Christ these planes are loud! So Corey and Yukiko live near a military base and airplanes love to go super sonic 300 feet above the house at midnight (No Exaggeration). One time I actually heard the turbines rev up and braced myself for death.
Today I learned Akiyo (full name) has school everyday but Saturday and Sunday (normal schedule) so I gotta find something fun for us to do on the weekend. Ideas include me sitting on this laptop playing Killing Floor. Oh wait, that's Friday. In reality I have no idea.
Calling my bank didn't work, my account is still frozen and I'm starting to get pissed.
I'll call them in 30 minutes and make sure it works.
Cheers,
Nicholas
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Monday, May 11, 2009
May 11th
They say that you never die in your dreams - that you wake up right before death. They saw if you do die in your sleep, you die in real life. I don't think this is true though. I've died in my dreams, a fatal blow by a gun or sword, sometimes I drown. All that happens is everything goes black and then the dream transforms into another dream or my viewpoint slowly lifts out of my body and I see my entire surroundings.
Time moves slowly, very slowly, I can see warriors fighting or bullets spin through the air. Its almost like a snapshot of my death scene.
What's the scariest thought you can think of? Put it in a comment in this post.
I have a few. You are in a house all alone. The lights flicker as thunder rocks the foundation. A light lies under the one of the doorways as you walk the hallway. You step over to the door and peer through the keyhole to find a young woman dressed in pure white, her skin just as pale. She is faced away, sobbing softly. Not wishing to disturb her, you continue on your business. Time passes and you find yourself walking back past the door. Curious you peek through the keyhole again and can only see the purist crimson. Looking all around all you can see is the red. Stepping back you go back to your room and notice a painting of a woman dressed in pure white. Looking closer, past her bangs you see her eyes. They are also pure crimson.
Ooooo spooky ghost story.
So less ghostifying stories are sitting in your car or by a window. It is pouring in the dark night. You put your head against the cool glass and stare into the darkness. Lightning hits and there pushed against the other side of the glass is bloodied face. As the lighting fades, the face's eyes do not.
That is a very possible scenario. I freak people out by just saying "Hello." Mom says I'm really quiet but I think people put too much trust that they are truly alone. Uncle Kris gets a kick out of preying on this feeling. The feeling that you are alone and can take happiness knowing no one cares what you do and when it breaks, you are startled.
What about tears? Why do natural tears (caused by dust or peppers) contain so little salt but emotional tears are super salty. They cause everything to get red and agitated. Is there a reason for this?
Was Jesus a rebel? He lived poor and saw Roman oppression and created his own defiant religion. Even if it was the true religion, it was still rebellion (refusal to accept some authority or code or convention). I'm willing to accept he was white (aren't all Jews?) Please know this is coming from a kid who barely knows anything about Babylon or Christianity.
The English language puts a lot emphasis on abstract subjects. Let me explain it simply. Without explaining, we talk about 'it'. What is 'it'? Why do we keep talking about 'it'? Its obviously some sort of mythical thing that is everything vague and specific at the same time. People say things are confusing when they don't even question their own lives.
While people bicker about Gay marriage and gun rights, people are dying because they have no food. How fat are you? How much food do you throw away? "Oh its old." Who cares?! If you're starving, you'll eat moldy bread and drink drainage water. If people really want to make a difference in the world, give all your worldly possessions to the poor. You have a job, right? Well their job is not dying. So have fun packing boxes, typing, serving food, cleaning houses, answering phones, and servicing machines because its a lot more stable than "Find enough food to feed me and my dying brothers and sisters."
A student gave a speech that Evolution and Creationism (a God created everything) could never co-exist. I raised my hand and said, "But our founding fathers believed in the clockwork god theory where god created the world (like a watch), wound it up, and is watching it. Why couldn't a god create a world with life and watch life change and adapt based on its environment?" He couldn't give me a definite answer. He simply said it was harder to believe mankind came from apes than were simply there. I decided not to draw it out into a full scale debate and let the kid believe what he wanted, its America, right?
But here's something you cannot deny. The universe is getting bigger. Do I need to elaborate on how we know?
