Yet Another Rambling Expository on the Red Sox World Series Win

I am not a baseball fan. Sure, I went to see more baseball games this year than I did basketball or football games (4 versus 2 and 3), but that was just a fluke. Growing up, I tried out a few organized sports - karate, basketball, soccer, swimming, and tennis - but never baseball. I didn't play teeball, I didn't play summer league. I didn't even play catch. "Catch with my dad" meant diving for footballs across my front yard. To this day, just watching people throw around a baseball makes me feel like my teeth are going to get knocked out. I have only owned two bats in my life, and one was black and green and made of plastic and foam. Baseball (and hockey for that matter) commands my attention only when I feel the players are playing in earnest - during the playoffs. I have been tempted to use the hackneyed play-on-words "National Waste of Time" on a number of occasions (which is really sort of accurate, because does it really matter what the Milwaukee Brewers or Montreal Expos do during those middle 150 games of the season). I am not a baseball fan.

However, aside from Magic Johnson rising out of crowd to swat a ball downcourt with .1 seconds left to secure a victory over the Trailblazers in the playoffs and seeing USC dismantle the Fighting Irish in person in Southbend, my most enduring sports memories are from baseball (I am admittedly not counting the overly-memorable Olympics in this). My earliest memory of watching sports on TV is none other than Kirk Gibson chipping off foul ball after foul ball before limping around the bases as the hero-to-end-all-heroes. My warmest memories of sports is sitting in the handicap section at Chavez Ravine with my Grandpa during the Hershiser era. And one of the greatest sports memories I have is watching The Rocket pitch for the BoSox at Fenway with my Dad and little sis. I can still hear the guy behind me yelling "Roger, you're a lobsta!" in a fake Boston accent. During that trip, Boston became one of my favorite American cities and the Red Sox became a team worth cheering for.

I was in Boston for some interview rounds last year during the ALCS. Red Sox fans seemed to be either the most stubbornly loyal or comically stupid people in all of baseball. I was outside of Fenway for Game 3 to see rich Bostonian women in Jackie-O sunglasses rub pashmina'd shoulders with Blacks, Hispanics, frat boys, and midgets, all gathering in Kenmore square to pay $1,000 to see their paper-thin hopes crushed in dramatic fashion from the nosebleed seats for the 85th consecutive year. I was in a leather recliner at MIT when Pedro threw Zimmer's ugly-babyface across the infield for a Marx Brother's style loss. And then, of course, Aaron Boone went to bat in extra innings back in New York. Bambino'd again.

So, of course I assumed Boston was going to blow it all this year. I remember on the day of one of the debates, Kerry's campaign spokesperson said he was "relaxed and looking forward to seeing Boston win today". Haha, even the Democratic Presidential candidate is just another idiot fan from Boston. In Red Sox fashion, Boston lost that day of course. And the next. The games take place in the morning here, so I woke up every morning after that Game 3 loss expecting ESPN.com to tell me how Boston managed to suck for the 86th consecutive year. And I woke up with that feeling every morning for the next 11 days. I didn't believe they could win so much that yesterday I voted in an ESPN poll that they would STILL find a way to lose the World Series. But they won. And I think it's important that they won the way they did - ruthlessly (pun intended), never trailing and never having to doubt themselves for the last 59 innings of the post season. Because if they even started to think they were going to lose, they would have lost. Isn't that really all it's been for the past 86 years? Just a self-fulfilling prophecy? I'll bet Bill Buckner was thinking "Routine groundball. Shit. I'm sooo going to fuck this up." And - you can finish the sentence. But this year, the Boston Red Sox must have had a visit from Stewart Smalley or at least the PYLSD PTA's "Project Self Esteem" because they actually believed in themselves enough to finish the job. What an uplifting story. But it makes one wonder - what will become of the Sox now that they aren't sports' biggest inferiority complex? Some people will actually twist the logic and say winning the World Series is actually bad for Boston and bad for baseball, because the Curse of the Bambino and the role of impossibly unlucky loser is the reason anyone cares about the BoSox and is part of baseball's mystique and indeed American culture. But, I think it's about time to let them off the hook and let a few crusty Boston fans die happy. It'll be nice to let someone else finally take up the perpetual-loser mantle (go Chicago Cubs and White Sox!). Just ask Phil Mickelson.

