Uneventful Updates and Hilarious Hedgehogs

So, this update is SUPER fucking late, and for that I apologize. Unexpected visit by Naoko on Monday evening + Thomas going to sleep right afterwards because work was damn exhausting last week = a blog post that is a full day late. Doesn't math suck?

Honestly, you didn't miss much with this late update. Last week was officially one of the least eventful weeks since I got here. Can't find awesome hidden shrines, go to crazy Australian parties or meet gorgeous girls that are interested in me for some reason every week, you know. The work week was a shitstorm of constant activity sandwiched between two of the slowest workdays I've ever had (How's a 9 hour day with only two classes, both of which are at the very end of the day, sound to you?). 

I got some games for my PS3 this week, so way too much of my time has been spent wasted on those. I have a severe lack of time though, and have burned myself out enough to understand the importance of relaxing a little bit every day, so I'm trying to remind myself that it's okay. This process is also helped by the fact that I've actually been noticing a big difference in my Japanese ability. The fact that it's enough for me to actually be happy with it and, more than that, admit so out loud should be proof enough that I've been studying my ass off. I'm also willing to bet that a large portion of it is related to having a girlfriend that only speaks Japanese. Pretty sure my default language learning advice to people will now consist of "find a significant other that only speaks that language." Got two new Japanese textbooks this week too (had to buy them online because bookstores here really don't sell them) and added A BUNCH of new decks to my Anki (digital flashcard) program, so yeah. More studying ahoy.

That's about it. I'll try to be more interesting this week. The weather is getting better, so maybe I'll drag my lazy ass to some of the many temples and shrines in the area that I have yet to visit. 

Obligatory random shit!:

1.)

I told one of my students that I would be going to Kyoto sometime soon, and he recommended I try one of the sweets they're famous for. He recently came back from a vacation with a gift for me!

It was some of those sweets he mentioned. I have the name somewhere, but I'm too lazy to find it. I'll tell you in my eventual Kyoto post after I go. Or I'll forget. Yeah, probably that one. You should know me well enough by now to expect this, so wipe that disappointed look off your face. Jerks.

 2.) I want to apologize for this post being late, so have some adorable pictures I found on I Can Haz Cheeseburger while pretending to work last Tuesday.

Gegege Day Trips and Vacuum-Packed Awesome

Another busy week for Thomas >< Friday was a holiday, so Naoko and I went on a day trip to a nearby town that just so happens to be the birthplace of a famous manga artist. He made the series Gegege no Kitarou, which is kind of somewhat similar to The Adams Family, only Japanese style. I had never heard of it before coming to Matsue.

The second train we took. That eyeball is one of the characters from the manga. They're very proud of this series...

There were little shops everywhere selling everything Gegege-related you could think of. I took some pictures in the first one we found. These are sweets shaped like some of the characters.

Seriously. Everything you can think of. In case you can't tell, that's Gegege toilet paper.

And a towel.

These are three of the main characters. From left to right, Kitarou, Nezumi Otoko, and Medama-oyaji.

More figurines of the characters.

Gegege beer!

There were A LOT of sweets shops, and every time we stopped at one, we were given free samples. I didn't see other people getting samples, so I guess it was because I'm a foreigner... sometimes it's a good thing? >< Anyways, Kitarou was filled with chocolate and Medama-oyaji was filled with bean paste. They were good, but really dry.

Matsue Castle!

There was a little map in the Gegege museum we went to that showed the different creatures for each prefecture. The creature for Shimane was a giant freaking spider. Figures. I hate spiders so much. Don't know if this was the same spider, but it was a nice picture regardless.

This is, I imagine, how Medama-oyaji was born. The creator of this series was definitely interesting. Also, he drew everything with only one arm (I think he lost his in WW II).

Creepy head!

After the museum, Naoko found a temple and showed me how to properly purify my hands before entering.

Another awesome dragon!

Oh god these things were creepy. There was an arch leading into the temple grounds, and these things were inside either side. I got caught off-guard when I looked inside and pretty much expected it to jump out and kill me.