Ahem...We can see stars that are millions of light years away. We can see entire solar systems too. When things are going away from us, the light wavelength increases creating red instead of white. So the wavelength is longer than normal because the source is moving away from us. Most of the solar systems, galaxies, and stars are moving away from us. There are a few blue solar systems (going towards us denoted by the shorter wavelength of blue) but not many.
So now that we know the universe is moving away from a point, we can logically decide the universe is larger than it was...which means it was smaller in the past...which means there had to be a source of this movement. The Big Bang theory is that the growing universe (Fact) came from a single point in space (Theory). Its really simple. Things are growing which means they had to be smaller but how small was it? Thats the Big Bang theory and if you don't believe it, why are we moving away from something? Everything seems have came from what we are moving away from. And Evolution and the Big Bang never said there was no God.
People have to detach themselves from reality because it is so horrible. You can't deny it. People who go crazy (when they weren't to start out with) had to detach themselves so much they don't know what is reality and what isn't. Why shouldn't religion be the same? Let me say that this is an idea and not a belief. There should be no reason anyone can't tolerate an idea. I can tolerate all religions (even Scientology) so accept a few ideas.
Religion is a pair of rose colored glasses ment to take the edge off of life. Its hard to think that we die and there is nothing at all in the end. We die and nothing remains of us. Our personality/soul is genetics and expiriences and those die with us. What's after death? Nothing. Just an idea. So think hard about it. Studies show that identical twins are 70% the exact same in personality (even when seperated at birth). This means 70% is genetics and 30% is how they were raised. Twins raised together have a huge possibility they are almost the exact same in every personal quirk.
But does this mean life is meaningless? No, we make the meaning. People who follow Christianity follow rules because there is a promise of every pleasure in a place called Heaven. Thats wrong. Doing something nice because of a goal of ultimate pleasure is wrong. Its the actions without the feeling. I'm not saying all Christians do this. I'm saying if Christians are only doing nice things because of Heaven, they should go to Hell.
Of course there is no such thing as a pure motive. People can't just do things because it is right because there is no such thing as right. Humans created right and wrong, good and evil. Nature has no evil, it is neutral. We call it neutral because unnessary suffering happens because it just does. Nothing caused it besides bad timing, nature, and instinct. Humans do an action always for a reason. I help someone pick up something because I want them to smile and thank me. It makes me feel like I made a difference. I want to feel like I made a difference because I want to feel like it will make me more memorable. It will help me flush out my personality and make people remember me. I want them to remember me because after death, people will talk about me and love me like they did in life. This is a very clean cut, no BS way of putting everything. There is a motive behind every action ever. You want to be known as kind so you do kind things. When someone snatches the item away that you picked up for them, this makes you feel bad. If you were truly a good person, you would be happy knowing you made a life easier. But even this is not a purly 'good' action. You wanted the feeling of happiness knowing you helped a life live easier.
Karma doesn't exist. If the world was truly ruled by equality, children wouldn't die before they lived. They wouldn't be shot and left to bleed to death in the cold of night. This is why heaven is so comforting, it makes it seem like there is a balance. What if there isn't a heaven and people are dying in unequally. This is why people who have the power to stop oppression should. It doesn't matter if the world sorts it out and makes things equal, are you part of the world? If you have a problem, don't expect the problem to be solved on its own, kick it's ass! See a cold child? Give up a coat, don't expect someone else to do it. See a man lying on the ground in pain? Do something to help! Don't assume someone already has. Life doesn't sort itself out, people don't sort themselves out, animals don't sort themselves out. The world is like the longest string of tangled christmas lights. Everyone needs to find their favorite light and work on untangling it.
Yep...so today I learned Hidari is left and Migi is right and Ue is up. I read a book and watched TV before bike riding to Yamada Denki (PSP = 19800, didn't buy) and the Book Off. Had a good time. Emailed Aki today too. Today was pretty uneventful, thats why I wrote a bunch of philosphy IDEAS.
