The Lesser of Two Blogs

So wow it's been such a long time since I've updated my blog. So much has happened but I know that probably like me you don't really want to read some really long entry because then you'll just get all tired of my awful writing tone.

So first thing there was a school festival. If you've ever seen a high school anime then you have the general idea of what that was like. Quote of the weekend “A war begins tomorrow.”

Next weekend was Halloween. It was very interesting how many Japanese people got into the spirit.

Then some nothings happened for a while.

Then we went to some Japanese shrines which was pretty cool. We saw the biggest Buddha in the world. It was soooooo big.

The next day we went to Tokyo which was awesome! There are so many cool things to do there, and if you're a foreigner and you know some Japanese they love you there. If you have any questions about all that please feel free to leave them.

Why Must This Be a Blog in Love?

Well I haven't updated in some time because I was busy. Things have happen since I last updated, but I don't really remember everything that happen. I went to Oorai, learned more about my phone, and learn more interesting things about Japan, but in all the hustle and bustle of doing things, I have no idea what really went on.

So all of that isn't why I signed on today. I signed on because today I've been spending a lot of time online and learning about frustrations of living in another country in terms of prices and product availability.

So I'll start off with this. There are certain TV shows in the US, such as It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, that I am unable to watch while I'm here in Japan even though I really want to. Now this seems only natural. I'm in a different country, and they have different things on TV. The thing that is somewhat frustrating though, is that these programs are available on the web on site such as www.hulu.com. It seems as though I should be able to enjoy some quality programing, but no, I cannot because of region blocking. Basically the idea is that at least for TV shows the rights to distribute them in different regions is sold off to foreign companies that can translate them for the native people. Well that sounds nice, but I don't need translation; I am an American. Over the past few week however I've come to accept this as an inevitability of business and capitalism and all those great things we are told to love in America, and very well we should because without those things, a lot of what we have wouldn't be possible.

So after this I learn of another streaming site that just launch for anime at www.crunchyroll.com. This site not only allows free streaming, but also puts money in the pockets of people who make and translate anime. Pretty awesome stuff right there. So I thought I'd check it out. Well turns out, as a person in Japan, all I can do is participate in the forum. Now what's the point really. Oh no people who already have access to it can watch it in a foreign language.

So I decided to look for legitimate means to watch some in Japan. Now as the country of origin, it would make sense that it would be the place to find the stuff for the lowest price. Actually, no. So for example, I could buy a whole season of School Rumble in the US for around $60. So for 26 episodes, that's around $2.31 per episode. That's not great, but not bad considering it's probably something you haven't watch much before you buy it, and can't watch on TV. So let's compare this to Japan's pricing in the native country. One volume of the show in Japan, which is 3 episode, costs 6,000 yen or about $60. That's right. For the price of the whole season in the US, you can buy 3 episodes in the native country. WTF? That's $20 per episode. Now why can this happen? DVD regions. So what does this tell me? These are free market practices that destroy the ideology of capitalism. The idea is that the free market will allows for the most efficient use of resources, but the free market isn't free, not when companies can do things like this which prevent me, the consumer from paying a fair, competitive price for what I want. There are some things that it makes sense are expensive, like fruit, but DVDs with programs made in Japan shouldn't be that much more expensive.

I'm tired of watching the world waste it's resources on “the free market.”

DISCLAIMER: Any future company that disagrees with this speech can gladly disregard it. I do have a certain amount of moral flexibility, and I would gladly disregard this for a great job. Please let me know where to submit my application.

Xmas Blog

Well it isn't Xmas, but it sure feels like it.

Short break from that thought though. I thought it would be a good idea to let you know that I did survive the Typhoon. I figure most of the people who read my blog would have figured that out by now. So once again that's all I really signed on for.

Of course that was a lie. Today I got a Japanese cell phone. Now when you see a Japanese cellphone you might be tempted to think “Well that's a piece of crap.” Now that's not necessarily true. I got a pay as you go phone. This phone looks cheap, like a basic flip phone with a crappy camera. So as I'm getting the phone, which looks kind of big I learn things about it. It has unlimited e-mailing for only $3 a month. If I want to pay out the rear I can use the Internet. Oh also it has a TV built in. That's right. A TV. I get eight channels for free on my phone, and the image comes in wide screen. Oh also right after that I learned something else. Japanese cell phones can do video calling. So when in America we're all like “The Jetsons lied to us” it's really more like American companies don't want to do that.

