Sunday, September 18, 2005
Can't Stop
Friday night I arranged a meeting in downtown Osaka with a woman over the Internet, got "stood up" (more or less) and spent the rest of the evening upset about it. Today I got right back on the horse and met another woman via the Internet in downtown Osaka only this time, it worked (more or less).
Since the Japanese students at my university only really started this past Friday, I have been exploring a number of Internet venues to meet new people. OK, that's not entirely true: I also do it because I'm much more comfortable typing than talking to a real person, but I'm working on that. Anyway, the first attempt at meeting one of those people failed miserably on Friday and you all heard that story already. Today I orchestrated a meeting with a young woman I met on Japan Guide, a site solely about Japan with a fairly bustling forum of people looking to meet other people. Unlike those jaded people over at CL, I have found that nearly half of the people I have contacted via this forum respond at least once.
Our discussion about potentially meeting today actually started before the unpleasantness on Friday but I took the lessons I learned from that day to heart. Scott had some very good advice: never agree to meet anyone without knowing their mobile contact information. He also said never meet anyone without seeing their picture first which I consider a good idea but not necessarily a deal breaker. Either way, in preparing for today's outing I asked Mayumi for both and she sent them to me last night. I was still a little nervous that she might back out so I made sure to check my e-mail this morning before leaving for the station. On an unrelated personal note, I finally made myself an oatmeal & boiled egg breakfast in the kitchen this morning. The Japanese microwave was a little complicated but posted instructions made everything go smoothly.
I arrived a little too early at Hirakata City Station so I killed some time watching the TV. Or should I say, TVs. There's a whole panel of television sets (I think it's some kind of satellite promotion) and for most of the day they're on and you can watch any channel you want. The only one that has sound is the big one in the middle; I'll try to remember to photograph it next time I'm in the station. Yesterday's Yankee game was being broadcast on tape delay so that's what everyone else was watching. Personally, I had already read the results of the game on the Internet this morning so I was trying to watch Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas on one of the small screens. I love that crazy, profane movies can just be aired here unedited; anything goes! Well, almost anything: it's against the law in Japan to show naked genitalia. Not even in porn!
After watching the end of the game (which the Yanks won 1-0) I made my way via two trains to the "heart" of Osaka, Umeda. As soon as I arrived I sent an e-mail to Mayumi who responded quickly. We e-mailed back and forth a couple times to narrow our locations down and then we met. Conversation was difficult for many reasons. The language barrier was probably the largest reason, although noise in the city contrasting with Mayumi's soft-spokenness didn't help. But we were actually talking a little bit so the stigma of Friday was officially buried. Hooray for me!
First objective was to sit down and have lunch. Much to my surprise, Mayumi said there was a Mexican restaurant in the area. After hearing stories from a few classmates about a trip to a local Mexican joint in Makino, I had burritos on my mind so I thought it was a wonderful idea. I'm sure you won't be surprised to hear that the food didn't live up to tacos and such back home but it was more about meeting a new person than eating fine cuisine. Besides, it wasn't terrible or anything, just uninspired. It still feels weird to eat with a knife and fork in this country too.
After the meal we walked around the area so I could try and do a little shopping. I thought I might buy a new belt because even now that I'm wearing my jeans (the ones that were too tight six months ago) I find myself tugging them up constantly. I guess I must be losing more weight? It's a problem I embrace but it's still a problem that needs a solution. We walked through a variety of trendy shops but most of the belts were too flashy or too damned expensive (10000+ Yen on occasion, damn). Eventually we walked over to Yodobashi Camera which is a large electronics store paired with a department store, curiously named "Comme ça Ism." It's been a long time since I took French but my sister would know: does that make any goddamn sense?
In the electronics store I tried to solve my computer problem by buying a voltage adapter. Not knowing where to find it, I tried asking for help but I was told by the clerk that you don't need an adapter when bringing appliances from the U.S. to Japan. I'm not 100% if that's true or not but I decided to put that quest on hold just to be safe. So we returned to the clothing section to look for belts. Eventually, I think I picked a decent one for less than 2000 Yen which should serve me nicely. I was sure to ask Mayumi if there was anything she wanted to look for since I felt I was hogging all the attention. She said she goes shopping often enough so she didn't need anything right now.
We eventually parted after about three hours together. I'd say the encounter was pretty "successful" in that it occurred and I had fun. It was really hard to have a real conversation but, in theory, the more times I try and do this the easier it should get. The next attempt may come sooner than you think (I won't give any more hints than that)!
Once we split up I decided to stay in the area a bit longer so it would be dinnertime when I got back to Hirakata. I figured the best way to do that was to just check out that huge electronics store again and just browse for a while. More importantly, I really had to take a crap.
