx. 24 hours from the publication of this post).

2.) No, you don't have anything to worry about - safety measures are being executed through Keio, Sakura House, and the US Embassy (just in case).

3.) This weather has been classified as a tropical storm, not a typhoon. I survived Hurricane Ike, I can deal with this.

4.) If at all possible, I will try to get some good pictures.

5.) 絶望した！

In other news, I am considering opening up a Twitter feed (yes, I know, it's self-subscription to big brother, yada yada yada...). I do have my reasons, though. I will still maintain the blog, but I have a feeling that were I to blog all of the events of the coming weeks in any amount of detail, it would essentially be a constant loop of waking up, going to school, coming home, doing homework, eating, watching Olbermann, and going to sleep. As such, I think that a Twitter feed would allow me to get out the basic quirks of the day without having to dedicate entire posts to what can be said in under 30 words. It's for your benefit as much as mine. More info to come.

Still getting used to having three different teachers for Japanese - especially when it now looks as though none of them are afraid of pulling any punches when it comes to minute details of work. The term 'grammar nazi' came to mind, but that's a bit harsh at this point. Still, this is a weak area for me in some respects, so it's going to take some extra work and probably decent amount of frustration and nitpicking, but it's something that must be done. I'll do it, but it's not going to be pretty.

Oh well - storm's a-brewing. Better go eat something.

絶望した！

絶望した！一日休みは絶望した！

I think I'm starting to get the hang of this. Not too much to report, other than that classes are going well (if long). In all, it's a good thing because with the amount of time that I'll need to do commute, classes, and homework, I'll have about 70% of my time filled. Add in another 15% for work (when it finally comes around), and I'm going to have a practically full schedule full of progress and good work. Plus, it means that I'll have plenty to distract me from the continuous flood of anime and other wonderful distractions this town has to offer. I have to concentrate, and it's good to load up. Since my last posting of my class list, one significant change has been made - I dropped Meiji Diplomacy because of inconvenient scheduling (I would have had a massive block of time on campus with nothing to fill it while waiting for this class to start) and I decided to swap it out for a graduate-level seminar on Kant, offered by the international center. All my professors are fantastic, and it should be a very solid semester. Japanese classes meet for two 90-minute blocks on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, and so things tend to become a little weary towards the end of each class. Still, I'll either get used to it or learn to deal. As long as I have a good breakfast before dashing out the door, I'm usually all right.

The one thing that's been a bit of a stunt over the last few days is learning to deal with package deliveries within the city - primarily being on the receiving end of them. Unlike in the states, where you just have to have a mailbox and a place to drop the box, packages over here require a live person-to-person transfer. Consequently, you are given a timeframe of when the package will be delivered, and you have to be home in that period of time. Also, apparently there is more than one building in this area that uses the same numerical address that this house uses, so it apparently was delivered to the wrong one last time and sent back to the local depot. I got in touch with the delivery service and we have supposedly sorted out the issue. It should arrive sometime between 2-4 PM today, so I'm relatively housebound until it's delivered. Also, if the delivery service has an issue finding the place, this time we've got phone contact as a backup plan. We'll see how it goes. If I do get it today without a hitch, then I'm taking myself out this evening to find Mister Donut, which seems to disappear after being found. Odd little adventures...

絶望した！

UPDATE: I got the package, so all is right with the world.

絶望した！他の写真は絶望した！

Right, now for the photos. Some are out of order, but I figure that doesn't make much of a difference.

Mariko and I at 31 flavors.

An Autumn Special sundae cone at 31 flavors.

A couple more selected photos from the Hatagaya festival.

This is me. This is my daikon. La la la.

One of the demo areas at TGS - each one was built to resemble the world of the game it was advertising - this one for Okami's DS port.

Basara is one of the biggest series over here right now - its imagery is everywhere. I even have Basara branded rice.

I think that says it all.

And of course, the obligatory 'girls and military equipment' photo.

This was a group of buskers out in Ikebukuro on the same night Mariko and I met up.

One of these things is not like the other things...

These guys were smart - they bought out all the ad space at the train station in front of the convention center - interest sparked!

