Going Down

Things are getting busy here on the island and I won't be able to keep up regular posts. Since there is nothing sadder than an abandoned blog (nothing!), I am putting it on an indefinite hiatus. Thanks for any and all who have been following me so far. I'll get right back to blogging as soon as I get my life sorted.

Best,

RaginGaijin

Mary and Max

Watch Mary and Max! Knowing nothing about a movie can sometimes make the experience richer than it may have been otherwise. It's a curious thing but the surprises seem all the more full when not cut short by expectations set by trailers and the ever catchier ploys to 'hook' audiences. I'll say nothing else about the movie or attempt to review it where other people will surely do better, but... no buts; it's worth paying attention.

Liar

This week the first meeting of the so dubbed Kansai Independent Learners got together at a canadian owned pizza bar in Osaka. It was kind of a cool venue because there isn't many good, read western, pizza places in Osaka which boils down to slice sizes without corn toppings.

It was good fun but I ended up 45 minutes late to my own party which would have been disastrous were it not for the other more punctual organizer there to get things going. We did some preliminary stuff and while some took off others stayed around for a few drinks and it all might have gone on a bit longer than it should. One woman was perfectly nice, let's call her May, but she was quiet and I found myself trying to make her comfortable so talked with her for an hour while the others enjoyed the sound of their own voices.

But when it was time to go, half the group went on to another bar and it turned out that May and I were both headed to the same station. She remembered that I lived in Juso and she said that she was going through there herself, and here things took a turn. Again, May is a perfectly pleasant person but when figuring up the hour or so we would have to spend on the train together I panicked: I told her I was going to a friends house in Daikokocho, 20 minutes in the opposite direction. Here she may have picked up on the fib because the last trains would be running in another hour and so I offered another lie in my paranoia, volunteering that my friend was going to drive me back later.

I didn't need to keep protesting but in order to satisfy the lie I asked her if she knew how to drive and went on about how long it had been since I'd last drove and the probable differences between driving in Japan and the states. We got to the arcade and said goodnight, but then I had to walk south down to my false station and wait out at a corner for 20 minutes to ensure we wouldn't sync up somewhere down the line.

I can think of no other way to get out of those awkward, prolonged chats but wish that in each case my story were true that I wouldn't be cheating otherwise pleasant people. Lies are that though, ways of maintaining a world you wish instead of the one that is and is for others. At least I got to read my book.

Post Racial

Before getting up to make dinner I put on some background noise for me and Erbear. Rather than get into the long "What do you wanna watch?" that always accompanies our trip to Ninjavideo, I blindly scrolled down the sidepane and clicked... Dancing with the Stars.

It was kind of a happy accident. Not because either of us like the show but it's something equally upbeat and lame that we wouldn't watch otherwise and so we got to kind of slip into a hackneyed, twilight version of ourselves for about 20 minutes.

Erbear was calling out the B-listers to me in the kitchen and I was surprised at how out of touch I'd gotten. I knew Macy Gray and Donnie Osmond (who strikes me as a sad, smiley man) but that was it. Erbear knew a few more but she could also see them.

Then, as the curry was boiling, a woman started singing.

I was cooking and half listening then thought 'she sounds black'. Then I thought 'err, is that racist?' and then all my reasons for thinking it didn't sound racist sounded racist. So I just asked if the woman was black and Erbear said 'No, she's not'.

I could feel the little jury in my head staring. One of them mouthed "Guilty". "Alright," I thought. "I'm a bad human, but you all thought the same thing."

Self-served

Is the banner a little pretentious? Like, look-at-me-I-notice-Indian-children?

The Internet is Awesome

So I used to just paste pictures into the text and now that seems stupid. I don't want to exclaim the greatness of the internet too much because it may make us all slaves, but... my Google account is amazing. Not only does it have a reader letting me scrounge up blogs I never thought could exist but it has a nifty utility for uploading and sharing pictures without all the hassle of e-mailing or one-by-one attaching. Here are some of the pictures from the India trip.

Also, Googling 'Google' doesn't implode the universe. And, it has surprisingly more hits than either 'Obama' or 'porn'/'sex'. Go figure.

Amazing Doodle

I just updated to Google Reader and found this video today among the new overwhelming inbox. MUST WATCH!

*No, that is not someone's skin.

OHIYO

These girls say 'Kon bon wa'. That's 'good afternoon' in Japanese. Here are some other basic phrases to know if travelling:

- Hello ohiyo gazaimas

- Excuse me sumi masen

- Do you speak English?

A go ga hanishtay maska

- Can I have this/(water) ?

kore/(mizu) ga itadake maska

- Where is the (toilet) ?

