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Last month for Japanese Labor day weekend I made a little trip to Tokyo. I took the nigh bus at 10 pm and arrived in Shinjuku the next day. I then proceeded to head to Harajuku which is a unique but recently famous part of Tokyo. It's described as the place to be for young people, mostly teenagers and young adults. It is well known for "street fashion" which is a unique phenomenon perpetuated by people who go to Harajuku , especially on Sundays. They dress in all sorts of unique ensembles. Many combine gothic and punk elements . Some use alot of bright neon colors with lolita dresses and trinkets. It's a unique way of expression in a society that seems to celebrate sameness. The stuff is a bit costly tho. I just got a shirt and a pair of loose socks which are quite warm btw. Loose socks are like socks that are also leg warmers.
They had a viviene westwood shop that had some nice skirts but they looked kind of dime a dozen skirts not skrts that are worth 50 plus dollars. There were alot of Nigerians that set up all these hiphop themed stores there. So of course they saw me as there are few black ppl in Japan..period. But I didn't really like them. If I wanted to buy hiphop type fashion I could do it in my own country. Those stores are for Japanese kids who think black culture is cool. There's one guy on campus who has his hair cornrowed regularly albeit with extensions because his hair isn't long enough. So I didn't really like being around the Nigerian guys cuz they were a bit too pushy. And their Japanese was pretty bad too. It's funny how now of the actual representatives of American hiphop culture were selling this stuff. I think I saw one America black guy and he looked like a suited business man. The Japanese perception of other cultures is far more limited than people claim Americans are. Japanese know very little about slavery or race relations in the United States.

The closest thing that Japanese have is the issue of Ainu Japanese being descriminated against. Ainu are the original native people og Northern Japan. They're darker, hairier and have large deep set eyes. At some point the Japanese Invaded Northern Japan uprooting a civilization. Many Ainu experience the same treatment that Black people do in the states. They are ashamed of their color and differing appearance. Many Parents will not tell their mixed children that their kids are part Ainu because of teasing.
To some Ainu is not the desired term but address themselves as Utari instead because the name can be used to sound like "Ah Inu" which mean s Ah! a dog!
I've met a few japanese people who differ in skin tone, hair texture, and eye shape. Some of these kids came from Okinawa which was not always a part of Japan. They have their own dialect.

I almost got left in Tokyo evrnight for a tsupid reason. I paid 95 dollars for a round trip ticket but the ticket lady made a mistake as She only gave me one ticket. I didn't know it at the time since I thought they put you on a list so that each bus would remember you're name and seat number. That didn't happen but some girl who spoke English explained the situation and they let me on the bus..after all I DID PAY for a round trip. When I got back it was all snowy and much colder in Akita. It's snowing now. It just keeps on snowing.

YUKI FUBUKI!

It's finally starting to SNOW!. First it was cold winter rain(fuyo no ame) and then it got colder and colder and now it's snowing. YAAAY but I doubt there are any snow days. There are a bunch of different words for snow depending on the type. This is the first snow so it's Hatsuyuki.

But then again we've been having sleet which is mizore.

frost is shimo

and snow pellets are arare.

Ashita wa yuki ni asokimasu!

Buddhas and Wedding Bells and Barbershops

Sunday we went on a trip around Akita. We went to a few temples including one with the "living buddhas" that is to say, buddhist holy men who, after several years of preperation mummify themselves from the inside out. Basically they under go a regiment that is drawn out at about 7 years starting with riggorous exercise everyday for three years accompanied by extreme dietary restrictions. the next couple years they consume less food and poisonous plant substances like excretions from lacquer trees as well as drinking arsenic laden water. basically this combination of chemicals would preserve the person from the inside. The intense exercise was to decrease the amount of fat as fat is highly subject to decay after death. When the Man was finally ready to become a "living buddha" he was placed in a hole and cut off from all food or water and given a bell to ring a few times a day to let the ppl know above that he was still alive. when the Bell stopped ringing they would estimate the time of death (albeit inaccurate). They would leave the man down there for about one thousand days to let the chemical reaction take its corse. If after one thousand days, the body is recogniably intact meaning not decomposed, then the attempt was succesful. Attempts aren't always succesful and there are hundreds of cases of self mummification attempts. As of now there are only 16 "living Buddhas" in Japan althought that is the largest concentration of selfmade mummies anywhere in the world. There are some in China too.

