The Trippiest Room of the KIT Campus

First, think about what the collection of someone who compulsively bought mainstream American music from 1960 to about 1990 would look like if they hung the records at random over the surfaces of the downstairs of their house. Think the Beatles and the Rolling Stones but also Cher and Journey and David Bowie and Queen and John Denver and the Beach Boys. Think about records, real vinyl records, and the huge cover art that fits on a disc the size of your torso. Think about this vinyl taking up a large portion of a large room, over the walls and sorted neatly into storage bins, with incredible, original, forty year old absolute classics mixed in with discs that should properly be Shaun-of-the-Dead'd at the heads of onrushing zombies.

For those unfamiliar, hilarious movie, go watch it, and this one is the "before" picture:


This one is the "after":

Going back to this large collection of records. Thinking about that instead of zombies with pieces of records sticking out of their faces? No? A large room, a bajillion records, truly mixed taste in music? Better? OK then, that makes it time for another movie reference. Take that room you're seeing, and combine it with a room filled with the mind-erasing machines from Total Recall. You can picture Ah-nold in this room in the chair, but only if he is a short, thin, Japanese male who is currently asleep.


This new hybrid room would then be pretty funky, right?

KIT has this room. We have pictures. You can check it out in the gallery. I think their funding ran out fifteen years ago or something because they definitely stopped buying music before Nirvana (they have a small collection of CD's of newer, mostly Japanese music). But the jukebox works and they will turn it on for you if you ask and it's loaded with awesomeness from way back. Never tried one of the brainwashing / noise canceling listening chairs because I'm pretty sure they would try to program me to like natto and red bean paste or something and there's really nothing to be gained there. Ana found this place a while back and I've found it completely trippy every time I've been.

Wasn't that better than an ikebana post? I call for a vote in the comments section.

And Now For...

...more interesting Japanese foods! (Lee - that's the one exclamation point I'm allowing for this post. The rest will be edited out. Thank you.)

Today, we bring you Japanese Freeze-Pops, flavored (sometimes with real fruit juice) and sold in plastic containers. They recommend keeping them in the fridge for a quick drink, mixing them with soda (I think that's what the picture says) or freezing them for a frozen dessert. This batch is supposed to be apple, grape, and orange, but I think it's just apple and grape. I used some of the apple ones instead of ice for an orange juice/yogurt smoothie, and have had some others for dessert. Looks strange, but tastes exactly like the ones you'd get at any Little League field.

The other day, I made some pasta sauce for dinner. We've found a couple of really good bakeries around town, but this particular day was a Wednesday, the day the local one is closed. I was taking the bus to the foreign foods store in Nonoichi anyway, so decided to try out another one I'd heard good things about. I was able to get the baguette for dinner I was looking for, and just couldn't pass up these little rolls - if you can't tell, they're a koala and a penguin. They also had a panda. Upon biting into the roll, I found that the penguin has a caramel-like interior, and the koala had a chocolate filling. Knowing Japanese tastes, the panda probably was filled with red bean paste, so I was glad I went with the koala. These rolls were actually pretty good, and something I wouldn't mind going back for sometime. The bakery is right next to a Starbucks (yes, they really are everywhere) and a penguin with a chai sounds like a perfect snack while meeting some of the women here to hang out and knit. Must keep this in mind when school starts up again.

There really is no way to fully describe this next one. It's a very interesting item Lee got in his mailbox at work, which is normal since they put food there several times a week. It's got spots of gold leaf, jiggles in an odd fashion, and in color, it has bright pink spots with yellowish to greenish in between. It's also obviously covered in sugar. We haven't been sure what to make of it. The very small piece I ate tasted kind of like wax.

Some Flowers!

Since I took so long finishing the Disney posts, here's a few Ikebana arrangements for your viewing pleasure:

Lovely lilies and Birds of Paradise...Bird of Paradises...nice flowers.

Closeup on the pretties.


I loved the flowers and the leaf, but not so much the big pointy things.


See? Awesome flowers.


This is another really cool one. The pink edging on the leaves with the pink carnations and the white flowers for the main branches to set it all of...awesome.


See the pink on the leaves? Tres cool!


Sunflowers that refused to cooperate.


Most recent one. I like this one, with the Bird of Paradise and the ferns, the lily and the red fuzzy flowers.


Close-up of the center of the piece. I really should figure out what the flowers I use are called!

