Bright Green Gaijin Pants

TTSRHW

2006-08-24T08:51:00.000+09:00

Tokyo. Train System. Rush Hour. Wow.

2006-08-22T13:38:00.000+09:00

the museum exhibit was excellent, though pictures were not allowed. the reason for this was the spiffy limited edition artbook. i wanted it, but wanted neither to spend the money on it or to carry it home. i got some clearfiles and postcards instead.

now i stand inside the sapporo tv tower. if it isn't the tallest building in town, it can only be eclipsed by like two buildings. i wanted to come up here during the snow festival, but didn't have the money at the time. now, i wish it were a sunny day. even with clouds and rain that can't decide if it wants to fall or not, the view is great. it really underlines the fact that the japanese all seem to have black, silver, or white cars, though.

generating futures

2006-08-22T08:17:00.000+09:00

the thing i have planned for today is a visit to a particular art exhibit. details on the nature of the exhibit will come later when i wrap up the blog because i want to try to take pictures of it for a friend. for now, let us just say that i got here with a decent amount of ease, but am here an hour and a half before the exhibit opens. oops.

bus noriba

2006-08-21T23:02:00.000+09:00

i sit at the kushiro moo building, still unsure what its name means or what its primary purpose is. the night bus to sapporo leaves from here, though, and it is that bus which i await. this is my last blog post from kushiro. i am about to set out on the first trip i have completely planned on my own (and successfully executed, rather) on my own in japan. i have one thing planned for sapporo tomorrow; it won't take all day, so i am gonna have to find something else to do with the rest of it. that doesn't bother me at all.

oh boy

2006-08-20T13:40:00.000+09:00

the train station i got off at does not have a machine for purchasing tickets. it does, however, have a schedule for return to kushiro eki. if i fail to find mariko i still win exploration.

2006-08-20T12:53:00.000+09:00

i sit at a train station, my english degrading further as i wait for a train that will take me to the general vicinity of a park where i can supposedly meet mariko one more time before i leave. i say supposedly because google maps makes the park look big, and i don't actually know anything about why she is there except that it has something to do with her work.

2006-08-15T09:46:00.000+09:00

i wait at the bus stop for the bus that will take me to my last tea ceremony lesson with ikushima sensei. i was gonna wear my kimono today, but i got to the point of putting on the belt and realized it would be just too hot. winter kimono, summer day? no thanks.

Instant Camp / Firework Show to End ALL

2006-08-14T14:39:00.000+09:00

Got off the bus with the drama club on Wednesday only to find out that the bus stop was a decent walk away from the place were were going, Yamahana Autocamp. Having done the walk, I would guess about a mile. (I'm no GPS system, though, so don't take my word for it.) The walk was uphill part of the way and downhill part of the way, and plagued with bugs the WHOLE way. Wasps, bees, mosquitoes, butterflies, and cicaidas, to name the ones I know where there. Man, cicaidas are loud. I was the only one surprised by them.

When we got to Yamahana, we were a bit early for check in so we goofed off by the main lodge. Played a variation on the Japanese version of the kids' game Red Light, Green Light that involved a lot of silly poses and explanations for how, exactly, that silly pose had something to do with fireworks or whatever had been called out. Good times.

After we went to our cabin, three of the girls started making dinner (curry rice, and man was that tasty). Most people went to the hot springs while dinner was cooking, but Haruki was feeling a bit ill, Shirakawa was watching the food, and I was damned if I was gonna go to a hot spring in that heat, so we stayed behind. I slept. Haruki Slept. Shirakawa did something in one corner. It was a nice, lazy afternoon. We had dinner, then did stuff with fireworks. It was pretty much all sparklers, since anything with a decent chance of catching the grass on fire was forbidden. There were these tiny fireworks that did neato sparkly things in your hand that I actually liked way better than the sparklers.

Then we all went up to the second floor (which had been off-limits to all but a few until then) to find it set up for ye olde drinking party. They surprised me by starting off with some stuff for me -- a plaque that everyone had written a bit on, including one guy's mini Suzumiya Haruhi fanart for me, some pictures that one guy had printed out for me because I ended up not having my camera with me when we were doing group pictures after the play, and (from the people at my school, specifically) two Japanese scripts with English translations in them. All of these things were bloody awesome.

