I paid the down payment for a car yesterday. Pictures should be coming soon.
I also got my foreigner registration card and signed up for internet.
It seems as if things are finally starting to come together.
I`m definitely nervous about driving because it`s not just the roads that are reversed, but also the steering wheel and everything else. Basically, everything is a mirror image. If you draw a US intersection and then look at it in the mirror, you have a Japanese intersection. As for the actual inside of the car, yesterday when I was driving around the parking log, I kept accidentally turning on the windshield wipers instead of the turn signal because the sides they are on are also opposite. This should take some getting used to.
I am going to try to get my cell phone today, so I`ll have a cell phone email address to share with many of you soon. :)
August 26, 2008
August 25, 2008
1739
1 - ichi
7 - nana
3 - san
9 - kyuu
ichinana sankyuu
iinaa sankyuu
iinaa thank you
that`s great, thank you
Japanese is amazing.
The closest thing we have in English to that, I think, is gr8t instead of great- which isn`t even a fraction as amazing as 1739 in Japanese.
I think that when I get my Japanese cell phone, I`m going to have 1739 as part of the email address.
It`s been a while since I last posted at this blog. I was out of town all of last week at orientation and at the cultural center in Kanoya (KAPIC). It`s good to be back. Classes start again next week and I might be buying a car pretty soon. I believe I also have a cell phone in my near future sometime as soon as I get my foreigner registration card. Internet at the apartment could follow about 2 weeks after that. My Japan life is really starting to come together.
...Although I just realized that I forgot to take out the trash today.
*sigh*
...hmmm... what to do with that trash for one week......
I have some spoiled pork I could really appreciate getting rid of.
Plus I already defeated the first round of fruit flies.
I`ll work it out. Some way or another, that bag will be out of my apartment come tomorrow.
...I hope.
I heard at the prefecture orientation something about sneaking your trash into a can at a convenience store. But that would mean I would have to be seen walking around with my trash first.
And no, there`s no can or dumpster outside of my apartment building to put trash during the week. There is really no place to put trash other than on the day that we`re supposed to put out the certain kind. Tuesday is `burnable trash' day. Burnable trash contains food, which can smell after a while. I am NOT happy about missing burnable trash day.
Boy, did this blog completely change directions when I remembered that.
I can`t even remember what more I was going to say.
39 very much for reading. You are all g8.
7 - nana
3 - san
9 - kyuu
ichinana sankyuu
iinaa sankyuu
iinaa thank you
that`s great, thank you
Japanese is amazing.
The closest thing we have in English to that, I think, is gr8t instead of great- which isn`t even a fraction as amazing as 1739 in Japanese.
I think that when I get my Japanese cell phone, I`m going to have 1739 as part of the email address.
It`s been a while since I last posted at this blog. I was out of town all of last week at orientation and at the cultural center in Kanoya (KAPIC). It`s good to be back. Classes start again next week and I might be buying a car pretty soon. I believe I also have a cell phone in my near future sometime as soon as I get my foreigner registration card. Internet at the apartment could follow about 2 weeks after that. My Japan life is really starting to come together.
...Although I just realized that I forgot to take out the trash today.
*sigh*
...hmmm... what to do with that trash for one week......
I have some spoiled pork I could really appreciate getting rid of.
Plus I already defeated the first round of fruit flies.
I`ll work it out. Some way or another, that bag will be out of my apartment come tomorrow.
...I hope.
I heard at the prefecture orientation something about sneaking your trash into a can at a convenience store. But that would mean I would have to be seen walking around with my trash first.
And no, there`s no can or dumpster outside of my apartment building to put trash during the week. There is really no place to put trash other than on the day that we`re supposed to put out the certain kind. Tuesday is `burnable trash' day. Burnable trash contains food, which can smell after a while. I am NOT happy about missing burnable trash day.
Boy, did this blog completely change directions when I remembered that.
I can`t even remember what more I was going to say.
39 very much for reading. You are all g8.
August 17, 2008
Weird dream
So I had the WEIRDEST dream the other night.
The main characters of my dream could`ve been cats, but that kept changing.
Oh, and it was a musical.
...Because I was listening to RENT music for the first in a long while.
So the female main character and a male character were at some kind of shopping center, and the female looked up and realized that the building looked like it was going to fall.
So everyone in the building was panicking and running around. The female ran outside and realized that it might be safer to find a safe place back inside, so she ran in and huddled with a group.
The building fell, but everyone in that group were okay.
(This part of the dream, of course, was terrifying)
A person stepped forward from the group and started talking about how the building was attacked and probably some people (....or cats...???) had died in the crash.
