Okay, let's try to go for a real update this time.
First off, in case you thought I was kidding about Dutch licorice, the internet has once again proven me right. I especially like the Japanese guy's reaction.
Anyway, dang, so much to write about. This is going to be kind of brief because I have a lot of catch up on, and I've already visited basically everywhere in this post a bunch of times, so you can go back to previous posts to find pictures.
Let's see...
So last week on Wednesday I went with Kim and Louki to Ise, because they wanted to see Ise and I am always okay with visiting Ise. It was pretty exciting, but since it was my fourth time at Ise I will not really write much here.
...also, Kim and Louki got a bunch of my friends from the dorm to make a little book for me with pictures (INCLUDING A PICTURE HALI DREW OF ALL OF US AS OUR RESPECTIVE PONIES IT IS NOW CANON) and little letters and I might have cried a little but you can't prove it and Kim definitely doesn't have photographic evidence shhhhh. It was basically one of the nicest things anyone has ever done from me and oh my gosh yes. I will treasure it forever.
On Thursday morning I helped out at the tsukinamisai at Susanoo Shrine, at which there was much excitement that I shall not write about but it involved someone nearly passing out, and then afterwards I got FREE LUNCH and also got to listen to a long and complicated discussion about the shrine's finances and their relationship with a couple of important neighborhood organizations. Basically, it was good stuff all around.
Thursday evening I went to pick up my dad from the airport, and managed to get him food without killing him* and got him to his hotel.
On Friday morning I met up with my dad, showed him around some sites near my dorm, like Koushouji and Gosha Shrine and the super awesome bakery in the Valor. I also filled out some paperwork so that he could come up into my room and look around, and I am sure he will tell you how COMPLETELY SPOTLESS and NOT DISORGANIZED my room is. Right, Dad? Anyway, he also got to meet Louki and Grace, which was cool.
...aaaaand then I had to run away to class.
But after class we met up with Itou-san, who came by in her car to pick us up! We were going to go to Nagoya Castle, but the traffic was really bad, so we wound up getting there right before they closed. We decided to save the castle for another day, and we walked around Meijo Park and the castle moat instead. I would just like to note that the koi in the castle moat are INCREDIBLY CREEPY and I am pretty sure I am going to have nightmares about their creepy mouths.
ANYWAY, after that we drove past the City Archives, which are housed in this building that looks like it belongs on the Harvard campus. Not even kidding.
And then we went to Kawahara Shrine to see adorable baby turtles and definitely not to show my dad the shrine or anything.
And then we went to dinner at a really good Chinese restaurant, and Itou-san made endless fun of my dad for eating less than me. And then Itou-san totally stole the check and SOMEDAY I WILL WIN AND PAY FOR A MEAL. I am planning. PLANNING, I SAY.
Anyway, it was all around a very nice day!
Saturday, Dad and I went to Inuyama to see the castle and the other stuff in Inuyama. The castle was much warmer than it was when I went with Nick, but the stairs were still as terrifying. We also went to this cool little puppet museum that is just outside of the castle grounds. And then I introduced my dad to soft cream (it's like the much better version of American soft serve), which may have been a mistake because he might be mildly addicted to it now oops. Anyway, after that we went to the temples on the mountain, and met this Buddhist priest who showed us around a tiny recreation of the Shikoku pilgrimage. The Shikoku pilgrimage is a route of 88 temples located around the entire island of Shikoku, which takes approximately a month to complete on foot. There are hundreds of recreations of the pilgrimage, usually which employ sand or dirt from each site and some sort of sacred object from each site. This particular recreation had little pots of sand below the floor and a scroll from each temple. Anyway, I got a pretty long explanation from the priest, because he was pretty excited that I understood what he was talking about. So that was cool.
After that we were going to go over and check out the Monkey Park, except it turned out to be an amusement park? A really expensive amusement park? I dunno. So instead we headed back to Nagoya, bummed around Osu Kannon and bought AMAZING MEAT BUNS, and then went over to Kanayama to grab curry for dinner.
So that was Saturday!
Sunday, Dad came to my dorm to drop off his bags for the day, and then we went to Nagoya Castle and actually managed to get inside this time. We also visited the Tokugawa Art Museum later that day, which had a big collection of popular books from the 18th century, including, weirdly enough, a bunch of guides to the red light district. I don't even know. There was also a new exhibit on the possessions of the merchant class, which was pretty cool, although I don't know why I would want a tea bowl that cost that much if I were a merchant.
Then we went to the Tokugawa Gardens, which were significantly greener than they were last time I visited, but also had fewer flowers, weirdly enough.
We grabbed dinner at Pastel, aka that weird restaurant that only sells cake and pasta, and then I took my dad to Nagoya Station and said bye.
Upon returning to the dormitory, I discovered that Abbie had spent the entire semester saving one yen coins so she could go to the Lawson (convenience store) and buy a teriyaki burger using only one yen coins (one hundred five of them, to be exact). It was potentially the most epic and trollish thing to ever occur in a convenience store. The cashier at our register managed to get through the entire thing with a perfectly straight face, although the other cashier looked like he was going to die from holding in his laughter. He was turning bright red, not even kidding.
ALSO, Ashley bought cell phone charms for all the pony girls and THEY ARE THE COLORS OF OUR PONIES AND WHY IS THIS SO GREAT. Anyway, I have a tiny bell with a ribbon hanging from my cell phone now, and it is in Twilight Sparkle's colors and it is great.
Monday morning I woke up at an ungodly early hour to say goodbye to Meredith and Hali and Ashley, all of whom were leaving for the airport. Then I saw an annullar eclipse, or, really, I tried to take pictures of it, failed, and then spotted the people across the street who actually had sun filters, and asked them politely if I could share. Thank you, nice people across the street! Anyway, it was amazing cool and I will be incredibly disappointed if I don't develop super powers. And then after that I collapsed into bed and slept for a while, because I was running on four hours of sleep.
Tuesday was Kim and Louki's last day in the dorm, and due to a long and complicated blood pact, Kim had to watch an episode of Sherlock with me, so we (Abbie and Kim and Louki and I) did that. And apparently I spent the entire episode grinning like an idiot, but, HEY, IT'S SHERLOCK AND YOU CAN'T STOP ME.
Then we went to Mountain, which is a sort of infamous restaurant by the dorm. It is infamous because A. it has the largest serving sizes you have ever seen and B. it has the weirdest pasta you have ever seen, like green tea and red bean. Yeah. But I got a parfait so all was well! Although my chocolate parfait had a prune in it, which was...odd.
And then we had a Roommate Dinner, which turned out to be more like a Roommate Plus a Whole Other Chunk of the Dorm Dinner, which was fine, because it meant that we got to hear about why not to be a politician in India and how the Netherlands doesn't have a government right now and other exciting things.
Today I woke up at an ungodly early hour to take Kim and Louki to Nagoya Station with Dheeraj and Grace, which was exciting even though all of us were sort of falling asleep. (Okay, Grace was literally falling asleep.) Once we saw them off, we fought through the sea of people who decided to ride the subway at rush hour (IT WAS AWFUL I THOUGHT I WAS GOING TO DIE AUGH) and somehow managed to get back to the dorm without being crushed to death.