So yeah all this totally blew me away because this is a cheap Japanese cellphone. So I get the phone and I start playing with it in the car. It has a MicroSD slot, which I can use to upload music, and then I can use that music as ring tones. That's right. In Japan they don't make you re-buy music as a ringtone (or convert it to the right format on your computer) you can just use what you have. I thought this was so cool, but really I shouldn't because this should be how things are in America too. Anyway the phone also has a currency converter, and metric to standard converter. I can send all my contact info to other people via infrared or bluetooth. New phones even have this mode that allows the phones to just be touched together to send the info. It also has a Japanese to English dictionary. It can also record live TV. All of this is included with the phone.

Point is, we need this stuff in America and we need it now.

Oh also I got a Famicom. You should know what that is.

A Head in the Blogs

Today I found out that a Typhoon is headed towards the city I am in. I figured it would be good to let people know ahead of time so they could be prepared in case I die in some sort for falling tree accident, well that is unless you don’t check my blog everyday. Then you won’t have anytime to grieve. In that case though I don’t really care that you have no time to grieve ‘cause you’re a jerk for not reading my magnificent blog.

So that’s pretty much all I had to say. I wasn’t really planning on writing another blog quite yet, so I’m kind of getting ahead of schedule. Since I already am writing, I supposed I’d better give you a little more.

So today I had to pick up my certificate of alien registration, which actually is more like a card, but I suppose that’s just being technical. I was worried about not having enough time to pick up the card since I had to travel to city hall to pick it up. It turned out not to be that big of a deal, and I was able to have a little extra time for a short adventure.

The first thing I did was go out for a little electronics shopping. I say this extremely small flash drive one of my friends here had picked up and I wanted one. I went to the store, found it, struggled to find where to pay for it, and then was off. I now realize though that I didn’t find what I thought I had so now I have to go back and either exchange or return it.

After that I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. I ended up decided to risk being late for class to get a change to try some very interesting food at this place called McDonald’s. I ended up deciding to order a Quarter Pounder with cheese. Do you know what they call a Quarter Pounder with cheese in Japan?......They call it a fricking Quarter Pounder with cheese because they are clearly less stuck up than the French. Seriously, Royale with cheese, what the heck is that? So anyway I had heard from one of my friends who had eaten there that Japanese McDonald’s was weird and not as good. Now I don’t often eat at McDonald’s in America because I don’t like it, but this burger was freaking delicious. There were fresh onions on the burger. All the condiments were in the perfect amount. Historically I don’t like cheese, mustard, or pickles, but they all went perfectly on that sandwich. The sides were also correctly sized. It occurs to me at this point that this should be a “Tom! Don’t Eat That!”, so now it is. Bottom Line readers, if you come to Japan, you have to try McDonald’s, it’s a piece of home done just a little better.

Also I got some McDonald’s Pictures you might find interesting. The head is like the Japanese mascot of McDonald’s or something. There also some pictures of what my food came in. I ate it before I got the camera out. Maybe next time you’ll get some food pictures.

Blog, Begin Again

Well I think things kind of got off on the wrong foot. Originally this blog was supposed to tell about my time in Japan in a fun and interesting way and have several reoccurring segments. That hasn't really worked out, what with all the drinking debauchery and stuff. I should add though that going out for drinks doesn't usually mean getting drunk though or even anywhere on the drunk scale. Anyway I was hoping since it's a Fresh new month, maybe we could just start over fresh, and maybe I can fulfill some of those original promises.

Or maybe I can't. Hey I'm not a miracle worker.

So basically this week I did some stuff. I don't quite remember all of it because let me tell you it was a lot. First thing kind of worth mentioning I guess is that I bought a manga that I can try to read. Only problem is that I hardly no any of the Japanese in the manga, so I'll have to learn a lot if I want to be able to read it in Japanese. I also started eating in the cafeteria this week. Cafeteria food here is pretty good and is kinda making me hungry because I haven't had time for lunch yet. So really I should add one last small fact from the week here, so I'll say that classes started this week so I'll be getting a lot busier.

