Smile for me

I'm hyperactive right now, I know that because I can't stop shaking my right leg, this is almost like that night in November last year, when Wrath of the Lich King was released and I was jumping in anticipation (I'm a nerd, remember?).

This hyperactivity also makes me uncertain of what feelings I have right now, but I'm positive that they are certain feelings (see what I did there?)™.

I'll use this burst of inspiration to just write about anything that comes to mind and then top it off with several entries from my diary.

I was free from school today, due to some kind of day called "Tokyo day" or whatever, I didn't really clamor for details (I lost attention when he said "free tomorrow"). I used the free time to take care of several things:

I finally got that Alien registration thing done, it was a pain to fill the form and then wait but I feel good having it done. Though they called me later in the day, being all panicked over whether to transcribe my Ö as "O" or "OE" (OE sounds retarded to me, O is better, but they settled for OE anyway). Now I just have to wait for three weeks and then go back (alone, but it was really close, apparently).

Then I sent a package with stuff home to my family, it was mostly packed with presents for mah bro (apologies, elder brother, I'll never say that again, it was horrible) along with a card (in which I promptly forgot to write "happy birthday", d'oh! I'll write it here instead) Grattis på födelsedagen, broder! (lite sent men whatever).

After that adventure, I went shopping with my host mother. But not the kind of (admittedly) irresponsible shopping I usually do, but shopping for laundry soap and foodstuffs (and maybe some snacks...), I felt so grown up paying for everyday things at a supermarket. I really like supermarkets in Japan, they play music all the time, good music. Like, the ending theme to Bakemonogatari (repeatably).


Talking about stuff, I've gotten these weird bumps on my arms, turns out they're called muscles. Seems like all the P.E in school is paying off. By the end of this year, I'll be a Japanese-mastered, beard grown, responsible and strong adult (NO). That's fun.

Man, I can't really remember what I've written before, I might risk repeating myself. Which is a new turn for this blog (it's like a bad spin-off of my usual "contradicting myself").

So I take it I've told you about Ryuuta already, give me a heads up if I haven't.

That gives me a brilliant idea, if you want me to write about something - anything here, just throw me a comment and I'll be happy to write about it (don't worry, I'm finally writing more about school below). You'd be surprised if you knew how easily flattered I am by comments (and discouraged by the lack of them. I'm human after all).

Anyway, about Ryuuta, I haven't talked to him much at all this week, but from today on, I feel inspired to change that.


If you were wondering why I'm so hyper, it's because of a quasi-good reason called MyLifeIsG, I spent a good two hours reading the entries and it made me realize something about political correctness.

Oh and by the by, I got Fay's Booke (haha) a few weeks ago (did I write this?) and I resolved to uploading all of my pictures over there if you desired them. Though I might put one or two of them up here if I feel like it (which would be the first time I'd upload a picture on my blog). However, I do not want to become the kind of guy who goes around saying "Oh, just check my Facebook page" (similar to how I swore not to become the "Daaah, read my blog!" type. I might have tread the lines on that one though). So I won't make any vital information exclusive to that site, everything interesting will be posted here, see it as an extension of my internet persona (which has more or less melded with my real identity by now, that's something I should worry about).

...


By the way, I stole the "..."-thing from Neil Gaiman, though I haven't read his blog in quite a while (you can find it to the right).


I figured I should test the image uploading thing now and give you guys a treat. And to avoid having to pick between the many bad photos of Japan I've taken, I'll upload the picture I drew for the Art Café, the one I spent so much time filling in the white on.

Listening to "Paint it black" really helped in the making of this

Well, that's good enough, time to add the (very long) diary entries.

Thursday 10/09/2009

I'm 15 minutes early for homeroom and my only company is a sleeping guy and a girl who's just studying (another girl just entered but she doesn't seem talkative either).

I'll just start right where the last entry ended.
Ise-sensei told us some of the rules and that we should come to the English department (Eigoka) instead of having homeroom for the first two weeks (as of right now, we've been doing this for way longer than two weeks), except Thursdays. After hearing that, we were supposed to meet our classes, we got separated and Ise-sensei took me to my class, 11-6.

