The Adventures of Aaron-san (in Japan)

December 31 - Kyoto to Nara

Historically, Nara was the first real capital city Japan had, and it is now a very pleasant nature reserve. After getting off the strange red train that took me there, I perused the park and the many deer (shika) that inhabit the area. Their antlers are all shaved off, but the question is: Is it for the safety of the other animals or the tourists? Those deer can be quite annoying, as they frequently walk up and calmly stick their heads in whatever pocket or such you had available. In short, I had to keep an eye open. I got to take some picture of some very old statues and buildings, which should look great if they turn out. I then took the grand trip (walk) to Daikouji (temple). Along the way I noticed many houses done in the old traditional Japanese style...with a huge satellite dish on the roof. I wonder, are they longing for the past, or the future? Oh well, I found Daikouji temple eventually and got the grand tour and yes, I got to see the famous Bhudah looking over his shoulder statue (and pictures were also allowed, sugoi!) One thing that caught my attention was the huge array of NHK TV cameras everywhere. I stuck around for the rest of the day watching tourists come in all shapes sizes and colours, though I was one of the only ones the did not look overpacked (like a typical foreigner) or armed with a huge out-of-date emergency phrasebook wearing a hawaiian shirt (okay, so they didn't wear the hawaiian shirt, but it would suit them quite well I think). As such I fooled a lot of other foreigners into thinking I was Japanese, which is good, because I just did not feel like dealing with them. Later that evening there was a huge New Year's celebration at the temple (in front of the famous gate whose name I forget right now but I have a picture of it). So, if you caught NHK TV that night, you might have saw me (I was wearing a yellow overcoat over my blue jean jacket that Ippei gave me in case it got cold. Just love the park here, I will wander again tomorrow (yes, I stayed up all night with the rest of the people here celebrating).

December 30 - Kyoto 2

After a surprisingly good sleep, I checked out at visited more of those temples. You know after a while, they all look the same. Hmm, they are pretty though. I visited some museums as well today (the castle was reservation only and alas I had none), which was a very nice trip. Almost had a serious accident today (dropped my camera). Fortunately, it still worked fine. The weather got real crappy real fast, so I was forced to stop my sight-seeing and visit some local shops. Some very nice souveniers, though most of them were definitely out of my price range. I still picked up some, though. It was getting late, so I retreated for a bowl of udon noodles and checked in to that youth hostel again. After a good nights sleep in a different, noisy room, I would plan to go to Nara tomorrow.

December 29 - Tokyo to Kyoto

Yay, I got to take the Shinkansen to Kyoto. That monster train goes blazingly fast, and it still took around 3 hours to get there. Once there I was greated with the splendor of the combination of old temples in a modern city setting. First thing I did was to go to the top of Kyoto tower and look at what I could visit (though I had been reading my book before and knew some places). The view was amazing, and I got some nice photos of that. From there I headed to a temple whose name eludes me, but it was the Higashi (east) one. Wow, real temples. Some amazing architecture, and I got it on film. I also noticed that the birds are not only NOT afraid of people, but they will lunge at you if they see you have bird feed for them (ala Alfred Hitchcock). Really, I held out my hand, and I was swarmed by these damn birds who dive-bombed by hand and send the seeds flying at which point they battled it out amongst themselves. I have a photo of the birds creeping on someone. I wish I had the AFTER shot. After that, I stopped for a quick bite to eat at...the train station. That place is huge. 5 stories high, glass and steel dome covering the place (you can see all the way up). Kind of looks like the Davis Centre, actually. There, the train conductors who were not working that night and some other personnel put on a concert, yes, a concert. They sung Italian operas with Japanese lyrics, and worst of all, they sung about trains. Extremely cheesy. For once, I wished I didn't know ANY Japanese. Oh well, I got to go to a very peculiar club called the "Pig & Whistle" where there was a huge boat hanging from the ceiling. There were some other foreigners there, so I got stuck in with some of them, but they were fine. They were two British guys here on vacation visiting their "Auntie". After indulging on some of the cuisine, I along with everyone else in the establishment partook in something called "Shouchuu". Served as a highball with club soda and lemon, and at 30% alcohol (I didn't know this part till later), it goes straight to your head. Eesh, I advise everyone to try it once, but not more than that. Afterwards I managed to find a youth hostel to stay at for the night (2000 yen), and I was stuck in a room no bigger than my apartment in Waterloo with 3 other guys. I took the normal precautions, i.e. hide my wallet and keep everything within arms reach, but everything was fine, albeit smelly and crowded.