It was followed by a round of self-introductions, which I've become convinced is one of maybe four drinking games the Japanese have. The second drinking game they have is to use the superlative votes everyone came up with and have the winners drink. The fourth is to have everyone take guesses at fairly random questions and have the losers drink. I leave room for a fourth drinking game because I'm sure there is one, but until the trip with the drama club, I had only ever seen self-introduction as a drinking game.

After that, people pretty much drank, munched, and eventually fell asleep. I ended up watching an anime on TV (yeah, the place had a TV) with Hirokawa at some point before sleeping on the tiny couch. That couch was really comfortable in spite of being tiny.

In the morning, we packed up, cleaned up, and left. Another hellacious walk back through the bugs later, we hit the bus stop and went back home. All in all, it was a great deal of fun.

Yesterday, Yuuji, Arima, and I went to Obihiro. Obihiro is a bit south of Kushiro, and is Yuuji's hometown. It's also home to a fireworks show every August that is famous throughout the country. Yuuji said it's about the 4th biggest yearly fireworks display in Japan. One of the newspapers siphons money towards the budget for it all year, and it's a multi-billion yen (multi tens of millions in US dollars) operation.

It looked it.

It was the most impressive fireworks display I've ever seen in my life. There was a local radio DJ MCing and about half the time was taken up by the MC and advertizing, but the other half of the 70-minute show was all fireworks. Thousands of fireworks. Big fireworks. Holy cow fireworks. It rocked.

Yuuji had wanted to drive me and Arima around town (which is why we left Kushiro at like 10 in the morning), but his car's alternator died when he stopped to go to the bathroom about 3/4 of the way to Obihiro. Luckily, it stopped just down the road from a car service/gas station, so they got his car running long enough to get us to Obihiro, but between that and the annual visit to the family grave he went to with his family the tour didn't really happen. We did get to see Yuuji's old high school on the walk to the fireworks viewing grounds, but apparently there were a lot of things he didn't get to show us. Our return to Kushiro happened in his older sister's car, who's apparently psychotic about keeping the inner car clean. There was a tray on the floor in the back seat to put my shoes in when I entered the car.

well then

2006-08-09T13:09:00.000+09:00

so i am cramped on a japanese bus for a long ride. heading to an instant cabin place with the drama club. they handed out pieces of paper with superlatives on them to be done on the bus ride. i had to ask the meaning of most of them. the most interesting part, however, was writing in kanji on a bus.

Flight and Vexation

2006-08-04T12:26:00.000+09:00

Apparently (probably because they waited so long to make the reservation), they couldn't get me a seat on a flight out on the 26th. So I'm leaving the 27th.

Depart Tokyo: 8/27/06 at 15:35 via Northwest Arilines
Arrive Seattle: 8/27/06 at 08:35 (Gotta love worm holes!)

Depart Seattle: 8/27/06 at 10:20 (Here's to praying I make the flight in time)
Arrive Anchorage: 8/27/07 at 12:53 via Alaska Airlines

And to top it all off, I am pretty much screwed on finding a cash advance in this town.

So

2006-08-02T15:58:00.000+09:00

So I fail at blogging. I just don't always keep up with it.

Anyway, last post was about how the teacher gave me the kimono I thought I was buying. The kimono is gorgeous. I would show you a picture, but I am on a school computer so I don't have it to upload. It's dark green with a gold-colored sakura pattern all over it. I love it. I'm still flabbergasted that Ikushima sensei just... gave it to me. I don't think I can pay the woman back for everything she's done for me.

The play is also over. Has been since a few days after my last blog post. I screwed up the lighting again, much to my dismay. Since then drama club has been an on-and-off thing, and mostly not the big combined deal. Just random theatre games and whatnot. I taught some of the guys here at my college the warmups from back home, and they thought the Chairman Mau excercises rocked. :D There's also a plan in the works for the combined club to go to a cheap group trip resort type place. We rent a cabin, hop in some hot springs, and generally have fun. Looking forward to that, though we are looking at fitting in about twice as many people as the cabin was made for. I think that makes it more fun.

The history class test went better than I expected. The reason for this is that the teacher made a separate test for the exchange students (as four of us were taking the class). First question was what did we learn in the class and the second was which of the art pieces he showed us did we like most and why. YAY! When he walked in with these double-size pieces of paper covered in just LINES, Matt and I looked at each other horror-stricken -- but it turned out not so bad after all.

