Well well well, I haven’t been to this side in quite some time..I’m still in Japan, with a new job, and I have long since completed that kanji book I was working on, but my Japanese studies have not stopped. I will be taking the second level 2級 test in December!
But enough of that.. If you at all liked this site, check out and subscribe to my Youtube. It’s been up for about 2 months now. All about Japan and other randomness.
Hey. It’s been a while I guess. But my computer totally crapped out on me last week. So I guess that’s my excuse. I lost 2500 songs. That’s the worst part. And since Itunes doesn’t allow you to import songs from Ipod to PC, I now have a hugely filled ipod but a severly lacking comp. Sucks. But as life goes on.
No real new news going on in my life, I recently have become really good friends with a student, about 32 which seems strange when purely looking at the numbers but she doesn’t seem that old so its seems ok to me.
My school also recieved a new manager after the previous manager only had a three month tenure. Let me try to explain this in as minimally boring way as possible. Every school has a sales goal. These sales can come from new students, current student renewals, and book sales. So, our last manager went to every last possivle student to see if there was any new money to be sucked out. While this is ultimately bad for the student, it worked as she acheived goal in all of her three months. But because of this, now our school is sort of dry on new money. SOOOO they send her to a new school where there is new money to be mad. Good for the bottom line, bad for students. But I didnt like her anyway. And the new manager is cute so I just might ask her to dinner tomorrow.. but we shall see my friends..
Japanese Culture Lesson… On the phone.. Bye, or a japanese counterpart is RARELY used. 99% of the time there is no English “bye-bye”. Usually just an “sumimasen”(excuse me) or an Onegaishimasu(please) is used. So when talking to a Japanese person on the phone this can really leave you wanted more. Like you wait for that last confirmation that the call is over… and BAM.. click. Chalk it up to a cultural difference I guess, but it really leaves you with an unfinished feeling. Call it phone blue balls.
Kanji Progress Report…I’m up to 567.. I have wrote over 3000 kanji is three weeks. A callous has formed on my finger, but I won’t lie I wear it has a badge of honor. I WILL master this fucker. So this is just part of the ride.
Kou Shibasaki checking in……..
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Music of the Day..Yuna Ito – “Journey” Just a cool song.
I promise to make a post of more substance in the days to come.. I’m just loving Japan at the moment…..
Seemingly out of nowhere, my schedule has gotten busy. I used to have ample time to relax, study Japanese, and plan my lessons at my leisure. But since we got a new manager, this has changed. I’m not going to lie it’s wearing on me. I used to go to work knowing I would not have to work that hard, but know I know I do have to do a lot of work. Sucks. Actual Work Sucks. Golden week is next week( a week of holidays) though so maybe that will recharge me.
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Japanese Culture/Language of the Day…. a cool statue that is outside of restaurants in town is that of a Tanuki(たぬき), or raccoon dog. In Japanese folklore these animals are always happy and can shapeshift and be general sneaks. After some wikipedia sleuthing it also appears that they sometimes have huge testicles that add to thier overall humor, or creepiness. Judge for yourself;
an actual tanuki
Statue Tanuki – jury is still out on wether or not those are balls
Mario Tanooki from Super Mario Bros. 3 before and after shapeshifting
Interesting ne?
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Music of the Day… Song from karaoke a few nights ago I heard for the first time…Ai – ” Story” Off to work… Ugh
So recently at my Japanese lesson my teacher has been given me old Japanese children’s stories to read and translate for practice. Today when the lesson was almost over, my teacher asked some random person to come over. Then it was time for me to read one of these said stories. I was nervous and felt like a kindergardener again, but it was good practice. To make it worse the girl was cute. And trust me there is nothing less manly then reading like “One d-d-day they person, Oops people went to the p-p-p-park.” But she clapped when I was done so that was cool. All on the path towards the goal I guess.
Last night was a big guy’s night out with the some guys from town. I drank way too much, but it was a sweet time. All you can drink dinner, than all you can drink karaoke for 3 hours. Apparently I am known as the guy with girls now. I always deny it and really don’t think it is true, but I am usually seen by those guys with various girls. But there are much worse things to get made fun of in life than having a lot of girls. In actuality I’m not like a ladies man at all, but I am just always seen in town by those guys when I do have a female companion. One dude was especially jeoulus and even asked for my number so I could help him out. To my ego crazy brain, nothing felt better. But as usual I need more. I want a knockout.
There’s one funny thing about my tastes in Japan. I sort of think the girls that dye their hair blonde are sexy… but apparently to girls that don’t dye their hair, they are total sluts. These girls are always with the guys that dress all ghetto and look like junkies. I don’t understand it. They are sexy as hell though. They always wear those thigh high tights that I love. I don’t like Ganguro, which is tanned as hell along with the blonde hair, but dyed hair with a nice skirt is sexy. But it seems those girls aren’t really interested in foreigners, but I will attempt to break that trend. I prefer the black, but I don’t mind the blonde movement. Some google examples..
