2008年2月29日 Leap year!

Oh my goodness, updates...where to begin? For starters, there is plenty new to see in the Photos and Videos section. Photos now has a February gallery, and I added about six new videos. Minor updates have also been made to "How to Comment", "Links Out", "About Me", and "Archive." Also, Joshua and I both now have a full version of our sites up on UT's library page (see "Links Out" for where to go). [Thanks UT!!] Because of that, I will just say "visit Josh's page" from now on instead of providing a direct link, so that you may choose which mirror you prefer. That being said, please visit his page too, because he has a lot of stories and content to add on our time during the break.

About the Kyoto photos...

Most of the images in the photo gallery concern Nijo Castle in Kyoto. Now that I am on a two month spring break, Josh came to visit me in Kyoto for two weeks. We went to visit Nijo castle together. It is positively beautiful inside, and very spacious. The palace, to our delight, was free to walk through. Inside, the rooms were divided into themes (ie one theme was tigers, another peacocks, another sakura blossoms). Also, as you walked the outer halls, the ceiling and door frames changed theme as well. We had no tour guide and weren't about to listen to all the Japanese explanations, so my best guess is that you actually can 'travel' the seasons as you walk around. I noticed trees in bloom, then trees barren as if in winter, etc.

Also, I overheard an English speaking tour guide explaining the floor. As we walked along the wooden floor, it squeaked rather noisily. This isn't due to old age; they built it to squeak intentionally! That way, if there was an intruder or unwanted eavesdropper, people inside the rooms would be alerted. We were intrigued, so once outside, Josh and I ducked under one of the walkways to see how they did it...

Aha! That's how!

After the palace, we visited the garden areas. Even my video clips can't quite capture the quiet beauty of this garden. Be sure to check both my photos and videos as well as Josh's video section to see all you can about Nijo!

You may notice a strange hay structure in the photo gallery. No, I still don't know what it is. However, there were pictures of the process, how they wrapped up these trees. Is it just an art display? Does it have religious meaning? Also worth noting is the "parking lot" photo. Josh, ever the skilled at spotting "engrish", saw this one and couldn't stop making fun of it. This office is for 'a parking lot,' I guess...you just tell them you need one and they will hook you up with any random chance of locations, from Fairbanks, Alaska to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. (Just joking...)

After Nijo Castle, we walked a few blocks down to the Kyoto International Manga Museum. That was a lot of fun, especially since Josh was still spotting the engrish. I have never seen so much manga in one spot, but unlike most museums you can walk up to anything and take it off the shelf. Apparently, most of the collection was a donation from a man who used to own a manga library (where you could rent manga). I think those stores have begun to die out, however, which is why he donated to the museum. There were plenty of people sitting around on benches, just reading. Too bad I'm not that fluent!

About the Kyoto videos...

First, there is now a video up of one of my bus rides one evening with Josh. After that is a video on Kansai dialect from one of my classes. Don't worry! I wrote out a rough translation script so that you can still hopefully follow the video without knowing any Japanese. It's a pity there is no real English equivalent to Kansai dialect, so the translation doesn't "feel" different from the 'standard' way of talking like it does in Japanese.

After that is a video from Nijo Castle, taken in the gardens. That's the sound of Josh snapping pictures in the beginning.

Then comes our Snow Day! One morning we woke up to copious amounts of snow in Kyoto. Since we're from Knoxville, where snow falls very little and very very rarely, we both flipped to see so much snow. It was at least several inches coating even the cars in the parking lot. Thus, we bundled up and went out to take pictures and enjoy it. Neither of us have waterproof shoes...so that proved to be very cold on our feet after a short time, but we were determined to make it all the way back to Arashiyama, where we got engaged. It was beautiful under snow, of course, especially the bamboo forest. The bamboo was so laden with snow it curved and almost touched the ground. Every now and then you would hear a crack, which was large amounts of snow falling and perhaps even a tree snapping, I think. Also, in this weather, the rickshaws were running in full force! Apparently snow is a perfect day for tourists.  Some other noteable points: I did not focus on the leaves he was talking about, apparently; our feet were sooooo cold by this point!; and Josh walks up again saying "写真とった〜！Shashin totta-!" which means "Took a pictuure!".
Visit Josh's site for a more in depth description and videos on our Snow Day.

About the Tokyo photos and videos...

The last three pictures in the gallery were taken in Tokyo. About once or twice a month Josh tutors a young girl in English at her house. About three weeks ago, Josh mentioned that I was here in Tokyo with him. He has talked a lot about me, so the mom invited me to come over the next time, the day before my birthday. That was a Sunday, and it meant we couldn't go to church, but we didn't want to refuse (Josh gets money from this, if nothing else!). I brought my sketchbook along, assuming that I would probably have no part in the lesson (Josh was hired, not me). The second peculiar part about this lesson was something about Josh teaching adults this time. We didn't understand, but went along with it.

When we got there, the girl he teaches led us to something like a community center. Inside our little 'classroom', several middle aged women arrived, all smiling and interested. Apparently, "mom" had set up a special one-time English club, and these were the ones who signed up. No one had met before. Better yet, I was going to get to participate!

