Let's Enjoy Looking At "ONLINE RAIBU JOURNARU"

...about how Village Vanguard will no longer stock "books, manga, or goods with strong antisocial elements such as excessive depictions of sexuality, or murder or suicide."

Which I guess is good, but honestly I've encountered far more excessive depictions of the above in bona fide bookstores, and in much greater quantity. My main impression of Village Vanguard (where I shopped frequently over the course of five years/two prefectures) was that they were like Spencer Gifts without the slime of Spencer Gifts. Did I stumble upon the only two G-rated VV's in Japan?

That will be all.

Twenty-four post-thesis hours later found me as drained and blah as when I'd just turned the thing in, so for a bit of a pick-me-up I headed out to Kodai-ji, which is a Rinzai Sect zen temple in the Higashiyama District. It's a sub-temple of Kennin-ji, which I have always thought does one of the best jobs of both a) being a functioning Buddhist temple, and b) creating an inviting environment for visitors.

Kodai-ji doesn't seem to have much going on in the way of the former, but man are they putting effort into the latter. They actually had a native English speaker take care of the explanation brochure (plus, unlike most tourist sites, it contains all the information in the Japanese-language brochure), and they've put two guides in each of the buildings in the complex to explain things to visitors.

Which is awesome in and of its own right, but even better ( when you throw a gaijin asshole into the mix. )

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...with several of you on the flist, American arrested in Japan for kidnapping own children.

Obviously, I feel horribly for the former couple's children. That said, here's a 38-year-old man who divorced his Japanese wife in January and has already replaced her with another. Anyone who has spent time in Asia will already know where my sympathies lie concerning this dispute.

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I was recently chastised by the boss for coming in to work "late." (Where "late" = "five minutes before the start of my shift.) Apparently employees are now required to come in ten minutes before the shift officially starts...although this begs the question of why they don't just have the shift start from the time they want you there. Telling me my shift starts at 1:00 when I have to be there at 12:50 is not going to fool me.

In other Violation of Labor Law news, we were recently told that employees who work the closing shift will not receive overtime when we stay past the end of the shift (in principle, this works out to anywhere from 40 minutes to one hour after we're officially "off the clock"). The reason? Because, our break periods are not deducted from hour working hours in return. This begs the question about how breaks are handled for the people who clock out before close but still receive the same break periods, or people like me, whose shifts are set up in such a way that we don't receive any breaks. Until I receive a satisfactory answer (hah!) I have resolved to count my transportation allowance toward my overtime, and ride my bike to work the appropriate amount of days to make up the difference.

In more amusing news, the Boss Boss came up to me with a couple of pairs of long johns in his hands. (Incidentally, we sell these second-hand long johns for about $15 a pair.) "AJK-san," he said with a half-embarrassed, half-exasperated expression. "What do Americans use these for?"

"Oh," I said, somewhat taken aback. "Pajamas, or, uh, for when it's cold outside."

So there you have it, folks. Used long johns, retailing at $15 a pair because the boss didn't know what they were for.

On another amusing note, women's nighties are tagged as "fairy one piece"s and sold with the dresses.

Oh, Japan.

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I made my flight reservations for Korea last Friday. As cell phone usage is (thankfully) not permitted in the uni computer labs or research rooms, I was unable to check travel info while talking to the travel agent.

Anyway( Read more... )

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Japanese university courses are generally conducted on the following pattern: the professor assigns a student to outline each week's reading and recite said outline to the class. This means that the amount of work turned into to the professor is pretty low compared to the West; conversely, said presentation pretty much determines at least 50% of one's grade, since the professor has precious little else by which to evaluate one's performance.

Well, I was meant to give a presentation for one of my classes this coming Monday, but the weeklong cancellation in the face of the dreaded Swine Flu means the semester's schedule has been pushed back a week. Thus, my presentation is now on the 15^th. That's kind of a problem since I'll be in Seoul that day...for a wedding, no less, which it's not something I can just back out of.( And here my troubles begin. )

Luckily, Ando-sensei is ( infinitely more sensible than the college office. )

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Mon Pere, who has REFUSED for my entire life to offer advice (or even a sounding board) concerning things he is ACTUALLY EXPERIENCED AND KNOWLEDGEABLE ABOUT, like the relative merits or demerits of: career choices, education choices, banks, credit cards, loans and finances, etc. etc...

...( has now decided that he is going to find an apartment for me Kyoto. )

And oh yeah, have I failed to mention:

GUESS WHO'S GOING BACK TO JAPAN NEXT MONTH!

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A good Japanese friend of mine is currently working on her Masters in New York. Her thesis is on Japanese media in the US, and she needs more respondants for her questionaire for her anime/manga section. If any of you guys want to help out, let me know in the comments below and I can send you a copy of said questionaire, which you can either email directly back to her or send to me to forward on if you don't want a stranger knowing your addy.

Cheers!

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Awesome memeage stolen from amasugiru. Namely, ( What is your 萌えタイプ? )

That's right. Serve me. Biatch.

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Today found me driving up to C-town to attend a reception at the residence of the Consulate General of Japan. It was basically an in-and-out deal with no time for sightseeing or shopping (alas), but I did eat Ethiopian for lunch and get a chance to wear my snazzy new suit.

And make a small impromptu introduction/speech at the CG's residence, which evidently was impressive enough that a reporter from the シカゴ新報 asked whether or not I'd mind being interviewed for her paper. (Answer: not at all!) And I got chatted up by a cute junior consulate officer. (Thank you, snazzy new suit!)

All in all, a pretty good day.

That will be all.