Monday, October 31, 2005

60.5%

Well, well, well. How's that for an inconclusive result? I have to get 70% to pass, and just as I'm coming into big last push, I'm scoring 10% below it.

Actually, I'm pretty happy with it. And even more happy to have found where my weak points are. I did well on reading and on listening, but crap on kanji, and on grammar. But since I haven't cracked a kanji book in 6 months, or a grammar book in 2 months, those are the right ones to have shitty. They're also the most conducive to "cramming", which is the subtitle of my november.

If this score is piss, it's king piss.

facty, allzu facty.

11 months later, I realize that I haven't been putting anything into my head but fact after fact. Emphasizing the language, kanji and especially vocabulary, I gotten used to a shallow style of consumption based on result rather than pleasure. It's a bit more complicated than I care to write about, but I've plowed through 2 books in the last month without enjoying them, and I'm starting to treat music and even food the same way.

I'm gonna keep doing it until december 4th, and then I'm gonna grow an ulcer waiting for my test results.

Speaking of test results, I'm actually taking a break right now from a practice test. It's not going well. Not going well at all.

Saturday, October 29, 2005

google, we're waiting

When ray charles died, google did a special logo for his birthday. Well, I hope they're cooking up Captain Jack's logo right now. Rest in peace, soldier.

I am a chinese austauschstudent!

I've been locked in my room all day studying kanji, and working on test-taking strategy and all of those terribly un-fun things (though I secretly enjoy them). It strikes me... I used to know some people who seemed to live like this every day. The Chinese students in the dorms in germany. The only difference is that I don't interrupt my study breaks by frying up huge pans of chicken hearts and sweet pickles in the communal kitchen (true story).

I'm sort of proud of myself for being able to buckle down like this, and doggedly work on a single facet of self-improvement. I'm glad to know that I can still function like I'm "hungry" instead of the sated, ironic, lazy american that I have been since I entered junior high.

Oh, I'm still sated, ironic, lazy and american, and I probably always will be, but in the past, I've been too bored with the world to lift a finger. I feel like everything I've failed to acheive, and the list in not short, I've failed out of boredom. Not even something so noble as laziness. I had the time and the energy to learn C++ and write my thesis on Adorno and learn to play guitar, but I had stupid things I would rather be doing. Most of the time it was video games, or mindless internet. If I go back to the states next year, and fall into another shitty job I can't stand, I will have reaped what I spent a decade or so sowing. If not, maybe I'll start eating chicken hearts.

warm biz

During the summer, there was a government coordinated fashion movement in Japan called "cool biz". The idea (and a clever one at that) was that by asking private corporations, and forcing government offices to slacken their dress codes (good by necktie!) for the summer, they could get away with turning the air conditioners down, thus saving a bit of energy and making a very long run-on sentence.
Now it's time for the real winner, "warm biz". Save energy by wearing cozy little vests under your suit jacket.

Word is that cool biz was a pretty big windfall for the men's clothing industry, and warm biz will be too.

my mom says it's worth a fortune

Friday, October 28, 2005

cliffhanger

I'm waiting for the tv to come back from commercial break so that I can hear what a panel of experts decided was the best way to hold out a little longer when you really have to poop.

and they say japanese tv is worthless.

Thursday, October 27, 2005

furusato - 08


furusato - 08
Originally uploaded by notnato.

This is my "pretty" furusato picture.

It seems like the internet is full of pictures of wacky japan, or traditional "kotos, temples and kimonos" japan. I'm really tired of those ideas.

Japan is a place where people live, and it's full of the life and color that people create.

Wednesday, October 26, 2005

while I'm in a blogging way...j-brog!

This is my other blog. I updated it for the 3rd and 4th times ever today.

