Quotes

After a good, but tiring weekend, once again lots of things to catch up. In times like this some cheering up is nice. So, as I still haven't prepared the albums to post (it's taking forever, I know. Hope to upload some soon...) just some quotes to prepare myself for the week. To make justice, one in each language.

"Humanos não são perfeitos. Você tem o direito de falhar. O que te faz uma boa ou má pessoa, é O QUE você faz com essa falha. Se aprender com ela, ótimo. Senão, merece mesmo ser chamado de inútil."
- Ban/Dekared (Dekaranger)

“If you believe that you can do a thing, or if you believe you cannot, in either case, you are right.”
- Henry Ford

「きみと僕の差は今まで歩いて来た距離の差でしかないんだよ。ひとはみな・・・同じだ。精算しきれなかった悔恨（かこ）と・・・目の前（げんざい）の障害と・・・行き先（みらい）への不安と・・・闘いながら歩いて行くんだ。あきらめるのは・・・道が途切れてからでもいいんじゃないか？」
- レミントン牧師 （クロノクルセイド）

KOF

Well... After a long time, I finally could play video game again. I'm not talking about arcades, but games you can play at home. Namely PS2 games.

Ok. That'll be a silly post, but what can I do? My albums are still not ready to be posted...

Exaplaining. Thursday after the aikido practice some people decided to eat out. Usually "eat out" with male students here means "going to a lamen restaurant". Nothing new so far. I didn't have classes on Friday morning (there's a Japanese class, but I wouldn't classify it as "morning", I guess...), and they invited me this time, so I went there. Besides, it's usually at these times that I can practice my Japanese.

And that was it. Lots of chat at the place. Guess it's because of these times that my conversation level has reached a decent level, although I really should study more reading, writing and vocabulary from now on. I found out that changes that happen in Japanese manga and anime when overseas is a good topic. They usually don't know, and it's a subject that I have some familiarity with... Like techniques/names changes and meanings. In Rurouni Kenshin, giving the translation of technique names such as "Kaiten Kenbu Rokuren" or "Amakakeru Ryuu no Hirameki". And I discover some things too. For example, that Chaos in Dragon Ball is read like "gyoza" (some kind of food) from Japanese kanji reading.

Note to my otaku friends: No, I didn't tell them about the bad side, like cuts, script changing, bad dubbings... Guess they'll live better without knowing. And I'd have a hard time explaining.

But the topic "game" appeared and I don't know how everybody decided to go to someone's house to play PS2. Which game? The gaijin chooses. Well, since it's going to be a versus... "The King of Fighters".

They brought the 2002... Niiice. Way after I stopped being a strong player. Fortunately I remembered some combos and was able to play well. Still a bit rusty, but won most matches. Ok, ok... I could say that I won more than 90% and the others were impressed (a joke about "Japanese pride being broken" was really funny at the time. Can't reproduce correctly the situation and the words, though), but I still think that strong players in Japan are somewhat better than in Brazil... at least after some matches I've seen in Tokyo. I'll post about it later.

As we had enough people, we could even do matches with each person chooses one character in a 3 vs 3 (traditional KOF) match. I really missed this kind of thing... Gather friends to play games...

Just to finish, a little of Tekken 5. Nope, I'm not good at Tekken. The best I could do was choosing Christie (whose fighting style is capoeira) and do some crazy (but easy to execute) combinations of high and low hits. I was better playing KOF...

And I'm really becoming rusty in games... Guess that's the result of not playing so often anymore. Even Time Crisis 3, that was the game I was best at I can't reach the scores I could reach before. And I've heard that my records at the shopping center arcade place in my Brazilian hometown were beaten... Ouch! If so, I might have to change the blog's name soon...

(Note: I wrote at the first post the reason for "ITS madness". For those who can't understand Portuguese, in brief, that's the way a friend in Brazil used to call me, because I was a good player in TC3 - so the "madness" - and I signed my records as "ITS".)

IC Card

Well... another interesting article on the net. This one might be of some interest for people wanting to come to Japan...

"The 'IC you' card
Computer-chip card proposals for foreigners has big potential for abuse,
By DEBITO ARUDOU

People are still reeling from September's LDP landslide election, realizing that Koizumi can essentially legislate whatever he wants.

For foreigners, that brings some bad news.