I didn't take any photographs of the living Buddhas in the temple because I thought it would be disrespectful but I took photos of things outside the temple and in the other room where you buy souvinirs and fortunes.

There was another place we briefly stopped before that that was on the ocean. The giant rocks were actually carved into Buddhist statues of saints. It had a beautiful view. It would have been nicer if the sun had been out.

After that we went for lunch. I went to this place where you take off your shoes and sit at a table with a grill and mix different ingrediants together that you pick. It was really rainy. It still is. It's just been raining almost everyday for few weeks now. Later we went to a sake museum where we got to try some sake for free....Sake is gross. Tastes like sugar and hatred. I didn't have enough to get drunk. It tasted too awful. Almost all the other girls drank on the bus which is why they all simulatanrously had to get out of the bus and pee on the side of the highway in the dark. Also, the all you can drink at the restaurant they went to had a hand in that.

we briefly stopped at a lake where there were TONS of water fowl. There were more ducks than swans. yet the lake was called swan lake.

Also...Ko finally got around to doing my hair. I think it came out pretty well for his first time twisting hair.

And..last but not Least, my collegue Jillian is going to Marry her Boyfriend this winter. He's in the military and lives on a base in Japan not to far from Akita. She says it will be great financially since married soldiers get extra pay. Then once she's back in the states they're gonna have a big traditional wedding. They've been together for like 5 years so..I'm all for it. It's not like she's rushing into it or anything.

AIU sai

The festival was very fun. The first Day wasn't so great tho. It rained..no POURED all day. But I went out anyway. But I came in early because I didn't want to get soked. The Following day was alot more fun and we got to listen to the bands play and watched the dance teams perform. The most hilarious thing was an odd perfrormance by the Hiphop club..that was bizzare. I only filmed the Japanese stuff tho. Watching Born and bred Japanese girls attempt to "get down" hip hop style was too painful. The food stalls were great. I had some Kimchi pancake. That was delicious..Kimchee is the best flavor. Although Kimchi is korean not Japanese..it's very popular. They also had "curry" (if you can call it that) and Naan. I don't really mess with the Japanese rendition of curry, it leaves SO much to be desired. Of all the different countries' versions of curry I've tried, Japanese "Kuri raisu" is at the bottom of the list. I also went back to Akita-shi. You know you can find some of the coolest (and cheapest) stuff at second hand shops. I got this cool shirt for 1000 en (roughly $9.50). They had some other cool stuff but my huge Amazonian shoulders couldn't fit into any of it. This shirt HAS no shoulders so that fixes things altogether. Today I had an oral exam in Japanese. I think I did well. I got there early and finished early. Tomorrow I'm gonna see if I can get Ko to do my hair. He already did Oluyimi's hair and it looks really good. Yumi can do hair too although her designs aren't as creative as Ko's.

"Ippen shinde miru?"

No but seriously folks. October time! which means Halloween! I've been sooo busy. Tomorrow is the AIU festival so I'm going to be Uber occupied. The other day I rented a bike and went riding. I happened to stumble upon a garden which is actually right next to the Bike rental shop. How did I miss that?

Plus last Sunday Max took myself and some of my other friends on a trip...somewhere. We were looking for one place and ended up somewhere else but It was cool cuz where ever we ended up was nice too. He was crazy tho. We ended up driving on some trail which I think was probably not appropriate to drive on. I mean there were other ppl driving on it too but it was the kind of path that was more SUV appropriate, know what I mean? I mean it had rocks and sticks and stuff. And Max's car was worth the equivalent of 200 USD (seriously). BUT we all got out safe and sound and back in time for dinner. Today we went on a trip with our Teacher to the City and popped into this awesome Manga/anime shop. It was filled top to bottom with manga, anime, and paraphernalia.I didn't buy anything. I couldn't make up my mind. I'm thinking I'll go back to the shop later since in the bottom floor they have some awesome unique clothes. I DID buy a hat from this guy under the Train station. He had this area set up where he was selling all this pseudo African type stuff. Then we chilled at McDo until it was time to take the train back. After Dinner which was barely memorable, we kicked back and watched Mulan and sang with all the songs. I've gott turn in now on account of the fact that I have an UBER busy schedule tomorrow. Ja Ne!

