A Much Needed Update

Sorry for not writing anything for nine days.

My Father recently came to visit for a week... from the 5th to the 12th. I got to see him Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, and then Saturday. Having classes that end at 5:30 made things a little difficult in visiting with him, though.

When going to see him at the airport, I accidentally went to the Osaka one instead of Kansai International. I think this is because I noticed that a monorail goes to Osaka, so I became all excited and focused only on how to use it, where to get on it... instead of where it went. It was fun seeing Osaka by monorail though! I ended up waiting around in the hotel for him studying kanji.

Tuesday we met in Hirakata Station and went to Kyoto. We got off at Sanjo, I think, and grabbed a bus to Kinkakuji. My Dad wanted to see the Osaka Peace museum, which was near Kinkankuji, so I got him to go see that as well, which was a good idea I think. I've been wanting to go see the Golden Pavilion Temple that Yoshimitsu built. It was gorgeous, with a picturesque pond in front of it. There were interesting mushroom and little bowls to throw money at along the path afterwards, but we unfortunately rushed through it to make it to the museum, so I can't really say what significance it had, nor can I about the little statue on an island in the middle of another pond.

The Osaka Peace Museum is great, if you happen to be Japanese or have near native reading-capacity. A few things were written in English, but only broad explainations of maybe 5% of what there was to see. Most of the museum focused on Japanese militarization and the horrors of the first half of last century, but had some newer conflicts and atrocities, including a bit on the Iraq war.

Thursday we just had a good chat over dinner and then went to a coffee shop. I haven't had coffee that good in months, I remember that much. Mostly talked about politics, the state of the world, job prospects for me...

Saturday we met again in Hirakata, and chatted some more in the Starbucks. I then showed my Dad around the department store for gifts and other interesting things. Japan really is a consumer paradise. So many wonderful, trendy, useful, useless, superfluous things. Following along this same route we took the train to Kuzuha for the mall and looked around there... My Dad was impressed with it and thought everyone at work would be too and took pictures. I suppose he was right - the brooding teens and "Joe six-packs" were abscent, it was clean, and classical music was playing instead of whatever crap MTV churns out. Everyone was well-dressed and there were no obese people. My Dad offered that perhaps since people don't have ridiculous car payments or because more people live in apartments, they have more exposeable income for fashion. That might be right, but apartments are probably more expensive here - that and there are probably other cost differences... But I like to think that the American way of spending money you don't have stays in America... Even though reflecting upon recent events, it affects the whole world eventually. Oh well.

We then went to the 100 yen store and bought a lot of stuff for gifts. I'm going to hit a bunch of these for dishware and the like for my apartment. I'll just box it up and mail it. Cheap and unique. We went to a good Chinese restaraunt (where they have chinese food suited for Japanese tastes - nothing you'd find in a chinese place in America if you're wondering,) and then parted ways. My Dad left his Japan travel / guidebook here, so I'll flip through it soon to find interesting places nearby.

Aside from his visit, I can't think of too much else that has happened. Last night I went on a good bike ride at night and found a good ramen shop across from the Fresco I shop at for groceries. I might go there more for dinner. I need to head back to Osake-dojo soon too, and try talking with the old guy there and maybe the customers if they seem willing. Old guys here are hard to understand, with that rough, guttural style of speech. It's awesome to chew someone out in, but scary if they're using it on you; thankfully I've only seen it on TV.

Anyway, I'm still loving the bike rides. I was thinking about maybe getting a good bike when I return to Gettysburg, but the cars would hate me, people would scream at me to get a job so I can buy a car, and people on the sidewalk would be baffled if I rode there (you should if you can here,) and for some reason it's illegal too I think. Who would have thought I'd be pro-bike after coming here? It's ridiculous to try it in America, but if the roads and transport system wasn't so car-focused... Why is the American train system so pathetic too? Two trains crashed due to a conductor texting. How the hell does that even happen? Set up a good system like in Japan, and the jobs it would make, and the cars it would take off the roads... It'll never happen.

