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The other side of strange
Well, what have we here? Tuesday, November 27, 2001
UNCG changed its main page!!! This is a landmark event. Not only that, but IT`S NOT UGLY ANYMORE! So go see! I am now no longer ashamed to post the link, hee.
I have just seen what I think can justifiably be called the most disturbing thing ever to grace the evening news. Little photographed heads of terrorist groups pasted onto CG Gumby-like bodies, DANCING and playing tug-o-war. It was like Saddam from South Park, only so much worse. They were using them to illustrate how the different groups worked together, I think... or something like that. Just goes to show how removed we are from all this nastiness up here-- they can show little cutesy diagrams and maps and charts to their heart`s content and not be bothered by a bit of it. That, I think, is what I have finally decided is so strange about the evening news here-- not only do the shows not compete for viewers with sensationalism and flashy presentation and boasts of `news you want when you want it` (which is WONDERFUL), but all of it is presented with this bizarre overtone of distance. Like, here it is, here`s what is going on outside of the country... just in case you care. Not like it affects anyone here or anything. It is so odd-- Japan is at once very global and so very, very homogeneous. They are aware of the rest of the world, but at the same time hold themselves so aloof from it. I know by now that I really do have no idea what the last couple of months have been like for people in America, by virtue of the fact that I have been here, where everything is reported but nothing is felt.
Boy, is it gonna be weird when we get home.
On another tangent, Japanese people LOVE charts and diagrams and little cartoon summaries of situations. Even things that sooo do not need them get these pretty little graphs and charts drawn up on nice shiny presentation boards. The evening news even used a real-life three-D topographical map of Afghanistan complete with little flags representing the deployment of opposing forces to show what was going on over there at one point. All the variety and health shows on TV use charts and stuff (dunno exactly what for, can`t read the darn things) too, and it cracks me up. I voiced this observation to Maiko one evening (she is Japanese but went to high school in another country, and speaks English better than quite a few Americans I know), and she laughed out loud and agreed with me. She can`t explain it either.
I am sitting here in Suchinda`s laboratory on one of the computers, blowing on my hands and with a space heater trained on my legs. All the buildings here are so fekkin` COLD! My classrooms are even colder than outside, most mornings. These girls run around in skirts and knee socks and thin jackets and scarves and complain about the cold, but no one ever seems to think to TURN ON THE HEAT. Hell, they leave all the doors to the outside wide open all day (and most of the night, too)! Gee, I wonder why it`s so bloody freezing in here, don`t you?
And yet, on a train so packed you can`t even move to put your hand in your pocket, there is hot air blasting out from vents underneath every seat. Yeah, thanks, we really needed that.
But it sure makes hot tea and corn soup taste extra yummy. :)
Honou To Hyoushou Monday, November 26, 2001
HTH has been added to!!!!! NEW PAGE! Just one page... but /still/. *bounces happily* I hadn`t visited the site since way before I got to Japan, so I am not sure how late I am in discovering this shiny happy new addition, but I danced gleefully in my chair when I came across it last night. :) I hope there is new character art, haven`t checked that page yet...such gorgeous pictures.... *wanders off, drooling blissfully*
Sony USAMonday, November 26, 2001
::cough:: Why does that link remind me of Final Fantasy USA...? Oh yeah. Because here, the crappy/weak version of anything usually has those three letters tacked onto the end. Sometimes I have to wonder what the Japanese /really/ think about us Americans....
But really--I was tipped off by Kristen that MD players are actually cheap at home now. So I checked out the Sony page, and whaddaya know, you can get a player/RECORDER for under two hundred bucks!!! Sweeeeeet. And the ones with PC hookup hardware cost only about fifty bucks extra.