Also, I apologize if this post is more incoherent than usual 'cause I think I'm running on roughly three or four hours of sleep. I'm coming down with something, which means that it feels like someone's been sandpapering my throat, so I kept waking up in the middle of the night and thus got lousy sleep. Ugh.
Anyway, yeah, that's what I've been up to, basically. I'm gonna go collapse and drink some more tea now. Oh, and eat more of these crazy plum cough drops, which are the greatest thing I have ever found.
*My dad is allergic to shellfish, which is...problematic, if you live in a port town like Nagoya.
Showing posts with label My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Sunday, May 6, 2012
I am a pony
Welp, I guess the gig is up. During another one of our Louki-randomly-drags-everyone-out-for-cheese-naan-or-if-not-everyone-then-at-least-she's-dragging-Dana-and-everyone-else-is-going-somewhat-willingly adventures, Ashley realized that the six of us going out to dinner were eerily similar to the Mane Six from MLP:FiM. ...and of course I was Twilight Sparkle, because, let's face it, if we're being assigned ponies, obviously I'm going to be the one who nearly destroys a city over a potentially tardy assignment. (Also, Louki is Pinkie Pie...which makes me mildly concerned about my rooming with her? Will she be putting alligators in my bathtub? Will she randomly burst into song? Actually, she already does that...hmm...) Anyway, thanks to some well-timed product placement, we've now convinced yet another person to watch ponies (she SAYS she only wanted to see which character we matched her up with...but then she watched more...and kept staring meaningfully at Louki and I when our associated ponies were on screen...we are ONTO YOU).
What, is this supposed to be a blog about my Fulbright year? NO, THIS IS A BLOG ABOUT PONIES. Because I am a pony.
Also, while we were all at dinner, there was an earthquake. Which everyone except me failed to notice. So I said, "EARTHQUAKE," really loudly. And they still didn't notice. Even though EVERYTHING WAS SHAKING. And then I said, "EARTHQUAKE" a bunch more times and was trying to scoot out my chair so I could get under the table, and then SUDDENLY everyone else realized that, hey, normally not everything is shaking! And then the earthquake stopped and everybody started high-fiving each other* and I'm pretty sure the restaurant manager thought we were all insane** OH WELL. Man, it's a good thing we had that three-hour disaster training, 'cause if we hadn't...absolutely everything would have been the same!
...and then afterwards we went to a playground because we are ADULTS.
Speaking of natural disasters, we were supposed to have thunderstorms and waterspouts today, which actually meant that it rained for about an hour and there were maybe two bolts of lightning. Laaaaaaaaaaaame. There were real thunderstorms and waterspouts elsewhere. I am becoming increasingly convinced that interesting weather phenomenon just avoid everywhere I live. Either that or Providence and Nagoya are both surrounded by some sort of interesting-weather-repellent force field.
...and I should get back to preparing for my Japanese class on Tuesday, in which I'll be bringing in an editorial arguing that the aging population in Japan isn't as terrible as everyone is making it out to be. Basically, it is my hope that if I bring in a more exciting topic than automated check-out kiosks in supermarkets (what we read about last week), maybe people will participate and have opinions and debate and challenge each other to Agni Kai...maybe this is just wishful thinking. OH WELL, I CAN TRY.
Edit: For anyone who's interested, here's the article I'm bringing into class.
*Because this was the first earthquake experience for everyone except Hali, and it was Hali's first earthquake in Japan (she grew up in Southern California).
**This is assuming that he didn't already believe we were insane for ordering as much cheese naan as we did...
What, is this supposed to be a blog about my Fulbright year? NO, THIS IS A BLOG ABOUT PONIES. Because I am a pony.
Also, while we were all at dinner, there was an earthquake. Which everyone except me failed to notice. So I said, "EARTHQUAKE," really loudly. And they still didn't notice. Even though EVERYTHING WAS SHAKING. And then I said, "EARTHQUAKE" a bunch more times and was trying to scoot out my chair so I could get under the table, and then SUDDENLY everyone else realized that, hey, normally not everything is shaking! And then the earthquake stopped and everybody started high-fiving each other* and I'm pretty sure the restaurant manager thought we were all insane** OH WELL. Man, it's a good thing we had that three-hour disaster training, 'cause if we hadn't...absolutely everything would have been the same!
...and then afterwards we went to a playground because we are ADULTS.
Speaking of natural disasters, we were supposed to have thunderstorms and waterspouts today, which actually meant that it rained for about an hour and there were maybe two bolts of lightning. Laaaaaaaaaaaame. There were real thunderstorms and waterspouts elsewhere. I am becoming increasingly convinced that interesting weather phenomenon just avoid everywhere I live. Either that or Providence and Nagoya are both surrounded by some sort of interesting-weather-repellent force field.
...and I should get back to preparing for my Japanese class on Tuesday, in which I'll be bringing in an editorial arguing that the aging population in Japan isn't as terrible as everyone is making it out to be. Basically, it is my hope that if I bring in a more exciting topic than automated check-out kiosks in supermarkets (what we read about last week), maybe people will participate and have opinions and debate and challenge each other to Agni Kai...maybe this is just wishful thinking. OH WELL, I CAN TRY.
Edit: For anyone who's interested, here's the article I'm bringing into class.
*Because this was the first earthquake experience for everyone except Hali, and it was Hali's first earthquake in Japan (she grew up in Southern California).
**This is assuming that he didn't already believe we were insane for ordering as much cheese naan as we did...
Friday, April 27, 2012
All kaiten sushi all the time
I am so bad at updating. SO BAD. Part of the problem is that I've been going out/actually talking to people in the evenings, so instead of writing my blog posts after dinner, I come home exhausted, talk to Nick for a little bit, and then fall asleep. The dangers of having friends!
Anyway, here are the answers from the super short words challenge!
1. pasokon = personal computer (paasonaru konpyuuta)
2. rimokon = remote control (rimooto kontorooraa)
3. meruado = mail address (meeru adoresu)
4. kaanabi = car navigation system, aka GPS (kaa nabigeeshon)
5. santora = sound track (saundo torakku)
6. furima = free market (furii maaketto)
7. kopipe = copy and paste (kopii ando peesuto)
8. ama = amateur (amachua), which is the opposite of puro (pro, short for professional)
9. infure = inflation (infureeshon)
10. shinse = synthesizer (shinsesaizaa)
...the highest anyone scored (that they told me; I dunno, maybe someone got all of them but was super secret about it) was a 2.
Say it with me:
:'D
Perhaps I have been in Japan too long, but a lot of these seemed pretty intuitively obvious to me! (Well, not kopipe* and santora and shinse. I got shinse after I thought about it, though.) I have probably just been in Japan too long, you guys. Probably.
Let's see. What has happened since the last time I updated?
Monday was Louki's birthday, and I made her a cake, because it was either that or read stuff for class. Anyway, it turns out that some people think being able to bake a cake is impressive? I dunno.
Also, somewhere in the middle there I discovered that Grace is a brony which means that OUR BRONY LEAGUE IS NOW AT THREE. We are UNSTOPPABLE.
Anyway, a bunch of people went out to a kaiten sushi** place, which was really good AND really cheap! And I ate a bunch of saba (mackerel), because I am into saba.