11-6 is located on the top floor in the south (or it might be the west) wing. The class has got 38 students, plus me. When I entered the classroom, all of those 38 students turned their gaze towards me, all I could do was to sneak onto a nearby seat with no hopes of actually being subtle.

Luckily the teacher needed to go through some papers with the class. So all the attention I had gathered was quickly abandoned in favor of the blackboard.

But soon the teacher (who is female and quite a serious person by her looks) called me up front and told me to introduce myself. For the task of introducing myself (in Japanese) in front of 38 Japanese students I'd never seen before, I'd say I did pretty well.

Aaaand there was the second bell, homeroom starts now.


Friday 11/09/2009

Oh hey it's the same date as that day when lots of people died in a terror attack, and two American buildings were destroyed, oh God no!

Being an insensitive jerk aside, I'm in the library, listening to my revived cellphone, it makes me miss you.

I just found out that the library had a Japanese copy of "The hungry caterpillar", a book I've loved since childhood. I read it with glee, and to my pleasant surprise, I could understand almost everything that was written. Go me!

Final Destination (Brawl) just started playing, inspiration comes to me.

Continuing from the last entry:

After the introduction, I made it back to my seat and faded into the (pale yellow) background, while the teacher started talking about stuff again. But fortunately I didn't fade too much (pretty hard in bright environments) as the girl sitting in front of me turned around and started talking to me. After a few minutes of complicated but amusing conversation, the teacher approached me with a box of folded notes in hand. Apparently it was time to arrange the seating. I picked up the first piece of paper I noticed, it had the number 4.
I was unamazed by this regular number, but then I looked up at the (green) blackboard and suddenly I couldn't stop smiling.
Number 4 is the second seat from the back, next to the windows.

Kyon's seat.

When all had gotten their new seats, the teacher dismissed us and it was the end of my first day in school. I was happy, I just knew my time in this school was destined to be good.

"Simple and Clean", the Intro to Kingdom Hearts, is playing. I need to find some KH fangirls to hang out with (haven't found any yet).

I actually need to find some friends in general, I'm starting to feel lonely (not anymore! To an extent).

Oh, Death Note music just started playing, and here I sit with a pen and a notebook, it can't be a coincidence! Mwahahaha!

This one's for you man

...

Goddammit, why won't it work?!


I think I'll skip the chronology when writing about school from now on, just so you know.
No more school stuff right now though, I don't feel like it.

What I do feel like (and have felt like all day) is playing brawl, I think I'll try to force myself to muster the courage to ask if anyone in my class knows about it, maybe even owns it (And that eventually lead to me playing Melee with Ryuuta & friends during a lunch break, awesomesauce).

Looking back through the pages, I see my handwriting has changed between every paragraph, it looks funny. But at least it's quite readable, that's a great achievement for me.
Oh and obviously my handwriting is the most screwed up when I write about it, I'm blaming it on the fact that I'm listening to "Hito Toshite Jiku Ga Bureteiru".

Whoa, it's becoming hard for me to avoid using Hiragana when writing Japanese, that's mostly good.

Looks like my self study hour is over (though I had no homework), thus I end this diary entry here and now.


If any of you were interested in the whole "handwriting" matter, I'll just go ahead and put up a picture of the page here.

See if you can spot the changes made during transcription

I think I like to upload pictures of my notebook...

There's actually another entry (which is a lot newer), I should get it on here too but I've had enough for today, I'll do it tomorrow (have you noticed how I never keep those kind of promises?).

Bye for today people, I still miss you.

Skoo(l)

Interpret the title in any way you want, it's multi-layered for your inconvenience.

It's been, what? 18 days since my last update, which was a delayed one on top of that. You guys must be at least 3 weeks behind me (hells, it's been 4 weeks since I started school and I've barely written about it).


I could tell you about how awful my current host family is, but it's not interesting and would probably be misinterpreted as whining, since most of you don't have a frame of reference. Instead I will just tell you about other, happier, things.

