Someday in the Rain

Yeah, it pretty much has been raining the last couple days, and should be raining tomorrow as well.

There really hasn't been that much going on recently; this Sunday I'm heading down to Nara, and the 16th(ish) I should be going down to Hiroshima for that day.

I've found some new things in Photoshop, and I've been fooling around with panorama and splicing images which I should be adding into the Picasa album sometime soon. I've also got a video of something I wish I really could've gotten when I did: some of the cell phones in this country have the ability to view over-the-air TV. Oh yes.

PS: If you want to get in contact with me quickly, use bradleyjx@softbank.ne.jp now. (it goes right to a cell phone, and unlike in the US the systems are (pretty much) unlimited)

Fushimi Inari

Day off of classes today, so I tagged along with some people over to Kyoto and the Fushimi Inari shrine.

...I now know that my knee is good for anything the rest of the year. The shrine consisted of walking for about an hour and a half, almost entirely going up and down stone stairs. If you've ever seen pictures that are pretty much nothing but a path covered in torii, this was the place.

The most interesting point of the entire day came after we left the shrine and I was hanging out with a few people; on a couple occasions, where I ended up with people, I was the person with the most language knowledge, which meant some quick thinking. (though I've gotten _much_ better with the language just being around it for the past month-ish)

Pics updated in the picasa album + a few more pics and movies in the album with the images around campus. The ~200 on there are nothing compared to the ~1000 I've taken so far...

Just some updates and random things...

- I haven't worn my knee brace for a bit over a week now, though my right leg is still giving me problems on occasion.

- Tomorrow's another day off; I'm looking to go with a group into Kyoto again. I'm not quite sure what they are intending on doing, (I've heard some things which I know can't be true) but I just want an excuse to go out there again.

- I'm trying to learn how to figure out where things are (in terms of figuring out the address system); if I can at least find someone that can tell me where something is, I may be going with a couple other people into Osaka and trying to find a prerelease.

- I was pissed last Wednesday, as I missed Sasuke. Google that (it's a TV show) if you don't know what it is.

- I've added a 5th class to my schedule, mostly because it fit pretty well into my schedule, and the professor's one of those kinds of people where you'd want to take what you can from him while you can.

- Food and I have been on a pretty bad relationship the past week; I'm simplifying what I'm eating right now to close approximations to what I would eat at home, but so far that doesn't seem to be doing anything. This morning and afternoon have been particularly bad, but I'm pretty sure it's nothing serious other than adjusting to the food long-term.

- I don't know if I'm losing weight or not yet :) My appetite came back with a force about a week after I got here, but I'm back to not eating that much here; I've been told it's the rice that's causing that. I'm finding 1XL shirts around here but no 2XL, so dropping a little would probably get me to the point where I could actually find clothing in this country.

yawn

...feels like school...

Couple little things...

- That typhoon looks like it may hit us as a tropical storm tomorrow night; it doesn't seem like anything's really going to happen :(

-hm... I guess nothing else...

Finally figured it out...

I've had this little problem with combining Japanese + Java. The jist is that I've never been able to get Java to handle Japanese characters, no matter how I set things in Eclipse or setup Java, I've never been able to get it working.

...turns out I just needed to skip step 1 and go straight to step 2. Apparently, the console in Eclipse can't handle the characters, but everything else can.

So, for the past ~1 year, I've been unable to work with Kanji in Java simply because I haven't tested it outside of one specific area.

Technical shorthand to this: "System.out.print("新しい")" displays "???", and "JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null,"新しい")" shows the kanji correctly.

Typhoon Sinlaku

One of the things I said about coming here is that I wanted "major" things to happen while I was here:

- An earthquake
- A typhoon

The former hasn't happened yet. (the 6.9 one in Hokkaido this past week we didn't feel down here) The latter may happen in the middle of this week.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoon_Sinlaku_(2008)

This kind of brings up another random complaint I have around here; the best place I have found so far for weather is a single, outdated radar at weather.com; unlike at home, where radars and satellite images are easily found, I haven't found anything close to that around here...

Classes

So, since I'm done with one week and I haven't gotten around to this, this semester I'm taking 4 classes:

- Spoken Japanese, L2
Pretty much 5 hours a week; grammar and vocabulary. The sensei is pretty nice, and the class is only about 10 people, so it's a very good learning environment.

- Reading/Writing Japanese, L2
3 hours a week on Kanji. I've had this class just three times so far, and I think I've learned about as much in 3 hours as a month in Eau Claire, and it's just technically been review so far. (though I think a lot of that is just because I'm around the language) The class is about 15 people, and the teacher studied at UW-Madison for a while, so we've had some things to talk about since the first class.

