Filed under: life
This weekend:
- Last Albany River Rat game
- Last dinner out with the whole family
- Watch the last ep of John Adams (my mom and I have been steadily working through it along with a bottle of white wine)
- First and last trip to Bombers
And soon:
- Last time I’ll see snow for a whole year (I hope)
- Last pet of the cat
- Last sneeze due to the cat (darn allergies)
- Last picking of cat hair from my knitting
- Last cheering on of the cat as he kills a housefly (he’s that good)
- Last drink of well water
- Last hug with the family
And then:
- First flight where I have my own tv
- First hug in a long time with the love of my life
It all equals out somehow. I think.
Filed under: japan
With my flight coming up in less than a week (woo-hoo!) my mind is turning to practical matters. Do I have enough underwear? Will these shoes last the year? How many gifts should I bring, anyway?
My favorite piece of luggage is my carry-on bag. To and from San Francisco it carried ceramics… stressful to say the least. Not this time, though. The essentials will still be there–ibuprofen, my laptop, chapstick. The rest of the space is for me. Me! I already bought some puzzle magazines and have my knitting planned. You can bet my DS will be fully charged.
I’m going to use some of the space for a change of clothes. I read this idea online somewhere and it makes me wonder why I didn’t think of it myself. Board the plane in nice but security friendly clothes. Clothes you’ll feel good getting off the plane in. Personally this means clothes that won’t embarrass me in Tokyo. Once you reach cruising altitude excuse yourself to the lav and change into something comfortable for the long flight–say a sweatshirt and track pants. Bring a pair of fuzzy slipper socks to keep your feet warm and comfy. Fly 13 hours in comfort. Then, maybe an hour before landing, change back. Brush your teeth. Freshen up. Arrive feeling a whole lot better than you might have otherwise.
Every single plane trip I’ve been on has been a long haul, be it cross-country or cross-globe. But this will be the first time that I will have my own tv on a flight. I am so so excited. You have no idea. I’ve scoured ANA’s website, drooling over the lists of movies and shows I can watch. One of my Japanese quiz shows is on there! That Japanese movie that won the foreign film Oscar!
If I have trouble hearing (who am I kidding, I always do) I can play games! Lots of games! I dare say I might be kept occupied for most of the trip.
The food looks pretty good, too. They even have a little snack bar you can go to whenever you get the munchies. And the first meal? Unagi-don, or a BBQ eel rice bowl. My favorite!
I’m thinking this flight is going to rock.
Filed under: japanese
I just got the results of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) I took in December. I went for level 2 (２級), where passing is 240 points.
I got 237.
Bah. I’m not really mad or anything though–my reading/grammar section was lacking so at least I know what to study. In Japan they offer the test twice a year so I’ll get another shot in July. I’ll continue studying level 1 (i.e. harder) characters but use my level 2 books to work on grammar and reading.
My best section? Listening. Thanks, Ken. ^_^
PS – My visa arrived this afternoon. I’ll be flying out on Wednesday, March 4th. Woo!
Filed under: random
It’s called blip.fm and it’s fun. Think of a song you like, any song. Even international music–I’ve found a ton of Japanese stuff. Punch it in, maybe write a comment, and blip (≈tweet) it to the world. If listeners like it they’ll give you props. Find other people (“DJs”) whose music you like and have their songs automatically arrive on your homepage as they’re blipped.
In short, it’s twitter for music. So why am I happily blipping but refusing to tweet?
- I love the new songs I’m introduced to–I’ve come across tons of music I wouldn’t have heard otherwise.
- It’s an instant soundtrack for whatever I’m doing.
- I follow DJs that play Japanese music and use the comments to practice writing in Japanese.
- Instant satisfaction–five seconds after typing in a song name it’s coming through my speakers.
- I feel like it’s something I can pick up and put down without people worrying where I went. It’s a time suck, yes, but one I can manage. I feel like if I got on Twitter I’d get stuck the same way I’m now “stuck” with facebook.
Here’s what I’m listening to right now–come join me!
Filed under: work
Photo by jrkester.
It would be nice if I could get to New York City and back for so little money but alas, Amtrak is much more expensive than that. A little envelope filled with paperwork makes the trip for that discount fare though.
And my, the paperwork. The most important piece is a Certificate of Eligibility, a letter from the Japanese government saying that I can come over and work. It proves that education requirements are met and that somebody has given me a job in the first place. Along with that I sent a copy of the CoE (front and back), an application form with my photo, my passport, a SASE, and a release waiver. A release for what you say? If my passport gets lost I can’t blame them for it. Kinda scary, isn’t it?
