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.
Showing posts with label party. Show all posts
Showing posts with label party. Show all posts
2008-10-21
2008-10-16
B(l)ogged down
So people are asking me, where's the blag? I want the next text!
The thing is, there are two reasons for that.
The first reason is that nothing particularly noteworthy is happening. I always hated writing a journal, and this is exactly why: as soon as you settle in some kind of routine, every page starts to look the same. I got up, went to work, ate some lunch, got back, ate dinner, messed around with my computer, shut down for the night. Not fun, people. Not fun.
So, I'm slowly getting into a routine, a large part of which is going to the Uni. It usually takes me an hour to get there, and an hour to get back. While home, I tend to take long showers. It also takes time to delete all the bacn (Gmail solves spam quite well, so that's fine). I might grab fifteen minutes to (try to) read Death Note, with clarifications courtesy of One Manga. Starting from next week, my most likely daily language classes will probably be held every day. I've also grown quite attached to eating at least twice a day, and at least one of those is usually in cafeteria, which is, usually, nothing to write home about. (There will be a photo or three now and then, though.) And finally, what goes in needs to go out as well. (And I bet you knew most of that, so writing this out was not really necessary.)
This brings me to my second reason for not writing more often: I don't have the time or energy to write a blog post. Today I've already reconciled with the fact that I will be late to the lab, even though I don't think anyone's watching (or if they are, they're keeping their complaints politely to themselves, in a typically Japanese fashion), so that's how come you're reading this. I really should learn to write shorter posts.
Now on to other concerns.
My current top two worries: spending all my money too fast, and not finding time to wash my clothes.
The latter is kind of related to my scheduling problem described above (although, writing a blog post fits rather well into the 40 or so minutes the clothes are being washed and the 20 more that they spend in a spin-drier). As for the former, partly it's my own fault (okay, let's say mostly, and be done with it): there is a lot of really cool stuff here that is much cheaper than at home. This mostly concerns consumer electronics. So, having come to Japan without a single circuit on me (umm, okay, there was a clunky old MP3 player), I started outfitting myself with various cyberbits and technopieces, and BicCamera (and, in one already described instance, Yodobashi) were gracious enough to help me. Partly, it's that everything else (except soy sauce) is so much more expensive here.
I would really love to hear an explanation from the Japanese people who used to tell me Japan was cheaper than Croatia. Restaurants are, maybe, but that has less to do with Japanese restaurants being cheap than with Croatian restaurants being inordinately expensive. But other things...
Yesterday the lab held its own welcome party. And in contrast to other welcome parties I've seen here (which is, admittedly, one), this one looked like a typical Japanese post-work outing. (And notice that, this not yet being a part of my routine, gets blog space.)
For starters, we went to a restaurant. It was a rather nice Chinese restaurant somewhere past Ueno (was it Okachimachi? I can't remember). There was so many of us that we pretty much filled that floor. It is a Chinese restaurant, but it's in Japan, and is thus spaced accordingly. The fact that there was about thirty of us did not help matters. The restaurant people kept bringing us food; they would typically bring one smallish plate per about eight people, but I'll be damned if there weren't at least ten different courses, so we ate our fill. I must admit (and I'm sorry if the lab people, or the Chinese read this), I wasn't too impressed with some of them; but there was a couple I could have wolfed down all by myself, they were that Yummy. The drinks kept flowing (more or less; I'll leave the explanation for another time), some people stumbled on their self-introduction, but it was all in good fun.
Until it came time for the bill. I was really happy and grateful that they decided that only the senior members pay, because it came to about ¥5000 per person. It might not look much, but it adds up. Shopping and public transport aside, I usually don't spend more than ¥2000 a day. So that was a "gulp" moment there.
After that, about half the people decided to go for nijikai (Second Party, or as one online dictionary puts it, "first after-party party"), which is quite a common thing in Japan. We stood around in front of the restaurant for about ten minutes while the group self-organised into a decision to go for karaoke. Then it took fifteen more minutes to cross the fifty metres from the restaurant to the big karaoke bar nearby.
We booked a largish room, so that all fifteen or so of us could fit in. I've never been in a karaoke bar, either a western or a Japanese one, but I should point out a very significant difference: in Japan, every group has their own room. It's like a little hotel, with very sound-proof walls (unlike most other places in Japan - for instance, my dorm, which featured rhythmic thumping performance when I got back; your guess is as good as mine, and mine is pretty good). You get a huge (huge!) book with the menu of available songs (oh, more about "menus" later). It looks like a phone book. Hefty is a good word. We actually had two, one was for gaijin, featuring stuff from Sinatra and Carpenters to Pink and Slipkot, with a lot of "who-the-hell-is-he"s thrown in. There is a huge (huge!) remote control (hefty!) which you can use to select a song ("70919"), and it must have plenty of other uses as well, but I saw only one of them utilised: a girl raised the song by a note or two so it's easier to sing. Some people could really sing, some people really couldn't, but everyone earned a democratic and warm-hearted applause.
The downsides: drinks start from around ¥500, I don't drink, and the bill is split equally. This usually means that, if I care to repeat the experience, I'm screwed. It might be that we were in an expensive place, I don't know, but the bill came out to about ¥30000, so they even reconsidered and had us newbies pay ¥2000 each. I totally don't blame them. Anyway, good fun was had by all (except by this one guy who slept through any decibels we managed to throw his way), but I probably won't want to repeat it that soon.
After we got out, the three of us who lived basically in the same place (another guy who lives in my dorm, and my tutor, whose not-quite-next-door-dorm I've already written about) had about three minutes to catch the last train. We managed it, then things got a bit anxious again when there was a sick person on the train and we ran a couple of minutes late, but apparently the last Inokashira train actually waits for the last Yamanote train, so we managed the connection as well, and came back home safe and sound.
