Its been over a baker's dozen days since my last post. Since then I've gotten my foreigner's card (so I'm a legal immigrant, yay), and I saw a Sumo Match.
Work is in full swing and is great fun. I'm starting to build a collection of funny things said, so that's a post to follow shortly in the future.
The Sumo match was really great. Pictures are uploaded, and there's video available at this site: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=disneyscribbles
I started using The Rosetta Stone yesterday, so we'll see if that helps my understanding of Japanese in any way.
Last week, I tried Tamonameyaki, I think =) It's kinda like an omlet with eel or seafood or pork or potatoes. I had the potato one, but i really didn't like it. Its a local dish though, so one of those things that you Have To Try.
I love this picture, by the way. What do you think? Its the main building at a small temple in Juso.
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Chandler: You wanna see if we still have it?
I stumbled on a fun tv show today! Most tv in Japan, on the free channels cause that's all we can afford, is talk shows, old Asian movies and other strange things that would be funny if we could understand Japanese.
But today! Nay, 50 minutes ago! I found a great show that I will never ever see again, cause that's how it works. I don't know what it was called, but I will call it the 1,000,000 Yen Challenge.
There were three Japanese celebrities dressed as a King, a Queen and a Prince, and they went into a family's home with cameras and that whole deal. The family was sitting on the couch waiting for them: Grandmother (60-some), Father and Mother (late 30s), Son (12) and Daughter (7), and they were the contestants on the 1,000,000 Yen Challenge!
So anyway, they brought out a floor plan of the house for everyone to see. Two stories, closets, bedrooms, kitchen and living room/dinning room: standard Japanese family house. The royals flushed outside.
The family then had 10 minutes to hid three members. They chose the mother and two kids. Mom went under the table... they were just like, we can hide her in this netting that we have setup. Before I saw how many beds they had, I'd assumed that someone actually slept there. The table had hooks installed underneath and a rubber green netting that cradled someone perfectly. The table cloth came down low, and would have held heat in very well. So I don't know why they had this set up, but it came in handy for this game.
Okay, so Mom's under the dinning room table. In the same room (living room/dining room) they had one of those couches that wrap around in the corner. Storage drawers under the seats in the straight sections. They slid out one side, and disassembled the corner seat, put the daughter inside, and then reassembled the couch completely.
The son went into the storage room. They pulled out a long computer desk. He slid behind the desk, then UNDER a bookcase, and they pushed the desk back in place.
Each hidden family member has a video camera.
So the royals came back, and they had 30 minutes to find every member of the family. If a single person was unfound at the end of the countdown, the family gets 1,000,000 yen.
They split up and start searching the house. This is when we learn that the family set up traps to slow down the hunt. The first trap was set off by the King: when he opened the closet in the parent's room, about 50 empty soda bottles fell on him. The Queen snagged a tripwire on the stairs, and plastic balls (like from a ball pit at McDonald's or Chuckie Cheese) tumbled down the stairs. Other traps included plastic balls or shredded styrofoam falling when a door was opened.
It took them 14 minutes to find the mother. They looked under the table a few times but they never looked at the underside of the surface.
Each person has a camera, by the way, so we can watch their expressions and heart rate when the searchers got close.
The son, surprisingly, was found next. On the third time going through the storage room, the Prince moved all the boxes to the corner and carefully examined the desks and bookcases. He pulled out the desk and saw the very tips of the son's socks.
The family was sitting on the daughter the entire length of the show. When a royal wanted to search the couch, they got up. I think the family acted suspicious and I would have really torn the couch apart, but the searchers didn't seem to notice. They pulled out every drawer, looked under every cushion, slid the portions of the couch around... but they didn't find the daughter.
The one scary bit was when they were taking off the cushions; I thought they might be able to see through a crack or something, but they couldn't. Luckily, when the Queen was looking there, the King came in and called her into another room.
Thirty minutes passed, and the family won a million yen!
