January 31 - Setsubun Party (Good luck)
January 30 - Get a haircut
January 29 - Rest with tea
January 28 - Chinese stuff
January 27 - Kami, Kami, and Kami
January 26 - Long nothing day
January 25 - Back from China
January 24 - Better day
January 23 - Sickness, blasted sickness.
January 22 - Party and a half
January 21 - Akido at Karate?
January 20 - A significantly better day
January 19 - Fix fix fix...
January 18 - So that's it...
January 17 - Ippei was back
January 16 - Big trip for tea
January 15 - Holiday
January 14 - 8th Practice already?
January 13 - Chinese questions
January 12 - Still more work
January 11 - Return to work
January 10 - Recallection
January 9 - Matsumoto in snow
January 8 - Joy at the Joy
January 7 - Snow?
January 6 - Maybe some videos are in order...
January 5 - Slip into work
January 4 - A very tired day
January 3 - Hiroshima -> Nagoya -> Shiojiri -> Hirooka
January 2 - Osaka -> Hiroshima
January 1 - Shinnen omedetou!
Debated on this one, but I actually did make it to the setsubun party. The people there were friendly, and I met some interesting people, including the manager of the World Health Centre in Shiojiri. We had the usual
Japanese feast of cold chicken, a strange orange sauce, breaded [insert random fish name here], and Cola from Brazil. We had some games to pass the afternoon and such until we all got prizes for being there and had a "Brazilian Disco" for an
hour or so. I should explain, according to the Japanese, there are five distinct races: the Japanese, other Orientals, the Americans, the Blacks, and the Brazilians (no offense intended, those are just how they are referred to). So we get a real mash of
culture in every event. I still get a shock out of seeing the Japanese response to someone of African-descent (i.e. dark skin). Some of the Japanese girl actually jumped away and backed off completely, in a total state of fear. These same ones distrusted
the rest of us foreigners at first, until we managed to exchange a few phrases. Weird. At the end, we threw some strange beans in the air and shouted something about telling the evil spirits to go away so we can let the
good luck in. Afterwards, that guy from the Health Spa drove a few of us to the Health centre for an onsen rest, after which we went out for Tonkatsu before heading home. Very tiring, but I did get to meet some good people and have a good time. Funny that the Japanese
were mortally shocked I could speak (my limited) Japanese. Worth the 500yen alone for that.
Yes, I had to do it. In Matsumoto I stopped by my favourite barber shop with a direct connection to the Mafia (in front of the station).
I was just hoping they didn't use shampoo that turned my hair blue again. Fortunately, I think not this time, though I did make the mistake of saying yes to a
shave, and they had the samurai master barber come out with his long blade again complaining about foreigner's skin and how often it needs to be shaved, and how hard it
is to shave a foreigner... All the same, I was another 2 pounds lights for that along (well, not really, but it felt that way). Stopped by the One-Va Entertainment plaza to
check out the Dance Dance Revolution game in the arcade. Some tiny guy showed me the code to enter to put it into "Maniac" mode where dance steps come on off-beats and at
double time and such. I say, if you need exercise, just play that for a few minutes. Looked around the coffee shops for no particular reason and picked up some fresh-ground goodness. The coffee
here is amazing (UCC, Douter, Gold Blend, etc), but I wish it were not so expensive.
Made a good batch of Maccha this morning and it lasted all day. Great stuff. Unfortunately, Hida-san informed me that there was no class tomorrow, so I would have to wait another two weeks until the next
class. Pity. Oh well, Takata-san offered to take me to a movie and Yakitori next week, so that is something to look forward to. Figured today was going to be a slow day and a quiet night, so I printed out a translation
guide for one of my Playstation CDs that has been giving me trouble, and perhaps that would help (note: it did). Strange that I know so much Kanji used in RPG games, but that certainly helps in real-world situations (even bargaining down
those Akihabara merchants).
