So it's been a while. Yo everyone. I've been pretty busy la... Nah, screw that, it's just making excuses. I'm just the definition of procrastination. I mean, I went to a place called Oyakuen last weekend, which is an old herb garden that belonged to the Aizu lords for years, got a bunch of sweet pictures, and then didn't post them anywhere. What's up with that? So the first pictures are from Oyakuen.
Strangely enough, I didn't mean to go to an old, historic-y type place at all that day. I was just looking for a nice park so I could get out of the apartment for a while. I've just got a way of picking 'em pretty good I guess. Oh, and on the way, I passed by some shrines and stuff, and I couldn't pass them up. (^-^) THIS weekend, I was pretty busy. I went to Sendai and some of the towns nearby with one of my students on Sunday, and we checked out some of the places that were damaged pretty heavily by the earthquake and tsunami, as well as some historic buddhist temples. It was kind of eerie standing where there used to be a whole town. Shinchi-machi (the last place we went) looked at first sight like it was just an empty plain, but as we drove by, we could see all the foundations of houses and remnants of roads that were leftover after the cleanup. The only building that was still standing was an old elementary school, but the damage was pretty obvious. You'll see it in the pictures. I don't even have any family in Japan, but it was very eye opening and a bit depressing. Today, I met with a friend from my volleyball group and a friend of his and we checked out places all around Aizu. The first was Kitakata, which is famous for having the best ramen in Japan. I agree. Everything was amazing, and the whole bowl was devoured in minutes. Best ramen I've ever eaten in my life. And I loved ramen BEFORE today. Then we went to some places near Inawashiro, a small town very near Aizu that is home to Japan's second largest lake (as far as I was told). It was a great day, though I didn't really take any pictures. You'll just have to believe that it was super awesome cool. And that's all I've got for now. I'd promise a speedy update, I already know what would come of that, so I'll save you the disappointment. See? I'm such a nice guy. But until next time, じゃね~!
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Aaaaand...Back! And I'm sure everyone's excited. I thought this last semester would be fairly straightforward and dull, seeing as I have only 12 credits, but of course, I had to pick electives that were more difficult than your typical English and history classes. I had to pick high level one filled with English and history majors, respectively, showing my mechanical engineering ass up. Luckily, I think I still managed to jam a few things into my brain right beside all the numbers.
But hey, I've got some real cool stuff going on, and by god, I'm gonna tell you's people about it. For starters, I just purchased an instruction book a few months ago and started building myself a shamisen. Damn straight. If you don't know what that is, you can head over to the multimedia page and check out the video I posted or just type "shamisen" into goolge or youtube. There are about a gillion videos of all types of people rocking the shamisen and showing off. I've been working on it in my free time and I'm hoping to have it finished before June. Now the reason I chose June is because something else is going on Starting June 3rd for me, which I'm ecstatic about. I was lucky enough to land a job teaching English in Japan for a year starting in June! It's not quite what my major set me up for, but when's the next time I'll get to spend a year in Japan? Never, ever again, in case you weren't sure about the answer. I'll be going to a city called Aizu Wakamatsu, a few hours north of Tokyo, which, as far as my research tells me, was one of the last places the samurai fought in during the Boshin War in 1869. There's a castle and everything. But here, look it up for yourself. I can't be holding your e-hand all the time. At this point, I've only got less than two weeks left at this school, then a few weeks of working (and a graduation party), and I'll be headed to J-Land. Unfortunately, what this means for all of you is that once I head over there, it may be a while before I get reliable internet service, so it'll be another big long wait (this time not my fault!) before I can write about the goings on in the land of the Rising Sun. The good news is that I'll try to take tons of pictures, and I'm confident my Japanese will be bitchin' by the time I get back to the U.S. Until then, I'll try to update some more, add some pics, post some videos, and brag my skinny ass off (to an extent. I'm not that good at it anyway). And on that note, I'll leave you all with a fond "じゃあね!" and let you get back to your flash games/youtube/illegally downloaded movies. Happy days! Honestly, I didn't even know it happened. I was on the subway when it happened, and I didn't feel a thing. My girlfriend did, however, notice the digital sign that listed which train we were on flickered for a second, and she felt like it was some horror or sci-fi movie thing. And I, of course, told her it was nothing, and that she was just being paranoid. It wasn't until everyone was in the streets on their phones that we heard someone mention an earthquake. So I guess from now on when I tell her it's nothing, she'll remind me about the earthquake. And of course, I knew I could count on you, internet. I knew a natural disaster could never occur without someone mocking it openly on the internet. Ok, it wasn't really a "disaster" in NYC, which made it all the funnier when all the reaction in the city was parodied by others. One of my favorite quotes I read yesterday was from someone's Twitter account (don't remember whose, it was on some website listing people's reactions) was this: "In retrospect, I resorted to cannibalism rather fast after the earthquake." Oh, and this picture, which many have commented over: Well, only a few more days until I head back to Vermont for my last two semesters of schooling, and I'm actually looking forward to it this time around. Maybe because I'll be off campus, not have to wear a uniform, only have 11 credits of classes, and not have to go to any parades, formations, or any of that crap! I guess it also helps that the people we're staying with are super chill. They're down with putting in a bar and doing some beer brewing. Plus, they've got chickens. Yes, I said chickens. にわとり。Galline. I can't wait until they have to get rid of some and we get fresh chicken meat. It's just another one of those things to look forward to. I have to be off to figure out some things before classes begin, so unfortunately, I have to leave now and actually do some work, make some calls, run some errands. The next time I write, I'll be in the state of green mountains, enjoying my normal college experience, so until then, しっかりして。 Stay belìssimo internet. |