The other creepy doll.

Naoko and I agreed that these were some pretty damn cool lions.

Dragon carving that is awesome.

A salaryman from Gegege Kintarou. We also saw a guy walking around in a salaryman outfit talking to people. So awesome.

We found a gift shop. This, of course, meant we were required to take awesome pictures.

And a few awful ones.

Naoko wouldn't take a picture with the fan, so I had to step in for her. I felt so elegant :D

Yeah, I like dragons. Whatever.

Even the taxis in Sakai Minato (the town's name) were Gegege'd up. I forgot to take a picture, but the lamp posts were also topped with glowing eyeballs.

That eyeball rotates around in the water and is outside a small shrine O.o

An awesome fountain in a park.

It's hard to see, but that's definitely a peeing Kitarou.

Naoko made me some delicious and adorable sweets for Valentine's Day! As a side note, I freaking love the Japanese version of Valentine's Day. The girl is the one that has to do stuff. Of course, the guys have White Day where they have to reciprocate, but still... 

I'm not going to buy it because it's got anchovies, but those right there? Yeah, those are double decker pizzas. As in, one pizza stacked on top of the other. So amazing.

Yesterday was another karaoke trip! We have been planning it for a while, so I was very excited. Just like last time, no real pictures from the event, but here, have some shots from 5150 afterwards!

You're not allowed to make a normal face at 5150 :D

Okay, I guess this was before 5150, but whatever. Yuko gave me her hat to wear. It was comfortable and made me feel sleepy.

Nothing really to report beyond that, to be honest. As busy as this week was for me, there's not much to say about it. Here, have some random stuff!

1.)

I found 78 yen Doritos! They're "Mexican Taco" flavored. They weren't bad, but they pretty much taste exactly like one should expect 78 yen Doritos to taste... so yeah.

2.)

I did a bit of shopping, and, since everything has a mascot over here, I now have an awesome bag with an adorable pokemon-looking thing on it. No idea what it has to do with books.

 3.)

My mom sent me delicious food because she's awesome! Home-made cookies and cinnamon rolls from a bakery I used to go to when I was little (apparently they still remember me? O.o) Don't know if I've mentioned this before, but I'm ridiculously thankful for all of you who have sent me care packages. I never really appreciated how much packages mean before I came over here. It kinda makes me feel like shit for not sending more of them to James when he was out on deployment...

Surprise Soba and Textbook Molestation

This week was much less eventful than last, which I think is a good thing. After the hectic craziness of last weekend, I kind of needed some time to rest.

A few people asked for it, so I'm going to subject the rest of you to a couple picture of me and Naoko. It's an awful picture of me, but that's pretty much like saying the sky is blue :/

I made soba this week! Admittedly, that sounds pretty unimpressive, but what you're probably missing is that I made the actual fucking soba noodles. My Japanese teacher invited me, and I had no freaking clue what it actually was until we got there. She had asked if I wanted to eat soba, not if I had wanted to go to a big once-a-year soba-making party. I didn't mind. None of these pictures are actually from my camera... ><

Some of the toppings you can put on the soba. Everyone was really eager that we try all of them (we being me and the three other foreigners there, all of which came with my teacher), so some of them were added to my bowl twice. In fact, after I poured my sauce (broth?) in, someone else added more, and a third person almost tried to add more. Later they told me I had put in too much of the sauce... gee, I wonder who's fault that was? ><

You know you wish you could take awesome pictures where you're in the middle of eating and your Japanese teacher decides it's a good photo op.

Me, my Japanese teacher's friend, and my Japanese teacher. And the picture taker's finger. And the GIANT bottle of beer they clunked in front of me when I selected beer from the choice of drinks they gave me... Later I got to drink some awesome sake that they apparently only have at this time of year. It was delicious.

