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26 June 2008 @ 11:31 pm
So I think my boss is a really bad boss.

Don't get me wrong, the guy is super-sweet, really friendly, kind of funny, and really smart. He's a really great -guy-.

The problem is that the man just cannot lead. He has no ability to communicate vision. I can't tell if he's lame or just quiet. When he gets excited he's really vigorous, but most of the time he's just...quiet. He does not make me excited about international architectural standards. Not that this is an easy task or anything...

I mean, the thing about companies is that I, as an employee, have to do what my company says. They essentially control me. They can fire me. They can tell me to work. They can tell me not to work. They can tell me to stand in a closet. There are no standards.

The problem is that my company is in JAPAN so I have a lot less power. This means that I have a lot more fear. This means that I need more direction. Which my boss doesn't give me. This causes worry which causes stress.

Recently, however, I've just been giving two middle fingers to the whole thing - leaving work early, going on long lunches, hell I even read novels at work. This is the cost of poor leadership.

God this is a really boring topic to post about after such a long hiatus. I really DO have a lot to say about Japan, I've just been lazy. I'll say more, promises!
 
 
03 May 2008 @ 11:26 pm
Hi All,

Graham is in Japan. We hung out today and it transcended all forms of glory (despite the fact that we were both really tired). Stress is gaining corporeal form and exiting avenues. Etc. Hehe.

Tomorrow is more ridicudonc in Tokyo then Monday is Hokkaido! 7 days camping in transcendent japanese nature. Hidden Buddhist monasteries here we come!

-Chris
 
 
02 May 2008 @ 08:57 pm
So today Murayama-san totally came over and shot the shit with me for like an hour. At some point she mentioned that she had been to Disney World in the US but that now she was sad because she didn't have anyone to go to Disney World with (enter puppy dog frown).

The jury is in! She wants the doooonnngg.
 
 
01 May 2008 @ 09:56 pm
So there's this new girl at our office. Her name is Murayama Yuu. She is absolutely the most attractive woman I have ever met, and you know I don't say these things lightly. Ahem. But seriously, she has hair down to her ass, the most striking face ever, etc. etc. I could go on.

Anyway, today I totally played the man card and asked her to eat lunch with me. I think she was a little nervous about it, because she invited some other woman to come eat with us. In any case, I'm glad that I'm getting way less awkward about talking with women who I don't know.

During lunch, I committed what might be my greatest social faux pas to date. I was eating my mackerel and she said something I wanted to respond to, so I turned to say something and this big honking piece of mackerel fell out of my mouth onto her legs. Ugh! I was infinitely embarrassed. Seriously, how do you recover from that? Anyway, she's apparently pretty classy because she was pretty chill about it.

At some point during the lunch she also basically asked the other girl eating with us to leave. I think that's a good sign. I might be reading into things too much, but I have to wonder if she invited the other girl just to make things less awkward/be a safeguard against unwanted advances. After that we actually had a pretty good conversation. I think we connected and shitttt.

So yeah! That's the story of me, the hot girl, and the mackerel. We'll see how it continues.
 
 
22 April 2008 @ 12:33 am
So I went to a conference/committee today (a meeting of the International Alliance for Interoperability - an architectural standards consortium) from like 9:30 am until like 9:30 pm. It was SO much fun oh my GOD. I got to hang out with these ridiculously powerful international types. They were brilliant. The whole thing was politics politics politics. Group dynamics. So interesting!

Afterwards, we went to dinner at this place. The Europeans got drunk and we argued about philosophy/politics. Turns out every damn European is a moral relativist (who would have thought?) Anyway, I put their beliefs to shame with my meta-beliefs. Cry little finnish man, cry!

No, seriously, the Finnish guy I talked with was awesome. I also met this Norwegian guy named Havard. He was SO COOL. Immediate mancrush. He was by far the most attractive man that I have ever seen in my life. He's a vegetarian, meditates, etc. etc. Totally smooth. He lived in Japan for 7 years, so we talked about that. The whole thing was Really Positive. We smiled at each other a lot. Yay!