Then, when we came back, it turned out that basically the entire dorm was waiting to sing "Happy Birthday" to Louki. It was exciting!
Almost immediately after that we all trooped up to Ashley's room to wish HER happy birthday at midnight. And I wanted to play her the ponies happy birthday song, but then I realized it was from an episode she hadn't seen yet and I was sad.
The next day I had penmanship, and one of the women who I haven't seen in almost five months was there. It turns out that she injured her knee and was bedridden for a while, which is (obviously) why she wasn't coming to class, but it's great that she's able to get up and walk around again! Also, she was shocked to see me, because apparently Nakano-san had told her that I had gone back to America...and failed to tell her that I was coming back. OOPS.
But anyway! It was a pretty good class! I actually did some pretty okay penmanship and was super proud of myself until Nakano-san, 15 minutes before the end of class, handed me a string of about 20 incredibly difficult kanji and told me to try it "as a challenge." ...it was pretty bad. I shall take pictures and put them up here at some point. Prepare your eyeballs.
Also, people in penmanship class have realized that actually maybe I kind of know something about Japanese religion, because:
A. I can understand the weird, obscure Shinto terms Nakano-san uses
B. I got into HARVARD, so clearly I must be kind of okay
C. Nakano-san was describing an amacha*** ritual, and I correctly identified it as being created by Gedatsu-kai,****
D. I knew what Gedatsu-kai was (I just read a book on it...)
E. I know the difference between Amaterasu-oomikami and Amaterasu-no-mikoto (one is from the Nihon Shoki and the other is from the Kojiki).
It's amusing, because a couple of new women have started coming, and Nakano-san keeps introducing me as knowing "all this random stuff even I don't know about Shinto." Ahahahaha, what.
That evening I had Japanese class, where we finished reading a mystery novella we started a couple of weeks ago. In the end, it turned out that the person I suspected from the beginning did it, and when we were just reaching the climax, our teacher asked if anyone knew who had done it, and I said I did, and she was SHOCKED OH MY GOODNESS. It was kind of obvious, though. If you're going to include a character and not have him/her DO anything, OBVIOUSLY HE/SHE DID IT. Especially if it's a novella.
Wednesday I went out to Toyota City to interview Aoyama-san, the priest who the Yamaguchis (my host family in Tochigi) introduced me to. He answered negative to almost all of my questions, which is interesting, but not entirely unexpected. Anyway, I got some good information out of it, so now I just have to write it up into my paper. I've been trying to work on my paper a little bit each day, but that's not actually how I work on papers, so it's more like on Wednesday I worked on my paper for a couple of hours and doubled the word count and I haven't touched it since then. Oh well. It'll get done.
Thursday I had Japanese class, where we were learning kanji compounds with two or more readings/meanings. For example, 心中 can mean "in [someone's] heart" (しんちゅう) or it can mean "a love suicide" (しんじゅう). They are pretty different words!
After class I went out with a bunch of other foreign students to kaiten sushi AGAIN, because we are all about kaiten sushi.
And now it is Friday and I am writing this in the afternoon so that I don't forget in the evening. GENIUS.
Next week is Golden Week, which is a week with a million holidays in it, so everybody goes traveling. Everybody except me, that is. I don't really have any plans. Maybe I'll figure something out or maybe I'll just bum around or maybe I'll go on a day trip somewhere. WE SHALL SEE. On the other hand, we have to finish a draft of the handbook by Monday, so maybe I'll just work on that...
*Which may be my new favorite word. It just sounds so perky!
**Rotating sushi. It's where the sushi is on a conveyor belt or in sushi boats. People are always shocked when I say that we have kaiten sushi in the US.
***Sweet tea.
****As it turns out, Nakano-san belongs to a more Shinto-centric spin-off of Gedatsu-kai called Kamunagara-no-michi (which is the old reading for the word "Shinto," by the way!). I need to find infos on it, basically.
Anyway, here are the answers from the super short words challenge!
1. pasokon = personal computer (paasonaru konpyuuta)
2. rimokon = remote control (rimooto kontorooraa)
3. meruado = mail address (meeru adoresu)
4. kaanabi = car navigation system, aka GPS (kaa nabigeeshon)
5. santora = sound track (saundo torakku)
6. furima = free market (furii maaketto)
7. kopipe = copy and paste (kopii ando peesuto)
8. ama = amateur (amachua), which is the opposite of puro (pro, short for professional)
9. infure = inflation (infureeshon)
10. shinse = synthesizer (shinsesaizaa)
...the highest anyone scored (that they told me; I dunno, maybe someone got all of them but was super secret about it) was a 2.
Say it with me:
:'D
Perhaps I have been in Japan too long, but a lot of these seemed pretty intuitively obvious to me! (Well, not kopipe* and santora and shinse. I got shinse after I thought about it, though.) I have probably just been in Japan too long, you guys. Probably.
Let's see. What has happened since the last time I updated?
Monday was Louki's birthday, and I made her a cake, because it was either that or read stuff for class. Anyway, it turns out that some people think being able to bake a cake is impressive? I dunno.
Also, somewhere in the middle there I discovered that Grace is a brony which means that OUR BRONY LEAGUE IS NOW AT THREE. We are UNSTOPPABLE.
Anyway, a bunch of people went out to a kaiten sushi** place, which was really good AND really cheap! And I ate a bunch of saba (mackerel), because I am into saba.
Then, when we came back, it turned out that basically the entire dorm was waiting to sing "Happy Birthday" to Louki. It was exciting!
Almost immediately after that we all trooped up to Ashley's room to wish HER happy birthday at midnight. And I wanted to play her the ponies happy birthday song, but then I realized it was from an episode she hadn't seen yet and I was sad.
The next day I had penmanship, and one of the women who I haven't seen in almost five months was there. It turns out that she injured her knee and was bedridden for a while, which is (obviously) why she wasn't coming to class, but it's great that she's able to get up and walk around again! Also, she was shocked to see me, because apparently Nakano-san had told her that I had gone back to America...and failed to tell her that I was coming back. OOPS.
But anyway! It was a pretty good class! I actually did some pretty okay penmanship and was super proud of myself until Nakano-san, 15 minutes before the end of class, handed me a string of about 20 incredibly difficult kanji and told me to try it "as a challenge." ...it was pretty bad. I shall take pictures and put them up here at some point. Prepare your eyeballs.
Also, people in penmanship class have realized that actually maybe I kind of know something about Japanese religion, because:
A. I can understand the weird, obscure Shinto terms Nakano-san uses
B. I got into HARVARD, so clearly I must be kind of okay
C. Nakano-san was describing an amacha*** ritual, and I correctly identified it as being created by Gedatsu-kai,****
D. I knew what Gedatsu-kai was (I just read a book on it...)
E. I know the difference between Amaterasu-oomikami and Amaterasu-no-mikoto (one is from the Nihon Shoki and the other is from the Kojiki).
It's amusing, because a couple of new women have started coming, and Nakano-san keeps introducing me as knowing "all this random stuff even I don't know about Shinto." Ahahahaha, what.
That evening I had Japanese class, where we finished reading a mystery novella we started a couple of weeks ago. In the end, it turned out that the person I suspected from the beginning did it, and when we were just reaching the climax, our teacher asked if anyone knew who had done it, and I said I did, and she was SHOCKED OH MY GOODNESS. It was kind of obvious, though. If you're going to include a character and not have him/her DO anything, OBVIOUSLY HE/SHE DID IT. Especially if it's a novella.
