Oh...toh....toh?

The onsen plan has again fallen through. If I can't go with Kyousuke in Tokyo I shall not experience one this trip. However! Tomorrow I'm going to a temple and a concert after classes. I'll also be going to a beach with some friends all day Friday way out in the country. I have a very busy week's end ahead of me. Let's see how it goes! I met Taka for the last time tonight. We went to a yatai! Yay! Here's a picture of a yatai.

I will miss him, and we had good times together. The other night Ryan and I met Miwa and her sister one last time. We went out to eat and had good times. However, Ryan and I are loud and overly-hyper Americans, so Miwa and her sister sat and marveled out how fast we could spit out our strange stories and jokes in our unique and slightly mauled Japanese. Good times were had by all I do believe. Just to give an example of mine and Ryan's sleep deprivation induced stories... I told a story about how an old lady dropped her hat on a busy road while crossing it. I, being the hero that I am, biked as fast as I could possibly bike and while holding on with one hand I leaned over, grabbed the hat, and barely beat a speeding bus heading straight for the old woman's accessory. This was only party true. Ryan shivered shortly after. I asked him if a opossum ran over his grave. He said he had never heard such a silly thing. The girls didn't understand the saying (of course) so Ryan proceeded to explain in Japanese. HOWEVER! He got his words mixed up. I didn't stop him, because it was awesome, but he mixed up the word for "grave" with the word for "firefly." Yeah, it was funny. Especially the looks on the girls faces. He was telling about how he was covered in fireflies, or he was inside of a firefly, while a strange animal was walking over the firefly that he happened to have died in. It was great. I was laughing and crying at the same time. Ok! That's all! Bye bye! I hope to update again before going to Tokyo!

- Derek

oshyare!

Well, it looks like Derek might be able to go to an onsen (public bath) after all! Woo hoo! I finally found a classmate who likes them and is going to take me to one if all works out. He's going to give his old host father a call, and we might even have some Japanese company for some good ol' language practice! I'm stoked! I've been wanting to go to one forever. Ok, next week is my last week in Fukuoka. I have big plans. Perhaps tomorrow I'm going to the beach with a Japanese friend. I'm going to a yatai (Fukuoka's famous ramen stands) as well. I plan on going to the most famous one... sweet.




Also, I have two concerts that I'm going to. One is a local jpop/dj concert. It should be cute, and rather cheesy, but even more opportunities to study Japanese, right? And, if you guys don't know, I rather like Japanese noise rock. Noise rock is pretty much a bunch of people up on stage screaming nonsense and banging on stuff. It's not always that unorganized, however I think the concert I'm going to is going to be pretty hardcore. We'll see. Check out Boredoms if you want a taste of Japanese noise rock at it's best.





Well, I bought some cool pants yesterday. They were on sell, and I couldn't resist. I'm going to chill here at the cafe I'm at for a while, study, and then walk around Tenjin so people can enjoy looking at my new pants. More updates to come as I carry out my plans and have various unforgettable adventures!

- Derek

otsukaresamadeshita!

Ok, quick update. Not a lot to talk about, but I've been having a great time. I've been hanging out with some Japanese friend a lot lately, and have therefore been able to use a ton of Japanese. Most of them can't speak any English worth mentioning, which is good for me. Great times. It's a little frustrating not being fluent, but I'm getting there. I've been feeling myself improving a lot in the last few weeks, and I feel like I need more time. It's alright though. I'll head back to LSU, try to get my degree, and make my way back here one day. Hopefully I can make some Japanese friends back in Baton Rouge and I'll be able to continue using this super sweet language.
Well, I'm so sad. My bestest pal here in Japan has gone back. Good ol' Don has gone to China for a while, and then he'll be heading back to Canada to work on his schooling. Had some great memories with the dude. Don! You're a great guy! We made some super good memories. I'll have to take a road trip to Canada one of these days and make sure you're behaving yourself, haha.
Well guys, this isn't much of an update, haha. I don't have any good pictures to upload, but I plan on going to a temple and to a beach pretty soon, so I'll load the camera up for you guys. On a side note, I keep seeing more and more of those pink frizzy dress clad girls walking around. They scare me, hardcore. They always have these creepy "I'm staring into your soul and I would eat it if could conjure up my demons in a public place" stare on their face. Wow.

Love and peace! Derek

p.s. Because this post is so lame, I'm adding videos by the Ramens to make you happy. Let's learn about Japanese tradition the fun way!