So yeah . . . don't try to fix the world before your own life. Make a difference. Jump out there and donate time to things that matter. How many people value charity? Oh, thats a lot of people! How many actually participate in charity? Oh...well thats not as many. Maybe when the values match the actions, the world will be closer to peace.
Time moves slowly, very slowly, I can see warriors fighting or bullets spin through the air. Its almost like a snapshot of my death scene.
What's the scariest thought you can think of? Put it in a comment in this post.
I have a few. You are in a house all alone. The lights flicker as thunder rocks the foundation. A light lies under the one of the doorways as you walk the hallway. You step over to the door and peer through the keyhole to find a young woman dressed in pure white, her skin just as pale. She is faced away, sobbing softly. Not wishing to disturb her, you continue on your business. Time passes and you find yourself walking back past the door. Curious you peek through the keyhole again and can only see the purist crimson. Looking all around all you can see is the red. Stepping back you go back to your room and notice a painting of a woman dressed in pure white. Looking closer, past her bangs you see her eyes. They are also pure crimson.
Ooooo spooky ghost story.
So less ghostifying stories are sitting in your car or by a window. It is pouring in the dark night. You put your head against the cool glass and stare into the darkness. Lightning hits and there pushed against the other side of the glass is bloodied face. As the lighting fades, the face's eyes do not.
That is a very possible scenario. I freak people out by just saying "Hello." Mom says I'm really quiet but I think people put too much trust that they are truly alone. Uncle Kris gets a kick out of preying on this feeling. The feeling that you are alone and can take happiness knowing no one cares what you do and when it breaks, you are startled.
What about tears? Why do natural tears (caused by dust or peppers) contain so little salt but emotional tears are super salty. They cause everything to get red and agitated. Is there a reason for this?
Was Jesus a rebel? He lived poor and saw Roman oppression and created his own defiant religion. Even if it was the true religion, it was still rebellion (refusal to accept some authority or code or convention). I'm willing to accept he was white (aren't all Jews?) Please know this is coming from a kid who barely knows anything about Babylon or Christianity.
The English language puts a lot emphasis on abstract subjects. Let me explain it simply. Without explaining, we talk about 'it'. What is 'it'? Why do we keep talking about 'it'? Its obviously some sort of mythical thing that is everything vague and specific at the same time. People say things are confusing when they don't even question their own lives.
While people bicker about Gay marriage and gun rights, people are dying because they have no food. How fat are you? How much food do you throw away? "Oh its old." Who cares?! If you're starving, you'll eat moldy bread and drink drainage water. If people really want to make a difference in the world, give all your worldly possessions to the poor. You have a job, right? Well their job is not dying. So have fun packing boxes, typing, serving food, cleaning houses, answering phones, and servicing machines because its a lot more stable than "Find enough food to feed me and my dying brothers and sisters."
A student gave a speech that Evolution and Creationism (a God created everything) could never co-exist. I raised my hand and said, "But our founding fathers believed in the clockwork god theory where god created the world (like a watch), wound it up, and is watching it. Why couldn't a god create a world with life and watch life change and adapt based on its environment?" He couldn't give me a definite answer. He simply said it was harder to believe mankind came from apes than were simply there. I decided not to draw it out into a full scale debate and let the kid believe what he wanted, its America, right?
But here's something you cannot deny. The universe is getting bigger. Do I need to elaborate on how we know?
Ahem...We can see stars that are millions of light years away. We can see entire solar systems too. When things are going away from us, the light wavelength increases creating red instead of white. So the wavelength is longer than normal because the source is moving away from us. Most of the solar systems, galaxies, and stars are moving away from us. There are a few blue solar systems (going towards us denoted by the shorter wavelength of blue) but not many.
So now that we know the universe is moving away from a point, we can logically decide the universe is larger than it was...which means it was smaller in the past...which means there had to be a source of this movement. The Big Bang theory is that the growing universe (Fact) came from a single point in space (Theory). Its really simple. Things are growing which means they had to be smaller but how small was it? Thats the Big Bang theory and if you don't believe it, why are we moving away from something? Everything seems have came from what we are moving away from. And Evolution and the Big Bang never said there was no God.
