4:44 AM

craziness!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

well, a little late.
sorry if it's been a bit boring on here of late, I've been enjoying my relaxing time at home, and also trying to get over my jet lag (mostly successful on that score, altho I'm still on this whole "bed at 10, up at 8" thing that's very new and weird to me. not sure how i feel about it).

got a new laptop for christmas!!!!! santa loves me! ^_^

anyway, i don't really have much to report, since i'm not in japan at the moment, but as it's friday, i thought i'd go ahead and update the video of the week anyway--also since the T&T vid seems to have suffered an unscheduled disappearance (something about copyright...lol. anyway, it got removed from youtube. so.)

new video:
Antic Cafe, "Ryuusei Rocket"

HILARIOUS!

5:32 PM

and this will be an even busier one...

I go home for Christmas on Sunday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OK, now that's out of my system...
Lol.

But this will probably be my last post before I go home. I'm going in to Shibuya tonight to meet Rebecca's' friend from UNC, who's in Tokyo doing research. So we're going to have dinner somewhere around there, and that should be a lot of fun.
Then, tomorrow, bright and early, I have to haul ass over to the budokan for the 月例会 monthly kyudo tournament. Since it's a morning one, it will probably last all day--I wouldn't be surprised if I don't get home until around 5pm?
Then, I'm most likely meeting Molly, Misa, and perhaps some others for an okonomiyaki dinner, and then potentially another trip to Thrash Zone?

Oh, right! I forgot! So last night (Thursday), in honor of being done with class and all the tests, I went out with Jason, Molly, Katie, Felicia, and Tim to this place Molly found near Yokohama eki called "Thrash Zone."
Molly wanted to go there because, according to the description online, it was a "thrash metal bar" with a "cozy atmosphere," wood paneling, and a plant in the corner.
.... and that appealed to her sense of humor.
It's also a microbrew place, which is fairly rare in Japan, so we were looking forward to getting the chance to try some truly yummy beers, as well. And we were not disappointed, in any respect.
Thrash Zone turned out to be this absolutely tiny place on the 2nd floor of a rundown building. It was certainly cozy though, and apart from lots of Iron Maiden-esque record covers decorating the walls and Ozzy playing (very quietly and politely) in the background, it wasn't terribly "thrashy." The place was also mostly salaryman-types--including this one 社長 who had lived in Boston and was very excited about speaking English with us. Felicia got stuck talking to him (sorry!) but Molly, Jason, and I ended up down at the other end of the bar and had a really interesting conversation with these two thirtysomething guys who seemed to be somewhat regulars. They were really nice, though, and didn't make any attempts to speak English with us, so it was good practice.

So anyway, it's been a busy several days, and will continue to be so, right up until I leave, I feel. But I'll try to post again a couple of times when I get home--though it will be break, so don't expect much.


One last thing:
this week's video!
Takky & Tsubasa, "Samurai"

not exactly "traditional" in that sense, but...
Lol.
feel the love. i know you do.

5:11 PM

it was a busy weekend...

Karaoke!

Sunday afternoon Jason, Misa, Marshall and I got together again with the kids from HamaDai to go to karaoke and dinner. Molly was sposed to come too, but she got sick. :-(
We got to see Ai and Naoko again, as well as Jacky (the Chinese exchange student who was also one of our guides at the festival)--although Yan couldn't make it this time, which was kind of sad.
But we had a lot of fun! I even attempted a couple of Japanese songs--to varying degrees of success, lol. Although I do think I managed the Monpachi song relatively well. (I've certainly sung along to the CD in my room enough times.)

Here's a picture! (which for some reason didn't turn out all that great...oh, well). L-R is : Ai, Misa, Jacky, Naoko, Jacky's cousin (didn't speak English or Japanese, just Chinese), Marshall, and Jason.

