Japanese pop culture was never even on my radar before this year. Sure, I'm a huge nerd, but I had still never been interested in manga, anime, or j-pop. Japanese pop culture would've been on the top ten list of things I didn't care about, right between Olympic curling, and the grand duke of Luxembourg.
It turns out anime is pretty cool. Kelli and I are watching a show called One Piece. It has been running since the '90s. There are nearly 500 episodes. We've watched about 30. It's difficult to describe (a) without making it sound weird and (b) without making me sound weird. Think Pirates of the Caribbean and you'll have a good idea.
We'll start watching Fullmetal Alchemist soon. I'm reading the manga right now and I'm hooked. I wouldn't recommend either show or manga for kids. They both deal with pretty difficult themes and are violent.
Little did I know that moving to Japan would feed my nerdy-ness. I'm picking up whole new genres of nerd obsession. It's always good to try new things.
Friday, October 15, 2010
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Dragonflies! It works!
So, the brown dragonflies can be hypnotized and picked up! I'll post some pictures later today. Also, it seems that it really is only the brown ones that will fall for it. The red ones (the only other color available yesterday) would take off as soon as they saw you coming.
Speaking of seeing you coming, walking around waving your finger in a circle isn't exactly a good way to blend in. My first attempt at dragonfly bamboozlement was next to the road. I walked toward the dragonfly resting on the fence slowly, with my finger moving in big, slow circles. I got within a foot before it took off. At about that time I heard a car go by behind me. From a car, no one would be able to see a dragonfly. All they would see is a big, white foreigner hunkered down, creeping towards a fence waving his finger in a circle. Had a red dragonfly landed on my face at about that time, it would've been very well camouflaged. I'm not sure why they let me go out in public.
Especially because after we went to the park and made some dragonflies dizzy, we took pictures of spiders by the road. We could get really close to them and get some good pictures. On the other hand, they were very active and made us jumpy. A couple of foreigners crouching down, taking pictures of who-knows-what and getting startled had to make for a head-scratcher.
We also saw a snake eat a frog. It was a pretty eventful day.
Speaking of seeing you coming, walking around waving your finger in a circle isn't exactly a good way to blend in. My first attempt at dragonfly bamboozlement was next to the road. I walked toward the dragonfly resting on the fence slowly, with my finger moving in big, slow circles. I got within a foot before it took off. At about that time I heard a car go by behind me. From a car, no one would be able to see a dragonfly. All they would see is a big, white foreigner hunkered down, creeping towards a fence waving his finger in a circle. Had a red dragonfly landed on my face at about that time, it would've been very well camouflaged. I'm not sure why they let me go out in public.
Especially because after we went to the park and made some dragonflies dizzy, we took pictures of spiders by the road. We could get really close to them and get some good pictures. On the other hand, they were very active and made us jumpy. A couple of foreigners crouching down, taking pictures of who-knows-what and getting startled had to make for a head-scratcher.
We also saw a snake eat a frog. It was a pretty eventful day.
Monday, October 4, 2010
Six months
Today marks the completion of six months here in Japan. It's been a wild ride.
I've learned a brain-ton (2,000 know-pounds to the brain ton, for those of you who aren't aquainted with units of knowledge). I've learned about being a teacher. I've learned about being a husband. I've learned some Japanese. I've learned how to drive on the opposite side of the road.
The pressures and difficulties of living abroad either temper you or break you, I think. Thankfully, I feel like I'm being tempered (he-he-he. Wheeee. Wahoo...Oh, maybe I snapped).
If someone asked me to recommend living abroad, my recommendation would take the form of a TV commercial for a prescription drug. It would open with beautiful scenes of rice fields, and cherry blossoms. Scenes of castles, zen gardens, and temples would play in the background while the narrator speaks.
"Do you suffer from mundania? Is the humdrum of daily life getting you down? Then maybe Living Abroad is right for you. Living Abroad will awaken that dormant sense of wonder. Living Abroad will infuse life with new energy. If you've been longing for something new, Living Abroad might be what you need. Ask your doctor about Living Abroad. Probable side effects include frustration, loneliness, isolation, confusion, stress induced premature baldness, discombobulation, bewilderment, indigestion, diarrhea, and/or constipation."
So, if your thinking about living abroad, 3 out of 4 gaijin (foreigners) recommend it.
I've learned a brain-ton (2,000 know-pounds to the brain ton, for those of you who aren't aquainted with units of knowledge). I've learned about being a teacher. I've learned about being a husband. I've learned some Japanese. I've learned how to drive on the opposite side of the road.
The pressures and difficulties of living abroad either temper you or break you, I think. Thankfully, I feel like I'm being tempered (he-he-he. Wheeee. Wahoo...Oh, maybe I snapped).
