Yesterday I went to my second basketball game ever. The first one was 22 years ago. So you might say it was somewhat a new experience for me. J asked a bunch of people, but ultimately only Em and (anagramatic) me went along. Apparently, it was her first, despite having fuzzy feelings about basketball. We cheered for the home team (Toyota Alvark), booed the Mitsubishi Diamond Dolphins (actually, only J did - apparently, Em and me are too Japanised already), ate overpriced bad hotdog and overpriced bad minidonuts, concluded Cola was average, and found my favourite cheerleader and Em's favourite player (although, "I liked him better when he was too far to see clearly"). Afterwards, we pigged out on tempura. Good times.
Anyway, what I thought was the silliest name ever (exacerbated by Japanese pronunciation - "arubaruku"), actually has a reason. I know I usually say "just #$% Google it", or "Wikipedia knows"; but since most of you can't read ja.wikipedia.org, the origin of the name is apparently the arabic word meaning "lightning strike" (and boy, they are fast!); and also, Al-V-ark serves as an Arabic-French-English wordplay for "The Victory Ark". Stilly, but hey.
Also, as someone pointed out, I owe you a school-related update, even though almost every one of the three people reading this blog already know. I passed my scary entrance exam, and I'll be starting my Master Course classes in April. I guess the teachers were properly wowed. Till then, I'll be attending the fun Intensive Japanese Course once again. Yay!
I moved. If you have the old address, ask for the new one.
Showing posts with label games. Show all posts
Showing posts with label games. Show all posts
2009-10-17
2008-12-08
Brief Notes
I'm sleepy. Mostly because I can't sleep at night. And even less by day.
I've been to a Chinese restaurant where the serving obasan was so surprised I could say a sentence in Chinese that I got a free jasmine tea, free rice - and free iced oolong tea for the whole table of four. I was embarassed, especially the way my Japanese companions kept semi-enviously teasing me.
I've gone to another monthly boardgaming meeting. It was fun. I managed to explain Red November in (something similar to) Japanese. Much hilarity ensued, even if I couldn't explain about "gnomes" and why everything was going to hell in a handbasket.
I've seen the first season of True Blood. Props to Paquin, but Sookie is way better in the book. But Vampire Bill rocks on screen.
I need to find time to go to Akiba by day. I decided my back is worth ~¥6000.
I've been to a Chinese restaurant where the serving obasan was so surprised I could say a sentence in Chinese that I got a free jasmine tea, free rice - and free iced oolong tea for the whole table of four. I was embarassed, especially the way my Japanese companions kept semi-enviously teasing me.
I've gone to another monthly boardgaming meeting. It was fun. I managed to explain Red November in (something similar to) Japanese. Much hilarity ensued, even if I couldn't explain about "gnomes" and why everything was going to hell in a handbasket.
I've seen the first season of True Blood. Props to Paquin, but Sookie is way better in the book. But Vampire Bill rocks on screen.
I need to find time to go to Akiba by day. I decided my back is worth ~¥6000.
2008-11-04
Exotic Things
I went to my first kaitenzushi today. It was nice. I've eaten my fill, and surprisingly enough, paid less than I would for a bowl of ramen (outside of our university refectory). The stuff actually fills you up! Who'd've thunk it...
Anyway, there was four of us - let's call us Croat, Kiwi, Malagasy and Finn - and none of the other ones shared my non-dislike of natto. I couldn't figure out why - but then got my comeuppance when I bravely decided to try ikura gunkanzushi. Boy, was that a mistake. Yet Finn and Kiwi had no idea why I didn't like it, they thought nothing of it. Anyway, five plates later, we were full (and I was in search of something that will help me get fish eggs out of my palate).
During that time, Kiwi talked about some of his experiences or insights about Japan. One was particularly telling. Did you know that gambling was completely illegal in Japan? Neither did I. However, there are all these Pachinko salons - I thought it was gambling?
Well, yes and no. Because gambling is illegal, it works like this: when you go into a pachinko parlour (I still haven't, so this is all second-hand knowledge), you buy a bucket of balls. You go and stick your balls into slots, hoping more balls will come out. When you're done, you take your balls and exchange them for - not money, but trinkets and toys. So it's more like a game in an arcade, or a theme park...
...If it weren't for the shop that is always - always! - next door or nearby, and always - always! - unconnected to the pachinko place. Can you guess what it is?