But then she started singing about how we should all rejoice because with the death of the animals, brand new fur coats could be made.
This person actually was Cruella DeVille (sp).
The female main character didn`t really want to be around this, so she took off. She found her male cat friend and they began walking back to their... uhhh... tree swing. Where they sang a love song together.
Then I woke up.
Most of the aspects of this dream came from commercials on Japanese TV. Like the Cruella DeVille part came from a commercial with a lot of dalmatians in it. Jenny (fellow ALT with internet!) and I were talking about Aristocats a few days before, too.
Oh, and although it was out of sequence, sometimes the female main character cat would try to sell some kind of mysterious tofu loaf.
The next morning, without feeling any pain or much of any warning, I ended up throwing up my breakfast. For exacly half a day, my stomach was completely off. Of course, I felt fine later and was sitting with other JETs in a British Pub in Kagoshima city drinking cider that following evening.
Life has been a little weird at times, but good.
The main characters of my dream could`ve been cats, but that kept changing.
Oh, and it was a musical.
...Because I was listening to RENT music for the first in a long while.
So the female main character and a male character were at some kind of shopping center, and the female looked up and realized that the building looked like it was going to fall.
So everyone in the building was panicking and running around. The female ran outside and realized that it might be safer to find a safe place back inside, so she ran in and huddled with a group.
The building fell, but everyone in that group were okay.
(This part of the dream, of course, was terrifying)
A person stepped forward from the group and started talking about how the building was attacked and probably some people (....or cats...???) had died in the crash.
But then she started singing about how we should all rejoice because with the death of the animals, brand new fur coats could be made.
This person actually was Cruella DeVille (sp).
The female main character didn`t really want to be around this, so she took off. She found her male cat friend and they began walking back to their... uhhh... tree swing. Where they sang a love song together.
Then I woke up.
Most of the aspects of this dream came from commercials on Japanese TV. Like the Cruella DeVille part came from a commercial with a lot of dalmatians in it. Jenny (fellow ALT with internet!) and I were talking about Aristocats a few days before, too.
Oh, and although it was out of sequence, sometimes the female main character cat would try to sell some kind of mysterious tofu loaf.
The next morning, without feeling any pain or much of any warning, I ended up throwing up my breakfast. For exacly half a day, my stomach was completely off. Of course, I felt fine later and was sitting with other JETs in a British Pub in Kagoshima city drinking cider that following evening.
Life has been a little weird at times, but good.
August 13, 2008
So I went back and read that airplane blog.
I skimmed it a little bit over at Aya`s house a few days ago, but I read it entirely just now.
By the way, could anyone do me a favor and check out my Japan life blog and let me know if it looks okay. The layout doesn`t properly load on my work computer. I put a clock on there that SHOULD have Japan time on it, but I haven`t the faintest idea what that looks like (for all I know, it could not be a clock at all...) Anyway, that would be much appreciated.
Today I asked my supervisor to help me buy a car. I learned so far that there`s really no way around me neither having to buy or rent a car (it was very STRONGLY suggested, which is saying a lot around these parts). I`ve also heard a number of times that it`s smarter to rent a car if you plan to only stay for a year, but if you plan to stay longer, it`s better to buy one. I was tempted by the idea of renting because then I`d be freed from the hassle of owning a car in Japan, but I decided that maybe I should consider buying after all.
I went home from work yesterday early due to severe cramping (which, TMI I know, had me in the bathroom losing my breakfast) and after relaxing for a while and going over numbers, I realized that people weren`t fooling around when they said I`d be able to afford a car. I guess I kind of had to see the numbers to believe them. Anyway, the idea of driving on the other side of the road still terrifies me.
It just dawned on me that I am sleeping about 7 hours a night. I used to think that I could only really function on at least 8. Isn`t 7 like the minimum for a good, restful sleep? Someone with either the knowledge or the initiative to look into this can feel free to step forward.
Internet, cellphone, and everything else that I am waiting on my Foreigner Registration card are going to have to wait for some time. Especially internet, I heard that it takes about two weeks to get that set up. Jenny, a high school teaching ALT who lives not too far from me, told me yesterday that one can sign up for the internet service and get a bank account with just the pink slip for proof that the card is coming. I really, truly wish that I knew that.
Since I am going to be out of town from Monday to Friday this next week, I still have to wait until the week after next to get anything like that going. It would`ve been nice to get the internet process started last week. *sigh*
I got my name stamp the other day. It`s pretty much my legal signature. Not the most secure thing because it can be lost or stolen, but it`s still really cool to have.
