Tips for Trips et Cetera

Well, it's been well over a month now and I've been fine as far as missing home goes. That's not to say I don't miss it, it's hard being without all my friends, but I'm able to handle it, and I think it's become a different form of homesickness people go through in recent years. The next paragraph will explain.

You see, when my sister was on exchange in Africa, she had very little connecting her to home. She had what she brought with her, probably a letter every month, and maybe a few gifts (you may correct me if I'm wrong). Her main form of communication was (most likely) the postal (lack of) service, and maybe a very expensive phone call.

Today, most people are slowly switching how they view the world. Large expanses of land are now just a plane flight away. I've seen relatives cross continents for family gatherings, and people leave continents for meetings. Not only that, but my generation is becoming less and less grounded by location, taking to the Internet where distance is based more on connection strength than displacement. On the web, everywhere is in one place. People can experience whatever technology and their connection strength can bring them. You can place your life on the Internet, or live it out there. You can also interact with anyone with a connection. So, as far as missing hearing one's voice or seeing one's face, they're never more than a few keystrokes away. You can see what is happening, discuss it, give your input, the only thing you can't do is directly interact, and that is where it pulls the rug from under you and you realize that you're still not actually "there."

So, rather than wonder how everyone is doing, wondering how much they've changed, if their hair is still the same shade of gold, et cetera, people of this generation are likely to miss the being there, but being so close and yet so far is still quite hard. For example, I saw the picutres of my friends painting the tressel, and I know I won't be able to do that with them. But I'm fine, and I'm makng sure to keep myself, mind and body, in Japan. Now then, that's enough of that, it's time now to talk about my day at school.

Despite the excessive studying, longer school hours, and emphasis on doing well to get a permanent job (pretty much all students are hired immediately after graduating from college and will work the same job until retirement) the students here are still students. My homeroom class is especially good at avoiding work and causing disruption. So today, since I am still unable to understand the spoken language, I looked at who the teachers keep their class in line.

One of thebest tactics is to have an ominous aura. Teachers whose appearance is intimidating (usually fit and bulky) seem to keep the class in a state not to far from fear. However, teachers that try this by putting effort into it usually look tired or worn after a while, which the students pick up on. Teachers who yell scare the class too much and once the scary is but a memory, so is the control it gave. Then, there are the teachers who go around picking out students individually while the students who aren't being focused on give off an aura of "everything's okay," which speads and makes this tactic often useless.

Other teachers have better luck steering the class without their noticing. They can keep the classes attention by getting them to participate consistently and by keeping track of the conversation. It's best to keep them on topic, and if they get off topic, steer them back slowly, otherwise they'll realize what's going on and they'll do their best to stay off topic (more general or more interesting topic will fare better). Just make sure to keep the sly ones in on the conversation because if given a chance, they'll toss out somthing random to throw everyone off.

In general, teachers who control the atmosphere of the class do better than those who control the students.

And before school this morning there was yesterday. Yesterday my host parents brought me to a beach along the Sea of Japan. I'd type some stuff about it, but it wasn't as fun with only them (not that I have anything against them, I just find my parents here to be regular parents (conversely, I would say that my actual father is very clever with much cunning (no I didn't mean to use that many "c"s))). So, here are the pictures, I might add text later.

These are rice pattie fields. Rice plays a major part in the Japanese diet. Rice fields even have their very own kanji.

And this is on the way back though the city. I made this picture larger to show you th gloden arches, if you can spot them that is.

And other than that, I've been doing very little. I'm in a house where I limit computer access, my brothers spend all their time studying and studying, I'm not sure if my diet has enough energy in it for me to go on my long runs, and I'm too broke (I'm waiting to cash in the TCs) to go out and buy video games et cetera (note: I want a video game so I can translate it as I play it, not just to waste time), I've seen too many anime and I have no homework in the classes I understand. To put it another way:

Anyways, I should go back to watching the seconds tick by. (note: I hate the ticking of clocks, I can't concentrate with something forcing my pace like that.)

Tech stuff

Yeah, I'm posting again, after a little over twleve hours, but I have my reasons. I was just reminded that my welcoming ceremony will be held on October sixth, leaving my a week (minus a trip to another city) to get the presentation up and running.

Okay, that's not so bad. I turn on the computer, upload my files and open the powerpoint presentation. Now, as many presenters and every high school student knows, everyone uses powerpoint version XP, 2k3 or 2k7, all three of which are almost Adobe Flash-like on which I have made video-like self-presenting presentations. Well, now I realize just how much I left back in Make-Shift (my name for my computer because of how much of it was put together and customized by me personally) back home. This includes Microsoft Office XP, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Flash, Microsoft .gif animator, Corel, Mozilla Firefox, Winrar, and English settings. This computer is Japanese, with japanese versions of Microsoft Office 2k, a set up only from my brick of a laptop.

Luckily my knowledge of tip and tricks and largely English based Japanese tools make this workable, but many features of the presentation are now non-existant. Two pages in particular which had animations that would zoom in on a particular spot and have a car drive across Canada are now just a mesh of onsorted pictures. So, today I'll be on the computer fixing up the presentation, remembering that the aces up my sleeves are no longer there, and wishing I had several plates of nachoes, a large glass of chocolate milk and some black tea (my usual setup for long computer sessions). I'll post the changes later in this entry which I'll probably be editing throughout the day. So, I'll be here at ten as planned to whom it may concern.

