The Gospel Concert

Posted on Thursday July 31st, 2008 by Matt

My weekend was really busy — it felt like longer than just one weekend. But it was an awesome weekend. For one, it’s my 1 year anniversary since arriving in Takefu, and the weather and the smells of everything — work, home, the air, etc. — have really been making me feel nostalgic. In addition, this week Hitomi and I will have been together for 6 months, so that’s another happy thought. We didn’t do too much celebration-wise, just eating good food and going on walks… but that was really great.

So on Sunday, my friend (and ex-coworker) Yumi’s gospel choir put on a performance. She gave me 2 tickets too, so Hitomi and I got to go for free. Yay! The performance was in Echizen-Hanando, 1 stop away from Fukui on the JR line, so we decided to take the train and walk rather than drive. As soon as we stepped outside we both looked at the sky and thought, “Ooh! Looks like rain!” But neither of us thought to take an umbrella… which was awesome when we were sitting waiting for the train and suddenly the sky completely opened up on us. It was a superb thunderstorm, my favorite type of weather! The rain was so thick you couldn’t see clearly more than 100 yards. When it started, I could actually see the wall of rain moving from the sky to the earth, and the mountains disappeared from view. So cool!

We arrived at the Echizen-Hanando station with the intention of buying an umbrella at a local convenience store, but upon arrival we saw that Echizen-Hanado is about as urban as anywhere else in Fukui — meaning absolutely not. The map to the church we had was a piece of crap, too, further complicating things. Then I remembered my iPhone in my pocket! It has GPS and maps… so I pulled it out, GPSed our location and mapped out a footpath. It was so much fun! It actually made me want to try geocaching sometime… but yeah, anyway, we made our way through the rain to a tiny little church squeezed in some back alleys.

The concert was fine. Well, it was a gospel concert after all… I’m not exactly a fan of gospel music — or a Christian for that matter — but it was a little nostalgic to hear chuch music again after so many years. It was also interesting to hear it in Japanese (and a little more tolerable too, as I recognized some of the songs in English and remember how absolutely stupid the lyrics can be). Hitomi had never experienced anything like this concert before either, so her reaction was pretty priceless too. All in all it was an interesting concert… although the program book was a little misleading:

I want my massage!

After the concert, Hitomi and I walked around Echizen-Hanando to Bell Shopping Center. I explained Christianity in a nutshell to her on the way, as the concert was her very first experience (hehe how cute). At Bell, we bought bought yukata to use the next week at Fukui’s Pheonix Festival. Actually, her yukata only cost less than 3,500 yen, which is totally amazing for a 5-piece yukata set. She asked me to pick it out too, so hopefully she won’t look bad in it or else I’m to blame. I also got a yukata, but the geta (even the largest size they make) are slightly too small for me, so I have a bad feeling my feet are going to hurt like a monkey…

Sweep the Leg

Posted on Wednesday July 30th, 2008 by Matt

via http://www.sweeptheleg.com/

After sweeping the leg in that infamous karate tournament back in the 80′s, it seems Johnny of the Cobra-Kai has never been able to live down the shame of what he did and how he lost the tournament. Now he lives in a trailer with his buddies, stuck in the past, and unable to escape the prison of shame he built for himself. Not only was it written and directed by William Zabka, it stars him and the entire cast of the Cobra-Kai, their instructor, as well as cameos from Ralph Macchio (Daniel) and Mr. Belding from Saved by the Bell!

Christmas in July

Posted on Monday July 28th, 2008 by Matt

On the 19th, we had a Christmas Party at work. It was pretty fun. Actually, the reason we had it is a bit interesting — July is a tough month for getting new students, and we managed to get one at the beginning of the month; as it turns out the reason she joined was because she heard we have really great drinking parties. So we decided to have a party (secretly) for her sake. The manager asked me to come up with a good theme, and seeing as it was too short notice for a 4th of July Party, I went with the only other option available this month: Christmas in July. At first nobody believed me that it was a real thing, but luckily I pulled up Wikipedia on the computer and proved them all wrong (Booyeah!), but I had to prove the same way to almost every student. Eventually, instead of going into a long description about why we have Christmas in July and being met with confused stares, I just started telling everyone the short truth — it’s a marketing scam. That was easy to accept for the students, as virtually every holiday in Japan is either a merketing scam or just an excuse for a day off.

So we asked everyone to being a 500 yen gift, and I wore a Santa hat and cape… I also drew a really crappy poster that everyone fawned over… I felt like I was back in high school, recieving twice the credit I deserved for a project I half-assed. The biggest snare came up when the girl who was the whole reason behind the party wasn’t sure if she could come because she had to ask her husband… so I told her to bring him too, and she finally agreed. Anyway, it turned out to be a big hit, and it was the biggest party we’ve had at tiny little Takefu AEON, topping 23 people! Whoo!

