So I finally have internet

Yeah for internet!!!! I'm so excited that I have internet now you don't even know. Especially after all the stuff that's going on here in Otaru in the last couple of days. :) Internet here takes like a month. It's ridiculous! If you go through NTT it's 2 weeks but you have to pay some sort of $200 fee to 'activate' your account, and no that doesn't seem to pay for installation, modem, service call. Nope. They couldn't explain to my satisfaction just what the heck that $200 was for. So I said 'screw you NTT' and went with Yahoo (owned by Softbank) instead. Upside you just pay the monthly fee, downside is you have to wait a whole month for it to be installed & set up. So the guy was supposed to come between 1~5 pm last Wednesday to set it all up. Jumi was supposed to come & talk to him in Japanese for me. Only the guy shows up at like 11:30 instead which totally threw me off & Jumi was still in class so I was having a weird conversation with him. Then he went to get the key from the international office for the utility room so he could check that I had phone service. I thought he was supposed to have the modem but he didn't. Apparantly I was supposed to already have it (as if!) so about 2 hours after he left the modem showed up. Jumi helped me get it all set up and we hooked it up and tried to use it... only the modem didn't work. Piece of crap!!!!! So we called Yahoo (well jumi did) and they told her that they would deliver another one on saturday. I hate waiting for deliveries, especially when I don't KNOW when they are coming by. So I ended up waiting 'til about 3 on Saturday for the guy to show up with the new modem. But it worked so I was happy. :)

Yesterday I went with An to go see Always 2 which has just come out in Japan about 2 weeks ago. :) It was very good! But we got there about 5:00 and we missed the 1st showing & had to wait until 8:10 for the next one so we bummed around the mall a bit & ate at this 'chinese' restuarant. I'm telling you american chinese food is like 100x's better than japanese chinese food. Blech. Snot noodles, that's what they feed us, snot noodles. Reminded me of natto. And then we popped over to Lady Borden's to get some ice cream, and ran into Daiso to look for Barney a white board (they were sold out), and then we did the best thing ever!

We went & used one of those instant picture maker things. They have them all over japan in game centers but I've never used one before because I can't read the directions but now I know how to use them! Yeah!!!! So we took some silly pictures and then we got to use this station on the other side to put borders and sparkles and cat ears and stuff on the pictures. An picked some really small sizes for the photos tho' so most of them are about the size of the pad of my thumb, then some 1x1", and then 2 1x2" pics. The machine even offered to send (56k size) copies of the pics to our phone e-mail so that we could use them as wallpapers and such. So if I can get it to work I'll post them up here. Of course the quality will probably suck. Lol.


Then we went & saw the movie. In Japan you actually have to sit in an assigned seat that comes with your ticket. If you come early, or there's not that many people you can tell the cashier where you want to sit. It was really good! New characters & everybody ends up happy in the end. Just what I wanted to happen. Although I understood almost nothing of the dialogue and was whispering to An about it occassionaly when I couldn't figure out what was going on. Afterwards I was sooo tired it was like 11:00 and we had to take the train back & then we stopped at Sunkus to pick up some onigiri for Jin-chan (an-chan) and some chocolate for Barney because he was very nice & signed for my book when the delivery man came so I didn't have to wait around for it all day today. Yeah!

So I woke up this morning and it was SNOWING and it's kept snowing until after lunchtime. It was disgusting because I got all covered in snow on the way down and my pant legs got all wet. But after class it was crepe day in the lunchroom and we all got to have them. I had chocolate & banana, so did Seghir & Karolina, Pierre had strawberry and mandarin orange. So good! They only do it like once a month. ::sigh:: I wish they had the stuff here so we could make our own. Afterwards we went outside and had a snowball fight outside the caf. Soooo funny, I came out to go to the int'l office and got nailed by Pierre in the face. So I got him and Seghir and then Seghir went to buy some gloves, Karolina came out and we started all over again. LOL. We also got Gian, Eagle, and Ren as they wandered past on the way from lunch and Pierre attempted to get Takai sensei. That was hilarious because he came walking up to the caf, saw us, froze, and then ran like hell. Pierre almost got him too, he only missed him by about 6".