Well, it's not in as rough shape as I thought, but changing it to work will still take some work. I've had to swap my custom made map for a google verion in three of four places, I'll post picutres of both. I had an animation that had a car travelling across Canada as pictures popped up of the different provinces, that's being reduced to pictures popping up around the country and ends with a glimpse of google maps looking at Canada with the pictures features on.

It seems ironic that I have more and more recent technology in my room than I've seen in any whole house in Japan. Anyways, I've completed the animation part of the presentation. The rest will be text, so I just need to simplify and translate a file I already have written up. I'll see about getting the animation up...

Coincidentally, I did have tea and milktoday, milk that tasted as sugary as chocolate milk (3.6%). All I'm missing now are the two plates of nachoes (one full, one empty, you'd always find that in my room). It occurs to me now that most of you have been asleep thiss whole time, meh, that just means you'll get the completed version in the morning.

In other news, happy birthday Google, good luck American economy and shaving without shaving cream feels like a mild version of having your face ripped apart (trust me, I both feelings well).
TTFN

Time for Another Entry

Which I will keep short since I don't have as much to say.

School is fine. yesterday I tried the art club. To say I was out of my league would be an understatement. A drawing like this:

takes me about a half hour, and during that half hour I'm constantly erasing and changing large portions of the drawing, even scale, pose and details. I the art club I was given ten minutes to sketch a girl standing in the middle of the room. I almost finished with even a few details, but I wasn't used to the B4 pencil, making my sketch almost too light to see. Hopefully with some practice (,a new set of pencils, a better eraser and good quality paper) I'll get better.

Yesterday was otherwise uneventful I think (as I seem to be unable to remember anything memorable).

So now we get to today. School was okay. In phys-ed I'm getting much better at ping-pong. I still have no idea what to do in bio, ancient lit, history, health or modern lit, but hopefully that will change when I understand what the teachers are saying (although with how quickly they speak, I don't think that'll be any time soon, it reminds me of my grade four french teacher who showed the class just how quickly the french really spoke. As for physics, well, I'm getting most of the questions right, and most of my mistakes are caused by the difference in equations and the fact that I have to be my own calculator with no backup. In math III however, the teacher offered the opportunity to take the test (exam?) coming up soon. And I'm still a little confused in math II, but I think that's because I lack the basic knowledge of vectors they got last semester. Once I figure out the equations I'm sure I'll be fine. Then there was an assembly. Teachers were shouting what sounded like criticism into the microphone as I left my legs go from uncomfortable to in pain to nearly asleep.

Also, I seem to have made it two two groups of friends, one group speaks a little English which I use to figure out what I should do and what I should say, and another that seems to have similar likes in anime and video games (I wonder if they'd like a certain geeky board game). Also in the good news section, girls are asking me to choose and pose less (activities which make me feel like Holden Caufield is going to walk up behind me and call me a goddamn phony). In not as good news, the class clown is still a little annoying (mostly just through disrespect, nothing that qualifies as bullying).

And tonight I went to a concert put on by my school. I found out that they even wear their uniforms to out of school events. The band was good. They made a few mistakes, but nothing that disrupted the flow, just minor flaws. I recognized the 1812 overture, When you Wish Upon a Star, Friend Like me, Beauty and the Beast, Be our Guest and Prince Ali. All but the first two of which were blended together into one. They also had a good group of dancers and they preformed a skit, which, despite how little Japanese was use, I didn't get as funny (my host brother told me that the Japanese standard of funny is much lower than that of (continental) America).

On the way back home my host mother ran into a friend, who recognized my "Laughing Man" shirt and while we were talking an African man walked up and made a few quick comments in Ebonics, switched to french (that along with his skin colour gave me my guess as African), than (probably guessing I didn't speak that language) went back to English and ask "how old are you white boy?" (after which he even let out a few phrases of Japanese.) Normally this would seem a little strange to me, but wearing jeans, hiking boots, a white t-shirt and a jacket around my waist with brown hair, green eyes and while skin makes my much more aware of how much of a gaijin I am. I answered him and he continued to talk and walk briskly without looking back. Anyway, we headed back home. Present time.

Post Script: Oji-san, aside from what you mentioned, there is also the shounen ai section for girls and the shoujo section, which is ninety percent pink, despite the fact that only half the manga there are pink. It's kind of intimidating to walk through, to say nothing of searching intently for something for fifteen minutes. Also, I don't know if the cicada season is over. I spotted a few, but not recently. And you would be able to see the hills if it weren't for the buildings. Also, as far a paving the river goes, remember, Kanazawa is an old city and has never gone through such major reconstruction, actually, that makes it a popular tourist destination. And that's my favourite GitS episode, I wish I could play that song "I do."

Beautiful Day

The title has no connection to any film, music, et cetera for once. It was just a really nice day.

REWind to yesterday first though.

