Tokyo Bound

Tomorrow we'll be starting our Tokyo-bound holiday. Our bus leaves Fukuoka Station at around 10:30pm or so, and we'll be arriving in Osaka at 6:30am the next day. I hope we'll actually be able to sleep on the bus, or it'll turn into Europe all over again.
We spend a day in Osaka, then the next day in Kyoto, then Yamanashi for the new year at a hot spring that a friend of mine's family owns, and then Tokyo after that for two days.
...Then straight home I guess. We'll be back on the 4th.

My Couch

I bought a couch the other day and it got delivered today. For those of you skeptical as to whether or not it is actually a couch, I'll admit that I don't know what else to call it. It can fold all the way down if I want, and it's quite comfortable.

Leaving on a jet plane

Don't know when I'll be back again.

Actually, that's a total lie. I'll be back on Sunday night, and we're going by bus.
Me and a bunch of people are going to the neighbouring prefecture of Oita tomorrow for the weekend. We are sure to have quite the adventure.

Packages!!!!

This morning 3 x-mas parcels got delivered to my apartment. There's so much to eat, I'm thinking of throwing a party so everyone can get a sample of Canadian candy. I got two little christmas trees and they're both set up with presents around them. Naturally the tough part will be waiting 24 more days to be able to open any of them...

Thanks to my family for sending me great things!
Omi, the sweater is great, it's really warm. I'm going to use it pre-christmas because I need it; it's already getting pretty cold.

I joined the Tea Club and am still a man

In English it sounds wussy, but I assure that it's far from that. There are guys in the club way cooler than I'll ever be. 茶道 ("Sadou" - The Way of Tea) and お茶会 ("Ochakai" - Tea Ceremonies) are of the most important aspects of Japanese traditional culture, and originally, back in the day when people were still cutting each other in half over land, only men were allowed to do it.
Over time they let the girls in too, and now it's a fairly popular activity all over the country.

The sensei is most likely the nicest person I've ever met in my life. I don't think Jesus has anything on this woman. She gave me a beautiful cloth used during the ceremony called a fukusa that has some pictures of horses and words of wisdom written on it. I swear this cloth could lull crying babes to sleep and stop the war in Iraq; it's that soft.

I officially signed a thingy saying I joined, and during the closing statements of night it got mentioned by one of the senior members that I would be joining, and everyone applauded and I said some humble words to beg their good treatment of me in the future. I had to do a self introduction as well, and everyone was surprised at my age and height, as usual.

All that's left to do is make an inkan (a name stamp) and a kimono.

I'm doomed.

Got the results of our health exams back today, and it turns out I`m a perfectly healthy for Japanese male, except that I have low LDL Cholesterol. A little memo on the results paper said `We can find a slight abnormality in the examination data, but you need not think yourself to be ill,` which I naturally thought was a Japanese euphemism for `I`m done for`.

ハロウィーンで交流会 ： 留学生ら親睦深める

The following is a newspaper article from Sundays print of the Saga Newspaper.

　ハロウィーンにちなんだパーティーが七日夕、佐賀大学本庄キャンパスで初めて開かれた。在学生と十一ヵ国の留学生が仮想し、学長室などを訪問。国別対抗のパフォーマンスコンテストで親睦をお深めた。
　佐賀大には三百人を超える留学生がいる。ただ、日本人学生と触れ合う機会は少ないといい、学内の交流サークル「A・C・S」がイベントを企画した。
　参加者は「トリック・オア・トリート（お菓子をくれないと、いたずらするぞ）」とはやし立て、学長室や研究室を訪問。菓子をもらう代わりに、出身国の音楽を収めたCDなどを贈った。
　カナダ出身のウードブリ・コリンさん（二〇）や中国のチョウイツヒンさん（二〇）は「日本人の友達をつくるきっかけになる」と、催しを歓迎。ベトナムから一ヶ月前来日したばかりのファン・ティ・トゥハンさん（二二）も「寂しくなくなる」と喜び、大学会館で開かれたコンテストでは伝統衣装アオザイを着て、同郷の三人と一緒に歌を披露した。
　企画した小山修矢さん（二一）＝文化教育学部三年＝は「交流を根付かせ、地域にも広げたい」と意気込んでいた。
　（井上）


