Stories

I went to another concert last week! Monkey Majik!!! I mentioned them in an earlier post when I saw them on stage at a same event as AI, Nishino Kana, and Naota Somethingsomething. Anyway, great concert! I knew all but 4 or 5 of the songs (out of a total of about 20). They played my favorites like Change, Together, ただ、ありがとう, fly, Around the World, Headlight, and others. Fantastic. I ended up buying a towel and three CDs. I’ve become a 大ファン (big fan)! Unfortunately, it will be their last concert in Zepp Sendai, as the building (and that whole area) will be demolished and renovated (or something). And their next concert in Sendai is sold out, so I definitely won’t be seeing them for a while. Still, though, I’m happy to have been able to do so.

This past weekend was cool, too. I was an extra in a movie! The movie is called じんじん “Jin Jin,” and is being filmed in Matsushima. It’s apparently the first movie to have been filmed there since the Earthquake and Tsunami disaster last year. I don’t know what the movie is about, but from what I could tell, one of the main characters is either an actor or a stage performer. In the scene I’m in, the actor is on stage and telling some folk tale or other story while we in the audience are laughing boisterously. The camera panned across the audience and stopped when my friend and I are in the center of the shot. It’ll be funny to see myself in a movie theater when it comes out next summer. My friends and I also provided canned laughter. That’s amusing.

I FINALLY started watching Firefly! A friend of mine (who reads this blog; thank you!) recommended it to me years ago. Anyway, I’m watching it with two other friends, now. Very fun. I love the female characters; they’re all so unique and so amazing. I’m trying to juggle it with Game of Thrones, which I just started watching after having caught up with The Walking Dead. The fifth season of Breaking Bad will start next month; really looking forward to that. On the anime/manga front, I need to catch up on Naruto episodes and get on with Full Metal Alchemist. And my brother suggested reading the Walking Dead comics. Too much to watch/read, not enough time!

Lastly, it’s story time! It’s been a while since I’ve shared a story with you all. I found this in a Jr. High 3^rd Year English textbook called “One World.” I wonder if it was written for the ALTs or to improve student-ALT relations. Either way, I wish something like this was present in every English textbook.

On Your Graduation Day

     You all have a big future ahead of you.  My message on this special day is this:  Take your time before you make a judgment.

     Before I came to Japan, people gave me some advice.  Some people in my country said, “Japanese people are very shy.”  Others said, “Japanese people will never open their minds to a non-Japanese person.”

     Soon I started to think those pieces of advice were more or less true.  Of course, you greeted me every morning, but when I asked you a question in class, often no one said anything.  “Japanese students really think silence is golden!” I said to myself.

     A few weeks passed, and you still were silent in class.  I started to have a different idea.  “Maybe they are not shy.  They are just not interested in me.  They are just not interested in English at all!”  This thought depressed me.

     Then we had a school trip to Kamakura.  While we were walking, Aya told me a secret.  At lunchtime Kenta gave me some su-kombu.  He said it was “Japanese chewing gum.”  After that everyone wanted to bring me something Japanese, and you were talking to me in English!

     That was the turning point.  You started to talk to me in class, too, after that.  It made me very happy.  You’re not shy at all; you’re talkative!  At the same time, you have things you want to say.

     When you were silent in class, I wondered about it.  “Maybe they don’t want to talk.”  “Maybe they are not interested in the topic.”  “Maybe they don’t understand me.”  “Maybe they know the answer but don’t know how to say it in English.”

     Also, I was confused when I asked a question and you would turn to your friends and talk to them.  “I am talking to you.  Why don’t you talk to me, not to your friend?” I wanted to say.

     I’m happy now because I didn’t judge too quickly.  You have become students who can try to say something.  I’m happy that you’re trying to communicate with me.  That’s the important thing.  Don’t worry about making mistakes.  Making mistakes helps you make progress.

     Some people make judgments right away.  When they discover that I’m from Australia, they are sure that I am always late.  However, that’s not true.  I am an Australian, but I worry about being late.  I come to school at least thirty minutes before it starts.  I think it depends on the person.

     In conclusion, I believe it’s important not to make judgments about other people too soon.  I am glad I didn’t, because you proved that people’s advice can be wrong.  Now I want each of you to be a person who can respect others without prejudice.  Prejudice is caused by premature judgment.  I hope you’ll be able to enjoy communicating in English with someone different from you.  We are, after all, people living together in one world.

Word of the Day: 話　「はなし」　"hanashi," which means "story."

Lazy Sunday

Happy Mother’s Day! Treat your mothers right, ‘cause you’ve only got one of ‘em! (Yeah yeah, I know, some have more than one. Treat them well, too!)

