Fil's pregnant!

I'm not sure if I'm breaking the terms of any NDA but some of you might be interested to know that my good friend Phil from university (who also happens to go by a number of aliases on this blog such as Crazy Cooter) will be having a child sometime in October. How he managed to get himself in such a condition I'm not really sure! But congrats anyways. If you're considering any japanese names (of females at least) then feel free to hit me up for some advice! A couple that I like: Ai (love), Sakura (cherry blossoms), or Yuki (snow)

Would you like some wine with that couch?

So I went furniture shopping with Fumiko last week. I've been assured that that is a sure sign of a completely domesticated boyfriend. All I can say in my defense is that I had no idea we were going in the first place-we were shopping in Shinjuku and since we just happened to be in the neighbourhood...
It actually turned out to be pretty interesting though so I would probably do over again.

I don't know for sure but I think I can say with a sense of confidence that you've never experienced furniture shopping like this. This is exactly how it goes:

• you walk into an upscale building about 7 or 8 stories tall and go up to the front counter
• they ask you for your membership card and fill out a short questionaire for you regarding the purpose of your visit
• you are then led over and sat down (they pull out the chairs for you) at a table where you wait until a man (or woman) dressed up in a suit comes over and introduces themselves and hands you your business card
• they then take any packages that you happen to be carrying and put them away in a safe place somewhere and give you a number so that you can get them back when you leave-who wants to shop while encumbered?
• they then proceed to guide you around the entire store. That's right-there's no casual browsing here. For every customer in the store there is some guy in a suit giving the ins and outs of all the furniture
• at the end of your excursion, should you decide to buy or at least reserve a piece of furniture, you are then led to yet another set of tables where they sit you down and a nice lady brings you a glass of tea or orange juice (your preference)
• after all the neccessary documents or information has passed hands, your guide will fold up the receipt, put it in an envelope and hand it to you (with both hands of course,) whereupon you hand him your number and he goes and retrieves your packages
• finally he walks you to the door, bids you goodbye and bows to you

And that's that! We got a couch (by "we" I mean that I followed Fumiko and the salesman around the store, uncomprehending of the strange language that was a fusion of japanese and "furniturese.") Lord knows you'd never catch me in a store like that on my own. I'm quite proud of the fact that we have two "pleather" couches from the recycle shop for a grand total of about 15,000 yen. Less than 1/10th of the new couch.

A virtual smorgasborg

Not sure about the spelling in the title. Jeez it's been a long time since my last post. I gotta start posting more often so that I don't have to start off all the time by saying that. I suppose there comes a point where you just get used to living here and everything turns into status quo...or maybe not-this is Japan after all.

Here's a link that you might be interested in checking out. I'm putting it up at the begining because I'm sure some of you have trouble making it to the end of my posts. Basically if you're interested in what people are wearing in Tokyo right now then this looks like the site to check out. They seem to take pictures of five different major areas in Tokyo every week so you can see exactly what the fashion is like. Some of it is quite nice and some of it is a little...Japanese. Anyways check it out: http://www.style-arena.jp/index_e.htm

Fumiko's birthday is coming up soon (July 1st so no excuse for forgetting) and I've been looking high and low for a nice penguin pendant necklace. Sometimes I call her penguin because of the cute way she (and I guess all Japanese) say it. Say it with me now: "pen-geeN." And that "gee" as in Guy the French guy from down the street not "gee I wish I hadn't forgotten to pay my electricity bill." Anyways you won't believe how hard it is to find a penguin pendant. Poor things just aren't very loveable I guess. I should have called her "dolphin" instead- I have to beat those pendants off me with a stick.

Guess who's a kool kid now!

I bought my Birkenstocks today! They were at my local PARCO and apparently a lot cheaper than what they go for in Canada. Who knew that Japan could actually be more cheap sometimes!

I think I may be able to watch all of the Stanley Cup live games live-at least they're on one of the J-sports channels and I'm hoping that it's one of the ones that I get. I'll also be watching the World Cup so that's a lot of sports for the month of June! I don't particularly like the Japanese team (I hope a certain so and so isn't reading this!) but I have been told in no uncertain terms that I will be cheering for them-or else.

Tsk tsk...

A mere 4 posts for the month of May! That certainly is pathetic! And it's not exactly like I've been leading an exciting life this month-wait maybe that's the problem. Things are starting to humidify here and before long I am going to have serious problems sleeping. I suppose I might have to start turning the air conditioner on-or maybe it would be better to just buy a dehumidifier.

I went into Ikebukuro for the first time in a while yesterday and made a purchase (also first time in a while.) I was actually planning on purchasing a pair of Birkenstocks, (after 26 years I've finally decided to be one of the 'cool' kids) but I couldn't find any that I particularly liked so instead I ended up coming home with a new pair of shades and a cowboy hat. Ok not exactly a cowboy hat. Think of maybe something that Brad Pitt might wear-in fact I even tried to convince Fumiko that I looked like Brad Pitt but she wasn't having any of that. Oh well-I suppose as long as I'm safe inside my little fantasy then that's all that matters! I'm sure I'll have a picture of it for you sometime.

I actually got a sunny day on my day off today (first time in a long time) so I managed to get out (after my private class and after the gym) and do a little sun-tanning. I didn't get out until 4 o'clock so I don't think I even singed the skin! At least when I'm tanning it gives me the opportunity to learn a little japanese. Today I reviewed my verb, noun and adjective conjugations. I even learned the definition of 'adjective.'


*edit* Ok since I'm bored I took a pic of both aforementioned articles until I can get one of the good looking guy that goes under them.

Bikurishita!!

