Day Whatever it is now

I've become so terribly lazy about this and haven't published a post in the past few weeks.  My reasoning is that nothing exceptionally exciting has happened recently, and I felt that I was doing both of us a disservice by just typing the same thing over and over.  So, here's a recap of the moderately interesting things that have happened since I last posted.

1. Summer rain season begins: Okazaki, the town I've been living in for the past 9 weeks, has so far been the hardest hit city in all of Japan.  News reports indicated that authorities ordered all 380,000 residents of the city to leave their homes in the wake of flooding, though that order was later lifted.  As of now the official death toll stands at 1, though there are a few missing and injured.  I, however, am in very little danger, as my residence is high up on a hill, far away from the lowlands where most of the damage is occurring.  The trains were out for part of yesterday, but that didn't stop me from going to the arcade, partly just to make sure that everything was still in working order and not destroyed by the flood waters.

2. O-bon: I followed a friend to Tokyo (as more of a thing to do with somebody than to visit Tokyo again).  Sure, I ended up in the same places as before, namely Akihabara, but that's where he wanted to go, to purchase an electronic dictionary and an iPod touch.  I, on the other hand, purchased mainly subway tickets and admission to parks and such.  And took A LOT of pictures.  Some turned out quite nice, I'd suggest checking out my facebook if you have the chance.  On a related note, when my time here ends, I'll be going through my pictures, weeding out all of the mediocre ones (probably like 1500 of them), and making a best of (series of) album(s).  I again stayed at the capsule hotel, and quite enjoyed it, though I can't say that I'm particularly addicted to them.

The following day I made my favorite trip, to Hiroshima and Miyajima, one of the Three Views of Japan.  The weather wasn't all that great for the Saturday I was there, but Miyajima was still beautiful as anything I've ever seen.  So beautiful that I felt the need to climb yet another mountain, only a week after ascending Fuji.  I didn't get back to the shrine early enough, so it was closed, but I still got enough pictures to make it seem worthwhile.  Then, the following day, I went to Peace Park, home to the remains of the Hiroshima Industrial Promotional Hall, or better known to the rest of the world, the A-bomb dome.  It was more of a sobering and educational experience than I had originally thought it would be, and to me, felt more like Japan should feel than Tokyo did.  If I have the chance, I'll probably go back once more, possibly when I meet my friends starting the KCJS program later in the year.

3. Karaoke: I really don't need to say much about this, except that it's one of the many things I'll really miss when going back home.  Sure, there's a place on the North side of Chicago, but it just won't have that Japanese... feeling about it.

4. Graduations: SILAC is quickly dwindling in numbers as the summer season draws to a close.  At the end of this upcoming week, the remaining members of SILAC SA (from the beginning of the summer) ("the best class" according to pretty much every sensei), including Daryl, Jie, Keon Ung, and me, will be leaving Yamasa.  Other graduating students include Ben who showed up here 5 weeks ago, and I'm sure several others who have to get back for school and other studies.

5. Miscellaneous: thinking about what to sell to make my trip easier home; purchasing a few souvenirs for people; having learned how to make some truly tasty meals; cleaning out the most disgusting rice cooker ever due to some lazy guy who left several weeks ago and didn't do a thing about it (I noticed it, and cleaned it with a friend); discovered a whole new level of power with the iPod touch, which almost makes having a notebook computer obsolete, except for the whole keyboard thing; finally, realized that I can't get fresh strawberries anywhere.

I hope this is sufficient for anybody who used to read this, and that I didn't leave out too many details.  I can't say that I'll write one of these again until next Saturday when I'm leaving, but if something interesting happens, I'll keep you informed.

Mt. Fuji

I probably purchased far too many things for the trip, as I'm just going to give some of them to the house and get rid of others.  For instance, we were told to bring 4 rolls of toilet paper, of which I used none, and several plastic bags for trash, of which I also used none; my gloves were ripped on the first trip up when I fell, and now require stitching or to be exchanged, if they'll do that.  But, I did manage to get a "complete" walking stick, at least of the Fujinomiya trail: I purchased the stick at the summit for 1500 yen, paid for a clay stamp at the summit for another 300 yen, and then had to (well, really, wanted to) get 7 more stamps at 200 yen each, bringing the total price of this "collector's item" of sorts to 3200 yen, or roughly $32.  It did prevent me from falling several times on the trip down though, which proved it to be a good purchase.