We sat along a long table. First we gave out introductions. When introductions got down to Shouko (the second to last picture), she explained that she has met a good looking English speaker walking in the neighborhood and joined the club so she could talk to him (probably to flirt). Everyone found this hilarious, and Mom jumped on it as a good English roleplay. Now Josh was the man in her neighborhood, and we spent time teaching her how to ask him questions like where he worked. [She's married, mind you...(^_^;)]. By the way, Aunt Cathryn, if you are reading this, Shouko's personality and wit reminded me most of you. Actually, she would have fit perfectly into Mom's family. Whenever she would say something funny and Josh would laugh hard, she'd snap teasingly "Stop laughing! You laugh too much!" From this point on, it was almost nonstop laughs between all of us. We taught them phrases of all kinds, including how to talk about dog agility competitions! (One of the women there participated in those with her dogs). We also compared ways to command a dog in both languages.

In addition to free talk, we also did food guessing games and a sort of bingo. Besides the funny times, we also had serious moments, such as when the dog agility lady told a story of her trip in the US. She was getting off the bus when she heard a "cowboy" say Japs, and she wondered if all Americans still had that sort of animosity towards Japanese. She seemed a little sad, but we had the chance to explain to her the attitude differences based on generations.

By the time we walked out of there two hours later, we had almost no desire to leave. It was a complete blast, and either of us would keep that up weekly for no pay in a heartbeat. Afterwards, our day got even better because... We found Smash Brothers Brawl on display!! While resigned to waiting five months to play this game after everyone in the US (because Wii's are not region free and it would be pointless to buy the game here in Japan), it was a special delight to find a playable display in a local department store called Daiei. It's not timed like a normal arcade, either; we can even save our progress in the Subspace Emissary.

I think we have seen most of the character lineup...I hope not, because the 'surprise' characters so far didn't really get me excited. I am more excited about the already announced characters. Somehow, I feel like I have a better chance at getting 'good' this time around! And I feel like I want to play more of the roster than I did last time (I only ever really cared about Roy and Peach...and Peach only because I was desperate for a female). Moreover, I think the characters I want to play also have potential to be good characters (I know I know, I played Roy not Marth. What was I thinking, yeah yeah...).

Don't worry, there is no way we're going to get better than all you guys back home. I think we have minorly peeved the store employees by standing at the display too long, so soon enough we'll go back to waiting for months. However, when we can play our own game, these are the characters I want to devote time to (in rough order):

Zero Suit Samus, Ike, Pit, Diddy Kong, Zelda

I am soooooooo happy there is a really cool female I can play!! And she is exactly my favorite fighting style: fast and a good jumper. [I fall off cliffs too much.] Also, even though I will try to learn her armored form, there is a way to start off as Zero Suit at the beginning of the battle so I will take advantage of that. Then there is Ike; all I could say of him at first was "oh my gosh, Ike is a BEAST!!". His attacks may be very slow (you really feel the weight of his sword when you play him), but it feels like every single one is super powerful, and he still has the counter I am used to! He even has fire based attacks...I gladly replace Roy with him. The only downside is his 'up B' doesn't actually bring him up...So I will give away my weakness now: All you have to do is push me off a cliff and watch me as I fall. (^_^;) As for Pit, I am always a sucker for archers, and, again, he is a very good jumper/flier so he counters my curse with cliffs. As for Diddy Kong, I had to play him in the Subspace Emissary and I think he is rather cute...When I want a happy cute character, I think I shall try Diddy Kong! As for Zelda, obviously she was in the last game, but again in the SE I discovered that she seems to really kick butt with a lot of her attacks, so now I am intrigued to try her at some point.

On to My Birthday!

We decided to go to Shinjuku, Tokyo, and explore around for my birthday. Since Josh is with me 24/7 right now, he couldn't exactly buy me a 'surprise' birthday present, so we decided to look around the stores and if I found something I liked he would buy it for me. Eventually I began hoping on the idea of finding some new boots (my old boots are ankle length and the heels are literally losing entire chunks). I was thinking some tall kind, just for stylish fun, but I didn't want any killer heels that would hurt the health of my feet. Unfortunately, store after store proved that Japanese women are obsessed with shoes and killer heels. Any time I would find a couple (emphasis on a couple) of tall boot designs, they would often have heels to kill you in 30 minutes. My rule of thumb was if I couldn't practically wear them to class on UT campus, they weren't worth the money. In the end, though, we found a store that had hundreds of tall boots on sale. The last picture in the gallery is the ones we got! Those heels are actually easier on my feet than the last boots! I can't wait till summer when I can wear skirts that show them off more than jeans. (^_^)

Hmm...other than that, life has been going well. Back onto Japanese culture, here's a recommended movie list of what I've had the opportunity to see here so far: Hero, Always, The Girl Who Leapt through Time （時をかける少女）, and Piano Forest （ピアノの森）.

Oh also! A long time back Joshua and I both got Nintendo DS's. Well, one of the times I was staying with him in Tokyo, we found a store with an entire section of decals for cell phones. We bought up a few (which weren't cheap, by the way. These things are very nice quality and permament!) and decked out our DS's! Here's a shot of what I did to mine. You can visit Josh's site to see his.

I like rabbits, I was born in the year of the Rabbit, and I drive a Rabbit! (VW) I thought these rabbits were very pretty and this gold goes well with the Metallic Rose DS. This DS reminds me of a beautiful field in the wind, now.

Until next time! じゃあ☆~~ヾ^-^) マタネッ♪