Japan Journal: What year is it? Snow Festival! My New Ferarri Ooops I Mean Imac, School

Happy February 17th! Its almost February 18th, which is a Saturday, which is awesome. That means I get to play with my new computer, which is really all I can think about now. Imagine driving one of these for six months, and then suddenly getting this. Thats kind of what it's like.

The screen is so massively huge, and my desk so small, that its like looking at a puppy. You know how puppys have GIANT heads and tiny little bodies? Actually someone somewhere did someresearch on that and there is an instinctual response to things with huge heads and little bodies and big eyes. People just naturally like them. Because if you like things like that, then you guard things like that, and then the Hyenas dont eat your baby Simbas. So, taking this anology to the utmost fridges of ridiculouness, I am guarding my computer with its huge monitor and big head and tiny body.

Seriously dont come near it, unless you have a treat, like a port of Photoshop for x86.

Yeah so the screen is huge. It's not so much a monitor as it is "dimensional gateway to another world". It's physically impossible to drag items into the trash can, because my mouse falls off the table before I am even half way across the screen. Its like a little excursion. We have to take breaks along the way, my file and I, and get our mouse back to a resonable spot.

I am considering a track ball. Steve, you got any suggestions?

So anyways, yeah. I am sure you will be sick of my talking about my zenith of majesty and power i mean my computer. Actually you probably already are. I know Ginna is ;)

So the big snow festival in Sapporo was fun. Big fun. The big let down however was that we couldnt go to the Sapporo-Beer-Garden because it was totally full. That was a big bummer. Most of my friends went skiing, I stayed in Sapporo with everyone that was left and walked around, looking at cool things, like ice sculptures (haha!). I wanted to go skiing but I would have had to rent everything. I cant stand rental equipment. Its so cheap and anti-awesome. Also its expensive.

The ice sculptures were by far the coolest part of the snow festival. They had all these really simple ones which were like "yawn" but at the end were the "professional" (what does that mean, anyways?) ice carvings that totally blew me away. They were so cool. The detail was amazing and they all had cool names like "Dragon Blue Green Fire Face" and stuff. They looked almost like they were statues made out of water with their amorphus shape being frozen in time for all to see...

...oh wait.

School is going ok. In Japan you graduate in March and start school again in April. That means the students only get a 2 or 3 week break between "school years". This is further compounded by the fact that even though its "2006", its still "2005" in Japan, because for many things the new year doesnt start until April. However, its far from Universal as to what year it actually is. So when talking to someone, like my Kendo Sensei, and she says "this year" but really means "2005", I get highly confused. But some people say "last year" and they mean "2005", however they can also mean "anytime before April 2005", which is the "Japanese" last year. However if you dont know that they know that you dont know, then its all but impossible to find out what year it is, because this is actually year "Emporer Hesei's 18th year of reign". So if you say that, then you could mean either "2006" or "2005", which is just crazy. I carry around my PDA so that I can open it up and point at the date.

So yeah. Besides the year changing in April, so does everything else. Cherry blossoms, animal migrations....peoples lives. Eveything chages around April. Eveyone picks up and leaves and thats sad. My favorite Japanese Teacher of English (JTE) is leaving the middle school at the end of March. Shes moving to Sapporo to get married. The new teacher might be awesome, but I dont know. Also my friend Nobuki, who teachers English at the high school, is leaving for Tokyo. That really sucks cause hes one of the few people I hang out with. Lastly, in my dairy of suckyness, my neighboors whom with i eat dinner with and teach english are most likely moving as well. Yama-san's husband Sekihara-san is a teacher too, and he commutes like 45 minutes everyday. So they want to move and probably will.

Yay, all my friends are leaving. So thats awesome, except the exact opposite. At least ive got Kendo. And iMac. And Ginna. They are my precious. But not in that order ;)

In other news, Karaoke is going well:

bravenworld: some of the karaoke places have the most random music
S founder: I'm sure
bravenworld: like one night i sang "Tommyknockers" by Blind Guardian
bravenworld: everyone hated me
bravenworld: it was so funny
S founder: LOL
S founder: That's so not meant for karaoke
bravenworld: lol
bravenworld: nope, like, not at all
bravenworld: and it was some horrible midi sample
S founder: obviously
bravenworld: hahaha

Well, I think thats about it for now. I had some more interest in the photo I took for my dads last flight with delta, so if that goes through I could be selling some more prints! Thats really exciting. I'll keep you posted.

pictures for you!

The streets of Sapporo....and someones shoulder.

The cronicles of Narnia snow sculpture. it was about 12 meters high. I wish i had some ice axes and/or crampons. I totally would have climbed up it.

There were all these frozen fish and sea creatures, as well as giant mythical beasts like this huge thing here. People said it was a "crab" but i beg to differ. Most ignorant people do mistake giant underwater spiders for "crabs".