So, with the lust for an MD player taken care of, I am now free to stress over how to stretch the very last of my cash across the next twenty days. (Yikes--when I put it that way, it really does not sound like a long time! Then again, it is terrifyingly easy to blow a hundred dollars in a couple of hours here.) Train tickets and food and admission to temples and museums eats up cash faster than I ever think it will. And let`s not forget film-- I use an average of four rolls a week. The 40-exposure ones. It`s probably a good thing I do not have a 35mm camera with me; I would annoy the hell out of all the people I go sightseeing with. They would have to wait on me as I played amateur photographer and took carefully focused shots of all kinds of detailed stuff. As it is, I am having ridiculous amounts of fun photographing the temples and countryside here. I think I walked across most of the Kansai region this last week-- Ise on Tuesday, Sakurai on Friday, Kyoto and the Byodo-in on Saturday, and Joruri-ji on Sunday (which included hiking across and up quite a few hills to reach a neighboring temple that was just as awesome, and some really neat stone Buddhas).
I got to go back to the yakiniku restaurant last night! Amano-san asked me where I wanted to go for dinner, since yesterday was kind of their send-off treat for me. I said that the yakiniku restaurant was really really good, so there we went. Bibinpa and grilled beef and veggies and seaweed soup... I am going to miss that place so much! It is basically two days` worth of eating in one sitting (no wonder I love it). The bibinpa alone is large enough to be a regular meal for two people. It is a giant, broiling-hot iron bowl filled with rice, vegetables, some meat and sprouts and peppers, and a raw egg dumped on top. The bowl itself is so hot that all you have to do is stir everything inside, and it is cooked to perfection in a couple of minutes. (Yes, the egg too.)
The days are finally getting colder here-- the last three have been warm enough that even being up in the mountains I did not need a jacket, but today was pretty darn cold. The trees are all changing color now, and the earlier ones have even lost most of their leaves. I have never seen such vivid colors. Yes, people clog Asheville every fall to see our trees, but Asheville looks dull and dismal compared to Kyoto--the woods are on FIRE up there. Ginko trees turn such a brilliant, totally blinding yellow that they look like they have been dipped in paint. And the maples! Japanese maples (momiji) of course turn that gorgeous fiery red that just glows when the sun shines on the leaves. And there is some kind of tree here, I do not know the specific name, that looks like a kind of evergreen except for the fact that its needles turn a pure burnt-orange. Not dead brown, but orangeORANGEorange.
Mikan oranges are everywhere still; people buy so many of them that they have to give them away. All my friends have been dumping handfuls of them on the table every night and telling us to eat as many as we want--this is no problem because they are as easy to eat as clementines, just not as tart. YUM.
I did not really do anything special for Thanksgiving day last week; I did go to Osaka with Naini for an early dinner before she went to work, and had a really good steak and vegetable plate in honor of the holiday (since I hardly ever eat red meat here). But really, it did not even feel like Thanksgiving--for crying out loud, it still feels like late October here! What finally got me drooling for the dinner we have at home every year was, of all things, an online ad for pumpkin pie filling that popped up on my email page when I sat down in front of the computer this morning. At that moment, I wanted pumpkin pie so badly I could TASTE it. (So, guess what I wanna have at Christmas!) Strangely enough, though, we did have a holiday this weekend after all-- November 23rd is Labor Thanksgiving Day in Japan, kind of like Labor Day in America.
I have one hour until Inu Yasha comes on, so I better go and do some emailing. ::spins:: Three weeks, three weeks, ONLY THREE WEEKS LEFT! :( :) >_<
Wednesday, November 21, 2001
ALBUM OF THE YEAR: Natalie Imbruglia, `White Lilies Island` ...Quite possibly, even better than her first album. Yes, I bought it in Japan. Yes, that means it was 25 bucks. That ALSO means I got a bonus track... and baby, was it ever worth it. :) That CD is not leaving my stereo until I come home.
As for the new link on the side... ::cackles:: Oh, how I adore you, N! You always make me laugh until I choke. (Still haven`t made me vomit yet, though... sorry.) I cannot wait to provide your unwholesome imagination with more Gackt-fodder. Until I get my greasy mitts on my scanner again, however, I am whiling away free time by drooling over my shiny new graphic novels. I now have every single volume of X, and both gorgeous Weiss graphic novels. Violent bishounen good for ED!
