overwhelming

there has not been one day in Japan when i did not feel compelled to write in my blog. notice how there have been many days where nothing has been written. I hate long entries and some days I know that's what will happen if I start letting thoughts escape. This also explains the short, random quips in the middle of entries. I'm thinking about getting a tape recorder and making an audio diary. I have never had a diary and writing is not the form for me, at least rightnow.

i finally met a foreigner yesterday. She's from canada. I ran into her (or she into me) at the grocery store. It turns out she's an English tutor for one of my co-workers. So now I'm officially surrounded by 6 million Japanese and one Canadian. Ain't life grande.

Last night I went to the gym. It was the third day in a row I kicked my own ass. I will probably go for a run later and make it four for four. This will happen right before the AIESEC party. It's funny because they don't call it a party. They call it a drinking party. For some reason, party does not imply drinking. I laughed; no one else got it. To get to the party I have to take a train, except I've never traveled on this providers tracks. There are 4 different railway companies. Why doesn't the US use trains again? Shima-san said he bought a new van in April of this year. It now 1,800 miles on it. I put more miles on my pile in the first two weeks of acquiring my license.

It's very weird having money. I've been keeping track of my finances (cause I'm anal) and I didn't even spend half of my monthly stipend. That's sad. I think I'm living like a king, but hey, I guess there's still room for growth. Problem is I have no wants. I'm doing everything I want to. I need to think bigger. I guess this Egyo reunion will put me under. I'm going to look harder into that charade. badger game is once again not being televised over the internet. pos.

Last: I'm going to the batting cages on sunday. Company pays for it again. I suck at baseball. I just love following it. I guess that wasn't relayed to clearly. Afterwards we're going to a hot springs. Once again, nothing is coming out of my wallet.

Back to the Basics

Today I found out I was an uncle, in my life's confusing way. Funny thing is that today wasn't the first day. weird.

I also went running today with the 'Toyo Running Club.' It was just me and one other guy. He's not in my dept. We turned the 3000m course into a long chat. I found out that the owner of Toyo is a crazy runner. He's 60 and he still runs marathons! In fact, the guy still runs 8km EVERYDAY! That's how much I did in HS and he's triple that age. The other half of the TRC also said that he ran a 100km race. 100!! A marathon is only 46km. And he did it when he was 58 and he finished in 6.5 hours. That's freaking crazy. Then he went on to tell me when the pres of Toyo was in his 30s or 40s, can't remember, he ran a 250km race. Do you have any idea how far that is? He said it took him 46 hours. 46 hours for a race!!! After we finished the short jog and my p went back to work at 7PM, i decided to head out for a real run. 250km! That's getting put on my list of things to do before I die. That probably also means I will have to do that in the next 5 years, as my heart, knees and hips aren't going to put up too much longer with the stress I'm putting them through. This leaves me with one last thought: a freaking plan to do one of those things I promised myself I would do before I died. I'm running a marathon.

Line-up:
Oct 23 5km Race
Nov 13 10km Race
Dec 23 International Marathon

Only one thing might change this: Hawaii. At the gym there are a bizillion posters advertising this race. Apparently almost 60% of the registrants are Japanese. And almost 40% are running their first marathon. It's Dec 13ish. This might trump a marathon in Japan. Either way, this things getting freaking done.

Do Not Access

I've slowly been brought up to speed on the Eddy Curry case. For those of you who don't know, Eddy Curry is an NBA 'star.' He was one of those million other high school phenoms that skipped college and went straight to the money. 3 years later, his heart skipped a beat, and his team, the Chicago Bulls, refuse to sign him to a long-term deal. Publicly, the Bulls have said that the only reason for this, is that they are worried about his heart condition. The rest of the article you can find here.

The paraphrased article:

If you don't submit to DNA testing, we won't sign you.

Has anybody else seen Gattaca? Sound familiar? I'd say similar at least.

ON th up side, AIESECers are having a party this weekend. I'm excited to say the least. It will be weird, though, since AIESEC-Japan does not know any 'AIESEC dances' and the party has to end at midnight. It'll still beat the Frenchies.

A Great Day for the state of Wisconsin

UW beats UM, just took 11 years. Brewers beat Cardinals, get back to .500 at the END OF SEPTEMBER. I believe the Brew Crew has had something like 11 losing seasons. It's looking better and better that this one will end in a week.

There is no sports bar in the Kansai area that has college anything. I looked. I am very disappointed. I signed up for online telecasts of college football. It's better than checking box scores that update 30 min later, but still not the same. It's also not the same as sitting in the Den of 225 W Gilman with T-rent sipping on great Wisconsin beers in my boxers watching the game on a TV with speaker wire and a hanger as the antenna.

I'm meeting up with a gal from work and her friend later today to go shopping or something. I'm not really sure. They will be attending a Ben Folds concert afterwards.