After that we were thorougly frozen and my gloves were soaked so I bought some hot cocoa to keep my hands warm and headed off to the int'l office to get directions to the immigration office so that I could get my re-entry permit for christmas time. :) Then I headed back to the dorms. All in all it's been an interesting day so far. I don't think I'm going to enjoy walking up & down the hill in the snow tho'. It'll be awfully slippery for something with that steep of a grade. And I don't have any boots! I want some tall knee high boots with flat heels so that I can look stylish & also keep my pants from getting wet in deeper snow. Lol. Probaby won't get any though, my parent's idea of boots involve big ugly ones with rubber fronts. If I asked them for boots I'd probably get the ugliest things ever seen, I'd probably get hipwaders or something. So anyway enjoy some pics of the 1st snow in Otaru & my time with An.

Nichiyoubi ni Dobutsuen ni ikimashita

"Sunday we went to the zoo". I was invited to the zoo by An & her sister last week and this sunday we went to Asahikawa to the Asahiyama zoo. An had a couple of friends that go to school in Sapporo & they rented a van to take us there. I asked if they knew if the train went there & they claimed not too (but there definately is & it's like half the time). So there were 7 of us, An, Gyung Jin (sister), 2 other koreans from sapporo, Barney, Eagle, and myself. It was really funny because Barney & Eagle sat in the very back and they are TALL you know? So they were stretched out about as far as they could get the seat to push back. Lol. Then after we stopped for drinks & bathroom breaks Jin climbed into the back & instead of sitting in the middle she sat on Barney's lap. It was totally cute.


We left at 10 am and walked down to Nagasakiya where they picked us up. And then we were off! 3 hours later we arrived in Asahikawa which is supposed to be a pretty famous town. Actually the zoo is supposedly famous in japan as being second only to the one in Ueno park in Tokyo. If this is true then Japan must have some crappy zoos because it was about the size of Binder park, with different animals of course, and it had a small amusement park attached which was closed for the season.



First thing we did was see the penguins! They had 4 different varieties including one HUGE brown one that they had caged seperately from the others. It's apparantly the "King Penguin". We didn't get to see the penguins very well the first time because there were so many people at Asahiyama but we did get to go under the penguin tank and walk through the tunnel & got to see them swimming around. They are such strong swimmers! And so fast! It was really awesome. :) Then we moved on to the polar bear exhibit which was also pretty cool. And from there we visited all of the animal kingdom including a black panther, tiger, lion, and cheetas that were sitting on top of the cage & we got to see their furry butts hanging through the cage. We also got see a hippo who was having his teeth cleaned by a giraffe. According to eagle they do this in the wild which I think is really strange. Gian insists that it is small birds & not giraffes that do the teeth cleaning. I refuse to take sides.


The second time that we saw the penguins it was just before the place closed & we ran back over there and got to take pictures of all of them. Didn't go back into the tunnel tho'(we should have!!!). But I did see something really funny. This japanese family had a little girl with her, about a year old and the mother sets the baby down on the raised platform they have for the kids to see from & the penguins there were coming over and trying to peck her through the glass. It was hilarious, it was like the penguins wanted to eat her hat. And they were even fighting each other over who was going to get her! So funny, and of course the whole extended family had to pull out their cell phones and video cameras to record the event. Lol.

Last stop at the zoo was the gift shop (seriously 5 min before closing) where I bought some hagaki (postcards), a penguin keitai chain & a polar bear one for Eagle. Then we headed into town to eat & ended up having Ramen because that is supposedly famous in Asahikawa also. Some japanese people I told about it on Monday seemed impressed anyways. Well the ramen was good, but I think the ramen here in Otaru is just as good. We also had some ice cream (it was really soft! Very strainge) and then headed back to Otaru. Only on the way back it took us twice as long because they refused to travel on the toll road & made us go through all the little towns along the way & then we got caught in evening traffic into Sapporo which meant of course that it took even longer.