As of today, I have been in Japan for 7 weeks, which means tomorrow will be my 50:th day in this place (7x7+1 do the math yourself). Which can count as quite a lot if you consider that I will be in Japan for more or less 300 days, however, it is also just 1/6:th of my total stay (16.5% if you will), which in a depressing point of view makes it obvious that it's far from even halfway. My opinion on this matter varies greatly depending on my mood (and with the prior statement about my family, guess which mood I'm mostly in right now).

That aside, today was a great day for another reason, it was the first day of Bunkasai (school festival). It was great fun.

To be more specific, it all kicked of with a blast when the opening ceremony consisted of traditional Japanese dancing. The dancers were all dressed up (some even had make-up, one guy looked like a girl, fun times) and the drums were overpowering. The dance itself was amazing, it looked like a random madman's dance, but it was all coordinated and fit so perfectly to the drums' beat, I was enthralled.

After that, I mostly walked around the school area (occasionally with or without Truls and/or Amanda), looking at things (and talking about them, too). I did not have the time to visit my class' attraction, for which I had spent 2.5 hours the day before drawing a picture (of space!) which would be displayed. I did, however, see my picture framed before the opening ceremony. They had misspelled my name (Jorkim is the ugliest name ever, how did they even get that? They usually just call me something with an A and without the O, how the fook did they manage to switch the A to a consonant? Silly Engrish-speakers).

Some of the many places of interest I visited include: A stand selling Chocolate bananas (yummy, though they were out of bananas before I had the chance to eat another). A stand selling Ramune (tasted OK, cool thing with a glass ball in the flask). A booth where we were given a number and asked to find another student with the same number (I was 63, it took me all day, but eventually I found the girl who had it and we could then return to the booth to have our picture taken and be rewarded with candy, sweet!). A train model display, by the Train Spotting club (a freaking Train Spotting club. Suddenly the Butt Monkey from Katteni Kaizo is suddenly a lot more believable). And loads of other places unworthy of my mention.

A place I never got the chance to visit (despite standing in the queue for 15 minutes) was the Obake Yashiki (Ghost House), the queue was really long (the most popular of all attractions) and it must have been good, since I could hear the screams from the other side of the corridor.

While standing in a queue mostly comprised of Junior High students (this was before 12 o'clock, they had obligatory attendance and nobody else visited that early in the day), I was quite obviously identified as a Gaijin. I brought a lot more attention from these people since they are not at all as used to foreigners as the High School students (the Junior ones don't have exchange students, nor have they had any classes on other countries to help them eliminate the stereotypes and assumptions that still float in their tiny heads). So after a while of standing there, catching everyone's gaze, I was approached by a group of girls, who asked me if I knew Japanese and what my age was, which was then followed by a raised pinky-finger and the question "gaarufurendo imasuka?" (that is always one of the first questions I'm asked, have they no sense of tact?). After telling them so, they were shocked (the most common reaction to my answer) and one of them answered with "No, you should me".

I laughed.


Oh, my wonderfully beloved and awesome host family is back (Sarcasm brought to you by GOD himself), I need to leave the computer now, I'll make a follow-up later tonight.

Liar Liar

So here I am, writing, after just making a whatever-they-call-it on Facebook stating I wouldn't.

But then again, it's Facebook, so who gives a damn? (I don't, if you were asking).

However, to stay true to the post title (for the first time since ever), I will turn a statement from my prior post into a lie, namely the one where I promise to write about my first school day and so on. That was a lie, haha, fat chance.

Instead I will talk about random things I actually feel like writing about.

I've managed to successfully connect my (old) mobile phone into the laptop, and therefore once again gaining the ability to charge it (I haven't had access to an adapter since my roommate left my last host family). So I can listen to my wonderful library of music (according to my own singular opinion, because I am so sickeningly politically correct).

One of those songs in question happens to be a little tune called Moonsong, I've listened to it a lot during my stay here, and even coined a new catchphrase of mine: "Shut up, I'm listening to Moonsong dammit."
Of course I have never let that phrase be uttered by my own lips, but I say it in my mind whenever I deem it appropriate (the appropriate time usually ends up being while I'm listening to Moonsong, for some reason).
Talking about Moonsong, play Cave Story and get a free pass to be my third best friend (first place occupied by the coolest guy ever, dude. Second place reserved for any random Japanese person I hope to end up befriending during my stay).