One of Koizumi's platforms is economic recovery through tourism and increased contact with outsiders ("Yokoso Japan") yet his administration can't shake its preconception of foreigners as potential terrorists and criminals.

Koizumi's previous Cabinet bore no fewer than three ministers who mentioned, in their introductory speeches, the alleged foreign crime wave (even though the media, including this column on Oct. 7, 2003, has long debunked this).

In December 2004, the Cabinet released its "Action Plan for Pre-Empting Terrorism," explicitly stating the terrorists to be targeted are essentially foreigners (Community Page; May 24, 2005).

Now Koizumi the tour guide wants to institute high-tech tracking of every foreigner he invites.

On June 16, the LDP's Political Affairs Research Committee ("seimu chousakai") issued their "Proposal for a New Immigration Control Policy" ("arata na nyuukoku kanri shisaku e no teigen").

Their plan: Issue "IC Cards," or credit card-sized identification cards, containing computer chips to track people.

One form of IC card (the "shutsu nyuu koku" card) will be issued to anyone (Japanese or not) crossing the Japanese border, upon request and at their expense.

The other, the "zairyuu card," is obligatory and replaces the Gaijin Card. All resident aliens (except the generational "Zainichi" ethnic "foreigners," who remain unchipped) must still carry it 24/7 or face arrest.

This "Gaijin Chip" will contain data such as: "name, nationality, birthday, passport information, visa status, address, workplace, educational institution if student etc."

Fingerprints will also be encoded "if the person wants." But just in case, fingerprinting will be reinstated to imprint foreigners both entering and leaving the country.

The LDP sweet-talks the reader by insisting the system is for people's "protection" ("hogo") and "convenience" ("ribensei"). They mention benefits to both foreigners and society by tracking alien visits to, quote, "museums, consultative government bodies, national art museums . . ."

It still amounts to central control of untrustworthy elements, and treating foreigners like criminal suspects. "

For those who'd like to read the complete version:
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?fl20051122zg.htm

Impressões sobre o Brasil

It's been a while since my last post in Portuguese. Guess it's time to change language a little. For people who don't understand Portuguese, sorry.

Já que é pra escrever em português, deveria continuar os relatos das férias de verão... Só que, apesar das fotos de Tokyo estarem prontas, meus comentários ainda não estão. Então vou escrever um pouco sobre as referências que normalmente ouço quando digo que sou brasileiro.

