Saturday, March 22, 2003

*... silly ka-nnnnnnnnigits ...*
In the face of adversity, when it seems everyone is against you, what's the best remedy? Hole up in your apartment with recently- (delightedly!-) discovered Monty Python movies. And yes, it is rather unfortunate that 'Life of Brian' has been dubbed over (though it took a couple of minutes to notice), but thankfully 'Holy Grail' is at its original glory. And, as a bonus, next to these fabulous cure-alls in the video store was one other soma-equivalent cinematic-escape: 'Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory'. Now as long as that isn't dubbed over (as if that mattered, really) life is lookin' good.
2:46 PM

Friday, March 21, 2003

*... and so it starts ...*
Yesterday was my last day at Koshin JHS, and I'm quite sad about it (and not just b/c of the cute soccer coach). These people, students and staff alike, are the nicest group of people I have met here. So I was pretty down yesterday, and it wasn't helped by Sanbayashi-sensei leaning over and saying "Buritto-san, Iraq ni hajimeru." Oh great. So now on top of being bummed about leaving, now i have anxieties about safety of people I know over there, but for myself as well. And wouldn't you know it, as soon as I got on the bus, I had some fool giving me the evil eye, till I finally gave an exasperated "nani?! (what?!)" And he said "You American. You bring war. We don't want you here." Whatever, dude. Too bad I didn't bring my headphones.
4:29 PM

Thursday, March 20, 2003

*... a day in the life of contra - diction ...*
Anazawa-sensei : "have you ever been in the tunnel under the Shinano River? If you are free on Saturday, I will take you."
Britt: "it goes under the river? Can you see the river?"
Anazawa: "no, it's dark."
Britt: "can you see anything?"
Anazawa: "just the tunnel."
Britt: "so it's just a tunnel. ... ?"
Anazawa: "yes."
Britt: "well, I think I am busy this weekend, but I will let you know."
* * * * * * * * * *
Britt: "Ogura-sensei, why is kocho-sensei (the principal) walking around with a tissue hanging out of his nose?"
Ogura: "he has a what?"
Britt: "a tissue."
Ogura: "in his nose?"
Britt: "well, half-in, half-out..."
Ogura: ((laughs heartily, and walks away))
* * * * * * * * * *
Akiyama-sensei: "Are! Buritto-san, ni-ko miso o taberu?!" (Wow, britt, you had 2 bowls of miso??)
Britt: "Soo, demo, anata ga yon-ko imashita ka?" (Yeah, but didn't you have 4?)
Akiyama: "Dakara, otoko desu." (But I'm a man.)
Britt: "Ah, soodesu ka." (Oh. Right.)
* * * * * * * * * *
Marika-chan: "I want to eat you with ramen."
Britt: "excuse me??"
Marika: "Ramen. Eat you with."
Britt: "you want to eat ramen WITH me?"
Marika: "yes!"
Britt: "or you want to eat ME with ramen??"
Marika: "yes!"
Britt: "err, okay... how's next Tuesday?"
* * * * * * * * * *
Britt: "Hisao-sensei, what are they doing to the field?"
Hisao: "they're making a new field."
Britt: "oh, so they're adding grass?"
Hisao: "no, just dirt."
Britt: "but wasn't it just dirt before?"
Hisao: "yes, but this is NEW dirt."
* * * * * * * * * *
Inaba-sensei: "did you teach the volleyball team karate?"
Britt: "karate? No, I taught them ballet."
Inaba: "Honto ni? (really??) Ballet? Then why did Ota Ayaka try to kick me today?"
Britt: "ooh, don't know. Sorry about that."
8:56 AM

Wednesday, March 19, 2003

*... it's psychosomatic. you need a lobotomy. i'll get the saw ...*
i have realized that I am very much attracted to words. More specifically, the witty stringing together of words. I realized this when I was listening but not really hearing the BareNaked Ladies tunes funneling into my head from my headphones... I became a little irritated by the noise, and realized I was only listening to the music, but not the words, and THAT is what makes BNL so attractive. Same reason why I hated DChild's "Bootylicious" song when I first heard it. And the same reason why I feel myself instantly attracted to some people (like my friend Jey in high school). And it's what I miss over here... words are now stuffed into a mold of simplicity rather than doble entendres. Where's the fun in that?

In other news, I find myself living a life of half breaths. With all the smoke and bus fumes and who-knows-what-THAT-smell-is that wash over me, I have to search for the tiny gasps of freshness that lay hidden in between these other waves of air. Half the time I find myself in slight panic forcefully pushing air out of my body, rather than taking it in, in a futile attempt not to have my autopsy report read "Cause of Death: Suffocation. Source: Japan." hehehe.