So where was I? Ah yes, my dreams. I have a ton of dreams. I’ve mentioned the “doctor” dream and the “headmaster of a martial arts academy” dream already. But you may not know that I have other dreams; “closet dreams,” which I shall reveal now.

Acting. Have you ever wanted to be an actor? I was joking with some friends a couple weeks ago about becoming a タレント (“tarento,” or “talent”), which is the name given to TV celebrities who don’t really have any particular talent. But they’re just on TV for the sake of being on TV. Many shows in Japan have people just sitting on the side, occasionally commenting on whatever topic the hosts are talking about.

More and more foreign タレント are appearing on Japanese television, for better or for worse. The good is that Japanese people, especially those who live in the countryside, are getting more exposure to foreign culture. The bad is that sometimes this is the ONLY exposure some Japanese people get to foreigners, so the タレント end up becoming representatives of whatever country from which they come. This is a big problem because people in Japan have a tendency to think “Oh, David Specter said this on TV, and he’s a white American, so that must be what every American thinks.” (Conversely, people in the US are also guilty of this too, for Japanese people, or other foreigners. “He’s Asian? He must use chopsticks.” Etc.)

Anyway, back to the point. My dream isn’t to become a タレント. But I think it would be fun. And I would like to be on Japanese TV one day; ideally as a regular (like a タレント). But my real acting dream is to star in a hit blockbuster action/martial arts movie. I don’t know where I would get my start, though. I was supposed to star as the main villain in a movie that a friend of mine was going to direct, but the project got cancelled. (Actually, not the villain, technically; but rather, the last person whom the protagonist meets, fights, and kills. From the context of the story, though, my character is more of a hero, as he is the victim of the protagonist’s looting.)

My acting experience is minimal. I was an extra in my friend’s short film, “Mixed Drinks,” which is the story of a foreign English teacher who went to a party to meet a friend of his, another foreigner, who had been living in Japan for a few years. The two of them share stories and interact with other foreigners and Japanese at the party, but some drama happens, and the movie ends after a climactic physical argument. The short film serves as social commentary to various issues that occur between foreigners and Japanese people. I’ll post it here, if I can get permission.

I’ve also starred in a short documentary that my friend, a film major, created (directed, edited, filmed). The documentary was about me as a martial artist. I went with the approach of a comparison between traditional karate (using Shotokan Karate as an example) and modern karate (using my American Kenpo Karate as an example). It was really fun to make, and I’m thinking about doing a project like that again, where I delve deeper into the meaning of martial arts, and explain more philosophies and theories. Maybe I’ll make it a series...a YouTube Series…::gears are spinning in my head::..

To be continued…

Word of the Day: 俳優 「はいゆう」 “haiyuu,” which means “actor/actress/performer.”

Lazy Thursday

So here I am, sitting at my desk, on a Thursday morning at the junior high. There were no classes here yesterday. There are none today. And there won’t be any tomorrow. Why, you may ask? Because the first years were on a field trip to Hiraizumi, a town with a famous temple (Chusonji, a World Heritage site), the third years are on a field trip to Tokyo (JEALOUS, I wish I could go!), and the second years are doing job training. Er, not job training…but something like job shadowing. Where they split off into groups and help with work at various stores and such in the area, like hair salons, kindergartens, nursery schools, convenience stores, department stores, etc. So…yeah, no classes for the rest of the week. Yay, that means more time for blog posts and studying Japanese! And…sitting. Lots of sitting. Time to get up and do something.

...Whew! Okay, I’m back. I just did some shadowboxing and freestyle form, karate style and Bruce Lee style. I have been in a martial arts kick lately (see what I did there?). I have been talking to a friend recently who is interested in starting martial arts, and as a result, I’ve looked up a lot of Bruce Lee quotes and other Jeet Kune Do philosophies.

Jeet Kune Do means “Way of the Intercepting Fist.” It is Bruce Lee’s philosophy of martial arts. This philosophy entails a few basic key concepts: that of simplicity, practicality, and disobedience to tradition. With this philosophy in mind, martial arts practitioners should be able to adapt their techniques to a given situation rather than strictly adhere to certain stances or certain ways to throw an attack.

The downfall of traditional styles, according to Bruce Lee, is that the rigidity of the stances and attacks ends up becoming a limitation on the user. Think of it this way: if Guy A knows exactly how Guy B is going to throw an attack, Guy A can easily counter it. This concept was even touched upon in one of my favorite manga series: はじめの一歩 (Hajime no Ippo). The series’ “big, tough guy” Takamura was going for his first world title where he was fighting the champion (Bryan Hawk) who was a master of “unorthodox” style boxing. In other words, he had no set style; he was incredibly wild, and he threw punches from the strangest positions. Conversely, Takamura was well trained, and thus had perfect boxing form and textbook boxing techniques. Unfortunately,  Hawk was able to capitalize on Takamura’s “by the book” style, and he easily countered the attacks. It wasn’t until Takamura started resorting to his pre-boxing, wild gangster-style fighting and animal instincts that the fight started going in his favor.