The translation of which is as follows:

A party dedicated to Halloween took place for the first time at Saga University's Honjo campus this past Friday. Current students as well as international students from eleven countries disguised themselves and visited various places, including the office of the Dean. The students also deepened their friendships through a country-by-country performance contest.
While Saga University has over three hundred international students, it seems that opportunities for them to truly interact with Japanese students are few and far between, and as such, a student group called the ACS rose to the occasion and organized such an event.
Those who attended paid visits to the offices of various professors as well as the office of the Dean, chanting "Trick or Treat!" as they came. Instead of getting candy, however, the students gave gifts of CD's containing music of the students' various home countries, among other things.
Colin Woodbury (20), from Canada, and Chou Wi Tsuhin (20), from China, praised such an event as a "wonderful opportunity to forge new friendships." Fan Ti Touhan (22), a Vietnamese who arrived only a month ago, stated with enthusiasm, "It's a great way to beat loneliness," as she, along with three of her fellow Vietnamese, performed a tune in traditional dress in one of the main halls of the university.
The organizer, Koyama Shuuya (21) - 3rd year Culture & Education student - expressed his own wishes by saying, "I really want to expand our horizons by setting the cornerstones in (cultural) exchange."


Mom, please do print this off and save it.

Not for Western Viewing

http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=AoDBgG97EU4

...because you won't understand it. Not a lick of English!
That's because this was a video made as a DVD gift to be given out during our Halloween party which is, in fact, today.

唐津

Videooooos
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=Pg2oRJJNTG4

Rich! ...not really

Got a thing in the mail from 'au' (my cellphone company) telling me I was rich, and it was true. Off to the post office I went with it and out I walked with 10,000 yen (100 bucks).
Considering my cellphone cost that in the first place, I think it's great. I'll be eating great tonight!
...again not really, since I already put it all in the bank. I've got 3000 yen to last me the weekend. No prob, I think.

2008 Saga International Balloon Fiesta

(the above) is what I went to today! It was a SPACE outing, and thus technically a class, maybe. We had tons of fun and I took tons of pictures and videos at the order of some friends.

What it was in a nutshell was a international gathering of hot air balloon enthusiasts and random people coming to watch. That said, the hill-thing where everyone was sitting was packed - hundreds, if not thousands of people - shops were everywhere, food, free food, more food, people yelling out irasshaimase! (Welcome! - A line said whenever you enter a restaurant or get anywhere near a shop of any sort), balloons, more balloons, and lots of good ol' wholesome Saga dialect.

We actually blew the pants off of a number of people with our ability to speak Japanese :)

That, and we actually got to have a conversation with the male and female MC's.
We were all gathered pretty close to the perch where they were announcing things, and when the male MC leaned out the window and looked at me I shouted out konnichiwa!
He asked me in English, "Where are you from?" to which I replied in Japanese, "I'm Canadian," to which his pants were blown clean off.

I said to him in Saga dialect, 写真ば取ってよかですか？ (May I take a picture?)
He replied back in Saga dialect, よかばい！ (Sure thing!)

Balloons :)

EDIT: I totally pissed off a praying mantis this morning, and took a video while doing so. I'll post it later.

English Tips

Went with Mana today to a middle school to listen to the practice speeches that a few middle school students will doing next week Tuesday. Her and another friend that came along gave the kids tips about performance and poise, while I gave advice on pronunciation and so forth.
It was an interesting experience because of our relative statuses, the students had to speak to us politely by obligation, whereas we spoke to them normally. It was probably my first time actually being in that position where I could be justified in speaking plainly to someone I had just met. Such is the way Japanese works.

Not saying I was on a power trip because of that, but it felt good to be recognized as someone's senior physically through the use of language.

Curry Tonight

Shuuya is coming over in about an hour. We're going to make curry and swap manly stories.