Along those lines too, work started this week. I can't really say what it'll be like yet, mostly because I've done one our of EC with one group of people so far. ….And I just realized I didn't let you what I do for work yet. Dang it! I'm like the worst blogger ever. “Hey Phil think you can tell me about what you're up to.” “Why sure. Just let me leave out tons of important details.” Frick. Well anyway basically I get paid to talk with Japanese people in English. One time a week I do at a high school, and I also TA. EC stands for English Connections and TA stands for teacher assistant, in case you didn't know for whatever reason. Anyway the one session I had went pretty well other than the fact a couple of the guys were pretty shy and didn't want to talk in English. I prevented them from speaking Japanese as much as possible. Hopefully I get my cellphone soon so I can keep in better contact with people.

So OK. Lessee after that we went to this place called The Drunken Duck with this guy who was a Tokiwa student from a few years ago who's working here now. Funny story, turns out we had Japanese together back when I was in high school. Anyway that night was pretty fun. Some people had kangaroo, but I didn't get to try it because I wasn't hungry. Though I kind of wish I had now. I mean about often do you get to try something like that. Well....I suppose the next time I go I'll have that chance, but that isn't really the point. Anyway after some earring and make-up incidents and some generally embarrassing stuff for some people, we left. It was a pretty fun night of responsible fun on the part of most people who went.

So finally we are at yesterday, which is Saturday. Or was it Saturday? I suppose it'll always be ^a^ Saturday. (I'm trying to used the ^ to show emphasis. Usually I use caps but I decided to try this for some reason) Anyway the point is that I'm pretty sure I can remember Saturday because it just happened. So they day started around noon when we had to go to the Mito International Center for a culture party. I wasn't sure how it was going to be, but it ended up being pretty fun. The Japanese people like my handwriting. I was surprised at some people ability to speak English. I had really good tea, and sore knees from seiza. I also won a fan, which hopefully gets pictured here.
I also played with this Japanese traditional toy that I'm too lazy to remember the name of. It ended up being pretty fun.
So after that we ended up going to 水戸駅 (Mito Eki or Mito Station) to meet Zaren so we could go to the 花火大会 (Hanabi Taikai). I'm pretty sure that's what it was called anyway. Basically it means fireworks big gathering. Hanabi mean fireworks (or really it means flower flame), and the taikai in this case we were told are usually competitions, so we got so see some really amazing fireworks, which should be pictured and videoed here. (The video isn't working or is just taking too long to upload so scratch that part) It was a lot of fun. I had お好み焼 (okonomiyaki), which means “grilled thing that I like (or want).” It ended up not turning out too well, but hey, it was food. So basically watching this show wasn't at all like watching fire works in America. In America, fireworks are spaced apart so it's like “Boom..............boom” and then a big finish. Here almost every segment was a big finish so the whole two and a half hours were interesting. There also seems to be much more fireworks shaped like things. There were so many fireworks that ash was falling from the sky and once landed in my eye. Firework debris also landed next to us. It was all pretty crazy. One time a firework went wrong and hit the ground very close to us. It was a little scary. After it was over we took the bus back to the train station, and rode the train an hour home. I guess I forgot to mention that we took the train originally to get there proving how bad of a storyteller I am once again. So by the time I got home I had been on my feet for almost 11 hours, not counting the time I “got” to sit in seiza during the tea ceremony.

So I think that's mostly it. I probably left some stuff out, but I suppose you can always comment questions about them.

I Blog That Emotion

And that emotion is awesomeness. Some people might claim that awesomeness isn't an emotion , but I beg to differ.

Anyway so Monday was a day of great coolness and whatnot. I woke up very tired because I had to stay up late preparing for the high school visit that we had yesterday. Normally when this happens I'm able to refresh myself with a nice shower. However this time my roommate was using the shower, and I didn't have time to take one after him. I ended up having to go to class completely out of it. The upside is that even though I was falling asleep, I was able to still display enough knowledge that the teacher was satisfied. So clearly once class was over I went to go sleep.

So now I woke up, and it was time to finish preparing for the high school visit, which I dreaded more and more as it drew nearer and nearer. Desperately I created cards for pictures. I thought about what I wanted to say. I wondered if I had done enough.