People have to detach themselves from reality because it is so horrible. You can't deny it. People who go crazy (when they weren't to start out with) had to detach themselves so much they don't know what is reality and what isn't. Why shouldn't religion be the same? Let me say that this is an idea and not a belief. There should be no reason anyone can't tolerate an idea. I can tolerate all religions (even Scientology) so accept a few ideas.
Religion is a pair of rose colored glasses ment to take the edge off of life. Its hard to think that we die and there is nothing at all in the end. We die and nothing remains of us. Our personality/soul is genetics and expiriences and those die with us. What's after death? Nothing. Just an idea. So think hard about it. Studies show that identical twins are 70% the exact same in personality (even when seperated at birth). This means 70% is genetics and 30% is how they were raised. Twins raised together have a huge possibility they are almost the exact same in every personal quirk.
But does this mean life is meaningless? No, we make the meaning. People who follow Christianity follow rules because there is a promise of every pleasure in a place called Heaven. Thats wrong. Doing something nice because of a goal of ultimate pleasure is wrong. Its the actions without the feeling. I'm not saying all Christians do this. I'm saying if Christians are only doing nice things because of Heaven, they should go to Hell.
Of course there is no such thing as a pure motive. People can't just do things because it is right because there is no such thing as right. Humans created right and wrong, good and evil. Nature has no evil, it is neutral. We call it neutral because unnessary suffering happens because it just does. Nothing caused it besides bad timing, nature, and instinct. Humans do an action always for a reason. I help someone pick up something because I want them to smile and thank me. It makes me feel like I made a difference. I want to feel like I made a difference because I want to feel like it will make me more memorable. It will help me flush out my personality and make people remember me. I want them to remember me because after death, people will talk about me and love me like they did in life. This is a very clean cut, no BS way of putting everything. There is a motive behind every action ever. You want to be known as kind so you do kind things. When someone snatches the item away that you picked up for them, this makes you feel bad. If you were truly a good person, you would be happy knowing you made a life easier. But even this is not a purly 'good' action. You wanted the feeling of happiness knowing you helped a life live easier.
Karma doesn't exist. If the world was truly ruled by equality, children wouldn't die before they lived. They wouldn't be shot and left to bleed to death in the cold of night. This is why heaven is so comforting, it makes it seem like there is a balance. What if there isn't a heaven and people are dying in unequally. This is why people who have the power to stop oppression should. It doesn't matter if the world sorts it out and makes things equal, are you part of the world? If you have a problem, don't expect the problem to be solved on its own, kick it's ass! See a cold child? Give up a coat, don't expect someone else to do it. See a man lying on the ground in pain? Do something to help! Don't assume someone already has. Life doesn't sort itself out, people don't sort themselves out, animals don't sort themselves out. The world is like the longest string of tangled christmas lights. Everyone needs to find their favorite light and work on untangling it.
Yep...so today I learned Hidari is left and Migi is right and Ue is up. I read a book and watched TV before bike riding to Yamada Denki (PSP = 19800, didn't buy) and the Book Off. Had a good time. Emailed Aki today too. Today was pretty uneventful, thats why I wrote a bunch of philosphy IDEAS.
So yeah . . . don't try to fix the world before your own life. Make a difference. Jump out there and donate time to things that matter. How many people value charity? Oh, thats a lot of people! How many actually participate in charity? Oh...well thats not as many. Maybe when the values match the actions, the world will be closer to peace.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
May 10th
Today I woke up several times and didn't have my cellphone with me so I didn't know what time it was so after a bit I freaked out and ran downstairs (clothed :P) and only found out it was 5am. After sleeping 3 more hours (I went straight to bed after Disneyland) I woke up, ate cereal, and walked a mile to the train station. From there, I realized that if you are claustrophobic, don't go to Japan because I bumpin' butts with some lady while having my face pressed against a window riding a train with 400 (just a guess) other people.
