Thursday, October 29, 2009
Friday, October 23, 2009
Rock band circle
So on Friday I contacted my friend Seiya about the band meeting that night. He couldn't make it, but he got someone else to help me find the meeting room. The group was bigger than I thought. I thought the circles were just one band, but it turns out that the rock band circle is a collection of people that find others to make various bands from. A group of people will usually try to make a cover band.
I found someone who spoke English, so I was able to express my intentions to them fully and they helped hook me up with other people of the same interests. We talked about different bands we were into. It was cool, I got to practice Japanese, they got to practice some English. There is going to be a festival next week where the different bands will perform. I'll probably go there and scope out different groups. Here is a picture of the guy who helped me out a lot that night.
After the festival, people will be looking to make different groups for the next performance in the spring. I think that I will try and get a group together to do a metal band. There are not many metal fans in the circle, but within that group we have a few guitarists and a bassist. We still need a drummer.
One guy said that he would like to use me in a ska band as a trumpet player since I can play trumpet. That would be neat. But that means I need to rent a trumpet or ship mine over here.
After the meeting was over, the group went to a restaurant and had some ramen. The kind I got was super spicy. It was good though.
After the restaurant, they all went back on campus and had some snacks at the small park area. There were some people in the group that would try to speak English to me the whole time, but their English wasn't very good, so they would fall back on Japanese. So I ended up getting some good Japanese practice in. I've realized recently that learning to use Linux bash is very much like learning a language. You learn a useful command, so you end up using it a lot and remembering it well.
One guy went and bought some soupy type thing with various big items in it. It was interesting. It was hot and tasted alright.
We ended up hanging out at the park until about 11. We all went our separate ways after that. It was a good night. I met a bunch of Japanese people. This rock band circle seems promising. I am relieved that I have found a good way to meet people and practice Japanese.
I found someone who spoke English, so I was able to express my intentions to them fully and they helped hook me up with other people of the same interests. We talked about different bands we were into. It was cool, I got to practice Japanese, they got to practice some English. There is going to be a festival next week where the different bands will perform. I'll probably go there and scope out different groups. Here is a picture of the guy who helped me out a lot that night.
After the festival, people will be looking to make different groups for the next performance in the spring. I think that I will try and get a group together to do a metal band. There are not many metal fans in the circle, but within that group we have a few guitarists and a bassist. We still need a drummer.
One guy said that he would like to use me in a ska band as a trumpet player since I can play trumpet. That would be neat. But that means I need to rent a trumpet or ship mine over here.
After the meeting was over, the group went to a restaurant and had some ramen. The kind I got was super spicy. It was good though.
After the restaurant, they all went back on campus and had some snacks at the small park area. There were some people in the group that would try to speak English to me the whole time, but their English wasn't very good, so they would fall back on Japanese. So I ended up getting some good Japanese practice in. I've realized recently that learning to use Linux bash is very much like learning a language. You learn a useful command, so you end up using it a lot and remembering it well.
One guy went and bought some soupy type thing with various big items in it. It was interesting. It was hot and tasted alright.
We ended up hanging out at the park until about 11. We all went our separate ways after that. It was a good night. I met a bunch of Japanese people. This rock band circle seems promising. I am relieved that I have found a good way to meet people and practice Japanese.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Saturday b-day partay
So Saturday was Sarah's birthday. Attila being the nice guy he is got her a cake and a card. We all surprised her with it at her room. She just happened to get out of the shower at that time, so it was kind of badly timed.
I was pretty impressed with my timing on this shot. If you look at it closely, I took it just as some of the candles were being extinguished. You can see the flames almost dying. Attila is holding the cake. We let her get dressed and we had her cake in a community lounge area. It was very good.
We went to this place called Aqua to have nomihodai to celebrate Sarah's birthday. Nomihodai is a deal some bars do that lets you drink as much as you want for 2 hours for around $15. It is pretty nice if you like getting trashed. Not so much if you don't really want to get drunk (me). Here is sarah in her outfit for the night. Kyle bought her the crown.
Here are some pictures of the event. It was a fun time. Some of the guys kept talking about their new bicycle gang called "Gaijintensya". The name is a play on words because the word for foreigner is "gaijin" and the word for bicycle is "jitensya". So they kind of tied them together into one word. Their salut was them shouting "GAIJINTENSYA, HOO!" It was pretty funny.
I got a little more drunk than I wanted to be. I didn't really want to get drunk in the first place. But I like beer, and I am susceptible to peer pressure apparently. Conclusion: I am not going to nomihodai again unless it is mission critical for some reason. I went just for social opportunities. It isn't worth it.
I was pretty impressed with my timing on this shot. If you look at it closely, I took it just as some of the candles were being extinguished. You can see the flames almost dying. Attila is holding the cake. We let her get dressed and we had her cake in a community lounge area. It was very good.We went to this place called Aqua to have nomihodai to celebrate Sarah's birthday. Nomihodai is a deal some bars do that lets you drink as much as you want for 2 hours for around $15. It is pretty nice if you like getting trashed. Not so much if you don't really want to get drunk (me). Here is sarah in her outfit for the night. Kyle bought her the crown.
Here are some pictures of the event. It was a fun time. Some of the guys kept talking about their new bicycle gang called "Gaijintensya". The name is a play on words because the word for foreigner is "gaijin" and the word for bicycle is "jitensya". So they kind of tied them together into one word. Their salut was them shouting "GAIJINTENSYA, HOO!" It was pretty funny.
I got a little more drunk than I wanted to be. I didn't really want to get drunk in the first place. But I like beer, and I am susceptible to peer pressure apparently. Conclusion: I am not going to nomihodai again unless it is mission critical for some reason. I went just for social opportunities. It isn't worth it.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Tokyo trip with uncle Tim
We started the night on the train to Tokyo. It was about an hour ride. On the way to the Inage station, we saw the sun setting.
It was a pretty nice view. We also saw it a bit on the train, but I didn't manage to get a picture of it. I still got a nice looking shot though.
On the way there, uncle Tim showed me our destinations on his map of the Tokyo train system. At first glance, the map is a web of confusion and despair.
It is actually not that hard to find things on it though. Before the day of, I had no idea what we were going to do in Tokyo. Turns out uncle Tim had a pretty good plan set up for us.
So Akihabara was our first stop. For those not acquainted with Akihabara, it is a large electronics district in Tokyo. Probably the best place in the world to go to find anything electronic. It was really cool and interesting. I am definitely going back there in a week or two to get some audio equipment. I have badly needed a new pair of full sized headphones for a couple of months. I am always hesitant to make an investment like that though.
