i sort of forgot about the blog... yeah
Nothing too much is happening, i mean i've been having a great time, but nothing to really post about. Recounting how i went to the louvre wouldnt exactly be that interesting.
Let's see: Last night, in the tradition of "Wednesday Nightssss" bar hopping, I went out with one of my friends to this bar that was located in a cave. I mean the top was in a little building, but the downstairs area was a cave. it had the cave smell and everything. My friend and I ordered sangria, and when we ordered it we said "yeah a pitcher should be fine", well let me tell you kiddies, a pitcher = liter, and it was really really strong. Thank god the friend i was with is Irish, otherwise i dont think we could have finished it (damn my half asian ancestry!). After we broke a glass (dont ask) we left very quickly and in search of the parisian philly p, ate some crepes on the side of a random street and ambled back home.
Today i saw "rotisserie chicken" flavored potato chips and bought a bag. They were good...ish i mean they really did taste like chicken, it was a bit disturbing. The other flavors that Lays makes here (yes, Lays) are as follows: Barbecue (booooring), Bolognaise (i dont even know who buys this one), spicy, cheese, Mustard and pickles (really?! mustard AND pickles?), ham and cheese (because THAT combo is in short supply here), grilled caramelized sauce flavored (...), Italian flavored (olive oil... ok well thats somewhat normal...) and plain.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Screw it, I'm going to Disneyland
Callie just wrote a cute short post about her host family, and I envy her ability to keep her blogs short. As you all know, I tend to ramble on for far too long...but I'll try to control myself this time!
First off, two weekends ago. My friends and I went hiking, which at first I thought would be fun. Until I learned that to Japanese people, hiking is not making one's jolly and happy way up a slightly sloping trail to the top of a relatively small mountain. Heck, the road I went up El Yunque on in PR was paved, for crying out loud. And I remember wishing back then that we could go off the path and do some fun trekking through the woods...well, all I can say now be careful what you wish for. Because hiking in Japan is literally clinging to the side of a ridiculously steep path, clinging to tree branches to attempt to scramble up slippery muddy slopes. It also involves intense botany lessons from Japanese people who are overly earnest and think that you care (which you don't). But though this trip was vaguely reminiscent of hell, I don't regret it. It makes for great stories at the least.
Speaking of great stories, we have last weekend. You see, a while back when we were in Hiroshima, Christine (one of my friends here) suddenly declared that she really wanted a Mickey Mouse ice cream sandwich. And so we jokingly decided to go to Tokyo Disneyland.
And then, much to our own great surprise, we actually DID go to Tokyo Disneyland. We departed Kanazawa last Friday night at 10pm to arrive at the Tokyo Disneyland resort at 7am on Saturday morning. Then, due to the fact that the park is cheaper after 3pm and we knew we would be too tired if we tried to do Disneyland all day, we proceeded to waste the next 8 hours sitting outside of the humongous hotel there. At 3pm, we proceeded to join the masses (and I mean MASSES) of humanity in Disneyland. I was slightly shocked at how many people were there, and by the length of the lines. In fact, the lines were so long that we ended up not going on Splash Mountain or Thunder Mountain (and Space Mountain was closed, so that was out from the beginning). On the other hand, we did manage to ride the teacups, Pirates of the Caribbean, Star Tours, Peter Pan, Pinocchio, and It's a Small World After All (which I can now sing the chorus of in Japanese). We also saw the electric parade, which was surprisingly awesome. And, of course, we ate Mickey Mouse ice cream sandwiches (and I had a Mickey Mouse pork bun, which was well worth the ridiculous 400 yen I shelled out for it).
