My brain, it is broken

Greetings, all! And I'm only, what, ten days late? It's better than my usual, but still a dismal failure given my "post every day" claim earlier. >.< To be honest, though, a post a day sounds good in theory, but it really isn't very interesting to read. I mean, something blog-worthy doesn't necessarily happen to me every day; sometimes my life is downright dull. Albeit dull in another country, which perhaps to some people would automatically render it not quite as dull as, say, folding laundry in Topeka, Kansas, but whatever...

For example, what did I do today? I rode my bike to a couple different stores looking for black fabric that I need for a costume for Comiket in August, but didn't find anything that would work (frouella 0, fail 2). Then I got rained upon, so I went home (frouella 0, fail 9000). Since I've been home, I've been researching internet articles about neuroscience and language (thank goodness I still have access to JSTOR) because of a passing reference in this article:
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/google

The article is very interesting in and of itself, but the author at one point mentions how the brains of people who learn languages like Chinese, Japanese, etc. function differently than the brains of people who learn alphabet-based languages, and I wanted to see if I could find some source material about it, since there's no reference given in the article itself. So far, no luck (frouella 0, fail 9001), but I have managed to read myself into a brain stupor, where the words I'm reading just kinda bounce back off with no penetration whatsoever. So, I figured I'd write my blog post to act as a mental sorbet of sorts. :P Ohh, the irony. On so many levels. Especially if you read the article in The Atlantic. >.> That actually may be the subject of a future blog post, but not tonight; my brain is officially jell-o.

Anyway, here's your J-pic:

Mmmm, okonomiyake!

Ugh.

So, I just spent like six hours typing up three lesson plans -- how was your Friday night? >.<

Meh. It's my own fault, so I guess I shouldn't complain too much; I knew they were due today, but I still waited until the last minute, because that's just what I do! **headdesk** As some sort of consolation though, it's pouring outside, so I probably wouldn't have wanted to go anywhere anyway. At times like these, I miss my car. Uh, at least until I have to buy gas, 'cause then, not so much...

I actually had things of import to talk about, but now I can't remember what I was going to say. So. I'm obviously not alert enough to be posting anything, so I'm off to bed. Hopefully, with a little sleep, my frightening brush with memory loss will be nothing but a bad memory.

Eek. Here's your pic:



Mata ne!

A little "goma o suru" never hurt anyone

I was at my base school today, team-teaching an English lesson as I am wont to do, when one of my students came up with quite possibly the sweetest thing ever. We were working on riddles today, so most of the class was spent with me telling riddles to the class in English, and the students trying to figure out what the heck I was talking about. At the end, though, the students were supposed to think of their own riddles (in English or in Japanese, because we're not trying to kill the poor dears >.>;). So one boy came up with one, and wrote it on the board for everyone to figure out. I can't write all the kanji that he did, but here's a rough translation:

Y...-sensei, M...-sensei, Karen-sensei
Which one is the prettiest?

The answer? Karen-sensei! At first, I thought he was just trying to score points by blatant flattery, but he explained that in Japanese, karen (かれん) means "pretty" or "lovely." So, a nice, bilingual play on words! Yeah, he was probably going for a little flattery, too, but I'm willing to overlook that. ;) And I'm also going to overlook the fact that I checked out some other meanings of karen online, and found out that it can also mean "oppression" or "pitiful," depending on which kanji you use. >.> I'm going to assume his intentions were good. **smirks**

So overall, a good day. A good day, but a long day, so now I'm off to bed. As promised, though, here are your two random J-pics:


A garden at Ginkakuji, and...


"Bike Parking" -- yeah, this one was taken by a real photographer. Honestly, it's one of my favorite pictures ever. Just, the clouds, and the lighting...**is speechless**

Mata ne!

Twee and sympathy

Eek. Well, I've officially broken my streak now. And I was doing so well, too. **sigh** But I think as long as I view it as a momentary lapse, everything should be fine, ne?

Right. So as I was saying in my last post, I went to a concert on Monday night (which is probably why I'm still so tired and consequently forgetting to blog). I think the theme for the evening was "quirk," since that's what all the acts seemed to have in common...

First up was Xiu Xiu, a band from...California, I think? They were, uh, interesting. If you're into random sounds moreso than music. >.> Meh, I listened to it with an open mind and all, but just, not really my thing. The vocalist guy had this overly-breathy voice with an overly-pronounced vibrato, and he sang over the din in an overly-dramatic way. With his eyes closed. And with spastic eyebrow action. They sounded like a band that pretentious people would cite as an influence, because no one would really want to listen to them for fun.

Next up was Tenniscoats, whom I think are from Japan. They were experimental, too (one of the guys on stage was playing a modified electric fan 0.o), but they weren't as cacophonous; they were kinda precious, actually. But still different. I probably wouldn't go to a show just to see them, but I wouldn't leave if they were playing, y'know?