(Toray) wa doko deska

- Hidari (left) Migi (right)

- Please koodasigh

- Thank you arigato gazaimas

That is a pretty round summary of what I know after living here for a year and a half. And while that may be very embarrassing to admit, it is equally illustrative of how little Japanese you need to get around. Signs are in English, menus have pictures, people are orderly and helpful and things are punctual which makes for a safe visit. That last sentence felt weird. How is 'safe' an adjective? Oh, and be prepared to get noticed. Not-Japanese tend to stick out in Osaka.

The Thaw

Today is the first warm day we've had in Osaka for awhile now. It reminds me of what's coming in Spring and what Japan can be, mainly not the frozen berg that drives you inside to sit beside a super-weak panel heater. Oh, and Lost is finally airing it's final season which is exciting. Except that the mysteries gave you something to think about while waiting on anything to happen so minus 1 for the loss of a good distraction.

I'm Still Here

I was studying this morning when someone knocked on the door. I normally keep quite until people go away but my Theory of Meaning teacher was making a ruckus on the speakers and so I got up. The guy outside looked innocent and when I opened the door and to see what he wanted, he handed me an orange towel wrapped in plastic. Then he left. I have no idea what just happened. Japan has its own thing going on.

I think this is what's happening...

There's going to be helmets in 50 years. The space kind with filtered vents. For now people are just walking around with facemasks and iPods but you can see where it`s headed.
My girlfriend thinks I`m crazy when I talk about the future in Japan, but I`m sure this time. It won't be everywhere, but for those people on the edge of technologies it's the next thing.
Just like with the bottled water people, the helmet companies will play on the fears of the healthy. If it`s not air pollution then it'll be airborne sicknesses and when the advertising is done people will wonder how they ever lived so long with such a filthy habit as breathing air.
I imagine the high-end versions. The slick eagle-head kind of helmets. The kind with temperature controls, speakers and visors that dim on the inside to display movies. The artists will have theirs too with cameras that intuit retinal focus for zoom and blinks for snapping pictures handsfree. Moms in supermarkets will buy cereal but only if it's highlighted in the visor. Afterall, the helmets in 50 years will be able to scan the RFID Chips in every package and compare its nutritional values and costs against an individuals Shopping Profile. Recommended lists can be downloaded for strength trainers, dieters or people trying to budget.
And nothing won't be packaged and tagged. Food production is completely decentralized from cities in 50 years and everything is shipped in airtight. Apples have plastic skins. When you checkout you just walk out and a pylon will scan your cart, or anything in your pockets, and charge your card. There is no shoplifting in 50 years. No cashiers.
The whole world will be an inch from our face.

Mic Check

I just got a new microphone and managed to get Skype working. I say managed because this wasn't my first time and though I'm sure it's normally a simple bit to do I had trouble. I don't really know who I can talk to yet. My Mom, maybe, if she can get a mic setup. My Dad would probably have a time with it though and so I'll stick to the phone with him. Mainly, I'm hoping to talk with my cousins.

My aunt's kids are getting older and once their in the double digits I won't be cool for awhile. At least for 6 or 7 years while they figure out their place in the scheme of things. To them I'll be old, the same thing as high-functioning furniture. I could be the cool, older cousin my brother probably is but I'd be hard not to see through. I'd try and impart too much and just be the nerd I am.

[Me and Joshua on a day out]

ME: So take that movie, right, and imagine twelve others like it but a little bit different. Some are funnier and some are scarier but they're pretty much the same. And you choose the scariest one. Now if I make twelve more movies as scary as that one, and some are even still scarier and some are just a little bit funny, and you pick the scariest one again... How scary would that movie be?

JOSHUA: Pretty scary.

ME: Yeah. But keep doing that. On and on. You'd keep getting the scariest movies ever. That's how evolution works. Say, you picked the funniest movie first, and made more of those movies and then picked the funniest one out of the next batch, and on and on. Then you'd probably have a pretty funny movie right?

Joshua: So we can see the R movie?

ME: No, no. But isn't that amazing?

JOSHUA: ........

When they get older they'll appreciate how smart I am. For now, I'm living in Japan so that affords all the wow-points I need. I don't have a camera either so they won't be able to see how sad my apartment looks. I might even be able to convince them there's ninjas outside or something but they're smart. They'd probably counter that you don't see ninjas.

I'd also like to get back in touch with some friends that I haven't spoken too in *gasp* years. Namely Ryan. I know he's probably doing well and that things would fall back into place quickly if we got to talking but it's still nice to hear how people are. How is the UK anyway?'

Mar. 15

The girlfriend made a brilliant discovery a few nights back: Bob Dylan's coming to Osaka! I only started listening to Bob Dylan 2 years ago but quickly took in all his songs then albums and some radio interviews. He's brilliant and elusive and it seems unreal that he would still be touring, this from a songwriter who made his mark with songs about racial injustice and gallavanting in the '70s.

