Ueno wandering, and Sushi Oji - the Movie!
Dude, awesome day. Kinda.
I started off the afternoon by playing some PP, well, kind of, more like just hanging out on there and chatting for a while, although I did get pulled into a zombie fight and stuff like that. Was working on baseblogging -- kind of a theme for the day, I wrote TWO long entries today about both of the games I went to yesterday. I really need to stop doing that because it takes me way too much freaking time (although in this case it was mostly that I transcribed my entire scorecard too).
Got out of the apartment and went down to Ueno in the late afternoon. I was given more free tickets to the Science Center from my student who works there, though this time I didn't find anyone to go with -- and it's actually just as well. I checked out the Darwin exhibit and the Japanese Women Scientists exhibit, neither of which had ANY English guides, so eh, I looked at stuff and read some of the signs in Japanese but I wasn't about to expend the mental energy to read all of them. Did see some of Darwin's papers in English, with old-style cursive writing, and some people were saying to each other "I can't read that English at all, can you?" and I felt like saying, "I'm a native English speaker and even I can't read that writing," but figured it'd be rude. Saw a GIGANTIC turtle as part of the exhibit; went up to the glass and sang "moshi-moshi kame-san, kame-san yo" and got some WEIRD looks from the other people there. Awesome.
I was starving, so I found my way out of Ueno Park, though not without first watching some college baseball practice for like 5 minutes. I think it was Hosei but I'm honestly not sure.
Went to Ameyayokocho or whatever it's called and got kaitensushi, which was cheap, but actually strangely not particularly good. Then I wandered through the streets a bit more and also ended up getting cantaloupe-on-a-stick -- because, after all, in Japan it is perfectly normal to pay $2 for a slice of melon on a chopstick. Played one game of PNM in an arcade, and then headed into Ueno station to go find the ticketing office. Wasn't too hard to find, and once I was there it wasn't too hard to get train tickets for my trip tomorrow. I went and talked to a clerk in Japanese and only had one vocabulary snafu in the entire transaction -- which is great. (And it wasn't a big one either.)
For the record:
Departing Tokyo 10am, arriving Nagoya 11:42am
Departing Nagoya 11:55pm, arriving Tokyo 5:05am
I'm gonna take the shinkansen down and the Moonlight Nagara back. I've never been on a night train before so I'm excited about that. Well, I mean, I am also excited to see Jeff and his wife and go to Gifu Nagaragawa Stadium and everything too BUT dude! I'm going to Nagoya!
Came home. Did laundry. Wrote baseblog. Etc.
Went up to Saitama Shintoshin and saw the Sushi Oji! movie. IT WAS AWESOME! Well, I mean, really, it was kinda cheesy and kinda stupid but it was SUPPOSED to be cheesy and stupid. I kind of knew what to expect since I'd watched about half of the Sushi Oji dorama when it aired last fall -- it was a midnight drama and featured Domoto Koichi as a sushi expert who is terrified of fish eyes. Every episode ended in him having a sushi-making battle with SOMEONE. Hence, this movie was kinda just like a very very long episode of the TV show. The catch is, it took place in New York, which means that you had a whole TON of Engrish going on. I mean, the Japanese actors all spoke Engrish, but even worse, the AMERICAN actors were ALSO speaking Engrish. The dialogue was just plain retarded and their voices were mostly spoken in really bad accents or really unreal pronunciation, the idea being that Japanese people can't tell the difference, I suppose. Koichi, for his part, actually sounded pretty good for the role when he did speak in English -- and as expected, some of his lines, especially "I WILL DEFEAT YOU -- BY MAKING SUSHI" were as hilarious as expected.
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kawaru needs to see this movie because it has Ishihara Satomi as the "gal" version of the sushi spirit -- too cute for words -- and because it has Shaku Yumiko KICKING ASS. Seriously, there are all of these scenes where she and Koichi are "defending" this ghetto sushi joint in crazy martial arts scenes. I don't really know whether anyone else really neeeeds to see this movie, but I thought it was pretty damn funny, despite all the Engrish.
OH and I saw a preview for the Hana Yori Dango (live-action, that is -- I have no clue about the anime) movie which comes out at the end of June and it looks AWESOME!
Came home and did not get hit by a truck on the way. I had even been thinking how last time I was going to Nagoya, I got hit by a truck on the way home from seeing a movie the night before. Yay for that.
