get a move on, you lazy asses

you slow pokes need to get with the times. We're already 12 hours into the new year. I've eaten potato chips and toast, and taken a hot bath in the year 2006 already. What's the hold up?

year of the stupid dog.

2006. Not only does it lack the phoenetic "ring" of any of the other years so far this millenium, it's the year of the dog. Of the 12 year-animals on the "chinese zodiac" (actually it's a little different in Japan), none is so lame as the dog. Don't believe me, check it for yourself.

2000 - Dragon
2001 - Snake
2002 - Horse
2003 - Ram, Sheep
2004 - Monkey
2005 - Bird
2006 - Stupid Dog
2007 - Pig, Boar
2008 - Mouse, Rat
2009 - Cow, Bull
2010 - Tiger
2011 - Rabbit

Still, I'm gonna try and make something of this lame-o inudoshi. Last year I had a singular goal of passing 1kyuu of the JLPT, and I think I managed it. This year, my singular goal is a little more clear. I want to be living in Tokyo by the end of October, and reasonably well-employed by the end of the year.
The other resolutions for 2006 are a little less concrete. In broad terms, I want to take several aspects of my life from "sufficient" to "good". Targets include, but aren't limited to: Japanese language ability (esp kanji), my body (and health), cooking, housekeeping, writing, budget living...

making it worthwhile

I decided to stay home (in my Aomori apartment) for the holidays this year. So I've spent a lot of time on my ass, in front of this screen. I've wasted over a week already, but it hasn't all been a waste. Just look at all the wonderful things I've done.

I figured out what I'm gonna do with my money. (see entry below). I had been leaning stongly on putting it in the US market, but I really think the J markets are going to go crazy for a while.

I learned a little about music theory, via this website. It's gonna take some work to really "get" this stuff. Still, I've wanted to learn an instrument for a while... next year may be a good chance.

I studied some kanji... though not nearly enough. I'd like to take the kanji kentei 3kyuu in June (missed my deadline this) time. I watched a lot of TV too. Trivial as that sounds, I understand virtually everything now, so it's as good a practice as I can get...ot to mention the acculturation effect.

I tried out a few new recipies. I managed to make a decent tamago-don, and a really good soybean and green pea fried rice. Tonight it's my first nabe from scratch. It's supposed to be good as ramen too. Cooking means I saved some cash too... though not really that much between the recipe books and the new nabe pot I bought just now.

There are an awful lot of things that I meant to do that I didn't too, but I'm trying to be positive here.

Tomorrow... resolutions.

how to lose money fast!

I've been looking for a long time at putting some money back in the stock market. I was in the market in 2000, when the bubble burst. I lost a couple hundred dollars, but I'm not bitter. So now that I have some money set aside, I figure I might as well get to gambling it on the market...only there's one thing.

The US market is not performing. The Japanese market is. The Nikkei 225 has more than doubled in value since early 2003. But that's not all. Japanese TV is hyping daytrading like crazy... and not the boiler room shirt and tie type, but the lonely housewife type.


I think I'm gonna try to jump into the next bubble while it's still young. Is it still young? Well, I have reason to think so.

There's an awful lot of personal savings being really ill-serviced right now in postal savings accounts with annual returns of 0.02%. Combine those terrible ( one 50th of an average american checking account) returns with the postal privatization on the horizon, and people don't really have an excuse for keeping their savings with the post anymore. (Most people have kept their money with the post for security's sake). So if money's gonna be coming out of savings, there's got to be a whole lot of money going somewhere, right?

This well timed hype, and the impact of koizumi's privatization plan could combine to make a ridiculously hot market.

ho, ho, ho.

Pope benedict does his impression of harriet myers dressed as Santa Claus.

so this is christmas, plus "korean caught cheating, hallelujah"

I fell asleep on the couch last night with just about every possible appliance turned on. The hot water pot, the external hard drive (which I normally keep off), and the heater were all blazing at full steam all night.
Why are you trying to burn your house down, Nate?




Also, I would be happy to see a lot more scandals emerge out of korea. When I hear the words "south korea", all I can think is "boring, boring, boring". It seems like they're a bunch of christians who are still elevating people who look like donnie and marie osmond to super celebrity status... like WoW gold farming really is the most interesting thing going on.
This cloning scandal is the best thing that's happened to korea since the dog poop girl. Some scandal and social malaise could go a long way to making south korea a culturally interesting country.

super boring, "kingdom hearts 2"

jesus christ that game is boring. for every 2 minutes of action there's a ten minute cutscene full of fake, uninteresting fantasy crap.

boo.

it's a nice looking game, up until the stupid disney characters join in at the 4 hour mark. I should have known that fighting monsters with goofy and donald would be really really lame. What was I thinking?

update. I held out for 5 hours, but I'm finished with it now. I sold it.

happy birthday god-emperor!

