Archive for the ‘Personal’ Category
A bike ride
Posted on: November 11, 2008
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- 735 yen for creamed corn soup
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- Delicious Japanese Kimchi
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- Japanese waiting for a chance to win a prize
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- Japanese waiting to win a drawing
Today I went on a long bike ride. I rode from Fukodaimae to Kashii. On my trip I took a few pictures. The weather was great today. A little cold, but the sun was shining. I stopped off at Aeon mall where I saw hundreds of people lining up for their turn to win a prize from the grocery store’s lottery. Basically you turn a handle and it makes the balls in an octagonal box go round and round until a ball pops out. The value of your pize depends on what color ball you draw. It looked like most people won vouchures or discounts on merchandise, because nobody walked away with a very big smile while I watched from the Starbucks across the way. I had a hot dark cherry mocha coffee. It was probably one of the best coffees I’ve ever had.
On my way home I saw a girl in a junior high school uniform get clipped by a car while she was riding her bike uphill. The girl wasn’t injured. She gave me the stink-eye when I looked at her as I rode past. The driver was a young thirty something lady in a white mini-car. The driver was more shook up than the girl, who just looked pissed off.
While I was waiting for a train to pass I overheard to college age girls behind me talking about their friend Midori. According to them, Midori likes chubby guys and she recently bought a t-shirt. Also one of the girls was very sleepy. She told her friend that she only got six hours of sleep. It wasn’t the most interesting conversation, but that’s just an example of what Japanese girls talk about.
Houjoya in Hakozaki
Posted on: September 18, 2008
Recently I went to a festival in Japan. I saw a booth selling ginger root. With popcorn, candy apples, and various grilled meats on a stick the ginger root booth seemed out of place. I asked my friend who invited me , “Why are they selling ginger?” He thought about it. Like most Japanese people he didn’t have any answers for cultural questions about their own country. So we went on and looked at the other booths. We saw several more ginger root booths. Then it started to naw at me. I asked my friend to findout from the sellers why they are selling ginger root. The answer was very simple. A long time ago, there were lots of sick people. They were treated with ginger at the local shrine. So now they sell ginger root at the festival. Here I was thinking that wasabi was the only condiment with the healing powers.
I also saw eel fishing at the festival. There was only one guy I saw who attempted it. But there were tons of lookie-lous. They love to eat eel, but most Japanese would rather not get close enough to touch a live one. There were other games at the festival goldfish catching, turtle catching, beetle fishing, archery, target shooting with ultra weak air rifles, old school pachinko, ring toss, darts and archery. The most fun had to be archery. For about $5 you get 7 arrows to shoot from a lifesize bow. The targets are a good distance away, and you have to pop about 5 or 6 balloons in a bunch to win something, but it’s actually possible if you’re a good shot. I popped a couple of ballons, but it takes skill to get them all.
As you can see from my pictures the worst thing about the festival is the hordes and hordes of people that make it almost impossible to take a single step without bumping into someone. I almost stomped a 2 year-old girl into the ground when her father pulled her out in front of me. Not on purpose, just because I couldn’t see her with the tons of people around me. She was maybe 2 feet tall and cute as a can be. Fortunately I was able to keep my balance.
Bring your wallet when you go to the festival. The only thing that is free is the ambiance. Snow cones were $3. Beef on a stick $5. Chicken on a stick $4. Drinks $5. Games $5 a play. Freak show $7 for adults. I ended up spending at least $25 or $30.
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- The people
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- Yum
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- Fake fish fishing
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- Character Booth
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- Wind Chimes booth
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- The masses
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- Cold Pineapple booth
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- The hordes
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- Turtle catching
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- Beetles
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- Target Shoot
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- Old school pachinko
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- Archery
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- Eel fishing
Japanese are old!
Posted on: September 12, 2008
I went into a coffee shop today in my neighborhood to see if I could strike up a conversation with some locals. I went in and sat at the bar. There was a myriad of flasks, brushes, and doodads for percolating coffee. Behind the bar a 50 something woman with curly dark brown hair was attending to the customers. As soon as I sat down a 60 something auto company retiree starts talking to me.
“Can you read Japanese literature?” Huh? Literature? He must mean Japanese letters or characters.
“Yes, I can read Japanese.” I said in Japanese.
“How long are you staying in Japan?” He might mean how long have you been in Japan.
“It hasn’t been 2 years yet. About a year and eight months.”
“Your Japanese is really good for being in Japan only 2 years.”
“Thank you.” Repress the urge to be smarmy.
“Where are you from?”
