Wakame? Not Quite.

Yesterday (Tuesday) was our last day of actual classes. Today, we have the 別れ会 wakare-kai ("farewell party"), which I really need to get off my ass and cook for.

So sleepy.

Presentation (Divtesting)

I was just awake enought to get this up last night, and I honestly don't know what I changed that made it work after two hours. I think Blogger might have just had pity on me.

I woke up on Tuesday at 6AM cooked a super-duper protein breakfast, and worked on my presentation and went over some last random notes for Japanese for Certified Tests (JCT), in which class I had a test. As expected, it took about 15, maybe 20, minutes. No clue how I did, but if you wanted a guess, I'd say 80%. Ish.

After that, I headed up to the school's Japanese Room. I kid you not, we have a room called the 和室 - "Japan (-style)" "room" and it's where the tea ceremony class takes place. I have no interest in tea ceremony itself, but the girls (of my little squad 'o gaijin anyway) were wearing kimono and this would probably be my last chance to spam pictures of them.

Once I was allowed in, I was sat between the head and sub-head - I don't know their official titles, but between Michiharu TANAKA and Mariko UCHIDA. Pictures. Tea. Sweets. Pictures.

Tanaka is the one at the right who looks like he needs to go to the bathroom. He was probably just about to change to a different sitting position than seiza (which should translate to "death to the foreigners", but doesn't, as far as I know). When I asked if it had defeated him, he replied "I think I must be an alien..."

So after ingesting about two handfuls of pure sugar, I had ten minutes in class and a further 30 minutes of sitting around while we talked in class, etc. IE, just enough time to come down from the sugar and be nice and shaky.

---

Good points

1- Researched extensively and summed everything up neatly
2- Hard-to-understand words were clarified, so it was easy to understand
3- Clearly introduced topic at the beginning
4- Looked at the listeners while speaking and used clear pronunciation
5- Speed and loudness of speech was just right, so it was easy to listen to
6- You had fun with your topic, and that came through in the way you held on.

よかった点

・くわしく調べて、きちんとまとめて発表できた。
・わかりにくいことばは、もう一度違う表現で説明しなおしていて、わかりやすかった。
・はじめに何について話すかはっきり伝えていた。
・聞き手を見ながら、はっきりした発音で発表できた。
・スピードも大きさもちょうどよい声で、聞きやすかった。
・自分が内容を楽しみながら、そして、その楽しさをみんなに伝えようとがんばっていた。

Not-quite-there points

7- Sentence-to-sentence connecting words were almost nonexistant.
8- Because of that, there ended up being a lot of "because"
9- You used a lot of "you know?". Instead, it would be good if you used others, such as "... don't you think?", "... isn't that so?", "... or at least, that's what I think.", "... you may be able to look at it like this." There are a variety.
10- Sometimes, you stopped in the middle of sentences, and just kind of lined of words, which had kind of a weird feeling.
11- There were some words where your pronunciation was hard to understand. Especially long words with lots of kanji. I totally couldn't understand "converters"

もう少しの点

・文と文をつなぐ言葉（接続詞など）があまりなかった。
・そのため、「から」が多くなってしまっていた。
・「でしょ？」も多くなっていた。かわりに、他のいろいろな
言葉を使ってみるとよい。（と思いませんか、ではないでしょ
うか、だと私は思うんですがどうでしょうか、という見方もあ
るかもしれません等、いろいろあります。）
・時々、文が途中で終わってしまった。語だけが並んでいる感じで、少し変だった。
・少し発音がわかりにくい言葉があった。特に漢字の長いことば。
（「てんかんしゃ」は、私は全然意味がわかりませんでした。どういう意味のことばでしょうか？）

Thanks for taking so many pictures.
I bet you can make a good compilation with them. Have fun.

Well, be careful not to eat much cream bread!? LOL

写真をたくさん撮ってくださって、ありがとうございました。
いい文集ができることでしょうね。楽しみです。

では、クリームパンの食べすぎには気をつけて！？（笑）

---

So that's what my teacher thought. I have a pack of notes of what the other students thought as well, but I haven't looked at it yet.

Kilk at left, being cheesy. Me at right... WTF? I don't know.

After the presentation, we hustled the class outside for a group portrait, which we took a couple of just to be sure, which was fortunate, as the first three of the four we took didn't turn out well once I checked them.

Then, I spent an hour and a half helping Uchida-sensei piece together a Word document that had quite possibly the worst formatting I've ever seen in a word document - maybe second worst, thinking about it. Someone I live with has done much worse things in Word, if I think about it, which I'd rather not...
Ahem.

Then, we went shopping for ingredients for the food we were preparing for the farewell party, which I need to be at in about half an hour. It's a potluck and I'm being lame and bringing fried rice, but... It's what I can cook that isn't gyouza.