The only disappointing part of it all was having to watch from halfway around the world. Granted, if there was country that would be the second best place to watch the World Series, it would be Japan. They broadcast every game for the last week with the inexplicable exception of Game 4 of the World Series, and they cover it lightly in the news. But I can't get a sense of how people feel back home. I can't watch video of people in Boston overcome with joy as they burn SUVs, loot low-price appliance stores, and violently kill each other (by the way, hearing about such scenes when living in a country where people don't spit gum on the ground, actually throw trash in trasch cans, and have the will power to refrain from shooting each other in the face enables you to see the American populace for what they are: fat, self-centered, inconsiderate, and generally preposterous; good luck at the polls on Tuesday guys!). Really - the first October in the history of the Earth that I am not in the United States, and the Red Sox win it. Hopefully, there is not some kind of correlation between curses and me leaving the country or the city of Chicago, North and South, is in for a long few upcoming seasons.

To finish this off, a quote from ESPN's Jim Caple:

"After 86 years, this time the World Series championship baseball is firmly in the grip of the Red Sox and for Boston fans the sweetest of possible words are these: 'The Boston Red Sox haven't won the World Series since 11:40 p.m. EDT last night.' "

Matsu-Ken Samba!

I had an eventful weekend. Saturday, I finally went to Mujirushi to order my zabuton, zaisu, and chair (read: things to sit on). To date, I've been sitting on my floor when watching tv and sitting on my sitting-table when at my desk. Got that? I sit on a table when at my desk. So it's about time I bought some furniture. I talked to the Mujirushi folks today and the goodies come Friday morning. I'm stoked.

Sunday was a bizarre day. Chong-ri woke me up at 9 AM to tell me to meet her at 9:30 at Obashi (a bridge near school) because she was taking me to a Sports Club to go swimming. She had a free day pass and wanted to give it to me. It was early and I had no idea what the hell was going on, so I hopped out of bed and put myself together quickly enough to be 10 minutes late. The pool at the sportsclub had a strange mix of people in it, and swimming made me realize just how out of shape I am now that I haven't worked out regularly for 2 months. The weirdest part of the morning was doing aqua-aerobics because Chong-ri wanted me to; I see why that's a popular diversion for old people. Afterward, we went to eat cheap udon at one of those joints where you have to stand and eat.

I made it home just in time to change my clothes and run out the door again to go back to (homestay family #1) the Yoshikawa's house. No, I'm not a big fan of theirs, but host dad was throwing a party with his zemi (thesis seminar) kids, and I figured it was about time I dropped in to say hi. I figured it would mean getting to meet and hang out with other college kids while drinking free booze and avoiding certain characters I don't like (and trust me, I did all those things), but there were a few elements I wasn't expecting. First off, the Brazil theme. Remember, this is a thesis class for English majors; 'Samba in Rio!' is not the first party theme that comes to mind. Second, was the Japanese-Brazilian dancer girl wearing her Vegas Show girl Samba outfit and shaking her tail feather all over the tatami. And then shaking her bon-bon. And then backing that thang up. It was awkward, particularly when my host father was dancing with her and the girls in the class. He's 70 and about 5'2". I was pretty sure he was going to die of a heart attack in front of everyone. And then a decent bossa nova group performed (remember, this is all in his little Japanese house). After they performed, host dad introduced ME as the next performer and so I sang a few songs on the guitar for the kids. I had packed away enough Shochu and beer to allow that to happen. A few of us stayed til 10:30 PM (very unexpectedly) and then wandered off towards home.

Aya (another one of his students) and I went to eat okonomiyaki tonight and teach each other English and Japanese. She didn't offer me much in the way of teaching me Japanese other than giving me the discouraging news that my accent ain't all that good; I, however, finally figured out an effective and fairly simple way of explaining "the/a" to Japanese speakers. I'm a linguistic genius!