I have a few observations about Tokyo Disneyland that I feel the need to share with all of you readers at home. But you can skip this part if you want, because it's kinda random. First off, there were surprisingly few foreigners (white ones, at least) there. I think we maybe saw a total of 4 white people there. But despite this, ALL of the signs were written in English. Few had Japanese subtitles. In fact, the audio in the Pirates ride was probably 50/50 English and Japanese. An even more surprising twist: the only Disney princesses truly represented were Cinderella, Snow White, and Belle. The newer Disney films present were Toy Story, Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo, and Lilo and Stitch (only Stitch, really...Japanese people are OBSESSED with him)...aka, not human films (Lilo doesn't count because they only care about Stitch). I was genuinely shocked that only such old Disney princesses were there; where was Jasmine (or Aladdin, really)? Pocahontas? MULAN?? Even Ariel was surprisingly absent, though I haven't quite reasoned that one out yet. For all the others, though, there is a common thread: they are the "ethnic" Disney princesses. To make it even more interesting, during the parade, some of the characters spoke in Japanese and some in English. And being a linguistics major and assuming that there must be some reason for code switching before a majority non-English speaking audience, I began searching for a pattern. And then I realized: only the white characters spoke in English. The animals, monsters, inanimate objects, etc (even the Toy Story toys, who are white, but I hold that they fit the pattern because they are not actually human) all spoke Japanese. (yes, so did Mickey, which was a real mind trip.) I eventually decided that this is due to the fact that Japanese people do not think that white people should be fluent in Japanese. I do not think they have a problem with my less than coherent word vomit, but truly fluent white people are kinda not looked well upon (I think. I have little backing for this statement beyond what I know from Fear and Trembling, a Belgian movie I saw once). An interesting phenomenon, nevertheless.
In any case, after spending 6.5 hours in Disneyland, my comrades and I clambered back on the overnight bus and trucked back to Kanazawa, arriving exhausted but satisfied back in Kanazawa Sunday morning at 7am. While it would have been nice if there had been fewer lines, it was an epic journey by any standards. No regrets.
This weekend, we're going to trek out on a camping trip and then see a caligraphy thing on the national holiday (Monday). Apparently some dude is going to paint caligraphy on the ground with a person-sized brush (ala Hero, if any of you have seen that movie). I'm gonna get a 500 yen t-shirt, which makes it worth it.
And once again, I have gone on too long. Which is good, because it means I'll stop before getting all sappy and sentimental about leaving my host fam in a week and a half and Japan in a little over two weeks. But like I said, let's not talk about that.
First off, two weekends ago. My friends and I went hiking, which at first I thought would be fun. Until I learned that to Japanese people, hiking is not making one's jolly and happy way up a slightly sloping trail to the top of a relatively small mountain. Heck, the road I went up El Yunque on in PR was paved, for crying out loud. And I remember wishing back then that we could go off the path and do some fun trekking through the woods...well, all I can say now be careful what you wish for. Because hiking in Japan is literally clinging to the side of a ridiculously steep path, clinging to tree branches to attempt to scramble up slippery muddy slopes. It also involves intense botany lessons from Japanese people who are overly earnest and think that you care (which you don't). But though this trip was vaguely reminiscent of hell, I don't regret it. It makes for great stories at the least.Speaking of great stories, we have last weekend. You see, a while back when we were in Hiroshima, Christine (one of my friends here) suddenly declared that she really wanted a Mickey Mouse ice cream sandwich. And so we jokingly decided to go to Tokyo Disneyland.
And then, much to our own great surprise, we actually DID go to Tokyo Disneyland. We departed Kanazawa last Friday night at 10pm to arrive at the Tokyo Disneyland resort at 7am on Saturday morning. Then, due to the fact that the park is cheaper after 3pm and we knew we would be too tired if we tried to do Disneyland all day, we proceeded to waste the next 8 hours sitting outside of the humongous hotel there. At 3pm, we proceeded to join the masses (and I mean MASSES) of humanity in Disneyland. I was slightly shocked at how many people were there, and by the length of the lines. In fact, the lines were so long that we ended up not going on Splash Mountain or Thunder Mountain (and Space Mountain was closed, so that was out from the beginning). On the other hand, we did manage to ride the teacups, Pirates of the Caribbean, Star Tours, Peter Pan, Pinocchio, and It's a Small World After All (which I can now sing the chorus of in Japanese). We also saw the electric parade, which was surprisingly awesome. And, of course, we ate Mickey Mouse ice cream sandwiches (and I had a Mickey Mouse pork bun, which was well worth the ridiculous 400 yen I shelled out for it).