クリームパン作り方

I'm experimenting to see how alignment works to show translation. Tables in Blogger are such a pain.

This recipe assumes that you kind of know what it will look like in the end, but if you've never seen one, parts will seem pretty weird. The end product should look something like the thing at left if you decide to start dicing them up or something. There's a reference to a seam later on, and you can see it at the far right of the upper pastry.

[From http://plaza.rakuten.co.jp/butterbread/9000]

１０～１２個分
＜中身のカスタードクリームを作る＞

Makes 10-12 individual servings
Custard filling

１．薄力粉３０ｇを茶こしでふるっておく。

Sift 30 grams of pastry [low-viscosity] flour

２．卵黄２個、砂糖６０ｇ、ふるった薄力粉３０ｇを鍋に入れてから火にかけ、牛乳３００ｃｃを少しずつ泡だて器で混ぜながら加えていく。途中でヘラに替えてもったりするまでかき混ぜながら煮る。

Put two eggs, 60 grams of sugar, and the strained flower into a saucepan and apply heat. Slowly add 300cc of milk while stirring. Boil until thickened enough to stand a spatula [not kidding]

３．火からおろし、バターまたはマーガリン１０ｇと、バニラエッセンス２，３滴をヘラでよく混ぜる。

Remove from heat and add 10g of butter or margarine, as well as 2 or three drops of vanilla essence. Stir well with a spatula.

４．蓋をしてそのまま冷ましておく。

Cover and cool as-is.

＊あればバニラビーンズの方がエッセンスよりも香りが良い。

If you have them, vanilla beans make for a better smell than vanilla essence.

＜ホームベーカリーで生地を作る＞

Making the dough in a home bakery [real ovens aren't common here]

以下を機械に投入。生地づくりコースを選ぶ。

This assumes you have a bread machine. Select "dough course".

１．ドライイースト　５ｇ (dry yeast)
２．強力粉　２５０ｇ (pastry (low-viscosity) yeast)
３．砂糖　　大さじ２ (two tablespoons sugar)
４．塩　　　小さじ１/２ (one-half (.5) teaspoon salt)
５．マーガリン　２０ｇ (margarin)
６．卵　　　１個 (one egg)
７．水　　　１２０ｃｃ (water)

生地ができたら、包丁で１０～１２等分にカットし、生地を周りから丸めこむように丸める。布をかけて２０分放置。（ベンチタイム）

Once the dough is done, use a kitchen knife to cut into 10-12 equal portions and round each one into a circle. Put a cloth on them and let set for 20 minutes. (benchtime)

軽く丸め直し、円く平らにのばし（円のふちのほうを薄く）、カスタードクリームを割とたっぷりめに包み込んで下を閉じる。少し平らになるように軽く押し、 端に3か所切れ込みを入れてグローブ型にする。天板に並べ、２次発酵約５０分。（オーブンの発酵機能を使うか、ビニールをふわっとかけてこたつに入れるか する。気温が２８度くらいならビニールかけて常温で放置できる。）

Lightly fix them to be more circular, then stretch so the edges are thinner and fill relatively full with the custard filling, wrap and close under. [f you look at the picture at the top of the page, you can see the seam at the right side of the one that's been cut in half.] Lightly flatten them and cut three incisions [see picture at left] and make into a rough globe shape. Line them up on a baking tray [a cookie sheet, I guess?] and let ferment for about 50 minutes. You can put them in the oven for this time if you want, but you'll want to make sure to cover them lightly with plastic wrap and keep the temperature around 28 degrees [that's Celsius!].

２倍に膨れたら、１８０度のオーブンで約１３分焼く。

When they have doubled in size, bake them in the oven for about 13 minutes at 180 degrees. [again, Celsius!]

Creamy Essay

I've tried to be fairly true to the Japanese as I wrote it without embellishing it or making it sound too much more natural than it fails to be. I did this mostly so that I could make sure that there were no serious gaps in the writing that I was just missing because I couldn't evaluate the writing as a whole. Or something.
Now, I'm not saying that there are no fairly serious gaps where you're just like "Wait, what?" But they're not serious enough for me to want to reflow each paragraph.

When you're dealing with Asian names written in roman letters, last names are sometimes written in all-uppercase letters for clarity, as I have done here.