Why blog about this everyday occurrence? Well, because it wasn't as easy at it should have been. I kept exploring different restrooms and I kept running into the old-fashioned squat toilets and I just can't work up the nerve to use them. I suppose if it was an absolute crisis and it came down to crapping my pants or squatting over one of those ghastly things (a decision I had to make on my last trip to Japan), I would just succumb and try my best. Otherwise, it's just so gross. I mean, I don't see how anyone does it without shitting on their feet or pants! There's not even anything to hold onto for balance, what if I fucking slip? That's not a story I want to try and explain to anybody in any language. Irregardless, I eventually found a wonderful "washlet" and my problems were solved (with an automatic bidet as a bonus).
Browsing the electronics store was kinda fun. No, there weren't fucking robots or anything incredible future devices on sale, although I did get to marvel at some huge HDTVs which seem to get cheaper every year. By the time I have my own place I should be able to actually afford one of these bad boys. I also took a gander at the new iPod Nano...fucking unbeliveable! It's about the size of a credit card (including thickness) but it can hold 2-4 gigabytes of data! Holding it in my hand was surreal. It actually seemed to be a reasonable price (the 2GB model was 21800 Yen, about $200) as well. I'm going to look into that a bit but at this point that thing seems like a must-buy.
Eventually I came home, had dinner at Yoshinoya again (so tasty yet so affordable) and spent the rest of the evening at home. No school tomorrow, it's Respect for the Aged Day here in Japan. I've got a plan but I won't say another world until it's happened. Or not.
Since the Japanese students at my university only really started this past Friday, I have been exploring a number of Internet venues to meet new people. OK, that's not entirely true: I also do it because I'm much more comfortable typing than talking to a real person, but I'm working on that. Anyway, the first attempt at meeting one of those people failed miserably on Friday and you all heard that story already. Today I orchestrated a meeting with a young woman I met on Japan Guide, a site solely about Japan with a fairly bustling forum of people looking to meet other people. Unlike those jaded people over at CL, I have found that nearly half of the people I have contacted via this forum respond at least once.
Our discussion about potentially meeting today actually started before the unpleasantness on Friday but I took the lessons I learned from that day to heart. Scott had some very good advice: never agree to meet anyone without knowing their mobile contact information. He also said never meet anyone without seeing their picture first which I consider a good idea but not necessarily a deal breaker. Either way, in preparing for today's outing I asked Mayumi for both and she sent them to me last night. I was still a little nervous that she might back out so I made sure to check my e-mail this morning before leaving for the station. On an unrelated personal note, I finally made myself an oatmeal & boiled egg breakfast in the kitchen this morning. The Japanese microwave was a little complicated but posted instructions made everything go smoothly.
I arrived a little too early at Hirakata City Station so I killed some time watching the TV. Or should I say, TVs. There's a whole panel of television sets (I think it's some kind of satellite promotion) and for most of the day they're on and you can watch any channel you want. The only one that has sound is the big one in the middle; I'll try to remember to photograph it next time I'm in the station. Yesterday's Yankee game was being broadcast on tape delay so that's what everyone else was watching. Personally, I had already read the results of the game on the Internet this morning so I was trying to watch Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas on one of the small screens. I love that crazy, profane movies can just be aired here unedited; anything goes! Well, almost anything: it's against the law in Japan to show naked genitalia. Not even in porn!
After watching the end of the game (which the Yanks won 1-0) I made my way via two trains to the "heart" of Osaka, Umeda. As soon as I arrived I sent an e-mail to Mayumi who responded quickly. We e-mailed back and forth a couple times to narrow our locations down and then we met. Conversation was difficult for many reasons. The language barrier was probably the largest reason, although noise in the city contrasting with Mayumi's soft-spokenness didn't help. But we were actually talking a little bit so the stigma of Friday was officially buried. Hooray for me!
First objective was to sit down and have lunch. Much to my surprise, Mayumi said there was a Mexican restaurant in the area. After hearing stories from a few classmates about a trip to a local Mexican joint in Makino, I had burritos on my mind so I thought it was a wonderful idea. I'm sure you won't be surprised to hear that the food didn't live up to tacos and such back home but it was more about meeting a new person than eating fine cuisine. Besides, it wasn't terrible or anything, just uninspired. It still feels weird to eat with a knife and fork in this country too.
After the meal we walked around the area so I could try and do a little shopping. I thought I might buy a new belt because even now that I'm wearing my jeans (the ones that were too tight six months ago) I find myself tugging them up constantly. I guess I must be losing more weight? It's a problem I embrace but it's still a problem that needs a solution. We walked through a variety of trendy shops but most of the belts were too flashy or too damned expensive (10000+ Yen on occasion, damn). Eventually we walked over to Yodobashi Camera which is a large electronics store paired with a department store, curiously named "Comme ça Ism." It's been a long time since I took French but my sister would know: does that make any goddamn sense?
In the electronics store I tried to solve my computer problem by buying a voltage adapter. Not knowing where to find it, I tried asking for help but I was told by the clerk that you don't need an adapter when bringing appliances from the U.S. to Japan. I'm not 100% if that's true or not but I decided to put that quest on hold just to be safe. So we returned to the clothing section to look for belts. Eventually, I think I picked a decent one for less than 2000 Yen which should serve me nicely. I was sure to ask Mayumi if there was anything she wanted to look for since I felt I was hogging all the attention. She said she goes shopping often enough so she didn't need anything right now.