I've had some "OMG GAIJIN!" reactions here, but none so much as at this place. In fact, I'm pretty sure someone announced very loudly when we all showed up "Gaijin!". I was asked where I was from at least a half dozen times, sometimes by the same people, even after doing a short self introduction. My Japanese teacher was, of course, busy telling everyone I was good at Japanese, so I had to pretend like I understood what everyone was saying the whole time. Anyways, this kid was pretty awesome. I was eating and felt someone walk up behind me. It was this kid, and he was just staring at me. I talked to him a little and tried to get him to give a thumbs up for the picture. No dice. Another kid was jumping up trying to touch the top of my head, so I bent down and let him, then picked him up above my head. I've said it before and I'll say it again: kids are awesome as long as I'm not the one that has to take care of them.

All the sudden, SURPRISE SOBA MAKING! Seriously, I had no idea this was expected of me, and, of course, a crowd quickly gathered to watch the various gaijin make damn fools of themselves. It was fun. First, we mixed the... dough? I have no idea how to refer to it. Soba are buckwheat noodles, so whatever the powdered form of buckwheat mixed with an egg and some water would be called. We had to use really long chopsticks, holding the middle and lower portions, to mix it.

Once it was mixed, we had to knead it by hand. I started kneading it like dough (using my fingers and all that), but that was apparently wrong. You use the heel of your palm and bend your fingers in so they're pressed against themselves/the top of your palm, then you push down and forward, folding when necessary. 

After that, you roll it out! Pretty simple, really, but there's an art to it. Spin, roll from the middle in one slow, continuous motion, spin, repeat. Once it's really big, you wrap it around the rolling stick (too big to be a rolling pin, right?) and roll from one side of the table to the other in the same motion. Then any small folds are flattened out, and it is folded on itself multiple times.

After that, it's time to cut. This is so much more difficult than it looks. There's a small wooden board on the left that you put on top, but you can't put any pressure on it, at all. I know this because they corrected me multiple times when I pushed down even a little. You hold the cleaver (seriously, it's a damn cleaver) right behind the blade with your thumb pressing on the top, position the blade sufficiently far beyond the upper edge and close to the wooden board (the thinner the cut, the better), slice down and forward (the forward part is important for some reason... I also got corrected on this quite a bit before finally getting it right), then shift the blade slightly to the side to push the cut noodles away from the uncut hunk while shifting the board a tiny bit. Coordinating both hands to do radically different things with that much precision was tough, but I got it down after the first quarter of the dough about. I was still happy when Jesus took over though (wow, I love that sentence... Jesus was one of the other Gaijin, btw, not a biblical figure), because my hand was cramping seriously bad.

These are some of the noodles I made!

That was yesterday. Today, I didn't do much. Had a Japanese lesson, did some grocery shopping, practiced Japanese A LOT (I'm getting really down on myself for not being better. This translates directly into trying to kill myself with studying), cleaned a bit, searched a book store in vain for some pre-intermediate Japanese language books (I'm really struggling closing that gap between beginner and intermediate with the materials I have. Guess I'll look again next weekend), bought Naoko's birthday present, and secretly hoped the games I bought online would show up so that I could play video games all day instead of doing that other stuff. They didn't, and I couldn't :(

Random shit!
1.)

Went to print club with Naoko and saw this thing. The picture doesn't quite convey the horror. Those glowing eyes? Yeah, they change color constantly. I was really trying to get a picture when they were red, but it seems that red was only a transition color, because they didn't stay that way long enough to get a good one.

 2.)

I'd like to introduce you to two of the characters from one of the textbooks I teach: Bill and Toshie. Now, the text insists that the two are happily married, but I submit this picture as evidence to the contrary. I'm not saying anything definitively, but I'm 100% sure that someone in this picture is being given the bad touch, and it's not Bill. I think Toshie needs an adult.

3.) I'm really proud of myself. I brought about $1,500 with me. AEON insists that you should bring at least that much because you will need supplementary income for the first month or two while setting up. It's been what, three months now? I still haven't withdrawn any money from my bank account here. been living entirely on that 1,500. Now, admittedly, my rent is withdrawn directly from my paycheck, but I still think that's damn good considering the cost of  doing anything in Japan. Planning a trip to Kyoto next month, though, so that'll probably change soon.