I skimmed it a little bit over at Aya`s house a few days ago, but I read it entirely just now.
By the way, could anyone do me a favor and check out my Japan life blog and let me know if it looks okay. The layout doesn`t properly load on my work computer. I put a clock on there that SHOULD have Japan time on it, but I haven`t the faintest idea what that looks like (for all I know, it could not be a clock at all...) Anyway, that would be much appreciated.
Today I asked my supervisor to help me buy a car. I learned so far that there`s really no way around me neither having to buy or rent a car (it was very STRONGLY suggested, which is saying a lot around these parts). I`ve also heard a number of times that it`s smarter to rent a car if you plan to only stay for a year, but if you plan to stay longer, it`s better to buy one. I was tempted by the idea of renting because then I`d be freed from the hassle of owning a car in Japan, but I decided that maybe I should consider buying after all.
I went home from work yesterday early due to severe cramping (which, TMI I know, had me in the bathroom losing my breakfast) and after relaxing for a while and going over numbers, I realized that people weren`t fooling around when they said I`d be able to afford a car. I guess I kind of had to see the numbers to believe them. Anyway, the idea of driving on the other side of the road still terrifies me.
It just dawned on me that I am sleeping about 7 hours a night. I used to think that I could only really function on at least 8. Isn`t 7 like the minimum for a good, restful sleep? Someone with either the knowledge or the initiative to look into this can feel free to step forward.
Internet, cellphone, and everything else that I am waiting on my Foreigner Registration card are going to have to wait for some time. Especially internet, I heard that it takes about two weeks to get that set up. Jenny, a high school teaching ALT who lives not too far from me, told me yesterday that one can sign up for the internet service and get a bank account with just the pink slip for proof that the card is coming. I really, truly wish that I knew that.
Since I am going to be out of town from Monday to Friday this next week, I still have to wait until the week after next to get anything like that going. It would`ve been nice to get the internet process started last week. *sigh*
I got my name stamp the other day. It`s pretty much my legal signature. Not the most secure thing because it can be lost or stolen, but it`s still really cool to have.
August 12, 2008
Life life life
(Entry edited to fix COMPLETELY inaccurate information)
So since I last posted here, the Tokyo orientation finished and I`ve been here at my placement in Kagoshima prefecture for about a week.
Basically, I can`t really do anything without a `Foreigner Registration Card` which should be getting here sometime between soon and not so soon.
Then and only THEN can I get internet in my apartment, get a cell phone, and soooo many other things that will help make my life easier and overall better.
Until then, I`m doing good.
I heard from some other JETs that they don`t have internet at their offices, so during this period of waiting for their cards, they`re completely without internet.
Can you imagine waiting this whole time for another blog from me???
.....
Don`t answer that.
At first, I couldn`t figure out how to get my television to work, but a few days ago I finally figured it out. I guess it wasn`t really complicated or anything.
But since then, I`ve had the television on all of the time when I`m at home. I even sometimes take notes of things I see in commercials that might be useful for me so that I can maybe find them more easily in the store.
Yesterday, I watched a television show where people who are announcers by occupation were contestants in a guys vs. girls contest. It was really a fun thing to watch even though I didn`t know who any of the people were.
Then I watched a pretty corny detective drama. The main character is this young-ish guy who seems to be the run of the mill good guy with a strong sense of justice.
I was doing laundry and other things during this show, so my understanding of the plot line was kind of choppy.
Anyway, during one part, a woman and some bad guy are having some kind of standoff with guns. The woman is about to pull the trigger when some other guy decides to, although he does NOT have a gun but seems to carry some kind of pole instead (no, not a kendo stick, a POLE), intervene and ends up getting shot.
Then next time I was watching again, the young main character was there with the woman and was talking to the bad guy.
Bad guy: *looks pretty evil* You really believe?
Young main character: *confidentally* Yes, I believe.
BG: *breaks into hysterical laughter*
The following part does not fit into my idea of detective show...
The bad guy takes out a sword... long knife... thing, the young main character is unarmed. They move forward to attack each other and some kind of... imaginary sword appears in the main character guy`s hand. Anyway, he`s unharmed by the real sword, but the bad guy is hurt. He recovers, looks at the good guys with a really pouty expression, then takes off.
............
Yay!
Yeah, it was kind of a funny show.
Anyway, I`ve been logging on daily onto AIM via meebo at work and hanging out on facebook chat quite a lot, so you can probably catch me on there if you want to chat. I get off of work at around 4:15 pm my time, that`s 12:15 am in California, so I`m usually around most of the evening. At least until school starts in September.
Oh, I`m going to be out of town next week, too.
