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!