After karaoke, we went out to dinner (minus Jacky and his cousin) at a yakiniku (literally "grilled meat") place near the station. YUM! They bring little grill-things over to each table, you order whatever kind of (raw) meat/veggies you want, and then cook it yourself at the table. In addition to being delicious, it's also a lot of fun!
Here's a photo I took of Naoko, Misa (middle), and Ai. Everyone is, of course, doing the obligatory two-fingers thing (I'm not sure if they call it a peace sign here, I don't think it has that association)--can't take a photo in Japan without one.

4:51 PM

picspam time! (a.k.a. I'M DONE!!!!!!)

So, here's some photos and items of interest that I've been storing up lately, lol.

First off, last week I went over to the Aka Renga to do my Christmas shopping. For those of you who remember, Aka Renga where they set up the tents for Oktoberfest before. It's basically this big collection of old brick warehouses that have been turned into shops and restaurants. It's down by the harbor, in between Pacifico and 山下公園 Yamashita Park. And, in honor of Christmas, they'd set up this cute little skating rink outside, sort of like a mini-Rockefeller Center. Lol. (It really is pretty small.)

Also, Thank you, Light Fellowship!!
Haha, now that I've gotten that out of my system, Adam from the Light office came with his wife and daughter to Japan last week, doing site visits and stuff.
The Yalies (me, Jason, Jeff, and Byol) met up with them in Shibuya last Saturday night, and got treated to a fabulous dinner at a restaurant called Gonpachi, which I guess is the same one the summer fellows took Dean Farley to when he came to visit back in August.
We didn't have much time to take photos (I tried to take some of the inside of the restaurant, but it was too dark), so this is my attempt at a night view of Shibuya from the 15th floor.

1:51 PM

It's that time of the week again

New video!
みつき 「大切なもの」
Mitsuki, "Something Important"

She looks like a 12 year old boy, but has the most amazing voice.
Also, apparently this song was the theme to some movie, so the video has scenes from that.

12:30 PM

just the weekly stuffs

so, in IJ--the book for morning class--the chapters alternate between Written and Conversation sections. which is really good cause it means you get practice in both more formal, written expressions/constructions, as well as more casual spoken styles. well, i guess that's the point.
so, we've been on the Convo section of chapter 2 this week, which means lots of focus on casual sentence patterns and getting proper intonation and stuff (ya~y! cause that's my strong point! can i just say how much i love it when we're not reading things? like when we get to do videos in afternoon class, instead of newspaper articles)
and i had kind of a nice boost on friday when Senda-sensei mentioned to me that compared with when she was my afternoon teacher 1st term, she thought that my speaking and intonation and stuff had really improved since then! XD so that totally made my day. i was sort of feeling like i'd been getting better, but it's nice to be told that by someone who can be an actual objective judge of your performance. and i firmly maintain that at least part of said improvement is thanks to my J-dorama habit. also, Senda-sensei found out that I'm going back to Raleigh for christmas, and has requested an ACC handbook as an omiyage. LoL ^.^

Friday after class was super busy but lots of fun. i took off right as soon as class got out at 3, to go over and meet Sato Masako (from my kyudo club at the budokan) at yokohama eki, because she's actually the kyudo sensei at a high school around there. the last tournament, i was talking to her about how i had done kyudo back in the states when i was in high school, and she asked if i would come over one day and talk to her students about my experiences. so i got to do that on friday! she actually wanted me to talk to them in english, since they're all learning it but never get a chance to practice speaking it. so, i did my little intro talk in english, then went back and sort of summarized it in japanese, cause i'm really not sure how much they understood. then Sato-san wanted them all to come over and introduce themselves, and talk to me a little in english. they were all sooooo embarrassed, it was actually rather cute. i tried to talk to them in english a bit, but nobody really seemed comfortable with it, and they all knew that i spoke japanese, so it mostly ended up being that. but it was still fun.
oh! and an even better thing--one of the other sensei at the high school is actually a hanshi (there's no "higher" after that) and so i got to have him correct my shooting a bit--joy! i learned a few things that i didn't even realize i'd been doing wrong, and i actually got the bow to do almost a full yugaeri! it went like halfway around, which i've *never* gotten it to do before. ちょう~嬉しい! let's just hope i can keep it up from now on. oh, and it turns out that this hanshi sensei was actually in the States for the testing seminar in SC this past summer--so he met Dan-sensei! i swear, every time i meet a kyudo person in Japan, they know Dan-sensei, or know someone who does...it just makes me realize again how lucky I was to get to study there.