Yep, I get to play with the Chinese data (yay). I have enough trouble reading the Japanese, let alone the Chinese. And what is worse, if you load a Chinese file on a Japanese
computer, the Kanji comes out all different. The title of the manual becomes something like "elevating singing trees in special countries". Oh well, I will convert the manual into HTML, and others
can proofread it. Later, Furuhata-sama (the Karate master - yes, I finally remembered his name) gave another class, and that brings me up to 9 classes with him, which entitles me to something, but I don't
know what. I will find out on Monday I think. Oh, and Maruyama-san approved of my doing two levels in one test. It is not the difficuly of the levels, but rather the whole moral thing about missing a whole level
in my Karate career that has them up-tight. Mind you, I think everyone already has skipped at least one grade (Nori skipped three in total), so I don't see why they worry.
One of those strange Japanese days. Honma-sensei kept using "kami" in different contexts, and by the end we didn't know if she was
referring to hair, paper, or God. This is where Kanji is useful, but my mind was too messed up to think about that today.
Kind of boring, kind of slow, but Tanaka-san was away, and I was told to wait for him before I do anything new, so I got to clean up my system (so to speak) and set up a Chinese operating system for the
Chinese data Keith brought back. Ian-san is leaving at the end of the week to interview students for my replacement, including a girl whose name is "Anastasia". I think Ian is interviewing her for the name along,
but that is just how Ian is. Funny that all the EPSON divisions ONLY hire the programming positions out of Waterloo, but I guess that is a plus for me.
Keith came back today, sharing his stories and goods-a-plenty, and I got a Chinese EPSON bag - cool! He had good news and bad news about his training
of the Chinese, but I think I will be the one who gets chosen to play with the Chinese data sooner or later. Eesh. Anyway, Karate was nice and relaxing (?) today,
though the one woman does not want me trying to do two levels in the next test (though everyone else seems to). Perhaps I should talk to Maruyama-san on Thursday...
Well, I was feeling a little better today, so I walked to the Joy 401 and got a little notebook for making a little reference guide for my Japanese, which
cuts down on the papers I have to carry around. Had one of those power shakes my mom sent, and it was most certainly good, though I did not have a blender like the
instructions said, I just mashed it with a spoon until it surrendered to me. After some more tea in the evening, I was definitely better. It was probably the fish from Friday...
After getting home at 3AM, and then sleeping until 10:30 (I know, I am not much of a late sleeper), I had a horrible headache. I proceeded to make tea and have soup, etc. for the day, but
I never really felt wonderful all day. I basically just read over my Kanji and played on my Playstation. Blasted headache...
Finally figured out some problems at work with my conversion kit so the output is as close as I can make it to the old kit. Not much really
exciting happened at work compared to the martial arts extravenganza of yesterday's journal entry. Once that 5:15 chime rung, that was another story. I went home and
stashed my bag and put everything I would need for the night (i.e. money) in my pockets and caught the 6:20 train to Matsumoto. Once everyone finally got there, we headed to
our favourite Izakaya, with lots of food and drinks for everyone, but no karaoke this time, as we couldn't book the room this time. There were quite a lot of people there this time,
and I quite enjoyed talking to some of them (in Japanese, of course). I swear, if it weren't for these journal entries, my english skills would go completely down the toilet. After a good dinner with
lots of food (unfortunately mostly fish), we all headed to a karaoke place for the evening (i.e. from after 11PM). We sang and sang English and Japanese songs, and learned about French culture at the same time.
From the habits of David and Perrine (both from France), I have concluded that the French like slow boring songs with no distinguishable melody, and it has to be "serious".
Well that was what happened. Some of the girls in Karate are starting Akido on Fridays, and insisted on practicing before our class started. As amusing as it was, I am not convinced
it is very practical until you reach a very high level (i.e. Steven Seagall level), so most of what they did...correction...all of what they did was pretty much useless, as I could counter all
those moves, and I am only a blue belt. From what they said, for it to work, your opponent can't be too tall, short, heavy, or strong. Maruyama-sensei (who helps to run that class) acknowledeged this, and
insisted that Akido be treated as a fun martial art to start, and not to expect any amazing payoffs for a long while. Ah, the scenes I helped make countering their moves (except Maruyama-sensei) was pure
comedy. Of course, I have probably offended every North American Akido student with this, but hey, this is Japan, not America. Things are just different. Don't get me wrong, I still have respect for Steven Seagall,
especially since he did most of his early training in Japan.
