Well, not a whole lot has been going on this past week. Tea Ceremony started in traditional Japanese arts, but it isn't all that enjoyable because many students fool around and act rather rude in my opinion, it just gets annoying. However, the assistants and teacher are really nice and they were fun to talk to once the class was over. Thank goodness that room has Air Conditioning as well, otherwise it'd be no fun at all.
Other than that, I got a business paper that's due on Thursday along with like a 20 minute presentation, and then a round of questions. First off, it's only me and 2 other guys that have to talk for 20 minutes each, while all the other students only have to talk for 15 minutes. It's just because I had the privilege of getting randomly chosen to go on the first week. My topic is American and Japanese Employment Practices, and believe it or not, it doesn't have all that much to do with business. First off I hardly know all that much about getting a job in Japan, much less how it affects the economy. I'm just a little worried that this paper is gonna be 6 pages or so of a subject that doesn't have to do entirely with business. Finding references isn't that much fun either. As far as I see it, this paper is the only bane I have for the rest of the school year, believe it or not but I also have another 6 page paper to write for the business management class, but I know all about the topic! Then I also have a presentation that's due next Thursday, but that shouldn't be too hard because it's for Japanese Cinema. I don't have to write a paper, and at best I have to give a 10 minute presentation on any Japanese Film that I want. The best part is it can be an anime movie I've seen, score!
The rainy season is slated to end by about the middle of July, and so there should only be a few weeks of hot weather. So far for the month of August, Nagasaki received 44.1 centimeters of rain. I totally plan on going down to the beach and smash a watermelon open with a stick while blindfolded, thats as long as I can find someone to help me pay for said melon, the only thing that's cheap over here fruit-wise is strawberries and oranges. Well, I suppose I should try to write another half page of that business paper before giving up for tonight, I seriously hate that thing, and 20 minutes is ridiculous! くだらない！！
Monday, June 30, 2008
Monday, June 23, 2008
Rain, Samurai, and Volcanos too!
So this last weekend I went to Shimabara, and Shimabara castle. It started off with riding the bus to Morimachi, and then walking to Sumiyoshi, in the rain. After that I got on another bus, took it up to the stop by the school, and climbed up the mountain the school sits on, in the rain. Once I got up there I spent about 15 minutes trying to dry myself off before I sat in the bus for two hours. After I got on the bus, and we left, we ended up stopping at the bottom of the hill for a student who had overslept and was coming in a taxi. After she arrived, we were able to leave after losing 20 minutes. The bus was comfy, I had the back row of seats to myself and I was sitting in the middle seat so I could stretch out. The girl who arrived late cause she had been out partying last night asked if she could sleep in the 2 seats on my right side, and then later another friend of mine came back and asked if she could sleep in the seats to my left, as she also didn't get enough sleep. I played a few games with Trevor and Jesse of Metroid Prime Hunters on our DS. After we were done playing, the tour guide was still talking up at the front of the bus and was rather loud. She was nice, but loud...especially when we were driving aside the ocean, she shouted "Ume, Ume desu!". Which means, "Ocean, it's the ocean!". We stopped for a bathroom break, and I bought a small paper kite for like 315 yen. We hopped back on the bus and she continued her monologue about Shimabara and random other stuff.
We eventually arrived at Shimabara Castle, and the lame thing was that after they got done explaining some of the history of it, we only had like 30 minutes to look around before the bus left to our next location. However, there were many cool suits of armor on the second floor, along with katanas, wakazashis, and a tanto or two.
The top floor had a gorgeous view of the city, as well as a full view of the cloud covered Mt. Fugen that I climbed. After taking a lot of video and a few pictures, I went back down to see if there was anything worthwhile buying in the gift shop, nothing really drew my interest, but I forgot to get a cell phone charm of Shimabara castle, I like to try to get one of unique places I've been to.
After our bus left, we went down and looked at an old house of one of the samurai that lived in this city, it was pretty interesting, though I think I liked the gardens more than the house.
Unfortunately, after that last picture, my camera battery died. I was able to take pictures with my camcorder, but the quality is significantly less than my camera, and I haven't gotten around to uploading them. Anyways, after the samurai house, we went to a place featuring houses that had been partially buried by the Ash that was washed down when the volcano erupted. We went and had lunch after that, and it was pretty tasty. After that we went to the Fugen Disaster Memorial Museum. That place was pretty cool. They had all this footage of the volcano erupting, mudslide, and simulations of the pyroclastic cloud over the city. This museum even had one of the cinematic theatres that showed footage of the volcano through a helicopter, and the floor moved. In the theatre they kinda took you on a ride as the volcano erupted, and I must say it was quite interesting and enjoyable. After that we looked around the museum some more, went up to the observation deck, and then had to leave to go home. Hehe, I bought this little owl, which almost has the composure of a hackeysack, except it's not meant to be used that way. It's pretty fun tossing it around though cause it always lands right side up, because the bottom is weighted. I'll use it to get someone's attention or something, I'll be like, "Hey!" *Throws owl at them* "Pick up your garbage!". Or in this case, I put the owl on top of the bottle of Shimabara shyochu(Japanese Sake) I bought for my host dad and I to drink when he comes home. I plan on keeping the bottle, cause I wouldn't have bought it otherwise. Remember kids, the owl says "Don't drink and drive, or I shall dive-bomb you!"