i left the high school at about 5:30 (actually had to cut out of their practice a little early) and hopped the Minato Mirai-sen right back to Queen's, because at 6 was Ari-sensei's (my advisor) "Happy Just-Married" party. she's married to a former IUC student...oooOOoohh. as is Aoki-sensei, incidentally--there was a card passed around for everyone to sign, and i saw that he had written "Welcome to AIMY--Association of International Marriages, Yokohama." LOL. oh the things we find to amuse ourselves...
anyway, there were lots of people there--Ari-sensei's family (her dad kept going around trying to shove drinks and food into people's hands--he wasn't satisfied unless everyone had a drink in each hand and, preferably, several plates on their laps), most of the IUC sensei/staff (Matsumoto-sensei was, as usual, popping out of corners, snapping awkward photos of people all evening), and all of Ari-sensei's current students and advisees. a good time was had by all.
oh, and Sano-sensei caught me at one point, to let me know she had gotten a コルティナさん、よろしく mail from Stever-sensei (my 3rd-year japanese teacher at Yale). it was kind of loud and i was totally not in the thinking-of-yale mindset, so at first i didn't realize who she was talking about. it was kind of embarrassing when i was finally like "oh, yes! Stever-sensei was my teacher at Yale!" and Sano-sensei's kind of got this "...and you forgot her already...?" expression. lol. oh, well.

oh, and saturday i went out to start my christmas shopping (managed to put a decent dent in it, i think. it's hard tho). then i met up with Matsuzawa-sensei to go to this place in Landmark that was having a kimono sale (even on sale they're expensive). and this was a for-real place, where they show you all the patterns individually, and drape things around you... i think Matsuzawa-sensei just wanted someone to go with. it was neat, but we didn't stay for long. Matsuzawa-sensei kept talking about how last time, they had other things too, like tabi for really cheap. so i think that's what she'd intended to go for.
oh, but they also had this very odd noodle promotion going on. by the desk, there were several jars of bowtie noodles, elbow macaroni, things like that--and for 20 yen you got a small bag to fill up with as many noodles as it would hold. it was great, and i'll definitely be eating them for supper sometime soon but...... I'm not really sure what noodles have to do with a kimono sale. oh well, i guess a bargain is a bargain.

and here i will end what has become rather a long post. also, it's sunday and i was therefore feeling rather lazy--so apologies for the relative lack of capitalization and appropriate punctuation in the above ramblings.

1:00 AM

*sniff sniff*

new Video of the Week:
Orange Range, "Sayonara"

Great song from one of my favorite Japanese groups (tho this isn't exactly representative of their usual).
This video seriously made me bawl the first time I watched it.
There's some dialogue to it, but basically all you need to know, is the lines at the beginning of the video:
"October 25, 2006...I died."


(If you want to know more, drop me a line and I'll give you a rough translation, but that's all I'm putting in here for now.)

6:29 PM

the times we live in?

I don't think I've mentioned this in the blog yet, but I decided after all to go home for Christmas (15 days to go, yay!)
Because of that, I had to go down to the Immigration Office after school today to get my 再入国許可 Re-Entry Permit, so that I could actually come back to Japan after my break is done. Lol.
While I waited for my paperwork to be processed, this video was playing on repeat, in several languages, on TV screens all around the room.