December 28 - Asakusa, Shibuya, and Odaiba

Busy day. I woke up early and caught the Yamanote to Ueno, where I took the subway to Asakusa (a very touristy place). There was the famous gate (kamisarimon (sp?)) and the Asahi building which I have pictures of. I also picked up some souveniers for back home. The weather was very nice, and Asakusa was not as crowded as I thought it would be, though I got a good laugh out of this couple who had personal translators stopping them before they say anything (it was obvious they did not get along). After some good picture-taking, I used the subway to travel to the opposite end of the line (Shibuya). From there I was lucky enough to experience what it is like to be carried by a crowd of people. Literally, I was packed in almost to the point of pain and I almost did not need to move. I took some pictures by just holding my camera in the air and clicking. Gotta love it. Definitely not for the claustrauphobic. Sort of looked like a Tokyo nightmare, but I got through it, and people were more courteous than I thought, and I also got to use my Japanese on a frequent basis here (i.e. "Nani wo shiteru yo!" (What do you think you're doing), "Shibuya-eki wa doo ittara ii deshouka?" (How do I get (go) to Shibuya station), and others). I think the funniest part was with the old women who get around by whacking people with their canes and shoving everyone out of their way. In their eyes, they are not doing anything wrong. It looked second nature to them. I wonder how they would like New York?... Anyway, after a brief lunch at a pizza place, I took off to Odaiba (a place I had to transfer trains to get to). There I saw the strangest architecture it has been my pleasure to see, like the Statue of Liberty (really, I have a photo), and the Fuji TV building (cubes on poles with a huge ball just...there). I also saw some boats and the Rainbow Bridge. After it got dark, I headed back for shabu-shabu with everyone in Ippei's family. Oh yes, learned about Tokyo Disneyland today from Ippei and his girlfriend (Asako was it?). Seems Tokyo Disneyland attracts the most people in the world (1.8 million annually). See what I don't know? Ah well, I had a Shinkansen to catch to Kyoto tomorrow, so I went to bed.

December 27 - Shinjuku and Meguro

Hit the book store first thing in the morning and picked up a copy of the "Lonely Planet: Japan" guide book. At 5200 yen, it was not exactly cheap, but it is the only book I have ever seen with detailed maps and written explanations to the sights and sounds in all the major cities (and minor like Matsumoto) in Japan. From there I stopped by Meguro, a quaint little ward where there were some beautiful parks, and miserable old men there who wouldn't lift a finger to help a foreigner. I think the phrase "boku wa gaikokujin wo tasukenai!" said it all (I do not help foreigners). It is just the older men that tended to do this, but geez, I can't believe they pride themselves on not helping foreigners. I was able to find my way around without them though, and I enjoyed the parks very much. Heck, I forgot, on the way back, I stumbled (well not literally, but it was right there) upon the Squaresoft headquarters (Squaresoft is the currently one of if not the most profitable game companies in Japan). Now that is a place to work! I went inside and took a brief look around. I can not believe the security in this place. Multiple security guards on every floor and everything looks real high-class. I looked around some of the floors of the building (mostly offices and reception areas) before the security guards started eyeing me and following me, at which point I promptly left. After that, I made my way to Ikebukuro where I looked around the city some more, and found a rather large (around 10 stories) HMV music store. They had absolutely everything there, even the newest foreign (American) CDs. I even found a Burger King there, now that is rare. Afterwards, I had dinner with Ippei's parents at his house since he was at some company party. We had some very nice wine, vegetables (non-corn), and meat (it was chicken I think). Good thing I remembered to bring a bottle of Sinano Wine (the wine made where I live) as a gift. Geez, they eat so well here. After planning for tomorrow, I went to bed.

December 26 - To Tokyo...

