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[personal profile] zaichikarky
First very short anecdote. I just read this horribly depressing news story from Texas which said that some animal shelter there was euthanizing 3/4 of the animals. This is not terribly uncommon, I think, but randomly I read some comments and the first one said "As long as they're not gophers, they deserve to live". This really amused me for some reason XDDD.I've never even seen a gopher... oh wait, maybe I have. I guess parts of the midwest have a problem with gophers or something... or maybe that guy just hates gophers.

Also, it's amusing that I have the lowest score of all the people I saw who took that typing test. I retook it 5 times or something and my score changed by like 1 or 2 points every time, so maybe my averege is like 60 wpm. One friend that took it had a score of like 99 and I find that really impossible. I bet she normally doesn't type so fast, cause if she did, she'd be making mistakes all the time and correcting then and then it wouldn't really be 100 wpm. But she seems to disagree. Oh well.

So right, Niigata thing. So I just came back a little while ago from visiting my 3 young friends again. They're so cute and Japanese! I'll show pictures from this trip :D.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v326/MajesticArcanine/japan/IMGP2834.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v326/MajesticArcanine/japan/IMGP2836.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v326/MajesticArcanine/japan/IMGP2839.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v326/MajesticArcanine/japan/IMGP2838.jpg

In the last pic, from the left, is Yumi, Kanako, Hiroki, and a huge gaijin.

So I think I wrote that I'm incredibly bored this vacation. I decided to alleviate this for 2 days by asking my friend Yumi if I could visit her. She had a high school band "contest" and I invited myself to that. I thought that it would be similar to my HS band contests in that we always did about 3 songs to be judges... but theirs were with all classical music in two movements. I don't really like listening to classical. So me and her parents listened to a few groups and then went to a family diner for lunch. BTW I love family diners here. They have a few chain restaurants all over the country and they're a million times better than ours. Also, they stay open very late usually. Until at least 1 am, I think.

So here's one thing to learn about Japanese HS bands. They're quite different from US HS bands. I find that most US HS bands are mostly boys. The percentage is 60/40 in the cases that I noticed throughout HS. In Japan, it's opposite, but more to an extreme. It's more like 80:20 girls to boys ratio. I don't really know why it's like this. I suspect one reason is because students are either forced to, or strongly encourages to enter clubs. In Japan, students are allowed to only join one club and their clubs are so much more hardcore than ours. So anyway, there are many sports clubs and few choices for others. Many girls don't like sports so they chose to enter "brass band club".

So I mentioned how club "meetings" are hardcore here, right. Well if in a club, HS kids sometimes practice from after school to as late as 8pm. So they invest a lot of energy into these clubs and some are really crushed if they do poorly at the competitive matches. Well at Yumi's contest their results were a "bad gold rating". The rankings were bronze, silver, and gold. The band's goal was to get a really good rating so they could move onto this higher competition. Last year they got silver and this year the lowest gold. So to me, this is a nice improvement and I would be happy. NO. ALL of the girls are crying, some of them very hard. They got a very long lecture/speech from their band conductor and all of the girls were really upset, some devastated. Yumi was ok, though. I'm happy she was because that would have been kind of awkward. She is a very cheerful girl though. I think you can tell because in all the pictures, only she is the one grinning in all of them. She's really so cute XD.

Anyway, so that first day we kind of hung out with her family. Her oba-chan(grandma) was so amusing. I came in and she said "Who's this person?!" and they explained that she was Yumi's friend, that same one that came that last time and she did remember after a minute. Obachans are funny XD. Mine apparently has dementia now. Did I tell the story here about how she called me at 4 am once because she intended to set me up with some "Igor" fellow? I told her not to call me at 4 am anymore, especially with stupid nonsense and she insisted I call her back after I woke up. So i woke up and called her and had to deal with the usual "Your boyfriend is terrible, let me find you a new one" business but worse because this time she actually did find a "prospect". It's strange how my mother's side of the family doesn't really have any opinion on the matter and my father's side is all "OMG TERRIBLE BOYFRIEND RAWR". I always respond to my dad's shit with "I thought you said Justin was a very nice boy?" and then that usually gets him to stop annoying me AS much. I don't know why some fathers like to reiterate the same point over and over again. Dana's father is apparently like that too, but a million times worse XD.

