This love is like plastic September 7, 2008

This food, however, tasted anything but:

sing yeah, yeah yeah... yeah yeah.

So I am looking through some Japanese music, (I’m still convinced there has to be something half decent out there…) I found a song by an ElectroPop Girl band, ‘Perfume.’ The song is called ‘Polyrhythm’ I was like, OOOOOOOOOk there is NO way a Jpop song ACTUALLY has polyrhythms in it. American pop doesn’t even do that. But I popped it in for a quick listen anyways. Sure enough, they DO have a bridge centered around a polyrhythmic theme! *GASP*! The lyrics are a little like this:

Your most precious feeling will not be wasted; the world continues to move

my heart too, if only a little, will circle around

Chorus

We play this polyrhythm once more

the urge is almost like being in love, repeating many times like it used to be

the spectacle revives on our mind

this returning polyrhythm, the backlash feels like it isn’t true

This returning polyloop, ah this love is like plastic

And will be played once again

Polyrhythm/polyloop (sung straight while a drum comes in emphasizing a polyrhythm)

Even a small piece of my heart will reach you, that’s my belief

Your most precious wish will not be consumed away, the world turns

Even a little piece of my heart will go round and round

Etc…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lxxnr3j604k

FYI the polyrhythmic section starts at 1:36 in the video if I am not mistaken. If you don’t know what a polyrhythm is but you do know what a triplet is, the polyrhythm is basically a halftime triplet going in the background over a straight 4/4 time.

Now that I have been impressed for today, I feel much more amiable and I give in to another womanly request:

temptresses. all of em.

“Kerei na Yukina no toki! Dan, shashin wo totte kudasai!”

“This is a ‘Yukina is pretty’ moment! Take my picture Dan!”

I went to the softbank store today. Turns out they don’t sell prepaid cell phones at the store, you have to go buy a softbank prepaid phone from a mini mart like 7/11 i guess. He gave me a list of participating mini marts..

Tonight I am going to the eigakan (movie theater) with Yuka, I don’t know what movies there are. hopefully she will chose a good one. Mom wants us to go see ‘gachi boi’ (mmmmaaybe it is supposed to be ‘gutsy boy’… Actually the more i think about it, the more I think that is actually it. It is in katakana ガチボイ　so that means it is representing english words… probably) Apparently it is about some boy who takes up boxing and always gets wailed on then gets a brain tumor or something. I swear, the Japanese can’t think of anything sad besides brain tumors. There are like three “OMG BRAIN TUMOR” tear jerker TV dramas on right now… LOL… But I told Yuka that one didn’t actually look interesting no matter what Mom says, so I don’t think we are going to see that one .

Too, two, to, reed, read, read, red, bow, bow, bough, bowe, lead, lead, led, sew, so, sow, sow. September 5, 2008

The english language: about as much originality as Jack Johnson.

Speaking of which, for all you fellow audiophiles out there, Evan Clough brought this visual essay to my attention. You may wish to take a look.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SaFTm2bcac However, if you are NOT an audiophile, I promise it will be 18 minutes of your life you wish you could get back.

Mom surprised me last night with a trip to the library. By bike. Let me preface this by saying that if a policeman sees a foreigner riding down the street with a bike, they WILL pull you over. You must have on your person registration, permit, and transfer of ownership documentation from the last owner or they will take you to jail for 27 days. Sound familiar? They always pull over foreign bikers because foreigners often don’t have those things. So if you are borrowing a bike, or you have a used bike without proper documentation from previous owner, (owners will generally not give you document unless you ask) you are pretty much screwed. Sooooooooooooooooo I was a *little* worried when we walked outside and okaasan gave me a tiny key and motioned to the bike. Especially because not having the light on at night is considered a jailable offense, and my light didn’t even work! (“Oh as long as the switch is in the on position it is ok” she says… O.o) Although, since the actual owner was with me they *probably* wouldn’t arrest me for 27 days, so it was most likely ok. So we biked together down the crowded sidewalks and streetways, it was quite fun. Japanese bikes are not like American bikes fyi. They only have 1 gear, and you have to pedal much harder for much slower going because you always have to navigate through lots of people, you need to go slow, but you need more resistance in the pedals as well to stay balanced… kinda… Anywas, it felt really wierd. We went to the library to look for notated Japanese songs that I could learn to sing and play, but there were none to be found. Maybe later we will go to a music store.

Also, Fumiaki came back the other night, I think he has been staying at some nice hotel in the area for a while on a vacation. He had a bag full of presents he gave me! Two posters of traditional Japanese stuff, a samurai katana squeaky toy, and collapsable samurai dagger, and two rubber shuriken. I think I am almost about ready to take Tokyo on! hah

yuka made me do it (aka: it was the womans fault O LORD) September 4, 2008

~wouldn't want to meet late at night down a dark alley~

Since she is inevitably going to be weighed and measured by all my friends on this blog just by her looks, Yuka demanded that I post a picture of her right before she is going out with friends for the evening.

1. Take said picture

2. Post said picture on blog

3. ???