We went to a building that had 8 floors of stores. 7 of the floors were dedicated to misc electronics. The top two were a restaurant and something else. I went around and looked at different speaker systems and headphones. I found one of each that I thought would be a good purchase, but I decided to wait to buy them. I didn't want to drag that stuff around the rest of the night. Here is a picture of the building's floor guide.
And a picture of the building from the outside
Just walking the streets of Tokyo is cool because of all the different people walking around. One thing you never see in the states that is everywhere here is salesmen shouting about their product out on the streets into a microphone. I took a little video of the street just to give you an idea of the atmosphere. Really nothing exciting in this one.
Here is a picture I took when we were walking down the road.
I'm not sure if this was in Akihabara or what, but we went to see Tokyo's equivalent to New York's Times Square. This is supposed to be the busiest intersection in the world. There certainly were a lot of people there. Here is a view of the intersection from the street.
And here is the view from the Starbucks we went to.
After we were done looking around Akihabara, we went back on the train to get to a sushi restaurant that my uncle likes. Here is another picture of a map of the subways.
Some pictures of the subway.
One thing you will notice is the yellow lines on the ground. I thought they had those on the sidewalks to separate pedestrian and bike traffic, but uncle Tim said that it was for blind people. It being down in the subway and having the different patterns at corners and intersections with the road really makes sense. This next picture shows a fairly packed train.
So we got to the sushi restaurant. It turned out this was one of those conveyor belt sushi places. It was mostly nigiri sushi which is the chunk of raw fish on some rice. It was delicious. Here is me being awkward for the camera.
And here is the series of sushi I picked off the conveyor.
This was some good salmon with a cheesy topping. It was one of my favorites. Who doesn't love salmon?
This one looked interesting, so I grabbed it. I didn't realize the purple and gold plates were the most expensive. It wasn't very good either. They all were kind of bland. I asked the chef what was in the yellow one, it apparently had nuts and such in it. I asked him in Japanese, he responded in English. His English was very good. It was kind of funny because uncle Tim comes here fairly often and recognized that guy, but he didn't know he could speak English.
I am not sure what kind of fish this was. It had a very light flavor and had a stronger hint of lemon to it than the others.
I grabbed this one because it looked like there was beef jerky on the rice. I think it may have been jerked fish or something. It was kind of a more moist, fishy jerky. I enjoyed it.
I am not sure what fish this was, but it was delicious. It was very tender and had a sweet sauce on it. There is rice under that monster btw.
This was my last sushi. It had a cheesy/mayonasey sauce on it. It had a bit of a smoky flavor to it. This one was also very good. I think it was kind of funny that I inadvertently showed the plates piling up in the corner of each picture. Here is a picture of Tim's and my plates at the end of the meal.
The way they tallied up the price in the end is that they had RFID's in the plates, so someone just came over and swiped each plate over a device, quick and easy. Here is the shop as we were exiting.
The spouts at each seating area you see are hot water dispensers for green tea. There was a box of tea bags at each place. The good English speaker is on the left bent over working on something.
Now we were off to an Irish pub! It was kind of hidden in the city a bit. We both got a pink of Kilkenny which is a beer is managed and produced by Diageo. They also make Guinness. This was very much like Guinness but with a lighter color and flavor. It has the exact same texture and feel to it. I enjoyed it thoroughly, but I don't think I like it better than Guinness. Here is a picture of the Kilkenny still in the frothing stage that Guinness is famous for.
The absolute worst thing about Japan is the price of some of my favorite beers. Here is the menu they had displayed at the pub we went to.
There was no cover charge for entering the place at least.
It had a live band playing with all Japanese members except for the singer who was a white woman. They did covers of misc classic rock like The Beatles and Led Zeppelin. They were fairly good. I enjoyed the show.
Concerts like these are always hard to photograph because it is dim and using flash is not an option unless you want to be a total dick to the performers. After a couple of songs, we had to go because uncle Tim needed to get back to his hotel. It was a really fun night. I'll probably take some people down to Tokyo and do something similar later on. here is a picture of us on the train home. I kind of cut uncle Tim's face out a little bit accidentally.
Thanks uncle Tim for a great time!
It was a pretty nice view. We also saw it a bit on the train, but I didn't manage to get a picture of it. I still got a nice looking shot though.
On the way there, uncle Tim showed me our destinations on his map of the Tokyo train system. At first glance, the map is a web of confusion and despair.
It is actually not that hard to find things on it though. Before the day of, I had no idea what we were going to do in Tokyo. Turns out uncle Tim had a pretty good plan set up for us.So Akihabara was our first stop. For those not acquainted with Akihabara, it is a large electronics district in Tokyo. Probably the best place in the world to go to find anything electronic. It was really cool and interesting. I am definitely going back there in a week or two to get some audio equipment. I have badly needed a new pair of full sized headphones for a couple of months. I am always hesitant to make an investment like that though.
We went to a building that had 8 floors of stores. 7 of the floors were dedicated to misc electronics. The top two were a restaurant and something else. I went around and looked at different speaker systems and headphones. I found one of each that I thought would be a good purchase, but I decided to wait to buy them. I didn't want to drag that stuff around the rest of the night. Here is a picture of the building's floor guide.
And a picture of the building from the outside
Just walking the streets of Tokyo is cool because of all the different people walking around. One thing you never see in the states that is everywhere here is salesmen shouting about their product out on the streets into a microphone. I took a little video of the street just to give you an idea of the atmosphere. Really nothing exciting in this one.Here is a picture I took when we were walking down the road.
I'm not sure if this was in Akihabara or what, but we went to see Tokyo's equivalent to New York's Times Square. This is supposed to be the busiest intersection in the world. There certainly were a lot of people there. Here is a view of the intersection from the street.And here is the view from the Starbucks we went to.
After we were done looking around Akihabara, we went back on the train to get to a sushi restaurant that my uncle likes. Here is another picture of a map of the subways.
Some pictures of the subway.
One thing you will notice is the yellow lines on the ground. I thought they had those on the sidewalks to separate pedestrian and bike traffic, but uncle Tim said that it was for blind people. It being down in the subway and having the different patterns at corners and intersections with the road really makes sense. This next picture shows a fairly packed train.
So we got to the sushi restaurant. It turned out this was one of those conveyor belt sushi places. It was mostly nigiri sushi which is the chunk of raw fish on some rice. It was delicious. Here is me being awkward for the camera.
