I'm back

It's been a long time since I last posted and as Ray Ray pointed out, this is long overdue. It's been nearly two months since I really posted and a lot has gone on since then.

For the New Year vacation I trekked across the Northern portion of the country finally reaching my destination of Sapporo, Hokkaido. I rode JR regular trains and it took two and a half days. When we finally made it to Sapporo, on New Years Eve, I got so drunk that I woke up in police custody. Luckily they took me in because they were simply worried for me as I was all alone: my travel buddy left me to fend for myself and I failed.

I've been skiing and to Tokyo Disney Sea. I travelled to Osaka and met up with Mike. We had a spectacular night, the climax being when the two of us yelled out the Team America theme song in the middle of Triangle Park. I went to Kyoto and saw my host sister, ate Okonomiyaki, and had lunch with the Rotarians who let me stay in Japan three years ago.

This week I had two interpreting jobs. The first was for the company wide plastic molding meeting. I have never seen a plastic mold in my life so I really don't know how they expected me to understand any of the content. The meeting went by slowly, my translations went like, "the picture on the left is the old version and the picture on the right is the improved version...factory XYZ raised productivity by 30%." It was embarrassing but I did my best. Today I did my second interpreting job which I thought would be a complete failure. We went to the largest factory in my company (It was my first time going here) and I translated the factory tour. The plant was really cool, tons of robotic arms and crazy automated machines along side dies that could press metal at a force of 500 tons. There was one guy who would stick his hand under one of these dies to put the part in there...it makes me appreciate my desk job a lot more. The plant was really loud so we all wore headsets and the guy giving the tour talked into a microphone. I had my own microphone that I had to speak English into. From an accurate interpretation point of view, I have to say that I did much better than I did during the plastic molding meeting. The only thing that sucked was that I was focused more on the translations rather than the machines that I wanted to see.

It's been over a month

It's been over a month since I've last posted. I got lazy and stopped writing. I'll try to write more. I'll write more later...no time.

Tomorrow I start my journey.

Tomorrow I head out for Hokkaido. It's a shame that Vooodoo won't be joining us but hopefully another reunion isn't too far away. I'm riding the regular trains to Sapporo which will take a total of about 36 hours. On the way I plan on buying sake from Niigata at 5am and drinking it on the way up, hitting on the beautiful girls from Akita prefecture (said to be the most beautiful in Japan), reading whatever book I pick up in Shinjuku, listening to my Ipod, looking out the window, and sleeping.

We're slated to arrive in Hakodate, Hokkaido at around 10pm or so on Friday. We don't have a hotel yet but I'm still under 30 which means I'm still invincible...so I'm not too worried about that. Next night we arrive in Sapporo and hopefully we'll have the energy to get some famous Sapporo Ramen and hit up Suzukino, the nightlife district.

Our next couple of days aren't planned. Hopefully we'll go to the beer museum and find stuff to do around the area. Depending on prices and time, we're thinking about hitting the slopes.

The trip back isn't certain. There's a few ways to get back; however, I want to return via Sendai and Matsushima. I'm looking forward to seeing the Tohoku region and will be sure to report about it when I return before the 8th of January.

night out in Oizumi

I went to a Brazilian bar last night and learned how to Samba dance. It was funny because all the Brazilians were giving me these weird looks. They all thought I was Brazilian and would speak to me in Portuguese. They were probably thinking, "who's this guy that can't dance?" as all of them knew how to do it.

It was fun though. I got drunk, learned two steps, met some Brazilian hotties, and saw a kick ass Capoeira show.

XENOPHOBIA

So I joined a Japanese social networking site when I got here called MIXI. It's the Japanese version of myspace/facebook and it has a group function. The other day I stumbled upon a pretty great group. The title: 「外国人犯罪」被害者連絡会, in english: Foreign Criminals-Victims Discussion Forum. After reading some of the posts, nobody actually has stories of themselves being victimized and I joined it just to piss off the racists who started it. Here's some examples.

犯罪ではなくても、「こんな怖い外国人を見た」ですとか「外国人と接触して嫌な思いをした」または逆に「こんな面白くてヘンな外国人を見た」でも構いません。

-(your posts) don't only have to be about crimes, it's okay to post about seeing scary foreigners, bumping into a foreigner and feeling disgusted, or even seeing a funny or strange foreigner-
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しかし、確実に増加傾向にある脅威について大いに語って頂きたく思います。
However, I certainly want to hear about the threats of increasing foreign crime.