- Zen Buddhism
3 hours/week on this. This is probably the class which I'm taking more for credit than any of the others, but it's something I'm interested in at least to having a preference for it over the other 4-5 choices I had for classes that counted towards a JPN minor.

- China / Japan Relations
3 hrs/week as well. This class I thought would be the one that I'd care about the least, but the teacher is really quite amazing. I've talked to at least 5 people who said that they were planning on dropping the class until the first class ended. He's just one of those professors that has his opinions, but really knows what he's talking about and is passionate towards it. This class also has several trips planned in October, (including ground zero at Hiroshima) so there should be some interesting pics coming.

Story of the week

This is second hand, but there seems to be quite a few people around here who don't keep track of what day of the month it is, so many people needed to actually hear that 9/11 was this past week.

A couple people who I talk with around here was telling me about when they were visiting a small shrine around the area where we are staying. While they were around, they saw an old Japanese man coming and were worried that they shouldn't be there. (for some reason or another; not many of use can read signs...) He began talking in Japanese to them, though only one of them knew enough to really be able to converse. The rest understood some of the conversation, but were mostly just listening; they asked after the old man left.

He was apologizing and sending condolences to the Americans for what happened 7 years ago.

When the rest of the people I was with and myself heard this, we were quite surprised; compared to WWII, we were feeling that happened 7 years ago was nothing compared to what Japan lost in the 40s. It's just kind-of the response to everything we have been experienced when it comes to how the people around here are; everyone is so nice around here, but sometimes it's just amazing how compassionate.

State Champs

Just a random thought that I've been thinking about...

If I ever played Standard, and I was thinking of playing in States this year, I'd be thinking about playing this kind of deck:

-----

03 Jund Panorama
03 Mutavault
04 Graven Cairns
02 Twilight Mire
01 Fire-Lit Thicket
02 Vivid Marsh
03 Vivid Crag
02 Swamp
02 Mountain
01 Forest

04 Figure of Destiny
04 Fulminator Mage
03 Demigod of Revenge

03 Sarkhan Vol

04 Bitterblossom
03 Everlasting Torment
03 Firespout
04 Goblin Assault
02 Incendiary Command
02 Poison the Well
03 Profane Command
04 Rain of Tears

-----

Untested and not really thought through too much, but the basics is an LD deck to go after the complicated manabases inevitably at this event; the deck would basically work like a deck that tries to disrupt the overall progress of the game long enough to have cards like Sarkhan Vol, Bitterblossom, Goblin Assault, and Everlasting Torment in play with the disruption, where this deck will rebuild without wasting mana like the opponent.

9/11

Professor: Oh yeah, it is 9/11 today.
Class: (looks at watches) Oh yeah, huh.
Professor: (moves on)

To be in a place where the closest thing to American media is CNN International...

Home cooking...

I was at one of the 3 supermarkets around campus (a 7-11, a .99 store, and a normal market) and the latter of the three had Johnsonville brats. I grabbed a pack ($6 for 6) and checked the back after I got back to the dorms; they're from Sheboygan.

On sounds...

I was just starting an episode of this series and I remembered about this. BTW: If you've never seen this series, it is either the creepiest of most off-the-wall series you'd see, depending on if you know much about anime.

This is easily the most surprising thing I have found since I came here: many of the sounds which I hear around the area are not unfamiliar sounds. The insects and birds around here I've heard from the TV shows, and the first time I heard the train bells go off wasn't surprising, and I know what it was immediately. (for reference, the trains are like Chicago, but they run right on street-level, so you have lights and sirens all around)

On the internet...

Biggest complaint so far. (this post gets technical)

Basically, you have no ports. Everything on campus is proxied through port 8080 and one system.

This breaks, among other things: FTP, Magic Online, iTunes, torrents, (wasn't planning on it while here anyways...) IM clients.

To do anything outside of the internet, I need to run a tunneling program. That program allows me to have some additional functionality, mostly just allowing Digsby to work. I still can't restore my nearly-crippled iPod Touch, FTP-update my website, play MTGO, etc.

On bathrooms...

You walk into the bathroom in the dorms in socks (the shoes are left by the main door) and, if your feet classify as "possibly-Japanese" (< 9), you put your feet into some provided slippers. You've got a half-dozen stalls, each with a high-tech seat.