We got tickets but it wasn't without a small trial. I'm not used to being up early on Saturday. I say that it's because I work until 11pm on Friday but the truth is that I stay up until 3 when I get home and wake up 30 minutes before my shift regularly starts. It's my only early day so I don't feel too bad but the weekday habits don't help when something important needs doing first.

I was supposed to get up at 9 but slept through 2 alarms till 10 and then hustled out the door in yesterday's suit.

Not looking up information is fine if you have time to putz around but I only had an hour before my shift and knew only that the place I was looking for was in the basement level of a mall in Umeda and that there were "posters everywhere". Inside the mall it was warm and there were plenty of people milling around, waiting until the shutters ran up at 11, but none of the crowd or lineup I'd expected to mark out the ticketbooth.

And, there were two basements. The elevator wouldn't go to B1 so I went down to B2 and looked around the only place open, a Pachinko parlour, for some stairs. I finally saw a half-escalator going up and took it to a little platform between the ground floor and bottom basement. Behind a glass-pane I saw the promised posters and a few cashiers talking to themselves because there was not a single customer in there with them. But the glass wasn't a door, it was just glass. There were no signs pointing out somewhere else and it seemed like a joke that I could be seperated so simply from where I needed to be.

I thought about knocking on the glass and doing a few gestures for "lost" but then what? They'd probably say something in Japanese and then I'd sign that I didn't understand and then they'd get a complicated look on their faces and maybe point to somewhere I'd already looked but then I'd already looked there. I'd spent 20 minutes mapping out the building and had been outside twice, the building equivalent to a dead-end. What if they just bowed in their most sorry way and went back behind the counter to talk about what a hassle I was? Then they'd see me buzz back by the window a few more times still looking for an entrance and pity-laugh because the way in was so obvious.

"How can you be in a country and not understand 'Go outside and left'?" they'd say.

But, I did find the little door outside. The unprobable door leading into a dank stairwell with a tired security guard out front. The kind of back entrance that seems like a secret but then just seems half-finished once you find what you're looking for.

Apparently, Bob Dylan is awesome in Japan too and the front-row seats I was gunning for were sold out. Everything else was available but there wasn't one sitting ticket left. Ironic that there had been a line-up of people, people standing in 10 degree(F) weather for hours, who just wanted to sitdown.

Class of One - Week 1

I just completed the first week of classes and am pretty excited about how well the material came across, alot of that is the teachers' dynamism and enthusiasm about the class but better is the video material which can help animate a subject where print alone struggles.

In the first class, the professor seemed a little unenthusiastic about his biology section. It must be hard to make mitotic algae processes 'come to life' but I'm happier with the professor teaching Darwin and Origin which is the third part of the course dealing exclusively with evolution. Also, note-taking isn't so hard with a pause button; I can have coffee too plus the bathroom break normally denied in an auditorium full of attentive and disturbable students.

That and the guy teaching the Theory of Meaning course sounds like a Beatle or Desmond Hume from Lost. The class is highly logic oriented but the process is promised to really examine 'the mechanisms at play' within language. Which is good because theory without exploration is standing still on the latest answer and everyone likes a good head-scratcher.

So far, Starbucks gifts, Phone Abroad

The studying has gone pretty well though I'm still working on the best way to do assignments without anyone to assign or care if it's turned in on time/at all. I started a category at the other blog that I thought was pretty clever: 'Today I learned that...'. I'm hoping that if no one else reads the site then they might fill tempted to fill in the blank comment with their own two bits.
Also, I had a romantic notion that grinding your own coffee somehow made it a more simple pleasure and connected me with a long line of people harder than myself who used to do just that before going out busting sod or something. But the truth is it's tedious and when you want coffee in the morning the last thing you want is obstacles. It's hard to crank too, what with all the bean crunching, and it hurts my hand to keep going at a smooth pace for even a minute. There are spills too and now I have little black humps all over the floor. I pick them up when they jump out but if I can't find them all immediately then the urge for coffee kicks in again and I give it up. If it weren't for the instant Starbucks packs given to me by the cool aunt this Christmas, I would be a grump.
Oh and, to the Indian who found my cell-phone, enjoy!

Back to Cool

The blog is going to be back up and running with a few adjustments like a Flickr feed instead of the awkward vertical posting capable within the blog alone. The next big shift is going to be (sigh) away from stories and towards daily life plus musings on a new, independent study project I'll start in Jan '10.

A site called After Grad can be accessed in the Links panel which is a seperate blog created to organize free online learning resources and the work I'll be doing throughout the year in those studies.

A friend of mine has also tossed out the idea of using Meetup to begin an independent learning forum here in Osaka, and I'm working hard on that so long as there's enthusiasm to get it going.

So, I hope that the detour is worth the time.