That we are all getting our Kitchen areas redone, with brand new Everythings!
How sweet is that?
Once they start on my apartment, I promise to send before and after pictures, and if you are luckly, maybe some video too.
That is all. You may continue.
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Friday, September 22, 2006
COD
Amazon Japan will do Cash On Delivery. How cool is that? I ordered my grammar study guide for the Japanese Proficiency Test in Dec. It's on.
Also Jet Li's new (and last?) movie "Fearless" is awesome, especially the choregraphy and the way it was filmed. It's like you can see all the moves the whole time. I think it's his best one. It was made in China, so it wasn't corrupted by Hollywood, like all of his recent movies have been. The martial arts is awesome like I said and the wire-work isn't too over the top. The story is really what makes it an excellent film instead of just another martial arts movie. Che-Che-Check it out.
In other news, I was watching a TV show where they invite guests on and make them eat food that they cook. This is pretty much every single TV show in Japan. At any given time, there could easily be 6 or 7 cooking shows on. I know that you think I am joking or exaggerating, but it's true.
Anyways, this one show invited the K1 champion, Hong Man Choi, a Korean fighter, to appear at try some food. He's a native Korean, born and raised. I was watching in amusement as everyone marveled at how truly gigantic this guy is. He is 7 feet, 2 inches tall and weighs 360 pounds.
Anyways, he was eating with chop sticks, and commenting how good the food was, when one of the commentators said,
"Hashi wo tsukaikata umain desuyone!"
which translates in English to
"Wow! He can use chopsticks really well, can't he?"
I wanted to throw a huge rock at the commenter, and then beat him senseless with a roll-up newspaper (on fire). I thought it was bad enough that everyone was shocked I could used chopsticks. I still get compliments on how good I am with the wooden dowels...
But it was beyond belief that someone would actually be shocked that a Korean, or Asian-other-than-Japanese (OMG!) could actually use chopsticks.
The point his, the commenter wasn't impressed, and everyone knows Koreans can use chopsticks. But he said what he said simply to inflate the myth, to congeal the wall-of-differences, so that everyone who was listening and watching and feeling slightly disappointed that a non-Japanese was as good as they are with chopsticks could feel a little better by reveling in there faked-suprisedness.
sigh.
there is actually show, and I kid you not, where each of the characters dress up in charactatures of foreigners. They have the American, French, Dutch, Chinese, Spanish and the Mexican. They sit at a rotating sushi conveyer belt, and attempt to pick up progressivly more slippery items using only chopsticks.
If you look past the comedic joke, I.E. foreigners failing at some that "comes natural" to the Japanese, its actually quite hillarious. I enjoy watching it; it doesnt really bother me. But there is some revolt against it, and I think there might even be a petition going on somewhere.
Anyways, with stuff like this its important not to get all uptight about it, because if you did, you would go cr@zy within a month.
However, it's fun to think on the flip-side...I mean, think of something that is considered by most people to be distinctly "American...."
"Pizza" for example.
Now imagine a show where the actors get dressed up in stereotypes of 6 or 7 different countries and then go to a pizza parlor and attempt to eat pizza with their hands, only it somehow gets harder harder to do so, and then end up getting all messy and crazy.
Would it be hilarious? Yes.
Would it get cancelled in a week? Probably.
Maybe the moral of this story is that we should all learn to be less up-tight about things, and some countries (looks at Japan) could be more sensitive to other things.
A HUGE genre of entertainment over here focuses on how Japan is different from everyone else, and the result is always "That's hilarious, and We could never understand something as crazy as that!"
From an ESL teachers point of view, it is completely debilitating to socio-linguistic education. (Or Social Education in general, for that matter) This stuff does actually trickle down into the minds of the kids.
You wouldn't believe some of the things that I've been asked/told, all the way from a 2nd grader telling me that I "Smell like an American!" to that lady who asked me if we really do have scissors in America or not.
Anyways, I am going to go back to going back to work.
Bye!
J
Also Jet Li's new (and last?) movie "Fearless" is awesome, especially the choregraphy and the way it was filmed. It's like you can see all the moves the whole time. I think it's his best one. It was made in China, so it wasn't corrupted by Hollywood, like all of his recent movies have been. The martial arts is awesome like I said and the wire-work isn't too over the top. The story is really what makes it an excellent film instead of just another martial arts movie. Che-Che-Check it out. In other news, I was watching a TV show where they invite guests on and make them eat food that they cook. This is pretty much every single TV show in Japan. At any given time, there could easily be 6 or 7 cooking shows on. I know that you think I am joking or exaggerating, but it's true.