Don't worry, I'm still alive.

There are a lot of natural disasters in Japan. Just this week, there was the worst typhoon in 25 years, killing about 80 people to date, and tonight a bunch of earthquakes, including a 6.8er, nailed Northeastern Japan. But I haven't been affected at all. The typhoon made it rainy in Sendai for a day but caused zero damage, and I didn't even notice the earthquake.

Each Coming Night

Today I showed up on the doorstep of the Aoba-ku Yakusho (Ward office) to pick up my newly minted Alien Registration Card literally minutes before they dropped the steel curtain and closed up shop. This card is actually a real ID card - made of plastic, was produced with printing technology, and features a hologram of some famous building; as well it should since it took them an entire month to make it! It's nice to have my card now because that means when I'm arrested, I can prove I belong here and won't be detained for not carrying my passport. And I even made it easier on the cops - unlike my school ID where I'm doing my own rendition of "Blue Steel", the picture on my registration card was taken early in the morning and I hadn't shaved or done anything to my lopsided-from-sleeping hair. So it looks like my very own "Fulbrighter arrested for domestic violence" mug shot.

Tonight, I went out with Anh (the Vietnamese girl I met the other day) and we ended up eating tonkatsu and drinking beer. The tonkatsu was a bit disappointing - the meat was tough and the sauce was a bit thin. But I'm glad that we went because I haven't had tonkatsu in a long time, and though we first said that anything would be fine like polite Japanese kiddies should, it turns out we both actually wanted to eat tonkatsu anway. That was just the first in a line of many things we ended up having in common; our conversation over dinner was really nice, and we both admitted that when we first saw each other we felt like we had met somewhere, sometime in the past. After dinner, we went for a nice stroll along the river and headed home when it was too cold to stay outside anymore.

Upward Over the Mountain

The various goings-on back home with family and friends alike (let's just say it has been an eventful week and leave it at that) and the fully removed, wholly uninvolved manner in which I can play spectator to them and only muster muffled emotional response makes me wonder: Is it a function or fault of being so far away? Is it dangerous or normal? Is it maturity or selfishness? I feel concern and sympathy and longing, but only to an extent - not to the degree one would imagine. Maybe I'm just getting good at moving around a lot, which I think requires shutting oneself in some. But maybe most off all I just haven't been away long enough to fully understand the life I have here and fully appreciate the one I left behind.

Or maybe it's just this damn Iron & Wine I'm listening to. Sam Beam makes me so pensive.

The song just changed. Okay, yeah, it was just the Iron & Wine. Phew. iTunes is a dangerous drug.

And by the way, the Imonikai was cancelled. Damn.

"And God said, 'Let there be internet', and so it was."

Big freaking news: i'm writing these email from my apartment because i now have a sparkling broadband connection here. What a relief. It's good to be back online 24 hours a day. Let me just say though - I waited a month for them to come to my apartment to finish up the "construction" needed for my internet connection to open. From what I could tell, construction meant having some guy from NTT call someone and say "I'm at the apartment now", jiggle around some wires in my telephone jack for 3 minutes, and then give me a paper to sign. And then accidentally steal my phone cord. And voila - internet. Did that really need to take 30 days? Right, everything here needs to take 30 days. Most exciting feature of my internet - IP denwa, allowing me to call Internationally for the ridiculously cheap price of 2.5 yen a minute.

Two things I haven't mentioned really quickly: one of my Japanese classes, misleadingly titled "Pronunciation" is really a class where we sing folky Japanese songs (the equivalent of like, Michael Row the Boat Ashore) in chorus! And that's all! Just singing! It's like concert choir in junior high or something.

Other thing: I went out to dinner with Chong-ri, that 38 year old Korean woman. It's really bizarre that's she so old, but she's super nice and since she helped me figure out some things at school this week and we both need friends it's all good. I think she's gonna be like my older sister/mom at school because we have a lot of classes together and she's also in the econ dept. So we went to eat Sendai's meibutsu (food the area is famous for): Gyuu-tan, a.k.a. Cow Tongue. It's really, really good once you get over the tongue like texture. I took her to this joint Rikyu that my relatives have taken me to because I know it's good. Afterward, we chatted over beers in a park and then went home. I'm jealous of her - she gets to be a student here for 3 years, all paid for by her company! She's not great at Japanese now, but she's gonna be smoking at the end of her stay I'm sure.