Long story short 3 hours to get there 4 1/2 to get back. Gyah. When we got back I was exhausted & all I wanted to do was get out of the car and not get back into it. Oh, and also for the record? 7-11 bathrooms in Japan are disgusting, they are squat toilets but they are raised up from the floor which just makes it weirder. It was like sitting on a shelf. Sometimes I really which I was guy... but only for a minute. Then I realize that I'm glad I'm a girl. :)

OUC's International Week

So last week was International Week here at OUC. They made us make posters and you could do a presentation on friday if you wanted to. Obviously none of the americans chose to do that but we did make the poster & I went to the presentation to support my friends from the dorm who were making presentations. Friday was their big day, 1st they had the posters displayed the week before at Nagasakiya downtown. Then they brought them back at the beginning of the week and put them up above the school's cafeteria, then on friday they put them in the room with the presentations. England, Germany, Austria, Iceland, China, and Korea participated. France was supposed to but the guys backed out because they didn't want to make a powerpoint for it.



So anyway it started at 4:30 and I wasn't sure where it was so I went to the international office and asked. Then I found all the frenchmen, Seghir, Jeremy, & Pierre (who looked a little down) and we found seats together to watch. Liu (china), and Bonglim & Yung Eun (korea) wore their traditional outfits as did Karolina (germany), but everybody else just wore regular clothes. The presentations were very good, except I thought Karolina's was a little too much like an encyclopedia reference for Germany rather than something she liked about her country (too many stats).



Afterwards we went to Rakugo which is a type of comedy show in Japan where a person pretends to be several characters in a dialogue all while he is sitting down. The one we did was in english instead of japanese like they normall do it but it was pretty good I thought. And after that there was a buffet style party for the end of international week in which everybody got to go stuff themselves on yakisoba, gyoza, and tenpura among other things. They also served cocktail drinks in cans & beer which I thought was a little strange. I mean they are a school! When we got there we had to sign in because they wanted to know how many people showed up for next year's planning & also they had some japanese people doing a traditional drum session which was pretty cool. Jeremy & Karolina even got to try it out.


While we were eating the school's cheerleaders decided to give us a show (so slutty! seriously.) and then they decided to make mochi so we all got to go up and help pound the rice down. That thing is soooo heavy. You don't even know. But Ren was like a demented lumberjack, he just kept pounding away and his hair was flying everywhere... so funny. We also got to try traditional japanese pancake which involves mashed potatos and bonito flakes. It was pretty good with some mayo and teriyaki sauce on it. They also had a calligraphy booth set up so we did some more of that & it was the regular kind. Mao told us that we could buy our own supplies to do it at the hyaku en shop & Alex was really excited about it. :) I think we might have to do some of our own calligraphy here in the dorm. I wonder if you can do it in non-black ink? Is that a japanese thing to do?



The party broke up about 9:00 pm and I went with An & her sister Gyung jin (I learned her name!!!) back to their place to watch Always on TV. We also had snacks like cheese & chips, and also some white wine. I only had one glass but An ended up drinking the whole rest of the bottle plus a beer. She cannot hold her liquor seriously! Lol. She kept saying that she wasn't drunk, and that she 'liked alex but knew he had a girlfriend' and then after the movie was over at 11 Barney, Eagle, and Alex showed up (they had gone out after party) and Jin & Barney (dating) went to his room while Eagle & Alex stayed with us. So for like the next hour and a half I sat on the floor with alex putting together a 1000 piece puzzle while An kept slapping my back (hard btw) and telling Alex that she liked 'somebody'. He knew she liked him & kept trying to explain to her that he had a girlfriend. Finally I'd had enough and told her I was going to bed & Alex left with me (afraid to be alone w/her I think) and he went to hang out with Eagle downstairs.



So all in all it was a pretty good day but it ended on a strange note. I mean... I left because I was tired of getting hit on the back but also because I was exhausted because I'd had a test on friday & Gian kept me up until like 2:30 working on his powerpoint presentation (no computer) so I hadn't gotten a lot of sleep the night before. Meh.