Next month we have another party — a summer vacation BBQ — which is also incredibly short notice. So for that matter I’ve had to construct a very compelling poster that will convince people to sign up quickly before the event. I’m emplyong a power theme that is sure to work, but should only be used in true emergencies: dinosaurs. Dinosaurs riding kayaks, dinosaurs barbecueing, dinosaurs riding on grass sleds… It’s going to be a long shot filling up slots as it’s summer vacation and many people already have plans, but if cartoon dinosaurs can’t bring them in, then nothing can!

iPhone Again

Posted on Wednesday July 23rd, 2008 by Matt

Oh yeah, and I can blog from my iPhone too, which is über awesome.

Did I just say über? It betrays me as part of the Wolfenstein Generation. Heh… and the iPhone automatically adds the umlaut too. Neat.

iPhone 3G!

Posted on Wednesday July 23rd, 2008 by Matt

So last week I got a new cellphone (hoorah!) — an iPhone 3G! When I went to Tokyo last November for Kaori’s wedding, I bought an iPod Touch in the Ginza Apple Store, and I fell so in love with it. Prior to owning that I never expected I’d want and iPhone, as I’m not a big cell phone guy (although living in Japan — the land of magical cell phones — has changed that slightly). However, the iPod Touch was so darn awesome, and my only regret was that it didn’t have a speaker or a microphone. The iPhone is basically that. I was getting tired of carrying my iPod *and* my cellphone wherever I went, too, so I knew I had to get one as soon as it came to Japan.

The iPhone came out here on the 11th, and I was pretty set to pick on up after work on the 12th. I knew there were enormous lines in Tokyo, but I figured in Takefu the story might be a bit different… So Hitomi and I went to a Softbank Store and Yamada Denki after work on Saturday, but we were told they were all sold out. Bums to that, right? Not exactly… My friend Gabe had mentioned to me how each store actually has a secret number of phones — say 30 — that they can sell each day. Once they sell that number, they have to say they’re sold out. So the next day around 1pm, Hitomi and I went back to the Softbank store and were told by the salesman, “たぶん一年間待ったら良い” — the wait list was at least 1 year long. Pffah! I can smell bullshit when I hear it and that was Grade A Quality Produce he was trying to serve us.

But just for caution’s sake we went to Yamada Denki again with the intent to reserve one for whenever they should come into stock. When we asked about them, we were prompty seated and told they had them in stock. “Whhhaaaaaaa?” That’s right! So, we sat down and went through all the papers, the salesguy asking me in triplicate all kinds of “are you aware…?” questions meant to discourage less serious buyers from making such an expensive investment — apparantly countless businessmen signed up for the iPhone only to have their wives tell them there was no way in hell they could get one… The iPhone is such an expensive piece of hardware that the installment payment plan can’t be retracted. Unfortunately for me, being a foreigner, I couldn’t sign up for Apple’s “cheaper” installment plan, and I had to fork out the whole cost of the phone up front. On the other hand, that means my monthly fee is the same as my previous one, so that’s fine by me. After all, I wanted the iPhone because it’s a computer I can carry in my pocket, not because it’s a cell phone that elicits erections in hipsters and metrosexuals throughout the US.

OVerall I’m very happy with my phone, but it does have shortcomings compared to Japanese cell phones — no TV, no instant payment system, no MMS, no video calls. Not that I used most of those anyway. The lack of MMS is slightly unfortunate for me, and a total loss for any Japanese iPhone users, as MMS is the primary means of communication here. Nobody uses the phone to chat or to send SMS like they do in the US. Everyone here wants to send photo mails and colorful animated smiley faces — which is why my older handset had over 9 pages of animated emoticons to pick from. It was fun for me, but by no means necessary; and certainly not worth more than the ability to do just about anything that a computer can do with my phone. The only other complaint I have is the crappy notification system for emails. If I get an SMS it beeps and buzzes like a regular phone. But, as we don’t use SMS in Japan, I only get a visual notification if I get an email to my phone, rather than a buzz or a beep. That’s not going to kill the phone for me, but it’s too bad. Although, if Apple wants to survive in Japan, I imagine they will be updating and fixing that *very* soon. After all, no Japanese is going to want to use the phone for long without those feature.

The iPhone has only been out here for slightly over a week, and that’s about as long as I’ve had mine… but I’m sure those complaints by Japanese users will be addressed soon. Anyway I’m waiting mostly for the ability to jailbreak my phone and install any application I want on it, like I did with my iPod Touch. For the time, I love the phone though.