(no subject)
Well, Connor was worried that I had either A. been arrested for being too tall B. Gotten a fat Japanese girlfriend who smothered me to death with her fatness or C. was taken by the shadow council and forced to pilot giant robots. Well, as for A., they don't arrest you for being tall, they just make lots of low ceilings and cramped spaces, so I suppose I might bump my head so many times that I die; but that hasn't happened yet. As for B., well, I don't have any girlfriends, even fat ones. Although it brings to mind what you might call a parable arising from my experience here. Here, as you know, there a lot of people riding cyclists, and Japanese guys have the odd custom of riding their bikes (bikes, not motorcylces, mind you) with their girlfriends either sitting or standing behind them and holding on to their shoulders. Now at first when I see this, I think "oh, that's cute" or "why can't I have a cute girl to ride around with me?" But, when I look at it from another point of view, I think "Man, that dude's got to haul some bitch around everywhere he goes. Fuck that!" I mean, seriously, these dudes are pumping the pedals with what amounts to dead weight hanging from them like a millstone around their neck (or that stone baby in one of Natsume Soseki's stories). So, so much for girlfriends. As for possiblity C., I assume the shadow council is some kind of evangelion reference, but since I have never seen it, I don't know. It sounds like the synergy, which I was thinking about the other day, oddly enough (they are everywhere).
I did witness awkward anime situations this weekend, however. I was in Miyajima staying at a Ryokan (traditional Japanese inn) with everybody from the program as part of a mandatory field trip. There was a bath in an outdoor building connected to the inn. The girls were supposed to go in at one time, and the guys at another. Some of the guys (not me) thought it would be funny to go into the hot spring right before the time the girls were allowed to enter. When the girls saw that guys were in the bath, they said "Oh, make them leave!" There was also a balcony from which, apparently, one could see into the windows of the bath. The stone walkway that led up to the inn passed underneath the window of the bath, and later, the girls started pouring buckets of water out in order to soak some of the guys that passed by. When I witnessed this, I though "Christ, when did I die and get banished to Love Hina, or whatever?"
Several weeks ago, I went to Tokyo and did a bunch of cool stuff with my parents. Because of time constraints, I think I might write about that in another journal entry, or just wait until I get back to tell you all about it.
As for recent things I have done, I went with my friend Hiroshi to a bunch of scary places including a supposedly haunted tunnel. We didn't see anything in the tunnel except for an old man that was angry because we were driving in the wrong way; we had to back out. Later, we went to pond where a bunch of people killed themselves, a place that the local police station is actually recommending as a scary place to visit. On another night, I went with Hiroshi and a couple of other Japanese friends to a club located in an underground subway station. I saw a Jazz band that was all dressed up in turbans and middle-eastern, ethiopian-looking outfits. The tuba player was a woman, and she looked like the virgin mary. I also saw this amazing improvisational keyboardist who was super fast. At one point, a guy dressed like a Buddhist monk accompanied him with chanting. I got the keyboardist's business card, and it says "series of timing fluctuation of some 10-30 ms constitutes music".
This week, my friend Steve, who graduated before me and is now working in Japan, came up from Shikoku to visit me. He took me to some bars; we went to one that was in an alley somewhere and didn't have a name. There, we drank absinthe (it wasn't real). We also went to a place called "The mushroom bar." You can't eat mushrooms there, but there are pictures of mushrooms all over the walls, and the owner is a fat guy named "Mosh" who has a bowl haircut and looks like a mushroom. Steve was in my same study-abroad program two years ago, so we spent one night at his old host family's house. Apparently, they are members of the communist party.
This weekend, as I already mentioned, I went to Miyajima and Hiroshima. Miyajima is the island that has got that famous red gate in the water. When the tide was low, I walked under it, and the inn I stayed at was really close by. I also climbed to the top of a mountain that commanded a view of the ocean and surrounding islands. The next day, I went to Hiroshima peace park and museum. When I got back to Kyoto, I wandered into a bar that had a Jazz band playing. I was the only customer, so I got pretty much a private concert. The lead singer would occasionally sit down and talk with me. She would tell me that she learned English pronunciations by dictionary, so she was unsure about her accuracy and then go back up and bust out "blue sky, shining brightly!" I also stayed after hours and talked to the owner, who was pretty nice.
Well, that sums it up. I'm trying to buy you all gifts, but if you have any special requests, let me know, now. Alright, I'll talk to you all later!
I did witness awkward anime situations this weekend, however. I was in Miyajima staying at a Ryokan (traditional Japanese inn) with everybody from the program as part of a mandatory field trip. There was a bath in an outdoor building connected to the inn. The girls were supposed to go in at one time, and the guys at another. Some of the guys (not me) thought it would be funny to go into the hot spring right before the time the girls were allowed to enter. When the girls saw that guys were in the bath, they said "Oh, make them leave!" There was also a balcony from which, apparently, one could see into the windows of the bath. The stone walkway that led up to the inn passed underneath the window of the bath, and later, the girls started pouring buckets of water out in order to soak some of the guys that passed by. When I witnessed this, I though "Christ, when did I die and get banished to Love Hina, or whatever?"
Several weeks ago, I went to Tokyo and did a bunch of cool stuff with my parents. Because of time constraints, I think I might write about that in another journal entry, or just wait until I get back to tell you all about it.
As for recent things I have done, I went with my friend Hiroshi to a bunch of scary places including a supposedly haunted tunnel. We didn't see anything in the tunnel except for an old man that was angry because we were driving in the wrong way; we had to back out. Later, we went to pond where a bunch of people killed themselves, a place that the local police station is actually recommending as a scary place to visit. On another night, I went with Hiroshi and a couple of other Japanese friends to a club located in an underground subway station. I saw a Jazz band that was all dressed up in turbans and middle-eastern, ethiopian-looking outfits. The tuba player was a woman, and she looked like the virgin mary. I also saw this amazing improvisational keyboardist who was super fast. At one point, a guy dressed like a Buddhist monk accompanied him with chanting. I got the keyboardist's business card, and it says "series of timing fluctuation of some 10-30 ms constitutes music".
This week, my friend Steve, who graduated before me and is now working in Japan, came up from Shikoku to visit me. He took me to some bars; we went to one that was in an alley somewhere and didn't have a name. There, we drank absinthe (it wasn't real). We also went to a place called "The mushroom bar." You can't eat mushrooms there, but there are pictures of mushrooms all over the walls, and the owner is a fat guy named "Mosh" who has a bowl haircut and looks like a mushroom. Steve was in my same study-abroad program two years ago, so we spent one night at his old host family's house. Apparently, they are members of the communist party.
This weekend, as I already mentioned, I went to Miyajima and Hiroshima. Miyajima is the island that has got that famous red gate in the water. When the tide was low, I walked under it, and the inn I stayed at was really close by. I also climbed to the top of a mountain that commanded a view of the ocean and surrounding islands. The next day, I went to Hiroshima peace park and museum. When I got back to Kyoto, I wandered into a bar that had a Jazz band playing. I was the only customer, so I got pretty much a private concert. The lead singer would occasionally sit down and talk with me. She would tell me that she learned English pronunciations by dictionary, so she was unsure about her accuracy and then go back up and bust out "blue sky, shining brightly!" I also stayed after hours and talked to the owner, who was pretty nice.
Well, that sums it up. I'm trying to buy you all gifts, but if you have any special requests, let me know, now. Alright, I'll talk to you all later!