Nn. In other news, Kyoto was visited yet again last weekend... I got to go to Sento Palace with Steph and Kristen, and see the most gorgeous garden I have ever laid eyes upon. Japanese strolling gardens are designed with motion in mind; the view changes as you walk and every single concieveable angle of perspective gives you another gorgeous photograph. I used up forty pictures inside that garden, and I would give /anything/ to be able to walk through it at my own pace, without a giant tour group around to clog up the view. But still, I hope some of those photos come out well. If they do, they will be frame-worthy. (But then, that place was so carefully arranged, it is impossible to take a bad picture.)
I went to Ise Shrine yesterday, with some girls from the university and their sensei. No English was spoken... it was an interesting day, that is for sure. ;p But fun was had, and it was very, very cool. Ise Shrine is AWESOME. You are not allowed to take pictures once inside the walls, though, and no one can go inside the outer gate, so I had to content myself with staring long and hard at everything I could see from this side of the wooden fence. I have never seen such massively ancient pine trees, anywhere. They are so old, some of them are missing their top halves, but they just keep growing. If a section becomes too heavy or endangers the rest of the tree, it is simply cut off and the tree keeps getting bigger. The land that Ise
encompasses has belonged to the shrine for hundreds and hundreds of years... and those trees have been there all this time.
I am going back to Joruri-ji on Sunday... YAY!!! I cannot wait... I just hope the weather is as gorgeous as it has been all week. Not a cloud in the sky, and such clear, warm sunlight and a wonderful breeze. And the trees are turning at last! Ginko trees everywhere, and all such a perfect blinding gold color, and the maples are intensely red. I need to get outta this computer lab and take a walk.
On the subject of X 17 (semi-spoiler?)... Wow. It made me very very happy. Sorata rocks. It also made me wanna strangle Seishirou--why did he have to go and have Fuuma give that-that THING to Subaru?!?
Then again, this is CLAMP.
Okay! I leave now! Thanksgiving is tomorrow... at home, anyway. Here is just another day, but we do have Friday off. Boy, but I sure could use a giant helping of squash fritters right now. ::stomach grumbles::
Because Slayers is still the BEST!
Friday, November 9, 2001
...The fried brain comes back for an encore! Not really. Just thought I would waste some space and declare that the song for the day is `Flowers In The Window` by Travis. Heck, make it the song for the week. I really miss that CD.
...Of course, I miss all my CDs. How I came to associate GiGi D`Agnostino`s mix of `I Still Believe (In your eyes)` *warning! Butchered title alert!* with Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is beyond me. Perhaps it was the fact that the song was on ETERNAL REPEAT for the two days it took me to rip through that book. But now I want to hear it so badly I can /taste/ it.
Good lord, what am I doing still sitting here? ::dashes off sans brain to find museum::
*coughcoughGAKKUNcough*
Friday, November 9, 2001
...This must be the universe getting back at me for not idolizing pop stars when I was little. Yeesh. I am such a horrid little fangirl.
No, wait. Natalie Imbruglia. ::sparkles:: Okay, so I do have a legitimate music obsession. Gackt is bizarre and hilarious and has a great voice, but Natalie Imbruglia sings the soundtrack of my life. And she has a new album out! ::dances on her little plastic computer stool:: ::falls off:: I am counting the hours until I have it in my hands!
Thanks for the link, Twig! :) And I SO envy your Buffy-watching ability... there ain`t none over here. ::spazzes over all the fun Spike and Buffy she cannot see:: Michael! I want a PLAY BY PLAY recap of that episode! Chop chop! ^^V
Anyway. On to stuff people actually care about. (?) Kyoto was a blast, AGAIN, and much money was spent for the sake of Christmas presents. Kyoto is full of Nice Lady shops-- where the owners practice English on you and love you for attempting Japanese, and then give you discounts and pretty gifts. I love shopping here. ;p Also, we found another awesome Italian restaurant... they are EVERYWHERE! ::sighs happily and sparkles:: Steph has me hooked on pepporoncino (I bet I mangled the spelling); I bet we both reek of garlic when we get home.
