atlantic storms

Not that they really have much to do with me here in the Pacific, but I was looking at tropical storms on weather.com, and the Atlantic storm names for this year feature a lot of familiar names, I think. I was especially amused by I and J.

rainy day adventures

rainy sunday afternoon
Originally uploaded by nitaspitas.

I braved the 15-20 mph winds of the impending typhoon this afternoon and went to Korakuen Garden to take some pictures. It was drizzling on and off all day, so most people just kept their umbrellas open. I don't usually take pictures when it's raining, so this is probably one of the few rainy day pictures I've taken.

I ventured out again later to try and get some knitting supplies to no avail, but on my way back, I was stopped by a police officer checking bikes to confirm registration. I'd gotten my bike from work, so it was registered under the name of the first teacher who had it years ago, i.e., not my name on my ID. I tried explaining that I'd gotten the bike from work to the officer in my broken Japanese, but he kept asking me something that I couldn't understand. I couldn't answer his question if I didn't know what he meant, so I tried calling the Japanese teachers at my school to see if they could talk to him, while he called what seemed like all the other officers in the area. While I was trying to get a hold of someone who could translate, four more officers came over. I was literally less than 30 feet from my apartment building, but instead of going inside to get out of the wind and damp, I was standing outside with five police officers who didn't speak English.

Usually, when I explain that I can't understand Japanese, I tell people that I'm an American. But today, for some reason, I just said that I wasn't Japanese. So then one of the officers asked me if I could speak Chinese. I said yes, because I can, and I was hoping maybe he did, too, but he just wrote it down in his little notebook. So then they thought I was a Chinese teacher, even though I had said earlier that I was an English teacher. I guess he didn't understand me.

Finally, one of the Japanese teachers at my school called back and talked to the police officer and explained about my bike. I spoke to her in English to thank her and make sure I didn't have to do anything else, and the police officers all looked really confused when I hung up, until I explained that I'm an American, and one of the younger officers managed to make out that I was from California on my ID. Then, the original officer who stopped me thanked me and apologized profusely, and I pedaled the less than thirty feet to my apartment building bike parking.

life after college

Woah. Just signed on to theFacebook to check the email of a college friend, and I got bombarded by messages and random info and more people I should email and so instead I am posting here because I am now too overwhelmed and can't decide what I should do first. Of course, I always just assume the solution is to not do anything and disappear off the face of the planet, but the url of this blog is on my page, so I suppose if people are really curious they will click. Someone in my college is now in a PhD program at UCLA until forever (2011), and someone else is at Berkeley Law, people are engaged, and the girl I was going to email (who was in Japan until a few months ago) is back in L.A. School seems like such a long time ago.

japanese lessons

*psst* I posted at Nita's 日本語. And I was good and ended up getting the kanji dictionary after all :)

I started up Japanese lessons again today after five years... It was pretty fun, but the content is mostly review right now. I hear Yuka-sensei is strict, so I'll have to be prepared to study... I like her, though. She teaches a Japanese class for exchange students, so she's pretty good about knowing the types of things foreigners need to know. Plus, she fed me pocky :) Also, apparently Hakata ramen is a type of ramen specific to the Kyuushuu area.

games, games, and more games

I knew when I decided to come to Japan that I would end up buying a lot of games here. I'd already decided to buy Jump Superstars, and it was the first game I bought, but after seeing the huge selection of DS games in Japan, I've been doing more research on them. I found this thread on the Nintendo forums on games to import that makes me want most of the games on the list. There's also a Japanese dictionary that includes handwriting recognition for kanji outside of that list that I want to get. I just bought the Prince of Tennis: Crystal Drive game at the discounted re-release price last week. I suck at tennis games, but I like the anime, so I'm getting better at tennis games.

I was already planning to go to Toys-R-Us tomorrow to get the kanji dictionary, but I'm tempted to get Ouendan or Bleach from the list instead. Especially since the original voices are in the game for Bleach. The Daigasso and Naruto games also look interesting, and I've been watching the commercials for Cooking Mama here on TV for a while now wondering whether or not it'd be worth it to get it without understanding the recipes. I think I'll get the translated version in the States, though, unless my Japanese gets really good in the next few months or so, which is unlikely. Who am I kidding? I will probably end up getting all the games on this list eventually. It's really just a matter of what order I'll get them in. It doesn't help that every Toys-R-Us here is pretty much fully stocked with everything but DS Lites, and I live close to a pretty big one. In any case, when I disappear again, you'll at least know why.