Tomorrow, I'm going with Takako (tutor girl) to an Imonikai - a potato boiling party only done in Sendai and only done in the Fall. Sounds interesting: taking the world's most boring vegetable and most boring method of cooking and calling it a party! Show me where I can sign up!

2 Months Down.

On the eve of the due date of my first Fulbright Monthly Report, I am amazed that two months have passed already during my stay here in Japan. As with virtually every other experience in life, time feels like it has passed faster and slower than that at the same time. How profound an experience.

Life in Sendai is finally feeling more and more settled by the day. I actually have a few friends at school! I actually have classes! I almost have internet! I'm almost a registered alien! People call me 'Kenji-kun'! It almost makes me tear up.

Looks like for the 4th time in the last 60 days, my year in Japan is finally starting. Too bad this time there's only 8 months left to do it all.

More progress.

Today, I only had one Japanese class at 4:20 PM, which means I was lazy all day. In the middle, I grabbed lunch with Tutor #2 Chiba Tsuyoshi-san. He was really nice and after eating, helped me register for using the library (note: so far I've had to register separately for a student card, to take classes, to take each individual class, to use the computer room, to be a member of the student co-op, and to use the library. And none of that was done using computer registration. I have to carry a million cards and little sheets of paper around with me to do anything here; how I miss you, Penn card). Tsuyoshi had studied abroad at some school called Ursinus University that is apparently in Pennsylvania (forgive me; I am a Californian uneducated in the ways of East Coast institutions of higher learning), and majored in international finance in undergrad. He seems like he'll offer a good balance to Takako (my other tutor): she brings the undergrad life, friends, activities, etc. and he brings the grad student life, academic help, etc. Since I am the ever-ambiguous Kenkyuusei (research student) that doesn't neatly fit into the undergrad of grad division of the school, it is pretty much a perfect set-up.

Tonight, I had Japanese conversation class, and the professor thought that I was someone who had spoken Japanese since childhood, which I definitely am not, and that maybe the class would be too easy for me, because as a Nikkei I just need to broaden my vocabulary and learn to speak more politely. I assured her this was the right level, and I'm certain she is going to be surprised to learn just how much my Japanese sucks. Oh, and I met a cool girl from Vietnam studying to be a Japanese teacher. She's been going to school here for a year now and speaks really fluent Japanese. I think we're gonna be friends. At this point, making any friends is good news.

Progress Sort of.

Today, I decided to actually wake up and try going to class (hey now, it's only the third day of class; i haven't been that lazy yet). So I tried going to a Public Finance lecture this morning, and I showed up and all the students were just hanging out in the lecture hall talking, reading, or sleeping. The only thing missing was the professor. After sitting around for about 30 minutes, people started leaving, so I left too. I guess the professor decided to play hookey. You know how professors can be, so incorrigible.

I then had a half-decent curry-chicken-katsu lunch in the dining hall, picked up my 'student I.D.', which is in actuality just an I.D.-shaped piece of card stock with the information hand-written and my picture glued to it. Not exactly the luxurious and ingenious Penn Card. I then made it home just in time to receive two great pieces of mail: one from mom containing instant chicken noodle soup, taco mix, and taco shells (I have to hand it to her, this care package was absolute genius!) and an oh-so-hipster-yoshitomo-nara postcard from the incomparably thoughtful Sean Kramar. Hooray for mail!

I then woke up from a nap in time to have Writing and Reading lecture this afternoon. Writing class was fine, but our professor for reading class didn't show up either! Luckily, he sent one of his minions to give us our homework and tell us he wasn't coming. He must have been out with my public finance professor, riding around on skateboards and asking people to buy them cigarettes and beer from the convenience store.