Yesterday was a holiday (the fall equinox is apparently a good enough reason to not go to school, but considering that it's an actual event, and all our days are for dead people, I'll take it), so I had a day, part of a day, on the town. Shortly after lunch I went for a run. I was hoping to do around ten klicks, but I got to where the trail (it was no longer a paved path) wasn't marked for distance, I made it all the way to a bridge in a nice suburban area when I decided I should turn around. I'm guessing it was between seven and nine km. I showered, and then my host mother took me to the modern art museum. On the way there (we walked) it felt a little feint (but I was still fine). In the sun, everything looked like next gen graphics with the gamma set above max (everything was very, very bright). This slowly dissipated as we went along (it took about twenty minutes to go away). We got to the modern are museum and as some of you might guess, I wasn't that impressed. It's not that it was bad, I just don't get the point of most of it. There were bad CG movies that didn't make sense, a few optical illusions, and many statues and paintings. Anyways, we went back home and I got out a map and set it in my memory. I asked to go by myself to the shopping district, and I was allowed out until six (the earliest possible time for supper, though that's usually nearer eight, and when the sun goes down).

So, I set out. I made it there in fifteen minutes and looked around for almost an hour for a book store. I went through two multi-floored malls and quite far down the road. Along the way I noticed my cheeks aren't as red as they used to be, and their cool to the touch. Finally, I decided to turn around, but on the way back I checked for the book in the convenience stores (all stocked with the latest manga). I was a little, not quite shocked or impressed, but more... I don't know somethinged at the types of magazines there. Seriously, manga goes to fan-service, to echi, to doujin to hentai even, and back in the same shelf (manga=comics, echi=slightly perverted, doujin=fan comics, usally perverted, hentai=perverted, usually manga based). I would quickly look through the manga, then take a look around the store to see what kin of stuff was in a japanese convenience store, then I'd leave. I went through about four of them before I got to the bridge and started to jog to make it home on time. It started to rain, bit it was a light rain, very nice. The main thing was that it was getting eerily close to six and dark.

On a final note, I'm glad for the freedom of being able to stretch my legs.

Fast Forward back to today.

I spent the early part of the day at school. I went to my classes, I ran from the top floor of one building to the next at least six times. I'm dong fine in math III where we're working with trig, and now exponents, and while I'm slipping a bit in math II I'll be trying to make sense of the japanese worksheets. Physics is going well, in physics III we're doing momentum. And I'm continuing my private Japanese lessons (I'm not sure if I mentioned them). To a little annoyance I found out that I need my backpack to carry my lunch, but if it weren't for that I'd just use my clipboard. On an *ahem* entirely unrealted note, I've been drawing, I hope to start up one of my comic ideas and translate it.

After school I found out that English club was again cancelled (damn). So, I went "home" and asked where I could find a bookstore (hon-ya). My host mother pointed out two, and I chose the one further away, but on this side of the river. She told me to be home by six for supper (I would be going to a Rotary function at that time). So I set off, fully equipped (a term I use meaning I had my jacket, wallet, camera, PSP and anything else of use) and I jogged to the store. You wouldn't believe how amazing the Saigawa is. Really, down stream it's cluttered with tended hedges, bridges, and grass and a few trees, but upstream it's beautiful. Picture will follow. It starts out with wide open fields on both sides, then you walk by a forest as the river becomes enveloped in trees and plants. It's so green that it makes it look more like the Saimouri (a joke, sai=it's name, gawa=kawa=river, mouri=forest). Then the forest thins out on the land side and you come to a well developed suburban area. After that is a construction site, a farm, and then a major road (where I stopped because the bookstore was nearby).

(Also check out link)
Inside the mega book store, I took a little time to look around (walked through at a brisk pace), I figured out what BL means (pink section of store to be avoided) and I forced myself to walk past the large video game section (which needed a considerable amount of will power). I looked for fifteen minutes through what were at least a thousand manga, and finally, after figuring out the system I found the book I wanted. Luckily by this point it was less a matter of having courage and more being glad that japanese clerks don't idle in small talk that made it easier to buy the book. I won't be reading it in public. It's not a bad book in any way, it's just not one someone like me is expected to be reading (again, ask oji-san why I'm not naming the book, actually, for my parents, I have two copies of the same series at home, one in English, and one in French, this is the reason why I wanted a third in Japanese, but back to the story).

I left the store and hurried back, running to Metallica's Seek & Destroy. Just over a half hour later, a heavily breathing, sweating, overheating, smug geoffcard was walking quickly away from the steps where he had used up the last of his energy. I had plenty of time to spare, so I decided to delay going back home and replenish my energy with a Calorie Mate. Those things taste heavenly after a run like that (remember, I was carrying everything on me while running much faster than the joggers along the river, and up the steep stairs back to Tera-Machi). I got back in with five minutes to spare, it was even still bright out.

I took a shower and dressed more formally. My host father came in ten minutes late and rushed me out the door and we drove to supper (after turning around when he realized he forgot his camera, though I had remembered mine). At the traditional looking restaurant (former house of a well known samurai) I met a rebounder who was coming back after thirty-three years. She and her husband (both Canadian, now living in London, Ontario) had impeccable manners. They greeted me very nicely and the whole group, the couple, several Rotary members and I, had a wonderful supper and evening. They talked about Kanazawa, about how they met (it's a wonderful story and I'll get to it in a moment) and about their experiences in life.

