Quantum of suck

I have to say I am quite disappointed. I have been waiting for this film to come out for quite awhile. I saw that they had the Japanese premiere this week so I was really excited to go drop $20 on a ticket. I looked everywhere for movie times before I found out that it isn't being released until January 24!! I am sad today. I will buy some Krispy Kreme to make my weekend a little more enjoyable now.

Japanese Drinks

After hearing about Pepsi's cucumber flavored drink introduced for the summer of 2007, I have been on the hunt for something interesting to try. There is no more cucumber, and this past summer's special was Blue Pepsi, which was just a Hawaiian blend. This fall they introduced Pepsi White and you can see the taste test below. I also found a curry flavored drink which can also be seen under the Pepsi video.

I looked everywhere for Eel juice, but I only saw one guy drinking it, and I was a bit intimidated by his Yakuza tattoos and large entourage to make a feeble attempt at Japanese and ask him where he got it. That was an ugly sentence. Enjoy.

t-shirts

I have seen a few strange t-shirts in my time overseas. If you look at the top of your browser window you may see a strange sentence, that was from a t-shirt. I saw these 2 letters on one elementary student's shirt and it reminded me of a former roommates favorite website.


I hope those that celebrate it have a nice Thanksgiving. I had my own little meal a little while ago. I took pictures, so you can relive the experience anytime you want.

UPDATE: My boss asked me to take the video down until I can edit bits out, like the location of said nutjob neighbor. So until I get around to it, you will not be able to see it again and again.

Well, here it is! The long awaited neighbor video. I am only showing the part where she is accusing me of taking "drags". I feel like this is my Medellin, lots of hype, but will fall way short of expectations.

Soy Sauce

The other week a elementary student missed my class because she had to go on a field trip. When I found out where she went, I felt bad for her. I think there would be tons of places for kids to go, maybe a whale blubber factory, or a geisha training class. This poor girl got stuck going to a soy sauce factory.

I go to Japanese class once a week. I am not learning much (due to my complete lack of interest) but I feel like I am being productive, so I continue to go. The class is given by the community center and only costs $10 a month, I m losing money by not going (actually, that arguement only seems to work when talking about drinking beer in Czech). As it is a community center class, they also want to introduce us to Japan and all things related to it. We were told that there was a field trip planned, can you guess where we went?

After an hour or so train ride that consisted of people trying to speak Japanese to me before giving up and using their broken English (which is pretty good) to talk with me or just moved on to someone else, we arrived at the Kikkoman Soy Sauce factory.

The town smelled of soy sauce, and looked like a sad little area whose day had long since passed. We made our way into the building pausing along the way for many group pictures. When we got inside we were greeted by a large soy sauce server thing and the gift shop which sold horrible soy sauce candies. I thought about buying some, but after having a sample quickly changed my mind. If you want to recreat the experience, just put a small marble and a spoonful of soy sauce in your mouth and swish it around for a few minutes. Yum.


Everyone was soon ushered into a small theater where we got to watch the miracle of soy sauce making. The movie was more scary than interesting, but I did learn that 100% of soy sauce making material comes from North America.

I hit a button by accident and cut off the best/scariest part of the whole movie

After the movie we got the grand tour which was basically walking through cream painted hallways of nothingness.

The creaminess is blinding

I did get to see some bits and pieces of the soy sauce making process, but none of it was running at the time, so it was just looking at a big machine doing nothing. I was hoping to see some assembly line magic: smooth, glistening virgin plastic bottles flying down the line, empty one second, filled tagged and ready to ship the next. No such luck.

The only real positive about the entire trip (if you don't count the free bottle of soy sauce) was that I got to better know the cute Filipina girl who is in a different class.

Yay! Free stuff!

The class "shufus" (housewives)

Birthday

After I have had a week to clear out the cobwebs, I can now write about what happened.

First I met 2 of my friends for some "happy time" drinks at a bar. It was billed as drinks at ½ price, but after we got there found out that it was one drink at ½ price for every plate of food you ordered. We promptly left and headed over to a Japanese style bar called an izakaiya.