Wednesday I went out to Toyota City to interview Aoyama-san, the priest who the Yamaguchis (my host family in Tochigi) introduced me to. He answered negative to almost all of my questions, which is interesting, but not entirely unexpected. Anyway, I got some good information out of it, so now I just have to write it up into my paper. I've been trying to work on my paper a little bit each day, but that's not actually how I work on papers, so it's more like on Wednesday I worked on my paper for a couple of hours and doubled the word count and I haven't touched it since then. Oh well. It'll get done.
Thursday I had Japanese class, where we were learning kanji compounds with two or more readings/meanings. For example, 心中 can mean "in [someone's] heart" (しんちゅう) or it can mean "a love suicide" (しんじゅう). They are pretty different words!
After class I went out with a bunch of other foreign students to kaiten sushi AGAIN, because we are all about kaiten sushi.
And now it is Friday and I am writing this in the afternoon so that I don't forget in the evening. GENIUS.
Next week is Golden Week, which is a week with a million holidays in it, so everybody goes traveling. Everybody except me, that is. I don't really have any plans. Maybe I'll figure something out or maybe I'll just bum around or maybe I'll go on a day trip somewhere. WE SHALL SEE. On the other hand, we have to finish a draft of the handbook by Monday, so maybe I'll just work on that...
*Which may be my new favorite word. It just sounds so perky!
**Rotating sushi. It's where the sushi is on a conveyor belt or in sushi boats. People are always shocked when I say that we have kaiten sushi in the US.
***Sweet tea.
****As it turns out, Nakano-san belongs to a more Shinto-centric spin-off of Gedatsu-kai called Kamunagara-no-michi (which is the old reading for the word "Shinto," by the way!). I need to find infos on it, basically.
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Sometimes stuff is problematic
So apparently nobody can figure out the shortened words. Here, have some hints:
pasokon, meruado, and kopipe are all words having to do with computers
kaanabi and rimokon are both electronics
furima and infure are words you will most commonly hear in economics
shinse and santora both have to do with music
ama is the opposite of puro
YAY, now you will definitely be able to figure them out, right? Right? Right?
Other exciting news! On Friday night we had our dorm's dance party, which went better than the Halloween party, but has convinced me that even if I have friends at them, I am just not into parties!
Additionally, I discovered that when I put on a dress, dudes apparently become really interested in flirting with me. It's awkward, 'cause some of them were dudes who have never bothered to talk to me before and suddenly they were all, "Man, you are HAWT in a dress," and then ogled me awkwardly, and I was all, "OH MAN, IS THAT SOMEONE WHO DESPERATELY NEEDS MY HELP FAR ACROSS THE ROOM I GOTTA GO." On the other hand, I had a bunch of actually good/interesting conversations with people who had things to remark on other than my hawtness in a dress/lack of hawtness the rest of the time.
Oh, on a totally unrelated note, several days ago, Ashley recognized my dorky Hitchhiker's shirt for what it is,* which led to SO MUCH GEEKY BONDING, as if we weren't already buddies because of our shared bronyism** and disturbing enthusiasm for Gurren Lagann (it is the best and if you disagree YOU ARE WRONG).
In other news, I have begun to realize exactly how right Alyssa's Law of Anthropology is. Alyssa (who is the anthropologist Fulbrighter in Fukuoka) was saying at the conference that anthropologists like to spend a lot of time talking about how "problematic" everything is. And recently I've been doing a lot of reading that has driven that point home. Of course, sometimes labeling something as problematic makes sense, especially if it's a translated word. For example, could you call a kami a god? Maybe. But that could be, ahem, problematic, because it might make your readers think that you're talking about the Western concept, with the gods existing in a different world/level than humanity. It gets even more complicated when you're using words that also exist in Chinese, or words that exist across cultures, like "Buddha." In Japanese, there's a phrase "to become a buddha," which is basically synonymous with "to die." Except that's not how becoming a Buddha works in any other kind of Buddhism. So it's pretty understandable if you have to put a disclaimer on that sort of thing.
...and then there are people who think pretty much everything is problematic. This especially becomes a problem when you're talking about Shinto between 1868 and 1945, because everybody argues over whether it was a state cult or not and whether it was a religion or not and whether it was a state teaching or not and whether etc. etc. etc. And it's fine to recognize that there's a lot of debate surrounding a lot of terms, but apparently some people feel the need to write a disclaimer EVERY. TIME. THE TERM. APPEARS. Yes, I got it the first time! It's problematic! I know!
On a final note, I asked Itou-san about finding a female priest who went through seminary as a college student (because both she and Nakano-san did the crazy summer crash courses), and she is amazing and knows a bunch of people and said she would introduce me and YES. SO EXCITED.
...and on an actually final note, people have found my blog through the keywords "euphemisms for chest hair."
What.
The.
Fork.
*So many people have told me that my "whale shirt" is "cute," and then I wait for them to continue and they just stop there and I am sad.
**Season 2 ended today and it was amazing and I just, wow, you guys, wow.
I WISH I HAD A BBBFF. OR A PFF. OR ALL OF THE ABOVE.
ALSO, PONIES + OPERA WHY IS THIS SO GOOD
[obligatory spazzing]
Ahahaha, you probably all think I'm insane but I DON'T CARE BECAUSE PONIES.
pasokon, meruado, and kopipe are all words having to do with computers
kaanabi and rimokon are both electronics
furima and infure are words you will most commonly hear in economics
shinse and santora both have to do with music
ama is the opposite of puro
YAY, now you will definitely be able to figure them out, right? Right? Right?
Other exciting news! On Friday night we had our dorm's dance party, which went better than the Halloween party, but has convinced me that even if I have friends at them, I am just not into parties!
Additionally, I discovered that when I put on a dress, dudes apparently become really interested in flirting with me. It's awkward, 'cause some of them were dudes who have never bothered to talk to me before and suddenly they were all, "Man, you are HAWT in a dress," and then ogled me awkwardly, and I was all, "OH MAN, IS THAT SOMEONE WHO DESPERATELY NEEDS MY HELP FAR ACROSS THE ROOM I GOTTA GO." On the other hand, I had a bunch of actually good/interesting conversations with people who had things to remark on other than my hawtness in a dress/lack of hawtness the rest of the time.
Oh, on a totally unrelated note, several days ago, Ashley recognized my dorky Hitchhiker's shirt for what it is,* which led to SO MUCH GEEKY BONDING, as if we weren't already buddies because of our shared bronyism** and disturbing enthusiasm for Gurren Lagann (it is the best and if you disagree YOU ARE WRONG).
In other news, I have begun to realize exactly how right Alyssa's Law of Anthropology is. Alyssa (who is the anthropologist Fulbrighter in Fukuoka) was saying at the conference that anthropologists like to spend a lot of time talking about how "problematic" everything is. And recently I've been doing a lot of reading that has driven that point home. Of course, sometimes labeling something as problematic makes sense, especially if it's a translated word. For example, could you call a kami a god? Maybe. But that could be, ahem, problematic, because it might make your readers think that you're talking about the Western concept, with the gods existing in a different world/level than humanity. It gets even more complicated when you're using words that also exist in Chinese, or words that exist across cultures, like "Buddha." In Japanese, there's a phrase "to become a buddha," which is basically synonymous with "to die." Except that's not how becoming a Buddha works in any other kind of Buddhism. So it's pretty understandable if you have to put a disclaimer on that sort of thing.