“Texas.” He didn’t say where do from this could turn into a coherent conversation.
“Where?”
“Texas.”
“Where in Texas?”
“Houston.”
“I know Houston. My son went to a medical school there.” He put his fist over his heart. I know the word he wants to use.
“Cardiologist.”
“That’s the word.”
The conversation continued a little further, but soon he had to be on his way. I enjoyed talking with him even if it was only for a short while. I surveyed the room to see who there was left to talk to. To my right was a man with down syndrome. Most of the time he laid his head on the bar and pretended to sleep. He was waiting for the manager to give him a pen to write something. To my left was an old woman of about 80. She talked of her inability to understand English. It turns out when she was in junior high, it was forbidden to learn English because of the war.
An elderly man dressed in a black turtleneck and dark grey trousers came and sat between me and the octogenarian. He must have been at least 70. He wore a necklace with a large white tusk hang. He smoked a sweet smelling tobacco in his pipe and talked on and on about politics. The manager told me that he is the dance instructor for the community center. I had a little trouble keeping up with their talk about politics, mostly because I haven’t watched the news lately, so I didn’t know most of the names they were dropping. So I just listened for awhile and then I paid my bill.
If you haven’t been paying attention. The only person under 30 in the entire story was me. Did you ever see the movie “The Children of Men”? The one where almost the entire world has gone sterile. Well that’s what it’s like sometimes living in Japan. Not that I don’t mind gabbing it up with grandma moses and learning about war times. It’s educational, but I would really like to hangout with people my age. I don’t think it’s just Fukuoka either. What say you people living in Japan?
On a side note: When I visited Korea it was just the opposite. The majority of people seemed to be in their 20’s and 30’s. I think that might be the biggest reason why Korea seems so much noisier.
Korea is
Posted on: September 8, 2008
I returned to Japan from Korea today. The verdict is in. Here is what you need to know about Korea:
Korea is noisy. On so many occassionsI wanted to tell the people around me to be quiet, turn your cellphone ringer off on the train, put your headphones on if you want to watch tv in public, stop honking your horn because it doesn’t make traffic move any faster, and turn the volume down on your ipod. But I didn’t say anything because it’s their country and I was just passing through.
Korea is delicious. For all the noisiness, Korea has some delicious food. You can get just about everything you would want to eat in the US. Fast-food, Mexican, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, and more. Dunkin Donuts is huge in Korea. They were everywhere. I tried some of the food from the street vendors and it was very delectable. In the hot dog contest between Japan and Korea, Korea wins hands down. Best dang hot dog I had in a long time.
Korea is almost there. If I had to describe Korea in terms of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd world countries, I’d say korea is still stuck at 2nd world, but moving up fast. I stayed in Korea’s too largest cities and some parts looked futuristic and enticing, and other parts looked shady and a bit on the wonky side.
Korea has personality. Compared to Japanese and Americans people Koreans and downright gregarious. People are always out and about and talking away either on their cellphones or with their friends and family. I bumped into a Korean guy by accident and he wasn’t afraid to say something. I apologized and he let it go. Now if that was a Japanese guy he might of apologized to me even though I was at fault. I visited a convenience store last night in Pusan and the girl at the counter never once cracked a smile. She welcomed me in the store and blurted out the price in English in irritation when I couldn’t understand what she was saying in Korean. Tonight in Japan I went to a convenience store the staff was all smiles. Even if didn’t understand Japanese I would have clearly been able to see the price on their full color lcd displays. Not to say that all Korean people who work in the service industry are impolite, but if I had to give it a number, I’d say about 6 out of 10 are impolite. 3 out of 10 are polite and the other 1 is somewhere inbetween. If I went back home and rated Americans， I don’t know how they would rate. You tell me.
Korea is cheap. I’ve never been to a country where it was so cheap to get around. The subway was super cheap. A trip that would cost $5 dollars on the subway Japan would only cost you $1 in Korea. I rode the bullet train (KTX) in Korea and it only cost about $50 one way from Pusan to Seoul. If I want to go from Fukuoka to Tokyo it normally costs at least $200 unless they are having a discount campaign. Taxi’s in Korea were a thing of beauty. They were so inexpensive! I took a 30 minute taxi ride and it cost me less than $12. I took at 20 minute taxi ride in Japan and it cost me nearly $50 and that was before they raised the prices because of gas prices.
