ポッキーパンダと一緒

went for a stroll around a not so family friendly park. wanted a shot of the circle of homeless tents, but couldn't muster up the courage.

カントリーライフ

i entered into the world of my mom's classic old country living magazine collection...the japanese edition she hid from us kids under her mattress.

this is the house i was gracefully given the opportunity to live in for a week by the incredibly hospitable mario and sari

久しぶりの旅

its funny how quickly you can get used to your surroundings. i came to japan awhile ago, but now that i live in my own apartment, have a job, go to school, i kinda lost that feeling of traveling...i missed the feeling of not knowing what my destination would be like.
初めは珍しくても周りの事に速く慣れるってちょっと変だと思う。結構前日本に来た。でも、もう何ヶ月自分のマンションに住んでるし、バイトもやってるし、学校に通ってるし、その周りが新しくて毎日発見がある時が最近あまりない。行く先はどんな所だろうなあって気持ちをもう一度感じたい。

so when i woke up at 6am to get on a train headed for oita, where i would be picked up at the station by the sister of a friend of a friend of a friend, that sense of ''dude...what am i DOING?!'' came rushing back.
大分県に行く電車に乗る前にワクワクしながら朝６時起きた。大分駅で友達の友達の友達の妹は僕を迎えに来てくれる約束があった。アドベンチャーだろう？

because im tired of being surrounded by apartments. because i wanted to get out into the countryside. just get away. see a different part of japan. experience a lifestyle completely different from my own.
マンションだらけの生活にあきたけん。田舎に行きたかったけん。出かけたかった。日本の行ったことない所へ。僕の生活と全く違うのを見るため。

forgive me father, for i know not what i do

yesterday because of the freezing rain, customers were scarce. only the truly brave could muster up the strength to walk down the long, cold alleyway to our restaurant. with 4 staff just standing around picking our noses, one of us had to be sent home early. there was no drawing of straws involved. just a simple "ryan go home"

my apron flys off. i grab my backpack and zip-up hoodie (didnt realize it was going to be 2 degrees today when i got ready in the morning) from the back, and walk out to the main floor to say the mandatory お先に失礼します (osaki ni shitsurei shimasu...or, i'm going to be rude and leave first)

i'm putting my right arm through the sleeve of my sweatshirt when my boss, with a look of horror, says

ライアン！裏、裏！裏でやれ！お客様の前で着替えっちゃダメだよ！
ryan! in the back in the back! you cant change clothes in front of the customers!

you'd think i was standing there in my underwear.

change clothes? i'm just putting on my sweatshirt...i must have had an expression of complete confusion

with a laugh mayumi tells me that in japan, before you leave the staff area, you need to be completely dressed, even down to having your backpack on. the simple act of putting a bag over your shoulder in front of the customers can be taken as an offense.

i hope my gaudy display didn't make any of the customers lose their appetite.

FlowerChildrenSeedのイベントに参加してきた！

i was asked to participate in a charity event for the children who flee tibet over the himilayas to live in india where they can get an education.

it was a good time with lots of awesome people. a day full of music, painting, dancing, and little ol' me drawing the faces of the people who participated in the event on postcards. DUDE! talk about nerve wracking! i love drawing portraits, but to whip one out in five to ten minutes while someone is waiting (and watching you draw) is daunting! im just glad i was allowed to do it in my own style.

皆さんありがとうございました！楽しかったです！
参加させてくれてありがとうございました。

my first snow.

ok, ok. so i lied. its not my first time seeing snow, BUT! its the first time (i can remember) actually living somewhere that snows, not just visiting for a day or two. and when i woke up this morning to this view i was stoked!

i dont want to here "thats not snow! you should see the 6 feet of snow our house has been buried in for the last 3 months!"

you're just jealous cause i don't have to bust out my shovel to get out of the driveway.

for a guy who grew up with 100 degree christmas afternoons (not australia buddy, san diego! it technically WAS winter), this is glorious, fluffy SNOW that fluttered ever so gently down from heaven and kissed the rooftops of my quiet neighborhood.





someone built this hilariously ugly snowman in the park.

スケッチブック

大宰府の秋！

sketchbook

合格！JLPT 2 !

for those who wanted me to write more. this is my gift to you.

this is also my bragging blog.

for foreigners living in japan there's a test called the JLPT (japanese language proficiency test) with 4 levels.

level 4 is crazy easy

level 3 bumps it up a bit, and then a HUGE gigantic king kong size climb in toughness to...

level 2. the test required to be considered for entry into japanese universities, and get jobs as a foreigner in japan.

level 1 is like...i dunno, i guess if you wanna be a doctor in japan or if you want to be the next emperor maybe.

i have no desire to be the next emperor (besides that was a lie about becoming the emperor if you pass the test. sorry) so i took level 2 today. its a 2 hour test that is insanely boring, but made even more painful when you have a bad cold. anyway, i ran out of time and took my remaining 10 seconds to guess on about 8 of the remaining questions...naturally those questions were all worth 5 points each rather than the usual 1, or 2.

i got every single one those 8 wrong. minus 40 points right there. ouch. this is why i don't play the lottery.

a passing score is 240/400.

i got 315.

now im about to brag, but hey, i'm stoked. in order for learners of japanese to prepare for these tests, there are about a billion books with sample problems, essays, previous years tests, study points, grammar patterns...are you bored yet? cause i was after about 5 minutes of buying one of these books. i got through the first 2 pages and just couldn't bare to open it again. i think its in my closet somewhere.

how long could you spend trying to memorize such useful phrases as:

この法案は国会により承認された。
This bill was approved by the National Diet.

i know that comes up all the time in my conversations.

forget that. i learned the basics about 2 years ago at a japanese school (and would actually recommend that as a good starter point if you're like me and never know where to begin). but now i just watch tv. i hang out with my japanese friends. i owe a LOT to my old roomies in california who corrected a lot of my mistakes (thanks meg and chaki!...and shinobi), and listened patiently to my broken japanese for almost a year. i only read comics in japanese. i only read japanese novels. its insanely hard at first, but you get used to it. eventually things just start to make sense. i don't know what an intransitive verb is, or whether "manabu" is a group 2 or 3 verb, i couldn't tell you the object and subject of a sentence in english for cryin out loud (sorry mom, but its true), and i sure can't do it japanese.

but somehow, i can usually tell when a sentence is wrong, and when its right.

of course im not perfect, and like sebastian in the never ending story i still have a LONG LONG way to go. i've strayed off the japanese road to fluency a number of times, and completely given up on this beast of a language. i still misunderstand things, or don't understand them at all. i can only read 500 of the 2000 some odd characters. creating my own correct sentences is ten times harder than listening to japanese people's sentences. but im up for the challenge, and rather than struggle to stay awake reading boring textbooks, why not continue reading that novel about street gangs in tokyo?

oh, but the bummer is, today's test didn't count. the real deal is in december, but i didn't sign up to take it. the test i took today was the test from about 2 or 3 years ago, done just as practice. so while it doesn't count for anything on paper. im just glad to know i could do it.