Caught the 10:20 bus as scheduled, Bus 2, Seat 4A. I got stuck next to some fidgity woman for the whole 3 hour 10 minute trip, so I was very relived to finally be in Shinjuku. As I mentioned in some previous posting, Tokyo is not so much a city par se as a collection of cities called "wards". The ones I know off hand are: Shinjuku, Ikebukuro, Shibuya, Mejiro, Meguro, Akihabara, Tokyo, Yoyagi, and Ueno, and there is a whole bunch I am missing, but I will have to look at a map to remember the rest. Anyway, I caught the sights and sounds of Shinjuku for a few hours (especially in Shimbashimaya (sp?), the 13 story shopping building and the 6 story book store which also carries foreign books. I don't know, the Harlequin novels in Japanese were a good laugh to see. Once I finally caught up with Ippei in Akihabara (at a very strange place called Sofmat), we went to dinner (once he got off at 8). Akihabara is like a huge Computer and Electronics Expo all day every day including Sundays. It is a place to visit, but not a place to live. Anyway, Ippei, Myself, and two of his co-workers went out for Tonkatsu (fried pork) at a local dive. Extremely tasty, and reasonably priced (700 yen). After that, we stopped at Ikebukuro at a place called "Hub: the English Pub", and English it was not, but they did serve chicken wings and beer nuts. From there, we took the Seibu Ikebukuro line to Shakuji-kooen where I stayed at his house for the night.

December 25 - Merry XMAS (not valid in Japan)

I could have planned this better. I mean, I did running around this week, and I pick today as a rest day. Got a phone call from my parents, which was kind of shocking considering my keitai runs off a separate PHS satellite from everyone else in the world. I am getting used to these long phone numbers, though. Ah yes, celebrated today with a can of flaked Turkey. Oh yes, lesson time! You see, XMAS is not celebrated in Japan. Less than 1% of the population is Christian in any way, so XMAS has been demoted to a "commercial" holiday for lovers. Basically, it is like living in a Christmas toy commercial, and all the love hotels (or rest houses as some are also called) fill up with reservations. To elaborate (more), love hotels are hotels that charge on an hourly rate, and I think the name of the place alone fills in why people go there. This has been your XMAS lesson for today. Ah, tomorrow I get to go to Tokyo. Better pack...

December 24 - Shiojiri

Yeah yeah, I know it is only 1 station away, but there is a lot of the city I have not yet explored. People are quite friendly here, even in the real remote areas. Well, I guess they are used to foreigners by now. They gladly helped me back to the station when I got lost in the middle of nowhere. There are a lot of old antique shops and ramen houses down in the middle of nowhere. Kind of quaint but spooky. I wonder what this place is like at night. Especially with people that seem to sit in front of a store window ALL DAY. To elaborate, I passed an old woman around 11AM or so, and she was STILL there at 4PM! Perhaps she left and came back (most likely), but it wouldn't surprise me if she was there all that time (just a hunch).

December 23 - Minami-Matsumoto

Sounded good at the time. For some reason, the wind is very cold, though the actual temperature is quite warm. Managed to get some more sightseeing of the mountains and hills done. I am always quite shocked at just how close a lot of these mountains are. I mean, if I wanted to spend a few hours, I could go and climb any one of a number of them, though considering there is snow at the top, I do not have any mountain climbing gear, and I have no real experince climbing mountains, I am left with traversing small hills. Also, why are there still fish and birds in the lakes and ponds. If only I could tell them to go south. Then again, Australia is pretty far for them to fly. Maybe Kyushu?

December 22 - Rest day

Why not? Everything is closed anyway. Looked up some vital Kanji for my upcoming visits. Curses some of these are incredibly difficult. I am not sure how the Japanese learn some of these. Practiced them on my JPOP songs, Manga, and Playstation games. Scary way to do it, but hey, it works.

December 21 - Nagano City again

Wow, I never realized there was a local train that stopped at Hirooka that runs to Nagano (and stops at EVERY other city along the way). By Azusa it takes about an hour, but local train, almost 2. Oh well, it was a nice day, and people are still shocked to find foreigners in Nagano City. I get that distinct impression they are saying to themselves "What are you doing here? The olympics are over. Wait! Let me get a picture". And that was the routine for most of the day. People are generally very friendly towards foreingers here, though little children are still just as scared of foreigners as in Hirooka. Stopped by Daibuki (sp?) temple again. Lots of people praying for snow (yes, there is no snow here yet). Just watch, in a week or two we will be peltered with the stuff... After catching one of the later trains back to Hirooka (via Matsumoto), I settled in for some rest.