Ok, well that about does it for the Shimabara trip. That night I managed to catch this Japanese Moth, and it really suprised me because it's much bigger, and it actually looks quite unlike a moth. The only reason we knew it wasn't was because I happened to catch this thing at night as it was flying into the glass pane door towards the light. Don't ask me how I can keep moths and butterfly's on my hand, it's just a natural gift. I also finally got around to taking a picture of the work of art hanging in Kiyoko's tea room. It's a tiger and it's made out of all stone. Pretty cool, huh?
On top of all that, I shaved, and it really suprised Kiyoko and all the people at school.
Yesterday was Nozomi's birthday, and we celebrated it along with his mother's birthday(which was on the 17th of June) with a nice grand supper. We had gyoza, sashimi, cake, chicken, shrimp, sushi and rice!
We had lots of fun, and now Nozomi is 8 years old. Monday was nice because the weather was just gorgeous, it was cool with a breeze and no humidity or rain. Now, for the moment I've all been waiting for!
I made this picture, using the one of me from Shimabara castle, and a picture I took back in Golden Week because it looked like a fuedal Japan. The combination is perfect, muHa! Till next time!
We eventually arrived at Shimabara Castle, and the lame thing was that after they got done explaining some of the history of it, we only had like 30 minutes to look around before the bus left to our next location. However, there were many cool suits of armor on the second floor, along with katanas, wakazashis, and a tanto or two.
The top floor had a gorgeous view of the city, as well as a full view of the cloud covered Mt. Fugen that I climbed. After taking a lot of video and a few pictures, I went back down to see if there was anything worthwhile buying in the gift shop, nothing really drew my interest, but I forgot to get a cell phone charm of Shimabara castle, I like to try to get one of unique places I've been to.
After our bus left, we went down and looked at an old house of one of the samurai that lived in this city, it was pretty interesting, though I think I liked the gardens more than the house.
Unfortunately, after that last picture, my camera battery died. I was able to take pictures with my camcorder, but the quality is significantly less than my camera, and I haven't gotten around to uploading them. Anyways, after the samurai house, we went to a place featuring houses that had been partially buried by the Ash that was washed down when the volcano erupted. We went and had lunch after that, and it was pretty tasty. After that we went to the Fugen Disaster Memorial Museum. That place was pretty cool. They had all this footage of the volcano erupting, mudslide, and simulations of the pyroclastic cloud over the city. This museum even had one of the cinematic theatres that showed footage of the volcano through a helicopter, and the floor moved. In the theatre they kinda took you on a ride as the volcano erupted, and I must say it was quite interesting and enjoyable. After that we looked around the museum some more, went up to the observation deck, and then had to leave to go home. Hehe, I bought this little owl, which almost has the composure of a hackeysack, except it's not meant to be used that way. It's pretty fun tossing it around though cause it always lands right side up, because the bottom is weighted. I'll use it to get someone's attention or something, I'll be like, "Hey!" *Throws owl at them* "Pick up your garbage!". Or in this case, I put the owl on top of the bottle of Shimabara shyochu(Japanese Sake) I bought for my host dad and I to drink when he comes home. I plan on keeping the bottle, cause I wouldn't have bought it otherwise. Remember kids, the owl says "Don't drink and drive, or I shall dive-bomb you!"
Ok, well that about does it for the Shimabara trip. That night I managed to catch this Japanese Moth, and it really suprised me because it's much bigger, and it actually looks quite unlike a moth. The only reason we knew it wasn't was because I happened to catch this thing at night as it was flying into the glass pane door towards the light. Don't ask me how I can keep moths and butterfly's on my hand, it's just a natural gift. I also finally got around to taking a picture of the work of art hanging in Kiyoko's tea room. It's a tiger and it's made out of all stone. Pretty cool, huh?
On top of all that, I shaved, and it really suprised Kiyoko and all the people at school.
Yesterday was Nozomi's birthday, and we celebrated it along with his mother's birthday(which was on the 17th of June) with a nice grand supper. We had gyoza, sashimi, cake, chicken, shrimp, sushi and rice!
We had lots of fun, and now Nozomi is 8 years old. Monday was nice because the weather was just gorgeous, it was cool with a breeze and no humidity or rain. Now, for the moment I've all been waiting for!