A pawn shop. Specialising in buying toys and trinkets. The largest buyer of which is... (do I really need to say?) A pachinko parlour. Makes perfect sense, and it's all within the bounds of the law.
Yesterday we went to see the Meiji Shrine. There were about forty of us in our guided Todai group, divided into five or so platoons. This weekend was the Shichi-Go-San festival (as well as Culture Day, and the Emperor Meiji's birthday), and there were lil' ones wearing the (mostly rental) best. Props to them, as they were photoed to death. We saw the shinto ceremony in the shrine (well, from outside, anyway), I hung my own ema at the ema-hanging tree, and maybe a passing spirit decides to give me some of my wishes. Afterwards we had a bento picnic just next to aikido demonstration, then walked on by some other demonstrations till we reached what we were ostensibly there for: yabusame.
Yabusame is an old tradition, in some ways like a sport but more like an exhibition, i.e. no winners are announced, where horsemen gallop past three targets while shooting from the bow. At the said targets, of course. It's quite spectacular, if you disregard the long wait beforehand. They ride so fast that if you're not looking at the track all the time, you almost miss them. Afterwards we were taken to a pricy cafe, where we could get beer or a juice, and where soft-drinkers were rewarded by a piece of cake - and all we paid for the day was actually less than what our share cost in the cafe. The Japanese system is actually amazing, from my point of view: the students get subsidised by the senpai. The volunteer guides paid twice as much as we guidees, if not more. Thank you again!
Other than that, I'm a proud owner of the Gathering Storm! Finally!
Anyway, there was four of us - let's call us Croat, Kiwi, Malagasy and Finn - and none of the other ones shared my non-dislike of natto. I couldn't figure out why - but then got my comeuppance when I bravely decided to try ikura gunkanzushi. Boy, was that a mistake. Yet Finn and Kiwi had no idea why I didn't like it, they thought nothing of it. Anyway, five plates later, we were full (and I was in search of something that will help me get fish eggs out of my palate).
During that time, Kiwi talked about some of his experiences or insights about Japan. One was particularly telling. Did you know that gambling was completely illegal in Japan? Neither did I. However, there are all these Pachinko salons - I thought it was gambling?
Well, yes and no. Because gambling is illegal, it works like this: when you go into a pachinko parlour (I still haven't, so this is all second-hand knowledge), you buy a bucket of balls. You go and stick your balls into slots, hoping more balls will come out. When you're done, you take your balls and exchange them for - not money, but trinkets and toys. So it's more like a game in an arcade, or a theme park...
...If it weren't for the shop that is always - always! - next door or nearby, and always - always! - unconnected to the pachinko place. Can you guess what it is?
A pawn shop. Specialising in buying toys and trinkets. The largest buyer of which is... (do I really need to say?) A pachinko parlour. Makes perfect sense, and it's all within the bounds of the law.
Yesterday we went to see the Meiji Shrine. There were about forty of us in our guided Todai group, divided into five or so platoons. This weekend was the Shichi-Go-San festival (as well as Culture Day, and the Emperor Meiji's birthday), and there were lil' ones wearing the (mostly rental) best. Props to them, as they were photoed to death. We saw the shinto ceremony in the shrine (well, from outside, anyway), I hung my own ema at the ema-hanging tree, and maybe a passing spirit decides to give me some of my wishes. Afterwards we had a bento picnic just next to aikido demonstration, then walked on by some other demonstrations till we reached what we were ostensibly there for: yabusame.
Yabusame is an old tradition, in some ways like a sport but more like an exhibition, i.e. no winners are announced, where horsemen gallop past three targets while shooting from the bow. At the said targets, of course. It's quite spectacular, if you disregard the long wait beforehand. They ride so fast that if you're not looking at the track all the time, you almost miss them. Afterwards we were taken to a pricy cafe, where we could get beer or a juice, and where soft-drinkers were rewarded by a piece of cake - and all we paid for the day was actually less than what our share cost in the cafe. The Japanese system is actually amazing, from my point of view: the students get subsidised by the senpai. The volunteer guides paid twice as much as we guidees, if not more. Thank you again!
Other than that, I'm a proud owner of the Gathering Storm! Finally!
2008-10-25
Umbrella games
I've met the gamers!
Admittedly, so far, it seems our Japanese counterparts mostly go for the lighter gaming fare, but a game is a game, and I'm not complaining.