RIGHT so where was I? Uh yes... so we hung out with Yumi's family and they made tasty Japanese food. Her mother was concerned about what to feed me and I basically said that I hate spicy food, and besides squid and this disgusting shit called "shio konbu", I'm game for pretty much anything : ). So she made the one food basically all gaijin's love- tenpura, which is fried stuff. Fried shrimp and any vegetables, mostly.

So after sleeping kind of badly{I get kind of fucked if I do this for more than one day so *(#^%@*&%) we went to Niigata city for the day. It was funner than last time :D. This time only the 3 of them came, and for the first few hours we were without Kanako, so we were thinking of stuff to do. We ran into this open market thing and the best way to describe it is what happens at an anime convention when the artistic fans sell their stuff. So there were some interesting things, and I bought that cute goldfish fan featured in one of the pictures which I promptly left behind at karaoke >__>;.

So the first thing we did was go to this 30 floor tower and they had a bunch of cool things going on! We went originally to check out this dinosaur exhibition thing and then decided not to see it because it was too expensive, and ended up checking out this free cultural event they had going on. It was very fun for me. They had a geography quiz game(I knew all the answeres except Bangladesh) where you had this magnetic map thing and you visit each table to learn some things about the country and then tell them which country the table was. They had a hint(but I couldn't read it of course) too if you didn't know. So I spent some time talking at the Russian table to the Russian lady and then to this Lebanese guy about politics and such. He was nice and interesting. He wrote peoples names in Arabic.

I also got my palm read for 10 bucks. Hiroki translated when the lady said things I didn't understand. I was most interested about marriage and I guess we only had one choice, so she said that I'd marry around age 30. She also said that around that age things will be well with my job , etc. Essentially what I gathered is that my life before age 30 won't be too great and around age 30 will be great. It's just too bad that I want kids earlier. If I don't have children by age like 35, I don't see myself ever having them. I would never want to still pay for a child when I'm in my 60s. That sounds terrible to me. My parents had me when they were 24 and my grandma had my mom the same age. I wish I could continue the family tradition, but I don't think that will work out for me.

So anyway, she also said that I need to express my feelings better and I needed to stop being so negative(of course in Japanese she said something like "It's better to be a little more possitive!) about certain things. I don't think I'm a negative person, but that has to do with my philosophy about generally expecting the worst from anyone other than my parents to prevent being crushed. I don't think I've ever really been crushed about something. Maybe the closest time was when Justin said he couldn't visit me this one time and I completely flipped out and gave myself a scar I don't think will ever heal : (. At least it's a small one. I really hate when I flip out though. In order to stop flipping out majorly, I have to hurt myself. But ever since that incident, I haven't inflicted any scars, I think... so I guess it's going well. I never really show sad emotions to anyone but maybe Justin, and that's just the way I like it. Oh right, and the lady ALSO said that I needed to be more open. So maybe fortune telling isn't complete BS. I haven't really decided yet. I think that's about it, though.

So right... the rest of the time we went to Karaoke. I LOVE karaoke despite being a bad singer. I'm not shy about it, though. Hiroki was very shy. He didn't chose so many songs, despite being a singer in a rock band for some time during HS and writing his own music. He's an amusing boy. He's very Japanese in the sense that he is very polite and quite shy about some things. I think he's also a little sensitive about some things too because the first time we said goodbyes he completely burst into tears and I couldn't console him ! His English has improved a LOT. He failed his entrance exams and in Japan if you do that, you have to study for one more year before you get another chance to take them. So I hope he gets into a good school this time around! I asked him what he wants to study in school and he said English and he wants to be some kind of English teacher. I was very proud! When I first met him, in his group, there were 3 good English students. Him, Kanako, and this other boy- http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v326/MajesticArcanine/IMG020.jpg oh look I found that pic. Tasuku was very good at English , cute, and very good with the ladies XD. I also kind of like this pic with me and Hiroki. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v326/MajesticArcanine/IMG025.jpg . So anyway, it's great that Hiroki's English has improved a lot and he wants to be an English teacher. He seems to really enjoy English XD.