• Futebol: Esse não poderia faltar, certo? Acredito que seja o comentário que ouço com mais frequência, apesar de alguns outros aparecerem quase na mesma quantidade. Imagino que o pessoal aqui acredite que minha habilidade futebolística seja muito melhor que realmente é, já que só joquei bola uma vez (com um grupo do clube de aikido) e geralmente digo que "no Brasil eu digo que não jogo bem, e além do mais geralmente jogo no gol. No Japão eu nao sei qual é o nível médio, então nao posso dizer nada." Depois da pelada com o pessoal do aikido, talvez dê pra dizer que, comparando com a média, estou melhor aqui que no Brasil, mas tem uns japoneses que jogam bem também. Sobre jogadores profissionais, ouço mais sobre Ronaldinho (especialmente sobre a habilidade dele que, convenhamos, realmente é fora do comum) e Ronaldo. Mas já ouvi sobre Roberto Carlos, Alex (o da seleção japonesa), Washington (ex-Atlético-PR) e alguns outros. Não ouço muito sobre Pelé, além disso alguns japoneses desconhecem mesmo que Zico é brasileiro. E ele sempre faz as entrevistas falando em português... Bom, acho que seria só "uma língua desconhecida". Não se pode esperar que todos saibam, certo?
• Vale-tudo: Incrível a popularidade desse esporte entre alguns jovens japoneses (sexo masculino somente). Várias vezes já fui perguntado sobre alguns lutadores brasileiros que nunca ouvi falar antes. Acho que eles são mais populares aqui que no país deles... E isso leva ao próximo tópico...
• "Artes marciais brasileiras": Estão ganhando certa popularidade. O estilo Gracie jiu-jitsu devido aos Gracie como lutadores de vale-tudo ou o que quer que eles disputem. Aliás, uma vez quando disse que fazia judô no Brasil tive que deixar claro que era "judô", não "Gracie jiu-jitsu". A outra "arte marcial" é a capoeira. Muitas vezes já fui perguntado se conheço (sim), pratico (não), consigo fazer alguns movimentos (não). Parece que muitas pessoas tem pelo menos interesse em saber do que se trata, talvez por ser tão diferente das artes marciais orientais em geral.
• Piranha: Essa é uma que aparece com frequência impressionante. É praticamente impossível entrar no tópico "floresta amazônica" sem que esse animal seja mencionado, especialmente quando se fala com crianças (episódio de Nishinomiya). Mesmo assim, em alguns casos essa referência aparece mesmo sem entrar no tópico acima... Algumas vezes como primeira pergunta sobre o Brasil ("Tem muita piranha nos rios?"). Mas a idéia geral é a reforçada por filmes de horror classe Z. Em segundo lugar nessa categoria vem "anaconda"...
• Ayrton Senna: Na verdade, essa referência é mais comum entre a geração mais velha. Nunca ouvi algum universitário ou mais novo mencionar esse nome (aliás, corrigindo, ouvi uma vez). Bom, já que ele foi meu ídolo de infância também, pelo menos esse tipo de conversa é agradável (não que as outras não sejam... mas elas são geralmente mais engraçadas, se você me entende...)
• Vôlei: As seleções masculina e feminina vêm fazendo um bom trabalho nas competições. Assim, como no caso do futebol, geralmente se supõe que gostamos de vôlei e/ou somos bons nisso. Ao ponto de convidarem a Sílvia pra uma partida devido à nacionalidade (não tenho muita certeza... meio que peguei o bonde andando nesse caso...). Bom, realmente acho que deva ser o segundo esporte mais popular do país...
• Carnaval: Já dei uma breve menção sobre isso no comentário sobre o Kenka, mas já me perguntaram se fui alguma vez no carnaval do Rio ou Salvador (não) ou se sei sambar (conheço mais ou menos as formas, mas falta ginga). Não sei ao certo qual a imagem que se tem sobre o carnaval brasileiro, contudo dadas as referências a palavra "carnival" aqui (incluindo a propaganda do matsuri da universidade na próxima semana), imagino que seja algo como "A" festa... Pelo menos pela cara que vejo em alguns homens aqui acho que a impressão pode ser meio distorcida...

Acredito que essas devam ser as principais. Existem outras, como café (eu não sou movido a cafeína, e inclusive prefiro chá. Já vi uma cara de surpresa quando disse isso), que também tem muito no Japão... Do jeito que esse povo dorme pouco não me surpreendo. Só achei um pouco estranho ter café frio (e em lata... como não bebo muito posso até não ter percebido no Brasil). Outras referências seriam a floresta amazônica, as praias e as mulheres... Estereótipo padrão.

Talvez esteja esquecendo algumas interessantes... Se lembrar de algo eu coloco em outro post.

Locked out

Another quickie "just for laughs".

I mentioned before that I went to a bar with friends recently, right? Well, I still don't like the taste of alcoholic drinks much, but quoting another exchange student, in Japan we get used to drink when the social situation demands so (and only in that situations).

Although I don't drink enough to get drunk (and hope never doing so), even after only a little I'm a little out of my normal self. (But not too much, fortunately.)

How can I say that? Well, after returning home that day, I found out after waking up that I haven't closed the door properly. I pressed the lock button at the doorknab (after pressing, the doorknab can't be turned from outside. You unlock it with a key or simply turning it from inside), but the door was ajar (slightly open)...

Fortunately this is Japan away from the town centre, so nothing happened this time (I really should be more careful from now on...). Anyway, I was going to take a shower (bathroom is shared where I live), so I gave little attention to it at that time. But did I mention that I'd pressed the lock button?

So, after shower I found out that I'd locked myself out. What I should do? Ask the renter to open for me? Play with the keyhole hoping I'd be able to open it? Look for a keymaker? (Note: I've never seen one in Japan yet.)

No. My room is at the first floor (ground level), so I opened the window and entered through it. Hopefully nobody saw me... But if somebody had seen it'd be funny (not for me at the time, though). Trying to break into your own room and being mistaken by a burglar or anything like that... Guess I still wasn't my normal self.

(Ok, it's no big deal doing that, but it seemed a little strange here...)