Anyway, point is, rigidity leads to limitations. Let’s not get too limited by the routine we’ve created for ourselves. (Tomorrow’s blog entry will be a continuation of this one.)

Word of the Day: 無限 「むげん」 “mugen,” or, “infinity.” Literally, it means “no limits.”

Spring is here! Or is it?

Yesterday was 春分の日, also known as the Vernal Equinox. It is the day that marks Spring as having officially arrived. (But in Japan, there was some other day earlier this year that supposedly signified that. I call BS.) For those of you in the US, today is the Vernal Equinox. According to my brother, it's "hot as balls" over there, whereas over here it is pretty damn cold. I woke up this morning to a couple inches of snow on the ground! An annoying surprise. Thankfully, the sun came out a bit and melted some of the snow. Hopefully it'll melt further; slush isn't very safe.

This weekend was pretty nice, pretty busy. I went to the movies on Saturday and saw Time (In Time?). It wasn't groundbreaking, or even great, but I enjoyed it. And it was interesting seeing Justin Timberlake in an almost-action-star role. The few scenes where he gets into a scuffle were cool; but they didn't make too much sense for the character. Why would someone like him be so skilled at taking out multiple guys with weapons? 'Cause he grew up in the ghetto? Eh, I don't buy it. But that's just me nit-picking; those scenes made the movie more exciting.

The movie had a theme of valuing time; not just as their form of currency (tangible value), but also how you make use of what little time you have left. The underlying theme was about class warfare; the 1% benefiting from the expense of the 99%, if you will. "For a few to be immortal, many must die." The movie really made me think about how I've been spending my time, and how I want to spend my time. This brings me to a new hobby:

I just bought an electric guitar! Actually, I got it a few months ago, but I haven't updated my blog in a while, so as far as you guys know, I just got it. It was mad cheap, so it doesn't have the best sound (same can be said with the amp), but it will do for now. I've been learning chords and some simple songs. Eventually, when I get better, I want to replace it with a higher-quality guitar. Perhaps I'll just pick up a decent acoustic guitar rather than replace my electric. That way, I'll have the option to switch between guitars as I switch between playing various genres of music.

Speaking of music, I went to a concert on Sunday! It was a benefit concert for Northeastern Japan. I got to see Monkey Majik perform 6 songs on stage! 5 of which I knew! Monkey Majik is a band based in Sendai (just an hour away!) whose four members are composed of two Japanese guys and two Canadian guys (brothers). One of the Canadian guys was once an ALT, just like I am. After he ended his English teaching job, he started Monkey Majik. After some changing of band members and the introduction of his brother, the band has risen to great success. At the concert, they were the first band to play after the opening act; they got great response (they're arguably one of the most popular musicians in the region).

After Monkey Majik was 西野カナ (Nishino Kana). She is an up and coming pop star; my students bought her album last year when it was released. Mad cute and really popular. Her songs were decent, but I hadn't listened to her before, so I can't say too much. Except that her backup dancers were hottttttt.

There was another guest after her. Naoto something. Some weird name. Really quirky guy. His facial hair/appearance really throws you off for what his personality and singing style would be; basically picture Brad Pitt's character from Fight Club singing like Justin Bieber. Just didn't make sense.

After him was Ai (stylized AI or A.I.), who is a quarter Italian, was born in LA. Really cool, and great artist. I wasn't sure what to expect in terms of what her genre of music was; her poster gave an impression of dance pop (like Koda Kumi), but it was actually hip-hop and R&B. Again, awesome backup dancers; but this time doing hip-hop rather than pop-style dancing.

The equinoxes are holidays in Japan. So, on my day off, I drove an hour and a half to visit a friend, with guitar in tow. He's got mad skill, so he showed me some sweet tricks and techniques that I will be trying out. It was really fun jamming with him, and I got a great idea for a music video project that I want him and another friend to help me with. We grabbed some ramen for lunch and some tapas with two more friends that night. It was too bad that we all have work today, otherwise we could have enjoyed the wine and drink selection. A little pricey, but definitely a good date spot. If only people didn't smoke in places where food was served.

Word of the Day: 異常気象　「いじょうきしょう」　"ijou kishou," which means "abnormal weather."

The December Issue

Unfortunately, I didn't start any blogs in the middle of December and save it for later like I did the November ones. Except for this one, on December 31st, minutes before the end of 2010 and the beginning of 2011. So I'll use this space here to summarize my December activities.