I got lost running yesterday. I was past the halfway point of my usual run and I was only 20-some minutes in, so I decided to go a little further before turning back. WOW. Unlike Wisconsin where roads are straight (yes, even in Madison), Japanese roads turn and twist like no other. I knew the general direction of where I was and where I had to go, but the roads did not go with my desired path. I ended up turning my 35 minute run into a 65 minute one. I got to see more of Itami, I think.

Frustration

I just tried to finally add a picture to my blogger profile. Once again, a failure. I finally figured out everything in the browser to then find out my photo is too large. I have W2k on my comp and everythingis in japanese. I have no idea how to edit the photo. Anyways, I uploaded a photo from Halloween two years ago on flickr. It doesn't really do justice to the Madison Halloween extravaganza, but I've been reviewing pictures of old. All the ones I like I have long hair; really long hair. I'm still cutting it this Friday.

through another's eyes

After following countless links, I came upon this history of a blogger's life. He's from Japan, and it was very interesting to read what event's he noted and how he noted them. It's like US and Japanese history rolled into one, without the American pride. It also hit me that the JR-Tokurazuka train crashed this year. Many people have brought this up in conversation to me since I have been here. Kato even told me the exact turn it happened on. For those that don't know. This is the only JR line that goes from Itami to anywhere. I ride this line at least 5 times/week, if not more. Crazy thinking that over 100 people died from a conductor going too fast.

Comin' Down (comin' down) is the Hardest Thing (hardest thing)

I'm bored at work once again. I'm 90% completed on a report my boss just told me he doesn't need till the end of next week. The other guy I talk to all the time is gone till October. He's in Akron, Ohio, giving a 25 min presentation in English. It's at a national tire convention. He's presenting Toyo's new analysis technique for predicting tire noise. Last Friday, I had to read his entire presentation into a tape recorder. He wanted to hear the pronunciations. He told me the hardest part would be questions. This should be obvious to me as he still struggles with listening to English. It wasn't as, questions at the end are the easiest part of my presentations. My brain works better when I am presented with random questions. I think that's why I excel on most tests.

I bring this up because I have been working writing reports for 3 different types of tires. Each tire has between 2 and 3 different test models. Each test model has 5 different tests.

I was most efficient when I had the most work on my plate. (Thanks for the chopsticks too)

3 day week one third done

Monday and friday are national holidays. I'm getting my haircut friday. My hair doesn't even cover my eyes and I'm already sick of it. I have a mini-'fro everyday. It's still over 90 with high humidity. This is the main culprit of the 'fro. I haven't been to the gym in 6 days. It feels like forever. On a bright note, I ran with the company running club tonight. We did a short warm-up and then ran 3000m, which is a little less than 2 miles. We started off with a pretty slow jog. Then we picked it up at the half way point and we cruised in at about a 6:15 second mile. I realize now that running with people is SOOO much easier than running by yourself. The youngest guy I run with is 27. Ha. None of them look 40, and yet the really good guys are hittin' their mids already. They enter races every two weeks, so it looks like I might be able to participate a lot while in Japan. I miss running a ton. I also ran Saturday for 40 minutes. It kicked my ass, but I felt awesome afterwards.

I'm torn. Should I watch the UM/UW game this Sunday? The game starts at 9am and I'm not even sure if a bar will have the game on. I really miss football. I virtually threw away last season and now I'm missing another. The reason I'm torn is because this is the last week of the World's Fair. It's only an hour and a half away by train. I have no one to go with, but I think I gotta go. This is my only chance. How many times does the World's Fair go to where you are in a lifetime? Not just that, the fair stands for everything AIESEC does. Growing up bleeding cardinal and white is not helping right now.

I'm blaming my recent insomnia on this predicament. One more days sleep; then it's decision time.

The start

I was abrutly woken up this morning by an electronic bell that sounds like a fire engine. This would be the phone for the building. You know the kind where the people outside call up to say,"I'm here. Let me in." Only this isn't the cool kind where you then hang up and press a button and the door downstairs magically opens. Nope. This is like the 225 Gilman ringer. You hear it. You know that someone is there, but you still have to walk your lazy ass downstairs to let them in. The one perk is that this one is a phone, not just a buzzer. So, surprisingly (not really) on the other end was a person trying to speak to me in Japanese. I couln't understand anything.

I made the trek downstairs and to my surprise, it's the Fedex guy. He was carrying a box and said, "MIKE. HI," and then pointed to the box he was holding. This is deceiving as Hi actually means Yes. But he seemed polite so I signed the slip and took the box back upstairs. I opened it. My new running shoes: 5 days early. Only in Japan. I'm definetely busting these things out tonight. I would now, but it's still over 90 degrees F. Now that's a great start to the weekend.

