Various Things

So not too much has happened recently. I finally went to Akihabara, which was somewhat fun (I will upload pictures later as I am rather too tired to do it now). I have entered midterm season, which mainly means essays in my case. I will start (and finish) my only non-essay midterm this weekend, and probably start writing my other essays by next weekend. So...really don't expect many posts from now until my winter break.

In other news, I have finally put my self up on My-Sensei.com and have priced myself rather low...so I should be able to start tutoring soon! I also have been putting a lot of photography up on my old site: canteen-ninja.deviantart.com so feel free to check that out. Really, I have nothing more to say. Sorry!

P.S. I guess I also had a long conversation with a cell-phone shop clerk in which I managed to cancel my texting plan, and have begun going to the gym somewhat regularly. Not very interesting, I'm afraid.

Edit: http://picasaweb.google.com/DanielisCertus/Akihabara#

It has been a long time!

So I have done a lot since my last post:  I went to a Chinese Opera, I celebrated Halloween (twice, of course), got a package, I almost got my Working Visa, I bought new clothes!

Highlights:
Chinese Opera: Was sort of fun, but really long and not something I care to do again. It was more a variety show of Chinese theater than anything else.
Halloween: Um...it was somewhat extremely lame. I dressed as a  70s disco king during the day...which everyone confused for me just dressed nicely. During the evening I went as a Biker-Themed Exotic Dancer -- which was hit with mixed reviews...from the same groups of people. I went to a Halloween Party and was basically complemented all night, proceeded to lose a costume contest, and was then told by half the people that didn't vote for me that my costume was amazing and I should have won. Afterwards there were a few planned and botched ideas -- such as going to a train party the next day (was advised against), and going to a club (left too late), so instead I went to Big Boy with Ben! Pretty cool. I of course changed my outfit for this outing to more club-appropriate gear. All available in the album at the bottom of the post! Beware, though, it  uploaded them in reverse order. The next night I, dressed in a nostalgic super-hero costume (no pics unfortunately, I wore a paper crown, a pink shirt, underwear over my pants, and my bed sheet like a cape -- my name was The Lion King), went with Ben, dressed as a BDSM-bottom cat-boy, to Shinagawa to people watch...and was reminded why Ben should not be allowed to use my camera. He took and saved 3 ratty pics -- the rest he deleted. There was an awesome pic of two Popeyes that got deleted! It was still sort of cool. Basically Halloween in Japan is not as cool as Halloween in the US, was the lesson from the weekend.
Package: My mom sent me candy and socks! Both of which I really like. They are red cashmere socks, and the candy lasted about 2-3 days, so I am rather satisfied. If I get another one, though, I hope for some coffee!
New Clothes: I stopped by a store and picked up a rad pink shirt, and a rad brown shirt, which there are pictures of. Together they cost about 980yen ($10) and are awesome as hell so I am rather satisfied. Later, some friends and I went to a place with a name I cannot remember. It is near Todai, and rather cool! I got some patch-work pants and a really cool jacket, both of which are really warm! I hope to upload pics of the pants soon, but the jacket is online now.
Working Visa: Basically in the course of a week I went to Shinagawa and applied, and then got permission to go back and pick it up. However, when I went, I forgot to bring my passport! Yeah, pretty dumb. I want to go Monday, but I am concerned I will be late for the FRANZ FERDINAND CONCERT! We will see how this goes.
Future: Monday I will go to Franz Ferdinand, and Wednesday I have my first assignment due for history of Mathematics -- I have no idea what to do for this. Afterwards my midterms should start so I will be rather busy soon...and I don't have another break till December.Oh well! I'll try to be better about posting.

http://picasaweb.google.com/DanielisCertus/LotsChineseOperaHalloweenNewClothes#

P.S. My Chrome is having difficulties loading GMail. Anyone else having this issue/capable of helping?

Various Festivals and Things

This last week or so has been pretty cool. My pictures, start with Rike wearing a mustache, so let us start there:

I have no idea why it is so fuzzy, but you can make out the mustache...almost. She war wearing it for her birthday, I believe is the reason. We all went out for Nabe to celebrate, which was rather tasty.

Anyway, a few days later (Saturday) I went to a Rome/Carthage exhibit with Sho Xiao Yin and Tama. It was depressingly small/expensive, but it was still pretty cool. I am shocked at how much time Sho was able to spend looking at things -- Tama and I ran around this big mall the museum was in once we finished looking around. There were a few interesting pieces I would have liked to take photos of, but I couldn't. Basically there was an unnamed emperor, whom I think was Gaius Claudius, a few frescas of women just doing stuff, some children competing over a prize, and one of Amor (Cupid) and Psyche. I'm glad I went, but I will keep this experience in mind and not go next time. I guess the main interest was I got a new earring, finally (I do not like it very much as it basically looks like a hole in my ear:  

However, the rest of my week/weekend was significantly more fun. On Sunday I went to two different festivals -- Waseda Homecoming Festival, and a Kishimojin festival. The main interest at the Waseda Festival were the cheerleaders: I had only seen them on TV before this, somehow. It was pretty fantastic.

