To those of you who don't know what mochi is, let me put it like this: Mochi, though it sounds alot like tai-chi, is much more deadly. How many times have you heard of someone who died from anything to do with tai-chi? Probably never. That's the right answer. Mochi, on the other hand... mochi can, and will kill you. Every year, people die from mochi.
Now you might be thinking, "Where can I learn?!? Billy Perkins has been picking on me at school and I want to kick some ass with this thing of awesomeness called mo-chi..."
Well, sorry kids. It's true that mochi does kill people every year but unfortunately, it is not some sort of sweet martial arts. Actually, it's not so unfortunate, because it is delicious. It's a sort of dough... maybe sort of a cake, made out of pounded rice and can be served in lots of different ways. And when I say lots, I mean it. Listen to an explanation here:
My dad was like "wow! you haven't been sick all winter, that's impressive!" the other day. I told him "Oh great, now because you said that, it's gonna happen." I even knocked on wood, but sure enough, I got sick. Laaaaame. I'm not even superstitious, but it sure does seem to happen like this alot...
You've been warned. This is purely a post of me venting.
So before I say anything, let me say this: I really adore my host mom to death and I am really lucky that I got this host family. That being said, she really frustrates me sometimes. I have asked her to communicate to me better in the past, but I don't think it's worked. So here's a typical conversation:
Wednesday... Okaasan: Yoshii (one of her friends) is coming over on Friday. Me: Ok
Friday morning... Okaasan: Don't forget we have dinner with Yoshii tonight, so don't make plans! Me: umm....
There are two things wrong with this, in my opinion. One. She made the plan for me, without even asking me. Two. The plan WAS NOT EVEN A PLAN!!!! It turns out I HAD already made plans with friends, and by telling her that I wasn't coming to dinner it hurt her feelings. I mean it sucks that it hurt her feelings, but I mean... I'd prefer it if someone doesn't make plans FOR me, but if they do, at least tell me what the plans are, sheesh. Another, similar thing is she'll get some idea in her head, that's even less of a 'plan' than the situation above, and if it doesn't go that way, her feelings are hurt. Point in case... Today I told her I was planning on going to Osaka to visit my friend for New Years, to which she replied, "That's ok, but....." which Japanese tend to do ALOT. I asked her "But.... what?" and after a few minutes of trying to figure out what the "but" was, she finally explained to me that she HOPED that I was going to be there for New Years, and she was planning on taking me to the temples and blah blah blah. I mean, that's really sweet of her, but she never let me know, and it's not like it was supposed to be a surprise, that's just something you do on New Years. However, this was just something she had hoped - it had NEVER ONCE been talked about. It's just so frustrating that she can get an idea in her head, and get her hopes set so high on it, because nobody else knows about this. She doesn't explain it to the other people involved in this hope, so no one knows about it. So after I asked, "but... what?" and she explained the hope she had, she continued to give me a guilt trip and looked like she was about to cry with the possibility of me not being with her and my host dad for the New Year. I told her that too. I told her I felt guilty because she was saying she'll be lonely and all this stuff, and that's why I asked her to communicate better with me, to which she responded, "We do communicate well!" Ummm. NO, WE DON'T - NOT IF THIS CONVERSATION IS HAPPENING. And that's exactly what I told her. So, in my mind, I thought, "Ok, I'll compromise, I'll cut my visit with my friend in Osaka short, and spend the 31st and 1st with my host family." Because, well, that's New Years, right? Wrong. Me, thinking I was solving something and being nice to my host mom, and being considerate of her feelings, was yet again given a guilt trip. She didn't even acknowledge that I was trying to be nice about the whole thing for her sake, for the sake of the HOPES she had had, not even the plans. She just responded, "Well, New Years is the 1st, 2nd and 3rd and..." looking at me with eyes that suggested that I should spend each and every day of the New Year with her and my host dad.
Japanese people tend to have conversations in which every other sentence ends with an ellipsis, and I'm not even kidding.
