Japanese Whiskers

After months of inactivity and trying to set up a nice system for keeping all my photos in one place, I decided to pay for some nice hosting and host my blog and gallery on my own. So if anyone ever reads this, head over to sapricot.com and check it out. I haven't started actually blogging again yet, but I am adding photos to the gallery and sorting them, so there should be lots to look at for a while.

This week has been really busy, the weekend in particular. Saturday and Sunday have seen the coming and going of the yearly AIU Festival with participation from the local community as well. People have been preparing for months, with the last few weeks having been more and more busy. In the final week, a lot of people got way too little sleep, myself included. I slept about 5 hours on average I think, if not less. I'm really really tired, and still I've staid up late today. At least I can sleep in as long as I want tomorrow. It's gonna be really nice just lying in bed, waking up, and then turning around knowing that for once I don't have to get up.

As for the festival, me and the other Swedes, plus a few Japanese students were street vendors, selling "Swedish Pancakes" (basically crepes with jam and ice cream). We had a profit margin of about 50%, which is high to say the least. Not that the actual profit was that high - ¥42,000 - but it still feels good to have both pulled it off without any problems except the pleasant problem of selling out. On Saturday it rained, and not many people came, but we still sold rather well. Today (Sunday) though, the scy was a beautiful blue and the sun was scorching (for being in October), so we had customers pretty much constantly. We struggled to keep up with demand, but it was futile. At one time, we'd make a batch of pancakes and sell them in a few minutes. I think we sold more than twice as many today as yesterday. Quite a success.

The theme of the festival was "AI♥U", but somehow Halloween had snuck in as well. Kind of a strange mix if you ask me, but it seemed to work. I didn't have much time to check out the festival, since I was basically making pancakes all day long both days. Today for instance, I was actually frying pancakes constantly from 9 am until 2:40 pm. But still, I did manage to see a couple of things. My friends' choir for instance, and another guy I know who did his "ひとりでだってできるもん" dance act, which was really cool. Yesterday we had a small show with the Shorinji Kempo club, with about 7 people in the audiance...

It was a pretty awesome weekend, and now I'm really tired. Tired in a good way that is. The kind of tired you only get after exhausting yourself doing more or less physical work, and knowing you did well. The kind where you can sit down in a nice comfy sofa, lean back and sip at a coffee with a big satisfied smile on your lips.

And for today's kotowaza (proverb), of course I shall have to pick one about love.

恋と咳とは隠されぬ
koi to seki to wa kakusarenu
Love and a cough cannot be hidden
("love conquers all")

I know I said I would write more often, but alas I find myself too busy to even get enough sleep (something that is quite important to me.) Today though I started reading Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, a rather monumental book, and rightfully famous it seems. I'm not so sure I agree with Ms Rand's view of the world, but the book is interesting, has great suspense, and quite witty language. It's required reading the entrepreneurship class I'm taking, but that is not to say it is a book a would not have wanted to read had it been otherwise. It merely means choosing to read it at this time was done for me, of which I am actually thankful. All too often have I been in the mood for reading but given up after trying to decide which of all the great works of literature still unread that I should read. I can make decisions for others rather well when I try, but for myself I am sometimes struggling.

In other news, the AIU Festival kicks off on Saturday, it's a two day happening at which students will do all sorts of things to promote AIU, activate the local community and just generally have a good time. As for me, I'm the head chef of a food stand serving "Swedish pancakes", which are basically crepes with jam and ice cream. Our initial plan was to make Swedish meatballs, but prefectural health regulations made that impossible. We then thought of doing Swedish hash, which was likewise rejected (have you ever heard of barbecue being allowed but not frying meat in a frying pan?), so we just gave up and settled for something not particularly Swedish, but still something a lot of Swedes eat on a regular basis.

背に腹は代えられぬ
se ni hara wa kaerarenu
The back cannot take the place of the belly
("Self-preservation is the first law of nature")

Well, the new program I'm using, despite a random and annoying crash, seems to be working fine. It should hopefully help me keep a bit more active than I've been during the summer. Here's to hoping!

Why sentimentality then, you ask? Well I'll tell you why. Because this week a couple of students brought in an N64, three controllers and Super Mario Cart 64. All right, it's not as sentimental as the original SNES game would have been, but it's pretty close, and a damn good game. I haven't actually gotten to play yet, since I'm quite busy with homework and... erm.... other things, but I will do as soon as I can.

I'm starting a tradition today in this post. I bought a book about Japanese proverbs, and since I love proverbs, I will start writing one in each post from now on. The first one is the title of the book, and a quite common and useful proverb. Here we go:

猿も木から落ちる
saru mo ki kara ochiru
even monkeys fall from trees
("even homer sometimes nods")

It's 2 in the morning and I have school tomorrow, but I was up watching a movie and some TV until rather late, and decided to find a good blogging tool. So I'm basically writing this to try out this one tool I found which seems rather nice. Btw, the movie I saw was Kingdom of Heaven, and it was surprisingly good and unbiased.