After being thankful I'm only scared of wide open areas and tunnel collapses, I walked around Shibuya for 20 minutes looking for "People waiting around a dog statue." Well there were a lot of people waiting and I found the dog wall but not the statue until a little while later. There I met Aki and her friend Kurumi. First thing we did was walk to the arcade (Japanese call it Game Center) and I was all like "Okay, I can play some Street Fighter IV" but took a sudden turn and I found myself surrounded by pink photobooths. Which if you look at the previous post you'll find links to the pics we took. After some confusing posing they jumping into a side booth where they could edit the pictures. All I did was spell my name in Katakana and English, the girls took over from there. They then got the images sent to their phone (and then sent to Corey's) and we stared at my awkward smile and I noticed all the pictures had at least one hand in my pocket.
We walked around a bit speaking in fragmented english/japanese before stumbling into a fair. I bought a postcard for Mark (Casey's dad) and then realized I have never seen so many gaijin (Japanese for foreiners, mostly applies to white people) in one place. So I've decided to label them all stereotypically!
Army/Navy - They might have wanted to be here or were just shipped off here but these are guys who work for the USA in Japan.
Guys lookin' to score - I guess I fall under this category. I see a lot of whities with Japanese GFs...but no white girls with Japanese boyfriends. Which is weird because Japanese guys have the coolest hair and styles. I was like "How do I stand a chance will all these Final Fantasy characters leaping around?" Some dude had an awesome hat and belt pants and all I could think about is how I'm parading around in a faux hawk and a sky blue shirt with cookies and milk on it.
French people - Yeah...I've seen a ratio of ~60% American, 35% French, and 5% other (including British). We all had a talk about mistaken nationalities and Yukiko doesn't care if people think she's Philipine but hates it when people think she's Chinese or Korean. I don't care what people think I am as long as they don't think I'm French. I don't know why. Maybe the school system raised me to think the French suck because of their smelly cheese and habit of retreating.
Ummm...tourists? - People who are already married and in Tokyo because they want to see the Tokyo Tower lit like a Christmas tree.
Anyways we walked into the most crowded alleyway imaginable (like the only way it could get more crowded is if people walked on each other) took a side staircase upwards and found a nice pasta resturant. I could read the menues but still didn't know what I was ordering. We all ate and had a fun time.
Afterwards they jumped into a whole bunch of clothes shops that only had girls in them (not even boyfriends) and I entered the twilight zone. It started out with us seeing a cute top and stepping into the store. Inside the entire place was coated with astroturf and fake vines with nature sounds playing. Walking up stairs we encounted 5 foot girls dressed like dolls who rung up the stuff and finally we escaped.
This is where my Japanese broke down and with it, my English. Aki was trying to explain how Kurumi had to go meet her boyfriend at a train station and something something. After a bit of confusion we left the topic and went on to "Are you on summer vacation?". To which I tried to explain I got ahead in school and summer vacation doesn't start until mid May. Well that failed horribly and I ended up confusing everyone (including myself) and then we returned to the topic of the train station. After 20 minutes of carefully picked words and the dictionary (which saved my ass plenty of times) they were asking if I wanted to go to Tokyo station to see Kurumi off with her boyfriend. I kindly said no (I don't know where Tokyo station is or how much it'll cost to get there, Kurumi said she lived waaaaaaay up in Akita so for all I knew, I might have been going there.) I thanked them for the wonderful time, got Aki's email address, and said our goodbyes.
Kurumi may be taken but Aki isn't :P
And don't get mad at me for not going, not only is this the first "I set up this date" date, but it was two girls who speak a different language.
So after saying goodbye and thank you, I walked around Shibuya lookin' for a freakin' game store to buy a PSP. After 30 minutes of me circling a huge block, I found an electronic store with games on the top floor. I walked up 6 flights of stairs (take that fat gamers) only to find their PSPs cost 1000 yen more than that other place where my VISA doesn't work. On the flip side (people still say that?), I bought a cool little Monster Hunter cat figurine (gotta have my Monser Hunter stuff. God knows its not in America D:).
Did I mention today was friggin' hot? I mean very very hot! So hot that I realized that fasion takes precedence before comfort. That guy with the hat and belted pants? Well he also had on two shirts. And Kurumi and Aki were both wearing jackets. I was all like "Shorts and flip-flops for the win".