To begin from the start: After several misses, I was finally going to have the time to go to the Yellow Submarine - and knew which Yellow Submarine to go for. So immediately after my classes, I went off to Akiba to search for the store, guided by the red marker dot the helpful store attendant in the last week's Yellow Submarine miss helpfully painted onto my map. However, it seems the treasure was moved in the meantime - the store was nowhere to be found. The ex did not mark the spot.
I knew it had to be somewhere in Akihabara, and I did not yet want to admit defeat (even though it was quite probable I (was) already lost); so I started wandering around aimlessly (well, aimfully, though I had no clue where the bloody target was); but my staunch spirit paid off, as I looked up and spotted my Holy Grail!
So, where there's a banner, there's a store, so up I went - but when I came to the store, it was way too small to hold any gaming. At first, the attendant had a blank look on his face, and then he got it - "kaado geemu?" "hai, kaado geemu ya boodo geemu nado!" Then he pulls out a real Akihabara map - not the photocopied flyer they had at the other store - and showed me where, exactly and finally, I can find a game.
During all that time, it was raining. Not too fun. But I finally arrived, and was welcomed, and accepted into Carcassonne: the New World, that no-one really knew rules to, except this one guy who was just leaving. I won. I later found out we had some rules wrong; I still would have won. Lucky game :)
I met the founder of this event, who rode the train for one hour in each direction each Wednesday with a suitcase-sized sampling of his 300-odd collection; I met the tall BGG liaison guy improbably called Joe; and I met two Germans who studied in Kiwiland together, of which one was visiting the other for a week, and the other is working in German Embassy for half a year. Had a long chat about nontrivial games with the latter, while the former charmed a female gamer, and received an email address, despite the fact that the only language they could communicate in was his very rusty French.
I got invited to the special Heroscape day the following evening, so I came back and played a bit of that. Funnish, certainly beautiful, but not that much involved. "Age 8+" summarises my impression rather succinctly.
Change of topic.
I am amazed sometimes at the practicality here - when it rains, every store (yes, every store, including the hardcore software ones) have cheap umbrellas for sale. Wherever you are, you can avoid getting rained. (Bad English, works in Japanese, so meh.)
Also, the first time I saw another Japanese umbrella-related surprise was in my cafeteria. Don't know yet if they do that elsewhere; I'm sure they must, but I haven't been to any other very public place while it rained. They put umbrella condoms at the entrances, along with a big disposal bin. You come inside, you put the tight baggie over the dripping part so there are no accidents while you're inside, and you take it off when you're done and drop it into the provided bin. Quite convenient.
Otherwise, many other places, for instance most of the buildings in my Uni I've been to, have umbrella lockers. You put your umbrella inside and lock it, and take the key. There may or may not be a deposit required. Ever gone somewhere and had no clue what to do with your big wet stick? Well, not in Tokyo.
Except in subways. But then, we have these great signs telling us how to behave.
Change of topic.
Things really work differently here. When we gaijin were leaving the Wednesday gaming, we heard someone calling after us. It was a policeman running after us. He was holding a piece of paper, and when he caught up with us, he said we dropped it. It was the email address mentioned five, or seven, paragraphs earlier, depending on how you count them.
The next day, I was getting off in Nezu (from the train!), and I noticed that the escalator that was out of order and under repairs the week before was back in function. I probably would have noticed anyway, but what really drew my attention to it was not a what, but a who. There was a construction worker, or a train line officer, or whoever it was wearing a helmet and a uniform, standing rather motionlessly next to the bottom end of the escalator, extending his white-gloved hand in its direction, inviting people to use it. I would not be surprised if that was all he did that day.
That said, I see a lot of people with a strange job description, at least according to my worldview so far: standing in front of their stores and holding up a sign advertising something in the shop, or the shop itself. They are not yelling anything (that's apparently another job), just standing around holding a sign, which probably could just as well stand on its own, with a bit of proper propping. They did get my attention though, so I guess it works.
Change of topic.
So I finally bought the One-Seg tuner for my PSP. So now I can watch TV. Or rather, what passes for TV in Japan, which is mainly strange game shows I don't understand yet, strange talk shows I don't understand yet, and strange food shows I don't understand yet. Hopefully, one day, with the help of the intensive lessons I'm taking, that will change. My understanding, not the programme. Did I mention over three hours of classes every day, plus homework? We even have listening homework. The teachers upload mp3-s to the web server, which we download and listen at home. Fun! but a bit tiring.