The night festival was way more exciting, as it was filled with food:  

Afterwards there was a pretty cool parade, which is hard to explain even with pictures. There were people of all ages using drums and symbols, holding these shrine things, and twirling weird things on long poles. It was really odd, though, as it went parallel to traffic -- and pretty much was done in a way where the public and the parade people were somewhat integrated. It's really hard to explain, but it was really cool.

Other than that, I've finally gotten my Alien Registration Card and completed my health check. I just need to start planning a Halloween party, get my money from when I was sick (covered by health insurance), mess with my phone plan, get my working visa, get my re-entry permit...and I'm done with bureaucracy and miscellaneous work for the month! Hooray!

Also, shout outs: Mother and Seta, I look forward to receiving both packages!

Here is the gallery: http://picasaweb.google.com/DanielisCertus/VariousMatsuriAndThings

I am terrible at this

Sorry I have not updated in over a week.

Basically I've just been doing whatever, mainly classes. Last weekend I decided to stop using the dryers, since they don't dry, and ended up with this: This week I am using the balcony/dryers outside...and the hangers for my shirts, I guess. Next week I might try the laundromat down the street, since honestly both the washers and dryers in the dorms sort of suck. I am pretty unsatisfied with these dorm facilities: Washers, Dryers, Bathroom Sinks, Showers, Key Holes, Locked Top-Floor Balcony/Windows, Pillows, Lack of Oven. Basically I appreciate that my dorm is rather cheap, but that's primarily because they're all doubles -- junk should work well. All in all none of it is that big a deal, but it is sort of aggravating - especially since there is a monthly utility fee and I am not satisfied with the various waterworks in the building. Oh well. Somewhat related -- sometime in the next week I'm going to try to get my iTouch connected to campus wireless. Apparently there is a blog with instructions, as the tech people here just turn anyone trying away.

Um...things of interest last week: My Level 2 course is rather difficult and I am feel behind in it, but I hope to catch up. My Kanji course is too easy, and I will either switch or drop. I failed to get credit for my History of Math course as a Philosophy course and will need to contact the History department for it and my Japanese History course -- this may prompt me to drop phil as a major and try for phil and hist minors, as I have about equal credits in both fields after this semester, and am slightly annoyed with the phil department at the moment over this. Thursday was a TYPHOON DAY which I spent doing basically nothing. BUT I SURVIVED MY FIRST TYPHOON! I also went to an International Student Party...which was good in that I got free food. Also, isn't this men's barber shop thing awesome:

This weekend I did some fun stuff, too. On Friday a few of us went to an arcade (Jason, Wu Chiang, and Megan) where we got an attendant to help Jason win Wu a bear, and I blistered my hands playing the drum machine with Megan. I got to play the Lucky Star theme song as well as Tank! The Cowboy Bebop theme! It was awesome.

Saturday night Ben and I went to Nichome, the sort of gay district of Shinjuku. It was kind of...really small and lame. It was maybe two~four blocks, depending on how you count it, and it was mainly tiny one-room bars and sex hotel things. We ended up going to this club, that kind of picked up and was fun after about 11, and a bar called Usagi (rabbit) where there was a cosplay event. At Usagi I got creepily stared at by a worker dressed as a pirate, then we conversed with some drunk middle-aged locals/regulars. At the club we danced with some various groups -- most notably these two, probably straight, girls. I am rather satisfied with this club experience solely because they played Daft Punk (One More Time!! Though I would have been more impressed/excited with something off of Alive 2007 or with Superheroes or Digital Love) and not Kanye West's song that samples Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger. But....other than that, basically the people dancing were doing one of two things: Trying to show off their poor dance skills to pick up guys, or just sort of grinding against their boyfriend and making out. It was rather disgusting and I could not have stayed much longer than we did because of that. Oh well, sometime I will go to Roppongi to one of the clubs that plays bad-90s pop music. I basically can't see any way a club like that could not be loads of fun.

Sunday I went to Yokohama in a rather large group, which was enormous fun. It is a harbor, and home to China Town. Basically we got there, walked around taking pictures of the pier:

After the pier we went to an International Food Festival thing, which means I got to have a delicious Peruvian Burrito filled with Chorizo, a Mango Smoothie, and Indonesian Fruit Tea!

Soon afterwards, we went to China Town...which resulted in a lot more pictures and really delicious dinner. Some highlights:

After all of this we got some Anman (adzuki bean filled buns) and walked around the pier area at night. Basically, what I came to Tokyo for:

   

I'll update later with a full photo-gallery.