Immigrants in Europe

Finally I can breathe a little. After the Japanese class this week my amount of homeworks is at a bearable amount, especially because of the big holiday next week (Wednesday is holiday in Japan, and the university festival will be from Saturday to Tuesday).

I say that because I spent some time doing Japanese homework after the last weekend until today. We should read a Japanese newspaper article (not easy), list words we don't know and write questions about the article. Mine was about those characteristic double-decker red buses in London (called Routemasters). They'll be gone by the end of the year. It's something about accidents and, more than that, adequating the public transportation to EU regulations. And one of them determines that public transportation should consider handicapped people, who can't ride the Routemasters.

But, during class, we discussed another article about the riots in France. I guess most people should know about that, but there's a link with some information in case somebody doesn't. An interesting point of view was comparing countries policies about immigrants in Europe and the "results". England, which has supported immigrants in keeping their own culture had a terrorist attack by English muslims. France, which has "forced" immigrants to adequate with the "French way of life" (prohibiting use of the "muslim-style" scarf - I forgot the name of it, sorry - in schools, for example) has riots. So none is effective? Then what's the way immigrants should be treated?

Ok, that's not the way the comparison should be done and there's more to it, but it leads to the point of how dealing with immigrants and what's the risk of other countries having problems like that in the future. For the last question, the answer is a high probability for countries where, like France, have most immigrants belonging to lower social classes.

Now other countries are worried about the immigration issue as well. Germany has adopted a policy between British's and French's and now should decide its path. Japan has a decreasing workforce and is deliberating if immigration could be a solution. It's just my opinion, but I think that Brazil don't have a situation so different than France in that aspect. I mean, most poor people are from which echnicity? (Not muslims, of course, but there's also a majority.)

Talking about Brazil, during the discussion the topic turned to Japan for a while (that's when the comment wrote earlier about Japan was said) and I remembered the Brazilians working as "dekasseguis". Most immigrants who went to France, for example, also went to do manual labour... And also most who went to Brazil in the beggining the the 20th century (that includes Japanese). They usually don't reach higher classes in society and sometimes suffer some prejudice. Many riots already happened through times because of that... Guess it's History repeating itself. People go to other countries seeking a better life that may happen, but they're always "strangers" and "excluded" what makes riots happen...

I like to say we learn from our mistakes, but if this situation happens from time to time, does it mean that mankind haven't learned how to deal with that yet?

Oh, and it's getting colder here. It's almost like winter in my Brazilian hometown at night and I was told that this year it's getting colder later than usual... Argh! The good news is that I may be able to look for good places to see the leaves' color changing and take pictures...

Quickies

I have lots of things to catch up today... Guess that fall in Japan is full of events, so my weekends that I usually dedicate to homework, study and chores are taken by other things. The result is that I get desperated on Mondays and busy for the rest of the week. Since the university "Culture Festival" will be held on the next weekend, I think this rythm will continue... So, I'll just post somethings to keep the blog rolling.

Payphone

Mobile phones are almost a must in Japan, and almost everyone has one. Even the cheapest models are more advanced than most of models found in Brazil. I'd even dare to say that they're becoming mini-computers and some may be used to pay bills and watch TV, for example (things like e-mails and camera feature are already commonplace). Some would say that they're lowering people's intellect and I believe they have a point... but maybe not to the extent they usually take.

One would think about payphones in Japan. There are some, of course. Sometimes people still need one, and usually tourists, for example, don't have mobiles that work in Japan. Even so, I guess there're not so many as in Brazil (although I should state that they're usually in better condition... if you know what I mean...).

So, last Monday I was looking for one payphone to call my family. I've done that before, and I have one I usually use near - 5 min walking - home. But this time it wasn't working (I dunno why) and I started looking for another one. That took me about 30 minutes without finding any until I remembered that tourist comment I wrote before and decided to look near Shosha-zan (a mountain with a temple on the top of it. Some scenes from "The Last Samurai" movie were taken there) that's somewhat a touristic place.

Later I figured out that I passed near one while looking in the neighbourhood, but I couldn't see it because of a vending machine and a sign that were on the way...


"You look like Japanese"

That's something I hear quite often. I even wrote a little about it already. But somethings happened lately that make me think I might look more Japanese even than some Japanese...