菓子クリームパン！ ウィルロクド	Pastry Cream Bread! William Lockwood
もし一年前の私は「クリームパンって、何のことですか」と聞かれたら、答える事ができなかったはずだ。日本に来る前には「クリームパン」と聞いた事がなかったので知らないのは当たり前の事かもしれない。去年２００８には初めてクリームパンを見たのだ。クラスのみんあにはちょっと信じがたいだろう。	If you were to ask me a year ago "What kind of thing is a kuriimu pan?", I don't expect I could've answered. I hadn't heard the word before coming to Japan, so I think that my not knowing may be kind of a given. Last year, 2008, I saw cream-pan for the first time. Kind of hard to believe, right?
さて、クリームパンの発明に関すして話したいと思う。日本に１４世紀に中国からまんじゅうと言う食べ物が伝わった。当初、肉しかに詰められていなかったが日本人の口に合うようにあんこに詰められて来て、日本のまんじゅうが発明された。１６世紀にポルトガルからの探検者が日本へ火縄銃や宗教やパン、つまり技術と文化を日本に持って来た。その時に日本人の初めてパンを見た。もう少し後、日本は鎖国を始めた結果、パンは外国文化の一部として禁ずられたので約三百年間にほとんだなかった。でも、あんまんじゅうはのこっていた。	Okay, I'd like to talk about the invention of cream-pan. In the 14th century, the Chinese brought a food called manjuu ["steamed yeast bun", a super-soft bread-thing]. In the beginning, they were just filled with meat, but came to be filled with anko ["sweet bean paste", the Japanese version of corn syrup, basically. It's in everything.] in order to suit Japanese tastes and thus was the Japanese manjuu invented. In the 16th century, Portuguese explorers came to Japan and brought matchlock muskets, religion, and bread, in other words, culture and technology, with them. At that time, the Japanese people first saw bread. A little later, Japan started its seclusive phase and bread was forgotten about for about three hundred years. But anko-filled manjuu remained.
１９世紀の明治時代に侍の地位が政府にとられた。その前に侍だった人々は武士ではなくなって来たら、新しい就職を探された。その中の一人、木村安兵衛は西洋文化を普及させたほうがいい思っていたため１８６９年に日本の初めてのパン屋を作った。パン屋の名前は「文英堂」だって、すぐ「木村屋」に変わった。木村屋の新しいパンの種類として、アンパンが発明されて、毎日売り切れていたくらい大人気だった。	In the 19th century, during the Meiji period, samurai were stripped of their rank by the government. People who were previously samurai, when they came to lose their status as warriors, were forced to seek out new employment. One of those people, Yasubei KIMURA, thought that Western culture should be spread and, in 1869, made Japan's first bakery. It's name was "Bun Ei Dou" ["sentence","beauty","hall". Go figure.], but soon changed it to Shop Kimura [kimura-ya]. As a new kind of bread from Shop Kimura, the anpan [bread, filled with anko] was invented and was so hugely popular that it sold out every day.
１８７５年に天皇の侍従が木村屋に行ったら、天皇にアンパンをあげようと申し入れた。桜はずっと前から日本の印だったので、木村屋は新しい桜アンパンを作った。天皇と皇后がその桜アンパンを食べたら、もちろんおいしかったので、その時から木村屋のアンパンを注文して引き続いた。この出来事でアンパンは全国の人気できた。現在でもアンパンはまだ一番人気のある菓子パンだ。	In 1875, the emperor's chamberlain went to Shop Kimura and suggested that they give some anpan to the emperor. Because the cherry blossom has long been a symbol of Japan, Shop Kimura made a new kind of sakura anpan. When the emperor and empress ate that sakura anpan, it was, of course delicious, so from then for a long time they ordered anpan from Shop Kimura. By way of this big event, anpan gained nationwide popularity. Even today, it's the most popular of pastries in Japan.
今までの話は日本の菓子パンの全員に関する長話だった。アンパンは大人気になったら、さまざまな中身と作り方の変更をされて見た。その菓子パン実験によって、今日ジャンパンやメロンパンなどを食べられる。	The story up until now was the long story about all of Japan's pastries. When anpan became really popular, various fillings and recipes were tried. Because of those pastry experiments, you can eat pastries like melon pan and jamu pan [basically a sealed PB&J sandwich, hold the PB).
その一種はクリームパンだ。１９０４年に中村屋で働いていた相(そう)馬(ま)愛(あい)蔵(ぞう)と言うパン屋さんがカスタードを中身として試した。もちろん、すばらしくおいしかった。その慶事あったからずっと日本の全国にはクリームパンも人気のあるパンだった。というのは、現在日本の三番目人気だ。	One of those types was cream bread. In 1904, a baker working at Shop Nakamura, Aizou SOUMA. tried custard as a filling. Of course, it was wonderfully delicious. Since that auspicious day, cream bread has also been a popular pastry in all of Japan Japan. That is to say, even today, it's the third most popular pastry.
でも、日本に来る前クリームパン聞いたことすらないからそれら全然知らなかったのだろう。私の日本にいる二日に学校の前のショップ９９で証明写真を撮りに行ったと店の中のおいしそうな物は多そうだったため、できたらさっそく行きたかった。戻ったとき、三十秒うちにカスタードメロンパンを見つけて、買った。今でも、それは私の一番好きなクリームパンだ。	But before I came to Japan, I hadn't even heard of cream bread, right? On my second day of being here in Japan, I went to the Shop99 in front of the school to get some ID photographs taken and inside the store there seemed to be a lot of delicious-looking things in the store, so I wanted to come back without delay if possible. When I went back, within 30 seconds, I found a castard melon cream bread and bought it. Even now, that's my favorite cream bread.

