Long time no blog
Gosh. Been a while. I've been pottering around LJ occasionally, but I just never got around to posting anything. (Speaking of which, all my postcards and/or other owing letters finally depart tomorrow - go ahead and make any last-minute calls here ;D)
Still enjoying myself over here, surrounded by gorgeous people and yummy sushi. I'm going on a bus tour to Kyoto this weekend - that is, one day is the school-based bus tour, but I'm going to spend an extra day there on my own as well, because whirlwind Japanese bus tours in which you drop in at a temple, take a picture and move on aren't my style. XD ("The Silver Pavillion!" "Ooh!" *click* *drivedrive* "The Golden Pavillion!" "Ooh!" *click* *drivedrive*)
Uni is going okay. I'm still a bit restless with the general slackness of our program, as a few of us are, but what can you do, eh? I'm picking up a lot of friendly Japanese, at least, even if it's nothing I could ever use in a work situation. ('No frickin' clue': sappari wakan'nai. Not sure I could say that to my boss.)
There have been a few unpleasant incidents in our dormitories lately, though. One, a girl went out to hang her washing on her (first-floor) balcony just in time to spot a guy with a camera running away. This is not as uncommon as it should be in Japan, unfortunately. Freak shows who take pictures of ladies' undies and/or outright snowdroppers - 'people who steal underwear' in Australia; do you say it too? - are a fairly omnipresent danger.
Another girl was groped by some rancid old freak on the train. This too is far more common than it should be (in fact there are dedicated 'ladies only' carriages in peak hours as a result). Reason: The majority of Japanese girls don't react strongly enough (or at all), usually because they're too shocked or embarrassed. If you try that in Australia, you get bones broken. End of story. [A Japanese businessman on a plane once put his hand on my thigh when he thought I was sleeping. Naturally I slapped said hand, and he's lucky the air hostess had already taken my fork. This story astonishes a sad 60% of Japanese girls.]
And to cap it all off, the other day a Korean exchange-student friend started to get freak calls. Some psycho picked out her mobile number at random and started calling her repeatedly from a payphone late at night, breathing heavily down the phone and asking 'Do you know who this is? Do you know who this is?' She's still quite young, so it scared her pretty badly, and he could obviously tell that by her reaction on the phone. He kept calling.
Everyone was outraged, of course, and eventually whenever her phone rang a friend would answer it for her and shout at the creep, tell him to piss off, etc. All of which he obviously enjoyed a great deal. He -still- kept calling.
The night before last, I went around to visit her to see how she was feeling, and she was quite upset because - surprise - he'd already called a few times that night. Her friends were all there to keep her company (they're all lovely). We chatted for a while and tried to cheer her up, suggested she change her number and so on, and then the phone rang again.
Everyone ignored it the first couple of times. The third time it rang, one of her friends reached for it to have another yell at the creep, but the girl asked her not to, saying getting angry didn't make any difference.
I then had an epiphany. I asked her to give -me- the phone. She was reluctant, but she finally did.
I am perversely pleased with the procedings, which I shall duly recount below.
CALL #1
ME: *pick up phone* Moshi-moshi? [Hello, just in case it wasn't the freak XD]
FREAK: *pantpant*
ME: ... ah.
FREAK: Shite'ru? Shite'ru? [Know who this is?]
ME: Heeey, John! Long time no see! How's the wife?
FREAK: ... *pantpant* Shite'ru?
ME: Mary told me you're both going to Canada next weekend! No way! That's so awesome. My cousin's going travelling over there in a campervan from October or so. Maybe you should see if you can hook up or something.
FREAK: *panting stops*
ME: Better brush up on your French, though. Well, unless you're not going near Quebec, but that'd be a shame. What's French for glacier? I only know the French for 'anorak'. And hello, of course, but everyone knows 'hello' -
FREAK: *click*
CALL #2
ME: *pick up phone* Moshi-moshi?
FREAK: *pantpant*
ME: Johnny! Why'd you hang up before? I know I get a little off-track sometimes, but that's no excuse. Did you know that only 1 in 10 Australians have never watched a Grand Final? I bet the percentage is even lower in Western Australia, too. Did you know that a tomato is actually a fruit, and so's a pumpkin? Have you ever met a feral pumpkin?
FREAK: *click*
CALL #3
ME: Moshi-moshi?
FREAK: *pant-*
ME: # I said to the maaan, 'Are you trying to tempt me
# 'Because I come from the land of plenty?'
# And he said -
# Do you come from a Land Down Un-
FREAK: *click*
CALL #4
ME: Moshi-moshi? *pause*
FREAK: ... *supposed creepy voice* Shiiiteru?
ME: WoooOOOOoooo ... woooOOOOOOoooo ...
FREAK: *click*
CALL #5
ME: Moshi-mo-
FREAK?: *click*
For some reason he hasn't called back since - apparently there was not a peep from him last night. Have to wait and see how it goes tonight, too. But I think my feelings are hurt.