And here is the series of sushi I picked off the conveyor.
This was some good salmon with a cheesy topping. It was one of my favorites. Who doesn't love salmon?
This one looked interesting, so I grabbed it. I didn't realize the purple and gold plates were the most expensive. It wasn't very good either. They all were kind of bland. I asked the chef what was in the yellow one, it apparently had nuts and such in it. I asked him in Japanese, he responded in English. His English was very good. It was kind of funny because uncle Tim comes here fairly often and recognized that guy, but he didn't know he could speak English.
I am not sure what kind of fish this was. It had a very light flavor and had a stronger hint of lemon to it than the others.
I grabbed this one because it looked like there was beef jerky on the rice. I think it may have been jerked fish or something. It was kind of a more moist, fishy jerky. I enjoyed it.
I am not sure what fish this was, but it was delicious. It was very tender and had a sweet sauce on it. There is rice under that monster btw.
This was my last sushi. It had a cheesy/mayonasey sauce on it. It had a bit of a smoky flavor to it. This one was also very good. I think it was kind of funny that I inadvertently showed the plates piling up in the corner of each picture. Here is a picture of Tim's and my plates at the end of the meal.
The way they tallied up the price in the end is that they had RFID's in the plates, so someone just came over and swiped each plate over a device, quick and easy. Here is the shop as we were exiting.
The spouts at each seating area you see are hot water dispensers for green tea. There was a box of tea bags at each place. The good English speaker is on the left bent over working on something.Now we were off to an Irish pub! It was kind of hidden in the city a bit. We both got a pink of Kilkenny which is a beer is managed and produced by Diageo. They also make Guinness. This was very much like Guinness but with a lighter color and flavor. It has the exact same texture and feel to it. I enjoyed it thoroughly, but I don't think I like it better than Guinness. Here is a picture of the Kilkenny still in the frothing stage that Guinness is famous for.
The absolute worst thing about Japan is the price of some of my favorite beers. Here is the menu they had displayed at the pub we went to.
There was no cover charge for entering the place at least.It had a live band playing with all Japanese members except for the singer who was a white woman. They did covers of misc classic rock like The Beatles and Led Zeppelin. They were fairly good. I enjoyed the show.
Concerts like these are always hard to photograph because it is dim and using flash is not an option unless you want to be a total dick to the performers. After a couple of songs, we had to go because uncle Tim needed to get back to his hotel. It was a really fun night. I'll probably take some people down to Tokyo and do something similar later on. here is a picture of us on the train home. I kind of cut uncle Tim's face out a little bit accidentally.
Thanks uncle Tim for a great time!
Thursday, October 15, 2009
First quiz, cell phone
So I had my first vocab quiz today. It went well. We would usually have a grammar quiz the next day, but the teacher said we wont have one this week.
I also went to a world economy class. A student did a presentation on Butan. It is a country above India, below China. They were talking a lot about how it had a low GDP, but a high HDP or whatever acronym they used. HDP was some kind of happiness index of the people. It seemed like a pretty interesting place.
I got a cell phone finally. I went to SoftBank with Hongjoo and got the cheapest phone with the basic plan. I wanted to get the SoftBank slippers from them, but apparently those are only given to customers that switch to softbank from another provider. Here is the phone:
The little open button is cool at first, but the mechanism makes it hard to close the phone. My choices were between a few different colors of the phone I got, or a slightly smaller white phone. This one had one or two more features, so I decided to get it. I kind of think I should have gotten the white one since it looked nicer and the hinge felt better to me. Oh well. The basic plan has unlimited minutes for calling other Softbank members before 9PM, but it costs about $0.40 a minute otherwise.... Kind of shitty, but I can live with it. Most everyone has SoftBank. I rarely talk on the phone for longer than a minute or two. And the fixed monthly cost is only $10. I'll probly be texting a lot more than talking too.
I also went to a world economy class. A student did a presentation on Butan. It is a country above India, below China. They were talking a lot about how it had a low GDP, but a high HDP or whatever acronym they used. HDP was some kind of happiness index of the people. It seemed like a pretty interesting place.
I got a cell phone finally. I went to SoftBank with Hongjoo and got the cheapest phone with the basic plan. I wanted to get the SoftBank slippers from them, but apparently those are only given to customers that switch to softbank from another provider. Here is the phone:
The little open button is cool at first, but the mechanism makes it hard to close the phone. My choices were between a few different colors of the phone I got, or a slightly smaller white phone. This one had one or two more features, so I decided to get it. I kind of think I should have gotten the white one since it looked nicer and the hinge felt better to me. Oh well. The basic plan has unlimited minutes for calling other Softbank members before 9PM, but it costs about $0.40 a minute otherwise.... Kind of shitty, but I can live with it. Most everyone has SoftBank. I rarely talk on the phone for longer than a minute or two. And the fixed monthly cost is only $10. I'll probly be texting a lot more than talking too.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
quick update
Sorry for the brief hiatus. I kind of didn't have time/didn't feel like updating. I figured I would use the time between vocab reviews to update the blog. My JPN teacher all of a sudden told us we needed to memorize 46 vocab words for a quiz tomorrow. I luckily already knew more than half of them already. *phew*
So Japanese classes are going better than expected. After attending a few classes of the Japanese I got into, I've discovered that this will actually be really good for me. The classes I am in for Japanese focus on exactly what I am lacking on right now: grammar and listening practice. I am taking two levels of Japanese at the same time: 121, and 131. 121 is the level 2 beginner class. It is kind of embarrassing to be in that class, but I never really got very good grammar practice in Kato Sensei's class... 131 is the pre-intermediate class. It focuses on listening practice. I will also be taking a Kanji and oral composition practice class. I think these will all be pretty positive.
As for other classes, I am still feeling my way around finding what I want to take. I think I'll take one sports class to fill a spot/meet Japanese people: table tennis. The Mongolian guy I met early on saw me today and told me about a control engineering class he is taking in English. So I think I might take that with me. Maybe get some credit towards my degree??? I am excited to take an engineering class. These humanities classes kind of bore me. Most likely because I often don't see a need to study the topic given for those classes. I'm always up for a good science/math/engineering class.
I'm starting to learn that knowing people really gets you places. Just having connections will get you far pretty easily it seems. The person doesn't even really have to know you well to help you out immensely. If they have met you once before, they are quite likely to give you a hand.