When my passport comes back it will have a large sticker in it–my new visa, complete with my pixelized face. My ticket to the promised land. Well, not really… that ticket costs much more than $26.
Filed under: random
Sometimes the result isn’t so great. Some of you may not know this but I’m a big hockey fan. I was an Albany River Rats season ticket holder from the time I was 15 or so all the way through college. It’s a minor league team but the fans show major league devotion for the players and staff. It made reading this newspaper article all the worse:
BECKET, Mass. – Three players and employees of the Albany River Rats were seriously injured this morning after their team bus slid in snow and rolled on the Massachusetts Turnpike just before 3:30 a.m., Massachusetts State Police said.
Four people were admitted to Berkshire Medical Center.
“We were very fortunate and lucky,” Daniels said.
The team was returning from Lowell when the bus hit bad weather in the Berkshire Mountains and rolled, Daniels said. It struck a guardrail, coming to rest on its side and partially on the highway. The discovery of the disabled bus prompted other motorists to stop their vehicles on the highway and then try to slow approaching traffic, Daniels said.
Some seriously injured suffered lacerations during the accident.
Everybody on the bus was taken to Berkshire Medical Center. Four people were admitted for treatment and all aboard were being checked out by medical staff as a precaution.
I hope everyone is alright and that no injuries put players into jeopardy. What the hospital considers a “non-life threatening injury”, like a concussion, can effectively end a hockey career. Scary scary scary.
Edited to add: The Times Union seems to being doing a good job keeping that article up to date, so click the link for the latest news.
Filed under: work
My visa paperwork is on the way! They even FedEx-ed it from Tokyo. Roughtly 48 hours door to door… how crazy is that? But something even more mind bending:
It arrived in Alaska before it was even picked up. The international date line rocks. ^_^
Filed under: life
Hanging out, waiting for my visa. Me and the cat.
Really bad photo courtesy of my laptop and Skype.
I’ve been watching a Japanese drama about forensic science called Voice. It follows a group of medical students as they learn about the art of autopsy and determining a cause of death. The poetic idea is that they pick up the thread of a dead person’s voice to hear the very last thing they wanted to say.
It’s a good show. The acting is respectable and the stories are interesting. One thing irks me, though–everyone seems to die for a really, really good reason. One electrician died after breaking the fall of a boy committing suicide. A husband accidentally electrocutes himself while trying to make french toast for his wife a la Kramer vs. Kramer. Even a case that looks suspicious ends up being crush syndrome, deemed the only way to “die of compassion”. There are no murders in Japan, it seems.
So imagine my excitement when episode four opens with a bona fide crime scene. Bruises. A fleeing suspect. Marijuana. Finally, some action!
My bad. It’s a really long story(Japanese link) but he ended up killing himself via anaphylactic shock in order to protect his friends. Of course. Yet another good death.
I’ve been trying to figure out why, though four episodes, there has been such an angelic bent. So far I have:
- It makes for good tv. You get to cry but feel uplifted at the end. See! He really was a good guy!
- The show is more medical than police based. There’s only one police officer with lines and he’s just there to set the scene before an autopsy. Feel good story lines minimize arrests and virtually eliminate trials.
- It allows the students to be more touchy-feely and (in a general sense) emotional with affected families. There is usually a scene where the noble cause of death is explained and the wife/mother/son is deeply moved. They knew all along the deceased was a good guy and now science has proven it.
I think that there is an even more important reason, though. Forensic pathology is not popular in Japanese medical schools. According to the show only 10% of unnatural deaths in Japan are investigated by autopsy. It’s not for a lack of want but rather a lack of doctors and facilities. The show is trying to make the profession interesting and glamorous so more people enter the field. This sort of thing has already happened in the US and is called, you guessed it, the CSI effect.
Finding out that a suspicious, shady person did in fact do the bad thing is interesting but may not encourage people to enter medical school. Using the amazing powers of science and sleuthing to discover that this guy that looked bad is actually noble and just, and being one of the few people in the country with the skills to figure that out? Sign me up.
All in all the show is great listening practice and I’m learning a ton. I don’t know the next time “crush syndrome” is going to show up in my life but at least now I’m ready for it.
Filed under: life
I am starting to go stir-crazy. I’m used to living on my own, moving about as I like. Going for a walk or shopping as I see fit. But here I can’t move about. It’s too cold to go far a walk, not that I could go any farther than the backyard. I can’t even drive anywhere–the car is waiting for repairs and needs to be babied, which I’m not so good at. So I’m here, in my room, studying Japanese and doing crossword puzzles. It’s an agreeable way to pass time, but after three weeks of this? I need out.
I’m such a city girl.