It was a great show! I'd watch it regularly if I knew when it was on and what it was called. They flashed a map of the house every now and again to show the locations of the Royals and hidden members, and whenever the hiding places were on camera, they had a picture of the family member's face with an arrow to their hiding place. Really, it was awesome.
But today! Nay, 50 minutes ago! I found a great show that I will never ever see again, cause that's how it works. I don't know what it was called, but I will call it the 1,000,000 Yen Challenge.
There were three Japanese celebrities dressed as a King, a Queen and a Prince, and they went into a family's home with cameras and that whole deal. The family was sitting on the couch waiting for them: Grandmother (60-some), Father and Mother (late 30s), Son (12) and Daughter (7), and they were the contestants on the 1,000,000 Yen Challenge!
So anyway, they brought out a floor plan of the house for everyone to see. Two stories, closets, bedrooms, kitchen and living room/dinning room: standard Japanese family house. The royals flushed outside.
The family then had 10 minutes to hid three members. They chose the mother and two kids. Mom went under the table... they were just like, we can hide her in this netting that we have setup. Before I saw how many beds they had, I'd assumed that someone actually slept there. The table had hooks installed underneath and a rubber green netting that cradled someone perfectly. The table cloth came down low, and would have held heat in very well. So I don't know why they had this set up, but it came in handy for this game.
Okay, so Mom's under the dinning room table. In the same room (living room/dining room) they had one of those couches that wrap around in the corner. Storage drawers under the seats in the straight sections. They slid out one side, and disassembled the corner seat, put the daughter inside, and then reassembled the couch completely.
The son went into the storage room. They pulled out a long computer desk. He slid behind the desk, then UNDER a bookcase, and they pushed the desk back in place.
Each hidden family member has a video camera.
So the royals came back, and they had 30 minutes to find every member of the family. If a single person was unfound at the end of the countdown, the family gets 1,000,000 yen.
They split up and start searching the house. This is when we learn that the family set up traps to slow down the hunt. The first trap was set off by the King: when he opened the closet in the parent's room, about 50 empty soda bottles fell on him. The Queen snagged a tripwire on the stairs, and plastic balls (like from a ball pit at McDonald's or Chuckie Cheese) tumbled down the stairs. Other traps included plastic balls or shredded styrofoam falling when a door was opened.
It took them 14 minutes to find the mother. They looked under the table a few times but they never looked at the underside of the surface.
Each person has a camera, by the way, so we can watch their expressions and heart rate when the searchers got close.
The son, surprisingly, was found next. On the third time going through the storage room, the Prince moved all the boxes to the corner and carefully examined the desks and bookcases. He pulled out the desk and saw the very tips of the son's socks.
The family was sitting on the daughter the entire length of the show. When a royal wanted to search the couch, they got up. I think the family acted suspicious and I would have really torn the couch apart, but the searchers didn't seem to notice. They pulled out every drawer, looked under every cushion, slid the portions of the couch around... but they didn't find the daughter.
The one scary bit was when they were taking off the cushions; I thought they might be able to see through a crack or something, but they couldn't. Luckily, when the Queen was looking there, the King came in and called her into another room.
Thirty minutes passed, and the family won a million yen!
It was a great show! I'd watch it regularly if I knew when it was on and what it was called. They flashed a map of the house every now and again to show the locations of the Royals and hidden members, and whenever the hiding places were on camera, they had a picture of the family member's face with an arrow to their hiding place. Really, it was awesome.
Monday, March 12, 2007
Fast food
Today Gerard, one of my fellow newbie's at work, and I went to the Den-Den district. We stopped for food at this cheap place, cause we both like cheap and because they offered chicken curry, which I've been wanting to try.
When you enter this shop, and others like it, there's a bar directly in front of the door. Turning to the right, a machine sat.
So you put money into this machine, and press the picture of the food you want, and it places and order and gives you a receipt. Sit at the bar, and they bring green tea and the food follows within two minutes.
The curry was pretty good too =)
When you enter this shop, and others like it, there's a bar directly in front of the door. Turning to the right, a machine sat.