Shortly after that, we the exchange students were informed that we were expected to participate in "International Night", a party that the school traditionally throws every year. As the teacher explained the party further, I realized that it was gonna be like the one they held for the Okinawans last semester, only less interesting. However, this is the first thing that I've been asked to do here that I absolutely didn't want to do. It's also not a big deal, really, so I didn't try to squirm my way out of it or anything.

It turned out more interesting than I expected, with them showing us how to make okonomiyaki and having tasty food. The Australians and I dressed up for the event because we felt like it, even though we knew no one else would. Matt fully dressed up in a suit, and Thomas wearing a suit with a T-shirt and no tie. Me in my kimono. Turned out Yuuji and Arima from Gaiken also went to the international night, a fact that didn't surprise me. :D They were like "DUDE, sweet kimono!" It was awesome. I also had a teacher from last semester fail to recognize me in the kimono. That was also awesome.

Monday night, Gaiken had an end-of-semester let's-all-go-to-the-all-you-can-eat-yakiniku-place deal. The place is a decent clip from the school, so they chartered a bus for the event. The bus was small and the people were many, and there was much conversation. A girl who went to UAF shortly before I came here and just got back recently brought a guy with her from UAF who seems to be her boyfriend, from the looks of things. He's a fire science major who's just here for the summer and has limited Japanese -- just enough to make silly jokes and keep up minimal conversation. I've never met him, but it seems from talking to him that the only real thing I have in common with him is that I get along with fire fighters rather well.

During the bus ride, I was at one point engaged in conversation with some of my Gaiken friends about a topic which I currently don't recall. During this conversation, I used the Japanese rough equivalent of, "But yeah...", at which point my friends all went O.O *GASP*. I instantly got a little freaked out, and asked if I used it wrong. They said no, that it was just the opposite -- that I had used it so perfectly it sounded completely natural.

(I win Xmas.)

Earlier in the day on Monday I had called my ISP about cutting off my internet around the 18th of this month, but apparently my options were end of July and end of August, after I had already left Japan. So. I now now longer have my own internet connection. Crappy school internet, ahoy!

I have made a great deal of progress towards uploading photos to the internet. They are, in fact, mostly zipped up and uploaded. I just don't remember the URLs at the moment, or I would list them. I want to set up a photo gallery somewhere at some point, but not yet. Blarg.

Realizations of the Period

1) You cannot use credit cards at the Japanese Postal Service.
1b) It's gonna be interesting sending stuff home.
2) Part of me really wants to go home. I figured out why. Everyone treats me like a girl here. I am so used to being one of the guys that it's been really getting on my nerves.

holy shit

2006-07-07T12:43:00.000+09:00

so like since i really wanted a kimono and the tea club teacher wears them all the time i asked her about where would be a good place to get one. she said she would talk to the person who tailors hers and she did and i just got it and it's absolutely gorgeous and made thick so it'll withstand alaskan winter and she is giving it to me. not letting me pay for it giving it to me. these are expensive, and i am flabbergasted.

july

2006-07-05T21:17:00.000+09:00

i have a thrice-blasted cold. at least it should be pretty much gone by my birthday.

speaking of my birthday, the current plan is to go drinking @ ひげ with the aussies because the barman shares my birthday. actually, i think tom is going on hiruta's mountain trip, so just me and matt. either way, i have decided that there will be fireworks as well. you can buy them just about anywhere for tanabata at the moment (japanese holiday whose significance i forget, july 7), and by mar's beard, it's actually dark enough to see the bloody things.

one of the actors in the drama club play had no acting experiec of any kind before this. to be quite honest, he sucked at first. now, however, you can easily see a difference between his main part and the two sub parts that go with it. he's improved a lot in a very short time, and it shows.

my house is dry now

2006-06-30T15:55:00.000+09:00

it was damp from the crazy amounts of rain, but it is dry now. i have had enough of this heat. go away, sun.

blast to the past

2006-06-29T15:24:00.000+09:00

and it's official; i have requested to be sent back home on the 26th of august. second choice is the 27th. whichever way it goes, i should get back on the same day i leave, even if i leave at 11:59pm because i'll be going backwards in time-- which is to say across the dateline back to -9 where i belong.