...and then there are people who think pretty much everything is problematic. This especially becomes a problem when you're talking about Shinto between 1868 and 1945, because everybody argues over whether it was a state cult or not and whether it was a religion or not and whether it was a state teaching or not and whether etc. etc. etc. And it's fine to recognize that there's a lot of debate surrounding a lot of terms, but apparently some people feel the need to write a disclaimer EVERY. TIME. THE TERM. APPEARS. Yes, I got it the first time! It's problematic! I know!
On a final note, I asked Itou-san about finding a female priest who went through seminary as a college student (because both she and Nakano-san did the crazy summer crash courses), and she is amazing and knows a bunch of people and said she would introduce me and YES. SO EXCITED.
...and on an actually final note, people have found my blog through the keywords "euphemisms for chest hair."
What.
The.
Fork.
*So many people have told me that my "whale shirt" is "cute," and then I wait for them to continue and they just stop there and I am sad.
**Season 2 ended today and it was amazing and I just, wow, you guys, wow.
I WISH I HAD A BBBFF. OR A PFF. OR ALL OF THE ABOVE.
ALSO, PONIES + OPERA WHY IS THIS SO GOOD
[obligatory spazzing]
Ahahaha, you probably all think I'm insane but I DON'T CARE BECAUSE PONIES.
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Shimabara adventures
Greetings, from "balmy" Kyushu, where the temperature is approximately colder than is entirely comfortable! I arrived on Friday night and told bad jokes at Mary and made her spew her tea everywhere. It was exciting.
Saturday I was feeling a little bit under the weather, so we had a fairly quiet day in. We did make a chocolate decadence cake though, which was sooooooooooooo tasty, and I attacked Mary with ponies, because I will shakubuku her like WHOA.
Today I was finally reunited with Alyssa, another Fulbrighter, who I haven't seen since orientation in September! Alyssa is based out of Fukuoka and doing really cool research on pottery and also speaks the most gorgeous Japanese ever. Whenever she opens her mouth a flock of angels flies out. JAPANESE-SPEAKING angels.
Alyssa and Mary and I were kidnapped by Tatara-san and taken to Shimabara, which is waaaaaaaaaaaaay to heck and gone, but we drove along the Ariake Sea and it was BEAUTIFUL. Unfortunately, I got carsick and pathetic on the way there, as I am prone to do. But we stopped at a convenience store and I bought gum and then I wasn't as pathetic anymore.
Anyway, finally we arrived in Shimabara, where we went to a random hotel with attached restaurant.
And we had shabu shabu, which is where you dump a bunch of vegetables in boiling broth and then you take thin pieces of pork and swish them around in the broth (making a shabu shabu noise) and EAT THEM ALL OM NOM NOM.
And we also had nabe, which is where you throw a bunch of stuff in a pot until it is cooked and then EAT IT OM NOM NOM.
Also, the shabu shabu pot was adorable.
This was the view from the restaurant.
SEA.
As you can probably tell, though, the weather was kind of lame.
Mary and Tatara-san!
They are pals.
The decor was REALLY INTERESTING. I am a fan of the tree-columns.
...look at me failing to take pictures of the food until after I have eaten all of it.
Zenzai for dessert! OM NOM NOM.
Mary was enjoying her zenzai way too much.
...or maybe I was making dumb jokes at her.
YOU WILL NEVER KNOW.
This was the front of the hotel. GORGEOUS. They had a table that was basically a giant chunk of wood that had been varnished and had a castle wall carved along the top edge. SO COOL.
Also, GORGEOUS SCENERY.
This is Mt. Unzen, which SUDDENLY EXPLODED 20 years ago and wiped out swaths of land with FIERY DEATH. Fortunately, a nearby mountain protected most of the town from FIERY DEATH, so only about 40 people died.
Also, it is the cause of the worst volcano-related disaster in Japanese history? Yup.
This rock is staring at you.
O.O
O.O
O.O
Then we went to a random park where they preserved a bunch of the houses which were hit by FIERY DEATH.
...yes, the ground is exactly where you think it is.
I would not want to be in that house while it was being hit by FIERY DEATH.
...because people will always throw money at things.
I don't even know.
So theeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen we went to Shimabara Castle.
BAM, CASTLES.
Suddenly, we were attacked by NINJA and SAMURAI and A GUY DRESSED LIKE A EUROPEAN????
I really like the guy in the back with the spear.
P.S. I totally stole Mary's jacket and it doesn't fit me.
P.P.S. I always seem to steal Mary's clothes when I come over. HMMMM.
The castle had a collection of fascinating Hidden Christian artifacts,* including a bunch of statues of the Virgin Mary, which were disguised as statues of Kannon. They also had these weird/terrifying/interesting stained glass windows which depicted people accused of being Christians being tortured by having boiling water poured over them and being burned to death and being drowned. Not the prettiest sight. The whole exhibit made me wish I knew more about Hidden Christians, so I'm probably going to check the Nanzan library for a book on the subject.
Views from the top of Shimabara Castle!
Silly fence, getting in the way of my view.
THE SEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEA.
Also, it was really cold.
So then we got back in the car and drove and drove and drove and I fell asleep, and then we stopped and got CLAMS for cooking later, and then we drove and drove and drove some more and got lost in a rice field and then drove and drove and drove and drove and drove and finally arrived back in Takeo.
Man, so much driving.
By the way, this is the chocolate decadence cake we made! We gave some to Tatara-san (and I also gave her omiyage from Nagoya).
And now I am staring at Mary and wigging her out.
O.O
O.O
O.O
I'mwatchingyou,Mary.
So, yeah, that's what I've been up to!
*The Hidden Christians were people who refused to give up their faith even after the Tokugawa shogunate outlawed Christianity, and came up with all sort of interesting places to hide crosses and statues of Mary and Jesus.
Saturday I was feeling a little bit under the weather, so we had a fairly quiet day in. We did make a chocolate decadence cake though, which was sooooooooooooo tasty, and I attacked Mary with ponies, because I will shakubuku her like WHOA.
Today I was finally reunited with Alyssa, another Fulbrighter, who I haven't seen since orientation in September! Alyssa is based out of Fukuoka and doing really cool research on pottery and also speaks the most gorgeous Japanese ever. Whenever she opens her mouth a flock of angels flies out. JAPANESE-SPEAKING angels.
Alyssa and Mary and I were kidnapped by Tatara-san and taken to Shimabara, which is waaaaaaaaaaaaay to heck and gone, but we drove along the Ariake Sea and it was BEAUTIFUL. Unfortunately, I got carsick and pathetic on the way there, as I am prone to do. But we stopped at a convenience store and I bought gum and then I wasn't as pathetic anymore.
Anyway, finally we arrived in Shimabara, where we went to a random hotel with attached restaurant.