Last night was a huge party to officially welcome all the international students. By the looks of things SPACE is just a tiny group compared to the overall population of normal international students.
We all hung out in the common room of the dorm for about two hours, and then afterward a good 30 of us headed out to a restaurant where we got good and hammered. All of us.
I took pictures but haven't uploaded them yet. I talked to a lot of people and, as usual, got the "How tall are you, where are you from, why is your Japanese so good", which by now is something that happens on a near-daily basis.

In other news, my kitties are huge. The girl in the picture is who I shall assume is one of my sisters.

I Yet Live : Video Edition

http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=PYCu3dewTqg

You killed my father, so now I'll go study

There's a word in Japanese which is pronounced the same but has two different writings and thus two different meanings.

The word is "fukushuu", often used to by students to tell others that they're studying what they didn't really understand during the lecture, or that they just want to review the material. It basically means "to go over again/to review/to revise".
The second writing, and thus the second meaning, means "revenge". Just like English there are words that sound the same but mean different things, and those meaning are understood automatically through context. It is even clearer in Japanese since "different writing" means "different symbols" and thus the meaning smacks you in the face regardless of the context.

So, a few days ago, a friend of mine asked me if I would be doing "fukushuu" later. Being a manga fan and translator, I only knew of the one meaning at the time he asked me. Can you guess which one?

...

My response was something along the lines of "Why, did you kill my father?"

We had a good laugh as he explained the second meaning. My bad.

Well, off I go to get some fukushuu done. To be clear, my father is alive and well.

Another Festival

This time it was at the medical campus of Saga University, which is, unfortunately, nowhere near the main campus. Soooo the 9 of us went on a bit of a bicycle trip and eventually got there. On the way we passed over this cool bridge from which you can see all of Saga from the top.
The festival itself didn't have much to offer; the girls did a bit of shopping at a kiosk-ish type place while the rest of waited around. After that we all sat in the shade 'cause it was hot as hell. Ate some cool things I can't remember the names of.

Wataru is over right now and we're listening to some music. He thinks it's pretty cool. I lent him my PTH cd.

@SABU: He likes PTH, dragonforce, aaaand Mors Principium. Excellent.

祭り

Went to a festival today with some friends and friends of friends. It took place at 佐賀神社 (Saga's Shinto Temple). It was good it was fun.
I talked to a random old guy who called out to me in English. Naturally I responded in Japanese. He was surprised by my height and asked if I do any sports.
I ate some meat from a little stand and played a shooting game with my buddy Shuuya. We both knocked prizes over but apparently that wasn't enough to actually win them. It was pretty much rigged to be impossible.
We threw money into a thingy and prayed to mystical spirits with some other Japanese people. We saw some cool flower arrangement and I learned that pigeon in Japanese is "hato".
It started to rain so we eventually headed home, at which point it rained more.

I was sitting at home doing a translation when I thought to myself, "Why am I so hungry?"
I soon realized that it was because I hadn't yet eaten dinner. Woops.
I fixed that in a hurry. For 505 yen.

Yaaay the week is over. The entire weekend is holidays too. No classes on Monday (not like I had class on Monday to begin with, but you get the point).
I have a lot of translating to do. We're having a kanji test every week in Japanese class and there's kanji left right and center in the readings I have to do for computer hardware. Weeeee.

Crickets

There are lots of them every night outside my back door. Anyway;

I've learned a lot, and not even through classes. Mana has taught me a little bit of Japanese cuisine and says she'll teach me more. My language ability has gone through the roof and I've only been here for two weeks.

I'm pretty sure my finances are on track. I've been moving a lot of money into my 佐賀銀行 (Bank of Saga) account to be safe. A lot of the things I have to pay for are automatically withdrawn from that account anyway.

I didn't really have the intention of coming home for Christmas to begin with, but now it's come to light that I wouldn't be able to anyway, since Christmas in Japan (rather, the idea of Christmas) is only for commercial purposes and isn't actually celebrated as a holiday. Therein, I may actually have exams on Christmas Day, let alone free time.

Three classes tomorrow. My busy day. One of them is "Computer Hardware", a course taught by my supervisor. It'll be all in Japanese.

Got drunk with the lads

We played Jenga too. Weeeeeeeee.

Pictures

On facebook.

Internet!!!!!

I have it now.

