Nihongo-a-Go-Go :: Mandy's Journal

Happy Birthday to meee!

Well, I worked on my birthday, but at least it wasn't a tough day. Thanks are in order. Thanks, mia famiglia, for the HP book. I must admit to having finished it before my birthday (What? Did you think I could wait?), but I enjoyed it heartily. Thanks Oma and Grandpa for the movie. Now I can watch Kismet, yay! Thanks to Gramma for the holy card and the check. What was the Fr. Joseph Rosary Hour? A Catholic program on the radio, I'm guessing...and from the front of the card, I'm guessing geared more towards the Polish people in Buffalo? And thanks to Aimee, for my Pinkies and for a yummy birthday dinner. Yay!

In other news, I have twelve days of work to go. Turtles are reptiles. Drow are really cool and evil. And...yeah, we yaki-ed that niku big time. That is all. :)

Thomas Chatterton

Well...as of today, I have fifteen days of work left. Yay! This week was a mix of going to work/not going to work. I worked Saturday, then had Sunday off for Dolpa, then worked Monday, then called in sick on Tuesday, then worked today. Very strange week for me. I had a really amazing time at Dolpa, and believe it or not, I actually woke up at 5:30 am to go. I'm that dedicated. I got some really beautiful things there, and got to speak with Japanese and Western doll owners. It was very cool to meet people in person who I'd only known online, and super cool to have Japanese people approach me and ask where I was from, who my doll was, and if they could take his picture. I took my Thomas. Ah, Thomas...

The painting is "Death of Chatterton," by Henry Wallis.

Today is actually the anniversary of the real Thomas Chatterton's death. He went to his room, alone, on the night of August 24, 1770, and never came out. He was starving to death, panicked at the thought of having no money and no future, and totally unable to talk to anyone about it, least of all his family. Too proud to beg or borrow, they always say in his biography. They never think of the fact that he couldn't think straight; he didn't have the nutrition to. Try not eating for one day and making big decisions. He hadn't eaten in days on end. It makes me so sick to think of him, alone that night, with the arsenic and opium, probably scared out of his mind. That's why I have to keep researching him, reading and analyzing his poetry, writing about him and for him. He wanted an angel to trumpet his name around the world. All he got was a short eccentric American girl, but I did play the trumpet in middle school, at least. I hope you're resting well now, Thomas.

"Perish the thought in night's eternal shade:
To live, then die, man was not only made.
There's yet an awful something else remains
Either to lessen or increase our pains...

Oh! may our portion in that world above,
Eternal fountain of eternal love,
Be crown'd with peace that bids the sinner live;
With praise to Him who only can forgive--
Blot out the stains and errors of our youth;
Whose smile is mercy, and whose word is truth."
(Chatterton, 'On the Immortality of the Soul,'
1770,written as an impromptu for his friend William
Smith, before his departure for London)

And here's a pic of Thomas, the doll inspired by him, dressed in one of the outfits I got at Dolpa. It was made by Puredrop, an amazing seamstress who draws her inspiration from Chinese traditional imperial clothes. I can't believe I actually own a Puredrop outfit. Squee!

Tomorrow I'm going shopping with James to all the goth/visual kei shops in Nagoya. Woooooooooot. And maybe getting bagels, yay!

Oo...Sunday night...

I commented to Aimee a few weeks ago as we trudged off to bed on a Sunday night that it always seems to be Sunday night here. I'm not sure why. *nods* The times of the week that it always seems to be are Friday night (end of the weekend), Sunday night (end of the early shift days we work) and Wednesday teaching my Junior kids class before lunch (I feel like the weekend's approaching). I guess it's because the normal bits of my week are predicatable, work tends to be.

However...I have an extra day off tomorrow! Yay! Which is good, because I need it after working in Seto again today. Man, I hate it. Today, because I had a bunch of free periods (because, you know, no one takes freaking lessons), I had to hand out packages of Nova advert tissues. First of all, I want to know where it says I do that in my contract. And secondly...I wouldn't mind doing it in Sakae or something. But they're such hicks in Seto. They either take it and whisper excitedly about the fact that I'm a foreigner or they shrink away in apparent terror/disgust. Kinda...humiliating, really.