So since I last posted here, the Tokyo orientation finished and I`ve been here at my placement in Kagoshima prefecture for about a week.
Basically, I can`t really do anything without a `Foreigner Registration Card` which should be getting here sometime between soon and not so soon.
Then and only THEN can I get internet in my apartment, get a cell phone, and soooo many other things that will help make my life easier and overall better.
Until then, I`m doing good.
I heard from some other JETs that they don`t have internet at their offices, so during this period of waiting for their cards, they`re completely without internet.
Can you imagine waiting this whole time for another blog from me???
.....
Don`t answer that.
At first, I couldn`t figure out how to get my television to work, but a few days ago I finally figured it out. I guess it wasn`t really complicated or anything.
But since then, I`ve had the television on all of the time when I`m at home. I even sometimes take notes of things I see in commercials that might be useful for me so that I can maybe find them more easily in the store.
Yesterday, I watched a television show where people who are announcers by occupation were contestants in a guys vs. girls contest. It was really a fun thing to watch even though I didn`t know who any of the people were.
Then I watched a pretty corny detective drama. The main character is this young-ish guy who seems to be the run of the mill good guy with a strong sense of justice.
I was doing laundry and other things during this show, so my understanding of the plot line was kind of choppy.
Anyway, during one part, a woman and some bad guy are having some kind of standoff with guns. The woman is about to pull the trigger when some other guy decides to, although he does NOT have a gun but seems to carry some kind of pole instead (no, not a kendo stick, a POLE), intervene and ends up getting shot.
Then next time I was watching again, the young main character was there with the woman and was talking to the bad guy.
Bad guy: *looks pretty evil* You really believe?
Young main character: *confidentally* Yes, I believe.
BG: *breaks into hysterical laughter*
The following part does not fit into my idea of detective show...
The bad guy takes out a sword... long knife... thing, the young main character is unarmed. They move forward to attack each other and some kind of... imaginary sword appears in the main character guy`s hand. Anyway, he`s unharmed by the real sword, but the bad guy is hurt. He recovers, looks at the good guys with a really pouty expression, then takes off.
............
Yay!
Yeah, it was kind of a funny show.
Anyway, I`ve been logging on daily onto AIM via meebo at work and hanging out on facebook chat quite a lot, so you can probably catch me on there if you want to chat. I get off of work at around 4:15 pm my time, that`s 12:15 am in California, so I`m usually around most of the evening. At least until school starts in September.
Oh, I`m going to be out of town next week, too.
August 04, 2008
Air Plane Blog Vol. 2 and more
Greetings from Tokyo! I'm in the hotel now and I have a little bit of time. It's late and I'm exhausted from a full day of orientation, then hanging out with Tokyo friends, but I thought I'd drop a line. Orientation, despite being busy and a little boring sometimes, has been a great experience.
I'm heading down to my placement city on Wednesday.
Anyway, as Bethany requested, here's another blog I wrote on the plane. (I did one a little over two years ago on my MySpace blog)
I'm just pasting it and I don't really remember what it says. But I'm tired so I'll come back and read it some other time after you guys are already done. :)
------------------------------------
So, as requested, I’m typing another mid-air blog that I will actually post later.
Bethany pretty much sold the idea of writing another plane blog when she said-
“You should do another blog on the plane. I love those!”
I was amused that her request made it sound like I’ve posted more than one already.
So, realizing that it’s been a little over a year now since my last blog in mid-air, I got on a plane today. I thought Japan would be a nice long flight that would allow me to piece together my thoughts into the greatest blog ever written in an airplane.
Seriously, though, I hope that this blog will live up to the “legacy” of last years.
Unlike last time I wrote a blog from a plane, I’m in the back row of my section, meaning I can lean back. So I can type without the burdern of what I remember calling “T-Rex arms.”
We haven’t even reached the International dateline yet! It seems like we’ve been flying forever now due to the fact that JET had us fly to Los Angeles first, THEN get on the actual flight to Japan. Oh well. American Airlines has impressed me more this time than others because of the selection of movies, television shows, and games they have to choose from.
So far, I’ve watched The Chronicles of Narnia- Prince Caspian and a few episodes of The Office. There are actually three episodes available to me on here, but one of them I already watched with my brother. The episodes I hadn’t seen before (because this will interest Jesse), were the one where the branch was going to close and the one where Michael teams up the staff to go out and make sales.
Narnia, by the way, was great- I hope I don’t forget it as I often do with inflight movies.
Right now, I am 10972 meters off the ground, going 535 mph, and I still have 5 hours and 40 minutes before I arrive in Japan.
