Japan: That's totally Week dude!
05-29-2006
This day after class, a bunch of us went to check out the shrine and park nearby the Seminar House, 護国神社 (Gokoku Jinja). We didn't go inside the shrine, but we took pictures of it. After the shrine we walked a little ways till we found a swamp and a turtle. We then proceeded to go through the park.
The park was huge! We kept following it and going up and up, but it kept going for a long ways. I tried to get a few pretty pictures (like the sun through the trees), but it didn't work very well. Along the way, we encountered a bunch of girls playing tennis. The most interesting thing was that they were yelling things the entire time. Stuff like ファイト！(Fight!) and がんばれ！(I'll try my best!). A video can be seen here (note the video requires the Xvid codec to see; if you can't get it to work, try www.videolan.org for a player that should work; if you have Quicktime or something trying to open it in the browser, try right clicking it and clicking "Save Target As..." for Internet Explorer and "Save Link As..." for Firefox). In any case we finally reached the top and we took some pictures up until sunset. Very pretty. Pretty pretty pretty.
05-30-2006
After class today, Nacky-sensei took us to Karaoke! Very interesting experience, in my opinion. Maybe 16 people crammed into a "Karaoke Box" singing our hearts out. I sang "Wonderwall" by Oasis with Mana-san and Sara and I tried to sing "空耳ケーキ(Sora Mimi Cake)" from Azumanga Daioh... Tried... Very fun. A video of Emiko-chan and Mana-chan singing along with a quick pan over the room can be seen by clicking here.
05-31-2006
This was a short day of classes followed by a trip to... the Asahi Beer Company! The faculty apparently brings all of the students for a tour at the Asahi Beer Company. The tour was definitely interesting. Apparently they recycle everything (the tourguide's uniform was made of recycled PET bottles). Then after the tour, we had 飲み放題 (all you can drink) for 20 minutes followed by 食べ放題 (all you can eat) 焼肉 (yakiniku). What they didn't tell us was that the all-you-can-eat part also included all-you-can-drink so Sara attempted (and succeeded) to down 4 beers in those 20 minutes. At the yakiniku place, in the bathroom, a "special toilet" was found (see picture below). The sign above the toilet says "If you are feeling bad, please use this." Very amusing. Needless to say, everyone was pretty happy after that experience.
06-01-2006
Went back to Canal City again (with Gretchen and Sara) and actually bought some stuff at the Ghibli store (see picture below for a $900 Totoro plush). Took some more Engrish pictures (Special Plice!!!) and when we were walking by the fountain, the little fountain show was going off so we watched that (to "Be Our Guest" from Beauty and the Beast). We ate at a yakisoba joint in the basement. Along the way we saw the most ridiculous dessert for 780 yen (maybe about $7.50). It was like 7 desserts in one. Fruit cocktail covered with some other desert with an ice cream cone stuck in it, a bunch of fruit on top, some whipped cream, and a cherry to top it all off. After dinner, Sara and I rushed back only to find ourselves back in Tenjin right next to where we just were to listen to 大輔 (Daisuke) at the International Bar. Daisuke has a great voice and sings English songs primarily (very well). A video of him singing can be found here. That about sums it up for this week. Next comes my home-stay experience.
This day after class, a bunch of us went to check out the shrine and park nearby the Seminar House, 護国神社 (Gokoku Jinja). We didn't go inside the shrine, but we took pictures of it. After the shrine we walked a little ways till we found a swamp and a turtle. We then proceeded to go through the park.
The park was huge! We kept following it and going up and up, but it kept going for a long ways. I tried to get a few pretty pictures (like the sun through the trees), but it didn't work very well. Along the way, we encountered a bunch of girls playing tennis. The most interesting thing was that they were yelling things the entire time. Stuff like ファイト！(Fight!) and がんばれ！(I'll try my best!). A video can be seen here (note the video requires the Xvid codec to see; if you can't get it to work, try www.videolan.org for a player that should work; if you have Quicktime or something trying to open it in the browser, try right clicking it and clicking "Save Target As..." for Internet Explorer and "Save Link As..." for Firefox). In any case we finally reached the top and we took some pictures up until sunset. Very pretty. Pretty pretty pretty.
05-30-2006
After class today, Nacky-sensei took us to Karaoke! Very interesting experience, in my opinion. Maybe 16 people crammed into a "Karaoke Box" singing our hearts out. I sang "Wonderwall" by Oasis with Mana-san and Sara and I tried to sing "空耳ケーキ(Sora Mimi Cake)" from Azumanga Daioh... Tried... Very fun. A video of Emiko-chan and Mana-chan singing along with a quick pan over the room can be seen by clicking here.
05-31-2006
This was a short day of classes followed by a trip to... the Asahi Beer Company! The faculty apparently brings all of the students for a tour at the Asahi Beer Company. The tour was definitely interesting. Apparently they recycle everything (the tourguide's uniform was made of recycled PET bottles). Then after the tour, we had 飲み放題 (all you can drink) for 20 minutes followed by 食べ放題 (all you can eat) 焼肉 (yakiniku). What they didn't tell us was that the all-you-can-eat part also included all-you-can-drink so Sara attempted (and succeeded) to down 4 beers in those 20 minutes. At the yakiniku place, in the bathroom, a "special toilet" was found (see picture below). The sign above the toilet says "If you are feeling bad, please use this." Very amusing. Needless to say, everyone was pretty happy after that experience.
06-01-2006
Went back to Canal City again (with Gretchen and Sara) and actually bought some stuff at the Ghibli store (see picture below for a $900 Totoro plush). Took some more Engrish pictures (Special Plice!!!) and when we were walking by the fountain, the little fountain show was going off so we watched that (to "Be Our Guest" from Beauty and the Beast). We ate at a yakisoba joint in the basement. Along the way we saw the most ridiculous dessert for 780 yen (maybe about $7.50). It was like 7 desserts in one. Fruit cocktail covered with some other desert with an ice cream cone stuck in it, a bunch of fruit on top, some whipped cream, and a cherry to top it all off. After dinner, Sara and I rushed back only to find ourselves back in Tenjin right next to where we just were to listen to 大輔 (Daisuke) at the International Bar. Daisuke has a great voice and sings English songs primarily (very well). A video of him singing can be found here. That about sums it up for this week. Next comes my home-stay experience.
posted by Christopher Luu at 8:20 AM
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