An izakaiya is a stale place where you sit in small booths with doors. It feels more like a restaurant than a bar. The only good thing about it is most have buttons on the table that you press to call the waitress. Izakaiyas are everywhere.

One friend suggested we go to a Filipino bar that has all you can drink for $20 an hour. I was game so he hopped on he train and headed to the bar. Turns out it was a hostess bar. Hostess bars are places where men go and where women who work for the establishment talk to you and get you to buy them overpriced drinks. My friend suggested a Filipina bar because they speak English. After 30 minutes the girls get up and move to another table, only to be replaced with a fresh set of girls. Most of the girls I talked to said they didn't like the job and were searching for a factory job or something else. Nice girls, I hope things get better for them.

It is supposed to just be talking, but once it was known we were leaving (after a couple hours there) they started to get a little frisky and and ask us if we wanted sex. This would happen in a Japanese hostess bar...or so I was told. I said "no" to the offer.

I missed the last train home and had to sleep on some Japanese guy's floor. I just met the guy that night, but he paid for all of the Filipina bar expenses (such as buying the girls overpriced drinks). My old apartment was twice the size of his.

Not the best post, but watching football (Tech is getting destroyed) is not helping my concentration.

I found this video on Japan Probe (a great site for the likes of me who can't understand the language so well yet). The video gives a small taste of what fashion life is like for Japanese shufu (housewives). Just ignore what has got to be the most boring reporter ever.

My favorite comment about the their stress packed lives was this:

Life of the average nihonjin [Japanese]:
6am wake.
610 eat rice and miso soup
620 poop
630 run to train
645-750 sleep on train
800 punch in and stare at desk for two hours
1000 bathroom and vending machine break
1010 do one hour of real work
1110 stare at desk and wait for lunch
1230 lunch time (sleep on a park bench or in car)
1330 return to desk, stare at it for one hour
1430 bathroom break - run to combini[convenience store] for a bento[boxed lunch].
1445 return to desk, eat bento
1515 time for another hour of work
1615 bathroom
1620 40 minutes of work
1700 stare at desk and wait for the manager to go home
1900 manager leaves
1901 run to train
1915-2020 sleep on train
2022 get picked up at local station by family member
2040 eat dinner and watch TV
2130 bath
2200 go to bed.

Still at it

I had an interesting night out for my birthday, I will write more about it in an upcoming post. I want to make sure what really happened, did actually happen before I put finger to keyboard.

I am completely moved in and at some point will give you the grand tour sometime in the near future. But for now it is nice not having to hear the old woman jumping about. Instead I get to hear her calling my school!

That is right, Kusobaba called my school the past two evenings. She was ranting on about all types of things, but the key bits were that my boss (55+ year old grandmother) is my girlfriend and that she smells the drugs I am taking. The strange thing is that she is smelling it even though I already moved out. The boss is recording her phone calls and has her say the date and time when she smelled me doing the deed. Unfortunately I had been moved out for 3 days by that time. Today's call had Kusobaba saying she will call all of the other schools in the company and tell them I do "drags" and am dating my boss.

I think I would freak out if I tried to do drugs in this country. Have you seen what some of the people look like?

It's my birthday

So enjoy these puppies.


Free live streaming by Ustream

Moving

I finally get to move, and it is not soon enough. The kusobaba has been quite energetic lately. I found that she seems to make more noise after I cook some chicken in my toaster oven and turn on the fan. I think she can smell it. Can you smell what theSkaht™ is cooking?!

I should be all settled in by Sunday. My boss has a little car that we are going to have to make many trips in to move my few belongings. I guess that is better than putting the fridge on my back and carrying it Sherpa style.

I tried to get a bank account this week but ran up against the racism wall again. I was told that since it was a small bank this was excusable. While trying to do anything but study Japanese I came across this site. On it is posted a scanned high school yearbook from 1944-45. It is from a Japanese internment camp in California. Even the US has its growing pains.

My week in pictures

Dad stopped by the country for a few fun hours.

I am being stalked by a crazy woman.