中 孝介 の赤ちゃんを作りたいんだ。

Well, here I am. I'm sitting in the internet cafe listening to Jack Johnson, trying to drown out the sound of the Shaggy CD that they play every day, over and over here. I liked Shaggy, but I don't anymore. Nope. Today was supposed to be onsen day, but it didn't work out. An onsen, if you don't know, is kind of like a public bath. It's supposed to be one of the coolest things ever, and I'm dying to go to one. My friend Sachi and her friend were going to take me and Don to one near here, but Don has run off to Tokyo for the weekend. An onsen would still be fun, but if I'm going to lounge around in a public bath for a few hours I'd like to have someone to talk to. I asked my friend Ryan to go with me instead, but he says that he's scared of being in the company of so many naked Japanese men. Haha, I can't blame him. But hey, it's a culture learning experience! Just go for it!
The other day Ryan and I went to Miwa's apartment for a hand-rolled sushi party. It was super good. We hung out all night with Miwa, her sister, and two of her friends. None of them could speak any English, so it was great practice for Ryan and I. Miwa's boss is going to be taking a trip during the first week of August, so she asked me to come to the clothing shop that she manages and hang out after school. Good times!
Man, fashion here is crazy. Most younger people are very hip when it comes to fashion. I'm quite jealous of the widespread fashion sense that these people have. There's a style right now with guys where they get super dark tans, have HUGE (usually) blond hair, and they wear super tight clothes. I have no idea what they do. Every time that I see them they're just standing on the side of the road or on sidewalks just staring at people. Another thing with younger girls, usually high school age, is maid style. I guess you'd call it that. For instance, a girl just walked by outside the cafe wearing an all pink dress with white lace, super tall white stocking things, pink high heels, a pink and white frilly umbrella, and curly hair with a pink little hat. Pretty crazy.



The thing right now that I see most often is layers. Guys will wear about three or four different shirts, and sometimes two different pairs of pants at the same time with one riding low with the other sticking way out. The array of hats worn is also quite amazing. However the boring American t-shirts that they sell are usually some of the most expensive. Miwa goes to America, buys shirts from thrift stores, brings them back here and sells each for 30-80 bucks. Amazing, huh These people are obsessed with America. American clothes can be seen everywhere. You have to go to a traditional Japanese restaurant to hear any Japanese music. The clubs here also play only American music.

Well, I have to do some school stuff so I had better wrap this up. I uploaded some new pictures and I have a link to the left. I'll start putting all of my new pictures into that album so that it's easier to find the new pictures that I upload. I also want to say that I really enjoy reading everyone's comments! To those who comment, thank you! Sorry I haven't written responses, haha. I'll try to write a response to your comments from time to time from now on. I'm so lazy. Ok! Ja, mata!

- Derek

p.s. Oh, I've fallen in love with this guy's voice. His name is 中 孝介 (Atari Kosuke). Here's a link to a music video for his most popular song right now 花 (hana). Enjoy!



One more, haha.

Bare Necessities

Alright! Update time for those of you who read this online mess I call a journal. So, there was a typhoon this weekend. It didn't really hit Fukuoka too bad, but I was scared to leave my apartment yesterday for fear of being stuck downtown from them shutting down the public transport. They didn't shut it down, and I could have gone out, but I didn't. However! I did learn about 40 new vocab words and couple of new grammerz. So all is well, no? I also saved some money by eating the food that was in my fridge.
This morning at about 5am was the Yamakasa festival. I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to make it (which I wasn't) so I went to the practice races on Friday. It was pretty much the actual Yamakasa race, so it's all good. It had all the teams of pantsless men running down the streets, which was all I wanted to see anyway. Haha. Actually, I was planning on taking heaps of uncomfortable and slightly amusing pictures of Japanese man oshiri for you guys to see, but I left my camera battery charging in my apartment. Oh well, if you wanna see, I'll upload a picture, and you can look at more on the net. Try to find a video of the race, it's really cool. Me and a few other Americans were standing on the side of the road yelling "OISAH!" with all of the racing men. I think we threw off their groove a bit, but we got some laughs from 'em. It was a lot of fun. Little Japanese babies and kids dressed up for the festival is the cutest thing ever. I would have eaten more squid sushi to have had my camera battery then.
Oh, and another thing is, I saw some squid sashimi being eaten the other day. If the sushi man kills the squid, puts it on the plate, and you eat it right away, the tentacles will squirm around. It looked actually quite hard to catch the slimey things with chopsticks. I wanna try it.

Ok! 終わり!

Rude boys live on.

