Beautiful Morning, Somehow

Listen to "Chippoke na Yuki" by FUNKY MONKEY BABYS. It will cheer you up and make you want to dance around barefoot like a hippy.

Really, it will.

And, if you follow it up with "Itsuka no Summer", you're just a puddle of happy by the end of the day.

I'm really enjoying songs with an 'island feel" lately. The weather here has been so crazy that the smooth, happy tones of the music are helping me cling to the last bits of summer.

Time to get back to work.

*bounces*

The Sound and Function of Words

On the drive into work today, I got to thinking about why I listen to music in foreign languages.

Currently, I listen to music in: English, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, German, and occassionally French. Of those languages, I'm only a fluent speaker in English and a semi-fluent speaker in Spanish. I'm learning Japanese, learned a bit of German, and can get through the French because of the Spanish. I speak maybe three words of Mandarin.

So why? What good can possibly come of listening to lyrical music in a language you don't speak or only partially speak?

During my twenty minute drive, I figured it out - at least I figured it out in terms of me and my preferences.

Words are just like drums or violins; they have a resonance and a tempo, a distinctive chime and harmony. When we know what a sound means in a vocabulary sense, we tend to get caught up in dictionary definitions rather than just enjoying the sound. We don't rhyme words because they have similar meanings; we rhyme them because they have a similar sound and that sound is pleasing to us.

So, listening to foreign songs with my mental translator off allows me to hear the sounds rather than the meanings.

Don't get me wrong; meanings are important to a song, too. A lot of the power of a song is derrived from the lyrics, the vocabulary-based component of a lyrical piece of music. But, for me, a truly masterful song will combine a vocabulary-based meaning with the auditory quality of words. Even listening to songs in English, I will ignore the dictionary definitions of words if it sounds good. Each and every song by David Usher is an example of a word's musicality overcoming it's definition.

(＃⌒∇⌒＃)ゞ It sounds like an odd thing to think on whiel driving to work, but I guess my glut of sleep last night put me in a weird mental space.

Early to Bed

A different view of the Shitennouji lotus pond. If you squint, you can make out a koi in the water.


ﾟ･:,｡ﾟ･:,｡★ﾟ･:,｡ﾟ･:,｡☆



Today was long and boring.

I've been really discouraged by work lately - not because it's overly horrible, but because the job I'm doing doesn't actually have any point. It's a bit much to go into when I'm about to go to bed, but the futility of my job is starting to wear me down.

Hopefully, I'll be a little more upbeat when classes start next week. Only one more year and my eight years of college will be done with. After that, I'm running away to Kyuushu.

Another Long Day

As promised, more of lovely Shittennouji temple. Here is the view as you enter the garden. Somehow plants have this amazing green in Japan that we just don't get here in Colorado. If there's a shade of green that I could call my favorite, it's this bright, almost primordial green.


*:..｡o○☆ﾟ･:,｡*:..｡o○☆


Today, the troubles with the resident in 223 continued. The floors are either too thin, or she's lying to the landlord about how high her television can go. Either way, I will have to resign myself to the noise because Janet, the landlord, is getting annoyed with my complaints, even though I pay to live here in quiet.

So, to cheer me up, I'm listening to Kinki Kids. I bought "39" while I was in Japan, and I've been relistening to my favorite songs. Currently "99% Liberty" is my song of choice. It has a good tempo and I just..enjoy it. I think the PV for the song is a little strange, but most Kinki Kids PVs are strange. Let us not forget the weird squirrel girls in the "BRAND NEW SONG" PV. So strange.

It's late, though, and I should be sleeping. Tomorrow will be a better day, right? And it'll be here faster if I rest.

(@￣ρ￣@)ｚｚｚｚ

Memories of Osaka

Today, since I have time here at work, I'll relate to one and all the full version of our day in Osaka.

Leigh and I got up nice and...well, not too early, actually. We arrived in Osaka via Shinkansen around lunchtime. We weren't starving yet, though, so we made our way via subway to the glorious Shittennouji temple.