Japanese Traditional Culture Day

So it's a little late but last saturday Otaru held a culture day for foreigners (not just ryuugakusei) who live in Otaru/Sapporo to come and take part in traditional japanese arts here in Japan. It was really fun because we got to take part in doing Japanese Calligraphy, Traditional Tea Ceremony, and Ikebana. The calligraphy was different from any calligraphy that we've done before at J-club. The high school's calligraphy team and their instructor do 'special calligraphy' which involves a picasso like approach to drawing the kanji. Basically the guy draws it how he THINKS that it should look. It was all very strange. I just drew a regular kanji. But the second thing that was different from usual was that the brushes were about as long as my forearm and thick. It was hard to manouver with them. But I think we all did ok. :)

The tea ceremony was interesting also but of course I have trouble sitting on my knees for long periods of time (like most westerners) and I had an elderly japanese lady practically force feed me the sweets that go before the tea in the ceremony. Apparantly I wasn't eating them fast enough for her or something because she felt the need to sit down next to me, push my hand holding the napkin up closer to my mouth and then watched me like a hawk until I ate it all. Lol. And of course Gian Carlo doesn't like the green tea ( I don't either actually) so he made this awful face when he drank his. Then we all got to try and make the tea for ourselves which is pretty cool but I couldn't get the hang of whisking it properly so mine didn't foam up enough. Gian made some and then handed it off to one of the other japanese ladies with a 'for you' and thought he was sooo smart getting out of drinking it again. But the elderly japanese lady from before made him make another cup and watched him until he drank it. Soooo funny. You don't even know.

Last of all we did Ikebana which was pretty cool. They had these diamond shaped porcelain bowls and a really sharp spiky thing that you pushed the flowers onto. Gian's apparently 'looked the most japanese' but that's only because he copied the teacher's example one as closely as he could. The rest of us tried to do it in an individual style. Then we got to take the flowers home (sans porcelain of course). Afterwards we had a chance to do an impromtu (I'm not sure of the name) paper tearing session and we got to make flowerd bookmarks which was pretty cool & they laminated them for us. Afterwards everybody headed to lunch with the sponsors of the event but Yung Eun, Arzu, and myself headed back to the dorm to drop off our stuff before seaking out coffee at starbucks in Sapporo.


While we were in Sapporo we ate McDonalds (Arzu loves them) and headed over to Oodori park which is supposed to be famous but I don't know why it is. While we were there we went up their TV Tower and got a great panoramic view of the city and the mountains behind it. I love Sapporo because it is FLAT like Michigan instead of one giant mountain like Otaru is. Seriously if we lived in Sapporo I would have a bicycle. It's too much trouble to haul that thing back up the hill every day so I don't have one here. After the tower we wandered around the park and saw the statues and the fountains. They also had cabbage (red & green) growing in their flower beds which we thought was hilarious. After that we headed over to the nearest starbucks (2 blocks away) and I had a frappuchino. Unfortunately in Japan they don't actually put the whipped cream on the mocha and plain frapps only on one's like caramal and vanilla. I mean... how am I supposed to order that? LOl. I need to learn how to order whipped cream at starbucks in Japanese.


Right before we left to come back to Otaru we went to JR Tower which is connected to Sapporo station and visited Bic Camera where I printed out a few pics of our day (30 yen each for 3x5 size), we also visited 'Jupiter' which is a tiny (and I mean tiny) shop in the basement of Bic camera that sells 'import' food which is basically western food or korean food. So I FINALLY found some soup that wasn't cream of corn. It ended up being cream of potato, tomato, and chicken broth. So I can finally use most of the slow cooker recepies. No cream of chicken though which blew. You can also pick up such exotic things like quaker oatmeal, black tea, and real pasta sauce. Still didn't find any bullion cubes though. Then we headed back to Otaru (30 minute ride) and everybody fell asleep on the way back.

Yung Eun and I ended up watching Nightmare Before Christmas with Pierre and Karolina after I went upstairs to give Pierre a pic I'd made for him at Bic. I hadn't seen that movie in like 5 years. It was sooo funny and then we got to watch an early Tim burton movie which was cool. So if I can get it to work you should be able to see it for yourself. :) Also I've added new pics to my webshots account:

http://good-times.webshots.com/album/561267908VTssFk?vhost=good-times