Phew so I asked a guard which platform went to where ever I was going (thanks to Corey and Yukiko for smashing my safety blockade) I jumped at the nearest open seat (I've been standing/walking for over 5 hours) and sort of slept. The train intercom is very quiet. So everytim the train stopped, I would jump up and look out the windows to see if this is my stop or not. After battling the urge to sleep, I finally got off and walked the mile home. Flopped down on the couch, yelled "Atsui!!!" (Japanese for hot) to Ku (the dog) and layed there watching some Japanese guy on TV carve wood into a seashell box (he did a great job, screw all of you who think its okay to break things).
Used the super toilet; almost napped; Corey+Yukiko+Marc+Marika came home; bit of watching some show on the Illuminarty secret society hellbent on ruling the world; went to eat at a resturant where they bring you raw meat and you cook it; thought we were going to Yamata ...something (some electronic store. I can recall the name every now and then) but went home; sat on couch watched 300 (in English) and now here I am.
Gotta call my mom + the bank (online account is locked) tomorrow...oh shi- tomorrow won't work, its Sunday in America.
After being thankful I'm only scared of wide open areas and tunnel collapses, I walked around Shibuya for 20 minutes looking for "People waiting around a dog statue." Well there were a lot of people waiting and I found the dog wall but not the statue until a little while later. There I met Aki and her friend Kurumi. First thing we did was walk to the arcade (Japanese call it Game Center) and I was all like "Okay, I can play some Street Fighter IV" but took a sudden turn and I found myself surrounded by pink photobooths. Which if you look at the previous post you'll find links to the pics we took. After some confusing posing they jumping into a side booth where they could edit the pictures. All I did was spell my name in Katakana and English, the girls took over from there. They then got the images sent to their phone (and then sent to Corey's) and we stared at my awkward smile and I noticed all the pictures had at least one hand in my pocket.
We walked around a bit speaking in fragmented english/japanese before stumbling into a fair. I bought a postcard for Mark (Casey's dad) and then realized I have never seen so many gaijin (Japanese for foreiners, mostly applies to white people) in one place. So I've decided to label them all stereotypically!
Army/Navy - They might have wanted to be here or were just shipped off here but these are guys who work for the USA in Japan.
Guys lookin' to score - I guess I fall under this category. I see a lot of whities with Japanese GFs...but no white girls with Japanese boyfriends. Which is weird because Japanese guys have the coolest hair and styles. I was like "How do I stand a chance will all these Final Fantasy characters leaping around?" Some dude had an awesome hat and belt pants and all I could think about is how I'm parading around in a faux hawk and a sky blue shirt with cookies and milk on it.
French people - Yeah...I've seen a ratio of ~60% American, 35% French, and 5% other (including British). We all had a talk about mistaken nationalities and Yukiko doesn't care if people think she's Philipine but hates it when people think she's Chinese or Korean. I don't care what people think I am as long as they don't think I'm French. I don't know why. Maybe the school system raised me to think the French suck because of their smelly cheese and habit of retreating.
Ummm...tourists? - People who are already married and in Tokyo because they want to see the Tokyo Tower lit like a Christmas tree.
Anyways we walked into the most crowded alleyway imaginable (like the only way it could get more crowded is if people walked on each other) took a side staircase upwards and found a nice pasta resturant. I could read the menues but still didn't know what I was ordering. We all ate and had a fun time.
Afterwards they jumped into a whole bunch of clothes shops that only had girls in them (not even boyfriends) and I entered the twilight zone. It started out with us seeing a cute top and stepping into the store. Inside the entire place was coated with astroturf and fake vines with nature sounds playing. Walking up stairs we encounted 5 foot girls dressed like dolls who rung up the stuff and finally we escaped.
