Business

I am busy.

I will first admit that the primary reason that I am busy is because I’m attempting to balance a social life in with my academic life and future preparations.

Now I will relate to you, faithful reader, some of what I’m busy with:

1.)  A paper on something about Connectionism and Language Learning (12-15pages)
2.)  Reading and an assignment/paper for my Language Attitudes class, every Tuesday and Thursday.
3.)  Reading for my East Asian Cinema class, every Monday and Wednesday.
4.)  Compiling a linguistic description of the Korean spoken language.
5.)  Preparatory work for my Public Speaking class, which sometimes involves rehearsing speeches.
6.)  Doing paperwork, talking to various people, and running around trying to get my credits from Keio University approved and accepted into my William and Mary transcript and graduation credit total.
7.)  Trying to do ground work for my Language Attitudes Research Project.
8.)  Finding out how to apply, and applying to English Teaching Abroad programs like JET.
9.)  Working 10-20 hours a week as a keyholder (supervisory position) at the candy shop.
10.)  Trying to get letters of recommendation for various applications.
11.)  Figuring out how to get certified for TEFL/TESL/TESOL.
12.)  Buying groceries, cooking, eating.
13.)  Keeping myself clothed with clean clothes.
14.)  Keeping my living environment somewhat clean and orderly.
15.)  Trying to maintain friendships.
16.)  Trying to maintain active participation in extra curricular groups like FASA, ASC, and JCA.
17.)  Occasionally I sleep.

USA vs. Japan

In my retrospective lens I see myself liking the USA a lot more than Japan.  My experience was very skewed by being more or less stuck in Tokyo for my entire time there.  Lack of free time and funding prevented me from getting outside of the greater Tokyo area.  Tokyo is amazing, don’t get me wrong.  I’d love to return, just not for longer than a week or two.  I already miss Japanese food and service, but I loved the fresh air when I got back home so much that I forgot about those things pretty fast.

My experience in Japan would’ve been a lot better if I hadn’t been so far separated from my friends there.  I really didn’t appreciate how far apart the Keio international housing was from each other… I really wasn’t expecting that before I left.

It was really nice in Japan how everyone in public minds their own business for the most part, despite the occasional trouble that can cause.  I felt like I had my privacy even on crowded streets and trains.  I miss the trains too… It would be so much better in the US if we had public transit like Japan.  Come on mass rail!

Tinea Versicolor

My new self-diagnosis is not eczema but Tinea Versicolor.  It fits the symptoms much much better.  Apparently it’s easily treatable with some selson-blue like creams or antifungal stuff.  Woohoo!  Maybe this will be totally gone in a month!

Fuji-san: Check.

That’s one of those lifetime accomplishments.  It took about 12 hours of hiking, a range of feelings such as lack of oxygen, freezing temperature, biting winds, waiting in line for slow people to reach the summit, massive amounts of dust, walking through clouds, getting scorched by the sun, seeing a sunrise I can’t even describe at the same time as the stars and moon were still bright in the sky, and being so exhausted I could barely move.

But it’s DONE BITCH! WOOHOOO.

P.S. Not Volcanoes are better than Volcanoes.

True Evil

That’s the meaning of the kanji I chose the other day for my name. I realized that I can write them both from memory because they’re elementary level. My name in japanese is pronounced maaku. The kanji are 真悪. The first is ma, the second is aku. The most literal translation is in fact true evil.

Update wise: Monday I went to the theme park at Tokyo dome with one of my conversation partners named Mariko. We bought free-ride passes and rode all the rides, some multiple times. After that we went to Shibuya and ate at an awesome izakaya and had a couple drinks. Eventually went our separate ways at shibuya.

Tuesday I went to Minato Mirai yet again, this time for a dinner with my language class. It ended up just being Santos, Balkis, Jera, her boyfriend, and me. But we had a great 90 minute buffet dinner for 20 bucks and enjoyed our selves quite a lot. After that I hung around the lounge of the dorm chatting with Willing folks for a few hours.