After that was Tokumaru Shugo, and he was awesome. I'm such a shallow person -- I have to confess that the only reason I went to this show was because I saw a picture of him dressed up as a scientist, and it totally pushed all my geek buttons the right way (and it doesn't hurt that he's easy on the eyes >.>). But after listening to him, I can honestly say that he's really talented. His instrumentations are also unusual (e.g. accordion, bird whistle, random household stuff), but it works really well together. He's kinda like musical sorbet in a way -- refreshing and sweet and different.

The last act was Deerhoof, whom I wasn't familiar with, but one of my friends who was at the show was a big fan. They were quirky and different too, but in a more rockin' way. Also, you could actually dance to their songs, which I consider to be a plus.

So overall, I guess the score would be:
Good 2
Okay 1
Meh 1

Not a bad way to spend an evening, and it's always a good idea to push one's musical boundaries, no?

Anyway, that's all for now. Unfortunately, I'm not typing this from my computer at home, so no J-pic, but next time I'll post two. Promise! ^_^;

Until then, mata ne!

I (don't) feel the Earth move under my feet

Did you hear about the earthquake near Sendai yesterday? 'Cause I didn't. >.>; Well, technically, I heard about it early this morning, but I mean I was here, not all that far from the epicenter, and I slept through it. Actually, I don't know if anybody around here felt anything, but it seems like it would've been severe enough to reach us. I'm not saying I want an earthquake to happen, but it's just that I don't even know what one feels like to know what to expect; how am I supposed to know when to dive under my desk? Yes, that's what the experts recommend -- when you feel a tremor, you're supposed to turn off your gas line and stove, cover your head, and get under a table. And since I only has a kotatsu table (with about 8 inches of clearance underneath it), that means my safety rests in the dubious shelter of my circa 1982 white formica computer desk. Heh-heh. Yeah, that's reassuring...

Not much happened today. Hung out at home, and then my friend took me back to the eye doctor that we went to last weekend so I could pick up the contacts I ordered, and then we got some Chinese food. Uh, yeah, that pretty much sums it up. Then again, it's difficult to do much with only 100¥ (about $1) until tomorrow. >.< It's not that I don't have money in my account, it's just that stupid, stupid UFJ (my bank) closed all of their ATMs this weekend, moreso than they usually close them. Yes, in Japan, ATMs close. Weekdays, they're open from, like, 8 to 6; weekends, they close even earlier. It's so convenient. >.> In this case though, UFJ merged with another bank a little while ago, and so they've been trying to merge the account info and computer stuff, and it's been a right mess, let me tell you; a few weeks ago, the whole UFJ computer system seized up because one of the info programs had a weird kanji in it. No lie. Which meant that no one could access their account until they fixed it. I guess a person could withdraw enough money for the whole week to make sure they didn't get caught with no cash if/when the system crashes, but I'm still not comfortable carrying around that much cash. Too much time spent in Detroit, I guess.

Anyway, it's supposed to be up and working tomorrow morning, so enough about that. **crosses fingers** It's time to start getting ready for bed, so that's all until tomorrow. Until then, your daily J-pic:

Random post is random

So I feel I've been slightly mislead by all of the anime I've seen and all of the manga I've read -- not one of the high schools I work at allows people to go up on the roof. What's up with that?? In practically every story that involves a school in any way, that's where the confrontations and confessions and camaraderie goes on, not to mention the napping and the hanging out and the eating of lunches. I feel cheated; it's a trope, for cryin' out loud. Yeah, it's probably a safety issue, but still... **pouts**

Uh, yeah. So obviously, not much has been going on today if that's the lead-off in today's post. >.>; It's two days before payday, so I didn't really go anywhere or do anything except clean the apartment and do laundry. And I'm pretty sure you don't need a play-by-play about that. But, I'm supposed to go to a "raibu" (live -- the Engrish word for concert) with some friends on Monday (Tokumaru Shugo, Tenniscoats, Xiu Xiu, and Deerhoof), so that should give me some interesting fodder to write about. Heh-heh. You hope, at least.

Anyway, that's the news for now. And now, your random J-pic:

Live from the O.Z.

So, I technically missed the midnight deadline, but I haven"t been to sleep yet, so it still seems like the same night to me. Also, the apostrophe doesn"t work on this computer that I"m using right now, so that"s why I"m erroneously using quotation marks instead.

Aaanyway, I went to the enkai with my teachers and it was...predictably tame for the teachers from my mountain school. The school itself is kind of high level and they"re pretty uptight about most everything, the enkai being no exception. It was pleasant. That"s not a bad thing, just not very exciting. Gomen ne. I"ll post more later (probably tomorrow), when I"m on my own computer. And I don"t have access to my photos here, so no random J-photo either. >.< I know you"re disappointed; I am too. >.>;

Until then, mata ne!