Well, I moved out of my host family house. I'm in an apartment now that's much closer to school. I'm going to buy a cheap bike today and I won't even have to use the train except for on rainy days. There are many reasons as to why I moved, but it's a bit hard to explain, and probably rather boring, so I won't go into details. However, I will say that I really like my apartment and it's location. It's very small, but it's bigger than some of the other apartments that Japanese people live in around here. Also, I'm forcing myself to learn how to cook. We'll see how that turns out.
Well, let's talk about an average day here in Fukuoka, shall we? Well, mazu, I wake up, turn on the tv, and I shower. I leave the tv going for listening practice. There's a terribly deep bathtub that looks really inviting in the bathroom, but I'm too lazy and I don't want to have to clean it, so I don't use it. Yep, I might eventually, but we'll see. It's a super small bathroom, and the toilet is right where the shower head is, so I have to put the toilet paper outside the room every time I take a shower so that it won't get wet. I have a breakfast of a ham and cheese sandwich thing, yogurt, and I go back and forth between orange juice and apple juice. Then I'm off to Ijiri Station. It's just a few minutes walk, and I usually don't have to wait long for the next train. The train is always packed, so I can't really study on the trip, but no problem. Also, I try to keep both of my hands on the ring above me for fear of being called a "chikan," in which case I'm in trouble. A chikan is what people call perverts, and on the trains they usually touch girls (and sometimes guys) in ways that aren't so acceptable by today's standards. I haven't seen in happen yet, but apparently it does happen on the train I take from time to time. The girl will reach around, grab the hand of the guy she thinks it is, and will often threaten to report the man unless he pays a certain amount of money. A Japanese friend told me that the best thing to do is to keep both hands on the ring above you so that they can't accuse you while riding in a super packed train.
After the train ride it's a short walk from the Tenjin Station to the school. Tenjin is the popular business/bar/nightlife area. They also have some huge game centers ^^. I go to school for 4 hours. 2 hours are for conversation, and 2 hours are for grammar. We have short 10 minute breaks in between classes and I go grab a snack at the nearest AmPm convenient store (conbini), or a cheap bento and have my lunch before the next class starts. After classes I usually find a nice little coffee shop to sit and study at. There are tons of coffee places, and about 7 starbucks within 20 minutes walking distance. Oh, and they're opening two more. Crazy. After studying for a few hours I go with my classmates or any of my Japanese friends that aren't busy and we go out for supper, etc. I go home, shower again, study more, watch tv a bit, and sleep. There ya go! That's a normal day. There's always something else I'm doing from day to day, but that's a generic day for you. ii ne?

Oh, a couple of random things. The other day I went over to my friend James' house, and he cooked me and Don some traditional Chinese food. It was super yummy. Mostly veggies, because in class that day we were talking about all of the fish we eat and how little veggies we eat. James is a citizen of Hong Kong, Britain, and Canada. It's a very interesting story. Also, the old lady I met is kind of an ongoing joke right now, with everyone, even the teachers, asking me about my "grandma girlfriend." Haha, good times. By the way, never eat Ika tentacle sushi. Ika is squid, and it's bad. Me and my pal Ryan both tried one because we're stupid. Yep, that's about the only reason someone would eat something like that. Also he payed for it, so... We both had a hard time getting it down, and we both almost lost all of the sushi we had eaten so far. Amazing. And.... END!

- Derek

p.s. Also, for those of you who are praying folks, say a prayer for the family of my classmate, Robbie. Robbie is a mate of mine from England who has been studying here at Genki Jacs. We hung out a bit, and he was a really great guy. However, last week he was flirting with some girls outside of a bar and collapsed. He was taken to a hospital and he was there all last week and this week for some form of cancer of the heart. When I got to school today the receptionist, Kinoko, told me that he passed away yesterday. They were about to do surgery and he died before they could operate. His father, mother, and brother are here. Anyway, say a prayer for them if you will, and also for his close friends here at Genki Jacs. He was close with another British guy and an Australian fellow here. Thanks guys!