I made this picture, using the one of me from Shimabara castle, and a picture I took back in Golden Week because it looked like a fuedal Japan. The combination is perfect, muHa! Till next time!
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Rain and Nagasaki Medical College
Well, aside from the rainy season picking up, like lots of rain all day Saturday and Sunday, and even saw lightning and heard thunder in Japan. I didn't even think it was possible for Japan to have thunderstorms. The dog thought so too, because everytime thunder rumbled through the sky she'd go barking her little head off. Kiyoko asked me about lightning and thunder as well, what it was like in the United States. I told her there's so many thunderstorms that nearly 100 people or so a year die from lightning strikes. There are also many instances when a bolt of lightning will strike the ground. Oh ya, on top of that, she found out how much I truly eat when I told her what I usually have about for breakfast. She didn't believe me when I told her that I usually eat 3-5 large bowls of cereal and drink about half a gallon of milk in one sitting. For Japanese, one egg is fine, she was very suprised when I told her I eat about 6. The other day she got to talk to my dad over skype, and he asked her if I eat a lot, she said yes but she didn't realize what he meant all the way. I told her the best way to see my stomach, is as a black hole. That if she ever got a chance to talk to Sharon again, to ask her what my nickname is. Sharon will probably say, "The Black Hole." Kiyoko was worried that I was starving after I told her how much food I can actually eat, I told her that I was fine and not to worry. She knows I like meat, and then she asked about how much meat I eat, I told her in about 2 of my sandwiches, there are about 400g of meat. That if I ever get hands on steak, I eat roughly a Kilogram or more. Well, other than Kiyoko's revelation on how much food I actually eat, it's been boring around here. I spent all day Sunday messing around with skype and my camcorder. I was able to use my camcorder as a webcam, so those of you who want to talk to me on Skype, add karrakerc to your contacts.
Other than that, on Friday I went to the Nagasaki Medical College and Hospital. This medical college is the oldest in Japan, and it was also the only medical college in the world to be destroyed an atomic blast. When we arrived there, we watched a 15 minute video of the aftermath of the Atomic Blast on Nagasaki. It was pretty horrendous and thus I will not show any photos relating to what people physically experienced. Some of the photos depict the range at which the blast affected Nagasaki. The hospital and medical college were roughly 600 meters from the hypnocenter of the atomic bomb.
This is the stone gateway that stood in front of the medical college, it's actually tilting out of it's foundations, and is a good demonstration how powerful the explosion was.
After that we toured the Nagasaki Medical College's Hospital, and I must say it's quite interesting. Mom, I took these pictures for you because I figure you'd like to see their facilities. This first picture is the door to a patients room, the panel tells doctors and nurses who the patient is by touching the LCD panel.
This is a standard room for patients...
Next is the Japanese version of a premium patient's room. You pay 500 dollars for this room, and then 20 dollars per day. They get a bigger bathroom, a fridge, a 27" LCD TV, and even a balcony. Pretty comfortable hospital I'd say.
Here are a few other pictures, they include the nurses station, the guest room, and the X-Ray examination room.
The guy in the picture was the one leading the tour and explaining everything to us. Other than that, it's just dealing with the cursed humidity because the school doesn't turn on the air conditioners till July. Sorry for not posting much lately, we're going to a castle on Saturday, so there should be stuff for me to talk about. Enjoy your coldness and air conditioning people!!!!
Other than that, on Friday I went to the Nagasaki Medical College and Hospital. This medical college is the oldest in Japan, and it was also the only medical college in the world to be destroyed an atomic blast. When we arrived there, we watched a 15 minute video of the aftermath of the Atomic Blast on Nagasaki. It was pretty horrendous and thus I will not show any photos relating to what people physically experienced. Some of the photos depict the range at which the blast affected Nagasaki. The hospital and medical college were roughly 600 meters from the hypnocenter of the atomic bomb.
This is the stone gateway that stood in front of the medical college, it's actually tilting out of it's foundations, and is a good demonstration how powerful the explosion was.
After that we toured the Nagasaki Medical College's Hospital, and I must say it's quite interesting. Mom, I took these pictures for you because I figure you'd like to see their facilities. This first picture is the door to a patients room, the panel tells doctors and nurses who the patient is by touching the LCD panel.
This is a standard room for patients...
Next is the Japanese version of a premium patient's room. You pay 500 dollars for this room, and then 20 dollars per day. They get a bigger bathroom, a fridge, a 27" LCD TV, and even a balcony. Pretty comfortable hospital I'd say.
Here are a few other pictures, they include the nurses station, the guest room, and the X-Ray examination room.
The guy in the picture was the one leading the tour and explaining everything to us. Other than that, it's just dealing with the cursed humidity because the school doesn't turn on the air conditioners till July. Sorry for not posting much lately, we're going to a castle on Saturday, so there should be stuff for me to talk about. Enjoy your coldness and air conditioning people!!!!
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