We found, when we arrived at the temple, that there was a market going on. Tents lined the temple grounds and we walked around, looking at old kimono for sale and various knicknacks. After a break to go into the temple garden - you've seen a few pictures from the garden, but I'll likely put more up later because I took a lot there - we continued to wander about. I almost purchased several very tacky handbags because, for some reason, I always want to buy tacky handbags when I go to Japan...all twice that I've gone.

Anyway, on the way out of the temple, we ran across a nice man and his tables of handmade handbags. I purchased the handbag in the picture - the one behind the Starbucks cup - from him as well as two others, one for mom and one for Val.

I'm fairly certain I got the Bug Bites of Doom at the temple. I'm not so sure bugs could really survive on the grody streets we traversed on our way back to the subway station. I'd heard that Osaka was kind of a dirty place, but I wanted to reserve judgement. Rumors sometimes prove true; Osaka is grody.

After a short subway ride, we arrived to the area of the PEACEMAKER performance. We dutifully searched out a Starbucks to pass the time until the performance, which the map showed to be just across the street.

While I am not an Osaka fan, I will say that I met my new best friend, Mango-kun, there. In the photo you will see Mango-kun in all of his frappuchino glory. Yes, the Starbucks Mango Frappuchino and I met for the first time in Osaka. Mango-kun would be my constant companion on the trip, joining me in nearly every city we visited and providing much needed refreshment. North America is behind and doesn't have mango frappuchinos, which is a constant source of disappointment for me these days.

After Starbucks and a quick cleanup in the restroom - Biore Powder Sheets are the greatest weapon against summer gross that I've ever encountered - we jaunted across the street to the alleged location of the theater.

We looked around some more. No go.

After wandering around and panicing because doors were open and we were going to be late, we decided to go back into the mall-thing across the street and ask for directions. Imagine our surprise when we see the escalator that leads up to the second floor theater, boldy declaring "PEACEMAKER this way!" - in Japanese, of course. Whomever made the map decided to be creative with street placement, it seems.

Haha. Very funny.

Because we came in late, we didn't get through the poster and pamphlet line fast enough to get into the photoset line. The photos would have to wait until after the performance. We sat down in our snazzy aisle seats and proceeded to enjoy a shinsengumi drama. It's a period play. Historical. Our interest in it had nothing to do with seeing Yazaki in crossplay or seeing Genki's guest appearance or seeing Naoya in his fabulous long hair.

Okay, so maybe those three factors swayed us a little. Or a lot. But I was two meters from crossdressing Genki and, dammit, that was worth the 7000 yen right there.

After the spectacular performance, we bought lots of photosets and snagged a cab in the hopes of not getting stranded in Osaka because we missed the last train. Lucky for us, there was still a Nozomi shinkansen left and, even though our passes didn't technically cover it, no one checked or cared so we made it back to Hiroshima in time to collapse into blissful shinsengumi-filled dreams.

And that was my Osaka experience this trip.

And Spa World is stupid and doesn't let people with tattoos in. Fie on them, I say. Fie.

Osaka Bugs and Failed Sausage Calzones

After staying in Hiroshima for cerca a week, we took the Shinkansen down to Osaka for a day for the PEACEMAKER play. I will, ah, expound on PEACEMAKER in a later, more fangirl-laden post. For the moment, I will just say that I have two bruises on my leg stillfrom bug bites I got in Osaka. The bruises are HUGE and look like I have some sort of permanent skin condition. Also, Osaka maps lie. That, too, will be discussed in the PEACEMAKER post, which will probably be written tomorrow, when I'm less zonked.


*:..｡o○☆ﾟ･:,｡*:..｡o○☆


Today wasn't bad, all told. It was long, though, and a little difficult near the end. Work went by slowly and with much boredom.

After work, Val and I decided to go to Santeramos for delicious sausage calzones. We found, to our horror, that the calzones we'd been enjoying regularly for five years now were being made with different sausage - disgusting sausage.

Wait, let me back up.

We entered the Santeramos and proceeded to queue. After we got to the counter, the three pizza drones stared at us for a bit before one came up and took our order. Val had to repeat the order three times while the drone 1) found his order pad 2) wrote down the first item and forgot the rest 3) forgot items on our order again.

After the ordering issues, we waited and received the most disgusting calzone in the world. The sausage is usually links, but now it's their pizza sausage fried into a giant patty and stuffed at the bottom of the calzone. Gross. It tasted soooooo vile.