Bollocks

So, let's see... Where to begin? How about we let this journal be an unstructured mess of random thoughts. I've been studying, my brain hurts from speaking so much Japanese, and I'm about ready for a day of English only. It sounds really nice actually. I've had a few interesting food encounters. This past week, for example, I had two days in a row to where I had sashimi for dinner. Sashimi, if you don't know, is simply raw fish. Yep, you have a few floppy pieces of raw fish (some with a little, um, red in it), you grab it with your chopsticks, slap it in some soy sauce, and enjoy. Pretty foreign stuff, but I dig it. They also eat raw meat here, which I have yet to try... however, I intend to when I get the chance. Also, the other day I had my first raw egg. Had some pork, dipped it in the bowl of raw egg, and then eat with rice. It was SUPER delicious. The only thing I didn't really enjoy the other day was this giant tub of gelatinous curry flavored, giggly and squishy tofu. I don't like tofu, and I never will. It's in my genes. It's in there deep. I ate a ton of it anyway, haha.
So everyone in the train is always super quiet. However! Yesterday I got to the train station early so that I could try to get a seat on the train. If you don't get to the train early you'll stand for an hour, which isn't always fun. So I sat down, and this old lady sat down next to me. She seemed interested in the Japanese that I was studying, so I started up a conversation. It was great! The whole way home we talked in Japanese. She had to have been the cutest old lady I've ever seen. She looked maybe 65, but she was almost 80. Awesome. She was super nice, and ended every sentence with a nice, long, drawn out "ne~~~~." Haha. She gave me some advice, and we talked about how I can make some more friends in Japan. We talked about how I want to be a teacher in Japan in a couple of years, and she told me that everyone needs English teachers now. Hot.
Well, class is about to start. I'm off. More to come.

- Derek

New entry! Get!

Well, I think I'll take this time to talk about some of the things that have surprised me while I've been here. I'll add more as I think of them in later posts. びっくり！

* Store clerks yell "IRASHAIMASE!", which means "welcome," super loud even if noone is around.
* There are no street signs. Your guess is as good as mine as to which street I'm on at any time.
* Every restaurant sells noodles almost. There is little variety with Japanese restaraunts.
* Bus drivers turn off their buses and headlights at every redlight.
* There are no stop signs. The occasional signal light at big intersections can be found.
* No one tips anywhere. Apparently it's sometimes ok to tip the taxi man.
* If you ask for a drink with no ice, they only fill up your cup half full.
* The way they drive bikes around here, I still haven't seen anyone get slammed.
* You never hand anyone your money when you buy things, you always put it on a designated tray.
* Japanese businessmen are adamant comic readers.
* Japanese businessmen have some of the craziest hair I've ever seen. Mohawks, spiked, colored, everything and anything.
* Every girl wears high heels.
* Every girl who is riding a bike is usually riding it with high heels on.
* People take baths here after they clean by way of shower. However, the whole family uses the same bath water. No wasting!

My brain isn't working right now. I can't think of all of them, as there are many. I'll try to do a "surprising things" list 2.0 sometime. Farewell!

p.s. There are some things that aren't surprising. McDonald's is just as bad here, and there's a Starbucks at every corner.
*

Dame desu!

More on that picture in a minute. It's old school, and bad. I don't have much to write about. I uploaded a couple of pictures again, but not much to look at. Enjoy if you'd like! I've been sending e-mails trying to find friends. I've received quite a few back! Yatta! I'm meeting four people this week, and I met one last week. Time for language acquisition!
Well, I'll let everyone know how these meetings go. Perhaps they will be good, or perhaps they will be boring. Hopefully they will not be bad. I simply leave you with a n idea of the "facilities" here. They're amazing. Click here for a link of Japanese style toilets. http://www.magicjohn.com/toto.htm This is the modern kind that is in half of the households. They have heated seats that lift when they sense you're coming, and all sorts of wonderful features. Quite intimidating. Go read about Japanese toilets on Wikipedia if you're really interested. Oh, and I encountered an old school Japanese toilet a couple of days ago. Truly an experience. I actually thought about using it and then I ran away. Besides, there are old cleaning ladies that roam throughout the bathrooms here and they clean in the men's bathroom while you're in there. They'll stand and clean the urinal that's right next to the one that you're using. Wow. Culture shock!

Haha, well, that's all for now. I hope you enjoyed the picture of the old-style Japanese toilet. ^^;



- Derek

タイトル

Alright all, here's a quick update before my internet time runs out at the cafe that I'm at. I've uploaded a few more pictures, but not really much to look at. I moved my photos to another site as Yahoo Pictures is shutting down. There aren't any captions yet, but my favorite new picture is that of the tanuki. It looks like a raccoon. Check him out! I've been answering "friends wanted" ads all morning trying to find some young Japanese people to hang out with while I'm down here. That, my friends, is the best way to learn a language. I have a couple of responses and I'm hoping to meet one of them today. We'll see! I'll try to take more pictures today and upload them when I get the chance.
More exciting entries to come, just be patient!

- Derek

I went to a Sega arcade last night. I won a BIG plush doll thing of the Qoo mascot. See? Here's a picture. My doll isn't that big, but still... He's so cute! You put in batteries and he kicks his feet and wiggles around. Qoo is the best drink ever. I drink one every day. Apple flavor. Now with 20% real apple juice!