EDIT: I read my mom's blog.
I can't really be dead in a ditch, because the ditches here and not so much ditches as they are tiny rivers that help alleviate the rain water when it rains. Which it does, as it did today. Certain times of the year are typhoon season, so I'm told it can get pretty rainy.

I bought an electronic dictionary. It's quite the handy little tool. Classes for space students officially start tomorrow, but I don't have any classes on Mondays this semester.

EDIT FURTHER: @SABU -> Guess what I found in a CD store in Fukuoka? Kezia.

I dont feel like thinking up a creative title

I already bought a futon but forgot to add that to the list. Its big and nice.
Cant get a cat persay, because my place is small and the poor thing would go insane, but I sort of adopted a local cat in spirit. It probably belongs to the house its always hanging out in front of. I named it Tsuribari-chan, which means something like Lil Hook. I named it that because the end of its tail is hook-shaped.

I Yet Live

THINGS I NOW OWN:
Fridge
Microwave
Rice cooker
Hot plate
Book shelves
Table
Food
Vaccuum cleaner
Kettle
Cell phone
Bike
Internet is getting hooked up on sunday

Interesting things to know about japanese cell phones:
They can do anything
They can cure the sick, nourish empoverished countries, and create matter from nothing.
That, and each cell phone has its own email address, so should anyone wish to email me directly, the address is as follows: 0ee4752t3263b0y@ezweb.ne.jp
Note that anything that may appear in that address to be an `o` as in `orange` is in fact a zero.

Turns out I can get money from the ATM at the post office. No prob.
And, Im pretty much out of the money I came with because of all the crap I had to buy and contracts I had to pay for, but Ive done my budgeting and Ill be able to survive no problem with tons of money left over.

生活できる - I can live

My rice cooker and fridge came this morning and I paid the friendly man who delivered them.
I can finally buy food and get cooking.

Steve came yesterday. He was a zombie. My jetlag IS gone now. I slept beautifully last night on my freshly purchased futon set.

Things still left to do -> Cell phone, bank account, post office account, personal seal, bike, garbage can, maybe a microwave.

@JOHN - Couldnt have brought it anyway without paying money.

@AMANDA - Yeah pretty much. Its a lot of fun. And no I dont really have to keep asking them to repeat things. We all talk in plain form anyway. Polite form is weird.

@MOM - Im alive. My place pretty much had nothing in it when I got it.

@CLAIRE - Did you convert it right? I said the equivilant of $30 a month.

Getting used to it

My jet lag is pretty much gone.

Mana and I did tons of shopping yesterday. Spent about... 300 dollars or so. Still not done, too. I've ordered my fridge and rice cooker but those won't be here until tomorrow. Mana showed me to a dollar store where a lot of university students shop where you can buy lots of things for 100 yen. It's pretty convenient.
My futon and table got delivered this morning. I've almost got everything, except food.

Steve is coming today. Mana and I wanted to go with Mio to Fukuoka originally to meet him when his plane came in, but I had to stay home today and wait for my futon to come. I still don't have a cell phone (tomorrow, probably) so I don't know if Mio left already or not. She probably did. It's 12:50 pm right now.

Bought some bookshelves too. On our way to the store, we randomly met up with one of Mana's friends, and he came with us to the store, and then to my place afterwards to help build the bookshelves. His name is Wataru.

Don't have classes til the 6th. Our Japanese Language test is on Tuesday. Turns out I'm pretty good at Japanese. Apparently most of the time, people who come for the SPACE problem know barely any or none.

Guess that's all for today. Mana thinks it'll be a good idea if I get internet at my place. Only 3000￥ a month, apparently. She says that I'll have to right reports and things once school starts, and the computer labs at the university only have certain hours that they're available.

That's all for today.

Oh, and yeah, by the looks of things, Japanese cell phone can, in fact, cure cancer.

@JOHN: Man, just as I thought, the days are SO long. Seriously, living a day takes like, a week.

@JAZ: And why didn't you name that fish after me?

@MOM: I'm not culture shocking and I never did.

So much Japanese

I spent most of the day with Mio, and Im at Manas place right now. So much Japanese all over the place. Im drinking tea and typing with apostrophes because I cant find the key on Manas keyboard. Oh well. It looks like getting internet in my place with be a bother, so I might just stick with using the universitys or stealing Manas.