So now I have to also write the handouts because the book circle was moved to Monday this week, and tomorrow I've signed up to go see some Tea Ceremony so I have to get up early, and there's so little time...
At least I'm well stocked in grapefruits. Thanks, 99!
Admittedly, so far, it seems our Japanese counterparts mostly go for the lighter gaming fare, but a game is a game, and I'm not complaining.
To begin from the start: After several misses, I was finally going to have the time to go to the Yellow Submarine - and knew which Yellow Submarine to go for. So immediately after my classes, I went off to Akiba to search for the store, guided by the red marker dot the helpful store attendant in the last week's Yellow Submarine miss helpfully painted onto my map. However, it seems the treasure was moved in the meantime - the store was nowhere to be found. The ex did not mark the spot.
I knew it had to be somewhere in Akihabara, and I did not yet want to admit defeat (even though it was quite probable I (was) already lost); so I started wandering around aimlessly (well, aimfully, though I had no clue where the bloody target was); but my staunch spirit paid off, as I looked up and spotted my Holy Grail!
So, where there's a banner, there's a store, so up I went - but when I came to the store, it was way too small to hold any gaming. At first, the attendant had a blank look on his face, and then he got it - "kaado geemu?" "hai, kaado geemu ya boodo geemu nado!" Then he pulls out a real Akihabara map - not the photocopied flyer they had at the other store - and showed me where, exactly and finally, I can find a game.
During all that time, it was raining. Not too fun. But I finally arrived, and was welcomed, and accepted into Carcassonne: the New World, that no-one really knew rules to, except this one guy who was just leaving. I won. I later found out we had some rules wrong; I still would have won. Lucky game :)
I met the founder of this event, who rode the train for one hour in each direction each Wednesday with a suitcase-sized sampling of his 300-odd collection; I met the tall BGG liaison guy improbably called Joe; and I met two Germans who studied in Kiwiland together, of which one was visiting the other for a week, and the other is working in German Embassy for half a year. Had a long chat about nontrivial games with the latter, while the former charmed a female gamer, and received an email address, despite the fact that the only language they could communicate in was his very rusty French.
I got invited to the special Heroscape day the following evening, so I came back and played a bit of that. Funnish, certainly beautiful, but not that much involved. "Age 8+" summarises my impression rather succinctly.
Change of topic.
I am amazed sometimes at the practicality here - when it rains, every store (yes, every store, including the hardcore software ones) have cheap umbrellas for sale. Wherever you are, you can avoid getting rained. (Bad English, works in Japanese, so meh.)
Also, the first time I saw another Japanese umbrella-related surprise was in my cafeteria. Don't know yet if they do that elsewhere; I'm sure they must, but I haven't been to any other very public place while it rained. They put umbrella condoms at the entrances, along with a big disposal bin. You come inside, you put the tight baggie over the dripping part so there are no accidents while you're inside, and you take it off when you're done and drop it into the provided bin. Quite convenient.
Otherwise, many other places, for instance most of the buildings in my Uni I've been to, have umbrella lockers. You put your umbrella inside and lock it, and take the key. There may or may not be a deposit required. Ever gone somewhere and had no clue what to do with your big wet stick? Well, not in Tokyo.
Except in subways. But then, we have these great signs telling us how to behave.
Change of topic.
Things really work differently here. When we gaijin were leaving the Wednesday gaming, we heard someone calling after us. It was a policeman running after us. He was holding a piece of paper, and when he caught up with us, he said we dropped it. It was the email address mentioned five, or seven, paragraphs earlier, depending on how you count them.
The next day, I was getting off in Nezu (from the train!), and I noticed that the escalator that was out of order and under repairs the week before was back in function. I probably would have noticed anyway, but what really drew my attention to it was not a what, but a who. There was a construction worker, or a train line officer, or whoever it was wearing a helmet and a uniform, standing rather motionlessly next to the bottom end of the escalator, extending his white-gloved hand in its direction, inviting people to use it. I would not be surprised if that was all he did that day.