Salarymen like to pick their nose and flick it anywhere.

I was in need of soap. This is the only kind I could find.

What I carry with me everywhere.

What could the answers be to the crossword at the bottom?



Another McDonald's photo- her eyes, they follow you.

Not an emotional guy, but this had an effect on me.

Hat tip to Grendel via here.

She is fukt up.

Well, I officially have a stalker now. The old lady neighbor (whom shall be referred to as "Kusobaba" from here on out) stopped by my school today. she knocked on the door, opened it to say "I know where your school is" then left.

Kusobaba getting some fresh air

My boss lady finally saw the need to move to a higher source than the apartment management and called the city. They said they will take her to a hospital this week. I said call the cops, but they are hesitant to do that since she is so insane.

I am still trying to figure out what I did to make her angry at me. But this has encouraged me to post the film I made of her calling me a terrorist and what not. I will deliver it to city hall myself if need be.

On the plus side, I was told that I am 100% getting a new apartment next weekend. It is by no means my dream place, but it is only a 1 minute walk to work and a 2 minute walk to the train station. It has 2 rooms, but one of those is a loft bedroom which I know I will break a bone or two falling from the ladder one evening after a few drinks. It is a bigger version of "the boat house" aka "Donna's house" aka "Scott's house" in Maine. I will not be able to stand up straight in the shower and only have one electric burner to cook on. That last bit will have to be changed somehow. Electric burners suck ass. ASS!!

My Apartment Search Philosophy

I thought I wouldn't be able to sleep while you were all choosing the next President. I actually slept better than I normally do.

Election

It is interesting and scary hearing about people voting. I am shocked to hear that people are voting for the other candidate and even more shocked they are telling people about it! I am sure they would have the same feelings about me.

Japan is gearing up for the big day as well...

As one might expect, Obama town in Fukui prefecture is preparing an election day party to celebrate Barack Obama’s victory:

Banners with Obama ’s picture hang on lampposts across the town, where a statue of the senator clad in a Stars and Stripes necktie and a Japanese-style headband that says “I love Obama” now greets residents and visitors.

A year ago, the world of US politics was far from the minds of most residents here. But now they plan to hold a watch party on November 5 when, accounting for the time zone difference, the election results will come in.

Some 50 Obama residents are honing their skills in hula dancing, hoping to put on an Election Day show in tribute to Obama’s original home of Hawaii. The “Obama girls” even travelled to Honolulu to take part in a competition.

“His name is the same as the City of Obama so I’m naturally sympathetic towards him. But I also like him very much,” said dancer Kiyomi Takahashi, wearing an “I Love Obama” T-shirt.

Meanwhile, in nearby Fukui City, the company that made the frames for Sarah Palin’s glasses is hoping for the increased sales that might come with a McCain victory:

CEO Satoru Masunaga is cheering for the hardline conservative vice-presidential candidate who, according to a company spokeswoman, has already delivered “a positive effect” to the 103-year-old brand, founded by Mr Masunaga’s grandfather.

In a recent interview with The New Yorker magazine, the CEO described the MP-704 model as “middle-class” but said that it made the 44-year-old mother of five look like “a real politician. She looks intelligent.”

The designer of the frames, Kazuo Kawasaki, said that although he was “quite right-wing” and approved of many of the Alaskan Governor’s political sentiments, he would prefer not to take sides.

Up until August, when Mrs Palin was chosen to join John McCain’s Republican campaign, Mr Masunaga reportedly sold 500 of the MP-704 glasses a month in the US. Since September, more than 10,000 orders have flooded in.

The above was taken word for word from Japan Probe, a great site for others to learn about the country and for me to take things from and put on my site.

I faxed my vote in, I wonder if it will count?

On a completely different topic, Yay Japan and its fetishes! (you might want to keep the sound down before you hit play)

Though I didn't have a good week as far as accommodations go, I did find out my least favorite student quit (not because of me!), and it wasn't nearly as bad as it was for those at Ueno Zoo.




Also, I learned to hold my camera staedy! (hint: It's all in the elbows!)