The trip began Friday afternoon at 3 p.m., 18 of us plus Declan (who was yet again "selected" (more appropriately "forced") to climb the mountain with us.  Several times leading up to the trip he tried to get it canceled, and now I can see why, as climbing that mountain 9 times is no easy task.  We started from station 5, which is 2400 meters above sea level, and had to proceed to 3776 meters, or the summit of the mountain.  The trip is divided up into several segments, separated by "stations", which are numbered 5 (the beginning of the Fujinomiya trail, the one we climbed), 6, 7, 7,5, 8, 9, 9.5, and 10/summit.  The reason for the ".5" stations is that some of the huts or stations were originally too far apart, and this makes climbing more bearable.  The entire thing did take about 7 hours to make the ascent, though, and we arrived at about 3 a.m. at the summit of the volcano (which has been dormant for 300 years).   We even had to leave behind one of our members at station 7.5 (3010 meters up) because he was getting sick from the altitude.  This surprised all of us, because he's probably the most fit person to have gone on the trip, but altitude sickness is serious and affects everyone in different ways.  I was able to "force" my way to the top, carrying somebody else's backpack, along with mine, and my large water bottle.

The sun was due to come up soon, and it was absolutely breathtaking to watch the sun come up from the mountaintop.  First, the sky was layered yellow, blue, and red, some of it reflections from Tokyo; second the sky turned a bright crimson as if it were about to all burst loose at once; third, that crimson became a brilliant yellow as the sun finally appeared (and began to warm us all up).  The summit is 3776 meters above sea level, and it gets pretty cold at night (and the air is thin/lacking in oxygen), so I had to keep walking around for about an hour so I didn't lose feeling in my extremities.  After that, it was time to head down, or at least get ready to do so.

I purchased the aforementioned stick with a few other fellow climbers/classmates, but was the only one to actually get all of the stamps, as some of them didn't notice the stamp shop at certain stations.  It felt overall worth it, like I managed to accomplish many things on this trip.  Sure, I did fall twice and have slight injuries on each of my arms (left arm on Friday evening, just a small cut/scrape; right arm on Saturday morning, scraped up elbow and bruise on the arm), but that's what comes from climbing that monstrosity of a mountain.

But who can neglect what happened during the second to last leg of our descent?  Nobody, not even the crazy people who decided to start and continue climbing during the HAIL STORM.  Yes, we had a hail storm that lasted probably about 30 minutes, which made the second to last leg of the trip seem much longer than it should have been.  I had been able to see the stopping point/station for about an hour, but the trail just continued to wind and wind, seeming like it would never take us there.  The last leg was just misty with a bit of rain; I got my last stamp done at the base/station 5, and now have a walking stick from Mt. Fuji with 9 stamps on it (one from the summit, one that comes pre-burned into the stick, one from station 9.5, one from station 9, one from station 8, one from station 7.5, one from station 7, one from station 6, and the aforementioned one at the base).  Besides that, it looks cool.

In so few words, I'll conclude this post with a Japanese proverb (or a re-wording of it) and my thoughts on it.

-A wise man will climb Mt. Fuji one time.  A fool will climb it again.

I think, at least for now, I'll remain the wise man.

Day 45

Well, at least one of those "last day" paragraphs in my last post was a lie, as I still have Naruse sensei.  I really hoped that this was over, because I'd rather have a sensei who at least respects that we're trying to learn their language and will not be perfect at speaking at all times.  If this happens for the last term, I'll really don't know what I'll do - go insane, or just find a way to show her that she's not quite doing it correctly.

This will be a very short post, because I'm not doing anything else after classes today except for Mt. Fuji, for which there will be a separate post.

Day 44

Last day of Term B.  Remember Alvaro who I mentioned earlier (at least I think I did)?  That rude, arrogant, and annoying fellow from the first day?  Well, he never showed up after that, which neither surprises nor bothers me at all.  I think he was just surprised and offended at the other people in the class who are just as good or better than him, and he couldn't take it.

