My Own Biggest Fan

I am still learning to follow some of the basic Japanese table manners. It seems there are new ones every day. Last night I learned that you don’t pass food from one pair of chopsticks to another. This is because it is a Japanese funeral ritual. I felt a little embarrassed when the westerner I was asking to help tear two pieces of chicken apart refused. He was polite about it and explained why, but I still felt a little foolish. Here are some basic rules for Japanese eating. Coincidentally found on digg.com today.

I also met someone last night that has only been in Japan a week. It feels good not to be the youngest anymore.

I bought my first CD here last week. It is an EP by nhhmbase, and it is very good. I decided it would be nice for me to share it with you. Fans of dislocated melody pop will like this. They remind me a lot of Shecky Forme actually.

Click!

The other day I picked up a DS Lite. Just a little treat for myself, and a way for me to fit in. (Texas Hold’em on my iPod during the morning commute wasn’t quite doing it.) Everyone here has their phones out playing whatever games on them, the real otaku have their DS’s or PSPs. Mario on this sucker is pretty amazing. I also bought the original Metroid, which is an old favourite, and I have never owned it before. Also, I bought this thing that lets me download games off the internet. That thing cost me as much as the DS itself, but hopefully it will pay itself off, if I can get the blasted thing to work. The menus are all in Japanese, and I have to run a Windows patch on the downloaded roms for them to work.

School is actually getting better every day, and even the Japanese teachers are willing to help me now. I guess they just wanted to see what I was like before they offered any help. There was a problem with one of the previous ALTs (Alternative Language Teachers) being a complete dick, so I think they wanted to see how I was. As you know, I am a dick, but I figure I am the type that some people must be able to handle.

The school is in Shibuya, a very cosmopolitan downtown area of Tokyo. Lots of shopping, designer clothes, pachinko parlours, loud loud loud arcades, movie theatres, clubs, bars… Lots of everything really. The people on the street of course range from regular folk, moms, dads, teenagers to the many many uber-hip rockstars, fashionistas, and salarymen. I find it pretty surreal while being on the street with the latter types, and having a group of students, usually 14 year old girls in their uniforms, yelling after me, “See you, Mista Haysteee!” This whole scene gets played out at least once a week. I find it pretty hilarious.

I am sorry to anyone who I haven’t written emails to. I usually figure that the blogs are enough, even though I am certain only a few people read them. I will try and email them out as I write them and if you feel neglected, send me an email back. Last week I was getting loads and I think I replied to them all, but this week I have received none, so let me know what’s going on in the real world.