Day 6

Day 6

1.)     NC Soft is a company run by idiots who would rather delete accounts than solve the problem.

2.)    There are Americans who went to Canada to live and cannot to return to the States because they won’t be covered by insurance due to existing medical conditions that were diagnosed while they were there.

3.)    ANA offers a roundtrip direct flight for $1410 right now.

4.)    Priceline’s Name Your Own Price is a scary, but cheap concept. Who knows? I might actually test it out. – After testing it out, the price they spit at you is your “bid” with all fees including. Mine was rejected.

5.)    Magnum opus means one’s greatest work, usually referring to an artist’s (musical or physical) or a writer’s work. I learned this from Tobuscus.

6.)    My laptop seems to be able to handle Mine Craft on superflat with no problems.

7.)    Parents are turning to social media to punish their kids.

8.)    The oldest person in the world, Besse Cooper, died at 116 on December 4^th.

9.)    There is a button on my router that literally just says “function”. What the crap does it doooooo?!?!

10.)   I AM GOING HOME FOR CHRISTMAS.

Day 5

Day 5?

1.)    The Soul Evans x Maka Albarn pairing is probably one of the most subtle and sweet pairings I’ve ever seen in a shounen manga.

2.)    The chamois is a goat-antelope indigenous to Europe. 

3.)    In the body of Ötzi the Iceman, they found intact red blood cells. These are the oldest red blood cells every found, dated around 5000 years old. It has also been determined that he had a much higher degree of Neanderthal DNA than modern Europeans.

4.)    Interestingly, tattoos have been around for centuries. Romans used them to mark slaves and soldiers. Some tribal societies used them to mark men and women for their deeds or other cultural significance. There are also cultural taboos against tattooing. Japan is renowned for having one of the most beautiful tattooing techniques, but tattoos are highly associated with the Yakuza, so people with visible tattoos are frequently banned from public places like bathhouses or pools.

5.)    To build off of number one – the subtlety is completely lost on a Western audience due to the lack of significance in holding hands. In Japan, you almost never hold hands in public. A lot of people find it really embarrassing. Even in airports, couples almost never hug and definitely won’t kiss each other goodbye. In Soul Eater, especially in the last 20 chapters, there is a lot of largely unexplained handholding. The author writes in a weak excuse, but there is definitely an ulterior motive there.

6.)    The Icelandic word for dragon is dreki.

7.)    It’s impossible for me to return home for Christmas. Well…not impossible, but financially challenging.

8.)    The Voyager 1 is a spacecraft that was launched for research purposes in 1977. It recently sent back data that it still hasn’t reached the edge of our solar system. That means that the solar system is bigger than we thought.

9.)    After watching Aladdin for the first time in over 15 years, I have come to the conclusion that my boyfriend is very similar to Aladdin. In looks and goofiness.

10.)  I have the best boyfriend ever. I know it sounds nuts, but he’s so determined to try to get me home…<3 o:p="o:p">

Day 4?

Today?

1.)    The Arabian Peninsula has the same round farms the States have…interesting. The round farms work by having a well dug in the center and then extending a long arm out, usually by about 1000 meters (3280 feet or so). But salt is currently leaking into the ground water, so it’s becoming even more difficult to farm.

2.)    My cousins and their friends sang their signature song, Come Sail Away by Styx at my cousin’s wedding reception. It was epic.

3.)    Japanese mozzarella seems to be passable. But it also seems to trigger my lactose intolerance. D:

4.)    Pushpa Basnet has been named CNN hero of the year due to her work in saving children from prisons. In Nepal, it’s common for incarcerated mothers to live with their children in prison, where the conditions are very harsh.

5.)    Bonsai trees can be several hundred years old. The most expensive bonsai tree was sold for around $1 million.

6.)    I’m having extreme difficulties understanding how to use gender and declensions in a language. Good thing Japanese has nothing of the sort.

7.)    If you ever want to buy a pair of headphones, don’t go with Skullcandy or some other expensive ass brand. Buy a pair of Sennheiser’s. Mine were $30, sound fantastic and have so far, lasted me 2 years.

8.)    My friend is now friends with the guy who founded Omegle.

9.)    There are currently flights from Tokyo to Dulles at $1356. Still much too expensive.

10.) The Pope opened a Twitter. Wtf?

Just Doing the Daily

New things learned today:

1.)    My cousin has officially married and another cousin of mine threw up on our front steps.

2.)    I’m not the only one who lives in two worlds – this one and the one inside my head.

3.)    I have lost enough weight that two shirts that used to fit me very tightly now hang pretty loose.

4.)    I met a fursuiter at Yoyogi park, who has a shop based out of my home state and is from the UK. Small world, isn’t it?

5.)    The Icelandic consonants Ðð and Þþ both represent the same “th” sound. The consonant ð is always in the middle or at the end of a word, while þ is usually at the beginning of a word (with a few exceptions).

6.)    After calculating it out, I officially do not have enough funds to do anything outside of my budget. Too bad I already reserved everything to go to Sapporo…

7.)    I fucked up my return address on 2/4 envelopes. Why is the Japanese addressing system so weird?