Last night was fun though. After work, Aimee invited Blake over (he works at Ozone too and is from Oklahoma...I think) and I had James over (he works with me at Hara, and is from England. Hull, specifically. And no, I can't say it at all the way he does). Aimee cooked and we all ate and played Pokemon Snap and just talked. After Blake went home, James stayed on and we went through his visual kei magazines and my Gothic Lolita Bibles and planned outfits. Heh, James is fun like that. So, now we just need to find a day to go shopping together so I can tell him what to buy. :) Very fun, and the apartment was even clean for it.

That's about all the news for today, apart from the fact that we used up the last of the barbecue sauce. Yeah, that's Hunt's, from the International Store in Sakae. And KT's butt is made of spears. That is all.

Meiji Mura

Well...we finally made it to the last around-Nagoya attraction that we're really interested in, Meiji Mura. Meiji Mura is a sort of...collection of buildings. The grounds are huge, and have over 60 buildings from the Meiji era (1867-1920, I think). The Meiji era is really interesting because it was at this time that Japanese culture came in contact with Western culture, and was highly influenced by it. One of the clearest displays of this was in the architecture. This guy in the sixties realized that the architecture of the era was very unique and wanted to preserve it. So he had all sorts of buildings-houses, churches, train stations, hospitals, hotels-transported to Aichi and reassembled. Fascinating, really.

Meiji Mura is out past Inuyama, to the north of Nagoya, and took us almost an hour to get there, via train and bus. We got a special discount ticket package, that cost each of us twenty bucks for transport both ways and the entry ticket. Not too shabby!

I took a bunch of pics, though the day was very bright and a lot of them ended up overexposed. But here's a sampling. I'll try to give some details as well. :)

First batch:

The first two are from a school. The little desks were so tiny, and the thing that seemed most Western about it, for some reason, were the windows. I loved the sound of walking on those old wooden floorboards. The blackboard was actually wood painted with some black substance...I don't know what it was. The next picture if from an institute that studied bacteriology. There was a whole room full of antique microscopes. Wooo...heheh.

The first two here are from a house that was owned by two different writers. The most famous was the one who wrote "I am a Cat." I loved all the tatami rooms in here, and the sunken kitchen. I am also such a huge fan of those narrow little porches that are always highlighted in anime like "Rurouni Kenshin." The last one is an Episcopal church. It was interesting, because the I'm not sure what the first floor was used for, but the actual chapel was on the second floor.

The first picture in this batch is a theatre, which was actually built in a slightly older style, though it was built in the Meiji era. They actually have plays going on, which the actors heartily encouraged us to attend. Unfortunately, without going to the play, we couldn't get inside. Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh. And the plays performed were modern ones, sort of vaudeville-styled parody of the Meiji era. If I understood Japanese, we would have been there. :) The second picture is the crown jewel of Meiji Mura, a Frank Lloyd Wright house. It's beautiful, so airy inside, with detailed pillars all around that are lit from within. There are some non-Japanese buildings on the grounds, but they were all built within the timespan of the era.

And the last pictures I'll leave you with are from the Red Cross Hospice. A hospital room, with all the cots and little writing desks...and a birthing chair. *shudder* Sweet dreams! :)

Seto= Misery

Well, today was my first Sunday teaching out at Apita Seto, a relatively new Nova branch. Let me just say...

I HATE IT!! I DESPISE IT!!IT'S A WASTE OF TIME/ENERGY/MONEY/INTELLIGENCE/AIR/AND EVERYTHING ELSE REMOTELY OF VALUE ON THE PLANET!!

That said...I hated it.

Firstly, it takes me an HOUR to get there. I take the subway from Kamejima to Sakae, then transfer at Sakae and go to Ozone. Then I run up a lot of stairs to catch the overground train and ride it a half hour out to Owari Seto. Then I got lost for twenty minutes trying to find the mall, then I ran around the building because I needed security clearance because the mall wasn't open yet. Then I had man-to-man low level students all day. The 'food court' of this 'mall' (the mall being less than the size of your average KMart), consisted of four little shops, all selling variations on the Japanese "big bowl of soupish and noodlish stuff."