Wrote my Japanese test this morning. I must say I though it went quite well, even though this test really does not mean anything to anyone but me and Honma-sensei, unless she comes running to Hirasawa-san if I do bad. I got to experiment with my newly learned Kanji and expressions, just to see what Honma-sensei thinks, though I might have gone
overboard on one of the problems doing that. Oh well, it was fun. After lunch was another story, though the maccha certainly helped. Good god is that stuff strong. I really never realized in it's raw form it had a caffeine content almost 10X that of Jolt cola. Needless to say, I accomplished a lot this afternoon programming, and everyone wanted me
to drink more tea from now on. Maybe once a day (a small cup) because the taste is nice, but I will watch it more carefully now (of course, maybe I am mixing it wrong).
Finally got through to them (my superiors) that my changes were nothing to worry about, so then they complained to Microsoft that their WinDiff program should detect when code has been fixed. Oh good night... I would just choose not to get involved in this one. All the same, I found some small problems in my new
conversion tool I had better fix before someone else finds them. It gets hard hunting for errors in a megabyte of code, but hey considering what I get paid, I will take my sweet time patching it. I was not especially happy after learning that most of the full timers make more than double what I do. What do I need to do? Work here full
time? No wonder they love up co-op students. We work for peanuts (sorry, katsudon, peanuts are too expensive). I'm not bitter, really.
Until now (after my vacation), I was a little confused as to what was happening with the online manuals, and what my next real job would be. Turns out they did a line by line comparison of the old process and my new one and complained that there were quite
a few sections that were different. You see, I fixed some problems with the original program, so of course they were going to be different. Were they happy? No, and all day long I could not get it through to them that there was nothing to worry about. Geez this
is frustrating. I played with my code to match up some of the "asthetic" places where I moved things up or down a line to make them happy, but I am not going to make my program wrong just to make their matching program happy. Karate was a fairly exhaustive one tonight, but
for once, I think absolutely everyone was there, so we had a very full lesson, including practice on those Katas I need for my next test. Good news is they will let me try for my purple belt. Bad news is I am positive there is not enough time to try and learn three sets
of katas and blocks and other sequences.
My mistake. Ippei did get back yesterday, but was cleaning up and sleeping. Pity it was actually snowing today for a while. I tried to read some of those Shakespeare books in the midst of
my studying, but with very little luck. I could pick up when which characters were speaking, what scene and act I was on, and got the general gist of some of the major situations, but other than that, not much. Strange, but I
find reading a book right to left, up to down to be quite natural. Oh well. Later that day, Ippei and I got some refreshments at the Lawson convenience mart and both went to bed early, as we both had work the next morning.
Today was a strange experience. Yesterday, Jim told me about Maccha (the powder used in the Japanese tea ceremony), so I searched out for some. When I hit Matsumoto, I found a shop in the basement of the bus terminal that sold a wide
variety of tea and tea accessories. I picked up some maccha and the strange wooden wisk they use to mix it into a frothy mess. Okay, that was a start, but I still needed (at least) the bowl and the spoon for scooping the tea. So, I found an antique shop which
didn't sell any of those, BUT. The woman there was kind enough to close up for a few minutes and walk me to a nice tea shop near the castle where I found the bowl and spoon with ease. The next problem was the price, but I settled for a fairly cheap bowl and was content that it would suffice
for now. Afterwards, I figured a little reading material was in order for this, so I went to the bookstore and picked up some Shakespeare...in Japanese. Geez, I could read enough of the Kanji to make out the titles (i.e. Oh look...Summer...Night...Dream..ah, I get it). So, after picking up Hamlet, Romeo &
Juliet, King Lear, and Midsummer Night's Dream at 400 yen a piece (not bad), I made my way home to rest. Strange, Ippei is not back yet...