December 20 - Itinerary planning

Taking the opportunity to do my laundry, clean up my room, and sort out what I can ship home, I came up with a reasonable plan for the rest of my vacation. First thing I have to do is hit Tokyo so I can pay back Ippei for the money he lent me when I went to take the Japanese test at Todai. Next I can take the famous Shinkansen to Kyoto and circle the area there for a while. Pity I really do not have any good information on that area. Hmm. Ah, the other co-ops are a little miffed that I got such a long time off (of course, I will have used ALL my days up until February doing this). Say, perhaps I should go to Nagano City this week...

December 19 - Vacation start

Ah, precious rest, just what I needed. I went to Matsumoto and picked up some new CDs for my listening enjoyment and purchased my bus ticket to Tokyo (where I plan to start my trip across Japan). Unfortunately, with everything so heavily booked during this season, the earliest I could get was next Saturday *sigh*, but I will use this chance to visit some of the local areas in Nagano. I also signified the start of my vacation with a trip to KFC for curry *with* chicken. Wow, I find it strange that my Japanese level has improved to "not always embarassingly bad".

December 18 - Presentation 2

Geez, it is rough today. First that guy in Spain is complaining again about some obscure problem which I had to write a patch for since he had no idea how to fix it. Next I had to attend a presentation in Japanese I got a headache trying to understand, and then get called useless by Hiranuma-san because I couldn't understand much of it. To clear things up, I can understand simple and spoken Japanese in an everyday environment, but when it comes to a business or corporate presentation, I am a lost as anything. The office is getting rearranged again, hopefully not too much. Okay, now I had better say it: I am leaving for my vacation today, so my updates from now on will be sparse at best until Jan. 12, when I return. I should have more news for you then, but for right now, I have to finish up my other work so I can leave today. Ja ne.

December 17 - Presentations and Karate

Well, I made my presentation on my new changes to my conversion script today. I tried to use Japanese, but there are just too many words I do not know, or not know how to use properly to be effective, so I had to resort to that strange hybrid Japanese-English I am known for. Well, that and my Japanese is pitifully slow compared with the natives here. Hmm, thank goodness it was just 4 of us. They seem confused, but at least I got my point across. After that mess, I was glad to be able to go to Karate and beat the crap out of that punching bag again. The master was there, and so we had out usual great lesson again. Today we worked on heian-shodan (even though I already knew it), and I think it was truly amazing that he got everyone to learn it in one night. A true master, indeed. Afterwards, I picked up some nikuman for a snack, and I must say I really like it. It is one of the "true" Japanese foods I truly do like.

December 16 - Letter from Kaneda-san

I got a very unique and interesting e-mail today. A while ago, we hired a company to do our online work with us to reduce our load. However, it appeared they did not do anything and EPSON gave them the boot (so to speak). However, Kaneda-san, one of their team members, keeps in touch with all of us and we all occasionally go out to have dinner after work or something small. She still asks us about doing stuff, but I have noticed it to be a lot more personal lately. Maybe it is just my imagination, or I am reading things between the lines, but one can not help wonder why she refers to me as "Darling" and "Aaron-chan". Hmm, I still think I am drawing conclusions too early. Other than that, the day just breezed through for once. Still lots of work, but most of it was documentation, and I did not mind that. I also saw the coolest thing on TV, the NEXT KARAOKE MACHINE. This one puts up computer-generated dancers showing how the stars move as well as sing. It is too cool.

December 15 - Slow Tuesday

What a day to make a major change to the conversion script. Something about putting a help file in the main book file, etc. etc. etc. Finished it all right, but I really hate it when they give me things at the last possible minute and exclaim that it "WILL" be done. I think they are trying to abuse their power (though not much admittedly). Still, I have a difficult time explaining reasoning to them in situations like this. If it were a very long and major change and I was kept in meetings most of the day, it wouldn't have been finished, and they wouldn't understand why. I guess this happens in America too, but it is more noticable here (pronounced). Corporate life, I guess.