It was love at first sight." They met on a trip to the Bahamas. While really they got together after they realized they were in the same hotel, she says that in the airport, she pointed to him and said to her friends "I'm going to go out with that guy." It was he who made the first phone call, but had he not moved so quickly she was ready to phone him up. Anyways, they got to know and like each other. Then he lost all his money at the casino, and so she bought him his ticket home, but she took his favourite t-shirt with her so that he would have to find her once they got back. Three months later they were engaged. They're now thirty-one years together and they're still in love.

She showed us some pictures of her trip to Kanazawa, and they talked about the Canadian meal they were going to prepare for Thanksgiving (they had trouble deciding on what was a Canadian meal, understandably considering how much Canadian culture isn't purely Canadian) and apparently he makes an absolutely delicious turkey. She talked about how they still kept connections to Japan, while he added that he had been hearing of Kanazawa for the full thirty-three years. They really enjoyed being here, and I was amazed at how good their Japanese manners were (I know all the words, but knowing when and how to use them is still a little confusing, especially figuring out how humble to be). We traded cards and it was over.

And....cut!

Not so Tidy

The name will make more sense later in the post, but in hindsight, this post in it's entirety might not seem so tidy, it's actually three would be posts in one: On with the show.

It's me again, well, who else would it be? Anyways (a word I abuse like (get a simile from my dad), anyw-...) here it is.

Today (technically yesterday when I wrote the original of this) was my older host brother's birthday (he's four months and one week older than me), so, as a gift, I made breakfast. We had Swedish/Sweetish pancakes (I remembered him complaining about regular pancakes and I must agree, what do you guys like about them? All they do is fill your mouth with fluff). I poured the first few, but after that everyone started pouring their own, which was fun because the pan wasn't flat so they always made strange shapes. I think I may have already said this; on a usual day breakfast is a little bit of salad, some meat, a bread product and yogurt.


After breakfast, my brothers went to their rooms to study? Lunch was a large bowl of ramen (which I like). After lunch I went to a famous temple with many trap doors and secret rooms. It's nickname is the Ninja-dera, despite the lack of ninjas. For more information on that go to a tourist site.


After we got home we ate some sweets like cookies and rice cakes (all store bought). I'll also mention that I don't eat as much here as I did back home because everything here seems expensive (i.e. they don't seem to carry that much/it's from far away) and meals are pretty much pre-portioned, and they don't snack as I do. In fact I've lost about eight pounds (I think, I can't get their scale to work right in kg or lbs) which is within an acceptable range, but I don't quit have the energy I did in Canada. My run, climbing the four stories to my classes and walking around take more out of me than usual, but that's also because of the climate. But getting back to my day,


I spent most of the afternoon reading Breaking Dawn online via PSP (I finally got a connection!). Now, before you criticize me for my choice in books, let me defend myself, but if you don't know the series, just know that it's a romance novel about vampires and skip most of this paragraph. I got addicted to the Twilight series in math class (where all my bad habits spawn) while listening to the infected girls around me talk non-stop about it. While the series is very luvy-duvy, it makes a nice light read, which considering that my other favourties are Shakespeare (I'm one of that single digit number of teens how understands and enjoys Shakespeare) and a theoretical sci-fi mind bender, is a nice balance. Though, this latest book stretches the believability to its limits even for me (the guy who explained how such things could exist), it made up for it with actual character development. And in case any girls out there are curious, I would do the same as Edward given the same situation, yes even do those things. But that's enough English.


Supper is usually several dishes; a small bowl of rice, fish, soup, a salad-like mixture of vegetables and something else. I've tried sushi and it's great. I love raw tuna (or any raw meat for that matter, I think it might be the blood, but I already mentioned Twilight so I'm not going to make any vampire references). After supper, showers and a few television shows we had peach cake to celebrate my host brother's latest trip around the sun. It was only about six inches in diameter and three high, but he told me that his family doesn't celebrate birthdays very extravagantly. I laughed when he cut it in half (there were five of us), but he evened it out by cutting ten pieces in stead of five.


Then I went to the room of the house where I get the best connection (a guest room) and waited for my parents who mentioned wanting to talk on Skype without mentioning a time. Rather than get angry directly, I explain that if any of you would like to talk on Skype, that's fine, but name a time more specific than the weekend. I check my email enough to get a message the day of, but I can't wait on Skype on my PSP for hours on end. It's best to email me with a date, time, AM/PM/24, time zone, DST/ST. I'll easily wait an hour or two, but seriously, specifics would be nice ("morning" is acceptable because I know when most of you wake up). That should be enough scowling, picture time.

As this entry's title suggests, I'm not as tidy as most of you think. Actually, the reason I seem so organized is because when my mom would clean my room she would misplace things. Since then, I've found that it's also a good way of clearing my head and dealing with bordom, so more recently I've begun rearranging my whole room, but I won't bother with that here (the rearranging part).

I've shown other pictures of this room. If you look at them all together you sould get a good idea of its size. This is the main room of the house.

In the Col. Mustard kitchen with the lead pipe. The kitchen is attached to the main room, but the computer blocks a little of the way. No nachoes. The oven is literally a microwave oven.