Edit: http://picasaweb.google.com/DanielisCertus/GamesYokohamaStuff#

New Schedule/stuff

So since my last post I have gone to some more classes, and did a bit of a revamp of my schedule. My current classes look something like this:

Monday: Off
Tuesday: Intensive Japanese Level 2, Kanji, Intellectual Movements in Japanese History
Wednesday: Intensive Japanese Level 2, Russia: From Lenin to Putin and Medvedev
Thursday: Intensive Japanese Level 2, History of Mathematics
Friday: Russia From Lenin to Putin and Medvedev, Intellectual Movements in Japanese History

Scheduling and class material wise it should be a lot easier to deal with. If you're wondering why I dropped Japan's Foreign Policy in favor of two courses that will not count for my major (I have been arguing with my Philosophy advisor for the last 2~3 days over History of Math to no success) it is because I perceived some issues with the Professor, as well as major overlap with my China, Japan, and the US. Pretty outright, despite some unintended flaws in the course, Prof. Bong did such a good job that this course would add nothing new -- something I hope to avoid doing. Just the way I prefer my academics. Plus, if the same thing occurs next semester with my History of Science course it will likely just inspire me to drop Phil down to a minor/completely and pick up a History minor or major, more than anything else. After this semester I will have equal credits in both fields, and both require the same number of credits for a major (and presumably a minor).

Anyway, that's boring -- let's switch to more interesting things!

Yesterday (Saturday) Ben, Laur, Ghazal, and I went to the National Museum in Ueno! We had a few adventures along the way, mainly in a Toy Store. Although I didn't take many photos in the museum, far too similar to the museums I visited in Korea, it did have some cool/unique things...such as grouping Egypt with Asia.

After we walked to Asakusa for my first crepe in Japan!

That was about it for the day, as we were rather exhausted. However, today I did some fun stuff too: I went to a Hokkaido festival! It was an experience hard to describe, as it was filled with a flabby Bruce Lee, two encounters with a Rockabilly Club (which I hope to join in the future), and LOTS of food. I will give a quick photo snippet:

I intend to make a photo album for the last two days when I wake up tomorrow, so look forward to that! I'll add it to the bottom of this post, most likely. I guess I will also buy my remaining books and pay my rent tomorrow, though that's not very fun. (Also thanks mom for transferring my rent money in!)

Edit: Here is the album link: http://picasaweb.google.com/DanielisCertus/UenoAsakusaAndHokkaidoMatsuri?feat=directlink

Gomen Nasai

It has been forever since I last posted, and I am sorry for that. Circumstances became...odd.

Saturday I sang Karaoke in a group, which was a lot of fun. I was very surprised that Laur new a Patti Smith song that I sung (Because the Night), and that Jason did not know Don't Stop Believing (Nor anyone else, for that matter). Anyway, I sang so much my throat and ears started to hurt -- indicative of something worse than just singing too hard. I would have posted when I got in, but I got in around 5am so I just crashed.

Sunday I basically slept in and went to the Jewish Center with Ben.

It was a long, boring, and painful service. Added to that, despite being tiny, the temple was set up like an Elite inner-city synagogue with reservations and everything. The congregation, despite being small, was rude/impersonal to their own (a young child was crying, almost everyone turned and shhhed loudly, multiple times, until the mother took the kid and left), the Rabbi gave a little speech on how every Jew needs to connect with god on their own. In other words, the 3 hour service had nothing to do with building a sense of community and giving us an opportune start towards asking each other for forgiveness. I'm not sure what the point of it was, waste time so you can go to sleep after and not worry about fasting? Finally, the President just basically asked for money and was generally rude/indignant. Oh, and he gave a speech basically about how Pakistani people are terrible due to some things done to the Jewish populace, and how they don't deserve to be thought of as even human (On Yom Kippur -- the day of forgiveness and repetence, really?) In general, an unpleasant experience. Though, Ben and I got food afterwards from a really nice woman (she reminded me of the Korean that hand-fed me). We also took pictures next to the fake-Mich: (Ben sucks at cameras, apparently)

Monday I had my first class -- Intensive Japanese level 1! It was pretty dull an way below my level, so I took the exam to move up...which was really tough. Oh well, I should find out if I move up tomorrow. After class I got my Hanko (stamp)!

Now, Monday night I got really sick and threw up both food and blood. I also have red spots around my eye, that should be nothing. Pic:

Everyone has been really nice and helpful since then, even though I had to go to the hospital at about midnight. Thank you guys!
Anyway, besides that, I just sort of slept in on Tuesday and took a bunch of meds (which I am still on). Today I went to my Russia course, which was lots of fun because I got to wear this:

Anyway, I should go to sleep now. I am still a little sick. I'd like to pretend I will fix the formatting of this post in the future, but I doubt I will. I may switch to the old blogger though, as this one apparently sucks.

Classes

Should have waited a bit, apparently. Here's my schedule:

Monday: Intensive Japanese (9-12:10)
Tuesday: Kanji (1-2:30), Japan's Foreign Policy (2:45-4:15), Movements in Japanese Intellectual History (4:30-6)
Wednesday: Russia: From Lenin to Putin and Medvedev (1-2:30)
Thursday: Intensive Japanese (9-12:10), Japan's Foreign Policy (1-2:30)
Friday: Intensive Japanese (9-12:10), Russia: From Lenin to Putin and Medvedev (1-2:30), Movements in Japanese Intellectual History (4:30-6)

This is tentative though, as I still hope to test up from level 1 to level 2 in Intensive Japanese, which could effect my Intensive Japanese course times as well as my Kanji course times, and I may drop Movements in Japanese Intellectual History for The Collapse of Complex Societies due to issues with credits (It meets on Tuesdays from 4:30-6)