December 14 - No more Nori (*sniff*)

Ah, tis a sad day. Without Nori's excellent Japanese skills, I feel totally left in the dark again. There is just too much of the language to know in such a short time for me to understand it all. I think I still get the point, but I basically replace my English with my Japanese (grammar and words), so I am very thankful I never have to take English again, or I would be in real trouble. Work is okay I guess. Jim is leaving for the US next week for a Christmas return, but I won't notice, because I will be on vacation too. I also get to miss the cleaning day. It is on a Saturday, when everyone MUST come in unless you are on vacation (he he he), and do a FORMAL cleaning job complete with waxing the floors, dusting the really hard to reach areas, and more. Still planning my Vacation trip, but nothing solid yet, just places I want to go, and I know how to get there. I just have to learn a few more phrases "just in case".

December 13 - Tired day

Slept in, did laundry, looked at more kanji (have to memorize the one for poison...never know what will be on the EPSON lunch menu...maybe Doku Curry). People from the dorm were asking me about how to ship things back to Canada (for some reason I am the proclaimed expert). I just use common sense, but some of the stuff they were asking... They were positively shocked when I said I was able to get things home in less than a week by air mail. One of them had already shipped a package by sea last week and wondered why it still was not there. You should have seen the look when I told him another two months. And he thought it would be home by Christmas...

December 12 - Party day 2

Today, it was Nori's farewell party with the Karate group. I slept a little late, but the party did not start until 1PM anyway, so I was safe. First, all of us went to Taito Amusement City for a quick game of Bowling (122 for me (10 pin)), billiards (also knows as stright pool in America), and arcade games. I saw this amazing new form of entertainment called "Dance Dance Revolution" where you stand on this lighted pad, and dance to the music it plays stepping on the pads at the right times. Loads of fun. Who thought that one up? Ah well, after that we made out way to an onsen in Suwa (I think). It was on the side of a mountain and would have a breathtaking view...it it weren't cloudy and at sunset. Ah well, this onsen was especially nice, and I will simply HAVE to come back here some day. After we all finished our business there, we headed off to grab a byte to eat at a Nomikai (drinking party). We had all sorts of strange food, most of which I ate because I was so hungry. Of the more interesting ones were Taco (Octopus), Nato (fermented soy beans; I still hate that stuff), Sushi/Sushimi, Chicken nuts (don't ask), Lobster, Shrimp, and NO FISH PATE! I really do not like fish that much, but I CAN eat it if I am starving. We all chipped in to pay for Nori's food, so I went through another load of money today. Afterwards, I stopped in at Ian's house, where he was throwing his own farewell party for Jacquie with everyone else (not in Karate), so I stopped in for a minute, but couldn't stay, as I was extremely tired. Oh well, I will probably sleep until noon tomorrow.

December 11 - The Jaquie party

Work was pretty much a dry one today, so I will skip ahead to around 5 or so. We all went to some strange place in Matsumoto (suprise) the Jacquie's/Ohtera's/Koyama's farewell party (that really narrows out section down). I regularly wouldn't mind the 6000 yen entrance fee, but the food was already out, and getting cold and clammy. I was promptly assured that was how the food was supposed to be eaten (my party was a BIG exception I heard). Nothing like...cold spaghetti, cold roast beef (all red in the middle), cold pork, and warm fruit. At least the wine/brandy/beer was all chilled. That was an interesting moment; seeing the executive staff of T.P. Publications getting blasted out of their minds in front of everyone (including the Kacho, who was a little tipsy himself). I think THE most interesting part was when the two or so from the core manual division found out I took Karate and started throwing punches and kicks at me (in a relatively unopen setting (i.e. they had no room to move)). Seeing as they were drunk, tipsy, and very slow, they were no threat to anyone (especially me), so I calmly let them hit the ground on their own. And, hey, wow! Someone caught some of the action of film. I wonder if I can get a copy of those pictures? Afterwards, we all went to a Karaoke party (Nikai - Number 2 party). This karakoe booth was very nice, will ALL the kanji also labeled in hiragana so I could real the whole song of EVERY song. I would put up some snippets of MP3s of the songs we sung, but that goes against copyright, and I would probably get sued or something, but I can say that we sung songs by TMR, Globe, Kinki kids, Yusuke SantaMaria, and Hide. No one tried the score box though (you put money in and it will give you a score for your singing ability). After that, we all had to take taxis home, as we missed the last train by hours.