Koreans might be paranoid. When I rode the subway and trains in Korea, I saw gas masks in glass cases in the station. In each one there was maybe twelve or so masks. There were maybe two or three cases in a station. Now if a gas attack occurred I very much doubt that people would be able to get to the masks in time. Also there are more than 36 people in most subways stations in Korea. People on vacation in Korea can’t use the lockers at the subway stations. I tried at least five different times. I even asked people for help and it was futile. The biggest reason is that outside of bullet train stations and international harbors, the lockers don’t take cash. All the subway lockers take e-money from the t-card, credit cards, and cell phones with an RF chip. This pissed me off because I had nowhere to put my bag when I was in between hotels. Plus all the directions were in Korean. There was no option for English as far as I could tell. I guess they don’t want foreigners using their lockers.
Koreans speak English…sometimes. On the whole I think more Koreans can speak English than the Japanese. I think it has to do with exposure. Koreans are really into English. When I watched TV in Korea there were so many channels in English I couldn’t believe it. When I went to the big bookstores they had aisle after aisle of books in English. Not only that, but Koreans were actually buying the books and reading them. Not books on studying English, just normal books written in English. I saw tons of college students with textbooks on various subjects written in English. The downside is that the people I needed to know English didn’t know English. Not a single taxi driver or hotel clerk spoke even semi conversational English. They understood please and thank you, but not much else I said. However a hotel manager and the cashiers at starbucks understood and spoke English pretty well. The staff at On the Border and Bennigan’s understood English very well. But aside from chain restaurants from America it’s hard to find fluent English speakers in most Korean restaurants.
I enjoyed my stay in Korea, but I think you should know at least 300 words of Korean to make your stay more enjoyable. For example: numbers, days of the week, please, thank you, excuse me, how much, direction words, and color words.
Garbage Day
Posted on: August 9, 2008
Today I went outside to put my garbage out. I didn’t see the blue netting that usually covers my area’s garbage, so I walked toward the next little collection site. There was a little old woman of at least 60 years old. She was having trouble lifting the netting. Just as I was about to help her with it, she dropped the netting and said to me in Japanese, “What country are you from?” I pause. “America.” “This garbage collection site is for this side.” She pointed to an area behind her. “But there is no netting out for my site.” I don’t want to clean up garbage from the street if the crows decide to pick through the uncovered garbage bags. “Put it over there. They’ll put it out soon.” She said. I turned away. I stepped towards my usual collection area. Why does it matter if I have one small bag of garbage? I turned back. The old lady was gone. She was probably looking out from her window to see if I would disobey her – waiting to call the garbage police on me. I dropped the garbage off at my usual spot. I walked back home. Japanese people are rude. She asked me what country I’m from for two reasons. The first was to see if I understood Japanese. The last reason was so she could report to her neighbors or the garbage police which country the foreigner was from. She didn’t even ask my name. .
The True and False about Japan
Posted on: May 31, 2008
There are many pretty girls in Japan. – (TRUE)
Every Japanese girl wants a foreign boyfriend. – (FALSE)
In reality it’s more like 80 or 90%. No, but seriously though, Japanese girls like foreigners, but many find it difficult to have long lasting relationships with a foreigner. Others complain about not having opportunities to meet foreign men, also know as lazy women.
There are many jobs for foreignors in Japan. – (TRUE)
However most of them involve teaching English. Most jobs that don’t involve teaching English are in or around Tokyo, especially in Minato-ku if you ever look at a job listings.
You will be treated as an equal. – (False)
I’m sorry, this is not the land of opportunity where all your dreams come true. This is the land of capitalism at it’s worst. Don’t think of yourself as a person in Japan. You are more of a commodity or a product if you will. The better you look and the better you sell yourself the better off you are in Japan – monetary-wise.
You will meet some interesting people in Japan. – (TRUE)
I’ve meet a mechanic for a Shinto priest with near perfect English, a rally racecar driver’s mechanic, a scary policeman who knows all kinds of martial arts, a businessman who has lived in China, and a cranky Marine Biologist who hates America, and about a billion housewives with too much time on their hands so they take English lessons.
Everyone in Japan is friendly. – (False)
It depends on what you mean by friendly. Most people find the service in Japan to be excellent and quick and blah blah blah. Most of it is just a veneer. I’ve had a security guard smile in my face when I told him my bicycle was stolen. The same day I bought it, not less. A friend of mine put it best, “He suffers from smiling chimp syndrome.” But that was just one instance. People in America don’t always show their true feelings either.
Japanese people are soulless robots. – (False)
I’ve heard this from many people. Usually it comes after some kind of heartbreak. Maybe a girlfriend or boyfriend doesn’t return their love anymore or they don’t see eye to eye with a person. I find that we usually jump to the conclusion that Japanese are soulless when they don’t do something we like or it appears that they are being cruel. The longer I’m in Japan the more I see how Japanese people are just like all other people.