I suppose you know that the emperor of Japan is suppposed to be descended directly from the sun, and that it wasn't until after world war II that a Japanese emperor was actually made to declare that he was not a god.
Well today is the 72nd birthday of the current emperor of Japan, and for the occasion, I've decided to change how I think about royalty in democratically elected countries. I'm now vaguely "for" them.

In a country without a non-democratically-elected leader, all the leaders are politicians. So when people think america, they think of this guy.

All of the great things he does reflect on us as a country, and there's no neutral face to counter-balance President Bush. There's no leader, national or international who has a right to stay out of the fray on bitter, bitter issues.
There's also no face that says "America" today, and will say it tomorrow. Clinton America and Bush America are two very different places when seen from the outside... or when you watch TV. But our lives haven't generally changed that much.
Regardless of how you feel about Koizumi, the Emperor is there. He will be there until he dies. When he does die, his children will take over... the literal face won't even change much even then. He doesn't need an opinion on postal reform. Today in his birthday address, the Emperor spoke of the harsh weather striking northern japan, and said that he hopes that it doesn't continue for long. I think his words will give people occasion to think about the people suffering in Niigata from power outages in the middle of the biggest blizzards in 80 years. In a couple weeks, you can be sure he'll be touring the affected cities.

But if Bush had said the same thing, the response would likely be "why isn't the government doing more? does the recent harsh weather have to do with global warming? why has it taken you so long to make a pronouncement?" not to mention all the questions about his other hijinx.
The emperor is really just a non-political "good man". While Koizumi is charged with keeping Japan running, the emperor is charged with keeping Japan Japan.

aomori, can I get a _____ (Ch 1)

(Tomorrow, I'm gonna head downtown and get some photos to flesh out this entry a bit)

Ch 1, a decent place to eat my bentou, and maybe study.

Not so long ago when I was cramming for the JLPT, there were a lot of times when I just couldn't study at home. All the distractions I keep around are quite distracting, to tell the truth. To get anything done, I had to get out of the house. In Aomori there's only one place for times like those (two if you count Freaks Internet (etc) Cafe, but they're not free, and full of distractions).... Auga, 5f.

The first 4 floors of Auga are sort of mediocre shopping, and the 6th, 7th and 8th floors are the library (decent for studying, but no food allowed). But on the 5th floor, up above the arcade, is a large open space with a bunch of tables, a water-wheel-powered clock, some vending machines and a few homeless people. In the recent past it had a decent view too, but the new "mid-life tower" took care of that.

Like I said, when I was studying that's where I'd go for a change of venue. Just pick up a few conbini snacks on the way, and you're set. Incidentally, I'm really drawn to the type of vending machines that dispense cups with ice in them (or not if it's a hot drink), so that's bonus points for me.
Only trouble is, it really is the only place in town. When school lets out for the day, it's pretty full, especially in test seasons.

Still, since it's right there in the middle of everything, it's really convenient for just a few minutes relaxing too. By some twist of fate the place stays quiet almost all the time. I wind up in there pretty often when I'm just not sure if I want to hop a bus home yet or not.

japanese public transportation manners... don't believe the hype.

All winter, I have to use buses to get to my schools each day, and I have no choice but to travel during rush hour. The buses are naturally pretty damned full.

Japan has long been famous for the train station attendants who literally shove people into the packed trains in Tokyo, but this is no Toyko. Aomori doesn't even have convenient local trains, much less enough passengers to need shoving, but we've got buses and a commute that puts all the businessmen and the high school students on the busses at the same time.

So when your timing's not good, you're forced to shove your own way into these over-crowded buses. Or if the bus driver will allow it, stand on the boarding steps.

The thing is, the buses aren't usually full. The riders just tend to crowd around the entry door, and no matter how full the bus is, they almost never scoot toward the often comparably spacious back of the bus.

It's times like this that I'm glad I'm a foreigner and not afraid of high school boys like so many people around here are. If you impolitely ask people to move toward the back (something even the lamebrain bus driver wouldn't do), they'll do it. Or there's always the standby of lowering one shoulder and pushing forward with an irritated "suimasen".

(It's my hope for the new year to be less bothered by this kind of thing)

alberto fujimori, wikipedia, and the glass of water.

There was some news on Alberto Fujimori that I was reading for japanese practice, when I realized that I don't know enough about the back story. So I looked him up at wikipedia. His rise to power had a lot to do with tough talkin' about the Shining Path. Well, you gotta find out who they were (surprisingly not "no-wave dance-punk", or MIA-like musicians!). So you wikipedia them too: Maoist guerillas; Peru; leader captured 1992; gotcha.
But what does that mean to be maoist outside of china? Go, go wiki-maoism!

The thing is, I don't know if now understand more or less about what's going on. It seems like it would take a million days in front of the wikipedia just to have an intelligent conversation. Which reminds me how much I want to read more Saul Bellow.