So you put money into this machine, and press the picture of the food you want, and it places and order and gives you a receipt. Sit at the bar, and they bring green tea and the food follows within two minutes.
The curry was pretty good too =)
Saturday, March 10, 2007
Random Idea
Also, here's a bit.
So Japanese grammar is really simple: much easier than German, French and certainly English. Written language?... amazingly impossible. There must be an easier way, some modern Latin, a universally recognized communication method or something.
Every country I've ever heard of has sign language! Learn sign language, and you could potentially communicate with someone from any country.
Yeah, so great idea, learn sign language, pretty cool, wave at people to get ideas across. But get this: sign language isn't standard! Every language has a nearly unique system. Even further, there are regional 'dialects' as well. Braille maybe? Communication might be limited to in elevators or at a hospital, but maybe we could learn braille, and write in dots or something on graph paper. But no! Same deal; different everywhere.
How stupid is that? I would imagine that a fabricated language should be universally adopted. "What, are those French waving at each other? Well, we can do, too, but better!"
Other methods are cross-national. International, I suppose. The International Flag system? Heard of that? Yeah, yeah, look it up. Computer languages cross boundaries. C is the same in Japan as in the US, and let me assure you C's much harder than feeling a few bumps.
So anyway, when I'm the World President, that'll be the first thing that is changed.
So Japanese grammar is really simple: much easier than German, French and certainly English. Written language?... amazingly impossible. There must be an easier way, some modern Latin, a universally recognized communication method or something.
Every country I've ever heard of has sign language! Learn sign language, and you could potentially communicate with someone from any country.
Yeah, so great idea, learn sign language, pretty cool, wave at people to get ideas across. But get this: sign language isn't standard! Every language has a nearly unique system. Even further, there are regional 'dialects' as well. Braille maybe? Communication might be limited to in elevators or at a hospital, but maybe we could learn braille, and write in dots or something on graph paper. But no! Same deal; different everywhere.
How stupid is that? I would imagine that a fabricated language should be universally adopted. "What, are those French waving at each other? Well, we can do, too, but better!"
Other methods are cross-national. International, I suppose. The International Flag system? Heard of that? Yeah, yeah, look it up. Computer languages cross boundaries. C is the same in Japan as in the US, and let me assure you C's much harder than feeling a few bumps.
So anyway, when I'm the World President, that'll be the first thing that is changed.
Japanese and the peace sign
Pull out a camera, and people here make the peace sign. Why, I dunno. No one I've asked knows. Most of the other foreigners do it too. Men. Women. Children. Hip old people.
So yeah. No clue why they do it, but if you check other pictures online, its uncommon to find a group picture without seeing at least one peace sign. I dare you to prove me wrong.
Any ideas concerning why its so popular?
So yeah. No clue why they do it, but if you check other pictures online, its uncommon to find a group picture without seeing at least one peace sign. I dare you to prove me wrong.
Any ideas concerning why its so popular?
Emergency Numbers
So, suppose there's a tsunami or an earthquake or some other big disaster-like thing. What do you do? Call 171!
171 is the emergency alert number. Its basically a system of telephone provider-independent voice messaging. If you have a telephone number, you have an entry in this database.
Here's the deal: when there's an earthquake. After I get myself situated... you know safe like... I call 171, press 1 to leave a message, and then record a message saying where I am, if I'm healthy, and my plans.
So then, say I'm worried about some friends from work, or my elderly neighbor or something... dial 171, press 2 then enter their telephone number: their message is played!
How cool is that? =)
171 is the emergency alert number. Its basically a system of telephone provider-independent voice messaging. If you have a telephone number, you have an entry in this database.
Here's the deal: when there's an earthquake. After I get myself situated... you know safe like... I call 171, press 1 to leave a message, and then record a message saying where I am, if I'm healthy, and my plans.
So then, say I'm worried about some friends from work, or my elderly neighbor or something... dial 171, press 2 then enter their telephone number: their message is played!
How cool is that? =)
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