The video highlights Japan's new security policy, implemented as of Nov. 1 this year, the gist of which is that in an attempt to combat terrorism, all foreigners entering Japan will be fingerprinted and photographed. This includes not just tourists, but also foreigners resident in Japan--so in other words, when I come back to Yokohama in January, my fingerprints will be on file with the Japanese government. The beginning of the video describes the procedures for how the fingerprints will be taken, and then the bulk of the rest shows footage from the 9/11 attcks, the London Underground bombings, and various other terrorist incidents, implying that by fingerprinting all foreigners Japan will be able to protect itself from such things.

I've got to admit, it's a little bit of an unnerving thought, although from what I understand it's not all that different from the current "US Visit" system for foreigners entering the states. There hasn't been as much discussion about the policy here as you might think--other than the Tourist Office being worried that the new procedures will discourage people from traveling to Japan. But it's big news in the expat/blog community, where words like "discrimination" and "interrogation" get tossed around frequently, with other people proclaiming that the new policy has caused them to cut Japan out of their travel plans.

Having not experienced the process firsthand, I don't really know what I think yet. I wouldn't go so far to say it's a reason to stay away from Japan, but I do understand the feelings, for instance, of people who are longtime, tax-paying residents and now must have their fingerprints on file. Especially in a country where most people don't own any kind of photo identification (and aren't required to), and the most common form of ID is a Health Insurance card.

Anyway, like I said, I'm not sure what I think about all this yet, really, but I just thought I'd share.

9:46 PM

文楽 (oh! i forgot!)

Today we got out of class at 11:30, because there was a field trip! Well, only those of use who signed up went, but.
We took the train into Tokyo to the National Japan Theater to go and see a 文楽 bunraku performance. Bunraku is Japanese puppet theater, but don't go imagining Pinocchio or muppets or anything. The style of the plays and the performances themselves take a lot from Kabuki and Noh theater, and so are very traditional in that way. Just, instead of people in masks, you have puppets performing the action. The puppets are fairly large, around 3 feet tall I'd guess, and incredibly intricate and expressive. I was really amazed how much range they could give, even down to being able to pick things up with the hands, or raising and lowering the eyebrows. Each puppet is manipulated by 3 people (that's right, 3!) who carry it around onstage. The main person operates the head/face and right hand; a second person is the left hand; and the third person is the feet/legs. The main puppeteer wears a traditional hakama and kimono, but the other two people are dressed all in black, with executioner-style black hoods so you can't even see their faces. The puppets don't actually do any talking. Instead, the dialogue and narration are sung, kabuki-style, by the narrator who sits off to the side of the stage, accompanied by a shamisen player.
The beginning part of the performance was really neat--it started off with a dance performed by two puppets, and then the puppeteers came out and gave an explanation of the various movements, and how the puppets are manipulated. That was really interesting, especially talking about the differences in movement between male and female puppets, &c. After a while, you really stop seeing them as puppets in such an obvious way.
After that, they did a famous scene from one of the bunraku plays, which was interesting but extremely difficult to understand. Like I said before, all the dialogue and narration is done speak-singing style by one person, so for starters it was hard for me to get a sense of who was talking when. The lines were projected above the stage, like what's typically done in opera, but the entire play is written in old Japanese--the same as when it was originally written however-long ago. Which means that even the Japanese in the audience had rented these headphone-devices that translated the play into modern Japanese for them. So of course I had no hope of understanding anything, though we were given an English synopsis of the play.
...I have to admit i nodded off a bit. But then, so did about half of the audience--I gather that this is rather common, if not expected, especially in Noh--so I don't feel quite so bad.

9:16 PM

picking classes? without shopping them first!?!