Every other man spoke a language entirely his own, which he had figured out by private thinking; he had his own ideas and peculiar ways. If you wanted to talk about a glass of water, you had to start back with God creating the heavens and earth; the apple; Abraham; Moses and Jesus; Rome; the Middle Ages; gunpowder; the Revolution; back to Newton; up to Einstein; then war and Lenin and Hitler. After reviewing this and getting it all straight again you could proceed to talk about a glass of water. "I'm fainting, please get me a little water." You were lucky even then to make yourself understood.... You had to translate and translate, explain and explain, back and forth, and it was the punishment of hell itself not to understand or to be understood, not to know the crazy from the sane, the wise from the fools, the young from the old or the sick from the well. The fathers were no fathers and the sons no sons.

--(from Seize the Day)


(also fuji-cola)

the little red japanese book.

矛　is an old chinese character for spear that is still used in both languages.
盾 is an old chinese character for shield that is still used in both languages.

together, 矛盾 implies a spear meeting a shield.


in japanese, 矛盾 is read "mujun" and simply means a contradiction. It's got a bit of the "unstoppable force/immovable object" feel to it. Something's gotta give.

in chinese, 矛盾 with the reading "máodùn" denotes the "antagonistic contradiction", or the inherent and conflict between peasants and landowners. "máo dùn" implies the necessity of endless class struggle, and in some sense endless violence. Though it also seems to entail chick-fights.

confuse them at your own risk.

(also in japanese "手紙" (hand + paper) = a letter. in chinese "手紙" is toilet paper.)

happy belated thanksgiving everyone!

I spent my whole teaching-week talking about Thanksgiving and comparing American and Japanese holidays. I suddenly think there is something really commendable about Thanksgiving that's missing from every other day on the American calendar. It's a life-affirming holiday. It's a holiday that encourages America to feel a little bit connected to the world and the seasons.

Even if it is whitewashed in this whole "gratitude for god's blessings" bullshit, thanksgiving is really about the Harvest. It's about the bounty of the land, and about connecting our own well being to the well being of the surrounding environment. It's about food! That's the real stuff of life.

What about the other holidays? Well, looking at the calendar...

Jan 1 = celebrate a new calendar... and one cosmic cycle.
3rd monday of Jan = MLK Jr day. A great guy for sure. America could use more moral heroes.
3rd monday of Feb = President's day. WTF? Seriously? To celebrate our highest elected official?
Sometime in Mar or Apr = Easter (in most locales)
Last monday of May = mermorial day (war dead day)
4th of July = 4th of July (commemorating the start of a war)
First monday of Sept. = Labor Day. sweet. more of these.
2nd monday of October = Columbus day. there are a lot of things to say about that one.
Nov 11th = veterans day
4th thursday of Nov = Thanksgiving! yay!
Decmber 25 = Christmas

So, if your tally matches mine, we have 2 days for war and warmongering (5 if you count columbus, the presidents and independence day), 2 for "great men", and 2 christian holidays. The christian holidays it may be noted were intentionally moved from their presumed real dates in order to muscle out (or coincide with) millenia old earthy crunchy pagan holidays, and to replace them with anti-human anti-earth christian myths.

The J calendar has more holidays, but among them are "ocean day" "childrens day" "becoming an adult day" "respect for the elderly day" "green day" (to celebrate billy joe, trey and whatshisface) "(thanks for the) labor day" "sports day" and "culture day". Those are all real, day-offa-work holidays.

What a nice country.

less typing more reading.

While I'm settling in for winter, I want to spend more time learning stuff than vacuously pontificating.

Don't worry though, I'll be back and vacuous as every before long.

Also, I've not been paying very good attention to the news lately, but little girls are getting killed around japan. One of them by a gaijin!

(shock!)

you didn't even have to listen.

Lots of things in my head about my tokyo trip. Some quick thoughts on the JLPT.

It is pretty meaningless really. Even 1kyuu isnt a high enough level to be meaningful and doesn't test more than abitity to take a test. The focus on understanding is very reasonable, but every time that the test diverted from grasping meaning, it was strictly about amassed vocabulary (especially unusual kanji), and anal-retentive grammar.

There were a lot of asian faces in that test room. 150 or so people. 6 or so white folks, a few indian lookin people, and a middle-eastern-ish dude. I studied with the same books that most of the chinese people were using.

Some cocky white dude I overheard on his keitai outside the test missed a listening question. He was talking to someone about the listening test, and saying that "some were so obvious you didn't really have to listen". He then gave an example, and how he deduced the answer before even listening... he deduced wrong.

Learning is all about motivation. A lot of the chinese people picked up japanese as fast as possible... like in a year. I ran into a lawyer who has been working here for a while at least who took 2kyuu in 1992, and is taking 1kyuu for the first time 13 years later. There is a lot more to either of those stories, but it fits in with something I've been thinking and talking about lately.

"hunger". and the lower classes surplanting the upper classes while the middle imperceptably sinks.

one back, ripe for a pattin'

I'm back. I think I passed me test. I think I deserve a bath.