---

In somewhat worse news, I've been getting a little fat recently. Too much drinking/eating shitty food and too little movin' my money maker. So I made a list of 8 recommendations for the next month (which I signed, so I have to do it):

1.) Always believe what you're thinking
- This one will probably be the hardest to do. What I mean by this is that if I think "I want to hit on that girl and there is no reason not to" and don't do it then I have failed #1.

2.) No drinking

3.) No coffee except in social situations

4.) Minimal sugar

5.) Natural food (no eating at the convenience store)

6.) Work out 3-4 times/week.

7.) Pay loans/do paperwork well in advance (anti-stress since stress = fat)

8.) Give self over to work
- I think this one is really important. I've been so bitter about my work recently that I've done very little. Well, I need a change in attitude, I think. I'm here in Japan. I have 4 months to learn as much as possible about computers before starting my own company. I'm just going to work work work (well, for at least a month).

-Chris
 
 
16 April 2008 @ 11:40 pm
Man, I am so excited about being unemployed when I get back to the US.
I should have 6k USD by then, which means that I'll be in the black for a good 3-4 months. I might get a part time job to help me maintain.

Check this out:

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/display.php?id=34682
 
 
18 March 2008 @ 11:54 pm
Man, I haven't written lately. I've been so bored with EVERYTHING and busy writing essays about the nature of political power/evolution/etc. Word and mind are so hard and so all-consuming. Plus, I have like infinite correspondence to catch up on!

---

Some updates:

Went on a date with a Japanese girl. It was ok. She wore these tight jeans with boots that went over the jeans. I HATE THAT. Also, she was kind of boring. Oh well! Next!

Climbed Mount Takao. I didn't take pictures, but you can see some here:
http://roamingcypriot.blogspot.com/2008/03/hiking-up-mt-takao.html

It was alright. Everyone who went along was SO WHINY. I had to resist telling them about climbing all the ridiculous mountains/shit I've climbed (and I haven't even climbed anything THAT ridiculous). They were like "oh, there are rocks on this path! WHINE WHINE." Of course there are rocks on the MOUNTAIN path - mountains are MADE OF ROCKS. Anyway...

Have mostly stopped drinking. I went to an MIT japan interns reunion thing and met all these people and drank a lot. It was pretty lame. I had no interest in talking to these people. They were not interesting, funny, or attractive (typical MIT students). They had nothing I wanted, so I just acted like an asshole and talked about stupid things I shunta.

I am missing marijuana a lot. It is so good. It is so nice. It makes me relaxed. I am stressed. It is so much better than alcohol, in every way conceivable. Well, I guess it's illegal. Kind of. If you're black!

I've been worrying a lot about the economy. It's boring and annoying.

I have been continuing to learn Japanese, but I am hitting something of a plateau - I am not getting good enough returns from learning new stuff. I think I'm in one of those lulls when all that I've learned consolidates before I learn a whole bunch of new crap. When I learn Kanji these days I just learn the radicals (I've learned all of the radicals) so it's much easier. But still hard! Still boring! Ugh!

I have been learning Haskell/category theory instead of doing work. It's entertaining but I get very worried about my lack of progress on projects that I should be doing. Like I give a fuck. God, why would they give me such boring work, such little play, and such a crappy place to live? Stupid!

I have really bad dry skin at the moment. It peels off of my face. Sexy! I also have pretty bad dandruff. It's actually getting better since the temperature is going up which means that I don't have to use my heater - also, things are getting slightly less arid.

Graham is coming in a month and a half - we're going to Hokkaido. It should be awesome beyond ALL COMPARE!

---

Oh and some good news (for me, not for Graham)! The dollar is down to 96 yen! WOO! I basically got a $250/month raise since the beginning of this year! That means that I'll have at least an extra $1250 when I come back! Wooo!

Life is life.

-Chris
 
 
15 February 2008 @ 09:28 pm
There was a cat on the train today. I started laughing immediately when I saw it. How ridiculous! A cat on the train. It was very dirty. I wonder why it boarded the train.