I greatly shocked most of the school population yesterday when I decided to ditch my desk surfing (no classes makes britt a bored girl) and cheer on all the athletes practicing for their various club sports. I recruited the girl's tennis team, and we tramped around the school cheering on the boy's basketball and soccer teams as they ran around, served as line judges for girl's volleyball, and taught the boy's badminton team the cheer. "Rah Rah Ree! Kick 'em in the knee! Rah Rah Rass! Kick 'em in the other knee!" (It was easier to explain than the "We got Spirit" cheer). The soccer coach was impressed, at least, and invited me to go running with him since I'm so "genki". Hmm... not a bad offer, if only for the fact that he's really cool and looks maybe a little too much like an ex-boy I know. And he's a soccer player ("suteki karada desuyo ne!"). However, running means breathing, hard, and we now know the problem with that, don't we?
11:30 AM

Tuesday, March 18, 2003

*... if you do foolish things, do them with enthusiasm ...*
I could go for a really good mistake right about now. Not a stupid mistake, rather a very very clever one. Like a really deep, meaningful, roller-coaster, drama-mama kind of mistake.

Oh, and also, when I'm done with this adventure, I would like the next part of my life's story to be a fairy tale.

ps - i meee-ss my seees-tah.
9:13 AM

Monday, March 17, 2003

*... haru ni narimashita ...*
in other words "Spring has come." Quite suddenly, actually. I walked out of my apartment yesterday, and it struck me, even at 6:30 in the morning; there was something in the air and the atmosphere, and you could feel it. It was as if someone had flipped the "on" switch to spring, and there was a brief flicker in the dark winter and now spring blazes forth. So what did I do with this new found, quite prominent seasonal discovery? I went to play in the snow (I'm a little backwards in some things, I know...) For all the months of complaining about that mushy white stuff falling from the sky, I hadn't had the chance or desire to actually take advantage of it. So I went to the mountains and snowboarded around and built a little yukidaruma (snowman), and generally frolicked about. I even joined in with the little 6 and 7 year olds who had found some monkey suit-clad person wandering around the snow resort (a mascot maybe?) and had decided to pelt him/her/it with snowballs. C'mon, you can't miss out on an opportunity like that.
I have decided that snowboarding is a sport I could be relatively good at if I practiced it... and therein lies the problem: I don't practice. But I strapped on the board and shuffled off to the nearest lift that didn't look like it would kill me on the way down (they have no categorization of runs, or at least none that I could understand... instead of "black diamond" they had names like "romance"... now isn't that confusing!). 3 things immediately got my attention as "different" when it comes to being on the slopes in Japan. 1) The lifts actually stop for people to get on and off, as opposed to scooping up and then flinging people on and off as I am accustomed to (that was always the scariest part, being hurled off the lift into a crowd of people who didn't quite make it off their chair). 2) the amount of technology out on the snow was unexpected but, at the same time, not at all surprising to me. Almost everyone was either filming someone else with their hand-helds or on their keitais (cell phones). All the while swishing down the mountain. This was necessary for 3), since snowplay is a family affair, you often see large groups of people taping each other, or talking to each other ("I'm on Romance, where are you?!"). And when I say family, I mean the WHOLE family, babies to grandma. Almost every other adult had a small child strapped to their front or back, or were just holding them in their arms and taking off down the steep snow, in a bit of a daredevil, "look! No hands!" style (or maybe that's just my interpretation)
For the second half of the afternoon, I decided to teach myself the other half of the skills needed to be a decent snowboarder. That is, I decided to try going toe-side, a skill I have yet to really try as I am perfectly comfortable going down the mountain entirely on my heel side. No toe means no carving, which leaves you making 6-lane-highway paths in the snow as opposed to winding narrow alleys... but I get down in one piece, so that's okay by me! I didn't start falling until I tried my new endeavor, and even then it wasn't that bad (falling UP the mountain, not so far to go) except for one time where I hit a patch of snow so soft and deceiving that it buried my board in snow up to my calves and tossed me forward, causing my arms to sink up to the shoulders and my nose inches away from face-plant. Hard to walk away "all hardcore" when you fall like that. So now I can do heel, I can do toe, and I am equally mediocre at both with little hope to combine in the future seeing as I am the proud owner of hips that can do amazing things but I have absolutely no control over them whatsoever. And thus ends future dreams of ever perfecting ice-skating, snowboarding, karate, and my career as a stripper is probably seriously jeopardized as well. Shoot.
12:02 PM