Example Sentences

I had a big test today, and I passed a couple of example sentences to a friend to check. They're apparently okay. I don't have time to translate them right now, but here they are.
[Edit: Okay, that wasn't entirely true. It was actually that I couldn't translate them while talking to my mom on the phone.. Close enough, though, right?]

そのクリームパンはまさにおいしかった
そのクリームパンは非常においしかった
そのクリームパンはいかにもおいしかった
These first three mean "That custard bread was really delicious." I haven't found anybody who can tell me how the meaning is different between masa ni, hijou ni, and ikanimo, except that ikanimo can be used in a similar fashion to tashika ni.

端的に言ってもいいよ
"It's okay for you say it directly."

さて、この新しいソフトについて、どうですか？
Well then, what do you think of this new software?"

ディジタル一眼レフ、すなわち大型のカメラのほうのセンサーが大きいのだ
Digital single-lens reflex, aka "large cameras", have bigger sensors.

それにもかかわらず、写真家が下手なら、まだダメな写真ばかりを取れる
"In spit of that, if the photographer has no skill, you'll still get pictures that are no good."

ＤＳＬＲもしくはヂジカメラ、どちらでも禁止だ
"DSLRs and digicams are prohibited."
Though there's a typo in this one. When I went to write di, I simply typed D and I (ヂ dzi), rather than deli, which is how you have to input the ディ (di) in "digital" when you write it in Japanese. It sounds really random and complex and kind of stupid, but there's a system to it.
The reason for having to type deli to get di is because we're 1) mapping 46 characters onto 26 letters and crossing our fingers and 2) because di in Japanese is a dipthong, but not the traditional kind, and so it's been kind of forked into the system as a whole fairly recently.

Windows 7!

I'm using Windows 7 now, and I can thus far say only good things about it. Here's hoping it keeps up.

Long, Strange Day

For reference in the rest of this post, I need to explain the "levels" the Japanese train systems use. Also, I'm talking trains, not subways. Every subway I've ridden has stopped at every stop on the line, which is why they tend to be fairly short in terms of overall distance.
Now, if you look at the following table, you can see a bunch of squiggles that are kanji. The top row shows the Japanese as it's written, the middle shows the reading in roman letters, and the last is the meaning when translated. None of this is really important, but what you should know is that as you move to the right on the table, the train will stop at more places. A 普通 ("local") train stops at every stop, while a 特急 ("special express") will only stop at large transfer stations.

快特	特急	快速(快急)	急行	準急	区急(区準)	普通
kaitoku	tokkyuu	kaisoku (kaikyuu)	kyuukou	junkyuu	koukyuu (I think)	futsuu
Special Rapid Express	Special Express	Rapid Express	Express	Semi-Express	Sub-Express	Local

To get to Umeda, for example, you can take the Hankyu 普通 train bound for Umeda (a part of Osaka) and it will take roughly an hour and 10 minutes because it stops for a little while at e-v-e-r-y stop along the way. About 15 stops, I think. On the other hand, the 通動快速* stops at, I think, four, and gets me back to my house from Umeda in about 40 minutes.
*As I mentioned in this post, these are a near-mystical creature, and that's why it's not on the table.

I dropped off Roxanne at the airport (KIX) today, and it was relatively uneventful. After going to get Jes and dropping her off, this third time back felt kind of old hat. I guess Japan decided that meant it would be a good time to throw me a curve.*

There was some kind of accident - that's the extent of the details I have, before anybody asks - on the normal Japan Railways line that I've used to go back and forth to the airport, so it wasn't running until some later time. They let me* board the Nankai (a different railway company with different tracks that uses a different part of the same station) line free of charge, which I thought was pretty cool. Not only that, but they apparently got the word out fast enough that, by the time I got to my first transfer, they knew what was going on and let me through all well and good. That's a pretty good system, if you ask me.
*By "me", I mean "me and all the other people who were too stupid to listen to the announcement and bought tickets on the JR line". And no, not just us stupid foreigners did that.

On the way back, I took a 区急, which I don't know how to read and can't find any useful information on. I think it may be kukyuu but it may be koukyuu. The latter sounds more official-sounding, so that's what I went with on the table.
I also took a 快速 kaisoku ("limited express" - it skips more stations than a semi-express, but less than a special express) sat by someone who I think was a hobo. Japanese hobos have a special smell about them, and this guy had that fairly strongly. He also had this super-old MP3 player, though, so I don't know what to think about that.