This week we also found out about the plan for 3rd term, which starts up in January, after the break.
Up til now, we've been having simple morning class (grammar-focused) and afternoon class (newspaper articles, videos, current events discussion), the same every day. But apparently during 3rd and 4th term at IUC, you get to choose from a variety of elective-type classes, so the curriculum becomes more tailored to students' particular interests. So this week we got the information about the different options, and picked our top choices. There are three groups of courses plus another set of optional after-school courses that you can opt in to.
Group A (pick 1):
政治・経済 Business/Economics
美術史 Art History
文学 Literature
文化人類学 Anthropology
法律 Law
歴史学 History/Historiography

Group B (pick 1):
Reading
Listening
Speaking
Business Japanese

Group III (pick 1): [no, I don't know why it's III and not C, it just is]
現代史 Modern History
大衆文化 Popular Culture
ビジネス・社会 Business/Society

Optional Classes:
書道 Calligraphy (Shodo)
古筆 Old-style Writing
文語文法専門 Classical Japanese
ビジネス Business

So, the ones I picked were Literature (A), Business Japanese (B), and Popular Culture (III). In the optional classes, I'm continuing on with shodo, which I've been taking this semester at IUC, too (I've mentioned that, right?). I also checked the box for the optional business course, because it might be interesting; I was a little worried about whether it would be over my head, but Ari-sensei said I can just go to the first lecture and see what I think, so I figure I might as well give it a shot. I didn't really have any trouble deciding the other stuff--since I'm not in any way grad school bound, anything I do in relation to Japan after IUC would definitely be work-related, so Business Japanese was a no-brainer. And since 1) I'm interested in publishing, and 2) my reading skills could use some work--the Literature course is definitely the best thing for me out of A-group (altho the Anthropology also sounded neat).
The way the schedule will work, we'll have A-group M/Th mornings; B-group F morning; and III-group in the afternoon (except Wed when we have afternoons off, like now). Tu/W mornings, we'll be continuing on with IJ, which is the grammar textbook we're using in our current morning class, so I guess that will be pretty much the same type of deal as now.
It sounds like a lot of work on paper, but as I've mentioned before, it's supposedly easier than 2nd term, so... We'll see. I'm looking forward to the change of pace.

8:25 PM

Asakusa + Kyudo

This past Saturday, I went with Matsuzawa-sensei to this kyudo thing in Asakusa. I still don't exactly understand what was going on, but it was for some kind of matsuri (didn't catch the details).
At any rate, it's an annual event--I guess you'd call it a tournament, although there's no "winner" in that sense. The tournament goes over 2 days, with people showing up at the dojo all day. You sign up when you arrive, they give you a number, and then when your number comes up, you get to go and shoot 4 arrows (in kyudo, called 四つ矢 yotsuya). Like in Western archery, the arrows are scored based on where on they target they hit--although this is rather unusual in kyudo, where it's usually a question of if you hit the target, not where. Then, the people with the several highest scores (I'm not sure how many, really) get some sort of prize, and you can win a kendama if you hit the bullseye.
I met Matsuzawa-sensei at Ohkurayama, on the Toyoko-sen, and we went together from there to Asakusa (cause I would've had no idea how to get there). We arrived at the dojo a little before 3pm, and were given #406 and 407, respectively. Since they were only on #300 when we got there, we didn't actually get in to shoot until a littlel after 5. I did pretty well. It was a really small dojo, and they were shooting 6 at a time, so it was more cramped than I was used to and I kept hitting the people in front of and behind me with my bow (lol), but I managed to get 10 points! The scoring went: 3pts, 5, 7, and 10 for the bullseye--I got two 5's, first and last arrows!