For example: I went to a Japanese politics class today to see if I would like it at all. The class ended up being a real bore. The teacher was kind of hard to understand. I did meet a Japanese guy named Seiya. He was telling Lauri (another exchange student) and I how he really wanted to learn more English and that he really loves metal rock music. He literally said to the whole class when we did self introductions "Please teach me English!" Both Lauri and I are fans of Metal, so we got along pretty well. I asked Seiya if he is part of a rock band club at the university. It turns out he is. He was very helpful in getting Lauri and I involved with the university’s rock music community. He brought us to the rooms where the different music groups practice. The place had a great feel to it. It was just some rundown cement structure. I'll be going to a meeting for one group on Friday to ask if I could sing for them. Lauri has played keyboard for bands previously, so he is going to do that. So, that was pretty sweet. I have kind of been in the dark as to how I will get into one of the rock clubs until now.
It was quite clear that Saiya mostly wanted to know Lauri and I to learn English. Saiya's English was not all that good, so I think that hanging out with him wont be bad. He will end up speaking Japanese, I'll end up speaking English at times. I think it will be mutually beneficial hanging out with him. We will see how it goes. Just talking to him and my tutors today helped me a bit with my Japanese. I will never forget the word ばしょ(place). I didn't know the word at all before, but I used it a lot today.
I am trying to speak Japanese so frequently and failing so much that I am starting to feel incompetent sometimes. It was kind of funny to me. I was feeling like this today, but then I spoke in English to another student and realized "HEY! I'm not incompetent! I can express myself! In English at least." It was a really funny thought to me.
I skipped breakfast today. Mostly because I think I have been eating too many eggs and I didn't have much more than eggs, rice, and curry in my room.
Lunch was pasta at an Italian restaurant with my Japanese tutor. It turns out she is 22 as well! She is a grad student! I was unaware that Japanese people start school earlier and get to grad school by about the age of 18!
Dinner was boring today. I just went to a grocery store and bought some sushi and cold black tea. It was my first sushi meal in Japan. Certainly wasn't disappointing. I bought dinner because I didn't feel like making it tonight.
OK, back to vocab studying!
So Japanese classes are going better than expected. After attending a few classes of the Japanese I got into, I've discovered that this will actually be really good for me. The classes I am in for Japanese focus on exactly what I am lacking on right now: grammar and listening practice. I am taking two levels of Japanese at the same time: 121, and 131. 121 is the level 2 beginner class. It is kind of embarrassing to be in that class, but I never really got very good grammar practice in Kato Sensei's class... 131 is the pre-intermediate class. It focuses on listening practice. I will also be taking a Kanji and oral composition practice class. I think these will all be pretty positive.
As for other classes, I am still feeling my way around finding what I want to take. I think I'll take one sports class to fill a spot/meet Japanese people: table tennis. The Mongolian guy I met early on saw me today and told me about a control engineering class he is taking in English. So I think I might take that with me. Maybe get some credit towards my degree??? I am excited to take an engineering class. These humanities classes kind of bore me. Most likely because I often don't see a need to study the topic given for those classes. I'm always up for a good science/math/engineering class.
I'm starting to learn that knowing people really gets you places. Just having connections will get you far pretty easily it seems. The person doesn't even really have to know you well to help you out immensely. If they have met you once before, they are quite likely to give you a hand.
For example: I went to a Japanese politics class today to see if I would like it at all. The class ended up being a real bore. The teacher was kind of hard to understand. I did meet a Japanese guy named Seiya. He was telling Lauri (another exchange student) and I how he really wanted to learn more English and that he really loves metal rock music. He literally said to the whole class when we did self introductions "Please teach me English!" Both Lauri and I are fans of Metal, so we got along pretty well. I asked Seiya if he is part of a rock band club at the university. It turns out he is. He was very helpful in getting Lauri and I involved with the university’s rock music community. He brought us to the rooms where the different music groups practice. The place had a great feel to it. It was just some rundown cement structure. I'll be going to a meeting for one group on Friday to ask if I could sing for them. Lauri has played keyboard for bands previously, so he is going to do that. So, that was pretty sweet. I have kind of been in the dark as to how I will get into one of the rock clubs until now.
It was quite clear that Saiya mostly wanted to know Lauri and I to learn English. Saiya's English was not all that good, so I think that hanging out with him wont be bad. He will end up speaking Japanese, I'll end up speaking English at times. I think it will be mutually beneficial hanging out with him. We will see how it goes. Just talking to him and my tutors today helped me a bit with my Japanese. I will never forget the word ばしょ(place). I didn't know the word at all before, but I used it a lot today.
I am trying to speak Japanese so frequently and failing so much that I am starting to feel incompetent sometimes. It was kind of funny to me. I was feeling like this today, but then I spoke in English to another student and realized "HEY! I'm not incompetent! I can express myself! In English at least." It was a really funny thought to me.
I skipped breakfast today. Mostly because I think I have been eating too many eggs and I didn't have much more than eggs, rice, and curry in my room.
Lunch was pasta at an Italian restaurant with my Japanese tutor. It turns out she is 22 as well! She is a grad student! I was unaware that Japanese people start school earlier and get to grad school by about the age of 18!
Dinner was boring today. I just went to a grocery store and bought some sushi and cold black tea. It was my first sushi meal in Japan. Certainly wasn't disappointing. I bought dinner because I didn't feel like making it tonight.
OK, back to vocab studying!
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Friday, October 9, 2009
Friday was an interesting day..
It started out pretty quiet. I went to campus to go to a Japanese class but couldn't find it in the building. Since I was just going to see what the class was like and not neccesarily planning on taking it, this was no big deal.
I went into the Japanese tutor room to use one of the computers for the internet connection. I sent a few e-mails and studied vocab with smart.fm. I also did some kanji studying with Anki there as well. I pretty much did that and had lunch on campus until my class at 2:30.
For lunch I had a "豚みそ丼” which is a bowl of rice with some pork and miso I guess. It was very delicious. I found out that there is free hot green tea at that cafeteria. So I got that rather than buying a drink this time around.
After lunch I went to a convenience store to get something sweet. I picked this white bun thing at random since I wanted to try something potentially new. I think it was a kind of peanut butter and cream thing on the inside. I didn't like it very much. It had some strange taste to it. The cream kind of tasted like that you have in a tiramisu.
My 2:30 class went well. The teacher is nice. She went to Tokyo University, which is very impressive.