Because Japanese Television is terrible

In My stay in Japan I've come to realize that even though Americans have so much vacuous drivel blasting through the boob tube, there are still some gooduns out there that make TV great. Sorry to say the same cannot be said for Japanese television. They don't have many channels and from what they do have on tv is absolute garbage. They have some of the dumbest reality television I've ever seen. But what about the Anime? you ask? Anime goes straight to DVD and rarely is it on television and what they do show is that godawful stuff that no selfrespecting anime fan would watch

Makes you appreciate the millions of dollars that go into the American entertainment business doesn't it?

I'm reffering of course to the Avatar Season 3! Whoever posted the new episodes. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I can't wait to find out what happens with Azula.

Doyobi trip

We went on another trip this saturday. This time it was a bus trip sponsored by the school so we didn't have to go through all the extra plamming like last time. We stopped at various different places including a Sake Brewery, A temple/shrine park, a dairy farm, A mountain and the Arctic explorer museum. I made my own bento lunch even tho they bought us bento boxes, the food was attrocious as expected. Even the Japanese kids couldn't stomach the stuff. The Temple park was interesting. I saw no monks(probably busy praying) but plenty of cats. I call them the Kame Neko( the spirit cats). The farm was also nice save for the smell of cooked meat and the dairy they were selling in the store which was uncharacteristically dirty for a store owned by Nihonjinn. They had bunnies and dogs and a few sheep (like 3). I actually saw no cows. The Arctic museum itself was dull BUT the outdoors was grand. There was this cool life sized boat you could play on with slides and everything. There were also lots of these little penguin and husky statues as long as a giant whale statue that everyone was trying to climb on. The Sake house was informative but I mean..the only thing they said that was interesting was this one funfact:If you fall into the big tank of sake the cultures will pull you down to the bottom and you will die. No one can come rescue you beacause the wouldn't be able to see you, and the tank is over 10 feet deep and they probaly wouldn't be able to hear you either. The only thing I got from that experience was an allergic reaction(the place had serious mildew issues) and a fear of Breweries. All in all I had fun. The Bus ride was the one oart that drove me crazy. Oh I forgot to mention the mountain. We were only there for 20 minutes so there isn't much to say. The view was beautiful and the Tea in the Jihanki was too expensive.

Kakonodate!

Man talk about BUSY. Ok I got up early today. Why? Well because today we went to Kukonodate. It's an old Samurai city. No Samurai live there of course but they used to and we got to see their houses and take pictures of them. I also Tasted the many different snacks. I had a Naruto mochi which is a rice treat stuffed with red bean paste. I also had some sticky rice on a stick. That was wierd and really salty. We stopped at a cute little dinner where we had cold udon. Well most of us did. It's too hot for hot udon. They gave us free cold barley tea. There was a festival today so There were many girls dressed in Yukatas which are cheaper and cooler versions of Kimono. There were also these wierd floats where the men and women would literally pull it up and down the streets. It was crazy. Then when two floats met each other on the same street, they would "fight" as in they would crash the floats into each other over and over until who knows when whilst beating these huge drums and blowing an irritating whistle (that drove me crazy) . We also checked out the grave yard where there was a giant Buddha statue. I thought it was a Virgin Mary at first. We also pased by a giant temple but it was closed today. There were also tons and tons of street vendors. There were those silly little games where you try to catch goldfish with a paper net (didn't do it) or you fish for a water balloon with a rubberband on it and lots of other wierd fishing-for-objects games that just use up your money. There was alos traditional singing and plenty of omiyagi(souvenir shops). All the stuff there was so pretty and quaint that I had to resist the urge to prevent from getting severly wallet raped (1500 yen for a bowl? I don't think so) It was warm and I got sweaty but so did everyone else. I bought some pink Sakura (cherry blossom) udon as a souvenir. Then we all made the trip back to AIU around 630 and got back at about 8pm I think.

