The roommate.

My roommate is Jared. Well more of a housemate actually but roommate seems more natural to say. He's one of two that I have. I suppose I might talk about the other one some other time-if I get around to it. If you're one of those people like Andrew who can't read more than three consecuetive sentences without a picture then I'll give you a 5 word synopsis. He's a really good guy. There ya go. If you want to find out more than read now.

I suppose it only seems fitting to tell you now that at this very moment, my roommate is puking in the bathroom and talking to himself. Actually that's an even more comprehensive synopsis of my roommate than the first one. He is basically completely different from me. He is American and I am Canadian. He is black and I am white. He is loud and brash, I am quiet and polite. He has no shame and I have no pride. He always has something to say and I am often quiet. He's a smoker and I am not. He is straightforward and to the point and I avoid any kind of conflict. He is practically an alcoholic and I am practically a tea-granny. He is gay and I am straight. Yes you read right. Actually, maybe you didn't so I'll repeat that just in case there's any confusion. HE is gay and I am straight. I still love the ladies although I will admit my cooking has improved wonderfully. My personal fashion style still leaves something to be desired though. So I guess he's out of the closet now. Actually he always has been, but now he's out of my closet (don't worry there's nothing else in there.)

My roommate is now lying in bed and talking to himself. That's better than when he's singing (screaming) in the shower at least. I've never met anyone before who could entertain themselves so thoroughly. My roommate is now giggling at something he said to himself. The scary thing is that he does this when he's sober as well. Now he's talking to himself in japanese. He will probably soon shout through the wall, telling me to kill him with a frying pan.

As I said before, we get on wonderfully. I probably haven't had this good of a friend since Phil and Chad and Andre in university. We're totally different but we've got a pretty good connection. The only similarity between us is that we both would rather stay at home than go out and neither of us cares what anyone thinks about that. We always have good laughs. He will sometimes use the F-word (no not that one, the OTHER one) and then he'll look at me and say 'Don't YOU say that!" and we'll both burst out laughing. And we can always laugh at the terrible pronunciations of old japanese ladies and make fun of japanese food.

The man really has no shame. Tonight he went to karaoke by himself (he loves karaoke) and got drunk. He then came home, and went over to our neighbors (foreigners too) and demanded to know why he wasn't invited to their Thanksgiving party. If he has a problem he will come straight out and say it. No beating around the bush or anything like that. If anyone asks me what he's like I usually say "typical American" but that might be an injustice to Americans-or at the very least an inaccurate statement. He is all in all a really decent guy though, despite all his flaws. He's a psychology major so he's happy to give me advice when I want it (or, as is usually the case, don't) and he's very honest which is why I had no qualms about lending him 150,000 yen (about $1500) when we moved in. He's paying it back now slowly but surely. It's hard to save much money when you're practically an alcoholic and drink every night.

And as for the gay thing, that's cool. It's usually very funny. He likes to watch Sailor Moon and often he calls himself "Mummy" (often when saying "Make Mummy a martini" or "Mommy needs a pick-me-up") I just have to watch myself because when I think something's stupid I often say "that's gay." It's just something that's ingrained into what I do. I'm careful not to do it now although sometimes it comes out. I don't think he would really mind now, but I still try to avoid doing it, you know, because I'm not brash like he is.

Anyways I'd like to say that that's a full synopsis of my roommate but that would probably be impossible because he's such a complicated character. There are so many layers. I believe he has finally passed out in his room.

Be prepared...

Ok be on the lookout for a big post about one of my roommates tomorrow. How's that for a hook?

I went out bowling tonight and I got 4 strikes in a row! I could have kept on going but for some reason they turned on the lights and threw my game off.

Wouldn't wanna be ya...

Taking advantage of the beautiful thing called the Internets, I've been perusing the weather back home in Canada. I notice that Toronto has a low of -10 with snow and a windchill of -22. Jeez that certainly makes me feel better when I go outside in our 12 degree celcius and sunny weather! I don't know how long that's going to last but I'm certainly going to enjoy it while I can! Yesterday my housemate Jared worked at my branch, so that was pretty fun. Mom always wants to hear about my roommates so maybe I'll right a bit on him tonight when I get home-or then again maybe I'll sit down and play some Civilization 4. If I was a betting man, I know where I would put my money.

Someone recently asked me when I'm coming home and I told them I would come home when the stores started displaying "Merry Christmas" again instead of "Happy Holidays." So that answer could possibly mean 'never' I suppose. Like any other country, Christmas started the day after Halloween here and it's just as annoying as it is back home. And while this country may be full of heathen dogs (tongue firmly in cheek) at least they don't have any problems acknowledging a holiday for what it is the way our supposedly "Christian" country does.
I read an article on the Star not to long ago where Martin was criticizing the opposition for threatenting a Christmas election campaign because not only was it during the Christmas holiday season but also several other important holidays. I wanted to wretch. I felt like yelling at him for being so redundant. We know there are other holidays, but do you really have to name them all? Isn't Christmas a good enough reason? The PC that comes out of that mans mouth is just disgusting.

