Archive for 2015
January 17, 2005 – Izakaya
Posted by Barniferous in Drinking, Friends and coworkers on January 17, 2015
After work I made yet another visit to the new izakaya “Ryuu” with some co-workers. We got 2 free orders! Ryuu is quickly becoming the popular after work beer spot for teachers, likely because it is really cheap.
There was no karaoke afterwards for a change.
January 16, 2005 – MGS3 in Japanese
Posted by Barniferous in Life in Japan on January 16, 2015
After work I went to Seiyu to buy Metal Gear Solid 3 for my PS2. I had been thinking about buying it for a few days, but all of the games are locked up in a display case. To buy anything, you need to get one of the staff to unlock the case and get the game for you.
I asked The Penpal how to ask for the game correctly in Japanese, and practiced diligently before going to the store. The purchase went off without a problem, and I happily returned home with my new game.
When I bought MGS2 I was pleasantly surprised to find that the game was playable in English or Japanese. I assumed that would also be the case for MGS3. I was wrong. The version that I bought was playable in Japanese with Japanese subtitles only. The story is set during the cold war, and includes lots of talk about politics, nuclear arms treaties, and patriotism. All of those topics are far, far beyond my Japanese skill level. I can play the game, but I can’t understand 90% of the story. Even so, the game is still pretty freaking great.
January 14, 2005 – Good food
Posted by Barniferous in Life in Japan on January 14, 2015
I had a fun night out with The Penpal in Numazu. We ate some great Japanese food.
(2015 Update) I really wish I had kept more details about what we ate or had maybe taken a picture or two. If you are ever living away from home, take pictures of EVERYTHING. You will want to remember it all someday.
January 11, 2005 – Grilled mochi
Posted by Barniferous in Life in Japan, The Penpal on January 11, 2015
Grilled mochi picture from http://spontaneoustomato.com/2014/01/30/yakimochi/
Today I had a lazy day off. In the evening, The Penpal’s family took me out for delicious ramen. Yum! After dinner, we went back to their house and had grilled mochi, which is a Japanese New Year’s tradition.
I learned about New Year’s mochi in my Introduction to Japanese class that I took in University. The classic tradition is to take rice and pound it with a giant wooden mallet until it turns into a sticky rice cake. I was hoping to get a chance to try out my mallet swinging skills, but found out that all of the mochi had already been made in The Penpal’s aunt’s mochi machine. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed, but it was probably for the best. At my best I am pretty clumsy and would have likely smashed someones fingers with the mallet.
We grilled the mochi on a small indoor grill, and then ate it wrapped in seaweed or cheese. The rice cakes were sticky and delicious, and it was a fun experience for all. It was also very good Japanese practice for me. Good times!
January 9, 2005 – Poor choices
Posted by Barniferous in Drinking on January 9, 2015
Going out for 100 yen beer after a late shift does not make for a fun start to an early shift. Urgh.
January 8, 2005 – New Izakaya! 100 yen beer!
Posted by Barniferous in Drinking, Life in Japan on January 8, 2015
After work, I went with Palmer to a new chain izakaya called Ryuu. It has great atmosphere with tatami mat floors and low tables. More importantly, it features 100 yen draft beer (about $1) and 260 yen orders of food. The 100 yen beer even comes with a small mystery snack. Palmer was friends with one of the staff, so we got a free order of food.
You really can’t beat 100 yen beer.
January 7, 2005 – First day back at work
Posted by Barniferous in Life in Japan, Teaching English on January 7, 2015
Today was my first day back at work after my vacation to Canada. I expected to be really tired due to jetlag. Somehow, I managed go get through the day without any serious problems. The only major issue I had was that I kept writing December 2004 on all of my student files.
January 6, 2005 – Back in Japan
Posted by Barniferous in Life in Japan on January 6, 2015
I left Winnipeg on January 5, 2005. Due to the international date line, I landed at Narita Airport on January 6.
When I first arrived in Japan in September 2003, it took me about 90 minutes to get through immigration and customs. Now that I am a legal resident of Japan, I can use my gaijin card to enter the “resident of Japan” lanes which are much faster than the “foreigner” lanes. It took me only a few minutes to get through both immigration and customs. I love my gaijin card!
I took the Narita Express to Tokyo station, and then took the Shinkansen to Mishima. At Mishima I took a regular Tokaido line train to Numazu. The Narita Express goes to and from the airport, so there is a lot of good storage space for luggage. The Shinkansen doesn’t have the same ample space, so traveling with a large suitcase can be challenging. Tokaido line is simply not fun with a large suitcase.