Still haven't had time to fix photos I'm afraid. Damn it, I really need to work on my time management skills.

And I'm terribly sorry I have once again been such a lazy ass when it comes to updating this blog. If there is actually anyone still reading this I am surprised, but also thankful. Thanks dude!

So anyway, the reason why? Can't really say. One reason is that I am now so busy I only have time to do the bare essentials. Eat, sleep, and do homework. Apart from being with my girl that is. Oh I didn't tell anyone about my girl did I? Well, I have a girlfriend now, you see. She's the most wonderful girl in the world. I've had a few attempts at relationships before, but this is it, baby. This is the real thing. And I'm just happy. So happy. It's amazing what a little love can do to you. I will try to get back with a picture or two of this God's most wonderful creation. Just like I said I'd be back with pictues of my trip... erm... yeah, like that. This time I really mean it! Really!

In other news, I am taking some really interesting, though intensive, courses this semster. Business Management and Entrepreneurship are both filled with lots of reading and actual thought process required. But thanks to the great teachers, Dr. Nishikawa and Dr. Lacktorin, they are both among the most enjoyable classes I've ever taken. And I'm only a couple of weeks into the semester.

This weekend I had a lot of fun, all that homework aside. Today we went to Akita City, me and a bunch of other students, and had nomihoudai, which is basically "all you can drink". Loads of fun, with free Karaoke and lots of beer and drinks. On Saturday I also had a lot of fun, even though I got a bit sunburned. We went on a school arranged trip to a mountain and hot springs. After an hour hike on the mountain we got back to the bus and stopped at an Onsen on the way back. The water smelled a bit bad, but felt really good. I really do love Onsen. I want to go to other exaotic ones, wherever they are. It's just so great.

Anyway, that should be it for now. I truly hope I will get some time to get pictures up. There's just so many...

Ok, a bit late, but not as much as usual... this will mostly be a pictures post. I went on a nine day trip around middle Honshu (the big banana shaped island of Japan). I stayed two nights in Tokyo, one in Nagoya, another two at a friends place in Ise, and finally two nights at another friends house in Niigata. In Tokyo, I went shopping with a friend, and took a long nice walk through Ueno park. I went from Tokyo to Nagoya late in the afternoon, and left Nagoya early in the morning, so I didn't get to see anything except the really big station building (two towers, the higher of them 245 metres high). I did have a nice long chat with a complete stranger I met at my capsule hotel though. And watched Japan beat South Korea in the football world cup qualifiers. At least I think they beat them, didn't watch the last minutes...

Anyway, on to Ise I was. Ise is a small rural town two hours south of Nagoya. It is pretty much famous for one thing and one thing only: The Jingu. The Jingu is probably Japans most famous, and important, Shinto shrine. It holds the house of Amaterasu, the Japanese Sun Goddess, and consists of over a hundred shrines. Apart from the fact that it was very crowded, it was a really nice experience. The trees around the complex were huge and beautiful, and had it not been for the crowd, I am sure the serenity would have been utterly stunning.

Next I went to Kyoto for a day, which is far too little considering it is the traditional capital of Japan and one of the most historically rich cities of the world. I only had time to go to two places, and I didn't want to take the very best this time, to give me something to look forward to for when I come back. So I went to Nijo castle, which was right next to my hotel, and having picked up a tourist map, spotted a botanical garden which I also visited. The castle was quite impressing, but the gardens weren't that big, and late summer isn't anywhere near as good as spring or early summer when it comes to flower watching in Japan. So even though it was interesting, I was a bit dissappointed. I did get some good sleep though, in what is definitely the best cheap hotel I have ever slept in. For ¥4200 (about $40) I expected a tiny room with a tiny bathroom and a general feeling of "capsule hotel is better than this!". Ok, the bathroom was incredibly small, but the room, oh the room! To start with it was big enough to move around in. Second of all, it was a twin room. Yes, they aparently only have twin rooms. Finally, it had bright white walls, a big wide window and generally felt airy and nice.

After Kyoto, I was off to Niigata, for what I thought would be just the night. Turned out though, that my friend and his sister wanted me to stay a bit longer, to go to the circus. And seeing as I didn't really have much in terms of plans anyway, I decided to stay. Which was a good decision. My friends family was really nice, and they own, among other things, a so called sakaya, which is basically a little store for drinks of all kinds, and stuff to go with the drinks, such as snacks and instant noodles. And so whenever I was thirsty, I'd just go grab something. The house was huge too, for Japanese standards. I've gotten used to having to step over each other to go anywhere, but here was a house with many and big rooms. My room had a raised floor, remote controlled air conditining, remote controlled lights, and a pretty big TV set. Oh, and a big alcove with a piano. So anyway, we went to the circus, which was quite interesting, though extremelly hot. Some of the performers were quite amazingly skillful. We then went for some shopping at a place called Don Quixote, a crowded place overflowing with almost anything you can imagine, usually at quite a nice price. I found a lightly striped, off white linen jacket. Almost exactly what I've been wanting for quite a while. And it was only ¥3000. Now I need to get a nice pair of pants to go with them. My shorts look nice enough, but a jacket really demands long pants.