Anyway, everyone was very happy about there being a cat on the train. It walked over to some guy and he held out its cell phone for Mr. Cat to look at. It stared at the phone for a few seconds but then the guy withdrew it. The cat apparently wanted more phone action because it sprung up onto the man and continued sniffing at the phone. The man petted it for a while (the phone, not the cat), then the cat got bored and started walking down the laps of the people. When it got to the guy at the end of the row of seats it kind of just stood on him for a while. He didn't seem to notice. He kept using his cell phone. I was flabbergasted! Seriously, he didn't notice a fucking CAT on his lap! Oh my lord. I guess his convo was pretty importo.

Anyway, when we came to my stop (Kurihira) some nice woman let the cat climb up into her arms and took it off the train.

This really happened. Seriously! Seriously! I don't think anyone's going to believe me. But it did!
 
 
13 February 2008 @ 11:09 pm
今日は日本語で書きたいんです。だけど何を書くか全然知りません。日本語であまり書きません。

毎日生活が大体同じです。

早く降りて毒々しい(ハハ)寮の朝ご飯を食べて会社に行きます。午前はあまり働かない。ニュースを読むしメールをチェックする。そういうことです。

昼ご飯は真知子と水戸訓と西崎君と一緒に食べる。食べながらしゃべります。大抵水戸は色々なアメリカにつく質問を聞きます。”ホットドッグが好きの?”ばがです。文化の質問もよく聞きます。多分私はどうやって日本語で質問を答えるか知りません。

その後で一緒にタバコ室に行きます。最近タバコをやめたからいい試験になります。時々面白い年寄り人が我々としゃべる。彼はベースバールが好きでもいい人です。

仕事に戻った後でプログラミングをしています。とてもつまらないです。

終わるとバスを乗ります。いつもバスとか電車を乗るときに自分の思いを考えたいんでもきれいな女の人を観る。それに煩い人が多いので考えられない。面倒くさいです。

毎晩3Fって言うコンビ二で晩御飯を買って寮に帰る。一人で食べても寂しくない。日本にきた後で一人で嬉しくなり方をよく学んだ。いいことだと思います。食べた後でいろんなことをしてる。最近隣の部屋の高原さんのSF-404って言うサンプラを使いました。面白いですよ!

それだけです。書きながら辞典をあまり使わなかった。カタカナの書き方だけ調べた。いい練習になりましたね!

ナギサ様間違いを直してくださいませんか?

ークリス
 
 
20 January 2008 @ 10:08 pm
Tokyo is cold.
Kanagawa is cold.
Everywhere you go, cold.
My room, cold.
The restaurant, cold.
The drive home
The train home
Cold.
 
 
09 January 2008 @ 08:36 pm
Today was a very good day. Someone said something nice to me. It's strange how infrequently anyone ever says anything really nice and honest to anyone else. But it made me feel good all day. So happy!

It's good to say nice things to people. This seems so fucking obvious, but is it? What's the last time you said something truly nice to someone? What's the last time you tried to make someone's day?

I think there's a bit of a fear that something nice is necessarily disingenuous. Our culture is full of "nice things" that aren't real or true. When we, ourselves, are nice, are we just being liars? Or worse, are we doing it for our own means?

There's a fantasy that something "truly nice" must be done entirely for the sake of another. I think this is bullshit. If my subconscious desire to say something nice to you is to see you smile, to make you like me, whatever, is it any less genuine?

I suppose that it is right to feel less than honest if your impulse is something like "I should think of something nice to say." No you shouldn't. You should do no such thing. It is not right to do anything that you think you "should do."

I think there's a common misconception that honesty is a term that can only be applied to words. I believe that this conception forces us to contort ourselves until everything but our words are lies.

Be you five or be you fifty, it is fine and right to start all over. Let your lies go! Become a new you and you are freed of any burden they might constitute; but, know that if you choose to speak a lie, or act a lie, or live a lie, you will simply have to start over.