December 10 - Another lesson

Still mad about the plastic over my window(balcony door), but I was assured it would be off next week. We will see. All the same, it was tremendously hot in the office today (heat cranked up). Noone seems to understand how I could have trouble working in such an environment except some of the Americans. My presentation is set up for next week (Thursday). So the rest of the day went towards documenting the code I wrote (joy). I documented quite a bit, but some of my more inspired parts just flowed when I wrote it, so I have to make sure people understand it I guess. Ah well, Karate was yet again a nice change today. The master was not there, though. A lot of newbies were there (I think they have formally signed up). At least I am not the lowest rank anymore. All the same, I guess it didn't matter, as I am still much taller than them all. I just felt so tired after all this I slept the minute I got home.

December 9 - Finished

the conversion tool, that is. There are still some small bugs, but everyone is just amazed that is runs around 13X faster than the old way (and so am I). That should help my rating. Ah, all the same, tonight, I did my laundry...all of it... including my coat. With that ... plastic still covering the seventh floor (can't open the windows, and we open out doors for ventilation), I am finding it hard to breath anymore. I lodged complaints to the land lady, but I don't think she understood (or cared) to hear my complaint. At least the only shower room is not 3/4 sealed off anymore, though I hate the new system (press a button and water sprays for around 7-8 seconds and turns itself completely off and you have to press the button again. No, there is no way to have it constantly running (like a normal shower) any more. God, that sucks. But at least I can get a stall without waiting in line. Listened to some of my CDs to sooth the mood, though. Gee, I never realized how good some of this music is. Hope customs doesn't give me a hard time trying to bring it back.

December 8 - Work work work...

That pretty much summarizes the day. The food here is starting to take its toll. I swear, it is driving me crazy. I don't know how much longer I can eat some of this cra...stuff. Fortunately, today was the end-of-printer line party. We went to a Chinese Restaurant where the food was much better than I am used to. Wow, real meat. Wow, food I can eat. Wow, reasonably priced. That made up for all of today and more. I need these every once in a while, you know. That reminds me, Tokyo has some good food, too. I will have to reserve another bus ticket sometime.

December 7 - How was the test?

...was the question everyone was asking me. I played the "Oh pretty well" route. Heck, I won't know for two months if I passed or not. Oh well, hopefully Hirasawa-san won't nail me to the wall if it turns out I failed. Honma-sensei said to all of us that she can give us all a certificate if we want (say, if we don't pass the test). Not as official, but valid none the less. People asked me about the new conversion tool, which I completely forgot about. Ah, maybe tomorrow. Went to Karate tonight, and people were amazed I went to Tokyo Daigaku. Ah well, keep them amused I guess. My blue eyes only go so far with them (very strange that ALL Japanese have brown eyes (even in Tokyo)).

December 6 - The test, and Shinjuku -> Matsumoto -> Hirooka

Caught the 8AM bus from Ippei's house (in Shakuji Kooen) to Ikebukuro. Then took the Yamanote (train line) to Shibuya. After getting sufficiently lost in the station, I found the train running to Tokyo Daigaku (there is a station right in front of the university). After finding out where I write the test, I got some nice photos of the campus, and made my way to my building. The instruction were all in Japanese (of course) but I picked up some interesing phrases. Such as, watches with any memory whatsoever are forbidden, turn your cell-phones OFF (i.e. make sure you can get no calls), and no gestures of ANY kind during the test. After all that, I was ready to write. First I got the Kanji part, and that went very well. After that, we had a break where I went with Ash and Peter (and C.K., the guy working in Tokyo) to get some lunch. We got a bento (box lunch) and it was very good (chicken, seaweed, and rice). Afterwards, I wrote the listening test. Oh brother, I swear this is designed just to confuse everyone. I had to try and answer questions like "What time does the next bus arrive? Wait, my watch is wrong, but twenty minutes ago I checked the clock in front of the station..." Eesh, hope the vocabulary and grammar section goes better. Unfortunately, it didn't, though I felt better about that than the listening. After all that was taken care of, I had to run to Shinjuku (literally) to catch the bus. Problem, I couldn't find the place where my bus line stops. Uh oh, and only 10 minutes till it leaves (wherever it is). Fortunately, I broke down and asked everyone I ran into until I triangulated a position for the station and caught the bus as it was pulling away. Geez, almost had a heart attack trying to get the bus. After the long ride home, I got some needed sleep.

