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.