Just to dispel any illusions anyone might have about Japan being one of those exotic asian countries that have tropical summer weather all year round...
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Oh the fun you can have during winter vacation when you're suffering under an incapacitating cold. Why, I can name any number of activities such as...such as defrosting your refrigerator! And look, some of the ice looks like the gun from Blade Runner!
Yes, good times indeed, and a fresh, clean, ice-free refrigerator to boot.
Even though there was no singing and dancing around trees, we still managed to pull off a pretty good Christmas celebration yesterday.
The food was good although not particularly "christmassy" with spaghetti, sushi and frikadeller replacing the traditional duck and ris a la mande, and I'm sure everyone was thankful that I resisted the temptation to hide almonds in the spaghetti.
Okay, so it's not the most spectacular Christmas tree ever, but it'll do! Thanks for all the presents, I hope mine will arrive in Denmark on time!
I just happened to check Deep Dish's DJ schedule today and realized...They're coming to Tokyo tomorrow!!! Wuhuuuu!!
I was asked to take part in one of Tokai's "Open Campus" events today, the purpose of which is to persuade high school students to choose Tokai as their university when they graduate next year. This basically involved putting on a garish blue jacket, running around handing out information materials and generally helping out, but as expected a large part of my role was more that of being the "token foreigner" freaking out the young students and their parents (in a good way) using my "blonde" hair and "fluent" Japanese.
In today's episode of the soap-opera that is my 5th period class on Thursdays, my classmates and I were suddenly awoken from our daze (induced by an overload of mathematical formulas) by the sound of music. Upon further inspection, we realized the sound was coming from the television screen next to the teacher, our window to Thailand. Apparently, the cell phone of the girl sitting right next to the microphone transmitting every noise from the classroom in Thailand had started to ring. Giggles turned into outright laughter as the girl proceeded to take the call and carry on a conversation in a loud voice, amplified through the television speakers. While we were expecting her to finish the call quickly, as although there was no teacher physically present in Thailand this was still to all intents and purposes the middle of a lecture, she continued discussing something or other for several minutes and eventually the professor, laughing, had to stop the lecture for a while, as we all waited for a girl in Thailand to finish her phone-call.
Yes! I finally found "ristede l?g"! ("roasted onions"?, "fried onions"?). Seems they were trying to hide them from me behind some ketchup bottles in the local supermarket.
It's 9 degrees today. How random.
It's 25 degrees hot today. How random.
As you can probably guess from my lack of updates recently, I'm quite busy these days, and December seems to have arrived suddenly and without anyone noticing. Well, except for all the department stores and shopping centers of course, time to get into the Christmas spirit and spend, spend, spend!
Yesterday, I had my second class in "Image Processing", and what makes this class a little special is that it is conducted in cooperation with a university in Thailand, and using video-conferencing technology allows students in Thailand to "attend" (thus we could see a small class of giggling Thai students on a television-screen next to the professor). As a result, the class is done entirely in English and also makes use of a "digital whiteboard", basically a big computer screen upon which you can display graphics and write notes using a special marker. It all sounds pretty high-tech and cool but in fact, sadly it isn't that great. First of all, although I would never criticize the professor's English level (since I myself have a hard enough time understanding Japanese), he does have quite a hard time trying to express himself, and it makes an already complicated subject even harder not only for me and my Japanese classmates who probably aren't the best English speakers either, but also for the people on the other end of the video connection in Thailand. On top of that, there seems to be quite a few problems with the digital whiteboard thing. Notes suddenly disappear due to a wrong keypress, graphics don't display clearly and the professor spends ages scrolling up and down because of the akward interface. Oh well, I guess it's all very new and so on, and it'll take time for everyone to get used to it. Maybe it'll improve given time.