I have a few observations about Tokyo Disneyland that I feel the need to share with all of you readers at home. But you can skip this part if you want, because it's kinda random. First off, there were surprisingly few foreigners (white ones, at least) there. I think we maybe saw a total of 4 white people there. But despite this, ALL of the signs were written in English. Few had Japanese subtitles. In fact, the audio in the Pirates ride was probably 50/50 English and Japanese. An even more surprising twist: the only Disney princesses truly represented were Cinderella, Snow White, and Belle. The newer Disney films present were Toy Story, Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo, and Lilo and Stitch (only Stitch, really...Japanese people are OBSESSED with him)...aka, not human films (Lilo doesn't count because they only care about Stitch). I was genuinely shocked that only such old Disney princesses were there; where was Jasmine (or Aladdin, really)? Pocahontas? MULAN?? Even Ariel was surprisingly absent, though I haven't quite reasoned that one out yet. For all the others, though, there is a common thread: they are the "ethnic" Disney princesses. To make it even more interesting, during the parade, some of the characters spoke in Japanese and some in English. And being a linguistics major and assuming that there must be some reason for code switching before a majority non-English speaking audience, I began searching for a pattern. And then I realized: only the white characters spoke in English. The animals, monsters, inanimate objects, etc (even the Toy Story toys, who are white, but I hold that they fit the pattern because they are not actually human) all spoke Japanese. (yes, so did Mickey, which was a real mind trip.) I eventually decided that this is due to the fact that Japanese people do not think that white people should be fluent in Japanese. I do not think they have a problem with my less than coherent word vomit, but truly fluent white people are kinda not looked well upon (I think. I have little backing for this statement beyond what I know from Fear and Trembling, a Belgian movie I saw once). An interesting phenomenon, nevertheless.
In any case, after spending 6.5 hours in Disneyland, my comrades and I clambered back on the overnight bus and trucked back to Kanazawa, arriving exhausted but satisfied back in Kanazawa Sunday morning at 7am. While it would have been nice if there had been fewer lines, it was an epic journey by any standards. No regrets.
This weekend, we're going to trek out on a camping trip and then see a caligraphy thing on the national holiday (Monday). Apparently some dude is going to paint caligraphy on the ground with a person-sized brush (ala Hero, if any of you have seen that movie). I'm gonna get a 500 yen t-shirt, which makes it worth it.
And once again, I have gone on too long. Which is good, because it means I'll stop before getting all sappy and sentimental about leaving my host fam in a week and a half and Japan in a little over two weeks. But like I said, let's not talk about that.
Friday, July 3, 2009
On a lighter note...
Since everyone seems to be in the not-too-happy mode right now, I'm going to post something joyous and loving about Japan. Starting with today's excellent adventure to a Japanese elementary school!
So, in true PII fashion, we found out this Monday that today we would be expected to entertain small Japanese children for 40 minutes. Though this was short notice, I did manage to put together something about World Heritage Sites in America (seriously, kids? This was really what you wanted to talk about?) for my group of 27 fourth graders. Yeah, that's right. 27. I was petrified as I went in.
Turns out, there was little to be concerned about. It was a little awkward sometimes, as I had no clue what to do for most of it and Japanese people are shockingly intense about taking care of their guests. Like, grabbed a flag out of my hands so that I wouldn't have to hold it. However, they were all ridiculously cute. I got to sit through 27 self-introductions (my name is...Chizuko? I like baseball. My bahssday is....May?), which was interesting. My favorites were the kids who said things like "I like summer". The funniest thing was how obsessed they seemed to be with me. There were three in particular who wanted to be as close to me as possible pretty much all the time. One was this miniature boy who was squirming in his seat the whole time and whose eyes popped every time I said something in Japanese. Another was a girl whose father is Australian, who spoke a little English. Her comprehension was really good, and her accent was definitely the best in the class, but she wasn't pera-pera (fluent) as far as I could tell. It was adorable when the kids had to ask me questions, because they would all come running up to her and ask her to tell them how to say things in English. Those suckers were brave, too...I definitely would not have been able to talk that much to a foreign person when I was in fourth grade. Anyway, the third one who was obsessed with me was this adorable miniature girl who was one of the ones who came to bring me to the classroom. On the way there, she held my hand. Once we got there, she was almost always standing next to me. She constantly informed me things in Japanese, 90% of which I couldn't understand. When we finished, she and the half-Australian girl got next to me in a picture and both held my hands. She then escorted me back out...it was beyond cute. At one point I got overwhelmed by it and patted her on the head...I think that might have been too much, but oh well.
