musical choices

Every day I hear the Big Ben chimes about a dozen times, as every school in Japan uses that as their school bell (yes, it's rather long and slow at that).

The "hold" tone on the hospital line is "What Child is This" (yes, I'm no longer terrified of Japanese phone calls).

I went to a work drinking party at a banquet hall where no joke the entire three hours was Enya's "Sail Away" on repeat (yes, I love Enya!).

hibernation complete!

From December to March, the temperature barely falls below freezing, which isn’t anything to complain about. However, inside is comparable to igloos, if not colder due to the complete lack of insulation and central heating. Luckily, my walls aren’t paper thin (one of my friends in the countryside has interior walls of literally framed paper) but it seems pretty close. Like in summer when the window is open, I can hear my neighbors’ every sonorous testament to their lives- cooking, crying, flicking light switches. It’s my most intimate Japanese relationship, and I’ve never even met them! It would probably be quite awkward, if I ever do...

So anyways, I was too cheap to heat much, especially as warmth dissipated quickly. So I spent most of my time working late with students and then going home to lay prone with a mini heater on my face, under the electric blanket, and with my laptop. Needless to say, the novelty of living that Japanese lifestyle wore off fast.

obama

Japan loves Obama.

There’s a small coastal town in Japan called Obama. November 4th is now an annual holiday there, and a statue of Obama is going up in front of the city hall. Not to mention the rice sweets with his face, or that song “Obama is Beautiful World” (it pretty much sums up Japan’s sentiments and knowledge surrounding Obama, probably worth the youtube).

Of course my kids love him too. The chalkboard in the back of the rooms is usually full of the scribbles in Japanese, anime drawings, and a few random things in English (including the occasional SEX or the like). This week, they’re all chalking Obama-isms. I missed this photo opp, but here was my favorite:

“Yes we can.”
“No you can’t.”
“Yes, we did.”

Here’s the new school inspiration which appeared in the halls one day (the Japanese is the translation, and that large character is just says the name of the school)

taro aso

Here’s a Taro Aso (Current Prime Minister) classic:

"[Japan should attract] rich Jews to help solve the country's problems of repeated economic recession and dwindling population. This might be arbitrary and biased, but I think the best country is one in which rich Jews feel like living."

squid in stores

Japan is full of all kinds of seafood. I'm going through a bag of frozen octopus tentacles in my freezer now. They are purple and delicious, picture to come. Here's some squid at the store.

(I'm rather ashamed of this and the previous post, but I know a few of you can share a giggle. Maturity can wait. Apologies to the rest.)

word of the day

I spent most of today correcting translations from the students of rather abstract essays. For the record, English is freakin hard. So here’s the word of the day: cliticize

Could you use that in a sentence? "But, it seems misunderstanding to we cliticize immediately that their positive will have became little."

Where to begin...

on rice

You’d think it’d be cheap here. Not at all. Farming is an irrational industry because the land is covered in mountains (75% is unusable for anything). Yet to preserve this piece of culture, the government monopolized the industry, basically banned import rice, and subsidized the failing industry at consumer’s (ahem, my!) expense.

I was looking at the prepared foods. I read Karee Raisu (their version of the foreign words they stole for “curry rice”) and couldn’t read the native Japanese foods whose names are written in the classic Chinese characters. Except I read this one: Raisu. Yep, the good old staple crop of Japan, once worshiped as the deity Inari, now just a butchered word they stole from America-Land.