A little garden between "my" room and the main room.

Stairs in Japan are steep, like tea at Tim Hortons' (bad joke).

A shot of the rooftops of Tera-Machi from a window on the top floor of the house. I'm stealing internet from the house in front (don't worry, it's not actually stealing, they have an open network. It's more like shouting "hi" into the phone while your friend is talking on it).


My Japanese is coming slowly, but even without a fully functional vocabulary I can already figure many things out. I'll soon be taking lessons at school, a foreigners building and there' a book I want to read in a third language that I'll get as soon as I work up the courage to walk across the bookstore and buy it (ask oji-san why it takes courage to buy a book in Japan).

Anywa-...
Well, ja-ne!

Post Script: I've made the commenting process easier, apparently some of your comments never made it through, hopefully this will make it easier for you computer-illit-...technologically challenged readers (sorry, I realize that's a low blow to some of you).

Feedback

As it's been stated by my parents, host parents and myslef, it has been over a month, which means this blog is a few weeks old. And I'm one month Japanese.
"Why the hel-...heck does that matter?" you ask. Well, it matters because now (and in some ways before I left) I'm used to many things here, and it's normal for me, so like words in a japanese sentence, I omit those things.
In this case, I got an email to one of my addresses not attached to this blog (comments are forwarded to two of my other addresses) that gave some good feedback, i.e. told me what you guys don't know:
"How are things going in your home? Do you have things in common with your host brothers? Are you meeting friends at school?"
So, I'll take the time now to dabble on the above.
Things here are slightly less comfortable than in my usual home, but that's because at home, I essencially own the house and I do what I want, when I want, as loud as I want (which is usually quite queit unless it's a telelvision show). Here, everything is fine, not quite "mine." I'm not intimate with the computer (as in taking it apart and feeling happy for it when it works), I'm afraid to play the piano because I can't plug in headphones or turn the volume down, I'm a little sick of reading workbooks and reading about how great a nation Japan is (it's a great nation, but that losses it's effect after the seventy-eigth statistic to prove it), there is not snacking, and no nachoes (although there is Coca-Cola), I dislike television sets because of their addictive properties, and while I can communicate well enough using a mixture of Engrish and Japanese, I still can't speak fluently enough to get my message across the way I like to (I'm sure you all know how I abuse my English).
Aside from that, I spend much of my day at home doing very little. My brothers both have after school activities which keep them out until dusk. I've started running to fill this time(approximately eight kilometers today). And even after, they go to their rooms to study or secretly play video games. My older host brother appearently has a lot of pressure on him to study, and the other doesn't speak English, but once I get command of Japanese I hope to play a few ad hoc games, or maybe he can beat me at chess some more.
At school people are more willing to communicate using bad Engrish, superfast (slang filled?) Japanese, or gestures. Most of this is getting my do pop culture gestures (which I do as a courtesy since I can't tel them that's not my style). I have made a few potential friends though. One is a clique in my class who aren't as into the EXILE-backboys, err, just EXILE, but I like making that point clear. They speak half-phrases of English. The other is a zealous guy who likes many of the same anime and games as I do. He zealously tries to communicate this through a mixture of English, Japanese and gestures, and while this is may seem feutile, he manages to get his point across and the energy he puts into it could easily in turn help him learn English (few other people TRY).
As far as learning Japanese goes, I have my books, I'm pleased with most of them (the adjective book is a little too much like a workbook, but it might still work, and it's still important) and there will be a few private lessons in school for me.
As a post script note I should also mention that in physics class I've learned many kanji (without furigana, so I can't pronouce them) and today, to an explosion of my pride the math III teacher asked me for the answer and I responded and got it right in Japanese (note: in Japanese, fractions are said as [denominator] bun no [numerator]), after which I think I passed a quiz in physics.
So, if there's anything you'd like to hear about, just ask. Also, I'll edit in directions for making comments.
Edit: write your comment in the text box, lower on the page select the "anonymous" option, type in the weird letters (this is to make sure you're not a computer) and click the orange button at the bottom.

Fishing in the Dark

Haha! Another allusion. The title is the name of a song. No connection between that and the post.

Anyways, I've been going for walks along the river since I don't have a club to go to after school (they cancelled for today). Here are some pictures and a movie:

'Nuf said.

Actually this was taken the same night as the video.

This too.

This is the first of the pictures taken two nights before. I played around with the settings until it looked brighter out. (There's contrast in brightness between pictures because they were taken at dusk.)

Two guys fishing. There isn't much I can say about this.

This is where I was headed, to the bridge.

And here's where I came from. You probably can't see them, but there are people on both sides sitting, runing, cycling, et cetera.

A garden on the other side of the river. I'm sorry that the colours aren't that vivd, but getting a shot this bright and well coloured at this time is quite a feat (more playing around with settings). One of the failed shots of this was mostly black.

The bridge. Appearently it's under construction, but it's still in heavy use. I turned around here more because it was getting dark than because of the flashing red lights of warnings.

Wow, I like the effects on this one. That's the road into town. There really are that many floures-however-that's-spelled lights. But that's enough of that.