Giri giri saaafu

Yeah, I'm cutting it a little close today, but I just got home from Nagoya. We had our monthly meeting earlier today, which generally means that we all go out afterwards and relax at an izakaya. Or, y'know, hang out under the T.V. tower. >.>; Hence the late hour, and my lack of interesting news to report. I can say with confidence, though, that it is officially starting to get hot here. A group of us walked from Fushimi to Sakae (about ten blocks or so), and by the time I got there, I was completely sweaty and gross. And it's only June. This does not bode well for August... >.<

Aaanyway, my complaining aside (especially since just a few months ago I was whining about how cold it was), I should have more interesting stuff to talk about tomorrow. I've been invited to an enkai by my high-level mountain school, and it'll be the first time I've ever hung out with those teachers outside of school. So, news at 11:00! Or possibly later, depending on when I get home.

And, as always, your random J-pic:


To remind myself that it was, in fact, cold here not too long ago...

Mata ne!

Testing, testing...

EDIT: Just so's you know, this is me verifying that I can, in fact, post from my keitei. Oooh, now I'm dangerous! And out of excuses... :P

I hope you don't get eaten by a dingo!

So class at my base school was fun today: my usual self-introduction for half of the period, and then introductory student dialogues for the other half (e.g. meeting for the first time, staying with a host family, etc.). The oral communication textbooks are, um, a trifle stilted (to put it nicely), so I rewrote the scripts to make them more exciting. Also so the students can write more of their own answers. For example:

A: About what time will dinner be ready?
B: It’ll be ready (soon/in an hour/tomorrow/when I feel like cooking).
A: What are we having?
B: __________________________.
(kind of food)
A: That’s (great/good/too bad/disappointing/a problem).
B: Why is that?
A: Because I (love it/am really hungry/can’t eat that/wanted pizza instead/am a vampire).
B: Oh, I see.

Meh. I thought it was funny, anyway. And the kids seemed to like it, so it works for me.

After that, I had a six hour layover until English Club after school. >.< So, I did some Japanese homework and updated the English bulletin board. I also had lunch at my desk with our school's Chinese exchange student, which basically means that the two of us ate our bentos while conversing in English about how we don't understand Japanese at all. Heh-heh. We're so multi-cultural...

English Club was pretty interesting. The teacher in charge bought a Scrabble game over the weekend, so I taught the kids to play. Overall, it went well, though it's difficult to keep the game going when most of the words are four letters or less (and no, they weren't swear words -- they don't know too many of those (yet)). And one poor guy got stuck with J, Q, Z, and X, and I couldn't give him much help with those. I think they did well, though, even if they were all muttering "muzukashii" (difficult) under their breaths the whole game. My students are so smart! **beams**

That's all for now. Until tomorrow, here's your random J-photo:

Guess what time it is!

It's time to go to sleep, actually. But then I remembered that I hadn't posted anything yet today, so here I am, resplendent in my (sleep) depravity. Plus, I didn't want to botch the penance thing already, since it's only day two. Messing things up at this point would just be lame...

**And, um, in case you haven't noticed by now, all of that stuff I said earlier (i.e. half a year ago) about catching up on all the events since last August? Yeah, probably not going to happen. If I feel overly ambitious one day, I might do the Readers' Digest Condensed Version, but looks like you're stuck with in medias res for the time being. Gomen!**

I was at my mountain school today (that's not really the name, but some names have been changed to protect the innocent (and myself from potential lawsuits)). It's not technically on a mountain per se, but it is at the top of a hellish hill. Anyway, I only had one class sixth period, but even so, I still had to be there at 8:30. Normally, it would have been mind-numbingly boring, but luckily I had a three-foot stack of papers to correct. No, no, I'm kidding, it wasn't three feet -- they use metric here, so it's meters. >.> It wasn't that bad, though; it gave me something to do, plus I got to read about the kids' school trip to Hiroshima and Kobe. The only thing is, after you've been reading Engrish essays for an hour straight, no language, native or otherwise, makes sense anymore; I had to keep getting up from my desk to walk around and get more coffee so I could give my brain time to reboot.

Tomorrow I'm at my base school, where I also only have one class all day, but this time it's first period (ugh), so I have to start getting ready for bed fo' realz now. As a bonus, maybe adequate sleep will make my post tomorrow more interesting than this one. One can only hope. In the meantime, a random photo from Japan:



Mata ashita!

Well, I was half right...

So, back in my last post, I said it wouldn't be three months before I posted again, which is totally true. Because it's been five. >.>; Worst. Blogger. EVER. But, the first step in overcoming a problem is admitting you have a problem, right? So there's that already taken care of!

Anyway, as penance, I've decided that I have to write something here every day from now on, barring days when I have no feasible access to a computer (**note to self** -- find out if posting is possible from the keitei; if so, there's that excuse gone, too). I'm not saying it's all going to be grand prose or lucid insights, but I've got to get in the habit of doing this. **sigh** I'm really glad I finally got my degree and all, but it's horrible how academia has made me practically resent writing...

So, one post down, about 400 to go!