The seats are pre-heated; in the summer it makes every seat feel like someone was in it 2 minutes ago, but apparently it's good in the winter. You sit down, and you hear a fan start to keep the smells from going out. Then you've got the buttons on the side; two "bidet" buttons, a "stop" button, and a button to fake a flush. You stand up and the fan gets stronger until you flush.

The sinks are motion-activated, but the dryer dries with a high-pressure line of nozzles (like a line of air), and your hands dry in about 10 seconds.

A Ku-ra-pu-ro-a-du of pictures

Too much to talk about at the moment, sleep is needed.

Pics updated on the picture site.

Roomate

I've got a Finnish roommate.

...the variety in accents is starting to get to me around here...

Vending Machines...

There are 2 major "soda" machines around here, then occasionally you'll run into other forms of vending machines.

You've got the "Coke" machines, then the "Boss" machines; the former sells mostly coke products, the latter everything else. I've only found one machine that gives Mt. Dew. (sugar Mt. Dew, so much better than HFCS Dew), and more machines give out no-cal Pepsi than regular Pepsi. (good luck finding diet anything)

You've also got a ton of machines that give out all kinds of drinks in a fountain-drink style for pretty cheap. (16oz @ .70) Then you've got the food, which are the normal candy ones (that dispense things that definitely aren't candy) and then food versions of the fountain-drink style. (i.e. a cup comes down and ramen follows)

I've gotten into this lemonade-like drink called CC Lemon, and there are also a couple melon-flavored drinks that are pretty good.

Incoming...

Countdown to live in san, ni, ichi...

I have internet access in the dorms in Japan.

All is well.

While I get things moved around and setup Picasa in the next hours/days (I'm still having jet lag), but for now I'll just give you this from a few hours ago...

[ meh, I'll get it up a little later; the camera's taking a while moving the ~200 pics... ]


More random notes...

- I just realized today that sunset happens around 6:30 here. Conversely, it gets bright outside at about 5. (I know, I've been awake at that time to see it...)

- I am caught up with everything I really need to do until classes begin, so I'm riding (both figuratively and literally) around for the next 5 days, doing not much.

- The internet here is the Japanese internet. Going to google is the japanese site. CNN defaults to the International site. It really helps to know your way around the places that you regularly go to.

- Biking here is really an expert sport, even though the bikes would be called one-speed women's bikes in the US. There are metal/concrete posts to prevent cars from getting into sidewalks, and it turns into quite the challenge at some points. It does cut the time from the dorms to Kansai from about 20 minutes to 5, though, so I'm not complaining.

- It rained here for the first time since I got here today, and I happily was caught in the middle of it. It's hovering around 90 here every day, with humidity around 60%...

It's hot.

7AM and I'm sweating; yesterday it had to be 95 + humid.

I'm seeing one of the reasons there are vending machines EVERYWHERE around here.

It's hot.

Catching up (Part 3)

Dated 09.01 at 630 AM (this morning to me)

-----

Well, so far everything is going more-or-less smoothly, so a few notes on how things work around here...
The biggest change for me so far is the shoes, which is two-fold. First, you leave your shoes in cubby holes to the side of the front door and walk around the entire building in socks (or barefoot). In addition, when you go to the bathroom there are little slip-on shoes to put on, though the emphasis seems to be on "little"; I don't think more than 1/2 of the guys on this floor can fit those shoes onto their feet.
The room I'm in is about 20'x12', the front being 4'x12' and being the entranceway + closets; the second part is 12'x12' and is a tatami floor with a floor-level desk and two futons to sleep on. The last 4'x12' is a normal study space: 2 desks, chairs, lighting, and storage space. There's AC in the room and building, though.
The roads around here are very small; most are one-lane roads (driving on the left) with either a bike lane(ish) or sidewalk. Despite this, I've seen large shops just out of nowhere, where it would be considered a back-alley in the US.
Someone else pointed this out to me, but I think I've seen one bench so far, including in parks.
Other things...
Just about every Japanese ready-made dish I have seen in an american supermarket I've seen here as well.
Fruit here is expensive, to put it mildly. Most of the melon I've seen around here is cut into 6ths and costs $2 a slice. Apples are a bit better at about $.80/per.
I'm having a pretty hard time with my sleep schedule so far. So far, I've pretty much hit a wall around 8:00PM, fall asleep by 9:00, and wake up at about 5:30AM. I need to shift that about 3 hours forward, but I just get exhausted way too early.
Yesterday was 35 degress celsius, and humid. I was out walking with people a good part of the day, and it really felt like umpiring behind the plate with all the gear on; I guess the nice part about that is that it really wasn't unbearable.
Internet Status: I can ping to a couple servers, but I can't get any internet around here. One thing the school is asking is to setup a "proxy connection to [web address port 8080]" and I still haven't figured out just what that means.
Pictures: I didn't install the software before I left, and I need an internet connection for the installation. So, nothing for a little while.
I found a vending machine yesterday that dispensed Mountain Dew in 20ish oz. cans, and it was easily better than US Dew. Sugar > HFCS. The problem is that around here, it seems Coke is king, so I don't know how many other vending machines I could possibly find that have it.