Jet lag is bad for your future.

Well, it’s been an interesting few days. I got lost on the bus the first day, but I think it have it semi-figured out now. There are tons of buses that run through the station that I get on and it’s hard to figure out which one to take. The bus guide that I got doesn’t really help out very much, as the buses often stray from the routes that the map says their supposed to go on. Oh, and it will never get old seeing some old businessman in a suit or businesswoman in high heels running as you never though a short little Asian person can run to get to the bus/train/subway/etc on time. They fly, like ninjas. Oh! That reminds me. I have yet to see a ninja and I’m quite disappointed. However, from what I’m told, they’re very dangerous and you only see them after they’ve stabbed/cut/killed you. So maybe it’s for the best.
My classmates are all very interesting people. They aren’t all the unsocial, greasy, overweight anime nerds that I was afraid they were going to be. They’re all actually very normal! Oh! And manga, Japanese comics in book form, are read by all. It’s quite normal to see a Japanese businessman of 40 years old or older wearing a suit and tie, holding a briefcase in one hand, and in the other hand holding the newest Shonen Jump magazine while doing a little dance to balance on the train. I went into a four story manga and anime store today. It was very, uh, interesting. It’s really amazing going into a store with four floors of tightly packed rows of comics upon comics. And about that dance that some people do on trains. It’s very amusing to watch. I saw this old man doing it just last night. He had stinky armpits or he was too cool to hold onto the rings on the ceiling or something, but he just stood there with his hands by his side. He never moved his feet to balance himself. If the train lurched he would bend his knees, learn forward, backward, to the side, all in one fluid motion. He was a little exaggerated, and the people around him seemed just as entertained as I was. Awesome.
Ugh, what can I say about jet lag? I think I’m experiencing it for the first time. I feel dazed during the afternoon and I get sleepy fast. I’ve had a bit of a cold today and I’m going to go to bed early to try to sleep it off. Here’s hoping.
(Written on June 6 at 9:40pm)

- Derek

p.s. I’m having a hard time trying to find time to get on the internet. I commute for 3 hours a day, and I have homework, etc. Also, it’s not easy to find a place to use the internet after school that doesn’t require you to give them your right arm and big toe. Either foot’s is fine. Tomorrow’s mission: Find a FREE internet café! WOO! Goodnight America, Taiwan, and Tokyo!

p.p.s. Leave me comments! It makes me feel loved. And please, leave your name as well. I’m not sure what everyone’s alias is. Thanks!

Yatta!

Alright! Here I am! I'm in Japan! Finally! Exclamation marks! Woo hoo! I'm in an internet cafe right now, with all the manga that I can read, all the anime I can watch, and all the foot baths I can handle. And it has free drinks!
The flight was super duper long and I couldn't sleep. There was a crazy half-drunken lady in front of me who kept making a ruckus. When I got to Tokyo they liked the cute picture of me in my passport so they let me come into the country. My friend Kyousuke, who many of you guys saw pictures of, met me in the airport in Tokyo. We ate lunch together (super good ramen, be jealous) and then he drove me to the Haneda airport. They drive on the wrong side of the road! It was terrible. But I survived the trip to the airport and made it to Fukuoka, where my host family picked me up.
The host family is great. Mr. Tanaka, Mrs. Nakagawa, and their 9 y.o. daughter, Raimu. Yes, they're married, and why they have different last names is beyond me. Something about Mrs. Nakagawa being older. But anway, they rock! They took me to a Bhuddist temple/"theme park" as they called it. It has some old relics and a huge statue of a reclining Bhudda (the biggest in Japan), but it also has some stuff that is mostly for show apparently. Anyway, I bought a cute something for my mom there but she'll have to wait until I get back to see it : )
Well, this cafe is very awesome, but it is costing me a few yen to use it, so I should wrap up this entry. You're probably getting bored of it by now anyway. Japan rocks, the fashion here is capital CRAZY (and slightly awesome), the food is cheap and good, the teachers at my school are kind, and Pokemon is popular. I'm off to take pictures of a Sega arcade for my friend. Until next time!

- Derek, who is in Japan.

P.S. Sorry for the excitement. I had too much sleep last night and too much good Japanese food today, so I'm a bit hyper. Woops! Oh, and when I connect to Blogger here, well, it's all in Japanese. I have to figure out how to upload pictures, etc. Well, let's try!

p.p.s. Here's the link to my new yahoo picture account! I'll add descriptions later if I run out of time. http://new.photos.yahoo.com/derekuinjapan