And now for something entirely else.

Tuesday 08/09/2009
So right now I'm in English class, having nothing to do since the today's lesson is about learning the names of different body parts (I've known those words since... Fourth grade?), anyway the English teacher is really nice and he let me write in my diary during the lesson.

...

The guy next to me just asked if I could help him (cheat) with a few words. I did (and I'll probably go to hell for it). But wouldn't it be fun if the teacher happened to read this? (he's walking around between the desks) That would be interesting.

Spoiler: He didn't.


Today I had Geography class for the first time (I barely understood a single thing) and the teacher was happy to point out that today is the ninth of the ninth o-nine, fun fact.
Thinking about it, next year just won't be the same (the tenth of the tenth year ten just doesn't work out for me). However, in two years time we'll have the eleventh of the eleventh year eleven. Awesome!

Actually, my entry written during English class was longer, but from that point on I wrote about my first day of school. And by writing that in my blog now, I would turn my statement about my prior blog post being a lie into a lie. But that would actually make sense, since this post is named "Liar Liar", implying that I'd lie twice.

But that would be too easy, Since I bet you considered the possibility "maybe he's lying about lying" when you started reading this post, didn't you?

So I'll stop writing now.

...




.....



Are they gone?

Good, that mindless drabbling ought to have scared of all the weak-minded individuals reading this.

If you hadn't thought about it enough, you wouldn't have realized that if I lied about lying, that would make the first statement a truth, effectively making the number of total lies in this post one. I needed to lie once more to increase the number to two, allowing me to do this:

Tuesday 08/09/2009
I guess this is the entry where I write about school, I've delayed it long enough already (there is an awesome word for doing so, but a certain individual connected to the blog used it recently and I don't want to seem like a copycat).

So, on the Tuesday one week ago, I went to to school in the morning. It was the first time I'd walked from the station to the school (we'd taken a taxi the day before because of the rain), so I had reason to be nervous. But anything named nervousness quickly left my heart when I noticed I could just follow the stream of students, all moving in one general direction.
After arriving at the school 40 minutes early, I ended up waiting in the cafeteria for a period of time (namely 40 minutes), but it was alright. I was quite content just watching the many different students passing by, or I could turn my head towards the window facing the courtyard, where the dancing club seemingly celebrated their post-summer reunion with a dance-off (it was rad).

Though I was slightly embarrassed when they just kept stopping and giggling every time they noticed I was watching (I ended up being sneaky by turning my head the other way, looking at the window on the opposite side of the room, where their reflection was crystal clear, a perfect target for my gaze without them noticing).

Time went on and then I eventually got to meet the other exchange students.

First off there is Truls, from Norway.
He looks like what you would think of if I told you to imagine a cool Norwegian teenager. I'm pretty sure he'll be very popular. He's a nice guy too (which just adds to the popularity, I assume), though he's a bit hard to talk to. Our conversations tend to silently die after a few minutes, but that will probably fix itself in due time.

The other exchange student is Amanda, from Germany.
Apparently she is a friend of Louise (or was it Louisa? Sorry if I remembered your name incorrectly) from my 3-week camp. Amanda is also a rather friendly person, so we get along. An interesting fact; her German school is actually the sister school of Myojo (my school) and therefore almost everything is paid for her by her school, nice.

After joining up with Truls and Amanda, we went to the staff room to introduce ourselves to the teachers (second time for me). After doing that with little to no drama (unless you count slight stuttering as drama), we continued onwards to the English department. It's kind of our base of operations here at the school. There we got to meet Ise-sensei, the teacher responsible for us (kind guy, sounds funny when he speaks English) and Anthony ( "-sensei" not necessary), the American English teacher (funny, has awesome pink pimp glasses).

Whoops. English class is over now, I'm off to the library.

And that is all for tonight (today for most of you). If you consider the fact that this was just about the first hour of the first day and it still took me 45 minutes to transcribe it from my notebook, you might be able to understand why I've procrastinated (see what I did there?) the whole "write about school"-thing for so long.