From Saturday to Monday I was in Yokohama with a friend and /her/ friend, visiting art exhibits and generally getting all cultured up. We went to Chinatown and had fantastic food, as one must do in Yokohama, and then bought nikuman for breakfast the next day. Between the Chinese food in Yokohama and the French food in Tokyo and the Italian food in Kansai, I am one deliriously happy little eating machine. (When I have cash, that is.) This is NOT NY style Chinese food, yo. It`s incredible stuff. (And much less greasy.)
I have decided that I will kidnap a Japanese guy and bring him back to the States with me. His sole occupation will be fixing yakisoba every day. (Well, that and looking fine.) Yakisoba is out of this world, but only if it is fresh! The warmed-over stuff you get from the conben stores is just no good. :(
Oh, and Mom, I really wish you were here for some of this... Enya is HUGE over here. We watched a whole TV special about her this weekend, and there are whole CDs of hers for sale that I have never seen in the US. Yum.
I am running out of coherent thoughts... better cut this short so I can try and find the photography museum (I nearly typed Pot Museum) before I pass out from hunger.
Monday, October 29, 2001
Currently cycling through my brain: `Wait and See` by Utada Hikaru
Arg. I have just signed up with MSN Messenger Service... I think. It refused to let me view the page in English, so I can only assume that those of you who share this happy program can now find me on MSNIM as mysunshine60. Ain`t Microsoft great? ::grumble:: Yeah, you can tell I really miss my Mac. ;p
I just bought about sixteen pairs of hashi (chopsticks to all you uneducated Westerners). :p They are so pretty! And none of them were for me! ...Nuts. I guess I better go back later and get a few more, then. Steph and I are going shopping in Kyoto on Friday, and I need to get more film developed by then. (We went to Kyoto yesterday, too, and I took five rolls of pictures!) I used the train all by myself, and it rocked. (Of course, sitting between two cute guys for the better part of an hour didn`t hurt things one bit!) I can`t believe I have been here eight weeks and had not done that yet. I am /such/ a wuss.
Cowardice aside, it really is easy to get places. Not always very cheap, because it really does add up quickly if you change trains often, but still easy. And so very very clean! I am going to be spoiled when I come home; public transportation here is just so /nice/. And so are the passengers; when Steph and Kristen and I hopped on the train to go back towards Osaka at five, a guy shoved some of his friends over on the bench to make room for me to sit down. As people got off the train, they shoved over further so that we could all sit down together. ^^ And I got to see Kristen`s photos-- she takes such great pictures. I am going to be requesting a lot of prints from her when we get home!
Now I am off to the room to do laundry before I have to eat dinner and go to class. I`m down to my very last pair of pants! (And for some of us, that is a problem. ;p)
Manchester Metropolitan UniversityFriday, October 26, 2001
...Or, alternatively, Where ED Wants To Go Next.
I have just spent the better part of a gorgeous afternoon INSIDE camping out on UNCG`s website, looking up courses for next semester. Grr. What a waste of a Friday! But I did get it into my head to open an extra browser window so that I could surf while waiting for UNCG`s server to load things, and I looked up MMU. ::drools:: Oh, how I hope I do get to study there. I mean, I could take STUDIO CLASSES! ::spins:: NWU has awesome history classes (even if they are in Japanese), but I miss my studio classes so badly that I have actually started drawing in my free time again. (When one is frantically working on multiple projects during the course of a semester, one does not usually feel like making MORE art in one`s precious spare moments.) And not only that, I am liking what I draw. I really did learn a lot in Life Drawing class, it would seem. :)
I finally got to see an episode of the X OAV on Wednesday night-- it comes on the WOWOW satellite channel, which means I can only catch it on the souped-up TV in the common room, which /also/ means I can only catch it if no one else gets there first! But lo and behold, the kitchen was empty, so I settled in for a good half hour of yummy digital animation and the requisite CLAMP weirdness. I agree with Steph, though-- I did have issues with some of the characters (or rather, how they looked on-screen). Poor Kotori looked kinda squidgy around the edges, and Sorata seemed to have regressed to Volume One in terms of the way he was drawn. And Kamui, of course, looks like a vampire. Cape and all. ::snicker:: But I will eat my shoe if his voice actor didn`t sound EXACTLY like Hikaru Midorikawa! I would be positive it was him, except that I did not see his name in the credits. But I would think that I am familiar enough with that voice by now... ;p Now that I have read beyond the exposition part of the story, though, I find myself rather bored with the first arc most of the time. (Oh, who am I kidding. I just want Subaru and Seishirou to show up.)