And we had shabu shabu, which is where you dump a bunch of vegetables in boiling broth and then you take thin pieces of pork and swish them around in the broth (making a shabu shabu noise) and EAT THEM ALL OM NOM NOM.
And we also had nabe, which is where you throw a bunch of stuff in a pot until it is cooked and then EAT IT OM NOM NOM.
Also, the shabu shabu pot was adorable.
This was the view from the restaurant.
SEA.
As you can probably tell, though, the weather was kind of lame.
Mary and Tatara-san!
They are pals.
The decor was REALLY INTERESTING. I am a fan of the tree-columns.
...look at me failing to take pictures of the food until after I have eaten all of it.
Zenzai for dessert! OM NOM NOM.
Mary was enjoying her zenzai way too much.
...or maybe I was making dumb jokes at her.
YOU WILL NEVER KNOW.
This was the front of the hotel. GORGEOUS. They had a table that was basically a giant chunk of wood that had been varnished and had a castle wall carved along the top edge. SO COOL.
Also, GORGEOUS SCENERY.
This is Mt. Unzen, which SUDDENLY EXPLODED 20 years ago and wiped out swaths of land with FIERY DEATH. Fortunately, a nearby mountain protected most of the town from FIERY DEATH, so only about 40 people died.
Also, it is the cause of the worst volcano-related disaster in Japanese history? Yup.
This rock is staring at you.
O.O
O.O
O.O
Then we went to a random park where they preserved a bunch of the houses which were hit by FIERY DEATH.
...yes, the ground is exactly where you think it is.
I would not want to be in that house while it was being hit by FIERY DEATH.
...because people will always throw money at things.
I don't even know.
So theeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen we went to Shimabara Castle.
BAM, CASTLES.
Suddenly, we were attacked by NINJA and SAMURAI and A GUY DRESSED LIKE A EUROPEAN????
I really like the guy in the back with the spear.
P.S. I totally stole Mary's jacket and it doesn't fit me.
P.P.S. I always seem to steal Mary's clothes when I come over. HMMMM.
The castle had a collection of fascinating Hidden Christian artifacts,* including a bunch of statues of the Virgin Mary, which were disguised as statues of Kannon. They also had these weird/terrifying/interesting stained glass windows which depicted people accused of being Christians being tortured by having boiling water poured over them and being burned to death and being drowned. Not the prettiest sight. The whole exhibit made me wish I knew more about Hidden Christians, so I'm probably going to check the Nanzan library for a book on the subject.
Views from the top of Shimabara Castle!
Silly fence, getting in the way of my view.
THE SEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEA.
Also, it was really cold.
So then we got back in the car and drove and drove and drove and I fell asleep, and then we stopped and got CLAMS for cooking later, and then we drove and drove and drove some more and got lost in a rice field and then drove and drove and drove and drove and drove and finally arrived back in Takeo.
Man, so much driving.
By the way, this is the chocolate decadence cake we made! We gave some to Tatara-san (and I also gave her omiyage from Nagoya).
And now I am staring at Mary and wigging her out.
O.O
O.O
O.O
I'mwatchingyou,Mary.
So, yeah, that's what I've been up to!
*The Hidden Christians were people who refused to give up their faith even after the Tokugawa shogunate outlawed Christianity, and came up with all sort of interesting places to hide crosses and statues of Mary and Jesus.
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
I AM A MAJESTIC TAIYAKI
Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeey, everybody. Guess who was actually accidentally food poisoning herself the whole time.
Hint: It's me.
So, uh, after eating more servings of pork noodles than I care to freely admit* and wondering why every time I ate them I started feeling horrible afterwards, it suddenly dawned on me that sometimes correlation is causation. What I think happened is that my pork went bad, 'cause it was in our sucky fridge** and then I cooked it into a huge batch of noodles and then the noodles became a breeding ground for bacteria and...well, anyway, the lid of the container looked like a petri dish when I finally threw it out.
All together now:
EW, GROSS.
Fortunately, I stopped food poisoning myself in time to be somewhat recovered to meet Kocchan on Saturday for Crazy English Practicing Times, which was actually more like 45% English, 50% Japanese, 5% unintelligible Japanglish (on my end). I also discovered that matcha lattes don't actually have coffee in them, and are really good at settling upset stomachs. Crazy! But anyway, after I got horrifically lost on the subway (oh gods, don't try to navigate the subway while you're sick) and Kocchan was nice enough to not punch me for being 30 minutes late (HOW COULD I MISTAKE TENMACHO FOR YABACHO I AM A FAILURE slknrekbarebjareha;) we had a nice chat and talked about moose and practiced being cooperative in English. And then we went to Loft, which is a very difficult store to describe, except that it is like someone decided to pack RIDICULOUSNESS and FUN into a store. It has things like Taiyaki costumes (which Kocchan got a picture of me in) and Mount Fuji costumes (which I got a picture of Kocchan in). Also, we practiced using the word "majestic," as in "that taiyaki is SO MAJESTIC." I teach important English phrases.***
...also on the way to Loft I got stopped on the street by this girl who said I was adorable and asked me to model for her because apparently she's an artist at a famous beauty salon in Sakae???? And she asked me if I was half and I said I was half SOMETHING but that something wasn't Japanese. And then I said I was very sorry but make-up makes me break out and thus being a model is not the greatest idea and her response was, "Oh well, you're cute anyway!"
So that was a new experience for me. Nobody has ever asked me to model for them before. And I can probably count the number of people who have non-ironically called me cute in the past five years (without following it with "in a really scary way" or "but terrifying") on one hand. So, uh, yeah, it was kind of nice?****
What else have I been up to?
Ummmmmmmmmmmmmm, I stopped food poisoning myself. So pro.
I foisted books (specifically Powers and Feed, go read them) on Louki and apparently she is some sort of reading demon because she has already given me Powers back.
I am reading The Basic Eight, which has once again convinced me that I Did Puberty Wrong, because I did not spend a great deal of time skipping school to go shoes shopping.
I went to the Immigration Bureau today to get a re-entry permit (for when I go tour grad schools), which was a lot easier than I expected it to be. Everyone I've spoken to has described it as being like visiting the DMV and has also said that it takes hours and hours, but I was in and out in 15-20 minutes. It really wasn't bad at all.
I bought my Shinkansen tickets for my upcoming crazy travel,***** which was kind of like carving a section out of my arm, except that I cannot ride in comfort across Japan on a section of my arm.
The dorm had a nabe party tonight, where everyone brought a single ingredient. If you've never had nabe before, it's basically throw-stuff-in-a-pot-and-cook-it-until-it-tastes-good, so in our case it was kind of like Stone Soup and also SO DELICIOUS. Oh gosh, I'm going to try to recreate a couple of them 'cause they were amazing.
Also, I bought NEW HEADPHONES. My headphones, being cheap and lame, finally bit the dust, which is to say that the sound on the right side died which made me very confused when a friend sent me a comedy routine in which apparently half the dialog was silent. But now I have NEW HEADPHONES which were also cheap and will probably break at some point, BUT THEY ARE SO NICE. I've been listening to my music, and SUDDENLY I CAN HEAR ALL THIS STUFF THAT WASN'T THERE BEFORE? Like whole countermelodies? And suddenly there's a bass line? Which makes me believe that A. my old headphones were seriously lame and B. my computer speakers are cheap and lame.