"What's your blood type?" is a question I've been asked over and over again since coming to Japan. In Japan, sort of like Zodiac signs in the West, it is widely believed that your blood type has great influence on your personality, and is also used to determine horoscopes and so on. Apparently, around 100 years ago, a doctor researched the relationship between blood type and personality and came to believe that you could determine what kind of personality a person has, or will have, from their blood type alone. Even though it's been proven to have no scientific basis whatsoever, it seems many Japanese people still believe in these distinctions to a certain degree. Therefore, when I to the question above reply that I have absolutely no idea, I'm often met with shock and disbelief, usually followed by the question: "But what if you're in a traffic accident, and suddenly find yourself in a hospital needing a transfusion??" I guess it seems reasonable that just before I fall into an unconscious state, I'll be able to mumble to the ER staff this important information of my human makeup. Anyway, the reason I'm writing about this is that I recently took a health check (needed for a scholarship application) and thus finally got an oppurtunity to find out which one of the four blood types, A, B, AB or O, is actually running through my veins. The most common blood type in Japan being Type A, this would also serve as a test as to whether I had actually turned Japanese or not. Erm, anyhow, the results came yesterday, and I present to you, in all its glory, my blood type certificate:
Wow. So I'm Type O then. Which incidentally is one of the most common blood types found in Europe and America, so not too surprising I guess. So what does that say about my personality? Here's a definition of Type O-personalities I found on the internet, judge for yourselves:
"Type O Blood people are said to set the mood for a group and to take on the role of creating harmony among its members. Their image is one of taking it easy, of being peaceful and carefree. They are also thought to be big-hearted and benevolent, and they tend to spend money on others generously. O Types are generally "loved by all." But, they also, surprisingly, have a stubborn and strong-willed side, as well, and tend to secretly have their own opinions on things. On the other hand, they have the flexible, adaptable side of readily accepting new things. They are easily influenced by other people or by what they see on TV. They seem to appear level-headed and trustworthy, but they often slip and make big blunders inadvertently. But that is also the point that makes O Types lovable."
Check out this van I saw in Yokohama yesterday. It was parked next to a stage where two DJs were performing, pretty cool! Oh, and now that we're on the subject, have a look at this thing too. It's a concept-car from Toyota that transforms into a DJ-stage fully equipped with speakers and video screens.
I've finally received my new visa, which will allow me to stay in Japan for another 2 years. Now for part 2 all I have to do is go to the town hall in Hiratsuka, make them print out some registration papers, hand them in at Tokai, get some more forms from Tokai, fill them out, have them approved and bring them back to the immigration office...>_
The university festival is still going on this week, and a friend of mine made me go see a mandolin concert in building 8 which was actually surprisingly good, even though I for some reason can't help laughing when I hear the words "mandolin concert".
Christmas is coming (yes "only" 2 more months) and here's one way Tokai spends its funds gained from the 20.000 students attending the private university. Well, it is nice to look at I suppose. The decoration is also part of next week's university festival, where the campus will be transformed into a big spectacle of activities and events, with dozens of small booths and stages for various performances.
I guess it's about time I explain a bit about this new part-time job of mine. I was looking for something to replace the college-classes I quit a month ago (they were too exhausting, time-consuming and far away) so I registered my name in an online teacher database. Weeks later I got a call from an older lady who runs an English conversation school for children together with her daughter. I took the job which consists of doing classes in Kayama and Odawara (not more than 30 minutes away) and have now been teaching there for several weeks (this is in addition to the other "adult" classes I still have).
Depending on the class, the children range from being little angels that can melt your heart into warm streams of silver that flow into every part of your body and makes you feel all fuzzy just by the way they look at you, to hyperactive devils of mayhem, who would soon grab you in a fatal choke-hold had they only been tall enough (well okay, none of them are that bad). The activities involve anything from teaching letters of the alphabet and acting out small dialogues to playing word bingo or other simple games (it sounds easy, but The Devils can soon turn a basic numbers-game into chaos if you're not careful). Recently we held a small Halloween-party, and the kids wore masks they had made themselves, while I ran around with a pumpkin full of cookies trying to scare them using a glow-in-the-dark skeleton mask with a built-in microphone and speaker.
We had no less than FOUR earthquakes this evening, and I happened to be on the 31st floor of a hotel in Yokohama for the duration of all four of them! Quite a scary experience as the whole building was shaking back and forth for several minutes, and you can't really escape when you're on the top floor of a skyscraper. According to the news the first and biggest earthquake measured a preliminary magnitude of 6.8, and so far 2 deaths and more than 100 injured has been reported...Anyway, above is the view I couldn't really enjoy at the time.