Today is the "Coming of Age" day, when all those who turned 20 this past year meet to celebrate with parades of bonfires and drinking and other wholesome activites that has the whole town joining in. Well, it would if the weather weren't so TERRIBLE! Geez, I wake up, look out the window and there it is:
fog, wind and rain. And it did this ALL day. Sigh, I wonder where everyone went? Today was pretty much a rest day for me anyway, as nothing was open and I was tired. Ippei gets back tomorrow I hear, so I have a feeling an Izakaya is in order...
Well, work was the same old stuff, though considering tomorrow is a holiday, I treat today as Friday anyway. People are leaving early or left for the day, so the office was quite empty despite the fact there is lots of work left (guess
who it all gets dumped on). I would complain more, but considering the power they have over me and my school career, I had best keep quiet and do what I can. So, as you can guess, Karate was a very nice break from the everyday. What I don't believe is that I
have already had 8 practices with the master. See, when you get 9, you get an official certificate saying you trained with the master, and that is something you can frame: training with the 4th ranked Karate master in Japan. Just one more...
Great, not only do I get questions asked in English, Japanese, and Spanish, but now in Chinese too. The Kanji are the same, but there is no way I can read it. Keith-san is
going to China next week to set them up to use my conversion tool, and already we are confused on both sides with their questions. They do know a tiny bit of english, but their sentence structure is out
to lunch. We had Japanese review in class today for the test next week. Some of those forms still elude me, but it does with everyone else too, so I do not feel so bad. I always get a kick out of the French, though.
They were dressed to the hilt in layers on layers of winter clothes while us Canadians were in T-shirts and wore a spring jacket outside. Even the Japanese get a laugh out of that.
Worked on some of my assignments today. Learned a few things, like Americans and Japanese alike think it is absolutely weird that chains on tires are illegal in Canada (there are roads here especially in the mountains
where they are required or you are sent back at the roadblock). Learned Keith is going to China to teach them Framemaker (should be fun), and I get even more work dumped on me. Still, the typical response is raised when I inform
them that not all of it will be done in the time they gave me (this week). Totally impossible, even by living here at my desk this week. So everyone is a little miffed but oh well. After all, since I am the only one who seems to know anything about the
new conversion tool (I wrote it), that keeps them at bay. Picked up a box dinner (bento) and watched some TV this evening, just relaxing.
Yep, just as I figured, a desk full of work noone wants to do, but I have to because "they have complete control over me and my immediate future (including school)". Very little time to do much but work. Worked a bit on this journal, but it will be the end of the week or so before I can get this out. Oh yes, this Friday is a holiday, just so you know.
Made it to karate tonight though, for the first time in a while. That room is COLD! Colder than outside even. What did they do? Turn on the air conditioning? Anyway, we had lots of fun practicing on dummy targets and padded rubber and cushions. A nice break, actually. Still have to train hard if I want to get my green belt for the next test, though.
You know what I just remembered? Jacquie, the one who left EPSON to marry some British guy is married by now. I wonder who will replace her? Shame, Jacquie added "color" to the office (sorry, American spelling, but I am constantly told my Canadian English spelling is "not appropriate" for
the printer manual division). Actually, a lot of people have left recently, but the ones who left for EPSON training 3 months ago should be back later this week. I have a feeling we will have an Izakaya sometime soon. Ah, just did my usual cleaning of the room and myself (and my clothes) today, as who knows how worn down
work will have me after tomorrow. I can just picture it now...
Why is it still snowing. None of it is staying, but it is constantly snowing. Very annoying, as it is making the roads and sidewalks very slippery, though the nice thing is if you fall, you take around 10 people with you. Decided to check out the "new" music at the Wave. Quite a few albums planned for 99 I would like to hear, but one thing
really caught my eye: the "Hide CD-ROM 98 events and plan for 99". That guy has been dead since last April or so, and he has a plan for next year? Only in Japan. Saw they got quite a huge collection of DVDs in store (not that I have any immediate plan to buy a DVD, heck, it probably wouldn't work outside of Japan anyway). Checked out the musical instruments section too, and saw some very strange instruments, including one (Ocarina?) that looks like a seashell with holes like a bent clarinet or something. Nice tone, though. Also
noticed some real funky music books, including the scores for most of today's popular music. Maybe next pay deposit (almost said cheque) I can pick some up.