...I hope there weren`t any accidental spoilers in that paragraph. ::hides from rabid X fans:: If I do any /real/ babbling about the story in the future, there will be spoiler space, never fear. ;)
Anyway. Fangirl ranting aside, my eyeballs are starting to rebel against staring at this monitor. I need to go outside and see if there is even any daylight left for me to enjoy. And then... laundry and studying! Geh.
Thursday, October 25, 2001
Click on the new link over there. Yeah, the one that says `Lex`. :) I can`t believe I did not put it up sooner. Read /everything/. Look at /all/ the art. Laugh till you`re sick.
In other news, N has added much funness to CT--go read some really cool Halloween stories and check out the new Jinks comic! ::ducks rotten fruit:: Yeah, yeah, I know you all would rather hear about things I have been doing... but really, do you want to hear about me sitting at my desk for two days straight, staring at language textbooks? Psha. I thought not. Now, though, I head off in search of food. Hopefully it will be as close as the co-op cafe and a giant freakin` slice of cake.
...Do we see a theme developing here?Tuesday, October 23, 2001
Hyeah. Just because I have little else to say, I shall decree that the Song Of The Day is `1/3 no Junjou na Kanjou` by Siam Shade.
And because I am really hungry and must go in search of food (or just GO at any rate, for the lab is closing and Mister Security Guard is gonna kick us out soon)... * ...I think my brain just ran out on me. Um. Yes, I am indeed hungry. And who left the door open? It`s COLD IN HERE!
I got a package today. And not only was it a package, but it was FULL OF CHOCOLATE. Mike and Debbie, thank you SO MUCH! I think I cried when I read your card; it was just what I needed after yesterday (and pretty much the last week). Thank you, thank you, thank you. And I hope Steph gets one too; but I am saving my Twix bars for her anyway. And yes, I have already taken ten rolls of film, so there will be plenty of pictures. (I sure wish I had had some film with me this last weekend, though.) Thank you!!! :)
Now we go before we be tossed out.
It`s nice to know that life could always be worse... after all, I could be Subaru.
Monday, October 22, 2001
Mondays are starting to conspire against me. [enter rant mode]
Let us recap. I have been here for eight weeks, yes? And in eight weeks, you would THINK that after meeting all my professors, a bunch of students (Japanese and international), and even MORE university faculty/grad students, that these people would figure out that my language comprehension level is ZILCH.
But no, apparently not. I walk into my third class today, which I have not been to before because it mysteriously did not meet for the last two weeks, and everyone was shocked to see me. This was to be expected, I thought, since I am one of the few undergrad exchange students... until they told me that I was in a graduate course! Okay, fine. I wonder why Sensei signed me up for it, but oh well. However, before they revealed this happy fact to me, there was a good ten minutes spent ascertaining that NO, I really cannot understand more than one word in ten that you people are saying to me! Honest! HONTOU NI!
...And they still are so shocked, too. I thought I knew what it was to feel stupid, but I was wrong. For today, I felt absolutely MORONIC for three hours straight, mixed in with a nice helping of shame. I mean, how would you feel if you landed in this place where everyone had told you it was okay if you did not speak the language but suddenly everyone is treating you like a lost child when you can`t? Something is not right here, methinks. So, after thouroughly humiliating myself in the graduate class (they thought I was in there of my own volition, not because I was actually registered for the course, and how could I explain otherwise?) I was ushered into one of the study offices where another faculty member I had met before spent almost an hour pulling various books for me and asking me to read through them while she checked other classes for me to attend.