This is where my Japanese broke down and with it, my English. Aki was trying to explain how Kurumi had to go meet her boyfriend at a train station and something something. After a bit of confusion we left the topic and went on to "Are you on summer vacation?". To which I tried to explain I got ahead in school and summer vacation doesn't start until mid May. Well that failed horribly and I ended up confusing everyone (including myself) and then we returned to the topic of the train station. After 20 minutes of carefully picked words and the dictionary (which saved my ass plenty of times) they were asking if I wanted to go to Tokyo station to see Kurumi off with her boyfriend. I kindly said no (I don't know where Tokyo station is or how much it'll cost to get there, Kurumi said she lived waaaaaaay up in Akita so for all I knew, I might have been going there.) I thanked them for the wonderful time, got Aki's email address, and said our goodbyes.
Kurumi may be taken but Aki isn't :P
And don't get mad at me for not going, not only is this the first "I set up this date" date, but it was two girls who speak a different language.
So after saying goodbye and thank you, I walked around Shibuya lookin' for a freakin' game store to buy a PSP. After 30 minutes of me circling a huge block, I found an electronic store with games on the top floor. I walked up 6 flights of stairs (take that fat gamers) only to find their PSPs cost 1000 yen more than that other place where my VISA doesn't work. On the flip side (people still say that?), I bought a cool little Monster Hunter cat figurine (gotta have my Monser Hunter stuff. God knows its not in America D:).
Did I mention today was friggin' hot? I mean very very hot! So hot that I realized that fasion takes precedence before comfort. That guy with the hat and belted pants? Well he also had on two shirts. And Kurumi and Aki were both wearing jackets. I was all like "Shorts and flip-flops for the win".
Phew so I asked a guard which platform went to where ever I was going (thanks to Corey and Yukiko for smashing my safety blockade) I jumped at the nearest open seat (I've been standing/walking for over 5 hours) and sort of slept. The train intercom is very quiet. So everytim the train stopped, I would jump up and look out the windows to see if this is my stop or not. After battling the urge to sleep, I finally got off and walked the mile home. Flopped down on the couch, yelled "Atsui!!!" (Japanese for hot) to Ku (the dog) and layed there watching some Japanese guy on TV carve wood into a seashell box (he did a great job, screw all of you who think its okay to break things).
Used the super toilet; almost napped; Corey+Yukiko+Marc+Marika came home; bit of watching some show on the Illuminarty secret society hellbent on ruling the world; went to eat at a resturant where they bring you raw meat and you cook it; thought we were going to Yamata ...something (some electronic store. I can recall the name every now and then) but went home; sat on couch watched 300 (in English) and now here I am.
Gotta call my mom + the bank (online account is locked) tomorrow...oh shi- tomorrow won't work, its Sunday in America.
Quick Note On Pictures
http://s151.photobucket.com/albums/s132/myogaman/nicholasjapan/
pictures are being uploaded here. I'll put the camera pics here as soon as i find a cord.
pictures are being uploaded here. I'll put the camera pics here as soon as i find a cord.
Saturday, May 9, 2009
May 9th
Today Corey and I sold my PSP for 4,000 yen and my debit card doesn't work at the store so I couldn't buy a new one. But that's fine. After that we went to Tokyo Disneyland and navigated the first ride, the parking lot. They had cones making a single road that weaved around the parking lot until someone points to your parking lot.
Outside of the car we took a monorail train inside and enjoyed Disneyland. There I...
-Ate green tea icecream
-Saw many fat Japanese people
-Rode many rides including Big Thunder Mountain and Splash Mountain (which, using your phone camera, don't have to pay 1250 yen for).
-Saw a Hummer H1/2 (definitely not 3) parked in 2 spots and later driving down the road...which is insane in Japan. I remember thinking "Holy crap thats a huge car" when I saw a Toyota 4Runner in Japan, so how a Hummer can even exist is beyond logic. Did I already mention that rodes in Japan are half the size of the ones in America? In America, you have enough room to swerve left or right and still be in your lane, in Japan its precision or car accident.
Oh yeah, and I got a date tomorrow with two Japanese girls in Shinjuku so all you doubters, suck it! I know theres been betting pools going on, time to pay up.
So...later
Outside of the car we took a monorail train inside and enjoyed Disneyland. There I...