We also played a game with them, which involved lots of jumping out of chairs and running around. At one point I fought with one of them over a chair briefly before giving in. They all found that hilarious. They then presented me with a box (that they had decorated) full of origami they had made. My present was def the best out of all of them. SO CUTE! I really want to find out if there's a way I can get them a postcard or an email or something to thank them again. I'm honestly in love.
Tomorrow is 4th of July here, but we had to celebrate early (aka yesterday) because one of our friends is going to Tokyo for the weekend. However, that is not to say that there will not be much fun to be had, as I am going to go climb a mountain. Also, I don't believe I said anything about last weekend's trip to Osaka and Hiroshima. Or about next weekend's planned trip to Tokyo Disneyland. Yeah, Japan is pretty sweet!
So, in true PII fashion, we found out this Monday that today we would be expected to entertain small Japanese children for 40 minutes. Though this was short notice, I did manage to put together something about World Heritage Sites in America (seriously, kids? This was really what you wanted to talk about?) for my group of 27 fourth graders. Yeah, that's right. 27. I was petrified as I went in.
Turns out, there was little to be concerned about. It was a little awkward sometimes, as I had no clue what to do for most of it and Japanese people are shockingly intense about taking care of their guests. Like, grabbed a flag out of my hands so that I wouldn't have to hold it. However, they were all ridiculously cute. I got to sit through 27 self-introductions (my name is...Chizuko? I like baseball. My bahssday is....May?), which was interesting. My favorites were the kids who said things like "I like summer". The funniest thing was how obsessed they seemed to be with me. There were three in particular who wanted to be as close to me as possible pretty much all the time. One was this miniature boy who was squirming in his seat the whole time and whose eyes popped every time I said something in Japanese. Another was a girl whose father is Australian, who spoke a little English. Her comprehension was really good, and her accent was definitely the best in the class, but she wasn't pera-pera (fluent) as far as I could tell. It was adorable when the kids had to ask me questions, because they would all come running up to her and ask her to tell them how to say things in English. Those suckers were brave, too...I definitely would not have been able to talk that much to a foreign person when I was in fourth grade. Anyway, the third one who was obsessed with me was this adorable miniature girl who was one of the ones who came to bring me to the classroom. On the way there, she held my hand. Once we got there, she was almost always standing next to me. She constantly informed me things in Japanese, 90% of which I couldn't understand. When we finished, she and the half-Australian girl got next to me in a picture and both held my hands. She then escorted me back out...it was beyond cute. At one point I got overwhelmed by it and patted her on the head...I think that might have been too much, but oh well.
We also played a game with them, which involved lots of jumping out of chairs and running around. At one point I fought with one of them over a chair briefly before giving in. They all found that hilarious. They then presented me with a box (that they had decorated) full of origami they had made. My present was def the best out of all of them. SO CUTE! I really want to find out if there's a way I can get them a postcard or an email or something to thank them again. I'm honestly in love.
Tomorrow is 4th of July here, but we had to celebrate early (aka yesterday) because one of our friends is going to Tokyo for the weekend. However, that is not to say that there will not be much fun to be had, as I am going to go climb a mountain. Also, I don't believe I said anything about last weekend's trip to Osaka and Hiroshima. Or about next weekend's planned trip to Tokyo Disneyland. Yeah, Japan is pretty sweet!
Thursday, July 2, 2009
the cat....
PEED ON MY SUITCASE, AND MY SHIRT. ON. MY. SUITCASE. AS IN URINATED. AS IN POPPED A SQUAT AND TOOK A PISS. ON. MY SUITCASE AND MY CLOTHES.
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