My apartment is awesome. I love it, its so small. I have to go buy my own Futon tomorrow with Mana. Lots of shopping to do.

以上！

I'm tired.

Going to check out soon, I suppose. My head hurts.
I bought some breakfast from a little convenience store place, which was fun.
I have to take a taxi to Tenjin bus station, and then a high-speed bus to Saga where Mio will meet me. After that it's a day of running errands. Wee.

福岡 - Fukuoka

So much Japanese... you get treated different when they find out you can speak it. The busboy at the hotel here actually complimented me on it, to which I naturally replied that such a thing could not be possible.

Fell asleep right away on the plane from Tokyo to Fukuoka, which was a nice little 2 hour time skip. A taxi from the airport to the hotel only cost 1500 yen, which I thought was perfectly reasonable considering the convenience and the lack of effort involved on my part.

Called Mana at the airport, turns out Mio was there too so I talked to them both. Mana said her mom was worried about me too. Had some phone issues but I guess I'll get used to it once I get my cell and all that.

I'm so tired. I'll get pictures up on here when I have patience left.

東京なりた空港 - Tokyo Narita Airport

Both Winnipeg and Chicago were jerks and wouldn't let me have internet access without paying unreasonable amounts of money, so here I am in Toyko on a public computer with 200 of my yen in it!

Flight from Winnipeg to Chicago was short, but I can say with all honesty that it was the oldest and smallest airplane I've ever been in. In the Chicago airport I met a guy named Aaron who's photo I failed to take, but it turns out he lives in Toyko and is actually married and going to school here.

The flight from Chicago to Toyko was THE BEST I've ever been on. I swear Jesus must have been in the kitchen cooking the food we ate, because it was amazing. The plane was huge and very comfortable. I was instantly speaking Japanese to my seat neighbour (who's name is Seiji, he lives in Tokyo and he gave me his e-mail for if I'm ever back in town to visit) and the flight attendants. It might have thrown them off a bit at first, but it was fun.
We didn't actually fly over the pacific. We went back up North-west, across Manitoba and eventually up into Alaska to cross over the Bering Straight and then down towards Japan. Maybe flying over open ocean is too risky? Who knows.
At any given time the temperature outside the plane was anywhere from -40 to -55, and our speed ranged from 750-850 km/h.
Turns out my bags didn't automatically go straight to Fukuoka, I had to pick them up here. I've rechecked them by now, so it doesn't really matter. It's currently 4:03 pm, and my next flight leaves just short of 8pm.

This is easier than I thought it would be.

Tomorrow

Tomorrow. This is it. Everything is ready! All I have to look forward to now is a day-long luggage packing adventure. It won't be too bad though, I plan to make a stylish entrance as I arrive at the fancy hotel I'm paying too much for. Oh well, you get what you pay for, and what you all are going to get is updates from my hotel room, as well as some pictures!

Expect updates from Chicago International, Toyko Narita Airport, and the Fukuoka Grand Hyatt Hotel.

I'm excited.

Visa and Visa

As of this morning I've been accepted for both a TD Student Visa, as well as a Student Visa (passport kind) that lets me into Japan for the year!

I guess now I can buy tons of cars, boats and houses and stuff. That's what everybody does when they get a credit card, right?

Departure Date

Having finally received some documentation from Japan, I turns out that they want us there between September 25th and the 29th.

So it looks like I'll be here for a month longer than we originally thought!

The First Step

Naturally before I leave I have to make sure all things medicals are taken care of. In particular my teeth have been an issue for the last while, and as such I had my wisdom teeth taken out this morning. Wouldn't be very nice to have dental problems when I'm in a different country, would it?

So, they're out, and I spent the entire day on the couch with my trusty laptop. I've got three days book off work for recovery, so I suspect I'll be doing pretty much the same thing for the rest of the weekend.

Eating solid food is... a no-no, and a man can only eat so much pudding and apple sauce before he goes insane. Heal soon, my dear mouth, you need to eat steak on Sunday.

Test Post

Awesome test post, right here.