To top it off, I went to ask a random person a question on the way back and he ignored me, looked away, and quickened his pace. I quickened my pace a little to match him and put on my gloves. After about a block of this, he took a sharp corner - backwards - and I went on my merry way and asked a couple of people that were down the road who seemed quite happy to talk to me. Or well, you know.

Japanese Airfare

Well I'm trying to book a plane ticket and I got a recommendation for a travel agent from my teacher, Mr. Aikawa. Here's my conversation with him, if you're interested. The important thing to take away from this is that my Japanese has improved at least a little.

Anyway, here it is.

------------------------------

From: Will <>
[name removed]様
こんにちは。
相川まさおさんから教えてくれましてウェッブのサイトでちょっと検索しました。
北アメリカのポートランドへの空港権のTYUUNUSASP-Y002をみつけて、私にちょうどいいじゃないかと思いました。本当に安いですから、特別な条件があるんですか？
ご連絡お願いします。
- ウィル・ロクド
Mr. Aikawa told me about your company, so I did a search and I found a ticket to the North American airport in Portland, TYUUNUSASP-Y002, and thought "Wow, that's perfect!" It's really cheap, so are there any special conditions or something?

From: IACEトラベル　[name removed] <>
Will 様
お世話になります。こんにちは。
お問合せありがとうございます。
こちらの商品は東京成田空港～ポートランドの往復になりますので
大阪からでは無いですが大丈夫ですか？
ちなみに出発日と帰国日お決まりですか？
To Will: Thanks. Good day. Thanks for checking us out. Our tickets right now are only from Tokyo Narita Airport, and only round trips to Portland. Is it okay that there's nothing from Osaka? By the way, is your departure date decided?

ＩＡＣＥトラベル　[name removed]
From: Will <>
本当に詳しいですね！実はここから一番安い方法でポートランドへ行きたいだけです。二月に出発できたらいいんですが、値段がほぼ一番大切なことです。と言うのは、貧乏な学生なのですから、出発日はそんなに大した物ではありません。
新幹線で一万三百円をかかっても、東京までできると思います。それでも関西空港からのチケットがあると、そちらのほうがいいのです。
-ウィル
Wow, you're good! Actually, I just want the cheapest way to get to Portland. I'd like to leave some time in February, but whenever's cheapest is good. Price is pretty much the most important thing. When I say that, I mean that I'm a poor student and the departure date doesn't matter that much. It's about $130 to get to Tokyo by Shinkansen, so if I can get a cheap ticket from Tokyo, it's all good. But if you can find a ticket from Osaka, that'd be cool. - Will

From: IACEトラベル　[name removed] <>
Ｗｉｌｌ　様
お世話になります。東京まで交通費を考えますと下記の関西空港発が
お安いですがいかがでしょうか？
[generic intro] Thinking of transportation to Tokyo, how about the following? It's cheap, but, what do you think?

２月１０日 UA 886便　関西空港～サンフランシスコ　　 18：55 11：18 KIX>San Francisco
　　　　　　UA5886便　サンフランシスコ～ポートランド 13：11 14：58 San Francisco>Portland
２月１９日 UA 372便　ポートランド～サンフランシスコ 07：15 09：04 Portland>San Franciso
　　　　　 UA 885便　サンフランシスコ～関西空港　　 11：46 16：35 San Francisco>KIX

※日程は暫定です。

◆航空会社：【ユナイテッド航空】
航空券代金 ３５，０００円 Airfare: $350
出入国諸税　　　　　　　５，０００円 Export tax: $50
燃油特別付加運賃　　　４４，０００円 Fuel surcharge: $440
空港使用料　　　　　　　２, ６５０円 Airport usage tax: $26.50
　
合計　　　　　　　　　８６，６５０円 Total: $866.50

From: Will <>
わあー。。。速く高くなちゃいますね。サイトの値段の全部に50,000円が追加されますか？
じゃあ、もし自分で東京へ行けたら　（例えば新幹線でいけるかな）、どれぐらいの値段できますか？
- ウィル
Wow, that gets expensive quickly, doesn't it! Will all the prices from the site have $500 tacked on? If I can get to Tokyo on my own (for example, maybe I could go by Shinkansen), about what kind of price should I be thinking about?
[That's about the end of random English I'm up to translating for now, 'cause it all goes something like this and it's boring as hell.]