There were actually two other arrangements in between, but I managed to lose a piece of one of them on the way home and was so upset that I never photographed it. It looked awesome at school, and just wasn't the same after. The other one never cooperated. The flowers wilted right away and there were branches with spiny spheres on top that liked to attack. I'm really enjoying learning how to arrange the flowers!

Mountaintop Barbecue!

I went out with some friends to cook some meat over some flames on the top of a mountain. At this point, it was a few weeks ago, but it was a good time!

We took a gondola up...


up...


up...


to the top of the mountain. You could purchase packs of food that came with meat, noodles, and vegetables, as well as some oil to cook the noodles and vegetables. The grill had both a grate for cooking meat and a pan for cooking the noodles and vegetables on. Parasailers take off from this mountain and land (I think) on a target that was cut into the grass below. It's a pretty nice area, and a good time for a picnic! While we were there, a troop of Japanese boy scouts (mostly girls) were also on top of the mountain. They were so adorable! They were little, couldn't have been more than six, and had squirrel patches, if that means anything. I wouldn't know.

All in all, a fun trip! Interesting to see things that are similar between Americans and Japanese but still so different. Grilling in the park, but with noodles!

KTC Sports Day

The day before Golden Week break was Sports Day, a kind of Field Day for the students. There were relay races, Capture-the-Flag style games, Tug-of-War contests, and obstacle courses. It was an entire day out in the sun, and while I made sure to stay shaded all morning, I did not protect my face all afternoon so got sunburned before even going on vacation. Not badly, but definitely pink!

As an aside, they tend to be very afraid of freckles and tanning here, and women will cover up more during the summer than the winter! Lots of long arm gloves, hats, and umbrellas, and fewer short skirts and leg-baring garments. Strange. Even stranger is that the sunscreen is amazingly expensive and comes in tiny containers. Umbrellas are everywhere when the sun is out.


Back to the Sports Day. It began with a group exercise. The entire school was lined up, and everyone did the exercises. There is a set exercise regimen; they all knew which exercises to do when. Very basic stretches, each one held for a count of eight, and done pretty quickly. There were speeches, because nothing can be done without a speech here, and there was loud music played all day. We were out on the soccer/baseball field. Another aside: Japanese sports fields (soccer, baseball, what-have-you) are dirt, not grass, not turf, but plain old dirt. Odd. /Aside.

The games they played were pretty interesting. One was a team Tug-of-War where the teams started at opposite ends of the field, and about 15 ropes were in the center. When the whistle blew, they had to run and bring back as many ropes as possible, leading to huge fights over the last couple. There was a capture the flag game with teams of at least 20 students. There were four students per small group, and three held up the fourth who had a flag taped to his back. The one being held up, like chicken but with three people as the base, would try to grab the flag from the other students being held in a similar manner. Once your flag was gone, your group was out of the game.


There were multiple relay races, and in one of them, students had to pick up slips of paper that listed a specific teacher or staff member, or described one, like a married professor, or in my case, a pretty female professor. The staff member had to run, holding onto the students hand, to the end of the field. Very different, yet lots of fun! There was a multi-legged race where first there were two people, then there were four, and it kept going up until there was an 11-legged race for the finish line. Some groups were really well coordinated, and others bit the dust. Literally. Some of the relay races included sack races, obstacles, and other aspects to make it interesting, like fishing for candy in a tub of flour using only your mouth.


The kids played each game for points. Different games were worth different amounts of points, and instead of being differentiated by grade, the students were in teams by major. There are three majors here, mechanical, electrical, and computer, so three teams competing for points. They had many games that required many players, and all of the relay/obstacle course races had large teams. Obstacle courses would be run I think eight times by eight students from each major, and I believe they would get points based on the ranking of each individual runner. I'm still not sure how the point system worked. The mechanical engineers won by a fair amount though, so that was nice.


All in all, it's nice to see that the Japanese have something like the American school Field Day, and interesting to note that while Field Days are typically for elementary or maybe middle schools, even the high schools get a Sports Day here. The games are a mixture of things you'd see in America, like relay races, obstacle courses, sack races, and Tug-o-War, but also a few things you'd never see in America because the legal system would eat you.