Was That a Fart My Brain Just Expelled?

2006-06-28T22:24:00.000+09:00

You know, I thought I had mentioned what I was forgetting when I talked about the Australians and the bar. No. No, no, no. I really, honestly remember it now. The thing that has been nagging at the back of my head like a flea wriggling its way into a dog's skin under its collar.

I bought a bike a few weeks ago.

I held off on buying a bike that long because well hell, only a couple of months till going home. But with how often I was going to the other college, I sat and figured up the amount of time it would take to get there if I only walked, versus the cost of taking the bus one-way (we finish drama club after the busses stop running, so I would still have to walk one way) and walking the other way. Just walking was too time consuming; the amount of time I have left in Japan is small enough as-is, and that doesn't help. Taking the bus one-way all the time would cost half as much as a used bike. And a bike has many uses, just like the sheep in Black & White.

So I bought one. It was 9800 yen, plus a 500 yen fee to register the bike with the government. There are far more bikes in Japan than cars, and as such stealing a bike is just as heavy a crime. There are more bike parking lots than car parking lots around here. In fact, you have to prove you have a place to park your car off the street before you can even buy one. Even so, some of the "driveways" people put their cars in really drive home just why their cars are so tiny.

Having not ridden a bike for some 10-11 years now, I expected my leg muscles to complain a lot for the first few days. That actually wasn't a problem. It was my hand muscles, my knees, and my tailbone. On the other hand, I had forgotten just how much I love having the wind in my face. I am probably gonna get a bike at the beginning of next summer.

I have also been listening to System of a Down on the way to and from drama club for the past few days. It's really good biking music. The songs' beats are good for pedaling too, and vary some so that you get a fun work out. It's also fun to veer around and do tricks to the music. Unfortunately, I still have the urge to veer and do tricks to the music when it's raining and I have taken my glasses off because they are useless anyway. That part kinda sucks.

The issue with Haruki has been taken care of. I finally got someone to listen to the fact that I don't do well with people breathing down my neck, and I think he talked to Haruki about it. I have exchanged only the barest amount of words with him since, but I no longer have problems getting my job done. Huzzah!

anthill

2006-06-25T12:41:00.000+09:00

it's the first anthill i have ever seen. it's unimaginably tempting to go step on it.

all i can do is shake my head

2006-06-25T12:31:00.000+09:00

so like, haruki has really been pissing me off lately. he pretty much treats me like a retard, and now it is leaking over to other people. this pisses me off more and then i start making mistakes that make them think more retard treatment is warranted. hirokawa is almost never talking to me directly anymore, so i am not picking up the words he uses. it's a mess. and with only a week until the play opens (i said two yesterday'but was actually thinking of the last performance), i get pissed at myself when i make a mistake.

blue skies

2006-06-24T12:56:00.000+09:00

it's actually sunny! been a long time since that was true here.

so like, hirokawa is a guy that i would get along with rather well if we had a chance to actually sit down and talk about our interests. however, what we have is two weeks before the play opens. i think hiro is discovering that directing a play involes juggling a large number of concerns and details -- the hard way. he seems pretty stressed sometimes during rehearsals, and since he has a fairly impressive presence from acting and usually talks faster than i can umderstand when giving me notes, he can get imtimidating.

oh well. all i can do is try not to mess up so i don't get yelled at.

ugh

2006-06-24T00:47:00.000+09:00

they want to start rehearsal at nine in the morning tomorrow. i don't think the japanese understand the meaning of sleeping in.

is for root

2006-06-23T16:01:00.000+09:00

i think i forgot to mention this, but if the title of a blog post sounds like engrish i picked up somewhere then it probably is.

it has been one of those fortnights where i start off on the wrong foot and get wronger. late for things, skipping classes, etc. i am having more language barrier issues in drama club, too... and since the play draws neareq and i am doing the voice of the mirror, i am reluctant to take an ultimate day off from everything like i need to do. i'll probably arrange one for wednesday, though, as i think it will be beneficial in the long run.

realizations of the period

1) part of me still doesn't want to go home. a growing part of me is looking forward to my return.
2) sometimes, all you can do is go through with what you've!started.