Anyways, I've had my rant for today. I don't have any interesting facts right now so how about a Japanese vocab lesson instead. Your first word will be:

KAWAII: [kah-why-eee] This means "cute" and if you're a girl under the age of 20, you'll probably say it at least 15 times per day.

Ouch.

For someone who isn't a very big cell phone person, or even a phone person, I sure go through a lot of them. I've been here only 8 months and already I'm on my 3rd one. After a good three hour session at one of the local cell phone companies, I finally decided to go ahead and get a new phone. Getting a new phone is a fairly straightforward process that involves filling out eight thousand forms-in triplicate. Thank God my roommate speaks japanese. I wouldn't have gotten anywhere without him.

Anyways the silver lining is that I was able to get the phone that I've had my eye on for the past 2 months. It only cost me $200 bucks. 14,000 yen for the phone, 3,000 to cancel my old contract and 2,700 to start a new one. But I've got it all set up the way I want it with a Red Hot Chilli Peppers ringtone and an ICQ "uh-oh" for my email alerts and I've got it chained to my pants the way Phil Demerais used to chain his wallet-no seriously. I'm gonna start a new thing.

Speaking of starting a new thing, I bought a new purse today. No not actually a purse. More like one of those shoulder bag type things only a lot smaller. You can sling it around your shoulders or you can clip it onto one of your belt loops using a carabiner. It's pretty cool but I think any guy back home would take a lot of flak if he walked around with one of those things hanging off his belt. But one of great things about living in Japan is that you can go out and wear totally weird stuff that you would never wear back home and you'd probably still be the most normally dressed person out there.

I'm still hoping that someone turns in my old phone. I need to get my address book. We're so dependent on technology nowadays that we don't rely on our brains anymore. I don't know how many people I had in my phone-at least 20, but I didn't know a single telephone number or email address of any of them-including my own roommate!

My new 'purse'

Follow up....

One funny thing happened last night that I forgot to mention. We were out eating and drinking till just past twelve so I had to rush back to the train station to catch the last train back home. I got there just in time because there was only one train left. Concerned because I couldn't recognize the kanji for the final destination I decided to ask the train conductor where the train was headed to. He said that it was going to Hoya (one stop short of where I live-doh! gotta walk.) It wasn't until I had gotten on the train that I realized I had asked him "Where is this bike going?" (densha=train, jitensha=bike) A combination of too much alcohol and not enough studying I suppose.

Lost: One cellphone

I thought was going to be able to post tonight that I had performed the unheard of feat of going out two nights in a row. I almost did it too. The first night I was out to Ikebukero with some friends for an all you can eat all you can drink yakiniku meal. Tonight was supposed to be going out to a night of soccer but somewhere between the 7-Eleven and the station my cell phone fell out of my pocket. I went back to look for it and it wasn't there so I'm hoping that the famed honesty of the Japanese populace holds true for me tomorrow when I go to the local koban (police box.) Anyways at that point I wasn't in the mood to go play soccer any more so I went home. If I do lose the phone then at least I'll have an excuse to go out and buy the new one I've had my eye on for a while.

Another reason why I was not too enthusiastic about going to soccer is because it is freakin cold over here. At least it feels that way anyways. Our house is great but wayyyy to cold. Apparently it's 10 degrees celcius outside but it feels a lot colder. At least it's starting to feel a lot more Christmasy. Speaking of Christmas, if you want to see an amazing Christmas light show then check out this video. It is, in a word, fantabulistic.

http://members.cox.net/transam57/lights.wmv

Random Japanese Fact: At least 24 Tokyoites have fractured their skulls while bowing.

Attention women

It has been said that Japan is usually about one year ahead of the rest of the world on the fashion curve so I feel it's my duty to give all my friends a heads up on next years line of clothes.
For women the new big thing is shorts. Not cargo shorts or sports shorts but almost a dressy kind of shorts. They're tapered so that they almost reach the knee and they're fairly tight around the knee. It actually looks half decent in my opinion. It was a little strange at first but I'm starting to appreciate it more now. How in the world wearing shorts became a new trend in the months of October and November I'll never know. Nobody said Japanese women were smart. Also shorts can be complimented with some kind of cowboy-type boot-it's a fall/winter thing.

As for men, you will be wearing clothes that make you look like jackasses.

I will try to get you some pictures of the women assuming that I don't get beaten up or thrown in jail.

Interesting facts

So that my posts are not a complete waste of your time, I'm going to reinstate the interesting Japanese fact thingy that I had going before-only this time they're going to be real facts. To celebrate this grand event I'm going to start out with two or three.

#1)Metropolitan Tokyo consists of 12 million people, the population rises 2.5 million during the day.