Sugoimono (cool things)

Ok this guy is cool. You wanna know why he's cool? I'll tell you. He's Japanese but when he was in Highschool he studied in GEORGIA. So he learned to speak English like people do in Georgia. It's the cutest thing. It always makes me laugh. He talks like my Uncle. He's not the only one who is like that though. Different students learned English in Different Countries. One had a British Japanese accent. Another girl has a valley girlish way of speaking English. another one speaks English with an Aussie japanese accent. It's interesting to hear the different ways they interepret the English language. For example: we're being taught a very very formal standard way of Japanese. I'm sure we sound rediculous to japanese kids who use al sorts of slang and informal speech in their vocab. Also! Today is the day we sign up for clubs and whatnot. I'm thinking Kempo or Karate..which ever conflicts with my schedule the least. I also have my anime class (YES THAT'S A REAL CLASS!) on those days which is really late at night. ALSO. On Saturday I have to get up UBER early because we're going to SAMURAI TOWN! More on that later. Oyasumi!

Bejatarian desu?

The food has gotten better. One good thing is that they have been very conducive to the whole "bejatarian" thing. Instead of having them make me something special, they regularly have a vegatarian meal. Which is great. Even if I wasn't a vegetarian, I wouldn't want to eat alot of the stuff they serve. I don't know why but they really like mayonaise. Everything is souped in mayaonaise. They have fried chicken WITH mayonaise on top. What's UP with that? So yeah. Classes have started. I've been so busy running around doing stuff that by the time I get back to the apartment, it's time for sleep. Oh and I'm taking a class on Anime/manga. How SWEET is that? It's awesome. I dropped one of my classes. Well actually they dropped it for me since I need permission to take over 18 credits. My JPL is worth 6 credits. They just pulled my SPC class which I was going to drop anyway. The teacher for that class is kind of Pretentious. I only met her for like a few seconds and I was listening to her outside the door. Total nutjob. So I have 17 credits now.

We had a tea party the other night. With very little tea involved really. I just had all their wierd snacks, I also attended a birthday party. It's amazing how these kids barely know each other and yet they throw each other little parties with food and presents. I can't even get friends I've know for two years to do that let alone two weeks. They made him a cake and bought him presents. In America you're expected to make your own cake and plan your own party. These kids have only known each other for like a week. I asked them if they were like highschool friends or something. They're like.. No we just met. Wha? strangers throwing you parties? I also got to see Howls Moving Castle with the girls. Also fun. Only thing I hate is that the tv rom is near the Deathstick room. I know it's supposed to keep the smoke from affecting us..but it seeps out. and then It maked my nose itch like crazy. So I can't stay in that area very long when they light up. Tobako Dame!

Doyobi desu mo GUNNM hon 10

Today I didn't do much. e had the Matriculation ceremony..very short. Like 40 minutes. It still looks a little gloomy today. There are a few gray clouds but the sun is piercing through so it's not too dark and gllomy like yesturday. Last night I played some video games. Can you believe there are people in the world that STILL play Sega Dreamcast? That Baffles my mind. In JAPAN of all places. OH and I got the LAST book of GUNNNM: The Last Order. In Japanese of course. I got som of my buddies to help me with the translation but it's pretty heady stuff even for Japanese people. It uses alot of Idioms and allusions to old literature. I'm not going to spoil it for you Otakus in the States but if you want to read the summation of it, Go to Wikipedia. I just edited it. Sorry I can't read the title of the book so it's just GUNNM 10. They change the America titles anyway. In the Japanese version she's called Gally so..yeah. The ending was very well...realistic. Not necessarily a "They all lived happily ever after.." kind of ending. I wouldn't expect it to be. It's Yukito Kishiro for crying out loud!

eto.. Konbu onigiri ii desu!

It's all gloomy and rainy today. No one is out doing much except going to the convenience store and registering for classes. Done with that. Yknow, the great thing abot the whole no shoes in the house thing is that not only does it keep your house clean..BUT you know who is home or not based on whether or not there are shoes at the door step. Ah yes so I went to the convenitnt store( basically a 7-11). I got be some konbu onigiri (the BEST). Plus now I know what the kanji for konbu is now. I also took a phot of what appears to be a mini wind turbine. Wouldn't surprise me if it was. Some of the houses here have solar panels. BUT with all this energy conservation in energy and such they DO have their missteps. For example: Alot of their food is OVERLY packaged. They package individual fruit for crying out loud! Do you know how much waste that produces? Alot. The bananas I got seemed to be the cheapest fruit they had.