This is a Test of the Emergency (Or Not) Blogcast System

2006-06-18T22:49:00.000+09:00

if this goes according to plan, not only will this show up on my blog, but it will mean i can make bored posts from classes and stuff. no capital letters because typing on a phone sucks as it is. no pictures because blogger doesn't like people outside the united states.

Edit from computer: Can I get a "Hell yeah!"?

Oh, Yeah...

2006-06-17T22:45:00.000+09:00

I totally forgot to mention something in yesterday's blog post. Specifically, the reason I was at ひげ (the aforementioned bar with who's owner is the guy with the beard).

Last Monday night, Australia faced Japan in the world soccer finals. It's Australia's first time making it to the finals in 32 years, and Thomas and Matt started talking shit with everyone in the dorm about how Australia was gonna kick Japan's ass a month before the day. They didn't want to actually be in the dorm for it (just not in the mood, I think), so they and I went to ひげ to watch the game there while getting drunk.

Fairly early in the game, Japan scored a goal. Soccer is like a 90-minute game, and it wasn't until minute 86 that Australia got a goal, so Japan was leading 1-0 for the bulk of the game. Then boom, boom, boom -- I dunno why it went over 90 minutes, but in under 6 minutes Australia slaughtered Japan with an ending score of 3-1.

Ouch.

The Japanese players on TV looked so depressed, man, as did the news anchors. They got off the soccer game right quick, too. It was bad. And like, Thomas and Matt were like, "WOO! WE WON!" for a few minutes, then stopped and went, "O.o We won. Man, Thomas's roommate is gonna be so depressed." Said roommate, whose name I forget, is a huge soccer nut. He bought a special offical Japan jersey to support the team, even. To be really cliche:

- Walking into a bar to find the bartender asleep with his face plowed in the table: 0 Yen (Approximately $0 US -- bet you would never have guessed)
- Bottle of scrumptious Japanese alcohol to share with your friends: 3,000 Yen (Approximately $27 US)
- Official Japanese Soccer Jersey 23,000 Yen (Approximately $200 US)
- The following picture: Priceless (Approximately... wait...)

Left is Thomas, middle his roommate, right is Matt. Thomas had the shirt he's wearing sent up from Australia to poke fun at the soccer junkies here. Matt always wears the garish yellow jacket. (I know I don't really have room to talk with my bright pants, but the jacket really is garish.) It's funny, because the Aussies would have been happy with a tie... the massacre at the end there was just rude.

Anyway, moving on. I bought FFVII Dirge of Cerberus for the PS2 about 6 weeks ago, but then my free time took a vacation, so I didn't start playing it until a couple of days ago. What I have seen of the story so far has been kind of interesting -- more of Vincent's backstory plus some generic "Oh noes! Shinra remnants again!" stuff. I'm not actually too far, as I suck at action/shooting kinds of games, and this is one. It's not a completely hardcore shooter, mind, or I would be totally screwed, as it uses PS2 controller. There are controls for keyboard and mouse, too, but I don't want to unhook my mouse from my computer to hook it to the PS2, and even if I did, I would want a trackball.

Anyway, FFVII stuff completely aside, the game itself is fun and decent, with me liking the control scheme except for the camera controls. That's not surprising, as camera controls is almost always a flaw in console games, so whatever. If we plug the FFVII-related stuff back in, they do an excellent job of making Vincent look epic/like a badass, and making you feel epic. "Was that a point blank rocket? Two? And an exploding barrel? Oh, I still have over 400 hit points. Potion!" Unfortunately, in spite of the fact that Barret and Cid are clearly shown in the pre-start-screen movie, the only FFVII PC's I have encountered so far are Cait Sith and Yuffie. At least I got to play as Cait Sith for a bit.

Also, the Japanese apparently can't pronounce Cerberus. We pronounce it with a soft C sound. The Japanese? Keruberosu. This gave me an idea that, unfortunately, resulted in the crappiest photoshop job I have ever done because I don't have time to do it properly. I suppose I could have put in a wee bit more effort, but I figured if I was gonna half-ass it, I may as well no-ass it, as it would still get the point across.

Not that that is anything like how the Japanese would pronounce Care Bears, but hey.

