![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rambling about the last few days
Hmm. Tonight I went to Jingu for the Yakult-Yomiuri game, which, unfortunately, the Giants won. Sat with Kozo and Mac and Mac's girlfriend Danielle... and only one or two of the usual suspects. But instead there were 4 crazy guys in the row ahead of us, one of whom claimed to be friends with Jun Matsui (a guy just drafted this year). Shrug.
After the game, Kozo and I were walking to the train and ran into Jim Allen (friend of mine who writes for the Daily Yomiuri), so he walked with us to the train too and told stories. He also says I need to get the hell out of Japan and write a book.
Yesterday I had a bit of a depressing adventure of sorts. After school I went to the Tokyo Dome first, got some tickets to upcoming games, for Yakult and Carp. I'll have a visitor's cheering section ticket for the Carp, which should be interesting.
Then I spent some time in Shinjuku, which made me feel depressingly old and unhip. But that wasn't the truly sad part. I stopped at Kinokuniya to look into JLPT stuff and it turns out that the official question books from the July test won't be out until like November. And there are no books at all that were revised after the July test. I'm kind of torn about whether to take the N2 again in December, or drop down to the N3, or just say "fuck it, taking tests is retarded" and give up entirely.
I had kaitensushi at the 130-yen place relatively close to the station, and it was good. Then I made the mistake of playing UFO catchers; I got a neat Stitch that I'm going to use as a prop at school but it took me like 1000 yen of playing to get it, which I would totally not be willing to just spend on such a thing. Whoops.
You know, I never mentioned how on Friday night I also went to print some photos after work, so I went to Ueno instead of Akihabara for a change, and walked around Ameyoko. I got kaitensushi there too, at the Heiroku, and what was retarded is, these two foreign guys come in and sit a few seats down from me and are speaking French to each other... and obviously have very little Japanese knowledge, as their method of ordering is mostly to get staff's attention and point to things on the menu. (And I'd seen them trying to negotiate with another store outside before I went into the sushi place too.) And they ALSO clearly have no idea that the implicit ordering is for one thing, so each time, the one dude would get a plate of something and the other dude would make a hand signal like "me too" but I'm thinking "...there's no way anyone's going to catch that". A bit later I order negitoro maki, which is not actually listed anywhere on their menu but I happen to know they make it and I'd seen some going around earlier, which I mention. The two white dudes are floored.
So right before I'm leaving, I ask the guys in English, "Do either of you speak English? Or just French?"
"Yeah, I do," says one of them.
I tell him, "If you're ordering, you need to say how many you want, or they're just going to give you one plate and assume you are ordering for just yourself, not for the two of you. If you want two plates, say 'futatsu'. It means 'two things'."
"Futatsu," the guy repeats. "Thanks. Where are you from?"
You know what's funny? That question pisses me off when Japanese people ask it, and for some reason, at least then, it pissed me off just as much when white clueless tourists ask it. "I live here in Tokyo," I reply, and stand up and nod to the staff guy standing nearby. "すみません、お愛想です" and go pay.
I don't know, I think living in Japan has done some serious damage to my brain sometimes. I love it here for so many reasons, and yet, I become more and more paranoid every day, I think.
I'm hoping to go see a movie tomorrow night for a change, it's been months. Beck is out and I might see that, or maybe I'll opt for something a little more obscure. I still didn't see that Arietty whatever movie either, though I'm not the biggest Ghibli fan ever so eh.
I need more sleep :(
After the game, Kozo and I were walking to the train and ran into Jim Allen (friend of mine who writes for the Daily Yomiuri), so he walked with us to the train too and told stories. He also says I need to get the hell out of Japan and write a book.
Yesterday I had a bit of a depressing adventure of sorts. After school I went to the Tokyo Dome first, got some tickets to upcoming games, for Yakult and Carp. I'll have a visitor's cheering section ticket for the Carp, which should be interesting.
Then I spent some time in Shinjuku, which made me feel depressingly old and unhip. But that wasn't the truly sad part. I stopped at Kinokuniya to look into JLPT stuff and it turns out that the official question books from the July test won't be out until like November. And there are no books at all that were revised after the July test. I'm kind of torn about whether to take the N2 again in December, or drop down to the N3, or just say "fuck it, taking tests is retarded" and give up entirely.
I had kaitensushi at the 130-yen place relatively close to the station, and it was good. Then I made the mistake of playing UFO catchers; I got a neat Stitch that I'm going to use as a prop at school but it took me like 1000 yen of playing to get it, which I would totally not be willing to just spend on such a thing. Whoops.
You know, I never mentioned how on Friday night I also went to print some photos after work, so I went to Ueno instead of Akihabara for a change, and walked around Ameyoko. I got kaitensushi there too, at the Heiroku, and what was retarded is, these two foreign guys come in and sit a few seats down from me and are speaking French to each other... and obviously have very little Japanese knowledge, as their method of ordering is mostly to get staff's attention and point to things on the menu. (And I'd seen them trying to negotiate with another store outside before I went into the sushi place too.) And they ALSO clearly have no idea that the implicit ordering is for one thing, so each time, the one dude would get a plate of something and the other dude would make a hand signal like "me too" but I'm thinking "...there's no way anyone's going to catch that". A bit later I order negitoro maki, which is not actually listed anywhere on their menu but I happen to know they make it and I'd seen some going around earlier, which I mention. The two white dudes are floored.
So right before I'm leaving, I ask the guys in English, "Do either of you speak English? Or just French?"
"Yeah, I do," says one of them.
I tell him, "If you're ordering, you need to say how many you want, or they're just going to give you one plate and assume you are ordering for just yourself, not for the two of you. If you want two plates, say 'futatsu'. It means 'two things'."
"Futatsu," the guy repeats. "Thanks. Where are you from?"
You know what's funny? That question pisses me off when Japanese people ask it, and for some reason, at least then, it pissed me off just as much when white clueless tourists ask it. "I live here in Tokyo," I reply, and stand up and nod to the staff guy standing nearby. "すみません、お愛想です" and go pay.
I don't know, I think living in Japan has done some serious damage to my brain sometimes. I love it here for so many reasons, and yet, I become more and more paranoid every day, I think.
I'm hoping to go see a movie tomorrow night for a change, it's been months. Beck is out and I might see that, or maybe I'll opt for something a little more obscure. I still didn't see that Arietty whatever movie either, though I'm not the biggest Ghibli fan ever so eh.
I need more sleep :(