Anyway, it just seems really selfish to me for someone to feel that bad, and give someone a guilt trip about something when it was never explained to them. There was no previous mention of the hopes my host mom had, so naturally, there was no feeling of obligation on my part. I don't think my host mom had the idea that I had any obligation either, but because of the expectations and hopes she had for this, and that she expressed them to me, and gave me as big of a guilt trip as she did, I feel that is selfish and ridiculous. For starters, don't get your hopes up so high for an event that others are involved in, that only you are aware of. Next, if you do make the mistake of doing that, don't make other people feel bad for your own mistake by telling them how much you were looking forward to it, and how sad and lonely you'll be if they don't make it.
I'm mad about it, and can't believe the change from the "I'm a 6 year old who just got orphaned" face to the face of "I'm a 6 year old about to go to Disneyland for the first time." when I told her that I would be staying with her for New Years. HOW can she be happy about that, knowing that's not what I want to do? She genuinely was ecstatic when she heard the news, and I have no idea how. If I were her, I would feel guilty after the person gave into the guilt trip, which is probably why I don't like giving people guilt trips in the first place. She did tell me "do what you want" but that has absolutely no sincerity or earnestness when paired along with a guilt trip.
While talking about my excessively large brow bone... "You would make a really good caveman." Something to note: the title of this picture wasn't only "caveman" but "ugly caveman." Yeah - I stole it from google, is that legal?
As promised, videos of my dog, who is deaf and blind. I didn't edit them at all, just stitched them together. I won't feel bad if you don't watch them all the way through, cause you'll get the point soon enough. Also, the whining video is like 1/5 of his max volume, just to let you know. These videos might not seem that annoying to you, but when he whines at the dinner table every night for at least 15 minutes, it gets old QUICK. I would say, "Enjoy these videos," but if you actually did enjoy them, that'd be a little weird. A little note: I failed to post a video of him hacking up his lungs, so I apologize for not giving you the full spectrum of this dog's patheticness. No, that's not a real word.
Some of you might be wondering, "Why didn't he tag this post with 'cute' or 'cuddly?'" or other such nonsensical words to describe this unintelligent, harebrained, empty headed lump of mass that consumes valuable space that could be used for much better things such as putting a 50 gallon barrel in the middle of your living room. Obviously that is not a good use of space and I'm being facetious, but you knew that.
In all seriousness though, I'm sure he was a good dog at one time. In Japan, however, it is very uncommon for people to put their pets to sleep even when they have reached a point of life where it is not possible to enjoy. Both here and in America there are people who feel their pets are part of their family and that is definitely the case with my host parents. I've asked them what they thought about putting him to sleep, asking them, "Would you want to live anymore after you couldn't see AND went deaf?" Their response was, "But he still can smell." I mean... there's a point when you gotta think of the dog's well-being, right? Or is that just me? It'd be one thing if he was blind OR deaf, or if he was born blind and deaf and lived up to now like that, he'd be used to it and know nothing else. I don't know, maybe it's just me, but I really think they owe it to this dog to help him out here.
Any thoughts? I will also accept hateful words towards my insensitivity towards this subject, but in my defense, that last paragraph has been rather nice, in my opinion...
I had one before and don't remember why I didn't want it anymore, but I sold it to my sister. Now, I'm in Japan and bought one to play all the Japanese Kanji practice games that you can't find in America. I bought the DS used with a thing called an R4 (HERE'S the link) which lets you play illegally downloaded "homebrew" games you can find anywhere on the internet. It's great. Even though I bought it with intentions to play the Kanji practice games, I decided to make my entire video game collection the Japanese versions of whatever game I wanted. It's a pain in the butt because I don't know what's going on most of the time, but there is quite a bit of repetition in some of the games so I actually am learning some things. The way I think of it, (actually, I don't know if it's my own idea or a stolen one for a guy named Khatzumoto from his blog All Japanese All the Time) is that I'm just a Japanese child and I have to deal with everything being in Japanese. I'm guessing most Japanese kids who play video games can't read all the Kanji, but they just have to figure it out while they're playing it.
Some of my preferred games I've been playing are:
Nintendogs: Shiba and Friends (yes, I know it's nerdy) I have a Shiba Inu named "Yume Chan" who is already smarter than my host parents 15 year old dog and I've only had her for 3 days. I've taught her to sit, lay down, shake her butt and spin in a circle. Pretty cool, huh? I know you don't care but you know what? It's my blog so I can write what I want.