Japan is the best place in the world to live – ( )
Japan has a lot of nice conveniences, culture, traditions, and a fairly low crime rate, but at the same time many people in Japan suffer from depression. A country is not the land, but it is the people. They have everything they could ask for physically, but feel empty without a cause or a purpose for their lives. A lot of people go through life, just going through the motions and trying to stay out of everyone’s way for fear of reprisal. Many try to stave off their reality through the escapism of video games, the internet, movies, and television. We have the exact same problems in America, so I can’t blame Japan. Japan is what you make of it. You want something, you got to go out and get it, but as a foreigner you are going to have a harder time getting it. It’s not impossible, but it is kibishii ne.
Hustling for that yen
Posted on: May 2, 2008
The other day I decided I can’t stay still anymore. I need to get out there and make something happen or I’m not going to achieve anything and it will all come to nothing. So I went down to IMS and got a paper to place an ad on their bulletin board for language instruction. I came home and made and advert for my services and printed it on that bulletin paper. The day after I went back and had it put up on the bulletin board. Also I made a bunch of flyers to pass out to people leaving the train station. So that’s what I did. I went out there, I looked each person in the eye and said, “Yoroshiku onegaishimasu.” It’s the customary expression people say when handing out advertisement in Japan. It means, “Please be good to me.”, “Pleased to meet you.” or just plain “Please.” It has many uses.
I was out there standing by the escalator, waiting for people to get off the trains. Some people made a sharp right as soon as they saw me so they wouldn’t have to interact with me. Others pretended I was invisible. Some said, “Excuse me.” and went on by. There was one high school boy that took a flyer and made a big scene by saying, “Thanking very much!!” in Japanese very loudly. I just said the same back to him in English. I managed to handout all of my flyers. How many flyers are in people’s trashcans and how many are on people’s tables next to their day planners is unbeknownst to me. I’m hoping to get at least 10% will contact me for a lesson – 20% would be great, 30% would make me prosperous, 40% would be unbelievable, and 100% would be too much for me to handle.
The majority of people who took my flyers were women. I’d say it was skewed to about 65% women and %35 men. But that seems about right anyway. When I taught at Nova, most of my students were women. Women tend to be more interested in learning languages than men.
Now I’m going to wait a for about a week or so. If I don’t get any replies, I might have to go back to teaching for a school. I have to make money. If I don’t make money, I can’t eat. If I don’t eat, I’ll die. Dieing is bad. But I’m long way from that. I just want to.
Tests Tests and more Tests
Posted on: April 24, 2008
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I’ve been trying to do some things to better my chances of getting a good job in Japan or in Hawaii later on. I signed up for the BJT (Business Japanese Test) that is coming up. I only have a couple of months to study for it, but honestly it looks much easier than the (JLPT) Japanese Language Proficiency Test that I took last December. Not many people take the test, but I think it’s worth it if it will motivate me to study a little more. Anyway, I think last year only around 86 people took the test in Fukuoka. But the number of test takers in Tokyo is more than 10 times that. I just hope it will help me get my foot into the door of a respectable company.
The next certificate I’m aiming for is the Level 4 of the Kanji Kentei test. Unfortunately the test dates are on the same day so I’m going to take it in October or November I can’t remember exactly which month it’s being held in. Anyway, Level 1 of the Kanji Kentei is nearly impossible to get for you average Japanese. My girlfriend tried to do a practice quiz for Level 1 and she maybe got 3 out of 10 questions right. It’s really hard. The average Japanese person who is fairly well educated can pass level 3 with a little bit of studying. Level 2 might require some serious hitting of the books. My problem is getting the 4 kanji compounds correct. I don’t know the idioms or expressions so I can only guess at the answer.
Then of course I’m aiming for Level 1 of the JLPT in December. I hope that taking these other tests will give me bit of an edge when it comes to taking the monster of test in December. If I can pass it I’ll seriously consider going back home to America to get a job as in translation or interpretation. I don’t want all my studying to be for not.
If you are interested in taking the tests I mentioned please click on the links below for more information. You can also find a wealth of information about the tests in English on wikipedia. I know it helped me.
Business Japanese Test http://www.jetro.go.jp/course/bjt/
Kanji Exam http://www.kanken.or.jp/index.html
Japanese Language Proficiency Test http://momo.jpf.go.jp/jlpt/home.html
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