The best part of today was that Jong Chong-ri, this korean 'girl' that I have Writing and Reading class with and that I met during Orientation for the economics department helped me figure things out around campus (I put girl in quotes because today I found out she is 38. 38!! Geez, I didn't think she was any older than 30). She helped me register as a member of the school Co-Op and register to use this here computer room. Now I don't have to go downtown to use the internet anymore! And there are no time limits. Oh, and our last names have the same Chinese character (for those who can view japanese on their comp: 鄭), so we have that going for us. Unfortunately, she barely speaks English, so we get by on broken Japanese. Incredibly broken.

Now I'm waiting to meet one of my two tutors, Ms. Takako Noheji. Hopefully she can help me figure some more things out, though she told me she doesn't speak English. Great. I meet my other tutor, Mr. Tsuyoshi Chiba, tomorrow. He does speak English, so maybe he'll be a better resource.

Double the Matsuri, double the sarcasm

Today, Chiyaki and Chisaki (two of the girls I went to dinner with the other night) came with me to the Tohoku Daigaku Kokusai Matsuri (international fest.), where there were booths with food from 31 different countries, traditional music and dance performances, and tons of mud (thanks to the typhoon). My shoes are a mess. The festival very well also might have been called "Third World Country Matsuri" or "We All Communicate with Broken English and Broken Japanese Matsuri". Gone were the familiar flavors of European and American countries; however if you like the Middle East, South East Asia, and Africa, this was your cup of tea. The food was generally pretty good, but since it was all prepared in booths, it was pretty much limited to fried things. The girls and I had Vietnamese, Korean, Chinese, Ghana (-ese? -nian? whatever; food from Ghana), Turkish, Romanian, Egyptian, and Bangladeshi* food. The Bangladesh booth literally forced us to eat it by dragging us over and handing us the food, so that wasn't really our choice. I don't think all those countries get along very well because I definitely got a stomachache midway through.

It's in situations like this that I am at my most sarcastic, and luckily, because I learn so much of my Japanese from watching TV (just like how I learn pretty much everything else I know), I can be pretty sarcastic in Japanese as well. I actually find being sarcastic in Japanese to be even funnier than in English because of how polite Japanese generally is. Though I should start watching something other than my usual palette of variety shows, because I'm risking becoming too sarcastic.

There was apparently going to be a 'dance party' after the food festival (I'm not sure how that bizarre group of generally awkward and ugly foreigners was going to turn into a dance party, but I'll take their word for it), Chisa and Chiyaki don't dance, so we took off for the larger and much more official matsuri being held today - the Yosakoi Matsuri. I'm not sure what Yosakoi matsuri is supposed to celebrate, but it was pretty typical matsuri fare - traditional dancing, lots of booths selling okonomiyaki and takoyaki and other fried foods, booths for games for the kids, etc. Pretty lively, but only entertaining for a short time. The three of us then headed for the bookstore for an English lesson. Unfortunately their questions about English were so difficult, I couldn't explain them. I basically gave very spotty explanations followed by "uh, just read a lot and have conversations with people a lot; you'll start to understand". I'm such a great English teacher! Oh, and in the bookstore I came across this one series of language books that was for conversations between men and women in different languages. So I started reading the korean version of the book outloud - starting with the chapter on conversations about sex. Hilarity ensued.

USC beat Cal - barely. Rejoice! They live for another week.

*my apologies to whoever corrected me on the use of the word Bangladeshi. I will be more culturally sensitive from here on out. If the 'anonymous' person who corrected me is someone I know, I have my ideas on who it might be, but in any case, really: was that necessary? Come on people.

Typhoon 22 Blues

A lot has happened in the last 2 days. On Thursday, I finally met with my academic advisor, finance professor Kamoike Osamu. He was nice and our meeting was helpful, if incredibly brief. Now I have some economics and finances classes to audit, which, if nothing else, sound like they will be very difficult to understand. And I was also assigned two tutors who are paid by the school to help me set up my schedule and figure out life at school, etc. Pretty exciting stuff. Yesterday I had my first Japanese class, Kanji. It's going to be pretty challenging I think since I placed into a class that is above my level, but oh well. Who doesn't love a challenging class about Chinese characters.