First, comparing myself with Silvia. She's another Brazilian exchange student here under the same scholarship program as mine. Also, like me, all of her grandparents are Japanese and, as a result, she's also "Japanese looking". But she seems to be less mistaken as a native Japanese than I am... And I'm less mistaken as Korean/Chinese/other Asian ethnicity than she is. Example: during summer vacation, when recieving guides to places we visited, not rarely I was given the Japanese version guide while she recieved the English version... sometimes without even asking.

Second, there was a case lately that the person even doubted that I wasn't Japanese. Even though I was talking in "broken Japanese" he thought I was kidding. Maybe because, although it was broken Japanese, I have been recieved compliments for my good pronunciation... That I don't have a strong accent when I speak in Japanese. Plus the fact that I'm using Kansai-ben (local dialect) words and expressions quite often (and that may be a problem after going back to Brazil... or when having to speak politely). I agree that I use Kansai-ben, but I really don't think my pronunciation is that good. I have to agree, though, that my personality isn't so easygoing like most foreigners here. And that might colaborate to my "Japanese-looking image".

But when people start thinking that, between you and a Japanese, the latter is the foreigner then it's time to really think about it...


Articles

And some things I've read to finish.

"People Power" - This one is actually representing all the articles I've read about the "US forces realignment in Japan". In short (but slightly mistaken) could be "Japanese government wants US forces around, but people from some Prefectures, especially Okinawa (which has some bad episodes with them), don't want them in their territory". That's a complicated issue, but I lack details about it...

"Nobel laureate set to be garlanded in cliche" - Well, I'll quote part of this one.

"Perhaps the most virulent denigration of American policy dismissed as "anti-Americanism" in the 1950s was seen in Latin America. Opposition to the U.S. got so heady that Vice President Richard Nixon was physically attacked on a visit to Caracas, Venezuela, in 1958. Americans at the time were wont to say, "They hate us down there, and after all we have done for them!" (Perhaps President George W. Bush entertained just such sentiments on his recent journey to the region.)

But what was the "all" that Americans had done for the people of Latin America? The U.S. underwrote the brutal and utterly corrupt dictatorships of Somoza in Nicaragua and Batista in Cuba. America intervened in Bolivia and later in Chile. The United Fruit Company virtually ran Guatemala, and the CIA engineered a coup d'etat against that country's constitutional government.

What did ordinary Americans know of all this? Almost nothing. The press painted it all up as if America was bestowing freedom and unlimited wealth on "our neighbors to the south." Many more Americans would have more readily recognized the face of Chiquita Banana (the colorful symbol of the United Fruit Company) than that of the president of Mexico."

"Fooooo." - Another HG-related post. This one is more disturbing...

Nishinomiya, barbecue and enbu

Nice weekend. I'm a little sleepy, but as I don't have classes today that's fine.

Saturday (Nov 5th) I went to Nishinomiya with Silvia. The idea was talking about Brazil to some kids there together with two other Brazilians (Joao, an exchange student from Kobe; and Ana who has the best Japanese level between us... and she's been living here for some 15 years). And we're from Londrina, which is Nishinomiya's sister city in Brazil, so we were going to talk a little about that too.

Hehe... I don't know if I said this before, but Japanese kids are cute. And kids are kids anywhere in the planet. During the presentation some strange questions... Some I understand and some I didn't, but by the laughs I could grasp that there were some "darnest things"... One boy especially always said something "funny" whenever opening his mouth... and loud. A simple and inoffensive example was when the kids were asked to make a "quiz" answering questions about Brazil (such as "Is it colder to the north or south in Brazil?" or "What body part the guarana fruit resembles?"... Although some I didn't know the answer, too. Like "How many years is compulsory education in Brazil?") he asked immediately if there was any prize for doing it... And their faces while we did some "Brazilian greetings" (like cheek "kissing", handshakes and hugs...) and they were asked to do it with us (well, we're also floored by that one...)

Complete sincerity when talking (without any enryo - reserve) is something that I'm becoming less used to... and that's dangerous. I noticed that because kids are sincere even here. At least those were. Some Brazilian foods (guarana soda, "doce de leite" and candys) were given to them and some said that didn't liked the guarana soda much... Guess that the Japanese taste is a little not used to that kind of flavour...