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黒人とぶつかった時の話…
Stories about bumping into black people.
街中で黒人とぶつかった知人は思わず謝まったそうな…。
Someone I know bumped into a black man on the street and automatically apologized.
ちなみにこの知人は空手の経験者で決して素人ではないが、それでも黒人の威圧感には圧倒されたのだろうか。
FYI, he has experience with Karate, so he could definately hold his own; however even then, black people are intimidating and he'd be probably get destroyed.
私も黒人と街中でぶつかったことがある。
I've also bumped into a black person on the street.
肩がぶつかった。
We knocked shoulders.
瞬間的に―、「因縁をつけてくるかな」と思ったが、黒人はまるで何事もなかったかのように、足早に歩いて行った。
For a moment I thought he was going to try and start something with me, but he didn't do anything and I picked up my pace and walked away.
彼ら黒人は体力的に自信があるのだろう。
Those blacks probably people have confidence in their physical ability.
様々な国籍・民族の人間が増えている中、黒人にはご用心あれ―。
Out of all kinds of nationalities increasing here, be careful of the blacks.
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The replies to the post above....
自分は、東京・福生駅で黒人にナンパされたことがある。もう、そのときには死ぬかと思いました。
とりあえず、バイクですぐに逃げたので事なきを得たのですが。
A black man tried hitting on me at Tokyo Fussa station. I thought I was going to be killed. I just got on my bike and booked it so nothing happened.

{there was another post with someone mentioning American soldiers}
....おっしゃるとおり、米軍関係者でした。しかも、いかついゲイのナンパなんて怖すぎます。
As you were saying, he was an American soldier. Moreover, it was rugged gay nampa and it was just too scary.
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知らない人、まして外国人に警戒するように教育するのは当然だと思います。
I think we have to educate (our children) to be cautious of strangers, especially foreigners.
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Since when is bumping into a black man a crime? Moreover, bumping into people in Japan is commonplace who gives a shit? I think the guy who claims to be hit on by homosexual soldier was probably mistaken. I bet the soldier was being civil and said something to the guy and he freaked out. Anyway, there's only 26 people in the group and one guy who does most of the postings. I'm not trying to say that all Japanese people think this way, I was just find it amusing to to see these people freak out about such minute things.

Great Article

I found this article the other day and it was the first logical explaination of high prices in Japan.

No Turkey. . .

I asked around the office where I could purchase turkey. I was laughed at, and I finally provided that henna gaijin entertainment they've been waiting for. Turkey in Japanese is shichi-men-cho (七面鳥) which means literally means seven-sided-bird. I have no clue where the name comes from, but I don't know if I would eat a bird known to have seven sides. Back home I ate turkey all the time, it's my favorite type of sandwich all while being a really healthy lean meat. That's one thing Americans have up on Japanese in terms of healthy food.

My friend in the next town was having a Thanksgiving dinner for a few of us gringos and I really wanted to have turkey but I gave up and bought beef. It was nice though, we all cooked a meal, drank wine, and chatted it up long after the wine was complete. It was nice because we all were displaced for our holiday yet we made the most of it, even though we opted out of the traditional food. The point of Thanksgiving isn't the turkey or mashed potatoes, it's being with the people you don't see very often and recognizing the good even in the midst of the bad. That's exactly what our group did. we are all relatively new here; moreover, none of us new eachother well. Each of us would have preferred to be with our families but for that night we became family and I think everyone went home happier than when they arrived.

On an another note, a bunch of the Viet Cong went back to the homeland a few weeks ago and I've had to share the kitchen with very few people. It's been nice being able to use the appliances and not having to wait for clean pans and chopsticks. All good things come to an end. Cliche but I don't know how else to describe the feeling I just had. I heard a lot of people walking up the stairs speaking jibberish. Laughing and yelling. It meant only one thing: The Viet Cong are back in full force and they're going to try and take the kitchen from me! Not under my watch. I know better this time, I'm their Sempai and if they piss me off I'll make them clean my nutsack.

(I have nothing against Vietnamese people...I do have issues with the ones who live in my dorm though. If they were Korean, Mexican, Croation, or American, I'd have the same issues)