Last night I went out with some kids in Sendai for the first time after living here for almost 3 weeks. It was refreshing. The kids were these 4 girls I met in one of my visits to former homestay dad's english classes. They took me out to eat yakiniku at Gyuukaku (which has now officially become the restaurant establishment I have gone to the most with kids here in japan). The food was good, the conversation was good, and we had the second floor all to ourselves! Sweet. The girls said they would take me out on a roadtrip sometime to check out the neighboring areas; i hope they werent just saying that to be nice! (thought hey probably were).

Today I was supposed to hang out with another Japanese kid, but she got sick and lo and behold Typhoon 22 just touched down in Japan around Shizuoka. Which means a fun few days of pouring rain. Looks like I can't ride my bike for a few da - oh what's that? I lost the key to my bike's ring lock the other day, rendering it useless? Oh. Then I guess I wouldn't be able to ride it anyway!

My sad, sad bike is sitting outside of this building I'm in right now, locked up and drenched in rain. How pathetic.

Internet in 7 days!

Hey now it's the sun.

Good things happen when the sun comes out. Today, my modem came in the mail. That doesn't mean I have internet in my apartment, but it means that at least I now have things associated with the internet in my apartment. It's a step in the right direction. And then I went to school and after somehow finding the room orientation was being held in (they didn't give us a map or tell us that the room had been changed), I received plenty of information vital to my life at school. It looks like I'll actually be doing something related to my research topic at this school after all! And then I came downtown and picked up a couple of wonderful new albums: Interpol's long-awaited Antics (which, while not as incredible as Turn on the Bright Lights, sounds pretty good), and this double album by Shiina Ringo I meant to buy 2 years ago. Interestingly, the best song on the Interpol album is the Japan-only bonus remix of 'Slow Hands' by Spoon's frontman Brit Daniel. He manages to make Slow Hands, which is a　decent track anyway, sound more like a Spoon song and Interpol song of yesteryear at the same time by bringing Sam Fogarino's heavy drum attack and Carlos D's disco-funk bass pulse back to the front and dropping the vocals and guitars down low. The rhthym section is what Interpol is all about. Listen to it and tell me the chorus doesn't make you want to get on the dance floor. Or at least make you want to pose like a hipster.

Oh, and yesterday I bought this decently priced (5700 yen) desktop speaker set for my computer. I lugged it all the way back in the rain from the train station so as to avoid paying for bus/cab fare. It sounds really great and I'm sure my powerbook's speakers are happy to have a rest. However, I think I have to be careful how loud I play it. While listening to some music last night (pretty quietly mind you), my neighbor either dropped something really heavy or he punched the wall to tell me to turn the music off already. I'm not sure, but I'm going to be cautious. They should build thicker walls in this country.

Now I'm going to go look for a new pair of pants and go home and cook some dinner for meself. I'm starving; all I've had to eat today were a few wafers of sembei!

More on it all tomorrow after I meet my professor.

AND it's still raining.

Today I got a nice care package from my mom with pringles, snickers (I had to stop myself from devouring it all upon opening), a long sleeve shirt (useful around the apartment since, hey, we don't build buildings with insulation in this developed country), and some toiletries. EXCELLENT. Speaking of excellent, while most of Japan's procedural infrastructure is mired under mid-19th century paper-filing systems - need I remind I paid my tuition in cash with a bunch of paper forms and received a hand-written receipt for it - the mail service here is actually awesome. You weren't home to receive a package? Well then sign onto the internet or pick up the phone and tell them when you want the package delivered; you can choose any day of the week, and anytime between 9 AM and 9 PM. Now that is service. And you can pretty much mail anything from anywhere to anyone's doorstep, which makes traveling with a ton of luggage a lot easier. Yay for mail. Anyone who remembers my hatred for the USPS that was birthed in the early days of this past summer can see why I am pleased with this mail system. Oh two other good things: I placed into the Japanese class I wanted and I finally got an e-mail from my professor who sounds very nice. I'm meeting with him sometime in the next couple days.