Last day with Naruse sensei.  I was completely wrong about her, as she ended up being pretty nice in the end (except for the fact that she told the other professors that we are all "useless").  I feel that I learned a good deal from her, and will cherish having her as a professor, knowing that it can only get easier from here.

Last day with many of the students in the class.  SILAC SH was the finish line for 3 students in our class, 2 of whom gave impressive speeches (one of whom was unable to give a speech because she had private lessons, even after graduation!).  That doesn't mean that my next class will be small though, because for the next two terms, well my last two terms, classes will change completely, in terms of students, senseis, and subject matter studied each time.

Last day before climbing Mt. Fuji.  I had to spend a fair amount of money on supplies, but at least I'll be able to use all of these at a later date.  At least I didn't have to buy any more clothing, as I brought it all.  The only nonrenewable items I had to purchase were some candy, pain reliever (w/o aspirin, I don't understand why but it's probably some really important reason), and just toiletries.

Last day I'll be beginning all of my paragraphs with the words "last day".

Day 43

Oops.  I clearly set my alarm for 7:30, 7:35, 7:45, and 8:00; I promptly disregarded all four of them, woke up at 8:30, got a shower/shave in, and then arrived at class just in time for the day to begin.  One more day of this term left, then either starting the next level, or doing more of Minna no Nihongo II (which is actually my plan).

I was going to eat lunch with friends at Kitsutsuki ("Woodpecker"), but there weren't any tables left; I did eat from the restaurant anyways, but it was my standard issue bento (which I have recently found out does not differ too much from the set meal at the restaurant, save for the lack of miso soup.  The bento is 150 yen less, but you don't get a drink or soup, and the portions are somewhat smaller.

After classes, a meeting with Declan about the Mt. Fuji trip.  That man seems to be doing anything to get the trip canceled.  He was down talking the climb for the first few minutes, and maintained that air for the rest of the talk.  It's probably because he's been forced to do it so many times, but he just is unnaturally angry (and irrationally so) about many things in general.

On a completely unrelated note, except for a few wind parts and annotations, I completed the first movement of my concerto tonight, and it tops out at roughly 10 minutes.  Many concertos are only slightly longer than that, but I'm not going to laze out at this time - expected running time for the entire piece is right now at 30 minutes.  I've got plenty of work ahead of me - finishing part 1, writing parts 2 and 3 (which I already know how they will go) and deciding how to write part 4.  That will all come in time.

Day 42

This is getting repetitive.  Finally I got up early, like 7:30 early.  Unexpectedly, I went back to sleep for another 27 minutes or so.  No problems, as I had a shower, breakfast, some time to read articles from the BBC, and just sit there before I went to class.

So, it appears that we aren't going to have a quiz or test at all during this term.  Reason being, there's no place to move up, only to move down, and they can determine that from our homework and participation in class.  Today, we began "informal talk", or essentially the opposite of "keigo"/"formal talk."  The real challenge was knowing when to drop certain words, and switching back and forth between both speaking styles when answering questions from classmates and the sensei.

Yesterday, I started getting some exercise, mostly in the form of push-ups and sit-ups/crunches, but today I decided to take it a step further: an intense hour long bike ride (my legs will probably be feeling really good tomorrow) and the exercises to come after I'm done typing this.  It probably won't do anything immediately, but I just want to either get in shape or stay in the shape I'm in.

With about 2 hours worth of work tomorrow (or a bit more), I'll finally be finished with the first movement of my concerto; it tops out at just over 10 minutes.  So what do I do when I'm finished with that?  Well, two things: 1) probably some gloating, but more importantly, 2) start working on movement 2.  At least mvt. 2 is only going to be about 5 minutes long, as is mvt. 3.  Wish me luck!

Day 41

Today starts "the second half" of many things: most pertinent to the time being, Term B; of secondary importance, my time here at Yamasa; thirdly, and of somewhat heavy importance, though not necessarily to the present, my 7 straight academic quarters.  I can only say that it's time to keep doing what I'm doing, maybe do a little bit more, and just be prepared for "SD"ing and classes next year.