-Ate green tea icecream
-Saw many fat Japanese people
-Rode many rides including Big Thunder Mountain and Splash Mountain (which, using your phone camera, don't have to pay 1250 yen for).
-Saw a Hummer H1/2 (definitely not 3) parked in 2 spots and later driving down the road...which is insane in Japan. I remember thinking "Holy crap thats a huge car" when I saw a Toyota 4Runner in Japan, so how a Hummer can even exist is beyond logic. Did I already mention that rodes in Japan are half the size of the ones in America? In America, you have enough room to swerve left or right and still be in your lane, in Japan its precision or car accident.
Oh yeah, and I got a date tomorrow with two Japanese girls in Shinjuku so all you doubters, suck it! I know theres been betting pools going on, time to pay up.
So...later
Friday, May 8, 2009
May 8th...again
Just saw a commercial that showed a few businessmen standing on a stage when an old ninja busts through the backdoor. Smoke blows out on the stage and there is the ninja surrounded with his ninja friends. The commercial ends with the words.
"Life. Good luck with that."
I don't know what they were advertising but it convinced me that Japan understands it holds 99% of the world's ninjas and is keeping its people in check.
"Life. Good luck with that."
I don't know what they were advertising but it convinced me that Japan understands it holds 99% of the world's ninjas and is keeping its people in check.
May 8th
Holy crap! Corey and Yukiko have ultra good internet! I'm downloading stuff 10x faster than home (and for you peeps at home, I'm only downloading homework and 2 games). Instead of going at 160kb/s, I'm crusing at 1.8mb/s. For those not internet savvy, it takes 1000kb to equal 1mb. Think metric system.
Anyways! Today Yukiko had to go to lunch with the other school moms and I rode bikes with her to the train station. I then had to find my home all alone but it was no problem! (I sound like a 6 year old.) I browsed a book store and only found Kin-Nikku Man! Thats Ultimate Muscle for all you guys back home. Apparently Yukiko grew up with Kin-Nikku Man which is awesome because I used to see that show when I was a kid.
I also went to a game store and learned the kanji for used. I hope to sell my PSP for at least 5000yen or else i'll just sell it back in the states. They also had some okay prices on PSPs. I think Akihabara had the best prices around.
After that, I bought some wasabi chicken sandwhiches and then caught bugs with Marc. We were walking around the wonderful park and mossy stone when I slid and ate it twice. Got some battle scars but nothing worth alarm (is that my vein?!). Marc and I caught some cool bugs too. Afterwards, Marc and I (english major at work) went on a walk through unknown (to me) territory and I bought some 270ml drink for 130yen only to find the same drink only in 1liter for 120yen. We got home and played games and I worked on my katakana.
Now I'm expanding my vocab while reading up on language developement importance in early childhood. If you want your kid to learn a second language DO IT EARLY!
Good night...err...morning? Whatever, later!
Anyways! Today Yukiko had to go to lunch with the other school moms and I rode bikes with her to the train station. I then had to find my home all alone but it was no problem! (I sound like a 6 year old.) I browsed a book store and only found Kin-Nikku Man! Thats Ultimate Muscle for all you guys back home. Apparently Yukiko grew up with Kin-Nikku Man which is awesome because I used to see that show when I was a kid.
I also went to a game store and learned the kanji for used. I hope to sell my PSP for at least 5000yen or else i'll just sell it back in the states. They also had some okay prices on PSPs. I think Akihabara had the best prices around.
After that, I bought some wasabi chicken sandwhiches and then caught bugs with Marc. We were walking around the wonderful park and mossy stone when I slid and ate it twice. Got some battle scars but nothing worth alarm (is that my vein?!). Marc and I caught some cool bugs too. Afterwards, Marc and I (english major at work) went on a walk through unknown (to me) territory and I bought some 270ml drink for 130yen only to find the same drink only in 1liter for 120yen. We got home and played games and I worked on my katakana.
Now I'm expanding my vocab while reading up on language developement importance in early childhood. If you want your kid to learn a second language DO IT EARLY!
Good night...err...morning? Whatever, later!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