#2)The population has fallen by 10% since the 1964 Olympics.

#3)The pachinko places in Japan pull in more cash than all the rest of the casinos in the world combined.

#4)The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Lost and Found centre receives more than 300,000 umbrellas every year, or more than 3,000 each time there is a heavy rain.

An update on my life

You may have noticed that I'm living in a new apartment. Perhaps you are curious as to how I ended up here. Even if you aren't then sit down and shut up because I'm going to tell you anyways. Nearing the end of September, I got a notice from Nova that our apartment was being closed down and I was getting kicked out again!! They gave us some options for some other NOVA apartments or I could simply move to the apartment next door (similar to what I had done the first time.) There was actually already a girl living in that apartment but she had also gotten an eviction notice. Both her and I got together because we wanted to stay in our town and we both started looking for apartments. Only problem was that it is very expensive and difficult for foreigners. Anyways it was getting close to our eviction date when my roommate suddenly decided that he wanted to get in with us on an apartment too. So now that we had three people we were able to go through a company that deals exclusively with foreigners and were able to get a house here in our town which is a lot cheaper than living with NOVA.

So anyways we have a fantastic house now but unfortunately like a lot of japanese houses it's bloody cold!! However it's awesome cause we got a great living room set up with cable and wireless internet.

By the way, it's official. I'm a groupie. A J-drama groupie that is. I'm so addicted to that highschool drama Nobuta o Producer that not only have I been downloading all the episodes and not only have I downloaded the subtitles but I've also been going into the text file for the subtitles and editing each hour long show so that the english is a little bit more natural. It usually takes me two or three hours to go through each file and switch things around. There's been 5 episodes shown so far and I've watched the first three about 5 times each. I also learned last night at dinner with one of my students that her son knows the girl who plays Nobuta and that she lives in the town two stations away from me!!!!!!!!!! Naturally I demanded an autograph.

And yes if you read the previous paragraph closely you'll see that I've been breaking the Commandments (the NOVA ones Mom!) Specifically the one that pertains to not giving your personal information to students. I was good for the first 6 months but I've broken that one Commandment multiple times since I last had a regular internet connection. It just goes to show you how computers and internet can help keep you out of trouble! I don't feel too bad as it really is an unjust rule and it is currently being challenged in Japanese courts.


Nobuta: She's so kawaii!!!

P.S. If you comment you may see that you have to type in some kind of word just to verify that you are indeed a real person. Sorry for the inconvenience-just trying to keep the spammers on their toes.

I'm famous!!

I felt like checking out my blog tonight so rather than type the link directly in I went to google and punched in Brendansboringblog. This site came up of course but so a few other links to my site from other webpages! This one for instance:

http://www.feitclub.com/2005/07/keeping-it-casual.html
I wasn't expecting any fame from my blog but I'll certainly take all that I can get!

I've never been a big fan of japanese tv but over the past couple of weeks I've been addicted to a couple of dramas. So much so that I've started downloading them so that I can watch with english subtitles! Both are highschool dramas and the storylines seem pretty shallow but it makes for real feelgood tv watching. I may be the only guy and the only person over 18 to watch it but what the hell! At least it's given me something to chat about with my shy highschool students. I've basically been asking every female student under the age of 30 if they watch it. If you want to see it and know how Bittorrent works then go to http://isohunt.com/ and type in the word "Nobuta" in the search engine. The show's name is Nobuta o Producer and I'm watching the 5th episode as I type. Definitely give it a try-I can hook you up with english subtitles if you want to know what's going on.





The storyline is this: Shuji is an amazingly popular guy at school-he has a hot girlfriend and everyone thinks he's the coolest. His main goal in life is to have fun and never be too serious. Then a couple of things happen at once: Akira, the most annoying guy in the whole school decides that they're going to be friends and Shuji cannot get rid of him; and a new girl arrives at the school. She has serious problems-she has no friends, she hates her life and she has no self-confidence. The mean girls at school pick on her and chase her and make her life miserable and she won't stick up for herself. The two "friends" find that there's something missing in their life and they need to do something amazing in order to find their youth again. So they decide that they're going to turn this new girl, Nobuko, into their project and make her the most popular girl at school. I'm not sure what's going to happen but I think Shuji is going to end up falling for Nobuko.

Yes I know I've probably lost everyone's respect but that's what addictions do to you.

I'm baaaaaack!!!

Hey all, it's good to be back again! It's been so long since I last wrote that I can't really remember where I last left off!! I'll try to recap everything that's gone on in my life in the next few days but right now it's almost one am so this first post is going to be restricted to posting pictures of my new house.

The clean bedroom is mine and the dirty one is Jared's. I'm quite proud of our living room. It really kicks and I'm proud to say that I basically bought all the furniture for it and did the the furniture arrangement myself. Our kitchen/dining room isn't quite so clean but I don't really have as much control over that.