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!