Every "should" you think is a lie. It is a statement unrelated to truth. It is fear gripping your heart, forcing you to take an action whose effects you have not considered for the sake of an abstract, faceless, uncaring norm.

So stop thinking "should." Never think "should." There is nothing that you "should" do in any sense, whatsoever.

Ethics is the government of the soul and, like all governments, it has only the power to corrupt, to force, to destroy. Ethics is a great "not." Don't kill! Don't steal! Don't tell lies! It makes us criminals before we commit a crime! An ethical person lives in constant fear - are we being unethical? Are we doing what we should? Are we doing what we shouldn't?

Let yourself go. Do what you do. And for god's sake, realize that if you feel like saying something nice and you don't then you are just as much of a liar as if you had said something nice which you did not believe.

Inaction is action.

1 = 0.

Ohmmm.

(sorry, this doesn't really have anything to do with Japan - though I feel like my own personal emotional interests and struggles are more important at the moment than anything 'Japanese')
 
 
08 January 2008 @ 11:35 pm
I mean to write forever and without pretension or excessive preemptive consideration. Just let the whole vomitty emotional psychological mess spill out like oil drowning baby seals glug glug glug.

-----

Japan can be a bumpy road if you're driving alone. It's really not built for individuals. It's like an emotional desert, groups of nomads going here and there, from oasis to oasis together, enclosed in their fashion bubbles, signals blaring loud so that the pack can stay together stay together stay together, pack!

But for an individual it's all just foreign, like you're trapped in a bubble, a constant stranger looking out. And you're nihongo is zyouzu, ne? Always and never unaware of the fact that you are OUTSIDE and they are INSIDE and there are no doors and no windows, just a bumper sticker plastered on the opaque pastel shell offering a perpetually depressing stereotyped view of their interior, sheltered denizens, sucking on the ripe communal teat and loving every moment, drenched in sweat, perspiring to work for mother and retire at the ripe old age of DEAD.

No one gets married, no one has children, the rational among "them" can see that the crazy-eyed pikachu-suit-wearing dancers filling the streets are really androids masquerading around in some perversion of real human cuteness and they cannot bear the thought of bringing an innocent babe into this world to experience their horror.

There's no real pre-packaged good. There's nowhere to go to just get some good. All the good is cut up and dispensed among the clan. And I'm not in the clan, so there's no good left over for little me. No bonus. No nothin.

I can't even think of the last time something "good" happened in Japan. A lot of good things happened before I came here. I remember some pristine moment in May when I knew I was graduating, knew I was coming to Japan, was dating Kyrstin, had my friends around. Everything was going great. Better than great. So much good was happening.

You know what I mean by "good." I don't mean like getting good sushi or hanging out with a good friend. I mean, like "good." Like the earth moves, like tears pour, like the sun smiles. "Good" good.

-----

Anyway, Japan is what it is. It's cold. It's dark. I think that I'm suffering from seasonal affective disorder. This happens every year. Why do humans work all day in the winter? It's retarded. The only sun I see is walking to the train station to go to work every morning.

Anyway, I'm done blathering. I should go to sleep before I blather up a lather, yo.

My butt hurts, this chair sucks.
 
 
17 December 2007 @ 07:51 pm
So I went to a club in Daikanyama on Saturday night. We left the dorm at 10:30, got there at like 11:30, 11:40.

The music that was playing when we got there mad sucked. Fer serious. So boring. Drum and Bass has great potential to be fantastic, but for the most part it is bland music produced by bland people.

Bought a vodka tonic to start, could barely taste the vodka so I guess it was pretty damn weak. Pretty expensive, too. Assholes.

There were these ridiculously hot Japanese girls standing by the bar wearing pretty much full on BDSM gear. I was stunned. Thick chokers, leather chaps, they even had those flat-topped leather hats that leather daddies are so fond of.

There were two floors and the lower floor sounded like it had better music so we went down there. We bought another beer or something and one of my Japanese friends got hit on by this really tall gay american guy who told him he was "Kakkoi" (cool). Basically he said something like "you are kakkoi" which just confused the hell out of my friend who speaks basically zero of the English.