If someone asked me to recommend living abroad, my recommendation would take the form of a TV commercial for a prescription drug. It would open with beautiful scenes of rice fields, and cherry blossoms. Scenes of castles, zen gardens, and temples would play in the background while the narrator speaks.
"Do you suffer from mundania? Is the humdrum of daily life getting you down? Then maybe Living Abroad is right for you. Living Abroad will awaken that dormant sense of wonder. Living Abroad will infuse life with new energy. If you've been longing for something new, Living Abroad might be what you need. Ask your doctor about Living Abroad. Probable side effects include frustration, loneliness, isolation, confusion, stress induced premature baldness, discombobulation, bewilderment, indigestion, diarrhea, and/or constipation."
So, if your thinking about living abroad, 3 out of 4 gaijin (foreigners) recommend it.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Hypnotizing Dragonflies
A student of mine told me that you can hypnotize dragonflies. That is a succinct summary of a much longer conversation.
Join me on a wild trip down Tangent Lane, where I'll distract us from the main topic for a few minutes to --hopefully-- entertain both of us. If not, at least I'll be amused.
Living in a foreign country can be very fun. Conversations are like a wild mix of Taboo, charades, and blank staring. Speaking with Japanese people usually involves partial sentences and gesturing. For some reason I never have my dictionary on me, so life is much more complicated. There is a complex ratio that describes whether a conversation is fun or hair-pulling stressful.
[time available + (difficulty of concepts - vocabulary)] X immediacy ^ importance = amusement level
And that equation is scientifically tested. I pulled it out of a research paper titled "Living in a Foreign Country: Sanity's Breaking Point." It has many other fine equations such as the function to calculate the rate at which patience is exhausted based on the number, volume, and proximity of advertising kiosks in a department store. One thrift store has so many loud kiosks all near each other playing different music so loud it obliterates the minds ability to focus. Only theoretical physics has numbers small enough to describe how fast patience was exhausted.
Anyway, back to my original tangent.
Conversations such as "You can hypnotize dragonflies," over the course of fifteen minutes are quite fun. On the other side of things, you have the "You've been pulled over for a reason you can't understand and the policeman wants information from you that you can't provide and it is 10:30 at night and you still have a commute to deal with," conversation which is not fun at all.
So, to summarize fifteen minutes of partial sentences, gestures, laughs, and astonishment, you can hypnotize dragonflies. You wave your finger in a circle in front of their face. We're not sure exactly why it works, but the theory is that because they have so many eyes, trying to follow your finger makes them dizzy. Once they are good and dizzy, they will step onto your finger (or land on it if you are such a skilled dragonfly charmer that you can bamboozle them in mid-flight). They will sit there quite contentedly for several seconds before they fly away. Oh yeah, and it only works with the brown ones.
I can't wait to try it. I found out about this right before the weather got too hot. All the brown dragonflies disappeared and only the black and yellow striped ones were still around. Now the brown ones are everywhere. If I get a chance to catch a dragonfly I'll definitely let you know.
I know all of you will try too. I'm picturing all of you crouched down wiggling your fingers at something and the image has me laughing out loud.
Join me on a wild trip down Tangent Lane, where I'll distract us from the main topic for a few minutes to --hopefully-- entertain both of us. If not, at least I'll be amused.
Living in a foreign country can be very fun. Conversations are like a wild mix of Taboo, charades, and blank staring. Speaking with Japanese people usually involves partial sentences and gesturing. For some reason I never have my dictionary on me, so life is much more complicated. There is a complex ratio that describes whether a conversation is fun or hair-pulling stressful.
[time available + (difficulty of concepts - vocabulary)] X immediacy ^ importance = amusement level
And that equation is scientifically tested. I pulled it out of a research paper titled "Living in a Foreign Country: Sanity's Breaking Point." It has many other fine equations such as the function to calculate the rate at which patience is exhausted based on the number, volume, and proximity of advertising kiosks in a department store. One thrift store has so many loud kiosks all near each other playing different music so loud it obliterates the minds ability to focus. Only theoretical physics has numbers small enough to describe how fast patience was exhausted.
Anyway, back to my original tangent.
Conversations such as "You can hypnotize dragonflies," over the course of fifteen minutes are quite fun. On the other side of things, you have the "You've been pulled over for a reason you can't understand and the policeman wants information from you that you can't provide and it is 10:30 at night and you still have a commute to deal with," conversation which is not fun at all.