4. PROFIT

~~For all you channers out there. Although I think I only have one friend that has channed even once besides me. :/

Thurzzzzzzday. September 4, 2008

In case you were not aware, I am an extremely brilliant, funny, talented individual. And, in case you REALLY WERE not aware, I have made it evident through my use of many zzzzzzzzs in the title of this post. You see, it is that I do not have classes on Thursdays, so I can sleep as much as I want. Also, the letter z happens to coincide with the sound in Thursday. Hopefully if you were at all befuzzzzzzzled at my title, that cleared things up. So.

The night before last, I went out to dinner with Yuka and her friend Jiro. Jiro is one of those guys who, even though it was about 90 degrees, came over in baggy, holey jeans and a long sleeve black shirt, and a beanie. I’m sure your head is now filled with imaginings of the foolish things he does in other aspects of his life besides clothing, but let me quickly dispel them. He actually WASN’T one of those guys. He was actually pretty cool! We went to an Izakaya, which is a kind of restaurant unique to Japan where you go in, take off your shoes, go to a comfortable private area, and order appetizers and drinks and stay for several hours. Talking with them was really fun! Turns out Jiro wants to be a famous musician, lol. He has a tiny little ’studio’ at his house, consisting of a mixer, electric guitar (eereki gitaa), one amp, and one mic. Sound familiar? I remember those days, although that was when I was 17, and Jiro is 28. Draw your own conclusions please! Apparently he only knows some chords on the guitar, and I said I would teach him! He lives close to my house, walking distance, so maybe sometime I will go over. So.

Also, I found out today that my host mom is A DEVIL WOMAN. Turns out, THE WHOLE TIME I HAVE BEEN HERE she HAD A GUITAR IN HER ROOM. she DECEIVED ME!! This evening, I will play it. So.

Today, Yuka took me to the government office. I had to register as a foreigner, and buy national health insurance. If you are walking on the street, a police officer can stop you at any time and if you don’t have one of those things, you will be arrested and held for 27 days. You see, there is this BRILLIANT law here that goes like this: anyone can be held in jail for up to 27 days before being charged with anything. So, if they can’t find anything to charge you with, they use those 27 days to interrogate you every day until you falsely confess, or until they find other incriminating evidence. If they know that there is no way that they will be able to get any evidence, or if (in my case) there is only a fine because you weren’t carrying documentation, then they will still hold you for 27 days just to make you feel bad. That really is the ultimate goal in that situation, I think. So. That is why Yuka and I went to the office today, to make sure that doesn’t happen. O.o. It was good Yuka came with me. And this is why.

1. I didn’t know where the building was, and it was really complicated. Yuka led me down various sidestreets to get there.

2. I needed more cash to buy the insurance. I needed to find an international ATM. Usually you go to a bank, but the one here doesn’t work for my card. So. We went to a convenience mart, there was an ATM but, nope! didn’t work. Went to another convenience mart (konbini) nope! didn’t work. Went to another: nope!. I said, “I think 711 atms work.’ We searched forever and finally found a 711. NOPE! A guy was doing maintenance on the ATM, parts were all over the floor, and police were guarding every door so noone would loot the place. Finally, Yuka says to a police dude ‘We need a 711 atm!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!’ he says ‘just go down the way’ and motions vaguely. So. We go down the way, there is another 711 PINPONPINPON!(Japanese ‘correct!’ sound) It works. I withdraw WAY more money than I need cause now I am just frickin NERVOUS about cash accessability. So.

4. (Do I need a 3? Aren’t I already stressed out enough without you heckling me about it? It was a stressful day! I deserve my small hyperbolies!)

5. When we arrived at the building, I needed to get MORE passport sized photos before I could apply for anything! (In case you aren’t aware, this is maybe the 5th time i have had to get them. I swear I should just go one time and get like 100. Every time need to give them 2. So.) Luckily, Yuka showed me where to get them, and it wasn’t too hard. Though I was THIS CLOSE ( ) to getting the wrong size. It was EXTREMELY unclear… and the machine only knew Engrish which didn’t help.

6. When applying for the health insurance, I …. oh I forgot something!

7. Earlier, when we left the house I realized I didn’t know the word for “health insurance” and Yuka of course had no idea what the word for 健康保険　was in english. So. We had to run back to the house just so I could look it up LOL. By the way 健康保険　is ‘kenkouhoken’. Knowing what that word was was a GOOD thing when we got to the building.

8. When applying for the health insurance, they made some kind of mistake and were going to charge me $75 bucks. Yuka somehow managed to catch it, talked to them for forever, and then they reduced the price to $30. All I could say afterwards was ‘yuka to ishouni shimashita… hounto ni yokkatayo!’ literally, ‘with yuka, together we did it. Truly relieved!” (Basically thanking her for being there with me) So.

22. See how many numbers of bad things happened? It was terrible!

(These guys are so cool, I’m not even gonna say I was the one in the middle cause that would make me look just way too cool)

include this picture. It has no relation to now whatsoever except that Wii came from Japan. The reason I have included it is that, if you have not yet seen it, you should. So.

Lunchtime! September 4, 2008

yuka (being rediculous as usual), okaasan(mom), yukina

Lunchtiiiiiiiiiiiime. Yukina is on an extended vacation from work, mom always comes home during lunchbreak, and Yuka doesn’t have to leave for work until 1:30pm. Therefore, awesome.