The thing is, there are two reasons for that.
The first reason is that nothing particularly noteworthy is happening. I always hated writing a journal, and this is exactly why: as soon as you settle in some kind of routine, every page starts to look the same. I got up, went to work, ate some lunch, got back, ate dinner, messed around with my computer, shut down for the night. Not fun, people. Not fun.
So, I'm slowly getting into a routine, a large part of which is going to the Uni. It usually takes me an hour to get there, and an hour to get back. While home, I tend to take long showers. It also takes time to delete all the bacn (Gmail solves spam quite well, so that's fine). I might grab fifteen minutes to (try to) read Death Note, with clarifications courtesy of One Manga. Starting from next week, my most likely daily language classes will probably be held every day. I've also grown quite attached to eating at least twice a day, and at least one of those is usually in cafeteria, which is, usually, nothing to write home about. (There will be a photo or three now and then, though.) And finally, what goes in needs to go out as well. (And I bet you knew most of that, so writing this out was not really necessary.)
This brings me to my second reason for not writing more often: I don't have the time or energy to write a blog post. Today I've already reconciled with the fact that I will be late to the lab, even though I don't think anyone's watching (or if they are, they're keeping their complaints politely to themselves, in a typically Japanese fashion), so that's how come you're reading this. I really should learn to write shorter posts.
Now on to other concerns.
My current top two worries: spending all my money too fast, and not finding time to wash my clothes.
The latter is kind of related to my scheduling problem described above (although, writing a blog post fits rather well into the 40 or so minutes the clothes are being washed and the 20 more that they spend in a spin-drier). As for the former, partly it's my own fault (okay, let's say mostly, and be done with it): there is a lot of really cool stuff here that is much cheaper than at home. This mostly concerns consumer electronics. So, having come to Japan without a single circuit on me (umm, okay, there was a clunky old MP3 player), I started outfitting myself with various cyberbits and technopieces, and BicCamera (and, in one already described instance, Yodobashi) were gracious enough to help me. Partly, it's that everything else (except soy sauce) is so much more expensive here.
I would really love to hear an explanation from the Japanese people who used to tell me Japan was cheaper than Croatia. Restaurants are, maybe, but that has less to do with Japanese restaurants being cheap than with Croatian restaurants being inordinately expensive. But other things...
Yesterday the lab held its own welcome party. And in contrast to other welcome parties I've seen here (which is, admittedly, one), this one looked like a typical Japanese post-work outing. (And notice that, this not yet being a part of my routine, gets blog space.)
For starters, we went to a restaurant. It was a rather nice Chinese restaurant somewhere past Ueno (was it Okachimachi? I can't remember). There was so many of us that we pretty much filled that floor. It is a Chinese restaurant, but it's in Japan, and is thus spaced accordingly. The fact that there was about thirty of us did not help matters. The restaurant people kept bringing us food; they would typically bring one smallish plate per about eight people, but I'll be damned if there weren't at least ten different courses, so we ate our fill. I must admit (and I'm sorry if the lab people, or the Chinese read this), I wasn't too impressed with some of them; but there was a couple I could have wolfed down all by myself, they were that Yummy. The drinks kept flowing (more or less; I'll leave the explanation for another time), some people stumbled on their self-introduction, but it was all in good fun.
Until it came time for the bill. I was really happy and grateful that they decided that only the senior members pay, because it came to about ¥5000 per person. It might not look much, but it adds up. Shopping and public transport aside, I usually don't spend more than ¥2000 a day. So that was a "gulp" moment there.
After that, about half the people decided to go for nijikai (Second Party, or as one online dictionary puts it, "first after-party party"), which is quite a common thing in Japan. We stood around in front of the restaurant for about ten minutes while the group self-organised into a decision to go for karaoke. Then it took fifteen more minutes to cross the fifty metres from the restaurant to the big karaoke bar nearby.
We booked a largish room, so that all fifteen or so of us could fit in. I've never been in a karaoke bar, either a western or a Japanese one, but I should point out a very significant difference: in Japan, every group has their own room. It's like a little hotel, with very sound-proof walls (unlike most other places in Japan - for instance, my dorm, which featured rhythmic thumping performance when I got back; your guess is as good as mine, and mine is pretty good). You get a huge (huge!) book with the menu of available songs (oh, more about "menus" later). It looks like a phone book. Hefty is a good word. We actually had two, one was for gaijin, featuring stuff from Sinatra and Carpenters to Pink and Slipkot, with a lot of "who-the-hell-is-he"s thrown in. There is a huge (huge!) remote control (hefty!) which you can use to select a song ("70919"), and it must have plenty of other uses as well, but I saw only one of them utilised: a girl raised the song by a note or two so it's easier to sing. Some people could really sing, some people really couldn't, but everyone earned a democratic and warm-hearted applause.
The downsides: drinks start from around ¥500, I don't drink, and the bill is split equally. This usually means that, if I care to repeat the experience, I'm screwed. It might be that we were in an expensive place, I don't know, but the bill came out to about ¥30000, so they even reconsidered and had us newbies pay ¥2000 each. I totally don't blame them. Anyway, good fun was had by all (except by this one guy who slept through any decibels we managed to throw his way), but I probably won't want to repeat it that soon.
After we got out, the three of us who lived basically in the same place (another guy who lives in my dorm, and my tutor, whose not-quite-next-door-dorm I've already written about) had about three minutes to catch the last train. We managed it, then things got a bit anxious again when there was a sick person on the train and we ran a couple of minutes late, but apparently the last Inokashira train actually waits for the last Yamanote train, so we managed the connection as well, and came back home safe and sound.
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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