So, to summarize fifteen minutes of partial sentences, gestures, laughs, and astonishment, you can hypnotize dragonflies. You wave your finger in a circle in front of their face. We're not sure exactly why it works, but the theory is that because they have so many eyes, trying to follow your finger makes them dizzy. Once they are good and dizzy, they will step onto your finger (or land on it if you are such a skilled dragonfly charmer that you can bamboozle them in mid-flight). They will sit there quite contentedly for several seconds before they fly away. Oh yeah, and it only works with the brown ones.
I can't wait to try it. I found out about this right before the weather got too hot. All the brown dragonflies disappeared and only the black and yellow striped ones were still around. Now the brown ones are everywhere. If I get a chance to catch a dragonfly I'll definitely let you know.
I know all of you will try too. I'm picturing all of you crouched down wiggling your fingers at something and the image has me laughing out loud.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Religion
One major difference living here is the number of churches. They're almost as rare as Shinto shrines in southern Louisiana. Whenever you see one it is surprising enough to point out.
Religion doesn't come up often in conversation or in the news. Today I was pretty surprised to see a story about Christianity on the main page of Japan today. It's a pretty cool story.
Religion doesn't come up often in conversation or in the news. Today I was pretty surprised to see a story about Christianity on the main page of Japan today. It's a pretty cool story.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Mood Swings
The weather here is definitely having mood swings. This summer was the hottest summer in 100 years.
In a conversation with a student I found out that the nightly low temperature during the first week of September was the same as the daytime high last week. I went from sweating like crazy from the effort of sitting upright to shivering because I wore short sleeves. We went from using the AC to using the heater in two weeks.
The past two weeks have been extremely rainy too. I thought the rainy season was in June and July, but I guess it got lonely so it came back for a visit. I'm wondering how all this rain will effect the harvested rice that is supposed to be drying...
In a conversation with a student I found out that the nightly low temperature during the first week of September was the same as the daytime high last week. I went from sweating like crazy from the effort of sitting upright to shivering because I wore short sleeves. We went from using the AC to using the heater in two weeks.
The past two weeks have been extremely rainy too. I thought the rainy season was in June and July, but I guess it got lonely so it came back for a visit. I'm wondering how all this rain will effect the harvested rice that is supposed to be drying...
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
New Camera
You may have noticed that there are a lot more pictures on the blog lately. My old Canon camera from 2001 was starting to poop out and it didn't have drivers for Vista/Windows7. Until I got the new camera I had to take pictures with Kelli's camera, download them to her computer, copy them to a USB and then put them on my computer. That was a little too much work.
I'm not the sort of guy who walks into the store, looks at the cameras, and then picks one. I have to shop, look at reviews, consider, read some more reviews, ponder, then look for the best price. Once I had narrowed my choices down to two Panasonic cameras, I went to K's Denki to look at actual cameras.
Sometimes, I feel a little bit like Eeyore. To be more accurate I feel like Eeyore if his last name were Murphy and he wrote a law describing why a flipped coin has a 50% chance of landing heads up and dropped buttered toasts has a 100% chance of landing buttered side down. Sometimes "anything that can go wrong will", and "of course it happens to me."
Panasonic used to release all their cameras in Japan with Japanese and English menus. The key phrase in that last sentence is "used to." Until this year in fact. Yes, the first camera model year not to include bilingual menus was 2010. I felt like Eeyore Murphy Simpson. D'oh!
Panasonic decided to sell the same camera with 4 languages for a slightly higher price and call it an international model, which made me mad. Not to mention no one even keeps it in stock in our town. I bit the bullet and bought a camera with Japanese menus.
How's that working out for me? Let's just say, thank goodness all the menu options have little icons.
I'm not the sort of guy who walks into the store, looks at the cameras, and then picks one. I have to shop, look at reviews, consider, read some more reviews, ponder, then look for the best price. Once I had narrowed my choices down to two Panasonic cameras, I went to K's Denki to look at actual cameras.
Sometimes, I feel a little bit like Eeyore. To be more accurate I feel like Eeyore if his last name were Murphy and he wrote a law describing why a flipped coin has a 50% chance of landing heads up and dropped buttered toasts has a 100% chance of landing buttered side down. Sometimes "anything that can go wrong will", and "of course it happens to me."
Panasonic used to release all their cameras in Japan with Japanese and English menus. The key phrase in that last sentence is "used to." Until this year in fact. Yes, the first camera model year not to include bilingual menus was 2010. I felt like Eeyore Murphy Simpson. D'oh!
Panasonic decided to sell the same camera with 4 languages for a slightly higher price and call it an international model, which made me mad. Not to mention no one even keeps it in stock in our town. I bit the bullet and bought a camera with Japanese menus.
How's that working out for me? Let's just say, thank goodness all the menu options have little icons.
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