That said, I see a lot of people with a strange job description, at least according to my worldview so far: standing in front of their stores and holding up a sign advertising something in the shop, or the shop itself. They are not yelling anything (that's apparently another job), just standing around holding a sign, which probably could just as well stand on its own, with a bit of proper propping. They did get my attention though, so I guess it works.
Change of topic.
So I finally bought the One-Seg tuner for my PSP. So now I can watch TV. Or rather, what passes for TV in Japan, which is mainly strange game shows I don't understand yet, strange talk shows I don't understand yet, and strange food shows I don't understand yet. Hopefully, one day, with the help of the intensive lessons I'm taking, that will change. My understanding, not the programme. Did I mention over three hours of classes every day, plus homework? We even have listening homework. The teachers upload mp3-s to the web server, which we download and listen at home. Fun! but a bit tiring.
So now I have to also write the handouts because the book circle was moved to Monday this week, and tomorrow I've signed up to go see some Tea Ceremony so I have to get up early, and there's so little time...
At least I'm well stocked in grapefruits. Thanks, 99!
2008-10-21
Parent-Thetical
Long time no wright, so to say, and I forget what was when. I really should do this more often again.
Anyway, there was a classification exam for the intensive language classes. I'm in group 3 of 5 (no Borg references!), or "intermediate"; yesterday was orientation, and from today we start for real. Nine classes per week, each class 1:40, and then there's homework. Yay! (Might be a bit tiring though.)
There were representatives from home. Err, make that HOME. It's a group for international student support. Basically, there's japanese volonteers, and there's us. They're here to talk with us, introduce us to some cultural events, and generally ease us into life in Japan, when there's noone we know yet. So, one of the volonteers, let's call him "H" (or maybe "Ha"? - Japanese initials, funny things) organised a nice get-together, where we'd all cook in a big kitchen. I have no clue what the room is normally used for - it's in a very nice and very, very expensive-looking building next to H's building, it looks like a community hall back home, but it has a kitchen in the room. So after a flurry of food preparation (and hungry tummies), there was actually so much food the three dozen or so of us couldn't eat it all. Even if half the eaters were Japanese - of which some were in college, yet some were quite young (as they say on rather different class of web pages, "barely eighteen"). Fun was had by all.
What else. Yeah, I finally managed to get money from my Mum. Thanks, Mum! It seems there's just one place in Tokyo that handles Western Union (or even knows what it is), and I was an idiot for not looking it up on the 'Net sooner. And just in time, too, since their contract expires with the current year. (Silly anthropomorphic yoga-related scenes are now running through my head. Yours?) (This "managed to get money from my Mum" sounded really bad. It's not like I begged and begged and she's a cheap old hag, but that she sent it readily to her favourite but soon to be broke son, who was an idiot enough not to be able to figure out how to receive it.)
Speaking of, Mum has grown tired of waiting for the ISP people, and is Skyping me via mobile connection, costs be damned. The said connection is pretty bad, but better than nothing. Skype is fun, even if I'm in a rather bad timezone, Croatia-wise. When I come home, everyone's at work; when I get up, everyone's asleep. Thank gods for self-employed family.
In the meantime, my PSP has arrived. (It's only a small part of the reason for my ex-soon-to-be-broke state.) It's so cool. (The PSP, not the abovementioned state.) Too bad its crippled to anything not authorised by Sony, but c'est la vie. (Or at least, vie artificielle.) The things that it does do, it does very nicely. (Pata-pata-pata-pon and don-dondon-dondon echo inside my cranium all day.)
I found out why hyakuen (100 yen) shops are popular. It's because some things are twice as cheap in a hyakuen shop than anywhere else, and up to five times cheaper than in konbini. Shame the closest one is so far from my dorm. Still, looking forward to the grapefruit I'm gonna slurp up for my midnight snack.
So in the meantime I've actually gone to the classes, and it was really fun. The teachers (at least the ones we saw today) are so nice, and fun... The conversation teacher had us ask for a day off from classes, recorded it by video-camera, and then analysed (or at least started to; two thirds of the class, including me, are to star on the silver screen next week) the behaviour, distance, content, politeness, congruence, body language, expressions... Did I say fun? I'll see what she says next week :) We got some grammar homework, but it's not much for now, and we did it all during the class anyway.
Death Note is fun so far, but I'm hardly at home, and I'm sooo slow anyway. I haven't even read the first part yet.
I still haven't gone to see the gamers (not successfully, at least). Maybe tomorrow. Who knows.