On the bad side of things, it is still raining outside. When will it end???

Koreans: Really good at cheating on tests.

I had the Japanese placement exam this morning, which was really, really easy with the exception of the last fifth or so of the kanji questions and a few of the grammar questions. It was so easy in fact that I'm worried about how this thing works in terms of placing people; It seemed like it should have been much harder than that. Because I definitely have a LOT of Japanese to learn.

The group of foreign students, which looked to be about 100-150 strong in the placement exam today, was mainly Chinese, Korean, and European with a few Africans sprinkled in. From what I could tell there were either 2 Americans in the room other than me and UCSB professor Stuart, or zero. Not sure if those dirty, oddly-dressed white people were frighteningly dorky Americans or your typical batch of smelly Europeans.

I noticed as I was nearing the end of the exam that the Korean girl in front of me was definitely cheating by typing characters into her cell phone to figure out the correct Chinese reading on the Kanji part. Cheating. On the placement exam. That is ridiculous. The one test where getting an accurate score is in your best interest, and she's cheating. It was pretty funny and it made me stop and admire how, man, Koreans are really good at cheating. From what I've heard, people in Korea sure like cheating their way into American colleges, doing things like paying other people to write their application essays. And anyone who went to high school in LA or OC(particularly Sunny Hills) know how good those Korean kids are at cheating and then doing things like getting kicked out of NHS for it, or murdering people (watch Better Luck Tomorrow). But placement tests, that's an achievement. Koreans, I salute you for your unparalleled ability to cheat. The sheer ingenuity you bring to the table refreshes the entire genre of cheating (with apologies to every Korean and Korean-American I know, especially Hyunjoo).

Rain, rain go away

Well I'm back at that place with the computers you can use for 40 minutes. Today, despite the fact that it took me 15 minutes to figure out what I was supposed to do with the internet setup information page KDDI sent me (they are setting my internet up on Saturday, October 16; Jesus), I still have a luxurious 8 minutes left to type as much as I freakin can.

So yesterday evening, I went down to the Seiyu grocery store. It's interesting shopping for groceries in Japan. I have no idea if Seiyu has reasonable prices, I have no idea if the products I'm buying are any good, and I have no idea how much of anything to buy (though, those of you stockwatchers know Seiyu is now a Wal-Mart brand, so watch for falling prices!). After buying about 25 pounds of groceries, I put my liter of water and liter of Calpis into my backpack, and the rest of my groceries into my handy-dandy bicycle basket (I knew having a mama-chari was useful for something), and began to ride home. I thought riding that damn bike was hard enough with just me on it, but when it's front loaded with rice, meat, and vegetables, it's even worse. But I made it home, pedaling the whole way, even up the hills. And then I made myself a spaghetti dinner which was not only edible, but actually tasted good. I was very proud of myself. I then just lounged around all Saturday night because, hell, I ain't got nothing better to do. My phone isn't exactly ringing off the hook. And I only have 6 channels on TV, so it wasn't even good lounging. And then it started raining which was ridiculous considering I just finished my first load of laundry and had just hung it out on my balcony to dry (I have no dryer). This is going to be an interesting winter.

This morning, I slept. I woke up in the afternoon and made myself eggs and bacon (I wonder how long I can hold up this domesticity) and headed out to buy myself an umbrella from Lawson because it's raining and I needed to come here to use the internet. OH! And when I was waiting to use the internet I went back downstairs, and the musical comedy duo "Tetsu and Tomo", who were incredibly famous last year for their song "Nande Darou", were performing. It was pretty cool to see them, since they were pretty much ubiquitous last year. I wonder if this is what happens when celebrities in Japan head for "where are they now?" territory: they travel around doing small, free performances for local audiences. How sad.

Okay, I have 0 seconds left. Back again tomorrow after Japanese placement test.

japanese keyboards make me crazy

Right now Im sitting in this place called the Sendai Mediateque or something like that. Its a really nice modern building and on the second floor there is a ring of computers with internet that can be used for free. For 40 minutes. And they have Japanese keyboards. In other words Im typing as fast as i can right now without even thinking of whats coming out and not using punctuation marks because Japanese keyboards are really weird. I have like 3 minutes left. Jesus. Thank god im a fast typist.

