Aspects of Japan 4: ...And...

My Girl:

I took this picture at the Drum circle as well. It just turned out really nice... I'm practicing the "Filling the Frame" concept... not as easy as it looks.

I also just discovered I have had my camera on 1600 ISO almost since I bought it (I was all excited that my camera had a 1600 ISO setting...), which means almost every single picture I have taken since I got the thing is grainy (That's what happens when you have your camera set at 1600 ISO, it can take pictures in the dark, but they are grainy... and non in the dark pictures are grainy too...)

Professional cameras are a pain to get straight, but boy they are cool when you do! :D

Also, when I first got my camera, we were in Akihabara (That wonderful part of Tokyo), I snapped off a couple of really neat pictures there as well which I'll share here (I've shared one of them elsewhere, but not all of these shots have been shared):

A cat-maid-girl in Akihabara. This is the newest trend among the girls in Akihabara, they dress as cat-maids... maid outfits with cat-ears... sometimes they even have tails... wierd...

Finally, a signal at an interesection in Akihabara (Right in front of the big department store, looking at Akihabara station). You can see the Yamanote-sen (Yah-mah-noh-tay) train coming into the station in the background (the Yamanote line trains have lime green stripes). Of all of the trains in Tokyo, the Yamanote is the most interesting: it is essentially a loop that runs around the center of Tokyo proper. Almost everyone uses the Yamanote to get from one burrough to the other... thus, it is the Yamanote that you hear about which has "Pushers" who push people into the trains during rush hour. We try to take the Yamanote on off-peak hours for that very reason... but even on off peak, you can rarely find a seat.

---Me

Aspects of Japan 3: MySchool

I can't actually show pictures of my school or my students, of course... not on an open blog, anyway. Don't worry, you will see more pictures than you ever wanted to see when I get home and subject each and every one of you to my 324 hour-long slide show detailing my Walkabout and giving you my in-depth account of each photo's merits and drawbacks...

Anyway... with that said, here's some photos that I took about school today with my new Canon D30... I was using my 75mm-300mm zoom lens with a shutter locked at 1/250 and the aperature open all the way (My gym is a little dark... but I didn't want blurring and I had a 300mm lens on... so that's the best I could do...)

My children, of course, all wear uniforms, and even the shoes have meaning. The colors of the stripes match the colors of their nametags and even their helmet's reflector stripes... The blue stripes on this young ladies feet indicate she is one of my second years.

Nothing is as amazing to me as seeing my schools' bike racks. Every one of my students comes to school by bicycle, and even their bicycle must be in uniform... the raingear, stowed on the back deck of the bike, is issued by the school, and thus is also uniform. What always gets me, though, is that even with the uniform of the bikes... there is always just a little variation...

I wish I could share just a few of my more impressive photos taken of my students, but alas, I can't... So, instead, I'll show you one last photo I took last weekend at a Drum Circle in Maia'sTown...

This little thing joined the circle, this time. And showed wisdom far beyond her 5 years of age. Sharp and quick, she played the drum, xylophone, bongo, you name it, with the skill of a 10 year old.

But she was also disgustingly cute... so even though she isn't from my school, I'm sharing this picture with you anyway:

---Me.

The passing of a Wizard

On Tuesday, Don Herbert, more popularly known as "Mr. Wizard", passed away at the age of 89.

As I child, I used to watch his shows about science and I believe that due to that, I understand the scientific process fully.

I am still not quite sure how I feel about Mr. Wizards' passing... I want to think I'd be at least as effected as I was when Dr. Segan died...

Anyway, I do want to remember him, and I hope that folks that read my blog will also take a moment to remember one of the few folks that spent a great deal of time showing that Science isn't the perview of folks with expensive equipment and pocket-protectors... but it is also the wonderful land of discovery available to every one of us.

---Me.

Lost

The day was rainy and dark, and the fields were endless, and there... on the side of the road, leaking stuffing as an open wound, was a childs teddy bear... soaked, grey, lost...

Taken with my Canon D30, using a 150mm lens and set for automatic exposure.

---Me

Fighting fighting fighting sex fighting fighting fighting

So I went to see 300 on it's opening weekend here (Japan is strange, Spiderman 3 opened here before it did in America by a day, Pirates 3 opened at the same time, and 300 opened, like a year later... not really, but it seems like it did...) And I have a few thoughts:

1, the rhinoceros sucked... I could do better animation in my sleep, I was very disappointed. It looked like it weighed about 5 pounds and had the mass of a feather...