From: IACEトラベル　[name removed] <>
Ｗｉｌｌ　様
お世話になります。東京からの料金は下記になりますが
新幹線で行くと実際は大阪からの料金と変わらないと思いますが
いかがですか？

１９，０００円　航空券代金
４４，０００円　燃油サーチャージ
　５，５００円　現地空港税
　２，０４０円　成田空港使用料
６８，７４０円　合計
ＩＡＣＥトラベル　[name removed]

From: Will <>
アメリカのＶｉｓａ・Ｍａｓｔｅｒｃａｒｄで支払えますか？私に代わって、両親が支払っていただくつもりですからね。
因みに、その６８．７万円の航空券、いつに出発しますか？それと、いつまでその値段が使っていただけますか？

From: IACEトラベル　[name removed] <>
Will　様
お世話になります。こちらに関しては現金振込み専用とります。
また基本的にカード利用の場合はご本人様限定となりますので代理は不可となり ます。また成田発のキャンペーンの分は残念ながらお時間とルートが未定となり ます。その分ご料金がお安くなります。２月基本的に同じ料金ですが出発日に
より変わりますので先に往復の日にちを決定して頂ければ思います。
ＩＡＣＥトラベル　[name removed]

From: Will <>
あっ、すみません！片道の航空券だけが必要なのですが。それで、もっと安くなりますか？一年間前に片道切符で来たので、も一度それをしたいのです。
それで困らさせますか？

From: IACEトラベル　[name removed] <>
Will 様
お世話になります。片道になりますと東京発で７２，０００円となります。
諸費用全部込みでトータルは１０１０４０円となります。少し片道は
割高なのですがこれのみとなりますのでご検討よろしくお願い致します。
ＩＡＣＥトラベル　[name removed]

From: Will <>
じゃあ、結局、本人のカードしかを利用できないのですかね？
- ウィル

Jes Visits! - Himeji

So while Jes was here, her, Roxanne, and myself went to Himeji, a city to the South where Himeji castle is located.
As you approach the castle, there's a large field that was probably used as a staging ground or something. It's just a big dirt field. You can see Jes wearing her new jacket in the center of the picture at left. This is a panorama that is composed of, I think, 12 different pictures.

As you come closer to the castle, you can see some of the battlements and the arrow slits and stone-throwing holes and suchlike. At left, Jes is just about to look out one, and you can see another square one at the right side of the frame. There were circular, rectangular, and triangular slits. I would guess they were for different purposes, but I don't know how those specific shapes would be advantageous to anything.

At right is a sign that I liked for the "No danger!" symbol in the lower right. The blue text above the sign says "Plastic bottles are allowed".

This just occurred to me now, but the walk up the walkways was pretty tiring as-is, so I can't imagine what this would be like while constantly trying to dodge rocks and arrows and oil and fighting well-rested sword-/pike-men.

Oh, feel free to add musketeers to that list as well.

This was one rack of guns that was to be seen, but there were probably racks for well over a thousand longarms such as this.

This is "Princess Sen's room" or one of them. She had a whole section of the castle devoted to her and her serving girls, if the signs are to be believed. I don't know what she's doing with the rocks, but I would guess it's some kind of prayer ritual or something like that.

This room is not very high up in the castle and kind of off to one side, but as you go up into the main castle area, you see these little fish guys (left) at random. I think they signify some kind of dolphin (though the tails are sideways for that) or dragon or something. I dunno.

Of the stuff at the castle, I think these fishy statues are probably the most artistic, useless thing there. The rest is fairly bland and militaristic, largely because it consists of empty rooms and hallways.

And doors like the one seen at right. They still work, I think, but were locked so you couldn't open them.

From the top, you have a great view of the city, and I managed to get something like a 280-degree panorama, as you can see.

On the way down, we saw a couple of really neat sights, and I got what is probably my favorite picture of the castle proper, at left. The sunset is what's causing it to turn that nice orange color, though I think they have lights that come on at night to keep it that color. If not, I don't know what they use the massive lightbanks that they had set up for.

Here's that same sunset, a few minutes later, looking the other direction.

And some cats we found. A little after us, an old guy came with two little girls and they fed the cats.

These pictures could really use some warming up, but I guess I missed that when I was working through this set. Oops.

And then there's the toilet. We went to an okonomiyaki place on the way back to the train station, and the place we ate had this toilet. The picture at right really doesn't do the horror of the thing justice, but suffice to say that it had the strangest color scheme of any bathroom I've ever seen.

On top of that, the girls commented that the toilet was kidn of strange, so I had to go investigate. It turns out that it's an old-style toilet with what something like a booster seat on it so that you can sit down like a Western-style toilet. I moved the seat aside for this picture so you can see sort of what's going on. And yes, I washed my hands afterwards.

Random Picture Post

While going through the pictures I want to post in the next post about our trip to Himeji, I kept finding random unrelated pictures I wanted to put up. So, here are some of them.

My parents send me to some stuff for Christmas, including a jacket that basically works magic and a nice pair of sneakers. Even while unwrapping the presents on Christmas Eve, it didn't really feel Christmas-y. What really reminded me of Christmas as a kid was the pile of discarded wrapping paper.