Back then when I did that program with the kids, it was amusing. There was a huge dichotomy. Seems like some couldn't understand a damn thing and some were very bright. Most in my groups were very shy, especially the boys, so even when I asked them a very simple question, they couldn't really answer. Hiroki was my favorite of both the years I did it because even though he's shy about some things, he seemed to enjoy talking to me and he could do it better than most of the kids. I remember talking to Yumi only once. In her year, she was alright, just a little shy so I didn't know to what extent she knew English, but the leader of her group, a boy, was quite talented. Anyway, only the 3 of them kept in contact with me.

So I guess Yumi wants to be a doctor and she also said she wants to work in impoverished countries 0_o. I wonder if she'll change her mind about that. Maybe it'll be okay if it's not a terribly dangerous impoverished country. She's a very smart girl. Her English has also improved a big amount. In her family, her and her father can speak English, the rest of them can't really. I guess it has a lot to do with talent and interest which also explains my mom's situation. Actually all 3 of them are smart. Kanako is in dentist school. Her father is a dentist and I think she wants to work in her father's business.

So I was lucky twice today. First time was cuz after completing the geography game, all the people get a prize. I think mine was like first prize or something because I got a giant panda plush featured in the pictures XD. I decided to let Hiroki keep it because he seemed to like it and he gentlemanly offered to carry it for part of the day. Also, I didn't want to deal with shipping it back home. I gave Yumi the complementary fortune telling book I received upon doing that fortune telling. I guess Kanako didn't get anything >_<. I need to get her a birthday present or something XD. The second lucky case was because Kanako was supposed to only stay with us for an hour and a half, but instead did for a long time because boat club was canceled due to winds- though I didn't really find it so windy today. In Japan, you can't really skip club activities. Anyway, she ended up staying with us till I had to go home.

So yeah, I guess that was fun and perhaps I will visit those guys once more before I go home. That is, if I DO go home for good in December. I hope I will >_<. I think it's a good time to stop this Japan thing.

I think I hit all the points. Now it's time for nyquil and then sleep. Tomorrow I have to take the new teacher to Shizuoka to get our visas.
(deleted comment)

Date: 2008-08-03 09:51 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] majesticzaichik.livejournal.com
Yeah I think my mom is somewhat scitzo XD. She talks to herself too much. I noticed years ago I have a tendency to do the same as her, so I tried hard to train myself not to do that. I think I used to try hard in general not to be like her at all, but since I started liking her better after HS, I don't mind if some things are like her.

Did I ever tell you about the scitzo woman who lives on a busy street on the way to work? She is quite amusing.
(deleted comment)

Date: 2008-08-04 03:55 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] majesticzaichik.livejournal.com
On the way home to work, there is a scitzo lady. She always has a black towel over her face and Dana is kind of scared of her because she says she looks like a witch.

Sometimes I stop by there to listen to her lunatic ramblings as good Japanese practice, but sometimes she focuses on the person observing her and I don't like that so much. One time she waved a flashlight at me and said something like "Who are you?! It's dark over here!" and then said something about lighting a path. She sometimes has arguments with her daughter. I'm not sure if Phil was bullshitting or not, but he said that he had a conversation with her once where she accused him of doing something to her daughter and he said that he just walked her home.

So yeah she's pretty amusing. I've been told that she's been there for many years. I wish they had something like that in the US, but Americans would usually complain of a public disturbance and those people would be sent to nut houses.
(deleted comment)

Date: 2008-08-03 09:48 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] majesticzaichik.livejournal.com
Hello there. Perhaps my viewpoint is different because I'm Russian-American.

I'm sorry, but I don't really understand this sentence-

About aimals - when you are living in the village permanently this looks much more easy. In the nature death is not unusial.

What is aimals?