...of course, Geoff just sent me a load of MLP:FIM fan music, so I can revel in good music AND my glorious new headphones.
...I am not obsessed, I swear.
*四回食べちゃった. Yeah.
**I could write haiku about why our fridge is so sucky.
Our fridge likes to freeze
everything solid sometimes.
Oh no, not the ice.
I am not sure how
cold our fridge is normally
but it seems warm-ish.
Cold fridge turns my food
to ice but warm fridge is a
breeding ground for yuck.
You may shower me with praise now.
***Okay, to be fair to my English teaching skills, apparently Kocchan actually used stuff I taught her on her written test and she passed with flying colors, so I am not a TERRIBLE teacher.
****Actually, it's just generally nice hanging out with people who think I'm kind of quiet and shy except when I'm super enthusiastic about something (which is pretty often) rather than people who think I'm scary/intense/terrifying/[whatever other adjective]. Being "scary" is vaguely amusing for a while but then it just gets really isolating.
*****Tentative plans are:
February 24: Travel to Takeo! Crash. Hope Mary doesn't draw on my face while I'm sleeping.
February 25: Adventures with Mary in Takeo!
February 26: Adventures with Tatara-san and Alyssa and Mary! There will be CASTLES involved.
February 27: Adventures with Alyssa and Sara in Fukuoka!
February 28: Adventures with shrine priest Tatara-san knows!
February 29: Adventures with Alyssa and Sara and Alex in Beppu!
March 1: Travel to Osaka! Adventures with Nellie!
March 2: More adventures with Nellie! Return to Nagoya.
March 3: Recover. Oh wait, I mean Hina Matsuri. If anyone's doing anything for Hina Matsuri. I haven't heard anything yet, but that doesn't mean much.
Hopefully somewhere in there: Hear back from grad schools????
Hint: It's me.
So, uh, after eating more servings of pork noodles than I care to freely admit* and wondering why every time I ate them I started feeling horrible afterwards, it suddenly dawned on me that sometimes correlation is causation. What I think happened is that my pork went bad, 'cause it was in our sucky fridge** and then I cooked it into a huge batch of noodles and then the noodles became a breeding ground for bacteria and...well, anyway, the lid of the container looked like a petri dish when I finally threw it out.
All together now:
EW, GROSS.
Fortunately, I stopped food poisoning myself in time to be somewhat recovered to meet Kocchan on Saturday for Crazy English Practicing Times, which was actually more like 45% English, 50% Japanese, 5% unintelligible Japanglish (on my end). I also discovered that matcha lattes don't actually have coffee in them, and are really good at settling upset stomachs. Crazy! But anyway, after I got horrifically lost on the subway (oh gods, don't try to navigate the subway while you're sick) and Kocchan was nice enough to not punch me for being 30 minutes late (HOW COULD I MISTAKE TENMACHO FOR YABACHO I AM A FAILURE slknrekbarebjareha;) we had a nice chat and talked about moose and practiced being cooperative in English. And then we went to Loft, which is a very difficult store to describe, except that it is like someone decided to pack RIDICULOUSNESS and FUN into a store. It has things like Taiyaki costumes (which Kocchan got a picture of me in) and Mount Fuji costumes (which I got a picture of Kocchan in). Also, we practiced using the word "majestic," as in "that taiyaki is SO MAJESTIC." I teach important English phrases.***
...also on the way to Loft I got stopped on the street by this girl who said I was adorable and asked me to model for her because apparently she's an artist at a famous beauty salon in Sakae???? And she asked me if I was half and I said I was half SOMETHING but that something wasn't Japanese. And then I said I was very sorry but make-up makes me break out and thus being a model is not the greatest idea and her response was, "Oh well, you're cute anyway!"
So that was a new experience for me. Nobody has ever asked me to model for them before. And I can probably count the number of people who have non-ironically called me cute in the past five years (without following it with "in a really scary way" or "but terrifying") on one hand. So, uh, yeah, it was kind of nice?****
What else have I been up to?
Ummmmmmmmmmmmmm, I stopped food poisoning myself. So pro.
I foisted books (specifically Powers and Feed, go read them) on Louki and apparently she is some sort of reading demon because she has already given me Powers back.
I am reading The Basic Eight, which has once again convinced me that I Did Puberty Wrong, because I did not spend a great deal of time skipping school to go shoes shopping.
I went to the Immigration Bureau today to get a re-entry permit (for when I go tour grad schools), which was a lot easier than I expected it to be. Everyone I've spoken to has described it as being like visiting the DMV and has also said that it takes hours and hours, but I was in and out in 15-20 minutes. It really wasn't bad at all.
I bought my Shinkansen tickets for my upcoming crazy travel,***** which was kind of like carving a section out of my arm, except that I cannot ride in comfort across Japan on a section of my arm.
The dorm had a nabe party tonight, where everyone brought a single ingredient. If you've never had nabe before, it's basically throw-stuff-in-a-pot-and-cook-it-until-it-tastes-good, so in our case it was kind of like Stone Soup and also SO DELICIOUS. Oh gosh, I'm going to try to recreate a couple of them 'cause they were amazing.
Also, I bought NEW HEADPHONES. My headphones, being cheap and lame, finally bit the dust, which is to say that the sound on the right side died which made me very confused when a friend sent me a comedy routine in which apparently half the dialog was silent. But now I have NEW HEADPHONES which were also cheap and will probably break at some point, BUT THEY ARE SO NICE. I've been listening to my music, and SUDDENLY I CAN HEAR ALL THIS STUFF THAT WASN'T THERE BEFORE? Like whole countermelodies? And suddenly there's a bass line? Which makes me believe that A. my old headphones were seriously lame and B. my computer speakers are cheap and lame.
...of course, Geoff just sent me a load of MLP:FIM fan music, so I can revel in good music AND my glorious new headphones.
...I am not obsessed, I swear.
*四回食べちゃった. Yeah.
**I could write haiku about why our fridge is so sucky.
Our fridge likes to freeze
everything solid sometimes.
Oh no, not the ice.
I am not sure how
cold our fridge is normally
but it seems warm-ish.
Cold fridge turns my food
to ice but warm fridge is a
breeding ground for yuck.
You may shower me with praise now.
***Okay, to be fair to my English teaching skills, apparently Kocchan actually used stuff I taught her on her written test and she passed with flying colors, so I am not a TERRIBLE teacher.
****Actually, it's just generally nice hanging out with people who think I'm kind of quiet and shy except when I'm super enthusiastic about something (which is pretty often) rather than people who think I'm scary/intense/terrifying/[whatever other adjective]. Being "scary" is vaguely amusing for a while but then it just gets really isolating.
*****Tentative plans are:
February 24: Travel to Takeo! Crash. Hope Mary doesn't draw on my face while I'm sleeping.
February 25: Adventures with Mary in Takeo!
February 26: Adventures with Tatara-san and Alyssa and Mary! There will be CASTLES involved.
February 27: Adventures with Alyssa and Sara in Fukuoka!
February 28: Adventures with shrine priest Tatara-san knows!
February 29: Adventures with Alyssa and Sara and Alex in Beppu!
March 1: Travel to Osaka! Adventures with Nellie!