Catching up (Part 2)

Dated 08.31 at 6:30 AM...

-----

Well, it's 6:30 in the morning here as I type this, and I can't get a connection to the internet.
The planes were pretty good; the Chicago - SF one was business class, with a meal I didn't expect on a plane: sausage, ham, cheese omelete, potatoes, muskmelon, blueberries, grapes, and drinks. The SF-Osaka one we just barely got on (we were there early, it was just a space issue), and that was just a normal (11-hour) flight.
We got into Kansai about 4:00PM in the time here (midnight CST), where it took about an hour to get through everything. We pretty much went from the plane to an automated shuttle, then to a quarantine area where we and another plane just unloaded on, pretty much filling the place. Took about 30 minutes to get through there, then we ended up in actual customs. Nothing like the US there; they didn't check anything other than the passport and even then it wasn't that much. We found the group meeting place for the school pretty quickly.
We got onto a bus (with 11 people total on it, seemed kind of wasting space, but they had tons of them) and drove through Osaka to get to the campus; about 1/2 the bus was taking pictures all over the place. The entire ride, there was a backdrop of mountains and cloudy peaks over to the west and north. We didn't see that many pachinko parlors until we knew what we were looking for, then we were seeing them close to everywhere.
90 minutes later, we finally got to the dorms. We got in pretty quickly and moving in right away. The housing is pretty much what you'd say as Japanese, though. There's a room by the entrance for shoes; the rooms have western parts to them, but the main portion is Japanese. The rooms are a bit larger than Eau Claire's dorms, but it's pretty much a door, followed by a small entrance (with closets on each side), then you step up onto a tatami mat floor which is about 12'x12'; the bedding is all futon-style, just folding it up and placing it to a side during the day. Then on the other end is about a 12'x5' space of desks, chairs, and everything you'd need. The plugs on the wall are the equivilant to 2-prong US-style plugs, so I have power to everything that I need.
The campus is pretty strict with their network (I knew this going in at least), so there's confusing language with setting up the laptop with a connection. At least, I can't figure most of it out.
At about 8:00PM we had a brief touring around some parts of the town, as well as the local supermarkets. There's a place to eat on the campus, but we're pretty much on our own here. This was my 25th and 26th hour awake, so I just ended up getting some food which I knew what it was (just some onigiri a guide said was seafood inside) with some liquids which I've had before, and got home and crashed.
Random thoughts so far:
There are a lot of Minnesotans here for some reason.
I think Helen ended up being creeped out on several occasions at how observant I can be in an environment; last night, even after being up for 25 hours, I was talking with her when she was smoking and mentioned there was an ashtray about 20 feet away, on the other side of the group we were in.
Either there are a ton of driving ranges around here, or they're just really easy to see. You look across a cityscape and see these big green poles and netting every couple minutes driving on a highway. We had to have seen at least 10 going from Osaka to Hirakata.
The interesting thing about driving around for 90 minutes is that the city really came down in uniqueness. Not so much that the city didn't look special as it just wasn't as different as you'd expect. It felt like going through Chicago, just that a good number of the
The dorms are about a 10-15 minute walk from campus, which kind of makes everything a bit of a time getting around.
Everything seems very much purpose-driven around here. There isn't room for doing something other than in the place it was meant for. You don't bring food outside the eating area and kitchen; you don't bring shoes beyond a certain point.
It really bothers me for some reason that the equivilancy for a dollar here is just a relatively-simple coin.
It's a very good thing that there's a AC in the dorm. It's not so much a good think that the entire dang thing is in Japanese, most of it kanji. There's a guide for it, but I accidentally set it to the "heat-only" setting last night.
It's actually been very helpful that I had that one year of Japanese before-hand, as it's easy to figure out most things around here with just that knowledge. At least knowing a little bit about formatting and how things should look.

Catching up (Part 1)

Well, I'm going to be posting some daily writing I've made in the last couple days. The internet is still not working around here on personal computers, despite asking some questions and getting advice. (most of it being "that was given in [document name here]; wait, it isn't?")