This somehow doesn’t feel random enough. I’m certainly tired enough to write something like last time.
Aaaaahhhhh…
My legs hurt.
During the rest of the flight, I think I might end up watching Iron Man, Shrek the Third, and Sand Chronicles (Japanese movie).
Compared to my flight last year where all of the inflight movies involved CAR ACCIDENTS, this is very pleasant.
Sleeepy. I still can’t sleep on the plane. Sad.
For some reason, I thought that “sad.” was going to turn into a hyperlink. To where is a mystery.
This probably isn’t as fun as the other plane blog. Again, I didn’t think that first one was that fun when I was actually writing it.
Probably everybody should write a plane blog at least once in their life.
Everyday.
Yes.
Wooo! We’re approching the international dateline.
Earlier, another person on the plane couldn’t find his passport and there was an announcement over the intercom about it, I thought everyone was going to applaud when they found it. They didn’t.
Sad.
A lot of people are up and walking around now. We’re not landed yet, everybody! It’s still 4607 km to go!
It would be great if they are all getting up to celebrate crossing the international dateline. I always want people to do that when I’m flying to Japan and back because it’s like the half way point. Instead I just celebrate by myself by changing my clock to Japan time.
It’s 6:24 pm US time, I’ve been on this plane for about 6 hours now.
Okay, I suppose this went on long enough. Hope Plane Blog Vol. 2 is as enjoyable (?) as Vol. 1!
I'm heading down to my placement city on Wednesday.
Anyway, as Bethany requested, here's another blog I wrote on the plane. (I did one a little over two years ago on my MySpace blog)
I'm just pasting it and I don't really remember what it says. But I'm tired so I'll come back and read it some other time after you guys are already done. :)
------------------------------------
So, as requested, I’m typing another mid-air blog that I will actually post later.
Bethany pretty much sold the idea of writing another plane blog when she said-
“You should do another blog on the plane. I love those!”
I was amused that her request made it sound like I’ve posted more than one already.
So, realizing that it’s been a little over a year now since my last blog in mid-air, I got on a plane today. I thought Japan would be a nice long flight that would allow me to piece together my thoughts into the greatest blog ever written in an airplane.
Seriously, though, I hope that this blog will live up to the “legacy” of last years.
Unlike last time I wrote a blog from a plane, I’m in the back row of my section, meaning I can lean back. So I can type without the burdern of what I remember calling “T-Rex arms.”
We haven’t even reached the International dateline yet! It seems like we’ve been flying forever now due to the fact that JET had us fly to Los Angeles first, THEN get on the actual flight to Japan. Oh well. American Airlines has impressed me more this time than others because of the selection of movies, television shows, and games they have to choose from.
So far, I’ve watched The Chronicles of Narnia- Prince Caspian and a few episodes of The Office. There are actually three episodes available to me on here, but one of them I already watched with my brother. The episodes I hadn’t seen before (because this will interest Jesse), were the one where the branch was going to close and the one where Michael teams up the staff to go out and make sales.
Narnia, by the way, was great- I hope I don’t forget it as I often do with inflight movies.
Right now, I am 10972 meters off the ground, going 535 mph, and I still have 5 hours and 40 minutes before I arrive in Japan.
This somehow doesn’t feel random enough. I’m certainly tired enough to write something like last time.
Aaaaahhhhh…
My legs hurt.
During the rest of the flight, I think I might end up watching Iron Man, Shrek the Third, and Sand Chronicles (Japanese movie).
Compared to my flight last year where all of the inflight movies involved CAR ACCIDENTS, this is very pleasant.
Sleeepy. I still can’t sleep on the plane. Sad.
For some reason, I thought that “sad.” was going to turn into a hyperlink. To where is a mystery.
This probably isn’t as fun as the other plane blog. Again, I didn’t think that first one was that fun when I was actually writing it.
Probably everybody should write a plane blog at least once in their life.
Everyday.
Yes.
Wooo! We’re approching the international dateline.
Earlier, another person on the plane couldn’t find his passport and there was an announcement over the intercom about it, I thought everyone was going to applaud when they found it. They didn’t.
Sad.
A lot of people are up and walking around now. We’re not landed yet, everybody! It’s still 4607 km to go!
It would be great if they are all getting up to celebrate crossing the international dateline. I always want people to do that when I’m flying to Japan and back because it’s like the half way point. Instead I just celebrate by myself by changing my clock to Japan time.
It’s 6:24 pm US time, I’ve been on this plane for about 6 hours now.
Okay, I suppose this went on long enough. Hope Plane Blog Vol. 2 is as enjoyable (?) as Vol. 1!
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