Classes went as expected, except that my sensei always seems to call on me when I'm going to get something incorrect.  It's probably something she does on purpose, and if it is, she's doing a great job to belittle us.  Sure, education rests on fixing errors and learning new concepts, but if you know that you're going to get something incorrect and be laughed at for it, you really lose the will to even participate anymore.  At least this term ends Friday, and I'll hopefully be out of her class for good.

For the first time, I managed to make a sub-par dinner: it was far too salty.  I guess that I'll just refrain from using either extra salt or soy sauce next time.  The real problem was that it was excellent at the beginning, and then a bit unbearable at the end.  Here are the ingredients to make it correctly if you're interested:

-one skinned and diced tomato

-two diced onion stalks

-160 grams of ground beef

-2 cloves of garlic, diced

-2 tsp. extra virgin olive oil

-salt to taste

-a pinch of the following: basil, oregano, roast onion, paprika

Cook all of this down and then spread/pour it on top of a bed of noodles.  Tasty, if you make it correctly.

Day 40

Sunday, or another day that I can get up at 11:00 and not feel too bad about it.  Besides the fact that I went to the fireworks on bike and didn't do to much exercise besides that, I was still pretty tired, even with 9+ hours of sleep.  Maybe last year is finally catching up to me.  I just hope that I can fix this and settle into a good sleep schedule, at least for next year.

So what did I do today?  Again, very little, because I really didn't have to.  I didn't go back to the arcade, partly to save money, partly because I wasn't interested, and partly because I didn't have the energy to do so.  580 yen for free play is inviting, but if you can't take advantage of the time, then why pay to play?  Also, it's good that I didn't go, as the homework took a bit longer than I had thought it would.

Dinner: more stew, which is why the only place I had to go today was Seiyu to get more vegetables, and fruit, cereal, bread, and jam for other meals.  As always, it was tasty, and I had enough left over for one more meal.

Pictures are still not uploaded, as facebook is rather finicky about that (still), so I guess you'll just have to wait until later.

Day 39

As I expected, I was too tired to do anything this morning.  Even though I woke up just fine at 9:30, I wanted to sleep some more.  Like 3 hours more.  So I did, and then just moved around a bit, failed at laundry until I went back to the laundromat, paid at a convenience store with the equivalent of a $100 bill and didn't even receive any strange looks, was able to finish some of my homework, make another omelette, and then make it down to the fireworks.

The Okazaki fireworks are the loudest in Japan, and that's fairly evident if you attend them.  I showed up late due to finishing up some stuff back here, but still probably lost some of my hearing and won't get it back.  My pictures taken were few and far between, because we were behind trees most of the time we were walking around.  I did, however, have an exceptionally tasty strawberry icy drink and a chocolate churro, which was enough to hold me over for the rest of the day.

As pictures are often stronger than words (1000x, if I believe correctly), I'll leave the rest of today up to them.  That, and a video or two.  This is really just a lame attempt at clouding the fact that I didn't do much today.  So, look for more excitement tomorrow.

Day 38

Friday has come at last, and not a moment too soon.  I finally got up reasonably early, but not early enough to make breakfast, nor did I care to make a lunch.  Only 3 classes, and the vending machine sells orange juice and iced coffee, one small drink for each break.  So, I was fine getting through class and getting home.

Just before I was going to make lunch, however, the cleaning people showed up for their monthly cleaning.  A bit ridiculous that they only clean once per month, but we are expected to keep this place clean ourselves, I guess.  It's reasonable, but just that.  They were nice enough to let me make my lunch, which consisted of a hash brown, toast with strawberry jelly, and a combination of 3 eggs, onions, cheese, and some sausages.  Not quite an omelette, but close enough.  They were also nice enough to clean my dishes for me, which I didn't even ask them to do (nor would I really know how to) (just kidding, I do), and then I was off to go exploring of a sort.

Or just go back to the Cibico.  I showed up at the right time for "free time", or 580 yen for as much as you want to drink (soft drinks) and play (games of any sort).  I tried out Para Para Paradise and probably looked like a fool, because that game is all based on hand waving; also, DDR Solo, of which the cabinet only had like 10 songs.  Weak.  After more rhythm based songs, I was getting blisters, so I decided that it was time to leave.  Maybe find a quiet place to go do homework.