Here's the main road back in Teramachi, there's not much to show of me walking back, it was getting dark.

So, hopefully I'll start running again, the muffled part of the video is where I explain that the distance (to the ocean?) is written on plaques on the sidewalk, it makes for a great place to run.

The reason I was out for a walk the first night (night of many pictures) was because of a minor argument between child and parent. It wasn't anything serious, it's just that I'm not used to arguments (with a dad like mine they aren't that successful) and they're a little louder than my heavy rock'n'roll. Seriously though, it's nothing to worry about.

In other news I'm still learning Japanese, and I will never again speak in my usual high class, mile a minute way with someone trying to learn a language. Finding someone who will speak as slowly and simply in Japanese as I am English is going to be hard.

Lost in Transliteration

...because translation is used too much, and the Japanese do a lot of transliteration (phonetic translations), but that's enough on the title, I'll get to that in a few moments.

So, yesterday I ate at a restaurant called "Joyfull" (yes, I noticed that too). I had chicken doria and I found out that in Japan, you can eat pancakes at lunch. On the way across town I noticed a store called "Joshin," and while that may not sound interesting to you, talk to any kid seventeen or under and they might think that funny (to josh is [I think slang for] to kid or joke). And while buying bread for tomorrow's breakfast we ran into an old Rotary member, who owned the bakery. There was a nice chat where I understood a little of what he was telling me, and my host mother helped translate the rest, then on the way out, he gave me a small cake as a gift.

Anyways, here's why I really wrote this entry: I'm offering my two bits on learning Japanese. First I'll start by saying I hope this help you oji-san, oni-san and one-san.

It should be noted that I'm the kind of guy who like to take things apart first, see how things interact, then put it back together to work as I want it to. So my approach may be more mathematical than yours.

Japanese is a language designed to be useful more-so than scientific. This is how I seperate languages that have phrases like, "imagotalktoamanaboutahosre," and ones that have words that build a sentence like, "I will now leave to return once I have fulfilled a basic physiological need." I'm explaining this because in Japanese, usually if something is understood, it's unnecessary, and while many of they're key phrases can be taken apart, they still don't fully explain their use.

Here are the books I'm using. My dictionary is the Random House Japanese-English English-Japanese Dictionary. It's good for its purpose. It offers good translations and catalogues japanese words using the roman alphabet (romaji). It gives you the english word, the japanese word in romaji, and then the japanese word in japanese (kanji or kana, no furigana, but that's where the romaji comes in). It also has a chart in the introduction of all the kana characters. It's a pocket size dictionary (i.e. too big for your pocket) and the only problem I have is that some kanji are too small to make out in size ten font. I advise neither for nor against this book since all the dictionaries I've seen are the same.

For Kanji I'm using Kanji & Kana revised addition from the Tuttle library. It's very good for kanji, it has over two-thousand which can be looked up by stroke count, components, or pronounciation. It also offers history and explaintions of the japanese writting style and hiragana and katakana. All in all, a very good book. My only trouble with it is it's six by nine inch size (bigger than most of my pockets). It's way of looking up kanji by component is extremely useful if you're like me and still don't know exactly how to count the storkes properly (there really does seem to be an art to it) and don't want to look through the full pages of kanji of six to eleven strokes (which is exactly what this language would give my otherwise [bad pun]). Highly suggested.

For verbs I have another Tuttle book: The Complete Japanese Verb Guide. I like this book, it explains Japanese verbs very well and once through the introduction of how to use Japanese verbs, it offeres the proper conjugation (in the Beshrelle style) of about six hundred along with examples at the bottom of the page. It offers the kanji and kana form of the verb at the top of the page and romaji for the rest (which is fine because if you know the original spelling of a verb, you just need to add its fixes in hiragana). The only problem with this book is that it lacks an index, instead, the verbs are in alphabetical order in romaji (but you could use a dictionary for finding the verb then look it up). Also, its the same size as Kanji & Kana. I still suggest it, and I might write an index myself just for the practice.

Unfortunately, the only Tuttle book on adjectives and adverb was more of a work book with many fill-in-the-blanks. So, instead, I got The Handbook of Japanese Adjectives and Adverbs (coincidentally, I just noticed this book to has [a few] fill in the blank, but I reread the reviews, I got the right book). Anyways, some of you might be wondering why I'm suggesting a book on descriptive words rather than a dictionary, well, that's because japanese adjective and adverbs conjugate. This books is not exaclty what I wanted, but seeing my options, it's probably the best choice. The book is stangely indexed, but I'll get past that. Anyways, you'll benefit from a book on the subject. Suggested.

Next on the list is a novel. That may sound weird, but James Clavell's Shogun is an amazing book. It offers a mostly true story about the beginning of the Edo period. It's an amazing story, well written and the main character is an Englishman who is learning the language. About every twenty pages or so it has a few sentences of japanese and while this is mostly formal japanese for thing like "You are forbidden to enter this ship," it's still interesting to see. But the main reason I highly suggest this book as your next read (not as a resource) is that it provides a western perspective and eastern explinations on many issues in Japan. If you have the time to read eleven-hundred pages, this is a good book for you.