Okay, that said, I loved this movie!

But I noticed something interesting.

I really felt the sex scene between Leonaidous (Forgive me, Nick... The spellings were all in Japanese... thus I have no clue how his name is supposed to be spelled) and his wife, the queen was... (Gasp), out of place.

I was thinking about it as I watched it... was I growing old? Was this some sign of impending conservitism? Was I about to sign up for the Republican party?!?

Then I thought about the Oricle scene... packed with nudity and sexuality, I loved that scene... so maybe I'm not turning prudish...

So why was this scene out of place for me?

I thought about it in a different way, replacing one function of the body with another, say... eating:

Leo: What should I do? I can't defy the plot or anything like that? I'm going to have to generate my own plotline!

Wife (Gloriously naked in the moonlight in an incredible visual that, I'd like to add, proves that a woman need not be powerless simply because she is unclothed): Choose Sparta! Be a Spartan! Choose Freedom!

Then, Leo took the watermelon into his hands... gently his mouth caressed the skin of the melon, juices from the melon dripped down his chin, dropping in great lines on the floor.

Seeds dripped from the flesh as he slowly chewed the fruit. Rivulets of water, loosed from it's fruity bonds, cascading as a waterfall to the floor.

He looked lovingly at the mellon, eating it from one direction, then another, and then yet another until the melon was well and truly exhausted of it's red flesh.

All for Sparta...

Yeah... that's sorta how that one scene felt to me... it was beautiful, as the examination of the enjoyment of a watermelon could be in the hands of a genius.... but it made no sense in the frame of the scene...

But my goodness was that a beautiful movie! :D

---SPQR!

Never Argue with the Sensei

It doesn't matter if you are right or not...

Last night I'm at Kyudo and I'm practicing my firing sequence. At the same time Sensei is actually on the firing line.

An earthquake hits, not a big one, but enough that it shakes the place... Sensei and I both pause a moment, then continue our respective procedures when the building stops shaking.

Afterwards I say to sensei: "If you hear the rumble of the earthquake before the quake (And we did), then the epicenter is really close."

"No, if the epicenter was really close to us, we would have been bobbing up and down. That earthquake was far away, we moved side to side."

"I don't know... maybe" I demurr, suddenly aware that I don't know how to say anything indirectly (for example, I don't know how to say "I understand that if you hear..." or"I hear that if you hear..." ) I can only state a fact, which has a very direct connotation... and is conveying a very different tone than I want...

"How many earthquakes does Colorado have?" He asks, gently.

"None..." I reply.

He nods pointedly. I am suddenly painfully aware that knowing a little of a language is actually worse than not knowing anything at all...

it turns out that the earthquake epicenter was a little over a kilometer away from the dojo... in geological terms, directly under us...

The most frustrating thing is that I'm communicating! But I'm not learning the language fast enough to cash the checks my newfound communication is writing.

I constantly think "I wish I were younger", my 34 year old brain just doesn't want to learn as fast anymore.... then I look at my kids who are half my age and are squandering their chance to learn their second language and I suddenly realize, I had the opportunity to learn Japanese when I was 17 too... and I let that chance slip away, chosing instead to hang out with my friends and stuff...

And now I pay for that choice. Interesting, isn't it?

---Me.

Finally...

I know it's been great for my health to ride to school on my bike, but it has not been great for anything else, and it's good to be back on four wheels again.

Of course, this time I made many mistakes, but the examiner was much more reasonable, he could see that I had complete control over the vehicle (And since it was a standard, he could also see that I wasn't stalling the car, or even revving the engine, I drove it like it was an automatic).

Then I took the eye test...

You know, there is an interesting thing about Japan; green is blue. I'm not exactly sure why this is, but it has Buddhist roots. But for some reason, most shades of green are considered blue here. So of course, when I go to take the eye test, there are little "are you colorblind" lights that show up to make sure you can tell a green light from a yellow light and a red light...

The red light shows up. The Examiner says "What color is the light?"

"Akaii" (Red) I say

The light turns green.

"Good. And now?" He says.

"Mido..." Gree... "Eto... Aoii" Um, Blue.

"Good"...

I wonder how many people wandered in there and said "Green" at that test...

"Honest, I'm not colorblind! I'm American!"

---Me.