Oh, and if anyone of you is still not confused/distracted enough already, please make an attempt to analyze my text and count all the lies. You may also be amazed by my astounding use of my vocabulary in this post. I feel really proud of myself for it.

Catch you some other time, Pokémon.

Summon More Ziggurats

Today I got Swedish pancakes for dinner, my host family really is the best. It really is too bad that I will have to leave them next Saturday.

I think I'll describe my host family in greater detail right now and go with the school stuff later, it'll be easier for me then.


My host mother is a nice lady in her late thirties, she told me to call her Emiko-san, and not oka-san (she's too young to be my mother). Her English is far from perfect but just good enough to understand what I mean when my Japanese vocabulary doesn't last.

The father is rarely home, his job description was simply "office worker" on the family information sheet, and he is staying true to that stereotype. He does seem like a good guy too, judging from the few times I've met him.

Something I also must comment on is the area we live in.

You remember that time back in sixth grade when you were in the school library and supposed to do something but ended up looking in a book with pictures from the Japanese nature and were mindblown by the pictures of incredibly vegetated hills with clouds flowing down the valleys in between?

You do? Holy shit, get out of my memories!

Anyways. This place is just like that, built in a valley with green hills on the sides and clouds in between, it's awesome. I can't believe this place is actually part of Tokyo.

The home itself isn't bad at all either. It spans half of the first floor in a 3-story apartment, it's actually pretty roomy (however there are children's toys taking space everywhere, they must be more spoiled than Dudley in Harry Potter).

So my days here are pretty simple. Wake up at six, get up at 6.05 when the goddamn snoozer starts, Eat breakfast, usually egg with ketchup on it (okaaay...) and toast with jam (not homemade, not poisonous), take a shower, brush teeth, use the ill-sized "American" toilet (strange fact they don't tell you about Japan; the squares on the toilet paper are like half as thick as those back home, so you need to use twice as many squares as usual and try not to rip them apart while you pull it out of the dispenser, it's actually quite annoying), change from pajamas to real clothes, decide which T-shirt to use for the day (emotional black or daring red? hm...), get the bag and put on the hat, say "Ittekimaaaaasu~" and go out the door (remember to put shoes on beyond the shoeline before exiting) and head for the station, stand at the red light 1 minute later and curse your bad luck, arrive 3 minutes later at the station and use the awesome month-card (that was bought on the day of visiting school) that had only cost 7000 yen, take the second train for Tokyo (first one is always full), take a seat (preferably at the end of the row) and try to gain some makeshift sleep from the coma that always comes with the Japanese trains, come back to life when the words "Mitaka" are uttered from the speakers, squeeze out of the vehicle between the masses of people when the train arrives at Kichijouji (try saying that three times in a row), keep with the flow and start walking towards school, pass the Book Off to the left (there is a Book Off at the station near my school, thank you god), stand at the massive red light and then move towards the alley with all the weird stores and foreign restaurants (I want to try eating at "Der König" sometime), go down the stairs with broken steps, pass the vending machines and the place where all street performers hang out, start walking on the bridge, look at the huge fishes (like this big *arms held wide*), the swan boats, the pretty lake and keep an eye out for the turtle (live turtles are awesome by default), get to the stairs with the far too wide steps (you have to like, take one and a half step each time, it's a pain for the legs), go through the house area, pass under the black gate (it's massive and imposing), go into the alley to the right of the konbini, proceed towards the forest and walk through the trail there, watch what might be happening on the open area to the right (usually some kids running about), exit the forest and keep a straight line until the road is reached, pass the road and enter school, remember to ignore to use the disinfectant spray on hands (it stinks and nobody does it anyway), get to the locker located on the top floor on the other side of the school and leave stuff, hear the bell ring and do school stuff, when school is over, get home.

Oh, apparently they aren't simple at all.

Well I successfully avoided writing about school today too, next time, I promise.

Unless I make my promises like Sora (and therefore won't get back to you until about a year has passed... God I love Kingdom Hearts)

Be back tomorrow, I hope.