Danced a little but it was lame. Started feeling a little shitty.
It kind of sucks to go to a club with people you can't communicate with very well.
And there were all these hot guys with hot girls and I was like "damn, wish I was hot."
That was pretty much the theme of most of the night - "damn! look at her!" "oh my god, look at that ass!" etc. etc. etc.
Anyway!

Moved on to beers. Had like 3. Starting to feel the buzz. A little one, creeping up the spine. You know how my nervous system/GABA receptors do. I always find it hard to get drunk when I'm up and about.

Anyway anyway anyway, this is all boring. In fact, the night was feeling pretty dull until like 3. Photek was on from like 1:30 to 3 and he pretty much blew. His arrogance showed threw and belied a self-consciousness which was not at all appealing. He clearly has some ability but he just Tries Too Hard (tm). At this point I bought a vodka redbull and DJ Kentaro went on. Now the party got started. DJ Kentaro equals hearts + knives in them + knives in the knives.

I just went crazy. Like freaking flipping out punching the air jumping up down whatever wherever whoever. It was awesome. I love to mock people at clubs by imitating their dance moves. They always get a larf out of it and it's pretty good practice, actually. (good way to learn how to dance for those of you autistic uncoordinated MIT fucks who feel like cutting a rug but have no idea how)

Kept on dancing until like 4:30 at which point this girl basically just thrust herself at me rubbing all sorts of body parts on all sorts of body parts. She was sending me so many signals before hand. I really should have known what she wanted, but I am horrible at reading women, in general. She was really fucking fierce, goddamn. Tattoos all on her arms, not tall but obviously Built To Last - pretty ripped.

Anyway, oddly enough this is actually the FIRST time I've ever danced with a girl. Like "danced with" danced with. Isn't that fucked up? I'm 22!

I feel a lot better about approaching women, now. Apparently I'm not repulsive to all of them. I mean, I've had girlfriends, but I've always assumed that was because of my flawless personality - not my looks.

Yeah, so, DJ Kentaro finished up his set, me and Takahara and Kaeda went to Matsuya to get some shitty fried meat on crappy rice (a good way to round out the NIGHT) and got back to the dorm at 6:30 am.

---

I'm starting to get a much better feeling about clubs in general. So far in Japan I've gone to two of these all night events and had a pretty uniformly positive experience. There are downs, of course, but any experience without ups and downs is bland and worthless. Mostly, though, there are a lot of friendly people just looking to have a good time shaking their underdeveloped Japanese booties after a long week of tedious 9-7 or 9-8 workdays.

Not that there aren't dicks, too. Man, this club was full of them. Muscle-y-puffled tall american men with tiny anorexic asian girls clinging to their side, showing them off like the objects they so crave to be. Hot Asian Chicks - gotta catch em all! Probably these assholes rolled in to see Photek. He seems like their type.

I'm not bitter about the girls, though. Really! The girls they have with them always look boring as hell.

I mean, obviously my genetic imperative is telling me otherwise, but when it comes down to it give me an ugly fierce butch girl over a pampered walking
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So I went to a club in Daikanyama on Saturday night. We left the dorm at 10:30, got there at like 11:30, 11:40.

The music that was playing when we got there mad sucked. Fer serious. So boring. Drum and Bass has great potential to be fantastic, but for the most part it is bland music produced by bland people.

Bought a vodka tonic to start, could barely taste the vodka so I guess it was pretty damn weak. Pretty expensive, too. Assholes.

There were these ridiculously hot Japanese girls standing by the bar wearing pretty much full on BDSM gear. I was stunned. Thick chokers, leather chaps, they even had those flat-topped leather hats that leather daddies are so fond of.

There were two floors and the lower floor sounded like it had better music so we went down there. We bought another beer or something and one of my Japanese friends got hit on by this really tall gay american guy who told him he was "Kakkoi" (cool). Basically he said something like "you are kakkoi" which just confused the hell out of my friend who speaks basically zero of the English.

