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between: (Default)
Saturday, March 27th, 2010 04:22 pm
So, I was watching 30 Rock and in the last episode, Liz was going to see "The Hot Tub Time Machine." I thought it was a joke movie made up for the show, like "Fat Bitch," or "Werewolf Lawyer." Turns out that shit is a real movie? What? It's amazing what you miss when you don't live daily life in the States. I swear, I can only name about 3 of the movies that've come out in the last year and I don't know a single one that's coming. It feels really strange to have all these people talking about all these things you're completely oblivious to.

I do see other fun things though. For example, last night when I came home from work I stumbled across a children's cartoon show in which the most popular ingredients in the Japanese soup "Oden" were personified. Potato, ginkgo nut, daikon radish, fried tofu, etc, and even oden himself (don't ask how it's possible to be something and live inside of it at the same time). While the characters went about their business in soup land, the real world continued in the Oden Restaurant. Every now and again someone on the outside would ask for something, and a giant pair of chopsticks would swoop in and pluck one of the characters out (which seemed like more of an inconvenience than a tragedy, considering they'd go up to be eaten and there'd be a shot of the character struggling through a colorful digestive system, and then reappearing in the world shortly after.)

It was cute though, as one of the sets was about a street thug (the ones that dress like Fonzie and James Dean lol) who was initiating a wannabe member of his crew. He was all, "If you want to be a real man, you must take on 'the potato.' If you don't eat your vegetables, you are a failure in all that you do!" and of course when the newb complained, he went nuts and in the end the kid had to eat about 30 potatoes (which exhausted the potato in Oden land, of course). When he left, they both felt good about themselves and determined that next week's mission would be carrots. Then the bossman came back in and swooned like a little girl over ginkgo nuts, imploring the restauranteer to snag him one. Of course, the food characters exhibit traits of their real foods, like the ginkgo nut being impossible to grab hold of (So in oden land the other characters had to trick him into playing a game of Red Light, Green Light to get him to hold still long enough to be caught by the chopsticks, so he could make his magical journey through the intestines of the Bossman. Nice, eh? A heinous way to encourage kids to eat their vegetables

I might also add that I was able to watch all of this on my new digital cable connection. Apparently the switch is happening in July of next year, but they came and changed my hook-up yesterday, which included them fixing my channels that formerly came in crappily. I had to leave work to meet them here, but it was ok because I had nothing else to do yesterday anyway, seeing as it was the first day of spring break. Kids are still around, of course, it IS Japan, but there are less of them. As the week goes on, there'll be less teachers too. Yesterday I spent the first half of the day on the internet learning how to make pie crusts from scratch, admiring petit four flavoring methods, and studying what defines the differences between cakes like genoise, victoria sponge, butter, stollen, pound, ruske kape, etc, etc. I felt like I deserved a break after all the chaos that has comprised the last few weeks.
between: (hydrangea)
Thursday, September 17th, 2009 02:15 pm
9/6
My computer’s been screwing up, but I don’t want to talk about it. Now everything seems to be fine except the internet, which I can get sporadically but it won’t seem to stay. Nothing is more frustrating than trying to navigate necessities of life without the proper language skills.

Last night I went for a sprint instead of a run, since I got such a late start and have been realizing more and more than I need to start sleeping.

I’ve been trying to shop lately so as to finish my apartment, but the thing about Japan, is that no matter what you want to find, it is only available in “powder pink,” “powder blue,” “flowers,” or “kitty.” While that may *sound* like cute paradise, it really pisses the hell out of you after you’ve bought a few dishes and are ready to move on to respectable carpeting. Cuteland is a nice place to visit, but you don’t want to live there.

Today, as I was going around the major home store and getting really really frustrated by all the unmatched adorable, I finally just gave up and left. Suddenly, I read “home fashion” on a sign and followed it, so I was lucky enough to find a wonderful, wonderful store!! It’s like the Pier 1 of Japan! I went ahead and bought a futon cover and some wall hangings, and I plan to return for other things after I take some measurements. I think maybe after Silver Week (my 7 days off in a 9 day expanse with nothing to do), my apartment might be finished.

As I was coming home, my neighbor across the hall also happened to be coming out. That never happens and I hadn’t met him yet, so I introduced myself and he was like, “just wait!” and he came back out with a melon! The man gave me a cantaloupe! Do you know how much those are worth in Japan?? It’s like a $15 fruit! So I scurried in the house, packed his omiyage with some extra chocolates (best I could do in short notice) and came back to ask him about his work and explain that I would have introduced myself earlier but I wanted to practice my Japanese before going around the neighborhood. It was a pretty good conversation, but I was so nervous that I rehearsed it in my head a million times first while packing the omiyage. I definitely want to make it up to him for giving me a melon! It was sooo good ^.^ and it was really nice to have an American food for free so that I could eat it freely, which meant sitting down to half a melon for breakfast without feeling any guilt!! Though if anyone asks, I shared it with 8 of my friends for dessert, ok?
between: (mameshiba)
Sunday, August 9th, 2009 10:13 pm
If you're interested in other ridiculous things coming out of Japan:
http://www.curiosite.com/scripts/news/ennews.php?frmIdPagina=10093

My pred bought the bubble wrap one. It's just a little plastic square with bubbles sticking out of it and if you push it enough times it makes a little "wark" sound or says "yosh!"

Some people think such eccentricities make Japan strange or frivolous. I think it shows a great sense of humor and zest for life.