And last and least is Japanese for Dummies. Its title really does offer a good description of the book. If you want to learn to speak Japanese for your week long vacation (rather than buy a phrase book), this might be for you. It's everything shortened into one book. It explains how to introduce yourself, give your contact information, eat out, shop and travel in japanese. It was a nice starting point for me, but very shortly afterwords it became little more than a nuissance. Some of you may find this book useful and interesting, but in my case, I'm trying to learn the language as a whole, and this book offers little as a reference book compared to the other members of this list (with exception, of course, to Shogun), especially since it's designed for (continental) American readers with pronounciations that are close to, but not, romaji and no kana or kanji. The books only use to me are it's lists of numbers, particles, et cetera. Not very suggested, judge for yourself.

For more books, you should check out amazon.com, it has many. The custom reviews are helpful, as is the ability to peek inside the book, and if you don't like the one you're looking at, underneath the description is a list of similar books. Scroll through and find one you do like. Also, I bought my books on adjectives and my books on verbs in Japan (after looking them up on amazon) and I found that it would have been cheaper to buy them online and have them shipped internationally (they cost thirty, ten for shipping internationally, and here they cost fifty).

Also, if you really want to get into it, all the manga I've seen offer furigana making them great reading material unlike my modern japanese literature textbook at school which offers difficult kanji definitions for difficult kanji. And fansubbed japanese television shows and movies are a great way of learning names, pronounciation, key phrases, and even a few cultural tips (only subtitles done by fans offer explainations, shows dubbed or subbed by corporations will be Americanized, and many fansubbed shows are available, and currently legal for download). I would like to suggest video games, but it's a catch twenty-two of if you don't know japanese than you can't understand enough to play them, and if you do understand them than you already know japanese (or it's been Americanized).

Well, that's all for now.

Down for the Count

As some of you may have guessed, I'm probably out of shape. I don't know for sure because I haven't done any time trails lately (it's not that I don't know how to time myself in Japanese, it that I don't have a route yet). Anyway, to make matters worse, this morning, about ten minutes after dawn, a muscle in my right calf contracted, cause pain, and even pulled itself. Luckily my physical education class today (my only one this week) was just ping-pong. I'll probably start getting into a routine soon to stay in shape and to keep up my running (I'm still looking into joining the running team) which will definately include stretches.

It's been another mediocre day. I went to class, sat through bio where the teacher used so many words and kanji that I think I'll never actually understand what she's saying. I went to physics, where I used my written vocabulary of kanji (in physics class I've learned the kanji for things like "seconds" and "force" but because they're written, I haven't tried saying them yet) to figure out the questions (those I answered I got right). Then I went to maths II and III. Math II seems to deal with advanced trig, which makes me suspect it's cal or precal, and math III is all vectors right now. And on the way out of school today, a cog caught my eye. Apparently this school has some strong connection to Rotary because in a trophy case was a plaque with a golden Rotary symbol and an inscription in kanji. Also, I've finally broken into my shoes which no longer both my feet, as much.

Nothing to Report

is what bad guys in video games usually say at this point. Very little has happened in the most-of-a-day since I last posted. So, here are some pictures.

This is a few pages of modern japanese literature. Anything written in more than two strokes is probably kanji.
This was taken at dawn. Those are my clothes on a rack hanging to dry. While the contrast makes my room seem dark, I assure you this is not the case, my whole room looks like the sun is sitting right outside making sure that there are no shadows in my room. Coinsidently, this is what my windows look like at night when I want to go to sleep but my host brother and parents still have things to do.
And here's a picture of the makeshift blinds I made one night while trying to sleep. It worked quite well, but I don't think the coat hangers will take the stress every night, so I won't be using this.
And this is a drawing I did on my first day at school to quickly get some of my interests across. There's my name, a card, English, French, a bike, piano and computer keys, a book, the Earth, Coke, a shoe, mountains, a six-axis controller, a book and binary.

Energy Friend

I'll explain the title later. Today I had three grade three class. In math I was shown several trigonometry equations I obviously didn't spend enough time studying. In physics I got confused on how a half goes missing between dy=vi*t*sin(theta)+1/2*a*t*t and vy=visin(theta)+a*t. But generally I was still doing fine, and in mathematics I'm learning about vectors.

I also learned that having to switch between two room on the third and fourth floors of different buildings seperated by a courtyard every hous is tiring work, especially when the refreshement machine in said courtyard won't take your money (on a side note, the title is a pun, the snack I tried today [Gavin you'll be interested to hear this] was a Calorie Mate, and the are both nurtitious and delisious, hell I even went back to buy more). This is not even mentioning that I haven't been running as usual due to a lack of local knowledge and team, but my nightly workouts are going along fine.

And I finally got to try a club today. I went to see the English club (to say the least I had hopes of hearing "l"s and reading Shakespeare), to find out that it was average size, everyone there spoke the same three sentences of Engrish that the whole school seemed to know (Hello, My name is, He's crazy), they asked the same questions all the classes did (sports, food, you like Japan, and girlfriend, granted they asked what my type of girl I like and blood type [yes, that's a common question here]), and then they sat down and watched a Japanese show that looked like a mix of Bromwell High and South Park, except that even with Engrish subtitles I still didn't see most of it as funny. Hopefully next week will be better. I'm also looking into joining long distance running, but apparently they have an event soon and are in intense training at the moment.