We eventually parted after about three hours together. I'd say the encounter was pretty "successful" in that it occurred and I had fun. It was really hard to have a real conversation but, in theory, the more times I try and do this the easier it should get. The next attempt may come sooner than you think (I won't give any more hints than that)!
Once we split up I decided to stay in the area a bit longer so it would be dinnertime when I got back to Hirakata. I figured the best way to do that was to just check out that huge electronics store again and just browse for a while. More importantly, I really had to take a crap.
Why blog about this everyday occurrence? Well, because it wasn't as easy at it should have been. I kept exploring different restrooms and I kept running into the old-fashioned squat toilets and I just can't work up the nerve to use them. I suppose if it was an absolute crisis and it came down to crapping my pants or squatting over one of those ghastly things (a decision I had to make on my last trip to Japan), I would just succumb and try my best. Otherwise, it's just so gross. I mean, I don't see how anyone does it without shitting on their feet or pants! There's not even anything to hold onto for balance, what if I fucking slip? That's not a story I want to try and explain to anybody in any language. Irregardless, I eventually found a wonderful "washlet" and my problems were solved (with an automatic bidet as a bonus).
Browsing the electronics store was kinda fun. No, there weren't fucking robots or anything incredible future devices on sale, although I did get to marvel at some huge HDTVs which seem to get cheaper every year. By the time I have my own place I should be able to actually afford one of these bad boys. I also took a gander at the new iPod Nano...fucking unbeliveable! It's about the size of a credit card (including thickness) but it can hold 2-4 gigabytes of data! Holding it in my hand was surreal. It actually seemed to be a reasonable price (the 2GB model was 21800 Yen, about $200) as well. I'm going to look into that a bit but at this point that thing seems like a must-buy.
Eventually I came home, had dinner at Yoshinoya again (so tasty yet so affordable) and spent the rest of the evening at home. No school tomorrow, it's Respect for the Aged Day here in Japan. I've got a plan but I won't say another world until it's happened. Or not.
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Sounds like a nice meeting. No, comme ca ism doesn't make any sense. And not too gross out any other readers, but the bidet, it just squirts automatically? You don't control it? I don't know how I'd like that.
Glad you had a good meeting. Sounds like you had fun. The ipod seems defenately like a must buy. Is it really as thin as credit card? It's incredible what they can build these days. The whole bathroom paragraph is a bit gross though. I think personally I would just hold it - no matter what!
Salena - No, the bidet can be turned on and off via the control panel on the right hand side. The amount of control varies. Some just turn on/off, others have water pressure control or temperature. When I say "automatic," I mean that it moves into and out of position via automation. It also rinses itself off before and after every use.
Dani - I don't want to gross anyone out, but I'm forced to confront tough issues like this so I felt I should share the facts with my readers. I'd say the iPod Nano is closer to two credit cards in thickness, but that's still pretty amazing. I'm sure it's available in the States too, check it out!
Dani - I don't want to gross anyone out, but I'm forced to confront tough issues like this so I felt I should share the facts with my readers. I'd say the iPod Nano is closer to two credit cards in thickness, but that's still pretty amazing. I'm sure it's available in the States too, check it out!
Yes, the ipod nano is here. There are signs for it on bus stations all over the city. I checked out the price and it's either $199 for 2BG or $249 for 4GB. I was thinking of saving for one.
Anyway, it does sound like a nice meeting so I'm glad it went well!
I terms of you catching the Yankees game--is that the only team they watch over there in Japan, or do they follow American baseball in general?
-h
Anyway, it does sound like a nice meeting so I'm glad it went well!
I terms of you catching the Yankees game--is that the only team they watch over there in Japan, or do they follow American baseball in general?
-h
Sounds like the iPod Nano is about the same price in either nation, although I don't think I have to pay nearly as much sales tax here.
The Japanese have their own baseball league but in recent years they have been watching an increasing amount of American games, mostly because superstars from Japan have been playing in the US. It started really with Ichiro but now there's about a dozen Japanese stars active in the Major Leagues.
So the reason I get to watch so many Yankee games is because the Yanks have Matsui. I suppose when the World Series starts they'll just air the games regardless of who's playing. Of course, the Yanks still have a shot at making it...
The Japanese have their own baseball league but in recent years they have been watching an increasing amount of American games, mostly because superstars from Japan have been playing in the US. It started really with Ichiro but now there's about a dozen Japanese stars active in the Major Leagues.
So the reason I get to watch so many Yankee games is because the Yanks have Matsui. I suppose when the World Series starts they'll just air the games regardless of who's playing. Of course, the Yanks still have a shot at making it...
Where do you find oatmeal in Japan or if you know around Kansai Gaidai
コメントがあります？ Type something, please. It's less work for me.# posted by 
: 31 January, 2008 07:29
: 31 January, 2008 07:29When leaving comments, please don't remain Anonymous. Click on "Other" and pick a name!
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