Thank goodness I'm only there three Sundays, and one of them is down already. *nods*

In exciting news, I learned that I no longer need the English announcements on the subways and trains. I can figure it out myself! And...I've restarted learning hiragana, frantically. Nothing like waiting until I'm going home in a month and a half to get into it, huh? ;)

Observations in Sakae

There are all these nicely dressed young guys hanging out in Sakae Station, mostly down in the underground mall area. Their hair and jewelry isn't that of businessmen, but they're always dressed in impeccible suits, with fancy mobile phones. I had a little fear that they were somehow connected to the yakuza. But I was wrong.

As Aimee found out about a month ago, these guys are actually recruiter pimps. They hassle young women out shopping and try to get them to come work for them. I'm not kidding you.

And today they were out in full force, totally harassing these young women. Who, grant you, were dressed rather like little tramps in super short skirts and stilettos. But still...serious sexual harassment. I don't think you could have anything like that in the States. The girls handled it all very masterfully, pointedly turning their made-up faces away and giggling with their friends. Maybe they're used to it, but it just made my skin crawl. The guys can be really persistent, and I totally just wanted to shove them and tell them to go away. How...vile.

In other news, the mac and cheese continues to go. Tonight we consumed two whole boxes of it over a two hour period. And in case you were wondering, mio famiglia, what those green squiggly noodles look like, here you go!

And lastly, let me tell you about the bugs here. Firstly, the mosquitos must be Satan spawn. There are two types. One is the normal, annoying variety. The other is larger and has a striped body. The bits of this insect are terrible! They leave huge painful welts that can bruise and last weeks. Terrible! The other summertime bug is the cicada. I was told by a student that there are seven breeds of cicada in Japan, and they seem to all be trying to vocally outdo the others all day, every day. They're so loud! And huge! In the mornings, the sidewalks are littered with dead ones. Which are probably 2 or 2 1/2 inches long. I managed to get a picture of a living one up in a tree at the Tokugawaen last weekend. Here you are!

So, off I go to Apita Seto for work tomorrow. I've heard it takes an hour to get there. And that because it's a new school, there are like two students. The same two students. All. Day. Long. Woo. *dies*

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Today was an errands day. Let our landlord know when we're leaving, grocery shopping, bought our subway tickets for the month, etc. Then we headed to Osu for a little bit of fun shopping. I found a Pinkie I've been looking for, one of the Super Lover ones, with glasses. Yay! *the crowd goes wild* Then it was home for showering, washing clothes, and eating dinner while watching a movie.

I forgot to mention the other day I got a package from my family. Thanks so much everyone! Now I have fun food (one box of Mac and Cheese is already gone), and some new books and movies. Happy early birthday to me!

Thanks to Dad *hugs* I have now seen the Tim Burton incarnation of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." I know it's more authentic and everything, but I have to say I still like the old one better. As Aimee said, it was all about Tim Burton, and I would have rather it had been about the...you know, story.

To read more of my thoughts, go behind the cut...

In tone, it was darker than the original, in some cases a little too much so. I could mention melting marionettes as a gruesome, unnecessary touch. Creepy is good, nightmare inducement in children under the age of 12 is not. However, I didn't miss the silly songs from the first, and it was nice to have the squirrel scene rather than that dorky goose scene. The techno gadgets were great, and the little boy who played Charlie was so winsome and adorable, you just totally want him to win the whole time. And he's innocent all the way through. The glass elevator being used as an actual mode of transport was pretty cool, and although embaressing, I must admit to laughing every time the stupid gag of Willy Wonka walking into the see-through door of the elevator showed up. :)

On the other hand, the Oompa Loompa songs were such a waste of film. Having one man play all the Oompa Loompas was stupid; it made it look so obviously CG. And the lyrics were impossible to make out, so the songs didn't really matter much, except to bring a little bit of N*SYNC to the movie.

And the weakest link? Willy Wonka himself. Which was such a disappointment. Firstly, the visual was just...bad. The pasty white skin, high voice, and really REALLY bad pageboy hair was all sorts of icky. And he seemed emotionally stunted, rather than an eccentric genius. And what's with the backstory? What's this new trend? Mr. Wonka's (non-canon) relationship with his father really added nothing to the movie as it was done in hurried drips and drabs that didn't influence anything except to make him particularly eager to off Mr. Salt and to add some sort of conflict to the story of the perfect Charlie taking over the factory (in the Gene Wilder version, this was handled with the Fizzy Lifting Drink and the Everlasting Gobstoppers bit). He very obviously despised all children, unlike Gene Wilder, who seemed a bit fascinated by them. And lastly...he didn't seem to enjoy the candy. And that's a big old question mark in my mind.