At right is a train in the 通動快速 mode, which I've seen on all kinds of signs and things, but never actually ridden before. It's nothing really impressive, but I've been wondering whether or not they exist since I got here, and I was really excited to discover that I had finally found one.

My airsoft arsenal has grown considerably in the past month or so, as you can see here. Included in that pile is my $4 cheapo generic airsoft gun (far right), a Tokyo Marui spring-powered H&K USP (middle-right), a Tokyo Marui AEP H&K USP and its associated battery, charger, 30-round magazine, 100-round magazine, and 20mm rail converter, and a quick loader that works for every airsoft magazine I've tried it on as yet.

And Yanavy sketched this out because we got bored at the Italian food place near here. That was Jes's first time meeting that group as a whole, and I think she was bored out of her mind because she ended up on the far end and didn't get any of the massive quantity of in-jokes. Poor kitten...

Nara: Sleepy Pre-Post

Yanavy and company (plus me) went to Nara today. I took a lot of pictures, but I haven't really looked through them yet. A couple of them that needed some Photoshopping, though, I did just now.
These picture are from a game center (usually "arcade" in American English") we found completely by accident on the way back to the station. Cool thing: four-player air hockey! I teamed up with Angela against Sara, Cassie, and Yanavy, the latter two of whom took turns.

We also found a super-super cheap place to get takoyaki and I found some really tasty mochi to boot.

Anyway, inside the game center were these banners, which I felt pretty much required to take pictures of. Tails is my favorite character of them, and pretty much always has been. I just noticed that Sonic and Knuckles both have a species name, whereas Amy and Tails both just have their full names.

The quality of the pictures is kind of bleh, at best, but I did what I could for them. Eh.


Here's one last picture so you can see what they look like coming out of my camera:

Jes Visits! - Jeff's Party

One of my teachers is a rather famous guy in this area and is a published (he has, like 13 books) researcher of intercultural communication. He also teaches English to a lot of people, and he hosts parties at various times to help give his students chance to interact with each other and to practice the languages that they're studying. To aid this end, he used a lottery to figure out seating, which made sure everybody was nice and mixed. Jes was at the center table of three and I was at the South table, where the population varied widely. Hidemi, at left, was one of the people at my table.
[Edit: I guess I forgot to mention that he has a couple of television shows and he teaches at his own English school. To quote Anchorman: He's "kind of a big deal".]

I took some pictures, as I am wont to do, though almost all of them came out a little blurry. Once I pulled out my flash, there were no problems, but before that the light level was too low even for my fast lens to get sharp pictures.

Stupid physics, stupid optical levers, stupid 50mm.

Anyway, as long as you look at them really small, it's not so easy to see the blurriness, so here's what I've got. It's mostly me and Jes, but she's cute and my parents always want pictures of me, and Jose's apparently a photographer. He was drooling over my camera, in any case, which is a little weird - it's kind of backwards - for me.

First up is a picture of Jes with Jose, who everyone calls "Josie", using the girls' name instead of the Spanish pronunciation. I think this is weird, but maybe that's his actual name. Who knows.


At far left is me setting up my tripod. I like this picture, because I'm decently far enough away that you can't see how doom I look.
The next picture I'm not so happy about, but I think it would look pretty good if I weren't so tired. It was nearly 1AM at that point, though, and we had gotten up around 7AM to take Jes to church.

I think this may be the first picture on the blog of me in my blue shirt, which is one of my favorites. It's pretty much my favorite color, though it looks a little different in these pictures.

At right is Jes being cute. That's really all that needs to be said. I wish that I could say I took this picture, but I think Jose took it.

Moving on.

We did a gift exchange that was... weird. Everybody brought a ~$10 present and then we sang a song and passed it around. I got a nifty blankety thing.

No real idea what's going on at left. Maybe it was when he was saying how she had prepared all the food. I remember that she was the one who did it, and apparently on really short notice, but I dunno if this was when he said that. The food was good, by the way. Speaking of food, this is one of the sweets that was brought out, along with about two hundred creampuffs and a huge box of very, very good mikan, which are known as satsuma oranges in English, I think.

This was the group of people who stayed until fairly late. Remember I was setting up that tripod earlier? I've got the remote in my right hand in this picture. I used the two-second timer to hide it. From left to right: Jeff, guy whose name I don't know, David, Hidemi, Jose, me (Will!), and the kitten (Jes).

To finish the night off, Jeff played his Japanese flute for us. Calling it a "Japanese flute" really doesn't do it justice, but I don't remember the special name it has. It's got a special name because it's longer than the normal flute, known as a shakuhachi.