December is a wonderful month; my favorite month of the year. In December are my favorite holiday, long breaks from school or work, a festive atmosphere, shopping sales at nearly every store, opportunities to spend time with friends and family, and my birthday. There are many reasons to love December. But also many reasons to dislike it: it's probably the most expensive month, it has the shortest day of the year (Winter Solstice), and it's when the cold really starts kicking in. But I like to think the good outweighs the bad, so I still like it. Maybe that's the optimist in me speaking.

Anyway, the month was really fun! For my birthday, some of my coworkers and I went out to Sendai to a really nice restaurant. We ate amazingly delicious food, and they surprised me with a cake! Everyone in the restaurant clapped for me; it was so nice. ^_^ I was surprised to see American-style sushi rolls there, as well. You know, the kind that has the rice outside the seaweed wrapper rather than inside. Because the rice is outside, the roll is usually larger, so you can fit more ingredients in it. Traditional Japanese sushi rolls usually only have one ingredient. The following week, another friend took me out to Sendai (near the nice restaurant) to a cozy American-style diner/deli. The specialty? Burgers. I happily feasted on a large burger and onion rings. And a milk shake. Rock on.

While in Sendai, I saw "光のページェント", or "Pageant of Light." A street in Sendai gets all of its trees completely lit up with white Christmas lights. Looks beautiful! I'll post a picture in an update.

The first snowfall occurred! Not too different from the US. But the scenery is different. Again, pictures later.

A friend and I stuffed ourselves at a kaitenzushi place. 13 plates each! That's 27 pieces (one tray had 3 rather than 2), and a bowl of soup! Insanity.

A co-worker invited me to his house to have lunch. I happily accepted of course! He is the youngest employee at the Junior High. The funny thing is that he had actually invited me over in November, but he never set a date, so I just let it slide until he brought it up again. Sometime earlier in December, he mentioned that his sister kept asking when I was going to come over; I had forgotten that one of my students was his sister. O.o Anyway, when I finally came over, his mother had prepared a wonderful lunch, with which I stuffed myself silly. We played some Mario on their Wii, then went outside to play catch. It had been years since I had last thrown a ball, but despite my lack of practice, it was still really fun. His sister had a wicked throw. (She's on the baseball team!) His other sister couldn't catch (or throw) very well, but it was still fun. Their family gave me quite a bit of food to take home; yummy, delicious, homemade Japanese food. I am drooling just thinking about it.

So in December, because it is the end of the year, there are many "End of the Year Parties," known as 忘年会　「ぼうねんかい」 "bounenkai." Literally, it means "forget year meeting." So I guess you're supposed to party all night and drink until you forget all the bad things that happened that year? Or maybe it's a party so you don't forget? Anyway, every school and every organization and every company seems to hold one. Being involved with so many groups here, I was of course invited to a bunch, but unfortunately due to lack of funds, I could only attend...four, or so.

The first was a very small, private party, with the same people who threw me a birthday party, plus one more person. It was mad fun, and we held it at a restaurant in Sendai that Shoe and I have grown to love (and frequent recently). The next one was held by an international organization in a neighboring town, where I met new friends and ate yummy home-made food. There was so much there that I took food home to last me a couple days!

The biggest 忘年会 that I went to was held by the junior high school. We went to Naruko Onsen, which is a city in the north famous for its hot springs! Naturally, we stayed overnight to eat, drink, and bath in the hot springs. And let me tell you, that water is damn hot. For some reason, even though I was born in the tropics, my body has a tendency to be able to handle colder temperatures much better than hotter temperatures. In any case, I still took a dip, in both the inside bath and the outside bath. The outside bath was amaaaaaaaaazing. Unfortunately, it was so windy, that the steam that rose from the hot bath was quickly blown away. But for the moments that it lingered, it had a wonderful atmosphere. Minus the sulfuric smell of the natural hot spring. And the naked old men.

After the 忘年会 were all over, my vacation started! Winter break was a BLAST. My girlfriend came up from Kyoto to visit me, and seeing her always makes me happy. We did some shopping in Sendai, where she got a vest, and where I had purchased a vest just a couple weeks earlier. We also checked out Sendai's 光のページェント, this time, walking down the entire street rather than driving through it.

Christmas was a good time. My girlfriend got me a much-needed soft, beautiful scarf, and I got her many socks and stockings. And an iPod case. And Utada Hikaru's new album. And a cute leather papillon keychain. And something else, I think, but I can't recall it at the moment. Oh, right, a Christmas Cake for us to share. This brings me to a side note.

