Wednesday, October 8, 2008

DMC

Okay, guys. Life is going on as life does. With school life settling into a groove and me finding my way as a teacher, familiarizing myself with the material and becoming more comfortable speaking Japanese and gesturing in English class, time is passing quickly. The weeks seem like the days did in August. It seems that I have to make a plan two weeks ahead of time to sufficiently prepare for it. All in all, I suppose this is a good thing; not that I am wishing away my incredibly valuable time here in Japan, but at least I am not achingly aware of the apparently slow passage of time. As it is, I can focus on the task at hand, do a good job and relax afterward without having anything close tot he high-stress situation earlier in my trip.
So, things are good.
My Japanese is getting really good, too. I mean...I can't understand everything. Not even close, really. But, today I spoke primarily in Japanese, and everyone could understand me. And, even though the coffee lady in the office insisted on speaking long chains of difficult Japanese, with some difficulty I could understand the gyst.
Although, today wasn't all farts and daisies. I thought I had to go to Kita elementary school, when in fact, I had to go to Toni elementary. This doesn't sound like a huge problem, really. The biggest issue was that Kita is about 30 minutes north of my my house by bike, and Toni is about 20 minutes south. So, after getting tired riding to Kita, I had to turn back around and ride for around 45 or so minutes to get to the other school. Hey, I could use the excercise, though.
During my long bike ride, I was listening to Dethklok to get me pumped up for the journey. And, you know what? Bizarrely, America isn't the only place that enjoys a tongue-in-cheek portrayal of metal bands. There's a Japanese version, too : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detroit_Metal_City . Well...not really a VERSION, you understand. But, it seems really similar. Basically, a young japanese boy moves to Tokyo to try to make it big playing Swedish pop music. One thing leads to another, and soon he's playing metal under the guise of Johannes Kaiser II. Check it out.
It's strange that things like metal irony translate, but other things like...oh, I don't know, not talking with your mouthful are totally incomprehensible. *shrug*

1 comment:

nickyj said...

It's funny you mention DMC, Burr just schooled me on tht the other day. Strange times, to be sure.

~Nick J