...Back up a sec. Did she say read? Yes she did.
Once again, what part of `wakarimasen` am I messing up here?! If I cannot understand what you have just /said/ to me, how can I understand a college art history text??? Maybe they are just trying to be nice, really, but after a whole afternoon of this (and after having MET all these people before, too) I was ready to scream or cry or just implode from sheer frustration. My head still feels like one big clenched fist; my face I am sure is now frozen in a constant expression of worry/fear/guilt. My shoulders ache because I have been hunched over all day, either in an itty bitty wooden chair and desk or bowing and trying to disappear into the woodwork while people run around trying to figure out what to do with me, the student who cannot participate in any of her classes.
Well, I /have/ been going to class for two weeks now... why did they have to pick today to notice me? ::grinds teeth:: Of all days, too... now I have to run to Japanese class in an hour and I do not have time to fix my course schedule or register for housing like I had planned to do this afternoon. This cannot keep happening! And tomorrow has been halfway eaten up already, too, because I was asked to come back to the office and meet with one of the faculty and I cannot refuse, and then I have another language class (and oh yes, those seem to be helping loads, don`t they?) and NOW it is pouring rain and I do not have my umbrella with me. Screw it, I am going to fix dinner. I hope the TV is free; right now a good violent and hilarious thirty minutes of Inu Yasha just might keep me sane enough to make it to class.
The reason I cannot wait to go to Yokohama
Friday, October 19, 2001
Sweeeeet!!! Sanae sent me this link; it is about the exhibit we are going to see in Yokohama when we go. There is an English page; if it does not load at first just click on the little box that whispers `English` in the top right corner of the screen.
EEEEEE! I am such an art geek! ;p (Nice to know I really am cut out for my major, though...)
We are still trying to figure out whose fault this is.Friday, October 19, 2001
Just because I felt like bothering... `CUBE` up there is basically to remind me yet again how badly I need the song of the same name. Apparently I like torturing myself.
::drools:: Being away from my computer this long makes me realize why some people blow all that cash on mp3 players.
For those of you who REALLY wish you were here.Thursday, October 18, 2001
Lookie lookie! I fiddled with the HTML! ...okay, so all I did was make a table wider. But at least I did it right on the first try! ^^ ::beams::
Everyone should click on Andre`s name over there. Why? Dunno. Just thought he might like the idea of a bunch of strangers perusing his webjournal. ;p Kidding! However, I do like the way he puts song titles or other `sounds` at the beginning of each entry... I might try it. Ironically enough, today`s song for /me/ would be Judy and Mary`s `Sobakasu`. (Yesterday it was TMR`s `Light My Fire`... just like it has been all week.) Andre, you get massive amounts of brownie points for your taste in music!
Steph comes to stay tomorrow! :) I am meeting her after class at the station. I do not know what we will do next, but I do need to go pick up some food because my room is pathetically bare. And I hope like heck my sheets are dry by later tonight; I did laundry the instant the sun came out and still did not have the space or the time to do clothes, only sheets and towels and socks. It really sucks when your laundry schedule is dictated solely by the presence or absence of sun and wind. (There are dryers here, but they are pretty worthless. Twenty minutes on the only setting they HAVE did squat to dry just my socks!)
Today was basically me running around like a headless chicken... and I got HOSED on developing film. That would be partly my fault, of course, for not looking at the price more carefully and underestimating the number of panoramic pictures I had taken per roll! But nine rolls of APS film at 1400 yen+ PER ROLL(/with/ the panoramics, Mom, don`t freak out)... ouch. My wallet hurts. These pics better be damned good! I will have to go to the bank again next week, probably, because Sanae and I have to purchase round-trip bus tickets to Yokohama for the first weekend in November soon. Only about 160 bucks, which is the cheapest way to go, but still more than I have with me at the moment!
Lesson learned: GIVE FILM TO STEPH AND KRISTEN NEXT TIME. Kansai-Gaidai can do it for me from now on!