Finally it was time to go. Everyone got in the bus, all feeling very nervous. The journey to the high school seemed to take forever, yet it was still not long enough. We got there, and with almost no instruction, we were sent off to the classrooms. For the first 10 minutes of class, I didn't have anyone there who spoke English, and, due to lack of instruction and Japanese skills, I didn't know how to get started. Eventually though, Dr. Otsu showed up and help me get started, and once we got started, it was a lot of fun. We played Pictionary and telephone. Pictionary was OK; Japanese people are very good at drawing. Telephone was a little more fun because it was interesting to see what they would come back with. For the second class we did, the students understood English better, and I had another exchange student with me. The downside however was that the teacher I was paired with this time was more strict and that made things harder in a sense. The whole experience was a lot of fun, and the only downside was I wasn't able to take a picture with either class.

After we got back to campus, some of us went to work out. The gym here is pretty weak, but it's better than nothing. It was really nice to finally be able to get some exercise. Afterwords I felt great, but I was also hungry, so I made pasta. For the first time since I came here, the sauce came out right. I ended up making so much food that I had to share it with twice as many people as I had planned. It was probably good in the end though because I might get food in return.

So basically at this point I was ready to write my blog about how awesome the day was, but I didn't have time. I instead went to see if one of the other students needed help with her homework, and I ran into Aimi. I ended up talking to her about various things like anime, American vs. Japanese culture, and Japanese language for like three hours. It was a lot of fun that it just added the the awesomeness of the day. The downside was that I ended up staying up late again, but it turned out not to be a problem today for some reason.

So point is that I had one awesome day.

Phillip and the Blog Factory

Well here I am. Pushing out blog after blog after blog. I think the real question at this point is “Is this getting boring, tiring, or none of the above. With my editor, me and I don't know why I'm allowed to call myself that because I'm sure you've realized by some of my more recent blog posts I rarely proofread my work, breathing down my neck telling me another blog must go out, I wonder is it really worth it and still fascinating to the reader.

Anyway I last left off in my talking about how I almost got myself lost in Mito. So let's try to remember what happen next. Uh....Well I believe that night went to Bou's to celebrate a friends birthday. Originally we were going to go to nomihodai, but it was more expensive because it was a holiday. Actually now that I think about it, we were gonna go to nomihodai the next night and went to Bou's instead for that reason. Point is on those nights I went out and met some new Japanese people, expanding my horizons beyond the few that I'd previously met. Also over the past few days I learned never trust Seiko because she's a trickster. Anyway both nights were a lot of fun. We drank we laughed, my wallet emptied even more.

I think Thursday we went out for ramen again, which was awesome as always. Sometimes a good bowl of ramen just hits the spot. This is the night we learned how incredibly easy it is to get N flustered. After the ramen we decided to take a gander inside a Japanese book store called Book-Ace. There we encountered all kinds of wondrous purchasables. There were tons of movies, most of them for rent, books, used video games, cell phones, CDs, magazines, and so on in that fashion. I could not spend enough time in the store nor could I leave without purchasing a cheap game, which even though it all happens to fast for me to read I think it is actually helping my Japanese.

Let's see I guess that really just leaves last night. We went out to Bandoutarou's, and I got myself Gekikaramisonikomiudon and ordered it all by myself, after the Japanese people taught me out to read the Kanji. After a few of us, including me, returned to the dorm while the others went shopping at Kasumi. After some time it was 11:30 and my friend decided he wanted the American version of The Ring because like the bad storyteller I am I left out that we had watched the Japanese one earlier in the week. So we made a mad dash for Book-Ace and managed to get there with time to spare. After that we got back to the dorms and after much talked it was decided to watch the American version of The Ring, which I didn't really feel like watching. So I didn't. I went back to my room and watched part of Amelie instead, which was nice.

So what have I left out of this tale you ask? Elite Beat Agents. I got this game almost two years ago now, and I've been playing it on and off since then. Right now I'm in one of those on stages where I'd actually kind of like to at least unlock the hardest difficulty. So a couple days ago I got to the last song, and I can't seem to beat it. I can get pretty close though which is always frustrating. Anyway after this blog is up I might be back to trying to beat that.

Until next time remaining readers.