I honestly do not know how ppl avoid scurvy aside from the coccasional kuzu and other cold weather citrus.

Dietto!

Today we went to the mall. AEON mall isn't just any old mall however. It has a Grocery store in it..which is GREAT. I've been here less than a week but it feels like I'm at fat camp and we're all on diets. Not that I'm overweight or anything..not even close. But it's the SAME THING every day. Gohan, miso, ocha and then the really wierd stuff that I have no idea what it is. Gor breakfast it's always toast, gohan, miso and tea. And some wierd mishmash of bastardized American food. I don't touch it. I finally bought some real food. Ykno, fruits and vegetables. I swear..how the HELL do ppl not get scurvy?
In general Japanese people are tiny, waif like even and not just the girls. The guys too. They have no bum whatsoever. Although I did see a few chubby bunnies whilst I was traipsing through the mall. I was at a book store and there was this book dedicated entirely to crazy ways to get skinny. some of them were rediculous things like creams others were temporary things like control tops. Others were these meal plan boxes like "perfect body diet" or something wierd like that. Japanese women are obsessed with dieting. Even the school cafeteria has te Kcal underneath each food serving..wierd much? The worse part of it is, is that it's affecting some of th more selfconcious American students namely Jakurin(Jaquelyn). She's way to uptight. She's to afraid to talk to any of the Japanese male students (they are cute). But that's no reason NOT to talk to them. Second she's freaking out about her weight (she's not fat just average). She bought some diet version of a fruit smoothie. I couldn't help but snicker. It's rediculous. Besides, a better way to control your weight is to NOT buy Baskin Robbins ice cream(which she bought). DUH! Yes there is Baskin robbins in Japan. There is also a KFC, a McDonalds(which she bought) and some other American crap that I don't eat. Not because I'm on a "diet" but because I don't support cow rape, battery caged chickens..and um obesity and heart disease etc etc.
Even my roomate who is born and bred Japanese is chubby. Can you believe it? See not all Nihonjinn are skinny little toothpicks.

Suiden Suiden!(so many ricefields man!)

I finally Arrived at Akita after going through hell to get here. My flight at Dallas was pretty dang late. So when I arrived in Tokyo it was too late to catch the flight on account of th fact that you have to take a 75 minute bus ride from Narita Kuko no Haneda Kuko. They told me the next fligh wa at 8 am . So I ended up sleeping at the terminal with all my lugage. On account of the fact they said the flight was to early and they couldn't afford to put me up in a hotel. So I'm smelly and sleepy and it's very not fun since tokyo is SWELTERING!. Come Monday morning it turns out the flight has been pushed to 3 pm. TERRIFIC!. So instead of waiting for a flight that may or may not come I hopped the Train to shinigawa station.. THEN I had to switch over on a train that took me to tokyo terminal and THEN I had to wait on the Ungodly hot platform while I drank some Pocari sweat(Japanese Gatorade) to replenish all my electrolytes. Oh by the way some chick fainted and she was being taken away in a gurny. Another woman was being pushed around in a wheelchair because she must have been feeling light headed (she wasn't disabled or anything like that). So FINALLY the train came. Trains are always on time in japan ( side note: I missed the first train trying to carry my majorly heavy suitcase around. so I had to pay like another 70 dollars for a new ticket( The lady at the desk had really bad dermatitis). So I finally got on the train where I could relax (somewhat). I had been drinking all that (nasty) green tea to keep me alert. All I could think about was taking a shower. I finally arrived at Akita and I called a Cab. I didn't know the Cab ride was so costly. Akita is really up there in the hills and stuff. I paid like 60 bucks. Checking in a t the school was pretty quick and efficient. One of the guys helped take my stuff to my apartment. I was to tired and in NO condition to carry it any further. It's a nice apartment but the way it's set up. the rows of apartments look like a bunch of storage lockers at the Uhaul. The people at Komachi say it's terribly cramped in their dorms. I wouldn't know. I haven't seen them yet. I also have one of those magic toilets (The one with all the buttons and stuff) I don't know how do anything but flush it, that and make it so the toilet seat is warm enough to sit on when it's cold. The shower and bath are seperate from the toilet which in retrospect is really a good idea considering I'll have a roomate soon..when she gets here. For now I'm enojoying my solitude