Disney the Ninth: Faster Than A Speeding Bullet (Train) (Day 5)

For our last day in Tokyo, we went to a very Westerner-friendly part of Tokyo called Roppongi. I'm not sure I saw any Japanese while we were there! We went to a foreign foods store and found molasses, Fruit by the Foot, Florida's Natural Orange Juice, and peanut butter sold in denominations larger than 8 oz. We then went to a Mexican restaurant and had real tomato salsa with cilantro on corn chips (all unobtainable to our knowledge in Kanazawa) and a very good lunch.


Going back to Kanazawa, we took the Shinkansen, or bullet train. It took eight hours for us to get to Tokyo, but four to get home, and that's with a train transfer. The train station was a well organized madhouse. People everywhere going every which way, multiple trains going in and out, and everything running exactly on time. We were fairly confused at first, but managed to find our way to the correct platform before the train left. There are signs everywhere overhead, pointing you in the right direction, and helpful staff who can tell you which platform you should be headed toward if you can't figure out your ticket or read the signs well enough to find your destination. Some of these stations can be literally miles long inside while having very irregular shapes and eight stories of depth change between one part and another, so the help is pretty much necessary.


We were surprised upon seeing the trains, because the trains had an upper and a lower seating area. Everyone else on the train knew if their seat was lower or upper, except of course us, so we caused a minor traffic jam getting onto the train trying to figure out if we were supposed to take the stairs up or down. Our seats were on the lower area. Once on the train, we were surprised by the seat instructions. The seats were very adjustable for your comfort:


The seats were pretty comfortable and nice, and the ride was smooth and enjoyable. We had enough space for all our luggage, and everything went well. We got to see a lot of interesting Japanese countryside as the ride went on:

We also took a lot of pictures during the trip. As always, more on Flicker, and here's a few:

Disney the Eighth: And Then The Rains Came (Day 4)

Warning: If you're not that into Disney, you might just want to scroll though the pictures!

Our last day at Disney, we went for the park opening and were determined to fully use our park hopper passes in order to see everything we've missed and then some. The morning went well. In the afternoon, the skies decided to open. It rained from around 2 pm and continued for the most part until we left the park in the evening. We got some t-shirts for my family, who wanted shirts, and tried to watch Mythica, the afternoon water show in DisneySea. There's floats and kites and jet skis with songs, dance, and the typical Disney characters in special attire in the lagoon at DisneySea. Sadly, they had to cancel the show midway through due to the monsoon-like conditions.


Of course, being our last day, we decided to stick it out. What's a bit of rain? I wound up wearing the hoodie I had purchased for my sisters, and we got the cheap Disney ponchos (as well as a new hoodie, because that one is now mine). First time I've ever bought a poncho in Disney, but it really was necessary! Japan is an umbrella society. Once it began raining, many people brought out umbrellas. I have no clue where they were keeping them, since they for the most part weren't collapsible umbrellas. As the rain was chasing most people away, we figured it was a good time to attack the Monsters Inc. Ride and Seek line. It was 220 minutes, or 3 hours and 40 minutes. We figured that since so many people in line had umbrellas and it was raining the wait wouldn't actually be so long...


...sadly, 2.5 hours later, they dissolved the line because the ride broke down. We did get passes for any major ride we wanted to go on for the day, good for one ride for that day only. We checked back a few times, but the ride was not fixed. It's supposed to be like the Buzz Lightyear ride, except with flashlights instead of lasers. I suppose we will never know. Unless, of course, we go to California, because they have I believe the same ride there, or if people come visit Japan and want to go to Disney here. You should come visit, you know you want to see Tokyo Disney!

We spent the rest of our day wandering about and enjoying the rain. I could have gotten the caramel popcorn, finally, because there was a small line, but I did not feel like it. Lee spent some time stalking the custodial staff. They had giant squeegees for the street, to push the rainwater into the drains so that people could walk through the park safely. Lee was highly amused.

We went into shops, and had dinner in a lovely little Italian style place in DisneySea. DisneySea serves alcohol, so we got a half bottle of red wine to go with our pasta dishes and vegetable soup. A nice, warm meal to help us heat back up. This was the only non-reserved dinner we had, and it was pretty good and cheap. I really wanted to catch the parade, but sadly, they cancelled it due to all the rain. I suppose floats composed mainly of lights and electric parts probably shouldn't be operated in heavy rain. We used our day passes at the Buzz Lightyear ride because at this point, we realized we wouldn't be getting to go on the Monsters Inc. ride. I beat Lee, but only because I had a lucky shot on one of the major targets. The Tokyo version is nearly identical to the Florida one, with one enjoyable exception. The targets you're shooting at are color coded for the different point values, so you know what to go for. The targets also light up nicely when hit. I don't remember if the Florida ones did that, but in Tokyo, once the target is hit it blinks and goes dark for a moment, then lights back up so you can shoot it again. Much easier to tell what targets you've hit and to go for the high value targets.