So yeah.
Anyway, there was a classification exam for the intensive language classes. I'm in group 3 of 5 (no Borg references!), or "intermediate"; yesterday was orientation, and from today we start for real. Nine classes per week, each class 1:40, and then there's homework. Yay! (Might be a bit tiring though.)
There were representatives from home. Err, make that HOME. It's a group for international student support. Basically, there's japanese volonteers, and there's us. They're here to talk with us, introduce us to some cultural events, and generally ease us into life in Japan, when there's noone we know yet. So, one of the volonteers, let's call him "H" (or maybe "Ha"? - Japanese initials, funny things) organised a nice get-together, where we'd all cook in a big kitchen. I have no clue what the room is normally used for - it's in a very nice and very, very expensive-looking building next to H's building, it looks like a community hall back home, but it has a kitchen in the room. So after a flurry of food preparation (and hungry tummies), there was actually so much food the three dozen or so of us couldn't eat it all. Even if half the eaters were Japanese - of which some were in college, yet some were quite young (as they say on rather different class of web pages, "barely eighteen"). Fun was had by all.
What else. Yeah, I finally managed to get money from my Mum. Thanks, Mum! It seems there's just one place in Tokyo that handles Western Union (or even knows what it is), and I was an idiot for not looking it up on the 'Net sooner. And just in time, too, since their contract expires with the current year. (Silly anthropomorphic yoga-related scenes are now running through my head. Yours?) (This "managed to get money from my Mum" sounded really bad. It's not like I begged and begged and she's a cheap old hag, but that she sent it readily to her favourite but soon to be broke son, who was an idiot enough not to be able to figure out how to receive it.)
Speaking of, Mum has grown tired of waiting for the ISP people, and is Skyping me via mobile connection, costs be damned. The said connection is pretty bad, but better than nothing. Skype is fun, even if I'm in a rather bad timezone, Croatia-wise. When I come home, everyone's at work; when I get up, everyone's asleep. Thank gods for self-employed family.
In the meantime, my PSP has arrived. (It's only a small part of the reason for my ex-soon-to-be-broke state.) It's so cool. (The PSP, not the abovementioned state.) Too bad its crippled to anything not authorised by Sony, but c'est la vie. (Or at least, vie artificielle.) The things that it does do, it does very nicely. (Pata-pata-pata-pon and don-dondon-dondon echo inside my cranium all day.)
I found out why hyakuen (100 yen) shops are popular. It's because some things are twice as cheap in a hyakuen shop than anywhere else, and up to five times cheaper than in konbini. Shame the closest one is so far from my dorm. Still, looking forward to the grapefruit I'm gonna slurp up for my midnight snack.
So in the meantime I've actually gone to the classes, and it was really fun. The teachers (at least the ones we saw today) are so nice, and fun... The conversation teacher had us ask for a day off from classes, recorded it by video-camera, and then analysed (or at least started to; two thirds of the class, including me, are to star on the silver screen next week) the behaviour, distance, content, politeness, congruence, body language, expressions... Did I say fun? I'll see what she says next week :) We got some grammar homework, but it's not much for now, and we did it all during the class anyway.
Death Note is fun so far, but I'm hardly at home, and I'm sooo slow anyway. I haven't even read the first part yet.
I still haven't gone to see the gamers (not successfully, at least). Maybe tomorrow. Who knows.
So yeah.
2008-10-08
The Welcome Party
Today was a good day. Really. I'm not missing the other two words from that sentence. Today was a good day.
Again, I overslept. That, because I couldn't sleep in the evening, again. But I learned from my tutor today that it was not required to show up at 9 am - indeed, few people do, and that's why they stay so late (in addition to "custom"). I spent my day hacking at an algorithm we talked about at the book club, so that I can understand it better and remember it longer. Then a lot of people were going to lunch together, and asked me if I wanted to tag along. Sure! So we went to a traditional Japanese fish restaurant. There's three set courses each lunch: baked fish, cooked fish and raw fish. So I picked sashimi, simply because it was most unfamiliar. It came as a bit of a shock that I was the only one subscribing to that option, but I bravely persevered.