Anyways, this one show invited the K1 champion, Hong Man Choi, a Korean fighter, to appear at try some food. He's a native Korean, born and raised. I was watching in amusement as everyone marveled at how truly gigantic this guy is. He is 7 feet, 2 inches tall and weighs 360 pounds.
Anyways, he was eating with chop sticks, and commenting how good the food was, when one of the commentators said,
"Hashi wo tsukaikata umain desuyone!"
which translates in English to
"Wow! He can use chopsticks really well, can't he?"
I wanted to throw a huge rock at the commenter, and then beat him senseless with a roll-up newspaper (on fire). I thought it was bad enough that everyone was shocked I could used chopsticks. I still get compliments on how good I am with the wooden dowels...
But it was beyond belief that someone would actually be shocked that a Korean, or Asian-other-than-Japanese (OMG!) could actually use chopsticks.
The point his, the commenter wasn't impressed, and everyone knows Koreans can use chopsticks. But he said what he said simply to inflate the myth, to congeal the wall-of-differences, so that everyone who was listening and watching and feeling slightly disappointed that a non-Japanese was as good as they are with chopsticks could feel a little better by reveling in there faked-suprisedness.
sigh.
there is actually show, and I kid you not, where each of the characters dress up in charactatures of foreigners. They have the American, French, Dutch, Chinese, Spanish and the Mexican. They sit at a rotating sushi conveyer belt, and attempt to pick up progressivly more slippery items using only chopsticks.
If you look past the comedic joke, I.E. foreigners failing at some that "comes natural" to the Japanese, its actually quite hillarious. I enjoy watching it; it doesnt really bother me. But there is some revolt against it, and I think there might even be a petition going on somewhere.
Anyways, with stuff like this its important not to get all uptight about it, because if you did, you would go cr@zy within a month.
However, it's fun to think on the flip-side...I mean, think of something that is considered by most people to be distinctly "American...."
"Pizza" for example.
Now imagine a show where the actors get dressed up in stereotypes of 6 or 7 different countries and then go to a pizza parlor and attempt to eat pizza with their hands, only it somehow gets harder harder to do so, and then end up getting all messy and crazy.
Would it be hilarious? Yes.
Would it get cancelled in a week? Probably.
Maybe the moral of this story is that we should all learn to be less up-tight about things, and some countries (looks at Japan) could be more sensitive to other things.
A HUGE genre of entertainment over here focuses on how Japan is different from everyone else, and the result is always "That's hilarious, and We could never understand something as crazy as that!"
From an ESL teachers point of view, it is completely debilitating to socio-linguistic education. (Or Social Education in general, for that matter) This stuff does actually trickle down into the minds of the kids.
You wouldn't believe some of the things that I've been asked/told, all the way from a 2nd grader telling me that I "Smell like an American!" to that lady who asked me if we really do have scissors in America or not.
Anyways, I am going to go back to going back to work.
Bye!
J
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Rishiri Fuji Hike!
Yes! I had an awesome weekend. I got to finally climb the most beautiful moutian I've ever seen. I've been looking at it for a year now and it was great to finally get the chance to go up. There was thunder, wind, rain, and finally an unbelievable view from the top. It was awesome.
So, here are the pictures! Click on the "slide show" button to see the pics in order and such. If you can't find the slideshow button, which isn't immediantly obvious, please see the pic. (For those who care, I uploaded the full size jpgs, so if you click on "download" you can pull down the whole image, which is nice.)
Here are a couple of videos. Enjoys.
Almost at the top:
Sunrise!
see ya later
out.
So, here are the pictures! Click on the "slide show" button to see the pics in order and such. If you can't find the slideshow button, which isn't immediantly obvious, please see the pic. (For those who care, I uploaded the full size jpgs, so if you click on "download" you can pull down the whole image, which is nice.)
Here are a couple of videos. Enjoys.
Almost at the top:
Sunrise!
see ya later
out.
Saturday, September 16, 2006
Saturday, September 09, 2006
Small Bike!
One of my Co-workers at the Board of Education office drives a tiny tiny bike around.I put my backpack down for the sake of comparision. Don't you just want to like, eat it or something?