This one made me really happy - great game being ported to a newer system!

Another winner.

More from the Basara section - they actually had a historical exhibit of old Edo-period armor. Very cool.

My first bento - to be eaten at lunchtime tomorrow. I'm proud of myself for this one.

My bento box and chopstick compartment.

The front of my bento box.

The head of the Gundam that was until recently up in Odaiba. Unfortunately I was not able to get to see it before it was dismantled, but this is a good start, and word is that it will be reassembled, probably next summer.

And finally, as the giant Square Enix slime sets in the west on a perfect gaming day, we take our leave.

絶望した！印鑑とゲームは絶望した！

Fun things, weekends.

Even with school on Saturday morning.

Had my first official Japanese language class meeting on Saturday morning, and aside from the 9:00 AM start time (consider also my 55 minute commute), it was very enjoyable. I feel very comfortable having placed into level three, and I think I'll do well here and pick up the slack on my kanji while polishing my grammatical skills. We've got a great group of students who work well together, and Ikeda-sensei (one of three professors for this class) is very good at running a class. I was able to get my homework done in a few hours at home after class, and then I went out for a fun reunion with an old friend.

A couple years ago, we hosted an exchange student named Mariko at Gresham High School. She was very involved with helping out in the Japanese program there and we became fast friends. Now she is at Tokyo Women's University, and the two of us met up in Ikebukuro station for some catching-up time. Her English is very strong now and we had a fantastic time updating each other on what's going on on both sides of the Pacific. Afterwards, we cruised around Ikebukro, looking in at the shops and walking about. We'll definitely do it again.

I picked up a few new things at Uniqlo (greatest store ever - cheap and trendy) including a new satchel. I like using my backpack, but since I'm moving so much or standing in heated confined spaces with it for prolonged periods of time, my back ends up drenched - even when I only have my pack over one shoulder. I am not the only one with this problem, either. As a result, most Japanese (even men) have bags that sling over one shoulder - some closer to messenger bags, others practically purses - but it's all good. Long and the short of it: Papa's Got a Brand New Bag!

And now, for the continuation of the 'brave new world' series begun last post with Akihabara, a singular opportunity presented itself on Sunday, and several of us from Sakura House, along with what must have been 10% of Tokyo's population took full advantage.

This was the Tokyo Game Show 2009 - one of the two largest gaming expos in the world - the other being E3 in the US. What's different about TGS? It's actually open to the public. Aaaaand, when you open up all of the biggest names in gaming (except for Nintendo, who apparently have other plans) presenting their latest works to the public, what do you think happens.

People show up.

A lot of people show up.

Still, we had a great time, walked away with a lot of free swag, and I even picked up the Chrono Cross soundtrack - one of (in my opinion) the best game soundtracks ever. Listening to it brings back great memories of countless hours spent with that masterpiece of a game and loving every minute. We ended up not queuing up for any of the demos, because all the ones that we wanted to do (i.e. Final Fantasy XIII and Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep) were over 3 hours long, and the ones that we had even a fleeting interest in were at least 45 minutes. FFXIII wasn't even allowing people to line up unless they had picked up a ticket when the show first started at 9 that morning. They were gone in three minutes. We figured our time would be better spent otherwise, and it was an incredible day. I realize that some of you might be jealous of me - please send all flames and angry messages to my personal e-mail or PM me on Facebook because some readers of this blog might be offended. Thanks. ^_^

Today has been pretty bland up til now. A bit of grocery shopping in the morning and a generally lax day around the house. I have a class at Keio at 4:30 that goes until 6, and so I'll be heading out for that in a few minutes. I'll post pictures of everything after I get home later tonight. Until then...

絶望した！

絶望した！私の名前は絶望した！

Well kids, here we go!

Had a great time at the festival on Tuesday. If there is one thing I've learned from it, it's that portable shrines (Mikoshi) are INCREDIBLY heavy. If there's two things I've learned from it, it's that bearing a Mikoshi is enjoyably hazardous to your health. Here's the step-by-step process for participating in a Mikoshi festival:

1.) Gather massive amount of people in happi coats.

2.) Lift Mikoshi.