It was quite Yummy. I got three pieces of something and three pieces of something else, and one of those might have been a yellowtail, and the other might have been some kind of a snapper. It would help if I even remotely knew what those were even in English, but alas, no - so it's just six pieces of Fish. There was also a bit of wasabi, and soy sauce, and some unidentified but probably pickled vegetables, some glass noodles, a bowl of rice and another bowl with miso soup. When I asked whether they ate misojiro before or after the fish, I got a simple and very Japanese answer: "during".
Still, it was a bit difficult for me - I managed seiza just until the meal arrived, then switched to cross-legged position. One leg was properly numb by mid-course, so I switched again to give the other leg the chance to experience the same adventure. In the end, I stuck my leg out in front under the table, hoping I won't ending up playing footsie with the Korean guy across the table, but everything went okay. No subtext, no subtable...
I made plans to go check out the gaming Wednesday in the Yellow Submarine (a gaming outlet). However, it seems they no longer play games in both shops, but only in the one I haven't gone to. In the meantime, my tutor called me (my first incoming phonecall!) and told me there was a welcome party for the newcomers in his dormitory, which is about 50 metres, or 7 minutes, away from my dormitory. (An aside: 50 metres or 7 minutes?!? The thing is, the buildings are next to each other, but the entrances to their courtyards are in fact quite far from each other.) I apologised because I couldn't possibly get there on time - especially since I needed to shower again before I could go meet new people. It's so bloody damp here, the humidity is killing me - and I can't even imagine what I'll be going through come summer. And the locals don't even sweat it. Sure, here and there you can see an old riiman wiping his face with a handkerchief, but it's more an exception than a rule. And from what I heard from other gaijin (I'm gaijin, so I'm allowed to say it - kind of like "nigga" being considered an insult from anyone except from a black person), I'm not really an exception. The Southeast Asians have apparently adapted.
So, I was in Shinjuku, at a wrong place. While I was there, I might as well have a browse for a minute or two, I thought, so I took a quick look around the Yellow Submarine - and then I saw an arcade.
The arcade was amazing. I mean, it's just various video games, but I haven't felt such a wonder about video-games since I was in Piccadilly Circus twelvish years ago (which is when I first saw Virtua Fighter, and the game that spun you around - can't explain better than that at the moment). I mean, there are plenty of amazing games available on personal computers, and they get amazing-er and amazing-er all the time, but you generally know what your computer was capable of - the PC games don't really have revolutionary stuff that often.
Here I saw two games that made me widen my eyes and stare for a bit. The first one was DVX or some other TLA, which was controlled by a stick, three buttons, and a touch screen, all at the same time. The second was Sangokushi Something, which is a collectible card video strategy game. I kid you not. You buy cards, make armies from the cards you have, and deploy them on the surface of the game. The game knows where your cards are. Each card represents an army unit, which takes its orders by how you position the card. If you turn the card by 180 degs, the lil guys will do about face. And if you push the card forward, the guys march to meet the enemy. The battleground corresponds to the play area, so you actually control all units' movements by shuffling the cards around the table. It was totally cool to watch, but then I remembered the party and my soaked shirt and decided I better shuffle myself.
The party was fun. There were various people from various countries, some were newbies and some were oldbies, I met many of them but few names stuck. They'll just have to throw them at me harder. In particular, a Serbian girl was delighted to finally have someone who'll understand her native speech (natsukashii naa...), a wacky Korean invited me to her birthday party on an indeterminate date, a Bulgarian guy studying the same stuff as I do gave me his phone number so I can get some cool books from him, and a strange-in-a-good-way gothy girl who apparently holds Japanese classes around here was all gothy and strange, but in a good way. Loved her hat.
I apparently missed the first party, when people were doing little cultural presentations (among those, my tutor and 9 other Japanese doing some kind of a dance), and I passed on the fourth party, the one in the Russians' room where they started moving when we were being kicked out from the third party.
Tomorrow I'll oversleep intentionally, I think, and stay later in the lab. Not hurrying anywhere tomorrow. So, that's what I'll do. Yep, that's the plan. Uh-huh. Oversleep.
If I can.
Again, I overslept. That, because I couldn't sleep in the evening, again. But I learned from my tutor today that it was not required to show up at 9 am - indeed, few people do, and that's why they stay so late (in addition to "custom"). I spent my day hacking at an algorithm we talked about at the book club, so that I can understand it better and remember it longer. Then a lot of people were going to lunch together, and asked me if I wanted to tag along. Sure! So we went to a traditional Japanese fish restaurant. There's three set courses each lunch: baked fish, cooked fish and raw fish. So I picked sashimi, simply because it was most unfamiliar. It came as a bit of a shock that I was the only one subscribing to that option, but I bravely persevered.
