Something wicked this way came...
It's been quite a few days since I last posted so I'll recap the last few days. On Monday a typhoon hit the Kansai area so it was extremely windy & rainy all day. I didn't mind whatsoever though because I was awoken at about 6:30 AM by a teacher phoning me to say that school was cancelled for the day. This was great for me because I was pretty tired from all the weddings I performed on the weekend.
Later in the afternoon Yukiko phoned me from work and asked me to bring our videocamera to her office. The CEO of her company was in town and couldn't get to Tokyo (the Shinkansen, bullet-train, was shut down because of the typhoon) so he wanted to film the presentation he was giving at the Osaka office. Being a real trooper, I packed the camera into a waterproof bag and challenged the mighty maelstrom at it's devastating peak. It was often do or die, grasping for footholds amidst the rubble, dodging the hailstorm of debris... OK, so I'm stretching things slightly. But it was a little tricky keeping my umbrella up as I rode my bike to the station.
After filming the meeting I joined Yukiko and some of her work colleagues/friends for dinner. We were planning to go to a Thai restaurant but it is closed on Mondays so we ended up at a nearby Japanese izakaya (pub). The food was good and I always enjoy chances to speak only Japanese. You'd be surprised, but even though I live in Japan I spend most of my time speaking English. At school I use English to speak to the students and the other English teachers. Most of my friends are foreigners so we usually speak English to each other. Yukiko & I speak a mix of Japanese and English. Speaking to other young Japanese people is always a good way to gauge my current ability. I was always aware of what they were talking about, but sometimes the details are hard to catch. Cultural knowledge is also difficult. When they talked about Japanese dramas, celebrity gossip, old catchphrases, I was pretty lost. You can't really learn these things without watching/experiencing them yourself. I've seen some of my European friends get really confused when my American friends and I start talking about things that happened in the Simpsons.
Tuesday was my day off from school (actually the 5th in a row if you've been keeping track) so I went to visit my friend Dan. We watched a really cheesy Mr. T educational show for kids that I downloaded from the Net. While it was filled with positive ideas and made with the best of intentions I'm sure the show backfired in every possible way. The show offered the lamest possible solutions for problems that young kids may be dealing with. The young boy turning his accidental stumble into the beginning of a break dancing routine to avoid being embarrassed being a key example.
Afterwards I went into Osaka to meet Yukiko and watch a movie. A friend of mine named Matt Kauffman writes for a monthly English magazine called Kansai Time Out. One of his monthly features is an article about movies that are somehow related to Japan. Being about Japanese characters, or stories taking place in Japan. Once a month this movie is screened at a night club in Osaka. This month's movie was a French film about spies/double agents working in Japan before WW2. While I didn't like this month's movie too much previous films have been great. Awful B-movies like The Manster and Karate: Hand of Death certainly stand out. Next month's movie Domo Arigato is in old fashioned 3d. I can't wait.
Later in the afternoon Yukiko phoned me from work and asked me to bring our videocamera to her office. The CEO of her company was in town and couldn't get to Tokyo (the Shinkansen, bullet-train, was shut down because of the typhoon) so he wanted to film the presentation he was giving at the Osaka office. Being a real trooper, I packed the camera into a waterproof bag and challenged the mighty maelstrom at it's devastating peak. It was often do or die, grasping for footholds amidst the rubble, dodging the hailstorm of debris... OK, so I'm stretching things slightly. But it was a little tricky keeping my umbrella up as I rode my bike to the station.
After filming the meeting I joined Yukiko and some of her work colleagues/friends for dinner. We were planning to go to a Thai restaurant but it is closed on Mondays so we ended up at a nearby Japanese izakaya (pub). The food was good and I always enjoy chances to speak only Japanese. You'd be surprised, but even though I live in Japan I spend most of my time speaking English. At school I use English to speak to the students and the other English teachers. Most of my friends are foreigners so we usually speak English to each other. Yukiko & I speak a mix of Japanese and English. Speaking to other young Japanese people is always a good way to gauge my current ability. I was always aware of what they were talking about, but sometimes the details are hard to catch. Cultural knowledge is also difficult. When they talked about Japanese dramas, celebrity gossip, old catchphrases, I was pretty lost. You can't really learn these things without watching/experiencing them yourself. I've seen some of my European friends get really confused when my American friends and I start talking about things that happened in the Simpsons.
Tuesday was my day off from school (actually the 5th in a row if you've been keeping track) so I went to visit my friend Dan. We watched a really cheesy Mr. T educational show for kids that I downloaded from the Net. While it was filled with positive ideas and made with the best of intentions I'm sure the show backfired in every possible way. The show offered the lamest possible solutions for problems that young kids may be dealing with. The young boy turning his accidental stumble into the beginning of a break dancing routine to avoid being embarrassed being a key example.
Afterwards I went into Osaka to meet Yukiko and watch a movie. A friend of mine named Matt Kauffman writes for a monthly English magazine called Kansai Time Out. One of his monthly features is an article about movies that are somehow related to Japan. Being about Japanese characters, or stories taking place in Japan. Once a month this movie is screened at a night club in Osaka. This month's movie was a French film about spies/double agents working in Japan before WW2. While I didn't like this month's movie too much previous films have been great. Awful B-movies like The Manster and Karate: Hand of Death certainly stand out. Next month's movie Domo Arigato is in old fashioned 3d. I can't wait.
posted by Jason at 4:28 PM
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