Ha, good luck with that.  The street festivals were in full swing by the time I walked out the door.  A short bike ride put me in the perfect place to get some nice pictures and a pretty good video, both of which I'll be uploading shortly.  I remembered that some of my friends were coming by and would be near the train station at 5 or a little bit after, so I went there and of course ran into and surprised them.  We watched the street festival, saw some live action Power Rangers (which was a bit too much like the TV show for my liking, but maintained the cheesiness factor), and had some really good beef.

So, I was of course tired after that, with an hour or so of DDR and then some fairly intense bike rides to get there and back, so I probably won't do a whole lot tomorrow morning.  Check my next post to see if I do.

Day 37

Thursday posed little in terms of changes to my daily routine.  Classes went splendidly well, my views of my senseis were not changed, and the day itself progressed without change, of course until after classes.

I told Vojtech that I was thinking of trying to find the Cibico, a large department store in downtown Okazaki, with an arcade called "U.S. Land" on the 4th floor.  The forecast told of rain, so I took my umbrella, backpack with bike registration and passport safely tucked inside, and a spare pair of clothes just in case I got too wet early on and needed to change into something more comfortable.

The trip was unexpectedly difficult, because at first I had absolutely no more than a basic clue as to where the Cibico was.  I knew that it was near Okazaki Castle, because I saw that from the train a few weeks back.  So I used my basic intuition and found the highest up and most easily accessible location, the top of the parking garage at the local train station.  It was around where I had thought, but still impossible to exactly pinpoint.  So I got on my bike and started looking for more easily accessible high-up locations.

The best place I found was a bridge, which gave me pretty much the exact location of the Cibico, only a block or two from where I was staring at it.  The final leg of the journey was only about a minute or two, and no sooner did I see the building was I on the 4th floor staring at a DDR 4th mix cabinet.

Yes, a 4th mix cabinet, probably about 5 years old by now.  I was both surprised at the fact that these still existed (and in how good of a condition the pads were in) and also surprised at the lack of features of early DDR mixes.  Nevertheless, I spent an entire 350 yen getting my card so I could come back later, and that was pretty much it for roughly 30 minutes of DDR.

The trip back was easy, as I've now gone that way 3 or 4 times, and have the feeling that I'll be going back that way sometime soon.  I also noticed plenty of set up happening for the festival that will be happening over the weekend, and realized that I probably won't get to sit at the area with the good view.  Oh well, at least I'll be able to go.

More on the festival tomorrow, when it actually happens.

Day 36

I realize that the recap of classes is becoming quite stale, so I won't go into that much detail from this point forward.  Rather, I'll bring up interesting details and instead tell you about what I did following class.  On the note of important details for class, we were, for the first time, told that we are "bad at this" by our sensei.  I know that she's called the Shinkansen sensei due to the speed that she likes to move at, but I've also noticed that she is also probably the rudest teacher I've had both here and at university altogether.  I think next week is my last week with her, so let's just hope that I have Honda sensei again and am able to enjoy class.

On a semi-related note, the Institute is run by the Hattori foundation, and one of my new senseis has the surname of Hattori.  My initial opinion of her is that she's not all that great of a teacher, in that the first two sessions with her involved limited interaction between us and her - we simply wrote up questions to ask the other senseis, and then proceeded to interview them for the remainder of the first period.  The most feedback we would get from her would be little more than "make sure to keep your sentences balanced" (use the correct level of speech throughout).  The second period of both days was also just listening exercises, with the only interaction being "which one is correct?" "a" "yes."  Call me skeptical, but this may be an act of nepotism in one of the highest regarded language schools in all of Japan.

And now, the important details.  A newer student to Yamasa, Gareth, who's also teaching in the JET program, decided to organize a trip to Brazilia Pizza, a small diner of sorts that serves basically anything you want on a pizza, even hot dogs and potato sticks.  It's right over by Aeon Mall, and if any of you are ever over here, I'd suggest going there at least once.  All in all there were 7 of us and two very large pizzas, which needless to say were completely consumed within 20 minutes of their delivery to us.  We then went to the arcade and played some House of the Dead, and following that, returned to our respective residences and slept for classes the following morning.

The festival begins the day after tomorrow, so I'll be talking about that soon enough.  Until then, "oyasumi nasai".