(eyes enlarged?????? that’s a debate for another day…)
Got to have a guy as well to be fair…
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Japanese of the Day…………………………..since today I had one… let’s go over hangover..
二日酔い = futsukayoi = hangover
二日＝futsuka = two days
酔っ払い＝yopparai =drunk
Together means = Two Days Drunk!!! Funny ne?
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Music of the Day…Awesome Finnish European Symphonic Metal…. Nightwish.. The Poet and the Pendulum.. Slow start but when it kicks in.. it rocks.. their new singer isn’t as good as there old one, Tarja Turunen, but this song is still good. Rock out.
So today I had to wake up at 7 to pass out flyers since a high school’s first day was today. It was a sight to see. No less than 5 English school were they’re with us, doing the same shit. Forcing unwilling students to take they’re flyer they could care less about. Most people say Japanese are afraid to stand out and be pushy, but I guess those rules don’t apply when handing out flyers. These crazy ass people would shove it in the students face untill the students took it. Like 5 poeple SWARM each student and attack them with thier flyers. This would never work in America, since the students would just drop the flyers on the ground seconds after recieving it. But in Japan that’s not cool so they keep it, even though they really don’t care. I was easily bored and not into forcing people to take flyers, so I found the cutest other school teacher and started up a convo.
She was like really cute. A little older than me, maybe late 20’s but she was cute. Her English was ok, but I had fun teasing her about people taking my flyer and not hers. I SOOO badly wanted to get her phone number, but my manager was like hey your at work now, no time for girls! I ignored it, but couldn’t figure a way to get her number without appearing that I was actually getting her number. Also I was nervous becuase she was actually good looking, which is a common thing for me. Not hot, no problem asking for the number. Hot, I get nervous as hell. At least I know where she works, but god damn it I’m stupid.
Remember that cute student that I gave my email too because she wasn’t sure she was going to sign up to be a student? Well she signed up as a private student. She’s cute, but damn she’s one of those people that ALWAYS laugh at EVERYTHING. Reall annoying. I find myself turning down the humour becuase I get tired of her fucking laughing. But she’s cute. And she REALLY wants to meet foreigners…..I guess I can help her out with that. She comes next Friday so I will ask her if she wants to do something this weekend. We will see what transpires….
————————————————————————- Japanese of the Day…Fun Fact.. When describing people, you don’t say a person’s nose is big, you say it is high not big. Strange but true.
Mika’s nose is big and cute.
みかのはなが たかくて、かわいいです。
美嘉の鼻が 高くて、可愛いです。
Mika no hana ga takakute, kawaii desu.
Guest Source… Hideki Matsui
He just got married, so I was trying to find pictures of his new bride, but apparently he had a secret marraige so the Japanese press wouldn’t jump all over her. Probably a good desicion. But judging from that drawing, she isn’t so hot.
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Music of the Day..Meatload – “Two out of three ain’t bad” Talk about depressing. That’s why I like it.
Well today I was informed on of my students complained about me. Since this is the first time I was a little shocked, and also very interested to find out what exactly they complained about. It turns out, I talk fast. So whatever. The student that complained is much to low for the book she is currently on, so everything is hard for her. It is difficult to teach classes with all different level students. But still obviosuly I need to change something. So I will ATTEMPT to swallow my pride and change, even though it is so so so so so so hard for me.
Since the NHL playoffs are looming, my schedule consists of going to sleep at 1am.. and waking up and 8am.. to watch the most important games. The playoffs are the best time of year. This year its tough, since it seems I am sooo far away, which I am. I haven’t missed season opener or season finale in 4 years for my team. This year has been tough. The excitement, dissapointment, anxiousness, and anxiety of the playoffs will be much different this year… we will see.
Go Penguins.
Who’s Next? Montages are the best
Japanese of the Day..node(ので)..because or since..
Because she’s hot, it’s easy to look at her.
かのじょはきれいなので、みやすい！
Kanojo wa kirei na node, miyasui!
Guest Source Goto Maki and Gackt
Shes hot. Some girls say Gackt is to feminine, but others go crazy for him. It’s up to you.
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Music of the Day..Do as Infinity…TOA..cool song..ignore the motorcycle backround..
Here’s a fun fact. You know when you are viewing your favorite adult websites, and there is occasionally ads that appear with girls that supposively want to meet you now? Well, when they state where the girls are from they correctly state Japan, but all the girls remain obivously non-Asian looking while they’re names are changed to Japanese…lol. The Ad system can only be soo accurate, but it’s a good attempt. So occasionally youll see a blonde woman with huge boobs supposively named Tomoko from Japan. It makes me laugh.
I love Japanese women’s fashion. That is all.
