Archive for category Life in Japan
September 24, 2004 – Japaniversary!
Posted by Barniferous in Life in Japan, Teaching English on September 24, 2014
Today is my one year Japaniversary! I can’t believe I have been living in Japan for a year already!
Even more exciting, I got official notification of my transfer. As of November 1st, I will be living in Numazu and working at NOVA’s Mishima branch. Woo hoo! More information as I get it!
September 23, 2004 – Stand By Your Man
Posted by Barniferous in Friends and coworkers, Karaoke on September 23, 2014
Tonight was Thursday Night Karaoke in Yokohama with the usual crew. I try to challenge myself with a new song or two each time. Tonight I sang “Sex Type Thing” by Stone Temple Pilots, which turned out pretty well. Later on I was inspired by The Blues Brothers and tried to sing “Stand By Your Man”. Jem came in on the duet, and completely took over the song. Somehow her British accent was completely replaced by a perfect Tammy Wynette southern twang which left us all with our jaws on the floor. Serious talent!
September 21, 2004 – Washable technology
Posted by Barniferous in Life in Japan on September 21, 2014
Looking south from a pedestrian bridge near Mukogaokayuen station
Today I did some laundry, and to my horror I found that I had left my USB memory stick in the pockets of my pants. After a trip through the washing machine it still worked perfectly. Probably not recommended.
I still haven’t gotten used to cold water wash for laundry. In most parts of Canada, washing machines use warm or hot water to wash clothes. Cold water wash seems to get the clothes clean, but it’s harder to get stains out. There is a great dry cleaning place near Noborito station that I take my work clothes to occasionally. They not only get out any stains that the cold water wash misses, but they also press and fold my shirts afterwards. Most of the teachers in the area use this laundry, so they have compiled a big list of all of the foreigner names so they don’t have to ask people with limited Japanese skills the same questions every time (address, phone number, etc). Not every business takes the extra steps to make their business foreigner friendly, so if you find one please tell everybody and make sure to give them your business.
After laundry I worked on updating my blog and got a few new pictures added.
September 20, 2004 – Sleep and hockey
Posted by Barniferous in Friends and coworkers, Hello House on September 20, 2014
If I could sum up my entire day in 2 words, those words would be sleep and hockey. I am not exactly making the most of my time in Japan, but I am okay with that.
If I could add a few more words (and I can because it’s my blog), I also watched some CSI with Okonomi. After the demise of Twin Peaks night with Zoe and Lux, Okonomi and I have been hanging out and watching CSI often, usually over a few beverages.
September 19, 2004 – The destruction of Toronto
Posted by Barniferous in Life in Japan, Movies on September 19, 2014
After work, I went to see Resident Evil: Apocalypse in Shinyurigaoka with Lux. Apocalypse is the second movie based on the Resident Evil games. The movie was predictably awful, until we noticed that the movie was obviously filmed in Toronto. The movie’s climax is a huge fight scene in front of Toronto’s unique city hall building.
Lux is from Kitchener / Waterloo which is close to Toronto, but not part of the GTA. Telling her she is from Toronto is a great way to annoy her. Toronto is Canada’s largest city, and is the city that all other Canadians love to hate. Winnipeggers still laugh about the time that the crazy mayor called in the army when Toronto got a lot of snow.
Watching parts of Toronto explode on the big screen was worth the price of admission.
(2014 Update) Leafs suck!
September 16, 2004 – NHL for Playstation!
Posted by Barniferous in Karaoke on September 16, 2014
EA Sports NHL 2002 – Japanese edition
One of the teachers I work with was shopping at a used game store, and found a Japanese copy of NHL 2002 for Playstation 2. The EA Sports NHL games did not get a large release in Japan, so this was a very rare find. Knowing it might not be around for long, he bought it for me and gave me the option of paying him for it, or having him return to the store. I had my wallet out in seconds, and resisted the urge to hug him.
After work I went to karaoke and rocked the MC Hammer classic “U Can’t Touch This”, among other songs.
September 14, 2004 – The Blue Parrot
Posted by Barniferous in Greater Tokyo Area, Life in Japan, Tokyo on September 14, 2014
A picture of The Blue Parrot from tokyosurvival.com
Today I actually woke up at a decent hour and headed to Tokyo for a day of shopping.
Since I am doing a lot of reading on the train to and from work, I was looking to buy some new books. Terry from Hello House recommended a used English book store in Tokyo called Blue Parrot. I took the Odakyu line from Noborito to Shinjuku, then switched to the Yamanote line bound for Takadanobaba.
Blue Parrot was well hidden near the station. The store was tiny, but filled floor to ceiling with used English books, CDs, and movies. Shopping for used books is always an adventure, because there are no guarantees on what you will find. I ended up walking out with some new books, a set of English – Japanese / Japanese – English dictionaries, and some CDs.
From Takadanobaba I took the Yamanote line towards Akihabara. The goal was to look for a new camera, but there were way too many stores and too many choices in each store. It was fun exploring Akihabara, but I didn’t end up buying anything.
After striking out on camera shopping, I took the Keihin Tokoku line to Yokohama. I bought a few souvenirs for my family, and a few more books for me at a new book store. My messenger bag was loaded with heavy books for my two trains back to Noborito. It was a fun day with a whole lot of walking. I was very happy to get home and unload all of the books.
(2014 Update) The Blue Parrot closed in the past few years, which is sad news.
September 13, 2004 – Tiger Mask
Posted by Barniferous in Life in Japan on September 13, 2014
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCkACTKLbto
I woke up with a headache and a raspy voice thanks to the farewell party last night. Consequently, I spent most of the day being VERY lazy. At some point I finally got off my butt and went out to rent a movie. I found the pro wrestling section of my favourite video rental store, and ended up coming home with an awesome tape of Tiger Mask matches.
Tiger Mask is a wrestling character based on a manga hero. He wrestles a high flying style while wearing his famous tiger head mask. To date, Tiger Mask has been portrayed by four different wrestlers. I believe that the tape I rented featured the original Tiger Mask, Satoru Sayama in matches against Dynamite Kid and a very young Bret Hart. Sayama was Tiger Mask in the early 80’s, but his matches (especially against Dynamite Kid) featured a fast paced, hard hitting, exciting style that was well ahead of their time. If you are a pro wrestling fan, you NEED to watch some Tiger Mask matches.
In addition to Tiger Mask, I also watched Paycheck, which could have been a lot better.
(2014 Update) In 2010, amazing pro wrestler / MMA fighter Ikuhisa Minowa became the fifth person to officially portray Tiger Mask.
September 12, 2004 – Karaoke!
Posted by Barniferous in Karaoke on September 12, 2014
After a relaxing day at Keikyu school, I went to an impromptu farewell party for the former head teacher at Kawasaki NOVA. He was moving on to NOVA’s head office in Osaka to work on the new textbooks.
In addition to his promotion, he was also the winner of the Kawasaki NOVA Olympic medal pool. He generously treated everyone to drinks at Hub Pub with his winnings. After Hub we went to karaoke. I love karaoke!
One of the regular songs in my karaoke rotation is “Baby One More Time” by Britney Spears. Tonight I ad-libbed some reasonably inappropriate lyrics that I won’t reprint here. They did get a good laugh from my coworkers.
Drinking in Japan 
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