For some reason, Christmas is really improperly/incorrectly represented in Japan; it's extremely misunderstood. I thought it was bad enough in the US, but I've grown to accept its commercialization, mainly because I enjoy the atmosphere, the "Santa side," and because I'm not religious. But Japan. Oh, Japan. According to my friend Ken, Christmas in Japan is about love. But not the way it is in the US, where it's about the love shared between families and friends; no, here in Japan, it's about the love between couples, not unlike Valentine's Day. And on Christmas in Japan, the dinner usually includes a big chicken dinner from KFC (lol) and a Christmas Cake. Now conveniently, this way of celebration worked out for my girlfriend and me, where none of our family members are in Japan, so it was best to spend it with one another. But rather than grab KFC, my girlfriend wanted to cook dinner for me.

And boy did she prepare a feast! It included home-made karaage chicken, her specialty home-made macaroni and cheese, and fresh broccoli and asparagus. My contribution was a tray of appetizers, the cake, and a bottle of chardonnay. I have to emphasize "home-made" with my girlfriend's dishes, because it was a much larger endeavor than the easy Kraft Mac 'n Cheese or preparing fried chicken.

Later that evening, we watched Elf. Good times. Later than week, we watched that wretched Tekken movie. And I thought Dragonball: Evolution was bad. Well, okay, both movies are just as bad as the other. Any of the Street Fighter movies can be thrown in with that pile of worthless crap. So, to get enjoyment from the movie? My girlfriend and I turned it into a drinking game: take a drink whenever something non-canonical or nonsensical comes up. I was actually starting to run out of drink, so we had to slow it down (haha).

My friend Nana-chan came to visit before the end of the year. So the three of us had lots of fun, spending time with my friend Shoe or Ken, going to various places to shop, watching tons of movies, going out to karaoke, and even taking a dip in the local onsen for the first time! On New Year's Eve, we went to Shiogama Shrine, which sits at the top of a 220-step staircase, and with hundreds (thousands?) of Japanese people, we participated in the annual bowing and prayers during this time. I was happy to do so. I also bought a couple charms; one for health, and one that was in the shape of a giant arrow. I didn't know charms could be so bad-ass.

December 31: I am at Shiogama Shrine to check out how the New Year celebration is done in Japan!

Phrase of the day: 良いお年を！ 「よいおとしを！」 "Yoi otoshi wo!" It's a phrase said at the end of the year, which literally means, "(Have) a good year!"

I'M IN JAPAN

やっと日本に来ましたよ～～～～！！！
見て見て！日本語しか話せません！

Just kidding! But yeah, I'm finally here in Tokyo! I'm staying at this huge hotel in Shinjuku. And a couple friends and I went to eat at a restaurant. Pretty awesome. REAL SUSHI. IN JAPAN. The sushi was huge. And inexpensive. Awesome. And we ate in a mini tatami room. Well not really; it was just like a normal table/booth, but the seats were tatami mats, and it was in something like a secluded room. I also had Asahi Beer on draft. And the other food (fried chicken, fried octopus) was also delicious. Yum.

Anyway, not much to update with, except that I barely slept on the flight, so I'm really beat. And I watched three movies: Iron Man 2 (again), Post Grad, and Date Night. All fantastic movies. Post Grad in particular was nice because I could relate to the protagonist experiencing post-graduation frustrations.

Gotta get sleep! Big day tomorrow!

Word of the day: 寿司　「すし」　"sushi." 'Nuff said.

SFXT/TXSF

Comic-Con is going on right now, and two amazingly awesome announcements have been made! 1) Capcom is currently collaborating with Namco to develop a game called Street Fighter X Tekken [note: the X is pronounced "cross"] which uses the Street Fighter IV engine!!! and 2) Namco is making Tekken X Street Fighter which will run on the Tekken 6 (or 7) game engine!!! AHHHH!!! I've been waiting over a decade for something like this to happen! I've been a huge fan of the Street Fighter series since I was 5 years old. Yes, five. I still recall trying to teach my classmates in Kindergarten how to throw a Hadoken (fireball) with Ryu. They didn't seem to understand. :-) And I've been playing Tekken since 1998, when Tekken 3 was released on the PSX [for you young'uns, that's the original abbreviation for the PS1]. Ahh, good times, good times.

Trailer:



It's interesting because Capcom is currently working on Marvel VS Capcom 3, which I've been waiting for literally a decade, since MVC2 was released in the arcades. This only means that we won't see SFXT until probably at least a year after MVC3's release, which is scheduled for Spring 2011. Namco is currently working on Tekken 7, but I'm expecting TXSF to be released before that, to be honest. Though, they should be working on Tekken Tag 2, if anything. Tekken Tag Tournament is the favorite of many hard-core Tekken gamers, simply because the tag feature was just that fun!