Whee! Nagoya!
I started off the afternoon by playing some PP, well, kind of, more like just hanging out on there and chatting for a while, although I did get pulled into a zombie fight and stuff like that. Was working on baseblogging -- kind of a theme for the day, I wrote TWO long entries today about both of the games I went to yesterday. I really need to stop doing that because it takes me way too much freaking time (although in this case it was mostly that I transcribed my entire scorecard too).
Got out of the apartment and went down to Ueno in the late afternoon. I was given more free tickets to the Science Center from my student who works there, though this time I didn't find anyone to go with -- and it's actually just as well. I checked out the Darwin exhibit and the Japanese Women Scientists exhibit, neither of which had ANY English guides, so eh, I looked at stuff and read some of the signs in Japanese but I wasn't about to expend the mental energy to read all of them. Did see some of Darwin's papers in English, with old-style cursive writing, and some people were saying to each other "I can't read that English at all, can you?" and I felt like saying, "I'm a native English speaker and even I can't read that writing," but figured it'd be rude. Saw a GIGANTIC turtle as part of the exhibit; went up to the glass and sang "moshi-moshi kame-san, kame-san yo" and got some WEIRD looks from the other people there. Awesome.
I was starving, so I found my way out of Ueno Park, though not without first watching some college baseball practice for like 5 minutes. I think it was Hosei but I'm honestly not sure.
Went to Ameyayokocho or whatever it's called and got kaitensushi, which was cheap, but actually strangely not particularly good. Then I wandered through the streets a bit more and also ended up getting cantaloupe-on-a-stick -- because, after all, in Japan it is perfectly normal to pay $2 for a slice of melon on a chopstick. Played one game of PNM in an arcade, and then headed into Ueno station to go find the ticketing office. Wasn't too hard to find, and once I was there it wasn't too hard to get train tickets for my trip tomorrow. I went and talked to a clerk in Japanese and only had one vocabulary snafu in the entire transaction -- which is great. (And it wasn't a big one either.)
For the record:
Departing Tokyo 10am, arriving Nagoya 11:42am
Departing Nagoya 11:55pm, arriving Tokyo 5:05am
I'm gonna take the shinkansen down and the Moonlight Nagara back. I've never been on a night train before so I'm excited about that. Well, I mean, I am also excited to see Jeff and his wife and go to Gifu Nagaragawa Stadium and everything too BUT dude! I'm going to Nagoya!
Came home. Did laundry. Wrote baseblog. Etc.
Went up to Saitama Shintoshin and saw the Sushi Oji! movie. IT WAS AWESOME! Well, I mean, really, it was kinda cheesy and kinda stupid but it was SUPPOSED to be cheesy and stupid. I kind of knew what to expect since I'd watched about half of the Sushi Oji dorama when it aired last fall -- it was a midnight drama and featured Domoto Koichi as a sushi expert who is terrified of fish eyes. Every episode ended in him having a sushi-making battle with SOMEONE. Hence, this movie was kinda just like a very very long episode of the TV show. The catch is, it took place in New York, which means that you had a whole TON of Engrish going on. I mean, the Japanese actors all spoke Engrish, but even worse, the AMERICAN actors were ALSO speaking Engrish. The dialogue was just plain retarded and their voices were mostly spoken in really bad accents or really unreal pronunciation, the idea being that Japanese people can't tell the difference, I suppose. Koichi, for his part, actually sounded pretty good for the role when he did speak in English -- and as expected, some of his lines, especially "I WILL DEFEAT YOU -- BY MAKING SUSHI" were as hilarious as expected.
kawaru needs to see this movie because it has Ishihara Satomi as the "gal" version of the sushi spirit -- too cute for words -- and because it has Shaku Yumiko KICKING ASS. Seriously, there are all of these scenes where she and Koichi are "defending" this ghetto sushi joint in crazy martial arts scenes. I don't really know whether anyone else really neeeeds to see this movie, but I thought it was pretty damn funny, despite all the Engrish.OH and I saw a preview for the Hana Yori Dango (live-action, that is -- I have no clue about the anime) movie which comes out at the end of June and it looks AWESOME!
Came home and did not get hit by a truck on the way. I had even been thinking how last time I was going to Nagoya, I got hit by a truck on the way home from seeing a movie the night before. Yay for that.
Whee! Nagoya!