Well my books are here. 35 minutes late though. They showed up just as I got Jared to call them and give them hell. We can do that in Japan-that's one good thing that's great about it. My books are 35 minutes late! Where the heck are you!!?
Anyways you may think that buying english books in Japan is expensive-it's not. According to the back of the books in Canada they cost 11.99 +GST? So about $12.89. My books cost 895 yen which works out to about.... $8.70
I had an interesting conversation on the phone yesterday with the result that my books should be arriving sometime this morning in the next hour. I was sitting at home yesterday morning surfing the net when my phone rang. The following is the conversation to the best of my recollection:
Me: Hello?
Lady: sojhgsogdfgdjgohqppacmkggf Nippon pojfgjfijsfjsbfs;kfhivgfsd.
Me: Uhh....(who the hell is this lady?)...gomen nasai. Wakarimasen.
Lady: ljshfisfsihfjshdfs;fjkhsjhfsjdhfjsdfhshdfwoeiosdifdksflkdfjd
Me: Gomen nasai. Watashi no Nihongo was jozu janai.
Lady: (nervous laugh) jhsjfhsjhdfshjdfhsdflewihfriyefhjsfhsofhsofgd.
Me: Uhh.... anata wa?
Lady: fhdisfhsjhfosihdfoydsfoisfksdjkhfsjdjsdijfiwfhd.
Me: Uhh...chotto matte kudasai (go to my briefcase and check my book ransom slip-sure enough it says "Nippon Express"
Me: Uhh... anata wa Nippon Express?
Lady: Hai. ifisgfsidfugw9ugefuigsfdsfshhsd
Me: Ahh!! My books! Amazon ne? Hon ne? I have san ban hon.
Lady: sjfhisfgshfoiiekjdksjjdsjjsjdjjdjsjsjsjsjsj.
Me: Ashita wa daijoobu?
Lady: Hai. [whfosfhsofsjkfjdjfdhuwueushajajshdh
Me: Ashita...watashi no shigoto wa...uhhh...ju...sanji (1 oclock)kara.....ni..ju..ichiji, dakara.....
Me: Morning?
Lady: Morning, hai. shfdswuufdusudufdjdjsjsjsdfidusdjshsjd
Me: Uhh.. gome. Itsu?
Lady: 9ji kara 11ji made desu. [osfhsjhfjsdfjslkaashdhdsk
Me: Ahh ok. Arigatoo. Bye bye.
Well I somehow managed to get something accomplished in that conversation but it was more because I knew the reason why she was calling and not so much because I could understand what she was saying. Fortunately I caught the word "Nippon" and managed to connect it with the book slip I had just gotten the other day. I probably would have caught on a heck of a lot faster if she had given a clue as to why she was calling. It should have been obvious to her that my Japanese was terrible. Why she continued to insist on talking to me in Japanese is beyond me.
This to me is perfect proof of why Japanese are such horrible communicators. Don't be fooled. Japanese people can speak english. Sure they may not be great at it but they have a ridiculously large english vocabulary compared the the average english person's japanese knowledge. Most english people are probably lucky if they know "kamikaze" and "sushi." I am almost positive however that everyone in japan knows that the english word for "hon" is "book." So why this poor old lady couldnt have given me a hint such as "book" or "Amazon" is beyond me. Perhaps she didn't know the contents of the package. She would have at least known that it was coming from Amazon though. Yet they all seem perfectly happy to speak to you in very fast japanese as if you were perfectly fluent.
Ok fine I'll keep writing titles. But don't blame me if they're uninspired. My books came today. Where else in the world can you get books delivered on an Easter Sunday? And of course I was at work so I got some slip that's written in some indecipherable language-probably Japanese, telling me that they came today and I wasn't there so now I'll never get the books ever..muhahaha! Or something like that. Hopefully I can get them delivered again on Tuesday morning.
Went to a jazz yakitori place last night which was different to say the least. I'm certainly not knowledgeable when it comes to most forms of music and not at all with jazz. But the place is literally down the street so I went with Fumiko and my roommate Yessenia who used to love going to jazz night every Saturday night and her friends who are visiting from America and the new guy at the old Entopia apartment who just got to Japan. He lives in the apartment beside where I used to live and he's a Glasgow lad. He likes jazz and plays the piano but that can't be helped I suppose.
For your and my amusement I'm posting a pic of the ransom notice I received for my books today. So far I've managed to decipher that it says my name and "amazon." I've also discerned that it has a picture of a big chicken on it.
Ah yes posting with no catchy titles! I love it! I hope you enjoy this one because it might be the last one you see in a while. Unfortunately my life just isn't exciting enough to warrant a catchy title. Perhaps I should rename my blog "Brendan's Boring Blog: Now with 100% less catchy subtitles!" I suppose that might be a little longwinded.
A couple of administrative notes: at the bottom of my posts the time is now Tokyo time so you can see exactly what time I've been posting when I should be in bed. I've also included a links section on the side after seeing my sister's blog. The links section contains a link to Tokyo's weather so you can see exactly what I'm experiencing each day and a link to my sister's blog who apparently is going to Peru at some point in time.