And apparently the guy who played Human Torch in the Fantastic 4 movie, Chris Evans, has been cast to play as Captain America in the upcoming Captain America and The Avengers movies. For me, that's a big no-no. Both characters he portrays are Marvel characters! That means they can't ever have a movie with both characters in it 'cause it would just be too unbelievable! Unless they recast Human Torch of course. I have the same feelings about Ryan Reynolds playing Deadpool and Green Lantern. Sure, the two characters belong in different universes/companies (Lantern is DC, while Deadpool is Marvel), but it's just...weird. It'd be like if Christian Bale also played Superman. Or Wolverine. It just wouldn't work out.

Anyway, not too much on my end. Finishing up packing, bought the last of my stuff (except postcards, which I might buy at Pitt if I visit one last time), and trying to take care of a few familial errands here and there. Like renewing my AAA membership! Sure, it's the American Automobile Association, but they apparently also have international services! Hopefully I won't be needing them, but just in case! And this weekend was nice because I got to spend time with my best friends from high school. We're all moving on in life, but I'm glad that we've managed to meet up and share stories before the next step. I mentioned at dinner that in 10 years, we'll be just like the guys in the movie "Grown Ups".

Anyway, gotta go! So much to do, so little time!

Word of the day: 大人　「おとな」　"otona," which means "adult." It literally says "big person." It can also be pronounced 「だいにん」 "dainin" for the same meaning. Note, however, that if you pronounce it 「だいじん」 "daijin," it means "man of substance or virtue; gentleman" or "giant."

It's been one week since you looked at me

It's been a week already!??!?!?!?! Where'd the time go???? And there's a week left!??! Holy crap!!!

Okay, so I got all my shopping done. Well, 99% of it anyway. I might pick up some post cards and perhaps load up on deodorant. Oh, and contact lense solution. Speaking of which, I just bought a year's worth of contact lenses to bring over, but I'm worried about my prescription having changed slightly from when I requested my Yakken Shoumei and now. Hopefully, they won't care...I also had to update my glasses. Luckily, I was able to keep my sexy frames, but unfortunately, they centered the clearest part of the lenses in the middle of the lense! For most glasses, this wouldn't be a problem, but the way that these glasses sit on my nose, I'm usually looking through the upper half of the lenses rather than directly in the center. Now I'll have to push up the glasses closer to my face and hope that they don't drop down my nose. No glasses-falling-down-my-nose sophisticate look for me!

So what's left? You guessed it. Actually packing. That doesn't mean I haven't started. Oh, I've started. It's just a matter of getting the things you want into the bags they need to be in. I will be able to take a total of four bags: two pieces of luggage, one carry-on luggage, and a laptop messenger bag. That said, I'll be stuffing everything I can into my lap top bag that fits! Probably all my electronics stuff (read: PSP). I will reserve my largest suitcase for clothes that I won't need for the first few days, as I will be in Tokyo for orientation and am planning on using my carry-on suitcase for the duration of my stay there (three days or so). I should be able to fit a suit or two and daily necessities into it. But "clothes for five days" as they recommended? Maybe I'll throw a few shirts into my laptop bag, haha!

As for as for slightly smaller of the two check-in suitcases, I will stuff my toiletries and other daily necessities into it, and any remaining clothes. Not really sure about all the things I need to bring, to be honest. I mean, really, I should be able to buy anything I need while I'm there. So, just bring clothes, shoes, bathroom stuff to last a couple months, gift items, money, JET stuff, Yakkan Shoumei, International Driving Permit, emergency medical stuff, laptop, cell phone, and personal stuff like a book or two, contacts/glasses, writing utensils, sketchbook, artwork by my girlfriend...what am I forgetting?

Since time is winding down, I've been trying to plan how to see my best friend and my girlfriend one last time before I head off to the Land of the Rising Sun. This weekend will hopefully be spent seeing both (separately of course, in different cities), filled with games (Metal Gear!) and movies (Inception!).

Speaking of games, it was leaked that Thor (Marvel) and Amaterasu (Capcom) will be in MVC3. That's pretty awesomesauce. A friend of mine was saying, though, that to have them in the game is a bit of a stretch, seeing as how they are both gods, and everyone else is a mere mortal. "It's easier to suspend disbelief," he said, for fights between, say, Deadpool and Ryu, but Deadpool would never go against someone as powerful as Thor. But hey, who said you can't make fights even, right? It's unusual for someone like The Hulk to lose against some flat-top in the military (Guile) with no particular abilities except to shoot slow-moving Sonic Booms from his hands [does that even make any sense?], but it can happen in these games! I can't wait.

Word of the day: 一週間　「いっしゅうかん」　"isshuukan," or "one week." Literally, the characters are "one," "week," and "interval". The "interval" character can also be pronounced 「あいだ」 "aida", and it implies a duration of time. But it can be used as a suffix (pronounced 「かん」　"kan") to a time word to change the meaning to specify an amount of time rather than the time itself. For example, １時 means "1 o'clock", but １時間 means "1 hour."