Danced a little but it was lame. Started feeling a little shitty.
It kind of sucks to go to a club with people you can't communicate with very well.
And there were all these hot guys with hot girls and I was like "damn, wish I was hot."
That was pretty much the theme of most of the night - "damn! look at her!" "oh my god, look at that ass!" etc. etc. etc.
Anyway!

Moved on to beers. Had like 3. Starting to feel the buzz. A little one, creeping up the spine. You know how my nervous system/GABA receptors do. I always find it hard to get drunk when I'm up and about.

Anyway anyway anyway, this is all boring. In fact, the night was feeling pretty dull until like 3. Photek was on from like 1:30 to 3 and he pretty much blew. His arrogance showed threw and belied a self-consciousness which was not at all appealing. He clearly has some ability but he just Tries Too Hard (tm). At this point I bought a vodka redbull and DJ Kentaro went on. Now the party got started. DJ Kentaro equals hearts + knives in them + knives in the knives.

I just went crazy. Like freaking flipping out punching the air jumping up down whatever wherever whoever. It was awesome. I love to mock people at clubs by imitating their dance moves. They always get a larf out of it and it's pretty good practice, actually. (good way to learn how to dance for those of you autistic uncoordinated MIT fucks who feel like cutting a rug but have no idea how)

Kept on dancing until like 4:30 at which point this girl basically just thrust herself at me rubbing all sorts of body parts on all sorts of body parts. She was sending me so many signals before hand. I really should have known what she wanted, but I am horrible at reading women, in general. She was really fucking fierce, goddamn. Tattoos all on her arms, not tall but obviously Built To Last - pretty ripped.

Anyway, oddly enough this is actually the FIRST time I've ever danced with a girl. Like "danced with" danced with. Isn't that fucked up? I'm 22!

I feel a lot better about approaching women, now. Apparently I'm not repulsive to all of them. I mean, I've had girlfriends, but I've always assumed that was because of my flawless personality - not my looks.

Yeah, so, DJ Kentaro finished up his set, me and Takahara and Kaeda went to Matsuya to get some shitty fried meat on crappy rice (a good way to round out the NIGHT) and got back to the dorm at 6:30 am.

---

I'm starting to get a much better feeling about clubs in general. So far in Japan I've gone to two of these all night events and had a pretty uniformly positive experience. There are downs, of course, but any experience without ups and downs is bland and worthless. Mostly, though, there are a lot of friendly people just looking to have a good time shaking their underdeveloped Japanese booties after a long week of tedious 9-7 or 9-8 workdays.

Not that there aren't dicks, too. Man, this club was full of them. Muscle-y-puffled tall american men with tiny anorexic asian girls clinging to their side, showing them off like the objects they so crave to be. Hot Asian Chicks - gotta catch em all! Probably these assholes rolled in to see Photek. He seems like their type.

I'm not bitter about the girls, though. Really! The girls they have with them always look boring as hell.

I mean, obviously my genetic imperative is telling me otherwise, but when it comes down to it give me an ugly fierce butch girl over a pampered walking <skeleton +="+" clothes="clothes"> any day, I say!

---

I figure if I start going to this one club regularly probably I'll start meeting the people there as I see them more often. I mean, the Tokyo Drum & Bass scene can't be that big, can it?

Plan!
 
 
10 December 2007 @ 10:39 pm
Today was a very emotional day.

Recently, my company has been trying to get me to install software which on MY personal computer. I am not going to do this. They can fire me if they want to fire me. Fuck them, seriously. They've already infringed enough into my personal life.

Anyway, I wanted to have a conversation about the fact that I would NOT sign the contract stating that I would install the software with my boss. I wanted to have it in private. In addition, I intended to tell him some of the (many many) things that are real dick about my company.

For instance,

My workspace:
Shitty chair, small cubicle, loud (this loser with a combover behind me hissing out his pathetic squealing giggles at the end of every sentence he makes, my good-for-fuck section manager yelling "hai hai hai" at the top of his lungs every time he answers the phone), horrible dim fluorescent lighting, etc. etc.