After class was done, I went home and it was already about 5:10. I cooked up some veggie curry that had some onion, potato, and carrot in it. It was fairly standard curry. I went to the TV lounge to wonder what the people on the screen are saying while I ate my curry. I met a Chinese guy whose name in Chinese is Jiang, in Japanese is Kyo, and in English is James. I like to refer to him as Kyo. He was a pretty friendly guy. He spoke Chinese, Japanese, and English all fairly fluently. He was better with Japanese than English. He said I spoke Japanese well for only studying it for two years in university. It was mostly my accent that was good. I still can only speak in very simple terms in Japanese.
Some of the American guys from the floor came in and said they were going to play beer pong. I explained the game to Kyo in Japanese since he didn't understand. I've actually never played beer pong, but have seen it on YouTube or whatever else. We ended up not playing.
Kyo said he was having a really hard time learning English. That trying to read English was so hard for him. I thought this was crazy since he can read effing Chinese. By comparison, I would think it would be so easy to read English once you can speak it. It sounded like he was having a hard time remembering vocab. So I hooked him up with Anki.
It soon got to be around 8:00. Anna was planning a Karaoke trip, so we all went to the meeting place. I invited Kyo to go with us. He accepted and came with. The group ended up being huge. It was about 25~30 people! We all went to this place to get drinks and a little food first. It had a long table with cushions. It was just big enough for our group. So it worked out.
The deal with this place was that everyone pays about $15.00 and you get unlimited drinks for 2 or 3 hours. But we all had to choose between drinking martinis and hard liquor or beer exclusively for some odd reason. We went with the martini choice since there were a lot more choices in that category.
The group on our way to the bar
At the drinking place
Kyo and I when we were sharing some sake
It started out pretty quiet. I went to campus to go to a Japanese class but couldn't find it in the building. Since I was just going to see what the class was like and not neccesarily planning on taking it, this was no big deal.
I went into the Japanese tutor room to use one of the computers for the internet connection. I sent a few e-mails and studied vocab with smart.fm. I also did some kanji studying with Anki there as well. I pretty much did that and had lunch on campus until my class at 2:30.
For lunch I had a "豚みそ丼” which is a bowl of rice with some pork and miso I guess. It was very delicious. I found out that there is free hot green tea at that cafeteria. So I got that rather than buying a drink this time around.
After lunch I went to a convenience store to get something sweet. I picked this white bun thing at random since I wanted to try something potentially new. I think it was a kind of peanut butter and cream thing on the inside. I didn't like it very much. It had some strange taste to it. The cream kind of tasted like that you have in a tiramisu.
My 2:30 class went well. The teacher is nice. She went to Tokyo University, which is very impressive.
After class was done, I went home and it was already about 5:10. I cooked up some veggie curry that had some onion, potato, and carrot in it. It was fairly standard curry. I went to the TV lounge to wonder what the people on the screen are saying while I ate my curry. I met a Chinese guy whose name in Chinese is Jiang, in Japanese is Kyo, and in English is James. I like to refer to him as Kyo. He was a pretty friendly guy. He spoke Chinese, Japanese, and English all fairly fluently. He was better with Japanese than English. He said I spoke Japanese well for only studying it for two years in university. It was mostly my accent that was good. I still can only speak in very simple terms in Japanese.
Some of the American guys from the floor came in and said they were going to play beer pong. I explained the game to Kyo in Japanese since he didn't understand. I've actually never played beer pong, but have seen it on YouTube or whatever else. We ended up not playing.
Kyo said he was having a really hard time learning English. That trying to read English was so hard for him. I thought this was crazy since he can read effing Chinese. By comparison, I would think it would be so easy to read English once you can speak it. It sounded like he was having a hard time remembering vocab. So I hooked him up with Anki.
It soon got to be around 8:00. Anna was planning a Karaoke trip, so we all went to the meeting place. I invited Kyo to go with us. He accepted and came with. The group ended up being huge. It was about 25~30 people! We all went to this place to get drinks and a little food first. It had a long table with cushions. It was just big enough for our group. So it worked out.
The deal with this place was that everyone pays about $15.00 and you get unlimited drinks for 2 or 3 hours. But we all had to choose between drinking martinis and hard liquor or beer exclusively for some odd reason. We went with the martini choice since there were a lot more choices in that category.
The group on our way to the bar
At the drinking place
Kyo and I when we were sharing some sakeKyo used his chopsticks in the weirdest manner I have ever seen. He says he had been doing it that way his whole life. It looked like it was a really difficult way to eat, but he made it work.
Kyo ended up being really useful that night. The people working at the place we were at were Chinese, so Kyo was our go to man for really communicating what we wanted.
We then soon went to Karaoke. The group thinned significantly at this point. The karaoke was fairly typical. The worst part is that many songs were just midi versions of the instruments of the actual song... This was most apparent when smells like teen spirit came up. Kurt Cobain is spinning in his grave after that.
Some random Japanese women came in and started flirt with the Kyles. I think they might have been prostitutes. But the guys didn't manage to pick them up, so I suppose maybe not.
No pictures of the Karaoke. I didn't really think to do that.
OK time to do laundry.
Kyo ended up being really useful that night. The people working at the place we were at were Chinese, so Kyo was our go to man for really communicating what we wanted.
We then soon went to Karaoke. The group thinned significantly at this point. The karaoke was fairly typical. The worst part is that many songs were just midi versions of the instruments of the actual song... This was most apparent when smells like teen spirit came up. Kurt Cobain is spinning in his grave after that.
Some random Japanese women came in and started flirt with the Kyles. I think they might have been prostitutes. But the guys didn't manage to pick them up, so I suppose maybe not.
No pictures of the Karaoke. I didn't really think to do that.
OK time to do laundry.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Classes begin, saba is delicious
I went to some classes today. My Japanese class was alright. It seems like this class will be good for me and not a total waste of time like I had feared. The teacher is nice enough. I think I will get a lot better with reading and listening comprehension with this class. I attended one other class called "Seminar of Global and Japanese Economy". The teacher was really enthusiastic. He received his graduate degree from a university in England, so his English was quite good. I was planning on taking a class called "Contemporary Japanese Economy", but I think I will take this one instead.
It turns out that they are not offering all of the classes I had thought they were going to. I wanted to take a Japanese Literature class to fulfill a humanities requirement... but they are not offering it. The only other class in the humanities category is Japanese Grammar... So I hope they have two humanities available next semester. I need to get those out of the way!
When I left my first class, there was a group of people cleaning up the leaves on the walkway. They were all in uniforms and used bamboo rakes and brooms. I thought it was cool that they do that so often. I saw them doing this yesterday too.