Friday, September 08, 2006
It's Steve's 'stache
I couldn't sleep last night so I got up and made a movie. A long time ago, like maybe back in May, I was hanging out with my bros & ladies who live in Obihiro. Here is a rough idea of where Obihiro is and how to get there: 
Anyways Steve, my friend, grew this horrible mustache and then proceeded to try and eat it whenever possible. Like, if it had been all "handle bar" style it would have been sweet. But this was just wrong. We have documented footage. Watch at your own risk:
That is all.
Anyways Steve, my friend, grew this horrible mustache and then proceeded to try and eat it whenever possible. Like, if it had been all "handle bar" style it would have been sweet. But this was just wrong. We have documented footage. Watch at your own risk:
That is all.
Thursday, September 07, 2006
it changes
from time to time.
Here is a slideshow/archive of the pictures from the party I was at last weekend. They are all very boring and honestly, I dont know why anyone would want to see them...here you go!
Here is a slideshow/archive of the pictures from the party I was at last weekend. They are all very boring and honestly, I dont know why anyone would want to see them...here you go!
It's cold and rainy and I think my pipes almost froze this morning.
Salutations!
Whats going on? My blog keeps breaking because I keep trying out other stuff with it. Google took over this company called www.writely.com that is like an online writing colaboration software. It's in beta (of course) and free (of course) so I've been trying to use it to handle my blog updates, because the normal inferface is complete crap. Writely handles the text and embedded tags easily enough, but it doesnt send the images through properly, I think because the pointers get screwed up when the code is transfered off-site to the blogger's servers. I wish they'd fix that.
I've started to use iCal how it's actually meant to be used and it rocks my socks. It syncs with Gmails calendar too which is sweet. Also I can run scripts from it, which means I can set up my bittorrent client to automatically grab new episodes of LOST when they come up on the trackers. Oh, sweet technology! Let me count the ways I love you!
I just got the whole series of Firefly, which is only like 14 episodes-short anyways, and its really good. It's a western that looks like a sci-fi. I am sad though, because there are no aliens. How can you have a sci-fi with no aliens? I'm only on Episode 3. I'll let you know if they find any.
I'm back in school after the BOE break and it's been great. I found out my school has a sweet projector so i've been luggin my 15 pound laptop around and using it for visual aids and playing "Who wants to be a Millionare?" in class. Makes me wish I had a sweet laptop, instead of this dinosaur. It some ways its better though, because we the kids steal it and I have to fight them ninja style to get it back, Jesse doesn't really worry if it gets totally smashed or something.
This weekend I am going to a wedding in Sapporo. The first teacher I worked with at the middle school, Kumiko-san, is getting married. I am really excited to see a traditional Japanese wedding. You can expect a full report.
I guess thats about all for now. I am really hungry and its only 9:45 so its hard to think when my stomach is so lonely. Can I have a hamburger, please?
out,
J
--
JB
Whats going on? My blog keeps breaking because I keep trying out other stuff with it. Google took over this company called www.writely.com that is like an online writing colaboration software. It's in beta (of course) and free (of course) so I've been trying to use it to handle my blog updates, because the normal inferface is complete crap. Writely handles the text and embedded tags easily enough, but it doesnt send the images through properly, I think because the pointers get screwed up when the code is transfered off-site to the blogger's servers. I wish they'd fix that.
I've started to use iCal how it's actually meant to be used and it rocks my socks. It syncs with Gmails calendar too which is sweet. Also I can run scripts from it, which means I can set up my bittorrent client to automatically grab new episodes of LOST when they come up on the trackers. Oh, sweet technology! Let me count the ways I love you!
I just got the whole series of Firefly, which is only like 14 episodes-short anyways, and its really good. It's a western that looks like a sci-fi. I am sad though, because there are no aliens. How can you have a sci-fi with no aliens? I'm only on Episode 3. I'll let you know if they find any.
I'm back in school after the BOE break and it's been great. I found out my school has a sweet projector so i've been luggin my 15 pound laptop around and using it for visual aids and playing "Who wants to be a Millionare?" in class. Makes me wish I had a sweet laptop, instead of this dinosaur. It some ways its better though, because we the kids steal it and I have to fight them ninja style to get it back, Jesse doesn't really worry if it gets totally smashed or something.
This weekend I am going to a wedding in Sapporo. The first teacher I worked with at the middle school, Kumiko-san, is getting married. I am really excited to see a traditional Japanese wedding. You can expect a full report.
I guess thats about all for now. I am really hungry and its only 9:45 so its hard to think when my stomach is so lonely. Can I have a hamburger, please?
out,
J
--
JB
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