It is now Day 4 of the April Book Crisis. Those people over at Amazon still haven't even shipped out my books yet. They must have had to get them sent from the US or something. Who knows how long I can keep up these good intentions.
Kids class update: lots of cute kids as usual and a few bad kids as usual. Unfortunately I've got some bad ones that I thought I'd never have to see again. It's amazing how they can make the anger bubble up from nowhere. Lord knows what those poor Japanese people in the grocery store think when one minute I'm looking at the price of olive oil and the next I suddenly spew out "goddamn little bastard" to apparently nobody in particular.
And finally to satisfy the illiterate masses, here's a picture I took with my cell phone of a poster telling me not to take pictures with my cell phone. I'm not a rebel-I just thought the english was funny.
I'm going to go out on a limb and try to make a post without a catchy title. I don't know if it will work and I doubt anyone else does either because it's probably never been attempted. I'm not witty enough to come with worthwhile titles anyways and it's really dragging down my enthusiasm to write.
That and the fact that really there isn't too much to write about at the moment. I'm kind of in a rut right now. Like I said before, I've bought some books on Amazon, but the main disadvantage of online shopping is that there really is no satisfaction of the "impulse buy" that you get when you buy something from the store. My books still haven't even shipped yet and they're not scheduled to be delivered until the 20th or so. I'm trying to expand my horizons God help me but life makes it so difficult!! Fumiko and I went to Shinjuku the other day to check out what is probably the biggest selection of english books available in Tokyo. They had a section of math books even! Calculus and Algebra and the whole bit. I found a book that was interesting but it was a bit expensive at 3600 yen so I didn't buy it. Boy did I feel cheap when we left and stopped at an upscale department store where Fumiko bought an 18,000 yen pair of shoes.
Anyways I found it on Amazon tonight and I bought it. They had it a bit cheaper at 3000 yen.
It's called The Cambridge History of Warfare and it looked fascinating from my brief read. I thought it was a bit hypocritical to criticize you Tom Clancy or John Grisham fiction readers and then buy three works of fiction myself (albeit about real people and concerning real events.) I'll give you a review when I get around to reading it.
I don't usually post links to other things but I found this pretty darn cool. Some guy completely reproduced the last inning of the 1986 World Series Championship Game 6 baseball game between the Mets and the Red Sox using an old baseball game on the Nintendo called RBI baseball. It was done pitch by pitch and he even used the actual commentary from the game. Pretty amazing.
Well I took up Mom on her advice and went to Amazon and bought me some books! I went to the Japananese Amazon website which has an option to shop in English (sort of) and bought a "trilogy" of Civil War books, two written by a son and one by the father. Amazon has free shipping for orders over 1500 yen and so those babies are gonna come right to my front door.
I picked up:
The Killer Angels
The Last Full Measure
Gods and Generals
No horror stories to tell today. Things actually went amazingly smoothly in fact. Unfortunately they only gave me a one year visa. I had asked for a three year visa-that way I wouldn't have to pay 4000 yen every year to get a new one if I did decide to stay that long. Anyways, because I managed to finish my business so quickly I stopped at the bookstore opposite the immigration office. One of my co-workers had told me that it had a fairly decent offering of english books and I had decided that I wanted to get back into reading.
Although your average pop-fiction reader would probably have been be satisfied, us historians are a tough bunch to please. Unfortunately it's a hard knock life for your average historian in Japan when it comes to selection. I was hoping to pick up something on either WWII or the Civil War or perhaps even the Revolutionary War or the French Indian War. But all I was able to find was a couple of books about The Art of War, a 6000 yen hardback about the last year of fighting in Germany in WWII, a three book series about Napoleon and a book about the last days of Hitler in WWII. Although it looked like a fascinating read, it was a fairly small book and it was priced at 2700 yen, a full 1000 yen above the Cdn price and that was an atrocity in itself.
We indulged again tonight so I thought I'd take a picture of the procedings....
Talk about a great combination. Sakura first. This is hanami season in Japan which litterally means to look at cherry blossoms. This is nutty season for Japanese people who love the cherry blossoms. I mean, I enjoy looking at them alright-they're nice to see on your walk by, but Japanese people are just nutty about it!! People go out after work (or during work as organized by companies) and litterally sit under the cherry trees and eat and drink (and drink and drink and drink.)
Fumiko and I went to the Imperial palace and we got a few shots there. None of us actually together though unfortunately as there were only two of us there. Unfortunately we're a couple days past the peak viewing season as it has been a little windy and there was also a heavy rain so the trees are no longer in full bloom.
Now I know why I love Japan-yakiniku. It basically means "cook your own meat." I've been to a yakiniku restaurant a couple of times (all you can drink all you can eat) and it's pretty darned good but it's also a little pricey at 2600 yen per person for all you can eat. Then the other night, Jared came home with a portable gas range and I think I've had yakiniku at least three times since. I'm not quite sure if we're violating our lease by having one of these portable grills but I do know that there's nothing quite like cooking your own pieces of pork meat, taking it out with your chopsticks, dipping it in yakiniku sauce and tossing it in your mouth along with some sticky rice, all the while sitting in front of the TV watching American Idol. If that isn't heaven on earth then I don't know what is!
Anyways here are some pictures from today for the word challenged.