In drama club, we have one more day to use the stage before the play opens. The day the play opens, we don't get to use the stage. So... the first day's performance (Performances? I still don't have a clue whether we are doing one or two per day. What a mess.) is going to be in the large classroom we have been using for rehearsal in the other school. And I thought we were badly off with three lights and no spot before. Shoot me now.

Realizations of the Period

1) If an English speaker were going to shorten Cinderella to a nickname, it would likely be something like Cindy. Cinderella is pretty easy to say, though, so we're not likely to do that. It's harder to say in Japanese pronunciation, though, because the beginning of her name doesn't roll off the tongue. シンデレラ [Shinderera]. So she's been dubbed デレラ [Derera].

Unlimited of Cement

2006-06-16T10:43:00.000+09:00

Well, ikebana is even more fun than I could have guessed. The idea is to take the plants (combination of leaves [ranging in size from tiny to gigantic], grass, flowers, and/or tree branches, depending on what you're doing), find the best side of them, and display all to their best advantage. This fits right along with the way my brain works. I have always been good at seeing what tweaks a picture needs to make it better, but never had the patience to train my hands to draw well. The funny thing is that ikebana actually reminds me of how much fun I had bagging groceries as a cashier when someone asked for double paper as full as I could make them.

There was an ikebana convention (small convention) at the international center last weekend, but I messed up and went to the wrong place. I didn't realize this until the next day, because the place I went to had another flower thing that I mistook for what I was actually looking for. I was slightly confused by the presence of bonsai (Paul, I am unbelievably sorry I forgot my camera. I really, really, really, really, [823 reallies cut for space and reasonability], really wanted to take pictures for you. *hangs her head in shame*), but there were a number of flowers in pots arranged for show, so it didn't occur to me that I had gone to the wrong place. I still got to see some interesting flower arrangements (one looked really cool from all sides), and a guy was showing off his tree and talking some about raising it. I couldn't really understand what he was saying, but the tree was about 15 years old in all its 10-inch glory.

Something that the teachers for both sadoubu and ikebana club have indicated is that they intend to gift me with some of the necessary tools for practicing their arts, since they assume I will have trouble obtaining them in the states (a pretty good assumption; I have seen some of the tea ceremony stuff on eBay, but not everything and often with insane shipping charges because they'll only ship FedEx Air Mail to Alaska or some crap like that). This, while awesome, was not something I expected, and I get a weird feeling up my spine when I wonder how much they're spending on this.

In drama club... well, whoever was supposed to reserve the small hall for us to use didn't do a very good job. Given the plan last I knew it, we have two chances to use it before we perform. Two. And two only. It's ugly. But I found out that we DO, in fact, have a searing light, which makes it possible to effectively spotlight someone center stage. The reason no one mentioned it until I was like, "OK, I need to go to the hall and see what all we have to work with or we can't get anything else done with lights," was that since the running lights are broken, they have been using it to light the actors' faces from the front -- it's that or have the actors only use the back half of the stage, which makes sense, but I'm pretty sure that with some tricky handling on the operator's part that the light can serve both functions.

My Laws of Harmony class is friggin' awesome in every way, shape, and form. The stuff is hard, but the more I do it, the more automatic it becomes and the better I get at spotting the usual mistakes I make. Huzzah!

Realizations of the Period

1) There's not enough Engrish in my blog.
2) Some of the best alcohol in the world comes out of Japan. What do the Japanese drink? Beer.
2b) I don't know what makes me sadder -- the fact that they chose such a horrible alcohol, or the fact that that's a metaphor for their entire society.
3) I have seen three beards since coming to Japan. One is on an Australian. One was on a guy playing a criminal in a play, and I am guessing he grew it for the play. The third is on the [awesome] owner and bartender of a small bar named ひげ [Hige], which is Japanese for beard.

The Butterfly, The Spider, and Three Lights

2006-06-04T12:50:00.000+09:00

There's a little butterfly inside my head. I couldn't tell you what color it is, because when it comes to play it flits by so fast I can't see the color. But it leaves whispers in its wake.

"Holy shit, Lena -- you understand what they're saying!"

Yeah, that's right. A thought that floats through at completely random intervals and occasionally makes me lose track of the whole conversation.

Bloglight Japan: Hanami

The word hanami literally means "flower viewing". Every spring the sakura bloom and their petals fall, and the Japanese go out in droves to have picnics for the occasion. Family picnics, company picnics, club picnics, picnics with their fellows in the same major in college, etc. Special spring-themed candies are made and everyone has a good time.