I've been reluctant to share it with anyone, but lately I've been thinking that I should practive what I preach. In school, I always tell the teachers and students that being afraid of being wrong is a huge impediment to learning a language... and that the world will forgive your mistakes faster than you'll forgive yourself for not trying. (what a namby-pamby teacher type I am)

So even though I have very little confidence in my japanese, I'm opening up my other blog for the world to be unimpressed with. Enjoy.

(by the way, I won't likely make many entries there any time soon)

Tuesday, October 25, 2005

whining about whining about music

My friend recently mentioned on a post from way way back when that she'd prefer a world of less music criticism... or as she phrased it "whining about music". I don't think I can really get on board, but I do find myself really often at odds with only critics I really read, the pitchfork gang.

Since albums get out on the net before they get up for review these days, Ive had some time to listen to the new fiery furnaces album over the last month. I listened, and formed my opinions about it. I like it. It's not quite what the last one was, but it doesn't feel so invested in a gimmick as that one did either. A solid, listenable record that I would still consider pretty avant garde, in it's narrative style, and the fast paced shift of instruments and genres.

So, when I saw it finally pop up on pitchfork yesterday, I tried to give a guess as to what the score might be. I was already surprised to see that it didn't have a best new music tag (unlike the stupid animal collective, clipse, and the crappy new sigur ros album), but I figured maybe a 7.5 or so. Fuckers gave it a 4.0. That's rilly bad by their standards... and it's not even accompanied by such a bad review.

"Thus, the central problem of Rehearsing My Choir: It's a spectacular experiment, groundbreaking and perverse, bloated with possibilities and prime for parsing. But its practical function is unclear. No matter how open your mind, how welcome to art-without-directions you may be..."
The music fails to "function" cleanly in the reviewers lifestyle, thus is is sent to the bottom 10% or so of reviewed records. The kallikak family, meanwhile takes home an 8.2 for what I can't see as more than too much spare time to record uninteresting noises, I've listened to it several times to no avail. But rather than get all internet angry...

Why does it matter? money. If music were free (cough), then it wouldn't really be a problem. People would just get reccomendations from sources they trust, and if they didn't like it, so be it, off to the recycle bin. But reviews cost a lot less than cds... especially reputable internet reviews. For the price of one cd in japan (roughly 28 US smackeroos), I can buy a lot of onigiri at the conbini. So music reviews are keeping ears happy and my belly full by keeping me from wasting that money elsewhere.
If I had a wide network of friends with impeccable or at least similar taste, I could probably just fine without pitchfork. but I dont. and I generally agree with them, so I'll keep going.
I'm glad to have that off my chest and onto the internet.

Plus I think after reading that review snippet, my friend might be a little more interested in the fiery furnaces.

keimeisha ga tsumugu chuugakkounyuusiki nihon no rekishi can kiss my ass

I'm not having good luck with reading materials. The book I bought about a year ago for practice and maybe a little insight into japanese history is crap. It's a cram book for middle school entry tests, and it's just packed with ridiculous amounts of worthless vocabulary and minute details about the names given to specific offices in royal administrations from 643-705, and the names of the people that held the office. It reads a lot like that genre of spam where all the nouns in an innocuous piece of text have been replaced by 4 or 5 syllable nonsense... at least it does if you aren't already well versed in japanese history.

To hell with this one. Need to find a new book now.

By the way, there are laws in japan that say that a new book can't be sold at a discount price without very specific exemptions. I saw on the news recently that the Japan's first discount bookstore opened last month. I think they found something like the gun show loophole in the discount book laws.

best referrer evar

I just got a hit from this referrer. I'm proud to be the first and only result.

furusato - 01


furusato - 01
Originally uploaded by notnato.

I finally posted five photos from the trip I took on saturday morning to my flickr. Maybe I fucked with the levels a little too much in Fireworks, but everything looked a little too flat with the featureless gray sky.

I love certain aspects of this place. But when winter rolls around, I'm not gonna feel so fondly anymore.
Furusato is essentially "home town" with a rural implication. When I move to Tokyo, I will think of Aomori as my furusato.