For lunch I had a bowl of rice and meat with a poached egg on top. I forget what it was called. It was "strong bowl" or something like that. I bought a bottle of tea as well to have with the meal. It turned out to be that kind of tea I found I can't stand. I need to figure out what that tea is called so I may avoid it.
For dinner I decided to try some saba fish as per Cierra's request. I bought some fresh from the near by grocer along with some cheap 98円 beer. I also stopped by this little veggie shop I often go to for some broccoli. When I went to pay, the shop owner was telling me that I should cut up the stalk and boil that up. She said it tastes like asparagus and is delicious. This was all in Japanese, so I might have misinterpreted her... I told her I would go try it.
It turns out she is right. The stalk is pretty good if you cut it up and boil it. I cut off the head and put it in the fridge for another day.
So the dinner ended up being half of a saba fish with some white rice and broccoli stem. The saba was delicious! I cooked it in some cooking sake with a splash of soy sauce. There were a bunch of tiny bones to hunt down and extract, but it was worth it. I will definitely cook that again sometime.
The beer was exactly what I thought it would be. Cheap beer. It was definitely palatable though. I was a little buzzed after the meal, so it was potent too. I'll probably buy that again as well just because it is cheaper than other beers.
It turns out that they are not offering all of the classes I had thought they were going to. I wanted to take a Japanese Literature class to fulfill a humanities requirement... but they are not offering it. The only other class in the humanities category is Japanese Grammar... So I hope they have two humanities available next semester. I need to get those out of the way!
When I left my first class, there was a group of people cleaning up the leaves on the walkway. They were all in uniforms and used bamboo rakes and brooms. I thought it was cool that they do that so often. I saw them doing this yesterday too.
For lunch I had a bowl of rice and meat with a poached egg on top. I forget what it was called. It was "strong bowl" or something like that. I bought a bottle of tea as well to have with the meal. It turned out to be that kind of tea I found I can't stand. I need to figure out what that tea is called so I may avoid it.
For dinner I decided to try some saba fish as per Cierra's request. I bought some fresh from the near by grocer along with some cheap 98円 beer. I also stopped by this little veggie shop I often go to for some broccoli. When I went to pay, the shop owner was telling me that I should cut up the stalk and boil that up. She said it tastes like asparagus and is delicious. This was all in Japanese, so I might have misinterpreted her... I told her I would go try it.
It turns out she is right. The stalk is pretty good if you cut it up and boil it. I cut off the head and put it in the fridge for another day.
So the dinner ended up being half of a saba fish with some white rice and broccoli stem. The saba was delicious! I cooked it in some cooking sake with a splash of soy sauce. There were a bunch of tiny bones to hunt down and extract, but it was worth it. I will definitely cook that again sometime.
The beer was exactly what I thought it would be. Cheap beer. It was definitely palatable though. I was a little buzzed after the meal, so it was potent too. I'll probably buy that again as well just because it is cheaper than other beers.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
course planning
So I am probably taking a "pre-intermediate" Japanese course. From the description, it actually sounds like a good fit. I didn't have a lot of time during my Japanese classes at UIC to really study it well because I had more important classes to study for. This class is made for people with the linguistic knowledge for Intermediate 1, but are not confident in their writing or speaking abilities. That is pretty much me to a T. So maybe my course placement isn't so bad after all. I just hope it isn't too easy.
I was really pissed to see that they don't offer the classes I thought I would take... I was planning on taking a Japanese literature class. It doesn't seem to be offered though. I think I will take 4 Japanese courses, Japanese economy, and 2 sports classes. I might try and get into the architecture class.
I've been stressing out a lot over classes and learning Japanese in general. I feel like it is very likely I could finish this program and not know Japanese as well as I had hoped. We will see. I'm going to join some clubs to try and meet some Japanese people to talk with. I am a pretty shy guy, so we will see how that goes... Maybe this can be my time to break that behavior.
I've heard that being a singer for the rock music club in a Japanese university is a good thing to do as an American exchange student. Since I can speak English, I will be more able to sing the American rock music they usually play. So I might try doing that. I'm not really that kind of guy though. And I hate singers. Maybe I could convince them to play some metal music. That would be killer. I could deal with being a singer for a metal band.
That is all I have to say today.
I was really pissed to see that they don't offer the classes I thought I would take... I was planning on taking a Japanese literature class. It doesn't seem to be offered though. I think I will take 4 Japanese courses, Japanese economy, and 2 sports classes. I might try and get into the architecture class.
I've been stressing out a lot over classes and learning Japanese in general. I feel like it is very likely I could finish this program and not know Japanese as well as I had hoped. We will see. I'm going to join some clubs to try and meet some Japanese people to talk with. I am a pretty shy guy, so we will see how that goes... Maybe this can be my time to break that behavior.
I've heard that being a singer for the rock music club in a Japanese university is a good thing to do as an American exchange student. Since I can speak English, I will be more able to sing the American rock music they usually play. So I might try doing that. I'm not really that kind of guy though. And I hate singers. Maybe I could convince them to play some metal music. That would be killer. I could deal with being a singer for a metal band.
That is all I have to say today.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Bad test, good curry
Well, I took the Japanese placement test today and failed it miserably. I am not really sad that I will be put in a lower level class as much as I am upset about my performance in general. I guess all things considered and what I was quizzed on, the results were only what would be expected. I didn't study grammar that much this summer because I've been told that once you know a good amount of vocab and hear people talk a lot, the grammar comes naturally. Much of the language test was grammar focused. So, that explains the fail.
That aside, today was pretty nice. Before I had the interview portion of the test, I went out to lunch with some of the guys in my floor. We went to a ramen place at the train station. I had some きつね which means "fox" in English according to our dictionaries. So we thought we were getting fox meat with our noodles. It turns out it was some kind of soy bean product. It was like a pancake. Sweet and fluffy. It was a pleasant surprise.
I went to the Inage ward after the exam, and applied for a student ID. Not much to say about that...
After that, I proceeded to go home and brood over my exam performance for a good hour or so. I talked to my friend Brad about it while we watched some Japanese television. We both were dissapointed in our performance and kind of apprehensive about our Japanese abilities. After a while I decided "You know what? Fuck it. I won't worry about what my skill level is right now, and just work hard to improve it these next 10 months." So I am going to not worry and just work as best as I can. がんばる！
By this time it is about 4:00. I decided to start making dinner. I bought some curry powder the other day, so today was my day to make some Japanese curry. I went out and bought some onions, potatoes, and shrimp. I already bought carrots a few days ago. Making the curry was going smoothly when suddenly, Attilla and Kyle ask me if I want to get a cell phone at the soft bank store since Hongjoo was going to help us out with that. I was in the middle of simmering the ingredients.... I decided to go and just left the pot with the stove off. My rice was still cooking, but the cooker goes into "heat rice" mode once it is done cooking the rice.