8.)    Fast ice is ice that’s attached to a coast and drift ice floats along the ocean.

9.)    Unless it’s extremely cold, window frost can only form on single-paned windows.

10.)  Needle ice is a phenomenon where the soil is above freezing and the air is below freezing. This causes the water to wick upwards, but it freezes, creating ice that is lifted up off the ground.

What Did I Learn Today?

Today, I learned about all sorts of things!

1.) I learned that I like a lot of the music produced by Omnia, a "pagan/wiccan" group out of the Netherlands. I had discovered their song Morrigan quite some time ago, but today I found their songs Fairy Tale and Fee Ra Huri.

2.) Akureyri is the second largest urban area in Iceland. It has a population of 17,000. Despite being 62 miles from the Arctic circle, it has a fairly mild climate, with average winter temperature lows around 22-25 F.

3.) Hello Kitty products are expensive in Japan. So are Christmas cards.

4.) At the top of America's 100 most popular baby names of 2012, Sophia is the top for girls and Aiden is the top for boys.

5.) My friends are getting together a Rise of the Guardians group cosplay.

6.) Dragons appear in many different mythologies. In Norse mythology, there is a dragon, called Níðhöggr, who is endlessly gnawing at the roots of the World Tree.

7.) It is a hoax that red haired people will be elected out of the gene pool within 100 years.


8.) The guy who lives beneath me (or next to me?) plays video games a lot. Sometimes, I swear I hear Day 9's voice. For the record, I don't play StarCraft, I just know a lot about it because my cousin, younger brother and friend play it semi-seriously. It IS the sport of South Korea - I've asked my Korean classmates!

9.) Cheddar is the only delicious cheese I've been able to find in Japan. And it only seems to be at the dollar store.

10.) A didgeridoo is a traditional Australian instrument developed by the indigenous Australian peoples. It has a very distinctive sound and is usually around 4 feet long.

From This Day Forward...

I have decided that, every day, I will post a quick blog recapping 10 new things I have learned. A maximum of two per day will go into Japanese language (because I learn Japanese 6 days a week...) and I think it'll get boring if I just post a recap of my language learning every day.

It is also considered cheating to look up things specifically for this every day, so I'll apologize and say that when I'm bored, I Google really random shit.

So here is mine for today:

1.) One of my teachers is from Fukui, Japan and Fukui is not only famous for its snow crabs  but also for the cliffs. So famous, in fact, that people from Japan go there to jump off and kill themselves.

2.) Tungsten is the world's strongest metal and the second strongest material known. However, even slight impurities can make it brittle. It has a melting point of 3,422 °C (6,192 °F), which also makes it the metal with the highest melting point.

3.) A plasma torch can be used to cut metal. Yaaaay plasma!

4.) Jack Frost is a sprite that has Norse origins. In old Norse, he was called Jökul Frosti (pronunced Yoh-kull Fros-tee). Jökul is the icelandic word for glacier or snow mountain.

5.) I learned that if I shower before my toilet bowl has finished filling, the water will keep running until I flush it again.

6.) Irksomely, Rise of the Guardians has no set release date into Japanese theaters. T-T

7.) In the comic TeaHouse, Axis just took his clothes off in the lobby. Wtf?

8.) My throat has been sore for several days...which probably means that I am sick. Or getting sick. D:

9.) I learned that I can still save my teeth if I find and take vitamin D and calcium supplements every day. My teeth have gotten miserable (I've counted 6 cavities) since I've gotten to Japan, but I'm certain it's due to vitamin deficiencies.

10.) If I wrap my onigiri in the seaweed, but leave it for a few minutes...the seaweed becomes soft, chewy and gross.

Cheesy Thanksgiving Post

Thanksgiving

This post will be kind of cheesy, but I wanted to give thanks in written form to all the things I am grateful for. I’m not particularly religious, but who says you have to believe in God to want to express your gratitude about life?

First and foremost, I’m grateful for having the chance to come to Japan for a year to study abroad. I’m only 2.75 months into my 11 month stay, but I’ve already learned a lot. I can speak Japanese better than I’ve ever been able to (although it’s still terrible). I have had to find an apartment, pay bills and rent. Essentially, I’ve had to make it on my own except for one large factor.

I want to thank my dad and my boyfriend of five years. Without them, this wouldn’t have been possible. My financial situation took a turn for the worst, but my dad was miraculously able to come up with the money to save me from being homeless. I feel terrible that I wasn’t able to live up to my promises.

To my loving boyfriend, thanks for being my support. I’ve never been more grateful to have you for a friend and a lover. Not only have you decided to help me financially, but you still want us to be together, even though I’m 5000 miles away. For that, I think I’m the luckiest person ever.

My younger brother seems to be avoiding me (figuratively) and I haven’t really spoken to him since I left, but I also think it’s awesome that I have such a great younger brother.

I’ve spoken to my mother even less. I’m not sure why, but I have a feeling it’s due to financial constraints. I’m so glad that she helped my boyfriend put together a care-package for me.

I’m glad to have a great aunt and uncle, and great friends, who have helped put together care-packages for me. If I say I miss something, it shows up a few weeks later (within reason, of course). For that, I’m grateful to everyone!