But this weekend was mostly just relaxing in the dorm after rushing around and hurrying homework to spend time with my Dad. Working on new grammar and kanji (I need to do more, heh.) Today was a day off due to it being Health and Sports day. More relevant than "Columbus Day"... I studied in the Starbucks and got a lot done, then did some shopping where I got two more issues of Great Detective Conan and some food.

I want to find places other than Starbucks, but I've been reluctant to try them. I should fix this. One up the road from here, Petit Cafe seems to only be open at night. Coffee at that hour isn't a great idea, plus it might be sketchy... we'll see. On the way to Hirakata City there's a place called Mr. Pug Cafe with a pug's face on it for novelty. Today in the city I spotted one place that said it has "Bird Friendly Coffee." I really hope he just mixed up the noun and the adjective there, or maybe you're allowed to take your parakeet in for some espresso. From hearsay, Mr. Donuts has free coffee refills, but I don't want to study in a place where people scream "Irasshai!" (welcome!) constantly while little kids wail for their mothers to get enough donut points for a Pon deLion toy (I kind of want one too).

A funny thing comes to mind for some reason. This was outside the CIE student lounge one day:

The above is a bar-code message you scan with your cellphone. These are usually on ads or pamphlets or in stores or where-ever. Someone just hung it up, and I scanned it with my phone. The message (in Japanese) read: "Gaijin (foreigner) Aquarium: There aren't many, so please just pick one. Good luck!" Someone left a translated version beneath it. Then it was ripped down and only the barcode block was there. Then neither were there. A few other foreigners saw it and thought it was hilarious (I did too,) and I had my speaking partner Yukina scan it and she liked it too. I mentioned it to Lauren, a girl from my dorm and it made her angry. She said a foreigner did it too, which was unfortunate. The lounge has one wall made out of glass entirely, and foreigners hang out there, and Japanese come in a talk to them, or meet their speaking partners there. It basically is an aquarium. Funny stuff.

Those are all the fun stories I can think of.

Future plans include going to Hiroshima this weekend. I need to plan for that, but they are taking too damn long giving us information about it so I can get my shinkansen ticket. I may look for a hostel to stay in too, so I can see more down around there. It's definitely an important spot, plus our class will be getting to listen to a Japanese woman who was present at the Hiroshima bombing who will talk in English about it. We were told not to use flash when photographing her, due to the flash of the bomb being in her memory... I can see insensitive Americans doing bad things. It seems odd to photograph her too, in some respect.

After Hiroshima I'm going to eventually go to Nara and check out the deer park, the huge Bhudda, and take a bus to Horyuji, the oldest wooden temple in all of Japan, and I think the oldest wooden structure in the world.

Also I'm going to see when the cheap Kabuki and Bunraku (puppet theatre) are being performed, since I really want to see those badly. I'm avoiding Noh since I don't require an extravagant nap.

That's about it for now though as far as traveling goes.

I'm getting worried about job prospects for someone who knows Japanese in the USA. Over the weekend I spent several hours (2 1/2 tonight) being absorbed in reading my manga, Great Detective Conan. Figuring out what it says and understanding more and more is such a great feeling. Now I'm thinking about looking into translation jobs, so I'm researching that a bit. I am by far a manga / anime otaku (nerd, and bane of the Japanese Studies major, or at least should be,) so that might be a boon in the job interviews. When learning English as a kid, I read constantly, and devoured new vocabulary, and I loved to read and write. I still love reading if I can find the time, and I still love running into new words. Maybe I can try this with Japanese? And translating things other than manga, anime, and videogames. Novels and other books would be great; I'd love to get to read Japanese novels in Japanese at some point too, the covers of them just scream out at me in the bookstores. I don't know if I have a strong enough urge for this though. Searching for jobs online and finding nilch has me worried though. Living abroad isn't an option either... But I don't want to be working in some shitty retail position after school. I wouldn't last a week in something like that.

Well, I have a year and a half.