In other news, I found a securityless wireless network, but to get a signal of any strength requires me to stand i front of their house, and there's no way to make that not look suspicious. Skype works on this computer, so if you want to talk to me e-mail me with at time at least one day before and give me a time (if you use 12 hour clock provide AM/PM, and also provide time zone and whether you use daylight savings).

I hope what I've been typing doesn't sound like complaining (although having people ask me to speak slowly in simple words in English so they can continue to talk at a mile a minute does seem worth of complaint). Sorry, but my mood has just been killed, I'm ending it here for tonight, I'll post some more pictures at a latter date.

A Higher Place, to Drop Things From

Well, it's been another few days. That probably means it's time to write something.

The rest of my weekend was uneventful, and on Monday I returned to class for my first try at Mathemtatic II 3, or is it 3 II... (in Japan grades are relative to the school level, so that three is the grade level and the roman numberal two is the type of math, so far I' seen math II, III and B). The class was on the fourth floor of the main building. It was nice to see people closer to my age and the class is what I was hoping for. They speak less Engrish, which means I get to try out my Japanese more, I'm at the front side of the class, so I have a nice view of everything, and the teacher teaches (without any major disturbance) in a language I know very well: math.

Anyway, that day ended and then we come to today. Today I had two chances to go back to that class, first for physics, which I understood perfectly thanks to Riverview's best physics tacher (seriously, someone thank him for me, his physics twelve notes are great). Then I swtitched over to a different grade two class where I translated my scientific vocabulary while the teacher taught the class about friction. After that it was back to my home room for English class. I drew, pronounced and shook my head at one of my classmates' bad attempt at English (I knew what he was trying to say, but he was just being annoying and he failed at vocalizing a coherent message). And than, once more it was back to the grade three class for math III. I had been given some trigonometry questions for the class, which I assumed were a test of my skill and knowledge, so I completed them, but when I got to class it turned out it was the lesson for the day. The only thing wrong with my work was that everyone else was using diagrams and I didn't fully write out the maximums. I feel at home in my grade three classes.

And since I'm sure some of you are a little confused about the class switching, here it is written out better:

The first number is the grade (2=11, 3=12) and the second is the class number

2-5 home room, all non-math/physics classes

2-9 physics I

3-8 physics II, math II, math III

Oh, right, here's the drawing I did:

It's of me after exam week. (I rarely draw eyes.)

That's Enough Picutes for now

Tell me if you want more.

Anyways, to end my Roman Holiday, I ate supper, then watched Terminal with my host brother. I read my e-mail and check the time, checked it again, and figured what it was thirteen hours back plus savings. My mom sent me an e-mail explaining that she would like to talk to me on Skipe, err... Skype, so I grabbed a few wires and got a mircophone working on this computer (if they had either wireless internet or a headset jack it would have been easier to hear me). We had a short chat, the exchange student now working as tech support in my home and I helped her figure out how to work Skype (by the way, thanks for helping her with the computer). After that I did some trigonometry questions, did a quick workout and went to sleep.

Today, the single day of weekend I have, I've spent, so far, sitting around "home" and walking around sunny Kanazawa with my jacket on snapping the pictures. It seems like I'll be spending lots of time sitting around "home." My lack of interest in Japanese television programs doesn't help, nor do video games, also the upright play at one volume; loud, but I'll be fine. These are just minor complaints/me complaining. When I do get out there's a lot more happening.

And one more thing, in a previous post, I said that Japan lacks personal touch, but this sounds negative and I should have stated the reason behind it. Japan is a nation, a nation with a strong sense of national self. Rather than the every-man-for-himself style of The United States, and much of the world, the Japanese work for the good of the Japanese. Mostly.

Bucket'o'photos 2:Surrounding Area

And again, here it goes:

This is the alley I walk down on my way to school, it is as small as it looks, and today, there was a car parked at the other end. In Japan, even back alleys like this can be roads for cars.

Here`s a glimps of Kanazawa from then end of the alley.

And here's the stairs I run down every morning. If it were not so much easier to run (more like bound) I would walk so that I wouldn't look like an idiot running in a damn near suit and leather shoes.

Here's the bridge I cross. This shot gives you a nice view of the river and its banks, they make perfect tracks for runners (who I often see and are almost visible in this shot). This is one of the two rivers that run through Kanazawa.

And here's looking back at teramachi.
And here's another look back. There's a road that goes up that wall with a nice view, to be specific, this view: [link] and [link] (Blogspot can't show panaramic pictures very well.)

So, let's get back down there and continue into town.

Here's a generic road part of the way into town, my school (which is too crowded to get a clear shot of) isn't too far from here.

These kinds of statues are everywhere, and display women bathing or such (from what I can tell), I don't really care about these statues, I just though you might like to see what they're like here. (There's another one in the first picture of teramachi from the bridge).

This is a power pole in Japan. It's made of concrete, and has many, many, wires. I don't think you would want to accidently crash into this thing, especially in a tiny japanese toy car.

Laura, as I'm sure you've guessed, this one's for you. ...now I'm going to walk away before it bites me.