Wednesday, December 28, 2011
brb
Hey, people of the web! We're currently getting our gaijin on in a brand new country! Expect hilarity on our return. For now, I will leave you with this cryptic teaser: Kenny Rogers does more than chicken. That is all.
Friday, December 9, 2011
The Haps
Hey! How's it going, Internet? Been awhile, huh? Boy, I can't believe it's been a month since we rapped last, huh? Seems like almost yesterday. Well, let's see what all I can catch you up on...
The JLPT has come and gone without too much fanfare. I think it went a bit better this time, but we won't know until February; the test's grading process is a very time-intensive, highly subjective one that requires many weeks of careful consideration. WEEK ONE: RUN SCANTRON SHEET THROUGH COMPUTER. WEEKS TWO THROUGH EIGHT: COFFEE BREAK.
The holidays have been as full of workplace-mandated merriment as ever. The Christmas party was last Friday, and again I was passed up for the role of Santa Claus. Instead, I was given the part I've played a dozen times before as Two-Term President Emeritus of the Truman State University RPG Club: Elf. When I was tasked with getting "Santa Claus" to the door past the horde of children when our part of the pageant was over, I realized that Santa keeps elves around for more reasons than simply making toys; there were moments were, had I not intervened, children would have trampled each other into a festive red paste just to touch the hem of Santa's coat. I was convinced we weren't going to make it out alive for at least a minute or two. And what would the holidays be without a good healthy fear of death?
Additionally, I've introduced the wonders of Hanukkah to a new generation of bored 8-year-olds, though it took a bit of doing: I had gotten as far as, "Hannukah is a Jewish holiday" before hands shot up. "What's 'Jewish?'" asked Wesley (stupid nicknames, remember?). "Juice?" Kyle asked. "Chewing gum?" guessed Justin. After I calmed everyone down, I explained: "Jewish means 'Yudayajin.'" I so dislike using Japanese in the classroom, but this was a case that couldn't really be handled with pantomime. I patted myself on the back for bothering to look up the word before and dispensing with this matter effectively so we could move on.
Wesley rose his hand again. With surprising fluency, he asked, "How do you say Yudayajin in Japanese?" Oy.
Our band, Raku 3, has been taking off lately, in a manner of speaking. We've been playing about one concert a month at local dives, all free shows (though we do pass around a hat when we remember to), all pretty well attended. There exists a bootleg CD of one of our shows, and come the new year we were considering recording an actual album. Readers of this blog, you all have a standing invitation to any and all future shows, though for now they'll all be in the Osaka area. Please enjoy these photos of the kind of horrible places in Osaka's ghetto where we play (+50 points to indie cred!)
Other than all that, we're just gearing up for our travel plans this Christmas! We were going to take advantage of our strategic geographic placement to make a move on Australia, take in some sun and some much-needed ambient English. Sadly, though they look pretty close together over on this side of the globe, it turns out it's still a 10-hour flight to Sydney, and thus, it costs about as much as it would to just fly to the States. Fine, we decided, we'd go wherever we could fly to for cheap from here...Thailand! Vietnam! Taiwan! The Philippines!...are all out of our price range. Taking the ferry to Okinawa, our next plan, got as far as reading about the area, reserving accommodations, and buying ticke--SERIOUSLY, THAT MUCH? The latest plan, then, is to take the ferry to South Korea, which we'll attempt to do up right for the holidays.
Expect something hilarious about Christmas in Japan sometime later this week (though really, at this point in our third year here, anything hilarious about life in Japan is starting to wear a bit). This is H-Bomb and Jenny Dreadful, signing off!
The JLPT has come and gone without too much fanfare. I think it went a bit better this time, but we won't know until February; the test's grading process is a very time-intensive, highly subjective one that requires many weeks of careful consideration. WEEK ONE: RUN SCANTRON SHEET THROUGH COMPUTER. WEEKS TWO THROUGH EIGHT: COFFEE BREAK.
The holidays have been as full of workplace-mandated merriment as ever. The Christmas party was last Friday, and again I was passed up for the role of Santa Claus. Instead, I was given the part I've played a dozen times before as Two-Term President Emeritus of the Truman State University RPG Club: Elf. When I was tasked with getting "Santa Claus" to the door past the horde of children when our part of the pageant was over, I realized that Santa keeps elves around for more reasons than simply making toys; there were moments were, had I not intervened, children would have trampled each other into a festive red paste just to touch the hem of Santa's coat. I was convinced we weren't going to make it out alive for at least a minute or two. And what would the holidays be without a good healthy fear of death?
Additionally, I've introduced the wonders of Hanukkah to a new generation of bored 8-year-olds, though it took a bit of doing: I had gotten as far as, "Hannukah is a Jewish holiday" before hands shot up. "What's 'Jewish?'" asked Wesley (stupid nicknames, remember?). "Juice?" Kyle asked. "Chewing gum?" guessed Justin. After I calmed everyone down, I explained: "Jewish means 'Yudayajin.'" I so dislike using Japanese in the classroom, but this was a case that couldn't really be handled with pantomime. I patted myself on the back for bothering to look up the word before and dispensing with this matter effectively so we could move on.
Wesley rose his hand again. With surprising fluency, he asked, "How do you say Yudayajin in Japanese?" Oy.
Our band, Raku 3, has been taking off lately, in a manner of speaking. We've been playing about one concert a month at local dives, all free shows (though we do pass around a hat when we remember to), all pretty well attended. There exists a bootleg CD of one of our shows, and come the new year we were considering recording an actual album. Readers of this blog, you all have a standing invitation to any and all future shows, though for now they'll all be in the Osaka area. Please enjoy these photos of the kind of horrible places in Osaka's ghetto where we play (+50 points to indie cred!)
Raku Three, the venue's proprietor, and four of our fans (well, three and one old guy who wanted to be in the photo.)
Other than all that, we're just gearing up for our travel plans this Christmas! We were going to take advantage of our strategic geographic placement to make a move on Australia, take in some sun and some much-needed ambient English. Sadly, though they look pretty close together over on this side of the globe, it turns out it's still a 10-hour flight to Sydney, and thus, it costs about as much as it would to just fly to the States. Fine, we decided, we'd go wherever we could fly to for cheap from here...Thailand! Vietnam! Taiwan! The Philippines!...are all out of our price range. Taking the ferry to Okinawa, our next plan, got as far as reading about the area, reserving accommodations, and buying ticke--SERIOUSLY, THAT MUCH? The latest plan, then, is to take the ferry to South Korea, which we'll attempt to do up right for the holidays.
Expect something hilarious about Christmas in Japan sometime later this week (though really, at this point in our third year here, anything hilarious about life in Japan is starting to wear a bit). This is H-Bomb and Jenny Dreadful, signing off!
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