The official hanami holiday is May 1. However, the sakura seem to be somewhat sensitive to the weather; the earliest-blooming sakura (in the southern part of Japan) bloom in late April, while Hokkaido get their sakura blooming near the end of March. The Japanese keep track of when the sakura bloom where every year, and there has been a trend towards it blooming later and later. (Global warming says what, now?)

The sakura petals only stay on the tree for maybe a week. I didn't expect them to fall that swiftly, and didn't get any pictures taken. :'( The petals are a very pale pink -- paler than I expected. I think the petals darkened a bit when they fell of the trees, though, but I couldn't say for sure.

{End Bloglight}

Thursday was the anniversary of the school's founding, so it was an in-service day. As such, a number of the groups in school were having hanami picnics in the nearby parks. The Gaiken was no exception, though by that time the petals had all fallen off the trees and there were no flowers to see. It was a lot of fun, regardless. At first, it was the third years and me... somehow we all still thought it started at noon when everyone else thought it started at 1 PM.

It clouded up a bit later, but at first it was very sunny and quite warm. One guy ran to the store and got us all ice cream. We had a rock-paper-scissors- fest to see who picked their ice cream first from the pile of random ice creams. I was fifth or something, and got an orange cream thingy. While I was eating it, a spider dropped from the tree above us onto the edge of my ice cream.

Anyone who's known me for a while knows that when I suddenly find a spider right next to me or on my person, I have a SHAKE IT OFF panic attack accompanied by a long string of profanity. Most of the people that were there are studying English, so they knew what I was saying. That was interesting. No one seemed to really mind per se, but I think I surprised them.

When we got everyone together and got started, I found out why summer festivals in Japan always include fans. The Japanese have apparently not considered putting lighter fluid on charcoal to make it catch fire faster, so everyone sits around fanning the tinder madly trying to make the coal catch. That was kind of fun, but what was even more fun was putting griddles over the coals once they were going well enough, then cooking the food. They had bought pre-prepared meat from a meat store (sliced to chopstick-edible size, marinated, and split into a number of packages corresponding to the number of griddles), so once they took out the chucks of lard (yes, lard) and greased the griddles down, we started tossing massive amounts of marinated meat, vegetables, and noodles on the grill. Man, oh, man, was that tasty.

Even though it was midafternoon, there was beer and other minor alcoholic drinks to go around with the juices and tea. I drank a bit (didn't even feel it much), but Asa got drunk. He was like, "How about that rematch?" He was already ruddy-faced when he suggested it, and since that's not really a fair match I used the convenient excuse of having a meeting later that day to put it off.

The meeting in question was regarding the play for drama club. Specifically, the lighting. I didn't get a part, so I am on lighting duty. It's one of the few jobs that my limited command of Japanese is good for. Unfortunately for us, however, most of the lights on the stage here no longer work. Yuuji thinks it could be as simple as a popped breaker, but years of begging the student council to do something about the lights has proven ineffective. The breakers (since they are the breakers) are behind locked doors, and for some reason no one has gone to look. If the lights are actually broken, I don't even want to know how much trouble that might be.

In short, we have three lights. Three plain ol' yellow suspension lights. We can't even control all three separately, as there are only two lighting switches. So. We are gonna see if we can't achieve a spotlight-ish effect by having the central light on one switch and the lights on the sides on the other switch. Here's hoping.

Realizations of the Period

1) I am never gonna get used to cars stopping at crosswalks when I am not even halfway across the street or am not even in the street yet. For crying out loud, people, you have plenty of time to get through without hitting me!
2) If you take music classes, those classes will be about western music for the most part. This is true in most countries, and Japan is no exception. Part of the reason I wanted to take music classes here is because I knew this and wanted to learn the vocabulary as well as continue my music studies. Well, last semester, the music class I took had nothing to do with western music. This semester, I mentioned that I got a crash course in reading music -- being able to look at a note and identifying it as A, B, C, D, E, F, or G -- because I didn't have enough of a grasp on the Do-Re-Mi in a scale to use that in understanding what the teacher said. Well... it turns out the Japanese don't call them A-G like we do. They call the notes Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La, and Ti exclusively, with Do being C. OMG.