Wow 11 days and no posts!! Either nothing is going on on my life or...I don't know what! Maybe a combination of both. Just so you know, I am know a katakana master. I finally completed the transition tonight. All I had left was my r sounds and my y sounds but I really have been lazy for about a week. But I actually knew most of them already because I had been able to guess their sounds from reading katakana in the gym and whatnot. It really has opened up a whole new world for me in the gym-I can actually read some simple machine instructions and schedules. Here are some examples. See if you can translate them from katakana into normal english.

• kwi-ku stah-to
• sto-pu
• te-nee-sue ko-ru-toh
• she-toe (picture a weight machine instruction here)
• cheh-su-to
• sue-pee-do
• sha-wah
• roh-keh-ru

Ok those were all things from a weight gym context. You should probably be able to get most of them. If you're having trouble, then look at the sounds and then close your eyes and say it so that your eyes aren't tricking you.

Here are a few more that I'm getting from my kids book-they have nothing to do with the gym-I'll try to provide a little hint for each.

• keh-key (a sweet desert)
• meh-ro-N (a fruit)
• rah-ee-oh-N (an animal)
• new-doh-rue (another food)
• mee-rue-ku (a drink)
• nah-ee-fu (a tool maybe)
• heh-ru-meh-to (for a hockey player maybe)
• ah-ee-roh-N (keeps your shirts looking nice)

Ok that's all for not. Post your answers if you want. The winner gets my respect-don't cheat and look at other peoples' answers!!

Disneyland

Well that was a blast. My expectations weren't all that high but there was some really cool stuff-and apparently the Japanese Disneyland isn't nearly as good as the American one so goodness knows what the family back home has been missing! I thought Fumiko was crazy to have us on the 7:47 train to Chiba to get there for the 9:00am opening but it was a good thing she did because we were there all day and we still didn't get a chance to see everything. I thought $55 was kind of expensive for a ticket but it's not so expensive when you divide that cost by 12 hours. And it does bring back your childhood! Anyways here are a couple pics.

Look out Mickey-here I come!!

If things go well I should be visiting a Disneyland for the first time ever on Tuesday. Fumiko doesn't know how many times she's been before but she claims to be a Disneyland/DisneySea expert and has already bought the tickets and has an itinerary that begins at 7am on Tuesday morning-and I thought this was supposed to be fun. We'll see how it goes anyways. I'll be sure to bring the camera along so you can bask in the joy.

My roomie is leaving soon which is both sad and great. Sad because she's a great person but great because there will only be two of us in the house and it means we'll be able to turn that bottom room into a dining room. Our rent is going to go up a little but she got a heck of a good deal to live down on the first floor so it isn't going to be too bad of a hit. A house for two people for less than the price of what those (expletives deleted) charge at NOVA-fantastic!

Things are starting to warm up (as in WARM up) and I'm looking forward to the summer nights when we can go to the convenience store and buy a bag of fireworks and go down to the local park and set them off. It should be good times!

My katakana 'vocabulary' is growing at an exponential rate. Actually I've only memorized 20 but I've only sat down for 3 sessions so that isn't too bad. I demonstrated my initial progress to Fumiko which produced an uncontrollable bout of laughter because apparently although my characters look the same as anything else I've seen I have the stroke order of a monkey. She'd really be shocked if she knew that I have poor stroke order for english too! So anyways I bought a kids book which teaches the proper stroke order and I can give myself a sticker at the end of each session.

The best, the best, the best, the best...

No I'm not referring to myself-I just had to make a title because according to Emily if I don't it just looks like one big long essay. Anyways those were the lyrics I happened to be hearing coming from my earphones at the moment.
Yesterday was beautifully hot-apparently it was 31 degrees and it sure felt like it. I had to work though so I couldn't really enjoy it. Today on the other hand was my day off so of course it's raining just like it does on every day off I have. Last Saturday I got the day off to go strawberry picking and since it was actually my head teacher's day off and not mine it was beautifully sunny. I'll post a bit more about that later sometime and I'll add a few pics.

I bought a new bike yesterday-I found a nice one that comes with all the bells and whistles so I had to buy it. I'm a bit materialistic that way. Anyways I had been harassing the new teacher to buy my old bike for about a week now and he finally did yesterday. My old bike was basically a mountain/street bike and it was a great ride. This one's half way between a mountain bike and the old granny bikes you see around here. It's amazing how different the two bikes feel. If the old one was like driving a sports car then the new one is like driving a truck. Not a bad thing-just completely different.

Because it's raining today I've been inspired to start learning Japanese again-hardcore. We'll see how that goes-I'll keep you updated. I'm going to start with learning Katakana which should be the easiest thing to do and will provide the most immediate results. But first I have to go finish breakfast and then do a little shopping....

And so that this update isn't completely boring I'll post a couple of pictures of strawberry picking. There's not much of me in these pictures and there's a reason for that-it's pretty obvious who the photogenic one in the family is!


Yes that last picture is actually fish on a stick. Yes people were actually eating them as if they were popsicles. No I didn't try one. Don't be ridiculous.

Books!

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

Moshi moshi!!

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.

Now with 100% more titles

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.

Feel the freedom!!

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.

Books!

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

Back to the immigration office...

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.

Yakiniku continued...

We indulged again tonight so I thought I'd take a picture of the procedings....

Sakura and Yakiniku!

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.

Happy Japanniversary!!

Yes it's true!! March 30th was my one year anniversary and on that day I woke up sick. Actually I woke up sick on March 29th which is why it has taken me so long to get these pictures posted. Most of these pictures are from the bike trip I posted about earlier (except for the ones that are obviously from Canada)

Ohisashi buri desu ne!!

Long time no see eh? Wow I had no idea it had been 10 days since my last post. Hopefully people other than just my other significant other are still checking up on this site. I'll try to post more often-I think I've just been in a bit of a rut lately.