Lastly, just little things. Why did Grandpa Joe look like he was going to die any second? And how on earth did they manage to get a child to play Veruca Salt who looks identical to the original little girl? That's just freaky...

My final decision? Eh, two and a half out of four stars. Good adaption and great vision of the factory and stuff, but it just didn't leave me wanting to stuff my face with smores. *nods*

Port of Nagoya FISH!!!!

Another weekend, another quasi-adventure. Today was aquarium day. Aimee had heard that this was one of the biggest aquariums (aquaria?) in Japan, and for a $20 entrance fee, it had better be! The aquarium is out at Nagoyako, which means Nagoya Port, where there is also an Italian Village and RED LOBSTER! Ahem...but enough of that. Here's a picture of the port. Lots of boats, and a little customs office. It was nice, because when we walked down it sort of smelled like when you walk on the Bird Island Pier.

As I said, the entrance fee was very high, but the building is huge! Lots of interactive exhibits, all very high tech. Not as many, ya know, living things as I'm used to at an aquarium, but lots of dolphins and a huuuuuuuuge number of penguins. The areas were split up into sort of a first floor with the dolphins and lots of high tech exhibits. And beluga whales. Oh...the joy of them! The lighting wasn't the best, so I didn't get any good ones, but a few months ago one of the belugas had a baby, who's very into swirling and blowing bubbles. So cute! But here are dolphins, since the pic came out better.

The next floor was mostly about tropical fish, concentrating on animals in Australia, and indigenous fish life in Japan. The deep sea fish were really cool, and very creepy. Australia seems to be a super popular country here, especially surfer fashion and stuff. It was fun taking pictures, sort of like a "Finding Nemo" version of "Pokemon Snap." Sorta like "Oh, there's Dorie! Oh, the insane little fish obsessed with bubbles! Oh, the evil fish that tries to eat them! Oh...I don't remember what that's called, but my dad had one!" And the sea turtles were great. Their tank is huge, and includes a little beach area intended for them to use when they lay eggs. We missed the hatching, but there was a tank just filled with tiny baby turtles, all swimming around.

As for the names of these fish, it was alittle hard, because mostly the labels were in Japanese and Latin. But let me see what I can do. Left to right:1. No clue...but it was a brat while I was trying to take its picture. 2.Giant crab. We're talking like two feet tall and four and a half foot long legs. 3. Big angry lionfish. 4. The pointy things are pincushion anemones, the long fish are shrimpfish,and I couldn't get the name of the stripey fish. 5. A sea turtle...though I'm not sure what kind. 6. A yellow tang...I believe. Dad, feel free to correct me on these.

The third floor was smaller, and included a restaurant (called "The Tortoise Cafeteria." Never you mind that a tortoise is a land animal). This floor had a learning area about penguins, and then a viewing theatre sort of room. Millions of penguins!! All swimming insanely. Some fat, some small, and one whose feathers were all ruffled up which I desperately wanted to brush. The water was very deep, making them submarine penguins, and it was all raised so you could see it through the glass. The ceiling in the enclose had a little device that was making snow, hehehe. Very cute.

Unfortunately, the lighting was rather strange throughout, so even though I experimented with the underwater setting on my camera, not many pictures came out very well at all.

After that we went to Volks to pick up our programs/entrance tickets to the Nagoya Dollpa (woot! August 21!), then headed to Suikoden, our favorite izekaya. And since I finally had my camera with me, I took pictures of tebasaki, which is one of Nagoya's local foods. Basically, it's chicken wings with a garlicky, salty outside. Yum! It's just funny to me that the local food here and at home matches. :) Don't they look tasty? I'll definitely miss them when I come home. Dad, I expect you to figure out how to cook them!

So, that's all for today. Stay tuned next week...hmm...maybe Meiji Mura? Who knows! Just stay tuned!