March 2: More adventures with Nellie! Return to Nagoya.
March 3: Recover. Oh wait, I mean Hina Matsuri. If anyone's doing anything for Hina Matsuri. I haven't heard anything yet, but that doesn't mean much.
Hopefully somewhere in there: Hear back from grad schools????
Thursday, February 9, 2012
American food, ponies, and taiyaki
Dear everybody who listed all the synonyms for buttocks I missed on the last post:
I am so glad you like butts and know many, many, many, many words to talk about butts.
...I really don't know what else to say about this. I am clearly not as into vocabulary for butts as you are. And I am totally okay with that.
Also, my blog has officially gotten hits through the keywords "nude men." WHOO.
Anyway!
So Wednesday night was American Food Night, which is to say that a bunch of American girls in the dorm cooked American food for Louki and Kim (the two Dutch girls). I made "American" food, which is to say that I made food that Dana makes in America, which is not really all that American. As it turns out, Japanese squash is much sweeter than butternut squash when boiled, plus I was missing some spices, so my vegetable soup didn't taste exactly the same as it does in the States, but it still tasted pretty okay. I also made renkon and satsuma imo, which is not American but I DON'T CARE. Anyway, we also had macaroni and cheese (actual macaroni and cheese, not out of a box; it was amazing) and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and s'mores (made over the stove, which was exciting and involved lots of things catching on fire) and random American candy Hali's parents sent her and peanut butter cookies (om nom nom nom) and mugicha (barley tea), because that is TOTALLY AMERICAN.
And then Ashley and I began phase one of Our Dastardly Plan to Turn Louki into a Brony. And it worked. Bwahahahaha.
...and then we watched Fern Gully for some reason? You can just watch the Nostalgia Critic review to get a sense of the entire movie (but don't watch it near sensitive ears, as there is swearing out the wazoo). Uh, yeah.
Today we were going to go to an arcade, but we actually wound up going to the arcade for about twenty minutes and then spending the rest of the time wandering around Osu Kannon while some of the girls went clothes shopping. Also, I had cookies and cream taiyaki,* which was DELICIOUS.
In completely unrelated and totally random news, this morning I had an epiphany and realized that bronyism** is structurally similar to a Japanese new religion. Think about it. There's a doctrine (the episodes) which are based on the experiences and thoughts of a founder (little bit of a stretch, but read any of Lauren Faust's articles about why she wanted to make the show the way it is) and expanded by the select few in the upper echelons of the movement (the animation team, Daniel Ingram, etc.). Those in lower positions in the movement also release publicity materials (so much fanart and fan music) and add to the established canon (Derpy...I mean, seriously, Derpy). Those in the movement do everything in their power to convert everyone they come into contact with...in a series of steps eerily similar to shakubuku in Soka Gakkai. ("Do you watch ponies? No? You think it's dumb? Well, I'm going to tell you every reason why it isn't dumb...over and over...every time I see you...and eventually I will wear you down enough to watch the first episode...and then I will cajole you into watching more...until eventually you are hooked...and then you can go out and win more converts!") The community exists at a national (and international, thanks to the internets) level, but there are also local communities which will have meetings (to watch new episodes, nerd out, sing "At the Gala" to each other and freak out everyone else in the room...not that I have ever done this). And before anyone says, "But this metaphor doesn't make ANY SENSE because MLP:FIM is NOT a religion!" I would just like to say you have obviously not met a devoted brony. MLP:FIM is a WAY OF LIFE.
So, not a perfect match, but with some tweaking bronies could qualify as members of a religious organization in Japan?
And thus concludes my nerdy rambling.
On a final note, I've added some new pages to the blog, if you haven't already noticed. They're on the sidebar on the right. Man, I'm suddenly all productive on this blog. HOW CRAZY.
**That is, being a fan of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.
*Taiyaki is a kind of fish-shaped pastry, normally filled with red-bean paste.
I am so glad you like butts and know many, many, many, many words to talk about butts.
...I really don't know what else to say about this. I am clearly not as into vocabulary for butts as you are. And I am totally okay with that.
Also, my blog has officially gotten hits through the keywords "nude men." WHOO.
Anyway!
So Wednesday night was American Food Night, which is to say that a bunch of American girls in the dorm cooked American food for Louki and Kim (the two Dutch girls). I made "American" food, which is to say that I made food that Dana makes in America, which is not really all that American. As it turns out, Japanese squash is much sweeter than butternut squash when boiled, plus I was missing some spices, so my vegetable soup didn't taste exactly the same as it does in the States, but it still tasted pretty okay. I also made renkon and satsuma imo, which is not American but I DON'T CARE. Anyway, we also had macaroni and cheese (actual macaroni and cheese, not out of a box; it was amazing) and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and s'mores (made over the stove, which was exciting and involved lots of things catching on fire) and random American candy Hali's parents sent her and peanut butter cookies (om nom nom nom) and mugicha (barley tea), because that is TOTALLY AMERICAN.
And then Ashley and I began phase one of Our Dastardly Plan to Turn Louki into a Brony. And it worked. Bwahahahaha.
...and then we watched Fern Gully for some reason? You can just watch the Nostalgia Critic review to get a sense of the entire movie (but don't watch it near sensitive ears, as there is swearing out the wazoo). Uh, yeah.
Today we were going to go to an arcade, but we actually wound up going to the arcade for about twenty minutes and then spending the rest of the time wandering around Osu Kannon while some of the girls went clothes shopping. Also, I had cookies and cream taiyaki,* which was DELICIOUS.
In completely unrelated and totally random news, this morning I had an epiphany and realized that bronyism** is structurally similar to a Japanese new religion. Think about it. There's a doctrine (the episodes) which are based on the experiences and thoughts of a founder (little bit of a stretch, but read any of Lauren Faust's articles about why she wanted to make the show the way it is) and expanded by the select few in the upper echelons of the movement (the animation team, Daniel Ingram, etc.). Those in lower positions in the movement also release publicity materials (so much fanart and fan music) and add to the established canon (Derpy...I mean, seriously, Derpy). Those in the movement do everything in their power to convert everyone they come into contact with...in a series of steps eerily similar to shakubuku in Soka Gakkai. ("Do you watch ponies? No? You think it's dumb? Well, I'm going to tell you every reason why it isn't dumb...over and over...every time I see you...and eventually I will wear you down enough to watch the first episode...and then I will cajole you into watching more...until eventually you are hooked...and then you can go out and win more converts!") The community exists at a national (and international, thanks to the internets) level, but there are also local communities which will have meetings (to watch new episodes, nerd out, sing "At the Gala" to each other and freak out everyone else in the room...not that I have ever done this). And before anyone says, "But this metaphor doesn't make ANY SENSE because MLP:FIM is NOT a religion!" I would just like to say you have obviously not met a devoted brony. MLP:FIM is a WAY OF LIFE.
So, not a perfect match, but with some tweaking bronies could qualify as members of a religious organization in Japan?
And thus concludes my nerdy rambling.
On a final note, I've added some new pages to the blog, if you haven't already noticed. They're on the sidebar on the right. Man, I'm suddenly all productive on this blog. HOW CRAZY.
**That is, being a fan of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.
*Taiyaki is a kind of fish-shaped pastry, normally filled with red-bean paste.
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