Monday, October 24, 2005

just my weekend.

A couple things happened.

Friday night, before I met up with everyone, I went up to the 12th floor sky bar in the Aomori Grand Hotel (which if you know Aomori is sort of a pathetic name). It wasn't exactly "lost in translation", but it had a certain kind of self-conscious poshness to it... and they didn't turn me away at the door for what I was wearing. After making the new bartender prepare her first gin and tonic, I got to see the crowd that self-conscious poshness attracts in this city. Namely a 45 y.o. or so dude and his "date", a caucasian girl of maybe 22, dressed in fur. Also featured were the 20 something dude and his gf in HS uniform, and the plainclothes rich lady who all of the staff treated like royalty. It was a good time.
Sunday, I finished stupid botchan. Stupid, stupid botchan. Evidently, people read it as children here as a lesson in morality, but it's not exactly dense in moral dilemmas. To me it reads like a nationalist screed against the recently defeated russians and european culture in general. One established reading says that the book is about duty and love. Fuck that. Granted, the book has a little explanation section in the back, but I didn't want to read it. I'm a petulant snot just like botchan.
Later on sunday, I saw the immediate aftermath of a pizza hut delivery car crash directly in front of the pizza hut building. It looked pretty bad, and when I first passed by, someone was on the sidewalk face down. As luck would have it, I was on my way to that pizza hut. Inside, people seemed to be taking it as an inconvenience rather than a disaster. The sign on the wall said that they hadn't had a crash for 48 days. A couple minutes later, on my way out, the guy had gotten up off the ground, and a couple of people were starting to fight over the crash. It was the first time I heard anyone actually use the word "yarou" seriously in real life. When I got home I ate the whole pizza alone.

bought some clothes at uniqlo too.
the whole weekend cost me about 3.5 man yen, or about $330.

Friday, October 21, 2005

hanazono 2-3, loveworn


hanazono 2-3
Originally uploaded by notnato.

I went on a little ride around my neighborhood today and took a bunch of photos. For all its ugly, this sure is a pretty place.
There's something about the way things fit together here in hanazono and in Aomori that feels perfectly correct to me. All of the rust and scratches and dirt that would normally make everything tragic only show how well loved this place is.
It's like a little european village that's had a few hundred years to ripen, only there's almost nothing here over 50 years old.

I'll have a bunch of photos up over at my flickr soon.

Thursday, October 20, 2005

a cold-blooded consumption machine

At times I think I'm different from most americans. All of these stereotypes that I've picked up from the states and germany and japan... who would want to be any of those? The worst, and most legitimate of the nasty american stereotypes is the incessant consumer. Eating, watching TV, buying electronics, using oil, laying waste to the world and consuming.

But that's me. The difference is neither one of quantity or of quality. I've jaunted here and there and learned a couple of languages. Hell, I've even learned a couple cultures pretty well by this point. What becomes of all of it though? In the end, I really feel like I just found new ways to consume food and tv and resources and time and people. I taught three classes today and spent the rest of the time somehow involved in media or food consumption.
It's not that that's a bad thing. Maybe having read harry potter in three languages is better than just one.

(strange blog entry, considering I'm not really so upset about anything. just feeling like I'm not putting out even a small percentage of what I take in. Witness my preempted japanese language blog with preciselt 2 entries.
Also, I got my first ever translation assignment... a student's speech on the komagome shishiodori.)

Saturday, October 15, 2005

a psychidelic journey of the mind!

Today I will broaden my mind. I will stretch my senses beyond all of my prior experience. Having done so, I'm certain that I will never be the same person again.

Indeed, in just a few minutes, I will intentionally drink coffee.

So say your sad goodbyes to the nate you knew, for he shall be no more!

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

eat my ass, voldemort!

で きた! I managed to finish the book today, by reading 80 freaking pages today. So I finished my first book in Japanese, and now I don't want to hear another thing about Harry Potter until late november.