Some strange festival going on today and everyone was wearing those happis like I wore at the Shiojiri Genba Matsura festival last summer. Talked to Kanijo-san (the guy at the Famicomland store). Talked about how he was going to Hong Kong in two months to get some foreign toys for his shop. He seemed excited about it. We went to partake in the fine cuisine of McDonalds for lunch. Geez, the menu gets stranger and stranger. Now they have a burger which is a fish filet filled with macaroni covered with horseradish. I don't know what
it tastes like, I don't want to know... I just had the "Teriyaki Makubaagaa setto" and was done with it. Talked about my trip and he was intrigued. It seems I hit all the popular stops anyway, so Kamijo-san says I can claim to have "done Japan", though there are quite a heck of a lot of cities I have not seen yet (and probably never will). Saw the priced of Minidiscs (blank) went on sale, so I grabbed a few. Window shopped for the rest of my short stay, grabbed something for dinner, and relaxed at home. I can't believe I actually have to go to work on Monday.
I do not know to say "It's about time" or "not now", but snow has actually fallen and stuck. Not much mind you, but a little is enough to push the temperature down below 0 to...-1 according to the thermometer. I figured I would just stay inside today, with all the warmth and stench from the kitchen to keep me company. What is on the menu today, anyway...oh, nato again (fermented soy beans). Yeech, perhaps I will brave through
the cold to Lawsons to get a bite to eat, and oh yeah, I have a phone bill to pay too. Passed the evening by with some Playstation action and am quite gratified that I can read most of the kanji they throw at me (to a point). I am the Kanji-man.
I ventured to Minami-Matsumoto today in order to check out that video store I have been eyeing. Wow, over 5000 tapes of anime (cartoons). Well, I now have total proof that I will NEVER see them all. I did pick up some really rare tapes though, and figured out how to get a membership (a painful process, as the clerk did not trust me when I told him I was an EPSON employee, and
EPSON did not give me much to identify I am from EPSON. Heck, I don't even have a business card). Well, after figuring it out and getting a membership, and realizing that it was only 200yen per video per week, I was very happy. Stopped at the "Daiei" hypermart on the way back. Very huge, with a grocery store to rival Zehrs' (in Brantford) size. On the second floor I noticed they sold Karaoke machines,
but I am not crazy enough to buy one. After all, in order to get the songs, it dials out to some company and fetches the song. Kind of useless if I am not in Japan. Ah well, contemplated getting a radio today, but I had better watch my funds for the next while until I see what kind of bills work will give me for lunch, etc. It would be neat to just record
a few hours of FM Nagano for playback later in Canada (confuse everyone). By "record" I of course mean by means of Minidisc. Who uses cassette tapes in Japan, really? People are also using portable DAT players and those new RIO MP3 recorders, but cassettes? They did have a good reason for laughing at the American made "Sports" walkmans though, I mean, the ones in America look so huge and bulky compared to
the ones here (the size of a cassette and little more). Makes me laugh too.
I new I had better inform some people of my new phone number, as since Jan 1, no one could contact me, and I also had treats to give away (you are supposed to do that whenever you go on a trip). I got the treats passed around, transferred the photos from
my digital camera, was emailing my parents, and all of a sudden Hiranuma-san runs by and gives me work to do. After politely reminding people that I was still on vacation (and getting permission to put off the work until Monday), I was able to leave. Geez, can't they do anything without me?
Also, why am I always to blame for errors I can not predict or control (like special character kwirks on the Spanish operating system using the English version of Framemaker). I am sorry, I do not have all possible operating systems of all languages installed will all possible configurations of software, so I can
NOT predict these things. That is why e-mail exists between us and them. Geez, after that, I went to the grocery store and picked up some goodies (i.e. food) to live on, and made my way home to read up on my Japanese (that new Kanji book I got in Tokyo really rocks), and just relax. I am still worn down.