At Numazu station I caught a taxi to take me back to my apartment. Thanks to previous experiences, I am now fairly capable at communicating where I want to go with taxi drivers. It was a long day of travel, but it was good to be back at my second home.
January 5, 2005 pt2 – Catwoman is simply awful
Posted by Barniferous in Movies on January 5, 2015
After some weather related delays in Winnipeg, I finally got to Minneapolis with 3 hours before my flight to Tokyo. I grabbed a few souvenirs for The Penpal and her family in the airport, then went to the gate to hang out before my flight.
As we got close to boarding time, Northwest announced that the flight to Tokyo was overbooked, and they were looking for volunteers to take the next day’s flight. They were offering $750 in flight credits and a free night in a hotel. I started considering spending the rest of the day at Mall of America and using $750 towards a future flight home. I then remembered that I was scheduled to work the day after I got back to Japan, and didn’t have the contact information to inform NOVA that I would miss my shift. Also, the flight credit was only good for a year, and I wasn’t sure when I would be coming home again. As much as I like free money, it wasn’t a good choice so I stayed quiet as they kept searching for volunteers.
The flight to Tokyo left on time, and I settled in for 12 hours in a tiny airplane seat. They showed 3 movies on the flight, Shark Tale (good), Little Black Book (which I slept through), and Catwoman.
I have seen some bad movies in my time. Terrible movies. However, I pride myself in surviving through to the end of every terrible movie I have started, with two exceptions: It’s Pat The Movie, and The Pest. If I had an option, I would have happily added Catwoman to the list. To say that Catwoman sucked would be unfair to other things that suck. It was simply shockingly dreadfully awful.
Everything about the movie was bad: the plot, the acting, the dialogue, the horrible tacked on romance, and the discount CGI scenes of Catwoman flying around the city. The action was particularly bad, with so many quick cuts and shaky camera scenes that it was impossible to tell who was doing what to whom. I actually started thinking that a nice 36,000 foot drop into the Pacific Ocean might be less painful that watching the movie.
At this point you might be wondering “why didn’t you just read a book or fall asleep or something other than watching Catwoman?”. When I started realizing just how awful the movie was, I had no choice but to see how much worse it was going to get. Also, every other movie I will ever watch after Catwoman will seem better by comparison. It allowed me to recalibrate my “good movie / bad movie” scale.
If you ever want to punish yourself for something you have done wrong with your life, I recommend watching Catwoman in a tiny, uncomfortable seat while breathing recirculated air with no chance of escape. It is a cleansing experience that will help you atone for your sins. You could also perform your own dental surgery – either one is good.
So awful.
January 5, 2005 pt1 – Too cold to take off
Posted by Barniferous in Return to Canada on January 5, 2015
I was awake at 4:45am Winnipeg time, and managed to get to the airport at 5:30. It was below minus 35 degrees outside, so I was looking forward to getting back to a more sensible winter in Japan.
When I checked my bags, the employee at the Northwest airlines counter switched my seat on the Minneapolis to Tokyo flight so I could sit in an exit row. I am not a very tall person so leg room is not usually an issue on flights, but I was not about to turn down extra space. After checking in, I was pleasantly surprised that my friend Janet woke up early to meet me at the airport for a farewell Tim Hortons coffee.
After a short visit, I went through security where I was randomly selected to have my bag searched and shoes X-rayed. This was my first time ever to be selected for this kind of screening. It was a minor annoyance and was over quickly.
The major annoyance came at boarding time. Northwest announced that the air temperature on the runway was -35 degrees, and that their deicing fluid was only certified to -33 degrees. They said that we could not take off until the temperature increased enough to deice the plane.
There are a lot of annoying delays with air travel. However, people are far less likely to complain about delays related to safety. Nobody wants to take a chance with frozen wings on a plane. After about 30 minutes of waiting, Northwest announced that they were going to borrow some of Air Canada’s heavy duty deicing fluid so we could finally leave. I am not sure why Northwest didn’t have the serious deicing fluid in Winnipeg (Winterpeg), but that was probably a decision by someone in a warm office somewhere far to the south.
Remember friends – when traveling in the winter, make sure there is lots of time to catch a connecting flight in case it is too cold too take off.
Drinking in Japan 
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