Chou Shittou Caduceus Translated roughly (as usual) it's titled, "Extreme Operation: Caduceus." In English, the game is called "Trauma Center: Under the Knife." This one is really cool. You're a doctor that just finished his internship (or whatever you call it - anyone who watches Scrubs or Grey's Anatomy would know the terminology better than I would) and so you're still not the greatest. Your nurse helps you with your first few operations until you get the hang of things, or when a new procedure comes up that you haven't done before, she helps you with that. For those with a weak stomach, not to worry - luckily for you, the DS's graphics aren't that amazing, so it's not very realistic, but it's still really satisfying to cut open some dude's throat and blast the polyps off with a laser, or slice into some lady's guts and take out some gross green looking tumor from her small intestine. I have found that I am better at the slicing open than the stitching shut part.
Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan This game is pretty much the same game as "Elite Beat Agents" in America, and just as ridiculous. The translation is roughly, "Press! Fight! The Pump-Up Squad." You're pretty much this group of guys who's only job is to save others from their troubles by doing what makes the most logical sense: Dance. Dance and dance until the troubles are gone. For example, the first mission is a guy studying for entrance exams, and his family is being obnoxious which makes it impossible for him to study. He screams for help, and with whatever super senses this Pump-Up Squad has, they hear his cry and rush to his rescue. Dad watching TV too loud? Dance. Mom won't make you your brain food? Dance. Little brother laughing too loud at something that's not even funny? Dance. They dance all his troubles away, or as Raffi would put it, they shake his sillies out, jump his jiggles out, and wiggle his waggles away. Dancing is the answer to all. This one deserves a video.
Well, there are plenty more games I could write about that kick butt, but I won't. I'll keep you updated on how Yume Chan is doing, and how my progress as a doctor is coming along. No, actually I won't. But, I am in the process of collecting video of my REAL dog (the blind and deaf one) so I'm thinking about making a highlights reel, but not sure if I actually want to spend the time editing it. Maybe I'll just upload the uncut videos... we'll see.
So as many of you probably know, Japan is known for having some very "intelligent" toilets, if that's what you want to call them. There are some that warm your tush, some that make water noises for pee-shy people, some that wash your butt for you and heck, some even sing to you. But, that's not the point of this post. The point of this post is to warn people about the difference of the bidet button and the butt button.
If you are a male, I would strongly recommend you to not use the bidet button, as it will wash parts of you that you were not expecting to be washed. The other day I mistakenly pressed that button instead of the simple "butt" button, and was a bit surprised, as you can imagine. Fair warning, don't say I didn't tell you...
This is what the Japanese call a 馬鹿外人, or "baka gaijin" which translates to "stupid foreigner." All I can say is, "wow." This happened just a couple months ago since I've been here, and I watched it on the news. Just recently found it on youtube so I thought I'd share it with you guys. Wow...
Just like in any country, one act can give a whole group a bad name... In Japan, it's not so much that, "Oh, that <insert nationality here> did something bad, <insert nationality here> are stupid" but it's more like, "Oh, that FOREIGNER did something bad, foreigners are stupid." Obviously every country does something similar, whether it be to a people group, or foreigners in particular, and obviously not all Japanese people stereotype foreigners (called gaikokujin here, or more loosely, gaijin) as being dumb and disrespectful. It's just unfortunate for us foreigners when something dumb like this DOES happen and people DO start giving us a funny look when we get on the train. Don't get me wrong, I haven't felt any discrimination since I've been here, but I also haven't really inserted myself into society here either. I've heard of many stories where people are treated wonderfully when they are just visiting Japan, but when they try to actually be an active member in society, problems arise. Anyway, this is something that actually happened since I've been here and I saw it on the news a couple months ago. It is pretty funny, just because of how ridiculous it is, but hopefully it doesn't give a bad name to all foreigners! As pessimistic as that sounds, I promise I'm still having an awesome time here! Don't worry about that
WIDGETIZE