My dorm:
No girls, no visitors, no central heating (I have the choice of either being cold or listening to the ROAR of this ancient heating unit installed in my room).

My commute:
Over an hour each way. Often no seats. Stupid disgusting people with their horrible sweaty smells.

"Social Gatherings":
Pretty much obligatory. Very expensive. Always feel awkward so end up drinking ALOT and saying inappropriate things/being really loud.

Anyway, needless to say, a lot of issues have been building up in the back of my mind. I intended to tell him about some of them - partly to vent, partly because he might help to fix some of them (for fuck's sake, can't we at least get rid of the damned fluorescent lighting!?!)

So I started talking to him:

"You know, I came from a very liberal college - we could have people in our rooms, go wherever we wanted, had lots of free time - directly into possibly one of the most restrictive working environments known to man. And I don't even..."

At this point I just begin to BAWL right in front of him.

Luckily my boss is the physical incarnation of virtue. Quiet, sweet, sincere, brilliant. He let me cry for a while then told me that he wanted to hear about what was frustrating me. I believed him. So I let it all fly.

I could tell that it was affecting him emotionally, too. After I was done, he told me that he had a lot of the same feelings. He had lived in Finland for over a year (which I knew) and said that, coming back to Japan, he never realized how restrictive his life was. He indicated that if he were not married he would probably move to Japan. Fucking women always gotta tie a brotha DOWN.

---

Anyway, it was time for me to go home. I walked to the bus stop, feeling like crap.

Then, on the bus ride home I attained enlightenment. I was crying, grinning, total catastrophe but it was GLORIOUS radiant wonderful inspiring and perfectly clear. I have no idea what happened, but I felt much much better. Still do.

I guess I just had to get some shit out of my system.
 
 
02 December 2007 @ 07:03 pm
I wonder what it would be like to be one of the Tokyo princesses, LV bags, prada shoes, curly long died brown hair,

would it be like living beneath the surface of a bubble, staring up through the hazy rainbow-hued membrane into a smiling anthropomorphized sun, happy hardcore blaring and constantly barraged by calculated pseudo-mysterious amelie-esque forays into a western conception of love,

or is it like the life of a lost animal, compelled by fear, seeking shelter, ready to be consumed by the toothy mawed sexual predators lurking in every alleyway, tottering here and there, barely able to stand on your 5 inch heels, eyes on the ground, eyes on the cellphone, everything seen through a crosshatch of over-mascara'd eyelash, barely capable of speech?

I wonder if it's a treat to push gently up against foreigners in the subway, even when it's not crowded, just to see a reaction? impervious behind shields forged by ancient warrior-feminists who cast a spell to permanently encase the male genitalia in a chastity belt crafted of sexual harassment paranoia, transformed gender roles, and the death of the hero?

I never see them with anyone, or going anywhere, I wonder if they have homes at all or if they are really just permanent fixtures, androids produced by the Japanese Machine, carrots held in view of the salary-man-horse to impel him to greater productivity.

More output!
More beautiful women who you can never touch!
More of everything, but all just out of reach!

These bubble princesses will be the first to fall when the great economic tidal wave comes ripping through Japan. I wonder, will anyone notice the pop?
 
 
25 November 2007 @ 01:56 am
I miss driving in cars at night
 
 
23 November 2007 @ 05:41 pm
I went to this last night:
http://www.hmusic.jp/connect07/

We showed up at like 10 and didn't leave until 4:30.
One of the best times I've had in a LONG time, seriously.

We showed up a little too late, so we weren't able to check our bags or anything. That was kind of lame since the two guys I went with were paranoid and stayed by the area where we put our bags all night. I had to keep coming back to check on them since I felt bad that they were staying by the bags all the time. This was kind of lame because it prevented me from going on expeditions to meet hot Japanese chicks. Oh well. Anyway, this detail is boring.

Highlights:

The event was held in this MASSIVE arena called the kokugikan which is usually used to host sumo events. There were at least 5,000 people there. Massif.