Next up is Natsume Soseki's Bottchan. The training wheels are off this time. There's not nearly as much furigana happening in Bottchan as in HP.

ten minutes of my day

I also ate my first ochazuke today... it was pretty tasty.

Monday, October 10, 2005

wonderful new things to do.

Today, for the first time, I rented some CDS. For the next week, I have Fantastic Plastic Machine's "Sound Concierge #501"; Kahimi Karie's "My first Karie"; Halicali's "Halicali Mix" and an album of flipper's guitar's singles.

I'm still mostly clueless about the legal and financial riggings that make cd rental a very acceptable practice in this country. But, all of the cd cases have riaj stickers on them which I guess means someone up there's seeing a cut of the 300 yen I paid per rental.

Update: Evidentally, the whole rental profit distribution system is built around the "happy music cycle". Also worthy of note is that the rental shop had a couple of signs up saying that they couldn't rent "Def Tech" (A white boy + J-boy rap duo) because they were "indies", so evidentally, some important acts are outside the riaj system.

With any luck, tomorrow I will have another japanese first. I'm going to finish my first book in Japanese, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone". Maybe you've heard of it.

Saturday, October 08, 2005

I reek of effort

You know the sports cliche of giving X percent, I'm sure. Today, for the first time in my life, I gave over 90%.

It was really, really awful and I never want to do it again. I'll stay in the 70's, thanks.

Tuesday, October 04, 2005

the heat is on


05-10-04_20-40.jpg
Originally uploaded by notnato.

I turned the heated toilet seat on for the season today. It's gonna be a long, cold winter, but not for the outer edges of my butt cheeks or a portion of my thighs.

ADV JPN

and while I'm here...

While having a face that will scare children away is one valuable asset in a supreme court judge, it cannot stand as the sole qualification. No matter how strongly developed that trait may be.

salve.

You know they don't really yank out tonsils anymore? I spent a lot of time looking in the mirror at mine, and at pictures of other people's on the internet, and something fishy's going on with mine. (Yeah, what else are you gonna do when you're sick, study?) I really wish I could just be rid of the fuckers, but alas. Maybe after I get a couple more strepp throats this year...

Anyway, even if the terrible inattentive doctors of this country don't give a fudge why I've had a temperature of 104 four seperate times and have been hooked up to an IV five times with severe strep throat this year, at least I've got my boss. This is the care package he brought me this morning, on hearing that I was staying home sick.



I gobbled it all up quickly and gratefully... except the vegetable juice. Nice try.

the worst hit song of the 1990s. (presented without further comment)

Well!!

Chorus:
Are you Johnny Ray?
Are you Slim Ray?
Are you Paid Ray?
Who wants to know? Who wants to know?

Are you Sting Ray?
Are you Nick Ray?
Are you Jimmy Ray?
Who wants to know? Who wants to know?

Hey, can you tell when you look in my eye
You don't mess around with me
'less you feelin' dangerous.
Are you into my scene, lay it on the line
Ya come and take a walk with me
if you're feelin' dangerous.
Cuz I'm mean-a
I'm lean-a
I ain't no in-between-a.
With a reaper, I'm a dreamer
Good God, I'm a believer.

Chorus

Maybe we can shake it down by the walk
Do you think I'm takin' liberties?
Are ya dangerous?
I gotta let it, somethin' in my genes
ya come and take a walk with me
if you're feelin' dangerous.

Cuz I'm mean-a
I'm lean-a
I ain't no in-between-a
With a reaper, I'm a dreamer
Good God, I'm a believer

Chorus

Everybody jump back, turn around now
Let's do it again
Everybody jump back, turn around now
Let's do it again

Chorus (x2) fading

Monday, October 03, 2005

cannot tell a lie

I'd be lying if I said I've been baking up some brand new content or something. Just been alternating between busy and sick. Though apropos of sick, I think I might try and read up a little bit on doku-hara tomorrow and make a semi-informative entry.