English Lesson turned Philosophical

I went to Nara as planned by my fellow employees. To my great surprise, which is still weird for me, is that Nara is apparently a big tourist destination. I've heard of Kyoto, Hiroshima, Kobe, Tokyo, etc. I've never heard of Nara. I went to Hiroshima, Kyoto and many other places already and I never saw as many tourists as I did yesterday. It was strange. Everywhere I went I clearly saw tourists, but they were mostly Japanese. I especially never saw westerners. I didn't really feel like a visitor in Japan until now.

Now to the philosophical review of the day:
I love nature. I have gone camping every year at least once since I was 6. Yes, I am a hunter, at least a certified one. Different issue. I take offense to the Japanese tradition of promoting the congregation of small deer around shrines and temples. I have pictures of me next to some at a temple near Hiroshima. I don't have anything against the deer. It's not like they are harmful or something. I just don't like the idea. In America, we are always told: Don't feed the animals. There are VERY good reasons for this. In Japan, there are venders that sell food FOR THE ANIMALS. And they are feeding deer. with antlers.

My biggest gripe is that the animals are being domesticated, and yet not looked after. If you own a dog, you take care of it: feed it, house it, bath it, clean up after it, etc. No matter what 'pet' you have, you take responsibility for it. Not here. The deer are living in filth; hell, I was walking in it. They eat anything that gets put near their mouth and do not look healthy at all.

Side note: Japanese people are very non-confontmental. Example: We were eating a picnic lunch at a table and deer came up to the table. It was like a dog pushing it's nose into everything. The people with me were petting it and just grabbing their things away to then replace them and have them rummaged through once again. I, on the other hand, clearly showed the deer I did not like its presence.

I decided to try and explain my disturbance of the practice to my fellow employees. I don't think they understood. I'm not sure you really can if you've never seen anything, but the present. We ended the day at a Bali restaurant. I had a beer. First one in 2 weeks. DELICIOUS.

Sad Day

A very sad day for the big 10, as the top 3 teams in the conference lost. Also, I was unable to watch any of them. On a side note, Wisconsin won handily, as well as the rest of the Big 10. I miss football. Off to Nara, for English lesson number 2.

Getting My Samauri On

Getting My Samauri On
Originally uploaded by mjbruni.

It's been a long time in coming, but if this picture doesn't make you laugh, I have no idea what would.

My boss thought it would be cool for me to get this picture. I thought he was joking. He wasn't. If you look closely, you can see that the sandals are only HALF as long as my feet and the socks are the Japanese kind, where your big toe has a different pouch than the rest. I posted more pictures on flickr of this visit to a Japanese movie studio.

the world is at my fingertips

the cable guy finally came today. I now have internet in my room. It is 2am. I am doing laundry and cleaning my apartment.

it has now occured to me while chatting online, that I have little interactions with people. In madison, I went in my room to avoid interacting with people. now, i have so few conversations with people that i feel i have to tell every detail of my life to anyone that asks. this is not normal. i think that's why i've been blogging pretty regularly.

Right before I left on my plane for Japan, I bought a book entitled The Closing of the Western Mind. It's about how western thought changed from facts to faith. As a Catholic, I love the book. The book starts with Plato and now I'm through Constantine. It's very interesting to read the history of reason with many books like Angels and Demons on the market. I love history and it has filled many voids of my knowledge about the many covered facts about the history of Catholicism. It's a little weird for me to read about the history and the stories about some of the famous men in Christian and Catholic dogma. I have been intrigued by religion since I was young and I have heard many people recount stories and beliefs of these people. Now I wonder if they even knew what the hell they were talking about. I just watched Dogma (again) and it reiterated the fact that Catholicism is shrouded in tradition and authority; neither of which, you can question. I guess it still amazes me how violently people can act in the name of an organization their leaders don't even understand.

I ramble a lot. Hence I need to do more social activities.

I'm Japanese

Today, the town office finally processed my paperwork and I received an official Japanese ID. It's kind of weird since, I've never had a Wisconsin ID, or a Madison ID. This is separate from a driver's license. In Japan, you are required to register with the local prefecture, which is the equivalent of a city in the US, everytime you move. This includes all Japanese people, not just foreigners. It sounds like a good way to keep the census accurate (although, at what cost).

I am finding myself not using any prepositions in any speech now. They're not used in most other languages and they cause the most trouble when trying to communicate with someone.

With my new ID I will be getting a cell phone Monday. The boss and my @ manager will be taking me to the mall. I'm still not sure what I'm going to be using it for since I still can't speak Japanese well and all the other trainees are gone. I guess it gives me more reason to learn Japanese faster.

Today at work I finally started doing my own testing. Crap did I run into a lot of problems. It turns out most weren't my fault, but it sure was frustrating. I'm also giving a report Tuesday on some analysis I've been doing. I'm still a little scared of it, but only because I have to make sure I talk really slowly and I have to choose my words very carefully. I guess that sounds like a normal presentation. I think I'm just anxious.

(the) Weekend is here. I'm hoping to go to the pool tomorrow and then buy a digital camera on Sunday. Lots to do.