Black guys trying to sell me ecstacy in the bathroom:

black guy 1: "Do you like to danceEEEE?"
black guy 2: "Yeah, are you going to go back out or do you want to danceEEEE?"
black guy 1: "I don't think he's interested..."

Some really bizarrely dressed old japanese guy in the bathroom going on and on about all the trash.

This group of like 5 really white people who must have been in their 50s who were clearly clearly out of place. They were dressed in really standard formal clothes. The woman was extraordinarily hot, though. By the way they dressed and the way they were acting they were clearly $$$. This brings up the interesting question of how to be "cool" when you are older/out of touch with youth culture. I already feel like I'm kind of out of touch with youth culture. I'm only 22 and the entrance requirement was that you be at least 20, so I'm only max 2 years older than anyone there, but I still felt old. Oh wells.

Some drugged-out Japanese kid getting in a shoving match with a security guard who was twice as tall as him.

Only had 4 beers in the 6 hours I was there (yeh!).

The dancing was fucking amazing. Some of the music was actually decent. In particular, Francois K lit it all up with his personality. He was this very erudite looking unshaven frenchman who gave the coordinators the finger when they tried to get him offstage in the middle of a set. Hyar. Mostly I ended up dancing with a lot of guys. One of them even gave me a hug later when he saw me in the hall (awww). It was one of the more positive situations I've been in.

We sat around in Ryougoku until 5 when the first train started. I wasn't very tired since I was still pretty high from le dance! Then took the 1:20 route back to the dorm (ugh). When I finally got back here I felt like I was going to die. Just woke up at 5:30. Everything's fucked w/r/t sleep schedules and eating protocols.

My faith in clubs is restored, which is exciting. When those motheruffs out there who are going to come visit come visit we're definitely hitting the dancefloor whether you like it or not.
 
 
19 November 2007 @ 07:48 am
This morning's so pretty.
I should get up earlier on the weekends.
Hate living life in the dark.
 
 
18 November 2007 @ 09:53 pm
SO  
So it turns out that my room has a heater.
DURRRR.
I've been cold for so long for no reason.
UGH.
Dumb.
 
 
17 November 2007 @ 12:10 am
Today I went out to dinner with some people from SECOM and learned two very important words.

腹黒い - はらぐろい - haraguroi - black stomach

This means that a person looks good on the outside but is really a twisted, disgusting sonfabitch. This was used with reference to one of the office managers whose name escapes me. Seriously, I must have been told this guy's name like 15 times, but I keep forgetting. It's some bizarre name that I haven't heard.

Anyway, I was having dinner with 3 girls and 3 guys and it was weird because all of the guys had the same impression of this sonfabitch. And I had it too. There's something about this guy's eyes, you can just tell he's evil.

There's this other manager who's pretty much the same. He's got some stupid ass hair and his two front teeth are completely corroded. A disgusting sonfa if there ever was one. And he makes this gross sound with his mouth where he slaps his lips together ever so softly. I hate that sort of gross mouth noise where you can just barely hear it. UGH.

Anyway, they're both 腹黒い. I can't tell you how I know this - I just know.

It's very weird, actually - we all had the same impressions of all the bosses even though we hadn't talked to them. There are 4 bosses:

One (main one) appears tough but seems kind hearted.
Ikeno disgusts (guy w/ corroded teeth).
Weird guy whose name I don't know just seems EVIL. Serial-killer-esque.
One is short and squat and a bit of the bourgeois pig but seems to have his heart in the right place.

The other word I learned is ゴマすり. This means literally "grind sesame seeds." It is used to mean "be nice to your boss even though you hate him/her." The guys I was with kept telling me to tell the creepy guy that they liked him. This is ゴマすり.

I find it interesting that these words would actually exist in Japanese. Such words don't really exist in English or, at least, they're not often used. I mean, "blackheart" exists, but I always called Jamie a blackheart. I mean, come on. No one takes that shit seriously.

Apparently, 腹黒い is an extremely bad word. If you call someone this you should be ready to throw down. I'm tempted. I've been wanting to fight, recently. Relieve some stress, you know.
 
 
 
 

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