Now, on to other things. For me, not for this entry! Ha! I am leaving! I go to... vaccuum my room. Wow, what fun. I think the Moore-Strong dustbunny monsters followed me here.
Crimson Tears Tuesday, October 16, 2001
Check out Crimson Tears for some cool Halloween entertainment... and lots of Vasquez-like hilarity once N gets those Jinks comics uploaded! (The main page art is hers.) Read the horror movie reviews. They rock.
In other news, not much has been happening here... Kristen and I had lots of fun on Saturday (I even had fun listening to her professor lecture about Todaiji, etc); she came with her religion class to take notes for a paper they have to write. I tagged along just to hear someone talk about the temples in English. It was great!
On Sunday I went to a town outside of Osaka with Suchinda, to meet a group of people that are here in Japan studying environmental protection methods (I think?) and go with them to their host`s house, since she is friends with the family. We ate a giant traditional meal (with plenty of `traditional` beer ;p) and I had a LOT of fun. The family has one son, who is actually my age (shock!). He lives in Kyoto where he goes to school, so we are trying to work out a meeting at some point so that he can show me around. ::crosses fingers::
...Yes, I am a scheming little devil. ;p
Steph is planning to come visit me this weekend, so that SHE can see Todaiji (she was in Tokyo last weekend, lucky her), and I can`t wait! It will be interesting, to be sure. :)
I got to watch Inu Yasha last night before class... turns out it airs at seven PM, and lasts till about seven thirty-five, so I got to see all of it and was not even late for class (we usually start late since one of the girls has to come on the train and cannot be on time). Ahh, bliss. And X comes on tomorrow! I hate that I did not buy an issue of Animage sooner, since they have what amounts to a TV guide of animated shows in every issue (Duh, I`ve seen it before...) so I finally know what comes on when. Hooray!
And Inu Yasha just ROCKS. Even if you don`t like this stuff (and I know so many of you are rolling your eyes or making faces at the monitor as you read this! ;p) it is a series that is worth checking out. It is full of Japanese mythology and folklore, and so very very funny and action-packed. I am definitely glad it will be coming out Stateside soon!
I only have one class tomorrow, so hopefully it will NOT be pouring rain like it was today and I will get to go do all the shopping that I needed to do today. I was hoping to get a lot of little purchases out of the way, but it was raining so hard that I could not bring myself to leave campus. But now it is eight-thirty and the lab closes at nine, so I better wrap this up and get some more mailing done. Later!
All Hail Stick Rezo! ;p Tuesday, October 9, 2001
Bwahah... er, yah. If you like really ODD manga and anime stuffs, or just want to see some fake ad banners that will make you laugh till you choke, check out the above page. ::giggle::
Otherwise, settle in because this is gonna be a long `un! Lessee... I ate really well this weekend, due to Naini spontaneously asking me to accompany her for dinner to a Japanese pub and then going out to lunch with Suchinda and Amano-san and Keiko-san on Sunday at a shabu-shabu restaurant. The pub had great, cheap traditional food-- I had tempura and fried onigiri which was fantastic, and a giant frosted mug of Sapporo beer. Japanese beer is GOOOOD. There is also a drink called chuhai (I think that is the correct romanization; that is how it sounds anyway) that is made with soda water and fruit flavoring and dunno what else. We had peach chuhai with our hotpot lunch, and it was /really/ tasty.
Monday, I went to Kyoto with Cynthia and two friends who are exchange students from Korea. We took the train, which cost 600 yen and took about forty minutes, and then checked out the map to find the nearest cool places to see. The first temple we went to was Sanjyuusangendo (I really hope I got that right), in which the main attraction is the extraordinarily long principal building, which was built to house 1,000 bronze Buddha statues (sentai butsu) in addition to the central figure of Buddha. Wow. The place was /really/ long. And the statues looked almost two-dimensional if you stood right in front of them, because of the light relief carving and the way they had aged. They stand on a stepped platform akin to massive bleachers, half on one side of the shrine and half on the other, all facing the same direction. And EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM IS DIFFERENT. I felt dizzy just looking at the incredible detail on each figure and imagining the sculptor who worked on them all (the same sculptor and his team did all of the statues). Yehow.