Today I woke up late and just kinda lumbered around until going downtown to ride around on my bike and shop a little. Tonight I have to make dinner for myself for the first time here. Well see how that goes - it shouldnt work too well. Hopefully its edible. I have back up instant korean ramen waiting in the wings if necessary.

Oh and Ichiro broke Sislers record today. It pisses me off that he broke a record that is 84 freakin years old and its not even the headline on ESPN.com. Obviously if it had been the homerun record or the cconsecutive games record, people would care more. But I also have a feeling that the fact he isn't white or black (in other words, he isnt a typical American athlete), people would actually give a shit. Hell, ESPN.com didnt even give the guy the headline. It was the freakin Angels! I guess one of the hardest and most enduring records in the history of the game (stood longer than both the homerun record and consecutive games record) isnt worth noting as the night's headline. I think back when Sisler was playing, there werent even curveballs or sliders either. I know, its the same old "respect the asians" song and dance - but Ill keep on going til it gets done, bitch.

Oh my god I have 30 seconds left bye.

At least today I did something.

By far, today was the most beautiful day I have seen in Japan. Sunny, clear, not humid, nice breeze. Pretty much perfect. I had to get up early because I decided to not waste the day (since yesterday was so wasteful it was actually more exhausting than a normal day) and go to this picnic with her Japanese school class. Last night I didn't actually go to bed til incredibly late, as usual, so I barely woke up. And the water she gave me to drink with my onigiri (she just refilled this used plastic bottle) tasted like it had some kind of cleaning chemical mixed into it. I didn't drink it.

So at first, this excursion seemed like the worst decision I've made in Japan since that one time I told the hairdresser "yeah, you can do some work on my eyebrows". It was a bunch of foreigners - the slouching 20 year-old guy from that one eastern bloc country who seemed completely devoid of self-esteem was by far the most awkward - from asian and middle-eastern countries, with a couple random europeans tossed in. And with the exception of literally 3 other people, they were all either adults or the small children of the adults. So like I said, not exactly my crowd. And on top of that, I was tired and the picnic took all day. But it ended up being pretty fun to get out and get some fresh air. And the place we went to, Yakurai-san, was really beautiful with gardens and open fields. Of course, places like that are a dime-a-dozen back home in California, but when you're in the Japanese plastic and concrete jungle, you take what you can get. I met one Japanese teacher in particular who was pretty cool and really funny, and this girl from Nepal I sat next to on the way home is really interesting. She is my age and is dating some Japanese guy she met when he came to Nepal to visit and now she is living with him in Sendai and between them, neither speaks the other's language fluently! So she speaks a mix of Nepalese, broken English, and even more broken Japanese, and he speaks Japanese, broken english, and even more broken Nepalese. I don't get it, but hey, if they're happy ... (i'm not sure if the people and language of Nepal is properly called Nepalese or Nepali. For those of you from Nepal reading this, I apologize for my ignorance).

Tonight I'm moving in! Lots of shit to get done. No motivation. And no idea how to cook food for myself! This is going to be interesting. I'll have internet regularly again in maybe 2 weeks. So updates will become infrequent for awhile...

Today I did nothing.

Today, I literally did nothing. I left the house for 30 seconds to look at the rainbow in the sky. There was a pretty much perfectly formed rainbow over Sendai today in the wake of the typhoon that blew through last night. The rest of the day I spent indoors, just watching TV and reading.

Tomorrow is supposed to be a beautiful, sunny day. I'm going on some kind of picnic with my host mom and her students (she's a Japanese teacher for a bunch of like.. korean and chinese people or something) .. and then I'm finally moving into my apartment. Good things about moving into my apartment: finally fully independent with full privacy. Bad: No internet, it's a complete mess in there, and I have no friends so being fully independent also means fully lonely.

There are some things in my life that I'm starting to feel like I have to change in order to make this a great year, and starting tomorrow I'm going to do my best to start changing them.