Finally, on Saturday I took a very early but quite conveniant train ride back to Akita. Getting back to the school has felt a bit weird. There's like five people here right now, and all but me and Ramon have part time jobs or else just stay in their rooms. Quite boring. Though of course, I'm working my part time job Wednesday to Friday this week, so I'll be quite busy myself.

Looks like it's getting late here, and I have a few other things to take care of. Pictures will have to wait until tomorrow evening.

Hey again, my faithful and most patient readers! I'm sorry I have been even less updaty than normal, but summer vacation has kept me rather busy. First by the yearly Kanto Festival right here in Akita, then lots of sad goodbyes and what-not, followed by 9 days of travelling around Japan. I will get into the travelling bit more tomorrow or the day after, once I get pictures sorted out and the like. For now, I shall talk a little about Kanto.

Kanto Matsuri ("festival" in Japanese) is the biggest one in Akita, and has rather long traditions. What it basically constitutes is lots of strong men liften huge, heavy (50+ kg) poles with big lanterns hanging from them and balancing them on their hands, heads, shoulders and even hips. Accompanied by droning drums, flutes and the audience's cheering. There's about 400 of these poles beeing hoisted next to each other down one of the bigger streets in Akita City. The spectacle goes on for four days, attracting roughly a million visitors in total. Yes, a million people gathered in a city who's normal population is about 300,000. That's a buttload of people, I can tell you that! I went to watch this crazy event two times, though the second was so crowded, and we were so tired, we went home early. AIU had a team of brave young men and women (women playing drums and flute, since they're actually not allowed to lift the actual Kanto) doing their best at honoring their school. They did pretty well, I have to say. They did drop the big pole a couple of times, but I think most teams did. Just look at the pictures, and imagine having 50 kg sitting on your forhead, and you'll get some idea of how hard this really is.

Well not all of them, but most of my favorites. Friday was the sayonara party/ceremony, with I don't know how many pictures and how many tears. People were crying all over the place. Of course, I don't blame them. Some of them have been here for a whole year and when you live like we do here, you become great friends in a very short time. You see, there's really not much else to do around here, than to just hang out together. That and play stupid puzzle games on the Gamecube someone kindly put in the lobby for everyone's enjoyment or annoyance, depending on who you ask.

I will not write about it here, but one of the people who went home has left me feeling rather empty. I'm hoping that email and chatting will alleviate it a little, but yesterday I spent mostly staring blankly into the air, the loneliness sinking in. Of course, having absolutely nothing to do almost all day didn't make it better. We were some ten or so people hanging about in the lobby, all looking tired, sad, or just spaced out. It's rather amazing how quickly things can go from lively and happy to this.

When I said I almost didn't do anything yesterday, what I was referring to was going with some people to Akita City and a tiny but nice reggae club. A reggae club, in the rural city of Akita. Quite astonishing if you ask me. Although I really should stop being surprised at things around here. Had a pretty good time, though I wasn't particularly in the mood for dancing, or drinking for that matter (since I've promissed myself never to get drunk as a way of "taking the pain away"). Also I was so tired I sat down and almost fell asleep even with speakers 4 feet away. Went back very early, and forced myself to add everyone's contact information to my address book before I forgot who's who. I probably got a few of the addresses wrong, but hopefully no one really important.

I will try to get some pictures up in a couple of days, when I have the strength of will to go through them.

Drawing to an end. I am rather shocked by the revelation. It's just one week left until summer break. In just over a week, half of the friends I've made here so far will go back to their countries. I am going to have some problems adjusting, I think. I will be looking around the lobby, the cafeteria and library, and just stare vacantly at the empty seats where Tony, Kelly, May, Burtu, Tugana, Burma, Meg, Lily, Lee, Sunny and all the others used to sit. Not to mention the summer program students, whom I haven't gotten to know as well, but still have had some good times with.

Man, I'm gonna miss you all!

Hopefully, the new students coming in September will all be nice people, I'm sure they will be. If almost everyone I've met up to this point have been nice, the possibility of a new batch of people being all assholes seems rather slim. But you never know I guess.

So what's happened here recently? Not that much, I'm afraid. Mostly I've been busy with loads of homework, assignments and final papers. Not to mention studying for my three finals (yeah, likely. - conscience). Have been watching quite a lot of movies lately though. Some of which were really good, others which were hardly worth the time spent watching them. One of the better ones was Office Space, an hysterical look at the world of cubicled office work drones. Really a must see. At the very bottom of the scale was Alexander, which shouldn't need an intro, and shouldn't be allowed an extro. Damn that movie sucked tar drenched donkey balls. I can't believe Oliver Stone, the guy who graced our lives with the Platoon, could end up excreting such a horrid piece of "film".