December 5 - Matsumoto -> Shinjuku

Got to Matsumoto and discovered a huge mall within the bus terminal. Wow, I will have to come back here (subliminal note). Too bad it was raining as hard as I think it could... Anyway, got on the bus for 10:20 and waited the entire 3 hours 10 minutes it takes to get to Shinjuku (where it was still raining and kept on raining until around 8PM). I knew I was in Tokyo right away when I saw the sea of umbrellas. Literally, you would not get wet either way because the umbrellas formed a nice roof to walk under. Shopped around, but did not buy anything substantial (I can come back here in two weeks anyway (my vacation)). What disturbed me was there were walkways with floor tiling...outside...on an incline. I though it was meant to slide down, but NO, you have to (try) and walk up it. What fun! Found the 6-floor book store again (i.e. I can return here by myself next time). Lots of goodies, and strangeness, like the childrens book on scabs and the photograph book of toilets. Met up with Ippei in Akihabara and went out to dinner. Ouch, 3 nacho chips covered in pasta sauce that they call "pizza" runs us 500 yen a chip. Ah, so that is why I am glad not to live in Tokyo. Afterwards, I made my way to Ippei's house, showered, and went straight to bed, as it was past midnight, and I had to catch the early trains next morning to get to Tokyo Daigaku. Oh well, I figured I really wouldn't get any studying done today.

December 4 - Last day

Checked everything twice before I headed up to Shinjuku (tomorrow). After all, if I don't have everything I need, I can't go back to get them. Studied my Japanese (specifically Kanji) for a good part of today. I am pretty sure I can do all 245 kanji for the test (plus a whole whack of others not necessarily needed, but just in case... So, that brings my total up around 300 or so, but unfortunately, there is more to the test than just the Kanji. I was told that the Kanji would be the hardest part, though, so I hope to be okay (I can do the other sections reasonably well anyway). Geez, there is still plastic covering the entire seventh floor (my floor) of the residence. The floor in absolutely unlivable anymore. I had to go downstairs to study some more. Hopefully that plastic is gone when I get back.

December 3 - No title today

Been re-writing the conversion tool (still). On a good note, though, there is a party planned next Tuesday for those of us who worked on the last batch of printer manuals (myself included). We only have one more manual to polish up to GM (Gold Master) status before this entire load is done (until January). Works out great that I take my vacation after all this. Relaxed (?) with some karate this evening. Some of them wished me good luck on the test coming up this weekend, but most of it was spent working on moves with the master. Hey, four more practices with him and I can get a certificate (of course, he actually has to be here 4 more times, which is getting increasingly difficult for him).

December 2 - Japanese Day

Did more practice tests and went over some final subjects for the test. I know not all of it will digest, but I will do what I can. I wonder why the engineers are so confident? Do they have something up their sleeve I don't know about? Ah well, it will all be over in less than a week, and I get to go to Tokyo at the least, so it is not a wasted weekend. I think a routine visit to Akihabara is in order. Oh, on a sort-of-related note, I booted up my Final Fantasy game on my Playstation and was surprised that I can actually read AND understand a lot more of the dialog. I guess at the least, I can play Japanese games.

December 1 - Long day

Major changes to the conversion script today, which kept me busy all day. I learned a lot about the Japanese work ethic (work harder, not smarter) today. It makes sense, based on what I see around the office every day. Even Peter is getting into that mold now, working until 11PM or so once in a while. Even though I get treated better than I used to when I first came, because I what little I get for my work, I leave at 5:15 as is on my contract. Getting this conversion script working more than makes up for the fact I will not stay real late for "fun". On a good note, I got to go to have a pork dinner with some of the ladies in the office. Extremely tasty, and only 1200 yen. Great stuff.