After we finished shooting, Matsuzawa-sensei took me to this really amazing restaurant in Asakusa to have どじょう dojou, which is apparently a bit of an Asakusa 名物 specialty, that you can only get in a few places. This restaurant is called 駒形どぜう Komagata Dozeu (dozeu being another name for dojou), and it's been around since 1801, specializing in dojou--it's actually all they serve. It's a very nostalgic-feeling restaurant, with low tables, where you sit on cushions on the straw-mat floor. And the food is nabe-style, where you cook it over a burner at the table.
Speaking of the food, I didn't really understand what dojou was (Matsuzawa-sensei kept saying that it was "like a baby eel," but I didn't understand if that meant it was a baby eel, or just looked kind of like that...). At any rate, it tastes very similar to unagi, which I LOVE, it's one of my favorite foods, so that was enough for me. For those who are curious, I've since found out (thanks to Wikipedia, both English and Japanese versions--Japanese wikipedia is just as cool, btw) that dojou is actually a type of loach, which is a small freshwater eel.
At Komagata, they bring you a small skillet filled with dojou, which you place over the burner and then cover with negi-onions, literally to the point where there's a mountain of negi on the skillet, and you can't see the fish at all. You let it cook for a while, pouring this sauce over it, and then eat! It was really good, and I'm soooooooo thankful to Matsuzawa-sensei for taking me (and treating me). She's seriously the sweetest person ever, and has really become like a second grandma to me here, always treating me to things, giving me food, checking to make sure I'm eating properly ("not just パン bread"). ^_^

We also walked by the famous Asakusa temple on our way to the restaurant, and it was huge and really beautiful. It was night by that time, so I don't have any pictures, but hopefully I'll go back sometime, and then I promise lots of photos.

11:42 AM

Video time!

new Video of the Week~ song is "Biscuit".

And before you ask, no I don't know what the heck is going on in the video, I really don't think it's supposed to make any sort of sense. Yuki's just kind of quirky like that. But she's adorable, and has a really unique voice, which I think is fun to listen to.

So--enjoy! (or not. lol)

11:20 AM

Yokohama Mary ヨコハマメリー

This is a preview for the documentary that we watched in class. (Don't worry, it's in English)

10:53 AM

dropping like flies...

So, it seems I'm not the only one who's been having a little trouble keeping up with everything lately, and this week it all really just came to a head. I think it must be some combo of exhaustion and the extreme winter-ness which has become apparent in recent weeks. But whatever the reason, about half of IUC was sick this week. In my class alone, there were 2 people out every day this week (and not always the same two people); on Thursday, in Connor's morning class, he was the only one there; and yesterday afternoon, poor Aoki-sensei looked like he really would rather have been at home, in bed. So far all is well for me, but I'm seriously feeling like it's only a matter of time--we've all kind of got that "Who's going to be next?" feeling.

Speaking of Friday, tho, we did have a bit of a break in the no afternoon class sense. Instead, we had one of our periodic special lecture things, which this time was a movie showing. The movie is a documentary called "Yokohama Mary," all about this woman known as Yokohama Mary, who was always hanging around in Isezaki Mall (cf post about where I live!). She'd been a prostitute during the postwar period--which should give some idea of her age now--and would be wandering around in Isezaki every day. Add that to the fact that she always wore this very distinctive white makeup and costume-style clothing. So she became this very famous figure and sort of a symbol for Yokohama (sort of reminds me of the Flower Lady in New Haven). Then one day, in 1995, she disappeared, and for a while it was apparently very odd for people not to see her anymore, and there were all these rumors about where she'd gone and stuff.
So, this documentary about her (less about her than about the lives around her) was made a few years ago, and on Friday the director came to the Center to talk to us about it. We screened the movie and then there was time for questions. It was really interesting, and I enjoyed the movie more than I had expected (especially given the extremely thick vocab list we were given in lieu of subtitles).
But of course the best part was that the entire movie was shot in and around the area where I live, which was really neat--and which also tells you something about the area where I live. LoL. Even funnier was the map we were given, that sort of highlighted places featured in the film. So, on the map was Kotobuki-cho, the section of town right next to Isezaki, which is where the largest number of IUC students are living. It's a...well, "unique area" is a nice way to put it, although according to the map, Mary had named it 地獄 "hell." Which of course, all the kids living in Kotobuki-cho found extremely amusing. ^_^