At the softbank store I found out that to get a free phone I need a 2 year contract. Great, I'll only be here for 10 months... So, my options are to buy a 30,000円 phone (that is the cheapest one they sell!) and have decent rates , or go with a prepaid plan. The prepaid plan has outrageous charges for talking (something like 9円 for every 6 seconds!). But I really didn't want to spend 30,000 on a phone... I had to think about it, so I didn't get my phone yet. The only one to get his phone that night was Kyle. He went with the buy the phone dealy.
Once I got home from that, I finished cooking up the curry, went to the lounge for some Japanese TV, and dug in. Sorry, no pictures. I totally forgot. It was really good. The shrimp was kind of annoying because it still had the full shell on it. But overall, I really enjoyed that curry. It was level 5 spicy, which is the highest level of spice for Golden Curry. It was not spicy at all. There was a little bite to it, but that was a mild at best. Japanese people can't handle really spicy stuff I have been told.
OK. Good night.
That aside, today was pretty nice. Before I had the interview portion of the test, I went out to lunch with some of the guys in my floor. We went to a ramen place at the train station. I had some きつね which means "fox" in English according to our dictionaries. So we thought we were getting fox meat with our noodles. It turns out it was some kind of soy bean product. It was like a pancake. Sweet and fluffy. It was a pleasant surprise.
I went to the Inage ward after the exam, and applied for a student ID. Not much to say about that...
After that, I proceeded to go home and brood over my exam performance for a good hour or so. I talked to my friend Brad about it while we watched some Japanese television. We both were dissapointed in our performance and kind of apprehensive about our Japanese abilities. After a while I decided "You know what? Fuck it. I won't worry about what my skill level is right now, and just work hard to improve it these next 10 months." So I am going to not worry and just work as best as I can. がんばる！
By this time it is about 4:00. I decided to start making dinner. I bought some curry powder the other day, so today was my day to make some Japanese curry. I went out and bought some onions, potatoes, and shrimp. I already bought carrots a few days ago. Making the curry was going smoothly when suddenly, Attilla and Kyle ask me if I want to get a cell phone at the soft bank store since Hongjoo was going to help us out with that. I was in the middle of simmering the ingredients.... I decided to go and just left the pot with the stove off. My rice was still cooking, but the cooker goes into "heat rice" mode once it is done cooking the rice.
At the softbank store I found out that to get a free phone I need a 2 year contract. Great, I'll only be here for 10 months... So, my options are to buy a 30,000円 phone (that is the cheapest one they sell!) and have decent rates , or go with a prepaid plan. The prepaid plan has outrageous charges for talking (something like 9円 for every 6 seconds!). But I really didn't want to spend 30,000 on a phone... I had to think about it, so I didn't get my phone yet. The only one to get his phone that night was Kyle. He went with the buy the phone dealy.
Once I got home from that, I finished cooking up the curry, went to the lounge for some Japanese TV, and dug in. Sorry, no pictures. I totally forgot. It was really good. The shrimp was kind of annoying because it still had the full shell on it. But overall, I really enjoyed that curry. It was level 5 spicy, which is the highest level of spice for Golden Curry. It was not spicy at all. There was a little bite to it, but that was a mild at best. Japanese people can't handle really spicy stuff I have been told.
OK. Good night.
Monday, October 5, 2009
New bike, rice cooker, dissapointment
I woke up, took a shower, ate some scrambled eggs, and left my room. I was given the pleasure of seeing Kyle walk down the hall naked in some bed sheets.
Some of the guys apparently got trashed last night. Seeing this made me laugh.
I had to go to the university to get some paperwork taken care of for my student ID. I went with Brad since we were in the same group for that. We ended up being late because we missed the train. That was mostly uneventful.
After we were through with that, I started heading over to the Inage Ward Office to get my alien registration card taken care of along with insurance and other things. I met a girl that was participating in the chiba exchange as well. She is a 3rd year Japanese major from Maryland. Her name was Melody. Her Japanese was impressive. We had an uninteresting conversation. She seemed like a nice girl though.
Once we came across a McDonalds, I went to go eat because I was hungry. Melody kept going on her way. I decided I wanted to try this teriyaki burger that everyone is raving about. I got it with fries and a strange drink I haven't seen outside of Japan. The burger was gross. Along with the beef patty, which is covered in teriyaki sauce, there is mayonnaise in the sandwich. The whole thing was kind of gross and slimy. I would not recommend it. The drink and fries were good however. They serve you slightly differently at this McDonalds. Instead of waiting at the cashier area for your food, they give you a number and deliver the food to your table. The service seemed to be slower than that in America.
Right as I was leaving the McDonalds, I saw Atilla (An Australian guy from my floor). He invited me to coffee with him and Anna. We had a nice talk about Japanese, placement tests, kanji, and how I apparently talk with a monotone voice. Do I do this all the time? Or is it something I just do with new people that I am not familiar with yet?
After that I decided I wouldn't go to the Ward office since we would be going as a group tomorrow. My new mission became searching for a bike. I found all the local bike shops in the area in google maps with a "自転車店” search. The first place I went to had 1 bike at a price of 18000円. I was aiming for 1500円 and under, so I moved on. The next shop I went to was more a bike for custom built bikes and sport biking. The third shop I stopped at had some bikes in my price range. I decided to go with the cheapest bike there. It is a nice baby blue bike with a basket, wheel powered headlight, kick stand, built in lock, fenders, etc. Everything I wanted. It looks kind of girly, but it is still cool.
I sat in my room for an hour or two studying and soon became hungry. It was time for dinner. I wanted to get a rice cooker for a few days now, so I went and searched for one. At first, the selection I found had a price range from 99,000円 to 13,000円. I had no idea rice cookers could be this expensive! I ended up finding one for about 6,7000円 up one floor. It works pretty well. It made me my first batch of sticky rice I've made on my own. It was an adventure figuring out how to work it with Japanese instructions.
I also bought some salmon, rice, a big jug of tea, soy sauce, sugar, etc... I fried the salmon with some olive oil. Boiled some broccoli and added some sweetened soy sauce with some toasted sesame seeds. And cooked up some rice. It was actually a very disappointing meal. The salmon was sub-par. The broccoli had too much soy on it. The tea had a very offensive woody taste to it. It was very frustrating since I put some effort into making the meal. I can't stand the tea, so that is a wasted jug....