In the end things worked and the kids seemed happy. My Japanese level was still a little below the necessary to talk about Brazil or Londrina, but the others backed me up. A post card and one local (Londrina region) nikkei newspaper as gifts later, we're asked for autographs... WHAT!? Yes... maybe it's not that uncommon when Japanese kids meet foreigners... still a little strange, though. Talk, pictures, even touch is expected, but autographs!? Wonder what's the point of having foreingers' autographs... Ah, just don't forget we're talking about kidS. Plural. And there're around 30 of them...

Well, funny indeed. After, Silvia, Joao and I had some talk with a man who worked in Hyogo prefecture's government. Can't remember all the subjects though, but an interesting one was that they're resuming international exchange slowly after the Great Hanshin Earthquake. After it, money became a little short because of reconstructions...

And I met a Japanese who's been in Brazil and that I was exchanging e-mails with before coming to Japan. At that time I was a little worried about life in Japan, so I was asking people for advice. Somebody from my Japanese school recommended I should mail him and I did... We exchanged a couple of mails, but I lost contact later. He's working for the NGO which organized the event, but will return to Brazil shortly.

Also, that was a chance to know the Koshien Stadium. The Hanshin Tigers stadium. As the pro season is over now there was nothing special unfortunately...

After that and going to a museum in Kobe (small one about emigration to Brazil... I'll have to make another presentation about Brazil, this time to people in my neighbourhood and more focused in Japanese emigration to Brazil, in December... but I was too sleepy to take notes or understand... It was in Japanese), meeting with the gang to do a "bonfire" (as Rezaur defined it).
My definition would rather be a "barbecue". Gathering friends to make (and eat, of course) barbecue, drink and chit-chat at night outdoors with only a fire and a flashlight as illumination... Sweet. And it wasn't so cold that night (or we were heated by the fire... some by the drinks also). Well, maybe the "bonfire" was because he was planning to use some fireworks... But fireworks season in Japan is during summer, so it's not that easy to find them now.

Sunday. I had to wake up early again to go to Kyoto with some members of the university's aikido club to watch (some also participated) some aikido presentations. They call it enbu (演武)... My dictionary translates it as "military exercises" although it's more like kata of some other martial arts. Formal suits were required and I only discovered that the day before, so I was worried that I'd have to iron them and that I forgot how to put on a tie... Fortunately the clothes were good enough and somebody knotted my tie when I was preparing my cases to come to Japan (I know who did it... Thanks.). To my relief I wasn't the only one that didn't know that...

Too bad that it was raining... At least the event was indoors. And it was impressive... The event was held by the aikido club of the Kyoto Prefectural University (京都府立大学), but other university clubs around Kansai also made some enbu (including the University of Hyogo which is the university I'm studying at in Japan... The senpais did it). And I noticed that my university style is slightly different... And another university also had a style a little different. Some people commented about those differences later.

I'm still not good enough in aikido to tell about the techniques, but some were impressive. Too bad that my digital camera dosn't take good pictures of moving things and I hadn't enough memory to make movies... But the amazing thing was the teacher explaining something in the end. I really couldn't understand his Japanese, but keep throwing 3 relatively young persons holding him using all their strenght (he kept saying them to "hold stronger") almost not moving at all (just little arm, hand or leg movement)... Sugoi! Just for a change, I didn't get any good visual reference... maybe only this (Note added at Nov 9th: I just realized that Yahoo! Briefcase doesn't allow direct downloads by people who doesn't have an Yahoo ID anymore, so I cancelled the link... You'll have to live without watching it ^^;) small movie that doesn't show the impressive things...

After the enbu a dinner event... Good chance to talk a little with people from other dojos. Nice to discover that I can talk for a while without people noticing I'm not Japanese... and I have to thank the club for that since the small talk they usually have after practice helped me to understand better spoken Japanese. Too bad I'll miss the training the University of Hyogo aikido club will do together with the Kyoto Prefectural University and Osaka Prefectural University... Have an exchange students' trip that day...

Culture and "culture"

Talking a bit about the last weekend and this week. Noticed that I haven't post much about what happens here except festivals. I'll just write the highlights though.