One month left!!!

July 1st! Holy crap! In exactly one month, I'll be in Japan!

So much to do so little time. Preparations have been underway and I've been doing what I can to minimize the stuff I'll have to bring back home before I go to Japan. Like sell my 35" TV. So far, two friends are interested! In just a couple hours! Yay social networking. :-)

Also, The Last Airbender, M. Night Shyamalan's latest film, was released today. And it's worse than I actually thought it'd be. Anyway, this article has a bit of Shyamalan addressing the racism issue. But personally, he completely fails to see what the issue *actually* is. He keeps saying that the movie isn't racist because of the diverse cast and the fact that *he* directed it; that *his* name and Dev Patel's name and Noah Ringer's name are on the movie. But that isn't the point. The point is that a movie based on Asian culture (mostly Chinese, but also Japanese, Inuit, Tibetan) features non-Asians as the stars. To make matters worse, he cast most of the antagonists as Indian. Great, so now all of the dark-skinned people in the movie are bad-guys. This movie should have been a chance for Asian American actors to take steps in Hollywood. But it looks like things haven't really changed. It's "Kung Fu" all over again.

The movie was sub-par at best. The things that ruined the movie, even if the actors were Asian, were the bad acting, terrible dialogue/script, and atrocious pacing. The only saving graces were its special effects and okay martial arts. So, if you can get passed the bad acting part, it might be a decent movie. Or just disregard the acting by reminding yourself that it's just a kid's movie (which isn't a good excuse for bad acting).

/minirant

Anyway, so yeah. Moving along...

I've been discussing the meaning of people's names with my friends over the past few days. "Harold" means basically "leader of an army." My most favorite translation was "heroic leader." So how would I translate this into kanji to be used as my name (as a friend had suggested for my name stamp)? "Hero"?

More updates tomorrow. It's late! G'night!

Word of the day: 英雄　「えいゆう」　"eiyuu" which means "hero" or "great man".

Ohisashiburi!

It's been a while! Well, a week or so since I last wrote anything, and even longer than that since I've written anything really meaty. This week, I've been spending my time seeing a lot of old friends and spending time with my girlfriend. I've also been studying/practicing Japanese, and putting quite a bit of time into Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. My best friend was right: "Let me warn you. Once you start, you can't put it down." IT'S SO TRUE! What a fantastic game. And I can even envision a potential sequal to this game, which would tie it into the rest of the MGS games that star Solid Snake; it would basically be a remake of Metal Gear (the very first game, on the MSX2 and NES).

Last weekend I saw Toy Story 3 with my girlfriend. AMAZING! Well, perhaps not "amazing," but definitely a good movie! It certainly belongs in the "good sequels" category. Speaking of movies, though..."The Last Airbender" comes out next week. Everything about the movie seems really cool...EXCEPT THE CASTING CALL! But anyway, I won't rant about that today. I just request that you don't support the movie.

I realized recently that I never made a post about *why* I'm going to Japan. So I'll say that now, while it's still June. Going to Japan was something I've always wanted to do, since I was a teenager. I never knew that study-abroad was possible as a high school student. Then, again, my high school wasn't really fortunate enough to have big exchange programs (we've had a few exchange students here and there, though), so I never really knew about the opportunities. Anyway, I went to college, and I studied Japanese. Quite a few; rather...a bunch of friends of mine studied abroad there during our junior year. I really wanted to. I did. But I knew it would set me back academically, so I was thinking that maybe I would just limit it to one semester. But in the end, I never went through with it because I didn't want to push med school back. Well...I pushed med school back anyway because I wasn't (and still am not) 100% sure that that's what's right for me. So anyway! I worked at a hospital for a couple years and was trying to figure out what I should do next. After having met my girlfriend, and talking to other friends about it, I decided that I should try to go to Japan again! I had heard about various ways to get there, but teaching English seemed like the best thing. Plus, it would give me teaching experience and allow me to decide if being a professor and teaching classes is something I wanted to do. Long story short, I applied to the JET Programme, and here I am! Keep in mind that I also looked into other private companies, such as Altia Central or AEONet, but luckily, I got accepted as a JET ALT (Assistant Language Teacher) and didn't have to continue with other application processes.

I got a package in the mail today; it's a copy of a documentary I helped my friend make! It's a documentary about me as a martial artist. It was her class project, and she ended up submitting it to a local film festival! I hear the audience responded positively. :-) I'll do what I can to convert it into a video file and post it on Youtube or something.

I've also been trying to decide which phone service to get while I'm over there. Docomo, AU, or SoftBank? SoftBank is apparently pretty popular with the foreigners because they are the only ones with the iPhone. While I like the iPhone's capabilities, I would rather have a Japanese phone 'cause I'm in Japan. I can always get an iPhone when I come back to the states.