Then, when we asked for a refund, the pizza drone wasn't going to give us one. I demanded that he call his manager and, finally, the refund was had. Val and I went to Applebee's and ordered some ridiculously hot buffalo wings to get the taste of skank sausage out of our mouthes.

So gross.

Now, after watching an episode of Gekiranger, I'm off to bed. I'm exhausted and didn't get much sleep last night but, hopefully, I can make up for it this evening.

I'm not lame...really

After some practice - probably not enough - I completed the address on my card of shame. The kanji don't look so good, for the most part, but I'm a foreigner, so just trying is good, yeah?

I thought the DarthVadar postage stamp would be appropriately cool. For the remainder of the heinous postage, I used old 37 cent stamps that I had about. Can't overuse the cool stemps, can I?

So now I'll continue with my day: a bit of cleaning, some studying, some reading. Hopfeully I can wiggle myself out of this weird gloom I've been in.

practice practice

Now I'll take things in chronological order and do a bit of story, since I haven't really been talking overmuch about the trip, and photos are fun! This is the view out Leigh's guest room window. In Japan, the houses are very close together, no yards. It didn't feel small or cramped, though, just...organized, I suppose. The streets were clean and things were nicely kept, so nothing felt like it was shoved anywhere or pressing against everything. It all felt intentional.

You can't really see the mountains in this shot, but the window has a wonderful view of the hills, and the morning fog rolling over them was such a peaceful and wonderful sight..until it started raining.


ﾟ･*:.｡..｡.:*･ﾟﾟ･*:.｡..｡.:*･ﾟ


Today for kanji practice, I'm writing 大河元気's fanmail address over and over in my notebook until I make it look nice. Then, I'll be mailing him his encouragement card for September.
(＃⌒∇⌒＃)ゞ

I didn't put any Japanese in it, though I probably could have done some simple stuff. I figured a nice, simple message in English would be nice. The message in the card reads: Best of luck in September. Work hard and stay healthy.

Nothing flashy, but it gets the point across. I just wanted to send something that said, more or less: your foreign fans are supporting you. I'm fairly certain this will do the trick.

Hopefully I won't mess up the address. Well, that's what the practice is for. If I write it a bazillion times, I'm sure to get it right, ne?

Friday feels like Wednesday

This is a bubbly mud pit from the oven hell. I failed to get a picture of the actual hell due to low batteries, but I did get this bubbly mud pit. Behold!


*:..｡o○☆ﾟ･:,｡*:..｡o○☆

I'm listening to "ウルトラマンメビウス" and "未来" a lot today. Yes, they're theme songs to Ultraman. No, I don't care. For some reason those kind of songs appeal to me today, big chorus songs with the marching backbeat and ridiculous key changes.

I've more or less decided that I won't be doing anything functional at work today. I want to listen to Hikawa Kiyoshi and RAG FAIR and drink coffee.

"Happy Lucky Beauty" has the ability to cheer me up, no matter how crappy my day is going. And, considering the day started with me halfway to work and realizing I forgot to put on deoderant, I need perking. I went to the grocery store on the way and got some deoderant, a sandwich, and coffee. Beautiful coffee.

Today I will make a concentrated effort to do very little. My bosses will just think I'm busy doing things for someone else and won't really notice. That's the bet, at least.

why do I sing...

This is a very creepy statue from the oven hell. It's some sort of raccoon in a turtle shell, dancing over a flame. It has nothing to do with an oven/kitchen that I can figure out, except for the flame. I think the statuary designer spent a little too much time near the steam and started hallucinating, thus this statue was conceived.


Today wasn't too bad. It was long, and I was pretty worn out, even before I left the house this morning, but I made it through work in tact. I may catch a nap before SYTYCD, just because I should catch what rest I can in the next few days, I think.

I haven't been doing any writing lately, aside from these posts, and I kind of miss it. There are ideas floating in my head, but I don't particularly have the mental driving time to sort through things. Perhaps I'll be able to get some paragraphs down this weekend. Lots to write, lots to write.

That's about it for the moment, actually. Time for a nap.

(@￣ρ￣@)ｚｚｚｚ