pack n shop

今から、英語と日本語でブロッグを書きます！
日本で友達に見せたいです。そして、ぼくは練習できます。
Starting from now, I wil be writing my blog in Japanese and English. I want to show this blog to my friends in Japan. That, and I can practice Japanese as I do it.

On my with my post! (English speakers: If you see lots of weird symbols on this page, its Japanese. Your computer can't see it. Not like you can read it anyway, so don't worry.)

Holy crap! There's only a week till Christmas!
Holy crap! I didn't go shopping yet!
HOLY CRAP! The stores are packed!!!

Today, I went to Fuchuu and checked out the Toys R Us there. It was very crowded... lots of people. I am so glad I am not claustrophibic...
So I find some stuff for some people... but I couldn't find anything I wanted to get. For Toys R Us... they didn't really have toy sections. In the Japanese Toys R Us... the boy area is mostly dominated by robots. Power Ranger robots. Ultraman robots. Entire shelves of Gundam kits. Tons and tons of them. I found one little section with action figures. I'm sorry I could not find you a Sesshou-maru figure, mom. =(

Also, I know XBox did very bad in Japan but... is there ANY place where I can get some Japanese Xbox games? Even used game stores didn't have any! Can I just please get Halo 2, Fable, and Star Wars, Knights of the Old Rebublic... maybe even Morrowind... in Japanese??? Jeez... I bought a cheap Xbox... but I can't find any games for it!

クソ！来週はクリスマスです！
クソ！もうクリスマスの買い物をしませんでした！
クソ！店は込んでいます！

今日、府中へ行きました。そこで、TOYS R USに　行きました。とても込んでいました。ぼくはせまくて込んでいる所に行けます。。。よかった。
買いたい物がみつけられませんでした。日本のTOYS R USでたくさんロボットの玩具があります。たくさんテレビのセンタイのロボットの玩具がありました。そして、たくさんガンダムがありました。あまりフィギュアの玩具がみつけられませんでした。ごめんね、お母さん、セッショウマルの玩具がつけられませんでした。>.<

そして。。。日本でXBOXはあまり売りませんでしたが。。。どうしてぜんぜんXBOXのゲームがみつけられませんか？ゼンゼン！日本語でHalo2, Fable, Star Wars: Kights of the Old Republic と Morrowind を買いたいです。。。
まったく。。。安いXBOXを買いましたが。。。ゲームがみつけられません！！！

I then did some small shopping at other places and came back. Then I started packing.
It was not an easy task.




See that book with Doraemon on it? Look right and look down. That is the Xbox's box. I put most of the presents in there. It just fits. I bought a lot of manga too... The manga you see I bought for myself. Manga I bought for other people is under the box.

See that green bag? My Xbox is in it. It just fits. It freakin weighs as much as my luggage bag!!! Seems like it.

後で、いろいろ買い物をしました。そして、りょうへ帰りました。そして、荷物を準備しました。

見て。そのXBOXの箱にお土産を入れました。ちょっと合います。そして、たくさんマンガを買いましたね。

あの緑のかばんの中に。。。XBOXです！XBOXはとても大きくて重いです。とても重いです！荷物のようです。

Well... other than shopping, there's other things I want to talk about that I don't really get.

First of all... the Japanese railway system.




Look at that station. Look at it! Looks big, right? Looks important, right?
Forget it. This is a small station. You will not see its name on big maps. Only on a small local one.
Its hard to find stations like this. Unless you know where they are.
How can stations next to Japan's biggest foriegn exchange student college not be named on largescale station maps???

ほかの問題があります。ちょっと分かりません。

あの駅に見て。大きいと思いますか？たいせつだとおもいますか？
じつは。。。小さい駅です。大きい地図でこの駅が見られません。ローカルの小さい地図だけで見らっれます。
小さい駅を捜すのがむずかしいです！
この駅はぼくの大学に近いです！どうして大切じゃありませんか？どうして大きい地図で見られませんか？





Another gripe. Taxis.
First, lemme explain Kyaku-sama. Kyaku is Japanese for customer. Sama is honoriffic. In Japan, the Kyaku-sama is more important than anything. You must do your best to fufill your Kyaku-sama's needs. If he wants a bacon double cheeseburger with only 3 pickles, you WILL give him a bacon double cheeseburger with only 3 pickles. If your Kyaku-sama needs to get to the station at exactly 12:37 and 55 seconds... you know the drill.
Taxi drivers are ruthless! They will drive through even if your ok to walk light is green. If you are crossing the street and a taxi is coming by... run. They will not slow down.

Right now, I have come to believe that Taxis, not Godzilla, are the scariest things in Japan. If the emperor sends an army of ninja against you, you're dead. But if you are faced by an army of taxis full of impatient Kyaku-samas... run. Run for your ill-be-gotten life. You are more than dead. Japanese Taxis may be the only force on earth more lethal than ninjas.

Beware the taxis...