Lastly, should I be called ハロルド先生 or バギノン先生? (first name, or last name?) The last name garners more respect, but the first name garners "coolness points".

Word of the day: 先生　「せんせい」　"sensei." It is the suffix for "teacher". The word for a teacher is a different word: 教師 「きょうし」　"kyoushi", though one can still refer to one's teacher as his or her "sensei."

Kung Fu Kid and Portable Games

I just got back from seeing "The Karate Kid" with my brother and his wife. Fun times. Good movie!

A year or two ago, when I first heard that there was a remake in the works for "The Karate Kid" starring Will Smith's kid and Jackie Chan, I flipped out. Well, not really, but I was disgusted with the concept that Jackie Chan should replace Pat Morita as the new Mr. Miyagi. And I was also upset that Jackie Chan would have anything to do with "karate," as he has always performed and represented Chinese martial arts (kung fu) and not Japanese martial arts (karate). So this concept just blew my mind and got me upset.

As time passed on and the movie was in production, I kind of forgot about it. Whenever it was brought up, I usually just dismissed it as something ridiculous. Then I saw a trailer, and I had mixed feelings (mostly confusion). In the trailer, you can clearly see kung fu as the martial art featured in the movie. Jackie also clearly says "I will teach you 'real kung fu.'" Not a lick of karate. Anywhere (at least in the trailer). So, my opinion changed to, "The movie could be good, but IT'S NOT KARATE! THEY SHOULD CHANGE THE TITLE."

So I went in there today with that mentality. That the movie could be good (and probably would be), and to try my damnednest to forget the title. Luckily, I didn't have to. By the end of the film, I feel that the movie has made up for the fact that it was called "The Karate Kid" in the US. (In Japan and China, it's called "The Kung Fu Kid" [note: I still think they should have called it "The Kung Fu Kid" here in the states]. In South Korea, it's called "Best Kid.") This 2010 remake of the 1984 movie of the same title pays lots of homage to the original in many ways, from the story telling to the teacher's antics. But the main reason why I think the movie makes up for its incorrect title is a key line in the movie: Dre's mom says something about him wanting to practice "karate," and he snaps back, "it's not karate!". Her next response indicates the common misconception people have about kung fu, karate, and the naming of martial arts. "Kung fu, karate..." something or other.

The filmmakers undoubtedly wanted to cash in on using a recognizable title, so they opted for "The Karate Kid" even though they considered "The Kung Fu Kid." Plus, the movie really does fit in as part of the "Karate Kid" series; without mention of "kid" in the title, movie critics would be calling out the film for its blatant ripoffs of the original. Even the last sequence was...nevermind, I won't spoil it. :-)

This movie did have a few annoying quirks. Jaden plays a prepubescent kid with an attitude. Sure, lots of kids that age are like that. But that doesn't mean I have to like it. The kid is disrespectful and rude at times, and he doesn't improve by much by the end of the movie. Too many times, the audience (at least I did) feels that Dre should be more respectful to his teacher at that point; but I guess it's good that he didn't do such a quick "I'm a good boy all of a sudden" kinda deal, to maintain the realism.

I'm very satisfied with this movie. It's a good movie, and I would recommend it as a movie for parents to take their kids (12 and up) to see. Jackie and Jaden do excellent jobs with surprisingly good acting. It's a feel good movie and a modern martial arts movie for kids. Watching it reminded me of my childhood and how I grew up watching movies like 3 Ninjas, Sidekicks, and Surf Ninjas. And of course TMNT. Anyway, go watch this movie. It's good. And also don't forget that "karate" is a Japanese martial art and they should have changed the title anyway. Oh well.

The other thing I wanted to mention briefly, which I should have made a post about yesterday, are portable games. I mentioned in my last post that I was playing with my aunt's Nintendo DSi XL. Well since then, I had been playing Picross 3D and Tetris on her DSi, and Crisis Core, Patapon 2, and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker on my PSP. And I must say, I've made great use out of that PSP, having played games like Patapon, Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, Kingdom of Paradise, and Final Fantasy Tactics. And with the re-release of a bunch of PSX (or PSone for you young'uns) games on the PSN to play on the PSP, Sony's hand-held is a pretty awesome system.

I'm gonna take this baby with me to Japan, and the various games I have for it. It'll do well to help pass the time while I travel. Now the question is, will Sony reveal anything at E3 this week? Nintendo is bound to steal the show with their 3DS. Can't wait to see!

Word of the day: 功夫 「カンフー」　"kanfuu", or kung fu. Also pronounced 「くふう」 "kufuu", but that's actually a different word with the same spelling and different meaning (skill, art, labor, or effort, in Chinese).