We went back to DisneySea for dessert to finish off our evening. I had noticed a gelato place and wanted to get some gelato and hot chocolate before finishing our Disney experience. I got a double scoop of grape and chocolate, Lee got some blood orange which he said tasted like orange Tic-Tacs. It was sprinkling a bit, but we got our desserts and went to watch BraviSEAmo! again, and because of the rainy conditions, they were able to light off all of the pyrotechnics! It was even better, and so amazing. The volcano shoots off fireworks, and the dragon has built-in sparklers; it's just awesome! This was pretty much the perfect end to a really good trip to Disney. Then, we stayed for the actual park fireworks, because they were finally able to show them. Because the two parks are so close together, the fireworks are shot off between the parks, behind the MiraCosta hotel in DisneySea and the castle in DisneyLand. They play the same Disney music to accompany the fireworks in both parks. Really quite a let down after the amazing performance of BraviSEAmo!, but at least we got to see them! I'd love to go back again, especially to DisneySea. It was truly breathtaking, and the shows there are simply spectacular. I'm really glad we were able to go.

Disney the Seventh: Line, Line, Everywhere A Line (Day 4)

Warning: If you're not that into Disney, you might just want to scroll though the pictures!

Today, we decided to go to Disney Land for the gate opening. We did not want to get there at 6:00 AM to get Fast Passes for anything, we just wanted to see the spectacle. We'd heard that when the gates open, everyone runs in to get the fast passes for the big rides, Pooh's Hunny Hunt, Monster's Inc. Ride and Go Seek, and Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters. They actually do! We ran too, just for the fun of it. People are amazingly patient and well organized. As you can see, everyone just stood in their line, waiting to get in. Of course, more people were still on their way, as this was approximately 20 minutes before the gates opened. We ran to Tomorrowland, hoping to maybe get in line for either Fast Passes for later or for the rides themselves, since everyone else would be waiting in line for FastPasses. We made our way towards Tomorrowland, and then we saw the line for the FastPasses for Monster's Inc. Ride and Go Seek. It was huge. The following picture is the line for Fast Passes for the ride at 8:15 - the park opens at 8:00:


The line for Ride and Seek was massive the entire time we were there. Huge. I think all of the FastPasses were gone by 9:00 AM. The line for the ride itself was never under three hours. Crazy! We grabbed a FastPass for Space Mountain and went on the ride, as the wait was under 10 minutes. This one has people sitting side by side, instead of in laps like the US versions, and is in my opinion better. I was glad we had both the FastPass and went on Standby. Before going on again, we swung around to the Monsters FastPass to see the wait time for the ride. This is at 8:43 AM, not even an hour after the park opens. The FastPasses are already gone before 7 pm and the wait time is over six hours. Six hours for a ride? I might be crazy, but I am not that crazy!


We were very interested in the Ride and Seek line. It stretched forever! It went from one end of Tomorrowland to the other. The red line in the picture is where the line was - from behind Space Mountain (#8), across Star Tours (#1) and over to #7, the actual Ride and Seek building.


It just kept going...


and going...


and going...


and going...


and going...


and continued on inside for a bit as well, I'm sure!


Popcorn lines were still massive. The soy sauce and butter one was worth photographing. It's just popcorn! Why would you stand in line for popcorn for longer than some rides? We saw the Mickey's Music Revue, the last one in all of the Lands. It's already gone, but it was very interesting and disturbing to hear Disney classics from Snow White, Alice in Wonderland, and other cartoons sung in Japanese. There was no wait. We only had to wait for the show to begin, and the theater wasn't even one quarter full. Sad, really. It was an adorable, but obviously outdated animatronic show. Awesome to see that and then some of the newer animatronics in other attractions to see how far the technology has come. We also saw some local wildlife. They're as tame as the ducks in all the other Disney parks I've been to. They have interesting orange tips on their beaks, but other than that are the same as US ducks. (Lee - I would like you to note that she's been trying to get a picture of these Japanese ducks since we moved here but did not get a decent close up until I pointed out this fine opporunity presented by Disney's domesticated ducks.)