そして。。。　日本のタクシー。
日本で、「客さま」はトテモ大切です。できるだけお客さまを手伝います。客さまは大きくてつけものが三つのハンバーガーが欲しいですか？あげなければいけません。そして、タクシーで、客さまは「１２：３７につく」と。。。。その時を間に合わなければいけません！
そして、日本のタクシーはあぶないです！ぼくは緑の歩けるのライトがありましたが。。。タクシーが通りました！早すぎました！事故がありませんでしたが。。。こわかったです。日本のタクシーはぜんぜん遅くなりません。

今、ぼくは日本で、一番こわい物はタクシーと思います。タクシーのほうがゴジラよりこわいです。忍者のアーミーと戦うは。。。こわいです。でも。。。タクシーのアーミーと戦うはとてもとてもこわいです。。。タクシーのほうが忍者より強いです。

タクシーをご注意下さい。。。

A Girl Who Is A Friend

Today couldn't have been better.
I all started with a girl who invited me to go to a soccer game with her today. Everything was going hunky-dorey until I realized...
I am in the middle of the great Tokyo Station. There must be like 100 train terminals here. Ok, maybe 30. I don't understand the maps written in Kanji here. I'm low on time. My Cell Phone's batteries just died. I think my Sandisk MP3 player just kicked the bucket. I'm lost. I think I just wet my pants.

I am not exagerting except for that last part... though I wouldn't be suprised if I did. I was lost without use of a phone. I didn't see any payphones, but even if I did, I didn't have any numbers written down. I was in a huge mix of bad preperation and bad luck. Yes, its true... fate was even cruel in taking away my $50 Sandisk Mp3 Player. It just stopped playing...

But I didn't panic. I kept fighting. I asked for directions and used the best Japanese I could. I learned the names of the stations in kanji on the fly.

I come to Urawa Misono station, nearby where a big soccer game is happening. I run around and do not see her. I run to the mall and frantically search for any freakin thing that will get my cell phone on. I throw down 880 yen for an attachable battery pack with 15 minutes before the game and call her.

After about 5 minutes of fighting the language barrier and running to a quieter place outside, I learn that she never went to the game because she couldn't contact me and meet up with me.

Great. Just great. I'm tired, out of breath, haven't eaten, and I'm on the other side of Tokyo. And I cost her her visit to the game because she couldn't reach me. I feel like the most horrible jerk and most unlucky person in the world.

But it seriously wasn't all that bad.






See?
Introducing my new friend, Saiko.

After several more station hops (and staring at unknown city kanji at several stations trying to figure out their names) I arrive in Omiya. There, I meet up with Saiko and she shows me to her Shinto Temple.
A very sureal place... I'm sorry I didn't take a picture. I'll get one next time I'm there. I think I will be back. =)
After we apologize to eachother how we each cost eachother that game (honestly it was my fault... but I'm sure she thinks the opposite) she first shows me her sister and a friend practicing for their Koto performance.


Beautiful, eh?

After that, I was shown the art of Johrei.
Blatently stolen from Wikipedia is the definition:
According to followers of Mokichi Okada, Johrei is a method of channeling divine light into the body of a patient through the palm of the administrator. To do this, the administrator holds his/her hand about a foot away from the area to which the spiritual power is purported to be directed.


So at Saiko's temple I learn about Johrei in a smashing video in British English. Saiko also performed Johrei on me. Being the Baka Gaijin as I am, I can't say for sure that it worked... but my brain did feel a little tingly and it felt good.

After that, refer to first picture. Me, Saiko, her sisters and brother and mother all went out to a family restaraunt. We had a good time.
But the night rolled on and time flew. Before long I was on a train (actually, several trains) bound back for campus.

I would say as my first time out with a girl (who isn't my already taken tutor or a family member) it was pretty nice. Even if I was with other people the whole time. It was still nice. I also met some new people at the temple, I was polite and bowed, and I think they liked me.

Now if I can just get over the frelling language barrier this would go a lot smoother.

I Can('t) Cook!!!

It was horrible. I wonder if I gained enough experience points to level up...

Its too much

Zero free time... lots of studying... poor cooking and eating...
using enough time to sleep but not falling asleep... my head is killing me...
Its exam week. There's been lots of work... 2 exams down, 2 to go.
I have been so busy the last 2 weeks its not even funny.

I can't wait to go home.

Now if you'll excuse me I have to study for a kanji test right after 2 days of exams. For the EXACT SAME CLASS.

More later. Maybe I'll make a post this weekend.

1945 Joyo Kanji

One thousand, nine hundred, and forty five.
This is the number of Kanji an average Japanese highschooler knows.
This is the number of Kanji officially limited to normal Japanese printing, such as newspapers.
This is the number of Kanji you need to know to be acceptably literate in Japan.
They don't look so tough.
Sigh...
Well, its time for one of those "Super Sean Great Time Consuming Crazy Projects"! (copyright)
I read somewhere that it is recomended to have a flash card for each Kanji, having 20 sets of 100 flash cards, and reviewing one set regularily. Right now I have about 30 done. Only 1915 to go.
Of course, I can be cheap and buy them. If cheap is the word. Freakin' expensive. I'd rather make my own and learn as I make them.
I will feel sooo good when I hit the 1000 mark. That will be when I know I can finish them. I'll try making 100 a day and see how that goes.

I discovered a program called Wakan. It works really good, and translates between English, Japanese, and Chinese. Great Kanji lookup too.
Japanese students can also check out JWPce, a Word Processor that types in English and Japanese, and has a built in Dictionary and Kanji lookup.

On a final note, I messed up dinner today. I was supposed to cook 600 grams of pasta and messed it all up and burned the pan. Everyone I was cooking for got angry and I felt really bad... Danny saved some of it by frying it, but the fact still remained that I failed...
I have GOT to learn how to cook.