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.