On that peculiar note (hey, you're used to peculiar notes), happy Wednesday, boys and girls - I hope the week fareth pleasantly, or at least tolerably ...
Still enjoying myself over here, surrounded by gorgeous people and yummy sushi. I'm going on a bus tour to Kyoto this weekend - that is, one day is the school-based bus tour, but I'm going to spend an extra day there on my own as well, because whirlwind Japanese bus tours in which you drop in at a temple, take a picture and move on aren't my style. XD ("The Silver Pavillion!" "Ooh!" *click* *drivedrive* "The Golden Pavillion!" "Ooh!" *click* *drivedrive*)
Uni is going okay. I'm still a bit restless with the general slackness of our program, as a few of us are, but what can you do, eh? I'm picking up a lot of friendly Japanese, at least, even if it's nothing I could ever use in a work situation. ('No frickin' clue': sappari wakan'nai. Not sure I could say that to my boss.)
There have been a few unpleasant incidents in our dormitories lately, though. One, a girl went out to hang her washing on her (first-floor) balcony just in time to spot a guy with a camera running away. This is not as uncommon as it should be in Japan, unfortunately. Freak shows who take pictures of ladies' undies and/or outright snowdroppers - 'people who steal underwear' in Australia; do you say it too? - are a fairly omnipresent danger.
Another girl was groped by some rancid old freak on the train. This too is far more common than it should be (in fact there are dedicated 'ladies only' carriages in peak hours as a result). Reason: The majority of Japanese girls don't react strongly enough (or at all), usually because they're too shocked or embarrassed. If you try that in Australia, you get bones broken. End of story. [A Japanese businessman on a plane once put his hand on my thigh when he thought I was sleeping. Naturally I slapped said hand, and he's lucky the air hostess had already taken my fork. This story astonishes a sad 60% of Japanese girls.]
And to cap it all off, the other day a Korean exchange-student friend started to get freak calls. Some psycho picked out her mobile number at random and started calling her repeatedly from a payphone late at night, breathing heavily down the phone and asking 'Do you know who this is? Do you know who this is?' She's still quite young, so it scared her pretty badly, and he could obviously tell that by her reaction on the phone. He kept calling.
Everyone was outraged, of course, and eventually whenever her phone rang a friend would answer it for her and shout at the creep, tell him to piss off, etc. All of which he obviously enjoyed a great deal. He -still- kept calling.
The night before last, I went around to visit her to see how she was feeling, and she was quite upset because - surprise - he'd already called a few times that night. Her friends were all there to keep her company (they're all lovely). We chatted for a while and tried to cheer her up, suggested she change her number and so on, and then the phone rang again.
Everyone ignored it the first couple of times. The third time it rang, one of her friends reached for it to have another yell at the creep, but the girl asked her not to, saying getting angry didn't make any difference.
I then had an epiphany. I asked her to give -me- the phone. She was reluctant, but she finally did.
I am perversely pleased with the procedings, which I shall duly recount below.
CALL #1
ME: *pick up phone* Moshi-moshi? [Hello, just in case it wasn't the freak XD]
FREAK: *pantpant*
ME: ... ah.
FREAK: Shite'ru? Shite'ru? [Know who this is?]
ME: Heeey, John! Long time no see! How's the wife?
FREAK: ... *pantpant* Shite'ru?
ME: Mary told me you're both going to Canada next weekend! No way! That's so awesome. My cousin's going travelling over there in a campervan from October or so. Maybe you should see if you can hook up or something.
FREAK: *panting stops*
ME: Better brush up on your French, though. Well, unless you're not going near Quebec, but that'd be a shame. What's French for glacier? I only know the French for 'anorak'. And hello, of course, but everyone knows 'hello' -
FREAK: *click*
CALL #2
ME: *pick up phone* Moshi-moshi?
FREAK: *pantpant*
ME: Johnny! Why'd you hang up before? I know I get a little off-track sometimes, but that's no excuse. Did you know that only 1 in 10 Australians have never watched a Grand Final? I bet the percentage is even lower in Western Australia, too. Did you know that a tomato is actually a fruit, and so's a pumpkin? Have you ever met a feral pumpkin?
FREAK: *click*
CALL #3
ME: Moshi-moshi?
FREAK: *pant-*
ME: # I said to the maaan, 'Are you trying to tempt me
# 'Because I come from the land of plenty?'
# And he said -
# Do you come from a Land Down Un-
FREAK: *click*
CALL #4
ME: Moshi-moshi? *pause*
FREAK: ... *supposed creepy voice* Shiiiteru?
ME: WoooOOOOoooo ... woooOOOOOOoooo ...
FREAK: *click*
CALL #5
ME: Moshi-mo-
FREAK?: *click*
For some reason he hasn't called back since - apparently there was not a peep from him last night. Have to wait and see how it goes tonight, too. But I think my feelings are hurt.
On that peculiar note (hey, you're used to peculiar notes), happy Wednesday, boys and girls - I hope the week fareth pleasantly, or at least tolerably ...