This entry must have been quite a read for you! I'm not sure how well Russians understand English nowdays... but perhaps pretty well because in my parents generation, they all studied very hard and became very proficient in their chosen languages until they stopped studying. My mom chose French and my dad German. I guess English wasn't such a popular choice back then.

I will look at your recommended LJs, but unfortunately I do not study Russian and can read very poorly and slowly. I have not decided if I will study Russian when I come back home.
(deleted comment)

Date: 2008-08-04 12:03 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] majesticzaichik.livejournal.com
I like your LJ a lot, so I decided to add you to my friends list XD. Yes, indeed, photography is international.

I was wondering if you could write this joke to me in Russian? My father loves Russian jokes and riddles. I wonder if he knows that one. I like it!! Sometimes my dad tells me popular Russian riddles to see how well I understand Russian. The one I remember the most is- "2 hits, 8 holes"(a fork!) but then some get harder! If I don't know the answer, my parents have been very amused by my thought-process and which answers I guess XD.

I like some of the old, racist Eskimo(Chuhchi?) jokes. They are racist, but some are very funny! They kind of remind me of American blonde jokes. I've been a blonde for most of my life too so those can get annoying. But now since my hair has darkened, only some people still think I'm blonde.

My family came from Moscow. I really wanted to come back for a sightseeing trip, but have never been able to. I want to really see St Petersburg! It sounds like a very nice place to visit. My father doesn't want to go back to visit, though. He was a Jew and wanted to get out of the USSR as soon as possible! I wonder how Russian countryside is like. Seems very interesting to me. But you have to hunt bunnies! I guess whatever it takes to survive... I've never had rabbit before.
(deleted comment)

Date: 2008-08-04 02:05 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] majesticzaichik.livejournal.com
Hee! I liked those. Dad did too. These optomist/pessimist jokes remind me of this one song by a famous Russian band in my parents era. Do you know "Mashina Vremeni"(Time Machine)? There is a song I really like called "Conversation on the train" which is basically a song about a discussion between a pessimist and an optimist. I like the lyrics of that band a lot! They are usually amusing or thought-provoking.

I was not aware of how Russians treated the Chukchas. At first, Americans treated the Native Americans horribly, but as time went by, they had more and more rights. Now, some Native American tribes are very rich from casinos and the governments of states are trying to figure out how the tribes should/shouldn't pay taxes.

I want to visit Russia sometime soon! However, sometimes the American media makes a big deal about how Russia is a bad place to visit. For example, there was a recent news story about how some American pastor went to Russia and brought some gun ammunition shells that he forgot to declare. The shells were to be used by his pastor friend living out in the wilderness to kill wild animals. So the Russians threw the pastor in jail for what I think was an extended amount of time . It was kind of stupid on both ends. That pastor should have known to declare the shells, and the Russians shouldn't have been so quick to throw him in jail. But such stories sometimes discourages Americans to travel to Russia. I have also heard some very interesting stories from my university classmates who traveled to Russia for an exchange program and had dangerous encounters. I am scared to travel to a none safe country, but I think that if I am careful, I can avoid most problems!

What game is this? It looks pretty.
(deleted comment)

Date: 2008-08-04 03:45 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] majesticzaichik.livejournal.com
My father liked your last joke. He wants to know if you know any new Chukchi jokes. You can just type them in Russian, if you like : ).

Yeah, the US is terrible about a lot of things like that too. I attribute most of it to the Bush regime. I have always hated Bush. Bush Sr was okay, I guess. He said a very famous quote which is something like "Will you just sit down and SHUT UP." Bush Jr has many, many famous quotes. They are called "Bushisms" and people write books about them. I want to get one sometime, but my parents have become Republicans so sometimes when I tell them Bushisms, they don't find it funny.

I really hope Obama wins the election! He represents a new, fresh outlook for America! I hope that other countries can forgive the many mistakes the Bush regime inflicted over time.

The biggest problem for Americans, however, is that the various wars that Bush caused made our economy terrible and the deficit we have now is in the trillions, I believe. I hope that the new president will make the economy the top priority, however I think if McCain wins, he will make finishing Iraq the top priority. For most Americans, this is not a popular idea.
(deleted comment)

Date: 2008-08-04 05:15 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] majesticzaichik.livejournal.com
Yes I guess we do XD. My boyfriend and I used to do that for a while a couple years ago while he was at work, but after a while, we switched to e-mail.