Saturday (oct 29th). Aikido examination in the morning. For those who don't know I'm trying to learn aikido with the university's aikido club. Still have some difficulties, but it's been interesting so far. Language barrier is more a good subject to chit-chat than a problem (in last case they simply show me with gestures how it's done), although I still have difficulties understanding reports and messages. Anyway, it's being good so far, and I've made some friends too. Back to the exam, I still have to improve a lot. Guess it's the result of skipping so many trainings during the first semester. At least I think I'll be able to go up a level (kyu).

Later, some presentations from junior high and high school students who spent some weeks in a host family in Himeji's sister cities. Seems that they have show something about what they've learned/visited/whatever there. Various stuff from a japanese garden in Phoenix (USA), differences between Korean and Japanese temples to a little opinion poll about how Japanese see Chinese and vice-versa. Good things considering that they're school students who have stayed less than a month abroad. By the way, presentations about Himeji's Brazilian sister city (Curitiba) were comparing bus services between the cities (note that Curitiba is a model of bus transportation system...) and comparing lives of nikkeis (Japanese descents) in Brazil with Japanese in Japan (duh...). There was even a graph estimating meal times and so... Just a pity that I couldn't talk to them. Wanted to, but there wasn't no time at all... and since they're wearing school uniforms it was hard to distinguish.

Last but not least, ultimate frisbee with the JETs. I really enjoy playing, people are nice and it's a good chance to work out a little. Need to say more?

Sunday. The festival of the weekend. International Friendship Festival. In short there were places selling food from different countries ("pastel" and "canjica" from Brazil. But the best was something from Peru) and some performances like dances from different countries. Went there with Jon and met Ravier (not sure about spelling. First met him playing frisbee...) there. Met other people too, especially foreign friends (like Steff) and teachers. Sorry, but no pics this time. I was too busy eating. XD

Later, went with Jon, Steff and Silvia watch some ballet. "Sleeping Beauty" by the Russian National Ballet Theatre. Impressive and beautiful. Some good culture for a change (my first time watching pro ballet performance). Most of the public was composed of old ladies and kids (mostly girls), though. Maybe, as Steff said, they might be the only ones having time and money (yes... expensive somewhat) for that. Dinner at our favorite Chinese restaurant for the weekend's grand finale...

Monday. Halloween. Englist test. (Strange combination, isn't it?) Then the teacher enters wearing a Bin Laden costume! That was worth the day! Quoting the Master Card ad:
"Alarm clock: X yen"
"Textbook: Y yen"
"Bin Laden costume: Z yen"
"Seeing the students' face when 'Bin Laden' enters the classroom: priceless"
Plus, the terrorist costume was sooo appropriate for a test day... XD Should've taken a picture... Think I'll ask one of my colleagues who took some. (Note: the test itself wasn't so hard... at least for me...)

Tuesday. Another test. This time Electric Circuits. As I've studied that before, I thought I'd have more problems understanding the questions (in Japanese) than solving them, but I found out that I'm a bit rusty... and teachers can always come with tricky questions. I think I did well... There was a strange question, though... Anyway, the point was after the test. That was the first time I made a test and could stay and talk to other colleagues (usually, due to the fact that my timetable doesn't match any other students' I or they have to go elsewhere immediately after). It was nice having some chit-chat about the test... and useful to confirm that students are all the same here or there. That also brought memories of discussions with friends after tests in Brazil...

Wednesday. As Thusday's gonna be a holiday, the gang gathered to go bowling at night. Before that, the classic meeting at Starbucks... the rendezvous point for foreigners in Himeji. Meeting people here and there I found someone who's studying Portuguese! That's a first! There was also a Japanese who studied Portuguese in college (the reason was the necessity of learning it because of all the Brazilians coming to Japan... something like that). I volunteered to help, if needed...

In the end the Bowling group was Steff, Jo, Michelle, Rezaur, Jon (another one), Greg and me. If anybody asks me, my bowling sucks. Barely scored more than 70... At least some people scored less.

After that, Tigers Pub. Well, there was a drinking game that was the high spot (together with Jon's magic trick of changing 1000 yen bills into 10000 yen... There's someone who withdraws only 1000 yen bills... XD). Basically say the full name of a personality. The next person must say another whose first name starts with the same letter as the first letter of the family name of the name previously spoken. But additional rules make people spend more time drinking than saying names. Like, can anybody communicate well in this situation without using words like "you", "time" (time limit), "drink" or bad words?