Today at work we had a visitor today that was thinking of signing up. Being midly cute, and sensing that my company was to expensive for her, I gave her my email. Afterwards I felt like I shouldn’t have, but we’ll see if she emails! She ended up not being sure if she wanted to sign up for class justst as I suspected so we will see if she emails me. It’s sort of funny, but once a student officially becomes a student, getting personal info is difficult becuase their are always other students around. So the window for a personal relationship is small. So I took a chance. We’ll see what happens. My company is totally cool with student teacher relationships but I still would feel weird if my manager or coworker knew I did it.
Music of the Day….this is pretty gay but I like it. Ashley Tisdale – doing The Little Mermaid’s “Kiss the Girl” It’s just catchy and good. Shut up. Rock out to it.
You know when you that last hour of work comes and all you can think about it getting home and relazing? Well that happened to me, and THEN I got asked to go to karaoke with the kids teacher in my school. I was SOOOO against it in my head, but it seems she really wanted to go so I went. It turned out to be really fun. My song list…..I’m quickly learning the best songs for my voice in karaoke, but it just takes time haha… Ok
“More than a Feeling” – Boston
“I Would Do Anything for Love” – Meatloaf
“American Idiot” – Greenday
“Under the Sea” – Ummm the Little Mermaid
“Beauty and the Beast” – Ummm yeah the movie
“The Origin of Love” -= Hedwig and the Angry Itch <—my go-to song by far
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Japanese of the Day..My teacher just gave me the unofficial Level 4 the (lowest of 4) Japanese test. Not sure if I passed, but I asked for a copy after so I could study it… So here is a couple of questions- Maybe just one if it takes too long….
さかな たくさん ＿＿＿＿＿ います。
A. およぎて B. およぐて C. およいで D. およんで
さかな=fish たくさん=lots います=-ing
Ok so this question is trying to get the correct verb form of Oyogu(泳ぐ) which means swim.
So the correct answer is……. C. -te form of oyogu is… およいで
The fish are swimming a lot.
Next one…
その カメラ ＿＿＿＿ きのう かいました。
A. が B. は C. の D. で
その カメラ=that camera きのう=yesterday かいました=bought
Ok so particle question….
This one is difficult for me..so I might be incorrect, because A and B can be used so interchangeably.
But the sentence is saying..
I bought this camera yesterday.
My guess is C, but that’s an educated scribble on the scantron sheet.
Scantrons = only multiple choice tests… yesssssssss
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Music of the Day… I guess a song from karaoke… Meatloaf – “I would do anything for love” What is this song about? Does anyone actually know?
I haven’t wrote much recently. I think it’s mainly because I don’t want to really write about whats going on. Just girl drama that I don’t want. Be careful what you wish for.
Anyways, recently I have been doing a class about environmental issues with 2 of my classes. I always bring up the USA’s issue with the killing of whales by Japan for research. I don’t fully understand the issues so I really have no side on the subject. But, the conversation eventually leads to the old ways of killing whales, which involved spearing the animal and letting it swim untill the blood loss and fatigue kill it.
My students then point out we kill cows and pigs and such. Then I point out the way we kill those animals is usually instant death, like shocking or beheading. (even though from doing more research, it seems cutting of the throat is more popular)
Tough Video Warning..
Anyways when posing the question to my students of How would you rather die? The way of the whale, or the way of American beef?—EVERYONE has chosen the whale, spearing than waiting for death method.
The reason? Tradition
They say it is a tradition to die this way so it is much better than being not respected and just having your neck slit.
Interesting thought…. I would rather choose the neck slit, since it definitly involves less suffering, but it is interesting to hear how much tradition means to Japanese people, even in death.
What would you choose?
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Japanese of the Day..I guess some animals would be ok for this post…Let’s go Animal Farm on this bitch…
Music of the Day………Cool little video I found.チャットモンチー「ヒラヒラヒラク秘密ノ扉) Good luck with the title. But the band name is Chattomonchi! and the song name starts with birabirabirabirabira something. Its a cool little song
I think I have mono. I could always sleep if I wanted. If I lay down for any amount of time, I really could sleep. I guess I’m not worried, but it sucks sometimes. Don’t know what I should do, but I will just see if it stops eventually. Hopefully.
Japanese of the Day…Japanese has many verb forms…. For example..au(会う)…(meet)
1st Negative form: Awanai = I don’t meet
2nd Conjunctive form: Ai(masu/mashita) = I meet/met(normal-polite)
3rd Dictionary form: Au = I meet(casual)
4th Conditional form: Ae(ba) = If I meet
5th Volitional form: Aou = Let’s meet
6th TE form: Atte = I meet and…(indicates another verb will follow)
7th TA form: Atta = I met(casual)
difficult……..ne? Misaki Ito..thoughts?
<—“you suck”
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Music of the Day…It’s not music but it’s awesome..Bobby Lee from MadTV doing “Memiors of a Geisha” parody…. funny as hell..
<—“you suck”
Chapter Shi 