Sure, I have no problem doing that for you : ). I shall do it when I have some free time tomorrow.
(deleted comment)

Date: 2008-08-04 10:20 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] majesticzaichik.livejournal.com
I'm done with your Madagascar thing. I have never seen it. It looks funny with adult humor. Is it Pixar? Everyone adores Pixar. I really want to see Wall-E : ).

Here it is:

-I like to move it move it.
-He likes to move it move it.
-She likes to move it move it.
- We like to.
-MOVE IT.
-Get the groove on.
-We’re gunna miss you little fuzz buckets.
-Glad we could introduce you to the toilet.
-HEY surprise, freaks.
-I’m coming with you.
- Wait for me, I’m all packed.
-Stop that thing. He’s carrying scissors and hand cream.
-Buckle up boys.
- Don’t look doll, this might get hairy
- launch.
-LAUNCH.
-Skipper, look.
-Analysis .
- It looks like a small, incandescent bulb, designed to indicate something out of the ordinary, like a malfunction.
-Right. Rico, manual.
-mm, hmm. Problemo solved.
- It’s more fun when you raise your arms like this!
-My goodness doll, you’re shaking like a leaf.
-I love you, Gloria, I always have.
-Deploy.
- What in the world?
-Who says a penguin can’t fly?
-We should be up and running in say… 6 to 9 months.
-69 months?!
-NO, 6 to 9 months.
-Who made you king of the…planewreck?!
-Excuse me?


It should be fairly accurate... let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks for the links. I sent them over to Dad. I like anecdotes too :D. But in English, an anecdote isn't necessarily a joke, it's just a short story thing.
(deleted comment)

Date: 2008-08-05 08:10 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] majesticzaichik.livejournal.com
Ah yes Shrek. My band teacher loved Shrek... we watched it a zillion times when I was in band. I also watched the sequel and it was pretty cute. I wasn't interested in the third movie. I didn't know Dreamworks made Madagascar. I love Dreamworks too : ).

Can I ask you what your first name is? I like some Russian male first names. My favorite is Yuri and second favorite is Ivan. The name I like the least is Igor, actually... well only that I think it's very Russian and Americans tend to find that name very funny. My favorite female name is Ksenia. I like my own name very much ^_^. It's a very popular English name too (Elizabeth)
(deleted comment)

Date: 2008-08-05 09:34 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] majesticzaichik.livejournal.com
Ah I see :D. I like old names too. I dislike common names the most.

What should I call you? Alex? Can you tell me how you'd like to be addressed?

Yes. Yelizaveta is right. I tried to go by Liza in first grade, but most Americans can't pronounce it correctly so I switched to Lisa for formal acquaintances.
(deleted comment)

Date: 2008-08-05 12:17 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] majesticzaichik.livejournal.com
Oh. hehe. I never thought of it that way. What a strange coincidence, especially since my current LJ layout is a fox. I chose that one cause it's cute and he's by Mt Fuji. I live close to Mt Fuji : ).
(deleted comment)

Date: 2008-08-05 04:10 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] majesticzaichik.livejournal.com
Oh! Apparently it's some kind of mascot of firefox, Japan. How cute! Japanese love cute mascots. Like their baseball teams, a lot of them have cute mascots. Americans usually prefer majestic or aggressive animals, I think.

http://www.foxkeh.com/

I think that this entry's comments are getting too full. Would you mind moving our conversation to another entry? How about the latest post?(the one with the 2 youtube links)?
(deleted comment)

Date: 2008-08-04 03:56 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] majesticzaichik.livejournal.com
Yes. I have made my allegiance to nintendo many years ago and other than that dreamcast I bought for 20 dollars, I don't have any non-nintendo consoles.

The PS3 has so far been very unimpressive. When I visit my boyfriend, I play some games I like on his PS2 for many hours because sometimes I have a lot of free time if he has to go to work.
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