It was interesting, though a little slower-paced than I was expecting. I was excited to hear him play it and Jes really enjoyed it as well, apparently, because she got to learn about new musical stuff.

Three-Round Burst

I've explained the benefits of a three-round burst at least four times in the past week, so I'm stealing a quote from Wikipedia and putting it here:

The recoil in the three-round burst is not felt by the weapon's user until after the third round has left the chamber. This is accomplished by having the barrel and feeding mechanism "float" within the rifle casing. When the bullets are fired, the barrel and mechanism recoils back freely several inches and only when it hits the plate at the back of the rifle does the user feel the recoil. During this transit time the rifle loads and fires 3 rounds. When the barrel and mechanism reaches the back, springs push it forward into its normal position. When firing in semi-auto and full auto modes, the rifle only loads and fires one round per transit of the barrel, cutting the rate of fire to a controllable one-third of its maximum rate.

- From the page on the G11

Jes Visits! - Monkey Park - Forgotten Pano

Somehow, I forgot to post the pano shot I took that shows the view of Kyoto from the monkey park. Here it is.

Jes Visits! - Monkey Park

On the 20th of December, last year - yes, I'm actually this far behind on posting - we went to the monkey park in Arashiyama, a touristy area near here.

I've been to the park before, but not since the beginning of my stay here.

We bicycled to the entrance, paid the five-dollar admission fee, and... spent ten minutes taking turns in the bathroom. During this time, we noticed a rack of shoes that is apparently there so that you can have something decent to wear to walk in. The idea is that you would use these if you came to the park in high heels or something, not knowing that there are somewhat significant slopes involved that would probably be dangerous in heels. I guess I didn't take a picture of it, but I think it's noteworthy, and pretty nifty.

We walked up to the top, and we made it about halfway before Jes and Roxanne start freaking out over the half-seen monkeys near the top, the better part of 100 meters away. Having already had my chance to do that, they thought I was a bit of a spoilsport:"Stop being so grumpy!" Thanks, Jes, I'll try.

Looks like I took one picture on the way up that came out, which you can see to the left.

Some other photographers were around, and SLRs were in no short supply. I saw at least ten different people with various SLRs, and all but three(if you count Roxanne's D40) were in the advanced (eg, Nikon's D300 - $1,600, body only) or pro (eg, Nikon's D3 - $5,000, body only) range. For reference, all the camera gear that I own costs about $1,500. That's about how much the lens the lady in red is using costs. You can say "It's not the size that matters, it's how you use it", but that's not going to make me want that lens any less.

At left, two random pictures of monkeys being monkeys. I think the second one looks kind of evil, even if he's just chewing a chestnut.

One of the funniest things I saw was a little monkey who angered another one, and was rescued by his mother (I assume). The coolest thing is that they had this really cool interception pickup thing going on. See my amazing MSPaint diagram of the action? It was like that, but with monkeys. Action shot at left. You can just see the Chibi Monkey on the stomach. It was pretty awesome to watch. Here's him and his parental monkeys (again, I assume) taunting the pursuer afterwards.

Right:As dirty as this could be to the right minds - you know who you are - I imagine the picture at right was the end of a similar pursuit.

I think the part that Jes enjoyed the most was, by far, getting to feed the monkeys. The feeling of their hands is really strange, and it's very fun. Having fed them plenty already, I resigned myself to taking pictures. Jes has a knack for never looking at the camera when I'm taking pictures, but I did manage to get a few of her that I rather like. She found this really small monkey that kept getting chased off by others, and she would wander back and forth, feeding him. She fed the others as well, but she really seemed to like chibi monkey. I even got Jes and Roxanne to pose at very nearly the same time, for once. This is by far the best picture I've taken of the two of them.


I'm not certain how this scene came about. I want to think she engineered it and isn't just that lucky, but I don't know how she would go about doing that, so...

On that note, I was barely lucky enough to get this shot, which is one of my favorites.


After that, I even had the luck to get Jes to turn around and for her not to notice I was taking her picture until it was too late for her to put on her dour stop-taking-pictures face. Instead she was wearing her "Squee! Monkeys!" face.

We got to the park a little later than we had hoped and they were closing an hour early, but we managed to get our fill of monkeyness before the monkeys left for the mountain and the parkkeepers rounded us up. I got Jes and Roxanne to pose once again before we left, as you can see from this shot next shot of them by the feeding house. This is composed of six or so pictures.
The first time I was putting these pictures together, I was trying to perform other operations on them while that ran. Bad idea, and the mess at right was the result.

Oh, and there's this slide at the end of the whole thing, if stairs are just not your style. It... didn't work so well. Sure, she may look like she's having way too much fun with the slide, but she was bemoaning the kiddy slide's tiny width.

Now, it's 2:45AM and I've got to get some sleep before I head to Osaka tomorrow.