Today I had what’s probably my last meeting with my conversation partners. We went to Ginza, had sashimi don or something to that effect which was delicious. Then went to a fun toy shop down the road. Eventually we took a train to Asakusa and walked around the popular tourist spot. I bought some souvineers that I thought were pretty worthwhile. Sad to say goodbye to these folks so instead we said, see ya later, except in Japanese.

Tomorrow is the Willing dorm party at Tamagawa, which has been opened up to anyone who wants to come. Should be fun. Maybe I won’t spend so much money tomorrow… that would be good.

Dr. Horrible

OMG New Joss Whedon Musical.

By the time you read this it probably won’t be free anyone, but OMG it’s amazing.

www.drhorrible.com

p.s. I <3 Joss Whedon Musicals

Been A while

Well I guess I got a bit caught up in exams and such.

The past few days have been a lot of fun, since I finished school.  Two days ago I went to a place called Kouenji, it was pretty nice, quiet, and full of really good looking restaurants, without so many extremely tall buildings.  There I tried a pretty good peach flavored alcohol drink.  Yesterday I had Mr Donut donuts (macha “green tea” flavor) for the first time, had some iced coffee with soy milk at a really nice cafe nearby, then went to a wonderful Choral Performance at the Tokyo Opera House.  After that Jannis, his girlfriend Yuko and I went to a really great Indian restaurant in Shibuya.  From there we went to do Karaoke (on Saturday night… a time I would avoid if possible).  It was however an incredibly good time.

Today I met up with my conversation partners, for a not quite last time (hopefully).  I had a message from Jin who usually organizes it that involved something with a coven of witches.  So I didn’t really know what that was about, and still don’t clearly… unfortunately we didn’t meet up with the coven, maybe they’re in China right now?  I’m not sure.  Anyway we met at Shibuya and ate at a good but expensive cafe called Cheesecake Cafe or something of that sort.  I had a really amazing salad and a tiny pudding for breakfast there :-D  After that we chatted for a long while and eventually Jin and I went to Minato Mirai for the Fireworks show that they put on there this time every year.  We went to a building there on the floor of some japanese language school I think called IUC.  I don’t know what it stands for though.  Anyway it was a few floors above the ground maybe 5-6 so we had a wonderful view from the outside balcony.  It’s similar to the view from Odaiba except from the other side of Rainbow Bridge.  The fireworks were spectacular.  After that we fought the masses and returned to Shibuya, and I came back to Sancha.  I tried some Gobou, which is apparently burdock root.  It’s interesting, but I think the ones I bought were a little moldy so I did not eat them all.  Now I will eat for the 2nd time today (seriously eat) my last pouch of curry with my last bit of rice.

Daikanyama

So I went for a walk on one of the promenades in Setagaya heading towards Shibuya.  Instead of going all the way to Shibuya I took a turn down a road that led me into a place called Daikanyama.  I soon realized that Daikanyama is the posh-posh shiek-freak cafe+designer anything part of Tokyo.  So that was briefly entertaining… I also passed by the Malaysian and Egyptian embassies.  I also ran across a Lebanese restaurant called “My Lebanon” Which is exciting because I havn’t seen a Lebanese place here up until now.  I will probably try it before I leave.  Then I walked into Ebisu and explored a bit more, then walked up to the Garden Place and sat for a bit on the terrace there, they had little pin-wheels set up in the flower planters.  It was really nice.  I’ve decided that I really like Ebisu.

New monitor!

Haha okay, well I bought a new monitor for 5000 yen in Akihabara at a store called First Point.　　I’ll post some pictures later on.

More on Monitor

Ok, the TV was a bust.  It makes my eyes hurt like no other.  So I guess I’ll go to Akiba and see if I can find a cheap monitor for under 50 bucks or so.  I’ll go blind in 2 days using the TV.