Thursday. Holiday. Time to know the festival of the weekend. Seems it's something related with ceramics from various Japanese prefectures. The rest of the day I just hanged around with Jon (the usual one... have to think about some way differentiate between them when writing ) strolling around, staying at Starbucks and playing arcades... Not bad to celebrate the "Culture Day", isn't it?

Nothing really special that I remember on Friday, unless the funny situations between the teacher and a student during English class. But that's beside the point, so let's see what the upcoming weekend will bring.

Challenge Vader!

Quick post. Just a link that a friend has mailed me. The thing is that "Vader" says he can "read your mind" and discover a thing that you're thinking of after you answer 20 questions. Guess it's some kind of computer program with some learning/data gathering level. I don't know much about it though.

Well, if you want to challenge Darth Vader and the powers of the Dark Side, meet him at
http://sithsense.com/flash.htm

May the Force be with you.

What's on TV?

Although I really don't have as much idle time as I wanted to, and I do have lots of things in my backlog, still I often find myself watching TV here. I mentioned before that's something that I regret sometimes, but let's talk a little about TV shows in Japan.

Unfortunetely, in Kansai area some channels that broadcast animes I wanted to see (like "Bleach" by Tokyo TV) aren't open, and I can't afford paying for cable or satellite TV. So, the animes I've been watching so far are mostly Blackjack, Detective Conan, One Piece. (Reviews in English for Blackjack, Detective Conan - and I really don't like when they change the serie's name... "Case Closed"!? This reminds me of what was done with "Rurouni Kenshin"... yuck! -, One Piece.) Sometimes I see some different ones, like one based on this series (which is really funny, but I cannot say it's name... I read some episodes in Shonen Jump some years ago when I used to buy it), Tsubasa Chronicle (couldn' get this one right, but seems like a crossover of CLAMP characters... somebody correct me if I'm wrong...), Survive or Kyo kara maou... Hum... Thinking about it I've been watching a lot, huh? Well, Japanese practice! XD

Out of anime and news (fortunetely I found one that has SAP for English version, but I try some in Japanese), Japanese TV is... hummm... different. Lots of strange shows with strange personalities (including one, HG, which a friend commented in his blog), lots of music shows that make me think if I haven't tuned MTV (or I should say a different version of MTV) and dramas/soap operas basically.

A friend has recommended that I should watch a Japanese drama. That'd be a good way to learn "culture" and "language". Well, I wasn't a soap opera fan in Brazil, and some Japanese dramas seem even worse... I watch some for a while, but I was never able to follow any series here (I really miss CSI, CSI Miami, Junkyard Wars and other series I used to watch). Well, the current one at least is funny. Oniyome Diary. It focus one couple which the wife practically make the husband "lick her shoes"... Many times it's predictable, but it's funny enough to entertain me after a tiring day.

For example, this week's episode. The husband seemed to be a little overweight, so the wife put him into a severe diet... So follows situations where he had to resist to beer, sweet food and so on. Later, a friend says to the wife about "Mushroom Coffee" which is said to be good for health (or something like that... my Japanese isn't so good), but it tastes terrible... Guess what happens? She takes the thing home, and he, after noticing the (bad) taste of it, secretly changes it for normal coffee. It works well until he gets a cold and after some situations the wife found that out...

There're also some good shows here and there. One I watched some time ago was about teachers' life. Problems with students (bad behaviour, students who fall in love with the teacher...) and parents (overprotective, PTA... an interesting one was a case which a teacher recieved a complaint from a mother about the place where her son was seated. According to Feng Shui, it was a bad place...). Other more recent was showing signs that had mistakes. Like one that showed 「手作りたまご」 (tezukuri tamago). The meaning is "homemade egg", but this way seems that people make eggs with their own hands. The correct form is 「自家製たまご」 (jikasei tamago). Or another showing 「犬はひとりで歩きはいけません」 (inu wa hitori de arukiwaikemasen) which wanted to mean something like "no dogs alone allowed", but the verb form is wrong and, more that that, in Japanese there're lots of ways to count and it changes according to what you want to count. "Hitori" is "one", but it's used for people. Dogs are counted as "Ippiki". So, 「犬は一匹で歩かせてはいけません」 (inu wa ippiki de arukasetewaikemasen).