It was quite Yummy. I got three pieces of something and three pieces of something else, and one of those might have been a yellowtail, and the other might have been some kind of a snapper. It would help if I even remotely knew what those were even in English, but alas, no - so it's just six pieces of Fish. There was also a bit of wasabi, and soy sauce, and some unidentified but probably pickled vegetables, some glass noodles, a bowl of rice and another bowl with miso soup. When I asked whether they ate misojiro before or after the fish, I got a simple and very Japanese answer: "during".
Still, it was a bit difficult for me - I managed seiza just until the meal arrived, then switched to cross-legged position. One leg was properly numb by mid-course, so I switched again to give the other leg the chance to experience the same adventure. In the end, I stuck my leg out in front under the table, hoping I won't ending up playing footsie with the Korean guy across the table, but everything went okay. No subtext, no subtable...
I made plans to go check out the gaming Wednesday in the Yellow Submarine (a gaming outlet). However, it seems they no longer play games in both shops, but only in the one I haven't gone to. In the meantime, my tutor called me (my first incoming phonecall!) and told me there was a welcome party for the newcomers in his dormitory, which is about 50 metres, or 7 minutes, away from my dormitory. (An aside: 50 metres or 7 minutes?!? The thing is, the buildings are next to each other, but the entrances to their courtyards are in fact quite far from each other.) I apologised because I couldn't possibly get there on time - especially since I needed to shower again before I could go meet new people. It's so bloody damp here, the humidity is killing me - and I can't even imagine what I'll be going through come summer. And the locals don't even sweat it. Sure, here and there you can see an old riiman wiping his face with a handkerchief, but it's more an exception than a rule. And from what I heard from other gaijin (I'm gaijin, so I'm allowed to say it - kind of like "nigga" being considered an insult from anyone except from a black person), I'm not really an exception. The Southeast Asians have apparently adapted.
So, I was in Shinjuku, at a wrong place. While I was there, I might as well have a browse for a minute or two, I thought, so I took a quick look around the Yellow Submarine - and then I saw an arcade.
The arcade was amazing. I mean, it's just various video games, but I haven't felt such a wonder about video-games since I was in Piccadilly Circus twelvish years ago (which is when I first saw Virtua Fighter, and the game that spun you around - can't explain better than that at the moment). I mean, there are plenty of amazing games available on personal computers, and they get amazing-er and amazing-er all the time, but you generally know what your computer was capable of - the PC games don't really have revolutionary stuff that often.
Here I saw two games that made me widen my eyes and stare for a bit. The first one was DVX or some other TLA, which was controlled by a stick, three buttons, and a touch screen, all at the same time. The second was Sangokushi Something, which is a collectible card video strategy game. I kid you not. You buy cards, make armies from the cards you have, and deploy them on the surface of the game. The game knows where your cards are. Each card represents an army unit, which takes its orders by how you position the card. If you turn the card by 180 degs, the lil guys will do about face. And if you push the card forward, the guys march to meet the enemy. The battleground corresponds to the play area, so you actually control all units' movements by shuffling the cards around the table. It was totally cool to watch, but then I remembered the party and my soaked shirt and decided I better shuffle myself.
The party was fun. There were various people from various countries, some were newbies and some were oldbies, I met many of them but few names stuck. They'll just have to throw them at me harder. In particular, a Serbian girl was delighted to finally have someone who'll understand her native speech (natsukashii naa...), a wacky Korean invited me to her birthday party on an indeterminate date, a Bulgarian guy studying the same stuff as I do gave me his phone number so I can get some cool books from him, and a strange-in-a-good-way gothy girl who apparently holds Japanese classes around here was all gothy and strange, but in a good way. Loved her hat.
I apparently missed the first party, when people were doing little cultural presentations (among those, my tutor and 9 other Japanese doing some kind of a dance), and I passed on the fourth party, the one in the Russians' room where they started moving when we were being kicked out from the third party.
Tomorrow I'll oversleep intentionally, I think, and stay later in the lab. Not hurrying anywhere tomorrow. So, that's what I'll do. Yep, that's the plan. Uh-huh. Oversleep.
If I can.
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