At around 3:30PM, when I woke up, I realized I had an extra 10000 yen in my Jeans pocket. Doh! I guess I could have stayed in that hotel in Hiroshima after all. Sigh, at least I got back all right. Spent the rest of the day sorting through my stuff and figuring out what I was going to do with it all. I had some treats (candy) from Nara and Kyoto for the people in the office, so I will head off tomorrow. Also, I learned how to change my phone number (all keitais' numbers
had to be lengthened by one digit becuase they ran out of numbers (what, 10 isn't enough?)). Pretty simple really, but I wish they didn't do that, because now all of my programmed Japanese phone numbers are useless. Ah well, relaxed the evening away with some coffee, soup, and TV.
After some more visits and chats with the locals (such as where the "hot" spots are (including a public bath since I figured I needed one)), I decided I had better figure out how I am going to get home. Well, after consulting my trusty "Lonely Planet" guide, I learned that a Shinkansen runs to Nagoya. Nagoya...Nagoya...Oh yeah! There is a local train from Hirooka that runs
once a day to Nagoya. Perhaps I can take a local train back from there. After getting to the station, I found out when the next train ran (3:20) and got on. After some nice sleep on the expensive train, I arrived at Nagoya. Pity I really did not have any time to stay here, but being tired to the point of collapse is not necessarily a good thing, so I found out when the next train back to Shiojiri was and...oops,
there are no local trains heading BACK to Hirooka, just to, so I am stuck taking the Shinano express to Shiojiri (5000 yen) and then take a local train back to Hirooka (if one is still running at that time). It was around 6PM or so, and the next train left around 7 or so. Took a few picture of the station while waiting, but I eventually got on, and WOW, the train was actually NOT crowded for once. After another two hours, I managed to
get to Shiojiri, run to the local train about to leave, and got back to Hirooka. Geez, I barely remember getting home and falling asleep immediately.
I am still tired after not having a good sleep, but I got some coffee and toast for breakfast and that made me feel a little better. From there, I found that there are local trains running to Hiroshima, so I caught one of them (11:26) and slept the whole 2 hour 15 minutes (so many stops). Finally I was there, in the place where the bomb was dropped. Too bad most of the events in the
city were cancelled due to holidays (until the 4th). Sigh. At least I got some neat pictures which I hope (like all the rest) turn out. It was pretty nice there (weather-wise), and the people were nicer than I expected, though a few packs of old men stared at me rather suspectingly, like I was the one directly responsible for WWII or something. Considering it cost me a bit to get here, I
will stay another day and then start travelling back (I am not quite far from Hirooka). I could not find an available youth hostel, so I was forced to "kind of sleep" in the park near the station (The local hotels were very expensive (i.e. it was getting to the point of getting home or spending the night in a hotel). Fortunately, everything was okay, and the weather was warm.
Yes, Happy New Year. I wandered around the park more today, but seeing as I was quite tired, I left around 1PM or so after buying some souveniers (hey! Where has my money gone? Oh yeah, I spent it). Seriously, I have a bit more (enough anyway). I took a local train to Osaka so I could sleep along the way. After around 2 hours and almost sleeping after
the train stopped at Osaka, I was greeted to Tokyo...er...Osaka. Really, this place looks just like Tokyo. I looked around and I had some trouble distinguishing it from Tokyo (except for the city name). Not really a let-down, but sort of anti-climactic. I bought some souveniers and decided to move on the next day. I did have a nice dinner of a beef-like substance, and I got the experience...the Grocery store! The highlight was the 11000yen cantalope. Geez, that makes
the 8000 yen plate of Kobe beef and the 5000 yen watermellon look like bargains. I tried to snap a photo, but they were prohibited, and the police officer standing there discouraged me even further. I can't wait to watch the other co-op's faces when I express everything in terms of the cost of food. 13000 yen! You can almost get 3 watermellons for that! Managed to get another (surprise) youth hostel for the night (2300 yen). Better conditions, though really far out of the way.