I was so disappointed by that meal that I went out to get something that never disapp0ints... beer. A tall Asai "super dry". I must say, it isn't as good as I hoped. But it was much more satisfying than that dinner was.
I'm off to finish up my set of kanji for the day and going to sleep. Good night!
Some of the guys apparently got trashed last night. Seeing this made me laugh.
I had to go to the university to get some paperwork taken care of for my student ID. I went with Brad since we were in the same group for that. We ended up being late because we missed the train. That was mostly uneventful.
After we were through with that, I started heading over to the Inage Ward Office to get my alien registration card taken care of along with insurance and other things. I met a girl that was participating in the chiba exchange as well. She is a 3rd year Japanese major from Maryland. Her name was Melody. Her Japanese was impressive. We had an uninteresting conversation. She seemed like a nice girl though.
Once we came across a McDonalds, I went to go eat because I was hungry. Melody kept going on her way. I decided I wanted to try this teriyaki burger that everyone is raving about. I got it with fries and a strange drink I haven't seen outside of Japan. The burger was gross. Along with the beef patty, which is covered in teriyaki sauce, there is mayonnaise in the sandwich. The whole thing was kind of gross and slimy. I would not recommend it. The drink and fries were good however. They serve you slightly differently at this McDonalds. Instead of waiting at the cashier area for your food, they give you a number and deliver the food to your table. The service seemed to be slower than that in America.
Right as I was leaving the McDonalds, I saw Atilla (An Australian guy from my floor). He invited me to coffee with him and Anna. We had a nice talk about Japanese, placement tests, kanji, and how I apparently talk with a monotone voice. Do I do this all the time? Or is it something I just do with new people that I am not familiar with yet?
After that I decided I wouldn't go to the Ward office since we would be going as a group tomorrow. My new mission became searching for a bike. I found all the local bike shops in the area in google maps with a "自転車店” search. The first place I went to had 1 bike at a price of 18000円. I was aiming for 1500円 and under, so I moved on. The next shop I went to was more a bike for custom built bikes and sport biking. The third shop I stopped at had some bikes in my price range. I decided to go with the cheapest bike there. It is a nice baby blue bike with a basket, wheel powered headlight, kick stand, built in lock, fenders, etc. Everything I wanted. It looks kind of girly, but it is still cool.
I sat in my room for an hour or two studying and soon became hungry. It was time for dinner. I wanted to get a rice cooker for a few days now, so I went and searched for one. At first, the selection I found had a price range from 99,000円 to 13,000円. I had no idea rice cookers could be this expensive! I ended up finding one for about 6,7000円 up one floor. It works pretty well. It made me my first batch of sticky rice I've made on my own. It was an adventure figuring out how to work it with Japanese instructions.
I also bought some salmon, rice, a big jug of tea, soy sauce, sugar, etc... I fried the salmon with some olive oil. Boiled some broccoli and added some sweetened soy sauce with some toasted sesame seeds. And cooked up some rice. It was actually a very disappointing meal. The salmon was sub-par. The broccoli had too much soy on it. The tea had a very offensive woody taste to it. It was very frustrating since I put some effort into making the meal. I can't stand the tea, so that is a wasted jug....
I was so disappointed by that meal that I went out to get something that never disapp0ints... beer. A tall Asai "super dry". I must say, it isn't as good as I hoped. But it was much more satisfying than that dinner was.
I'm off to finish up my set of kanji for the day and going to sleep. Good night!
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Japanese Kickboxing!
So I went to my friend Brad's room to ask if he wanted to go to our faculty advisor together tomorrow. He agreed. We then we decided to explore Inage a little bit together. We went to Mosburger first for some lunch. I had the most delicious chicken teriyaki burger I have ever eaten there. There was a cute japanese boy that came in and tried speaking english to us. I asked him a few things in Japanese (since he didn't understand them in English) like "How old are you?", "do you go to school around here?", etc. He responded in English. He was adorable.
After Mosburger, we decided to just go down a random street to see what was around. Brad decided to turn left at this side road for some reason. We soon came across a small kickboxing ring. We were looking at the signs when someone comes and asks us if we want to see a match. We say yes and ask how much tickets are. He says "プレセントです” and gives us two tickets for free. The tickets were about $25 each! So we come back to the ring when the guy said it started. It was pretty awesome! We had to take our shoes off before we came in, and we got some good seats.
The place was legit. It was just a shack with a ring in it. The roof was just some metal panneling. No air conditioning. Really small place. There were about 5 fights, and the main event was the last one. The winner of the main fight was going to go on to a match in Tokyo. Here are the three rounds of the main fight:
Round 1
Round 2
Round 3 (go to 2:35 for the best hit of the day)
It was such a weird coincidence that we came across that place when they were about to have a match. Here is a picture of me with the nice man who gave us free tickets:
After the fight, we went back to the main road we were on before and started looking around a little more. We came across a 7/11 and decided to go in. There was an ATM that took foreign cards, so we both decided to do a withdrawal. I took out 30,000円. Now I have money for food! YAY!
After that we ended up in a residential area. Very quiet and nice. We saw some traditional looking houses:
Brad used to be an architecture student, so he really liked these.
After Mosburger, we decided to just go down a random street to see what was around. Brad decided to turn left at this side road for some reason. We soon came across a small kickboxing ring. We were looking at the signs when someone comes and asks us if we want to see a match. We say yes and ask how much tickets are. He says "プレセントです” and gives us two tickets for free. The tickets were about $25 each! So we come back to the ring when the guy said it started. It was pretty awesome! We had to take our shoes off before we came in, and we got some good seats.
The place was legit. It was just a shack with a ring in it. The roof was just some metal panneling. No air conditioning. Really small place. There were about 5 fights, and the main event was the last one. The winner of the main fight was going to go on to a match in Tokyo. Here are the three rounds of the main fight:
Round 1
Round 2
Round 3 (go to 2:35 for the best hit of the day)
It was such a weird coincidence that we came across that place when they were about to have a match. Here is a picture of me with the nice man who gave us free tickets:
After the fight, we went back to the main road we were on before and started looking around a little more. We came across a 7/11 and decided to go in. There was an ATM that took foreign cards, so we both decided to do a withdrawal. I took out 30,000円. Now I have money for food! YAY!After that we ended up in a residential area. Very quiet and nice. We saw some traditional looking houses:
Brad used to be an architecture student, so he really liked these.
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