3.) Walking very slowly, and chanting to keep rhythm with each other, move as slowly as you possibly can along the street, causing moderately amounts of chaos and drawing all attention - even going as far as to stop traffic on a main Tokyo thoroughfare.

4.) Set shrine down carefully on sawhorses.

5.) Drink.

6.) Repeat steps 1-5.

7.) Repeat step 6.

8.) Repeat steps 6 and 7.

We had a great time, met some fantastic new people, and a few of us headed out to do some karaoke in Shinjuku to round out the night. Good times. Pictures are here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/36733168@N04/sets/72157622448919916/

(Be warned, there are a lot of them).

Next day saw me heading back to school for opening ceremonies and preliminary class preparations (get textbooks, first homework, etc.). Yes, I had homework even before classes started. Oh well - life is still good. After that, I made a quick (?) dash back to Ikebukuro before meeting my friend Erek (who works for Square Enix) in Shibuya. With his being former anime club president at MIT and my (on hiatus) presidency of Rice's anime club, there really was only one natural destination for the two of us: Akihabara.

It's a brave new world, y'all. And it is beautiful.

In all honesty, it was just about what I expected. I suppose I lost a little bit of the 'wow' potential because I had already been to one of Tokyo's biggest anime stores and seen all the goodies. Still, I found a few choice items at great prices and called it good. We hung around in the arcades and shops and then parted ways around dinner time. It was going to be a big day the next day (today).

I started off today by finally going to get my foreigner registration card. Things went really smoothly and I am now a fully registered resident of Bunkyo-ku for the remainder of my time here. Welcome home!

I finished my homework (took a little bit of reading, but nothing obscenely difficult - not yet, anyways) and headed to school. I had two classes scheduled for today: Popular Music in Postwar Japan and Introduction to Japanese Law. Pop music was a scream - the professor is a visiting professor from Dartmouth college, and it was a full house for the first class. We went over class specifics and then listened to a little sampling of what we'd be focusing on over the course of the semester. There is a surprisingly rich history of Folk music (the kind we heard in the heyday of Bob Dylan and PPM) that is really going to be fun to experience.

Intro to Japanese Law was cancelled. Fail.

After that, I came home, folded the laundry, and now I need to go back out to Ikebukuro to buy a couple spiral notebooks.

絶望した！

絶望した！教えることは絶望した！

Get yourself some new orchestrations,

New routines and red velvet curtains,

Get a feathered hat for the baby,

Photograph in front of the theater,

Get an agent, and in jig time,

You'll be being booked in the big time.

-"Some People" from Gypsy

If I were to paraphrase...

Get yourself some new orange Asics,

New routines and ready for launching,

Autoship on hold in the US,

Photograph for the staff intro board,

Do some practice, verbal reaching

And in one month you'll be teaching.

What started out as an already fun touring event for BFS, featuring trainer Mike from the US teaching Power and Kick back to back turned within a couple hours to yet another amazing opportunity. The people at Oasis Shinjuku (an unbelievably nice facility - think Club Sport for those of you in Oregon) want me to come be a Group Step instructor for them this year. We talked and negotiated a bit, and if all goes well, I'll soon be working for them teaching Step! I won't go into exact details (I am a gentleman, after all), but let's just say that my hourly is really, really nice...

This doesn't mean that I won't still be working on the translation and scripting work for BFS headquarters, that's still a full go. The two will actually complement each other nicely, plus I'll have a local athletic club to use in my own practice so that I can actually stay in physical shape this year.

I'll have some pictures from the event later this week, hopefully - one of my coworkers was the main photographer for the day while I was fully engaged in the workouts. It was exhausting - doing all that after not working out for two weeks. This teaching job can't start soon enough. Still, there are a few things that I have to take care of before I can lock things in. I still have to get my work permit from immigration as well as a personal seal (inkan) so that I can sign the contract and have it be legally binding in order to work there. Still, these are all well within my ability. Tomorrow morning, Marie and I are both going out to Tokyu Hands to investigate their inkan services and then on to Hatagaya for a festival where we'll get to carry a mikoshi (portable shrine).

絶望した！