Next, we were getting hungry, so we looked around for a cheap place to eat (Kyoto is full of very good, very costly traditional restaurants) and eventually came across an itty bitty ramen shop. It was a typical small-time ramen shop, with just a few stools and a counter right in front of the cooking area (think Waffle House without room for the booths, and you have it). We ordered mini bowls because they were cheapest--and they were as big as our faces! What a wonderful surprise. We inhaled our soup and hit the street again, this time heading for Higashi-Honganji. We had already walked past the outside walls, and I was impressed by their size... but when we got /inside/ the gate, which was massive in itself, I just had to stop and stare. Higashi-Honganji boasts the largest wooden structure in the world, and when you are standing in front of it, you know it`s true. Not only is the main hall enormous, but the outbuildings are nearly as large! And they are connected by formidable covered galleries with pillars so large that it would take at least two people`s outstretched arms to encircle one of them. We walked inside the main hall, and it was like being inside a cathedral, only quieter (wood and tatami mats absorb almost all the sounds, so there are no echoes and you have to be talking practically in someone`s ear for them to hear you). The ceiling is incredibly high, and the sheer amount of tatami mats covering the floor is amazing. But to really get the full effect of the whole place, you should go to one corner and just look out at the compound-- I was standing at the end of the gallery outside Amidado, and I turned to look towards the main hall when we came out of the door. I felt electricity run down my spine; it was the creepiest, most amazing thing I have ever experienced. The view just short-circuited my brain; I had to stand there numbly and couldn`t even blink for a few seconds. Baptised Anglican I may be and Buddhist temple that it is, just SEEING those buildings was a religious experience. Regardless of religious belief or denomination, there is no way you can stand there and look out on that incredible sight and not feel God. (And yes, I took pictures.)
I am SO going back to Higashi-Honganji.
After using up the last of my film, the other girls finally managed to tear me away from the main steps and we headed back to the train station. Kyoto is a very beautiful city, new and old; the buildings are much taller than in Nara, but the streets are just as wide and there are so many temples and older buildings that there is still a feeling of spaciousness even in the middle of town. And it is so elegant! I guess it would be fair to compare it to New Orleans; it is a city that not only possesses a rich history but one that keeps that history alive and integrates it wholly into the present, finding new ways to enjoy the old. And there are so MANY temples and shrines and cool places! ::drools:: I will never get to see enough of Kyoto!
Okay, that was the dose of culture for this entry. ;p Now, about Japanese television... just how obsessed with health-related shows /are/ these people?! Every second channel always seems to show some kind of program that focuses on what is in the food you eat, or how flexible you should be for your age, etc... yikes. On the other hand, all the rest of the shows are dramas and music features, so that keeps me happy. ;p And I finally found out when Inu Yasha airs!!! ::spins:: I was in the kitchen last night flipping channels, and suddenly I flipped right past Sesshoumaru. Yum. So I got to see the tail-end of the episode (it airs at 7:30) and the ending credits. The new ending theme is `Dearest` by Ayumi Hamasaki, which just hit the stores here last week. Now I`m gonna have to find a copy! (It is a beautiful song.) Then I realized that the only reason I was getting to watch was that this was a holiday; I have Japanese class at 7:30 on most Monday nights! Sick irony... just you wait, Steph, Gravitation will air on Wednesdays between seven and nine PM. ::sniffle:: There`s always fansubs, I suppose...
I am also completely smitten with X now. I have always liked it, but Viz quit translating the manga right at the end of the beginning, so to speak; the story /really/ takes off after the end of the Japanese volume 8. So I had a blast reading all the stuff that was new to me, and finally see the main plot start to take shape. Boy, is it nuts. And freaky. But it is also chock-full of SUBARU and EVIL FUUMA and SEIISHIROU so who the heck cares? ;p
I must go now in search of cheap dinner. Keep the email coming, it earns you pretty souvenirs! ;p
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